Card, mobile credential, payment and security
We all know campus card programs generate a constant stream of data, and each interaction creates a digital record. Protecting this data and the individuals involved –our students, faculty, and staff – is a crucial responsibility.
How institutions can best respond to this challenge was the focus of a recent NACCU webinar and article featuring by Erin Williams, Manager of Access & Privacy at the University of Calgary. Her message was clear: protecting data requires more than security controls – it demands strong information governance.
Information governance (IG) is the overarching framework that connects people, processes, and technology across the entire lifecycle of data. It goes beyond security or compliance alone, encompassing how information is created, stored, used, shared, retained, and ultimately destroyed.
“It is how we manage information and data in a way that complies with required regulations and best practices,” says Williams. “Think of it as like the rules of the road or the guardrails.”
Technology evolves faster than legislation, and campuses that lead with strong governance will be better positioned to meet both current and future requirements.
One part of that framework, data governance, focuses on structure and standards that protect individual privacy.
“Data governance is a subset of information governance that focuses on specifics like data quality and access,” she explains. “This role is often housed often in IT because they're usually the ones that manage the infrastructure, architecture, and data warehouses.”
Another part, security, provides the technical and administrative safeguards. While these disciplines are often discussed separately, Williams suggests that they must function together to build trust and reduce risk.
A key takeaway from the webinar was the need for a proactive mindset. Rather than waiting for regulations to dictate action, institutions should adopt best practices early. Technology evolves faster than legislation, and campuses that lead with strong governance will be better positioned to meet both current and future requirements.
Campus card environments are particularly challenging to govern due to their complexity. Both their reach and data are often decentralized, involving multiple departments with varying practices. At the same time, they are highly integrated, relying on third-party vendors and APIs that can introduce vulnerabilities.
Card offices frequently store data for extended periods “just in case,” which expands the potential impact of a breach.
Long data retention practices further increase risk. Card offices frequently store data for extended periods “just in case,” which expands the potential impact of a breach. The combination of decentralized ownership, deep integrations, and large data stores makes campus card systems attractive targets.
The article outlines a pragmatic approach that campus card programs can implement without significant new resources. It begins with creating a simple system and data map that identifies key systems, the types of data they hold, and access controls. This foundational step enables better decision-making across the organization.
Many breaches originate from third-party vendors, so it essential to have clear requirements around data handling and security.
Next, institutions should strengthen procurement and integration processes. Many data incidents originate from third-party vendors, making it essential to establish clear requirements around data handling, security, and breach response.
Reducing unnecessary data retention is another high-impact step. Routine cleanup of exported reports and files, along with defined retention schedules, can significantly limit exposure.
Preparation is equally important. Conducting regular tabletop exercises helps teams understand how to respond to incidents before they occur. These simulations clarify roles, communication pathways, and technical responses in a controlled setting.
To learn more about information governance for your card program and explore a detailed 90-day step-by-step plan to improve information governance, check out the article and webinar.
For years, campus technology leaders have discussed the coming shift to cloud-based systems, flexible credential options, and non-proprietary hardware and solutions. According to Danny Smith, owner of ColorID, that transformation is no longer theoretical – it’s happening now, and it is fundamentally changing how universities think about identity infrastructure.
“Even before the pandemic, when we were hosting identity summits, we talked about how cloud-based solutions and mobile credentials were going to reshape the industry,” Smith says. “We knew it would happen, but we also knew it would take time.”
Today, many campuses are reaching the point where those predictions are becoming reality.
Over the past several years, IT departments have become far more involved in campus identity ecosystems. As institutions evaluate long-term technology strategies, Smith says many are beginning to move beyond the traditional one-card model that centralized multiple campus services under a single vendor platform.
Identity becomes the foundation, and everything else connects to it.
He describes the emerging approach as independent identity infrastructure, where identity serves as the central layer connecting multiple specialized systems.
Applications that rely on credentials – housing, dining, recreation, visitor management, and access control – can operate independently rather than being tied to a single vendor ecosystem.
Historically, campus one-card systems functioned as the hub for a wide range of services, from dining and vending to building access and campus payments. Vendors built platforms designed to manage these services through centralized infrastructure.
