Get a Smarter Card

If it seems that your life is governed by small plastic cards, take heart. You’re about to get a smarter card, one that lives up to its AllCampus moniker.

Your old card, the one with a single magnetic strip, is simply obsolete. The new AllCampus Card has not one, but two magnetic strips for financial transactions, along with two embedded chips, one of which can be programmed to store a fingerprint for security authentication.

Besides putting better technology in your wallet, what will the new card do for you?

Open Sesame

First, it will replace multiple fobs and access cards needed to get into secure areas. By the end of the year, 1,000 doors across campus will have card reader access, says David Rainer, associate vice chancellor for environmental health and public safety, who was on the committee that recommended the new cards after six months of study.

The card will also allow you to do business at a broad range of places across campus, from the bookstore to the copy center to all dining locations.

Still not convinced? Well, for security reasons, your old card’s days on campus are numbered. The new card comes with an expiration date, and it can be deactivated when an employee leaves.

Permanent faculty, staff and graduate students will need to get a new card, Rainer says. “Eventually, you’ll go the gym or the library and you won’t be able to use the old card.”

Say Cheese

That means you’ll have to do something about that outdated photo on your card. Rainer’s was from 1992.

“Fortunately, I look exactly the same, but I’m an anomaly,” he jokes.

The rest of us will have to look into the camera and smile for a new photo, which, of course, will be of better quality than the old card’s.

The AllCampus Card folks are making it easy, taking their portable photo studio to multiple locations across campus. Here’s the schedule. Or, you can go to the West Dunn Building at your convenience. The process takes less than five minutes, unless there’s a line.