Card, mobile credential, payment and security
DoorDash campus is a new reality. The company will acquire Grubhub Campus Dining from current owner, Wonder, in a $300 million transaction. The transaction makes DoorDash an instant leader in campus dining technology and mobile ordering.
Grubhub Campus Dining operates at more than 450 colleges and universities. It provides mobile ordering, kiosks and customer-facing solutions, as well as back of house technology. It also facilitates food lockers, robot delivery, and other campus dining technologies for dining facilities and on-campus restaurants.
Tapingo, then Grubhub Campus, recognized that to make it in higher ed, you must play nice with the institution’s on-campus dining operations and payment platforms.
The business traces its roots to Tapingo, a pioneer in campus-focused mobile ordering founded in 2012. Tapingo had about 200 campus clients in 2018 when it was acquired by Grubhub for $150 million.
Key to the Grubhub Campus success is its recognition that to serve higher ed, you must play nice with the institution’s on-campus dining operations and payment platforms. Tapingo recognized this early and has been able to build extremely strong, embedded relationship with institutions, something no other food delivery platform has been able to surpass.
Tapingo, and subsequently Grubhub Campus, put in the work to enable students to pay using campus meal plans, dining dollars, and equivalency payment methods as well as traditional bank card options.
Following completion of the acquisition, DoorDash says it plans to continue expanding the Grubhub Campus Dining operation in the U.S.
The company says it also plans to use technology developed for the campus market in other closed or semi-closed environments, including stadiums and hotels.
For colleges and universities currently using Grubhub Campus Dining, the announcement does not detail changes to existing services, integrations or contracts.
The acquisition represents another ownership change for the campus dining operation.
As mentioned, Grubhub acquired Tapingo for approximately $150 million in 2018, bringing the campus mobile ordering company into its broader restaurant delivery business. In 2020, Just Eat Takeaway purchased Grubhub for $7 billion dollars and the campus dining division transferred with the full company.
Just four years later, Wonder bought Grubhub from Just Eat Takeaway for a massive discount at just $650 million.
Under the newly announced agreement, Wonder will retain the broader Grubhub business while selling the Campus Dining operation to DoorDash.
In a statement announcing the deal, DoorDash co-founder and CEO Tony Xu pointed to both the student experience and university operations as areas the company plans to address.
Wonder says the investment will support expansion as well as development of technology, robotics and artificial intelligence.
“Adding Grubhub Campus Dining to our platform will enable us to bring greater choice and convenience to college students while streamlining operations and reducing friction for universities,” Xu said.
Separate from the DoorDash campus dining acquisition, the company is investing $125 million in Wonder as part of the food technology company's Series D funding round.
Wonder says the investment will support expansion as well as development of technology, robotics and artificial intelligence. The companies described the acquisition and investment as part of a broader strategic partnership.
For the higher education market, however, the most significant component of the agreement is the transfer of Grubhub Campus Dining and its installed base of more than 450 institutions to DoorDash.
The acquisition adds an established campus-specific platform to DoorDash's operations and brings another major food delivery company directly into the university market.
The transaction is expected to close during the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory review and other customary closing conditions.
When Rosty Chen’s campus ID office at Michigan State University lost its manager during a hiring freeze, the remaining staff had to absorb the work. The situation became even more difficult when another full-time employee left, further reducing the team from four people to three. Instead of relying only on the remaining staff to carry the extra workload, Chen began looking at additional responsibilities that could be trusted to student employees.
The office expanded its student workforce from five or six students to eight and increased student coverage from 60 hours per week to as many as 90 during the academic year. That made it possible to consistently staff both front desks while also assigning a more experienced student to administrative work that had traditionally been handled by full-time employees.
Chen’s own experience as a former student employee shapes his approach. He focuses on making sure students feel supported, listening to their feedback, and involving them in decisions that affect their work.
He looked to his student employees to help redesign the onboarding process, giving them more ownership and helping the office create a stronger training experience.
Trust your students. They may have less professional experience, but they often bring valuable perspectives. In our office, they handle all our card production, so they often know that process better than anyone else.
The office also introduced a senior student role with greater responsibility and higher pay. That role rewards experienced employees, creates an incentive for students to return, and gives full-time staff more time to focus on meetings, projects, and other operational priorities.
With no immediate plans to replace the vacant full-time positions, the expanded student staffing model is becoming the office’s new normal. A planned rate increase should help fund continued student coverage, including up to 120 student work hours per week during the summer.
Chen’s advice to other campus card offices is to trust their student employees. Students may have less professional experience, but they often become the most knowledgeable people in the office’s daily processes. Involving them in decisions, listening to their ideas, and recognizing their contributions can improve both the student experience and the office’s overall operation.
To listen to the full interview, click the image at the top of this page.
TRANSCRIPT:
In January 2025, our manager retired. Shortly after that, while we were going through the hiring process, our institution implemented a hiring freeze. Because of that, we couldn’t replace the manager, and we've now been operating without one for about 15 months.
Just because the manager position went away didn't mean the work disappeared. Those responsibilities were redistributed among the full-time staff, which meant more meetings, more project work, and more responsibilities that normally wouldn't have been part of our day-to-day roles.
Then, later that year, another full-time staff member left. We went from four full-time staff members down to three, which is where we still are today.
With all those challenges, I started looking at what responsibilities could be successfully handled by student employees. I wanted to expand what our student team could accomplish and rethink how we approached staffing altogether.
I approach supervising students from the perspective of someone who was once a student employee myself. I understand what worked and what was missing, so I try to fill those gaps.
Traditionally, we employed five or six student workers during the academic year, which provided roughly 50 to 60 student work hours each week. We operate two front desks, and typically only one would be staffed by a student. If things became busy, one of the full-time staff members would step in to cover the second desk.
Today, we employ about eight student workers and have increased student coverage to approximately 80 to 90 hours each week during the academic year. Both front desks are now consistently staffed, and we often schedule a third student in a senior role. That student is able to step away from the front desk and perform many of the administrative tasks that were traditionally handled by full-time staff.
I approach supervising students from the perspective of someone who was once a student employee myself. I understand what worked and what was missing, so I try to fill those gaps.
When redesigning our onboarding process, I relied heavily on input from our student employees. Their feedback helped shape the process, gave them ownership, and reinforced that their opinions matter.
The most important thing for me is making sure students feel supported. I regularly ask whether they have the resources and guidance they need to succeed. While I still manage performance and accountability when necessary, I also work to build trust, so students feel comfortable sharing feedback. That's where real improvement happens.
When redesigning our onboarding process, I relied heavily on input from our student employees. Their feedback helped shape the process, gave them ownership, and reinforced that their opinions matter.
We also introduced a senior student position with additional responsibilities and increased pay. That creates an incentive for experienced students to stay with us while rewarding those who take on more responsibility.
At this point, this staffing model appears to be our new normal. We haven't received any updates about adding additional full-time staff or replacing the manager. However, we recently completed a rate study that should increase the fees our office charges. Those additional funds directly support our student staffing model.
We also introduced a senior student position with additional responsibilities and increased pay. That creates an incentive for experienced students to stay with us while rewarding those who take on more responsibility.
With those changes, we expect to continue supporting approximately eight student employees during the academic year. During the summer, we'll increase coverage even further to approximately 120 student work hours each week, allowing three students to work simultaneously. We believe this model will continue to be sustainable.
My biggest piece of advice is to trust your students. They may have less professional experience, but they often bring valuable perspectives and develop significant expertise in the work they perform every day. In our office, student employees handle all our card production, so they often know that process better than anyone else.
