HUA Allocates $11,000 at General Meeting, Revamps Winter Shuttle Program

The Harvard Undergraduate Association’s Executive Team announced on Sunday that the Winter Shuttle Program would return this year to subsidize student transport from campus to Logan Airport or South Station, trading last year’s coach buses for Uber vouchers.

During Sunday’s general meeting, the HUA voted to allocate $6,000 toward the program. The rideshare program is projected to accommodate 130 groups of two to four students who would otherwise find it difficult to afford transportation.

“We’re not going to vet anyone. We’re just going to ask for people that can afford their own Ubers, please don’t fill out the form,” co-president Caleb N. Thompson ’27 said.

The program will run on a first-come, first-served basis, but the HUA will continue to pair students together after voucher funds are depleted so ride costs can be shared.

The HUA has run programs paying for student Uber rides in the past through its Well-Being Team, which oversaw an Uber voucher program intended for students returning to campus late at night or traveling for off-campus therapy or doctor appointments.

At Sunday’s meeting, the Academic Team mentioned that they met with faculty members including Government professors Steven R. Levitsky ’08 and Ryan D. Enos, and Statistics professor Joseph K. Blitzstein, to share data collected from their student survey on the College’s recent grading report. Academic Team Officer Hyunsoo Lee ’28 declined to explain the meeting’s contents.

The Academic Team also discussed the survey data, synthesized from roughly 500 student responses, during a meeting with Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh. The HUA co-presidents declined to share full survey results with The Crimson.

“We discussed grading policy, heard what faculty have to say, heard what we have to say based on the survey that we sent out,” Lee said.

Several other votes took place at the general meeting on social and residential initiatives. Members in attendance voted to allocate $2,500 to a Residential Life Team proposal that would supply care packages to international students staying on campus during Thanksgiving break.

Residential Life Team Officer Isabelle G. Agarwal ’28 said the initiative, planned in collaboration with leadership of the undergraduate Woodbridge Society of International Students, will include a written element in the students’ first language.

“We’ll have handwritten notes — and so we’re asking them what their native language is — so that we can try our best, at least, to write it down, and then chocolates and other surprises that were recommended by the Woodbridge Board,” Agarwal said.

Another proposal passed at the meeting was a $1,500 request from the Well-Being Team to host an enhanced brain break in Annenberg Hall. Thompson added that this initiative will be a “collaboration with organizations dedicated to various aspects of well-being.”

The First-Year Team was also approved to allocate $1,300 to a social event for freshmen held in Queen’s Head featuring “holiday movies, desserts, community building, to round off the first semester,” according to Thompson.

To finish off the votes from Sunday’s meeting, HUA members voted to approve a $250 joint proposal from the Social Life and Academic Teams to celebrate the end of midterms season with free Dunkin’ Donuts for students.

—Staff writer Nina A. Ejindu can be reached at nina.ejindu@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @nina_ejindu.

—Staff writer Claire L. Simon can be reached at claire.simon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @ClaireSimon.