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Campus card vendor, CBORD has reset its sights on campus laundry with a new exclusive partnership with laundry solutions provider, Washlava. The partnership’s intent is to deploy the Washlava laundry reader and backend system on campuses across the country and redefine the campus laundry environment.

Washlava is new to the campus market, but the product has already found success in other environments.

“Washlava is an advanced technology that lets users reserve and pay for vended laundry machines with their smartphones,” says Todd Belveal, CEO of Washlava. “Its purpose is to upgrade these services for laundry users as well as disrupt and transform the antiquated, coin and card-enabled, vended laundry industry.”

Washlava traces its roots back to retail laundromats in Florida and New York, where early results exceeded expectations. “In those deployments, the technology and user experience resulted in equipment productivity and revenue increases as high as 60%,” says Belveal.

Laundromats outfitted with Washlava have since gone on to serve more than 3,000 unique customers.

“We are just beginning our campus expansion, hence our partnership with CBORD,” Belveal says. “In 2016 and 2017, a live pilot was conducted on the campus of the University of Florida, with Washlava technology on LG machines. The results were off the charts.”

In the University of Florida pilot students exclusively used Washlava, and in exit surveys expressed a 12-to-1 preference for Washlava over coins and cards.

“Most people tell me that Washlava is a ‘no-brainer’ for college laundries,” says Belveal. “The empirical data we gathered supports that position. It's what students want, and frankly, what they expect.”

Moving to campus

Following its early successes in traditional laundromat environments and a proof-of-concept on a college campus, Washlava is now prepped for the university market at a grander scale thanks largely to its strategic partnership with CBORD.

“CBORD is currently Washlava’s only partner that accepts campus card accounts as a payment method,” says Sue Chaffee, CBORD. “A CBORD or Washlava representative will work directly with the campus to plan their deployment.”

It's simple. We don't make money until the campus does. A reasonable installation charge that covers hardware is coupled with a flat, per transaction fee. The platform is available to any campus, but only CBORD campuses can use the student ID card as the primary, or exclusive, method of payment in the app. Non-CBORD campuses use only credit or debit cards as forms tender.

CBORD campus clients can also expect a seamless transition to the new laundry solution. “Some of the questions we will ask are related to the machines currently in use and how they’re distributed, as well as the current per load price,” explains CBORD’s Chaffee. “These parameters will be evaluated, and a quote will be provided that includes the scope of work and university responsibilities.”

Rounding out the partnership is a seamless integration between Washlava and CBORD’s GET platform. “The Washlava mobile app integrates directly with the GET platform for patron authentication, so the university must either have GET in place or it will be implemented at the same time as Washlava,” says Chaffee.

Washlava feature set:

Washlava is keen to provide an on-demand formula not typically seen in campus laundries. “The platform offers students real-time visibility into machine availability, the ability to hold a machine for a few minutes so they have time to get to the laundry room, real-time notifications when their laundry is done, along with seamless payments, receipts and transaction history,” says Belveal.

Belveal sees the need to focus on end users and their laundry experience. “It’s more than just providing digital payments,” he says. “The system brings a high level of control, and support to both students and administrators, making laundry less of a chore.”

Washlava represents an update to the traditional amenities offered by laundry equipment and service providers. It’s a service that may also justify a greater end user investment.

“In most cases, we find that colleges and universities have not increased vend rates for laundry in decades,” says Belveal. “As a result we encourage campuses to consider a higher per cycle rate, since the superior laundry experience Washlava delivers merits it.”

Belveal and the Washlava team tested the higher vend prices at UF and did not receive major objections from users. “We can also impact revenue with our real-time price management capability,” he adds.

“Universities that offer Washlava to their students are providing a level of service that’s unmatched with other laundry solutions,” says CBORD’s Chaffee. “The level of service and technology empowers universities to increase their laundry rates and turn laundry rooms into profit centers. Moreover, better reporting provides the transparency the university needs to maximize efficiency which may result in less machines.”

The future of campus laundry

While the solution is still on the verge of widescale deployment, excitement about this new entry to the campus laundry space couldn’t be higher.

“Washlava is an ideal solution for any university laundry operation, but what’s intriguing is how the deployment might change after using Washlava for a short time,” says CBORD’s Chaffee. “The reporting offers transparency and helps universities better manage their operation. If used to their advantage, the technology can drive more cycles through fewer machines, helping to improve efficiency and eliminate laundry frustration.”

Belveal is also ready for the solution to realize its potential on campus. “As far as installation goes, we could do all of a university’s residence halls during a single break, or phase them in at any time and any pace the institution chooses,” he says. “But students overwhelmingly want the latest technology, and holding onto expensive, obsolete coin-op or card kiosk hardware makes little or no sense.”

