Returning students will see a slight change concerning how they purchase items around campus. CyCash has reduced the maximum amount allowed in accounts from $500 to $50.

This change will be noticed especially in the check-out lane at the University Book Store.

“Students will be able to charge books to their U-Bill during the fall, and we’ve brought the dollar amount from $500 down to $50,” said Joan Piscitello, Iowa State’s treasurer, in explaining the change.

CyCash can still be used at the bookstore, as well as laundry facilities, campus convenience stores, copy centers, vending machines and dining centers. 

“The only reason we have any amount being charged to U-Bill is for the students that are in the residents halls that have to use CyCash for laundry,” Piscitello said. “That’s the only place you have to use CyCash, otherwise you can use cash on campus.”

The reason this was not implemented earlier was due to the rivalry between University Book Store and Campus Book Store.

“Students had requested to be able to charge books to their U-Bill,” Piscitello said. “The university was not allowed to do that because the bookstore across the street, Campus Book Store, said it was unfair competition. The Campus Book Store was able to take CyCash, so we allowed students to charge up to $500 from their U-Bill so they could use it to buy textbooks. … [Now] the Campus Book Store is going out of business.”

There were also instances of students taking advantage of CyCash to buy electronics from the bookstore, which Piscitello said “helped speed up our process, so that when we heard students were doing this, we immediately dropped it to $50.”

This change should not affect anyone and, if anything, might streamline the process of purchasing books from the University Book Store.