The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873
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VOLUME CXLIX, NO. 57
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CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
| WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 2022
OP ED PAGE 4
SPORTS PAGE 6
SPORTS PAGE 6
Pre-term course registration is the enemy of liberal education
Women’s tennis fell to Princeton, ending a conference winning streak
Fencers reflect on second place finish at Division I championships
Students Run the Boston Marathon Brick Art Project Pops Up in Yard By VIVIAN ZHAO
CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
More than a dozen Harvard affiliates ran the 126th Boston Marathon on Monday, joining the 30,000 other athletes who raced the city’s iconic 26.2-mile course in front of hundreds of thousands of cheering spectators. The event is the oldest annually run marathon in the world — and one of the toughest to qualify for, requiring a qualifying time this year of 3 hours for men aged 18-34 and 3:30 for women in the same category. However, individuals running for specific charities are allowed to participate without meeting the threshold. “The crowd was just incredible, and I was just feeding off the energy of everyone along the way,” said Yao Yin ’23, who ran on Monday. Though Harvard holds class as normal on Patriots Day, most other Boston area schools take the day off, allowing college students to line the course, which snakes from the town of Hopkinton to Boylston St. in Boston. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Yin said. “It’s like the whole city went
SEE MARATHON PAGE 3
By CAROLINE E. CURRAN and SARA DAHIYA CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Throughout the month of April, student-carved bricks will sit in Harvard Yard as part of an art installation aiming to represent the role students play in shaping the University — from its physical campus to its academics, social life, and culture. Juniors Kiana N. Rawji ’23 and Cecilia Y. Zhou ’23, who created the installation, discussed the display alongside professor Tracy K. Smith at a Tuesday event entitled “Inclusions: Envisioning Justice on Harvard’s Campus.” Organized as a part of the Presidential Initiative on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery, the talk focused on the role of monuments as expressions of art and visual culture. From fall 2021 to February 2022, Rawji and Zhou provided Harvard students with bricks on which they could write messages in response to the prompt, “If these bricks could speak, what would they say, about Harvard, about you?” “We eventually settled on
Runners fill the streets for the 126th Boston Marathon, held annually on the third Monday of April. ZADOC I. N. GEE— CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
the idea of bricks as our foundational visual metaphor because it occurred to us that it is a built environment at Harvard that really kind of transcends the tenure of any particular student,” Zhou said Tuesday at the event. Rawji and Zhou said they wanted to highlight diverse and varied responses to the prompt, encouraging students to express their genuine feelings. “It was important to us to not pick and choose,” Rawji said. “We didn’t censor any of the bricks. Every brick that was made is up on our wall.” Zhou said they wanted their project to overcome “various shortcomings” in current monuments, which she said are often “vetted and determined by an authoritative body.” “We were thinking about turning the idea of the public monument on its head and decentering it,” Zhou said at the event. “We wanted to give students the ability to speak for themselves and represent themselves as they want to be
SEE BRICKS PAGE 3
Joe Kahn ’87 to Serve as Next HMS Editor of the New York Times Studies Diet and Sleep By YUSUF S. MIAN and CHARLOTTE P. RITZ-JACK CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
More than 36 years after he was elected president of The Harvard Crimson, Joseph F. Kahn ’87 is set to take over another storied American journalism institution: the New York Times. Kahn will take over as the Times’ next executive editor in June, succeeding Dean P. Baquet in its top post, the newspaper announced Tuesday. Kahn, a Boston native who graduated from Harvard College and received a master’s degree from the school in East Asian Studies, currently serves as the Times’ managing editor. He previously led its international section and won two Pulitzer Prizes as a reporter covering China. Kahn led The Crimson in 1986 after stints covering the University president and Harvard Medical School. As pres
Joe Kahn ‘87 is set to be the next executive editor of the New York Times starting June 2022. BY CELESTE SLOMAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
ident, he succeeded Jeffery A. Zucker ’86, the former CNN president who resigned earlier this year. “He was extremely hard-working — I don’t recall anyone working harder at The Crimson,” said David S. Hilzenrath ’87, who served as the newspaper’s managing editor while Kahn was president. Kahn edited his high school newspaper before enrolling at Harvard in 1983, where he studied History and lived in Mather House. At The Crimson, he earned a reputation as a serious and hard-working journalist. Jill E. Abramson ’76, who served as executive editor of the Times from 2011 to 2014, wrote in an email that Kahn is “brilliant and a great listener, a rare combination.” “It’s a tough job for sure, but my bet is that he will be a stellar Executive Editor,” wrote Abramson, who teaches in Harvard’s English Department. Kahn’s appointment to one
of journalism’s top jobs comes as the industry is grappling with how to reach an audience that is increasingly digitally oriented. As ME of the Times, he oversaw sweeping changes in the newspaper’s operations as it sought to optimize for online readership, instead of only its print edition. John N. Rosenthal ’87, who served as a News Board senior editor while Kahn was president, said, “We all knew this day would come.” “It was only a matter of time,” Rosenthal wrote in a text message. Other Crimson colleagues described Kahn as passionate and serious, even as an undergraduate. “He was very determined,” said Dahlia Weinman ’87, who served as one of The Crimson’s business managers during Kahn’s tenure. “He knew what he wanted and knew what he
