As Harvard Cafe Prices Rise, BoardPlus Remains Stuck at $65 Per Semester

Over the past 17 years, Harvard’s tuition has nearly doubled. But over that same time period, the $65 credit that undergraduate students receive via BoardPlus to use in Harvard cafes and grilles has remained the same.

The $65 BoardPlus allowance that the College loads onto students’ IDs every semester has remained unchanged since 2007, according to archived versions of the Harvard University Dining Services’ website.

The stagnant $65 amount since 2007 represents a 40 percent decrease in BoardPlus’s purchasing power, according to professor Jason Furman ’92, who teaches the popular Economics 10 course at Harvard.

“Since 2007 the price of cafes and restaurants nationwide is up 77 percent,” Furman wrote in an email. “If Harvard raised its prices by a comparable amount to private establishments — and I do not know if it has actually done this — then that would be the equivalent of a 40 percent cut in the purchasing power of the BoardPlus subsidy.”

“I assume they’ve gone up with dining prices but absent knowing that for sure I don’t want to say something out of ignorance,” Furman added.

HUDS did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Students receive the $65 sum at the beginning of each semester. While leftover amounts roll over between semesters in one academic year, BoardPlus balances always reset to zero dollars at the end of the spring semester.

BoardPlus credit can be spent at a number of popular cafes and dining locations across campus, including at select Harvard libraries, graduate schools, and the Science and Engineering Complex in Allston. Prior to this semester, students could also spend BoardPlus at the student-run Queen’s Head Pub in the basement of Annenberg Hall, which the College permanently closed in May.

Even as students’ BoardPlus funding has remained the same, the prices of drinks and food items at Harvard cafes have steadily increased over the last two decades. In 2019, a large latte at the Café Gato Rojo cost $3. Now, the Lamont Library Cafe — a similar cafe run by HUDS — serves large lattes for $4.99.

Though almost all students said they use their BoardPlus allowance, many of them expressed frustration that they quickly ran out of their funds.

McKenna E. Handy ’25 said she goes to the SEC for her engineering classes where the only food options are spending BoardPlus or picking up food from FlyBy, a to-go meal service that includes pre-made sandwiches, soups, salads, and snacks.

“I love the pizza,” Handy said. “I’m the biggest advocate for the pizza, mainly because it’s the cheapest option and they don’t give us that much BoardPlus.”

Christopher E.G. Ruaño ’26 said the pizza is “really the star of the show” because it is one of the cheapest food items on the menu in Harvard cafeterias.

“I have created a meticulous schedule for myself. I budgeted on a Google Sheet the amount of pizza slices that I can get per week,” he said, adding that he could buy around two slices per week in one semester.

Some students said they were “indifferent” to a potential increase in semesterly BoardPlus dollars.

“Obviously, as a student, I would hope to have more BoardPlus because that benefits me,” Ezekiel A. Wells ’27 said. “But to be honest, I don’t feel strongly enough about it where it’s enraging me.”

Rafael A. Jacobsen ’27 said the $65 is insufficient, pointing to increases in tuition and dissatisfaction with standard HUDS offerings.

“I want more money,” Jacobsen said. “Please.”

—Staff writer Eve S. Jones contributed reporting.

—Staff writer Madeleine A. Hung can be reached at madeleine.hung@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Azusa M. Lippit can be reached at azusa.lippit@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @azusalippit or on Threads @azusalippit.