Jen Richards
Equinox Staff
While Keene State College is in the process of developing the one card system for the 2012 school year, a new card design will also be needed to go along with the change.
Vice President for Student Affairs, Andrew Robinson, said the new system for the student ID cards and the new design for the cards come hand in hand.
“Essentially it’s totally related; the new design is needed because we’re going to a new ID card system,” Robinson said.
KSC students get the opportunity to not only have a say in what the design should be, but can design the entire ID card themselves. With a few guidelines to follow, students can design the entire card and submit it to the ID Card Office. Once the design is submitted, it will be looked at and compared with other entries before deciding the winner.
KSC students said it’s a good idea to have the student body involved in this process.
Junior Christine Smigel said this competition is a fun way to get the students involved.
“Everybody uses the ID card and it’s cool that we have the option to create our own design for it,” Smigel said.
Along with the reward of having the student’s design be the appearance for the KSC student ID cards, more comes with it.
There will be a $250 cash reward to the winner of the design competition.
“The reward I think will draw people’s attention and make it an exciting way for students to get involved, “ Smigel said.
The winning design will be on the front of the KSC ID card that is used by students, faculty, staff, and others around the campus.
As almost every competition has guidelines to follow, this one does as well.
Robinson said the winner of the competition will need an appropriate and college-oriented design.
“The design submitted has to be acceptable and it can’t be obscene,” Robinson said.
Along with a proper design, the card must include the school logo, place for student’s picture, place for student’s full name, student’s ID number, the college affiliation, barcode, and Arial font for the text.
The KSC website also addressed that the ID Card office can make changes to the design to maintain appropriateness.
Robinson said even with the guidelines the students have a lot of space to explore and become creative.
“The college reserves the right to choose the design that’s most appropriate and that would fit on the space that’s available however, it’s still pretty wide open,” Robinson said.
The ID card is an important part of life at KSC where it allows access to college service, restricted buildings, and food services on campus.
The reason for the new design on the ID cards is based on the new one card system KSC is working on. Soon the ID card will have more responsibilities than ever before
The new one-card system will bring together all the necessities at KSC. Some of these essentials include entrance to the Spaulding Gym, entrance into all residential halls, online housing, dining commons, library use, and laundry.
With the new card system students will be able to access more online as well. Financial information and housing will be two online uses for the student ID card. This is intended to make the college experience a lot easier for students.
When it comes to the housing process, Robinson said it’s always been more complicated than it needs to be.
“We’ve done it the old fashioned way. But to have an online process it could be managed a number of different ways, but either way students could do it immediately,” Robinson said.
Robinson said another reason for developing the one card system came from ideas at the Spaulding Gym to have students swipe in on entering.
Spaulding Gym Front Desk Supervisor Kelsey Leghorn said it would be more effective if the ID card allowed students to swipe in at the gym.
“On busy nights it’s hard to check every person’s ID. It would definitely be more efficient if we could swipe the ID cards,” Leghorn said.
Robinson said the one card system plan has been worked on for a while now and even though it is a complicated process, there seems to progress being made. He said some things, such as the online housing process, could possibly be ready to use by the end of this spring semester.
“We’re kind of excited about it,” Robinson said. “Its been a long time in the making and its moving along fairly quickly now.”
Students can get excited for the new one-card system but in the meantime they can submit their designs to the ID Office. Students have until Feb. 20 to submit their entries.
Contest finalists will be notified at the beginning of March and the winner will receive their $250 reward by the end of March.
“I think that’s what the intent is, to make it really look cool, make it be a student design, make it look different, and particularly identify it as a Keene State card,” Robinson said.
Come fall 2012, KSC students will most likely be introduced to a whole new card system, while using a new student-designed KSC ID card.
Jen Richards can be contacted at jrichards1@ksc.mailcruiser.com