Students React to Proposed Campus Center

Though University President Drew G. Faust emphasized that the new Richard A. & Susan F. Smith Campus Center would foster “One University” for all Harvard students, many students across the University remain skeptical about whether Faust’s goal can be accomplished.

During an announcement for the new student space last Thursday, Faust and other University officials said that new Smith Campus Center will serve not only as an undergraduate facility, but also as a common space for the entire University.

However, students from both the College and various graduate schools said that they are doubtful of whether the space will be utilized by both undergraduates from all classes and graduate students alike.

Many undergraduate students interviewed by The Crimson expressed concerns that the location of the new campus center will be more convenient for freshmen than upperclassmen.

Amanda M. Brandt ’17 said she thinks that it will be easier for freshmen, rather than upperclassmen, to stop by during the day. Brandt said that the Campus Center may help bring together the freshman class, but not necessarily the entire University.

Jane Jacob ’16 also said that upperclassmen will not need to seek out the campus center as much as freshmen will. While freshmen only have Annenberg as a dining hall option, upperclassmen have a wide array of Houses from which to choose, Jacob said.

While undergraduates students are doubtful of whether the space will be beneficial for all classes, graduate students interviewed by The Crimson also noted the distance of the new student center from their respective campuses.

“I probably won’t use it because my campus is in Boston, not in Cambridge,” said Xindi Hu, a student at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Hu said that she believed that students at the Business and Medical Schools would apply the same logic as well, while students at the Schools of Education, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences will use the space more.

Like other graduate students, Summer A. Shafer, the president of the Harvard GSAS Graduate Student Council, said that the the Smith Campus Center offers graduate students no real incentive to take advantage of the space.

“I can’t see students from the Longwood area coming into Cambridge just to ‘hang out,’” she said.

Some students also noted that the Law School in particular has it’s own recently constructed student center to foster student unity. Anatol E. Klass ’17 said that students at the Law School may not be attracted to a new University center when they have a new, spacious center of their own closer to their classes.

However, not all reactions to the student center were negative. Some students said that the presence of cafes, restaurants, or lounge spaces might attract more students. “If there was food involved, students will totally show up,” Jacob said.

Nevertheless, Shafer said she doesn’t believe that any space can achieve the “One University” goal that Faust and the other University officials cited during the announcement.

This rhetoric, Shafer said, “makes for great fundraising, but doesn’t reflect the real, material needs of graduate students.”