New club aims to put an end to monopolies on campus
Stop Monopolies On Campus.
That’s the name of a new club created to challenge the status quo at Utah State University.
Neil Abercrombie, a senior in law and constitutional studies, is one of the club’s founders. SMOC wants to increase student awareness of alternatives to a closed market of university services, he said.
Cory Davidson, a senior in both political science and economics, is another club leader.
“We are out to improve the quality of our education and the quality of campus life,” he said.
Abercrombie said, “Everybody is subject to these monopolies – students, faculty, employees.”
Who controls these on-campus monopolies? Housing and food services, Physical Plant, the bookstore and USU catering are examples, he said.
The university owns all the franchises in the Taggart Student Center Hub. Food services pay roughly $270,000 in rent each year to the university for the space.
“You’ll never see a special,” Abercrombie said. “While they try to keep their prices competitive, they’re never going to go down.”
Economics professor Chris Fawson is the advisor for the club.
“Few economic principles are more generally accepted than those associated with the inefficiencies that result from concentration of market power,” he said.
The students of SMOC agree.
Abercrombie said that’s why their ultimate goal is to privatize TSC space.
Outside push-cart vendors might be another option, he said. Or, since there has been talk of remodeling the Merrill Library, it might be logical to open the first floor lobby to private businesses for a food court.
“The rumor is the president of the university won’t allow that,” he said.
USU is isolated from other businesses in comparison to other universities.
“If you have a half-hour break, you have no time to drive down to Main Street and get something to eat,” he said.
The university knows its student will continue to consume at whatever price, because that is their only option, Abercrombie said.
Jeremy Nielsen, a junior in law and constitutional studies, said some students don’t notice the food service monopoly because they get variety.
“Variety isn’t a substitute for competition,” he said.
Abercrombie said SMOC supports allowing private businesses to come into the TSC, similar to the food court at a mall. This would cause competitiveness in prices and quality. Businesses might be able to stay open later to feed those students who have long hours on campus.
The food services would argue that privatization causes problems with storage space and management. But that’s a small price to pay, he said.
Another monopoly is that of Physical Plant, he said. This organization offers maintenance services to the university. Individual departments must pay the university for its services. They don’t have the option of using a cheaper or faster organization to do their work. This is an inefficient use of money, he said.
“If we opened some of these services to competition, we might have enough money to refurbish campus facilities,” Fawson said.
Abercrombie said the USU Bookstore is another example. Its prices are high compared to outside businesses like Staples.
SMOC wants incoming freshmen and transfer students to be aware of alternatives to some of these monopolies such as online textbook exchanges.
People don’t use them nearly enough and they get “screwed” by the bookstore, he said.
The club plans to create a handbook for new students to explain the online options and advertise off-campus housing.
“Look at the price difference between on-campus housing and the stuff just a block away,” Abercrombie said.
Bob Fawson, a junior in political science, said on-campus housing services force students to buy cable television and high-speed Internet access. More competition would give students the package they want for their money.
“You can buy the bundle that suits you,” he said. “You don’t have to buy the bundle that suits the administration.”
Abercrombie said SMOC wants to educate students so they can make a “lobbying push” for what will benefit the university.
“We’re not sure, to be honest, what we can achieve,” he said.
Davidson said, “We want every student to get involved.”