“Our dining hall staff is doing the best that they can, but they’re also totally overburdened,” Lamie said. “The best thing we can do is help them and make sure people start to take this rule seriously.”

Students from other Houses are barred from entrance to the dining hall between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. on Monday through Friday and between 5:30 and 7 p.m. Saturday through Thursday. Adams House residents are allowed to have one visitor per meal during these restricted the hours.

Not all residents of other Houses will be shut out. Adams House will still allow Pforzheimer residents—as a concession for their loss to them in a House war a few years ago—to eat there during the restricted hours.

“These rules are not arbitrary and they’re not the result of pretentiousness,” Lamie said. “We’re just trying to take care of our own house.”

Some Adams students attribute the increase in overcrowding this year to a particularly savvy first-years using the dining hall.

“There are definitely a lot of freshmen this year figuring out that Adams is conveniently located and better than Annenberg,” Barro said.

Rodriguez said he has seen the phenomenon in action.

“I went into the service area and there were two freshmen talking and laughing about how they have never eaten in Annenberg,” he said. “It was just really frustrating.”

But the frustration goes both ways.

Students in other Houses and first-years said the enforcement of the restrictions is a major inconvenience.

Abdel Reid ’06 was among the first-years turned away by the volunteer checkers from the dining hall last night.

“It’s really upsetting, we’re just trying to eat,” he said. “Now I have to walk all the way back to the Berg where the food is definitely not up to par.”

Tim A. Hagamen ’06 was also turned away.

“It sucks,” he said.

—Staff writer Ebonie D. Hazle can be reached at hazle@fas.harvard.edu.