The Harvard Crimson - Volume CXLV, No. 110

The Harvard Crimson The University Daily, Est. 1873 | Volume Cxlv No. 110 | Cambridge, Massachusetts | Thursay, October 25, 2018

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Harvard should not use one form of diversity to belittle another.

Two education experts spoke about the life and legacy of Fred Rogers.

Harvard field hockey faces an upcoming test against Dartmouth.

Design Dean Will Soon Step Down

By RUTH ZHENG Crimson Staff Writer

Harvard Graduate School of Design Dean Mohsen Mostafavi will step down from his position at the end of the academic year, administrators announced today.

Mostafavi, who has served as dean since 2008, endeavored to strengthen and expand the Design School’s reach in both academics and practice.

Under his leadership, the School saw financial aid increase and its student body grow by roughly 50 percent.

In 2014, Mostafavi led an ambitious fundraising initiative that raised money for financial aid, new studio programs, and expanded research both in Cambridge and around the globe.

He also championed the expansion of design education and degree programs in collaboration with other Harvard schools as part of his embrace of former University President Drew G. Faust’s “One Harvard” agenda.

He helped forge the Master in Design Engineering program with the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, a new joint degree in urban planning and public health with the School of Public Health, and an undergraduate program in architecture.

“I am proud of what we have accomplished together over the past 11 years, and I look forward to witnessing the School continue its collaborative ethos and engagement with Harvard and the world in the years to come,” Mostafavi wrote in an email sent out to Design School affiliates announcing his departure.

Mostafavi’s decision to leave his job comes after allegations of sexual and racial misconduct roiled the Design School last semester.

In spring 2018, Harvard affiliates began circulating a spreadsheet that detailed anonymous allegations of misconduct perpetrated by men in ar­

The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia leaves the Harvard Faculty Club in early 2018 and climbs into a waiting motorcade. AWNIT SINGH MARTA—Crimson photographer

Harvard Keeps Strong Saudi Ties

By SHERA S. AVI-YONAH Crimson Staff Writer

At noon on March 23, protesters gathered on MIT’s campus bearing red-and-black signs declaring “No Saudi War Criminal at MIT” and “End Saudi-MIT Collaboration.”

The protest — organized by local advocacy group Massachusetts Peace Action — was meant to draw attention to Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s March visit to MIT. Standing amid uni­

versity police and barricades, members of the group called on MIT President L. Rafael Reif to disavow Prince Mohammed and sever ties with the Saudi Arabian regime.

In a statement she gave to MIT’s student newspaper following the visit, university spokesperson Kimberly Allen said that “Saudi Arabia and MIT have a longstanding collaborative relationship focused on subjects of mutual interest.”

Allen added the partnerships bring female Saudi students to

study in the United States and support “the development of sustainable energy.”

The next day, March 24, Prince Mohammed visited Harvard. Roughly two miles away in Cambridge, there were no protests and no University press releases.

At the time, Vice Provost of International Affairs Mark C. Elliott told The Crimson Prince Mohammed participated in two private roundtable conversations at Harvard’s faculty club. Former University President Drew

G. Faust did not meet with Prince Mohammed, citing a prior commitment; University Provost Alan M. Garber ’77 entertained the Saudi royal in her stead.

The Harvard Gazette, a University-run publication, did not cover Prince Mohammed’s visit to campus. The Saudi government was less quiet, issuing an official press release on March 24.

“The Kingdom has strong ties with various American educational institutions,

See SAUDI Page 5

Harvard Admissions Trial Hits Day Eight

Faculty Council Talks Surveys

By ANGELA N. FU Crimson Staff Writer

Harvard University Health Services Director Paul J. Barreira updated the Faculty Council on the mental health surveys UHS is conducting in concert with graduate students at the Council’s biweekly meeting Wednesday afternoon.

UHS is working with students at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Law School to develop surveys covering issues of mental health, Barreira and Leah Whitehouse, a research analyst at the Provost’s office, said in a presentation at the meeting. The initiative comes after a survey of Economics graduate students revealed high rates of depression and anxiety in the department.

Each survey was tailored to an individual department and most have seen response rates of above 50 percent, according to Barreira and Whitehouse.

Some surveys have earned a response rate of up to 80 percent.

These response rates are extremely high, according to David L. Howell, a council ­

See HUHS Page 3 Inside this issue

Harvard Today 2

FAS Dean Claudine Gay Gets Right to Work Crimson Staff WriterS

Claudine Gay stood alone at the podium at the Oct. 2 meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences to face Harvard’s flagship faculty for the first time as its dean.

“When you’re all together in one room, you’re very intimidating,” Gay said with a laugh.

Before getting down to business, she noted that the seafoam green color of the Faculty room — the place where Harvard’s professors gather once a month — matches the walls of her new corner office.

Gay may have a fancier office now, but it’s not her first time in a major administrative role. Just three years ago, former FAS Dean Michael D. Smith appointed Gay to serve as dean of Social Science, a position in which she made major decisions about the University’s hiring and curricula.

So Gay did not need to introduce herself to the scores of professors seated before her. Most were already well aware of who she is.

And even the most ­

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oblivious Harvard faculty member could hardly have failed to notice Gay’s appointment. She is the first new FAS Dean in 11 years, taking the role just after the University inaugurated a new president — but her assumption of the deanship attracted still more attention due to its unprecedented nature. She is both the first woman and the first person of color to hold the position since its inception in the early 1940s.

“Claudine Gay’s appointment as the first African American Dean of FAS sends a strong signal about the reach of President [Lawrence S.] Bacow’s and of Harvard University’s commitment to living into its values of diversity, inclusion, and belongingness; of being an institution where judgments about quality of mind and commitment to truth know no bounds of race or gender,” current Dean of Social Science Lawrence D. Bobo wrote in an emailed statement.

In an interview immediately after administrators announced her hiring, Gay said she hadn’t thought much about the

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Econ Prof Chetty Explores Inequality

See GAY Page 4

By Angela N. Fu and LUCY WANG

chitecture.

The sheet listed accusations against multiple GSD affiliates including Mostafavi.

Following the spreadsheet’s appearance, students hung banners — which are still on display in Gund Hall — that demanded institutional accountability and cultural change.

A group of female faculty members later spoke out in support of students’ activism.

The Design School has since implemented a series of changes including mandatory faculty Title IX training.

It also plans to hire a new diversity dean.

“I have learned so much from my interactions with our diverse community, and feel fortunate to have worked with an amazing group of colleagues who have been supportive of the School’s many transformative projects, sharing a passion for academic excellence as well as a commitment to change our society for the better,” Mostafavi wrote in his email.

When Mostafavi returned to Harvard — where he first taught in the 1990s — to take up the deanship a decade ago, he came fresh off a stint as professor and dean of architecture, art, and planning at Cornell.

Mostafavi has also taught at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Cambridge, and the Frankfurt Academy of Fine Arts.

Throughout his time as dean, Mostafavi remained a professor of design. He wrote in his email that he plans to return to teaching and research after a taking a year-long sabbatical.

University President Lawrence S. Bacow said the search process for Mostafavi’s successor will begin shortly, according The Harvard Gazette, the University’s in-house news publication.

The Graduate School of Design, located in Gund Hall, has an endowment of rougly $396 million.

historic significance of her appointment. She said she was wholly focused on the future of Harvard’s largest faculty.

