News
Campus Chaos
Dangers on campus raise safety concerns among students.
Tuesday afternoon, students of the College received an email from Lauren Brandt, Associate Dean of Students, regarding increased safety measures on campus. This email came in the wake of a series of events that have jeopardized the safety of many students since their arrival on campus. After reading this email, we are left wondering how […]
Laughter, Gasps, and Scoffs…
Inside the thoughts of Democrats at Harvard as they watch Senator Vance and Governor Walz battle on the debate stage.
On the first night of October, I joined the Harvard Democrats at the Harvard Kennedy School for their watch party of the 2024 Vice Presidential Debate. As the table gathered, the room filled with excitement for the candidate they affectionately called “Coach Walz.” Around twenty-five people lined the room, loud chatter filling the space as […]
Unhoused in Harvard Square
Hearing the stories of people experiencing homelessness in Harvard Square.
The corner of Massachusetts Avenue and JFK Street is a popular spot for toiletries from CVS, matchas from Blank Street, and trips into Boston via the Red Line. However, it’s also a place for around twenty unhoused individuals to rest or to ask passersby for spare change. While most students and Cambridge residents ignore them, […]
When Roommates Collide
Harvard freshmen enter the arena—facing the tensions of dorm life.
Tensions are escalating, boundaries are blurring, and tempers are flaring as students clash over shared bedrooms, colonized common rooms, and personal space. These housing disputes continue to shake up dorm life and test the limits of cohabitation. Living arrangements for the Class of 2028 vary widely across campus, with each first-year dorm offering unique amenities […]
California in Cambridge
The transition from West to East.
Trading in their flip-flops and eternal sunshine for rain boots and 4 p.m. sunsets, Harvard students from California quickly learn that attending a college on the East Coast entails more than just a new campus—it’s about learning a whole new lifestyle. Part of this lifestyle includes adjusting to a revised schedule, room, and curriculum along […]
A Look Behind Closed Doors
A spotlight on the peer counseling resources at Harvard.
Tucked between a common room, laundry machines, and the Office of BGLTQ, some of Harvard’s most useful peer counseling resources remain hidden. While Harvard’s Counseling and Mental Health Services (CAMHS) boasts a plethora of professional support, the peer counseling resources offer a private yet welcoming space free from judgment. Harvard has six different peer counseling […]
Forum
What Harvard Could Learn from Yale
Reflections on a weekend spent in New Haven.
Is Yale better than Harvard? (The last two football games would say so.) This past weekend, I visited one of my friends at Yale to compete in a club squash round-robin on Saturday. However, I also got to experience New Haven, talk to students, take a walk around campus, and go out at night. Before […]
Harvard Admissions, It’s Time to Turn to Class-Based Affirmative Action
Class-based affirmative action should have been implemented decades ago. With race-based affirmative action banned, it is now the best way forward to maintaining and increasing diversity.
Last month, Harvard’s Class of 2028—the first to enroll since the ban on race-based affirmative action—began their freshman year. The past few weeks on campus have been marked by discussions following Harvard’s release of the Class of 2028’s racial demographics, which showed that the share of Black and brown students remained relatively stable compared to […]
Censorship: The Refuge of the Weak
Book bans deny us the freedom and education we deserve.
Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. This mock-Latin aphorism, translated as “Don’t let the bastards grind you down,” plays a central role in Margaret Atwood’s feminist novel The Handmaid’s Tale, a commonly banned novel in several U.S. states including Virginia, Texas, Florida, and Oregon. As in many totalitarian societies, Atwood’s fictionalized state of Gilead forbids females from […]
The Sidechat Enigma
Harvard’s love-hate relationship with Sidechat might have more to it than what meets the eye.
It starts with boredom—it always does. I’m walking from Boylston to Cabot, scanning for updates on Instagram, Snapchat, and iMessage, but I have run out of content to consume. Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpse the magenta icon tucked away in the Recently Added section of my App Library. Ignoring my better […]
Boys, Booze, and Bonding: An MIT Frat Experience
A boy and a girl spend their Saturday night frat-hopping at MIT and learn why MIT might just be the perfect girls’ night out.
By the time we arrived at MIT, the frats were closing down. “Fratlantis,” a juvenile play on the words “Frat” and “Atlantis,” hosted by Phi Beta Epsilon (PBE) on Sept. 14, publicized a rather early start time of 10 p.m. In our attempt to be fashionably late, we completely missed the main function of the […]
Boys will be Boys, and Girls will be…Tidy?
My messiness makes me feel like less of a woman.
