Students will likely be able to use Colonial Cash at more venues around the Mount Vernon Campus next semester as a technological improvement allows the GWorld program to handle more vendors.
The University signed a contract with Blackboard in October to incorporate Colonial Cash into the company’s BbOne network, putting the company in charge of managing each GWorld partner’s account. The deal provided the technical framework needed to handle additional vendors.
University officials said adding vendors in the upscale Foxhall neighborhood, where the Mount Vernon Campus is located, is a top priority. The University will also be looking to add partners in the Foggy Bottom area. About 70 Foggy Bottom businesses are on a wait list to join the program.
“GW would like to provide the students who live in (Mount Vernon) or frequent the campus a wider selection of merchants at which to use their GWorld Card,” Deborah Wright, director of the GWorld program, wrote in an e-mail. “We realize that currently the majority of the merchants accepting the GWorld Card are in the Foggy Bottom area.”
Currently, only two Foxhall area vendors – CVS and Cr?me de la Cr?me – accept Colonial Cash.
The GWorld office has provided Blackboard with a list of merchants in the area who have either been suggested by students or who have approached the University to be considered for the program.
The list of prospective BbOne members includes Bambu, Chen’s Gourmet, Jettie’s, Listrani’s, Little China Caf?, Pallisade’s Pizzeria and Marvelous Market, said Louis Katz, GW’s executive vice president and treasurer. All will be contacted by Blackboard in the coming weeks, though there is no guarantee they will sign on.
Katz said the decisions on which businesses to contact was based on both student interest and variety, with an emphasis on avoiding an overlap in the types of venues on the list.
“GW’s goal is to provide the best choices to the students,” Katz said. “We look at potential merchants to ensure that they would not pose and conflict with the contracts GW already has with certain vendors while maintaining flexibility for student spending.”
The decision to focus on Mount Vernon as an area for expansion was based on student demand, officials said. Wright said she believes students on both campuses will embrace any new partners.
“Since there currently is a limited selection of merchants accepting the GWorld Card in the Mount Vernon Campus area, and students have been asking for additional merchants in the area, we hope the addition of new merchants will be met with enthusiasm,” Wright said.
Wright noted that based on the smaller number of students living at the campus, merchants in the area will likely experience a smaller boost in business than Foggy Bottom vendors saw when the Colonial Cash program first began over a year ago. However, she said that interest among vendors has been positive and that the partnerships would still prove beneficial. GW receives a percentage of each sale from GWorld partners, with the portion varying depending on the vendor.
Several Foxhall businesses that will be approached by Blackboard said they see little benefit in joining Colonial Cash. Steve Bishop, manager of Pallisade’s Pizzeria, which is just blocks away from Mount Vernon, said students rarely patronize his pizza parlor and that the Colonial Cash program would be of little use.
“I just don’t need any extra aggravation,” Bishop said. “I don’t get many students in here anyway. If I got more students, maybe I’d feel differently about it.”
Others said that while they liked the idea of students being able to use Colonial Cash at their businesses, they would need to know more details about the program before signing on. Kevin Peng, head manager of Little China Caf?, said he would be interested if it did not cost him too much to join.
“Some students have come in and asked me this, ‘Can I use my (GWorld) card?'” Peng said. “So if students could come in here and use their card, I think that would be good – if it doesn’t cost me too much.”
Students, particularly Mount Vernon residents, welcomed the idea of having more Mount Vernon area vendors accept Colonial Cash. Marc Abanto, a freshman living in Clark Hall, said the move is long overdue.
“A lot of times, especially if I don’t want to eat at Ames or the Pub, I find myself at kind of a loss,” Abanto said. “It’s basically either order pizza or head down to Foggy Bottom. It would be much better to have more places up here where I could use Colonial Cash.”
Others who live in Foggy Bottom but attend classes at Mount Vernon said they would not likely frequent the new partners, but agreed that more Foxhall venues were necessary to accommodate the campus’s residents.
“I come up (to Mount Vernon) four times a week, and I’ve never even thought about going off campus to eat,” said freshman Nick Gwyn, who lives in the Hall on Virginia Avenue. “But I feel bad for the kids who are stuck up here anyway, so they might as well have more options.”
