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to $69 apiece th is yea r, he report s.
Since the Univer sity doesn 't require
p aym ent of any fees for the franch ise,
the partner s' o nly investmen t is time .
St ill, th ey su ffered some hard kn ocks
in a pri ce war with a n unauthorized
rental company tha t ope rated from a
truck parked on Wil son Boulevard .
" We tried to ou t-advertise them and
slashed our prices to keep fro m bein g
undercu t," M orse says. An appeal to
Universit y Security even tually fro ze
out the riva l fridges by preventing th e
co mpetitio n fro m mak in g deliveries on
ca mpus , bu t " we did end up lowering
our co mm ission ," he notes.
Food busin esses remain per ennial
favorites, but oth er ente rprises fade
with fashions of the times. The
" g ru bby ' 70s" spelled doom for dry
cleaning , which has since re vived with
th e newly acce pta ble clean-cut look,
acco rd ing to George Barnes '84, who
runs the cleaning franchise this year.
Along with a steady supply of Ro chester-winte
r woolens, the service once
again sees a big increase in dress-up
duds b efore fraternity parties, sorority
dan ces , a nd the ROTC m ilitary ball.
While the ca re and feeding of
stud ents offers obviou s profit potential ,
getti ng th eir goods to and from campus
has reap ed rewards for luggag e
transpo rt services. The first of th ese
(name d, perh aps pragmati cally , "UR
Schlepp") served New York C ity and
Lon g Island ; runs hav e since been
added to include Ne w J er sey and
Public Practice (from p. 17)
sac rifice yo u r life for it."
In 1980, she en ro lled in Colu mbia ,
ea rned a master ' s degree in journalism,
a nd the followin g year went to
work as a researcher for W alt er
C ro nkite 's " U n iverse " sho w on C BS.
A few months lat er , th e ne two rk invited
her to be health a nd medical
reporter for the " Morn ing Ne ws."
Atk inson has rep orted o n issu es su ch
as the rights of parents and doctors to
term inate med ical care fo r severely
handicapped and brain -damaged
ch ild re n; illn esses such as hea rt disease
and cancer; and in novations such as
Toribara 's mask .
Atkinson says that she has been
cr iticized by some peopl e for ta king a
hard-to-get place in m ed ical school and
20
Boston . The price tag for a one -wa y
load (a bo ut $45) is "c heape r than having
yo u r parents d rive up from Ne w
York , stay in a mo tel, a nd drive back,"
says Mich ael R osen '82, a 3-2 stude n t
in th e Graduate School of Manageme
n t, whoseJersey-M anhattan
Transport co mpany deliver s door-todoor
in M anha ttan and to design ated
sho pping malls in Brooklyn, Queen s,
Long Island, and New Jersey .
R osen ren ts tr uc ks from a leasing
com pany and charges $25 for th e fir st
hundred pound s of baggage a nd $10
for each add itiona l fifty pounds. Now
in its th ird year of operation, R osen 's
busin ess has gro wn fro m a clientele of
twe nty-five to some seve nty " haulees ,"
a nd en tails th e servi ces of three
employees a nd two truc ks. " It ge ts
easier every tim e I do it ," say s R osen ,
who must figure out th e maximum
number ofloads he ca n accommodate
without re nt ing extra tr uc ks, always
taking into accou n t the inevitable nosho
ws. Charg ing a dep osit help s to
minimize losses. " But yo u st ill ge t
ca nce llat io ns," he says . "The n there
a re those who ca n ' t be at the mall at
th e agree d-o n tim e, and we have to
m ak e o the r a rra ngeme n ts."
T he brunt of the work fall s a t final
exam tim e , bu t th at hasn ' t deterred
R osen , who is studying finance and
marketin g . " I didn't think thi s would
help m y ca ree r," he observes, "but job
in terv iewers see m to think otherwise ."
Other stude n ts have sold clo thi ng,
then turning aw ay from the practice of
medicin e for a " glamorou s" television
job.
" I ' m sick of hea ring that it is a
glamorousjob. There a re wonderful
moments in telev ision, but it 's a ver y
hard job."
Atkinson left Rochester on a Monday
evening to film interview s in
Washington, San Francisco , Los
An geles, and Portland, Oregon, before
she had to get back to New York on
Friday.
" As a reporter, I workjust as hard
as I did in medicine . The stress I feel
from th e re sponsibility is j us t as
severe ."
M edi cal reporting has been stig­
plants, and elbow grease (as in room
painting, racque t res tringing, and ski
waxing), with vary ing degrees of success
. But som etimes th e service is
worth more th an th e price, as in th e
cas e of singing valentines offer ed by
members of th e Women's Gl ee Clu b , a
steal at $1 .50 for a lyri cal love letter
delivered by a group of two to six
singers. Set to tunes like " Five Foot
Two, Eyes of Blue" and "Some body
Loves You ," they're "orde re d more as
a gag th an a love gestu re," says M ary
C lose '84, Gl ee Club president.
T he singers gen erally show up in
class, where recipients "are easies t to
find and m ost likely to be embarrassed,"
C lose says . An on ym ous
pranksters so me times send them to
faculty members, who usually receive
th em with a plomb .
T he tuneful tributes reached a
cre sce ndo a wh ile back wh en two
roommat es tried to ou t-valen tine ea ch
other, C lose recalls. " O ne of them
ende d up by send ing singers to every
single class th e other one attende d .
Fina lly, we thou ght the poor guy had
ca ught o n, because he d idn't sho w up
for his last lecture . Bu t no , he wa s just
late . Wh en he finally a ppeared ," she
rep orts with a remini scent sm ile , " we
le t him have it. "
Sara Schaffzin '73, who'is now assistant directoroj
University communications, say s that when
she was an undergraduate, she "just worked in the
dining hall. "
matized , Atk in son says, by some
publication s th at feature stories about
so-called cu res for ca nce r, heart
d isease, arthritis, and o the r chro n ic
a nd fatal illn esses.
Even th ou gh she finds rep orting as
stressfu l as doctoring, Atkinso n
do esn't expect to trade her not eb ook
for a ste th oscope.
"I don't see myself go ing back . . ..
M ayb e I went through my m id -life
crisis at a young age ."
Ja ckJon es is aJeatures writerJor th»Rochester
Democra t and Chronicle. f rom which this
articlewas adaptedwith permission.