By MADISON SMITH
A new backpack full of fresh pencils and paper presses against the shirt you’ve been waiting to wear for weeks as you walk to your first college class. Day one at BYU is going great, until you decide to use your meal plan in the Cougareat, do laundry, hit the gym or check out a book.
What’s missing from your college experience? You forgot your BYU Signature ID Card: the key to many campus amenities.
To acquire an ID card, students can visit the ID Center in room 2310 of the Wilkinson Student Center, near the Information Desk and Jamba Juice. A driver’s license or other photo ID is required. Make sure to meet dress and grooming standards; the ID card photo is often the first impression BYU students make on a professor or potential employer.
“The BYU ID card has two main functions,” said Rachel Engler, an employee of the ID Center, in an email. “[To] identify [the] cardholder as a current member of the campus community [and] to provide university service areas with a quick and easy way to identify a cardholder’s role and associated entitlements.”
Some of those entitlements include: accessing a meal plan at dining services such as the Cannon Center or a BYU Creamery, checking out books from the Harold B. Lee Library or gaining entrance to the Testing Center and campus athletic facilities.
“When a cardholder’s ID number is read at a service location, the cardholder’s record is accessed,” Engler said. “This record tells the service area what services or entitlements are available to the cardholder. For example, when your ID card is swiped at the library, your library record identifies you as a current student, entitled to check out books. When you swipe your card at a dining services location, your signature card and meal plan record tells the cashier that you have sufficient funds in your signature card or meal plan account to pay for your purchase.”
The card also provides access to a debit signature account students can use at campus amenities like vending machines, laundry facilities, the Bookstore and print and copy centers.
Jared Brown, a freshman from Houston, majoring in pre-communications, said he uses his ID card at the gym every other day and for laundry because the card gets a discount.
“It’s all in one place; it’s like a debit card, really,” Brown said. “You only have to keep track of one card.”
ID cards provide student identification, which can be useful for student services like purchasing textbooks at the Bookstore. Student status sometimes has extra benefits as well, such as discounts from businesses off-campus and admittance to BYU football games with All-Sport Pass tickets.
“I sometimes use it to check out movies and watch them in the viewing room at the library,” said Sierra Smith, 17, a freshman from Houston. “It’s super cool because it’s free movies at the library.”
If a student loses an ID card, the ID Center recommends deactivating the card to prevent unauthorized use and waiting two weeks for someone to turn it in. If the ID doesn’t turn up, a replacement costs $10. New students should also be aware the ID card doesn’t last forever. For most part- or full-time students, it needs renewal after around two years.
For more information, contact the ID center online at signaturecard.byu.edu or at 801-422-3866.
