Party time at Harvard

On campus, a move to lighten things up

By Marcella Bombardieri, Globe Staff, 10/19/2003

By 11:30 last Wednesday night, Harvard sophomore Shirley Cardona had not yet started to write the two papers she had due the next morning. Yet instead of heading to the library, she left Harvard Square in a midriff-baring halter top and a face covered with glitter, joining hundreds of Harvard students at a "Heaven" theme party at the Embassy nightclub on Lansdowne Street, where they danced to a DJ playing Jay-Z, the Neptunes, and Chingy.

Next on Harvard's demanding party schedule was a "Pimps `n' Ho's" night at La Boom on Friday, tailgates at Saturday's football game, and "Come Home with Me" next Wednesday at Club Venu.

"When the parties are there, you have to go," Cardona said. Just before hitting the dance floor with a crowd of classmates all dressed in white, she explained that when she got home, she would pull an all-nighter to finish her work. "You only go to college once."

Cardona is not alone. These days, students at famously staid Harvard University have begun organizing themselves to have more fun.

Like any college, Harvard has always had some students who keep intense social schedules and some who do not. But for years it's had more than its share of the latter, even compared with many other elite schools.

Students and alumni attribute that to the ultra-ambitious student culture, and to university rules that make it difficult to host an on-campus party as well as a residential system in which the vast majority of students live on campus, instead of the off-campus fraternity houses or apartments that drive social life at many institutions.

Many students say that Harvard's culture is shifting. New sororities and other social groups have been popping up. The latest example: a small group of hockey players and their friends have started their own organization solely to host parties in downtown nightclubs. And three entrepreneurial undergrads recently got a Harvard grant to start HarvardParties.com, a website promoting an ethos they sum up as "Harvard State University."

Various campus organizations are working harder to sponsor tailgating as well as tamer options, such as movie nights and concerts.

"For so long the Harvard administration has just thought we were these machines who could study, study, study and not ever sleep or have fun," said undergraduate council president Rohit Chopra. "We are kids in some ways, and these are things we need to do."

But they worry that school officials are on the opposite track. President Lawrence H. Summers has focused his energy on improving academic rigor; and where the college once had a dean to oversee student life and another for academics, the school fused the two jobs and put them under the academic dean.

Last week, Harvard announced the creation of a committee to study how to curtail alcohol abuse and provide better treatment. Administrators say the number of students admitted to the university's health clinic with alcohol-related problems skyrocketed from 18 during the 1997-98 school year to 123 last year. There were at least two dozen such admissions in September alone.

Administrators say that those numbers do not indicate a sharp increase in binging but better awareness among students that they can seek medical treatment without getting punished for underage drinking.

"This is not a huge problem here," said Benedict Gross, dean of Harvard College. "But it's still a problem we must address, because we are responsible for these students."

An undergraduate survey last year found that 20 percent of men and 19 percent of women had binged on alcohol one or two times within the previous two weeks, according to the definition of binge drinking set by Harvard School of Public Health researcher Henry Wechsler.

That leaves Harvard looking pretty tame compared with a national average of 44 percent of college students.

And even Cardona, 20, said she doesn't drink alcohol, which is what allowed her to write two papers after a night of dancing.

Despite complaints that red tape and a lack of social facilities hamper Harvard students' social life, Gross and other officials say they want undergrads to have fun. Gross is working to create new spaces for concerts, parties, and other events. The school also plans to streamline the paperwork for large on-campus parties, a process that takes six days and requires the hiring of a police detail and a trained team to check ID's and serve alcohol.

Even so, many students say the school's social scene needs a shot of energy, especially for students who fall outside traditional party cliques such as athletes and the all-male "final clubs."

"There's not enough going on to meet the demand," said senior Zac Corker, who last year helped sponsor a foam-soaked party in his dorm, Mather House, which was broken up by police when 1,300 students showed up in a space meant for 600.

Corker is trying to change that with HarvardParties.com, which lists events, gives party planning advice, and sells digital photos. He even suggests it could bring some very Harvard qualities to social life: focus, discipline, and learning.

"I've had a lot of freshmen come up to me and say they just drink to the point of stupidity in their rooms, and then wander around looking for something to do," he said. "We are trying to educate Harvard kids on what a good party is."

Marcella Bombardieri can be reached at bombardieri@globe.com.