Candace Gardner

Campus cruiser, beater bike, not-an-electric-scooter—the bikes Harvard students ride around campus go by many names. What they often all have in common is their various stages of disrepair. For many students, giving their bikes the Tender Loving Care they deserve rarely makes it to the top of the to-do list. Most bike shops are pricey, and students do not have time to make the trek off-campus, opting to instead risk their safety by operating a broken bike, or simply locking it and abandoning it.

In a 2022 interview with The Harvard Crimson, Dean Rakesh Khurana was asked to share a piece of advice with graduating seniors. His words of wisdom? “Don’t gratuitously drop the H-Bomb.” Upon acceptance to Harvard, most pre-college students are given that same advice. Do not tell people you go to Harvard or risk looking like a pretentious schmuck. What no one mentions is that you risk looking even worse if you spend five minutes tiptoeing around the question.

The expectation: Pitch Perfect, American Pie, Superbad. Frat bros standing over kegs. Packed dorm parties. Loud American music.