The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873
|
VOLUME CXLIX, NO. 54
| CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
| FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 2022
EDITORIAL PAGE 4
NEWS PAGE 5
SPORTS PAGE 6
Harvard’s core values remain hidden behind hollow panels
HIV drug may help delay the progression of cancer, per study
Women’s golf places 2nd at Hoya Invitational, men’s golf places 13th
Khurana Discusses Fall of the UC HSPH Launches Cancer Website By VIVI E. LU and LEAH J. TEICHHOLTZ CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana called on former members of the Undergraduate Council and proponents of the newly formed Harvard Undergraduate Association to find “common ground” in a Thursday interview. Earlier this month, undergraduates voted overwhelmingly to disband the 40-yearold UC in favor of the HUA — the brainchild of former UC president Michael Y. Cheng ’22 — in a controversial referendum that saw over 75 percent of students vote in favor of the HUA. Cheng’s tenure was marked by infighting and acrimony that divided members of Harvard’s student government. When asked about tension among the College’s student representatives, Khurana urged members of both coalitions to find ways to collaborate on shared “aspirations.” “We all care about having the best Harvard College we can, and we can find common ground on that,” Khurana said. “Building and leading any type
SEE KHURANA PAGE 3
By RYAN H. DOAN-NGUYEN, EMILY Y. FENG, and DORCAS GADRI CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Harvard and Dana-Farber researchers launched a website called Cancer FactFinder, which aims to provide vetted information about the causes of cancer, on this year’s World Health Day, April 7. The project — led by Harvard School of Public Health professor Timothy R. Rebbeck — began as a joint effort between his school’s Zhu Family Center for Global Cancer Prevention and the Center for Cancer Equity and Engagement at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. Cancer FactFinder synthesizes “the best scientific evidence-based information available from studies in humans” to remedy misconceptions about cancer, according to the site’s homepage. Rebbeck, who serves as the director of Zhu Family Center, said in an interview the site’s goal is “to empower people to start making better choices.”
Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana, pictured in his office during an interview with the Crimson on Thursday. PEI CHAO ZHUO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
Upon reaching the site, a visitor can learn about possible cancer risk factors using the search function. Color-coded symbols indicate whether sufficient evidence exists to support each cause, with a green circle denoting “most likely or definitely true,” a red circle for “false/misinformation,” and a gray circle for “we’re not sure yet.” For each topic, the site also presents common claims, relevant scientific findings, and methods of risk reduction. Mingyang Song, an epidemiology professor at the School of Public Health who worked on the project, characterized the process of labeling risk factors as “evolving.” “When we make the judgment, we try to be very, very cautious,” Song said. “Science is a moving field.” Lorelai A. Mucci, an epidemiology professor at the School of Public Health and project collaborator, said Cancer FactFinder aims to combat “fatigue” surrounding conflicting cancer
SEE HSPH PAGE 5
HLS Affiliates Call for Financial Support to Adjust for Inflation By SARA DAHIYA CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
More than 100 Harvard Law School students and alumni signed onto a letter last week calling on the school to adjust its Low Income Protection Plan to rising inflation rates. The Low Income Protection Plan is a program that offers financial support to HLS graduates pursuing careers in public interest law. Rolled out in 1978, the program covers a part of the graduates’ annual loan repayment in an effort to ease financial obligations for students working in public service jobs, which are often lower-paying than corporate law positions. In an April 8 letter to Law School Dean John F. Manning ’82, 136 HLS affiliates wrote that the program “is not providing the level of support that was
Harvard Law School’s Langdell Hall is located at 1545 Massachusetts Avenue. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
advertised when we chose to attend HLS.” “We are writing to express our grave concern about LIPP’s failure to respond to rapid inflation rates and their severe impact on LIPP participants,” the letter said. “We urge HLS to implement an immediate adjustment to LIPP’s participant contribution scale to account for this inflation,” the HLS affiliates wrote. The annual inflation rate in the United States has stood at 8.5 percent for the 12 month-period ending March 2022 — the highest the nation has seen since late 1981. The letter called on the school “to adopt a policy formalizing and scheduling ongoing, quarterly adjustment of the contribution scale.” “Adjusting the LIPP scale for inflation, taking into account the Consumer Price Index,
would ensure that LIPP support doesn’t decrease, in real terms, year after year,” it said. In a statement, HLS spokesperson Jeff Neal wrote that the school “will continue to work with students and graduates to help them thrive in law school and to pursue career options of their choice.” “Harvard Law School invests significant resources in financial aid each year – both to make a Harvard Law education as accessible as possible to every student who decides to attend and also to preserve our graduates’ freedom to choose the job that fulfills their highest aspirations, whether that’s in the public, nonprofit, or private sector,” he wrote. Brendan Schneiderman, a 2021 graduate of the Law School who helped organize the letter
SEE HLS PAGE 3
WGS Holds Panel on Authors Advocate for Universal Voting at IOP Gender in Brazil By JONATHAN A. COSGROVE and TARAH D. GILLES
By DARLEY A. C. BOIT CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
