Card, mobile credential, payment and security
A recent online conference session explored the University of Minnesota's efforts to add mental health resources to the U Card. Nick Mabee, Strategic Communications & Marketing Manager for the U Card, details how they successfully transformed the traditional student ID card into a tool that supports the well-being of the entire campus community.
Why did the University decide to add mental health information to the U Card?
To begin, there is pending legislation at the federal level that could require campuses to do this, though Mabee explains the bill has been stalled for more than two years and thus is not imminent. The state of Minnesota also has legislation in the works.
With requirements potentially coming from both levels, the idea that they could be required to make the change at some point in the future was a consideration.
Old card back and new design with mental health resources
Student advocacy, however, was the most important driver.
“Our undergraduate student government came to us and was really interested in having this information added to help the student body as a whole,” says Mabee.
Once they had stakeholder buy-in from across the enterprise, the redesign process started. As with most campus cards, real estate on the back of the U Card was extremely limited. To make room for the new mental health info, other elements would have to be removed or reduced.
After multiple rounds of design changes, they ultimately included two crisis hotlines – the National Suicide Prevention Hotline and the university’s own crisis line. Even with just two numbers, the block of information took up nearly one-quarter of the card back.
The presentation provides a detailed look at how they transitioned from the prior design to the new one. Other topics include timelines, accessibility needs for card designs, QR codes vs. phone numbers, inclusion of mental health info for mobile credentials, and more.
Mabee’s presentation was part of a weeklong series of sessions that explored well-being from a variety of perspectives and areas of the campus enterprise. In tandem with more than 20 higher ed industry associations, NACCU helped create and promote the online conference, "Well-Being in Higher Education: Raising Literacy and Advancing the Conversation."
"Establishing a climate of well-being within university settings is a collective endeavor that transcends the confines of any single department," says to Dawn Thomas, NACCU CEO. "NACCU takes pride in collaborating with over 20 fellow higher education organizations to spotlight this critical issue, fostering dialogue, and illuminating how the campus card can serve as a gateway to supporting students on their paths to well-being."
You can check out Mabee's presentation, From Access to Assistance: Evolving Student ID Cards for Mental Health, on demand by creating a login and using the access code WELLBEING.
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At Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business in Hanover, NH, the dining hall includes a new touchless self-service kiosk that reduces checkout times dramatically. By eliminating human interaction, item handling, and barcode scanning, transactions times have been cut to as little as 10 seconds.
The kiosks are from Mashgin, a Palo Alto-based company that has deployed its touchless self-checkout systems at more than 3,700 locations across the country. Customers include corporate cafeterias at Fortune 500 companies, professional sports stadiums, convenience stores, and more than 30 higher ed institutions.
At Dartmouth, students select their products and set them on the kiosk’s tray. Cameras automatically identify the items visually from any angle. This eliminates the need to move items individually from tray to tray or fumble with products to locate and scan barcodes. Even plated items – such as salads or hot foods – are recognized by the system, weighed, and priced.
Cameras automatically identify items from any angle, eliminating the need to fumble with products to locate and scan barcodes. Even plated items are recognized, weighed, and priced
“We initially piloted Mashgin’s technology in a 24/7 unmanned convenience store, and our students loved the technology and ease of use,” says Amelia Heidenreich, General Manager of Tuck Dining and Catering. “We decided to add a second unit to our dining hall to increase the speed of service.”
The implementation process for the kiosks at Dartmouth was simple.
Items with a barcode were imported using their “SKU” and linked to existing items in Mashgin’s global database. Items without a barcode, for example a plate of food, were added to the system by capturing images from different angles.
“Mashgin sets everything up during the deployment process, which typically takes less than an hour,” says Brandon Scott, Mashgin’s Vice President of Sales. “After deployment, the service staff at the dining facility can add new products themselves in less than 30 seconds per item.”
Though some items are enrolled in the system using a barcode, from that point forward, all items are identified by computer vision.
“That makes it more convenient for the user because they just put everything down no matter if it’s a bottle of water, a piece of fruit or a slice of pizza,” explains Scott. “Mashgin identifies and rings up everything within one second.”
The kiosks reduce queuing and friction that often deter customers. Additionally, faster throughput translates into more revenue for the dining operator.
Today, Dartmouth uses both the kiosk technology and normal checkout lines with cashiers. In the future, Heidenreich says they may consider deploying more kiosks.
To see the Mashgin kiosk in action, click on the video at the top of this page.
Facial recognition already unlock phones, expedites airport passage, and replaces IDs for door access, but now it’s efficacy is being testing in college classrooms.
Chafic Bou-Saba teaches information systems at Guilford College. He believes he can improve student academic performance via cameras and AI.
