Cap & Gown Club is beginning a capital campaign to fund the expansion of its clubhouse at 61 Prospect Ave.
Though the building was constructed to accommodate 19 members, Cap now has nearly 200 members. Consequently, there is not enough room for all of them, graduate board chairman Bill McCarter '71 said.
"The building is bursting at the seams and is in need of a larger dining space," he said.
The club is still in the planning stages of the project and the graduate board has not yet sought permission from the Regional Planning Committee or hired an architect. The board anticipates, however, that the project will cost about $4 million.
The board has begun to appeal to alumni for financial contributions, targeting former members of "substantial means who can make major commitments," McCarter said. Later on, he added, it may turn to the main membership for funds.
"Everyone would welcome a little bit of a bigger space," Cap president Meka Asonye '07 said. "The clubhouse wasn't intended to feed [this] many people." The club currently has 194 undergraduate members.
"More dining space would be nice," member Sharon Weeks '08 said.
McCarter noted that the changes would certainly preserve Cap's facade. "As currently planned, we don't plan to do anything that affects the front side of the building," he said. "Any design that we approve will be consistent with current architecture."
The upgrade will expand the back of the club, on the east side of the building, and leave the view from Prospect Avenue the same. In addition to enlarging the dining room, Asonye said the construction will include the creation of precept rooms and multipurpose rooms that could be used to host speakers.
Such changes would give students "more opportunity to do things at the Street that you don't normally do," Weeks said.
A larger clubhouse will also make Cap better equipped to accommodate guests during the bicker season, when hundreds of sophomores visit the club for dinners and special events. "[An expansion] could be more welcoming to sophomores," Weeks said.
One thing that will not change is the club's tradition, members said. McCarter and Asonye both stressed that the heart of Cap will remain the same. "[The expansion] would add to the tradition that's already present here," Asonye said.
"It's an expansion, not a change in the way of life," he added. "It can only improve things."
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