Further Comments and Analysis

Our Video:

The video begins with student interviews about the Eagle One Card. The stories of these two students are largely representative of what we found from our survey and our one-on-one interviews.

Based on all of the input we received, we depicted a series of real life situations where it is necessary to have one's Eagle One Card. It represents the difficulty experienced when a card is lost or destroyed, and shows the dependence of BC students on the Eagle One card.

The video stresses both the positives of having an Eagle One card and the negatives of losing the Eagle One card. The card offers us a great deal of convenience when we have it, but life becomes very difficult when we are without it. In our scenarios, often one person benefits while the other misses out.

Expanded Answers to Survey Questions:

"Do you usually have a balance on your meal plan by the end of the semester?"

Many students have significant balances at the end of a semester, especially female students. Fourteen students reported having $100-150 dollars left over; twenty-three reported having $200-300 dollars; eight reported having $400-500 dollars; four reported having $600-700 dollars; and one reported having over $700 dollars left over. These balances remained even after attempting to overspend and buy food for friends.

"Do you buy things you normally wouldn't buy with cash?"

Items students tend to buy when they are trying to spend their remaining balance include soda and snacks from vending machines, Late Night at the dining halls, frozen yogurt, ice cream, candy, and other junk food. BC seems to encourage this when they bring out carts and set up displays of costly candy and snack foods at the end of each semester. Students rationalize these purchases by thinking of dining bucks as "fake money." In an effort to prevent BC from taking the money remaining on the meal plans, many students will resort to making purchases they wouldn't normally make.


Suggestions for improving the study:

-The questions regarding the balance remaining at the end of a semester or school year did not apply to freshmen. They have not yet completed a semester at BC and do not know exactly how much their balance will be, although they may have given an estimate based on what they had left at this point in the semester.

-All questions were to be answered taking into account the full time the student was attending BC, unless noted otherwise. This may have not been clear to all the participants, and some may have answered the questions pertaining only to the current semester. This probably did not have a large effect on our results. Additionally, some students may not have had a meal plan for each year on campus, and some may have been off-campus at some point during their time at BC, so it may have not been clear how to answer some of the questions.

Our Survey Results

1. Gender: 57.7% Female, 42.3% Male

Meal Plan Status: 52.9% No Meal Plan, 47.1% Meal Plan

Class Year: 34% Seniors, 21.2% Juniors, 22.2% Sophomores, 19.5% Freshmen, 3% Graduates

On-campus 82.7%, Off-Campus 17.3%

2. How many times a day do you use your Eagle One Card?
Less than 5 = 62.8%
5-10 = 30.7%
10-15 = 2.9%
More than 15 = 3.6%

3. Do you buy things you normally wouldn’t buy with cash?
Yes = 44.5%
No = 55.5%

4. How many times have you had to pay for a replacement card?
0 = 49.6%
1 = 25.9%
2 = 9.7%
3 = 2.9%
More than 3 = 11.9%

5. How many times have you paid for your friends in a dining hall?
0 = 3.6%
1-2 = 12.4%
2-5 = 23.4%
5-10 = 10.2%
More than 10 = 50.4%

6. How many times have you bought food for people you don’t know in a dining hall?
0 = 55.5%
1-2 = 22.6%
2-5 = 14.6%
5-10 = 4.4%
More than 10 = 2.9%

7. Have you ever forced an underclassman to buy food for you?
Yes = 24.3%
No = 75.7%

8. How many times have you been locked out of your building?
0 = 17%
1-2 = 31%
2-5 = 24.5%
5-10 = 20%
More than 10 = 7.5%

9. How often do you realize you need your card when you don't have it?
Never = 15.3%
A few times per semester = 57.6%
A few times per month = 23.4%
A few times per week = 2.2%
All the time = 1.5%

10. Have you ever been unable to enter the Plex because you didn't have your ID?
Never = 70.8%
One Time = 18.9%
A few times = 8.8%
All the time = 1.5%

11. Has anyone ever spent money on your Eagle One card without you knowing it?
Yes = 3.9%
No = 96.1%

12. How often do you use your card for off campus purchases?
Never = 42.6%
A few times a semester = 34.1%
A few times a month = 17.1%
A few times a week = 6.2%
Daily = 0%

13. Do you make consumer choices based on the fact that a business accepts Eagle Bucks?
Yes = 45.3%
No = 54.7%

14. Do you prefer the Eagle ID to a key?
Yes = 96.9%
No = 3.1%

15. Do you usually have a balance on your meal plan by the end of the semester?
Yes = 55.2%
No = 44.8%

16. If you have a balance, do you feel a need to overspend to use up the outstanding balance?
Yes = 76.7%
No = 23.3%

17. Do you carry your Eagle ID in place of your wallet?
Yes = 59.4%
No = 40.6%

Our Video Presentation

You can now view our video project online!


Please click on the Google Video button to see a larger version of this video.

Eagle One Card Survey

Our Survey:

Part I: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=3eEBplxvqOaXohETXKu69Q_3d_3d

Part 2: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=EDtNuLVcMsKNEsKWxh9i9Q_3d_3d

Our survey was constructed with SurveyMonkey and was conducted over a time period of 1.5 weeks. We received 140 responses.