STUDENT SERVICES

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

In connection with your news report in today's paper about the Harvard Student Agencies, Inc., I would be grateful if you would be willing to add the following information and observations:

1) Your report says that our corporation is a "clearing house for all agencies which involve room-to-room solicitation." This is a misunderstanding on two counts. First, we have many agencies in the corporation that involve no room-to-room solicitation but merely operate from our business address. Second, we certainly do not have any monopoly on doing business in the dormitories. The University Deans and House Masters have final authority over who gets to do business in the College buildings and, so far as I know, enterprises connected with this corporation must apply to the University authorities, the same as any other student business, to gain permission. It is my impression that the CRIMSON, Lampoon, Advocate, WHRB, and other groups conduct businesses or services on University property also with the approval of the College authorities.

2)At the heart of our operation is the fact that students are not allowed by law or University regulations to conduct businesses from their rooms, since the rooms are in tax-exempt property. It is also a fact that for most students trying to conduct a business it is too expensive to rent an office space by themselves. It was with these facts in mind that a number of us worked hard all summer to establish a business situation in which students could develop and conduct businesses legally with proper facilities in the Harvard Square community. . . . Gregory B. Stone '58