Humanities Center Proposals: Resolving the Space Crunch

A year ago, when students asked Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 about the possibility of a student center at Harvard, they were told that such a building was "not a priority." But shortly after students returned to Cambridge in the fall, they were surprised to learn that the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) wanted to turn the Harvard Union into a humanities center and move the freshperson dining hall to Memorial Hall.

Administrators say that the plan would consolidate the offices for humanities departments and ease the severe shortage of faculty office space. And they argue that although a student center is still not a priority, it makes a convenient part of the "package," a way to satisfy students and faculty at the same time.

But many students are not so sure of the merits of the proposal, calling it merely a plan to move the dining hall--with the side effect of replacing needed student office space with central meeting rooms.

Yet whether students like it or not, the student and humanities centers seem destined to be built. Peter J. Riley of Harvard Real Estate (HRE)--which manages Memorial Hall for FAS--says that a feasibility study completed last week concluded that the changes are sound, and Jewett says the plan is just waiting for funds.

"We've moved along, but not as fast as I would like," says Jewett, adding that he thinks such a center will "put us well on the way to improving the situation for extracurriculars and the humanities." Jewett says he hopes construction on the project will begin as soon as funds become available, although he notes that FAS has not earmarked the centers for a specific fund drive.

Jewett says that the current plans drawn up by the prestigious architectural firm of Venturi, Rauch and Scott Brown are fluid enough that the specific details of the plan can be worked out as soon as the University is set to begin construction.

As currently designed, the proposal would provide not only a Memorial Hall dining hall for first-year students, but also a restaurant, grill and student meeting spaces. Renovations to Sanders Theater would include dressing rooms and a piano lift.

The Union would be turned into a humanities center, with offices for many departments now scattered across the campus, seminar rooms and even a graduate student center.

Already, FAS has consolidated office space near the Harvard Union by converting a former freshperson dorm at 8 Prescott St. into offices for junior faculty in the English Department. Offices for the Literature and History and Literature concentrations are located next to the Union in Burr Hall.

Once faculty space is created in the Union, says Associate Dean for Physical Resources Philip J. Parsons, student organizations now in Memorial Hall may be able to relocate to department offices vacated in the move to the Union. He adds that any group will be able to reserve the student meeting areas in Memorial Hall through a system similar to that now used for rooms in the Union and the residential houses.

The building exchange has been touted as a plan in which no one loses--as humanities faculty gain more space and a central location, students gain greater recreational and extracurricular facilities.

"The tremendous shortage of space in several academic departments has fragmented the humanities terribly," says Parsons. "The center for the humanities will be a place where the faculty can share amenities, be close to the libraries, and close to their colleagues." He adds that the Union plan would increase by 30 percent the space available to humanities departments.

"I imagine this project would be very attractive to many people," says Parsons. "Unlike a lot of things that happen with a lot of controversy, the only controversy here will be around how [Memorial Hall] will be used as a student space."

Indeed, many students who led earlier efforts to secure a center to house undergraduate groups have already expressed disappointment with the proposal, despite Jewett's assurances that their input will be solicited.

"The Memorial Hall option is not a student center," says Amy B. Zegart '89, former vice-chair of the Undergraduate Council and an author of the original resolution calling for a student center. "It was a bittersweet piece of news. Long-term improvements will be made, but it's definitely not what we want."

A true student center, says Jeffrey A. Camp '89, co-chair of Students Concerned for a Student Center (SCSC), would include a conglomeration of offices for extracurriculars, not unassigned meeting rooms and eating facilities. The Memorial Hall project, he says, just shuffles existing offices and lacks student input on the project.

"If basically building a center will entail elimination of student offices there, they have no right to call it a student center," says Camp. "Everything the SCSC and the Undergraduate Council have determined a student center to be has centered on student offices. It doesn't sound like this will be any revolution or renaissance in student extracurricular life."

Camp and Zegart also say they are concerned that the creation of student facilities in Memorial Hall might forestall hopes for a "true" center on such sites as the A. Lawrence Lowell Lecture Hall near the Science Center or even the former Gulf Station site near the Union.

Says Zegart, "My biggest fear is that the Memorial Hall plan will be considered a solution to the student center problem. It's not."

But many faculty do consider the plan a solution to the dilemma of office overcrowding.

"We're making a number of new appointments," History Department Chair Edward L. Keenan '57 has said. "We have new colleagues coming and have a full house."

Nathan I. Huggins, Dubois professor of history and of Afro-American studies, calls lack of office space "the prime problem at Harvard." A member of the Afro-American Studies Department--which might move into the Union humanities center--Huggins says, "I don't find anything wrong with a plan that would give us more."

An informal committee of Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III, Freshperson Dean Henry C. Moses, Parsons, two Council members and an SCSC member will meet in the fall to discuss how to implement the plan. But students say they are not optimistic that their input will do much good.

"I think this is a design, not just a feasibility study, and it will be incredibly challenging to get [administrators] to appreciably alter that design," says Camp. "Next year what we've got is a fight on our hands if we want student office space."