The Harvard Crimson - Volume CXLV, No. 81

The Harvard Crimson The University Daily, Est. 1873 | Volume cxlv No. 81 | Cambridge, Massachusetts | Thursday, September 13, 2018

editorial PAGE 8

news PAGE 7

sports PAGE 9

The Smith Campus Center answers students’ need for communal space.

Plans to renovate the Harvard Square Theater face scrutiny from city officials.

Hurricane Florence postponed a women’s soccer game.

Study: Opioid Prescriptions Faulty Faculty Could Soon

By Luke W. vrotsos Crimson Staff Writer

Opioid Prescriptions 2006-2015

66%

for pain unrelated to cancer

5%

for cancer-related pain

28.5%

contained “no pain diagnosis”

Nearly 30 percent of opioid prescriptions do not cite a pain-related diagnosis, a new Harvard Medical School and RAND Corporation study has found.

The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that — of 31,943 opioid prescriptions issued between 2006 and 2015 and documented in the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey — 28.5 percent contained “no pain diagnosis.” Five percent of prescriptions were for cancer-related pain and 66 percent were for pain unrelated to cancer.

“Transparently and accurately documenting the justification for opioid therapy is essential to ensure appropriate, safe prescribing; yet, providers currently fall far short of this,” the article states.

The study also found that providers were more likely to prescribe opioids without citing a pain diagnosis during visits meant to refill a standing prescription than during visits meant to fill a first-time prescription.

Thirty-one percent of prescription refills lacked a pain diagnoses, while 23 percent of first-time prescriptions did so.

“It’s even more troubling that the undocumented rate was higher among the continued, renewal prescriptions,”

See study Page 4

SIMON S. SUN—Crimson Designer

Kill Shopping Week By angela n. fu Crimson Staff Writer

Many students’ worst scheduling fear is one step closer to reality after Wednesday’s Faculty Council meeting.

The Council — the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ highest governing body — debated a proposal to end “shopping week,” the week-long period at the start of each semester during which students can wander freely in and out of classrooms before officially selecting and enrolling in their courses.

The new proposal, introduced by Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda J. Claybaugh at the meeting, would cancel shopping week and replace it with a preregistration system in the fall of 2020. Under Claybaugh’s plan, students would enroll in courses prior to the start of the semester. They would then have a designated period of time to add or drop courses if they wished.

But it’s far from implementation. The Council will likely vote on Claybaugh’s proposal at its next meeting, according to Faculty Council member David L. Howell. The plan will then be presented to the full Faculty at their monthly meeting in October along with the results of the Council’s vote, which is purely advisory. The Faculty will, at the earliest, be able to vote on

the proposal in November.

Wednesday’s discussion follows a Faculty meeting last spring at which professors discussed ways they could reform the current course registration system.

Shopping week is beloved to many Harvard students, who praise the flexibility of the system. But professors and graduate teaching fellows hold a less rose-colored view of the seven days of student indecision. They say the current system leaves them in limbo for an extended period of time, making it difficult to prepare properly for the semester.

Claybaugh’s proposal marks the first official effort by administrators to alter the course registration system since the spring discussions. Though Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana introduced the subject at the March meeting, no one put forward an official proposal at the time.

During the March meeting, multiple professors spoke in favor of an preregistration system. Howell said in an interview Wednesday that preregistration would allow graduate students and professors to better plan their courses — and lives.

“Because of the way shopping period works, you don’t

See shop Page 5

Cambridge Mulls Starting Up Electric Scooter Program Students

Begin to Pursue Ed Secondary

By Patricia J. Liu and Leon K. Yang Crimson Staff Writers

A sudden inundation of electric ride-sharing scooters so startled the City of Cambridge this summer that officials took legal action to halt their spread — but now, officials are pondering a possible pilot program that would more gently bring Birds and LimeBikes home to roost in and around northeastern Massachusetts.

The Transportation and Public Utilities Committee held a public hearing Wednesday to discuss the issue. Given that the state legislature does not hold its next session until Jan. 2019, the hearing centered only around the city’s expectations of what a pilot program might look like.

Representatives from electric scooter companies Bird and LimeBike attended and participated in Wednesday’s meeting, marking a period of peace-making after months of conflict. On July 20, Bird installed over 100

See scooter Page 7

11 students have so far declared the minor By cecilia R. D’Arms Crimson Staff Writer

See education Page 4

Harvard Law Looks for Real-World Experience

By Aidan F. Ryan Crimson Staff Writer

Inside this issue

See hls Page 5

At least one atypical guest showed up for Wednesday’s City Hall meeting about an electric scooter program. Kathryn s. kuhar—Crimson photographer

SEE PAGE 4

Ahlfors Lecture page 4

prior to starting school, Jobson said.

“One thing that we continue to be interested in, for your reference, is work experience,” said Jobson, who graduated from the Law School in 2012.

“When I was a 1L, my class was almost 60 percent straight from college. It’s almost a flip of what it used to be.”

Jobson said the shift came when Law School administrators noticed that students who had work experience from before coming to the Law School were more likely to excel there than their peers who had not done so.

“What the school as a whole

Harvard’s brand-new Educational Studies secondary is officially open for business.

Graduate School of Education Professor Julie A. Reuben, who directs the secondary, said 11 College students have already declared the secondary and more than 30 have indicated they are interested. Reuben said the secondary offers students an opportunity to study education from an “interdisciplinary perspective.”

The secondary will ideally help centralize education-related programming within the College and lead to better advising for students interested in the field, Reuben said. She called education a “fundamental human activity.”

“It makes sense to me that undergraduate students want to understand that better, and they should have a structured opportunity to study something that is so important to human existence,” she said.

