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The Harvard Undergraduate Association met on Sunday for a 10-minute general assembly meeting to discuss updates on several projects and announce the leadership of their First-Year Team.
Co-President Abdullah Shahid Sial ’27 unveiled the team, which consists of six freshmen across four roles. The two Co-Chairs are Finn R. Berard ’29 and Meley L. Ghermay ’29, the secretary is Victor Suh ’29, the treasurer is Jordan T. McCloughan ’29, and the public relations managers are Olivia W. Feng ’29 and Maanya Arora ’29.
The HUA’s First-Year Team was established last academic year to help acclimate new students to life at Harvard and the surrounding area.
“The First-Year team is a group of first-year students who focus on bringing the first-year students to the Harvard community, the Cambridge community, and the HUA community,” Inclusion Team Officer and former First-Year Team member Coby T. Hayes ’28 said at the meeting.
Members of the HUA also passed a proposal from the Inclusion Team to host a card-writing event for students to “appreciate someone who makes campus an inclusive space.” The vote allocated $1,750 from the Inclusion Team for writing supplies and a Zinneken’s food truck at the event with 200 free waffles for participating students.
The card-writing vote passed unanimously. Every person present at Sunday’s meeting was a member of HUA leadership, though the general meetings are intended to include all undergraduates.
The Inclusion Team also announced the initiation of the Helping Hands Grant for this semester, a fund allocated to student organizations planning inclusion and well-being-related initiatives. They will be accepting applications on a rolling basis. At a general meeting earlier this month, the HUA voted for a roughly $30,000 increase in the grant’s funding.
Additional items from Sunday’s meeting included an update that the Residential Life Team met with the MBTA about the possibility of Harvard joining their University Pass Program, which gives universities the opportunity to subsidize unlimited bus and subway trips for their students. Sial said the HUA “will share updates next week.”
Several Harvard graduate schools offer their students subsidies on MBTA semester passes, ranging from 11 percent to 5o percent, and the University offers faculty 6o percent discounts on monthly passes. Currently, there are no similar discounts available for Harvard undergraduates.
Co-Treasurer Daniel Zhao ’28 also announced that emergency grant applications are now active for student organizations seeking immediate funding outside the normal semesterly grant cycle.
“Emergency grant applications opened. We’re beginning to approve them,” Zhao said. “I’ve been getting a bunch of emergency grants, so please apply soon. We’re approving on a rolling basis.”
According to Social Team Officer Dillon A. Dukes ’28, the HUA will hold a free headshot event for students on Saturday. The HUA allocated $200 for the event at a previous meeting in September.
—Staff writer Nina A. Ejindu can be reached at nina.ejindu@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @nina_ejindu.
—Staff writer Claire L. Simon can be reached at claire.simon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @ClaireSimon.
