"They've really taken over the building. It's so professional it's sterile," says one senior who asked not to be named. "You're always a visitor in the building--I've always felt like a guest."

Most important, students say, is the lack of sufficient performance space.

The Standing Committee on Dramatics is responsible for overseeing the operation of the HRDC, which doles out the Mainstage and Ex spaces to student groups each semester. But with so few Mainstage spaces allotted for undergraduate use, contentions necessarily arise.

"Potentially with the ART here it should be or could be a really great resource," says Beth A. Norman '91, campus liason for HRDC. "In reality, due to space concerns, that doesn't happen. As a result, nobody's happy and everybody blames the other party."

Two years ago, City Step--a dance group involving Cambridge children--sparked a controversy when it applied for a Mainstage space, claiming its production was too elaborate to be staged else-where. CityStep also wanted to negotiate a regular playing space on the Mainstage, and many students involved in drama feared that the group would permanently take some of its cherished slots.

In the end, HRDC gave CityStep a one-time slot. Negotiations between CityStep and the ART for future performances were unsuccessful.

Last summer, CityStep and Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III worked out an agreement under which the group would alternate performance spaces at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School and a space "at Harvard," organizers have said.

The organizers interpreted this to mean that they could perform on the Mainstage, but they subsequently discovered that the space at Harvard was not necessarily at the Loeb. University officials rejected a request to host this spring's CityStep's performance on the Mainstage.

"One of the tragedies of the problem is that wonderful groups like CityStep have to go begging at the Loeb for space but we cannot take anymore space at the Loeb from the HRDC," Alfred says.

Fears about space competition have also grown since the ART and the University created the Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard--often dubbed the "ART Institute"--three years ago. A two-year graduate program in dramatic arts, the Institute works closely with the professional company.

Director Richard Ridell cites the Institute as yet another opportunity that the ART has drawn to Harvard, praising its freedom to work with professionals and in the classroom over more traditional graduate programs at other universities.

And the Institute runs workshops with undergraduates to foster a sense of community.

"Everybody at the Institute is really excited about getting involved with undergraduates," says Bart DeLorenzo, a first-year director at the Institute. "It would be the perfect bridge between the undergraduates and the professional company."

But undergraduates say that the Institute's coming has been fraught with problems, placing threats on control over the Ex.

"They created the Institute and there's really no place to put it," says Cross.