The New Harvard Pub: Say What?

Move over Redline, its time to party Crimson.

At Harvard’s future on-campus pub, wine and cheese gatherings, DJ-ed dance nights, and Harvard’s very own labeled brew will be available to students just steps from the Yard.

Already months in the making, an on-campus pub catering to undergraduates is slated to open next fall. And as planning begins in earnest, broad ideas are emerging about the shape and scope of Harvard’s latest answer to improving social life for its undergraduates.

The Million Dollar Question: What Is This Pub Going to Look Like?

With the recent grant from the Office of the President to fund social space renovations, plans for a permanent pub in Loker Commons have moved ahead.

Zachary A Corker ’04, who was hired this year as project manager of Loker Commons planning and program development, says that support for pub nights this year and the plans for permanent space is strong among students.

“The pub rage has been consistent,” he says, sitting in his new Apley Court office.

But in order for the pub to be popular in the long term and the construction to be worth the money that the College has dished out, careful planning needs to be done first, Corker says.

Though the specific aesthetics of the pub have not been solidified, planners have considered ideas ranging from student-drawn murals to kitschy photographs to Ivy League banners.

“Most importantly, we want the pub to have character,” Corker says. “We want to get rid of the staleness of Loker Commons right now.”

In discussion groups with students last week, Corker mentioned the possibility of having a separate club room that could be rented out for private parties, which would complement the main lounge area.

The College is using Office dA, an architecture and urban design firm in Boston, for the design feasibility study, which is slated to be completed by December, according to Associate Dean of the College Judith H. Kidd.

“I envision something old-school, John Harvard’s-like, to match the decor of Memorial Hall and Annenberg and also to conjure up the specter of the old Harvard Union—now the Barker Center for the Humanities,” ruminates Kathleen E. McKee ’06, who participated in the discussion groups.

“Think big fire places, Teddy Roosevelt’s stuffed trophies on the walls, statues,” she said.

Two alumni who founded a local brewery have also agreed to create an independent Harvard label for a beer to be served at the Pub, Corker says, adding that seniors will be able to taste test different beers beginning this winter to choose the future “Harvard beer.”

Another possibility would bring wine from Harvard’s own vineyard in Italy to tempt the tastebuds of Loker pub-goers.

Corker says plans are in the works to incorporate weekly programming including karaoke, trivia, DJ nights, football game hangouts, and spoken word events.

“We want to get people excited for more than just food and drinks at the pub,” Corker says. “We want to have events that people look forward to and an environment that’s fun.”

The administration considers it vital that the pub be run primarily by the people it is meant to serve, probably through a system of student employees and professional management.

“We want the face of the pub to be students,” he says.

A Pub Commission, comprised of 15 students, was formed last spring to assist Corker in brainstorming ways to improve the monthly Pub Nights this year and to help formulate a clearer vision of the permanent pub.

Harvard Student Agencies (HSA) will also be forming a new Business Development Pub Task Force to facilitate the pub planning process.

Last spring, Corker held lunches with students to discuss their ideas and also held open discussions in the houses.

Campus Life Fellow Justin H. Haan ’05 and Corker will also begin holding office hours once a week for students to come in with questions and ideas.

Corker also says that HSA and Veritas Records will take a leading role in planning events next year’s pub events.

But Do You Love It?

The real question on both administrators’ and students’ minds is whether or not this new pub will be popular. Getting students excited about pub nights wasn’t easy at first, says Corker, citing the difficulties of hosting the events in the notoriously-humdrum Loker Commons.

One goal for the future of Harvard spirit is to “trick the freshmen” into considering Loker a standard social option, Haan says. “Then it sort of just sticks,” he says.

“Freshmen are a wonderful group to work with... they’re coming in excited to have a fresh start, to embrace their new college... we should build on that optimism and energy,” says Dean of Freshmen Thomas A. Dingman.

Many pub discussion attendees emphasized that the pub needs to be both convenient and cool.

“Students need to feel as if they can come in and sit down to relax for an hour between classes but at the same time must still see the pub as a place where they can socialize and party in the evenings. In other words, it must be convenient to students all the time while still retaining a distinctly ‘pub-like’ feel,” John B. Freese ’06 says.

Other students also seem to expect the pub to be popular among their classmates.

“I do think that the Pub is something students want and need—a non-exclusive college-y social space that is uniquely Harvard,” Lindsey E. Gary ’06 says.

“Just look at the faceboook group—Harvard students want to be ‘college’ students,” she says, referring to the 636 member (as of last night) facebook.com group “The Coalition For the Permanent Establishment of a Harvard College Pub--Please Build Real-soon.”

Prepping for the Pub

The administration has taken a broad approach to the pub plans, including “researching” comparable campus pubs across the country.

Corker has visited many campus pubs since last spring, including college pubs in California.

And another local research site is the new Cambridge venue, “Phatt Boys,” which has become popular to Harvard students of all ages in part because it allows students who are under 21 to come in to the bar, but not drink, similar to the Harvard pub’s planned policy.

As of now, the plan is to allow anyone into the Pub, but keep the emphasis on undergraduates.

Pub construction is one part of developing an interim plan for places to socialize before more space becomes available in 10 years with the construction of a campus in Allston, Kidd says.

Though the administration has made a special effort to put aside both time and money to aid social life at Harvard, it has at times been hard to convince the entire University that this goal is important.

At the first faculty meeting of the year, Music Department chair Ingrid Monson questioned the funding of social improvements in the face of slowing financial support for new hires.

“Can you please clarify where hiring fits into the budgetary priorities of the university, especially in relationship to Allston planning and the Crimson’s recent announcement of very substantial funding for student pubs and cafes?” Monson asked Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby during the meeting.

But administrators have of late strongly supported school-sponsored social life planning.

The construction of the permanent pub is one component of a broad administrative effort to take an active role in boosting students’ satisfaction with their lives outside of academics and extracurricular activities.

“I think that while we try to do other things like ensure more meaningful contact with faculty and improve advising that we have an obligation to help people relax and enjoy one another’s company and feel part of the community,” Dingman says. “If those things can happen, people may feel more prepared for their other activities.”

“It’s a springboard to take advantage of all offerings,” he adds.

And support for the permanent pub has increased following the success of the Loker Pub Nights that were initiated last February.

“Campus social life is certainly worth supporting,” Corker writes in an e-mail. “A strong sense of community and a vibrant social life strengthen both the undergraduate experience and the College as a whole.”

—Staff writer Nicole B. Urken can be reached at urken@fas.harvard.edu.