Passive Activities

In a swellen undergraduate body, extracurricular activities should provide opportunities for individual expression that crowded classes cannot possibly afford. The incoming Freshman and the returned vet must look beyond the course catalogue to find the chance for easy exchange of views and interests that was part of the Harvard tradition. Though the need for an enthusiastic rebirth of activities is evident, the fact is that the great number of undergraduate special-interest clubs are still limping along, buoyed up by a small group of perennial stalwarts, and totally unable to tap the large store of potential participants.

Certain well-established and widely-supported college activities are exceptions to the rule. Compared with organizations at other colleges, smaller group-projects at Harvard do not reach anywhere near the same numbers of students, and other valuable outlets such as forums and cultural activities are deemphasized to the extent of step-child treatment. Where the University of Wisconsin conducts a series of public discussions led by outstanding national figures, and where the University of Michigan provides a concert series at low price on a semi-monthly basis, Harvard undergraduates must search about and spend a good deal of money to enjoy the same benefits. It is true that opportunities do exist, but they are not publicized and underwritten to a degree necessary for wide appeal and continued success.

The current weakness of undergraduate activities can be traced in part to the traditional distaste that University Hall exhibits toward mixing in extra-curricular affairs. In the past, this hands-off policy has been judiciously managed and has allowed the more rebust organizations to develop into outstanding examples of what college students can do on their own. But with only a handful of clubs in operation, and with a large percentage of students falling into a production-line routine, some modification of the old line should develop. The proposed Student Activities Center is a long jump in this direction, but only by supplementing this proposal with official financial aid and greater faculty support can a real variety of self-sustaining activities be encouraged.

Financial aid, a risky business for the activities and University Hall alike, could be extended through the form of an enlarged loan fund, which would supply the infant organization with equipment and funds for running expenses until this aid proved unnecessary. The faculty advisers provided for by University charter could insure proper use of this money. But this negative phase of University supervision should be reinforced by wider interest on the part of members of the faculty in club activities. Scholars with interests ranging from photographic chemistry to Chinese politics could be given more than a haphazard chance to add impetus to these projects. What is missing is an effort to organize and promote this type of participation.

A move of this sort is currently being considered by the Student Council. But an Activities Committee on the old style might prove inadequate in the face of a greater demand for more diversified outlets for undergraduate interests. The creation of Student Council Interactivity Board or Committee, with powers, not only to promote interest among the students and faculty, but also to publicize club activities by periodic bulletins, greater coverage in the publications and on the bulletin boards might help fill the gap. Further, this group might coordinate club meetings and special events, to prevent time conflicts and present to the students a single source of information on club events. Most important, a group of this type would be alert to new suggestions for activities, sensitive to all possibilities of publicizing club affairs, concerned with the necessity of expanding the extracurricular program.

"Boosting" of the glad-hand variety and over-extended faculty control are evils that may lurk in the fringe of any effort to stimulate extracurricular activity. But the ever-present sensitivity of the established organizations would guard against encroachment from above and, as for the over-enthusiastic boosters--they would disappear with the first frosts of local indifference. A strengthened group of special-interest activities would remain, supported by a larger portion of the College and interested faculty.