At the beginning of the second semester residents at the New Hall were the first people on campus to test out the new digital IDs. Director of Technology Operations Ryan Dorshorst is working on getting every single building on the Crete, Lincoln and Omaha campuses to have digital IDs.
“After seeing places that use phones as keys, we started looking into the solution,” Dorshorst said. “The easiest comparison is Disney. Your phone or watch is used by everyone there, your key, payment method, etc. Students always have their phones with them, IDs and keys are an afterthought.”
Not only did Dorshorst and his team want to make it easier for students, they also thought these scanners would provide a better and safer experience for students. They feel this will increase the number of students who want to come to and stay at Doane.
“This needed to be done as the technology we had was dated, but it was also part of a larger project,” Dorshorst said. “The readers are very similar to what was used on each building before, just with new technology behind them for accepting the mobile credential.”
Dorshorst and his team are also using the same technology for other things such as food service point of sales, door access, mobile credential, ID printing and others in the future. Yet, what if some students’ phones aren’t compatible with the mobile ID? Well, Doane Safety is able to print the student a new plastic ID.
“So far, we have only needed to print three new IDs for students,” Dorshorst said. “The new ID has more security built into the card than the previous solution did.”
Once the entire project is completed, students can throw their old IDs away. So far students are able to get into the residence halls and dining spaces and will soon be able to get into academic and athletic buildings with their digital ID’s. There is no current timeline for when the campus will fully switch to digital ID’s.
