Most HSA Ideas Are Internal

Most of the new business ideas for Harvard Student Agencies (HSA) originate internally, the president and general manager of the umbrella agency told members of the Committee on College Life (CCL) yesterday.

HSA officials said at the meeting that there have been nine outside idea suggested to the organization in the past four years, while about 11 such ideas are generated internally each year.

HSA enjoys University-sanctioned monopoly on most student business operations, an arrangement that has prompted criticism from other students who say they are excluded.

The procedure for adopting a new idea involves an initial discussion with HSA President Vivian Y. Hunt '89 and the general manager, Hope Spruance, who is not a student. The author then draws up a business plan, which may be submitted for review by HSA's board of directors, which is composed of students, administrators and alumni.

HSA officials said that in the past four years only one new idea has been rejected--in that instance because of an insurance problem. They said the high rate of acceptance occurs because many ideas are scrapped by the originators after they have drawn up specific plans but before they are formally submitted to the HSA Board for approval.

Spruance told the committee that only four of the nine outside ideas had actually been proposed to the board for approval.

But in an interview yesterday, Hunt denied that HSA discouraged people from bringing ideas to them. "I certainly feel that HSA's doors are opened to new ideas."

She said she did not think the agency was exclusive. Hunt said the high number of ideas generated internally reflect the fact that students who are most interested in business tend to join HSA.

Hunt also told the committee that HSA has been operating with surpluses for the past five years. "We had run in the red until the past five or six years," she said. Spruance told the committee that HSA now retained about 30 percent of its profits as a cushion for future debts, although she stressed that the agency is a nonprofit organization.

Financial solvency has not made HSA close minded about innovation, Hunt said, adding that it might even have the opposite effect. She said the security HSA provides minimizes the risk for those with new business ideas.

In other business, the CCL agreed to investigate reports that student bathrooms are not being cleaned regularly by dorm crew in some houses.

Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 said dorm crew had told him that they now have an adequate staff. But Jewett said it also needs to be determined whether workers are doing their jobs. Jewett said he would ask the head of dorm crew to address CCL, at it next meeting in April.

Student CCL representatives also said they had heard complaints that the shuttle service was not following the new schedule begun this spring. But Jewett said students should wait until after the new director of the shuttle service has a chance to settle into his office before conducting an investigation.

In addition, Jewett said he and Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence had reached a tentative agreement to distribute faculty staff phonebooks to all student rooming groups next year.