Commencement 2021


Following Student Activism, Harvard Hosts Inaugural AAPI/APIDA Graduation Ceremony

After activism from student organizations on Harvard's campus, Harvard held its first annual graduation ceremony for Asian-American, Pacific Islander, and Desi American students in Tercentenary Theatre on Monday.


30,000 Chairs: Planning Harvard’s Triple Commencement

On Thursday, thousands of students, family members, and friends inundated Harvard Yard for the Class of 2022’s Commencement. On Sunday, tens of thousands more will do the same in celebration of the Classes of 2020 and 2021. An occasion of this magnitude demanded careful preparation, administrators say.


Senior Perspective: Gabrielle Fernandopulle

As of June 1, it’s been 562 days since we last competed. But I’ve felt the strength and lessons of my team more so in the last 562 days off the field than I could have imagined. Harvard Women’s Rugby, more than anything else at Harvard, taught me how to learn, how to be a teammate, and how to be brave.


Senior Perspective: Matt Thomas

It’s a strange thing to have the last 75 games of your collegiate career cancelled. In fact, during my four years, I only played in one-third as many. The Harvard Baseball Team has been such a core part of my identity in college, so I struggled to find direction and purpose when it was taken away. What did it mean to be a Harvard baseball player if we didn’t play any games?


Pete Buttigieg Delivers Harvard Kennedy School Graduation Speech

U.S. Secretary of Transportation and former presidential candidate Peter P. M. Buttigieg ’04 emphasized the generation-defining nature of the current political moment in a speech at the Harvard Kennedy School’s virtual graduation ceremony Thursday.


Warren Urges Harvard Law School Graduates to ‘Have Courage,’ Pursue Lives of Public Service

Harvard Law School professor emerita and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth A. Warren (D-Mass.) urged the Law School’s 2021 graduating class to “have courage” as they considered their long careers ahead in a speech at the school’s virtual Class Day ceremony Wednesday.


Anticipating Fall Return to Campus, Students Reflect on the Impact of Off-Campus Living During Covid-19

Though during any typical year students would not hesitate to accept their spot in their House, this year students must weigh the benefits of residential House life — a hallmark of the Harvard College experience — with newfound joys they experienced living outside the Harvard bubble.


Lessons for the Journey Ahead

Tomorrow is a new day to put your passions into motion, and to be an advocate for equity. Congratulations again, Class of 2021 — I am proud of you and look forward to seeing what you do next!


‘A Real Power Imbalance’: Conflict Within Cambridge City Government

On May 11, during an otherwise ordinary meeting of the Finance Committee, a dispute erupted between the Cambridge city manager and a city councilor. Disputes like this are common as the balance of power has shifted toward the former in recent decades.


The Freedom That Is Elsewhere

For those who benefit from a repressive system, be brave enough to reckon with a system that imposes violence and perpetual suffering unto others. The questions are clear and ready to be asked (For example, why are Black and third-world peoples suffering? What must be done to liberate them?). We must do everything we can to solve them. Lives are, quite literally, at stake.


Portraits of a Year Apart

Last Commencement, our Editorial Board faced a conundrum: How could we summarize the past three months — suddenly fleeing campus, quarantining in our homes, coping with a new virus both world-stopping and unknown — through a collective voice, when what ultimately unfolded for each of us was a deeply personal experience?


A Note to Readers: The Last Supplement of Its Kind, Hopefully

The 2021 “Year in Sports” edition marks a third supplement that The Crimson Sports Board has completed during the hiatus in Ivy League sports. This should, however, be our last in this style. And we are certainly grateful.


'Love First': How RuQuan Brown Bounces Back and Makes a Difference

"Studying love is an everyday experience. When you study love, you’ll realize what you need to put first. If I could share anything, if there’s any lesson, if there’s anything about me, it’s one love.”


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