Although university officials are set to begin re-encoding all student IDs today, some students remained unclear about where to go for re-encodement or what it is for.

Officials announced this week that students can go to four campus re-encodement stations over the next two weeks for 4 1/2 hours each day where personnel would remove vulnerable personal information from their student ID cards.

University Spokesman Millree Williams said the registrar’s office will be working to get the word out this week and information about the re-encoding has been sent to student groups, advertised in The Diamondback, and e-mailed over campus listservs.

Yet the draft of a document that Williams said would be sent out to students referred them to the Diamondback ad to find the re-encoding stations and did not provide the schedule in the draft.

Multiple students interviewed Friday were unaware of the re-encoding schedule, and did not know any card that hasn’t been re-encoded by October will stop working.

Heather Gunther, a junior studying to be a nurse, said she remembered getting an e-mail about the ID cards last semester, but did not know about the current security problems. Gunther said she assumed the problem had been worked out when new cards were issued in May. “I thought that whole process had to do with security,” she said.

Students living in dorms where the re-encoding has been tested and students in the University Honors Program received e-mails about where and when to get their cards re-encoded, but most have not been contacted directly.

“I was totally unaware,” said Melissa Hooyman, a Japanese language major who lives off campus.

Testing of the re-encoding process began two weeks ago and had gone smoothly, said Williams. “We don’t anticipate any problems next week,” he said.

Those who need IDs to enter dorms and use meal points will have their cards processed first, followed by those who live off campus and don’t have Terrapin Express. The re-encoded cards should start working within a matter of minutes, the draft Williams provided said. According to the ad, re-encoding stations will be open during lunch and dinner times in North and South Campus locations.

The new security measures come in response to the findings of a group of students who discovered that with as little as $20 worth of equipment, student ID numbers could be lifted from swipe machines after cards passed through them.

Though an improvement over the old cards, which carried sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, the cards issued in May still contain university ID numbers, which can be used to make purchases with Terrapin Express or access student account information.

University officials stressed that no security breach prompted the new measures, which were a preemptive step to keep student information secure.

Williams also was unable to answer questions about how much the new security measures will cost and multiple calls to Registrar David Robb, a coordinator of the effort, went unreturned this week and Robb hung up on a reporter over the weekend.

WHERE TO GET CARDS RE-ENCODED

Sept. 18-21

(MON.-THUR.)

– South Campus Dining Hall

(11:30am-1:30pm)

– Ellicott Diner

(4:30pm-7pm)

Sept. 21-24

(MON.-THUR.)

– The Commons Shop

(11:30am-1:30pm)

– Campus Recreation Center

(4:30pm-7pm)

IN ADDITION

– Registrar’s Office Service Desk,

first floor of the Mitchell Building

(Monday – Friday 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.)

Contact reporter Andrew Vanacore at vanacoredbk@gmail.com.