On the River Bank

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10.23.14 VOL. XLVI, NO. 5 CONTENTS FORUM 3 OMG My BFF Ritchey 4 Checking Self 5 6 Seconds or Less NEWS 6 Problems with Policy 7 Writing to Serve ARTS 8 Architectural Past SPORTS 9 Fighting for First 10 I'm On a Boat 11 Right to Live or Die? As Harvard College's weekly undergraduate newsmagazine, the Harvard Independent provides in-depth, critical coverage of issues and events of interest to the Harvard College community. The Independent has no political affiliation, instead offering diverse commentary on news, arts, sports, and student life.

For publication information and general inquiries, contact President Albert Murzakhanov (president@harvardindependent.com). Letters to the Editor and comments regarding the content of the publication should be addressed to Editor-inChief Sean Frazzette (editorinchief@harvardindependent.com).

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The Harvard Independent is published weekly during the academic year, except during vacations, by The Harvard Independent, Inc., Student Organization Center at Hilles, Box 201, 59 Shepard Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.

Copyright Š 2014 by The Harvard Independent. All rights reserved.

10.23.14

Are We Addicted to Texting?

Harvard’s New Sexual Harassment Policy

Recapping the HOTC

The Indy is excited for a new printer.

On the River Bank

Cover design by Anna Papp Photographs by Shaquilla Harrigan

President Albert Murzakhanov '16 Editor-in-Chief Sean Frazzette '16 Director of Production Anna Papp '16 News Editor Forum Editor Arts Editor Sports Editor Associate Sports Editor Associate Forum Editor Associate Arts Editor

Milly Wang '16 Caroline Gentile '17 Sarah Rosenthal '15 Shaquilla Harrigan '16 Peyton Fine '17 Aditya Agrawal '17 Michael Luo '16

Illustrator Yaara Yacoby '17 Designer Alice Linder '17 Business Managers Farhana Nabi '16 Manik Bhatia '16 Staff Writers Whitney Gao '16 Manik Bhatia '16 Terilyn Chen '16 Yuqi Hou '15 Chloe Li '16 Dominique Luongo '17 Orlea Miller '16 Albert Murzhakanov '16 Carlos Schmidt '15 Frank Tamberino '16 Jackie Leong '16 Andrew Lin '17 Madi Taylor '16 Shreya Vardhan '17 Peyton Fine '17 Michael Luo '16 Eloise Lynton '17 Caroline Cronin '18 Hannah Kates '18

Forum

BRB I’m #Unhappy Cell phone addiction is real.

I

am surprised that the dictionary doesn’t include a word that defines addiction to phones. Maybe in a few more years. So many of us are addicts, yet so few acknowledge it. I recall a time without a cell phone: without the need to constantly capture my daily actions and whereabouts. Without the need to constantly communicate with multiple people simultaneously, not matter how inane the conversation. Without feeling frustrated when I take a great Instagram, yet there is no geotag available. This newfound cellular addiction causes us to avoid conversation with people we don’t know, to detract from reality when bored, distract ourselves in class, and potentially bump into people while walking on the street. As an experiment, when I walk down the street I like to see how close I can get to someone staring at their screen until they look up at me (sometimes this experiment leads to awkward bump-ins but at least the person becomes aware of their unawareness).

While our cellular addiction is not as detrimental to our health as drug addiction or alcoholism, it does affect our lives in more ways than we recognize.

A study from Kent State University shows that participants with a higher frequency cell phone usage tend to have a lower GPA, lower satisfaction with life, and higher anxiety than participants who used their phones less often. Why is this? When we are on our phones, we can connect with others; through text, phone conversations, email, Facebook, Twitter, etc. When we bridge this connection, we immediately compare ourselves to others. Yet on social media, everyone makes a conscious effort to showcase their best self. For example, people will post a picture when they believe they look good, never the opposite. People accumulate wall-posts to show their popularity. SnapChats enable us to see people’s fun/funny daily activities. Of course it makes sense then, that when we only have access to other people’s The Harvard Independent • 10.23.14

indy

By RITCHEY HOWE

happiness, we will feel glum about ourselves.

For example, a study in Michigan involved asking participants five times a day for two weeks about how Facebook influences their subjective well-being.

Participants were texted about their current feelings. The results showed that the more people used Facebook, the worst they felt the next time they were texted.

Although Facebook does certainly connect us with others, it deteriorates our personal wellbeing.

So how can we improve our well-being and sense of self? Although the idea of simply deleting social media accounts and telling yourself to focus in class seems the most logical, we can all agree that it is easier said than done.

