By Beverly Wakiaga
Follow @bevwakiaga

The Quinnipiac Office of Residential Life has gone electronic. As of this year students’ payments for housing deposits will be made through credit/debit cards and e-checks instead of Qcash.

According to the Director of Residential Life, Mark DeVilbiss, this will “streamline the process” as students will be able to pay their deposit at the time they complete the housing contract.

“Students and parents have been asking to be able to pay online for some time, and we are pleased to be able to make it happen,” said DeVilbiss.

This information was not communicated to students until some of them had already deposited the money onto their Qcards. Jasie Mathew, a junior health science major is one of the students caught by surprise by this change.

“Residential life’s initial email to students announced a date on which payments would be accepted for housing deposits, however when the day came around, there wasn’t a single word sent from the office to say things would be delayed,” explained Mathew.

The health science major only found out about the changes in an email later sent out to the junior class. Students were also notified they could get a refund on the money so long as they had not spent any of it.

This decision comes after changes were made to the housing system. Juniors will now be housed in Whitney Village and Townhouses. Bakke and some areas of Crescent will be designated for Sophomores while on-campus housing for seniors will be limited to Eastview, beginning Fall 2017.

While students are not currently able to make deposits now, some such as junior Wendy Morales, can see the benefits of online payments.

“My parents prefer to pay the housing deposit online because it’s easy and fast. They can do the deposit themselves by filling in the information,” said Morales.

According to DeVilbiss Res life is in the final stages of testing out the online deposit process and expect to make the payment process available in January.

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