The New Jersey Institute of Technology is responsible for the safety of over 13,000 students on campus — a demographic that demands flexibility and convenience. The university collaborated with AVS Technology to create a mobile-first access control solution using AMAG Technology products. 

Over 13,000 students attend the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), and they, along with roughly 3,000 faculty and staff, need a range of access levels to numerous locations, with varying degrees of credentials.

NJIT’s status as an R1 research polytechnic university means it must adhere to strict compliance, reporting and audit standards from the federal government. Further, it must accommodate the highest levels of security in areas such as biotechnology labs and cleanrooms. 

AVS Technology, a security integrator, collaborated with NJIT’s assistant vice president for facilities systems, Robert Gjini, and his team to enhance its access control ecosystem. With a long working partnership, underscored by a consistent exploration of ways to incorporate new levels of convenience and security, AVS and Gjini collaborated on a custom solution that suited the large campus, comprised of 42 buildings and more than 4 million square feet of space on roughly 45 acres of land. 

“From an administrative point of view, we have a very robust population of people coming and going,” Gjini said. “A corporation might have some hiring and letting go periods, but, for a university, every semester, we have a huge turnover. Every time we give card access to a person, it’s like giving them an electronic key. … So, every semester, we issue about 35,000 electronic keys. Then, at the end of the semester, we’re pulling back about 25,000 of those keys — every semester, twice a year. … We’ve worked with AVS and AMAG’s professional services department to customize access processing for us. Here, we call it middleware. 

“It helps us gather information from different systems, whether it’s 5,000 people who need parking privileges or 300 engineering students who need access to a teaching lab or 1,000 architecture students who need 24/7 access to their buildings and studios,” Gjini added. “We get all these lists from different sources that feed into a spreadsheet interface and use Symmetry to add and delete access in very high volume. We are now able to manage tens of thousands of access points fairly easily with a small crew here in my office.” 

Even before Gjini joined NJIT 30 years ago, he was utilizing AMAG technology — on an old DOS-based system — and has continued to upgrade and expand throughout the years. “AMAG Symmetry Access Control is an important tool for our public safety department,” Gjini said. “It allows officers to monitor access-control, intrusion alarms, fire alarm systems and our video management system. It’s a primary tool for security on campus.”  

NJIT deploys both on-campus security officers and police officers, who are certified by the New Jersey Police Training Commission.

Card access is utilized in all buildings, and, in 2023, NJIT and AVS began implementing dual-technology readers that accommodate both card and mobile credentials. Gjini said, “We decided to deploy both technologies in tandem. We use dual technology readers that read our smart card chip and also our Bluetooth mobile credential. Students receive a chipped photo ID card by default and have the option of loading a mobile credential as well.” 

NJIT is also undertaking public-private initiatives, like the one involved in its new Maple Residence Hall. Here, the team installed Allegion NDE wireless locksets and gateways. The 180 suite locksets read NJIT photo ID cards and use an AMAG Symmetry head-end to manage the locksets and card access. Next year, NJIT plans to install 290 additional Allegion NDE wireless locksets in another residence hall on campus. 

“I worked for a systems integrator company before my time here at NJIT, so when I install a new system or module, I like to use it to its fullest potential,” Gjini said. “If there are features and enhancements that can benefit our students, faculty and staff, I want to leverage them and get them working well.”

Now, Gjini and NJIT administration are considering Symmetry CONNECT Identity Management to work with NJIT’s new ERP system. “We’re constantly pushing the envelope and upgrading systems,” Gjini said. “Currently, our HR and finance systems are being migrated from Banner to Workday. We have many processes in place with Banner that we’ll have to emulate or enhance in Workday, as well as forge integrations back through our middleware to AMAG . . . so we’ve been looking at Symmetry CONNECT to help with integrations with third-party systems.”