Senior Section 2023

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The Harvard Crimson

MAY 25, 2023

COMMENCEMENT 2023

Senior Section

A LETTER FROM THE CLASS MARSHALS

CLASS OF 2023 SENIOR SURVEY

WEDDING BELLS

Athena Q. Ye ’23 and Chibuike K. Uwakwe ’23, First and Second Marshals for the Class of 2023, reflect on college.

The Crimson’s senior survey provides data on the Class of 2023’s postgraduate plans, political attitudes, and social lives.

Read the stories of the seniors in the Class of 2023 who are celebrating another life landmark: tying the knot.

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The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

Table of Contents Foreword

Senior Section Staff

Over the last four years, we have all been part of the Class of 2023 — whether we began our Harvard journeys earlier or will stick around for a while yet. But even as class affiliations shifted, our commitment as Crimson editors to chronicling remained staunch and unwavering. As we leave The Crimson behind, we are thrilled to document our path at Harvard one last time with this year’s Senior Section.

The Crimson’s senior staff surveyed our peers on their undergraduate experience, political views, and post-Harvard plans, among other topics.

Through this data, we see a snapshot of our class at this pivotal moment.

Our class marshals share some parting words, and we document the stories of seniors who have tied the knot (or will soon). We hope you enjoy this issue, our parting contribution to the Class of 2023.

Editors

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Design

Web Design

Julian J. Giordano ’25

Madison A. Shirazi ’23

Kevin Luo ’24 Justin Y. Ye ’24

Athena Q. Ye ’23 and Chibuike K. Uwakwe ’23, First and Second Marshals for the Class of 2023, reflect on college and thank their classmates.

Senior Survey

We share the results from our survey of the Class of 2023, ranging from statistics on dating to views on the selection of incoming University Presi-

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After Harvard

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Academics & Student Life

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Lifestyle

Learn about what the class is doing post-grad and where they’ll be living.

Check out the academic and social interests of the class, from GPAs to House satisfaction.

Sex, Dating Apps, Drugs: Read about how students spent their free time at Harvard.

Hannah J. Martinez ’23 Madison A. Shirazi ’23 Andy Z. Wang ’23-’24

Cover Photo

A Letter From the 2023 Class Marshals

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Raquel Coronell Uribe ’22-’23 Juliet E. Isselbacher ’22-’23 Maliya V. Ellis ’23-’24 Natalie L. Kahn ’23 Jasper G. Goodman ’23 Alex Koller ’22-’23 Kelsey J. Griffin ’23 Sophia S. Liang ’23 Guillermo S. Hava ’23-’24 Virginia L. Ma ’23

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Campus Issues

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National Politics

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Covid-19

Seniors grade Harvard on the issues and offer approval ratings of top administrators.

Seniors report their political leanings and offer their views on national issues.

The coronavirus upended life on campus — read about how it impacted the class.

Wedding Bells Hear from seven couples in the Class of 2023 who are married or engaged to be married soon.

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

A Letter from the Class Marshals Athena Q. Ye ’23 and Chibby K. Uwakwe ’23 Dear Class of 2023, The time has finally come. We are now, officially, Harvard graduates.

Like all Harvard students in recent memory, we’ve been inundated with emails over the past four years. But for our cohort, unlike most before it, the emails we received marked life-changing and world-affecting events. As we look back on our time at Harvard, this smattering of emails maps our careers and lives in so many ways.

One of the first notable emails we received from Harvard was the First-Year Move-In email. With the date set for August 27, 2019, we packed up our belongings and lugged them to Harvard Yard.

The sun beating down on us, we said goodbye to our families with nervous excitement running through our veins and met our First-Year entryways, our first introduction to the amazing people we would come to know and love at Harvard.

We ate in Annenberg together and experienced homesickness together, and these people became our family.

Our bonds strengthened by the day that year — until March 10, 2020,, the day an email informed us that we had five days to leave campus. We packed our belongings and left the place and people we had grown to love for the past seven months. Although this email marked two months of online learning, another email arrived that summer notifying us of nine more months of remote classes during our sophomore year.

We still remember the day that we opened that email. The year that followed matured us in a way that not many people experience in their late teens and early twenties. The pandemic changed each of us in different ways. Some of us lived alone, learning how to cope with life independently. Some of us lived with our parents, returning to our childhood bedrooms. Some of us took the year off, finding ourselves by pursuing our passions in life.

But all of us faced great loss or grief of some kind.

About one year later, we heard news of another Move-In Day, this time stag-

JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

gered over a week for the start of our junior years. We returned to campus with even brighter smiles and even more joy seeing friends we had not in over a year.

It was bliss.

This past year, we received the email about Commencement. We would be graduating from Harvard College, finally, not only with a degree, but with moments and friendships that will last a lifetime.

Class of 2023, we have overcome challenges, celebrated accomplishments, and experienced events that have altered the course of history here at Harvard. Now, as we set out into the real world, it will be up to us to alter the course of history. Thank

you for the amazing memories, and congratulations!

With Love, Athena and Chibby

Athena Q. Ye ’23, an Integrative Biology concentrator in Leverett House, is the Class of 2023’s first marshal.

Chibuike K. “Chibby” Uwakwe ’23, a Biomedical Engineering concentrator in Eliot House, is the Class of 2023’s second marshal.

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The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

T

he data in this year’s senior section tells the story of a class bound together by the ways it was pulled

Class of

2023 Senior Survey

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apart.

The Class of 2023 was indelibly marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, which kept most of us away from campus for more than a quarter of our time at Harvard. After being sent home during our freshman spring, we proceeded to spend our sophomore year away from campus, with the majority of our survey respondents indicating they did not reside on campus during the entirety of the 20212022 school year. For most of us, this marks only our second-ever full year on Harvard’s campus.

Despite the pandemic’s interruptions, Harvard grappled with many important issues during our time here. The University reckoned with its historic ties to slavery in different ways, acknowledging the ways it benefited from slavery in a landmark report while also facing a lawsuit and demands for reparations.

Separately, a lawsuit against the school that seeks to end affirmative action in American higher education worked its way up to the Supreme Court, creating the strong possibility that our class will be the last to graduate with Harvard’s current race-conscious admissions system in place.

Off campus, the Class of 2023 bore witness to the tumultuous 2020 election, nationwide racial justice protests, and the global consequences of Covid-19. On campus, we witnessed the fall of the Undergraduate Council and the subsequent rise of the Harvard Undergraduate Administration; the departure of an embattled Harvard University Police Department chief and the arrival of new leadership; and turnover across University leadership.

Notably, we were the class that finally convinced University President Lawrence S. Bacow he’s had enough: He is set to depart just after us, on June 30, to make room in Massachusetts Hall for Claudine

Gay, the president-elect and current dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Each year, The Harvard Crimson conducts a survey of the graduating class, collecting data about where the class is headed next, how they spent their time at Harvard, and what they think of campus and national politics.

Despite an unconventional time during their college years, the majority of respondents were satisfied with their time on campus. Given the chance, 92 percent would choose Harvard again.

Methodology The Crimson distributed the survey by email to 1,193 members of the Class of 2023 through emails sourced in May 2023 from Harvard directory information.

Participants accessed the survey form via anonymous, individualized links from May 3 until May 15, 2023, when the survey closed. During that period, The Crimson collected 652 surveys, representing a response rate of 54.7 percent of those who received the survey.

The data includes academic and social seniors. Four percent indicated they matriculated earlier than 2019, meaning they took leaves of absence from Harvard and later re-classed as members of the Class of 2023. Meanwhile, 11 percent indicated that they will graduate in December of 2023 or later, meaning they affiliate as “Social Seniors” but will not graduate with the majority of their class this May. Overall, 17 percent took time off from Harvard.

To check for potential response bias, The Crimson compared respondent demographics with publicly available information on student demographics provided by the University — information regarding race and ethnicity. Overall, the respondents to the survey were in line with the demographics of the broader student body. The data was not otherwise adjusted for response biases.

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

After Harvard

By HANNAH J. MARTINEZ

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CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

rom the outbreak of Covid-19 and the subsequent eviction from campus to the war in Ukraine and recent economic downtowns, the Class of 2023’s time at Harvard has been marked by global uncertainty and turbulence. Yet, their post-graduate plans closely follow in the footsteps of previous graduating classes.

After Harvard,the Class of 2023 will gravitate toward the coasts: over half of surveyed seniors are headed to California, Massachusetts, or New York. Similar to previous years, a plurality of seniors — 41 percent — will start their careers in consulting or finance and earn starting salaries more than 50 percent higher than the national median household income as of 2021.

Compared to last year, fewer seniors will immediately enter the workforce after graduation, down from 67 percent to 58 percent. One in five graduates will continue their education at graduate or professional schools, while 6 percent will participate in a fellowship program. Still, another 11 percent of seniors remain undecided about their post-graduate plans, up just one percentage point from 2022.

Coastal Classmates America’s coasts continue to draw a majority of College graduates, following a yearslong trend. Nearly 70 percent of se-

niors plan to live in coastal states. Still, many won’t be going far from Harvard: One-fifth of respondents report that they plan to stay in Massachusetts. Consistent with previous years, other popular domestic locations include California, New York, and Washington, D.C., which will soon welcome 12 percent, 23 percent, and 5 percent of surveyed seniors, respectively.

Twelve percent of seniors will jet off to destinations outside of the United States.

For these graduates, Europe is a clear favorite: 71 percent of respondents planning to leave the United States — and nearly 9 percent of seniors overall — will head for Europe. Just 2 percent of seniors plan to live in Asia, while Canada, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa will be home to less than 1 percent of graduates each.

Post-grad plans significantly influenced where seniors are headed after college. Roughly half of seniors pursuing fellowships will complete their programs in Europe. Among those working in tech, 41 percent will flock to California, and about 70 percent of respondents working in finance will call New York home.

More than one in ten respondents said they were unsure of where they will be living next year, up from 8 percent in 2022. Nearly half of these seniors plan to work in academia or conduct research.

Popular Paydays Most taking on jobs after graduation will

work in one of four sectors: academia or research, consulting, finance, and technology.

