Mem Hall Triples Rental Fee

Memorial Hall is becoming more like Boston Garden every day.

Harvard Real Estate (HRE), which manages the building, is boosting the fee for use of Mem Hall to $325 for one night, while adding services that include a concession stand, ticket sales through Ticketron, and a manager in residence who will service the building, said Alisa J. Zimmerman, director of Mem Hall.

In addition, Mem Hall has purchased a blanket entertainment license which covers all events, and will save students the trip to Cambridge City Hall when they have an event for which they charge admission, Zimmerman said.

"We're moving towards a full-service operation in order to compete with other similarly sized halls in the Boston area," Zimmerman said.

Memorial Hall is owned by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, but two years ago management of the building was transferred to HRE, the real estate arm of the University.

At the time of the change in management, some student leaders said they feared that HRE would run Mem Hall as a business and not as a facility for the benefit of undergraduates.

And students who use the hall said yesterday that they are not entirely pleased with the administration's new "professionalized" approach.

"It seems like they're trying to become an established concert hall in the community, and these are the measures they have to take," said Darren L. Walker '91, manager of the Harvard Glee Club. But he said he thought the prices were too high to charge student groups.

"We're not bringing in big bucks, so they shouldn't charge us big bucks," Walker said.

Zimmerman said she thought the change would benefit student groups. "It will be easier for them to plan their budgets," she said.

Zimmerman said that she calculated the costs that groups incurred last year over their initial deposit of $100 and concluded that the new costs would be only a seven to 10 percent increase in the fee for those groups.

Nonetheless, several club officials interviewed said the changes would place strains on their budgets. "Some of the profits that we were going to be making won't be coming in," Walker said. "We're looking to schedule concerts in other halls to subsidize our Sanders concerts."

Walker said, however, that the group would continue to perform in Sanders despite the added cost. "Acoustically, that's the only place to perform if you're a music group."

Henry H. Hsia '90, president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones, also said that the increase would lessen his group's profits, but that, like the Glee Club, his group could not find another space that would be adequate for them. The added costs, he said, were "sort of like someone raising the rent of your house--you've still gotta live somewhere."

Last year's initial fee for use of the concert hall was $100, which did not include several services that will now automatically be provided to all groups.

"You cannot opt not to use these services," said Elliott S. Ng '91, president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra. In past years, the HRO has used student ushers who volunteered their services, he said. This year, custodial services will be included in the flat fee automatically.

Also included in the base costs are the costs of ticket collectors, two police officers for security, the use of tables and chairs and technical services, Zimmerman said.