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Yes, but does it flex?
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sdfsStudent Services Vice President Lisa Hogarty just let you know in an e-mail that we'll all be getting nifty new ID cards come fall (that Rita Hollander is one impressive woman). Two bits that matter.

One: the cards will NOT use our social security numbers. Bwog hopes this means that neighborhood flex points a la NYU are coming down the pike--SSN security has always been the holdup.

And two: the cards will allow for "more convenient building access while maintaining safe environments." Could that mean that...Barnard has opened its doors, at long last?

WAIT AND SEE!

See also: Barnard, Flex

August 1, 2007 @ 9:37 PM | Comments 39 comments | Add comment Post a comment | Link to this article | | | Share on Facebook

Posted by hmm: #1 · reply · track
August 1, 2007 at 9:43 PM
flex point schmex points...

when is columbia getting a ticket central?
Posted by coudln't it be: #2 · reply · track
August 1, 2007 at 10:00 PM
RFID versus barcode access?
Posted by lovely rita: #3 · reply · track
August 1, 2007 at 10:05 PM
is also the public safety meter maid.
Posted by who said: #4 · reply · track
August 1, 2007 at 10:13 PM
they were going to use barcode access? the way they word the website it sounds like there will be RFID access
Posted by quiqui: #5 · reply · track
August 1, 2007 at 10:42 PM
there goes my post-graduation library access...
Posted by varun: #6 · reply · track
August 1, 2007 at 10:48 PM
those are nice IDs. and yeah, barnard dorms are exclusively all-girl; the easier access probably means RFID versus plain old swipe.

'bout time.
Posted by ignorant?: #7 · reply · track
August 1, 2007 at 11:49 PM
what's RFID? is that like the new credit cards where I just wave it around and some magic sensor registers that it's me? if so, all hail RFID and good riddance to the days of sleepy, clumsy guards taking hours to swipe you in
Posted by sorry: #8 · reply · track
August 1, 2007 at 11:51 PM
but could barnard access really get any easier?
Posted by ...: #9 · reply · track
August 1, 2007 at 11:53 PM
i prefer validation stickers over printed expiration dates.
Posted by ...: #10 · reply · track
August 2, 2007 at 12:11 AM
i just noticed that of the two affiliates, only teachers college gets "columbia university" below.

suck it, barnard.
Posted by actually: #11 (in reply to #5) · reply · track
August 2, 2007 at 12:50 AM
all alums can get alumni reading cards for like five bucks. looks just like the columbia card but says alumni reading card instead. explains all the creepy old people there. plus i assume the old id card will still be valid for quite some time.
Posted by CUIT birdie: #12 · reply · track
August 2, 2007 at 12:51 AM
The easier access does in fact mean the card is equipped with an RFID. Those of us who are corporate tools should be familiar with these, as they're present in the proximity-activated ID cards that most office buildings have nowadays. Public safety is in the process of upgrading all the card reading equipment to support these. As for eliminating the lobby lag, I think not-- the guards will likely just become "card wavers" instead of "card swipers." I suppose it'll eliminate the problem of broken readers/demagnetized IDs, at least.

I'm all for flex at Hamdel.
Posted by naive: #13 (in reply to #7) · reply · track
August 2, 2007 at 12:55 AM
They'll never switch to a wave-your-magic-card system because those don't do anything to keep people out. All you have to do is wait by the door until someone else comes in.

Unless you waved your ID instead of swiping it. THAT would be pretty awesome.
Posted by well gawrsh....: #14 (in reply to #13) · reply · track
August 2, 2007 at 12:58 AM
I should really update more often
Posted by Barnard dorms: #15 (in reply to #6) · reply · track
August 2, 2007 at 1:15 AM
are not exclusively all-girl... Plenty of Columbia students of both sexes live in them. The real reason for the swipe access barrier is that no one wants to admit that both CC and Barnard just want to keep the GS creeps out.
Posted by o h yo: #16 · reply · track
August 2, 2007 at 11:16 AM
fuck RFID. that's egregious.

also you don't need to be a current student or have a current ID to use the library peeps
Posted by Iris scans: #17 · reply · track
August 2, 2007 at 1:54 PM
are the way to go. We would instantly be cooler than everybody else
Posted by and...: #18 (in reply to #17) · reply · track
August 2, 2007 at 2:17 PM
triple our annual tuition?
Posted by well: #19 (in reply to #18) · reply · track
August 2, 2007 at 3:27 PM
yes.
Posted by ...: #20 · reply · track
August 2, 2007 at 3:36 PM
how did columbia exist before swipe?

how did students survive before the internet?
Posted by I think: #21 · reply · track
August 2, 2007 at 4:33 PM
the real question is what did students do before computers? The thought of writing a paper, or a senior thesis, on a typewriter gives me nightmares.
Posted by Alum: #22 · reply · track
August 2, 2007 at 5:18 PM
Twenty-odd years ago the ID cards had social security numbers actually punched into the plastic, like an old-fashioned computer card. Anyone who got ahold of someone else's ID and realized what the holes meant could figure out the SSN in a few seconds, with no equipment.

