A Year of Controversy at Harvard Looms Over Freshman Arrival
By Azusa M. Lippit, Crimson Staff WriterEven before they began arriving in Cambridge on Wednesday, Harvard freshmen said they had become deeply familiar with the University’s turbulent politics which had overshadowed the year leading up to their first semester on campus.
For many incoming students, the University has been associated with controversy and nonstop national media attention since they first started thinking about attending Harvard.
The class of 2028 began to apply just weeks after the Supreme Court ruled against Harvard to effectively end race-conscious admissions practices, submitted their last applications one day before former University President Claudine Gay’s resignation, and roamed Harvard Yard as admitted students just 10 days before it became the site of a pro-Palestine encampment.
In interviews with The Crimson, 42 freshmen spoke about how Harvard’s turbulent year has affected the start of their college experience. Each one said they paid close attention to Harvard’s leadership crisis and campus protests through coverage in news outlets and social media.
The heightened focus on Harvard over the past year put some students in the awkward position of having to defend its reputation before they had even first visited the campus. In particular, Gay’s resignation and the rise in pro-Palestine student activism in the spring sparked a flurry of concern from friends and family members about the University.
Ali Sediqe ’28 said he usually tried to laugh off comments about Harvard’s reputation.
“People would ask me: ‘Do you think they’re going to try to indoctrinate you there?’” Sediqe said.
Still, most freshmen said that their opinions of Harvard did not change amid the controversies of last year and that their own enthusiasm for starting college has not wavered. And despite everything, the more typical concerns about moving to Cambridge remained top of mind for some members of the class of 2028.
“Disagreement is just a part of going into a new environment with all sorts of people from different backgrounds,” said Nylah N. King-Boyd ’28. “I think the only thing that’s different is that I need to buy more winter clothes.”
‘Having My College in the News’
When Angelene Nvella Gorniak ’28 posted a TikTok video in December expressing her excitement about being admitted to Harvard, she was jarred by one response amid the other congratulations in the comment section.
“Are you a current antisemite? Or just an aspiring one?” an anonymous user commented under her post.
Gorniak said that she struggled to understand why she was being labeled as antisemitic merely for gaining admission to Harvard.
“It was just crazy because I was just super excited that I’d gotten in,” she said.
While several students said the negative comments about Harvard mostly manifested online and on social media, many others said they also fielded in-person questions about the University’s decisions well before the start of their own Harvard experience.
Sarita Y. Popat ’28, who was accepted early to Harvard in December, said people with varying political views approached her to discuss the University’s response to campus protests and antisemitism and Islamophobia on campus. The initial comments were usually critical of Harvard, she said.
“I just avoided speaking about it if I could, because I didn’t want to put myself in an argument or to be a representative of anything to do with the school,” Popat said.
“It was almost described as a concession, where it’s like, ‘Oh it’s an amazing school, but did you hear about all this weird stuff going on?’” she added. “And that comes from both sides.”
Some students said those who approached them to talk about the potential campus activism in the fall seemed to do so out of concern for their own safety.
“A lot of people in my hometown were like, ‘Try to be careful when you’re on campus, and maybe steer clear of that,’” said Chantel A. L. De Jesus ’28.
Johnny H. Perkins ’28, an incoming student from Kansas, said he has thought a lot about how the tensions on campus over the war in Gaza will color his first semester of college.
“As first years, being right next to the Yard, which is where a lot of the protests were going on, it’s definitely something you have to think about — how will you interact with what’s going on?” Perkins said. “You get asked that question by a lot of people.”
Harvard spokesperson Jonathan L. Swain declined to comment for this article.
Alex I. Drǎghia ’28, who spent a gap year in Romania after being admitted to the Class of 2027, said he had extra time to prepare to enter an institution that “always has a magnifying glass over it.”
“I just got used to it, from that point forward, to having my college in the news,” Drǎghia said.
The global headlines sparked by Gay’s resignation elicited questions from “everybody, everywhere” about the turmoil on Harvard’s campus, according to Drǎghia.
“I haven’t gone there — I wouldn’t know what to tell them,” he said.
Several students said their firsthand experiences at Visitas — the College’s admitted students weekend — showed them an encouraging alternative view that contrasted what they had seen online.
Upon visiting campus, Hudson L. Byrd ’28 said protests and political tensions had less of a presence than he had expected.
“Once I got to campus, I was like ‘This is really cool,’” Byrd said. “Like, it’s not as big of a deal as the media sometimes makes it out to be.”
