Since the beginning of Harvard, when the first University Master, Nathaniel Eaton, and his wife were run out of Cambridge for serving rotten food to cut costs, Harvard's dining system has been the object of derision and scorn.

Recently, though, Harvard students have been taking one aspect of the dining hall system more seriously. As more and more schools convert to and utilize the advantages of variable meal plans, transferable credits and point systems, Harvard's mandatory 21-meal board contract has become a frequent topic of dinner discussion.

In the days of magnetic-taped, computer-linked meal cards that identify you and the number of meals you have eaten within seconds, the Harvard institution of house checkers who know their house's residents intimately seem anachronistic.

Brown, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia and Princeton have computerized their dining services so that students can eat what and when they choose.

Not All the Food is BROWN

Four board contracts are available at Brown, at either 20, 14, 10 or 7 meals per week. Freshmen are required to choose one of the college plans, but upperclassmen--whether they opt to join a co-op, live in an apartment or stay in university housing--can also opt to fend for themselves. Kathy Payne, administrative dietician for Brown University Food Service, estimates that about 4000 Brown students have a board contract which entitles them to eat in either of two all-campus dining halls.

In addition, students on the meal plan can choose to transfer meal credits to one of the three campus snack bars that operate late into the night. Students that miss one of their meals can obtain a credit of $2.70 and computerized cards help insure that no one cheats the system.

Brown students can "go for credit" at a grill, health food shop or a pizza/deli store, all with wide selections. "It's funny because when I do nutrition counseling with students, they always mention midnight meals from one of the snack bars," Payne says.

In the normal dining halls, food can be just as exotic. Special dinners occur at least once a month and once the Food Services gave a lobster/clambake. "There are a great number of restaurants around here," Payne says. "We'd be out of business if we weren't competitive."

PENN Prerogatives

At Penn, there are three choices for meal plans--15, 10 or 5, none of which include weekend meals. Only students living on campus are required to buy a meal plan, although the off-campus students can get the five-lunch per week meal plan.

The Dining Service operates five main dining halls plus Training House, used exclusively to serve dinner to athletes with afternoon practices. An added bonus is the nearby Penn Towers Hilton which allows Penn students $10 credit towards a meal in the hotel's fancy restaurant each semester.

The school has also just opened a snack bar that allows a $2.50 credit towards same-day purchase if you skip a meal.

Lunch in the dining halls daily includes either a deli line--made-to-order sandwiches from cold cuts or lox and bagels--or a hot line that makes burgers and offers other entrees. Another daily feature is an ice cream bar with four or five different flavors and toppings. If you want to find out what's being served, you can dial a "Menu Phone" with a recorded massage of each day's offerings.

COLUMBIA Cuisine, Plebian at PRINCETON

At Columbia, both graduate students and upperclassmen buy a certain number of points which can be redeemed for food either at one of the school's two main dining halls or at the one of the a la carte cafeterias. This is in addition to the board contract, which allow students to go to 7, 10, 15 or 19 meals in a week.

A similar system operates at Princeton, although many students prefer to join one of the school's 13 eating clubs, which are the focus of Princeton social life. The clubs, some co-ed, some all male, some selective, some not, operate their own dining services for members and cost little more than the normal Princeton meal contract.

350 Years of Dining

And then there's Harvard Dining Services, as old as the house system itself, that is still run in much the same way it was when the houses opened in 1933, though not as fancily. The reason for the inflexible mandatory 21-meal plan is Harvard's unique housing system, which requires each house to have a separate dining hall, creating 13 plus the freshman Union.

The houses were created as contained unified communities, according to Benjamin H. Walcott, the assistant director of Harvard Dining Services. "The House system isn't the most efficient way to feed the number of people we serve--it would be better to have four Unions--but Harvard was designed to be an experience, and the dining environment is an integral part of that experience," Walcott says.

Yale also uses the 21-meal system because of the similar set-up of their colleges, Walcott adds. Walcott says that the variable meal option would be cost-efficient at Harvard only if some of the dining halls closed. Such plans have been proposed, Walcott says, but the Corporation makes all decisions about such matters, not the Dining Service.

Operating the 21-meal service run $2036 for an academic year, as compared to $1635 for Brown's 20 meals and $1736 for Penn's 15 meals. "You have to look at how many meals are available for that cost," Walcott says. "You also may or may not be aware that although entitled to 21 meals, the average student eats 14, and the cost is adjusted to that."

Richard S. Eisert '88, president of the Undergraduate Council and former chair of the residential committee thinks that a variable meal plan wouldn't work for Harvard. "Most of the cost is for labor to run all the halls--for a person to miss a meal doesn't save money. Besides, the house dining halls are the center of social life here and another system would jeopardize that," Eisert says.

However, last year the council debated a plan by which students could pick up a coupon at the checker's desk if they were going to miss a meal and then redeem it at one of the house grills or the independently-run Greenhouse Cafe in the Science Center, Eisert says. "But the grills couldn't afford it--they barely break even as it is--and the Greenhouse would only offer $1 of credit," he adds.

The best that Harvard's gourmands are going to be able to do is to try and enjoy the food, since they won't have much choice but to eat it. "The food service people are very receptive to suggestions--they're very happy to listen to us--but they need a lot more student input," Eisert says.

"I live in Dunster where the food in highly edible," says Kristin A. Gilbertson '87. "But a 21-meal system is a little inefficient and unfair to someone like myself who may not eat as much." She adds, "I can understand their wanting to preserve the house system, but it seems as though some type of point plan could be worked out."

"I think a point system would be hassle," says Mark Caggiano '89 of Leverett House. "My brother's school is on a point system and a lot of people end up losing their points."

"It's fine with me because I eat at every meal," says Alexander Glasshauser '90. "I can sympathize with people who don't eat every meal, but I don't think about it too often."