A select group of AU students will be testing SmarTrip-compatible AU ID cards in the weeks leading up to spring break to see if the ID cards can be offered to the AU community in the near future.
Student Government President Andy MacCracken recruited 12 AU students, including some members of the SG, for the pilot program to test the functionality of these new ID cards.
MacCracken said the students chosen for the pilot program are ideal participants because most of them live on campus, frequently use their meal plans and use the Metro on a regular basis.
If the current pilot program is successful, the SG will begin a wider test run program with several hundred students after spring break.
The SG does not have a definite date when the SmarTrip-compatible AU ID cards would be available to the wider AU community. MacCracken said he understands that AU students would like to see these cards as soon as possible.
“I imagine students would like to see the new cards integrated in the coming academic year, which is what I’d push for if the pilot programs are successful,” he said.
He also said he hopes the participating students will be able to give him feedback about how the cards work in everyday use.
“The idea is to find the people who will use the card the most in diverse ways to gauge the functionality of the cards,” MacCracken said. “We want to make sure that the day-to-day logistics of having such a card are well known before the integrated card is offered to a broader AU population.”
The idea for SmarTrip-compatible AU ID cards developed over the summer as MacCracken talked to members of the AU administration about the possibility of a Metro discount for students.
Penny Pagano, AU’s director of community and local government relations, and Chad LaDue, the associate director of budget and administration for Housing and Dining Programs, have been working closely with the SG to figure out the logistics of how the SmarTrip-compatible AU IDs would work.
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has also kept in close contact with the SG to ensure that the cards would work on the Metro, according to MacCracken.
MacCracken said he hopes the program will help the SG determine whether or not the cards would be useful to AU students.
“It has yet to be seen whether the program or the card will be successful at AU, but the pilot programs are designed to help us make the best system possible,” he said.
Tammy Zeng, a sophomore in the School of International Service, said she would be willing to use a SmarTrip-compatible AU ID card because traveling on the Metro with one card would be easier than having to use multiple Metro cards and fare cards.
Zeng also noted that a SmarTrip-compatible AU ID card would be easier to recover if she lost it.
“The card would have my name and my school on it, so if I lost it someone could return it to AU — unlike a Metro card, which I would have no way of finding again,” Zeng said.
Kate Drake, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she does not see the advantage of a SmarTrip-compatible AU ID unless the card comes with a Metro discount for AU students.
“It’s not really something I would prefer over a regular AU ID unless AU was giving us the Metro discount that they have been talking about and promising us for so long,” Drake said.
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