Card, mobile credential, payment and security
A single home football game at Ole Miss can see hundreds of students transferring their tickets. It's a common practice for which the university has provided a secure transfer system. Not all ticket transfers are allowed, however, and for good reason.
According to a report from The Daily Mississippian, some students are skirting the official transfer method and are instead loaning their campus cards to others for stadium access. Ole Miss Athletics has delivered student tickets to student IDs since 2010, but the ability to transfer tickets between valid student IDs is a new feature this year. A new online website enables students to transfer their ticket to another valid student ID, though each ID can only hold one valid ticket per game.
University police have been cracking down on ID ticket sharing, and any Ole Miss students that opt to loan their campus card to another person for stadium entry do so at the risk of card confiscation. Moreover, the ticket buyer, or loanee, will be refused entrance.
The university's ticket operations reports that 8,000 student section season tickets were made available this year, and at Ole Miss' recent game against Arkansas on November 7, police reportedly confiscating some 35 student IDs at the gate.
Recent success of the football team, combined with a general increased demand for tickets, has led to the spike in student ID sharing. Ticket operations at the university report that student tickets for football are sold at a discounted price of $120, as compared to the $385 public price for a season ticket.
“Having student tickets delivered to your student ID is designed to simplify the ticketing process for the student, as you are required to have your university ID on your person at all times when on campus,” says Matt Cook, manager of ticket operations at Ole Miss. “We only allow students to transfer tickets to other students to maintain the integrity of the student section.”
University Police have been confiscating IDs at the gates, and one dead giveaway has been the photo on the ID very obviously not matching the cardholder at the gate. Ole Miss, like many universities, also has a policy prohibiting students from sharing their IDs -- a policy that carries disciplinary action if caught.
University police stress that the safety and security implications associated with the sharing of IDs is the most worrisome aspect of the recent trend, as the credentials also enable access to student flex dollars, residence halls and other areas on campus.
Card offices sit at the core of security on campus. They issue the credentials that control privileges, transactions and access to buildings throughout campus.
For this reason, it is apparent that campus cards are valuable and must be protected. But what is sometimes overlooked is that the raw materials used to create these credentials also need to be secured.
Cardstock, print ribbons and printers themselves are tools of the trade, but in the wrong hands they can lead to the creation of fraudulent student IDs. But how does a card office that must open its doors to serve an entire campus population, secure materials while still ensuring rapid and convenient service?
Simply put, campus card offices need to secure cards, printers and supplies. This limits temptation by passersby, customers or staff to steal blank cards, ribbons or laminates.
In the wrong hands, these materials could certainly create an embarrassing situation for the institution. Fraudulent student IDs could enable an unauthorized individual to gain access to secure areas of campus … or something far worse.
Even if stolen materials aren’t used to falsify student IDs or other identification documents, the card office could still be hit for hundreds, even thousands, of dollars or more in lost property. “Supplies are not cheap and reselling on eBay, or the like, could net a nice profit for the person taking the items,” says Mark Degan, corporate marketing manager for ColorID.
The importance of securing card materials increases if holograms or other security laminates are used in the production of cards or if banking cards are issued from the card office, says Fred Emery, director of OneCard sales at Heartland Campus Solutions. “For this reason, many banks and card brands have very specific guidelines that a campus must adhere to if issuing cards for a banking partnership,” he adds.
When securing card office property, it’s important to know what materials are worth safeguarding. Topping the list – blank cardstock, print ribbons, and for sheer cost alone, the card printer. “It is a good idea to keep proper inventory of these items in addition to keeping them secure,” says Emery.
“If it were my card office, I’d want the all my supplies under some sort of lock-and-key system,” says Degan. “By locking the materials, you eliminate temptation from part-time workers, but I would also add accountability by logging who opens and removes stock from the secured location in a given day.”
Ribbons and cards are the first items a card office should secure in a locking cabinet or safe, says Emery. “Printers can be locked down much like computers and should be kept, at the very least, behind a locked door.”
At Ontario’s Mohawk College, card office personnel have implemented both security and auditing measures to monitor the office’s valuable materials.
“Our ONE Card office secures all our card materials in a locked cabinet, and only a few people have access,” says Rob Morrallee, ONE Card administrator at Mohawk College.
Mohawk secures its blank cards, printer ribbons, lost cards and miscellaneous issuance items. The university also has a number of tablets that the office uses secured in a locked cabinet.
If a campus card office thinks there is a security problem, running out in a panic and buying expensive security equipment isn’t necessarily the answer.
As a start, pick out the card office’s weakest link, so to speak. Where in the office’s process is someone most likely to steal a card – blank or printed – a print ribbon or printer? Use that as a staring point and fill the gaps with either procedural changes like audit trails and inventory tracking or new security measures like safes or lockers.