He and a team of students are designing a facial recognition system to evaluate if students are paying attention in class and even if they are confused or bored. All this data can be ascertained through facial expressions.
When you’re in a classroom, it’s not easy picking up on every student and understanding if they are getting the concepts. We want to track facial responses with how they are learning in class.
His aim is to improve a teacher’s ability to read the class and pivot if the lessons are not effective.
To measure whether his information systems students understand what he’s trying to teach in class, he told Guilford College News that he currently must rely on the students approaching him with questions and concerns.
“When you’re in a classroom, it’s not easy picking up on every student and understanding if they are getting the concepts,” he explains. “We want to see if there’s a way to track students' (facial) responses with how they are learning in class.”
Multiple cameras spread throughout the classroom record student facial expressions, and ultimately software could be trained to analyze this data enabling real-time feedback for the instructor.
In an Inside Higher Ed article, Bau-Saba says the system can document student behavior by taking five-to10-second videos enabling the instructor to point out issues to students that could be hampering their performance. With training, he says, the AI-powered software could also help detect how much the students are learning.
Of course, biometric systems frequently evoke privacy and surveillance concerns. In higher education, these concerns are particularly strong. For now, the project is being conducted with a group of students who have opted in to participate.
Students at Cal Poly have been pushing for green initiatives on the San Luis Obispo campus, and dining services is listening. A new pilot program will test reusable containers in an effort to reduce waste from disposable take-out boxes.
“The program greatly reduces resource consumption on campus while diverting single-use containers from landfills,” says a Cal Poly spokesperson.
Campus Dining’s sustainability coordinator Kaitlin Gibbons told the MustangNews, “it has been a longtime goal of ours to expand our reusables on campus to meet our zero waste goals and do the right sustainable thing.”
The pilot will take place at two campus dining locations with ReusePass, a solution that includes a reusable takeout container system with a mobile app for check-out.
At Cal Poly, ReusePass works in tandem with the institution’s existing Grubhub mobile ordering solution.
Students opt in to ReusePass and then use the Grubhub app to specify that they want their meal in a reusable container. Students have 10 days to return used containers to dedicated drop-off receptacles in the dining facilities. Containers are then washed and prepared for next use.
“That was really the key for us in choosing this company as it will enable students to choose a reusable option when ordering on GrubHub,” says Gibbons.
How does it work?
Rather than show the ReusePass QR code when ordering a to-go meal, Grubhub passes the QR code directly to the dining team. The container is automatically checked-out to the student’s ReusePass account before it's placed on the pick-up shelf.
This streamlines the process for both the student and the dining staff.
ReusePass says that in a single semester, students across the country used its containers to save nearly 7 tons of waste from landfills, conserve more than 85,000 gallons of water, and keep 90,000 lbs of GHG emissions from going out into the atmosphere.
Cal Poly is also piloting a compostable container solution, but it has faced challenges as students don’t always sort correctly between trash and recyclables. They also tend to leave plastic silverware in the compostable container, which hampers compostability.
According to Gibbons, campus dining is considering wood utensils to prevent plastic from entering the compost bins.
At the end of 2023, the Elizabethtown College campus card was upgraded from proximity to contactless technology. As campus card, security, and auxiliary service professionals, we understand that this is positive step to replace an outdated technology with a modern, secure option.
It is a mistake, however, to assume that students have the same level of awareness.
An article about the new card in the student paper, is a good example of this.
I used to be able to scan into my dorm by holding my bag up against the scanner, but now I have to take it out, which is kind of annoying.
The new contactless cards received a visual redesign and were printed over the winter break and available for students when they returned to campus. Shortly after, the student newspaper ran an article expressing student perspectives on the new IDs.
According to the article, most people agree the new cards don’t scan as well as the old ones.
One student quoted says, “I used to be able to scan into my dorm by holding my bag up against the scanner, but now I have to take it out, which is kind of annoying.”
The article’s author agrees, saying “truthfully, the new ID cards and scanners are not as sensitive as the old versions, so they have to be held closer together and take longer to register.”
The students are not wrong.
The card may need to be held closer to the reader, because high frequency contactless cards have a shorter read range than low frequency proximity cards. This is by design, and it is a result of the increased security and fraud protection afforded by contactless cards.
This heightened level of security was at the core of the administration’s decision to replace the cards.
“While Etown College has been fortunate to have not experienced any major security issues related to our ID card system, nationally it was becoming more commonplace at colleges and universities using the proximity card technology,” says Joe Hudzick, Senior Director of Auxiliary Services.
The team at Elizabethtown seems to have done a good job rolling out a new system over a winter break. The author acknowledges this saying, “it was an impressive feat on the part of the involved organizations to implement the new ID system in such a short amount of time.”
