Expos Program Cuts Coop Order

The Expository Writing Department broke with tradition this semester by shifting its book orders from the Harvard Coop to the smaller Grolier Bookshop because of what the department's director characterized as unaccommodating service.

As a result of Director Richard C. Marius's action, students buying Expos texts will no longer receive the roughly 10 percent rebate entitled to Coop members on their Coop purchases.

Expository writing book orders account for approximately $20,000 of retail sales each semester, Marius said.

The decision to switch to the Plympton St. bookshop was prompted by dissatisfaction with the Coop's handling of book supplies and deadlines that were too restrictive for the department, Marius said.

Seven-year Feeling

"I never had the feeling the Coop understood our concerns in the seven years I have been with the department," said Marius.

"I have never heard of a professor denying a rebate to his students," said Coop President James Argeros, who has worked at the Coop eight years.

Argeros said he was unaware any complaint from the Expos Department. "We do not run away from problems," he said.

Marius said that until recently, he was "under the impression" that he was required to buy books through the Coop.

The Coop is legally separate from the university, but 22 of the 23 members of the board of the cooperative are Harvard or MIT faculty or students, said Louis Loss, Cromwell Professor of Law, Emeritus, and a Coop board member. In addition, most students hold charge accounts at the department store.

"We checked to see if we were legally bound to buy through the Coop. When we discovered we were not, we thought we would try something else," Marius said.

The Expos Program has had difficulty meeting the Coop's deadlines for placing orders, because it often waits almost until the beginning of the semester to finalize teacher and student class assignments.

"The Coop wouldn't give us any help," Marius said.

Louisa Solano, owner of the Grolier, said she did not lobby for this added business and has yet to recoup her initial investment in spring book orders.

"I was asked, and accepted because I know a number of the writers" in the department, she said.