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Via Shorpy.

I would guess that this was a Reunion Banquet. In my day, freshman ate their meals here in University Commons. Normally, this dining hall was far less crowded. There were many fewer individual tables, spaced a lot farther apart. Yale doesn’t use the space for student meals anymore, and I believe the whole building is being renovated and changed into some kind of multi-purpose student center. But, then, where will Yale hold these kind of banquets? one wonders.