Quincy Residents Bemoan Crowds

Sparkling after its recent redesign which has subjected it to a surge in popularity, it’s the best of times and the worst of times for Quincy Dining Hall.

After months of being stymied at the salad bar and cornered near the cold cuts, residents of the “People’s House” are calling for a revolution.

“The time for action has arrived,” wrote Sarah A. Moran ’07 in an e-mail to the house open list last Tuesday afternoon.

The sophomore said that she has repeatedly spent more than twenty minutes waiting at the bottom of the stairs during peak lunch hours only to finally make it to the top to find no empty tables. “Finding seats is the hardest part,” she said.

According to Quincy House Master Robert P. Kirshner ’70, who e-mailed a series of statistics to the house, freshmen tired of Annenberg make up about nine percent of all Quincy diners. “That’s a lot of Freshones,” he wrote.

And freshman are not the only students clogging up the serving area. According to Kirshner’s e-mail, Quincyites themselves are enjoying their dining hall’s facelift—with in-house dining up five percent. But that’s nothing compared to the 229 percent surge of guests from other upperclass houses.

While Moran, a sophomore, said she can’t really compare the dining atmosphere to that of previous years, Eli A. Shibley ’05 said that in the days before “everyone jumped on the Quincy bandwagon” he felt “a certain amount of pride from being the worst dining hall.”

As inches upon inches of snow swirled through the desolate courtyard, Shibley, and a table of Quincy seniors, unleashed a flurry of opinions on the matter. “Quincy’s reputation as the people’s house is something we’re very proud of, and we should keep it,” said Damien T. Wint ’05 about his house’s tradition of opening its doors at meals. “But that doesn’t mean I want to be eating breakfast with all of Wig J or Canaday C.”

In his house-wide e-mail, Kirshner suggested a number of ideas for cutting back on crowds, noting that restricting houses which themselves impose interhouse restrictions has “a certain intellectual appeal.” He announced a February 1 house-wide forum to discuss the matter further.

Quincy diners expressed varying opinions on what to do with the crowds. Many were concerned about the burden on the staff of enforcing restrictions based on meal time or house affiliation.

Rob James, who works the grill during peak hours on some weeknights, said he worries that the excessive volume has diminished the quality of food. “The people who live here really suffer,” he said. “The food’s not going to look as good, entrees run out and they’re just left with piecemeal.”

Though James said he enjoyed cooking for a big crowd, he said that restricting volume during peak hours could benefit everybody.

John L. Durant ’05 had two ideas of his own. “As with tariff policy, I believe in reciprocity and subsequent multilateral reductions in dining hall restrictions,” he said.

But when asked if he would ban all freshmen, he reconsidered. “I think we can always allow all freshman girls,” he said.

Jack P. McCambridge ’06, visiting from Winthrop house, reasoned that allowing freshman girls would at least take enforcement pressure off the staff. “You could just enlist final club members to work the door,” he joked.

Amidst the controversy, McCambridge, who was dining with Quincy friends, said he did not feel like he was imposing on the House and appreciated its hospitality, “Quincy and the mood lighting are the best things that have happened to me,” he said.

At the next table, four freshmen from Pennypacker, who slogged through the snow for their meal, couldn’t help but overhear the seniors’ discussion and were quick to defend themselves.

“We’re coming here out of necessity,” said Mike “Cash” Anderson ’08, who noted that he’s been able to sneak into more restrictive houses, like Adams, which banned all freshmen last year.

His roommate, Michael T. Drake ’08 made a more mathematical argument. “I’m not going to walk twice as far to Annenberg to get food that’s half as good,” he said.

—Staff writer Wendy D. Widman can be reached at widman@fas.harvard.edu.