Pierce College sits on 426 acres of land and provides an education to over 20,000 students. Yet
for an unknown reason, there are only two ATMs on campus.
Pierce College needs to add more of these machines around campus in more convenient
locations.
One machine on campus is located in the student store, while the other is in the business
office. These two are next door to each other. Students with classes in the Village that need to
take out money are out of luck and need to allot time to make the walk to the student store.
Last week, the ATM in the business office was out of money and students were not able
to take out money from it. That left only one functional ATM on campus. That is an ATM for
every 20,000 students if you have been keeping up with the math.
Candy Van, assistant manager of the Student Store, says that some days both machines
run out of money at the same time.
These machines at Pierce charge students $3 for every successful withdrawal. A portion
of that fee is given to whoever houses the machine while the rest goes to the ATM company.
You don’t get charged the fee if you withdraw money from your FAFSA card, but the $3 charges
begin to add up for everyone else.
There are free ATM placement services available that will deliver and set up the
machines in locations that have a high volume of customers. The college would benefit by
having extra machines in the Library / Learning Crossroads, Sheriff’s office and the village. The
placement company will then continue to do all the work for the life of the machine.
Pierce would not be involved with repairs or regular maintenance and would be making
money off of the machines for the price of losing floor space in the corner of a room.
There are also negotiations you can make with banks to get bank specific ATMs on
campus that won’t charge students for using their bank’s ATM. Van says the Student Store has
been pushing to bring bank specific machines to campus.
If there is no financial or logistical reason to not have more ATMs at Pierce, then having
them available in different spots of the campus should be a viable option.
A survey conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International in 2014
showed that about 10 percent of Americans don’t carry any cash on them daily. On the Pierce
College campus, that would be about 2,000 students who do not have cash on them.
Students rely on vending machines for drinks and snacks throughout the day. If students
happen to be without cash between buildings 8100 and 8200 and want to use their debit or credit
card on those machines, they may be leaving upset when they get charged to their card but don’t
receive their purchase. Other machines on campus do not allow students to use their cards at all.
By adding more machines around campus it will make students’ money more accessible
to them, it will make a profit for Pierce College and will give students more options if the last
working machine goes out of order.
