Driven by success, competition, and a desire to conquer the world, Harvard undergraduates tend to leave their social lives in the dustbin. What often emerges is a stilted, stifled, or unfulfilling campus social scene.

What can be done to ameliorate weekend life within "the ivory tower"? Many students have come up with interesting and creative possibilities to spice up the standard, routine weekend party scene of keggers and cocktail parties.

Brenna S. Haysom '00 and her first-year roommates hosted a Communist-themed party in Grays West two years ago.

"We were sort of reminiscent of the days of the high Cold War," Haysom says.

Guests came through the doors to find graffiti-decorated walls and "industrial squalor." One student came as Chairman Mao Zedong with a "Little Red Book" and another with a hammer-and-sickle head ornament, though most of the more than 100 partygoers came as "Russian Euro-trash" youth, Haysom recalls.

Drinks served included vodka and Molotov cocktails. Haysom explains that in her experience all first-years were "sort of desperate" for these types of parties.

"People are so psyched to have alcohol," Haysom says. "It was a really good party."

Tanzid Shams '99 of Adams House hosted an island party the first weekend of this month, in keeping with the "spring break spirit" of exotic ambience and tropical drinks. The event attracted more than 150 party-goers.

Guests wore hula skirts, sipped pina coladas, margaritas and Kahlua, and danced to Jimmy Buffet, Bob Marley and merengue tunes. One male student wore a bikini top and thong, Shams says.