The Harvard Crimson - Volume CL, No. 11

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CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

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MEN’S LACROSSE

Artist Profile: Mina Le, YouTube’s Fashion Maven

Harvard Men’s Lacrosse Upsets Cornell, 10-8

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FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 2023

Council on Academic Freedom Launches ACADEMIC FREEDOM. More than 70 Harvard professors co-led by Psychology professor Steven A. Pinker have formed the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard to promote free inquiry.

SEE PAGE 4

CONSTRUCTION

House Renewal Delayed, Over Budget RENEWAL DELAYS. Following pandemic delays and price hikes, Harvard’s extensive House Renewal project is only halfway completed and has likely incurred more than $800 million in costs.

SEE PAGE 8

How the ‘Harvard Plan’ Strengthened Diversity AFFIRMATIVE ACTION. The “Harvard Plan ” represented Harvard’s largest formal effort to push for an increase in racial, geographic, and socioeconomic diversity on campus, though students and activists had advocated for change for years prior. With affirmative action in jeopardy, alumni, legal scholars, and administrators reflect on the push for campus diversity. SEE PAGE 6 SAMI E. TURNER—CRIMSON DESIGNER

CLIMATE

HLS Professor Jody Freeman Faces Calls to Step Down from ConocoPhillips Board

BY SABRINA R. HU CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

GREEN NEW DEAL

Residents Rally for Climate Legislation CLIMATE PROTEST. More than 70 Cambridge residents and activists rallied at Cambridge City Hall Wednesday afternoon in support of a Cambridge Green New Deal policy to reduce building emissions.

SEE PAGE 11

H

arvard affiliates renewed calls for Harvard Law School professor Jody L. Freeman to step down from her position on the board of directors of ConocoPhillips following newly surfaced emails between her and a Securities and Exchange Commission official.

After an open letter by Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard last month called on Freeman to resign from the oil and natural gas company’s board, Harvard faculty and HLS students have also voiced their concerns about her relationship with ConocoPhillips.

Freeman, who is co-chair of Harvard’s Presidential Committee on Sustainability and founded the Law School’s Environ-

HARVARD GSAS

AND ELIAS J. SCHISGALL CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

OPINION

POLICING ON CAMPUS. Harvard must take proactive steps to prevent swatting, especially given the recent increase in these attacks. But the University should also consider policing’s harms at large.

SEE PAGE 9

Freeman into question.

“The Salata Institute asserts it ‘will not accept funds from, or partner with, any company that does not share the goal of moving our global economy away from fossil fuels,’” the letter reads, according to the Guardian. “We ask: why does this policy not exclude awarding funds to a board member of one of the world’s most intransigent fossil fuel merchants?”

In a statement on her personal website, Freeman wrote that she serves on ConocoPhillips’ board of directors because of her belief in “the value of broad engagement during the energy transition.”

“My role as an independent director on the board of ConocoPhillips is about helping to advance the transition to a low-carbon economy,” Freeman wrote. “I work in my role to help the company deliver on, and strengthen, its climate commit-

ments.”

Freeman denied that the role creates a “conflict of interest” with her work at Harvard.

“My role on the board is entirely consistent with the other work I do — teaching, researching, writing, advising, and advocating for climate policy, at Harvard and elsewhere,” Freeman wrote. “I wear one hat — as an advocate for positive change to address the climate challenge.”

In an April 11 letter addressed to Freeman, 24 of her former students in the Law School Class of 2025 urged her to resign from her position on ConocoPhillips’ board of directors.

“We are disappointed and ashamed that ConocoPhillips is capitalizing on the Harvard Law School credential to

SEE FREEMAN PAGE 4

EVACUATION

Harvard Affiliates Slam Students Evacuate After GSAS Renaming Suspicious Package

BY RAHEM D. HAMID

Swatting and Impact of Policing

mental and Energy Law Program, has sat on the board of directors of ConocoPhillips for more than a decade and chairs the company’s Public Policy and Sustainability Committee.

Last month, the Harvard Faculty for Divestment steering committee sent a letter to University President-elect Claudine Gay and Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability James H. Stock raising the question of a potential conflict-of-interest between Freeman’s “fiduciary responsibility” to ConocoPhillips and Harvard’s climate goals, the Guardian reported April 1.

In February, the Harvard Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability awarded one of its five inaugural climate research cluster grants to a project led by Freeman. According to the Guardian, the letter calls the awarding of this grant to

­ arvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences is H now $300 million richer, and its Graduate School of Arts and Sciences has taken a new name — that of billionaire hedge fund CEO and Republican megadonor Kenneth C. Griffin ’89. Not everyone is thrilled.

Following University President Lawrence S. Bacow’s Tuesday announcement of Griffin’s unrestricted donation to FAS, some students and faculty celebrated the donation, while others blasted his support of Republican political candidates.

Griffin gave nearly $60 million to Republicans in the 2022 election cycle and has publicly backed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for president in 2024. DeSantis has not announced a presidential bid.

Griffin has also given to some Democratic politicians and donated $500,000

to President Joe Biden’s inaugural committee.

In total, Griffin has given more than half a billion dollars to Harvard, including a 2014 donation of $150 million largely to bolster financial aid at Harvard College.

The College’s financial aid office was renamed after Griffin following the donation.

Theda R. Skocpol, a Government and Sociology professor and former GSAS dean, slammed the decision in an email to The Crimson.

“I am absolutely disgusted at the sale of the GSAS name to a multi billionaire who works in US politics today to undermine the foundations of liberal civil society, including free speech, and to eviscerate the essential trans partisan features of fully representative US democracy,” she wrote.

“This is a shocking and unnecessary sell out by Harvard and FAS leaders who, at the same time, claim to be worried

SEE GRIFFIN PAGE 5

BY RYAN H. DOAN-NGUYEN AND YUSUF S. MIAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Harvard’s Science Center Plaza and parts of the neighboring Science Center were evacuated by the Harvard University Police Department Thursday afternoon following the discovery of a suspicious bag, though the bag was subsequently deemed safe and no explosion was reported.

“The bag at the Science Center Plaza has been deemed safe. The assessment of the situation is over. No threat to the campus. The area is opened again,” an alert through the school’s MessageMe Emergency Alert System read.

Cambridge Police Department spokesperson Jeremy C. Warnick confirmed that the package was determined to be safe.

“After a thorough investigation, the possible suspicious item has been deemed safe,” Warnick wrote in an email. “The assessment of the situation has concluded.

The area has re-opened.”

In an emailed statement, HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano wrote that officers first responded to the plaza at 3:52 p.m. after a report of “a suspicious bag.”

Officers then “conducted a sweep of the area, discovered the bag, and set up a perimeter around the location of the bag.” At that point, HUPD requested the assistance of CPD’s Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit.

Warnick confirmed the department assisted in the response.

“We are supporting HUPD and have officers from our Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit (Technicians and K9s) assisting following a report of a possible suspicious bag in the area of the Science Center Plaza,” Warnick wrote at the time of the incident. “The situation is being evaluated.”

The plaza was sectioned off with police

SEE EVACUATION PAGE 7

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THE HARVARD CRIMSON

LAST WEEK

APRIL 14, 2023

FAS FACULTY

BOOKS

KENNEDY SCHOOL

SEAS Holds Annual BRIDGE Week

Nadifa Mohamed Discusses Identity

HKS Exploring MPP, MPA Merger

CELEBRATING DIVERSITY. Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences held a series of events for an annual celebration of diversity in STEM last week. BRIDGE Week — which stands for Building Relationships, Increasing Diversity, and Growing Engineers — started in 2018 as a partnership between three organizations: the National Society of Black Engineers, Society of Women Engineers, and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. The program kicked off Monday with an alumni panel, which discussed diversity and inclusion and offered advice to attendees. BY MERT GEYIKTEPE—CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

NOVEL INSIGHTS. Somali novelist Nadifa Mohamed discussed her latest novel “The Fortune Men” at a Tuesday lecture in Sever Hall. Mohamed joined Harvard History professor Maya R. Jasanoff ’96 in a conversation hosted by the Mahindra Humanities Center as part of the “Writers Speak” series, which was co-sponsored by the History Seminar at the Center for European Studies. Mohamed’s 2010 debut novel “Black Mamba Boy” was awarded the Betty Trask Prize, and her novel “The Fortune Men” was a Booker Prize finalist. BY CHRISTINA M. STRACHN

COMBINING PROGRAMS. Harvard Kennedy School is in the “early stages of exploring” a plan to combine the Master of Public Policy and Master of Public Administration programs into an expanded degree program, HKS Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf announced in an email to students early last month.

The merged MPP program would consist of a required core curriculum along with a set of elective classes, Elmendorf wrote in the email, dated March 1. The Kennedy School’s MPA program does not currently have a required core curriculum.

AND CAMILLA WU—CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

BY ASHER J. MONTGOMERY—CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

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The Week in Photos

AROUND THE IVIES DARTMOUTH ENDS COVID-19 VACCINATION REQUIREMENT

SCIENCE CENTER SUSPICIOUS PACKAGE. Harvard University Police Department and Cambridge Police Department responded to a report of a suspicious package in the Science Center plaza. The package was later deemed to be safe. FRANK S.

Dartmouth no longer mandates the COVID-19 vaccination, nor proof of exemption for students, faculty and staff as of Tuesday. According to The Dartmouth, the University still advises everyone to receive the US Center for Disease Control recommended COVID-19 vaccinations.

The College will work with healthcare providers to continue to supply vaccines and inform the community of how to find vaccines.

ZHOU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

THE DARTMOUTH

THC Read more at THECRIMSON.COM

INDIE-ROCK BAND COIN TO HEADLINE 2023 “SLOPE DAY” Cornell’s Slope Day Programming Board announced that the indie-rock band COIN will headline the college’s annual end-of-the-year celebration. The event, held this year on May 10, will also feature EDM duo Snakehips and hiphop duo Coco & Claire Claire. The news received mixed reviews from students. While the organization that plans the event takes student preferences into consideration, the budget limits performers they can realistically hire.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN

PENN WILL INCREASE POSTDOC STIPEND AFTER RESEARCHERS PUSH FOR GREATER BENEFITS The University of Pennsylvania will raise postdoctoral student stipends by 19% after fellows and researchers raised concerns about University benefits. On Tuesday, effective July 1st, the minimum postdoc stipend will be $65,000, an increase from this year’s $54,840. The increase was announced alongside changes to insurance benefits for postdocs that will feature three new options replacing the medical, dental and vision insurance.

JUSTICE FOR FAISAL. Protestors gathered in front of Cambridge City Hall on Monday in protest of the police killing of Sayed Faisal in January of this year. The demonstration, part of a picket from Monday to Friday in front of the building, marked the latest in a series of protests calling for “Justice for Faisal.” The week also included an open mic, iftar, and poster-making session. BY RYAN H. DOAN-NGUYEN­—

NIGHT LIGHTS. The arrival of spring brought with it serene nights along the river. The Weeks Bridge cast light across the Charles. BY SOPHIA C. SCOTT—

BEHIND THE BROADCAST. The Harvard Athletics Department broadcasts home games for 40 of their 42 varsity sports teams. BY SOPHIA C. SCOTT—CRIMSON

CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

PHOTOGRAPHER

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

YALE WILL OFFER FIRST INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE COURSE IN FALL 2023 This upcoming fall, Yale will offer a course in Cherokee language and culture that will fulfill the language distributional requirement, the first Indigenous language course to do so in the college’s history. The college offered Indigenous languages informally through the Native American Cultural Center for over seven years prior to this decision, the Yale Daily News reported Wednesday. A Cherokee language instructor from the University of Oklahoma Patrick DelPercio will join the University’s faculty to teach the new lecture course.

THE YALE DAILY NEWS

HUCTW PICKETING. Members of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers picketed outside of Massachusetts Hall on Wednesday. The union frequently holds pickets in Harvard Yard.

HUCTW is Harvard’s largest labor union and includes roughly 5,000 employees working across the University. BY LUCY VUONG—CON-

PRITZKER. Billionaire Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker spoke at the Institute of Politics, where he discussed the influence of big money on politics. BY ADDISON

SCOOTER BAN. Harvard undergraduates expressed frustration with recent enforcement of the University’s micromobility policy, which does not allow electric scooters to be parked inside University buildings. BY CLAIRE YUAN—CRIMSON

TRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Y. LIU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

PHOTOGRAPHER

NEXT WEEK

THE HARVARD CRIMSON APRIL 14, 2023

What’s Next

IN THE REAL WORLD SECOND EXPELLED DEMOCRAT IS SENT BACK TO TENNESSEE STATE LEGISLATURE Local officials unanimously voted on Wednesday to reinstate Justin J. Pearson back to the Tennessee House of Representatives. Pearson is one of two Black Democratic representatives ousted from the Tennessee House of Representatives after a gun control protest on the House floor last week. Republicans, angered by the protest, quickly moved to expel two of the chamber’s youngest Black lawmakers, according to the New York Times. The effort to remove Representative Gloria Johnson, a white lawmaker also involved in the protests, failed.

E.P.A. PROPOSES RULES TO TURBOCHARGE SALES OF ELECTRIC CARS AND TRUCKS The Biden administration proposed plans to ensure that two thirds of new passenger cars and a quarter of new heavy trucks are all electric by 2032.

These two plans are the nation’s most ambitious climate regulations to date.

According to the New York Times, the new rules would require drastic shifts in the US auto industry. Last year, all-electric vehicles accounted for just 5.8 percent of new cats sold in the U.S. If they are enacted, they put the U.S. on track to slash planet warming emissions at the pace that scientists say is required of all countries to avert the most devastating impacts of climate change.

3

Start every week with a preview of what’s on the agenda around Harvard University

Friday 4/14

Monday 4/17

Wednesday 4/19

GPT-4 MADE ME DO IT: A TECH THEMED COMEDY SHOW

INTRODUCTION TO THE FULBRIGHT SCHOLARSHIP

DESCENDANT SCREENING

Currier Fishbowl, 7 p.m. - 8 p.m.

Hosted by the Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, Monday’s event will provide an overview of the Fulbright grants for research and English teaching assistantships abroad. The program operates in over 160 countries globally.

Leverett Library Theater, 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.

The award-winning film Descendant will be screened, with food served. Following the screening, Aaryan Morrison ‘22.5 will moderate a panel discussion about preservation, solidarity, and justice featuring Veda Robbins, Dr. Kern Jackson, and Ramsey Sprague.

Tuesday 4/18

Thursday 4/20

Winokur Hall, 5 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Comics from Harvard, MIT, and New York City will head to Winokur Hall in the Science and Engineering Complex to joke about everything tech: from ChatGPT and Bitcoin to FTX and Silicon

Saturday 4/15 WOMEN IN POWER CONFERENCE

Harvard Kennedy School, 9 a.m. - 7:30 p.m.

The sixth annual Women in Power Conference — run by undergraduates — focuses on the theme “Breaking Barriers”. Panel discussions with a range of topics, from “positive parenting” to “mindful momentum” make up the all-day conference.

GRATITUDE WORKSHOP

Kresge 202B, T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 1:00 p.m - 2:00 p.m.

The Center for Health and Happiness Student Advisory Board welcomes you to their inaugural event, which will feature a presentation on the science of gratitude, a guided gratitude meditation, and a gratitude journal giveaway.

MAKING SPACE

Smith Riverview Commons, Smith Campus Center Floor 10, 5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Join Women of Color Collective x Saheli to discuss sexual assault awareness and intersectional experiences on campus. Dinner will also be provided.

Sunday 4/16

Friday 4/21

YARDFEST

HARVARD UNIVERSITY WIND ENSEMBLE: SPRING CONCERT

Harvard Yard, 4 p.m. - 8 p.m.

See hip hop and R&B singer, songwriter, and producer Jeremih perform at Yardfest, an annual outdoor concert for Harvard undergraduates.

Student bands Beacon Street and Weld 16 will perform, along with producer and DJ duo Coco & Breezy.

Lowell Lecture Hall, 8:00 p.m Join the Harvard University Wind Ensemble for its Spring Concert, where they’ll perform “Jupiter” from Gustav Holst’s “The Planets,” “Cartoon”

by Paul Hart, “Old Home Days” by Charles Ives, and more.

BY JULIAN G. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

FIVE DEAD, EIGHT INJURED AFTER MASS SHOOTING AT LOUISVILLE BANK A Louisville bank employee with a rifle opened fire at his workplace on Monday, killing five while live streaming the attack on Instagram. The gunman bought his weapon legally a week before the shooting. Police body camera videos released on Tuesday, taken from two wounded officers’ lapels, showed the rare perspective of police officers responding to a massacre. One wounded, a rookie officer, was shot within minutes after arriving at the scene.

SPRING SKIES

F.B.I. ARRESTS MASS. AIR NATIONAL GUARDSMAN IN CONNECTION TO INTELLIGENCE LEAK The FBI. arrested a Massachusetts Air National Guard member on Thursday in connection with the leak of highly classified documents containing national security secrets, the New York Times reported on Thursday. Airman First Class Jack Douglas Teixeira, who is 21 years old, was taken into custody for allegedly sharing sensitive intelligence to an online group called Thug Shaker Central. Teixeira was arrested at his mother’s home in Dighton, Masschusetts, onThursday afternoon.

According to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland ‘74 , Teixeira was arrested by the FBI in relation to the “unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information.”

THE HARVARD CRIMSON Cara J. Chang ’24 President

BY SOPHIA C. SCOTT—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

STAFF FOR THIS ISSUE Brandon L. Kingdollar ’24

Cynthia V. Lu ’24

Managing Editor

Business Manager

Magazine Chairs Io Y. Gilman ’25 Amber H. Levis ’25

Design Chairs Sophia Salamanca ’25 Sami E. Turner ’25

Eleanor V. Wikstrom ’24 Christina M. Xiao ’24

Blog Chairs Tina Chen ’24 Hana Rehman ’25

Multimedia Chairs Joey Huang ’24 Julian J. Giordano ’25

Arts Chairs Anya L. Henry ’24 Alisa S. Regassa ’24

Sports Chairs Mairead B. Baker ’24 Aaron B. Schuchman ’25

Technology Chairs Kevin Luo ’24 Justin Y. Ye ’24

Associate Managing Editors Leah J. Teichholtz ’24 Meimei Xu ’24 Editorial Chairs

Associate Business Manager Derek S. Chang ’24 Copyright 2023, 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

Night Editors Isabella B. Cho ’24 James R. Jolin ’24

Brandon L. Kingdollar ’24 Leah J. Teichholtz ’24 Meimei Xu ’24

Assistant Night Editors Nia L. Orakwue ’25 Paton D. Roberts ’25 Asher J. Montgomery ’26 Erika K. Chung ’26 Sabrina R. Hu ’26 Neil H. Shah ’26 Rysa Tahilramani ’26

Design Editors Toby R. Ma ’24 Nayeli Cardozo ’25 Sami E. Turner ’25 Laurinne P. Eugenio ’26

Story Editors Isabella B. Cho ’24 James R. Jolin ’24

Nathanael Tjandra ’26 Editorial Editor

Ruby J.J. Huang ’24 Sports Editors

Zing Gee ’24 Alexander K. Bell ’25 Arts Editors

Photo Editors Cory K. Gorczycki ’24 Joey Huang ’24 Julian J. Giordano ’25 Christopher L. Li ’25 Addison Y. Liu ’25

Zachary J. Lech ’24

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

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THE HARVARD CRIMSON

NEWS

APRIL 14, 2023

STUDENT GROUPS

Harvard DSO to Audit Orgs, Months After HUFPI Dispute HARVARD’S DSO will conduct an audit of independent student organizations to gain a better understanding of them.

