Nearly a year after the Senate began plans to redesign Tufts' student ID cards, students are still waiting to see results.
The cards have seen some changes - namely, the recent combination of vending points and Points Plus and the pilot program that gives Tilton Hall residents JumboFob access on their I.D. card.
Other efforts to give the card a facelift have encountered obstacles.
A committee created to upgrade the cards hoped to design and implement new ID cards for the incoming freshman class as early as fall of 2005, but financial and facility limitations have slowed the project's progress.
Director of Public Safety John King submitted ID card improvements as part of a proposed budget for 2007, but was denied approval for the project.
In addition to King, the committee includes Director of Dining and Business Services Patti Lee Klos, Acting Executive Director Richard Papazian and Senate Historian Ed Kalafarski, a senior.
Kalafarski, then Senate Services Committee co-chair, initially proposed the creation of a more attractive and useful "Jumbo Card" in February of 2005. The committee's plan to improve the student ID card included integrating the JumboFob into the card's magnetic strip and unifying the points system.
The committee looked to ID cards from other schools that had successfully incorporated increased services and professional branding and design onto their IDs, and in collaboration with the Tufts Public Relations Office, the committee devised a series of designs for the new card.
But the on-campus printing facilities at the Office of Public Safety were unable to print the high-quality images - including pictures from Tufts' campuses - that were proposed as part of the new designs.
Last week, Tufts adopted a new "word mark" as part of its ongoing identity-branding campaign. A word mark is a standard format of the word "Tufts" designed to be distinctive and immediately recognizable. The new word mark must now be reworked into the proposed design for the new cards.
"At least now we do have an understanding of what the new word mark is, and that will be helpful," King said.
Sent back to the drawing board, designers created designs that were technically feasible but "not as cool looking," Kalafarski said.
Since the designers are coping with budget constraints and are limited to on-campus printing technology, designs cannot be as ambitious as other schools' whose ID cards are pre-printed by an outside company.
"Our proposals are looked at among a lot of other priorities," King said. "At the moment we have not received approval. That is not to say that couldn't change; we want to leave all doors open."
King expressed optimism about the future of the project. He plans to proceed in selecting a design and seeking alternative sources of funding for the project.
Despite the slow progress, student senators still feel that the redesign of ID cards should be a priority.
"Our ID cards are not professional-looking. We want to make ID cards something that students can be proud of, something that represents Tufts well in all the places that Tufts students take out their IDs," said TCU Senator Alex Pryor, a sophomore.
Kalafarski added, "It's good that [Tufts] is competitive in areas of academics but we're lacking in the little things on campus."
The committee plans to meet again in upcoming weeks to report on individual progress and determine what course of action to pursue next.
