Browse archives: 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995

Published on 08/24/1998 All articles from this issue

'Smart Card' to make its high-tech debut at Foothill College this month

printer friendly version

By Linda Taaffe

Town Crier Staff Writer

Foothill College students can expect to carry a computer chip in their pockets this fall as part of the school's new program to track attendance more efficiently.

The Foothill-De Anza Community College District plans to launch a student card with a computer chip that has eight kilobytes of memory to upload and download student information electronically.

Cybermark's "Smart Card" is scheduled to make its debut Sept. 27 at Foothill and in winter 1999 at De Anza College.

The district will be the first in Northern California to use such an electronic card.

School officials describe the card as a "portable filing cabinet," that can contain everything from a student's grades, transcripts and medical history to attendance and financial-aid records.

"This is a real efficient way to improve our recording capabilities and to provide better service to our students," said Will Coursey, district auditor.

Through a "chip-reader" - a device similar to an ATM machine - information can be transferred to or from the card.

Coursey said the district plans to install "hundreds" of these devices on campus to enable officials to track how many students use labs and computers and during what times; monitor access to specific campus areas; track vendor sales on campus; and distribute financial aid to student accounts.

"One of the problems we have now is that a student will apply for financial aid and then need to buy books, but the check won't show up for another four weeks," Chancellor Leo Chavez said.

Chavez said the card will shorten the time from when the district authorizes funds to when students receive funds by eliminating the use of checks and reducing the district's workload.

Chavez said the card could enable the district to increase its state funding.

He said the district receives funds based on attendance, which means the district loses money for every student in the lab that goes unrecorded.

"(The card) will allow us to do a much better job of tracking students," he said.

"Students go into a class now and work at a computer, and unless they sign a paper, we have no way of accounting for their attendance.

"This means we can't bill the state for their use. With this mechanism, they must run a card that records the time they sat down and the time they signed out."

Coursey said the information contained on the card can only be accessed with a personal code.

If the card is lost, officials can destroy the chip code so no one else can use it.

Chavez said the new card could cost about $500,000 to implement in the district and distribute to the approximately 45,000 enrolled students.

Coursey said he expects the program to pay for itself through business partnerships.

He said local businesses will pay the district a commission for students who use the card at their stores.

Students who use the card at the participating stores will be eligible for product discounts, he said.

Coursey said once the card catches on at other educational institutions and businesses, school administrators will be able to transfer student information with the "slide of a card."