More than one-fifth of respondents entering the workforce said they plan to work in finance, and 19 percent will go into consulting, on par with last year’s numbers. But most don’t intend to stay for long: only 37 percent of finance-bound seniors and 5 percent of consulting-bound seniors hope to remain in the same industry 10 years after graduation.

Fewer seniors plan to work in technology than in 2022, dropping from 17 percent to 12 percent. Meanwhile, 11 percent will work in academia or research..

Outside of these four sectors, 8 percent of respondents will work in health, 6 percent will work in government or public service, 5 percent will work in engineering, and 3 percent will go into entertainment or the arts.

Living Large Like previous classes, the majority of the Class of 2023 will earn hefty salaries in their first year out of college.

Nearly half of seniors planning to work after graduation will take home a six-figure starting salary, with 41 percent earning at least $110,000 — an uptick from last year’s report of 30 percent. More than two-thirds of graduates will make more than $70,000, surpassing the national median earning for college graduates by at least $10,000. Less than 4 percent of respondents said they anticipate making less than $30,000, down from 7 percent in the Class of 2022, while 1 percent of students plan to take an unpaid position after graduation.

Reported income among respondents headed into the workforce correlated with the level of financial aid they received from Harvard. Among students awarded full financial aid, 30 percent will earn above $110,000, compared to 40 percent of students on partial financial aid and half of students who received no financial aid.

Income disparities also arose based on gender, as in previous years. The rate of male respondents reporting incomes above $70,000 outpaced that of female respondents by 14 percentage points. Of se-

niors who will fall in the lowest income bracket (below $30,000), 83 percent identify as female.

Students with Advanced Standing reported higher salaries than their peers, with 91 percent indicating they will earn more than $90,000 compared to just 52 percent of other students. Computer Science emerged as the most immediately profitable concentration, leading the pack with 72 percent of surveyed concentrators reporting starting salaries over $110,000.

Money Matters For most of the graduating class, family considerations factored into planning for the future. Roughly three-quarters of seniors reported that their family’s socioeconomic status greatly or somewhat informed their decisions about what to do after graduation.

More than 60 percent of respondents said they expect to receive some level of financial support from their family next year, with one-fifth expecting to receive substantial financial support, like rent and living expenses. This marks a slight increase from 15 percent of seniors expecting substantial support in 2022 and 17 percent in 2021.

For seniors entering the workforce, expected support had a significant impact on industry choice. The percentage of respondents pursuing finance nearly doubled among respondents expecting no family support compared to those expecting some level of aid. The percentage working in technology nearly tripled.

Graduates expecting some financial support from their families will enter into the entertainment, education, and health industries at rates four times, three times, and nine times higher than their peers, respectively.

Other factors affecting the post-graduate plans of the Class of 2023 include the Covid-19 pandemic and student loans.

Half of respondents said that the pandemic greatly or somewhat informed their plans — a plurality of these seniors will work in consulting after graduation.

More than one in 10 respondents said they will graduate with student loans, a reality 38 percent of them said impacted their decision-making about post-grad plans.

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The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

Academics & Student Life

By RAQUEL CORONELL URIBE and KELSEY J. GRIFFIN

T

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

he Class of 2023 had its time on campus cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic more than any other, with the majority of seniors indicating that they did not live on campus at any point between March 2020 and campus’ reopening in fall 2021.

The Class of 2023 had its time on campus cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic more than any other, with the majority of seniors indicating that they did not live on campus at any point between March 2020 and campus’ reopening in fall 2021.

The shift to remote learning drastically redefined the academic experience of the class, pushing some to take a leave from the College during the pandemic.

Seventeen percent of the Class of 2023 reported having taken time off, mostly due to the pandemic. More than 39 percent of surveyed seniors said remote courses made learning “more difficult” or “much more difficult.”

Since returning to campus, the Class of 2023 has witnessed a series of changes to academics and student life at the College, further distancing the school from how it looked when the class matriculated in 2019.

Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted in May 2022 to eliminate shopping week, which previously allowed students to sample courses without officially enrolling during the first week of the semester. This fall also marked the first semester in which undergraduates could declare double concentrations, which now allow students to study in two unrelated fields without writing a joint thesis.

Harvard University Dining Services moved to revamp its offerings beginning in Spring 2023, pledging to provide more diverse and healthier food options.

Despite the effort, seniors offered mixed reviews of HUDS, with 50 percent of respondents holding a “favorable” view, 38 percent holding an “unfavorable” view, and the rest indicating no opinion.

The University moved forward — slowly — with its house renewal program throughout the Class of 2023’s time on campus. Adams House’s Claverly Hall re-

6

opened after renovations in 2021, but the three-phase Adams renovation plan has been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic and is now set to finish in 2025. Meanwhile, the bloated Class of 2026 led to overcrowding in undergraduate residences, with all upperclassmen houses but one relying on swing housing this year.

Leverett House, meanwhile, bid farewell to their Faculty Deans in 2022 following complaints of mismanagement.

Concentrations Few seniors opted to take advantage of Harvard’s new double concentration offering in their last year. Just under 4 percent of respondents said they will graduate with a double concentration, while 13 percent pursued a joint concentration, which requires a cross-disciplinary senior thesis.

The top concentration among respondents was Economics, followed by Government, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, and Neuroscience. All except Neuroscience have remained in the top five most popular concentrations since 2020. Mathematics fell to seventh place after coming in third last year.

Including joint and double concentrators, a plurality of respondents — 43 percent — studied in the Social Sciences Division, similar to 43 percent last year and 38 percent in 2021. Just under one-third of respondents — 31 percent — concentrated in the Sciences Division and nearly one-quarter percent trekked across the river to study at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The Arts and Humanities Division sharply declined in popularity after rising slightly in previous years: Only 13 percent of respondents studied Humanities concentrations, compared to 20 percent in 2022 and 17 percent in 2021.

Across the class, academics were a top priority, with 90 percent of respondents rating academics as important or very important to their time at Harvard. Seniors reported spending an average of 34.7 hours per week on academic work, on par with the Class of 2022 (34.3).

Slightly more than half of respondents — about 56 percent — said their wrote or plan to write a thesis. A plurality of those

who submitted a thesis already received a grade in the magna cum laude range, and only 17 percent achieved grades of summa cum laude or summa cum laude minus.

GPA After several years on the rise, grade point average jumped up once again, with three-quarters of respondents reporting GPAs at or above 3.8 when rounded to one decimal place. This marks a nearly 50 percent increase since 2019, when just over half of seniors reported GPAs in this range.

Amid concerns among faculty about grade inflation, about four in five respondents reported having a GPA that rounds to an A- or higher (3.7 or above, per the College’s grading scale). One in five respondents maintained a near perfect GPA that rounds to 4.0 — more than double

the number of seniors in this range in the Class of 2020. Less than 1 percent of respondents reported a GPA of 3.0 or lower.

The Class of 2023 is the last class eligible for Advanced Standing, a phrasedout program that allowed students to use high school credits to graduate in just three years or with a Master’s degree.

Only 6 percent of respondents said they will graduate with this distinction.

Academic Integrity One-quarter of respondents from the Class of 2023 admitted to having cheated in an academic context while at Harvard — a slight decrease from 28 percent of respondents in the Class of 2022. But most students suspect even more of their classmates are cheaters: Respondents expected, on average, that about half of the class cheated at some point during their time at

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

Harvard.

Among respondents who said they cheated, 88 percent reported having done so on a problem set or regular homework assignment, and 39 percent reported cheating on a live exam, either in person or online. About 66 percent admitted to cheating on a paper, take-home exam, or a project, a jump of 30 percentage points from last year.

Nearly one-fifth of respondents who said they had a rounded GPA of 4.0 admitted to having cheated in an academic context, compared to just 10 percent in 2022.

More than 6 percent of respondents had to stand before the Administrative Board or Honor Council for a disciplinary issue during their time at Harvard.

Roughly 57 percent of those students said their disciplinary process was somewhat or very unfair.

The number of students who were forced to withdraw from the College due to Honor Code violations reached a sixyear high during the 2020-2021 academic year, according to data released last fall.

During that period, the Honor Council heard 138 cases of academic dishonesty.

Concerns about academic dishonesty rose in recent years as the Covid-19 pandemic moved classes online and introduced more lenient test policies, such as open-book exams. The release of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot that can generate text, in November also worried some faculty members about the potential for students to cheat using AI. Extracurriculars and Varsity Activities Respondents reported spending an average of 15 hours per week on extracurricular activities, a decrease of one hour

from the Class of 2022. Time spent on paid employment increased by two hours per week from last year to an average of 11 hours per week.

Fifteen percent of respondents said they participated in a varsity sport during their time at Harvard. About 31 percent did not remain on their team for all four years, however — up from 20 percent in 2022. Those who participated in varsity sports during their entire time at Harvard reported spending an average of 29 hours per week on athletics.

Eleven percent of athletes reported earning a GPA of 4.0 (rounded to one decimal place). Athletes comprised 7 percent of all respondents who reported earning a 4.0 GPA. House and Student Life Adams House earned the highest marks for its accommodations, with 97 percent of residents reporting they were “very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” with their living arrangements. Adams, which is currently undergoing a three-part renovation as part of the Harvard House Renewal Program, unveiled a revamped Claverly Hall in 2021.

Lowell House, which had the highest living arrangement satisfaction among the Class of 2022, fell to third place. For the second consecutive year, Kirkland House residents were the least satisfied with their living arrangements, with 29 percent indicating they were “somewhat dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” with housing.

Quincy House residents reported the highest trust in their faculty deans, with 92 percent reporting they “trust fully” or “trust somewhat” their faculty deans, Eric Beerbohm and Leslie J. Duhaylong-

sod. Currier, meanwhile, reported the highest distrust — 11 percent of respondents indicated they somewhat or fully distrust their deans, Latanya A. Sweeney and Sylvia I. Barrett.

Leverett House’s new faculty deans drew substantially higher trust ratings than their predecessors, who departed prematurely in June 2022 following an array of complaints about their leadership and the culture they fostered. Eighty-six percent of Leverett respondents said they trust new deans, Harvard Medical School professors Eileen E. Reynolds ’86 ​​and Daniel G. Deschler. In 2019, just 27 percent of graduating Leverett seniors said they trusted their then-faculty deans,​​ Brian D. Farrell and Irina P. Ferreras.

