“I’m sure this has happened to you; it’s happened to me,” Amber Yanez said with a laugh. “When you’re at a football tailgate and you decide to walk over to the football game with your friends, and then you realize you forgot your ID. That happens to me all the time.”
Yanez, who is running for Texas Tech University Student Government Association internal vice president as part of the campaign bloc OneTech 2015, wants to establish a digital Raider Card system to avoid that situation.
Yanez said the digital identification card would be like a QR code and would work like a digital boarding pass for an airplane flight. She said this would be useful not just for sporting events but also for everyday needs like purchasing lunch on campus.
The digital Raider Card would be available through students’ Raiderlink accounts. Yanez said students would log in and access the QR code, so each person would have an individualized code. She said this would also help to deter students from using another person’s identification card.
Yanez said the idea is feasible, and the group is already working on the process. Charlie Mitchell, SGA presidential candidate, said the group has a meeting with Sam Segran, chief information officer at Texas Tech, to plan the technical aspects of the idea.
“It can be done. It’s just figuring out the logistics of it,” Yanez said, “and of course, we’ll still need physical IDs in case your phone breaks or you lose it. ”
OneTech 2015 would also like to improve the Texas Tech mobile app. The app features maps, campus news and other resources. Mitchell said even though many students use it during their first few weeks at Texas Tech, it is not as utilized as it could be. Yanez said the digital identification cards could be a part of the revised mobile application.
Yanez said the feature would ultimately be beneficial for students.
“Being able to better serve the students when they’re in a bind, just the fact that they’ll be like, ‘Oh, I can do this because of SGA,’ will be huge because we really want to work on showing students that we are here for them, and we do things for them everyday.”
To learn more about Yanez and her plans for SGA, watch Conversations with Candidates.
Although certain Hub staffers may or may not support various campaigns, their views or opinions do not reflect those of The Hub@TTU as a whole. In the interest of fairness, The Hub@TTU will not be endorsing a particular campaign.
About Sarah Self-Walbrick
