BruinCard purchasing features to be suspended for system update
By Nicholas Yu
March 17, 2015 2:14 a.m.
Students will not be able to make purchases with their BruinCards for several days starting Friday.
This weekend is set to conclude the final step of a $4 million project to change the internal application system of the BruinCard. Officials will transfer information stored on the current system to a new system, and during the process, all BruinCard accounts will be frozen.
Most nonfinancial BruinCard services, such as getting into dorms or renting items on campus, will not be disrupted.
Starting 6:30 p.m. Thursday, students will not be able to make deposits on their BruinCards, said Carmine Marino, director of student accounting. On Friday evening, after the last dinner service at 8:30 p.m., students will not be able to make purchases with their BruinCards.
Most financial services will start back up on Monday, the date the new system is expected to go live, said Chris Ramos, manager of the BruinCard Center.
Ramos suggested that students staying on campus over the break carry cash and be prepared for the outage.
After the break, students with new BruinCards that can be tapped at card readers will be able to access new features.
Financial card readers, such as those found at dining halls and vending machines, currently run on the old BruinCard system. Some of the upgraded readers, especially those in high-traffic areas, will have the technology to accept both taps and swipes.
Compiled by Nicholas Yu, Bruin contributor.
