The Harvard Crimson - Volume CXLV, No. 53

THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873 | VOLUME CXLV, NO. 53 | CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS | TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2018

The Harvard Crimson Harvard must safeguard personal data in light of the Department of Justice’s filing. EDITORIAL PAGE 8

Final Clubs Won’t Sue Univ.

Women’s tennis continues undefeated season in conference play. SPORTS PAGE 10

May 2015 64 Asian-American advocacy groups submit an administrative complaint to Dept. of Education and Dept. of Justice August 2017 DOJ spokesperson announced it would investigate Harvard admissions complaint “that the prior Administration left unresolved”

By CAROLINE S. ENGELMAYER and MICHAEL E. XIE CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS ­

Harvard’s final clubs are not preparing to file suit against the University for its social group policy any time in the near future and view legal action as a last resort, multiple club affiliates said Monday.

Harvard’s policy, which took effect with the Class of 2021, bars members of single-gender final clubs and Greek organizations from holding campus leadership positions, varsity athletic team captaincies, and from receiving College endorsement for certain prestigious fellowships. Since its debut in May 2016, the policy has sparked turmoil on campus and significant backlash from members of social clubs—including a recent push by some final club graduate members to lobby Congress for legislation that could threaten Harvard’s ability to enforce the sanctions.

The Wall Street Journal reported in Feb. 2018 that some final club graduates are lobbying members of Congress in favor of the PROSPER Act, a piece of legislation—meant as an update to the Higher Education Act—that contains a provision that could force the University to choose between the sanctions and millions of dollars in research funding.

In its current form, the PROSPER Act does not apply to Harvard; final club members hope to change that by altering the wording of the legislation. Multiple leaders of final clubs said these lobbying efforts remain their main focus and that the clubs do not plan to sue the University in the next few months.

“It’s the type of thing that you allow for the possibility but you don’t plan for its being an eventuality,” said Richard T. Porteus Jr. ’78, the graduate president of the all-male Fly Club. “I know litigation is always the sexiest thing to go for [but] the legislative remedy is of most promise to us.”

He added the clubs consider the lobbying effort the “most prudent and effective thing” to do in the “near term.”

Harvey A. Silverglate, a lawyer who has represented the Fly Club since the group retained legal counsel in Sept.

2016, wrote in an email that litigation was “always seen as a last resort.”

Silverglate wrote that the decision to sue—not yet made—will depend both on the outcome of the lobbying push and on the “details” of Harvard’s ongoing implementation of the social group policy. As part of that implementation, the College’s Office of Student Life is

Lee, Experts Weigh in on Lawsuit Filing

June 2015 Obama administration DOE dismisses complaint, DOJ takes no action October 2017 Freedom of Information Act request “all but confirms” DOJ’s pending investigation into Harvard November 2017 DOJ threatens to sue the University if it doesn’t release admissions files

December 2017 Harvard offers DOJ access to admissions files

Experts Say DOJ Filing Will Have Little Impact on Pending Suit

By DELANO R. FRANKLIN and SAMUEL W. ZWICKEL

By DELANO R. FRANKLIN

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

April 2018 DOJ files amicus brief asking for the unsealing of admissions data and applicant information in an affirmative action lawsuit related to their investigation

January 2018 DOJ emails obtained through FOIA request show US Assistant Attorney General John M. Gore partly directed the hiring of attorneys to investigate Harvard

Corporation Fellow Criticizes DOJ Involvement in Litigation

­ arvard Corporation Senior Fellow H William F. Lee ’72 called the Justice Department’s recent intervention in a lawsuit challenging Harvard’s admissions process “perplexing” and “entirely unnecessary” in a public letter he sent Monday.

Lee sent the letter to the federal judge presiding over the ongoing suit, which alleges Harvard discriminates against Asian Americans in its admissions system.

Advocacy group Students for Fair Admissions filed the lawsuit in 2014. “Harvard does not, of course,

Several legal experts said the Justice Department’s recent intervention in a pending lawsuit challenging Harvard’s admissions practices will have little effect on the outcome of the case— though the department’s interference signals a desire to become more deeply involved going forward.

The department on Friday filed an amicus brief seeking to unseal admissions data that Harvard has repeatedly argued should remain private. The filing also asserted the lawsuit is directly relevant to the Justice Department’s separate, ongoing probe into Harvard’s admissions practices and

SEE LETTER PAGE 9

SEE EXPERTS PAGE 7

ELENA M. RAMOS—CRIMSON DESIGNER

Classroom to Table Funding Runs Out

CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

SEE PAGE 9

By SAMUEL W. ZWICKEL CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

The Classroom to Table program—a College initiative designed to bring together students and faculty members for fine dining in Harvard Square—has shut down after exhausting its budget for the year.

An update on the Office of Undergraduate Education’s webpage for the program said funding has run out for the semester, and the online form to schedule new dinner reservations closed on Wednesday, April 4 at 12 noon.

“As we stated at the start of the term, program funding is limited. We have had a very successful term and have reached our funding limit,” the webpage reads.

The closure comes shortly after the initiative announced new restrictions for the spring 2018 semester. The ­

SEE CLUBS PAGE 7

SEE CLASSROOM PAGE 7

JUDICIAL WISDOM

Merrick B. Garland ‘74 speaks to students in the Winthrop Junior Common Room on Monday. Garland gave a talk on public service and the law. JACQUELINE S. CHEA—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Grad Students Dismayed at Lack of MailIn Voting

Students Urge HKS to Invite Int’l Speakers

By ALEXANDER A. CHAIDEZ

By SHERA S. AVI-YONAH and MOLLY C. MCCAFFERTY

CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

More than 120 people have signed a petition urging the dean of the Kennedy School to invite a wider array of international speakers and moderators to campus.

The petition, organized by several international students and widely circulated around the school, specifically cites the choice of Ohio Governor John Kasich as the school’s 2018 commencement speaker as “reflective of this trend.” The students requested that HKS replace Kasich as the main addressee or add another speaker to the commencement program who better represents the international student body.

Yusaku Kawashima, a master in public administration degree student originally from Japan who helped

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SEE INTERNATIONAL PAGE 7 INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Harvard Today 2

Two mailboxes stand on Massachusetts Avenue. Graduate research assistants away from campus will not be able to vote using mail-in ballots. KARINA G. GONZALEZ-ESPINOZA—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

News 7

Editorial 8

Sports 10

TODAY’S FORECAST

RAINY High: 46 Low: 31

Ahead of the second unionization election next week, some Harvard graduate student assistants away from campus say they are disappointed there will not be mail-in ballots for the election.

The election—which is slated to be held on April 18 and 19—will only be conducted at three in-person polling sites on Harvard’s campus, per a pre-election agreement between the University and Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers.

The results of the poll will determine whether eligible graduate and undergraduate student assistants may collectively bargain with the University.

A number of the students unable to vote next week include those completing fieldwork or remote research for

SEE BALLOT PAGE 7

VISIT THECRIMSON.COM. FOLLOW @THECRIMSON ON TWITTER.

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HARVARD TODAY

FOR LUNCH

FOR DINNER

Dan Dan Noodles

Baby Shells with Ham and Peas

Spicy Chicken with Chilies

TUESDAY | APRIL 10, 2018

Pepper, Onion & Cheese Pizza on Whole Wheat Crust

Mexican Chicken Vegetable Pot Pie with Biscuits

AROUND THE IVIES Video Shows Gunman Near Princeton Armed With BB Gun The Daily Princetonian reported that surveillance videos released by the New Jersey Attorney General’s office indicate that the late Scott Mielentz, who was killed on March 20 by state police anear Princeton, was armed with a black BB gun. The video shows police officers engage Mielentz, two officers fired at him, striking him in the head and torso. The New Jersey Attorney General’s office is currently in the process of investigating the use of deadly force by police.

Cornell Police Arrests Suspect Accused of Exposing Himself to Female Resident in Campus Dorm

EXPRESSIONS PRESENTS: EXES The Expressions Dance Company performs a dance in their show: “Expressions Presents: EXes” on Saturday.

LU SHAO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

HAPPY TUESDAY!

Today’s Events

#MeToo and the Media The IOP is hosting a discussion panel on the #MeToo movement, and it’s an open event! Head down to 79 JFK St. at 6 p.m. to hear from journalism, radio, and magazine experts.

Black Women Voices in Poetry Come out to the Parlor Room in the Phillips Brooks House at 6:30 p.m. to see an empowering poetry workshop and screening of black women voices.

Cabot Library Turns One Our beloved Cabot Science Center Library celebrates its one-year-sincereopening birthday! There will be a slideshow of photos from the past

Midterm Szn drags on but the end is in sight! You can do this.

year #forthemems, and to entertain you while you “study,” starting at 12 noon.

Free Cone Day It’s Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s!

Stop by The Garage location between 12 and 8 p.m. for a free scoop of Phish Food (or your most cherished flavor of choice).

Claire J. Hoffman Crimson Staff Writer

A man responsible for illegally entering a Cornell campus dormitory and exposing himself to a female student in February pleaded guilty in late March, according to the Cornell Daily Sun. Floyd G. Slater Jr. pleaded guilty to seconddegree attempted burglary and public lewdness according to a Facebook post by the Cornell University Police Department. He faces three to seven years in state prison and had previously been arrested by Cornell’s police for lewd acts in 2015.

Workers’ Lawsuit Against Yale Advances U.S. District Judge Alvin Thompson ruled that four Yale employees will be allowed to proceed with claims they filed last August, alleging that the Yale’s retirement plan entails excessive fees.

Thompson ruled to allow the case to continue on March 30 despite protest from Yale arguing that these arrangements are commonplace.

University spokesman Tom Conroy said Yale will continue to fight the lawsuit.

IN THE REAL WORLD U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth is First to Give Birth While in Office Tammy Duckworth, 50, has become the first sitting U.S. Senator to give birth in office. The Illinois Democrat’s new daughter, Maile Pearl Bowlsbey, is Duckworth’s second daughter.

Duckwoth announced her preganancy in January and has been serving in the Senate since 2017.

Zuckerberg Meets With Washington Lawmakers Monday Ahead of Congressional Hearings Mark E. Zuckerberg met with several senatiors on Monday prior to a set of hearings he will attend for the social network’s failings in recent years.

The appearance before congressional committees over two days in an attempt to reassure Congress that the social media compnay can better protect user privacy online.

Mueller Looking Into Ukrainian Steel Magnate’s Payment to Trump Foundation A Ukrainian billionaire, Victor Pinchuk, donated $150,000 to the Donald J. Trump Foundation after Trump spoke via video at a conference in Kiev in 2015. Special Counsel Bob Mueller is now investigating the transaction, the New York Times reported.

CGIS STAIRCASE WAITING AT THE DOT A view down a spiral staircase, seen in the Knafel Building of the Center for Government and International Studies.

MICHAEL GRITZBACH—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873 Derek G. Xiao, President Hannah Natanson, Managing Editor Nathan Y. Lee, Business Manager 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.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

STAFF FOR THIS ISSUE

“It’s the type of thing that you allow for the possibility but you don’t plan for its being an eventuality.”

