Education IT Reporter

Transact, the leader in innovative credential and payment solutions for a connected campus, today announced the release of a new mobile feature that gives college students emergency hotline and suicide prevention information at their fingertips. This addition to Transact’s mobile credential platform comes at a time when the majority of college students are reporting mental and emotional trauma stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Over the last few years, there has been a steady increase in utilization and demand for campus counseling services,² and this year, 73% of college presidents identified mental health as a pressing issue, said Nancy Langer, CEO, Transact. “We know from working closely with university leaders around the country that student health and wellbeing are of the utmost concern as campuses prepare for the start of the 2021-2022 academic year. We designed this technology to be part of the support system for students and school leaders. Our easy-to-implement tool allows students to access emergency contact information directly from the student ID credential on their smartphone.”

The emergency hotline and suicide prevention contact capability is available immediately to all existing Transact Campus Mobile ID customers through a simple system update. Transact’s mobile platform allows university administrators to push updates to student IDs without the expensive process of reprinting and redistributing IDs. Users will also have the ability to customize their students’ IDs to include national, state, local and/or school-specific hotline information. Many states are moving to require this information on student ID cards.

“We hope the ease and accessibility of this feature will help keep college campuses safer and save student lives,” Langer continued. Statistics show that services, such as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, are effective in reducing emotional distress and suicidality. These services help divert callers from unnecessary law enforcement, emergency and hospital services.

This potentially life-saving capability strengthens Transact’s robust and secure mobile-centric campus platform. Thanks to integrations with the nation’s primary smart phone wallets, campuses that use Transact’s contactless student ID credentials are incredibly secure and accessible with a tap.

“We recognize that this is the future for all colleges and universities, and we will continue to provide revolutionary technology to support campus goals and improve student experiences,” Langer added.

For more information or to schedule a demonstration of Transact’s campus solutions, visit www.transactcampus.com.