Clarity on Dining

As the Harvard University Dining Services stretches on into its third week, daily emails from HUDS have become an expected feature of students’ morning routines. Often, these emails have described developments in a piecemeal fashion—updating students on the list of closed dining halls, or announcing new infusions of BoardPlus or Crimson Cash into students’ accounts. While we understand that the strike is “an evolving situation,” as Dean of Students Katherine O’Dair wrote in one of her first emails on the labor dispute, we wish the University had started the strike with a clearer plan and clearer communication to students.

Students would take solace in a more proactive strike contingency plan. As it stands, undergraduates live under the portent that more dining halls might close, that hours may change unexpectedly, or that current levels of Crimson Cash and BoardPlus may prove insufficient for the duration of the strike.

Worse, the University’s sporadic disseminations of information have even exacerbated students’ stress levels. Recent email communications have caused confusion about the exact timing of Crimson Cash availability. Some students have also encountered problems using Crimson Cash at vendors that notionally accept it. Though the University cannot foresee all of these contingencies, a more definitive schedule of Crimson Cash and BoardPlus infusions would have allowed students to plan their meals and merchants to figure out the system in advance.

Beyond the meal-time logistics of the strike, students also deserve more information about how the dining halls are being run. HUDS has sought to improve its communication on this front as the strike has prolonged, but we would like to know more about any changes that have been made to the sourcing of food in the dining halls, especially in light of last week’s closure of FlyBy due to food quality issues. This incident, combined with isolated instances of undercooked food or foreign objects found in dishes, leads us to remain concerned about food safety, notwithstanding HUDS’ increased vigilance.

Furthermore, the effects of the strike have been particularly acute for students with dietary restrictions. While HUDS has also acknowledged this concern, a general lack of options persists for these students.

Finally, students should also know more about the temporary workers staffing the dining halls. Ironically—given the root cause of this situation—these new workers may not be receiving the recognition they deserve from students, in part because we are less familiar with them.

Given that the strike will continue indefinitely, we hope that the University will begin to address students’ needs and concerns more comprehensively. While the strike presents unique difficulties, we believe that a clearer agenda of Crimson Cash infusions and more clarity on the University’s exact plans for dining hall service—among other adjustments—will help dampen the impact of this unfortunate situation on undergraduates.