The Harvard Crimson - Volume CXLV, No. 56

The University Daily, Est. 1873 | Volume cxlvI, No. 56 | Cambridge, Massachusetts | Friday, April 13, 2018

The Harvard Crimson The new pre-orientation program will help marginalized students.

What Next? Hockey seniors share plans for after Harvard.

editorial PAGE 8

sports PAGE 10

Sciences Univ. Pursues Vineyards, Despite Drought Reach Gender Parity

By Eli W. Burns and William l. Wang Crimson Staff Writers

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By Angela N. Fu and lucy wang

Few people choose to live in Cuyama Valley.

With a population of less than 1,000 residents, according to the 2010 U.S. Census, the 300-square mile area is home to large, empty expanses of ranch and agricultural land. Less than a foot of water graces the parched earth of Cuyama each year, making the region one of the driest regions of Central California.

Beneath the arid ground, though, there exists great agricultural potential. Cuyama— the Chumash word for “clam”— is an apt analogy for the region. Hardened and seemingly intractable on the outside, it is full of untapped riches underneath. Ever since the region’s oil reserves declined, crops have been king.

Harvard Management Company— the stewards of the University’s $37.1

Crimson Staff Writer

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katherine e. wang—Crimson designer

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The Faculty of Arts and Sciences has reached gender parity in the tenure track of the sciences division for the first time, according to the the school’s annual Faculty Diversity and Development report released Thursday.

The report, compiled by Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity Judith D. Singer, contains statistics on the number of ladder faculty—meaning tenured professors and those on the tenure track like assistant and associate professors—who are women or minorities within FAS and the University’s professional schools.

The report also details initiatives each school is undertaking in order to diversify their faculty.

Singer called achieving gender parity within the sciences division tenure track one of the “bright spots” of the report.

“In particular, I would point out that 50 percent of the tenure-track faculty in the sciences division in the FAS are women,” Singer said. “That is the result of a very, very concerted effort to look broadly for talent and to recruit people and support them.”

The number of tenure-track women scientists has grown in the past 10 years, starting at 32 percent in 2008, the earliest year included in the report.

Though women make up 50 percent of tenure-track faculty in the sciences, they make up 18 percent of tenured sciences faculty, marking the second-lowest percentage among the four divisions of FAS. Sixteen percent of tenured faculty in the engineering division of FAS are women and 19 percent of tenure-track faculty are women. The social sciences division is also yet to achieve gender parity among its ladder faculty, as women in that division make up 31 percent of tenured faculty and 40 percent of tenure-track faculty.

The arts and humanities division boasts the highest percentage of women across its ladder faculty. Women make up 35 percent of tenured faculty and 54 percent of tenure-track faculty.

Hiro L. Tanaka, a Benjamin Peirce Fellow in the Mathematics department, said there is still work to be done within the sciences and that 50-50 representation is a “very poor substitute” for what it means to have gender equality.

“I think gender parity would probably be defined by the feelings of the individuals in a particular community at the student level, at the professor level, at the professional level—whether they feel like gender is not a factor that disadvantages them in their success,” said Tanaka, who is also a faculty advisor for Gender Inclusivity in Math.

The Math department recently

The concept of safety shares an interesting relationship with the artmaking process, a discipline which often values the unconventional and groundbreaking. Navigating this balance has been a key consideration of students and faculty, with regards to both the larger art world and the more insular community at Harvard.

See Sciences Page 5

Harvard Senior Pushes for Gun Safety

FAS Rule Limits Profs’ Public Work Opps

By nina H. Pasquini and Jordan E. Virtue

By Cecilia R. D’arms

Crimson Staff Writers

On August 15, 2016, Joseph D. Ostas rented a room at the Holiday Inn Express in Norman, Oklahoma. He brought along stuffed animals, a wellused Virgin Mary candle, and loving notes to family and friends.

Then he shot himself in the head with a Taurus 9mm semi-automatic pistol he purchased legally at a nearby Academy Sports. He was 24 years old.

Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Michael D. Smith approved policy changes last year restricting professors’ ability to hold certain public service positions while also remaining active members of Harvard’s faculty.

The changes, passed in May 2017, mandate that any professor whose public service commitments take up— or have the “undue potential” to take up—more than 20 percent of their

See bill Page 6

See service Page 3

Reed T. Shafer-Ray ‘18 sponsored a bill currently in the Massachussetts State House. caleb D. Schwartz—Crimson photographer

Inside this issue

Harvard Today 2

News 3

Editorial 8

Sports 10

Today’s Forecast

Crimson Staff Writer

Cloudy High: 66 Low: 47

Visit thecrimson.com.

Follow @TheCrimson on Twitter.

Spicer 2.0

HARVARD TODAY Friday | April 13, 2018

FOR Lunch

FOR DINNER

Chicken Schnitzel with Sour Cream and Chive Mayo on Multigrain

Dinner will be served in the Yard, or in Currier, Dunster, and Hillel. All other dining halls will be closed for dinner.

