Party Hour Extension Likely For Next Year

Although they are hopeful of eventual success pushing deadlines for party hours back until 2 a.m., council members say nothing will change until at least next fall.

"We are looking to get three or four Houses partying `til 2 beginning in the fall of next year," says council member Brian R. Smith `02, who has led the effort to extend party hours.

And even the few Houses that adopt a 2 a.m. curfew may do so initially only for official, House-sponsored parties, such as those held in House dining halls, which charge for admission.

While a vast majority of students may favor extending party hours until 2

a.m., College administrators say factors such as security, regulations set by the city of Cambridge and the sleeping habits of resident tutors are all factors that the Houses must consider before agreeing to let students stay out for an extra hour.

"Nothing's going to happen until next year and at the will of the House masters," says Associate Dean of the College Thomas A. Dingman `67. "There's a lot to figure out still."

In the Works

The new estimated timetable for extending party hours comes from meetings that Smith had last week both with Harvard administrators and the city of Cambridge after a number of House masters seemed amenable to extending party hours at last month's meeting of the Committee on House Life (CHL).

At the meeting, Smith presented the results of a survey of the undergraduate body conducted by the council which indicated that close to 90 percent of House residents favored a later curfew.

House masters serving on CHL seemed agreeable to the idea.

Eliot House Master Lino Pertile said he would be willing to adopt extended party hours, at least on a trial basis.

But the masters told council members that more research would be required before undertaking such a change.

Security problems that might result from allowing students to party later were a chief concern.

Smith met last week with Chief of Police Francis D. Riley to discuss how a later curfew would affect police activity.

HUPD officials confirmed that HUPD will soon open a shift that will patrol campus between the hours of 6:30 p.m. and 2:30 a.m., so a 2 a.m. party extension should make little difference in terms of police oversight.

The other security issue related to extended party hours relates to the services of Security Systems International (SSI), the company whose security guards oversee the Houses at night.

According to Michael N. Lichten, the administrator who coordinates with SSI, the security guards patrol only until 1 a.m., so extending party curfews by one hour would necessitate some logistical work with relation to SSI.

"If party hours were extended until 2, we'd have to see if people could extend their shifts," Lichten said.

Let's Make a Deal

Both Smith and Todd E. Plants `02, chair of the council's Student Affairs Committee, also met with a representative from Cambridge's Licensing Board to discuss how a 2 a.m. curfew might conflict with city ordinances.

According to Cambridge law, any large party that charges for admission must obtain a special license to do so. Incidentally, those permits mandate a 1 a.m. curfew.

Thus, although room parties, which generally do not charge their guests, are not affected by the city ordinance, House-sponsored parties generally would be compelled to shut their doors at 1 a.m.

Smith and Plants, however, say that based on their meeting with the Cambridge official, they think they have worked out a deal through which the city will allow licensed parties to remain open until 2 a.m., pending University approval.

"We are going to be sending a proposal to the Cambridge Licensing Board," Smith says. "[We'll] hopefully get approval by the end of the school year."

Do Not Disturb

The real obstacle to extending party hours, however, seems to be undergraduates' fellow House residents-the tutors.

Although it is unclear what percent of tutors approve of a 2 a.m. curfew, there seem to be enough detractors to stall the council's effort.

"A lot of masters are hesitant to extend hours because it will disrupt the ability of the tutors to sleep," Smith says.

But the council is trying to quell tutors' fears.

At last Sunday's meeting, the council unanimously passed Smith's Party Host Responsibilities Standardization Act, which lays out a number of ways that students can be more conscientious party hosts.

It instructs students to, among other things, control the volume of their music and "clean hallways and stairwells surrounding your suite for trash or vomit that may have originated from your event."

Associate Dean of the College David P. Illingworth `71 says the tutors will be the council's greatest hurdle in the push for a 2 a.m. curfew-but far from an insurmountable one.

"A lot of people feel that it's inevitable, Illingworth says. "I'm becoming more convinced about the 2 a.m. time."

-Staff writer Alexander B. Ginsberg can be reached at ginsberg@fas.harvard.edu.