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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.

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.

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.

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

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.