The ongoing debate in North Carolina over the use of student ID cards for voter identification has taken another step forward. House Bill 646 — which would add university-issued ID cards to the list of voter ID documents — received final approval by a 109-6 vote in the North Carolina House of Representatives this week.

The decision of whether a university should upgrade its card technology remains one of the most popular discussions in the campus card space to this day. At CR80News, it’s easily been one of the most covered topics over the years, and in our 2012 coverage “Married to the mag” we tried to better understand why campuses were so reticent to make the switch.

Purdue University’s campus card has sparked discussion amongst elections officials in Tippecanoe County. The county has been using a workaround solution since 2008 that enables Purdue students to vote with their university-issued ID cards, but new discussions are questioning whether this practice is in keeping with state voter ID laws.

The University of North Florida is mulling updates to its campus card that would make the ID card a viable form of voter identification, as well as changes that would support preferred names. According to UNF student government, the new Osprey 1Card could be approved with printing beginning as soon as next month.

Members of the Johns Hopkins University community now have the ability to designate preferred names in university databases, following a recent university-wide push for greater inclusion on campus. The university’s new preferred name policy is aimed at those who go by a different name as a reflection of their gender identity, or those who use an Americanized alternative to a name in their native language.

Many universities are now using the backs of their student ID cards to provide the campus community with valuable contact information for students or faculty that may find themselves in need of support. Most recently, the University of North Texas has joined this trend by printing resource hotlines on all UNT campus cards after being inspired by a student government member that lost a close friend to suicide.

UC San Diego (UCSD) is accepting preferred names in its campus databases, with future plans to extend the service to printing names on student ID cards. This marks UCSD’s first foray into preferred names and will enable students to submit both a preferred name and pronoun that they wish to be referred to by the university, with those designations being reflected in most campus records systems.