The student lounge at Nathan M. Bisk College of Business is in renovation to add a micro-market convenience store for its students’ needs.
Rumors have been circumventing amongst business students about a café coming soon to the student lounge, hence the doors being shut the past several days for renovation.
Tom Stewart, director of campus dining services, is overseeing the renovation underway. The addition to be is more than just a café: it’s a state-of-the-art kiosk system of snacks, frozen foods and beverages for busy students to fuel up in between classes.
This state-of-the-art kiosk is a micro-market system is called Avenue C. The innovative concept of Avenue C is exclusive to Canteen, the country’s largest and only national vending services company. Avenue C will be a step-up from the typical trip to vending machines in the breakroom at work or school.
Joshua Denton, a business student, occasionally stops in the student lounge to hang out with friends. After hearing about the new solution to the student lounge under construction, he said, “It’s a great idea and solution for busy students on the go.”
“There are a lot of products and services that exist [in consideration of making the addition]. What we wanted to do was take these ideas and take it to the next level,” Stewart said.
Students will have hundreds of selections to choose from, from traditional “must-haves” to new brands and products. Students with special preferences will also have options of gluten-free, non-GMO and organic products.
MyFitnessPal, a smartphone application to monitor and track wellness goals, works well with ‘Choice Plus’ items that will be clearly marked to help customers find better-for-you options.
Natalie Miller, another business student, utilizes the student lounge every day to hang out with friends and take a break in between classes.
“I feel like the new addition will bring in more revenue for the school,” Miller said. “I think it’s a good idea: professors and students will be able to grab a coffee or whatever they need without leaving the building.”
For payments, Avenue C aims to be a secure technological micro-market system. The Avenue C system is all-technology, without a cashier person working any of its transactions. The Avenue uses a Visa certified system featuring 911 Software’s Creditline software for secure credit and debit card processing and is Payment Application Data Security standard compliant per the Payment Card Industry Data Security standards.
All transactions will initially be available by cash, debit or credit. Student Panther ID cards and FLEX cash are not programmed within the micro-market system for acceptance. Stewart and the Canteen are currently working together to generate the software that will accept FLEX cash and Panther Cash for students’ convenience.
Florida Tech is the first university in the central eastern region that will have this step-up for business students to utilize in their new lounge space to come. Renovations are scheduled to be completed by Spring 2016.
