The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873
|
VOLUME CXLIX, NO. 60
|
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
|
MONDAY, APRIL 25, 2022
EDITORIAL PAGE 4
NEWS PAGE 5
SPORTS PAGE 6
We’re heartened to see workers experience being students at Harvard
Activists rally against Harvard’s former investments in Brazilian land
Meet Lauren Scruggs, foil’s newest junior female champion
HKS Students Report Financial Aid Issues Six Pairs After HKS overhauled its admissions Runing and financial aid teams, students and exstaff say the services have suffered. to Lead the HUA efforts to attract the best students.” “This new enrollment serW hen the Harvard Kennevices approach will better serve dy School announced it would prospective, admitted, and enoverhaul the structure of its rolled students by providing admissions and financial aid holistic support and consisteams in July 2021, the school tent stewardship prior to and said it sought to “better serve throughout their studies at the prospective, admitted, and en- Kennedy School,” Isaacson rolled students.” wrote in an email to HKS affilThe reorganization merged iates that day. But in interviews conducted HKS’ admissions team with its financial aid team, laying off al- over the past month, 18 current most all of its enrollment ser- and former HKS students said vices staff. that response times to inquiBut nine months after the ries have increased, personal change was implemented, stu- relationships with financial aid dents say the quality of services officers have disappeared, and provided by the newly-joined funding disbursements have office has gotten markedly been delayed in the months worse. since the changes were impleWhen the Kennedy School mented. The restructuring, announced the restructuring more than a dozen students on July 15, 2021, the school’s se- said, has often left them in the nior associate dean for degree dark about the state of loans, fiprograms and student affairs, nancial aid, and other basic stuDebra E. “Debbie” Isaacson, dent services. wrote to staffers that the shift SEE HKS PAGE 3 would “further strengthen our By MILES J. HERSZENHORN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
More than half the candidates in the first HUA presidential election previously served on the UC. By J. SELLERS HILL CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Keshavjee and Resident Dean Charles “Chip” Lockwood announced a “space for reflection” event which invited students to discuss the article. They said the statues — located in Westmorly Court’s A entryway — will stay covered until 2023 renovations. Five days earlier, on April 10, a loose panel was removed from the fireplace’s octagonal encasing, exposing a few of the sculptures. Several paper signs were taped to the panels, all reading “What’s under there?” By the next morning, the signs were gone and the removed panel was replaced and screwed down. In their email, the deans said the carvings will remain encased until Westmorly Court is renovated in spring 2023. The deans acknowledged the sculpture’s racist nature, writing that they are
Six pairs of candidates have unveiled campaigns to lead Harvard College’s newly-adopted student government, the Harvard Undergraduate Association, in its inaugural year. The HUA was established last month after undergraduates voted overwhelmingly to dissolve the College’s 40-yearold Undergraduate Council in favor of the new structure, which will be led by two co-presidents. Although four of the six tickets feature former UC representatives, many candidates cited their desire to distance the new body from the now-defunct Council, which at times was marred by division and infighting. “We actually need a breath of fresh air among the candidates,” said former UC Representative Zachary J. Lech ’24, a Crimson Arts editor who is running with student government newcomer Maria F. De Los Santos ’24. “We are hoping to, for the first time, have a student government that works.” Former UC Treasurer Kimani E. Panthier ’24 and former UC Pforzheimer House Representative Lisa R. Mathew ’24 expressed a similar desire to move away from the UC’s fraught past. “We believe that we need a competent government that will lead us forward, not backward,” Panthier said. Still, the two underscored, to their view, the need for experience in the new administration. “This is a really critical moment in Harvard’s future and its history,” Panthier said. “We need competent individuals who have a proven record
SEE ADAMS PAGE 5
SEE HUA PAGE 5
The financial aid office for master’s programs at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government is located on Mount Auburn Street. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
Adams to Remove Racist Statues By CHRISTINE MUI and LEAH J. TEICHHOLTZ CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
A fireplace in Adams House bearing racist caricatures that are currently boarded up will be removed during renovations next year, the house’s faculty deans announced earlier this month. On April 7, a Crimson investigation showed that the original pillars bearing the controversial sculptures have been covered since spring 2019, when the former Adams faculty deans decided to board them up — without formal public acknowledgement or discussion — after student complaints. Three of the six sculptured figures are purportedly African, Indigenous, and Asian figures depicted in sport or war. In an April 15 email to residents, Adams House Faculty Deans Mercedes C. “Mercy” Becerra ’91 and Salmaan A.
A fireplace bearing racist caricatures located in Adams House’s Westmorly Court will be removed during renovations next year. SIMON J. LEVIEN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
SEAS Affiliates Wiegh Activist Organizations Demonstrate at Visitas Private Partnerships By LEAH J. TEICHHOLTZ CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Some affiliates say corporate partnerships bring benefits, while others highlight ethical challenges. By FELICIA HE and JAMES R. JOLIN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
R esearch at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences spans interdisciplinary academic fields and relies on collaboration with organizations beyond the University — including for-profit partners. While some faculty members and students highlight the benefits of corporate partnerships, others caution working with for-profit entities requires balancing ethical risks and educational rewards. Ellie Carlough, who heads SEAS’s collaboration with the private sector, said her position as director of industry partnerships was established by SEAS Dean Francis J. Doyle III, who she said has
stressed “the value of longterm industry partnerships.” “The emphasis of the partnership building is not on raising funds or extra sponsored research funding, although that is certainly an element,” she said. “The main goals were to build partnerships to support students and faculty.” Carlough said corporate partnerships provide internship and employment opportunities to students, while also exposing them to real-world applications of science and engineering. She lauded Engineering Sciences 96: “Engineering Problem Solving and Design Project” as an “experiential class” that allows students to benefit from the school’s corporate partnerships. Students in the course are commissioned to solve a
SEE SEAS PAGE 3 INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Harvard Today 2
News 3
Organizers from nine campus activist groups joined forces and rallied “for justice” in Harvard Yard on Sunday, the first day of Visitas, chanting about hot-button campus issues from ethnic studies to prison divestment. The protesters planned for the rally to occur during Visitas, when hundreds of prospective freshmen descend on campus for a taste of Harvard before committing. The coalition included groups like the Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign, Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard, and the Harvard College Palestine Solidarity Committee. The activists gathered in Harvard’s Science Center Plaza, where admitted high schoolers were socializing, before marching through the Yard to the John Harvard Statue. The protesters then relocated to the Student Organizations Center at Hilles to disrupt the Visitas Activities Fair held for prospective students. During the protest, organizers passed out flyers which read
SEE VISITAS PAGE 3
Editorial 4
Sports 6
Student activists held a protest during Visitas, Harvard College’s admitted students weekend. LEAH J. TEICHHOLTZ—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
TODAY’S FORECAST
RAINY High: 55 Low: 40
VISIT THECRIMSON.COM. FOLLOW @THECRIMSON ON TWITTER.
rent rats
THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
APRIL 25, 2022
PAGE 2
HARVARD TODAY
For Lunch BBQ Texas Grilled Cheese Burger Honey Mustard Chicken Beyond Sausage with Peppers
For Dinner Coconut Ginger and Red Curry Chicken Thighs Crispy Flounder Palak Tofu
TODAY’S EVENTS From the Hands of the Makers Exhibition Harvard Museum of Natural History, 9 a.m.-10:00 a.m.
