Campus card banking partners step up to educate student cardholders

Get a bunch of students, mostly freshmen, away from home for the first time. Stick them all in a dorm, many of them are armed checks, a credit card, a student ID, their driver license and Social Security card. It's a recipe for ID theft.

Issuing combined student IDs and bank cards on campus reduces the time it takes to get these multifunction cards into students’ hands, and it enables them to begin using the card the moment they exit the campus card office. But if that card was a branded Visa or MasterCard product, this hasn’t been possible for most issuers.

Have off-campus programs become a virtual necessity for card programs?

By Andy Williams
Contributing Editor

The decision to allow off-campus merchants, mainly restaurants and bookstores, to access students’ prepaid accounts used to be an easy one to answer: no way. But that attitude among colleges has been changing as more have found that on-campus income didn’t plummet as feared. Surprisingly, in many cases, it actually increased. Even one major campus dining provider saw that proverbial handwriting and two years ago acquired a company specializing in off-campus markets.

Annual CR80News survey shows growth rates drop by half from prior year

By Chris Corum & Andy Williams, Executive & Contributing Editors

The number of partnerships between campus card programs and financial institutions continued to grow in 2007, though not as rapidly as in recent years. The annual CR80News campus card/banking partnership survey reported a modest increase of 8% in 2007, down from 16% growth in 2006 and a 30% average growth in 2004 and 2005.

Purchase jumpstarts payment processor’s entry into the college and university market

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

The recently announced purchase of campus card supplier General Meters Corp. (GMC) by payments processors, Heartland Payment Systems, has likely delivered the resources the small company needed to stay competitive.

Heartland’s campus card appetite was first whetted with its Slippery Rock University experience in mid-2007. The provider of credit/debit/prepaid card processing, payroll and payment services implemented a campus card program at the Pennsylvania campus that involved the ubiquitous cell phone and the campus card.

Designing, creating and getting approval for a functional card office facility

By Andy Williams Contributing Editor

Space is usually a premium at most colleges and universities. So when Georgia Tech underwent an expansion of its card office a couple years ago, it realized it may need room to grow. James Pete, director of the Buzz Card Center, the name of Georgia Tech's campus card, a take on the university's Yellow Jackets nickname, compares a card office to what he calls "the Web effect. It will never get smaller, just larger and more complex as the years go by."

“Software as a service” model takes off

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

Colleges and universities aren’t that different from corporations. Educational institutions are under the same pressure to keep costs down, and anything that can be done to help institutions save money piques their interest.

That’s one of the big selling points of a relatively new concept called software as a service, or SaaS for short. Many may know it by its precursor: application service provider, or ASP.

"It's no longer simply about putting a photo on a white piece of plastic," says Ryan Park, Fargo Electronics’ director of product marketing for secure printers/encoders. "It's just not secure. Unfortunately, that represents a lot of the ID vehicles out there today. There are very few applications in the ID card world that don't have a need for security."

Colleges have other options for cell phone alerts, of course. They could go off campus and hire a company specializing in text messaging. That's what Rave Wireless and Mobile Campus are offering to universities.

Rave offers what its COO, Raju Rishi, calls "an alert solution, which basically gives the university the ability to get emergency broadcasting to the entire school or a subset of the school (like students who live on campus), whether it's about a gas leak or orientation. The university pays us for that capability yearly. We tie into Blackboard (campus card solution)," he added, "so we don't have to recreate the lists."

Get a bunch of students, mostly freshmen, away from home for the first time. Stick them all in a dorm, many of them are armed with a checking account and checks, a credit card, a student ID card, their driver license and Social Security card. It's a recipe for ID theft.

Realizing that, many colleges and universities, with the help of their banking partners, have incorporated ID theft prevention techniques into their financial wellness seminars.

When shopping for an ID card printer, you're liable at the outset to be hit with two choices: direct-to-card or reverse image transfer? Making an informed choice depends on what kind and how many cards you're trying to print.

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

Providing campuses with the ability to instantly notify their students in the event of a disaster or emergency was on most campus card vendor’s to-do lists. But the Virginia Tech incident quickly moved what had been a mid-tier suggestion all the way to the top.

The deadliest shooting in U.S. history occurred April 16, 2007 when Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded 25 others before killing himself on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. Since then, colleges around the country have been investigating ways that students, faculty and staff could have been notified quicker.

Leading payments processor, Heartland Payment Systems, joins the ranks of campus card providers


By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

Contactless technology is coming to the 8,600-student strong Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania. But it won't be a card. It's coming via cell phone, thanks to a small tag not much bigger than a postage stamp.

When Slippery Rock's students arrive for classes this fall, they'll be greeted with a new campus card and an accompanying 13.56MHz contactless token designed to stick to the back of any cell phone.

If you want your incoming freshmen and other new students to learn how to use their new campus card, manuals and brochures won't cut it anymore. Today's students don't bother with them. The next choice is perhaps a workshop during orientation. But that will be crammed with students with other things on their minds: What classes will I get? Where's the cafeteria? Plus, if they have a question about the campus card, it might be difficult to ask in a room full of his peers. There's a third option: Create a hands-on style webinar that students and their parents can access at their leisure.

