Get ready to trade trips to the ATM for an easy card swipe at Campus Dining and Shops locations. Students can now use their credit cards instead of fussing with cash or worrying about having to purchase a meal plan to buy food in the food centers around campus.
On Monday, CDS – along with the Student Association – unveiled their latest announcement in the Student Union, welcoming students to come swipe their credit cards as an alternative to using campus meal plans or cash.
Students can now use credit cards at all CDS retail shops, including Moe's and Jamba Juice in the Student Union. Tim Horton's, Soma Sushi, and the resident dining halls will be accepting credit cards in the future, according to Adam Coats, the assistant director for CDS.
Many UB students have been waiting for CDS locations to become credit card-friendly.
"There's been a desire for it for a number of years, obviously," Coats said. "This group with SA kind of put a lot more pressure on us and was a little more vocal [about credit cards]."
SA President JoAnna Datz credits this newest payment choice to work done by past SA administrations. Nischal Vasant, Shervin Stoney, and Tony Roman – last year's SA executive board – started to push communication about the initiative.
When Datz and her executive board ran on the VOICE party ticket last spring, their platform included plans to "advocate for pilot use of credit/debit cards at food service locations via Companion Credit Card Terminals." Datz continued to push for this addition when she took office in the fall.
"We worked really closely with Jeff Brady [the director of CDS]," Datz said. "I talked to Jeff probably several times throughout each month that we've been in office. It's been a long road, but we're finally here, and we're excited."
The addition of credit cards was a major investment for CDS, according to Datz. In order to be able to accept credit cards on campus, UB needed to become Payment Card Industry (PCI) certified. All CDS employees had to go through extensive training and take several tests to ensure they understood regulations for handling credit cards and keeping patrons' information secure.
The entire process to become PCI compliant cost CDS about $60,000, according to Coats.
The credit card system had been live for about two weeks at the time of the announcement – a safety precaution, according to Datz. The system first went live on South Campus and now is live across all campuses.
"The worst thing you could do is make the announcement and a glitch happens, so it's slowly, but surely been rolling out," Datz said. "But now is the official announcement, and we're ready for people to use it."
The minimum for credit card purchases is $5, pre-tax, and signatures are only required for purchases above $10. CDS is also unable to accept debit cards that require a pin number, and if a card is unable to be swiped, the information cannot be manually entered. These practices are standard across the service industry, according to Coats.
Students are excited to have the ability to choose their method of payment and not be constrained to cash or a meal plan. Many who are commuters like that their options are not limited to the Commons, the only place on campus that previously accepted credit cards.
"It's easier for commuters because it gives them more of a choice of where they want to eat," said Kayleigh Bemisderfer, a sophomore exercise science major. "I'm not going to live on campus next year, so I'm not going to have a meal plan. But knowing that everything accepts credit cards, it helps out."
Coats added that CDS moved forward with this project because of how vocal Datz and her executive board have been since taking office. He noted that people expect to be able to use credit cards wherever they go this day and age, and CDS wanted to make sure every payment option was available to students.
"It's something that we've been looking forward to for years, and now that we can do it the right way and be safe about it, come on in and use your cards," Coats said.
Email: news@ubspectrum.com
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