IN THE REAL WORLD French President Wins Re-election
Join the Harvard Natural History Museum tomorrow for an exhibition featuring Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, a father and son duo, known for working with different materials that have modernized the art of glassworking.
On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron was reelected for a second five-year term over opponent Marine Le Pen. He is the first French president in over 20 years to be re-elected to a second term. Polling projections suggest that his margin of victory is sizable, but smaller than it was in 2017.
Wildfires Displace Thousands of Residents in the Southwest
Houghton Library Lobby Gallery Houghton Library, 9 a.m.-10:00 a.m. The new library gallery will have a collection of rare books and manuscripts, literary and performing arts archives on display, along with commentary from faculty, students, and staff.
A goose sits on a bank of the Charles River. TRUONG L. NGUYEN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
Wildfires killed at least one person in Nebraska and caused thousands of people to leave their homes in other southwestern states including New Mexico. After a windstorm on Friday, New Mexico had over 20 active wildfires that have destroyed over 200 structures.
U.S. Officials Pledge Millions More in Military Aid in Visit to Ukraine
AROUND THE IVIES
Fantastic Beasts Scavenger Hunt Kick-Off Harvard Museum of Natural History, 11 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
CORNELL: Constance Wu to Speak at 2022 Convocation
Are you a Harry Potter fan? Excited about the latest Fantastic Beasts Movie but don’t have time to go all the way into Boston to watch it? The Natural History Museum is hosting a scavenger hunt so you can discover some of Harvard’s own fantastic beasts!
BROWN: Brown Extends COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement to 2022-23 Academic Year —THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
—THE CORNELL DAILY SUN
YALE: DKE FraternityReturns Four Years After Sexual Assault Scandal—THE YALE DAILY NEWS
DARTMOUTH: Former CIA Director John Deutch Visits Campus —THE DARTMOUTH
Top U.S. officials announced new military aid to Ukraine during a visit to the country on Sunday. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken ’84 and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III traveled to Kyiv to announce more than $300 million in new military aid. The officials also pledged to nominate an ambassador to Ukraine.
COVID UPDATES
LAST 7 DAYS CURRENTLY
CAMPUS
261
In Isolation
424 1.60% Total New Cases
Positivity Rate
LAST 7 DAYS
CAMBRIDGE
608 3.85% 77%
Total New Cases
Positivity Rate
Fully Vaccinated
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY Publications Struggle With Recession; Suffer in Wake of Falling Ad Revenues
Writers at Harvard student publications, including the Independent, the Advocate, and Perspective, expressed difficulty in maintaining advertising revenue amidst the recession in the early 1990s. April 25, 1992
Investors Add $25M to Facebook’s Coffers
Facebook collected lucrative venture capital investments from three Silicon Valley firms as the company gained traction on the Internet, reaching more than 7 million users. April 25, 2006
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
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 Maria G. Gonzalez ’23
Design Editors Camille G. Caldera ’22
Assistant Night Editors Carrie Hsu ’24 Rohan Rajeev ’25
Photo Editor Pei Chao Zhuo ’23
Story Editors Jasper G. Goodman ’23 Kelsey J. Griffin ’23 Simon J. Levien ’23-’24 Taylor C. Peterman ’23-’24 Andy Z. Wang ’23
Editorial Editor Libby E. Tseng ’24 Sports Editor Caroline G. Gage ’25
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 |
APRIL 25, 2022
HKS FROM PAGE 1
HKS Students Say Financial Services Have Worsened As students said support worsened, former enrollment services staffers said the office culture did, too. In interviews over the past month, nine current and former HKS staff members with direct knowledge of the office’s workings said it became a toxic work environment under its new leader, Assistant Dean for Enrollment Services Oliver Street. Students said the office overhaul — which laid off seven employees, including four who had more than a decade of experience at HKS — created a dearth of institutional knowledge that caused services to suffer and left students in the dark. ‘A Drop Off in Institutional Knowledge and Competence’ When Arielle R. Exner, a second-year Master of Public Policy student, enrolled at the Kennedy School in 2020, her financial aid advisor was “always very responsive,” she said. But right before the start of the fall 2021 semester, Exner reached out to her advisor about her financial situation — only to learn he had been laid off. “I didn’t know who my new advisor would be,” she said. The summer layoffs caused a “gap in staffing,” according to Exner, who serves as the executive vice president of the HKS student government. She wasn’t the only one who faced financial aid issues that academic year. Mandlesizwe L. B. “Mandla” Isaacs, who is set to graduate from HKS’ mid-career MPA program in the spring, said he noticed a change in the quality of the school’s financial aid services when he received his funding for the spring 2022 semester in late January, around when classes began. The timing of the disbursement came in stark contrast to that fall, when he said funding arrived “well in advance of when I would have needed to secure accommodation.” “There was kind of an interregnum where January was kind of a tough month financially,” Isaacs said. “I just didn’t feel like they were on top of things.” “There was a drop off in institutional knowledge and competence,” Isaacs said of the financial aid office. At the time, administrators
acknowledged that services had slowed. Street apologized to HKS students over email for his office’s lagging response times, saying the Kennedy School hired three “financial aid experts” to fill gaps created by the reorganization. “I know many of you have been frustrated by the long wait times for responses to your financial aid inquiries,” Street wrote in an email to students on Sept. 9, 2021. “We pride ourselves on delivering excellent student service, and we know that we have been falling short of that standard. For that we are very sorry.” In another email later that month, Street wrote that employees hired to fill the gaps were “continuing to work through the backlog of known issues that you have communicated to us.” Ana Rocha, a Master of Public Administration student set to graduate in the spring, said her inquiries to the office often went unanswered, requiring her to send multiple follow-ups to receive a response — a stark contrast, she said, to response times prior to the layoffs. After the restructuring took place, Rocha said she reached out to the financial aid office to inform the Kennedy School that she had received a signing bonus for a new job. “At first they didn’t respond for a month,” Rocha said. “Then, the person that was in charge of my case — she literally didn’t know how to do her job.” “I had to cc lots of people the whole time I wanted a response because she would take like three weeks to respond [to] me,” Rocha added. In a statement, HKS spokesperson Sofiya C. Cabalquinto wrote that “during the enrollment services transition, which has been complicated by the challenges of COVID-19, we have not consistently been able to reach the levels of service to which we aspire.” “However, we are encouraged by the progress that has been made by the team that is in place, and we remain committed to delivering excellent service to our students through an integrated approach to admissions and financial aid that supports our mission,” Cabalquinto wrote. According to Rodrigo
Pérez-Tejada, a second-year HKS student, one of the biggest differences in the financial aid services after the July 2021 layoffs was that the office took longer to respond to basic student questions. “Before, they used to be very responsive,” he said. “I knew who my advisor was.” ‘I Was Going Desperate’ Other student services suffered following the restructuring, too, students said. Several students said academic holds remained on their accounts longer than they should have, preventing them from registering for classes ahead of the fall 2021 semester, though all said the issue was eventually resolved. Daniel Pérez Jaramillo, an MPA student set to graduate in the spring, said a student account hold prevented him and several classmates from choosing courses until “the very last day of the shopping period” because the financial aid office did not process their scholarships. “I was going desperate,” Pérez Jaramillo said. “My program director didn’t know what to do.” “They hired people that had no idea what was going on,” Pérez Jaramillo added. “They hired people to basically do damage control.” Isaiah B. Baker, a first-year MPP student, said the summer layoffs made it “difficult” for him to get help from the financial aid office when unresolved questions about his student loans left a hold on his student account. “When the financial aid office did respond, eventually, they did help me resolve the issue,” Baker said. “But it was stressful that it took up to the very last minute.” Rachel E. Carle, a second-year MPP student, said the summer layoffs also affected her ability to register for classes at the start of the fall semester. “After the turnover, there was a lot of communication lags and coordination issues that led to me, and many other students, having an academic hold that impacted our ability to register for classes,” Carle said. “I remember emailing the financial services office, and every email I tried to send had an automatic reply to expect longer response