Night Editor Kenton K. Shimozaki ‘19

Design Editor Diana C. Perez ’19

Assistant Night Editor Jonah S. Berger ’21 Lucas Ward ’20

Editorial Editor Caleb S. Esrig ’20

—Richard T. Porteus Jr. ’78, graduate president of the Fly Club

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.

Story Editors Joshua J. Florence ’19 Mia C. Karr ’19 Hannah Natanson ’19 Claire E. Parker ‘19 Brian P. Yu ‘19 Phelan Yu ’19

Photo Editors Caleb D. Schwartz ’20 Sports Editors George Hu ’19

The Harvard Crimson | April 10, 2018 | page 3

ARTS

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‘Love Story,’ a Statement on Fame and the Refugee Experience, Comes to the MFA

the week in arts

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PETER CAREY PRESENTS A LONG WAY FROM HOME, IN CONVERSATION WITH CLAIRE MESSUD. The Harvard Book Store welcomes two-time Man Booker Prize–winning author Peter Carey for a discussion of his latest novel, “A Long Way from Home.” He will be joined in conversation by acclaimed local author Claire Messud.

Harvard Book Store. 7 p.m. Free.

THE LARAMIE PROJECT In 1998, Matthew Shepard was fatally injured and left for dead because he was gay. The Laramie Project retells the words of Laramie’s residents and begins to uncover the prejudices that boil over into violent hate crime.

Club Oberon. 7:30 p.m. $15-35.

PROCESS: HAND AND MACHINE MADE This tour focuses on the tools and methods of contemporary artists who create their works by hand. Combining these techniques with 21st century processes allow the artists to create works like never before.

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. 6 p.m.

Free.

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friday

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saturday

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sunday

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monday

MFA FILM: DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST Daughters of the Dust follows the Peazant family living on St. Simons Island in 1902. When they decide to part ways with the island and move to the mainland, tensions are created between the family elders and the younger members of the family.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Harry and Mildred Remis Auditorium 161). 8 p.m. $11.

COurtesy of MFA

IRIS M. LEWIS CRIMSON STAFF WRITER Candice Breitz’s “Love Story,” an exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts that opened March 31, is housed inside a dark room with an emerald green glow. There’s a long carpet, perfectly mirroring back a shamrock movie screen. On the screen, a man and a woman tell stories about refuge and asylum.

“I know that when [Breitz] will share [this story] with the world, it won’t be the same as if it were just me,” the woman says. “I don’t think all those nice people would come just to listen to my story.”

The woman is Julianne Moore. She is reading the words of a refugee, exactly as they were told to Breitz in a series of interviews. The man, doing the same, is Alec Baldwin.

According to the artist’s website, “‘Love Story’ raises questions around how and where our attention is focused.”

The exhibit follows the stories of six refugees, first as they are portrayed by Moore and Baldwin and then through their own voices. “What kind of stories are we willing to hear?

What kind of stories move us?” Breitz’s website demands.

“Why is it that the same audiences that are driven to tears by fictional blockbusters remain affectless in the face of actual human suffering?”

Over the course of the 73-minute series of videos, Moore and Baldwin read the refugees’ stories without embellishment or glitz. Recording equipment is in the background.

Sometimes, a phone will go off or an actor will stop to get water. “Love Story” does not show actors acting—instead, it shows them talking, just as the refugees themselves do later in the movie. Breitz allows Moore and Baldwin’s fame to stand alone, completely unadorned and unexplained.

“I didn’t get what was going on initially,” said exhibit visitor India M. Rawnsley. “I think that’s kind of the point—that

you don’t understand. It was eye-opening when I figured it out.”

The exhibit at the MFA is the US debut of German-born “Love Story,” giving it added significance in the eyes of MFA curator Liz Munsell. “While immigration and the refugee crisis are global issues, we knew that this work would have particular resonance in the US, which is viewed as the epicenter of celebrity culture,” she wrote in an emailed statement.

Of the six refugees, two sought asylum in the United States directly. But all six of them brought vastly different perspectives on the global refugee experience. Alec Baldwin reads the words of a Venezuelan political dissident, for example, and an ex-child soldier from Angola. Julianne Moore reads the stories of a war refugee from Syria and an Indian transgender academic.

Breitz’s exhibit juxtaposes fame with misfortune, and power with helplessness. Exhibit viewer Serena K. Borch, however, said she believed that the refugees’ narratives could stand alone.

“These are white people who are very famous and rich, and I’m like, why are these white people talking about this?” she said. “Why are they the ones telling the story?”

Breitz might agree that in an ideal world, refugees would always be listened to. But for now—as long as refugees’ stories remain unheard—“Love Story” will be at the MFA’s Gallery 259 for the rest of this year.

Staff Writer Iris M. Lewis can be reached at iris.lewis@ thecrimson.com

ROMEO AND JULIET AND BENNIE AND THE JETS In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, a pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life—but not before belting out the greatest hits of the piano-playing pop icon Elton John.

Leverett House Library Theater. 12 p.m. Free, tickets need to be reserved online.

LOWELL HOUSE OPERA 2018: ROSSINI’S LE COMTE ORY This opera highlights the sexual antics of the medieval French nobility. The main character, Count Ory, disguises himself to try to seduce a lovely Countess and gets held up by the ensuing wildness.

Agassiz Theatre. 7:30 p.m. Premium Seating $46, General Admission $16-30.

MUPPET TREASURE ISLAND In this classic Muppets movie, Kermit the Frog and his pals get into it with a group of pirates. In addition, they try to solve problems to secure a pricey treasure.

Brattle Theatre. 2:15 p.m. General Admission $28, Students $20.

10 April 2018 | VOL CXLv, ISSUE x Arts Chairs Mila Gauvin II ’19 Grace Z. Li ’19

EDITOR Associates Kaylee S. Kim ’20 Caroline A. Tsai ’20 Aline G. Damas ’20 Noah F. Houghton ’20 Edward M. Litwin ’19 Petra Laura Oreskovic ’20 Ethan B. Reichsman ’19 Yael M. Saiger ’19

Caroline E. Tew ’20 Jonathan P. Trang ’19 Lucy Wang ’20

Executive Designer Hanna Kim ‘21

Design Associates Mireya C. Arango ‘20 Emily H. Hong ‘21 Jessica N. Morandi ‘21

Executive PhotographerS Kathryn S. Kuhar ‘20 Zennie L. Wey ’20

ARTS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | APRIL 10, 2018 | PAGE 4

theater

PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST:

LA’TOYA PRINCESS JACKSON JOSH M. GROSSMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

With a background in ballet, songwriting, singing, and EDM, La’Toya Princess Jackson has done it all. As a Master of Liberal Arts degree candidate at the Harvard Extension School, she has brought her unique blend of art forms to Harvard. Her new original work, “Vanity Lane,” uses classical ballet, ’80s music, and EDM to tell a complex story about beauty and self-love. The Harvard Crimson sat down with Jackson to discuss her artistic trajectory, “Vanity Lane,” and inclusion on stage.

The Harvard Crimson: How did you first become

interested in ballet?

La’Toya Princess Jackson: My path is kind of

unconventional. I started getting interested in ballet when I was in college as an undergrad. I had taken a ballet class when I was 14, but I hadn’t been exposed to ballet when I was younger.

My path as a dancer started as a jazz dancer in high school.

One of the girls in high school was very good at ballet, and she invited me to a ballet class, but when I went there, there weren’t any dancers that looked like me. This was all in Fort Worth, Texas. I grew up in a small town in the Arlington/Fort Worth area, and there were no dancers [who] looked like me. They put me in ballet classes that weren’t appropriate for my level, so I thought that ballet wasn’t for me. I got exposed to ballet again right out of college. I saw Ballethnic Dance Company’s Urban Nutcracker. It was my first time seeing a ballet with black ballet dancers on stage, and I realized I wanted to do that. And that was when I started getting serious about ballet.

THC: Do you consider ballet to be your primary art form? Or are there other mediums you prefer?

LPJ: Ballet is one of [the] things I like to do to express my art. I wouldn’t say it’s my primary, because I started as a songwriter. Music and dance to me are married. They both play a huge part in the artistic creation, and in my artistic developments. I would say that it’s music and dance combined, but ballet is my favorite thing to do as a performer. I use what I do as a ballet dancer to inform what I do as a songwriter. I want the stories I create in my ballet to tell the stories I write in my songs.

songwriter, “Vanity Lane” was almost inspired by “Purple Rain’” and how Prince told the story of “Purple Rain” through the music as well as the movie, ‘“Purple Rain.” [It] was also a really important album for me growing up. It saved me from a lot of thing I was experiencing in my childhood and helped me escape that. Combined, Prince and Janet gave me an outlet to start to explore my own artistic expressions.

THC: What inspired you to draw on such a diverse swath of influences, ballet, hip-hop, EDM and ’80s music, in creating “Vanity Lane?”

LPJ: IIt’s all from everything that has inspired me: I started a ballet program at the Boys and Girls club of metro Atlanta, and a lot of those students didn’t really like ballet because they didn’t see how it related to them. I remember seeing them really respond to Princess Tiana from “Princess and the Frog.” I watched that movie and [thought] that these are the things these kids are connecting to. With Ballethnic I saw how in “Urban Nutcracker,” they kept classical ballet elements in their “Nutcracker,” but they also started to infuse things that reflected the African-American experience with Act Two.

opportunity to have their experiences reflected in different ways.

THC: If “Vanity Lane” was to be condensed into a paper, what would its thesis be?

LPJ: The thesis would be that the main character goes through a journey of self-exploration and finds herself.

Not in the traditional sense of finding love through a man or external forces but finding love within herself. When she finds love within herself, she realizes that’s where true beauty lies. True beauty comes from within, and the other things that we perceive beauty to be are external factors, and that’s not where beauty comes from.

THC: How do you feel that ballet, and perhaps the artistic community as a whole, needs to change and how can that change be made?

LPJ: First, I believe it starts with organizations recognizing that though they are trying to move forward with diversity, there are still a lot of things that they don’t get. For example, I’m the only African American on faculty at Boston Ballet, and even within that we have programs that are great programs, but there’s still a disconnect on how we give access to students [who] typically don’t have access to ballet.

All of those things shaped and informed how I decided to approach “Vanity Lane.” I wanted to have something where people could see themselves, especially African-Americans.

