ITILSec.com - Collaborative Security

Campus card provider the CBORD Group is helping East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, take its campus card program, known as IDBucs, off campus. According to the school’s student newspaper, CBORD is currently contracting with merchants, primarily restaurants. The off-campus program is expected to kick off next January.

As one student commented: “It will be great to get around town instead of eating the same food here every day.”

Read more here.  

Some students at Mount St. Mary’s University, Emmitsburg, Md., are investigating being able to use their Mount campus card off campus. According to a survey of the non-profit Students for Free Enterprise, students spend about a million dollars off campus. The same survey showed students are interested in such a program.

The team has looked at several options, including making the Mount card a debit card through PNC Bank. If agreed to by the university, it would take about five months to implement. That includes re-carding the campus.

Read more here.  

Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, Conn., has had some problems with fraudulent use of lost or stolen student IDs, according to the university’s student newspaper.

“There have been a few instances on campus where either a student lost their card or had their card stolen,” said Mike Moylan, director of student union. “These students did not freeze their account, shut it off on blackboard, or come into the student union office to shut their cards off and as a result, money had been used in certain locations.”

The ID card can be used to make purchases on and off campus. The university encourages students to report lost or stolen IDs as soon a possible to prevent fraud.

Read more here

Campus card solutions provider NuVision Networks Corp., Napa, Calif., has entered into an alliance with The Discover Network, enabling it to link Discover debit cards to student ID cards. The partnership, which also includes SuttonBank and Metavante, a Milwaukee-based financial services company, enables student ID cards to be used anywhere Discover cards are accepted.

The alliance, which began in September, also allows institutions to streamline their refunds process. Now, schools can electronically issue refunds to student ID cards instantly, giving them quicker access to their money.

The students’ new cards card can also be used on or off campus, they can get cash back, access balances online, as well as receive low balance alerts. They can monitor their account deposits, whether from student payroll or parents, as well as their expenditures online and in real-time.

For every deposit made by the institution, for refunds or student payroll, the student will have access to one withdrawal at any ATM without charge. The college or university can place restrictions on where the card can be used, such as in taverns or at online gambling sites.

Boise State University students who use Broncobucks, the Idaho school’s debit card which is part of the university’s campus card program, can now add funds to their accounts via an online transaction system developed in conjunction with the school’s campus card provider, CBORD.

The push for this new online system started when students in housing found that laundry machines and other services accepted only Broncobucks instead of cash. They needed a way to determine their account balances.

The Web site allows students to check their Broncobucks and meal plan account balances, check transaction history, report lost or found cards, deposit money and a special feature that allows students to give guests, mainly parents or other family members, access to their accounts.

Read more here.

Texas Tech University in Lubbock is joining the ranks of colleges ditching the Social Security number as a student identifier. Its current ID cards will be phased out beginning with the spring semester and replaced with cards featuring a university-generated number. Students have until May 31, 2009 to make the change.

Since the ubiquitous Social Security number is used for other purposes as well, software and applications may need to be changed, said a school official. Departments should also look at deleting and shredding old records that contain the number.

Read more here.  

One byproduct of Texas Tech’s adoption of a refund management system from financial services provider Higher One is that the cards provided to students will give international students, or students with poor credit, the ability to have a checking account, according to one school administrator.

The Lubbock, Texas school began converting its tuition refund process this semester to the new system using the Easy Refund Card provided by Higher One that allows for faster student refund processing.

Read more from the college’s Daily Toreador newspaper here.  

Community colleges haven’t always been considered ideal candidates for campus banking services. That’s changing. Partnerships between banks and the two-year schools through their student ID cards, are out there and brick and mortar facilities are showing up on campus as well.

CR80News’ 2008 campus card banking partners survey identified at least 10 partnerships between banks and ID programs at community colleges or community college districts.

Still, community colleges and their bank partners face challenges.

Since many community colleges don’t require a student to obtain an ID card, banks and colleges have to come up with ways to make the card attractive to students. Linking it to a bank is one of those ways because it means additional services, such as ATM and debit card capability.

Another challenge is that since community college students are typically older than those attending four-year schools, many students are already tethered to a bank and are reluctant to change.

The University of Nevada at Las Vegas RebelCard has been expanded to include 21 off-campus locations. The RebelCard Services Center works with Philadelphia-based Off-Campus Solutions to negotiate which restaurants will accept the card.

“The most important thing is that students use their cards,” said a school administrator. “The more they use their cards, the more deals we can negotiate for students.”

Read more here.