Caterers say they will often accept a lower profit on a Harvard alumni event because of the exposure they get for the company.
"We do pretty well in getting good companies because they want our business because of our volume," says Briefer, who organizes the 25th reunion. "Caterers, for example, want to be exposed to people like Harvard alumni."
Boone Pendergrast, manager of the East Coast Grill, says his company has been catering reunion events for the last several years. He says he is trying to develop a relationship with the 10th reunion, and for the second straight year will cater an event for the 10th reunion class in Kirkland House.
"I think they're looking for good, fun food," says Pendergrast. "We cook on site with our Supersmoker, which is on a trailer six by thirteen feet long. That creates a lot of excitement."
Pendergrast says the reunions are like other events East Coast Grill caters. But Pendergrast acknowledges that membership in the club of companies that serve Harvard reunions has its particular privileges.
"The exposure is incredible," says Pendergrast. "I would guess a large majority of [alumni] living within the Boston area will get to know the restaurant."
Every year, Harvard arranges two nights at Symphony Hall for alumni to watch the Boston Pops.
From door to door, it's a luxurious night out. A police escort takes the buses straight to the concert, tying up traffic along the way.
Booking the hall is not a complicated task. Harvard reunions have been going to the Pops for so long that ticket sales for two nights every June have been blocked off.
"We pretty much know Harvard's going to come the same dates every year, so we pretty much set aside the dates every year," says Helen Hoey, group sales coordinator for the Pops.
Harvard's method of payment to the hall is different from other area colleges, which also go to the Pops on special occasions. While other colleges rent out the hall itself, Harvard pays more by buying each seat individually, says Hoey. The total cost, with a one dollar discount per seat, is $80,743 a night, according to The Crimson's estimate using figures provided by the Pops.
But the University's outlay to the Pops is more than that. Harvard Business School also buys out the house, and different reunions rent some of the function rooms inside Symphony Hall, too.
University officials and these companies all insist that their relationships are proper and beneficial to Harvard. However, the tendency to leave these long-standing relationships on automatic pilot allows room for abuse. Even when Harvard is policing itself, oversight may be lacking.
Director of Dining Services Michael P. Berry, for example, says that when he first arrived at Harvard two years ago, money from undergraduate fees was partially subsidizing the cost of feeding alumni. He says he's fixed that, and now the dining service turns a small profit from reunion work.
There's no evidence of any wrongdoing in most of these cases, but as Harvard moves further into the 1990s, its reunions are depending on some contracts that were penned in the 1970s, or even before that.
Changing standards of discrimination may have made it wise for Harvard to reevaluate its relationship with the Essex County Club.
But reevaluation and oversight of long-standing contracts do not seem to be on Harvard's reunion checklist. Rather, contractors and Harvard reunion seem to reunite every year to share a week-long party.
Two students, frequent police sweeps and a security officer working overtime guard Harvard's rented chairs, making them some of the best-protected folding seats around.
Although cozy contractual relationships simplify the task of organizers, they also can lead to inefficiency, prodigality, and arrangements that may compromise Harvard principles.