BY ELLA L. JONES AND JOHN N. PEÑA CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

M

onths after allegations of financial mismanagement in a Harvard student organization, the Dean of Students Office is set to conduct an audit of Harvard independent student organizations in conjunction with Harvard’s risk management office.

A two-month Crimson investigation into the Harvard Undergraduate Foreign Policy Initiative found that the club was missing thousands of dollars following the departure of its former president. In an interview Thursday, DSO administrators did not specify whether the audit was related to HUFPI, and they did not comment on the specific allegations against its former president, Sama E.N. Kubba ’24.

In an emailed statement Wednesday, College spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo wrote that conversations around an audit of the student organization system began in the fall, with the DSO engaging the Office of Risk Management at the beginning of the spring semester. The audit

was not prompted by the HUFPI financial dispute, Palumbo wrote.

DSO administrators said the audit will examine the system at large and will not look at any groups’ finances, maintaining that the DSO will not exercise greater financial oversight over independent student groups.

At the time of The Crimson’s investigation, DSO Associate Dean for Student Engagement Jason R. Meier said the College’s financial policies for clubs are guidelines that are not strictly enforced, a view that he reaffirmed in the interview Thursday.

“We would never have more financial oversight of an independent student organization’s funds,” Meier said. “We have no way to compel an independent student organization that has raised money on their own to tell them how to spend their funds.”

Meier said the DSO — rather than reevaluating oversight policies — is working to take an “inward view of the student organization ecosystem,” including the audit of independent student organizations in partnership with Harvard’s risk management office.

The audit will help the DSO become more familiar with the logistics of student organizations, including budget sizes, international travel, and federal nonprofit status, according to Meier.

“When we have a better understanding of the ecosystem — because we do not have a good understanding — we’ll then be able to customize training in a meaningful way to support our organizations,” Meier said.

Interim Dean of Students Lauren E. Brandt ’01 pointed to a current resource guide available that outlines “best practices” for student organizations.

Meier said the DSO’s hands-off policy aims to allow undergraduates the space and opportunity to run their organizations autonomously.

Asked about the DSO’s approach to the HUFPI financial dispute, Meier declined to give specifics, but said the office aims to provide support when students need it.

“At the end of the day, HUFPI is an independent student organization, and so we honor and respect that,” Meier said.

“We have to balance that line of supporting but still giving you the autonomy — to learn, to grow, to fail, to succeed — to do all of those things,” he added.

Administrators from the Dean of Students Office also discussed the following topics: Progress of the HUA Meier said the difference between the Harvard Undergraduate Association and the Undergraduate Council — its

The Student Organization Center at Hilles is located at 59 Shepard St. in the Radcliffe Quadrangle. JENNIFER Z. LIANG—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

recently dissolved predecessor — is “night and day.”

“I am so impressed with the atmosphere, with the care, with the intentionality and thoughtfulness of the HUA leaders in building an inclusive place where they can have hard conversations about life on campus and how we make it better,” Meier said. “That was not happening with the UC.” Associate Dean for Inclusion and Belonging Alta Mauro said the HUA has been able to address issues the UC left unfinished, citing the HUA’s goal of increasing accessibility to students outside of the body.

“I do feel that folks in the HUA have tried to build on the best parts of the UC,” Mauro said.

The student body elected new officers to the HUA in February during an election cycle that included seven uncontested races

More than 70 Faculty Form Council on Academic Freedom, Co-Led by Pinker

BY RAHEM D. HAMID

and roughly 26 percent turnout.

Meier attributed the number of uncontested races to the “overwhelming” student experience, adding that he does not believe this is unique to Harvard’s campus.

Mauro said she believes low turnout could indicate student satisfaction with the HUA. “I imagine if people were in a rage about the HUA’s failings so far, more people would’ve turned out,” she said.

Comaroff Protest in University Hall Last month, activists occupied University Hall — home to the offices of top DSO administrators — in protest of Harvard’s Title IX policies and the continued employment of professor John L. Comaroff, who is accused of sexual harassment.

During the protest, students spoke directly to Brandt and Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana to share their concerns. In the Thursday interview, Brandt did not comment on whether she supported the protesters’ demands.

“We are here to support students in terms of the concerns and questions that they’re raising and to figure out how to meet the needs that they’re expressing as best we can,” Brandt said.

Meier said that administrators from the DSO “deeply value the freedom of expression and the rights of free speech.”

“That is paramount to the work we do in the Dean of Students Office and it manifests in any number of ways,” Meier said.

“This is just one of those ways.” ella.jones@thecrimson.com john.pena@thecrimson.com

FREEMAN FROM PAGE ONE

Freeman Faces Anger for Oil Ties

AND ELIAS J. SCHISGALL CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

A group of more than 70 Harvard professors co-led by Psychology professor Steven A. Pinker has formed the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard — an initiative to promote ideals of free speech and inquiry.

The council was announced in a Wednesday op-ed in the Boston Globe by Harvard Medical School professor Bertha K. Madras and Pinker, known for his controversial view that educational institutions have prioritized progressive ideals over free speech.

Pinker and Madras wrote that the group “will encourage the adoption and enforcement of policies that protect academic freedom.”

“When an individual is threatened or slandered for a scholarly opinion, which can be emotionally devastating, we will lend our personal and professional support,” they wrote. “When activists are shouting into an administrator’s ear, we will speak calmly but vigorously into the other one, which will require them to take the reasoned rather than the easy way out.”

The council’s six co-presidents are former Harvard Medical School Dean and professor Jeffrey S. Flier; Philosophy professor Edward J. “Ned” Hall; Harvard Law School professor Jeannie Suk Gersen; former Harvard College Dean and Computer Science professor Harry R. Lewis ’68; History professor Jane Kamensky; and Pinker. Flynn J. Cratty, a lecturer in History, is the council’s executive director.

The group first formally convened at a March 22 meeting, where they selected the co-presidents, according to Cratty.

The Council’s membership includes professors from across the University, including Economics and Harvard Kennedy School professor and former chair of the Council of Economic Advisors Jason Furman ’92, former University President Lawrence H. Summers, and Economics professor N. Gregory Mankiw.

Psychology professor Steven A. Pinker is co-leading the new Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard. JOSIE W. CHAN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Three University Professors — Harvard’s highest ranking professors — are members: Summers, Eric S. Maskin ’72, and Gary King.

Its membership also includes some professors who have been involved in high-profile controversies, including Law School professors Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., who sparked outrage in 2019 after deciding to represent disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in court; J. Mark Ramseyer, who published a controversial 2021 paper arguing “comfort women” forced into sex slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II were actually contracted sex workers; and Janet E. Halley, who represents embattled professor John L. Comaroff in court.

In a Wednesday interview, Summers said “making sure that there are no unacceptable subjects on university campuses, and promoting viewpoint diversity is profoundly important.”

“There are very serious issues of viewpoint diversity, and unacceptable subjects for dialogue and pressures for conformity at Harvard, as there are other universities,” he added Despite the reputation of academic freedom as an issue mainly

touted by conservatives over the years, Lewis said that he did not consider the organization to be driven by a political agenda.

Government professor and Council on Academic Freedom member Ryan D. Enos concurred, saying academic freedom can be threatened “from both sides of the aisle.”

“At certain times, we might find that our own ideologies are the ones that are in the minority or the ones that are out of power and maybe under attack, and that limits our ability to do our jobs and to do the research we’re supposed to do,” Enos said.

But HLS professor Nikolas E. Bowie, who is not on the Council, viewed it with skepticism, writing in an email that the “actual threats to academic freedom” were Harvard’s resistance to students, faculty, and staff labor organizing efforts.

“I’m looking forward to seeing this council of tenured professors use their power against exploitation on campus,” Bowie wrote.

“But I won’t hold my breath.”

University spokesperson Jonathan L. Swain declined to comment.

In an emailed statement, Cratty said critical discussion about the best ways to promote

academic freedom was in the spirit of the Council’s mission.

Some faculty who are not on the Council, like Harvard Divinity School professor Janet Gyatso, agree that academic freedom is at risk.

“There is a great temptation on the part of politicians, especially ambitious ones, and businessmen, especially greedy ones, to try to control information and the production of knowledge,” Gyatso wrote in an emailed statement.

“But as scholars we need to be able to utter and analyse everything, including uncomfortable histories, in order to get at the truth,” she added.

For Lewis, the former dean of Harvard College, academic freedom is tied intrinsically to Harvard’s mission.

“I love Harvard, I think it’s the greatest university in the world, and I want it to stay that way,” he said.

“And the only way it’s gonna stay that way is if it’s a welcome place for people to voice unpopular opinions and to be oddballs in various ways and countercultural in various ways,” he added. rahem.hamid@thecrimson.com elias.schisgall@thecrimson.com

legitimize and further its legacy of corporate profiteering and destruction,” the letter reads.

The students called on Freeman to “choose a different weapon in the fight against climate change” and to align herself with “allies who truly care about making progress, not profits.”

In the statement on her personal website, Freeman wrote that she views her role on the board as a vehicle for progress.

“From my seat at the board table, I participate candidly and forcefully in discussion, introducing an important perspective that otherwise would be missing.

I press for solutions and progress,” Freeman wrote. “I believe that I make a positive difference, and if I did not, I would not do this work.”

The Guardian reported on April 6 that Freeman helped facilitate a meeting via email between ConocoPhillips and John C. Coates, then set to become the acting director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporate Finance.

In the emails, Freeman vouched for two ConocoPhillips executives and failed to disclose her position at the company in the emails, signing off as a Harvard law professor, the Guardian reported.

“ConocoPhillips is widely recognized as the oil and gas industry leader on climate related disclosure,” Freeman wrote according to the Guardian.

Phoebe G. Barr ’23-’24, an organizer for Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard — which separately obtained copies of the emails through a Freedom of Information Act request — said the emails provide evidence of the existence of a conflict of interest between Freeman’s role at ConocoPhillips and her position at Harvard.

“We see her actively working for ConocoPhillips and on ConocoPhillips side, and so we think that this is just a greater confirmation of the problem and the conflict of interest and the fact that ultimately, Jody Freeman is working for this oil company,” she said.

In a separate statement on her

personal website published April 12, Freeman defended the emails.

“I did not request or initiate any meeting. John, my Harvard Law School colleague, when he was still at Harvard, asked me to connect him to people at the company as part of his process of gathering information from all stakeholders,” Freeman wrote.

“I responded to his request and connected him to the company, introducing him to knowledgeable people there, explaining who they were,” she added.

In a statement to The Crimson, Coates clarified that he knew about Freeman’s role at ConocoPhillips and that he initiated the conversation, adding that Freeman did not “lobby” him or other SEC officials.

ConocoPhillips did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Richard W. Painter ’84, the former chief ethics lawyer in the White House Counsel’s Office, said in an interview that “it’s okay” to get additional compensation “as a director or consulting.”

“But there needs to be a firm boundary between the university role and the private consulting,” Painter said.

Richard J. Lazarus, an HLS environmental law professor, wrote in an email to The Crimson that he perceives “absolutely no conflict of interest” regarding Freeman’s position and role at ConocoPhillips.

“Based on my close observations of Professor Freeman’s work on climate issues over the past dozen years here at Harvard Law School, I perceive absolutely no conflict of interest,” he wrote.

“I have never once heard Jody bend her focus or any meaningful suggestion that her service on the CP Board has limited her dedication to that mission in any way,” Lazarus wrote.

“This notion that she has instead become their mouthpiece is, with all due respect, nonsense,” he added. sabrina.hu@thecrimson.com jeffrey.yang@thecrimson.com

NEWS

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COLLEGE

College Committee Talks Campus Culture CAMPUS CULTURE. The “Intellectual Vitality Committee” discusses free idea exchange at the College.

BY J. SELLERS HILL CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

A

group of Harvard undergraduates, faculty, and alumni have been quietly meeting over the past two years to examine what they see as a lack of the free exchange of ideas at the College.

Some members of the “Intellectual Vitality Committee,” facilitated by Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana, have also been invited to present to influential Harvard bodies including the Faculty Council and Board of Overseers — the University’s second-highest governing body.

Committee member Shira Z. Hoffer ’25 wrote in a statement that the group welcomed those who “feel like Harvard could be doing better in striving toward veritas.”

“The purpose of the committee is to brainstorm and implement ways to increase what we are calling ‘intellectual vitality’ on campus,” Hoffer wrote. “We believe that it is not just possible but crucial to engage with dissenting viewpoints, as long as we do so respectfully, and it is a passion for this engagement which brings us together.”

College spokesperson Jona-

than Palumbo wrote in a statement that the College is committed to creating an environment of “open dialogue, vigorous inquiry, and intellectual exploration.”

“Dean Khurana has appreciated multiple opportunities to discuss intellectual vitality with students and faculty for the past two years.” the statement reads. “We will continue to have these discussions to strengthen the College’s culture of open dialogue, respectful disagreement, freedom to express one’s views, and openness to changing one’s mind.”

“Dean Khurana strongly believes in the importance of academic freedom, which allows students and faculty to engage in inquiry without fear of censorship or reprisal,” he added.

Member Jaya J. Nayar ’24 said the group is considering a variety of initiatives, including changes to the College’s admissions essays, orientation programming, and expository writing program.

Philosophy professor Edward J. “Ned” Hall, who helped form the group, said the committee has also discussed introducing an annual “citizens’ assembly” to debate campus issues.

“There’s one that a lot of us on the faculty — and I think students too — would love to see the University administration take up, which is to just issue a very clear, forceful statement about the importance of free inquiry on a college campus,” Hall said.

Hall is also the co-president of the recently announced Council for Academic Freedom at Harvard, a separate, faculty-led group focused on supporting “free inquiry, intellectual diversity, civil discourse,” according to its website.

Some members of the Intellectual Vitality Committee earlier this month presented to the Board of Overseers, in order to share experiences related to the free idea exchange on campus and to present their vision for improvement, Nayar said.

“We are really trying to reencourage disagreement and look for healthier forms of disagreement, rather than having things that are spats on the email chains or in GroupMe’s that really devolve into nothing but hurt feelings and bitter sentiments,” Nayar said.

Similar topics around free speech and academic freedom have recently come to the forefront at peer schools, including Stanford University and Cornell University.

Still, professor of Astronomy Karin I. Öberg, a member of the Intellectual Vitality Committee, said she believes Harvard’s issues and solutions are distinct.

“I do think there are sort of somewhat different flavors of this at different universities, and I think it’s important that Harvard, as Harvard, also figures out what its mission is,” she said. sellers.hill@thecrimson.com

University Hall, located in Harvard Yard, houses the offices of top College administrators, including Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana. THOMAS MAISONNEUVE—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

GRIFFIN FROM PAGE 1

Affiliates Slam Griffin Donation Over Gov. DeSantis Support about Harvard College’s acceptance of slavery in the 1700s,” Skocpol added. “Feel free to quote me.”

In a statement, Jaquelyn M. Scharnick ’06, a spokesperson for Griffin and a former Crimson News editor, called Griffin “one of the strongest supporters of free speech and free inquiry in the country.”

“Ken said as recently as today that no one who contributes to a politician agrees 100% with their views and policy positions,” Scharnick wrote. “This is as true for Ken’s financial support of Governor DeSantis as it was for his backing of the campaigns of President Obama and Mayor Rahm Emanuel.”

In 2022, DeSantis signed a state law — widely known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law — forbidding kindergarten to third-grade public school classrooms from teaching about sexual orientation and gender. The law has been widely criticized by Democratic politicans.

DeSantis has proposed expanding the ban to all age levels.

He has also spoken out against children attending drag performances and gender-affirming health care for transgender minors as he prepares for a likely presidential run.

Griffin has publicly endorsed the “Don’t Say Gay” law, calling DeSantis’ move “a really important point of view,” per Forbes.

Ericka R. “Ricky” Sanchez, a Ph.D. candidate in English, said Griffin’s endorsement of DeSantis shows “disdain” for queer people such as herself.

“It does feel quite antithetical to name this institution, or this part of the institution, after somebody who is so hostile to the survival of the people who make up the school,” she said.

FAS spokesperson Anna G. Cowenhoven declined to comment and referred The Crimson to the official announcement in the Harvard Gazette, a University-run publication. The Gazette article does not mention Griffin’s

political views or activities.

In the Gazette, Bacow praised Griffin’s “exceptional generosity and steadfast devotion,” adding that he appreciates “the confidence he has placed in us — and in our mission — to do good in the world.”

“His choice to support FAS underscores the power of education to transform lives and to expand the reach of our research in every field imaginable,” Bacow said.

Still, third-year Harvard Law School student Ash E. Tomaszewski said Harvard should have refused to accept the donation because of Griffin’s political contributions, adding that they were “disgusted” but “not surprised.”

When it comes to funding, however, some argued that a potential donor’s political background should not come into the picture.

Economics professor N. Gregory Mankiw wrote in an email that Harvard “should not judge the political views of its donors,” adding that he was “very grateful

for Mr. Griffin’s generosity.”

Zad Chin ’24 said she was “glad” that Griffin had donated to the school, saying his political views should be “independent” of his giving to the school.

She said if somebody is “generous enough to donate money to the school, I don’t see why we should not accept the money from him.”

Laughing, she said that the flag outside Lehman Hall, which houses the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences student center, was changed to include Griffin’s name “like, one second after the announcement.”

Griffin is the third donor in the last nine years whose donation has renamed a Harvard school. In 2014, billionaire Gerald L. Chan’s Morningside Foundation donated $350 million to Harvard’s School of Public Health, which was renamed after his father T.H. Chan.

The following year, Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences was renamed for

hedge fund billionaire John A. Paulson after a $400 million donation.

The University has not historically renamed schools for donors. The last time before 2014 was in 1638, when John Harvard’s donation led to a renaming of the University.

Lorenzo J.F. McClellan, a Ph.D. candidate in History, felt Griffin’s donation was “probably driven by vanity and a desire to see his name on a major Harvard institution,” adding that he “cannot imagine having $300 million to give to a charity and deciding that Harvard University was the scrappy institution in need of more money.”

