Volume XXXVI, Issue XIV November 4, 2025

Dear Reader, This issue’s cover story takes us back in time, to the New England Primate Center — Harvard’s leading primate research center, which suddenly closed in 2013. The center had pioneered biomedical breakthroughs for decades but had come under intense public and media scrutiny after a series of animal misconduct allegations. JBR and EFN write a brilliant piece exploring the center’s rise and the calculus behind its closure. Elsewhere, KJK about cyborgs, and John Green, and memes. MK and AWA HUDS hack with Claire J. Saffitz ’09. AWS and CME write twin pieces on Lamont: a 24-hour stakeout and an inquiry on the aesthetic of the “Lamonster.” CX, AF, and KC visit a couple of faculty offices, exploring their curious office decor. WJM writes an introspection on a train trip across America, and pairs with NNG to create our latest venn diagram (family vacation, grade deflation). SOG pens an ode to the Gayke. OJ, NO, and AA talk to tourists in the yard. And AXN closes us out with an exploration of what it means to be “it” — both in tag, and in life. FMLove, MTB + YAK

X-Ray 1

An x-ray of one of the cotton-top tamarins shipped to the Oregon Zoo. The Crimson obtained the x-rays through a public records request to the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Sanjna: Office Hours with The Crimson

Sanjna N. Rajagopalan ’26 — known professionally as Sanjna — kicks off the first installment of The Crimson’s newly launched concert series, Office Hours. Sanjna accompanies her smooth vocals with graceful piano through four original songs and a cover of “Hard Place” by H.E.R.

Sanjna Office Hours Photo

Sanjna N. Rajagopalan ’26 — known professionally as Sanjna — kicks off the first installment of The Crimson’s newly launched concert series, Office Hours.

Volume XXXVI, Issue XIII

Dear Reader, This week, our issue opens with a Camberville double feature. First, we turn to an outgrowth of Cambridge's competitive parenting culture. SAB and AJPL take an in-depth look at the Russian School of Mathematics, an after-school math program with 15 centers in Massachusetts alone. So many students have enrolled in the program that it's begun to change the inner workings of Cambridge classrooms. What does it mean for Cambridge students when the center of learning moves beyond the school day? In our second scrutiny, RCG and CJ examine polyamory in Somerville. In 2020, Somerville became the first U.S. city to allow groups of more than two partners to register for a domestic partnership. At the time, the ordinance received national media attention. Five years out, this story asks: What is it actually like to be polyamorous in Somerville? Elsewhere in this issue: KJK's column on corecore, SG's 15Q with Benjamin L. Bivort, SG's conversation with Taylor Swift scholar Stephanie Burt, HGL's review of the grand opening PopUp Bagels, MAB and VO's venn diagram about turkey terrorism, and MEL's lovely endpaper about unseen sickness. FMLove, YAK+MTB

Russian School of Mathematics Map

Volume XXXVI, Issue XII

Dear Reader, In this issue, MK, CS, and AJBS profile eight international students caught in limbo. Among these students, no shared narrative emerges: Some become high-profile activists. Others feel ambivalent. One is set on returning to his home country. Another has dreamt of America since she was a child. Through beautiful storytelling, MK, CS, and AJBS bring you eye-to-eye with the students at the heart of the national headlines. Elsewhere, AS imagines an AI addict going a day without his beloved chatbot, while AA, CSB, and NG report live from the sudden, sprawling line outside of BerryLine. JPL profiles John M. Muresianu, an Adams affiliate who claims to possess the "Messiah gene," and MBF speaks to Jim MacArthur on the eve of his retirement. KHL closes us out with an endpaper on how a cross-country road trip gave her a new understanding of her mother. FMLove, YAK+MTB

Volume XXXVI, Issue XI

Dear FM, In this week’s cover story, SG and JES probe a legal theory with growing influence on the right-wing legal landscape: common good constitutionalism. The theory itself originated at Harvard, from the work of Harvard Law School professor C. Adrian C. Vermeule ’90. Through careful analysis of material ranging from dense legal documents to tweets, SG and JES raise questions about the future of common good constitutionalism. Will the theory begin to appear in more court decisions and law school syllabi? What will law school students — the future’s lawyers and judges — make of the theory? And will common good constitutionalism remake right-wing jurisprudence, much like originalism did a few decades ago? Elsewhere, CB talks to another figure in the legal world: Alfredo Gutierrez Ortiz Mena, a former justice of the Mexican Supreme Court. DCB takes up One Tap Away — our new laundry app — in a levity that will make you mourn Crimson Cash. Closing the issue out, AM gets philosophical about flies. FMLove, MTB + YAK

Volume XXXVI, Issue X

Dear Reader, This week's scrutiny covers Beacon Academy, a gap year program between eighth and ninth grade designed to help students from historically underrepresented communities gain admission to private high schools. What differentiates Beacon from similar college preparatory programs is its cultural curriculum: Alongside their coursework, students will take trips to Martha's Vineyard, take rowing lessons, and learn dinner table etiquette. AR and CGH examine how Beacon Academy helps its students achieve upward mobility—at the risk of alienating parts of their identities in the process. Also in this issue: KJK's first column installment on the cringiness of cringe, EMK's conversation with Prof. Spencer Lee-Lenfield, and JPL's endpaper on falling back in love with visual art. FMLove, YAK+MTB

Volume XXXVI, Issue IX

Dear Reader, We kick off this semester with MHJ's profile of Yi-An Huang '05, Cambridge's eleventh city manager. Huang's role is a complicated one. He's partially a bureaucrat and partially a politician, and many describe him as the most powerful person in Cambridge. Through extensive reporting and incisive prose, MHJ deftly portrays the way Huang has navigated his time in City Hall. Has Huang brought change to his historically contentious role — or have the many demands of the job ultimately changed him? Elsewhere in this issue, you'll find VWR's 15Q with Professor Annabel Kim and KJK's 15Q with Professor Curtis McMullen, HGL and JPL's look at consciousness studies with Professor Anne Harrington, and MSA's report on Bread and Puppet's latest Cambridge performance. KJK takes a tour of the city's internet-free cafés, and HPL attempts to attend every event pubbed to him, over mailing list, flyers, and word-of-mouth. In her latest Venn Diagram, MEL compares the new Harvard Foundation with the act of sharing one's location, and HPL unveils FM's first cyptic crossword. MRT closes us out with his reflection on losing and learning from the HUA election. FMLove, YAK+MTB