“I feel that proctors go out of their way to look for underage drinking in freshman dorms,” Weitzen writes in an e-mail. “It is almost like the proctors are paranoid about having alcohol show up in their entry way.”

But in recent interviews, undergraduates at Yale, Cornell, and Dartmouth characterized the role of the residential adviser, or its equivalent, as one who acts more as an adviser than an enforcer.

“I am not a policeman—I’m here to help them adjust to this strange environment, that’s what I try to do,” says Nicholas W. Evans, a member of Yale’s Class of 2005 and a freshman counselor.

And at Yale, freshmen are not bound by the regulations that force first-years out of the Yard on a Friday night. “My freshman year, my suite hosted two parties that had probably 200 or 300 people visit over the course of the night,” Yale senior Karl B. Gunderson writes in an e-mail.

SPACE RACE

The restrictions on dorm room parties are compounded by the lack of social space available outside of the House system.

“There are very few spaces on campus where you can throw a large-scale party,” Chadbourne says. “Dartmouth has frat row, where hundreds of people are showing up at these parties.”

With as many as 1,000 students at a time venturing to Loker to take in live music, grab a $1 draft beer, or socialize with friends, the popularity of Pub Nights speaks to the larger student need for community space.

“It creates a space open to the entire Harvard community, which is the most powerful thing about Pub Nights,” Haan says.

Pub Nights are one venue where undergraduates can go expecting to see acquaintances from across the College, but Petrich emphasizes that they are not enough.

“Pub Nights are a step in the right direction in that you can be 18, you can go and dance to the music...but [they] should not be the only option,” Petrich says.

The need for large, casual social events is served at many other peer institutions by the presence of frat row, where students can expect to show up any weekend night and mingle with a critical mass of their peers.

Even if frats were recognized at Harvard, high Square real estate prices would diminish their ability to purchase space and act as a strong social presence on campus. Sigma Chi, however, was able to purchase a house on Mass. Ave last year, indicating the potential for Greek life.

While fraternities are not completely open, in practice they seem to cater to a far broader swath of the undergraduate community at schools like Cornell and Dartmouth than final clubs do at Harvard.

“Very rarely, if ever, when you show up at an on- or off-campus location will you see somebody holding a list at the door or turning people away,” says 2005 Yale graduate Brian P. Goldman, who is a member of Sigma Pi Epsilon.