Tufts students will have new identification cards in hand next semester as the university is forced to comply with state legislation that aims to curb identity theft.
Massachusetts state law chapter 93H, which became effective in 2007, established stricter regulations on financial account numbers in response to several reported cases of identity theft in the commonwealth. The law puts JumboCash numbers in the same category as credit card numbers, forcing the university to issue updated JumboCash numbers and IDs in line with the new regulations by Jan. 1 of 2010.
The JumboCash number on ID cards that sophomores, juniors and seniors currently carry is the same as their student ID number, which the state says puts students at risk of identity theft.
"The law really centers around protecting people's financial information and protecting identities," said Geoff Bartlett, technical services manager in the Department of Public Safety.
The Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) issued the new IDs to all freshmen at the start of the academic year. Those cards feature a student ID number, a different JumboCash number and a library bar code on the front. Older cards issued before this year show the student's ID number on the front and a library bar code on the back.
"We set about this because changes in state law essentially required us to do so," Bartlett said. He added, however, that the university had not encountered significant problems with identity theft in the past.
The university's redistribution of IDs conveniently coincides with the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate's plans to change the ID system in order to add useful information on the back of the cards, including emergency phone numbers.
On older cards, two magnetic strips and a bar code inhibited TUPD from adding any additional information on the back. Now that newer cards only have one strip running along the bottom of the card, other information can be added.
(TCU) Senator Edward Chao, chair of the Senate's Student Outreach Committee, said that the Senate requested that TUPD add useful phone numbers and Web sites to the back of the cards approximately a year ago.
"A lot of students here at Tufts University don't really know about the [emergency] numbers," said Chao, a junior.
The Senate originally became involved in the ID project in the hopes of adding emergency phone numbers on the back of the ID card, but its involvement is currently focused on distribution.
"It's not what we had envisioned at the beginning, but it's a huge contribution," said TCU Senator Joel Greenberg, a sophomore who worked on the ID project over the summer.
Greenberg said that the distribution of the cards to upperclassmen may prove to be one of the most difficult parts of the process.
"The burden I believe at this point is having [the distribution of new ID cards] properly planned," he said. "It has to be systematic. We see very long lines for things like Fall Ball and Senior Pub Night and these are things you receive a general ticket for … we need to make sure that if you show up, we have your ID available."
Another hurdle facing distribution is informing students who are studying abroad this semester that their IDs will no longer work when they return, according to Greenberg.
Changes to the ID system are also designed to accommodate residents of Tilton and Sophia Gordon halls, which have hybrid readers that can work with both ID cards and fobs.
Bartlett said the university is in the process of implementing the hybrid readers across all residential dorms over a period of several years to avoid a large one-time expenditure. Once all readers are installed, the university hopes to do away with the fob system, relying completely on IDs for entry into dorms.
Greenberg said that complying with the new law will be the university's first priority and adding emergency phone numbers may happen later on. Adding this additional information to the back of the ID cards would involve a complete revamping of the printing process, which would come with a steep cost.
"The ID project is going to happen in phases," Greenberg said. "We're going to have to solve one problem at a time. The responsibility of knowing emergency numbers falls on the students. The responsibility of the security of account numbers falls on the university."
