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Higher One CARES, the community outreach group of Higher One, awarded $2,500 scholarships to 20 college students, winners of the company’s “One Scholarship” competition.

The competition invited undergraduate and graduate students to submit an online video describing how they have overcome obstacles to achieve educational goals and live Higher One’s philosophy of “There is a way.” Names of the winners and their winning videos can be viewed online here.

CARES, which stands for Community Action for Resources Education and Service, was formed by employees at Higher One to help identify opportunities for community involvement and engagement. It supports a variety of not-for-profits and its primary mission is to help build communities based on education, financial literacy and entrepreneurship.

In an effort to boost security, India’s University of Hyderabad has closed down all its entrances, except the main gate, and installed a visitor management system–essentially a camera that produces an instant photo ID which is valid for a day on campus.

While the idea to deploy such a surveillance system was proposed a year ago, the upcoming biodiversity conference, in which foreign delegates will be housed on campus, prompted the school to set up the security measures as soon as possible.

“We’ll have foreign delegates living on campus; hence, the new surveillance system would only strengthen security,” said a school spokesperson.

School authorities will also now be able to know the number of people visiting its campus on any given day. All visitors will gain entry only from the main gate and they have to return the pass at the same gate while leaving the campus. On an average 300 to 400 visitors come to the University of Hyderabad daily.

Read more here.

A software vendor ended up with some personal information dating back to 1996 for thousands of former and current Oregon State University students, the university announced. In some cases, the information included a person’s name and Social Security number.

In a letter to affected alumni, the university said it has since recovered the data and “severed our relationship with the vendor.” While the school has “no evidence that any individuals other than the vendor had access to your personal information, we are unable to guarantee that it has been secure.”

In the letter, the Corvallis, Ore. school said it is “readdressing our policy regarding vendor relationships and updating physical access controls on systems that process information of this nature.”

The school also said it “takes its responsibility to protect private information seriously and has been working diligently to limit the use and availability of sensitive information.”

Read more here.

Heartland Payment Systems acquired LunchByte Systems, a school foodservice back office management and point-of-sale company which produces Nutrikids, a menu and inventory management solution for K-12 administrators, staff, parents and students.

Following the 2011 acquisitions of four other providers in the K-12 space, the LunchByte Systems purchase further expands Heartland School Solutions’ position in the K-12 school nutrition and POS technology industry. Heartland now serves more than 29,000 K-12 schools across the United States, representing a nearly 30% market share.

Heartland School Solutions provides child nutrition and payment management solutions to public and private schools throughout the country.

These include POS terminals, a secure online payment portal, mobile payment capabilities and integrated vending solutions, as well as a number of back office management features such as free and reduced meal application processing and meal tracking, and inventory management and menu planning.

Lenel Systems International will be using HID Global’s EasyLobby Secure Visitor Management software integrated with Lenel’s OnGuard access control application to enable end users to grant different levels of access to visitors, contractors and employees.

HID’s EasyLobby provides corporations, government agencies, educational institutions, health care and property management customers with visitor management capabilities.

When a visitor or contractor is badged using EasyLobby, the information is automatically passed from the system’s database to OnGuard, and the prox card or bar code is activated in real-time. When visitors check out of EasyLobby, the OnGuard system is immediately notified and the card is deactivated.

The integration between EasyLobby and the OnGuard application gives customers more flexibility to grant proximity card or barcode access to visitors or contractors that require it, without lobby attendants needing to interface with the access system.

The University of Iowa is rolling out a new version of its Iowa One card that integrates electronic door access using proximity technology.

The school recently changed the banking vendor it uses for the card, which also serves as a debit card, and decided the time was right to include a prox chip on the new card to control door access. The change means students, faculty and staff no longer have to carry separate cards.

“There’s a convenience factor in having so many functions on a single card, Laurie Lentz, director of treasury information systems for the University of Iowa, said. The card, she added, is something students carry with them “all the time.”

