January 1982

1982, January. Over the semester break the Marine Midland Bank installed a “MoneyMatic” (ATM) in the college center, raising questions about links between the bank and the college, but saving “students a short but chilly walk to Marine Midland when they need cash.”

A Marine Midland MoneyMatic automated teller maching (ATM) was installed in the College Center over winter break, raising some controversy about the college’s link to the bank and its nearby Vassar branch. In a column, “Cashcard Blues,” in the alternative campus paper Unscrewed, Tom Doskow ’83 pointed out the ATM “located one full block from the Vassar campus…. The predilection for convenience here seems extreme. The barrier between these two machines is not distance: it is the border of Vassar College…. With the College Center MoneyMatic, there is no longer any reason for a student to leave the Vassar grounds—except to take a cab to the train station…. Finally, there is the matter of restraint of trade. An institution of education cohabiting with a single institute of finance is not fair to other banks in the Poughkeepsie area, most of which exceed Marine Midland in service, accuracy and courtesy.”

Hailing, however, the “long-awaited Marine Midland MoneyMatic”—while pointing out that it was inoperative and “just lacking some electrical parts”—Elenita Ravicz ’84 wrote in The Miscellany News, “Once it becomes operable the MoneyMatic machine will save students a short but chilly walk to Marine Midland when they need cash.”