Report Rejects Palm Readers for Fall

The project supervisor of the Identimation checking system which uses a palm-reading device to check students entering dining halls, has recommended that the system be rejected for use this fall.

Gregory R. Dube '76, the project supervisor, said yesterday that "ignorant, misinformed and negligent comments by members of the upper echelon" which have solidified a built-in bias against "inflexible" systems is the major reason for rejecting the Identimation system.

Charles U. Daly, vice president for government and community affairs, said in late June that the machines are "more suited for Leavenworth than Harvard."

Board Cheating

The Identimation system is designed to prevent people from lending their bursar's cards to people who are not on board plans.

The palm-reading device checks finger length, finger type curvation and translucency of skin, and is considered a better form of identification than a picture I.D.

The food Service department considers the lending of I.D. cards to be the major method of board cheating, and if the Identimation was instituted. Dube said, board bills could go down.

If the palm reading aspect of the system had not provoked such negative reaction, he said, his report would have recommended implementation of the system.

"People at Harvard are used to bending the rules, so as soon as a system is seen to be incircumventible people star calling it inhumane," Dube said.

Stephen S.J. Hall, vice president for administration, said yesterday if Dube's report "had any logic in it," he will probably accept its recommendations.

If the checkers in the House dining halls could be convinced to check cards all the time, instead of checking off people on personal recognizance, then the cheating problem would be largely solved. Dube said, but he added he does not think the checkers can be convinced.

"When we experimented in Kirkland House this spring with having the checkers ask the House residents to show their cards as they entered, it caused minor revolt. Some people flatly refused to show the cards," he said