UC To Test Funding Parties

A pilot program to fund medium-sized parties in the Houses, including those where alcohol is served, earned the approval of the Undergraduate Council yesterday night.

After more than a year of refinement and administrative review, the Student Initiated Programs fund will launch in Pforzheimer and Quincy Houses—whose House Masters agreed to the pilot program—granting a maximum of $423.50 to an approved party in each of the two Houses later this semester. The Houses will match the UC funds.

Spearheaded by the UC Student Initiatives Committee, the program began accepting applications last Friday from residents of the participating Houses, and will continue to do so until this Friday. Following a review by SIC and the House Masters, selected events will occur during the weekend of April 9 or April 16.

“It’ll be a joint decision between the House Masters and the Student Initiatives Committee,” SIC chair Mallika Khandelwal ’11 said of who will receive the funds. “I think at the end, it’ll depend upon the value that this event will provide to student life and particularly House life.”

UC Vice President Eric N. Hysen ’11 said that the two pilot parties will be medium-sized events—larger than the private dorm room parties which are funded by the DAPA grants that the UC supports, but smaller than dining hall parties. Future SIP events may be larger in size, Hysen said.

In order to keep to a medium size, Hysen said that while the parties must be open to the public, organizers cannot use public channels of communication—postering, e-mails to House lists, or public Facebook postings—to advertise their parties.

Quincy House Master Lee Gehrke said yesterday that the dining hall, Junior Common Room, and Masters’ residence had been designated as appropriate-sized venues for the parties.

According to Hysen, the UC plans to have the program fund one or two events in every House per year beginning next fall,

“A few of the Masters wanted to see how the pilot works before committing themselves,” he said, “but none of the Masters were entirely opposed to the idea.”

A portion of the funds may be used to purchase alcohol. In this case, the SIP money will also be used to pay for supervision by two Beverage Authorization Team members and a Harvard University Police Department detail, which Gehrke said “gives everybody the assurance that these events are going to be safe.”

The UC party grants program—which disbursed $1,750 per week to private student parties for four years before it was disbanded by then-Dean of the College David R. Pilbeam in 2007—was condemned for facilitating underage alcohol consumption.

But the current pilot has been approved by both Dean of the College Evelynn M. Hammonds and Dean of Student Life Suzy M. Nelson.

During yesterday’s meeting, the UC also approved plans to distribute free t-shirts in the dining halls on Thursday night to drum up spirit for the April 3 lacrosse game against Duke and passed the first of two election reform acts.

—Staff writer Naveen N. Srivatsa can be reached at srivatsa@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Julie M. Zauzmer can be reached at jzauzmer@college.harvard.edu.