FOCUS

Higher ed institutions are constantly innovating to fit the changing needs of students to support their success. Kevin Smith, Assistant Vice President and Director of Student Records and Financial Services at Canisius University, joins FOCUS to share how the university’s experience in evolving the one-stop shop with a new solution from TouchNet, Student Account Advisor. Smith offers insights on how Student Account Advisor provides a comprehensive view of a student’s financial engagement while protecting sensitive information, how Canisius has applied the solution, and his plans for campus-wide expansion.

About Canisius University
Canisius University is a liberal arts institution outside of Buffalo, New York. The university is aJesuit institution that serves 2,700 students across undergraduate and graduate programs. Canisius is a long-time TouchNet partnerand has been live since 2001 when they initially implemented credit card payments in the payment gateway. Over the years, the university has added many solutions including Cashiering, the Bill+Payment suite, Payment Plans, Marketplace for ecommerce, and ACH validation with the help of TouchNet. Most recently, Canisius added TouchNet’s newest solution, Student Account Advisor into the fold and has already seen tremendous results.

What is Student Account Advisor?
When Canisius’ Student Records and Financial Services Center converted to a one-stop shop, the last piece to provide a more efficient experience was the addition of Student Account Advisor. TouchNet’s Student Account Advisor is an integrated solution that provides a centralized oversight and advanced customer service to students who have questions or need personal assistance with their accounts.

The solution pulls data from student information software (SIS) systems into one screen for easy navigation, without displaying any sensitive information. The unified dashboard of student information eliminates the need to sign into multiple systems, giving advisors more time to help students and enhancing the student experience in financial offices. Authorization can be customized to give certain advisors and offices more access than others to mitigate privacy concerns. The built-in communication function allows advisors to reach out directly to students in need, or to follow up on their questions.

Simplifying advising students
Since implementing Student Account Advisor, Canisius University has seen great improvements in staff efficiency. Student Account Advisor is primarily utilized in the Student Records and Financial Services Center, but has also been rolled out to the Griff Center (their office for advising, tutoring, mentoring, career success, and coaching), and the university’s co-op graduate programs. Plans for further expansion include other high-contact offices, such as deans and academic advising, that students engage with. Smith finds that the solution has overall eased complications in student transactions in his office and other on-campus applications for staff.

“It simplified the transaction. It created a true one-stop shop experience that enabled the users to assist students and parents when discussing financial aid, student accounts, and academic data points that are crucial in a student's success,” said Smith.

In addition to these simplified transactions, Canisius University has experienced higher student retention rates since Student Account Advisor’s addition to the one-stop shop. Smith credits this to the centralized information dashboard, giving advisors a more holistic view of a student’s situation and more opportunity for a more personalized student experience.

Set your institution up for success
Although Canisius’ transformation with Student Account Advisor didn’t happen overnight, Smith and other management at the university learned to ask the right questions to maximize the solution. One of the most important parts of figuring out the right plan for implementation is to identify those high-engagement offices that deal with students regularly and decide if the solution would simplify processes.

As Smith outlines, another key step in the process is properly training staff on how to use the software in the most efficient way possible. Finally, keep in mind the idea of helping the whole student, not just with finances. This will open up opportunities for Student Account Advisor expansion, improving the student experience along the way.

To learn more about Student Account Advisor, schedule a demo with a TouchNet Solutions Consultant.

Special Guest: Kevin Smith.

Many higher education administrators are called to their positions for the same reason: to help students succeed. Lisa Mazure, Associate Vice Chancellor for Finance and Fiscal Services at Alamo Colleges District, joins this episode of FOCUS to share her experiences with supporting students while keeping accounts receivable and revenue flow healthy. Listen to hear her journey of improving account services at different institutions, leading to an increase in student success and financial literacy.

Lansing Community College
Mazure joined Lansing Community College as the institution’s Controller after 25 years working for the government in the Office of the Auditor General. One of the first things she noticed in her role at Lansing was the disjointed experience for students interacting with the Student Finance Office for payments and refunds. Students were forced to log into multiple systems to manage different functions. From that point, she sought to consolidate the system down to one unified platform to make it easier for students.
In her search for solutions, the benefits of TouchNet became clear.

The college already used TouchNet for accepting online payments, but learned it could be expanded to also offer payment plans, refunds, and much more all through a single solution. This allowed LCC to reduce the number of systems that staff had to be trained on, improve the student and staff experience by managing everything in one place, and provide streamlined reporting and updated student accounts.

Payment plans
Once Mazure’s mission to simplify student finances was complete, she turned her attention to creating payment plans that accelerated student success.
“My goal is always for my students to be able to balance that financial responsibility with their academic success,” said Mazure.

One of the first plans the college implemented was bi-weekly payment plans, which remains popular with students because it spreads payments out in a way that matches up with paychecks rather than one lump sum each month.

Lansing also added specialized payment plans for past-due balances. Each plan is specific to a student’s account balance and the repayment agreement they have with the institution. Students on this plan have the opportunity to have their balances forgiven if they complete a certain number of credit hours and meet other Student Finance Office requirements.

Students on financial aid that didn’t cover their full balance were given a payment plan that started later in the semester, after their financial aid was fully rewarded. This made it easier on students to pay correct balances after the add/drop course period concluded. Veterans, students in the Adult Resource Center, those with childcare scholarships, and other special cases were also given additional payment plan options. Adding plans for these unique situations gave students more financial freedom, helping them be more successful on campus.

Alamo Colleges District
The Alamo Colleges District is a system of five independently accredited colleges with over 69,000 students across Bexar County in southern Texas. The district is home to an HBCU and all five are Hispanic serving institutions. Since Mazure joined the district, the system has been dealing with a large accounts receivable balance stemming from conditions during the pandemic, in which the colleges avoided putting holds on student accounts.

She and her team are actively exploring solutions for reengaging students with past due balances and starting the process of placing holds again. It is important for Mazure and the system to find the balance between financial responsibility and academic achievement.

Like Lansing Community College, the Alamo Colleges District uses TouchNet solutions for student finance needs, but has not used the tools to their full potential. Mazure has been working to incorporate as many TouchNet solutions as possible to create immediate changes to help students.

Balancing accounts receivable
The first change the district implemented was separating out past-due balances from current payment plans, so the financial office could work with students to address each balance on its own. Before then, payments made to current statements were automatically applied to past-due balances, making it difficult for students to stay up-to-date on current charges. Mazure’s approach is that students should have the opportunity to take care of past due balances independent of payment plans for current terms.

The Alamo Colleges District has now expanded their payment plan options to give students more flexibility to choose a plan that is right for them, leading to increases in payment plan enrollments and healthier accounts receivable balances while helping students meet their goals.

To further address outstanding past-due balances, the district has classified them into different buckets. Depending on how old the balance is, it might be forgiven. In other instances, students may be directly contacted with the option to enroll in a specialized repayment plan like mentioned before. The hope is that fewer students will be affected when the District decides to reimplement holds since they will have had the opportunity to resolve past due balances. These efforts tie back to the district’s goal of eliminating poverty through education and have an overall positive effect on students and their finances.

Maximize change at your institution
Getting the most out of your enterprise-level solutions doesn’t have to be as daunting as it may seem. For Mazure, getting buy-in from staff and other leadership at Alamo Colleges District early in the process made all the difference. They have been able to work together to establish what the institution calls WIGs (wild improvement goals) to stay on strategy as they move forward. The IT department has also been integral in the process because they know the most about the existing TouchNet system and what was possible.

As far as communicating with students about upcoming changes, payment plans, overall student financial literacy, and the Business Office’s role in their success, the district has incorporated student financial services into the orientation process. This sets a foundation with students from the moment they step foot on campus that the student finance office is there to help. This coaches students that they have a stake in their education, not just on the academic side, but also when it comes to finances. Keeping all this in mind helps the student finance office move towards the final goal: helping students succeed financially, so they can succeed academically.

Special Guest: Lisa Mazure.

As higher ed institutions continue to evolve to offer more cashless payment solutions, automated clearing house (ACH) payments are becoming more popular. This week, Brad Smith, senior director of industry engagement and advocacy at Nacha, joins FOCUS to discuss the benefits of ACH payments for campus transactions. Learn more about ACH payments on campus, Nacha, and efforts to update the ACH rules for better risk management in the network.

What are ACH payments?
ACH payments are direct transactions involving a bank account. Most online payments attached to a bank account number are ACH, which allows transactions to be reflected to the account in near real-time. ACH payments are popular with different merchants because of the lower fees compared to other payment methods, reliability, and security.

“If you get paid by direct deposit, you know what the ACH network is,” said Smith.

In 2022, 30 billion transactions were made through the ACH network totalling $76.7 trillion. Business-to-business payments through same-day ACH saw a 44% growth in 2022, and in the first quarter of 2023 alone, same-day ACH transactions grew by 94% compared to first quarter of 2022.

Institution implementation
As Smith explains, ACH is most practical when used for large payments. ACH may not make sense for smaller purchases like at campus stores, sporting events, or dining halls. However, opportunities exist for ACH to be used for tuition payments, payroll, and business-to-business payments for accounts receivable and accounts payable.

Nacha’s role in ACH payments
Nacha owns and manages rules for the ACH network. Merchants, also known as ACH originators, enter an originator agreement with their bank, credit union, or third party processor, like TouchNet, to follow a specific set of standards to comply with. New rules are highlighted on the Nacha website.

For institutions implementing more ACH payment options on campus, Nacha is also working on a suite of tools to help educate students, parents, and vendors on why ACH is a good option.

Avoiding fraud
According to Smith, risks for fraud in regards to ACH do not vary greatly from other payment methods. The trend now is vendor impersonation. For example, a bad actor will call a staff member acting like a vendor who needs to change banking information. Next thing you know, payments are going to the bad actor instead of the actual vendor.

To help, Nacha provides a risk framework for partners that helps merchants address fraud. The first part of the framework are strict rules to set a solid anti-fraud foundation, which now includes a provision to validate transactions without needing to give out routing and account numbers. The second part is the operating guidelines that show merchants how to apply the rules to their processes.

Nacha recently rolled out new supplemental data security requirements to ensure data is secure while it’s at rest. This means that account information is unreadable, deleted, or masked properly any time ACH data is not being used. Third party vendors also held to the same standards as ACH originators to keep security a priority.

Best practices
As previously stated, the best opportunities for institutions to use ACH to reduce costs and increase efficiencies are for tuition, payroll, and business to business with vendors.

Smith believes one of the ways to stay vigilant against fraud is to continue education on the latest trends. This can be managed with an institution’s relationship with their bank or processor and completing regular training to stay up-to-date on compliance and fraud trends. There are also different organizations that offer training to colleges and universities on the latest ACH rules, risk courses, and audit courses.

Learn more about ACH rules and alleviating risk at www.nacha.org/rules/new.

Special Guest: Brad Smith.

On this episode of FOCUS, Doug Vanderpoel joins from Mount Holyoke College to share insights into how his institution uses the TouchNet OneCard Campus ID system to enhance the campus experience. From student ID management to ensuring campus safety and smart data monitoring, Mount Holyoke College has developed numerous unique and innovative uses for their OneCard system.

Mount Holyoke College
Mount Holyoke College, the oldest women’s college in the U.S., was established in 1837 in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is home to over 2,000 students and 80 major buildings across the campus’ 800 acres. The college is a longtime TouchNet client, having implemented nearly every solution offered in the past 25 years. Most notable is the OneCard system, which Mount Holyoke has tailored to meet a wide range of needs.

An Integrated Campus ID Program
OneCard simplifies the student experience on campus. Students at Mount Holyoke use OneCard for their student ID, access to dorms and other campus buildings, meal plan swipes in the dining hall, tickets to events, vending, tracking packages, and even for POS transactions.

After the school got the initial functions of OneCard up and running, they sought more ways to integrate it into campus life. Most recently, they’ve partnered with USEFULL, a TouchNet Ready Partner, to provide reusable takeout containers in the dining hall, which are monitored and paid for through OneCard. The campus also has 24/7 coffee machines that are integrated with OneCard, so students can use their ID for payment. Faculty can even use their IDs to activate the institution’s gas and fuel stations to fill up the institution’s fleet vehicles.

Integrated safety measures
The safety of students is paramount to Mount Holyoke College, as is evident in the measures they take to monitor access to dorms and buildings with OneCard. Mount Holyoke uses the system to grant or deny access to specific areas of the campus at any given time based on predetermined criteria, and on case-by-case situations if needed. When the school hosts conferences, attendees are given limited access with a visitor ID through OneCard for entry to the dining hall, presentation areas, and on-campus lodging accommodations for the duration of the conference.

Mount Holyoke has also connected various sensors with the Master Security Monitor feature of OneCard to detect irregularities at sensitive places on campus. The system alerts campus staff when emergency showers and eyewash stations are used in labs, sensors are tripped in the art museum, and even when there is unexpected motion around the on-campus horse stables.

Additionally, Mount Holyoke has connected panic buttons to the system as well for students and faculty to contact public safety in the case of emergencies. These panic buttons are also placed across campus in areas like the HR department, cash POS locations, practice rooms in the music department and more. If a button is pressed, public safety is notified immediately to respond to the location.

OneCard as a data source
The OneCard system is constantly gathering data, which Mount Holyoke decided to put to work in making informed decisions. It has given valuable insights into student behavior surrounding meal plans, dining hours, and dormitory capacity. The integration of the system with POS systems also aids in tracking popular food items, easing the product ordering process. Additionally, the ability to generate reports on dormitory usage and visitor patterns helps optimize campus resources.

The key to implementation
Having the right partner can make all the difference when setting up a system like OneCard. Listening to your teams and being communicative is one of the easiest ways to gain faculty and student adoption.

“Just build good relationships and listen to people's issues and problems and know your system and understand that you can have an effect on that,” said Vanderpoel.

