Of the Students, By the Students, For the Students

During winter break, students received a look from University officials at the preliminary plans for the renovation of the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center.  Intended as a central, socializing space for students, the Campus Center is a positive initiative that has the potential to improve student life. The plans for this center have, however, come under scrutiny in the past for ignoring student input, and going forward, the planners should make every effort to stay attuned to students’ desires for the project.

President Faust and the working groups involved in this project have made strong efforts to design the new campus center to be a social and vibrant space worthy of the Common Spaces program, which also spearheaded the Science Center Plaza and Memorial Church porch renovations. Meeting rooms, lounge spaces, restaurants, and cute touches like indoor trees that reflect the seasons should fulfill student wishes for comfortable meeting areas and student services. Also worth mentioning are plans for the center to be open 24 hours a day, and endeavors to attend to specific student wishes like lockers, which students at Harvard’s Longwood campus and College students living in the Quad have requested.

These efforts to incorporate individual student feedback are commendable, but the campus center should keep larger-scale student recommendations in mind as well, lest it fail like Loker Commons, a past attempt at creating a common space for students. Notably, the Undergraduate Council’s request in 2011 for an undergraduate student center will not come to fruition in the Smith Campus Center, which will be designed to accommodate all of the University’s schools, faculty and alumni, as well as tourists in some locations.

While President Faust aims for this to be a part of her “one University” goal for Harvard’s capital campaign, undergraduate leaders worry that such a broad audience will have disparate needs and deter undergraduates from using the communal space. Those in charge of the Smith Campus Center’s design need to be mindful of The Queen’s Head Pub, which members of the campus center’s undergraduate working group have cited as a failed example of a space intended for both graduate and undergraduate students.

This working group represents the best vehicle through which undergraduates can influence plans for the center. Created to help establish College priorities for the Campus Center, its members must make sure that they continue to communicate undergraduate concerns effectively as the project gets underway. For their part, university planners must make clear that they continue to value student feedback.

When the Smith Campus Center opens in 2018, it may very well become an invaluable part of life for Harvard undergraduates. While the current plans are promising, more attention to student ideas will ensure that the Center fulfills this intended purpose.