The results of a survey on potential new uses for the Washington University student identification card were released at Wednesday night’s Student Union Senate meeting. The survey, which is preliminary research for a larger initiative to expand student services on campus, indicated that students were most interested in using their ID cards to pay for washing machines and purchases at on-campus stores.
University administrators Tara Bone and Paul Schimmele and junior Jeff Zove, speaker of the Student Union (SU) Senate, conducted the e-mail survey to help direct future discussions about ID cards. The survey received responses from 2,300 undergraduates (approximately 40 percent of the student body, evenly spread across class years) ranking on a scale of one to five how often they would use each of the new potential card features.
One of the most favorable reactions was to a proposal that would allow students to pay for laundry machines with their identification cards: 87 percent of respondents replied that they would use such a service “all the time” or the rating immediately below it on the one to five scale used by respondents.
Students didn’t respond favorably to using their ID cards for banking, however, with only 36 percent of respondents rating banking functions a four or five on the approval scale. Adding bank functions would be problematic, as not all students are part of the same banking system, and difficulties would likely occur as banks themselves would attempt to connect with the University system.
Bone and Schimmele expressed satisfaction with the survey process in an e-mail interview.
“The committee is thrilled with the response received from the undergraduate population on the survey.ÿIt has provided us with great data,” said Bone. “The small group discussions that Jeff Zove, the committee’s student representative, will conduct will add a richness to our understanding. We are thankful for the number of participants and the very thoughtful comments that students have made.”
In the next few months, the research committees will examine similar programs at the University’s peer institutions, including Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Emory.
Bone and Schimmele cite the recent integration of the Dining Services meal system with the web-based student services application WebSTAC as an example of the technical feasibility of ID card systems on campus.
“The university recently purchased a new meal plan tracking system from a vendor who is one of the most successful vendors in this field. If the decision is made to add services to the ID card, the university already has a piece of the technology needed to add potential features,” said Bone.
Similar programs have been tried and failed in the past here at the University, Bone and Schimmele explained at the Oct. 5 meeting.
“Smart cards were implemented temporarily 10 years ago,” said Schimmele. “The technology hadn’t advanced enough yet and the services suffered.”