Southern Illinois University is set to celebrate its 150th anniversary this year, and as part of this year’s homecoming celebration, the university card office is getting into the spirit by offering a special commemorative student ID card. The special edition campus cards are for alumni and other members of the SIU community, and will be issued during the university’s homecoming weekend in October.

Northeastern Illinois University has turned to Uber to provide a solution to its campus-to-campus student shuttle service. The university will leverage Uber’s voucher service to provide free transport, with a valid student ID card, for students needing to travel between NEIU campus locations for class.

Wavelynx’s Jacob Jablonski talks about the LEAF protocol and how universities can use the open architecture approach to forge a vendor agnostic campus card system. Also hear how the University of Georgia worked with Wavelynx to own its own keys. A newcomer to the campus card space, Wavelynx Technologies is championing a different approach to structuring a university card transaction system by promoting an open infrastructure with the freedom to mix and match solutions.

In an upcoming webinar with the National Association of Campus Card Users (NACCU), CR80News publisher and executive editor, Chris Corum will delve into the details of how universities can, and are currently, using campus card data. The talk will cover many of the big questions surrounding how best to act on card transaction data points to refine campus operations, better inform decision making, and improve the student experience.

Vanderbilt University has amended its meal swipe donation program to enable students to donate side items from campus dining halls on a year-round basis. The initiative, established last year, initially allowed donations during select periods throughout the semester.

Iowa is the latest state to consider the role of the student ID card for voter identification at the polls. Specifically, Iowa’s two major state institutions, Iowa State University and the University of Iowa, are taking different stances on the matter.

Students at the University of Wisconsin Madison are appealing to state lawmakers to make the university’s student ID card, the Wiscard, a valid form of identification at the voting booth. A student group has highlighted the lack of a cardholder signature, and a five year card expiration period as being key barriers to the campus card being valid for Wisconsin state voting.

The big mobile credential announcement last month was the emergence of CBORD as the second campus card system vendor to support mobile student IDs on Apple devices. As one of the first CBORD partnering campuses, the University of Vermont is now beta testing mobile credentials on Apple devices.

Assa Abloy’s Jim Primovic discusses the notable access control trends in higher education and then gives a detailed rundown of the company’s suite of Wi-Fi, wired and Aperio locksets. Primovic highlights some of the significant trends to sweep the college and university space, weighs in on the wired vs. wireless lock discussion, and provides a hands-on look at some of the locksets on offer from Assa Abloy.

Manhattan College is enacting more stringent access control policies around residence hall entry. Beginning this semester, the college will enforce mandatory 24-hour sign-in for anyone wanting to enter a residence hall that is not their own.