It tells you what you’re eating. It gets you around the city. It tells you how much money you… It tells you what you’re eating. It gets you around the city. It tells you how much money you have. It gets you home. In short, it holds just about everything you need as a college student at Pitt. What’s better? It fits in your pocket. What is it? Why, it’s the Panther Card, your Pitt ID, of course.

Your Pitt ID is in many ways the key to your college experience at the University of Pittsburgh.

For many of the residence halls on campus, it’s your way in. You use your Pitt ID both to swipe into the residence hall as well as getting into your own room.

It also houses a great deal of vital information necessary for a successful year at college. Perhaps most importantly, it’s your way to eat at such popular campus eateries as the Cathedral Cafe and Market Central.

The Cathedral Cafe is a dining facility located on the ground floor of the Cathedral of Learning. Market Central is an all-you-can-eat dining facility located within the Towers complex. Both of these offer a wide array of foods for students, and all you need to take advantage of them is your ID. There is also an all-you-can-eat dining facility in Sutherland Hall.

Your ID keeps track of your meal plan – a combination of dining passes, Dining Dollars and Panther Funds. Depending upon which dining facility you attend, you can use any of these three options.

There are also several smaller convenience-store-type locations, which only accept Dining Dollars and Panther Funds. So, if you’re ever feeling hungry, it’s important to have that Pitt ID waiting in your pocket.

Your ID can also double as a debit card. Pitt, working with PNC Bank, allows students to switch the banking information from their PNC debit cards over to their Pitt IDs. It works just like a debit card but allows you to carry around one less card. But with a debit card masquerading as a Pitt ID, it’s more important than ever to safeguard your supercard.

For some students, Pitt IDs are most valuable off campus. One of the ID’s several features is that it grants you access to many of the local museums, such as the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the Carnegie Museum of Art. It is also your free ticket into the Mattress Factory, a museum of contemporary installation art in the North Side.

With a flash of your Pitt ID, you can visit the closest thing to Eden around Pitt, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, free of charge.

History buffs can also get in the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center and step into a 1790s log cabin or rediscover the west with Lewis and Clark.

Not only can your Pitt ID get you into places for free, but it can also get you there.

Pitt provides its students with free public transportation into and around the city. This might not sound like much, but that $2 fare each way might get a little tiresome. Not to mention almost everything you might need and can’t find on campus is just a bus ride away.

Students may also ride the “T,” Pittsburgh’s light-rail train system, to such popular destinations as the South Hills and Station Square. From Station Square, students may ride the Monongahela or Duquesne inclines to a glorious view of Pittsburgh’s skyline.

Whether you’re on your way to the airport or The Andy Warhol Museum, be sure your Pitt ID is by your side.