It should be common knowledge that letting someone tailgate into a dorm represents a security risk. Campus administrators and safety officials understand this struggle all too well, but students continue to see it as a harmless, common courtesy.

At the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, campus officials are trying to better educate students of the dangers of "piggybacking." UCCS, as with other institutions, regularly sees students letting others follow them into dorms or propping exterior residence hall doors open with rocks to let friends enter. To help illustrate the point, UCCS Police put together a short informative video demonstrating what piggybacking is and why students should avoid letting it happen.

https://www.facebook.com/UCCSPolice/videos/283341458976655/

Students living in UCCS dorms must swipe their student ID card at exterior entrances, but it's a safety measure that's rendered ineffective in instances of piggybacking. Moreover, letting someone enter the perimeter door not only gives them access to the building, but often times access to every dorm room along with residents and valuable belongings.

Ensuring better resident habits is one of the many ways a university can better lock down campus residences. Beyond that, updating and amending visitor management protocols is another great way universities can secure students and their belongings.

The University of Maryland has launched a one-year pilot to test the viability of a program that will provide free meal swipes for students in need.

As reported by The Diamondback, the Emergency Meal Fund will provide more than 1,600 meals at campus dining halls for students deemed food insecure. Food insecure includes those students who have missed meals for one day or more, or are in unstable housing conditions.

The pilot program will help address a growing food insecurity issue at the university, after a study released in March found that some 20% of students at Maryland meet the food insecurity guidelines. This academic year there will be 166 meal cards made available, each loaded with 10 meal swipes to be used at on-campus dining facilities.

The meal cards are being subsidized with $5,000 of unspent SGA funds from last year. That money was then transferred to Maryland's Dining Services, who was charged with determining the cost of running the program. Maryland Dining Services ultimately made the determination as to the lowest value of compensation needed for dining halls to offer the service.

Any student meeting food insecure guidelines is eligible to receive one of the meal cards either in the event of an emergency, or until their situation stabilizes. Though the meal cards are not limited to one per person, they are not meant to be a permanent solution.

For students needing to leverage the program, any staff or faculty member can identify “red flags” that could signal a student is food insecure. Students not identified by university staff can apply directly with any of the four card issuing bodies: the Campus Pantry, the Student Affairs Crisis Fund, Dining Services director’s office and Fostering Terp Success -- an organization devoted to helping foster children transition to college.

Each office will maintain its own set of guidelines for assessing student needs. Provided enough of the meal cards are distributed, the university plans to devote additional funds to ensure the program is sustainable on a longer term basis.

The idea behind Plyo, a rewards app for college students who exercise on campus, is to promote healthy student behavior and engagement. And following an award winning appearance at the Minnesota Cup, a statewide startup competition, the app is off to a good start.

According to a report from MinneInno, the Plyo app won the highest award in the student category at this year's Minnesota Cup, winning $30,000. The winnings are expected to help Plyo launch on five additional campuses over the coming year, the first of which will be live this spring.

Plyo was piloted on the University of Minnesota's campus last spring, and garnered enough student attention to move toward an official launch for both iOS and Android devices. Plyo officially launched six weeks ago.

Through the app, Plyo users earn points toward rewards while working out at one of three university recreation facilities. Rewards include things like half-off coffee at Starbucks, $10 gift cards to Lululemon, or free lunch at a local pizza place. At present, the app offers rewards from nearly a dozen merchants of various kinds that each pay a subscription fee to be featured in the app.

To date, Plyo's 3,300 active users have logged more than 100,000 hours and redeemed more than 9,000 rewards while using the app.

Peter Schultze, CEO of Plyo and a junior at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, first hatched the idea for Plyo during his first year on campus. “I’m really into health and fitness,” Schultze told MinneInno. “When I hit college, I was shocked at the lifestyle habits of my peers, as you can imagine.”

Student health and engagement is a well-known challenge at universities across the country, with campuses devoting large amounts of resources to making healthy habits on campus more enticing. Between state-of-the-art rec facilities, healthy on-campus dining options and student programs geared toward healthy living, universities are putting significant effort into boosting student engagement.

