Following Dining Hall Crowds, Harvard College Won’t Say Whether It Tracked Wintersession Move-Ins

After overwhelming numbers of hungry students at the Adams House dining hall on Sunday and Monday sparked frustration over long lines, Harvard College declined to disclose how it prepared to accommodate returning undergraduates.

Only two Harvard University Dining Services dining halls — for Adams and Currier Houses — were open for four days after Harvard College opened dorms for Wintersession, a one-week period starting Jan. 17 during which undergraduates may begin to move in for the spring term. Quincy and Lowell House dining halls reopened Tuesday, thinning the Adams crowds.

In response to a Thursday request for comment about the College’s method of tracking student move-in, College spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo wrote that students were required to request permission to stay on campus for the period of winter break before Wintersession.

There was no application process for students to return on or after Jan. 17, and Palumbo declined to answer questions from The Crimson on whether the College tracked Wintersession move-in or forecast how many students were expected to return.

Students waiting in long dining hall lines earlier this week said they assumed the College would have a sense of how many students it needed to accommodate.

“The Harvard administration definitely has enough knowledge to know that there’s this space and the amount of staff they have,” Christopher L. Rivers ’25 said.

“Harvard knows how many people are going to be here. There’s not really an excuse for, ‘Oh, there’s too many people.’ Like this is something that they can be aware of,” he added.

Harvard University Dining Services spokesperson Crista Martin wrote in a Tuesday email that “on both Sunday, January 19 and Monday, January 20, Adams House dining served more patrons than is typical during the academic year.”

Many undergraduates returned to campus early for student activities, Wintersession programs, and exams. Harvard advised international students to return before Monday, the day of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration.

Martin, the HUDS spokesperson, wrote that in an “unprecedented decision,” the College and HUDS kept the Adams dining hall open through all of winter session — including on holidays like Christmas, New Year’s Day, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Students had the option to apply for winter campus housing from Dec. 21 to Jan. 16, primarily reserved for student athletes and international students on financial aid.

In previous years, dining halls closed on the last day of exams and began to re-open around Jan. 3., Martin wrote in a Thursday email. A College spokesperson declined to comment on why Adams dining hall remained open throughout break this year.

Though the pressure alleviated after additional dhalls opened on Tuesday, students remained frustrated about the earlier crowding in interviews conducted Monday and Tuesday.

“It sucks,” Rivers said of the crowded Adams dining hall.

“The overcrowding is kind of ridiculous,” Dayley Katz ’28 said, adding that she had trouble finding a seat at lunch. “This past week, a lot of people are on campus. At the beginning it wasn’t as bad, but every day, there's more and more and more people.”

For many student athletes, returning early to campus is mandatory to participate in winter training. Harvard Track and Field athlete Shane M. Brosnan ’26 said College administrators “need to be able to accommodate” returning students in dining halls.

Though the College and HUDS opened Currier House’s dining hall on Jan. 11, Brosnan said in a Monday interview that Adams was “really the only feasible option for most people” due to the shutdown of shuttles to the Radcliffe Quad — where Currier is located — in observance of MLK Jr. Day.

Mercedes Lopez ’28 said she expected Adams to be crowded, as it was the only dining hall open among the upperclassman River Houses.

“There’s only one little buffet with the main dish, and everybody else is trying to get it,” Lopez said. “There’s a huge line, and you're bumping into people on one side and on the other side.”

Some students said they expected the College to better anticipate the volume students returning for Wintersession.

Martin wrote in the Tuesday email that HUDS will take note of this year’s influx of students in planning for the future.

“As we do each year, HUDS notes the changing patterns of students’ return to campus and adjusts services for the next year accordingly,” she wrote.

—Staff writer Sophia Y King can be reached at sophia.king@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @sophia_kingg.