As Mount Holyoke stands to prove, OneCard can be used in countless ways across campus. With the right approach and the right team, your institution can unlock the full potential of technology to enhance the overall student experience.

Special Guest: Doug Vanderpoel.

Guiding international students through account payments can be tricky. With currency exchange rates constantly changing, it can be difficult for students to be confident that they are paying the correct amount. On this episode of FOCUS, Mike Pilman, System Administrator for the Account Receivables Office at Tulane University, joins us to give insight on how Tulane works with TouchNet and TransferMate to simplify payments for international students while improving administrative processes for their staff and protecting the institution against fraud.

Tulane University
Tulane University was founded in 1834 in New Orleans as the Medical College of Louisiana. Today, the university is a private research institution with 14,500 students across ten undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools. Ten percent of the school’s population are international, coming from 90 countries. Pilman says that the institution is looking to expand its international population, particularly in graduate degree programs.

Issues with cross-border payments
With so many international students from so many different countries, the common issues with international payments added up for Tulane. . Students are not only unfamiliar with U.S. banking systems, but also with calculating currency exchange rates with ever changing market rates. This led to incorrect payment amounts, delayed payments, and payments with no student account information included. The combination of issues left a lot of work for accounts receivables to manually fix. Tulane needed a solution to automate their processes and found it in TransferMate.

TransferMate
Tulane first began working with TransferMate 11 years ago to support cross-border payments which helped tremendously with backend reconciliation. But it wasn’t until they transitioned to using the integration between TransferMate and TouchNet that they saw the biggest change. Through this integration, students are able to initiate payments with TransferMate directly in their Student Account Center.

The embedded solution includes a currency exchange calculator that converts the student’s payment amount from US dollars to the equivalent in their local currency. The student completes the details of the transaction within their account and then pays TransferMate according to instructions provided. TransferMate then handles all the details of the currency exchange, cash clearing, and the transmission of payment directly to Tulane. Students are able to access their account at any time to check the status of their payment and TransferMate offers 24/7 customer service.

Campus adoption
Using TransferMate is now the preferred payment option for international students at Tulane. The embedded solution is easily adopted by students, which Pilman attributes to the integration with TouchNet Payment Center.

“Having it [TransferMate] embedded in the billing and payments portal, that really was the biggest factor,” says Pilman.

Tulane also provides general advice on TransferMate on their payment options webpage, which is listed on the Student Accounts Receivable and Office of International Students websites. They also talk to students about it during orientation to make sure every international student knows about it.

Helping more than just students
Aside from international students, TransferMate alleviated many stressors for the accounts receivable staff. Before, staff had to manually alter accounts with any issues. Now, problems with balances and reconciliation are automatically updated with TransferMate, giving staff more time to focus on student needs.

With TransferMate, the need for students to use bank wires has decreased significantly, which has strengthened Tulane’s cybersecurity.. Previously, the institution had their bank wire information on their website for international students to use, leaving Tulane open to bad actors. They still offer wire transfers to students, but only need to give out their bank wire information upon request.

Simplifying international payments
In parting advice, Pilman recounts the benefit of going to higher education conferences and learning from other institutions who can serve as a model for your school. He believes that a more universal approach focused on making the payment process as easy as possible for students and payers is the first step in creating new paths for payments.

Special Guest: Mike Pilman.

On this episode of FOCUS, Kristy Pritchett, Director of Student Account Services at the University of Alabama, joined us to discuss how a student-friendly approach to past-due accounts lead to higher retention rates. The university created their approach out of a need to give additional support to students that were facing financial hardship. Through an integration with TouchNet, the University of Alabama partnered with ECSI RecoverySelect to focus on accounts receivable and past-due accounts, which led to an increase in their retention rates. Read more as Pritchett shares how the institution successfully transformed itself into a model university for the student-friendly approach.

The University of Alabama
Founded in 1831, the University of Alabama is a renowned research institution located in Tuscaloosa. The campus is the academic home to more than 38,000 students and on track to continue to increase enrollment. Although the institution is now seeing positive growth trends, student debt and past-due accounts poses a threat to retention. Pritchett and her team knew that helping students stay enrolled was key to securing the institution’s finances.

Finding a solution with ECSI’s RecoverySelect
Like many other institutions seeking a solution to address past-due accounts and student debt, the University of Alabama wanted to maintain a student-centric approach.

“We're really trying to provide a benefit and help that student work through whatever is going on, so that they can get it paid off and continue their education with the university,” says Pritchett.

Rather than punishing students for falling behind on payments with collection agencies and academic holds, the university wanted to help them be in control of their student finances. Enter ECSI's RecoverySelect — a comprehensive solution designed to manage past-due accounts with compassionate customer service.

Key benefits of RecoverySelect

Streamlined and standardized processes
Previously, the University of Alabama struggled with monitoring and collecting past-due accounts. Repayment counselors used in excess of 100 letter templates, leading to inconsistencies and a lack of standards in communication. RecoverySelect streamlined these processes, using just five Regulation F compliant letters and phone calls to keep clear and consistent communication with students. Student accounts are managed by ECSI for 120 days before being sent to collections.

Integration and compliance
The University of Alabama was already a TouchNet and Ellucian Banner client, simplifying the ECSI integration and enabling the university to stay compliant with ever-changing payment regulations. Data flows seamlessly between systems, providing the most up-to-date information to collection agencies and helping the institution avoid regulatory pitfalls.

Staff efficiency
The implementation of RecoverySelect reduced the burden of repetitive and time-consuming tasks, such as sending letters and making phone calls, on the university's staff. This allowed the University of Alabama to repurpose staff members for other essential roles, like providing more personalized student support and ensuring optimal resource utilization.

Improved reporting
RecoverySelect provides detailed reporting, including a collection agency scorecard. This level of transparency allows the university to measure the effectiveness of their efforts and provide insight into what's working and what needs adjustment. And if tactics need to shift.

Positive student feedback
One of the University of Alabama’s priorities was maintaining a positive student experience throughout the debt recovery process. ECSI sends emails to students before their accounts transfer to RecoverySelect, explaining the situation and emphasizing that they aim to help, not punish, students. This has resulted in positive feedback across campus and renewed trust between the institution and its students.

Student-centered results
The University of Alabama has achieved remarkable results with ECSI's RecoverySelect solution. They've seen an approximately 40% resolution rate for accounts that go through the RecoverySelect process, meaning that a significant portion of students have been able to resolve their past-due accounts without entering collections. Moreover, 25% of these students ultimately return to the university, adding to the positive impact on student retention.

A success story
When asked about advice to other institutions, Pritchett emphasizes the importance of entering a trusted partnership to make the student-friendly approach successful. Experts like ECSI know how to streamline processes and stay compliant with evolving regulations, allowing institutions to focus more on supporting students in need.

The University of Alabama's integration with ECSI's RecoverySelect serves as a model for higher education institutions grappling with past-due accounts. By prioritizing student experience, compliance, and efficiency, the University of Alabama found a path to improved retention rates and financial stability.

Special Guest: Kristy Pritchett.

Smartphone use is ubiquitous, especially on college campuses. With nearly every student carrying a smart device with them all the time, it was only a matter of time before colleges began investigating whether mobile IDs could help enhance the student experience. Joe Harting, a leader in campus operations, joined the Focus podcast to discuss what he learned from pioneering Mobile ID for Apple and Android at Northern Arizona University (NAU) as the Director of Campus Operations.

NAU’s spirit of innovation
As one of three major higher ed institutions in the state of Arizona, the NAU Lumberjacks distinguish themselves by embracing innovation and pushing the envelope. After all, NAU was one of the first to introduce autonomous delivery robots with Starship Technologies on their campus. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, the campus saw even further momentum to find creative solutions that would reduce public face-to-face interactions, increase convenience, and overall enhance the student experience.

The right opportunity at the right time
In 2018, Harting first partnered with TouchNet to implement a new system for their auxiliary services. Knowing that NAU were open to new ideas, Touchnet approached them with the opportunity to be the first school to pilot OneCard Mobile ID with their popular student ID, the Jacks Card.

In NAU student surveys, mobile IDs were the number one requested feature for the NAU Go App. Students who have grown up with mobile devices their entire life expect an app for everything and NAU jumped at the opportunity to deliver what students want.

Harting knew he had the right infrastructure already in place with TouchNet and the timing couldn’t have been better; the University was especially motivated to bring new and creative ideas to the table during the global pandemic.

Putting the pieces in place
The first step in the process was putting the budget in place to pay for the new program. Harting found success by presenting mobile IDs as an exciting new technology that could prove disruptive in the market.

Harting also embarked on a communications campaign, bringing all stakeholders to the table and building the support necessary to move the project forward.

Finally, NAU completed an internal discovery process and mobile readiness assessment with the help of TouchNet.

“Touchnet provided us with the initial foundational documentation that was necessary for us to go through our campus, identify what we had in place, and how well positioned we were to introduce this new technology,” said Harting.

Overcoming obstacles
In implementing the Mobile Jacks Card, NAU had to consider every touchpoint the existing physical card was being used: dining, door access, transportation, recreation, etc. Harting’s staff uncovered more than 1,000 places the card could be engaged and had to find suitable alternatives where mobile IDs couldn’t be easily applied like when the Rec Center held a student ID in exchange for renting sports equipment. In some cases, the Mobile ID proved to be an even better solution than what the physical Jacks Card could provide.

NAU also engaged a dedicated communications specialist from the beginning trained in change management and ADKAR (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement). This specialist helped streamline the transition process through strategic messaging. Their efforts were backed by extensive focus group testing to help ensure the provisioning process was easy for students.

Measuring success
In a post-launch poll, 70 percent of NAU students gave the Mobile Jacks Card five stars out of five. More than 90 percent rated their satisfaction with three stars or more.

Additionally, mobile IDs solved the problem of logistics issues and bottlenecks issuing IDs at the start of the school year. While physical IDs are still available, NAU is taking a “mobile first” approach, encouraging students to create their mobile IDs at orientation, making it one less thing students need to worry about when they come to campus as an official Lumberjack. No more long lines to get student ID pictures taken or pick up the printed ID.

An unexpected positive consequence of mobile IDs, NAU also saw increased participation in meal plans and campus transactions. Since students are never without their phone, they’re never without their ID.

“I've been fortunate to be a part of many, many, many projects and initiatives here throughout my 20 year career at NAU,” said Harting. “And I really have to say, this was, this has got to be in the top two or three, if not number one projects. It took a lot of time and energy and effort, but it was absolutely worth it.”

The future of Mobile ID
“As exciting and novel and as new as something like a mobile ID card is, I think, eventually, it's going to become [a matter of] making sure that your institution shows that you understand what student expectations are,” said Harting. “And that we are dynamic, innovative here and willing to deliver those experiences.”

While mobile IDs may become business as usual across campuses, NAU is already looking at what comes next. Harting sees mobile ID as a way to create additional revenue opportunities – not just on campus, but also at local retailers, restaurants, movie theaters and more. Ideally, mobile IDs can be a catalyst to incentivizing those retailers to provide student discounts and rewards programs.

Learn more about the TouchNet OneCard Mobile ID here, or contact us for a complimentary assessment of your campus technology to see how close you are to implementing Mobile ID on your campus.

Special Guest: Joe Harting.

Sustainability is an increasingly present topic in higher education. Today’s students value sustainability in their lives - on and off campus. Karen Dickinson, General Manager of TAFE Queensland Gold Coast, recently joined the FOCUS podcast to share how their new Robina Campus has taken a holistic approach to sustainability since its inception. From finding best practices to how sustainability is infused into every aspect of the campus, Robina serves as a model for comprehensive sustainability in higher education.

TAFE Queensland Gold Coast

TAFE (Technical and Further Education) Queensland Gold Coast boasts 22,000 students and 650 staff across six campuses along the Gold Coast of Australia. As the general manager, Dickinson oversees operations of the campus, students and staff. Around four years ago, the construction of the new Robina Campus opened the opportunity to push the envelope with sustainability in higher ed and challenge themselves to create a low carbon footprint campus.

New plans of action

As Dickinson researched best practices for sustainable campuses around the world, she saw a lack of holistic approaches. While the institutions were doing their part to be environmentally friendly, not many were infusing sustainability into every aspect of their schools.

“What I wanted to do with the Robina Campus was build a campus that would incorporate sustainability into all aspects of running a campus,” says Dickinson.

TAFE Queensland Gold Coast decided they needed to gather all the best practices to be activated in one complete approach that not only delivered sustainable operations, but also educates students on how to be good stewards of the environment inside and outside of the classroom.

The Robina Campus

Sustainability is in the DNA of the Robina Campus, starting with the build. Designers structured the large atrium using salvaged timbers. They chose carpets made from recycled materials and placed environmentally-focused art lines the walls. Skateboard and scooter storage, electric vehicle charging, organic composting areas, and recycling bins are scattered across the campus.

The classroom space at Robina has also been optimized for resource management. Each room is multi-purpose, outfitted with the latest technology used to livestream and record classes. Sustainability is even infused into the curriculum, and students have weekly opportunities to take part in eco-friendly activities.

Another large part of Robina’s holistic approach is obtaining sustainable or local resources for other on-campus offerings. Local farms supply food to the cafe and restaurant, which only use biodegradable utensils and dishes. Additionally, all suppliers the institution engages with are evaluated on their commitments to sustainability and being carbon neutral before being selected.

Data in sustainability

Robina generates 50% of their power usage from 300 solar panels, putting 12-15% back on the grid. They monitor all power, water, and wastage through Power BI. This data is used to weed out inefficiencies in resource management and help build better processes to fill those gaps.

Green your campus

While the road to a sustainable campus can be long, Robina serves as a model for greener possibilities. Dickinson attributes much of the institution’s success to engaging staff and local consulting early in the planning process. TAFE Queensland Gold Coast’s support and investment in the new campus’s mission also made the green transition as smooth as possible.

