Card, mobile credential, payment and security
For campus card offices, one of the major challenges with the fall semester is how to provision student ID cards in a way that doesn't require high foot traffic to the office. With this in mind, Indiana University Bloomington has incorporated a somewhat unique means of card distribution for new students.
According to an official university release,when students arrive on campus for orientation, they will go through a four stop drive-thru process at the university's Memorial Stadium where one of the stops is to receive their Crimson Card student ID.
The student move-in timeline will be broken up into several phases and spread out over two weeks, with a maximum of 1,500 students moving onto campus per day. The move-in process is being broken out into groups, and students will be required to schedule move-in slots that are available to their group.
The new schedule and processes, beginning August 9, are designed to help keep the university community safe and limit the spread of the coronavirus. The drive-thru check-in process includes:
Students will be allowed to bring only two guests to help them move into their residence hall, and all parties will be required to wear a mask while doing so.
College of Charleston has outlined much of its return plan for this fall, including the decision to convert an entire dorm into an isolation facility for students that test positive for COVID-19. The dorm repurposing joins other measures being taken in dining halls and campus facilities for students as part of the college's Back on the Bricks plan.
As reported by the Charleston City Paper, the college's Buist Rivers residence hall will be used as an isolation dorm during the fall semester and is not being assigned student residents during the 2020-2021 academic year. In all other residence halls, room and suite capacity has been reduced in an effort to "de-densify" student housing.
Further protocols will restrict campus residents from checking in visitors, while common spaces including game rooms, lounges and kitchens will all be closed to promote social distancing. Laundry rooms will have limited capacity and may require scheduling. Face coverings will be required in common spaces like hallways and elevators.
According to the college's campus physician, Dr. Dee DiBona, on-campus residential students that show symptoms or test positive for COVID-19 will be moved to the repurposed, isolation dorm to quarantine for the requisite amount of time.
Students who are quarantining in on-campus rooms or who are in isolation after exhibiting symptoms will be delivered meals by the college. Students living in off-campus housing that elicit symptoms or test positive will be asked to isolate at their own residences, and will not be provided meals.
College of Charleston's "Back on the Bricks" plan also includes academic changes. The latest update from college officials reveals that the start of in-person classes will be delayed three weeks to Monday, September 14. Classes will still begin as scheduled on Tuesday, August 25, but will initially be conducted online.
Most classes will follow a "blended instruction" format that includes a mix of in-person and online instruction to limit the number of people in classrooms. Roughly 20% of courses will be offered completely online.
Students will also not return to in-person classes after the Thanksgiving holiday, and will instead move to online learning beginning November 30.
Illinois State University is revamping its student ID card, the Redbird Card, with a new design aesthetic and enhanced technology. The major component of the revamp will be the university's move to smart card technology that will leave behind legacy mag stripe and proximity protocols being used throughout campus.
According to an official university release, the new changes to the Redbird Card will incorporate smart card technology that will provide the Illinois State community with several new benefits, including improved customer experience, overall cost savings, increased security and room for future growth.
The Redbird Card Office recognized the need incorporate more advanced and secure card technology and collaborated with a number of fellow campus offices to implement the new changes. University marketing and communications were tasked with creating several mock ups for the new card aesthetic. The designs were presented to all faculty, staff, and students in a survey, enabling the campus community to have input on the Redbird Card's new look.
On the technical side, several campus departments worked together to improve the security and software that interacts with the card. The new Redbird Card will be used for electronic door access across campus, consolidating access control from previous card technologies.
For physical access, ISU's facilities management collaborated with university police, emergency management, and environmental health and safety to strategize and improve electronic door access on campus. Software systems, equipment, and other technologies that interact with the new smart Redbird Card were coordinated with the university's technology solutions and facilities management departments.
Door access reader replacements were already underway across campus prior to the ID card change, so the university is first replacing cards for students who had previously been using electronic door access via a FOB, magstripe or proximity technology. These cardholders will need the new card beginning August 1.
