The food 'riot'

We'll talk in another post soon about the impact of national politics on campus, but there were a series of events in 1965 and 1966 that struck at a fundamental element of the well-being of male resident students -- food. And it was an interesting early exercise in "student power."

On December 12, 1965, Sunday dinner at McElroy was the often volatile, as I recall, roast beef au jus. In the wee hours of the following morning, the bathrooms in the dorms were crowded with young men suffering from what the Heights referred to in its coverage as "intestinal disorders." Not a pretty sight. The Heights' headline on Dec. 17, 1965, was “Drury Commission to Study Christmas Dinner Sickness.”

In March, the following spring, after little if any improvement and perhaps to bolster confidence in the quality of the BC-run food operation at McElroy, the administration reported on an inspection by the Newton Board of Health. The board's report called the McElroy Commons kitchen ‘one of the finest kitchens in Newton.’” (A high standard, indeed.) As a possible clue to the "Christmas dinner sickness" and a portent of things to come, however, one board member suggested refrigeration in the meat preparation room would be a good idea.

Only two days following the board of health's report, and faced with a Sunday "dinner" consisting of a "sub" containing a breaded veal cutlet and tomato sauce, the male resident students expressed their own opinion. As the subsequent Heights article reported, "The riot, begun by a lone, soaring milk carton, immediately turned into a tray-throwing melee which, while no more than one minute long, left McElroy dining hall littered with un-eaten food and over-turned chairs.”

An ad hoc committee of students, including classmate Peter Driscoll, quickly established a series of orderly demonstrations to further the cause of better food. Again relying on Heights coverage for the details, a large number of students showed up for dinner at 5:55 pm, just before 6 pm closing, the day after the riot. The cafeteria had to remain open until 6:20 to accommodate. The following night, in an escalation, students formed a single line of approximately 600 students, disdaining the two other distribution lines available, near closing time, and that required the cafeteria to remain open until 7:20 pm. Wednesday night, students marched peacefully in the rain from Cheverus to St. Mary’s Hall and demanded better dining conditions.

By the end of April, a company called Saga was running the McElroy operation, with short-term improvements, at least. One perhaps unexpected result of the upgrade was that, according to the April 29, 1966 Heights, “The students are, at times, perplexed with the plethora of selections.”

Anybody have favorite memories of McElroy food back in freshman-sophomore years?