The lesson from the student review is to prepare for the inevitable criticism that comes with a major change such as a migration of ID technology. Remember that even when you do things right – as it seems the team at Elizabethtown did – there will still be some degree of confusion.
The more that can be shared with constituents ahead of the change, the better. Spread the word that their security is the worth the minor changes they may experience.
When Northern Arizona University launched its JacksCard mobile ID, they did not want to use a new campus app to provision the credentials. The existing NAUgo app was already well-established with the student population, so the NAU team knew they wanted to build the functionality into the app.
They worked with their credential provider TouchNet and their app developer Modo Labs to bring the idea to reality.
It was a great choice as each of the two technologies has benefited the other. It was no surprise that the popular app expedited student adoption of the new NAU mobile ID. But the mobile ID also significantly increased usage of the mobile app.
On March 1, 2024 at 11 am ET, a webinar explores how NAU pioneered the integration of TouchNet OneCard Mobile ID within the Modo-powered app.
Patty Allenbaugh - NAUgo Design and Development Team Lead, NAU
Patty's responsibilities include leading all app design and development efforts and facilitating cross-departmental efforts for content on the app.
Matt Willmore - Sr. Director of Product Management, Modo Labs
Matt currently leads Modo's higher ed and platform product strategies. Prior to Modo, he led the mobileND Program at the University of Notre Dame.
Celicia Hiatt - Senior Product Manager – Credential Management, TouchNet
Celicia helped launch TouchNet's 360u app and has successfully launched mobile ID with TouchNet's lighthouse institutions.
Fred Emery - Senior Business Development Manager, TouchNet
Fred manages OneCard partner relationships with third-party vendors. Prior to TouchNet, he managed Hofstra University’s card program.
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The use of campus cards as voter IDs is hot topic nationally, as numerous state legislatures push for stricter laws. One side calls it fraud prevention, the other voter suppression.
Currently, 12 states and the District of Columbia do not require an ID for in-person voting so the question of student ID acceptance is irrelevant in those locales. That leaves 38 states that require an ID to vote, and nine will not accept a campus card. The remaining 29 states accept the student ID, though restrictions apply and differ from state to state.
Most require that the ID be from a post-secondary institution and include a photo. From there, things get fluid.
In Kentucky's 2023 general election, 99% of the 1.1 million in-person voters used a driver’s license as their ID. A student ID card was used just 354 times.
Rules surrounding the expiration date vary. Some states require that the campus card include an expiration date, but others do not. Some require that if the ID has an expiration, it must be current. Other states grant a grace period that enables acceptance of a recently expired ID.
Certain states require that the ID must also contain a signature. Because most campus cards eliminated signatures years ago, this has restricted use of some institution’s campus cards in states with this requirement.
Florida, for example, accepts student IDs at the polls but requires that all voter IDs include a signature. This blocked campus IDs from some Florida institutions.
Several years ago, Florida State University students lobbied administration to add a signature panel to the FSUCard to facilitate voter ID. In Spring 2021, the redesigned FSUCard complete with signature panel launched.
Kentucky is among the states with bills proposed that would outlaw the existing use campus cards for voter ID. The Kentucky bill passed in the Senate and is awaiting next steps.
Proponents of the bill point to mass voter fraud with student IDs as its genesis, but voting records show extremely minimal use of campus cards.
According to Lexington’s NPR station WEKU, in the 2023 general election in 109 of Kentucky’s 120 counties, more than 99% of the 1.1 million in-person voters used a driver’s license as their ID.
A student ID card was used just 354 times. That is 354 out of 1.1 million voters.
In the counties that are home to the state’s two largest institutions, University of Kentucky and University of Lousiville, just 89 and 81 voters used a student ID at the polls.
Additionally, WEKU notes that the Kentucky Attorney General’s office has not received a single complaint of fraud involving a campus card since the state’s new voter ID law – that first enabled acceptance of student IDs – was passed in 2020.
To many, this dispels the threat of mass voter fraud. At least in Kentucky.
Still the bill’s sponsor points out that laws are not written because of things that have already happened, but to close loopholes and prevent problems from happening.
Voter ID is an issue that is split down partisan lines, and universities and their campus card offices sit squarely in the middle.
Institutions strive to best serve their students, but should a campus modify its program to meet state voting requirements?
At Florida State University, they added a signature panel. But if the use among students is as low as the numbers reported from Kentucky, was it worth the effort and expense?
In Kentucky, the law that first granted acceptance of campus cards was enacted just four years prior, and it is now likely to be abolished. The impact of any changes made by institutions in the state were short lived.
It is always hard to hit a moving target.
To find out if your institution’s campus card can be used as a voter ID in your state, check out the guide at VoteRiders.org/student.
