College Should Explore Pub Loker

Much to the consternation of boozers across the campus, Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 nixed the idea of installing a bar in Loker Commons at a meeting of the Undergraduate Council last week. While we were disheartened by Lewis' comments, we hold out hope that the College will explore the possibility of bringing alcohol to the Commons.

At the Council meeting, Lewis raised reasonable concerns about recasting the Commons as Pub Loker: he noted that one of the original purposes of Loker was to provide students with an alcohol-free social space, voiced concern about the possibility of alcohol abuse and raised reservations about the proximity of the student center to first-year dormitories. None of these objections, however, is strong enough to justify keeping Loker alcohol-free, and the fears underlying each of them can be allayed if alcohol is introduced in a sensible way.

First, Loker could serve beer as its only alcoholic beverage, and limit its sale and possession to the area now housing the coffee house, keeping taps open exclusively in evening hours. This would prevent Harvard students from transforming the entire Commons into a loud and rollicking bar scene in the early afternoons--something that, without restriction, it would likely become.

Second, by hiring an experienced and responsible bartender and instructing him or her not to serve drunk or rowdy students, the College could insure that Loker avoided contributing to the abuse of alcohol--it might even provide a collegial alternative to less hospitable drinking environments.

Third, and perhaps most significant, Lewis' concern about the proximity of alcohol to the yard is not an argument against a Pub Loker but is rather a case in its favor. One of the most significant problems with Loker as a student center is that, because of its proximity to first-year dorms and Annenberg Hall, it is typically dominated by the College's youngest students. By offering something to attract seniors to Loker, a balance between the College's newcomers and fossils might be reached that would bring sophomores and juniors in line, making Loker the center for all Harvard undergraduates that it was intended to be.

In the end though--if Kathleen I. Kouril '82, the consultant hired to help improve Loker, is to be trusted--the prospects of a bar in the Commons are in the hands of students. "The University has to be careful about the health and safety of the students," she cautioned, "but like everything else at Loker, if we find a ground swell of public opinion, an issue can be reconsidered." If only we believed the enthusiasm of students for activism to be equal to their enthusiasm for alcohol.