The Wildcard has replaced the Blockbuster card.

With the forthcoming opening of a new on-campus video store, Reel Divine, in the lower level of the Connelly Center, students will no longer have to leave campus or even carry cash when renting movies. The movies, which cost $3 for a one-day rental, are payable by Wildcard, cash or credit card.

Reel Divine was a key campaign promise of former Student Government Association President Maureen Holland. Over the past year, Holland worked with SGA video chair Harry Metzinger and Tim Dietzler of Dining Services to bring the campaign promise to fruition.

“I’m really proud that we were able to work together to finally make this happen,” Holland said. “It’s been in the works and something we’ve talked about for four years.”

The Holland administration and Dining Services hope to open the video store within the next two weeks. According to Dietzler, the store will be open seven days a week, from 11 a.m. until 11 p.m. “We hope to start with between 600-800 titles and then get over 1,000 quickly with new releases coming in,” he said.

While Reel Divine will contain a variety of movie genres, Metzinger said it will focus mainly on new releases. “We figured that most of the old favorites are already owned. We wanted to provide a selection that students might not necessarily own,” he said.

According to Metzinger, Dietzler was instrumental in making last year’s SGA aware of the prime Connelly Center location. With the Ticketmaster office in the lower part of Connelly taken off campus, the travel agency moved into that office, leaving space for the video store in an area highly frequented by students.

Dietzler also served as the contact person between SGA and a private video supply company, Video Products Distributors, which will supply most of the new releases. In addition, Dining Services and SGA will use a combination of other vendors to purchase previously viewed and older releases to keep costs down.

“The key to the store being successful is to turn our inventory as quickly as possible,” Dietzler said. “[$3] is a modest price compared to what is out there on the street.”

In addition, Dietzler plans to add a movie resale section and explore the option of including video game rentals at Reel Divine.

Dining Services has planned promotional events for the grand opening of the store, including popcorn with every rental.

Both VHS and DVDs will be available to rent.

“Right now, we’re starting out with both, although the number of VHSs might eventually decline,” Dietzler said. “We’ll see how it goes.”