Students who wish to pursue the secondary will be required to take one foundational course and four additional education-related courses during their time at the College. In addition, they must pursue a “capstone project” related to education — either a thesis or another intense research project or paper.

The secondary will have its own Student Advisory Board, for which Harvard is currently soliciting applications.

Sruthi Palaniappan ’20, who chaired the Undergraduate

Sanjeev Arora, a Princeton computer science professor, speaks about machine learning as part of a two-day lecture series. Brenda Lu—Crimson photographer

Harvard Today 2

News 3

Editorial 8

Sports 9

If you want to get into Harvard Law School, you should probably spend some time working in the real world before you apply to hit the books in Cambridge.

Law School Assistant Dean for Admissions and Chief Admissions Officer Kristi L. Jobson ’06 said in an interview that the school is placing a greater emphasis on applicants’ work history than it did in the past.

In recent years, the vast majority of successful Law School applicants have boasted at least one year of work experience.

Eighty-two percent of this year’s incoming first-year class worked for at least 12 months

Today’s Forecast

rainy High: 76 Low: 59

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Page 2

Harvard Today

For Lunch Bacon Grilled Cheese Roasted Red Curry Chicken Moroccan Stew Steamed Vegetable Medley

For Dinner BBQ Salisbury Steak Green Onion & Shrimp Pancakes Vegetable and Potato Curry

Today’s Events

in The Real World

The Past of Politics: How We Got Here 6-7:15 p.m.

Jill Lepore, a professor at Harvard College, will be giving a talk about the past of politics at the JFK Jr. Forum at the IOP. Photography + Social Change in James Baldwin’s America 5:30-7:30 p.m.

A new exhibition entitled “Time is Now” is opening in the Carpenter Center tonight. The show features photography made during the lifetime of James Baldwin.

Hutchins Center / AAAS / CAS Welcoming Event 4-6 p.m.

The Hutchins Center, the Department of African and African American Studies, and the Center for African Studies will be holding a welcoming event in the Queen’s Head Pub.

FDA Cracks Down on Juul E-Cigarettes Love your Juul? You’re not alone, as e-cigarette use among teenagers has reached an “epidemic proportion.” Hate the concept of Juul altogether?

You’re also not alone, because theFDA agrees with you. The FDA has given Juul and other e-cigarette companies 60 days to prove that they can effectively keep their products away from minors. If they fail, the FDA may begin removing the products from the market.

Like many students, this Harvard turkey is on the fence about what do now that shopping week is over. Kathryn S. Kuhar —Crimson photographer

The Boston Bridge with a Score of Zero

Daily Briefing

Boston’s Storrow Drive overpass has received a score of zero on a 100 point scale used to set priorities for bridge repair for the past 17 years, and there is still no long term plan to fix the bridge.

While the rock-bottom score is alarming to some, officials and outside experts agree that the bridge is safe and structurally sound. Still, it is in dire need of more cosmetic renovation.

Many students’ worst scheduling fear is one step closer to reality after Wednesday’s Faculty Council meeting. There is now an official proposal on the table to end shopping week and replace it with a preregistration system — though it’s far from implementation.

In other news, a Harvard Medical School study found that almost 30 percent of opioid prescriptions come without a pain diagnosis, and Harvard Law School is increasingly favoring applicants with real-world work experience.

Middle Class Income Rises Above $61,000 for the First Time According to the U.S. Census, 2017 marked the first time that the median income in U.S. households broke the $61,000 mark. This result of the strong economy may mean that for the first time the middle class may have earned more than it did in 1999, but the Census Bureau warns that the difference is not statistically significant.

Around the Ivies Brown students try for union Students at Brown University are collaborating with administrators in fits and starts as they seek to unionize, the Brown Daily Herald reported.

Movements toward a union at Brown come soon after Harvard students successfully voted to unionize, though a similar movement at Colombia faced significant backlash. Brown notified 1,200 graduate students in August that, if unionization occurs, their personally identifiable information will be sent to Scheinman Arbitration and Mediation Services.

COlumbia dorm home to mold Students in some of Columbia’s East Campus townhouse suites say persistent mold covers their walls and the school has failed to properly address the issue, the Columbia Spectator reported Wednesday. One student said that, after she called the housing office, they simply painted over the mold. It soon returned. “They said, ‘Oh, the cold weather will make it go away’,” the student told the Spectator. The United States Department of Labor standards say that prolonged exposure to mold can lead to dangerous health problems.

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 Dianne Lee ’20 Caroline S. Engelmayer ’20

Staff for This Issue Arts Chairs Mila Gauvin II ’19 Grace Z. Li ’19

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Editorial Chairs Cristian D. Pleters ’19 Emmanuel R. R. D’Agostino ’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.

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 | september 13, 2018

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september 13, 2018

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Prof Lectures on Machine Learning

By Amy L. Jia and Sanjana L. Narayanan Crimson Staff Writers

Hundreds of faculty and students crowded into Science Center Hall D this week to hear a Princeton University computer science professor limn the secrets of machine learning.

Sanjeev Arora, a two-time winner of the Godel Prize for his contributions to theoretical computer science, is stopping through Cambridge to speak to Harvard affiliates as part of the two-day Ahlfors lecture series, an annual event hosted by the University’s math department.

During his first lecture, Arora introduced the fundamental concepts of machine learning.

In his second lecture Wednesday, he explored the mathematics behind deep learning, a type of machine learning that uses “nonlinear, multilayer models.”

“Machine learning boils down to learning patterns in data,” Arora said.

He explained that machine learning can be used to accomplish tasks such as sentence completion, simply by associating each word with a vector that represents its meaning.

“It must implicitly pick up on grammar — the next word is go-

ing to be a noun — and common sense,” Arora said. “You don’t order a puppy at a cafe.”

