The Harvard Undergraduate Association passed a proposal to fund the Social Transition Fund and expand the Uber voucher pilot program at its general meeting Tuesday night.
HUA allocated $5,000 to the Social Transition Fund. This is an initiative that provides students with anonymous grants to purchase gender-affirming care and products to support their transition.
“The reason this program was created several years ago is to recognize the financial barriers many face for transgender and gender nonconforming students at Harvard,” says former Crimson Magazine says Bea Wolfen ’25, editor and intern. The BGLTQ Student Life office attended Tuesday’s meeting.
Additionally, HUA’s benefits and residential life teams each received $500 to support the Uber voucher pilot program. The program was introduced last year and offers college students up to $20 for Uber rides within a seven- to 10-mile radius of campus.
Vouchers can be used for “dual purposes”. One is for safety, which means returning to campus late at night, from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m., and the other is for health, such as off-campus therapy appointments or off-campus doctor visits. I was appointed,” said Sarah Belagat ’27, head of the HUA Welfare Team.
HUA Co-President Ashley C. Adirika ’26 added that while HUA is still piloting the initiative, the student body wants to demonstrate the benefits of the voucher program to the university.
“What we’re trying to do is implement this project so that universities can make a convincing case that this is something students need and this is something students will use.” said Adilika.
During the meeting, Vanessa C. Iwuoha ’26, HUA’s advocacy director, introduced a new subgroup within HUA called the “Unity Crew.”
According to an interest form circulated among HUA members, “These active subgroups are designed to build personal bonds while having fun.”
Adirika said this subgroup will help ensure that the co-chairs remain committed to their campaign platform of building a “united Harvard University” and that it will be an “informal gathering where we can get to know each other.” environment.
HUA Co-Treasurer Tobias Elbs ’27 announced during the meeting that the finance team received 234 applications from student organizations seeking HUA funding for the fall semester.
Elbs said the total requests from each organization are about $1 million, similar to last year’s total, and that funding decisions will be announced Sunday night.
At the meeting, HUA Co-Provost Jonathan Haileselassie ’26 asked the Faculty Committee to seek input on the dean search following Dean Rakesh Khurana’s announcement that he would step down at the end of the 2024-25 academic year. said it had contacted HUA.
“They reached out to HUA to find out what we thought, what students were looking for, what qualities and what qualities would make a student feel good about being at the helm of the university going into the future. We made sure that he is the kind of person he is,” Haileselassie added. He was unsure whether HUA would provide feedback through focus groups or conversations with administrators.
—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. X Follow him at @camsrivastava.
—Staff writer Adithya V. Madduri can be reached at adithya.madduri@thecrimson.com. X Follow him at @adithyavmadduri.
