In the midst of what appears to be the waning popularity of Loker Commons, the College administration is making an effort to revitalize the campus's only student center.
At issue is whether the underutilized student center should be transformed from an informal meeting hall to a social center.
"We're trying hard to make Loker Commons a destination as opposed to just a crossroads," Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 said yesterday.
Loker has been struggling for months to draw students in the numbers that it did when it opened last year.
Because of rising debts, the center has reduced its hours, cut back on its employees and slightly raised prices at eateries, Leonard P. Condenzio, acting director of Harvard Dining Services, said last month.
Different possibilities for the future of Loker were discussed in the Committee on Campus Life (COCL) meeting last week.
Possible changes suggested at the meeting include adding a television, changing the space where the vending machines currently sit and creating "sub-spaces" within the current Commons, according to Lewis.
Dean of Student Archie C. Epps III is the point man on the revitalization, said Lewis. Epps is in the process of forming an ad-hoc committee to discuss the future of Loker.
Rudd W. Coffey '97, who sits on both the new Epps committee and the 1994 Loker Commons Advisory Committee, said the administration is interested in a very wide range of possibilities.
"All we know is the administration is eager to redo this place," Coffey said.
Coffey suggested more far-ranging changes than Lewis listed, including bringing in outside chains such as Pizza Hut or Taco Bell or adding a game room.
According to Coffey, Lewis called the $25 million commons "the world's most expensive study hall."
Marco B. Simons '97, former chair of the U.C. Student Affairs Committee, said the need to make Loker more of a student center and less of an academic one is one which students predicted long ago.
"I think the administration is realizing what the students have been saying all along," Simons said.
Coffey said the topic of Loker changes has been popular among students with whom he has spoken.
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