EDITORIAL: QuakerCard end leaves room for U.

Penn should step in and improve and accelerate PennCash now that the QuakerCard is gone. When four Wharton seniors created University Student Services and unveiled the card in the summer of 1996, the company drew strong criticism for allegedly misleading freshmen and their parents into believing that the QuakerCard was affiliated with the University But despite the company's questionable means of attracting customers, the QuakerCard proved useful to students as a means of shopping and eating at restaurants without carrying cash or depending on credit cards. Now that the company has unexpectedly folded its QuakerCard operation, students who previously depended on the card are left in a lurch. The solution: Penn officials should step up their development of a similar PennCash system and spread the card's use beyond the limited existing collection of area retailers. As long as the University charges area retailers and restaurants reasonably for use of the "smart card" functions, it should not have much trouble attracting former QuakerCard customers. But Penn's real problem will be to make the card as safe and convenient for students as the QuakerCard was. The first step should be to make it possible for parents to charge PennCash to their credit cards or to send in checks to credit students' accounts. Simultaneously, the University needs to ensure the safety of the "smart card" so that if cards are lost or stolen, students do not lose their account balance. The University has a great advantage, as students already have to have PennCards. Why not let us use the cards to their fullest by improving the existing PennCash system to make up for the end of the QuakerCard?