Bring on the Fun

Social life for Harvard undergraduates defies easy categorization. For some, social life means late nights packed in the ground floors of certain Mt. Auburn St. mansions (or mock-Flemish castles), and for others, it means room parties and events organized by House Committees (HoCos). For many, social life means long hours spent with one’s extracurricular activity of choice, and for the campus, it means the occasional school-wide event. The latter three incarnations all saw, by and large, improvements this year as the College dean’s office, the president’s office, and the Undergraduate Council (UC) crafted a few simple but far-reaching improvements in the way that social activities are funded and planned. The results promise to continue improving what can reasonably be called an expanding “social scene” at Harvard.

Perhaps the year’s greatest success sprung from the year’s greatest failure, Wyclef. The Harvard Concert Commission (HCC), a semi-autonomous wing of the UC, had planned to bring Wyclef Jean to perform on campus during the first week of November, but sluggish ticket sales compelled the HCC to cancel the show less than a week before it was scheduled. By backing out, the UC lost $30,000 in fees, but it would likely have lost three times that had it not cancelled.

After this year’s debacle and last spring’s failed spring concert, the UC finally realized it was time for it to escape the social programming business. In April, the Council unanimously voted to spin off its campus-wide programming duties to the newly formed College Events Board (CEB), and a week later, the College announced that it would fund the new board with $200,000 for the next academic year. With elected representatives dedicated solely to social programming and a close relationship with the College dean’s office, we expect that the new board will function far more efficiently than its predecessor, the UC’s Campus Life Committee (CLC), did. Notably missing, however, from the CEB’s mission is a commitment to provide logistical support and advice to students who wish to plan their own social events. We expect the board and its members to be a hub of knowledge about social programming, and we hope it will find ways to share its counsel with enterprising students.

In addition to its generous allocation to the CEB for next year, the dean’s office, thanks largely to Campus Life Fellow Justin H. Haan ’05, sprinkled its funding, via the Student Activities Fund and logistical expertise, around various events over the course of the year, including pub nights in Loker Commons, the Pub Night Commission’s and CLC’s Harvard-Yale pep rally, dodgeball tournaments, and the Junior Class Events Commission’s “Junior Class Does Junior High” dance.

Most notably, the office found the magic formula for a successful Harvard State Fair in the fall and Yardfest in the spring: close the dining halls, and pour carnival food into Tercentenary Theater. Drawn by a mechanical bull and Ben Folds, respectively, and by dinner on both occasions, students flocked to the events, with many exclaiming afterwards that the events felt like a “real college experience.”

Yardfest was possible due in large part to the generosity of the president’s office, which funded the event. While the dean’s office has agreed to fund the CEB (and, by extension, its concerts and fairs) for the next school year, the CEB’s future source of funds remains in doubt without long-term guarantees from the College and with the departure of University President Lawrence H. Summers, who has in the past pledged millions of his office’s dollars toward various undergraduate social initiatives. A pub in Loker Commons, a café in Lamont Library, and renovated student space and a coffee bar in the Hilles Building are all set to open next year, and all are funded by the central administration. While we anticipate that the renovation of these spaces will greatly contribute to the undergraduate social experience, we hope that similar initiatives in the future will also be able to rely on the president’s considerable wallet, and we ask that the president’s office and the College, in conjunction with the CEB, work to guarantee future funding.

Student groups also benefited from the dissolution of the CLC, as its $100,000 budget (or, more precisely, what was left of it after Wyclef) was distributed to HoCos and a larger party fund which now includes alcohol-free freshman parties under its mandate. The UC gave HoCos a permanent boost when it wrote into its constitution a provision that automatically allots $4,500 to each committee at the beginning of every semester, ensuring that future HoCo funding would not be subject to the whims of the current council. HoCos continue to play an important role in campus life, as they plan regular house-based social events, throw open parties, and skirt potentially more stringent constraints on alcohol at larger events. HoCos, for example, threw Stein Clubs immediately before Yardfest, so that neither the College administration, nor students, would not have to encounter the unfortunate hassle of a policed beer garden. As it begins the fall semester, the UC could further benefit social life by strongly advocating the expansion of the Student Events Fund, which currently provides 500 undergraduates with free tickets to campus events.

Through concerts, student group offices, and room parties, Harvard’s “social life” continues to uncork itself, and dedicated students and administrators have added a bit of elbow grease. The events of the past year have brightened the outlook of both space and funding for social life at the College, and we hope that the administration will continue to ensure the accessibility of quality social options to all Harvard students.