When you're considering changes, include your student employees in those conversations because their feedback is valuable. And when you have students who consistently contribute and go above and beyond, let them know they're appreciated. Whether it's a thank-you, a small reward, or additional opportunities, showing that you value their contributions goes a long way.
Starship Technologies announced it would shift focus to retail grocery chains and cease its campus operations. The news came as a blow to its higher education clients and the students that had come to enjoy autonomous delivery.
The robots were deployed on 60 U.S. colleges and universities, and administrators at those institutions were left with a service gap to fill and little or no time to fill it.
By most accounts, robot delivery is popular with students. It also provides university dining services an opportunity to increase sales and address the challenging nature of on-campus delivery.
The first Starship robots came to campus in 2019 when 25 rolled out at George Mason University. The number of new clients has increased each year, as autonomous delivery progressed beyond a novelty use case.
It was founded in Estonia five years prior by two former Skype execs. According to company reports, it has raised more than $280 million; deployed 3,000 robots; and completed more than 10 million deliveries across 300 locations.
Pulling units from higher ed was an obvious choice. Forty percent of its worldwide robot fleet were deployed on U.S. campuses.
Starship says grocery delivery operations in Europe and the U.S. are “on a 10x growth trajectory over the next two years.” To take advantage of that rising demand, the decision was made to repurpose the higher ed units.
Robots are expensive to build and operate, and even if money was not a consideration, it takes time to massively expand the numbers.
Pulling units from higher ed was an obvious choice. Forty percent – 1,200 of its 3,000 worldwide robot fleet – were deployed on U.S. campuses.
Both public and private companies have an obligation to investors to do what is best for long-term growth. The way this went down in higher ed, however, left many with a sour taste in their mouths.
According to the company release, “Starship has worked closely with all its university campuses and industry partners to ensure continuity of service through the back-to-school 2026-2027 season, with transition plans in place to minimize disruption for campus communities.”
Few we spoke to, however, experienced continuity.
Instead, many say they first learned of the cessation plan at the start of June. Then they were told that company reps would be on site to pick up the equipment just days later on June 6.
At Wichita State, the timeline was even shorter. According to the senior director of dining, they received written notice from Starship on Tuesday, and the following morning, the company was on campus to remove the robots.
Whatever the timeline, it left dining service administrators at the 60 campuses racing to inform patrons and seek alternative delivery options.
Former Starship campuses have options, but they vary based on how the system was implemented.
The complexity of swapping providers depends on the mobile ordering app used and if other Starship dining tech was deployed on the campus.
On the surface, it seems it was too easy for Starship to exit these relationships without adequate notice or remedy.
Some institutions will choose replace Starship with one of the other robot providers. Others may decide that autonomous delivery is not the right fit for their environment.
For those that choose not to relaunch robots, they may look to mainstream delivery options or explore campus-centric student delivery.
And what lessons emerge?
When new technology is implemented, the assumption should be that it will be hugely successful and become mission critical. Thus, to have it vanish would be a public relations, service delivery, and financial hit.
On the surface, it seems it was too easy for Starship to exit these relationships without adequate notice or remedy.
If you have ideas or feedback, please send it confidentially to me: chris campusidnews dot com
In this episode of CampusIDNews Chats, leaders from Transact + CBORD (rebranding to Illumia in March 2026), Genea, and Mercer University discuss a new partnership delivering cloud-native access control to higher education. The collaboration brings together Genea’s modern physical security solution and Illumia’s identity, credentialing, and commerce platform. Mercer is a key initial implementation of the new partnership.
Michael Wong, President and CEO of Genea, describes his company’s offering as a smart building automation platform with a physical security solution built natively in the cloud. He explains that many cloud-hosted access systems are simply retrofits of a company’s legacy offering, but Genea’s solution is designed natively for the cloud, enabling scalability and continuous innovation.
We're big believers in open hardware. Our customer retention is driven by our service and our value, not because we sold you something proprietary.
He highlights Genea’s commitment to open architecture, allowing institutions to reuse hardware and avoid proprietary lock-in. They prioritize user experience – from a modern intuitive user interface to dedicated project management during implementation. Rather than leaving customer support to integrators or OEMs, Genea handles its own 24x7x365 support enhanced by AI-driven tools.
Rasheed Behrooznia, EVP and General Manager for Campus ID and Commerce at Illumia, says one key to the partnership is a shared philosophy. He points to a focus on client satisfaction, resiliency, and scalable cloud technology.
“Leading up to selecting Genea as a partner we were exploring options to bring cloud-native access control to our ecosystem and frankly, all of higher education,” says Behrooznia. “We were looking for that partner that had exceptional solutions that operated at scale.”
For Mercer University, the move to Genea followed decades using an on-prem access control system. With nearly 4,000 readers across 12 facilities in Georgia and 14,000 mobile credentials in use, scalability and uptime were critical.
We wanted to use and be able to reuse as much of the existing Transact access control readers, the physical wiring, and infrastructure that we had in place.
Associate Vice President Ken Boyer says cloud was a must-have, as was open architecture, and the ability to reuse existing infrastructure. The university spread funding across three fiscal years to ease the financial impact.
“The vast majority of our stakeholders that are out using their credentials on our campuses each and every day see no difference,” says Boyer. “It just works. It just keeps working.”
Wong describes Mercer as a valuable proving ground. “We will do whatever it takes to solve the problems that need to be solved,” he says, noting the complexity of university environments and the importance of reliability.
Boyer adds that the partnership has improved campus operations and fostered collaborative product development. “Access control is our primary focus,” he says, “but we're looking down the road to integrate video, building systems, and other things that Genea brings to the table.”
To listen to the full discussion, click on the image at the top of this page.
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to CampusIDNews Chats. I'm your host Chris Corum. Today we're going to talk about a partnership between Illumia and security provider Genea that's bringing the next evolution of cloud-based access control to Transact clients. We're going to hear from Mercer University, one of the first institutions to put that solution into play.
With me today, we've got Ken Boyer, Associate Vice President for Auxiliary Services at Mercer. Ken is well known to lots of us for his pioneering work in the industry, including being one of the first campuses to go fully mobile.
Rasheed Behrooznia, EVP and General Manager for Campus ID and Commerce at Illumia, which most of us know as formerly Transact + CBORD.
And third, Michael Wong, President and CEO of Genea.
Michael, we're going to let you kick it off. Can you give us an overview of Genea and your solutions?
Michael Wong: So Genea overall is a smart building automation platform, but what we'll focus our attention on specifically is our physical security solution, which we acquired in December of 2019.
That solution is an application that was natively built in the cloud, as opposed to a lot of the solutions that are out there that are purported cloud solutions, but it's basically a forklifted version of their on-prem software with all the same limitations. So be careful out there. Not all clouds built the same.
The other thing that really distinguishes us from the industry is we're big believers in open hardware, so that our customer retention is driven by our service and our value, not because we sold you something proprietary.
We help future proof the buying decision of hardware by using something that, if you don't like us for some reason, there's at least 20 other software providers that you can use that same hardware for that end user.
Then I would say most importantly, the other thing that we focus on is a fantastic end user experience.
You'll see a old legacy access control platform that feels like you're going back in time decades, or you could see that against our modern user interface, that just looks like something that's intuitive. The user experience is just a lot more improved using our platform.
But the user interface isn't just the UI.
We actually take it back all the way to the implementation process, because we are the only company that, as far as I know, assigns a project manager to make sure everything goes smoothly. That project manager gets very involved in the database migration, the entire implementation process, because you only get one time to make a good first impression. Obviously, we want to make sure that things go well.
