One of the biggest conversations in our industry today is how to best utilize card data, where to draw boundaries, and which specific data can be most useful. In a blog post to the National Association of Campus Card Users (NACCU) website, Emory University’s Kim Pfeffer assists the conversation by outlining some helpful starting points for campuses looking to interpret their campus card data.

After ending its Green2Go container program nearly a year ago, Penn State is set to revitalize its reusable to-go container program with new refinements and a new name. The new “PSreUse” program will use the same green plastic to-go containers with an “updated logistical flow” to make the initiative more convenient and accessible for students.

The University of Rhode Island has been using biometric readers on campus for access since 2007, but in part due to the arrival of COVID-19 the time has arrived for URI to implement something new. Leveraging Direct Connect, the latest development in CBORD’s suite of biometric solutions for CS Gold and Odyssey customers, URI was able to install touchless MorphoWave biometric readers from IDEMIA.

Campus payment solutions provider, Transact has partnered with student hunger non-profit, Swipe Out Hunger, to address college student food insecurity. Together, the two organizations will devote resources to better ensuring college students’ success by addressing some of the burdens that hunger can pose to students.

Card transaction system provider, TouchNet has entered the mobile ordering fold with the TouchNet OrderAhead app, which gives students the ability to place orders and pay for items from participating dining locations. But while mobile ordering on its own would be a boon to any campus, the OrderAhead app is bringing far more to the table amid the ongoing social distancing challenges posed by the coronavirus.

Northern Michigan University will offer $100 food credits, to be loaded on campus card accounts, to any students and staff that upload proof of their COVID-19 vaccination. The proof of vaccination will be uploaded to individuals’ university accounts via NMU’s Bridge App, and the dining credits can be used by swiping an NMU ID card at checkout.

Virginia Tech recently held its annual Flex Out Hunger event, a program that uses student flex funds from dining plans to raise money for the Montgomery County Emergency Assistance Program (MCEAP) and the Student Emergency Fund. The program enables students to donate leftover funds from their meal plans, with this year’s event raising $21,265.02 and $7,088.34 for the two charities respectively.

Penn State students put up impressive donation numbers during Earth Week this past April, raising more than $29,000 for the Student Emergency Fund by donating extra dining dollars from their campus meal plans. The leftover dining dollars were donated to the charitable organization, Swipe Out Hunger, which has quickly become one of the leading food donation programs for universities across the country.

Campus transaction and payment solutions provider, Transact, will host a virtual town hall discussion covering students’ safe return to campuses and using technology in innovative ways to facilitate social distancing and limit person-to-person interactions. Campus executives from Tufts University, Grand Canyon University, and Georgia Institute of Technology will share their experiences during the “Preparing for Back to School with Transact Mobile Ordering – A Powerful Tool to Enforce Social Distancing” event.

Syracuse University has gone back to the campus dining drawing board, reworking its meal plan system and consolidating declining balance funds into a single account. The university’s Housing, Meal Plan and I.D. Card Services Office has chosen a new block meal plan system that will take effect with the start of the 2021-22 academic year.