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.

The University of Colorado Colorado Springs is now enabling students, faculty, and staff to add their Lion OneCard to their smartphones and watches to leverage mobile credentials across campus. The move to mobile credentials is being led by UCCS’ Office of Information Technology and includes a mobile credentialing program, contactless payment, building access, and more.

Western Washington University is revamping its campus card office services, moving issuance operations to a more central hub in the university’s Student Business Office, as well as implementing mobile credentials for students and staff. The transition of card office location and oversight has been years in the making, as has moving the Western Card onto student mobile devices.

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.

Hospitality software solutions and services provider, Agilysys, Inc., has implemented its POS platform at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Campus. The deployment includes the Agilysys InfoGenesis ecosystem of cloud-native SaaS POS solutions for its campus dining, including InfoGenesis POS, IG Buy self-service kiosks, IG OnDemand mobile ordering and payment, and Agilysys Pay for secure payment processing.

Austin Peay State University is enabling its students to use their phones to order food from campus venues via Transact Mobile Ordering. This month, Austin Peay’s Dining Services, alongside food-service provider, Chartwells, launched its “Govs To Go” program backed by Mobile Ordering from Transact.

Engaged staff at Rochester are pushing some of the limits of the Grubhub platform, using the system in unique ways beyond just mobile ordering. This healthy partnership between campus and vendor has led to a cooperative pushing of boundaries and valuable problem solving both before and after a global pandemic.