All new summer, fall 2023 undergraduate Purdue students to be issued mobile digital ID cards for greater campus convenience

The effort coincides with this weekend’s start of Purdue orientation on Friday (July 7) for the fall semester for more than 700 incoming freshmen, ahead of the five-week Early Start and Summer Start sessions that run July 10-Aug. 11. The weeklong Boiler Gold Rush (BGR) orientation for incoming undergraduates is Aug. 15-19, with the fall semester beginning Aug. 21. 

Since May 2, new Boilermaker students planning to come to the West Lafayette campus in the Summer and Fall 2023 semesters have had access to Purdue 101, which is the university’s required online orientation program for all incoming students, completed via Brightspace. Through Purdue 101, incoming students are guided through campus resources and information on course planning to help them make a strong start at Purdue. The online module can be done at any pace, but it must be completed before students can meet with an academic advisor.

“‘Mobile First’ is a strategy used by many universities, and at Purdue, all incoming new students for our Early Start/Summer Start sessions and the upcoming fall semester will be issued a Purdue Mobile ID, which will become their primary identification on campus,” said Loribeth Hettinger, senior associate bursar of ID Card Operations/Support.

“Physical ID cards, meantime, will be provided as an alternative to undergraduate students who do not have a smartphone device or if theirs is not compatible with Purdue’s new mobile credentials system. We want to stress that this major step in our just-launched Purdue Mobile ID initiative for students is ‘Mobile First,’ not mobile only.”  

Purdue’s ID Card Operations/Support, in partnership with Student Life and Purdue Information Technology, launched the new Purdue Mobile ID on April 19. Through Purdue Mobile ID, students can add their ID to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet and use their iPhone, Apple Watch or Android devices to access campus buildings, purchase meals and more. 

Using Purdue Mobile ID, students can simply hold their device near a reader to access residence halls and campus buildings, make transactions using BoilerExpress, use their meal plans and even pay for laundry. The new Purdue Mobile ID for students is enabled for smartphones via Transact Mobile Credentials. 

Since its launch, nearly 14,000 Purdue students have downloaded the Transact eAccounts app for using Purdue Mobile ID, including 4,203 new students enrolled this summer and 4,287 planning to attend in the fall.

Within the Mobile Credentials system launched as Purdue Mobile ID is a strategy called Mobile First, which calls for all new students beginning in summer and fall 2023 to have a mobile ID on their smartphones and smartwatches. Mobile First’s goal at Purdue is to eliminate the need for hard-copy ID cards for all 50,000 West Lafayette students over the next few years. 

Physical ID cards, meantime, will be provided as an alternative to undergraduate students who do not have a smartphone device or if theirs is not compatible with Purdue’s new mobile credentials system. A $25 fee will be assessed for a hard-copy Purdue ID card, and a process is in place for students who can explain why the fee should be waived.

Graduate students also may need physical cards because some academic buildings, laboratories and other facilities will still require the physical Purdue ID card for access in the short term. 

Faculty and staff on Purdue’s West Lafayette campus will continue to use physical IDs and are not participating in the Purdue Mobile ID program.  

The move from physical cards to Purdue Mobile ID on iPhone, Apple Watch or Android devices allows for transactions that are safe, convenient and secure, and helps students avoid handing their ID cards to someone else. The mobile IDs also can be issued remotely, eliminating the need to print and mail physical cards and creating a safer, more cost-effective and more environmentally friendly process. 

Purdue has been laying the groundwork to launch Transact Mobile Credentials since 2013, first by updating campus infrastructure for door readers and point-of-sale devices to be mobile-ready. Purdue is installing contactless and tap-to-pay technology using the Transact system through a phased approach across campus. 

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research institution with Excellence at Scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities (Times Higher Education/Wall Street Journal and QS), with two colleges in the top 4 in the United States (U.S. News & World Report), Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, with 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 12 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap, including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the new Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, and Purdue Innovates, at https://stories.purdue.edu.