Gay has wasted no time getting started. Since taking office on August 15, Gay has compiled the annual FAS Dean’s report, overseen Faculty and Faculty Council meetings, and worked to learn more about the school she will likely lead for years to come.

A BICOASTAL ACADEMIC CAREER Over the past three decades, Gay has mainly split her time between the two major educational powerhouses and perennial competitors that bookend the United States — Stanford and Harvard. She received her B.A. in Economics from Stanford University in 1992 before heading to Harvard to earn her Government Ph.D. She returned to Stanford in 2000 as a political science assistant professor and won tenure there in 2005.

She stayed at Stanford for a year after receiving tenure, but then left again to join Harvard’s Government department as a

Today’s Forecast

rainy High: 55 Low: 51

Raj Chetty ‘00, the William A. Ackman Professor of Public Economics, has returned to teach at Harvard. Melissa W. KWAN—Crimson photographer

By CECILIA R. D’ARMS Crimson Staff Writer

Economist Raj Chetty ’00 returned to Harvard this fall not just to teach but also to develop “Opportunity Insights,” a new institute of researchers and policy analysts working to reduce economic inequality in America.

The 30-person organization will collaborate with city governments and community groups across America to address disparities in economic opportunity that stem from race, education level, and place of birth, according to Chetty.

Chetty — the winner of both a 2012 MacArthur “genius ­

grant” and the prestigious John Bates Clark Medal — came back to Cambridge this semester after spending three years teaching at Stanford University.

In preparation for his return, the University renovated an open-plan Massachusetts Avenue workspace, building an office for the institute large enough to accomodate up to 50 people.

Chetty co-founded Opportunity Insights with Brown Economics Professor John N. Friedman ’02 and Harvard Economics Professor Nathaniel Hendren. The three economists co-authored a series of studies

See CHETTY Page 3

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THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

OCTOBER 25, 2018

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Harvard Today

For Lunch Grilled 3 Cheese Sandwich Spicy Chicken with Chilies Spicy Tofu with Green Beans

For Dinner Baked Meatloaf Chicken Piccata Farfalle with Cannellini and Basil Pesto

Today’s Events

in The Real World

Archives Open Hours Harvard Art Museums, 12 p.m.

Pipe Bombs Sent to Figures Vilified By the Far Right

The Harvard Art Museums is opening up their archives to Harvard students to show the old collections from.

Browse through Harvard’s history while avoiding your history paper.

When screening the mail of Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and multiple CNN offices, officials found pipe bombs, believed to have come from the far right. Trump has openly condemned these attempts and action is being taken to ensure the victims’ safety

How Bad Science Is Corrupting the Justice System Ames Courtroom, 5 p.m.

Held in the Ames Courtroom at Harvard Law School, a panel of experts will be discussing how incorrect or insufficient scientific evidence can sway decisions drastically in a courtroom. Fair warning, this may International Comedy Night with Hari Kondabolu Smith Campus Center, 7 p.m.

Join Hari Kondabolu for his comedy show in the Smith Campus Center as a part of Harvard’s Worldwide Week.

Check out his special on Netflix for a preview (or instead if you just can’t make it out of bed to go).

Tim Cook: Being Gay is God’s Greatest Gift to Me Chaplain Khalil Abdur-Rashid speaks to Professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad on Wednesday evening at an event in the Smith Campus Center. jocelyn wang—Crimson photographer

Daily Briefing Many American institutions are re-examining their ties to Saudi Arabia after Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed by a group of Saudis affiliated with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman earlier this month. But, despite its long-running links to the Saudi royal family, Harvard appears to have privately opted to wait out the tide of criticism.

In other news, Harvard’s Graduate School of Design Dean Mohsen Mostafavi will step down from his position at the end of the academic year.

Tim Cook’s sexuality was widely speculated on before he came out, but his ultimate decision came from his want to influence LGBT youth and show that their identity was something to be proud of.

Now as a CEO of a major corporation, he is able to show compassion and empathy to those in the minority as he once was.

US White Supremacist Leader Robert Rundo Arrested in California Robert Rundo, creator of the Rise Above Movement, was arrested earlier today at the LA International Airport for his part in inciting riots in Charlottesville. This came after he was thought to have been part of the group that organized attacks on the counter-protestors. One other who was charged in this incident still remains at large.

Around the Ivies Yale A new report by Yale’s committee of trustees details concerns about free speech and advocates for an increased number of professors of color at the university, according the Yale Daily News.

The analysis was the first formal University-wide assessment in almost a decade and cited interviews with 100 individuals affiliated with Yale, including students, faculty, alumni, and others. According to the report, alumni particularly highlighted the importance of the freedom of expression to Yale’s learning environment.

UPENN The University of Pennsylvania will now only allow students to transfer to its Wharton School or add a dual degree before completing four semesters, the Daily Pennsylvanian reported. The policy shift, which was never formally announced, has made transferring or pursuing dual degrees at Wharton difficult for some students. Students who want to pursue any of these options after freshman year are first required to complete six courses, some of which have caps on enrollment. Wharton administrators have said the new policy is meant to ensure students in Wharton have adequate time to immerse themselves in the business school.

CORNELL An independent student task force at Cornell is planning on submitting recommendations to change the University’s mental health policy in October. The task force, which was launched in February, has been conducting research into the current policies as well as mental health procedures at other Universities, the Cornell Daily Sun reported. The group has also contacted government and health professionals to consult them about “the medical implications behind providing mental health care.”

The University Daily, Est. 1873

The Harvard Crimson Derek G. Xiao President Hannah Natanson Managing Editor Nathan Y. Lee Business Manager

Associate Managing Editors Mia C. Karr ’19 Claire E. Parker ’19 Associate Business Managers Dahlia S. Huh ’19 Max W. Sosland ’19 Digital Strategists Jamie D. Halper ’20 Caroline S. Engelmayer ’20 Editorial Chairs Cristian D. Pleters ’19 Emmanuel R. R. D’Agostino ’19

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Blog Chairs Lydia L. Cawley ’20 Stuti Telidevara ’20

Technology Chairs Nenya A. Edjah ’20 Theodore T. Liu ’20

Sports Chairs Cade S. Palmer ’20 Jack R. Stockless ’19

Copyright 2018, The Harvard Crimson (USPS 236-560). No articles, editorials, cartoons or any part thereof appearing in The Crimson may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the President. The Associated Press holds the right to reprint any materials published in The Crimson. The Crimson is a non-profit, independent corporation, founded in 1873 and incorporated in 1967. Second-class postage paid in Boston, Massachusetts. Published Monday through Friday except holidays and during vacations, three times weekly during reading and exam periods by The Harvard Crimson Inc., 14 Plympton St., Cambridge, Mass. 02138 Weather icons made by Freepik, Yannick, Situ Herrera, OCHA, SimpleIcon, Catalin Fertu from flaticon.com is licensed by CC BY 3.0.

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Corrections The Harvard Crimson is committed to accuracy in its reporting. Factual errors are corrected promptly on this page. Readers with information about errors are asked to e-mail the managing editor at managingeditor@thecrimson.com.

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THE HARVARD CRIMSON | OCTOBER 25, 2018

Ed School Panel Talks Mr. Rogers

A panel of expers talk about Fred Rogers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. anthony y. tao—Crimson photographer By jANE Z. LI and Oliver L. Riskin-Kutz Crimson CONTRIBUTINGWriters

Two education experts and a documentary filmmaker discussed the life and legacy of Fred Rogers, the iconic star of the children’s show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” during a panel discussion at the Harvard Graduate School of Education Wednesday.

