Student groups, perennially cramped for space in campus offices, are also feeling a financial pinch as demand invariably exceeds available funding.

The University recently earmarked $4 million from its Capital Campaign to rebuild a Memorial Hall tower destroyed by a fire in 1956. And of the $965 million Harvard hopes to raise for the College and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences by the end of this year, much of that money already has been directed to financial aid, Faculty salaries and University operating expenses, according to the University Development Office.

The student organizations that loom so large in undergraduates' lives are nowhere on the University's wish list.

Instead, a financially strapped Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club (HRDC) relies on its alumni. Last year, the club sent out a newsletter, asking for support in exchange for free tickets to Loeb Mainstage productions. But according to Michael P. Davidson '00, HRDC president, this endeavor has not yielded much thus far. The organization has received enough alumni donations to cover the costs of the newsletter but not much more.

"We have to do this because of the high costs of producing theatre," Jessica K. Jackson '99, former HRDC president wrote in an e-mail message. "Our club funding has not been raised for a very long time."

HRDC is not alone. The College's 240-plus student groups annually race for grants, competing against one another for money from the Dean of Student's Office, the Office for the Arts, the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations and the Radcliffe Union of Students.

But the size of the prize is not sufficient, student group leaders say. For example, the Undergraduate Council, one of the most popular sources of funding, receives requests that total twice the amount the council has allocated for the grants, according to council treasurer Sterling P. A. Darling '01.

With limited resources to turn to at the College, student groups are instead trying to turn to their alumni for support--some with more success than others. Until the College places student groups higher on its list of priorities, space will remain sparse and funding even scarcer.

Conflicting Priorities