WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) — Purdue will start issuing new identification cards for faculty, staff and students. The cards will feature added technology and a new design and for the first time, the student version of the IDs will include an expiration date.

According to a Purdue press release, the new cards will begin to be issued in the spring of 2020 for new students. Some of the new features will be available in replacement cards as early as August 2019. The timeline aligns with plans set in 2014 to update the cards every five years; the last update was in 2015. The new cards will replace the old cards over the next several years. Each card will expire six years from the date the card was printed.

“We issue ID cards for daily campus uses from checking out library books to accessing doors to paying for on-campus meals,” said Tim Riley, the university’s bursar. “Facilitating those uses will always be the primary factors in deciding how to update the cards, but it’s always a plus if the updates also can make life more convenient for students in other ways by adding new technologies or new features.”

The addition of an expiration date to student cards and the cardholders’ photo and legal name also means the new versions of the card are more likely to be accepted by Indiana voting officials as valid forms of identification.

“We are not in the voter identification business, but if we can help make voting more convenient for students, we want to do so, and the design parameters of the new card appear to check all the necessary boxes for a valid voter identification,” Riley said. “But it’s up to state, county and local poll workers to decide whether an identification is acceptable for voting purposes, and the surest way for students to guarantee ballot access is to acquire a passport, an Indiana driver’s license or a free Indiana ID card from a Bureau of Motor Vehicles branch.”

Freshmen typically get their first Purdue ID in June, so the first incoming class to be issued the new cards will arrive in the fall of 2020.