Instead, there are apps that help us monitor our phone usage. “Moment” counts how many minutes we are on it and pings you a reminder so you are aware. Although the application was originally free, it now costs $4.99. “Checky” is another free app that tells you how many times your phone is opened daily. However, neither

of these apps calculates the various ways we use our smartphones. I can’t help but find it ironic that in order to see how often we use our smartphones, we need to download another app for our smartphone.

As I walk around and see younger and younger children using smart phones, I recognize that this cellular addiction will not go away, but only intensify. Cellphones are becoming a greater part of our life. We constantly need service or Wifi, and carry around chargers in fear of losing connection to others for even a few hours.

While studies have only just started about the psychological affects of our addiction, we can already observe the negative side effects. I too feel the distraction and pull of my iPhone.

However, by becoming more aware of how my cell can affect my social outlook, I make a conscious effort to refrain.

Ricthey Howe ’17 (ritcheyhowe@college) did not write this article on her phone.

harvardindependent.com

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Let’s Check Our Privilege

Acknowledge the immense indulgence that Harvard affords us already.

By ADITYA AGRAWAL

H

aving multiple friends run for UC presidency comes with its perks (read: costs). Meals have lately been swamped with discourse concerning the UC’s precise place in the axis of student life. Of particular interest have been the initiatives that the UC can and should take place as a way of sustaining (or building) its relevance within the student community. Rabbits have been pulled out of magic hats; the most creative (and platformworthy) projects have been strategized in the course of a single meal. But in the course of these intrepid conversations, there is an aspect that has made its absence felt like one big sore thumb — an aspect that we, as students and as individuals need to ask: do we really need most of these projects?

‘Check your privilege’ is a trump card bandied all too often in a campus as invisibly divided along the fracture points of race and class as ours. It’s application assumes varying contexts: for the most part, with good reason; for just as many times, as a lazy one way street out of an argument. However, rarely do we ever question our own dispensations as members of the larger Harvard community; never do we pause to say, “Let’s check our own collective privilege”.

As students at the world’s most affluent university, we enjoy a range of facilities across and are coddled with freedoms that would be unimaginable in any university across the world. Having spent all my life in a third world country, I do grant that my perspective on things might be a tad skewed. For my defense, however, I have travelled extensively, and acquainted students in major countries across their world.

It irks me, therefore, when I hear friends and fellow students griping about their repulsively Harvard-world concerns.

Some of these egregious concerns that I would like to call out include the lack of nap rooms on 4 harvardindependent.com

“As students at the world’s most affluent university, we enjoy a range of facilities across and are coddled with freedoms that would be unimaginable in any university across the world.” campus, the lack of fresh fruit at breakfast, the lack of funding for more a extracurricular and so on. We already have libraries in the yard with furnishings that would beat 99 out of every 100 libraries in the world; the said libraries already contain the requisite apparatus for rejuvenation.

But privilege only breeds privilege, and we find our selves requiring an actual room with actual

beds. Given that college is supposed to be a form of segue to the world beyond, should we not be training to live life the way it would be lived outside our beloved Ivy? Rarely have I heard of workplaces having nap places. You work, and you go back — just as you should study, and go back.

Many of these concerns stem understandably from the obsession with the incredibly privileged viewpoint that college is more an experience than it is an academic journey; an extended experience that needs to be made as painless as possible with little frills and cheap thrills. Therefore, we ask ourselves pleading the administration for 250K to allot to more extracurricular activities on top of the existing pipeline of funding they receive — do we even

need more than half of these groups? I’ve had multiple friends ‘found’ new groups purely with the intentions of padding their resumes for law and/or medical schools. There is also a general obsession with extracurriculars on our campus that needs to be checked; it was Harvard’s reputation as an academic utopia that impelled me into applying, and ultimately attending this place. I have, however, observed that most students barely breeze through their academics to accommodate for their extracurriculars; rather than adjusting their extracurriculars to accommodate for their academics, which should always come out top. We should be content with the present levels of official funding that extracurricular activities receive, which by itself is gregariously appalling; in an ideal world (or in the real world and in the world outside Harvard and the Ivies) such activities receive as minimum of a funding as possible; if enough people are passionate about it, they will always find ways to raise money for it.

That being said, the UC serves the will of its constituents — the students, and will naturally demand more when the students demand more.

So the next time we make a demand, whether in a grumble to a friend or in an editorial in the Crimson, let us place things in perspective, and be thankful for everything this beautiful place has already given us and continues to give us.

Aditya Agrawal, ‘17 (aagrawal@college) is asking everyone to check themselves.

10.23.14 • The Harvard Independent

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indy

Heard it Through the Vine Some thoughts on the app.

By ANDREW ADLER

V

ine is a guilty pleasure. Heavy on the guilt. Light on the pleasure. Vine is a deceptive villain. With its six-second videos that play in a continuous stream, it’s way too easy to get caught in the web. Caught in the Vine you could say? While YouTube requires you to click a new video and displays the time at the bottom of each clip, Vines last exactly six seconds and allow you to move easily to the next by simply scrolling down on your screen. As far as interface goes, Vine is masterful. As far as content goes, Vine is horrendous.

