Beginning March 1st, 2014, all students and staff at Tennessee State University (TSU) will be required to wear and display traceable identification badges. Students will receive a special lanyard that prominently displays their ID badge.
Anyone found on campus that is not wearing the ID can be compelled to leave. Students might receive judicial punishment for non-compliance and employees can face disciplinary action.
The new policy was announced by the Office of Emergency Management as a response to a wave of recent criminal activity at TSU. There have been numerous cases of vandalism as well as a string of break-ins and destruction of school property.
The idea is that campus security will be able to easily determine if someone is a student, employee or visitor. This should help them identify people on campus that don’t have a legitimate reason to be there. It should also act as a deterrent for those that want to come to the school to vandalize or damage school property.
The ID cards have a proximity chip and a magnetic stripe that will be used to provide access control at university buildings. This gives TSU more control over the resources they are responsible for.
The traceable nature of the ID badges has drawn some concern and created some controversy. Students are concerned about their privacy since TSU will be able to track where they go. Every time an ID card is used at an access point it is recorded by TSU. They can’t track where students are at all the time, but they will have a history of every place they use their ID card at.
The staff and employees at TSU don’t seem concerned about the new ID badges. They support anything that improves the safety of students and employees at the school.
It’s unclear if the new ID badges will stop the break-ins, but it’s certainly clear that it will stop students from being anonymous.