times.” Jordan M. Jefferson, an MPP set to graduate in 2024, said the quality of the financial aid services at HKS is “not the same” as what it used to be. “The communication hasn’t been as hands-on,” Jefferson said, adding that his previous financial aid advisor responded more quickly than his current one. Jefferson’s previous advisor would “email you, he would text you — he would hit you up,” he said. “He was very persistent about his job. And I will say that persistency has declined.” While Street, the assistant dean of enrollment services, helped spearhead the reorganization, Jefferson said Street was “tremendously” helpful to him. “When I was struggling and stuff, he was helping me out,” Jefferson said. “He went above his pay grade to help me out.” A ‘Toxic and Demotivating’ Environment Many of Street’s former employees feel differently. In interviews this month, nine current and former HKS staffers said he fostered a toxic environment, controlling their work and communications and sowing confusion in the office. Street — who has held positions at five other universities, according to his LinkedIn — is set to depart HKS on May 5. In an email to Kennedy School students announcing his departure, Isaacson wrote that Street “made great strides” toward helping “to recruit and yield a robust and talented student body.” “We have learned how to recognize our biases and think holistically when evaluating admissions files, we have adjusted our financial aid awarding strategy to better incorporate applicants’ level of need into our decision making, and perhaps most notably, we have fundamentally reorganized our Enrollment Services team to better serve our admits, our students, and our partners around the University,” she wrote. “In short, Oliver has established a strong foundation atop which we will continue to build an outstanding operation.” But the former staffers said Street was controlling and disruptive from the start of his ten-
ure at HKS. Between Street’s arrival and the restructuring that laid off the admissions and financial aid staffers, four admissions employees had already left the school. One former enrollment services staffer said the work environment “was toxic and demotivating.” The former staffers said Street frequently disrupted their work by giving contradictory instructions to enrollment services employees and used dishonesty to appease HKS leadership. Cabalquinto, the HKS spokesperson said the school’s top priority is “to recruit, admit, and enroll a talented, passionate, and diverse student body of future leaders in public service.” “The School’s decision to reorganize the Enrollment Services team last summer was driven by our vision for a more effective and holistic approach to admissions and financial aid that will benefit the Kennedy School for many years to come,” Cabalquinto wrote. “We are grateful to Oliver Street, who has resigned effective May 5, 2022, and whose leadership as assistant dean of enrollment services has helped HKS make significant improvements in our ability to recruit a robust, diverse, talented student body.” Complaints about Street’s behavior were filed with the Kennedy School’s Human Resources Department, according to four former enrollment services employees with knowledge of the situation. The ex-staffers said they raised concerns about Street to Isaacson as early as November 2019. Isaacson, who has worked at the Kennedy School since 2009, according to her LinkedIn, acknowledged employees’ complaints in an email inviting staff members to a team meeting that was obtained by The Crimson. “Over the past couple of weeks many of you have reached out to me to articulate concerns about the current climate within the Enrollment Services team,” Isaacson wrote in an email on Nov. 15, 2019. “Two things have become clear to me through those conversations,” Isaacson wrote. “First, your collective passion for HKS and our work is truly
amazing. Second, continuing to operate successfully won’t be possible if we don’t all address the climate issue.” Less than two years later, most of the office’s staff was laid off as part of the restructuring. ‘It Was Very Messy’ Three current and former HKS employees familiar with the state of enrollment services after the layoffs said the Kennedy School failed to adequately plan for the reorganization. “There was a lack of foresight and organization and planning for the reorganization,” one HKS employee said. The staffer placed blame on Street, who they said “lacked the professional experience on the financial aid side of enrollment services to make sure that the new team was trained and supported in the way that they should have been.” Approached by The Crimson outside his HKS office last Thursday, Street declined to comment or answer questions about the allegations against him, referring a reporter to HKS communications officials. Pérez Jaramillo said the reorganization was poorly executed. “That transition period was just unnecessary,” he said. “It was a mess.” The Kennedy School brought in outside workers during the transition to the new structure. Street wrote in an email to students in September 2021 that the new staffers would “help us provide a higher level of support until we have fully staffed our newly reorganized admissions and financial aid team.” But nine current and former staffers said services suffered after the new team came in. Some placed blame on Kennedy School leaders — including Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf — who they said failed to account for the complexity of the work done by the admissions and financial aid teams they overhauled. A lot of students were left in the dark leading up to the start of the term,” one former staffer said. “It’s a shame,” another ex-employee added, “because the students lose out in the end.” miles.herszenhorn@thecrimson.com
SEAS FROM PAGE 1
SEAS Affiliates Evaluate Corporate Partnerships challenge faced by an industry sponsor and receive mentorship from these outside experts. Samir Mitragotri, a bioengineering professor who taught ES96 in the fall, said he has found SEAS’s collaboration with industry partners to be educationally rewarding. “It not only provides benefits in the research direction, but also it provides a good educational component to the students,” Mitragotri said. “A lot of our students, when they graduate, go on to industry, and for them to really have this context as a part of their education I think is quite helpful.” Engineering student Yasmin
Omri ’24 similarly praised CS 148: “Design of VLSI Circuits and Systems.” Her professor obtained a partnership with a semiconductor fabrication plant to “tape-out” the computer chips that she and her peers were designing. She called this partnership “motivating” for her work. “Had they not been able to secure a partnership with that corporation, I think the learning would probably be more theoretical,” she said. “Having the actual implementation happen is dependent on having corporate partnerships.” But Mitragotri acknowledged a difference between the
interests of scholars and corporations, who must answer to stakeholders. “There is an immediate sense of practicality and utility” in industrial engineering, Mitragotri said, whereas in academia, researchers enjoy “the luxury of asking very open, futuristic questions.” SEAS professor James H. Waldo said he has previously encountered industry partners who have attempted to dictate what he would report in his research, but he stood his ground. “Making sure you don’t fall into the ‘Here, I’ve got some money. Go do something for me’ trap is important,” Waldo add-
VISITAS FROM PAGE 1
Student Activists Hold Demonstration at Visitas “Stand Up For Justice” and invited prospective freshmen to learn more about their groups. Syd D. Sanders ’24, who led the rally, said the groups planned the protest during Visitas because prospective students often learn only a “glamorous” depiction of Harvard during the weekend. “We are here to show that there’s more to the story,” Sanders said. “We welcome these freshmen into our organizing community and our fight against the injustices of Harvard.” Sanders, who is involved with the Student Labor Action Movement, said he is not worried that the protest could dissuade students from committing to Harvard. “We would love them to come, we want them to get involved,” Sanders said. During the protest, some organizers held a sign that read
“50 Years. 0 Departments. Ethnic Studies Now,” referencing the decades-long movement calling for the formation of a degree-granting Ethnic Studies department at Harvard.