In my experience—I work for the Boston Ballet—when I look at the audiences and the stories I realize that a lot of diversity And we can give that access, but then there are also other isn’t reflected since so many of the stories come from the barriers such as hair and tights. Pink tights for black ballet European tradition.“Giselle,” “Cinderella,” and “The dancers do nothing for our lines, so it’s about having brown Sleeping Beauty” are all European folklore or fairy tales. I felt tights, and brown ballet shoes. It’s about changing the COURTESY OF MARIA FONSECA PHOTOGRAPHY like in order to tell a story that’s authentic to our experience, mindset and the culture of these ballet companies to where and to give people the chance to dance diverse roles, you have they are truly reflective of our experiences. It’s not enough to get to the source. And the source of that is creating stories to just have a program in a community, or to have one black that people can relate to. That’s why I decided to write an ballet dancer as a company dancer or a principal dancer in the original fairytale, an original story with characters that [are] company. It’s about what you’re doing to change the culture so diverse, that when it comes to the stage it gives people the of your company so that black ballet dancers and dancers of color feel welcome into your organization, because there are so many factors that go into dancers of color not feeling welcome.

Even in offering ballet classes or giving access, how are you [getting] people [to] come into the organization and feel included? It also starts with not just promoting people within the company, but having people in positions that can choreograph and create stories and give something more authentic. It’s also important to recognize that there are companies like Dance Theatre of Harlem that have black ballet dancers, that are doing phenomenal work and raising great ballet dancers. I think the ballet world has a lot of room to grow. They’re slowly getting there, but it’s not there. There are a lot of things that could be changed to get there.

THC: If you had to pick an influential artist, who would they be?

LPJ: I can’t pick one, but the two that have been instrumental in my process are Janet Jackson and Prince.

Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” album is what [got me into dancing].

I was really young when I discovered “Rhythm Nation,” but it was something that inspired me as a dancer. When I was young I would watch her move, and how intricate her movements were. I wanted to replicate that. Prince inspired me in my artistry. As a musician and

BRATTLE STREET CHAMBER PLAYERS XXX ELLIS J. YEO / CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

LUCY WANG CRIMSON STAFF WRITER Conductorless groups have the unique opportunity to engage in musical democracy. As a result, it’s both charming and humbling when a group of 16 members weave their individual talents together without a conductor, as The Brattle Street Chamber Players do. On Thursday, April 5, the ensemble performed a relatively brief but impressive program featuring the works of Mozart and Richard Strauss . The ensemble held its spring concert, “Contrasts, ” in the University’s Paine Hall , including guests from the Grammy-winning Parker Quartet , the current Blodgett Artist-in-Residence at Harvard .

The Brattle Players opened with Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola Kv. 364, featuring the technically pristine violinist Daniel Chong and musically striking violist Jessica Bodner . Bodner, wearing a black dress with a pattern of sparkling gold shells, plays impressively.

Chung’s solo in the second movement chilled the audience with soulful richness, accompanied by The Brattle Players’ steady rhythm, which remained attentive to the melody. Joined by Bodner, the two string artists built off each other with lovely coordination. The graceful dipping and swaying of the guest performers’ bodies matched the sounds that streamed out of their instruments, a treat to both the eyes and ears. Bodner and Chong’s synchronization and chemistry carries off the stage too—it’s unsurprising that the couple is married, given their perfect harmony.

Perhaps the most gripping moments of the Sinfonia Concertante were those filled not with sound, but rather with silence. During measures of rest, Bodner stood with her eyes closed, creating an aura of tranquility that elevated the musical experience to a spiritual level. Similarly, Mozart’s composition leaves many of the violin solo parts with a suspension after an arpeggio climb to higher octaves,

which Chong handled powerfully. The last movement bursted with bright colorful sounds and dazzling speeds, showcasing the ensemble’s technical adeptness. Though normally a string-only ensemble, The Brattle Players also successfully incorporated two guest French horn players and two guest oboists for the Sinfonia Concertante, maintaining a singular connected body.

Strauss’s “Metamorphosen” served as the score that highlighted the title of the program, providing irregular tones and a sharp contrast to Mozart’s more rigid structure. Though Strauss wrote the piece for 23 solo strings (10 violins, five violas, five cellos, and three double basses), one would have hardly noticed anything missing in the wealth of emotional and dynamic sound of The Brattle Players’ Thursday performance.

The cellos opened with a deep, rich sound that blended to a murmur as the viola developed into a melancholy melody. A smooth silkiness connected the different tones of the piece, from tender plucks and trembles to sections of swelling intensity. Whereas The Brattle Players’ stood in the back of the Mozart selection to allow Chong to stand in the forefront, each instrument and member subsequently plunged into expressiveness. An exciting charge overtook the bodies of the 11 members of the ensemble, that stood with their instruments as they danced to Strauss’ alluring waves. The three notes in the diminuendo tremored into the rumination of the composition, extraordinary in the depth of concentration and feeding into the allure of the Brattle Players’ “Contrasts.”

Staff writer Lucy Wang can be reached at lucy.wang@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @lucyyloo22

ARTS

The Harvard Crimson | april 10, 2018 | page 5

21 Colorful Crimson Talk Opening for Yardfest and Breaking Old Musical Norms

music

Aziz B. Yakub CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

The Harvard Crimson: Tell us a bit about the

principles of your music.

James A. Mathew ’21: The central piece [in our name] is “colorful,” which speaks to diversity, which speaks to the fact that the class of 2021 is the first year at Harvard to be majority-minority. We have lots of different racial backgrounds, lots of different socioeconomic backgrounds. We count our three pillars as creativity, inclusion, and love, which is what we’re really trying to communicate here. If someone hears our music, we hope that they—when they get to know a little about our group— not only enjoy the music for the musicality, but also for those pillars, what we’re standing for.

THC: One of the admirable things about your music is that it sounds eclectic while simultaneously managing to coherently meld diverse genres—what is the specific artistic process of crafting this sound?

JAM: One thing we do, speaking to diversity, is

obviously have visible diversity in our members but also reflect diversity in our music. In the art we’re creating, we do very diverse things in terms of our stylistic endeavors in music. We have an opera singer and we have a rapper.

Fusing the two and combining elements of rock and jazz gets people’s minds going in terms of this creativity and this diversity and we are still establishing our craft.

Talking about that process is difficult, and we’ve had many meetings where we’ve been quite argumentative because 21 minds are never going to agree perfectly.

THC: What are some of the arguments you’ve been dealing with concerning your Yardfest set?

JAM: We’ve fallen into two camps when it comes to designing our set. Some people were calling for a more equal representation in terms of the style of music and the other people wanted more hip hop because of the what the Yardfest show is going to be. Some people said, “I hate that idea. That’s too slow. People are going to think that that’s boring.” Other people said, “We need that otherwise we’re

just a rap group. We’re no different.” We ended up striking a balance. We found a good compromise of how to show that we are more than just hip hop. We are all these genres that our great artists bring to the table.

Jasmine Hyppolite ‘21: Something that I loved [about formulating our Yardfest set] was that every single person sitting in that room had a marker on the drawing board, and every single person was able to say, “I think this is right, I think this is not.” It’s: this is all our art, I can’t tell you how to do your art, you can’t tell me how to do my art, but this is our product at the end of the day.

THC: Your group is navigating a lot of concerns dealing with how to balance these individual interests. Are you are producing the best art that you can while keeping everyone happy?

JAM: I think one thing that I find so beautiful about art is the subjectivity of it. What I’d say is that so far we’ve managed to produce some great work because we don’t just do something to do it. You know if our jazz singer says, “I think I don’t have a good enough of a role right now,” we don’t just put her on the track to kind of appease her. If we’re going to do something, we try and put a lot of work into it and do it right, and I think that that commitment to quality work does make for a good product at the end.

But I think that initially we did have that struggle. Some of our hip hop artists thought that the inclusion of the other genres on the hip hop track kind of devalued that product.

THC: In this process of integration of styles, in this almost inherent intersectionality in your art, do you ever feel as if you’re almost diluting hip hop as a specific genre?

Do you feel like you have any responsibility for upholding musical categories that were born from a specific history?

JH: I would say no. Our team is a melting pot. Our music is a melting pot. It’s just going to happen, and I don’t really think that we’re super focused on having one song for each genre, or upholding a genre, because we’re not looking to assimilate or affirm something that already exists. We’re trying to break a new norm. We do that through who we are as well as what we make, so I think that we have a very little amount of focus on working on the preexisting structures.

THC: We’ve talked a little bit about the melding of

styles that you guys have, but could you speak a little to if

and how personal diversity has influenced your music?

JAM: Our group [gives] a platform for friendships to form that very likely wouldn’t have occurred otherwise. I think that personal diversity, how different people are, just makes their friendship and their coming together all the more beautiful. It’s really a family already.

THC: In what ways do you see these relationships manifesting in and impacting your music?

JAM: I think that those friendships allow some more spontaneous collaboration. If you’re not too friendly with someone, you’re not comfortable with that person, [and] your collaboration will be very formal. That formality can be kind of restricting, if you’re more comfortable, you might critique the other person more honestly, you might let them know that that note was a little off, we should do another take. That comfort leads to better art, better creation, because again, it’s authentic. It’s real.

THC: It seems like your groups see your music— correct me if I’m wrong—as having some sort of political or social message. I’m curious, in a group as diverse as yours, how do you deal with differences in political and social values in the messaging of your music?

JAM: I think that when it comes to what we want people to take away from our art socially and politically, I think that one—there are two sides to it—there is one that is implicit and one that is more explicit. The one that is more implicit: When you take a look at a picture of us, there is kind of a statement in that professional collaboration that does not restrict itself to any lines that we think about— racial, socioeconomic, any of those things. More explicitly, what we’re trying to say in our music, we’re trying to make statements. We’re making a track right now that deals with some social issues, that touches on things like police brutality, issues such as that. You do bring up a good point, in that everyone is coming from different backgrounds, people are not all going to have the same political beliefs.

How we navigate that is over a space where there is a forum for people to chime in that is very respectful. We get to hear all of the views of our members. If someone is concerned with something, they voice that concern.

Staff Writer Aziz B. Yakub can be reached at aziz.yakub@ thecrimson.com.

film

Courtesy of Gunpowder and Sky

‘Ramen Heads’: a Mostly Delectable Helping

Ramen chefs, poised mere feet away from their customers, are generous stewards of a hallowed, religiously meditative experience—the proper way to eat ramen is to “slurp it up without a word.” The film’s director and narrator, Koki Shigeno, is as much a ramen head as Japan’s most acclaimed chefs and their loyalists. He provides breathy side commentary to orient the audience on its pilgrimage into the kitchen. The notion of simplicity, broached spontaneously by the chefs, serves as a signpost throughout the documentary that genuinely and consistently captures the essence of ramen. The perfect ramen “exists perfectly in the moment and then disappears,” and its impact is in its unceremonious deliciousness. The documentary’s structure is also thankfully contained and to the point: The famed Osamu Tomita and his overarching story allow for easy segues into a diverse pageant of other chef narratives, and a culminating anniversary bit beautifully ties up the film, leaving the audience with a keen nostalgic warmth characteristic of the best ramen. The film’s most obvious flaw is that it becomes aesthetically tiresome and almost indulgently tacky, with constant slow-motion shots of noodles slopping against porcelain bowls, and an especially unsavory history segment that would otherwise have been enlightening if not for visuals that seem inspired by Microsoft Clip Art. The feat of the chatty Shigeno’s casual recounting is a tell-all spirit that somehow makes intimately familiar a sacrosanct art. All the chefs he features display a monastic devotion to ramen. Tomita’s hole-in-the-wall shop, in the unassuming Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, is known for producing Japan’s best ramen, available for only eight dollars.