Dickinson believes that the key to greening your campus is through the holistic approach, but it cannot be done without the support of your institution and staff. With Robina’s growing admission numbers and overall student satisfaction, it’s clear to see that sustainable campuses have a future in higher education.

Special Guest: Karen Dickinson.

With all the high-tech innovations coming to campuses, it’s easy to overlook the need for a human factor in the spirit of transformation. Joe Abraham, operating partner at Beyond Academics, recently joined the FOCUS podcast to weigh in on how to encourage innovation by understanding teams through the lens of entrepreneurship. Abraham is also the author of Entrepreneurial DNA, which explores four entrepreneurial archetypes, and shares how each applies to higher ed. By understanding your team’s entrepreneurial DNA and build a team strategy with those strengths in mind, Abraham says we can see that the real key to innovation in higher ed is not technology, but the human factor.

Beyond Academics

As Abraham explains, Beyond Academics operates in three parts. The first is research and development into what the future holds for higher ed and how entrepreneurial behavior will affect the college enterprise. From the conclusions found in this research, Beyond Academics consults campuses in need of help developing and executing new strategies.

“What we try and teach schools is look, figure out who you are, who are your people, and let's build strategy around you. Rather than trying to be someone you're not,” says Abraham.

The final component of the operation is finding innovative tech companies to invest in and bring into Beyond Academics’ partner program to advocate for in the ed-tech space.

Entrepreneurial DNA

In Abraham’s book, he uses the BOSI model to categorize the four types of entrepreneurial DNA present across all people. This breaks down into having builder, opportunist, specialist, or innovator traits. He applies the BOSI model across institutions to gain a better picture of higher ed’s entrepreneurial makeup.

Builders are focused on scaling a business fast and account for around 15% of staff in higher ed. Success for them is measured by infrastructure — which when applied to higher ed, could mean payroll and available square-footage on campus.

Opportunists make up around 6% of people in higher ed and are money motivated. They tend to take high risks for high rewards and are natural promoters for what they are passionate about.

Specialists are the most common in higher ed and found in 58% of staff. They are experts at what they do, consistent, and work hard to build a reputation for their institution. Specialists are the opposite of opportunists.

Lastly are innovators, who are driven by a mission or purpose and the inverse of builders. They want to change their industry and see how their work impacts people. Innovators make up 21% of higher ed staff.

DNA for greatness

There are three principles for how a campus’ entrepreneurial makeup can be applied to strategy: individually, at a team/management level, and institutionally. Communication is key to create success at all levels. Abraham finds that grouping opposite DNA types can create a balance of behaviors in team dynamics. Each type has its strengths, which can be the perfect complement to another type’s weaknesses.

Know your archetype

Abraham’s BOSI assessment is available for free, or for a small fee for team use. With these DNA types, institutions can learn how to set their teams up for success, which in turn will set a solid foundation for encouraging innovation.

Learn more about BOSI here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gYe7KlqFMo

Get a copy of Entrepreneurial DNA here: https://www.amazon.com/Entrepreneurial-DNA-Strengths-Successful-Business/dp/0071754512

Special Guest: Joe Abraham.

As higher ed institutions continue to implement more digital technologies, data breach tactics have become increasingly sophisticated. Universities and colleges process and store massive amounts of sensitive personal and payments data, which are increasingly the target of cyberattacks. On this week’s episode of FOCUS, Sean Davidson, Senior Manager of Security Solutions at Verizon, shares the latest trends in payment security and data breaches. Davidson also imparts wisdom on the best practices of cybersecurity that institutions can follow to keep data safe and under payment card industry (PCI) standards.

Verizon in cybersecurity?

On the surface, the correlation between Verizon, a telecommunications company, and cybersecurity might not be easy to make. However, Verizon has maintained dedicated cybersecurity services for 23 years. They offer security management and assessment services out of nine global security operation centers. Verizon was an original contributor to the PCI compliance requirements, offering primary forensic investigation (PFI) and qualified security assessor (QSA) services to companies so they can confidently validate that their environment is secure and PCI compliant.

Data breach investigations report (DBIR)

Verizon’s most notable contribution to the cybersecurity industry is the Data Breach Investigation Report (DBIR). It’s seen as the foremost authority on data breach investigations and reporting and made up of data gathered by Verizon and 86 partners and industry experts. In 2022, the DBIR confirmed 5,212 data breaches out of the 23,896 security incidents reported under the DBIR’s framework. Davidson categorizes an incident as any time sensitive information is exposed, and breaches as anytime that information is then exfiltrated to outside environments.

“We analyze that data, and we boil it down and come up with a view of the cybersecurity threat landscape that companies can use to better understand their threats, their attackers, their motives, and the defensive areas that they should bolster to help prevent impact from these attackers,” said Davidson.

The DBIR’s findings are published annually to the public, with 2022 marking the 15th publication.

Trends

In Davidson’s observations, ransomware is five times more likely to affect education. Ransomware typically refers to sensitive information being compromised and held for a financial ransom. Even if the company pays the ransom, they might not regain access to the data or the data could still be leaked. A human element drives 82% of these breaches, mostly through phishing — which is when a scammer pretends to be a credible person within the victim organization to gain access to protected data.

System intrusions are also a rising threat to higher ed institutions. A system intrusion is an instance of hacking through physical means or modems. This type of cyberattack can also take place due to miscellaneous errors like sending valuable details to a third party, leaving ports open on web applications, and other sometimes human mistakes.

Web application attacks have decreased across the higher ed sector, possibly due to cloud service adoption.

Protecting institutions

One best practice to protect institutions is to have a solid security program with a good security posture. Cybersecurity insurance is a necessity, especially in the event of a breach. Davidson believes hiring a cybersecurity advisor is on the list of best practices to aid in cases of ransomware or phishing.

Zero-trust environments are quickly becoming a proven safeguard for cybersecurity breaches. The environments are created by sharing data on a need-to-know authorization. This eliminates the amount of access given to data sets, limiting potential leak opportunities.

Moving logins to two-factor authentication adds an extra layer of protection to accounts. This second step of identification could be as simple as a security question, or verification codes sent through text, email, or a phone call.

Although the threat of cyberattacks never goes away, putting these best practices into action and being vigilant of system weaknesses can make all the difference in security.

Resources from episode:

Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) is available to download for free from Verizon: https://www.verizon.com/business/resources/reports/dbir/

Payment Security Report (PSR) is available to download for free from Verizon: https://www.verizon.com/business/reports/payment-security-report/

Contact Sean Davidson at sean.davidson@verizon.com.

Special Guest: Sean Davidson.

During this week’s episode of FOCUS, Fredderick Simmons discusses how Portland Community College (PCC) is bringing together siloed services to create a powerful one-stop shop for student success. Simmons is the Student Account Services Manager, overseeing PCC’s relationships with Ellucian Banner and TouchNet. Since PCC’s recent administrative reorganization, the school has put bettering student services at the top of their priorities with the “One Together, Together One” model. Simmons shares insights on the model and what steps PCC has taken towards greater student success.

Unified for better student services
Portland Community College serves students across four campuses in the Portland area. Until recently, each campus operated under its own president and budget, reporting to the district president. To create a unified student experience, PCC restructured to bring the four campuses under the leadership of one president, currently Dr. Adrien Bennings.

PCC has since adopted a “One Together, Together One” model to re-engage and reshape their community. The initiative takes an all-hands-on-deck approach to support student success, extending to all departments, including student accounts services, financial aid, enrollment, and more.

“You want to make sure that students are prepared in the classroom, and it's our job and our responsibility to make sure that they are financially settled outside of the classroom,” says Simmons.

On-site flex schedule
Part of PCC’s new ideology extends to staffing. The institution wanted to find a way to serve students the best they could, while allowing faculty to have a hybrid work environment when possible. The answer came in the form of on-site flex scheduling, which uses account service data to identify three peak weeks each semester where students need increased on-campus faculty presence. The data showed the days and weeks that saw the most in-person student visits and made it possible for PCC to confidently maintain in-person office hours Monday-Thursday, while being remote-only on Fridays. Students are able to have their questions answered in person when they need it most, while faculty can enjoy a hybrid workplace outside of those three weeks.

Zoom Rooms
Staying true to PCC’s new model, the way the institution communicated with students in need of help also needed an all-hands-on-deck update. As Simmons puts it, students want instant service. With Zoom Rooms, students can reach out to chat during business hours for immediate aid. Account service providers can then get on a Zoom call with students or transfer them to another department without having to start over with the chat’s archive function.

A resource beyond payments
The student accounts team at PCC is also focused on serving students beyond taking payments. Simmons shared their vision is to be more involved during student orientation to provide educational resources on financial management skills by coaching students on budgeting and financial responsibility. Additionally, he hopes to better serve their ESOL students by considering the makeup of the student population while staffing the department.

Looking forward
As PCC continues to evolve their one-stop shop, Simmons is also excited about implementing TouchNet’s newest solution, Student Account Advisor. This tool will further advance the one-stop shop mentality in the Answer Center by retrieving student account data regardless of which department it’s stored in, so staff can have all the information they need to advise students successfully. Simmons believes the tool will break down barriers that both students and faculty experience, creating a better process.

Simmons also shared what’s next for the institution. Currently, the enrollment and orientation processes are being re-imagined to be more hands-on so students have more access to staff. Overall, Simmons says the school wants to be more mindful of the population they serve and strategize how to eliminate barriers in enrollment so more students can have the experience of “One Together, Together One.”

Special Guest: Fredderick Simmons.

This week on FOCUS, we’re joined by Rob Sparks, Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Partnerships at Anthology, to discuss how creating intelligent experiences can support student success. Sparks is responsible for supporting Anthology’s corporate and global strategies, identifying new opportunities, overseeing their integrated partner ecosystem, and computer information science (CIS) market penetration. With more than 25 years of experience in the higher ed tech industry, he shares the mission of Anthology, how they create more intuitive solutions with data, the keys to successful partnerships, and upcoming trends in the ed-tech industry.

Inside Anthology
Anthology strives to create an infinite world of learning without boundaries through data-informed higher ed experiences. The company offers enterprise-level technology including student information systems (SIS), customer relationship management (CRM), learning management systems (LMS), and more to 150 million users in more than 80 countries. After combining with LMS provider Blackboard last year, Anthology is now integrated with 370 campuses worldwide. Anthology’s key to creating this inspiring new world of education is putting the learner at the center of the experience, then giving instructors and administrators the tools and insights necessary to empower the learners they serve in their community.

Data-driven experiences
At Anthology’s user conference last year, the company launched the concept of intelligent experience. Their goal is to find an efficient way to monitor the success of students by finding moments of intervention or interaction for at-risk students. With the integrations between their LMS, Blackboard Learn, and their CRM known as Anthology Reach, the data tied to students would be able to notify instructors of missed assignments and allow them to help the student get back on track.

“The definition of an intelligent experience is finding ways to use data to actually optimize on creating an action or an outcome that changes the behavior and the experience for the individuals involved,” says Sparks.

This data-driven experience also extends into student financials and the ability to provide informed predictions for student progression and retention based on student records. The data highlights critical factors that impact the likelihood of individuals succeeding.

Creating successful partnerships
Sparks shares that the key to Anthology’s success in building partnerships with campus service providers is their ability to facilitate an open ecosystem that allows institutions to have choice. This open ecosystem creates more impactful and effective solutions through a multi-tiered approach — providing partners with the proper tools, resources and support to optimize integration.

In relation to the success of Anthology’s partnership with TouchNet, Sparks gives credit to open communication. The approach was to engage as early and often, looking up to each other as a trusted advisors. This dedication to engagement creates a more entrepreneurial relationship, where both companies can be focused on accelerating growth together.

Next in ed-tech
This July, Anthology is holding their Anthology Together conference in Nashville. There, institutions can learn about how to build successful partnerships to be a unified front to take on the challenges facing the ed-tech industry. Details can be found at https://www2.anthology.com/together

Special Guest: Rob Sparks.

On the first episode of the new season of FOCUS, Cheryl Friesenhahn joins us to discuss the adoption of GradGuard tuition insurance at the University of Texas at Dallas. Friesenhahn is the Senior Director of Financial Services, leading the Bursar Office in overseeing all aspects of student finance for the past 18 years. Under her leadership, UT Dallas transformed their tuition refund appeals process by implementing GradGuard, enabling students to protect themselves against financial hardship in the event they have to withdraw due to a covered medical reason. We’re diving into the university’s former refund appeal process, what the addition of GradGuard has brought to the school, and Friesenhahn’s words of advice to other institutions considering tuition insurance.

UT Dallas overview
The University of Texas at Dallas is the academic home of over 31,000 students in Richardson, Texas. In addition to their varied academic programs, the university is perhaps best known for their top-ranked chess team. When it comes to managing student finance, Friesenhahn says the focus is to assist the students. By keeping them informed and providing efficient tools for payment facilitation and partnerships across campus, the university works collaboratively towards student success.

Refund policy and appeals
As all other higher ed institutions in Texas, UT Dallas follows the state mandated tuition refund policy. This can be expensive for students who need to withdraw and pay back all tuition. The university recently added Consent Manager to their TouchNet Bill+Payment suite, which prompts students to acknowledge the refund policy before they can pay their tuition and fees. This helps ensure students are fully informed of the policy.

Before the implementation of GradGuard, the business office handled an average of 20 tuition refund appeals from students each month, approving approximately 10 per month. Students with appeals based on approved medical reasons were granted a one-time exception to the state refund policy. The students’ tuition fees were then refunded.

Granting up to 10 appeals per month meant UT Dallas was refunding close to a million dollars each year in tuition. Friesenhahn wanted to seek out a better way to aid students in need in case they had recurring circumstances and mitigate the university’s loss of income.

