The âSecondâ Class of 2024
More than 20 international freshmen interviewed said their first semester of college was marked by nocturnal schedules, social isolation, and inadequate support from the College. Many said they feel pessimistic that things will get better this spring.
Like many Harvard students, Nabin Poudel â24 stays up late to complete his assignments in time for typical midnight deadlines.
Unlike others, though, midnight in Cambridge falls around 10 a.m. local time the next morning for Poudel, who is taking classes online from his home in Nepal this academic year.
âSometimes I would find myself working [the] whole night on assignments,â Poudel said.
As undergraduates embark on their second week of the spring semester, Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana commended on-campus students for a safe and smooth move-in process in a Friday interview.
The College announced in December it would welcome back seniors, juniors, and students with challenging learning environments to live on campus for the spring semester. Similar to the fall, students arrived on campus in the week before classes began this semester and were required to undergo Covid-19 testing and a quarantine period.
Khurana said he was heartened to see the relatively low positivity rate of Covid-19 among students moving in. The positivity rate among Harvard affiliates during the last seven days was 0.24 percent as of Sunday morning, per the University-wide Covid-19 Testing Dashboard.
Faced with another semester online, a lost year of athletics eligibility, and a dearth of social interaction, some students who took classes in the fall opted to take the spring off.
A Harvard College Open Data Project report published in December predicted that the freshman and sophomore classes would shrink 3 and 5 percent, respectively, in the spring semester compared to the fall. The College has yet to release official spring enrollment data.
Sarah Mrad â24, who spent her first semester of college at home in Lebanon, said she decided to take a leave following months marked by limited social interaction.
âI really did enjoy my classes, and I did feel like I learned as much as I would in a non-remote setting. However, the classes were the only thing that I could enjoy,â Mrad said.
A form created by a Harvard senior and circulated online Monday invited members of the Class of 2021 to participate in a graduation trip to a tropical destination during the coronavirus pandemic.
The form stated that seniors should find an alternative to Commencement Exercises, which it speculated will not take place due to the public health crisis, to celebrate the conclusion of their college experience.
âHi friends! The chances of having commencement in person look pretty slim, but let s have one last hurrah!â the form read.
It went on to pose a series of questions asking interested students to indicate their travel preferences. Destination options included Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, Cancún, or Los Cabos, while the activity offerings spanned live music, catamarans, âboozing,â salon amenities, and scuba diving.
Fallout from the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol, which left five people dead, reached Harvardâs Institute of Politics the following week. On Jan. 12, the bipartisan organization dismissed U.S. Representative Elise M. Stefanik â06 (R-N.Y.) from its top leadership committee for her baseless claims of voter fraud.
The IOPâs move received an array of responses â including praise and criticism. Though Kennedy School Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf stated the decision was nonpartisan, it nonetheless surfaced questions about the commitment of the organization â and Harvard more broadly â to bipartisanship: with Stefanikâs removal, the Republican minority on the Senior Advisory Committee becomes even smaller.