The Harvard Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department hosted a virtual event discussing gender diversity and minority rights in Brazil on Thursday. The event, titled “Gender Nonconforming Activism in Brazil,” featured Alvaro Jarrín, an associate professor of women, gender, and sexuality studies at the College of the Holy Cross, and Moises Lino e Silva, an associate professor of anthropology at the Federal University of Bahia. The discussion was moderated by Robert F. Reid-Pharr, the chair of Harvard’s WGS Department. Jarrín said gender played an important role in Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s 2018 election. “[Bolsonaro] plays into this kind of gender scare. He strived to make people be afraid of gender diversity, and anything associated with queerness in ways that sort of play into his political base,” they said. “Bolsona
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Harvard Today 2
ro used what people are calling ‘politics of disgust’ or ‘politics of hate.’” Jarrín said Bolsonaro took a homophobic approach that helped him politically among Christian voters. Jarrín closed his portion of the panel by discussing “artivism,” or the practice of using artwork and the performing arts as a method to push for trans rights and equality. Lino e Silva, who spoke second, discussed his book, “Minoritarian Liberalism: A Travesti Life in a Brazilian Favela,” which came out this month. The book explores his experience living in a shantytown in Rio de Janeiro. “Shantytowns are connected to long-term political movements and ideas of autonomy and resistance to the state,” he said. Lino e Silva said his time in the shantytown changed his perspective on liberalism. “Liberalism — as an political aim, or as a theory — has a deep history in European phil-
SEE BRAZIL PAGE 3
News 3
Editorial 4
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Political columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. ’73 and former Connecticut Secretary of State Miles S. Rapoport ’71 laid out the case for universal voting at a Harvard Institute of Politics forum on Thursday evening. During the panel, which was moderated by IOP fellow Christine Chen and HKS professor of the practice Cornell William Brooks, Dionne and Rapoport discussed their new book, “100% Democracy: The Case for Universal Voting,” which came out last month. “We think this is just the next step to say we want to consult everybody and we think if we consult everybody, we will have a more representative electorate,” Dionne said of a universal voting requirement. The authors pointed to Australia as a country that has successfully mandated voting. “We lean a lot on the experience of Australia,” said Dionne, a longtime journalist who now serves as a columnist for the Washington Post.
SEE IOP PAGE 5
Sports 6
Pictured from left, Christine Chen, E.J. Dionne Jr., Miles Rapoport, and Cornell William Brooks spoke at a Harvard Institute of Politics Forum on Thursday. COURTESY OF THE HARVARD INSTITUTE OF POLITICS
TODAY’S FORECAST
SUNNY High: 68 Low: 52
VISIT THECRIMSON.COM. FOLLOW @THECRIMSON ON TWITTER.
quincy housing
THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
APRIL 15, 2022
PAGE 2
HARVARD TODAY
For Lunch Buffalo Chicken Pizza Fresh-Catch Atlantic Clam Fry Falafel Sandwich
For Dinner Salmon with Ginger Sauce Tonkatsu Indonesian Soba Noodle Stir Fry
TODAY’S EVENTS ‘Feminista Por Accidente’ Book Talk Virtual, 12:30 p.m.-1:30 p.m.
IN THE REAL WORLD
Meet author Salomé Gómez Upegui and hear her discuss her debut book, “Feminista por acidente,” a collection of essays that use feminist theory intertwined with personal anecdotes about her life experiences as a Latina woman. The event is in English over Zoom.
Subway Shooting Suspect Denied Bail on Federal Terrorism Related Charge
The suspect behind the shooting of ten people on a Brooklyn subway was denied bail during his initial court appearance. Frank James was denied bail, with Assistant U.S. attorney Sara Winik describing the attack as “premeditated and carefully planned.”
Elon Musk Says He’s “Not Sure” He’ll Be Able To Buy Twitter
Expedition Content 24 Quincy Street, 7 p.m.-8:20 p.m.
Pakistani Student Association’s BBQ Iftar 7:45 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Are you drowning in an endless pile of readings for class? Instead of skimming through your readings (or just not reading them at all), join the ARC to learn how to read more efficiently and effectively.
Students walk past a blooming magnolia tree down Divinity Avenue on a gray Thursday. TRUONG L. NGUYEN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
Elon Musk said he’s actually “not sure” he will be able to buy Twitter during a Vancouver conference after having offered to buy the company for roughly $43 billion. Musk had said this offer would be his “best and final” one. At the conference, however, he acknowledged he has a “Plan B.”
3 Dead After Severe Storm System, Wildfires Rip Through US
AROUND THE IVIES YALE: Two Yale Professors Selected as Guggenheim Fellows —THE YALE DAILY NEWS CORNELL: Candidates Face Off in Student Assembly Presidential and Vice Presidential Debates —THE CORNELL DAILY SUN
Three people have died due to extreme weather — including tornadoes and wildfires — that has taken over the United States in the past few days. Most recently, the bodies of two people were found in a home in New Mexico after wildfires overtook the area.
PRINCETON: Princeton Announces 6.6% Increase in Financial Aid Budget for 2022-23 Academic Year —THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN PENN: Upperclassmen Write Letters to Their Younger Selves in Student Initiative “Dear Penn Freshman” —THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN
COVID UPDATES
CAMPUS LAST 7 DAYS CURRENTLY
Come watch a film focused is composed of 1961 recordings made by Michael Rockfeller of the Standard Oil Family during his exploration of New Guinea. This film focuses on “decolonizing the archive.” Curious about what that means? Join the Harvard Film Archive tomorrow evening to learn more!
