Lock changes near completion five weeks after loss of master key

Public Safety and maintenance personnel today will complete a massive effort to replace all locks in eight dorms and Forbes College after two University employees lost a master key to those buildings March 29.

The project — requiring lock changes to more than 800 rooms in Pyne, Spelman, Little, Foulke, Henry, 1901, Laughlin, Lockhart and Forbes — cost the University an estimated $30,000 and took more than five weeks, according to Public Safety Crime Prevention Specialist Barry Weiser.

Associate Director of Grounds and Building Maintenance Lou Dursi said the scope of the project made it difficult. "The keys themselves and [lock] cores had to be produced," he said. "There were a number of locks involved, and an outside company had to be engaged."

According to Dursi, maintenance personnel changed locks on all the entryway doors to the dormitories the first day the key was reported lost. He said the first set of lock cores — the figure-eight-shaped locks that secure dorm doors — arrived April 17, more than two weeks after the order had been placed with Best Access Systems, a lock-making company.

Cindy Smith, a spokeswoman for Best Access Systems, said the company filled the University's order as quickly as possible. "That was a lot of cores. We knew what we were up against and did the best we could," she said. "There were many projects done at the same time. We do locks for corporations, schools and colleges for all of eastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey."

According to Dursi, the University lock shop's six employees worked overtime until all dorm room locks were replaced. In addition, the lock shop was forced to delay some "non-essential jobs."

Though it took two weeks longer to complete than Weiser's original estimation, Dursi said the University finished the project in a reasonable period of time. "[The three-week estimation] was probably an off-the-cuff remark," Dursi said. "But after the [first order of lock cores] came in, it did take three weeks."

Dursi added that maintenance personnel completed the lock changes on all student rooms by May 5 and that by the end of today, "100 percent of secondary locks" will be changed. Secondary locks are used on doors to kitchens, store rooms and janitorial closets, he said.

Grounds and building maintenance employees will change the locks on Forbes mailboxes during the summer, according to Dursi. Locks to upperclass mailboxes, however, will not be changed because they will be moved to the Frist Campus Center this fall.

According to Weiser, the loss of the master key has spurred several changes in lock shop and grounds crew operating procedures to prevent a similar incident. "We will not offer a 'super-master,' " he said. "There will be only one key for each dorm so if it did happen again we'd only have to change one dorm."

A sign was posted outside the lock shop March 31 by Director of Grounds and Building Maintenance Bill Traubel concerning the new procedure for borrowing keys. "Effective immediately, all keys and key rings must be secured when not operating a lock," the sign reads.

In addition to issuing key clasps, Dursi said the grounds and building maintenance department is reviewing its locking system and the security of its keys. "We're going to work our best to ensure something like this doesn't happen again," he said.