UNM discusses more secure student IDs

Student Life plans to issue new Lobo IDs with more security features next year.
Many of the details haven’t been worked out yet, according to the SUB administration, but the new IDs are slated to be issued in late spring.

Walt Miller, associate vice president for Student Life, said students’ Social Security numbers are programmed in the barcodes of Lobo IDs, but the new Lobo IDs will hold another UNM-issued identification number instead.

With the new cards, Student Life also hopes to make LoboCash available at venues off campus, said Chelsea Stallings, ASUNM senator and voting member of the SUB board.
These venues will include nearby restaurants such as Frontier and Saggio’s, the parking structure on campus and concession stands at University Stadium and The Pit.

To fine tune the details, Miller formed a committee to examine possible features for the new Lobo IDs.

“So far, we are speaking with other institutions who have already gone through re-carding their school’s population,” he said. “We are going to take the best
practices and roll them together here at UNM.”

Stallings said the University of Texas at Austin reissued cards with similar features to its student body.

“The students love it; the businesses love it, and I think students here will like it and get a lot of use out of it,” she said. “Mostly, it will be good because of the convenience.”

Miller said he foresees issuing the new IDs to small groups of students at a time. Perhaps, he said, there will be stations around campus that will have IDs ready for pick up.

“We need to set up a schedule, we need to know how many stations we will need and what will make this go as smoothly as possible,” Miller said.