First Steps Toward Community

The Harvard community is a collection of individuals who are as fascinating as they are unique. It is interaction with our talented peers that gives a Harvard education its unique value. Even more than lectures and section meetings, Harvard is about the lessons learned at dining room tables and in late-night conversations.

But due both to the fragmented nature of Harvard’s student body and to the decentralized design of Harvard’s campus, the opportunities for students to interact with their peers across the usual boundaries of lecture halls, clubs and Houses are far too few. This series has been dedicated to exploring ways to expand those opportunities, through both long-term reforms and immediate improvements.

A successful campus community is organic; its chief virtue lies in the type of spontaneous student interaction that cannot be mandated through new policies or realized through suggestions to “slow down” and enjoy the Harvard experience. More than anything else, students need space to see each other and the opportunities for community building that come along with it.

Our vision of a Harvard community where students are given the space they need—not only to work and learn, but also to socialize and play—calls for complex and significant changes that will not come about overnight. Some solutions will take years. Converting the Inn at Harvard into a new and inviting student center will require not only meticulous planning but also 12 years of waiting until DoubleTree Hotels’ current lease on the property expires.

Not all solutions are a matter of decades: Loker Commons should be renovated over the summer, and a system of live-in residential assistants for first-year students could be in place by the time classes start next fall. But the planning required for even these comparatively simple improvements could mean that students will not enjoy the benefits of change in the immediate future.

Although the most far-reaching and effective changes may require our persistent efforts, there are other solutions the College could implement tomorrow. Many of these quick fixes are familiar; their simplicity has led students to advocate them for years. But Harvard is a place where old traditions die hard even if there is no reason to maintain them, and student voices have too often fallen upon deaf ears. If the College is dedicated to the goal of building a vibrant community, it should begin making improvements—both small and large—right now.

First, round-the-clock universal keycard access should be granted to all students. The proponents of 24-hour access, this page included, have stressed its ability to make the campus a safer place by allowing students to swipe into the security of any House at any hour. But aside from the powerful argument grounded in student safety, the potential of open access to promote better social interaction among students provides an independent justification. There is simply no good reason why Harvard’s undergraduates—who form lasting friendships both within House walls and across the broader Harvard community—should ever be impeded from seeing each other. Removing a restriction that keeps students from interacting can only make the bonds of community stronger.

The same rationale that justifies universal keycard access should also lead the administration to extend weekend party hours to at least 2 a.m. The House Masters have made some progress by allowing certain parties—those in House dining halls at which no alcohol is served—to last until 2 a.m., but these limited cases are the exception, not the rule. The present policy, which holds that good students should be neatly tucked in bed by 1 a.m., does not reflect the schedules of today’s students. Loosening the administrative grip on student behavior on the two nights a week we set aside for friends and fun seems a small sacrifice to make in the name of student interaction.

Another source of quick improvements to campus community would be closer collaboration among House Committees. The House Committees in general have a far more successful history of organizing well-attended student activities than the Undergraduate Council. But it is also no secret that some House activities work better than others, and dialogue between House Committees would allow members to share ideas each individual Committee could then tailor to fit the needs and personality of the House it represents.

These suggestions—24-hour keycard access, extended party hours, House Committee collaboration—are neither profound nor revolutionary. They constitute neither a substitute for long-term reforms nor an exhaustive list of the things that could be done immediately to make Harvard more amenable to community-building. But they are representative of the small changes that will come once the individuals who are Harvard College—both administrators and students—join in an effort to create a vibrant community, one where learning is not confined to classrooms and collegiality is not the exclusive province of student groups.

As the first editorial of this series observed, we are all in this community together. But we are not together for long. Four years pass quickly. If we are serious about coming together, let’s begin that effort now.