Around Commencement time, most Cambridge hotel rooms are filled with Harvard guests, who made their reservations last year if not earlier. The Harvard Motor Lodge has been booked for three and one half years--since spring of the Class of '87's freshman year.

Most celebrants also made their restaurant reservations early, as traditional and formal restaurants such as Lockober's in Boston and Rarities at the Charles Hotel reported last week that their reservation books were nearly full with Harvard guests for Commencement night.

In the days before Commencement, however, Harvard takes care of the food and entertainment. Alumni, students, and guests will eat 79,000 meals during the 10-day celebration period.

Harvard University Food Service workers started preparing food last week, says Dale M. Hennessey, assistant director for administration, who helps coordinate menus. The guests will consume 14,000 lbs. of salmon, 480 lbs. of asparagus and 1100 pints of strawberries, says Philip R. Bauer '36, senior food buyer for the Food Services.

And that's not all. About 800 gallons of orange juice, 500 lbs. of shrimp, 4000 lbs. of beef, 4200 lbs. of fresh fruit and 384 gallons of special insignia ice cream are also on the menus.

Meals range from morning coffee and danish breaks to sit-down dinners and the traditional Eliot House lunch of salmon and strawberries. Thirteen thousand meals are served on Commencement day itself, including the lunch of fan-cut, chicken marinated with a tarragon vinaigrette, fruit and tea sandwiches, Hennessey said.

In addition, more than 100 special menus were prepared for 50th reunion-goers as well as for the first grade children of the alumni returning for the 25th reunion. Older guests "can't have anything that they really need to chew," and younger ones are served simpler meals like chicken fingers, Hennessey said.

Each age group also has a week's menu of specially-designed activities. Alumni children are divided into five "color" groups, according to age. While returning classmates attend cocktail parties, symposia, and concerts, the youngest "grape" group children will visit the Big Apple Circus, and the college-aged "blue" group will dance at The Metro club.

While the college-age children of the alumni play sports at the Essex Country Club and attend the Boston Pops, 70 Harvard College students will be baby-sitting.

The University hires hundreds of Harvard student workers to stay through Commencement. They work as baby-sitters, bell-hops and drivers, and answer questions at the information desk.

"When the events start rolling, students make sure [they] actually happen," says Gregg. Last year, he says he worked 20 hours a day for four to five days taking care of last-minute emergencies. Because it rained on Commencement day, and the scheduled shuttle buses were filled up or stuck in traffic, the students had to scramble to find enough vans to take 300 couples from the Class of 1936 back to their cars in the Business School parking lot.

Workers at the information booth are routinely asked to solve crisises, including making hotel reservations for alumni. But some student jobs, such as bell-hopping, are often less nerve-wracking and more lucrative, especially when alumni "drop heavy bills," says Gregg.

All in all it is not too difficult to keep the alumni happy. Edwards says he never gets any impatient requests for maintenance services. "I'm always amazed at the good nature of the alumni. I might expect that after 40 years they would come back as grouches, but they're in good humor."