Visiting Students Reflect on Strange Year at Harvard

When she first came to Harvard last fall as a visiting student from the Federal University of São Carlos in Brazil, Lígia S. Barbosa was expecting “a pretty exciting” experience in Cambridge.

She was not, however, expecting to witness a massive cheating investigation, two University-wide closures resulting from the weather, an email search scandal, or a deadly act of terrorism.

On April 15, standing one mile away from the scene of carnage at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, Barbosa felt “a little overwhelmed” as she approached the end of a year that was peppered with dismal and unusual events for Harvard and the larger community.

Yet looking back at her year in Cambridge, Barbosa pointed to interactive classroom environments and a wealth of extracurricular opportunities as the things she will remember most about her time here.

She and others in the Visiting Undergraduate Student Program, who are now preparing to return home after one or two semesters at Harvard, say that the abnormal events of the year, while disruptive, did not spoil their overall experience.

CHEATING IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Marco C. Y. Chu, who is visiting from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, had heard many stories about cheating rings in Hong Kong universities.

Back home, these cases typically involved no more than a dozen students who were often overcommitted to extracurricular activities.

So when he first learned of Harvard’s investigation into approximately 125 cases of alleged cheating in Government 1310 at the start of the fall semester, he was taken aback.

But while he called the scale of the scandal “astounding,” he said that upon further reflection, he was not surprised that it had happened at Harvard.

“Harvard students have a lot of ties [with one another],” he said.

“The fact that people are so tightly linked together contributes to the possibility that more people are likely to be involved.”

Chu was one of several visiting students who downplayed the cheating scandal even as it garnered international media attention.

Daniel Themessl-Huber, a visiting student whose home institution is the University of Vienna, said the scandal had “not changed” his impression of Harvard.

“Students are sometimes under pressure, and I think it could have happened anywhere,” Themessl-Huber said.

Can M. H. Knaut, from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, echoed Themessl-Huber’s feelings, reflecting on the unavoidability of such incidents.

“You cannot expect a few thousands of people to have that high a moral standing, and not do that kind of things,” Knaut says. “[Students] are all human.”

Chu noted with fondness the fact that he encountered neither dishonesty nor carelessness throughout his time at Harvard in spite of the cheating scandal.

For Barbosa, the most surprising part of the scandal was not the cheating itself, but rather the administration’s severity in responding to the incident.

In February, administrators indicated that roughly 70 students had been asked to temporarily withdraw from the College in connection with the scandal.

“If caught cheating in my home university, you would just get a zero in that exam. The worst thing that could happen might be getting expelled from the class,” Barbosa reflected. “I think what happened here was good. I am not used to so much strictness, but it was fair. I would like to see something like that happen in Brazil.”

TERRORISM UP CLOSE

April’s Boston Marathon bombings and subsequent manhunt, however, came as more disturbing to many of the visiting students interviewed for this article.

Chu described his experience with the bombings from the vantage point of Harvard as “more or less like getting a close taste of what terrorism is”—a terrifying episode dissimilar from anything he had seen back in Hong Kong.

“It’s shocking for me to know that a horrible incident can be found near your community, especially coming from a society as safe as that of Hong Kong,” he said.

Knaut, an enthusiastic runner, remembered sending an email to his parents back in Europe soon after the bombings to assure them, even from a distance, that he was safe and unhurt.

Chu said he was also very scared during the manhunt for the suspected bomber, which shut down the University and the larger Boston community for a full day on April 19.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but not in a good way,” Chu reflected.

During the manhunt, Themessl-Huber dared to venture onto the deserted streets of Cambridge for a few minutes with a group of friends.

“Everything was empty, only a couple of people walking around. It was actually very tragic. I had never experienced something like this,” he said.

Knaut said that though he was horrified by the bombings and their aftermath, he was happy to witness the reaction of the people of Boston and the nation more broadly.

“I felt upright solidarity, which was impressive. The way America dealt with it strengthened community at a national level,” he said.

Using similar words, Barbosa recounted being positively surprised by the surge of community spirit in the aftermath of the bombings.

“I was very touched by the American population, and by how they reacted.”

DEFINED BY OTHER THINGS

Despite the disruptions throughout the year, visiting students said that ultimately their experience at Harvard was defined more by the richness of everyday life than by a handful of abnormal days.

Themessl-Huber said he was “absolutely not disappointed” by his experience, citing “a different teaching style, closer ties to your professors, and a more intimate community” as factors that contributed to his happiness at Harvard.

“I loved my semester here. This has not changed because of things that nobody can prevent,” he said.

For his part, Knaut said that academic exploration and the opportunity to try his hands at graduate-level classes made his Harvard experience rewarding.

Chu, who said his time in Cambridge was shaped by Harvard’s interactive model of education and “vibrant” social life, struck a reflective tone in rendering judgment on the year.

“The important thing,” he concluded, “is what you do in spite of tragic or dismal events.”

—Staff writer Antonio Coppola can be reached at acoppola@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @AntonioCoppolaC.