ROOM RENTS

The apportionment of the rooms in the Houses this year has become, as usual, a sore point both with the authorities and with the students. Under the modified central control office plan adopted by University Hall this spring the Freshmen have been got into their future domiciles without the former ill, feeling and politics; the difficulties now remaining are largely financial ones. As always, there have been over-applications for the lower priced rooms, and under-applications for those in the higher brackets; Freshmen, quite naturally, have been unwilling to pay any more than they are forced to, and as a result many who could afford a high-priced room have gained cheaper ones, thereby forcing poorer men out of the Houses.

There is every reason for applicants to attempt to rent rooms of low price as long as the University is making a profit on the Houses; this, however, they are not doing. Last year the net deficit to the University on the account of the Houses was something over $53,000; next year, it will be somewhat larger because of the reduction in rents. In view of this, a partial solution to the problem is obvious, if a trifle Utopian: those who can afford more than the maximum set down on their applications should signify that capability. The other side of the question, namely, that presented by the rooms in the upper price brackets, a number of which never have been filled, and are not filled now, is not so evident of solution.

It was admittedly bad planning which led to the establishment of so many high priced singles in the first place. These rooms, and the others of a similar price level, have never been more than partly filled: the empty ones are a liability, and since there are more applications than rooms, they are needed. The disposal of these rooms in the upper brackets is not easy; "doubling up" is at best an extremely poor and temporary solution; it is, however, a problem for the University to solve. The demand for this solution is a fair one if the students are in turn asked to give as much as they can afford to the rents of rooms, to make in turn space for the poorer men.