Card, mobile credential, payment and security
The University of Chicago is reporting on its Web site that “due to an unprecedented materials shortage” with the manufacturer of its specialized university ID cards, the school can’t issue new cards at this time.
The shortage is expected to be cleared up by the first week of October. In the meantime, students will be issued two temporary ID cards–one containing the student’s photo to serve as identification and the other with the contactless chip that enables students to access buildings.
“We will replace these two temporary cards with standard UChicago cards after we receive new card stock,” the Web site notes. “We expect to be able to begin that process in the first week of October, and we’ll notify you with further information at that time.”
The site did not specify why there was a materials shortage.
Read more here.
Villanova, University of San Francisco expanding trials in fall
Near field communication is going to college and finding the campus to be an ideal testing ground full of students hungry for the newest technology.
NFC’s promise – to let users do just about anything with a single mobile
device – is a little hard to pass up.
But like their business counterparts that have tested NFC, universities admit that its promise will remain unfulfilled until more NFC handsets are available.
Both the University of San Francisco and Villanova University near Philadelphia are piloting NFC programs with the help of campus card provider CBORD. The results so far show that the technology works, students like it and they want to use it more.
Ingersoll Rand developed the app and provided the hardware that turned an iPhone into an NFC-capable device, says Jeremy Earles, product marketing manager for readers and credentials at Ingersoll Rand.
To begin, the participant connects a specially designed hardware accessory to the iPhone 4 or 4s. This hardware ‘sleeve’ slides over the phone and connects to the port at the bottom of the handset. The sleeve, manufactured by Wireless Dynamics, turns a non-NFC equipped iPhone into an NFC-capable device.
Currently no other type of phone is supported, although Earles says Ingersoll Rand is considering developing the app for Android handsets as well. For the pilot, iPhones were selected because of their popularity on campus.
With the sleeve connected, the participant requests an electronic credential for the phone. He receives an email with a link to download the dedicated app from Apple’s App Store. The app is launched, a password is presented, and the cloud then sends the credential to the iPhone, explains Earles.
Now that the credential is securely in place in the handset, the student simply opens the app and taps the phone against the reader, says Earles.
Offering NFC was the brainchild of Max Steinhardt, CBORD’s new president, says Bob Lemley, CBORD’s director of software development. “Max came to me a year and a half ago and said he wanted to do something with NFC.
CBORD then went to its partner Ingersoll Rand. “They really got aggressive finding and managing pilot implementations,” says Lemley.
Villanova was chosen for two reasons, says Lemley. “First, they’ve been a leading partner with us, they’ve done a lot of new software implementations,” he says. “We’ve worked with their student government to design and build a laundry notification feature among other projects. We have a long and rich history of working with Villanova for creative technologies.”
The second reason is technical and made it easier to roll out an NFC project there. “They had just switched over to MIFARE contactless cards on campus,” he says. Thus they were already deploying contactless card readers to read the MIFARE technology, and these readers are also capable of reading NFC.
“The NFC technology works with MIFARE readers right out of the box,” explains Earles. “It’s a plug-and-play type implementation … the reader communicates with the NFC phone in the same way it would communicate with a MIFARE smart card, so no additional configuration is necessary.”
Kathy Gallagher, director of University Card Systems for Villanova’s Wildcard, says the school was looking for new technology that would enhance the student experience. “There was something exciting about being a pilot and our students are always looking for technically-advanced projects,” she adds.
She says there were 54 participants including 22 staff members and 32 students. Seven locations, mostly dorms, were equipped with NFC readers.
“We didn’t open this up to everyone on campus. We just wanted a small pilot,” says Gallagher. It involved students in three dorms covering exterior doors only. “We also had four locations for academic offices and buildings; my office was one of the four,” she adds.
Villanova’s phase two will begin with the fall semester in August and will include the school’s two larger dorms, says Gallagher. The phase two pilot will also focus on laundry and point of sale in addition to the dorms, says Lemley. “We’ll be firing that up soon. It will have different participants and a larger population.”
As soon as the opportunity became available, the University of San Francisco jumped on the NFC pilot opportunity, says Jason Rossi, the director of One Card and Campus Security Systems at the school. “NFC is the wave of the future. Students need their smart card and their smart phone to get through the day. Why not make them the same? Our students are very tech savvy, so we knew this would be right up their alley.”
Rossi says that NFC hits three main criteria: increasing security, improving service and reducing costs. “It increases security by acting as a de facto tool for secure access and transactions. It improves service because students enjoy the convenience of using their phones instead of their cards. And we project it will reduce costs by reducing the number of lost cards, meaning we won’t have to carry as extensive an inventory of replacement smart cards.”
Rossi says that USF students cannot get by for more than an hour on campus without their smart card and the same goes for their phone.
Phase one at USF focused on traditional undergraduate students in a residence hall, says Rossi. Twenty students participated along with several staff members.
The second phase will test NFC at the point-of-sale in addition to continued use in access control. The participant base will include a larger number of staff members and will also incorporate graduate students. “We want to see how working professionals are susceptible to it,” says Rossi.
