Students Plan Boycott Of Food at Harkness

Students for Less OverPricing (SLOP)-a group of graduate students who are "fed up" with eating in Harkness Common Dining Hall-are organizing a one-day boycott of Harkness for Friday.

SLOP is protesting increases in the cost of meal contracts and coupons, the "deterioration" of the quality of meals since September, and a new "no seconds" policy instituted last month.

The management of the dining room-the only Harvard dining hall operated by an outside catering service-began refusing seconds to students on meal contracts at the end of last semester. At the same time, they raised the price of weekly meal contracts-in which students pay in advance for 21 meals each week-by $3, from $18 to $21.

Last week, the management announced that Harkness coupon books-which gave students a 15 per cent discount on meals-would no longer be sold.

"That was the straw that broke the camel's back." said George D. Smith, a first-year graduate student in American History and a SLOP member. "We'd been discussing to death." another member said. "When this happened. there was nothing left to discuss, so we did it."

Losing Money

Harkness-which serves about 2000 meals a day-has lost between $16.000 and $20.000 a mont since September, David L. Laughlin, cafeteria manager for Marriott-Hot Shoppes Corporation, said. The new prices and no seconds rule were necessary to cut the losses, he added.

"We are not out to screw the students. Harvard is not out to screw the students," he said. "What happened is that students on the meal contracts were coming back for seconds for all their friends."

The crowd at Harkness is equally divided between Law and GSAS students. SLOP has no members in the Law School, but members feel that the boycott will be effective in both schools.???????