Ball State to increase card replacement cost
27 April, 2016
category: Card Issuance
Ball State University is set to increase the cost to replace student ID cards from $10 to $25 beginning with the start of the coming fall 2016 semester.
Per a report from Ball State Daily, the current $10 fee is considerably less than other institutions, and the rise to $25 will match the card replacement fees of neighboring Indiana University and Purdue University.
“We have a very healthy price increase coming up from $10 to $25,” Ball State Registrar Nancy Cronk said in a statement to Ball State Daily. “We want to be sensitive to the fact that this is a huge fee increase for students, but we also want to be sensitive to the fact that we’ve got to maintain the standard of the card and realize that it’s not just a plastic card, it’s got some technology built in it and some security built into it.”
Each blank, chip-enabled card costs the university an estimated $5, but total cost has to then factor in print ribbon and maintenance for the ID card printer. The new fee is, in part, intended to give the university an opportunity to consider possibly expanding the features of Ball State’s current campus cards.
The current Cardinal Cards were first introduced in April of 2014 and bear a proximity chip, making them more expensive than the previously issued non-technology cards. “Because of that additional technology, there needs to be an increased awareness of the card capability and also the card value,” added Cronk.
Ball State’s Board of Trustees approved the fee increase in June 2015, at which point it was written into the 2015 board approval of additional fees to be implemented in Fall 2016. Money from the collected card replacement fees goes to the Ball State general fund.
