Card, mobile credential, payment and security
Ever wonder what life is like for your card office peers at other institutions? Maybe you've been to a NACCU conference and spoken to another card administrator about their operation, but simply couldn't visualize it because you haven't seen their setup with your own eyes.
Over the course of the year, CR80News is going try to change that with our Card Office Tour series. In this video series you will have the unique opportunity to tour campus card offices at institutions large and small across the country, as well as hear straight from the source about the office's overall operation, projects they are undertaking and the challenges they face.
We kick off our office tour in Statesboro, Georgia on the campus of Georgia Southern University where the campus card has grown to be an integral part of student life. Hear from the Director of Eagle Card Services, Richard Wynn, as he gives a rundown of many services that the Eagle Card supports, as well as a glimpse at the office itself.
[infobox type='success' title='SUBMIT YOUR CARD OFFICE VIDEO']Want to share your program with peers across the country? Send a short video to [email protected][/infobox]
CR80News would love for your campus to be the next stop on our tour! To participate simply send in a video showing your campus card office and its layout, your office's location on campus, and a short discussion about some of the strengths and challenges your operation faces. Video submissions don't have to be high-budget affairs, either! Simply take out your smartphone and film (in landscape) a short -- no longer than five minute -- informal walkthrough of your office.
As you walk us through the office, we'd love to hear commentary about office operations, your staff and fun facts. Other things to discuss:
Regardless of your videography skills, your submission would be a great addition to the series and can provide CR80News readers with a rare opportunity to actually view other card offices and hear from campus peers. To submit a video entry or for additional information regarding participation, simply send an email to [email protected].
Vending is a core component of virtually every campus card program and for all the talk of how student IDs have evolved over time, vending has come a long way, too.
The shift to cashless vending in particular has brought a new wave of convenience and utility to users, and removing the need for cash or coin has been a boon to the industry. As reported by the Vending Times, a new survey conducted by Texas-based Parlevel Systems reveals that some 51% of American adults under the age of 30 prefer non-cash means of payment so much that 51% use credit or debit cards for purchases even for transactions under $5 -- the prime vending price range.
Parlevel conducted the survey based on its vending operator customers who now use the company's namesake pay system. Along with the results from the survey, the company pooled existing data from the Web to create an infographic detailing the advantages of cashless readers.
"We know that accepting cashless payments is a must to appeal to younger Americans, but what are the tangible benefits of installing a vending card reader?" said Christopher Blomquist, Parlevel's marketing content manager said in an interview with Vending Times.
Part of the increase in spending with cashless could be the result of patrons not feeling the same "pain" when using a card as parting with cash tender.
In a study of machines equipped with Parlevel Pay cashless readers in San Antonio, average machine sales per service cycle increased 42% when a vending card reader was installed, Blomquist explains. Of that, cashless payments accounted for 32%, while 10% of the increase was attributed to higher cash sales.
Average transaction value was also found to have increased with the addition of cashless capabilities. The average cashless vending sale was $1.60, compared to $1.21 average for cash transactions.
The survey also indicated that net sales increase with the addition of cashless with an average machine collection of $128 per month, an increase of nearly $40 over cash-only machines.
Understandably, younger user bases are the more likely to leverage cashless options at the vending machine. "It's important to prioritize which machines would benefit from cashless the most, in order to speed up return on investment," Blomquist said. "Locations that are frequented by younger consumers and transient areas are the best bets for rapid cashless success."
As mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Android Pay grow in popularity, Blomquist also stresses the importance for cashless readers to expand cashless capabilities further still by accepting more than just credit and debit cards.
A new, student-developed mobile app on the campus of Boston College is pooling menu and nutritional information for campus dining facilities, and it's growing in popularity among students for its user-friendly utility.
Now an editorial in student publication, The Heights, is calling for the EagleEats app to be acknowledged and endorsed by BC Dining Services. The app gleans much of its dining information from the university's official dining services website, and per the report the app developers also advertised EagleEats with posters that featured BC Dining Service’s logo -- without dining services' prior approval.
