Since last spring, the UC has been working to bring back a modified form of the Party Grants, now requiring students to spend almost half the money they receive on SES teams and to hold events in House common spaces.

The effort, called “Student Initiated Programs,” allows students to throw medium-sized parties and is meant to encourage inclusive socializing on campus. And, for the first time since Pilbeam eliminated the Party Grants, the UC is paying for alcohol again.

In this issue as in many others, discussions of social life on campus often have an underlying question: Where can students drink?

When students debate the seemingly unending topic of social space on campus, alcohol colors those discussions as well.

“Last semester I was just getting so frustrated that we didn’t have any place to throw down,” says one freshman boy. “I actually considered throwing a hard core rager in the basement of Lamont or on the roof of the Science Center.”

But this freshman’s frustration is exacerbated by a larger problem. The reality that many Harvard undergraduates are underage, but continue to violate Massachusetts law and College policy to drink, makes it difficult for administrators to engage with these students openly.

“People at Harvard want to be spoken to on realistic terms,” Lane says. “Tha t’s a hard thing to do because obviously this is all illegal for the majority of our students.”

—Kerry M. Flynn, Monika. L. S. Robbins, and Xi Yu contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Stephanie B. Garlock can be reached at sgarlock@college.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Hana N. Rouse can be reached at hrouse@college.harvard.edu.