U. proves necessity is mother of invention

It's not a condom dispenser, and it doesn't provide quick sanitary protection. It does, however, provide relief for many professors who often find themselves without chalk in campus classrooms. As part of the University's renovation project this summer, chalk and eraser DisPENNsers were installed in classrooms belonging to the "central pool" of campus buildings. So far, the new holders have elicited positive responses from faculty and students University-wide. Vice President of Facilities Management Art Gravina said the issue of chalk and eraser accessibility has been a problem since he started working at the University in 1984. "The issue was that the registrar said to put chalk out every morning," he said. "The question was how much." Using money left over from the $1 million that the Provost's office produced for extensive classroom rehabilitation, Gravina and Lou Visco, Physical Plant director of maintenance and utilities, got together to try to solve the problem. The Physical Plant officials wanted to resolve the problem of three-cent pieces of chalk that had been taking up valuable administrative time. Gravina told Visco to investigate the market for some sort of chalk dispenser. But Visco found that no one manufactured the dispenser he was looking for and set out to create his own prototype. "What we wanted was something that we felt . . . we'd use in the classroom and make it a public access for students and professors," Gravina said. The criteria for the dispenser was that it should hold a large supply of chalk, that it could be easily loaded, and that it should be simply built with no obtrusive mechanical parts to prevent maintenance problems, Visco said. Visco developed the prototype and took it to the University Technology Transfer office where he was told to come up with a name for the dispenser and patent the product. The two men quickly decided that the most suitable name for the University chalk and eraser dispenser is, simply, DisPENNser. They said they are optimistic about the future for their product. "You try to do so many things . . a lot of those things nobody recognizes . . and this has been really something little that's been recognized and that makes it worth it," Visco said. DisPENNser is currently being marketed in other schools and was submitted to the National Association of College and Business Adminstration competition for cost-saving ideas. The University's DisPENNser was produced manually on campus at minimal cost. Plans to mass produce them in plastic and wood, and in different colors, are underway. "We think there's a future for it," Visco said. "There's always that need for that chalkboard and chalk and erasers." Gravina and Visco are both very happy with the success of their product on campus. "The solution was to help ourselves, in one sense, to solve an old problem," Gravina said. "But it's refreshing to see that people recognize when things are improved." Students said this week they think the DisPENNser was a good idea. "I think they're an ingenious use of tuition money," College senior John Hawkins said. "Hopefully they'll make our professors lives a lot easier." "I think they're neat because now the professors don't have to go looking around for chalk," College junior Tanya Caceres said. "They're very useful . . . That's about the only thing you ever hear professors' complaining about . . . so it's really good."

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