Next Year: Through the Roof

If reading period already has you depressed, don't read this. University officials had some bad news and some worse news for undergraduates this week.

The bad news is that tuition, room and board charges will probably go over $8000 for the academic year 1979-80--a 9 to 9.5-per-cent increase over this year's total.

The worse news, as President Bok was quick to point out, is that until inflation is controlled, costs will continue to soar.

Although the Corporation must still give the final nod to any proposed increase in College costs, its approval is usually pro forma.

Next year's projected jump is almost 2 per cent higher than this year's. And while tuition and room charges will rise at the same rates they have in recent years, board charges will jump from just above $1275 to $1400.

Why? you might ask. Apparently because someone in the Union basement miscalculated.

Everyone who last had a say in the decision to limit the rise in this year's board charge did so because they believed the Food Services Department would have a surplus, which could make up for the scant 2.3-per-cent increase in students' bills. Unfortunately, food prices don't listen to Harvard administrators.

Financial aids and admissions officers said they would have to do a lot of work next year convincing families in the middle-income range that they can afford to let their children apply to schools like Harvard.

They maintain, nevertheless, that economic diversity in the student body will be maintained. Martha C. Lyman, director of financial aid, said this week she expects her office will be able to assist students in the same way as in recent years.

While it seems the predicted jump in costs violates President Carter's voluntary guidelines on wage and price increases--set at 8.25 per cent--Bok insisted that this simply isn't so.

Bok recently went all the way to Washington to make sure Carter aides are not equating tuition hikes with price hikes. Apparently, he got the answer he wanted: Any institution can raise prices, Bok insists, as long as its profit margins do not rise.

Bok also said the University will try to counteract rising costs through its planned $250-million fund drive. In ten or 15 years, moreover, demographic trends indicate that the average family will have fewer children to send to college--a relief for those who want to send, their children to Harvard, Bok says.

However, Thomas O'Brien, financial vice president, predicts that by that time college costs may hit $15,000 or higher--double what they are right now.