Working closely with local merchants and students, Off-Campus Advantage and Millersville University in Pennsylvania have launched the school’s first off-campus payment program, Marauder Gold. Students even got to design signs to be placed in participating merchants’ establishments.

“Opening the on-campus discretionary account to off-campus merchants is a win for the students, the local merchants and the university,” said Ken Dearstyne, associate vice president of finance and administration for Millersville University. “We worked closely with the merchants in Millersville and our students to create a blueprint for a successful program.”

Partnering with OCA, Millersville gave locally owned businesses the opportunity to participate in the program before inviting merchants in neighboring communities and national chains to join. “The Millersville focus in launching Marauder Gold was to strengthen town relations,” said Shawn McCarthy, vice president of wide-area commerce for The CBORD Group, OCA’s parent company. “The local businesses in Millersville participated in the discussions about going off campus, enabling the university to launch Marauder Gold quickly, with a solid base of participating merchants.”

The program’s swift launch was also facilitated by Millersville University’s ability to fully integrate the off-campus payment program into its CS Gold card system by creating an addendum to its service provider’s contract. CBORD supplies Millersville University with a variety of compatible front- and back-of-house management solutions, which also includes Foodservice Suite® food service management software.

Millersville further personalized the off-campus program by inviting its 8,000 students to brand the discretionary account and create signage for participating merchants, as well as posters and mailers for the entire student body, educating them about the new Marauder Gold off-campus program.

“By including student ideas and designs in our marketing plan, we tapped into a valuable resource to help drive the awareness and usage of Marauder Gold,” said Elizabeth Braungard, marketing director for Millersville University. “From the beginning, this program has been a model of students, administrators, and the local business community working together.”