Identification, NFC, contactless and Japan will all be major focal points during the 22nd edition of CARTES, coming your way Nov. 15-17 in Paris at the Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre near Roissy Charles de Gaulle international airport.

One of the major changes this year, according to CARTES Communication Director Hélène Tsounguy, is the coming of age of CARTES' IDentification, which has been somewhat of a CARTES stepchild since its introduction in 2005. Then, it was an area dedicated to secure technologies. This year, it "takes its independence as a true exhibition near CARTES," she said.

After growing company to major market leader, Mr. Lane announces retirement

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

When Bruce Lane signed on with campus card system provider CBORD 22 years ago, it was still a small company. As he explains it, he was "employee No. 14." But today, CBORD has some 475 employees and serves hundreds of colleges and universities, primarily in the U.S. and Canada, but also in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

He had a lot to do with that growth, but now the 53-year-old Lane is planning to call it quits by the end of this year, retiring, at least from CBORD, but not from business life.

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

A time tested business adage suggests that one key to success is to give customers a choice. That is one of the driving principles behind Ireland-based SmartCentric’s latest move, adding support for the iCLASS contactless smart card to its campus card system through one of the best known contactless solutions providers, HID Global.

SmartCentric recently announced the addition of iCLASS to SmartCentric’s SmartCity platform with expected availability later this year.

The Biometrics Consortium, a leading industry group, defines biometrics as "automated methods of recognizing a person based on a physiological or behavioral characteristic. Among the features measured are; face, fingerprints, hand geometry, handwriting, iris, retinal, vein, and voice. Biometric technologies are becoming the foundation of an extensive array of highly secure identification and personal verification solutions."

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

Six colleges, located around Boston’s famous Fenway Park, have something in common besides their affinity for the Boston Red Sox. Their student campus cards can be used interchangeably among the six schools. It took a consortium to make that happen, as well as a card company with the technology and expertise to meet the consortium's unique needs.

"It's one of the coolest and most dynamic projects I've ever worked on; it's innovative on many different levels," commented Taran Lent, Vice president of Product Development and Management for CardSmith, the company that installed the card system for the Colleges of Fenway.

Students enjoy added flexibility and institutions benefit from new revenues

Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

In the drive for more bucks–and don’t kid yourself, nearly every college and university needs more money, particularly in today’s tax revolt environment–one overlooked revenue stream could be as near as the pizza joint next door to the college.

Off campus card usage is becoming more common among campuses, particularly since campus card companies have overcome one of the major obstacles: the institution’s perceived loss of on-campus revenue. The fear of ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’ kept many colleges from pursuing off-campus programs … But fear seems to have largely subsided.

Messages are sent to email or cell phone when wash and dry cycles are complete

By Ryan Kline, Contributing Editor

The campus card has helped to alleviate the frantic search for quarters that characterizes the student laundry experience. Card-based payment solves that problem, but what will solve the problem the ever so busy college student faces now – waiting … and waiting for open washers and dryers?

Students use the Internet for almost everything … but laundry? Yes, the online revolution has reached the laundry room. At least four companies are offering solutions to monitor the laundry facilities and allow students to view machine availability in real-time. At least one other company, CBORD, is beta testing a new laundry monitoring solution.

The future of campus cards goes mobile

Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

As wireless connectivity becomes the norm rather than the exception, colleges are finding greater uses for handheld PDA-type devices that can simplify everything from taking food orders to checking students in during an event, such as a football game.

Meal vending, picnics, field trips, photo or event verification, even shuttle buses all lend themselves to handheld usage. One thing's for sure: colleges certainly have a variety of wireless devices from which to choose.

With every government agency in the U.S. issuing a standardized secure ID, will your campus card feel the pressure to follow their lead?

By Chris Corum, Executive Editor

Every federal government agency is currently issuing a standard ID card to their employees and contractors. Some of the brightest minds from security and IT in the U.S. government have been working on this project for the better part of a decade. Because of the massive scale and perceived national security implications, they had at their disposal input from some of industry’s brightest minds. This work is already in process to be codified as an international standard by ISO, the Organization for International Standardization. If you think your campus card program will not be impacted by this effort, some would call you naïve … others would call you crazy.

Near field communication is still, technically, in its infancy, but it’s gaining a good head of steam as illustrated by this year’s edition of CardTech / SecurTech event. The show is being held May 15-17 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Bill Rutledge, CTST program director, projects a 15% increase in attendance over 2006 figures for the SourceMedia Conferences and Exhibitions event.

Why go? "There's a lot going on in security and on the payment side," said Mr. Rutledge. "For people in the payments industry, there's a lot to be aware of. On the security side, the big effort now is on protecting data and managing identity."

The history of the campus card program has been diligently chronicled by one of its long time leaders, Robert Huber, of Robert Huber Associates. CR80News thanks Mr. Huber for helping us to bring this abridged version to our readers.