The Ahlfors lecture series is held in honor of late Harvard math professor Lars V. Ahlfors, who won the first Fields Medal in 1936 — an award often considered to be the mathematical equivalent of the Nobel Prize — and the prestigious Wolf Prize in 1981.

Ahlfors was renowned for

You don’t order a puppy at a cafe.

Sanjeev Arora Princeton University Computer Science Professor

his work on complex analysis, the study of the functions of numbers that have both real and imaginary components. Complex analysis has applications in fields ranging from physics to number theory to engineering.

Ahlfors published the leading textbook on the subject in 1953, as well as numerous books and papers throughout his career.

“He was one of the masters of Complex Analysis in the 20th century, the same field that drew me into mathematics and

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where my research continues today,” Math Department Chair Curtis T. McMullen wrote in an email. “When I arrived at Harvard myself, as a grad student in 1981, the first mailbox was labeled ‘Ahlfors’ and the last one ‘Zariski’ — the great masters of Analysis and Algebraic Geometry framed the department.”

Math professor Horng-Tzer Yau, who organized this year’s program in concert with math professor Shing-Tung Yau, said Ahlfors was a “natural candidate” to be honored through the lecture series, both for his lifetime accolades and his work on complex analysis and Riemann surfaces.

According to Horng-Tzer Yau, the lecture series has a nearly decade-long history, with the inaugural lecture taking place in 2009. Past speakers have included mathematician Peter Lax, who made groundbreaking contributions to the fields of pure and applied mathematics, and Jean Bourgain, the 1994 recipient of the Fields Medal.

“The first criterion [in selecting a speaker for the lecture series] is he has to do excellent mathematical work — either it’s a recent breakthrough, or it’s an important direction,” Horng-

Tzer Yau said. “Then, we cover directions in both pure and applied mathematics.”

We want to tell students that mathematics can be applied in many, many ways.

Horng-Tzer Yau Math Professor

Horng-Tzer Yau said Arora is one of a small handful scholars today who “put systematic effort to understand deep learning in a mathematical way.” He said he wanted attendees to experience firsthand how the Princeton academic sees the problems of machine learning and how Arora thinks about turning that thinking and learning into mathematics.

“The emphasis is that we want to tell students that mathematics can be applied in many, many ways,” HorngTzer Yau said. amy.jia@thecrimson.com sanjana.narayanan@thecrimson.com

education From Page 1

Education Minor Ready for Action Council Education Committee and has declared an Educational Studies secondary, will sit on that board.

Palaniappan said the board will help determine the exact requirements for the “capstone project” and will generally help coordinate programming.

Reuben and Palaniappan said they have heard students with wildly different career plans express interest in the secondary.

“This secondary, because it’s very much in the liberal arts sense of mind that Harvard is centered around, is not strictly related to the field of teaching,” Palaniappan said. She cited policy, nonprofit work, and early childhood psychology as other fields connected to the secondary.

“It’s also really nice to have courses that will count towards our secondary that will allow us to critically think about what it means to be students, what inequalities we’ve seen,” Palaniappan added.

“What does it mean to be at an institution like Harvard that is so elite, and then go back into the real world?”

No new courses have been created within the secondary to date. But Sociology 1104: “Higher Education: Institutions, Inequalities, and Controversies” has added a practical component this year in which students will examine inefficiencies within the College’s own educational system.

Students and administrators said they think the secondary will provide a greater sense of “community” among undergraduates interested in education.

“I think that over the course of this semester, hopefully there’ll be a community formed around the secondary,” said Ben I. Sorkin ’20, who served as vice-chair of the UC Education Committee.

“That’ll be a way to meet other education-minded undergraduates at the College.” cecilia.d’arms@thecrimson.com

STudy From Page 1

HMS Study Addresses Opioid Crisis Nicole Maestas, an associate professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School and one of the paper’s co-authors, said in an interview.

The study’s other two authors were Tisamarie B. Sherry, an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School and a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Adrienne Sabety, a Ph.D. student in health policy and economics.

Of the prescriptions that came with no pain diagnosis, a small percentage were issued for opioid dependence.The rest were issued for conditions that would not typically call for opioid treatment, according to Maestas.

Maestas said stricter doc-

Transparently and accurately documenting the justification for opioid therapy is essential to ensure appropriate, safe prescribing.

Maestas, Sherry, and Sabety Harvard Medical School

umentation requirements for opioids, comparable to those

that insurance companies already demand for new, expensive treatments, may help reduce the incidence of improperly prescribed opioids.

“It looks like we need to apply that same level of scrutiny to opioid prescriptions to make sure they’re being given when it’s justifiable that they be given,” she said.

She acknowledged, however, that doctors “already are very burdened by expensive documentation requirements.”

Harvard Medical School and School of Public Health faculty recently ramped up their focus on the opioid epidemic as overdose deaths continue to rise nationally. Across the country, about 115 people die daily from

opioid overdoses, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Last week, a group of medical students launched a photojournalism project at Brigham and Women’s Hospital meant to draw attention to the opioid epidemic.

The opioid crisis is one of the issues that Harvard and the University of Michigan will examine as part of a newly formed partnership that was announced Wednesday.

The two schools plan to hold two policy summits in Michigan and Massachusetts regarding the epidemic and featuring experts on the subject. luke.vrotsos@thecrimson.com

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THE HARVARD CRIMSON | September 13, 2018

HKS, IOP Start Mentorship Program

By Alexandra a. Chaidez Crimson Staff Writer

The Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics has launched a new mentorship program that will partner undergraduate students interested in public service with graduate students at HKS. The Internship and Career Services group of the IOP is beginning the program in order to “demystify” the recruiting process via which students can seek jobs in politics and the public sector, according to an email sent over the IOP mailing list Wednesday.