EagleEats enables Boston College students to view menus and nutritional information for food being served at campus dining halls. The app was created and published by two BC students and is available for free download for the general public. The students' app leverages the already accessible dining information posted to the BC Dining Service’s website, only the app organizes and presents the info in a more user-friendly and efficient manner. The app has thus far been downloaded over 700 times from the Apple App Store.
In addition to the aesthetic benefits of the app, other features include a button that enables the user to view the current menu of the nearest dining hall to the user based on campus location and time of day. Users can also create a list of favorite menu items and be sent notifications when those foods are being served. Users can also click on a specific menu item to view that food's schedule including both when and where it will be served next. The app also enables users to view standard nutrition information for each item on the menu.
As noted by The Heights, the student devs did not consult with university officials prior to launching the app. It's a situation that has occurred at the university before.
Another student-developed app, EagleScribe, which enables students to search course listings and receive notifications when spots in full classes become available, similarly came to fruition without the consult of the university. EagleScribe also draws information from existing campus resources, and has been a hit with the campus community with the app's developers reporting more than 4,500 registered users.
Despite not working with university officials prior to their public releases, The Heights suggests that both EagleEats and EagleScribe show the potential for students to contribute to campus life and operations. The editorial closes by imploring university officials to work with student devs who recognize inefficiencies in campus resources and have ideas for ways to refine how important information is relayed to students.
One of the hallmarks of a campus card office is customer service. For many institutions in the US this could mean face-to-face issuance and a service with a smile, but a new system from Evolis deployed at universities in Berlin, Germany is taking an alternative approach by using campus card kiosks.
In an attempt to alleviate the issuance process for the more than 180,000 students enrolled in Berlin’s universities, six campuses participated in a joint project that has introduced self-service kiosks for the instant issuance of student cards. The system is now enabling students to create and print their own campus cards in less than a minute and has opened the door to issuance outside the normal working hours of the campus card office.
Validator kiosk at Humboldt University of Berlin
Deployed in autumn 2016, the new ID issuance system has made it possible to convert outdated paper documents to multifunction contactless cards. In addition to serving as students’ primary form of identification on campus, the credentials also act as a loan card for the university library, an electronic wallet for the cafeteria, as well as a bus and train ticket.
Prior to the new kiosk system there wasn’t an instant issuance solution or plastic cards in place at the Berlin campuses, with the only form of student identification being printed on a paper-based credential. Naturally, the move to the new system represents a great leap forward in ID card services for the campuses.
“Due to the rapidly increasing number of students, we had to find a more optimal solution for the issuance of the student cards,” says Dr. Tamas Molnar, head of the campus card project at the universities of Berlin. “Lack of space and personnel in the student offices led to the idea of self-service kiosks. We also wanted an innovative solution that not only replaced the old card, but offered new functions to the students.”
German card management system developer ProService GmbH was selected by the universities to develop 20 machines for the personalization and the instant issuance of multifunctional student cards. ProService in turn chose a printing solution from French card printer and software manufacturer, Evolis. Evolis’ card printing system and the KM500B printer model are being used to produce the cards, while German company Pfister ID Systeme is charged with card distribution.
Separately, an additional 30 accreditation kiosks were developed in order to revalidate student cards and re-enroll students at the start of each new term. These kiosks, outfitted with Evolis’ TattooRW system, leverage thermo-rewrite technology to both instantly delete the existing validity date on the student card and enter a new date.
With regards to card technology each ID card is encoded with a contactless chip, as well as a bar code, the name of the cardholder, their student registration number, a university library number and an option for a student’s photo.
Prior to receiving their campus card, students are first issued a single-use QR code from university administration. It’s with this QR code that the student can be issued a campus card via the self-service kiosk. The creation of the ID card takes no longer than a minute, and once printed the card must be validated by the updating kiosk where the validity date and the codes for the bus and train ticket are amended.
The process must be repeated at the beginning of every academic term in order to properly update the student’s information. The cards do not contain any personal details about the student in electronic format, and the machines access students’ personal details online using a pseudonym. All communication is encrypted.
ProService also installed Evolis’ Primacy printers in the card offices of the six participating universities as a back up in the case of overcrowding at the self-service kiosks.
