UHS Says Happy B-Day

Who knows how to party better than Harvard University Health Services? You may think the answer is “everyone,” but UHS is hoping to change your mind.

Since January 2006, UHS been sending out personalized birthday cards to Harvard students when they turn twenty-one. The cards come with a list of “21 things to do at Harvard before you graduate” and a resource card with phone numbers and the familiar shtick about how you can avoid getting in trouble for drinking if you get so wasted that you almost die. Even better, there’s a promotion for a free appetizer at Daedalus for those celebrating the big event.

“It’s one of the spots students go to,” says Ryan M. Travia, director of alcohol and other drug services.

Daedalus and UHS might seem like an unlikely pairing, but it seems to work out well for both. Daedalus gets free promotion from Harvard, and UHS hopes that students will temper their 21 shots with a couple hundred calories from their free appetizer.

Travia says it’s too soon to determine the program’s success, but, judging from an unscientific two-student sample, it seems like a bust.

“I haven’t heard of anyone using it,” says Sean F.X. Barrett ’07, who got a card but didn’t go to Daedalus. For him, the free appetizer can’t quite make up for the high price of the drinks.

Nicolas C. Anderson ’07 puts it a bit more bluntly: “Nobody cares about a birthday card from UHS.”

But even if the program doesn’t result in fewer birthdays spent in the emergency room, it’s still a nice gesture.

Says Anderson, “I really don’t see a downside to birthday cards.”