HSA Report Shows Fall In Scholarship Employees

A report released yesterday by Kendall Powell '76, president of Harvard Student Agencies, shows that the number of scholarship students employed by HSA has dropped substantially from last year, from 70 to 49 per cent.

Archie C. Epps III, dean of students and a member of HSA's board of directors, said yesterday that the board has "expressed concern" over the recent figures.

The charter of the HSA states that the agency was founded to employ students "who are in need of financial assistance, to defray the expenses of their education."

Dan A. Del Vecchio, general manager of HSA, said yesterday the absolute number of scholarship students has not decreased. Instead, he said, the overall number of students employed by HSA has jumped and the addition has been almost totally non-scholarship students.

However wages paid to scholarship employees have declined slightly, moving from $64,000 in the first half of fiscal 1974 to $56,000 in the first half of fiscal 1975, according to Powell, who quoted the report's comparison of these two periods.

Non-scholarship students' wages rose in the same period from $27,000 to $58,000.

Del Vecchio said that the major reason for this "drastic" change in figures was that over the summer there was an increase in the demand of the agency's services, particularly in the custodial division. Most of the students "available" for employment at the time were non-scholarship students, he said.

Powell and Del Vecchio said they were "shocked" by figures reviewed in the report, but they said they do not plan to change the methods of hiring or new procedures to attract scholarship students.

Del Vecchio said HSA has no set quota for hiring scholarship students, although, he said, they are given preference.

Epps said that in previous years HSA has done a "good job" employing scholarship students. But when the board saw the percentage shift in its annual fiscal reports it asked for a special review.

Powell said, "You really can't go overboard in giving preference to people on scholarship."

Although he agreed to discuss yesterday's report, Powell refused to release a copy of it because, he said, HSA wants to review it for possible errors.

HSA advertises jobs at the Student Employment Office (SEO), giving preference to scholarship students the first three days of listing, after which all applications are treated equally, Powell said.

HSA was established in October 1957 as a non-profit, tax-exempt organization to provide employment and work experience for students.