Section: Metro State News
College weighing multi-use student identification and debit card
Jun 17, 2009

Starting in the fall, students may be able to utilize one piece of plastic for both campus ID and banking.

A committee has been working since early 2008 on the issues associated with a Metro State ID/debit card. Its chair, Associate Vice President of Administration and Finance George Middlemist, says the card would have three primary goals: furthering the ongoing branding efforts underway at the College, building more bridges with the Denver business community through marketing partnerships using the card, and making the financial aid process more efficient.

“Instead of having to issue a check for financial aid, which students sometimes lose, the College could just put the financial aid directly in the student’s account, and the student could immediately access it with his or her card,” Middlemist says.

The card would act as both campus identification and an ATM/debit card, if the student signs up for a US Bank student checking account.

The committee spent its first few months writing a Request for Proposals for such a card, and in June 2008 selected US Bank to be the vendor. Since then, the committee has been working with US Bank to finalize the contract, determining necessary technical preparations, and working with student government and Student Services to determine the best policies for administering the card. The “final hurdle,” according to Middlemist, is working with the Auraria Higher Education Center to determine possible placement for ATM machines.

Middlemist says the committee is hoping to have the card available by mid-September.

In addition to Middlemist, the committee members are:

Denny Boyd, New Student Orientation
Steve Breeding, Information Technology
Dave Caldwell, Auraria Higher Education Center
Brooke Dilling, Student Activities
CJ Garbo, Student Government
Cindy Hejl, Financial Aid
Liza Larsen, Accounting Services
Christina Nguyen, Student Accounts
Julie Strasheim, College Communications