Breaking News: Harvard Kids Have Fun

In stark contrast to the exams, problem sets and theses that typified the rest of their undergraduate lives, the Class of 2006’s final days were punctuated by baseball, hula hoops and roller-coasters.

Courtesy of the 2006 Senior Class Committee (SCC), the soon-to-be latest guard of Harvard graduates was treated to a series of events collectively known as “Senior Week.”

The latest edition of this Harvard tradition largely followed the same script as previous years, but according to those that put the events together, the Class of 2006 took Senior Week to new heights—producing attendance figures that SCC member Christina L. Adams ’06 said “by far exceeded attendance expectations”.

Typically sold-out events like the increased-capacity Senior Soirée and the tasting and tour at Westport Rivers Winery remained so, but increased participation showed elsewhere in the week’s schedule.

SCC member Prital S. Kadakia ’06 said 2006 saw “much higher demand than we’ve seen in previous years.”

He pointed to large attendance increases, including 70 students more for a trip to the Six Flags amusement park and a roughly 200-person jump for the annual Moonlight Cruise through Boston Harbor, as signs indicative of an all-around successful week.

Theodore E. Chestnut ’06, another SCC member, echoed this pleasure with the way Senior Week 2006 played out.

“It really seemed like there was something for everyone,” said Chestnut.

“It seemed like people were really excited—there was a lot of energy, and people were having a great time,” he said.

“Everything seemed to go really, really smoothly.”

The smooth-running week even overcame some intervention from Mother Nature.

Rain on the morning of the Senior Olympics, a battle of houses in events such as tug-of-war and dodgeball, could have put a damper on the festivities, but according to Adams, the Class of ’06 would not succumb to the weather.

“I heard people say they almost enjoyed it more with the rain,” she said.

“Limbo was especially fun with the grass all wet,” said Adams. “[The rain] was fun in its own right.”

Outings to Fenway Park for games between the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Devil Rays and a talent show also appeared on the week’s docket.

The year’s two new additions to Senior Week, a trip to the Harpoon Brewery and an event celebrating the “Last Students Standing” in Senior Bar 2006 were also well attended and well-received, with the latter drawing over 300 students to the Winthrop Junior Common Room.

As successful as Senior Week ’06 was, Chestnut sees room for growth.

“We’re happy that things sell out, but we would like to be able to get as many people that want to be there, there,” he said. He will urge future senior classes to look into increasing event capacity in future years.

Chestnut also spoke of a trip to the Mohegan Sun casino, which drew about 220 attendees, but was forced to be scaled-back from earlier plans.

“We tried to do a new variation on Casino Night,” said Chestnut. Efforts to have a mock casino set up on campus were eventually rebuffed by local authorities.

“Cambridge law is pretty strict on that kind of stuff,” he said.

—Staff writer Nicholas A. Ciani can be reached at nciani@fas.harvard.edu.