12.04.25: Season’s Greetings
Mail-in Ballots: National Change and Political Controversies
In the years following the turbulent 2020 election, characterized by election fraud allegations and the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, absentee voting policies shifted across American states. This year, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Utah all passed measures in their state legislatures to reduce existing grace periods for voting by mail, or to eliminate […]
Journey to Oxford: Harvard’s 2026 Rhodes Scholars
On Nov. 15, eight Harvard undergraduates were awarded the 2026 Rhodes Scholarship and will head to Oxford in Fall 2027. Five recipients are from international constituencies—Sazi Bongwe ’26, Je Qin “Jay” Choi ’26, Will Flintloft ’26, Hairong “Helen” He ’26, and Fajr Khan ’26—and three from the American constituency—Anil Cacodcar ’26, Yael Goldstein ’26, and […]
Trump 2.0 and the Future of the GOP
On Nov. 17, Harvard Kennedy School’s John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum hosted a conversation between Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the 55th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Graham Alison ’68, the Douglas Dillon Professor of Government and former Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School. Together, they examined how Donald Trump’s political tenure has reshaped […]
Latkes, Dreidels, and Mystery Maccabee: Harvard Hillel’s Hanukkah Celebrations
For many Jewish students on campus, this time of the year—as classes begin winding down and students get ready for break—also means preparing for the much-anticipated holiday of Hanukkah. Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish Holiday also known as the “Festival of Lights,” will take place this year from nightfall on Sunday, Dec. 14, to Monday, Dec. […]
An Ode to the Penny
“This is a 1956 Pennsylvanian minted wheat penny,” Grandpa remarked as he showed me the tiny reddish-brown coin. 10-year-old me grinned with pride. The almost 70-year-old coin was an incredible find; the average coin’s lifespan is only 25 years, and most collectors had grabbed up all the wheat pennies when they ended their production. But, […]
A Tale of Two Presidents
Let there be no mistake: Claudine Gay made mistakes. Her 2023 Congressional hearing on antisemitism was, by all intents and purposes, a catastrophe, and her subsequent plagiarism scandal, though more accurately described, in my view, as a political witch hunt, was a low point for the University. That much we can all agree on. Billionaires […]
Thoughts from New Quincy: The Last Frontier
Conquest used to be geographic. Power was measured in acreage and borders—how many people you could uproot or how many maps you could redraw. For centuries, empires expanded outward: seizing land, minerals, bodies, and entire cultures. Colonialism was an economic project disguised as destiny. Europe treated the world as inventory: gold in the Caribbean, rubber […]
The Indy 2025 Holiday Gift Guide
The holiday season brings high spirits, festive music, and the dreaded stress of finding the most spectacular gift for just about everyone in your life—a list that somehow keeps growing as the semester wraps up. The Indy’s 2025 Holiday Gift Guide has you covered, with curated picks for Harvard students, whether you’re looking for something […]
Verdi Requiem, an Unforgettable Experience
Photo by Paul Mardy On the afternoon of Nov. 23, I joined over 2,000 people in Fenway’s Symphony Hall to hear the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra take on legendary Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi’s “Messa da Requiem.” The colossal venue went silent as Benjamin Zander walked out to begin his pre-concert talk. Zander, who came to Boston […]