Noruwa, Tobin Are Running To Put ‘You First’

Updated April 2, 2025, at 2:29 a.m.

Current Harvard Undergraduate Association Internal Events Manager Omosefe I. Noruwa ’27 and Academic Team Officer Matthew R. Tobin ’27 are running to be the organization’s next co-presidents with one goal in mind: putting students first.

The platform of their “you first” campaign centers around three main pillars: action, advocacy, and accountability. Some campaign promises include maintaining the option to take Gen Ed courses pass-fail, continuing to advocate for student representation on the College Administrative Board, and fostering more school-wide cohesion.

Tobin and Noruwa pointed to the value of their tenure in the HUA, arguing that their combined experience as a team officer and an executive cabinet member makes them well-suited for the job.

“I know what the cabinet can bring to the table, and he knows what officers can bring,” Noruwa said. “Having that perspective on expansion and what we can do as presidents beyond the elected officers is really important, and is a perspective I think I bring to the table.”

Tobin, a Crimson Editorial editor, also said he believes his past advocacy efforts on behalf of students as Academic Team Officer will prove helpful in the future.

“It’s a really nuanced skill that you only really amass through time,” he said, adding that administrators “don’t have to listen to students ever, and so to be efficacious at advocating, you need this long-term relationship where they respect your opinion.”

One key promise of their campaign is more funding for student organizations. They propose increasing the allocation of the HUA’s budget to clubs from 85 to 90 percent.

“I know where we are efficacious and where we’re not, and we can always be more efficacious with our funding,” Tobin said of the HUA’s spending. “The most important thing the HUA does — its most direct connection to most students — is club funding. That needs to be a priority.”

Tobin also discussed the intention of his advocacy, noting that he has received some backlash for a Crimson op-ed he authored last semester, in which he analyzed methods to resolve Harvard’s “staggering” grade inflation.

“I want to be clear, I’ve never believed that Harvard should be harder or more competitive,” he said. “I’ve always been concerned with how these sort of issues affect students, and trying to figure out how we can come up with solutions that benefit the students.”

Noruwa and Tobin’s campaign also heavily centers around improving student experience, from creating more inter-House events to “task forces” for students to work on specific issues.

But despite a strong shared vision for the future of the HUA, Noruwa acknowledged that she and Tobin still intend to lean heavily on student opinion as a driving focus.

“Even being on HUA and having collectively two years of experience, we don’t know everything that students want,” she said. “But with your help, we can address each need and make sure every concern is met and addressed.”

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