Universities across the country are in the process of determining refund policies for student room and board funds. One of the latest universities to reveal reimbursement plans is Penn State University, where a plan has been taking shape since mid-March.

One of the immediate challenges that campuses across the country are facing as a result of the spread of the COVID-19 virus is how to move students off campus. This has also led institutions to determine how to issue room and board refunds to residential students who will no longer be utilizing those services. The University of Connecticut is the latest to announce that it will be issuing refunds to its residential students who can no longer call their campus home.

CBORD announced a new partnership with payment technology company, Persolvent, this week. The partnership was initially revealed to customers during CBORD’s annual User Group Conference, and promises to bring new payment options to on-campus commerce.

A study conducted by researchers at Michigan State University, along with vending and payment solutions provider USA Technologies, has found significant performance boosts in cashless-enabled vending machines as compared to units only accepting cash and coin. The report highlights the common practice of outfitting only high-volume machines with cashless technology, but the study’s findings suggest that low-performing vending machines can provide significant revenue growth once equipped with cashless hardware.

Following an announcement with participating Wells Fargo Campus Card colleges and universities in February, the bank has publicly introduced a set of new benefits that are now in effect for students who have opted to pair their student IDs with their Wells Fargo checking accounts. The benefits include offering Wells Fargo Campus Card customers the opportunity to receive waivers or credits for four services that some students use as they begin managing their first bank accounts.

On March 7, 2019, Blackboard announced the sale of its Blackboard Transact unit to private equity firm, Reverence Capital Partners. The deal with Reverence sees Blackboard spinout and sell the Transact business line including the CASHNet payment solution.

Northwest Missouri State Campus Dining has implemented a new, web-based point-of-sale system on its campus. The new POS system replaces an on-site POS system that backed up using various forms of storage devices.

From coin to paper, paper to card, and now card to mobile, payment processors and consumers alike have seen dramatic changes in the way money is spent. But the trick has been keeping up with customer expectation. A recent Forbes writeup offers some considerations that could help businesses keep pace with their customers without unnecessarily increasing risk.