One of the few 24-hour outposts on campus will soon limit its hours, but the planned changes won’t inconvenience students—unless they happen to be resident assistants.
The DukeCard office in the West Union building will soon close its 24-hour service window and limit operations to between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays, Kevin Davis, director of service management and operational integration for the Office of Information Technology wrote in an email Monday. The office will not be open on weekends.
This change partly results from a relatively low late-night demand for replacement DukeCards, Davis said. The new hours are expected to take effect later in the Fall, though no date has been set.
OIT staff at the Link in Perkins Library will replace cards for students on weekdays from 5 p.m. to midnight, Davis said.
“The demand for card replacement after midnight is extremely low—fewer than one per night—so students who need assistance outside Link hours will go to the RAs for temporary residence-hall access cards,” he added. “Then they’ll go to the DukeCard office or the Link the next day for a new card.”
On-call RAs will check out the late-night access cards to students who are locked out of their residence halls, said Joe Gonzalez, associate dean for Housing, Dining and Residence Life.
“We’re programming the cards so they will work until 3:00 p.m. the following day,” Gonzalez said. “All this card does is allow access to your hall. It doesn’t work for dining, it doesn’t work for ePrint—all it does is unlock your own front door.”
Some students said the limitations on the access cards could potentially pose problems.
“What if you need to print something that night? I don’t like that,” sophomore Amy Lin said. “I guess the upside is it will encourage people to not lose their card. I’ve lost my card six times—I just got a new one today.”
Gonzalez noted that the access cards will not be available until the DukeCard office’s hours change.
“We have it set up, we have the cards, and we’ve talked throughout the process with our team, but we’re not going to implement this until OIT goes through with their plans,” he said.
Davis said the reasons for changing the DukeCard office’s hours are part of an effort to better meet customer needs and integrate DukeCard operations with OIT. He added that no DukeCard employees will lose their jobs.
OIT expects to incur minimal costs from expanding the production of DukeCards to the Link, Davis said, noting that the convenience of consolidating operations, however, will offset such costs.
Although word of the plans has not been widespread, student reaction is muted.
“People will adapt. As long as they can get into their dorm, I think they’ll be fine,” freshman Joe Provenzano said.
For RAs, this upcoming change is just another shift in duties this year.
HDRL now requires RAs to be on-call for 24 hours during weekends, and weekday on-call shifts have been extended, said junior Elyn Stenzel, an RA in Blackwell residence hall.
“RAs are already on an on-call system, so [the access card policy] would just be an added responsibility,” said senior Ming Jiu Li. a second-year RA. “[HDRL] just needs to make sure the RAs know the details of this new policy, so they can inform their residents.”
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