Campus ID News
Card, mobile credential, payment and security
FEATURED
PARTNERS

Is the town big enough for the two of them?

CampusIDNews Staff   ||   Sep 01, 2002  ||   , ,

Private meal plan provider targets 18 college towns

On-campus dining operations are seeing some new competitors in town. The beginning of this fall semester marked the introduction of the Campus Dining Network, a privately held company that has fostered 18 local meal plans across the country. The initial sites include Gainesville, Florida and Chapel Hill, North Carolina targeting University of Florida and UNC-Chapel Hill students respectively.

The Campus Dining Network (CDN) program is an outgrowth of its first affiliate, The Corner Meal Plan, which started in 1993 as an off-campus program in Charlottesville, Virginia, home of the University of Virginia. According to CDN the Corner Meal Plan has grown to include 2,500 students on the plan with 50 local restaurants participating.

Here’s how it works. CDN offers students a prepaid account with a 1-1 conversion of dollars into “dining dollars.” There is no fee associated with the account, and the students are encouraged to recruit others with a bounty of $10 for each account opened with at least $150.00. Refunds are available, and balances carry-over from semester to semester.

As for the merchant, CDN offers a Verifone card terminal at no cost, then processes transactions at a rate “similar to or slightly higher than typical Visa/Mastercard rates”, according to Ann Marie Gulian, Vice President of Operations at CDN. “Merchants have been very pleased with the program,” said Ms. Gulian. “As Campus Dining Network provides marketing and promotion services we have seen merchants revenues rise as much as 14% through the program.”

CDN recently launched the Carolina Meal Plan in Chapel Hill, N.C., home of UNC-Chapel Hill. The off-campus plan currently includes 26 merchants and just 70 participants, however, it is just weeks old. Jersey Mike’s Subs was one of the initial merchants participating in the Chapel Hill program. According Michael Rose, the restaurant’s General Manager, “operation and end of day settlement are very easy, just like with our other payment terminal.” Mr. Rose reports that though card use has been moderate to date, he is convinced that levels will rise as CDN has been marketing the program and the participating merchants heavily via, “ads, flyers, giveaways, even door-to-door.”

The response from college dining program managers has been understandably cool, although not necessarily adversarial. UNC-Chapel Hill offers the Carolina Dining Services meal plan, a voluntary plan that currently serves approximately 4,600 out of 7,000 on-campus students. Following the addition of several new on-campus vendors (including Subway, Burger King, and Jamba Juice) in the last year the University saw a dramatic increase in revenue, up more than $1 million in the on-campus food services operations.

Also, in spite of some industry speculation that bank-sponsored off-campus debit programs hurt on-campus sales, UNC-Chapel Hill has experienced these revenue increases while the school has partnered with Wachovia Bank to issue a Visa Check Card as part of the UNC One Card. “We have not changed our program in light of the off-campus offerings,” said Mike Freeman, UNC-Chapel Hill’s Director of Auxiliary Services. “We believe that our continued success will come as a result of quality, convenient services offered at a fair price.”

It seems that CDN’s offering is most appealing to those students who live off-campus while the UNC-Chapel Hill program has increased sales among its core group of on-campus residents. It appears that in Chapel Hill, both plans may be able to coexist and even, perhaps, compliment one another. Whether this holds true in the other 17 cities in which CDN has launched–or is preparing to launch–competitive meal plan offerings remains to be seen.

In light of the Chapel Hill, N.C. example, some common business criteria continue to apply. If products and services are priced competitively and offer convenience, the sales will come. Conversely, no amount of convenience will compensate for poor product offerings that are out of step with the market’s demands. While there are those who might disagree, competition is indeed a good thing.

You can learn more about the Campus Dining Network at www.campusdiningnetwork.com and the UNC-Chapel Hill OneCard at www. onecard.unc.edu/default.htm

Related Posts

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter

RECENT ARTICLES

USF ID card back
Mar 28, 24 /

Caveat emptor when adding contact numbers to campus cards

The back of University of South Florida’s ID card provides several phone numbers for students in crisis or seeking safety services. Many campus cards contain similar resources, but what happens when this information changes. How do you deal with incorrect contact info for essential services? The USF card prominently lists contact numbers for the victim […]
High school bathroom

Bathroom breaks tracked by campus ID and mobile app

At California’s Fresno High, a new app is authorizing and monitoring trips to the bathroom in an effort to increase students’ time in class and decrease gathering in halls and bathrooms. Of course, this has not gone over well with students. Raising your hand and asking the teacher if you can go to the bathroom […]
Atrium Ozzi container

Atrium clients track check-out and return of reusable containers at OZZI kiosks

The push to reduce or even eliminate single-use containers from campus dining is now easier for Atrium clients. Thanks to a seamless integration between Atrium and the OZZI reusable container program, the processes for both students and dining services is streamlined. Atrium clients have been using OZZI for years, but the two systems were independent. […]
CIDN logo reversed
The only publication dedicated to the use of campus cards, mobile credentials, identity and security technology in the education market. CampusIDNews – formerly CR80News – has served more than 6,500 subscribers for more than two decades.
Twitter

Feb. 1 webinar explores how mobile ordering enhanced campus life, increased sales at UVA and Central Washington @Grubhub @CBORD

Join Jeff Koziol and Robert Gaulden from @AllegionUS as we explore how mobile credentials and proptech are changing on- and off-campus housing.

Load More...
Contact
CampusIDNews is published by AVISIAN Publishing
315 E. Georgia St.
Tallahassee, FL 32301
www.AVISIAN.com[email protected]
Use our contact form to submit tips, corrections, or questions to our team.
©2024 CampusIDNews. All rights reserved.