More businesses will need to display this sticker outside their doors as the number of vendors within the BuckID dining program has increased to 95. Credit: Caleb Blake | Photo Editor
Though most classrooms on campus aren’t in use this summer, BuckIDs still are.
During the summer semester, students can still use their physical cards at locations off campus and around the country online. Josh Bodnar, the director of BuckID, said students have used BuckID cash and dining dollars through GrubHub at more than 900 restaurants across 30 states.
“We are very fortunate at Ohio State that we have a lot of variety in on-campus dining, but we’re also fortunate that our dining department has embraced giving students the option to go off campus,” Bodnar said.
The BuckID program recently welcomed multiple new vendors, bringing the list of brick-and-mortar businesses independent of the university where students can use their cards in person to about 95. This means students can pay with BuckID cash by swiping their card in addition to purchasing online through Ohio State’s partnership with Grubhub.
Bodnar said giving students options they want outside of campus dining is a priority of the program, and they are open to speaking with businesses that students may want added as vendors.
“When we know there’s a user base who wants [a certain business], there’s some value for the restaurant, and there’s value for the students,” Bodnar said. “We want students to say, ‘Hey, we’d love to have this particular restaurant or program.’”
According to BuckID’s website, many vendors in Budd Dairy Food Hall at 1086 N. 4th St. — The Cheesecake Girl, Borgata Pizza Cafe, Alphabetical Foods, Boni: Filipino Street Food, Cluck Norris, Hatch, Modern Southern Table and Tacos Rudos — all joined the program during the spring semester.
During the spring semester, other independent vendors including Zaftig Brew Pub, Savvy Sliders, The O on Lane, Cuppa Cha and Slammies on High also joined the program, according to Dave Isaacs, communications and media relations manager at Ohio State.
The office also picks a merchant of the month from the list of vendors, Bodnar said. BuckID will market these merchants to highlight any sales or deals that might benefit students, as they did with Savvy Sliders in March.
The current vendors of the month and newly added establishments are listed on the BuckID website.
“Savvy Sliders seems to be really popular. They’ve been installed for two or three months now,” Bodnar said. “Within that time, they were the second-highest volume vendor because they’ve really embraced the program. Students seem to love having that available to them.”
Bruce Chen of Cuppa Cha, a bubble tea shop on Lane Avenue, said he is excited about the partnership, which was finalized in the spring.
“BuckID is a good opportunity to help us to attract more students to come to the store. Also, due to the location, we would love to spread [our] business through this program,” Chen said in an email. “When we have more and more OSU students become our customers, we believe it is a good trend for both of us. We could have more customers, and OSU students will have another option for their Bubble Tea shop.”
Bodnar said compared to another university where he previously worked, he is happy to see these relationships with many off-campus options for students and the variety of restaurants, retailers and other businesses.
He encouraged students to share businesses they want to see added to the program with the office. The office is open to discussions with any place students wish to use their BuckIDs to expand access, whether that is a retail store, restaurant or anything else.
“We’re always happy to grow the program to make sure it meets students’ needs because that’s what it’s about,” Bodnar said. “We want to have partners that make sense for our students.”
