Faster lines, discounts are advantages of dining card
While debit and credit card users wait in long lines at the Hub and Carousel, diners using student ID cards breeze right through – along with a 10 percent discount. These are just a couple of the advantages students can obtain by using a USU card, university officials say.
Students or parents can add money to a dining account or an Aggie Express account and then access them with a USU card all over campus. “It’s like a declining balance, like a debit card,” said Eric Olsen, assistant director of the Taggart Student Center.
When money is put into the dining account, it can be used at all food venues and students can receive a 10 percent discount when they use it at Carousel Square, The Hub, Quad Side Café, Junction or the Skyroom Restaurant.
Money on the Aggie Express account can be used in the computer labs, the parking terrace, Aggie Ice Cream, the engineering store and various other places throughout campus.
Some who work at the food venues say they appreciate those who use their dining accounts. “It makes the lines go tons faster when people use their cards,” said Jennifer Beukers, a Hub server. Oluwatosin Omolara Dada, who works at the Hub, says she uses her dining account when buying food there. “It’s faster than cash even because you don’t have to make change”
One of the big advantages to using either account, Olsen said, is that the cards go through the readers in a split second while debit/credit cards can take minutes to process. Money must be added in person the first time, but after that, phone or Internet adding are options that students and parents can utilize.
Most who have visited the Card Office to add money, buy tickets or look in the lost and found have noticed that Aggie spirit abounds. This is thanks to Nancy VanKampen, the Card Office manager, who has worked in the card office for almost 16 years.
“I began working for a few years and I’ve stayed because I love it” VanKampen said. When she first began working, the walls were bare and she aquired aggie decorations to cover the walls. As she began interacting with students they would bring her athletic posters and as new ones come she simply takes down the old and puts up the new.
Olsen said of VanKampen. Answering questions from where something is to what the Carousel is serving for lunch isn’t necessarily part of her job, but because of her caring personality VanKampen answers them all and when she can’t she directs those in question to someone who can.
“We sit right in the middle of everything,” VanKampen said.
This makes it easy to get to and easy to find, she said, if you want to add money to your dining account and start saving time from standing in line.
-albaugh@cc.usu.edu