Historically, MIT's Personnel Office has produced and distributed MIT employee ID cards. The MIT Card Office, which produces the student ID card, will now produce and distribute the employee ID card as well, according to an announcement from Senior Vice President William R. Dickson.
Beginning this month all new employees will receive the MIT card as their identification card. The process of issuing the new MIT ID card for all employees is ongoing; 4,000 employees already have picture ID cards from the Card Office. A program to replace all old cards will be announced later, Mr. Dickson said.
The purpose of the new MIT card is to enhance the security and privacy of the card holder by issuing a randomized identification number to all employees to replace the present ID number.
The new MIT card has a color picture of the cardholder, an expiration date and a magnetic strip used for student and employee services like parking access, library borrowing, and other auxiliary services.
The Personnel Office will continue to maintain the database of all employees. They will transmit applicable employment information to the Card Office on a regular basis. The Card Office will then update its MIT card database so that only eligible employees will be maintained on the MIT ID Card database.
In response to concerns from the MIT community, a Steering Committee is being formed to address policy and privacy issues that may arise.
Questions on the new ID cards should be forwarded to the MIT Card Office, Rm E32-200, x3-3475, e-mail
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on August 16, 1995.
