But with FAS tightening its purse strings, these dreams may have to be saved for a sunnier financial climate.

Several new building projects are on hold, according to senior administrators.

“Once you’ve got an identifiable project, it can get on the list,” Lewis says. “Part of the problem is there’s just a lot of building going on.”

And as Harvard continues to snap up unclaimed space in Allston and Watertown and its various schools have already begun to jockey for position from crowded Cambridge, it remains to be seen whether the College will be able to move its priorities to the top of the University’s list.

College administrators, including Illingworth and Lewis, are adamant that undergraduate resources should not be pushed across the river and past the athletic fields. They cite safety concerns and logistical scheduling challenges.

“We’re all told we have to be flexible about using this new space,” Illingworth says. “Law school students have less of a need, I think, to be here in the Square than College students.”

While Illingworth and others acknowledge that Allston will likely include some component of College life, Illingworth says he would be adamantly against moving the athletic fields—which have existed since the Civil War—further into Allston.

“There’s something sacred about those fields,” he says. “To move those fields would be a real shame.”

Short of relocating FAS facilities to Allston, administrators emphasize that a substantial gain in undergraduate space might be realized if other faculties move across the river, as would occur under both of the two main scenarios being discussed for Allston.

For instance, if the Graduate School of Education moves—which its dean says its faculty would like to do—three buildings would open up in proximity to the Loeb Drama Center and Agassiz Theater. Illingworth says these buildings are obviously a prime space, where he could “envision a kind of arts community.”

And if the law school heads to Allston, its large campus adjacent to Harvard Yard would be vacated.

For College planners, this domino effect has the prospect of opening up large swaths of free space.

And College students desperately need something to make up for the severe deficit of space for them on campus, students and administrators agree.

With a president who has expressed his commitment to improving the undergraduate experience and an incoming dean of the College who has identified solving the space crunch as among his top priorities, some wonder if finally the administration will prioritize undergraduate space needs.

Others remain skeptical. Bergmann says she wonders whether the administration has much commitment to building arts facilities.