The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873
|
VOLUME CXLIX, NO. 45 |
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
|
MONDAY, APRIL 4, 2022
EDITORIAL PAGE 4
SPORTS PAGE 6
NEWS PAGE 3
The New York Times is wrong; America does not have a ‘free speech problem’
Men’s Volleyball fell to NJIT in three sets over the weekend
Undergraduate students hosted the 10th annual Sex Weekend
Ex-UC Members Discuss Next Steps Students to Help Refugees in Mass. By J. SELLERS HILL and MERT GEYIKTEPE CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
After students voted overwhelmingly to dissolve the Undergraduate Council last week, some former members of the now-defunct body met on Sunday to discuss the fate of some of the UC summer storage program and establish funding protocols for the transition period. Despite successfully championing the effort to repeal and replace the UC, the former body’s president, Michael Y. Cheng ’22, made few comments at the meeting, which was instead led mostly by former UC Vice President Emmett E. de Kanter ’24 and former UC Lowell House Representative LyLena D. Estabine ’24, who helped draft the now-ratified Harvard Undergraduate Association constitution. The meeting was originally intended to host only former UC members, according to Cheng. However, roughly an hourand-a-half before the meeting, a message was sent to undergraduates from the UC’s email account inviting them to attend the “first HUA transition meeting.” Cheng said he did not authorize the email. Concerned club leaders and former UC representatives flocked to the Sever Hall classroom to air their frustration and confusion, citing apparent contradictions in the newly passed
By ALEXANDER I. FUNG CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Beginning in June, a group of 10 Harvard undergraduates will work with the African Community Center of Lowell to support immigrants and refugees from African nations acclimate to life in Lowell, Mass. Gordon Halm, the director of the African Community Center of Lowell, and Daniel D’Oca, a professor at the Graduate School of Design, spearheaded the project as part of the College’s Mindich Program in Community Engaged Research. Halm said the goal of the project is to provide necessary tools to recent immigrants as they adjust to life in the U.S. “Our hope is that this project will sort of highlight the resources available to the simplest person, so that anybody could look at and say, ‘Okay, this is where I could find these resources,’” Halm said. “‘This is where I can better my education, and this is where I can better my trade.’” In order to discern what resources are in demand, students will have the opportunity to interact directly with the residents through focus groups and weekly trips to Lowell. “We’re hoping to sort of organize a focus group, meeting
Christopher T. Cantwell ‘22-’23 speaks at the first Harvard Undergraduate Association transition meeting on Sunday. J. SELLERS HILL—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
HUA constitution. “I’m very confused as to what exactly the structure of this nebulous organization is,” said former Kirkland House Representative Ivor K. Zimmerman ’23. Though the HUA constitution states that club funding will be “maintained as normal through the end of the semester,” exact protocols had yet to be established prior to the meeting.
At the meeting, former UC Treasurer Kimani E. Panthier ’24, assumed responsibility for the role of acting treasurer during the transition period, in accordance with the HUA constitution. “I am willing to operate in this role as long as students get the opportunity to receive their funding,” he said. For the remainder of the spring semester, an ad-hoc team of former UC representa-
tives will continue to vet club funding requests before passing them to Cheng, de Kanter, and Panthier for approval in conjunction with the Dean of Students Office. All funding requests approved by the UC prior to its termination will still be disbursed, former UC leadership confirmed at the meeting. Another group of former
SEE HUA PAGE 3
people where they are, where they worship, where they dine, where they play soccer, and things like that, so that they will be more engaged with the community members,” Halm said. Students will research local services and businesses and explore the best practices to welcome refugees into the neighborhood, according to the project website, and will also synthesize the information into guides that will be provided to residents. Examples of necessary resources include legal advice, job training, and education, Halm said. “If you say to a high school student, ‘What is your next move?’ a lot of them don’t have that ambition or the dream of going to schools like Harvard, and other places like that, you know? They all want to stay local,” Halm said. “I want them to bring the best out of themselves in terms of also dreaming big.” D’Oca said that aspects of the project are still to be determined, as the program aims to cater to the specific needs of the residents. “We don’t know exactly what the pieces will be, because it depends on what people tell us in these focus groups,” D’Oca
SEE LOWELL PAGE 5
Bio Prof. Sen. Tim Scott Explores Speaks at IOP Forum Quantum Storage By JOHN N. PEÑA
CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
United States Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said he would announce by mid-week whether he will vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson ’92 at a Harvard Institute of Politics forum on Friday evening, saying he was not yet ready to do so. Scott, who has served in the Senate since 2013, called Jackson a “likable person,” but said, “My question isn’t whether she’s likable or not — it’s her judicial philosophy and how that matches with what I think is in the best interest of our country long-term.” Just one Republican senator, Susan Collins (Maine), has said she will vote to confirm Jackson, a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School who serves on the school’s Board of Overseers. She will not need any other GOP support in order to be confirmed to the bench if every Democrat backs her nomination. “I think President Biden
