When Harvard College students left campus for winter break, the student body was divided.

With students in fierce disagreement over the Israel-Hamas war and former President Claudine Gay’s leadership of the University, the rifts only continued to grow under a bright national spotlight.

But even as undergraduates escaped campus over break, the University’s crisis only worsened. Gay — already under fire for her disastrous congressional testimony — faced mounting pressure to step down.

Just two days into the new year, she did.

As students return to classes for the spring semester, some noted the surprising calm on a campus that so recently saw its tensions plastered on the front pages of national newspapers and blasted by alumni, donors, and politicians.

But the lingering effects of intense, prolonged national interest have not gone unnoticed.

Several students who spoke with The Crimson said that they found themselves thrust into the national spotlight as the controversies surrounding Harvard mounted — their experiences and voices often amplified beyond what they expected.

Jacqueline A. Grayson ’24 said Harvard undergraduates are now “really cognizant of the fact that they’re a Harvard student.”

“We’re always aware of it, but now it just feels really pertinent,” they said.

‘What Harvard Students Think’

After Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the ensuing student group statement holding Israel “entirely responsible” for the ongoing violence, Harvard and its students faced months of nonstop controversy and persistent national headlines.

As students attempted to study for midterms, many faced doxxings attacks — including trucks in Harvard Square displaying students’ names and faces — and threats from CEOs on social media to blacklist students from jobs.

When the College entered its final examinations period and students again tried to focus on their studies, national media outlets swarmed campus for student reactions as conservative activists took to social media to blast Harvard and its embattled president.

Tommy Barone ’25, a Crimson Editorial chair, said that he was rushing out of Lamont Library at night during finals when he was approached by a stranger.

“I assumed it was some crazy person, and then they told me they were with the New York Times, and they wanted student opinions on events on campus,” he said.

Barone was not the only Harvard student to be sought out by national publications — many were quoted in news articles or appeared on national television to share their thoughts on topics ranging from antisemitism and Islamophobia on campus to allegations of plagiarism against Gay.

Violet T.M. Barron ’26, a Crimson Editorial editor, pointed to the disproportionate focus on Harvard and its students amid an international war.

“It’s also been very frustrating to open to the New York Times homepage and see on the front page an article about Harvard or Claudine Gay when, in my opinion, the exponentially more pressing news is what’s happening in Gaza,” Barron said.

Pro-Palestine protests at Harvard sparked national controversy and fervent backlash last fall. By Joey Huang

Several students have also expressed frustrations over the added pressure to speak publicly about their experiences as a Harvard student.

Grayson said the media scrutiny on Harvard felt “stressful,” especially as individual student perspectives are taken as monolithic representations of the environment on campus.

“I, for one, and some people I know, would like to not have so much attention, especially when you think about people looking at some random undergraduate student as a spokesperson for the College or University,” Grayson said. “They’ll just pull anything and be like, ‘Oh, this represents the Harvard student body and this is what Harvard students think.’”

Owen O. Ebose ’25 said he thinks people with their own opinion about Harvard and what it is like on Harvard’s campus seek only to confirm their opinions.

“They want to look for students who will tell them what they already think,” Ebose said.

“Students are reading articles all day about how messed up our campus is, and about how much we hate each other,” Ebose said.

“Of course, we are being infected and we’re buying into the narrative,” he added. “Even myself, I’ve started to internalize it a little bit.”

‘Blanket Silencing’

Just three days before classes began again for the spring semester, Harvard’s leadership took to student inboxes with a reminder about University protest policies in what essentially amounted to a warning to campus activist groups.

In an email clarifying the University-wide Statement on Rights and Responsibilities, administrators reaffirmed their commitment to “freedom of speech—including the right to protest and dissent—as integral to the values of our University” but emphasized that affiliates may not exercise those rights in a way that ‘interfere[s] with members of the University in performance of their normal duties and activities.’”

The email came after numerous student-led demonstrations last semester related to the war in Israel and Gaza, including a 24-hour occupation of University Hall by pro-Palestine students in November.

On the first day of classes, Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana again warned students against violating Harvard’s protest policies.

“At Harvard, we have not and will not tolerate actions that undermine our academic mission,” Khurana wrote. “Disruptions to classrooms, libraries, laboratories, and other learning spaces are unacceptable. Violations of policies will continue to be referred to the Administrative Board.”

Eight students faced disciplinary hearings with the Ad Board — chaired by Khurana — following the November University Hall occupation.

Barron — an organizer for Harvard Jews for Palestine and one of the students referred to the Ad Board following her participation in the occupation — said in an interview that disciplinary action was something she was “willing to risk.”

“I was contributing to something that felt much bigger than myself,” Barron said.

Still, Barron acknowledged that the threat of being referred to the Ad Board could disincentivize students from participating in demonstrations.

“I know no one wants to be Ad Boarded,” she said. “I think it’s, to an extent, a deterrent.”

