Moreover, sour grapes employees who pepper some House offices, shuttle driver seats and other administrative positions should be identified and retrained in the art of customer service. Those who do not improve should be let go.

By encouraging this sort of customer service-minded culture to expand to every level of the campus, everyone gains. A happier and more content student body surely leads to higher alumni giving rate in the future.

This is not to say, however, that students have no role in the process. Customers cannot expect to be treated well when they treat employees poorly. This means writing letters praising good service in addition to those that criticize. It means asking more and demanding less.

Whatever the case, improving customer service must become a priority at Harvard, or it may soon find itself playing Filene's Basement to the Nordstrom's in New Haven or Princeton.

--SCOTT A. RESNICK