Board Rate May Rise Next Term

Midwestern truck farmers and the Selective Service System will ultimately determine Harvard's future board rates.

C. Graham Hurlburt Jr., Director of University Food Services, said yesterday that rates will be reassessed in February "after crops have been harvested and we can better judge the extent of price rises." He quickly added that an increase at that time would be highly unlikely.

The housing shortage created by stepped-up draft quotas also creates pressure on the Food Services. "We lost the contracts of fifty students to deconversion and off-campus living," Hurlburt said, "a loss of $31,000 with only a negligible decrease in expenses."

Maintain Quality

Abandonment of the current policy of unlimited seconds has been considered as a possible alternative to raising rates, but Hurlburt dismissed this suggestion. "We'll never decrease the quality or quantity of our food -- we'll increase board rates first."

Harvard did just that in February 1960 to meet high food prices, raising board by $15 per semester to the present yearly charge of $620. Rates rose annually through the inflation of the late fifties, increasing $26 in 1956 and $40 in both 1957 and 1958. There has been no increase in the past seven years.

During this time, "Harvard has felt the pressure of rising prices," Hurlburt admits, "but so far we have been able to meet it with increased efficiency in processing and serving."

For example, he said, in the Freshman Union "we have more than tripled our freezer capacity, which means that we can buy for two months instead of two weeks. We have also installed new rotary ovens which cut beef shrinkage ten percent."