As freshmen, Harvard students are sorted into upperclassmen houses with a group of classmates — known as blockmates — with whom they wish to live in their future houses.

The most common blocking group size was eight, with 32 percent of respondents indicating they had seven other blockmates. Sixty respondents who indicated they no longer get along with one or more of their blockmates also reported they would feed at least one to the Harvard Square turkeys.

On average, respondents said they spent 19 hours per week on their social life. A vast majority of respondents — 87 percent — said extracurricular organizations represented the most important part of their social lives. Off-campus venues, meanwhile, were important to 74 percent of respondents. Although 58 percent of respondents reported having attended a final club party or event during their time at Harvard, only 35 percent of respondents said they considered the clubs to be important parts of their social

lives.

The vast majority of the Class of 2023 was not affiliated with a final club, sorority, fraternity, or other off-campus social organization while at Harvard. Sixteen percent of respondents reported being a member of a co-ed or single-gender final club. Only 8 percent of respondents reported belonging to a female-only final club, while 6 said they belonged to a male-only final club.

Seventy-seven percent of respondents in final clubs identified as heterosexual.

Fourteen percent identified as bisexual and 6 percent identified as questioning, while only two respondents identified as homosexual.

None of the 67 single-gender final club members who responded to the survey identified as homosexual. Fifteen percent of single-gender final club members identified as bisexual and five respondents identified as questioning.

Nineteen percent of respondents reported having been sexually harassed or assaulted during their time at Harvard — including a quarter of final club members.

Twenty-two percent of all respondents said they view final clubs favorably, while 52 percent view them unfavorably (the rest indicated they had no opinion or lacked enough information). The Fox Club earned the highest favorable rating of any final club — albeit at a meager 21 percent — followed by the Owl Club (18 percent), and the Spee Club (17 percent).

The Phoenix S.K. Club, or the P.S.K., drew the worst unfavorable rating of any final club. More than 41 percent of respondents said they view the P.S.K. unfavorably, followed by the Fly Club (39 percent), the A.D. Club (38 percent), and the Porcellian Club (37 percent).

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The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

Academics & Student Life

By RAQUEL CORONELL URIBE and KELSEY J. GRIFFIN

T

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

he Class of 2023 had its time on campus cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic more than any other, with the majority of seniors indicating that they did not live on campus at any point between March 2020 and campus’ reopening in fall 2021.

The Class of 2023 had its time on campus cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic more than any other, with the majority of seniors indicating that they did not live on campus at any point between March 2020 and campus’ reopening in fall 2021.

The shift to remote learning drastically redefined the academic experience of the class, pushing some to take a leave from the College during the pandemic.

Seventeen percent of the Class of 2023 reported having taken time off, mostly due to the pandemic. More than 39 percent of surveyed seniors said remote courses made learning “more difficult” or “much more difficult.”

Since returning to campus, the Class of 2023 has witnessed a series of changes to academics and student life at the College, further distancing the school from how it looked when the class matriculated in 2019.

Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted in May 2022 to eliminate shopping week, which previously allowed students to sample courses without officially enrolling during the first week of the semester. This fall also marked the first semester in which undergraduates could declare double concentrations, which now allow students to study in two unrelated fields without writing a joint thesis.

Harvard University Dining Services moved to revamp its offerings beginning in Spring 2023, pledging to provide more diverse and healthier food options.

Despite the effort, seniors offered mixed reviews of HUDS, with 50 percent of respondents holding a “favorable” view, 38 percent holding an “unfavorable” view, and the rest indicating no opinion.

The University moved forward — slowly — with its house renewal program throughout the Class of 2023’s time on campus. Adams House’s Claverly Hall re-

6

opened after renovations in 2021, but the three-phase Adams renovation plan has been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic and is now set to finish in 2025. Meanwhile, the bloated Class of 2026 led to overcrowding in undergraduate residences, with all upperclassmen houses but one relying on swing housing this year.

Leverett House, meanwhile, bid farewell to their Faculty Deans in 2022 following complaints of mismanagement.

Concentrations Few seniors opted to take advantage of Harvard’s new double concentration offering in their last year. Just under 4 percent of respondents said they will graduate with a double concentration, while 13 percent pursued a joint concentration, which requires a cross-disciplinary senior thesis.

The top concentration among respondents was Economics, followed by Government, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, and Neuroscience. All except Neuroscience have remained in the top five most popular concentrations since 2020. Mathematics fell to seventh place after coming in third last year.

Including joint and double concentrators, a plurality of respondents — 43 percent — studied in the Social Sciences Division, similar to 43 percent last year and 38 percent in 2021. Just under one-third of respondents — 31 percent — concentrated in the Sciences Division and nearly one-quarter percent trekked across the river to study at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The Arts and Humanities Division sharply declined in popularity after rising slightly in previous years: Only 13 percent of respondents studied Humanities concentrations, compared to 20 percent in 2022 and 17 percent in 2021.

Across the class, academics were a top priority, with 90 percent of respondents rating academics as important or very important to their time at Harvard. Seniors reported spending an average of 34.7 hours per week on academic work, on par with the Class of 2022 (34.3).

Slightly more than half of respondents — about 56 percent — said their wrote or plan to write a thesis. A plurality of those

who submitted a thesis already received a grade in the magna cum laude range, and only 17 percent achieved grades of summa cum laude or summa cum laude minus.

GPA After several years on the rise, grade point average jumped up once again, with three-quarters of respondents reporting GPAs at or above 3.8 when rounded to one decimal place. This marks a nearly 50 percent increase since 2019, when just over half of seniors reported GPAs in this range.

Amid concerns among faculty about grade inflation, about four in five respondents reported having a GPA that rounds to an A- or higher (3.7 or above, per the College’s grading scale). One in five respondents maintained a near perfect GPA that rounds to 4.0 — more than double

the number of seniors in this range in the Class of 2020. Less than 1 percent of respondents reported a GPA of 3.0 or lower.

The Class of 2023 is the last class eligible for Advanced Standing, a phrasedout program that allowed students to use high school credits to graduate in just three years or with a Master’s degree.

Only 6 percent of respondents said they will graduate with this distinction.

Academic Integrity One-quarter of respondents from the Class of 2023 admitted to having cheated in an academic context while at Harvard — a slight decrease from 28 percent of respondents in the Class of 2022. But most students suspect even more of their classmates are cheaters: Respondents expected, on average, that about half of the class cheated at some point during their time at

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

Harvard.

Among respondents who said they cheated, 88 percent reported having done so on a problem set or regular homework assignment, and 39 percent reported cheating on a live exam, either in person or online. About 66 percent admitted to cheating on a paper, take-home exam, or a project, a jump of 30 percentage points from last year.

Nearly one-fifth of respondents who said they had a rounded GPA of 4.0 admitted to having cheated in an academic context, compared to just 10 percent in 2022.

More than 6 percent of respondents had to stand before the Administrative Board or Honor Council for a disciplinary issue during their time at Harvard.

Roughly 57 percent of those students said their disciplinary process was somewhat or very unfair.

The number of students who were forced to withdraw from the College due to Honor Code violations reached a sixyear high during the 2020-2021 academic year, according to data released last fall.

During that period, the Honor Council heard 138 cases of academic dishonesty.

Concerns about academic dishonesty rose in recent years as the Covid-19 pandemic moved classes online and introduced more lenient test policies, such as open-book exams. The release of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot that can generate text, in November also worried some faculty members about the potential for students to cheat using AI. Extracurriculars and Varsity Activities Respondents reported spending an average of 15 hours per week on extracurricular activities, a decrease of one hour

from the Class of 2022. Time spent on paid employment increased by two hours per week from last year to an average of 11 hours per week.

Fifteen percent of respondents said they participated in a varsity sport during their time at Harvard. About 31 percent did not remain on their team for all four years, however — up from 20 percent in 2022. Those who participated in varsity sports during their entire time at Harvard reported spending an average of 29 hours per week on athletics.

Eleven percent of athletes reported earning a GPA of 4.0 (rounded to one decimal place). Athletes comprised 7 percent of all respondents who reported earning a 4.0 GPA. House and Student Life Adams House earned the highest marks for its accommodations, with 97 percent of residents reporting they were “very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” with their living arrangements. Adams, which is currently undergoing a three-part renovation as part of the Harvard House Renewal Program, unveiled a revamped Claverly Hall in 2021.

Lowell House, which had the highest living arrangement satisfaction among the Class of 2022, fell to third place. For the second consecutive year, Kirkland House residents were the least satisfied with their living arrangements, with 29 percent indicating they were “somewhat dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” with housing.

Quincy House residents reported the highest trust in their faculty deans, with 92 percent reporting they “trust fully” or “trust somewhat” their faculty deans, Eric Beerbohm and Leslie J. Duhaylong-

sod. Currier, meanwhile, reported the highest distrust — 11 percent of respondents indicated they somewhat or fully distrust their deans, Latanya A. Sweeney and Sylvia I. Barrett.

Leverett House’s new faculty deans drew substantially higher trust ratings than their predecessors, who departed prematurely in June 2022 following an array of complaints about their leadership and the culture they fostered. Eighty-six percent of Leverett respondents said they trust new deans, Harvard Medical School professors Eileen E. Reynolds ’86 ​​and Daniel G. Deschler. In 2019, just 27 percent of graduating Leverett seniors said they trusted their then-faculty deans,​​ Brian D. Farrell and Irina P. Ferreras.

As freshmen, Harvard students are sorted into upperclassmen houses with a group of classmates — known as blockmates — with whom they wish to live in their future houses.

The most common blocking group size was eight, with 32 percent of respondents indicating they had seven other blockmates. Sixty respondents who indicated they no longer get along with one or more of their blockmates also reported they would feed at least one to the Harvard Square turkeys.

On average, respondents said they spent 19 hours per week on their social life. A vast majority of respondents — 87 percent — said extracurricular organizations represented the most important part of their social lives. Off-campus venues, meanwhile, were important to 74 percent of respondents. Although 58 percent of respondents reported having attended a final club party or event during their time at Harvard, only 35 percent of respondents said they considered the clubs to be important parts of their social

lives.

