DeKALB — Some campus locations have stopped accepting cash payments within the last few years to reduce cash errors and shortages at certain retail dining services.

Specific satellite locations, like Sandella’s Café at DuSable Hall, the Three Sons Café, the Stevenson C-Store and the East Side Café, have stopped accepting cash payments, according to Director of Retail Dining John Boswell.

These locations only accept debit, credit, Huskie bucks or Flex dollars.

“The [Holmes] Student Center will always take cash because it has the possibility of having a larger amount of visitors, and it is not a satellite location,” Boswell said.

Boswell said an alleged embezzling incident at Illinois State University inspired the switch. Debbie White, 58, was accused of embezzling over $160,000 from ISU in 2016, during the time she was a clerical worker there, according to a April 2 WGLT report.

The report states White told prosecuters she had been taking cash from the university since Feb. 2016, and records indicated close to $162,000 were missing.

Boswell said he got into contact with both the Executive Director of Dining and the Director of Retail Dining at ISU after the scandal occurred. Boswell decided to switch a few locations that had a less than 15% cash rate to prevent such occurrences from happening at NIU, he said.

“The hospitality industry as a whole is moving away from cash. NIU is not scared to be innovative, and, I think, you need to see something through to see if it will work,” Boswell said.