How much is your identity worth? Numerically, how many digits are involved? Four? Five? Six? How about nine?

We’re asked to memorize a lot of numbers in life that identify us. Think of your phone number, your address, your ZIP code, your birthday and a nine-digit wonder that carries it all and can change your life.

You need it to get a driver’s license, get into college, get a job and to get a credit card. Eventually, you’ll need it to receive benefits from the government.

You shouldn’t need it to get your Introduction to Music exam grade off the door of your TA’s office.

Social Security numbers are meant to be so much more than a grade identifier and shouldn’t be tossed around so carelessly.

The implications of losing one’s Social Security card are enough to send an office full of bureaucrats into a tizzy and a flurry of paperwork.

Now, the Student Association Senate faces a decision to overhaul the way the university identifies its students. At Sunday’s meeting, senators sent around a petition to oppose the use of Social Security numbers as students’ primary identification.

The SA needs to forcefully pursue this option.

Didn’t the university issue every student a zID number for a reason?

Understandably, this would force students to memorize yet another number, but the advantages greatly outweigh the disadvantages.

Consider how easy it is to steal someone’s identity just by getting a hold of his or her Social Security number. A reasonably intelligent person can apply for a laundry list of credit cards and accumulate thousands of dollars of debt on a total stranger’s credit record.

It’s not as unheard of as some might believe.

Issuing students a universal identification number could streamline records at Information Technology Services and the Office of Registration and Records, while providing the faculty an anonymous method of feeding the grade-hungry masses.

After all, your identity is worth so much more than a nine-digit number.