SEE KAHN PAGE 3
HBS Affiliates Reflect on BGLTQ Identity By KATE DELVAL GONZALEZ and KENNETH C. MURRAY CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
A panel of seven queer-identifying Harvard Business School alumni discussed their experiences at the University and beyond at a panel hosted by the HBS PRIDE club and the Business School’s LGBT Alumni Association Tuesday evening. The seven panelists — Ellen W. Bossert, Megan N. Chann, Paula K. Cobb, Paul J. Donaher, Willis M. Emmons ’81, Reginald V. Lee, and Joseph D. Steele — described the difficulties they faced and continue to face as BGLTQ individuals within Harvard and the workforce. Cobb, who is the Chief Business Officer at Affinia Therapeutics, described their time at Harvard Business School as a “straight cocktail party” that was not as openly accepting of queer-identifying students. Many of the panelists added what it meant to live and work in predominantly non-BGLTQ
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Harvard Today 2
spaces, adding that some professors encouraged students to not disclose their sexual orientations at work. “It really didn’t work that well for me,” Bossert said of their decision not to discuss their identity at work. “Lacking that authenticity was really a problem, and what I thought was safety was really suffocation—and I [recognized] that over time.” But Lee said he had the opposite experience. “I was sort of careful in the early days, but I never represented myself as anything else,” he said. “My experience was not nearly as negative. I was a little concerned but then got very comfortable rather quickly and was embraced enough,” Lee said. Steele said that acceptance of queer identities in the workplace has increased in recent years but “there’s still a lot of
SEE HBS PAGE 3
News 3
Editorial 4
The Harvard Business School is located across the river on the Allston campus near Harvard’s athletic facilities. CHRIS HIDALGO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
Sports 6
TODAY’S FORECAST
SUNNY High: 57 Low: 37
By PAZ E. MEYERS CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Harvard Medical School researchers discovered that recurrent circadian disruption, which occurs in individuals with irregular sleep schedules, can cause reduced glucose tolerance when combined with a high-fat “Western-style” diet. The discovery builds on over a decade of research led by Charles Czeisler ’74, who serves as a professor in HMS’ Division of Sleep Medicine and teaches a widely popular General Education course on the science of sleep. The paper will appear in the May 2022 issue of the medical journal Metabolism. Previously, Czeisler’s lab had discovered that the combination of minimal sleep and an irregular sleep pattern disrupted glucose metabolism. This follow-up study was “meant to separate these two components to determine whether the impairment was mainly coming from the sleep restriction or from the circadian disruption,” according to Kirsi-Marja Zitting, the first author on the study. Czeisler explained that studying these two factors separately required performing two different experiments. The first of these was to limit the amount of sleep participants were allowed without disrupting their circadian rhythms, which surprisingly seemed to have little effect on glucose metabolism. “I was shocked that we didn’t see sleep restriction alone with minimized circadian disruption result in any adverse metabolic consequences,” Czeisler said. The second trial, which resulted in the publication of the Metabolism paper, aimed to do the opposite — to test the effect of an irregular sleep pattern alone, with minimal sleep restriction. The researchers also sought to determine whether participants’ glucose
SEE STUDY PAGE 3
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THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
APRIL 20, 2022
PAGE 2
HARVARD TODAY
For Lunch Asian BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich Beef Stroganoff BBQ Mindful Chicken Sandwich
For Dinner Grilled BBQ Pork Chop Locally Caught Fresh Fish Vegan Cassoulet
TODAY’S EVENTS Overcome Performance Anxiety Virtual Event, 2 p.m.-3 p.m.
IN THE REAL WORLD
At this virtual workshop, Wenhui Yang, LMHC, and Mason Blake will teach effective strategies for combating performance anxiety. They will utilize an evidence-based method called Acceptance Commitment Therapy to help you manage anxiety and perform your best! Hosted by CAMHS and HUHS.
Airlines Make Masking Optional
After the CDC’s transit masking rules were struck down on Monday, several airlines have made masking optional for both employees and passengers. The new policy applies to domestic flights, while the rules guiding airports and international travel remain more complicated. The White House announced Tuesday afternoon that it would be appealing the decision.
Holocaust Survivor Dies at Age 98
Study Hacks Finals Edition: Learning Strategies Academic Resource Center, 3 p.m.3:45 p.m. Finals are stressful. Head to the Academic Resource Center to learn the best study strategies to kill-it on your finals this semester. They will explore research for effective studying and cognition, as well as tactics to improve recollection skills.
Tourists and students walk through the yard on a cold, windy Tuesday. CHRIS HIDALGO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
AROUND THE IVIES YALE: Survey Reveals Strong Feelings of Exclusion Among Marginalized Groups in Yale’s Math Department —THE YALE DAILY NEWS
PENN: Businesses and Residents File a Lawsuit Against Philadelphia’s Reinstated
This information session will provide all the need-to-know information regarding the Fulbright Scholarship. Come to learn about English teaching opportunities abroad! Hosted by the Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.
Mask Mandate —THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN
Promising Vaccine That Will Combat Covid-19 Variants
Moderna announced that they are developing a new version of their Covid-19 vaccine to protect against additional variants. In preliminary results, the vaccine successfully targeted the original strain and the beta variant of the virus. The vaccine is awaiting review from independent scientists.
