On-Campus ATMs needed
Campus Times
February 14, 1997
cartoon by: Stephanie Lesniak
It is another late evening for college students at the University of
La Verne. Double checking to see that the time is correct on your watch
or pager, you let out a sigh of relief that your day is finally over, but
wait a minute. You still have shopping to do, not to mention that you have
not eaten and want to rent a movie that has just been released. It does
not hit you until that moment that you realize your wallet is completely
empty, that you do not even have a penny to your name.
Everyone has bad days. The fact of the matter is that you are starving
and irritated and right before you are about to explode into a rage of anger,
you finally start yelling "show me the money!"
Reality check: The only way you are going to get some cash is by driving
to a local automated teller machine (ATM), which due to the increasing amount
of robberies at ATM machines, may cost you your life.
Wells Fargo Bank, located on the corner of Bonita Avenue across the
street from ULV, has a "target date" of closing down on April
11, meaning that it could close before or after April 11.
Rumors began to fly that the First Federal Savings & Loan Association
of the San Gabriel Valley, which is located across the street from the Wells
Fargo on Bonita and Third, will follow the pack and be closing also.
"That is completely a rumor. We are doing fine and well and plan
on opening a second branch on Wheeler and Foothill. It will be opening up
April 2," said Assistant Vice President Debra Carter.
There is no student checking service at First Federal as of now but
according to Carter, because of their location next to the University of
La Verne that is definitely a subject that she will be researching prior
to sending it to marketing.
The problem for students with Wells Fargo closing is the inconvenience
factor. Because many students opened accounts at the La Verne Branch they
will have no other place to bank except for the ATM. Even faculty members
have bank accounts there.
The good news is that there is also a Wells Fargo ATM at Albertson's
Supermarket, located on Foothill Boulevard in La Verne. The bad news is
that the University does not have an ATM, unlike many colleges.
To be blatant, ULV is a small, private college that really may not need
an ATM system but if a student will only get the service of an ATM at Wells
Fargo now, they might as well be able to get this service on campus where
it is safer and more protected than the city streets.
People do not realize that some students do not own automobiles to drive
to the bank. Others do not want to take the risk of going to an ATM in the
evening because of the fear of getting robbed. Unfortunately, that seems
to be the only time that we have to do our banking.
Think about it this way: Who is going to rob a college student? It is
bad enough that most of us are broke. Also the police station is enclosed
in the University.
Campus security is tight and they are always patrolling the school grounds
throughout the day, evening and early morning hours. It just seems safer
and more convenient to have ULV step up with the times and get an ATM machine
like most other colleges so money can be more accessible.
We pay thousands of dollars to come to school here. It is now time to
benefit our needs because there is a demand for an ATM system to be placed
in some convenient area of our school.