The feedback to both pilots has been positive. “Students loved it for access control and want to use it for other purposes,” says Earles. “We need to make sure we’re meeting all their needs before we commercialize the product,” he says, adding, “this will be a viable product.”
The pilot saw heavy usage, says Lemley. “We’re extremely happy with the results. From a technical implementation, everything worked flawlessly.”
“Students loved it,” adds Gallagher. “They want to use it in other areas. I consider the pilot a real success.”
She says Villanova was “looking for the good, bad and ugly in the pilot but there was no bad or ugly. It was a very simple pilot and it went very well. One thing you always have on you is your phone.”
Reactions from USF students were also positive, says Rossi. “There are some barriers in its current incarnation. For one thing, NFC is currently not native to the phone,” he adds.
“Students loved it but they wanted it to be native so they could use their own handsets,” says Rossi. “And they wanted to use it everywhere. We didn’t make it clear to them when we started that we were testing it in one building.”
He believes that when NFC becomes more widely available, universities will have an advantage with its implementation. “We don’t have the barriers that exist in the private sector,” says Rossi. “I am the merchant, the bank, the transaction processing system. We don’t have to worry about getting Walgreens or other businesses signed up.”
The pilots have increased Rossi’s desire for more NFC activities. “I know it works, it’s proven. Now we’re waiting for the industry to give us the next step.”
The recent incident where a 26-year-old woman passed herself off as a Columbia University student shows how lax security can be at many colleges and universities.
Birva Patel had been posing as a third-year biomedical engineering student since December 2011. She went unnoticed by the authorities until several Columbia students reported her for suspicious behavior in late August.
While she was seen inside various campus buildings, sleeping in lounges or walking down the hallways without attending any classes, no one thought to call authorities. Without a Columbia ID or key, Patel entered the buildings by asking other students to open the doors for her. Or, she simply blended in with a large crowd when entering the building.
There are multiple ways of increasing security, including cameras and metal detectors, but the easiest and most effective way to strengthen campus security is to encourage students to remain alert, an article in The Wellesley News points out. “If a student sees anyone who doesn’t belong, or if their gut reaction tells them that something is not quite right, they should report it to the campus police,” The News adds.
Read more here.
The push is on by some Pennsylvania advocacy groups to get voter ID-compliant cards into the hands of students before the November election.
A recent survey by the Pennsylvania Public Interest Research Group found that student IDs at 95 of 110 Pennsylvania college campuses did not meet the state’s new voter ID law, specifically providing IDs with expiration dates and photos. Student IDs at a few colleges did not even contain photos, PennPIRG reported.
However, since the law was passed, some Pennsylvania colleges have been issuing new ID cards that comply with the law, including issuing new ID cards or stickers with expiration dates, PennPIRG said.
A coalition of organizations, including the ACLU, Rock the Vote and the Committee of Seventy, have been encouraging schools to inform students about the law.
Read more here.
The University of Iowa becomes another university to abandon traditional paper sports tickets, opting instead to electronically add the tickets to students’ campus cards. The change-over will begin with the school’s basketball season this winter and continue into football the following year.
All season tickets for the student sections will be distributed electronically onto student campus cards. Game day ticket-takers will use handheld scanners to check the electronic student tickets stored on their ID cards.
This will save the university’s printing costs plus the hours spent distributing the tickets. Now, students will only have to remember their IDs to get into the games.
Students without season tickets will still be able to buy single game passes for the student section if they’re available. Those tickets can be printed off or picked up at the window on game day and presented at the gate with a student ID.
Students will also be allowed to go online and transfer their ticket electronically to another student’s ID.
Read more here.
Four New Hampshire college students from three schools are suing the state, seeking to block its enforcement of the amended voter registration law. The League of Women Voters is also involved in the litigation.
The students believe changes to the law could discourage out-of-state students from voting in New Hampshire.
The amended law requires voters to sign a statement declaring they are subject to all laws that apply to residents. That includes “laws requiring a driver to register a motor vehicle and apply for a New Hampshire driver license within 60 days of becoming a resident.” This could “freeze out” some eligible voters, such as visiting college students, the suit claims.
The lawsuit asks the court to either block enforcement of the law or to rule that voters who plan to leave the state in the future aren’t required to register their cars here, according to information provided by the League of Women Voters.
Students from the University of New Hampshire, Durham, Keene State College, Keene, and Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, are listed as plaintiffs in the suit.
The voter identification law, passed in 2012, also requires a photo ID beginning with the November election.
Read more here.
After a year’s worth of planning, the new Owl card at New Hampshire’s Keene State College is set to be launched with a new look and new features, including usage at vending machines and on-campus restaurants and access to the school’s recreation center and library.
The card also enables students to check their balances on line and also to report their lost or stolen card.
One of the problems with the old card is that for many students their facial features and name had worn off. It was getting “harder and harder to prove that the person holding the card is the person it’s supposed to be,” said a school administrator.
To prevent this wear and tear in the future, the new card has double lamination.
At the gymnasium, students and faculty have to swipe in. This was put in place to prevent non-students from getting in. “If someone doesn’t have an ID, we can ask them to leave,” said Lynne Andrews, recreational sports director. “If the card is so beat up and worn off, we will tell them to go get a new one,” she added.
Read more here.
