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.

The benefits of a campus card are evident for many, but it’s always good to provide student and campus community members of the credential’s benefits. De Anza College’s campus card carries a number of perks, and stresses that paying the nominal fee for a DASB card is a wise investment for the access to the wide variety of programs, rewards and free services the credential provides.

Following a recent student government decision at the University of Mary Washington, the campus’ EagleOne cards can now be used to tip wait staff when paying the bill. The initiative is one of a host of attempts to expand the card’s utility both on and off campus, achieve greater buy in, and boost student use of the credential.

Colleges and universities, no matter their size, are communities unto themselves. Each is a microcosm within which students develop both socially and academically. But college communities represent just a portion of their larger, surrounding environments, and it’s vital that academic institutions be actively engaged beyond their campus borders. The campus card is a key tool to facilitate this engagement.

Determining where discretionary funds can be used is a dilemma that’s seemingly as old as meal plans themselves. The questions of whether these funds can be used beyond the confines of campus is often down to university dining officials, food service providers, or some combination of the two. That’s the case at Pennsylvania’s Shippensburg University, where students aren’t happy that their flex dollar spending is restricted to on-campus purchases only.