University of Maine Dining Services plans to test a palm reader device to check meal plan holders into dining halls, reports the Maine Campus newspaper. The month-long pilot already has 650 students signed up to participate.
The scanners, similar to what many school districts use to check students through lunch lines, are being tested in anticipation of an unlimited meal plan slated to debut next year. The plan would allow meal plan holders to eat as often as they want in three campus dining commons. The current system, which uses card scanners, would be vulnerable to students passing around their cards to non-meal-plan holders.