Card, mobile credential, payment and security
Ohio State University is rewarding its students who complete daily health checks and fulfill COVID-19 testing requirements by offering gift cards and other prizes. Operating as a kind of loyalty program, students may win priority course scheduling, food and shopping gift cards or even MacBook computers.
According to Ohio State’s COVID-19 Testing Incentives website, the program randomly selects a set number of students per week to win a variety of prizes, with students who consistently meet testing requirements being eligible for larger prizes.
Incentives are available for both students on the flagship Columbus and regional campuses. Students who are selected will be notified via their university email.
Ohio State's COVID testing programs are carried out across campus to help the university monitor and address real-time trends and prevalence and make timely decisions on intervention and response. Students who schedule and complete their weekly, required COVID-19 test will be eligible for a variety of incentives, including:
As reported by student publication, The Lantern, the program incentivizes consistent participation week over week by adding more expensive tech products to the prize pool. Students who complete weekly testing three weeks in a row are placed into a prize pool that includes Apple AirPods, Apple Watches, and wireless speakers.
Any student who goes the entire semester without missing a single COVID-19 test or daily health check will be entered to win one of 20 MacBook computers.
Physical access solutions provider, ASSA ABLOY, is presenting a series of webinars detailing mobile credentials on university campuses. The Coffee Time Webinar Series will present bi-weekly, one-hour virtual discussions, where attendees will hear from industry leaders and other universities as they share their perspective and experiences with optimizing the student experience through mobile credentials.
“Investing in mobile credentials on college campuses has resulted in an improved student experience and increased security,” says Jeremy Saline, Senior Director of Business Development at ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions. “Through our Coffee Time Webinar series, we’re committed to sharing industry insights on this topic with campus decision makers and influencers to ensure that they are informed on the latest developments and can learn best practices from real-world deployments.”
Webinar topics and dates are as follows:
March 31 from 11 am - 12 pm EDT
Key takeaways from this session include:
April 14 from 11 am - 12 pm EDT
Key takeaways from this session include:
April 28 from 11 am - 12 pm EDT
Key takeaways from this session include:
Available On Demand
Key takeaways from this session include:
Available On Demand
Key takeaways from this session include:
The announcement by Entrust to end sales and support for ID Works marks a major turning point for the campus card industry and card issuance. The card issuance solution's end-of-life will lead universities to make both software and hardware decisions that will impact their card programs for years to come.
To help universities prep for this decision, ColorID’s Product Management team will host a series of informational webinars dedicated to the migration from ID Works to the next step in card issuance. "The webinars will look at Transact’s new proprietary Entrust-based identity solution, CBORD’s new ID issuance offerings that include an integration with Fargo Connect, and a host of other alternatives," says David Stallsmith, Director of Product Management at ColorID.
"It's a big topic that impacts a lot of campuses. More than a hundred IT directors, IT support staff, campus administrators and card office staff registered for the webinars in the first 48 hours."
ID Works is currently no longer available for purchase from Entrust, and in one year support for the software will also be discontinued. Thus the time is now for campuses to start weighing their options.
“Any software unsupported may run for years if you keep the same workstation and don’t upgrade anything, but the reality is that you’re only one Windows update away from it possibly never working again,” explains Stallsmith. “That’s the risk. A lot of institutions will just use it until they can’t any longer.”
But it is a risk that many campuses may not be ready or willing to accept.
ID Works became the de facto ID issuance software nearly twenty years ago. “Both CBORD and Transact are long-time proponents of ID Works, but the two providers each have their own approach to the way they use the software,” says Stallsmith.
It’s for this reason that ColorID’s webinar series will split into two separate paths, one set of presentations for Transact customers and another set for CBORD customers. This approach is designed to enable ColorID to better delve into the details of each specific ecosystem.
To better frame the webinar series, Stallsmith poses a simple question: When you don’t have ID Works anymore, what would you like your ID system to do?