Then ongoing support, we provide 24-7-365 ongoing support. If somebody has any problems, they're not having to go to a security integrator, and then that ticket needs to go to the OEM, and you're waiting hours, days, maybe weeks to get an answer back.
We're talking about physical security, this stuff needs to be resolved right away. On our platform is a chat bot where you can interact and ask questions. A majority of our tickets are actually resolved with our AI in the bot right now, turning to the appropriate help articles. But at any point in time, if you want to talk to a live agent, you have a live agent, once again, 24x7x365.
Those are some of the things we bring in the marketplace that are different.
Chris Corum: Rasheed, can you describe a bit more about the partnership? What's that bringing to Illumia clients? How is it helping what you're looking to do in that next evolution of access control?
Rasheed Behrooznia: Yeah, absolutely, Chris. I guess my first immediate answer is Genea shared much of the same beliefs that we do here at Illumia. Mainly an unwavering focus on client satisfaction and bringing those exceptional solutions to market.
Leading up to selecting Genea as a partner we were exploring what options there were to bring cloud-native access control to our ecosystem and frankly, all of higher education. We were looking for that partner that had exceptional solutions that operated at scale. A company like us that was focused on cloud-native technology and all that comes with that, the security and resiliency that's necessary to ensure that high satisfaction.
In addition to that technical acumen, as I said, just a partner that would be dedicated to our clients and dedicated to working with us to bring that great experience to market in higher education. That was non-negotiable and Genea really met that mark.
I would say one of the things that was a very important factor as well is Genea can work with a number of our solutions, whether that was our TSE solution, IDX, leveraging our access control integration layer to immediately be able to work with our solutions, that provision credentials across mobile and the architecture that we have.
And ultimately, just a partnership that is about giving our colleges and university choice, flexibility, a modern security foundation, and open architecture for that exceptional user experience.
So in the end, we found that exceptional partner.
Chris Corum: Ken, so Mercer is one of the first institutions to launch this partnership and the Genea solution. Can you tell us about the prior PACS environment that you had on your campus and how that led you to seek a new solution? What you were looking for?
Ken Boyer: We were on-premise with Transact for over 30 years, and that product had worked well for us. As that product was sunsetting with Transact, we started looking at other opportunities that they had, partners that they could offer to us. Genea became a clear leader in our evaluation process.
We were an early adopter, as you said earlier, with mobile credentials. We've done a lot of things with the cloud with Transact, and this just made sense for us.
Having an on-prem server solution was difficult for us because we're a 24-7 operation. You've got downtime, things like that. Moving to the cloud allows us a lot of those updates and things to happen without having to have downtime for our university.
We operate over 12 facilities across the state of Georgia, from the southern end of Georgia to the northern end of Georgia, and it was important for us to have something that could do that.
We have nearly 4,000 access control readers across all of our facilities in the state of Georgia, and right at 14,000 mobile credentials currently in use across our campuses.
Chris Corum: When you were looking for the new solution, what were the must-haves?
Ken Boyer: We were looking for a solution with open architecture. We wanted to use and be able to reuse as much of our existing Transact access control readers that we had on campus, the physical wiring, and infrastructure that we had in place. We were looking to try to do that as much as possible, and look at different options that had it out there.
The Mercury boards were really appealing to us because of the open architecture, and that was something that Transact and Genea can bring to us.
Cloud was a must-have because we had been very successful with other Transact products in the cloud, Transact point of sale was one of the first endeavor into the cloud, and it just made sense to move our access control system in that direction.
Chris Corum: Elephant in the room that always comes up in these kinds of conversations of funding, obstacles, how did you navigate them, how'd the process go?
Ken Boyer: That is always a challenge when you're trying to do something like this.
We had great partners with Transact, and we worked with our account executives at Transact at the time and Genea to try to think outside of the box and not have to do this all in one physical year. We actually spread ours across three physical years, and it's helped us to get it all there and make it happen. So, it's been a great partnership.
We were able to use a lot of our resources that we already had in place, but we had money in our budgets, so we were able to take money from three budget years. Our budget year runs July 1 to June 30th every year. So at the end of FY24 at the time, we were able to use money that we'd been saving.
We knew the sunsetting was coming to the Transact traditional door access system, so we were saving some funds to put towards that and then just got creative to be able to have those funds rolled across three years so that it was not as huge a financial impact to the institution.
Chris Corum: Okay, and initial feedback from your group, from stakeholders on campus, has it gone well?
Ken Boyer: The vast majority of our stakeholders – and students and the faculty and staff that are out using their credentials on our campuses each and every day – see no difference. It just works. It just keeps working.
Working with Michael's team, the team at Transact, and my staff here, we've implemented a process to just roll it to where things keep operating. So that has been very, very good for us.
On the administrative side of the shop there, we've been using new features and new techniques that are available in the Genea software. One which has been huge for us is the AI support that is in the Genea support and that's something that our team really loves. It gets answers to questions quickly without having to get a support tech on the phone necessarily, but they're always there to help us when we need it. So that's been huge.
We're also looking forward to working with Michael's team for other integrations.
Access control is our primary focus here, but we're looking down the road to integrate that to video, building systems, and other things that Genea brings to the table as well, which was one of the reasons that we selected them as a partner.
Chris Corum: Michael, back to you. What did you learn in the process? This was a big project and a little bit of a new market for you guys. What did the Mercer project bring to the table for you?
Michael Wong: I love stress testing our business, our technology with new challenges and Mercer definitely lived up to a new challenge for us.
Universities are not simple organizations to run. There's lots of different parts of the organizations, a lot of different profiles that we need to account for and so I think it put our team to the test.
Now what Rasheed leaned into is one of the most important things for us is to make sure that the end users are happy. I would say we did a lot of bending over backward late nights to make sure that we delivered what we needed to deliver because on a university campus somebody can't get in the door, you know, that's not a good time for anybody, right?
So the realities of making sure that we deliver something that is on time and working reliably is incredibly important for us.
I would say we learned a lot. We leaned into what makes our reputation stand out for other end users is that we will do whatever it takes to solve the problems that need to be solved.
It's also been fun, you know, leaning with the team to hear what other items would you like to see and then start developing those items. One of the nicest things about being natively born in the cloud is we can launch new features very quickly. In fact, last year alone we launched close to 80 new features whereas a typical access control platform may launch a new feature every 12 to 18 months.
Just being able to bring new innovative solutions to Ken and his team by just listening to them. What are things that you'd like to see and if there's an integration that we haven't built yet, we'll put it on the roadmap and we'll give you a timeline in which we will deliver it.
It's been a lot of fun.
Chris Corum: Ken, tell us why you would recommend other peer institutions, other campuses consider this route?
Ken Boyer: I think Michael hit on it right there. They've been listening to their customers. We all agree that it's been a challenging opportunity for everyone. We have all learned the strengths and challenges of each other and together we've had a willingness to sit down and improve the product.
The campus experience has greatly improved on our campus because of our partnership with Transact and with Genea and the team understands that each campus is different.
There's no two of us to be the same. Michael will continue to learn that as they roll this out to other institutions, but I am confident that they will sit down just like they've done with Mercer and listen to ways to make those campuses better as well.
Together we've found solutions that make some substantial improvements to the daily operations.
Chris Corum: Well, congrats everybody. It sounds like a good project is well underway or done and continuing to grow. Thanks everybody for joining me. And thanks everybody for listening in. As always, if you've got an idea for a future episode of CampusIDNews Chats, shoot me a note.
