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The hand scanner system at dining halls, a pilot program last semester, will soon become mandatory for all unlimited meal plan holders.
Kathy Kittridge, director of dining operations for Black Bear Dining, said the new program will help cashiers confirm if the MaineCard a person hands them actually belongs to him or her.
If students with unlimited meals pass off their MaineCard for other students to use, the university loses money, Kittridge said. To ensure the correct meal plan holders are going in and out of dining halls, a pilot program for the hand scanners was initiated.
“The scanner uses near-infrared technology to scan the palm. Veins are returned as a black pattern of lines and are converted through an encrypted algorithm,” Kittridge said.
Those patterns are unique to an individual, like fingerprints. However, Kittridge emphasized the fact that the scanner does not file a student’s fingerprints.
She claimed the process does not infringe on students’ privacy because “the database resides on a private network and communicates to the registers over this network. Records will be permanently deleted after the student is no longer registered.”
According to an April article in The Maine Campus, the cost of purchasing and installing scanners was approximately $5,000.
Similar technology is used at schools like University of New Hampshire, University of Rhode Island and the University of Georgia. Kittridge stated that the technology at University of New Hampshire is somewhat different but has been in use longer.
Kittridge does admit they “are still struggling” with the new program and knows some of the concerns that have been raised involving the scanner are sanitation and speed of service.
“The scanners do not often read people’s palms on the first attempt, and a good number of students need to try a second or third time, sometimes more, before it registers,” said Sarah DeMaris, a student employee of York Commons.
“Even if [the scan] does go through on the first try, there is a pause far longer than it took to swipe a MaineCard through,” DeMaris added.
Some students have concerns about the sanitation of the new hand scanners. Kittridge insists that it is no different from door handles all students touch to enter dining halls.
“There is hand sanitizer located next to the scanner and throughout our dining facilities. If you ask the cashier they can wipe down the scanner with an antiseptic wipe. We also have public restrooms should you prefer to wash your hands after scanning in,” Kittridge said.
As a cashier at York Commons, DeMaris knows a number of student unhappy with the program.
“Several have told me that they find it to be inefficient or an invasion of personal privacy,” she said.
On Sept. 19 at 3:57 p.m., DeMaris posted an email to the Announcements & Alerts folder on FirstClass. DeMaris created the email for “a petition [to be] assembled to keep the hand scanners in the dining halls from becoming mandatory.”
The email was taken down by an Information Technologies moderator at 4:25 p.m. DeMaris then received an email in her inbox saying posting such a notice in Announcements & Alerts was inappropriate.
DeMaris said her “reasoning behind announcing the petition is [to get] enough students [to] respond so that the hand scanners will not be mandatory,” adding that she hopes “students will be given the choice as to whether or not they want to use their cards, or the scanners, not forced to use a method they are uncomfortable with to access their meals.”
She said she understands that the university is trying to prevent meal plans from being shared, particularly with the unlimited meal plan options but suggests a different solution.
“A far better option would have been a program similar to that used at the Rec Center, which would show a picture on the screen, the photo that goes on file when a student gets their MaineCard,” she said. “That way, it is confirmation that the university already has.”
Kittridge said “the speed of service should improve as people get used to scanning and we add more scanners. The hand scanner provides a quicker way of identifying meal plan holders than having to closely check the ID prior to swiping.”
“It’s going to work well. The first few weeks are always hard,” she added.
