Extended Dining Hall Hours Deliberated

The Committee on House Life (CHL) subcommittee charged with examining dining hall hours and interhouse restrictions considered the high costs of extending the dinner hours yesterday and discussed other options—including extending grill hours in each house.

The costs of these new options will be determined and then discussed at the next meeting.

Executive Director of Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) Ted A. Mayer and HUDS Director for Finance, Information Systems and Procurement Raymond R. Cross explained the increased costs that would accompany each of three different dining hall schedules.

Considering that more students would presumably eat at the dining halls if hours are extended, the average number of meals per week was estimated to increase from its current 13.6 to 14.1, requiring more food and staff.

Mayer and Cross determined that the most expensive scenario would be to extend dinner by one hour in all upperclass houses and Annenberg from Monday to Thursday. Supposing that the participation rate—or meals eaten—rises by 4 percent, HUDS’ costs would increase by $1,298,341, according to their report.

The least costly scenario considered by the subcommittee so far was to extend dinner by one hour in Annenberg and to change the dinner hours to 6-8:30 p.m. in one house per neighborhood—groups of three nearby houses that the College plans to begin using in blocking assignments for next year—from Monday to Thursday. If participation rates increased by 4 percent, costs would rise by $917,296.

The other scenario, wherein Annenberg and one house per neighborhood would extend dinner one hour, would increase costs by $958,666 with a participation rate increase of 4 percent.

When asked after the meeting about the possibility of shifting the entire meal schedule forward one hour—starting breakfast at 8:30 a.m.—Cross said that many students would then be unable to eat a later lunch.

Staggering hours in the houses, on the other hand, would result in overcrowding in some dining halls, particularly Adams House and Lowell House, Cross said. Also, breakfast is a far quieter time than dinner, when more staff and more food is required.

“It’s not apples to apples,” Cross said.

The subcommittee then suggested four more scenarios for Mayer and Cross to price.

The first is to extend grill hours by one hour during dinner in one house per neighborhood. Currently, the grills open and close during the dinner hours of 5-7:15 p.m. The second case will be to extend grill hours in every upperclass house.

Another scenario would call for removing grills from operation during lunch and using the resulting savings to fund extended dinner hours.

Finally, the HUDS directors will figure out the cost of a “pantry option,” as the subcommittee called a last scenario. This would involve keeping a section of every house kitchen open until 8 p.m. for sandwiches, salad, and soup.

“We want to make sure students will be comfortable with whatever the tradeoffs are,” said Aaron D. Chadbourne ’06, a member of the HUDS Student Advisory Committee. Chadbourne added that students on the subcommittee aim to have a feasible option to present to students this semester, possibly in time for the 2006-2007 budgeting process.

—Staff writer Katherine M. Gray can be reached at kmgray@fas.harvard.edu.