“We recognize that approaching a career in politics & public service can be daunting for undergraduates as many opportunities do not have a stan-

dard recruiting process and often depend heavily on word of mouth,” Diego A. Garcia ’20, the IOP communications director, wrote in the email. “Our hope is that through this program undergraduates will build substantive relationships with graduate students and learn what steps they must take to succeed in a career in politics and public service.”

The email included an application for both College and Kennedy School students. Undergraduates were asked to provide their career goals and interests, mentor preferences, and the name of a “dream organization” they may want to join in the future. Kennedy School students were instructed to detail their career history, mentee preferences, and a list of organi-

From the Law School to Longwood,

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zations they have worked for.

In the email, Garcia cited the example of Theodore N. Landis ’20, an undergraduate lead-

We recognize that approaching a career in politics can be daunting.

Diego A. Garcia ’19 IOP Comm. Director

er at the IOP who was paired with a mentor from the Kennedy School’s Class of 2018, Conor P. Hand. Hand became an “invaluable” resource for Landis as he initiated projects like the Harvard Votes Challenge, a

new University-wide effort to increase voter registration.

“It was great to be able to sit down and receive advice from someone who has learned about organizing not just in an academic context, but also in the real world,” Landis wrote in the email.

In addition to this new program for the IOP, undergraduate students also partake in weekly study groups with fellows at the Institute. This year’s fellows include former Democratic National Committee CEO and former EMILY’s List executive director Amy Dacey, former Nevada congressman Joseph J. Heck, and Bloomberg News’s Senior White House Correspondent Margaret Talev. alexandra.chaidez@thecrimson.com

shop From Page 1

Faculty Council May Cut Shopping have enrollments in courses until after study card day, so some TFs [teaching fellows] are left in the air not knowing if they would teach in a particular class or how many sections they’ll teach,” Howell said.

The Council also heard Wednesday from former Dean of Undergraduate Education Jay M. Harris, who introduced a proposal to alter the wording of the foreign language requirement.

The basics of the language requirement — fulfilled either by a year of foreign language classes or by satisfactory place-

ment test scores — would remain essentially the same.

Currently, the Harvard College Student Handbook says students must meet the foreign language requirement in “a language with a written component that is taught at Harvard or for which an appropriate examination with a written component can be given.”

The new suggested wording would deemphasize the writing component, according to Howell. It would also expand the roster of satisfactory languages. angela.fu@thecrimson.com

hls From Page 1

HLS Favors Job Experience would begin to recognize was that individuals with work experience outperformed their peers on most any measure — academic performance in law school, leadership outside the classroom, job opportunities that were available to them,” Jobson said.

Plus, Jobson said, many applicants with work experience were able to accomplish “amazing” things before formally beginning their legal education at Harvard.

“People do all sorts of incredible things before they come to Harvard Law School, and so, when you are reading an application from an individual with work experience, you naturally do find them very compelling,” she said.

Another indication of the Law School’s newfound taste for students who have immersed themselves in the working world is in its budding Junior Deferral Program.

Launched in 2014, the JDP program allows undergraduate students to apply to the Law School as college juniors.

If admitted, the students must

People do all sorts of incredible things before they come to Harvard Law School.

Kristi L. Jobson ’06 HLS Assistant Dean for Admissions and Chief Admissions Officer

take at least a two-year gap between college graduation and Law School matriculation — during which they are encouraged to spend their time workin or studying.

Last year, the Law School’s JDP program opened its admissions process to juniors at

any college or university. Previously, it was an option available only for juniors coming from Harvard.

The Law School has yet to release admissions statistics specifically for the JDP program.

But Jobson said Harvard has been the most highly represented school among admits for both years.

“Not a surprise — the Harvard College students who applied had known that JDP was an option since their freshman year because at this point it’s a more mature pilot at Harvard College versus a student at any other institution,” Jobson said.

“We’re not releasing either the admission rate with the Junior Deferral Program or the number of applicants or the number of admins because at this point it is a fledgling pilot program... We are interested to see how it develops over time.” aidan.ryan@thecrimson.com.

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THE HARVARD CRIMSON | September 13, 2018

Theater Plan Progresses By paul D. tamburro Crimson Staff Writer

Local leaders remain optimistic about plans to renovate the Harvard Square Theater following a hearing last week at which the Cambridge Historical Commission requested more information about a proposed video facade.

The theater, which is located on Church St. and has been vacant since its closure in 2012, was purchased by billionaire and Harvard donor Gerald L.

It’s a complicated site because the building is connected to an abutting building, there’s shared egress.

Anthony D. Galuccio Attorney for Gerald Chan

Chan in 2015. In 2017, Chan officially revealed his plans for renovations, which include a large external video facade.

In order for construction to begin, Chan’s team of architects must first gain a certificate of appropriateness from the Cambridge Historical Commission. Executive Director Charles M. Sullivan said the commission oversees modifications to building exteriors, demolition, and construction within the Harvard Square Conservation District. In recent years, the Commission’s influence on the future of Harvard Square has sparked frequent debate as renovations crop up throughout the area.

At last week’s hearing, the Commission postponed granting a certificate of appropriateness to the theater due to questions about the facade and concerns over sizing. The new building would be 14 feet higher than the structure it will replace.

“The Commission is looking to understand the nature of the design, one feature of which is an innovative lighting system that involves LED illumination, or moving illumination,” Sullivan said.

“This has only been used once before in the world in a museum in Basel, Switzerland,

so the Commission asked to see a mockup.”

The light produced by the video facade also remains a stumbling block for the Commission.

“We have to consider how to regulate that kind of thing — and is it going to be on the spectrum of Times Square or is it going to be more subtle?” Sullivan said.

