National price controls caught the University just before planned announcement of a $1-a-week board rate hike. The rise would have been effective next Monday for the spring term. Vice-President Reynolds explained to Student Council members yesterday the reasons behind the proposed jump in College eating rates but told them he could not institute the higher rate until he gets official clarification from the National Production Authority.

Friday's wage-price stabilization order did not go into detail. Lacking a fully staffed office in operation as yet, the N.P.A. has been unable to amplify the order in response to queries about the status of specific prices. The office will begin supplying such information later this week.

Possibilities of a room rent hike for next year were also clouded by the national freeze order. During the World War II price control era, rates charged by such non-profit institutions as colleges, escaped restriction. The new authority is not committed to follow any precedents.

Building Stoppage Possible

Meanwhile, New York's Governor Thomas E. Dewey reported Saturday that he had been told informally by the Defense Mobilization Board that a probable steel freeze might stop construction on college buildings, highways, schools, and such facilities, for renewable monthly periods beginning June 1.

Later Saturday an N.P.A. official in Washington said there are no present plans to that effect. The official said that a projected controlled materials plan would limit steel for defense and approved civilian uses, but that some of the types of construction described by Dewey would probably be considered necessary in the public interest.

The restriction described by Dewey would stop the University from going on with construction of the new classroom building at the Business School, the General Education building, an addition to the science plant, and other lesser plans. The new Varsity Club has apparently already been tabled by the University.