New Jersey City University enhances student safety and campus life with  on-demand access control

When responsible for the well-being of thousands of students, safety, convenience, and peace of mind become top priorities. On a busy college campus, that means embracing ways to safeguard classrooms, common areas, and residence halls without making access overly restrictive.

Challenge: Secure campus doors with different lockdown and access restrictions without compromising on convenience or system integrations

Solution: ASSA ABLOY IN120 and IN220 Series electronic access control

Result: A safer, more connected campus experience

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It’s a tough balance to strike, but New Jersey City University (NJCU) staff members didn’t have a choice. With more than 8,000 students and residence halls housing 400+ students each, NJCU needed versatile, reliable security solutions that didn’t cut corners on convenience and supported modern student life, with its mobile-first expectations and rapidly evolving technology.

Cross-campus security vulnerabilities

For NJCU, managing physical keys and multiple disconnected systems made access control risky and inefficient.

NJCU Campus Card Administrator Alvin Agir noted how these tools impacted the user experience.

“Our biggest headaches were lost or misused keys,” he said. “If someone forgot their key, they were locked out and had to wait for help. It created unnecessary risks and frustrations.”

Then, there were the large-scale impacts of access control concerns on facility safety. Lost keys, slow response times, and propped-open doors were common, creating security vulnerabilities all over campus.

“Once copper keys are lost or not retrieved, the lock is compromised and you’re calling in a locksmith,” said NJCU Director of Campus Card Services Tino Rexach. “We needed something more streamlined, more secure, and easier to use.”

 An installation that preserved historic integrity

Moving to electronic access control would take these vulnerabilities off the table. The team also wanted:

• A scalable system for their growing campus community
• Robust integrations
• Frequent updates

ASSA ABLOY fit the bill with the IN120 and IN220 IP-enabled locks, integrated with the CBORD CS Gold campus card system. Rexach had extensive experience with the product and thought it would fit well into NJCU’s ecosystem.

While the team was excited about the upgrade, they knew installation would be a hurdle. NJCU has an eclectic mix of historic and modern buildings, which presented some issues when installing updated access control.

“Some of those walls are three feet thick,” Rexach said. “Running conduit would have been extremely difficult, and we couldn’t compromise the building’s historical character.”

ASSA ABLOY’s IN120 locks tackled that problem with wireless installation. “The IN120 made installation much smoother and more efficient,” Rexach said. “We didn’t have to touch the cosmetic integrity of the building.”

A safer, smarter campus

With the addition of the IN120 and IN220 locks, the card services team gained new capabilities, including:

• Instantly granting or removing privileges as needed
• Seamlessly deactivating cards reported lost or stolen, eliminating the need for costly locksmith services
• Real-time monitoring of campus comings and goings

“The reporting modules allow us to see who is entering and exiting,” Agir said. “We get alerts on denied swipes, and we can investigate immediately. That oversight just wasn’t possible before.”

Convenience quickly became another defining benefit of the ASSA ABLOY solutions. Public safety officers enjoyed new levels of flexibility under the new system. Individual officers could fall back on IDs to access secured areas instead of carrying heavy key rings.

Meanwhile, students enjoy the superior experience of a card that handles everything from residence hall access to meal plans to off-campus merchant purchases. What if they lose or forget it? No problem: Students without immediate access to their card can verify their personal details with the system, receive a one-time access code, and enter it into an easy-to-use keypad.

“That used to take an officer walking across campus,” Rexach said. “Now, it’s instant. Students get back to their day without interruption.”

Maintaining reliability in critical moments

When student safety is on the line, technology isn’t enough. Reliability is just as critical.

The features of the ASSA ABLOY solutions allowed the team to automate lockdown procedures, which became significantly more reliable as a result. Staff were especially grateful for the upgrade during a nearby active shooter event.

“With IN120 and IN220, we could lock down doors remotely and rely on fail-secure features. Only a very limited number of emergency credentials can override that. It helps us safeguard our community in those types of emergencies,” Agir said.

The IN120’s built-in intelligence has also increased resilience.

“Even if your infrastructure goes down — power outage, cyberattack, cut cables — the IN120 keeps working,” Rexach said. “It stores its own database from the last download. So even in the worst-case scenario, 200 doors across campus will still function. That’s a game-changer.”

The NJCU team had a chance to put this resilience to the test when recovering from a cyberattack. Because of the security safeguard features on the IN120 and IN220, even while the team worked to mitigate the threat, the system never stopped delivering secure access, reinforcing campus trust in the system.

The future-forward platform for current and future needs

NJCU started the implementation with 120 active locations and has since expanded to 280, with plans to reach 430 in the next few months. That growth wouldn’t be possible without a flexible, future-ready platform.

ASSA ABLOY approaches improving devices via software and firmware updates instead of full hardware replacements, something that spoke to NJCU’s needs.

“With other companies, you might need to swap out readers every few years,” Rexach said. “With ASSA ABLOY, we’ve had devices running for 15 years with just software updates. That saves us time, money, and resources.”

Integration with key complementary products, like the 6300 Series Norton Rixson door operators, further supports accessibility across campus. When combined with CBORD’s CS Gold software, the solution becomes what Rexach called “the Cadillac of access control systems.”

Building trust for long-term innovation

For Agir and Rexach, one of the most valuable aspects of NJCU’s security project has been the strategic partnerships with ASSA ABLOY and CBORD. 

“ASSA ABLOY’s support has been outstanding,” Agir said. “They explain technical details clearly and, as someone newer to the team, that’s been critical for me. I’d recommend them to any institution.”

Just as important as their support has been the guidance of the ASSA ABLOY team. 

“Nine times out of 10, when we call with a scenario, their team is open to ideas and willing to innovate,” Rexach said. “They listen to clients and take our input into account. That makes all the difference in building trust and driving innovation together.”

NJCU’s reliable, future-proof system allowed the campus team to achieve their ultimate goal: creating a safer, more connected campus experience that benefits everyone. 

“Now that I see the fruits of our labor, people come to me and say, ‘This is what we’ve been waiting for,’” Rexach said. “It’s streamlined our day-to-day operations and made life better for our students and staff.” 

Three lessons from the NJCU experience

1. Identify the right problem that needs solving. In this case, it wasn’t about getting new locks; it was about upgrading and integrating the entire system.
2. Prioritize long-term value with solutions that will grow with and adapt to your facility's needs.
3. Don’t put products over partnerships. Working with a partner who shares a particular vision will be more invested in joint success.

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