The University of California, Santa Barbara Offers Students Broad Range of Materials in Vending Machine

Seeing vending machines on campus is nothing new for college students. Coffee, soft drinks, water, snacks, and even pre-made sandwiches are just a few push buttons away. A new resolution before the University of California Santa Barbara student Senate would re-establish school supply vending machines on campus.

The proposed bill, A Resolution to Re-Establish the School Supply Vending Machines Group Projects, was authored by student Senators Isabelle Ninh and Lacy Wright. The proposed legislation before the campus’ 2015-2016 student government would place test supply vending machines in the campus’ Pardall Center. Initially, the school supply vending machine would dispense test supplies such as blue books, Parscores, and other testing materials.

Senator Matthew Santos first pitched the idea to the 2014-2015 student Senate. He, along with Senators Ninh and Wright will be responsible for monitoring the machine inventory, making changes to meet student needs, and determining what should be done with the revenue. According to Santos, Students would benefit from the machine in more than just having handy blue books. He would like to see the revenue to toward offsetting student fees. In particular, Santos proposed, “…we want the money to go to the AS Innovation Fund, which has the purpose of offsetting student fees through the generated interest.”

If the resolution is successful, UC Santa Barbara will join other universities, such as Penn State, in making life for their students a little easier by offering school supplies to their students around the clock. These automated machines dispense a wide variety of school supplies and can be linked to student debit accounts or can accept traditional credit cards and/or cash.

Intelligent Dispensing Solutions specializes in these unique types of vending machines. Our office and school vending machines can be customized to meet any need that you have. With our iQ Technology, you will rest easy in the assurance that your customer data is safe while receiving up to the minute sales data that will help you make important decisions about inventory and generate additional income.

Photo Credit: Photo by Mathew Burciaga, Layout Editor