“It would be great if they topped up my stipend,” McClellan said of Harvard’s new unrestricted funds.

Tomaszewski said they and Harvard’s graduate student union would advocate for the funds to directly benefit graduate students and other staff, but felt pessimistic about this coming to fruition.

“We have to beg and beg and beg for pennies,” they said.

Other affiliates said they appreciated the donation.

“I presume that the GSAS — which is very, very hard to raise funds for — will be a major beneficiary,” Harry R. Lewis ’68, a former dean of Harvard College said. “I am perfectly happy to have Mr. Griffin honored by that renaming.”

Citing recent donations to science and engineering initiatives at Harvard, Lewis celebrated the fact that the arts and humanities will also benefit from Griffin’s gift.

Still, while Lewis is not concerned with Griffin’s political activism, he hopes the school will support teaching and research rather than “administrative bloat.”

“I would hate to see it used to pay administrative salaries that might have been eliminated if some belt-tightening had been necessary,” Lewis wrote in a follow-up email. rahem.hamid@thecrimson.com elias.schisgall@thecrimson.com

Harvard Freshman Competes on ‘Wheel of Fortune’ College Week

BY JULIAN J. GIORDANO AND JOSHUA PARK CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Late one night during last semester’s reading period, Benjamin D. Langman ’26 was scrolling TikTok when he came across an advertisement to apply to be a contestant on the popular game show “Wheel of Fortune.”

On a whim, Langman uploaded a photo of himself with a short blurb and woke up the next day to an email from a casting producer asking him to submit a minute-long video of himself talking.

“So I sat up, I put on a Harvard shirt, and I proceeded to speak nonsense for a minute straight about how much I love vowels,” said Langman.

That night, Langman got a call from the casting producer, who asked him to do a 30-minute interview on the spot. After another interview and a monthand-a-half long wait, Langman was on a plane to Los Angeles to record an episode for Wheel of Fortune’s “College Week Spring Break” show.

Langman led the scoreboard

for the first two rounds of the episode, which aired on Friday, but was overtaken in the third “final spin” round by Malia Dunaway, a sophomore at Villanova University.

Still, Langman went home with nearly $22,000 in prizes, including a trip to the Dominican Republic.

During the competition, Langman correctly guessed phrases including, “POSING FOR A POLAROID,” “PULLING ANOTHER ALL-NIGHTER,” and “NOT MISSING MY PROFESSORS.” “It’s way harder than when you watch it online, sitting on your couch,” Langman said.

Langman, who watched Wheel of Fortune and other quiz games like “Jeopardy!” growing up, described his experience competing on the show as “really surreal.” He said he was on the set for 10 hours, though filming itself took only 20 minutes.

To prepare, Langman talked to Felix B. Bulwa ’22-’23, a Harvard student who competed on Wheel of Fortune in 2021. Langman said it was helpful to talk to Bulwa, who told him a lot of the show comes down to luck.

Benjamin D. Langman ‘26 competed on a “Wheel of Fortune” show that aired this month, winning nearly $22,000 in prizes. COURTESY OF BEN LANGMAN

The show filmed in late January, but Langman signed a nondisclosure agreement and was not allowed to discuss his reason

for flying to L.A. or the results with friends or professors.

Langman said he intends to go on his trip to the Domini-

can Republic this year, and his friends — who are now aware of Langman’s appearance on the show — are eager to tag along.

“Lots of people around me are making jokes like, ‘Haha, when are we going to the Dominican?’”

Langman said.

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

COVER STORY

6

APRIL 14, 2023

How the ‘Harvard Plan’ Shaped College Admissions SANTIAGO A. SALDIVAR—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

BEFORE THE SUPREME COURT reaches a final decision on SFFA v. Harvard, read about Harvard’s history of affirmative action.

BY MICHELLE N. AMPONSAH AND EMMA H. HAIDAR CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

W

hen Donaldson “Don” Hill ’79 began thinking about applying to college as a senior in high school, submitting an application to Harvard was not on his radar.

“If you’re not from a culture where Harvard seems accessible and desirable, you don’t think about that,” said Hill, who grew up in Alabama and Georgia.

But then, a Harvard admissions officer gave a presentation at his high school, and he and several students decided to apply on a whim. He and one other classmate were accepted.

“They did a good job of saying not just, ‘Harvard is a great place,’ but, ‘You should think about it.

You should try it. Harvard is for everyone,’” Hill said.

The presentation was part of a set of admissions practices enacted by the College in the 1970s to increase diversity on campus.

These policies represented the Harvard administration’s largest formal effort to push for an increase in racial, geographical, and socioeconomic diversity on campus, though students and activists had advocated for change for years prior.

In 1978, the Supreme Court declared that affirmative action was constitutional in the landmark case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke.

In an opinion, Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. cited Harvard’s holistic admission practices — which he dubbed the “Harvard Plan” — as a model for admissions policies in higher education across the country.

But now, the College’s admissions practices are facing scrutiny in a high-profile lawsuit brought by anti-affirmative ac-

will rule against Harvard and the constitutionality of affirmative action.

With affirmative action and the Harvard Plan in jeopardy, alumni, legal scholars, and administrators reflected on the push for campus diversity and how it changed the College’s student body.

‘If We Could Shift Things at Harvard’ The College accepted its first Black student — Beverly Garnett Williams — in 1847, but he died before matriculation. It wasn’t until 1870 that Harvard saw its first Black graduate: Richard T. Greener.

When James W. Wiley III ’65 first arrived on campus nearly a century later, he was one of roughly a dozen Black students in his class, he said.

While Wiley did not recall experiencing overt racism from others students — like “a riot or a street confrontation” — subtle reminders of the College’s exclusivity were far-reaching.

“As I walked down the street to my residence at Dunster House, I would pass by the private clubs along the street,” Wiley said. “I knew what they were, and I knew I couldn’t get in them — wouldn’t even try.”

In 1962, Wiley helped found the Association of African and Afro-American Students, a group that would later staunchly advocate for increased racial diversity at Harvard.

During his time at Harvard, Wiley said he noticed an increasing number of Black students on campus and “student life was definitely changing.”

“I don’t know if that was conscious affirmative action policy, or whether it was what Harvard claimed it was, which was trying to get the best and the brightest to diversify its classes and give them strength,” he said.

When Leslie F. “Skip” Griffin Jr. ’70 arrived at the College in 1966, he was no stranger to civil rights organizing.

“

I think we had an awareness that if we could shift things at Harvard and if Harvard would have a significant response, that it would have an impact nationally.

Leslie F. “Skip” Griffin Jr. ’70 Former President of the Association of African and AfroAmerican Students

tion group Students for Fair Admissions, which alleges that the College discriminates against Asian American applicants by considering race.

A decision is expected in the coming months, with most legal scholars anticipating the Court

As a child, Griffin was the plaintiff in Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County — one of the school desegregation cases consolidated into the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling.

Griffin became president of

AAAAS in 1968 and maintained the position until he graduated from the College.

Six days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, AAAAS published a set of four demands for the College’s administration in The Crimson. The demands included the establishment of “an endowed chair for a Black professor” and “admitting a number of Black students proportionate to our percentage of the population as a whole.”

“Fact of the matter is, I think we had an awareness that if we could shift things at Harvard and if Harvard would have a significant response, that it would have an impact nationally,” Griffin said.

‘A Collaborative Effort’ Jennifer D. Carey ’78 — who also worked as a senior admissions officer at the College — said she believes after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Harvard realized the nation was “in crisis.”

“In order to have a long-term impact as a leading institution, they needed to do more in terms of the recruitment of Black students,” she said.

A year later, Walter J. Leonard, the assistant dean and assistant director of admissions of Harvard Law School in 1969, and Derek C. Bok, the dean of HLS and later University president, began working together to push for affirmative action policies. Together, they enacted race-conscious, holistic admissions at the Law School and later at the College.

Leonard was crucial to helping Black students “understand that we not only very much wanted to have them, but that there was enough financial aid so that they would not find it too expensive to enroll,” Bok said in an interview with The Crimson last October.

When Bok became University president in 1971, he appointed Leonard as his special assistant.

Bok said there were “a lot of problems” in implementing affirmative action policies at the College compared to the Law School, where he and Leonard were “a little bit more successful” in creating holistic admissions practices.

“So fortunately, Walter came with me and we started all over again to try to understand those problems better and see what we could do to do something about them,” Bok said.

Leonard’s University-wide affirmative action policy allowed race to be considered as one factor in the admissions process, along with factors like geographical diversity and gender.

The initiative also included the Undergraduate Minority Recruitment Program, in which the admissions office enlisted student recruiters by sending them to high schools across the country to make the pitch for Harvard.

John A. “Tony” Butler ’80 recalled a visit from a Harvard stu-

dent through the program during his senior year at Brooklyn Technical High School, which inspired him to become a recruiter himself as a sophomore at the College.

Butler described recruiting diverse students as “a collaborative effort” between the students and the admissions office.

“The admissions office provided office space and support and resources for us to decide ‘Okay, well, what cities do we want to visit?’” Butler said.

Still, in the early years of Leonard’s plan, the College struggled to increase the number of minority students. While roughly 100 Black students were admitted to the College each year between 1969 and 1971, these figures began to drop in 1972 and 1973, according to a 1974 Crimson article.

Carey, who worked in the admissions and financial aid office from 1982 to 1992, said she saw the eventual effects of Harvard’s push for diversity during her decade in the office.

“We saw the numbers of kids apply and go up dramatically during that time. And the range of schools that we were seeing candidates from increased dramatically,” she said.

‘Do or Die’ Bok said he did not recall much backlash on campus to the College’s race-conscious admissions policies during his presidency.

“I didn’t detect any internal opposition, either from Blacks or certainly from within the faculty,” he said. “In my experience, we had to battle the outside world, namely the Supreme Court.”

After applying twice to the University of California, Davis Medical School and facing rejection both times, Allan P. Bakke, a 35-year-old white applicant, alleged that he was being discriminated against on the basis of race.

At the time of the suit, UC Davis had a racial quota system in place that reserved 16 out of 100 spots in its incoming class for “qualified” minorities.

Prior to instituting the quota system, the medical students of UC Davis were “almost entirely white and wealthy,” said Jonathan Feingold, an associate professor of law at Boston University.

The Harvard administration carefully followed the Bakke case because it put the College’s diverse recruitment efforts at risk.

Ahead of the decision, Harvard filed an amicus brief in support of UC Davis.

Bok said he saw the legal fight to preserve affirmative action as a “do or die struggle.”

Butler drove up to Washington with a classmate to participate in a demonstration outside the Supreme Court during the hearing.

“We wanted to support the continuation of affirmative action. So there was concern and activism, encouraging students to pay attention and to try to be

engaged in the matter,” Butler said.

The Supreme Court ruled for Bakke in 1978. While some of the Court’s liberal justices supported affirmative action as a way to remedy past racial injustices, conservative justices argued the constitution should be race-blind. In crafting the judgment of the Court, Powell struck a compromise between the two sides — arguing that diversity of the student body was a “compelling interest.”

The Court cited Harvard’s admissions program as an “illuminating example” because it used race as one of several factors in the admissions process instead of setting quotas for minority students.

“A farm boy from Idaho can bring something to Harvard College that a Bostonian cannot offer. Similarly, a black student can usually bring something that a white person cannot offer,” Powell wrote in the Court’s opinion.

‘Not a One and Done’

of diversity that you can think about,” Carey added.

While Leonard created Harvard’s blueprint for affirmative action, Carey said minority recruitment is “not a one and done.”

“It’s something that you have to do each year as you recruit each class,” Carey said.

In the decades after Bakke, the Supreme Court has returned to the question of race-conscious admissions again and again: Grutter v. Bollinger in 2003, Fisher v. University of Texas in 2013, and Fisher again in 2016.

“In practice, very little changed,” Feldman said of each challenge to affirmative action.

Now, the Supreme Court appears poised to strike down race-conscious policies in admissions.

“People tend to use affirmative action as people who aren’t qualified getting in. And that’s not what it was at all,” said Deborah D. Desir ’76, a professor at the Yale School of Medicine. “It was people who were barred from getting in being allowed to come in.”

When asked about the ongo-

“

Harvard’s recruitment program did not just and does not just focus on kids of color. It focuses on lowincome white students, blue collar, non-college white students, every measure of diversity that you can think about.

Jennifer D. Carey ’78 Former Harvard College Senior Admissions Officer

Noah R. Feldman ’92, a professor at the Law School and a scholar of constitutional law, compared Harvard’s holistic admissions to “the Hogwarts sorting hat.”

“It’s supposed to be some idea that magically the admissions officers know exactly who you are,” Feldman said. “Each applicant is a special snowflake, is uniquely evaluated, and then somehow magically evaluated in contrast and comparison to the other applicants, but without any objectively quantifiable measure.”

Carey pushed back on the viewpoint that admissions officers ever consider applicants solely on the basis of race.

“What is actually being considered is a student’s background, student’s life experience, and what they will be able to contribute to the richness of experience at Harvard,” Carey said.

Harvard’s recruiting efforts go beyond racial diversity, extending to other groups including low-income and first-generation students, Carey added.

“Harvard’s recruitment program did not just and does not just focus on kids of color. It focuses on low-income white students, blue collar, non-college white students, every measure

ing Supreme Court case against Harvard, Butler expanded on a quote by Martin Luther King Jr. “The arc of history is long but bends toward justice,” Butler said. “But it doesn’t bend by itself.”

Other College alumni remain optimistic for the future, regardless of the Court’s decision.

“I think that whatever the Court does, there is a kinship that has started to develop among African and Afro-American students that has changed the language by which we refer to each other and by which we talk about ourselves,” Wiley said.

Myles V. Lynk III ’70 said when he returned for his 50th alumni reunion, he still felt “a little like an outsider,” though he “enjoyed being back.”

“I’m glad to the extent that there’s a greater critical mass of students of all races and cultures that are here today who can feel comfortable, both within the greater mosaic of the campus, but also within their group on the campus,” Lynk added.

Staff writers Rahem D. Hamid and Nia L. Orakwue contributed reporting to this story. michelle.amponsah@thecrimson.com emma.haidar@thecrimson.com

NEWS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON APRIL 14, 2023

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ON CAMPUS

Student Lament Scooter Restrictions KICKED TO THE CURB. Many students express frustration as Harvard College doubles down on scooter, bike restrictions.

BY PATON D. ROBERTS AND HANA ROSTAMI CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

­A

s Harvard College doubles down on its restrictions for the usage of bicycles, scooters, and other micromobility devices, some undergraduates are frustrated with security and convenience challenges brought on by the policy.

The College’s 2022-23 student handbook prohibits students from riding micromobility devices — lightweight personal transportation vehicles like bicycles, roller blades, skateboards, and scooters — “in Harvard Yard, in Harvard-owned or operated buildings, or on sidewalks or other walkways.”

While the policy has been in place since the beginning of the academic year, the College has recently upped its communication and enforcement of the restrictions. A Feb. 16 weekly update email from the College reminded students to park their scooters in “an appropriate location,” and the school has also posted related flyers on the doors of classroom buildings

this month.

While the policy has been in place since the beginning of the academic year, the College has recently upped its communication and enforcement of the restrictions. A Feb. 16 weekly update email from the College reminded students to park their scooters in “an appropriate location,” and the school has also posted related flyers on the doors of classroom buildings this month.

“Parked micromobility devices must not obstruct accessible pathways, building entrances/exits, driveways, fire safety equipment, or emergency egress paths,” it reads.

The policy defers to specific departments and building managers for questions of “scooter parking, charging, or overnight storage.” Jack K. Silvers ’25, a Crimson Sports editor, said he finds the policy to be “unnecessary, harmful, and hypocritical.”

“I don’t think that scooters block entrances or exits,” he said.

“I think Harvard probably just got one complaint, or someone’s scooter got stolen from inside, and then they wanted to clean up the hallways or something.”

Max H. Schermer ’24, a Crimson Design editor, said using a scooter is very helpful since he has back-to-back classes in the Science and Engineering Complex — located in Allston — and Harvard Yard. Schermer said

that he did expect the College to enact restrictions on micromobility devices due to a perceived increase in the number of scooters but “not this soon.”

“I do think that they can be a little more accommodating or at least have warned us about this because people need time to get locks,” Schermer said.

Samantha C. Sestak ’25 said she had her scooter stolen outside of the SEC after she was forced her to leave it outside without a lock. Despite filing a police report for her stolen scooter, Sestak claimed the Harvard University Police Department told her she is unlikely to get it back.

“What the officer told me is that essentially I can count it as gone,” she said.

Before the policy was enforced, she said she had never experienced issues with storing her scooter indoors.

“I usually just try to make sure to store it not in front of entryways or places where people are walking,” she said. “As long as I’m respectful, I’ve never had any issues.”

According to public HUPD logs, seven bikes and scooters were reported as stolen between April 1 and April 12.

A spokesperson for the College said the school adapts to meet the needs of different facilities and has asked students to abide by signs posted about the

Some Harvard undergraduates expressed frustrations over newly enforced policies limiting the usage of micromobility devices. CLAIRE YUAN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

policies.

Riley E. Jenne ’25 — who uses a scooter to travel between football practice, classes, and Ma-

ther House — said he has not been forced to change his scooter use, “I still just bring mine inside. No one said anything to me about it. So

far I’ve been fine with it,” he said. paton.roberts@thecrimson.com hana.rostami@thecrimson.com

Behind the Broadcasting of Harvard Varsity Sports Games

BY PATON D. ROBERTS AND SOPHIA C. SCOTT CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Today, nearly every Harvard varsity sports home game is televised and streamed on screens around the world — but it wasn’t always this way.

Just 11 years ago, Harvard produced broadcasts for only 12 of its sports teams. Harvard Athletics now broadcasts the home contests of 40 of the school’s 42 varsity teams through networks including ESPN+ and the New England Sports Network. The only exceptions are the golf teams.

Associate Director of Athletics Imry Halevi, who is responsible for content and strategic communications, has pushed for increases in broadcasting since his arrival in November 2012.

“When I came — again, there was nothing here,” Halevi said.

“Our facilities, some of them are newer, some are older, cabling was older and there really wasn’t an infrastructure and so that was a big challenge.”

In April 2018, the Ivy League and ESPN signed a 10-year deal to broadcast 1,100 events annually through ESPN+, an online streaming service, and at least 24 games per year on ESPN’s cable networks.

“ESPN has a linear network

Harvard Stadium’s broadcasting boxes. SOPHIA C. SCOTT— CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

and they have certain chunks of time that are available,” Halevi said. “And so they work with the Ivy League and make those decisions also with an eye towards gender equity and sports equity to make sure that we have all our teams — or as many teams as possible — getting that opportunity.”

