Archived Edition: April 19, 2006 | Back to Current	Jul 31, 2010

Vending machine dispenses iPods
Shannon Chiu - Executive Editor

Vending machines at Columbia have gone upscale. Once just convenient suppliers of snacks and beverages, these machines now satisfy a new craving. Students can buy iTunes gift cards, as well as $80 iPod shuffles, and charge everything to their ID “Flex” accounts.

Currently, only one iPod Shuffle has been sold since Columbia’s partnership with Charlotte, N.C.-based Canteen Vending Services this semester. But four have been stolen.

Low sales may be attributed to the lack of publicity or “too high a price point,” speculated Larry Levitas, director of Dining Services. Also, the machine was left unlocked by an employee from Canteen after it was first installed, leading to the theft of four of the pricey music players, Levitas said.

The overriding prospects of convenience, however, have prompted administrators to further expand the scope of this innovation. They plan to include a credit-card-activated DVD rental machine as well as feature eclectic merchandise ranging from MetroCards to memory sticks. Health Services and Dining Services at Columbia might also coordinate to stock dorm vending machines with health products, such as condoms.

“We’re really trying to sell what students want,” Levitas said. “If it doesn’t sell, then we can put [in] something else.”



Columbia Spectator



Ben Folds and Ludacris to perform at Yale’s Fling



If you got hooked when he rocked Williams in your freshman fall, you can see Ben Folds again in your senior spring. Next Tuesday in New Haven, Conn., Yale’s Spring Fling features Ben Folds and Ludacris. Doors will open for Ben Folds’ performance around 5 p.m.

“These are two artists that are poised to have lucrative years which will inflate their level of celebrity,” said Spring Fling Committee co-chair Lauren Ezell ’07. “We are incredibly lucky to have them on campus at this point in their careers.”

The performances will cost the Yale College Council (YCC) roughly $105,000, pushing the total Spring Fling expenditures to about $145,000 – close to $50,000 more than last year’s budget – according to Emery Choi ’07, treasurer of Yale’s College Council.

The committee had considered Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, the Black Eyed Peas and Gavin Degraw, but Ben Folds and Ludacris were the top picks in a school-wide poll, Ezell said.

Ben Folds is on a nationwide tour that includes stops at Swarthmore, Vanderbilt and Harvard. Other schools have spring concerts lined up: Brown will host Wilco and the University of Pennsylvania will bring in O.A.R. and Scratch Track.



Yale Daily News



Harvard alums on eve of

conviction



Federal authorities have charged a recent Harvard College graduate and his colleague at Goldman Sachs with insider trading. The pair allegedly yielded a profit of $6.7 million.

Eugene Plotkin, an associate in Goldman Sachs’ bond research department, and David Pajcin, a former Goldman Sachs bond analyst, were arrested on the grounds of making illegal Wall Street deals based on leaked copies of BusinessWeek and tips from a Merrill Lynch analyst.

Plotkin, if convicted, could face a maximum penalty of 70 years in prison, according to a press release from the U.S. District Attorney’s Office. He is being held on $3 million bail.

“This particular case is unique because you have individuals who are so bold and aggressive, attempting several different schemes,” said Christine Monaco, Supervisory Special Agent for the FBI Press Office.

Plotkin’s parents are pledging their home and savings in full support of their son. Plotkin’s lawyer, Martin L. Schmukler, said that he plans to defend his client “vigorously.”

“Everything that I know about this fellow shows me that he is a wholesome person,” Schmukler said.

Monaco believes otherwise: “It’s just a shame that someone with a terrific education and terrific intellectual promise used his talents for corrupt purposes,” she said.



Harvard Crimson