The Redbird Card Office is employing a phased approach to re-carding its entire campus community. Understandably, the COVID-19 pandemic has created additional challenges for the card office as it looks to capture student photos, and then create and distribute the 24,000 credentials to students, faculty and staff.
To accommodate the new campus environment and virus-related challenges, card distribution will be spread out over a 6-12 month timeframe. The Redbird Card Office is also providing students with an online photo submission system to assist with credential provisioning.
The University of Tennessee’s Vol Dining is implementing CBORD's GET Food app to support mobile food ordering this fall. Vol Dining will be open for the fall semester with protective measures to make the student dining experience as convenient, safe and enjoyable as possible.
Vol Dining launched the Get Food app for students and employees to provide the option of placing orders in advance at restaurants and cafes on campus for pick up to help limit traffic flow in dining facilities. Tennessee's COVID-19 resource page outlines a host of other changes that will join the GET Food app, including plans on implementing physical changes and protective measures in dining facilities amid the ongoing pandemic.
Physical changes to campus dining will include:
Further protective measures in Vol Dining include:
The University of Southern Mississippi is making alterations to its dining services by introducing touchless payments in campus dining. The payment changes come in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and will join other measures, including socially distant seating, and changes to how food is prepared at all university dining venues.
According to an official university release, each of the new measures will support university, local, state, and federal guidelines. Where applicable, previous self-service and buffet style dining will be replaced by food served by dining personnel. Additionally, all Eagle Dining employees will undergo health and temperature screenings prior to their shifts, and will be required to wear face coverings, gloves, and wash hands at least every 20 minutes.
Cleaning and sanitation are also being revamped, with all food production and dining areas be cleaned more frequently. Hand sanitation stations will be provided for guests throughout all food-service locations.
To assist students in maintaining proper social distance, seating capacity will be adjusted to ensure at least six feet between tables, with no more than six chairs per table. Signage will also be placed in all dining locations to help guide the flow of foot traffic.
In anticipation of the decreased availability of tables at most locations, Eagle Dining is also placing an increased focus on mobile food ordering through GrubHub. Dining officials are recommending that students and other guests download the GrubHub App and set up their accounts even before the semester begins so they are able to benefit from the service right away.
There will also be an increased availability of prepackaged and grab-and-go options to help offset the reduced seating.
As for payment, Southern Miss' on-campus dining locations have implemented a “no cash” operation. Accepted methods of payment will now include the student ID card loaded with a meal plan or declining balance dollars, as well as Visa, MasterCard, Amex via swipe or chip, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay. All credit card machines will also be repositioned to be guest facing and will no longer require a PIN.
For students who may need to self-isolate in temporary housing on-campus, Eagle Dining will ensure that nutritious meals are prepared and delivered to the appropriate residence hall for distribution by designated personnel.
Southern Miss has compiled further information regarding meal plans and dining services at its “Flight Path: Fall 2020” return to campus website.
The fall semester is just around the corner, as is the return to campus for students, faculty and staff. With this in mind, the University of Georgia has outlined its approach to COVID-19 surveillance testing and notification for its campus community that will begin on August 10, with the first day of UGA’s Phase Three reopening plan.
According to an official update from the University of Georgia's COVID-19 Medical Oversight Task Force, the plan calls for 24,000 COVID-19 tests to be conducted by Thanksgiving at a rate of 300 tests per day on samples collected from faculty, staff, and students that volunteer to be tested. UGA will hire five staff members -- three medical professionals and two support staff -- to carry out the program, with specimen collection to be conducted at an outdoor location.
Joining the testing measures will be a screening and notification tool recommended by the task force, called DawgCheck. The tool consists of a Qualtrics form, made available on the UGA app and website, which will prompt all faculty, staff, and students to perform a quick symptom check each weekday. The symptom check is strongly encouraged, and anyone with a positive test will be required to report the test via DawgCheck.
UGA's University Health Center will conduct the sampling, with testing to be performed by the university's Veterinary Medicine Diagnostic Lab, which recently earned certification to process human samples. The university's total investment in the new testing measures has reached $1.2 million to date.
