Since MAC and Pudding renovation will not be completed any time soon, the space problem seems likely to get worse before it gets better.
“It’s certainly the case that the need to make provisions for the loss of the Agassiz and the Rieman Center are important priorities,” Lewis says.
Even now, arts groups do not have an easy time finding space for practice and performances.
“To find rooms for auditions is a full-time job,” the LowKeys’ Libby says. “Performance space is hard to get, especially in places like Sanders Theatre or Lowell Lecture Hall. They are not reserved for Harvard students alone.”
The problem, according to Libby, arises because the alternatives to Sanders and Lowell Lecture Hall have much lower seating accommodations.
“We improvise a lot to find space,” said Libby. “The [Currier House] Fishbowl is an awful space, having to push and pull the couches around.”
Lewis says that “big decisions” will have to be made about how to expand space for students as the University begins to develop its land in Allston and Watertown.
“I’ve taken the position that I’m not in favor of moving student activities to Watertown,” Lewis says. “Status at Harvard is measured by meters from the John Harvard statue.”
But the crunch on student space is not the only variety that troubles FAS.
Kirby has made it a priority to grow the size of the faculty, aiming for a minimum faculty growth of 10 percent over the next 10 years.
“We’re pursuing this in a very aggressive and determined way,” Kirby says.
According to Kirby and Lewis, a lack of space is the greatest hurdle standing in the way of that growth.
“There are many academic departments that are severely space-constrained,” Lewis says. “There are departments where they can’t hire because there are no offices to put anyone in.”
But Lewis says he will not let FAS put the issue of student space on the back-burner.
“I’ve been clear at every opportunity that it’s important for the health of the College community to support the non-academic side of student life,” Lewis says. “If you look at what people write about 15 to 25 years after the fact, what they think they took away from their experience at Harvard is pretty well balanced between academic inspiration, social ties and activities they undertook outside the classroom.”
—Staff writer Anne K. Kofol can be reached at kofol@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Svetlana Y. Meyerzon can be reached at meyerzon@fas.harvard.edu.