317
In Isolation
1.51%
431
Total New Cases
Positivity Rate
LAST 7 DAYS
CAMBRIDGE
657
Total New Cases
3%
Positivity Rate
76%
Fully Vaccinated
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY Massachusetts Drinking Age Lowered
The legal drinking age in Massachusetts was lowered from 21 to 18. Earlier in the year, wine cellars in the Houses had to close down. However, the new bill allows the sale of liquor with a $350 “wine and beer” license. April 15, 1972
Harvard Beats Yale in Debate
Harvard beat Yale by unanimous decision in the freshman debate. The debate was focused on whether “socialism would be a better economic system than capitalism” with Harvard arguing for and Yale arguing against. April 15, 1933
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873
The Harvard Crimson Raquel Coronell Uribe ’22-’23 Associate Managing Editors Kelsey J. Griffin ’23 President Taylor C. Peterman ’23-’24 Jasper G. Goodman ’23 Associate Business Managers Managing Editor Taia M.Y. Cheng ’23-’24 Isabelle L. Guillaume ’24 Amy X. Zhou ’23 Business Manager Editorial Chairs Guillermo S. Hava ’23-24 Orlee G.S. Marini-Rapoport ’23-24
STAFF FOR THIS ISSUE Arts Chairs Sofia Andrade ’23-’24 Jaden S. Thompson ’23
Design Chairs Yuen Ting Chow ’23 Madison A. Shirazi ’23-’24
Magazine Chairs Maliya V. Ellis ’23-’24 Sophia S. Liang ’23
Multimedia Chairs Aiyana G. White ’23 Pei Chao Zhuo ’23
Blog Chairs Ellen S. Deng ’23-’24 Janani Sekar ’23-’24
Technology Chairs Ziyong Cui ’24 Justin Y. Ye ’24
Night Editor Simon J. Levien ’23-’24 Assistant Night Editors Sarah Girma ’24 Krishi Kishore ’25 Story Editors Jasper G. Goodman ’23 Kelsey J. Griffin ’23 Taylor C. Peterman ’23-’24
Sports Chairs Alexandra N. Wilson ’23-’24 Griffin H. Wong ’24
Copyright 2022, The Harvard Crimson (USPS 236-560). No articles, editorials, cartoons or any part thereof appearing in The Crimson may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the President. The Associated Press holds the right to reprint any materials published in The Crimson. The Crimson is a non-profit, independent corporation, founded in 1873 and incorporated in 1967. Second-class postage paid in Boston, Massachusetts. Published Monday through Friday except holidays and during vacations, three times weekly during reading and exam periods by The Harvard Crimson Inc., 14 Plympton St., Cambridge, Mass. 02138 Weather icons made by Freepik, Yannick, Situ Herrera, OCHA, SimpleIcon, Catalin Fertu from flaticon.com is licensed by CC BY 3.0.
Design Editors Camille G. Caldera ’22 Toby R. Ma ’24 Photo Editor Julian J. Giordano ’25 Editorial Editor Guillermo S. Hava ’23-’24 Sports Editor Griffin H. Wong ’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.
PAGE 3
THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
KHURANA FROM PAGE 1
BRAZIL FROM PAGE 1
Khurana Talks Fall of the UC
WGS Panel Talks Affiliates Gender in Brazil Call for
of organization with diverse people requires a lot of thoughtful, intentional work in order to make the most of that diversity.” Khurana said student government plays a “critical role” at universities by representing the student body. He added that the College will support the HUA in its transition. “We count on the student government to be an important voice to sharing student perspectives and points of view, to help us reflect and think about policies, about what’s working or can be improved,” he said. Khurana also discussed the following additional topics:
philosophical thoughts and European political events,” Lino e Silva said. “So there is a way of thinking about liberalism that comes from colonialism. And the way liberalism operates, it very much follows a normative scheme of prescribing certain freedoms and liberties that people should have.” “What was interesting to me was to challenge the very idea and foundation and the stability of liberalism as we know it to include other ways of being free and other ways of having liberty,” he added.
Covid-19 Policies Last month, Harvard lifted its mask mandate, allowing most classes to adopt a mask-optional policy, which Khurana described as “wonderful.” “The most important thing I see is how much people are enjoying seeing each other’s faces,” he said. “I always loved the concept of smiling eyes, but I like seeing smiling eyes and smiling faces at the same time.” Still, Khurana acknowledged the pandemic is ongoing
and recognized that some affiliates may continue to mask due to health reasons or personal preference. “The most important thing I would also emphasize is that whatever people make as their personal decision — mask or no mask — that we respect it,” Khurana said. The Class of 2026 Harvard College accepted 3.19 percent of applicants to the Class of 2026 on April 1, marking a record-low acceptance rate as applications to the College reached an all-time high. Khurana congratulated the incoming class and said he looks forward to welcoming them at Visitas on April 24-25. “We’re excited about the contributions and who they are, and what they will bring to our campus,” Khurana said. “And we’re excited for what we think we can provide in terms of the wonderful resources Harvard has to strengthen the wishes for the kind of lives they want to lead.” vivi.lu@thecrimson.com leah.teichholtz@thecrimson.com
Bolsonaro used what people are calling ‘politics of disgust’ or.’ Alvaro Jarrín WGS Associate Professor
The event closed with a short Q&A during which the panelists discussed Brazil’s upcoming presidential election, set for October. Bolsonaro, a rightwing populist who has served as Brazil’s president for the past
HLS FROM PAGE 1
four years, is set to face several challengers, including Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a former union leader who helped found the left-wing Brazilian Worker’s Party.
