OFF CAMPUS FEE

To the Editors of The Crimson:

I should like to call the attention of The Crimson to an example of Harvard's ability to place overly large cost burdens onto the shoulders of those least able to assume them. I am referring specifically to the $147.50 college facility fee charged to off-campus students for the "privilege" of using Harvard's facilities. It has occurred to myself and others that a better justification for this fee is that Harvard must overcharge you for not living on campus if you will not allow them to overcharge you for living on campus.

I am a forth year advanced standing student con-currently enrolled in the graduate school. In many ways this year has been largely oriented toward graduate studies in my case. Personally I feel put upon when requested to pay this fee. I especially feel that the fee lacks justification when Dunster house can afford to spend a reported $6,000 on ugly curtians and Eliot house receives $20,000 to spend on a program in Humanities.

The first justification given to me when I inquired about this fee is that Dudley House costs that much to run. I am not affiliated with Dudley house. I am trying to save money this year by living in as close to a slum as I can stand. I do not live in a room with $6,000 curtains nor chandeliers. I get the feeling that what I am in fact paying for is an annoying bureacracy that has nothing better to do then hide a folder from me and think up more ways to sponge money from me. Emmett V. Schmidt '74