Committee on College Life To Select New Clubs

Two months after How High hit the theaters, Harvard may legalize a student group supporting the decriminalization of marijuana.

The Committee on College Life (CCL) will likely approve 20 new student groups today, ranging from the Minnesota Club of Harvard to The Harvard Coalition for Drug Policy Reform (THCDPR).

This final step in gaining recognition from the College allows groups to use ‘Harvard’ in their names, acquire on-campus meeting space, poster on campus and apply for grants.

“I can’t remember the last time a student group was turned down by the CCL,” wrote Associate Dean of the David P. Illingworth ’71, co-chair of CCL, in an e-mail.

Once a group reaches the CCL, Illingworth wrote, problems preventing its existence have already been addressed—it must compose a constitution, select officers, obtain two faculty advisers and compile financial information before CCL, which meets two or three times a year, reviews its status.

The groups up for approval today represent a variety of interests.

The purpose of the THCDPR will be “to foster ongoing debate” and “educate the Harvard community” about drug policy, said founder Thomas J. Scaramellino ’05.

While the members of the group originally considered naming it the Harvard Cannabis Coalition, Scaramellino said they chose to change the name in order “to be taken seriously.”

“This isn’t about a bunch of pot smokers. We’re going to bring in speakers and produce bi-monthly newsletters,” said Scaramellino, adding that THCDPR cannot schedule its speakers until it is officially recognized as a student group.

Scaramellino said the group has been in communication with Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, and is hoping to invite New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson (R) to speak when he travels to Boston in April.

Two other groups up for approval serve to unite students from the same state.

Rachel A. Vessey ’03, co-founder of the Minnesota Club of Harvard, said the group’s purpose will be to bring together the small Harvard population of approximately 80 Minnesota natives.

“It will be a way for students from Minnesota to meet each other and hang out,” she said.

According to an e-mail from the founders of Harvard Lovers of the Garden State (H-LOGS), the club will be a “primarily social organization,” with “Jersey cultural events” such as a Miss America Pageant party.

It will also arrange for direct shuttles to New Jersey over breaks and set up a network of contacts with New Jersey alumni.

Other groups to be approved today include the Harvard Billiards Club, the Harvard Pre-Veterinary Society and Mariachi Veritas de Harvard University.

If today’s applicants are approved, these groups will add to the 275 already in existence, according to statistics from Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis’s 2001 five-year report on the College.

But members of the CCL said they are not concerned about having too many campus organizations.

Illingworth said that as new groups are formed, other groups dissolve as members graduate or lose interest.

“I do not think that Harvard should set a limit of student groups,” he wrote.

Rohit Chopra ’04, chair of the Student Affairs Committee of the Undergraduate Council and a member of CCL—which consist of five faculty and five student members— said he agreed.

“There definitely should be no limit because otherwise we’d be making a value judgement of which students’ interests are more important than others,” he said.

Chopra said the CCL primarily looks to make sure new groups do not duplicate existing ones before approving them. He added that such a problem is usually resolved before a group is considered by CCL and that he would be “surprised if a group did not get approved” today.

—Staff writer Jenifer L. Steinhardt can be reached at steinhar@fas.harvard.edu.