HLS LIPP Changes
“It’s going to be a difficult campaign. The only two viable options — the only two candidates — are Lula and Bolsonaro,” Jarrín said. “We’re hoping that Lula will get elected and Bolsonaro not get reelected. It would be tragic because [Bolsonaro] has been terrible, not just for LGBT rights, but for environmental rights, women’s rights — whatever you focus on, he hasn’t been good.”
to Manning, noted the letter’s signatories include not only Low Income Protection Plan participants but also current students. “They’re hearing from alumni all of these frustrating and horror stories about how LIPP is failing them,” he said. “And so they are advocating not just for current alumni but for themselves, because a few years from now, they’ll be graduates too, and they’ll also be subject to LIPP’s policies,” he added. Schneiderman also pointed to the growth of the University’s endowment, which is currently valued at $53.2 billion, amid the Coronavirus pandemic. “Not only is Harvard dropping the ball in coming out to support those students, but it’s actually profiting itself and its endowment is growing, nonetheless,” he said.
darley.boit@thecrimson.com
sara.dahiya@thecrimson.com
The Harvard Crimson
There is a way of thinking about liberalism that comes from colonialism. Moises Lino e Silva Federal University of Bahia Associate Professor
Transformative coverage.
The Crimson thecrimson.com
APRIL 15, 2022
@TheCrimson
@TheHarvard Crimson
THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
APRIL 15, 2022
PAGE 4
EDITORIAL THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD
OP-ED
What Hides Behind the Hollow Panels
Nothing Happens in Isolation
Ignoring history is one of the foremost barriers to progress at Harvard and beyond.
H
arvard has a new old racist sculpture. Earlier this month, a Crimson investigation revealed a stone sculpted fireplace in the stately Westmorly Court. A gothic, monumental hearth, its imagery suggests a racist disparity or hierarchy. On the left pillar stand caricatures of the ‘uncivilized’, purported African, Asian, and Indigenous figures with twisted, exaggerated proportions; on their right, their ‘civilized’ European counterparts, dignified, engaged in learned activities. The closeup images, retrieved from archives and past students, are inevitably striking. But few current Westmorly students would know the existence of those pillars today. In yet another example of the seeming miscommunication between and fallibility of our administrators, the fireplace was provisionally paneled over in 2019, pending upcoming house renovations. Students were kept in the blind about the aesthetic touch-up or the reasons behind it — until now. Needless to say, we find the pillars disturbingly and disgustingly racist in every conceivable way. Its grotesque sculpted caricatures have frozen in time stereotypes that were already profoundly harmful when the chisel first touched the stone. The fireplace stands as a hideous example of our institution’s elitist disconnect from the world around us; it’s a symbol of pompous wealth that, in a painfully nonchalant fashion, distorts and dehumanizes the marginalized. It should have never existed in the first place. And yet it does. Hiding it behind hollow panels won’t change that, or remedy the pain and strife etched into the stone. The fact that this was administrators’ initial impulse — that they chose a literal cover-up over
a frank, difficult conversation with the dorm’s residents, several of whom report expressing unanswered concerns — is disturbing. It’s an example of the sort of high-brow, condescending paternalism that sometimes characterizes how the University wrestles with its history. Avoiding scandal, even through the walling up of evidence, primes over honest introspection, almost as if the historic meaning of these objects (of the racist portraits and enslaved daguerreotypes) laid only in the eyes of the annoying, student-protesting beholders. The University seems to know that Westmorly’s fireplace is a stain on the community that first created it. It is not, however, one that should be simply patched over, or, worse still, bleached away. The racist pillars cannot stand; they can’t be destroyed without sanitizing and fictionalizing our complex past. Instead, they should be rescued from their creaky dark panels and thrust into the public spotlight, where the filth of our past can nudge us towards a better future. That place, of course, cannot be a student dorm, where individuals from all backgrounds should be able to feel safe and comfortable, not threatened or mocked by our darkest chapters. The fireplace ought to be removed, stored, and displayed among all the other surviving fragments from those chapters. Harvard needs a permanent place to grapple with its role in shaping some of the most gruesome parts of human history. A museum of institutional failings, if you will, where self-reflection about our shortcomings and a respectful honoring of those affected can take place. A powerful, honest reminder of what this University has been and of what we’ve been far too willing to brush under the
rug. That might prove uncomfortable. It might upset some donors, prompt national coverage highlighting our faults or attacking our University. It might even dispel the notion that our institution’s history is, in some sense, an unbroken stream of unblemished achievement. We say: Bring it on. Ignoring history and burning the paper trails is one of the foremost barriers to progress at Harvard and beyond. Engaging with our faults — exploring them, publicizing them, investigating how they came to be — is the only way to ensure we don’t repeat them, to verify we aren’t repeating and reinventing them already. Few institutions, governmental, academic, or otherwise, do this well. Harvard’s critical self-reflection could help lead the way. Our Harvard, the current Harvard, is no longer the sort of community that would happily overlook Westmorly’s fireplace — most of our peers, we’d hope, wouldn’t pose and kiss by it, delighting in white supremacy-laced luxury. But we are, at the same time, the exact same Harvard, plagued by the same ghosts in different clothes, weighed down by our past. Until we recognize that much, until we can speak with nuance and depth about our very worst crimes, we too will remain trapped in stone, unable to move or change, our core values hidden behind hollow panels.
