Students on the Boxed lunch program also benefit from ease and convenience of ordering their meals with their smartphones; they can avoid paying extra for food when they can’t make it to the dining hall. The app has made delivery of the program easy and it required minimal campus resources.

The next step with the project is to implement Tapingo’s mobile ordering platform to the entire University of Ottawa community. The move is expected to enable students, faculty and staff to pre-order and pay for items from participating locations on campus and benefit from an express pickup line.

York University nabs Marketing Excellence Award

Canada’s York University was the recipient of the 2016 NACCU Marketing Excellence Award, which is presented to an institution that demonstrates excellence in executing an integrated marketing plan with measurable results in improved financial performance, enhanced service, or achievement of a defined goal. Paul DeRosse from award sponsor Apriva presented the award to York’s Marcy McMillan.

In 2015, York’s YU-card implemented a plan to increase card usage across campus by 5%, and did so by offering exclusive deals and discounts. YU-card introduced a faculty and staff meal plan that carries unique discounts, introduced a coupon booklet valid at retailers both on-and off-campus when paying with YU-card, and introduced a program fee within the meal plan program to activate featured specials and events for meal plan holders.

For the launch of the program, the York University intranet and the YU-card website were used to house and promote the new program along with an incentive for purchasing the faulty and staff meal plan. In addition to 20% bonus dollar savings, YU-card offered a gift card drawing for the first 100 faculty and staff to purchase a meal plan. Along with the internal intranet, partnerships with human resources for new employee on-boarding services were created, along with a presentation to highlight the benefits of the new meal plan.

In 2015, a total number of 178 faculty and staff meal plans were purchased resulting in $23,500 worth of YU-card sales. YU-card also introduced an exclusive coupon booklet that included deals and specials for both on- and off-campus retailers. Coupons were only valid when payment was made with YU-card as a way to drive YU-card sales. Coupon booklets were also included in the student welcome package, with the purchase of a meal plan. Because meal plan students are only one of the demographics YU-card was targeting, the program was offered campus wide, giving anyone who put a minimum of $20 on their YU-card the coupon booklet for free.

In September 2015, 5,000 coupon booklets were printed and by January 2016, all were distributed. The coupon booklet became a valued promotional material that was also used for sponsorship for many events including winter orientation and through York University’s Student Community and Leadership Development department.

During the 2015 academic year, 2,000 Meal Plans were purchased by students. For the 2016 academic year, there are plans to expand the program fee initiatives to include items such as water bottles and YU-card lanyards, in addition to continuing with the activities from 2015.

With the implementation of these marketing initiatives and other programs, YU-card has successfully achieved 2015/16 objectives with a 26% increase in card deposits for 2015/16 as of February 1, 2016. YU-card will continue to evolve its marketing programs to increase card utilization and engagement throughout campus.

Vermont’s McKenna recognized for Distinguished Service

The NACCU Distinguished Service Award is sponsored by PERSONA and recognizes an individual who has made contributions not only to a campus, but to the card services industry as a whole, raising the stature of the profession.

The recipient must demonstrate contributions to the industry through a combination of, or all, of the following:

• Participation in the research and development of card-related technologies
• Development of solutions that have been shared with the industry
• Membership on advisory boards
• NACCU volunteer
• Other professional association volunteer
• Engage in product testing
• Involvement in industry activity that goes above and beyond one’s job description
• Publish material and presentations
• Demonstrated courage of convictions to take risks — a pioneering spirit

The 2016 award recipient is the University of Vermont’s Mark McKenna. As the Director of the CATcard Service Center at the University of Vermont, McKenna has spent the last 20 years growing the office from a handful of vending and point-of-sale devices to a system comprised of over 1,500 locations. Access control, dining, laundry and a MICROS POS system are just a few of the applications developed under McKenna, in addition to running and managing a large, self-operated, off-campus program consisting of over 110 merchants.

Under McKenna’s direction, the self-funded CATcard office created the first “shared/hosted system” platform with St. Michaels College. This original concept allowed St. Michaels to have a fully functional card office and program in a little over 90 days. The initiative has since expanded to the neighboring Champlain College and Norwich University, who are also leveraging the program. Negotiations are also underway for the CATcard office to provide services to the City of Burlington, Vermont.

The CATcard Service Center was also awarded the “NACAS Innovation Achievement Award” and the “Diebold Visionary Award” for this creative use of a campus card system.

Over the course of his career, McKenna and his program have beta-tested hardware and software, as well as rolled out leading edge card technologies such as mobile readers, mobile-IDs, web-based service delivery and biometrics solutions. McKenna has served on the board of directors for the Diebold Campus Card User Group and acted as chairman of the board in his final year. McKenna is also currently a member of the CBORD Strategy Council which helps provide direction and guidance in future product developments, and he is continually searching for newer, more efficient ways of service delivery for both his campus and partnering institutions.

In 2011, McKenna was the keynote speaker for the European Campus Card Association held in Bristol, England. He has also conducted numerous presentations and webinars, as well as hosted multiple roundtable discussions for both NACCU and his campus card system provider. McKenna enjoys meeting new people and sharing ideas about the campus card world, and he hails NACCU’s mentor program as something he truly enjoys about the Association having been an active participant for many years.