“It used to be take a picture, print a card, and encode a magstripe. But now most schools have much more complex, attached processes and add-ons,” he explains. “So if you’re looking to go beyond ID Works, you probably need to be thinking about more options for things that can be automated, or how you could benefit from a more powerful system.”
“For many, this move could be like going from a simple crescent wrench to a pneumatic impact tool,” he adds.
This is also true for campuses that have gone through remote learning over the past year.
“ID Works uses a USB dongle. If that isn’t plugged in, you’re not printing a card,” says Stallsmith. “If that’s your environment, it may be time to consider what’s new in remote badging and issuance.”
“I don’t think there’s going to be a product ever again that grips the market the way ID Works did at the time in the early 2000s,” adds Stallsmith. “There’s a wider range of options out there today, and I think campus will deploy solutions in a more diversified manner.”
For a solution that’s been as ubiquitous as ID Works, it’s understandable that this could be a stressful or intimidating transition. But the flip side, for ColorID, is the opportunity for campuses to update ID card operations to suit modern card issuance standards.
“This is a big topic that impacts a lot of people,” says Danny Smith, Executive Vice President of ColorID. “We had a hundred registrations in the first 48 hours for this webinar series, spanning IT directors, IT support staff, campus administrators and card office staff.”
“It’s about understanding your options,” adds Smith. “Campuses need to be ready for the solutions that are here today but also the ones that will be coming down the line for years to come.”
Click here to register for one of the webinars.
Bridgewater State University was one of the first institutions in the northeast region to deploy autonomous robot delivery from Starship Technologies, offering students and faculty a valuable dining alternative. Now, the university is plotting to expand its fleet of delivery robots following early successes on campus.
According to an Enterprise News report, Bridgewater State was a pioneer in the region after first deploying its fleet of Starship delivery robots in early 2019. BSU was also just the 13th university in the country to partner with Starship.
The university currently boasts a fleet of 15 robots but will increase that to 25 in the fall as the number of students living on campus is expected to return to full capacity. BSU is currently operating at just 41% capacity due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Despite the smaller on-campus population, Bridgewater's Starship robots have still fulfilled an average of 150-170 deliveries per day, with significant peak times around lunch and dinner.
Delivery robots have been one of the measures campuses have turned to amid ongoing food safety precautions associated with COVID-19.
With this in mind, Starship operators and Bridgewater Dining team members clean the robots before and after each delivery, with an emphasis on high-touch areas. Moreover, all persons touching the robots are required to wear gloves.
At the end of every evening the robots undergo additional cleaning protocols, including a thorough cleaning of the lid handle and a careful cleaning of the thermal bags in the robot's chassis.
In the event a student forgets to pick up their order, an operator will meet the robot, remove the food, and wipe it down to prepare it for the next order. Each robot can only deliver one user's order at a time, which also decreases handling of the robots.
Bridgewater State's Starship fleet currently delivers most food and drink items available from the Bear’s Den or Crimson Café -- both university-run BSU dining locations -- as well as Starbucks orders.
To leverage the robot delivery service, users simply download the Starship app, select their campus and search available restaurants. After placing a food order, the app presents a map of campus, including area limitations where the robots cannot go. Users then a drop a pin on the desired delivery location.
New Mexico Tech has developed its own COVID-19 contact tracing app for students, faculty and staff to leverage around the campus community. The MinerSafe app is intended to help rapidly prevent coronavirus outbreaks should anyone on campus test positive.
Once downloaded and turned on the app traces users while on campus grounds, allowing system managers to immediately determine each individual's proximity and duration of time near an infected person.
According to an official university release, NM Tech's MinerSafe app is intended to help identify those who are exposed so they can rapidly get tested and/or isolate themselves. Developers insist the app offers the highest level of data privacy and security available, having been extensively vetted by the university's Cybersecurity Center of Excellence.
MinerSafe data is heavily protected and frequently purged as part of an ongoing process to ensure the privacy of those in the campus community. NM Tech faculty and students began beta testing the app in February.
“The data from this app will help us determine who can forego quarantine when they’ve been potentially exposed,” says Van Romero, Vice President of Research at NM Tech. “We all want to get back to normal as quickly and safely as possible, and this app gets one step closer.”