Perhaps this is where Plyo, and other solutions like it, can help to plug the gaps.

Schultze long-term vision for Plyo is to establish licensing agreements with universities. In the near term, however, it's the University of Minnesota that will partner with Plyo to support further development of the app. The University of Minnesota's involvement will help offer rewards to students on campus at places like on-campus dining facilities and university bookstores, and will also support advertising efforts for the app.

MyPhoto President, Alan Jacubenta, gives an in-depth description of the MyPhoto online photo submission solution. Hear about the features included in the solution and how campuses can utilize the service to greatly expedite card issuance.

One of the primary challenges facing campus card offices is quickly and efficiently moving students through the card issuance process. Particularly during orientation periods when students arrive to campus en masse, having students report to a card office to have a photo captured and then wait for the credential to be printed simply isn't feasible.

With online photo submission, not only do students have the freedom to craft the perfect ID photo -- aligning with the university's guidelines -- but submitting photos in advance enables a card office to pre-print student IDs and eliminate long lines and waits when orientation rolls around. As one of the first companies to provide a fully delivered online photo submission solution, MyPhoto has steadily built out a feature set to greatly expedite the card issuance process for campuses of all sizes.

Students at Ohio University donated nearly 500 meal swipes to their peers in need in just a single week. Now in the wake of its overwhelming success, university officials have decided to extend the meal swipe donation initiative.

According to The Post Athens, the meal swipe donation pilot program was launched as a means to help eliminate food insecurity among Ohio University students. The pilot is part of the larger Bobcats Helping Bobcats program that enables students to provide a range of assistance to fellow students in emergency situations.

The initiative enabled students -- regardless of which meal plan they had -- to donate up to three meal swipes between September 30 and October 6. The donated meals swipes are then given to students who are facing food insecurity, after students in need simply and discreetly apply for the program online.

Once the application is submitted, the university's assistant dean of students will then speak with applying students in person and if approved, the donated meal swipes are then loaded onto the student's account and OHIO ID card. The meal swipes can be used at any campus dining hall or on-campus dining location, and the swipes will expire a the end of the semester in which they were given.

Students with Flex meal plans -- which come with more discretionary funds for use on campus -- can also donate extra swipes or make purchases with their Flex Points at on-campus markets and donate non-perishable food items directly to the university's food pantry.

As for improving the program going forward, university officials believe that word of the program got out too late to effectively capture the attention of a large group of students and donations. Students received the initial information about the meal donation program via an email from Ohio University Culinary Services.

There are already plans to continue the program next semester, with plans for a donation window during the week immediately preceding spring break, as its a time when students leave early and will likely have extra meal swipes to give.

Stanford University is replacing all student and faculty ID cards issued before January 2017 as part of a campus wide upgrade that will see new, smart card credentials issued to the campus community.

According to Stanford's Campus Card Services website, the new smart cards have been made mandatory as the university's ongoing security upgrades have now replaced and upgraded all wired card readers on campus. With the new card readers in place the old Stanford ID cards are officially no longer compatible.

Stanford's previous cards sent information in the clear when communicating with a reader, leaving them susceptible to card sniffing. But the move to smart cards eliminates this threat, as Stanford ID cards will now use a secure, encrypted channel that is hashed and signed when communicating with a reader.

Increased security on the new smart cards will come at a minor cost in the form of a shorter read range. The old Stanford ID cards had a read range of roughly 15 inches and could be read through limited obstruction like a wallet or purse. The chips in the newly issued smart cards are more secure and carry a read range of only about 3-4 inches, and will not work through a waller or purse.

Stanford began issuing the new smart cards in January 2017. These credentials include an “-E” as part of the number on the back side of the card. Any students, faculty or staff carrying a card that does not include the “-E” will need to replace their ID in one of the scheduled card swap windows.

Stanford libraries and campus rec centers will continue to recognize old cards issued to spouses and dependents. There will be no charge for the initial swapped card, but any subsequent lost or damaged cards will carry a $25 replacement fee.

Lehigh University Dining is adding another option to its on-campus repertoire with the deployment of its second food truck. The new Simply Skewered truck concept will serve Tarasco-Brazilian inspired barbecue fare to students and faculty on campus.

