The time has came for the increase of support to Putnam County. I know that DePauw aids the county slightly in various endeavors, including using Harmless washers and dryers in their Laundry Rooms. I?m sure I?ve left out other symbiotic relationships that DePauw may have with Greencastle, but I?m sure they could do more to drag this county out from being one of the poorest in Indiana. For example, DePauw could ink contracts with the various restaurants in Greencastle to allow students to pay for food with their ID?s.

To get this plan implemented, I need some popular support from the student body. I?ve had a lot of people who like the ideas, but they quickly turn into naysayers that tell me that it won?t happen. This attitude, folks, is sadly in the same vein of apathy that allowed a addict to win and a piece of wood to lose the presidency of the United States. To use a tired clich�, if we try, we can succeed. Too many of these students that I've met at DePauw have been burned out by heavy class load or small failures, and I honestly pity them. A common attitude that is prevalent among the so-called "Activists" on this campus is if they could possibly fail, they won?t try at all. This is not what being an activist is, but what an activist isn?t also is someone that just attacks people, which may seem like my general tone with this. My original goal was to describe the alternative for the expansion of the meal plan, and that is what I will accomplish.

The entire system for putting various restaurants on the DePauw network would be amazingly simple. Physically attaching the individual cash registers to the network would be simple, and the economics behind it would be generally simple to. In the short space that I have in this piece, the plan is incredibly condensed, but hopefully will give people an idea on what I mean. "Marvin?s" will be our sample restaurant, as they would be the most likely candidate for one of these doubly lucrative contracts. For a small annual fee of around $1000 or so, Marvin?s could gain the rights to serve DePauw students with money out of their food budget. DePauw would in turn pay Marvin?s in weekly installments based on two factors. These two factors would be the amount of people served and the costs of food consumed; the other would be the percentage gained from each item sold. As with all financial contracts, DePauw and Marvin?s would have to come to a mutually beneficial agreement, whereby both parties could benefit from the deal.

Again, this idea will still need to be mulled over, but if the idea makes sense, or if you have any other ideas or questions for me, please do write me at [email protected]. I look forward to reading all of your responses, good or bad.