Undergraduates and deans alike demonstrated their athletic prowess this year in two campus-wide dodgeball tournament, students flocked in droves to the first-ever Harvard Pub Nights, and the Undergraduate Council (UC) organized Springfest: The Afterparty, an event specifically geared towards undergraduates—complete with beer and professional bands.

This year, after Special Assistant to the Dean for Social Programming Zachary A Corker ’04 assumed a new position created to increase students’ social options on campus, Harvard undergraduates have seen a greater share of purely fun events.

And after a March Boston Globe article broadcasted the long-held stereotype that Harvard undergraduates are less happy than their peers at other elite schools, the number of expanded social options on campus has never been more timely.

An internal October 2004 Harvard memo analyzing data from the 2002 survey found that Harvard averaged a 2.62 on a 5-point scale rating its campus social life, compared to an average of 2.89 across 30 other schools, the Globe reported.

Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 told the Crimson in March that the issues of social life raised by the data guided his priorities when he first took his post in July 2003.

“That’s exactly what we’ve been focusing on for the past three years,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Gross noted that administrators have stepped up their efforts to expand student activity space and extend party hours to 2 a.m. And the College has demonstrated that improving social life is one of its top priorities with its consideration of plans to turn Loker Commons into a permanent pub in the wake of six successful Pub Nights.

LIVIN’ LA VIDA LOKER

Administrators credit Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby with backing programming that would reinvigorate Loker Commons.

“Dean Kirby supported the original idea,” Corker says. “When I met with Dean Kidd, she asked me what we could do to make Loker Commons a pub.”

Corker adds that the concept was a “truly collaborative effort.”

Working in conjunction with Veritas Records and Harvard Student Agencies (HSA), the Office of Student Activities (OSA) helped make Pub Nights a reality. And since Loker Commons made its pub debut in early February, students have consistently filtered into the little-used study space.

Renovated in 1996 with a $7 million donation from philanthropist Katherine B. Loker, the basement space has since struggled to shed its reputation as a study space for students seeking to double-check problem sets and as a place to grab food on the fly.

Swapping books and bagels for music and beer, 988 undergraduates—nearly one-sixth of the student body—helped transform the basement space into a more enticing social option on the first Pub Night.

Past attempts to host social events in the bowels of Memorial Hall have not generated a strong turnout.

But with the lure of $1 draft beers, pizza from Pinocchio’s, burritos from Felipe’s, live music from student and professional bands, and a raffle for a free iPod, students turned out in high numbers for Pub Night’s kick-off.

The unexpected success of the Pub Night demonstrated the demand for a common social space for undergraduates, allowing the administration and HSA to host another Pub Night in late February.

“[Students’] presence and behavior showed the University that there is a legitimate demand for school-sanctioned activities, and Loker provided a phenomenal venue for Pub Night,” HSA Pub Night Manager Daniel L. Rodriguez told the Crimson in mid-February.

Though the second pub night attracted a significantly lower number of students, administrators approved a proposal to fund four more Loker Commons Pub Nights for the rest of the spring semester.

“The success of the Loker Nights shows a real collaboration between student groups and the Dean’s Office,” Matthew L. Siegel ’05, co-founder of the student-run Veritas Records label, told the Crimson in March.

“It’s a really positive sign to people that Pub Nights might not be so bad after all,” Corker says of the consistent student attendance, a figure that has reached 5,427 over the course of the six events. “It’s a permanent social space where everyone can feel comfortable dropping by.”

Given the strong student turnout at each of the successive Pub Nights, College administrators decided in April to pursue preparatory studies to gut and renovate Loker Commons into an on-campus pub.

The feasibility study, which evaluates costs and potential layouts, should be completed by the end of this summer.

Corker, who says that renovations could be slated to begin as soon as the summer of 2006, has since assumed the position of project manager for the feasibility study.

The College, Corker said in late April, had already approached a number of architectural firms.

And Corker and the OSA have selected 14 students for the Harvard Pub Commission, a group of undergraduates that will be responsible for running the second series of Pub Nights next fall.

“The fact that we’re doing the legwork now means that we’re seriously thinking about this,” Kidd told The Crimson in April.

AFTER THE PARTY IS…DODGEBALL?

Undergraduates and deans kicked off the social year with the College’s first campus-wide dodgeball tournament in December.

Competing for a $100 cash prize, 16 teams from the upperclass Houses, the freshman dorms, and University Hall turned out in full force to the Malkin Athletic Center’s (MAC) fourth-floor gym. The OSA helped organized a second dodgeball tournament this March, in which Quincy defeated Elm Yard for an audience of amused junior parents in town for the weekend.

But while students characterize Pub Nights and the dodgeball tournaments as an unprecedented success, Springfest: the Afterparty, an undergraduate-only event featuring beer and bands after the daytime family fair, failed to attract a high turnout.

The low attendance was in part attributed to the steady rainfall on April 30, but the event itself showed that the administration was open to catering specifically to undergraduates.

“[The administration’s] acceptance that there needed to be an event at Springfest that included alcohol was a turning point,” says Lauren P.S. Epstein ’07, the chair of the UC’s Campus Life Committee (CLC).

—Staff writer Margaret W. Ho can be reached at mwho@fas.harvard.edu.