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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
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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