By JEREMIAH C. CURRAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Harvard Assistant Professor of Chemical Biology Suyang Xu is working toward expanding the application of topological materials — new materials in the quantum field with the potential to significantly improve our ways of saving information. Storage information is a key component of technology and has taken various forms throughout the years, according to Xu. “A crucial aspect of our technology is how we store information. We carve on bones; we write on paper; most recently, we make tiny patterns on silicon wafer,” Xu wrote in an email. Xu explained that topological materials are distinct from current forms of information storage and will allow scientists to store and control information with “great robustness.” “Topological materials are new materials beyond the ones people understand and are already using, such as silicon, copper, glass, etc.,” Xu wrote. “Topological materials are materials where electrons can make quantum mechanical knots at the scale of atoms,” he added. “This can make the information at the scale of atoms very robust, therefore can solve some of the technological bottlenecks and also enable new technologies such as quantum computers.” Xu wrote that his physics and chemistry background developed during his undergraduate years in China, and later as a graduate student at Princeton, were foundational to his understanding of topological materials. “Chemistry dictates the synthesis and design materials,” he wrote. “On the other hand, the core principles of topological
SEE QUANTUM PAGE 3 INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Harvard Today 2
should have more deference on his cabinet members because those folks work for him, and he has a right to hire and fire them,” Scott said. “When it comes to our courts, that’s a lifetime appointment. It’s not his court, it’s America’s Supreme Court. And so I look at that as a very different process.” “I’m about two-thirds of the way through mine,” he said. “I have to be there by next Friday, or next Thursday when we vote. I’ll be there probably Tuesday or Wednesday.” Jackson said at her confirmation hearings last week that she would recuse herself from the challenge to affirmative action at Harvard the court is set to take up in the fall due to her Harvard ties. Scott also discussed education reform and political polarization at the forum, which was moderated by Arthur C. Brooks, a professor of the practice at HKS. Scott voiced support for private and charter schools, financial literacy education, and open political discourse.
U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.), left, spoke at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum on Friday. SOPHIA S. KIM—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
“Without quality education, it seems like a part of your future just feels like it’s evaporating before your very eyes,” he said. “And as that poor kid, I will say, you get frustrated, and sometimes you get irritated about what’s not available.” “Really the only people who don’t have choice in education
are the poorest parents,” he added. Scott said he supports charter and magnet schools as solutions to a lack of choice in education, claiming they improve the public school system as a whole. “Education freedom would really bring more options into
those Title I schools and hopefully encourage public schools to get stronger through charter schools, magnet schools, and options,” he said. Scott was asked about political polarization, which he attributed to the media and the
SEE IOP PAGE 5
Students Host 10th Yearly Sex Weekend By DARELY A. C. BOIT CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Two events that were part of this year’s Sex Weekend took place at Harvard Hall. PEI CHAO ZHUO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
News 3
Editorial 4
Sports 6
TODAY’S FORECAST
Harvard students celebrated the College’s tenth annual Sex Weekend over the past three days, attending a slate of events that engaged them in conversations about sex, intimacy, gender, and more. Organized this year by Ashley R. Johnson ’25, Katherine T. “Kat” Vasquez Sanchez ’25, and Jane J. Josefowicz ’25, Sex Weekend and Sex Week were conceived in 2012 by a group of students who wanted to educate their peers on sexual topics. The organizers work with organizations on campus like the BGLTQ Office and the Women’s
PARTLY CLOUDY High: 56 Low: 36
Center to arrange and fund the annual events. This year’s weekend offered participants a presentation on toxic masculinity, a panel about sexual assault advocacy, and a trans sex-ed workshop. It also welcomed students to colorfully titled events like “Feelin’ Chemistry: Psychedelics and Sex”—which featured Richard E. Doblin, the executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies—and “Pussy Portraits: Celebrating Genital Diversity.” The organizers said Sex Weekend’s emphasis on diversity is crucial because many high
SEE SEX WEEKEND PAGE 3
VISIT THECRIMSON.COM. FOLLOW @THECRIMSON ON TWITTER.
licorice popsicle
THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
APRIL 4, 2022
PAGE 2
HARVARD TODAY
For Lunch Shrimp with Fettucini Meatball Sub Roasted Red Bliss Potatoes
For Dinner Mexican Chicken Cod w/ Roasted Red Peppers Kale & Potato Enchilada Bake
TODAY’S EVENTS Health Equity in Native America Summit Virtual, 1-6 p.m.
IN THE REAL WORLD
Join leaders in medicine and academia from institutions like Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital for conversations about health and medicine in Indigenous communities. Speakers include Dr. Loretta Christensen, Chief Medical Officer for the Indian Health Services, and Dr. Thomas Sequist, Chief Medical Officer at Mass General Brigham.
