Nathaniel Nelson / Winonan

After converting alumni and retirees to StarID this weekend, Winona State University completed its transition to this online identification system.

This change affects all of the university’s digital services, including email, D2L, e-services and personal computer access.

StarID is the form of digital identification used by all of the institutions in the Minnesota State system, including St. Cloud State University and Minnesota State University, Mankato. It is used as a single, unified identifier allowing for students of one institution to transfer or take classes from another, according to Tech Support.

Kenneth Janz, associate vice president for academic affairs and chief information officer, is in charge of the technical operations at Winona State.

The switch to StarID was not just a simple name switch, Janz said. Behind the scenes, there were hundreds of internal changes to digital architecture to make sure the change was smooth.

“There was a lot of back end work that people never saw,” Janz said. “We quite literally had 20 people, all they did was work on StarID.”

With this update, students can now access the wireless networks, or StarLANs, on any Minnesota State campus. In addition, students who travel between universities will have no problems in transferring their information.

“You could go to Normandale and login to their wireless with your StarID. You could go to Century College and login with your StarID,” Janz said.

Robin Honken, director of user services at Winona State, has been working on the transfer over the summer, making sure students make the switch easily and comfortably.

“We are either the last or the second to last institution to move to StarID,” Honken said.

Honken said the switch was necessary for the future of Winona State’s technology services, and while the early stages may seem like a hassle, the change will quickly be beneficial.

“It feels like a lot of hurdles to jump through, but you will in theory have kind of one login now: your StarID and StarID password that you [use to] access e-services, access your email, access your computer on campus access your D2L…” Honken said. “Instead of having to remember multiple logins, you’ll now have just the one.”

This process of consistency across all platforms is still in progress, as some accounts need just the StarID while others need the full email address. In the coming months, those inconsistencies may be fixed, but for the moment, making sure everyone is connected to StarID is the priority, according to Honken.

The change has been implemented with a staggered rollout, with the majority of students being transferred to StarID on Aug. 8. Incoming first-year students, faculty and students who exchanged their laptops made the move earlier in the summer.

On Sunday, the shift to StarID was finalized with alumni and retirees being the last to move to the new format.

By staggering the release, it allowed most of the problems with the platform roll out to be sorted out ahead of time, Honken said.

“My expectation was [the rollout] was going to be a lot worse. I think it’s been good.” Honken said.

While most of the problems have been remedied, some still persist. According to Honken, there have been reports of problems downloading programs from Winona State Software Additions as well as duplicate accounts on the internal side.

One of the most common mistakes from the change has come from student emails, according to Robin Honken. While the login information is now StarID instead of the older name-based username, the actual email address has not changed.

“The biggest thing that people need to remember is your email address stays the same. That’s been the biggest point of confusion,” Honken said, “The email address is the same as it always was, we’re calling it your ‘friendly name.’ The only thing that’s changing is the login.”