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Bob Jones University (BJU), the world's largest fundamental Christian liberal arts university, recently evaluated the function, design and security of its Greenville, South Carolina campus entrance in hopes of creating a more community friendly, secure environment for its faculty and students.

Previously, the campus' front gates were monitored and controlled via an RFID access control system featuring active RFID tags placed on car windshields. The university faced several challenges limiting the effectiveness of the system, including the design of the buildings and gate, and the proximity to the street. These issues contributed to only a 19 percent read rate. In addition, the technology was battery-operated with a short life cycle of two to three years, accompanied by a high recurring tag cost.

BJU officials were in the process of redesigning the front of campus, and took these issues under consideration throughout the redesign. The university selected Intermec Technologies and its partner, Regan Inc., to install passive UHF RFID and logistics technology, eliminating the need for batteries and expensive tags. The technology consists of Intermec IF4 RFID readers with antennas embedded in brick pillars at the main entrance and exit of the campus and Intermec IT32A Gen 2 identification tags placed on windshields of the cars entering the campus.