Smith assured the commission that according to a council survey conducted last year, 85 percent of students are awake past 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.

“It’s something that students are very, very eager to try out this spring,” Gusmorino said.

While in the past Cambridge residents have tried to tame noise at Harvard, the dining halls are removed from residential areas.

Cambridge residents sent three letters to the commission urging that late parties not be allowed near the Fogg Art Museum or in the vicinity of Prescott Street due to noise concerns. Since no House dining halls are located in those areas, the commission ruled the letters irrelevant.

Barns invited audience opposition to the proposal, but none was offered.

Council presidential candidate Sujean S. Lee ’03, her running mate Anne M. Fernandez ’03 and Student Activities Committee Chair Rohit Chopra ’04 also attended the meeting, although they did not sit on the panel representing the proposal before the commission.

Both Lee and Chopra have been active since last spring in selling the proposal to college administrators, deans and House masters.

“If the City Council passes this, it will be the culmination of a lot of hard work for us,” Lee said.

—Staff writer William M. Rasmussen can be reached at wrasmuss@fas.harvard.edu.