It’s no secret: If colleges were graded on the school spirit of the student body, Harvard would earn an F. Despite boasting the largest Division 1 athletics department in the entire nation, sports arena bleachers are consistently barren of “hoo-rah” and fans. Despite succeeding in one of the most exclusive admissions processes undergraduates face, Harvard students seem more likely to complain about Harvard’s administrative and academic shortcomings than praise the university’s elite level of resources. And despite the school’s massive brand presence, one could more easily find a tourist wearing a Harvard sweatshirt off campus than an actual student of the College.
But the idea of “school spirit” stretches beyond the visual images of crimson-clad football fans. At its core, the concept represents a level of community, identity, and belonging among a student body. These ideals extend beyond pure fandom and seep into an institution’s level of pride, enthusiasm, and teamwork. Perhaps most importantly, this spirit contributes to a sense of social solidarity, touted by theorists such as Emile Durkheim, where everyone is invested in a common goal of success and togetherness. Without it, universities run the risk of fostering a sense of individualism and self-isolation.
This research aims to dive deep into the reality and extent of this campus dilemma. After all, this criticism is no new development. The Harvard Crimson published editorials tackling Harvard’s lack of school spirit in 1994 and 2002, each noting eerily similar trends of quiet student sections at sporting events and disinterested students. Although the authors were optimistic of a culture change, two decades have passed without perceived improvement. Why has Harvard failed to foster this collective culture that is so celebrated elsewhere?
School belonging, defined by educational psychologist Carol Goodenow as “the extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others in the school social environment,” can have incredible effects. Measurements of belonging in both high schools and universities can even serve as predictors for future grades, feelings of self-worth, and the externalization of problem behaviors. Drawing from research about “psychological ownership,” I argue that fully expressing school spirit involves students 1) feeling a sense of agency, 2) satisfying a need for belonging, and 3) investing themselves in their university. Student and administrator actions can enhance or detract from each step of the way.
I set out to survey sentiments of the Harvard student body, uncover the root causes of any noticeable trends, and suggest campus initiatives to increase student solidarity, belonging, and ownership. In order to reach a large number of Harvard undergrads and explore specific experiences, I sent a survey to a random selection of upperclassmen Houses and first-year dorms, resulting in 130 total respondents from all grade levels and all upperclassmen Houses. I also conducted an informal in-person roundtable discussion with two interested undergraduates, Xander ‘23 of Currier House and Sydney ‘23 of Leverett House (real names anonymous per request).
The Numbers
Harvard’s school spirit has an official grade: 2.47 out of 5. This number is largely consistent across demographic variables, financial aid level, and legacy status. One Currier sophomore reported that “Harvard school spirit is so lame. Barely anyone supports sports or performances,” while another voiced that “we have no chants or anything when we go to games, and no games are big events except home openers and Harvard-Yale.”
However, survey respondents averaged a 3.29 ranking in response to the prompt on greater Harvard belonging, with an even higher 3.54 when asked if they considered Harvard “home.” The difference in opinion between school spirit and school belonging reveals that there may be other external factors that prevent students from feeling a true school spirit.
In fact, the hesitancy to reveal one’s status as a Harvard student —- 2.63 out of 5 — correlates much more closely with the school spirit average. Survey results found that undergraduates wear at least one piece of Harvard apparel an average of 1.44 days of their typical week, with one third of respondents reporting that they never wear Harvard clothing. However, some respondents noted that this hesitancy may result from the Harvard brand. A junior in Quincy wrote that “wearing Harvard clothes feels obnoxious, especially at home — it makes a statement.” Xander elaborated further. “Whenever someone wears a Harvard something, it can suggest you’re proud of your elite status, rather than just the place,” he explained. “At least that’s what some people assume, especially if you’re not around Cambridge.”
Does the elite status of Harvard discourage students from outwardly revealing their school affiliation? Or instead, does Harvard’s selective identity actively limit its students from fully buying into collective school spirit? This research alone cannot provide a perfect answer, but the end result is the same: Harvard students generally opt against wearing the Harvard name.
Interestingly, first-year students seem to begin their Harvard experience with above-average spirit, only to sharply decline sophomore and junior year. Undergrads grow to prioritize and invest in their smaller clubs and residential halls, but it takes time for first-years to find these groups. Instead, the first-year experience emphasizes class-wide activities. Xander wondered if Harvard could somehow recreate it. “You have to concentrate what people want to do in one place. Berg is where I had the most school spirit.”
Why Don’t We Have School Spirit?
The survey also asked respondents about their feelings on Houses and extracurricular activities. Students overwhelmingly expressed a higher level of House spirit than Harvard spirit (3.51 vs. 2.47), as well as a noticeable increase in House belonging versus Harvard belonging (3.71 vs. 3.29). However, no measure of belonging could rival that of campus clubs and organizations at 3.77 out of 5.