The vast majority of the Class of 2023 was not affiliated with a final club, sorority, fraternity, or other off-campus social organization while at Harvard. Sixteen percent of respondents reported being a member of a co-ed or single-gender final club. Only 8 percent of respondents reported belonging to a female-only final club, while 6 said they belonged to a male-only final club.

Seventy-seven percent of respondents in final clubs identified as heterosexual.

Fourteen percent identified as bisexual and 6 percent identified as questioning, while only two respondents identified as homosexual.

None of the 67 single-gender final club members who responded to the survey identified as homosexual. Fifteen percent of single-gender final club members identified as bisexual and five respondents identified as questioning.

Nineteen percent of respondents reported having been sexually harassed or assaulted during their time at Harvard — including a quarter of final club members.

Twenty-two percent of all respondents said they view final clubs favorably, while 52 percent view them unfavorably (the rest indicated they had no opinion or lacked enough information).

The Fox Club earned the highest favorable rating of any final club — albeit at a meager 21 percent — followed by the Owl Club (18 percent), and the Spee Club (17 percent).

The Phoenix S.K. Club, or the P.S.K., drew the worst unfavorable rating of any final club. More than 41 percent of respondents said they view the P.S.K. unfavorably, followed by the Fly Club (39 percent), the A.D. Club (38 percent), and the

7

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

Lifestyle

By ALEX KOLLER and JULIET E. ISSELBACHER

T

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

hough members of the Class of 2023 saw their freshman year come to an untimely end when Covid-19 struck in March 2020, they have managed to catch up on months of missed revelry during the last two years since students returned to campus. For the first time since the 2018-2019 academic year, Harvard seniors completed their final year in-person and without required masking, regular viral testing, and caps on the size of their social gatherings.

Based on the numbers, it seems the Class of 2023 was quick to make up for lost time. Nearly 37 percent of surveyed seniors reported losing their virginity as undergraduates. Nearly half of respondents who drink — 45 percent — said they had their first alcoholic beverage during college. Of those survey-takers who use marijuana, 59 percent reported blazing it for the first time after arriving at Harvard.

Nightlife has been a fixture in seniors’ social lives after years of restrictions, too. Nearly 58 percent of respondents reported having attended a final club party, and more than a quarter said they’ve had membership in a final club, sorority,

fraternity, or other off-campus social organization.

Even so, a majority of respondents — 52 percent, roughly the same figure as in the Class of 2022 — elected not to participate in any infamous College traditions, which include having sex in Widener Library and jumping into the Charles River from Weeks Bridge. For those who did, though, Primal Scream was the most popular activity, as in years past.

Sex and Dating Just under 40 percent of surveyed seniors reported that they first had sex before starting college, while nearly 15 percent first had sex their freshman year. That’s not far off from the 17 percent in last year’s graduating class — a small difference despite the abrupt halt to the Class of 2023’s first year of college exploration.

At the end of their senior year, 26 percent of surveyed soon-to-be graduates reported that they have not yet had sex. Almost 22 percent of respondents have had just one sexual partner, while about 5 percent said they have had more than 20.

Nearly 60 percent of respondents used dating apps like Tinder, Grindr, Hinge, and Bumble — and 100 percent of survey-takers with more than 20 sexual partners reported that they avail them-

selves of those platforms.

Dating apps seem to facilitate hookups. But are they leading to actual dating? More than a quarter of respondents have not dated anyone during their time at Harvard. A plurality of surveyed seniors — around 38 percent — have dated just one person.

Drugs and Alcohol Amid the marijuana industry’s growing presence in the Cambridge area, more than half of surveyed seniors said they have used the substance within the last year — and a quarter use it at least once a month. Sixty-four percent of respondents said they have purchased marijuana legally.

Respondents’ drinking habits suggest a work hard, play hard routine among the Class of 2023. An overwhelming majority of those surveyed — 91 percent — said they have consumed alcohol in the past year. Half of surveyed seniors said they drink alcohol at least once a week, with nearly 12 percent imbibing more than twice weekly.

Other substances enjoyed less frequent use among the Class of 2023. Roughly 27 percent of respondents reported using tobacco at least once this last year, a dip from 31 percent in the Class of 2022.

About 12 percent of survey-takers said they use tobacco at least once per month.

In the last 12 months, around 15 percent of respondents consumed drugs like acid, ecstasy, and mushrooms, while 10 percent used cocaine. Just 8 percent of surveyed seniors said they used non-prescribed “study drugs” like Adderall over the same period.

The Four Things Longstanding Harvard College tradition challenges undergraduates to complete three tasks before graduation: running a nude lap in Harvard Yard called Primal Scream the night before finals begin, urinating on the John Harvard statue, and having sex in the Widener Library stacks.

A fourth, unofficial, tradition dares undergraduates to dive from Weeks Bridge into the Charles River.

As in previous years, midnight streak-

8

ing in the Yard remained the most popular tradition. Just over 36 percent of surveyed seniors, on par with last year, reported having jogged sans clothes at the end of reading period.

Urinating on the John Harvard statue was the second-most popular escapade, with 27 percent of respondents having completed the feat. Nearly 40 percent of male survey-takers had urinated on the statue, compared to just under 15 percent of their female peers. A higher proportion of men than woman reported participating in the other three traditions, as well.

Just 12 percent of respondents did the deed in Widener, down from the 16 percent who had sex in the stacks in the Class of 2022. Meanwhile, only 11 percent of surveyed seniors took the plunge into the Charles.

Social Media Eighty-six percent of surveyed seniors reported using Instagram. The app with the second greatest following was LinkedIn, with 77 percent of respondents active on the professional networking platform.

Facebook claimed just below 60 percent of respondents as users, while vanishing-photo app Snapchat and Twitter each approached 50 percent. Forty-one percent of survey-takers said they use TikTok, which has faced heightened scrutiny from lawmakers over security concerns.

The popularity of social media platforms has fluctuated throughout the last four years. In The Crimson’s freshman survey of the class, conducted upon matriculation in 2019, 87 percent of students reported spending time on Facebook daily, 85 percent were regular Snapchat users, and only 11 percent frequented Tiktok.

The newcomer to this roster of apps is Sidechat, a forum for hyper-local campus discussions and gossip. Nearly 50 percent of seniors said they’re active on the app.

About 3 percent of respondents said they stay off all social media, and more than 40 percent reported deleting their account on at least one social media platform during their time at Harvard. Instagram acounts were the ones most frequently deleted.

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

Which of the following have you done?

Which social media platforms do you use?

Which have you deleted?

9

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

Campus Politics

By ANDY Z. WANG CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

T

he Class of 2023 will remember a college experience that has been marked by transition.

With three of the University’s top brass set to change faces after this school year — including the presidency, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences — graduating seniors will be leaving the University together with outgoing president Lawrence S. Bacow.

For some, it’s a welcome change, as only a quarter of respondents indicated a favorable view of Bacow, a marked decline from last year.

Although students voted overwhelmingly to dissolve the Undergraduate Council last spring, just 7 percent of graduating seniors responded that they view its successor, the Harvard Undergraduate Assembly, in a favorable light.

And as the Supreme Court prepares to deliver a decision on Harvard’s use of race-conscious admissions, a strong majority of survey respondents indicated support for affirmative action.

University Administration Sentiment towards campus administrators improved significantly among seniors graduating last year, during which all students were invited back to campus and Covid-19 restrictions were gradually lifted. That sentiment, however, did not carry over to this year’s Class of 2023 survey respondents, who reported lower favorability ratings for both Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana and University President Bacow. FAS Dean and President-Elect Claudine Gay, on the other hand, saw a significant bump in favorability.

Favorability for Bacow among respondents dropped from 33 percent to just over 25 percent, with a plurality of respondents — 44 percent — indicating they had no opinion. Twenty-two percent of seniors said they had unfavorable views of the outgoing president, a slight drop from 24 percent last year.

Exactly half of respondents reported

10

viewing Khurana favorably, a small decline from the 54 percent last year. His unfavorability rating remained roughly unchanged from last year, at 19 percent this year compared to 20 percent last year.

Over 40 percent of respondents — an increase from the 30 percent reported last year — said they viewed Gay favorably. Just 8 percent said they had an unfavorable opinion of Gay, more than halving the 18 percent who said the same last year. Nonetheless, a large amount — 35 percent — reported having no opinion on Dean Gay. Affirmative Action In October, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in lawsuits against Harvard and the University of North Carolina that seek to end affirmative action in American higher education. The court’s opinion is expected later this summer.

Graduating seniors reported strong support for affirmative action, legal challenges notwithstanding. Sixty-three percent of respondents indicated a favorable opinion of race-conscious affirmative action, while 15 percent reported an unfavorable opinion. Fifteen percent of respondents said they held no opinion on the matter.

An outsized majority of Black respondents — 80 percent — held favorable opinions of affirmative action, as compared to 79 percent of South Asian respondents, 76 percent of Hispanic or Latinx respondents, 60 percent of white respondents, and 58 percent of Asian respondents.

Divestment In September 2021, Harvard announced it would divest its endowment from fossil fuels, following years of activism. This year, 60 percent of respondents viewed the move favorably, with 9 percent rating it unfavorable. Last year’s senior class saw the decision more favorably, with 74 percent of respondents in support and 7 percent opposed.

Late last spring, The Crimson’s Editorial Board sparked controversy by endorsing the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions movement, which calls on Western institutions to cut ties with Israel to apply interna-

tional pressure over the country’s treatment of Palestinians. A plurality of survey respondents — 32 percent — reported a favorable view of the BDS movement, while 18 percent of respondents indicated that they held an unfavorable opinion. Roughly a quarter of respondents said they either held no opinion, while another quarter said they did not know enough about the matter.

Support for divestment from prisons was the highest-rated of all campus divestment movements. 66 percent of respondents indicated that Harvard should divest from private prisons, while 9 percent opposed such a decision. Last year, 72 percent of respondents said they supported private prison divestment.

Harvard University Police Department Early last month, a “swatting” attack

against four Black Harvard seniors elicited an armed response by Harvard police. Following the incident, 45 Harvard student organizations sent the University a letter demanding a response to the situation.

Nonetheless, a majority of seniors — 58 percent — said they fully or somewhat trust the Harvard University Police Department, holding constant from last year.

