Crimson opinion writer
Christina M. Xiao
Latest Content
Dissent: When Everyone Gets an ‘A,’ What Does an ‘A’ Mean?
We agree that there theoretically exists a world where half of every class gets A’s, but grades still reliably represent competency; this is the ideal world that the Editorial Board argues from. We’d love to live in this world. But the fact is that we don’t.
Nonbinary People Don’t Want to Owe Androgyny, But We Do It to Survive
This LGBTQ+ History Month, as we celebrate the queer trailblazers who have carved our passage towards civil rights into the deepest granite of time, I also want us to look to the future birthed by today’s history. I want us to make the choices now that will lead to broad acceptance of nonbinary people and reduce trans and nonbinary death down the line.
Dissent: We Can Take the Heat
With today’s editorial, the Board seems to have missed the punchline. As a long, important train of our precedents emphasizes, student well-being matters deeply and merits firm institutional support across a host of issues far more serious than a few sweltering evenings. But Harvard neither can nor should be a palace. Manageable, non-life-threatening adversity is an entirely reasonable burden to expect us to bear.
Dissent: David Kane is Harvard’s Institutional Failure
Harvard should use its reputation amongst universities to remove rot as soon as it’s discovered. The longer it fails to do so, the deeper the blight of misconduct will fester and spread. Students, for want of a Google search, will continue to suffer.
Op-Art: Mishaps From Move-In
MISSING: Everything I owned and every memory I made in one year on campus. If found, please return to HUA.
Notes from Day 4 of Isolation: The Harm I Cause
I miss outside. I miss Eliot dining hall, and lying on friends’ carpets, and unmasked laughter. I miss normalcy. If Harvard’s Covid years saw time freeze, isolation is the most hellish version of that. But come the end of my day five, I will follow the isolation policy to the best of my ability. If I’m still symptomatic, I’m locking myself in here again. This will harm me, no doubt. But crucially, I do not want to harm other people.
Insert Placeholder Op-Ed Here
If you’re reading this, that means we couldn’t pull together an op-ed in time.
Dissent: A More Empathetic Shopping Week
It’s clear there are many reasons for undergraduates to love and miss shopping week, but this love doesn’t take into account the burden placed on others. There is no reason why course preview period can’t effectively replace shopping week, especially during the pandemic but even beyond it. Doing so will simply demand a greater measure of empathy and respect for our fellow undergraduates, faculty members, graduate students, and one another.
Neptune in Aquarius Generation
When I started this column several months ago, I asked you to run away into the stars with me. I hope you have marveled at what you found alongside me. I hope you have fallen in love with yourself through astrology’s external view of yourself. I hope you will continue to love and cherish yourself.
Jupiter Opposite Saturn
There’s a center of gravity between the extreme ends of the social interaction spectrum: outgoing, enthusiastic Jupiter, and aloof, skeptical Saturn. It’s different for everyone, but you’ll find it because it all comes from you, written in the stars from your birth. Take it easy. Friendships at Harvard are hard to navigate. But you have the map to the treasure right there, inside of you.
