At First Spring Meeting, HUA Allocates Funds for Datamatch, Valentine’s Day

At its first meeting of the semester, the Harvard Undergraduate Association assembled virtually on Super Bowl Sunday to pass funding requests for Datamatch and a Valentine’s Day fundraiser.

The body allocated a total of $4,000 from the Social Life, Inclusion, and Extracurricular teams to support Datamatch, an online matchmaking service run by Harvard students. Datamatch results will be released on Valentine’s Day, and funds are to be used on website costs and date expenses.

The vote for Datamatch’s funding was non-unanimous. Before the vote, members responded to an inquiry about why Datamatch, a registered student organization, was requesting additional money to the $519 they received in the fall semester through the HUA’s official club funding process.

“It’s historically been funded by the HUA and the UC,” Inclusion Officer and former Datamatch co-president Lily Liu ’25 said.

“I think they do get some funding through normal club funding, but this has usually been a special grant,” Liu added. According to a slide presented at the meeting, Datamatch received a special request grant of $6,000 last year.

Members also voted to approve the allocation of $500 from the Executive Team budget to purchase 250 roses for a Valentine's Day fundraising flower delivery service.

“What we’re thinking about doing is buying a lot of roses in bulk and then doing a Valentine’s Day fundraiser where students can buy a rose or have it delivered to their significant other or a friend or a stranger,” Co-President Jonathan Haileselassie ’26 said.

The other three funding proposals passed at Sunday’s meeting were allocations of $42 and $250 from the Social Life budget to support costs for the freshman and Currier Super Bowl watch parties, respectively, and $130 from the First-Year Team’s budget to reimburse a headshot photographer.

HUA Co-Treasurer Tobias Elbs ’27 also said during the meeting that club funding applications for the spring semester close Monday night and they will be holding office hours Monday in the Leverett dining hall for anyone with individual questions about the process.

The meeting also included a recap of last year’s Winter HUA Transportation Program from Co-President Ashley C. Adirika ’26 and Co-Director of Advocacy Joshua T. Eneji ’28.

“This was a huge event, run over three days, impacted hundreds of students who were able to ride the shuttle for free from campus to the airport,” Adirika said.

“This was a super successful, super exciting initiative, and we’re really happy with the way it turned out,” she added.

Spring goals for the HUA were also discussed at the meeting, with an emphasis on continuing the mission of building a “united Harvard” through programming and advocacy.

“In terms of what we’re looking to do for the spring, essentially a big thing is continuing on the momentum that we had in the fall,” Haileselassie said. “And our goal in terms of building a united Harvard, that’s still at the forefront of our mission and our programming.”

With upcoming April HUA elections in mind, the co-presidents also discussed last semester’s selection of a new Election Commission and ensuring a smooth transition of leadership.

“I’ll also add two of the other things that we are focused on. One is making sure that we are in a good place in terms of thinking through transitioning from this composition of the HUA to whoever comes next, as well as continuing on any initiatives related to fundraising and helping support us financially,” Adirika said.

Almost 45 minutes before the Super Bowl kicked off, the meeting ended with a message in the chat from Haileselassie, who wrote: “Go CHIEFS.”

—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.