The Terrier Card will be getting a facelift this fall, as Boston University moves to update the card’s decade-old design to meet new branding and logo standards that effectively render all current identification cards out of date, a Housing official said.
The Terrier Card’s new look will reflect changes to the branding program meant to symbolize institutional unity, and is the first major redesign since 1997, Housing Director Marc Robillard said.
The redesigned card will feature the updated BU master logo, a red rectangle with the university name and no horizontal hairline, and a grayscale landscape of the campus as seen from the Charles River, Robillard said. The card’s backside will contain a smaller, square BU logo that will replace the circular logo featuring Rhett.
“At this point, the change is strictly cosmetic,” he said.
The Office of Housing controls the Terrier Card Office because identification cards were originally issued to streamline the dining system, which Housing operates, Robillard said.
“Traditionally, the identification proving you were a student was a purview of the Office of the Registrar,” he said. “Then in the 1970s, computers began having more applications. The first real application that saved the university money was in the dining plans.”
The previous dining system employed paper meal tickets, which were difficult to track and inefficient, he said.
“There were a lot more meals eaten than were paid for,” he said.
Robillard said the change will not come at an extra cost to students because the new cards have to be made for incoming students anyway, and the change is not costing the university any more for card production.
“What we want to do is start with the new freshman class, and we will start issuing the cards at orientation,” he said. “We won’t require people to come get a new card. Of course, if you really want, you’re welcome to pay the $30 and be issued a new one.”
College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Tim Vlieger said he is content with the current look of the card.
“If I have to pay $30 to get a new one, no way,” he said. “If they don’t make it mandatory, I won’t get a new one.”
Other students were more critical of the change, wondering about the necessity of it and its effect on campus unity.
“I think it’s cool that we’re getting new cards, but it’s messed up that they won’t give them to the entire community because it will be weird having different cards,” CAS sophomore Alex Goldschmidt said. “Why update the image of the university if half the campus will have the old look, too?”
“It’s a nice change, but I don’t know why we would need it,” CAS junior Casey Cuayo said.
The card, which is standard-issue for everyone at BU, contains each individual’s nine-character ID number. Each ID number is used for all on-campus and university identification, including class registration, housing arrangements and dining plans, according to the Terrier Card Office website.