Security

Faculty and staff at every college and university in the United States like to talk about the real-world, hands-on education it imparts to its students.

At Onondaga Community College, part of the State University of New York system, a select group of students are not only rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty in preparation for future careers, but also saving the school money while making its campus safer.

Doors have locks, of course—both traditional and electronic locks. For years, at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, creating the keys and access cards to allow staff to get into offices, laboratories, classrooms, and residence halls was a completely manual and time-consuming task: Users printed a hard copy of a request form, filled it out, passed it along for an approval signature, and sent it via campus mail to facilities management.