Ideas may begin their existence as gems, but after research and deeper thinking, those ideas can turn into sand. The extension of Dining Dollar$ to off-campus businesses is one of those ideas.

The Government of the Student Body is exploring extending Dining Dollar$ usage to off-campus businesses. On the surface, extending the usage of Dining Dollar$ is great — it adds convenience to buying off-campus food for students who have Dining Dollar$ and helps off-campus businesses attract more students who would have otherwise eaten on campus.

The argument can be made that several other universities already have programs that offer students the opportunity to buy credits on their university accounts to be used at off-campus locations. If those students can do it, why can’t ISU students?

The way those universities interact with local businesses brings up questions on the feasibility and legality of Iowa State partnering with Ames businesses.

If Dining Dollar$ were expanded outside campus, Iowa State would have to figure out how to connect off-campus merchants to the campus network. Warren Madden, vice president of business and finance, said the university would likely use some sort of debit or credit system, and it would have to go through U.S. Bank or some other vendor to connect to merchants, making Dining Dollar$ like any other debit card system.

But because of financial regulations, merchants would have to pay fees whenever a student used Dining Dollar$, which do not currently apply to on-campus locations because those locations are on the university’s network, not through a vendor such as U.S. Bank. These fees would be comparable to what merchants already pay to accept debit and credit cards, so businesses would not save money by instead accepting Dining Dollar$.

Further, Madden said the university would have to decide whether to restrict the expansion of Dining Dollar$ to Campustown businesses or to extend it to all of Ames. Iowa State would also have to decide which types of vendors — food, bars, clothing, etc. — that could accept Dining Dollar$.

However, in partnering with only certain businesses the university runs the risk of violating Iowa’s unfair competition law. Under Chapter 23A of Iowa Code, a state agency like Iowa State cannot compete with a private enterprise. What this means is that if the university partners with one business and refuses to partner with another, the latter could sue Iowa State for unfair competition. For more information regarding Iowa State’s policy regarding competition with a private sector, visit Iowa State’s policy library. 

While the idea may be superficially good, there are too many hoops businesses and Iowa State will have to jump through, and too many issues of infrastructure and execution, to consider this idea for much longer.