Dr. Krystal Klingenberg, Curator of Music in the division of Cultural and Community life at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, is hosting a career chat with the Office of Career Services for students interested in a curatorial career. Her work focuses on Ugandan popular music and the growing Ugandan music industry as well as digital media and social justice.on top of your schedule. Getting Serious about Diversity in the Workforce Virtual, 6-7 p.m.
Humans Rights Watch published a report documenting various “apparent war crimes” it says Russia has committed in its war against Ukraine, including excessive violence and threats against civilians.
Mass Shooting in Sacramento Leaves At Least 6 Dead and 12 Wounded
People walk in front of Lamont Library on a sunny day in December. JULIAN J. JIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
AROUND THE IVIES YALE: Department of Justice Drops Investigation Against Haifan Lin —THE YALE DAILY NEWS
COLUMBIA: Columbia Faculty Reestablish AAUP Chapter After Decades-Long Pause —THE COLUMBIA SPECTATOR DARTMOUTH: Engineering and Computer Science Center Opens After Two-Year Construction Period —THE DARTMOUTH
PRINCETON: Princeton Alumnus Dennis Parnell Sullivan Wins 2022 Abel Prize— THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
A mass shooting in downtown Sacramento left at least 6 dead and at least 12 wounded, many of whom were clubgoers heading home as clubs closed late at night. One illegal firearm has been recovered, but no suspects have been detained yet. Officials are still not sure of the motive behind the shooting, though they are investigating a possible fight that occurred before it took place.
Pakistan Left in Crisis as Prime Minister Dissolves Parliament
Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan dissolved the country’s National Assembly, preventing a no-confidence vote that could have removed him from office. Khan claims that the effort to remove him from office is part of a conspiracy between opposition parties and the United States. The Supreme Court of Pakistan is preparing to hold a hearing to assess the constitutionality of Khan’s actions.
COVID UPDATES
CAMPUS LAST 7 DAYS CURRENTLY
Career Chat with Krystal Klingenberg, Curator, Smithsonian Museum of American History Virtual, 5-6 p.m.
Humans Rights Watch Publishes Report Detailing Russia’s ‘Apparent War Crimes’
Join the Diane Doerge Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School Robin Ely as she discusses the flaws and pitfalls of many companies’ diversity initiatives as well as ways in which diversity could be fostered and furthered in companies (and why it is so important to do so).efficiently and effectively.
185
In Isolation
259 0.90% Total New Cases
Positivity Rate
LAST 7 DAYS
CAMBRIDGE
452 1.94% 76%
Total New Cases
Positivity Rate
Fully Vaccinated
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY Plans Fail for U.C. Comedy Performance
The Undergraduate Council’s efforts to bring comedian Chris Rock to Harvard fell through due to scheduling difficulties. In the time that it took for the UC to finalize plans for the show, the schedule for Rock’s film had changed, making him unavailable. April 4, 1995
Fineberg Is Named New Provost
Then-president Neil L. Rudenstein named Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health Harvey V. Fineberg ’67 as Harvard’s third provost in three years in an unusually short search process taking only 28 days. April 4, 1997
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
Night Editor Natalie L. Kahn ’23 Assistant Night Editors Joshua S. Cai ’24 Alexander I. Fung ’25 Story Editors Brie Buchanan’22-’23 Jasper G. Goodman ’23 Kelsey J. Griffin ’23 Juliet E. Isselbacher ’22-’23 Taylor C. Peterman ’23-’24
Design Editors Madison A. Shirazi ’23 Sami E. Turner ’25 Brandon L. Kingdollar ’24 Photo Editor Pei Chao Zhuo ’23 Editorial Editor Guillermo S. Hava ’23-’24 Sports Editor William Connaughton ’22 Benjamin R. Morris ’22
CORRECTIONS 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.
The April 1 article “College Admits 3.19 Percent of Applicants” incorrectly stated families making under $75,000 annually will not be charged tuition at Harvard College. In fact, the school will cover the full cost of attendance — including tuition, room and board, and all fees — for students whose families make under $75,000 annually.
