Student leaders say they support the idea, while acknowledging its pecuniary infeasibility. Given that Hammonds has said a student center is currently impractical, some suggest—and Hammonds says she is considering—a more limited option.
“I think the administration should just think about the spaces it already has and how they can differently regulate them,” Wang says.
LIBERTY FOR ALL
Nelson’s emphasis on “student-centered leading and student-centered learning” mirrors student leaders’ conceptions of the Office’s ideal role.
“Student life is about us coaching students to run their own events and activities. We have a real small staff, and that’s by design,” Nelson says. “The people who are supposed to be doing things are the leaders of the 400-plus organizations.”
Many student group leaders say they appreciate the freedom to manage their own academic programming while knowing that the OSL and its resources are available as support if necessary.
Both the leaders and the administration cite this independence as an opportunity for students to learn from the challenges they face.
“On the one hand, you can say they’re not supporting us, but at the same time, it’s a really good learning experience for us to sort through all of that ourselves,” Blair says.
And some of the OSL’s shortcomings could be due to the sheer mass of student groups, around 400 in total, Nelson says.
“They’re not always that helpful to us, but again, we can’t complain,” says Joseph P. Resnek ’11, a captain of the Harvard Mock Trial Association. “What are they going to do, help all 10,000 groups on campus?”
But according to Wang, the College’s main weakness continues to be its uncertainty about how to address an important aspect of most student groups’ functions—social events.
“I think they’ve done fairly well at initiating programming that has broad appeal that doesn’t include parties,” she says. “I think what they need to work on are the things that happen after dark, the ones that are inherently less safe.”
“It feels like the administration is kind of afraid to tackle it,” she adds.
—Melody Y. Hu and Eric P. Newcomer contributed to the reporting of this article.
—Staff writer Danielle J. Kolin can be reached at dkolin@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Naveen N. Srivatsa can be reached at srivatsa@fas.harvard.edu.