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Coop's Board of Directors Is Chosen

Four Harvard undergraduates and three graduate students were among the 11 new directors of the Coop elected for the 1995-96 academic year, store officials announced this week.

"There are a lot of things I'd like to take care of," said Jon D. Caramanica '97, one of the newly elected directors. "I think a lot of people are focused on the rebate."

However, Larry W. Cheng '96 was more cautious.

"I think it would be premature for me to say I want to change anything," Cheng said. "People from the outside might have a lot of predispositions."

Turnout for the elections was low. Only 1,548, or 5.5 percent, of the 28,000 ballots mailed out were returned.

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"I'm sure the focus of all 11 of us is going to be increasing the rebate, which means increasing the profits and eliminating the departments that don't work," Caramanica said.

"In an age when we have Tower and HMV two minutes away from the Coop, notmany people are shopping for music at the Coop,"he said.

"I think that there are certainly ways ofmaking [the Coop] better," said Daniel C. Allen'97, a newly elected member of the Coop board anda Crimson editor. "It couldn't be much worse."

Eugene Koh '97, another new member and aCrimson editor, said he hoped to make the Coopmore student-oriented.

"Student's feel they're getting screwed over bythe Coop," he said. "The main thrust behind [mycampaign] is to make the Coop more of aservice-oriented organization than a profit-drivenorganization."

"I am under the impression that some of thedepartments in the Coop are not performing well,and depending on financial status, I'd like toseriously consider doing away with some of thedepartments," Koh said.

"We don't need to buy toothpaste at theCoop--there is no need for the Coop to compete inthat market," he added.

Allen also said that the Coop has had problemsin accommodating students.

"The rebate system they had for books this yearseemed designed to make it difficult for studentsto take advantage of it," Allen said.

Michael S. Berk and Alberto Morel, both of theBusiness School's class of '96, won election tothe board. The third seat reserved for a HarvardUniversity graduate student seat was captured byLaw School and Kennedy School student Ray Ying.

Ying, a resident tutor in Quincy House, saidthat his familiarity with two graduate schools aswell as his affiliation with Quincy make him agood representative of student views.

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