Trust among Black students was lower than among other students, with 34 percent of Black students reporting trust of HUPD, compared to 43 percent among Hispanic or Latinx students, 66 percent among Asian students, and 63 percent among white students. Meanwhile, 24 percent of all respondents said they somewhat or fully distrust HUPD. Similar to last year, a lower proportion of students — 44 percent — said they fully

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

veyed said the University has made a tenure request during their time at the College with which they have disagreed. In a freeform response asking seniors to indicate which tenure decision they disagreed with, 87 wrote down West’s name, while 39 cited the case of García Peña.

Mental Health

or somewhat trust the Cambridge Police Department.

Sexual Assault and Harassment Over the years, the Class of 2023 has seen multiple faculty members face accusations of sexual misconduct. In 2020, The Crimson reported that three eminent Anthropology professors faced accusations of sexual harassment. Harvard then revoked emeritus status of one of these faculty, Gary Urton, and placed another, John L. Comaroff, on administrative leave.

In September 2022, Comaroff was permitted to return to the classroom, despite new allegations of sexual harassment as part of an amended lawsuit filed in June 2022. His return to teaching was met with protests on campus, including a 100-person walkout at the beginning of this semester.

Nineteen percent of respondents said they have been sexually harassed or assaulted while at Harvard, up from 12 percent of respondents last year. Of those students, 66 percent identify as female, 28 percent identify as male, and 6 percent identify as genderqueer or nonbinary.

Only 12 respondents — less than 2 percent — who were sexually harassed or as-

saulted at Harvard chose to report the incident.

A majority of respondents — 53 percent — said they were somewhat or very dissatisfied with Harvard’s efforts to prevent sexual misconduct on campus, with just 13 percent reporting some degree of satisfaction. Just 28 percent of respondents said they somewhat or fully trusted the Office for Gender Equity, which is tasked with addressing sexual harassment and assault.

Tenure The Class of 2023 has seen two major tenure denial cases shake up the University. In December 2019, Harvard denied tenure to Romance Languages and Literatures professor Lorgia García Peña, which reignited the push for a formalized ethnic studies program and sparked calls for tenure reform.

In February 2021, professor Cornel R. West ’74 — a Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at the Harvard Divinity School and in the Department of African and African American Studies in the FAS — announced he would leave Harvard after the University denied his request to be considered for tenure.

Forty-three percent of students sur-

Forty-two percent of surveyed seniors reported that they had sought help from University Health Services for mental health, marking a three percentage point increase from last year. A smaller share of respondents — 35 percent — received support from off-campus professionals, while 10 percent sought help from on-campus peer counseling groups.

In October 2022, HUHS announced that it would partner with TimelyMD to provide free telehealth services to Harvard students, including 12 scheduled counseling sessions per year. Thirteen percent of respondents said they have used the TimelyCare service.

Among respondents who sought help from HUHS, 34 percent said they were somewhat or very satisfied with their experience, a slight uptick from last year’s 32 percent. Fifty-four percent of respondents said they were dissatisfied, also a slight uptick from last year’s 51 percent.

In comparison, 76 percent of respondents who went to an off-campus professional said they were satisfied with their treatment.

Denaming Last spring, Harvard released a landmark report that outlined its historical ties to slavery, sparking calls for the school to change the name of buildings and institutions named after slaveholders.

In February 2023, student activists called on the University to dename Winthrop House, which is named after two John Winthrops who owned slaves. In 2020, students in Mather House pushed for a similar denaming on the basis of its namesake, Increase Mather, who was a slaveholder.

In May 2022, FAS Dean Gay released a procedure for requesting name changes from buildings, spaces, programs, and professorships.

A plurality of surveyed seniors — 43 percent — believe that Harvard should rename buildings and institutions if their namesakes were slaveholders, while 26 percent opposed such measures. Support

for denaming was sharply divided along political lines: while 59 percent of progressive students were in support, just 2 percent of conservatives said the same.

Student Government Across the board, survey respondents indicated low levels of support for student leaders.

Although the student voted overwhelmingly to dissolve the Harvard Undergraduate Council last spring, just 29 percent of respondents said they viewed the move favorably, with a plurality — 42 percent — reporting they hold no opinion. Even fewer reported approval for the UC’s successor, the Harvard Undergraduate Association: Just 7 percent indicated favorable views, with a majority reporting no opinion.

The inaugural two cohorts of HUA co-presidents have met a similar fate among the graduating class. Only 9 percent of respondents indicated a favorable view of the current HUA co-presidents, John S. Cooke ’25 and Shikoh Misu Hirabayashi ’24, with 16 percent saying they held an unfavorable view. A plurality of respondents — 48 percent — indicated they had no opinion of the two, who were elected in February.

Seniors were just slightly more approving of their predecessors, LyLena D. Estabine ’24 and Travis Allen Johnson ’24, with 12 percent reporting favorability, a significant drop from their immediate precursors on the UC the two years prior, who received 33 percent and 17 percent favorability ratings.

As with Cooke and Hirabayashi, a plurality of respondents — 42 percent — said they had no opinion of the two, with another 29 percent indicating unfavorability.

Campus Publications A majority of respondents — 59 percent — said they held a favorable view of The Harvard Crimson, a five percentage point increase from last year. Fourteen percent viewed the newspaper unfavorably, down from 18 percent last year.

About 18 percent of respondents indicated a favorable opinion of the Harvard Lampoon, a semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization that used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine.

A majority of respondents — 51 percent — said they viewed the Lampoon unfavorably.

11

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

Campus Politics

By ANDY Z. WANG CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

T

he Class of 2023 will remember a college experience that has been marked by transition.

With three of the University’s top brass set to change faces after this school year — including the presidency, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences — graduating seniors will be leaving the University together with outgoing president Lawrence S. Bacow.

For some, it’s a welcome change, as only a quarter of respondents indicated a favorable view of Bacow, a marked decline from last year.

Although students voted overwhelmingly to dissolve the Undergraduate Council last spring, just 7 percent of graduating seniors responded that they view its successor, the Harvard Undergraduate Assembly, in a favorable light.

And as the Supreme Court prepares to deliver a decision on Harvard’s use of race-conscious admissions, a strong majority of survey respondents indicated support for affirmative action.

University Administration Sentiment towards campus administrators improved significantly among seniors graduating last year, during which all students were invited back to campus and Covid-19 restrictions were gradually lifted. That sentiment, however, did not carry over to this year’s Class of 2023 survey respondents, who reported lower favorability ratings for both Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana and University President Bacow. FAS Dean and President-Elect Claudine Gay, on the other hand, saw a significant bump in favorability.

Favorability for Bacow among respondents dropped from 33 percent to just over 25 percent, with a plurality of respondents — 44 percent — indicating they had no opinion. Twenty-two percent of seniors said they had unfavorable views of the outgoing president, a slight drop from 24 percent last year.

Exactly half of respondents reported

10

viewing Khurana favorably, a small decline from the 54 percent last year. His unfavorability rating remained roughly unchanged from last year, at 19 percent this year compared to 20 percent last year.

Over 40 percent of respondents — an increase from the 30 percent reported last year — said they viewed Gay favorably. Just 8 percent said they had an unfavorable opinion of Gay, more than halving the 18 percent who said the same last year. Nonetheless, a large amount — 35 percent — reported having no opinion on Dean Gay. Affirmative Action In October, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in lawsuits against Harvard and the University of North Carolina that seek to end affirmative action in American higher education. The court’s opinion is expected later this summer.

Graduating seniors reported strong support for affirmative action, legal challenges notwithstanding. Sixty-three percent of respondents indicated a favorable opinion of race-conscious affirmative action, while 15 percent reported an unfavorable opinion. Fifteen percent of respondents said they held no opinion on the matter.

An outsized majority of Black respondents — 80 percent — held favorable opinions of affirmative action, as compared to 79 percent of South Asian respondents, 76 percent of Hispanic or Latinx respondents, 60 percent of white respondents, and 58 percent of Asian respondents.

Divestment In September 2021, Harvard announced it would divest its endowment from fossil fuels, following years of activism. This year, 60 percent of respondents viewed the move favorably, with 9 percent rating it unfavorable. Last year’s senior class saw the decision more favorably, with 74 percent of respondents in support and 7 percent opposed.

Late last spring, The Crimson’s Editorial Board sparked controversy by endorsing the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions movement, which calls on Western institutions to cut ties with Israel to apply interna-

tional pressure over the country’s treatment of Palestinians. A plurality of survey respondents — 32 percent — reported a favorable view of the BDS movement, while 18 percent of respondents indicated that they held an unfavorable opinion. Roughly a quarter of respondents said they either held no opinion, while another quarter said they did not know enough about the matter.

Support for divestment from prisons was the highest-rated of all campus divestment movements. 66 percent of respondents indicated that Harvard should divest from private prisons, while 9 percent opposed such a decision. Last year, 72 percent of respondents said they supported private prison divestment.

Harvard University Police Department Early last month, a “swatting” attack

against four Black Harvard seniors elicited an armed response by Harvard police. Following the incident, 45 Harvard student organizations sent the University a letter demanding a response to the situation.

Nonetheless, a majority of seniors — 58 percent — said they fully or somewhat trust the Harvard University Police Department, holding constant from last year.

Trust among Black students was lower than among other students, with 34 percent of Black students reporting trust of HUPD, compared to 43 percent among Hispanic or Latinx students, 66 percent among Asian students, and 63 percent among white students. Meanwhile, 24 percent of all respondents said they somewhat or fully distrust HUPD. Similar to last year, a lower proportion of students — 44 percent — said they fully

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

veyed said the University has made a tenure request during their time at the College with which they have disagreed. In a freeform response asking seniors to indicate which tenure decision they disagreed with, 87 wrote down West’s name, while 39 cited the case of García Peña.

Mental Health

or somewhat trust the Cambridge Police Department.

Sexual Assault and Harassment Over the years, the Class of 2023 has seen multiple faculty members face accusations of sexual misconduct. In 2020, The Crimson reported that three eminent Anthropology professors faced accusations of sexual harassment. Harvard then revoked emeritus status of one of these faculty, Gary Urton, and placed another, John L. Comaroff, on administrative leave.