It gets weirder. Instead of being confined to one area the holes were spread across the entire surface of the card -- including the photo. On my card, one of the holes was punched right through my mouth.

I think magnetic strips were first introduced around 1985.
Posted by Rita Hollander : #23 · reply · track
August 2, 2007 at 5:49 PM
oh my god thank you columbia for updating my joint IDs! this'll make pursuing my joint BA/EdD/PhD!
Posted by Rita Hollander: #24 · reply · track
August 2, 2007 at 5:50 PM
oh my god thank you columbia for updating all my IDs! this'll make pursuing my joint BA/EdD/PhD so much easier!
Posted by don't forget: #25 (in reply to #24) · reply · track
August 2, 2007 at 6:12 PM
your jobs at NY Presbyterian and Columbia Med center
Posted by as a: #26 (in reply to #25) · reply · track
August 2, 2007 at 6:59 PM
neurosurgeon at that
Posted by Gouverneur Morris: #27 (in reply to #20) · reply · track
August 2, 2007 at 8:13 PM
Back in my day, we had to use quills and inkpots. Do you know how fucking hard it is to write a 10 page Lit Hum paper the night before its due while located 2 blocks away from the red light district with a fucking QUILL THAT YOU HAVE TO DIP INTO THE INKPOT EVERY 3 WORDS?!!?
Posted by Alum: #28 (in reply to #27) · reply · track
August 2, 2007 at 8:29 PM
There was a red light district before there were lights? And if the district was that close you should have been able to dip your quill as often as you liked.
Posted by EFF: #29 · reply · track
August 2, 2007 at 10:42 PM
rfid means that cu students can now be detected. our enemies will now be able to triangulate our positions from nearly several feet away.
Posted by Faraday Cage Match: #30 (in reply to #29) · reply · track
August 3, 2007 at 12:28 AM
I know that was a joke, but it'd be hard for the powers that be to use card-embedded RFIDs to track you passively-- the sensors have a very low range, so they'd quite literally have to cover the campus in readers and hope that you pass your card near one.
Posted by I think: #31 (in reply to #28) · reply · track
August 3, 2007 at 11:07 AM
the term "red-light district" predates electric lighting, yes. You just put some red cellophane (or pre-20th-century-cellophane-substitute) into a lantern.
Posted by by substitute: #32 (in reply to #31) · reply · track
August 3, 2007 at 2:30 PM
do you mean bedsheets stained with the blood of dead hookers?
Posted by GS GUYS: #33 (in reply to #15) · reply · track
August 3, 2007 at 2:50 PM
GS GUYS ARE FILTH! They leer at me all the time, I get so scared. I hate them so much. Daddy is gonna get them pulled off campus.
Posted by Meh: #34 · reply · track
August 3, 2007 at 7:59 PM
I think these IDs are uglier than the ones we have now. Alma Mater FTW!
Posted by #34: #35 · reply · track
August 3, 2007 at 8:01 PM
forgot to add...

I like Alma Mater the way she is now, not this profile view.

And what of the under 21/over 21 dichotomy? As far as I'm aware, the way things currently are, red-on-white becomes white-on-red once you come of age. What now? Or will that information just be embedded in the RFID?
Posted by my guess: #36 (in reply to #35) · reply · track
August 4, 2007 at 1:07 AM
it might say it on the back, where your affiliation is listed.
Posted by TAT: #37 · reply · track
August 4, 2007 at 6:19 AM
I wonder if I will have my TA affiliation listed as being a Columbia employee as well as a student. That would be so cool!
Posted by i was...: #38 · reply · track
August 4, 2007 at 8:40 PM
really looking forward to sticking a yoda head sticker over alma mater's head on my shiny new id. but then they go and change the layout... DAMN YOU COLUMBIA!
Posted by proximity: #39 · reply · track
August 5, 2007 at 10:03 PM
they've updated the turnstiles in lerner with new card readers. just saying.
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