HUDS To Offer E-Mail Alerts

Starting this fall, Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) will send students e-mail alerts on days dining halls serve their favorite fare.

In addition to notifications of honey mustard chicken or Irish mutton broth, students can expect significant expansions to the bagged meal program for those unable to attend lunch and dinner in the dining halls.

The subcommittee of the Committee on House Life (CHL) charged with examining dining hall hours and interhouse restrictions decided last week to recommend to the Council of Masters that students be allowed to order bagged meals up until 4 a.m. on the day of pickup, and that they have the option to place recurring meal requests with a weekly checklist form, instead of having to request one meal at a time.

The committee will also suggest in the recommendations that meals be available for pickup in any House, even after dining halls close, according to Raymond Cross, HUDS director for finance and IT.

Cross said at the meeting that HUDS would explore the possibility of meal pickup at Harvard’s athletic facilities across the Charles. Earlier this year, the subcommittee raised concerns about athletes missing meals due to extended practices.

Benjamin W. Milder ’08, an Undergraduate Council (UC) representative and committee member, said the expanded bagged meal options would benefit students, but were not a sufficient long term solution to the UC’s demand for extended dining hall hours.

“[The UC’s] goal is for students to avoid missing meals,” said Milder. “We think this is a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t solve the problem completely.”

The updated program, with online PIN-accessible ordering, is slated for a September implementation, pending resolution of logistical refrigeration and transportation issues, according to Cross.

During last Thursday’s meeting, the CHL subcommittee also discussed possible pairings of Quad and River Houses to reduce overcrowding in centrally located dining halls during peak meal hours.

While there was a consensus about the existence of a problem, the committee did not decide on a solution, instead opting to further study the situation, according to Associate Dean of Harvard College for Residential Life Suzy M. Nelson.

“On [interhouse] restrictions, we’ll study the grazing patterns before we decide,” she said.

—Staff writer Sam Teller can be reached at steller@fas.harvard.edu.