CORNELL: Ithaca First City to Achieve Union Across All Starbucks, Negotiations to Follow —THE CORNELL DAILY SUN PRINCETON: Amid Pride Alliance Advocacy for Housing Accommodations, New Dorms Will Include Gender-Inclusive Bathrooms —THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
COVID UPDATES
CAMPUS LAST 7 DAYS CURRENTLY
Introduction to the Fulbright Scholarship Currier House Fishbowl, 7 p.m.
Iby Knill died on Easter Sunday, the same day she was freed from the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in April of 1945, 77 years ago. A well-known speaker and author, she was awarded the British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Honours list in 2017. This honor was awarded to Mrs. Knill in recognition of her hands-on service to the community.
334 In Isolation
548 1.98% Total New Cases
Positivity Rate
LAST 7 DAYS
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ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY Record Number of Women Declare CS
Although still predominantly male, the computer science concentration made important strides towards addressing the gender divide. According to statistics from the concentration, 41 percent of sophomore concentrators were female, marking a new record for the discipline. April 20, 2011
In Historic Move, Harvard Teaching and Research Assistants Vote to Unionize The results of a unionization election held April 18 and 19 showed 1,931 ballots cast in favor and 1,523 against establishing a union for teaching and research assistants. The result reversed the outcome of the University’s previous Nov. 2016 unionization election, which showed more votes against unionization than in favor. April 20, 2018
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
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Blog Chairs Ellen S. Deng ’23-’24 Janani Sekar ’23-’24
Technology Chairs Ziyong Cui ’24 Justin Y. Ye ’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.
Night Editor Andy Z. Wang ’22-23
Design Editors Camille G. Caldera ’22
Assistant Night Editors Anne M. Brandes ’25 Audrey M. Apollon ’24
Photo Editor Addison Y. Liu ’25
Story Editors Jasper G. Goodman ’23 Kelsey J. Griffin ’23 Taylor C. Peterman ’23-’24 Kevin A. Simauchi ’21-’22
Editorial Editor Guillermo S. Hava ’23-’24 Sports Editor William Connaughton ’22’23
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 |
APRIL 20, 2022
KAHN FROM PAGE 1
Joe Kahn ’87 to Serve as Next NYT Executive Editor thought was right.” Former Crimson senior editor Peter J. Howe ’86 said Kahn commanded respect from “the various jostling factions within the simmering Yugoslavia that was The Crimson of the mid1980s.” “Even as a 19- and 20-yearold, Joe Kahn reeked of competence and unflappability,” Howe wrote in an email. Former Crimson Managing Editor Michael W. Hirschorn ’86 said in college, Kahn projected “a level of maturity and seriousness of purpose” that was rare among his peers. “He’s not even remotely political,” Hirschorn said. “One of the reasons I think he ended up doing well is that,
in a world where everybody is jockeying for a position or working angles, he just kept his head down and did the work,” he added. In a 1986 interview with C-SPAN while he was serving as president of The Crimson, Kahn was asked about his future ambitions. “I hope to try my hand at journalism — print journalism — for some time. I won’t be happy until I do, I think,” he said. “I hope that being in this position will allow me the opportunity to try it at an organization which is entertaining,” Kahn added. yusuf.mian@thecrimson.com charlotte.ritz-jack@thecrimson.com
Joseph F. Kahn ’87, caricatured in a 1986 drawing that hangs in The Crimson’s newsroom. DAVID ROYCE / THE HARVARD CRIMSON ARCHIVES
Joe Kahn ‘87 served as President of the Harvard Crimson during his undergraduate years. ADDISON Y. LIU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
MARATHON FROM PAGE 1
SLEEP FROM PAGE 1
Harvard Students Run Marathon
HMS Researchers Study Diet, Sleep
went out and dartied all day,” she added. Yin was one of five Harvard affiliates who ran the marathon with the Harvard College Marathon Challenge, which has raised over $832,000 for charity since its founding in 2005. This year, HCMC runners collectively raised $18,000 to benefit Harvard’s Phillips Brooks House Association. Margaret F. Cote ’23 and Daisy W. Williams ’23 both ran for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. “We were surrounded by other people as we were running that were also running for other charities,” Cote said. “It’s just really empowering to see what people will do for other people that they love or causes they support.” Williams said Monday was “the best day of my life.”