When I watch an episode of any show in Comedy Central’s currently incredible lineup, I don’t feel guilty. I laugh, I enjoy myself, and I feel better. After watching several minutes of Vine, I question all of my life decisions. Typically, I mine through twenty minutes of Vine each night, sometimes five minutes here and there throughout the day. Ten Vines per minute means I watch upwards of 200 to 300 Vines a day. To be fair, a lot of these are repeats but still, a large number for sure. A depressingly large number.

While Vine offers clips of anything from sports to music to DIY, comedy is its golden goose. The downside of a six-second clip is that it can be difficult to develop jokes. Most “Viners” shy away from attempting any form of original humor.

Certain joke formats that require little thought guarantee the Viner a massive amount of “likes.” “[Certain race] be like” that obnoxiously display a, you guessed it, racial stereotype. A teenager complaining about school, not in a way that offers insight into universal feelings of teenage angst, but simply in a bratty tone. Or an oldfashioned slapstick routine. Post one of those Vines and you have a solid shot of making it to the popular page. Toss in the latest trending song and you’re golden.

In hindsight, Bo Burnham might be the biggest criminal of Vine. He is my arch nemesis.

His hilarious clips are what lured me into the asinine app in the first place. Amongst all the morons recycling memes found in the most obvious corners of the Internet, Bo found brilliant ways to offer fresh jokes in the small amount of allotted time. Bo was one of three or four people I actually chose to “follow” on Vine. His Vines were so good that people would recreate them verbatim and get extremely popular. Seriously, if you want to find something of value from Vine, go to Bo’s page. But one day, like my middle

content need significantly more “upvotes” than “downvotes.” This system works.

Another issue here is clearly demographics.

From what I can tell, middle school kids newly equipped with smartphones dominate the majority of Vine. I’m a little out of touch with that demographic. So, I kindly ask that you display videos on the popular page that are popular amongst people closer to my age. Yes, kids can and clearly will lie about their age on an app, but it’s worth a try. I get it; waking up for school in the morning sucks. Should we devote 200 vines to this feeling? Eh, probably not.

I offered solutions to a problem, which in the eyes of the creators of Vine isn’t actually a problem. For Vine, the user base has grown steadily over the years despite the introduction of a video feature to Instagram. This increase in users has led to money in the hands of the top Viners and of course, the creators of Vine. So, my complaints mean absolutely nothing. I continue to watch on a daily basis and see the more than occasional ad for the Badoo app, whatever the hell that is.

Because most of this piece has slammed the poor content and organization of Vine, it would only be fair to note that there are in fact many creative artists currently producing on Vine. For example, Evan Breen and Zachary Piona, both mild Vine stars, have really impressed me. It’s just really hard to find these guys through all muck. Hopefully, it’ll get easier. In the meantime, I’ll still be here.

"I also have a mild case of FOMO. I fear that if I don't watch 200 Vines, I'll miss out on the one or two good ones."

The Harvard Independent • 10.23.14

school girlfriend Jacqui, Bo abandoned me. He quit the app for very understandable reasons.

Namely, that it’s a massive waste of time.

So at this point, you might be thinking, “there’s an incredibly simple solution to your problem. You’re pretty dumb. Just stop using Vine.” I wish it were that simple. The reality is that I have a somewhat addictive personality and I’m used to the routine of Vine. I also have a mild case of FOMO. I fear that if I don’t watch 200 Vines, I’ll miss out on the one or two good ones. But that makes me sound weak. I’ll say it’s because I’m a noble person and I want to do what’s best for society. So, I’ll offer some potential solutions to Vine’s content problem.

Instead of putting a video on the popular page for simply having the most “likes,” adopt a reddit-esque system where Vines get upvoted or downvoted. Reddit, the so-called “front page of the internet” doesn’t have a content problem.

The content that makes it to reddit’s equivalent of the popular page is generally really good.

In order to make it to the FrontPage of reddit,

Andrew Adler (andrewadler@college) can’t quit Vine despite its many flaws so he’ll continue complaining about ways to make it better.

harvardindependent.com

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News

Reform or Regress?

The new sexual harassment policy.

By HANNAH KATES

A

university-wide policy designed to address and combat the issue of sexual assault has run up against a rather sheer wall of opposition within the Harvard community. The comprehensive policy, first unveiled over the summer, garnered media attention after twentyeight members of the Harvard Law School faculty published a letter in the Boston Globe decrying legal procedures that “lack the most basic elements of fairness and due process.”

