CHUL, Masters Limit Tutors' Meal Funds

Harvard and Radcliffe Houses will be limited next year in the amount of money they can spend for rooms and meals for tutors.

House Masters have approved a proposal of the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life (CHUL) allocating a total of $135,000 for a meal pool to the 13 Houses. Each meal eaten by a tutor will deduct $1.65 from the pool of his House.

Students and Suites

The size of the meal pool for each House will be determined by the CHUL on the basis of the number of students and the number and quality of the tutors' suites. A large student body will add to the fund, while luxurious tutors' suites will result in deductions.

The House will have the option to increase their meal pools by charging resident tutors room rent. Each Master will determine whether to charge rent to tutors and, if rent is imposed, how much.

The CHUL a year ago proposed that only married tutors in suites with kitchens be charged rent. "This generated an enormous amount of correspondence in protest," said Richard G. Leahy, assistant dean for Resources and Planning and a member of the CHUL subcommittee recommending the changes.

After discussions with the CHUL, the House Masters decided to charge rent to all tutors in a House if any is assessed. Room rents, however, would vary according to the quality of the suite.

While married tutors would not be required to pay rent directly for their spouses, they would pay higher rents than non-married House faculty, because they would live in suites with housekeeping facilities.

Wives

Charles W. Dunn, Master of Quincy House, and a member of the CHUL subcommittee, said Tuesday that more tutors will eat in House dining halls because of the meal pool. "I expect that the senior people in the Houses will continue to go on eating in the dining halls whether it's free or whether they have to sign a pink slip," he said. "The flexibility of the system is that it allows tutors' wives some form of allotment for free meals. If both a tutor and his wife get a free meal, then both will be in the dining hall more often."

Leahy forecast a 20 per cent drop in the number of meals taken by tutors, but said the drop would be beneficial. "If I were a House Master, I'd like a better distribution of which tutors eat in the dining halls than now," he said. "The same tutors eat in the Houses all the time, while others never do."

Dead Houses

"If we don't decrease expenses or increase income, the House system is dead," Leahy added. He denied that the new system would bring Harvard closer to converting the Houses to dormitories. However, a resident tutor said yesterday, "It's just another step to getting rid of the Houses. If they want to save money, they should eliminate the waste at the Food Services."