It is painstaking to do copying in the library, especially during busy hours. If you are lucky, you can find three or four machines with twenty or twenty-five people in line. More often, the copiers are out of order or, due to lack of staff, long lines are formed waiting to be served. If you have a few pages to be copied, you have to wait for hours, but who cares? A library with bathrooms equipped with motion sensitive apparatus should have a more efficient photocopy center. A simple arrangement such as reserving a copier for notes in reserve could improve the efficiency. However, the best alternative is to create some competition. Personally, I would like to have choices. Monopolies are the main problem on this campus.

(A. Alper Boyacılar CS-IV)

Dear Editor,

In the last three issues of the Bilkent News, people complain about food prices on campus. The responses given by the officials are pitiful. When I read such responses I feel insulted. Why don't the people in charge just say, "We will not lower the food prices no matter what the students say.Ó At least, we will have a concrete answer then.

Why don't the people in charge of catering at Bilkent have an open debate with students on this issue? It is almost painful to wait for one week for a reply in the Bilkent News. And, as for the price of copying, I am patiently waiting for an answer. However, if the reply is like the previous ones it is no use publishing it because it will be discarded as trash by students. I think the students deserve a reasonable reply.

(Salim Ahmed, MAN-II)

Lately, there have been some discussions in the Bilkent News about the food prices on campus. However, the answers given are far from being reasonable and persuasive. The important point in operating a restaurant is not the size of the operating cost, but the unit operating cost per service. Of course, the operating cost of a small self-service eatery is lower than a large establishment, however so is the profit. Also, the fact that canteen in Dorm 78 lost money while the canteens in dorms 75 and 76 profited with the same prices tells us something about their management. If Bilintur is suffering from high operating cost in a city with thousands of citizens as customers, we strongly advise them to search for new entrepreneurs. We claim that price control is not the real solution; application of the capitalist approach and real competition is the solution.

(Serhan Özhan, IE-IV,
Orhan Göçer,IE-IV,
Z. Özge Yımaz, IE-IV)