OneCard blip

Wilfrid Laurier University students in residence under the mandatory meal plan will no longer have the luxury of using flex food dollars at the International News store on campus.

According to Dan Dawson, director of student services at WLU, due to an unacknowledged error in the system students could use flex food dollars at International News since it gained OneCard service in Oct. 2011.

“Inadvertently, at the International News location both the flex food and the convenience dollars [accounts] were checked off or activated when they came on live in October.”

Dawson clarified that the original operating agreements between the university and International News only allowed students to use their convenience dollars.

“We didn’t realize until the end of the fall semester when we were running a summary of programs that students had been actually able to use some of their flex food dollars in that location.”

At this point it is unclear how much revenue was produced exclusively from the flex food accounts.

“The flex food account is a part of the mandatory meal plans. International News is not considered a food location therefore they should not have access to the flex food account.” Dawson said.

International News is the new on-campus convenience store franchise that replaced the Centre Spot last fall.

Despite the changes, International News remains busy with a steady flow of students.

The manager and owners of the franchise have been notified of the issue and the correction has taken immediate effect.

“It’s unfortunate that students had that opportunity to do something and now that has to be corrected, I guess in hindsight they had an extra benefit for a few months above and beyond what they should have had,” said Dawson.

An interview request sent to the OneCard office was declined.