Officials optimistic about ATMs

IU Student Association officials are optimistic about Bank One ATMs returning to campus, although the process has taken longer than originally expected.\nLocations that have been discussed include the Main Library, Business School, Ballantine Hall and the Indiana Memorial Union.\nThe ATM would likely be placed at the IMU first, officials have said.\nIUSA will hold a town hall meeting to address ATMs from 5 to 7 p.m. Sept. 6 at the IMU State Room West.\nThe goal of the meeting is "to get a general feel of where students want the ATMs and if they really want the ATMs," said Jolene Carper, a co-director of services for IUSA.\n"We've been waiting for all the students to get back," she said. "We wanted the whole student body to be involved."\n IUSA will put together a "needs" proposal that addresses possible locations to submit to the University almost immediately after the town hall meeting, Carper said.\n After the University looks at it, the proposal will go to Bank One, and if terms are reached, the ATMs will be installed.\n IU kicked Bank One and its eight ATMs off campus late last summer, after the company did not make the University an acceptable fee-sharing offer.\n But Bill Weinman, the Bank One executive responsible for ATMs in Bloomington, told the IDS this summer the bank has never paid a fee for its IU ATMs, and for good reason: it never made a profit on them.\nRepresentatives from Bank One, the University and the IU Student Association worked out a few of the remaining issues of bringing back the ATMs during a conference call in June.\nA Bank One ATM for the IMU is being negotiated separately from the others.\nThe price for the ATM has been agreed upon, but the University's real estate office is working on contract language, said Roy Lovell, the IMU's assistant director for administrative services.\n"We're ready to go when we get a contract done," Lovell said. "... We're not talking anything complicated."\nThe IUSA executive ticket Supernova brought up the ATM issue during IUSA elections in January.\nAt the time, Carper was put in charge of researching the possibility of bringing back Bank One ATMs.\nIUSA went to IU's treasurer's office, where they worked with Dennis Reedy, among others.\n"IUSA came to us and asked us to help them get ATMs back on campus," Reedy, managing director, investments and cash management, said. "We got in touch with the bank and ... brought everybody together and tried to get them talking."\nIUSA Vice President for Administration Jeff Wuslich said he was optimistic that an agreement to bring back ATMs would be reached and said it would bring advantages to students.\n"It will make one more bank more accessible to students," Wuslich told the IDS in June. "It will also make things a little safer (since) students won't have to walk as far."\nThe bank is eager to return to campus, said Bank One Spokeswoman Nancy Norris. She called it a "priority."\n"We're waiting to hear back from the student government and administration," Norris said. "Once we get that, and our offer is accepted, we'll move forward as soon as we can"