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Competition for students spurs colleges to offer more

Monday, August 4, 2008

Spartan dorm rooms just won’t cut it anymore. As this article in a Knoxville, Tenn. newspaper points out, more schools are upgrading their student offerings, including plush apartment-like housing that includes private bedrooms, a kitchen, and washer and dryer. The University of Tennessee, for example, is spending millions of dollars to purchase new apartments or renovate existing ones.


“It’s been many years since we have constructed a new residence hall, and it is imperative that we continue to upgrade our offerings to students,” said a UT official.

Vanderbilt University, another Tennessee school, will have a new $150 million freshman housing complex available to students when they arrive Aug. 16. This new facility includes wireless Internet service, well-lit gathering places, cookie kitchens, and a center that offers dining, a gourmet grocery store and a fitness facility. Read more here.

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India’s Bangalore University will soon launch a smart card-based ID for its students and faculty, reports Daily News & Analysis.

The e-ID will function as an identification and debit card. The university plans to add functions to enable hall tickets, attendance records, report cards and degree certificates.

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Washington D.C. high school and middle school students now need a DC One Card to ride the city’s transit system. The card is a single ID card that gives students access to most D.C. government programs and facilities, including recreation centers, libraries, and the Metro.

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Heartland Payment Systems Campus Solutions division has recruited 12 higher education districts and campuses totaling 20 different colleges to manage the schools’ financial aid disbursement services utilizing Heartland’s Acceluraid electronic disbursement product.

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As more and more schools make the transition to smart cards, it’s easy to forget that some universities are quite happy with their mag-stripe cards. An article at Assa Abloy’s Future Lab Web site points out that some colleges have withstood moving to smart cards, either because it’s too expensive or students and faculty haven’t asked for them.

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Heartland Payment Systems Campus Solutions division, in partnership with Bridgeway Solutions, an identification and security solutions provider, has been chosen as one of South Carolina’s preferred system providers for electronic disbursement of financial aid refunds and payments to students.

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While more Wisconsin colleges are issuing voter identification cards to students, the ACLU is suing the state over its recently-passed voter ID law that, the organization claims, makes it more difficult for some students and others to vote in the state’s elections.

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