Access, attendance tracking, lunch programs drive the implementation provided by Scholarchip

Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

Colleges have been using campus card ID systems for years. But with increasing security concerns, similar products are moving into public schools. One example: Philadelphia, Penn.’s school system where high school students at 60 schools have been provided a contactless ID card needed to gain admission to school property, track attendance, and, in some cases, buy lunch in the cafeteria.

Instant issuance solutions like CardWizard let campuses produce branded plastic

By Chris Corum, Executive Editor

If you have a bank-issued debit card in your wallet, chances are that it has a MasterCard or Visa logo on it. But if you have a campus card with a bank account attached, odds are it does not. More likely you will see ATM network logos like Pulse, Cirrus, or Maestro. A major reason for this is that students need the ID card the day they get to campus but you can’t just print a MasterCard or Visa card from your card office … or can you? A growing number of campuses are doing just that and it may well be the wave of the future.

By Ryan Kline, Contributing Editor

The use of biometrics for identification and authentication is taking hold throughout the country and in our schools.

Way back in 1972, far before many people were even thinking of using biometrics in conjunction with daily authentication, the University of Georgia began using biometrics in their dining halls. The campus had decided to simplify their mealplan offerings—from a ticket-based program to an enrollment program—and they needed a way to accurately identify paid customers The same goal of simplification remains a core motivator when colleges, universities, and K-12 schools decide to use biometrics in their facilities.

Change could open floodgates for contactless and other payment cards in vending, transit, unattended locations

By Chris Corum, Editor

Regulation E, the rule outlining consumer rights with regard to electronic financial transactions, can make things tough on new payment offerings – but many argue that is its mission. Electronic payment providers have to make a slew of disclosures, they have to guarantee against fraudulent usage, they have to provide periodic statements, and they have to provide receipts for transactions. But this receipt requirement may be loosening. The Federal Reserve (Fed) is considering a change that would exempt transactions under $15 from the need to provide a receipt. Big deal you say? Read on.

The pay-for-print solution stands alone or integrates with Blackboard, CBORD, Nuvision, more

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

Forty years ago, a new automobile cost about $3,500 and a printed page–at that time using a daisy wheel, dot matrix, or copying machine–cost about 10 to 15 cents. Today, the price of cars has more than quadrupled, but that same printed page of much higher quality–costs the same.

GoPrint Systems' Steve Haber's point–that he makes when visiting with college students--is simply that the pay for the print and copying process has evolved tremendously over those 40 years but the price has not. "When I was going to college, paying a dime or 15 cents for a printed page was the single biggest bargain you could ever come across," he said. "I ask students to tell me one thing they can still pay the same thing for 40 years later. And I have little trivia contests in our company to find something that costs the same."

Frequently, campus administrators struggle with the decision to add a banking partner or other off-campus functionality to their campus card. How will it affect spending on campus? Will it cost me more or will it generate revenue? What will happen to our card’s stored value accounts?

According to several colleges that have chosen to add banking and other off-campus functionality to their campus ID cards, the advantages for off-campus card use far exceed the disadvantages. In the end, these colleges agree that students love the extra choices available to them and that pays off in the long run.

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

When PricewaterhouseCoopers went from 13 different buildings down to one at its Zurich, Switzerland office, many of its 1,200 employees were using different ID cards providing only limited uses. So why not switch to one multi-function card?

That's what the company went searching for. "We've always tried to look for state-of-the art systems and we found this card," explains Corina Gerber, facility management, senior manager, for PricewaterhouseCoopers Switzerland (PwC).

Keeping track of the bad cards–those that were printed but never issued–is just as important as tracking the good cards when managing your ID card system.

For John Ekers, Fargo Electronics' director of product marketing for software and services, it has become something of an evangelization issue.

Acquisition brings personalization to HID to “complete the identity management equation”

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

HID Global's president and CEO, Denis Hébert, calls it "completing the equation." That's one way of looking at the company's recent purchase of Fargo Electronics because it now gives the company a firmer hold on the complete credential management process, from creation to issuance.

Asked about the importance of this acquisition, Mr. Hébert said, “One of the key factors in our decision to make the acquisition was Fargo’s ability to complete our offerings in supplying credentials and ID devices to customers overall. It's one thing to manufacture them and another thing to personalize them.”

Some of the contactless world’s best new products were on display at the HID Partner conference in San Diego in October. On display were at least thirty contactless offerings from companies around the world. HID Connect, the company established to help partners of HID Global in their efforts to bring supporting products to market, held their iNNOVATION awards competition. Winners included products that enable wireless physical access control, converge physical and logical access, identify a vehicle and its driver at long range, and facilitate easy creation of contactless applications and products.

Understanding who pays, who gets paid, and how to make sure your cardholders win

ATMs are a convenient and quick source for cash. But they also can be expensive if you're using an ATM that is not owned by your bank. For a college student on a budget ATM fees, even at $1 or $2 a pop, can add up. Understanding the various types of ATM fees, including foreign fees and surcharges, can help campus administrators select the best bank partner to serve their students via the campus card program.

