New Higher One ID cards intended to function as students’ dorm access swipes have failed to work as expected, resulting in students being locked out of their buildings.

Current and incoming students were all mailed new Higher One cards with two magnetic stripes on the back last semester. Higher One and the Housing department determined that the cards would be used during this new academic year to access the student dorms, taking the place of a separate ID card that had been used in previous years.

Since the beginning of the fall semester, students have been routinely locked out of their dorms due to problems with their cards. Many students were inconvenienced by waiting for someone to let them in or unsafely leaving doors unlocked.

“At night I have to wait a long time for someone to open the door,” junior marketing major Christopher Olsen said.

Due to the switch from the previous building swipe cards to the new Higher One cards, the system had to be updated using the most recently activated Higher One cards. Cards that were not activated until close to the beginning of the semester were not in the system to be programmed. This missing or incorrect data resulted in students being locked out of their dorms.

“Students can activate the One Card online or go to the security office by Gannet House in the Townhouse parking lot to fix the problem,” Director of Safety and Security Vincent Beatty said. “Security is working with Auxiliary Services to fix and coordinate the switch. With both teams working together to fix the situation, the problems facing students trying to enter their dorms should not last much longer.”

In the meantime, the locks at the main entrance to the dorms have been turned off allowing students still facing issues with their swipe cards to enter their building during the day. At night, the locks are turned back on for safety reasons.