At this week's Student Senate, University Director of Auxiliary Services Scott Kachmarik discussed the addition of eight off-campus vendors that have agreed to accept Domer Dollars at their locations.
The vendors include Let's Spoon, Bigby Coffee, Einstein Bagels, Chipotle, Jimmy John's, Domino's, Papa John's and Five Guys. Looking to the future, Kachmarik said he hopes to add locations such as Target, Meijer, 7/11, Martin's, dorm snack shacks and even cab companies, although certain items will be excluded, like alcohol and tobacco.
"We are very pleased to say that as of today we have eight merchants off-campus," Kachmarik said. "Chipotle is our hottest place. You guys seem to eat a lot of Chipotle. Five Guys originally didn't commit, but after seeing the success of Chipotle they wanted in. I guess the consumer has spoken."
"We started looking at proximity first, the places that students will use most often. We hope it's a convenience and that it is working for all of you. We're going to see how it's going for us then take it to the next step next fall when I think we're really going to hit it big."
In order to give more power to the ID card, Kachmarik said the campus card office has been working to combine the student card office in the basement of South Dining Hall with the faculty and staff office on the second floor of Grace Hall.
"As of Jan. 1 we have consolidated offices," Kachmarik said. "We're looking to create new office space, maybe some self-service kiosks to replace those cards lost at midnight, so that it is just a one-stop shop."
Kachmarik expressed his enthusiasm at the recent accomplishments, especially considering their extended timeline.
"We've been hearing this request for a while and have always wanted to accommodate it," Kachmarik said. "What led to the ability to have Domer Dollars off-campus is the organizational shift occurring in the ID card office."
YitingZheng, director of the department of campus technology, and Matt Mahan, technology commissioner of Fisher Hall, presented a plan for changes taking place on campus.
"We talked to the OIT Help Desk and we were able to set up a system to have one to two technology commissioners for each dorm," Zheng said.
Mahan said the unpaid position provides technology help for solving simple problems like printing and connecting to the internet.
"The technology liaison is trained through the OIT Help Desk," Mahan said. "Basically their job is to give a [Freshman Orientation] presentation to their hall explaining technology on campus. That seemed to be the highlight of the system since it provided everyone with the basic information."
Zheng said this position is intended to serve as a medium between students and the OIT Help Desk.
"The reason we created this position is because in the past freshmen were wary to approach an OIT help desk," Zheng said. "They were scared or felt stupid asking for help, but now that it's a peer, hopefully they will feel more comfortable."
Since this was the pilot year, Zheng said certain dorms, like Zahm House and Morrissey Manor, were unable to find volunteers for the position, but their goal for next year is to have at least one liaison for every dorm.