Student safety on campus is the primary concern at any institution, and one of the ways that universities are better ensuring this is to deploy mobile safety apps. Designed to provide students with all the information they need to navigate potential crises on campus, safety apps are certainly a valuable resource.

The University of Utah is just one of the many campuses to join this trend, and a new report from Salt Lake City news outlet, KSL, reveals that the university is shouldering a growing cost for its campus safety app. The university has been focused on growing the user base of its SafeUT app, which provides real-time crisis intervention to students, but the growing user base has also led to higher maintenance costs.

The Utah Legislature set aside $550,000 for fiscal year 2018 to fund ongoing support of the SafeUT app, which among other services, connects users to licensed crisis workers at the University of Utah's Neuropsychiatric Institute. According the KSL's report, the university has, to date, expended $785,900 due in large part to the need for additional staff required for the support and rollout of the app. The remaining difference of $235,900 has been absorbed by the University of Utah to continue the initiative.

The difference in funding has led university officials and state legislators to go back to the drawing board to determine a more appropriate funding level for the safety app.

At a more granular level, however, the SafeUT has quietly been doing its job. SafeUT staff have received 107 viable tips to date, 70 of which related to planned school attacks. The program also reports an average of two active rescues per week of students experiencing some form of crisis.

The SafeUT app also supports a 24/7 Crisis Text and Tip Line. The number of chats and tips reported via the SafeUT app has risen from 994 in 2016 to 26,175 so far this year, according to figures released during a press conference in April.

The University of Utah has also issued a written response fully backing the work of the SafeUT initiative:

"It is hard to put a price on the value of preventing youth suicide and planned school attacks. The social, emotional and financial losses which ensue from youth suicide or active shooter scenarios is such that if we are able to prevent one of these devastating events from occurring by funding SafeUT, these dollars are well spent."

For many universities, this week marked the official return of students to campus and the start of classes. It's an exciting time, but it can also be a complicated and daunting time, particularly for new and incoming students.

Northern Illinois University, mindful of this fact, provided its incoming students with a mobile app to help them with the residence hall move-in process. For the first time this fall NIU Housing and Residential Services fully implemented an online mobile check-in app that enables students to quickly navigate residential check-in from their phones.

According to an official university release, over 95% of incoming students checked in using the app, with 97% of new students -- both freshmen and transfer students -- and 91% of returning students leveraging he move-in app respectively. A survey conducted after the move-in period has also revealed that more than 98% of survey respondents were satisfied with the check-in process.

The app not only saves students time when checking in, but also reduces the amount university manpower and equipment needed to facilitate move-ins. And because students can sign the proper move-in forms in advance, NIU can deploy fewer check-in computer systems at residence halls, as well as save paper previously used for move-in forms, student handbooks and residence hall contracts.

Dan Pedersen, senior director of Housing and Residential Services, told NIU Today that the move-in app “creates greater efficiency in terms of what students used to do on paper, and it’s meeting students where they live -- in a digital environment.”

The app was first developed last year before being trialled with a smaller, 30% subset of students. Following the successful pilot, NIU Housing and Residential Services boosted the marketing efforts behind the app for this year's move-in.

Some students have even completed the check-in process after arriving to campus while waiting in the car to unload. Curt Grimes, application developer for NIU's Housing and Residential Services, likens the app to those offered for early flight check-ins.

Once on campus, students that used the app to navigate the move-in process in advance simply show their check-in receipt on their phones. Those students can then skip the check-in line and go directly to picking up their room keys.

In the latest installment of NACCU's Talking Campus ID Tech series, hear from Jennifer McNeill, ONEcard Manager at the University of Alberta, as she discusses barcodes and the student ID card. In the video, hear a detailed rundown of the technology underpinning barcodes, how the technology is implemented, how the University of Alberta is using the barcode, and what role the technology can play in the current ID landscape.

The campus identification and transaction industry’s professional association, NACCU, takes great pride in its ability to educate members and the entire higher education community. That’s the idea behind the association’s “Talking Campus ID Tech” video series.

The video series details key campus identification technologies and features subject matter experts from the NACCU member community talking about key topics like this installment dedicated to barcodes.

The videos are presented by NACCU and produced by NACCU and CR80News. The full series can be viewed at NACCU.org.

The gig economy is a big hit with Gen Z students, and now a new mobile app might be bringing these on-demand odd jobs to campus sooner rather than later.

As reported by Metro, students will soon leverage the Dormzi app to request small services like doing laundry or finding a tutor on campus -- from others on campus. The app is set to go live for the first time on the campus of New York University this month.