We would love them to come, we want them to get involved. Syd D. Sanders ’24
Earlier this month, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences welcomed Taeku Lee as the first professor in an ethnic studies cluster hire. FAS Dean Claudine Gay said in an interview this month that she hopes that with more ethnic studies faculty hirings, Harvard can eventually form an undergraduate ethnic studies concentration.
Thuan H. Tran ’24, an organizer for the Harvard Ethnic Studies Coalition, said the groups used the protest to “raise awareness” about social activism at Harvard, adding that the rally was well-received by prospective students. “A bunch of [prospective] freshmen just joined in and came on our walk to the John Harvard Statue,” Tran said. “So there’s definitely at least a high-level awareness.” Julia Dam, a prospective freshman who was in the Science Center Plaza during the protest, said it was “great” to see Harvard students rallying for their beliefs during Visitas. “I don’t think it tainted my experience at Harvard at all,” Dam said. “If anything, I felt more compelled to be a part of the student body because they have such strong voices.” leah.teichholtz@thecrimson.com
ed. According to Waldo, SEAS has strong ethical guidelines in place to avoid conflicts of interest, but “there’s no way really to enforce all ethical questions.” He added that researchers have discretion over the private companies with whom they partner. “This is not something for which there is a hard and fast rule,” he said. “This is something where we have to rely on the good judgment of the academics involved, of the industry involved.” According to University spokesperson Jason A. Newton, Harvard’s Office of Technology
Department puts in place policies to preserve the “integrity” of research partnerships with corporations. All research agreements developed by OTD set “reasonable limits on rights granted to corporate partners” and refuse to promise any specific research results, Newton wrote in an email. “The research and any resulting IP are provided to the company on an ‘as is’ basis,” he wrote. Engineers Without Borders, a student organization, also works closely with corporations, which offer technical support and help further the
club’s long-term projects. “Having these corporations and business professionals in our network really helps us bring to reality any sort of ideas that we have, and really learn from them,” said Omri, co-president of EWB. Omri said she hopes the school investigates “the social and environmental responsibilities” of potential industry sponsors before entering into partnerships. “My hope is that they’re established on ethical grounds,” she said. felicia.he@thecrimson.com james.jolin@thecrimson.com
THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
APRIL 25, 2022
PAGE 4
EDITORIAL THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD
OP-ED
On Bridging a Harvard Education
We’re All Going to Die
The pursuit of education at Harvard should also be the pursuit of community.
F
or many Harvard students, the objective value of education is often not obvious. As much as we are passionate about what we study, such passions tend to falter against the axioms of financial and professional success. With a profound pre-professional culture, education for many Harvard students is a stepping stone for the next big thing — a prerequisite for landing a summer internship, securing a job offer, or getting into a competitive graduate program. Similar to the Ed Portal, the Bridge and Tuition Assistance Program programs present a scenario where the value of education is not solely to propel us into a higher tax bracket or obtain a prestigious position. Through the Bridge program, Harvard employees can take ESL classes, citizenship classes, or career development workshops. TAP allows Harvard employees to take courses at participating Harvard schools at a subsidized cost.
We applaud Harvard for such staff-centric programs that make good on Harvard’s promise to educate the citizens and citizen-leaders of our society. We applaud Harvard for such staff-centric programs that make good on Harvard’s promise to educate the citizens and citizen-leaders of our society. As much as this institution has made its
name on exclusivity and prestige, we believe that it is often moments like these that make Harvard a true leader in education. These programs reflect the transformative power of education — its ability to improve one’s quality of life and expand one’s prospects and perspectives through the acquisition of new knowledge. Compared to the average Harvard student whose quality of life would likely not drastically change in the absence of a Harvard education, it is safe to say that the acquisition of English for non-native speakers is extremely meaningful and useful. Beyond maximizing access to education, these programs are a step toward making Harvard more socially integrated. The pursuit of education at Harvard should also be the pursuit of community — to engage and bond with individuals whom you may have never met before but are so fortunate to meet and become closer with here. Students were able to experience this with Dorm Crew, which helped facilitate community-building for students through manual labor. Here, we are heartened to see opportunities for workers to experience being a student at Harvard. This board has often meditated on the meaning of a Harvard education and what the administration and we students can do to make it better, but here, we wish to highlight the dedicated and often underappreciated workers at Harvard whose hard work allows us to sit down and think critically about these issues in the first place. To our amazing workers: Thank you for all the work you put into making Har-
vard a home and proper learning environment for so many of us. You are an indispensable part of our campus and community, and we are so glad to see this institution open up some of its educational opportunities to you. Going forward, we call on Harvard to further invest and expand on these programs. Such programs should be more extensive and cheaper for Harvard employees. If anything, workers should not be charged for these programs. Similar to the CAMHS hotline that was made possible by alumni donations, these programs could benefit immensely from donations made in their contribution and should be more publicized. To our alumni: The next time you wish to make a donation, please consider the many workers you may or may not have interacted with during your time here that have made your Harvard experience one that compels you to donate, and give back to them. Although there is a lot to be done to address education inequality at Harvard and beyond, programs such as TAP and the Bridge program are a step in the right direction. Harvard should take as much pride in such initiatives as it does in others. This is the Harvard we are proud of. 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.
Submit an Op-Ed Today!
The Crimson
@thecrimson
COLUMN
Why I Write Alvira Tyagi RECKONINGS & REVELATIONS
A
t the beginning of high school, I never imagined that my writing was anything more than mine alone. My childhood diary came adorned with a lock designed to be secured around the worn pages. Late-night existentialist thoughts were buried in the Notes app of my phone, shielding my naïvety from being disseminated across the Internet. Even my doodles, an entertaining demonstration of my substandard artistic ability, were folded up and stowed away in the drawers of my desk. As I navigated the end of high school and the onset of college, something tangibly shifted. I now write and publish my ideas openly; my emotions, feelings, and reflections are no longer sheltered in a void. Writing for The Crimson has been invigorating, revitalizing, and above all, deeply rewarding. These sentiments persist throughout every article I publish — truly. I am overwhelmed with gratitude every time I am reminded of the reach of my words: beyond grateful for the emails, Instagram direct messages, and taps on the shoulder that I receive from thoughtful people who take the time to acknowledge my writing. In full honesty, I do not write for the added line on my resume. I do not write for the attention — no, not even for the kind notes and pats on the back. I do not write for self-satisfaction and pride. I write because I am compelled by the purpose and meaning it instills in my life. Writing enables me to spew out the stream of conscious thoughts circulating my mind, adding vitality to my internalizations as the words manifest themselves on the page. It is healing and restorative; my potpourri of ideas finally procure time and space to be organized, contemplated, and acted upon. The act of writing is not a chore, as many may be-
lieve it to be. To be a writer is a privilege, and it is truly an honor. The first writing piece I ever published in public media was for the Times Union, a newspaper based in my hometown of Albany, New York. The premise of my article stemmed from a piece I read about why the ‘Z’ in Generation Z stands for zombie. The writer of the article sharply criticized Gen Z for being lazy, entitled, and ambitionless — all characteristics that our modern world rightfully views with disdain. I knew I had to write something in response. American society is at a crossroads: the divides forged between Generation Z and the generations preceding ours are detrimental and unsustainable. In our rapidly-evolving society, it has never been more crucial to ensure that age differences do not impair our ability to remain collaborative, interlinked, and non-judgmental. The words that lined my pages included uplifting examples of Gen Z activists who have driven transformative change, emphasizing how their efforts would not be possible without the perseverance of those preceding them and united generational cooperation. Once I finally put my pencil down and my piece was sent out for publication, I thought I was done. I thoroughly enjoyed crafting this op-ed and was genuinely proud of it. Still, I believed it would render a quick glance from newspaper readers and nothing more. I quickly came to recognize that this was not the case. Soon after the op-ed was published, students and teachers from my high school reached out to me about the article, interested to hear more about my perspective. More importantly, I was fortunate to glean their personal viewpoints on the current position of Generation Z at the forefront of societal attention, which added insightful nuance to my understanding of the generational divides across time. The community of people engaged with my piece came together as one unit — ruminating, reeval-
uating, and readapting our instilled notions — an eye-opening, humbling, and enriching experience to witness as a writer. This article, as ordinary as it seemed back then, laid the basis for my renewed vision of writing in the future to come. Ever since, writing has bridged me to individuals who fortuitously relate to my ideas, emotions, and feelings. Sharing my high school writing with family, friends, and peers revealed that the scribbles across the page were not just attributed to me: they resided inside the hearts of many. The truth was that perhaps my words were not just mine. Rather, they were words from my neighbor’s story, from my professor’s story, from fascinating individuals’ stories whose lives aligned with mine in serendipitous ways. Putting my thoughts to paper empowers me to tell everyday stories about everyday people in an everyday world. Humanity resides in the willingness to write something well; storytelling energizes me to be a part of something bigger than myself. I have come to realize that our shared human experience is an elaborate network of roads: converging, intertwining, and meandering in unexpected manners. Writing allows me to bring these crisscrossing experiences into a shared space of empathy. My journey will consistently involve a struggle to unearth the exact words I seek; however, I am now forever equipped with an impetus behind why I work so hard to discover them. Above all, I aspire to always be the woman, classmate, and friend who others can entrust with their stories, wishes, and future visions. —Alvira Tyagi ’25, a Crimson Editorial editor, lives in Pennypacker Hall. Her column “Reckonings & Revelations” appears on alternate Mondays.
