New ID system coming soon

Students who have used their student identification card to copy or print in any of the campus computer labs this semester may have noticed a change in the amount of available funds. Instead of the $20 usually allocated for copies, students now have only $10. The reason is because of an upgrade in the students’ identification card system.
Each semester, students pay a technology fee in their tuition, which covers technology updates and maintenance and student labor, which covers student workers and a printing supplementation. The $35 allocated in the fee is allotted for $20, to print material and $15 to copy materials. Though the full $20 allocated for printing has not changed, but the use of a student’s ID card has.
“We are in the process of adding the student’s money electronically onto their cards. The students will get their full $20 to print,” said Huey Lawson, executive director for the Office of Technology and Network Services. “We were anticipating fewer students this semester and since the technology fee is directly proportional to the number of students in attendance, what was initially perceived as a decline in enrollment is a decline in revenue.”
Despite the expected decline in student attendance this fall, the full $35 will be available to students. The university was anticipating the use of the proposed “OneCard,” a debit-styled identification card, this semester, but due to difficulties, the card’s debut has been pushed back.
“As an English major, I use the printers a lot. I think that the OneCard is a good, especially for off-campus students,” said Liquesha Williams, a secondary education major from Port Allen. “It’s a great idea to use your card for more than one thing.”
TNS and the Department of Auxiliary Services have worked together to streamline the current Southern student identification card. With the OneCard system, students will be able to continue printing from the card, use it in vending machines and on-campus students would be able to use it in laundry rooms. Eventually, the OneCard would be available for use throughout the city of Baton Rouge.
“It will be used as an off-campus debit card, similar to LSU’s TigerCard,” says LaTonya Green-Jones, director of the Department of Auxiliary Services. “We’re just updating our ID system.”
“The OneCard will be backed by Southern University, not ARRAMARK,” said Lawson. The entire system will be backed by Southern, as opposed to a specific program by ARRAMARK. Our goal is to accommodate the students with the printing this semester, via the OneCard.”
Sophomore Jonathan Person, a music education major from Scotlandville, thinks that the OneCard system may be both a good and bad thing.
“On one hand, computers are bound to mess things up electronically, but on the other hand, it’ll be good to have everything on one card.”
TNS is planning on the One-Card to take effect by the spring semester. Students will be able to add funding on their ID cards in the event that they run out of money.
“Instead of coming back and forth on campus to stand in various lines to get things done everything will be conveniently located on your card,” states junior Tomeka Jones, a business management major.
“Many other universities have already implemented this type of program so I don’t see any problems with it at Southern.”