Proper checks and balances are also important. Personnel management is a large part of office security, so if your card office manager holds the only key to the vault, it’s important to have a contingency plan. What happens if the card office manager is out sick? Who then holds the key?
Security often comes at the expense of convenience, but it’s a tradeoff that should be worth making. If it takes a little extra time each day to properly lock up card office’s materials, then take the time. It will be worth it if the alternative is being hit for thousands of dollars in lost property or having to answer difficult questions when the fake ID trail leads back to the card office door.
“Encoded cards are the most important item that we keep locked up as these cards have access to the students account and may contain funds that have been loaded to their account,” he says. “These can be both lost cards and cards that have not yet been picked up by students or staff members.”
Mohawk’s card office utilizes the equipment sign-out module that comes with the Heartland OneCard program, says Morrallee. “This helps us to keep track of our inventory.”
Security is the job of all those involved in the production of the card, and all staff should be concerned that procedures are being followed and items are kept secured, explains Emery.
But every team needs a leader when it comes to security and that is the role of the ID card office manager. “They are best suited for implementing a system that works for their team. In situations where there isn’t an card office manager, though, I’d rely on IT or security personnel to construct a plan,” says Degan.
For Minnesota’s St. Cloud State University, card office security is primarily the responsibility of the office director. One of its drivers for securing card materials is the susceptibility of card technology – specifically mag stripe – to be compromised, , says Rory Michaelis, director, Campus Card at St. Cloud State University. “As we all know, mag stripe cards can be easily duplicated.”
The main office door is secured with an access control reader that enables any time access for Michaelis – as the only full time employee in the office – but limits student worker access to business hours only.
St. Cloud State’s materials are stored in a locked filing cabinet, and Michaelis holds the only key. “I control the key, and students log each event when materials are removed from the inventory,” says Michaelis.
Pepsi vending machines on campus at the University of Wyoming have expanded their payment options to accept the student ID and declining balance funds.
According to an official release from the University of Wyoming, the new payment method will enable WyoOne ID cardholders with "Campus $$" or "Dining $$" to purchase beverages at all Pepsi machines on campus. The additional payment method is made possible by an agreement between the Wyoming's campus card vendor, Blackboard, and Pepsi Cola.
“This added payment option will provide WyoOne ID cardholders the ability to spend their WyoOne ID card debit account funds at all of the Pepsi vending machines on campus,” says Dawn Deiss, WyoOne ID office manager. “This adds to the ID card’s functionality and provides cardholders a convenient way to make purchases.”
Campus $$ funds can also be used to make purchases at Wyoming's University Store, to purchase parking passes and pay parking citations, to pay for print/copy services at campus libraries and union copy center, for residence hall laundry machines via the WyoOne debit-card functionality, as well as for purchases at Wyoming's on-campus food outlets.
Also included in the new vending machine initiative are Dining $$ funds. These funds are included in meal plans and can be used at dining locations across campus. Dining $$ are nonrefundable debit account funds placed on students' WyoOne Cards that are intended to provide greater choice and flexibility in student campus dining.
The vending machines accepting the WyoOne ID are centrally located at heavily trafficked academic building on campus, as well as at residence halls and other select campus locations. Deposits to WyoOne accounts can be made online, in person at the WyoOne ID Office, at the university's Cashier's Office, or at one of the cash deposit machines located throughout campus.
For many colleges and universities, the student ID is central to making purchases on and off campus. But what happens when a new payment method enters the fray? The digital currency known as Bitcoin has been making headlines for several years now, and it has started making its way to campus.
While a host of universities around the globe have been experimenting with Bitcoin, the Georgia Institute of Technology is the first to tie the new tender to the campus card.
Bitcoin is an Internet-based currency and medium of exchange that enables instantaneous transactions and borderless transfer of ownership. It was developed in 2008 and launched in 2009.
It isn’t an official tender but rather a community-run currency system not controlled by a central bank or government. This means, for example, that Bitcoin can be transferred from person to person without first going through a financial institution or clearinghouse like standard currency. This can lead to lower fees and flexibility, but it also creates concerns among governments, as there are no prerequisites or subjective limits to its use.
Think of it this way, email lets you send letters for free anywhere in the world. Skype lets you make phone calls for free anywhere in the world. In a similar fashion, Bitcoin lets you send money to anyone, anywhere in the world for free – or for a much smaller than normal transaction fee.
It also has to be said that Bitcoin remains an experimental new currency that is still in active development. This means that its future is anything but certain, as it depends heavily on the adoption and participation of the general public. It also must dodge regulators that seek to squash it for fear it fosters the laundering of money, funding of illicit activity and avoiding of taxes.