A separate deal with NESN allows Harvard to broadcast up to 14 games per year.

“We tried to — and succeeded in — spreading out all these games throughout all our seasons and with as much equity as possible between the different sports,” Halevi said.

Halevi said he has had a number of conversations with coaches to understand the “intricacies” of each sport and their unique broadcasting challenges, citing the example of the sailing team.

“The coach sat here and explained it to me multiple times to make sure that I understood so that we can give the camera operators and the drone operators and the commentators the guidance they need to do the coverage well,” Halevi said.

Student athletes welcomed the broadcasting of their home competitions with gratitude.

Katie J. Krupa ’26, a forward for the women’s varsity basketball team, said broadcasts of her games have enabled family from back home and internationally to

tune in to support her.

“I have family not just from around the country, but also around the world, and the fact that they get to stream my games is just very, very exciting to them,” Krupa said.

Ludovico A. “Ludo” Rollo ’25, a member of the men’s soccer team, said there was “no way to overstate” his gratitude for the broadcasts.

Rollo said the broadcasts are a benefit for international students.

“Thanks to a game being streamed through ESPN and the New England Sports Network, they have the ability to at least watch their kid play over the weekend and still share those same emotions that they had growing up, even though they’re a whole ocean away,” he said.

Halevi said broadcasting is “not just pointing a camera,” adding that Harvard Athletics is pursuing an initiative to highlight students’ non-athletic achievements during live commentary.

“We try to encourage our commentators to share that information as well on the air to make sure that people who watch us know, ‘Hey, these are not just amazing athletes, but they’re also amazing students,’” he added. paton.roberts@thecrimson.com sophia.scott@thecrimson.com

EVACUATION FROM PAGE 1

Science Center Plaza Evacuated for Suspicious Package tape, with officers instructing students to leave the area. Students were also evacuated from the first floor of the Science Center and its Cabot Science Library.

An advisory through the University’s alert system sent at 4:47 p.m. instructed students to avoid the plaza.

“HUPD and CPD officers are at the Science Center Plaza on the report of a suspicious bag. Please avoid the area. Officers are evaluating the situation,” the alert read.

A loud noise was heard in the area at 5:34 p.m., though Catalano wrote in an email that the noise “was not an explosion,” and that it was instead produced by a water cannon. A follow-up alert indicated that loud noises in the area were due to equipment being used to assess the package.

“The assessment into the bag is still ongoing. It includes using equipment that will generate

loud noises. Please continue to avoid the Science Center Plaza,” the alert read. “More information to follow.”

A photo taken by The Crimson appeared to show fireworks in the vicinity of the bag.

FBI spokesperson Kristen M. Setera said in a Thursday phone call that the FBI is unable to provide comment at this time.

Dean of Harvard College Rakesh Khurana and Interim Dean of Students Lauren E. Brandt ’01, both present at the scene, declined to comment on the situation.

“You should refer to the information that HUPD has been communicating via MessageMe for questions about the ongoing situation,” College spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo wrote in an emailed statement. “We are communicating with students and Houses about allowing interhouse dining in order to account

for access to dinner for this evening.”

The potential threat disrupted several classes held in the Science Center, postponing a midterm exam for Math MB: “Introduction to Functions and Calculus II.” Freshmen, who typically eat at the adjacent Annenberg Hall, were instructed to eat at upperclassman houses instead.

Sidechat, an anonymous social media platform for students to post text and photos to other undergraduates, sees widespread use on Harvard’s campus.

Students falsely reported on Sidechat that the bag had exploded, including a post that appeared to show a bag detonating — but in fact depicted the use of a water cannon on the bag.

Lucy H. Vuong ’26 and Jackson T. Moody ’26, who were both in the Science Center at the time of the incident, said they monitored Sidechat for news of the sit-

uation.

“We had some vague sense of what was going on just through people updating on Sidechat — as much as you can trust rumors,” Vuong said, adding that she felt “worried and confused.”

“We kind of knew that we weren’t going to get anything official from the University until a while later,” Vuong added. “They sent out the MessageMe about them using things that might cause large noises after their purposeful detonation occurred.”

Vuong, who was on the fifth floor of the Science Center, said her class Math 99R: “Decision Theory” stalled for 10 to 15 minutes as “we tried to figure out what that detonation noise was.”

During that time, Vuong said she and other students went down to a fourth floor balcony to observe.

Vuong said the possible threat factored into her decision not to eat at Annenberg Thursday eve-

ning.

“We were trying to build a robot — just building, building, building — and then we all got the text on our phones from HUPD,” said Moody, who was in the midst of his Physical Sciences 70: “Introduction to Digital Fabrication” lab on the first floor. “We were kind of freaking out because it said stay clear of that area, and we were in that area.”

Moody said his class was evacuated after a student came down the hall and told them they were supposed to evacuate and leave the building.

“I saw on Sidechat that the bomb blew up. Apparently that’s not true, or maybe it is true — I don’t even know,” Moody said.

“There was a lot of uncertainty around what was happening, which obviously, leads to anxiety.”

Emily Parke ’24 said in an interview that her Thursday eve-

ning lab section for Life Sciences 1B: “An Integrated Introduction to the Life Sciences: Genetics, Genomics, and Evolution” was canceled.

“It’s not a huge disruption because the stuff that we’re doing in lab, I guess it can just be done on our own, but it is a two hour, 45 minute lab,” she said.

Parke said she felt there was a lack of information available to students between the alerts sent out by campus police to the student body.

“I got all my information about what happened from Sidechat, which is — I don’t know — maybe not the most reputable source,” Parke said.

Staff writers Rahem D. Hamid, Miles J. Herszenhorn, John N. Peña, and Neil H. Shah contributed reporting. ryan.doannguyen@thecrimson.com yusuf.mian@thecrimson.com

8

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

NEWS

APRIL 14, 2023

ADAMS HOUSE

House Renewal Over Budget and Delayed CONSTRUCTION. Harvard House Renewal delayed after pandemic.

BY JACKSON C. SENNOTT CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

A

s the renovation of Adams House, one of Harvard’s undergraduate residential houses, enters its third phase this June, the University anticipates an unprecedented 12 to 14 percent rise in costs — nearly 10 percentage points higher than the traditional 4 percent benchmark.

The spike in costs reflects a perfect storm for construction budgets: historic inflation in Boston-area construction, rising interest rates nationally, and a pandemic-induced five-month pause on construction in 2020.

Adams is the latest focus of Harvard’s House Renewal proj-

ect, a renovation of all 12 undergraduate residential houses that represents “one of the largest and most ambitious capital improvement campaigns in Harvard College history,” according to the Harvard Gazette, a University-run publication.

Originally planned in 2008 under the cloud of the financial crisis, the more than $1 billion proposal projected 15-month timelines for each house, with plans to break ground in fall 2011 and conclude construction 12 years later.

Yet 12 years later in 2023, the project is only halfway through and has likely already incurred more than $800 million in costs, according to now-deleted figures posted on LinkedIn by House Renewal Senior Project Manager Michael J. Leyne.

Leyne’s profile previously described the renewal project as a “$1.6B program,” estimating the

cost of the ongoing renovations to Adams as $300 million, and gave figures totaling more than $600 million for the full renovations of Lowell, Winthrop, and Dunster houses, combined.

Leyne did not respond to a request for comment on the figures. A University spokesperson denied the accuracy of the figures but declined to provide alternative figures.

Explaining shifts to the budget projections, Executive Director of the Undergraduate House Renewal Program Stephen Needham said in an interview that the College has approached House Renewal on a “project-by-project” basis.

“Each project is looked at totally individually,” Needham said, adding that each renovation proposal “has to undergo a pretty stringent affordability and financing analysis” before being

approved by the Harvard Corporation, the University’s highest governing body.

To accommodate rising prices, Needham said, each individual budget proposal contains an estimate of “escalation,” or projected inflation per year. Based on historical rates since 1940, Harvard has on average used a 4 percent inflation benchmark — a target that the first five houses met or fell below, Needham said.

“Until Adams, we hadn’t exceeded any of them. Some of them we gave money back,” he said. For Lowell, the project immediately preceding Adams, the team “hit it right on,” Needham added.

Midway through construction on Adams’ Apthorp and Claverly halls, however, the Covid-19 pandemic threw the Adams House Renewal into disarray.

“The fact that Claverly was all bought, we were impacted mostly

by the delay and the slower progress,” Needham said.

That impact on Claverly — a five-month halt to construction and social distancing limits on the number of workers on site — pushed the project 3 percent over budget.

For the next phase of construction — Adams’ Randolph Hall — the budget authorization was approved in the midst of the pandemic. The project’s escalation target increased from 6 percent to 10 percent, but so far, has missed its forecast by at least 4 percent due to increasing costs of materials, accessibility, and asbestos removal.

After these two over-budget projects, the 12 to 14 percent escalation target for Westmorly Hall reflects an expectation that the economy will see a “leveling out of inflation,” Needham said.

Needham said he remains

hopeful that the full renewal project will stay within the original projection of $1 billion to $1.6 billion, but “on the higher end.”

Needham noted that similar projects at other universities have struggled with their original timetables, referencing delays to Yale’s residential college renovations project, which began in 1998 and concluded in 2011.

As the interview came to a close, Needham quoted from a speech by the late historian David McCullough at a dedication of the John Adams Courthouse in Boston.

“You can judge people by how they spend their money,” Needham recalled McCullough saying.

“And this is money well spent by good people.”

Needham paused, chuckling.

“And I believe that sometimes.” jackson.sennott@thecrimson.com

Provost Promises ‘Generous’ Wages Amid HUCTW Negotiations

BY MILES J. HERSZENHORN AND CLAIRE YUAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

As the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers remains locked in yearlong contract negotiations with the University, Harvard Provost Alan M. Garber ’76 said the University is committed to providing its workers “appropriately generous” compensation.

HUCTW has been bargaining for a new contract with the University since April 2022, marking its longest period of negotiations in a decade. The union’s previous contract with Harvard expired on Sept. 30, 2022, but both sides agreed to extend the current agreement until a new one could be negotiated.

During a Thursday interview, Garber acknowledged that negotiations had “been going on for a long time” but reiterated his belief that “both sides are bargaining in good faith.”

“Members of the HUCTW are indeed some of the most important members of our community,” he added.

Wages remain one of the most pressing issues for HUCTW members, who have demanded wage increases to keep pace with rising inflation.

HUCTW President Carrie E. Barbash said in an interview Monday that though the union and Harvard are in the process of negotiating, members feel that the University needs to place greater emphasis on “how much

its staff — our members — are struggling.”

“Our members haven’t, I think, had a raise in a year and a half and have really been struggling with the cost of living,” Barbash said.

“We feel like the University needs to give more weight to that and is not addressing that concern in their offers.”

Garber said on Thursday that the University is dedicated to ensuring that HUCTW members “have compensation that is appropriately generous and that they will have the ability to have fulfilling work lives at Harvard.”

Harvard has seen a spike in labor activity across campus in recent months, including the formation of two new unionization campaigns: the Harvard Undergraduate Workers Union and Harvard Academic Workers-United Automobile Workers.

HUWU has since affiliated with Harvard’s graduate students union and launched a card campaign, which organizers say has achieved the threshold necessary to proceed to a formal union election through the National Labor Relations Board. HAW-UAW also launched a public card campaign and held its first rallies in February.

Still, Garber declined to comment on whether the University will voluntarily recognize HUWU and HAW-UAW, calling an announcement “premature.”

“If a union is voted in and therefore we will face collective bargaining negotiations with the union, we will act in good faith,” he added. “We will bargain in

good faith as we do with all of our existing unions.”

The University, however, informed HUWU on Friday — one day after Garber’s interview — that it would not voluntarily recognize it. In an email obtained by The Crimson, Harvard Director of Labor and Employee Relations Paul R. Curran wrote that the University would only recognize HUWU through a “full and fair election” overseen by the NLRB. “While we understand your union seeks recognition without a vote, the University is steadfast in its position that every eligible student be given the opportunity to make their voices heard on this important matter,” Curran wrote.

Mental Health Initiatives During the Thursday interview, Garber said the University has been “working hard” to implement the eight recommendations laid out in the 2020 Mental Health Taskforce Report, which has included rolling out expanded telehealth services during the current academic year.

Harvard Counseling and Mental Health Service announced last fall that it established a partnership with TimelyCare, a virtual mental health service that provides students with 12 free counseling sessions each academic year.

“A very large number of students have used TimelyCare and the satisfaction ratings have been very, very high,” he said.

Garber said the University is dedicated to improving mental

Harvard Provost Alan M. Garber ‘76 said in an interview Thursday the University is committed to compensating its workers appropriately. AMY Y. LI—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

health care for all students.

“The problems of students in crisis are ideally addressed before they’re in crisis, in addition to providing them with care when they are in crisis,” Garber said.

Still, Garber said that “nobody

has the perfect solution to these problems” and stressed that improving mental health across campus is a “community effort.”

“I am not saying that we should be satisfied with where we are. We continue to look for ways to improve,” he said. “The

important message is it remains critical for students, faculty, and staff who face students, family members, friends to really keep an eye out for each other.” miles.herszenhorn@thecrimson.com claire.yuan@thecrimson.com

Petition Seeks to Designate Election Day as a University Holiday

BY THOMAS J. METE CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

A student petition calling on Harvard administrators to designate federal Election Day a University-wide holiday has garnered more than 380 signatures as of Wednesday night.

The petition, spearheaded by the Institute of Politics’ Harvard Votes Challenge and endorsed by 15 student organizations, urges Harvard leadership to create a “University-wide academic holiday and day of civic action” called “Democracy Day.” Its first installment would be November 5, 2024 — the next federal election date.

The petition marks students’ second endeavor to address what they describe as “civic disengagement” at Harvard. In 2021, a similar petition to launch Democracy Day at Harvard obtained roughly 2,000 signatures.

Harvard Votes Challenge petition leader Jonah B. Simon ’26 said he believes there is a heightened sense of urgency around civic engagement, despite the 2023 petition receiving far fewer signatures than the 2021 effort as of Wednesday evening.

“There have been several states across the country that

have either introduced legislation for abridging voting rights and making it more challenging for people to vote, that’s things like voter ID laws and restricting early voting,” Simon said.

“We think that the stakes are a lot higher now, and so it feels much more urgent to me to make this happen now,” he added.

Students initiated the position in response to a statistic that found 29.4 percent of all eligible Harvard students did not cast ballots during the 2020 presidential election, in comparison to 31.6 percent of eligible Boston voters.

On average, in colleges across the nation, around 34 percent of eligible students did not vote in the election, according to a Tufts study.

Simon said he believes Harvard is “behind in the Ivy League” in designating Election Day as a holiday.

Currently, Columbia, Brown and Stanford have designated Election Day a holiday. Yale and Princeton students have launched petitions for the day off, though they failed to gain traction with their respective administrations.

If the initiative is adopted by Harvard, Democracy Day would include programming such as

youth athletic clinics where parents can drop off children while voting and a student-run hotline to answer election questions.

“No other university has proposed anything on the scope of what we’re pushing for, which is, first of all, University-wide. Second of all, applies not just to students but to staff in some capacity,” Simon said.

A Democracy Day concept paper prepared by Simon and presented alongside the petition criticized Harvard as “failing to live up to its reputation as a global leader in civic education and thought.”

“Harvard is failing to offer students the necessary resources and motivation to become civically active, and is thus falling short of its stated mission,” the paper reads.

Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton declined to comment on the campaign and referred The Crimson to a September 2022 statement by University President Lawrence S. Bacow encouraging civic action.

“If you are eligible to vote, I encourage you to visit the nonpartisan Harvard Votes Challenge website,” Bacow wrote in September.

Though IOP staff supports students in their efforts to in-

Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Gund Hall served as a polling place for Cambridge voters on Election Day in 2022. JULIAN J. GIORDANO —CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

crease civic engagement on campus, the IOP does not endorse specific campaigns.

Currently the Democracy Day petition has 340 signatures from students at the College and fewer than 30 signatures from stu-

dents at Harvard’s other schools.

Simon said petition organizers are open to changes that apply only to the College, as opposed to the originally proposed University-wide changes.

“Right now we are pushing

for a University-wide day of civic action, but whatever we can do to expand our impact, whatever we can do counts and matters,” he added. thomas.mete@thecrimson.com

EDITORIAL

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

APRIL 14, 2023

STAFF EDITORIAL

DISSENT

Swatting and the Systemic Effects of Policing on Campus

This Was an Appropriate Police Response

WE HOPE HARVARD will pursue justice to the fullest extent of the law — and its internal procedures, should the perpetrator be an affiliate — to deter similar appalling events.

BY THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD

­J

ust last week, at least five armed Harvard University Police Department officers raided a suite of four Black seniors in Leverett House in response to a false 911 call.

While we are glad that there was no actual threat and no physical harm to the students, we must acknowledge that the students were hardly left emotionally unscathed.

To be woken up at 4 a.m. in the morning to the banging knocks and bellows to “open up” of police officers dressed in full riot gear, who then order you out of your suite at gunpoint, is not only unnerving but also deeply traumatic. We can only imagine how, considering the pronounced historical record of fatal outcomes between police officers and Black people, the stakes of the encounter were heightened for the four students involved.

We therefore condemn, in the strongest terms possible, the individual who made the call, as well as swatting at large. We hope Harvard will pursue justice to the fullest extent of the law — and its internal procedures, should the perpetrator be an affiliate — to deter similar appalling events.

In this attack, we see again how a militarized campus police presence can be weaponized to terrorize Black students. This incident therefore warrants, yet again, a discussion of the failure of policing on campus.

As we have opined before, HUPD is just like a city police force — but a worse one that Harvard pays for. Accordingly, it is not immune to the issues that plague militarized police units.

One on-campus activist group estimated in 2020 that our University spends $20 million annually on HUPD, which by and large deals with cases of property theft and suspiciously defined “suspicious activity.” Such an institution does not end crime or poverty, but pushes us to imagine a more equitable, peaceful solution to these issues.

The weaponization of policing against Black students is only possible because policing is spe-

cifically a construct of anti-Blackness. In the history of the United States, police patrols were first created to respond to early Black resistance in the form of slave uprisings. These tactics went on to inform how policing is used broadly against communities of color today.

None of this understanding of policing’s institutional history appeared in the University’s response to the attack. The administrative response failed to acknowledge that the students were Black, a fact that significantly contextualizes the weight held by this event. The woefully underwhelming email makes only passing references to affected communities, whom it directs towards a generic list of mental health and wellbeing resources.

We are further dismayed that it took over 48 hours for administrators to string together this response to publicly acknowledge and condemn the swatting attack for the first time — longer than it took The Crimson to report on it. When it comes to what’s happening on our campus, we deserve transparency from the people who run it. As our community continues to grapple with the effects of this event, we need to understand what actions are being undertaken in the investigation, and why.

