Students Unfurl Petition To Stall MAC Makeover

The Malkin Athletic Center (MAC) is shaping up to be the site of a possible face-off of students against administrators over the proposed timetable for renovations.

Upset at plans to close the MAC for a revamp during all of next semester and the summer of 2007, two undergraduates are hoping that their campaign will force administrators to reconsider.

“My primary objection is the way it was announced,” said Undergraduate Council (UC) member Ali A. Zaidi ’08. He maintained that there was no dialogue with students before the announcement.

Zaidi added that he thought the plans would lead to overcrowding in other gyms, would reduce the winter and spring intramural programs, and would leave the classes and club sports offered at the MAC homeless.

“The classes offered at the MAC will not be offered... We will lose those,” he said.

Along with fellow Lowell UC representative Ryan M. Donovan ’07, Zaidi started an online petition late Tuesday night as part of a plan to change the timetable.

A link to the petition was forwarded to most House e-mail lists the same night. As of last night, it boasted 277 signatures.

Chuck Sullivan, director of athletic communications, stressed that the details of the contingency plans were unconfirmed as far as he knew.

“I’m not sure what they would even be petitioning against,” he said.

Associate Director of the Athletics Department Jeremy Gibson was unavailable for comment.

For Zaidi and Donovan, the “Save the MAC” website is only the first step.

They plan to enlist the support of leaders of student groups—such as the Kendo Club and Harvard Boxing Club—which Zaidi said will be affected by the closing, and to administrators to begin consultation with students.

Faculty of Arts and Sciences Director of Communications Robert Mitchell could not be reached for comment yesterday.

“We recognize renovation is a wonderful thing,” Zaidi said of the 76-year- old athletic center. But he proposed undertaking the refurbishment either in “zones” so that the building is never entirely shut, or in “phases” so that it happens over two summers.

Other students were less passionate about the issue.

Adam D. Yock ’08 said he hadn’t heard about the petition or the campaign.

But, he said, “I’d sign it.”

—Staff writer John R. Macartney can be reached at jmacartn@fas.harvard.edu