HSA 65th Anniversary Book

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21
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FEBRUARY 1, 2020 –
JANUARY 31, 2021
The coronavirus poses
an existential threat
FEBRUARY 1, 2021 –
JANUARY 31, 2022
In-person work resumes, and
HSA digs out from the pandemic
PRESIDENT
Akanksha
Sah
OFFICES
67 Mt. Auburn St.
52 JFK St.
65 Mt. Auburn St.
69 Mt. Auburn St.
34 JFK St.
Around the world
HARVARD
STUDENT
AGENCIES
HSA was on pace for another banner year when the coronavirus pandemic hit in full force. On March 10,
Harvard took the unprecedented step of ordering students to vacate the campus by the end of the week. In
just a few days, the FY21 team had to pack up their dorms and find new places to live while also closing down
HSA’s physical operations — without any indication of when they would return.
Some agencies, like Cleaners, Dorm Essentials, and the Harvard Bartending Course and Bar Services, were
forced to shut down completely; Dorm Essentials scrambled to remove all its products from students’ dorms
before they closed, and Cleaners issued $300,000 worth of refunds for laundry plans. Others, like Tutoring
and The Academies, had to transition to virtual business models. Campus Insights and DEV were, however,
able to continue normal operations remotely.
While almost all student managers worked from home over the summer, the permanent staff heroically
shouldered the remaining in-person operations. But what had once been a flood of revenues had slowed to
a trickle, and still-high expenses burned through HSA’s cash reserves. To stanch the bleeding, HSA sought
deferrals on its rents and received $300,000 in government loans through the federal coronavirus relief bill.
By the end of the year, the damage was evident: revenues were only $3.1 million — less than half the previous
year — and the number of student employees plunged from 754 in FY20 to 494 in FY21.
Despite all the setbacks, though, HSA’s can-do spirit shone through. The coronavirus’s shock to the system
forced the company to embrace more modern and efficient business models. For instance, The Academies
went completely online and actually exceeded the previous year’s revenues, despite costing customers just
a fraction of the price of the in-person programs. And HSA’s good friends Slack and Zoom kept the team
connected from afar, such as with the first-ever virtual Hail and Farewell, featuring an online mixology
course. Still, in hopes of giving them the traditional Cambridge summer they were denied, HSA graciously
offered every FY21 manager the chance to stay on for a redo in FY22.
All three storefronts of The Harvard Shop sat empty during the first few months of the pandemic, dealing
a massive blow to revenues. The Garage location finally reopened over the summer, and the Mt. Auburn
and JFK St. locations reopened in the fall. However, the university’s ban on hiring
Harvard students for in-person work meant that The Harvard Shop had to recruit
an entirely new team of hourly workers — and, for the first time, the shops were
staffed by non-Harvard students. As in-person retail slowly resumed, the team
also established protocols to keep everyone safe and healthy while doing their jobs.
One silver lining to all this, however, was that The Harvard Shop’s online sales
reached record highs this year.
With the pandemic raging, the summer of 2020 became the first summer in almost
60 years that no RW roamed the earth — and as a direct consequence, FY21
became the first year since Let’s Go’s founding that the agency did not publish a
single book. HSA, however, did compile and publish What Harvard Really Taught
Me: 30+ Accepted College Application Essays & Reflections on Life at Harvard.
PRESIDENT
George
Guarnieri
OFFICES
67 Mt. Auburn St.
52 JFK St.
65 Mt. Auburn St.
69 Mt. Auburn St.
34 JFK St.
Around the world
HARVARD
STUDENT
AGENCIES
Harvard stuck to a hybrid learning model in spring 2021, continuing to depress the company’s spirits and
bank account alike. HSA started the year teleworking — including training a new management team
completely remotely — but with COVID-19 vaccines available to all by April, the university happily greenlit
HSA’s circumspect plan to return to Burke-McCoy Hall over the summer, which included proof of
vaccination and regular testing. Students were given the option to continue to work from home if they
wanted, but about 80% of the FY22 team worked in person at some point in the year. The reunion led to
many warm embraces, new introductions, and at least one manager telling President George Guarnieri ’22,
“Whoa, you’re shorter than I thought!”
In March, HSA also began discussions
to acquire Trademark Tours, a longtime
partner of The Harvard Shop that ran
popular tours of Harvard’s campus
and its surroundings. The deal was
consummated in September, adding a
projected $1 million to HSA’s revenue and
more than 100 student jobs to its payrolls.
The acquisition also brought three new
permanent staffers into the HSA family,
including founder Daniel Bodt ’07.
Harvard finally returned to in-person instruction in fall 2021, allowing Cleaners and Dorm Essentials (now
branded together after years of effectively functioning as a single agency) to resume operations after more
than a year off. While some agencies, like the Harvard Bartending Course and Bar Services, remained
dormant all year, Distribution and Studio 67 also hit restart. In addition, The Academies reached its highest
revenue and net income in history, and Campus Insights turned a profit for the first time. All in all, revenue
and employment numbers rebounded to $5.7 million and 589 student employees — not as high as before
the pandemic, but enough to make HSA’s head honchos breathe a big sigh of relief.
The Harvard Shop fully redesigned its website to capitalize on the pandemic-induced spike in web sales.
All the cool kids took notice as the shop introduced a new, trendier line of products to appeal to a younger
demographic. GroupGear reopened after a year off and achieved the highest profit margins the agency had
ever seen. Most importantly, though, HSA signed a lease for a planned new Harvard Shop at 1380 Mass.
Ave., in the former Starbucks space in the heart of Harvard Sq., to open in 2022.
By spring of 2021 — when RWs needed to be hired
and travel plans set — travel bans were still in place,
and Let’s Go was forced to forgo another summer’s
worth of globetrotting. With non–Let’s Go titles on
hiatus too, it was the first year since FY59 that HSA
published no books whatsoever.
TITLES
• What Harvard Really
Taught Me
AGENCIES
AGENCIES
• HSA Cleaners
• Let’s Go
• Harvard Distribution
• Cronin Center for Enterprise
• The Harvard Shop
• HSA Dorm Essentials
• Harvard Bartending Course
and Bar Services
• HSA Tutoring
• GroupGear
• DEV
• Studio 67
• Campus Insights
• The Academies at Harvard
• HSA Cleaners and Dorm
Essentials
• Let’s Go
• Harvard Distribution
• Cronin Center for Enterprise
• The Harvard Shop
• Harvard Bartending Course
and Bar Services
• HSA Tutoring
• GroupGear
• HSA DEV
• Studio 67
• Campus Insights
• The Academies by HSA
• Trademark Tours
110 HSA 65th Anniversary History Book 111