By MANNY A. YEPES
W
hen he was 28, Albert Camus began writing a novel about a plague. La Peste, or The Plague, tells the story of Oran, a strikingly ordinary town in French Algeria. In sober prose, Camus details the profoundly typical lives of the townsfolk as they go through their daily motions. Then the rats begin to die. Dr. Bernard Rieux, a dark-skinned man with close-cropped black hair, begins warning the authorities. He is the first to use the word “plague”, prompting the horror and disbelief of the higher-ups. However, they hesitate to sound the alarm because panic leads to economic disruptions and hurts chances for re-election. Eventually, Rieux’s frantic attempts to stave off the pestilence transform into futility, as he is left to inject serum and lance abscesses, waiting for the inevitable death of his patients. Camus isn’t pointing towards stupidity or politicization as the cause of death of half of Oran’s population, as recent movies like “Don’t Look Up” seem to do. Instead, Camus touches on an aspect of human nature that is much more profound and at times unavoidable. Simply put, the citizens of Oran were “like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves; in other words they were humanists: they disbelieved in pestilences.” Most of us have never experienced death because, well, if we had, we’d be dead. We can never truly learn the lesson of the inevitability of our own death because we lack experience. Like the people of Oran, most of us have lived our lives under the pretense of immortality, protected from death by the illusory shield of probability. Some of us, through a friend or loved one, have been shaken awake to the absurdity and inevitability of death, but for the most part, The Plague tells the story of a universal human condition. As Camus writes, “Everybody knows that pestilences have a way of recurring in the world; yet somehow we find it hard to believe in ones that crash down on our heads from a blue sky.” Why did it take so long for Harvard to divest from fossil fuels? Aside from the many moral arguments, divestment was smart because it protected the environment in which we live. However, from the comfort of Cambridge, climate change is so detached from our realities that we refuse to recognize its truth. The people of Oran had rats dying in the streets, and they still refused to wake up from their stupor of comfort. Many of us haven’t watched our houses become flooded by rising sea levels, so we are left with numbers on a screen to serve as warnings. Yet numbers aren’t enough. Most of us don’t believe in climate change. Sure, we accept the facts, recognize the scientific truth.
It doesn’t matter how many multimillion-dollar eco-allegories are made, or how many hours people picket in front of the stoic statue of John Harvard. Humanity won’t believe in climate change until the evidence begins impacting our daily lives and we are jolted awake by the truth. However, until Harvard’s campus is flooded by rising tides, most of us will never really grasp its reality. This isn’t an optimistic op-ed about how if we all sober up, we can band together to solve the climate crisis. This isn’t even a deceivingly cynical op-ed meant to be proven wrong by do-gooders. This is, instead, a simple exposition of my personal opinion: that Harvard’s inability to recognize the gravity of the situation at hand only confirms Camus’ view of humanity’s disbelief in death. It doesn’t matter how many multimillion-dollar eco-allegories are made, or how many hours people picket in front of the stoic statue of John Harvard. Humanity won’t believe in climate change until the evidence begins impacting our daily lives and we are jolted awake by the truth. Climate change isn’t a unique situation. It isn’t a sort of punishment for humanity’s arrogant actions, nor is it meant to impose universal justice. Instead, it is an absurd and chance concentration in time of the inescapable underlying condition which afflicts us all: the reality that our lives hang on a string, and that at any time, that string may snap. If we manage to escape the climate crisis, a more deadly pandemic will be next, or some other sort of natural or human-made catastrophe. The truth is, we’re all going to die, and there’s not much we can do to change that. This isn’t meant to discredit the efforts of the Divest movement or everyone else who is valiantly fighting against climate change. The answer to this game that we are bound to lose isn’t to flip the board over and walk away. Instead, it’s to continue playing, to work long hours lancing abscesses of patients that are inevitably going to die, as Dr. Rieux does. The solution is to be decent. As Camus writes, “There’s no question of heroism in all this. It’s a matter of common decency. That’s an idea which may make some people smile, but the only means of righting a plague is common decency.” What is decency? Perhaps an answer can be found in the wisdom of Dr. Rieux: “I don’t know what it means for other people. But in my case I know that it consists in doing my job.” —Manny A. Yepes ’24, a Crimson Associate Editorial Editor, is a Social Studies concentrator in Cabot House.
PAGE 5
THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
APRIL 25, 2022
Activists Rally Against Harvard’s Land Investments By DEKYI T. TSOTSONG and ERIC YAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Stop Harvard Land Grabs and the Housing Opportunities Program held a rally in Harvard’s Science Center Plaza Friday to protest the University’s previous farmland investments in Brazil and its ongoing expansion in Allston. Roughly 40 protesters gathered in Science Center Plaza before they marched to Massachusetts Hall in Harvard Yard — the location of University President Lawrence S. Bacow’s office. Protestors repeatedly knocked on the front door of Massachusetts Hall win an attempt to deliver a petition with their demands to Bacow before placing the document at the door. Protesters chanted phrases like “Boston to Brazil, Harvard’s land investments kill!” Stop Harvard Land Grabs is
a student and alumni-led organization that calls on the University to implement reparations and stop global farmland investments they allege harm people and the environment. The Housing Opportunities Program is an undergraduate group focused on fighting homelessness in the Greater Boston area. The petition — which was signed by 15 student groups, including Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard and the Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign — calls on Harvard to disclose its farmland investments, return any land it currently holds, and “pay reparations for the undeniable harm of Harvard’s global land business.” Harvard has come under scrutiny in recent years for its expansion into Boston’s Allston-Brighton neighborhood, including the recently-opened Science and Engineering Complex and a proposed Enterprise Research Campus.
