Colorado Technical University, one of some 75 campuses that are part of the Career Education Corporation, has become the latest school to sign on with financial services provider Higher One. Under the new program, CTU will begin issuing refunds to students this summer using Higher One’s program.

Higher One’s partnership with CTU includes communicating the program basics to the students so they understand how to take advantage of the new service. Higher One will also collect and maintain student banking information and refund preferences, distribute the refunds, handle returned checks and bounced ACH payments, and field any refund-related customer service inquiries from students and staff.

Students will be able to access a secure website to select how they would like to receive their refunds from the university. Each student will have a choice between direct deposit to a no fee, no minimum balance, OneAccount checking account, an electronic file sent via Automated Clearing House to another bank account of the student’s choice or a paper check mailed to the address on file.

“CEC immediately saw the value in partnering with an outsourced refund solution that would allow for a more timely and efficient delivery of refunds to our student population,” said David Peters, vice president of operations, Centralized Services at CEC.

“Over the course of the vendor selection process, we evaluated numerous potential partners and found that Higher One clearly separated itself from the competition in this space. Their educational focus and experience in this niche business provided a seamless and cost sensitive implementation, allowing for improved student service, reduction in costs, and minimal demands on our internal IT department and business units,” Peters added.

“(We) expect the Higher One program to increase customer satisfaction through a more timely distribution of funds to students, and to provide more accurate student information, thus improving the campus’s ability to communicate to its students,” said Scott McGuire, vice president for finance and operations at CTU Colorado Springs.

“Moreover,” he added, “we expect the program to eliminate many of the administrative duties associated with the current fund distribution process, allowing our financial aid staff to spend more time supporting students. The improved customer service associated with these benefits is expected to strengthen student service which, in turn, will improve student retention at the campus.”

Career Education Corporation’s network of more than 75 campuses serve 90,000 students in the U.S. France, Italy and the United Kingdom with doctoral, master’s, bachelor’s, and associate degree offerings as well as diploma and certificate programs.

Recycled cards and others made from corn are coming out of an El Segundo, Calif. company that is manufacturing student ID cards, hotel key cards, hospital identification cards., security clearance cards and more. Primarily a reseller of security and identification cards, Advantidge, Inc. buys its equipment from manufacturers such as Fargo Electronics, HID Corp. and Zebra Technologies Corp., and resells directly to end users or in some cases through an integrator.

According to this article on dailybreeze.com, Advantidge’s first big job was supplying ID cards for Los Angeles International following 9-11. In less than two weeks LAX reached its goal and met the FAA’s new post 9-11 standards for ID cards. Advantidge’s accomplishment was notable since the company was only a few months old at the time. CEO Lawrence Grafstein the company in May 2001, only four months before LAX’s rebadging.

Advantidge offers four types of PVC identification cards: blank or basic PVC cards, magnetic stripe cards, proximity cards and smart cards. Read more here.

A refund distribution system implemented by financial services provider Higher One at the State University of New York at Oswego was recently named a best practice for the SUNY System based on a first year net savings of $45,000. Oswego had become the first SUNY System institution to implement the new refund distribution method with the expectations of better customer service and improved efficiency.

“We have eliminated production of 14,000 checks, reduced postage costs, minimized bank reconciliations and freed up staff time,” explained Byron Smith, assistant vice president for finance and business at SUNY Oswego. “Higher One has enabled redeployment of human resources to more value added endeavors.”

“The results of implementing this service have been dramatic. We have observed a significant reduction in student traffic to the business office during refund periods,” explained Margaret Lloyd, director of student accounts at Oswego. “We have been able to drastically improve customer service as a result of eliminating time consuming tasks such as printing and reconciling large check runs.”

“In doing our research, we found Higher One’s OneDisburse Refund Management to be the most reliable, convenient and student-focused service available for the management of refund disbursements to our student body,” said Nicholas Lyons, vice president for administration and finance at the University. “Using this program, we can efficiently manage this important business process and simultaneously provide improved services and convenience to our students.”

In order to distribute refunds Oswego sends Higher One a flat file with the names of each student scheduled to receive a refund along with the amount for that refund. Additionally the University sends Higher One a wire for the total amount of the disbursement.

