Before Freshman and Sophomores arrived on campus, USGA had campus events running different. Charger Connection was there, but not really used and Facebook events would be passed around by word of mouth. In addition, there was no such thing as QR codes. When students went to campus run events, they would take out their IDs and swipe them before entering . That seems much easier than having multiple students pull out their phones, scroll until they have their QR code and hope that it works.

If the university really wanted us to get accustomed to the QR code system as well as using Charger Connection more often, why not teach us about it? Maybe send us an email or a video explaining the advances that scanning a QR code has or me signing up through Charger Connection.

There was nothing wrong with the system of scanning IDs, especially since everyone always has this IDs on them. Freshman even wear their IDs around their neck so they’re easy to access. I know that everyone is also on their phone, it is much quicker to just slide an ID out of its case then to go scrolling, and hope someone finds their QR code fast enough to not t hold up a line.

This is not to say that the previous way was flawless, there had been countless times that the ID scanner did not work, yet it seems that there were less problems when the ID system was in place. I have seen the QR code scanner fail multiple times. Once at  an event in the Rec center the app used to scan the QR code would not take a picture of the code. Instead of scanning, the facilitators of the event had to type in everyone’s email one by one to make sure everyone was accounted for.

“From someone who runs and goes to events I’m torn cause swiping IDs is so much faster and efficient because it takes ten tries to scan just one QR code because the system is so laggy,” said senior Sierra McGinn. “But on the other hand it was such a hassle to get ID readers for events where with QR we can just use phones.”

This is not an urgent fix and it’s one that probably will not happen, since they seem to be teaching this to every incoming class, but I do wish that upperclassmen were a bit more educated as to how to be involved on campus.