The staff at the Campus ID Office would usually make a physical identification card for new students to carry around with them, but partially due to the pandemic, IDs will now be fully mobile. Marshall is one of two schools in the entire country to go fully with mobile IDs.

Bob Dorado, the campus card manager at the ID Office, said mobile IDs were introduced last year.

“So we had it, and we were kind of rolling it out for people just as a convenience to test the waters and make sure the technology is reliable,” Dorado said.

When the COVID-19 pandemic came around, the staff at the ID Office had to think of ideas to minimize close contact when students would line up to get their IDs before the start of the semester.

Dorado said that by switching to mobile IDs and having students upload the photo themselves, it screated a no-contact process to get the IDs assigned.

“You maintain possession of your phone,” Dorado said. “You’re not passing cards back-and-forth with anyone.”

Dorado said he is excited that Marshall is in the position to be able to do this. 

“For students to be able to not have to come here to stand in line and be able to upload their own photo that we approve of, it makes me real proud of Marshall and where we are at with our technology,” Dorado said.

Gavin Stephens, a freshman music education major, said there are pros and cons of using a mobile ID. 

“Some of the good things are that you don’t have to keep up with an official ID and most college students have a tablet or phone with them,” Stephens said in an email. “Some bad things would have to be losing your phone or someone taking it.”

A helpful thing that mobile IDs can do is when students order a football ticket for any game in the stadium, the ticket is placed on the account and students don’t have to go pick it up.

Jonathan Still can be contacted at [email protected].