Students Feel Less Supported After Diversity Office Closures, HUA Survey Says

Nearly two-thirds of the respondents to a Harvard Undergraduate Association survey said they feel less supported by the Office of Culture and Community than the three Harvard College diversity offices it replaced, according to a copy of the results obtained by The Crimson.

The question on the OCC — which showed that 63 percent of respondents felt they received less support after Harvard College closed its centers for minority students, LGBTQ students, and women this summer — was one of eight on a list submitted by the HUA for a College-wide survey that closed Tuesday. The survey was run by the HUA Election Commission, which operates independently of the HUA’s executive leadership.

The optional survey was presented to the 1055 students who voted in an election to fill a vacancy for HUA Sports Team Officer. The HUA’s questions, each of which drew between 846 and 906 respondents, appeared alongside three questions submitted by two pro-Palestine student groups.

After voting closed on Tuesday, the Election Commission said it would not release detailed data on any of the questions to the student body at large, but disclosed full results to the HUA and the student groups for their respective survey questions on Wednesday.

The HUA also polled students on the College’s grading policies following the release of a 25-page Office of Undergraduate Education report in October that concluded rampant grade inflation was damaging to the academic culture of the College. The report suggested a list of possible solutions, including adding A+’s to the College’s grading scale and placing median class grades on transcripts.

About 73 percent of respondents said they would like to see a more detailed report that displayed grade inflation statistics on different concentrations and departments.

When asked about four potential changes to grading policy — quotas on the number of A’s awarded, allowing faculty to award a limited number of A+’s, standardizing difficulty across classes, and recording median grades for every course on students’ transcripts — a plurality of respondents, 40 percent, preferred recording median grades.

Roughly a third said classes should be reformed to all have a similar level of difficulty. Changes to the grading scale were less popular: 22 percent of students preferred introducing a limited number of A+’s, and only about three percent preferred restricting the number of A’s awarded.

Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh, who authored the report, and a spokesperson for Harvard College did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday evening.

The HUA also asked students about their experiences with local transit, including Harvard’s shuttle services and the MBTA.

Roughly three-quarters of students responded that they believe PassioGO!, the University’s shuttle-tracking app, should be replaced. A similar fraction said their experience at the College would “be significantly improved” by having a free MBTA pass. The HUA’s Residential Life Team met with the MBTA earlier in the fall about the possibility of Harvard joining its University Pass Program, which subsidizes unlimited bus and subway trips for college students.

Students were also surveyed about polling preferences on the ballot for HUA co-president and whether they like the current system of ranking candidates or would rather rank only the candidates they choose. More than two-thirds of students responded that they prefer ranking only their favored candidates.

After the HUA survey questions, each of which were optional, students also had the choice to answer three questions posed by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee and Harvard Undergraduate Jews for Peace.

The PSC’s two questions asked, respectively, whether students believed Harvard should disclose investments in and divest “companies and institutions operating in Israel.” Respondent totals shared with The Crimson indicated that both questions were approved by a majority of respondents, but the exact figure remains unknown because neither the Election Commission nor the PSC have shared a complete breakdown of votes.

The Jews for Peace question asked whether Harvard should have adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Association’s definition of antisemitism. It was unclear which response to the question drew the most votes.

None of the eleven total survey questions are binding, and the Election Commission has emphasized that their outcome will “have no impact” on the HUA, the College, or the University.

Ocean Ma ’28 won the Sports Team Officer election with 688 first-place ballots — roughly 65 percent of the vote.

—Staff writer Julia A. Karabolli can be reached at julia.karabolli@thecrimson.com.

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