CHL Tables Event Planning

In its most assertive move of the semester, the Committee on House Life (CHL) decided to table their final approval of student organization event planing when some members expressed concern that there had not been sufficient time to vet the working draft.

The CHL was presented with a summary of the final report that contained recommendations ranging from restrictions on the number of large events that may be held on campus each night to changes to the late night weekend shuttle schedule.

The meeting’s agenda allowed only 20 minutes to present 19 summary recommendations. Co-chairs of the committee, Assistant Dean of Harvard College Paul J. McLoughlin II and Dunster House co-master Ann Porter spent a majority of that time fielding questions from committee members who said that many of the recommendations were too vague.

“As a CHL member, I think we owe it to everyone to understand the report better before it becomes policy,” said Tyler W. Bosmeny ’09, who is also Crimson associate business manager. “I am concerned about areas that are too vague such as whether or not students will have to limit events for pre-frosh weekend.”

The subcommittee evaluating event planning is a joint group of the CHL and the Committee on College Life (CCL). This body has been charged with reevaluating the College’s limited resources to accommodate student social events and issue recommendations to both standing committees and the Dean of the College.

Members of the subcommittee have presented their findings to numerous student groups, the Undergraduate Council (UC), and the editorial board of The Harvard Crimson over the course of the semester.

The recommendations themselves are mostly procedural changes, said UC Student Affairs Committee Chair and member of the CHL Jon T. Staff V ’10. “This is not really a controversial report,” Staff said, adding that students have been given ample opportunity to voice their concerns and that they have on the whole been receptive to the changes.

The draft requires the approval of both the CCL and CHL before it can be presented for final approval by the Dean of the College. The approval was nearly delayed until the fall as a result of the concerns. Instead a meeting was scheduled for next week which will keep the process on track for implementation before the next school year.

“I personally felt instead of rushing through something and not having people feel that they were heard, that we just take our time, pull people back together, and make sure people have their questions answered,” said Associate Dean of Harvard College for Residential Life Suzy M. Nelson.

UC President Matthew L. Sundquist ’09 said that the committee’s decision represents a departure from a more passive approach to approving policy recommendations that had characterized their activity over the past year.

“I do think there’s a shift in taking votes and making sure there was discussion,” Sundquist said.

The 28-page document is a “working draft” of recommendations that, according to McLoughlin, may or may not be implemented at all.

He said that his concern is that the policies are approved by stakeholders as soon as possible.

“I don’t think students should have to start under one set of policies and then switch to another one mid-year,” he said.

This form of policy change is a familiar one for the College. Earlier this semester the working draft of a new College-wide alcohol policy was unveiled in a similar manner.

“So what was proposed today was an up-or-down, do you approve with the general guidelines of the report,” said Porter. “It is not a place where every specific detail is hammered out or approved because this body does not have the charge or the authority to do that.”

Small blue cards thanking students and House masters for a year of service remained on the conference table as members left what should have been the last meeting of the year. They will reconvene on next Thursday.

—Staff writer Abby D. Phillip can be reached at adphil@fas.harvard.edu
—Staff writer Charles J. Wells can be reached at wells2@fas.harvard.edu.