The University of Pittsburgh’s off-campus program is gaining momentum once again, with students and other members of the campus community taking full advantage of the university’s partnerships with local merchants. A change in Pitt’s meal plan programs last year that allocated 25% of dining dollars to be available for use at off-campus vendors saw the “Pitt Eats Local” dining program build strong connections with local businesses and entice students into the surrounding community.

Grubhub has partnered with Transact Campus to include Grubhub’s more than 300,000 restaurants nationwide in Transact’s off-campus merchant program, CampusCash. The partnership will extend Grubhub’s restaurant network to Transact’s CampusCash program and is expected to enable broader student spending off campus.

The University of California at Davis has revealed a spring break grant program that will reward students who stay on campus during spring break week with $75 gift cards. This time last year, spring break across the country was marked by sharp spikes in COVID-19 cases, with some institutions doing away with the mid-semester hiatus altogether.

Drake University recently expanded the reach of its Bulldog Bucks off-campus program and declining balance account, enabling students and other Drake community members to make purchases at local businesses. The university hopes the initiative will foster a stronger town-gown relationship by helping to both encourage students to explore more of the Drake neighborhood, as well as support local businesses affected by the pandemic.

Hundreds of national and local businesses offer discounts with a valid student ID card, but students themselves may be missing out on these deals. There are ways for universities and card office managers to take advantage of this opportunity by informing students of these discounts, and in the process, boost the value of the campus ID card.

The off-campus program at the University of Pittsburgh has grown into one of the more extensive networks in the country. In this short podcast, hear from Pitt’s Julie Bannister about how the move to managed services through the university’s card system vendor has helped to reshape university workloads, and boosted card deposits exponentially over the last decade.

Forging a truly successful off-campus program takes time, effort and commitment that campus card administrators don’t always have at their disposal. With this in mind, we recently spoke with the University of Pittsburgh’s Julie Bannister on how Pitt has been able to grow its off-campus program to one of the more extensive in the country, with a total off-campus spend of more than $1.5 million annually.

The Georgetown University Student Association is distributing some 1,500 discount cards good for deals at local shops and restaurants. The cards are to be issued primarily to low-income students in an attempt to make daily student life more affordable.

The University of Georgia Auxiliary Services is set to implement a new system starting next semester that will effectively kill the use of Bulldog Bucks at off-campus merchants. According to UGA Auxiliary Services, all local merchants currently participating in the off-campus program will no longer accept Bulldog Bucks effective May 31. The move will see UGA’s Bulldog Bucks revert to an exclusively on-campus program.

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. The First Annual Merchant Festival was put on by the university’s campus card office, and provided free samples and information from local businesses where students can use their campus card.