Advocate To Face High-Cost Renovations

Harvard’s oldest student publication will need to make thousands of dollars worth of changes to its building at 21 South St., the College said this week.

The Advocate building, which has been the literary publication’s home for years, will require a new roof and water boiler, Assistant Dean of the College Paul J. McLoughlin II said.

McLoughlin, Associate Dean of the College Judith H. Kidd and Electric and Compliance Inspector Paul F. Dunphy examined the building on Tuesday morning to determine what renovations would be necessary.

Advocate leaders learned during a fundraising meeting with McLoughlin Monday afternoon that the College was scrutinizing the organization and that an inspection had been planned for the next morning. News of the walk-through surprised the Advocate leadership.

“Dean McLoughlin took advantage of the meeting to come out with all this information,” Advocate Business Manager Scott M. Coulter ’06 said. “It was very unprofessional.”

McLoughlin said yesterday that the College administration plans further discussions with the Advocate to discuss the student group’s use of the buildings.

On Wednesday night, The Advocate building hosted a concert that could be heard blocks away.

McLoughlin said The Advocate will be held to the same rules and restrictions as other student groups, including registering parties and respecting Harvard-owned property.

“The building is not owned by The Advocate but it simply had not been monitored,” McLoughlin said. “They are not supposed to be leasing the space to groups other than The Advocate.”

The building, a small white wood-frame house, is located on land owned by Harvard and leased to The Advocate. The current lease agreement is scheduled to expire in 2011.

Advocate leaders have argued that the concerts and parties are an evolution of the group’s contribution to the artistic community at Harvard.

“The fact that we have a great social scene, it’s not a purpose but a by-product of the atmosphere generated by the people who make up The Advocate,” Coulter said.

He added that the organization will no longer rent out the building due to damages sustained during the concerts and parties.

According to the lease agreement, the members of The Advocate are responsible for maintaining and renovating the building. Last summer, the trustees of the organization funded the repainting of the house’s exterior.

Costly new repairs and renovations may be difficult for the organization, though, which until recently had been constrained by debts to its printers.

“We need to make sure that there are appropriate egresses, no clogged stairwells, fire alarms and other safety measures,” McLoughlin said.

The Advocate has been threatened with displacement before. In 1997, the College considered building additional undergraduate housing on South Street.

At the time, the building required an estimated $60,000 in repairs. The trustees were able to raise $50,000 from prominent alums, including Robert Bly ’50, Louis Begley ’54, Norman K. Mailer ’43, Conan C. O’Brien ’85 and Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. ’38. Steven A. Balmer ’77 matched that sum to bring the total to $100,000.

The trustees used this money to pay the printing debts of the organization and for repairs to the heating and plumbing of the building. They withheld the rest of the money until they could insure that the building would remain in the group’s possession.

In 1997, The Advocate requested a 50-year-lease with Harvard. The University would not agree to that deal, and the two parties instead settled on a 15-year-lease.

The Advocate has already ordered a new boiler and plans to make the required repairs to the building, Coulter said. A successful campaign to attract new advertising clients has tripled the advertising income of the magazine in the past five weeks, he added.

Coulter also said he hopes the more costly repairs will be covered by a capital campaign this year.

If The Advocate does not repair the property, there is the possibility that they may be forced to leave South Street.

McLoughlin said there will likely be a publication center in the renovated Hilles space after the library leaves this summer, but it is unlikely that the College will encourage The Advocate to relocate to the Quad.

“It’s something we’ve been looking into,” McLoughlin said. “The Advocate is a really old organization and has a great history. I can’t imagine moving them unless they were given some other quality space.”

Advocate members refused to accept the possibility of being Quadded.

“If we have to, we will buy another building. We will not be put in unwanted space in the Quad,” Coulter said.

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