Some people just can’t stay away from a good time. Zachary A. Corker ’04, the student leader whose projects had a decidedly mischevious streak, will continue to hone his legacy, but now he’s in University Hall. Zach was one of the original brains behind the website HahvahdPahties.com, the original Mather Lather, and the “house war” that resulted in dead fish stuffed in Cabot House mailboxes. Now he’s a “special assistant for social programming” who will work with social groups all over campus, and give input to the administration on improving social life. Party on!
1. Tomorrow is going to be your first day at your new job. Do you feel intimidated that you’re going to be working with some of the people who you’ve crossed paths with before?
No, we’re colleagues now. We’ll form a working relationship with them.
2. More importantly, who’s the best dancer: Dean Gross, Dean Kidd or Dean Kirby?
Dean Gross. I saw him in action at some of the senior fund-raising events, you know, and he can get down.
3. Are you happy that the College seems to have taken an active step in improving social life at Harvard by hiring you?
I’m definitely happy that they’re taking this step. And I’m excited to be working with Dean McLoughlin. And I think the Office of Student Life and Activities has been working pretty hard the last couple years and has already made some positive changes.
4. Do you think you’re going to make a song for University Hall, like an official anthem?
A song? We’ll see, we’ll see. I think it will be up to Dean Gross. Maybe it will be his favorite dance song.
5. One of the things you suggested doing to improve social life was to make it so that you could only get into final clubs during your senior year and to get rid of the randomization of house assignments. Do you think you can actually institute such policies now, and would you still recommend it? Why?
Those are pretty big university issues. Those are just kind of my thoughts. That’s not really in my job description.
6. Do you think you would like to stay on longer to help advise Harvard on social matters, or have the College create a more permanent position for such matters?
Yeah, definitely. I think there are precedents at other schools, and I think that there is a place at Harvard for a position like this.
7. You’re living in Pfoho now. Do you plan on checking up on one of your successors as Mather HoCo chair, Darren S. Morris ’05, to make sure that he’s still running things well?
Yeah, I’m going there right after this and throwing high fives.
8. During your days at Mather, there were a lot of things that happened there—the interhouse war, the Lather, hahvahdparties.com – what caused you to become so inspired?
I took each of them as a learning experience…I learned some interesting lessons about the social scene at Harvard from each of them.
Such as…
Such as dealing with the city of Cambridge, and dealing with U-Haul, and advertising, and not using the Harvard name in a dot-com website.
9. If you had another year to be Mather HoCo co-czar, what more would you have done?
Win the Straus Cup.
10. Did you take offense when people were critical of some of the things Mather did, such as the Lather back in spring of 2003, or the guys in Kirkland who made fun of you for making such a big deal out of the war?
No, I mean I think that the greatest parties in history are eventually broken up by the police and it’s a shame it ended early. But if anything the interest was positive and I think it helped raise awareness that we need more going on on campus. I mean any time that that many people show up to one event, there’s not enough happening.
11. You’ve mentioned that a lot of people were disappointed about getting into Mather. What was your initial reaction as a freshman?
I was furious. I was a big fan of traditional Harvard architecture and already being out of the Yard freshman year in Greenough, I was so mad to be in Mather. But then it took me three months and I was bleeding concrete.
12. A lot of people say that the reason that whole “war” started is that there were a bunch of guys who just had too much time on their hands. How exactly do you explain the rationale for an incident that kind of got out of hand, and resulted in the death of a lot of seafood?
I would take it the other way. I think it resulted because there were a lot of guys with too much to do. It’s amazing what you’ll come up with when you’re writing a senior thesis and you’re trying to procrastinate. But dead seafood—tragic. And if we find out who did it, Wow.
13. Now that you’re back on campus, do you think there’s going to be a new house war starting? Will we see a new Pfoho-Mather alliance to take out Kirkland?
No comment [laughs]. I don’t think house war is in the interest of University Hall. We’ll put our efforts elsewhere.
14. Describe your ideal social event.
Harvard-Yale. 85 degrees.
15. Where do you think is the best place to party on campus? Where’s the worst?
The worst is probably Greenough after my unfortunate meeting with the Dean and realizing parties aren’t allowed in freshmen dorms. The best? I would say the tent in front of the Science Center for the senior soirée.
