Mahan Unveils New Harvard-Yale Game Plan

Undergraduate Council members argued over issues ranging from new plans for the Harvard-Yale tailgate to amendments to the council’s constitution at a heated meeting last night.

Council President Matthew W. Mahan ’05 outlined the tentative tailgate plan he will propose to the Boston Police Department today.

Under the plan, the council would administer a tailgate at the Ohiri fields composed of official groups, House Committees (HoCos), Yale groups and unrecognized groups, all supplied with beer by United Liquors of Cambridge.

Mahan said the council would contract with United Liquors for a set number of kegs, and servers to check IDs and intoxication levels would be supplied by United Liquors and included in the cost of the kegs.

“Even checking, these guys can give out something like 1,000 beers in 10 minutes,” Mahan said.

Mahan also suggested that each HoCo will contribute to the cost of the tailgate and that he expects Yale to contribute as well, to offset the cost of ordering a “critical mass of beer.”

United Liquors will reimburse the council for all kegs that are not consumed. Council Vice President Michael R. Blickstead ’05 said that the council will follow a hierarchy for distributing reimbursements: the council would be reimbursed first, the HoCos second and Yale last—if any beer is left over.

“We’re drinking Yale’s beer first,” he said.

Mahan also briefly discussed his vision of the lottery of the approximately 150 parking spots. Mahan supported allocating 50 for Yale, guaranteeing the HoCos spots with water jugs provided by University Health Services, and holding a lottery for the remaining spots, possibly with a proportion allocated for officially recognized groups and some set aside for unofficial groups.

In other business, Finance Committee (FiCom) chair Teo P. Nicolais ’06 kicked off a heated debate by announcing a proposal to add an additional council representative from each House.

Nicolais said that the increase in the size of the grant fund due to the term bill fee hike necessitates additional members to handle the overwhelming number of grant requests from student groups this year. According to Nicolais, the FiCom currently has 248 grant applications to process and can only handle a maximum of 77 grants per week.

Other council members were angered by Nicolais’s presentation, arguing that it should have been passed to the Student Affairs Committee (SAC)—which handles all constitutional amendments—and the Executive Board prior to reaching the entire council.

Aaron D. Chadbourne ’06 expressed concern about the additional representatives because under Nicolais’s plan the FiCom would have two members from each House while SAC and the Campus Life Committee (CLC) would have only one from each, giving FiCom half of the council’s voting members. SAC will review the proposal, and the council will vote on a potential bill later in the semester.

Jason L. Lurie ’05 proposed a bill last night to freeze all future funding to the Harvard Concert Commission (HCC) for the fall semester. Lurie expressed concerns that the HCC has managed funds poorly in the past and thrown events that were sparsely attended.

A roll call vote on the steps of Sever—after the council had been evicted from its meeting room—defeated the bill 23 to 15, with seven abstentions. “The HCC has now been given a blank check,” Lurie said after his bill failed.

Chair of the Harvard Concert Commission (HCC) Justin H. Haan ’05, who is also a Crimson editor, was present to address the council’s concerns about the upcoming comedy show and concert eating away too much of the CLC’s budget. The council has allocated $15,000 for the comedian and $30,000 for the concert.

Haan said that he believes the comedian show featuring Jim Breuer in Sanders Theatre this Thursday will likely break even, though only 300 to 400 tickets have been sold so far.

The council also approved two grants that were postponed from last week—one to subsidize Philips Brooks House Association (PBHA) shuttles and the other to help fund the Prefect program. Mahan held the Prefect grant last week to try and negotiate the funds from Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71.

“I think Dean Gross is committed to giving more money to the prefect program directly,” Mahan said.

But Mahan still recommended that the council grant the Prefect program money in the interim citing their insufficient budget and importance to freshman life.

—Staff writer Joshua P. Rogers can be reached at jprogers@fas.harvard.edu.