Sweden’s Göteborg University deploys a visual challenge and response solution from Entrust

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

You log in with your password, then you're met with another screen with the following: A3, F4, J5. No, you're not playing Bingo. It's part of an authentication system created by Dallas, Texas-based Entrust. To supply the correct answers to A3, F4 and J5, you need a grid supplied by the company. It's a security solution that one Swedish university has chosen to protect its student records.

Are displays for smart cards finally more than just talk?

Marisa Torrieri, Contributing Editor

It’s your credit card … spiked with something extra … a thin, flexible display with a readout similar to that of a calculator. But you don’t just make transactions with this card. With this baby you make them two-factor style, fusing something you know (your card number), with something you definitely have in your possession (your card).

For more than 20 years, Assistance League® of Las Vegas has promoted volunteerism, dedicated to meeting the needs of its community. Part of the National Assistance League®, the organization’s 292 volunteer members logged over 32,000 volunteer hours last year in support of philanthropic projects.

13.56 MHz contactless cards improve flexibility and security for access control


By Chris Corum, Executive Editor

Contactless technology facilitates multiple applications and services from a single card, but Erik Larsen, Product Manager of Identity Solutions for Lenel Systems International, stresses that another advantage is equally crucial for card issuers. “Contactless lets you take control of - and secure - the data on your cards,” he says, “something proximity technology just doesn’t do.”

The 4th Annual CR80News survey suggests steady growth, more dominance among major players

By Chris Corum, Executive Editor

In early 2003 CR80News editors conducted the first-ever survey of campus card programs with financial institution partnerships. The goal of that initial study was to determine the extent to which colleges and universities were, via their official student ID card, offering banking services from accredited financial institutions.

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

A group of grad students at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) are in the process of creating what one of the students calls the "most over-designed soda machine in the world."

Right now, the machine has attached to it a barcode scanner, a fingerprint reader, and a web cam for facial recognition. Want a Coke? Stick your thumb on the reader so the machine recognizes you as having an account, take out the drink, then walk way, never having had to reach into your pocket for change.

Even in a post 9-11 world, college campuses remain fairly open. Anyone can enter the campus itself with barely a nod from security. Corporations are a different matter and many have hardened building access in recent years. So, too, have K-12 schools. But with more options and lower costs, is it now time for colleges to take another look at better controlling visitors to their campuses? Supporters of visitor management solutions think so.

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

More student choices, more options, and peace of mind for their parents are some of the ideas that went into the development of iMye, Sodexho's new method of paying for food on or off campus. Oh yes, there's also the "coolness" factor.

"You don't need a card or cash, just your finger," said Ric Rocca, senior vice president of strategy for Sodexho Education Services, of the company's finger scan technology.

LEGIC provides robust suite of payment and security applications for students in Chur, Switzerland

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

While many U.S. colleges and universities have been hesitant to delve into the contactless world, European and Asian campuses have taken the opposite approach. So it is with the University of Technology and Economics (HTW Chur) in Chur, Switzerland. The college opted for a contactless campus card system based on chips supplied by LEGIC Identsystems Ltd., also based in Switzerland. The company specializes in the design and manufacture of 13.56 MHz contactless smart card technology, including ISO 15693 and ISO 14443 compliant read/write chip sets, security modules, and transponder chips.

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

Ireland-based smart card solutions provider SmartCentric Technologies has chosen the partnership route to add more functions to the services it offers clients. Its recent agreement with Texas-based QI Systems is intended to provide SmartCentric's university and corporate campuses with new unattended card readers capable of handling both contact and contactless smart cards.

Fee-free checking, online banking, and more have become standard fare

Students, like other customers, are expecting more and more services from their financial institution. And banks are working hard to find attractive offerings and competitive pricing to meet these new demands. Recent research and studies of student banking habits lend insight into this trend.

Card systems at colleges and universities have typically centered around on-campus commerce and access. But today, they are extending their reach off-campus and opening their on-campus services to more commerce-savvy students, faculty, and staff. Credit card use has continually increased on college and university campuses, specifically in conjunction with their transaction systems. The companies provisioning campus card program technologies, as well as the universities, find themselves facing greater responsibilities and, more importantly, liabilities.

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

As the one-year anniversary of The CBORD Group’s acquisition of Diebold's card systems division approaches, the Ithaca, NY-based company spans the range of colleges and universities -- small, medium and now large campuses.

To Bruce Lane, CBORD's executive vice president, the acquisition was a perfect fit with CBORD's strategic direction. “Finally the stars aligned to make this happen,” explains Mr. Lane. “I'd been staying in contact with my competitors at Diebold for many years and I kept after them on it."

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor, AVISIAN Publications

The Smart Card Alliance has seen some good days and some really bad ones. Following 9-11 and the mini-recession that terrorist attack caused, the Alliance's lost nearly one-half its membership -- falling from 160 to 86 organizations. Now, it has made its way back to nearly pre 9-11 membership numbers and, if 2005 is any indication, even better days are ahead for the alliance.

Sure, students are a bank's reason for its campus existence, but a more profitable client base includes the ones teaching the students ... as well as the university administrators and staff. But attracting professors and staff that already have a banking relationship is no easy task.

