Independent Organization Threatens HSA's Local Bartending Hegemony

The redcoats are coming from a second direction this spring.

A new catering agency, the Independent Student Associates (ISA), is offering bartending competition to the Catering Division of the Harvard Student Agencies (HSA) for the first time in 15 years.

About 60 students from Harvard, B.U., Boston College, and Northeastern are dressing in the familiar red jackets to serve up drinks under the auspices of the new catering group.

ISA was organized by Harvard Extension student James Toombs and his wife Maryellen, a former HSA secretary who was fired last month for organizing the new agency.

The new bartending and waitressing organization pays its employees $3.25 per hour and charges its customers $5 per hour.

The HSA pay scale, on the other hand, starts at $2.40 per hour for jobs in Cambridge and rises to $2.80 per hour for suburban work. HSA bartenders are guaranteed four hours pay on each job and experienced liquor servers earn an additional 25 cents per hour over the regular wage.

"There is obviously room for more than both of us in this field." Toombs, president of ISA, said yesterday. "We're not after the same clientele--in fact, our main employment thus far has been subcontracting for other caterers.

"We offer better services to our customers than HSA does because we have no extra service charges and no minimum number of hours," Toombs said. "And from our short experience we can see that HSA is not hustling for a large market share," he added.

HSA has been under fire this year for hiring too many students who were not in financial need and HSA has subsequently enforced its need requirement more stringently. "Lately we've been working closely with the Student Employment Office to get jobs for scholarship students." HSA president-elect Arthur I. Segel '73 said yesterday.

According to HSA's charter and its agreement with the University, it hires only Harvard students and gives preferential consideration to those in financial need.

Some of the students who are now working for ISA have previously worked for HSA, but were not offered further employment because they were not Harvard students.

Both catering groups said yesterday that they would not fire anyone who was also working for the rival organization. Segel summarized the comments made by members of both groups when he said, "It just would not be ethical to hurt the earning power of students who are working their way through college."

ISA is avoiding high overhead expenses by using the Toombses' Mass Ave, apartment as its office. HSA President Michael L. Ryan '72 said that ISA will be unable to keep its overhead down if it grows into a full-fledged operation.

"Then they will need a secretary, accountant and an office just like we now use. It is these costs as well as insurance and Social Security payments which are the bulk of the overhead and cut into wages," Ryan added.

In other news on the catering front, Andrew W. Nelson. HSA General Manager, announced Monday plans to expand the catering division into year-round operation.

"We feel that there is a ready market for Harvard bartenders and waitresses in the summer, particularly in the resort areas on the North and South Shores," he said.

The catering division, which now does an $80,000 business during the academic year, will grow significantly with the added months of service, Segel said. The catering branch now pays over $45,000 in wages to students during the academic year.

HSA also runs a bartending course in which many of the students in both catering organizations have been enrolled. Students in the course, which is offered about twice a month during the academic year, attend three evening sessions. Part of the final session is devoted to practice in mixing drinks and in consuming them