The University of California, Davis, has added a new precautionary measure in its fight against coronavirus, encouraging students, staff, faculty and the larger Davis community to use the California COVID Notify app. The California COVID Notify app is being piloted at universities across the state for digital tracking and automated notification of potential exposure to the virus.

A new initiative from food service provider, Sodexo, and student food insecurity non-profit, Swipe Out Hunger, will bring the meal-swipe donation program to 100 new campuses nationwide. Following a successful pilot program, which provided more than 15,500 meals for 1,100 students during the Spring semester, the pair of organizations has announced the expansion of its Meal Swipe Bank to 100 new U.S. campuses by the end of 2021.

With campuses across the country each in varying stages of digital transformation, all had to accelerate timelines to accommodate remote student services during the pandemic. With this in mind card system vendor, TouchNet, has recently released the results of its first annual Connecting the Dots survey, finding that participating students overwhelmingly believe that technology played a pivotal role in campus life post COVID.

Following a successful pilot of the MI COVID Alert contact tracing app on the Michigan State University campus, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has expanded the app to statewide use. The MI COVID Alert app uses secure Bluetooth low energy (BLE) technology to detect nearby phones of other app users to notify individuals when they may have been exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.

Western Michigan University will allow students enrolled exclusively in online classes the opportunity for penalty-free housing contract cancellations next semester. With the fall semester quickly coming to a close, sights are now turning to the spring and accounting for what the coronavirus may bring.

With the number of universities issuing mag stripe or 125 kHz prox credentials still alarmingly high, it’s worth taking the time to discuss the options available to campuses as they plot moves to more advanced, secure student credentials. To better frame the issue, CR80News caught up with CBORD’s Read Winkelman and Larry Delaney to discuss some actionable steps that campuses can take.

Drake University recently expanded the reach of its Bulldog Bucks off-campus program and declining balance account, enabling students and other Drake community members to make purchases at local businesses. The university hopes the initiative will foster a stronger town-gown relationship by helping to both encourage students to explore more of the Drake neighborhood, as well as support local businesses affected by the pandemic.

A student-led initiative brought Green2Go reusable containers to Carleton College last spring, and despite campus changes amid the coronavirus the containers have been a successful fit on the Northfield, MN campus. Plans for the reusable container program preceded the arrival of COVID-19 as a simple sustainability measure, but changing perceptions around eating in at campus dining halls might be breathing new life into the program.

To support higher education leaders in creating safe plans for reopening and maintaining healthy, secure campuses, Transact Campus has launched a self-service capacity management app. The app is called Transact Capacity Management, and it enables institutions to help control the number of individuals that enter a building at one time, as well as reduce physical touchpoints and manage social distancing.

Trusted identities, payments and data protection provider, Entrust, has announced its new cloud-based, direct-to-card solution for physical and remote ID card issuance. The next generation Entrust Sigma series card printer has been built with today’s cloud environments in mind, leveraging encryption, trusted HSM technology and secure boot to issue highly secure credentials.