Client Success Story - McLennan Community College
McLennan Community College (MCC), a two-year public institution founded in 1965, is a political subdivision of the State of Texas that offers associate’s degrees and a variety of coursework including fine arts, liberal arts, math, science, business, human services, health sciences, veterinary technology, and continuing education programs. McLennan Community College is committed to helping students achieve their educational goals in a supportive, multicultural environment.
Originally, McLennan Community College was only looking for an ID card system, but CS Gold allowed the college to do more than it imagined possible.
Current CS Gold features available at McLennan Community College include:
- CS Access™ admits or denies faculty and staff access to parking areas, distance learning classrooms, the art gallery, and the Learning Technology Center
- Card System Value Terminals (CSVT™ ) which allow card holders to add cash to their ID cards at the machine
- CS Print™ which is used in the library and open labs, deducts printing charges from card holders’ debit accounts after they swipe their cards to release print jobs
- Vending for snack and soda machines, and photocopier applications functions similar to CS Print
- Parking gates, which allow card holders to park after they swiping his/her card and the host computer determines the card holder is an active employee or handicapped student
- CS Stored Value and Credit™, which is the debit account itself
- CS Meal Plans™
- CS CardLink™, which integrates card production into the CS Gold system, allows ID card pictures and record data to be stored as a single record, and facilitates card production management
MCC has experienced many benefits from the system, including efficiency of operations, reduced cash transactions, increased revenue, and greater dependability than mechanical devices. The system has also helped centralize many functions previously accomplished in other offices.
"Where the system has become involved, we see greater ease in reporting and payment of invoices,” says Gary Willis, Coordinator, Auxiliary Services at MCC. “It provides greater control over a larger variety of tasks from a central location.”
Other campus entities are also enjoying the benefits of CS Gold. MCC’s Campus Police use the system to access student pictures and look up license plate numbers. MCC staff members appreciate having the copier plan on ID cards. It is faster and easier than MCC’s previous card system, which required the card to be sent in for recharging, often taking up to a week to return.
Because so many departments have enjoyed success with the card system, MCC is planning on expanding the system in the future. It is currently building a case with vending companies to fund more vending readers to increase options, student-deposited funds, and revenue streams.
MCC would also like to utilize CS Gold’s ticketing option to make the student admission process for sporting events more efficient and manageable. Willis hopes to encourage usage for student government voting to make the process more secure, and to reduce the potential for discrepancies.
With all of these benefits, Willis says it is hard to choose the single most successful aspect of using CS Gold. “The library believes the use of card readers on printers, copiers, and microfiche is significant because of its reliability over the coin-operated boxes, whereas the Campus Police enjoy accessing pictures, decal and license plate numbers, printed lot entry, building, and room records from a single location,” he says.
“With the card becoming a more integral part of students’ campus lives, we like to think we are preparing them for life on the campus of a four-year college,” says Willis.
Because community colleges have differences from the rest of the university market, MCC treats the card system as a student service, dependent upon technology departments or reserve budgets, as opposed to four-year universities, which generally have more money and more income derived from student fees.
CBORD account manager Doug Pritchard says more community colleges are taking advantage of these systems. “McClennan Community College has been very active in utilizing our provided solutions to improve service to their customers (students),” says Pritchard. “It has become a role model for other community colleges in the state.”
Since installation, MCC has expanded services to include:
- Six administrative workstations
- Three vending readers
- Four Turbo readers
- UTI software, which integrates existing point-of sale (POS) terminals that have bankcard authorization interface capabilities with CS Gold
- CS Print Client/Paystation in the library and five computer labs
- C2005 readers on three student copiers, 13 faculty copiers, and five microfiche readers
- 11 online access readers
- Five parking gates
- 125 Onity® offline locks
The CS Gold card system from CBORD® is a multi-application software package for campus operators that provides a standard for campus card systems with layered software architecture, fl exible full-featured interface capabilities, and an easy-to-use graphical user interface. It represents the most robust campus management system available, using the Windows® operating system and an Oracle® database, resulting in improved capabilities and functionality. Campuses can more easily and effectively offer one card service to patrons with a complete campus management tool.
McClennan Community College originally installed its CS Gold system with DataCard® in December 1999. The consisted of one workstation, three vending readers, and three TurboTM readers, which supported limited-use debit and ID card systems.
CBORD and CS Gold are registered trademarks of The CBORD Group, Inc. CS Access Control, CS Stored Value & Credit, CS Print, and Turbo are trademarks of The CBORD Group, Inc. All other brand and product names are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of their respective owners.