This sudden upheaval in Harvard’s a p p r o a ch t o t h e i s s u e o f s e x u a l harassment is far from unforeseen. The New York Times made plain one driving impetus for change, noting that the federal government “has threatened to withhold funds from universities that do not have adequate sexual misconduct policies”; more than seventy universities are currently under investigation for having inadequate systems in place to address cases of sexual harassment on their campuses. Law professor Janet Halley, one of the authors of the letter and a contributor to NPR’s segment about the new policy, elaborated that “this document has been generated while the university and law school are under investigation by a government agency that has committed itself to a course of over-reaching,” and some of the policy’s shortcomings can be attributed to “political furor and legal pressure.”

Halley explained her opposition in legal terms. The Law School’s superseded policy, she said, included a clear definition of sexual harassment and applied an “objectively reasonable standard”; this 6 harvardindependent.com

reasonableness requirement is absent from the new University policy, inviting people to bring weak claims to the Title IX office that may, for example, have express social conflict without amounting to sexual harassment. She cited the structure of the Title IX office - a “compliance office, required to generate more complaints and more students held responsible” - as a second major problem with the policy. It is “the prosecutor in some cases, the investigator, the adjudicator and the appeals board, and its sole task is to get this Title IX furor to go away. So at every stage, that office will be deeply invested in the rightness of what it did at the prior stage,” she told the Times. A third issue, the one that those of us not steeped in law might find easiest to grasp, is that at no stage does the policy require that the accused be shown the complaint on which his or her defense must rest. Finally, in providing “ample support services” to the complainant and “not one iota of assistance” to the respondent in each case, the new policy creates a dangerous situation for students who struggle financially, especially because cases must progress so quickly that accused students will have to scramble for advice. While Harvard Law School provides funds to its students for legal counsel, the University does not, so accused students are put at risk by the policy’s lack of regard both for their legal rights and their ability to represent themselves.

Meanwhile, some students have vehemently voiced their support for the policy. A sophomore interviewed by the

New York Times called the law faculty’s letter “a step backward”; several student groups, including Our Harvard Can Do Better and Harvard Students Demand Respect, voiced similar sentiments about the letter and expressed a wish for even more stringent policies. The policy’s opponents are certainly not claiming that the university’s efforts are entirely misguided; Halley added that “it’s entirely possible to take sexual assault and violence and wrongdoing seriously — to take the terrible things that are happening to some young women in our community seriously — without also expressing indifference to justice for people who are accused.” But “it squanders the moral authority of a legal system to announce, as this one does, that it intends to be applied in an over-broad way without due process for persons accused,” and, in Halley’s view, “it’s going to backfire against core values that we all share about sexual harassment itself.”

Hannah Kates ’18 (hkates@college) is reporting the facts.

10.23.14 • The Harvard Independent

News

indy

Speaking about Serving Learning about public duty.

By HANNAH KATES

O

n Friday October 10, 2014, the FAS Standing Committee on Public Service hosted a symposium featuring six panelists focusing on what Harvard can do to expand current public service opportunities in conjunction with the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching, Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard Alumni Association, Office of Undergraduate Education, and Phillips Brooks House. The symposium discussed ways and models that other universities have developed to increase public service experiences available to their students inside and outside of the classroom and how Harvard can begin to improve its own model.

Michael Smith, the Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, moderated the symposium. The six panelists included James Kloppenberg, the Charles Warren Professor of American History and member of the FAS Standing Committee on Public Service, Mark Gearan, the President of Hobart & William Smith Colleges, and former official in the Clinton Administration, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, the Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and of African and African American Studies here at Harvard University, Eric Mlyn, the Executive Director of DukeEngage at Duke University, Carol Muller, a Moorman Simon Fellow in Civic Engagement of the Netter Center and the Director of African Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania, and Agnieszka Nance, the Interim Executive Director of the Center for Public Service at Tulane University.

In the panel, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham discussed the social engagement initiative that she launched when she started as chair in 2007.

“These courses, concepts, principals are actually challenged, sometimes refuted on the ground,” she said when referring to what the students learn inside the classroom as opposed to what might happen outside in the world.

The research that her students have done have helped address the issues that the faculty and her colleagues talk about and research about. The areas of focus are mainly health related and arts related.

“I started this curriculum in order to say to our students that you can be smart, do academic work, but still be able to do it on the ground,” she said.

Over at Duke University, the program DukeEngage, which started in 2007, funds undergraduates to do civic engagement work in The Harvard Independent • 10.23.14

the summer. Eric Mlyn said that they have 39 different programs in US and abroad, and these programs are all built by the faculty and staff. They are dedicated towards fully funding the student experience, which includes Health insurance, transportation, and waiving the summer financial aid contribution for program participants.

This summer, Duke students have accomplished 1 million hours of public service to date through this program.

