A year ago, when students asked Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 about the possibility of a student center at Harvard, they were told that such a building was "not a priority." But shortly after students returned to Cambridge in the fall, they were surprised to learn that the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) wanted to turn the Harvard Union into a humanities center and move the freshperson dining hall to Memorial Hall.

Administrators say that the plan would consolidate the offices for humanities departments and ease the severe shortage of faculty office space. And they argue that although a student center is still not a priority, it makes a convenient part of the "package," a way to satisfy students and faculty at the same time.

But many students are not so sure of the merits of the proposal, calling it merely a plan to move the dining hall--with the side effect of replacing needed student office space with central meeting rooms.

Yet whether students like it or not, the student and humanities centers seem destined to be built. Peter J. Riley of Harvard Real Estate (HRE)--which manages Memorial Hall for FAS--says that a feasibility study completed last week concluded that the changes are sound, and Jewett says the plan is just waiting for funds.

"We've moved along, but not as fast as I would like," says Jewett, adding that he thinks such a center will "put us well on the way to improving the situation for extracurriculars and the humanities." Jewett says he hopes construction on the project will begin as soon as funds become available, although he notes that FAS has not earmarked the centers for a specific fund drive.

Jewett says that the current plans drawn up by the prestigious architectural firm of Venturi, Rauch and Scott Brown are fluid enough that the specific details of the plan can be worked out as soon as the University is set to begin construction.

As currently designed, the proposal would provide not only a Memorial Hall dining hall for first-year students, but also a restaurant, grill and student meeting spaces. Renovations to Sanders Theater would include dressing rooms and a piano lift.

The Union would be turned into a humanities center, with offices for many departments now scattered across the campus, seminar rooms and even a graduate student center.

Already, FAS has consolidated office space near the Harvard Union by converting a former freshperson dorm at 8 Prescott St. into offices for junior faculty in the English Department. Offices for the Literature and History and Literature concentrations are located next to the Union in Burr Hall.

Once faculty space is created in the Union, says Associate Dean for Physical Resources Philip J. Parsons, student organizations now in Memorial Hall may be able to relocate to department offices vacated in the move to the Union. He adds that any group will be able to reserve the student meeting areas in Memorial Hall through a system similar to that now used for rooms in the Union and the residential houses.

The building exchange has been touted as a plan in which no one loses--as humanities faculty gain more space and a central location, students gain greater recreational and extracurricular facilities.

"The tremendous shortage of space in several academic departments has fragmented the humanities terribly," says Parsons. "The center for the humanities will be a place where the faculty can share amenities, be close to the libraries, and close to their colleagues." He adds that the Union plan would increase by 30 percent the space available to humanities departments.

"I imagine this project would be very attractive to many people," says Parsons. "Unlike a lot of things that happen with a lot of controversy, the only controversy here will be around how [Memorial Hall] will be used as a student space."

Indeed, many students who led earlier efforts to secure a center to house undergraduate groups have already expressed disappointment with the proposal, despite Jewett's assurances that their input will be solicited.

"The Memorial Hall option is not a student center," says Amy B. Zegart '89, former vice-chair of the Undergraduate Council and an author of the original resolution calling for a student center. "It was a bittersweet piece of news. Long-term improvements will be made, but it's definitely not what we want."