At its recent users conference in Baltimore, Blackboard recognized Louisiana State University and Creighton University with its first annual Campus Service Pioneer Award. This award is designed to recognize innovative programs utilizing Blackboard’s Commerce Suite and includes a $2,500 award to each school. Next year’s recognition will include two $5,000 awards. 
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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. 
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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. 
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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. 
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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. 
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CBORD’s service reputation was a key element that led Washington University, St. Louis, MO, to award the company a contract to replace its aging campus card system. Implementation is scheduled to take place in June. 
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The University of Wisconsin-Stout, the first university to fully implement Higher One’s OneDisburseSM ID refund management service, has decided to renew the financial service provider’s contract to September, 2007, the maximum allowable under the RFP. 
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