Harvard must take proactive steps to prevent swatting in general, especially given the recent increase in these violent attacks. But the University should also consider the resulting harms as they relate to historically marginalized populations on this campus — a line of inquiry that should move the University to stop perpetuating a policing system weaponized against Black students.

Until then, we extend our support and voices to the four students most affected by this deeply tragic, unfathomable event. As The Crimson’s Editorial Board, our range is often limited to words on newsprint — but we hope that, in the aftermath of this incident, those impacted can also feel the collective concern and aching hearts that penned these words.

–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.

BY KANISHKA J. REDDY AND IVOR K. ZIMMERMAN

­I

n the early morning just last Monday, four students in Leverett House became the victims of swatting — the act of making an illegitimate emergency call designed to harass a target by provoking an armed police response. What resulted was a shocking and terrifying moment for all students on campus, and we recognize the profound trauma of those directly affected.

We join the Editorial Board in offering support to the four Black students that were woken up at gunpoint by Harvard University Police Department officers. We also agree with the Board’s call for a thorough and transparent investigation. And we similarly find the College’s lackluster support disappointing, and hope that they will overall address the situation more directly and openly.

However, the Editorial Board’s renewed criticism of HUPD and militarized policing is, in this case, misguided and detrimental to student safety.

We are concerned with the Board’s refusal to acknowledge the importance of a campus police presence, and its failure to imagine a scenario in which the threat that triggered the swatting was real. According to the update by HUPD Chief Victor A. Clay, the caller warned HUPD that they were armed, claimed that they had unsuccessfully attempted to kill a hostage, and threatened to shoot any responding officers. While the threat turned out to be a hoax, it was certainly credible.

We are thankful HUPD took appropriate action.

“

In instances like these, it is necessary to have an appropriately armed and trained police force.

As the Board has previously argued, we are the generation of mass shootings. While disturbing, it is not hard to imagine a mass shooting event on our own campus. In instances like these, it is necessary to have an appropriately armed and trained police force.

Beyond their flawed logic about police abolition, the Board fails to recognize that the abolition of HUPD would not remove police presence on campus, but rather largely replace HUPD with the Cambridge Police Department. The

9

problems attributed by the Board to HUPD as a policing institution also exist within CPD and are in fact magnified by its relative unfamiliarity with Harvard’s community and campus. HUPD’s acute knowledge of College buildings and culture informed their response on April 3, in alerting officers to the caller’s familiarity with how Leverett rooms are colloquially referenced; this benefit, among others, would be lost were we to abolish Harvard’s police.

“

The Editorial Board’s renewed criticism of HUPD and militarized policing is, in this case, misguided and detrimental to student safety.

Furthermore, it appears that the University must have some level of recourse and oversight over its eponymous police force in HUPD. Although imperfect, this accountability would disappear if HUPD were abolished and CPD filled the policing void — making situations like the swatting at Leverett even less safe for all involved.

Ultimately, we reject the Board’s characterization of the swatting as a consequence of militarized policing. In fact, this incident demonstrates the need — especially at an institution like Harvard — for a police force that is familiar with the community and able to respond actively to threats of violence.

The caller bears full responsibility for the chain of events their call provoked. The trauma caused was the result of their actions alone. We hope that the caller will be punished appropriately, and that the affected students receive the support and acknowledgement they deserve from the University and the Harvard community. But faulting the existence of policing on cam-

–Kanishka J. Reddy ’24, a Crimson Editorial editor, is a Government concentrator in Adams House. Ivor K. Zimmerman ’23, a Crimson Editorial editor, is a Classics concentrator in Kirkland House.

Dissenting Opinions: Occasionally, The Crimson Editorial Board is divided about the opinion we express in a staff editorial. In these cases, dissenting board members have the opportunity to express their opposition to staff opinion.

Submit an Op-Ed Today!

The Crimson @thecrimson

OP-ED

What Happens to a Dream Interrupted?

BY LYNDON C. WARD AND CHRISTOPHER D. WRIGHT

­I

n Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem,” he famously meditates on the question: “What happens to a dream deferred?” Hughes implies that even when faced with systemic neglect, dreams attempt to “explode” forward. No obstacle of delay, regardless of magnitude, can stop one.

As long as we can dream, we will pursue them.

So then, it stands to reason: The only way to stop a dream is to interrupt it.

Around 4:15 a.m. on April 3, the dreams of four Black Harvard students were interrupted.

That morning, armed Harvard University Police Department officers raided an undergraduate suite in Leverett House in response to a false 911 call. After more than 48 hours of silence on the matter, Dean Rakesh Khurana sent an email around 10 p.m. on April 5 to the Harvard undergraduate body.

The email conveyed a sense of trepidation within the Harvard community, noting that any incident of this kind dispenses “implications, fears, and trauma” in a way that hits close to home for a lot of stu-

dents of color.

For Black students, those anxieties stem from a violent history of Black dreams being interrupted.

But despite this history, the word Black cannot be found once in the entire email.

Although it certainly existed earlier, this historical trauma can be traced back to the Ku Klux Klan.

The first iteration of the KKK was founded shortly after the end of the Civil War to terrorize minorities.

Then began their night rides. The White supremacist group would ride at night, in armed gangs, raiding Black home after Black home with the sole intention of instilling fear.

A message was clear: There was to be no sanctuary or retreat found in Black homes. Black families were left restless by the onslaught, staying on guard and depriving themselves of sleep for fear of violence. There was no time and no place to dream.

Fast forward to the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, pronounced to the whole world that he had a dream. His words helped to launch a renaissance, brimming with hope: His dream was partially realized in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

But this progress didn’t stop the cycle of interruption plaguing Black dreams. On April 4, 1968, King was assassinated.

At the same time, Black Power organizations like the Black Panther Party sought to create spaces for Black dreams to flourish through active resistance.

However, this movement was met with the same response. Around 4:30 a.m. on December 4, 1969, 14 armed Chicago police officers raided the home of Hampton and fired over 90 bullets at a sleeping 21-year-old Fred Hampton — murdering him.

This pattern doesn’t end in the 1960s. Just three years ago, on March 13, 2020, a little past midnight, at least seven police officers in Louisville, Kentucky used a battering ram to execute a no-knock raid at the apartment of Breonna Taylor. Her residence was breached. 32 rounds were fired. And in the comfort of her own home, Breonna Taylor was killed.

The swatting attack that took place this past Monday was not an isolated incident — it can be strung together with a lengthy history of disturbances to Black dreams. The waking terror of having our dreams interrupted has followed us to the present.

Always prevented from getting rest, overworked

Black bodies grow tired. Long-term patterns of fractured sleep caused by unease have been shown to lead to adverse physical and mental health effects.

The basic object of sleep has become restricted. The harm has been done.

Dreams are revolutionary. The imagination spurred from rest manifests into tangible inspiration. It would not be a stretch to say dreams shape America’s reality. In fact, the foundation of America is a dream. The American Dream contends that prosperity can be achieved through determination and hard work.

Yet, it is apparent that not everyone in America is allowed to dream.

Time and time again, Black dreams are left unsettled. Under sheets and blankets, security should be expected, but only worry is found. The worry intrudes the mind and forces us to ask: Is the safety of my own home the next facade to fall?

Let us sleep. We just want to dream.

–Lyndon C. Ward ’25 is an Applied Mathematics concentrator in Cabot House. Christopher D. Wright ’25, a Crimson Sports Comp Director, is a Government concentrator in Cabot House.

10

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

EDITORIAL

APRIL 14, 2023

STAFF EDITORIAL

COLUMN

To the Class of 2027: What the Numbers Don’t Tell You

RHYME AND REASON

TO THE CLASS OF 2O27: Congratulations, and welcome to your new community. You might just bring about a more vibrant, equitable world. ​​​​​

BY THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD

­T

o the Class of 2027: Welcome to Harvard College!

With every new class comes a beautiful mosaic of perspectives, dreams, and possibilities that illuminates the Harvard community. As the old cliché goes, it’s the people who make Harvard a truly transformative place — and we can’t wait to meet you, the newest additions to our colorful campus, at Visitas.

As you excitedly explore the different facets of the community that you may soon call home, one of the first things you will likely notice are the numbers: the percentage of the Class of 2027 admitted students hailing from each region of the country and around the world, the racial composition of the admitted class, and the proportion of students intending to pursue various fields of study.

While these demographic breakdowns from the Admissions Office paint a partial picture of our campus’s vibrant future, there is one glaring gap in the data that distorts our view of diversity at the College: the lack of descriptors related to socioeconomic class.

Why was this statistic — vital to understanding the composition of the Harvard undergraduate population — conspicuously omitted from the school’s press releases yet again?

The answer is obvious: For the College’s entire history, socioeconomic diversity at Harvard has been abjectly non-existent. Of course, given its genesis from pockets of wealth and political influence, it’s no surprise that Harvard was built to educate the elite. What is quite galling is that it still does.

According to a study by Harvard’s own Economics professor Raj Chetty, at the turn of the millennium, there were 23 times as many high-income students enrolled at Harvard as low-income students. Much more recent data from The Crimson’s first-year survey for the Class of 2025 indicates that 13.9 percent of the current sophomore cohort reportedly hails from households earning less than $40,000 — a bracket that, by contrast, accounts for 29 percent of the American population.

Why would the Admissions Office admit this reality, or even publish the statistics necessary to corroborate the numbers, when Harvard prides itself on being accessible to low income students?

The lack of socioeconomic diversity data is particularly insidious because many students can go through Harvard never noticing this homogeneity — never truly comprehending how their cohort of peers utterly fails to be representative of the rest of the country and the world.

Class is not always visible on the surface, making the lack of public statistics on socioeconomic demographics especially dangerous at an institution that touts its ability to cultivate future citizen-leaders.

Given the value of a diverse student body to provide more perspectives and lived experiences to campus discourse, admitting more low-income students must be a top priority for Harvard. Carefully weighing socioeconomic factors would also help correct for the persistent inequity that plagues Harvard’s admissions process, in which wealthy, privileged applicants routine-

Harvard’s Not Diverse.

That’s Perverse.

TRUE DIVERSITY. You can’t just stop at undergrads. That simply just won’t do. True diversity means you need diverse teachers, too.

BY MIREYA SÁNCHEZ-MAES

ly perform better on metrics weighed by college admissions officers.

It does not escape us that Harvard just released a triumphant announcement about financial aid expansion, wherein families making under $85,000 annually (up from $75,000) will not be required to contribute to their student’s education or living expenses at Harvard. This accomplishment is penny-sized given that it fails to get at the root of the problem — a systemic shortage of low-income admits.

Already, Harvard is a less expensive option than a public university for more than ninety percent of American families. The problem, then, is not with the amount of financial aid being offered at Harvard; it’s the dearth of students this aid is being spent upon.

Harvard’s socioeconomic diversity problem begins even before admissions decisions occur.

Most qualified low-income students don’t apply to selective colleges despite the fact that those who do enroll have very high graduation rates.

Given that research shows that targeted outreach to these high-achieving, low-income students is both cost-effective and impactful, Harvard should prioritize recruiting low-income students, increase outreach to non-elite high schools and community colleges, and expand high school summer programs for prospective low-income students.

Harvard should also publish data on the socioeconomic breakdown of admitted students in the same way it does for racial and geographic statistics. Without these statistics, students are hard-pressed to hold Harvard accountable for its commitment to fostering diversity of all kinds.

Harvard hides other demographic disparities, too, by its refusal to publish more granular details about its admitted students. Descendants of slavery in America, or Generational African Americans, are commonly perceived to be underrepresented on campus. Harvard should provide additional data on ethnic breakdowns within broader racial categories to highlight the disparities in representation that exist within groups. By refusing to collect or publicly share these more detailed statistics, Harvard is choosing to ignore inequalities within its blanket celebration of “diversity” and risk exacerbating such divides even further.

The Harvard Class of 2027 will probably go down in history: It may be the product of the last admissions cycle wherein Harvard employs race-conscious admissions in its current form.

After this summer, it will likely be harder — perhaps significantly harder — for American colleges and universities to enroll diverse student bodies. Yet we refuse to accept backsliding from where we are today in terms of our beautiful, technicolor-brilliant student body, and we can (and should!) continue to push Harvard for even more diversity across multiple forms.

So to the Class of 2027: Congratulations, and welcome to your new community. As you excel in your studies, forge ahead in new disciplines, and join the ranks of those educated at America’s oldest institution of higher education, never neglect to question the numbers that surround you.

With an attitude like that, you might just bring about a more vibrant, equitable world.

­S

–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.

up y’all, how’s it going?

I hope you’re doing well, ‘Cause I’m about to shed some light On Harvard’s personnel.

Think about your teachers.

Now think about your peers.

Notice how diversity, With age, just disappears?

Anyone who goes to class Quite easily can see The white homogeneity Of tenured faculty.

‘Course, if you just look around Then you’ll be sure to find A faculty of color with A truly bad-ass mind.

They’re a leading reference For scholars in their field And pave way for discoveries That once had been concealed.

They’ve won several awards And even wrote a book!

Their teaching virtuosity Leaves all their students shook.

Anyone who goes to class quite easily can see the white homogeneity of tenured faculty.

But tell me, what’s the likelihood This Harvard teacher’s got A tenure track position?

Or what’s more, a tenured spot?

Faculty of color make up Just a tiny fraction Of all the tenured teachers here That you can see in action.

If you do not yet know the stats I’ll state them here again: 56 percent of them are White Caucasian men!

The second largest group we have Is women who are white They make up 22 percent.

That’s quite the number, right?

This process has been criticized, And I think rightly so, For lacking the transparency Departments need to grow.

For without detailed feedback And some free communication, There are even less checks To prevent discrimination.

And though Dean Claudine Gay, Last year, did help to introduce A new plan to, in theory, Make this process less obtuse, If someone doesn’t get the tenure For which they apply, Those same ad hoc committees Still don’t have to tell them why.

This shields committee bias, Which, we all know exists And fuels a “lack of trust in” The whole process that persists.

But also, it’s just hella weird.

Why try and play it pious When we all know committees Are all plagued by people’s bias?

Harvard has a history Of letting people go Who pioneered their field In ways that really truly show.

I’m talking ‘bout García Peña And ‘bout Cornel West Who, behind closed doors, Were denied tenure and suppressed.

These scholars are exceptional, And lead here and abroad.

So Harvard’s bad decision Shows how much the system’s flawed.

You can’t just stop at undergrads. That simply just won’t do.

True diversity means You need diverse teachers, too.

That means only 22 percent of tenured folks Are faculty of color.

That’s so small – holy smokes!

But this leads to my second point That you all likely know: Harvard, as a school, Loves to put on quite a show.

And even that statistic, is itself, quite complex, for only five percent are Black and four, Latinx.

They flaunt on their brochures, “diverse campus community” And yet, somehow the tenure track Receives impunity.

Underrepresented, still, And to a worse extent, Are women folks of color Who make up seven percent.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, But it needs to be said, ‘Cause many Harvard higher ups Can’t get it through their head:

Surely, now it’s plain to see That something isn’t right: For people who have tenure, Overwhelmingly, are white.

If you run a school that has some students and some teachers, And you want diversity To be one of your features,

And yet, much of the discourse That surrounds diversity Centers around students In the university.

You can’t just stop at undergrads.

That simply just won’t do.

True diversity means You need diverse teachers, too.

But in that conversation, We’re too quick to forget, That tenured staff positions Are also hard to get.

We know the talent pool exists I see it every day.

So if you truly value it Then back up what you say.

And though for Harvard College, There exists some oversight To make sure student bodies Aren’t mostly male and white,

Harvard says, in summary, That tenure is reserved For “excellence” and “eminence” In people they’ve observed.

Those same policy pressures It seems do not extend To faculty appointments For this whiteness doesn’t end!

But I reject this notion.

For if this claim were true, Then excellence would mostly come From white and privileged few.

Now don’t misunderstand, I’ll be clear ‘bout what I’m saying, Many folks with tenure here Are very truly slaying.

The truth about the process Is it needs to be redone Cause people who deserve to Aren’t getting tenure, hon!

The problem, as it seems to me, Has two distinctive parts The first involves the bias That the process oft’ imparts.

COURTESY OF SHANIVI SRIKONDA

By which profs will be reviewed.

Tenure track promotions, For example, must include A full ad hoc committee

–Mireya Sánchez-Maes ’24 is a joint concentrator in English and Theater, Dance, and Media in Currier House. Her column “Rhyme and Reason” appears on alternate Mondays.

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

11

APRIL 14, 2023

CITY POLITICS

Residents Rally for City Green New Deal REDUCE EMISSIONS. Cambridge residents rally, supporting emission reduction policies for large commericial buildings.

BY ERIKA K. CHUNG AND EMILY L. DING CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

M

ore than 70 Cambridge residents and activists gathered in front of Cambridge City Hall Wednesday afternoon in support of Cambridge Green New Deal policies that would mandate emissions reductions from large commercial buildings.

The protesters — including student activists, environmentalists, local organizers, business owners, and Cambridge residents — rallied 30 minutes prior to a meeting of the Cambridge City Council’s Ordinance Committee, which was set to discuss proposed amendments to the Building Energy Use Disclosure Ordinance.

The proposed BEUDO amendments would require large commercial buildings to gradually reduce emissions until 2035, when buildings subject to the amendments would be required to reach net zero emissions. Owners of buildings that miss their emissions targets would be required to pay a compliance fee.

The protest was co-sponsored by nine local and university organizations, including the Harvard Climate Coalition and Harvard Undergraduate Clean Energy Group.

Natalia S. George, a member of Sunrise Cambridge and a soph-

omore at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, spoke at the rally and called for the city to take decisive action on climate change.

“I fight for a livable future not only so people in years to come will have a healthy planet to live on, but also so people living right now have a bright future to look forward to. I believe that empathy is a core value of climate justice,” George said.

George said in an interview after the rally that she was glad many young activists turned out to support the amendments.

“I think it’s really good that more young people are getting out there to spread their opinions about it because a lot of people we see in government are on the older side,” George said. “Rallies like this are really good at getting the opinions of people who might otherwise be silenced in government.”

Climate activist Elana Sulakshana urged those who attended the protest to join the committee meeting and give public comment “in support of strong and equitable amendments” to BEUDO. “You can talk about why a Green New Deal matters to you — why you’re afraid of climate change, why you’re calling for action, how your community’s impacted,” she said in her speech.

“We eed policy that mandates them to cut emissions by 2035 — not 2050 or beyond,” Sulakshana added. “And we can’t exempt some of the big buildings in this city because they’re ‘historical sites’ or ‘they’re not big enough,’ we need to be tackling all of the large commercial buildings across Cambridge. ”

Protesters gathered outside of Cambridge City Hall Wednesday to support Green New Deal policies. EMILY L. DING—CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Emily Mockler, a member of Sunrise Cambridge who helped organize Wednesday’s rally, said in an interview after the event that she wanted residents’ voices heard over “all the large corporations that are probably going to be speaking,” adding that she hopes the amendments will “inspire other towns across the country.”

