UC To Debut HUID-CharlieCard Pilot Program

The Undergraduate Council will roll out a pilot program that will integrate the functions of Harvard IDs and MBTA CharlieCards, representatives said at their general meeting Sunday.

The Council will be partnering with the Harvard Office for Sustainability and Harvard Transportation and Parking to insert CharlieCard chips to be inserted into undergraduate HUIDs. The pilot program, set to begin later this month, will give 100 students the integrated cards preloaded with $50.

The program’s ultimate goal is to allow students to travel into the greater Boston area in a way that is both efficient and sustainable, according to Rhea Malik ’17.

At the Undergraduate Council’s weekly meeting on Sunday, inactive news editor and UC Gender and LGBTQ Inclusivity Liaison Michelle S. Lee ’16 expresses satisfaction with the Council’s gender equity campaign, Side by Side, which is scheduled to launch on Monday. By Madeline R. Lear

Malik, who assisted in developing the technology, said at the meeting that if successful, the HUID-CharlieCard integration pilot program will demonstrate student behavior patterns, such as how often students ride the T and the stations that they frequent. With this data, the Council intends to convince administrators to expand the program and ultimately introduce integrated HUIDs to all undergraduates.

“With continued support from the UC, we can shape University policy and have this kind of technology available for the entire school,” Malik said.

Malik partnered with UC Student Life Committee Chair Oliver W. Kim ’16 in developing and launching the pilot program. Kim is a Crimson editorial writer.

The Council passed three pieces of legislation at Sunday’s meeting.

In one act, the Council agreed to release a position paper on the College’s Program in General Education. According to the resolution, the paper will compile and analyze the results of a UC-run, College-wide survey on the Gen Ed program, as well as discussions from several town hall meetings. The position paper will come as a Faculty of Arts and Sciences committee continues its review of the Gen Ed program.

The UC also voted to budget close to $3,000 for its gender equity campaign launch event.

Several Council members posed challenges to the budgeting act, arguing that it took too large a portion of funds from the Student Relations Committee. According to Winthrop House representative Daniel R. Levine ’17, the committee’s annual budget is $1,500 for the year. The act sought to allocate $1,350 from that budget to the launch event.

“I don’t really understand why this is part of the SRC budget, because it doesn’t seem to me like a Student Relations Committee project,” said Levine, who is also a Crimson news writer. “This wasn’t docketed by SRC, which means that I, as an SRC member, didn’t see it until an hour ago.”

Despite its opposition by some in the Council, the act passed unanimously with three abstentions.

The Council also allocated more than $8,500 in grants to student groups.

—Staff writer Jalin P. Cunningham can be reached at jalincunningham@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @JalinCunningham.