First of all, not all colleges are as rich as Harvard. In fact, no college in the USA is a rich as Harvard (Cambridge, on the other hand…). The term “whenever possible” means “whenever possible”, not “you can ignore it if you feel like saving money that you don’t really need to save”.
Most of the jobs in dining halls, libraries, rec rooms, etc, help build skills that are needed but not taught, as well as soft skills. So you have jobs that require filing, and organizing, customer service, etc. All of these help build up experience that helps on the job market that is open for for college graduates. Cleaning toilets does none of these.
@blossom Harvard just happens to be the college in the article. Any private college which has students being paid federal funds, earmarked for supporting poor students, to do work for which the college would otherwise need to use their own funds, is a problem, Public colleges are somewhat different, since essentially any money they spend on things like office work is public money, and any work the kids do is essentially, work for the public.
I could not care less that it’s Harvard, though I do find it interesting that there are people who jump to Harvard’s defense as though the richest and more powerful college in the USA is a poor downtrodden entity whose entire purpose is to uplift the oppressed, provide food for the hungry, and shelter for the homeless.