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Welcome: A Message from Timothy O'Rourke, Vice President of Computer and Information Services

July 5 , 2005

I am very pleased to report that over the July 4th weekend, the Computer Services staff and TUid Project Team completed the final conversion process from Social Security numbers to Temple University Identification numbers (TUid). TUids are now in place and starting today, your new OWLcard is ready for use.

OWLcards have already been distributed to individual departments for each faculty and staff member. Students can pick up their cards from the locations listed on the Student OWLcard Distribution Web page.

As you may already know, your TUid is a unique nine-digit number that Temple now uses as your primary identifier. Your Social Security number is no longer required for routine administrative functions except for those required by law, including tax purposes. 

Your OWLcard has been programmed to use your TUid and you will need to carry it with you to access buildings, conduct Diamond Dollars transactions, check out library books, access your meal plan, and pay for parking. Your old Temple ID is no longer valid and you should destroy it as soon as possible. Note that your TUid is printed on the bottom right corner of your OWLcard for easy reference.

Today's launch of the TUid and activation of the OWLcard represents a new security milestone at Temple. This is a major accomplishment involving the hard work of many departments throughout the University. The conversion process included assigning over 950,000 TUids to all student records dating back to 1963, and to all employee records dating back to 1984. It also involved the conversion of over 30 centrally maintained administrative systems.

Now that the TUid is in place, it is important that departments review the procedures below to ensure compliance with the new polices:

• If your department hasn’t already done so, it is imperative that you remove all Social Security numbers from laptops and office computers.
  
  
• If for any reason you or your department still needs to use Social Security numbers in a system or electronic file, you must fill out a permission request form, which is available on our ssn2tuid.temple.edu Web site. There will also be a process in place for employees to obtain approval for accessing or viewing Social Security numbers while performing their duties. Further details will follow regarding this process.
  
  
• If your department needs to convert Social Security numbers to TUids, go to the ssn2tuid.temple.edu Web site and click on SSN Conversion Site.
  
  
• Review your department’s forms and make sure to change references from Social Security numbers to TUids, as needed.

For more information about the TUid and OWLcard, please see the FAQs link on the ssn2tuid.temple.edu Web site. Note, as with every major system enhancement, unforeseen problems may occur. Please bear with us as we go through this transition phase. If you encounter any problems with the TUid changeover, please send e-mail to: ssn2tuid@temple.edu

Computer Services is working hard to protect your privacy, but you need to do your part as well. For information on security measures that you should practice on a regular basis, please see my memo, Computer Security is Everyone's Responsibility. I also urge you to read Temple University’s Social Security Number Usage Policy and Social Security Number Usage Procedures.

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