The idea behind Dormzi is that college students are busy and willing to outsource some of their daily tasks to others for a price. The app connects students who need a service fulfilled with students who have time to spare and are in need of some extra cash. Dormzi is designed specifically for the college campus and will be available exclusively to students.

To use the app, students first sign up with the app and choose to either be a “dormzi,” one who will complete a task, or a “dormer,” one who is requesting a task. Users can then swap between the two options at any time.

The app currently offers four services: cleaning, tutoring, laundry and errand running. Students suggest the task, add in any special notes, and other student users can pick and choose which tasks to complete. In the future, the developers hope to add more tasks for food delivery and dorm move-in.

The app developers provide their ideal use case for the app. Say a student has an upcoming exam but doesn't have time to do their laundry, they could request that their laundry be done via Dormzi. Then, after the exam, another user could sign up for a tutoring session in the same subject the first student was just tested on. This is the pipe dream for Dormzi's developers; a cooperative community of users that are keen to both give and take from the on-campus gig economy.

Dormzi officially launches at NYU on Saturday, August 25, with plans to expand to other colleges in the near future.

Auburn University has grown its fleet of campus food truck to 10 with the addition of three new vehicles this fall.

As reported by The Auburn Plainsman, the 10 food trucks will be spread across campus, with eight of the vehicles having rotated locations and two having fixed, permanent locations. Of the 10 trucks, seven have been featured as campus food trucks in the past. The latest addition to the fleet sees local concept Crepe Myrtle, along with national brands Steak 'n Shake and Starbucks added to the mix.

After closing its brick-and-mortar location, the Crepe Myrtle Cafe moved its operations to a food truck, and as a result can now better serve the student population at Auburn. The cafe was already a student favorite, so the addition of a food truck was a natural fit.

“We knew this was a favorite of students," said Glenn Loughridge, director of Tiger Dining, in a Plainsman interview. "That’s always a great starting place. If we know students already like something, that’s an easy decision.”

The Crepe Myrtle truck is one of the eight rotating trucks and will be open weekdays from 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.

Auburn will also have food trucks from national chains Starbucks and Steak 'n Shake on campus this fall. The Steak 'n Shake truck will serve as a stop-gap while the brick-and-mortar location at Auburn undergoes renovation. The truck is temporary and will be removed once the permanent location is reopened.

Tiger Dining's relationship with the new Starbucks food truck, however, is a bit more permanent. The truck is one of four in existence and will be located on the Roosevelt Concourse.

“We don’t have a coffee program in that area,” Loughridge said in a Plainsman interview. “That’s kind of an underserved area in general. We’d like to designate a spot for it.”

Starbucks will now be a permanent fixture among the university's food trucks, following Tiger Dining's purchase of the vehicle. “We felt like this is something students use every day,” Loughridge said. “The Starbucks truck was probably less than 10% of what it would have cost to build a location that could do the same type of volume.”

Loughridge is open to the Starbucks truck being rotated to various locations as Tiger Dining evolves its services on campus. The truck will feature nearly the full menu found at regular locations, including pastries and signature Starbucks drinks.

By Joann Wright, University ID/RaiderCard Unit Manager, Texas Tech University

As the summer winds down and another semester is upon us, I’m inclined to consider the role my office plays at the university. While there may be some who claim that your campus ID office is purely a location where plastic cards are made, those in the identification community know our reach is far greater. We facilitate access. Yes, that can mean physical access to buildings, services, and dining plans; but we also provide access to experiences and a shared community. Access to connect with others.

I don’t mean to imply that my office is the be-all-end-all of what it means to be associated with an institution of higher learning. But I am reminded of a personal story from my school. During new student orientation a student forgot their government issued photo ID, so they couldn’t pick up their student ID on arrival, but would instead have to wait until they came back in the fall. The student, obviously upset, then questioned the point of even coming to orientation at all if she couldn’t get her campus card? We gently reminded her that orientation is also about registering for classes, learning traditions, touring campus, and getting information for paying the bill. But this is just an example to illustrate that for students (and let’s be honest, employees too), getting an ID card is a tangible way to show they are part of the university community. They go home excited to show their new ID to their friends and then imagine what the next years hold for them.

An ID card for many people is more than just another card in their wallet. It holds an inherent opportunity for belonging. For the first-generation student, it could be finally realizing the prospects that await them because they now have an opportunity to get a degree. For the student who is relieved that their school uses preferred name on their ID, it could mean they can finally feel they are associated with their real identity. For the non-traditional student, it could be a reminder that working full time and taking classes on the side is worth it to pursue a new dream. For the tired parent taking care of a family, the card could remind them to keep pushing through the night to finish up homework. For university employees, the campus card can be a reminder that each day they work with students and support other employees. Even for retirees who take the opportunity to enroll in personal enrichment classes after a lifetime of hard work, the card can be a symbol of belonging. For each of these groups the ID card is a way we can bond with each other and be identified to our institution and to the world.

