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The College plans to evict nearly all student groups from offices in
Harvard Yard and force them to move to the Radcliffe Quadrangle,
sparking an immediate outcry from group leaders.
The move will make room for more freshman social space in the
Yard, Assistant Dean of the College Paul J. McLoughlin II told group
leaders last night.
A handful of groups that are primarily focused on
freshmen—such as the First-Year Outdoor Program and the Prefect
Program—will keep their current homes, McLoughlin said at the meeting
in Emerson Hall.
Peer counseling groups will also be exempt from the eviction,
the vice-president of operations for the Harvard International
Relations Council, Todd Van Stolk-Riley ’06 said.
Van Stolk-Riley estimated that around 30 student groups are housed in the Yard basements.
Leaders of the groups being forced to the Quad complained that
their new offices in the Hilles Building will not be sound-proof, and
that the groups will not be able to carry on sensitive discussions in
private.
The co-chair of the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and
Supporters Alliance, Michael A. Feldstein ’07, said at the meeting that
the lack of sound-proof space in Hilles could be particularly
problematic for his group, which often conducts conversations with
students who want to keep their sexual orientation private.
Feldstein is also a Crimson editorial editor.
McLoughlin told group leaders that zoning guidelines bar the
College from constructing ground-to-ceiling walls in the Hilles space.
The groups’ offices will be separated by bookshelves and curtains, he
said.
An architect from the Boston-based firm Kennedy & Violich
also said at the meeting that budgetary constraints blocked the College
from more extensive renovations at Hilles, according to the director of
strategy and operations for Harvard Model Congress, Daniel A. Dunay
’06.
McLoughlin declined to comment for this article.
“The very nature of most of our organizations is that we need
privacy,” said the publisher of the Harvard Salient, Ryan M. McCaffrey
’07. “Most of all, we need to be able to lock up things in an office.
We have a lot of sensitive stuff in our office that we can’t have in
the open,” he added.
Some student groups who rely on the central location of the
Yard to organize large-scale events said Hilles would require an
organizational change within the club.
“HMUN holds a one-day conference for 2,600 high school
students in 24 Yard classrooms.” Van-Stolk Riley, who is also director
general of HMUN, said. “None of this can happen without a centrally
located office space. We cannot do this from Hilles.”
Although McLoughlin’s announcement provoked an uproar from
group leaders, it came after an 18-month process in which the dean and
students on a special task force of the Committee on College Life
examined the potential move.
The co-head of the Harvard Intercollegiate Model UN Team,
Nicholas Vidnovic III, expressed disappointment with the outcome of the
process. “When administrators make decisions without a lot of student
input, it detracts from student satisfaction,” he said.
A member of the task force, Theodore E. Chestnut ’06,
defended the process, saying that some student group leaders were
included throughout.
Undergraduate Council Matthew J. Glazer ’06 said the move
“has the potential to create more social space for freshmen—which they
are sorely lacking.”
But Glazer expressed concerns that some groups evicted from Yard basements might not get space in Hilles.
“It might be the case where some groups that presently have an
office might not get one,” Glazer said. “It’s my hope that groups can
successfully be relocated and those that don’t currently have space can
eventually have space.”
Student groups already face the problem that their offices
are too small to hold meetings, according to the executive co-chair of
the Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations, Edward H.
Thai ’07. He said that currently, offices are relatively close to the
spaces in the Yard where groups hold their meetings—but that won’t be
the case after the Hilles move. “It’s just doubling the problem,” he
said.
The president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Asian American
Association, Eveleen S. Hsu ’07, said that groups need to keep their
meetings close to freshman dorms in order to woo new members. “I think
the freshman social space is a good idea, but student groups need to
stay close to the Yard,” she said.
“The administration is set on enhancing the Harvard
experience for undergraduates,” Dunay said. “Attacking student groups
and essentially forcing them to pack up and move to some obscure
location that doesn’t give them the space they need is not the way to
do it.”
Student Affairs Committee chair Tara Gadgil ’07 said that the
proposal was still in negotiations. “The UC is going to work with
student groups that have existing office space to determine the best
solution for their group, while in discussion with the administration
about their plans for freshman social space,” Gadgil, a candidate for
UC vice president, said.
The UC, whose office is housed in Holworthy, may also relocate to the Quad.
“There’s a lot of justifications for having a centrally located
office,” Glazer said. “But we want to make sure that fair criteria is
developed for all student groups, including the UC.”
—Staff writer Margaret W. Ho can be reached at
mwho@fas.harvard.edu. —Staff writer Risheng Xu can be reached at
xu4@fas.harvard.edu.
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