Skipping the Middleman: Council's Boxes Sell Out

Students rushing to pack their belongings by this Sunday's move-out date have made the Undergraduate Council's box sale a quick success.

To reduce what many Council members--including President Paul A. Gusmorino '02--felt were exorbitant prices for large cardboard boxes and packing tape at Square businesses, the Council this year established a pilot program to sell those items directly to students at reduced rates.

Such efforts to save students money were a part of Gusmorino's platform in his successful bid for the Council's presidency.

"I've always felt gypped at the end of the year when I go to CVS and pay $4 for a piece of cardboard," Gusmorino said.

The council charged $2 per box and $1 per roll of tape.

The boxes sold out in less than a day.

Four hundred boxes were sold Monday night in four Houses--Lowell, Winthrop, Mather and Pforzheimer--and 350 were sold yesterday out of the council's office in the basement of Holworthy Hall.

For the UC Boxes program, the Council's Campus Life Committee (CLC) and its services chair, Robert M. Gee '02, who ran the program, purchased 750 boxes to resell to students at virtually the same bulk-rate price the Council paid for the boxes, plus shipping.

Leaders of the project were surprised at the speed with which all the boxes sold out.

"I didn't expect people wanting to buy them so voraciously," Gusmorino said.

Leaders of the UC Boxes program decided to only purchase a modest number of boxes because of the uncertainty of student demand. The council would have been forced to pay for any unsold boxes out of its own budget.

Organizers also worried that few council members would be available to help out on the project during the midst of final exams.

Council members say that the success of this year's pilot program will lead the UC Boxes program to be expanded next year.

"We are looking forward to expanding for the future," Gusmorino said.

However, Melissa A. Eccleston '04, the social chair of CLC, said that the lack of personnel to help with the program will have to be addressed next year.

Gee said that the UC Boxes program is part of the effort of the council to redefine its focus.

"We are getting ourselves focused toward students services," Gee said. "Students appreciate that."

Krishnan N. Subrahmanian '03, who bought boxes from the council in Pforzheimer, agreed with Gee's assessment.

"I definitely appreciated it," Subrahmanian said. "I usually don't see the U.C. affecting me, but I definitely did in this case."

Despite the UC Boxes program, businesses in the Square have not noticed a reduction in the sales of boxes.

"We didn't see a decrease in box sales [over last year]," said Renée Brown, a supervisor at the CVS in Harvard Square. She said that the store has sold between 600 and 1,000 boxes in the last two weeks.

--Staff writer Daniel P. Mosteller can be reached at dmostell@fas.harvard.edu.