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I bribed the night janitor with a bottle of Johnny Walker Red, and he let me into the band room any time night or day.

The 1 year I did grad studies the university's policy was building hours whatever they were. I believe the building was open 6am-midnight, but not positive on the hours.

At my undergrad school (10 years ago) we were allowed to get a "late pass" from the music office. So long as you were in the building when campus security locked up for the night you could stay in there but you couldn't gain access after that or couldn't regain access if you left. The ways around that were to know who was in the building and call their cell to let you in or hope they were in one of the pracitce rooms with a window you could throw a snowball at to get their attention. Security did usually make at least one or two more passes through the building through the night and did check your late pass. This was on a small college with 30-50 majors depending on the year. Typically only a handfull of us had late passes and the security knew who we were.

Our building is open 24/7, but after a certain point in the evening (not sure what time because the tuba room is always locked anyways) Security comes around and locks all the doors so you need a key to get into the individual rooms. If you're there at night, you're also supposed to have a card that says you're allowed to be in the rooms, though I've never actually had security ask for it.

Definitely depends on the school. I teach at a very small liberal arts college, so the student dorms are attached to the main building...practice rooms are open 24/7. No issues that we are aware of...

Key-card practice rooms here. Some rooms have campus security-call buttons and the school has recorded video monitoring of all hallways. Access when the building is open, and security does not typically kick students out when the building is locked. $90 fee for a year's access to practice rooms.

Can you tell us more about your current system, how it works, and exactly what you do not think is working? Perhaps we could help you come up with more detailed suggestions based on that information.

At ISU the music building is open till around 8-10pm depending on the "Security people"'s opinion on the hours. It's been locked up as early as 5pm by a random university police officer, to access "after hours" there is a door in the back that has one of those magnetic locks or w/e that is opened by an authorized University ID card, it works about 50/50. Although all of this sounds fine and dandy usually a folded University newspaper in the latch of the front door is used to keep it open (mostly because most people know the card swipe door is 'iff-y' at best, and most club meetings, fraternity/sorority meetings, small ensemble rehearsals, and some other activities occur after hours). As an extra method of keeping the riff-raff out of our practice rooms, every music student has a practice room key, but the rooms are deadbolt locking so they are never locked, nobody cares how late you're there.

We have a building with some studios and offices on the first floor and practice rooms on the second. You can get into the building without a card until 5, and then you have to swipe your university ID card. Once upstairs, you (usually/should) need a practice room key, piano practice room key (with the in tune pianos) or tuba storage room key.
We also were lucky enough to get keys to keep our instruments in the studio, which is close to where we rehearse and perform, so long as everyone remembers to lock it back up when they're done. You need to get into the basement of the concert hall though, and there are not enough of those keys for everyone. Those without that key need to either break in (officially impossible), or get someone to let them in.