U.C. Plans College Pep Rally

Members of the Undergraduate Council said yesterday they are considering plans for a college-wide pep rally on the eve of the Yale Game to address the College's notorious lack of school spirit.

Co-chair of the council's Campus Life Committee Rudd W. Coffey '97 proposed the rally at last Monday's committee meeting.

"We want to have a bonfire and pep rally in the quad behind the MAC from 7-9 the night before the game," Coffey said yesterday.

The rally's main purpose would be to show students' support for the football team, Joshua D. Liston '95, a member of the Campus Life committee, said yesterday.

"Before everyone goes out and parties, we'd like to have everyone come out and cheer on the Crimson," Liston said.

Liston said he hopes cheerleaders, the band, the football team and Head Coach Tim Murphy will participate in the rally.

A rally of these proportions would be a unique event at Harvard, and may trigger an increase in school spirit as a whole, council members agreed.

"We haven't had a full-scale pep rally like this, not since I've been here," Council Vice-President Brandon C. Gregoire '95 said.

But two years ago, the Harvard University Band marched through Harvard's dining halls playing "Ten Thousand Men of Harvard," then joined the cheerleaders for a pep rally on the steps of Widener Library, according to Anne Q. Eakin '95, the manager of the band.

"[The possibility of a rally is] sort of a non-issue to me, because we'd do it with or without the U.C.," Eakin said yesterday. "But if the U.C. ends up funding some advertising, that would be great."

But gaining bureaucratic approval for the pep rally may be a difficult task, Coffey said.

After finalizing plans for the rally, the council would need approval from the Harvard Police Department, the Cambridge Fire Department, the masters of Lowell, Eliot, Winthrop and Kirkland Houses and Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III, Coffey said.

Epps has demonstrated his interest in school spirit in the past. Two years ago, the dean formed a Spirit Committee to address the issue of school spirit at Harvard. That committee is currently inactive.

"It is not active. I had concluded that while the administration could be a catalyst for issues of school spirit, the solutions lay with the undergraduates," Epps said yesterday. "I am therefore happy that the Council is interested in the rally and I hope that it goes well for them."

Coffey, Liston and Gregoire agreed yesterday that steps must be taken to increase school spirit at Harvard.

And Jeremy H. Gunther '98, an offensive tackle on the junior varsity team, said a rally would help to increase students' awareness of the football program.

"I think it would be nice to get something like that started, to get people interested in us," he said.