For most students, region is not just a common bond, but also a source of pride.
"I don't know exactly what it is," says Frank O. Hogan '97. "Every ad and road sign has the Texas flag or the shape on it."
"There's lots of pride in the state that you don't see in other states," Huynh says of Texas.
For other regions, the source of pride is different.
"We're the car capital of the world," says David G. Ewing '98, who is from Michigan. "We really are the heartbeat of America."
"I'm liberal, and I like the way New York is connected with liberalism," Villafane says.
Regional pride and identity taken to an extreme, however, can cause tension. In 1991, students reacted to Kerrigan's flag with protests, eat-ins and a publicly-displayed Nazi swastika flag.
Nigel W. Jones '91, a Kirkland House resident at the time, said he found the Confederate flag offensive.
"People will tell you that the flag means a lot of different things," he said in February 1991. "It stands for white supremacy and it stands for Slavery. It is a symbol of the white South."
Kerrigan countered that her flag was simply a demonstration of affection for the South.
"I don't understand why people can sever the negative connotations from every flag except mine," she said.
But today such tensions over region are relatively rare. Regional variation is an accepted part of Harvard's diversity, says Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57.
"There's a greater degree of tolerance and understanding," he says. "People don't feel quite as isolated or out of place.... By and large, regionalism does not have that much of an effect, because we are not a regional school."
Regional pride is a good thing, students say, not a reason for tension.
But if anyone attacks her state of origin, Streyffeler says, she may be ready to stage a protest.
"Heavens!" she says. "I'll defend lowal"