While that model served campuses well for many years, Smith says it also created a level of technological lock-in that many institutions are now trying to avoid.
“Most one-card providers are fundamentally financial platforms – they’re payment processors,” he says. “There’s really no reason for a third-party payment platform to control a university’s entire identity infrastructure.”
In the architecture Smith describes, identity becomes the core and service providers connect to it as needed.
Universities want the freedom to choose the best solution for each service instead of being tied to one ecosystem.
“In a modern architecture, the one-card provider becomes just another consumer of identity,” he says. “Universities can still use those platforms for dining or payments, but they’re no longer locked into them.”
This approach allows institutions to select specialized best-of-breed vendors for specific services, link them to the university-owned identity layer, and replace them, if necessary, with minimal disruption.
According to Smith, this is where ColorID’s CardExchange platform fits in.
“With CardExchange, we provide the identity infrastructure layer that connects everything together,” he explains. “Key to this is that the institution controls it and owns their identity data.”
ColorID has worked in higher education for more than 25 years, helping campuses deploy ID systems and integrate technologies across their environments. He believes that experience positions the company to help institutions transition from legacy card systems to a more modern campus identity infrastructure.
The credential itself isn’t the breakthrough. The breakthrough is how identity connects every system on campus.
One part of that evolution involves mobile credentials. ColorID has certified integrations with Apple Wallet and Google Wallet, enabling them to help campuses issue digital credentials directly to smartphones.
But Smith cautions that mobile credentials alone are not the real transformation.
“Sometimes the industry focuses too much on the fact that the credential sits inside a phone,” he says. “The real value is what you can do with that credential – how it connects to systems and enables new services.”
Mobile credentials, he believes, are simply another form factor. The real innovation lies in the identity ecosystem surrounding them.
Roughly 50 campuses currently use CardExchange as part of their identity infrastructure, and adoption is accelerating as institutions begin evaluating modernization strategies.
“Many universities are still operating within older architectures,” he says. “The longer they wait to modernize, the more complicated and expensive that transition becomes.”
At the same time, the identity technology landscape is becoming more competitive as new vendors enter the higher education market. Smith sees this as a positive development.
“Competition validates the model,” he says. “It pushes all of us to improve our solutions and ultimately gives institutions more options.”
He believes identity is no longer a supporting technology, but rather, the core platform that connects campus systems.
“I think the identity-first architecture will become the standard model in higher ed and across large organizations,” he says. “Identity is the common denominator, and as institutions recognize that, it becomes the foundation that everything else builds around.”
The NACCU Annual Conference is fast approaching and the deadline to book your hotel rooms is March 25 at 11:00pm CST.
NACCU has secured special conference rates at two hotels – the Cincinnati Marriott at RiverCenter and the Hotel Covington. According to the association, however, the Marriott has limited remaining availability. All the more reason to book now.
Reservations are managed through the meetNKY Passkey system link. Visit this page at naccu.org and click on the “Reserve Your Room” button.
This is a boutique hotel rooted in local history. Originally a luxury department store built in 1907, it has been transformed into a hotel that blends historic charm with upscale comfort and is on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.
Just a 10-minute walk from the convention center, it is surrounded by local dining and entertainment options for your off-hours. The conference's opening reception will be held at the hotel on Sunday evening. For additional convenience, NACCU will be providing a shuttle that will run between the convention center and Hotel Covington during conference hours Sunday through Wednesday.
Rooms are available in two distinct towers, with rates ranging between $165-$185++ per night. Learn more about Hotel Covington.
This hotel is connected to the convention center by skywalk. The room rate is $189++ per night. Learn more about the Marriott at RiverCenter. Availability is now limited at the Marriott.
If you have not yet registered for the conference, take a moment and secure your spot.
Transact + CBORD formerly announced its new name, visual identity, and branding as Illumia at its Momentum annual user conference.
According to an announcement about the launch, the company powers payments, access, foodservice, and credentialing at more than 10,000 clients in higher education, healthcare, and senior living institutions.
