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By Harlee Hunsaker
The first stop every incoming freshman makes on campus is the BYU Identification Center. BYU requires every student to have an ID card for functions such as door access and Cougar Cash. However, the Identification Center is making some important changes to the way it issues identity cards.
“This is a super exciting change that we initiated just before COVID hit in an interesting way,†said Elaine Laurizine. Laurizine is the Managing Director of HR and Support in the IT Office, so she works directly with the ID Center.
“We wanted to try to reduce the time people spend trying to get their ID cards,†Laurizine said.
Instead of taking ID photos in the center, they now ask students and faculty to submit their photo through the ID center website. However, the photo submitted must still meet BYU dress and grooming standards. These standards are found in BYU policies and the BYU Honor Code requires students to follow them.
“Sometimes with clothes, piercings or hair it can be a little more personal or sensitive,†said Gabby Aros, ID Center employee.
“We are one of the only centers to enforce dress and grooming standards and it can be difficult because students do not call it back very often,” said Gabrielle Orndorff, employee of the identification center. “But generally people are really nice about it.”
For Aros and Orndorff as employees, it’s their job to approve or deny photos sent if they don’t meet BYU’s dress and grooming standards. Once the photo has been validated online, the student must still come to the center to print and activate it.
However, that could also change. “This is a direction we would like to take. Get everything digital, â€Laurizine said. But for now, students like Aros and Orndorff will help students with the process.
Aros says they have to refuse a photo ID about 5 to 10 times a week because a student does not meet dress and grooming standards. So, if it’s time for you to renew your ID card, review the standards and then submit a photo online.
