By Lezlee Gutierrez, Student Reporter
Students are taking advantage of texting this semester, not to communicate with friends but to receive free food around campus.
The text messages for free food are part of a program called “Mobile Campus,” said Anthony Williams, director of retail and the Campus Store manager. Students, faculty and staff can text and receive coupons for free and discounted dining on campus.
This is how the program works: the first time students text each of the 11 codes, they will receive a text message with a coupon for a free item from that location. Following texts will be for various coupons that rotate on a monthly basis.
Students then show their text message coupons to the cashier upon payout, and the cashier will ask the students to delete the text message coupons from their phone and sign their name for tracking purposes. The students can then enjoy their free or discounted food items.
“I was a little hesitant about using it at first, but it has turned out to be a really awesome offer,” said Tiffany Siegel, sophomore elementary education major from Round Rock. “Me and my friends use them almost everyday. We are never disappointed with free food.”
The “Mobile Campus” was aimed at helping ACU students, faculty and staff.
“We took on this initiative to provide a greater convenience to students; if they know that they can get a discount while dining on campus, they are less likely to leave campus to dine elsewhere. This allows more time for studying, free time and fellowship with other students,” Williams said. “This is also convenient for faculty and staff and provides the incentive to dine on campus with students and co-workers.”
Williams said he expects this initiative to increase foot traffic, help others save on gas and provide numerous opportunities to increase community on campus.
Employees of participating dining locations are pleased with the offers as well but are surprised the coupons are not being used more often.
“I didn’t even know about the offers until last week,” said Antjuan Gant, an employee at Quiznos. “Not too many people have used them, but it’s cool how you can just order your sandwich and then show your phone to the cashier.”
Eleven dining locations on campus are participating. Coupons are valid for 24 hours and can only be used once. Forwarding of these coupons to friends is not allowed, and students can only text and use each code once per day. For more information, visit www.acu.campusdish.com.