Farfalle Pasta with Cannellini and Basil Pesto

around the ivies

WILD CHILD Wild Child performs at the Sinclair.

Melanie Y. Fu —CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Columbia Neuroscientist Had Years-Long Relationship Violating School’s Policies Columbia University neuroscientist Thomas Jessell was engaged in a more than five-year relationship with a lab member he supervised, violating the school’s consensual romantic and sexual relationship policies, the Columbia Spectator reported. The school has been investigating Jessell since December 2017, and announced he would be removed from his positions at the university in early March. Initially the school did not report the reason for his dismissal, prompting concerns about academic dishonesty in his lab.

Former Undergraduate Chair of Penn’s Psych Department Had Sexual Relationship With Student Robert Kurzban, psychology professor and undergraduate chair of the department, had a sexual relationship with a freshman enrolled in his Human Morality and Emotions course, the Daily Pennsylvanian reported. Students said that Kurzban’s relationship with the freshman student began in the spring of 2017 when they met on Tinder. The university’s policy states that all relationships between faculty and students are prohibited. Kurzban is no longer listed as director of undergraduate studies on the psychology department’s website.

HAPPY Friday!

Stay safe on this spooky but surprisingly warm Friday the 13th Yardfest!

Today’s Events Uh, Yardfest?

In case you live under a rock, Wale and Lil Yachty will be headlining Yardfest today in, well, the Yard. You

can keep reading for more of today’s events, but you’ll probably be too “tired” to attend.

Beat the T! Think you can run faster than the T? Put your running skills to the test by running three miles from the Prudential Center to Marathon Sports Boston.

Boston University School of Law professor David Webber will be discussing his latest book, The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder: Labor’s Last Best Weapon. Workers of the world, unite!

Carmen S. Enrique Crimson Staff Writer

David Webber at Harvard Book Store

Dartmouth Not Facing Antitrust Investigation Dartmouth has not received a letter including it in a Department of Justice antitrust investigation into a number of other schools in New England, according to The Dartmouth. The inquiry is related to possible instances of passing information about early decision candidates between schools, which can be a violation of federal law. Amherst College, Middlebury College, Wellesley College, Wesleyan University, Williams College and Tufts University have been reported as being included in this investigation.

in the real world World Press Photo of the Year The 2018 World Press Photo of the Year award was given to Venezuelan photojournalist Ronaldo Schemidt for his photograph of a young man on fire amid clashes with police at an antiMaduro protest in Caracas.

Sara Danius Resigns Amid Sexual Abuse Scandal Sara Danius, the permanent secretary of the body that awards the Nobel Prize in Literature, resigned after failing to properly investigate sexual abuse and harassment allegations against an influential Swedish cultural figure who has close ties to the Swedish Academy.

Trump Considers Rejoining Trans Pacific Partnership Over a year after withdrawing from the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal in the first weeks of his presidency, President Donald Trump is looking to potentiallly enter back into the agreement. This comes in the face of a looming trade war with China and concerns for American farmers.

Baseball and Beanpot WAIting at the dot

Hunter B. Bigge ‘20 pitches for the Crimson in their game against the University of Pennsylvania on Sunday. The Harvard Men’s Baseball team beat Northeastern University to win the beanpot championship on Wednesday afternoon.

Timothy R. O’Meara —CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

The Harvard Crimson The University Daily, Est. 1873 Derek G. Xiao, President Hannah Natanson, Managing Editor Nathan Y. Lee, Business Manager Copyright 2018, 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.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Staff for This Issue

“I honestly got out there and I was just very angry. I was just full of rage. I was just full of defiance.”

—Reed T. Shafer-Ray ’18

Night Editor Graham W. Bishai ‘19

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.

Assistant Night Editor Jamie D. Halper ’20 Annie C. Doris ’21 Story Editors Joshua J. Florence ’19 Mia C. Karr ’19 Hannah Natanson ’19 Claire E. Parker ‘19 Sarah Wu ’19 Kenton K. Shimozaki ’19

Derek G. Xiao ’19 Design Editor Katie E. Wang ’20 Editorial Editor Emmanuel R. R. D’Agostino ’19 Photo Editors Casey M. Allen ‘20 Sports Editors George Hu ’19

The Harvard Crimson | April 13, 2018 | page 3

In California, Harvard Hopes to Turn Water Into Wine Water From Page 1 billion endowment— has positioned itself to benefit from the richness of the region.

HMC has a long-standing history of owning eclectic natural resource assets, including New Zealand cattle farms, timber, and Brazilian sugar canes. Central California—which boasts some of the world’s finest vineyards—has also become part of HMC’s extensive, and little known, asset portfolio.

In the University’s 2013 financial report, then-HMC president Jane L. Mendillo wrote that continued positive returns in the natural resources portfolio “demonstrat[es] the continued potential of this investment area.”

