A student at UCLA has gone viral on social media, posting a how-to video detailing the campus’ COVID-19 test vending machine. As campuses across the country continue their efforts to provide safety measures for students, a COVID test vending machine certainly ranks among the more innovative ideas.

Loyola University New Orleans and Sodexo have partnered to launch a Swipe Out Hunger initiative for the Loyola campus community. Swipe Out Hunger, a popular meal donation program on campuses across the country, enables students to donate meal swipes from their dining plans to a campus swipe bank to be used by students in need.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has installed MorphoWave readers to enable biometric access to campus recreation facilities. The initiative is being spearheaded by UNC Campus Recreation, and has introduced an optional, contactless system for student entry to facilities.

Like many institutions across the country, Suffolk University required students and staff to be vaccinated, or obtain an exemption, in order to return to campus in the fall. So the university developed a way to leverage its campus card access control system to ensure that student vaccine status is in keeping with the university’s protocols for facility access.

Wayne State University is continuing its move away from cash transactions in campus dining. The university’s initial push toward a cashless dining experience began with the onset of the pandemic and the trend of retail businesses moving away from cash-based transactions.

Michigan State University has officially unveiled its campus safety app, SafeMSU. The app was initially announced in November and includes a host of safety features, as well as a campus map and regularly updated local crime and fire logs.

The start of the new year has brought new and exciting updates to the Roanoke College Maroon Card, as the college is now issuing a mobile credential with Transact Campus. Roanoke students will now be able to use their smart phones and smart watches to access Maroon Card services across campus.

Penn State has launched a new student engagement mobile app for its campus community designed to help undergraduates, regardless of their college or campus, extend their learning with out-of-classroom experiences. The Engagement App is a university-wide platform that connects students with the wide range of engagement experiences available to them at Penn State.

In a recent entry to NACCU’s Positive IDentity Blog, Emory University’s Kim Pfeffer discussed ways she and the card office have improved the customer experience, including taking card issuance out in the field and introducing the idea of a card fee amnesty day. Pfeffer also shared her office’s success story in a video presentation to NACCU members.

A federal judge in Wisconsin has backed the side of state laws restricting the use of college student ID cards for voter identification. The decision comes after government watchdog group Common Cause in Wisconsin filed a lawsuit claiming that the requirements placed on student ID cards were too stringent.