Western Front - 1993 November 23

              November 23,1993/Volume 86, Number 18
Colleges to
divide funds for
new equipment
By Karl Schwelzer
Campus Government editor
Western's colleges will get $400,000
on Nov. 23 for equipment purchases, Pro­vost
Roland De Lorme announced at
Monday's Faculty Senate meeting.
Each college will receive its portion of
the $400,000 based on the number of full-time-
equivalent faculty it has, De Lorme
said. An additional $400,000 would become
a special needs fund, from which equip­ment-
intensive departments and academic
support services can request funds.
De Lorme called the condition of some
of Western's equipment, especially com­puters,
deplorable.
De Lorme also said he has set aside
$200,000 in a rainy-day fund. Another
$250,000 will be kept as a reserve against
legislative budget cuts and $250,000 will
be spent for equipment outside of academic
affairs, the provost said.
De Lorme said the money would not
solve Western's equipment shortages, but
that setting a spending level of $1.5 million
a year would remove the mystery from
budget allocation.
"Please don't come forward with any
See Senate, page 5
please recycle
Happy
Thanksgiving
Classes are out at noon
Wednesday, Nov. 24, for the
Thanksgiving holiday.
Classes resume Monday,
Nov. 29.
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Library transfers catalog to computer
By Andrew Pendli
staff reporter
The staff of Wilson Library is working
to slowly bring the card catalog out of the
dark ages and into the computer age.
The catalog is undergoing a retrospec­tive
conversion (RECON) into the Research
Library Information Network (RLIN) us­ing
biographical lists provided by Blackwell
North America, a book vendor.
The conversion will allow students and
faculty to search through the library' s hold­ings
from anywhere on campus, Eggen
said.
"The on-line system will tremendously
expand our ability for inter-library loans,"
Eggen said.
Blackwell compiled the lists of more
than 151,600 titles from records of
Western's past acquisitions. The list was
transferred into RLIN via tape, said Sally
Eggen, a supervisor in the catalog depart­ment.
Four part-time employees hired by the
library to double-check the tape transfer.
"These people were hired to apply local
information, correct errors and update the
See Library, page 5
Marriott prices affected by competition, overhead, convenience
By Hilary Parker
staff reporter
Marriott Food Service — the
t
name is hard to escape on
Western's campus.
Marriott provides boarding
meals, catering and retail eateries,
and is by far the largest provider
of variety on campus.
Because Marriott has a virtual
monopoly on food products on
campus, it generates a lot of talk
among hungry students.
Students often object to the
high prices. They question why
each quarter menu items increase
in price, and why these items cost
more than at local grocery stores.
Larry Stahlberg, food service
director for Marriott, listed several
reasons for this. One, the contract
Western has with Marriott stipu­lates
that the food service can
propose price increases on a quar­terly
basis.
These proposalsaredeveloped
by Marriott, which conducts a
week-long tally each quarter to
study which items are most popu­lar,
and will remain so if the price
is raised,
Prices are further set by com­parison
with those in the commu­nity.
If an item is already at a
comparable market level to the
community, its price will not be
raised. When a popular item is
below the going rate in the com­munity,
a price increase of about
10 cents may be considered
Price increases are also
stimulated by natural inflation on
labor and taxes, as well as items
such as janitorial supplies.
The second reason for the price
increases is that Marriott is not a
grocery store, and provides more
services to its customers than just
having food to purchase.
"We offer a service on cam­pus,"
said Stahlberg. "People
would like to compare us to fast
food, groceries or other restau­rants
in town. We cater specially
to the campus market"
When researching prices,
Marriott compares its prices with
local restaurants, such as Burger
King and the Bagelry. With popu­lar
items such as Ben and Jerry's
ice cream, which costs $3.49 on
campus, or Snapple beverages,
Stahlberg explained, Marrriott's
high prices compare to restaurant
pricing rather than that of grocery
stores.
"Ben and Jerry's is an inter­esting
product because it is at its
peak right now with people on
campus and in the community,"
Stahlberg said.
"High-profile items (like Ben
and Jerry's) are associated with
quality, therefore our suppliers
charge us more. A year from now
the product may not be as popu­lar.
We may not even sell it next
See Marriott, page 4
WHAT'S INSIDE: News: "Changing style' of education — page 7
Features: Serving up soup for homeless — page 10
Sports: Hockey player began skating at age 3 — page 16