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> Somebody somewhere would be doing these things Yes, but Harvard duplicates existing services. e.g. when Harvard runs a dining org, that service is already p

> Somebody somewhere would be doing these things Yes, but Harvard duplicates existing services. e.g. when Harvard runs a dining org, that service is already provided by local restaurants and grocery stores. The only things Harvard needs to provide are things that you can't already get in Boston. Classrooms, libraries, labs, etc. It's just like engineering. Anything that can easily be offloaded to a third party tool should be.

jackvalentine 4y ago
Do those existing local businesses have the capacity to fulfil the customers that Harvard currently is, if Harvard were to suddenly tomorrow withdraw that service entirely?
- chefandy 4y ago
  Unless Harvard was to sell its facilities for someone else to operate, local businesses never could... Not without serious change in local governance. Not close to enough commercial space. You'd have to demolish a bunch of buildings to make larger facilities to handle the load.
HPsquared 4y ago
Generic restaurants can't exclude non-Harvard students.
upsidesinclude 4y ago
Presumptuous. Also, opinion. You seem to be missing that harvard attracts exceptional (and well connected) people. Expanding the business to suit their skills is a natural evolution. >...dining... Uh, Harvard throws a huge number of fund raising events that have to be catered and no one cares about the name of the catering company if the food is trash. It's in the best interest of Harvard to set their own standards for their events
themitigating 4y ago
They have a cafeteria, dining halls, and other eateries. Do you know how long it would take a student to walk off campus to a find a grocery store or restaurant? Sometimes quite a walk depending on your location
csallen 4y ago
But you could say that about anything. If there's one restaurant in town and somebody opens up a second, you could say, "There was already a restaurant and you're just duplicating existing services." Yeah that's true, but so what? Same with Harvard. If they want to build services that compete with other local services, why is that worse than anyone else doing the same?
bee_rider 4y ago
It is also pretty common for large companies in the US to have some sort of dining services, for what it’s worth. (I’m surprised this isn’t a thing in Europe, off the cuff “cafeteria” doesn’t look like an Americanism to me, but maybe it is). Dining services for students make sense to me. Students are generally young folks with a lot going on. They might be on their own for the first time. It is helpful to have a place where they can just go grab some food without too much thought. Dining services might be priced into the student’s tuition, so parents can be confident that their kids will get meals, rather than spending their budget on partying, haha. Plus, actually this is probably a more practical reason and I should have lead with it: dorms usually have limited cooking facilities. And imagine the messes which would be created in the shared kitchen, if everyone was using it. Eating out is nice, but most people don’t do it every day. Dining services handle the unexciting daily meals well — so really, this isn’t a redundant service to local restaurants.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- juhanima 4y ago
  I totally agree with you that providing healthy and affordable meals for the students is a very good idea. So let me tell you how that was and is organized in my alma mater, the Helsinki University. Both student meals and healthcare are managed by independent student organizations, which have grown quite wealthy during the two hundred years they have existed. The company running the dozens of cafeterias, Unicafe, is entirely owned by the student organization HYY, which also owns several valuable properties in the city center of Helsinki. The healthcare is organized around the Finnish Student Health Service, which is a foundation managed by the students themselves. At least during my time the almost free healthcare and the affordable lunches were a significant benefit for the poor but hard-working students. Both of these branches are totally independent of the actual university and are basically independent societies founded and run by the students themselves.
  - bee_rider 4y ago
    Interesting. Actually I think there are shops and cafeterias that are student run at some US universities. It just doesn’t seem as widespread as what you describe. Health insurance seems like a high stakes thing to be student-run! Is it run entirely by current students or do alums help out? In any case, I’m certainly not going to pretend that US students aren’t coddled a bit. School here has a been a little bit infected with the customer-service mentality… like pretty much everything else. It is what it is I guess.
thehappypm 4y ago
Economies of scale diminish with size. Merge 1000 small companies? Huge benefit. Merge 10 big companies? Minor benefit, and sometimes the loss in specialization can actually be negative
kuhewa 4y ago
Why are you suggesting it should be in this case? I reckon you are begging the question here.

jackvalentine 4y ago

Do those existing local businesses have the capacity to fulfil the customers that Harvard currently is, if Harvard were to suddenly tomorrow withdraw that service entirely?

chefandy 4y ago
Unless Harvard was to sell its facilities for someone else to operate, local businesses never could... Not without serious change in local governance. Not close to enough commercial space. You'd have to demolish a bunch of buildings to make larger facilities to handle the load.

HPsquared 4y ago

Generic restaurants can't exclude non-Harvard students.

upsidesinclude 4y ago

Presumptuous. Also, opinion. You seem to be missing that harvard attracts exceptional (and well connected) people. Expanding the business to suit their skills is a natural evolution. >...dining... Uh, Harvard throws a huge number of fund raising events that have to be catered and no one cares about the name of the catering company if the food is trash. It's in the best interest of Harvard to set their own standards for their events

themitigating 4y ago

They have a cafeteria, dining halls, and other eateries. Do you know how long it would take a student to walk off campus to a find a grocery store or restaurant? Sometimes quite a walk depending on your location

csallen 4y ago

But you could say that about anything. If there's one restaurant in town and somebody opens up a second, you could say, "There was already a restaurant and you're just duplicating existing services." Yeah that's true, but so what? Same with Harvard. If they want to build services that compete with other local services, why is that worse than anyone else doing the same?

bee_rider 4y ago

It is also pretty common for large companies in the US to have some sort of dining services, for what it’s worth. (I’m surprised this isn’t a thing in Europe, off the cuff “cafeteria” doesn’t look like an Americanism to me, but maybe it is). Dining services for students make sense to me. Students are generally young folks with a lot going on. They might be on their own for the first time. It is helpful to have a place where they can just go grab some food without too much thought. Dining services might be priced into the student’s tuition, so parents can be confident that their kids will get meals, rather than spending their budget on partying, haha. Plus, actually this is probably a more practical reason and I should have lead with it: dorms usually have limited cooking facilities. And imagine the messes which would be created in the shared kitchen, if everyone was using it. Eating out is nice, but most people don’t do it every day. Dining services handle the unexciting daily meals well — so really, this isn’t a redundant service to local restaurants.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
juhanima 4y ago
I totally agree with you that providing healthy and affordable meals for the students is a very good idea. So let me tell you how that was and is organized in my alma mater, the Helsinki University. Both student meals and healthcare are managed by independent student organizations, which have grown quite wealthy during the two hundred years they have existed. The company running the dozens of cafeterias, Unicafe, is entirely owned by the student organization HYY, which also owns several valuable properties in the city center of Helsinki. The healthcare is organized around the Finnish Student Health Service, which is a foundation managed by the students themselves. At least during my time the almost free healthcare and the affordable lunches were a significant benefit for the poor but hard-working students. Both of these branches are totally independent of the actual university and are basically independent societies founded and run by the students themselves.
- bee_rider 4y ago
  Interesting. Actually I think there are shops and cafeterias that are student run at some US universities. It just doesn’t seem as widespread as what you describe. Health insurance seems like a high stakes thing to be student-run! Is it run entirely by current students or do alums help out? In any case, I’m certainly not going to pretend that US students aren’t coddled a bit. School here has a been a little bit infected with the customer-service mentality… like pretty much everything else. It is what it is I guess.

thehappypm 4y ago

Economies of scale diminish with size. Merge 1000 small companies? Huge benefit. Merge 10 big companies? Minor benefit, and sometimes the loss in specialization can actually be negative

kuhewa 4y ago

Why are you suggesting it should be in this case? I reckon you are begging the question here.