Administrators anticipated that the Crimson Cash would draw students to Loker, attract them to its other features and keep them there.

But then students stopped showing up, so administrators scaled back the other features. And when the administrators scaled back services, students continued to stay away. Now caught in a vicious cycle, students and administrators fear that the $25 million commons will become simply an over-priced and underutilized basement.

"If we continue to trend the way we have been trending in September and October, we could stand to lose a substantial amount of money," said Leonard D. Condenzio, acting director of Harvard Dining Services.

"What we're finding out is that with the level of service and also the hours of service, that there's simply not enough volume to warrant the expenses," Condenzio says.

To these ends, Harvard Dining Services has cut the number of employees working at Loker Commons as well as its hours, according to Condenzio.

The coffee shop now opens at 11 a.m., as opposed to last year when it opened before 10 a.m.

The entire Loker complex currently ceases service at 12:30 a.m. instead of staying open until 1 a.m., as it did last year.

Prices have also increased noticeably at Loker Commons. According to Condenzio, prices have risen by an average of 4.5 percent from last year to this.

The student newsstand also closed, a decision made by Eric C. Engel, the director of the Memorial/Lowell Complex.

Although Engel refused to comment for this story, Undergraduate Council member Rudd W. Coffey '97 says the newsstand was a "big loser" financially because few students were using it.

Condenzio also blames generally low turnout on the commons' location, despite Loker's proximity to the Science Center, Annenberg Dining Hall, the Yard dorms and most Harvard classrooms.

Student Opinion

Some students, on the other hand, generally attribute Loker's decline to the administration's misguided vision of the space.

"The administration approached Loker from the beginning wanting it to not be a student center," says Coffey, a four-year member of the Undergraduate Council who has worked on the Loker project for several years.

Early on, administrators wanted Loker Commons to be an informal, quasi-academic setting where people could meet with TFs and classmates, according to Coffey.