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HUA Election Will Feature No Referenda or Survey Questions

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There will be no ballot questions gauging student opinion in the upcoming April 2 Harvard Undergraduate Association elections, according to Assistant Dean of Student Engagement and Leadership Andy Donahue, the DSO’s liaison with the HUA.

The HUA currently has two avenues by which undergraduates can pose questions to the student body: referenda, which pertain specifically to HUA policy, and College-wide surveys for non-HUA policy matters. The surveys are a newly-revised method by which student organizations can submit questions that debuted in this year’s election cycle.

But this year, no questions were submitted through either channel.

The lack of submissions appears to mark the end of the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee’s indefinitely postponed effort to conduct a student vote on whether Harvard should divest from institutions supporting “Israel’s occupation of Palestine.”

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The PSC had the option to submit their divestment question by Tuesday night as a College-wide survey for non-HUA policy matters, a new process established in October and launched this spring following a lengthy bureaucratic standstill.

The PSC did not immediately respond to a Thursday request for comment about whether they intend to pursue an HUA divestment vote in the future.

On March 14, the Harvard Law School student government passed a referendum calling for Harvard to “divest from weapons, surveillance technology, and other companies aiding violations of international humanitarian law, including Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its ongoing illegal occupation of Palestine.”

The results mark the second student body vote for divestment, following a June vote by students from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Earlier this month, the HUA co-presidents sent out a College-wide survey asking whether the College Administrative Board should include student representation. Co-President Jonathan Haileselassie ’26 wrote in a statement that the recent poll is “completely separate” from the referendum and survey processes and “serves solely to inform” the HUA’s advocacy.

Before October, student opinion had only been gathered through the HUA’s referendum process as outlined in its constitution, which has always stated that “to set HUA policy, a referendum on any issue can be triggered by a petition signed by Harvard College students.”

But previous referenda posed to the student body have not always directly related to HUA policy, including votes on whether Harvard should offer Ethnicity, Migration, Rights, and Indigeneity Studies or Educational Studies concentrations.

In April, the PSC’s referendum was set to move forward until three days after its approval, when it was postponed indefinitely — in a step that sparked backlash — after the HUA received a second petition for a referendum by an unrecognized student group that included parody questions and an antisemitic question regarding the removal of Jews from Harvard’s governing body and faculty.

After receiving the competing petition, the HUA brought all pending referenda to a halt as officers invoked a constitutional procedural motion to form a problem solving team with the mission to “solve a dispute” about past inconsistent enforcement of their referendum policies.

After it was established in April, the problem solving team failed to produce a recommendation. Instead, co-presidents Ashley C. Adirika ’26 and Haileselassie proposed a successful motion on Oct. 16 stating that the HUA would deny all future referendum questions unrelated to HUA policy — thereby more strictly adhering to the policy that was originally in their constitution but not always enforced.

Survey questions under the separate framework are only allowed to be submitted by student organizations, hindering the ability of anonymous groups not recognized by the College to pose questions.

Upon receiving a March 13 email from Donahue, recognized student groups like the PSC had 12 days to submit their questions. The option to submit questions came alongside options for submitting HUA-policy-related referenda, constitutional amendments, and declarations of candidacy for an HUA co-president or cabinet position.

Voting for the new HUA administration will commence on April 2.

—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.

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