Tomita’s ever-changing signature is a muddy, blended broth. Shigeno duly informs the audience of its privilege: Unlike more secretive top-chefs, Tomita shows the camera everything, proof of his self-assurance and his alignment with the democratic spirit of ramen, historically a workingman’s dish. His oil-stained notebook from his own apprentice days is replete with cartoonish diagrams that resemble the machinations of a mad scientist. The ramen bowl derives its perfection from robust fundamentals: It’s not the ingredients that matter, but how the chef uses them. Tomita’s handmade noodles are

Dir. Koki Shigeno

Claire N. Park CONTRIBUTING WRITER

the result of a painstaking selection process out of hundreds of Japanese flours. He aims for a quality he calls “slurpability,” ensuring that his noodles are longer than most so that his customers can savor their flavor for just the right amount of time. His apprentices, cultish with their toweled heads and matching robes, partake in a shared ritual, tasting from the same bowl at the end of each working day—an ongoing initiation in a deeply traditional yet ceaselessly inventive craft. By the end of the work day, Tomita hasn’t gone to the bathroom even once, soldered in place above his cauldron of boiling broth, entranced.

Shigeno himself heightens the mysticism of ramen devotion, likening one broth to “a witch’s brew from children’s books.” Though Shigeno’s whispered awe provides welcome companionship for the audience, the true essence of the lifetime ramen devotee can be observed in silence, as the camera picks up on the smallest moments in which a normally strict, buttoned-up maestro unwinds. Shigeno allows Tomita such freedom that he’s unguarded before the audience, unabashedly grabbing a stranger’s leftover bowl and draining it on one of his personal field trips to competitor ramen shops. When Shigeno embarks on a brief history segment on the origins of ramen that is visually distracting and bewilderingly ugly, it momentarily cheapens the ramen mystique that he spends the entire film dutifully peddling. Patchy and mismatched visuals aside, he recounts fun ramen lore: In 1947, a cook overslept while preparing broth, resulting in a white cloudy soup that today is known as tonkatsu broth and the basis of Tomita’s famous ramen.

The documentary aptly concludes with the passing of the mantle: Tomita’s young son already evinces the self-flagellating disciplinarian tendencies of his father, grumbling, “I’ll have to get this stupid tongue of mine into shape.” Shigeno successfully imparts his own deep reverence for Tomita’s gift of culinary sensibility, and the artistry behind an unassuming, everyday dish that is not prim and fancy like sushi, but that is a lifelong and messy project as cloudily complex as its broth mixtures. Though it can become tiresome without an avid culinary curiosity, as glamorous cinematic thrills are not the film’s

Graphic by HANNA KIM / Crimson Designer

21 Colorful Crimson is a music collective composed of 21 Harvard freshmen who will open for Lil Yachty and Wale at Yardfest. The Crimson sat down with their president, James A. Mathew ’21, and a member of their business team, Jasmine Hyppolite ’21, to discuss their upcoming performance, the challenges of navigating an artistic group dynamic, and the role of diversity in their art.

ARTS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | APRIL 10, 2018 | PAGE 6

'Circe' Muses on Mythology and Mortality Madeline Miller knows how to weave a story. More precisely, she knows how to pick well-worn strands from separate ancient Greek myths and twist them together into novels that feel simultaneously fresh and timeless. The pitted olives and the ship-battered wood that Miller conjures stimulate the senses, and her treatment of the interplay of gods and men resounds in wizened phrasing. In short, “Circe,” Miller’s second novel, published six years after her 2012 prizewinning debut, “The Song of Achilles,” does not disappoint.

Circe, the eponymous Titan divinity and the daughter of the son god Helios and of the Oceanid nymph Perse, is the protagonist of this intricate novel. Though divinities like Circe do not age like mortals, the novel traces Circe’s development from a misunderstood and outcast daughter to her solitary mastery of witchcraft on the island Aiaia, to her various brushes with love and loss, motherhood and friendship. Circe’s immortality enables her to encounter heroes whose stories are separated by thousands of years.

Miller judiciously incorporates into Circe’s narrative the well-known myths of Prometheus, the Minotaur, Icarus and Daedalus, Medea, and Odysseus, which are typically depicted as discrete stories in seminal collections of Greek mythology like Edith Hamilton’s 1942 “Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes” and 1962 “D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths.” Circe’s story unfolds at a slower pace than Miller’s nail-biting ‘The Song of Achilles,” in part because Miller now has centuries of material to cover rather than the decades-long Trojan War. But it is Miller’s strong crafting of Circe herself that stitches these threads into a new epic, further revitalized with a feminine perspective.

Perhaps best known for her turning-men-into-pigs cameo in Homer’s “Odyssey,” Circe in Miller’s hands becomes less divine and more human, an evolution that is central to the novel. Exiled on Aiaia by Helios, Miller’s Circe still transforms the brutish men who stumble across her island into swine. But Miller offers Circe’s refreshing perspective, contemporizing the stakes of the encounter and imbuing Circe’s side of the equation with more gravitas and power.

Even after Circe’s hearty welcome, the men who ostensibly seek shelter attempt to assault her when they realize she has no relatives, friends, or guards to protect her. Circe, though, is no doormat, and Miller’s writing crackles with her power. “It was my favorite moment, seeing them frown and try to understand why I wasn’t afraid,” Circe’s narrative voice explains, “In their bodies I could feel my herbs like strings waiting to be plucked. I savored their confusion, their dawning fear. Then I plucked them.” In an early stage of her exile, Circe experiments with her sorcery and is quite vicious and vindictive toward the men who assume she is powerless.

books MELISSA C. RODMAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

“Circe” transfigures the canonized tale from one about men—and later about the wily Odysseus and his comrades— into one well-rounded episode in Circe’s bildungsroman-ofsorts.

At its core, “Circe” is a case study in how to storytell for modern-day readers, and not for ancient Greek listeners.

The novel’s page-bound format, however, does not thwart its capacity to preserve and play into the performative, community-building aspects of oral tradition that carried its source material across thousands of miles over thousands of years. Rather, Miller’s magically exacting language— somehow both economical and luxurious in its use of verbs, nouns, and especially the hyphenated adjectives that Miller sprinkles with care—simulates the best of ancient prose and poetry. In particular, the novel’s frequent musings on the gods and mortals, and their mishaps and morals, model the effortlessness of Miller’s storytelling. “[G]ods are born of ichor and nectar, their excellences already bursting from their fingertips,” Miller writes. “So they find their fame by proving what they can mar: destroying cities, starting wars, breeding plagues and monsters. All that smoke and savor rising so delicately from our alters. It leaves only ash behind.”

Ichor, nectar, and ash; each noun evokes a vivid material world that seems light years away from the 21st Century.

Yet Miller makes each word drip with honeyed brightness or looming destruction, a balance of beauty and danger that transcends time and place It is that very tension between divinity and mortality that grounds Circe’s endless and sometimes repetitive lifetimes.

The pattern of her life on Aiaia, tending her herbs and waiting for something more, does make the novel drag a bit, its plot twists notwithstanding. This pacing makes sense, though, in contrast with the ticking clock that governs the lifeblood of several choice humans and demigods whom Circe grows to care for and ultimately watches wither and die. Unlike the Titan and Olympian gods and goddesses who occupy their eternities by staging petty quarrels among mortals, Circe feels the real pain that accompanies the loss of a human life. “[I]n a solitary life, there are rare moments when another soul dips near yours, as stars once a year brush the earth,” she thinks, grappling with the words to describe what one mortal means to her. In “Circe,” Miller links together these “rare moments” to illuminate how Greek mythology can continue to provide mortals (and perhaps even goddesses) with the space to reflect on the wonders of being alive.

Staff writer Melissa C. Rodman can be reached at melissa. rodman@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @ melissa_rodman.

COURTESY OF LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY

columns

My Sister Will Be Hungry: Part 4 ANGELA F. HUI CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

I began, in my sophomore year of high school, to devise a repertoire of meticulous tricks in preparation for every one of my trips home. I fancied myself an illusionist, pouring soy sauce on a white plate, tracing the outlines of my imaginary meal with a chopstick—it was a private comedy, a thrilling act of forgery, and I was both excited and offended that no one ever discovered my acts of deception.

Perhaps, I thought, they were too distracted by my mother, who ate with a ferocity unmatched even by feral animals. She possessed an intimate understanding of hunger, told stories of catching and skinning frogs to feed her brothers. It used to embarrass me, how she would swallow her food as if someone were trying to steal it. Now I was glad her habits would cover mine.

At school it was easy to stay unnoticed. I did as I pleased, lived in a room no

BY PHIC GRA

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one else entered, and recorded my progress in dryerase marker on the surface of a full-length mirror.

Occasionally, a dorm-mate would remark on my continued absence from the dining hall. For the most part I was left in peace.

In my mind it was purely logical, the natural consequence of knowing how to count. I grew to love it, in time, the beauty of the balanced equation, the quantity subtracted, the triglyceride transformed into carbon and water. But first the simplicity of it seduced me. How easily the body could be revised, how quickly the flesh surrendered to the whims of its inhabitant. A bloodless coup, quiet as a child drowning.

I observed it sometimes in other girls, small details, the litany of mental measurements audible only to fellow zealots. No, not you too, I’d think, a sharp pang of jealousy rising in my chest as though we hadn’t all learned it together, as though the root of this special power hadn’t been offered to every one of us. Recall the sixth grade outings to Moscone Playground; recall the way we repurposed the seesaw into a scale, clever girls, always inventing. In these moments perhaps our destinies were manifest.

And still I thought my sister would be immune.

When I think I see the signs, the first real signs, I tell no one. I wonder about the cause of the sick feeling inside of me: Am I protective of my sister or possessive of my disease?

“Audrey,” I ask her finally, “what are you doing?”

She is tightening the laces of her running shoes. The window is open. It is midJanuary. There are no

SO N CRIM

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seasons here. “I’ll be back before dark,” she says.

When she’s gone, I find the script on the dining room table. The writing is ugly. The dialogue is the kind that must be delivered with a strained thirdworld accent.

TING: Mother! Mother! Why doesn’t she see me?

Where does she go?

BO-TAO: Is only us two now.

I wonder what the process is for a film like this.

The famine begins in the second act. Will they shoot the scenes in sequence, my sister’s body shrinking alongside her character’s? Or will she be healthy one day and half-starved the next? I wonder what the director will tell her. Sorry, no craft services, you have to look near-death tomorrow.

TING: Please, Uncle. One egg. I won’t ask you tomorrow.

BO-TAO: Some rice? Uncle, I beg you, my sister is hungry.

She returns in an hour, sweaty and red. I offer her bread, string cheese, a granola bar. And in her face I see that awful turning, the fluctuating resolve.

