University students from three dormitories are experiencing the newest wave in housing security, and the University is expected to add three other dorms to the program today.

Students in Simmons, Hartranft and McKee dormitories began using the Harco door access system last Wednesday, Housing Director Donald Arndt said. Atherton, McKean and Pennypacker are scheduled to implement the security system today, Arndt added.

The card access system is designed to provide greater safety in residence halls by permitting only card holders to enter after the dorms are locked. Students use their University I.D. cards to gain access and the information is fed into the same computer system which controls entry to dining halls, Arndt said.

"We want to improve our security measures. This gives us surveillance at every door which is impossible with use of personnel," Arndt said.

Students who forget their access card may use the exterior telephone system to call someone inside the dorm. However, phone lists are not posted outside so students are encouraged to memorize phone numbers of students they can call, Arndt said.

"We've had a very minimal number of problems" with the dorms currently using the system, he said.

Michael McRae, a resident assistant in the all-male Hartranft Hall, said the system has been working without any major problems. Still, some students on his floor have expressed concern about forgetting their cards and contending with any vandalism to the outside phone system, McRae said.

Simmons Hall resident Kathy Bowers said when she attempted to use her card at her dorm, the system denied her entrance and she had to go to a different door. She also expressed concerned about getting locked out without her card while her roommate is gone.

The University had originally planned to have all six systems operating at the beginning of the semester, but front door installation problems in McKean and Pennypacker and an unreliable telephone wire in Atherton Hall caused delay, Arndt said.

As a final part of the program's first phase, the University is planning to install the system in Beaver Hall at some point during this semester, he said. Phase two of the security program consists of converting all women's dorms to the system by this fall, he said. In the third phase, all co-ed dorms will implement the system by Fall Semester, 1990. Eventually, all dorms will use the security system, he added.

While some changes will be made in security personnel, Arndt said these are still undetermined. "We will not eliminate the use of security staff," he added.

Two other universities, Duke and the University of California at Los Angeles, currently use the security system, Arndt said. While UCLA paid about $3,000 per access door, he said the cost of Penn State's system has yet to be determined.

The system is used in McKee between 11 p.m. and 7 in the morning, Arndt said. Simmons uses the system partially between 8 p.m. and 12 a.m. and then operates fully until 7 in the morning. In Hartranft, the system operates from midnight until 7 a.m. Arndt said the three other dorms will also use the midnight to 7 a.m. hours. Operation hours -- decided by a card access committee made up of students and administrators -- reflect the different interests of graduates, undergraduates, and men's and women's dorms, he said.