If Green really wants to impact the quality of student life, he should tackle the frightening escalation of VendaCards.

If Green does that, he will be well on his way to accomplishing his primary task of bringing the disparate parts of the University together. Think of it in terms of the European Community. Establishing a common currency will draw us all closer together. It's that whole complex interdependence thing.

It will take some decisive action to change the system. People will argue that changing the old system to make the cards compatible will cost too much.

And the individual schools--especially the snotty Business School--have an interest in making sure their cards are not made convertible to all the University's machines. Why? They make money off the nonconvertability.

Chances are I'll never spend that last three dollars on my Design School VendaCard. Who gets that money? The Design School. And they didn't even have to use up any toner in their photocopy machine.

The people who make VendaCards would also lose if the cards were convertible. Now they sell three, four, five cards to every system. With 10,000 students and $1 a card, that's $50,000. But if there were a unified system, they would be out $40,000.

Obviously Green will be challenged by powerful forces. That's all the more reason for him to act quickly.

Most students won't pay much attention to the bureaucratic manipulations that will consume most of the provost's time. Budget cuts, deferred maintenance costs, a declining endowment. Yawn.

But convertible VendaCards--that's the best idea since Deli Day.