QR you? DU fests’ entry gets cooler with unique QR codes for every student
No longer is a student ID card valid for gaining entry to a college fest. Now, some colleges are using QR codes to give one-time entry to students and guests.
Remember the old days when you’d seek entry at a Delhi University college fest by flashing your college ID? Well, yes it does sound old for student unions and college authorities have found a new way to check the entry of outsiders with the help of technical advancements. In a first, during this year’s fest season, some colleges in the varsity have made it mandatory for participants including students, vendors, teachers, and even judges and other guests to register with their Aadhaar cards. Upon providing this ID proof, a unique QR (Quick Response) code is generated to enable one-time entry access to the desired fest.
“We were the first college to use a QR code entry procedure during our fest. The E-ticket was generated by a committee of faculty members,” shares Divya Singh, convenor for Students’ Union Advisory and associate professor in Botany department at Maitreyi College. Here, a Google form was shared with students and staff, in which they were required to fill in details such as their name, contact number, email ID, and Aadhaar number, as well as a PDF copy of their ID card. “This was done to ensure a safe and secure fest experience for everyone, which included regular students, their guests, non-collegiate students, participants from different colleges, judges, teachers and their guests, retired teachers, non-teaching staff and their guests, stall vendors, and even the alumni. Everyone was encouraged to register and our database included the referrals of those who were guests,” she adds.
Another reason for students to take this precautionary measure is to create a credible database of all those entering the campus. “We witnessed a footfall of over ten thousand students per day, and it would have been impossible to track who is the correct student, in such a crowd,” says Vipin Kumar, a second-year student of BSc (Hons) Mathematics at Sri Venkateswara College and member of the organising committee of the fest. He adds, “The success of our college fest is judged on the basis of certain parameters, which includes the star performer that is usually the main crowd-puller. Plus, doing so also helps us ensure that no security breach happens or avoid non-students from creating any issues,” adds Kumar.
For some others, it wasn’t just about maintaining the database but also ensuring that they were able to raise some sponsorship. “At last year’s fest we had a dating app as our sponsor,” recalls Jyostna Singh, a second-year student of BA (Hons) English and central counsellor of Miranda House students’ union. Singh adds, “This time we asked everyone to register on a community-based app, which generates a unique QR code for each. Upon scanning this, one was granted entry... This app works on the basis of anonymity, for all purposes, except for the registration, in which case we require college and government ID proof... Per QR code generation, we raised ₹40 as sponsorship! So it was a win-win for all as we could ensure a systematic mode of entry and alongside could collect funds for the fest, too.”