A switch to the new card isn’t mandatory right now, Lentz said, but university officials eventually want everyone to have the new Iowa One card, as electronic building access is upgraded and added to more campus facilities.

Switching to the new card is free, but there is a $25 charge for students to replace a new card if it’s lost or stolen. Faculty and staff aren’t charged for a lost or stolen card.

Read more here.

Talk about getting them young…That’s what the College 4 Kids program sponsored by Metropolitan Community College in Omaha is all about. Elementary students ages 5 to 11 can enroll for a maximum of three classes in the week-long program and even receive a Metro student ID card, just like college students.

Classes include H2O Science Experiments, Acting 101, Erupting Volcanoes, Kids in the Kitchen, and more.

“It was started just as a community service thing years ago and we had enough room that we had it on campus,” said Tina Morgan, continuing education program planner.

“The goal was to get people familiar with Metro and used to being on campus so when their kids were ready for college they would think about Metro as being an alternative for them to go,” she added.

“It’s a fun program and the kids enjoy it,” Morgan said. “It’s rewarding to see them come back year after year.” For those who are too old to attend College 4 Kids, Metro also offers College 4 Teens.

Read more here.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and two other congressmen have sent letters to 15 financial institutions and third-party financial providers that supply campus debit and prepaid cards to colleges and universities.

The financial institutions were asked to provide a list of all colleges and universities with which they provide debit or prepaid card services to students, along with copies of the contracts. They were also asked to provide a list of debit or prepaid card fees and the terms provided to students at each institution.

According to the release posted on the Web site of the National Association of College and University Business Officers, the three legislators “expressed concern about fees” associated with prepaid or debit cards provided to colleges. They called for the contracts to be made public.

The letter was written in response to a recently released report from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group that was heavily critical of prepaid or debit card programs provided to higher education institutions. Other signatories on the letter were Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) and Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vermont).

The complete press release from the NACUBO Web site can be viewed here.

Personal information on about 23,000 students at the University of North Florida, Jacksonville, may have been put at risk when someone gained access to the school’s database, university officials announced.

Without disclosing specific details, the university said there is a possibility that the confidential identification information of students who submitted contracts to live in the university’s residence halls between 1997 and spring 2011 may have been compromised.

“While the investigation did not turn up any evidence that any specific information was copied from the files, it is a possibility,” a school spokesperson said.

The university sent letters to the 23,000 current and former students informing them that someone may have obtained their names and Social Security numbers.

While the school says the computers are now secured, the information could have been accessed as early as last spring.

Read more here.

College business officers say a recently released report of the Public Interest Research Group “fails to adequately recognize that students have a choice in deciding where and how to manage personal banking and financial transactions and that campus cards are offered by campuses for service, convenience, and security.”

The statement was released by the National Association of College and University Business Officers in response to the PIRG report called “The Campus Debit Card Trap: Are Bank Partnerships Fair to Students?” It alleges that banks and other financial service companies charge hidden fees to manage a student’s university-issued debit/campus ID card.

NACUBO added that it “strongly encourages campuses to identify banking services that offer low- or no-fee options for students and endorses transparency and full disclosure in marketing financial products and services to college students.”

It went on to say that “institutions’ continuing efforts to contain college costs include effective cost management and streamlining administrative services. The (PIRG) report misleads readers to believe that campuses profit by providing electronic refunds of student financial aid dollars.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, R-Ill., said he “will be working in Washington to put an end to the unreasonable practices highlighted in this (PIRG) report…”

In addition, a lawsuit has been filed over the report. A California resident and college student claims financial services provider Higher One “deceptively assessed bank fees” and that the “plaintiff and other Higher One account holders nationwide, were deceived into using a Higher One account in order to access their college financial aid money…then subsequently charged unfair and improperly disclosed bank fees.”

Here’s a link to the press release from the Washington, D.C. law firm which filed the class action suit.

For more on the NACUBO statement, Senator Durbin’s statement and the PIRG report, go here.

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