SRU students were issued new student IDs this semester after the contract with the company who issued the old IDs expired and the Rock Dollars program was terminated at the end of June.
The old cards were issued by Central National Bank in Enid, Oklahoma and sponsored by Heartland Payment Systems. Students’ old IDs are currently rendered unusable, and to use services like the ARC and swiping into Boozel, students are required to use their new IDs to access these services. In a mass email, students were told that they could pick up their new IDs in the commuter lounge of the student center until Aug. 28, and after that date could be picked up in the ID card office in Watson Hall.
SRU alumna, Jillian Wilcox, said that she and other SGA majors were told that the replacement IDs were issued because of an expired contract. SGA members were tasked with distributing surveys to randomly selected classes in order to choose the new background image for the Student IDs.
Connor Himich, a sophomore public relations major, said that he didn’t see the point in a new ID.
“I think it’s kind of a waste of money for the university to issue every student a new ID,” he said.
The Rock Dollars program was terminated on June 30 of last year, and that feature is no longer accessible through student ID cards, but with the new IDs, students can link their cards to their bank account, and their ID will double as an ATM card.
“I never used Rock Dollars,” Jess Dowd, a junior Spanish and marketing double major, said. “I never really knew what they were.”
Doud said that she didn’t understand why she would use Rock Dollars when she could just have her parents transfer money into her bank account.
Nick Contestabile, a sophomore exercise science major, said he knew a lot of people who used Rock Dollars.
“They’re probably pretty disappointed that Rock Dollars are gone,” he said.
The new IDs feature a photo of Vincent Science Center in place of the previously featured Old Main.
Comparing the two ID cards, Dowd said that she liked the old ones better.
“I don’t think the new ones are very pretty,” she said.
Contestabile said the IDs could be more aesthetically pleasing.
Himich agreed with Dowd and Contestabile about the appearance of the old ID cards.
“The picture of Old Main looked better, classier than the older picture of Vincent,” he said.
In contrast, freshman English major, Nick Boehm, who never had the old ID’s, said, “I think they’re fine.”
Students who haven’t picked up their new IDs can do so in the ID Card Office at 157 Watson Hall, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