"The Momentum conference is the right place to bring this brand to life for the first time, with clients and partners who have been part of this journey from the beginning," says Greg Brown, the company’s new CEO.
CEO Greg Brown and Chief Commercial Officer Laura Newell-McLaughlin kick off Momentum ’26, Illumia’s annual user conference, with a fireside chat.
At the event, Illumia also recognized its 2026 Distinction Award winners including both clients and partners. Honorees include:
"There's no better reminder of what this brand stands for than what happens when these organizations and partners work side by side – sharing ideas, solving problems, and making things easier for the people they serve,” says Brown.
Illumia is a business unit of Roper Technologies. Roper acquired CBORD in 2008 for $367 million at a time when CBORD supported 750 colleges and universities. In 2024, they added Transact at a $1.5 billion price tag.
The two companies have operated as Transact + CBORD for the 18 months following the August 2024 Transact acquisition.
FutureState, a new entrant to the campus credential, dining, and auxiliary service space, announced its new closed-loop, stored value and meal plan offering called BalanceU.
“FutureState’s BalanceU is designed to help colleges and universities lower operating costs, eliminate vendor lock-in, and gain real-time financial visibility across campus,” says Christopher Augustine, Co-Founder and Head of Product Development at FutureState.
It is hardware-agnostic so institutions can choose the front-end systems that best meet their goals without being constrained by legacy one-card architectures, he explains.
Because we are not weighed down with legacy codebase, we can iterate quicker to meet emerging needs like roll over meals and donated meals to food insecurity programs.
BalanceU eliminates some of the costs that are common in traditional meal plan environments, such as fixed POS integration fees, charges for access to real-time balance data, and forced hardware replacements.
Augustine says institutions only pay for what they use, and existing systems already deployed on campus can be redirected to operate with BalanceU.
FutureState began as a project at the University of Arizona.
In 2025, Arizona took a unique approach to campus transactions, identity, and mobile credentials. The institution created its own software ‘layer’ between the credential and the multitude of campus systems that consume the credential. At its most basic form, they created a hub that manages API endpoints.
It connects the wide array of services on the campus – access control, housing, campus rec, dining, retail, parking, attendance, events, vending, laundry – to the credential manager. Because the university controls this layer, they can swap out both the upstream credential manager as well as any downstream consuming system without disrupting the larger network.
It is a radical change from the way it has always been done in higher ed. Traditionally, the transaction system or the access control system managed these connections, and this locked the campus to that vendor.
The Arizona project was led by two of the leaders of Administrative and Auxiliary Operations, Sr. Director of IT Joe Harting and IT Project Manager Chris Augustine.
“What we built sounds basic and logical, but it is a radical change from the way it has always been done in higher ed,” says Harting. “Traditionally, the transaction system or the access control system managed these connections, and this locked the campus to that vendor.”
Harting believes they have upended an outdated model, and now they hope to help other institutions benefit from their work. In this pursuit, they founded a private company called FutureState.
In the same way that the company’s credential solution is designed to integrate the array of the wider campus vendor solutions, the FutureState meal plan solution connects to a broad range of dining-centric vendors.
Supported systems include:
Self-service retail integrations include:
FutureState founders say BalanceU provides free, unrestricted access to real-time meal plan and stored value balance data. This ensures institutions can power mobile apps, parent portals, analytics tools, and reporting systems without additional cost.
“Our goal from the beginning was to give institutions immediate access to their own data so they could do things like display balances and transaction history alongside the mobile credential,” says Augustine. “You shouldn’t have to negotiate with your transaction system provider or pay additional fees to use your campus data.”
With decades of experience in auxiliary services, Harting says he understands the complexities of meal plans.
“Because we built BalanceU from the ground up using an AI native development stack, we are able to incorporate the normal dining feature set as well as features I’d wished were available through my years running both card and meal plan offices,” explains Harting. “Because we are not weighed down with legacy infrastructure and codebase, we will also be able to iterate quicker to meet key emerging needs like roll over meals and donated meals to food insecurity programs.”
FutureState will showcase BalanceU at the NACCU Annual Conference in Covington, KY, April 19-22, 2026. They are seeking a small group of colleges and universities to pilot BalanceU in Fall 2026, ahead of general availability in Q1 2027.