Notification of a positive test by a student will alert a Student Care and Outreach team, whose members will reach out to help coordinate medical assistance, meal delivery, housing while in isolation, notification to professors, and other assistance. An automatic notification also will be sent to Facilities Management to signal the need for disinfecting of specific areas. Those reporting positive tests will also be asked to recall their contacts, and this information will be shared safely and securely with the Georgia Department of Public Health to help facilitate contact tracing.
Testing asymptomatic members of the campus community will be voluntary and free to participants. UGA is seeking student participation from residence halls, off-campus apartment complexes, fraternities and sororities. UGA is also asking for faculty and staff who self-identify as being at a higher risk for COVID-19 to volunteer to be tested.
UGA expects test results to be available with 48-72 hours and delivered privately to each participant, and as required by law, to the Georgia Department of Public Health. Participants who test positive must use DawgCheck to communicate their results and should identify the places they have been on the UGA campus as well as provide information on campus individuals with whom they have been in contact.
In addition to the testing measures, UGA has also added protocols for social distancing, use of face coverings, and intensified cleaning measures. UGA's Phase 3 of return, beginning on August 10, will see all faculty and staff return to campus unless they have been approved for telework.
The University of Connecticut has moved to Seos smart cards and HID FARGO Connect issuance solution from HID Global to optimize card issuance and strengthen security across UConn's network of campuses. A cloud-based platform, HID FARGO Connect will enable UConn to move to a distributed model for ID issuance and eliminate student wait times, while Seos card technology will add new layers of security not present in UConn's legacy system.
The new card issuance formula at UConn leverages iCLASS SE readers, multi-technology Seos cards, the HID FARGO Connect platform, and the HDP5600 card printer. The university’s One Card office partnered with identification solutions supplier, ColorID, to upgrade its Husky One cards with Seos credential technology to combat card duplication and fraud.
“The biggest challenge for UConn was it needed to re-card its campus to bolster security,” says Cassie Bunner, Higher Education Account Manager at ColorID. “We wanted to present the university with a technology we knew and had confidence in. HID was exactly that.”
UConn's previous card solution leveraged legacy proximity and magstripe technologies, which can easily be cloned. The university's new batch of 40,000 Husky One Cards retain the old magstripe and proximity technology to minimize disruption to campus life in the near term, but vitally add Seos technology for a phased university-wide transition to iCLASS readers. Once that phase is complete, UConn will remove proximity technology, and further reduce its card issuance costs.
To accommodate UConn's card technology migration, ColorID selected HID’s triple-technology card featuring magstripe, proximity, and Seos. This enables UConn to complete a phased transition of access readers and software across the university’s network of five campuses. ColorID's in-house service bureau custom printed, laminated and encoded the magnetic stripes, and inspected and confirmed the data for every credential shipped.
“Setting up our university with HID FARGO Connect will allow regional campuses to print cards directly for students—no wait, no temporary card. The mobility of being able to take pictures and print wherever we need was a big factor in selecting FARGO Connect.”
-- Stephanie Kernozicky, Director, UConn One Card Office
“HID Global is leading the way in providing universities with trusted identity solutions so they can revolutionize processes that are vital for student success,” says Craig Sandness, Vice President and Managing Director, Secure Issuance with HID Global. “With our HID FARGO Connect solution and Seos smart cards, UConn leverages best-in-class credential technology to secure its campus and simultaneously consolidates and streamlines its student ID issuance process.”
In the future, the Husky One Card office will manage its own high-volume credential requirements and expedite student delivery using HID FARGO Connect and HDP5600 printers. UConn administrators plan to encode, print and issue some 18,000 credentials annually from any device on campus with a web interface.
“Setting up our university with HID FARGO Connect will allow regional campuses to print cards directly for students — no wait, no temporary card,” says Stephanie Kernozicky, Director of UConn’s One Card Office. “The mobility of being able to take pictures and print wherever we need was a big factor in selecting FARGO Connect solutions.”
