Nicole Bahleda, a third-year in psychology, taps a BuckID to a contactless card reader at the Union Market in the Ohio Union Tuesday. Starting spring semester, all dining halls have contactless card readers for BuckID transactions. Credit: Sandra Fu | Photo Editor
The last time Zeina Elshaer, a second-year in biological engineering, swiped her BuckID card to pay was December 2024, when she was buying food at the Union Market.
Soon, she might never swipe for an on-campus meal again.
Ohio State is steadily phasing out the magnetic stripe on BuckIDs. Over winter break, the Office of Student Life completed the installation of tap readers at all Ohio State dining halls, which allow students and faculty to pay with their BuckID by tapping instead of swiping, said Josh Bodnar, director of BuckID.
Bodnar said there’s been a notable commercial and social shift away from magnetic stripe cards and toward contactless payment forms — or tap — over the last 10 years.
“At one point, they’re actually gonna stop offering magnetic stripes on all credit cards,” Bodnar said. “But that means there’s a lot of reader infrastructure that places need to change.”
Since 2021, Student Life has been installing combination readers that support both magnetic stripe and tap technology whenever new buildings are constructed, also renovating existing buildings and upgrading card readers, Bodnar said.
“We weren’t doing a lot of construction, replacements [or] new installations until after COVID, and at that time, we made sure that anything new we were putting in had support for both magnetic stripe and contactless tap,” Bodnar said.
Bodnar also confirmed the Office of Student Life will have all of its mag readers — devices that read the information contained within a card’s magnetic stripe — replaced this year, expanding the tap feature beyond just dining halls.
“The problem is Student Life is not the entire university, so [there are] academic and administrative buildings that also need upgrades,” Bodnar said.
A “comprehensive program” to replace mag readers in existing buildings not managed by Student Life does not yet exist due to the magnitude of these changes and questions surrounding how such a program would function, Bodnar said.
“What is the size of that [program]?” Bodnar asked. “How could it be funded? How long would it take?”
University spokesperson Dan Hedman said new buildings and large renovations — including projects like the Biomedical Materials Engineering Complex or Campbell Hall — are implementing this technology in the construction process.
“In terms of existing locations on campus, we will continue to work with key stakeholders to determine the long-term plans to advance tap technology,” Hedman said. “In the interim, swipe technology will still be supported.”
Bodnar said Student Life first introduced tap cards in 2022, when Traditions at Scott was the only dining hall with the accommodation.
“In limited places, there were readers that supported tap as soon as the tap cards were out,” Bodnar said. “Scott Traditions’ turnstiles, the readers that were there, have always supported tap. It’s just no one had tap cards until 2023.”
All incoming first-year students have been issued tap cards since the fall semester of 2023.
Trent Robinson-Brooks, a second-year in food, agricultural and biological engineering, said the change serves him well.
“It’s more convenient, and it makes the lines go by faster,” Robinson-Brooks said.
But as the cards changed for new students, the upperclassmen were essentially left in another era.
“If you’re a junior or senior and came in and never lost your BuckID or had to replace it for some reason, then the card they still have from their original orientation would be a magnetic stripe card,” Bodnar said.
For an $5 extra fee, students can replace their magnetic stripe cards with BuckIDs that have encrypted NFC technology to make contactless payment possible.
“We do offer, for $5, you can trade in an old working magnetic stripe card and get a new tab card,” Bodnar said. “And we have had a decent number of students that are like, ‘I use mine enough that that’s worth it to me,’ that have come in and done that.”
Completely phasing out the magnetic strip isn’t the end goal, Bodnar said. It’s only a step toward the final destination: phasing out the card itself.
“Tap is part of a broader strategy that would get us in a position where we could eventually launch mobile credentials,” Bodnar said.
Bodnar said people want and expect the convenience of a mobile wallet experience, referencing technologies like Apple Pay as a modern blueprint.
“That’s kind of the experience that we see everywhere outside of higher ed,” Bodnar said. “We want to get to a place where that kind of modern, contactless, very secure environment is something that we can offer with the BuckID as well.”