Smart lockers are becoming a key part of the modern campus dining experience, and Ashley McNamara, vice president of global marketing at Apex, says the shift to fully digital dining halls is driven by student expectations for speed, convenience, and mobile-first experiences.
In a conversation with CampusIDNews, McNamara explains how Apex’s smart locker solutions fit seamlessly into higher education dining ecosystems, helping campuses modernize food pickup without adding friction to back-of-house processes.
McNamara says today’s students expect dining to mirror the convenience they experience off campus. Apex’s smart lockers connect directly to mobile ordering platforms – such as Grubhub Campus, Transact Mobile, Tacit – allowing students to order ahead, receive notifications, and grab their meals without waiting in line. Because the mobile ordering solutions integrate with transaction system providers, meal plans and declining balance payments come out-of-the-box.
Lockers connect directly to leading mobile ordering platforms, and because they integrate with transaction system providers, meal plans and declining balance payments come out-of-the-box.
The result is a predictable, fully digital experience that lets students pick up food on their schedule and move on to their next class or social activity.
Apex works closely with institutions to tailor locker deployments based on order volume, peak times, and space constraints. McNamara explains that some campuses may only need a few compartments while others may need dozens across multiple locations.
At Rider University, students can only order through the Grubhub app to place the orders for Jersey Mike's and pick up through the lockers
“We look at all that data and then figure out what the right hardware is for that customer,” she says. Solutions can be installed indoors or outdoors, and Apex recently introduced a modular system with varying compartment sizes that allows campuses to expand over time as dining demand grows.
One of the most compelling use cases McNamara highlights is the rise of “digital dining halls,” where all orders are placed through mobile apps or kiosks and picked up exclusively from lockers. These spaces have no traditional ordering counter and highly efficient kitchens.
With more than 60 campuses already using Apex lockers, she adds that no two deployments look the same – each tailored to campus culture, scale, and student behavior.
To watch the full interview, click the image at the top of this page.
Don't miss the smart locker demo at the 8:10 point in the video
TRANSCRIPT:
Hello there and welcome to Campus ID News Chats. I'm publisher of Campus ID News, Chris Corum.
Chris: Today we're going to talk about smart lockers and joining me is Ashley McNamara, the vice president of global marketing for Apex, which is a smart locker solution leader in a lot of markets including higher ed. Can you walk us through your smart locker offering and what it brings to campus?
Ashley: Sure. You know, students these days are on the go. They're always on their phone. Campuses are also progressing with mobile ordering and using platforms that allow students to order ahead, whether that's in a retail dining or even in regular dining halls.
They expect convenience, personalization, technology.
What we can do is we offer smart locker pickup solutions. From that ordering process that they're ordering on a mobile app to then pick up in the dining facilities, it's all digital for them. There's no wait time. It's predictable.
They know when their order's ready, but on so many campuses where they're placing the order, grabbing it and heading off to the next class or even just heading to hang out with their friends a little bit longer. It gives them that convenience of being able to pick up as quick as they can and get on their way.
Chris: Tell us about the configurations that are available? I know you've got a new one, but kind of walk through like what's a standard configuration. What are options and things?
Ashley: As we as we start, when engaging with campuses, we look at order volumes? What is that standard peak time? What does that look like? This lets us make sure we get enough of the compartments to handle this?
We see orders sit in the compartments, maybe four- or five-minutes max. They're moving through them quickly. We look at all those orders and kind of figure out, okay, you need seven compartments or you have a big system, you need 23 compartments.
We look at all that data and then figure out what the right hardware is for that. We have solutions that sit indoors or that can sit outdoors if you don't want your students coming in the building.
Then we have a new solution that we launched last year that is just starting to trickle on to college campuses where it's all modular. There are different sizes of compartments, and they can build out a structure of what they need. It gives them an opportunity to grow more compartments as their food service dining grows.
Chris: Great. How about how about some ideal or interesting use cases? I always love talking about ghost kitchens, because it's such a cool concept. But what are the things like that are interesting?
Ashely: Absolutely. We've called them digital dining halls. As you walk in, there's no counter, you can't walk up and place an order.
Everything is either through a mobile app or through a kiosk that's there for maybe your visitors on campus, parents that are on campus, or students that don't want another app on their phone. They can go up, place their order digitally, and it gives them a timeline of when that order is going to be ready.
Then it's placed in the locker for pickup. So that's their only option to be able to pick up.
We've seen a number of these launching this school year – rebuilding these facilities, where they're putting different concepts at each bank, and you're students place orders before they leave class, go grab it, go sit and converse with friends. They're not having to stand wait in line to place the order, stand to wait to get it to pick it up, it's all ready to go for them when they get that notification that their order is ready.
That's a great way for campuses to utilize this, it's all then integrated with their mobile apps.
As we work with different providers, we can integrate to the systems you're already using on campus. It's additive, it's easy for the team, then to be able to do that.
What we're seeing in these digital dining halls, too, is a super-efficient kitchen, to where they're able to move these orders through really, really quickly, and potentially boost transactions and revenues too.
Chris: From the tech stack perspective of the campus, how does this play with the campus card and the payment system or the dining points, declining balance, things like that? And do you work with multiple mobile ordering apps?
Ashley: Yeah, honestly, we could integrate with whatever you're utilizing on campus. We have existing integrations with Grubhub campus, Transact Mobile, Tacit, any of these mobile platforms that campuses are already utilizing. They work with the campus cards, so we fit right into that whole ecosystem of partners to make it one seamless for the student, but two super easy on the back end for the school.
Chris: Okay, great. How many campuses today?
Ashley: We're over 60 campuses now. I think what the fun thing about that is no two of them are the same. They all have applied the solutions in different ways. They've utilized different marketing tactics, configurations, and branding to be able to bring this as part of life on campus.
Chris: That's number is up a lot from when we talked last time. You had a good year and a half or something like that.
Ashley: Yeah, I think it's becoming something that a lot of schools use this for getting students on campus. Think about as you're taking a high school senior through a campus and you walk through the dining facility and they see this super cool technology to be able to pick up their orders.
The tours are talking about it like it's an enhancement to the things that happening on campus. It’s similar to the robots, the robots are super cool.
We're a nice complement to that, to where it's all this new technology that's on campuses that's drawing students in, giving them something convenient, something they can continue to go back to that's reliable.
And that's just fun to utilize.
Chris: We’ve got listeners who will be from small schools and we got with listeners who will be from really large institutions. Can you give me an example of a small deployment and a large deployment and if that's capable and possible for both?
Ashley: One of our earliest schools that we worked with is Rider University. They had some unused kitchen space, and they didn't have a place for a front of house. So, they built the lockers as a big bank in this digital dining hall, but it was also bringing in a Jersey Mike's brand to campus. The way that students utilize it is they can only order through the Grubhub app to place the orders for Jersey Mike's and pick up through the lockers.
One of the one of the interesting things we saw was a huge spike in orders from before that concept was there to when it was there with the same number of students. They're seeing the convenience of it.
The dining hall is set up so you walk in, grab it, and walk right back out again, or go the opposite direction and go sit and have a nice conversation with your friends. That whole concept of marrying, the mobile ordering and the automated pickup with the national brand worked really well for that small campus.
As we look at big campuses, they're doing a variety of different things. We've got some schools that put our solutions at each retail concept. If you order from Einstein's Bagels, you pick up at Einstein's Bagels, and it's kind of that same repeatable process that they've done before.
We're also seeing a lot of the larger campuses deploy these digital dining halls.
