Southeastern Louisiana University has made the promotion of its off-campus program a priority, hosting a special event with local merchants to reinforce the university’s off-campus ties.

According to a report from student publication, The Lions Roar, the university held its First Annual Merchant Festival hosted by Southeastern Louisiana’s Campus Card Operations. The event provided free samples and information from businesses where students can use their Lion’s Lagniappe — money that students can load on their campus cards and use as a debit card at on- and off-campus locations.

“This is really to help students to meet with all of our off-campus merchants, who participate with our Lion’s Lagniappe program, and give them an opportunity to sample some of their goods,” said Director of Campus Card Operations, Pamela Hoover, in an interview with Lions Roar.”

The afternoon-long event saw local merchants set up booths in the student union offering samples and information to students passing through. Some of the participating vendors included Applebee’s who provided chips and dip; IHOP who provided strawberry lemonade and 20% off coupons; Eddie’s Famous Frozen Custard who provided chocolate and vanilla custard.

Southeastern Louisiana students can leverage CBORD’s GET app to make online deposits into their Lion’s Lagniappe account, check recent transactions, report lost, stolen or found campus cards, as well as view the full roster of participating off-campus merchants.

As part of the event, the university’s campus card office also hosted a raffle and offered free merchandise to any students willing to download the GET on their mobile device, or to those that proved they already had downloaded the app.