Introduction
StarID Format
Question
Why does the StarID look the way it does?
Answer
The StarID format consists of two letters followed by four numbers, followed by two letters, such as ab1234cd. The StarID format was selected based on analysis of usernames across the entire Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.
Your StarID can be used across all institutions, so using any part of your name, college, university, Tech ID, netID, or D2L Brightspace username is not possible because these identifiers may be duplicated across institutions and because of increased privacy requirements and laws like FERPA. Even email addresses are assigned and re-assigned at many institutions.
The StarID is never duplicated and never re-assigned. This means that once issued, you can use the same StarID every time you visit a participating institution over the lifetime of your relationship with Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.
Reasons Behind StarID Format:
- Non-name based identifiers will not have to change if a name changes.
- Non-name based identifiers avoid privacy issues (e.g. FERPA, HIPAA).
- Non-name based identifiers do not have name collision problems. For example, if the identifier jsmith has been assigned to John Smith, but Jackie Smith comes along next month what will Jackie's identifier be: jsmith1, jasmith?
- A consistent format prevents the need for "filler" characters that may result in an undesirable identifier.
- A consistent eight character length facilitates ease of integration with legacy systems. Legacy systems can, generally, accommodate an eight character identifier, but seldom one that is longer than eight characters.
- An eight character identifier is easier to remember than one that is longer.
- A consistent, randomly generated, eight character credential will never need to change and can, therefore, be assigned to one person for the entire duration of a person's affiliation with MnSCU.
For further information see starid.minnstate.edu/help