Colorado State University has launched a revised campus card designed to enhance access to on-campus vendors and venues.
The Fort Collins, Colo.-based school is replacing its E-Card with a program called RamCash Express, which supports an on-campus, declining-balance account available to university students, employees, family members of students who reside in university apartments and conference guests, Neal Lujan, director of RamCard and technology services for the university’s housing and dining services, tells PaymentsSource.
The E-Card, which the school will discontinue on Dec. 31, supported prepaid payments at some of the campus’ food and beverage venues, Lujan says. Individuals may use the magnetic stripe RamCash Express card at any participating on-campus venue or merchant, including dining halls, university apartment laundry facilities, recreation-center services and parking services, hen adds.
The school expanded its card program earlier this fall to accommodate individuals staying at the more than 900 university apartments, Lujan says. “Many of the students living in these apartments are graduate students who have spouses or family members living with them who need an easy way to access on-campus services because they do not have a school identification card,” he says.
Students, staff and nonstudents may open a RamCash account with a minimum $25 deposit, and they pay no set-up, transaction or minimum-balance fees, according to the university. Cardholders may load funds into the campus card account online, at add-value stations, by phone or fax, or at the RamCard office.
The university administers the card program and processes transactions through NuVision Networks Corp. and Datacard Group software, Lujan says. Participating merchants “use an array of card readers and point-of-sale terminals compatible with the NuVision system,” he adds.
The university supports approximately 16,500 active RamCash campus-ID accounts and about 1,640 active RamCash Express accounts for students, staff and their family members, Lujan notes.
Most campus card programs are designed to provide college students with a more-efficient means of identification, but once “you extend it to family members and other guests, it is still about convenience but also helps to generate more revenue for the school,” Bill McCracken, CEO of Atlanta-based financial-services research firm Synergistics Research Corp., tells PaymentsSource. “It also encourages students and faculty to promote the card,” he adds.
In today’s economy, many state governments are tightening budgets and increasing tuition fees, so higher-education institutions are most likely looking for more ways to generate more revenue, McCracken says.
By extending the campus card option to nonstudents, even if it’s just to family members and conference guests, the school still is encouraging members of the local community to “patronize on-campus merchants, such as book stores and dining facilities,” he notes.
However, the school may face opposition from off-campus merchants who notice they are loosing business, McCracken says.
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