LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL



LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

Coffee Junkie

November 19, 2008

Texas Tech University Students

Melissa Bentz

Sarabeth Clopton

Jason Gregg

Meg Meyrs

To: Student Government Association Officers

table of contents

Introduction

The Texas Tech library is used frequently among students. It is a place for students to study, collect resources, and to catch an occasional quick nap. The library is accessible throughout the day, and most of the night. Many students rely on caffeine to maintain focus. However, there is not a single source of coffee in the library. While there are coffee shops located near campus, they are not always available and are usually not a safe option once it gets dark outside. We feel that in order to keep students safe when they are having late night study sessions or avoiding costly Starbucks drinks, there should be easily accessible coffee for the coffee junkie students of Tech. Coffee machines can offer the flavors of expensive coffees for a fraction of the cost. Money saving is excellent for any college student.

In order to satisfy the students of Texas Tech, we are proposing the Student Government Association consider the idea of having coffee vending machines in the library. “I would recommend this machine for college students as it provides a variety of coffees, cappuccinos, hot chocolate and ciders.  It's unobtrusive, easy to maintain and offers a great opportunity for fundraising” Ben Scheck (2008).

The rest of this report focuses on the lack of coffee in and around the library, the problems this absence creates, and two possible solutions. We have also included recommendations that should be considered.

Methods and Procedures

Our proposal is very simple. We want to give you a possible idea to make the students of Texas Tech happier.

We conducted a survey asking a small number of Tech students how they would feel about having coffee vending machines in the Texas Tech library. We collected a total of 54 surveys. Our questions included how often they used the library, if they drank coffee, how often they drank coffee, if they felt safe walking from the library to the Student Union Building, if they felt safe walking from the library to Starbucks on University, and if they would use a coffee vending machine if it was accessible in the library. Through this trial, we found other aspects that need to be questioned. For example, in the survey we asked the question of how often the person drank coffee. This could be changed by asking how often they drank coffee a day. These results are listed later on in this proposal.

Another way to further research this topic would be to ask other schools or organizations that have coffee vending machines about their success. One of our group member’s church has a Nestle coffee vending machine. She spoke with another member of her church who is familiar with the operation of the machine. The comments from the church member are in the results section.

If people are still uneasy about this proposal, the idea of having a trial coffee vending machine could come in to play. You could try the coffee vending machines for a month and see how the students react to the change and if the machines are profitable. If the machines are popular it would be a great opportunity to raise money for a general fund for Tech students and make the machines permanent. The funds from the vending machines could go to any number of student-related events, such as Carol of Lights, RaiderGate, or the Tech Activities Board events.

We also observed the local coffee retailers hours. Starbucks on University closes at midnight and the Student Union Building closes at 11 p.m. These are not easily accessible since the library closes at 2 a.m. during the semester and stays open 24-hours during finals. This creates a problem for students who study past the closing times of the coffee places.

Since safety is a big issue for students, we looked up the campus crime rate for 2007 on the Texas Tech Police web site for you. Our findings are in the results section.

The group members of this proposal, all of whom are Tech students, believe these methods are a great foundation for going forward with this plan.

Results and Analysis

What We Did

For our group proposal report, we thought it would be a good idea to suggest to the Student Government Association to install coffee vending machines for students in the library. To start the report we had to come up with topics that would support the coffee vending machines. These topics included how unhealthy energy drinks are, the safety of students at night going on coffee runs, and the price of the Starbucks coffee compared to regular coffee. We also included in our proposal an email interview from one of our group members’ church directors. The church has a successful coffee vending machine. His interview gave us an idea of the usage and maintenance of a successful machine. We also gained an idea of how much to charge for drinks and the type of machine to buy. All of this information made it quite simple for us to produce our proposal report.

Energy Drinks

Energy drinks can be bad for your health. If you read the nutrition facts of any energy drink, you can tell right away that there is nothing in the drink that is good for you. Most energy drinks contain massive amounts of sugar and caffeine. These two ingredients can make a student jittery and maybe focused for a while, but then provide the student with a debilitating crash. This may inspire the student to purchase and consume more energy drinks. This is not only bad for the student’s health. It’s also costly to buy the energy drinks. If we had coffee vending machines in the library, students could purchase regular coffee drinks with little or no risk to their health and it would be easy on the pocket book as well.

Student Safety at Night

Walking on campus at night can be a little scary. There are some locations on campus that are not very well lit. These places can raise concern for some students if they have to walk by them to get a cup of coffee from the Student Union Building or if they walk to their car to drive to Starbucks on University. In 2007, there were three known forcible sex offenses, two aggravated assaults, 19 burglaries, three motor vehicle thefts, and three cases of arson. There were also four arrests for weapons law violations. Tech does have a good police force, but things can still happen. The easiest way to avoid the crime filled night is to place coffee vending machines in the library. In a survey that our group handed out, 56% of students said that they DO NOT feel safe at night walking to the Starbucks on University. In addition, 56% of the students said that if there was a coffee vending machine in the library, that they would use it. Putting coffee vending machines in the library may be more beneficial than you may have originally thought.

Cost to Students

Money is tight these days. Everyone is trying to save where they can. But when students want to buy a cup of coffee, they are faced with high prices at the SUB and Starbucks. The average cup of coffee ranges from $2.50 to $5. Coffee may be even more if you need extra shots of espresso or pumps of flavor. In the proposed vending machines, we would only charge approximately $1 for a cup of coffee. This would not only encourage students to buy from the machines, but help them save money to help pay for other school expenses.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Our research and surveys show that coffee is a big drink for those who are studying late. We also concluded that the places around campus are either not open late enough or are unsafe to travel to at night.

The best way to solve this problem is to make coffee available in the same location the students are studying in. You, SGA officers, are also students of Texas Tech University so you would greatly benefit from taking action on our proposal.

Our recommendation to you is to look into a larger survey group. Our small sample survey of English students gives an idea of how well the coffee machine would fit into the University. However, a larger sample size would help confirm or deny the benefits of our proposal.

Secondly, we suggest you look into the best option in purchasing the machine. To save money, it would be smart to rent the coffee machine and use it for a trial period of a semester. This way you can make sure the coffee is bought like the surveys presumed it would be.

Finally, you can purchase more than one machine. When you see how wonderful and financially beneficial the machines are, you will want to purchase more than one for the library permanently.

By going through the steps of conducting a survey, using a trial machine, and finally buying machines for permanent use, your money is going to be used in the best way possible.

References

Ben Scheck (personal communication, October 28, 2008) discussed the

benefits of coffee vending machines.

Bentz, M., Clopton, S., Gregg J., Myers, M. (November 6, 2008). [Survey to

Dr. Fricke’s English students about how frequent they drink coffee].

Unpublished raw data.

Appendix A: Illustrations

Appendix B: Sample Survey

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