In Allston, where Harvard and its subsidiaries now own roughly one-third of the land, the average home cost shot up by 43 percent between 2011 and 2019. University spokesperson Jason A. Newton declined to comment on the rally and the protesters’ demands. In September 2018, a report published by the activist groups Genetic Resources Action International and Rede Social de Justiça e Direitos Humano claimed that the Harvard Management Company — the University’s investment arm — amassed a farmland portfolio totalling over 800,000 hectares following the 2008 financial crisis. The report highlighted the University’s farmland investments in Brazil, detailing stories from locals who say they were unfairly forced off of the land Harvard purchased. The farmland was the subject of a yearslong landholding
HUA FROM PAGE 1
Six Pairs Running to Lead New Student Government of getting things done for students. Lisa and I have done that in our time.” Ian M. Espy ’23 and Ishan A. Bhatt ’23, who are running a satirical campaign calling for the HUA to establish an “H-Coin” cryptocurrency, poked fun at last month’s referendum results and a survey by the Harvard Political Review that reported student approval of the UC to be around 9 percent. “We really wish there was a poll or referendum of some kind that would give us an idea on their popularity – too bad!” the ticket wrote in a joint statement. Harvard’s lackluster social scene was also a hot topic among candidates. Nearly ev-
ery platform involves a plan to support new social activities. Former Lowell House Representative LyLena D. Estabine ’24 and Winthrop House Representative Travis Allen Johnson ’24 said they hope to work with House Committees to hold more block parties, while former Adams House Representative Esther J. Xiang ’23 and former Mather House Representative Yousuf Amiel Bakshi ’23 pledged to create an “HUA Party Fund.” Jeremy J. Rasmussen ’24 and William R. Scheibler ’23, who are also running as a ticket in the race, did not respond to an inquiry about their campaign. This week’s election also includes races for Treasurer,
Social Life Officer, Extracurricular Officer, Academic Officer, Residential Life Officer, Well-Being Officer, and Sports Officer. Positions will be elected via a school-wide, ranked choice ballot, set to open Wednesday. The HUA will include fewer elected members than the UC, which included representatives from every undergraduate house and freshman yard. The body’s co-presidents will oversee the seven officers, who will each work on specific issues. The HUA Election Commission released the inaugural slate of candidates in an email to undergraduates on Friday evening.
dispute brought forth by local farmers, who claimed that Harvard did not rightfully hold titles to the land. In a speech at Friday’s rally, Sidney Chalhoub, a Harvard History professor, said the University’s actions in Brazil were “reminiscent of gentrification in urban areas” and “fed old, violent mechanisms of exclusion of traditional communities from their lands.” “Perhaps these operations were all legal, perhaps not,” he said. “In any case, this is not something that should make us proud of Harvard.” Vinicius de Aguiar Furuie, a Harvard postdoctoral fellow and an organizer of the protest, said the University needs to “put its money where its mouth is.” Harvard Management Company spokesperson Patrick S. McKiernan declined to comment on the Brazilian farmland holdings, citing the company’s policy not to comment on indi-
vidual investments. Since the report’s publication, the University has moved away from investment in natural resources, including the Brazilian farmland purchases in question.
They’ve refused to comment on it, they refuse to meet with us, they refuse to meet the bare minimum of our demands, so we’ll continue to escalate until they do. Rachel E. Carle Organizer and HKS Student
In October 2020, Harvard Management Company’s natural resources team “spun out”
into the independent investment firm Solum Partners as part of current Harvard Management Company’s CEO N.P. “Narv” Narvekar’s five-year restructuring plan designed to revitalize the endowment’s performance. Narvekar, who ended the five-year restructuring plan one year early in 2021, has called natural resources an “illiquid asset” that yielded poor returns. Stop Harvard Land Grabs organizer Rachel E. Carle, a Harvard Kennedy School student, said in an interview after the rally that the group will continue escalating its demonstrations until the University meets its demands. “They’ve refused to comment on it, they refuse to meet with us, they refuse to meet the bare minimum of our demands, so we’ll continue to escalate until they do,” she said. dekyi.tsotsong@thecrimson.com eric.yan@thecrimson.com
Harvard Undergraduate Association Candidates Co-Presidents
Treasurer
Residential Life Officer
Esther Xiang '23 Yousuf Amiel Bakshi '23
Alexander J. Zurovec '25
David Y. Zhang '23
Jessica F. Wu '23
Matthew Allana '25
Joy Y. Lin '23
Well-Being Officer
Social Life Officer
Adreanna E. Dillen '25
Jeremy J. Rasmussen '24 William R. Scheibler '23
Ahmad Alsheikh '24
Arjun Bhattarai '24
John S. Cooke '25
Hana Rehman '25
Kimani E. Panthier '24 Lisa R. Mathew '24
Extracurricular Officer
Neil F. Katzman '24
Autumn H. Dorsey '24
Olivia R. Zhang '23
LyLena D. Estabine '24 Travis Allen Johnson '24
Academic Officer
Tiffany C. Onyeiwu '25
Daniella O. Saforo '24
Sports Officer
Evangelos Kassos '23
Katharine A. Forst '25
Shikoh Hirabayashi '25
Lily Roberts '25
Ian M. Espy '23 Ishan A. Bhatt '23
Maria F. De Los Santos '24 Zachary Lech '24
Abby L. Carr '25
sellers.hill@thecrimson.com
Harvard Celebrates Earth Day with Events Across University By CHRISTIE K. CHOI and CARRIE HSU CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Seeking to raise awareness about Harvard’s sustainability efforts, schools and programs across the University have hosted events since Thursday celebrating Earth Day. The activities, which will continue through the end of the month, range from panels with Harvard affiliates working in climate and sustainability to a clean-up of the Charles River and an Earth Day Festival. On Thursday, the Harvard University Center for the Environment and the Office of the Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability jointly hosted a virtual discussion between Harvard experts about confronting environmental issues. Kennedy School professor John P. Holdren and Divinity School writer-in-residence Ter
ry T. Williams discussed the intersection between social justice and environmental issues. “The people within our country and around the world who have done the least to create the problem with their greenhouse gas emissions are experiencing the most severe impacts,” Holdren said. Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability James H. Stock pointed to Harvard’s “really strong contributions” in combating climate change. “We’re not on the right track as a society,” he said. “We need to do more, so that’s what Harvard is doing. We’re stepping up, and we’re going to ramp up our activities in climate across the board in terms of research, in terms of education, in terms of engagement and outreach.” Early Friday morning, Harvard affiliates and their families gathered along the Charles River for a river clean-up, run by
Harvard programs, including the Office for Sustainability, and the Charles River Conservancy. Emily Flynn-Pesquera, a senior sustainability manager at the Kennedy School who helped organize the event, said volunteers picked up 50 bags of trash during the two hours. She described it as a “sobering experience.” Flynn-Pesquera added that the cleanup event takes place annually for Earth Day. “We try to get Harvard to connect our longer-term sustainability goals with just more engagement activity outside in our neighborhood,” she said. Harvard Art Museums staff member Stephen Deane, who participated in the clean-up, said he chose to take part because he wanted to “keep what’s left of the planet in good shape” for his children. On Friday afternoon, crowds gathered at the Science Center Plaza for the College’s Earth
Day Festival. Some of the activities included information tables from student organizations, an electronics recycling station run by the Harvard University Information Technology, and a “freecycle” station that allowed people to donate and take unwanted goods. An electric shuttle bus in the plaza showcased Harvard’s transition to alternative energy sources. Guillaume A.P. Bouchard ’23-’24, a student coordinator at the Office for Sustainability’s Undergraduate Resource Efficiency Program who helped staff the festival, said they hoped the event would help Harvard affiliates reflect on the environment. “I hope people can stop by and pause to reflect on Earth Day one day a year to celebrate our Mother Earth and think about the links between their own health, their own well-being, and the well-being of their