PAGE 3
THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
APRIL 4, 2022
SEX WEEKEND FROM PAGE
QUANTUM FROM PAGE 1
Sex Weekend Ends with a Bang
Bio Prof Explores Quantum Space
schools lack adequate and necessary sex education for heterosexual intimacy, let alone queer and more diverse sexual health. “I didn’t really have sex education in high school. It was action-focused, preventative against emotional and sexual assault, STDs,” Vasquez Sanchez said. Vasquez Sanchez added that the sex education she received in high school was also “very focused on male pleasures, and strictly heterosexually,” but noted that she appreciates Harvard Sex Week and Sex Weekend’s focus on including non-heterosexual relationships in a “big approach to diversify.” One highlight of Sex Week-
end was a presentation entitled “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree: The Drendology of Toxic Masculinity,” which featured James Wilkerson, a Title IX coordinator at Indiana State University. Wilkerson’s talk honed in on the concept of the “masculinitree” and the seeds of toxicity. schools lack adequate and necessary sex education for heterosexual intimacy, let alone queer and more diverse sexual health. “There’s toxic masculinity and healthy masculinity, and guess what? As humans, we are able to have both of them in the same day, sometimes at the same time,” Wilkerson said. The week’s closing event was entitled “Banging Beyond the
Binary: Trans Sex 101.” Hosted by Jamie Joy, a certified sex educator who focuses predominantly on queer sex, the workshop focused on how to best approach sexual intimacy with a trans partner or as a trans individual. “Trans people are so worthy of pleasure, and so worthy of positive sexual experiences, and often a lot of trans people don’t have the pleasurable experiences because society is transphobic and because a lot of people are so wired and conditioned to touching bodies in this very particular gendered way, and it can cost a lot of dysphoria,” Joy said. Joy spent the workshop dis-
HUA FROM PAGE 1
UC Debates HUA, Funding Owed to Clubs and Storage UC representatives will review and approve club petitions that were pending before the body’s dissolution. According to de Kanter, roughly 45 of these petitions remain. At the meeting, de Kanter and Estabine solicited volunteers to serve on the ad-hoc teams. “People are here today, and I am hoping that they will be willing to continue on,” Estabine said. Still, some ex-UC representatives, such as former UC Finance Chair Daniella M. Berrospi ’24, expressed uncertainty. “Hope doesn’t get the job
done,” Berrospi said. Former UC Lowell House Representative David Y. Zhang ’23 confirmed the UC summer storage program would still take place. Zhang added that an additional $4,100 would be required to meet this year’s unusually high level of interest. Estabine said the new body was not yet able to allocate additional funding toward the initiative. Estabine also directed Zhang to consult Cheng, Panthier, and the DSO. “Because we don’t have the council structure, aside from
club funding, we’re not making any additional allocations of money,” Estabine said. Just hours before the meeting, Zhang also sent an email to the more than 1,000 students who had expressed interest in the summer storage program to ask for additional “manpower” to help run it. In the coming weeks, an interim election commission is set to form. Per the HUA’s constitution, the first officer elections will take place by the end of April. sellers.hill@thecrimson.com mert.geyiktepe@thecrimson.com
cussing ways to make trans and non-binary people feel as comfortable as possible in sexual encounters. “We’re not trying to replicate cisgender bodies and cisgender sex,” Joy said. “We are trailblazing our own pathways for pleasure.” “I think there’s opportunities for exploring your identity and exploring your relationship to intimacy,” Josefowicz said. “That’s super important, broadening people’s horizons.” At the end of each event, the organizers raffled off sex toys. Free condoms and lube were also available to all attendees. darley.boit@thecrimson.com
materials arise from advances in quantum physics, he wrote in the email. “Without a solid background in physics, we cannot properly understand the quantum properties of these new materials or experimentally uncover them,” he added. Xu’s lab published its most recent research article in the scientific journal Nature in July 2021. Since then, the findings from Xu’s work have led Xu and his team to further investigate topics including axions, which are
“elusive” elementary particles, and the creation of “next-generation memory devices.” “Moving forward, we will continue to explore and understand the novel electrical, magnetic, and optical properties of topological materials,” Xu wrote. “We are also planning to explore the chemical properties of these materials such as how they interact with molecules or how they facilitate chemical reactions,” he added. jeremiah.curran@thecrimson.com
Harvard, 24/7.
The Crimson thecrimson.com
From Weeks to Weld.
The Crimson thecrimson.com
THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
APRIL 4, 2022
PAGE 4
EDITORIAL COLUMN
THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD
Shelter’s Off Season
A Free Speech Problem?
