Most students and faculty members will receive new Panther Cards with updated technology next… Most students and faculty members will receive new Panther Cards with updated technology next month.

Beginning Nov. 2, Panther Central will give Pitt students, faculty and staff members new ID cards with a different design and a chip that will allow them to use Port Authority buses after the company upgrades its technology.

Certain students,faculty and staff members will receive their new cards for free, provided they turn in their current cards. The picture and number on the card will stay the same to eliminate long lines and create more efficiency, said Jessica Larson, Panther Central manager.

Panther Central will charge students who have lost their card or do not have it for any other reason a $20 reissuing fine.

Undergraduate students graduating in December 2009 and April 2010 won’t get new identification cards to reduce the amount of hassle, Larson said.

Panther Central will distribute the new cards Nov. 2-13. Graduate students will pick up their new cards at their designated department. Faculty and staff will swap their cards with their department administrators.

Undergraduate students, excluding seniors, have a different set of instructions to follow. Students have a match day according to their last name. On their designated day, students will go to the Posvar Hall galleria between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. with their old cards to receive a new one. The pick-up date for students corresponds with the first letter of their last name. Students who can’t make it during their assigned days are allowed to go during a more convenient time within the two-week duration. See the side chart for the list of pick-up dates.

Larson said Panther Central likes to “give the card a fresh look” every few years.

But the University also decided to redesign students’ ID cards this year because the Port Authority is upgrading its technology.

When the bus company updates its vehicles, students won’t flash their cards at bus drivers. Instead, they’ll flash them at a reader, installed on each of the buses, that recognizes the chip inside the cards. The reader will determine whether the card is active or invalid.

“The new identification cards,” Larson said, “will not change ridership.”

Anyone who is able to ride the Port Authority buses now will be able to after the card swap.

Larson said seniors will still be able to flash their cards as they usually do.

“The old cards will still be accepted until [the seniors’] graduation date. They didn’t want to trouble seniors,” she said.

Larson said she thinks the new cards will help the school and Port Authority keep better track of students’ and professors’ ridership. People who use counterfeit IDs or other people’s old University IDs will no longer be able to ride the buses without active cards.

Larson said students, faculty and staff members should be mindful of the fact that their ID cards now contain chips.

“So, do not punch holes in it, mangle it or mutilate it in any way,” she said.

Mutilating the identification cards will deactivate the technology. Panther Central will fine those who deliberately manipulate their cards a $20 fee and will reissue that person a new one.

However, if cards are not working because of the “normal wear and tear,” Larson said, Panther Central will replace the card without a fee as it has always done.

“The cards are sturdy and meant for use,” Larson said.