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“What do you think about the Israeli / AUC controversy?” |
Students refrain from making new IDs
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| Gehad Elmor /CARAVAN STAF HIGH TECH ID’S: The new ID’s, right, have electronic strips which are detected as students pass through metal detectors on campus. |
Approximately 25 percent of the students at the American
University in Cairo (AUC) have not yet had their new—-and required—-electronic
identification card (ID) made, said Lamia Eid, director of the AUC library’s
external relations.
“The other cards were old technolog; the new ones are new, expensive,
and sophisticated ID cards,” said Eid.
At the beginning of this semester, students were urged to hand in their
old AUC ID cards and replace them with the newer, more advanced ID cards.
The new ID cards are fitted with an electronic strip, which will be detected
by the sensors when students go through the new electronic gates.
Announcements, urging students to change their cards were sent out on
emails and posted on WebCT, but some students still say they have not
heard about the change. Nearly 75% of students at AUC have made their
new ID’s, said Eid. Students who have not yet gotten them have a
variety of reasons:
“I had no idea we had to issue a new ID. I just heard my friends
talking recently. I will issue the new one soon,” said Mahmoud Ramadan,
an undeclared sophomore.
Amr El Kafrawy, a business administration senior, wanted to keep his old
ID card since he is graduating soon. He believes that the new ID will
not be of use to him. “When I look back, this [my current ID] will
be one of my memories, [one of] my prize possessions. Even though I understand
the university’s policy of unifying all ID’s, I would just
be wasting time in a long queue, and not gain anything,” he said.
New ID’s will be necessary to access the current library on the
Tahrir campus beginning this January, when the library will set-up the
new electronic gates in order to get the AUC community used to them, as
well as force those who don’t have new ID’s to get them before
the move to the new campus, said Lesley Tweddle, associate dean for the
main library administration and director of technical services.
“We will install new entrance gates in the library starting early
2008 on this campus and these gates can specify whether a person carries
a valid AUC ID,” Eid added.
Tweddle said that students who have not gotten the new ID card by January
will have to go through more rigorous procedures before entering the library
as they will be stopped and their ID card will have to be read by a card
reader.
“It will be more troublesome for them,” she said, adding that
“students who have not gotten them until now are saying; why should
we?” But with the new gates installed on the library semsprs, students
will feel compelled to change their ID cards, she added.
All AUC full-time faculty, staff, undergraduate and graduate students
who have not gotten their new cards will need to obtain the new university
ID before the end of 2007, said Eid.
Card replacement will continue to take place in the ID unit on the ground
floor of the Main Library Building during November and December. Students
will need to hand in their existing AUC ID cards in order to receive the
new ones. Issuing the new ID for the first time will be free of charge.