Students receive their refund after choosing one of three different refund methods: Direct deposit to a no monthly fee, no minimum balance, FDIC-Insured, checking account provided by Higher One, an ACH to another bank account of the student’s choice, or a paper check mailed to the address on file.

Waiting in line is like a rite of passage for college students. Long lines, rather for housing registration, changing classes or obtaining food are many times unavoidable. One company is seeking to change that, at least when it involves housing.

“Check-in historically has involved a lot of time-consuming, one-on-one interaction, with almost every new and returning resident,” says Anthony Zamora, head of IT support for the University of San Diego (USD).

“This can be a long and arduous process with the potential for mistakes and a stressful process for our students and staff.”

Students checking in at USD have stood in line for up to three hours, according to Zamora, but the problem isn’t unique to San Diego. Institutions nationwide have sought to evolve check-in procedures with customizable solutions that can effectively support students and staff throughout the year.

Enter Onity, a global provider of electronic locking solutions, which developed a self-serve kiosk that can be placed on college campuses to allow students and workers to independently change the PINs for their residence hall access key cards. The Onity Integra Kiosk also allows students and faculty to encode and activate their ID cards without the supervision of a personnel member at any time of the day or night.

The University of San Diego found that the Integra Kiosk decreased the University’s check-in wait times by more than 50 percent.

“Students appreciate that ID cards are created and pre-encoded when they arrive, so it cuts waiting in line to as little as 30 minutes,” Zamora says. “They also have the freedom and option to customize their cards using the Kiosks throughout the year – greatly improving
our check-in process.”

According to Stan Duci, director of customer service for Northeastern’s Facilities Division, Boston, Mass., their students no longer need to meet with housing staff for their room assignments. “The Onity Kiosks have decreased check-in time significantly. And while the Kiosks are great for students, our staff love them too because they can be utilized at any time of the day.”

“The Kiosks save the students a lot of time and hassle,” adds Dan Yanna, director of facilities for Shepherd University, Shepherd, W. Va.. It started using Kiosks in 2004 and plans to add more to the five already located on campus.

In addition to convenience, Onity Kiosks also feature customization options, such as Internet access that provide users with campus and community information, university resources, weather, news, restaurants and maps.

Onity, headquartered in Duluth, Ga., also has R&D and manufacturing operations in Spain, Mexico, China, and the U.S., as well as an extensive sales and service network that span more than 115 countries around the globe. For further information about Onity’s electronic solutions visit www.onity.com.

It helps to have friends in high places, or at least those who have experience with the service you’re attempting to sell. That was one of the reasons Texas’ oldest county-owned two year institution, Blinn College in Brenham, chose Higher One to handle the school’s refund disbursements. The college becomes the 21st in Texas to sign up with the New Haven, Conn.-based financial services provider.

What helped seal the deal was that one of Blinn’s administrators had first hand experience with Higher One’s service. “In addition to the extensive research Blinn College performed before selecting Higher One to process its refunds, I have firsthand knowledge of what Higher One can do for students,” said Jeff Cermin, the college’s associate director of business services. “I carried a Higher One card while completing my M.B.A. at Sam Houston State University, and I used the debit card feature to access some of my student loans. We’ll let Higher One deal with bad addresses and lost checks while we focus on serving our students.”

The Higher One partnership with Blinn College will enable the school to issue refunds to the institution’s 14,000 students.

“We are pleased to offer this new service to our Blinn College students for their convenience in handling their financial transactions,” said Dr. John Harris, vice president for student services, Blinn College, a two-year school entering its 125th year of operation.

With Higher One’s OneDisburse Refund Management service, the college will send Higher One a flat file containing the names for all students who are scheduled to receive a refund from the institution and the amounts for each refund. In addition, Blinn will wire Higher One the total amount of the disbursement.

Higher One will collect student bank account information, market the program on a regular basis, distribute the refunds to students, handle any returned checks or ACH bounce backs, and field any refund related customer service inquiries.

“Blinn College processes over 16,000 refunds by check and EFT every year,” explained Cermin. “I think we do a very good job of getting refunds into the hands and bank accounts of our students. However, I believe that Higher One can do the job efficiently and quicker than we can.”

