All employees do have two alternative identification numbers. The UT IRIS
system provides a personnel ID number and at UTC the ITD provides a UTCID
for all employees.

The ITD and the Library have been working on a plan to convert to using the
UTCIDs for all patrons. We don't have a time line yet for implementation,
but it is a work in progress.

Unfortunately, there are many systems that still require the SSN and it is
still the best ID to use to reduce the possibility of the same person
appearing multiple times in the same information system database.

Richard


Anthony Steinhoff wrote:

> I've been wondering how long it would take for the issue of ID's to come to
> this esteemed forum.   Oddly, though, it has not quite taken the form I had
> imagined.  So, since the subject has been raised, I'd like to push the
> discussion in a slightly different, and in my humble opinion, more urgent
> direction.
>    With due respect to Marcia Noe's noble desire to maintain her old ID card
> (ah the glories of youth), I would suggest that all faculty/staff should be
> required to obtain a new ID. First, this should be a professional looking
> university ID, not a silly MOCS card.  While it may be desirable to give the
> staff/faculty ID the same capabilities of a MOCS card (this is easily
> accomplished via the magnetic strip) we need a form of ID that clearly
> identifies us as employees of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga --
> especially when we are visiting other universities.  The current card design
> does not fulfill this simple, but very important function.  [At some other
> university libraries, for example, it is necessary to present a valid ID
> from your university to get access.  Only in the fine print on the BACK of
> the current ID is there any mention of UTC].
>    Secondly, while the university has eliminated the illegal practice of
> using the SSN as a form of student identification, it continues to use it
> for faculty/staff members.  Thus, the is SSN prominently displayed on our ID
> cards.  Lupton library also uses the SSN as a patron identification number
> for faculty and staff.  Isn't it about time in this age of security theft
> that the university develop an alternative system for employee
> identification, just as it has for students.  After all, the laws governing
> the public use of SSN numbers applies to us in the same measure that it does
> to students?
>
>
> Dr. Anthony J. Steinhoff
> Assistant Professor, Modern European History
> Department of History
> University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
>
> [log in to unmask]
> tel: 423/425-4581
>
>

--
Richard L Gambrell, Director of Computing Systems and Networks
Information Technology Division, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
103 Hunter Dept 4454, 615 McCallie Ave, Chattanooga, TN 37403-2598
Fax: 423-425-4150           Problems: [log in to unmask] or 423-425-4000
Direct phone: 423-425-5316  IT Business Office: 423-425-1755
Urgent/cell: 423-432-5122   Main UTC phone: 423-425-4111
Email: [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]