The Michigan Daily-Friday, September 10, 1982-Page 25
University to switch
to bar coded ID cards
By CHARLES THOMSON
Before the year is over, University students will no longer
have to complain that they feel like numbers. A change in
identification cards will let them feel instead like bar codes
- the kind already found on everything from cereal boxes to
album covers. I
;A new University library computer system will use bar
cddes instead of the holes punched in current ID cards to
checking out materials. The switch has prompted a commit-
to look at the possibility of adding photographs to the car-
Malso.
PEVE-RAL departments, including recreational sports and
the'safety department, have been pressing for picture IDs,
a&ording to members of the committee. Because the
University has to modify the cards to work with the new
library computer, explained chairman Samuel Plice, this
may be a convenient time to add photos.
Plice, University's director of administrative systems and
firancial analysis, said the change is "not a foregoie con-
clo!ion, by any means." Administrators will not decide;
whether to use photos on the cards for at least a month, when
the committee finishes its report.
the main question about the cards, according to Plice, is
4 cost. "Obviously, it's more expensive to have an ID card
with a picture than without," he said.
JAMES THOMSON, a member of the committee and
manager of the University's student data system, said early
estimates indicate the cost of an individual card would triple
fron roughly 50 cents to $1.50. The actual cost of the
photograph for a card is somewhere between 50 and 60 cents,
he said, but other costs would push the price un.
Several University departments, including the Medical
School, the Law School, and the Housing Division, already
issue photo IDs. If all students had them, Thomson said,
these areas would no longer face the expense of providing
separate cards
"Right now, one of the big games around is to steal studen-
ts' identification cards and then use them to gain access to
one of our facilities," said Recreational Sports Director Mike
Stevenson. The impersonation game is unfair to students, he
said, and is causing a "fairly large theft problem" within the
University's recreation buildings.
WALT STEVENS, director of the Safety Department, said
a picture ID would also help fight trespassing by non-
students in University buildings.
Plice said his committee will present its findings to the
University executive officers, who will decide whether to
switch to a new card or simply to add a bar code sticker to the
current card. Details will have to be worked out after his
committee makes its report, he said.
Plice discounted concerns that a picture ID might be an in-
vasion of privacy.
"I WOULD suppose there are some people who would like
to remain anonymous," he said. "But there's a difference
between privacy and anonymity. In a public institution, I
don't know if you can have anonymity."
Stevenson said he has had no complaints about photo ID
cards already issued. "I've heard there's some question that
this is an invasion of their civil liberties," he said. "Why they
think that, I don't know. . . To my knowledge, we've never
had a non-student refuse to purchase a user's pass (which
requires a Recreational Sports photo ID card), and we've
issued upwards of 25,000 of them."
Doily Photo by BRIAN MASCK
Speaker of the House Thomas (Tip) O'Neill is presented a T-shirt during his visit to an Ann Arbor high technology firm
yesterday. O'Neill toured KMS Fusion along with a Congressional delegation and University President Harold Shapiro
to explore the energy options fusion power offers.
'Workers
suspect
scam in
store sale
(Continued from Page 22)
approved.
The NLRB,-as its final authority, can
force Apex to reinstate the union. If ap-
pealed, one board lawyer said the case
was important to reach the U.S.
'Supreme Court.
THE UNITED Food and Commercial
orkers Union Local 876 is pushing for
the rehiring of all the fired Cun-
ningham's employees, according to
Union President Horace Brown.
"We think it's an alter ego situation.
One in the same (Cunningham's and
Apex). It's a ,rose of a different. color,
but it's still a rose," Brown said.
To substantiate its claims, the union
points to Cunningham's price tags on all
products and the abundance of Cun-
=gham's brand products on the stores
Welves; a characteristic atypical of a
change in ownership, said Gerry Om-
stead, a union business representative.
USUALLY, A new owner will attempt
to sell all the previous owner's products
in a quick sale in addition to remodeling
the store for its own distinctive look,
Omstead explained.
So far business at the four Ann Arbor
stores at Westgate, Georgetown,
Symouth, and Arborland Malls has
been sparce, union officials said. The
pickets, Brown said, have scared away
a lot of potential customers.
Devine denied any adverse effects on
business.
SOME OF THE store's older
customers complained about the new
service at the Westgate Apex store,
claiming that the sales help was inex-
erienced and inefficient.
Cunningham's paid a maximum
wage of $6.00 per hour to its employees.
Apex now pays its workers a $4.00
magimum per hour salary, according
to Pat Armbruster, former employee at
the Westgate store.
Armbruster also said most Apex em-
ployees only work 20. hours a week,
making them cheap part-time em-
Lloyees, while Cunningham's em-
yees worked 40 hours a week for
higher wages.
Until the NLRB hands down its
decision, the fired employees will con-
tinue to receive unemployment com-
pensation. A few non-union employees
were rehired, but they received only
part-time positions.
'The verv best Porn Film ever made"
Al Goldstein
,;r/
s
BUT YOUCANGET
Stein & Goetz
Ann Arbor, M3.
Black Burns Sporting Goods
Detroit, M1.
Kingsway Shoes
Action Sports
Jackson, Ml.
Maumu Sporting Goods
Adrian, Mi.
Sileley's Shoe Stores
Jack Pearl's Sports Center Sports Arama
Battle Creek, MI. Sturgis, Ml.
Sneakers 'n' Cleats
Southfield, M1,
Superior Sports
Phillip's Shoe Stores
All Locations
Greater Detroit, Ml.
I