Campus ID News
Card, mobile credential, payment and security
FEATURED
PARTNERS
slider TBT 1

TBT: The card system is a university's most important asset

Andrew Hudson   ||   Sep 01, 2016  ||   ,

It's the start of a new semester and students are flooding back to campus to campus in droves. And while much of the excitement and anticipation of the new year will be centered on to graduating in time or how well the football team will do this season, the oft-overlooked card system will be there to underpin their experience on campus.

This week's Throwback Thursday honors this notion with our "The campus card system: A university’s most important asset" written back in 2009. The piece details the importance of the campus card system to a university, and how its many vital services would be painfully apparent if they were suddenly no longer available.

Speaking with Tom Bell of Blackboard, the campus card system was described as a highly functional enterprise system, that’s more important than the student information system. “If the student information system went down for a day, that would be okay. But if you took your campus transaction system down, then you’d have to figure out different ways to eat, to get into buildings, and so on," he says. "Imagine the attention you’d get if you turned your system off and went on vacation.”

Why then does the campus card system so often live in the periphery of peoples minds? Why isn't it given the respect and admiration it deserves? Bell believed in 2009 that it was a matter of self marketing. Without proper marketing of the card system and its many services, there's less of a chance for department growth or increased funding.

“Tell people what you’re doing, create an annual report that describes what’s happening in this card office, the amount of money flowing through the office and the ubiquity of those readers,” Bell says. “You have to be thinking about how to present the card to your university. They may take the card for granted, yet if the card doesn’t work, you have a wallet without money.”

Bell explains that campus card systems were built to work behind the scenes, but that doesn't mean that other key campus stakeholders can't be involved. “The campus card system has been supporting the mission of the university and no one talks about that.”

Hear more about how campus card offices can market themselves and their card systems, as well as some ways to maximize revenues in 2009's "The campus card system: A university’s most important asset."

|| TAGS:
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter

RECENT ARTICLES

Apex OrderHQ Array modular lockers
Jul 02, 25 /

Modular locker solution streamlines campus order pickup

Apex Order Pickup Solutions launched a new modular system of automated order pickup lockers that can be stacked or setup in custom configurations. The OrderHQ Array Series lockers work in any floor plan without expensive remodeling. In an interview with Food On Demand, Kent Savage, founder and executive chairman of Apex Order Pickup Solutions, compares […]
Amy Surprenant, HID Global
Jun 26, 25 / ,

Effective project management key to GWU mobile credential launch

In a recent interview, HID Global’s Amy Surprenant discusses the project management component of the mobile credential launch at George Washington University (GWU). With 26,000 faculty, staff, and students, the project marked a significant milestone for the institution and its partners, including HID, CBORD, and various on-campus departments and vendors. The deployment of HID Mobile […]
replace allegion reader module
Jun 26, 25 / ,

FIT and Denison both go mobile, but with very different starting points

Denison University and Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) rolled out mobile credentials to students and staff across their campuses. The projects were very different, however, because of the existing reader infrastructure on the two campuses. Each partnered with Allegion and Transact + CBORD to deliver the new digital IDs – stored in Apple Wallet or […]
CIDN logo reversed
The only publication dedicated to the use of campus cards, mobile credentials, identity and security technology in the education market. CampusIDNews – formerly CR80News – has served more than 6,500 subscribers for more than two decades.
Twitter

Attn: friends in the biometrics space. Nominations close Friday for the annual Women in Biometrics Awards. Take five minutes to recognize a colleague or even yourself. http://WomenInBiometrics.com

Feb. 1 webinar explores how mobile ordering enhanced campus life, increased sales at UVA and Central Washington @Grubhub @CBORD

Load More...
Contact
CampusIDNews is published by AVISIAN Publishing
315 E. Georgia St.
Tallahassee, FL 32301
www.AVISIAN.com[email protected]
Use our contact form to submit tips, corrections, or questions to our team.
©2025 CampusIDNews. All rights reserved.