Sounds like "bare" is exactly the right term, contrasted with "bear".
If you read the article, the SSN is still on the card. But you need a
card reader to extract it, and Google says that is a $56 purchase.
(the article does say encoded in the mag stripe, maybe they mean
encrypted, but I doubt it)

On Feb 9, 2005, at 4:28 PM, Tom Rockwell wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I thought this article was an interesting reminder that other
> institutions face issues relating to privacy of Social Security numbers
> and that in the past these numbers were not treated as being private.
>
> http://newshound.de.siu.edu/spring05/stories/storyReader$272
>
> The gist of the story is that students at Southern Illinois University
> are being given the opportunity to pay $15 to have new student ID cards
> issued that don't bare their SSN.  The computer system that is based on
> using SSN for indexing students was purchased in the 1970's and isn't
> planned to be replaced until after the current support contract ends in
> 2009.
>
> I'll skip adding my 2 cents about SSN and privacy.
>
> Cheers,
> Tom
>