In September 2022, Comaroff was permitted to return to the classroom, despite new allegations of sexual harassment as part of an amended lawsuit filed in June 2022. His return to teaching was met with protests on campus, including a 100-person walkout at the beginning of this semester.

Nineteen percent of respondents said they have been sexually harassed or assaulted while at Harvard, up from 12 percent of respondents last year. Of those students, 66 percent identify as female, 28 percent identify as male, and 6 percent identify as genderqueer or nonbinary.

Only 12 respondents — less than 2 percent — who were sexually harassed or as-

saulted at Harvard chose to report the incident.

A majority of respondents — 53 percent — said they were somewhat or very dissatisfied with Harvard’s efforts to prevent sexual misconduct on campus, with just 13 percent reporting some degree of satisfaction. Just 28 percent of respondents said they somewhat or fully trusted the Office for Gender Equity, which is tasked with addressing sexual harassment and assault.

Tenure The Class of 2023 has seen two major tenure denial cases shake up the University. In December 2019, Harvard denied tenure to Romance Languages and Literatures professor Lorgia García Peña, which reignited the push for a formalized ethnic studies program and sparked calls for tenure reform.

In February 2021, professor Cornel R. West ’74 — a Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at the Harvard Divinity School and in the Department of African and African American Studies in the FAS — announced he would leave Harvard after the University denied his request to be considered for tenure.

Forty-three percent of students sur-

Forty-two percent of surveyed seniors reported that they had sought help from University Health Services for mental health, marking a three percentage point increase from last year. A smaller share of respondents — 35 percent — received support from off-campus professionals, while 10 percent sought help from on-campus peer counseling groups.

In October 2022, HUHS announced that it would partner with TimelyMD to provide free telehealth services to Harvard students, including 12 scheduled counseling sessions per year. Thirteen percent of respondents said they have used the TimelyCare service.

Among respondents who sought help from HUHS, 34 percent said they were somewhat or very satisfied with their experience, a slight uptick from last year’s 32 percent. Fifty-four percent of respondents said they were dissatisfied, also a slight uptick from last year’s 51 percent.

In comparison, 76 percent of respondents who went to an off-campus professional said they were satisfied with their treatment.

Denaming Last spring, Harvard released a landmark report that outlined its historical ties to slavery, sparking calls for the school to change the name of buildings and institutions named after slaveholders.

In February 2023, student activists called on the University to dename Winthrop House, which is named after two John Winthrops who owned slaves. In 2020, students in Mather House pushed for a similar denaming on the basis of its namesake, Increase Mather, who was a slaveholder.

In May 2022, FAS Dean Gay released a procedure for requesting name changes from buildings, spaces, programs, and professorships.

A plurality of surveyed seniors — 43 percent — believe that Harvard should rename buildings and institutions if their namesakes were slaveholders, while 26 percent opposed such measures. Support

for denaming was sharply divided along political lines: while 59 percent of progressive students were in support, just 2 percent of conservatives said the same.

Student Government Across the board, survey respondents indicated low levels of support for student leaders.

Although the student voted overwhelmingly to dissolve the Harvard Undergraduate Council last spring, just 29 percent of respondents said they viewed the move favorably, with a plurality — 42 percent — reporting they hold no opinion. Even fewer reported approval for the UC’s successor, the Harvard Undergraduate Association: Just 7 percent indicated favorable views, with a majority reporting no opinion.

The inaugural two cohorts of HUA co-presidents have met a similar fate among the graduating class. Only 9 percent of respondents indicated a favorable view of the current HUA co-presidents, John S. Cooke ’25 and Shikoh Misu Hirabayashi ’24, with 16 percent saying they held an unfavorable view. A plurality of respondents — 48 percent — indicated they had no opinion of the two, who were elected in February.

Seniors were just slightly more approving of their predecessors, LyLena D. Estabine ’24 and Travis Allen Johnson ’24, with 12 percent reporting favorability, a significant drop from their immediate precursors on the UC the two years prior, who received 33 percent and 17 percent favorability ratings.

As with Cooke and Hirabayashi, a plurality of respondents — 42 percent — said they had no opinion of the two, with another 29 percent indicating unfavorability.

Campus Publications A majority of respondents — 59 percent — said they held a favorable view of The Harvard Crimson, a five percentage point increase from last year. Fourteen percent viewed the newspaper unfavorably, down from 18 percent last year.

About 18 percent of respondents indicated a favorable opinion of the Harvard Lampoon, a semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization that used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine.

A majority of respondents — 51 percent — said they viewed the Lampoon unfavorably.

11

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

At a Glance

12

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

8

7

6

5

4 3

13

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

14

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

No

Yes, partial financial aid

Yes, full financial aid

15

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

National Politics

By NATALIE L. KAHN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

T

he Class of 2023 – the only remaining class to have experienced Harvard both before and after the Covid-19 pandemic – has encountered a national atmosphere fraught with political tensions during its four-year tenure, from the outbreak of Covid-19 and the Biden-Trump showdown to the war in Ukraine and the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson.

Yet despite this increasing polarization across the country, the Class of 2023 retains a relatively homogeneous political makeup: The majority of surveyed students identified as progressive and affiliated with the Democratic Party, and students overwhelmingly expressed disapproval of former president Donald J. Trump.

Most strikingly, only a small minority

— nearly 10 percent — answered that they believe the country is headed in the right direction. The majority — 66 percent — of students said they think the country is on the wrong track, while the rest indicated they are “unsure.”

Political Allegiances Of all surveyed students, 65 percent identified as progressive or very progressive, only 12 percent were conservative or very conservative, and 22 percent were moderate. Just 1 percent of students – five respondents – said they were apolitical.

These numbers align with the class freshman survey, taken in 2019, in which 13 percent identified as conservative, 23 percent as moderate, and 65 percent as liberal or very liberal.

Female survey respondents were slightly more progressive than male respondents. Of female respondents, 69 percent said they were progressive, com-

pared to 59 percent of males. On the flip side, 9 percent of females said they were conservative, compared to 15 percent of male students. All non-binary students identified as progressive.

Most progressive students also identified as being less religious: 10 percent of progressive respondents said they were extremely or very religious, and 73 percent of progressive respondents said they were not very religious or not religious at all. Comparatively, 42 percent of surveyed conservative students said they were extremely or very religious, and 31 percent said they were not religious, though the conservative sample size was much smaller.

Seniors surveyed also tended to affiliate with people who share their political views. More than 64 percent said all or most of their closest friends share their politics, with 9 percent saying all their closest friends are politically aligned with them. Progressive students were

more likely to stay among themselves, with 82 percent saying they align with most or all of their close friends — more than double the rate among conservative and moderate students.

Many students’ social preferences translated over to their romantic ones.

More than half – 52 percent – said they would not enter into a relationship with someone who supported the nominee of the opposite party in the last election. Just 28 percent said they would date someone who voted differently, while 21 percent said they were unsure. Conservative students were more likely to date across party lines, with 79 percent indicating they would enter a relationship with someone who supported the opposing party’s nominee compared to just 12 percent of progressive students.

Policy Stances In line with the class’ political composi-

Agnostic

Atheist

Catholic

Protestant

Other

Jewish

Prefer not to say

Muslim

Hindu

Buddhist

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

16

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

Conservative

tion, 91 percent of students viewed former president Donald Trump unfavorably, with only 4 percent saying they viewed him favorably. Florida governor Ron DeSantis, a potential Republican presidential candidate, posted slightly better numbers: 8 percent of students said they like DeSantis, and 73 percent said they do not. Overall, 78 percent of surveyed seniors disapprove of the Republican Party, and 8 percent approve.

The Democratic Party, however, did not receive unanimous approval from students: 39 percent said they view the party favorably, while 40 percent said they have an unfavorable impression. Students were also split in their opinions on President Joe Biden and his vice president Kamala Harris, who garnered 48 percent and 32 percent of respondents’ approval and 32 percent and 37 percent of respondents’ disapproval, respectively.

Students were largely unified in their disapproval of the 2022 Supreme Court’s

Dobbs v. Jackson decision restricting federal abortion laws: 79 percent of students disapproved, and only 9 percent said they approved. As for race-conscious college admissions, on which the Supreme Court will adjudicate this summer, 63 percent said they support affirmative action, and 15 percent said they do not. Seventy-seven percent of students also reported that they view the #MeToo movement favorably, while 7 percent of respondents viewed it unfavorably.

Approximately 61 percent of students approved of U.S. aid to Ukraine in the Russia-Ukraine war; 11 percent disapproved. Sixty-one percent saw Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter as a negative, and 13 percent saw it as a positive. Just under one-third of students said they support the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, while 18 percent did not; a quarter said they had no opinion, and another quarter said they lacked enough information.

Conservative

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The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

Covid-19

By VIRGINIA L. MA and MADISON A. SHIRAZI

T

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

he Class of 2023’s Harvard experience was shaped in many ways by Covid-19. Seniors were sent home in the spring of their freshman year due to the pandemic, and spent the entirety of their sophomore year learning remotely before returning to campus in Fall 2021. ’Rona All Around Despite nearly every member of the Class of 2023 being fully vaccinated and boosted — a requirement for on-campus living imposed by the University — more than 80 percent of seniors reported having contracted Covid-19 at least once, compared to roughly two-thirds of last year’s survey respondents. The University dropped its Covid-19 booster requirement on May 8 in conjunction with the expiration of the United States’ Covid-19 public health emergency.

Half of respondents reported contracting Covid-19 exactly once, and a quarter reported contracting Covid-19

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exactly twice. Two-thirds of respondents who contracted Covid-19 believed that the exposure might have taken place on campus.

Sixty percent of respondents who contracted Covid-19 reported testing positive in spring 2022, when Harvard lifted many of its Covid-19 restrictions. A quarter of respondents who contracted Covid-19 reported testing positive at some point during the 2022-2023 academic year. Harvard stopped offering PCR Covid-19 tests in September 2022.

To Dorm or Not to Dorm Four percent of respondents lived in Harvard’s dorms in spring 2020, after Harvard sent most students home in March of the same semester. Six percent lived in residence in fall 2020 and 19 percent in spring 2021, during which the Class of 2023 was not invited back to campus.

Seventy-nine percent of respondents did not live in Harvard’s dorms at any point when classes were remote, and 94 percent were on campus continuously since fall 2021, once classes resumed in-person.

