It's Friday night--a woman undergraduate is hosting a party in her dorm room. It has gotten out of control. The Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) and two House tutors arrive on the scene, but the host is too drunk to interact with the officers or control the situation.
The officers take her name, and on Monday morning, her Allston Burr senior tutor gets a copy of the HUPD report, as does Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68. Because of her history of alcohol abuse, the student is placed on probation by the College's Administrative Board.
This is a fictional account from the student guide to the Ad Board, but it illustrates the close relationship between HUPD and the school's disciplinary body.
HUPD Officer Andrew Gilbert says that he usually gets ready cooperation from students, not because of his gun and badge, but because of the looming threat of Harvard's Ad Board.
"They can do far worse damage than I can," he says.
Ad board members emphasize, however, that they are primarily educators, not prosecutors.
"We are not a police force, we do not have a court model. Senior tutors act in the student's best interest. That may not be in the student's mind at the time. But we are obliged to act in the College's best interest," says Thurston A. Smith, secretary to the Ad Board.
But the Ad Board has the unique power to require a student to withdraw for a period of time and recommend a student to the full Faculty for dismissal or expulsion.
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