This clear shift in opinion exposes the decentralized structure of Harvard. “There is a strong identification with your House, but it does make me less interested in Harvard-wise things,” said Sydney. Perhaps this is why several respondents cited Housing Day as one of the only times where they felt a great sense of Harvard school spirit: It channels the energy and connection they feel to their House into a campus-wide event. In quite ironic fashion, Harvard undergraduates are celebrating their separation from each other.
Students feel the greatest amount of belonging in their campus clubs and organizations. By self-selecting into these groups, undergraduates find communities of people with similar social, academic, and cultural interests. But because Harvard undergraduates invest themselves so heavily in these activities, they tend to deprioritize cross-campus events.
Overwhelmingly, Harvard students’ first choice of activity on a free Thursday night was to hang out with close friends, with an optional club meeting following in second place. On average, students opted to work on an assignment due Monday before attending House intramurals or watching a varsity athletics event. These results reveal Harvard undergraduates’ consistent prioritization of close friend groups, campus clubs, and academics.
Harvard itself may also attract a student body that is less interested in partaking in a collective school culture. In the words of one Currier junior, “the kind of kid that comes to Harvard isn’t the kind that would be super into school spirit as it is.” Sydney echoed this sentiment: “Harvard students are very worried about their future and they spend less energy on engaging with the school and engaging with each other. How do you make everyone feel connected when the ‘everyone’ has such diverse interests?”
Another reason that may account for Harvard’s school spirit problem is the clear lack of a sports culture. Averaging an attendance of 3.26 varsity games per semester, Harvard undergraduates spectate a tiny fraction of the approximately 100 events per semester across its nation-leading 42 Division I teams. For context, Harvard Football alone hosted five home games in the Fall 2021 semester, all of which were completely free of charge for students. And since 80% of respondents attended the annual Harvard-Yale football game, it is likely a majority of students who reported attending just one varsity event per semester only went to The Game. Therefore, the true attendance average is even lower when excluding the Harvard-Yale weekend.
Sports can be a valuable way to foster a sense of school spirit. A varsity athlete himself, Xander admitted that “there can be these moments of collective effervescence where everyone gets together and says ‘Go School!’ Sports is really the only avenue that we do that, even as a society.”
However, using varsity and intramural game attendance is not a completely accurate way to measure a student’s connection to Harvard, as one Currier senior expressed. “I don’t think it’s fair to judge school spirit based on sports game attendance,” they said. “For instance, lots of people like to give Harvard tours, and people run for student government. You can identify with the school and feel a responsibility to make it better.”
Building a Spirited Harvard
Harvard students generally prioritize close friend groups and organizations, quick to invest themselves and develop a collective identity within smaller subsets of the campus population. And responses suggest undergrads only attend campus events if they go with friends or are supporting a friend in that game or performance.
Perhaps, then, the most effective way to encourage cross-campus events is to incentivize attendance for tight-knit groups. For example, extra funds can be dedicated to performances which involve a cross-section of Harvard’s talented art groups (e.g., an acapella and improv show), or the College can host campus-wide events that reward friend groups participation (e.g., team trivia nights). Non-sport intramural events can even offer rewards (e.g., special brain breaks) to the House with the most attendees. These gatherings can occur right before certain varsity games as official tailgates to attract more undergrads to spectate. Phone apps such as Crimzone Rewards, which gives prizes for “checking in” at varsity games, should be made more known throughout Harvard’s campus.
“We need more moments where we can all gather as a collective and Harvard needs to facilitate them,” said Xander. “We should have a CS50 fair but for everybody. I want to see what everybody is doing.”
Furthermore, there is a clear issue when a first-year reports that “half the time I don’t even know Harvard events are happening.” Campus programming should be more widely and centrally publicized. Currently, clubs have the sole responsibility of making posters and Facebook events, but their success at outreach depends largely on the capacity of individual members away from other responsibilities. The website “the Hub” attempts to centralize campus events, but it mostly serves to organize club leadership rather than offer undergrads a complete roster of upcoming events. The College would benefit from creating a system dedicated solely to listing and categorizing upcoming organizational events.
Lastly, Harvard should adopt a real mascot. By having a symbol of the school to cheer on, as well as merchandise to wear around campus and back home, a mascot can provide an image that unifies the largely decentralized campus. Over 70% of survey respondents agreed that Harvard needed a mascot, and when asked on a scale of 1-5 if a mascot would be a positive influence on their college experience, survey respondents averaged 3.20.
Xander elaborated that “once you have something manifested, you can channel your energy into something physical, rather than an abstract concept.” Otherwise, as one Currier senior reported, “Harvard’s lack of mascot and insistence on calling it’s sports teams ‘the Crimson’ contributes to its pretentious image, making it hard to connect with school pride as a whole.”