For many universities the return to campus is just around the corner, no longer than a month away. That's the case for the University of Houston and Emory University, so together with TouchNet, CR80News will moderate a roundtable discussion to talk about some of the concerns and expected challenges at the two universities ahead of the fall semester.
The “Reopening the Campus: Preparedness for a Non-contact World” webinar, hosted by TouchNet, will feature roundtable discussion format that will cover some of the technologies, goals, and procedures that Houston and Emory are implementing as they prepare for the fall semester.
The free webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, July 21 at 1:00 p.m. CDT and will include insights from:
The talk will cover a number of topics including card office changes, staffing adjustments, and ways the transaction system can help address campus-level challenges. The panelists will also discuss emerging topics like the use of mobile-enabled solutions to encourage social distancing and crowd control.
Webinar attendees will also learn about how the University of Houston and Emory University are using their transaction systems from TouchNet in some unique ways now that new procedures are being implemented due to COVID-19.
Other insights covered as part of the discussion will include:
With the fluid nature of the pandemic and the frequency to which things have been changing, every university will likely be approaching the return to campus in their own way. So if your campus card office is looking for more ideas as you tackle the challenges that lie ahead, be sure to tune in and hear how the University of Houston and Emory University are working through the new landscape.
Registration for the webinar is now open, and we’d love for you to join us!
Entrust Datacard is offering a series of free webinars for higher education institutions designed to discuss the TruCredential solution and help navigate both current and future challenges on campus. The sessions will draw on the company's 50+ years of experience and insight in access control to help universities to strategize and succeed in this new climate.
Entrust Datacard's virtual Lunch and Learn series will draw insights from experts and industry leaders in small group sessions with interactive discussion and Q&A opportunities.
Entrust Datacard has shaped the Lunch and Learn sessions around needs expressed by universities for contactless issuance solutions that minimize in-person interactions, and incorporate online photo submission and remote card issuance. This also includes mobile ID solutions that enable self-provisioning for students and a truly contactless issuance experience.
Each session is limited to 20 people, so register ASAP to reserve a spot. In an attempt to help support local restaurants, each attendee of the sessions will also receive a $25 Uber Eats gift certificate.
The sessions are scheduled for the following dates and times:
The topics to be discussed in the interactive sessions include:
Much of the buzz around the closure and move away from campus last spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic was centered around room and board refunds. Now, Washington State University is looking ahead to the fall with a new clause in its housing agreement that will qualify students for refunds if a public health order requires WSU residence halls to be vacated.
The new housing addendum from Washington State's Housing and Residence Life, stipulates that the university will implement a refund or credit policy if a public health order requires residence halls to be vacated due to COVID-19. This is a notable change from the initial draft of the contract that did not account for potential refunds if students were asked to leave student housing early.
Despite the change in policy, students still won’t be able to terminate their housing or dining contracts if other COVID-19 related changes are implemented. That includes a switch to online classes, or other alterations to on-campus classes.
Freshmen at WSU are required to live in on-campus housing for their first year, unless otherwise exempt by an approved waiver. The new housing addendum now expands expedition from the first-year live-in requirement to include “financial and extraordinary hardship.”
Students will also have until August 3 to cancel their housing contract without cancellation fees, which will provide time to view the revised fall 2020 class schedule that will be released on August 1.
According to a report from The Lewiston Tribune, Washington State University issued an estimated $11.8 million in refunds to students as a result of last semester's mandatory transition to distance learning.
WSU is also expected to house 4,000 first-year students on campus this fall, roughly 2,000 fewer than normal. The drop in residential students is, in part, to comply with health and safety requirements mandated by the state.
"The decreased capacity in the residence halls is predicted to account for a $20 million loss in revenue to the housing and dining operation," said university spokesman Phil Weiler in a statement to the Lewiston Tribune. “WSU made extraordinary exceptions to provide refunds last semester. With the reduced occupancy next semester, the housing and dining budget will be extremely constrained.”
