If you are a parent, grandparent, professor, or even a student picking up this paper for the first time, you might be very confused right now. Perhaps you were drawn in, or disgusted by the illustration on the cover. Maybe you saw someone else laughing at an article and are curious as to what could […]
We Belong to No One but Ourselves Dear Readers, Whether this is your first or fiftieth read, we’re so glad you have decided to join us. To our newcomers: welcome. If you are curious, let us satiate you. The Indy’s story begins much earlier than our first issue. The first newspapers emerged in 1605, over […]
Trading Senior Class Committee events and final exams for a different kind of cumulative project, the 2026 English Undergraduate Oration Speaker has had a distinct senior week experience from their peers. Noah Eckstein ’26 will deliver one of three orations by memory on Thursday, May 28, 2026, during the College’s 375th commencement exercises, along with […]
Dear Readers, With the Commencement Issue—and the final Indy Thursday of the semester—approaching, it felt only right to reflect on the past five months in this extraordinary, challenging role. I’ve loved to write for as long as I can remember. Something goes right? Pick up the pencil. Something goes wrong? Open the Google Doc. Writing […]
A SoundCloud remix of Frank Sinatra’s “My Kind of Town” bellows out of the car’s stereo as we barrel down Lake Shore Drive. We speed south, maneuvering through congested city lanes. Time feels briefly arrested. Across the windshield, I can only see fuzzy streams of red car lights, apartment stoops, and skyscraper windows. The headlights […]
On April 7, Harvard announced the launch of a new concentration, “Energy, Climate, and the Environment,” set to be offered in the 2026-27 academic year. The decision came after Harvard faculty members overwhelmingly approved the interdisciplinary program in a 215-3 vote. ENCE is Harvard College’s first new field of study since 2018. The ENCE concentration […]
Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024 I hear a rustle from outside our college dorm door, and I know that my roommates, Ella and Mia, are back from class. Together, they burst in, throw down their bags, and sprawl themselves on the couch. Ella complains about her upcoming sociology paper, and Mia gets started on her next […]
“Whose idea was it to go and talk to the teenagers? We could’ve had a toddler who doesn’t have opinions and thong underwear.” No, Rose Byrne, the 76th Woman of the Year, did not say this to the cast, crew, and business staff of Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals. Thankfully, most are merely opinionated twenty-somethings. The […]
“Thank you to my partner of three years. Thank you for our foundation. I love you.” Celebrity Timothée Chalamet captivated the star-studded crowd of the 2026 Critics’ Choice Awards with these words on Jan. 4. Accepting the award for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture: Musical or Comedy for his role […]
Anyone who knows the two of us knows the Harvard Independent. They know where we are every Monday night, how we start our Thursday mornings, and what we are texting, calling, and brainstorming about at all hours of the day. To say that the Indy is woven into the fabric of our college experiences would […]
Her story started with loss. “My situation specifically was born out of a really difficult time,” nonprofit founder Olivia Zhang ’27 explained. What started as a mere effort to memorialize her mentors—her elementary school teacher and grandfather, who Zhang lost both to cancer within two months of each other—led to the creation of Cancer Kids […]
Striped, terry-cloth towels hang flimsily from the ceiling beams as my cabin of 16 12-year-old campers scream about Taylor Swift, Sharks and Minnows, and what we’ll have for lunch. I make attempts to stay clued into their pop-culture discourse—teaching them the “Pitch Perfect” cup song at Camp dinner and the lyrics to Natasha Bedingfield’s “Unwritten” […]
On May 23, a federal judge granted Harvard University a temporary restraining order in response to its lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration from revoking its Student Exchange and Visitor Program certification. The order came less than two hours after Harvard requested an emergency halt to the Department of Homeland Security’s attempt to terminate […]
On May 22, the Trump administration revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, escalating ongoing tensions between the White House and this Ivy League institution. At a University with approximately 6,800 international enrollees across all its graduate and undergraduate Schools—totaling over a quarter of the institution’s students—this announcement places the status of thousands of […]
There are moments when the art world feels like a quiet, distant thing—locked behind gallery walls. But in certain spaces, art belongs to everyone. Art breaks free, and the walls speak louder than ever. From April 18-21, Harvard University’s Gallery at 92 Seattle St. will host an exhibition that promises more than just art on […]
August 2022: My mother is smiling to herself while old Bollywood music quietly plays off my Baba’s new computer. As my Nannos hum Hindi lyrics, I scratch away at a lottery ticket with a dulling quarter. “I won five dollars,” I say. My aunt calls from across the dining table, “Hey, I knew today would […]
