FAS Lacks Funds for Mem Hall

The University is all set to go ahead with plans to convert the Harvard Union into a humanities center and move the freshperson dining hall to Memorial Hall. But there's one catch--funding.

Administrators say the plan, revealed last winter, would lessen the faculty office space crunch and provide a focus for undergraduate life, although some students remain skeptical.

A decision on the plan, however, will have to wait until the Faculty of Arts and Sciences can raise the money needed for the multi-million dollar project. FAS does not have a specific fund drive earmarked for the project, says Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57, but he adds that he hopes the University can collect enough money this fall to start the project soon.

"It wouldn't surprise me if this were to be a four- to five-year project," says Jewett.

Meanwhile, the University will convene an informal committee of administrators and student representatives to discuss options for student facilites in Memorial Hall.

According to a feasibility study conducted in May by Harvard Real Estate (HRE)--which manages Memorial Hall for FAS--the plan is structurally and financially sound.

"The study was very positive, very encouraging," Associate Dean for Physical Resources Philip J. Parsons said at the time the report was completed. "I imagine this project would be very attractive to many people."

In its present form, the proposal by the prestigious architectural firm of Venturi, Rauch and Scott Brown would turn the Union into offices, seminar rooms and a graduate student center, says Peter J. Riley, project manager for the HRE study. Memorial Hall would house a dining hall, restaurant, grill and general meeting spaces. Student organizations currently holding space in Memorial Hall would relocate to spaces left by departments moving into the humanities center.

Still, many student groups--even those that have lobbied hard for a student center--are not happy about this plan which they say is not what they had in mind.

"The consequences," one WHRB staff member said in June, "would be tearing everything down and building from scratch. It would be disastrous, but that's a given."