Georgia Tech’s campus card system, the BuzzCard, was the central player in a pilot that utilized Bitcoin to deposit funds into students’ declining balance accounts. The BuzzCard Center housed a Bitcoin-enabled merchant terminal to facilitate the process.
Alternately, students could download the “Jacket Wallet” app to make deposits. Jacket Wallet is a dedicated Bitcoin mobile wallet designed exclusively for Georgia Tech students and alumni by Bitcoin wallet provider Pheeva. Jacket Wallet can be used for instantaneous transfer of Bitcoin anywhere in the world at no cost.
As part of the pilot, the university also tested Bitcoin for purchases at stadium concession stands.
Georgia Tech alumni Tony Gallippi and Stephen Pair founded a company called BitPay. They partnered with the Georgia Tech Athletic Association (GTAA) to increase awareness of Bitcoin with their target demographic of tech-savvy college students, says James Pete, senior director of Campus Services-Information Technology Group at Georgia Tech.
Founded in 2011, BitPay specializes in Bitcoin payment processing and works to enable clients to accept the payments. BitPay entered the fray in the technology’s early days and claims to be the largest Bitcoin payment processor in the world, with 60,000 merchants on six continents.
Canadian U’s bookstores to accept Bitcoin
The bookstore at Simon Fraser University’s network of campuses is set to accept Bitcoin payments. The bookstore initiative marks the latest foray into Bitcoin for Simon Fraser, who became the first Canadian university to accept Bitcoin donations in August 2014.
According to The Georgia Straight, university-run bookstores at Simon Fraser’s Burnaby, Vancouver and Surrey campuses will accept Bitcoin payments for textbooks and other store items. Automated Bitcoin vending machines, called AVMs or Bitcoin ATMs, have been installed at the three locations.
Ontario-based BitSent is the company providing the Bitcoin ATMs, which allow students to purchase Bitcoins, or fractions of Bitcoins, with cash. Users don’t need to set up an account or share personal banking information to make the exchange. They simply insert the amount of cash they wish to convert to Bitcoin into the machine and it is credited to their Bitocin wallet.
BitPay reached out to Georgia Tech Administration to engage in conversations regarding the acceptance of Bitcoin as a form of payment for on-campus transactions, says Pete. “Through those conversations, the BuzzCard Program decided to push-forward with a pilot to measure user interest and behavior,” he adds.
The campus card program pilot includes the ability for students, faculty and staff to utilize Bitcoin as a payment type for declining balance deposits, explains Pete.
He explains that BitPay’s partnership with Georgia Tech is two fold. First was the concession payment service that covered the 2014-15 football and basketball seasons. Second was the acceptance of Bitcoins to fund the campus card account that enables purchases from food to parking to laundry.
There were two primary reasons behind the Bitcoin pilot at Georgia Tech, and the first was in the institution’s name.
“Georgia Tech is a technology focused institution and our students are early adopters of new digital solutions and services like Bitcoin,” explains Pete. “The BitPay merchant base has grown rapidly, and this could predict future service expectations of our students.”
The second reason behind the Bitcoin pilot was the lower fees associated with the digital currency. “From a business perspective, BitPay offers a no-fee, no-risk Bitcoin merchant acceptance program,” explains Pete. “It does not assess higher education merchants a monthly fee, nor do they assess transaction fees.”
By Tom Stiles, Identification Systems Group
The task of re-issuing all or part of your campus population can seem daunting, but with proper planning it can be a breeze. How do you go about getting the project accomplished on time, accurately, and in budget? The following list includes considerations and suggestions based on the experience of the ISG and our member dealers.
Have a team that includes the various stakeholders on your campus. This will include your office as well as IT, security, housing and other departments that utilize the card. This way you can all be on the same page at the start of the project.
Cards, printer supplies, rental units or outsourcing charges, labor, and inter-departmental charges are all costs associated with a re-carding. Make a list of each cost area, and be sure there is agreement on the various departmental budgets that will be charged.
An absolute must is an accurate database of cardholders. Does the database include all the fields of data needed for the new card? If not, how will you obtain the data? If you are issuing contactless or prox cards, how will the programmed card number be read and added to the database, and how will it be exported to relying systems like door access? If the database includes duplicate records, have it scrubbed to eliminate clutter.
The ID card is a part of an overall security plan, and current photos help with visual identification. You may need to re-capture photos for all or part of your base to ensure you have updated, fresh photos and improve integrity if current photos are of poor quality or have inadequate centering and cropping.
If you want to capture new photos, do you have adequate capture stations, and how will you coordinate the flow of people? Online photo submission is an option. However, the time required to crop, center, save and approve may be similar to simply capturing a live photo.
It is very important for test cards to be created, including all machine-readable technologies. These must be tested in the relevant systems to assure they work properly. Test cards also allow you to review the color, placement of fields, fonts and even card durability. Testing also should include the interface to the various other systems that need card data. Testing and quality control should continue throughout the project.
