Corker To Oversee Loker Pub Planning

Zachary A Corker ’04 will remain at Harvard for another year, this time to spearhead the plan to convert Loker Commons into a permanent pub and eatery.

Corker, whose job as special assistant to the dean for social programming will end on June 10, is in the process of finalizing a one-year contract with Associate Dean of the College Judith H. Kidd.

In his new post as project manager, Corker will take the lead in developing the architectural design and business plan for a bar and restaurant in Loker.

Loker Commons, located in the basement of Memorial Hall, is now used as a combination of social and study space for students. Nevertheless, many feel that the area, constructed in 1996 with a gift from Katherine B. Loker, has not served students as successfully as intended.

“All one can say, in one word, is it failed,” Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 told The Crimson in November 2003.

However, the popularity of the recent series of Pub Nights convinced administrators to go forward with plans for a permanent pub to revitalize Loker.

Over 4,500 students attended six Pub Nights this semester, drawn by $1 beer drafts, dance areas, and live music.

“Pub Nights have provided a welcome new avenue for casual socializing for all undergraduates,” Kidd wrote in an e-mail. “It appears that students really enjoy having a place where they can go with friends to hang out, hear good music, and have low cost refreshments.”

Though Corker originally planned to join the Peace Corps after this academic year, he said he was drawn in by the opportunity to make a lasting mark on Harvard and decided to defer his enlistment for another year.

“A project driven by student desire and student support is really unique insofar as how things get done on this campus,” Corker said. “I’m pretty excited to be involved in something that would be permanent at Harvard.”

Nevertheless, he acknowledged that the move from ideas to action would be difficult.

“Our dream is to have the plan in place so work could begin next summer,” Corker said. “That’s ambitious, but it can be done.”

He said that the College has already begun studying similar pub establishments on other college campuses.

“We’ve been doing a lot of research on schools from California to Great Britain,” Corker said. “It speaks to how interested the Dean’s Office is in improving campus life.”

While the College drafts blueprints for a permanent pub over the next year, Corker will help the newly-formed “Pub Night Commission” administer next year’s Pub Nights, slated to take place monthly in Loker.

Corker said he will move from Pforzheimer House, where he has lived during the past year, to an apartment downtown. He also said that he was likely to take up office space in Apley Court­—a freshman dormitory that will be vacated next year due to remodeling of the Hasty Pudding building.

Although Corker’s current position as “fun czar”—where he assists students with social event planning—will not be offered next year, Justin H. Haan ’05 will assume a similar post as Campus Life Fellow starting July 5.

—Staff writer Sam Teller can be reached at steller@fas.harvard.edu.