Card, mobile credential, payment and security
Preferred names on campus cards are a regular occurrence at universities across the country. But for students who are seeking to swap out an existing ID for one that bears their new, preferred name, there's often a card replacement fee that the student is responsible for paying.
Now, however, a new initiative at the University of Kansas is subsidizing the replacement fee for students wishing to put a preferred name on a new KU ID card. As reported by The University Daily Kansan, the service is being offered and payed for by the university's Student Senate and the Center for Sexuality and Gender Diversity.
Students wishing to take advantage of the service must first go through an application process for the new student ID card, free of charge. Student Senate will reportedly cover the costs of any applicants specifically in the LGBTQ community.
In the application process, individuals are required to explain the need for the new card to Student Senate so as to ensure students are not "abusing it for the wrong purpose." Students will be required to send a paragraph to the Student Senate detailing their reason for wanting the preferred name and new ID. The application process was outlined on Twitter:
Pleased to announce this new program designed and implemented by Student Senate. Image description available on Facebook. pic.twitter.com/ipxjiBXJDL
— KU Student Senate (@KUSenate) October 8, 2017
KU students students will also have the option to take a new ID photo as part of the process as well, which will used across other university services where student photos are used, including the My KU student account portal.
In order to float the cost of card replacements, Student Senate representatives say that a cut back on office supplies had to be made. The Senate also insists that the money used to cover card replacements will not be taken from funds intended for other student organizations. The replacement cost for lost, stolen or damaged cards at Kansas is $20.
Payment technology provider, Lucova, has announced the general availability of its FIIT POE platform – a point-of-sale register designed to enhance the customer buying experience.
With a focus specifically on the campus market, the university food service and dining retail system supports traditional and cashless payments, as well as features built-in AI for personalized marketing and back office operations. With its new system, Lucova is attempting to turn the point-of-sale formula into what it calls a "Point-of-Experience."
“Everyone is carrying a smart phone but the technology is being wasted,” says Amit Jhas, co-founder and CEO of Lucova. “The FIIT POE platform disrupts the norm with patented beacon sensor technology and AI to take the dining experience to a new level. Finally, it is possible to provide the best experience, improve retention and be profitable.”
FIIT POE has already been deployed on a number of campuses, logging nearly three million transactions last year. The company attributes the number of transactions in part to FIIT POE’s human-centric approach.
A cloud-based solution, the system can also be managed from anywhere and at anytime. Using real-time smart reports, management can also access key insights and information in real time to support customer retention and other goals.
In addition to supporting traditional POS utilities, the FIIT POE platform can also features a built-in messenger service to add a personal touch, the ability to adjust mobile menus, as well as analyze orders and available resources. The system integrates with existing payment processors and points of sale, and is available through a monthly pricing structure with no transaction-based costs.
The system features a patented beacon sensor technology that enables access to customer profiles from a smartphone to provide staff with relevant information to deliver a personalized experience. Rounding out the company's "point-of-experience" vision is customer recognition technology, hands-free and mobile pay, mobile ordering and a user-friendly app.
From the student's perspective the platform -- when paired with a personalized mobile application -- provides a fast and easy way for students to pre-order food, digitize meal cards, check account balances and freely choose between cashless, card and cash transactions. Students can also accrue loyalty point and rewords for their commitment to the campus food service system.
FIIT POE leverages Bluetooth to essentially turn a student's mobile device into smart sensor that interacts with the in-store POS register. In this way, the platform tries to create a better human experience between staff and students by interacting with students' mobile devices through the app. This communication also allows students to conduct a hands free check-in at the dining hall. When the student reaches the FIIT POE register, the student’s name and picture appear on the register's screen right in front of the cashier.With this information, staff can welcome the student with a personal greeting.
The cashier simply clicks on the student's picture and charges the meal to student’s account where the app shows the meal they were just charged for. With auto-confirmation, the charge goes to student’s digital meal card and they can then walk into the dining hall. Later, the student will be prompted via the app to provide a rating and feedback with a single click. This reduces operational friction and allows frontline staff to provide a more personal and unique transaction, while students get the opportunity to give direct feedback.
UCLA students can now choose to print a preferred names on their BruinCards, the university's student ID. The initiative began over the summer and is in full effect for all new and returning students.
As reported by the Daily Bruin, preferred names will be prominently printed on the front of student IDs, while the legal names will still be printed on the back of the cards in accordance with university police policies. UCLA's Undergraduate Students Association Council does, however, have plans to work with relevant campus offices to remove students’ legal names from the BruinCard altogether.
The student council plans to meet with university police officials next month to discuss ways in student university ID numbers can act as the primary form of identification and comply with police policies.
New students to campus this summer were the first to have access to the new policy, having preferred names printed to their BruinCards during orientation. Returning students, meanwhile, have the option to update their card by registering a preferred name through the university's student account portal, MyUCLA, and paying a $5 replacement fee.
