Looking back now, the stripper pole may have been the beginning of the end. Dudley Co-op, the only “alternative” dorm on the Harvard campus, had its share of lefty undergrad accoutrements—a Communist Manifesto mural, communal vegetarian meals—but when the school banished the living-room stripper pole a few years ago, it was a sign that the historic co-living house had perhaps overstayed its welcome.
Last week, Harvard made it official, informing Dudley’s 23 residents that the co-op, based across two sprawling Victorians a short walk from Harvard Yard, would shut down after the coming academic year. The e-mail was notably unspecific: Tom Dunne, Harvard’s dean of students, described the choice as one of many “difficult decisions” the college has made about its “staffing and structure,” and promising to share more details about the co-op’s fate when fall classes start.