“I feel more connected with my network now after asking for support and seeing who comes through for you,” Williams said. Kaya L. Lolar ’25 ran alongside her mom and grandfather
It was such an incredible day that I would 100 percent do it again. Rachel L. Greenwood Harvard Student
while being filmed for a Boston Museum of Science documentary. “They wanted this multi-generational team of runners to be able to run so they can document our experience,” Lo-
HBS FROM PAGE 1
lar said. “My grandfather used to run tons of marathons and he was kind of going for speed, but my mom and I were there more for the experience,” she added. Other students ran for organizations including the Travis Roy Foundation, the American Red Cross, and the Boston Athletics Association. Monday marked the first time since 2019 that the marathon was held on Patriots Day, as is tradition. The race was canceled in 2020 and held late in October in 2021 due to high case rates. Elysia W. Li ’22, who ran with the Marathon Challenge, participated in the race less than two weeks after contracting Covid. “Coming out of Covid, I was very aware of not pushing past my limit. I just took the first part
very slowly,” she said. Michael Z. Chen ’23 said the pandemic helped motivate him to run the marathon. “Covid makes you realize that time is short, and you shouldn’t push off your goals until you are ‘ready,’ because no one is ever really ready to run a marathon,” Chen said. Rachel L. Greenwood ’22 ran the race for Travis Roy Foundation — named after the Boston University hockey player who was paralyzed during a game at age 19. Roy died in October 2020. “I still remember the pain of the last five miles,” Greenwood said. “But then I also know that, overall, it was such an incredible day that I would 100 percent do it again,” she said. vivian.zhao@thecrimson.com
metabolism would be impacted by the fat content of their diets. “ We found that the impairment in glucose metabolism
We think nothing of the fact that people stay up until three o’clock in the morning on weekends. Charles Czeisler ’74 HMS Professor
was in participants who were exposed to circadian disruption while on a high-fat diet, but not in participants who were exposed to circadian disrup-
tion but who consumed a low fat diet,” Zitting said. Czeisler stressed some of the potential impacts of this study for people who often have irregular sleep schedules. “We think nothing of the fact that people stay up until three o’clock in the morning on weekends, and then try to get up at at six o’clock in the morning during the week and do this bouncing back and forth, and all these things that we do as if we can just shift our circadian timing and our sleep/wake schedule, and not have any adverse consequences,” he said. “But these data show that that’s not the case.” paz.meyers@thecrimson.com
BRICKS FROM PAGE 1
Brick Art HBS Alums Share BGLTQ Experiences Installed in [fear] around being out.” “It’s kind of cool to be able to be v isible in an organization that’s maybe not as culturally accepting as some others,” Chann added. Donaher, a former marketing director at Apple, said that
It is so important that the stories be passed down. Willis M. Emmons ’81 HBS Senior Lecturer
he has focused on making sure that new BGLTQ hires feel welcome and aware of the contributions of earlier generations. “I think it is so important that the stories be passed down, that people never lose sight of before,” he said. Emmons, now a senior lec-
turer at the Business School, recalled setting up an AIDS Awareness Day at HBS to raise awareness of HIV, discrimination, and other issues facing the queer community. “One of the things I felt very strongly about is we really needed to be able to talk about [the AIDS crisis] within the curriculum,” he said. The panelists closed the discussion by speaking about the responsibility that Harvard Business School and its students have to promote the inclusion of queer individuals. “We all just have to recognize how much of a privilege it is to study here — and how much of an influence we will all have in the places that we work,” Chann said. “Use this time when you were at HBS to really speak up,” Emmons told audience members.
Yard
remembered.” The project is the first of five public art installations that will be put on display next week as a part of the annual Arts First festival, which showcases hundreds of student performances and exhibitions over a period of four days. “We were really interested in this idea of interrogating public memory, but also in cultivating public imagination,” Rawji explained.. “And we wondered what it would look like if you put student minds together to create something that stood for what we believe, what we found out as an institution, what we have valued, and where it has brought us — and that’s brought us to bricks.” caroline.curran@thecrimson.com sara.dahiya@thecrimson.com
From Weeks to Weld.
The Crimson thecrimson.com
THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
APRIL 20, 2022
PAGE 4
EDITORIAL OP-ED
OP-ED
Harvard’s Omission of an APIDA Commencement is Telling
The Enemy of Liberal Education
By WILL HUANG
W
hen I received an email on March 21 from the Assistant Director of Student Services and Commencement Coordinator at Harvard Kennedy School about registering for the University-wide Affinity Graduation Ceremonies, I opened it with a sense of cautious optimism. Over the past few years, members of the Asian/Pacific Islander/Desi American (APIDA) community at Harvard have been unable to escape the litany of anti-Asian hate incidents that predated, but were exacerbated by, the Covid-19 pandemic. In the wake of the Atlanta-area spa shootings in March 2021 that left eight people dead (including six women of Asian descent), a group of HKS students organized a candlelight vigil to provide a space for reflection, education, and solidarity. There seemed to be growing acknowledgement of both the microaggressions and larger systemic obstacles that members of the APIDA community faced on a daily basis. In this context, a Harvard APIDA affinity graduation ceremony would serve as a respite of joy and connection before graduates left the Harvard bubble.I scanned the email for the full list of ceremonies: Black Graduation; Latinx Graduation; Next Gen (First Generation Low Income+) Graduation; Lavender (LGBTQ+) Graduation; and Native American and Indigenous Graduation. In total, five affinity graduation ceremonies were listed, but one specifically for APIDA students was not among them.That’s odd, I thought as I reread the list. The administration was usually competent at ensuring that emails addressed to the entire student body were vetted by a number of people for typos and factual inaccuracies before they were sent. I estimated that it would take two to three business days
for a follow-up email to be sent with an updated total of six affinity celebrations and a short apology. That follow-up email never arrived. It slowly dawned on me that the omission of a Harvard APIDA affinity graduation ceremony in the March 21 email was not accidental — it was intentional. There would not be an APIDA affinity graduation ceremony, and I therefore didn’t need to create a hold in my calendar for one. Over the following weeks, I experienced a wave of different emotions. Anger was the first. Sadness quickly followed. Eventually, the overwhelming feeling that lingered was resignation. After all, the omission of the graduation ceremony fit into a larger American narrative that those in the APIDA community are model minorities who need few, if any, institutional services and resources. The model minority myth projects the idea that those within the APIDA community are uniquely capable among people of color of pulling themselves out of poverty without relying on costly social services from the government. This myth serves two purposes: It drives a wedge between APIDA and other BIPOC communities by pitting groups of color against one another, and it offers a convenient justification for largely ignoring the real social and economic needs of a diverse and heterogeneous population. In my hometown of New York City, for example, a 2015 report from the Asian American Federation found that while APIDAs make up close to 15 percent of the city’s population, only 1.4 percent of city-based agency contracts were awarded to Asian American social services providers over the past 13 years. This resource disparity persisted despite the fact that 20.8 percent of APIDAs in New York City lived below the city’s official poverty threshold of $36,262, according to a 2019 city report. The racial dispar-
