The Harvard Crimson The University Daily, Est. 1873 | Volume CXLV, No. 73 | Cambridge, Massachusetts | wednesday, may 23, 2018
editorial PAGE 10
sports PAGE 11
News PAGE 5
Harvard has, by and large, benefited from Faust’s judgment and restraint.
Junior infielder Meagan Lantz pushed past a torn ACL to start in 2018.
Khurana called the April 13 arrest of a Harvard undergraduate “distressing.”
star prof fryer facing investigations Harvard has barred Fryer from setting foot in the research lab he heads. B y SHERA s. Avi-Yonah
and Angela N. fu Crimson Staff Writers
Economics Professor Roland G. Fryer, Jr. is being investigated separately by Harvard and the state of Massachusetts and has been barred by University officials from setting foot in the research lab he heads, according to individuals with knowledge of the situation and documents obtained by The Crimson. The Harvard investigation—led by the University’s Office for Dispute Resolution, which investigates allegations of sexual and gender-based harassment—is based on at least one Title IX complaint filed with the office. Fryer is the subject of at least two Title IX complaints, according to two of the individuals who filed the complaints. One of the complaints specifically alleges Fryer committed “egregious” acts of verbal sexual harassment, according to Monica R. Shah and Naomi R. Shatz, lawyers at Boston-based firm Zalkind, Duncan, and Bernstein who are representing the woman who filed that complaint. The woman’s complaint alleges
Fryer spoke about sex in the workplace, made “sexually inappropriate comments” to and about employees and others, and “objectified and sexualized” women including female staffers, according to the lawyers. Shah and Shatz wrote their client first reported Fryer’s to Harvard officials roughly a year ago and that “she was retaliated against for seeking relief.” The two lawyers also wrote Harvard failed to enforce its policies meant to protect employees from workplace discrimination and sexual harassment. “Our client found that when the object of her complaint was a star faculty member, those policies were not enforced,” Shah and Shatz wrote. Fryer wrote in an emailed statement provided by his lawyer that he denies committing acts of discrimination or harassment. “Let me state unequivocally that I have not — and would not — engage in any discrimination or harassment of any form,” Fryer wrote in the statement. “Any claim to the contrary is patently false.”
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Economics professor Roland G. Fryer, Jr. depicted in a 2006 photo. Fryer is being investigated separately by Harvard and the state of Massachusetts and has been barred from setting foot in the research lab he heads. Christopher Kwok—Crimson photographer
Overseer Resigns Over Fossil Fuel Ties
Khurana Approval Rating Up From 2017
B y kristine e. guillaume
B y caroline s. engelmayer
and jamie d. halper
and michael e. xie
Crimson Staff Writers
Crimson Staff Writers
Kathryn “Kat” A. Taylor ’80, a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers, resigned her post Tuesday in protest of what she called Harvard’s “failure” to “adopt ethical commitments” when investing its $37.1 billion endowment. Taylor, who joined the Board of Overseers—the University’s second highest governing body—in 2012, wrote a letter to her fellow board members, the Harvard Corporation, University President Drew G. Faust, and President-elect Lawrence S. Bacow Tuesday announcing her resignation. In the letter, she noted she has been “pressing” Harvard to change its investment practices since she began her term. “We should and would be horrified to find out that Harvard investments are actually funding some of the pernicious activities against which our standout academic leadership rails,” she wrote. “But that is where we still sit, vulnerable to the inevitable association with our investment targets that profiting from them demands.” Taylor specifically pointed to fossil fuel investments. Colin Butterfield, the head of Harvard Management Company’s natural resources portfolio, said in April 2017 HMC was “pausing” investments in certain fossil fuels—though the University has repeatedly refused to categorically divest from fossil fuels. The University has faced consistent pressure in recent years from faculty and students around the issue. More than 100 Harvard faculty signed an open letter in April 2014 urging University President Drew G. Faust and the Corporation to divest from fossil fuel investments. In Feb. 2015, a group of 20 students stormed and occupied Massachusetts Hall— where Faust’s office is located—to demand fossil fuel divestment. And in March 2017, 20 members of the student activist group Divest Harvard blockaded University Hall to demand similar action. Despite mounting pressure, Faust has consistently argued against divesting from fossil fuels, asserting Harvard can better tackle climate change through research.“While I share their belief in the importance of addressing climate change, I do not believe, nor do my colleagues on the Corporation, that university divestment from the fossil fuel industry is warranted or wise,”
Fifty-five percent of surveyed graduating seniors said they had favorable opinions of Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana, marking a rise from his historically low approval rating of 42 percent last year. The senior survey—conducted annually by The Crimson—showed that 32 percent of respondents in the Class of 2018 said they had unfavorable opinions of Khurana, 11 percent said they had no opinion, and the remaining students said they did not have enough information to respond. Of the more than 1600 graduating seniors, 704 responded to the survey. Khurana, who has largely become the face of the College’s controversial social group policy, has
Class photo day
Harvard Today 2
MARTA—Crimson photographer
See ratings Page 5
Two College Glee Club to Expand to All Genders Students Arrested at Lowell Site By molly c. mccafferty Crimson Staff Writer
B y CAROLINE S. ENGELMAYER
Crimson Staff Writer
Harvard University Police Department arrested two College students on charges of breaking and entering, drug possession, and trespassing Monday, according to public police filings. The undergraduates broke into the Lowell House construction site, per a public HUPD log filed May 14. An officer saw them climbing on scaffolding and spoke with them, per the report. The report stated that, at that point, the students “admitted to having cocaine in their possession.” Both College students “were then placed under arrest” on three charges: breaking and entering in the nighttime, possession of a controlled substance, and trespassing, according to the log. Lowell is undergoing renovations this year and next year as part of the
See overseer Page 5 Inside this issue
The College’s Class of 2018 pose for a class photo on the steps of Widener Library Tuesday afernoon. AWNIT S.
See arrest Page 5
News 4
Editorial 10
The historically all-male Harvard Glee Club has opened its membership to students of all genders, Glee Club President Connor A. Horton ’18 wrote in an announcement to club members and affiliates last week. The Glee Club, a group of roughly 50 undergraduate and graduate men who regularly perform on-campus and on tour, was one of several Harvard performance organizations that remained all-male rather than merging with an equivalent musical group after the dissolution of Radcliffe College, according to Horton. Horton said the Glee Club made the decision to open their membership eligibility after consulting with the historically female Radcliffe Choral Society, which also decided to make its membership gender neutral in April. Horton said the decision to open Glee Club’s membership was opposed by some current members who were concerned that the introduction of women would lead to a change in the type of music the group typically sings. “What it comes down to is a matter of tradition, and a long, long history of being an all-male organization,” Horton said. “Being one of the organizations that remained all-male after Har-
Sports 11
Today’s Forecast
The Harvard Glee Club, which practices in Holden Chapel, will allow students of any gender to join the chorus starting next fall. xenia o. virag—Crimson photographer
vard and Radcliffe merged, I think for a while we felt that our organization should stay all male because of the nature of the music that we perform.” He added that the group will continue to perform its traditional style of tenor-bass music, written for lower voices, and that the audition process will remain largely unchanged, partly cloudy High: 81 Low: 54
with members auditioning through the Harvard Choruses, an umbrella entity which includes the Glee Club, Radcliffe Choral Society, Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus, and Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum. Horton said another point of contention in the club’s
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