Let’s set the scene. You’re home for break and are sitting at the dinner table, ready to enjoy a nice, non-HUDS meal when your second uncle thrice removed throws a pointed question your way. “What do YOU think about Claudine Gay’s resignation? Does Harvard HATE Jews? And what about affirmative action? What do YOU have to say about that?” Unless your entire community has been living under a rock, this probably isn’t the first time you’ve been asked such a question.
Within days of the national press’s deconstruction of Harvard’s administration, I was receiving texts and phone calls from friends across the country, distant family members, and even people I would struggle to recognize as “acquaintances.” The truth is, my answers to their questions had less to do with President Gay’s alleged plagiarism or doxxing trucks on campus and more to do with how the consistent spotlight was slowly deteriorating my sense of community on campus.
I found myself constantly grappling with what it meant to be a Harvard student at such a volatile time. How could I explain the multitude of diverse perspectives on Harvard’s campus to someone who’s not living it? Do I really even understand the perspectives I’m charged with representing? How can I appropriately describe the big picture if I’m not in tune with the individual nuances? In my (short) time as a Harvard student, I have found that there is a lot to gain from attempting to answer an elusive question. So, in that spirit, I’ve tried to answer with what I know, starting from the big picture.
Harvard is portrayed as an academic pantheon and has an unmatched global reputation. As a result, we are often put in the public eye and used as the premier example of higher education in the United States. It was Harvard that was sued for violation of the 14th Amendment, the case that eventually led the Supreme Court of the United States to rule against race-conscious admissions. And it is Harvard that, according to an article previously published by the Independent, “has become one of the most widely recognized epicenters of political tensions related to the [Israel-Palestine] conflict,” despite our peers not being “unique in their concern for the situation.” The CBS News website has a “Harvard University” tag, while a similar one for Yale is noticeably missing. As a community, we’ve received an unprecedented level of national media attention, and it has affected us deeply.
When I entered the college last fall as a wide-eyed freshman, I felt extraordinarily proud to represent Harvard and join the community. Now, my feelings have become increasingly multifarious. On the one hand, I was so proud to have a Haitian woman as my president. I felt represented and knew that my Haitian grandmother would have been proud to see me succeed in a place that uplifts our people. I engaged in political debates and conversations with peers from vastly different backgrounds and went out of my way to learn about varying political and social ideologies. On my FOP trip, I even felt comfortable discussing my Christianity with a card-carrying member of The Satanic Temple.
By mid-October, however, I had a Jewish friend confide in me that they felt uncomfortable living with their pro-Palestine roommate and, on another occasion, was warned to not attend Shabbat for fear of being targeted by protesters. My cousin, in the process of applying to colleges, asked me whether I believed I had gotten into Harvard because of affirmative action. I could slowly see division creeping into relationships, and that worried me. I’d chosen Harvard specifically for its diversity of opinion and its allegedly close-knit community.
At first, I assumed that my experiences were unique to the time period and that students at other colleges must be experiencing similar reservations. Yet, when I confided in my close friends at schools across the country like Yale, Brown, and Southern Methodist University, I was told that, no, my experience was very specific to my school. Other students weren’t experiencing planes flying “HARVARD HATES JEWS” flags across the sky or consistent New York Times emails flagging “Harvard” in the headlines. It was just at our school that divisions were becoming increasingly distorted by media attention from all sides of the political spectrum. Whether via heckling from X users or news desks misinterpreting student publications, I, along with others, became fearful that anything said or done on campus could become a target of national intrigue. That kind of environment does not lead to the strong community growth that Harvard prides itself on.
Racial distinctions become more prominent when we are worried that someone’s alienating political belief is directly tied to their ethnicity. Constructive debate becomes ineffective when, regardless of what you say, the national media tells stories devoid of nuance. Students start joining clubs that they feel comfortable and safe in, surrounded by people that they know share similar beliefs. There’s no danger of being doxxed if you stay within small social circles, right? Peers judge others based on their background or that one time they retweeted a “problematic figure” rather than finding common ground to build deep and meaningful relationships on. Even while writing this article, I am tentative, worried that it might end up on X like many of my peers’ work, quoted by politicians and “advocates” aiming to use the Harvard name to boost their likes.
Yet, I don’t recognize all of this to say that the polarization at Harvard has divided our community in an insurmountable way. In the end, we are all 18 to 20-something college students who are appalled by grape pizza and wish our Datamatches were more exciting. It’s now, more than ever, important to recognize how national media attention can infiltrate our everyday lives in unexpected ways. Whether it’s news channels showing up to film English 183TS (Taylor Swift and Her World) or Congress subpoenaing Harvard’s Sidechat posts, the nation has its eyes trained on us. We can either let that become a source of tension in building community ties, or it can become a positive instigator for change.
Attending Harvard puts us in a unique position to have an extremely powerful platform. And while the first reality is that we can’t really stop the national attention or alumni billionaires’ obsession with our school, the second reality is that we shouldn’t—no, we can’t—let the media affect our perception of the world or the way we approach relationships here at Harvard.
Continue to step outside your comfort zone and break down political barriers. Since our country’s inception, students have been agents of power and change. There’s a reason Canaday Hall was built to be riot-proof. At the end of the day, despite whatever the newest clickbait article might say, we need to let that passion bring us together, not apart.
Mia Tavares ’27 (miatavares@college.harvard.edu) hopes that if she gets famous, no one will buy a billboard (or a truck) to display her old Twitter likes from 8th grade.