HANA M. KIROS HARVARD EVERYWHERE
J
ohn Chute has lost a lot of people. “I have blocked out in my mind the number of people that I have known that have died tragically. Needlessly,” he tells me. “Freezing in snowbanks. Getting hit by cars on the way to a shelter.” Chute, 41 years old, says putting a figure to it is impossible. “Countless people. Countless.” Chute has lived in the area his whole life. For around seven years of his time here, he was homeless. In 2020, after years on the city’s waitlist, Chute secured permanent housing. But the flow of bad news about those less lucky — people he knows who still live on the street or in shelters — has continued. He stresses the mortal stakes of shelter access, which can be revoked if shelter rules are violated. Common infractions include consuming alcohol and drug use: About half of people experiencing homelessness struggle with substance abuse, and many shelters are dry. “A lot of times, you know, people get banned and you would never see them again. Then you find out they’re dead.” The main subject Chute and I discuss is another way people lose shelter access — one that’s much less sudden, but more sweeping. On April 15 (somehow, in less than two weeks), Harvard’s two student-run shelters will close for the season. The Harvard Square Homeless Shelter and Y2Y, a youth shelter, operate from November through mid-April and also run limited summer programs. I didn’t consider what it meant for these dozens of beds to go offline until Jim Stewart, a Divinity School graduate and director of The First Church Shelter in Harvard Square, described the “scramble” that, like clockwork, strikes when “the end of the second semester comes up on the horizon.” In preparation for their seasonal closure, both Y2Y and The Harvard Square Homeless Shelter work to develop an “exit plan” for each of their guests. Henry N. Lear ’24, HSHS’s Co-Administrative Director, explains that HSHS’s resource advocacy team has been making referral calls to other shelters, knowing from experience that their voice on the other end means “a higher chance of someone receiving a shelter bed.” Whatever favorability a student calling curries has limits. The First Church Shelter, like all in the region, is virtually always at capacity — stuffed as guests like Chute wait years to access public housing there is little political will to build.“We get lots of calls from Y2Y and the Harvard Square shelter like: ‘Oh well, this is a great person. He’d fit really well there,’” Stewart tells me. “I’m like: ‘Probably would. But you know, we’re full!’” Stewart describes the doomed ex-
change of people seeking shelter across the river — told to see if there are open beds in Boston or Cambridge, only to make the trek and find none. “Clearly there isn’t sufficient resources available to meet the needs out there.” So I ask Lear: Where will the people staying at HSHS go in two weeks? Lear is excited to share that three HSHS guests are moving into permanent housing soon — huge, though very much “the exception to the rule.” Others hope to stay with friends and family, though Lear reminds me that many experiencing homelessness have families “they don’t have a great relationship with — hence, homelessness.” “These conversations, particularly at the end of season, really hold a particular emotional weight,” Lear says. I asked John Chute about the student-run shelter closures, with language I’d picked up interviewing shelter-runners: How do we ease the transition from one shelter to other resources? He laughs a little — I make it sound like they’re “going from a job to a better job or something.” Fair. I try to drop the euphemisms. Chute helps me understand the difficulties you face when leaving a shelter, though he’s never been around to experience HSHS or Y2Y’s closures personally. During his seven years of homelessness, he only stayed about five nights in the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter, which lotteries its beds. Chute recalls losing the lottery so relentlessly, he decided to ask the student who ran it if he had done something wrong and was shadowbanned from the shelter. “Can you tell me if I am, just so I don’t have to keep coming here?” But bad luck — years of it — was all that was behind it. When people transition between shelters, Chute says “IDs get lost, stolen, and paperwork is thrown away.” The disruption can cause hiccups in the yearslong process of applying for benefits like disability and permanent housing. “Case workers move and they don’t set you up with a new one properly. Stuff like that happens all the time,” Chute says. Though Harvard’s student-run shelters catalog information so that another case worker can, ideally, pick up where they left off, every guest will lose access to the student case workers they have been working with this season. Even receiving mail — a prerequisite for setting up a bank account, accessing government services, and employment — grows incredibly complicated. The closure of Harvard’s shelters in mid-April, and their subsequent resumption of regular operations in November, is an obvious byproduct of their marriage to student schedules. Yet Stewart, who has witnessed HSHS’s end-of-season for the past 40 years, thinks an obvious solution exists: hiring full-time staff to assist students in running these shelters so they can remain open for more of — and ideally all of — the year.
Stewart praises student involvement in Harvard’s shelters, but envisions the day when their work is augmented by full-time staff solely dedicated to keeping the shelters running. Currently, no such staff exists. He pokes at this model: “Do these shelters exist to serve the people looking for shelter, or are they set up to provide an opportunity for people to be of service?” As a freshman, Lear admits he approached shelter work as a “very much self-serving thing.” “I did it because I wanted to feel good.”Now, the work feels very different. During his time at HSHS, “I have been yelled at. I have come off shift, like sobbing. I have dealt with people in the throes of drug overdose.” Three years in, his biggest focus is doing what he can “for the people that I am obliged to serve.” But, he says, “we’re pinned in by these bigger things.” Through a process known as procurement, the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter is newly able to apply for funding from the state and City of Cambridge to expand its services. Lear is open to the idea of using this process to hire full-time staff and potentially serve guests longer. “What I’m really hoping for is a model where we can have some mix of professional support,” he tells me. “I am an adamant supporter of whatever steps that we can take to ensure good outcomes for our guests.” Harvard’s student-run shelters are of a rare breed invented here. That their entirely volunteer-based, student-led model works at all is a testament to the goodwill and dedication of students. In an environment inundated with flashier options, they work late night and early morning shifts and choose work genuinely capable of transforming lives. Yet the April 15 cliff we are approaching highlights one way this model bends towards student interests, and inevitably destabilizes the lives of those it is designed to serve. Chute treats the idea of hiring professionals to help run the shelter as a no-brainer. Running a shelter, “is not a joke,” and neither is recovering in one. “God bless anyone that can get out of addiction while being homeless.” To some extent, Chute says dealing with the issue of a couple dozen beds feels silly. “It’s so asinine, because you can just eliminate the problem,” he says. “Lack of housing? Build housing!” But, until access to supportive, permanent public housing is less mythical, Chute says Harvard’s student-run shelters should expand to “hire people yearround, definitely.” For someone seeking shelter in our under-resourced Cambridge, “it’s a life or death situation.” —Hana M. Kiros ’22, a former Crimson Editorial Chair, is an Integrative Biology Concentrator in Pforzheimer House. Her column, “Harvard Everywhere,” runs on alternating Mondays.
