Space to Slow Down

This summer, Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 sent each of us a letter entitled “Slow down: Getting more out of Harvard by doing less.” The letter speaks at great length about the need for students to enjoy their time here, spending less free time in myriad extracurricular activities and more unstructured time being with friends and doing what they love. Lewis writes, “The human relationships you form in unstructured time with your roommates and friends may have a stronger influence on your later life than the content of some of the courses you are taking.”

Okay, Dean Lewis. You’re right: Harvard students need to decompress more. But, let’s say that I actually do want to take your advice, and my idea of “unstructured” time well-spent is shooting the breeze with some friends after a long day of studying. The problem is, where am I to go on campus?

We all know the paltry offerings Harvard gives us for student social space. There’s the always-deserted Loker Commons, where at 9 p.m. the space houses only the pull-down metal gates covering the signs for A.J.’s Grill and Bok Choy. Of course, Loker is always home to the fun-loving Math Question Help Center, and it can provide a bit of divertissement from hard work—one can always stare at the hypnotic, nonsensical color swirls on the black screen in back.

The House communities don’t fare much better. Theoretically, each of the Houses is supposed to have a Junior Common Room where students can gather to read, socialize and meet in an informal setting. These beautiful, frequently wood-paneled rooms are the sort of places Harvard plasters over its brochures, enticing naïve applicants with dreams of endless intellectual discourse in quaint, posh settings. In reality, however, most Junior Common Rooms are not hangout havens, but overflow rehearsal space. They are usually booked well in advance by homeless a cappella groups and roving theater productions.

The House dining halls offer only a slightly better alternative. Brain break has ensured that all dining halls remain open for a short period of time, and many students do take advantage of the program, staying in the dining halls to talk and work. But the problem with dining halls is that they expose students to the same people they see all the time. Few students go “Brain Break”-hopping, so if you’re looking for cross-campus socializing, dining halls are inadequate spaces.

In an e-mail message, Lewis wrote that I am misinterpreting his letter, and admittedly, I haven’t been totally fair to his argument. His letter was not intended to specifically advocate being more social on campus. His generally wise advice was to encourage us to spend more time exploring pursuits we love at our leisure. So, when I asked him where he thinks students should spend this unstructured free time, he wrote in an e-mail message, “Did I really need to put more structure on the notion of unstructuredness in order to be helpful?”

Well, if “structure” means giving us a space where we can pursue our leisure, I think the answer to this question should be yes. Sarcasm aside, Lewis’ statement is rather telling in its expression of the administration’s position with respect to student social life—they want nothing to do with it. And while I’m not asking Lewis to begin spinning at the next party I go to, I am asking the administration to tacitly endorse student social life by giving us a place in which we can congregate.

And, I have just the space in mind. There is one building, sitting in the middle of campus, where when the sunshine hits its giant bay windows, it beckons longingly for student love. Yes, the Malkin Athletic Center. Wouldn’t the MAC make a perfect student center? An astounding 110,000 square feet, the MAC could have work-out facilities on the lower floors, and the upper levels, currently housing droves of inefficiently laid-out office space, could be used for student recreational space and student extracurricular offices.

This recreational space should be a new and improved Loker. It should have good, brand-name food and remain open late. It should have scores of tables where Harvard students will be seen talking, laughing and eating late at night. It should have ping-pong and pool tables. In effect, it should be the student center that most other universities provide for their students.

The student office space would further ensure that the MAC would become the center of undergraduate social life. Students working for publications, rehearsing for theater production or doing any one of a number of the extracurriculars they love could pop downstairs for a quick jog or cup of coffee. The only thing left to do would be to make the MAC a shuttle stop, giving easy access to Quadlings and Matherites. The MAC would be a student Mecca, building community, and making life better at Harvard.

Sound like a pipe dream? Perhaps. But I think it’s time for the administration to “slow down” and consider what students really need.

Robert J. Fenster ’03 is a biology concentrator in Eliot House. His column appears on alternate Wednesdays.