How to get a student ID without being a student.

October 7, 2008 4:45 PM

[UCBerkeley Airbears filter] I'm currently a student at Berkeley City College, but I have two classes each week on the UCB campus. I want wifi access... how?.

I went to the student services area, and they tried to be helpful and were ready to give me a CalNet/AirBears account, but without me being able to provide any sort of UC Berkeley student ID number, there was nothing they could do for me.

There are temporary access passes, but they require being setup by the head of a dept., but because the class I'm taking is a community college class that just happens to be on the Cal campus, I wouldn't even being to know how to figure that out.

So is there any person I could talk to, or any way to get a student ID number for Cal while I'm not a student there?

posted by meowN to education (4 comments total)

There are two ways to get access to AirBears without a CalNet ID: an affiliate account, or a guest account.

For affiliate accounts, you do need to be approved by someone with some kind of muckety-muck status (a CalNet deputy). When you say you went to "student services," do you mean the Cal1Card office? Did you talk to someone who's a CalNet deputy, or did whoever was at the desk just tell you they couldn't do it?

For guest accounts, any faculty or staff member can get you one. These are not good for your purposes, because they only last for up to a week.

Can you ask your instructor to talk to the powers that be and ask that students in your class be approved for affiliate accounts?

Email me (in profile) if you want more specifics or further advice.
posted by expialidocious at 5:15 PM on October 7, 2008

Yeah I was at the Cal1Card office. I'll try searching out a CalNet deputy next.

As for my instructor... she's so disorganized just in dealing with her own class and the city college, I can guarantee she won't be of any help in this issue =/

Thanks for the lead, I'll report back.
posted by meowN at 5:23 PM on October 7, 2008

Damn, you have no idea how hard it is to find anybody on campus who actually knows what a CalNet deputy is. I eventually got a list of email addresses though, but the other offices were already closed.
posted by meowN at 1:28 AM on October 8, 2008

I asked a few people, including my local CalNet deputy, and it's pretty clear you need to have some official connection to the university to get an affiliate account.

One way to achieve that might be to enroll in an Extension class. Their website isn't clear on whether normal Extension classes allow you to get an account, but if you do concurrent enrollment (take a regular university class through Extension, without applying for admission to UC), you definitely could. Also I believe Summer Session students qualify, if you are still having this issue come next May.

Needless to say, unless there's a course you need that's not offered at Berkeley City College, these are some expensive ways to get free wifi.
posted by expialidocious at 1:59 PM on October 9, 2008