“It is now the leading reason that high school students state on their applications for their motivation for applying to Duke,” He said proudly.

“They mentioned it more than they mention basketball.”

But why is it important to become a civically engaged campus? And why now of all times? Given the current crisis in America’s higher education, Myln believes that civic engagement is a response, and possibly a solution, to all of the questions surrounding the learning of students, the rising cost of higher education, the debt crisis, and more.

Carol Muller agrees. “We are using the university as a resource to solve problems.” She said in reference to the current public service program at Penn.

They are working hard to integrate community into the curriculum and on developing an academically based community curriculum.

“In dealing with increasing diversity in our student body, I do think that community service is one way,” She said.

“The knowledge they bring to the table is not necessarily academic knowledge,” she said about the community participants. “But we see it as partnership, we don’t really think of it as service.”

She thinks that there are all kinds of ways in which this development can be very exciting for teaching.

Agnieszka Nance feels that public service has changed the identity and campus culture altogether, saying, “There’s a huge change in student body and faculty.”

Their center supports 150 courses a semester, which is a huge undertaking and would not be possible without the support of faculty. The key strength of their program, she believes, is the centralized system. With that, the faculty can just turn to one place to obtain all of the resources that they might need. The most important component is the mentorship aspects that their students receive.

“The internships are also academically rooted,

and they usually have an internship placement based on their major or minor,” she said, referring to the students and their choices in internships.

The key, she noted, is to try to centralize all of the resources so that people understand what Tulane is about and what our mission is.

In response to all of this, James Kioppenberg said that he would like to see Harvard follow the lead of the other universities.

“We think that it is time for Harvard to do the same,” he remarked. “John Dewey made the argument for the shift from the passive regurgitation of information to the more active engagement.”

He stated the results of what works when it comes to learning is pretty obvious.

“What works is active student engagement, what doesn’t work is passive regurgitation of information.”

His goal is for the College to channel that motivation and energy that the students have for public service into courses that take advantage of the scholarship that the school can offer.

“What we’d like to see is a much more robust program at Harvard that takes the few initiatives that are already in place and expand it.” He declared. “We need the coordination, support and resources for our faculty to follow the steps of other universities.”

Mark Gearan agreed with this. “It’s the reflective component brought into classes that is very significant, and that separates it from the pure service component.”

Muller remarked that public service at Penn has really changed the way she thinks about fieldwork.

When students do fieldwork in foreign countries, they don’t have to accountable to the people there once they leave. But by having these students do local community work, they learn the importance of “everything must be given back to the community in some way”.

“I think that this is the stuff that really matters,” she said. “In the past, the community had gotten upset with the way a graduate student was engaging with the community.”

“The students are now much more sensitive to not exploiting communities,” she said.

Milly Wang ’16 (keqimillywang@college) is excited to serve her community!

harvardindependent.com

7

Rambling Ruins An exploration of the architecture of Nazi Germany.

By ANDREW LIN

T

hrough moldering archways and crumbling columns wind grim and mossy paths, streaking their way past ancient Corinthian capitals and decayed statues and all the detritus of the ancient world. This is the ruin archetypical, the classic picture of the remnants of the classical world, assembled for future generations to stare at and journey through, overawed at the grandeur of the empires that once were. Aesthetic comment aside, however, the architects and engineers of both past and present do not design their buildings with this ideal directly in mind: indeed, ruins for them stand as much a symbol of impermanence, of the fleeting nature of even the greatest human constructions, as of the endurance of empires past. For one uniquely modern regime, however, the idea of the ruin held great promise not only for its ruler, but for its chief architect as well. Before tearing through Europe in a spree of conquering, Nazi Germany in general and Adolf Hitler in particular were obsessed with the preservation of their thousand-year Reich in brick and stone. And in the architecture they left behind lies the same lessons inherent in all ruins: a reflection of culture, of occasional triumph, but inevitably also of downfall.

Certainly Hitler had at least some more background than most in the arduous task of designing a comprehensive architectural style for the Third Reich — the classic portrait of Hitler as art-school-failure-turned-dictator already does enough to support such an idea. Indeed, even his failure to enter art school was in some ways fueled by his own interest in architecture: the pastoral unpopulated watercolors of buildings and cottages he submitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna were ultimately rejected for being an architectural rather than artistic portfolio. These early paintings do reflect Hitler’s future predilections for both the pastoral and the grand, with rural landscapes jostling with grand and florid renditions of the aging landmarks of Vienna, the last trappings of the once-great Austro-Hungarian Empire. Hitler renders both with a meticulous eye, carefully delineating rustic bricks and fading facades, with the few people present merely dabbed in, splotches of rogue paint inhabiting the landscapes and buildings of Hitler’s Vienna.