NM Tech built its app on top of software previously developed by New Mexico State University. NM Tech redesigned the app at its Institute for Complex Additive Systems Analysis (ICASA) and Cybersecurity Center of Excellence research centers to enhance the privacy and security of the app.
“NMSU really helped us get it off the ground,” says Romero. “In that same spirit, we’re making our app available to other universities so that they can benefit from the effort that we’ve put into it. Beating the COVID pandemic is going to require teamwork, after all.”
NM Tech's Institute for Complex Additive Analysis worked to ensure user privacy, engineering the app to not just protect all data collected, but also to limit all GPS-based tracking to only campus borders.
An individual's movements outside of university property is never recorded. The app leverages accurate 'geo-fencing' features to determine whether someone is on or off campus.
Use of the MinerSafe app is entirely voluntary, and is available via free download on the Apple App Store with an Android version arriving soon.
Integrated campus payment, ID and commerce solutions provider, Transact, has revealed the winners of its Transact 360 Distinction Awards. Announced live during a virtual Transact 360 Annual Users Conference, the awards honor those who display a passion for using technology to improve their campus experiences.
“Congratulations to all of our 2021 Distinction Award winners. It is a privilege to recognize you for bringing excellence, leadership, and continuous innovation to your work,” says Rachael Sepcic, Vice President, Transact. “Once again, I am blown away by our clients and all they are doing to continuously improve the service to their students, families, faculty, campus staff, and visitors.”
The Distinction Award for Student Experience honors institutions whose technological innovations have markedly improved the total student experience. This includes addressing new and changing dynamics in fields such as student recruitment, engagement, and retention.
Bentley received the Distinction Award for Student Experience in Payments. The Bentley team and their Workday integrator, Alchemy, were recognized for advancing and expanding the Transact Payments Workday Student Information System interface offering to make their student experience more seamless.
Mid-Plains received the Distinction Award for Student Experience in Campus ID and Commerce Solutions. Mid-Plains was recognized for investing in a full and extensive solution to dramatically impact the student day-to-day experience. Mid-Plains will be the first Community College to deploy the Mobile Credential.
The Distinction Award for Marketing and Outreach honors institutions who have creatively and effectively promoted their technology on campus. Using a variety of marketing efforts to enhance the visibility and value of campus credentials, flexible payment solutions, or other technology initiatives, these institutions elevate their brand while driving adoption and usage of the technology among students. The two recipients are as follows:
Molloy received the Distinction Award for Marketing and Outreach in Payments. The college was recognized for running an integrated marketing plan with Transact’s Full Service Payment Plan. The combination of multi-touch marketing generated tremendous results: student payment plan enrollments were up 500% in 2020, compared to 2019.
Texas Tech received the Distinction Award for Marketing and Outreach in Campus ID and Commerce Solutions. Hospitality Services at Texas Tech was recognized for completing a system migration that included the deployment of more than 75 point-of-sale registers and kiosks, and 35 Transact Mobile Ordering locations. The university's Hospitality Services also created several marketing campaigns across campus to drive the students to the mobile ordering app, and as a result, processed 325,000 mobile ordering transactions since the beginning of the semester and ensured students were fed safely.
The Distinction Award for Innovation honors institutions who are on the forefront of campus technology innovation. It recognizes campuses who have developed and implemented high impact technology strategies that scale and that have had a measurable effect on the student experience. The two recipients are as follows:
Virginia Tech received the Distinction Award for Innovation in Payments. VA Tech was recognized for using Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and bot technology in conjunction with the Transact Integrated Payments solution, to help the university’s administrative areas increase process efficiency, data quality, and overall agility.
This innovation allows the university to process transactions in the Cashier’s Office automatically from bank statement activities, process late fee appeals, and post the waiver transaction to the student account. VA Tech is developing other bot usage, including automating accounts payable invoice processing and recording outside scholarships.
