Dishing out discounts

February 28, 2006

Publication: The Louisville Cardinal (University of Louisville)

Students, faculty and staff at U of L can now take advantage of free discount cards, which are currently redeemable at 24 local businesses ranging from eye doctors and veterinarians to restaurants.

"My personal favorite is Smoothie King," said SGA Academic Vice President Alicia Paez, who began working on the discount card project in the fall of 2005, but said it didn't really come together until this semester, when Collegiate Services got involved.

Collegiate Services is an advertising and marketing agency that offers schools around the country the opportunity to join their Student Savings Club program. When a school joins the program, student representatives submit a list of local businesses where students would like to receive discounts.

Paez polled students in her classes and around campus about local businesses they frequent. Based off the results of her poll, she compiled a list of roughly 100 businesses to consider for the discount card. She sent letters to the majority of these businesses, asking them to join the project.

"I asked every place on campus or near campus," Paez said.

Collegiate Services also contacted the businesses on the list, and so far 24 have signed on as members.

Lisa Dean, senior program manager at Collegiate Services, said many businesses sit out the first year but choose to join the second year after they see the results of the program. "Merchants can join at any time," she said. "The biggest motivation [for joining] is to create ties between the community and the school."

Individual businesses decide what discounts they want to offer and pay Collegiate Services an advertising and marketing fee that covers promotion and printing costs of the card.

"The program is always, and will always be 100 percent free to the school," Dean said.

U of L will be one of the last schools in the country to receive printed cards. Most of the schools that receive discounts through the club are online already. Students at these schools simply show businesses their student IDs and do not need to carry the actual discount card. When the cards expire on Aug. 7, 2007, U of L will convert to using the online system only. Until then, students must show the discount card at the time of purchase, but can also visit the Web site for an updated discount list.

Still, students are already realizing the benefits of the card. "I think that the cards are a good idea," said sophomore Sarah Mitchell. "When I was in high school, we could buy similar cards but they were never as useful as this one."

Student Savings Club cards are available at the Speed School, the SGA office and the Belknap campus bookstore.

Visit http://www.studentsavingsclub.com for more information.