70,000 IDs Mark 40 Years of the DukeCard

The DukeCard, also available on mobile devices, remains integral to campus life

Three versions of the DukeCard
From its original 1985 design, top left, to the current look, bottom left, and the digital version, right, the DukeCard ID system has been a staple of life at Duke. Photos courtesy of the DukeCard office.

When introduced in 1985, the DukeCard was a first-of-its-kind glimpse into the future.

Its magnetic strip and barcode made it a ground-breaking way to pay for meals, enter campus buildings and borrow library books. But with cardholders’ names typed onto paper labels and photos glued to the front – both of which often peeled off – there was clearly plenty of innovation left to do with the ID.

Forty years later, the DukeCard – now available on your mobile device – remains an indispensable and ever-evolving piece of campus life.

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“We’re always looking for what’s next,” DukeCard Director Debbie DeYulia said.

For decades, the 3.25-inch by 2-inch plastic DukeCards have been quietly essential constants for staff, faculty and students.

With nearly 70,000 active DukeCards across the university and health system, the DukeCard is also a testament to Duke’s collective creativity.

The DukeCard was the vision of Joseph Pietrantoni, former Duke Associate Vice President for Auxiliary Services, who retired in 2003 after 33 years at Duke.

In this undated photo, Former Duke Associate Vice President for Auxiliary Services Joseph Pietrantoni holds some of the early DukeCards. Photo courtesy of Duke University Archives.

Using an innovative spirit harnessed in his previous role at GE Aerospace, which developed technology for NASA, Pietrantoni sought creative ways to help Duke function better.

In the early 1980s, Duke’s operational units used disparate systems for identification and payment. That made campus transactions complex for employees and students, who carried separate cards for identification, libraries, dining facilities and entering residence halls.

Pietrantoni saw value in combining all functions on one card, something no university had done before.

“It was a simple solution, one thing that worked with all of these systems,” said Director of Finance for Auxiliary Services Martha Davidson, who has worked with the DukeCard since 1998. “It’s still solving problems today.”

The first DukeCards released in 1985 served as campus IDs, worked with student meal plans, could be used to pay at campus dining facilities and stores, enter buildings and check out library materials. Later, staff at Duke University Hospital got DukeCards. With its versatile magnetic stripe system, adding more capabilities to the card was simple.

Soon, DukeCards worked with vending and laundry machines, parking readers, athletic event ticketing and even a few local pizza joints.

“People who lost their card would be pretty rattled,” said Duke Law School Staff Specialist Darlene Willis, a DukeCard office staffer from 2004 to 2012. “You couldn’t function without it. Everything was on that card.”

In 2016, new microchips in the card allowed Duke to use wireless readers across campus for building entries and purchases. And in 2018, adding DukeCard capabilities to mobile devices created an even easier way to use Pietrantoni’s pocket-sized game-changer.

“He’d love it,” Davidson said about Pietrantoni, who died in 2017. “Joe always told us to keep things simple, so they’ll keep working for a long, long time.”

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