BruinCard transition causes glitches in dorm, meal swipes

Upgrades to BruinCard readers over the last few days have caused some inconveniences for students attempting to swipe into dining halls, quick-service restaurants, Hill laundry rooms and dorm buildings.

The technological glitches resulted from the last phase of the two-year BruinCard Replacement Project, which has an estimated budget of $4 million, said Junji Toshima, access control manager for UCLA Housing and Hospitality Services.

Access Control

Upgrades for the card readers caused access control to temporarily require Hill residents to sign in as guests when visiting other dorm buildings last weekend, Toshima said.

“We had no other way of determining whether visitors were residents or from off campus,” Toshima said. “But the card readers are now functional, so it’s full speed ahead.”

Students can now enter other dorms by simply swiping their card at access control like normal, Toshima said.

Bruin Café

Students also drafted a petition Wednesday calling for UCLA Housing and Hospitality Services to reverse a change to meal periods on the Hill, which the department said occurred early this week as an unintended side effect of the BruinCard replacement project.

The petition said Bruin Café combined two meal swipe periods, the 9 p.m. to midnight and midnight to 2 a.m. periods, into one, preventing students with regular meal plans from swiping two times in an evening.

“In simpler times, aka last quarter, a UCLA peasant with a regular meal plan could go to De Neve Late Night or Rendezvous at 11:40 p.m., have some onion rings or a burrito, and then go to (Bruin Café) to swipe for a smoothie or ice cream or a chicken and ranch sandwich,” the petition said. “Now the clock no longer resets at midnight, and those of us with regular meal plans who swiped after 9 (p.m.) are set to suffer.”

The petition’s author did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

Dining officials said in an email statement that students will see the meal periods reset at midnight again soon.

Compiled by Laurel Scott and Jillian Frankel, Bruin contributors. Contributing reports by Daniel Ahn, Bruin contributor.