Chuck L. Proudfit '87 had a plan a few years ago to bring laser printing to Harvard students and local businesses. A distribution manager at Harvard Student Agencies (HSA). Proudfit hoped to implement the plan with two other HSA managers from his familiar workplace in the basement of Thayer Hall.

When his proposal was rejected as being "not viable" by the decision-makers at HSA in 1985, Proudfit left the agency and formed his own profitable company, Personal Processing Inc., located in Harvard Square, says Proudfit. He later sold his customer list to HSA, and text processing at HSA has grown rapidly in the past two years.

The story of Proudfit's fledgling company highlights a trend in HSA management, students and College officials say. The agency, which celebrated its 30th birthday this fall, is evolving into a large and steady employer of undergraduates by limiting student risk-taking, they say.

"My vision for HSA would be that it provide a full management experience to students which includes both functional experience and innovation. Unfortunately under current management that type of innovation isn't encouraged," says Proudfit, who now works for Proctor and Gamble in Cincinatti.

But HSA President Vivian Hunt '89 says the agency tries to maintain a balance between innovation and day-to-day management. "HSA is a very dynamic corporation," she said. "I don't think it is fair to say that HSA is all entrepreneurial or all corporate management."

Those who have watched HSA over the decades say the issue of student innovation raises other questions about the degree to which responsibility for the $2 million, non-profit company should rest with adult professionals.

As HSA has grown from a collection of small student-run businesses to an employer of more than 1900 undergraduates who receive more than $750,000 per year in wages, the agency has also had to pay more attention to its balance books.

Gone are the days when students at HSA were encouraged to come up with ventures in which they could make big bucks in a short time, as when undergraduates sold soft ice cream in Cambridge.

Warren S. Berg '44 remembers when the company invested $65,000 to buy ice cream trucks for the project. "That was one of the real risks. The students made money, but we lost in the long haul because we were [up against] professionals," says Berg, who was chairman of the HSA Board of Directors from the company's inception until 1975.

"The whole idea was to get a super hourly wage, [so] we took a lot of risks," Berg says.

1957 Founding

HSA was founded when a student and Harvard officials agreed that the College needed some organization to provide students with a "structured outlet" for student-run businesses. The student, Gregory B. Stone '58, had been selling beer mugs out of his dorm room.

HSA opened its doors in the fall of 1957 with the stated objective to "provide jobs for students, provide quality products and provide management experience."

Students who were involved with HSA at that time say they remember the excitement of those early days.

"I was able to design things and try things and see if they would work, and it was a lot of fun," says Andrew P. Tobias '68, who was student president in his senior year. Tobias, who is now an author, was responsible for the initial success of the Let's Go travel guide series, which is designed for travelers with small budgets.