speech front lines. After a student op-ed lamented the shunning of unpopular opinions — including conservative voices — on campus, the Editorial Board of the university’s newspaper published a reactionary editorial, stating that they “refuse to condone” allowing former vice president Mike Pence to speak at UVA. This forswearing of uncomfortable discourse is a lost opportunity. His politics aside, 74.2 million Americans voted for Pence’s ticket some 17 months ago, so even hostile listeners could learn something about American democracy through a speaker event (or reaffirm the validity of their own beliefs in collision with his). The long-run international problem here is not the “canceling” of conservative opinions nor “dangerous” rhetoric in college campus “safe spaces.” These buzzwords merely represent alternate readings of constitutionally protected freedoms, unsightly as they may be. It is the rejection of pluralism that results from vicious bickering over the “true” tenets of free speech which threatens our global community the most. I pray that throughout this so-called reckoning, the left and right do not forget their most vital commonality — a commitment to preserving the health of civil discourse, both among American citizens and in our influence abroad. To those free-speech activists rising up against undemocratic regimes in other countries, it would be advisable to find another liberal model for now. Here in the U.S., we’re still figuring out what we think of ours. —Peter N. Jones ’25, a Crimson Editorial editor, lives in Weld Hall.
—Ian D. Svetkey ’25, a Crimson Editorial editor, lives in Hurlbut Hall.
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.
The Crimson
@thecrimson
COLUMN
America’s Free-Speech ‘Reckoning’ Threatens Liberalism Abroad
F
our years ago, I kayaked through a needlessly intense military checkpoint on Nicaragua’s Río San Juan. Once beyond firing range, my clearly anxious guide whispered to me that anyone who criticized Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega would face “big trouble.” More recently, I sat in the Sanctum, a Cambridge room home to The Harvard Crimson’s Editorial Board, and listened as my peers opined passionately on a topic that has much of the journalistic world up in arms — a recent New York Times editorial that frets over the state of free speech in America. The dissonance between these two concerns pains me. While citizens of other countries face state-sanctioned attacks on their speech, we find ourselves amid a fabricated culture war whose primary effect is to denigrate the American model of liberalism and civil discourse. With every “radical right” attack on the “woke mob” (or vice versa), the U.S. strays from its principles and indirectly tells the world that a fragmented public forum wherein participants cannot even agree on the rules of gameplay is the freespeech gold standard. Unless resolved, the repressed in other parts of the world will suffer further. In the Age of Information, these seemingly self-contained conflicts on social issues like speech do not occur in a vacuum. Each time a blue-checkmarked Twitter user calls for the resignation of an editorial board for essentially arguing, if disingenuously, that free-flowing discourse is good, the world watches and takes note. The
poison of our culture war will diffuse across borders and damage the value of liberalism abroad, undermining social movements against anti-democratic regimes. Why should a Russian citizen fight for freedom from Kremlin repression if the battered American example is as good as it gets? Byproducts of this nationwide divide on free speech also catalyze dangerous institutional change. When one side grows frustrated with the deadlock, it might engage with a sympathetic governing institution to bring about more hardline, irreversible adjustments to the rules of public discourse. For example, the Harvard Undergraduate Council formally moved last October to request that Harvard College conduct a thorough review of its 30-plus-year-old Free Speech Guidelines. The current guidelines protect the dissemination of all ideas short of expressing “grave disrespect for the dignity of others,” including those that might be “noxious.” Given the relatively (and rightfully) open nature of these rules, it feels unlikely that such a review would result in anything other than stricter institutional censorship. Just as American ideals might offer a guiding light to populations in pursuit of broader civil liberties, Harvard often serves as a leader for other universities across the U.S. and for the international community. Any move by our peers to pursue abandoning the natural, bakedin societal mechanisms for the defeat of noxious ideas in favor of more stringent institutions should elicit great concern. A similar story is playing out at the University of Virginia, another undergraduate community on the free-
W
hat’s the first thing you do when someone contracts an infectious disease? Isolate them. In fall 2020, Harvard included in their backto-campus plan a guarantee of quarantine housing for students testing positive. The system worked; transmission rates were lower than planned, which allowed the administration to choose the most student-dense of their potential spring strategies, renewing the quarantine policy in the meanwhile. Upon return to full undergraduate living density in fall 2021, the established isolation policy remained in place. However, with much of Harvard’s swing housing being used to house the unprecedented 1,965-student Class of 2025, this plan now had a potential failure case — an unmanageable number of cases, and thus zero available beds. Luckily, this didn’t happen; transmission remained low for almost the entire three months. In December, though, the emergence of the more transmissible Omicron variant raised the possibility of a major outbreak upon return to campus for the spring. In response, the college made a new plan, eliminating isolation housing and instead deciding that infected students would quarantine in their rooms. Direct roommates, but not suitemates, could apply for limited alternate living spaces. There was concern, but the policy seemed defensible; the new variant was less dangerous despite being more transmissible, and the potential of keeping thousands of students in isolation seemed unfeasible. A month or so into the spring semester, the crisis appeared averted; positivity rates were still low. But at the end of February, cases started to spike. The week before spring break, parties were canceled, teachers gave warnings, and the College released new, stricter guidelines for social events and increased testing. Omicron, it seemed, had finally hit. Administrators were quick to blame undergraduates. Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana placed the onus on “individual behavior,” offering patronizing guidance to continue being “conscious about masking.” But the mask policy hadn’t changed. And if individual behavior was to blame, why now? Students’ social habits don’t change much from semester to semester. Why a sudden surge, in the middle of a local and national lull in cases? The answer is clear. Harvard’s flawed isolation protocols — forgotten when Omicron fizzled — came around and hit us when we weren’t looking. As students tested positive, the virus was allowed to circulate instead of being removed from communities. Slowly but surely, even without high levels of transmission, an insidious wave built, crashing a month into the semester — a crash that was entirely Harvard’s fault. Other colleges still guarantee isolation housing — or, at the very least, housing for roommates of students who test positive for Covid-19. But Harvard doesn’t even make it clear how likely it is that roommates get housing, much less offer it to infected students themselves. And the alternative housing offered isn’t appealing. The request form is difficult to find, and is filled with strict conditions: among other things, a student is not provided with amenities, must eat grab-and-go meals, and must return to their room if they test positive — a policy that contradicts every visceral instinct of pandemic prevention. Moreover, the application reads as if it’s trying to discourage students from applying, with an open-response question asking for “as much information as possible” about the student’s circumstances, because housing “is extremely scarce.” Even after being accepted, many students had negative experiences with alternative housing, having had to deal with poorly managed security and remarking that it felt unfair that they, and not their Covid-19 positive roommates, had to go through the hassle of moving. Many students thus decided to forgo the form, being willing to take the risk of living with someone who had tested positive despite the potential to spread the virus through the student population. In fact, when my roommate tested positive in late March, I chose a third bad option. I had extracurricular commitments that I couldn’t risk missing due to quarantine, and I didn’t trust that I’d get alternative housing, so I slept in the basements of freshman dormitories for a week. Hey, at least I didn’t catch Covid-19. Now, luckily, the mid-semester surge seems to have died down. But it would be beyond stupid to bet against another peak, and when it comes, Harvard’s current policy will fail miserably. A new, dangerous variant could arise, and even though most people at Harvard are vaccinated, many are still vulnerable, including the elderly and immunocompromised. What, then, should Harvard do? A return to isolation housing would be a start, although it would be nice if the administration could provide better support to those in quarantine. The scenario in which the entire school gets Covid-19 at the same time and overwhelms the beds available seems unlikely; even with Omicron, case numbers didn’t skyrocket. And if they did? Harvard’s $53 billion endowment has more than enough leeway for a few extra buildings’ worth of hotel space. \At the end of the day, the students in quarantine should be the ones who have the virus. And as much as Harvard shifts the blame to undergraduates, they caused their own outbreak with their callous, short-sighted alternative housing policy. They know the right strategy to control Covid-19, because they used it for a year and a half. It’s due time for it to return. There will be another wave. Let’s not make it worse than it has to be.
Submit an Op-Ed Today!
By PETER N. JONES
By IAN D. SVETKEY
PAGE 5
THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
HIV Drug Promising for Cancer By JOLIN CHAN, DORCAS Y. GADRI, and CALEB H. PAINTER CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital found that lamivudine, a commonly used drug for HIV treatment, showed promise in combating metastatic colorectal cancer. The trial — detailed in a March paper published in Cancer Discovery, an academic journal — found that more than 25 percent of 32 patients treated with lamivudine had disease stability, presenting researchers with the hope that the medication could be used to treat other kinds of epithelial cancers, such as breast and prostate cancers. David T. Ting of Mass General Cancer Center, co-senior au
thor of the study and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, said that the study began 10 years ago when he and his team discovered that “repetitive [genetic] sequences” were “massively expressed” in mice tumors. They found that these repetitive sequences — previously only thought of as “junk DNA” — were in fact indicative of cancer cells. “Our lab had found that these things were replicating, like HIV, through reverse transcription,” he said. Ting said this early discovery of the key role of this “junk DNA” was “an accident,” after which Ting began to theorize about the potential of reverse transcription inhibitors such as those in lamivudine in interfering with this replication.
Co-author Benjamin D. Greenbaum, a researcher at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, noted that the HIV drug created molecules that “allowed the immune system to maybe better see the cancer.” Researchers are now hoping to apply these findings to advance cancer treatment by using reverse transcriptase inhibitors and targeting cancers beyond colorectal cancer. Ting said he hopes the trial can enable researchers to make better drugs for treating different kinds of cancer. “Can we use two or three reverse transcriptase inhibitors at the same time?” Ting asked. “These are the things that we would hope to do and hope that we can do it in a larger trial with funding.” Greenbaum, who focused on the computational biology side
of the research, said that the findings were “an amazing moment” for researchers on both the clinical and computational side. “This is an example of the kind of stuff that can come out of interdisciplinary, cross-institution collaborations,” he said. But Ting noted that while the results of the trial were promising, they require further research on how HIV drugs can impact cancer treatments. “Do we have the next aspirin for cancer or Lipitor for cancer? I don’t know. I really hope.” Ting said, referencing the success these drugs have had in preventing cardiovascular disease. “I hope that one day that cancer won’t affect my children,” he added. “But that’s just a dream —we’ll see.”
