A Left to the Stomach

Since the sanctity of Harvard's dining hall luxury is second only to the privilege of hooting at a U.T. grade B, it was to be expected that the new cash and carry rationing plan would call forth a proportional amount of complaints and counter-suggestions. On one point, however, there is no disagreement. With food costs up twenty per cent over last year and the dining halls on the slides toward a $40,000 deficit for the current year, drastic changes are necessary. Either revenues must be increased or costs must be reduced. At a time when the University's entire financial policy is being concentrated on a reduction in overall cost of attendance, to boost board charges would be virtual sabotage.

The business heads have arrived at the only logical solution to the paradox of how to retain the frills, such as ice cream in the chocolate milk and grapefruit with honey, and at the same time to eliminate their cost. It has decided to treat those frills as the luxuries they are, and no longer as indispensables. Happily the use of coupons in payment for extra orders cuts out unnecessary red tape. The complex of pink, white, and blue slips, which are now used only for statistical records, should definitely go. The real difficulty is not one of mechanics, nor is it unique to Harvard. The problem of popularizing the seemingly Spartan-like restrictions is only a reflection of what is going on all over the country. Present conditions and not past luxuries must be the basis of comparison.

In the details of the plan, the tycoons of Lehman Hall have apparently been a bit over zealous. Seconds on such staples as meat and milk are certainly more important than the alternate main courses which decorate the menu and usually look like something from a Ubangi chef's nightmare. For the average student, a second is the exception rather than the rule, but it is a cherished exception when lunch comes as the first meal of the day.

If it fails completely to solve the dining halls' financial crisis, the cash and carry plan is a logical and necessary first step. It emphasizes the need of less careless waste, and at the same time it fore-shadows the possibility of future curtailments in service and convenience.