The High Price of Hunger

When undergraduates signed board agreements last week, few worried beyond the probability of chipped beef on toast for Sunday night supper. Officials of the dining halls were no more farsighted. As a result of this double myopia, most students during the year will be paying full price for meals they never taste.

The "cat once, pay twice" plan, which appeared quietly last year, allows students to sign only for a full term of board, with no right to withdraw before term end. In pat years, board rates were figured by the week so that those men finishing mid-term or final examinations early could sign off board, retiring to less monotonous pastures. Since no official announcement of the change came last year, it was too late for revision when the inequity was finally revealed.

There is ample time this year for a return to weekly rates. Besides the saving for students in the former system, it has definite advantages for the dining hall staff. Sign off lists formerly served as an index in the kitchen to what amounts were needed. If no one can sign off board at term's end, the chefs must prepare meals for full enrollment. That means higher food costs and even more waste.

Withdrawal from board, furthermore, does not entail book work that will string up Lehman Hall with red tape or overtax IBM machines. If the dining halls do not charge every undergraduate for the meals served before the term's open, it is inconsistent to bill everyone for the days after the term's end. Such compulsion is wrong; dining hall officials should lose no time in setting the matter right.