The days of providing international students with furniture through the Student Furniture Exchange are numbered, unless another student group takes over the project.

Formerly called the International Student Furniture Exchange, the service has been placing tables and chairs into the homes of international students and families for over 40 years. The cooperative sponsors for the project are the Ames ISU YMCA, the ISU Department of Residence Halls, and the Office of International Students and Scholars.

The problem isn’t with the organization who funds the group, but rather with the students, said Mary Tandia of the Department of Residence.

“We didn’t just want to close it. We wanted to do it right. We did our homework, it might not have been perfect, but we did it,” she said.

After surveying three focus groups, the research showed that the students simply didn’t have a need for the service any more, she said, and the $25,000 price tag for helping out the approximately 100 students was too high to make it worthwhile.

“It sounds like a lot of people, until you look at the money it takes to do it,” Tandia said.

The time commitment was also a problem for the three sponsoring organizations. A graduate assistant is paid to work 20 hours a week with the project. Plus the Department of Residence staff must often pick up items left on their front lawns or dispose of old freon in refrigerators, she said.

“It does take time. Most people use [the Student Furniture Exchange] in good conscience, but there’s always some stragglers who drop off things like refrigerators when they know we won’t take them,” Tandia said.

One possible reason for the decrease in student interest in utilizing the furniture exchange may be the increased use of ISU Market, a shopping network on the ISU home page, she said.

“It’s a computerized garage sale, all year long,” she said.

Another reason, Tandia said, is larger numbers of international students attending Iowa State tend to trade furniture and other such items among themselves, rather than depend on the help of an organization.

While the YMCA, Department of Residence and Office of International Students and Scholars are throwing in the towel on the program, they encourage any civic community groups, organizations or private entities to take on the responsibility if they feel the project is important enough to continue. Groups interested in doing this should contact Mary Tandia by March 15, 1997.

Students who were counting on the exchange to help furnish their home or room at ISU need not worry. The Ames ISU YMCA will continue to accept furniture donations from the community through January 15. The Student Furniture Exchange truck will be available to pick up items through December 15.

Furniture will be provided to new ISU students and families for the spring semester, but to new people only.