UF announced in a campus-wide email Monday afternoon that upgraded Gator 1 Cards will be available beginning Monday.
The updated card’s new features include contactless payment and a magnetic stripe. Users will continue to use the card for dining halls, UF-affiliated banks, campus access and the Regional Transit Service.
To access buildings with new door readers, members of the UF community must upgrade their cards, Robin Stewart, director of administration and finance at UF Business Services, wrote in an email.
“We’ll be phasing out the old cards over time,” Stewart said. “The new cards will only be a requirement for those who are specifically contacted by the GATORONE office, which will coincide with a door security upgrade over the next 6+ months,”
Free upgrade applications for existing cardholders will be available through the university’s Business Services portal, which will open the same day.
The university made a point to assure students that their current Gator 1 cards will still function and the timeline for phasing out old cards is flexible, Steward said
New Gator 1 Cards will debut a modern design and display the cardholder’s chosen name, legal name, designation, identification number, issue date and picture. To obtain an updated card, students, faculty and staff will need to take a new ID photo.
Old Gator 1 Cards may be kept or brought into the Gator 1 office, located on the mezzanine level above the UF Bookstore & Welcome Center, where they will be safely destroyed, according to the UF Business Services website.
Contact Sydney at sjohnson@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter at @sydajohnson15.
Sydney Johnson is a third-year journalism major with a minor in education. In her free time, she enjoys crossword puzzles and sewing.
