Signature Card Services is encouraging students to pick up their new photo identification card before the 2002-2003 school year ends.
A mass e-mail, sent out by the BYU ID office last week, asks students to replace their ID card during a specific week to avoid long lines at the WSC ID office.
Craig Schow, director of Signature Card Services, said BYU is in the last phase of transition and is hopeful all students and other ID card users will pick up their new card.
Students can stop by the WSC ID office now if there is a short line, but otherwise, students are encouraged to make an appointment to schedule a time to get the new ID card.
“We are giving time without a pressure situation,” Schow said. “We understand that students have a schedule to meet so we have provided a way to allow the students to get the new card when it is best for them.”
John Nixon, 22, from College Station, Texas, a junior majoring in finance, has not gotten his new ID card.
“I just haven’t had any time,” Nixon said. “When I walked by the ID center in the beginning of the year there was always a long line, and I didn’t want to wait. I haven’t been back there since.”
Schow said about 30,000 ID cards have been issued to students, dependents, faculty, staff and others who use the ID card. Ten thousand ID cards still have to be issued.
When a student goes to get the new ID card, the new card will immediately function in place of the old one.
The new identification number will provide students with more security.
Schow said several years ago President Bateman said eventually the social security number would not be the primary identifier on the ID card. The new card shows a nine-digit identification number, which will be the student’s public identifier.
Lori Gardiner, 24, from Kamas, Summit County, a senior majoring in history, is an administrative assistant to the associate dean of student academic and advisement services.
Gardiner is in charge of time worked for other student employees and said he hasn’t been pleased with the card transition.
“I don’t like the fact that on KRONOS they said you could use your social security number and new ID number when you clock in for work,” Gardiner said. “I have had students who have missed two weeks of pay because they were typing in their social security number, not their new ID number. There was just a lot of confusion.”
Schow said students can still use their old ID card through the 2002-2003 school year, but the old card will be deactivated in the future. An announcement will be sent out, notifying students when the old card will no longer be valid.
Students graduating in the fall or winter do not have a pressing need to get the new ID card.
By the 2003-2004 school year old ID cards will be deactivated and people will be required to get the new card.