Finding a better way with GradGuard
To create a more forgiving experience for students while maintaining revenue streams for the university. The financial services office explored alternative options. Tuition insurance through GradGuard, had been of interest to Friesenhahn for a few years at this point. And with the ease of implementing GradGuard within TouchNet, the decision was a no brainer.

GradGuard is available at no cost to its partnering institutions, can be offered directly to students when they go to pay their tuition through an integration with TouchNet, and offers coverage for situations beyond what UT Dallas grants. Their insurance policies extend to tuition, housing costs and dining plans for as low as $110 for up to $10,000 of coverage.

The university launched GradGuard in the Spring of 2022, offering tuition protection plans at the same time the student is presented with the financial responsibility agreement that all students must sign through TouchNet Consent Manager. Parents and other authorized users could also purchase a policy through the student’s account for added convenience.

Since the addition of GradGuard, the number of appeals granted by the Bursar Office in the last calendar year dropped to two, far lower than the 120 offered in previous years. Friesenhahn hopes to increase the number of covered students by continuing to communicate with students about GradGuard. She also plans to work with the Accessibility Office to target students who might be in greater need of a policy to get them covered.

Implementing GradGuard
Friesenhahn appreciates how easy it was to implement GradGuard. It was especially simple since UT Dallas already had TouchNet and PeopleSoft solutions in place. Customer support addressed any concerns or questions she had in a timely manner, making the process even more streamlined.

Friesenhahn's advice to other schools interested in GradGuard is simple: just do it.

“It doesn’t cost you anything. You're giving your students an opportunity to protect their investment in their higher education,” says Friesenhahn.

Interested in adding GradGuard to your TouchNet payment solution? Contact us here: https://go.touchnet.com/GradGuard

Learn more about GradGuard: https://hub.gradguard.com/

Special Guest: Cheryl Friesenhahn.

As cryptocurrencies continue to rise as a payment method, applications of crypto have yet to be realized in many industries, including higher education. Some early adopters have started accepting cryptocurrencies for donations, and a few have even begun to take crypto for tuition payments. But the question remains, how practical are cryptocurrencies as a form of payment in higher education?

With this comes many questions about how cryptocurrencies work and if there is a place for them in higher education. Gloria Rismondo, Senior Director of Product Strategy at Global Payments, joins in the conversation on this week’s episode of FOCUS to answer these questions and impart wisdom for campuses looking to crypto for the future.

The basics of cryptocurrency
Although this intangible currency has been around for a while, it can still be a difficult subject to fully grasp. Cryptocurrency is a digital currency that is a representation or store of value, with no physical attributes, only a digital record of value stored online. There are three basic types: decentralized, stablecoins (USDT, USDC, DAI), and central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Decentralized crypto is the most popular, with the original crypto Bitcoin and the popular Ether being part of this category. This type is not issued or managed by any one group, and value is only based on what someone is willing to pay for it. The downside with decentralized crypto is that value can be volatile, which can cause highs and lows in value.

Stablecoins are issued by a private entity and their value is tied to something else of value, such as a fiat currency or an algorithm to avoid unexpected swings in value. Some stablecoins have a collateral reverse of fiat, or money backed by a country’s government rather than a physical commodity, for the value of any coins issued. While this added stability can decrease risk for some investors, stablecoin is only as secure as the entity that issues it and the collateral that supports it.

CBDC is issued by different countries similarly to how they issue fiat currency, just in a digital format. The risk factor of this crypto is tied to the risk of the issuing government’s fiat currency. A few countries have fully launched a CBDC, and many others are either in piloting, development, or research phases.

How crypto works
Being a completely digital currency, crypto requires a hefty amount of technology to ensure proper processes and authenticity. Cryptocurrency value is stored on a blockchain, which Rismondo describes as essentially being an online, public, distributed ledger. Anyone can view the record of transactions and no single entity owns it or has the ability to add or make changes to the blockchain. A block of transactions cannot be added to the ledger unless multiple independent entities in the network process the transaction and validate its authenticity, which makes the change permanent. Blockchains solve record keeping issues while creating a secure public audit trail for cryptocurrency payments.

Acquiring cryptocurrency can be done by either buying or mining, with most people choosing to buy due to mining’s heavy tech and power reliance. Purchasers buy crypto by exchanging fiat currency, or through a credit card or bank withdrawal. The buyer also pays a fee, called a gas fee, for the cost of running and supporting the blockchain.

Once purchased, cryptocurrency is stored on the blockchain and accessible with a private key. This is a unique password that can be over 200 digits long or in a hexadecimal code. The private key is the only way to claim cryptocurrency and can be stored on secure devices or in custodial wallets like Venmo, CashApp, or Coinbase for ease of use.

What is needed for institutions to accept cryptocurrency?
As colleges and universities begin to explore whether accepting crypto is right for their organization, Rismondo shares her advice to aid the process. The first is to think of all the considerations tied to crypto.

Cryptocurrencies are treated as an investment in the US, so if the currency goes up in value, institutions will have to pay taxes on profit.
Consider the volatility of crypto and how fluxes in value could affect streams of revenue.
There are fees attached to buying and cashing out, which can have lengthy authentication and transaction times.
Thousands of cryptocurrencies exist that can be difficult to exchange for another.
The management of transactions requires a lot of technology and maintenance to keep things running efficiently.

Rismondo also recommends campuses understand their audience’s attitude towards crypto and how many people would use it, what they would use it on, and how many even have cryptocurrency.

Where to start
Institutions that decide accepting cryptocurrency is the right fit for their mission need to establish a starting point. Crypto is not frequently used for smaller purchases, ebbs in value can make it unpredictable and fees can make it cost-prohibitive. On the other hand, things like tuition, season tickets, cross border transactions, and other large purchases are more ideal candidates for crypto payments. Donations are a new frontier for cryptocurrency, and a potential fundraising method for university foundations to explore.

“I could really see donations being a more popular scenario in crypto. It’s more popularly viewed as an investment today. So, this could be very similar to someone donating their investment portfolio in stocks or bonds to the university,” Rismondo said.

Long-term strategy for maintaining cryptocurrency will depend on institutional needs, and Rismondo suggests that campuses look at payments as investments. Payments can be held in a crypto wallet and managed, or immediately converted into fiat currency immediately through provider companies.

Get the most out of crypto
To make cryptocurrency payments successful campus integrations, Rismondo gives some final advice. Institutions should contact their payment processor to find out if they already have a partnership with a crypto service provider. This is the easiest and lowest risk way to accept cryptocurrency. Educate departments on all things crypto and determine a policy in line with institution risk tolerance guidelines. These practices will take some of the uncertainty out of crypto transactions.

Paying attention to new regulations is also integral in getting the most out of an institution becoming crypto-friendly. While the US views it as an investment, the EU just approved the markets in crypto assets regulation, which requires stablecoin to be pinned to the euro with one for one collateral reserve. This also prohibits algorithmic cryptos, but nothing regarding decentralized currency has been covered yet. Working with the right providers and understanding the risks involved with cryptocurrency are the best paths forward for colleges and universities as they explore the world of cryptocurrencies.

Special Guest: Gloria Rismondo.

Campus card office operations are at the forefront of higher ed innovation. With more campuses pushing for highly integrated solutions for student and faculty ID management, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL) serves as a model of success with their Cajun Card.

Kari Foti, Director of the Campus Card Office at ULL, joins the FOCUS podcast to share how their integrated campus ID has combined different departments and uses to enhance their campus experience. From dining services to housing access, declining balance programs, campus vendors and beyond, ULL has been able to get the most out of their student ID with the help of TouchNet’s OneCard and other solutions.

Institution overview
ULL is a public university in Lafayette, Louisiana, with 19,000 students enrolled across 80 majors and 30 graduate programs. The institution recently earned a Carnegie R1 designation, ranking them in the top three percent of research universities in the country. With the 2022 fall freshman class being their largest, ULL is looking towards the future of post-pandemic levels and the economic opportunities that follow.

Foti’s position at ULL allowed her to take part in the opportunity to expand their robust campus card, known as the Cajun Card. Their student ID works with identification credentials, dining services, parking and dorm access, the classroom and library, athletic events, and other campus vendors. With this high level of integration, ULL also needed to have the right back-end support to keep the Cajun Card running smoothly.

Finding the right management
Foti thinks of the card office as the hub of campus services managed through the Cajun Card. They are able to connect to all areas of campus and build relationships and integrations with different departments. Any software that various departments use to manage their services taps into the campus ID through the card office and vice versa. While all of these departments work independently, everything is still able to run on the same card.

For the Cajun Card to hold such important cross-departmental credentials and financial information, security is a top priority. ULL partnered with their IT department in combination with OneCard to centralize access management. Access still funnels through the card office, who verify and print ID cards, but IT security is responsible for setting permissions. The card office handles temporary access through the Cajun Card for special circumstances like student workers on game days, dorms, and other campus facilities.

Cajun Card functions
Overarchingly, the Cajun Card has helped ULL reduce their cash intake, and therefore their audit risk, with the addition of Cajun Cash being integrated onto the campus ID. Students can pay with Cajun Cash at different campus vendors, on game days, at non-dining hall food services, for overdue library book fees, or even to pay for materials in the 3D printing lab.

ULL’s student ID is integrated with almost every department on campus. Dining services are the main use of the card and students are able to add funds and meal plans through the dining office. The ID cards also keep transaction reports to help dining services with their internal reporting. Sodexo, ULL’s campus dining services client, has expanded into food trucks and accepts Cajun Cash. Recently, the university is working with Sodexo and TouchNet to create online ordering for the cafeteria for students. Students can also use their Cajun Cash on their IDs at different campus vendors to buy food items.

Declining balances have also been made easier with the Cajun Card. When a student goes to the dining hall and their card is swiped, the transaction is programmed to first run the meal plan, then it goes to declining balance and Cajun Cash last. The card office does not take declining balance payments, instead students can check their balances online and make payments there or with food services.

The Cajun Card also allows professors to pull data on what students are using on-campus resources for check-in purposes. ULL’s recreation center uses their own software, but pulls information from the card to manage access levels for students. StarRez, the app used for the dorms, is integrated with the IDs for student access and other services. The Cajun Card and Cajun Cash can also be used on game days at concessions and other event vendors.

COVID innovation
Before the pandemic began in 2020, Foti and her team spent six months integrating My Photo with the Cajun Card. This meant that students could upload their own photo to be used for their ID when the university wasn’t able to have large orientation groups take ID photos on campus. In fact, around 60-75% of incoming students used My Photo, cutting down lines and potential exposures. Once students upload their photo, the card office could load it with all their other information and mail it out. Foti believes that the addition has more than paid for itself during the pandemic.

Room for growth
While ULL’s Cajun Card is a success, Foti still sees opportunities to enhance the card further. She wants to see digital IDs that students can access from their mobile devices. As well, Foti is looking at student organizations to start using the Cajun Card for their various activities and events.

“Getting more student organizations involved with using it. With all the Greek life there's so much opportunity there, you know they're trying to fundraise… When they have events if they don't want to take cash, then they can use Cajun Cash, or even if it was for within the sorority or fraternity. It’s just kind of getting the word out and expanding to let all of them know that there might be a solution to an existing problem that they have,” says Foti.

ULL is hoping to use the Cajun Card to get more data engagement from different departments. They are still working on streamlining the data received from the card to map out the student journey from start to finish. This key data will also be able to fill gaps in other processes and act as a source of truth for the university.

Final advice
Foti’s words of wisdom for other card offices looking to fully integrate their student IDs is to make it convenient. Look for the areas where people are having problems and try to find a solution for them that can help other departments with their issues. Work with all departments from a technical standpoint, so the cards can be maximized for the most efficient usage.

Special Guest: Kari Foti.

Michelle Ziegmann and Vicki Breitinger of the California College of the Arts (CCA) recently joined the FOCUS podcast to discuss their experience redesigning student services. CCA is a nonprofit art and design college in San Francisco, California, with around 1,500 students across 34 degree programs. The college serves as a great case study for other campuses as they begin to rethink their student experiences.

Ziegmann is the Associate Vice President for Technology Services and oversees enterprise systems, network cybersecurity, application development, the help desk, data governance, computing, and staff. Breitinger is CCA’s Director of Student Accounts, managing student financial service processes and policy, maintaining alignment to student success initiatives, and supporting enrollment management goals. Together, they were able to work with their teams to undertake new initiatives to redefine CCA’s student experience. Read more to learn about their process, what they discovered and implemented, and their advice for other institutions getting ready to redesign their student services.

The right foundation
Ziegmann has spoken at TouchNet’s annual user conference, COMTEC, about CCA’s digital transformations and how they set the institution’s processes up to be as successful as they are today. She believes the implementation of Workday kicked the institution into high gear and replaced on-premises enterprise resource planning (ERP) with fully-cloud functions.

CCA also implemented TouchNet payment and ID management solutions with Workday to create comprehensive student services. The college focused on creating an ecosystem of secure, reliable, and robust solutions that worked well together in terms of data exchange and user experience. They also sought innovative partners to offer the features Ziegmann and Breitinger’s teams were looking for. With the combination of strategic partners, CCA created a solid foundation going into the pandemic years that could properly respond to the changing campus needs.

Services Redesign Initiative
Along with the obvious challenges it presented, the pandemic also brought new opportunities to CCA. Many departments reengineered the way they delivered services and collaborated with each other, and many staff did not want to return to campus, feeling their responsibilities could be better met remotely. Additionally, there were safety concerns for students and faculty coming back to campus during the pandemic, compounded by space issues due to postponed construction.

The Service Redesign Initiative took a closer look at the opportunities and problems posed, ultimately developing a strategy to move forward. Comprised of an interdisciplinary group of staff, the initiative took on researching the dilemma, conducting interviews, surveys, and focus groups to identify the pros and cons of remote service deliveries and working. The team sought to radically reenvision how CCA delivered services that maximized staff capabilities, minimized the on-campus staff footprint, and allowed them to be more effective in meeting student and faculty needs.