Site-specific constraints have also snaggled the planning process.

“It’s a complicated site because the building is connected to an abutting building, there’s shared egress,” said Anthony D. Galluccio, an attorney representing Chan.

“Obviously we had to look at excavation for the theater, but the building is sandwiched in between two other very old buildings.”

“We had to spend a lot of time on technical issues,” he added.

The reopening of the theater is a top priority for some in Harvard Square.

Denise A. Jillson, the executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association, said the building’s closure had lasting repercussions on the local economy. Jillson linked the closure of the restaurant FiRE+iCE in 2016 to the theater’s shuttering four years earlier.

“The impact that the theater had on our businesses on that street cannot be overstated,” Jillson said. “There were about 1,000 people on Church St. every single night because of the theater, and you close the theater, there are 1,000 fewer people.”

Sullivan also stressed the theater’s impact on nearby businesses in the Square.

“Harvard Square is less of a draw without having a movie theater. We’ve had a movie theater since 1925, so people throughout the Boston area were used to coming to Harvard Square, eating in restaurants, shopping, going to the movies, and going home,” Sullivan said.

“That’s a significant group of people who haven’t been coming.”

Despite the wait, community figures say they remain optimistic about the facade and the project overall. Suzanne P. Bli-

scooter From Page 1

er, a Harvard professor and leader of the Harvard Square Neighborhood Association, said she is pleased with the work Chan’s team has done.

“While it should come down in height, and will need careful light planning and control, I love the idea! In a way it is a new form of public art,” Blier wrote in an email.

Though there may be several more hearings before the project is approved, Sullivan said the outlook is positive for it.

“In general, the public seems to like it. And it’s certainly within the realm of possibility to receive a certificate of appropriateness, but there are these details that need to be worked out,” Sullivan said.

Galluccio said Chan’s team has also sought public feedback on the proposal and is optimistic about the permitting process.

“We had a pretty success-

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This has only been used once beore in the world in a museum in Basel, Switzerland.

Charles M. Sullivan Cambridge Historical Commission Executive Director

ful first hearing, the reception was pretty good, which I think really relates to a long process of getting here where we spent a lot of time listening to different stakeholders in the community,” Galluccio said.

“It took us a long time to get to this point but it was a very informed process.”

Chan’s team will present their plan and a mockup of the facade at another hearing before the Historical Commission in the coming months.

Jillson acknowledged the remaining hearings, demolition, and construction process may take up to three years. But she said locals are looking forward to the end result.

“The reopening will be a time for celebration,” Blier wrote.

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Cambridge Considers Creating Electric Scooter Program electric scooters in Cambridge and Somerville. Claiming the company did not consult the city government before beginning business, City Manager Louis A. DePasquale requested that Bird shut down its scooter operation and issued a ceaseand-desist order.

Cambridge ultimately impounded some of Bird’s scooters.

In an interview prior to the hearing, Vice Mayor Jan Devereux, who also chairs the Transportation Committee, said the city had not established scooter regulations at the time Birds began appearing in the streets.

“Bird sort of dumped its flock on our streets uninvited in the summer,” Devereux said. “And also in Somerville, so both Cambridge and Somerville received a bunch of electric scooters, and we didn’t have any advance notice, we didn’t have any time to

prepare some ground rules, or any permitting process,” she added.

Devereux said it is important to recognize that an electric scooter is not a “toy device” but a piece of machinery.

“Most of us rode a Razor scooter when we were a kid, and it was a fun thing to tool around on, but this has a motor,” Devereux said.

“It can go 15 miles per hour.

If you run into a pedestrian on one, you can do some serious damage, and we don’t want people to take it lightly.”

Relevant state laws already on the books are geared towards scooters that resemble mopeds and require turn indicators and a rear brake light — features Bird and LimeBike scooters lack, according to Devereux.

In a presentation during Wednesday’s hearing, Cambridge’s director of environen-

tal and transportation planning Susanne Rasmussen said she believed a pilot scooter initiative ought to include data-sharing agreements and safety measures, among other things.

Hannah Smith, the government relations manager for Bird, and Scott Mullen, the director of expansion for LimeBike, both spoke Wednesday on behalf of their respective companies.

The two detailed safety precautions taken by Bird and LimeBike.

Mullen pointed to “tip-over” technology that allows LimeBike to know if scooters have fallen to the ground and to rating systems that help ensure users park the scooters properly.

Smith alluded to Bird’s system of charging and inspecting electric scooters at night.

“Bird will make every effort to provide on-the-ground support through community out-

reach,” Smith said.

“Through in-person interactions, and whenever possible, Bird can host helmet giveaways and safety events, partner with local organizations to encourage safe riding, and offer in-person support to local officials as we continue to solidify working here.”

In an emailed statement after the hearing, Bird spokesperson Mackenzie Long wrote that the company appreciated the opportunity to discuss its presence in Cambridge.

“Bird will continue to work closely with Cambridge, as well as the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, to develop a framework that works for everyone and allows Birds to get back on the road soon,” Long wrote.

College students in the university-laden Cambridge area are necessarily a key target audience for the electric scooter

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companies. Some Harvard students said they have mixed feelings about the scooters.

Emily Chen ’19 said she rode Bird and Lime scooters in Santa Monica when she worked and lived there over the summer.

Chen said she considers electric scooters to be more “fun” than “essential” when it comes to getting around town.

But scootering isn’t entirely safe, Chen said. After speaking with her co-workers, Chen said she heard stories of scooter mishaps that make her “hesitant” to use Birds and LimeBikes in Cambridge, should they appear.

“One of my roommates this summer took a Bird home once, and the brake was broken. As she was trying to stop, there was a car coming, and she literally had to jump off her scooter,” Chen said.

