Dickinson Dining Services recently adopted the “GET Mobile” app to allow students to “upload their photo, add money to their declining balance and view their meal plan transactions,” explained Jessica McBeth, the Access Control and ID Specialist for Dining Services. The idea for the app came from parent requests to add funds to their child’s declining meal balance without having their child go to the ID office in person. 

The app displays a picture of the student and lists the amount of money they have in various accounts: Declining Balance, Points, Devil Dollars and Dining Dollars. “GET Mobile” shows previous transactions that the user had at campus eateries, in addition to an “Explore” section that lists dining locations and what meal plans they take.

 McBeth said, “The transaction information (i.e. amount spent, date and location of the transaction) is stored on-premises at Dickinson, within the CBORD meal plan/ID card system. However, it is important to note that no credit card information is stored on campus.” Instead the credit and debit card transactions are done through GET’s merchant gateway which follows a standard set by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council.

McBeth said “The acquisition of GET did not go through a committee approval process. We had an opportunity to take advantage of a platform that natively works in conjunction with our existing CBORD (meal plan and ID card) system.” As of now, the app has over two hundred participating students, staff and faculty.

Currently there are no plans to expand the app, however it currently allows students to “upload their photo, add money to their declining balance and view their meal plan transactions” said Jessica McBeth the Access Control and ID Specialist for Dining Services.

“GET Mobile” is an extension of the CBORD meal plan/ID card system Dickinson uses. The CBORD website claims its purpose is “Empower[ing] your campus card to serve as identification, provide physical access to buildings and rooms, and enable payments on and off campus,” with specific emphasis put on residence hall access, laundry, accessing account balances and paying for on and off campus dining options. CBORD has technology and services in “10,000 organizations in the United States, Canada, South Africa, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.”