They are working through how do I how do I feed lots of students in a really great, efficient, and convenient way that is efficient for the kitchen and fun for the student.
I'm notified throughout the entire process, and at the end, it's ready for me when I'm ready for my order.
Chris: All right, thanks, Ashley. Let's take a look. Can you give us a quick demo?
Ashley: Sure. [Ashley presents a demo of the lockers]
Chris: How about if somebody wants to talk to you about the product?
Ashley: You can go to apexorderpickup.com. There's a contact us form or you can email info at apexorderpickup dot com and somebody will get back to you pretty quickly.
A new California law will require public schools serving grades 7 through 12, community colleges, California State University campuses, and University of California campuses to add an LGBTQ youth hotline number to student IDs and campus cards. Assembly Bill 727, signed into law in October 2025, will go into effect on July 1, 2026.
The goal is to make support resources easier to find during moments of crisis. While the approach has prompted questions from some stakeholders, the bill is designed as a an update to existing student ID requirements rather than an overhaul of school mental health policy.
The idea behind the requirement is straightforward. If a student is struggling, they do not need to search online or ask for help to find support. The information is readily available to them, at a moment when privacy and immediacy matter.
Over the years, legislative efforts to add hotlines to campus cards often failed to consider the impacts on card offices and other ID issuers.
Research consistently shows that LGBTQ youth experience higher rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation than their peers. Lawmakers supporting AB 727 say that increasing the visibility of targeted crisis resources can help reduce barriers to care, especially for students who may be reluctant to seek help through traditional school channels.
Opponents argue this is an example of the state forcing its way into issues that should be handled in the home.
Assembly Bill 727 is not the first legislation to impact hotline information printed on school IDs and higher ed campus cards in California.
In 2019, it was required that student IDs include the telephone number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and the following year, adding the National Domestic Violence Hotline or a local alternative was mandated.
This newly passed legislation adds another required addition to campus cards – the Trevor Project’s phone number and text line.
“Commencing July 1, 2026, a public or private institution of higher education that issues student identification cards shall have printed on either side of the student identification cards The Trevor Project’s 24 hours per day, 7 days per week suicide hotline that is available through both of the following options:
Telephone number: 1-866-488-7386.
Text line, which can be accessed by texting START to 678-678.”
The Trevor Project is a national nonprofit organization that provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services for LGBTQ youth. Founded in 1998, the organization offers support through a 24/7 phone hotline, text messaging, and online chat services.
Surprisingly, there is no mention of the addition of The Trevor Project details on digital IDs or mobile credentials.
It is named after Trevor, the fictional teenage character in the Academy Award–winning short film Trevor. The film portrays a young gay teen struggling with isolation and self-harm. The film’s creators were struck by how few resources existed at the time for LGBTQ youth in crisis. The nonprofit was created in response, with the aim of ensuring that young people facing similar challenges would have a place to turn for help.
Over the years, legislative efforts to add hotlines to campus cards often failed to consider the impacts on card offices and other ID issuers.
At times, language in proposed bills neglected to address key issues such as whether the institution would be required to replace already-issued IDs or whether they could use an existing supply of preprinted card stock rather than discarding it.
This bill seems to address these issues in a reasonable way for issuers and campus card programs. First, it states that the requirement only applies to IDs issued in the future. Second, it specifically allows the use of, “a supply of unissued pupil or student identification cards that do not comply with the requirements … until that supply is depleted.”
Surprisingly – though crisis hotlines have been added to mobile credentials in the past – the new California law does not mention the addition of The Trevor Project details on digital IDs.
Supporters of AB 727 emphasize that the bill focuses on access and visibility. Mental health crises often occur outside of school hours, when students may not have immediate access to counselors or trusted adults. In those moments, having a clearly printed support number can remove hesitation and save time.
The law does not ask schools to provide counseling services, adjust curriculum, or promote specific organizations beyond listing crisis contact information.
Because schools already include the 988-hotline on student IDs, compliance does not require major operational changes. The law does not ask schools to provide counseling services, adjust curriculum, or promote specific organizations beyond listing crisis contact information.
As with many education-related policies, AB 727 has raised questions about boundaries and implementation. Some stakeholders have expressed concern about referencing a specific external organization on student IDs, while others have raised broader questions about parental involvement and online safety.
Supporters respond that the law is narrowly focused on crisis intervention and mirrors how schools already share national mental health resources. They argue that ensuring students can quickly access help during emergencies outweighs potential drawbacks.
We are looking for writers – either full-time or freelance – to contribute to the campus ID, transaction system, and security industry’s leading publication. It’s fun, it’s challenging, and for the right person it’s pretty stress free.
You get is to inform your higher ed peers about technology that can help them transform their campuses.
Day to day, you plan articles and work with campus administrators and vendors. Via phone, email, and video calls, you conduct interviews to create your content. After review, you publish it online, in email newsletters, and on our social media – don’t worry we have people to show you how to do all that and you will have a graphic designer and web developer there to assist.
A strong background in higher ed, aux services, card programs, and security is equally – or more – important than journalism experience.
We travel to a select number of fun industry conferences and vendor meetings each year, but for the most part you work from home.
Creativity is key. We want you to help us grow and make CampusIDNews better.
If you are interested in freelance opportunities, we also contract writers for individual articles or a fixed number per month – say one per week or two per month, whatever works with your schedule.
Over the years, we have found that a strong background in higher ed, aux services, card programs, and security is equally – or more – important than journalism experience. Of course, you need to be a good writer, but you don’t necessarily need that experience on your resume.
If this strikes a chord with you, please shoot me an email and we can kick it around.
Best,
Chris Corum, Editor and Publisher, CampusIDNews
Transact+CBORD has launched CS Gold 9, the latest version of its long-standing campus ID and transaction system used at more than 250 institutions. Designed to streamline administration and boost functionality, the new release integrates artificial intelligence, improves the user interface, and adds customer-driven enhancements.
Steve Swingler, Senior Director of Software Development, says the AI-powered Ask CS Gold feature has generated strong enthusiasm.
Western Connecticut, University of Tennessee Knoxville, and Vanderbilt were the first three schools to go live. It's released. We're quoting to customers. We're ready to do more installs.
“Admins can ask a natural language question through the web interface, and the AI figures out what they're asking for, queries the database, and gives them back an English language response,” he explains.
Early adopters—including Western Connecticut, the University of Tennessee Knoxville, and Vanderbilt—have reported smooth, simple implementations.
Read Winkelman, Vice President and Campus ID Business Leader, emphasizes that client input guided many of the upgrades. “The ten features that got the most votes in our customer ideas portal were included in this release,” he notes. CBORD even credits the contributing campuses by name in the release notes.
The redesign includes new setup wizards, time-saving templates, and a cleaner interface across 16 of the most-used screens—changes aimed at making the system easier to navigate for both experienced and backup administrators.
Beyond administrative convenience, CS Gold 9’s AI capabilities help campuses analyze student engagement.
“Ask a question and say, ‘give me a list of students who haven't used their meal plan more than once a day in the last week,’ and maybe that’s an indicator that they're disengaged,” says Winkelman. “At least a way to start mining that data and look for students who might need some extra connection.”
Feedback from pilot schools has been overwhelmingly positive, with early users calling the upgrade “seamless” and “a win” for simplicity and usability.
To watch the full interview, click the image at the top of this page.
TRANSCRIPT
Hello there, and welcome to this episode of Campus ID News Chats. I'm Chris Corum, your host and publisher of Campus ID News.
Transact+CBORD just released a new version of the long-standing CS Gold platform. We're going to talk today about the new version that was just released with CS Gold 9 with two of the company's leaders.
