By Josh Siatkowski | Staff Writer
Since the introduction of Baylor’s new digital ID card at the beginning of the spring semester, 60% of on-campus students have signed up for and begun taking advantage of the service. However, off-campus students, faculty and staff will have to wait for it to be extended to them.
Keegan Rogers, director of infrastructure services at Baylor, said although digital IDs have been a hit with the students who can use them, there’s still work that needs to be done to get the service in the hands of other members of the Baylor community.
According to Rogers, digital IDs are only available to on-campus students because the contactless card readers that are compatible with the new IDs are currently only present in residential buildings. The digital IDs are implemented by adding a Baylor ID to Apple Wallet or Google Pay, and they can be used for building access and making payments.
“Right now, the majority of off-campus students would really only use [the digital IDs] in academic spaces, and those don’t currently have contactless readers yet.”
Jon Allen, the chief information officer and chief information security officer at Baylor, said campuswide digital ID access is a when, not if, situation.
“This is a staged rollout,” Allen said via email. “Ultimately, the digital ID will be available for all staff, faculty and students.”
While the timeframe for this development remains uncertain, Rogers said he is hopeful the service will be available for off-campus students in the not-so-distant future.
“What we’re attempting to do a lot of spring semester and this summer is change out the card readers in those academic buildings so that this fall we can potentially roll it out to everybody, assuming we stay on pace,” Rogers said.
Because Baylor ITS has to work alongside multiple partners, like Apple and CBORD Technology, Rogers said next fall is a best-case scenario for when the service can be expected to reach the rest of the Baylor community.
Nonetheless, Rogers said the introduction was a success.
“It was a fairly seamless process,” Rogers said. “We’ve had over 2,500 people sign up and have had a handful of calls.”
The new IDs are also as innovative as they are successful. Rogers said he believed the University of Oklahoma was the only other school in the Big 12 with a similar service.
“We’re always looking to be on the forefront and try new things when it makes sense for our university,” Rogers said.