For us in the ID business, we also share a unique relationship with each other. Like any industry, we are a group with our own common experiences. We can share a laugh about what worked and what didn’t. We can appreciate the common annoyances of the university setting (yes, the ID office should be notified when someone leaves campus so we can remove their access and deactivate their account). I am always thankful that I am part of a group who is so willing to share tips and tricks of the trade. It is understood that if one succeeds among us we are all successful because we can share what worked and what didn’t. Together we represent more than an identification card -- we are the facilitators of relationships for each other and those we serve.

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Have a card office experience or insight that you want to share? We want to hear it and give you the platform to share your ideas with your fellow card office professionals! Send in article submissions by emailing [email protected] and you could be featured!

Boston College Dining Services is set to provide reusable to-go containers for use in campus dining halls this semester. The introduction of the reusable containers is just one of a series of sustainability efforts taking root at the college.

As reported by BC Heights, the new program is intended to provide an environmentally friendly alternative to disposable paper and plastic containers currently in use, as well as reduce the amount lost cutlery and china from dining facilities.

Julianne Stelmaszyk, manager of regional and sustainable food systems for BC Dining, says that some 60% of the food purchased in BC dining halls is taken to-go. Additionally, the last academic year alone saw the BC student body consume some 3.5 million plastic utensils, 700,000 straws, and 360,000 coffee cups.

It was decided, then, that a disposable to-go container program would be the best solution to attack the sustainability issue on both fronts. BC Dining was initially worried that students would not return the to-go containers in a timely fashion to claim new ones, so it looked to other universities for inspiration.

BC Dining reportedly found some inspiration in Virginia Tech and its initiative with OZZI. Specifically, BC honed in on the container return process and the automated kiosk units that the solution leverages. The college ultimately decided that the cost of each kiosk at $13,999, along with the roughly $100 of maintenance per year and separate purchases of OZZI-compatible containers, was cost prohibitive.

Expensive hardware aside, BC recognized the need to track to-go containers to ensure that students were returning them for clean replacements. And crucially, students that lose or otherwise choose not to return a box are then charged to their student account for the price of the box.

BC Dining ultimately landed on a more basic return process that takes a manual approach to the automated kiosk formula of solutions like OZZI.

BC students and faculty buy into the program at a price of $8.00. Early adopters in the program -- within the first two weeks at designated Green2Go tables -- will be given two initial tokens. Students then go through the food service line and request a G2G box. To complete the transaction, students return to the dining hall register, and present a token in exchange for the container.

After the initial transaction, BC has implemented a token system for the containers that sees students return their to-go box to the dining hall in exchange for another token in the form of a carabiner keychain. Students and faculty can enter back into the program at any time for another $8.00, or if they lose a container or token.

Universities across the country are recognizing and reacting to the growing food insecurity of students on campus. University-run food pantries are now a regular service on campuses, as are programs that leverage the power of campus dining services.

Ithaca College is latest campus to offer the latter option in the form of a partnership with Swipe Out Hunger. According to an official university release, beginning this fall Ithaca students with a college meal plan will have the option to anonymously donate one of their allotted guest passes to fellow students in need of a meal.

Ithaca has partnered with the Swipe Out Hunger organization, which now works with 46 colleges across the country. To date, Swipe Out Hunger reports that its campus programs have provided over 1.4 million meals to students.

Ithaca students can elect to donate one guest pass per semester to a “bank” created by the Office of Student Financial Services. Those passes will then be distributed to students in need by placing the donated swipes onto students' campus cards.

This fall marks the beginning of a year-long trial phase, during which the college's Student Financial Services will collect data -- including the number of passes donated and the number used -- to assess its effectiveness.

“I’m thrilled with the collaborative efforts between students and staff to launch the Swipe Out Hunger program,” says Jeff Scott, general manager of Dining Services at Ithaca College. “This is a huge step toward supporting our community.”

Students interested in receiving donated passes can contact Student Financial Services anonymously via email. Students will not be required to have a college meal plan in order to receive donated passes, and only Student Financial Services and Ithaca's ID card office will know their identities. Students wanting to donate a fall semester guest meal swipe will be able to sign up between August 29 and September 19.

ColorID's Executive Vice President, Danny Smith, talks about the company's work with the Campus Identity Roadmap and how universities can leverage the working document to prep for the future of identification technology.

Also hear about the benefits of attending ColorID's Identity Summit events. The Summits are regional events that provide an educational platform for campus card professionals to learn about the latest in campus identification technology. The next Summit will be held on the campus of Vanderbilt University on Thursday, September 27th.

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