Since physical IDs were deactivated by the university on Sept. 21, 2021, students have been required to have phones to secure food in the dining halls, gain access to housing and amenities on campus and participate in select social activities.
Everything a student needs is found on a single device, which provides a seemingly convenient solution. Need a ride? Call an Uber. Need an answer to a question? Look it up on Google. Want some entertainment on a long drive? Use the various available social media outlets to fill the time. That is, until your phone dies, or the system lags, or you find yourself without Wi-Fi.
Phones are not foolproof. Digital IDs are only convenient when the Wi-Fi and UCCS portal stars align, making it impossible to defend their sole use on campus. Instead, we should allow students to have multiple means of on-campus verification so that this weak link can be strengthened.
Technology grants fast-track opportunities that would normally consume time, resources and money. It would make sense that, as pocket computers of the future become more of a necessity, UCCS would follow national trends and make campus life more phone friendly.
However, this mass-digitization comes with some obvious, inescapable pitfalls. What happens if students are unable to access the portal, or if 2-factor authentication simply isn’t working? Students may no longer have access to housing amenities that they paid for. A physical ID would be an additional source of protection against being locked out of your dorm, or from being forced to beg passersby to let you in.
Physical IDs would also be a simple solution to the frantic scramble to log in at the door of an event. Being forced to exit the line just to pull up a digital ID is a frustrating, yet common routine.
Sometimes, the old-school method works better. Students shouldn’t need retinal recognition or DNA testing to gain access to their dorms on campus, and they shouldn’t have to rely only on technology for the sake of digitized progress. Giving students the ability to buy physical IDs would be an effective back-up to digital IDs.
It would be even better if students could get physical identification without having to bank with Ent, the official financial services partner at UCCS. Having to open up an Ent account just to get a campus ID is another unnecessary hurdle for students.
We should protect students by giving them the option to pay extra for physical identification, instead of continuing to take these options away or putting them behind banking commitments.
The clock tower. Photo by Josiah Dolan.