Student IDs to be replaced this year

By Samantha Rogers | @KyKernel

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The Wildcard UKID Center will join forces with the UK Police Department in coming months to update student and faculty IDs as part of UK’s new security measures, according to UK Police Chief Joe Monroe.

Beginning in spring of 2013 and continuing into summer, UK will go through a re-carding process, switching out students’ current Wildcards for the new, “smarter” IDs.

The new IDs still will have pictures of the students and the background of the ID will be changed.

As a part of the campus security project passed by the Board of Trustees, UKPD is working to consolidate and create a uniformity of standards when it comes to access control.

“As we are experiencing many changes to enhance campus safety and security, it is appropriate for the responsibility of creating and distributing student identification cards to be within the purview of the University of Kentucky Police Department,” said Robert Mock, UK’s vice president of student affairs.

Incoming students in fall of 2013 will automatically be issued the new Wildcard ID.

“As long as you have your old ID, there will be no charge. You’ll turn in your old card when you get your new one,” Monroe said.

The cards will also enable residents to access the new dorm being built on Central Campus through a public-private partnership with the firm Education Realty Trust.

“It’s more for control, security-wise,” Monroe said. The challenge has been trying to get the technology to implement the new ID process, Monroe said.

The new IDs will also allow students access to their Plus and Flex accounts, as well as the Johnson Center, Monroe said.

The cost now is $15 to purchase a Wildcard ID and $20 for a replacement card.

“For this year, (the cost) will be the same,” Monroe said. “I can’t speak for next year.”

The Wildcard UKID Center, at 107 Student Center, will not move.

Instead, “we will be adding several more locations,” Monroe said, to make the offices more accessible to both students and faculty.

While police will be taking charge of the re-carding process, they will not use the new Wildcard IDs to keep track of students, Monroe said.

“The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky has not had the opportunity to review the full proposal for the change to how student identification is issued at the University of Kentucky,” said Amber Duke, communications manager for ACLU of Kentucky. “Having said that, it is great to see the UK’s police chief stating outright that the cards will not be used to track or monitor the activities of students.”

Any identification cards with embedded tracking technologies can pose serious threats to privacy, civil rights and civil liberties, Duke said.

It will be important for UK officials to continue to protect students’ personal information held in its databases, she said. UKPD is also looking at other schools with similar ID processes for ideas that could be useful throughout the transition this spring.