Book Company Recruiting Despite Ban By Harvard

A bookselling company banned four years ago from soliciting prospective summer employees on the Harvard campus has resumed recruiting here under the direction of a first-year business student.

The student, Thomas J. Mallon, who has met with at least two freshmen about working for Southwestern Company, a subsidiary of the Los Angeles-based Times Mirror Company, declined comment yesterday.

John Howe, assistant to the dean of students, said yesterday the company was banned from campus several years ago because of "irregular recruiting activities."

Paul G. Alexander '82, who worked for Southwestern two summers ago, said yesterday the conflict between the company and the University began when a recruitment meeting was illegally held in one of the freshman dorms.

Archie C. Epps III, dean of students, who issued the ban on Southwestern, declined to comment yesterday.

William P. Adamopoulos '84 and Galen P. Cawley '84 were contacted by Mallon this week after writing their names and telephone numbers on an unapproved poster in Canaday Hall. The poster offered information about "Summer Work $3000-4000."

The two freshmen, who met with Mallon Tuesday night, said Mallon told them Southwestern employs college students during the summer to sell books door-to-door across the country, primarily in the southern "Bible Belt."

The Profits

The salesman sell an average of three "sets of books" a day, work six days a week and retain 43 per cent of the profits from their sales, Cowley said.

He added that Mallon encouraged the freshmen to accept the job "within a couple days," asking them, "Can you look me in the eye, shake my hand and tell me that you can keep a commitment?"

Cawley said at first the work "seemed like the world's oldest con job," and that he still has "too many doubts to commit myself."

Alexander, however called South-western "a legitimate company," adding that working for it "is a valuable experience, particularly in learning how to work with people."

Both Alexander and Michael Rennock '81, who sold books for Southwestern after his freshmen year, said they disagree with the University's stand against Southwestern.

"Dean Epps has totally refused to even talk about it," Rennock said yesterday, adding that "Southwestern deserves a rebuke" for recruiting in a freshman dorm, "but certainly not to be banned forever.