Why Campuses Should Evaluate Access Control This Summer
Higher education institutions are leveraging quiet summer months to phase out easily duplicated legacy magstripe ID cards in favor of unified, multi-endpoint NFC mobile credentials.
- By Wes Urban
- July 14, 2026
With the spring semester in the rearview, colleges and universities have entered one of the most important technology planning windows of the year.
The summer brings broader maintenance windows and fewer day-to-day disruptions, giving IT, security and facilities teams an opportunity to evaluate systems that are difficult to touch when classes are in session.
The access infrastructure behind campus credentials must be part of that evaluation.
Modern access control requires a credential that works reliably and securely wherever students, faculty and staff connect — in classrooms, labs, residence halls and online. Done right, it links identity and security to the campus experience end to end.
With enrollment and retention under the microscope, this summer gives campus leaders a clear window to assess whether their access infrastructure can meet the expectations students, faculty and staff already have, both now and in the years ahead.
The Link Between Access Control and Positive Student Experience
Many campuses still rely on legacy credentials that are easy to copy or misplace, and they offer little visibility into how people actually use campus spaces and services.
NACCU’s 2025 Campus Profile Insights Report found that 83% of schools continue to use legacy magstripe ID cards, while just 13% use NFC mobile or wearable card technology. That gap highlights a major modernization opportunity for higher education.
Moving beyond magstripe and toward NFC smart cards and mobile wallet credentials can help campuses strengthen security and create a more convenient experience for the people who rely on campus services every day.
Here’s what that looks like in practice: A student uses one mobile credential to tap into the dining hall, release a print job at the library, enter their residence hall, check in at the rec center and verify their identity at campus health services.
That connected experience matters just as much when something changes. If the same student loses a phone, the credential can be deactivated without a string of manual requests. Or if a new employee joins the university, access can be provisioned based on their role from day one. When they leave, it can be revoked just as cleanly.
Many campuses are not yet set up to deliver that experience. They are sitting on disjointed systems and overlooked data without a practical way to act on it.
Connecting access control to your broader campus credential strategy transforms every tap into a signal that can help you improve security and deliver a more consistent experience for everyone who uses a campus credential.
Your Summer Assignment: Evaluate Your Current Credential Infrastructure
Colleges and universities do not have to solve access control all at once. The path forward can be incremental, but it must start with a clear understanding of the current environment and a commitment to treat physical and logical access as parts of the same identity challenge.
- Take stock of every reader on campus: The first step is to inventory every reader on campus, not just the ones IT or security manages directly.
That includes physical access control readers, print release terminals, dining readers, parking terminals, rec center kiosks, health services check-in points and any other place a credential is presented. Many campuses can’t say with confidence where every reader is, who owns it or what technology it supports.
Visibility matters because knowing where legacy technology exists helps you prioritize investments based on real infrastructure gaps rather than assumptions.
- Collaborate across teams: Access control evaluation should never happen in a silo.
Every campus group that manages or depends on a physical credential touchpoint should be involved in modernization conversations, including IT, physical security, facilities, dining, housing, health services, parking and the registrar’s office.
These groups often manage access-related systems independently, but their challenges are linked. Bringing stakeholders together can reveal overlap and create alignment before technology decisions are made.
In many cases, this conversation is the first step toward treating access control as part of the campuswide identity environment.
- Identify where modernizing will have the greatest impact: Determine the areas where outdated credential technology creates the most risk, friction or operational burden. High-traffic and high-risk access points often make the strongest case for early upgrades because they can deliver visible improvements in both security and user experience. These could include:
- Main entrances
- Server rooms
- Health facilities
- Print stations
When you present these findings to leadership, frame the investment as risk reduction — not a technology upgrade. Board-level and CFO conversations change when you focus on closing audit gaps and reducing credential-related incident exposure, rather than simply upgrading readers.
The Time To Evaluate Is Now
Campuses do not need to wait for a major system replacement to start making access more secure and connected. A practical starting point is treating credential modernization as a shared institutional priority.
The barrier is rarely technology alone. More often, progress depends on bringing the right teams and partners together, aligning around a shared strategy and removing the friction that causes users to find workarounds. The goal is security that is seamless enough to be used.
For institutions mapping their next phase of modernization, the real test is simple: Can your infrastructure keep up with how campus works today?