OP-ED
Ramadan Mubarak, From My Lab By SAMEER M. KHAN
S
uffocated for more than two years by an agonizing pandemic whose global grip only finally appears to be loosening, Muslims around the world look forward to the revival of community life with the recent start of Ramadan — a month of fasting from sustenance and sin, observed each day from the hours of sunrise to sunset. For Muslims who practice this ritual, Ramadan is a profoundly special period. The month’s value sits uniquely at the interface of personal and collective spiritual growth, where, in abstinence of worldly pleasures, our devotion to Islam can be cultivated both within ourselves and our Muslim communities at large. For me, this year’s observance of Ramadan promises a particularly exciting, though almost unfamiliar, return to spiritual community. It marks my first communal iftar — the meal to signify the conclusion of the daily fast — and my first taraweeh prayers — the set of community-led, nightly prayers distinct to the month of Ramadan — in three years. Perhaps most exceptionally, this will be my first Ramadan away from home, at Harvard. Before Covid-19, I had never considered that it would be a luxury to no longer merely imagine, but to live a proper, in-person, Ramadan on Harvard’s campus. And at a time when my memory of a communal Ramadan has begun to slowly erode, the newly-resurrected opportunity to cherish this sacred experience with the Harvard Muslim community this year — from iftar to taraweeh to simply our presence with each other — should be fundamental to remembering this month’s central project of community-building. But tonight, I’ll be breaking my fast in an organic chemistry lab. Canonized as the boogeyman of undergraduate pre-medical requirements, organic chemistry is certainly no small mountain to climb. It is often regarded
as the most well-oiled machinery in the industry of pre-medical hazing, whereby introductory science courses are often cruelly designed to carve hierarchies of the most “capable” future scientists and physicians — and all those who elect to prioritize other passions or even their own mental health are systematically discarded as the “weeded out.” My organic chemistry lab section, though — a four-hour-long program of molecules and mechanisms from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. each Monday night — has the additional pleasure of weeding me out from parts of my first experience of an on-campus Ramadan. Tonight, and every Monday night in April, I will exchange my communal iftar for my lab coat, my taraweeh prayers for my lab notebook, and my religious community for my lab section. This month is my first Ramadan on campus, and it is my first Ramadan in a lab; the fact that I must — in the words of course staff — find a way to “balance” the two reveals the existence of an insidious infrastructure festering beneath Harvard which judges marginalized identities as inconveniences. Students of underrepresented backgrounds should not be pushed so far to the margins that they must plead loudly and uncomfortably to belong at Harvard. Yet I have done so since January: I requested accommodations for additional, earlier lab sections and for options to exit the lab early so that I might still be able to partake in our communal iftars and prayers. But the fruits of my labor — the permission I have since received to break my fast for a predetermined period of less than twenty minutes in a side room in the lab — are rotting. They reduce the spiritual richness and complexity of Ramadan to a transaction of food and drink and entirely distort the obligations of my religion as a loss in productivity and in caliber as a pre-medical student at Harvard. To reconcile lab and Ramadan, it seems, is code for reconciling being at Harvard and being Muslim.
These scars of unbelonging for Muslims are inscribed far and wide around Harvard’s campus. The soul of this issue lives not only in organic chemistry labs, but also in Harvard’s very foundation — in the small and poorly-lit lone prayer hall Harvard cast aside for its hundreds of Muslim students in the basement of a freshman dormitory, or in the only two permanent Halal meal stations across 12 undergraduate Houses for which Muslim students must compete. I once believed that our requests for belonging were grueling demands, as if my Muslim identity somehow strained and exhausted a corporation that grew $11.3 billion during a pandemic — the very pandemic that made me a virtual student last spring and my memories of a communal Ramadan feel like shards from a distant past. I once believed that erecting a Muslim prayer space comparable to the impressively-towering presence of Memorial Church, that offering Halal dining stations in each undergraduate House, or that extending accommodations for a religious practice observed by nearly two billion adherents would be too taxing on Harvard. I once believed that when it came to institutional support for the expression of my identity, I should settle. But the boundary between accepting the status quo and reimagining a better, more just future is porous — and it requires crossing. Muslims at Harvard will not be content to break our fasts with the crumbs of visibility this institution affords us. We need — and we expect — this University to mobilize itself in our support, to lift the burden of hoping for more that we Muslims too often shoulder and to finally do more for us. So, as I break my fast in my organic chemistry lab tonight, I will pray to live that future, for myself and for the rest of my Muslim community. —Sameer M. Khan ’24, a Crimson Editorial editor, is a History of Science and Social Anthropology concentrator in Adams.