The panel, which consisted of senior lecturers Junlei Li, Richard Weissbourd, and documentarian Nicholas H. Ma ’05, was preceded by a screening of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”, a 2018 documentary produced by Ma detailing Fred Rogers’ life and career.

Moderated by Graduate School of Education professor Stephanie M. Jones, the panelists discussed why the lessons of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” are still pertinent to both researchers and people’s dayto-day lives.

According to Li, who specializes in early childhood education, many of the lessons spread

throughout “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” extend to his field. In an interview before the panel, Li said that there are three main themes from the show that stand out as significant.

“The first of the three is that we all learn and grow from human relationships,” Li said. “[Second] Fred says that it’s up to us...to give meaning to technology, not for technology to dictate meaning to us. And the last principle I think that comes so strongly from Fred’s show is what I said earlier about the commitment to the whole human being, the whole child.”

Ma said he was moved to make the movie partly because of the influence Rogers’ show had on him when he was a child; he even appeared on the show with his father, the acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma. “The opportunity thirty years later to bring it full circle and make a film about someone who I think was so instrumental for me was a great privilege,” the younger Ma said.

Julia M. Prochazka said she attended the panel at the invitation

CHETTY From Page 1

of a friend studying at the School.

“Mister Rogers was a big part of my childhood,” Prochazka said. “Kindness is something that we learned about as kids, and I think it’s nice to reintroduce it into your life if it hasn’t been around so much lately.”

Lauren E. Stauble, the assistant director of the Peabody Terrace Children’s Center in Cambridge also attended the discussion. After pausing to take a picture of Daniel Tiger, one of the puppets that appeared on the “Neighborhood,” she said Rogers’ work continues to influence the way she works with children.

Ma said he thought the current divisive political climate in the US contributed to his documentary’s unexpected popularity.

“We’re looking for this kind of balm that reminds us that there’s goodness in the world and that there’s commonality between people,” Ma said. He added that Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood could “help us rebuild a sense of who we are collectively.”

Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was not always harmoni-

ous, Li said.

“People were so different that the neighborhood actually came close to war, in some of the episodes,” Li said. “But then somehow, people figured it out.

And so it’s a world that never worked, but Fred dreamed and asked ‘why not?’”

During the panel discussion, Weissbourd remarked on a 2011 proposal by the Harvard Freshman Dean’s office to have incoming freshmen sign a document pledging to uphold the value of kindness.

The project notably drew skepticism from some University affiliates, including from law professor and former Solicitor General Charles A. Fried, who referred to the dean’s office as the “Taliban of 6 Prescott Street” in a Crimson op-ed.

“I just think that’s totally wrong,” Weissbourd said, referring to disagreement with the proposal. “You can be rigorous and you can also be kind.”

Li echoed the sentiment, quoting Rogers: “‘I have three lessons for you in life: be kind, be kind and be kind.’”

huhs From Page 1

HUHS Conducts Campus Surveys member and professor of Japanese history, who said previous national surveys of graduate students generally received response rates of about 10 to 30 percent.

Howell said the success of the surveys is likely due to the fact that UHS is working directly with students to develop questions.

“Bringing the students in as partners in designing the surveys to make the questions relevant for each project and having the student leaders feel invested in the project helps them to encourage their fellow students to respond to the survey,” Howell said.

Ph.D. students in the Economics department reached out to UHS after a previous survey found that the percentage of students reporting “moderate to severe” symptoms of depression or anxiety hovered at 15 percent and 23 percent, respectively.

Nationally, approximately 5 percent of the population reports moderate to severe symptoms of depression and anxiety.

UHS then worked with Economics graduate students to create a second survey on mental health issues. It administered the new mental health survey during the 2017-2018 academic year.

Since then, UHS has worked with graduate students from the Law School and several FAS departments — including Earth and Planetary Sciences, Integrative Life Sciences, and Physics — to develop new surveys. Each one contains department-specific questions as well as queries touching on a variety of topics including anxiety, depression, advising, work environment, and social environment.

The results of the surveys revealed differences between the

departments, as well as broader trends. In most departments, students who reported feeling connected to others were less likely to also feel depressed or suffer anxiety issues.

Howell said he hopes UHS will eventually reach out to all the departments.

“The results provide an opportunity for graduate students and faculty and staff in the department to talk about how things are, what might be changed,” Howell said.

“Being a graduate student is inherently a stressful thing, I think. Having been one myself, it is a stressful system so being aware of mental health issues is critical.”

The Council also voted to approve a proposal from FAS Registrar Michael P. Burke that will allow instructors who teach two-hour classes that start at 12 p.m. or 3 p.m. to delay their course start times by 45 minutes.

Burke previously said the most popular class start time is 12 p.m. — and that this made it difficult for students to find time for lunch.

Harvard University Dining Services later extended dining hall hours by 30 minutes to address the issue.

The new proposal is meant to further alleviate the problem by giving students more time to eat lunch.

Burke’s proposal earned unanimous support from Council members present at the Wednesday meeting. It will come up for discussion at the November meeting of the full faculty. Though the Council voted to support the proposal, their vote is in a purely advisory capacity.

The next full meeting of the faculty is Tuesday, Nov. 6.

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Back at Harvard, Raj Chetty Explores Income Inequality starting in 2011 that used census data to examine economic opportunity as determined by neighborhood, class, and race.

This research — initially called the “Equality of Opportunity Project” — gained significant national attention. The group’s 2018 study, which revealed a dramatic disparity in economic mobility for white and black men, landed on the front page of the New York Times website earlier this year.

In the wake of this publicity, Chetty said, policymakers began asking the economists how to solve the problems their research unearthed.

“We started to get more and more requests from people saying, ‘We want to use these research studies to actually change things.’” Chetty said. “A lot of people thought it would be really useful to have a team that would take that next step and be a bridge from research to practice.”

As a result, the three rebranded and, on Oct. 1, formally launched their new project: Opportunity Insights. Their team has grown from six staff members in January 2018 to 30 including 15 predoctoral fellows, seven policy staffers, and three “Research Principals” with offices in the lab — Economists Claudia D. Goldin, Lawrence F. Katz, and David J. Deming.

The team also recently launched the “Opportunity At-

las,” a free, interactive online map that lets users pore over anonymized census data to inspect economic opportunity levels across the whole United States or within a single neighborhood. The program also allows users to overlay any dataset they want for their own research purposes.

Opportunity Insights Communications Director Shannon K. Felton Spence and pre-doctoral fellow Federico Gonzalez said reporters and policy makers from cities across the country have used the Atlas for their own research. They also said journalists’ questions can sometimes guide the team’s own research.

“Sometimes their questions surprise us, but that’s sometimes good because we find new ideas from reporters who have explored this data farther and have new questions that we haven’t taken a look at,” Gonzalez said.

Though Chetty’s work has drawn international attention, he said he thinks his team will do some of its most important work at the local level via “partnerships” with municipal governments and local organizations.

“We’re focused on cities because we think that’s one natural lens through which to work with these issues,” Chetty said.

The policy team is currently coordinating with municipal

Harvard, from the Law School to Longwood.

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leaders in Charlotte, NC. Chetty said the team hopes to develop a “protocol” for engagement through its work with Charlotte which it can then apply to other partnerships — including a possible coordination with Boston.

“I came in for my interview, and they said, ‘We’re in the New York Times all the time, but how do we get in the Boston Globe?’”

Felton Spence said. “That’s a good place to work.”