Transact + CBORD (rebranding to Illumia in March 2026) announced a new agreement with sports and entertainment point-of-sale (POS) provider MyVenue. The partnership allows students to use their campus card and stored-value campus funds for purchases inside stadiums and arenas.
The integration adds MyVenue’s high-volume point-of-sale platform to Transact + CBORD’s campus commerce platform.
Designed specifically for hospitality environments, MyVenue supports mobile ordering, POS terminals, self-service kiosks, in-seat and suite catering. Its real-time back-office inventory and reporting helps venues serve more fans faster and streamline operations.
For students and fans, it means shorter queues, and for operators, it means greater oversight and improved efficiencies.
According to Transact +CBORD, most campuses manage dining and events with separate systems, creating friction for students and operational challenges for staff. This leads to long wait times, inconsistent payment experiences, and limited reporting and operational visibility.
This attempts to change that by providing a unified payment experience everywhere on campus without the need for a dedicated event card or payment tender.
“The partnership delivers a faster, unified commerce experience across campus and sporting facilities,” says Tim Stollznow, Founder and CEO of MyVenue. “For students and fans, it means shorter queues, and for operators, it means greater oversight and improved efficiencies.”
Colleges and universities deploying MyVenue, can simplify vendor onboarding and deployment by leveraging their existing Transact + CBORD network. By purchasing the solution directly from Transact + CBORD, the acquisition process can be streamlined.
“MyVenue stands alone in its ability to perform in high-volume, high-pressure environments where speed and reliability matter most,” says Chris Setcos, SVP of Partnerships, M&A, and Corporate Strategy at Transact + CBORD.
The Australia-based company’s solution is used at venues including Lumen Field, Ball Arena, AT&T Stadium, Dodger Stadium, and Little Caesar’s Arena. It also serves collegiate athletics, including University of Florida, Purdue University, and Michigan State University.
ColorID announced that it has achieved HID Elite Technology Partner status within the HID partner ecosystem. This designation recognizes them as one of a select group of partners demonstrating advanced technical expertise, strategic integration capabilities, and excellence in delivering solutions built on HID technology.
The HID Origo Technology Partner Program is designed to foster collaboration with technology innovators who integrate secure mobile access into their platforms.
Only five companies globally have achieved this designation, and we don't take that lightly. Having HID Global as a deep technical partner means we can guide organizations practically, securely, and at scale.
In a post welcoming ColorID to this new level, HID explains that “Elite status signals a partner we can confidently position when customers ask not only Which credential? but How do we modernize – practically, securely, and at scale?”
Danny Smith, Owner of ColorID says that becoming an HID Elite Technology Partner is a significant milestone driven by years of collaboration and the capabilities of ColorID’s CardExchange Cloud Suite.
CardExchange is a cloud-native identity management platform that centralizes the creation, issuance, management, and revocation of physical, wallet, and app-based credentials. Unlike other solutions, it enables all three credential types to be managed via a single platform.
“The platform unifies physical and mobile credential lifecycle management, securely synchronizing across multiple applications within the broader identity ecosystem,” explains Smith.
It is a significant milestone driven by years of collaboration and the capabilities of ColorID’s CardExchange Cloud Suite.
“Only five partners globally have achieved this designation, and we don't take that lightly,” he adds. “The identity infrastructure is genuinely changing across every sector we serve, and having HID Global as a deep technical partner means we can guide organizations through that shift practically, securely, and at scale.”
As an Elite Technology Partner, ColorID will continue to collaborate closely with HID to deliver integrated solutions across physical access, mobile credentials, secure issuance, and identity lifecycle technologies. The designation reinforces ColorID’s role as a trusted integration partner supporting customers across higher education, healthcare, enterprise, and government markets.
“ColorID has demonstrated exactly the kind of technical depth and integration excellence that defines our Elite Partner tie,” says Sanjit Bardhan, Vice President and Head of Mobile for HID. “Together, we're helping organizations modernize identity infrastructure with solutions that are secure, scalable, and built to last.”
