Condom Machines to Be Filled

It has been a frustrating year for many couples at Harvard, but that could change if the Undergraduate Council succeeds in negotiating a contract to restock the University's empty condom dispensers.

Although no final agreement has been struck, council member Farshid Sadeghi '90 said he had located a new distributor for the prophylactic devices, and that he simply needed the council to approve a contract.

"I spent all this semester trying to find [this] vendor," said Sadeghi, who has spearheaded the current condom drive. "[Now] we're trying to negotiate a deal with him."

The condom machines, which were first installed in each of the residential houses and the Harvard Union at the end of the fall semester last year, have been empty since the company hired to stock the machines went out of business last spring.

"They went out of business, and they didn't tell us anything about it," Sadeghi said. "They disconnected their number. They're gone."

"A lot of condom machine companies go bankrupt," he explained.

But the new distributor, Richard J. Borek, said that he wants the council to scrap the old machines and buy new ones. He said he would service the new dispensers for a fixed fee, letting the council keep all vending revenue. Last year, the council rented the machines from the supplier, and did not keep the revenue.

"He'd rather have us buy a machine from him [because he is afraid of vandalism, but] he will service and supply them," Sadeghi said. "Basically the question is 'do we want to replace the old condom machines and pay over 200 dollars per machine?"

Borek, who also distributes condoms at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), agreed that vandalism was his key concern.

"When you install the machines initially you have a lot of vandalism," he said. "They'll try to jam something up there, they'll try to stick something up there and jiggle it around and get a few condoms. I've had a few pulled off the wall."

Reports of Borek's service record at MIT are varied. George E. Hosker, who manages an MIT dormitory which Borek services, said the condom service frequently neglects to restock the dispensers.

But Karen A. Nilsson, a manager at MIT's housing department, disagreed. "We just don't run into problems of damage and empty machines," she said.

Sadeghi, who said he has a prototype of Borek's condom dispenser in his room, said students would be less likely to damage the new machines than the ones currently in place. "The machines we have right now have no coin return, no sign saying they're out of condoms," he said.