Epps, Council Throw in Towel on Student Center, Seek Alternative Space

Despite a semester of clamor for more student group offices, theaters and social space, students won't find the fabled College Hall underway when they return Harvard in the fall. The best efforts of the Undergraduate Council and Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III have failed to convince administrators that a new student center is the only answer to the current space crunch.

Instead of fighting for a new building, the council has resigned itself to the idea of finding space in the Houses and other Harvard-owned buildings. And with Epps' retirement, support within the administration for a student center has an uncertain future.

A Light in the Attic?

Administrators within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), whose support is crucial for the financing and construction of a student center, have maintained that a new building will not be a part of the student space solution.

"This is not under consideration," says Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68, a statement seconded by Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles.

Loker Commons, the multi-million dollar renovation to the basement of Memorial Hall, was supposed to serve as a student center--but without permanent student offices, the facility has become a study space and food court.

Lewis and Knowles say they both recognize the need for office and performance space but they would like to solve the problem by using existing FAS-owned buildings.

"I have said several times that there are real space issues confronting the College, and that student office space, space for publications, performance space, and meeting space are among them," Lewis wrote in an e-mail message. "It seems to me that there would not have to be a centralized facility to address these needs."

Knowles says that as buildings are renovated and repaired, spare space--"whether in attics or basements"--will be reserved for student needs.

At its last meeting two weeks ago, the Committee on College Life also discussed the possibility of designating space within the House system for use by student groups when the allocation of House resources is reviewed.

A Dream Deferred

But a decentralized solution misses Epps and the council's point.

"The single site is a way of enhancing community at the College," Epps says.

But while Epps still has his vision of College Hall, he now admits that it's unlikely his dream will become a reality.

"The proposal for a student center is not getting the support from my colleagues that it needs," Epps says.

College Hall was originally proposed in a report prepared by Epps and Coordinator of Student Activities Susan T. Cooke as a solution to the space problem. The building would have included student group offices, performance space and common areas for students.

But despite the fact that Epps says he has had a specific place in mind for the building, which he declines to disclose, he says it is clear the University has no plans to buy the site or break ground anytime soon.

"The [space] problem can be dealt with in other ways. I can accept that," he says.

While social space has been a student priority and plays a prominent role in College Hall, Epps says the administration's focus will likely be on finding student group offices and performance space.

The solution will be crafted without Epps, whose impending departure seems to leave no one in University Hall devoted to a single building for student activities.

"With Dean Epps leaving his post as Dean of Students, the support will be undermined somewhat," says Undergraduate Council President Noah Z. Seton '00.

It remains to be seen whether David P. Illingworth, appointed Wednesday to replace Epps in the fall, will be in favor of a new building.

Illingworth says he hopes to tackle the space problem in next year, but is noncommittal on the issue of a student center.

"I don't have an opinion as to whether we should build it, and if we build it if anyone would come," he quips.

With only a month left in his term as dean, Epps says there is little more he can do to advocate for a student center and, in the future, students should bring their ideas to Illingworth and Lewis.

"I think Mr. Lewis will be the one handling this issue," Epps says.

Epps says he has no plans to discuss the issue with his successor, adding that Illingworth needs to form his own opinion.

"I don't expect him to adopt my position on this. He has to be free to strike out in new directions," Epps says.

The Council Concedes

The Undergraduate Council has been loudly calling for a student center for the better part of this year. Much quieter was council members' recent acquiescence that a new building simply is not going to happen.

Samuel C. Cohen '00, chair of the council's Student Center Working Group, says the process of solving the space problem is at a "brainstorming stage." But a new student center is no longer among the options being discussed.

"There are certain administrators who are very opposed to that," he says. "I have not abandoned it entirely...but to convince people of the need for it would be a major undertaking."

"I don't think that the opposition to a student center has diminished at all," Seton agrees.

Since no new building is in the works, the $25,000 the council pledged towards a student center after months of debate will likely be reallocated.

The council promised the money--part of the infamous lost-and-found $40,000 surplus--with the conditions that the University hire an architect within a year, create a planning committee that includes students and make a timetable for the building process.

"It would basically be a way to tell the administration how serious we are about this," Cohen said in March.

But even as the money was pledged, administrators were skeptical that the "symbolic gesture" would make a big difference.

"I don't think that's a wise use of the money that Harvard had collected on the U.C.'s behalf for distribution to student activities and events," Lewis said then.

With the $25,000 pledge possibly on its way back to the council treasury, Cohen says the council's efforts are better spent finding space within current Harvard buildings rather than continuing to push for a new center.

"If I put all my energy into that, that would be kind of fruitless, and if we can get more space for groups, that's better than nothing," Cohen says.