President Neil L. Rudenstine acknowledge for the first time last week that Ivy League officials may have informally discussed planned increases in tuitions and faculty salaries.

The disclosure comes in the wake of news reports that MIT and the Ivy League schools secretly shared information about tuition, salary and budget figures, possibly in violation of federal antitrust laws.

Asked if the schools ever held such discussions, Rudenstine said. "There may will have been some people who had some informal discussions about that, but the only formal meetings that ever took place that were systematically, intentionally and deliberately comparative were overlap meetings having to do with student aid."

Rudenstine's statement, made in a Crimson interview on Friday, is a break from the blanket denials made by Harvard officials as recently a last spring.

In past interviews, Harvard and other Ivy League officials have consistently denied ever discussing planned tuition rats, faculty salaries, or other budget information. The schools said they only shared student financial aid information in annual "overlap" meetings.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week the Ivy League presidents and provosts systematically swapped information onplans for future budgets, tuition, financial aidand salaries. The newspaper compared the practiceto businesses sharing wage and price information.

Although it is unclear whether the allegeddiscussions of tuition and salary plans wereillegal, they would allow schools to make changesthat could deny students and faculty the effectsof free-market competition.

At least one graduate has filed a class actionsuit against Harvard and several otheruniversities seeking tuition refunds for studentsenrolled during the time of the alleged collusion.

Rudenstine played down the significance of suchdiscussions. "We had no concern ever to settuition or salaries together, that was a non-issuefor us," he said.

Rudenstine took office as Harvard presidentJuly 1, 1991, after the meetings in question tookplace. He served as Princeton's provost between1979 and 1988.

Rudenstine said he meets with Ivy Leaguepresidents twice a year, and that discussionsfocus on intercollegiate athletics.

"I don't think we would ever discuss salaries.I would not discuss salaries. I would not discusssalaries. We might have a general discussion aboutthe state of finances in higher education,"Rudenstine said.

Harvard released a statement last week saying"higher education is a cooperative enterprise" inwhich "universities have frequently communicatedwith one another about common interest," whilemaking independent decisions about tuition andother matters.

While not admitting any wrongdoing, the eightIvy League universities agreed last March to stopsharing student financial aid information, as wellas tuition and salary figures. The settlement wasthe result of a two year antitrust probe by theJustice Department.

Overlap Defended

MIT refused to sign the agreement, and isfighting the Justice Department interpretation ofantitrust laws in federal court. The schoolmaintains that sharing financial aid informationbenefits needy students and avoids, costly biddingwars for students.

In Friday's interview, Rudenstine also defendedthe financial aid "overlap" meetings among theschools that were canceled in the Marchsettlement.

"We did feel strongly about overlap, becausefinancial aid seems to us to be in a totallydifferent category, and not really an antitrustissues," he said.

If MIT wins its case, the Ivies may bepermitted to revive the overlap practice.Rudenstine said he and other University officialswere watching the case with interest.

"It's not clear to me that we would elect to goback to overlap, even if we could," Rudenstinesaid.

He said it is more important for theuniversities to be able to agree on need-based aidonly, and for the schools to agreed to collect thesame information from financial aid applicants