I almost hear the calculations, before finally she shakes her head and walks away—a fast learner, like me.

Staff writer Angela F. Hui’s column, “My Sister Will Be Hungry,” is a serialized work of fiction centered around a college student’s relationships with her mother and sister. The story explores the effects of collective cultural trauma on the second generation of an American family.

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | APRIL 10, 2018 | PAGE 7

HKS Students Ask for International Visitors INTERNATIONAL FROM PAGE 1 organize the petition, said the organizers did not have a partisan perspective on Kasich, but argued that choosing Kasich demonstrated the school’s lack of awareness of global voices.

“I totally respect [Kasich], and I’m not saying his political perspective is right or wrong, but the administration should have paid more attention to how students would feel about him as the commencement speaker,” Kawashima said.

“I expect that Governor Kasich will deliver a commencement address that will be meaningful to many, many of our students,” Dean of the Kennedy School Douglas W. Elmendorf said in response to the petition. “I understand that different speakers in different years seem particularly meaningful to some students or others, but I think our speakers have over time been very interesting to all of the students and parents that have been graduating and I think that will be true again this year.”

The petition also included an analysis of past speakers from recent weeks at the Kennedy School’s John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum.

Out of 14 speakers and moderators hosted by the Institute of Politics, the petition notes that only one speaker was not from the United States.

“While HKS states that it convenes an intellectual exchange among global leaders at the Forum, the experience is not aligned with the copy,” the petition reads.

International students from more than 100 countries represent 47 percent of the HKS student body, according to Kennedy School spokesperson Doug Gavel.

Elmendorf said he was working on inviting more international speakers to the Kennedy School by collaborating with the individual research centers that invite speakers to campus.

“A fair number of [speakers] are from outside of the United States, but I think the students are right to want to have more speakers from outside the

United States and I hope we can accomplish that in the coming years,” Elmendorf said.

According to the petition, only one Kennedy School commencement speaker since 2009 has been from outside the “Global North”—a region that includes the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Asia.

Students involved with the petition met with Elmendorf Thursday to discuss their requests.

Luna D. Kim, a second-year master in public policy student who helped organize the petition, said the dean was “adamant” about maintaining this year’s commencement program.

“He showed some understanding about where we were coming from, but I don’t think he understood the gravity of our claim or concern about international students,” Kim said. “For me, it was highly disappointing, and I don’t think he was willing to make any significant changes.”

Elmendorf said he would not change this year’s speaker, but said he would solicit student opinions for future years’ commencement speakers.

“I was very clear on Thursday that I want the students to participate in choosing future commencement speakers, and I was very direct that we will set up a mechanism in which the students through the student government can play that role in the future,” he said.

Aditya Todi, a first-year master in public policy student and the vice president of international student affairs in the HKS student government, said the school would benefit from including more of these voices at its events.

“For a school that prides itself on bringing a diverse set of opinions and point of views, if those points of view are restricted to what the Global North is and what those Western perspectives are… it is a huge disservice not just to the domestic student population here but also the international students that the school attracts,” Todi said.

DOJ Filing Likely to Have Little Effect EXPERTS FROM PAGE 1 mentioned the department may want to join the suit in future.

“I think this is a signal that the DOJ is going to be continuing to watch the case and will want to continue to participate,” said David B. Oppenheimer, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

The lawsuit, brought in 2014 by anti-affirmative action advocacy group Students for Fair Admissions, alleges the College discriminates against Asian-Americans in its admissions process—something Harvard has repeatedly denied. In prosecuting the suit, Students for Fair Admissions has insisted Harvard admissions data should become public, sparking vehement disagreement from the College.

The issue may come to a head Tuesday, when the two parties are slated to meet at the U.S. District Court in Boston to discuss the handling of previ-

ously confidential admissions information, including redacted applications and internal communications. It is not clear whether the court will make a final decision on the issue at that meeting.

Experts said the Justice Department’s filing is unlikely to shape any possible verdict the court might reach Tuesday.

“Given that the privacy rights of students and potential students may be at issue here, I doubt the court will presume as DOJ suggests,” W. Burlette Carter, a law professor at George Washington University, wrote in a statement Monday. “On the other hand, it won’t let Harvard protect all aspects of its admissions process generally. The answer is somewhere in between.”

Kimberly West-Faulcon, a law professor at Loyola Law School, agreed.

She said she does not think the Justice Department’s briefing will carry any more weight than any other party’s fil-

ing.

Several advocacy groups filed briefings urging Harvard to make its admissions data public over the weekend.

Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions directly sparred over the issue in clashing briefs both parties filed Friday.

“I do not think the fact that it is the Justice Department making this claim should change Harvard’s legal obligation to protect student data,” West-Faulcon said. “I’m not familiar with any legal reason it should.”

Oppenheimer speculated the court may give less weight to input from the Justice Department under the Trump administration than courts traditionally have during previous administrations. He said the court may be “more skeptical” of what he called a “very political filing,” despite the fact the department has historically wielded significant influence over matters of civil rights.

Final Clubs Won’t Sue Over Policy Soon CLUBS FROM PAGE 1 working to create a “new framework for governing primarily social organizations”—a framework set to be finalized next fall, Dean of Students Katherine G. O’Dair wrote in a March email to students.

Silverglate added he and his law firm, Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein, will continue to explore the possibility of litigation “just in case” the Fly Club decides that a lawsuit “becomes necessary.”

The final clubs are not alone in their efforts to oppose the sanctions; some have joined forces with various Greek organizations to form the Cambridge Coalition, a group comprising the Fly Club, the AD Club, the Porcellian Club, and the national organizations of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Chi, and Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternities.

This group has engaged the law firm Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholar to help conduct its lobbying efforts, according to public filings.

The Yale Daily News reported Monday that the final clubs and Greek organizations comprising this group are preparing a lawsuit against Harvard.

Citing speculation from one anonymous source, the Yale Daily News reported that—unless lobbying efforts are successful—the coalition will likely file suit in the next two months.

Multiple final club affiliates said Monday that this timeline is incorrect.

The coalition does not have a definite sense of when it will consider legal action if lobbying does not succeed, but it will almost certainly not be within the next two months, Porteus said.

“As far as the timeline goes, no, we

don’t know exactly how things will unfold,” he said. “So, we’re prepared to stay the course.”

Congress must reauthorize the Higher Education Act—legislation that the PROSPER Act would renew— approximately every six to eight years.

Porteus said this gives final clubs and Greek organizations an “opportunity to influence” the terms of the act so as to cancel Harvard’s sanctions.

Heather M. Kirk, chief communication officer for the North-American Interfraternity Conference, wrote in an emailed statement Monday that the group plans to fight the sanctions however possible.

“We will vigorously defend students’ right to choose the organization that best suits their needs and are actively weighing all options—including legal and legislative routes—to protect students’ rights,” Kirk wrote.

Grad Students Decry Lack of Mail Ballots Harvard University IT BALLOT FROM PAGE 1 their degree. For Ph.D. programs such as sociology, history, and anthropology, this off-campus work is often integral to a student’s dissertation. Sociology Ph.D. student Amy H. Tsang, who is spending a year researching for her dissertation in China, said she was surprised to find out she would not have the opportunity to vote.

“We received emails that were supposed to explain things about the union and the election process, but given that so many students are always away from campus for research, I found it strange that we weren’t told about this very important fact,” Tsang said.

In an email, Anthropology graduate program administrator Marianne Fritz estimated that, at any given time, roughly 15 percent of the program’s more than 80 graduate students are working in the field. This work typically occurs during the fourth and fifth

years of the degree program, according to the department’s website.

Tsang remarked that her department has a similar timeline for advanced graduate students to perform field work.

“Since we’re more advanced [graduate students], we’ve also had experience being TFs and research assistants and working,” Tsang said. “So we have experience relevant to try to decide whether or not we feel a union would benefit our working conditions.”

Anthropology Ph.D. student Shuang Lu Frost, who is also currently completing fieldwork in China, wrote in an email that she thinks the policy is “biased” against students in the social sciences and humanities.

“Students in these disciplines have particular working experience and face particular challenges during their graduate study; and their voices are crucial to include,” Frost wrote.

Interfaith Forum Launches New Peer Educator Group

By CAROLINE S. ENGELMAYER and MICHAEL E. XIE CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS ­

Harvard College Interfaith Forum announced plans to launch a peer educator program for spirituality in undergraduate residential Houses last week; the program is slated to officially begin in the fall.

The peer educators, dubbed “Facilitators of Religious, Ethical, and Spiritual Inquiry,” will comprise undergraduates who will “facilitate conversations, journaling exercises, meditation practices, and other activities,” according to an online application for the program.

The Interfaith Forum intends these activities to engage students both College-wide and more specifically within the upperclassman Houses.

Benjamin J. Schafer ’19, president of the Interfaith Forum, said in an interview Sunday that he believes the high level of engagement among individual House affiliates will give the FRESIs a good opportunity to interact with students.

“The House system is such a beautiful thing in that people really engage in their House communities unlike other stuff,” Schafer said. “I can host a campus-wide dinner and have 12 people show up or I could host a house-wide dinner and have 16 to 18 people show up.”

The FRESI initiative is modeled after the currently active Diversity Peer Educators program, Schaffer added.

“We’re taking our cues from the Diversity Peer Educators program,” Schaffer said. “They’ve been really successful this year in running House pro-

gram that has been meaningful.”

Diversity Peer Educators—a team of 20 trained undergraduates who conduct outreach for the College’s Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion—organize student dialogues across campus and hold workshops for a number of student organizations.

The launch of the program resulted from conversations with chaplains, House faculty deans, and administrators at the Office of Student Life, including Roland S. Davis, associate dean of diversity and inclusion, according to Schaffer.

“This program came out of conversations of how we engage the Harvard community in such a way that people have to talk about religious spiritual and ethical life, and we worked really closely with a lot of people,” Schafer said.

“The Freshman Dean’s Office has been super helpful, Dean Davis from the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion has been a really great resource for us.”

The FRESI program is the first step in a longer journey to found an office for religious life at the College, Schafer said.

“Harvard doesn’t have a multifaith chaplain. Harvard doesn’t have an office of religious life,” Schafer said. “But just going in and saying, ‘Hey we want these two things,’ is not enough.”

“It’s really building the infrastructure to say, ‘We now have a peer educator program that an office of religious life could fund and administer and be a part of,’” he added.

The facilitators will be paid at least $300 for their work each year, according to the application.

According to National Labor Relations Board procedure, unionization elections may be conducted using either “manual” in-person ballots, mailin ballots, or both. While the final say on election procedure lies with the NLRB’s regional director, the agency usually defers to the employer and the proposed union if a pre-election agreement between the two exists.

HGSU-UAW organizer Andrew B. Donnelly wrote in an email that the decision to have an in-person election was made early on between the University and HGSU-UAW before the original Nov. 2016 election.

William B. Gould IV, a former NLRB chairman, said the board accepts postal ballots in “a wide number of circumstances,” though the decision varies case-by-case. Gould has argued in the past that mail-in ballots lead to a better representation of the voting population.

