The Crimson Key Society was founded on April 14th, 1948, with the purpose of helping show visiting sports teams around Harvard. It rapidly expanded however, and took on responsibilities such as hosting prospective students and publishing a school newsletter about extracurriculars and upcoming events on campus. Key was also responsible for creating an All-College Weekend, a “unique extravaganza that included a regatta, a square dance, and a masquerade ball.” 

Fast forward 75 years and the landscape of Harvard has changed quite a lot; Harvard has CEB to host more all-college events, many a newspaper to cover local events, and Visitas to host admitted students. The Crimson Key Society has also changed to adapt to the evolving needs of campus. We are no longer responsible for any all-college events, nor do we host prospective students or publish newsletters, but rather our main focus has transitioned to historical tours for tourists and special visitors, social events for first-years during orientation, and Project Teach, where we partner with local middle schools and give college talks and campus visits to young students. We also help staff events for First-year Family Weekend, Junior Family Weekend, and Arts First. 

Yet while many of our day-to-day activities have changed, our mission has remained the same: to help make Harvard a more welcoming and accessible place. We welcome tourists, visiting guests, middle-schoolers, students’ families, and incoming first-years. Many people are very intimidated by Harvard and think of it as an immensely strict and serious place, and we exist to help break the ice and make Harvard, and Harvard students, seem more friendly and approachable. Thus, the ideal Key member is someone who is able to be outgoing, friendly, and often, willing to be a little silly.

Due to its long life-span, Crimson Key’s existence has not been without struggle or controversy. Specifically, as Harvard has expanded to cover a lot of what Key originally did, a lot of our work has transitioned to be outward-facing and thus, a lot of campus does not really know what we do, and thus, feels we do very little. Additionally, Key has faced a lot of criticism for the exclusivity of its Comp process. Key was originally meant to be capped at 30 students, then capped at 30 per class, and recently, we have extended beyond 100 members. The number of tours we give and the number of days Harvard needs our help, however, has not changed, which means that as we try to allow more members in, each member is responsible for less and the issue of diffusion of responsibility increases. Thus, Key faces a predicament where it faces backlash both for the fact that members do not seem to do enough service and for the selectivity of its comp. 

Because of this, Key has been on a mission to change the narrative about us. We have been trying to be very intentional about increasing inclusivity, emphasizing service first, and improving our relationship with Harvard. I like to believe that we have come a long way and we have certainly built strong relationships with the various Harvard departments we work with. However, we seem to be in a bit of a catch-22 with the triangle of inclusivity, service, and social activities. More social activities can improve buy-in and therefore get more people to sign up for shifts, but we face more criticism for our exclusivity and not seeming serious enough about our service. On the flip side, if we want to focus on being more inclusive and let more people in, we tend to have less active members, as it’s hard to maintain the strong internal community with more people. Additionally, we then have fewer responsibilities for each member, again, making us seem not serious enough about service. If we try to emphasize our service oriented approach by expanding our service and/or decreasing our social side of the community, we face losing our actual identity by outgrowing our specific mission statement and additionally, as our members become less invested in our community, they often become less committed to the service as well.

These are some of the issues that me, and Athena before me, have faced as President of the Crimson Key Society. Thus, we both tackled projects that, in some way, revolved around this constant balancing act and trying to improve our image while maintaining our strong internal community. Personally, I think I have focused so much on improving our public image, that I sometimes forget to build excitement within Key and emphasize how much I love Key and its community. Therefore, I wanted a project that focused both on helping strengthen our identity as an organization and get everyone feeling excited about Key and ready to buy in!