Starting Sunday, Currier Dining Hall Will Extend Dinner Hours

After residents complained about the difficulty of returning to the Quad for dinner, Currier Dining Hall will extend its hours to stay open until 8 p.m. on Sunday through Thursday nights, 30 minutes later than it previously closed its servery.

In an email sent over the Currier House email list earlier this week, House Masters Richard Wrangham and Elizabeth Ross wrote that the change is an “attempt to make easier the challenges of living in the quad.”

Currier House. By The Harvard Crimson

The Quad—which includes Pforzheimer, Cabot, and Currier Houses—is located nearly a mile away from Harvard Square, away from the nine other undergraduate Houses, which are clustered along the Charles River.

Although a shuttle route runs between the Yard and the Quad, residents often eat in the River House dining halls. This practice met a roadblock last year when the Houses instituted “Community Night” dinners on Thursday nights, requiring students to eat in their own residences.

Following the new policy, Cabot House extended Thursday dining hall hours past their normal closing time. The move for Currier to offer later hours five days a week is also in part a response to concerns raised by athletes, who often have late practices near the river, Currier House Administrator Patricia Pepper said.

“Over the past year there’s been conversation about the difficulties of athletes, for instance,” Pepper said. “This has been an ongoing conversation between the College and the Quad House masters about how can we make it easier for athletes.”

The new hours will begin on Sunday and continue over the next year as a pilot initiative.

“We hope that this will help you come home for dinner and we thank the college for supporting this initiative,” the Wrangham and Ross wrote in the email.