While riding the 1 Muni bus along the Embarcadero on a rainy morning, Angely Alas reached into her pocket for her student ID to pay the $2.75 rider fee. She panicked: Where’s her ID? She dug into the bottom of her bag, still no luck.
“I was freaking out,” Alas said, who suspects that she dropped the ID during her hour-long commute into the city from Oakland.

For some students, losing their SF State ID isn’t a big deal. Rather, its simply the hassle of replacing a rarely used card. For others, as in Alas’ case, it’s the $20 replacement alongside losing access to public transportation and for others, campus meal plans. For an unfortunate few, it can be the start of fraud, something college aged-students were the third most targeted group for in 2022, according to a survey by the Federal Trade Commission.
The fourth-year apparel and design student was mentally retracing her last steps to BART that morning, when John Lee saw a purple plastic card lying between the Embarcadero BART exit and cable cars on Powell Street. Lee, an East Bay resident, was headed to work when he found Alas’s ID.

“I just got an image in my head of her like looking through her wallet and not finding her Clipper card,” said Lee.
Each week, approximately 20 students lose their IDs, according to Kent Bravo, a media relations specialist at SF State speaking on behalf of the OneCard office. In a semester’s time, this comes out to about 300 lost IDs needing replacement.

James Dudley, an SF State Criminal Justice lecturer and former SF police officer, advises students who have lost IDs or wallets to immediately cancel their credit and debit cards and “go straight to UPD [University Police Department] and make a police report.”

Similarly, the university police advise students to deactivate the stolen or lost ID card, online or at the OneCard office, to prevent any unwarranted use. The OneCard office, located in the Student Services building, can provide a replacement ID or check to see if any cards were turned in.

Although students can have a replacement ID printed in five minutes, the process of addressing the loss of a student ID is far more complicated than a visit to the OneCard office.

“It was a hard time,” said Mae Evers, a second-year student majoring in hospitality and tourism management. “I couldn’t go to the dining hall for four days. […] I lost it on a weekend.” Although stolen OneCards aren’t common, according to Bravo, the consequences of losing it and ending up in the wrong hands may be a motivator to act with more caution.

“In the worst case scenario,” said Dudley. “You could really have an issue with somebody creating a whole different identity, a new social security number, building credit card debts, maxing out your credit cards.”

For Ariana Negrete, fear was the feeling that hit her minutes after getting off Muni and knowing that she had left her wallet behind.

“I realized [the wallet was gone] when it was too late,” said Negrete, a third-year speech language and hearing sciences student.

While Negrete paid the $20 replacement fee, she still wonders where her ID ended up. According to Dudley, that lag time – like what Negrete experienced – between losing an item and realizing it’s gone is “critical,” as it delays reporting the loss.

“There’s this hesitancy when we were unsure if we lost something or it got stolen,” said Dudley. “Think to yourself, how long am I going [to] look for this thing before I finally decide it’s stolen or lost and somebody’s using it.”
Although identity theft may not be at the top of every student’s mind when they lose their ID, a OneCard might be a starting point for a thief to go online and find other personal data and information, explained Dudley.
For Alas, losing her student ID came with consequences.

“I’m extremely dependent on it. I use it just about every single day,” said Alas, who relies on it to commute to work in Oakland, SF State and her second job in the Fillmore District.
Losing a student ID poses the consequence of access to the dining hall, getting a ticket on public transportation or being at risk for fraud. Keeping a list of ID numbers, backs of credit cards, and health numbers to have in case it is lost or stolen is never a bad idea.

Regardless of the scenario, the student ID needs to be kept in a safe place.