Among students not in residence when classes were online, three-quarters lived at home at some point, about one-quarter in a rental in the Boston area at some point, and about one quarter in a rental outside the Boston area at some point.

Welcome to Zoom School The pandemic upended seniors’ lives, and had an impact on their academic plans and experiences throughout college.

More than four in five respondents reported that the pandemic affected the difficulty of their coursework, as classes moved online before shifting back to being held in-person. Of those, 53 percent reported that the pandemic decreased the difficulty of their coursework and 47 percent reported that the pandemic increased the difficulty of their coursework.

The percentage of students who reported that the pandemic increased the difficulty of their coursework varied by concentration. Half of students concentrating in the arts and humanities reported that the pandemic increased the difficulty of their coursework while only 37 percent of students concentrating in the

social sciences reported the same.

Covid-19 also affected topic choice and the ability to do research for seniors who wrote theses. Twenty-eight percent of surveyed seniors said their thesis was impacted by the pandemic. Among these seniors, 11 percent said it changed their topic. Eighteen percent said it affected their ability to do research, compared to 32 percent of last year’s surveyed seniors.

School’s Out — For the Semester More than three-quarters of seniors who took time off from school said it was primarily because of the pandemic. Ninety-two percent of seniors who took at least one gap semester said they did not regret doing so, while nearly 29 percent of students who did not take time off reported regretting not taking a leave of absence.

Future Plans Covid-19 also had an impact on seniors’ postgraduate plans. Fifty-two percent of respondents said their career plans were “informed somewhat” or “informed greatly” by the pandemic.

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

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The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

Wedding Bells Hear from the couples in the Class of 2023 who are married or engaged to be married soon.

Fabian Koenig ’22-’23 and Maximilian Scheuplein

By SOPHIA S. LIANG CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Fabian Koenig ’22-’23 and Maximilian “Maxi” Scheuplein’s wedding has been nine years and thousands of miles in the making.

In the summer of 2014, the two met in their hometown of Frankfurt, Germany through a website for gay teenagers. Fabian was about to start high school; Maxi had just graduated high school and was about to start his bachelor’s. They stayed up until 5 a.m. messaging each other that first day, then exchanged texts and hourslong voice recordings constantly over the next several weeks.

“I feel like we were best friends from the first message,” Fabian says. He came out to his mom two days after meeting Maxi in person for the first time.

In 2017, when Fabian graduated from high school and Maxi graduated from university, they transitioned to a whirlwind long-distance relationship.

Fabian traveled the world during a gap year, then came to Harvard for college, while Maxi got a master’s at University College London, worked at Oxford and New York University, and ended up in the Netherlands for a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience.

Around two years ago, when they started talking about getting engaged, they made it a tradition to window-shop for rings in each new city they visited together, enjoying the free samples of

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champagne at fancy jewelry stores.

They eventually settled on a custom-ordered ring from Amsterdam.

However, the proposal itself still came as a surprise.

On a trip to San Francisco last December, they hiked up a hill overlooking the ocean at sunset. When they reached the top, Maxi set up a tripod under the guise of doing a photoshoot. The two had gotten manicures for the first time a couple days prior, so Fabian joked, “My finger is ready; you can put it on!” He thought it was funny when Maxi got down on one knee — “and then he pulled out the box, and I was like, ‘Oh, wait! This is for real.’”

“I forgot everything I wanted to say,” Maxi laughs. “When you listen to the video now, the only thing I’m asking is, ‘Yes? You sure?’”

He was. The couple is planning a courthouse wedding in Frankfurt this July, followed by a small celebration with their families. In the fall, Fabian will move to Los Angeles to work in consulting, and Maxi will return to the Netherlands for the last year of his doctorate. Afterward, they hope to reunite and finally close the long-distance chapter of their relationship.

In hindsight, though, both agree that the challenge of growing up and changing alongside each other — developing their own interests and pursuing their own educations while remaining committed to a partner — made their relationship stronger.

“Having to overcome all these hurdles that come with long-distance relationships really made me feel this is definitely the right person to spend the rest of

my life with,” Maxi says. “It’s the way you have to communicate with each other, the way you have to know each other in order to make this work across the Atlantic.”

PHOTO COURTESY FABIAN KOENIG AND MAXI SCHEUPLEIN

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

Lindsey B. Bouldin ’22-’23 and Evan T. Anderson

By MALIYA V. ELLIS CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Lindsey B. Bouldin ’22-’23 and Evan T. Anderson’s relationship was long-distance “from the get-go,” Lindsey says.

Even though they’d attended the same high school in central Tennessee, they only began dating in 2020 when they were both in college — Lindsey at Harvard, Evan at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

In March 2020, halfway through her gap semester, Lindsey flew to Knoxville to visit Evan, “the day that the first confirmed case of Covid was in Tennessee.”

Unable to fly back to Boston, Lindsey’s intended two-week visit home turned into a year-and-a-half stay. The change of plans, though unexpected, granted the couple valuable time in person together. Lindsey rented an apartment a five-minute drive away from Evan’s dorm, enabling them to spend weekends exploring Knoxville and camping in the Smoky Mountains.

But in the fall of 2021, when Lindsey

returned to Harvard’s campus, the pair had to switch back into long-distance mode. “It was definitely an adjustment,” Lindsey says. But the duo has figured out a good system: they schedule virtual date nights every weekend, prioritize visiting each other during school breaks, and text every day. “I feel like we’re both really good texters,” she says.

Marriage had been on Lindsey’s mind since a year into their relationship, but her convictions solidified the summer before senior year, when she started picturing her life after graduation. “I knew whatever I do in my life, I’d want to do it with Evan,” she says. “Why delay the inevitable, you know?”

Evan was more hesitant. “I just wasn’t sure if I was ready for it,” he says. But in the last year, he’s become interested in Catholicism, and his religious commitment has inspired a newfound appreciation for marriage. “That has really cast marriage in a new light for me, and made me realize that it was something that I really wanted, and something that I really

wanted with Lindsey.”

Lindsey, who grew up as a Jehovah’s Witness, says she’s still learning about Catholicism. “It’s more of a slower path that I’m going on, but I think it’s the path to the same destination,” she says. The two are planning to convert to Catholicism together through the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults program.

This past January, during a trip to the Virgin Islands, Evan proposed. “It just felt like the first step in something really great and really beautiful,” he says.

The couple are currently planning their wedding, which is slated for next May. In the meantime, they will both move to Knoxville following their respective graduations, after which Evan will pursue a master’s degree. They are already planning their honeymoon: a road trip to the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, the Badlands, and other national parks.

Most of all, the two are excited just to be together in person again and experience “the little moments that you don’t really get when you’re long distance,” like

PHOTO COURTESY LINDSEY BOULDIN AND EVAN ANDERSON

cooking and drinking coffee together — or as Lindsey calls it, “the boring life stuff that’s kind of boring when you’re alone, but is more meaningful and special when you’re with another person.”

Christian J. Rodriguez ’23 and Nyckole Lázaro Quintero ’24

By MALIYA V. ELLIS CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

It all started when Nyckole Lázaro Quintero ’24 spotted two anime keychains hanging off Christian J. Rodriguez’s ’23 backpack. It was a Friday night in the spring of 2022, and Nyckole was outside Fong Auditorium stringing up lights

PHOTO COURTESY CHRISTIAN RODRIGUEZ AND NYCKOLE QUINTERO

for Harvard College Faith and Action’s weekly “DOXA” worship meeting. “Hey,” she recalls saying to him, “I like your keychains.”

Christian, a long-time HCFA member, turned around with a “huge smile,” pleasantly surprised to meet “another anime connoisseur who also liked Jesus,” he remembers. “That was pretty cool for me.”

After the event, the pair continued their conversation in Ticknor Lounge, where they talked about everything from anime to their spiritual beliefs.

For the rest of that semester, they frequented cafes in Harvard Square and “would occasionally flirt, but no one did anything,” Nyckole says. Because both had recently exited relationships the previous semester, they were reluctant to rush into anything, even though they knew they both liked each other.

They texted only sporadically throughout that summer but reconnected on Nyckole’s Minecraft server and then in person at an HCFA retreat the week before school began. On the first day of school, they got bubble tea and had

a conversation that would prove decisive, about how they had each grown in their faith over the summer. “It was really important for me to hear that God was working in [Nyckole’s] life as an individual, and not just because I was there or when I was talking to her about what I believe,” Christian says.

Their last stop that night was the Quincy Grille, where they sat in a booth together, finally confessed their feelings for each other, and officially started dating.

From there, it wasn’t a long journey to engagement. Though originally Nyckole had imagined dating for longer before engagement, her ideal timeline “completely changed” when she saw how much her family “adored” Christian. Just four months into their relationship, the couple was already talking about potential timelines for engagement. Over winter break, they planned out their “entire hypothetical future together,” Christian says.

“Things just clicked.”

On April 29, following their eightmonth anniversary meal at Spring Shabu

Shabu, Christian told Nyckole that a mutual friend needed help taking headshots for an internship.

Halfway through the photo session on Weeks Bridge, the friend volunteered to take some photos of the couple, too.

Christian moved behind Nyckole as if to pose high-school-prom-style, then got down on one knee instead. Overcome by laughter, and later by tears, she turned around and said yes.

The couple is planning to tie the knot next summer. In the meantime, Christian will be teaching at the middle school he attended in Lawrence, Massachusetts, while Nyckole finishes her senior year at Harvard. Eventually, Christian hopes to become a dentist, while Nyckole wants to become a math teacher.

Both of them emphasize how lucky they feel to have found a life partner in each other. “I don’t want to have to build my own foundation and then add someone to it; I want to build that foundation with someone from the beginning,” Christian says. “And I’m glad I found someone like Nyckole who I’m ready to do that with.”

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The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

Carter J. Martindale ’23 and Elise L. Fischer

By MALIYA V. ELLIS CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Carter J. Martindale ’23 and Elise L. Fischer wouldn’t have met if not for the pandemic.

After Harvard went virtual in spring of 2020, Carter came across a group of Harvard students looking to fill a room in their Utah apartment. Carter made the move to Provo, where he ended up meeting Elise.