Welcome Read Winkelman, Vice President and Campus ID Business Leader, and Steve Swingler, Senior Director of Software Development. A little background on the two of them, it’s been 20-plus years with CBORD for both, 30 for Read, and if you add in Steve's time at Diebold, which became a part of CBORD, he's at 30 years too. Both worked on a campus as well.
Chris: So how about a little history of CS Gold before we talk about the new version, when it came out, how many campuses use it, that kind of thing.
Steve: We came out with the first version of CS Gold back in that time that you referred to when we were at Diebold prior to coming over to CBORD. I think that was 1998, and it's grown to over 250 campuses.
It tends to succeed with our larger campuses where the needs are complex, campuses that are doing some very large access control, but we've got a loyal group of customers that give us great feedback, great ideas, and we'll talk in a little bit about some of that feedback that we made part of Gold 9.
Chris: Gold 9, what's new in this version? What was the goal with releasing it? And what did you learn from clients that went into it?
Steve: The one that we get the most comments, questions, and excitement about, I think, is Ask CS Gold. It's an AI chat interface where the admins can ask a natural language question through the web interface of the existing CS Gold web interface, and they ask a question that's on their mind, and the AI figures out what they're asking for, where that might exist in the database, it queries the database, gets the results, and gives them back an English language, natural language response, and the feedback on that has been fantastic.
We've also done some work based on our admins' feedback to save them time in some of the tasks that have been historically more time-consuming, things like building out a meal plan. We've created a new wizard style that gives them some templates from which they can start, so there's some standard templates. There's also the ability to copy an existing meal plan and then tweak that, so some time savers there, some other wizards for the admins, some export utilities.
But I'm real proud of the work the team did to improve the user interface on more than 16 of our most used screens. There's a new look; there's a new cleaner design to it that we're proud of.
Read: I think one of the biggest things, you kind of hit on it, but we have some of the top requested features from customers that they've submitted ideas to us. We have an ideas portal that they can submit ideas in.
The 10 that got the most votes were included in this, and one of the things that I think was pretty is when a new feature is documented in the release notes, the school that submitted that feature as an idea is getting credit right in the release notes. It's not necessarily the person because people move around, but that school is getting credit.
I think that the things Steve talked about in terms of some of the wizards and the ease of use of the user interface, those are nice things, and you think about, well, that's great.
It makes it easier to use, but that's really by design because if you think about the Campus ID industry, we have a lot of customers who frankly are starting to near retirement age, and even those that aren't are looking to be able to take vacations or have sick time. They have to bring in other people who are doing things with the system and doing some system administration, but they don't do it every day, so the easier we can make the system to operate, the easier it is to have somebody cover and back up a regular system administrator, so that was really part of what we were trying to get after with Gold 9 too.
Chris: One question on the AI thing that you mentioned. Can you give a specific example or two of what someone would ask. When you first said it, I was thinking, you know, what's the weather going to be like today in Tallahassee or something, obviously that's not it, but so what would be a query or something that could be really helpful for a user?
Steve: So you know, one simple example I used just to pick on my boss was I'll ask and show people when was the last time that he went into the office and at what time did he arrive, and you know, make fun of him if he arrived late, but that's just for fun.
You know, you can think of some really complicated questions, and it figures out the answers, so I could ask which locations are doing more than 10% more dollar transactions or number of transactions than they were a month ago, right?
Where am I trending to have the business increase or the same thing with decreases?
You can ask questions to identify students whose activity has declined over a period of time. I can say over a semester, over a month, over a week, and it figures out the complexities of the query, and these are things that we don't naturally have reports in the system to do, but someone on campus will reach out to the card office and say, hey, can you tell me this?
Rather than it being days or weeks long project to figure out how to get a report, they can go type the question and they're getting some remarkably good results.
We had a live demo at a NACCU Near You event in Knoxville. UT Knoxville is one of our beta customers, and now they're live, it's fully released, but they were confident enough in the solution to put it up on the screen live in front of this group of people and type in questions and see it generate the answers, so it's working well for people.
Read: I was just going to say, I think, you know, Steve's point about decline in transaction volume, one of the biggest things that campuses talk about these days is student success and student engagement, and we have all the data in a campus ID system.
Being able to easily ask a question and say, give me a list of students who haven't used their meal plan more than once a day in the last week or some, you know, is that an indicator that they're disengaged?
Maybe, maybe not, but it's at least a way to start mining that data and look for students who might need some extra connection, extra attention.
The other thing that I think it can be really helpful with is I've had, I don't know how many different schools who talk about the fact that students don't always monitor their declining balance funds, and they don't spend it because they're going to the dining hall and they get to the end of the semester and there's all this money backed up that they want to spend.
It's a way to help identify how people are using the system and then proactively reach out to them, whether it's for a student engagement thing or just to make good use of the money. Because kids that eat and kids that sleep do better in school, right.
Chris: Well, you hit on one of my next questions when you said that that UT Knoxville is live. Is CS Gold 9 out of pilot and live at a number of institutions?
Read: Yeah, we, so we had three schools that, and Steve was doing the implementation, so our development team was doing them. Western Connecticut, University of Tennessee Knoxville, and Vanderbilt were the first three schools to go live. They all went live early summer. We wanted to wait till we got through the back-to-school season in a regular load in terms of transactions before considering it generally available, which it is now.
It's released. We're quoting to customers. We're ready to do more installs, but those implementations were very simple. In a couple of the cases, our primary contacts weren't even on campus when we were doing the installations because they didn't need to be.
And since back to school has started, no, no issues whatsoever. Systems have continued to operate really well.
I should also mention Western Connecticut was the first one to go live. UT Knoxville is a mobile credential customer using the, the Allegiant flavor of mobile credential and Vanderbilt is also mobile using the HID flavor and Vanderbilt has some biometrics tied in. We feel like we've really tested all the various use cases that we could have with those three customers.
Chris: You mentioned that it was an easy implementation, but for the next Gold customer that wants to go to version 9, what is the implementation process actually look like?
Steve: If they're familiar with past upgrade exercises, for example if they went from CS Gold 6 to CS Gold 7 or CS Gold 8, it's very similar. Depending on the size and complexity of their system, you know, the downtime will vary significantly. But one thing is there is not a major database version change in this one, so that actually saves some time in most cases. There's no database conversion required.
Chris: I assume since the two companies came together that Transact releases might have some ties to see previous CBORD clients or products and back and forth. Are there some new things in Gold that tie to some of the Transact products?
Read: Yeah, we're doing a couple of things. One is, as you might imagine, all of the devices around the perimeter of the core system – so point of sale, access control – we're looking to make those as consistent across all the products as possible. So, when a customer wants to move from gold to, to IDX, they're ready.
But we've got CS gold customers that are currently implemented with our cloud point of sale solution, which is a Transact point of sale solution that we've had for a while that includes mobile ordering.
We've also taken our CS Access portion of CS Gold and we're live with an integration to TSE, which is a Transact campus ID system, the predecessor of IDX that's live now as well.
So yeah, absolutely. We're looking to tie things together so that when a customer wants to move to IDX, they're ready because all of those tie ins are already set up.
We're not trying to push anybody to move, but we want them to move when they see the feature and the value that makes them want to move.
Chris: Any client feedback that stands out like from the early three, I'm sure it's all good, but is there something that makes you, that made you go, wow, this is, this is great to hear?