IOP FROM PAGE 1
IOP Forum: Authors Call for Universal Voting “ What they have done in Australia is create a culture of voting, and they have also given us a proof of concept. Australia has required people to vote for 100 years.” The authors argued the United States should make voting mandatory, along the lines of other civic duties, pointing to jury duty. Dionne said the policy would increase the number of participating young voters. “We will have a more forward-looking country because one of the largest groups underrepresented in the electorate are young people right now,”
he said. “If young people were required to vote, the system would have to bend itself to make it easy for them, not to make it harder for them,” Dionne added. Rapoport, who serves as a senior practice fellow at the Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, said he and Dionne have a “three-part strategy” to push for universal voting — including making it part of the “robust and growing democracy movement” in the U.S. “There really is a pro-democracy movement that has
Like
The Crimson
generated and grown over the last 20 years,” Rapoport said. “Our hope is that the idea of universal voting becomes one of the planks.” Cat G. Huang, who attended the panel, praised the event for the “diversity of thinkers and moderators” it featured.She added, though, that she remains “skeptical of voting as a requirement.” “I would like to see how these policies actually play out,” she said. “We see a lot of great ideas happening in politics and policy and reform that either fall flat or can be taken to an extreme.”
Facebook.com/ TheHarvardCrimson
Harvard, 24/7.
The Crimson thecrimson.com
APRIL 15, 2022
HSPH FROM PAGE 1
HSPH Launces Cancer Website information. “Things like this, the Cancer FactFinder, are important because people can often get fatigued in hearing about things that are bad for them — to the point where they’re like, ‘I don’t believe anything, and I’m just gonna do whatever,’” Mucci said. Rebbeck said local health advocates are an integral part of the Cancer FactFinder team. “A lot of times, we in academia or in the hospital medical care system, think we know a lot that [is] going on,” Rebbeck said. “But we don’t always know, first of all, what people need to hear and how they need to hear it — what kinds of mes
sages are useful or not useful.” Lydia Conley, the Zhu Family Center’s administrative director, said the team will share Cancer FactFinder with government organizations and health care centers as an informational resource. Rebbeck said he hopes to pursue additional public programming to help Cancer FactFinder reach a greater audience. “If you can find a spot that has the information that is accurate and believable, then that’s a starting point. It’s not, by any means, the end point,” Rebbeck said. “The second point is how you get people to listen — and that is a much bigger activity.”
SPORTS
WEEKEND EVENT
SCHEDULE
FRIDAY ______________________________________
SATURDAY ______________________________________
SUNDAY ______________________________________
Men’s Volleyball at George Mason 7 p.m., Fairfax, Va.
Women’s Tennis at Princeton 12:00 p.m., Princeton, N.J.
Sailing vs Central Fleet Race 4 Medford, Mass.
Men’s Lacrosse at Penn 3:30 p.m., Philadelphia, Penn.
Baseball at Columbia 12:00 p.m., New York, N.Y.
GOLF
Women’s Golf Places Second at Hoya Invitational By ERIGNACIO FERMIN PEREZ CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Harvard golf had a busy weekend, with the men going to Princeton, N.J. to compete in the Princeton Invitational, and the women traveling to Rockville, Md. to compete in the Hoya Invitational. The men’s team had some trouble getting into the swing of things, placing 13th out of 15 competitors at 31 over par. Princeton occupied the top two spots on the podium, with its A team claiming first place with a score of -7 to nudge out its B team by a stroke. Seton Hall came in third place, scoring even par. For head coach Kevin Rhoades’ squad, it marked a setback after a solid performance at its previous competition, Battle at Rum Pointe in Ocean City, Md., where the team came second out of 22 schools. “It has been a very positive year [with] a really talented team that continues to work really hard,” Rhoades said. “The outcome was certainly a big surprise and something that the guys were pretty disappointed in and pretty surprised by.” There were some bright spots, with junior Brian Isztwan’s four-under-par performance on Par 4s tying for the best in the tournament, but inconsistency in iron play and on the greens ultimately set the team back. “Driving [and] pitching were actually really good,” saidRhoads, highlighting areas that the team performed well in. “But, approaching and putting was tough.” Despite its struggles in New Jersey, the Crimson men hope to build off the strong momentum they earned in the fall, when a third place finish in the McDonald Cup was the worst overall placement the team recorded.