It was almost 9 in the morning when my roommate paused in front of my open bedroom door on her way to class. She was ready for the day: coffee in hand, hair done, and backpack squarely on her shoulders. She blinked bewilderedly, looking past me to examine my spotless, sparkling bedroom: freshly made bed, […]
Arts
Migration, Unification, and the Art Nation
A review of Harvard Art Museums’ Made in Germany? exhibition.
Lynette Roth, curator at Harvard’s Busch Reisinger Museum which specializes in art from Germany and Northern Europe, would describe her new exhibition Made in Germany? as “pushing back against this idea that the Busch Reisinger is just a museum for German art, but actually looking into its complicated history and taking that as a cue […]
The Hidden Wonders of HAM at Night
Tired of boys, booze, and bonding yet? Try the Harvard Art Museums at Night, a party that attracts art lovers from all over the area.
After walking up the steps from Quincy Street, I pulled open the double-doors to the Harvard Art Museums (HAM) and a wave of music immediately poured over my ears. I wove through the traffic of people as they walked from one exhibition, through the courtyard, to another—some trailing away from the herd to explore adjacent […]
Dissolution of Unrequited Love
I can enjoy newspapers without thinking about you now.
Before the sun rises The sound of bound paper striking the door Summons me to start a fire To procrastinate retrieving what has been delivered Least I risk meeting you And recall how If you were to churn brown sugar Over a gas stove While inhaling the rich, smokey molasses Take a moment to turn […]
Let’s Talk about SWEAT, Baby
Charli XCX and Troye Sivan bring queer joy, feminine rage, and a whole lot of sex to TD Garden.
A sea of lime green and black descended on TD Garden last Saturday for the Boston stop of the SWEAT Tour, co-headlined by artists Charli XCX and Troye Sivan. While the color palette of the crowd was relatively uniform, their outfits were anything but. Fans sported everything from customized t-shirt renditions of the BRAT album […]
Russell’s Sprouts: Lasagna Soup
All of the layers, none of the drama.
Fall has officially begun, which means it’s unofficially soup season! I don’t know about you, but my wellness can always flip from unwell to well with a delicious home-cooked meal (and no, HUDS doesn’t count). If you’re looking for a kitchen, it’s time to rent out Cabot H101 or hit up your super senior friend […]
Consulting Fair Chronicles
An original creative writing piece about the epic highs and lows of career fairs
Today is the day. Ever since I missed the McKinsey application deadline, I marked this day down in my calendar. I’ve been losing sleep, haunted by the McKinsey monster that invades my dreams each night. But today is going to make all of the nightmares finally go away. Today is the annual Business and Consulting […]
Sports
Sports Spotlight: Ben Abercrombie
A Harvard journey of recovery, football, and lots of Jefe’s.
“I like the competitiveness, and I’ve always been more fiery,” Ben Abercrombie ’25 reflected when discussing his love for football. “I grew up in Hoover, Alabama. Here in Alabama, you basically live and breathe football.” Abercrombie got recruited by Harvard his junior year of high school, he recalled in an interview with the Independent. Though […]
Indy Sportsbook: The End of the Eras Tour
How will Taylor Swift end this part of her legacy?
Cultural icon Taylor Swift has made international headlines since releasing her first album, Taylor Swift, in 2006. Her Eras Tour is the highest-grossing concert series of all time, earning over $1 billion in 2023 alone. The Eras Tour brings “Swifties” through all of her different music-making eras, from Fearless to the recently released Tortured Poets […]
Making the Team
The unique experience of being a Harvard varsity walk-on.
Every individual at Harvard has a different story of how they became a student at this university. Each unique path is part of what makes the Harvard community a special place. Within the student body, there is a very specific subset that chose to modify their experience in an extremely physically demanding way: varsity walk-ons. […]
Indy Sportsbook: UFC 307 Parlay
A (risky) road to riches.
“To do anything at a high level, it has to be total obsession,” legendary Irish boxer Conor McGregor once said. For this reason, we at the Indy Sportsbook have spent over 300 hours concocting a UFC parlay that will retire us from this rat race of life by the end of next week. While we […]
“Unknown, Underlooked, and Underappreciated”
A spotlight on the Harvard Nordic ski team
Have you ever heard of Nordic skiing? Did you know it was a varsity sport at Harvard? No? Well, until recently, neither did I. With 10 people on the team—six women and four men—the Nordic ski team is one of the smallest sports teams at Harvard. Many of these members feel as if their sport, […]
Indy Sportsbook: Soccer’s Biggest Stage
Some simple bets for the 2025 winner of the UEFA Champions League
With the college and professional football seasons kicking off, baseball approaching the postseason, and the NBA and NHL entering preseason soon, one sport in America often goes unnoticed: soccer. The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is Europe’s premier soccer competition, where the best teams from each country compete for the Champions League title. While most soccer […]