Trevor J. Levin ’19 — a former Crimson arts executive and columnist — said Cambridge

should consider the environmental benefits of shared electric scooters.

“I think electric scooters represent a potential to continue moving away from cars and toward more sustainable and more spatially efficient ways of getting around the city,” Levin said.

At Wednesday’s meeting, DePasquale emphasized that the city supports introducing electric scooters — but that Cambridge officials must proper precautions as they roll out the new service.

“The one thing I want to bring home is, we are in support of this, we want to make it happen,” DePasquale said. “It’s how we go about making it happen, how it makes it work for our residents and everybody — that’s our key point.” patricia.liu@thecrimson.com. leon.yang@thecrimson.com.

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | SEPTEMBER 13, 2018

PAGE 8

EDITORIAL THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD

Smith Center Meets Need for Common Spaces

M

ost of the Harvard community has by now gaped over the newly renovated Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center, which opened last week in time to welcome in the new school year. From the different cafes and restaurants located across the first floor, to the open deck covered with New England greenery, to the interestingly-shaped chairs located in the Harvard Common spaces, there is much to explore in this unique, dynamic building.

We appreciate the thought put into every detail of this central space, and look forward to seeing similar improvements around Harvard locations in the future.

The greatest innovation of the Smith Campus Center is that it now serves as a space in which the entire Harvard community can come together and connect.

The spacious common spaces within the first two floors are welcome and sorely needed. Indeed, Harvard affiliates are already using them to gather and socialize.

We are especially hopeful that opening a common space in the Square will catalyze further changes in social spaces and social life at Harvard.

We have long spoken about the need for more open social spaces on Harvard’s campus where students from different years and Houses could interact with each other and feel at home within the cen-

trality of the Square.

Building community requires a plethora of venue options, from party spaces within the Houses to the long-proposed but unrealized multicultural center.

We understand that the University has trouble addressing all these concerns at once, not least because Cambridge real estate is difficult to acquire

The new Campus Center has succeeded in uniting both Harvard and its serving community. While much remains to be done to incorporate Cambridge life into Harvard, this new development has taken us miles ahead of where once we were. and campus is scattered across multiple focal points in the Square, Quad, and across the river.

The SOCH, which ostensibly functions as the College’s extracurricular office center and hub, illustrates the College’s difficulty in creating a hub for

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campus life.

Its location in the Quad makes it prohibitively inconvenient for the vast majority of students who live closer to the Square. While the Smith Campus Center cannot redress all these needs and concerns, we hope that it will do much in the way of democratizing Harvard social life.

We also applaud the University’s decision to open up the building’s common spaces, located on the first two floors, to the community at large, allowing Cantabrigians, tourists, and visitors alike to experience the center’s amenities.

We are hopeful that this decision will better the often complex and fraught town-gown relationship between Harvard and Cambridge, as it promotes equity and access to a unique space.

The new Campus Center has succeeded in uniting both Harvard and its serving community. While much remains to be done to incorporate Cambridge life into Harvard, this new development has taken us miles ahead of where once we were, 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.

UC Election Reform an Experiment in Democracy

KATHRYN S. KUHAR—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

By BRANDON T. MARTINEZ and PABLO T. RASMUSSEN VOTERS CHOOSE

L

ast Sunday, the Undergraduate Council approved a change in its constitution, shifting away from the Single Transferable Vote, or Hare-Clark, electoral rule to another ranked-choice system called Dowdall Borda Count. It would be a mistake to consider the change as merely clerical, woefully technical, or, worse, inconsequential.

Our Undergraduate Council successfully shifted from one of the most progressive but complex electoral systems in place to an even more progressive, yet also elegantly stable and simple system.

The Borda Count offers the best chance to translate our often-nuanced preferences into the elected representatives who serve us.

Although our previous system allowed us to rank our preferences of candidates, it lost track of our voices as quotas and rounds and transfers obfuscated the results. The Single Transferable Vote was so complex, in fact, that a healthy majority of UC representatives at the meeting acknowledged not knowing exactly how they got elected.

Our new Borda Count is much simpler: You rank the candidates you want, and those ranks become point values that are summed to find the winner. First choices receive one point, second choices receive onehalf, third choices one-third, and so on. Counting votes is a matter of simple addition, rather than a complex algorithm that can take days to process and verify. By giving us a clear understanding of the process, the Borda Count returns key information and power to the voters .

As members of Voters Choose, the group that advocated for the UC constitutional amendment, we promoted the change because we see the need to make voting accessible, understandable, and powerfully representative across college campuses, cities, and communities all across the country.

We are constantly reminded by the institutional shortcomings in our own university to represent the wishes of the student body, and even more so our American democracy.

The repercussions of a change in the electoral system shouldn’t be limited to better voting on campus, but rather, it should be a call to action for our student body to reform institutions towards systems that acknowledge minority voices, represent the wonderful diversity of our communities, and promote thoughtful decision-making it.

As the future of our country, we should know we can affect change

in the broken rules we see, from our hometowns to our country and world.

After all, small victories are stepping stones to larger ones, and we should always continue to build that “more perfect union” at every level.

Our next stepping stone is Cambridge.

The same catastrophically complex system of elections that the UC just changed is used to elect members of the Cambridge City Council and Cambridge School Board.

While the adoption of the Single Transferable Vote decades ago established this city as a policy innovator, it is now abundantly clear that change is needed. Even after more than 15 elections under the system, candidates spend a significant amount of time

We are suggesting to Cambridge, its City Council, its School Board, and its Electoral Commission to consider adopting Borda Count like Harvard’s own Undergraduate Council. learning and explaining the system to their potential constituents rather than talking about substantive policies.

We can no longer sideline the issues, especially with an already-unwieldy number of candidates for office (often nearing 30).