“It’s been rare that a municipality has actually written concrete laws that will force buildings to go to net zero.” Mockler

said.

“I was super excited to see Quinton Zondervan and other council members writing something so important that would have such a huge impact,” she added.

Somerville resident Amber Houghstow, who was present at the rally, said she planned to attend the city council meeting to provide public comment about how the “carbon credit market is not working,” referencing the practice of purchasing carbon

offsets instead of reducing emissions.

“People have been buying carbon credits, but they’re not actually getting carbon back into the soil,” Houghstow said.

“That has really profound implications for some of the changes that have been made in the last round of edits to this, which basically implies it’ll make this draft as it is now pretty ineffective,” she said of the amendments.

Steven E. Miller, a member of climate justice group 350 Mas-

sachusetts, said he supports the policies because of the impact climate change will have on his grandchildren.

“I came here because I now have grandchildren and I realized very intimately that the world will not be there for them, right?” said Miller. “So I feel it’s my responsibility to help do what I can to keep that from happening.” erika.chung@thecrimson.com emily.ding@thecrimson.com

Protesters Decry Cambridge Police Killing of American Repertory Sayed Faisal in Weeklong Picket at City Hall Theater Arrives

BY RYAN H. DOAN-NGUYEN AND YUSUF S. MIAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

­ oston-area students and activB ists picketed Cambridge City Hall from Monday to Friday in protest of the fatal shooting of 20-yearold Sayed Faisal by a Cambridge Police Department officer, marking the latest demonstration in a monthslong campaign.

Faisal, a Bangladeshi American student at the University of Massachusetts Boston, was killed by police on Jan. 4. The shooting occurred after the Cambridge Police Department responded to a 911 call reporting that a man had jumped through a window and was harming himself, according to a CPD press release. After a foot chase through Cambridgeport, Faisal allegedly moved toward police wielding a knife, and when a sponge round failed to stop him, an officer fatally shot him.

Faisal’s killing by police sparked months of protest against alleged brutality in Cambridge’s police and has renewed

calls for alternative to policing, transparency, and police reform.

The weeklong picket included an iftar — a traditional meal when Muslims break their fast after sunset during Ramadan — on Monday, a mural session on Wednesday, an open mic event on Thursday, and several rallies.

Party for Socialism and Liberation organizer and MIT alumnus Husayn R. Karimi said in a Monday interview that it was important to hold an iftar because of Faisal’s family’s Muslim identity.

“Faisal’s family and many community members — many people in the Bangladeshi community — are Muslim, practice Islam, and observe Ramadan,” Karimi said. “Many of the organizers are Muslim too.”

Picket organizers held an iftar on Monday to honor the Muslim identity of Faisal’s family.

Karimi, who emceed the Monday protest, said the decision to picket City Hall drew inspiration from historic social movements.

“Pickets have a very important legacy in the labor movement and the civil rights movement as

a demonstration of being fed up,” Karimi said. “We wanted to picket to draw more attention to the issue and do it for a prolonged period of time to show our strength that we’re out here for the long haul.”

On Monday, protesters marched in an oval along the sidewalk facing City Hall, waving signs and shouting chants of “If we don’t get no justice, then they don’t get no peace!” and “Can’t stop, won’t stop! Jail those killer cops!” One demonstrator pounded on a drum to the rhythm of the chants as another played a cymbal and danced.

Protesters reiterated demands for City Manager Yi-An Huang ’05 and other officials to name, fire, and prosecute the officers involved in Faisal’s killing, as well as to release the full unredacted police report.

Huang has maintained that the names of the officers and the police report will be released following the completion of the Middlesex District Attorney’s investigation.

The “Justice for Faisal” move-

ment comprises students from more than seven Boston-area universities and members of Safe Schools Somerville, the Bangladeshi Association of New England, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, in addition to other residents and activists.

At the Monday rally, Party for Socialism and Liberation organizer and MIT senior Susanna Chen criticized Huang for his handling of a recent meeting between activists and city officials.

“During the meeting, it became immediately clear that the City Manager Huang did not see us as constituents he needed to answer to,” Chen told protesters.

“We didn’t anticipate the extent to which the City Manager chose to disrespect us and this movement.”

In an emailed statement to The Crimson, Huang wrote that he does not support firing and prosecuting any officers before the conclusion of the district attorney’s investigation. ryan.doannguyen@thecrimson.com yusuf.mian@thecrimson.com

Activists picketed outside Cambridge City Hall from Monday to Friday protesting Sayed Faisal’s death. RYAN H. DOAN-NGUYEN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

BY KATE DEVAL GONZALEZ CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Allston-Brighton residents said they are looking forward to the arrival of the award-winning American Repertory Theater at 175 North Harvard St., part of a new Harvard development that will also offer housing for affiliates.

The plans for the development were originally approved in 2013, with the intent to redevelop the site with a new basketball venue and a mixed-use institutional development focusing on student housing.

Since then, Lavietes Basketball Pavilion has undergone renovations to improve the existing location, which gave way to the amended plans, filed Nov. 30 of last year, proposing to relocate the A.R.T. to Allston instead. Harvard’s new proposal still requires BPDA approval before construction can get underway.

The updated proposal also mentions a residential building of approximately 276,000 square feet, containing a total of 264 units and 480 beds. The proposed development will also boast a gym, a resident lounge, study rooms, and a residential courtyard.

Barbara M. Parmenter, an Allston-Brighton resident and a current Harvard-Allston Task Force member, said she was excited for the development and the new housing it will bring.

“I feel like we need a lot more housing in our neighborhood and in our city and our state in general,” Parmenter said.

The project also proposes a relocation of a nearby Bluebikes station and a renovation of the bus stop located in front of the proposed development site near Barry’s Corner.

Another focal point of the project is the relocation of the A.R.T., which was first founded in 1980 and has been residing at the Loeb Drama Center — a building constructed in 1960 – on Brattle Street ever since.

The new location for the A.R.T. will consist of a building of approximately 68,000 square feet and will contain two performance theaters with a combined total of 1,000 seats. The new lo-

cation will also offer an outdoor performance yard, rehearsal spaces, and studio areas.

According to an announcement by the A.R.T. in 2019, “internationally renowned” architects from Haworth Tompkins are set to design their future Allston home, which will be the first building designed by this firm in the United States.

The proposed plan follows a $100 million gift to Harvard from hedge fund manager David E. Goel ’93 and Stacy L. Goel in 2019, for the purpose of a new “arts and research performance space in Allston”.

Parmenter said she believes this project will help contribute to the arts culture in the area.

“I think one of the things the task force made clear was this can be such a great contribution to really making Barry’s Corner a kind of go-to location for arts and culture,” she said, referring to the Harvard-Allston Task Force.

Tim McHale, Brighton resident and HATF member, said the arts are a “great engine to transform any neighborhood.”

McHale added he hopes the A.R.T. will be an “architectural masterpiece.”

“I think the building needs to show itself off,” McHale said.

Mary-Helen Black, an Allston resident, said the A.R.T. will serve as an “anchor” for the neighborhood.

“I think it’s going to be positive.

I think it’s going to help the local restaurants, the coffee shops that are around there,” Black said. “It’s going to create more of a destination, which is great.”

Harvard spokesperson Amy Kamosa said the relocation of the A.R.T. at 175 North Harvard Street will further enliven the Allston-Brighton neighborhood.

“175 North Harvard St. will be an innovative new home for the A.R.T, and its globally renowned theater, which will build on the established and flourishing arts culture in Allston,” Kamosa said.

“It will also create needed housing for Harvard students and affiliates, as well as a lively streetscape and publicly accessible open space, which will help add vibrancy to an already thriving neighborhood,” she added. kate.devalgonzalez@thecrimson.com

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

ARTS

12

APRIL 14 2023

CULTURE

MINA LE

YOUTUBE’S FASHION MAVEN

BY EVELYN J. CARR CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

I

n college, Mina Le wanted to be an “Anna Wintour-type person.” Today, though she may not be the Editor-in-Chief of “VOGUE,” she sits at the helm of a distinctly Millenial/Gen Z fashion empire of her own — and arguably boasts a superior signature look.

Dressed in opulent ensembles that she describes as a mix between regencycore, cottagecore, 1980s New Romantic, and the occasional “sleazy corporate wear,” Le dishes out an equally unique combination of fashion and pop culture commentary across her social media platforms that keep her “beautiful doves,” her affectionate moniker for her fanbase, well-fed.

Le launched her eponymous YouTube channel in 2020, and has since amassed over one million subscribers, signed with IMG Models, and started a podcast called “High Brow,” the title a playful nod to Le’s iconic pencil-thin eyebrows. She is modest about her explosive success, at-

tributing it to a combination of fortunate timing — her first videos were posted during the pandemic, when “people were kicked out of their jobs and were spending a lot of time home … watching things online” — and a lack of competition in her YouTube commentary niche at the time she began her channel, though she says that this genre has since expanded into “quite a category” on YouTube.

Le asserts that her first videos were inspired by the fashion history content she consumed to pass the time during the pandemic, not from any desire to become an influencer. “I didn’t do it with the intention of creating a career for myself,” Le said. “I loved watching that content, and I was like, ‘I need more.’ But there was no more, because I consumed all of it! So I had to make my own.”

Armed with her own considerable fashion knowledge and her New York Public Library membership — “Go Library!” Le said, laughing — Le decided to research and film a video about

the historical accuracy of Disney Princess dresses, an idea she credits to the Glamour YouTube channel. The video, which went viral, was Le’s breakout piece; almost overnight, her subscribers climbed from 600 to 60,000, to Le’s own surprise.

Le’s early days in the public eye were challenging. Trying to navigate the industry without the help of a management team made her feel like she “didn’t know what [she was] doing.” During this time, she relied on other fashion and commentary YouTubers — a community she describes as “very supportive and not competitive at all” — to make sense of sponsorships, strategies for platform growth, and the notoriously mysterious YouTube algorithm.

However, social media hasn’t always been a positive place for Le. She likened seeing discussions about herself on social media to “jumpscares” that only increase with her growing success.

“I’ve realized that there are spaces on the internet that I don’t want to be in,” Le said. “People have all the right to say whatever they want about me, but it’s in my control whether I expose myself to that.”

Le is cognizant of the amount

of time she spends online, and she believes that allowing herself to be “bored” and spend time away from social media has been beneficial for both her mental health and creative process.

Though Le’s videos primarily focus on fashion history and pop culture trends, she often integrates nuanced political and historical commentary into her analysis. At first, this combination seems unexpected, but Le confidently maintains that “fashion has always been political,” effortlessly connecting the sumptuary laws of the 15th and 16th century — which banned the lower classes from wearing certain items of clothing — to today’s fascination with “old money aesthetics” to illustrate her point.

How did Le amass such an encyclopedic knowledge of fashion history?

“JSTOR or Semantic Scholar,” she said. “I’ve worked with librarians in the past, who helped me to curate research guides.”

Le loves research: Her favorite video she’s ever made was one that focused on modernism in interior design trends, simply because it gave her the opportunity

COURTESY OF DEAN RODGERS

to branch out of her primary field and discover something new.

Similar to her research process, Le’s personal wardrobe is a meticulous labor of love. She carefully combs through New York vintage shows and websites like Depop, Vestier, and eBay to find new items. Sustainability and vintage pieces are a particular priority for Le, who likes to collect “items for every decade, from a historical standpoint,” even if they don’t align with her curated aesthetic. “If you ever get invited to a themed decade party, I’m your girl,” Le joked.

With her collection of clothing from the past, Mina Le welcomes uncertainty in her future. She recognizes that content creation, which sees platforms emerge and die out in the blink of an eye, is a particularly fickle and ever-changing field. “I have no idea where I’m going to be in ten years,” she said.

“I’ve thought about what person I want to be,” she added. “It’s good to be ambitious, but it’s also good to be flexible.”

Whatever the future brings, Le’s unique and well-researched repertoire of fashion history and cultural commentary will certainly remain engaging for years to come. evelyn.carr@thecrimson.com

‘Paragon’: Floor Jansen Sets Alight The Dark

BY LARISSA G. BARTH CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

“I won’t give up just yet / Gotta lose sometimes to gain,” sings Dutch singer-songwriter Floor Jansen on her debut album “Paragon,” released on March 24. Best known as the frontwoman of the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, Jansen began releasing solo tracks in 2020 during the darkest days of the pandemic.

Accordingly, a thematic thread of resilience and hope runs through the album. On “Paragon,” Jansen explores and creates her sound as a soloist, veering into the realm of pop without losing her metal and classical roots. Full of empowering, therapeutic songs that showcase her vocal versatility and unique sound, “Paragon” is an exciting debut that leaves fans with much to anticipate for future releases.

In an interview with FaceCulture, Jansen spoke about developing her sound as a soloist apart from the metal bands she has sung for. Still, many songs contain symphonic and metal instrumentation beneath their pop formula. The jazzy and mysterious “Me Without You” feels even more experimental than the rest of the songs, but all of them are genre blends in some way — a truly refreshing contribution to the current pop industry.

On “Paragon,” Jansen blends

vocal techniques as seamlessly as genres. As an operatically trained soprano with a range of almost four octaves who’s a master at belting and death growls, Jansen is already known for being an extremely versatile singer in the metal scene. Yet switching to pop singing proved to be far from effortless.

The main vocal challenge was to “make it sound open and strong without actually opening all the way” , she explained to [the media page] FaceCulture, because less is more in pop whereas more is often more in metal.

But as expected, Jansen has now also mastered this style of singing. “Fire,” her cinematic debut single, showcases this new side of her voice through a dramatic, yet refined build-up that allows her to open up vocally in the end.

Similarly, pop songs are more limited in other formal aspects: In contrast to Nightwish tracks, they aren’t usually 10 minutes long and also tend not to employ complex, classical-inspired harmonies. Again, “Fire” encapsulates her new approach to songwriting and genre: Although it doesn’t contain crazy harmonic changes, it ranges from a slow, ballad-like beginning over a choral interlude to powerful belting, and it is this variety that makes her songs interesting.

It also epitomizes one of the main themes of “Paragon” — resilience — by way of fire being a

“metaphor for coming back to life, back into our world outside of our little houses and sofas” after the pandemic, she stated in another interview with FaceCulture. The song starts with dejected lyrics: “Muted are the days, we lost our will / Frozen in a whirlwind that stands still / Time itself is silent, the silence… / Longing for some warmth back on our face / Find a way to get out of this maze / Scream away the silent, the silence.” As the song starts to soar vocally and instrumentally, Jansen “set[s] alight the dark” in the chorus to “burn the silence down / Let the fire out.”

“Storm” is another impeccable song that captures her formula of slow build-ups and style blends. In the song’s Genius annotations, she stated that “it became a guideline of [her] solo sound.” It begins as a wistful ballad with sparse instrumentation as she sings, “I won’t give up just yet / Gotta lose sometimes to gain / To the whole wide world I’ll say / Gonna make it to the end.” The chorus, especially in the end, gives her powerful voice room to open up, supported by dramatic symphonic instrumentals: “You’re gonna hear my voice roar / Like thunder.” Lyrically, the song explores themes of self-acceptance and dreaming big, of “finding power in saying ‘I am that storm’ with all its imperfections and chaos,” she said in the interview with FaceCulture.

COURTESY OF FLOOR JANSEN / ADA WARNER MUSIC GROUP

The album’s lyrics seem quite personal to Jansen, as many listeners have pointed out that they might, in addition to the pandemic, also refer to her recent cancer diagnosis (fortunately, she has since undergone treatment and is cancer-free as of last year). However, she has explained that all of the songs were written before her diagnosis and she used to see them more from a mental health perspective, yet she now sings them “really different, from a much more personal perspective as when I wrote the song[s] because then I thought of other peo-

ple and now I think of me when I sing [them].”

In addition, she sees sharing the difficult moments of her life as a way to empower others by showing on social media that no one’s life is perfect: “More and more of this openness and awareness is seeping through the cracks of the fake and the polished, shiny, and I think that’s super important.”

This openness about her struggles is always accompanied by a positive approach to dealing with them, as all of the songs are life-affirming and hopeful. On the

upbeat title track “My Paragon,” Jansen focuses on the good in life by counting her blessings: “There are so many things that I dreamt of, that I made come true,” she stated. In the music video, Jansen hangs out with her childhood and teenager selves, as she lyrically looks into the future (“One day I will be, oh oh / One day I will reach it all / One day is a dream, oh oh”) before coming back to the present moment and realizing that “One day is today / I’m already there.” larissa.barth@thecrimson.com

ARTS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON APRIL 14, 2023

BOOKS

EDITOR’S PICK:

Harvard Authors Spotlight: Waldinger and Schulz

‘OUT’ PREVIEW: AN EXPERIENCE LIKE NEVER BEFORE

BY ANDREW K. CHOE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

I

n its 85 years, the Harvard Study of Adult Development — the longest running longitudinal study on adult happiness — has found that there is a clear answer to what makes a joyful and fulfilling life.

In the first few pages of their recent book, “The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness,” the study’s co-directors Dr. Robert J. Waldinger ’73 and Dr. Marc Schulz plainly state, “Good relationships keep us healthier and happier. Period.”

The Harvard Study of Adult Development began in 1938, with the intention of “investigating not what made people sick but what made them thrive.” The original 724 subjects were young men and boys from the Boston area chosen from two populations: 268 were Harvard undergraduates and 456 were from Boston’s inner-city and disadvantaged neighborhoods. Subjects agreed to answer a thorough set of survey and interview questions every two years.

Collected over hundreds of lifetimes, the biennial check-ins constructed detailed portraits of participants’ health using emotional wellbeing surveys, medical tests, and biographical interviews. These interviews are prominently featured in “The Good Life,” and to powerful effect.

The authors vividly describe intimate conversations that participants had with researchers and loved ones, in which they express vulnerable reflections that affirm the importance of relationships. In one moving example from the book, an elderly couple expressed to each other that their greatest fear is the other’s death and the loneliness that would ensue.

This focus on personal stories makes “The Good Life” a compelling read. Unlike other books in the self-help genre that seek to address today’s historically high levels of loneliness with statistics, psychological jargon, and todo lists, “The Good Life” lets the rich life stories of the study speak for themselves.

Within a few hundred pages, readers see dozens of rich lives unfold, each of which illuminates the complexities of building and maintaining healthy relation-

ships.

An ambitious Harvard student compromised on his career goals to support his family after his parents’ deaths; his lifelong commitment to caring for others helped him to lead one of the happiest lives in the study.

