UAB’s Physical Security Department recently completed its two-year card and card-reader conversion project, and as a result  all UAB employees should have new identification cards.

All employees hired prior to November 2004 were issued access cards that are no longer operational. To be able to tell if you have a new card, look on the back of your card for a magnetic strip like you would find on your credit cards – if it’s there, your card is good.

While the magnetic strips aren’t functional, again, they do identify that you have the right card.

“The reason for the change was due to improvements in technology that made the old swipe card readers obsolete,” says Ozzie Taylor, director of Business and Auxiliary Services.

“The old cards were used by swiping them through a reader to permit access to an area. The new cards are proximity cards that only require you to hold the card within a certain proximity of the card reader to activate and gain access to an area,” says Taylor.

The change in technology of the readers required the replacement the old swipe cards for the new proximity cards.

If you still have your old swipe card, the Physical Security Department recommends that you destroy it.

If you do not have one of the new proximity access cards, please contact the UAB Physical Security Department at 934-3708 for information on how to obtain one.