For the first time since 2019, the Hasty Pudding Institute hosted their 8th Annual Golden Sphinx Award Ceremony on March 2. The Order of the Golden Sphinx, named for the Pudding’s traditional symbol, “recognizes individuals in the entertainment industry for their extraordinary contributions to the performing arts” and is the Institute’s highest honor. This year, […]
What defines a home? Is it the soil where we are born and raised? Or is it the roots that weave within us? “Rooted” marks the 37th year of Ghungroo at Harvard, an annual tradition that has grown to become the University’s largest student-run production. As Harvard’s premier showcase of South Asian culture and heritage, […]
The Harvard Institute of Politics brought in record-breaking application numbers for the Spring 2025 semester. As of Feb. 10, the IOP received 788 applications across its 16 programs—including nearly 200 first-time submissions. At such a critical juncture in American and global politics, this growth speaks to a rising interest in civic leadership and public service […]
May Art always fill your caps. This, which the Hasty Pudding Theatricals’ 75th Woman of the Year, actress and vocalist Cynthia Erivo signed in the Pudding honoree guestbook, rings true to the Hasty Pudding’s motto, Concordia Discors (discordant harmony or organized chaos), christening a day full of joy, love, and laughter. On Wednesday, Feb. 5, […]
Two Januaries ago, on the top floor of a Chicago skyscraper, I fiddled with the gold, engraved buttons of my cardigan as my Harvard interviewer and I swapped stories about Harvard’s craziest classes and Chicago’s hidden gems. In a pause in conversation, she jumped at the opportunity to ask what I was most excited to […]
Joan Didion begins her 1979 book The White Album with a striking assertion: “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” In journalism, op-eds—short for “opposite the editorial page”—are where these stories take shape. Such narratives aren’t neutral reports on events but a fusion of arguments, perspectives, and deeply felt convictions. The most salient narratives […]
“So, tell me about your journey since graduating from Harvard.” Each episode of Will Bachman ’92’s podcast, The 92 Report, kicks off the same way—but from there, Bachman lets his guests take the reins and lets the conversation flow organically. The 92 Report, which first debuted in February 2022, follows Will Bachman as he speaks […]
In his first week back in office, President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs across the executive branch and the broader United States. From anti-bias training to federal funding for minority farmers and homeowners, Trump’s order effectively dismantles such programs from all aspects of the federal […]
“It’s The Game, Rory,” Paris says to Rory in anguish, across a Yale dining hall table. Rory Gilmore, a Yale student who is unfamiliar with the Harvard-Yale game, attends The Game with the Gilmore family in “Ted Koppel’s Big Night Out”—Season 4, Episode 9 of the series Gilmore Girls. Richard and Emily Gilmore, Rory’s grandparents, […]
One step at a time. One hope, then another. Anastasia is an enchanting musical that explores the enduring mystery of Princess Anastasia Romanov through song, dance, and performance. The show follows a girl with an uncertain past, who teams up with two questionable con men as they try to escape St. Petersburg on a fateful […]
Sitting in an airport diner, my blockmate and I talk about our hopes and dreams. Over Caesar salads and Diet Cokes, we ask each other the question: “What did you want to be when you grew up?” We laughed about the silly answers we’d once thought we could be, like movie stars and astronauts. As […]
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 […]
Bronte-May Brough ’26’s primary education included all of the usual suspects: learning to read, write, multiply, push pass, sweep, oh, and aerial. Brough first started playing field hockey when she was seven years old. Growing up, Brough learned how to play hockey on grass, but once she moved to prep school, she had the opportunity […]
In our current digital and cultural age, Harvard students are making their mark not only in academics but also online, cultivating followings across various social media platforms. From YouTube vlogs to TikToks, Harvard content creators have leveraged their unique Harvard experiences to inspire and connect with audiences within the college and worldwide. Helen Piltner ’25 […]
Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana, the longest-serving Harvard College Dean in more than a century, will step down at the end of the 2024-25 academic year, marking the end of his 11-year tenure. Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra, Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science, announced Khurana’s decision to depart his deanship on […]
The terms “brat summer,” “Kamalanomenon,” and “coconut tree” haven’t exactly been the easiest election jargon to explain to older family members, colleagues, and friends. Today, young people across the U.S. and around the world have embraced these terms as they’ve been bestowed upon the current U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. In today’s political landscape, social […]
