Many students say that they have turned to cooking meals as an alternative to going out to eat, which students said could become costly.

Soo J. Yi ’13 said that cooking meals is a cheaper option.

“Plus, it’s kind of nice to have an incentive to cook your own food,” she said.

A number of athletic teams, including men and women’s crew, require their athletes to remain on campus during spring break in order to practice. During that time, the crew team gives its athletes a meal allowance, which Jorie E. Sullivan ’13, a member of Women’s Lightweight Crew, said most members spend on groceries to prepare their own meals.

But Sullivan says that stipend does not cover everything.

“It would be really helpful to have the dining hall because we would have a lot more variety in the food and it would be a lot cheaper,” Sullivan said.

Talia B. Lavin ’12, said that although she enjoyed the opportunity to explore restaurants off-campus, had the dining halls been open she “would have probably eaten most of [her] meals there.”

Regenia Phillips, director of residential dining for Yale dining, said that Yale used to have a system similar to Harvard’s, where students did not have access to dining halls for all of spring break.

This year Yale will reopen some of its dining halls on the Friday before the end of break—earlier than it had in the past.

“[Students] are very appreciative to Yale dining for opening up that option because there are a lot of students on campus, especially during the second week of break,” Phillips said.

—Staff writer Monika L.S. Robbins can be reached at mrobbins@college.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Hana N. Rouse can be reached at hrouse@college.harvard.edu.