At Final Fall Meeting, HUA Allocates Funds for Airport Shuttles, Reading Period Event

The Harvard Undergraduate Association funded an airport shuttle program and a “reading period recharge” event at its final general meeting of the semester Tuesday evening.

The body allocated $10,000 from the HUA’s Executive Team and Finance Team budgets toward the shuttle program, which will provide students free transportation from River and Quad Houses to Boston Logan Airport as they travel for winter break.

The shuttle program comes after long-standing student complaints that taxis and rideshare apps between the airport and Harvard Square can cost upwards of $100 during peak commuting hours. Though the HUA’s shuttle program will be free to undergraduates, students can pay $2.75 to take public transportation from the Harvard Square T station to Logan.

HUA Co-President Ashley C. Adirika ’26 said the group plans to provide the shuttle service for three of “the most popular days that students are leaving campus,” adding that the HUA will also send out a pairing form for students to share rides to the airport.

The HUA also allocated $400 from the Social Life Team toward a “reading period recharge” event. Early next week, the HUA will provide students with free J.P. Licks hot chocolate and Insomnia cookies outside the Science Center plaza as students begin preparing for exams.

“The Social Life Team wants to have some sort of way to help students recharge, relax, and have some winter treats during reading period because it is such a stressful time of the year,” said Tsion A. Daniel ’27, the HUA’s Social Life Team Officer.

Daniel added that the Social Life Team has distributed all $2,000 in the HUA’s “Fun Fund” — which provides groups of three to 10 students a subsidized outing worth up to $15 per person — to applicants and will allocate additional money to the fund next semester.

The HUA’s Inclusion Team allocated an additional $1,000 of its team’s budget to bolster the HUA’s Affordable Laundry Initiative, which will provide free laundry detergent in the 45 laundry centers across campus. The HUA previously allocated $1,300 toward the initiative.

HUA Inclusion Team Officer Lily E. Liu ’25 said the rest of the Inclusion Team’s budget for this semester will go toward the laundry initiative, and noted the funding is intended to show Harvard administrators about the need for subsidized laundry on campus.

“We might just use this information to tell admin about the need for laundry discounts,” Liu said, acknowledging the HUA does not have enough funding to provide free laundry for all undergraduate students.

During the meeting, HUA Extracurricular Team Officer Joel O. Crawford ’26 also announced that the HUA is soliciting applications from club leaders for the new “Student Organization Leadership Council,” which Crawford said will provide a direct link between the HUA and leaders of student organizations.

“We’ll meet at least once a month to talk about issues that different student orgs are experiencing on campus,” Crawford said.

HUA Co-President Jonathan Haileselassie ’26 said the HUA’s Harvard-Yale merchandise fundraiser — which encouraged students to purchase Harvard-Yale hoodies designed by the HUA — was “successful” in raising money, which the HUA plans to distribute to student organizations.

“As a fundraiser, it’s been pretty successful,” Haileselassie said. “We’ve raised a couple thousand dollars for student clubs, and so that’s really exciting.”

—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.