Students will no longer need to rely on their student IDs to enter a dining hall starting this fall, thanks to new biometric hand scanners called Wave ID.

Dining Services will be installing the hand scanners at all residential dining locations on campus. Everybody with a meal plan will be required to enroll in Wave ID, eliminating the requirement to present a student ID at the dining hall entrance.

All first-year students were enrolled into Wave ID as part of the orientation process. Upper-class students, faculty and staff members with meal plans can enroll anytime with a quick visit to the card office on the first floor of Murray-Herrick Campus Center.

Dining Services staff members will also be in front of The View entrance during the first week of school to enroll people into the system.

A quicker system
This is one of many changes coming to Dining Services this fall, along with a new unlimited meal plan, the hire of a new executive chef and more extensive hours and menu options.

“As we go to unlimited dining, we may have more students going in and out,” said Mitch Karstens, associate vice president for Auxiliary Services. “Instead of having a block plan, where they’re counting meals, somebody may go four times a day, and we don’t want them to wait in line four times a day.”

At The View, there will now be two separate lines to enter.

One line will be for students, faculty and staff with meal plans to scan in using Wave ID. Once the person’s hand is waved, a fully automated turnstile gate will open, allowing them to enter.

The other line will be for those using guest passes, eXpress, dining dollars, cash or credit/debit card. There will be a cashier at this line to assist customers.

Binz Refectory and the new dining hall coming fall 2020 will have a similar system in place as well.

How it works

Reporter Justin Amaker enrolls in the Wave ID system in the card office. Starting this fall, anyone with a meal plan will enter a dining hall by scanning their hand. (Justin Amaker/TommieMedia)

When a person initially enrolls into the Wave ID program, they wave both hands through a biometric scanner, twice per hand. The reader then takes 16 random points across the entire hand and converts it into a template, a “set of 0’s and 1’s created from a mathematical formula,” according to an information sheet given to new enrollments.

The images are stored on an internal server on campus, allowing the scanners to work even when campus internet is disrupted.

The biometric readers do not scan or save fingerprints, meaning that Wave ID will still work if users are wearing a ring or bandage, or even for people with broken or amputated fingers.

“We’re not going to swipe cards anymore,” said Pam Peterson, executive director of Dining Services. “The expectation is that the Wave ID is how you’re going to (use your meal plan).”

If someone did not have the ability to scan either of their hands for Wave ID, Dining Services would work with that person individually to make sure that they are still able to use their meal plan, Karstens said.

Justin Amaker can be reached at justin.amaker@stthomas.edu.