Picture this: A student waiting in line at Walgreen's pulls out his wallet, distraught to find his wallet empty, save of course, for his student identification card.The Student Union Advocacy Committee is seeking to allow student IDs to be used as debit or credit cards.

Committee co-chair Ezra Stark '06 said ID cards would be backed by a bank picked through a bidding process. Because that bank would profit from creating new accounts and foster customer loyalty, he said that he does not anticipate any increased costs for the University.

"It's exciting because you get to take your Brandeis ID and use it anywhere in the country," Stark said. "I think students would be much in favor of this option."

Stark, the Union senator-at-large, said he and Adam Gartner '07, the non-senate co-chair of the committee, are reviewing similar banking contracts at other universities. He said the University of Michigan and the University of Delaware already have this system in place.

The committee is now compiling information to submit to University Treasurer Jeff Solomon to argue that the proposal would not cost the University or students.

A call to Solomon's office was forwarded to University Services, which declined to comment until after they review the proposal.

The plan comes after the committee's review of the WhoCash system last year, which revealed what Gartner called "a drop off" in the use of the service. He attributed this decline to federal regulations that forced the University to discontinue billing of WhoCash to students' University accounts.

"Every student government we have contacted at different universities loves the system," Stark said, adding that he hopes to submit the committee's report to the administration by the end of this year.