One night, Carter and Elise, then a student at Brigham Young University, both attended a mutual friend’s gathering and got to chatting in the hot tub. Carter mentioned his interest in Taylor Swift’s “Evermore” album, which was also one of Elise’s favorites. “I can’t let this one go,” Elise recalls thinking.

Shortly thereafter, the pair went on their first official date: “hammocking” in a local park. They found ample common ground, from their similar taste in memes to their shared love of thrillers and mysteries to their compatible religious beliefs

— both are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

They had only planned to hang out for a couple hours but ended up staying for nine. “We just kept talking for, like, forever,” Carter says.

For the rest of that spring, the duo went on dates either every day or every other day. Carter had an internship in Palo Alto that summer, so the pair went long-distance, and they stayed in that mode when he returned to Cambridge for his junior year. They reunited last summer, when Carter took an internship in Utah.

The lead-up to the engagement wasn’t a surprise; the pair had been talking about engagement for a while and even went ring shopping together. (“I was not about to just buy a random ring without her having looked at it!”) But when it came to the moment itself, Carter kept it hush-hush.

On a morning in July, he found a hiking trail with a secluded clearing and enlisted a couple friends to set up a blanket with rose petals and pictures of the couple. Then he drove back down and

picked up Elise, who expected a routine hike. Ten feet into the trail, he led her into the clearing and proposed. “It definitely caught me off guard, especially because I really thought we were doing this hike,” Elise says. “He did a really good job.”

They didn’t finish the rest of the hike; they left and got Korean barbecue instead.

They got married in December in a small ceremony in Elise’s hometown.

This semester, Elise elected to finish her BYU graduation requirements online, enabling the couple to move into an off-campus apartment near Fresh Pond. They settled into a routine — Elise would often drive Carter to campus in the mornings, and the two would sometimes work in Quincy House together or hang out with Carter’s blockmates.

After their respective graduations, they will move to Austin, Texas, where Carter will work for a legal tech company and Elise will attend nursing school.

The pair still marvels that the pandemic precipitated the start of their rela-

tionship. “It’s worked out to be where we are now,” Carter says. “So yeah, it was like a miracle.”

PHOTO COURTESY CARTER MARTINDALE AND ELISE FISCHER

Cameron M. Stone ’23 and Savannah J. Stone (née Fisher)

By SOPHIA S. LIANG CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

PHOTO COURTESY CAMERON AND SAVANNAH STONE

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Cameron M. Stone ’23 calls his first date with his now-wife “kind of unorthodox”: After a mutual friend introduced him to Savannah J. Stone (née Fisher), they went on a group date shooting guns in the Utah desert, followed by dinner.

“Really safe first date when you don’t know someone, going out into the wilderness with guns,” Savannah says with a laugh. But after getting to know Cameron, she was immediately “smitten.”

She remembers telling her mom over the phone late that night: “If it’s not this boy, I don’t want any other boy.”

The two began dating in January 2021, while Cameron was taking Harvard classes remotely from Utah and Savannah was attending Brigham Young University. That August, the weekend before he was set to return to Harvard to resume in-person classes, Cameron proposed.

“Savannah always joked with me that she would marry me even if I wrapped a blade of grass around her finger instead of a real diamond ring,” he says. So he had a florist make a custom engagement ring

out of grass, and he surprised her with it on a picnic date.

“And she kept her word,” he smiles.

Cameron and Savannah maintained a long-distance engagement throughout the fall semester, then reunited in Utah for their wedding on January 7, 2022 — coincidentally one year to the day after their first date. Both members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they were married in Mount Timpanogos Temple, against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains and surrounded by 500 friends and family members from across the country.

“As part of our faith, the wedding ceremony, in the prayer that they give, they replace words like ‘until death do you part’ with ‘for time and all eternity,’” Cameron says. “So we have a belief that we’re married for this life and the next, which was pretty special and meaningful for us.”

“It was so exciting to see so many people being absolutely supportive and taking a chance on two kids getting married and coming all the way to Utah to cele-

brate with us,” Savannah says.

Savannah transferred to the University of Massachusetts Boston, and the newlyweds now live together in an apartment in Cambridge.

They enjoy hanging out with Cameron’s friends in Mather House, trying new restaurants, and staying active by lifting, practicing yoga, and playing tennis and pickleball.

After they both graduate this May, they plan to relocate to London, where Cameron will work as a software engineer, and explore Europe while Savannah takes a gap year before starting dental school.

They hope to eventually settle down in the Bay Area to stay close to their families in California.

“A really cool aspect of getting married young is us being able to make these really big, game-time life decisions that usually people are making alone, together,” Savannah says.

Indeed, when asked what married life is like, they answer in unison: “The best!”

The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2023

Kat S. Boit ’22-’23 and Ben B. Hebert

By MALIYA V. ELLIS CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Kat S. Boit ’22-’23 and Ben B. Hebert describe their relationship as a “slow burn.”

They first met on the robotics team at their high school in Granby, Connecticut, and although Kat developed a bit of a crush, they stayed just friends for a couple years. “I just thought he was so out of my league,” Kat says.

Their romance didn’t begin until 2017, Kat’s junior year of high school, when Ben had already gone off to college at the Rochester Institute of Technology. The two kept in touch through a larger group chat, which turned into one-on-one phone calls, which eventually led to Kat’s inviting Ben to a party when he came home for spring break — a set crew party for their high school’s production of “Cinderella.”

They made it official a month later.

For the next few years, the couple braved long-distance. Ben would make the six- to seven-hour drive down from

Rochester every couple months to spend a weekend at Harvard. In the interim, Kat says, “we Skyped each other pretty much every day.”

The pandemic would prove pivotal for the pair. After being kicked off campus in March 2020, it took Kat only two weeks at home to decide to move in with Ben in Rochester. “My parents thought I was crazy!”

But as Kat tells it, their decision to move in together was a very thoughtful one. “I honestly felt like Ben was the person for me after probably a year into our relationship,” she says. “But I was very insistent on, like, I really need to be able to live with you first. I need to make sure that we’re compatible, and also we just need to grow up a little more.”

The two shared a 90-square-foot bedroom for the next year and a half (Kat took a year off school), and the tight quarters only brought them closer. “We definitely handled it a lot better than I would have thought,” Ben says. “That really cement-

ed the idea that, like, we’re definitely it.”

When Ben graduated in spring 2021, he found an engineering job in Massachusetts, and the two moved into an apartment in Boston where they’re been living together since, along with their cat, Maisy. They cook together nearly every night, and unwind with yoga or games — Myst and Dungeons & Dragons are favorites.

Kat expected Ben to propose — they’d been talking about marriage “for a long time,” Ben says — but she was still surprised when it happened. After securing Kat’s parents’ blessing, Ben planned a trip to Cape Cod in June of 2022, framed as a long-overdue anniversary present. When he took her on a walk to the beach, Kat had her suspicions — the day was almost too sunny, the beach too empty — but she dismissed them when she couldn’t spot any ring-box-shaped objects in Ben’s pockets.

On a secluded stretch of shoreline, Ben brought out the ring he had hidden behind his car keys and proposed. “It just felt right,” he says.

The couple will be married in July, in a small ceremony in Brookline. After tying the knot, they’ll move to New Haven, where Kat will pursue a Ph.D. in Biology at Yale.

PHOTO COURTESY KAT BOIT AND BEN HERBERT

Polina Galouchko ’23 and Benjamin J. Porteous ’22

By SOPHIA S. LIANG CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

“We just talk, talk, talk, talk,” Benjamin J. Porteous ’22 says of his relationship with Polina Galouchko ’23. “That’s probably our favorite hobby.”

The pair began talking — quite literally — on Valentine’s Day last year, when a mutual friend invited them both to a group dinner in Dunster House dining hall.

They quickly bonded over “an incredibly

PHOTO COURTESY POLINA GALOUCHKO AND BENJAMIN PORTEOUS

interesting conversation” about literature and philosophy, Polina says.

“I remember her as a lively conversationalist, just really interesting and thoughtful,” Benjamin agrees.

Although they bumped into each other a couple more times afterward, they didn’t really reconnect until the end of the school year. Polina, then a junior, was staying on campus to work at Senior Week and Commencement events, while Benjamin was preparing to deliver the Latin Salutatory at his own graduation ceremony. They found themselves spending more and more time together that May, until they finally made it official the night before Commencement — mere hours before Benjamin was set to appear onstage.

“We were just walking around the Quad and talking and talking, and I felt this guilt because he had to get up at 5 a.m. the next morning,” Polina recalls. “And right around midnight, he said, ‘Would you consider dating me?’”

“Scrap the Latin oration — there was more important stuff going on!” Benjamin says.

A year later, the duo can even finish each other’s sentences. When asked to describe their shared interests, Benjamin starts: “Classical music …”

“Opera,” Polina adds.

“Visiting historic churches of all kinds.”

“Traveling.”

“Ah, and this is my new fun fact for Zoom meetings —” “Soviet comedies!”

They come from “different and yet very analogous” cultures, Benjamin says — although he attends an Anglo-Catholic church and she a Russian Orthodox one, they both love elaborate “high church” traditions, such as incense, beautiful vestments, and music.

Their academic pursuits are analogous, too: Polina will start a master’s in political science at Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies this fall, and Benjamin is currently enrolled in the equivalent master’s program studying China.

In fact, Benjamin’s knowledge of Communist China has helped him bond with

Polina’s parents, who grew up in the Soviet Union. This past winter break, when the couple traveled to Europe to visit Polina’s family, Benjamin showed up at their home wearing a fluffy winter hat with ear flaps which a Chinese friend had gifted him.

“It looked like their Soviet comrade had just arrived,” Polina chuckles. (“I didn’t wear it with any ulterior motives,” Benjamin swears.)

With her parents’ blessing obtained, Benjamin proposed during that trip, on Polina’s birthday, in a Baroque church in Croatia overlooking the Adriatic Sea. They’ll be getting married this June on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, where Benjamin went to summer camp and where his parents were married.

Now, their conversations have turned to the seating charts for the wedding reception as they figure out how to arrange guests “from all walks of life.”

“There should be some really interesting conversations at the wedding,” Benjamin says.

“And good music,” Polina adds.

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CAPTURE THE MOMENT

JEWELRY WITH INTENTION