A Tasteful Solution

Harvard’s board plan should have fine print under it: “guarantee of unlimited meals only applies during restrictive hours that you probably won’t make.” Like the issue of a 24-hour library, extending dinner dining hours is a no-brainer and should have been discussed and enacted many years ago. But we realize that such an expectation smacks of idealism. Thus despite the issue’s previous neglect, we are glad to see that Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) finally appears open to work with the Undergraduate Council (UC) to better accommodate students’ schedules. The UC has provided ample evidence to justify why dining hall hours should be pushed back to 8:30. We hope that HUDS implements this proposal.

Harvard students maintain hectic schedules packed full of a variety of extracurricular and academic commitments, meaning many students must somehow find a free moment to run to a dining hall. Consequently, it’s not hard to find an undergraduate who occasionally—and in many cases routinely—has to shell out cash to eat after missing Harvard’s limited 5-7:15 dinner dining hall hours. Yet just how widespread this problem is has been a matter of speculation until now. A UC report on dinner hours, made after an extensive 270 student phone survey, has shown that 83 percent of students miss dinner at least once or twice a week and the same percentage purchase food outside dining halls after missing a meal. The solution is clearly extended dining hall hours.

According to the UC’s report, an astounding 87 percent would utilize hours extended beyond 7:15 pm if they could, with 72 percent saying they would do so more than 5 days a week. Moreover, another recent UC survey—helpful in securing the promise for a 24-hour library—found that 97 percent of students are up past midnight and more than half are up past 2 a.m. That leaves seven hours between dining hall closing time and half of students’ bedttime. It is important that the UC and HUDS consider these numbers. Extending hours to 8:30 p.m. will allow for more flexibility and is the only fair way to ensure that students get maximal use out of their prepaid board plans. Other proposed solutions, which include giving students more BoardPlus money to use at campus eateries, expanding dining at Loker Commons, and extending hours at a few dining halls, are insufficient given the clear student demand.

And it could be that this proposal isn’t aggressive enough. We believe there is enough student demand for at least a few dining halls open past 8:30 p.m.—possibly as late as 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. The UC and HUDS should not jump to some arbitrary compromise time; they should conduct more surveys and analyze student demand more finely to find the solution best suited to student needs.

Moreover, given the clear and pressing nature of the problem, some interim plan for extending the hours of some dining halls should be implemented as soon as possible, preferably in time for the next school year. Right now, the UC is aiming for a decision by the end of the 2005-2006 year which would be implemented in the Fall of 2006. We agree that the UC and HUDS should take their time to find a suitable long term plan, but something must be done to address this issue in the short term.

To be fair, we realize that many complex issues will be involved in extending dining hall hours—most of which are labor issues that will have to be worked out with employee unions. We are thus limited to commenting on student demand, not the particulars of how a plan should be implemented. It is up to the UC and HUDS need to find the right people to come up with a feasible and cost-efficient plan that responds to clear student demand for extended hours.

Finally, we would like to applaud the UC for bringing up this issue in the way it has. In the past the UC has been confrontational with administrators when approaching them with a pressing student issue; this UC has been more reasonable, backing up their requests with strong empirical data. This approach, used both with HUDS and the Harvard College Library, seems to be working extraordinarily well. We are happy that HUDS has decided to work with the UC to be more accommodating; we hope that they follow up on the promise of their words with action.