THURSDAY, JANUARY 23. 2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN =7A
2.
Your KUID card is for use, not abuse
Editor's note: Once a week, Kansan reporter Nicole Roché will investigate a student consumer issue. Look for her column in every Thursday's Kansan.
For students with KUIDs on their last leg, the glue and tape may not hold up forever.
COMMON CENTS
The KUID Web site, www.ku.edu/~kucard, tells students to bring in damaged or broken cards so they can be destroyed properly and put out of their misery.
But students are completely capable of destroying the KUIDs on their own. Students' KUIDs have been taped, glued, faded from repeated washings, split in half, cracked and bleeding.
Mary Ann Graham, manager at the KU Card Center, said students could try to repair their KUIDs, but it usually wasn't a good idea.
"If you tape the card and then try to swipe it, a machine can't read it," she said.
Nicole Roché
nroche@kansan.com
Students without functioning KUIDs miss campus discounts and end up paying for $1 Cokes and 10 cent copies. It might also mean bribing a freshman with a shiny new ID to open up the student readership bin.
Nancy Miles, KU Card Program Coordinator, said the gold chip had caused KUIDs to fall apart because it had loosened the adhesive. In the next two weeks the smart chip readers on campus will be replaced with magnetic stripe readers.
Though the KU Card Center will replace KUIDs that have fallen apart because of the gold chip, it will not pay for cards that have been misused.
Any card that has been a victim of abuse will be replaced for a $15 fee, Miles said.
She said bite marks on the magnetic stripe were always an indicator the card had been abused.
Graham said employees would ask students whether the card had been properly cared for.
"We ask, 'Where do you keep your card?'" Graham said. "In your wallet or on the floor of your car?"
KUIDs often crack down the middle, she said, because students put the card in their back pocket and it bends.
Graham said the best way to keep a KUID intact was to store it in the plastic sleeve it originally comes in. Students can get new sleeves for free at the KU Card Center on the fourth floor of the Kansas Union.
Gluing a KUID might put it in one piece again, but it won't guarantee the chip will work. It seems
the smart chip, which was so technologically fascinating five years ago, could now be better described as the stupid chip.
Why is it, students ask, when a Coca-Cola costs 85 cents with my KUID discount and I put in my card that has 90 cents on it, the reader says I don't have enough money on the card?
Miles said the reader looked for the highest price item in the machine, and because it doesn't know which item you're going to purchase, it won't work unless you have at least that amount on the card.
But doesn't it realize you are using your card, thus making you eligible for the 15 percent discount?
"You would think it would be smart enough to realize that," Miles said.
One would think.
Roché is a Wichita senior in journalism
KUIDs
got thrown around a lot."
Mary Ann Graham, manager at the KU Card Center, said KUIDs that separated from front to back were replaced for free. Cards that crack down the center were another problem.
"Mainly those cracks are caused by something the student has done," Graham said. "Say they used their card to scrape ice or something."
Graham said she had seen few problems involving the magnetic stripe on the card.
Card Center employees have posted signs on all cash-to-card
machines on campus advising students not to put more money on their cards than they can spend in the next two weeks.
Students will have the opportunity to transfer any unused money from the smart chip to the new online account by visiting the Card Center on the fourth
floor of the Kansas Union. Miles said an e-mail would be sent to students explaining when this transfer could be done.
"Even if it's 5 cents and they want to transfer it," Miles said, "they can bring the card into the Card Center and we'll do it."
— Edited by Melissa Hermreck
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
Iraq
arrived in Iraq. Harding said 400 people died in the bomb shelter and that seeing the remains of the shelter and thinking of how many lives were lost gave him a perspective into the effects of war on citizens. Harding said he was disappointed in the media coverage on the effects of the Gulf War.
"Most media coverage is desensitized and depersonal-
ized," Harding said, "The media does not show what the sanctions have done and usually doesn't focus on the people, the lives at stake, and what war means to civilians."
The sanctions and lingering effects of the Gulf War make life difficult for the Iraqi people, but Harding said that the city of Baghdad was still vibrant.
Harding said the Iraqi people he spoke with had good things to say about the U. S. and the American people.
"There was a great love for the United States and Americans," Harding said, "People were warm and curious about what we were doing."
Harding said he felt like his trip to Iraq was a success and that going to Iraq, seeing the way the Iraqis lived and talking with the professors at Baghdad University gave him a better understanding and more credibility.
Ed Scanlon, assistant professor
"There are a lot of peace activists, but few have been to Iraq," Scanlon said, "There is a lot of interest in Lawrence and Kansas City to hear about Scott's experience. He will bring us a perspective of daily life for the Iraqis and how the sanctions have affected them in the last 10 years."
of social welfare, said he thought Harding's trip to Iraq was a unique experience for a peace activist.
Edited by Andrew Ward
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IS GOD CALLING YOU AND GETTING A BUSY SIGNAL?
Then again maybe it has. Maybe you're one of the rare women who are being called by God to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. And if you'd only take a moment to really listen to your inner voice God will get through.
In today's world, it's so easy to lose sight of why we're really here. So perhaps the thought of devoting your entire life to God has never crossed your mind.
We are the Sisters of St. Joseph, an international order with roots right here in Wichita. And we invite you to come live a life of holiness, in a community where we strive for unity and reconciliation among all people with God and with one another. Ours is a community of prayer and service. Our dedication to God motivates us and is the source of joy for all that we do.
If so, you owe it to yourself to answer God's call. To learn more about The Sisters of St. Joseph, call or visit us online. You'll be eternally grateful you did.
But how can you know if you truly have been called? Do you feel a longing for more in your life? Do you feel a void in your heart? Do you radiate joy! Does love pour out of your smile and do you long to follow Jesus?
STUDENT BY DAY. CORRESPONDENT BY NIGHT.
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