By Andy Williams, Contibuting Editor, AVISIAN Publications

An Atlanta university seeking to reduce the number of checks passing through its business office now allows its students -- or their parents -- to handle many of those financial transactions electronically via their campus ID card. The result has been a 50% reduction in walk-in traffic, freeing up staff for other purposes.

"We were wanting to reduce the amount of checks and cash we handle in our operation," explained Dave Siegel, director of EmoryCard and Campus Life Technical Services at Emory University.

For a couple of years, it looked as if SecurTech was going to overtake the CardTech portion of the annual conference in terms of numbers of participants, but with last year's rollout of contactless payments by the big three card issuers, the pendulum is swinging the other way.

"It used to be we were split 50-50, now we're 70% financial, 30% security," said Bill Rutledge, program manager for SourceMedia which is producing the 16th annual CardTech/SecurTech Conference May 2-4 at the Moscone Center, San Francisco, Calif.

Physical security workhorse begins giving way to contactless as price cuts and multi-technology readers eliminate hurdles

By Chris Corum, Executive Editor, AVISIAN Publishing

You can do more – and you can do it more securely – with contactless than you can with proximity. Few would argue with this statement, yet each year proximity technology continues to outsell contactless in the North American security markets. But new products, attractive pricing, and better market education are turning this tide, making contactless the technology of choice for many professionals charged with securing their physical and logical enterprise.

By Chris Corum, Executive Editor, AVISIAN Publications

A newly-issued patent covering the movement of funds between accounts via the web is hitting close to home with campus card systems. No surprise as the patent was originally conceived to cover these transfers from a bank account to a campus card account.

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor, AVISIAN Publishing

Shackled by an outdated card program and its proprietary operating system, Nova Southeastern University (NSU) went looking for something bigger and better and, more importantly, a campus card that would enable the university to keep pace with technology.

By David Wyld, Contributing Editor, AVISIAN Publications

When visitors step up to the gates of the four Disney World theme parks, the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, or the MGM Studios, they will encounter something unexpected and largely foreign to them. Disney has embarked on a program to use an established biometric technology – finger geometry – to secure its valuable passes. Ostensibly, this new security is for the benefit of the pass owner. However, it is also being implemented to secure Disney’s pricing structure and marketing strategy. It has not come without controversy – and at least a bit of confusion.

Higher cost and lower market demand slows the adoption of PVC’s biodegradable rival ... for now

By Marisa Torrieri, Contributing Editor

It sounds corny to some, but the latest card en route to consumers’ wallets promises the same durability of traditional petroleum-based (PVC) cards without using up one of Earth’s most valuable and dwindling resources ... oil.

Helping college students who are on their own for the very first time can be a rewarding experience for employees of a bank's on-campus branch. Students may never have had a bank account before and it may be their first experience with a payment card as well. True, they could deal with an online bank or work with their bank back home or across town, but many find there is no substitute for sitting across the desk from a real live human being at a brick and mortar bank on campus.

USA Today, aided by a Dallas, Texas-based smart card company, is getting its newspapers into the hands of college students using the college’s own campus card program. The QI controller and USA Today machines are currently in use on at least 70 campuses.

By Tom Bell, Vice President, Commerce Industry Relations, Blackboard

At a recent seminar, campus executives were asked how they planned their card system and if their plan was strategic. All referred to the planning as “detailed;” and said it involved partner research, equipment evaluation, software testing and a variety of other important steps. As much as they wanted it to be, however, none considered it strategic, let alone ongoing.

In 2006 a great new feature section will appear in each and every issue of CR80News. Our new Physical Security Corner will explore key issues related to the changing security landscape. Physical security is no longer a standalone “silo” within a campus … it is a vibrant, essential component with enterprise-wide implications.

Key themes running through this recurring feature article will be identity and convergence. That is because these are among the most significant defining features of the modern security landscape. Thus it seems fitting that we explore these two concepts for this inaugural installment of our Physical Security Corner.

Forget fingerprints. A Toronto, Ontario company wants the whole hand involved. And it's not talking palm prints. It wants to identify the blood vessels in your hand.

Identica Corp. has linked its Universal Controller with a hand vascular scanner manufactured by a Korean company. The result is a biometric access control mechanism solution that it claims is accurate, fast, and non-intrusive for users.

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

For nine years, Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) had, in the words of its ID administrator, "just plain ID cards used for identification and library checkout of materials" and nothing more. A year ago, the small school located in Laredo, Texas on the Mexican border, switched to NuVision Networks' One Card and hasn't looked back.

Among of the biggest questions surrounding campus card bank partnerships is whether or not to locate a branch on the campus. Of course, a branch can certainly foster a closer relationship between the bank and the future depositors (students, faculty, and staff) but it can be a significant investment for both the bank and campus. So just how is the decision made?

The pinstriped lines of barcodes past are going the way of the vinyl LP – at least for many applications. Instead of the staid black-and-white bars, you are likely to find a chaotic looking area of scrambled dots. Thanks to the advances in tracking technology, barcodes have come a long way since their introduction in the early 1950s.