The New York Times is wrong; America does not have a ‘free speech problem’
“A
merica Has a Free Speech Problem,” says the New York Times Editorial Board. No it doesn’t, says Salon. Free speech is again the topic du jour (if not du siècle), and it’s a complicated issue. Much of the discourse is muddled, and the latest contributions are no exception. We approach the issue with the humility of a student Editorial Board, but we do feel the Times has hit on some common, misguided tropes of the anti-cancel-culture discourse. Progressive support for stigmatizing some ideas certainly exists. But its threat, relative to other past and present interferences with free speech, is overstated. Looking back at the legally-imposed self-censorship of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” or further back to an American culture generally hostile to people of color who spoke their minds, it’s difficult to believe that America has historically had a better approach to free speech. Instead, the costs of our prior restrictions were disproportionately borne by the underprivileged.
Progressive support for stigmatizing some ideas certainly exists. But its threat, relative to other past and present interferences with free speech, is overstated. Perhaps the redistribution of that burden feels, to some, like its net increase. Similarly, properly recognizing legal restrictions on free speech as more dangerous than social stigmatization allows us to contextualize the effect of “cancel culture.” When Republican-led state legislatures impose restrictions on critical race theory and discussion of some gender identities, they impose restrictions that can be enforced by the state, not by uncomfortable seat-shifting and ambiguous gazes. We are emphatically and unequivocally against legal restrictions on constitutionally protected speech, no matter their source. The Times, to its credit, has covered these legal restrictions. But their editorial page is valuable real estate, and the balance of words they devote to one cause or another sends a message about their priorities.
We are emphatically and unequivocally against legal restrictions on constitutionally protected speech, no matter their source. It would be a mistake to suggest, on the slender reed of some questionably phrased polling questions about “race relations,” that cancel culture is the greater threat. Society has always set some social costs to less “acceptable” speech — most Nazis don’t have a lot of friends, and haven’t for a while! — and we suspect that even the Times would not want to stop doing so. A more productive discourse would recognize this fact and frankly discuss where these soft lines should be, rather than pretending anyone is in favor of having no lines at all. To be sure, we are broadly in favor of a healthy sphere of discourse in which participants feel empowered to share their beliefs. But by clarifying the anti-woke talking points that so often dominate the discussion, a clearer roadmap to safeguarding such a sphere emerges. Students, professors, and Americans more generally should advocate forcefully for their views. As a culture, we should learn to live with criticism.
Students, professors, and Americans more generally should advocate forcefully for their views. As a culture, we should learn to live with criticism. In turn, we should focus our reproval not on those who criticize but on the powerful people who sometimes suspend, fire, or ban when they shouldn’t. The way to beat back a cultural stigma you think unfair isn’t to speak in generalities about cancel culture; it’s to defend your specific ideas and alternatives. Contest the cultural terrain, if you’re so inclined! Call out views you disagree with, and sign your name when you do. If your critics respond, sometimes harshly, so be it. So long as administrators and governments hold fast in their responsibility to protect you from unreasonable institutional recrimination, let the best speech win out. 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.
PAGE 5
THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
LOWELL FROM PAGE 1
APRIL 4, 2022
IOP FROM PAGE 1
Undergrads Will Work Senator Tim Scott Talks with Refugees in Lowell Supreme Court at IOP said. “Secondly, we’re also being open minded about the physical format, because we’re going to ask people, ‘Do you prefer to look at things on your phone? Would you like a printed newspaper?’” Students will work with Interboro Partners, D’Oca’s design office, on the project. D’Oca has worked with Harvard grad-
uate students to develop urban plans for neighborhoods in Lowell for the past five years. Through this work, he met Halm. “[Halm] helped us really understand some of the unique needs and challenges and perspectives of people in the African community there in Lowell,” D’Oca said. “I just thought
of him immediately when I was thinking about what to do for the project this summer with the Mindich Program in Community Engaged Research.” The Mindich Program in Community Engaged Research is accepting applications for the project until April 8. alexander.fung@thecrimson.com
the tendency of the public to “read headlines, not stories.” “Conflict is lucrative — doesn’t matter if you’re on the right or the left,” he said. “The more polarization there is in the nation, the more you tune in,” he added. In an interview after the Friday event, Scott added that some of the political divide that exists
between Republicans and Democrats is more perceived than realized. “There’s a lot of reasons to look at the divisions in life,” he said. “Some of them are real, most of them are not,” Scott added. Paurakh Rijal ’25, who attended the event, said that he agreed with Scott’s analysis
Pictures worth a thousand words.
The Crimson thecrimson.com
of polarization in the United States. “I feel everybody has common ground to some extent at some point, right?” Rijal said. “Something that he kind of mentioned, which I like to agree with, is this idea that you should go out and try to begin with similarities,” Rijal also said in an interview.
