and other universities within Michigan going cashless, they were pretty shocked. What do you mean, you're not taking cash? How can you not take cash? And now we get the questions of how did you do that? What were the ins and outs that you noticed?

Welcome to Focus, a podcast dedicated to the business of higher education. I'm your host, Heather Richmond. And we will be exploring the challenges and opportunities facing today's higher learning institutions. In this episode, Beth Hardcastle the Assistant Controller at Eastern Michigan University join me to discuss their journey to a cashless campus and the benefits, both expected and some unexpected to this new strategy. Well, it's so great to have you with us here today, Beth.

Thank you so much for having me on.

That's great. Well, let's start off by learning a little bit more about you. Can you give us a bit about your background?

Yeah. So I'm the Assistant Controller for Student Business Services at Eastern Michigan University. I've been working in the department for approximately 12 years now. I went to school at Eastern, I did my undergrad and my graduate work here. So I've never left. So I'm an alum of the university as well, which is kind of fun. I've been in my role now for approximately five years as the assistant controller overseeing all of our student billing process. And so I do all the billing process and ID card management within our department. And we use TouchNet, for a lot of our processes, everything from cashiering to bill payment marketplace, we use TouchNet to process all of our ACH payments and credit card payments throughout the whole university. So we are a big user of TouchNet at this time.

That's awesome. What a perfect role for you. Being an alum, you're able to know all the things that you wish you had a better experience as a student.

Yeah, absolutely. And so it's always fun to talk to the students and have that little connection with them, especially, you know, when they're lost on campus and stuff. I've been here for so long that, you know, you kind of feels like family.

Absolutely. And how about just a quick snapshot of Eastern Michigan?

Yeah, so we're a four year public institution run through the state of Michigan, and we approximately have between 15,000 to 20,000 students that are enrolled per year.

Awesome. Well, I know that we've been working together for a long time. And like you said, you you're using pretty much everything. So let's just talk about, you know, with your journey, even over the past 12 years, just how the campus payments have really evolved. And so what would you say be the biggest change that you've seen during your time there?

Yeah, so one of the biggest changes that we had several years back was that we went cashless. So we closed our cashierÕs office, and no longer take cash payments for our tuition bills. And so that's probably one of our biggest changes. We made some other additional changes here and there in products that we've utilized with TouchNet. But that would probably be the largest and biggest one that we've encountered so far.

So you're saying completely cashless?
Yeah, completely cashless. So we've been cashless since 2017. So it actually happened during my transition into the assistant controller role. I started as the interim assistant controller in July, and we went cashless that November. Yeah, so we haven't had cash in the office. Since 2017. We take all the cash or check payments, and online payments through TouchNet. And we process our payments that come in through our drop boxes, like checks and stuff approximately two times a week.

Okay, so you still have some folks who need to, you know, still have the paper process, if you will, but you just instead of having a cashier's office, you just have some drop boxes around.

Yeah, so we have approximately three to four drop boxes on campus, at different buildings and locations. To make it easier for our students to have accessibility depending on where on campus their classes are, where they're living, those types of things. So we do pick those up all of our drop boxes twice a week, and then our back office desk processes them through the TouchNet cashiering to post them to student accounts. 

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I know we talked earlier, too, that there are some students who still really want to use cash, but you've really kind of worked something out to allow them to do that.

Yeah, so from a student payment process, we are fortunate enough to have a credit union here on campus. And so we've worked with our credit union to allow our students to be able to grab a cashier's check from their location if they do have cash only to make a payment. And then even though we're cashless, we still have a few departments on campus, mostly like health service related our children's care center that still wanted to have cash, and be able to have cash available to take from their patrons. And we've worked also with the credit union to allow those departments to use the web deposit feature in TouchNet cashiering, and then they deposit that cash into any immune account here at the credit union.

Wow, that's a really great partnership that you have there, sounds like.

Yeah, so we've been very fortunate that they were brought in a several years ago, right at the time, we were going cashless, which made the ease and transition of moving cashless for those departments much easier. And for us.

Absolutely. So probably with all of that, I'm assuming that really the kind of the role of it was the traditional cashier has evolved and changed too. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Yeah, so our cashiers, we have two cashiers here at EMU. But we also allow them to answer phones, process, paperwork, they do a lot of our email communication statements to students. So they are more customer service oriented than they probably were before. Mostly virtually, then up front, you know, because we don't have a front counter for them to be at, to answer questions. So our traditional cashiers handle things behind the scenes. And then we do have a service counter, that's like an all in one for student business services, financial aid, records and registration, that then help answer our questions, if a student has something that they need answered, while they're on campus.

That's great. And I think that's what I hear a lot of times, it's really that that role evolving from being more of the cashier to more of the kind of service advisor that really can help students out.

Yeah, and so we have, we're fortunate Eastern that we kind of have a little bit of both, we have those staff that work at our one stop, we call it a one stop shop, right? Kind of a normal term around right around campus. So we have several employees that work there that helped with all of those locations. And then we have the two dedicated current accounts, you know, for student account that just worked behind the scenes and answer phones and stuff when necessary.

