A Real Problem for Jerry

MY ROOMMATE DOESN'T usually take much interest in the University administration. A new committee today, a new dean tomorrow. Like most Harvard students, my roommate sees the University bureaucracy as little more than institutionalized boredom. Even when Neil L. Rudenstine was announced as the next president, my roommate appeared have no concern for what the new leader's first move would be. All he wanted to know was whether Rudenstine had acne scars or not.

So I reacted with surprise when one morning my roommate looked up from an article on Rudenstine's agenda and fixed his stare on me.

"I'll tell you why we need a provost," he said.

Then he took out his wallet and then proceeded to throw little plastic cards on the floor in front of me. Blue and white cards, red and white cards, black and white cards. Cards for laser printers and photocopiers. For the Biological Laboratories, the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) labs, the Law School, Widener, the Science Center.

"I'll tell you why we need a provost," he repeated. "Venda-Cards."

JERRY R. GREEN, whose appointment was announced on Thursday, has a lot of work ahead of him. Rudenstine has carved out quite an agenda for the first number two University-wide officer to be appointed since World War II.

He'll be in charge of overlapping programs between the graduate schools and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, enforcing coordination in budget requests and appointments between the schools. He will be a central administrator whose job is solely to bring together the academic programs of all the schools in the Harvard domain.

But if Green really wants to have an impact on the University, the first thing he should tackle is the VendaCard machines.

SINCE MY ROOMMATE threw his cards at my feet, I've watched my own collection of VendaCards grow. I have one that works in the Widener photocopiers. This is a valuable one--it works in Lamont and Hilles as well. I have another for the Science Center laser printer, and I have two for the Loeb library at the Design school. At the Loeb, I put my dollar in to get a VendaCard, but when I tried to put more money on the card, I got another one by mistake. So now one of the cards has a few dollars of credit and the other is blank, useless and not even recylcable.

Nearly every photocopier or laser printer in the University has a different VendaCard system. There are obvious problems with this system.

The first is space. Besides the valuable square footage the machines occupy in libraries and labs around campus, it's really annoying to have to carry around four cards (let alone eight, 10 or 12) in your wallet or back-pack. Second, each VendaCard costs from 60 cents to one dollar. After four or five Venda-Cards, you could buy a small pizza or some beer.

What makes it even more expensive is that my roommate and I have realized that we never have the VendaCard we want at the time we want it. My roommate has two VendaCards for the MCZ labs because the last time he was there and wanted to use the photocopiers, he realized that even though he had his Law School VendaCard and his Bio Labs CopyKey, he'd left the MCZ card back at home. So he had to shell out another dollar.

But the real waste is the money that is left on the cards themselves. I go to the Design School to make photocopies maybe once a year. The last time I went, however, the smallest bill I had, after I accidently bought two VendaCards, was a five. I only needed to make a few copies, so I ended up with a VendaCard that has an extra three dollars on it. Does Tommy's take VendaCards?

GREEN'S FIRST PRIORITY as provost should be to make the VendaCards and CopyKeys at all of the graduate schools and all of the obscure libraries and laboratories compatible. He's supposed to coordinate, right?

Forget linking the University's computer system. Forget producing a unified budget. Forget the closer planning and operation of the graduate schools.

If Green really wants to impact the quality of student life, he should tackle the frightening escalation of VendaCards.

If Green does that, he will be well on his way to accomplishing his primary task of bringing the disparate parts of the University together. Think of it in terms of the European Community. Establishing a common currency will draw us all closer together. It's that whole complex interdependence thing.

It will take some decisive action to change the system. People will argue that changing the old system to make the cards compatible will cost too much.

And the individual schools--especially the snotty Business School--have an interest in making sure their cards are not made convertible to all the University's machines. Why? They make money off the nonconvertability.

Chances are I'll never spend that last three dollars on my Design School VendaCard. Who gets that money? The Design School. And they didn't even have to use up any toner in their photocopy machine.

The people who make VendaCards would also lose if the cards were convertible. Now they sell three, four, five cards to every system. With 10,000 students and $1 a card, that's $50,000. But if there were a unified system, they would be out $40,000.

Obviously Green will be challenged by powerful forces. That's all the more reason for him to act quickly.

Most students won't pay much attention to the bureaucratic manipulations that will consume most of the provost's time. Budget cuts, deferred maintenance costs, a declining endowment. Yawn.

But convertible VendaCards--that's the best idea since Deli Day.