Chetty is not teaching this semester but will offer his flagship undergraduate lecture Econ 1152: “Using Big Data to Solve Economic and Social Problems” in the spring. Chetty said the class, which is targeted to freshmen and sophomores, introduces students to economics by asking “big picture questions” about income inequality, education, and climate change.

“I taught this once at Stanford, and it was a great success,” Chetty said. “In terms of the number of people enrolled, it was larger than the equivalent of Ec 10. And the composition of the students was what interested me the most, many more women and minority students.”

While Harvard students will have the opportunity to be in the classroom with Chetty next semester, the popular class is already available in its entirety on Opportunity Insights’s website.

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THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

OCTOBER 25, 2018

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GAY FROM PAGE 1

Dean Gay Hits Ground Running professor. Government Department Chair Jennifer L. Hochschild said she had already tried to persuade Gay to work with her once before — years earlier, back when Hochschild was teaching at Princeton.

“When I was a faculty member at Princeton we tried very hard to persuade her to come to Princeton as an assistant professor, and she didn’t,” Hochschild said. “She went to Stanford instead.”

In 2005, Hochschild found herself courting Gay again. This time, it worked.

Government professor Daniel P. Carpenter, who served as a fellow in the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford with Gay, said many universities competed with Hochschild to win the young political scientist’s favor.

Gay was a hot commodity and highly sought-after at the time, Carpenter said.

“This is a person who has, a scholar who has, exceeded at the highest level of her profession,” Carpenter said. “I’m proud to have played a meaningful role in bringing her back here and I think it was a brilliant move by our department and by our university.”

Two years after arriving at Harvard, Gay was also appointed a professor in the African and African-American Studies Department. Her research has largely focused on American political attitudes and opinions, especially among minority groups.

This is a person who has, a scholar who has, exceeded at the highest level of her profession.

I’m proud to have played a meaningful role in bringing her back here.

Daniel P. Carpenter Government professor

Gay has co-taught Government 2576: “Racial and Ethnic Politics in the United States” with Hochschild for multiple years, including this past spring semester.

MIT Political Science professor Ariel White, one of Gay’s former graduate students, said she teaches some of Gay’s “groundbreaking” work to her current undergraduates.

“She was one of the first people to use survey data in the realm of racial attitudes that also kind of incorporated information about people’s contexts,” White said. “So not just what do people think about race or what do members of different groups think about any number of political things, but how does where they live and the makeup of where they live matter for how they think about things and how they act.”

Bobo, who first met Gay at Stanford, lauded the newly minted dean’s contributions to the field of African American studies.

“She is one of the leading stu-

dents of African American political thought and behavior, bringing a careful analytical eye and remarkably high level statistical skills to her work,” Bobo wrote in an email.

‘SHE GETS THINGS DONE’ Gay’s appointment to the FAS deanship is not the first time she broke barriers. In 2015, when Smith named Gay Dean of Social Science, she became the first woman to hold that position, too.

In accepting the offer, Gay assumed responsibility for a division housing some of the largest departments in FAS, as well as several museums, and research centers whose areas of study span the globe. Three of the five largest undergraduate concentrations — Economics, Government, and Psychology — fall under the social sciences.

Several of Gay’s colleagues within the division said she was always attentive to her faculty’s needs, remaining open to ideas and projects they wished to pursue.

“She’s interested in the activities of the faculty,” History of Science Professor and former Dean of the College Evelynn M. Hammonds said. “She’s just in many respects a real delight to work with because of her openness and her willingness to engage with faculty on any number of issues.”

History and African and African American Studies professor Walter Johnson said he benefited from Gay’s support on a number of projects and proposals — ranging in topic from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to prison education.

“Of the most positive and fruitful conversations that I’ve had with deans in my entire career, many of those, a very large number of those, have been with Claudine Gay,” Johnson said.

Sociology professor Mary C. Waters also credited Gay for her work in recruiting and hiring faculty within the division.

“She also worked with chairs for excellent hiring and shepherding promotions through in terms of faculty appointments,” Waters said.

During her tenure, Gay oversaw the hiring of FAS’s first tenured professor of Native American Studies Philip J. Deloria.

She was one of the first people to use survey data in the realm of racial attitudes that also kind of incorporated information about people’s contexts.

Ariel White MIT Political Science professor

“The hires of Phil Deloria, Joe Gone, and Tiya Miles take Harvard from a place about which one might have asked serious questions regarding the

institution’s commitment to Native American Studies and its Native American students to an institution for which those commitments are becoming a point of distinction,” Johnson wrote in an emailed statement.

Johnson said Gay’s accomplishments are one indication of her “institutional effectivity.”

“She gets things done. That’s not easy at Harvard sometimes,” Johnson said. “In her comparatively short time as Dean of the Social Sciences, she’s accomplished a tremendous amount.”

INEQUALITY IN AMERICA INITIATIVE Almost all of Gay’s colleagues pointed to her founding of the “Inequality in America Initiative” as one of her major accom-

We are just a faculty full of enormous possibility and what a huge advantage it is to teach and pursue our research in a setting with such a diverse and vibrant community.

Claudine Gay Dean of the FAS

plishments.

Launched in 2015, the program brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines to study issues of inequality. More than 50 scholars and professors across the University are currently involved with the program. Teams of researchers work to examine inequality both in America and abroad, as well as the way issues of inequality intersect with education, work, migration, and citizenship.

Waters, who leads a group of researchers focused on “Mobility and Migration,” said the value of the Initiative lies in its ability to bring people together.

“There were many people at Harvard working on inequality, and we were working very isolated from one another,” Waters said. “So she created the conditions where we could work together.”

Since its inception, the Initiative has held conferences and worked to recruit faculty studying inequality. Last year, the program held its first-ever symposium, inviting experts from across the country to deliver a series of talks.

The Initiative’s most recent accomplishments include establishing a postdoctoral program. The two inaugural postdoctoral fellows — both of whom started this fall — will remain at Harvard for two years.

The Initiative has already begun searching for fellows for the 2019-2020 academic year.

Though the program includes dozens of Harvard professors, its work has involved outside activists and artists, too, according to Johnson, who leads the “American Inequality, Globally” research team.

Together, participants have worked towards “the elimination or at least the reduction of inequality in the United States,” Johnson said.

“For me, that’s enormously exciting because one of the things that motivates me is the idea of trying to make our ideas consequential in the world, and it seems to me that’s a vision she exemplifies,” Johnson said.

ETHNIC STUDIES AND ‘ENORMOUS POSSIBILITY’ Now that she’s taken the rudder of the FAS deanship, Gay’s responsibilities have mushroomed. In her new role, she oversees three separate divisions and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, as well as the hundreds of departments, programs, centers, committees, research institutes, and museums housed under the vast umbrella of FAS. Gay said in early October that she spent much of her first few weeks on the job familiarizing herself with the enormous terrain over which she now presides. She said she hopes introductory meetings and conversations will allow her to “organically” form her priorities.

“Really what I’ve been doing for the last six weeks is walking around the FAS a lot and sitting and talking with people,” Gay said. “We’re so many different things so just the sheer size is something that has really been eye-opening, fortunately in a positive way.”

Gay will face challenges such as overseeing SEAS’s move to Allston in 2020, contending with a new tax on University endowments that will affect FAS funding, and balancing the needs and wants of her school’s different constituents.