Two years ago, CR80News conducted a quantitative survey of campus card banking partnerships in an attempt to put some numbers to trend . Our editors surveyed seven financial institutions that were determined to be actively involved in the market, offering banking services via the campus ID card. This month we endeavored to update this survey to provide a current picture of the market and investigate whether this often-discussed application is on the rise or decline.

At the recent ASIS security conference, displayed alongside the line of ID card printers in one company’s booth was a big metal locker with a reader and computer attached. It was not what one expects to see amid sleek, footprint-conscious card printers. But according to representatives of the printer manufacturer showcasing it, this box could be one of the most important complements to a card issuing system.

With the increasing demand for security, access control is an increasingly important campus card function in Europe as it is in the rest of the world. One Spanish company is capitalizing on this rising need with a cost-effective and innovative door control system.

At first glance, card system vendors don't seem to be as much a part of a European campus programs as they do in the U.S. But look a bit deeper and you will find country or region-specific organizations helping campuses build their programs. According to one such vendor – London-based Fortress GB, – card requirements are often very country-specific. The company’s Smart Campus solution currently services four universities in the UK: University of Hertfordshire, South Bank University, Thames Valley University, and the University of Gloucester.

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

Campus card programs in Europe are starting to accelerate, thanks in part to creation in 2003 of the European Campus Card Association. While Europe is often in the forefront of card usage in areas such as transportation and secure payments, it has lagged behind the U.S. when it comes to campus cards.

Bike sharing programs at university campuses aren't exactly new. And the one that students at MIT in Boston have been operating for two years isn't high tech despite its university being synonymous with cutting edge developments.

But the goal of these students is to take the program high tech, eventually linking it to MIT's card program. While the program is called TechBikes, a more accurate term, according to one of its co-founders, Danny Shen, is "a no-tech communal bike" program … at least for now.

By Dee Ann Kuhn, Contributing Editor

This fall an even greater number of consumers will be able to tap and go with their PayPass cards thanks to an ongoing expansion of merchants signing on to implement the MasterCard-trademarked contactless card technology. Meijer Stores, a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based grocery store chain announced in August that it would be the first supermarket to offer PayPass at all of its 171 locations. Meijer’s plans follow Oakbrook, Ill.-based McDonald Corp.’s announcement that the fast-food giant plans to expand PayPass acceptance across all of its restaurants that accept credit cards here in the U.S. by year end.

For many,the card printing process is limited to, ‘the blank card goes in here and the finished card comes out here.’ This is a testament to the reliability of these printers—they work so we don’t have to know how they work. However, as any mid- to high-volume user will tell you, a little understanding can go a long way when students are lined up and a printer has broken down.

Using a page from companies that guarantee you can "find the perfect mate" by using their services, General Meters™ has developed a software package that allows students to find their future roommates. The web-based program is available to any college, even those who don't utilize General Meters' University One-Card System™, said the company's Fred Emery, systems marketing.

When the Grenada, Mississippi School District faced a lawsuit filed under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, the district learned an important lesson: accurate calculation of regular and overtime rates for hourly workers is vital. In such litigation, the burden is on the employer to prove actual employee hours worked. Now, Attendance Enterprise from InfoTronics, Inc. automates time and attendance processing with useful functionality such as full compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act and support for multiple job positions. Grenada School District benefits from biometric data collection and a flexible rules engine to calculate accruals, overtime, shift pay, and other federally-mandated rules.

Student ID technology combining contactless palm vein authentication with a multi-function card, has made its debut at a Japanese high tech college. The extra layers of student protection will also help the school comply with tougher personal data security laws.

The latest ammunition in the continuing struggle to keep secure areas secure may come in the form of a small handheld biometric reader that can identify a fingerprint or read a bar code off a truck, license tag, or ID card. With contact and contactless capability, the new reader from the Canadian company, Labcal, can also serve as a backup system if the main server goes down.

Architectures for card issuance systems can be categorized as either centralized or distributed in nature. Each scenario presents a unique set of opportunities, and perhaps more importantly, security risks that must be understood and addressed.

Editor's Note: In a recent Banking Corner article, we asked the question "should your campus use the 16-digit ISO numbering scheme." As a followup to this article, we look at part two of being ISO compliant. Special thanks to Taran Lent of CardSmith for the preparation of this important article.

In light of a pending lawsuit and stalled legislative relief, Auburn University decided to cancel its off-campus card program until the situation is resolved. Its sister university to the west -- the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa -- is holding firm still allowing students to use their campus cards at off-campus merchants.

Editor's Note: CR80News asked several industry veterans to comment on the recent acquisition of Diebld's Card System Division by The CBORD Group. Bret Tobey has worked with several companies in the ID managment, security, and campus card industries including Diebold Card Systems. His observations on what the transaction may mean to the campus card market follow.

By Bret Tobey, Contributing Editor

As Wall Street trading wrapped up on Friday, July 1, Diebold employees gathered at facilities and over the phone to learn The CBORD Group had purchased the Card System’s Division of Diebold. Rumors flew all weekend and formal announcement came Tuesday, July 5.

