From swiping into residential halls, swiping into the Dining Commons, and using it for your flex money at Llyod’s, the Owl Card plays a vital role at Keene State College.
The Owl Card is a form of identification on campus for all KSC students, if anything is with you 24/7, it is probably that.
Unfortunately, many of the uses this card has have gone unknown to a number of students on campus.
Photo Illustration by Brian Cantore / Photo Editor: Students are now able to use their owl card at multiple locations, such as the Keene State College Bookstore and the Zorn Dining Commons.
General Manager of the dining services Josef Quirinale helped clear some of the ambiguity and explained the many purposes of this card.
First off, there are several different tenders on the Owl Card.
“The first tender is the meal plan dollars, and those are the dollars that you add onto your meal plan.”
He continued, “Those can be used in any one of the dining locations, they can be used in the DC, the Hoot n Scoot, the Night Owl Cafe, Lloyd’s and Bean n Bagel. The second one is called dining dollars.”
Many KSC students may not realize the difference between these two, however there is one.
“The difference with dining dollars is, you can still use it in all the dining locations, but that money stays with you, so it’s like a debit card. Owl cash is just a little bit different,” he said.
Leftover owl cash gets carried over from semester to semester.
Students can use it in the Owl’s Roost, you can use it in the bookstore, that’s new this year, and you can also use it in the concessions,” Quirinale said.
One of the most notable changes made to the Owl Card this year is that students can now purchase books at the bookstore with it.
While many students are used to paying cash or using their credit/debit card, the purchase can now be made directly on your Owl Card.
Another interesting aspect to the Owl Card is that you can purchase items at concession stands.
“So if you go to an athletic event and there are concessions, you can use owl cash,” Quirinale said.
With these many uses designed for this card, there is a way to manage your money that goes on it.
Located on the back of your Owl Card is a website keeneowlcard.netcardmanager.com.
Under the student’s account they may view their transaction history, make a deposit and report lost cards, report found cards, among other things.
Stephanie Durvin, a sophomore at KSC shared her beliefs about the Owl Card and its use on campus.
“I mostly use it for flex, to go to the DC and to get into my building,” Durvin said.
Adding the bookstore and the Owl’s Roost gives the Owl Card even more of an extended use for students.
“Now that you can use it at the Owl’s Roost and the bookstore, it seems like they’ve designed the card so that you can use it basically everywhere on campus,” Durvin said.
Although it may seem as if there could not be any more additions made to the Owl Card, there is always room for improvement.
Between everything there is on campus, students could get pretty creative with the ways in which you could use the Owl Card.
“I would think that eventually there would be other things that might go onto the card, I can’t tell you what they may be, there may be something in the library, there may be something with copying things, there may be other things that go onto it, I think there’s the potential for that to happen,” Quirinale said.
Sabrina Lapointe can be contacted at slapointe@ksc.keene.edm