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Partnership leads to card system integration

Extended stays made easier for residents, R&DE staff
Thursday, March 6, 2014

A doorway entrance at the Munger graduate student housing complex

Every year, after completing their degrees, around 300 graduate students who live on campus make arrangements to continue living in their apartments for days or weeks past the end of the term. Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE) calls it an “extended stay.”

Thanks to a system integration commissioned by R&DE and built by applications engineers in IT Services’ Application Support group, extended stay residents have one less administrative task to complete on the day they transition from enrolled student to non-enrolled resident: their ID card just “knows” their new status and continues to work as their door key.

Before fall quarter 2013, extended stay residents had to visit the Housing office at the end of their formal term so that they could exchange their full-privilege Stanford ID cards for cards that function only as access keys that get them into their housing facilities.

Now, with the system integration in place, students don’t have to bother with the visit. And as a bonus, R&DE staff spend 30 to 45 minutes less time “switching” each resident’s status.

Behind the scenes, the integration solution does the following:

  • automatically converts a student's badge to “Temporary”
  • removes library privileges
  • removes access to campus recreational facilities, and other campus privileges
  • retains access to the housing facilities they're authorized to enter

Fred Vasquez, who manages building security and access programs for Student Housing, estimated that the integration hasn't resulted in a big monetary savings. But that wasn’t the point: “It’s always been about the customer service to the graduating resident and the sense of not stripping away their Stanford credential after their accomplishment.”

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