Readers can also track how a young woman’s coming out caused her family to fall apart then grew back together, from the perspectives of multiple family members.

Insightful commentary and useful tools for assessing readers’ personal relationships further supplement these stories.

Both Waldinger and Schulz’s experiences led them to devote their lives to exploring human happiness.

Waldinger studied History of Science as a Harvard undergraduate before entering Harvard Medical School. At medical school, Waldinger found psychiatry a natural fit for his interest in personal histories.

In addition to directing the Harvard Study since 2010, Waldinger is a clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School as well as a practicing psychiatrist and Zen priest.

For Schulz, he recalls that he was a “neuroscience guy” in his first couple years at Amherst College. After realizing that a bigger-picture view of people’s lives was more interesting, he majored in sociology and pursued a career in policy and community-organizing. Yet, he still sought a more direct means of interacting with

“

er and Schulz shared a smile and referred to a TED Talk that Waldinger gave in 2016. The presentation went viral, amassing almost 23 million views.

“Going viral showed us that there’s a real hunger for this kind of information. People want to know, what does science say about who thrives as they go through life?” Waldinger recalled.

As is often the case in academia, results from the Study on Adult Development often remained hidden in journals, motivating Waldinger and Schulz to write “The Good Life” for a larger audience to benefit from their work.

Although the correlation between strong relationships and happiness may seem like common sense, the authors explain that the challenge arises from humans’ irrationality and inability to predict what will make them truly happy.

“There’s been a movement in psychology for quite a while now to try and capture the thinking mistakes we make, the illogical conclusions and assumptions we make,” Schulz said.

In line with this tradition, “The Good Life” seeks to dispel the pervasive and harmful misconception that relationships can take care of themselves while other goals like wealth and fame take priority.

Waldinger and Schulz found that like any other investment, relationships struggle when left unattended. Waldinger marveled

Going viral showed us that there’s a real hunger for this kind of information. People want to know, what does science say about who thrives as they go through life?

Robert J. Waldinger ’73 Harvard Medical School professor

people and earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Schulz has co-directed the Harvard Study with Waldinger since 2014; he is also a professor of psychology at Bryn Mawr College and a practicing psychologist.

In an interview with the Harvard Crimson, when asked about their motive for compiling key findings from the study in a published book, Walding-

at the consistency with which the study revealed that “the people who were the happiest, the healthiest, all that good stuff were the people who were more active, who were more intentional” about making relationships.

The book’s illustrative case studies and reflective tools encourage readers to commit more deeply to pre-existing relationships.

For readers looking for a fresh start, “The Good Life” features

stories that offer plenty of guidance on life’s serendipity with a growth mindset.

“What we find from studying these people through their lives is that things happen when we least expect it,” Schulz said.

He then referenced one of his favorite psychological experiments: people consistently predict that talking with a stranger on a train will be an unpleasant experience.

Yet, the vast majority of experiment subjects, when instructed by a psychologist to speak to a stranger, rated the interaction as a positive, energizing experience.

People may believe that they are set in their ways and know what will make them happy, but research finds that any opportunity to build connections can be valuable.

Amidst the dozens of relationships described in “The Good Life”, one in particular stands out — Waldinger and Schulz’s bond as collaborators and lifelong friends. Chapters often end with anecdotes from the co-authors’ lives to illustrate how they have supported each other through life’s milestones and challenges.

Their friendship also manifests in the book’s warm, easy-going tone that makes readers feel invited into this rich friendship.

The two met 30 years ago, as co-workers on another longitudinal study on happiness.

To nurture their initial connection, Waldinger and Schulz have made the effort to spend at least 90 minutes with each other every week over the past 30 years.

Schulz remarked that Waldinger has served as an invaluable older brother figure.

Waldinger further added that the relationship has been incredibly sustaining professionally and personally: “Finding good collaborators is really just a huge benefit.

Mark and I each have different strengths, and we do things together we could never do by ourselves. Besides the friendship, there is this kind of fitting together of different abilities that really makes a difference.”

It’s no wonder, then, that “The Good Life” focuses on the power of relationships — it is an undeniable truth, supported by decades of research and the authors’ lifelong friendship. Through touching anecdotes and practical tools, this book empowers readers to make an active commitment to both maintaining existing relationships and building new connections.

13

COURTESY OF KALOS K. CHU

In comes “OUT,” an original student musical directed by Kalos K. Chu ’23 and presented by the Harvard College Asian Student Arts Project that incorporates the ingredients which make musicals brilliant without sacrificing sincerity, writes contributing writer Benji L. Pearson.

Based on the book of the same name by Chu, music by Ian Chan ’23, and lyrics by JuHye Mun ’23, “OUT” has its main characters perform stunning three-part harmonies in one moment, before play-tripping and laughing at jokes meant as much for each other as they are for the audience in the next. In its short run time at the Agassiz Theatre from April 7 through April 9, “OUT” promises to deliver on the aspects of musical theater that fans enjoy while also telling a story that feels incredibly real.

HARVARD AUTHORS SPOTLIGHT: ANTHONY CHIN-QUEE ’05

COURTESY OF JONATHAN BANGLE

Chin-Quee uses this work to share the reality of the messiness of the medical training experience and to speak to those who, like him, felt alone in their experience, writes contributing writer Selorna A. Ackuayi. In his book, Chin-Quee speaks candidly about residency’s effects on his mental health, discussing his struggles with depression throughout residency. Chin-Quee even delves into mental health struggles in his family history, exploring them in light of how medicine’s efforts to drive him to “rock bottom” allowed him to recognize the ways in which he needed to take care of his mental health.

Expressions ‘The X Factor’: An Energetic Hip-Hop Showcase BYANNA MIKHAYLYANTS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Body Rolls. A performance by the Harvard Whistler’s Society. Nicki Minaj. A laughing skit and hiphop routine to 21 Savage x Metro Boomin’s “Runnin.” What do these seemingly unrelated qualities have in common? All were features of Harvard’s Expressions’ Spring 2023 Showcase: “The X Factor.”

The Harvard Expressions Dance Company is a fully student-operated hip-hop dance group that’s been on campus for over forty years. Each semester, the organization hosts a dance showcase featuring over a dozen dances all choreographed and performed by undergraduates at the College. With two emcees, this year’s showcase also featured performances from the Harvard Whistler’s Society as well as the Harvard Lowkeys. Collectively, the showcase serves attitude and hip-hop moves to some of the top rap and hip-hop hits.

Aditi Kona ’26 shared her reasons for attending the showcase this semester.

“So I went first semester for the first one to support a friend but I think that it’s a really niche, very cool part of Harvard like dance, art, and media, and something that I’m not exposed to a lot

so I want to get more into it,” Kona said.

As Expressions is one of the most prominent performing art groups at Harvard, Kona also spoke about the arts scene at Harvard.

“I think Harvard puts a lot of money into STEM, Econ, and Gov and maybe not as much attention into dance and they do not pub it as much although they definitely should,” said Kona.

The hip-hop group is open to students of all years and experience levels. Layla Chaaraoui ’26 who joined Expressions in her freshman fall spoke about her experience in the dance company.

“I have been dancing since I was seven years old and hip-hop has always been my favorite style of dance so Harvard Expressions was something I actually seeked out before I came to Harvard,” said Chaaraoui. “I was looking for different hip-hop groups and companies and Expressions came up. And I absolutely loved what they did, loved their style, and I loved their vibe. I absolutely knew this was something I wanted to be a part of so I joined it last semester and loved it and I did it again this semester and loved it again.”

Chaaraoui also shared the communal passion for hip-hop she continuously feels amongst Expressions members.

“I think it’s a great community and I just love getting to dance.

Hip-hop is my favorite style so I love being able to dance with so many other people also passionate about it. And I love that they accept all levels and backgrounds. So, it is just a really fun group to be a part of and it has really helped me find my space here,” Chaaraoui said.w Th Expressions dances are fully choreographed by students. May Jung ’25 started with the company last year and is now a Direx, an executive board position of the company who organizes and leads company productions. This year, she led the NewRex dance, allowing incoming dancers with less experience to perform in the showcase.

“We oversee the entire performance and the company,” Jung said.

“For example, my role was taking care of the Directors’ piece which is a piece for beginner dancers to the hip-hop scene and just anyone who is learning dance for the first time or wants to like to take it back, take it slow,” said Jung.

“Another cool feature of our Directors’ piece is whoever wants to get a taste of choreographing for the first time can submit either a few seconds of a choreo piece or an entire 1-2 minute choreo for a Directors’ piece.

So, I am in charge of that part for the Directors’ team. So I was a choreographer as well as a director for this show.”

The spring showcase put on by Expressions welcomed all types

of performing artists from whistlers, to acapella singers, and most importantly, hip-hop dancers.

The company puts on one showcase every semester, al-

lowing students to fully express themselves through a variety of songs with hard basses, dabble in choreography, and even lead their own dances as members of the executive board.

COURTESY OF AIYANA G. WHITE

14

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

FIFTEEN QUESTIONS

­I

an J. Miller is a historian studying empire and energy in modern Japan and East Asia. He is a history professor, Faculty Dean of Cabot House, and Director of Undergraduate Studies.

FM: Tell me why Japan is fascinating.

IJM: As a historian, Japan’s fascinating because it’s the world’s first non-Western, industrialized, and imperial power. And so it embodies so many of the tensions and possibilities of what it means to be in this modern world of ours.

When you stand somewhere else, you look at the world through someone else’s eyes or you work with historical documents, reading into those powerful texts, it can be empowering. Because it lets us, and hopefully lets our students, see that the world can be different, that they can change it. That we can change it. And I write mostly out of that passion.

APRIL 14, 2023

Q&A:

IAN MILLER ON ZOOS, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND THE QUAD THE HISTORIAN AND CABOT HOUSE FACULTY DEAN Ian J. Miller sat down to discuss his research on empire and energy in modern Japan and East Asia and life as a faculty dean. “When you stand somewhere else, you look at the world through someone else’s eyes or you work with historical documents, reading into those powerful texts, it can be empowering,” he says.

BY MAYA M.F. WILSON

FM: I know you both really love animals, and you have a few pets at home.

IJM: There’s Sadie over there! Hi sweetie! Yeah! You doing okay?

FM: This is perhaps going to be a difficult question for you to answer, but I wonder if you have a favorite pet?

IJM: Zoos are microcosms of empire! They’re fascinating. They are diverse, rich with contradictions, and they are fundamentally acts of acquisition and violence.

IJM: No favorite pets, it depends on the day!

Crate, when we were younger, was a cat person, and I was a dog person. And both of us have come to love the other. Our first cat was named Gus. Gus was a huge Maine Coon cat and he would sit on your chest and purr and lick your nose. And our first dog was actually Sadie, and we got Sadie in the year I was coming up for tenure at Harvard University.

Part of why I’m an academic, and a historian and intellectual is I love to be surprised by new ideas and new ways of seeing the world.

FM: What’s your favorite part about being Cabot faculty dean?

IJM: That’s easy. The students.

Our students are remarkable, they are bright, they are caring, they are kind, they are deeply motivated. My wife and I are proud to be deans of Cabot. We’re not the fanciest house on campus. But our house is full of remarkable staff, from our building manager and resident dean and house administrator, academic coordinator, to the HUDS staff, to our janitorial staff, to the groundskeeping staff, to the folks

We loved the place, Earlham was a powerful influence on both of us. We met that first day. We didn’t start dating immediately.

We flirted a little our first semester of freshman year, and we began dating really our senior year.

College must be a place for fun, and it needs to be a place where you can make mistakes. And it’s okay.

FM: Your first book, “The Nature of the Beasts: Empire and Exhibition at the Tokyo Imperial Zoo,” is about Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo, which was the first modern zoo in East Asia. What do you find to be the connection between empire, colonialism, and zoos?

So, who would have thought? You know, a book about a zoo, and then I ended up at Harvard University.

IJM: We first met each other on the first day of college, on our freshman living learning dorm hall, at a place called Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, a small Quaker liberal arts school that we chose because it was full of wonderfully curious, quirky people who wanted to change the world.

On New Year’s Eve of our senior year, as the clock chimed midnight, I first kissed Crate Herbert, who became my wife. She is wonderful. I adore her. I feel very lucky that we’ve been together 30 years or more, and we’ve been married more than 25 years. It’s one of the great gifts of my life.

That doesn’t have to go in print, it’s just true.

CRIMSON MAGAZINE ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Part of why I’m an academic, and a historian and intellectual is I love to be surprised by new ideas and new ways of seeing the world.

I love nature, I love being outside, I am a happy owner of two wonderful cats, one of them’s deaf, the other one has no teeth, and a dog named Sadie who has the world’s biggest underbite. I really love the animal world, and the kind of fecund, remarkable reality of the natural world, so that might have been part of what brought me to the topic. But then, the recognition that this place I used to go for fun was in fact a showcase of empire, a mechanism in the 19th century for demarcating and instantiating and embodying the crucial separation, in those terms, between what it meant to be human and what is meant to be animal, in the high age of Social Darwinist thought — when the separation between humans and animals was often synonymous or understood to be synonymous with the division between colonized and colonizer.

FM: How did you and Crate meet?

It is a very difficult period of life, and I thought, you know what?

I’m finally going to get a dog.

FM: Any advice you’d like to give to the students reading this article?

IJM: “ Oh that’s a really great question. It’s going to be really trite and cheesy, but I genuinely mean this.

People don’t arrive at Harvard by accident.

College must be a place for fun, and it needs to be a place where you can make mistakes.

And it’s okay. This environment is meant to be a place where you screw up.

COURTESY OF IAN J. MILLER

who care for the HVAC and keep the water running in the house. I can’t name these folks clearly enough.

They are remarkable and they’re here out of acts of caring for students. I always hope that our students recognize that with a sense of gratitude. It’s humbling.

the best possibilities of this place at a time when women were not understood to be sufficient to the demands of a Harvard education. How ridiculous is that? We are one of three houses that claims that legacy of demonstrating the absurdity of the bigotry and misogyny behind that.

just hanging out. The lawn is amazing.

FM: What would you say, apart from the students, is your favorite part about the Quad, more generally?

As a historian, nothing makes me prouder.

FM: You mentioned on your personal website that one of your academic interests is comparative imperialism. How do you compare imperialisms?

IJM: Oh, the Quad! Its rich history as a site of contestation, resistance, inclusion, and belonging. I taught a course last semester called Quad Lab, and we rewrote the title to be “ReWriting the History of Harvard and Radcliffe.” We had a brilliant TF, Hazim Hardaman, and a collection of 12 incredibly sharp, motivated undergraduates.

We looked into the history of the Quad as a site of really embodying

FM: In terms of the physical space?

IJM: One thing I love about the Quad is that there are three houses! We share a sense of identity in that retreat. We’re Harvard’s backyard.

Right now the Quad lawn, which is right out this window, is full of undergraduates. There’s someone throwing a frisbee, there are three or four puppies running around, there’s a couple dozen students sunbathing, chilling out, studying and

The Quad lets you let your guard down, lets you just be yourself, a little more than other parts of campus just by simple fact of its history and its location.

IJM: I would say comparative imperialisms, always plural. I find that pluralizing these complex terms, simply adding an “s” to any complicated term, allows us to think with nuance. And in my case what it allows us to do is move into the past, and into the past tense.

We must reconcile and reckon with the past, using the archives and the materials that are available to us.

That’s how we learn, and that’s really hard for our students, I find. That’s part of why I love the house system.

The houses are a place you can be yourself, and you can blow it, and it’s okay. You’re a member of Cabot House no matter what.

FM Fifteen Minutes is the magazine of The Harvard Crimson. To read the full interview and other longform pieces, visit THECRIMSON.COM/ MAGAZINE

16

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

SPORTS

April 14, 2023

MEN’S WRESTLING

Harvard Wraps Campaign THE CRIMSON ­finished a long, successful 202223 campaign, culminating with four individual appearances at the NCAA Championships.

The NCAA Championships stands as the season’s culminating event. “Everything we do is for those three days in March.

[The NCAAs] is the crown jewel of our sport,” Weiss said. “It’s really a life-changing moment to get there.”

The four NCAA qualifiers represented Harvard’s largest number of wrestlers to compete in the tournament in over a decade, where the Crimson placed 44th out of 67 participating teams from across the country.

Notably, Harvard’s strong performances throughout the season earned a number of its squad members spots on the All-Ivy League team. Slavikouski, who finished his dual season by going undefeated in EIWA play, was unanimously named to the All-Ivy League First Team in his 285-pound weight bracket. Standout sophomore Sotelo was named to the Sec-

BY EMMA S. DE JONG CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A

fter months characterized by podium wins, major upsets, and long-awaited results, Harvard wrestling has wrapped up a remarkable 202223 season. The season took place across five winter months, opening in November with the Journeymen Collegiate Classic in Bethlehem, Pa., and culminating in mid-March with the NCAA Championships in Tulsa, Okla.

The Crimson boasted strong team showings across the season’s 14 tournaments, securing an impressive

third-overall placing in the Ivy League and qualifying four members of its squad for the NCAA Championships: senior Yaraslau Slavikouski, juniors Philip Conigliaro and Joshua Kim, and sophomore Diego Sotelo. ‘‘I’ve been on the team for a couple of years, including the Covid year, and this year is really special because it seems the team is really starting to take shape in the sense that things are starting to click. We’re starting to do really well,” co-captain Conigliaro said.

“We had a difficult year last year because of injuries,” head coach Jay Weiss said. “I felt we had more talent than we’ve had in a long time so I was looking forward to [this year].”

The Journeymen Classic proved to be a promising start, as Harvard clinched six firstplace finishes, five second-place finishes, and three third-place finishes. This amounted to a successful fourth-place finish overall in the tournament for the Crimson.

The following weekend, Harvard returned to Pennsylvania to compete at the Keystone Classic in Philadelphia. With solid results across the team, the highlight of the tournament saw Kim defeat No. 20 Lucas Revano from the University of Pennsylvania, coming away with a 3-1 victory and bringing home a fourthplace finish in the 165-pound weight bracket.

The Crimson continued this steady momentum through into December. The two-day Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational showcased Harvard heavy-

First-year Jack Crook secured a 7-2 decision in Harvard’s Senior Night on Feb. 17 at the Malkin Athletic Center. COURTESY OF HARVARD ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS

weight co-captain Slavikouski’s dominance on the mat, as the Belarus native won six of his seven matches and placed third in the 285-pound weight bracket.

The weekend also saw Harvard wrestlers face off against nationally-ranked opponents, and No. 13 Kim took down No. 4 Austin Yant of Northern Iowa in a stunning upset. Harvard finished the tournament ranked 18th out of 33 participating schools.

