Student Events To Face Limits

In the next step toward changing the policy for holding large student group events in the Houses, a working draft of the report on events management was brought before the Committee on College Life (CCL) yesterday morning.

The report calls for Harvard to limit student group events to two per night and to require organizations to register parties three weeks in advance. It also suggests unifying the House registration system and increasing Harvard University Police Department coverage.

“I want events to be better organized and safer,” Assistant Dean of the College Paul J. McLoughlin said. “Right now, students think a lot about their events, but we can provide more resources.”

The proposed changes come from a joint subcommittee of the Committee on House Life (CHL) and the CCL. The subcommittee was created last fall in response to “a series of incidents during House events,” specifically the fight that erupted during a Harvard Society of Black Scientists and Engineers party in Lowell.

McLoughlin has already presented the working draft to the UC and House masters and will next solicit feedback from the CHL, House Committee (HoCo) members, and student group leaders before sending it to interim Dean of the College David R. Pilbeam for final approval.

The report’s suggestions “are similar to other colleges,” McLoughlin said. “But the difference is that at other colleges, student events are at a large center or union that has the staff to oversee them.”

If approved, the new policies may not change much in practice. In the past three semesters, for example, there have been only five days with more than two events, McLoughlin said.

Michelle C. Kellaway ’10, co-chair of Harvard’s Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Supporters Alliance, said that the new requirements should not affect her group since they already plan three weeks in advance. BGLTSA typically hosts two campus events a semester, she said.

President of the Black Men’s Forum Ralph L. Bouquet ’09, who has worked closely with McLoughlin to plan both on- and off-campus events, said he would like to see more transparency and organization of the House registration process.

—Staff writer Sophie M. Alexander at salexand@fas.harvard.edu.