Oral Roberts received the Distinction Award for Innovation in Campus ID and Commerce Solutions. The university was recognized for its Human-Ware Data Science Project that seeks to better understand the academic, physical, and human behaviors of students for success. Using a Transact server tie-in with academic and other data, the university can predict retention with 80% accuracy. As a result, Oral Roberts is now ranked fourth in the nation for student engagement and has a 99.4% placement rating of students.
The University of California at Davis has revealed a spring break grant program that will reward students who stay on campus during spring break week with $75 gift cards. This time last year, spring break across the country was marked by sharp spikes in COVID-19 cases, with some institutions doing away with the mid-semester hiatus altogether.
According to a report from Newsweek, the voucher initiative is part of the university's and the city of Davis' collaborative "Healthy Davis Together" project. The grant initiative asks that students agree to remain in the Davis area over the week-long break, and requires interested students to submit an application that includes a COVID-19 diagnostic test during the week of spring break.
UC Davis' grant program was revealed in an announcement on the university's Facebook page, which read in part:
"Planning a staycation for spring break? Get $75 to add some excitement to your week and support a local Davis business by applying for the Healthy Davis Together Spring Break Grant. As per state guidance, all non-essential travel should be avoided, and staying local is a good way to do your part in slowing the spread of COVID-19."
The initiative was initially limited applications to 500 student applicants, but following increased interest in the program, administrators raised the number applicants to 2,000.
The university's grant program aligns with larger, statewide guidelines that currently limit non-essential travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. The program also hopes to help direct additional patronage to local Davis, Calif. business establishments.
"Because the grants are in the form of a gift card that must be redeemed at Davis stores during the week of spring break, March 22-26, we are confident that the majority of students who have applied will stay in town and use these grants creatively to enjoy their time off," said Melissa Lutz Blouin, director of news and media relations at the university's communications office in a statement to Newsweek.
In total, the grant program is expected to cost roughly $150,000 but tuition money and other student fees will not be used to finance the initiative.
George Washington University has made changes to its residence hall visitor management policies that will keep the campus in line with evolving COVID-19 restrictions. Students living in on campus housing can now invite one guest from their residence hall into their room at a time.
A report from the GW Hatchet reveals that students can invite one guest to their room between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m., but overnight stays are still prohibited. The latest measures are a loosening of the initial COVID-19 restrictions put in place at the university, which previously enforced a strict no-guest policy for the some 1,500 students living in campus residence halls.
An email circulated to on-campus students from Campus Living and Residential Education stated in part:
“We have confidence in our residents’ ongoing commitment to the health of our campus as we implement this revised guest policy for, hopefully, the rest of this semester. The host resident is responsible for their guest’s behavior when their guest is in their unit. A violation of the guest policy may result in the resident and the guest each receiving similar sanctions.”
The university's visitor management policy will still restrict guests from any outside buildings, including other residence halls, off-campus sites or athlete-affinity housing, and all guests must continue to heed social distancing guidelines in each room.
Student-athletes living in what the university is calling an "affinity space" must maintain their testing bubble, limiting gatherings to fellow teammates under COVID-19 guidelines. University officials say the alterations to the campus visitor management policy were implemented based on shifts in COVID-19 cases, transmission rates and "other public health or behavioral assessments” on campus or across the surrounding D.C. area.
More than 480 team members at campus transaction and payment solutions provider, Transact, celebrated International Women’s Day today as the company reinforced its commitment to equality and inclusion. In a company-wide memorandum, CEO David Marr and VP of Human Resources, Jill Clark, called on team members to renew their commitment as One Transact.
“As One Transact, each of us plays a critical role in creating an environment where all team members can achieve their potential, without prejudice,” says David Marr, CEO. “Although today is a day we join the celebration of women's achievements and raise awareness about women's equality, doing our part to create and nurture an inclusive world is a priority for us every day.”
Transact encouraged team members to participate in this year’s conversation by wearing purple, green, and white -- the colors of International Women's Day -- signifying justice, dignity, hope, and purity. The company also invited team members to join the “Choose to Challenge” conversation on social media and posted advice from senior women leaders from within the organization.
