The Grand Valley State University Student Senate recently passed a resolution in support of expanding the use of identification cards as room keys, laundry cards and an ATM/debit card.

“When we started looking into other schools’ ID cards, we were amazed by the capabilities of some of the ID cards,” said Craig Flora, a member of the Senate Educational Affairs Committee and author of the resolution. “We thought that it would be a great idea for GVSU to look into.”

But Flora said just passing the resolution does not mean that it will be implemented on campus.

“Just because Student Senate passes a resolution for something does not mean that it is going to happen,” he said. “Our resolution shows student support for expanding our ID cards, and the university takes our resolutions into consideration.”

When discussing the resolution at the Student Senate general assembly meetings, the senators agreed that they thought the resolution was a good idea and would be much more convenient for students who now have to carry around three or more different cards for different uses.

“I personally am very supportive of having one ID card opposed to three,” said Lindsay Viviano, vice president of the Public Relations Committee. “I know as a freshman, it was a bit inconvenient always having to carry multiple cards, especially since so many other universities have only one card, I feel GVSU should as well, in that we are one of the top public universities in Michigan.”

Not only will the card help with student convenience, but it will also be less expensive if it gets lost, Flora said. Right now, GVSU has a replacement fee of $15 for the ID card and $25 for a housing key. Flora said schools with a multi-purpose card have replacement fees between $20 and $25.

“Students will only have to carry around one card, making their lives much easier,” he said. “Only having one card will help students with replacement costs. Since most students lose their wallets and not just their ID cards, costs will be lower.”

Another advantage, he said, of having a single multi-purpose card is to help GVSU follow its goal of sustainability.

“Only having one card will also be sustainable since there will be less plastic involved,” Flora said.

Doug Wentworth, director of auxiliary services at GVSU, said since ID cards are already used for meal plans, there probably wouldn’t be any change in how meal plans are used if.

“We currently use the student ID card for the meal plans, so I don’t believe it would have a large impact either way,” Wentworth said.

He added that he thought the change would have benefits, but would need to analyze it more before making a final decision.

“This is a more complex issue than it might appear on the surface, and it involves many different departments on campus,” he said. “Auxiliary Services would provide input into the evaluation, but before deciding if it’s a good idea or not, a thorough analysis is needed.”

But the student senators said they are hoping to receive university support for their resolution so that changes can be made on campus.

“Having all of these on one card will help students out a lot,” Flora said. “As I said before, just because Student Senate passes (the resolution) does not mean that it will happen. However, I hope that this will become a reality for future GVSU students.”
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