Following Borden Gym’s successful transition to a BlueCard access system, academic buildings, administrative buildings and dorms will move to a similar system in the next 15 months.
“We want to bring security and locking at Andover into the 21st century. We want to eventually do away with keys so your cards will be the main point of entry for after-hours. With cards, we’ll be comparable to some of the other educational institutions that are around and have card access,” said Thomas Conlon, Director of Public Safety.
Installation will begin this summer, according to Conlon. Academic buildings will transition first, and dorms and administrative buildings will be changed through a 15-month period. The card-access system will be used for academic and administrative buildings outside of the hours of 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., according to Conlon.
In addition to heightening campus security by preventing people outside of the Andover community from accessing campus buildings, the BlueCard-access system will help with emergency lockdowns.
“With cards we have the ability, in an emergency and if we have to do an emergency lockdown, to do an emergency lockdown of all the buildings electronically and not depend on people going to the doors and mechanically trying to lock exterior doors,” said Conlon.
