Despair and resignation permeated the small groups of Harvard students who gathered last night to mourn the election of Ronald Reagan as the country's next president.

At the Kennedy School, a small pro-Carter crowd of about 50 gathered to watch the Forum's wide television screen in grim disbelief as one state after another fell to Republican challenger Ronald Reagan.

The flashy CBS graphics and soothing voice of Walter Cronkite were of little comfort to the spectators, whose hisses at Reagan victories turned to sighs as the evening wore along.

Misery

"It has been a night of misery," David Edelman '83, vice president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Democratic Club, said as he watched the returns come in with three other club members in a box decorated with green and white ribbons. By 10 p.m., the young Democrats were looping the banners around their necks.

In a small lounge on the Forum's first floor, a group of Institute of Politics fellows and their friends sipped whiskey and beer in silence.

I didn't think it was going to be this big," Nick Thimmesch, an IOP Fellow and syndicated columnist, said. "I can say with assurance that it's been quiet and depressed in here," Maurice Ford '59, Lecturer on Law and Psychiatry, said.

Mr. President

President Bok stopped by the Forum about 9:30 and stood alone at the back of the balcony with his hands in his overcoat pockets. "I'd better let the news sink in before I try to make sense of it," he said.

The reaction of students at House parties was more optimistic. "It's a natural tendency of the young to make enjoyment of the most desperate situations," Peter B. Fleischer '80-4 said last night as he surveyed the 20 people congregated in the Lowell House Senior Common Room.

"But this isn't a party--it's a wake, and by midnight nobody will even be awake," he added.

Frank Hawkins '81, a Lowell House resident who voted in South Dakota, viewed the election returns with levity, saying, "I'm generally depressed but I'm happy I can drive 75 miles per hour again."

In the Leverett House Grille, co-manager Jonathan A. Burman '81 said he expected at least 100 people to show up to "drink their sorrows away."

"People knew they weren't going to be happy so we made a place for people to suffer together. We're giving out five cases of beer and watching Ronald Reagan films at 11:30," he added.

The disspirited viewers in the Quincy House Junior Common Room were joined by six seniors sporting Nazi arm bands, who said that Reagan is "a bit too conservative and a bit too concerned with the military."

One Quincy House resident who asked to remain unnamed said that his Canadian roommate has offered him shelter for the next four years