Editorial
Arizona Daily Wildcat
March 11, 1998

Get your CatCard

Nobody asked for CatCard, but it's coming. It will be here soon - March 30 to be exact.

After that the CatCard will be the only recognized piece of University of Arizona identification. And after that, you'll need to shell out $15 for the new card.

Without one, you risk losing access to your residence hall and your All Aboard account, for example. The project has been declared a necessary evil.

Whether or not it is necessary and whether the timing of the switch is appropriate are debatable, but the debate is not open. You need to go down and get in line.

Eventually, the CatCard could be the key to your checking account, your long distance phone service, almost anything your heart desires. It would become, among other things, your link to the UA community, even after you graduate.

The whole project sort of reminds us of the Integrated Instructional Facility. That $20 million project, we've been told, is going to help students in the long run. It's also a project that few people asked for. Of course, at this point, we've heard that train has, in fact, left the station.

Both projects suffer from a similar problem and it's the same problem that killed the referendum on the Memorial Student Union. The projects operate on the premise that the UA community and particularly the student body ought to spend their time, money and energy on projects that will pay off in an unspecified way at an unspecified date.

Right now, there are some 19 different forms of UA identification running around the campus, and quite probably there is something to be said for unifying them. Also, the argument that making the switch in the middle of the year will actually cut down on the massive campus headache that might occur in August also holds some water.

The only real question is, what's going to happen when 15,000 people have to shell out $15 on and after April 1. Nothing.

Get your CatCard.