Inside Iowa State
Sept. 26, 1997
$5,000 for scholarships
by Anne Dolan
Memorial Union Vending has donated its first gift, $5,000, to the university's Minority Scholarship Endowment.
In its bid for the vending contract last year, Memorial Union Vending proposed making an annual contribution to a university scholarship program.
The scholarship funds are separate from vending commissions distributed to college student councils and departments based on student and staff numbers.
The gift also is different from vending commissions because it is a percentage of the vending operation's net proceeds, said Kathy Svec, marketing coordinator for the Memorial Union.
At the time of the bid, Memorial Union officials estimated that the first-year scholarship contribution would be about $15,000.
Svec said start-up of the vending operations was slower than officials had planned, which affected sales volume and the size of the scholarship fund. Factors such as the unavailability of Coca-Cola machines in the Midwest during the summer Olympic games in Atlanta (Coke supplied beverages to the Olympics), initial incompatibility with the debit card computers and higher-than-expected up-front expenses affected sales and, ultimately, the scholarship fund.
"Our hope is that the sales will go up and we will reach that ($15,000) level," she said.
"This fund is something we felt we could make a commitment to, and it's to everyone's advantage to do it."
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