Violet T.M. Barron '26 and several other students faced the Administrative Board for their involvement in a 24-hour occupation of University Hall in November. By Julian J. Giordano

Some student organizations involved in activism related to the Israel-Hamas war have also faced anger and pressure from voices inside and outside the University.

The Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee was one of the groups at the forefront of pro-Palestine activism this past semester, drawing continued public criticism largely for their controversial statement holding Israel responsible for the ongoing violence in Gaza.

A member of PSC, to whom The Crimson granted anonymity due to safety concerns, wrote in a statement that the group is aware of “the immense external and internal pressure to ban our pro-Palestine organizing completely.”

“We will be carefully planning our events with student safety and security at the forefront of our organizing,” the member wrote. “This includes protecting students from outside actors and Harvard administration.”

“We haven’t gone away and have no plans to do so,” they added.

Sanaa M. Kahloon ’25, a PSC organizer, wrote in a statement Tuesday that the group “will continue to protest Israeli occupation and Harvard’s complicity.”

Some students expressed frustration over the University’s forceful and loaded warnings about demonstrations on campus.

Barron said that the University turns to “repression” and “suppression” when it feels threatened by student organizing efforts and chooses to “go with just a blanket silencing.”

In an emailed statement to The Crimson on Tuesday, Khurana wrote that “the College respects the students’ right to protest.”

“These rights exist within the University and FAS guidelines,” he added.

Other students said Harvard’s guidelines around protesting on campus remain unclear and unenforced.

Alexander L.S. "Alex" Bernat '25, the Israel chair of Harvard Chabad, said he was worried the College's protest policies were going unenforced. By Truong L. Nguyen

Alexander L.S. “Alex” Bernat ’25, the Israel chair of Harvard Chabad, said he was “concerned that it doesn’t seem as though restrictions on protest registration and the like are enforced yet.”

In particular, Bernat pointed to two PSC events last Thursday: a demonstration with signs in front of the Science Center Plaza and a group photo in front of Widener Library in which students donned keffiyehs, traditional Palestinian scarves. It was unclear what protest policies, if any, were violated by the two events.

Bernat also referenced a Tuesday conversation about the war in Israel and Gaza hosted by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies with Rashid I. Khalidi, professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, which the PSC promoted on Instagram.

“It’s unclear to me as to exactly the definitions of many of these things — event, co-sponsorship, protests — what constitutes a protest?” Bernat said. “I think it’s generally just concerning that there are these vagaries in Harvard policy.”

Bernat said he filed a student organization misconduct report regarding events hosted by the PSC last week but received no updates due to a policy protecting student privacy.

According to a Harvard College spokesperson, the College responds to all misconduct reports but does not share the results of an investigation or any sanctions placed on students due to privacy.

‘Not the Whole Solution’

As student protest groups navigate the beginning of a new semester, Harvard leadership is attempting to supplant divisiveness with civil discourse.

On Jan. 18, the University launched Harvard Dialogues, a campus-wide initiative with the goal of fostering “open, productive communication in the classroom, on campus, and within the wider community,” according to Harvard’s website.

The weeklong series featured a slate of panels, discussions, and speaker events across the College and Harvard’s graduate schools. Of the 17 events, eight were open to undergraduates — including a summit on free expression; an ethics and AI talk with Harvard Government professor Michael J. Sandel; and an Institute of Politics forum titled “Dissent, Disagreement, and Democracy.”

Ari F. Kohn ’26 — one of two undergraduate students involved in an initiative examining intellectual vitality at the College — praised the Harvard Dialogues series as “one of the remedies” for Harvard’s “problem of ideological diversity.”

“We do have a problem of not knowing how to disagree with each other,” Kohn said. “We do have a problem of knowing how to not just have diversity, but also use that to further our own knowledge.”

Several students, however, said the events were not well-publicized to College students.

“I think there could have been more awareness about it,” Harvard Chabad President Benjamin A. Landau ’24 said. “I think a lot of students did not know about it.”

The Institute of Politics held a forum titled "Dissent, Disagreement, and Democracy." as part of the University-wide Harvard Dialogues initiative. By Marina Qu

Josh G. Caven ’24 similarly said that the series hasn’t been “very well-marketed.”

“Given it’s really been getting kicked-started at the start of the semester, it’s just naturally going to be difficult to get the word out about that,” he said.

Still, Caven noted that the Harvard Dialogues “has been made, perhaps, more outward-focused than inward-focused.”

College spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo wrote in an emailed statement Wednesday that the series was publicized in a newsletter sent to College students and posted on the College’s social media channels. Palumbo also wrote that the College provided materials for undergraduate Houses to send out to their students.

University spokesperson Jason A. Newton declined to comment on student criticisms of the event publicization.

