Editor's Note

Dear Reader, Just over a year after the 2024 Presidential election, we bring you a first-of-its-kind themed issue, focused on the fallout of the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks against Harvard. In this issue’s cover story, MLB and JPL explore the human cost of the Trump administration’s funding cuts. Last spring, the Trump administration froze billions of dollars in federal funding to Harvard. The University terminated research projects and laid off workers in droves. Most of Harvard’s funds were restored this fall, but researchers are still dealing with the irreversible damage. If federal funding can be revoked at the whims of the White House, how can Harvard comfortably rely on the government again? OJ and TV examine more aftershocks of federal funding pressure. In October, Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences laid off 25% of staff represented by the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers. Many of these staff members worked in student-facing roles as lecturers and advisers. Through a series of profiles, OJ and TV tell the stories of those lost in the layoffs. ASM reports on the changes to the First-Year Urban Program, a preorientation program for freshmen interested in organizing and public service. Founded amid a surge of student activism in the early ’80s, FUP has long been known for its activist and anti-institutional spirit. But this year, in the wake of the federal government’s attack on broadly-defined DEI initiatives, staff altered FUP’s core programming. Staff say the revisions signal a new direction for the program; student leaders and program founders see the changes as a betrayal of FUP’s values. ASM asks how a preorientation program for activists can continue to exist at a university cracking down on campus activism. To understand how Harvard may continue to change under pressure from the Trump administration, CGH and MMN go westward to Stanford’s Hoover Institution. Though it formally identifies as nonpartisan, the Hoover Institution is widely understood as a center for conservative thought at a predominantly liberal university. CGH and MMN explore what a similar center could look like on our own campus. Elsewhere in this issue, RAD interviews Susan B. Glasser, a staff writer at The New Yorker who authors a weekly “Letter From Trump’s Washington.” In one of her signature venn diagrams, MEL compares Donald J. Trump to the dreaded sophomore slump. A pair of personal essays close us out: MEL writes about how political polarization has split her family apart, and SG explores her personal ties to scientific research. For the past year, Harvard’s conflict with the federal government has been a fixture in the national news. This issue illuminates the stories behind those headlines. FMLove, YAK+MTB