After Quincy, What’s Next?

Back in September, Quincy House residents and non-residents alike greeted Quincy’s spiffy new dining hall with almost unanimous acclaim. Few expected, though, that the People’s House’s renovations would force it to go the way of Adams and consider instituting strict dining hall restrictions.

If Quincy’s overcrowded dining hall and backed-up meal lines seem like déjà vu for those who remember when Adams first introduced its harsh restrictions, it’s no coincidence. Before Adams decided to close its dining hall to first-years during lunch and dinner hours, swipe-card data showed that approximately one-third of Adams diners were first-year students, placing an inordinate strain on dining hall staff to produce that much extra food.

Now, it seems that those pesky, nefarious frosh interlopers are at it again, albeit a block further down Plympton Street.

Simply slapping another set of restrictions on already snubbed first-years is not the answer to dining hall overcrowding, a problem which seems to rear its ugly head year after year. If Quincy implements Adams-like dining hall restrictions, first-years will simply refocus their attempts to escape Annenberg on the next closest upper-class dining hall.

There are far better and longer-lasting solutions than restrictions. A good start would be taking a hard look at the root of the problem. From the wealth of swipe-card data it collects daily, Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) wouldn’t be too hard pressed to discover why first-years are deserting Annenberg’s warm wooden confines for a long, cold walk to the River Houses.

If it turns out that most of the first-years piling into Quincy hail from the Union dorms, HUDS could work to improve the quality of food at Annenberg or incentivize the frosh dining hall with special events and culinary delights. Either would make the somewhat longer trek to Annenberg more attractive. But the first-years who are cramming into Quincy don’t only come from Union dorms. Long lines at the Berg during peak hours turn off first-years from Holworthy and Pennypacker alike. An analysis of when first-years, and other inter-house diners for that matter, eat would probably reveal peaks in demand after most afternoon classes let out and at certain times during the evening. Perhaps HUDS could tailor dining hall hours and staffing to reflect class schedules and preferred eating hours. Extending lunchtime until three in Quad dining halls could better accommodate the walk back from classes for quadlings, reducing load on River dining halls.

If all else fails, individual House dining halls should consider revamping the restrictions to make them less, well, restricting. For example, instead of prohibiting all first-years from eating at Quincy (as may happen soon), HUDS and the Houses could set up a system that would allow fixed quantities of the first-years to eat there, or at other attractive dining halls, at specific times. Such a system would provide first-years with their break from Annenberg and help make first-years feel welcome and more integrated into House life—a stated goal of Harvard’s administrators. A similar system might even be arranged so that upperclassmen could occasionally eat lunch at Annenberg instead of going back to their House or going to fly-by in Loker Commons.

Of course, University Hall can always decide to build a five-star dining hall with plenty of seating space in a centrally located student center. But until pigs fly, practical, permanent solutions, not temporary stop-gaps, are needed to fix dining hall overcrowding. Stricter dining hall restrictions are not solutions; they simply pass the buck along to the next farthest house from the Yard. If Quincy follows Adams’ lead and restricts inter-house and first-year dining privileges, overcrowding in its dining hall will go down only to rise in another. Will Lowell be next?