Upon returning to campus, students in all on-campus dormitories excluding Usen Castle and the Foster Mods found that they no longer required keys to access their respective buildings. Students can now swipe their University identification cards to gain access to their dormitories.

The project, which cost the University $269,500, according to Senior Vice President for Administration Mark Collins, was completed over the summer after years of considering the idea and implementing the card access system in newly renovated and newly constructed buildings and dormitories.

Ed Callahan, director of public safety, said in an interview with the Justice that the project "moves [Brandeis] into the 21st century." Callahan said that the University has control over who can access each building, and can also track who enters each building that requires card access on campus.

According to Jeremy Leiferman, director of the department of community living, Usen Castle currently presents challenges that prevent adding the card access system to the building, although he believes it will eventually be added. Leiferman said that the number of entrances and exits in the building is one issue. "We need to figure out, 'Do all of them need to have a card access system?' or 'Do we reduce the number of entrances into the building?'" said Leiferman in an interview with the Justice.

In addition, the construction of the building is challenging, according to Leiferman. "It's built out of stone and rock, which makes it a little bit harder to navigate any conduit through for the card access systems," he said.

Leiferman said that card access was not added to the Mods because the Mods are arranged in a townhouse style, so there is no main entrance. Card access would have to be added to all 36 entrances, which was determined to be impractical.

Despite the lack of a card access system for the Foster Mods or Usen Castle, the campus is closer to being consistent with exterior door access around campus.

For students who observe Shabbat, DCL has distributed keys and ensured that each building has a designated Shabbat door, which is accessible by key, according to Leiferman.

According to Callahan, in the event of a blackout or emergency situation, the card readers have a battery backup system. "Police would be assigned to monitor access. ... We've had different situations where we would be prepared," said Callahan.

In addition to the card access system, Leiferman said that during the time card access was added to the buildings, a sensor was added to each door that will alert public safety if it is left propped open for an extended period of time. "When those are left open they might allow someone, or something, ... to run inside the building," he said. "It's not an alarm that will sound, but it does sound a trigger down to public safety to have that door shut."