“We like to say that San Francisco is our campus,” says Mike Petricca, director of campus safety. So one access and ID challenge is the scope of this “campus.”

Yet another museum houses a unique collection of rare and vintage automobiles worth millions. Fine art galleries, open to the public, showcase student creations in painting, sculpture, jewelry and fashion. There are administration and classroom buildings, residence halls, dining facilities and computer labs. There are many AAU buildings and thousands of people coming and going each day. With an enrollment of more than 18,000 students, AAU is the largest private school of art and design in the U.S. Elisa Stephens, now at the university’s helm, continues the organization’s fine focus on creativity. Established in 1929 by Richard Stephens, a fine art painter and creative director for Sunset Magazine, he opened the school in a rented loft to teach advertising art. The educational institution is itself unique with a commitment to leading edge use of technology and inspired solutions. In many situations, card access control also ties into security video, too.Īnd there are campus multi-use ID lessons to be learned by security professionals at all types of enterprises.Īdministrators, the campus security specialist and their security systems integrator take well-earned pride in the access control system at the Academy of Art University (AAU) in San Francisco. Behind the trend, however, are sophisticated technology and integration design that range from nifty database hand-shaking and powerful security platforms to outside-of-the-box strategies and inspired use of communications and computer infrastructure. There is security, of course, but students’ seamless and cashless transactions mean more convenience for them as well as greater efficiencies and reduced operational costs for the educational institution.īuilding Swiss Army knife applications into a campus ID card is the trend at some colleges and universities, boasting multi-technology credentials that provide myriad services.

business campuses, theme parks, and government agencies like NASA.With a single campus ID, students have secure access to facilities, catch a bite to eat using point-of-sale terminals at food service venues across campus, when boarding the free-to-students city-wide shuttles, for time and attendance, clocking time and billing when using the university’s special heavy duty computers and even to pay for a meal out at neighborhood restaurants. That focus would soon be put to the test by compelling opportunities that are doable, but not within their narrow strategic focus e.g. He and a new partner left to start a virtual card venture focused on the higher education market. When Student Advantage ultimately (and somewhat predictably), ran out of money and was liquidated, the campus card segment was sold to Blackboard. Taren, who was heading up the campus card division, was astounded at how little attention was being paid to pursuing viable revenue models. In 1999-near the peak of the Internet bubble-they were scooped up by Student Advantage, a 'high-concept' venture-backed dot-com that was spending millions to build online market share in the higher-education space. The entrepreneurs funded their expansion with informal investments from family, friends, angels, and a bank loan. By the time founder Taren Lent and his partner took their system online in 1996, the 'Green Card' had a broad campus following, significant vendor participation, and average monthly revenue of $160,000.

The enterprise began as a paper-based debit card that enabled Dartmouth College students to purchase merchandise at participating local pizza shops, copy centers, coffeehouses and the like. This case follows a classic student venture from on-campus conception in 1994, to harvest during the late 90s Internet wave, to its rebirth as a virtual business model.

Cardsmith white in art box