Reengineering services
Based on the findings and recommendations, CCA developed four different initiatives to move forward. The first is to define staff work modes, which was previously an HR function. They worked with senior leadership to look at all faculty positions and make determinations of whether they were best served on campus, hybrid, or remote.

The second is called The Business of Being a Student, focusing on integrated student services and how to deliver those in a way that meets student needs. This comes from stronger department collaborations and understanding the interdependencies of each role within divisions and the systems around student service goals.

“This change really means that we are focusing on integrated services, and this has optimized the student experience and strengthening of our students and people resources, providing a more streamlined and targeted experience as students focus on the business of students,” says Breitinger.

Breitinger’s focus is on billing, financial aid, access and registration, advising, and housing, the office of Student Accounts discovered that a hybrid model worked best to deliver these services, allowing students to get help on-campus or virtually from the OneStop Shop.

This allowed CCA to convey to students the ins and outs of how to navigate their business needs effectively. This holistic approach gives students a better understanding of what they need to do, why they need to do it, how they do it, and who they need to talk to. Reevaluating communication and maintaining consistency across communications to students was also integral in this second initiative.

CCA also began to look at on-campus workspaces, which was greatly informed by the newly defined staff work modes and how student services would be delivered. They looked at spaces to strategize how to optimize them for the student experience. The institution primarily ended up with a hot desk model with smaller collaboration spaces and very few dedicated private offices.

CCA’s final focus area was staff wellbeing. Fully remote staff were struggling to stay connected to campus and their peers. They are working to make sure all staff feels valued, connected, and collaborative no matter their work mode.

Bringing it all together
With these four initiatives spanning across different offices and departments, Ziegmann’s team is now focusing on prioritizing systems and how to support offices and their processes. Her team works on making sure everything runs smoothly by holding regular meetings to discuss what’s working and what’s not, and interdependencies in business processes.

With their OneCard Campus ID, Ziegmann wants to aid departments in understanding that while it’s one system, each office uses it uniquely and needs processes that work together. They focus on department goals, extending beyond the technology into how they can help divisions accomplish their goals. When problems do arise, their toolkit made of TouchNet, Google, and Workday is able to solve them almost immediately.

Final thoughts
Although CCA is a prime example of a successful redesigned student service experience, Ziegmann and Breitinger have their sights set on the future as they continue to reevaluate and better their initiatives. Breitinger is excited for the institution to embark on international student payment integrations and new ways to issue refunds. She sees opportunities driven by student finance best practices, federal regulations, and banking requirements. Ziegmann is ready to rebuild post-pandemic enrollment and continue down CCA’s path to data driven empowerment. She’s focused on cybersecurity as the institution has become cloud-reliant.

Their greatest piece of advice for other institutions seeking to reimagine their student experiences is to work collaboratively with faculty and make sure the right platforms and strategic partners are in place for success.

Special Guests: Michelle Ziegmann and Vicki Breitinger.

This week on FOCUS, Jen O’Quinn from George Washington University (GW) shares her experience in building an integrated student payments experience that puts student support first. O’Quinn is the Student Accounts Director at GW where she dedicates her time to finding the best solutions to fit students’ financial needs. The university is a robust user of TouchNet, and together they ensure that implemented processes and systems work together to best support students. O’Quinn gives insight into GW’s priorities for an integrated student experience, payment plans, what’s on the horizon for their payments process, and advice for other higher ed institutions looking to enrich their payments experience.

The Integrated Student Experience
GW is a four-year private institution in the heart of Washington, D.C., with 27 thousand students spread across ten schools. O’Quinn’s goal in her role is to support all students as best she can by developing a strategy to build an integrated student experience. GW uses Ellucian Banner integrated with TouchNet Payment Center to manage statements, payments, refunds, and 1090-T forms. When looking at ways to enhance students’ payment experience, GW wanted students to be able to access every financial service they need from their account in one place — from payment plans to tuition protection, refunds, and more.

“Our goal is to get the students what they need as early as possible and as concisely as possible because they’re there for academics, they’re not there to learn GW systems. So, our goal is to be as easy as possible,” says O’Quinn.

Student-Focused Payment Plans
When deciding what was important to the payments experience, GW wanted to create payment plans that worked for varying student needs. The university had previously implemented one five-month payment plan that had five installments in the fall and spring, and a three-month plan over the summer. This ended up with one month of overlap, which they quickly learned was not going to work because of the impact on reporting for next fall semester’s enrollment and financial aid. Additionally, GW offered tailored administrative plans built specifically for students with unique needs.

To combat the issues with the one payment plan and its effects on the university’s enrollment process, GW expanded its payment plans to include four-month, three-month, and targeted plans for undergraduate and graduate students and eliminated the five-month plan. Term balances are now more streamlined and automatically adjusted for students who add or drop courses. If students re-enroll for the upcoming semester with missed payments, they are able to use those balances as a down payment on their next enrollment. This encourages students to stay on top of their bills and sign up for classes early so they can space their payments out as much as possible. O’Quinn says GW just started a late enrollment plan for students who might not have received as much aid as they expected and need a last-minute plan.

GW has been able to implement Consent Manager through TouchNet to efficiently handle financial responsibility and refund policy agreements for students to sign. The university is looking forward to the upcoming functionality with implemented TouchNet solutions in terms of delinquency reports, holds placements, automated and targeted deposits, and better communication with students when issues with their payments arise.

The Future of the Payments Center
O’Quinn shares that the university now offers health insurance to eligible student populations, which they can easily see and manage in the payments center. They have also just started offering tuition protection plans using GradGuard, a solution that allows students to protect their investment in their tuition should they need to withdraw from school due to a medical reason. Since GradGuard is integrated with TouchNet, students have the option to add tuition insurance directly in their payment center and GW has fewer manual processes to manage, while making sure students are being taken care of.

Reducing manual processes is one of the university’s goals for the future — with GW opting for on-demand statements that reduce calls to action for students to request an itemized statement within the payments center. They are still sending monthly invoices to protect the school from student notification issues. The integration with ECSI for 1098-T forms has also lessened the manual workload.

O’Quinn says the school is pushing for more direct deposit (ACH) refunds to cut down the number of paper checks being sent, with a successful adoption rate of 80%. They are working on implementing direct-to-debit refunds after an increase in debit card refund requests. GW hopes that these refund changes will help with the reconciliation of uncashed checks.

How Other Institutions Can Become Integrated
O’Quinn imparts some final words of advice for other institutions as they look at ways to enhance student payments experiences. The first is to always look for what is best for the student. Although it might create more administrative work, it’s worth it to be able to support students in ways that truly benefit them. Then look at other areas of student finance that can be more efficient or automated, that way there is more time to dedicate to helping students. Partnering with the right provider will help the process of building integrated student payment experiences exponentially easier for both students and the institution.

Special Guest: Jen O'Quinn.

In the world of higher education, innovation is the constant goal. Institutions and solution developers continuously work together to create the best and most efficient experiences possible for both students and staff. But identifying where to start in the process of innovation can be difficult. Lauren Ipsen, CEO of Ellucian, sheds light on this topic as she joins the FOCUS podcast and discusses supporting student success, and how partnerships throughout the higher ed tech community have become the driving forces toward innovation.

How Ellucian Helps Higher Ed Institutions
Ellucian is a mission-based technology company focused on creating better outcomes for institutions and transforming that into student success. They provide institutions with operating systems from administration to HR and all student systems and help maximize the success capabilities for students. Ellucian serves 3,200 customers globally, taking out the friction in campus financial processes. Ipsen believes their capabilities will, in turn, solve some of the toughest challenges in higher ed.

Supporting Student Success
Institutions that work to find solutions and create processes that support student success will be at the forefront of innovation. Ipsen reveals that while being a user of campus interfaces is integral in understanding the user experience, schools should focus on the software-as-a-service ( SaaS) experience too. Many institutions are still working from on-premise systems that are more difficult than cloud systems to enhance and maintain. Ellucian is transforming both the institution experience and the student experience by helping institutions transition to a SaaS model with technology solutions delivered through the cloud. This newer approach allows teams to hone in on financial data, financial aid, and make sure transactions are PCI compliant and friction-free so students can make better decisions.

At the core of student success, Ipsen believes that financial success, mental health, and community all need to come together on a platform level—and keeping students enrolled. The majority of students who drop out of higher education do so because of financial or mental health issues. If schools work to simplify and reduce stressors in students’ lives, they will be able to focus on the bigger picture of their education. Ipsen is driven to help campuses provide new opportunities to make the student experience better on- and off-campus. One opportunity to aid students is to expand AI advising, so all students can access academic support whenever they need it.

When it comes to enrollment, Ipsen suggests that schools also look at retention data rather than just new enrollees. To keep retention up, explore payment plans that can be flexible for students. Then, if they go through issues with financial aid, mental health, or their health, students do not need to worry as much about the burden of paying their bill. The most important thing is to implement support that will bring back students who have dropped out, which will raise retention while helping students in need.

Better Together
In the last few years, institutions have seen how beneficial the right technology can be for them. Technology is quickly becoming thought of as part of “the staff,” with AI and more integrations creating a new digital transformation toward the Cloud. But even though technology is ever-expanding and infiltrating the higher ed space, we must not forget the valuable roles humans play. Schools need to understand how business processes and roles are going to change with new tech and how they can make sure they have the right staff in the right places.

For Ellucian, Ipsen says that they also had to start with their people, going from delivering best-in-class capabilities on-premises to operating through the cloud. She believes moving from on-premises to SaaS is one of the hardest things to do, but with partners like TouchNet, it can be made possible.

“There is more of an urgency now more than ever. You [have] to be resilient. It’s hard to get all the technical stuff that you need. You think tech companies are challenged [by] what institutions are dealing with, but you can’t innovate in the future unless you’re in a platform that lets you build your own future,” says Ipsen.

Tech companies and institutions have to work together in order for schools to be successful. Within that partnership, it’s also important to focus on data privacy and building in compliance with different policies and regulations. Ipsen also notes how much Ellucian values its partnership with TouchNet because of PCI compliance integrated into solutions. With the right partner, institutions can be assured their students’ data will be protected.

What’s next for Ellucian
Ipsen explains that Ellucian has brought back their user conferences, with ELive 2023 coming up soon. In these conferences, which will take place at various locations around the world, Ellucian will show the tech community how they can come together to overcome new challenges. Ipsen believes community is the higher ed and technology worlds’ superpower, and in the future focusing on creating solutions that enhance student experiences—not just that of the institution—will be the key to success.

Special Guest: Laura Ispen.

As more higher ed institutions explore becoming cashless campuses, schools like Eastern Michigan University (EMU) can be used as a model for success. EMU is a four-year public university with 20,000 students that has been completely cashless since 2017. Beth Hardcastle, Assistant Controller for Student Business Services at EMU, joined the FOCUS podcast to discuss how no longer accepting cash payments, closing the in-person cashier’s office, and implementing payment plans have impacted their operations over the past five years.

How EMU Became a Cashless Campus
For EMU, going cashless was the next step towards the future, but it required enabling debit/credit card and digital payments for every interaction across the institution, including student account charges and everyday purchases. As established partners with TouchNet, they were able to smoothly transition to a cashless campus with the TouchNet Payment Center and Marketplace.

To remain accessible to those who opt to use checks, drop boxes are available across campus to deposit checks. The cashiering staff can then pick up checks and process them through TouchNet’s cashiering to be posted to student accounts. EMU also has a credit union on campus that allows students who still prefer cash to receive cashier’s checks. Some departments like health services and the childcare center still accept cash, which then use the TouchNet web deposit to put the payment into an account with the credit union.

Going cashless also meant a role change for campus cashiers. Now, the cashiers at EMU are integrated into a one-stop shop helpdesk in customer service-oriented roles dedicated to student account needs.

Benefits of Reducing Cash on Campus

The two primary benefits EMU has seen from going cashless are increased security and improved payment management. Eliminating cash on campus greatly reduced the liability that comes with having large amounts of cash on hand. Staff no longer have to stress over all the safety precautions that come with cash. Additionally, with primarily digital payment methods, backend management and reconciliation became much easier to manage.

An unforeseen benefit to going cashless was how easy it became to transition to fully remote learning during the pandemic. Because they were already used to not having a physical cashier’s office, students, parents, and staff were unfazed by making payments online. For the students who used the drop boxes, EMU was able to have minimal staff on campus to take care of processing.

Improving Payment Operations
In addition to relieving the stresses of cash and adapting to the pandemic, going cashless created the opportunity to reevaluate cash flow trends through the year, which resulted in exploring new payment plan offerings. EMU implemented the option for students to divide their balance over five installments with no additional fees. Spreading out tuition payments over several months encourages students and parents to make payments early, providing EMU with a more consistent revenue flow during summer months.

Payment plans have also helped the university with their accounts receivable. One condition of the five installment plan is that students must make their first payment during registration. Once EMU rolled this out, they saw immediate positive results with more students paying their bills on time. Over the past five years, this has remained consistent for the approximately 1000 students who use the plan on an annual basis.

TouchNet Payment Plans have greatly improved payment operations for EMU as well. Not only can students set automated recurring payments, but TouchNet will send them reminders before money is taken out of accounts. These fully automated messages have cut back on staff work, allowing them to focus more on customer service.

Final Thoughts
When EMU made the decision to go cashless, there were some who had doubts. However, the institutions that used to question the decision are now asking Hardcastle for advice on how to move in this direction after seeing the effectiveness of this strategy.

As the future of higher ed institutions approaches, EMU has put the concept to the test and come out better for it. By implementing TouchNet Payment Center and Marketplace, EMU has been able to succeed without cash payments, putting the institution at the forefront of cashless universities.