communities and of marginalized communities,” they said. Michael H. Xie ’22 hosted trivia about sustainability and medicine on behalf of the Green Medicine Initiative. In addition to preparing questions, club members drafted an email encouraging students to advocate for sustainable practices to their lab managers, per Xie. Anisa V. Prasad ’23, who staffed a table for the Harvard College Conservation Society, said that though the turnout at the event was high, it was “just one day.” Prasad added that not a lot of students are aware of conservation projects they could participate in, and the available projects are all student-organized. “I would like to see [Harvard] do more and organize more,” Prasad said. “We had at the beginning of my freshman year — I don’t know if they had it this year — Day of Service. We
could definitely do something like that for the environment, and we just don’t.” Harvard Undergraduate Clean Energy Group board member Emma T. Zuckerman ’24, said at the Group’s table that while she appreciated how “Harvard has definitely been trying,” the University should do more for the environment. “There’s still more that can be done, especially with divestment from fossil fuels. They announced divestment, but they still haven’t fully divested yet, and that’s something that needs to be done,” she said. Still, Zuckerman said she was grateful that Harvard hosted Friday’s festival. “I’m happy that Harvard is hosting this event, and I hope that they can host more similar events in the future,” she added. christie.choi@thecrimson.com carrie.hsu@thecrimson.com
Divinity School Awards Five Gomes Honors Adams House will ADAMS FROM PAGE 1
By KENNETH GU CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
The Harvard Divinity School Alumni/Alumnae Council named the five recipients of its Peter J. Gomes Distinguished Alumni Honors earlier this month — a distinction named in honor of Gomes, who taught at Harvard for four decades and served as Pusey Minister of Memorial Church. The honorees included Marcus A. “Kvnfvske” BriggsCloud, the co-founder of an Indigenous “ecovillage” community of Maskoke people; Katherine A. Collins, the head of sustainable investing at Putnam Investments; Tori M. McClure, an explorer and president of Spalding University; Kareema O. Scott, an urban gardener and teacher; and Rosalyn LaPier, an Indigenous environmental activist and associate professor at the University of Montana. The Gomes Honors — first awarded in 2013 — is an annual recognition given to HDS alumni and one non-alumni af-
filiate who embody the mission and values of HDS and of Gomes through their life, work, and service. Each year, the AAC chooses a theme for the honors and asks alumni to nominate peers before the AAC selects a cohort of recipients.
I really wanted to lift up the positive side of nature — our relationship with nature. Michelle B. Goldhaber AAC Chairperson
This year, the award focused on “Nature” as its theme. Michelle B. Goldhaber, the chairperson of the AAC, said her decision to focus on nature was partially a response to widespread “angst and hopelessness and despair” about the climate crisis.
“We hear so much about the atrocities that are happening, the brokenness of the planet, all the disasters that are happening,” Goldhaber said. “I really wanted to lift up the positive side of nature — our relationship with nature — and I wanted to cast a really broad net so that people could approach it from all different angles.” Collins, who came to HDS to learn more about sustainability, said she was especially “unusually surprised and touched” to be awarded the Gomes Honor. “I’m delighted when we’re recognized within the financial realm, but that’s like sort of being recognized within my own operating community,” Collins said in an interview. “What is a lot more remarkable is for someone doing financial work to be recognized in this way.” In an interview, McClure similarly drew a distinction between the Gomes Honor and other awards she has received in the past, noting Gomes’ personal mentorship to her. “Often folks will make up
some award just to have me come give a speech. The Gomes Honors — it’s a different thing,” McClure said. “Peter Gomes was just an amazing character, a brilliant human being, and I would consider him a mentor in that he was there when I decided to ski to the South Pole.” Arleigh Prelow, a filmmaker and the vice chairperson of the AAC, described Gomes as a mentor who helped her “uncover [her] own unique voice” through his course on public preaching. She said the AAC looks to honor affiliates with a similar character as Gomes who “all are adding something very vital to our world.” “I think we’re honoring — and in my eye, just from my experience with him — those people who are boldly doing in the world both things that are truly coming from their convictions and their sense of what is divinely ordered for them to do and say in the world,” Prelow said. kenneth.gu@thecrimson.com
Remove Racist Statues
“completely antithetical” to the values of the house. “We understand that it is shocking and painful to learn that these images were carved into the structure of one of our beloved spaces,” they wrote. “We are especially mindful of how this impacts students, tutors, and staff in the Adams community.” In the email, the deans wrote that the racist caricatures were carved when Westmorly was built in 1898, but the building was not purchased by Harvard until 1920 and did not become part of Adams House until 1930. According to the Adams House website, the entryway that contained the fireplace was completed in 1902. The deans wrote that the encasings went up as a “temporary response before a longterm solution could be developed.” When asked about the caricatures in an interview this
month, Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana said house renewal decisions will be informed by recommendations from a FAS task force report on visual culture and signage. “As we go forward with house renewal or renewal of other spaces, that will serve as our guidance,” Khurana said. In their email, the deans wrote that students will have an opportunity to offer input to the renovation architects next semester. They added the house renewal process offers a chance to build an “even stronger House community together.” “Adams House is ours to make, and re-make, and we are committed to creating intentionally inclusive spaces that reflect our core mission and the richness of our community,” they wrote. christine.mui@thecrimson.com leah. teichholtz@thecrimson.com
SPORTS
WEEKLY RECAP
SCORES
MEN’S TENNIS VS. YALE W, 4-0 ___________________________________________________________
MEN’S LACROSSE VS PRINCETON W, 19-16 ___________________________________________________________
SOFTBALL VS. BROWN W, 4-3 ___________________________________________________________
MEN’S LIGHTWEIGHT ROWING VS. NAVY & DELAWARE 2ND ___________________________________________________________
BASEBALL VS. PRINCETON W, 14-10 ___________________________________________________________
WOMEN’S LACROSS VS. PRINCETON W, 14-9 ___________________________________________________________
WOMEN’S RUGBY VS. DARTMOUTH W, 24-17 ___________________________________________________________
FENCING
Lauren Scruggs: Foil’s Junior Female Champion By THOMAS HARRIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
On April 5th, first-year Lauren Scruggs mounted the top step of the podium at the junior world championship fencing tournament, becoming the No. 1 foil fencer in the world. After four fierce days of competition in the other half of the globe, the New York native annihilated Japan’s Yuzuha Takeyama 15-3 to take home the gold and add to her laundry list of accomplishments in the fencing world. To compete against the best, Scruggs left the cold streets of Cambridge for a warmer, drier climate. “We had a direct flight from Boston which was really nice,” said Scruggs when asked to describe the opportunity to fence in the United Arab Emirates. “I had never been to that part of the world, so when I got to [Dubai] everything was crazy. There were a bunch of Mercedes and Rolls Royces, and on the drive to the hotel we got to see the Burj Khalifa. But I was so busy I didn’t get to see anything.” Inside the stadium, Scruggs dominated the competition.