To commemorate the day, a number of senior leaders of Transact shared thoughts on what it is like to be a woman in fintech, what International Women’s Day means to them, where they find their inspiration, and how they feel about progress toward woman’s equality.
“When I think of Choose to Challenge, I think of challenging ourselves to support women around us,” says Jill Clark, Transact Vice President of Human Resources. “I’m inspired by the women leaders in my network who are dynamic leaders in their organizations and find time for family and giving back in their community, as well. They are driven to make all they touch better.”
“My advice to my former professional self? If an opportunity is available, and you think you’re not ready, do it anyway,” says Maria Aguirre, Transact Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis. “You’ll learn more from the stretch than you imagine.”
“We still need greater awareness of opportunities for young women in STEM fields,” says Erica Bass, Transact Vice President of Product Management. “Getting girls interested in technology at an early age is key. Young girls need to see – and believe – it is possible to succeed in this arena.”
“There are many people who inspire me. My mom had a career in banking and also had the overwhelming majority of all the household responsibilities, but in her day, that was the price a woman often paid to have a career,” says Kelly Christiano, Transact Chief Marketing Officer. “I am also inspired by people like actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who now refuses to sign on to a project unless his female costar is paid the same.”
“My advice to my younger professional self would be to compromise less, respectfully vocalize opinions, and challenge those who present adversity,” says Transact Chief of Staff Laura Newell-McLaughlin. “I am inspired by many things, particularly the everyday acts of friends and colleagues who give their time to assist others.”
“The #ChooseToChallenge theme for International Women’s Day this year reminds me, ‘If you don't challenge yourself, you will never realize what you can become,’” says Senior Developer Sunitha Muthurajan. "From now on, let’s challenge ourselves to march steadfastly to reach our goals. And most of all, let’s challenge ourselves to be brave and express our thoughts.”
“I’m really excited about the theme this year because it reminds us all that we are responsible for our own thoughts and actions,” says Senior Product Owner Eithne O’Grady. “It’s important to remind ourselves that change can only be implemented by a culture of willingness to embrace challenges and make a difference.”
“Women who inspire me are those who possess grit," says Rachael Sepcic, Transact Vice President. "They demonstrate perseverance and passion in all they do in all aspects of their life. And women who embrace confident calmness under stress – and particularly those women who exhibit mental, physical, and spiritual stamina and embrace taking charge."
Rice University has brought back its Guest Meal Swipe Donation Program after halting the initiative during the fall semester. The meal swipe donation program was initially designed to help address food insecurity for Rice students by enabling on-campus undergrads on 20 meals-per-week plans to donate any unused meal swipes to off-campus peers.
As reported by The Rice Thresher, 1,443 meal swipes have been donated this semester leading to the program's full reinstatement. The program was designed and implemented at the beginning of 2020 after campus administrators recognized the high number of meal swipes that were going unused -- as many as 7,000 unused swipes as of the fall 2017 semester.
The donation program is intended to serve students living off-campus who either can't afford board plans or are in need of a meal.
However, due to a sharp decline in registrations last spring, the program was rendered inactive beginning September 2020. Those close to the program attribute the trend to COVID-19 and a smaller eligibility pool as fewer students were living on campus.
The pandemic did, however, create more need for meal donations. With a myriad of challenges including increased unemployment and reduced hours for working students, food insecurity concerns rose among the campus community. As a result, administrators believe that the Guest Meal Swipe Donation Program is even more important now than it was previously.
According to the Rice Guest Meal Swipe Donation Program website the program is providing access to hot meals via the Residential College Serveries, and is a collaborative effort between the Student Association, Housing and Dining, Student Success Initiatives, and the Dean of Undergraduates Division.
Under the program, students with 20 meal-per-week plans may donate between one and five of their guest meal swipes to off-campus students in need. Participants must fill out the swipe donation form. Undergraduate students with demonstrated need, and who do not currently have an on-campus meal plan, can request to be considered for the guest swipe program by filling out a swipe request form.