Pictured in the image from left to right: Björn Lidefelt; Executive Vice President & Head of HID Global at ASSA ABLOY Group; Todd Brooks; Vice President, Products & Technology at ColorID; Mark Degan; Vice President, Marketing at ColorID; Martin Huddart; SVP and Managing Director, Physical Access Control at HID Global; Troy Johnston; Director of Strategic Alliances at HID Global; Sanjit Bardhan; VP & Global Head of Mobile at HID Global; Jason Schimpf; Global Director of Strategic Accounts of Mobile at HID Global.
In this episode of CampusIDNews Chats, Adam Brooks, Director of the Public Speaking Program at the University of Alabama, shares practical guidance for campus card leaders seeking to better communicate their value. His core message centers on the power of storytelling as a leadership tool.
Brooks challenges the assumption that more data automatically leads to better understanding. “People aren’t motivated by evidence. They’re motivated by story,” he says. While metrics and operational details matter, they rarely inspire action on their own. Instead, leaders must frame information in a way that connects to what their audience already believes and cares about.
A lot of campus card leaders want to communicate what their offices do. Instead, think about what the things that you're doing enable the organization to accomplish?
For Brooks, storytelling means structuring communication as a journey – moving “from something, through something, to something.” That structure helps listeners see how an office’s work solves real problems and supports broader institutional goals. Rather than expecting others to interpret raw information correctly, campus leaders must place their work within a narrative that highlights its purpose and impact.
Brooks notes that many campus offices have influence but not formal power. In those cases, communication becomes leadership. He urges professionals to think beyond the immediate conversation and consider the “audience of your audience.” When someone leaves a meeting, what message will they share with others?
Think about the audience of your audience – meaning whenever that person is done meeting with you, what is the thing you want them to walk away telling others?
By distilling complex ideas into simple, repeatable takeaways, leaders make their work easier to translate across an organization. Brooks advises asking a strategic question before every interaction: “What is the one thing I want them walking away, talking about at the end of this conversation?” In some ways this is marketing 101, but that clarity increases influence and strengthens relationships, even in rooms where decision-making authority resides elsewhere.
Addressing communication anxiety, Brooks emphasizes that nervousness is universal. Accepting it – rather than trying to eliminate it allows professionals to focus on connection and listening. He reminds leaders that most people enter conversations hoping for value, not failure.
To prepare for presentations or meetings, Brooks recommends returning to fundamentals. “There are typically five questions you can ask yourself that will get you through every conversation,” he explains. “Who, what, where, when, and why.” By keeping messages simple and centered on outcomes – the things their office enables the institution to achieve – campus card leaders can communicate with greater confidence and impact.
To check out the full interview, click the image at the top of this page.
TRANSCRIPT:
A lot of times, we think that data is going to work for us, and that the more information that we have – the more information that we're giving – is telling people everything they need to know.
But people aren't motivated by evidence. They're motivated by story. The most powerful story they have is the one that they believe.
For me, the art of storytelling is about making sure that you're engaging people and having information that is meaningful to them. It's telling them a ‘from something, through something, to something.’
It's helping them understand how this information that you're giving them is in service to someone or something that solves a problem that they're trying to achieve. And I think for a lot of people out there, they're focused on ‘well we have all this information, don't people just understand what we do?’ You've got to put that in the context of the story.
For a lot of campus offices, they have influence, but they might not have power. For a lot of folks, the way that you communicate is going to be how you lead. So it's not just about making sure you get in front of the right audience. It's ‘are you thinking about the audience of your audience.’ Meaning whenever that person is done meeting with you, what is the thing you want them to walk away telling someone else?
If you think about that, going into every conversation, distilling that complex idea down into something simple. It allows your idea to be easily translated and transmitted across an organization, which for a lot of folks is exactly how you increase your influence.
As you tell somebody something, and you create an opportunity when you build a relationship, where somebody's talking about you in your room that you're not in. You're only gonna do that if you're thinking strategically going, ‘What is the one thing I want them walking away, talking about the end of this conversation?’ If you go in with that mindset, you're going to be a lot more successful at achieving your goal.
