Houses Postpone Faculty Dinners After Strike

The historic dining workers’ strike concluded Wednesday with a new contract, but the status of semesterly student-faculty dinners in some Houses remains up in the air.

During the 22-day strike, which forced closures of several student dining halls, many Houses postponed the traditional meal between undergraduates and professors or created alternative events.

Faculty dinners, often ritzy affairs compared to typical meals, replete with table clothes and full service, are an opportunity for students to dine with professors in one of Harvard’s undergraduate Houses. The changes posed by the strike affected the dinners in many Houses.

Currier, Mather, and Adams House all have delayed previously scheduled dinners. Cabot and Kirkland held student-faculty receptions with lighter fare instead of formal dinners.

Some students said they had begun thinking of ways to make up for the postponements, including through the popular Classroom to Table program that funds students to take their professors out for a meal.

“It is unfortunate but we understand the situation," said Currier House resident Karen Malacon ’19, referring to the House’s delayed faculty dinner. “We are also considering doing a Classroom to Table dinner instead because that would be a rough equivalent.”

Not every House changed its faculty dinner plans. Eliot Faculty Dean Gail A. O’ Keefe wrote in an email that the House’s dinner would continue as planned, with no changes necessary.

One academic program took matters into its own hands. The Committee on Ethnicity, Migration, Rights held a dinner to make up for the absence of faculty-student dinners. An email describing the event circulated over the Currier email list said the committee recognized “that the usual faculty dinners are unlikely to happen this term. In an effort to be with you during this time, we’re hosting an EMR Pop-Up Dinner this coming Tuesday.”