Read: Rebecca at Western Connecticut keeps sending us emails of feedback she's got from people that interact with the system that are just sort of giddy about how easy it is to use. She's called it a win. Knoxville the upgrade was simple. Vanderbilt called it a seamless transition. It’s hard to ask for anything better than that. I think people are happy with the functionality and getting value out of it.
Steve: Sometimes it's the little things. We added a real simple export button to the patron groups interface. That was requested somewhere along the way and we thought, okay, well, that's, that's not too hard to do.
Rebecca showed that to a group of RAs for the first time and they were just elated. Now, you can imagine there's some patron groups associated with residents in a particular building and to be able to just download that list and use it however they want to use it was an exciting new feature for them.
I never imagined that that would excite anyone.
Chris: If somebody wants to learn more about CS Gold 9 or an existing customer wants to talk about upgrades, where do they reach out?
Read: Best process is to talk to their account executive. If they don't know who that is, my email address is CRW at CBORD.com. I'm happy to field anything. But if contact your AE, you'll get probably a faster response and a little more detailed as well.
Chris: Read, Steve, thanks so much for joining us and filling us in on the latest and greatest with the new version and to all those folks listening or watching or whatever you want to call it.
As always, I appreciate you being here and if you have any suggestions for a future episode of Campus ID News chats, shoot me a note at chris at campusidnews.com.
Modern identity cards and credentials rely on encryption for security. It is what separates a smart card, high-frequency contactless card, or mobile credential from older insecure technology such as low-frequency proximity cards, magstripes, and barcodes.
But what is encryption and how does it work in the credential world?
At the heart of this question is the encryption key, a string of data used to encode and decode information. In most card systems, there is a secret key that is shared between the card and reader enabling secure transactions to occur within the system.
Each concept is applicable to both cards and mobile credentials, and understanding them is key to making informed decisions for your campus card program.
“You can think of it as the variable in an equation – the equation stays the same, but the variable can change,” says David Stallsmith, ColorID’s Director of Product Management. “The credential and the readers must know the correct secret key to encrypt and decrypt the identity data.”
Only then will they communicate to open doors or conduct transactions. That's why encryption is the key to security.
Traditionally, most manufacturers have used their own standard encryption key in all their clients’ readers and cards.
Of late, however, there has been a push by some end users – including some campuses – for custom keys. Rather than using the manufacturer’s standard keys, these clients have requested dedicated keys unique to their system.
There are benefits and drawbacks to both approaches.
Standard or non-custom keys make ordering and provisioning of new cards and readers easier, faster, and sometimes cheaper. That is because the manufacturer does not need to customize them for the individual client.
But that positive also comes with a negative. Using the manufacturer’s standard key ties you to that manufacturer for cards and readers. The ability to order from multiple suppliers is reduced or even eliminated.
People that owned their custom keys during the pandemic had more options for card stock suppliers, but since the supply chain bounced back, that benefit has pretty much evaporated.
Another drawback of non-custom keys is that if the manufacturer’s standard key is compromised, it could impact all client sites. This could require replacement or reprogramming of all cards and readers.
Protection against a compromise at the manufacturer level is a benefit of custom keys. If it were to happen, end users with custom keys would not be impacted. It is important to remember, however, that custom keys are not immune to compromise. If not properly protected, they are arguably as vulnerable as non-custom keys.
“Depending on what type of card it is and how you manage that custom key, it can give you the ability to do other things,” says Todd Brooks, Vice President of Products and Technology at ColorID. “It can provide a bit of freedom as far as how you get your cards and how you encode the cards.”
For example, with custom keys the end user can program cards on their own rather than relying on the manufacturer do it. This allows them to buy cards from multiple suppliers.
“People that owned their custom keys during the pandemic had more options for card stock suppliers,” says Stallsmith. “This cut months off their lead time for card orders, but since the supply chain bounced back, that benefit has pretty much evaporated.”
Determining whether you want custom or non-custom keys is just the first decision. Next you need to decide if you’ll have your manufacturer hold those keys on your behalf or if you want to hold your keys within the institution.
At face value, holding your own keys – what some industry vendors call ‘owning your keys’ – seems like the obvious choice. Again, however, complexities arise.
Managing the keys yourself can be expensive and if not done properly can leave you vulnerable.
Most campuses wanting the benefits of custom keys have determined that they are not ready for the responsibility and liability of managing those keys on their own.
“When the manufacturer is holding the custom keys for you, there's security in that,” explains Brooks. “Managing the keys yourself can be very expensive and if not done properly can leave you vulnerable.”
Though far from the norm, he says, a small number of campuses have opted to manage their own keys, control their entire ecosystem, and decide how they're going to make their cards work on the different reader models they wish to use. It takes a more effort and more IT expertise, but it can be done.
Whether an institution uses custom keys or not, data needs to be encoded on the cards.
“Generally, cards are pre-programmed by a manufacturer like an HID or Allegion even if the end user has a custom key,” says Brooks. “In some cases, however, the campus will do it themselves either in the card printer using ID software or with a desktop device or USB reader.”
The idea of holding your own keys so you have total control of your system is attractive, but the practical application is limited.
To accomplish this, a Secure Access Module (SAM) that is purpose-built to securely stores keys is used.
“Whether it's a USB device or it's in the printer, it's basically the same SAM module,” says Brooks.
Very few campuses have taken on the responsibility to own or hold their own custom keys, so it is difficult to measure the value of doing so. Conceptually there are benefits, but they may just be conceptual at this point.
“The idea of holding your own keys so you have total control of your system is attractive, but the practical application is limited,” says Stallsmith.
He uses the example of a campus holding the custom keys for their DESfire cards. If the institution decides to change their access control reader manufacturer, it is true that holding keys could streamline the process. But there are only a few reader manufacturers to choose from, and ripping and replacing one access control reader for another is not an attractive or common decision.
“Sure, you can hold your own keys, but it's not like all of a sudden your world is going to dramatically change,” he says. “But if you have a very specific use, then then I guess it could be helpful.”
Encryption keys and transaction system providersIt is a common question: If I have custom keys or if I hold my own custom keys, does it make it easy to switch from one transaction system provider to another? The real question is more nuanced. You are really asking: Could I switch providers but continue to use my existing cards and readers?
In theory, you could because DESFire and other modern contactless credentials can store multiple applications on the same card. In most cases, however, the prior application will not work in the other transaction system provider’s readers and system.
“Just because you own your key doesn't mean that application you create using it will work on the different readers,” says Brooks. “It may require you to put two, three, or four different applications on the card itself to work with the reader infrastructure from the different transaction system providers.”
Think of it this way. You have an application on your card that is used in transaction system vendor #1’s platform. You replace vendor #1 for vendor #2. Just because you hold the encryption key and that key was used to create the first application does not mean it will work in vendor #2’s platform. The data, the format, and other elements would likely make them incompatible.
Of course, with modern multi-application cards, you could reprogram the cards to add a new application that supports vendor #2’s system, but that is easier said than done. It would require you to touch every existing card to add the new application. In a campus environment with thousands or tens of thousands of individual users, it just is not a realistic ask.
Stallsmith states it this way: “In a university setting, you don't get cards back.”
Though it garners a lot of discussion, it is rare for higher ed institutions to own or hold their own encryption keys. It can be costly, and it requires solid IT capability and commitment.
“I would say the key ownership discussion so far is largely theoretical,” says Stallsmith. “We've helped a number of customers get custom keys from manufacturers, which is often not easy because they haven't had to do it much.”
With OSDP you can centrally roll keys and not have to go from reader to reader to make changes. That makes the conversation around custom keys a lot more interesting.