Yeah, that that makes a lot of sense. So obviously, I'm sure you've seen a ton of benefits of going cashless, can you talk a little bit about some of that?

Yeah, so one of the benefits, I think, is just ease of concern of having cash on hand at a university. That has really kind of eased some of the staff in stress levels, to be able to have no cash. And the liability, I think, of a university to have large amounts of cash, the continued bank, going to the bank depositing those type of things, we don't have that now, because of all of our payments are mostly electronic through the ACH process, or through credit card, and then the checks that we do get, we have it that we set up with our Chase Bank, that we just have machines in the office that scan them in and, you know, send that information off to the bank for the money to be deposited. So it's made payments, in general, it's a lot easier to manage.

I bet, there's probably those things that you don't even think about from a safety perspective. And somebody's going to have the peace of mind of knowing that there's a ton of cash here and if somebody knewÉ

Yeah, I think that, we had some staff transitions and it, you know, the cashiers payments and cash went to a different person for a little while before we closed and I think there was a lot of stress, there's just a lot of concern behind that, of having that much cash and being managed and having to be responsible for it. And I have seen from like, a staff perspective, that just the ease of not having it has, kind of, the anxieties and stuff of having it have definitely decreased and it's been very beneficial for them.

That is great. And, and obviously, probably it was beneficial when everything had to go remote and not having a cashier's office was not that big of a deal.

Yeah, so we didn't really you know, in March of 2020, when we anticipated that we were gone for two weeks and it was much longer than that. It didn't really faze us, we didn't have an operation that had to be open and to help service our students and continue to take cash. It made the transition very easy. Most of our students were used to paying online or putting a payment in the dropbox and we were able to have minimal staff in the office for that first, especially for the first six months to a year to only having one person come in and processed payments a couple of times a week. Definitely made it easier in that that whole crazy world we were in at that time.

Right, you should just be taking all the credit that you were prepared and you kind of have this insight and when to make sure your cashless before you had to be. So have you seen any other shifts since going cashless?

I mean, most of our payments and processes were handled through, you know, the TouchNet Payment Center and marketplace. So it didn't allow too much change for us. And it allowed a little bit, you know, from a cash flow perspective to pushing all those payments online, allowed for students to maybe make payments earlier, or having the ease of the payments processing going quicker, an electronic payment opposed to getting cash in the bank, you know, getting that money to the bank processing through, you know, an armored car, those type of things, it took a little bit longer just because there was a difference. There were multiple steps that had to be taken. So cash flow allowed, that kind of allowed us to see, you know, our cash flows a little bit better, and have them consistent, more accurate as well, to know how we would project for the future.

Makes a lot of sense. And I think you also were able to offer some new payment plan options they're able to do online, too.

Yeah. So one of the things right before we went cashless is that we had tried to figure out, you know, universities always struggled during those summer months. Summer probably isn't a huge enrollment population. For most of us during summer, it's our, kind of lower times instead of peak with our fall or winter terms or spring terms, depending on what, how many semesters you're on at the university. And so we kind of were trying to figure out during those times of July and August, like how do we get cash flow in during those months, right, our normal bill isn't due until at the end of August, beginning of September. What do we do to help our cash flow between July and August? And one of the things that we implemented right before going cashless was we implemented a five payment plan. And that five payment plan allows our students to divide their balance for the tuition charges into five payments. And we offer that to the student at no cost. So we allow them to get into the payment plan, with no additional payment plan fees. So it's an incentive to the student to start early. Right. There's no additional cost to them. And then it benefited the university to have some extra cash flow during those non peak times.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I think too just helps the student, you know, go ahead and get that kind of set it and forget it and divide it out longer to really help.

Yeah, and we've turned on, you know, scheduled payments through all of our payment plans, which is kind of that set it and forget it that you kind of talked about, right? You set it in July and those payments, you know, you get reminders through the TouchNet process, but it just allows them to not have to worry. And by the time they get to the next semester registration, their bills taken care of they're all set and ready to move forward. So our students do like to have that more smaller payment throughout the month, right, then have to pay up front. And so this gave them even more opportunity to kind of reduce their payment process, you know, monthly payments if they enroll in the five.

Yeah, that's great. It sounds like it really benefited not just the student, but then also the university in terms of having that cash flow.

Yeah, so it did boost, you know, number wise, we normally have approximately 900 to 1000 students in that five payment plan, which is pretty good. And we make them make their first payment during enrollment. So their first installment is at the time of enrollment. So the first payment of the five happens when they enroll, they can't enroll, they make that payment. So that kind of helped us right? You can't just enroll in a plan and pay later. You have to have some kind of skin in the game, right? You're putting a down payment down that did not really, you know, affect our students at all, it made it easier for them to enroll in order to minimize future payments.

Yeah, of course. So is that the only plan you offer? Do you have some other plans too?

