Campus Cards

Given the pervasive use of mobile devices, could handheld technology replace campus card programs altogether? After all, aiming a device at a residence hall keypad, or paying for vending snacks by waving a cell phone at the machine, are already possible, as is automated check-in at events, purchases at tech-savvy retailers, and connection to banking services.

With all that functionality, it just makes sense to consider a switch, believes Laura Ploughe, director of business applications and fiscal control in the university business services department at Arizona State University.

Campus cards have come a long way since their initial uses related to door access and meal plan tracking. Increasingly, colleges and universities are turning campus cards into function-packed systems, with subsequent benefits related to efficiency, revenue generation, and off-campus partnerships. Here are 10 best practices for getting the most out of your campus card program.

The federal Dream Act, which would have created a path to citizenship for immigrants who obtained a college degree or had two years of military service, did not include provisions for in-state tuition, but it is still a flash point in the discussion. State legislatures in Oregon, Connecticut, Maryland, Colorado, and Georgia, among others, have been debating laws allowing undocumented students to pay in-state tuition.

Tuition refunds require intense administrative attention at many colleges and universities. If a student receives financial aid after tuition has been paid, or if he or she drops a course early in the term, schools are obligated by federal law to issue refunds within 14 days.

There are 18 million college students, 40 percent of whom receive federal financial aid every spring and every fall. The average student, after class drops and other adjustments, gets 2.5 refunds totaling $1,300. That's a lot of money and a lot of transactions that have to be made according to a stringent set of regulations.

At the University of San Diego (USD), while students and faculty look forward to summertime, the USD Wireless Team is working without any real breaks. The USD Wireless Team knows that summer brings more than 12,000 visitors on campus for events, sports camps, and conferences. Each year the Team is faced with a number of challenges in supporting these visitors, including providing secure wireless internet access across a campus that spans 180 acres.

It’s not easy to get to a bank, especially forstudents without cars. A shuttle stops at the local strip mall but there’s only one bank, so if that’s not your bank you can’t cash your check. That problem is gone with refunds going right into our OneAccounts.

When it came time to mail financial aid refund checks at Des Moines Area Community College each semester, officials always worried about how many of those checks the post office would return as undeliverable. With nearly 27,000 students attending more than 3,000 classes on six campuses, it was inevitable that many of those students would have forgotten to inform the school of a new address.

It’s not easy to get to a bank, especially for students without cars. A shuttle stops at the local strip mall but there’s only one bank, so if that’s not your bank you can’t cash your check. That problem is gone with refunds going right into our OneAccounts.