29G Residents Face New Dining Limits

The Freshman Dean's Office (FDO) issued a letter to all 29 Garden St. residents Monday detailing new restrictions on inter-house dining.

According to the new guidelines, which will take effect sometime this week, the approximately 160 Garden Street residents will be divided into three groups and each assigned a Quad house.

The three groups, which are based on proctor units, will be rotated each month among North, Cabot and Currier Houses.

"We have been asked to put some order into the numbers of 29 [Garden Steet residents] eating regularly at a specific Quad House," Burriss C. Young '55, associate dean of first-year students, wrote in the letter.

According to the letter, the restrictions were prompted by expected overcrowding in the dining halls during reading and exam periods. First-years shopping prospective houses before the spring lottery will also strain the dining halls, Young wrote.

The FDO letter has received mixed reactions among 29 Garden St. residents, varying from approval to disbelief and anger.

"Making us eat at a specific house restricts our choice even more than it already is," said Masood A. Razaq '96, referring to the long walk from 29 Garden St. to the Harvard Union.

Razaq, who said he frequents Cabot House, also complained that the new policy discriminates against Garden Street residents by not including other first-year in the restrictions.

Although Young, in his letter, emphasized that he sought "as little fragmentation of eating circles as possible," students said yesterday that they can no longer dine in Quad Houses with students outside their assigned group.

"It is just another attempt at restricting opportunities for 29 G people to meet other first-years beyond their proctor group," said Pierre A. Connelly '96.

Still, some Garden Street first-years praised the new policy, calling it a necessary step to curb overcrowding.

"It must be a great burden on Currier House since almost all of us eat there," said Andrew L. Wright '96, who said that locked doors at Cabot and North often turn students away.

"The new policy will force us to go to all the houses," said Wright, who is aneditor of the Crimson. "It helps us decide whetherwe want to live there next year."

According to the letter, the FDO has alreadyprovided checkers with lists of the three 29Garden St. dining groups in addition to a rotationschedule