ities behind the allocation of social services in America’s largest city is a prominent example of how the model minority myth is put into practice. Myths are very difficult to dispel, particularly when they exist to reinforce the existing structures of power, privilege, and resource allocation in our society. What, then, can be done to address racial inequities on the Harvard campus? Drawing public attention helps, such as what Harvard College student Matteo N. Wong ’22 did last year on Twitter when the school gaslit APIDA students on its Anti-Asian Racism Resources webpage with an online post that read in part, “You may wish that you weren’t Asian, but remember that your ancestors likely went through similar or even worse incidents.” After Matteo’s story was picked up by national press outlets, the offending post was removed from the school’s webpage. In the spirit of One Harvard, a diverse coalition of student groups and organizations from across the graduate schools is petitioning the administration to dedicate an on-campus venue, staff, and financial resources to a graduation ceremony for APIDA-identifying graduates in 2022 and in subsequent years. To date, over 25 student groups and more than four hundred community members have signed the petition. The unfortunate reality of American society today is that many APIDA graduates will face unconscious biases, microaggressions, and structural barriers to advancement in their lives due to their racial and ethnic identity. By working together to advocate for the needs of APIDA students, we can ensure these do not occur during this year’s Commencement festivities.
had met with on that day. It may be impossible to know the precise words spoken — or the specificities of the exchanges that transpired — within the walls of this private administrative meeting. But the meeting was a veritably unfriendly gesture; not a form of outreach, but instead a nebulous challenge. Such challenges ultimately present themselves as a stab at, rather than a source of, student success — and this unsupported feeling doesn’t seem to slip by the students that they reach. “I want to succeed,” Nikki wrote in the same email following that mid-January meeting. “I can succeed, and I am determined to do it with or without your support. But it would be a lot more enjoyable with your support, so please allow me to move forward.” From a bird’s eye view, the clash between Harvard’s actual leave of absence procedures, and the student dialogue surrounding them, presents something of a puzzle: While only one percent of Harvard College leave of absences are involuntary, students have long complained that the leave of absence process is unyielding, and ridden with coercion. Through the years, these individual student impressions begin to coalesce – piling up to create a well-fortified, heavily stacked divide with University administrators and HUHS staff on one side, and vulnerable students on the other. The lens through which each actor looks at each other is changed by the leave of absence process. Students look through the glass and see an administration that seems not to understand them — and also seems to have little interest in fostering these understandings. At the same time, HUHS and the University, guided too heavily by technical print and too sparingly by unadulterated thought, seem to view each student as an on-paper personality at best — and as a liability, or a potential problem, at worst. At Harvard, administrative attempts to resolve this mistrust often start with a gesture towards these basic metrics — the tacit insinuation being that these particular fears are grounded in the exaggeration of procedural rarities. The real resolution to this fragmented mosaic, though, is not a nudge towards the numbers — but instead, through active recognition that departure is not the only stage of the leave of absence process that can become tainted by coercive, confusing moves; and by seeking to alter the aging, souring patterns of action that University metrics and aggregations do not reflect, but which have, for years, served to push students away. —Gemma J. Schneider ’23 is a Crimson Associate Editorial editor. Her column, usually runs on alternating Tuesdays.
—Harry R. Lewis ’68 is the Gordon McKay Research Professor of Computer Science and former Dean of Harvard College.
—Will Huang is a second-year Master in Public Policy student at the Kennedy School and the Co-Chair of the HKS Asian American and Pacific Islander Caucus.
The Involuntary Hurdles of a Voluntary Leave of Absence
N
ina Skov Jensen’s leave of absence from Harvard in February 2022 was, on paper, an informed, voluntary choice. Yet, only months after the decision was finalized, Jensen — now over 3,500 miles away from the College — looks back at the entire process as an experience painted by discrete degradations of her autonomy. After seeking support from University administrators to navigate a set of then undiagnosed physical symptoms, Nina was advised via email to consider a leave of absence. The email stated that Harvard made the leave process “quite easy.” While it mentioned in passing the need for “consultation and clearance” after the leave, it also hinted at the prospect of a swift return, going as far as noting that Nina would have the opportunity to “block with friends” when she came back to Harvard. But nowhere in the text — nor, for that matter, in the subsequent exchanges that I managed to track down — was there any detailed account of the gap sitting between these two junctures. Just two days after the incomplete initial email, Nina was on a flight home to Denmark. Five days later, Nina received the first of many surprises from the University in the form of a succinct, one-line email with six pages of attached documents. Through them, she learned that the Administrative Board had assigned her a University Health Services rider, a collection of requirements, both personal and medical, that must be completed in order to return to campus. Embedded within these conditions was a work requirement of at least six months, as well as word of a slew of procedural obstacles which would precede her re-entry to the College. Later, she was also charged 25 percent of tuition for her one-week stint of a semester. This mismatch between the communication which preceded Nina’s leave and that which came to her once she was already across the globe is not just disorienting, but a misleading and disempowering dynamic; a seeming snatch at students’ agency and means to make informed choices about their academic and health trajectories, and the way in which they converge. “I like to think of it as me signing a contract without knowing any of the terms,” Nina wrote in an email. Through such small withholdings of knowledge, and subtle informational omissions like these, the University subtly undermines students’ capacity to entirely understand the agreements into which they are entering upon their departures from the College.
