"It's not meant to be directly competitive with HPR, it's just filling in a slightly different area of publications on campus," he said.

HPR Editor emeritus Robert J. Teply '99 said he believes it is difficult to found and maintain a new magazine in an academic environment rife with publications as diverse as The Lampoon and HPR.

"The campus publication scene is really vibrant here... I do recognize that people are starting up new publications, so there must be people who are interested in different outlets. HPR has been around for quite a while, and I think the continuity that we can bring is a real strength," he said.

"Our focus is more national and international, and that's the kind of reporting that we like to do," he added.

But staffers of The Current said that is exactly the journalistic trend they are trying to buck. Instead, Loss said, they hope to engage the student community by relating social and political events and issues to Harvard life.

"We want to interest the campus readership. Some articles will be explicitly just campus issues; others will be more international issues that try to take a campus slant," he said.

Although The Current is still technically an unofficial organization, approval by Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III is pending, and the staff is working on the first issue.

The magazine is currently funded by advertisements, but Loss said he will be applying for grants from the Undergraduate Council in the future.

The magazine is scheduled to appear bimonthly in the near future but the staff expects to begin publishing monthly at some point down the line as funds per-