Evolis’ modular printer solutions, the KM500B and KM2000B, can be customized according to the specific requirements of an issuance project, are ideal for inclusion in kiosks, and print either single- or double-sided credentials.
In their standard version, the KM500B and KM2000B are both equipped with an encoder for magnetic strips, but can be optionally equipped with encoders for both contact-based and contactless chip cards. The printers also feature high loading capacities at 500 cards for KM500B, and 2000 cards for KM2000B.
Evolis’ Tattoo RW model, integrated into the updating kiosks, is the designed for temporary IDs or documents that need to be updated frequently. The system uses thermal rewrite technology and in only a few seconds erases old data printed to the card’s surface and encodes new data. The same card can be deleted, changed and re-written up to 500 times and no ribbons are required.
According to a ProService spokesperson, there has been interest in the kiosk solution from other institutions in Switzerland, Austria, Hungary and from schools in other cities across Germany.
The athletics department at the University of Kentucky has launched a new video campaign to help deter ticket scalping for university athletic events. Accompanying the video campaign is a new webpage devoted to educating fans about ticket security.
Per an official university release, the new webpage will be regularly updated with information regarding ticket security and policies at UKathletics.com/ticketsecurity. The web page is also intended to assist fans in purchasing verified tickets and protect the tickets once purchased. The video can be seen below:
UK Athletics cautions fans against buying counterfeit tickets from unauthorized sellers. The UK Ticket Office can't provide support for tickets purchased through unauthorized sellers, and reiterates on its new webpage that there are only five ticket outlets that are authorized to sell tickets to UK Athletics events:
Tickets printed with "Student ID Required" are sold to full-time University of Kentucky students at an exclusive rate. For this reason, only UK students with their valid UK student ID are able to gain admission to the university's Rupp Arena and Commonwealth Stadium with these tickets.
As is typically the case with other institutions, the general public can't gain admission to events with student tickets. Fans purchasing tickets directly through one of UK’s five authorized ticket outlets are guaranteed they will not unintentionally purchase student tickets that require a student ID, an assurance that unauthorized sellers can't provide.
Due to the ease of duplication and print-at-home tickets the university also implores fans to exercise caution if purchasing a printed ticket. With duplicate print-at-home tickets, only the first barcode to reach the gate will be scanned valid, while any subsequent, copied tickets with the same barcode will scan invalid and denied access.
At UK, all football and men's basketball tickets are barcoded and will are scanned for validity at the gate. A recent trend that the university has seen is fans posting pictures of tickets, specifically the barcode, on social media. The university's ticket security campaign also warns ticket holders to be aware of the potential risks of doing so. UK athletics is also using the hashtag #CoverTheCode to remind fans posting pictures of tickets online, to avoid taking screenshots that expose personal information like names, addresses or credit card information.
The Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST) has made the wearing of student ID cards compulsory for students and faculty while on campus.
According to a report from The Independent, the new ID card policy has been classed as standard procedure, and is seen as one possible way to better ensure the safety and security of students and other members of the university community.
The visible display of IDs comes after a series of incidents involving unauthorized individuals appearing on MCAST's campus, some of whom had been accompanied MCAST students. From a security standpoint, the college has deemed unauthorized individuals on campus as unacceptable and the new ID card measure is expected to act as another in a number of measures and deterrents that MCAST has implemented to ensure student safety and secure.
MCAST said that the wearing of student credentials is a standard measure undertaken by a number of reputable educational institutions across the world. The ID policy will be enforce for all senior management at the college and will also be gradually introduced for other college staff members in the near future.
The Security Industry Association (SIA) has taken a hard stance on classroom barricade devices, stressing that these intended safety measures can cause more harm than they prevent. The warning comes in support of an effort launched by the Door Security & Safety Foundation.
As school administrators consider ways to protect students and staff from violence, particularly active shooters, some are purchasing barricade devices that prevent all entry into a classroom when deployed. The reality of these devices, however, is that many violate fire codes, and in the even that the violence emanates from within the classroom, the device could prevent school staff or first responders from entering the room in an emergency.