Such omissions might not be the formal rule when it comes to informing students about the particular details of their leave of absence from the College. But they’re hardly rare exceptions either: A student who I spoke with last month on the condition of anonymity told me that they only learned of the requirements and demands of the return process — some of which, like the UHS work requirement, required months of pre-emptive planning — after her mother stumbled upon the guidelines during a spontaneous online perusal. Nikki M. Daurio, who first declared a mental health-linked leave of absence from the College in fall 2016, alleges that she received word of her UHS rider in the mail an entire month after this declaration. If not for serendipitous happenstance, this late retrieval of news would have completely tarnished Nikki’s plans for a timely return: She alleges that she was presented with a seven month-long work requirement only six months before her desired return date; a problem that was rendered null only because Nikki had independently begun volunteer work over a month prior to this news. These early communicative lapses begin to chip away at the prospect of a timely and smooth return to campus. But as the process progresses, these quiet obstructions not only begin to pile up, but evolve, transmuting into barriers that are more overt — and more disruptive — in tenor. “It’s the easiest thing to leave Harvard,” Nikki reflected. “But it’s the hardest thing to be let back in.” Nikki’s petitioning process for a return – which took place after eight months of therapeutic work recovering from a period of depression – is in fact emblematic of the questionable and counterintuitive character of the College’s mountainous barriers to re-entry. In a mandatory phone interview with HUHS on January 4, 2017, Nikki learned that she would not be able to attend her wintersession classes on their stated start date of January 14th. But Nikki alleges that no mention was made of any date upon which she could — or could not — return to campus. Yet after Nikki settled onto campus on January 14 — and did not attend her wintersession class as directed — she was flagged for an additional review; under the premise that, by arriving on campus on this date, she had violated the conditions of her return. At the meeting which followed this notice, Nikki’s January 14 return to campus was construed as a sign of instability — and, she alleges, so were her subsequent tears: “Yes I cried during our meeting today, but that is not a sign of instability or weakness,” Nikki wrote in an email to the administrators whom she
W
hile thinking about the faculty vote, anticipated for this Spring, to shift Harvard College to a system of previous-term course registration, I remembered a faculty discussion about general education. Should requirements be distributed across fields of knowledge, or were some subjects more important than others? Or was it wrong to organize by content at all — would it perhaps be a better idea to teach scientists how humanists think, and vice versa? One colleague offered a simple principle cutting through such abstractions: “We should teach them what we do.” Education, he argued, emerges from the offerings of faculty and academic departments. The mission and scope of the University is the aggregated expertise of the faculty, so we should get the students to follow us as we ply our scholarly trade. Previous-term registration would be, at long last, the victory of this faculty-centric view of education. Caricatures of the preregistration debate are available to suit the audience. One poses it as a battle between administrative convenience and student liberty. Another has it as institutional dedication to high-quality education faced off against student pettiness and unreliability. It’s hard to get past the rhetoric and hypocrisy on both sides without going back to first principles. What is college for? Without any apparent forethought, Harvard has for years been on a path to change its answer to that question. Previous-term registration is another step. Harvard’s view used to be that undergraduate education was about discovery. Students are admitted to no department or major; they have the entire first year and more to learn about academic offerings and to settle on a concentration. It has been considered a mark of personal growth to choose a concentration different from the one on your Harvard application. And under the Harvard model, a concentration was not the defining center of undergraduate education anyway. A liberal education — an education on becoming a free adult — was a voyage of self-discovery. Its success could not be judged by college honors; it could be evaluated only at the end of life. Education was, as President James B. Conant put it, what was left after everything that had been learned was forgotten. Classroom learning was only a piece of this liberal education; for many Harvard students, however much they may have valued their academic experience, extracurriculars were more meaningful experiences. My own career began as a term-time job — I had never touched a computer until I fibbed my way into a programming job in William James Hall. I am far from unique in this scenario: Our understanding of life inside Russia today is heavily informed by a New York Times reporter who cut his teeth writing for The Crimson about general education. Graduate education is sharply different. Given the need to earn a living in their chosen métier, graduate students must be trained according to professional standards; students of the professions need constraint, not freedom. This view of education as training has, by degrees, crept into the College. Social forces — questions about the value of higher education, anxiety about financial security, the national student debt crisis (its limited impact on Harvard graduates notwithstanding) — have further contributed to a careerist view of college. Previous-term registration is the natural extension of this career-focused approach to undergraduate education. Especially for first-year students, preregistration makes educational sense only if you think students should arrive knowing what they want to study and college should help them study it. The faculty-centric view of undergraduate education, that the purpose of university education is for faculty to teach students what we do, is also aligned with previous-term registration. It’s not only the scientists who can be charged with treating curious undergraduates as committed acolytes of their discipline. Professors in the social sciences or humanities who greet students searching for meaning in life with lessons on the esoteric vocabulary of their scholarly field are transferring the spirit of their graduate program into undergraduate education. Some will find me the hypocrite here — isn’t the growth in the applied sciences the biggest factor in the professionalization of the college? It’s not so simple. The serendipity that brought many Computer Science students to the field will, regrettably, be rarer in the future, but SEAS will have no enrollment problems under previous-term registration. The consequences for the humanities will be far worse. For every prospective English concentrator who stays in the field because concentration preferences will be stickier under preregistration, two will not show up in English courses at all, they and their families having focused, at home over the summer before their first year, on the importance of courses they associate with material return. Search algorithms will guide them straight to the courses featuring the right words — no worries about distraction by academic curiosity. Other algorithms will efficiently ration the seats in capped courses among the petitioning students. Previous-term registration will make matters cleaner and more orderly; no more messy experiences like the one that a few years ago horrified a student newly arrived from France. What I considered joyful first-week energy he thought appallingly disrespectful, with students lugging their bicycles through the classroom while I was lecturing. “Welcome to Harvard, and to America,” I told him. “You can do what you want here, and that is the way we like it.”
