Chadbourne said after the meeting that he was optimistic about the prospects for making dining hall hours later.

“We wanted to get the committee to agree that there is this fundamental problem, and this committee today did give their agreement,” Chadbourne said. “I’m very excited that the committee and college has noted that this is something that needs to be done.”

Chadbourne said that the next step was to discuss the report with the Student Advisory Committee to HUDS, which was formed in February. Council SAC Secretary Amadi P. Anene ’08, who compiled the report with Chadbourne, said he hoped a decision could be reached by the end of the 2005-2006 academic year.

The idea for the survey was inspired by Anene’s personal experiences, he said.

“As a freshman, one of the most common things I noticed was people not making dining hall hours, being hungry afterwards, and spending a lot of money on food,” he said.

The survey showed that of students who miss dinner, 83 percent typically purchase food to substitute for their missed meal.

“I think it’s a large problem when our dining system is supposed to cover an unlimited amount of meals when 87 percent of students who miss meals buy food elsewhere,” Anene said.

The survey also showed that 83 percent of respondents miss dinner at least once or twice per week, and of those students, a majority of them skip dinner due to inconvenient timing and extra-curricular and academic conflicts.

“I was very pleased that the CHL agreed that current dining hall hours had problems,” Anene said of the discussion. “I think it’s a crucial first step, but it’s only the first step in a long process of ameliorating the problems of dining halls.”

—Staff writer Jessica C. Chiu can be reached at jcchiu@fas.harvard.edu.