Dining Services expands Crimson Cash program

By Debra Bradley Ruder

Gazette Staff

When Ann Norton, a staff assistant at Widener Library, wants a soda or a snack, she goes to the staff lounge, swipes her Harvard ID card through the vending machine, and makes her selection.

No coins. No change maker.

Norton is one of a growing number of employees who use Crimson Cash, a relatively new payment system that allows members of the Harvard community to purchase food and photocopies, and even to do laundry, with their ID cards.

"The advantage is, I don't have to go digging for change all the time," said Norton, who works in Widener's Financial Services Office. "I can use the same card for making copies or for getting yogurt."

Dining Services introduced Crimson Cash about two years ago as part of its commitment to customer service.

After focusing on its campus restaurants and on laundry and vending machines in the undergraduate Houses, Dining Services now hopes to expand the program to more administrative buildings. Last week, for example, it added about 10 more food and drink dispensers at the Medical School.

Jeffrey Cuppett, who manages the technical aspects of the Crimson Cash system, points out some of the pluses. For one, carrying a card instead of cash is safer. Secondly, transactions are more efficient.

"At the Greenhouse [restaurant in the Science Center], the cashier slides your card through, and your transaction is approved in one to five seconds," he said. "It really speeds up the lines in the restaurants. You don't have to wait for people who insist on giving exact change."

A number of libraries have also signed on. Until recently, each library in the Harvard College system had its own photocopying system, "and people had as many as 13 copier cards in their wallets," Cuppett noted. "The Library approached us for a solution to the situation." Today, about 10 branches (including Pusey, Hilles, and Cabot libraries) and the Law School Library accept Crimson Cash.

The system allows Dining Services to keep track of dining patterns and broken equipment from its Winthrop Street offices. It also helps keep down the price of vending goodies by saving costs for handling the coins.

Since July, Harvard students, faculty, and staff have spent some $300,000 in Crimson Cash.

How does it work? You may add value to your Harvard ID by dialing 496-6600 and using a credit card, or by inserting cash at one of the "Value Transfer Stations" located around campus. If you don't have a Harvard ID, you may purchase a Crimson Cash card for $1 at one of the transfer stations. Vending machines that accept Crimson Cash bear identifying stickers.

Other universities, such as Duke and the University of Arizona, have used similar systems for many years, according to Cuppett.

Harvard's foray into "debit purchasing" actually began about five years ago, when the Medical School introduced a debit dining card for medical and dental students.

In 1993, the University laid the electronic foundation for a University-wide debit system when it switched to photo ID cards with magnetic stripes and bar codes.

Dining Services then bought a special AT&T computer system to better monitor dining traffic in the Houses. Staff members who used to check off students manually at mealtimes now swipe their ID cards through computers. (Undergraduates also use their cards to enter their dormitories, but that's a separate system run by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.)

Two years ago, Dining Services introduced Crimson Cash at its campus eateries, and today it is available at Loker Commons in Memorial Hall, Conroy Commons at the Graduate School of Education, Sebastian's at the School of Public Health, and elsewhere.

The card system also gives Dining Services an opportunity to provide students with greater flexibility with their board plans. Each semester, $50 is applied to a student's ID as part of the board plan, allowing the student to pay for guest meals in the Houses or to purchase food at campus restaurants. This plan is called BoardPlus.

Senior Georgia Bellas normally dines in Leverett House, but she spends a lot of time in the darkroom in Sever Hall and sometimes can't get back to her House. So she uses her "BoardPlus" credit at Loker Commons.

"If I miss dinner, or I want a snack, or if I want to treat a friend who's visiting for lunch, I'll go to Loker," Bellas said. "I like having the credit on my ID card; a lot of schools have this kind of system. It's nice to have the option of going somewhere other than my House to eat. "