HOUSE ROOM OCCUPATION

The figures published today indicating an increase in enrollment in house rooms shed light on an interesting situation. While general feeling among residents is that the rents are too high, the figures of occupation still compare favorably with what an apartment house might be satisfied in compiling. Aside from the practically complete filling of the available space, it is expected that the question of the rentals is to be brought up again, and a scaling put through.

The house situation presented its controllers with an initial problem during the summer, when returns came in that men were not to return to College. A commission appointed by President Lowell investigated the question of employment for house men, and the results of this inquiry have already been seen in the jobs that were created this fall.

In addition, the Student Council report of last spring made recommendations that the scale of room prices be altered in the way of making house living less expensive. That part of the report has never been published, nor has any of it, for that matter; but it is understood that the question of rentals is to be taken up very shortly when the house-masters have their next meeting, within a week. It is to be expected that the masters will take definite steps towards reapportioning the prices of various rooms. It goes without saying that high rentals do make it difficult for the masters to admit to their houses the men whom they really need to obtain a representative resident body. From the point of view of the student, the competition for the cheaper rooms may of itself rule him out of consideration. It may well be that it is impossible to make a profit on the buildings through rentals. Again it should be obvious that the University cannot make the rooms increasingly lower and lower. But the increase of moderate priced rooms, to bring the average coat below the supposed $300 mark is something which at the present time, due to the student's decreased ability to pay, in many cases, is a change that the house masters should unite in accomplishing.