The University of California San Diego is stocking new on-campus vending machines with free COVID-19 test kits for students and campus community members. The initiative will see UC San Diego students use their campus card to access the self-administered COVID test kits.

Virginia Commonwealth University has installed campus vending machines stocked with personal protective equipment for its campus community to access via their student ID card. VCU now joins a host of other universities, including New Mexico State, now using campus vending machines and the campus card to dispense masks, sanitizer, gloves and other PPE items.

New Mexico State University is deploying new campus vending machine on its Las Cruces campus this fall that dispense face masks and other safety supplies designed to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The new vending machines are the result of a joint effort between the university and industrial and safety supplies reseller, Fastenal.

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.

Students at San Diego State University can now use their SDSUCards to grab a quick snack from campus vending machines after the university added vending functionality to the student credentials. The university has decided to bring vending purchases back to give the SDSUCards more functionality around campus.

With the swipe of a student ID card, Grand Rapids Community College is offering free laptop rentals to students. The service is being offered via vending machine, giving students an alternative to accessing the technology needed to support their academic work.

In a continually expanding campus market, students, faculty and staff expect payment acceptance and a consistent customer experience across all points of interaction. With today’s omni-channel technologies, universities and their supporting communities can deliver this experience while monetizing their payment ecosystems for greater revenues.

Students at UC San Diego will soon be able to use their campus cards and TritonCash to pay for a number of essential health items from a campus “Wellness Vending Machine.” UCSD’s University Centers Advisory Board (UCAB) has also approved the new vending machine for sale of generic Plan B pills.

Payment and secure mobile communications provider Apriva, has partnered with vending solutions provider Parlevel Systems to complete the integration of the Parlevel Micro Market solution to the Apriva payment gateway platform. The integration is set to provide secure cashless payments to Apriva resellers and self-service operators, while expanding cashless payment options to end users including college campuses with the inclusion of campus card support.

Vending is a core component of virtually every campus card program and for all the talk of how student IDs have evolved over time, vending has come a long way, too. The shift to cashless vending in particular has brought a new wave of convenience and utility to users, and removing the need for cash or coin has been a boon to the industry.