American Express to
relocate off campus
Stanford has reached a new
agreement with American Express for providing travel
services to faculty, staff and students, according to
Shelley Hébert, director of business development.
American Express will
relocate personal and vacation travel services, currently
provided through its limited-service office at Tresidder
Memorial Union, to the company's full-service University
Avenue office, effective Aug. 3. In addition, most of the
American Express staff now housed in Encina Hall will
move off campus, allowing Stanford to use that space for
core university purposes.
The 250 University Avenue
office of American Express will have a special Stanford
desk to help with personal and vacation travel needs and
to provide discount travel packages for Stanford
travelers. Financial services that currently are not
offered at Tresidder, including Travelers' Cheques,
foreign currency services and American Express card
customer services, will be available at the downtown Palo
Alto office. On-site parking also is available beneath
the building, entering from Ramona Street. American
Express will set up an informational kiosk at Tresidder
to provide information and to direct students to the
University Avenue office, which can be reached at (650)
327-3711.
American Express recently
notified Stanford that it could no longer operate the
office at Tresidder because of restructuring in airline
commission rates and other travel industry changes,
including online ticketing. The university's Business and
Finance group and travel management specialists from the
Controller's Office negotiated with American Express for
improved service for Stanford and also studied how the
physical space currently occupied by the company could be
better utilized, Hébert said.
When American Express
leaves Tresidder at the end of July, space will be
available for a new tenant. The Tresidder Advisory Board,
working with Marc Wais, dean of students, is considering
various options for how that space might be used. Wais
said he welcomes suggestions from the Stanford community.
In addition to personal
travel services, American Express has provided business
travel services to Stanford faculty and administrators
and specialized services for athletics teams. Services
for athletics teams will continue to be provided through
a travel desk at Arrillaga, but under the new agreement,
American Express will move most of the Encina staff to
company offices in Los Altos by the end of August.
Because American Express
agents at Encina generally have interacted with Stanford
clients by telephone, that change should have little
impact on the campus community, except for a new
telephone number that will be announced when the change
occurs. Tickets and Travelers' Cheques still will be
delivered to offices on campus, and updates concerning
travel services will be published on the
"@Work" page of Stanford Report
beginning in August. SR
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