According to Kohn, Sanders Theater was “absolutely packed” for the panel discussion with Sandel. Tenzin R. Gund-Morrow ’26, co-chair of the IOP John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum Committee, said the number of registrants for the Dissent, Disagreement, and Democracy forum was well above average. Both events were open to all Harvard affiliates.

Other undergraduate students criticized the timing of the dialogue series, which comes on the heels of several months of tensions and turmoil on campus.

Julia García-Galindo ’25 said she believes the University “could have done more earlier.”

“I definitely would have appreciated more of an effort to start having these conversations before everything sort of blew up,” she said.

Caven said the administration enacting these initiatives now means there “will always be an uncertainty about whether it’s earnest or whether it’s reparative — whether it’s about trying to fix their image.”

“I think for spaces where you’re trying to have vulnerable, personal, oftentimes painful conversations, it’s a very difficult problem to get around,” he said.

The dialogues series comes amid an ongoing congressional investigation into allegations of antisemitism at Harvard.

Last month, six Jewish students sued Harvard for failing to address “severe and pervasive” antisemitism on campus. More than a dozen students filed a complaint to the U.S. Department of Education Monday alleging that the University failed to protect students from anti-Palestinian discrimination.

In a Wednesday interview with The Crimson, Interim Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 condemned antisemitism on Harvard’s campus and said student self-censorship in the face of antisemitic attacks “is the most disturbing of all.”

Still, Gund-Morrow acknowledged that while Harvard Dialogues “should have happened months ago,” he believes students are “a little bit more prepared for this conversation” now in the wake of Gay’s resignation.

“I think that the initiative is definitely part of the solution,” Gund-Morrow said. “It’s not the whole solution.”

‘Keeping the Ship Steady’

As the College dives back into classes and life on campus, students have voiced varying degrees of optimism for Garber’s leadership and the semester ahead.

As Garber steps into the vacancy left by Gay’s resignation, some students said that Garber is the right choice to address the University’s current challenge of bridging a polarized student body.

Bernat said that he has “a lot of optimism” for Garber’s leadership.

“His heart’s in the right place and he knows how antisemitism is manifesting, and he really does want to see it combatted,” Bernat said. “I’m hoping he takes the steps necessary to find and root it out.”

Interim Harvard President Alan M. Garber '76 expressed concern abuot student self-censorship in the face of criticism of Israel in a Wednesday interview. By Marina Qu

Ebose said he believed Garber was “the right person” to “restore a sense of stability” to the University but that the administration broadly remains opaque.

“There’s a lot of ambiguity around the administration,” he said. “I couldn’t really tell you exactly what a provost does — I don’t think a lot of people could.”

Caven said Garber is likely looking to bring a sense of stability back to campus.

“I think for the time being, he’s maintaining course, keeping the ship steady, which I don’t necessarily think is the wrong thing to do,” Caven said.

Some students pointed to Garber’s formation of two presidential task forces earlier last month to address antisemitism and Islamophobia on campus as a step in the right direction but noted that it was only the start.

Barron said the dual task forces were a “pleasant surprise” but added that the formation of the task forces was “the bare minimum.”

Ebose wrote in an emailed statement Thursday that while the dual task forces were “a step forward,” Garber’s Wednesday interview with The Crimson — which highlighted Garber’s concerns about antisemitism on campus — was “a step back.”

“He talked about the intimidation that Jewish students are feeling without addressing the fact that Muslim and Arab students feel just as intimidated,” Ebose wrote. “The latter are the ones being slandered by national media outlets, politicians, and billionaires.”

“All students need to be protected by this administration at every step of the way,” he added.

Eva C. Frazier ’26 wrote in a Tuesday statement that while she was “grateful” to see the University investigate hate against Arab and Muslim students, the measures “are too little, too late, and come after months of harm.”

Still, some students have said the time away during winter break has helped settle some of the tensions on campus.

Barron said last semester was “incredibly chaotic” with “so much going on.”

“It felt like every second I had to be on my toes,” she said. “While that sense of urgency is still very much there, I think break was very necessary — much needed time to regroup.”

Galindo said she hasn’t felt tensions on campus in the first weeks back.

“I was expecting for more of the noise of everything that happened over break to be a recurring theme and to hear more people talking about it, but it really just has been a pretty normal back-to-school,” she said.

Charles M. Covit ’27, a member of Hillel, said the start of the semester has felt “calmer.”

“I feel like everything around campus leadership and the war has been much less of a topic of conversation than before the break, which I think is sort of a relief,” Covit, a Crimson Editorial editor, said.

Looking forward, Caven said he “can’t help but feel optimistic” that “after a period of difficulty, something better can emerge.”

“I hope last semester will become something that we look back on and say, ‘That was the moment something changed for the better,’” he said.

—Staff writer Michelle N. Amponsah can be reached at michelle.amponsah@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @mnamponsah.

—Staff writer Joyce E. Kim can be reached at joyce.kim@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @joycekim324.