In the last two years, he says, the house committee has made a push to change the focus to “having fun.”

“Alcohol is a part of that, but it is not the central focus,” he says. “A lot of people don’t drink at Stein Club. Some people don’t drink because they have a test the next day and some people are not 21.”

To make the events more inclusive for people who do not drink, Hawkins says the house committee makes sure to have plenty of soda, root beer and pizza.

In fact, house committee chairs of houses like Mather, Leverett, Quincy and Lowell say that Stein Club provides a community atmosphere that might otherwise suffer in their bigger Houses.

“Leverett is one of the larger Houses, with more than 400 students, and there are definitely people I’ve met through Stein Club,” says Leverett Stein Club Co-Chair Adam M. Taub ’02, who is also a Crimson editor. “Sometimes you see people in the dining hall, people you’re graduating with, but you don’t ever really have a chance to talk. Stein Club gives you that opportunity.”

Kirshner says that the prospect of more House socializing was one of the main reasons he approved the establishment of a Quincy Stein Club.

“Quincy is a big House. Not everybody knows everybody,” Kirshner says. “The students wanted it as a social event, not as a mechanism for underage drinking, and I think that’s a reasonable thing.”

The two Houses that do not have Stein Club, Adams and Dunster, are smaller and therefore do not need Stein Club to bring residents together, suggests Melissa H. Coleman ’02, co-chair of the Dunster House Committee.

“We’re also a smaller House. We have a smaller community. If you look at the prices of stein clubs it’s easier for Houses like Lowell to have something like that.”

Adams House Committee Chair Benjamin L. Miller ’02 says that while there has been some student interest in an Adams stein club in the past, it has never been a priority for the committee.

We have other outlets,” Miller says. “We have carpe noctem nights where we usually show a movie and chill out.”

Taking the Beer Out of the Stein

“Inclusive” is the new key word for Leverett House Stein Club this year, Taub says.

He says that in the past, it was “nebulous” whether House residents under 21 could attend stein club .

“[Stein club] was a bit closed in the past. It was something we wanted to change,” Taub says.