“I think their expectation was to compete,” Rhoads said. “When expectation is in a certain place and when we thought we would have a certain outcome and then when it was somewhere different than where they expected, it was hard.” Harvard will hope to learn from the setback as it approaches the final event of the season, the Ivy Championships, which will take place at Century Country Club in Purchase, N.Y., on April 22-24. “It might be the best thing that happened to us,” Rhoads noted. “[We need to] keep the good things that are in a good place, good, and keep the couple things that need cleaning up in the best place they can.” Meanwhile, the women’s team performed well at the Hoya Invitational, placing second overall with a final score of +55. The Crimson was narrowly edged out by Boston University, which finished four strokes ahead across three rounds. It was a strong performance for Harvard, especially given the treacherous scoring conditions presented by the weather at Woodmont Country Club. “It was really cold and really windy,” senior captain Anina Ku said. “But one thing that I think our team is really good at is being extremely resilient, and so because of that we were able to persevere and then eventually pull away in second as the best Ivy team.” After opening its spring campaign with a 3-2 loss in its first-ever February match, to Charleston Southern University on Feb. 19, the team has seen the benefits of its early start to the season. “It definitely helped us compare what we were doing practicing indoors with reality, with what was happening outside,”Ku stated. “That trip and
CAPTAIN KU Senior captain Anina Ku practices her chipping in 2018. This past weekend, Ku helped the Crimson finish second in the Hoya Invitational. COURTESY OF CONNER GRANT/HARVARD ATHLETICS
then our spring break trip definitely allowed us to arrive ready as we could for our first tournament and I think it has been making a big difference down the line.” The strong result this past weekend continues a trend for the Crimson, which has seen rapid improvements over the course of the season. Just two weeks ago, the
team finished dead last out of 16 teams at the PING/ASU Invitational in Tempe, Ariz. “We are an extremely self motivated team this year and, so as the captain, it’s definitely an incredibly easy group to work with just because everyone is so reflective on what they need to improve on,” Ku said. Harvard hopes to carry its momentum into the Ivy Cham-
pionships, when it will seek to defend its 2019 title and earn its ninth overall. The veteran head coach and his captain both expressed confidence that the Crimson will be ready for the tournament. “As long as we continue doing what we keep doing … to be as best as we can be by the two weeks, we are going to have a really good chance,” Ku said.
“Do the controllable things and feel good about that and try to let confidence grow and skill sets grow,” Rhoades added. “And we will be in our best place if we just take care of the little controllable things that we can do and let our confidence in those things take care of the result.” erignacio.ferminperez@thecrimson.com
SAILING
Battered by Injury, Harvard Beats the Odds at NEISA By BRAHM ERDMANN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
A breezy Charles River Basin hosted the NEISA Team Race Championships over the weekend, with an injury-riddled Harvard side overcoming adversity to place second in the 12team competition.
The Crimson, who finished the two-day regatta with a 11-5 record, won a 2/3rd sailoff vs. Dartmouth (11-5) on Sunday to finish in second behind Ivy league rival Yale (12-4). In a disjointed round one, which was halted on Saturday due to weather and completed on Sunday, Harvard went 8-3,
tied with Roger Williams (83) and sitting behind Yale (9-2) and Dartmouth (10-1). “The first day was the most chaotic day of sailing I’ve ever had,” said junior Chris Wang, who raced as crew in a boat skippered by senior Henry Burnes. “We only sailed five races… we were really distracted that
day because they were constantly calling people on and off.” Despite the frantic conditions, the Crimson came out of Saturday with three wins and only two losses against Dartmouth and Roger Williams. The remainder of round one on Sunday saw an improved
EPIC SAIL A two-woman boat of Crimson sailors competes in the New England Women’s Championship on April 20, 2019. Over the weekend, Harvard managed a second-place finish in the NEISA Team Race Championships. TIMOTHY R. O’MEARA—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
performance, with Harvard winning five races and only slipping up against Brown, a race which was mired by a bad start and numerous fouls. Shortly following round one was a tightly contested Final 6 round robin, where no team won more than three races. Harvard was one of the teams to do so, claiming victories against NEISA heavyweights Dartmouth, Yale and Tufts. A 3-2 record brought their cumulative record to 11-5 at the close of the second round, pitting them against Dartmouth (11-5) in a Sailoff for 2nd/3rd. Wang highlighted the significance of the Crimson’s win against Yale. “Yale is the number one ranked team in the entire nation, and we didn’t lose to them all weekend, which was really good,” Wang said.“Sticking to what we know, our playbook, what we practice consistently despite how competitive or intimidating the (opposing) team was…sailing to our potential allowed us to win.” Going into the sailoff, Harvard had the momentum on a stumbling Dartmouth team, who went 1-4 in the Final 6 racing after leading round one. After a long day of racing, the Crimson rallied one last time, winning 1-2-5 vs. 3-4-6 to finish the 2022 NEISA Team Championships in second place – just one win behind Yale. “We had all wanted to go to Yardfest at this point because it was already five o’clock…we all had a lot of stuff to do, but we pulled it together and we beat Dartmouth,” Wang said. With a second place finish on the weekend, Harvard put themselves in a strong position to be selected for the ICSA Team Race Championship after the first-place Bulldogs secured the lone automatic bid available.
The runner-up placing was a special moment for the team, which has had a tough run with injury this semester. “What was really satisfying about this weekend was that we had gone through this whole year dragging our feet in the mud, seeing more people get concussions, hip injuries, back injuries…we were out six of our best people,” Wang said. “And we did the best we have in 13 years.” Wang noted that in addition to overcoming an injured roster, the team witnessed their walkons step up to the plate. As a walk-on himself, he has had to step up to fill a role that would usually be a recruited position at counterpart schools like Yale and Dartmouth, according to Wang. He applauded his fellow walk-ons, such as first-year Alexandra Dorofeev and junior Cassia Lee, for stepping up in difficult conditions while many teammates are out of commission. Wang also had high praise for sophomore skipper Dylan Ascencios, who has come a long way for the program since being recruited. “I think Dylan has shown exceptional improvement this semester, and everyone has seen that because he and Alexandra have been going incredibly fast.” Wang attributed the weekend’s performance to the work ethic of the team. “We’ve been really accountable this season…having everyone fully committed to being as good as possible.” The Crimson will now await selection for the ICSA Team Race Championship, which will be hosted by Tulane University in New Orleans, L.A. on May 1618th. brahm.erdmann@thecrimson.com