The influence of these early artistic exercises in nostalgia is clearly visible in the stylistic guidelines he envisioned for the Germany he came to 8 harvardindependent.com

rule in the 1930s. Although Hitler came to power just as the flourishes of Bauhaus German modernism were emerging, his choice of architect for the new infrastructure of the Third Reich was the young Albert Speer, whose imposing neo-classical visions appealed to Hitler’s ideas of grandeur.

Among the many ideas Speer fed Hitler, the concept of ruin value — of designing buildings with their future ruins specifically in mind — was among the most prominent, and Hitler eagerly took it to heart as the best expression of the permanence of his soon-to-be empire. The idea was certainly not a new one: though Speer states that he originated the concept, ruin-mania in the 18th century culminated in the construction of a new castle-like ruin to appeal to the rulers of one vassal state of the Holy Roman Empire.

The commissions Speer was able to execute for Hitler, however, were designed to turn ruinvalue into a national architectural paradigm. To preserve continuity between the Greco-Roman ruins of yore, Hitler and Speer forbade the use of modern reinforced concrete and steel in Nazi Party constructions, with historically-appropriate marble and stone as substitutes. The style in which these materials were to be assembled was a strict-laced classicism, with solid columns and arches that would stand picturesquely a thousand years onward as testaments to Aryan strength. The first Nazi Party commissions of the empire evinced this much: the Nuremburg Parade Grounds featured huge planes of amphitheaterstyle seating fronted by grand arches and flags, all sprawling over a site some 12 square kilometers in area. The Berlin Olympic stadium was of similar construction, with Speer adding a stone façade over a previous design Hitler regarded as impudently modern. All over Nazi Germany, this same style predominated: even the German autobahns were constructed as much as an aside to the ancient Roman network of viaducts as out of military necessity.

These constructions, however, were but minor trifles compared to the Nazi vision for a reinterpreted Berlin. Speer and Hitler created grandiose visions of the Berlin of the post-war world, comprehensively tearing up the fabric of the old city in exchange for a new world capital. The centerpiece of this German city for the ages was an enormous People’s Hall, a huge governmental gathering hall to feature a dome as tall as the

Empire State Building supported by endless avenues of colonnades stretching over a thousand feet in length. Such buildings had been attempted in small scale in both architectural and engineering terms, the former through Speer’s own Reich Chancellery expansion and the latter through the building of several enormous concrete piles designed to simulate the stresses of such enormous buildings. The former was adored by Hitler for its luxurious trappings and materials; the latter, however, quickly demonstrated that any attempts to build his People’s Hall would end in a mess of subsumed soil and collapse. Such smaller-scale experiments, however, were all Speer’s dreams ultimately amounted to: the outbreak of World War II siphoned off the materials Speer so desperately needed to attempt any more constructions, and he was ultimately reassigned to manage armament production.

Like most modern ruins, what remains of Speer and Hitler’s imposing buildings never managed to acquire the historical patina of beauty characteristic of the ruins of empires past. Buildings such as Hitler’s beloved Reich Chancellery which survived the plundering of materials for war were soon themselves victims of bombing raids, artillery bombardments, and air-strikes — forces far more destructive and far less romantic than sweeping winds and the slow decay of nature. Those buildings that survived the sacking of the once-great German cities now for the most part stand desolate and empty: the hastilyassembled concrete edifices of the Nuremburg Parade Grounds now rot away in fields, their former glory starkly eviscerated by museums and history books. Some buildings, however, stand not with the same ignominy: Berlin’s Olympic stadium survived the war relatively unscathed and has hosted multiple soccer cups, and the German Autobahn still connects an ethnicallydiverse and fully-integrated Germany. And with that spirit, the spirit of repurposing and reuse of the old for the expression of the best in humanity, ruin value and the ideology of empire is perhaps best refuted.

Andrew Lin ’17 (andrewlin@college) writes this from Mather library, whose bare concrete columns bear a rather striking resemblance to the square columns of Speer.

Photo-illustration by Anna Papp/The Harvard Independent

10.23.14 • The Harvard Independent

indy

Sports

On to the 6th?

Harvard Football Hopes to Continue Win Streak.

By SHAQUILLA HARRIGAN

B

oy, were the preseason polls at the 2014 Ivy League Football Media Day wrong. I’m sure that all nine of the people who voted Princeton first are slowly sinking into their seats. Harvard, just one point behind the Tigers, was polled second in the Ivy League despite sharing the 2013 Ivy League Championship.

Alas, Harvard football made it quite clear that they do not come second to anyone. The evidence? Five consecutive wins over old foes and new enemies, including Georgetown.

The closest margin so far has been the 22-14 win over Brown

The Harvard Independent • 10.23.14

earlier this season.

