ABOUT
College of Southern Nevada (CSN) serves approximately 30,000 students across three main campuses and thirteen learning centers throughout the Las Vegas Valley. As one of the largest community college institutions in Nevada, CSN needed to create meaningful connections across its sprawling, multi-campus model, but for years, the student ID system was doing the opposite.
THE CHALLENGE
A Campus Card System That Wasn't Really a System
The previous system was a relic of disconnected operations. Students paid $2 at the cashier's office in one building, then had to return to the student union with their receipt to obtain their physical card, only to find that a printer outage could leave them stranded without a credential. The college collected minimal revenue, staff saw little incentive to promote adoption, and students found the entire process frustrating and inconvenient.
Meanwhile, different departments operated independently: the bookstore, dining services, library, and facilities all functioned in silos, with no integrated system to enhance the student experience or provide institutional insights.
THE VISION
One Card for Everything
Meghan Ezekiel, Director of Auxiliary Services at CSN, saw an opportunity to transform Auxiliary Services by centralizing the student experience. "We wanted to be a one-stop shop," Chelsea explains. "We want everything to be through the userˇs fingertips."
The solution was Paw Pass, a mobile credential program that brought student IDs into the digital wallet era. But this wasn't just about making something digital, it was about fundamentally rethinking how every campus service could work together.
THE SOLUTION
A Digital Credential with Real Impact
Launched in beta during the fall 2025 semester, Paw Pass enables students to add their campus credential to Apple Wallet and Google Wallet, accessible on phones and smartwatches. But the real innovation lies in what the credential unlocks—nine integrated use cases at launch:
- Library card access
- Tax-free payments at four Coyote Cafe locations
- GrubHub Plus integration for on and off-site mobile food ordering
- Just Baked vending machine access
- Free admission to athletic and performing arts center events
- Bookstore access
- Food pantry and Coyote Closet support (with usage tracking for aid purposes)
- Autonomous market and smart cooler vending
- Pepsi beverage vending
BEYOND CONVENIENCE
The Real Importance of the Paw Pass IDs
While mobile credentials seem like an obvious upgrade, CSN's implementation addressed deeper institutional challenges:
Data-Driven Decision Making
For the first time, CSN could collect unified data about student preferences and engagement across campus services. "Instead of making decisions based on our perceptions, we can use data to inform our operations," Meghan explains. "Where can we most effectively spend our money? What do students actually want to do? That's critical in higher education."
Safety and Security
The shift to mobile credentials was accelerated by the December 2023 shooting at UNLV. A Nevada System of Higher Education-wide initiative allocated funds to improve campus safety, and mobile credentials provided better emergency response capabilities than physical plastic cards.
Accessibility and Inclusion
Students without credit cards, debit cards, or physical IDs suddenly had access to campus services. "It allows them to interact with resources that may not have been available before," Meghan notes.
Operational Efficiency
By connecting Auxiliary Services, the college could drive customer traffic across departments and gain insights into how students move through campus.
IMPLEMENTATION
A Grassroots Approach
Rather than forcing top-down adoption, CSN took a deliberate, student-first strategy:
Self-Service Provisioning
Students download the app, submit a photo for approval, and add the credential to their digital wallet. No office visits required.
TikTok-Style Tutorials
Short, engaging videos made provisioning accessible and relatable.
Department Partnerships
Working with libraries, facilities, and other departments to help disseminate tips and tricks. "Getting the departments involved has been pretty beneficial," Chelsea says. "We've been able to have mass provisioning calls."
Student Government as Champions
CSN's student government leaders became the program's biggest advocates, helping push adoption and even creating video content.
THE EARLY RESULTS
Surprising Success
Within weeks of the Fall 2025 pilot launch, adoption at CSN was strong. Google Wallet usage stood out, outpacing many peer institutions, driven primarily by students. "Students are way more excited," Meghan says, "they're digital first."
Faculty and staff have taken more outreach to get on board. "It's a learning curve," Meghan says, "and I'm hopeful it will continue to grow."
LESSONS LEARNED
The Bigger Picture
CSN's journey reveals important truths about campus transformation:
Cross-Departmental Work Is Hard
Different departments, from facilities to financial services to IT, often have competing priorities and longstanding partnerships. "It's nice that we have a good advocate to help make these connections," Meghan says, noting the value of strong organizational support. "But this is the world we live in in higher ed."
Digital-Native Students Are Ready
While older faculty and staff express privacy concerns and hesitation about new systems, students embrace digital solutions. "They're digital natives," Meghan explains. ˝It's what they want."
Privacy Concerns Are Real
Implementing a unified data collection system raises legitimate questions about tracking and data use. CSN addressed this transparently, explaining that Apple and Google's existing terms and conditions apply, and the data informs operational improvements rather than surveillance.
WHY CSN CHOSE WAVELYNX
CSN first learned of Wavelynx at a NACCU conference. The deciding factor over other vendor options was control of the encryption keys behind the mobile credentials.
For a program like Paw Pass, that control is important. Use cases run through a different departments, and many of those departments bring their own vendors and hardware. Owning its keys means CSN decides which systems can read its credentials, without relying on a single vendor to manage that access.
Chelsea saw the same need from the operations side. "There were a lot of recommendations to be vendor agnostic," she says. "Because we work with a lot of vendors, we needed a more flexible approach."
"Once we had that realization," Meghan adds, "it was apparent that Wavelynx was the right choice for CSN."
LOOKING FORWARD
A Blueprint for Higher Ed
CSN's Paw Pass program demonstrates how a mobile credential system can be far more than just a convenient ID replacement. By thoughtfully integrating campus services, prioritizing student experience, and using data to inform decisions, CSN created a foundation for continued innovation.
As other institutions face similar challenges, fragmented campus systems, digital-native student populations demanding better experiences, and pressure to demonstrate operational value, CSN's approach offers a compelling roadmap: start with student needs, build authentic connections across departments, and let data insights drive continuous improvement.
The future of the college campus may well depend on systems like this one: integrated, intuitive, and designed with students at the center.
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