Security provider, Allegion US, is partnering with The "I Love U Guys" Foundation to contribute to the group’s programs for school crisis response. The goal is to make schools safer together through the development and dissemination of procedures and standard response protocols.
In 2006, Ellen and John-Michael Keyes founded the organization after losing their daughter Emily to a school shooting. On that day, Emily sent texts to her parents, saying "I love u guys.” In the nearly two decades since, the foundation – named for those messages – has positively impacted more than 50,000 schools and countless millions of students and families.
In 2006, Ellen and John-Michael Keyes founded the organization after losing their daughter Emily to a school shooting. On that day, Emily sent texts to her parents, saying "I love u guys.”
The focus is on development of programs and procedural documents including a Standard Response Protocol for crisis response and a Standard Reunification Method for post-event reunification. These resources are created through research-based collaboration with school administrators, psychologists, public space safety practitioners, families, and first responders.
In addition to its own programs, the Foundation also advocates for the ability to lock classroom doors from inside the classroom, a recommendation developed by the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission.
Allegion’s contribution to The "I Love U Guys" Foundation goes beyond sponsorship. The company plans to leverage its internal expertise in school safety to assist in the development of new recommendations and documents.
"We are aiming to go beyond facilities and locks to share valuable advice and truly help the K-12 industry,” says Melany Whalin, marketing manager for education, Allegion US.
The development of best practice solutions requires input from non-profits, industry, educators, law enforcement and community leaders, explains Ken Cook, director of national school safety and advocacy, Allegion US.
“The relationships we're building with organizations like The 'I Love U Guys' Foundation will ultimately have a positive impact on students – helping them feel safer and enabling them to learn and thrive," he says.
In addition to this partnership, Allegion also collaborates with school safety organizations including Safe and Sound Schools, Partner Alliance for Safer Schools, and the Security Industry Association.
To learn more about current efforts in school safety and crisis management, check out the following resources:
A new video chronicles the impacts of mobile credentials on the students and the administration at the University of New Brunswick (UNB). Featuring interviews with key leaders from IT, finance, security and housing, the video presents a wide-ranging perspective that can help leaders on other campuses share the vision with their administration.
The University of New Brunswick mobile credential was first issued to students, faculty, and staff in the summer of 2021. It was the first launch of the Transact Mobile Credential at a Canadian institution.
According to Bill Best, VP of Admin & Finance at UNB, his students expect a digital experience.
“In the backdrop of these older buildings … inside is the pulse of the university that is actually thinking about the future,” he says. “How can we make the experience both historic and also futuristic.”
I’ve been tasked with offering a single residence experience across our two campuses, and with mobile credential, students can now move between them seamlessly.
Mobile credential is key to this effort. It impacts all aspects of the university, not the least of which is housing.
“I’ve been tasked with offering a single residence experience across our two campuses,” says Cory Brown, Sr. Director of Residence, UNB. “With the Transact mobile credential, students can now move between the campuses seamlessly.”
Reallocating staff to higher purpose roles has also been key for UNB.
“We have less people handing out cards, we have more people helping students with other IT needs,” says Joshua Leon, Dean of Engineering, UNB.
“On the sustainability side, most provinces no longer allow single use plastics in a lot of things, so the less cards we print, the less plastic,” Leon explains. “It is a simple way to reduce your carbon footprint … and every little bit counts.”
Melissa Hannah, Director of IT Services at UNB agrees that the mobile credential’s environmental impact is positive, and this is important to a new generation of environmentally conscious students.
“It’s important for all our departments to work together to reach UNB’s sustainability goals,” she says. “The UCard can play its part by reducing the use of plastic cards and the mobile credential is one way we could do that.”
UNB has built an impressive mobile-first experience anchored by the mobile credential. To learn more, click the image at the top of this page.
It's and age old question - how do I dispose of used card printer ribbons. Are most campus card offices already doing it?
When you print an ID card, there is an imprint of the data left on the printer ribbon. When you are done with a ribbon, there is a visual record of the most recent 200 or more cards you’ve printed.
For years, some have warned that discarding ribbons in the trash is a dangerous idea as counterfeiters could use the data to duplicate valid IDs. Others dismiss the concern, pointing out that names and ID card numbers are of little value to fraudsters. Very few college and university card programs print social security numbers or other such data on their IDs today, so is the risk really that great?
In this episode of the "IDk" webinar series, CampusIDNews publisher Chris Corum talks with Rob Miskelly, President & General Manager at IDP Americas. His company manufactures the SmartBit, a dedicated device specially designed for printer ribbon shredding.
Among other topics, they discuss:
Is the idea of destroying used ribbons overblown, are there DIY methods to do the job, or is a ribbon shredder a must-have for a secure card office?
To watch the video, click the image at the top of this page.