Most recently, Harvard beat Lafayette 24-14 at home last Saturday. The stadium was filled (by Harvard standards, anyways) with fans as the then 24/25 Crimson took on the Leopards. This win marked Harvard’s 24th consecutive non-conference win.

Harvard started the game explosively with an impressive 78-yard touchdown by wide receiver Andre Fischer ‘16.

Harvard was now 10-0 with a 24-yard field goal attempt earlier in the game by senior Andrew Flesher. Standout running back Paul Stanton Jr. ‘16 gave Harvard its second touchdown after a 43 yard run. The Crimson’s next touchdown was scored in the middle of the third quarter by tight end Ben Braunecker ‘16. Braunecker scored with a 31-yard run.

Despite Harvard’s energetic start, the team seemed to get a little complacent with their lead as the game progressed. Quarterback Scott Hosch ‘16 seemed to be a little shaky in his fourth consecutive start for this season. Hosch had 11 complete passes over 203 yards.

After the Crimson’s third and final touchdown of the game, the Crimson could only stave off any attempts from Lafayette to score. Harvard’s defense was key to maintaining the Crimson’s lead; The Crimson defense only allowed two touchdowns. Defensive end Dan Moody ‘16 cheekily sacked a Lafayette player towards the end of the fourth quarter. Moody’s sacked added a

jolt of energy to the Crimson’s play. Linebackers Eric Medes ‘16 and Jacob Lindsey ‘16 lead defense with 9 sacks each. It should also be noted that Lafayette literally could not stand up to the Crimson’s play given that the Leopards had 3 leg injuries during the game.

Harvard’s dependence on defense during the Lafayette game is not enough for the Crimson to beat Princeton this Saturday, much less maintain their perfect record. Given the dramatic loss in 3OT to Princeton last season, the Crimson needs to tighten up its game on both sides. Despite Princeton’s current 3-2 record and third place standing in the Ivy League, one can be certain that this matchup won’t be easy. Princeton will want to try their hand at continuing to dominate Harvard in their 107th match up.

However, given how strong the Crimson has been and the crop of talent on the roster, the Crimson stands an excellent chance at revenge. The Crimson’s tenacity will be key not only in this game, but the following four games as well.

For the rest of the season, the Crimson will take on other members of the Ivy League. Hopefully the Crimson can carry their momentum forward towards a perfect season and an Ivy League Championship.

Shaquilla Harrigan ‘16 (sharrigan01@college) wishes the Crimson good luck this Saturday.

Photographs courtesy of Shaquilla Harrigan harvardindependent.com

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Sports

A River Runs Through It (and Harvard Rows for It) The HOCR celebrates its 50th Anniversary

photo courtesy of Shaquilla Harrigan

By CAROLINE C. CRONIN

T

he Head of the Charles Regatta is the world’s largest two-day rowing event. Competitors and spectators come from all over the world to take part in the celebration of tradition and athletic excellence. The first Head of the Charles Regatta took place on October 16, 1965 and was founded by D’Arcy MacMahon, Howard McIntyre, and Jack Vincent — Cambridge Boat Club Members — who worked with the advice of Harvard Sculling coach Ernest Arlett. It was the English Ernest Arlett who suggested a “head of the river” race similar to those held in Britain. The term is not what one would expect it to mean — it has nothing to do with the location of the race on the river’s course — but rather “head” races signify the regattas that are usually 3 miles long. All of the boats in each event race against each other and against time. The boats are staggered for safety and efficiency. The winners of each event are bestowed with the special title of “Head of the Charles”.

Since the origin of the regatta, it has grown exponentially and was turned into a two-day event in 1997. This year 10 harvardindependent.com

marked the 50th anniversary (relatively young for Harvard standards) with 9,000 athletes in 61 different race events and 400,000 spectators.

The New England weather seemed to put on its best colors for the event as the time for peak foliage was at hand and Cambridge never looked better. Students identified themselves by wearing their respective teams’ colors, but the men and women of Harvard were particularly distinguished in the rich hue of crimson, something we shared with the leaves of the sycamore trees lining Memorial Drive.

As onlookers walked along the riverbank, stopping by the food vendors and meandering through the tents selling HOCR merchandise, they made sure to cheer during their favorite races. Harvard University did well on our native waters, of course! Harvard University had five men’s teams in total among the Saturday rowers. The two teams for the Men’s Club Fours placed 14th and 33rd, respectively. The three teams in the Men’s Club Eights placed 3rd, 8th, and 19th. Sunday followed with the Men’s Championship Fours placing 10th. The two Men’s Championship Eights teams

placed 3rd and 30th. The Men’s Lightweight Eights teams placed 2nd and 5th.

