BOSTON. First came widespread incidents of anti-Semitism on its campus. Next, former President Claudine Gay’s disastrous testimony to Congress that advocating genocide of Jews might not violate Harvard policies “depending on the context.” But the last straw, according to Bob Skultz, owner of The Harvard Lounge, a bar in Boston, was the revelation that $1 million-a-year professor Francesca Gino had falsified data in her research on–of all things–honesty and ethical behavior.
“Do we cut corners? Maybe on our garlic croutons, but on our bacon cheeseburger?” he says as he rinses a beer glass. “No freakin’ way.”
So after a straw poll of employees revealed concern that their reputation was threatened by misconduct of a certain institution of higher learning across the Charles River, Skulz decided to add a disclaimer to his menu. “I’d had enough,” he says sharply. “We added ‘NOT affiliated with Harvard University’ at the bottom along with other warnings like ‘Please inform your server of any allergies’ and ‘20% service charge added to bills of parties of 8 or more.'”
Francesca Gino: “All my research on ethics and honesty was ethical and honest.”
“We tried, we held out as long as we could,” says Theresa “Terri” Falcone, who commutes to the neighborhood bar from her home in East Boston. “We watched them invite Oprah to speak at commencement and bit our tongue, and we stuck with them in 1985 when their basketball team was about to be sanctioned, but this was the last straw.”
Harvard University was founded in 1636 with a donation of 200 books from John Harvard’s library. The Harvard Lounge was founded in 1933 when prohibition ended with opening night sales of approximately 200 bottles of beer. The educational institution has survived into the 21st century in large part because of the reflected prestige of the bar, according to long-time patron Ed Radek, who lives in the Allston-Brighton neighborhood of Boston, which Harvard University greedily eyes for expansion. “You cross the river and you meet people who give a rat’s ass about the Harvard-Yale game,” he says as he takes a handful of pizza-flavored goldfish from a bowl on the bar. “You come over here and you can see top-notch college football on the TV played by kids who don’t look like liberal arts majors.”
Oprah: “You get a degree–you get a degree–EVERYBODY GETS A DEGREE!”
Plans to change the bar’s name will take a while to come to fruition because of the cost to modify signage, menus and cocktail napkins. “I’m open to suggestion as to what the new name should be,” says Skultz. “I’m leaning towards ‘The Yale Lounge’.”