My thoughts on the Cbord system

Anthony Miller, Opinion Editor

Last year, the OneCard portal on the Mercyhurst website lost several key functions.

Among them was the ability to see the amounts of the various OneCard currencies you currently had.

While this didn’t bother students who have large meal plans and don’t really need to worry about how many dining dollars they have, for people like myself, who only have dining dollars to work with, it was a slightly inconvenient change.

I went from being able to check, at any time, anywhere I was, the balance of my OneCard, to having to ask one of the cashiers at Grotto Commons or the Laker to tell me.

You’re probably wondering what the problem is with this scenario.

If anything, doesn’t this encourage more social interaction on campus?

If I lived on campus, I think that to be true.

But I live off campus, I commute to Mercyhurst University daily.

As a commuter, I spend most of my time off campus.

As a result, the balance of my OneCard was simply not available to me most of the time.

I want to reiterate that this wasn’t all that big of an issue.

In fact, it was a total first world problem.

I was still easily able to get my OneCard balance by just asking the cashier what it was whenever I checked into the Grotto Commons.

And I do acknowledge that the reason the OneCard portal shut down was outside of Mercyhurst’s control, making my prior rant seem all that more ridiculous.

But, nevertheless, I still found myself waiting for the replacement to the OneCard portal.

Recently, that replacement arrived with the release of Cbord.

Cbord is a system that allows you to view the balance of your OneCard from any device connected to the internet.

All you have to do is visit their site, and sign up.

There is also a Cbord app, so you can check your balance at any time.

Mercyhurst has been pushing this system hard the past few weeks.

Just a few days ago, I had Luke the Laker come up to me in the Grotto Commons and hand me a card telling me how to sign up for OneCard.

So what do I think of the new system?

I think that this is a great replacement for the OneCard portal.

Not only does it allow me, as a commuter, to see my OneCard balance at any time, it comes with additional benefits.

You wouldn’t believe how handy it is to be able to check your balance directly on your phone.

But what really excites me about this new system is all of the new possibilities it opens for Mercyhurst University.

Mercyhurst has been very vocal about their potential plans for this service.

The biggest one of these plans is that, if enough people sign up for Cbord, they’ll try and make it so you can use your dining dollars around town.

Gannon has had a similar feature for years now, and it’s worked very well for them.

It’s easy to see why.

It opens up so many more dining options for students.

Have someplace in town you like to eat?

If they participate in this program, you could use your dining dollars to eat there for your lunch or dinner.

It would’ve been easy for Mercyhurst to just fix this small problem with some simple fix.

Just using a different service to display the OneCard currencies, for example.

But the Cbord system goes above and beyond that.

It opens up new opportunities for both students and staff on campus.