ISLAND SERVICE TO TAKE OVER

Within four months all vend- ing services on the UPEI cam- pus will be under the control of Gulf Vending, instead of the soci- eties which are presently running them. Although this has raised some controversy among some of the societies it may actually be better for students in the long run.

The decision for the change was made by Jim Griffith, Head of Student Services, who is also in charge of Food Services on the campus, A

“The original intention of this change , and it still is my inten- tion, was to make sure that any Commission from the vending ser- Vices goes back into the hands of the students. It’s not going there now,” says Griffith.

The vending services repre- sent a very important service on campus, but until now, they have been what Griffith calls “hit and Miss”, :

__ “We were dealing with four different companies,” Says Grif- fith, “ Bach one had a different

price structure and we were losing too much profit, especially from the loss of bottles.”

The first machines came in at a time when the university ran its own cafeteria.: At this time, only students that lived on campus could buy food there. This is the reason that the vending machines were introduced. When Food Services came over, they opened up on a cash basis so that anyone could buy food at the cafeteria. The vending machines were never meant to compliment this sys- tem, although Griffith says that in most other universities this is the case. Many of the societies on campus had the vending ma- chines brought in on their own. The Chemistry Society has had their pop machine for about ten years. They requested it, and the Director of Food Services didn’t

‘ even know about it at the time.

Griffith said that there is the potential for more revenue, but that changes would have to be made in services and consolida- tion as well as in the distribution of revenue.

Th

me

“We are dealing with many sub-groups and four companies is not effective,” says Griffith.

About a year ago, three com- panies were assessed to find the best one for the campus. Two of the companies were from the mainland. Gulf Vending, an Is- land company, has been work- ing with us for about nine years. They are an established company that has proven themselves com- petant. They have modern, more efficient machines and they work out the details with other compa- nies, such as Pepsi and Coke, to service the machines. There will be one person to service all UPEI and there will be 24-hour service to all the machines. There is a phone number on every machine that can be called at any time.

“Within 6-8 months there will be a re-assessment. There will always be re-assessments. If it doesn’t work out, we will consider changing it back.” By the end of the year there will be upwards of 30 machines. ~

“The simplest way to dis- tribute the funds is to take the proceeds and put them into an already established bursary fund, like the Memorial Bursary Fund. We are looking at increasing the bursary fund to $500.”

The Memorial Bursary Fund allots fifteen bursaries every year. Any full-time student is eligible for this $300 bursary which is awarded every February. This could be beneficial to the soci- eties in that at least one bursary would be awarded to a student from that society.

The Chemistry Society, how-

ever, has a different idea about the bursary fund.

ae say

Something to benefit the entire student body, not just 1%. This makes a lump sum of money for one person. There is a respon- sibility to distribute the money evenly.”

The pop machine is the main source of income for the Chem- istry Society. Although they do not make a large amount of money from the machine, they make enough to send delegates on inter-provincial conferences, sub- sidize projects such as sweat-shirt sales, and buy office supplies, as well as financing the annual Christmas party. The money is shared in a way that is mutually agreeable to everyone.

Some of the machines have al- ready been changed. Gulf Vend- ing is in effect in the library and in the residences. However, all is not going as well as planned. Many “of the societies on cam- pus are against the move to Gulf Vending, but they have not, as of yet, lost all their rights to their machines. The Chemistry Soci- ety is not locked out of their pop machine yet. They are under a not-so-cordial agreement.

Why are the societies so upset with the change?

Says Connolly, “Basically, we like the autonomy. We are responsible for filling the ma- chines, accounting, and mainte- nance. The purpose. of the uni- versity is to produce responsible adults. There are certain mea- sures of responsibility. The trea- surer and person who fills the ma- chine have to report to us all the time.”

The societies have been as sured that they will not lose any profit from the machines as long

“The profit goes back to the user, and the user, to me, is the student.” — Jim Griffith

“We are not in favor of the bursary,” says James Connolly, President of the Chemistry Soci- ety. “What this is, is a large por- tion of the revenue going into the Memorial Bursary Fund. This will. benefit only 20 students, which is 1% of the population. We would much prefer to see it put into a donation to Main, the new field house, or the library.

as they were receiving some profit in the first place.

“No one’s taking over any- thing. People resent change. I re- ally believe this is in the best in- terest of all students. Any group that has had a long standing practice will be respected, and they will still get their profit ev- ery month. We want to see the best possible service in the best

CAMPUS VENDING

way. We're not cutting off the profit from any group that al- ready receives profit. The profit goes back to the user, and the user, to me, is the student.”

What will happen to the Chemistry Society’s machine if it comes under the control of Gulf Vending?

“We'd be in the position where we’d have to try and get it back. We’d certainly protest,” says Connolly. “I'd like to think that we are not unreasonable. I’m not saying we’d boycott it. It shouldn’t have to come to that .”

Entertain ment

see page

9

Student Services

see page 1]

Society see page 14

Campus

Comment see page 2 Five Lines

Free see page 1 6