What aspects of customer service do campus card offices seem to do best with—and in what areas do they struggle the most?  “Getting it right starts with the genuine belief that the services card offices provide have a positive—and lasting—influence on a student’s experience. We see more campuses focusing on this, and the positive impact […]

Effective card offices focus on bottom-line growth. “Two of the benefits we bring to our campus are cost reduction and revenue growth,” says John Beckwith, director of campus business services at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. For instance, before its single-card program launched in 1997, the campus had seven different cards for students to use, with […]

At The University of Alabama, football weekends rule. So imagine a student who’s got a big date, a tailgate spot and an electronic ticket to the Saturday football game on his campus Action Card—but then loses the card on Friday night. To save the day, the campus card office is open for business on game […]

The new higher education alliances cropping up are not just of the regional variety. A group of private colleges and universities created a consortium in fall 2015 to negotiate better deals on enterprise resource planning systems, which can account for up to 4 percent of an institution’s entire annual budget. The Higher Education Systems and […]

Colleges or universities looking to join a higher education consortium have two major options: alliances that are regionally based or those focused on a common goal. Schools that choose to participate in a regional consortium have the advantage of being able to easily meet with other members to discuss common issues. “If I were looking […]

After six colleges and universities in the Boston Consortium launched a self-insurance program in 2012, healthcare costs at Wheaton College ceased their upward spiral. Health premiums at the small liberal arts college had been increasing by 7 percent annually, but now costs have remained flat for the past four years. “We’ve changed the trend line […]

Meredith College, celebrating its 125th anniversary, recently adopted a new brand—“Going Strong”—that reflects its reputation, enrollment and financial strength. While Meredith’s fundraising and application rate are the highest in our history, several other women’s colleges have recently either gone coed or closed. Questioning the relevance of women’s colleges is a bit obvious—and not so easy […]

At first glance, Deyven Ferreras looks like a typical university student: youthful face, college sweatshirt, backpack. But until recently, his backpack carried more than books. Quite literally, it was his lifeline. Inside was a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), a mechanical pump that helped his weakened heart move blood throughout his body. Ferreras, a second-year […]