Students for a Democratic Society is at it again, and this time its target is hand scanners at the gym.
On Friday, 10 members of the organization, which seems to never be without a cause of some sort, protested outside of Southwest Recreation Center, handing out fliers that encouraged students to vote against replacing Gator 1 Cards with hand scanners.
The Editorial Board can see both sides of the issue, so let's break it down.
On the one hand, we have SDS. They feel handing over biometric information to the school, a government entity, is putting us on a slippery slope on into 1984. They also say that the hand scanners will cost $100,000. Just look at all those zeros!
On the other hand, we have David Bowles, director of recreational sports at UF. According to him, many students, including former Student Body President Ryan Moseley, would rather not have to remember their Gator 1s every time they leave for the gym.
He also said the $100,000 number is misleading. According to Bowles, each of the already-purchased scanners costs $2,200, but the new gate system being installed will cost an estimated $35,000 to $50,000 to build.
While we fully understand students' concerns that the government is itching to figure out their workout routine, Bowles is telling us that not only will the hand geometry data be firewalled from other systems - it won't even read fingerprints.
We've lived to see the president of the United States authorize secret domestic wiretapping, so we don't put anything past the government anymore.
