Southern University at New Orleans has partnered with Higher One, the technology and payment services company focused on higher education, to electronically distribute Financial Aid and other refund disbursements to its students.

Currently, refunds are disbursed to students via paper check, making it difficult for both students and campus administration. Students have to wait extended periods of time to receive their refunds and checks must be printed, stuffed and tracked by campus officials - a labor-intensive task.

With Higher One’s OneDisburse refund management system SUNO students will be sent a card in the mail with instructions on how to log onto a secure website. From there students will then be asked to select how they would like to receive their refund from the college, including direct deposit to the OneAccount - an optional, no minimum balance, no monthly fee, FDIC Insured checking account provided by Higher One - or an automated transfer to a bank account of their choice.

When it comes time for disbursements to be made, a file is sent from SUNO to Higher One that that includes student names and the total amount of each refund. An accompanying wire is also routed for the amount of the total disbursement. Higher One then disburses the refunds to each student based on how he or she chose to receive it.

Bright Way College in Jankipuram in India has implemented a system developed by biometrics developer GI Biometric Solutions in hopes of better protecting its students from being sent home with people that are not supposed to be picking up the children, such as kidnappers, according to a Times of India article.

The system was put into place following an incident where one of the school’s primary students returned to school crying following the end of school saying someone had come to take him home pretending to be a friend of his father’s.

Officials from GI Biometrics cited incidents as this as the driving force behind the development of their software that now serves the Bright Way College. Enrollment into the system requires thumbprints from each guardian of a child and digital photos of each guardian and the child so that when a guardian scans his or her thumb, it brings up their picture and the picture of their child.

While the time it takes to get all the students out after school has quadrupled, school officials take solace in the increased safety of its student population.

Read the full story here.

California State University, Northridge, is encouraging students to experience the variety of campus dining locations by giving out discounts and prizes, according to the Daily Sundial.

Students are issued a passport with 11 slots for participating CSUN dining locations to stamp each time the student makes a minimum purchase. The first two stamps give students $1 off their next purchase, four stamps gives them $3 off their subsequent purchase.

Once the card is filled the students can exchange the passport at any of the participating dining locations to receive a $12 dining card, and then be entered into a drawing to win prizes like an iPod Touch or a mountain bike.

To read more click here.

University of Hawaii officials made an announcement that a hacker was able to breach the security of a parking office server, which contained the personal information of some 53,000 people, according to the Honolulu Star Advertiser.

Officials say that there were a total of 40,870 Social Security Numbers and 200 credit cards that were possibly compromised.

A spokesman for the university said the breach was noticed during a routine audit carried out June 15, in which discovered that someone gained unauthorized access on May 30 to a computer server used by the UH parking office.

The server contained personal information, including names, Social Security numbers, addresses, driver license numbers, vehicle information and credit card information.

There was no indication as to whether any of the information was viewed or downloaded by the hacker, and the matter has been turned over to the Honolulu police, the FBI and UH’s forensics investigator.

Read the full story here.

Penn State University has yet again been victimized with another data breach situation resulting in the possible compromise of 15,800 student’s personal information, according to eSecurity Planet.

Officials said a computer in the campus’s Outreach Market Research and Data office, holding a cached copy of Social Security Numbers, was communicating with a botnet’s command-and-control center; exposing the student’s names, Social Security numbers and other personal information.

It is not known how long the university computer or student data had been compromised. This comes only a few months following a previous cyber attack on PSU, which took place back in December 2009.

Penn State officials say students affected by this will be receiving notification letters, and that the school intends to revisit its data protection and security policies to ensure future botnet attacks are either defused or identified much earlier.

To read more click here.

Infinite Campus Inc. announced the availability of Cafeteria Serve, a new point-of-sale food service option with an integrated online payment functionality. This new service, designed for cafeteria operations not requiring cash or complex menus, comes as part of the Campus Food Service license from Infinite Campus.

Designed to streamline cafeteria operations, Campus Food Service establishes individual food service accounts, tracks purchases and designs flexible menu layouts.

It enables cafeteria staff to review food service transactions, such as meal counts, through a simple Web interface. Parents and guardians can also access to their students’ meal selections and account balances in real time through the Campus Portal.

Infinite Campus also announced Campus Online Payments which enables parents, guardians and staff to use Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover cards, or direct debits from a checking or savings account to pay for food service charges and other school fees.