A Roller-Coaster Year for Dining Halls

From ex-gay cooks and marijuana-trafficking managers to fruit flies and food fights, there was never a dull moment in the dining halls this past year.

“It’s a busy place,” said Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) spokesperson Alexandra McNitt. “We’re a large organization and things are always happening.”

Cooking Up Controversy

The most famous HUDS chef this year didn’t gain campus-wide notoriety for his culinary talents.

Annenberg cook Larry Houston, featured in a September cover story of Fifteen Minutes, became the subject of dining hall chatter after telling The Crimson’s weekend magazine he was “ex-gay” and at Harvard to help those “struggling with homosexuality.”

“It’s not just 15 minutes of fame now—it just goes on and on and on,” Houston said last week of his tumultuous year.

In October, the United Ministry and the College both opened their own investigations of Houston to determine if he was proselytizing students, which the United Ministry forbids of its employees.

The United Ministry concluded that Houston is not officially linked with any campus ministry and therefore is not under its jurisdiction.

“I personally think he’s way out of line to be doing anything except doing what he was hired to do,” said United Ministry President the Rev. C. Irving Cummings. “But that’s not my call to make. I’m not his employer.”

The College investigation did not find any cases where Houston proselytized undergraduates, but some students continued to pressure Harvard to act against the cook.

“The University [has] the opportunity to screen out those religious organizations and individuals who would prey upon unsuspecting or vulnerable students,” Christopher L. Pierce ’02 and Jeffrey P. Morgan ’02, two gay student leaders, wrote in a letter to University administrators.

But in a Nov. 1 letter to the two students, Dean of Freshmen Elizabeth Studley “Ibby” Nathans rejected the notion of repressing unpopular views.

“[Harvard] can—indeed sometimes must—also provide protection for what most in this community might find uncomfortable or offensive or even extraordinarily misguided or wrong ideas,” she wrote.

But the perception that Harvard was prosecuting Houston for his religious beliefs persisted in some circles.

“Harvard made a big mistake by investigating me,” Houston said. “People from around the country have called, saying, ‘How can we help you? Is Harvard still picking on you?’”

The attention may also have helped Houston fulfill his mission at Harvard—finding and helping gay students.

Three weeks ago, two Harvard students contacted Alive in Christ, the Park Street Church ministry for Christians “struggling with same-sex attraction” where Houston volunteers.

Next year, Houston will serve as co-leader of the ministry, working two days a week at Alive in Christ and four at Harvard. He predicts “more and more people are going to come and ask for help.”

“I’m going to do more outreach and public speaking in public schools, churches, women’s clubs and that sort of thing,” he said.

Houston also hopes to finish a book next year about research that he says proves “the gay identity is a social construct” as well as about his personal struggles with homosexuality.

This weekend, the outspoken cook is flying to the Ukraine, where he will teach English and, perhaps, find a wife.

“Larry, at 45, is just now learning about the ladies, when most guys learn it at 14 with girls on the back of the school bus,” Houston joked.

Since his trip to the country last summer, Houston has been corresponding with a 33-year-old nurse named Inna and Angela, a divorcee with a 10-year-old son.

Houston says he will date the two Ukrainian women this summer.

“I’m going to force myself. I have no choice,” he said. “They’re chasing me. All I have to do is stop and they’ll catch me.”

Chicken Pot Pie

It wasn’t long before another HUDS employee was making headlines.

Angelo Dalla Santa, then manager of the Lowell and Winthrop House dining halls, was arrested on Nov. 20 for allegedly trafficking 300 pounds of marijuana that authorities estimate is worth about $500,000.

Dalla Santa—a HUDS employee of nine years—was arraigned the following afternoon in the Somerville District Court.

He pleaded not guilty.

After a grand jury indicted Dalla Santa Jan. 24 on two counts, his case moved to the Middlesex Superior Court—dramatically increasing the jail time he faces if convicted.

In District Court, judges can impose no more than two and a half years per count. In Superior Court, the two counts—trafficking in marijuana and conspiracy to violate drug laws—each carry a minimum sentence of five years and a maximum of 15 years.

