This year’s freshman class started the school year with one less piece of Davidson merchandise: a physical CatCard. Incoming students received digital CatCards as part of the College’s ongoing shift away from physical identification cards. Student activities will also require students to use Wildcat Sync’s Event Pass, which will replace CatCards for sign-ins at major events.
CatCard Services states on its webpage that students still have a choice: “You can continue to simply use your physical card. Eventually the college may choose to only offer a digital CatCard, but that is not in our plans currently.”
Some freshmen did request physical CatCards. These were primarily international students and students without Apple phones, according to CatCard Services Manager Christopher Bradley. “About 10% of them, about 50 [requested physical cards]. Out of those 50, seven or eight were either hardware or region based decisions,” Bradley said.
“If you’re outside of the US, there are some countries or regions that Apple Pay just won’t work with so those people had the issue. Then there’s some older Android models [that] don’t have the NFC reader, so we had to make exceptions for those people.”
Administrators say the shift will improve convenience and reduce costs. Director of Auxiliary Services Richard Terry said the move was made with student convenience in mind. “Students have their phones more easily accessible than a plastic ID card in most instances, so using it to activate a door is generally much more convenient,” Terry said.
Last March, Davidson partnered with Atrium Campus to introduce digital CatCard. For students who made the shift, the decision came down to ease of use. “I switched after losing my CatCard a couple of times, and I knew I wouldn’t lose my phone,” Kiko Lancastre ‘26 said.
Owen Jessop ‘29 echoed Lancaster’s sentiment. “It’s nice to know that I don’t have to worry about forgetting my CatCard because I always have my phone.”
When asked if he would have liked the option to choose a physical CatCard instead, Jessop said it’s not a big deal to him. “There is nothing a physical CatCard can do for me that my phone can’t, so I don’t mind not being offered the choice.”
Not everyone is convinced, though. Ross Hope ’26 has resisted the change. “I don’t want to be reliant on my phone,” he said. “There are times when I want to leave my apartment without my phone, whether it be to disconnect or just sit outside for a moment. The mobile CatCard would require me to have my phone with me at all times to perform the simple task of unlocking my door.”
Fewer physical cards in circulation also makes life easier for CatCard Services. “We expect to see the workload and cost of lost cards replacement to drop significantly,” Terry said.
The digital card works even if the phone dies, and Bradley said the CatCard Services Offices has temporary physical cards printed in case students lose their phones.
Davidson’s shift toward digitalization does not end with IDs. This semester, the College introduced Event Pass—a scannable mobile ticket system for student activities. According to Brandon Lokey, Associate Director of Student Activities and Union Board Advisor, Event Pass had been part of the Wildcat Sync platform for years but has not been activated until now.
“It’s been built into the Wildcat Sync platform for a while. We just haven’t turned on the functionality until this year,” Lokey said.
Union Board has already put Event Pass to use. At the Welcome Back Party, more than 380 students used Event Pass to check in. At future events like Fall Fling and Winterfest, students must scan in upon entry. Lokey said the tool also helps organizers measure outreach: “It helps us see, are we advertising well? Are we reaching audiences? Are we appealing to the student body?”
While Union Board is the first to utilize Event Pass, the system is open to all student organizations. Student organization leaders can use Event Pass to streamline attendance tracking and easily follow-up with members.
“If Bee Club is having an interest meeting, or they’re having an event, they can utilize Event Pass to do a quick swipe of who’s here, and then they automatically have a list of who was there,” Lokey said.
“They can send a quick email saying, ‘Hey, thanks for attending. If you’re interested. Here’s our meeting schedule, here’s our Instagram handle, here’s all the things that you may want access to be involved.’”
Administrators believe the move to digital IDs signals progress. “In a few years schools that have not made the move may be regarded as slow-movers in the technology arena,” Terry said. “It makes a positive statement about Davidson and its interest in leveraging technology.”