Facilitating Social Community

The Harvard student body is one that is undeniably unique. Composed of students driven by ambition and a will to succeed, we pour ourselves wholly into our individual pursuits—academic, extracurricular or athletic. At the same time, as evidenced by the increasing number of final clubs, fraternities and sororities on campus, we also crave social interaction. Unfortunately, while this campus provides more than adequate resources for working, it provides no real facilities for community.

The University has long failed to provide this resource, arguably the most important one for the unique brand of students at Harvard. It is well past time to heed the demands of students for a physical center of campus life—a student center. A student center would be a living, breathing center of campus life where students could come together in an inviting and social space. A student center would function as a center of extracurricular and entertainment activity on campus.

While the House system sought to provide decentralized centers of student life, most of them do not have adequate space to allow for such a spirit to flourish. A junior common room decorated with portraits of long-deceased benefactors and antique furniture is not always the most inviting space for students to congregate in an informal setting. And, although they help students within the Houses interact, they do not allow students from across the campus to come together.

One need only look to the Frist Campus Center at Princeton or the Collins Center at Dartmouth to see examples of successful student centers.The Frist Center is a spacious six-floor building appealing to the many facets of student life. The lower levels include a warm and welcoming lobby space for students to hang out, a performance space that can host events ranging from student bands to large student group information sessions and a large dining area. The middle floors host the services that students use most, like the campus bookstore and a package and mail center, but also include a game room and cafeteria; the upper floors even provide space for those looking to study and work in the spacious reading room, library and offices. The Collins Center at Dartmouth, which is open until 2:30 a.m., provides similar considerations, including hangout space, a student-run cafeteria and offices for student advocates.

Harvard’s effort to create successful student space should learn from these efforts by other Ivy League colleagues, who clearly have a keen understanding of what students need in the way of social life.

Harvard’s student center should, to the greatest extent possible, be a stand-alone, and stand-out, facility. Hangout space would allow students a place to socialize in an informal manner, with the warm and inviting atmosphere that one can find in the Thompson Room of the Barker Center: bright comfortable furniture, with vibrant colors and good lighting, or in Ticknor Lounge with its carpeted floors and large, refreshing windows. There should be performance space that would allow the numerous theater groups to have more direct appeal to the student body. The space should also allow space for upstart student bands to perform, bands who are currently relegated to the Loker “coffeehouse.”

The student center must also contain offices for student groups, so that the hundreds of hours students devote to their various interests would no longer be spent in dingy basements, but in an environment that connotes the respect and appreciation their work to better our campus community deserves. In the student center, these groups would not feel isolated from the student body because of their commitment to their activities. Workout facilities in the basement would allow students to incorporate exercise into their daily routine in a more pleasant venue than the MAC currently affords.

We acknowledge that this vision is bold and the change would be great, but Harvard’s commitment to its undergraduates should be even greater. Harvard must begin the process of planning how it will meet the needs of its undergraduates. At present, the best place to begin is at the Inn at Harvard.

In 12 years, the Inn at Harvard, which is now privately owned by DoubleTree Hotels, will become the property of Harvard. It is the most ideal space for a future student center because of its size, key location between the Yard and the River and its ability to be changed relatively easily to a center of student life. Already it includes many of the features that a student center would include. The rooms on upper floors can be converted to offices; the dining facilities can easily be renovated to create student-friendly cafeteria space; the meeting rooms and infrastructure could be modified to give it that inviting feel.

By already looking 12 years ahead, the university will be able to show significant leadership and foresight. One of the greatest difficulties in achieving student goals is the high turnover of students who battle for reform. However, if we can find the strength and vision to begin the planning process now, we can make sure that the University does not earmark the Inn at Harvard to become more administrative office spaces. This planning process should include students and administration in a joint effort: if it does not, the new student center may end up much like Loker Commons, a space which has largely failed in creating a space for undergraduates to congregate in a social setting.

Loker, however, does not have to remain an symbol of the administration’s abysmal failure to provide student space. While it could never become a proper student center itself—the space is too limiting—it could at least be transformed into a more welcoming student space. Immediately, a student-administration committee to redesign Loker Commons over next summer should be convened. Students must be involved in the redesign so as to create a Loker that says living room and not cafeteria. It will take more than a jukebox to make the transition, but some things as simple as carpeting and better lighting, a better use of eating space and more inviting furniture, would have a dramatic effect. To make sure the redesigned space is useful as well as fun, student group offices should be relocated to the classrooms that currently share the lower level.

All these initiatives will take strong vision and commitment from the administration, but more so from students. Being persistent in our calls for a student center should be a standard; demanding that the administration provide us with incentives for positive interaction, and not mandates for it, should be our hallmark; collaboration between students and the University should be a given. With foresight and commitment, we can turn these words into reality—one brick at a time.