STUDENTS TO HOLD MERCHANTSÕ FORUM

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Nov. 11 -- For the first time,
University of Virginia students and administrators will meet with
area merchants to discuss studentsÕ use of checks.  The MerchantsÕ
Forum will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, Nov. 18, in the RotundaÕs Dome
Room.
	Organized by students, the event will give business
representatives a chance to discuss factors associated with students
writing and cashing checks.  Included in the discussion will be how
the Bad Check Committee, a part of the Honor Committee that acts as
a liaison between area merchants and students, handles reports of
checks returned for insufficient funds.
	After receiving bad check reports, the committee asks
students to repay merchants.  The committee can recommend as a
disciplinary action non-academic suspension for students who fail to
repay bounced checks or those who consistently use bad checks.
	Of the 514 checks returned last year for insufficient funds,
465 had been paid as of April, 1994.
	Student organizers hope merchants will use the forum to
describe how they would like the Bad Check Committee to enhance its
service.  First organized in 1923, the Bad Check Committee is
comprised of elected student representatives from each school and
support officers who communicate frequently with merchants.
	ÒWe see the forum as students-helping-students maintain a
sense of trust among merchants.  Students with out-of-town checks
have a privilege at U.Va. that exists in few other places,Ó said
Steve Schaeffer, forum coordinator.

	A reception in the Lower West Oval Room of the Rotunda will
follow the forum.  Merchants who would like to attend the event
should call Charlotte Powell, who serves as the bad check secretary,
at (804) 924-7181.
###
November 10, 1994

	FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, contact the Bad Check Committee
at (804) 924-3452; Curtis Montgomery, chair of the Bad Check
Committee, at (804) 971-8006; or Schaeffer at (804) 296-6474.