Even before Gay’s selection, one group of students and alumni made their priorities for her deanship clear. During the search for Smith’s successor, the Harvard Ethnic Studies Coalition — encompassing nearly 50 student and alumni groups — wrote an open letter to Bacow advocating that he appoint an FAS Dean who would support and implement a formal ethnic studies program.

Gay said that, rather than creating a program right now, she instead wants to focus on continuing to recruit faculty in the field. She said she will return to the topic in the spring when she meets with ethnic studies proponents.

“I think we have to begin with actually building and strengthening that faculty,” Gay said.

At the October faculty meeting, Gay said she is optimistic for the future.

“We are just a faculty full of enormous possibility and what a huge advantage it is to teach and pursue our research in a setting with such a diverse and vibrant community,” she said. angela.fu@thecrimson.com lucy.wang@thecrimson.com

Transformative coverage.

The Crimson thecrimson.com

SEAS Will Invest In New Research

KARINA G. GONZALEZ-ESPINOZA—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

By LUKE W. XU CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

The School of Engineering and Applied Sciences will make efforts to expand two research areas—quantitative biology and quantum science and engineering—in the coming years, Dean of SEAS Francis J. Doyle III said in an interview last week.

We leveraged a big interdisciplinary cross-section at Harvard to great advantage.

Francis J. Doyle III Dean of SEAS

According to Doyle, the fields represent areas “where [SEAS] really can excel.”

Doyle described quantitative biology as an interdisciplinary field that integrates the use of quantitative methods, such as statistics, mathematics, and computer science, into biology research. Doyle said efforts to apply these tools to biology were “moving at a very nice clip.”

“The idea there is interrogating nature at a fundamental level. It involves data, it involves modeling, it involves quantitative analysis of measurements of images,” he said.

According to Doyle, these research efforts have been led by a “group of very interdisciplinary faculty” from across SEAS, the Sciences division of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Harvard Medical School. Doyle, who in part works in biomedical engineering, said he is also involved in the effort.

“I think we leveraged a big interdisciplinary cross-section at Harvard to great advantage,” Doyle said. “Getting down to understanding the mechanism, understanding biology, by bringing quantitative methods to bear on that.”

Doyle also said that SEAS fac-

ulty have “proactively been building an initiative” in the field of quantum science and engineering, which applies the principles of quantum physics to various disciplines, such as “information processing, signal processing, sensing, including applications to medicine, and of course computing.”

In the interview, Doyle said that SEAS faculty have brought in two new grants in the past month to work in this area.

This push towards fostering quantum technology research at SEAS comes as the federal government prepares to invest more heavily in quantum science. In September, the House of Representatives passed the National Quantum Initiative Act, a bill that

I would dare say we are behind many parts of the world in having the private sector or federal investment in this topic. So it’s refreshing, exciting, exhilarating that we’ll be able to celebrate these efforts .

Francis J. Doyle III Dean of SEAS

would create a 10-year federal program to advance quantum science development across the United States. The Senate has yet to vote on the bill.

Doyle said he thought the government’s interest in advancing quantum technologies heralded a “perfect time” for SEAS to ramp up its efforts.

“I would dare say we are behind many parts of the world in having the private sector or federal investment in this topic,” he said. “So it’s refreshing, exciting, exhilarating that we’ll be able to celebrate these efforts.” luke.xu@thecrimson.com

Page 5

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | OCTOBER 25, 2018

SAUDI From Page 1

‘Secretive, Dubious Ties’: Univ. Keeps Links to MBS including Harvard University, and it aims to further develop these ties,” the release read.

“The Saudi-U.S. partnership is strong across various cooperative levels, including education and research.”

The University’s relative silence during the March visit parallels a broader quiet about the ties between Harvard and the Saudi Arabian government. These links, whether established through donations or research partnerships, have drawn limited attention. They are listed at the bottom of web pages — if at all.

Prince Mohammed, who has become the de facto ruler of the authoritarian kingdom, has embarked on an ambitious reform program and sought in recent years to bolster his country’s connections to the West.

But after Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed by a group of Saudis affiliated with the crown prince in Turkey earlier this month, American businesses, lawmakers, and educational institutions are re-examining their relationships with Saudi Arabia and its heir apparent.

Harvard, it seems, has privately opted to wait out the tide of criticism. ­

A HISTORY OF TIES Harvard has a long history with the Saudi royal family.

In 2005, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal gave $20 million to the University, prompting Harvard to establish the Alwaleed Islamic Studies Program and to endow three professorships in his name. Days after the donation was announced, then-Congressman Anthony D. Weiner (D-NY) urged former University President Lawrence H. Summers to return the gift. Weiner

was unsuccessful.

Those professorships are today held by Divinity School Professor Ousmane Kane, art historian David Roxburgh, and religious studies scholar Malika Zeghal.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal — Prince Mohammed’s cousin — hasn’t exactly remained on good terms with the crown prince. Prince Mohammed imprisoned his cousin in a hotel in Riyadh last year as part of a sweeping effort to consolidate his power within the sprawling royal family.

In the 13 years since that first set of professorships, programs across the University have quietly formed partnerships with the Saudi royal family and associated entities.

After the 2005 gift, Center for Middle Eastern Studies Director William Granara said a Saudi national has since endowed a position in contemporary Arabic studies. Granara emphasized that the nature of the donation was personal, not political.

Granara added that the Center does not “have ties to any government.”

“When we get funds... a lot of them are actually [from] graduates of Harvard University,” he said. “If and when there is a situation in which we would look for, or we were approached by an official government from the Middle East who wants to give us money, we work with the development office. We don’t do that directly.”

At least two programs at the Kennedy School have formal connections to the Saudi government royal family. Per its website, the Evidence of Policy Design initiative “collaborates directly with policymakers” at the Saudi Ministry of Labor” to

identify opportunities for data and economic analysis meant to suppor local labor markets and social development.

Similarly, the Belfer Center’s Project on Saudi and Gulf Cooperation Council Security “is made possible through a gift from HRH Prince Turki bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia,” according to its website.

Earlier this semester — before Khashoggi’s murder — administrators met to reconsider the ethics of these partnerships.

In email correspondence obtained by The Crimson, Kennedy School Dean Douglas L. Elmendorf referenced an internal meeting held to address whether Harvard should continue collaborations with repressive regimes including Saudi Arabia’s. At the meeting, administrators discussed whether the school’s continued relationship with these governments might be construed as support.

At the end of the meeting, administrators did not determine a clear path forward, according to the email.

Neither Elmendorf nor representatives for the Kennedy School have publicly commented on Khashoggi’s death or the relationship between the school and Saudi Arabia.

In an email to The Crimson, Elmendorf acknowledged that the “Kennedy School has accepted money from Saudi Arabia for various research projects and teaching activities.”

“Our principal standards for such work are whether it maintains our tradition of scholarly excellence, whether it can be conducted without donors’ attempting to influence the conclusions of our scholarship, and whether it has positive ef-

fects on people in the societies where we are engaged,” Elmendorf wrote. “We believe that our work in Saudi Arabia meets those standards and have made no changes in that work at this point.”

But connections between Saudi royals and Harvard are not limited to CMES or to the Kennedy School.

Prince Mohammed conducts much of his international advocacy through the The Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Foundation (MiSK), an education nonprofit.

While Harvard websites make no mention of the group, MiSK’s site lists the University as an official partner.

The foundation sponsors a summer leadership development course held at Harvard.

An MiSK press release dated March 7, 2016 states that “MiSK Foundation has an agreement with Harvard University to allocate 12.5% of the 800 seats for MiSK students.”