“We’re all seeking the best way to protect children, but we can’t focus only on countering the specific—and, fortunately, highly unlikely—threat of an active shooter, while making other dangers much worse,” says Don Erickson, Security Industry Association CEO. “Classroom door locks provide a high level of security in all situations, while the net effect of barricade devices would be to reduce the safety and security of students.”
The Door Security & Safety Foundation has produced a short video and a white paper explaining the dangers created by these devices and urging that “no door locking device that also compromises life safety should be approved by any jurisdiction.” Both are available at www.doorsecuritysafety.org/advocacy.
SIA and foundation officials stress that code-compliant classroom door locks that permit authorized access from outside are the best way to ensure the security and safety of students and staff. SIA officials also stress that there appear to be no documented incidents of an active shooter breaching a locked classroom door.
The Door Security & Safety Foundation’s effort is also being supported by the Partner Alliance for Safer Schools (PASS), which was co-founded by SIA and the National Systems Contractors Association. PASS has released its own white paper on classroom barricade devices, which is available at www.passk12.org. PASS Steering Committee Member Guy Grace, the director of security and emergency planning for Littleton, Colorado Public Schools, warns of the “unintended consequences” of such devices.
“When it comes to the security and safety of students and teachers, especially when it involves classroom doors, politics and emotions should never override professional opinions or accepted best practices reinforced by building and fire codes,” says Grace.
The Security Industry Association (SIA) is a trade association for global security solution providers, with roughly 700 member companies representing thousands of security leaders and experts who shape the future of the security industry.
Montclair State University has announced the arrival of its new campus app, NEST Mobile. The app is available for iOS and Android devices that enables users to view all the same resources that were previously available on the desktop version of NEST.
Features included in the NEST app are intended to make academic life easier to manage for Montclair students and include:
Certain features and functions included in the new app require students to log in with a University NetID and password, including:
More features are expected to be added to NEST in the near future based on the campus community's feedback.
Three men at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford have been arrested on allegations that they made numerous vending machine purchases with someone else’s student ID card.
According to a Bradford Era report, court records reveal that a student at the university reported her campus ID card lost when the zipper on her wallet ripped. Between the time the card was lost and the new one was activated, however, the student realized that someone had rung up $71.25 in vending charges.
Upon checking her account, the summary showed 51 purchases made at vending machines across six different campus buildings — 46 of which were made within a three-hour period.
Court records indicate that security camera footage shows two of the men in question using the stolen ID card to make the vending purchases, while the third can be seen pointing to items in the machine and pushing the "select" button at same times that records indicate the card being used.
According to court records all three men have been charged with access device fraud and conspiracy to commit access device fraud, both first-degree misdemeanors, along with theft of lost property, a second-degree misdemeanor. All three have been set free on $5,000 unsecured bail, and are scheduled to appear before a court later this month.
ClearScholar, a mobile student engagement platform, has secured $1.25 million in funding. The funding round included contributions from High Alpha Capital, Elevate Ventures, Butler University, and a number of private investors.
ClearScholar, which launched in partnership with Butler University last year, is a student engagement platform that connects students and institutions and delivers a personalized, mobile student experience that includes a mobile student ID and curated events, as well as tailored news and activities. On the backend, administrators have access to a platform that encourages student engagement and drives student outcomes.
“I am thrilled with the progress we have made over the past six months and the team we have put together,” says ClearScholar Chief Executive Officer Jason Konesco, the former president and chief executive of Harrison College. “We are actively in conversations with a diverse group of universities and are seeing that our approach and product is a differentiated market leader."
The funds will be used to accelerate hiring in sales, marketing and product development. ClearScholar recently launched its Early Adopter Program and is on track to add nine additional institutions in 2017.
The National Center For Education statistics found that only 59% of first-time, full-time students entering America's colleges and universities graduate within six years. ClearScholar’s product is aimed at helping universities improve student success and outcomes, an increasingly important issue for educational institutions.
“There is a huge opportunity for educational institutions to embrace emerging technology to drive improved student outcomes and leave tangible impacts on the lives of students,” says Mike Fitzgerald, partner at High Alpha. “We are thrilled to see ClearScholar’s early traction and believe they have assembled an outstanding team to build a market-leading and industry-defining company.”