Scruggs is one of the most decorated and history-making freshmen of all time. Daria Schneider
“In my final bout I did something called the simultaneous,” Scruggs recalled. “You just go for it from the get out. That’s something I am really good at, but also [Takeyama] couldn’t really put a light on so that made it a bit easier. After a while, I just started having fun with it, and that’s what it’s all about.” Scruggs fenced aggressively, which gave her the right of way in simultaneous hits. This advantage allowed her to destroy her opponent in just 18 points.
“[Scruggs] is really the type of person that makes you sick of winning,” said head coach Daria Schneider. “She makes you forget how hard it is. In Dubai, that happened multiple times because she was so untouchable.” “This year was weird because I was one of the older people there, which is not something that usually happens to me,” Scruggs said. “I’ve always been the youngest, but I like being the oldest person there. Because of that I was really confident going into the event, so I didn’t feel nervous.” “In terms of the final match, I really like being on the stage,” Scruggs continued. “It’s where I shine. The atmosphere makes me want to fence better, so being up there helped the final match and made the big difference in scores.” “In the final [Scruggs was] so relaxed and scoring what looked from the outside to be so effortless,” Schneider added. “I just kept thinking about how she looks like she doesn’t even practice. That’s the name of the game: compete the way you practice, and practice the way you compete, and she just really embodied that.” “It’s proof of all [my] hard work, it feels great,” said Scruggs about winning the championship. But Coach Schneider thought the first-year was more excited than she let on. “When I saw her yell, I really enjoyed that moment,” Schneider said. “It was like the fencing itself. She was excited because she had achieved this great accomplishment” Nevertheless, the fencer isn’t satisfied with being junior champion. “I am looking towards seniors which is obviously a lot harder for me right now,” Scruggs said. “I’m just looking forward to doing bigger things in seniors now that I’ve done a lot in juniors.” “Scruggs is one of the most decorated and history-making freshmen of all time,” Schneider said. “She came here already
CAN’T TOUCH THIS A Crimson fencer faces off against the Princeton Tigers at the Ivy League Championships in 2020 as teammates look on. OWEN A. BERGER—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
with five junior medals and a Junior World Championship, now she has seven.” The freshman fencer will have some work to do, as she is currently ranked number 78 on the senior circuit. “Right now I just want to get better results in the tournaments and maybe make a team,” Scruggs said. “That’s where I’m at, and I’m just figuring out college.” But, Coach Schnieder thinks she’s got what it takes. “[Scruggs is] the type of person who could definitely qualify for [the 2024 Olympics in Paris],” Schneider said. “She’s working really hard to be on that path. She’ll have a good shot at
being first team all American, if not NCAA champion in the next few years.” But Scruggs is also filling a big role in Harvard’s team. “She brings a level of excitement and confidence to the team as a whole, because there’s this special element to her,” Schneider commented. “She’s so down to earth, it makes our team feel really special to have someone like her on our team but also feel really confident to train with somebody like her in their midst. She’s already had this experience of being such a leader on the [USA fencing] junior team, so even though she’s only a freshman, I think she is going to learn in a lot of ways,
energy-wise and focus-wise on our team next year and in the coming years.” Schneider also wants the rest of her team to take a page out of Scrugg’s book in terms of managing the hectic life of being a student athlete. “[Scruggs is] about having a balanced life, and I think that’s a very rare thing,” Schneider said. “She knows what she wants and wants to have a variety of things in her life, but not so much that she can’t enjoy herself. She has a lot of leadership in that way, because it’s so antithetical to the Harvard lifestyle, but to be honest, it’s really refreshing.”
Schnieder’s future advice to Scruggs was simple: “Make sure she’s leaning on all her resources and always asking for help when she needs it…I think when people know what you’re doing, and they realize that it’s important to you and that it’s special, they want to support you and help you. That applies to all Harvard students, especially freshman, but definitely for [Scruggs].” After arriving home from a team loss against Singapore in Serbia on Tuesday, Scruggs makes the journey to Germany this weekend to continue her road to foil stardom.
SKIING
Harvard Skiing Turning a Corner with Historic Season By CAROLINE BEHRENS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
he Harvard men’s and womT en’s skiing teams had a strong showing this past season despite a year away from competi-
tion due to the pandemic. The Crimson, led by junior nordic skier James Kitch and first-year alpine skier Matt Ryan, finished in the top 30 in every event at the recent 2022 NCAA Skiing Championships.
Ryan was the first alpine skier to qualify for the championships since P.A. Weiner in 1988, and he was accompanied by Kitch, who overcame an injury in the fall to become one of the top scorers for the Crimson.
SKI YOU LATER A Harvard skiier leads the pack in an uphill climb. LILY KOFFMAN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
Kitch qualified for the NCAA Championships in each of his first three years at Harvard and has been a steady presence all season long. “I’ve always been impressed with [Kitch’s] ability to match
the stage he’s performing on, and he did that again at NCAAs, where he put down his best races of the year,” said nordic head coach Chris City. Overall, both the men’s and women’s teams displayed great depth and potential for the years to come. “I expect to book reservations for the NCAA championships annually moving forward,” said alpine head coach Scott MacPherson. “It’s hard to pick out one single athlete from our program, as the season was a true team effort.” Alpine senior captain Nellie Ide played a huge role for the Crimson, with her leadership setting the tone for the team. Ide’s incredible four year tenure as team captain helped pave the way for the team’s success. Her leadership on and off the slopes has proven to be invaluable. In spite of numerous injuries, there were still bright spots for the team. Junior Emma Ryan and sophomore Elsie Halvorsen had career best seasons for Harvard. Halvorsen placed 13th in the giant slalom at her first ever collegiate event, and Ryan came in 15th in the slalom at the 2022 Saint Michael’s Carnival and at the Dartmouth Carnival. Nordic co-captains Everett Sapp and Ursula Volz were also vital to the team’s success this season, proving to be consistent scorers and remarkable leaders. The Crimson has a bright future ahead with first years Quincy Donley and Mads Groeholdt. Donley earned points in al-
most every race, and Groeholdt barely narrowly missed qualifying for the NCAA Championships. “It’s exciting when young skiers are pushing the pace for us, and I’m already looking forward to what they can do next year,” coach City said. Nordic skier Rémi Drolet is also set to return for the Crimson next season after taking a leave of absence to participate in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics as a member of the Canadian cross-country skiing team. He helped lead Canada to an 11th place finish, placing 33rd in the 15km classic and 35th in the 50km mass start. “Two years ago, he was a first-year in the van to practice — and then there he was racing in front of the whole world,” coach City remembered. I’m excited to work with Rémi again next year, and I know he’s really looking forward to picking back up with his academics and the community here.” Coach City has an incredibly positive outlook for the coming year. “We have a strong returning team, as well as a talented pair of incoming first-years, and I see it as an opportunity to build on what we learned this year,” City said. “I’d hope to see us qualify a full men’s team (three skiers) to NCAAs for the first time ever.” There is much to be excited about for this remarkable team, and there is no doubt that Harvard will continue to set the standard of excellence next winter.