After a summer-long conversation with the Harvard Undergraduate Association regarding equity efforts in Harvard’s student administration, Primus, Harvard’s First Generation Low Income student association, posted on Instagram on Sep. 19 stating that the HUA had “rejected PRIMUS’s plans for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”
Primus members were responding to the HUA’s vote against their proposal for a DEI team, which left undergraduate community members and Primus leadership shocked. Beyond the conversation of immediate repercussions, the discussion around diversity and inclusion in student government has prompted broader questions. Where does the obligation lie to uplift FGLI students on Harvard’s campus? Is the recent turmoil a reflection of institutional flaws within the HUA, which was just formed last spring? Or does it point to a deeper issue: a reminder that the first-generation students at Harvard are perpetually left behind?
The conversation over diversity at HUA began last summer when Primus’s current Vice President of Advocacy, Laila Nasher ’25, contacted HUA representatives to form a DEI team that would create more FGLI representation within the space of student administration.
Primus President Mateo Velarde ’25 explained that the idea for the team came from the desire to increase FGLI representation on campus. “We have a lot of sports teams that have a lot of representation within the HUA, and they get a lot of funding as well. But for other organizations such as Primus, we don’t get a lot of funding, and we don’t have a lot of representation in the HUA.”
According to Primus, throughout the summer, the HUA expressed confusion around the motives of the team. The HUA and Primus held conversations around transforming the potential group into something else, such as a well-being group. Velarde said that “the problem occurred when HUA actually voted for this team without Laila’s acknowledgement, without FGLI representation.” After the vote, HUA notified Primus that the proposal had not passed through, explaining support for the team was limited.
When Nasher expressed that she believed voting without FGLI representation was unfair, HUA held a board meeting and decided that Primus could contest the decision only by creating a petition for a referendum. Within 24 hours, the Primus petition garnered over 400 signatures—but HUA refused to hold the referendum on the grounds that they did not have an election commission. Primus contested the statement, explaining HUA had assured them they had an Election Commision, despite their concerns.
Primus said on Instagram that when Nasher began expressing her opinions on the HUA Slack channel, “the HUA Executive Team deleted student messages and locked the chat indefinitely.”
This is not the first time that HUA has confronted questions of diversity and equity since it was established in the spring. Earlier this semester, HUA co-president LyLena Estabine ’24 faced allegations of homophobia after she publicly defended her support for Harvard College Faith and Action, a Christian campus group that was placed on probation in 2018 after pressuring a student leader to resign for pursuing a same-sex relationship.
“I think it’s sad that the student government is not any better than the one they replaced,” said Velarde. Indeed, conversations surrounding privilege and equity on Harvard’s campus surrounded the effort to overturn the Undergraduate Council in the spring. Now, with a new student government embroiled in familiar patterns, students are expressing frustration and disillusionment.
Andrew Guy ’26, who never encountered the UC as a student, said he formed his first impressions of HUA when he joined a group of upperclassmen students to protest HUA’s abolition of the First-Year Committee. “Their reasoning for getting rid of the committee was that they believed we didn’t have enough knowledge about the school, or we didn’t know enough to be a part of the association, even though our opinions and voices should matter,” said Guy. “It didn’t feel as though the HUA was very welcoming.”
In recent years, students have taken steps to create more spaces for FGLI students on campus. In 2018, the College launched the First-Year Retreat and Experience, a pre-orientation program designed to help FGLI students adjust to the Harvard community and find academic and professional support. On campus, Primus connects first-generation and low-income students with one another, creating bonds and offering resources to “a community of Harvard’s firsts.”
Still, the recent controversy speaks to a broader cultural conflict on campus, where FGLI students feel as though their voices do not hold the same weight.
Cindy Phan ’24, co-chair of FYRE, said that while she “has found a very vibrant and beautiful community of FGLI students, it can still be a culture shock sometimes here. It’s sometimes hard to do things that people do to make friends which often cost money. Sometimes there’s this disregard for invisible costs of time and money.” Phan explained that programs like Dorm Crew that used to exist on campus were “really degrading” to FGLI students, who made up the majority of student workers.
Phan specifically addressed a lack of attention to FGLI students in club programming. “A lot of times on leadership when people think of diversity, they don’t think of socioeconomic diversity. It is lacking in a lot of clubs and it isn’t often thought of,” she explained, citing costs like fees for retreats that students may have to pay out-of-pocket. “It isn’t explicitly exclusive but it’s still a barrier.”
Students are watching the HUA closely to see what they do next. Guy concluded: “I don’t necessarily have a very positive view of the HUA, but I do hope that they change some of their standards in the coming year.”
Kate De Groote ’25 (katedegroote@college.harvard.edu) and Gauri Sood ’26 (gaurisood@college.Harvard.edu) writes News for the Independent.