REDUCTION AT MEMORIAL

At a meeting of the Corporation yesterday it was voted to give the members of the Harvard Dining Association a guarantee that for the three months from January 1 to March 31 the price of general board at Memorial Hall shall not exceed $3 per week for each member.

The Corporation has given this guarantee at the request of the directors of the Dining Association as the first step toward some permanent arrangement by which cheaper board may be secured at the Hall. Three reforms are contemplated as a means to this end. A reduction in the fixed charges, such as the cost of service, will be made. Within the past week the pay-roll of the Hall has been cut down by $590 a month. The variety of food offered will be curtailed, the articles on the menus being less in number, but changed daily instead of offered all at once. The present coupon system will be investigated, both within Memorial Hall and in the University without, with a view to devising a less expensive system of running the Hall.

With the price of general board fixed at $3 per week and with the price of coupon articles remaining the same, it is expected that the majority of the members of the Hall will be able to board for $5 per week or less. During September and October the average weekly amount of coupons used per member was $2.15 and during November it was $1.90. If the membership of the Hall can be increased to its full capacity, which is 1300, the price of general board can be brought below $3. The present number of members is 890. The average price of general board during 1906-07 was $3.22 per week and this year, on account of the high price of provisions, it has been at an even higher figure.