Prior to printing preferred names on campus cards, UCLA students previously had the option to use a preferred name on select student records, including class rosters and unofficial transcripts, with prior approval from the registrar’s office. Per UCLA's guidelines, preferred first names are those that a student can elect to use in place of a legal first name on certain university records, as well as the name that the student wishes to be identified by in classroom settings and elsewhere on campus.
UCLA's history with the preferred name dates back to a September 2015 initiative that first allowed for preferred names to appear in place of a legal name on certain university-related records and documents. There remain some records requiring the use of a legal name that have not been included in the preferred name policy, including financial services records, official transcripts, diplomas and official verifications.
A number of college students across the country have reportedly been lured into a credit card scheme that preys on their willingness to help fellow students in need. According to the Better Business Bureau, numerous universities have reported losing thousands of dollars in fraudulent purchases made with stolen credit card information at campus bookstores.
Investigations in to the matter have revealed a similar pattern in each of the cases that sees a perpetrator claiming to have lost their student ID card, and coaxing unsuspecting students to provide their valid student ID as a voucher for the fraudster. The fraudster then makes their purchase, in many cases buying high-end electronics, with false credit card information that matches their false identification.
FBI investigators believe campus bookstores represent valuable targets for fraudsters, and this scheme in particular, as they tend to offer special discounts for students who may also not see anything wrong with helping a stranger claiming to be classmate.
The FBI released a public service announcement this past June through its campus liaison agents warning of the credit card scheme. The announcement issued the following tips to help protect against the scam:
Campuses began reporting the fraud scheme last April having sustained losses of several thousands of dollars in each occurrence. Fraud of this nature serves as a reminder that the campus card can serve as a valuable link in the identity chain, and as such should be treated with the proper caution when making purchases and vetting identities.
A student at Ivy Tech Community College's Madison campus in Indiana stole student campus card numbers and used them to make thousands of dollars in fraudulent purchases on the campus' bookstore website.
As reported by local news affiliate WDRB, Indiana State Police have arrested the 20-year-old student from the neighboring town of Versailles, Indiana. According to police reports, the suspect is also a student at the Madison campus where she stole the ID card numbers from fellow students. It remains undetermined how the suspect obtained the student ID numbers.
Police were first made aware of the fraudulent activity in early September by Ivy Tech administrators, following a string of suspicious purchases made on the college's online bookstore. College officials noticed that multiple shipments, totaling more than $7,000, had all been shipped to the suspect's mailing address under various other student names.
The purchases were subsequently tracked back to an IP address at the suspect's apartment in Versailles and also matched the suspect's student login information. Once the fraud was uncovered, the Ivy Tech officials were able to block roughly half the purchases and issue refunds back to the students whose accounts were compromised in the fraudulent activity.
The suspect is now facing charges of identity deception, theft and fraud.
Northern Illinois will discontinue guest passes in its campus dining halls. After offering the service to students for the past three years, the passes were deemed to be both expensive and underutilized.
As reported by the Northern Star, the guest passes were previously issued to students with meal plans, with each student receiving a total of ten passes to use each semester. The number of guest passes was believed to be too great and was not in alignment with industry standards for similar programs.
In addition to cutting costs associated with providing meals to students and others using the passes, students were reporting people gathering in residence halls asking students with guest passes to scan them into the dining halls for a free meal. This situation was reported to have occurred numerous times with some instances seeing non-students asking to be scanned into the dining facilities.
The removal of guest passes isn't expected to have any significant impact on the general student population. According to stats compiled by university dining services, only 18% of students used a guest pass during both semesters last year. Further, less than 20% of students used all 10 guest passes, and a total of 500 students didn’t use any of their allotted guest passes at all.
Underpinning the end of guest passes is a falling number of student meal plans being purchased. In 2014, some 5,000 students purchased a meal plan, but that figure has dropped to roughly 3,500 student meal plans purchased this academic year.
Students are still able to bring guests into dining halls via a new family pass only now a student must fill out a request form 24 hours in advance to receive the pass.
Despite guest passes being discontinued for the 2017-18 academic year, NIU dining services insists that meal plans are reevaluated on a yearly basis. The university will monitor the new dining policies and make further assessments at the end of the academic year.
Use of the campus card for off-campus purchases is one of the most crucial value-added service students can enjoy from their ID card. Moreover, off-campus programs provide universities with the unique ability to better integrate with their surrounding communities and foster the all important town-and-gown relationship by opening up the opportunity for local merchants to provide their services to students.
But forging a truly successful off-campus program takes time, effort and commitment that campus card administrators don't always have at their disposal. With this in mind, we recently spoke with the University of Pittsburgh’s Julie Bannister on how Pitt has been able to grow its off-campus program into one of the more extensive in the country, with a total off-campus spend of more than $1.5 million annually.
