"In my experience, [the checkers] all wanted to do it, a part of their job, a part of they way they felt they were making a difference," Pfister said. "In some ways, they're deprived of that now."

Leverett House Master John E. Dowling, who chairs the House Masters Committee, defended the ID card electronic reader system as an effi- cient means of record-keeping.

"We can't have everything," Dowling said. "Ifwe could somehow still retain that wonderfulrelationship, that would be a terrific thing todo."

Still, as a longtime house master, Dowling hashis own stories of personable dining hall checkerspast.

One recently retired dining hall worker knewwhich students had academic difficulties.

When an exam was coming up and she didn't see aparticular student at breakfast, "she wouldn'thesitate to call them and tell them to come ondown and get breakfast," Dowling said.

Another dining hall staff member made sure thata student, who would often become depressed duringexam periods, would check in at the dininghall--even after that student had movedoff-campus.

Dining Services Director Michael P. Berry saidhe's not sure that he "buys" the stories of thedining hall checkers past, who supposedly knewevery student's birthday and exam schedule.

"Some are very friendly, and some intimidatethe hell out of me," Berry said. "I think it'smore human nature than the [card] access system."

Ultimately, Berry said, the electronic accesssystem makes no difference in the way checkersrelate to students.

"The bottom line is, a friendly checker willknow everyone anyway," Berry said. "The new systemis neither an impediment nor a bonus for them."

However, Berry said, "those who are lessenthusiastic by nature are probably going to usethe access system as more of a crutch."

Berry said Dining Services officials plan toaddress the perceived problem, and have put it onthe agenda for their management retreat nextweekend.

Though no decisions have yet been made, Berrysaid the solution will likely be to have "serviceawareness training" for the checkers.

Dining hall checkers concede that the newautomated system makes it more difficult to get toknow their students.

"With the old system, students had to identifythemselves," said Jane C. Kelley, an Adams Housechecker. "This year it was harder to learnstudents' names, but I really made an effort."