Non-Paying Guests Add to Board Rate

This is the second in a series of articles on Harvard's food services.

The average Harvard student eats only 14 of the 21 meals he is entitled to each week, but food services administrators say there are still many reasons why their $12-million operation is a "break even proposition."

Dining hall administrators said last week that losses resulting from guests who avoid paying for meals, and the cost of maintaining the interhouse system, are among the factors which contribute to each year's board fee.

When the Dartmouth football team ventured to Cambridge two weeks ago, 85 visiting students were caught taking "unauthorized" meals at the Union, Lewis J. Tolleson, manager of the Union, said, adding, "We don't know how many might have gotten free meals."

The problem of guests avoiding the transient fees is one which is the "responsibility of the Harvard student, who essentially is taking food" for a friend, Benjamin H. Walcott, assistant director of food services, said.

"With a lot of people milling around, it is not difficult for a person to slip into the dining room and go around the back way," Walcott added, saying that measures to prevent such instances are "somewhat lax."

"Sure, it could be tightened up," he said, "but I think that students who are legitimately conducting their business would find it very distasteful."

Prior to the introduction of photo-bearing bursar's cards, a major problem was the transfer of cards from one student to another, Frank J. Weissbecker, director of food services, said. This practice made it possible for visitors to use a Harvard student's card, and, on interhouse, checkers would have no reason to question, nor any way to confirm, a cardholder's identity.

"At one point, we estimated that we were losing 1100 meals a week," Weissbecker said, adding that this figure has been cut significantly--perhaps up to 90 per cent--since picture cards were first distributed in 1980.

Although most dining hall managers said they consider it "part of the unlimited seconds policy" if a student eats at more than one of Harvard's 13 undergraduate dining facilities during a meal period. John E. O'Neil, assistant manager of the Union, said that this practice was a problem and that not much had been done to prevent it.

A check-in computer "would pretty nearly shut the door" to students who abuse the interhouse privilege, Weissbecker said. He added, however, that such a computer, which he estimated would cost $100,000, would "certainly cut down on the flexibility" of interhouse.

"With an access-type system, you lose some of the flavor of the dining system," he said.

Most managers said they would be in favor of an on-line computer, but, as Tolleson said. "Only if [the administrators] could find one that is foolproof."

While the decision to purchase a computer is under the jurisdiction of the Faculty, the Food Service Department has not submitted any proposal for such a computer, Melissa D. Gerrity, associate dean for financial affairs, said.

At Yale, an assessment of a computerized check-in system is being conducted at the law school for possible future expansion to the entire university, Charles L. Bennett, assistant director of dining halls at Yale, said last week. "We're exploring automatic check-in systems to curtain transfers of cards," which is a growing problem at Yale, he added.

While some Harvard students said they believe a computer system and stricter security might help to limit the number of unauthorized meals taken, many said they would continue to encourage their visitors to avoid paying the transient fees, which one student said, "are not worth the price of the food."

"There are no missed-meal factors in the transient rates." Weissbecker said, adding that the board fee is based on the fcat that the average student consumes only two-thirds of the meals he has contracted for. As a result, Weissbecker added, the transient rates, without tax, of $3.65 for lunch and $4.70 for dinner are designed to "recover" the full possible cost of serving an average meal.

Under the current 21-meal plan, he added, the Food Services Department serves an average of 17,000 meals each day. Approximately 2500 to 3000 undergraduates eat breakfast daily, and close to 85 per cent eat lunch and dinner.

The cost of eating at Harvard, however, comprises more than just the price of the food. Although $1.20 is the actual cost of food per meal served, the overall cost, with labor and other expenses, averages to $3.30 per meal served.

The added costs of having 21 meals available each week, however, raises the price a student is paying for each meal to an average of $2.62, Walcott said, explaining that this is the amount a student pays "for the privilege" of having every meal if he desires it.

"We have one of the best food costs compared to other schools," Weissbecker said, adding that this year's $1800 board fee takes into account the rising prices of fuel, labor and related items, in addition to the price of food, which is rising at a slower rate than the other factors. The price of food alone, he said, increased by only 7.9 per cent over the past year, while the overall board rate increased by more than 13.2 per cent, from the 1980-81 fee of $1590.

Yale's fee of $1700 is based on students eating an average of 15 meals per week, while Dartmouth's 21-meal plan, an option selected by approximately 80 percent of the student body, costs $1648