[2111] in APO News
standing policy on MIT Card
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Richard J. Barbalace)
Wed Oct 9 11:05:27 1996
To: apo-news@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 09 Oct 1996 11:01:26 EDT
From: "Richard J. Barbalace" <rjbarbal@MIT.EDU>
Hi.
So, I was going to present a standing policy on the MIT Card at the
last chapter meeting, but I had an exam review. Since there is plenty
of time before the next chapter meeting, I'm going to post what I
currently have as a proposal and ask for feedback on it. Please send
comments to me only. Below is the proposal and reasons for it.
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Collateral
Move that it shall be the standing policy of the Alpha Chi Chapter of
Alpha Phi Omega that no form of identification, including the MIT Card
or any driver's license, be held in collateral for tools or supplies
checked out from the Chapter; such identification may be used,
however, to verify an individual's contact information.
Respectfully submitted by Richard J. Barbalace.
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Reasons not to use the MIT Card (or other collateral in general):
1) Students need the MIT Card. We should not inconvenience students
which would happen if the office were closed when they tried to
return drop poster supplies, or were unable to get lunch/dinner
when supplies are checked out, etc.
2) Holding collateral has historically failed. We used to (still do?)
have IDs, drivers licenses, etc. from years (decades?) ago.
Granted, most people will want their MIT Card back now that it
is so inconveniencing, but other forms of collateral will likely
be forgotten.
3) Holding collateral accomplishes little. If you assume the purpose
of collateral is to remind the forgetful borrower to return
supplies, then the borrow is still as likely to forget (and will
simply be more inconvenienced until he/she remembers to return
the supplies). If you assume the purpose of collateral is to
prevent borrowers from stealing supplies, then no form of
collateral will succeed.
4) MIT students should not give their MIT Card to anyone else.
Because the cards can function as keys and as money, giving
cards to student activities, dorm desks, etc, is a security
risk to the student. We should not encourage students to put
themselves at risk nor downplay the importance of maintaining
the security of the card.
5) We do not want to be held accountable if something happens to the
card (lost, magnetic strip scratched or demagnetized, etc.)
while holding it.
6) Holding collateral is not necessary. If someone does not return
supplies, we just want to get the supplies back. As such, we
should use some form of ID to check who they are when they
check out supplies, and get complete contact information; then
if they do not return the supplies, we can remind them. "We
know where you live, and we still have the sledgehammers you
didn't borrow." (There may be a way for us to bill a
student's account if they are really negligent, but someone
with more time would have to look into this.)
A contact form already exists for drop poster supplies. I can draw up
a standard form for checking out tools or other supplies; the current
sheets on the door are not good for keeping track of supplies and I
doubt anyone checks up on them regularly.
YiLFS,
+ Richard
