Campus Adopts Mobile App to Accommodate Campus Dining

Transact

New Jersey's Fairleigh Dickinson University began its fall semester on Aug. 17, with courses being delivered online. By Sept. 14, a small number of classes began in-person sessions at two campuses, primarily involving labs, health sciences and psychology clinical courses and a few others. Between those two dates, the school also allowed students to move into residence halls, following a "de-densified" housing plan. The on-campus dining options have been reconfigured with sneeze guards and Plexiglas barriers, physical distancing for seating, prepackaged meals and lots of sanitizing.

The university has also adopted an app that allows students and others to put in their orders at campus dining options before they arrive to pick up their food. The school is requiring people to use Transact Mobile Ordering from Transact to access campus and nearby dining menus and cover payment. According to the institution, the app allows for accommodation of dietary needs and customization of orders. The app is available for iOS and Android.

The software also provides for mobile ordering in retail outlets and bookstores on and off campus. According to the company, the app, which notifies the customer when the food is ready, has built-in capacity management functionality to meet physical distancing protocols.

"Prior to the pandemic, FDU was already working to update our technology and processes — COVID-19 only accelerated our plans and overall approach to how we can best serve students, faculty and staff," said Bob Valenti, the university's associate vice president of Auxiliary Services, in a statement. "This is much more than providing new technology to students. It's an opportunity to provide outstanding service to our school community and help ensure a safe environment for all."

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • college student using a laptop alongside an AI robot and academic icons like a graduation cap, lightbulb, and upward arrow

    Nonprofit to Pilot Agentic AI Tool for Student Success Work

    Student success nonprofit InsideTrack has joined Salesforce Accelerator – Agents for Impact, a Salesforce initiative providing technology, funding, and expertise to help nonprofits build and customize AI agents and AI-powered tools to support and scale their missions.

  • server racks, a human head with a microchip, data pipes, cloud storage, and analytical symbols

    OpenAI, Oracle Expand AI Infrastructure Partnership

    OpenAI and Oracle have announced they will develop an additional 4.5 gigawatts of data center capacity, expanding their artificial intelligence infrastructure partnership as part of the Stargate Project, a joint venture among OpenAI, Oracle, and Japan's SoftBank Group that aims to deploy 10 gigawatts of computing capacity over four years.

  • geometric pattern features abstract icons of a dollar sign, graduation cap, and document

    Maricopa Community Colleges Adopts Platform to Combat Student Application Fraud

    In an effort to secure its admissions and financial processes, Maricopa Community Colleges has partnered with A.M. Simpkins and Associates (AMSA) to implement the company's S.A.F.E (Student Application Fraudulent Examination) across the district's 10 institutions.

  • human profile with a circuit-board brain next to an open book

    Georgia State U and Operation HOPE Program Fosters AI Literacy in Underserved Youth

    A pilot program co-led by Operation HOPE and Georgia State University is working to build technical, entrepreneurial, and financial-literacy skills in Atlanta-area youth to help them thrive in the AI-powered workforce.