Postering Now Caters to Early Birds

Student groups will have no excuse to sleep in on Monday, when they’ll face clear bulletin boards and kiosks at the ripe hour of 7:30 a.m.

Next week posters will be removed at their original morning hour on Mondays and Thursdays after a winter trial period when boards were cleared at 12:30 p.m. to make up for the harsh conditions of winter mornings, Undergraduate Council President Matthew W. Mahan ’05 said yesterday.

The end of the trial period—which was supposed to run from Nov. 25 until spring break—has been delayed because of communication difficulties between Facilities Maintenance Operations (FMO) and the council.

The change left some student groups, including the Harvard College Democrats, confused about when they should poster and whether or not old posters would be taken down.

“Somebody dropped the ball,” Dems President Andy J. Frank ’05 said. “There was no plan and no communication.”

Frank said that when he went to poster yesterday afternoon old posters were still up, and that on Monday when the Dems postered in the morning they didn’t know if their posters had been torn down later that afternoon.

Council member Aaron D. Chadbourne ’06 said that the difficulties have arisen in part because Shelia R. Adams ’05, who coordinated the change last fall, is studying in Brazil this term. Chadbourne also said that FMO was waiting on the council for the go ahead to switch back the time. Representatives from the FMO could not be reached for comment last night.

Mahan said the council plans to meet with FMO to consider establishing a permanent year-round postering time, and said he is interested in soliciting input from student groups.

Ryan P. McAuliffe ’06, who also posters for the Dems, said he thinks the 7:30 a.m. postering time works better for students’ schedules.

“I think it’s more convenient for student groups to poster in the morning because it’s hard to get people to poster later in the day in the middle of classes,” he said.

—Staff writer Jeffrey C. Aguero can be reached at aguero@fas.harvard.edu.