Editor's Note: CR80News asked several industry veterans to comment on the recent acquisition of Diebld's Card System Division by The CBORD Group. Bob Huber is a leading consultant in the area of campus card systems. His observations on what the transaction may mean to the campus card market follow.

By Robert C. Huber, Business Consultant

I believe this is overall very positive for the entire campus card industry. CBORD has set the "customer satisfaction" standard for the industry for over 20 years and proven their ability to grow to be the largest card system company without loosing sight of their customers.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) wanted, as its auxiliary services director described it, "a fun place for students" that would keep them on campus.

What the campus created was an innovative video game arcade with a convenient way to order food, all electronically driven and all utilizing the university's Diebold CS Gold campus card.

Printing high-quality color images on ID cards has become a straightforward, basic function for card program staff. This is a testament to the high quality printers, supplies, and plastic cards available today. But what happens when a new identification technology is added to the mix? Must our comfortable printing processes change if a proximity, contactless, or contact chip is added to the card?

Perhaps the most important feature of any credit or debit card is the 16-digit number unique to that card. It is called an ISO number, and it is the key for linking each transaction conducted with the card to the account and account holder responsible for the transaction. In the early 1990’s, these numbers began appearing on student ID cards, replacing earlier numbering schemes like Social Security Numbers or a series of randomly generated digits.

If you were among the 1400 individuals in attendance at the recent Blackboard Users Conference, you are already aware of the Blackboard Transaction System - Universal Edition™ -- the new edition of the Blackboard Transaction System.

The Universal Edition is considered a new edition rather than a new release. According to Ron Dinwiddie, Sr. Director of Product Development for Blackboard, “it is the third edition of the Blackboard Transaction System (following the Unix and Windows-based systems).“

Gallaudet University, a 140–plus year-old Washington, D.C. school for the deaf and hard of hearing, wanted to add cashless payment capabilities to its existing HID proximity cards that controlled dorm access for students. The college didn't want to replace its point of sale (POS) infrastructure, but the existing cash registers accepted only magnetic stripe cards. Enter ViVOtech with a reader that could enable the college's existing system to think it was receiving data from a mag stripe card.

How secure is your ID card system? Fargo Electronics wants to help you find out. They have developed a series of self-assessment questions that will help card managers determine the gaps in their ‘supposedly’ secure ID cards. This non-proprietary interactive website tool was launched in April.

Trying to account for every piece of paper running through your copiers and printers could be a lesson in futility ... particularly for colleges dealing with multiple constituencies, each with different printing needs and different ways of paying for the services. Equitrac, Inc., a Plantation, Florida-based company, has been handling those document accounting functions for the corporate world, primarily law firms, for more than a quarter century. In the past half dozen or so years, the company has moved into the higher education market and is now on its third version of a software product designed specifically for colleges to help them control their copying and printing costs.

At the recent National Association of Campus Card Users conference in Orlando, I spoke with several bankers and a number of campus administrators about credit cards. Though far from a scientific study, the conversations suggest to me that the issue of campus cards and credit may be heating up again. In the late 90’s, during the heyday of the affinity credit card expansion, issuers were racing to ink deals with like-minded groups providing cards to group-members that suggested and ‘supported’ the group’s mission. From sports teams to hobbyists, everything was fair game. And college alumni organizations were among the most sought-after categories.

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

Using single sign-on, roaming access, and a sonar sensor device, the University of Colorado Hospital can meet not only HIPAA privacy requirements, but give its nurses and doctors faster access and more flexibility in dealing with their patients' records and actual treatment.

This is thanks to a system set up by HealthCast, based in Boise, Idaho, utilizing proximity readers and sonar technology from RF IDeas, located near Chicago, Illinois. The Colorado medical facility is using 21st century technology that also works with its legacy systems without requiring changes to them, said HealthCast's Trip O'Donnell, vice president of business development.

This article is reprinted with the permission of the Smart Card Alliance

As more and more protected health care information is stored or transmitted electronically and becomes network accessible, health care organizations have become increasingly concerned with controlling access to that information. HIPAA requires all health care organizations that create or maintain electronic health care information to secure the information from any use or disclosure, intentional or unintentional, that violates the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules.

You need not look far to find articles and pundits proclaiming a coming revolution in the way people pay for goods and services. And you need not look far from your campus to see examples of this new wave:

• American Express, MasterCard, and Visa cards with embedded contactless chips that transmit payment data to the point of sale (POS) device via radio waves

When it comes to today’s ID card, there is often more than meets the eye. That is because more and more card issuers are turning to visual security elements (VSE) to deter counterfeiting and facilitate card authentication. Elements ranging from micro-printing to holography and morphing imagery to custom laminates are making it increasingly difficult for the bad guys to fake your ID.

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

A 21-year-old Duke political science major has created a business that utilizes the efficiencies of the DukeCard and the Blackboard Commerce Suite. Garrett Bean, Charleston, SC, says he is about ready to launch his Gourmet Dining and Bakery online ordering system to allow DukeCard users to order meals from five restaurants via the Internet. "I want this out before the semester ends, around May 10," he said.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Sequoia Retail Systems was originally servicing college bookstores. As John Diaz, product manager at the company's Raleigh, N.C. office explained it, the company's campus customers drove the company to offer more services.