We are suggesting to Cambridge, its City Council, its School Board, and its Electoral Commission to consider adopting Borda Count like Harvard’s own Undergraduate Council.

The work we hope to do with our student body and the Cambridge community is to ensure that our systems are not only representative but also accessible to all.

We must follow the words of the Dexter Gate as we continue to be citizens, scholars, and young activists: “Depart to better serve thy country and thy kind”.

And, we hope you can join the movement to make elections better from the UC to Cambridge to cities and towns across the country.

—Pablo T. Rasmussen ’20 is a Government concentrator living in Cabot House. He is Director of Outreach and Advocacy for Voters Choose.

—Brandon M. Martinez ’20 is a Government concentrator living in Cabot House. He is President of Voters Choose.

Page 9

Sports

mEN’S hOCKEY

about the team

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | september 13, 2018

2018 Overall Record 2-4 ______________________________________

2017 Overall Record 8-8-1 ______________________________________

upcoming games ______________________________________

Conference Record 0-0 ______________________________________

Conference Record 2-4-1 ______________________________________

Games

6 ______________________________________

Games

17 ______________________________________

Women’s Soccer vs. Northeastern 1:00pm, at Harvard

Goals

7 ______________________________________

Goals

16 ______________________________________

Goals Per Game 1.17 ______________________________________

Goals Per Game 0.94 ______________________________________

Women’s Soccer vs. Penn 4:00pm, at Penn

Hurricane Florence Postpones Boston College Match

By George Hu Crimson Staff Writer

The Harvard women’s soccer team saw its matchup against Boston College on Wednesday night called off due to scheduling complications related to Hurricane Florence. With steady rainfall throughout the day and a trip to North Carolina looming for the Eagles this weekend, school officials agreed to postpone the game indefinitely.

The contest would have marked the culmination of the Crimson’s first full month of the season, with its players having come together for the first team meeting of the preseason on August 12th.

“It was a very good first month for us, and of course we want to test ourselves as much as possible against strong competition like BC,” said Harvard coach Chris Hamblin. “We control what we can control, though, and now we’re turning our attention to the Northeastern game this weekend.”

In place of the game, the Crimson held a full 11-on-11 scrimmage during its practice on Wednesday night. The team this year is larger than in seasons past, giving Harvard the luxury of playing a competitive scrimmage to keep the Crimson sharp.

“We obviously would rather have played the game, but it was nice to have everyone on the field and to simulate that,” said midfielder and captain Zayne Matulis. “We were still able to iron some things out even though the game was canceled.”

With a freshman class that is ten players strong this year, Harvard was able to field two whole, healthy squads while

still having some players dealing with injuries serve as referees.

The team will hope that the scrimmage bolsters depth in place of the missed game experience as it prepares for conference play. The two-game swing against crosstown rivals was intended to gear the Crimson up for next Saturday’s Ivy opener at Penn.

Both Boston College and Northeastern have been playing at a high level so far this year, with the Eagles currently sporting a perfect 8-0-0 record and the Huskies picking up big wins against UConn and BU. In its previous seven games, Boston College conceded just one goal to opponents, stringing together a streak of six consecutive shutouts.

“We were very excited to play BC,” Matulis said. “They’ve been very strong so far this season, but we beat them for the first time in something like 15, 16 years last season, and we wanted to come out and prove we could do it again.”

This Sunday’s showdown with Northeastern is all that remains now for Harvard before it plunges into an Ivy slate that features four away games. After making a run to the CAA Championship game last season, the Huskies have started slower this year but still boast a potent attack spearheaded by all-conference senior forward Hannah Rosenblatt.

The Northeastern defense features several players who were named to All-CAA teams at the end of last season as well.

Senior Eve Goulet and sophomore Julianne Ross are among the returning standouts, while new freshman addition Grace Moore has also started every

DELAY OF GAME Junior midfielder Meg Tveit and the rest of the Crimson will have to wait to get back on the pitch in live-game action after Wednesday’s game against Boston College was postponed due to the coming severe weather of Hurricane Florence . timothy r. o’meara—Crimson photographer

game in the back line so far for the Huskies.

The Crimson will counter up top with star midfielder Leah Mohammadi, who leads the team with three goals, as well as freshman Sophie Hirst and sophomore Murphy Agnew.

Hirst is second on the team with two goals and added a first

collegiate assist to her name last Sunday at Providence.

“Everything we do becomes even more important now that we’re approaching conference play,” Hamblin said. “We’re taking the games one at a time, but the there is a greater emphasis on progressing more quickly to where we want to be as a team.

Northeastern should be a good test of that this Sunday.”

Once Harvard kicks off against Northeastern, the team will have faced competition from seven conferences this season, including the Pac-12, ACC, and Big East.

“We always want to get exposure to as many different teams,

as many different playing styles as possible during our non-conference schedule,” Hamblin said. “It’s the same reason we travel to places to California to play games. It’s to test ourselves and learn as much about ourselves as we can.” george.hu@thecrimson.com

Around The Ivies: Week One, New Start For Harvard By cade palmer Crimson Staff Writer

In arguably the greatest movie of our generation, “The Dark Knight Rises,” Catwoman steals pearls and fingerprints from Bruce Wayne for Roland Dagget’s “clean slate.” When Dagget informs her that such a device doesn’t exist, she kicks him in the face.

My professor similarly explained to me that no such device exists in the academic sphere after I inquired about my exam scores.

BUT IN FOOTBALL the clean slate does exist and it’s called Week 1. Nothing from last year matters anymore. That 21-point loss to Yale in the rain, never happened. Princeton dominating us under the lights of Harvard Stadium, never happened. The Saybrook Strip, I wish it hadn’t happened.