According to an affidavit filed by the state police, Dalla Santa admitted he received $1,000 and a quarter-pound of marijuana for assisting his brother-in-law trafficking the drugs. Dalla Santa added that he was personally involved in “two to three prior shipments,” according to the affidavit.

On May 23, HUDS announced that Laurie Torf is the new manager of Lowell and Winthrop dining halls. Previously, she served as operations manager.

Dalla Santa is no longer employed by Harvard, McNitt said last week.

The pre-trial hearing for the case has been postponed several times and is currently scheduled for June 24.

Dalla Santa declined to comment.

A Sticky Situation

The antics of students in the Eliot House dining hall have also drawn attention, especially from Eliot House Master Leno Pertile.

Upon his discovery in October of what he termed “a particularly savage” mess left after a Monday night brain break, Pertile cancelled the late night snacks for two days.

“This is not civilized behavior,” he said at the time.

Two dining hall staffers spent an hour the next morning dealing with sticky, honey-covered plates, glasses, trash and tables, according to McNitt.

What some students perceived to be draconian was a while in the making. Pertile had received complaints from dining hall workers last year and this year before finally taking action.

McNitt said HUDS supported Pertile’s decision, a sentiment echoed by many students in the House.

“Everywhere you step you’d crunch sprinkles,” said Geoff A. Preidis ’03, who saw the dining hall that Monday night and again the following morning.

One student later wrote him to take most of the blame for the incident, according to Pertile.

Pertile later said the incident “didn’t repeat itself––it was always reasonably clean and tidy.”

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

Though students ranked the overall dining experience 2.66 on a scale of one to five—with one being excellent—according to a HUDS survey this spring, unwelcome houseguests suggested there is still room for improvement.

Dunster and Mather House were forced to temporarily close their dining halls last winter after at least 16 students who had eaten at the dining halls were hospitalized with gastroenteritis.

Students arrived at University Health Services suffering from diarrhea, vomiting and stomach cramps.

Analysis of samples of dining hall food by the Massachusetts State Laboratories were inconclusive, said Environmental Health and Safety Services Director Joseph Griffin.

“It could have been a fast-moving virus which could or could not have been related to the food,” he said.

Up in the Quad, Cabot House residents this spring dealt with a fruit fly infestation and a mouse in their dining hall.

The fruit fly infestation was caused by a design feature in the kitchen that is being renovated on the first day after Commencement, Griffin said.

It was traced to the existence of “a compost-like situation” in abandoned dumb-waiter shafts and trap doors, according to Gary D. Alpert, Harvard’s chief pest-control official. Alpert also said the infestation posed no health risks.

A month after the fruit fly incident, a mouse scampered across Cabot’s dining hall floor. Alpert said the mouse had probably been displaced from its home in Pforzheimer House by drilling that had begun as part of this summer’s large-scale renovation of all three Quad dining halls.

The mouse’s hole has since been sealed up.

Griffin called the proliferation of health concerns “unusual,” but said they are unrelated to each other.

The Fork Ran Away With the Spoon

In other houses, HUDS joined forces with superintendents to launch a campaign against other pests––in this case, student hoarders of dining hall silverware.

Before spring break, HUDS posted notices asking for “kidnapped” items to be returned. In Adams and Eliot House, those requests were accompanied by threats of fines for dinnerware found in dorm rooms during spring break room inspections.

HUDS Director for Residential Dining Rosemary E. McGahey said HUDS spends tens of thousands of dollars a year replacing dishes and silverware—including replacements for breakage and normal wear-and-tear—though she declined to provide a specific amount.

McGahey said the posters and threatened fines, which were never imposed, were intended to bring usable items back into circulation at a time when dining halls were running low on crucial items.

“We get a lot back at the end of the year, but it may be so stained or soiled that we can’t recover or reuse them again,” McGahey said.

One worker said maintenance staff often find garbage bags filled with dishes left behind in rooms.

The worker also cited health concerns, both for the students whose rooms house the dishes and for the workers who eventually have to clean the dishes.

When asked if the initiative worked, Adams House Superintendent Jorge Teixeira said, “It did, because no student was charged at the end of the year, and we didn’t find any dishes.”

“It was a big difference.”

—Staff writer Amit R. Paley can be reached at paley@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Eugenia B. Schraa can be reached at schraa@fas.harvard.edu.