E-commerce at Waterloo: the rules

by Chris Redmond, Communications and Public Affairs

More and more UW departments are finding reasons to accept credit cards online for things they sell and fees they charge, and the result is a stern list of procedures that must be followed to keep transactions secure.

“E-commerce Web servers not in compliance with this policy will be removed from service,” says a page on the UW finance office’s web site. “Staff who manage non-compliant e-commerce Web servers, their supervisors, and unit administrators may be subject to penalties and disciplinary action, both within and outside the University.”

Or as Jason Testart of information systems and technology puts it: “Anyone on campus who wants to engage in credit card sales over the Internet needs to follow the established standards. We are now doing quarterly external security scans of campus e-commerce sites.”

The key document is something called PCI DSS — the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. It’s a set of rules designed to make sure that organizations that accept customers’ Visa and MasterCard numbers are able to keep information and funds secure at every step of the transaction. If UW doesn’t live up to the standard, Testart says, it could face “heavy fines” from the banks that operate the credit cards, or could be cut off altogether from the world of electronic commerce.

At UW, the bookstore and other retail services outlets accept credit card numbers for electronic sales. The WatCard office lets people add money to their cards from MC or Visa. The housing office accepts residence deposits online, the parking office sells parking passes, the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing accepts payments from students around the world, and so it goes, with more e-commerce sites already a gleam in people’s eyes.

Complying with the PCI DSS rules depends on how credit cards are handled, and particularly on whether the seller’s computers keep electronic records of credit cards that have been used. It’s easier and cheaper for UW to avoid the most rigorous security standards by contracting with an outside firm to process the credit cards and keep the records, Testart notes.

Enter Beanstream, a firm based in Victoria that “provides payment, risk management and authentication services to more than 6,000 businesses and organizations in Canada and the United States”. As Testart explains it, “UW uses Beanstream’s hosted payment page to ensure security and privacy, and for easier PCI compliance. No credit card information is stored on a UW server.” He adds that “there are currently some exceptions” to using Beanstream. “We are in the process of trying to eliminate the exceptions by modifying the relevant business processes.”

And the bottom line from the finance office: “Departments must not enter into separate banking or payment processing arrangements. All proposed business plans involving credit card sales over the Internet for payment of goods and services must be reviewed by the UW E-commerce Committee that includes representatives from Finance, Information Systems and Technology, and others as appropriate.”

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Grad aids student athletes

Julia Wegenast, Office of Development

Clockwise from back left: the Paleczny family (Catherine, BA '00; Camilla; Peter, BSc '73; Pamela Paleczny-Tharby, BA '03; Daryl Tharby, BA '01) and inaugural 2008 student recipients Doug Spooner (captain, varsity men's hockey) and Lisa Kelly (captain, varsity women's rugby).

If you've spent much time on the ice, court, field, or track, then you'll probably agree that some experiences in sports aren't quickly forgotten. The smell of the locker room. The sound of cheering fans. The feeling of camaraderie. The sight of the finish line. The taste of victory.

Ask Peter Paleczny (BSc ’73) about some of his greatest moments as an athlete, and he'd likely smile and tell you a story or two about when he played hockey — perhaps of when he was a Warrior.

Paleczny knows that sports have the power to ignite the senses and shape a life. In addition to his own experiences, he has watched some of the people closest to him excel as varsity athletes and fall in love with the game. "Participating in varsity athletics was a big part of the university experience for my family," says Paleczny.

For his daughters, Catherine (BA ’00) and Pamela (BA ’03), the name of the game was rugby, and both spent some time on the national stage with their teams — in her last year, Catherine's team finished third, and Pamela's team finished second in her last year. Peter's son-in-law, Daryl (BA ’01), was an All-Canadian football player and was on the last Yates Cup team at Waterloo under coach Tuffy Knight.

In this spirit, Peter Paleczny recently established two awards for UW's student athletes. Giving an annual gift for four consecutive years, Peter and his family commemorate their experiences at Waterloo through the simple process of establishing and naming the award. The Paleczny Family Athletic Excellence Awards recognize athletic talent and contribution to Warrior Athletics, supporting outstanding members of the varsity women's rugby team and men's hockey team.

“We are all thrilled to assist today's and future student athletes, so that they too may enjoy the thrill of camaraderie and competition as we did,” says Paleczny. He’s pictured above with family members and two winners of the Excellence Awards: Lisa Kelly, a fourth-year honours kinesiology student and captain of the women's rugby team, and Doug Spooner, graduate student and captain of the men’s hockey team.

Says Kelly: “Being a busy student athlete can sometimes be a daunting task. Coming from a big family, finances were not always easily accessible, and with just enough time to fit practice and schoolwork into a schedule, little leftover time is available for a part-time job. Receiving this scholarship has allowed me to focus on my training instead of needing to get a job.

“It is such an incredible thing for families to donate money to a wonderful program like this. It is evident that they care about the student athletes and want to help out any way they can. I have developed as a player and as a student, not to mention met some of my best friends, in my time here. With the help of the scholarship I will continue to push myself and move forward in both my academic and athletic careers.”

Spooner adds: “The Paleczny Family Athletic Excellence Award has enabled me to focus on my master’s studies and hockey full-time. Instead of taking on additional work, my limited free time has been used to take part in such programs as Team Up, the Athletic Council and the Political Science Student Association. I’m grateful to the Paleczny family for their support as it has enabled me to not only make my time at Waterloo a more complete student-athlete experience, but also to contribute back to the community.”

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What's going on here

The annual summer Intensive English Language for Academic Studies (IELAS) program began this week, with thirty students registered. This eight-week program, taught at the Conestoga College Waterloo campus at 108 University Avenue East, is for students who have been conditionally accepted into UW math and/or computer science and who meet certain language criteria. Once they successfully complete the program of courses in academic writing, grammar, pronunciation, reading comprehension, and listening and speaking, they may begin full-time studies in a regular honours math program. Many of the students will be staying in the Village residences this summer.

Don't forget about the Blood donor clinic at the Student Life Centre each day this week through to Thursday, 10 to 3, and Friday 9 to 2. Canadian Blood Services notes that donations tend to decline in the summer, but "the need for blood never stops." Details.

What's your carbon footprint? Find out more about it at the Employee Assistance Program Brown Bag Lunch being held Wednesday in Davis Center Room 1302 at noon. You're invited to pack an environmentally friendly lunch and join Mike Greulich, a plant operations employee and EAP committee member, as he provides an array of planet-saving facts and ideas to incorporate into our lives at home and at work.

And if you thought June was unusually cool, you were right. "Even a streak of very hot days near the end couldn't prevent the month from being the coldest June since 2004," says Frank Seglenieks, co-ordinator of the UW Weather Station, in his monthly report. "Overall, the daytime high temperatures were 1.5 degrees below average including five days that were colder than average by more than five degrees. It also got down to a frigid 2.9 °C on the morning of the fourth: the coldest June temperature since 1998."

CPA staff

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