For the third time this semester, it is voting season on Harvard’s campus. But this time, there are hopes that the election will be free of the acrimony that has marred prior contests and mark the start of a new chapter for Harvard’s student government.
The interim student government has initiated elections for the co-presidents and seven officer positions of the Harvard Undergraduate Association (HUA). Candidates submitted declarations last Monday, with campaigning set to begin this Friday, April 22nd, and last through Tuesday, April 26th. After that, voting will take place from April 27th to 29th.
The HUA Constitution originally required the interim group to select the new commission through internal deliberation by April 6th, with the Dean of Students Office making an overriding choice only if the decision was deadlocked. However,interim President Emmett de Kanter ’24 and Vice President Chris Cantwell ’22-23 sent an email out on April 5th encouraging students to apply by April 8th to join the commission. The DSO then chose to select students from those submissions itself, citing time constraints. The Constitution had required the commission to submit an election timeline by April 11th, a deadline that the interim government had also missed.
Some interim government members expressed concerns at the lack of consultation from the body as a whole, saying that the blanket email had skipped one of the required steps. However, the new commission quickly got to work writing the new rules for the election. “It was definitely a quick turnaround time, so we’ve had to meet pretty frequently and communicate every day,” said Neil Khurana ’22, a member of the Election Commission. Despite some stress due to the short time frame and the pressure of setting a precedent for all subsequent HUA elections, Khurana relayed that the commission is working well together and realizes the importance of its task. The commission announced the timeline and election rules on April 14th.
These rules make several notable changes to election processes, including the restriction of campaign activities and the delegation of more responsibility to the commission. One new rule places a total ban on door-knocking and leaving flyers outside students’ dorms. While flyers are allowed on general poster spaces, all physical campaigning in academic spaces and dining halls is prohibited. “Many students have expressed displeasure towards door-knocking. There were a lot of rules violations and complaints that candidates were knocking on doors at odd hours, [distributing] door drops and flyers, and a lot of materials which we really didn’t believe were the most effective forms of campaigning and probably didn’t change peoples’ decisions.” Khurana said.
Another notable change is the prohibition of any use of house email lists for campaigning. In the past, many campaigns would routinely use house and even official UC email lists to broadcast support for their campaigns. In the previous HUA referendum vote, controversy emerged over then-president Michael Cheng ’22 using the official UC email list to send many messages advocating for the vote, as well as former-President Noah Harris ’22 using it to campaign against the referendum. Secretary Jane Oh ‘24 sent another email to the student body to clarify details about the use of the lists.
Now, the only permissible emails will come from the commission every two days, beginning at the start of the election cycle. The emails will feature a short blurb from every candidate and campaign, providing equal periodic advertisements to the student body. The commission hopes to cut down on messages overwhelming people’s already crowded inboxes, which Khurana said was a source of irritation and displeasure for many students.
An official campaign website will also host full platform and information pages for each candidate, scheduled to be posted on April 19th, though no update was sent on that date. Candidates can run websites and social media pages of their own, but they must adhere to rules prohibiting any discussion of other candidates’ campaigns. Candidates can still host tables and other public events, so long as they are not in any house, academic, or disruptive spaces. Campaigning budgets are also capped at $40, with mandatory receipt reporting to the commission.
The new system aims to give each campaign more equitable advertisement in an official, controlled process, in contrast to the more spontaneous and potentially lopsided advertising of past campaigns. Khurana indicated that this election will be a trial run to see if these new procedures alleviate previous issues.
There are conflicting signs on whether the HUA aims to be a clean break from the prior Undergraduate Council. Cheng resigned amidst the transition process, and he also stated that de Kanter and Cantwell had both committed to not running for the new government. However, a candidates list provided to the Independent includes several former members of the UC running for positions. Candidates for the head co-president position include former Treasurer Kimani Panther ‘24, key HUA constitution architect LyLena Estabine ‘24, and former presidential candidate Esther Xiang ‘23, whose campaign was at the center of a controversy over being disbanded by other members of the UC and reinstated by the DSO.
Khurana emphasized the commission’s independence from both the former UC and the interim government, in part because it is made up of some newcomers to student government. Anyone is free to run for positions or volunteer for the task forces, but the campaigning rules hope to diminish the personal conflicts, controversies, and that have marred previous elections.
“Our hope is that, with the formation of the HUA, we’ll serve to depoliticize student government,” he said, noting that the officer positions will have less of a representative political angle compared to the old system of house-specific representatives, which he said was a driver of tensions between students.
Still, the commission is conscientious of the expectations it has, especially given the past turmoil that has engulfed student government elections. With campaigning set to begin on Friday, the student body will face a new slate of candidates, proposals, and promises that will make or break the HUA’s inaugural operations in the Fall. “We don’t want people to be jerks. We want people to be nice to each other, listen to each other, and debate with each other in a friendly way.”
At the time of publication, no email has been sent out since April 18th, and the promised website featuring all of the candidates was not available by morning of April 19th. Neither has been updated by the morning of April 21st.
In response to an inquiry from the Independent, the Election Commission replied that they were still reviewing the candidates as of the afternoon of April 21st and were looking to release a list later in the evening. A list was provided later that night, though a general announcement had not been made at the time of publication.
Ryan Golemme ’23 (ryangolemme@college.harvard.edu), who did not share the bananagrams set with our former organizer, writes news for the Independent.