Midst the pines of this dear college, we hear students crying out to admin about the new plan for student ID’s. The office sent our a short email explaining a future change that they intended to better our college experience here and to improve safety measures on campus. The initial benefits are 1) simplifying what students have to carry 2) Improved safety from on-campus hackers. While the office seemed to think that this change would be readily welcomed, there was a dramatic response to the announcement. The school underestimated how many students would be opposed to this change. Many students have sited that this change will not benefit most of the students because the new technologie is somewhat unreliable, forces students who otherwise would leave their phones in their dorms to carry it with them, and it forces students to open wallet and multiple bank accounts on their phones. The college failed to see that a number of their students would be negatively impacted by this future change, and were not ready to defend their reasoning. They did not consider the whole of the college when researching this change, and failed to communicate the benefits of the new tech to the skeptics. In the initial announcement they acknowledged some of the shortcomings, but the ones they acknowledged are, in contrast to our current tech, absolutely devistating.Students who have tested the faults of this new tech have had mixed results including: Having to scan repeatedly to enter their dorm, being locked out of the dorm when the phone dies, waiting in longer ques to get food and to get into chapel. The college has quickly responded to the outrage of the students by preparing a time to meet with them; their hope is to better understand what students need in terms of IDs, and also how their product benefits and negatively impacts the lives of their students. As a student who is negatively impacted by this change, I look forward to the college taking time to get to know our real pain and the pain associated with the new technology.
Note: this is not a hate blog, please be respectful and professional in the comments
eichlertj24
Good example of how the school didn’t fully understand student pain points before making the change. It shows how important it is to listen to your audience and not just assume what’s best for them.