This may change as access control readers move from using the older Wiegand protocol to the new OSDP protocol in greater numbers.
With the Wiegand protocol, the access control system can receive data like card numbers from the reader, but it cannot send information to the reader. The OSDP protocol, on the other hand, facilitates two-way communication between readers and the access control system. This enables the system to send new encryption keys to readers remotely without requiring a human to visit each reader for manual updates.
“With OSDP you can centrally roll keys and not have to go from reader to reader to make changes,” says Stallsmith. “At that point the conversation around custom keys is going to get a lot more interesting."
For most campuses, that's years away. For those with the means to do it now, however, there are more options.
The large card and reader manufacturers have been creating credentials with secure encryption keys for decades now.
While security breach and system compromise should always be top of mind, neither Stallsmith nor Brooks could point to a single instance of card or credential compromise at a systemwide encryption key level. This is true for both manufacturer’s standard keys and end user custom keys.
So, while real, to this point the threat is likely overblown.
Traditional large manufacturers are incredibly consistent at programming and delivering readers and cards. Another manufacturer may give you a custom key, but they may have a devil of time making cards on time.
This leads Stallsmith to point out that there's another side to the custom key discussion. He says that the traditional large manufacturers are incredibly consistent in their ability to program, update, and deliver readers and cards that work together.
“You just buy their readers, and you buy their cards, and everything works,” he says. “You can go with another manufacturer, they'll give you a custom key, but they may have a devil of time making cards on time.”
Perhaps the lesson is that it's not just the concept of the custom key that should determine what readers and cards a campus elects to use.
Like most decisions, there are many factors at play. In this series of articles, we addressed three of the most important – chips, formats, and encryption. Evaluating each of these concepts can help you make the best decisions for your campus.
In this episode of CampusIDNews Chats, Rob Stanford, the IT Manager for Facilities explains how Auburn University uses the DAX software solution from Detrios to simplify and automate critical campus processes.
Auburn relies on a complex network of systems, including Lenel OnGuard for access control, scheduling tools like Mazevo and Ad Astra, and StarRez for housing. In the past, these systems did not communicate effectively, forcing staff to manually update each one.
I could come up with a very high return on investment from a numbers standpoint, but just from a usability and efficiency standpoint, we've seen a huge return on investment.
As a single integration point, DAX connects the multiple scheduling platforms, the housing management system, and the access control system. Now, updates made in DAX automatically sync across all platforms, ensuring doors unlock when needed and access permissions are accurate.
“It started with a single building where we wanted students to access study rooms only if they’d reserved the space,” says Stanford. “From there, we’ve grown the system as more needs arose.”
The DAX solution has proven especially valuable during complex events, such as move-in day for student housing or unexpected weather closures. Instead of staff manually making adjustments in multiple systems, they can manage everything from one interface.
Stanford highlights how this automation has significantly reduced human error.
“You used to have to key something in one system, then go into another to apply access or pass it off to another department,” he explains. “When it’s all tied in, you’re making it more efficient and avoiding typos or miscommunication.”
This streamlined approach has allowed staff to focus on higher-priority work rather than repetitive administrative tasks. According to Stanford, the return on investment is clear—not just in cost savings but also in time, effort, and user satisfaction.
Beyond the technology itself, Stanford values the partnership with Detrios. When issues arise, he can reach out directly for fast, reliable support. This peace of mind is critical, particularly during high-pressure times like housing move-in.
For campuses looking to better connect their systems, Stanford offers a clear recommendation: “If you have a scheduling system and an access control system that don’t talk, you need DAX – or something like it.”
To watch the full interview, click the image at the top of this page.
TRANSCRIPT
At Auburn we have Lenel OnGuard as our access control system, and we have various different scheduling applications.
We have Mazevo, we have Ad Astra, we use Office 365, we have Calendars and Outlook, we also have a housing system, StarRez.
With all of those, we're trying to integrate. When you have certain events or things going on, you want those to be reflected in your access control system, make sure doors are unlocked, and people have the access they need.
We've been able to accomplish that using DAX and Detrios, it's been a really big hit.
It all started when we had some study rooms that people wanted to reserve. We already had the [system] on campus for them to do that, but we wanted them to only have access if they’d booked that space.
It started out in one small building, and we grew from there.
And so that's kind of the room booking kind of reservation type thing.
After that we had another situation where people wanted to control the hours their building was open because it was changing a lot. They wanted to have access to the access control system just for that one little purpose, but we didn’t want to do that.
We decided to try using a Microsoft Outlet calendar.
We said why don't you try it out and see how it goes. It worked great for them, and we've grown it from there.
In both cases, we started with one specific example and then grew as other needs came.
For our housing situation, we just went all in on that. Over a summer we prepped it and when the big move in came for the fall, we had everything set in place and the students had a different experience.
Utilizing DAX from Detrios, we're able to take our schedules from Ad Astra, Mazevo, Office 365, things like that and that's one module that they have.
They have, those integrations already built.
At Auburn, we're able to go in their web configuration module and turn things on and fill out a few fields and it just works.
That's one of the modules they have that handles the unlocking of doors and the creating access for certain periods of time.
Then their housing module is a separate thing, but all within the same web module where we were able to set up our StarRez integration.
Again, they've done all the integration, and we're just configuring it. We're mapping that if you're in this room of this residence hall in StarRez, you have this access level in our OnGuard access control system.
We do that and then it's set it and forget it. We haven't had any issues with that at all.
They have those two different functions all within the same configuration tool.
It doesn't snow much in the south, but we did have a weather day. They have the ability to ignore the events. There were all these calendar events that were coming up where the doors should be unlocked or people should be granted access, but it was decided that we were closing the school down this day.
Rather than having to go into the different scheduling softwares and get rid of [calendar events] or make adjustments, we just had to log into their system and set it to ignore all that stuff. Then we were able to let the access control system and take over, which is where we made the regular adjustments.
No doubt, there are a lot of people working in various different places on campus that don't have to do things anymore that they used to.
I'm sure if I were to sit down and do an analysis, I could come up with a very high return on investment from a numbers standpoint. But just from an effort, usability, efficiency standpoint, the feel that you get is that you got a huge return on investment.
People are very happy; there are tasks they don't have to do any more that they used to have to do. They can focus more on their real job, instead of doing these other things, because the system automatically does it.
It's also helped on mistakes. You used to have to key something in one system, like your scheduling system or StarRez, and then you would either have to go into another system to apply access or change schedules or you would pass it on to another department for them to do. Certainly, you're going to have mistakes when that happens. There's going to be a typo or miscommunication. When it's all tied in, you're making it more efficient, so people don't have to type it in multiple systems and multiple groups aren't having to deal with it.
If you don't have DAX from Detrios, and you have a scheduling system and an access control system that don't talk, you need it or you need something like it. I don't know of anyone else doing the exact thing. They are experts in the arena, and they work well to have the systems communicate with each other in a proper and professional manner using good security techniques, good coding skills, proper APIs, and they maintain that over time.
When you invest in this, you know that it's going to work on this version, I have all the confidence in the world that five years from now, it will continue to work.
If you have a homegrown system, and you think ‘I'm good, it works for me,’ you're going to have to maintain it, and things that are going to change.
That gives me peace of mind, and then, quite honestly, they're really great to work with as well.
It's easy to submit a ticket, and if there is an issue, they will resolve it.
We have a relationship with the company, and that's very important to me. Particularly when we're doing housing stuff, if that's not working and people are trying to move in and they can't get access, that's a big deal.
Knowing that I can pick up the phone and call them or put in a support ticket and get that response is very comforting.
