“These are dorms that are getting close to be 100 years old,” Silberg said. “Now that they’re moving into this phase of housing renewal, I think that’s something that students will really benefit from.”

Task force member Michael E. Danto ’13 said that the Harvard Alumni Affairs and Development Office has also emphasized the central role of House Renewal in their discussions with the task force.

“We’ve heard that House Renewal is something that they’re talking about a lot with potential donors,” he said.

GROWING INFLUENCE?

While some committee members questioned the efficacy of the task force in shaping administrators’ priorities, others said that the current goals of the University have already been influenced by student input collected over the past decade.

“I feel like we’re picking from options that are more or less laid out for us,” said Greenberg, who said that he doubted that the UC task force had the clout necessary to change the capital campaign objectives already outlined by administrators. “It’s not like they’re taking huge pains to make sure that student voices are a big part of the process.”

Other members pointed the role that student input is currently playing in plans for House Renewal as a sign of the University’s willingness to accommodate undergraduate concerns more broadly.

“One thing that I was impressed to find out was how much prior student input has been collected over the course of the last decade and is going into decisions that the University is making today,” said Danto.

The influence of previously collected student input left the task force hopeful about the potential for change.

“It seems like a lot of the recommendations we make could affect some of the specific issues that the University has planned,” Danto said.

—Staff writer Michelle Denise L. Ferreol can be reached at mferreol@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @michiferreol.

—Staff writer Jared T. Lucky can be reached at lucky@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @jared_lucky.