Penn State set to issue Greek IDs

[hoosier]

Penn State set to issue Greek IDs to fraternity and sorority members
Friday, January 28 2005
by Lauren Lowrey, Contributing Editor

College and university ID card programs are used to secure access to dorms and buildings, as banking vehicles for students … even to enable discounts at the local movie theatre. Imagine if the same program was made available for students in fraternities and sororities. The Office of Greek Life at Pennsylvania State University is working with the campus card office to make this a reality for Greek students for Fall 2005.
Pennsylvania State University has a large Greek community with 95 national and local chapters represented. The Greek ID card program is planned to help monitor the almost 5,000 Greek students. The need for such a system catered specifically to Greeks came from the desire to control attendance at all-Greek events.
The current event attendance system is paper-based with the named organization at the top of each page and numbered lines for attendee’s signatures. Though simplistic, the method inaccurate and non-electronic – and thus not capable of generating reports. An independent student could sign in under the name of another member student if checking the ID is not required. And there is virtually no means to discern anything relevant from the collected lists. This problem is what the Office of Greek Life and its four main chapter councils are trying to combat.
With the new Greek IDs, fraternity and sorority members will not only be identified as Penn State students but also as members of their respective chapters. The plan for the cards is to retain the Penn State colors, yet have information pertinent to Greek students: name, affiliation, birth date, initiation date, and expected graduation date.
The current plan is to have the PSU campus card office produce the IDs for the Office of Greek Life. A fee of $2.30 per card is anticipated from the card office with the cost to be incurred by each chapter member who will pay an extra $3 in dues. Once a new member is initiated into the organization, he or she will receive the GreekID with their name, affiliation, etc. However, the Greek Life Office and the Card Office have not decided upon a method for cancelling a card when a member drops from the organization without graduating.
Jared Brown, the Assistant Director for Greek Life at Penn State, said that until they decide to utilize the magnetic stripe (or other technology), they will “provide a paper list of all active card holders” to double-check that the person who is on the card is still an active member of the Greek organization. The cards, for now, will serve as a “flash badge” until the begin using hand-held card readers.
This Greek ID venture may lay the groundwork for more applications at PSU and on campuses around the country. The presence of a card with a magnetic stripe, barcode, or contactless chip could open up new possibilities for all of users. This card could be the first step towards card readers at fraternity and sorority parking lot entrances, buildings, and meeting locations. It could serve as an attendance tracking tool enabling members to manually swipe their card before the meeting began. And it could develop into a Greek-only discount card at local merchants.
As more accountability and security is required of and desired by campus organizations including fraternities and sororities, the opportunities for the utilization of card technology increases. And the campus card offices are in a unique position to understand both the needs of the campus organizations and the capabilities of advanced ID technology. We will keep an eye on the PSU Greek ID program as it continues to develop.

[sageofages]

This is an interesting idea.

Would it eventually be translated to sports teams, other organizations, departmental uses etc?

[PSUSigKap]

they've been talking about doing this for a couple years. i know there have been problems with various people not in the greek system crashing parties and causing trouble for various organizations.

it's good to see that it's being implemented. i just wish it had happened before i graduated!

[Firehouse]

Why do I feel a chill after reading this? "I'm from the administration and I'm here to help you and your fraternity. Show me your electronic cards..."

[James]

Why not just put little yellow stars on their chests? Or tatoo their student ID number to their wrist?

Wow, the world has gone crazy when a student editor thinks tagging students is a good idea.

Also, how much inforamtion needs to be on there? Name, greek affiliation, graduation date, address, birth date, student number . . . . underwear size . . . bank account information . . . sheez.

I can't believe the problem of tracking which members are showing up to a community service project or workshop is so vital to solve that it requires this kind of draconian measure.

Especially because the tracking is just for some arcane score the administration is using as part of its effort to grade greeks on their ability to conform to whatever the administration sees as their role on campus.

[lifesaver]

The card is nothing more than a tool for the university to see who was at a party if there was trouble. They can generate a list and investigate from there. The other things mentioned; generating tracking lists for community service projects and discount cards are just to sell it to the general greek population.

[PSUSigKap]

i know when it first was being discussed, it was actually brought up and was being pushed for by the greek community.

the social policy for sororities had been changed in 2000, and this was one of the options brought up to help with various changes in the policy.

