This year's freshmen will not be the only ones holding brand new identification cards this fall as all students have been required to pick up free replacement cards featuring multiple enhancements.
The new IDs, which students have to collect by Friday, have emergency phone numbers printed on the back of the card, eliminate the outmoded secondary magnetic stripe and continue the practice — first started last year — of having separate student ID and JumboCash numbers.
Perhaps most noticeably, the new IDs' internal chip facilitates access to dorms, eliminating the need for the previously used fob technology.
The improved IDs are largely the result of a Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate initiative to increase the accessibility of public safety services.
"It's just one small step, but it will create greater responsiveness in reaching emergency services," Senator Edward Chao, a senior who spearheaded the initiative, said.
Chao first approached Tufts University Police Department in 2008 with a request to enhance the ID cards by adding emergency contact numbers to them, according to Louis Galvez III, administrative service coordinator for the Department of Public & Environmental Safety.
"The idea was to put safety information on the back of the ID so that it was easily accessible to students," Galvez said. "We've been looking into it, but up until recently, we couldn't find it in our budget to do that."
Aside from including emergency contact numbers, the new IDs institute separate student ID and JumboCash numbers for juniors and seniors who still have a single number for both purposes, bringing Tufts in compliance with a 2008 Massachusetts law aimed at combating identity theft.
Under the law, financial data, such as credit card numbers, must be kept separate from personal information. Since JumboCash numbers are linked to stored-value accounts, they are classified like credit cards under the law and must be kept distinct from student ID numbers.
The Department of Public Safety last fall issued incoming freshmen with IDs that had a separate number for JumboCash accounts. Students from other classes carrying the older IDs, however, were not required to replace them — until now.
Galvez noted that complying with the new law was the main motivator for implementing changes to the IDs. "We realized how important it is to protect the card as you would a credit card," he said.
TCU President Sam Wallis, a senior, agreed. "The separation of ID numbers from JumboCash was very important so that the different information could not be linked together," Wallis said.
The new ID cards also feature a new built-in technology enabling access to the dorms, making obsolete the use of fobs. This has long been a goal for both Senate and the Department of Public Safety, according to Wallis and Galvez.
"The technology we're using is more advanced than the old JumboFob," Galvez said. "The chip is more advanced, so it's also more secure. These are the most technologically advanced cards on the market."
Galvez said that moving to a built-in fob system would enable students to more easily access campus buildings — such as common areas in dorms.
"This is going to help Public Safety, students, areas of the university that call us to give remote access [and] students not living off campus," Galvez said. "It's an attempt to make the university more accessible to students."
Despite the cards being more technologically advanced, the cost of replacing a lost or broken ID remains $20.
Galvez said the Department of Public Safety also plans to expand the use of the IDs, taking advantage of the new technology enabling them to be scanned via a simple tap instead of requiring a swipe.
"We'll be looking at using this technology at various locations around campus, not just in dorms," Galvez said.
In implementing these changes, one of the obstacles encountered was that the older IDs did not have the requisite space on the back to add numbers to it because of the presence of a secondary, thinner magnetic stripe, according to Chao.
Director of Dining and Business Services Patti Klos explained that this smaller stripe was mainly used at campus vending machines.
"Tufts was actually one of the first schools to introduce cards for use at laundry and vending machines about 15 to 18 years ago, so over the course of time, we began migrating to the more advanced wide stripe and that also would free up some space on the card," Klos said.
Senate coordinated with Klos to research the possibility of eliminating the second stripe in order to make room for the emergency numbers, Chao said.
"We were looking to validate the fact that we weren't using and didn't need the top stripe," Chao said. "After talking with Patti Klos, we got that information and it was decided to get rid of that stripe."
