Students who paid their fees on Monday or Tuesday of this week may have experienced problems using BuckIDs in computer labs.
The problem was discovered after a student called in a complaint.
“We had a student come in early Wednesday morning. He was complaining that his card wasn’t working in the lab. We looked at the account, and saw there was a reset on his card relocation,” said Sara Neer, manager of BuckID card services.
If students paid their fees at the beginning of the week, the BuckID cards were automatically reset from $10 to 25 cents. Once the computer updates who has paid fees, the computer then credits the student with $10 for lab use.
“It really didn’t have anything to do with a student paying fees late; it’s just a glitch in the program,” said Valerie Shafer, director of Student Affairs Information Technology. “This program is fixed. It should never happen again.”
The problem was fixed by Wednesday afternoon after receiving a complaint. Neer informed her student workers to forward all inquiries regarding BuckIDs to her office.
Neer said she believes there weren’t many people printing in the labs during the first week, so no other calls were received.
“I equated it with the fact that people realized it was a programming problem. If everyone had to run out and print their syllabi, we probably would have heard more complaints,” Neer said.
Neer has been working with the university for less than a year and has been impressed with fellow staff members.
Once we find the problem we fix it really quickly,” Neer said. “There are some very dedicated people working for BuckID.”
While few students called to complain about the program error, most rely upon their BuckIDs for printing in the labs, entering dorms and getting discounts at certain stores.
BuckIDs have been used in the computer labs for the past two quarters.
“The way they have it set up, it’s pretty user-friendly. I haven’t had any problems,” said Taghreed As-Sanie, a sophomore in chemistry.