COLUMN
Gemma J. Schneider WILTED WELLBEING
By HARRY R. LEWIS
PAGE 5
Harvard, 24/7.
The Crimson thecrimson.com
THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
APRIL 20, 2022
SPORTS
WEEKLY RECAP
SCORES
BASEBALL VS. MERRIMACK COLLEGE W, 18-2 ___________________________________________________________
WOMEN’S WATER POLO VS. BROWN W, 10-6 ___________________________________________________________
MEN’S TENNIS VS. PENN W, 5-0 ___________________________________________________________
WOMEN’S LACROSS VS. COLUMBIA W, 14-8 ___________________________________________________________
MEN’S VOLLEYBALL VS. GEORGE MASON W, 3-0 __________________________________________________________
SAILING NE WOMEN’S DINGHY CHAMPIONSHIP 6TH ___________________________________________________________
MEN’S LACROSSE VS. PENN L, 11-8 ___________________________________________________________
FENCING
Harvard Champions Reflect on Second Place at NCAAs By HANNAH BEBAR CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Harvard fencing traveled to the campus of Notre Dame in Indiana to compete in this year’s NCAA Division I fencing Championships from March 25 to March 28 and came home with two individual sabre champions and an overall second place team finish. Led by Junior captain Elizabeth Tartakovsky and sophomore captain Filip Dolegiewicz, the team’s second place finish was their best result since 2006. On the women’s side, Tartakovsky came out of the gates strong, fencing in women’s sabre, alongside her teammates freshman Emily Vermeule and sophomore Greata Candreva in women’s epee, and freshman Lauren Scruggs and sophomore Annora Lee in women’s foil. Tartakovsky was the only Harvard fencer who has had previous NCAAs experience, as the event was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic and the Ivy League season was canceled in 2021. After a third place individual finish her freshman year, Tartakovsky returned to the pinnacle of collegiate athletics with high expectations high for herself, but a greater belief in her team. “We were all excited. I had high expectations because I placed third my freshman year... but I came back and wanted to do better,” said Tartakovsky. “I think everyone that didn’t have NCAAs before really stepped up in terms of their energy, supporting each other, and all the preparation that we did.” The women set the stage in the first two days of competition with excellent performances all around. Each fencer competed in twenty-three matches and the top four finishers with the best records then fenced in the final four semifinal bracket. These short matches only go up to five points. The Crimson came out with strong results on day one and two of competition. Tartakovsky led the charge with a
18-5 record and +31 touch-differential, landing herself a fourth place seed heading into the semifinal round. A standout performance from Vermeule left her with an 18-5 record and a +25 differential in women’s epee moving onto the semifinal round. Day two did not disappoint. Tartakovsky faced off against the number one seed in the semifinal. “In those final four matches, you fence up to fifteen. It is a much longer match with a lot of changes in momentum. Someone goes up, then someone goes down,” explained Tartakovsky. She accepted this challenge as an underdog in rankings, but came out victorious after defeating fellow Ivy League competitor, junior Maia Chamberlain of Princeton, 15-13. She went on to win the individual sabre national title, defeating Atara Greenbaum of Notre Dame 15-10. Vermeule finished second place overall, achieving this impressive feat as a freshman. The Crimson totaled four top-ten finishes amongst the women and an overall record of 76-39. After a stunning women’s performance, it was time for days three and four of competition featuring the men’s side. Both the women and men needed to perform well to combine for the overall team championship results, and they did just that. After the third day of competition, the first day for the men, the Crimson sat in third place overall with Dolegiewicz and first-year James Chen leading the charge in men’s sabre and men’s foil, respectively. “[You must] keep your head straight and stay focused the entire time because if you lose a bout or two in the first phase of the tournament it is very easy to get discouraged,” Dolegiewicz reflected. Overall, the sophomore sabre fencer felt he was able to manage his nerves and take it match by match leading up to the final day of competition. Dolegiewicz, the No. 2 seed, recount-
MAKING HISTORY Junior co-captain Elizabeth Tartakovsky and sophomore co-captain Filip Dolegiewicz led the team to its best finish since 2006 at NCAA Nationals. OWEN A. BERGER—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
ed the change in atmosphere as he was headed into the semifinal round. “They [the final two matches] were in a different arena, the same place where Notre Dame basketball plays. It was really cool because there was a jumbotron playing replays and a massive area where my parents and my team were sitting,” Dolegiewicz stated. He then explained that it was not all smooth-sailing in these final matches. “The first semifinal match started off pretty poorly. I was very nervous. I went down 7 to 3 in the first part of the match,” Dolegiewicz confessed.
