Students short on cash or without a meal plan now have another way to pay for meals in 459 Commons, Highland Dining and the Student Union Tiger Lair.Starting this week, those dining facilities will accept credit and debit cards. Student Government President Colorado Robertson said this was one of students’ biggest concerns during his campaign. “It’s a matter of convenience,” he said. “Everyone uses debit and credit cards these days.”Robertson said accepting credit and debit cards will make University dining more “visitor friendly.””Especially during student orientation, potential students and their parents can eat in the Union even if they only have a credit card,” Robertson said. David Heidke, director of LSU Dining, said a major concern of installing credit card machines was the possible detraction from the use of Tiger Cards. “We’re certainly optimistic that this will raise overall revenues of dining,” he said. Robertson said the Tiger Card Office will lose revenue now that credit cards are accepted. “They get 3 percent of sales just like any other credit card,” Robertson said. “This is what the students wanted.”Robertson said the Tiger Card Office should be able to compensate for the losses.”Those funds help subsidize operations for the Tiger Card Office,” he said. “They sponsor a lot of events, so we definitely want to keep them on campus.”Heidke could not confirm the cost to order the machine or install the communication lines, stating the University is still awaiting the invoices. Robertson said when the new Tiger Lair opens in fall 2009, all the lanes will accept credit and debit cards.—-Contact Katie Kennedy at [email protected]