Special Guest: Beth Hardcastle.

Like most facets of higher education, campus IDs and card offices are evolving. With the need for more contactless solutions and increased security, the introduction of mobile IDs poses many questions for card offices and data management. On the latest episode of FOCUS, Dawn Thomas, CEO of the National Association of Campus Card Users (NACCU), sheds light on the innovations coming to campus ID management, the importance of good data, and how institutions can prepare themselves to better use insights from the data they collect.

What is NACCU?
In the realm of credit card payments and data management, NACCU offers membership to any institution that deals with campus credentials. They work with members to build knowledge, grow connections, promote innovation, and aid in technology and data navigation.

“We want our folks to use [NACCU] to create community and dive into credential data in a way that guides them to providing a better service to their students and their campuses. We know the campus credential is a gateway to partnerships, we want folks to know the value of the Campus Card Office,” said Thomas.

Adoption of Mobile Campus IDs
While some NACCU members look towards the future of mobile IDs, many institutions still rely on magnetic strips for ID management. This dichotomy of technology has caused NACCU to adjust how it supports its members. For institutions that are moving towards mobile campus cards, there are two main areas to address.

The first is how to gain support and validation from campus leaders. Some successful NACCU schools have done so by involving student government associations to set goals.

The second is how to manage infrastructure for contactless credentials. Integrating mobile IDs doesn’t mean that institutions need to completely overhaul their equipment, but they do need to identify the best way to move forward. Without proper support and infrastructure, campuses will not reap the full benefits of mobile IDs.

Better Data Management
While the transition into mobile IDs has piqued the interest of many institutions, NACCU members employ a diverse range of ID management technologies. Thomas believes that the best way for NACCU to maintain balanced support across members is to improve data management. Many campuses are not using their data as effectively as they could, largely in part because they don’t always know where to start.

Card offices should review data from basic card swipes, access control, dining facilities, security and campus recreation. Once they identify a consistent way to collect that data, the information can be analyzed and shared to build business cases for campus improvements. For privacy when pulling data on an aggregate level, the goal is to answer the business questions without needing to dive into individual transactions and personal student information. Thomas advises institutions that data is not power, but that the decisions it helps make can be powerful.

Creating Data Heroes on Campus

Recognizing the opportunity for campus card offices to become leaders in this space, NACCU founded a new workshop to educate campus officials on how to manage and use their existing data. Their inaugural Data Summit, held in June 2022, created a great foundation for attendees to unify cross-departmental data needs and advocate for data-informed decisions. Attendees learned to map out dashboards to run simple data queries in the card office.

Thomas encourages card offices to continue to use their data effectively because they’re more than an ID office, they hold the information campuses need to create change.

NACCU is hosting their next Data Summit on November 3-4, 2022, at The Ohio State University. Registration is still open at https://www.naccu.org/events/naccu-data-summit-nov-2022

Additional Data Summits in 2023 will be announced soon.

Special Guest: Dawn Thomas.

Modernizing Payments with Canberra Institute of Technology

Karl Caig, director of corporate services at the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT), joined the FOCUS podcast to share his experience with the Ellucian Payment Center by TouchNet. At CIT, Caig is responsible for maintaining key systems and processes that support operations and student management. His next goal is to reposition the institution by focusing on flexible education and training delivery, and to completely overhaul current student systems and interfaces.

This is why Caig turned to Ellucian Payment Center by TouchNet, which has provided tremendous improvement in processes, staff experience and student experience since implementation. Read along to learn more about CIT’s journey with the Ellucian Payment Center and Caig’s advice for other institutions.

Why the Ellucian Payment Center by TouchNet was the perfect fit

The Canberra Institute of Technology is a dual sector institute—serving students across technical trades, community college programs, apprenticeships, and bachelor programs. Each of the programs CIT offers is regulated by a different level of the Australian government, with different students making their payments to and receiving concessions from different entities. Previous payment systems were overly complicated and untimely because funding came from different buckets and communication between different government levels could be inefficient. As a result, payments had to be handled and calculated manually.

Caig knew that this was not a sustainable system, especially with a new strategic plan to expand into the online environment, and the need for a fully digital enrollment process. The institution was already using the Ellucian Banner for student information management, and any new solution they implemented needed to work with existing systems and fit with their strategic plan for the institution.

“We really had to make sure that as a government entity that the government was happy with our requirements, that whatever solution we had was a secure solution that obviously worked well with the Australian payment environment,” said Caig.

Luckily, the Ellucian Payment Center by TouchNet was the perfect fit to help CIT modernize their payment system and get the institution ready for its online future. This solution integrated seamlessly with the existing Ellucian Banner and opened up opportunities for new efficiencies on campus.

How CIT has benefited from TouchNet

Since implementation, the Ellucian Payment Center by TouchNet has modernized CIT’s payment system, improving both staff and student experiences. Tracking student payments is now easier, and Caig is able to see in real time who has and has not paid on time. His team can then direct them to a payment portal digitally, rather than spending weeks getting students up to date on payments. This has drastically reduced the institution’s credit risk and increased the amount of students who pay their bill on time.

Delivery of student refunds has been improved from a week’s long process to an almost instantaneous refund under this solution. Students no longer have to wait to receive refunds from a government banking system and are now issued them directly through the Ellucian Payment Center.

Automated payments have also freed up staff, who can now devote time to customer service and help students navigate payment options. CIT is now able to offer more flexible payment options for interested students.

During the pandemic, CIT was able to fully transition their learning and enrollment processes online, which Caig believes wouldn’t have been possible without the implementation of TouchNet’s solution. Also, the pandemic gave CIT a needed nudge to make these modern solutions the norm, because there was no other option.

TouchNet’s solutions also empowered CIT to stay on top of cybersecurity and PCI compliance with high confidence. TouchNet handles all of CIT’s payments and card data in accordance with PCI standards, which saves the institution time from the tedious process of managing it themselves.

Advice for other institutions

As campuses begin to look towards modernizing payments, Caig advises them to model their online payment systems after what students are already using in the marketplace. Students want the ability to make seamless and painless payments that they can manage anytime, anywhere. It has to be quick, easy, and straightforward. Look to the future state and see what’s out there that people already use, because there are solutions that exist that can do that for institutions, like what TouchNet has to offer.

Special Guest: Karl Caig.

The latest version of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) was recently released and higher ed institutions should start preparing to comply. Adherence to the new PCI DSS 4.0 will require colleges and universities to update how they manage PCI compliance campuswide. To outline the major points of the new standards and how to approach, FOCUS podcast invited Walid Barakat to share his expertise on the subject. Barakat is the senior vice president of IT governance, risk, and compliance at Global Payments, where he and his team are responsible for PCI compliance, merchant compliance, IT risks, and cloud business.

What is PCI DSS 4.0?
Like past standards, PCI DSS 4.0 is a set of payment security regulations for organizations (merchants) that process transactions with payments cards. Merchants are partnered with an assessor to understand the maturity level of their security and advise in ways to strengthen security programs. PCI DSS 4.0 is a complete rewrite of the existing 3.2.1 standard, created with feedback from the PCI community. Requirements have been restructured to include the intent behind them and how to validate them. With this fresh new look at security standards, the goal of PCI DSS 4.0 is to ensure security year-round.

“There are some new requirements to really drive best practices, recommendations, and enhanced accountability for organizations to maintain compliance year-round,” said Bakarat. “Not just when it's time for the assessment, or working directly with an assessor.”

What institutions can expect
The latest version of PCI standards includes clearer requirements, more testing guidance, and the opportunity for institutions to work with an assessor to tailor the validation approach to their unique environment. The new regulations place greater ownership on merchants, encouraging campuses to review their security posture to see how controls are being met.

When it comes to the timing of PCI DSS 4.0 implementation, institutions are offered a multi-phase approach. The first phase begins in March 2024 with a small set of requirements focused on defining roles and responsibilities and higher-level risk posture. This will set them up for remaining requirements that will become effective in March 2025.

Institutions will need to minimize their security profile, which can be done with multi-factor authentication (MFA). Ensuring that MFA, appropriate security controls, and firewalls are properly in place and documented minimizes the scope and threat vector for PCI assessing and overall security risk.

The PCI Council has made PCI DSS 4.0 available to the public, which means anyone who accesses the council website can easily confirm how they’ve been using documentation, see a comparison to prior standards, and see published awareness documents and FAQs.

The importance of assessors and ISAs
Barakat suggests two ways for institutions to go about processing PCI DSS 4.0 and moving towards compliance. The first is to take advantage of the time between now and 2024 to partner with the assessor to understand what the current security posture is and take their guidance under consideration. The assessor will be able to show institutions where they might need to provide additional emphasis and maturity in controls.

The second approach is training current staff members to become internal security assessors (ISAs). With an ISA, institutions are able to have someone who already knows the ins and outs of systems be trained by the PCI Council’s program to understand standards, the overall PCI process, and what is needed for reports on compliance. The council will also offer free PCI DSS 4.0 training to all ISAs, making it even easier for compliance to take place.

Final advice
Barakat’s final advice to colleges and universities is to always have defined roles and responsibilities among staff and make sure everyone is able to understand how their daily tasks add to compliance. He also advises institutions to make good use of documentation for more streamlined assessments. A transparent relationship with the assessor and listening to their guidance throughout the entire year are also key. Find additional resources on PCI DSS 4.0 here.

Looking for tips on how to build a strong PCI foundation? Download TouchNet’s PCI Explained eBook for an introduction to payment card terminology, how payments are processed, and best practices in building resources and processes vital to streamlining PCI compliance.

Special Guest: Walid Barakat.

Streamlining Payments for Campuswide Compliance with College of Charleston

Institutions are always on the search for solutions to streamline payments and ease the processes of accounts receivable and reconciliation for student and administrative use. David Katz, treasurer of the College of Charleston, found the solution in consolidating all payment systems under one platform, TouchNet, which he shared on the latest episode of the FOCUS podcast. Discover key insights from Katz on the adoption of a platform approach, which resulted in more efficient processes, unified payments, and simplified PCI compliance.

Integrated Solutions Provide a Better Experience

The College of Charleston has long worked with TouchNet to provide solutions for various types of payments. To aid with international payments, the college uses TouchNet partner TransferMate to streamline reconciliation of payments made in foreign currencies. Before this integration, payments could be difficult to process because of language barriers and naming conventions. With TransferMate, payments automatically post into the general ledger with all the required information needed to apply payments to the correct student accounts.

Katz’s team also uses TouchNet’s PayPath, saving the college almost $1 million in merchant fees since 2010. With the money saved, the institution has been able to maintain lower tuition, helping students afford their education. PayPath also makes the online payment process easier for students—all they need to do is a single sign on, pay, then when the payment is posted they’re done for that billing cycle.

TouchNet’s payment solutions even made it easy for the College of Charleston to offer six different payment plan s with installments spread across the semester. . These plans allow for better customer service and lower wait times for students needing support, as now they have an entire semester to reach out. The addition of required autopayments has drastically reduced end of semester accounts receivable and write off accounts over the three-year period since implementation.

TouchNet’s solutions have greatly eased the pressures of the College of Charleston’s accounts receivable and reconciliation by creating more automated and seamless payment processes.

The Platform Approach Adoption Process

While the College of Charleston has seen great success with adopting a platform approach, the adoption process didn’t happen overnight and is constantly being improved. The success was dependent on adapting existing systems to work with TouchNet and vice versa; rather than deciding how they wanted each solution to work on its own. Additionally, Katz believes the key to campuswide adoption is listening to staff, which is why he takes time to reexamine solutions with different departments to see what works and what needs to be adjusted.

“It all comes down to solving the needs on campus [by] listening to what people need, listening to what the problems are, and trying to come up with solutions. And when you work with everybody on the campus and not just force something upon them, you really get a widespread adoption over a period of time,” said Katz.

Vetting solutions for functionality and in-depth training are integral in making the adoption process successful. They take a ‘train the trainer’ approach—. training a few people, who then train others and create a procedures and policies manual, which is updated yearly.

PCI Compliance

During TouchNet solution training, Katz makes sure to bring departments together for PCI compliance workshops. All higher education institutions must follow PCI standards, which help to keep online payments and account info secure.

At these workshops, faculty is trained on how to make compliance easier and how to provide good customer service. Consistently training and letting policies be known has changed the way PCI compliance is approached campus wide. A big part of simplifying PCI compliance is giving staff recognition and ownership in their training. Katz found that when his team reinforced the good being done by staff keeping up with training and new policies, staff took more pride in their training and protecting the college.

Final advice

Katz’s final advice to other institutions hoping to consolidate their payments under one platform is to continue training as many people as possible on new processes and PCI compliance. He also advises institutions to set their credit card close times as close to midnight as possible for reconciliation, because it’s much easier to work with a midnight-to-midnight schedule across different time zones. Finally, test and map out solutions through their entire processes to understand how every moving piece will affect the other.

Special Guest: David Katz.

Stranded credits are a significant issue in higher ed institutions, impacting both schools and students. With new data arising on the subject, there is much to learn about potential solutions to the problem of stranded credits and how to keep students on track. James Ward joined a recent episode of Focus to shed light on the topic of stranded credits and solutions campuses can employ. Ward is a senior researcher at Ithaca S+R, where he leads research on higher ed institutions, finance, and policy issues. He also has experience in institutional research, worked with the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), and teaches courses at National Louis University.

What are Stranded Credits?
Before diving into why stranded credits are an issue, it’s important to have a full understanding of what they are first.

“When we talk about stranded credits, we're talking about students who have an unpaid balance that they owe an institution. And because of that balance, they can't reenroll. And they can't access their transcripts to either transfer, or potentially use them for an employment related reason,” Ward explains.