Alerts to Spoofed Calls

By JONAH S. BERGER CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Harvard was “barraged” with spoofed phone calls Monday morning, according to an alert issued by Harvard University Information Technology.

The spoof calls began at 9:30 a.m.

Monday and affected “several of Harvard’s professional schools,” the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and the University’s central administration, HUIT spokesperson Acacia Matheson wrote in an emailed statement.

Matheson wrote that the source of the robocalls appeared to be a “valid phone number” belonging to China’s Embassy in the United States.

She added that HUIT was making efforts to resolve the matter.

“Harvard University IT has taken steps to block incoming calls from the ­

number temporarily and will continue to work closely with our telecommunications provider to investigate this incident and pursue a longer-term solution,” she wrote.

In the email, Matheson reiterated the original alert’s message to recipients of the robocalls: Ignore the calls.

“These calls are a scam. Recipients should hang-up or let the call go to voicemail,” she wrote. “Do not respond to the phone message or menu options, and do not provide any personal information.”

At 3:37 p.m, a second alert on HUIT’s website notified Harvard affiliates that the issue had been resolved: “Inbound call volumes have returned to normal levels.”

Staff writer Jonah S. Berger can be reached at jonah.berger@thecrimson.com.

Harvard Sees Increase in Int’l Applicants

By EDITH M. HERWITZ and SONIA KIM CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Contrary to national trends, Harvard College reported that it received an increase in the number of international applications while other colleges across the nation continue to experience decreases in foreign applicants.

Robin M. Worth ’81, the director of international admissions, wrote in an emailed statement that Harvard has not seen a decline in the number of undergraduate international applicants.

Indeed, William R. Fitzsimmons ’67, dean of admissions and financial aid, said the College has seen “an 8.9 percent increase in people applying from other countries.”

But other U.S. colleges and universities are experiencing an overall decrease in foreign students. This past fall, reports by the Institute of International Education found that the num­

ber of newly arriving foreign students declined an average of 7 percent. In total, 45 percent of campuses reported a decrease in new international enrollment.

In its own data, the College distinguishes between individuals who apply from a foreign country and those who apply with a non-United States passport. In the recent record-setting admissions cycle, Harvard saw a 10.4 percent increase in applicants with a foreign passport, according to Fitzsimmons.

According to State Department data, the number of F-1 visas issued to foreign students seeking to attend college and other types of academic institutions in the United States decreased by 17 percent from Sept. 2016 to Sept.

2017.

Harvard’s applicants to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences similarly defied the downward trend in international applicants to graduate

schools. In 2018, GSAS observed a 2 percent increase in international applicants while graduate schools across the country saw a 3 percent decline in international applicants since fall 2016, according to a survey released in January by the Council of Graduate Schools.

The study found that applications from the Middle East and North Africa notably declined for the second consecutive year in the wake of the Trump administration’s proposed travel bans from those regions.

“Since the issuance of the travel ban, the graduate education community has carefully monitored changes in the flow of international graduate students from the Middle East and North Africa region,” the report reads.

“The 175 institutions contributing data for both Fall 2016 and Fall 2017 reported, in aggregate, a decline in both final applications (-17%) and first-time graduate enrollment (-5%) from this region.”

Classroom to Table Ends For Semester CLASSROOM FROM PAGE 7 guidelines imposed a limit of two dinners per student—half the number allowed during the fall, before which no cap existed at all. The system also restricted sign-up form access to administrative office hours.

This is not the first time Classroom to Table has shut down due to financial difficulties. In spring 2017, the Office of Undergraduate Education halted the program around the same time of the term after running out of funds.

The initiative, first piloted by the College in Sept. 2015, typically brings

together three to five students with a professor for a subsidized lunch or dinner of up to $30 per person in Harvard Square.

The program has been well-received by students, increasing its popularity over the last two years, with 2,880 students and 528 faculty members participating in 894 total gatherings in fall 2017.

James G. Anderson, a Chemistry professor who teaches Physical Sciences 11: “Foundations and Frontiers of Modern Chemistry: A Molecular and Global Perspective,” said the program is conducive to connecting with the

students in his class. He called the decision to end the program mid-semester “both remarkable and disappointing.”

“I consider the Classroom to Table program to be a reflection of very creative thinking by the College, and it has served as the most important venue for me in Physical Sciences 11 since its inception, providing both the time and the setting for extended conversations with students in the class,” Anderson said. “I was profoundly disappointed when it was announced that the program has been terminated for lack of funds.”

EDITORIAL THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD

An Inimicus Brief

Safeguarding personal data in light of the Department of Justice’s filing

T

he Department of Justice recently filed an amicus brief calling on Harvard to unseal admissions data the University has argued should remain private. The brief comes as part of an admissions lawsuit first brought against Harvard by Students for Fair Admissions in 2014, which alleges discrimination against Asian-Americans in the admissions process. The department has asserted that the admissions lawsuit is inherently linked to the its separate probe into Harvard’s admissions process and “could directly bear on that investigation.”

As students, we are concerned that unsealing the admissions data as requested by the Department of Justice’s brief will infringe on our privacy. We agree with the argument repeatedly made by Harvard that students who entrusted their applications to the College assumed that their personal data would never be made public and never asked to be a part of this dispute.

The filing states that providing public access to all relevant admissions material would provide a plethora of benefits that outweigh any costs to student privacy. Specifically, it argues that making these materials public would allow parties outside the case to participate by filing amicus briefs. While adding more voices to the lawsuit would certainly aid

in the free expression of ideas, this should not come at the expense of Harvard students’ right to keep their information private. Indeed, we find it nothing short of astounding that the Department of Justice’s lawyers would argue in favor of sacrificing the deeply personal information of college students in exchange for this comparatively minimal benefit.

On a more personal level, the release of these documents would tangibly harm the undergraduate student body. Making these documents

As this dispute continues to unfold, we are heartened by statements from the University that reaffirm its commitment to protecting its students’ privacy. public could drastically worsen the scourge of “imposter syndrome”— or the belief that one is not “good enough” for Harvard. Every student that Harvard accepts belongs here, but admissions files are filled with complex symbols and jargon that are difficult to understand, creating potentially highly publicized confusion

over any given admission file with deleterious implications for its author.

We have previously opined that students should not look at their own admissions files for this very reason, but the potential ramifications of the DOJ’s decision are far worse. Indeed, student privacy is a “most compelling reason” to keep these documents sealed in and of itself.

Nevertheless, if the University’s hand is forced to release these files, it must do so with extreme caution, taking all legal steps to redact as much personal information as possible. Ensuring that students’ private information cannot be traced back to them by any party that wants to access the court documents must be a main priority for Harvard.

As this dispute continues to unfold, we are heartened by statements from the University that reaffirm its commitment to protecting its students’ privacy. It is disappointing yet unsurprising that the Department of Justice has failed to do the same.

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.

Low-Income White Students Like I Was Cannot Be Used As a Tool

By GENEVIEVE BONADIES TORRES

A

recently published study on racial dispa rities revea ls that, in the vast majority of A merican neighborhoods, black boys earn far less in adulthood than white boys raised in families with comparable incomes, showing that race is a powerful indicator of social mobilit y for boys across all social classes. The study proves through data what many of us know through lived experience. Race shapes opportunities and outcomes, regardless of social class.

This fact speaks directly to a debate raging within our courts on the issue of race-based aff irmative action. While some conservative legal strategists seek to end race-conscious admissions policies in favor of a class-based approach, these efforts pit marginalized communities against each other and do nothing to level the playing field for underrepresented racial minorities. One such lawsuit against Harvard College arg ues expanded socioeconomic preferences should replace race-based considerations because they are fairer to Asian and low-income students.

Conf lating race and class, the lawsuit claims that giving more weight to an applicant’s socioeconomic status can achieve similar levels of “diversity.”

The lawsuit wrongly ig nores the realit y that race continues to matter in our society separate and apart from class, as ref lected by the aforementioned study and my own experience. I was a low-income, white student when I applied to the College in 2003, later attending from 2004 to 2008. Harvard’s admissions policies were in no way “unfair” to me. As an applicant and a student, I witnessed

Just as importantly, these race-based policies foster greater levels of diversity in university classrooms, which enrich all students through the exchange of different ideas, backgrounds, and experiences. f irsthand the importance of policies that aff irmatively seek to bridge the racial divides persisting in society today.

In a country riddled with racial biases, race-conscious admissions ensure that fair opportunities for advancement are open to equally qualified students of color from disproportionately marg inalized groups: namely, black, Latino, Native American, and Pacific Islander students. Just as importantly, these race-based policies foster g reater levels of diversit y in universit y classrooms, which enrich all students through the exchange

of different ideas, backg rounds, and experiences.

My own path to Harvard was shaped by race, as I received opportunities as a white student that were denied to my black and Latino classmates. I grew up living, learning, and loving in Richmond, Calif., a predominantly low-income black and Latino communit y. I played in the same parks as my black and Latino neighbors, and I went to the same public elementary and middle schools challenged by chronic underfunding. My parents did not graduate from college, and we lived paycheck to paycheck. But I was white, and this was a huge advantage. Countless interactions made this advantage apparent.

Consider my study partner in elementary school. She and I were both devoted students, and we received nearly identical g rades on tests. Unlike me, however, she was black. While our teacher tracked me for gifted classes, she did not give my study partner the same opportunity. This disparity in treatment occurs in classrooms across the country. A 2018 national study found that black and Latino students are less likely to participate in gifted programs across income levels.

Divergent treatment in discipline represents another t ype of systemic bias in schooling. There is ample evidence that black and Latino students receive harsher consequences for the same behavior in school. For example, a 2013 study by the Population Reference Bureau exposed various discipline gaps, including dress-code violations, where black students were suspended at a rate six times higher than white students, and cellphone use, where it was eight times higher.

The realit y is that racial prejudice impacts the academic credentials collected prior to college.

Race-conscious admissions rightly allow universities to be sensitive to such differences when considering each applicant’s capacit y for academic excellence, leadership, and resourcefulness in the face of challenges. The result is a better learning environment for students of all races who are confronting in the classroom many of the issues playing out in society today.

As a student at the College, I vividly recall a debate about whether employers receiving identical resumes from two applicants—one with a name, say, “Jamal,” sounding as though it would belong to a black applicant, the other, say, “Brendan,” to a white applicant.

My peers were debating whether the employers were justified in summarily rejecting “Jamal” but hiring “Brendan,” his seemingly-white equivalent. Stereot yping ensued, as one male student arg ued rejecting Jamal was justified from “an eff iciency standpoint” if ethnically-named individuals were generally “less productive.”

It was only after students from di-

verse backg rounds spoke up that the majority-white class expressed heightened understanding of the inherent bias that black and brown Americans face ever y day. Lessons around today’s most pressing issues—which often intersect with race—become real, better informed, and ultimately more effective in a diverse classroom.