[Firehouse]

James is right. Here's the test: what will the administration do to any fraternity that says no thank you? Here's what they will do: they will quietly intimidate the IFC in order to get them to punish the errant fraternity for "not loving Big Brother". The U. knows it can't impose its will legally, so they push their flacks to do the dirty work ("Oh, it wasn't us. The students decided to do it to themselves!").
When the income tax was proposed back in the early 20th Century the plan was to charge only 1% of income. Some Congressmen inflammed the debate by suggesting that once the government got its foot in the door, the rate might eventually rise as high as 10%!
Right now, the magnetic cards are being pushed as a tool to help the Greeks. All we want is your name. Maybe your social security number. Certainly your DOB and phone & address, but no one will have access to that. No one will ever demand a list of members & guests who were at your party after the fact. No one would ever misuse this electronic dog collar to control the life and the activities of your organization. Never. Promise. By the way, you need to increase the recorded percentage of your membership that attends the mandatory diversity lectures, and we're going to require more community servitude hours; we know who's there and who's not. We don't want to control your lives...NO! We're here only to help you.

[roqueemae]

Originally posted by Firehouse
James is right. Here's the test: what will the administration do to any fraternity that says no thank you? Here's what they will do: they will quietly intimidate the IFC in order to get them to punish the errant fraternity for "not loving Big Brother". The U. knows it can't impose its will legally, so they push their flacks to do the dirty work ("Oh, it wasn't us. The students decided to do it to themselves!").
When the income tax was proposed back in the early 20th Century the plan was to charge only 1% of income. Some Congressmen inflammed the debate by suggesting that once the government got its foot in the door, the rate might eventually rise as high as 10%!
Right now, the magnetic cards are being pushed as a tool to help the Greeks. All we want is your name. Maybe your social security number. Certainly your DOB and phone & address, but no one will have access to that. No one will ever demand a list of members & guests who were at your party after the fact. No one would ever misuse this electronic dog collar to control the life and the activities of your organization. Never. Promise. By the way, you need to increase the recorded percentage of your membership that attends the mandatory diversity lectures, and we're going to require more community servitude hours; we know who's there and who's not. We don't want to control your lives...NO! We're here only to help you.

[ECUJacob]

My university already requires that students cary a "OneCard". It has our picture and full name on the front. one stripe on the back manages our meal plan, the other stripe manages our university account (copy machines, vending machines, etc). It wouldn't be a big stretch for them to include our group affiliation onto one of those strips for identification. But then again, my U (22,000+ students) is only 8% Greek.

[James]

ITs been my experience that people in the administration have enormous influence over student leaders. Especally student government and members of IFC, NPC, and Greek Council umbrella organizations.

When you say the "Greek Community" brought up something and pushed for it, I understand what you are saying, but it the grek community didn't wake up one morning and spontaneously think this was a good idea.

Generally these ideas evolve with some one on one conversations between an admnistrator and a student leader and then finds itself stroked through an umbrella group meeting.

Originally posted by PSUSigKap
i know when it first was being discussed, it was actually brought up and was being pushed for by the greek community.

the social policy for sororities had been changed in 2000, and this was one of the options brought up to help with various changes in the policy.

[IowaStatePhiPsi]

Our ISUcards have a magnetic strip that ties you in to a database.
Going to the Rec? slide your card through at the front desk. Keeps out those who have cards but are not attending the university.
Going to the dinning hall? slide your card through to recognize you have either a meal plan or dinning dollars.
Stopping in at one of the coffee shops on campus? slide your card through to have it charged to your U-Bill.

All we need to do is tie you in to a database that shows your Greek affiliation and we can do the same thing here at Iowa State- without needing special cards just for the Greek Community.

[KillarneyRose]

I've always wondered why Penn State treats its greeks like contributing members of the community and, just two hours west in PA's other state-related school, Pitt treats them like its dirty little secret.

[33girl]

It's Mayor Murphy's fault. Everything bad that has ever happened in the "city under siege" (tm Fox News) is Mayor Murphy's fault.

Considering how many fraternities there are at Penn State - and more important, the giant number of random people (many of whom are not the brightest) who aren't students coming from every podunk in a 2 hour radius to party there - I don't blame them for wanting this. Joe Shmoe the redneck from Port Matilda shows up and gets anywhere near a fraternity house, the fraternity gets sued.

I know what James and Firehouse are talking about and understand why they're kinda squicked out, but I can't imagine what it would be like in this day and age to be able to throw a party there and actually be able to have fun and relax.

[roqueemae]

Would they allow guest passes?