THE HARVARD CRIMSON THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873
| VOLUME CL, NO. 11
FREE SPEECH
HARVARD PLAN
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CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
FASHION
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