As December came to a close, Harvard traveled to Evanston, Ill., and emerged with an impressive weekend that saw the Crimson register a score of 55.5 points over the two-day tournament. Sotelo finished third in his 125-pound weight bracket, accumulating a total of 23.0 team points. Slavikouski placed fourth in his respective weight bracket, securing a second consecutive top-five finish and earning 14.5 team points.

The new year offered a challenge for the Crimson. In a dual season opener, Harvard fell to the University of Carolina by a score of 22-12 and dropped their matches the following weekend against Binghamton and Cornell by scores of 19-13 and 27-12, respectively. To close out their Ivy Road Trip, the Crimson fell 28-8 in a matchup against the University of Pennsylvania.

Nonetheless, these tournaments proved to be anomalies in the Crimson’s season results.

In late Jan., Harvard prevailed in a thrilling matchup against Princeton, defeating the Tigers

20-18 in their home at Jadwin Gym. This victory represented Harvard’s first win against their Ivy foe in ten years, as well as their first victory of the dual season. Starting in the 125-pound weight bracket, Sotelo gave the Crimson a 3-0 lead from the getgo. Other Harvard wrestlers that day included first-years Joseph Cangro and Jack Crook, as well as senior Trevor Tarsi, whose respective victories increased the Crimson’s lead. After injury-ridden weeks which saw Coniglia-

felt like guys wrestled hard for the team, they were looking to score points and big wins. It was a good win — Princeton has a strong team,” Weiss said.

For Conigliaro, beating Princeton was critical to showcasing the team’s prowess. “On paper, people outside our program may have thought we weren’t able to do it, but we proved to them that we could,” he remarked.

The Crimson’s return home to Cambridge in Feb. saw the team secure a major win over

This is a close-knit team ... we recruit that way, we look for who’s going to make our family stronger, not just their abilities on the wrestling mat.”

Jay Weiss Head Coach

ro miss several competitions, the captain returned to action with an 8-4 victory, propelling the Crimson to lead 17-9. While the Tigers pulled back into the lead after matches in the 184and 197-pound weight brackets, this lead proved insufficient as Slavikouski defeated No. 33 Travis Stefanik 4-1, lifting the Crimson to a stunning 20-18 victory.

Weiss was proud of the team’s ability to come together and secure the long-awaited win. “It

Columbia in the Malkin Athletic Center in a tight 19-18 matchup. Harvard prevailed in its first five matches, with Conigliaro, Slavikouski, Sotelo, and junior Leo Tarantino’s victories helping carry the Crimson’s lead over the Lions. The critical win of the dual finally came with first-year Dante Frinzi’s victory over Angelo Rini, which delivered a crucial six points to Harvard and secured the team’s narrow win.

A Massachusetts native, Co-

Junior Leo Tarantino locked in a major decision at 184 lbs in Harvard’s Feb. 17 match against Brown. COURTESY OF HARVARD ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS

nigliaro has been attending Harvard wrestling matches since he was younger. “I haven’t heard the MAC have that much energy at matches in a long, long time,” he said.

Conigliaro adds that he attributes part of the team’s success to the influence of a home crowd. “Having friends and family cheering on definitely helps you in the match and just having everyone and the crowd behind you is very special — that’ll stick with you for a long time and being able to win at home is a very special thing,” he said.

Fresh off its victory over Columbia, Harvard cruised to a 25-11 over Hofstra the following day. The Crimson won seven out of ten matchups, helping deliver their second overall win in under 24 hours. Their victory in three of the past four matches also brought them to .500 in EIWA play.

The Crimson’s winning streak strengthened throughout February, as they secured a resounding 32-10 victory over Brown on Senior Night. The match saw the Crimson win eight of ten matches and attain its season-high score of 32 points.

As March approached, Harvard competed in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) Championships.

Strong performances across the team saw the Crimson earn 63 team points and five podium places, bringing the team to an eighth-place finish overall.

The tournament also impressively saw four members of Harvard’s squad qualify for the NCAA Championships in Tulsa, Okla. later that month. Sotelo was the first athlete in the tournament to clinch his ticket down south and was shortly followed by Kim, who placed fifth in the 165-pound weight bracket, as well as Conigliaro, who earned his third consecutive NCAA bid. Entering the tournament ranked No. 1 in the 285-pound weight bracket, Slavikouski suffered an upset in the semis but fired back in the next round, closing out the EIWA Championships with a thirdplace finish and securing his spot in the season’s culminating tournament.

“Watching everyone compete their hearts out and going to NCAAs with four qualifiers was really special. Especially for me, I was grateful to compete at NCAAs with a couple of my good friends on my team,” said Conigliaro, who was the Crimson’s sole qualifier to the tournament last year. “It was definitely a lot more fun being there with my teammates this year and having a good time together.”

ond-Team at 125 pounds, followed by senior Trevor Tarsi and Conigliaro, who were honorable mentions at 157- and 174-pound classes respectively.

Finally, Kim was also named to the All-Ivy Academic Team for his success both in and out of the classroom this season.

Reflecting on this season, Conigliaro highlights the value of a strong team dynamic. “We hope to continue what we have been doing this year, improving all facets of our game together as a team. It may be an individual sport but we compete as a team, whether it’s at a tournament or a dual.”

“A big thing is to have the older, more experienced guys helping out the younger guys. We have a really great class of incoming freshmen that I look forward to introducing them to college wrestling — I’m sure they’ll make a big impact”, he added.

As a coach, Weiss noted that, “It’s a joy to coach. When you ask what was I most proud or happy about this season, it was just the way this team came together,” he reflected. “This is a close-knit team — I personally need it that way, and that’s how I can operate best. We recruit that way, we look for who’s going to make our family stronger, not just their abilities on the wrestling mat.”

Nonetheless, Weiss recognises points of improvement from this season. “We will reflect on where guys faltered throughout the year, and how we can be better at communicating [and] working differently with people,” he said. “I’m always trying to get better, I’m always trying to get better, get my coaches better, get my captains better.”

While the season may be over, Harvard wrestlers will continue training on the mat. Conigliaro, in reference to a Harvard wrestling alum, notes that “wrestling is an eleven-month sport — the season really never ends, the training really never stops, and we’ll be training throughout the summer as well in preparation for next year.”

Off-season training requires discipline and determination, which Conigliaro prizes about the team.

“It’s great to have so many people who are able to commit to wrestling, not only in-season but also out of season,” he said.

Armed with this season’s successes, Harvard wrestling is already keeping its eye on next year’s prize, and Weiss is hopeful for the team’s ability to improve and succeed. “Our goal is not just to get four guys at nationals. Our goal is ultimately to place guys — that’s something we’ve got to get better at,” he said. “I know there are guys on the team that should be out there next year, and we’ve got to prepare for that from here on out right now.”

18

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

SPORTS

APRIL 14, 2023

MEN’S LACROSSE

Men’s Lacrosse Beats Cornell NO.4 CORNELL ­suffered a huge 10-8 upset Saturday afternoon in a Crimson win worthy of both weekly Ivy League honors.

BY KATHARINE FORST CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

R

aucous cheers erupted from the 2,455 spectators around Jordan Field Saturday afternoon as the Harvard men’s lacrosse team defended its home turf against No. 4 Cornell in a huge 10-8 upset. The underdog team played lockdown defense and the stellar performance was not lost on viewers as the win resulted in a sweep of the weekly Ivy League honors. Leader and junior goalie Christian Barnard was named the Ivy League Player of the Week for his standout performance in cage with a 66% save rate, while firstyear attackman Teddy Malone was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week for his performances against both Dartmouth and Cornell.

Cornell came out hot, taking a three-goal lead within the first few minutes of play in the first quarter. A wise timeout by head coach Gerry Byrne helped to reset the team and allowed it to regroup and claw back two goals to narrow the gap to one at the end of the first. The timeout was critical in getting the squad back in the game as Cornell came out fast, pushing Harvard to play with more speed and intensity than it has had all season. The Big Red was able to go up initially because its faceoff unit capitalized on the Crimson’s weakness at the faceoff, winning possession on the first three faceoffs. Cornell was able to strike on the faceoff throughout the game, winning sixteen of the 22 takes, which gave it more possession time on the offensive end and put more pressure on Barnard and the de-

fense to come up with big stops.

“They are a high-energy, highskill team, and you can’t meet it, you have to exceed it. So, I challenged our guys in the locker room before to be great,” Byrne said. “You know that you’re going to be imperfect, so you’ve got to move through mistakes, which is a good life lesson, and we just needed to compete with them.”

“They are one of the most competitive teams, high-energy, ferocious, physical teams, and we had to meet it and exceed it,” continued Byrne. “I think that when we were playing well – which was a lot of that game – we did that.”

Despite Cornell’s attacking phenom junior C.J. Kirst scoring the first goal for the Big Red, sophomore defender Collin Bergstrom was able to mitigate that threat on the defensive end and keep him relatively quiet throughout the game. This was not an easy feat, as Kirst is currently ranked as the highest-scoring attackman in the country with 43 goals on the season. He is also the seventh-highest point-scorer, with an additional nine points coming from assists.

“C.J. Kirst is one of the best players in the country, and Collin Bergstrom guarded him,” Byrne said. “Even though he was 4-1 and scored a couple [of] unsettled goals, he did a tremendous job guarding him. When we needed to support him with help, our guys did a great job doing that – and Barnard made the saves that we know he can make” Sophomore defender Tommy Martinson and first-year defender Charlie Muller were part of the defensive unit that held the 28th most efficient offense in the nation — averaging 14.56 goals per game — to only 8 goals. This success stemmed from lock-down one-on-one defense as well as quick slides, and even quicker recovery slides, that slowed down Cornell’s ball movement and kept its offense from being able to find open attackers on the backside.

The team held Cornell to a 16.3% efficiency rate, allowing for just 8 goals on 49 possessions. The team’s success sliding was also apparent in shutting down the Big Red’s man-up play, not allowing the team to score on its sole opportunity.

“I think we put it all together today. The offense was scoring goals, and the defense was playing very well,” Barnard stated.

“They have one of the best players in the country in C.J. Kirst and I think that we did a really good job trying to minimize him. You can’t contain him completely, but you [have to] minimize his plays — I think our defense did an extraordinary job of that.”

Success on the defensive end translated to success on both sides of the field. Cornell was able to clear on all of its attempts, but the ferocious Crimson ride held Cornell to the end of its allotted twenty seconds in clearing over the fifty, which caused many of Cornell’s offensive possessions to wind down to under ten seconds.

Because they took longer in clearing, Cornell’s substitution game was not as efficient and Harvard had an easier time locking down and stopping the fast break, which allowed the defensive to set up and make Cornell force shots with just a few seconds left on the clock. Harvard took advantage of these caused turnovers, and two defensive middies, sophomore Ray Dearth and senior Chase Yager found success in stripping their players, securing the ground ball, and going coastto-coast for fast-break goals.

Offensive decision-making will be something the Crimson squad will look to improve on going into its next contest against UPenn. The team had trouble setting down for the first few minutes of play which caused lapses in judgment in shot selection. Of the team’s 47 shots, only 24 were on goal. This was due to the offense looking to play a much faster-style game to find gaps in the

Cornell defense, but the result was that the attackers and middies were stuffed either by senior Cornell goalie Chayse Ierlan or by defenders who ate shots as they stepped out to act as the slide or second slide. Despite this miscommunication, the offense appeared much stronger in playing a fast yet deliberate style of sets.

Sophomore Andrew Perry was a standout on that end of the field, notching three goals and an assist. The depth of the Crimson attack was revealed as something to laud against Cornell, with eight different Harvard players tallying goals.

“Our offense moved the ball a lot quicker, we were in better spots, and we saw a lot of ways to improve down there. It wasn’t our best, but we’ll take it,” Perry commented. “Our defense played extremely well and kept getting us the ball which allowed us to capitalize. Great team win, and one to build on going into Penn next weekend.”

The Ivy League is extremely competitive and the squad’s next matchup against UPenn won’t be any easier than the game against Cornell. UPenn is currently ranked No. 18 in the nation, dropping four spots this week due to a 12-11 loss to Brown, a team that Harvard beat at the beginning of the season in an impressive overtime battle. Penn will be a different beast for the Crimson to tackle as the Quakers are notorious for recruiting players based on size and athleticism, which is different from Cornell which was a slippery and crafty offense.

“We have Penn next, and we are hoping for another great crowd. They are a different team — Penn’s midfielders are gigantic, so it’s going to be a physical battle at the midfield,” Byrne noted.

“Guarding number 27 and number 2 today will give us some knowledge and insight into how to do that” Harvard takes on UPenn Saturday at 1:00 p.m. on Jor-

Sophomore middie Andrew Perry runs with the ball in Harvard’s game against Cornell last Saturday. DYLAN GOODMAN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

dan Field. The game will also be streamed live on ESPN+. Following the men’s game, the women’s lacrosse team will battle against No. 16 Yale at 3:30 p.m. in a game that not only honors the most historic rivalry in the Ancient Eight but will honor sophomore defender Grace Taylor’s fight against cancer. The team looks to highlight the efforts of the Mass General Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Survivorship Program, a program that seeks to empower young adults suffering from cancer through community building and social opportunities.

Harvard women’s lacrosse’s honoring of Taylor’s cancer battle emphasizes its tight-knit and supportive community. While the games are competitive and each team looks to battle for the NCAA

Championship trophy at the end of the season, the relationships created and the respect players have for their peers make the community special.

Going into this weekend, the focus for both teams will be to upset their opponents as they gear up for a stretch of competitive Ivy League games. The Crimson squads will look to string together four solid quarters of play on both ends of the field to come out victorious.

“It’s always tough in our league, we have the best teams in the country so we need to be ready to prepare and battle every single game,” Perry said. “Anybody can win on any day, so as long as we are prepared and doing what we need to do I think we have a good shot” katharine.forst@thecrimson.com

Baseball Loses Beanpot Final to Eagles, 5-4

BY JACK CANAVAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

I­n the annual Beanpot Tournament final, the Harvard men’s baseball team faced No. 11 Boston College in a winner-take-all matchup, falling to the Eagles 5-4 despite a hard-fought effort.

After defeating Northeastern on April 4 in their first-round game, the Crimson’s matchup with the Eagles marked the 32nd anniversary of adding baseball to the historic Beanpot Tournament. Famed for its historic hockey rivalries, the Beanpot Tournament is an annual tournament

where Harvard, Boston College, Boston University, and Northeastern compete for an in-season, Boston bragging rights championship with nothing but history on the line for hockey, basketball, and baseball teams alike. In early February, then-No. 9 Harvard men’s hockey lost in a 3-2 shootout thriller to then-No. 16 Northeastern, giving the Huskies the historic Boston trophy.

Making a four-mile trek to the Eddie Pellagrini Diamond at the Harrington Athletics Village of the Eagles in Brighton, Mass, the Crimson hoped to build on its sixgame winning streak and three consecutive Ivy League series vic-

tories.

After having their worst start in a season since 2013 at 2-14, Harvard has completely flipped the switch entering Ivy League play.

Defeating Penn, Dartmouth, and Princeton in consecutive weeks, along with additional victories against Northeastern and Holy Cross, the Crimson has taken control of its season just when things seemed unsalvageable. Going 9-3 in that span, Harvard entered its matchup against their highest-ranked opponent of the year at no better time.

“For us to be 7-2 [conference record] going into the weekend in league competition is a short-

term testament to our club,” head coach Bill Decker said. “We [have to] keep on moving, weekend by weekend.”

Having defeated five AP Top 25 ranked teams this season, Boston College easily shaped up to be the Crimson’s toughest game of the year. Falling behind 3-0 in the first four innings, the Crimson erupted for four runs in the top of the fifth. The Eagles equalized Harvard with a run in the bottom of the sixth, and after a two-anda-half inning scoring drought on both sides, Boston College ended things on a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth.

Playing at BC’s home stadium,

Baseball team stands for the national anthem before the Beanpot title game against No. 11 Boston College. DYLAN GOODMAN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

the Crimson walked to the plate in the top of the first to kick things off. Unfortunately, Harvard neither kicked nor hit anything, going three up, three down to begin.

Handing the ball to senior Will Jacobsen, the Crimson took the field in the bottom of the inning.

Jacobsen’s day at the mound began with some turbulence, hitting two of his first four batters and walking another. With the bases loaded, the Eagles scored the first run of the game on a wild pitch to put Boston College up 1-0 with runners on second and third. Jacobsen then walked another runner, loading the bases again before a fly-out by BC ended an eventful inning.

After the inning ended, Decker commented that the team “just tried to minimize damage.”

A quiet second inning on both sides briefly stalled Boston College from widening the score gap, but a pair of home runs in the bottom of the third inning by the Eagles pushed the Crimson into a 3-0 deficit. Jacobsen ended his day at the end of the third, finishing with 3 ER in three innings pitched.

At the opposite side of the diamond, the Harvard bats stayed rather quiet through the fourth inning, except for a second-inning single by senior Zach Brown and a fourth-inning double by first-year Gio Colasante.

The scoreboard remained blank for the Crimson until a fifth-inning explosion pushed Harvard back into contention.

Back-to-back singles by sophomore Matt Gilberti and senior Hunter Baldwin gave the Crimson runners first and second bases to open the inning. Harvard proceeded to load the bases in the next at-bat when junior Peter Messervy was hit by a pitch.

The Crimson capitalized on the moment when junior Ben Rounds roped a double to left, driving in Gilberti and Baldwin while advancing Messervy to third. With it cut to one at 3-2

and runners on second and third, senior Logan Bravo saw four straight balls and walked to third, reloading the bases for the second time in the inning. On the next atbat, junior Jake Berger was hit by a pitch, resulting in another run for the Crimson and loading the bases for a third time. In similar fashion, freshman Jordan Kang’s walk in the following at-bat drove in an additional run and kept the bases filled up, putting Harvard in the lead for the first time in the game at 4-3 before the end of the top of the fifth.

Silent plate appearances by the Eagles and the Crimson kept the score constant entering into the bottom of the sixth, where an RBI groundout by Eagles’ third baseman Pat Roche equalized the score at 4-4.

Harvard fired blanks for the next two innings, unable to reach base in both the seventh and eighth innings. Stirring up some noise with two outs in the ninth inning, Harvard loaded the bases off of walks from Ben Rounds and Jake Berger sandwiching a Logan Bravo single. Unfortunately, Harvard struck out to end the inning, leaving the three runners stranded.

On the first at-bat of the ninth, Eagles third baseman Nick Wang homered to left center, walking off the Crimson in crushing fashion.

This weekend, the Crimson will return to home base for another conference series against Cornell. Tied with Columbia at the top of the Ivy League standings, how Harvard fares in Ivy League play will determine if the Crimson can pull off an NCAA postseason berth that would have seemed improbable three weeks ago.

But for the time being, Harvard plans to take things one game at a time.

“The only thing that matters right now is what’s gonna happen tomorrow,” Decker said. jack.canavan@thecrimson.com