A lot of folks think that their anxiety, their nervousness, is specific to them. “I just get so nervous talking to other people. This is not what I'm good at.” But the truth is that everybody feels that way. Every single person, in every situation, they're a little nervous. The best thing you can do is try to stop making it go away. Accept that it is real and then think that at the end of the day, each person you interact with wants you to succeed.
When you interact with somebody, you're not thinking, ‘I hope they're terrible.’ You're thinking, ‘I hope I can get something from this conversation.’ Be open to that, pay attention and listen.
The other thing is stop telling yourself you can't do something. Start telling yourself that you're capable of doing something. Get yourself in situations where at first you're going to be a little uncomfortable, but through repetition and getting that idea of being clear and concise about how you communicate, you're going to have the confidence that's going to enable you to feel like you are actually achieving the goal you're trying to make.
People ask me all the time, like, okay, ‘I've got a presentation coming up what do I need to know.’
I usually break it down in about five things. There are typically five questions you can ask yourself, that will get you through every conversation. And this is going to sound groundbreaking. But it's who, what, where, when, and why. If you know the answer to that, you're probably going to be more effective. Now, there are better techniques that you can apply to make that more compelling, but at the end of the day, keep it simple. Don't make it too complicated. Don't make it bigger in your head than it has to be.
I think for a lot of campus offices, you are often thinking about what you're doing, and you want to communicate what you do. Instead, think about what is the thing that you're doing, enable the organization to accomplish?
Start talking about it in that framework. Yes, you're providing credentials. Yes, you're providing cards or services that gets you into X, Y, or Z. But what does that enable? Start thinking about the end goal that your office accomplishes and talk to that. That is something that is motivating whether you're communicating up, down, or to anybody else in your organization.
In this episode of CampusIDNews Chats, Rosty Chen, ID Administrator at Michigan State University, explains how his campus card office undertook its first comprehensive rate study to ensure it was charging appropriately for student, staff, and departmental ID cards.
The effort began with a simple realization. “We’ve never done a rate study before,” Chen says. Since the office was established in 2009, pricing had remained largely unchanged, with little documentation explaining how rates were originally set. A pending leadership transition added urgency. As Chen’s manager prepared to retire, the team saw an opportunity to revisit long-standing assumptions and “start exploring why we’re charging what we’re charging.”
Rising costs following the pandemic also played a role. With materials and supplies increasing year over year, the office needed to understand how those changes affected its budget. Because the ID office is subsidized by the university and not fully self-generating, it was especially important to clarify which services were covered and which required cost recovery.
Chen and his team partnered closely with IT Finance, meeting weekly for roughly two months to analyze data and calculate direct and indirect costs.
You want to tell executive leadership, hey, we want to charge this. With a rate study, you say, no, we need to charge this.
A key challenge was determining how much staff time was devoted specifically to card production, since the office also manages NetID credentials and provides a series of other services. They broke expenses down by card type – prox cards, non-prox cards, and badges – factoring in labor, card stock, printer supplies, and overhead.
The findings were eye-opening.
Departments were being charged just $3 for non-technology badges that actually cost about $11 to produce. Non-prox cards, also assumed to be inexpensive, cost $14 each to produce but only generated a $5 replacement fee.
The $20 student replacement card fee proved sufficient, until factoring in a $10 credit issued when old cards are returned.
The study resulted in a detailed financial document and executive summary for leadership. Chen believes the process offers value to any institution operating on legacy pricing. “If you start asking the whys and getting into the details… it’s important to do this,” he says.
Armed with data, the team can now approach leadership with confidence, presenting clear math and justification for any recommended pricing changes.
To listen to the full interview, click the image at the top of this page.
TRANSCRIPT:
We originally decided to start because we've never done a rate study before.
The ID Office was started in 2009 and since then the rates were set, but we don't know where those prices came from and why we're charging what we're charging.
It coincided with our manager retiring and we wanted to tie some loose knots before she's leaving. That gave us the momentum to start exploring why we're charging what we're charging.
Of course with pandemic and the rising costs of everything we were noticing that the prices of everything keeps going up and up year over year. We wanted to re-evaluate how does that fit into our budget.
