AVC and the Roomin' Doctrine

Once more the American Veterans Committee has stepped forward to plug a leaky hole in the University's facade. In the past, AVC committees have scraped up housing for married veterans, and found College rooms for hard-pressed commuters who had to rise at dawn to make a 10 o'clock class. Now the problem is the substantial rent increase for next term, announced by the University on February 15. AVC declares that it is ready to assist students who find that this new expense will plow too heavily into their budgets. A special AVC committee, which is already investigating the rent problem, will study individual complaints carefully. If official action fails to satisfy the plaintiff, AVC will make specific, recommendations to the University, should the case warrant it.

The University should spare no effort to make AVC's job a minor one, however. Some of the official reasons for raising rents at all are decidedly open to doubt; a ham-handed administration of next fall's unpleasantness will surely do little to quiet these suspicions. Of course, some hardship cases will certainly result from the increase. But these must be cut to a minimum by careful and efficient methods. A torrent of student demands for redress will only indicate that the University has botched its policy. What is now a rather low and indistinct undergraduate grumbling pointed in the general direction of University Hall could easily become an articulate chorus of howls. And this, at any rate, the administration should go far to avoid.

Yet there are too many signs that the present rent policy is haphazard. Cases of rent discrepancies exist in every House and dormitory. The same rents, for instance, are charged for rooms that are obviously far from equal in desirability. Even worse, the poorer room is sometimes more expensive. If this unfair situation is not cleared up by fall, the rent increase will only add to its injustice.

Rent re-adjustments on the basis of room desirability, while badly needed, will not be enough. The University must stagger the fall increase itself, so that most of it is borne by those who can best afford it. This means holding as many rooms as possible in the low price-range, within reach of "marginal" students who even now are close to a financial chasm. The problem is admittedly difficult, but if the University takes considerate and forthright action to find the least painful solution, its good faith in rent policy will not be called into question.