Inflation is Likely to Force Tuition Boost by Next Year

Tuition is likely to take another jump next year. University officials warned last night.

Endowments are worth less and less because of inflation, these officials said, and higher student fees seem to be the only way out. Last year the University took its first deficit in several years.

This deficit was not expected, and occurred because the H.A.A. went $300,000 into the red. There is no answer yet to the athletics deficit problem, and meanwhile other University costs have continued to climb.

Faculty wages are also due to be raised, adding to the unsteadiness of the University's position. Another expense may be the new advising program--if the faculty passes it.

Inflation is spiralling so fast, Provost Buck explained recently, that the University can't accept the gift of a building unless it came with an endowment large enough to pay upkeep for it for years. The H.A.A.'s main difficulty right now is that it can't upkeep on buildings built in the '20's, because the income from the endowments is now too small.

University officials will raise tuition only with the greatest reluctance. President Conant and Provost Buck have repeatedly expressed their concern that a Harvard education might be priced out of the reach of talented but not particularly wealthy students.

In the spring of 1947, when the first round of tuition hikes was circling the country, Harvard stuck to its $400 per year. The next year it succumbed and raised it to $525. The $600 fee began in the fall of 1949.