These conversations are critical to dismantling prejudices harming our country, but they place an unfair, heav y burden on minority students, who bear the weight of these challeng ing discussions in classrooms, where they are too of-

It was only after students from diverse backgrounds spoke up that the majority-white class expressed heightened understanding of the inherent bias that black and brown Americans face every day. ten racially isolated and tokenized.

Studies have shown that higher same-race representation better supports underrepresented students who constantly encounter prejudiced scenarios. It also better ensures that racial stereotypes can be addressed and overcome in our rising generation of leaders.

Race-conscious admissions is the strongest tool for fostering such diversity.

For all these reasons, I am f ighting to protect race-conscious admissions. My organization, the Law yers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, is representing black, Latino, Native American, and Asian American students at Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to defend their universities’ race-conscious admissions policies, so that students on those campuses can benefit from the kind of culturally and ethnically diverse experiences that are in the national interest. I am privileged to help amplif y their voices.

Just as some within the Asian communit y have ref used to become a wedge to support conservative attacks on affirmative action, I refuse to let anyone use low-income white kids, like I was, to justif y policies that stoke the f lames of racial resentment and ignore the experiences of students of color in elementary and middle schools like mine. Increasing access for low-income students should complement—but not replace—increasing access for underrepresented students of color.

Genevieve Bonadies Torres ’08 is a Counsel for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | APRIL 10, 2018 | PAGE 8

The Importance of Humanist Aspirations Henry N. BROOKS SOCIALLY LIBERAL, FISCALLY LIBERAL

I

t should come as no surprise that the recent passing of English physicist Stephen W. Hawking has conjured a massive outpouring of fan love.

To many, myself included, Hawking’s life of the mind stirred a genuine sense of human goodness. Hawking never treated his disciplines (cosmology and theoretical physics) as the private property of intellectuals, nor did he hesitate to poke fun at himself or his work. He regularly published literature for the laity, including the bestselling volume “A Brief History of Time,” which topped the London Sunday Times bestseller list for over five years. His visibility had powerful consequences outside of science too: Hawking embodied the wide gulf between condition and pathology. All who watched him knew that his physical impediment was no handicap to greatness.

As the kindly ambassador from a foreign field, however, Hawking often intimated his discomfort with this world. “I believe that life on Earth is at an ever-increasing risk of being wiped out,” he once divulged. “I think the human race has no future if it doesn’t go into space.” Hawking kept several such statements in his repertoire. At a science festival in Norway, he confessed, “The Earth is under threat from so many areas that it is difficult for me to be positive.”

In keeping with this grim survivalist sense, Hawking’s top priority was space travel. He hoped to avoid a string of possible worst-case scenarios for humanity: A take-over by artificial intelligence (potentially “the worst event in the history of our civilization”), global nuclear conflict, and “genetically engineered viruses.” In a world so treacherous, Hawking believed, mankind ought to abide by the simplest logic: “The human race shouldn’t have all its eggs in one basket.”

Of all humanity’s members, we Americans are perhaps the best equipped to understand Hawking’s worldview. Our politics during the past two years have laid bare the difference between aspirational policy (like reaching the stars for the sake of human achievement) and stopgap measures (such as Hawking’s hopedfor “tiny space probes”). Where only a short time ago Americans were warming up to the idea of an immigrant republic and overseeing a national shift to soft power in our foreign affairs, we’re now left longing for a pause in the ongoing partisan hostilities or a period without a vulgar presidential tweet.

These yearnings for civility, like Hawking’s longing for cosmic travel, may seem like a commendable response to the times. They are not our better angels, though. They’re reminders of how low we’ve stooped.

Part of the problem is a growing sense of alienation from politics, as much as our shared humanity. News about our government reads like that of a foreign putsch. Trump has been likened to Latin American caudillos, European fascists, and Third World dictators. Alongside these claims, the “America First” mantra has left many of us wondering whether, in fact, we can claim anything in common with those beyond our borders.

Our times—abundant with confusion and lacking in obvious emancipatory strategies—recall Walter Lippmann’s assessment from nearly a century ago that being a private citizen feels like spectating from “the back row.”

The fondness for escape is palpable in this environment. Recall the list of celebrities who threatened to leave the country if the current president should ever achieve national office. In the aftermath of election night, some of those celebrities retracted their promises; others recanted them as jokes. We understood their sentiments either way.

Even the government is afflicted with this escapist urge.

Three Republican senators have promised to resign after 2018, two of them openly dreading more embarrassment-by-association. Cabinet-level appointees have taken so vigorously to jumping ship that taking stock of casualties has become nearly impossible.

These are the circumstances in which we negotiate our potential futures. Some long for simple civility; others (the wearier moderates) demand a return to normalcy.

More entrenched liberals (myself included) are committed to these positions contingent on other important victories: a lasting resolution to gun violence, an end to nationalist sloganeering, renewed commitment to Herbert Croly’s “promise of American life.” These maneuvers give us firmer footing in the turf of values.

As with Hawking’s work, there is something profoundly humanist in the American creed—its call for constant democratic renewal, its framing of American advancement within a grander human project. But this humanism is not self-actualizing.

Physicist though he was, Hawking was performing a very old, unscientific ritual by aspiring to escape Earth. He was fantasizing the heavens as a reprieve from our earthly suffering.

In the age of Trump, we must learn to aspire for simpler rewards—respect, justice, and increasing opportunity. Once these are achieved, we can pursue the cosmos for its own sake.

Henry N. Brooks ’19 is a Social Studies concentrator in Currier House. His column appears on alternate Tuesdays.

The Harvard Crimson President Derek G. Xiao ’19 Managing Editor Hannah Natanson ’19 Business Manager Nathan Y. Lee ’19

THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873

Associate Managing Editors Mia C. Karr ’19 Claire E. Parker ’19 Associate Business Managers Dahlia S. Huh ’19 Max W. Sosland ’19 Editorial Chairs Emmanuel R. R. D’Agostino ’19 Cristian D. Pleters ’19 Arts Chairs Mila Gauvini II ’19 Grace Z. Li ’19 Blog Chairs Lydia L. Cawley ’20 Stuti Telidevara ’20 Design Chairs Morgan J. Spaulding ’19 Simon S. Sun ’19

Digital Strategists Caroline S. Engelmayer ’20 Jamie D. Halper ’20 Dianne Lee ’20 FM Chairs Marella A. Gayla ’19 Leah S. Yared ’19 Multimedia Chairs Amy Y. Li ’20 Ellis J. Yeo ’20 Sports Chairs Cade S. Palmer ’20 Jack R. Stockless ’19 Technology Chairs Nenya A. Edjah ’20 Theodore T. Liu ’20

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | APRIL 10, 2018 | PAGE 9

Aetna Partners with HSPH

By LUKE W. VOSTROS CRIMSON STAFF WRITER ­The School of Public Health and insurance company Aetna announced a research partnership last week intended to examine data on employee well-being.

Tyler J. VanderWeele, an Epidemiology professor at the School of Public Health, is co-directing the project with Eileen McNeely, an instructor at the school.

Aetna executives interested in improving employee well-being contacted the researchers in 2016, VanderWeele said, and they first met to discuss the project that spring.

“It was clear almost from the beginning that this was going to be a good match with regard to interest and the potential for research,” VanderWeele said. “We’ll have quite an extraordinary and rich well-being

“It was clear almost from the beginning that this was going to be a good match” Tyler VanderWeele data research resource.”

Aetna employees will voluntarily take longitudinal well-being surveys for five years, the results of which will

be sent to researchers at the School of Public Health.

Harvard well-being researchers have worked with employee data from companies in the past, but not on the scale or duration of the Aetna project, according to VanderWeele.

Aetna and Harvard officials both declined to state exactly how much funding Aetna will provide to the school, but said that it was a substantial amount.

“It’s in the millions of dollars,” VanderWeele said.

Aetna spokesperson Ethan Slavin said “this is a pretty sizable funding arrangement for this type of research.”

Kay Mooney, vice president of employee benefits and well-being at Aetna, said the partnership is part of Aetna’s efforts to improve employee well-being.

“We ended up interviewing a lot of different companies and institutions, and felt like when we met with Eileen that we had a similar vision for what we were trying to accomplish,” Mooney said.

In order to allay data privacy concerns, the data transmitted between Aetna and the School of Public Health will not be attached to employee names, Mooney said.

The new partnership seeks to expand the traditional four-factor understanding of well-being, physical, emotional, social, and financial, to include purpose and character strengths.

After a pilot program testing a subgroup of the company in 2018, the well-being surveys will be expanded

In Letter, Lee Questions DOJ Filing in Lawsuit LETTER FROM PAGE 1 dispute the Department’s authority to uphold the nation’s civil rights laws for all its citizens,” Lee’s letter reads.

“But the Department’s belated interest in this case, and its submission on this confidentiality issue in particular, cannot help but give pause.”

The letter almost directly follows the department’s Friday filing, in which the federal agency asked the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts to unseal previously confidential applicant information and data related to Harvard’s admissions process. The briefing asserted the court should unseal the data so the department and the public can effectively participate in the suit as “friends of the court.”

Harvard has repeatedly argued the data must remain private to protect student privacy and “highly proprietary” admissions information.

Lee wrote in his Monday letter that the Justice Department’s request came as a surprise to Harvard. He wrote the department had not previously expressed concern over the University’s desire to keep documents relevant to the lawsuit private.“Before submitting its Notice on Friday afternoon, the Department never raised with Harvard

any concern that it would not have access to summary judgment filings,” Lee wrote.

Lee claimed the department has already gained full access to all relevant filings, which it likely obtained as part of its own separate, ongoing probe into Harvard’s admissions policies. The Department of Justice initiated its investigation in 2017, after originally— under the Obama administration— choosing to take no action on a complaint filed in 2014 that also alleged Harvard discriminates in its admissions process.

“To the extent the Department wished to ensure its own access to the summary judgment materials in this case, it already has that access,” Lee wrote. Lee added the department’s filing comprises an “incomplete portrayal” of the body’s previous involvement in the lawsuit, which is separate from its probe.

“SFFA’s complaint was filed in November 2014, and yet for reasons that are not articulated, the Department waited until April 2018 to suggest that it has a ‘substantial interest’ in this litigation,” the letter reads.

Justice Department spokesperson Devin M. O’Malley declined to comment Monday evening.

to all of Aetna’s employees next year.

Mooney said the company also hopes to make its well-being model available to Aetna customers in the future.

Stanford Law School professor Michelle M. Mello, who previously worked at the School of Public Health, characterized the arrange-

“It’s quite common for research projects to be attached a grant” Michelle M. Mello Standford Law Professor

ment between Aetna and Harvard as standard for similar research.

“Most research that is done in medical schools and schools of public health is funded by grants or contracts from people outside the school,” Mello said. “It’s quite common for research projects to be attached a grant, and it’s also common for those grants to come from industry.”

This partnership is not the first time Aetna has worked with Longwood researchers. In 2011, Aetna partnered with Harvard Medical School’s Center for Biomedical Informatics to analyze healthcare claims data.

