HARVARD INDEPENDENT
News
High On Life: Sobriety on a College Campus
Keeping it cool without the wine-coolers.
Harvard students hail from all corners of the world, ranging from major cities to small villages, from diverse public schools to prestigious boarding academies. No matter where they come from, however, statistics suggest most of them encounter a radically different drinking culture when they arrive. The Crimson’s survey of the Class of 2027 found that […]
From Beater to Better
Quad Bikes advances biking ease and enjoyment on campus and in Quad culture.
Campus cruiser, beater bike, not-an-electric-scooter—the bikes Harvard students ride around campus go by many names. What they often all have in common is their various stages of disrepair. For many students, giving their bikes the Tender Loving Care they deserve rarely makes it to the top of the to-do list. Most bike shops are pricey, […]
My Classroom, My Rules?
Harvard University leadership and professors have been forced to update their protest and dissent policies after campus controversy.
Note: Students interviewed for this article were offered anonymity for privacy protection. They are referred to by the pseudonyms of Ryan, Alex, Charlie, and Avery. Harvard has a history of using campus protesting as a means of public expression. Ranging from demonstrations to die-ins, student activists have used protesting to express grievances or demand action […]
In the News: Antisemitic Cartoon, Degree Devaluation
Latest campus controversies lead to legal backlash.
On the evening of Feb. 20, Harvard University Interim President Alan M. Garber ’76 released a statement “unequivocally condemning the posting and sharing” of an anti-semitic cartoon by the Palestine Solidarity Committee and African American Resistance Organization. The cartoon, which was part of a newsletter circulated during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, depicts […]
Naked Data
Sungjoo Yoon ’27 exposes anonymized Rice Purity Test scores to underscore risks of Big Data.
Sungjoo Yoon ’27 has been recently referred to as the “Datamatch hacker,” but he’d rather you call him “bernie marx,” the pseudonym under which he published his Feb. 25 website, styled “the data privacy project.” It describes security vulnerabilities in the nationwide college matchmaking app Datamatch, which caused an uproar amongst Sidechat contributors and campus […]
Home Sweet Home…Or Is It?
A look into the blocking process ahead of Housing Day.
Forget your spring break or reading period travel plans. There is a much more pressing decision that you and your friends must make in your group chats: blocking. As is customary every year, Harvard first-years must sort themselves into “blocking groups” of up to eight people to participate in the housing lottery and get randomly […]
Forum
You Can’t Help but Laugh
You Can’t Help but Laugh Babylon Bee CEO’s HRC monologue insists that nothing is above ridicule.
Deep in the bowels of political social media, there is an ongoing debate about humor’s role in our society. Some believe that satire and ridicule are a necessary component to ensure our society has a healthy relationship with politics. If we take everything seriously and lose the ability to laugh, we are just pushing our […]
Beyond the Book
The future belongs to the humanities.
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 […]
Saved By the Bell
The classic Harvard-to-public-school-teacher pipeline.
There’s this idea that it is “‘beneath the dignity of an Ivy League school to train teachers,’” points out Walter Isaacson ’74, former CEO of CNN and graduate of Harvard College, quoted in an article by The Atlantic. It’s pretty normal to ask someone what their plans are after college. Most commonly, when I eavesdrop […]
Time and Place
The First-Year Formal falls flat after awkward scheduling.
Picture this: You are a Harvard student sitting in your dorm, post-everything shower, in formal attire and dress shoes. This time, to your surprise, you actually do have plans, albeit arranged by the First-Year Social Committee (FYSC)—the First-Year Formal. A Great Gatsby themed endeavor, the Committee transported students back a century as they draped Annenberg […]
The Spotlight On Us
How a Harvard student’s sense of community has been affected by persistent national media attention.
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 […]
Point: The SAT, A Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing
The hidden advantages of standardized testing for economic diversity.
In the wake of the overturning of affirmative action by the Supreme Court, all aspects of the college admissions process were placed under greater scrutiny. The Supreme Court’s decision blocks colleges from consciously building a racially diverse class, and, as a result, it is more important than ever that Harvard examine its metrics for admission […]
Arts
The Discourse of Art
How the Israel-Palestine conflict on campus has manifested as protest art.
As controversy and tension from the Israel-Palestine conflict have proliferated on campus, so has art. Protest art at Harvard is nothing new—political buttons on display at the Harvard Kennedy School show how button art has been used to spread political and social messages. From installations to creative imagery, the Yard in particular has historically been […]
As Big as the What? The Super Bowl!