Shortly before noon on Wednesday, April 24, pro-Palestinian students and protesters ran into Harvard Yard carrying tents, signs, and food, quickly setting up an encampment in front of University Hall. Forming an organization called the “Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine Coalition,” also known as HOOP, members vow to occupy Harvard Yard until Harvard divests from […]
My heart hurts thinking of my sixteen-year-old self who placed her entire worth into a two-digit ACT score. I recall the silence in my household that followed my first test score, which was below my parents’ expectations, and the world of opportunities I was told to believe would only open up when I tested higher. […]
Do you call him daddy? Do I call her daddy? Call. Her. Daddy. I can still remember the illicit feelings of shame that consumed the thirteen-year-old version of myself who secretly listened to “Call Her Daddy.” Holding my phone up to my ear so that no one could hear, I listened as Alex Cooper bellowed […]
In the hallowed halls of academia, there exists an impossible dichotomy. On the one hand, universities are being told not to speak out against pressing political issues, and if they do, their comments are heavily critiqued. On the other hand, if they do nothing, then their ability to retain a diverse student body and maintain […]
Beyoncé’s “Run the World (Girls)” bellowed throughout Trocadéro Square in Paris, France on Monday, March 4th, as hundreds of Parisians celebrated France becoming the first country to explicitly inscribe access to abortion in its Constitution. France’s historic enshrinement stands as a rebuke to the U.S.’s rollback of reproductive rights and a beacon of hope for […]
My mother’s dream was to be a writer. Yet, in an immigrant household, her acceptance to NYU for English was eclipsed by the glaring pressure to pursue the medical field. She went to the University of Akron for a seven-year medical program instead. I imagine that my mother always wondered what her life could have […]
This past Friday, a congressional committee investigating campus antisemitism took the unprecedented action of issuing multiple subpoenas to Harvard University six weeks after hearings into antisemitism on campus triggered the resignation of former President Claudine Gay. The subpoenas set a deadline of 5 P.M. on March 4th for Harvard officials to produce the series of […]
Little girls around the world are bestowed a fragment of destructive wisdom—if you play dumb, he’ll probably like you more. And there it is, the beginning of our problem. Women everywhere are encouraged, no, programmed, to believe that if we shield our intelligence in the face of a man, then he will like us more. […]
There’s a rainbow Starbucks tumbler that sits on the corner of my bookshelf in my dorm. In high school, I brought this cup to school every day, disguising the can of Celsisus inside. The notion of parading the exposed can used to induce a peculiar embarrassment within me. But within the hallowed halls of Harvard, […]
Can we watch “Glee” on the projector tonight? You guys, you’ll neverrrr guess who I saw today. Rania, can I borrow that sweater again? Who’s playing the “Funny Girl” soundtrack, and can you queue “Don’t Rain on My Parade?” Come home quick, we’re debriefing. Olga Khazan, a staff writer at The Atlantic, writes, “if the […]
Since the announcement of her presidency, Claudine Gay’s character, qualifications, and intelligence had been consistently put into question. Amidst the mayhem, one refrain wielded throughout her tenure has stuck with me the most—her characterization as a witch. From countless news articles describing the pressure for her to resign as a “witch-hunt,” to comments left by […]
I’ve barely made it past the entrance of Cabot Library when a friend studies my outfit and asks, “Is someone making you wear those pants for hazing?” “No,” I laugh, bowing my head towards my silver, denim, distressed pants. I get the biggest adrenaline rush when people’s eyes dance around my outfit, they smile, and […]
Can you imagine what it would be like living here next year? Hey, knock on wood – don’t jinx us getting quadded. Conversations centered around Harvard housing dominate Harvard first-years’ lunch conversations, text exchanges, and dorm hang-outs. The prospect of finally escaping the confines of Canaday’s red carpets or Straus’ slanted ceilings is oh-so appealing […]
It all began with one question: “How often do you think about the Roman Empire?” While sitting with friends in Cabot, I decided to text my father and brother this trivial question about the Roman Empire. They respond, detailing that the Roman Empire crosses their mind “every day” and “all the time.” I didn’t believe […]
I am haunted by a lineage of four words: You are your trauma. My mom died a week into my senior year of high school. As I approached and navigated the chaos of the college admissions process, my whole world was fractured. Between drafts and drafts of varying personal statements, everyone around me seemed to […]
“The only power the Supreme Court has is its legitimacy…and if it loses that, the question becomes, why obey?” The documentary trailer projected on the screen of the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics asked its packed audience this question. On September 20th, Harvard undergraduate and graduate students […]