New PennCard's "cashless' features set to take effect

Over 100 chip-equipped vending machines will be unveiled today. One golden chip may finally prove to be the key to reducing campus crime, satiating the cheesesteak connoisseur's healthy appetite and ridding the University community of dirty laundry. A semester after the chips were introduced as a prime component of the new PennCards, the University is beginning to offer students "cashless" access to library photocopiers, residence laundry facilities and a number of off-campus merchants. The debit functions of the new PennCard are part of a deal announced last March between the University, the University of Pennsylvania Student Federal Credit Union, PNC Bank Corp. and MBNA Corp. Under the agreement, the University will receive $6 million over the next five years in return for adding cash, banking and credit card functions to its student and faculty ID cards. Although students and faculty members were initially told that they could start racking up purchases on the card last September, officials instead chose to gradually implement the project in an effort to minimize security problems, according to Laurie Cousart, director of telecommunications and campus card services. Today, however, the University will complete the installation of more than 100 vending machines with card readers across campus. PennCard holders will be able to load up to $50 in cash onto the cards at card value centers located in the Quadrangle's McClelland Hall, the PennCard Center at 38th and Walnut streets, Johnson Pavilion, the Biomedical library and the ground and third floors of Van Pelt Library. Other centers will be installed at the University Museum, the Fine Arts library, the Dental School and the Moore Building later in the semester, PennCard Project Manager Joy Williams said. Williams added that she expects a total of 20 centers on campus upon the project's completion at the end of the semester. Non-PennCard holders will be able to purchase "PennCash cards" at the card value centers in about 2 months, Cousart said. These value-only cards will allow University alumni and visitors to purchase items at establishments equipped with PennCard readers. And PNC Merchant Services, a division of PNC Bank Corp.-- which is marketing and selling the card reader units for the University-- has made progress in lining up business who will accept the PennCard, signing contracts with seven off-campus merchants. Students can already use PennCash at both Campus Copy Centers, Baskin Robbins, Eyeglass Encounters, Allegro Pizza, Gaeta's College Pizza, Papa John's and Smart Alex. PNC is in the process of recruiting more merchants after receiving 30 positive replies to a mailing sent to retailers in November, Cousart said. Additionally, the University is in the process of installing card readers for laundry and copy machines in University buildings and dormitories. The Quad, PennCard's test site, is already equipped with quarterless laundry service. Williams said she hopes to install readers in Hill House laundry rooms by the end of this month, followed by the low rises and King's Court/English House. All laundry machines are expected to have the card payment option by early February. The University will also be converting all current copy machine card readers in the libraries to PennCash. The original copycards will be phased out over time, Williams said. The new PennCard capabilities are intended to make purchases safer and more convenient for students. And local merchants say there are benefits for them as well. Baskin Robbins owner Eric Yates said he seized the opportunity to accept the card after comparing PennCard's 3 percent fee with the QuakerCard's steeper 12 percent cut taken from merchant revenues. The QuakerCard is the brainchild of University Student Services, a company founded last year by four 1997 Wharton graduates. The popular debit card is currently accepted by about 35 area merchants. One advantage of the QuakerCard is that merchants receive the card readers for free. PennCard merchants, by contrast, pay more than $1,000 for reader installation or leasing, according to University Student Services co-founder Matthew Levenson. But Carlos Huertas, food and beverage director of the Sheraton University City and a spokesperson for the Smart Alex restaurant, noted that both the fee and the installation charges for the PennCard readers were waived for Smart Alex because it resides in a University-owned building. Williams, however, insisted that PNC Merchant Services charges a commission ranging from about 2 percent to 6 percent of each merchant's sales volume, regardless of the establishment's affiliations with the University. She added that PNC and Smart Alex may have engaged in "separate negotiations." Despite the more than 20,000 students and faculty toting the new PennCard, Levenson expressed little concern at the prospect of his "far inferior" competitor invading his market, adding that Eyeglass Encounters and Smart Alex are not "student-frequented" establishments. The University subscribes to this "if we build it, they will come" mentality, Levenson said. "Yet they have the infinite resources of both Penn and PNC bank and they can't put something together in 6 months."