Phone tapping has become a way of life
For the first time, the University of Ottawa has integrated your U-Pass transit card with your student card this year. This means no more losing your U-Pass immediately after you tap it, or having to wait in the UCU to take pictures so ugly they don’t even look like yourself (or do they…?).
It’s a great but long overdue step, combining the two most important plastic cards of your university experience (aside from your debit cards) into one. But let’s push the conversation a step further. Why stop at combining the student card and U-Pass into a single, flimsy, plastic card? All of your important university identification should be solely virtual.
Using your mobile device for identification purposes has become the new norm — you or someone you might know probably has a photo of their passport or driver’s licence in their ‘Favourites’ folder. Starting in 2021, you could access your vaccination records from your Apple Wallet, a move that further supported contactless transactions at the height of the pandemic. I can’t even remember the last time I used a paper boarding pass on the VIA Rail home. Not to mention you can even add your PRESTO cards to your Apple and Android virtual wallets!
We’ve reached a point where nearly everyone has a smartphone, and it is near impossible to function without one, even as a student. You can’t even access your student email or Brightspace portal without that pesky Microsoft authentication (which is protecting us from who exactly?).
Not to mention that you’re also probably much more vigilant about losing your hundred-dollar phone than a plastic card that can be replaced at a cost of around $20 and the most incriminating photo you will ever take. Virtual student identification is the natural next step in incorporating technology into meaningful student life. The University of New Brunswick and Sheridan College were the first Canadian institutions to use Apple Wallet IDs back in 2021.
But wait — are we sure about virtual student cards? What happens if someone’s phone is stolen? Or there’s a technical glitch between your phone and the tap machines on the bus (because there always is one)? Or if your phone simply dies because the battery is five years old? Or if you straight up just want the physical cards back?
Then here’s the excellent part: you should be given a choice. Students who still want physical cards should still have the means to upload photos and hold onto their ID cards, for whatever reason they wish. The university can survey students to properly hear their opinions, and properly re-allocate the number of staff and materials needed for the set-up. Imagine having a virtual student card for simplicity’s sake, but still holding onto your two-in-one combo card as a back-up!
The U of O has a great opportunity on its hands to implement such convenient technology for its students — now it’s just a matter of them actually listening to them.
