While the microfridges themselves might not be running more smoothly next year, the student-run business organization that supplies them hopes to be.
Next fall, Tufts Student Resources (TSR) plans to tighten its cash control to give managers more independence and increase efficiency in its seven major divisions. The semi-autonomous, non-profit organization will be taking steps to revamp its laundry, microfridge, summer storage, and aerobics divisions, as well as the Rez and Celebrations divisions to enable expansion of the organization's services in coming years.
Members of TSR's central board decided at a meeting earlier this spring that certain organizational problems need to be corrected before it could add new divisions.
"Before we expand, we want to revamp our internal control to set up a system that can carry over, even with our high turnover rate, instead of recreating the wheel every time," TSR operations vice president Victoria Crispin said. "We want to have something that is more structured and applicable for every fiscal year."
TSR is increasing the paperwork that managers are required to fill out each week so that it will be better able to account for cash flows. The change should help TSR account for its budget surplus at the end of each fiscal year and reinvest the capital, providing funds for the expansion and revamping of divisions.
The changes are part of an ongoing effort to clean up TSR's finances.
"In the past [TSR] wasn't running like a pure business," TSR President Girish Karnani said. "Procedures and cash control wasn't tight enough, so it would be easy for people not to do their job. All of that has been fixed in the last year."
While the organization says there have been few problems with TSR corruption, the TSR leadership hopes the changes will ensure continued ethical business practices. TSR also plans to create an incentive program to encourage employees to accurately fill out financial reports.
The increased paperwork will allow managers and board members to determine monthly finances more easily. "For aerobics, a person would come to a class, they'd pay their $4, and we'd get that money at the end of the week from our managers," Karnani said. "But there was no way for us to know how many people were actually in the class. By implementing the use of receipts we have eliminated that problem. Now we have much tighter control on TSR."
But some employees are unconvinced that the changes will have a significant effect. "I think they could be far more efficient with it, but I don't see how they're doing anything other than putting restrictions on the managers to put far more restrictions on the workers," said Liv Eales, who works at the Rez.
Since its creation in 1981, TSR has provided the Tufts community with a variety of services, while offering employment and work-study opportunities to an estimated 90 students. It also allows students to gain business management and entrepreneurship skills without having to risk their own money.
The diversity of the divisions within TSR leads to varying financial goals within the organization, and not all services make a profit each year. Divisions such as Celebrations and aerobics concentrate on providing a valuable service for students and their families rather than earning money, and summer storage is a relatively new division that has not yet proved its profit-making abilities.
Other divisions, like the Rez, have struggled to break even in past years. But last semester, structural and managerial changes enabled the Rez to turn a profit for the first time in over five years.
TSR's most profitable and widely used services are microfridge rentals and laundry and dry cleaning services.
Several other proposals for the betterment of TSR services have been proposed, including the possibility of an online ordering system through the organization that runs 1-800-FLOWERS. The service would allow Tufts students to send packages to friends and family all over the country. TSR may also revamp the Rez to create a coffee bar.
While TSR leaders say the changes implemented recently have kept clients and vendors happy, some students complain about the high prices charged for some TSR services. A microfridge costs $200 plus a $50 deposit per unit, and 15 pounds of weekly laundry service costs $395 for the year. This has led many students to adopt a do-it-yourself attitude.
"[TSR's] prices were so expensive that it was much cheaper to get my own fridge," sophomore Sam Segal said. "I got a fridge for 60 bucks."
But Karnani says the prices are only high enough to cover cost: "Tufts has certain requirements we have to meet and those machines are expensive," Karnani said. "People complain about it every year, but every year we run out of fridges. The fact that we're renting out all our microfridges every year shows that people don't mind paying the money."
TSR bought 60 fridges last summer to meet demand, which upped the overall rental cost.
Some students, however, say the Rez and aerobics classes are fairly priced. "[TSR aerobics] is a great option for exercise," freshman Natalia Garzon said. "The price is so decent because it's only $4 a class, and if you went to other places, they would charge you $20 or $30."
Overall, however, TSR members say the organization is functioning before than ever. "I think everything is going extremely well," Karnani said. "Everyone's happy within TSR. People who use TSR are happy with the services and so are our vendors. We're financially stable. I think that TSR is finally strengthening up."