Research done by Ithaca S+R shows that an estimated 6.6 million students have stranded credits adding up to $15 billion in debt. This substantial problem for students and institutions requires solutions and provides an enormous opportunity for institutions to re-engage disaffected students, resolve debt, boost enrollment, and support students to complete degrees.

Which Students are Affected?
Ithaca S+R’s research found stranded credits more prevalent in schools enrolling disproportionate numbers of historically underserved students. Students come into these institutions already at a disadvantage, which only compounds once they accrue stranded credits. While stranded credits broadly affect higher ed across all sectors and institution types, schools serving lower-income and minority students see a greater impact.

Community colleges are the largest sector of higher ed to face this issue, with an estimated three million students carrying an average of $630 in stranded credit debt. On the flip side, small private institutions have a higher average cost per student of $5,700, but only have around 500,000 affected students.

Students with stranded credits typically fall into one of three groups. The first are students who left school quickly after enrollment, either due to a change in plans or college not being the right choice and left without paying their fees. The second group is made up of students who were progressing through their degree normally, then encountered some financial setback that caused them to leave school and not pay their balance. Lastly, there are students who make it to the end of their degree with only a few credits or requirements left, and never pay their final bill. Understanding these three groups can aid campuses in encouraging students to get back into school and earn their credentials and help them in their longer-term life outcomes.

Stranded Credit Solutions
Ward suggests three solutions to the issue of stranded credits. First, policy bans can stop schools from withholding transcripts from students with unpaid debts. This solution helps students by freeing their transcripts to re-enroll, apply to jobs, and potentially pay back the credits, but debt will still follow them. Additionally, policy bans leave institutions with little to no recourse to collect debts.

Gap loans provided by nonprofit organizations allow students to borrow money to get them out of current debt and back in the classroom. This option still saddles students with additional debt, which may not be the best option long-term.

The final solution students have access to are debt forgiveness programs. These are mostly single institution programs, where colleges forgive unpaid balances and let students reenroll to pay off debts, or the debts are forgiven over time. Some schools even used Covid relief funds to help pay off unpaid balances. Colleges receive additional tuition revenue from that reenrollment, and students are still able to work towards their credentials while reducing debt.

What Comes Next?
While Ithaca S+R doesn’t yet have statistical evidence of the success of these debt forgiveness programs, they have seen anecdotal evidence that the programs do in fact bring students back in. Ithaca S+R recently helped launched the Ohio Compact, a collection of eight schools with a system set up for debt forgiveness. Students who owe a balance to one of the colleges will be able to reenroll in any of the eight partner institutions. Their debts will be forgiven if they enroll over a certain number of terms, depending on how much was unpaid. The institutions will cross subsidize the debt, depending on where students owed and where they end up enrolling. Ward believes that this will be a model for other schools to build debt forgiveness programs from.

Ward’s final piece of advice as higher ed institutions begin to strategize potential solutions is to gather more relevant data. Find out who has unpaid balances, how much is left unpaid, why are balances left unpaid, what policies and codes are adding to student hurdles, and how successful debt forgiveness programs are, if the institution has any. As institutions begin to close this information gap, better solutions can be implemented that will lead to fewer students struggling with stranded debts.

Special Guest: James Ward.

Gen Z expert and author, Hana Ben-Shabat joined the Focus podcast to demystify the expectations and behaviors of Generation Z, who are now in college and entering the workforce. Colleges and university leaders have now been tasked with attempting to understand their values to innovate new ways to appeal to this generation, as they are unlike any generations of the past.

Ben-Shabat shares her insights on Gen Z to help business leaders maximize the potential of this group by studying their motivations and culture. Through her company, Gen Z Planet, Ben-Shabat turns her research into growth engines that higher ed institutions can then implement to better understand Gen Z and build a strategy that engages them.

How Gen Z Culture is Defined

Much of Ben-Shabat’s conversation points come from her book “Gen Z 360,” which is the culmination of her quantitative and qualitative research. This generation, defined by being the first to grow up with the internet, computers and smart phones, were born between the years 1998 to 2016. The early marker coinciding with the launch of Google and the latter marker coinciding with several significant cultural events.

The first topic of the podcast episode dives into Gen Z culture. With 48% of this generation made up of minorities, they are the most diverse generation to ever live in the United States. Their diversity has developed a cultural and social lens, where inclusivity and social justice are highly valued.

Gen Z has always existed with access to the internet and technology, which in turn created a high-level of connectivity that exposed them to many world events and movements in formative years, and continues to do so. Because of this, Gen Z tends to challenge authority and advocate for the change they want in the world. They are a generation of creators, reimagining creative outlets and placing value in self-expression.

“I believe they are really creating a new age of creativity. This is a generation that because of the tools that they have, the technology is in their hands, they are demonstrating a level of creativity and entrepreneurship that we have not seen before,” says Ben-Shabat.

On the other hand, Gen Z has a greater struggle with mental health than other generations. These struggles stem from witnessing their parents’ anxiety from the 2008 recession, Covid-19, school shootings, higher divorce rates and other downturns in the past 20 years. As a result, Ben-Shabat notes that Gen Z strongly values family, equality, mental health and financial stability. When shifting to the perspective of higher education, campuses should create strategies that appeal to this generation's core beliefs and needs.

Outlook on Education and Work

As Gen Z seeks financial stability, higher education is often the answer. Ben-Shabat’s research shows that Gen Z is expected to attain the highest levels of academic achievement. Her data reveals that 89% of Gen Z plans to go to college, with two-thirds stating financial security as motivation to earn a degree.

However, Gen Z students are also extremely averse to debt, and try to avoid or at least minimize their loans. They understand the consequences of student loans, but also view college education as the path to having a job that provides stability.

Transitioning from school to work, Ben-Shabat believes Gen Z is the most educated, yet least prepared generation to enter the job market. While institutions have taught Gen Z the technical skills they need to enter the workforce, they often lack the soft skills to help them succeed. Gen Z is highly motivated to succeed, and now universities need to prepare them better to enter the workforce and show them their debts will pay off.

Gen Z Commerce

Gen Z’s core value of financial security is a major influence in their commerce traits. They have learned from the mistakes of others to take actions to make themselves more secure. Campuses have seen increases in spread out payment plans as students learn more about money and aim to be debt-free at the end of each semester rather than taking out loans. Additionally, they are already investing and putting money into retirement accounts, even at young ages.
As consumers, Gen Z does not distinguish between online and physical stores, but carry out extensive research online before buying a product. Colleges and universities should keep this in mind and make sure that campus entities can sell online, in person or through mobile apps. Ben-Shabat says Gen Z expects commerce to follow their culture – they want the brands they spend money on to do good in the world and value individuality, authenticity and diversity. This attitude goes beyond money spent on things, Gen Z also expects the schools they attend to share their values and have a vision for improving the future.

Takeaways

Ben-Shabat’s advice to higher ed leaders is to understand Gen Z culture, focusing on where they come from and the pressures they’re under. Institutions should also continue to develop better technology for students to use from admissions to ongoing operations.

Finally, leaders should recognize their need for community, diversity and authenticity to create campus environments where that can flourish. Gen Z doesn’t have to be a mystery, and through work like Ben-Shabat’s, higher ed institutions can continue to grow and adapt to fit their needs and values.

Special Guest: Hana Ben-Shabat .

It’s no secret that the pandemic altered the way colleges and universities carry out their everyday operations, driving campuses to adopt more innovative technology. In this episode of the Focus podcast, Rico Marea, assistant vice president for Revenue Receivables and Payables at Georgetown University shares how they transformed their payment operations by adapting and implementing more modern solutions.

Adapting to new payment options

During the pandemic, Georgetown quickly discovered issuing and receiving paper checks became difficult. With no one able to physically do the work of handling checks, the university was able to push for all departments and offices to accept electronic payment options. Through TouchNet uStores and uPay, Georgetown was able to quickly create payment acceptance websites for students to use.

“A great example of something that we're leveraging [is] the TouchNet solution to simplify payment processes that were painful in many ways, because we were relying on paper checks,” said Marea.

The integration of electronic payment options also helped bill past students still eligible for student health insurance and campus organizations receive donations while cutting back on paper checks. Georgetown’s efforts with TouchNet opened the doors to begin to solve other problems in payment operations.

University procurement cards reimagined

Beyond student finances, TouchNet’s uStore has allowed Georgetown to look further into online reimbursement options for staff with university procurement cards. Before, when a personal expense was accidentally charged to a campus card, employees had to mail a check to reimburse the institution.

Once a uStore can be set up, employees will be able to easily replace accidental spending on pro-cards and have it automatically reallocated on the back end of the financial system. Once Georgetown and TouchNet have fully developed and tested this software, other higher ed institutions will be able to integrate it into their operations.

ACH validation with TouchNet made possible

ACH validation is another integrated TouchNet solution that Georgetown was able to quickly implement; making it is to comply with the new ACH regulations enforced by Nacha.

This new feature reduces the risk of fraud and incorrect or incomplete transactions. With ACH validation integrated in the TouchNet payment solution, invalid bank accounts and input mistakes are not accepted. So students and parents won’t have to worry about their payments and refunds not going through. This feature also benefits the staff, as now there is an automatic way to know what went wrong and how to fix the issue if a bank account cannot be validated.

What’s next for Georgetown?

As Georgetown continues to improve its payment operations with integrated technology solutions, the administration is looking toward new ways to manage the increase in electronic transactions. Marea is focused on data security for students and parents, and working with TouchNet to streamline PCI compliance.

Georgetown’s plan is to keep pushing in the direction they’re going with TouchNet’s help, to continue to improve payment operations to meet the needs and expectations of today’s students and parents. Partnering with TouchNet has allowed them to implement innovative solutions and is an example to other institutions of how we can help transform electronic payments in campuses across the country.

Special Guest: Ricard Marea .

Chris shares all about Starship's autonomous delivery robots that are taking over campuses and creating more convenience for students and visitors.

Why higher ed institutions are the perfect fit
Although it seems like it might be easy for little robots to get lost in the big world of a higher ed campus, delivery robots have flourished at universities and colleges. Campuses are the perfect combination of a defined geographic location with a dense concentration of 18-22-year-olds, the age group most likely to intuitively understand the technology and be excited to use it. While colleges and universities are not the only place Starship’s robots have taken over, Neider reveals that it’s one of the places where they’ve seen the best results.

How do they work?
Starship Technologies deploy robots on campuses, driving them around the chosen campus to learn roads, shortcuts, and possible obstacles to build a map for efficient use. Once the map is created, the robots are ready for action. They are equipped with cameras that throw out vectors to help navigate areas and measure distance. The robots can also “call home” if it encounters an issue with the route. An operator can help the robot find an alternative route and be on its way again. The robots travel at around four and a half miles per hour, which allows for swift and safe deliveries down sidewalks filled with students. Starship robots cohabitate on campuses with students and faculty, which creates a seamless integration of technology.

A seamless student experience
As of right now, the main use of Starship robots is to deliver groceries and food items. Users download the Starship app and can see what products are offered and which areas are available for service. Once an order is placed, the robot is on its journey from merchant to customer.

Additionally, Starship wanted to make sure that students could really benefit from the robots. So they’ve integrated with the TouchNet OneCard Campus ID so that students can use their declining balance accounts within the Starship app. Students can use the balance stored on their campus ID just like other payment methods such as a debit card to have the robots deliver from campus restaurants and other places where campus ID payments are accepted. This customized user interface makes the robots more accessible to students, and keeps students spending money on campus, which maintains revenue streams for institutions.

The future rolls forward
Starship believes robots enhance the future of higher ed institutions. Not only do they allow for better student experiences, they also create excitement for prospective students. Potential students get excited to see the robots while on campus tours and to go to a school with such a high-tech environment. The possibilities of what these robots can roll themselves into are endless, from mobile bookstores and libraries to athletic integrations and more. While these robots have their limitations, primarily doors and stairs, they are quickly showing how smart technology can be in heightened campus experiences.

https://www.starship.xyz/

Special Guest: Chris Neider .

Dr. Susan Whealler Johnston passed away on August 12, 2022. We admire the leadership she gave to NACUBO and the entire higher education community. She was thoughtful, caring, and passionate. May we all remember her lifetime of contributions to the pursuit of reinforcing the value of higher education. We were honored to have her as a podcast guest and hope you enjoy listening to this episode of FOCUS in which Susan shares insights into how higher education is evolving. Recorded April 2022.

Dr. Susan Whealler Johnston, president and CEO of the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), shares her thoughts on the role of the Chief Business Officer (CBO) as higher ed institutions look towards the future. Her recent initiative has led her on a series of campus visits to shadow CBOs and learn how the organization can better support them. These conversations are uncovering key insights for CBOs as they prepare to tackle new trends in higher ed.

CBOs Need to get Strategic

Conversations about the CBO’s future in higher education have been in the works for years. The role of an institution’s CBO is more than the one who ensures the balancing of budgets and handling campus finances. CBOs are often left out of early planning conversations, but their input is vital to a school’s mission and needs. Johnston believes that it's imperative that the CBO is a strategic thought partner with the president and their cabinet.

“[The] keyword that I hear, really, when I talk to the Chief Business Officers, and to the president, is the word strategic,” said Johnston.

The position is integral in strategic planning because they understand institution finances and what it takes to accomplish goals more than other campus officials.

As CBOs and other campus leaders prepare to take on this new strategic role and learn how to better serve students, Johnston advises them to ask themselves:

Who are institutions made to serve? Are they overbuilt? Is the population growing or declining? What needs to be done after assessing the mission and market of the institution?

Crossroads of Change in Higher Education

Johnston also shared trends for the future of education that coincide with the role of the CBO. Institutions have created more access to online resources and taken down barriers in online learning. Campuses have heightened student experiences from in-depth degree and job counseling to orientations for previously online students.

