On Campus

SU to add button to security system to lock all outside doors at once

Logan Reidsma | Photo Editor

Tony Callisto (right), SU’s senior vice president of the Division of Campus Safety and Emergency Services, said it will be “much better” to have a single button to control the security of buildings on campus.

Syracuse University is designing a single button feature to add to its security system that would be able to lock all outside doors on more than 90 academic buildings and residence halls from one location with one click.

It is expected to be tested and operational by next semester.

SU issued an Orange Alert on Oct. 14 after a homicide on Hope Avenue. Police searched for the suspects, who they presumed to be armed, in Oakwood Cemetery near campus. Students were told to take shelter and individual buildings were locked from the outside, preventing people from exiting or entering.

Tony Callisto, SU’s senior vice president of the Division of Campus Safety and Emergency Services, said the university learned from the last Orange Alert and added that it’s “much better” to have a single button.

The single button would be an add-on feature to the Andover Continuum System that SU uses to monitor and lock buildings. Building coordinators decide their building’s card access schedule, and the building is electronically locked and closed every day during those chosen times. Currently, buildings can be electronically locked individually. In case of an emergency, each building has its own button that says “emergency lockdown,” which can override set schedules.



During the last Orange Alert, a Department of Public Safety official had to click the “emergency lockdown” button more than 90 times for each building. A single button that connects all 290 exterior doors would significantly save time efficiency during an emergency, Callisto said. This single button feature would exist on the home screen of the Continuum System.

Schine Student Center is the only academic building that is unable to lock down. The glass doors make it difficult to find the appropriate hardware.

Callisto said a team is working on renovating the doors and frames to add an electronic locking system to Schine. He said the work on the five sets of doors will likely take until the end of the spring semester to be finished.

Nathan Prior, associate director of climate operations, is responsible for making sure the security system is up and running at all hours. He said the larger scale locking system had been discussed, and it was later decided it would be beneficial for the university.

In Sims Hall, the DPS Emergency Communications Center is a high-security room where DPS will have authority to activate the button. The back wall is lined with big screens displaying the security camera video footage from each building, a list of incoming phone calls to DPS and the local news playing, so the officers can stay updated.

Prior, who has the system on his laptop, said anyone who has system security access to the Continuum System can control the lockdown button.

“Someone in DPS is monitoring the system 24 hours a day from the central DPS Emergency Communication Center,” he said. “If there was an emergency lockdown, that person would be told by a superior to turn the button from off to on.”

Prior would not give an exact amount but said the cost of this added technology to the Continuum system is reasonable because SU does not have to hire outside staff, and has its own programmers.

Colgate University and the Georgia Institute of Technology also use the Continuum System. However, Paul Bowman, security access manager at SU, said he doesn’t know of another institution that is using a single button like the one SU is developing.





Top Stories