The promise of the Georgetown One Card was enough to make all Georgetown students salivate. Finally, there would no longer be a need to carry a separate laundry card, printing card and ID card, to get a stick-on barcode to check out books from the library, and to use a University ID number, which happened to be most people’s social security number, for Munch Money purchases. Visions of parents pouring money into the new debit accounts filled students’ heads; they would be able to swipe away left and right at locations throughout Georgetown. Hassle-free entry into buildings would be granted by the seemingly magical card, which also had the benefit of not looking like a relic from the 1980s.
But the reality has been a major disappointment.
While the GOCard is easy on the eyes, it’s less than easy to understand how to use. Aside from reminders next to doors that require the card for access and signs next to copy machines in the library, the GOCard gods-that-be have remained noticeably silent on how to transition between the old cards and the new wonder card. This silence has proven especially frustrating for returning students, who left campus last spring using one system and have returned to find a mixture of old and new, with no help to sort out the two. Although the change is welcome, what is not welcome is the lack of information about it.
Apartment complexes’ laundry machines switch systems without notice, leaving many to wonder whether their old red cards retain any value. No one has informed students that they can transfer the balance from the old cards to the GOCard’s debit account simply by taking it to the GOCard office.
Another GOCard debacle has been the Munch Money/Debit Dollars system. Although “one” was the basis of the new card’s title and acronym, a more appropriate designation would be the Georgetown Two Card. The distinction between Debit Dollars and Munch Money is ridiculous and needlessly confusing; a simpler and more sensible system would actually feature one account for all purchases. Instead, students who don’t have a meal plan are left unsure of whether they can make purchases at the on- and off-campus locations that previously accepted Munch Money (They can?using their Debit Dollars account) and students with Munch Money are left to manage two accounts. Furthermore, the criteria that food purchased with Munch Money be “immediately consumed” has left Vital Vittles accepting only Debit Dollars, even though the sandwiches and candy bars they sell are not held onto for an eternity as collectors’ items.
Finally, we are left to conclude that the locations for adding money to the GOCards are a matter of national security and therefore cannot be disclosed to students; that, or no one bothered to consider what would be convenient locations for add-money machines. Even the employees in the GOCard office seem to be confused about where the machines are located. Two calls from the Voice to their office yielded two sets of answers, and the FAQ at gocard.georgetown.edu offered another. For the record, the machines that we have managed to locate on the main campus are: in Leavey Center next to the Employee Credit Union ATM, outside New South Cafeteria, in Dahlgren Medical Library, in the Walsh building, on the first and third floors of Lauinger Library, in the Preclinical Science building and at Yates. Ideally, there would be a machine in every building, but at a minimum locations such as the St. Mary’s Technology Center and the Blommer Science Library should be included.
The promise of a new day has come and gone. While we held out a hope that things would improve with the arrival of the GOCard, we now realize such optimism was misguided. Maybe the Georgetown University Student Association can continue trying to help. Until then, we’ll be waiting for our ID utopia.