The Radcliffe women made their supporters just as proud with an 8th place finish in the women’s championship event. The second Radcliffe team finished 23rd of the 34 teams. The speed of sculls, the grace of the athletes, and the historic spirit of the river made this a special regatta by any standards.

As our classmates, friends and/or teammates did just that this weekend, we got to celebrate another fall favorite in New England — one that will most certainly live on for another fifty years alongside the powerful and the beautiful Charles River.

Caroline Cronin ‘18 (ccronin@college) is looking ahead to the 2015 Head of the Charles Regatta.

HOCR by the numbers

11,000+

athletes from all over the world who competed

61

different race events held over the

400,000 spectators 1,400 volunteers $50 million added to the local economy numbers from CBS Boston

10.23.14 • The Harvard Independent

Sports

indy

Life is Beautiful The decision to choose life.

By PEYTON FINE

H

is name is Steve. Steve was a star safety for the Washington State football team.

Steve was a special teams star for the New Orleans Saints. You may remember Steve blocking the punt in the Saints first game back in the Superdome after Katrina. Steve was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Physically, Steve went from an athlete at the height of his career to a man confined to a wheelchair who speaks through a computer and eats through a tube.

That’s Steve physically. However, Steve the man is now an activist, an innovator, and a father. All of Steve’s new titles arrived after being diagnosed with ALS. In recent weeks, an article has spread around the news circuit and the internet about a young woman who chose to die “on her terms.” The young woman was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive form of cancer that was terminal. She moved to Oregon where doctor-assisted suicide is legal under “die with dignity” laws. She has chosen the date, location, and the observers for her final moments. People have praised her for her decision calling it “courageous” and “inspiring.” In all of these instances, the option to choose life was overlooked. The idea of fighting the disease just seemed incomprehensible. The idea that something good, even beautiful, can come from suffering seemed foreign. I write this article because life, regardless of the way it looks, is always an option.

Back to Steve. His full name is Steve Gleason. In 2011, Steve was diagnosed with ALS. ALS is a degenerative muscular disease that debilitates a person into a wheelchair. It strips individuals of their motion, their eating, and their speaking. Ultimately, even breathing becomes an issue. For Steve, all of the above has occurred. He is left with his full mental capacities and the use of his eyes. People with ALS can live for years in this condition if they choose to go on a ventilator to aid their breathing. Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with ALS just after he turned twenty-one. He is currently seventy-two.

Like Hawking, Steve has chosen to continue to live, work, and pursue his passions, including starting a foundation for those fighting ALS. The foundation supports research in finding a cure for this disease as well as provides tools for ALS patients to live with ALS. The foundation has built a “smart home” for ALS patients to control household items like the lights or the television. The foundation works to improve technology for those battling ALS. Steve speaks using his eyes to control a tablet that speaks with a recording of his voice, as Hawking does. He recently met with Bill Gates to advance the technology further to improve the motion of his wheelchair. The foundation was even responsible for the fad that was the ice bucket challenge. Steve took part from his wheelchair.

I outline all that Steve has done to both praise him, but also to point out that his decision to not give up on life has merited fruit for the world. His life is not comfortable. He literally cannot move or speak, but he has his mind. He has his spirit, his family, his son. His choice for life has made a difference in the lives of so many. His decision to live has made sure that one more child has a father, and one more wife has a husband. It has advanced research to find a cure for a deadly disease.

I, myself, have been moved by Steve. Steve though lives just two blocks away. I often see him in the park behind my house with his son and wife. His humility is awe-inspiring.

I see a man in a chair that just five years earlier was just retired from football, yet he did not give up. His hope is unseen anywhere else. He takes on a disease with no known cure and continues to attack it from all sides by coming up with therapeutic technology and researching cures. His simple presence in this world is a reminder to me that life is precious and beautiful in all forms.

The Harvard Independent • 10.23.14

photo courtesy of Team Gleason

To the young woman who has chosen to “die with dignity,” I cannot understand what you are going through. I don’t know what your family is going through. I am not in a place to say anything negative about your decision. I am, however, in a position to say that the decision to choose life has been overlooked time and time again when this topic has come up. The silence on the decision to choose life by nature relegates it to a second-rate choice.

Calling someone who chooses to die “courageous” makes it seem like living in a less than ideal capacity is cowardly.

Thank you Steve for your decision to live. Your simple presence inspires me. Your work in the community makes a difference in the lives of so many with ALS or affected by the disease. Your life spawned more life in your son who will forever carry on your work and name. Your decision is what spawned this story and hopefully makes people realize that death is not always the only choice. That good can come from suffering, and that life is beautiful in all its forms.

Peyton Fine ’17 (peytonfine@college) wants people to recognize the value in choosing life in all of its forms, to realize the fruits that it can bear, and to see how life is beautiful.

harvardindependent.com

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