MiSK has sent out multiple press releases and tweets about the collaboration replete with photos of smiling high school students posing in Harvard Yard. Arabic language news outlets have written about the partnership as recently as 2016.

Harvard, meanwhile, has remained mum.

Representatives for Harvard Extension School, which runs the Summer School, did not respond to a request for comment about the partnership.

‘LOOK WHO’S BUYING’ After the March protests against Prince Mohammed, the Cambridge City Council passed a unanimous resolution calling on Harvard and MIT to dissociate themselves from the Saudi government. At the time, nei-

ther university did so.

Since then, the regime — and its connections to the United States — have re-entered the spotlight.

The Saudi royal family is currently facing international scrutiny in the wake of Khashoggi’s death. Khashoggi, a one-time ally of the regime, disappeared on Oct. 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

After initially offering a counternarrative, Saudi officials have since acknowledged Khashoggi died in the consulate following what they called a drawn-out fight gone wrong.

Political leaders and analysts around the world have dubbed the Saudi story an attempt to cover up a premeditated assassination.

Representatives for the royal family have repeatedly denied any connection between Prince Mohammed and the events in Turkey.

These denials come as Turkish authorities gather mounting evidence that the Saudi government was responsible for the killing — and as experts on the regime say any order to kill Khashoggi must have earned the Crown Prince’s sign-off.

On Monday, MIT Associate Provost Richard K. Lester wrote in an email that MIT President Reif had asked him “to conduct a swift, thorough reassessment of MIT’s Institute-level engagements with entities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia” in the wake of Khashoggi’s death.

He added the journalist’s death and the allegations leveled against Prince Mohammed “are matters of grave concern to all of us.”

No Harvard administrators have released public statements since Khashoggi died.

Across the past two months,

The T closes. We don’t.

Breaking news, 24/7.

The Crimson thecrimson.com

some affiliates have questioned Harvard’s official Saudi ties, arguing their opaque nature renders them suspect.

Griffin N. Peterson and Yarden Katz, who are both affiliated with Harvard, wrote an editorial in the Guardian following Prince Mohammed’s March visit titled “Elite universities are selling themselves — and look who’s buying.”

Katz said he and Peterson wanted to highlight under-the-radar partnerships, not to “moralize.”

“There are just so many of these webs of alliance that you can’t make a list of the ties,” Katz said.

“We didn’t want to do Saudi-bashing and engage in some kind of discussion of how MIT and Harvard are so pure, they shouldn’t engage. Rather we wanted to point to the fact that these universities have all these secretive, dubious partnerships.”

Rosie Bsheer, an assistant professor in Harvard’s History department, wrote in an email that the royal family’s donations to international institutions “aim to rehabilitate the country’s negative image abroad while attempting to influence knowledge production in the United States.”

Bsheer added that the research goals of Saudi-funded projects often stand in stark contrast to the regime’s domestic actions.

“This is the same Saudi regime that has heavily restricted and policed the academic freedom, and the freedom of expression more generally, of its own citizens at home,” she wrote. “Many of these citizens have paid a heavy price.” shera.avi-yonah@thecrimson.com

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | october 25, 2018

Page 6

Editorial The Crimson Editorial board

op-ed

Keeping Diversities in Balance

The Consumption Problem at Harvard (and Everywhere Else)

W

ith anti-affirmative action group Students for Fair Admissions’s lawsuit against Harvard underway, court documents demonstrated last week that Harvard, in order to attract a more geographically diverse student body, sends interest letters to students from rural “sparse country” with PSAT scores lower than the usual threshold to receive such letters.

Harvard is going through a difficult time defending affirmative action as an important practice that creates a diverse environment on Harvard’s campus.

The admissions process is by no means perfect, and one issue lies in the aforementioned way in which Harvard recruits rural students to apply to the College.

In that vein, the College must change its practices with respect to recruitment of students from “sparse country.”

Part of its mission is to encourage intellectual transformation by having students live in a diverse environment with people from various backgrounds and with different identities, and diversity is multifaceted.

Therefore, if Harvard wants to create a truly diverse college community, it must not sacrifice some forms of diversi-

ty for others.

In this case, Harvard has sacrificed racial and socioeconomic diversity for geographic diversity.

Though we uphold our standing behind the Admissions Office in its support of affirmative action, its diversity search leaves much room for improvement.

Indeed, the Admissions Office’s use of lower standards when sending interest letters to white students from rural states unfairly benefitted those students at the expense of rural students from minority races and lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

Though we uphold our standing behind the Admissions Office in its support of affirmative action, its diversity search leaves much room for improvement.

To maintain its integrity, the Admissions Office must stop attempting to cram many different backgrounds and ideas into a very small number of boxes

to tick, as it belittles the entire process as well as the students that work hard to be competitive applicants.

We would like to see Harvard continue its efforts to make the campus a truly inclusive space. In order to do so, the College should actively address such problems and make the admissions process more equitable.

As a result, the Admissions Office should change its approach to this particular diversity search, however well-intentioned it may be.

Harvard should critically analyze its scouting processes to minimize bias and ensure the comprehensive evaluation of every prospective student.

In sum, the Admissions Office should not use one form of diversity to belittle another. Students deserve better than that.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.

allison g. lee—Crimson photographer

Column

Why Palm Readers Make Good Counselors Elizabeth Y. Sun TMI

T

his is more embarrassing and hard to admit than anything else I’ve written so far, but in July, I started seeing a palm reader.

It started as a whimsical decision: My bus home was uncomfortably cramped, and the morning’s rain meant I could actually breathe in spite of the D.C. humidity.

I got off a stop early on Georgetown’s Main Street and began the one-mile trek home. That’s when the rainbow sign advertising “Palm Reading $10 Special” caught my eye.

I had always wanted to get my fortune told. The desire was a combination of growing up surrounded by superstitious parents and my own personal conviction that fortune-telling was nothing more than a pseudoscience. Ten dollars wasn’t too steep of a price for satisfying my curiosity to see just how wrong psychics were.

Things didn’t go quite as planned. Instead of leaving amused and skeptic, I got a lesson on just how persuasive pseudoscience can be and on what the missing piece in my formal counseling treatments was.

The reading started out unconvincingly enough, full of overly general statements on longevity, health, kids — all that you would expect to hear from a quack.

Yet suddenly, she began detailing scarily accurate accounts of my depression, anxiety, and chronic fatigue. I was in complete shock.

The same symptoms I had spent years trying to explaining to share with friends who responded with a shocked “Really? I had no idea you were going through that!” were suddenly being identified without me saying a single thing.

I didn’t care if she was simply throwing out random guesses. I didn’t even care if this was her default dialogue. For the first time since seeking treatment, I felt the relief of being understood — of not having to tirelessly explain myself over and over again. It was such a new and intense feeling that my eyes welled up.

With just a few “predictions,” this psychic, quack, whatever you want to call her, had managed to do what my counselor of four months had failed to do even once — shatter my façade of nonchalant confidence into pieces. One visit

thus became two.

While, professional counseling is a great and important service, it can — like the rest of the medical community — be too sterile and unfriendly. Whereas the psychic kept in contact with me as casually as a friend through text, medical professionals generally tiptoe around the patient’s confidentiality and use secure messaging; this meant having to log into the Harvard University Health Services Patient Portal every time I received or wanted to send a message.

