It’s 10 p.m. I just got back to my single in Ibis from my 10 p.m. class. I finally get to shower in our communal showers after an exhausting day of classes, until I realize that I left my Cane Card locked inside my room.
Now, not only do I have to go back downstairs in my towel and embarrassingly ask for a temp card, but I also have to pay for it.
Unfortunately, this has been a reality for me one too many times, and I hope I’m not the only one.
With on-campus housing ranging from $10,000 to $18,000, students should not be charged for the use of temp cards. The University should cut students some slack and not charge for every time they accidentally lock themselves out of their room.
Yes, it’s true that having some kind of fee or “punishment” for forgetting your card might prevent students from making the mistake as often, but the school doesn’t benefit from charging $25 every single time.
“The charge accounts for the administrative work that the process of managing the temporary card process requires,” the University of Miami said in a statement to The Hurricane.
This policy was just introduced last year, so why now start charging students? Was there no need to do so before? Looking up someone’s name and C number and handing them a temp card isn’t difficult, which leaves the reasoning behind charging students unclear.
“It happens to everybody, even I have locked myself out,” said Morgan Parodi, a Residential Assistant in Lakeside village. “The main thing that residents complain about is ‘Why are we [getting charged]? I literally know where my Cane Card is, it’s in my room.’”
Cane Cards are tedious to constantly carry around, so it’s easy to leave them behind if you’re exhausted, in a rush or just multitasking.
At Florida State University, University of Florida and several other colleges, students are able to have their IDs on their Apple Wallet. While a Cane Card is easily forgettable, almost every screen-addicted college student has their phone on them at all times.
Providing students with a digital ID would make it easier for students so they don’t get locked out or have to constantly pay fees for a simple mistake, and the desk assistants who are probably tired of their residents walking down to get a temp card — while still in their towels.
Especially for students who live in a single, it can happen twice as much since they don’t have a roommate who can come to their rescue or suitemates to let them in.
“It’s really unfair as a student who lives alone, especially coming back from a night out and realizing that my Cane Card was in my dorm the entire time,” a sophomore in Lakeside who wished not to be named said. “Because I have no roommates, I had to walk from Lobby C all the way to Lobby A for a temp card, just to walk all the way back after and be charged a fee. ”
It’s time we’re forgiven for our mistakes instead of paying. It’s bad enough to make the walk of shame to the lobby, but to be charged an extra fee for an honest mistake is too much. I don’t want to have to watch the money from my savings account drain every time I see the door close with my Cane Card left on the desk.