In our latest on-demand webinar, hear how Pitt managed its program from a few merchants in its early days, to a full roster of more than 55 local merchants. At the heart of our discussion is the key decision to either self-operate your institution’s off-campus program, or opt for managed services from a third-party partner. Hear specifically how Pitt has used managed services from Blackboard Transact to create an extensive network of off-campus merchants, drive a wide array of card deposits, market its program to the community and boost sales both on and off campus.
Key takeaways:
Access this free, on-demand webinar now and learn more about the history of Pitt's off-campus program, and how your institution can apply some of the same growth strategies.
Erie, Pennsylvania's Gannon University is overhauling its campus copy/print system, giving students the ability to remotely print from their laptop, tablets and phones, as well as cycle out aging printer hardware.
As reported by the Gannon Knight, the university has contracted with vendor ComDoc to manage the new copy/print project. As part of the overhaul, a total of 110 new multi-function Xerox print, copy and scanning devices have been installed to help streamline an update printer hardware on campus. The move consolidates the Gannon IT Services printer fleet from 600 units to under 200 total devices.
Some of the legacy printers will be kept as spares or used for expansion as needed, but the update in hardware was sorely needed, as it's estimated that some of the devices on Gannon's campus had been in use for as long as 15 years.
University officials say that moving to the new copy/print system is cost neutral for Gannon. “The real benefit is bringing efficiencies to students providing the ability to print, print color, copy, scan, email and some fax, and do so from locations all over campus," said Kurt Spence, applications manager for Gannon ITS, in an interview with the Gannon Knight.
It's expected that further savings will be realized by forcing duplex, black and white copies and monitoring print behavior to better educate and manage consumable costs.
The new system will see each print job released to a printer on the network that will be identified once the student swipes their Gannon ID card at the card reader attached to the printer. After swiping their ID, the device will show the print jobs that are waiting to be released along with the cost of the jobs.
Students will continue to have a 600-page per semester print limit for the 2017-2018 academic year, and by default printers will print in black and white. A new feature for the coming year, however, some printers will support color printing but will carry a double charge.
As part of its copy/print overhaul, the university is also committing to keeping its print devices less than five years old. The university also intends to improve sustainability by adding eco boxes in strategic campus locations to collect used toner cartridges and other consumables.
ASSA ABLOY has partnered with the University of East Anglia in the UK to better protect its students from on-campus theft and crime by implementing the company's Aperio access control solution.
Formed in 1963, the University of East Anglia is located in the city of Norwich and serves some 15,000 students. In order to boost security for UEA’s latest campus residence hall, Crome Court, campus officials decided on a system from ASSA ABLOY. The new residence hall houses 231 en-suite rooms that are primarily rented out to post-graduate students.
Also key to the new residence hall project is a commitment to environmental responsibility, and the building was specifically designed by UEA to reduce environmental impact. With this in mind the university felt it was vital that the chosen access control solution should also be in line with this goal.
The university sought a system that could guarantee electronic locks that were built to serve the unique demands of the student accommodation, while also ensuring student safety and security. Other requests included a stylish, affordable component design that fit the environmentally advanced profile of the new residence hall. To aid in the process, Gallagher, ASSA ABLOY Access Control’s OEM’s partner, helped to identify the best security solution for the university.
The residence hall's doors have been fitted with Aperio E100 online escutcheons, with installation training provided on campus by ASSA ABLOY. Students now open their doors with smart cards instead of metal keys. The battery-operated Aperio locks also emit significantly fewer CO2 emissions than wired locks, fitting with the campus' environmentally conscious aims.
University staff can also control doors from a web-based interface or mobile phone. “Unlike other systems, Aperio provides audit trails online, allowing for real-time monitoring,” says Jason Boyce, Sales Manager at Gallagher. “The fact that Gallagher and Aperio devices can operate with the same data on the card has allowed for tighter integration, which saves the customer money.”
In addition to the current installation, Aperio are offering the capability for additional doors to be integrated into UEA’s Gallagher system over time as required.
Parking apps have cropped up at campuses large and small across the US in recent years, offering students and campus visitors more flexibility and convenience when it comes time to top up their meters. The same holds true north of the border in Canada where parking app, HonkMobile, has established itself as the clear frontrunner in the region with some 20 university and college campuses across the country now on board.
College students are undoubtedly reliant upon their mobile devices, and are now using smartphones for an increasing number of purchases. In fact, HonkMobile has reported that its year-to-date transactional dollar volume at higher ed campuses is up 30% this year from 2016 and the fall semester has only just begun.
As with other parking solutions, the cloud-based app allows students and staff to search and pay for a parking space, as well as top up the parking meter all from a smartphone, tablet or computer. Drivers also receive a notification 15-minute before their parking expires at which point the app offers the ability to buy additional time remotely.
The company also says it routinely integrates with campus cards as a method of payment within the app to allow students to seamlessly access and pay for parking. The app is accepted at over 800 locations and 150,000 parking spaces across Canada and the United States, and from a single account, drivers can pay for parking anywhere HonkMobile is accepted across North America.
HonkMobile is now available at the following institutions across Canada:
