The University has signed a contract with CIBC to replace all existing TD bank machines on campus beginning the week of Aug. 12.
The switch comes nearly two months after its 2006 contract agreement with TD expired, pushing campus building stakeholders to send out a Request for Proposals in order to secure an alternative option as dictated in Ontario’s procurement law.
The agreement, decided upon by an evaluation committee — consisting of the AMS, EngSoc and the University — chose CIBC based on criteria which included pricing, experience and qualifications, service programming and technical requirements. The committee was overseen by the University’s strategic procurement services.
The criteria, which were weighted on a 100-point scale, credited experience and qualifications with 5 points, technical requirements with 15, service programming with 30 and pricing, or revenue provided to the University, with 50 points.
Caroline Davis, vice-principal of finance, declined to comment on the details of the revenue provided by CIBC to the University as a result of the contract, but said the University will direct a portion of the funds into the University’s Student Initiative Fund.
“Our new contract with CIBC will provide more revenue than we had in the past,” Davis told the Journal via e-mail. “Out of respect for both our previous contract with TD and our current contract with CIBC, I am unable to be more specific in terms of the dollar amount.”
Davis also declined to list other bank contenders who put in proposals to the University, but mentioned the process included seven proposals.
“We wanted to make sure that whichever company we picked, would be able to provide reliable machines and they would keep them in service and we would get some good revenue, and CIBC had the strongest score,” she said in an interview, adding the decision was made unanimously by the evaluation committee.
“Ideally you do it before they expire so you’re ready for the new one the day after,” she added. “But it should be okay.”
The AMS and the SGPS are also set to garner revenue from the switch — additional revenue will be funneled to the Student Life Centre (SLC) per each machine, Nicola Plummer, AMS vice-president of operations, said.
The SLC has two ATMs, housed in the JDUC and the Queen’s Centre, and is governed by the AMS, SGPS and the University.
Plummer couldn’t specify on the exact amount of revenue the societies would receive, but said she sympathizes with student frustration following the decision.
“I switched to TD when I came to Queen’s, so I definitely understand the frustration there,” she said. “It definitely is frustrating as there is only one campus bank and [students] are charged for it.”
Despite this, she added CIBC was offering the best value.
“From my own perspective it was clear [it was] best value for students and I am a TD user,” she said.
According to Benedict Chang, gear manager for the Queen’s Outdoors Club, students should have been notified prior to the switch.
“I think it’s a move to make the University more money, but it wasn’t necessarily a move for the betterment of the students because I know a lot of my friends were always with TD, and I’m not too sure how many people are with CIBC,” Chang said. “I am guessing it’s probably not a majority.”
The club’s executives, who handle cash for club activities, switched to TD for convenience and cost-saving.
“We deal with ATMs on a day-to-day basis because we deal with a lot of incoming and outgoing money,” he added. “We just switched all our incoming executives over to TD and that was a strenuous process.”
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