The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-02-03
YALE DORMITORIES.
Chance for a muIti-Mt1Iionaire.

supreme court through Judge Hamers-
ley in the Yale tax case:
This Is certainly a rebuke of the pres
ent policy Of Yale, so far as it's dormlto-
ries are concerned, from high source
and Is so taken by the officials Of the in
stitution. 1t only brings prominently
into view once more criticism when
has been directed against Yale, especial
ly by her own alumni, ever since the
erection of Vanderbilt Hall. Old gradu-
ates returning to the university at the
commencement season have expressed
establishment at the large prices charged
by the university for their best rooms
and the luxury with which they are fit
ted up. Even ten years ago a Yale I'M
dergraduate who paid three dollars
week for his college room was regarded
as young man either of unbounded re-
sources or of unbounded extravaganza.
There were only very few rooms IN
Durfee college which rented for that
sum; the majority ranged anywhere
from seventy-five cents to one dollar
and a half a week. With the substitu-
ton of the Old Brick Row by the more
ornate dormitories Of the quadrangle,
however, there has come a change. In
ten years the average price of the col
lege rooms has jumped from one to i've
dollars a week, and the highest price
from three to ten dollars Whether this
change has been accompanied by any
loss of that democratic spirit for which
the university has always been so re-
spected is point that is vigorously dis
cussed. There are these who assert that
the presence Of all the rich men on one
part of the college campus and all the
poor on another cannot conduce to a
democratic atmosphere, and Vanderbilt
and WEIGH halls are not only criticised,
especially by the returning alumni, for
the high rates at which the rooms are
rented, but for the material luxuries
thrown in. These old graduates, who
were accustomed to getting up on early
winter mornings and cracking the ice
in their water pitchers before their
morning wash, shake their heads at the
porcelain bathtubs, the onyx freplaces
and the carved oak wainscoting of Van
derbilt hall. Chauncey M. Depew tells
story Of meeting such an outraged
graduate on the campus one day, who
was violently expostulating against
these bathtubs.
why do you object" said Mr.. Depew.
What kind Of bathtubs did you have?"
I'VE didn't have any, sir, and we were
a great deal better off without them"
was the reply.
The cheapest rooms on the Yale
campus are two In South Middle and
{,, Int
enty-five cents a week. The rooms are
hardly fit for human habitation, are
damp and dingy and constant menace
to the health of their occupants. They
form something of a contrast to the
eighteen rooms, sixteen Of which are in
Vanderbilt hall, that find ready tenants
at ten dollars a week, and in this con-
trast meet the extremes Of undergradu-
ate poverty and undergraduate wealth.
The rest of the four hundred and fifty
rooms range all the way between these
extremes. although it must be admitted
that the larger number are nearer the
ten dollar limit. In Vanderbilt hall
there are two rooms that rent for four
dollars and a half, one for five dollars
and a half, nine for seven dollars, four
teen for eight dollars, twelve for eight
dollars and half, six for nine dollars
and sixteen for ten dollars. In Pierson,
in which the rooms are also, as rule,
very high, twelve rent for two dollars
and a half, twenty-four for three dol
lars and half, four for five dollars,
eight for six dollars and eight for seven
dollars. In Welch and White the prices
are also beyond the reach of the aver
age undergraduate. The lowest rates
are naturally found in the Old Brick
Row and in Berkeley. In the latter, ten
rooms, very excellent rooms, too, rent
for as low as one dollar and one dollar
and quarter eight rent for two dol
lars, two for three dollars and forty
five cents, two for four dollars and four
for five dollars and half
1t is interesting to deduce from these
figures the income which the university
receives from it's dormitories. 1t is no.
ticeable that, in spite of the high priced
rooms of Vanderbilt hall, the income
from that building Is very small COM
pared to the money invested. The
weekly income amounts to $516, or, fig
uring forty weeks in the college year, to
$20,640 year. Inasmuch as this build
ing, at the very lowest estimate, cost
eight hundred thousand dollars, this
would give an income of about two and
one-half per cent, without deductlnS
the expense of it's maintenance, which
must be quite q sum. Inasmuch as the
dormitory was gift, of course the I'M
iversity can easily afford this low rate
of interest, but it is a different story
with the buildings erected at its own
expense. Pierson hall, built about three
years ago from university funds, is a
case in point, and, considered purely as
a business investment is one of the
rarest plums in New Haven. A liberal
estimate of the cost of this building Is
about seventy-fve thousand dollars.
The income from it is two hundred and
seventy-four dollars per week, or eleven
thousand dollars per year; in other
words, the university has invested it's
seventy-fve thousand dollars at about
fifteen per cent. This, of course, ex-
plains the reason for the high price for
the rooms in Pierson hall, which. in it
self, is very modestly equipped dor
mitory.
On the other hand, Berkeley hall,
which is an extension Of White hall, and
was built about the same time as Van
derbilt hall, when the protest against
the high-priced rooms was SO strong,
and was intended to silence in meas
ure those protests, yields about four per
cent. The rooms were offered at low
price in order that the poor students