Online Student Services >> At Their Service

By: Matt Villano
March 2006

Campus Technology is mailed each month to 50,000 qualified senior-level management readers focusing on the use of high tech in higher education. Each issue contains feature articles, case studies, product reviews and profiles of technology use at the individual, departmental, and institutional level. Featured topics include advanced networking, administrative systems, portals, security, electronic publishing, presentation technologies, course management systems, technology infrastructure and strategic IT planning.

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Pleasant surprises also abound at George Washington University, where the latest offering in online student services revolves around snacks: pretzels, potato chips, soda—you name it. Thanks to a new third-party service, DCSnacks.com, students now have the ability to order their goodies online. This effort began back in January 2003, when then-GW student Matthew Mandell launched an online business enabling students to purchase snack food for delivery between the hours of 8 pm and 2 am on school nights. At the time, the service met a huge need: None of the convenience stores on or around campus stayed open that late.

AT GW, HUNGRY STUDENTS head to the Web to order late-night snacks.

As word of Mandell’s venture spread, more and more students began signing up to use the system. Then administrators got involved. Per student request, the school ironed out a deal with DCSnacks.com, giving students the capability to pay for their goodies with Colonial Cash, or the money stored on the debit strip of their GWorld Card ID cards. Today, students can log on to the Web site, order anything from tasty morsels to reams of printer paper, and pay for the transaction with their ID cards. When DCsnacks.com employees deliver the food, the employees check the cards to make sure the user matches the photo on the card, and upon positive authentication, they hand over the goods.

“This service gives students another way to spend Colonial Cash dollars without having to go anywhere,” says Ken Pimentel, director of the GWorld Card program. “It’s more of a convenience than anything, but it’s a Web-based service we’ve found students really appreciate.”
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