Loker Commons to Soak in Suds

This Friday, Harvard administrators will funnel several of the key components of a weekend night—beer, music, good company, and greasy snacks—into a basement normally used for books and bagels.

Come 10 p.m., Loker Commons will be transformed from a little-used study space to a student-saloon-of-sorts in the first-ever Harvard Pub Night.

Advertisements for the event labeled it the “beginning of a new era,” and plans are already in the works for future pub nights.

“We are enthusiastic to attempt to put on social events and use Loker in a positive way,” said Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71.

The administration’s plan to lure students to the event includes $1 draft beers, pizza from Pinocchio’s, burritos from Felipe’s, and a raffle for a free iPod.

The student-run Veritas Records label has also organized performances by Makodo Concern, a student band, and Incadence, a professional cover band.

“I know a lot of people that are really excited about this,” said Daniel J. Zaccagnino ’05, president of Veritas Records.

Harvard Pub Night is just one component of administrators’ recent efforts to diversify and expand on-campus social options for students.

Past attempts to hold social events in Loker have not been well attended.

The basement space—renovated in 1992 with a $7 million donation from philanthropist Katherine B. Loker—was designed to fill a void in student social life and provide an alternative to more exclusive final club soirees. However, the space has instead been split between fly-by food runs, math study sessions, and problem set cramming.

Though there was initially little consultation with students about how to use the space, the administration has recently decided to implement student ideas for activities.

“We thought this would be a fantastic way to provide a regular sort of opportunity in Loker,” said Jack P. McCambridge ’06, a former member of the Undergraduate Council who has remained in close contact with Associate Dean of the College Judith H. Kidd.

Kidd has been working with Dean for Special Programming Zachary A Corker ’04 to plan more student social events.

“The institutional support and the excitement that Zac Corker brings to the position, along with the willingness of Kidd’s office to explore all avenues to make this a success, will help. It’s student specific,” McCambridge said.

Though the future campus in Allston has been discussed as a site for a student center, some have expressed a more immediate need for change.

“Allston is 20 years away, so we have to create other options in the meantime,” Corker said.

And in the meantime, Corker said he hopes that at the very least, Friday’s event will prove to be a “non-awkward gathering.”

—Staff writer Nicole B. Urken can be reached at urken@fas.harvard.edu.