So, the Seton Hall community is now informed that PNC Bank, which has already closed its branch office in the University Center, also plans on removing its ATMs, leaving us out in the cold, with no place on campus to extract our money.
This seems a tad unfair and way too progressive for the students of our University. Not everyone uses online banking or even knows how to. There are many people who still prefer to physically take their checks to a bank over direct deposit, so the guess is that there are many people who would refuse to sign up for online banking.
Also, the ATMs are mainly used to take money out, not put checks in. Phones, albeit smart, cannot dish out money...yet. So, where are students going to get cash?
The University is looking for new banks to partner with, so that students will not be without an ATM after PNC removes its last one in a few weeks. But it may be that all banks feel that there is no use for ATMs. The community knows Seton Hall officials are trying, but there is a real fear that they may not succeed.
If all ATM machines are removed from campus, students will have to leave campus every time they need to take cash out.
This, first of all, is a safety hazard. The University stresses that students stay on campus as much as they can or, if they cannot, use Seton Hall’s transportation; however, with the impatience seen in most young adults, it is probable that they will wander off campus in a rush to take their cash out, putting students at risk. Students are seen at all hours of the day and night withdrawing money, so what will stop them from having to take cash out at 1 a.m. when all the ATMs are gone? Most likely nothing.
Secondly, it will be an inconvenience to have to go downtown in South Orange just to get some cash. It seems to be a right that ought to be granted to all citizens, especially those without means of transportation, to have easy access to an ATM. The right to have access to one’s own money. Also, most of the private vendors and University organizations that set up and sell items outside of the cafeteria only take cash without an ATM, it seems highly unlikely that they will make many sales.
PNC states the reason for taking ATMs away is because not enough people use them, but they should have kept in mind that this is a small University, so naturally there will not be as many people using them as in, let’s say, a store in New York City. Enough of our students are seen using the machines to justify having them stay. Even if only one student in the entire community used the ATMs regularly, the machines should stay strictly for that one student.
