Single-Price Rent Plan Suggested By Masters

All College room rates will be set at a single price, instead of the present flexible scale, if the Administration adopts a proposal of the Masters. Under the plan, all students would pay equal room rents, similar to the system now used at Yale.

"Quincy House, in which almost all suites are the same, is a strong argument for a uniform-rent system," Elliott Perkins '23, Master of Lowell House, said yesterday. "Otherwise, the Quincy rooms will have to be either priced out of the market or artificially differentiated."

If the Masters' proposal is adopted, House suites will be allocated on the basis of seniority and within classes, perhaps by lot.

Existing Scale Unrealistic

"The existing rent scale, however realistic it may have been in 1940, has been getting out of line with reality," Perkins noted. "Post-war overcrowding and percentage rent increases have resulted in a system which is all out of proportion."

In addition to the single-rent plan, the Masters have considered a dual sytem, in which the Houses would charge one price for deconverted suites, and a lower one for crowded suites. However, the room distribution of some Houses will make the dual-rent scheme unsuitable.

Scholarship students will not be penalized if the Masters' proposal is put into effect. "Although most scholarship holders would be paying more for their rooms, some form of financial aid would be provided to compensate," Perkins pointed out.

Aid From House Fund

"If uniform rent were set above the 'break-even point,' this financial aid could come from a general House fund;" he continued. For instance, if a House could break-even on its maintainence costs by charging everyone $200 per term, it might set the rent at $250. The extra revenue would go into a fund, used to subsidize scholarship students who could not otherwise pay their rents.

Perkins said, however, that this detail should be worked out by the Financial Aid Office.