Technologically-advanced changes are afoot for CUID holders and their card-swiping security guards. A new scanning system, (in which instead of a swipe, the security guard “hovers” the ID over a card-reading machine) is already in place in many of the libraries, and heading to Butler imminently.

John Jay residents also may have noticed the phasing-out of the swipe. Recalls one such resident, “I noticed this morning that the student swiping cards in at the security desk had not been taking IDs but just looking at the IDs and letting students through.” Reports are circulating of a small (seemingly inactivated) machine sitting on the security desk in Jay—perhaps a tool of this new-fangled Hovercraft Access?

The Hovercraft was installed in Claremont last night and is already in place in Woodbridge and naturally already causing problems. “It’s actually a problem because it doesn’t work and you need to swipe (now scan, I guess) to even get in the building.”

Meanwhile, one Barnard student reports that when her ID was accidentally swiped by a Claremont security guard, she gained swipe/hover access to all of the Columbia dorms. “I hope I have SIPA access, too,” she said.

SIPA access: the Great Columbian Dream.

– JNW