As reported by The Brown and White, the new food truck will join the existing Lehigh Füd Truk concept, which has been a popular food destination for students since arriving to campus back in 2012. The Füd Truk concept offers items ranging from breakfast sandwiches to burgers and snacks. The arrival of Simply Skewered is slated for this December, according to Lehigh Dining Services.

The new truck will rotate and serve several locations around Lehigh's campus. University meal plans and Goldplus -- Lehigh's declining balance account on the student ID card -- will be accepted, along with standard credit cards and cash. Also key to the new truck will be new hours of service for students. The Simply Skewered will serve during lunch and dinner hours, dovetailing with the Füd Truck's serving schedule that only serves during breakfast and lunch hours.

Evan Rehrig, the marketing manager for Lehigh Dining, says the marketing team completed research on popular food trends and identified “food on a stick” as a cuisine style on the rise. Lehigh Dining Services also surveyed students through the Student Senate for several years and found that barbecue food was a popular option.

Lehigh Dining and its marketing department recognized the need for a second food truck to better account for a growing student population. Lehigh’s student body is also becoming increasingly diverse, with more varied dining preferences that the university wants to be reflected in its on campus offerings. The new food truck concept will serve kebab-style meals cooked on spits, as opposed to a regular grill, and served in eco-friendly containers.

In the final installment of our three-part video series detailing hardware and software solutions from card system vendor, Blackboard, Senior Director for Platform Strategy and Product Management, Kent Pawlak discusses the company’s transaction solutions and gives a tour of the latest Blackboard reader hardware.

In this installment Pawlak details the company's latest transaction hardware. Following a design overhaul, Blackboard has launched a range of modern reader hardware that houses the full range of transaction capabilities. Also hear about the devices' new user interface that provides an efficient and contemporary experience for both university personnel and the students that interact with the readers.

In addition to this installment, be sure to check out the previous entries in the series:

Part I – Security

Part II - Retail

Blackboard's Mobile Credential on Apple devices has been available to students at launch campuses for nearly two weeks now. While exact enrollment data isn't yet available, it's safe to assume that things are moving in a positive direction.

Key to getting students involved with Mobile Credential, however, will be informative marketing material. All three of the launch campuses, the University of Alabama, the University of Oklahoma, and Duke University, have provided dedicated informational resources to its campus communities to aid in the enrollment process.

At Duke, all the necessary information is readily available to the campus community via the DukeCard website. As an added resource, the DukeCard office has compiled an informative video to lay out the use cases for Mobile Credential and how to get started:

The University of Alabama has also pull together all the necessary resources for students interested in enrolling with Mobile Credential. The Action Card website now features a dedicated resource page for Mobile Credential, along with an informative video of its own:

And there's a light-hearted reminder, as well:

The third launch campus, the University of Oklahoma, has also provided all the necessary information on its Sooner Card website. The site offers clear and easy to navigate resources for the enrollment process, device requirements, and other need-to-know details about Mobile Credential, making enrollment a breeze for students.

Thanks to the efforts of the participating card offices, it's clear that students on the Mobile Credential launch campuses won't be short on the key information.

Texas' Lufkin High School has installed fingerprint readers at exterior entrances to campus for students and faculty access.

As reported by local affiliate CBS19, members of the campus community must now use their fingerprint to access the school at certain entry points during specific hours of the school day.

Lufkin received approval for the initiative from its district school board last summer, and is now the first high school in East Texas to install keyless entry fingerprint scanners at campus entry-points. The new access measures are intended to both boost security and convenience for students and staff.

The biometric readers have been installed at five major side and rear entrances to the school. According to school officials a majority of its 2,100 students have opted to participate in fingerprint enrollment and will leverage the system. Those students who chose not enrolled, along with any outside visitors, must use the front door and check-in with the school’s security office for verification and access to campus.

"The biometrics was just another opportunity to make our building more secure and to keep our kids and our staff safer," said Brandon Boyd, Principal at Lufkin High School, in a CBS19 interview. "But also, allow our kids and our staff easy access to the building. The people who need to be in the building can get in."