And whereas my appointments with the psychic were flexible, I knew that my counselor’s calendar was packed to the brim. This meant that I had to make every appointment exactly as scheduled — whether I was having a good week and

I didn’t care if she was simply throwing out random guesses.

I didn’t even care if this was her default dialogue. For the first time since seeking treatment, I felt the relief of being understood — of not having to tirelessly explain myself over and over again. It was such a new and intense feeling that my eyes welled up. just wanted to enjoy it, or was having an awful one that needed more support than I was getting.

While logistical necessity gives the Counseling and Mental Health Services very little flexibility for these two issues, it was ultimately the way my psychic structured our counseling sessions that helped me heal.

At Harvard, my counselor gave me so much space that I was left with no gravity. Each conversation reliably began with the uninspiring demand to tell him “about my week.” Yet it was never clear if he meant yesterday, or today, or perhaps the two good days I had over the weekend.

There was the constant refrain of “tell me more” that was repeated so much I almost wished I could still analyze dreams and repressed memories with Freud.

Depression is a hard thing to explain.

And being asked to repeatedly psychoanalyze myself in this way essentially put me on the witness stand. Instead of feel-

ing comfortable and open to suggestion, I felt defensive and stubborn.

In contrast to the counselor, my psychic led with concrete questions and even confident statements about the things she had “seen.” Instead of telling me to simply describe my week, she asked about my day, if I was feeling better, how the meditations had been, what had triggered the low points, and more.

Instead of asking me to explain why I thought the week had happened as it did, she reassured me that the mood swings were natural, and that I had to wait another week for the meditations (and her superstitious ceremonies) to take effect.

By being pushy and guaranteeing me that what she did with me would work, the psychic was able to do yet another thing that my counselor was never able to: follow through on her assignments.

This included everything from nightly meditations and restraining myself from saying negative things, to doing only the things I actively wanted to (no “Why not?”s) and fully connecting with only the people who brought me joy.

Her explanations as to why I ought to do these things may have been pseudoscience, but the positive habits she helped me adopt were not.

They were the same things my counselor had “suggested,” but never truly pushed me to do the way the psychic did: extracting promises, ensuring me that I wouldn’t just be “wasting my time” through promises of effectiveness, and giving me simple and effective instructions.

Ultimately, these positive habits amounted to a kind of informal cognitive behavioral therapy and helped me truly overcome my depression.

While I will never change my mind on the lack of scientific validity for palm-reading, my own experience has confirmed what many of the Americans relying on the “wellness” industry and even alternative medical options know: The medical community may have science, but it is severely lacking in the personal touches that turn treatment into healing.

Only by being human and charismatic can counselors give their patients not only the skills and medication they need, but the reassurance and confidence that inspire patients to rely on them as well.

—Elizabeth Y. Sun ’19, a former Crimson Associate Editorial Editor, is a Government concentrator in Eliot House. Her column appears on alternate Thursdays.

By Philip C. LaPorte

E

nvironmentalism at Harvard has not set the loftiest goals. To be sure, it is encouraging to see reusable travel mugs distributed at the Green Fair, free LEDs offered by the Resource Efficiency Program, and compostable cups at Annenberg.

But the real environmental problem is one of consumption, and introducing more products isn’t going to solve it.

The fact is, we consume too much — too much food, too much clothing, too much water, too much energy, too much plastic. Far too much.

Everything we buy at the store is the product of outrageous industrial pollution, and it comes wrapped in several ounces of plastic to boot.

Five Earths would be needed to support a world population composed of typical Americans. The modern Western lifestyle is wasteful

The fact is, we consume too much — too much food, too much clothing, too much water, too much energy, too much plastic. and polluting and materialistic to an almost unimaginable extent.

Why should we (as the beneficiaries of such luxury) care? For one thing, consumerism stems from unhealthy psychology.

Billions of advertising dollars are spent every year to make us desire products we don’t need, products that are not good for us, products that make us yet more dissatisfied.

Being unconcerned with the psychological manipulation around us leaves our minds and money at the mercy of well-funded corporations.

But even if consumerism itself were healthy, it comes at a devastating cost. The level of habitat destruction and human ecological interference driven by industrial interests has torn apart beautiful and priceless regions of the planet.

The American market for palm oil — contained in most of the processed food we eat — has resulted in the decimation and almost inevitable annihilation of the Sumatran rainforests, for example. Our purchases are literally paying for this destruction.

Industrial activity has altered the large-scale chemistry of the planet — scientists observe acidification of the oceans, bleaching of coral reefs, and eutrophication of lakes and rivers. The Western lifestyle is poisoning the world, and reusable water bottles are not going to set things right.

As an institution responsible for feeding and housing thousands of young individuals, Harvard has the potential to make serious and substantial environmental advances. But providing compostable dishware for outdoor meals simply isn’t taking full advantage of this opportunity.

The only real contribution Harvard can make to solving the problem is a sharp and sizable decrease in the number of products and resources that the University uses.

Among the policies which Harvard has adopted, most deal with issues peripheral to consumption — making sure much of our exorbitant waste is recycled, for example.

These sorts of efforts are plentiful around campus and are important in a limited way, but they distract from the bigger and more serious problem at hand: Harvard students, like most people in America, consume far too much.

There’s a simple reason for the shortage of large-scale impact. Any policy bound to make a serious dent in our consumption would be uncomfortable and wildly unpopular — removing meat from the dining halls, say, or forcing restrictions on water and energy use.

Attacking the problem at its source is not an easy thing to do. It would be immensely difficult

As an institution responsible for feeding and housing thousands of young individuals, Harvard has the potential to make serious and substantial environmental advances. to garner student support for a policy penalizing food waste, for example. (It must be said, Harvard’s approach to air-conditioning in the dorms is one way in which the University has made a serious impact, intentionally or not. Needless to say, this was not popular during the heat waves accompanying Opening Days.)

Even if this weren’t the case, environmental student groups are often pitted against other groups on campus in their efforts to introduce change.Calls to limit plastic use come alongside advertisements for plans providing plastic water bottles every month, for example.

Almost all of these groups undoubtedly have good intentions, but the lack of consistent environmental messages from Harvard as a whole is damaging. In order to introduce effective change, there ought to be much more of a concerted campus effort.

It would require a massive cultural shift to begin solving these global problems, and — realistically — this is not likely to happen at Harvard anytime soon. But if one thing is clear, we can set higher standards than we have.

If we don’t take up the challenge, there is no second chance.

—Philip C. LaPorte ’22, a Crimson Editorial comper, lives in Apley Court.

Page 7

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | october 25, 2018

Proud to cover Harvard for 145 years and counting.

Keep the old sheet flying.

The Crimson thecrimson.com

Sports

Weekly Recap

SCORES

Men’s Basketball vs. BU W, 18-17 ___________________________________________________________

woMen’s swimming ivy league championshp 2nd ___________________________________________________________

woMen’s Heavyweight Crew Vs. Yale L ___________________________________________________________

golf Vs. princeton W ___________________________________________________________

Football vs. University of Vermont L, 42, 36 ___________________________________________________________

men’s wrestling vs. penn state L, 42, 36 ___________________________________________________________

Fencing New England Championship 15th ___________________________________________________________

Football

Around the Ivies: Big Test Versus No. 20 Big Green

By Cade Palmer Crimson Staff Writer

I hate the winter. I’m not really sure where this is going I just thought I should make it known.

YALE AT COLUMBIA The good news for Columbia is they’re about as good as they are every year. The bad news is they’re pretty trash every year.