In terms of generating revenue, we are subsidized by the university so we're not a self-generating office.
Our assistant director was on board in her support for my manager and me starting this rate study. Also, because of my manager's retirement we had that great momentum to get done so we got our champions pretty fast.
We relied heavily on our IT finance team. They did most of the calculations for us, we're giving them the data, refining the data with them.
All said and done, it took us about two months of active weekly meetings to get everything in place and ready to go.
Obviously different offices operate differently.
At MSU, we do also IT like NetID credentials so we wanted to calculate how much of our full-time staff time actually goes to card production.
That was a big challenge for us figuring that piece out and of course figuring out the cost of the card stock, printer supplies, indirect and direct costs.
Because of our subsidy from the university, we don't charge for our first card for our faculty, staff or students.
We wanted to determine how many cards we actually charge for to begin with and then from there evaluate, what goes into production costs specifically for the cards that we charge.
We decided to kind of break it down by different types of cards that we provide.
We have prox cards, non-prox cards, and badges.
The biggest surprise for us was what we were charging for the badges.
We charged three dollars to departments for us to produce a badge for them. After we did the rate study, our calculations determined that actually it costs about eleven dollars to produce a badge.
So when we consider labor costs, all the printer supplies, indirect costs, everything tied into that, we're like, wait a minute, we're undercharging significantly there.
We were happy to find out that what we're charging the students for the replacement, which is twenty dollars, was actually sufficient within our production costs.
Where we fall short is we credit ten dollars back to our students when they turn in the old card. That process we want to reevaluate and potentially stop. Because the production cost is twenty dollars, if they turn it in and we give them ten dollars back, then we're undercharging for producing that replacement card.
Additionally, for non-prox cards, we were also surprised. We don't charge for the first non-prox card, but we charge five-dollar replacement. Well, first, second or third, it actually costs fourteen dollars to produce a non-prox card.
So this whole time we're thinking, oh, it's like plastic with less technology, therefore it's probably cheap. All of a sudden, that was our biggest surprises that we found out.
When you find your champions, it's definitely easier.
So we've had our champions with IT Finance and having that collaboration was very crucial to us to getting it done.
I think anybody can benefit from doing a rate study, especially if you're in a place like us, where we were charging how we always charge.
If you start asking the whys and getting into the details of the history and not finding the right documentation to support the charges, it's important to do this. What you'll end up with is a comprehensive financial document based on data.
It will serve as evidence for the points you want to make if you want to change your pricing.
If you want to go to executive leadership, you want to say, hey, we want to charge this. With a rate study, you can come in and say, no, we need to charge this. Here's our math for it and here's why we think we should charge that.
So our timeline I wanted to touch, it took us from about we started in December through January.
We had the rate study completed, and we had the executive summary ready for our leadership early February.
We are about two months’ out from the NACCU Annual Conference and the nomination deadline for the NACCU Awards program is just days away. Wednesday, February 18 is your last chance to honor a colleague, a peer, your team, or even yourself in one of seven categories.
The annual program recognizes commitment and innovation by individuals and teams in the higher education credential and transaction system industry.
The nomination process is simple.
At the awards page on the NACCU website, you’ll find a link to the unique nomination form for each category. Most submissions require only basic contact information and a description of why you feel this nominee is deserving of the award.
Take a few minutes and share your appreciation for a job well done by submitting a nomination. See you in Covington, April 19-22, 2026.
Awards include:
Presented to an individual who has advanced the industry and is actively involved in NACCU.
Presented to an individual who has made significant contributions to their institution, the industry, and NACCU within a relatively short period of time.
Presented to an institution that has developed an innovative technology-based solution to address a problem or capitalize on an opportunity.
Presented to an institution that has created a visually appealing and functional card or mobile credential design.
Presented to an institution that has created a compelling video to promote their program.
Presented to an individual who has demonstrated exemplary volunteer service to NACCU during the current or previous calendar year.
Presented to an individual – regardless of their formal title or role within the institution –who has made a meaningful impact on the campus card office by fostering collaboration or advancing its strategic profile.
