HDNS: Epps and Downs

THERE'S NOTHING unethical about bailing an organization out of debt, especially when it performs a service that people count on. So in a way Archie C. Epps III, dean of students, did nothing wrong--legally or ethically--when he helped obtain $14,000 in loans and used $2000 in College discretionary funds to assure against the bankruptcy of Harvard Delivery News Service (HDNS) last spring. Had conditions provided no other solution, Epps' actions would have merited the respect of those who subscribe to The New York Times and the Boston Globe, even though Harvard has no legal responsibility for HDNS. But given the situation that led to his financial juggling. Epps (who calls himself the "official responsible for the service") owes subscribers an explanation, if not a flat-out apology.

Not that what happened last year was entirely the dean's fault. To be sure, Martin Olive '78-4, manager of HDNS off and on for four years until last January, is directly culpable for the hideous financial mismanagement of the service. Olive allegedly (he refuses to comment on this) skipped town at the beginning of the spring semester with $6000 to $7000 of HDNS in tow, leaving the service with more than $14,500 in unaccounted-for check stubs and about $10,000 in debt. When Epps and Mitchell W. Smith '82, Olive's successor since last February, attempted to salvage the wreckage, they only were trying to make the best of an Olive-created mess.

But this conclusion begs the real question, which is how Olive succeeded in getting away with what he did (to this day, his only reparation to HDNS has been an agreement to pay it $5000). Subscribers complained of highly erratic delivery throughout the fall, and even the Times and the Globe decided they had had enough of the elusive manager so far back as last November. On any other campus, newspaper officials could have fired the delivery service manager for failure to perform up to par. But because Epps insists that he oversees the service--and that only he can make the managerial changes--the Times and the Globe representatives found their hands tied. It was either HDNS and Marty Olive or no delivery at all.

Instead of handing Olive's leash to the newspapers, Epps insisted on holding it himself--and then allowed the manager far too much slack. Olive himself admits that things began to go downhill for him more than two years ago, when the Times forced him to perform yeoman's work in starting up circulation after the fall 1978 newspaper strike. Failing two courses as a result, Olive says he began experiencing personal problems which led him to abuse HDNS; and a Times official says he believes Olive began mixing his personal money with HDNS funds at about that time.

If Epps had kept a close eye on HDNS's books then, he would have noticed the trouble in time to prevent last year's debacle. But the dean saw only the veneer: Olive was increasing subscriptions, he seemed dedicated, complaints were sporadic. True, Olive's responsibilities stretched the manager thin--aside from his administrative and academic duties. Olive used his own truck to drop papers off at delivery sites every morning at 5 a.m. But the Times official did not appear concerned; he and Olive got along well.

SO EPPS let the sleeping dog lie until last fall, when Olive began disappearing for days at a time and papers lay undelivered day after day at the HDNS drop site. Complaints poured in; the newspaper officials discussed replacing Olive with a more reliable manager; bills to the Globe and News Distributors, Inc.--the wholesaler that sells the Times to HDNS piled up by the week. Having put himself at the end of the chain of command. Epps should have responded to these problems by firing Olive.

That he did not do so, Epps says, reflects his concern for Olive's personal problems as well as his desire that the transition from Olive to Smith be a smooth one. Considering that Olive's problems stemmed from the strain of running the delivery service, this explanation seems odd. As dean of students. Epps' concern for Olive is commendable--and should have surfaced regardless of Epps' connection with HDNS in the form of obtaining psychological help for the student. But as overseer of HDNS, Epps' decision to keep Olive employed can only be described as patently irresponsible.

Epps confusion of his role as dean with his self-appointed role as HDNS overseer not only allowed Olive to abuse the service, but also perpetuated the problems after the manager had gone. When students voiced their complaints louder than ever last spring--by demanding refunds and even suing HDNS--Epps should have responded frankly to their queries, or should have instructed Smith to do so. Instead, Epps arranged for the loans, commissioning Smith to straighten out the delivery problems, handle refunds, and make sense out of book keeping that Epps says Olive left in "complete disorganization." In doing so, Epps acted as dean, insuring that students had newspaper delivery, but by ignoring HDNS's customer complaints he failed to perform responsibly as Olive's superior.

Moreover, Epps made only a half-hearted attempt to straighten out the problems. Although Olive had left for good by February, Epps and Smith did not balance the checkbook until well into April--more than a month after the first $4000 loan from Cambridge Trust had paid off part of a bad debt. If HDNS could afford that much in loans, it could have paid for an accountant to make sense out of its books. Or Epps could have made a serious attempt to find Olive--who was working in a restaurant in Faneuil Hall--and demanded restitution.

But he didn't meet up with Olive until late May, more than four months after Olive left HDNS. Then, Epps' compassion for Olive--who, the dean learned, was a "drug user"--blinded him to his duties as HDNS's overseer; he took pains not to upset the former manager. But students and even Times officials allege that Olive was a cocaine dealer on campus well before he left HDNS. Had Epps known this, he would have treated Olive more harshly, since University policy is to prosecute campus drug dealers: "My actions were based upon the assumption that he was simply a user and not a dealer, and if there had been evidence he had been trafficking then it would have become a disciplinary matter," he says.

This statement is revealing not only as a testament to Epps' continuous reaction to the situation as dean of students, but also to his basic lack of knowledge about HDNS's affairs during Olive's tenure as manager. Epps says he decided to use College money in mid-April because "he hadn't really gotten an accurate notion of what was going on." While it is possible--and even tempting--to explain Epps' actions on the basis of his compassion for Olive or his concern for students in general, his ignorance is inexcusable.

DESPITE HDNS's consistently poor track record since its birth in 1975, Epps refused early this fall to terminate HDNS, to find a way to bring it legally under Harvard's jurisdiction, or to allow an independent student organization to take over the delivery route. Having ironed out some of its early-semester delivery problems, HDNS admittedly could pull itself out of the mire, despite a poor reputation and an outstanding $5000 debt to Cambridge Trust. On the other hand, Epps has not proved that he is willing to keep himself up-to-date about HDNS or to act as its entrepreneur when the service lacks a responsible manager. Clearly, Epps would fulfill his responsibility as dean of students if he acted in the spirit of the University's legal relationship with HDNS and removed himself entirely from the service's management.

Least likely to admit his mistakes, Olive nevertheless acknowledges his irresponsibility to subscribers and says, "I made some very bad mistakes, and I'm not trying to defend myself." Epps has yet to publicly convey either of those sentiments. As dean of students, he can be forgiven for concerning himself with the personal problems of one of his charges. But as overseer of HDNS, Epps still has almost 1000 subscribers to answer to.