HUDS Closes Doors to Lingering Underclassmen

Underclassmen looking to get their fill of Harvard by sticking around this weekend shouldn’t expect to fill up on food from Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS). House dining halls will close to non-seniors following dinner tonight, though all students can stay in their dorm rooms until Sunday.

While some lingering undergrads and their stomachs may be growling about the closings, the schedule was decided in the beginning of the academic year following the recommendation of the College.

“HUDS sets the calendar for opening and closing based on historical data and the days the College tells us are in the meal plan,” said HUDS communication coordinator Jami Snyder. “The House Masters are also involved in the process.”

Although HUDS allowed remaining undergraduates to eat breakfast and lunch over the weekend last year, Snyder said that this year HUDS is not financially able to accommodate the extra students.

“The increase in the price of oil has caused the prices of everything from an apple to a plate to go up this year,” Snyder said. “Costs have risen to a point where we don’t have the extra money.”

Aaron D. Chadbourne ’06, who founded and serves on the HUDS Student Advisory Committee and has worked closely with HUDS in the past, explained that in order for dining halls to stay open over the weekend, the College would have to raise the price of the board plan for all students.

“Ideally it would be great if the dining halls remained open until people moved out, but realistically, there’s a cost for that and we would all have to pay,” he said.

Chadbourne pointed out that many students have already left, and that the cost would also be passed on to them.

“Personally, I’ve never stayed until the last day,” Chadbourne said. “I always have left when my last exam is over.”

And students savoring their last few bites of HUDS cooking in Adams last night weren’t too upset about the closings.

Gregory M. Bugaj ’07, who still has an exam today, said that he thought while it would be nice if the dining halls stayed open, he wasn’t too annoyed about the closing.

“I’m leaving on Saturday morning, so it’s really only one meal for me,” he said.

Maureen F. “Reenie” Moen ’07 had a similar reaction.

“I guess I’ll have to go on my car ride without breakfast,” she joked.

A couple of students alerted to the closings said they might stock up on cereal to get through the weekend.

Seniors will be able to eat breakfast and lunch in Adams and Currier until June 3.

Snyder pointed out that seniors, like freshmen who move in a week before classes start, do not pay extra for the extended dining hall service.

Associate Dean for Residential Life Suzy M. Nelson, who helps set the yearly dining hall schedule, added that the

College does try to accommodate students by allowing extra meals for seniors in the spring and freshmen and other students before registration in the fall.

“This is a very liberal and generous policy,” she said of the pre-registration dining hall openings.

“Because fewer students are here to eat during the last day of exams, it is reasonable to close some halls,” she wrote in an e-mail.

—Sam Teller contributed to the reporting of this story.

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