For Luna Y. Yin ’28, the chance to visit campus showed that students and faculty are “really separate” from the administration’s actions, she said.
“When I was on campus there was a lot of excellent community, solidarity, and kindness that I saw there, and that has stuck with me more than the decisions of the administration,” Yin said.
During Visitas, Kim S. Cortes-Martinez ’28 followed Harvard student groups like The Harvard Crimson on social media — a move she said proved helpful in the following weeks, when she began to hear “misinformation” in discussions and media portrayals of the encampment protest that took place in the Yard.
“It was refreshing knowing that I was getting more accurate information from student-run accounts and from the students themselves that were protesting,” Cortes-Martinez said.
‘When We Speak, the World Listens’
Though Harvard’s newest batch of undergraduates are already familiar with the intense scrutiny on the University, they may find themselves directly under the spotlight as their first semester begins.
The class of 2028 are members of the first admissions cycle since the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action, and many are waiting for Harvard to release the demographics of its freshman class to determine how the decision has impacted the University’s efforts to admit a diverse student body.
Many politicians are also closely watching how pro-Palestine student activists at Harvard will organize campus protests. House Committee on Education and the Workforce Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) wrote in a letter last week to University President Alan M. Garber ’76 Garber that he must detail how he is preparing to handle campus protests this fall.
Last semester, pro-Palestine protests on college campuses across the country made headlines, including the 20-day encampment at Harvard.
Nick D. Best ’28 said the pro-Palestine protests at Harvard were frequently brought up by family and friends during his process of applying to attend Harvard — which one of Best’s family members called a “liberal training ground.”
“They were like, ‘Oh, you’re not going to start protesting now, are you?’” Best said.
In an apparent anticipation of a resurgence of protests, the University updated its campus use guidelines earlier this month, prohibiting chalking and unapproved signage. Several incoming freshmen said reading about the new restrictions led them to wonder about the continuation of pro-Palestine organizing at Harvard.
Anthony C. Bynum ’28 said he is “curious” to see whether more protests unfold and will be “on the lookout” for them this fall.
“That’s not something that I would be a part of, or anything like that,” Bynum said. “I just kind of want to be at school, and I don’t want to see people get expelled or anything.”
Some students, like Yin, said they hope to get involved with campus protests.
“It really seems like a great opportunity to make those connections, to show up for something meaningful. Especially because Harvard has such a huge spotlight on it, I just have the feeling that Harvard students, when we speak, the world listens,” Yin said.
“It’s an important position to have, and I think we can do something useful with it,” she added. “That’s a really great privilege.”
Though Hanah Kim ’28 said she was “in disbelief” when she heard about the suspension of pro-Palestine protesters, she said she still intends to participate in student activism.
“I do believe that I will be partaking in protests, regardless of whatever cause they may be for,” Kim said. “I am concerned that my partaking in something that represents my beliefs will have me facing consequences that Harvard deems acceptable for those actions.”
But the global platform granted to politically outspoken Harvard students is less attractive to some freshmen, even deterring them from engaging with campus activism.
Tigran Sahakyan ’28 said that while he fully supports “who want to make their voices heard if they care about the issue,” he personally would not participate in order to avoid “being the center of attention.”
“I would probably consider being more active if the protests didn’t make national news,” Sahakyan said.
Alex S. Jun ’28 said the attention on Harvard made him more apprehensive about joining politically oriented student groups.
“Your affiliation with groups can cause consequences, or you to be grouped in with people who you don’t necessarily agree with, or who do things you don’t agree with,” Jun said.
“I now don’t — necessarily, in the start — want to join groups that are really committed or have really solidified ideals,” he added.
Sediqe said he expects to be “more cautious” about how he acts on campus.
“Really anything anyone does there can be subject to more scrutiny in terms of media and people who are looking in on it,” he said. “So just for me personally — being more careful what I do, what I say, and how I present myself.”
The fall semester also marks a new start for Harvard’s central administration. Earlier this month, the Harvard Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — permanently installed Garber and Provost John F. Manning ’82 in their roles.
Pointing to Garber’s and Manning’s appointments, Perkins said he found it “exciting” that the class of 2028 would be “entering Harvard at the same time” as new members of top leadership “look for an identity” for the University.
“In the end, it is a good opportunity for this class to realize there is a time of change going on — but we get to help decide what that change is,” he added.
—Staff writer Azusa M. Lippit can be reached at azusa.lippit@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @azusalippit or on Threads @azusalippit.