Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Usher One, Usher All

The university announced that its partnership with Usher, the technology firm that piloted a mobile GOCard to incoming freshmen and transfer students this fall, will extend its service to all undergraduates beginning this past December in an attempt to gauge interest as well as how it might function on a larger scale.

The app allows students to make payments and access Georgetown-related sites such as Box and Google Apps on a mobile platform. For a generation that thrives on having a plurality of services at its fingertips and a population of students reliant on smartphones, the mobile GOCard offers a more efficient way for students to access the services provided to them by their physical GOCards.

While the new partnership demonstrates that the university is moving in the right direction by updating everyday tasks with new technologies, more is needed: namely, converting all on-campus printers to this system and exploring whether this technology is applicable to other existing GOCard services, including access to university residences and buildings.

Many Georgetown students have experienced the ensuing anxiety when they have discovered that they’ve forgotten their GOCard and are unable to use university printers in the moments a class assignment is due.

Because students are less likely to forget their phones, a mobile GOCard system seems more in tune with student needs in relation to accessibility and efficiency, especially regarding the increasing popularity of administrative services switching to online mediums and formats.

Georgetown would do well to quickly move the program past the pilot stage so that students can continue to take advantage of the new platform in the year to come.

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