“Fun czar,” eh? This is Harvard, so that can’t be your real title. My official title is the Campus Life
By Nicola C. Perlman
Sep 27, 2006
“Fun czar,” eh? This is Harvard, so that can’t be your real title.
My official title is the Campus Life Fellow and I have a one-year appointment and fellowship...I plan things for the students and oversee all the stuff happening this year.
What are some of these new developments?
Hilles, for example, which is opening officially on October 12. The student organization center at Hilles is great...it’s just nuts—this is a space just for student organizations, just for students. HUDS is also building a penthouse cafe with ice cream and smoothies and pizza, which will stay open late and take Board Plus...and then there’s the pub, too.
What’s the deal with the pub? I’m thirsty!
It’s actually ridiculous how cool the new Loker—which will be called the Queen’s Head pub after John Harvard’s actual pub in England—is going to be. It’s going to be a much more social place. There will probably be some kind of student ID entrance, and the idea is you come in, hang out, get pub food, get drinks if you’re legal...it’s something the University is literally giving to us: a great casual, social, and drop-in place. Loker Commons just never found that balance.
As “fun czar,” what’s your take on the final clubs?
I actually don’t really have a view on final clubs. I know people who are in them. They do their thing, serve their purpose. In the past, they have served an unfortunate need for more social space, but the college has responded really well with all the new social spaces planned.
Are these new spaces supposed to give the clubs a run for their money?
I don’t think the University is actively trying to go against Final Clubs. They’re creating new social spaces and positions because that’s what makes the best environment for living and learning.
Do you still party on the weekends? For research purposes, of course.
One of my jobs is to work with students to make sure what they want to happen actually happens. So I need to go to parties to see what’s being listened to, etc. But I’m not a spy. I usually go to the bigger functions or else just hang out with my friends...but at the same time, it’s hard to walk the line between being professional and being a peer. Meetings with deans versus hanging out with my twenty-or-so year-old peers.
Ever take scotch on the rocks with University President Derek C. Bok?
I actually have not met D-Bok yet—I like to call him D-Bok—although as a fellow, I might. My position doesn’t have a lot of interaction with the president.
What’s your drink of choice?
I don’t drink. I go to bars with my friends but don’t drink. I have absolutely no problem with alcohol though, and so I feel I can represent all the students and all types of student choices.
What was your most memorable college party? Take us there.
My social experience at Harvard was often more about planning and executing the parties than just going to the parties...I love organizing something where I can enjoy people enjoying themselves. That’s my job really...Is there a better thing than people having fun together?
What are these mysterious freshman social spaces? I thought that’s what the TLR was for.
I’ve actually only been in the one in Thayer...they are aesthetically just awesome and casual and student friendly and give the freshmen a place to hang out with their friends.
Where can we find you on a Friday night?
Last Friday, I was throwing the [Harvard] Carnival. Fridays are my most busy work night because people are out and about. So I’m either throwing an event or if I don’t have work, usually playing with my band at a concert. Or I’ll just be around the Square hanging out.
If University Hall is so dedicated to making the College more social, why is Harvard-Yale going to be so uncool this year?
First of all, I had nothing to do with the Harvard-Yale decision. It’s bad, and it’s sudden, and it’s right that you should be upset. But just be upset for a week, and then give me ideas about other ways to make it more fun...we can’t change the alcohol rules because of the City of Boston and the Boston Police, but we do want to make this tailgate great. I mean, it’s a 72-hour weekend, and the college is only officially regulating five hours of that.
That gives us 67 hours of blackout, by my calculations.
My understanding is that Yale didn’t even have Friday parties, but at Harvard we can be crazy all the time, except for the five hours that we are across the river in Boston. But it’s a big change, and it would be naive to not be upset. And I hope that no one thinks the Dean’s Office was happy to make this change. We like for students to be happy all the time, but we do have to do what’s best for the University and Boston, as well as the safety of the students.
Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71—he’s pretty tight. What ideas has he brought to the table?
I like Dean Gross a lot. So far this year there hasn’t been much brainstorming because we’ve had constant events. Now that we’re coming down off of that, we’ll do more. I report more to Paul McLoughlin, who is the assistant dean of Harvard College...but Dean Gross, the man’s busy, but he’s really wonderful, and he’s a great dean of students.
Ok, one last question. Who would you chill with at a University Hall throw-down?
So many hilarious answers. I think I would be down to hang out with Dean of Freshmen Tom Dingman. He’s a great guy, a real Harvard guy. I had a great time planning events with him. Other than that, the Office of Student Activities is where it’s at. We are a fun, small office, focused on having a good time.