Here. We. Go. Brown at cal poly

The way I feel about writing this article with no prior Ivy League performances must be how Brown admissions officers are starting to feel about the Class of 2023 as the university recently decided to no longer require the SAT and ACT writing sections in applications. I’m really all for leaving things — SAT tests, class, the Yale game — 30 minutes early. In fact, based on fourth quarter performances I’m pretty sure the Brown football team adopted a similar policy years ago.

Also, John Madden graduated from Cal Poly and I’m not sure if that’s surmountable by the Bears. The western institution is located in San Luis Obispo, Calif., often called one of the happiest cities in the U.S — which is ironic because Brown students also tend to be quite happy. No news yet on whether the former is also related to per capita weed consumption.

Cal Poly is in California, Brown is in Rhode Island. Cal

Poly has the beach and temperate weather, Brown has snow and blizzards. You don’t create champions in an environment of privilege.

Prediction: Brown by 3 san diego at harvard

Speaking of California, had this game been in San Diego, that’s where I would be this weekend.

Instead, I’ll be hiking from the Quad to the Stadium this Saturday, probably in the rain. But I digress.

The last time Harvard took the field, it dropped a muddy contest on Yale’s home turf, grass, mud bowl, pit, whatever you want to call it. The good news is that was a year ago. Also Harvard has turf. Also San Diego lost by 33 last week.

Meanwhile, Harvard is still looking to cement a starting quarterback and the defense will have to replace the core of seniors that led the backfield last year. Look out for a high scoring competitive matchup.

Prediction: Harvard by 3 yale at holy cross

Rumor has it this game is being hosted at Holy Cross because the team refused to travel to New Haven to play. With an impending strike by the New Haven police, one of the most dangerous cities in the nation already is about to become more so. The decision is unlikely to spare the 0-2 Crusaders from the drumming it is likely to receive at the hands of the Bulldogs.

Yale returns the majority of its 2017 Ivy League Champion team, including junior quarterback Kurt Rawlings — the guy who racked up 177 yards and a touchdown on Harvard last season. Rest assured he won’t be the only one calling out Hail Mary on Saturday.

At a campus far from a large city, without frats and a social life that revolves around university-sanctioned clubs like The Advocate and The Fenwick

BOOKING IT Senior running back Charlie Booker II, an all-important veteran on this year’s squad, fights off a would-be Pennsylvania tackler in conference play last season as two of his Crimson offensive lineman bulldoze over a separate defender in his wake . TIMOTHY R. O’MEARA—Crimson photographer

Review, Holy Cross’s offense might be the only thing that gets shut down on that campus all year.

Prediction: Yale by 35 Georgetown at Dartmouth

Fun fact 1: Georgetown was the site of many scenes from “The Exorcist” when it was originally released in 1973.

Fun fact 2: Georgetown is really bad at football.

Analysis: In the original movie, Father Damien Karras throws himself out of a window after being processed by the demon to spare those around him from harm. Georgetown would be better suited to do the same and spare its program from the embarrassment it will surely endure this weekend in Hanover.

Prediction: Dartmouth by 25 bucknell at Pennsylvania

Bucknell is traveling to Penn’s Franklin Field this weekend which means it will be subject to a bevy of weird Penn traditions. Among the worst is the toast throw. Basically what that entails is a bunch of hungry college students disposing of their excess toast onto the track surrounding the field after the third quarter. This menacing show of athleticism is based on a line from the song “Drink a Highball” which exalts “Here’s a toast to dear old Penn.” Franklin Field’s ban on alcohol in the 1970s forced Penn students to adapt.

Word is, Penn students love the tradition. There is one drawback though. “I just wish more people showed up to the games to participate in this tradition,” woefully yearned Penn undergraduate student Marielle Trubowitsch to the Daily Pennsylvanian.

Pour one out for Ivy League football attendance (but not at Franklin Field).

As far as actual football goes, Penn sometimes wins the Ivy League and the last relevant thing Bucknell did was win the 1935 Orange Bowl.

Prediction: Pennsylvania by 10

cornell at delaware

Don’t look now, but Cornell’s first in the Ivy League. Of course that’s according to a Google search of “Cornell football.”

And of course a Google search of any Ancient Eight team will bring up the same result. And of course that’s because zero games have been played. Nonetheless, Ithaca hasn’t seen this much excitement since the silkworm farms came to the city.

This weekend’s match — luckily for all involved — is in Delaware. Unluckily for Delaware, their mascot is the Fightin’ Blue Hens. Despite the unfortunate avion on the sidelines, the team is 1-1 including a 37-0 shutout defeat of Lafayette.

Moreover, I never trust a team from Ithaca.

Prediction: Delaware by 21 columbia at central connecticut

At Columbia they don’t like to win. No actually. Leading up to 1988, Columbia lost 44-straight games. More recently, the team lost 24-straight contests prior to finally downing Wagner in 2015.

But in 2017, the tide changed.

Columbia started 6-0 for the first season since 1996. The reaction of alumni? Disdain.

“When my husband told me that Columbia had beaten Penn, I said, ‘That’s bad news,’” said Jill Levey, a New Jersey fundraising consultant to the New York Times. “When I went to Columbia, we prided ourselves on being anti-football and pro-intellectual.”

“Very pleasantly unsettling,” said another graduate Samantha Rowan to the Times.

My reaction to Columbia’s fan base? Elation.

Prediction: Central Connecticut by 7 PRINCETON AT BUTLER

Most students at Princeton probably have their own butler.

After this weekend, so will the football team. I didn’t even have to flip a coin to make this pick.

Prediction: Princeton by 18 cade.palmer@thecrimson.com

The Harvard Crimson | SEPTEMBER 13, 2018 | Page 10

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