Schools have seen declines in 18-22-year-old students and increases in adult learners, which institutions must learn to accommodate. Overall admissions have fallen, which poses the question to CBOs of how financially sustainable a large campus can be with smaller student numbers.

There are also new focuses on educational equity, diversity, and technology. As the demographics and needs of the student population changes, colleges and universities are exploring solutions to address new needs, such as access to technology, on-campus childcare, and creative ways to use buildings and space.

With new opportunities in institutions across the nation, Chief Business Officers can change from “Office of No,” to the “Office of How.”

Special Guest: Susan Whealler Johnston.

Heather welcomes David Mainenti, AVP of enrollment, finance and compliance at Long Island University. He shares his strategy for using payment plans to set students up for success.

Special Guest: David Mainenti.

Today Heather interviews Tom Butler, who heads up the Education and Student Housing department at TransferMate. They discuss the trends and expectations we are seeing with international student enrollment, as well their use of alternative payment methods.

Special Guest: Tom Butler.

In this episode, Heather speaks with Wichita State’s Robyn Bongartz, Director of Student & AR Fiscal Operations, and Ryan Lohfink, Student Account Specialist. They walk through how they use TouchNet’s solution SponsorPoint for third party payments and how it’s created efficiencies for students, staff and sponsors alike.

TouchNet SponsorPoint is an innovative software solution designed to connect contract sponsors to campus information systems using the latest web-based technology. Using SponsorPoint, colleges and universities slash the effort required to bill, process, and reconcile contract payments.

Wichita State University was an early adopter of SponsorPoint and has had continued success throughout the years. Robyn Bongartz, director of Student & AR Fiscal Operations, and Ryan Lohfink, student account specialist, explain how SponsorPoint helped alleviate some of their pain points with third party payments.

One large pain point for WSU was the ability to provide sponsors account information about individual students. The previous third-party software viewed a sponsor account as one large account, however sponsors wanted to view each student individually. With SponsorPoint’s user-friendly online portal, sponsors can review accounts collectively or by individual students. They can verify enrollment, view account activity and make payments. This functionality has increased sponsor satisfaction and significantly reduced the time spent by WSU staff to manually complete these requests.

Unfortunately, WSU has dealt with fraud on bank accounts previously, and Robyn describes it as a nightmare. SponsorPoint provides a secure payment solution, protecting both banking and student information.

With SponsorPoint’s secure online billing statements, the university has been able to reduce the number of statements being mailed out. That has saved the university both time and money. Now, it takes about 30 seconds to send out a million-dollar bill.

When everyone at the university went remote last year, IT assistance was in high demand. Typically, the department staff would need IT support to electronically change billing headers or tailor statements to each sponsor. However, SponsorPoint gives staff the ability to easily make those changes themselves. It has reduced the amount of IT support needed and has sped up the team’s response to sponsor requests.

Special Guests: Robyn Bongartz and Ryan Lohfink.

Heather hosts Bryan Dickson, director of student financial services and educational programs at NACUBO. He talks about the data from the 2020 Student Financial Services Benchmarking Study and shares his insights on procedures, staffing and payments on higher learning campuses.

Special Guest: Bryan Dickson.

In this episode, Heather speaks with Len Moelker, director of information technology at Redeemer University in Hamilton, Ontario. He tells her about the digital transformation initiative that has set Redeemer University well on its way to being a contactless campus.

Redeemer University in Hamilton, Ontario is in a digital transformation.

Using a six-phased plan called the Reaching Higher Initiative, the university is bringing an innovative, contactless approach to campus life. Redeemer began embarking on the digital upgrades more than a year ago. Although the pandemic delayed some initiatives, it also emphasized the importance of this transformation and inspired campus leaders to reimagine the future of universities.

Not only are they implementing contactless strategies into existing services like online payment, order ahead technology and a new portal, they are also incorporating it into their new construction. Here are a couple of current projects.

Parking Gates

The university is currently piloting parking gates. These gates will open using the tap of the OneCard. The idea is to create permissions to different groups based on the level of parking they have paid for, which will be available to purchase in the Parking uStore. For example, Lot C will be cheaper but also farther away. If the pilot goes well, the university plans to expand to three more parking gates around the new multipurpose building it is currently constructing.

Multipurpose Building

This new building will have dual functionality and will have classrooms on the ground floor and dorms on the second and third floors. The facility will have touchless laundry, vending, copiers and door access. And the university is extending their thinking beyond just student use. When students are not on campus during the summer, the building will be used like a hotel. If guests are attending conferences or just looking for somewhere to stay, the building will have a fully accommodated contactless experience. Guests will receive a OneCard that will be used for parking lot and building entry. Money can also be added to the card and used for dining, vending, laundry, etc.

Special Guest: Len Moelker.

Heather hears from Derrick Shy, Vice President of business development at GradGuard.

COVID-19 UPDATE: NEW EPIDEMIC COVERAGE ENDORSEMENT AND SPECIAL PLAN ACCOMMODATION
We are pleased to announce that all GradGuard tuition insurance plans purchased on or after February 18, 2022 will now include a new Epidemic Coverage Endorsement, which can provide coverage for when an insured student completely withdraws from school for the covered term due to becoming ill with any epidemic or pandemic disease, including COVID-19. To learn more, please visit: https://gradguard.com/covid-19/tuition

Special Guest: Derrick Shy.

On this episode Heather is joined by Kim Pfeffer, Director of Emory Card at Emory University. Kim explains how changes and updates with the campus card have affected and improved processes for staff and students alike.

Special Guest: Kim Pfeffer.

Heather hosts Adam McDonald, president of TouchNet. They explore the future of TouchNet and the future of higher education.

Special Guest: Adam McDonald.

Stacy Hughes, Chief Information Security Officer at Global Payments, Inc. and Heather discuss the changing payment landscape and its impact on security and compliance.

Special Guest: Stacy Hughes.

Heather talks with Jason Gross and Michael Fogerty from Adirondak about what housing and residential halls look like in the post-COVID world and how campuses can move forward from here.

Special Guests: Jason Gross and Michael Fogarty.

Troy Leach, senior VP and engagement officer at PCI Security Standards Council gives Heather some insights about the new strategic framework that has been put into place for PCI compliance.

Special Guest: Troy Leach.

Christine Blakney is the managing director of student business services at Texas Tech University. She walks us through how KPIs, or key performance indicators, have helped the campus business and students on campus as a whole.

Special Guest: Christine Blakney.

Lindsay Wayt, NACUBO’s director of analytics. We’ll be discussing the ways higher education institutions can use data to help them pave the way to a successful future.

Special Guest: Lindsay Wayt.

Valarie Van Vlack is the Treasurer at Texas State University. She tells Heather about the changes that have happened on campus since the pandemic, like how data has helped her make decisions across campus which will serve the students and the business, as well as how they've created a virtual (instead of physical) one-stop-shop for students,

Special Guest: Valarie Van Vlack.

John Fees, Founder of GradGuard, talks with Heather about what his company does and why it's necessary. GradGuard is a sort of insurance program that supports students through unexpected events, which allows schools to protect the students they serve. He helps me understand the growing need for students and schools to be protected should the unthinkable happen.

Special Guest: John Fees.

Jennifer McNeill, ONEcard Manager at the University of Alberta in Canada explains to Heather how students and staff in Alberta are working towards a contactless campus this fall and how TouchNet's ONEcard is helping to accomplish this goal.

Special Guest: Jennifer McNeill.

Bryan Dickson, director of student financial services and educational programs at NACUBO talks us through the results of the recently published 2019 Student Financial Services Benchmarking Study, as well as the Policies and Procedures report. The report helps gauge trends and challenges colleges and universities are facing today.

Special Guest: Bryan Dickson.

Denise Gelina, from Columbia College, describes how having flexible payment plan options benefits the university’s diverse student body and their needs. She outlines how each plan is customized to serve both traditional and non-traditional students, specifically active military students.

Special Guest: Denise Gelina.

Meghan Carr, director of the cashier’s office at the University of Missouri, explains how the university combated poor retention due to inconsistent and delayed student fees by implementing Market Place, a separate real-time payment platform. She highlights the process of implementing the system and the many convenient functionalities of Market Place and its short-term and long-term benefits.

Special Guest: Meghan Carr.

Doug Lederman, editor and co-founder of Inside Higher Ed, breaks down the surprising results of the most recent business officer survey. The overview provides national insights as to how higher education business officers are feeling about the current state of higher education. Lederman explains how universities are reacting to common national issues of resource restraint, decreasing traditional student enrollment and the perception of the value of a college degree. He dives into how universities are combating these trends through unique revenue sourcing and gives advice for the predicted changes to come in 2020.

Special Guest: Doug Lederman.

Bob Mask, director of campus card services at the Colorado School of Mines, explains how his campus uses credential cards for more than just identification. He outlines how individual electronic cards are used throughout the summer for many on-campus events and camps with a variety of attendees and visitors. Mask highlights the convenient functions of the cards from building access to meal time checkout and the variety of benefits.

In partnership with Student Conference Services, Mask and his card services team are tasked with running logistics for 30 summer events or camps that bring in over 2,500 visitors each year. Each campus visitor is using housing and/or dining services. To grant building entry access to each visitor, proximity cards are programmed to the correct buildings that each visitor needs access to. The card also allows access on a floor by floor bases. The cards run on a number system, so when a staff member looks at a proximity card, they know exactly which buildings and floors the card is attached to. Having this information encoded through a number system is an additional layer of security if the proximity cards are lost or stollen.

In an effort to streamline the dining process, Colorado School of Mines, has created a “summer conference meal plan” that is attached to each of the proximity cards. By utilizing the TouchNet meal system, they have been able to create a block plan that allows for a single swipe for each meal for each day for each card. It helps control how often the card is used and is trackable for when the card is used. The block plan is still flexible enough for groups to work with food service for specific needs. This method makes it very easy to estimate accurate billing and cost for each group based on their time spent on campus. The inspiration for this process came from the dining process at Disney resorts. It is all centered around the convenience needs of short-term summer visitors and campers.

By combining building access and dining plans onto a single proximity card, Colorado School of Mines is able to streamline security and meal billing. Mask and his team have saved both time and resources, as well as cut down on human error and turnaround time between summer groups, by implementing this new card process.

Special Guest: Bob Mask.

Tom Arnold, cofounder of Payment & Security Experts, explains the evolution of payment technology and the potential security risks of having an unprotected network. He dives into recent security trends specific to higher education institutes and methods to avoid being a victim of cyber fraud. He specifically highlights email phishing threats to universities and precautions campuses can take action to avoid being hacked.

From the early days of the internet, Arnold and his team have been fighting internet fraud. As the internet has advanced, so has cyber fraud. From fake memorabilia auctions to identity theft, Arnold has seen it all. Security measures to combat these threats have also evolved. In recent years, the implementation of EMV chips on credit cards has greatly reduced identity theft. On the flip side, they have increased fraud in electronic commerce and automated teller machines. Arnold recognizes that there will never be an end to all fraud, but by taking the correct precautions large organizations and institutes can lower their risk of becoming an online victim.

Higher education institutions and universities have become a very large target for cyber fraud in the electronic commerce realm in the last few years. A common trend is for criminals to reach out to third party content providers that then inject content to a consumer’s browsers to capture private information. Another common trend in online fraud is business email compromise. Many times, email servers are overlooked and end up under protected. Which then creates the opportunity for a cyber-criminal to fake an email from an institution or university, known as a phishing email. This can result in stealing funds and personal information from consumers. A simple username and password are not enough to keep email servers secure.

To prevent security breaches, Arnold recommends using multifactor authentication to authentic users logging into their online accounts. For example, sending a code to the user’s cell phone. When users are logging in on a device outside of the secure network, it is important that the users are notified of the login, like an email, text or notification. Institutions and universities should encourage their users to call in to validate suspicious emails before providing personal information online. Lastly, having a dual-control system in place on the department level to validate changing any finical information will help prevent cyber fraud. To detect potential fraud, Arnold suggests that any transaction over $10,000 should be personally followed up and confirmed by the Accounts Payable Department. If fraud is detected contact law enforcement immediately.

Regardless of the cyber security threats that exist, Arnold still feels confident using online payment methods. With a few simple precautions, consumers and organizations can avoid much of the risks that are out there.

Special Guest: Tom Arnold.

Kristy Pritchett, director of student account services at the University of Alabama, provides an overview of the artificial intelligence bots used in robotic automated processes at her university. She explains the process of obtaining and implementing a new chat bot that helps students by answering frequently asked questions, leaving staff more time to focus on more complicated and specific student needs. Pritchett explains the great success and benefits of having an automated system in the student services department.

Article intelligence can take a lot of different forms and do a lot of different things. Pritchett focuses on explaining the impact of robotic automated processes. These robots help streamline everyday routine tasks and systems. These routines can include uploading and downloading data, answering simple student service questions and assisting current employees in their day to day tasks. This leaves staff more time, energy and resources to focus on more specific and complicated student needs.

This robot was needed at the University of Alabama due to the extremely high volume of student service calls that Pritchett and her department would receive on a regular basis. There were so many calls that systems became overloaded and eventually failed. And that doesn’t even include the emails their department was receiving. Their solution was a chat bot named Bama Bot. Bama Bot not only improved the efficiency of the student account services department, but also the student experience. Bama Bot is programmed to answer frequently asked tier one common questions. Students and their parents were able to be helped quicker, easier and more efficiently.

Pritchett and her team worked with the university’s strategic communications team to brand the chat bot and make the bot readily available on the website, added it to the email signature and added a comment to their voice messaging system. This helped spread the word about Bama Bot and let students know that it is a trusted source for information. Although Bama Bot is fairly new to the university, Pritchett has already seen progress. The bot has answered over 3,000 questions and is generating interest in other departments across campus. Pritchett encourages colleges and universities with similar challenges to research robotic automated processes as a potential solution.

Special Guest: Kristy Pritchett.