An attempt by the restaurant, located at 1827 N. Farwell St., to be reinstated to the MarquetteCash program has been denied, according to owner Mark Gold.

The MarquetteCash service is run through the MarquetteCard office along with BbOne, an outside service specializing in such programs.,”It's official: No more Pizza Shuttle mozzarella sticks at 3 a.m. with MarquetteCash.

An attempt by the restaurant, located at 1827 N. Farwell St., to be reinstated to the MarquetteCash program has been denied, according to owner Mark Gold.

The MarquetteCash service is run through the MarquetteCard office along with BbOne, an outside service specializing in such programs.

In September, violations were revealed through a "secret shopper," a regular shopping program used by Marquette to evaluate vendors accepting MarquetteCash.

The shopper was able to purchase alcohol with MarquetteCash at the restaurant, violating university policy. Pizza Shuttle was then suspended from the program.

Later that month, Gold met with several Marquette officials in an effort to gain reinstatement into the MarquetteCash program.

"It was our assessment that they had repeatedly violated the terms of our agreement," said Toby Peters, associate vice president in the Office of Administration.

According to Gold, Marquette officials requested records of all MarquetteCash purchases from July 1 through Sept. 12, the date of the suspension. According to the assessment, MarquetteCash was used for 60 dine-in purchases during the period, including five separate purchases of alcohol. On Monday, Oct. 15, Gold received a letter from Marquette stating Pizza Shuttle had been permanently removed from the program.

Gold said he doubted the restaurant had a chance for reinstatement.

"It was nice of Marquette to meet with us, but I could tell in the back of their mind they already knew we were done for," Gold said.

Peters said the violations were "very serious in nature."

"People expect our policies to be honored," he said. "We have zero tolerance for partners who are unable to do so."

Peters said Pizza Shuttle violated its agreement to accept MarquetteCash for delivery only, a policy designed to prevent the sale of alcohol. He said this is first time a vendor has been known to violate the alcohol policy.

Gold said he offered to retrain the staff to limit MarquetteCash purchases to delivery and to have staff members sign an agreement, but the damage had already been done.

"It's not worth the fight anymore," he said. "We tried to find some common ground, but they ultimately decided we were more of a risk than an asset."

Pizza Shuttle runs a program similar to MarquetteCash with the Milwaukee School of Engineering and is in discussion with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Gold said. The restaurant may also create its own credit program, he said.

"We have the technology to make a program for ourselves," he said. "I think there would be some demand for that."

Nick Brehm, a sophomore in the College of Engineering, said he would likely participate in such a program.

"It would be nice to not have to deal with cash, especially late at night," he said.

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