Last year, Alisha M. Quintana '99 made a pilgrimage to Loker Commons every other night.

Drawn by the fast times, cheap food and fun crowds, Quintana decided very quickly that Loker had accomplished the goal set for it by the administration: to be a true student center.

But for Quintana, and many students at the College, the novelty of Loker has worn off.

Now, just 10 months after opening its doors to overwhelming fanfare and a true cult following, Loker Commons is in trouble.

"I never come here this year," Quintana says.

"The two times I have come here, nobody's been here, and none of my friends ever come here either," she says, gesturing vaguely to the nearly vacant chairs and booths around her.

What has happened to the facility center that Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 once said would be a "focus of undergraduate life in a way that we've never had"?

First, Loker's popularity among students is lower than expected, and perhaps waning even further. Not viewing it as the student center they were anticipating, undergraduates are staying away in droves.

Second, Loker appears to be racking up a pile of debt. All four of Loker's eateries are losing money, and a newsstand in the commons closed in the spring for financial reasons after only a few months of operation.

As a result, even the very administrators who were hailing Loker just one year ago appear to be conceding defeat: in interviews, they uniformly ask the student body for suggestions on how to make Loker the true student center it apparently never was.

The Problems

At night, the contrast couldn't be greater. From the main Yard through the gates to Memorial Hall, a pedestrian is surrounded by the dark vortex, another rainy autumn night.

Amid psychedelic "light brites," predominantly clean gray architecture, and kitschy cafe-style eateries, students mingle in the Loker Commons complex.

Most conspicuous of all, though, is emptiness. There's a lot of empty space in these commons, too much empty space for a Friday night at a college student center. This is the source--and the result--of Loker's woes.

Loker's problems apparently began right when it opened.

Despite its much-hailed opening and the $100 in Crimson Cash awarded to each student for expenditures there, the commons was losing money from the start.