BruinCard reissue raises questions
By Melinda Dudley
Oct. 10, 2005 9:00 p.m.
Starting Monday, the nearly 37,000 faculty, staff and students
still holding the classic blue or gold BruinCards began to swap
them for new ones.
The new BruinCards have a more secure encryption to safeguard
information stored on the card and feature UCLA’s recently
redesigned logo, although there is some question whether the
changeover is worth the cost and the inconvenience.
Considering that the current replacement price for a BruinCard
is $21, the cost of the reissue could possibly be hundreds of
thousands of dollars.
Total costs have not yet been tabulated, said Nancy Tran,
BruinCard operations manager.
This is the first redesign since the BruinCard was first
initiated as the university’s primary means of identification
in 1997, according to the BruinCard office.
The BruinCard office began issuing the new cards in July. The
new cards prominently feature images of Royce Hall and the new UCLA
logo on the front.
Because the new cards have already been in circulation for
several months and utilize the same magnetic-strip technology, most
services should have no trouble adapting to the influx of new
cards.
But some campus services, such as the libraries, will have a
more difficult time.
Libraries identify users by their ten-digit BruinCard barcode,
which changes with each card reissue, and all cardholders will have
to verify their information and have their new card activated for
library use.
People who already have the new BruinCard and those holding
Healthcare, Mail and Document Services, or Transportation Services
BruinCards do not need to obtain new cards.
Despite these exceptions, the BruinCard office has printed
nearly 37,000 identification cards, most of which they hope to
distribute this week.
“It’s going pretty well,” said Tran of the
first day of the Reissue Fair. “But we still need to get
everyone here.”
While the office did receive a small amount of funding for the
redesign from the Chancellor’s Office, the BruinCard program
has had to absorb most of the costs, Tran said. The new cards are
provided free of charge to current cardholders.
Part of the impetus for the BruinCard changeover is the
university-wide adoption of the school’s new logo.
The logo, unveiled last October as the centerpiece of
UCLA’s graphic identity program, was designed by Keith Bright
Strategic Design at a cost of $98,000.
The logo drew criticism at the time not only for its design, but
because of its high cost and the fact that the job was outsourced
rather than tasked to a campus entity or department.
“I feel the whole logo thing was a waste of money, so if
that was their motivation, it’s a waste of university
funds,” said Matias Ramos, a second-year Spanish and
communication studies student, after picking up his new BruinCard
at the Reissue Fair.
New BruinCards will also feature a tougher encryption that
better protects information stored on the cards.
All old BruinCards shared a uniform encryption, while all of the
new-issue cards are entirely unique, which makes the personal
information stored on them less vulnerable, Tran said.
All old BruinCards will be deactivated at the end of the
calendar year.