Staff writer Luke W. Vrotsos can be reached at luke.vrotsos@thecrimson.com.

Merrick Garland Talks Career Advice

By SIMONE C. CHU CRIMSON STAFF WRITER ­Merrick B. Garland ’74, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, visited Harvard Monday afternoon to talk with undergraduates about public service and the law.

Garland was nominated for the Supreme Court in 2016 by President Barack Obama, but the Senate declined to vote on Garland’s nomination, which expired in Jan. 2017. Around 50 undergraduates gathered in the Winthrop Junior Common Room for the talk hosted by the Office of Career Services.

Garland regaled students with tales from his time as an undergraduate at the College, and then as a student at the Law School. He also reminisced about his experiences working on the infamous Unabomber case, and the time he met J.K. Rowling while she was on campus to give Harvard’s 2008 Commencement address. Garland, a former member of the Board of Overseers— Harvard’s second-highest governing board—was influential in Rowling’s selection as speaker.

Incidentally, the “Harry Potter” series was at the top of Garland’s recommended reading list for students, followed by John Ely’s “Democracy and Distrust.”

Garland, a former Crimson editorial editor, offered multiple pieces of career advice to attendees.

“Please think about pursuing public

service,” Garland said. “It doesn’t have to be a lifetime where that’s all you do.

There are different ways to do public service, and it’s not that easy to have a career full-time in public service.”

Garland also entreated students to keep their options open by avoiding what he called “golden handcuffs”— financial barriers to pursuing their goals.

“Pay off your loans,” he said. “Don’t lock yourself into payments that you can’t afford on a public interest or government salary.”

He also advised students to stay open-minded.

“You really don’t know what you’re going to be interested in,” Garland said, reflecting on his own career, which he said took many twists and turns. “You have to take opportunities when they come. Don’t worry about the title.”

Several students said they attended the discussion because of their own interest in pursuing legal careers.

“It was comforting for him to say, sometimes you don’t know until you try something and you realize, ‘Wow, I actually have this whole interest that I didn’t really realize I had before,’” said Danielle D. Davis ’21, who attended the event. Dean of Undergraduate Education Jay M. Harris, who moderated the event, said he first reached out to Garland about a possible visit “a couple of years ago.”

The original plan had been for Garland to give a larger lecture for undergraduates.

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THE HARVARD CRIMSON | APRIL 10, 2018 | PAGE 10

Harvard Takes Two of Three To Win Columbia Series

sixth and being set down in order in the final frame.

The Crimson started off well, plating a run in the first inning. The top of the order set the table for senior right fielder Alexa Altchek, who dumped a single into right field to score co-captain and left fielder Maddy Kaplan from second base. The Lions quickly fought back, however, tying the game on a second-inning sacrifice fly before exploding for five runs in the fifth.

Smith impressed in the circle, starting the game and pitching the first three innings while only allowing one run. The junior now leads the pitching staff in ERA with a 2.65 mark.

Junior second baseman Meagan Lantz went two-for-three on stolen bases on the weekend, including a steal in this loss. Lantz is second in the Ivy League with 12 thefts.

LOCK IT UP Junior third baseman Erin Lockhart’s fourth homer of the season served as the go-ahead run in Sunday’s victory over Columbia. TIMOTHY R. O’MEARA—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER SOFTBALL

ly hitting our stride.”

By JACK STOCKLESS

HARVARD 3, COLUMBIA 1 A pair of dominant pitching performances and some clutch home runs late in the game powered Harvard to victory in the rubber match of the weekend series.

This game was initially a pitchers’ duel in which neither team got on the board until the fifth inning. Each team tacked on a run in the fifth, as Crimson co-captain and center fielder Kaitlyn Schiffhauer knocked a sacrifice fly to center field and the Lions followed with a homer off the bat of junior Krystin Wong.

Harvard’s own power display was the key difference, however. In the top of the sixth, junior third baseman Erin Lockhart rocketed a line drive over the wall in left-center, and Rich pro-

CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Though Harvard baseball has established itself as the “Bad Boys of the Ivy League,” perhaps the most fearsome team in the Ancient Eight is actually the Crimson softball team. Coach Jenny Allard’s squad (15-12, 8-4 Ivy) posted its second winning weekend in a row with a 2-1 series victory at Columbia (13-16, 6-6).

“This weekend was key because we were neck and neck with Columbia and knew that they would be a tough team to beat,” junior shortstop Rhianna Rich said. “So to come away winning the series really puts us in a good spot. It was also great to keep our momentum going from last weekend and we are real-

vided the mirror image of Lockhart’s feat in the next inning, going deep to right-center on a line. Lockhart leads the team in long balls with four, while Rich is now one of five Crimson with two round-trippers.

“We knew what their pitchers were throwing and we knew what adjustments we had to make, so I think what really clicked toward the end of the game was executing those adjustments,” Rich said.

“Working the process enabled both Erin and Rhianna to put bat on ball and get two key monster hits,” junior Katie Duncan added.

Right-hander Sarah Smith rebounded nicely after conceding the home run to Wong. The junior retired nine of the next 10 batters en route to her third win of the season.

Sophomore Olivia Giaquinto earned

the start in the circle, hurling 3.2 shutout innings. Smith came on in relief after Giaquinto had allowed two baserunners in a scoreless games in the bottom of the fourth. Smith escaped the jam and continued with three more innings of one-run ball. Combined, the pair of pitchers allowed just four hits and two walks on the afternoon.

COLUMBIA 6, HARVARD 1 Harvard’s lone loss of the weekend broke a four-game winning streak. The Crimson registered just three hits, all singles, in the defeat.

What was initially a close game became a blowout in the bottom of the fifth. Pairs of RBI singles and RBI doubles chased in five runs for Columbia.

Harvard was unable to answer in its remaining chances at the plate, falling victim to a double play in the top of the

HARVARD 5, COLUMBIA 4 While Harvard sandwiched a victory between two losses against Cornell, its reversed its fortunes against its most recent New York foe. And it did so in dramatic fashion.

After squandering a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth, the Crimson faced a 4-2 deficit heading into its last chance at the plate.

“Columbia has some big power hitters so it was no surprise that they were hitting the ball hard and scoring runs,” Rich said.

“We knew we had to keep scoring offensively regardless of that inning, but I do think it sparked us offensively to realize that we needed to get those runs back. It gave us a sense of urgency.”

Schiffhauer led off the inning with a two-base error. Back-to-back singles from Rich and Kaplan scored two runs to tie the game at four apiece.

Harvard’s momentum faltered, however, as Columbia pitcher Madison Canby settled down and retired the next two batters. With two outs, Altchek pulled a pitch down the left-field line to score Kaplan from second with the go-ahead run.

Because Harvard was the visitor, it still had to preserve its newfound lead in the bottom of the seventh. Starter Katie Duncan snapped right back from allowing four runs—just one of which was earned—in the previous inning.

The junior set down the Lions in order with a groundout, a flyout, and a lineout. The Crimson’s triumph marked Duncan’s 10th win of the season.

“After Columbia got four runs I think we did a good job as a team staying confident and focusing in on each and every play, not trying to do too much and really focusing on what each and every one of us could do in any given situation,” Duncan said.

Kaplan extended her hitting streak to 13 games in the victory. Overall, the senior is hitting .427/.472/.549 with just four strikeouts and a team-leading mark of 23 runs batted in.

Staff writer Jack Stockless can be reached at jack.stockless@thecrimson.com.

Crimson Stays Undefeated In Ivy Play With Victories WOMEN’S TENNIS

By RONNI CUCCIA CRIMSON CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Staying hot in Ivy League contests, Harvard women’s tennis finished off the weekend with two wins to stay undefeated in league play. The resounding victories over Ancient Eight rivals prepared the team for its next two home matches against Columbia and Cornell this upcoming weekend.

HARVARD 6, YALE 1 On Sunday afternoon the Crimson commuted to New Haven to take on Ivy League rival Yale (6-14, 0-3 Ivy).

The lowly Bulldogs remain winless in league play while Harvard lengthened its winning streak to five matches.

The Crimson (11-8, 3-0 Ivy) actually started out the match losing the first doubles point. Junior Erica Oosterhout and sophomore Natasha Gonzalez were the only pair to win a doubles match.

“It was great to see everyone come out ready to go in singles after we dropped the doubles point,” sophomore Jenna Friedel said. “Everyone was able to mentally turn the page and get after it from the start of singles.”

Harvard turned around the result entirely and completely dominated singles play. Harvard won all six matches. Oosterhout led the charge and beat Yale’s Samantha Martinelli 6-4, 7-6 in first singles, earning her 18th singles win of the season. In third singles, Crimson sophomore Irene Lu battled the Bulldogs’ Valerie Shklover in third singles. Lu was trailing 1-0, but quickly battled back to dominate the match, 6-1, 6-0.

Sophomore Lexi Milunovich had a close match against Yale’s Lexi Milunovich in fifth singles. Milunovich defeated Zordani in three sets, 6-2, 5-7, 10-2. Senior captain Annika Ringblom

finished off her successful weekend by defeating her opponent Lauren Gillinov, 6-0, 6-1.

HARVARD 5, BROWN 2 Both Harvard and Brown went into Friday off of victories in opening conference contests. As with Yale, the Crimson dropped the doubles point to Brown, but ended up winning the match by winning five out of the six singles points.

“I’m just so proud of our squad,” Coach Traci Green said. “We came back after losing the doubles point. It didn’t look great out there for a very long time but we fought tooth and nail and came through today so I’m really proud of the resilience primarily but overall heart of our team.”

Oosterhout and Gonzalez performed well in doubles and was tied 5-5 with their Yale competition before the doubles point was determined. In singles play, Gonzalez had a stand out performance by clinching the win for the Crimson in her sixth singles match, a tightly contested matchup against the Bulldogs’ Juliana Simon. Gonzalez won the first set 6-4, but then Simon responded to win the next set 7-5. In the final set, Gonzalez solidified the win against Brown for the Crimson by defeating Simon 6-3.

“A lot of the matches went three sets which means it was a battle either way. Natasha really stepped up nicely again,” Coach Green said. “It is the second time clinching in a row for us which is huge. She’s only a sophomore so we expect more great things to come.”

Even though Harvard had already clinched the match, Oosterhout and sophomore Jenna Friedel continued impressive play for the Crimson. Oosterhout defeated her opponent, Alyza Benotto in first singles (7-6, 4-6, 6-4). Friedel also had a standout performance in the match for Harvard,

SERVES THEM RIGHT Harvard cruised to victory over its rivals to stay undefeated in conference play. HENRY ZHU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

defeating Brown’s Maddie Stearns in three sets (6-2, 1-6, 6-2) in second singles.

“And Erica she has been batting a few injured here and there and I’m re-

ally proud of the way she came through there in the end even when the match was already clinched,” Coach Green said. “Annika as always had super energy out there and she gets the team

fired up. Jenna Friedel she was a fighter out there totally, she came out with a fast start and got tripped up a little bit but turned it around in the third for us.”