However, humbly and simply put right after this statement, Dolegiewicz conceded that he went on an astounding 12 to 1 point run. Only uphill from there, he won 15-11 in the final match, earning the individual NCAA men’s sabre championship title. Fellow sabre fencer Mitchell Saron fenced hish way to a fourth place finish with a string of excellent performances. In men’s foil, James Chen battled his way to a third place overall finish. The Crimson finished as the NCAA Championship Runner-Up, a historic achievement. Dolegiewicz knew that his accomplishments could not
have been possible without the unconditional support from his teammates and his parents. He expressed that he is especially grateful for his assistant coach, Eli Dershwitz, for pushing him to reach his potential this season. “Learning from him is an incredible experience. Having him as a training partner every single day at Harvard really helped me improve my fencing throughout the entire season,” Dolegiewicz said. Tartakovsky and Dolegiewicz will return to fence for the Crimson next year, with high expectations for the season and also at the internation-
al level. “It would be nice to repeat the NCAA win of course. Outside of the NCAA, I have aspirations to make the Olympic team,” said Tartakovsky. “The 2024 Olympics are not that far away and I’m hoping to give that another chance.” Tartakovsky traveled to the Tokyo Olympics this past year as a training partner. Fueled by her preparation and dedication, her Olympic dream becomes more real every day. As for Dolegiewicz, he will return next year with similar aspirations on the collegiate and international stage.
WOMEN’S TENNIS
Conference Win Streak Comes to Close After Defeats By LAURA CONNOR CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The Harvard women’s tennis team entered the Cordish Family Pavilion and Lenz Tennis Center in Princeton, N.J. ready to fight, quickly securing the doubles point. Despite the team’s initial momentum, the No. 72 Crimson lost each singles match to No. 50 Princeton
and finished the overall match 1-4. The match was reminiscent of the teams’ previous meeting in February, when Princeton defeated Harvard 4-0 in the finals of the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championships. “We came up a little short today,” said head coach Traci Green. “We have to give it to Princeton because they played
a very solid match from start to finish.” While Princeton (9-10, 4-1 Ivy League) was certainly solid throughout the match, the Crimson (12-9, 3-2) managed to defeat the Tigers in its first two matches. First-year Angel You and sophomore Sany Gawande won their first set decisively at the three seed, taking the first four
consecutive games and finishing the set 6-3. The pair defeated a conspicuously strong Princeton team that included Daria Frayman, who is ranked No. 1 in singles by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. Once junior Mihaela Marculescu and first-year Rachel Arbitman dominated Princeton’s second-seeded doubles team 6-2, Harvard secured the dou-
STRONG COMPETITION Following an undefeated 3-0 start in the Ivy League, Harvard fell to Princeton and Penn in back-to-back contests, despite strong fight from a young Crimson squad. OWEN A. BERGER—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
bles point. “I’m really proud of our doubles today and all our young players, the way they stepped up,” Green shared. “I’m hopeful that we learned many important lessons to help us push through the rest of our season.” The team took its losses in singles as learning experiences. Junior Sophia Ho was unsuccessful in her singles contest against the No. 1 ranked Frayman, which she lost 6-1, 6-2. Similarly, You lost her singles match in two straight sets, 6-4, 6-1. While she put up a strong fight, first-year Holly Fischer was defeated at the four-seed, 6-3, 6-4, and Marculescu’s singles match was cut short after the team’s four consecutive losses. “It just depends day to day,” Marculescu explained. “We obviously played great in doubles, and we won really fast, which was amazing. Regarding singles, every match was very close. There were a couple of close calls, but it really depends on the day, who wins and who loses.” The Princeton match was one of two Ivy League games for the Crimson this weekend, both on the road. The team looked to redeem this loss and continue its success in the conference in its contest against Penn the following day. “I was really proud of the way our team fought on the court,” said Green about the match against Princeton. “We need to do a better job of staying aggressive throughout the match. I think we learned a lot from
this match, and we’re ready to rebound tomorrow.” Marculescu was similarly optimistic heading into the team’s match against Penn. “We have a great chance at winning, even though we suffered quite a tough loss today,” the junior said. “I definitely believe in my team and our potential, and I’m sure that we are going to do a great job and put it all out there.” Despite its persistence after the Princeton defeat, Harvard could not secure the win against Penn on Sunday. The Crimson suffered another 4-1 defeat in Philadelphia, bringing its 3-0 Ivy League record at the start of the weekend to 3-2. While the team surrendered the doubles point against Penn, You picked up a win at the No. 5 singles spot, earning the Crimson one point in the overall match. Although the weekend outcome was not as Harvard anticipated, the team emphasized its resilience and tight-knit relationship and will continue to fight in its upcoming Ivy League contests. “I think the greatest thing about our team is how tight we are — we are a family, supporting each other no matter what,” Marculescu said. “There are a couple players who are injured or have other struggles at times, but everyone is there for them no matter what. The support is absolutely incredible and I can’t compare it to any other team or any other experience.” The Crimson returns to Cambridge, for its contest against Brown on Friday, April 22 at 1:00pm.