Liberty University Rec Center Protects Students with Optical Turnstiles

Turnstiles help to control access and expedite entry to the facility.

The new optical turnstiles have been well received by Liberty University students.

Administrators at the LaHaye Fitness and Recreation Center, which is located on Liberty University’s Lynchburg campus, have installed Speedlane 300 optical turnstiles to help them manage the access rights of approximately 30,000 individuals who enter their facility every week. Previously, students would simply hand their badge to a staff member who would swipe it for verification and then allow the student into the facility. This process presented numerous challenges including the inability to adequately deny entry, expedite entry to the gym during busy hours and more.

Now, every student enrolled at Liberty University is provided with an identification badge with embedded access control credentials to gain access to various Liberty facilities. The access control solution,  allows students to use one universal card throughout the campus, including LaHaye Fitness and Recreation Center. The new turnstiles at the recreation center provide three dedicated lanes for entry and one lane for egress.

“We can lock the turnstile gates, disable them, hold them open, grant access along with numerous other operational options, to keep traffic flowing while providing security,” said Samuel Seaborn, Associate Director, Operations, at Liberty University. “The turnstiles integrate with Liberty’s access control system to monitor who is coming into the rec center and when, and helps ensure that only students and people with proper access are allowed into the facility.”

Liberty is already looking to expand the LaHaye Fitness and Recreation Center with satellite facilities located around the campus. To maintain the level of safety throughout their campus, protect the university from liability issues and integrate with their current access control systems, Liberty hopes to outfit any new installations with  turnstiles, which have been well recieved by students and staff.

“When they were installed, the students remarked on the futuristic design of the turnstiles,” said Seaborn. “Everyone adapted to them quickly, because they’re so easy to use.”