A look behind the making of Harvard Housing Day videos.
Barbie’s Dreamhouse or Ken’s Mojo Dojo Quincy House? Is it going to be “Pfoho at your front door” or the Mather gorillas? Will the Whole Foods by the Quad be your newest CVS, or is Cardullo’s still the spot? From River Run to dorm storming, if you are a first-year, you have surely been anxiously […]
IncARTcerated
A look into art created behind bars.
Behind bars, self-expression becomes a luxury. While making art can serve as a means of rehabilitation, allow for emotional release, and act as an empowering force for incarcerated individuals, the prison system all too often denies inmates the right to create. “Beyond Bars: Art from Inside”—an art show on the 10th floor of the Smith […]
Review: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
A novel experience held on the small stage at the Loeb Experimental Theater.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is now running at the Loeb Experimental Theater from Feb. 29 to March 8. With music and lyrics by William Finn and book by Rachel Sheinkin, Spelling Bee is a musical comedy about a group of six middle school students competing in, you guessed it, a spelling bee. […]
Allure Akaeze: Miss Pink Succubuss
As a multidisciplinary artist, Allure embodies counterculture and eroticism.
We are sitting near Quincy Grille. Allure Akaeze ’24 wears a raunchy cheetah-print bodysuit, colored neon pink and blue, with midriff and side cutouts. “I like showing skin, y’all,” they laugh. “It’s sexy. I like it. It makes me feel good about myself.” As a multidisciplinary artist, Allure embodies counterculture and eroticism. They are a […]
“The Most Competitive Battle for Yardfest Yet”
A spotlight on this year’s Battle for Yardfest winners.
Last Thursday, the Harvard College Events Board hosted the annual “Battle for Yardfest.” According to the Dean of Students Office website, Yardfest, a Harvard College tradition, is “a giant cookout and festival-style concert. The two winning student bands from Battle for Yardfest…are granted an amazing opportunity to open for the exciting professional headliner.” This year’s […]
Sports
Battles Beyond The Field
While progress has been made, challenges remain for Harvard student-athletes who identify as LGBTQ+.
Long hours, daily practice, and pushing towards victory—that’s the life of the student-athletes at Harvard, who have to balance sports with their academic workload. Yet, some athletes on campus face an additional challenge—their identity. Historically, athletics in the U.S. have had a reputation for lagging behind other extracurriculars in terms of LGBTQ+ acceptance. It was […]
Indy Sportsbook: The Oscars
Top picks for select categories in this Sunday’s awards ceremony.
Puerto Rico, Spain, Portugal, and the Caribbean. Be prepared to swipe past a sunset photo from each of these destinations on Instagram every day this week. But if you are sitting at home this Sunday night and need a good distraction from the constant reminders of your friends’ sunny vacations, look no further than the […]
Sports Spotlight: Rémi Drolet
A profile on NCAA Champion and Canadian Olympic Nordic Skier.
Rémi “Rem-Dog” Drolet ’24 is the captain of the Harvard Nordic Ski Team, sporting his iconic man bun as a crown. In his first season of racing for the Crimson on the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association Circuit (EISA) in 2020, Drolet had several outstanding performances within the conference, qualifying him for the NCAA Championships (which […]
Indy Sportsbook: Betting on the Next Harvard President
The earliest prop bets for Harvard’s presidential search.
Since former Harvard President Claudine Gay stepped down from her post, the debate on whether or not she should resign has shifted to one concerning her successor. Harvard Provost Alan M. Garber ’76 has stepped in to fill the interim role until the search committee decides on a long-term replacement. While no sportsbook currently allows […]
Indy Sportsbook: Is Gambling Bad?
An examination into the true desires of many young adult gamblers.
In the realm of leisure and pastime, one practice stands out as steeped in contradiction: gambling. Since the Supreme Court case in 2018 which struck down the federal ban on sports betting, the industry has grown to a $15 billion-a-year industry. On one hand, gambling could merely be a benign form of entertainment, a source […]
An Uneven Playing Field
Harvard’s first female Athletic Director has chosen next season’s football coach, and fans are not happy.
“This is what happens when you put a woman in charge of a historic football team,” wrote an X user in response to Harvard Athletic Director (AD) Erin McDermott’s announcement of the new Harvard football coach on February 12th. All eyes were on McDermott, the first-ever woman AD at Harvard, following the news of the […]