The team is a perfect .500 this season so far, beating every non-conference team and dropping every contest against Ancient Eight squads. That includes losses to Princeton, Penn and Dartmouth.

Here’s the deal. Yale is doing better. With a record of 4-2, the Bulldogs have losses to Holy Cross and Dartmouth.

The Big Green is undefeated at the moment and both teams lost to the squad from Hanover so that’s really not a factor. Princeton is amazing and the Bulldogs will probably lose to them too. But Penn, Yale beat Penn. Columbia didn’t.

However, not only is Yale’s quarterback Kurt Rawlings out with a shattered ankle, Columbia has been making alpha moves as of late. After all, the school just stopped funding the band. I’ve been begging the UC to do the same at Harvard for years. Without a band to terrorize its players, the Lions may just be on their way to establishing an elite program.

Columbia by 7.

PENN AT BROWN No one in my family is legitimately aware that these two schools are Ivy League institutions. Similarly, no one I’ve talked to about this article were aware that Brown and Penn have football teams.

That means that national relevance of this contest is equivalent to the national relevance of both these schools combined.

For all you Yale students, that means it’s not relevant. Still though, I promised my co-writer I would evaluate every contest so here goes nothing.

Since my prediction of a Brown resurgence a few weeks ago, the Bears won the following game and lost the next three — not exactly an endorsement of my statement.

To be fair to myself, which I am quite inclined to do, the Bears played both Princeton and Rhode Island, two juggernauts of FCS teams, so — as I mentioned earlier — those don’t really count. The defense is relatively solid and the offense can make things happen when given the chance.

Penn is much more heavy through the air than on the ground. With two Ivy League losses, one must wonder where the fan base is on their production. The only comment on The Daily Pennsylvania’s recap is “Throwing of the toast = great fun.” Which is all fine and dandy except no toast will be thrown this weekend as Penn

Elementary, my dear watson Sophomore running back B.J. Watson puts a strong stiffarm down on a defender as he tries to move the chains for Harvard in Saturday’s clash with Princeton. Harvard will travel to face Dartmouth in their next matchup. Timothy R. O’MEARA—Crimson photographer

travels to Providence.

No throwing of the toast = no fun.

Brown by 10.

CORNELL AT PRINCETON Too easy.

Princeton by 45.

HARVARD AT DARTMOUTH No one has substantially commented on the fact that Dartmouth actually tackles robots

during practice. I don’t think you understand.

The Big Green prepares to pull down Harvard’s sophomore running back Aaron Shampklin — leading the league in rushing yards — by hugging motorized, armless tackling dummies. Perhaps Dartmouth will be prepared should an army of squishy robots rise up against society, but for a football game, the practice is just an ineffective publicity stunt.

Despite tackling inanimate objects all year, The Big Green hasn’t lost a game this season and is nationally ranked. However, it’s been 25 years since the Crimson lost at Dartmouth and 14 years since Harvard has lost at all to the home team.

The Big Green quarterback leads the nation in pass efficiency and completion percentage.

Shampklin leads the division in rushing yards. Dartmouth’s defense leads the nation in yards

allowed while the Crimson leads the division in third-down prevention.

This game could be anything from an air raid to a defensive showcase.

It’s also homecoming for Dartmouth and you don’t schedule a homecoming game against a team you think you’ll lose to.

Dartmouth by 3. cade.palmer@thecrimson.com

Field Hockey

No. 6 Harvard Still ‘Underdogs’ Versus BC, Dartmouth

By Connor j. Wagaman Contributing Writer

Harvard field hockey has been hot all season, with last week’s win over Ivy League rival and then-No. 3 Princeton cementing No. 6 Harvard as a national power and extending an alltime program best win streak to 10 games. On Thursday, the Crimson hosts No. 13/17 Boston College before continuing Ancient Eight play on Saturday at Dartmouth.

Despite enjoying a never-before-seen stretch of dominance, the team still refuses to take

anything for granted going into this week’s games.

“Every team on a good day can win, and every team on a bad day can lose, regardless of previous success,” co-captain Libby Manela said. “We really try to ground ourselves in that mentality and not become too comfortable with predicted outcomes.”

Although the team attributes a sizable amount of its success to game-by-game performances, the Crimson’s achievements are nevertheless tied to the tireless work by its players this season.

“Our team does really put in

a lot of work, our incoming players put in a lot of work. [Freshman goalkeeper] Ellie Shahbo had an incredible game [against Princeton], [freshman forward] Rachel Greenwood had an incredible game,” said senior co-captain and forward Kathleen Young. “The effect of the team’s newcomers has been very profound this year, and it definitely helped secure our place as a top contender and being in the top 10.”

Thursday’s game against a formidable Boston College side (9-7, 2-4 ACC) is arguably the biggest matchup remain-

ing on Harvard’s regular season schedule, which closes out with Dartmouth (6-8, 2-3 Ivy) and Columbia (7-7, 2-3).

The series, running since 1979, sees a 22-12-1 Eagles advantage and an active 13-game win streak by Boston College, extended last year through a “heartbreaking” shootout loss by the Crimson that made Harvard the first team to miss NCAA playoffs.

“Last year was extremely close,” Manela said. “They’re probably one of the games that sort of hurt our chances of making the NCAA tournament, so

Forever Young Senior forward Kathleen Young manages to balance the ball on her stick despite being closely trailed by a defender.

I think we’re really looking to kind of seal the deal on that one… I know they’re thinking the same thing, so it’s going to be a close, tough game.”

The Eagles are familiar with knocking the Crimson off its game. In 2016, Boston College snapped Harvard’s then-record eight game win streak. However, this year’s preview headline on bceagles.com, “Eagles Prepared For Tough Task at No. 6 Harvard” — which contrasts with last year’s “Eagles Take On Local Rivals” — hints that the balance of power may be shifting.

Timothy R. O’MEARA—Crimson photographer

“We’re in a unique position now where we’re the higher-ranked team, and we’ve never been in that position before to my knowledge,” Manela said.

“It’s a new perspective going in, but our goal is still the same, and we still feel like we’re the underdogs in a way.”

Although the Eagles are still nationally ranked, the team has struggled in recent matches. Boston College dropped two straight to No. 4 Duke and No. 19 Liberty.

Senior co-captain Lucy Lytle, who has scored in each of the Eagles’ past four games to help Boston College to an average of 2.7 goals per game, may cause some trouble but should be able to be stopped by the Crimson’s solid back line.

Shahbo averages 0.75 goals allowed per game. Of course, as self-proclaimed underdogs, Harvard’s outward expectations remain conservative.

“They’re a fast team, they’re a strong team — I think they play a very similar style to Princeton, so this isn’t over,” co-captain Kathleen Young said.

“This next game is very important to us in terms of RPI [rating percentage index], and it’s also important because we want to get better with each game that we play.”

Dartmouth is one of the Crimson’s last obstacles on the path to a perfect in-conference record, an Ivy League championship, and an NCAA playoff berth.

Although the Big Green is coming off a two-game win streak, every top-25 opponent has delivered a shutout to Dartmouth.

Young did not hold back about Harvard’s determination going into Saturday’s game in Hanover, N.H. “I think our goal is really to win it the right way and go seven and [zero],” Young said.

The Crimson has shattered all pre-season expectations.

Last week’s decisive win over Princeton only added momentum to a team that needed no more, putting Harvard in a solid position to start a new series win streak on Thursday and to continue on the path to a 7-0 Ivy League record.