And put succinctly by one Currier junior: “We need literally any mascot! Literally any!”
From previous conversations with students, as well as extensive personal thinking on the topic, I offered two mascot options up front: the turkey and the lobster. Winning over one third of the entire survey sample, the turkey proved the favorite. Their remarkable prevalence around campus offered a uniquely unifying image and motivated student thinking. The turkey is also a Thanksgiving nod to the unpopular caricature of John Harvard the Pilgrim sporadically used as a mascot twenty years ago. This is not the first time Harvard students suggested choosing the turkey as a mascot; hundreds expressed interest in a 2016 campaign. Nearly 15% of students opted for the lobster, due to its crimson coloring and strong connection to the Boston and New England area.
20% of respondents believed that Harvard does in fact need a mascot, but preferred other options. “We gotta one-up MIT with some intellectual animal, or an animal that displays leadership and innovation,” said a Lowell sophomore. “Dolphins, crows, gorillas, … but no pilgrims or John Harvard, ENOUGH with the white men.” Sydney expressed concern that the popular options may be too silly. “I think humor’s great… For Harvard specifically, maybe the administration would disagree.”
Although some research participants voiced that “cookable” animals may offer easy inspiration for opposing team heckles, even more expressed how a unique mascot may be the perfect rallying figure for Harvard undergraduates. “A funny mascot brings people together because it’s just a joke, it’s so college-y,” Xander explained. “Humor’s a way to get that collective effervescence, and if the mascot doesn’t get press in that way, nothing truly will.”
Despite the overall eagerness to adopt a Harvard mascot, the sentiment is not completely universal. Almost 30% of the undergraduate respondents claimed that Harvard did not need a mascot at all. Several participants claimed that they would never meaningfully encounter a mascot because they don’t attend enough sports games.
However, mascots can appear at school functions completely unrelated to sports, and the image itself can be used on merchandise and College promotional material. Each upperclassman House already has a mascot that appears on sweatshirts, crests, and interior decorations — rarely ever at intramural events themselves. Moreover, an effective mascot can possibly attract students to varsity games or school-wide gatherings, or at least provide a “conversation starter,” as phrased by one respondent. Overall,the majority of students agree that a mascot would provide a net benefit to the school and its campus-wide spirit.
“Fight Fiercely, Harvard!”
Although the survey attracted a large number of respondents from across Houses and social years, the research findings do not come without its limitations. The pandemic has prohibited the types of school-wide, in-person gatherings that I recommend. However, I believe that these post-pandemic conditions necessitate present-day action, and the College should take meaningful steps to bring its students closer together after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Additionally, definitions of “school spirit” can vary person-to-person. For some students, wearing Harvard apparel exhibits pride; to others, it exhibits elitism and obnoxious bragging. Many undergrads argue that connections in smaller subsets of the community are crucial components of school spirit, while just as many point to consistently empty bleachers as proof of the opposite. Students may rate their school belonging high and express heavy involvement in activities yet report that Harvard College has little school spirit.
Perhaps Harvard’s status as an elite institution dampens outward pride, restricting undergraduates’ “psychological ownership” of the University. Or possibly, smaller House and club communities satisfy undergraduate needs of school belonging and personal investment, leaving little incentive to devote their limited capacities to the greater Harvard community. In this way, investing time into smaller groups adds to an individual’s sense of belonging instead of the collective’s sense of spirit.
I believe the most alarming results were not the consistent statements about the deficit in school spirit and cross-campus community. Rather, it was the frequency of ambivalence. Going into this project, I hypothesized that many of my classmates would express dissatisfaction with a lack of a Harvard “collective effervescence,” but I did not expect the sizable amount of students who just did not care.Whether they had no interest in a Harvard mascot or felt content to pursue their individual path alongside a close group of friends, some students saw little value in altering the status quo.
No one report or one school administrator can single-handedly change a school culture to prioritize campus spirit or Harvard pride, but I hope this article shows that this mission of increasing solidarity and collective self-worth is worth pursuing. The benefits of a strong school spirit can spill over into the psyche, attitudes, and achievements of Harvard undergrads far and wide.
I can imagine a student body chanting a memorized “Ten Thousand Men of Harvard” to the beat of a crimson-clad turkey conductor. I can imagine Harvard Stadium turning into a sort of upperclassmen Annenberg, with students eager to introduce themselves to fellow spectators despite living in different Houses, studying different concentrations, or having separate friend groups. I can imagine a more spirited Harvard. And after a year of social isolation, now is the perfect time to pursue it.
Click here to read the full version of the report.
Image by Ario Barzan is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
