At Ball State, university officials have decided to update the student ID card, starting with housing and residence life installing a new security system at an on-campus dorm.
The new security system will require residents to obtain new IDs with prox technology, and if successful, other residence halls will follow suit.
As reported by Ball State Daily, the new IDs will be a departure from the previous mag stripe reads and will leverage prox technology. The new prox readers will be installed and trialed at the perimeter entrances of one of the university’s residence halls, with plans to expand the system in the near future.
According to university officials, students will still be able to swipe their card as before or hold their ID card up to the reader to unlock the door, suggesting that the university has opted for multi-class readers.
The new IDs are being issued to incoming freshmen, while a collaborative effort between Ball State’s registrar’s office and campus housing is ensuring that upperclassmen living in the residence hall will be able to exchange their old IDs for the new ones free of charge.
The new equipment is being installed on select dorms now, but the university hopes to have a campus wide system running for the coming spring semester.