So even with the five we've still continued to offer before our payment, pay in full date, we offer a four and a three payment plan. And then the last couple of years especially with the pandemic we've allow the students to choose, we allow the four payment plan and our three payment plan to be open at the same time. And so that way, they can kind of pick and choose what payment plan might be best for them and are given them some options. And then they seem to like that. 

Yeah, really kind of tailoring it to what they need to do and having those options and then are there different, I'll say kind of enrollment fees at that point, and then they can make a decision.

Yeah, so we do offer the five with a no fees payment plan, you know, but the four and the three, its $35 that gets rolled into the balance. And at the time of enrollment for either of those plans, they do make their first installment that counts is that first payment.

Makes a lot of sense. Yeah. And you said that you have it where they can choose that they want to go ahead and schedule their payments going forward. But that's their decision as well.

Yeah, so some students, you know, may have more cash in the end of July, early August, and want to enroll in that three, so they make their first payment of the three payment plan, but then they don't really have another payment due until October and then in November. And so, just having the students be able to kind of see that and make their own, you know, considerations on their own. Everybody's, you know, cash and flow of money is always different. So it just gives them opportunities.

Yeah, that's really great. And so are you seeing both a mix of students enrolling in the plan or parents, authorized user, or kind of all the above?

We have a good mix. I mean, EasternÕs population is a very mixed population. We have our traditional students, you know, transfers, but then we also have our non-traditional, more adult learners that are coming back to school. So we have a mix. And so we do see that we have parents, authorized users that are enrolling their students in the plan, because they're the ones that are paying, but then you also have those students that are handling their finances on their own and enrolling themselves.

Great. So has this, you know, really helped from a receivable standpoint, being able to offer these different kinds of plans? Are you seeing any kind of impact there on the receivables?

Yeah, I would say at the very beginning, we definitely saw it helped, right, and having this five payment plan in place for, you know, five, six plus years now. So things kind of leveled more off. But we're seeing that things are staying consistent. So the amount of students that we're seeing that are enrolling in each of our plans are very similar from semester to semester. So I kind of keep track of some of that, even based on enrollment, the trend is very similar of how many we have enrolled in a five and a four and a three.

That's great. And it sounds like they're enrolling and actually paying on time.

Yeah, which is good, because we have utilized the auto schedule payments through the TouchNet payment plan, we've turned that on. And a lot of students and parents seem to like that, because they don't have to worry about it. They know what their set dates are, they know when the payments coming out. And they don't have to go back in the system to remember to make sure they pay it in order to avoid any fees.

Yeah, and the automatic communications go out to remind them even so they make sure they have money in the bank.

Yeah, and that makes it easy for us too you know, with an automated process through TouchNet, there's less work that our staff has to do too, we don't have to worry about continually communicating with those students to make sure that theyÕre reminded that there's a payment coming. The features that TouchNet has through their payment plans is you know, definitely helpful for both the student and the university.

So what I'm hearing from all of this is that you've been extremely successful in going cashless and improving the cash flow throughout the year. So, really a win win, have there been any downsides?

You know, there really hasn't. At first I think it was a bit of transition to go cashless more from a department standpoint of those that wanted to take it. I will be honest, from a student standpoint, we maybe had one complaint out of the whole process which you know, I anticipated there to be more but there wasn't and we have developed that great relationship with our credit union to help ease that transition too and so that kind of made you know it it's so much easier to have the ability to have the credit union on campus and our students and parents both you know, love our payment plan options, are always asking right at the beginning of the semester even before, if we haven't sent the bill if they know when the payment plan is getting turned on and when. So they're ready to make those payments. So it's been definitely, at first for us, you know, it was definitely something we knew we wanted to do and from a controller standpoint and other universities within Michigan going cashless they were most universities, other universities were pretty shocked. What do you mean you're not taking cash? How can you not take cash? And now we get the questions of how did you do that? What were the ins and outs that you noticed? What things would maybe you do different? And because I think just with the pandemic in general, I think it's made people kind of realize that electronic is, you know, the way that we're kind of gravitating towards, and it definitely helped through the pandemic process to have that ability.

Absolutely. Well, that's why we're talking today too, to prove and show to others that this really can happen. And it's really been impressive what all youÕve been able to accomplish, really just over the last five years or so. And you think a couple of those were during the pandemic that you've really been able to transition to pretty quick amount of time.

Yeah, you know, sometimes I feel like five years ago was a really long time. But in the grand scheme of things, it probably really wasn't, I feel like I've been in this role for a while. And so, yeah, I think we continue to make good strides in helping our students and our parents and the university out, when it comes to payments and cash flow. So that's always what my goals are.

That is great. Well, thank you so much, Beth, for sharing Eastern Michigan's journey to becoming a cashless campus. I have a feeling a lot more are going to go that direction. So you might be getting some phone calls.

And I would gladly take that. 

That is wonderful. Well, thanks again so much for being our guest today and sharing how you went cashless.

Alright, thanks so much for having me.
 
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