If you presently use pre-printed card stock, now is the perfect time to consider if you should move to retransfer print technology. Retransfer printers provide pre-printed quality, less card waste (important for technology cards), and they don’t leave a “void” if you need to print over the area where the contactless chip is located. Retransfer printer supplies generally cost a bit more on a per-card basis, but so does preprinting. And, preprinting has other challenges like longer lead times, minimum orders and receipt of +/- 10% of what you ordered.
If you plan to reprint the cards yourself, make sure you have more than enough supplies, such as ribbons, laminates, cards and printer cleaning kits.
There are three options for mass printing of the new cards.
Most campuses that re-issue require the cardholder to pick up the new card in-person and surrender their old card. An important part of the process is to verify the person is who they say they are. Some campuses ask for a state issued ID as verification. To prevent long lines, schedule pick ups based on groups over a period of time. For instance, freshman pick-up could be Tuesday from 9-5, but based on last name (9-Noon for names A-M, 1-5 p.m. for names N-Z).
There should be a process to activate the new card and de-activate the old card at the time it is picked up. There should not be a waiting period for the new card to be active, nor should you have two cards active for any person.
If using your own equipment, consider contracting with your local ISG dealer to have a technician on-site during the project. This provides the assurance of a certified expert to help you through the process and service anything that breaks.
It is important to communicate in advance with your students and staff about the re-issuance. Think of it as a marketing campaign. Communications can be through email, university websites, social media and more. Creating awareness is the key factor.
You can, for example, conduct a multi-step campaign and launch the card project. Start in the spring with a card design competition, and use social media and sporting events to create a buzz. During the summer, promote the card but don’t unveil it. Once August hits, make the big reveal with giveaways and swag as students pick up the new ID.
Provide an FAQ detailing the new cards and why they are being issued. Parents want to see important safety changes, so this guide educates students, staff and parents.
Mass (re) issuance is no small task, but with proper planning and the right team, you can make it straightforward and cost effective.
Identification Systems Group (ISG) is a nationwide network of local identification system integrators, providing high quality, cost effective solutions backed by local support and the strength of its Professional Services Certification program. Each company works together to provide seamless nationwide support.
By Jeanine Brooks, Director Action Card, The University of Alabama
How can Auxiliary Services professionals empower their card/transaction system management, champion the services and programs driven by these campus enterprise level systems and secure funding to support campus-wide programming? Campus card programs serve as part of your university’s branding strategy, as well as a trusted data source and access tool for campus services. The tool may change with the next technology iteration but your program’s mission remains the same – streamline campus operations and enhance customer service.
How can you best drive administrative awareness and promote future funding for your operations?
For administrators program value is driven by enhanced customer service, stable operations, cross campus systems integration for consistent data sources, and strong problem solving for departmental or campus-wide solutions.
Card/transaction systems vary by institution for funding solutions. There are fully institutionally funded operations, fully self-funded operations as well as others that are a blend with some services generating revenue and others funded from institutional sources. Below are strategies that can assist you in highlighting your program’s value to campus administration for funding requests.
You need a unique department staffed by full-time employees dedicated to utilizing the power of these systems to bring solutions to campus. When transaction systems are lumped under another department name with only shared staff or part-time employees and student workers, you have limited your ability to brand the programs and services, limited administrative recognition for budgeting, limited the time employees can spend installing standard services, and limited employees ability to focus on important custom solutions that solve unique issues for your campus environment.
If internal departmental expertise is not available in your office structure, strong campus partnerships are critical for support expertise. At The University of Alabama, we have a formal, contracted relationship with OIT for full support, and they are a critical partner in our program development. They have also become a program champion, recognizing and communicating value to a wide base of campus contacts and administrators.
You also need a convenient office location with operational space, as well as a strong branded online presence. When you make the campus community dependent on the card program for basic daily services such as dining, door access, library check-out, campus event access, etc., your customers need to be able to find you and the information they need. When possible, self-managed access is beneficial, as today’s customers do not function on traditional business hours.
Establish clear mission and vision statements as your program foundation and post them online for your administrators and customers to view. When developing a program or service, identify the fit with your department, organization, and institutional mission and vision statements.
Prove your program worth by providing a unique solution to a high profile issue. Examples at the University of Alabama include Online Photo Submittal and MyTickets, an online electronic ticketing system primarily used for student football tickets. Worth can be defined not only in dollars saved but enhanced customer service, improved efficiencies and secure operations.
Provide automated data and access tools for campus departments. Can your program help your institution manage growth? Can you provide critical usage data to departments and automate reporting? Can it be the tool to link multiple campus systems for an integrated service for customers?
