Segregated Dining

On the Thursday morning before spring break, letters distributed throughout the Yard determined where 1,600 first-years would spend the greater part of their next three years. While some blocking groups celebrated and others decided against celebrating, there were inevitably friends who were split into different Houses. Most likely these groups of friends have already promised to keep in touch, to still hang out, and to eat together every week. By dining together on a regular basis, first-year friendships will survive the housing lottery. But with the tightening of many Houses’ interhouse dining restrictions, meeting friends for dinner poses a problem.

In recent tightening of interhouse restrictions some Houses have disallowed guests altogether, inviting only house residents into the dining hall. In particular, Adams House currently does not allow guests at all, and Lowell House disallowed guests for a period of about six weeks during preparation for its opera.

Even when they do not totally ban outsiders, restrictions that limit House residents to one guest also inhibit friends dining together. If three or more friends, all from different Houses, want to eat together, they must eat in one of the rare unrestricted dining halls—even if no one in the group lives in the House. At the river, this means that Quincy and Winthrop are the only centrally located meeting spots for groups of friends, or for group meetings, and this has placed an undue strain on the dining hall staffs and students of these Houses.

While Harvard’s House system fosters tight-knit communities, it requires students from different Houses to put more effort into maintaining friendships. By effectively inhibiting all students from eating meals together, the College is removing the most common means for groups of friends in different houses to keep in touch.

Though restrictions can be said to strengthen the House community, they come at the cost of creating ugly rivalries and resentments between students in different Houses. And even worse, interhouse restrictions weaken the University community as a whole. A recent event at Quincy House necessitated that the dining hall close early, and many Quincy students were turned away at every neighboring dining hall. Students in Houses with restrictions assume that they have a natural and inalienable right to exclude intruders from their dining hall.

But this right is questionable at best. Every student on a meal plan pays $4,041 per year to eat. There’s no special “first class” meal package, nor is there a 20 percent discount for students in Mather House. In fact, in the listing of fees, Harvard explains the high cost of board: “because of the large number of House dining halls, a major portion of the Board fee goes to pay fixed operating costs.” If a student is paying part of the operating costs of the 12 dining halls, he should have access to all of them. Besides, at the end of freshman year, everyone is randomly put into a House. No one has earned special privilege. No individuals should be entitled to run their dining hall on a country-club members-only access policy.

For the benefit of the College community as a whole, all interhouse dining restrictions should be lifted. But if this policy is not changed, one modification seems inescapable. If a House wants to exclude visitors, students from that House should also relinquish their right to eat at other houses. It’s all too easy now for a House to decide to impose interhouse restrictions, since they give up nothing in return. And it’s unfair that restrictions should work only in one direction. As it stands, Adams or Kirkland House residents can eat in their dining hall. They can also eat at Quincy, Winthrop, Mather, Dunster and the Quad. And yet, should lost Quadlings show up at Kirkland, they’re not likely to even get any leftover popcorn chicken thrown their way.

Some Houses worry that they will be overwhelmed with diners should they lift restrictions. Even if the numbers of diners at certain Houses increased slightly, however, it would be easy enough to respond to an increase with necessary changes. Quincy House has done exactly that. As the only centrally-located river House with no restrictions, Quincy has become the default dining hall for group meetings and for friends from different houses to get together. Because Quincy welcomes visitors, rather than imposing restrictions on them, the dining hall staff has attempted to combat long lines and overcrowding caused by the influx of people. When Quincy House residents arriving at 7 p.m. often found that there was no food left, so the dining hall took measures to ensure the preparation of sufficient amounts of food. If Houses lifted their restrictions, diners would most likely be evenly distributed, but it would be possible to accommodate a slight increase if necessary.

Interhouse restrictions have gotten out of hand, and it is time for students, House masters, and the administration if necessary to step in and rectify the situation. The current restrictions serve no compelling purpose, and through them, the University community suffers.

Erin M. Kane ’05 is a history of science concentrator in Quincy House.