June 23, 2021

From school supplies to hot dogs and vending machines, Seneca is going cashless across all campuses starting September.

The initiative under Au Large resulted from consultations with the Seneca community with many individuals expressing their desire to go cashless in the wake of the pandemic.

“It has become the norm now,” said Naaz Mohamed, Director of Finance. “We were already more than 90 per cent cashless before with tuition fees and the library. The pandemic made us rethink our operations from the retail point of view.”

A cashless Seneca will promote safety, security and reduce administrative costs — a timely approach with the sanitization requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Becoming cashless has brought together areas throughout Seneca to work on solutions to allow students and employees to pay for services such as parking, bookstore and dining using debit, credit card or OneCard.

Those wanting to load bills onto their OneCard can use the money loader on campus. There will be a $50 limit when adding money through the loader. Larger amounts can be deposited to OneCard at the OneCard office or through the OneCard website using Interac, Visa, MasterCard or WeChat Pay.

Adding to the cashless approach, Seneca is installing a self-order food kiosk in the new food hall at Newnham Campus and developing a user-friendly dining app for pre-ordering meals on all campuses.

“Our food vendors welcome the change,” said David Neale, Executive Director of Campus Services & Facilities. “Everyone wants to reduce the amount of cash handling.”

When Starbucks reopened at Newnham Campus recently, it said goodbye to coins and bills.

Bill Goniotakis is the Resident District Manager for Aramark, which manages Seneca’s food services, including Starbucks. He says cashless and mobile ordering is the way to go.

“It has exploded in popularity since COVID-19 as businesses had to change their business models to online services,” he said. “Digital transaction makes everything a lot easier, and it’s designed to improve the guest experience. We have essentially eliminated people fumbling for cash at checkout.”

According to Jessica Johnson, Manager, Campus Services, cash transactions in food services accounted for only 17 per cent of sales across Seneca’s campuses.

“It’s not going to be anything new for most of our students when they return to campus,” she said. “Most will not have used cash during the pandemic and, for some, even prior to that. It’ll be a great experience for everyone.”