Beer Vendor On Tap For Game

The Undergraduate Council has found a beer distributor for the Harvard-Yale tailgates, President Matthew W. Mahan ’05 said at last night’s meeting.

Mahan refused to name the distributor, citing press coverage as a detriment to negotiations, but he said the contract to supply “communal alcohol” would be sealed by the end of this week.

The hired vendor will “supplement what students bring in,” Mahan said. He added that students must be 21 or older to drink.

In other preparations for The Game, the council approved a bill to provide $250 to stage a battle of the bands among three bands from Harvard and one from Yale.

The council allocated $50 for a sound system and $150 in Harvard University Dining Service vouchers so that Currier House Committee can host the event in the Currier fishbowl.

The battle of the bands, which is free to Harvard and Yale students, is slated to take place on the night before the Nov. 20 Harvard-Yale game, and will pit Chester French, Dramadairy, and Rich Mae—the Harvard contingent—against a yet-to-be-named band from Yale, said Finance Policy Chair and Currier Representative Samita A. Mannapperuma ’06.

This marks the fourth year the council has promoted band activities when Harvard hosted the game.

In other concert-related news, the council reaped close to $125,000 from ticket sales for the Bob Dylan concert on Nov. 21, two nights after the battle of the bands.

Council Treasurer Clay T. Capp ’05 said the revenue would return “at least $15,000, probably more” to council funds.

However, some performances have not netted money for the council, however. Capp said the Jim Breuer show lost $302.97 more than expected. This comes on top of $15,000 the council expected to lose on the event.

At last night’s meeting, the council passed a bill to set aside $5,000 from its funds in case it overdraws from its checking account. Last semester, $15,000 of council checks to House Committees and student groups bounced from the council’s checking account.

“Part of the problem was that we expected a $20,000 check from the President’s office that didn’t get to the council until May,” Mahan said.

Mahan said that all that money has now been claimed.

“To the best of my knowledge, we don’t have any bounced checks out there that haven’t been paid,” he said.

The council passed the reserve fund legislation, after reducing the size of the proposed reserve fund from $7,500 to $5,000.

Jason L. Lurie ’05, council representative from Cabot House spoke in favor of keeping the higher number.

“$5,000 is a round number,” Lurie said. “$7,500 is also a round number, but it’s a little bigger.”

But the council voted to amend the bill to include the smaller number, and the amended legislation passed 37-0-1.

On the docket of last night’s meeting, the council reviewed 71 grant applications and awarded a total of $12,895.77 in cash and $615 in HUDS vouchers. The average was $190.29 per grant.

The council also approved a bill to fund a second year of Loker Nights at a cost to the council of $500 for at least three events between now and the end of May.

—Staff writer Elena P. Sorokin can be reached at sorokin@fas.harvard.edu.