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Winners announced in ID card drawings

May 4, 2005

KALAMAZOO--More than 10,200 Western Michigan University students were issued new photo-ID cards during the final two weeks in March as part of a campuswide re-carding campaign, and all students who got their new cards during those two weeks were eligible for a number of prizes.

WMU's Bernhard Center and several Bronco Mall businesses--Little Caesars Pizza, McDonald's Restaurant, National City Bank and Subway Sandwiches & Salads--contributed more than 100 door prizes of gift coupons and T-shirts, which were given out randomly to students getting new ID cards at Lawson Arena.

Students also were entered in random computer drawings for nine major prizes. Winners of free parking permits for 2005-06 are Lauren Ahee, a junior marketing major from Sterling Heights, Mich., and Michael R. Grammes, a senior music education major from Tecumseh, Mich. The parking permits, valued at about $300 each, were contributed by the Office of University Relations.

Winners of $250 gift cards from the WMU Bookstore are Joshua W. Alper, a senior majoring in marketing and sociology from Ypsilanti, Mich.; Rachel E. Cummings, a senior education major from Troy, Mich.; and Lindsay Nordin, a senior English major from Wallace, Mich.

Four students won Apple iPod Shuffles, valued at about $100 each, courtesy of the Office of Information Technology and Micro Computer Sales. Apple iPod winners are Allison E. Buck, a senior elementary major from Battle Creek, Mich.; Phasit S. Khounthikoumane, a junior accounting major from Stevensville, Mich.; Chin H. Leong, a mechanical engineering graduate student from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Tracy A. Poremba, a senior majoring in nursing from Livonia, Mich.

During April, an additional 3,000 students, faculty, staff and retirees were issued new cards. All totaled, more than 12,000 students and about 2,000 nonstudents had been issued new cards through the beginning of May.

The card processing center continues to issue new cards at its temporary location in Lawson Arena. Through the end of May, the center is open weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

All campus card-swipe readers were converted to recognize only the new ID cards beginning with the May 2 start of Summer I session. Old WMU ID cards are no longer honored. Those people who have already gotten a new card are encouraged to destroy their old card the same way they would cut and dispose of obsolete credit cards. Personal information, including Social Security numbers, is encoded in the magnetic strips on the backs of old cards.

New cards are part of the university's switch from Social Security numbers to Western Identification Numbers--or WIN--as the primary way of identifying students and employees. The change, which was mandated by the state, will provide greater protection from identity theft.

Media contact: Thom Myers, 269 387-8400, thom.myers@wmich.edu

WMU News
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