With Higher One, every student is sent a card in the mail. Students use this card to log onto a secure website to select how each would like to receive a refund from the school.

Florida State University students who live near campus will have more buses to get there starting this fall. It’s all part of a program the university implemented last year with the city of Tallahassee to reduce the number of automobiles on campus.

In addition, students in certain zones need only flash their student ID cards to get free rides to and from the school. The university reimburses the city so it’s a program that’s advantageous to both. That’s why it was probably a no-brainer for the city to agree to purchase another five buses to service the area surrounding FSU.

Read more here.  

Higher One has added two more colleges to its growing roster of schools that are using the financial services provider to distribute refunds to its students. Although Higher One works with more than 110 colleges and universities in the U.S., Kansas City Kansas Community College is the company’s first client in Kansas. Both it and Texas-based Laredo Community College intend to distribute financial aid refunds electronically to students starting this fall.

Since the start of this year, Higher One, recently ranked No. 85 on the 2007 Inc. magazine list of the 500 Fastest Growing Companies in the U.S., has reached financial aid refund agreements with 18 institutions around the country.

“Providing quality and innovative student services is a top priority at Laredo Community College,” LCC President Juan L. Maldonado said. “With OneDisburse Refund Management, LCC is looking forward to enhancing services associated with the distribution of student financial aid refunds electronically, thus creating another unique benefit for our students.”

“LCC’s goal is to streamline the current process of disbursing financial aid refunds. This program will eliminate the need for students to stand in line for their financial aid refund checks and make the process more convenient and efficient for our students,” LCC Bursar Norma Cano said.

“The cost and time burden of manual refund checks was becoming too much,” said Brian Bode, KCKCC’s dean of financial and administrative services. “Higher One contacted us and we started looking into the program. We took it to our Student Senate and they were enthusiastic about the program so we made the decision.”

Higher One enables institutions to streamline the refund distribution process by offering students up to three ways to receive their refunds: direct deposit to the OneAccount, a no minimum balance, no monthly fee, FDIC-Insured checking account provided by Higher One, direct deposit to another bank account of the student’s choice, or a paper check mailed to the address on file.

Higher One collects and maintains all student bank account numbers, routing numbers, and refund preferences, provides marketing material to the institution to educate students on the process, distributes the refunds based on each student’s preference, and handles any customer service related to the distribution of refunds.

“The quality of the program, its history of success, and the willingness to work with us in some unique areas we needed to address set Higher One’s services apart from other options we considered,” said Bode.

Access control provider Salto Systems has launched its Advanced Panic Bar Solution, or SAPS, for exit doors with panic bars. It allows users to add the control of exit doors to an access control system without the extra cost of wiring.

Certified to EN1125 standard, SAPS’ modern styling and clean lines make it an integral part of the SALTO access control platform allowing users to achieve a consistency of style on every door throughout their buildings.

It can be fully integrated with SALTO Virtual Network Technology, allowing users to include SAPS in the management of their access control system without any loss of any functionality, flexibility, control or security.

SVN allows the SAPS panic bar to read, receive and write information via normal smart card operation, providing 90% of the benefits of a fully on line access control system at the cost of a stand alone system. Future versions of SAPS will also be capable of integration with fully featured RFID solutions.

Salto is based in Oiartzun, Spain.

Another computer breach, this one at Oklahoma State Universitiy, has potentially exposed the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of some 70,000 students, faculty and staff who bought parking and transit services permits in the past six years, a newspaper reports.

The Oklahoman notes that the university didn’t let students know until this week, even though the breach was discovered in March. “Officials said they first wanted to do an investigation to see if any Social Securities numbers had been accessed. They were not able to make a determination,” the newspaper says.

Since then, Social Security numbers have been removed from the site and the server shut down. While the university doesn’t think ID theft was the reason for the breach, it can’t rule that out.

Read more here.

Student ID cards today mean more than meal tickets or the ability to buy books on campus. They mean wireless hotdog carts. That’s just one of the examples highlighted by CreditCards.com in its report on the new breed of student ID cards.

The “cashless campus” at many universities now allows students to gain access to their dorms or use their campus cards for off campus purchases or to do their laundry, and much, much more. Students expect it because many of them have been using credit cards since middle school. Read more here.