Students at the Top of Hilles

It was with little fanfare, but with fantastic tiramisu, that Assistant Dean of the College Paul J. McLoughlin II unveiled the latest plans for the fourth floor of the Hilles building and solicited feedback from students. We are generally pleased with the latest draft and glad that so many students took the time to offer honest critiques of it. And we hope that the College heeds the latest student input on this space and that changes they contribute come to fruition in a timely manner.

Perhaps the most welcome element of plans for Hilles’ fourth floor is that it will be devoid of space set aside for any particular student group. With plans to parcel other floors into nooks for student groups, the current draft of the fourth floor allots space for a sizable conference area, a larger all-purpose room, a coffee bar, and a music practice room that should fit a four-piece band.

But a mere ribbon-cutting ceremony will not guarantee that Hilles’ fourth floor will be used. The Quad Houses are already flush with gathering areas, and unlike heavily-trodden rooms such as the Currier Fishbowl, Hilles’ fourth floor is not likely to get casual foot traffic and therefore must become a destination in and of itself. It must be open 24 hours. We envision that it will be most successful in the late- (and late-late-) night hours, especially on weekends, not only as a post-party crash pad but also an alternative to alcohol-fueled room parties.

The fourth floor will only be successful at these hours if there’s enough food to feed a crowd. The existing coffee bar’s setup only allows for café-style drinks and cold dishes—no pizza ovens or deep fryers here—so the culinary enticement will have to stretch beyond oil. And a little music in the all-purpose room next door wouldn’t hurt, either—not the Loker jukebox version 2.0, but live bands, be they smaller local acts, or, better yet, student bands, that will bring the built-in crowds of their friends. Harvard bands need a place to rock out, and Hilles’ fourth floor should offer both the practice and performance space they need, far from the eardrums of students in their dorm rooms. (Incidentally, McLoughlin assured students that Hilles’ museum-grade concrete would restrict sound to the fourth floor.)

We applaud the College for renovating the fourth floor with an eye towards the needs of students (not just student groups), and especially towards Quad residents. Although undergraduate housing will likely be relocated from the Quad in the next two decades after Houses are built in Allston, the College cannot ignore the quality of residential life in the Quad in the meantime. That McLoughlin took the time to hold a focus group in the Quad is a promising sign, and we commend both him and the dozens of Quadlings who took the time to discuss the latest plans. We are concerned, however, that, like the plans for student group space on the floors below, all but the final touches for the new layout were set in concrete before students had the chance to give any sort of substantive feedback. We understand the existing architectural limits of the space, but it is clear that the College’s architects had nearly completed their plans for the fourth floor before last Wednesday’s powwow with students. This is not to say that the College has entirely neglected student opinion on Hilles in the past; the QRAC/Hilles Space Committee held four student focus groups in the 2003-04 school year. But there seems to have been little formal effort to solicit student input between the final engineering and funding approval and the creation of rather firm architectural proposals.

Finally, students cannot allow University Hall to continue to drag its heels with the construction timetable. It took a full year between the Committee’s recommendations and a final approval for the project, and the College must stand by its latest statement that the construction will be completed by the start of the 2006-07 school year. University Hall has put a significant amount of effort into revamping Hilles for the better of the Quad and the rest of the undergraduate body, but students should not have to wait another two years to see the results.