An increase of fifty cents in the board rate per week will be effective for the entire University this fall, William A. Heaman, manager of the Dining Halls, announced yesterday.

The raise has been necessitated mainly because of minor increases in the wages of dining room employees. The rate will be $14.50 a week.

Also effected by the increase will be transient board prices. Supper will have a five-cent raise, going from $1.10 to $1.15, and lunch will be raised from eighty cents to eighty-five cents. Breakfast will be the only transient meal unchanged.

Heaman also stated that higher food prices have also contributed to the new rate.

Boost Predicted

The boost had been predicted as a possibility for the '54 spring term by Administrative Vice-President Edward R. Reynolds '15 but tighter budgeting held it off until now. The rate had last been raised fifty cents in 1951 but was dropped back to $14.00 in 1953 because of a decrease in food prices and student cooperation in limiting extra portions of milk and fruit juice.

$70,000 Deficit

The last year in which the Dining Hall Department finished with a notable profit was 1951-52 when the financial report showed a surplus of $36,906.22. The following year the Department had a deficit of $1,825.22. Then, starting 1952-53 with a credit balance of $3,506.15, only a slim balance of $1,680 was left at the end of the year.

The last increase in the board rate, in 1950-51, was instituted when the dining halls suffered a $70,000 deficit.

Last year the average meal in the dining hall cost about eighty-nine cents; food cost accounting for 45 cents.