"We started out in the college and university bookstore market. We are an independent service provider not tied to book wholesalers. We handle all aspects of their operations from point of sale, inventory, ordering, and processing purchase orders. But during that time period a lot of our customers liked our technology and started using it in other areas of the university, so we created a new division that focuses on those areas beyond the book store, such as food service, athletics, and the campus card market."

In response to the feedback we've received from many of our subscribers and partners, we are proud to announce the premier issue of a new print compilation of AVISIAN ID News. Regarding ID will make its debut on March 15 and will offer a compilation of articles from CR80News, SecureIDNews, ContactlessNews and RFIDNews.

Take one computer science professor, add another versed in identification card technology, and the result is a university card system that its president calls one of the most secure in the country. And in this world of hackers and ID theft, a highly secure system brings a lot to the table.

This is only the beginning ...

The vast majority of our readers know something about personalizing an ID card (some more than they would probably like to admit). In deference to the ubiquity of ID card production, CR80News is beginning a monthly feature called the Card Imaging Corner. Over the next year we will explore a variety of issues and topics related to the design, production, and management of the systems used to issue identification credentials.

Today our Imaging Corner begins with a fundamental question: How do I select a printer for my ID system. Future articles will cover important topics related to ID fraud, identification management, field viability of ID cards and much more. We thank Fargo for sponsoring this corner and supporting our pursuit of unbiased and objective reporting on those issues most important to our CR80News subscribers.

Do you want a card program, but the money just isn’t there? That was the dilemma facing Sweet Briar College, a 600-student, all women’s institution in central Virginia.

“The college had studied installing a card system several years ago, but purchasing and maintaining our own system was cost prohibitive,” said Paul Davies, Sweet Briar’s vice president of finance and administration.

So instead, Sweet Briar turned to a company that promised to run the whole card program. That company was CardSmith, of Basking Ridge, NJ, that was founded by two campus card veterans, just more than one year ago. And Mr. Davies has only been with Sweet Briar since last July, coming from Duke University, which has one of the most mature campus card programs in the country.

While it's still called CardTech/SecurTech, the show's promoter is pushing separate identities for the two sides of the name, more so this year then in the past. In fact, it's being billed as "one event, two technology sectors."

"The show has been saddled with an EMV reputation. A lot of people think it's a credit card event when it's about identity tokens and how they're applied," said Bill Rutledge, CTST's conference program manager for Thomson Media Conferences & Expositions.

"What's different (this year) is there is a much larger focus on security and the fact that we're defining what CardTech and SecurTech mean," he said.

The selection of a campus card banking partner nearly always involves a consideration of fees. Financial institutions charge fees to customers and non-customer users of their services in order to stay in business and build value for their shareholders. Campus decision makers typically want to minimize fees charged to their student cardholders and/or share in the fees collected. So the potential partners often find themselves at cross purposes.

A ubiquitous fee that has received almost constant attention and debate nationwide is the ATM usage fee. It has been the subject of industry regulation, consumer upheaval, and legislative action. In the end, it comes down to economics … and an understanding of the basic economics of the ATM market can help the campus card administrator better evaluate banking partnerships.

by Lauren Lowrey, Contributing Editor

College and university ID card programs are used to secure access to dorms and buildings, as banking vehicles for students … even to enable discounts at the local movie theatre. Imagine if the same program was made available for students in fraternities and sororities. The Office of Greek Life at Pennsylvania State University is working with the campus card office to make this a reality for Greek students for Fall 2005.

Findings from a recent study sponsored by the Better Business Bureau offer significant – and somewhat surprising -- insight into the current situation of identity theft in the U.S. It also outlines a great array of practices that can help individuals guard against falling victim. For campus card leaders, it provides a good foundation for creating a card program that is identity theft resistant and for educating your constituencies.

Phoenix Card Scores Big at Duke Basketball Game

by Matthew Drummond, DukeCard Office and Janet Cooper, Manager Phoenix Card Services

Elon University’s Phoenix Card Office and Duke University’s DukeCard Office partnered to provide a unique service in an effort to promote the convenient and secure method of payment of both schools’ one cards. Elon students and staff were invited to attend a Duke basketball game where they were able to use their Phoenix Card at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Elon students were validated into the game as currently enrolled and were able to use their Phoenix Cash Account to purchase items at the concession stand.

Lowell Adkins, executive director of the National Association of Campus Card Users, has just one word for those attending–or thinking of attending–the organization's annual meeting in March: Disney.

But he's not talking about the Magic Kingdom, or EPCOT, or MGM, although those certainly provide nice incentives for bringing the family. No, it's Disney as in Disney Innovation and the Disney Institute. At no extra cost -- and no increase in the conference registration fee over last year–those attending the NACCU conference March 12-16 at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando will get three 90-minute Disney Institute sessions. Complete all three and you end up with a certificate. But, more importantly, you'll have received training from the company that practically invented customer -- and employee -- satisfaction.