SPORTS
WEEKLY RECAP
SCORES
SOFTBALL VS. COLUMBIA W, 4-1 ___________________________________________________________
SAILING MARCHIANDO TEAM RACE 4TH ___________________________________________________________
WOMEN’S TENNIS VS. DARTMOUTH W, 4-0 ___________________________________________________________
WOMEN’S WATER POLO VS. PRINCETON W, 10-8 ___________________________________________________________
MEN’S TENNIS VS. DARTMOUTH W, 7-0 ___________________________________________________________
WOMEN’S RUGBY VS. ARMY W, 17-15 ___________________________________________________________
MEN’S LACROSSE VS.COLGATE W, 7-6 ___________________________________________________________
MEN’S VOLLEYBALL
Men’s Volleyball Takes One Step Forward, One Back By SAM E. SHARFSTEIN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
A n up-and-down weekend interrupted the Harvard men’s volleyball team’s strong 2022 campaign as the Crimson swept the St. Francis Terriers in straight sets Friday night but failed to win a set against potential playoff opponent New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) on Saturday. “It was a disappointing night for sure,” senior captain Jason Shen said. “But if we win out the rest of the season then we’re still in a good place for the playoffs.” The captain’s optimism stems from his team’s performance against St. Francis (1311, 6-7 EIVA), as Harvard (1010, 8-4 EIVA) dominated the first two sets before pulling away late in the third frame. The Crimson knew it faced a tougher challenge in Saturday’s match against NJIT (13-8, 8-4 EIVA), having faced the thirdranked Highlanders squad earlier in the season. “In the last meetup, we beat them three to one, and it was exciting and good volleyball with close sets, so we knew it was going to be good volleyball and competitive play,” Shen said. “We knew we had to execute. This time, we just couldn’t do it.” On Friday, Harvard leaned on senior outside hitter Campbell Schoenfeld, who racked up 13 kills, and consistently capitalized on St. Francis’s service and attack errors. The Crimson came out of the gates hot and repeatedly won lengthy backand-forth rallies in the first frame, highlighted by a deft drop shot by Schoenfeld to put the team ahead 20-17 before going on a 5-2 run to take the first set 25-19. Harvard completely overwhelmed St. Francis in the second set, winning 25-13. A ferocious spike from senior outside hitter Eric Li set the tone early on, putting the Crimson ahead 10-6 and sparking a raucous celebration from the bench that earned a warning from the line
BIG SPIKE Senior outside hitter Eric Li set the tone against St. Francis, continuing his strong Harvard career dating back to 2020 picture above. CRIMSON STAFF
judges. Li contributed seven kills and four digs in the match, while sophomore middle hitter Ethan Smith and first year opposite hitter Kade McGovern added seven and eight kills, respectively. The third set, however, proved to be a much tougher task, as St. Francis repeatedly rallied back to tie the score as the set went on. After being tied at 17-17, and then again at 22-22, Harvard ultimately won the final three points to secure the victory. Its triumph was punctuated by a sliding dive to save the ball from Shen, which proved critical to the game’s fi-
nal point. Shen noted that the team has had plenty of experience with close games this season, which has helped prepare them for tense, late game situations. “I think our team this year has shown ourselves to be really solid in the end game, and we work a lot on that in practice, and we’ve seen the results come through,” Shen said. “We’ve seen a lot of overtime wins, especially against good opponents…I’m very confident in our team and in our ability to be dominant over any other team when it comes to the endgame.” Shen pointed to the Crim-
son’s serving and passing games as areas of improvement coming out of Saturday’s match, as NJIT racked up 12 aces to Harvard’s zero. Against St. Francis, Harvard put four aces past the Terriers. “Their hitters hit really well and we adjusted the best we could, but we pretty much beat ourselves a lot of the time, and they took care of their side,” Shen said. “The last time we played New Jersey, they struggled serving and passing a little bit more than this time,” Shen added. “So our blockers were able to do a lot more last time, but this
time, they were consistent the whole time.” After playing a string of home games to begin the season, the Crimson has gone on the road in seven of its past eight games. Schoenfeld emphasized how adjusting to this change will prove more important as the season progresses. “Working on the road, we’ll probably have to do that for the playoffs,” Schoenfeld said. “In the beginning of the season, we were pretty much always home. Just getting used to that, we’re still working on it a bit to create our own energy and momentum. We did well with that
BLOCK ATTACK Crimson blockers had a much tougher time against NJIT than earlier in the season, a credit to the strong Highlanders roster in a potential playoff matchup. CRIMSON STAFF
against St. Francis.” Schoenfeld led the team in kills in both games over the weekend, continuing his strong senior season. He highlighted the contributions of first year setter James Bardin as critical to his success. “James does a great job reading the block and shifting the sets,” Schoenfeld said. “He really runs the offense. He does a nice job, so a lot of props to him.” Harvard looks to bounce back from Saturday’s loss next weekend, when the team plays host to Charleston (5-13, 2-10 EIVA) this upcoming Friday and Saturday.