2008 Woodie Awards
New tags give students more choices on and off campus
By Steve Reed
Rocket Assistant Photo Editor
Issue date: 8/31/07 Section: News
The student then has to enter a PIN, or personal identification number. All the information is sent to Heartland Payment Systems' computers which verify everything and send back information about the student's Rock Dollar account.
Heartland Payment Systems handles $60 billion a year and SRU's Rock Dollar accounts process more than $3.5 million annually.
The new Rock Dollar system will soon also involve Heartland Payment Systems' Give Something Back program. The program will take a 1.5 percent rebate of the total Rock Dollar transaction, which students can choose to either have deposited back into their Rock Dollar account, fund SRU's scholarship fund, or be donated to a charity of their choice.
When the idea of the contact tags was introduced to students during the state of the University address, April 10, many students cited fears of the university tracking their location. Welsch said that while RFID chips like the ones used in the contact tags can be used for GPS tracking, these chips would require a large antenna and complex system to achieve any kind of tracing.
"To be honest, there's no reason for the university to even try to do that," Welsch said. "It's just too difficult to do, and it's not like the university's going to really profit from that kind of information."
Gilbert Rossetti, a 20-year-old junior communication major, said that he and his friends were apprehensive when they first heard the technology would use RFID chips.
"I was really worried about big brother and the idea that this is the same technology used in GPS satellite tracking for cars, computers and even pets," Rossetti said.
Eventually ATMs on campus will have the ability to withdraw cash straight from students' Rock Dollar accounts. The new receivers are already installed on vending, laundry and copy machines all over campus and several merchants have already shown interest in the new system.
Since the receiver is designed to work with existing register equipment, there's no need for the merchant to buy new sales registers. The receivers for the new Rock Dollar contact tag cost approximately $150, while the price of buying a new register would cost approximately $600, Welsch said.
Both Subway and North Country Brewery have the new receivers installed to their registers, allowing students to use their Rock Dollar accounts to pay for goods. Neither restaurant has had any difficulty servicing students with the new system, but both have reported that use of the new tags is slow.
"Like any business decision, you hope you made the right one.
If student interest starts to taper off, then it was a bad idea," said Brad Twiest, owner of the Subway on South Main Street.
Twiest said that the only trouble with the new system he's had is one student forgetting her PIN.
Kristine Hart, front house manager of the North Country Brewery, said that the brewery hasn't seen many students use the new system either, but is still optimistic that they will.
"It's just a matter of the students getting their tags and using it," she said.
Heartland Payment Systems handles $60 billion a year and SRU's Rock Dollar accounts process more than $3.5 million annually.
The new Rock Dollar system will soon also involve Heartland Payment Systems' Give Something Back program. The program will take a 1.5 percent rebate of the total Rock Dollar transaction, which students can choose to either have deposited back into their Rock Dollar account, fund SRU's scholarship fund, or be donated to a charity of their choice.
When the idea of the contact tags was introduced to students during the state of the University address, April 10, many students cited fears of the university tracking their location. Welsch said that while RFID chips like the ones used in the contact tags can be used for GPS tracking, these chips would require a large antenna and complex system to achieve any kind of tracing.
"To be honest, there's no reason for the university to even try to do that," Welsch said. "It's just too difficult to do, and it's not like the university's going to really profit from that kind of information."
Gilbert Rossetti, a 20-year-old junior communication major, said that he and his friends were apprehensive when they first heard the technology would use RFID chips.
"I was really worried about big brother and the idea that this is the same technology used in GPS satellite tracking for cars, computers and even pets," Rossetti said.
Eventually ATMs on campus will have the ability to withdraw cash straight from students' Rock Dollar accounts. The new receivers are already installed on vending, laundry and copy machines all over campus and several merchants have already shown interest in the new system.
Since the receiver is designed to work with existing register equipment, there's no need for the merchant to buy new sales registers. The receivers for the new Rock Dollar contact tag cost approximately $150, while the price of buying a new register would cost approximately $600, Welsch said.
Both Subway and North Country Brewery have the new receivers installed to their registers, allowing students to use their Rock Dollar accounts to pay for goods. Neither restaurant has had any difficulty servicing students with the new system, but both have reported that use of the new tags is slow.
"Like any business decision, you hope you made the right one.
If student interest starts to taper off, then it was a bad idea," said Brad Twiest, owner of the Subway on South Main Street.
Twiest said that the only trouble with the new system he's had is one student forgetting her PIN.
Kristine Hart, front house manager of the North Country Brewery, said that the brewery hasn't seen many students use the new system either, but is still optimistic that they will.
"It's just a matter of the students getting their tags and using it," she said.
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