HMC has offloaded some of its natural resource assets after particularly poor performance in this asset class in fiscal year 2016. In 2017, HMC CEO N.P “Narv” Narvekar—who took the helm of the endowment roughly two years ago—marked down the value of natural resource investments by $1.1 billion.

But the company has retained its holdings in California vineyards, and now a number of local residents are questioning the wager Harvard is making in the county.

Since 2012, Brodiaea, Inc.—a Delaware-based company wholly owned by HMC—has spent over $60 million and purchased about 10,000 acres of vineyard land in the Paso Robles region of California.

Brodiaea followed that purchase by dipping its toes into Cuyama.

Harvard’s land grab in central California has raised local concern over the University’s water well drilling and its potential impact on the region.

With California confronting a water shortage crisis, residents of Cuyama have begun to band together and draft a vision for a more sustainable future— one that may challenge the vineyards Harvard holds.

‘PERFECT FOR AGRICULTURE’ Bounded to the southwest by the Sierra Madre mountains, Cuyama Valley hugs the Cuyama River and spans four counties in California. Once a hotbed for oil production, Cuyama Valley peaked in the early 1950s as California’s fourth most productive oil region. The oil boom also gave rise to New Cuyama—now the most populat-

ed city in the region with just over 500 residents. Once the oil began to dry out, though, farmers started tapping the region for agricultural use.

Stephen R. Gliessman, an agroecology professor emeritus at the University of California at Santa Cruz and a farmer in the valley who has challenged the Harvard vineyard’s water usage, said the region experimented with a variety of crops like alfalfa, oats, and carrots. Regardless of the crop, Gliessman said, one issue has persisted across California.

“In reality, the climate is perfect for agriculture—nice long dry summers, mild winters in large parts of the state,” Gliessman said.

“The only problem is water. There’s not enough of it.”

As the demand for water increased, the Cuyama Valley Groundwater Basin—the sole source of water supply in the region—began to dwindle in size.

A 1998 Department of Water Resource study conducted by the state of California found water levels had dropped 150 feet in the west-central region of the basin and more than 300 feet in the northeastern part of the basin in the preceding 50 years. As groundwater levels decrease, growers have been forced to lower wells reaching up to 1,000 feet in depth, the Santa Maria Sun reported.

Recent precipitation data do not offer a bright vision for the future.

According to data collected by the Western Regional Climate Center—a government climate research center— New Cuyama has averaged 8.35 inches of precipitation from 1981 to 2010.

Between the dry months of April and September, the city sees fractions of an inch in monthly average precipitation.

The rest of California has suffered similarly dry conditions. In Jan. 2014, Governor Jerry Brown declared a drought state of emergency in California that lasted more than three years.

In the meantime, Harvard has not been deterred by the parched conditions in Cuyama.

In April 2014, Brodiaea Inc. paid $10.1 million for more than 7,500 acres of vineyard land in northeast Santa Barbara County, making it one of the biggest holders of land in Cuyama Valley.

The vineyard purchase moved local residents to action.

‘NATURE IS GOING TO TAKE ITS

COURSE’ Amid the water woes, residents have questioned the viability of Harvard’s vineyards in Cuyama.

Randall Tognazzini, whose family has owned a ranch in the northern part of the valley for decades, said he is unsure about the University’s purchase.

“I would love to see it work,” said Tognazzini. “Nothing would make me happier to see that work there, but I’m just extremely, extremely concerned that this money has been poorly spent there.”

Tognazzini estimated that 800 acre-feet—or nearly 35 million cubic feet—of water may be needed to grow the vineyard per year. That amount, Tognazzini said, may not be sustainable for Harvard’s vineyard project.

“They will make it as perfect as they can, but they can’t guarantee that it’s not going to fail because nature is going to take its course,” he said.

Santa Barbara County Supervisor Das Williams said his constituents are wary of the vineyard’s impacts on the valley.

“Larger agriculturists, and owners, and the townsfolk, and the farmworkers, and the everyday folks—they have very different viewpoints. The one thing they agree on is that they are afraid of the potential impact and uncertainty that the vineyard project poses,” Williams said.

Gliessman said he has heard questions about Harvard’s project since its inception.

“Nobody in our valley could understand why they were doing it, it just didn’t make sense from an environmental or agronomic perspective,” Gliessman said. “Number one, there is not enough water to support more water-intensive agriculture.”

Brenton Kelly, a farmer in the valley and vice chair of the advisory committee to the Cuyama Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency, said the land has changed significantly since it became a vineyard.

“It’s certainly no longer phenomenal range land with wildflowers and open space,” he said. “It’s many miles of vineyard now, engineered landscape—much like the rest of the valley.”

‘CRITICALLY OVERDRAFTED’ As the valley continues to see its water disappear, its residents have mobilized to preserve it.

In Sept. 2014, California passed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which for the first time provided a framework to manage groundwater use in the state. The act instructed the Department of Water Resources to categorize basins based on groundwater metrics. Basins of either “medium” or “high” priority are required by SGMA to form Groundwater Sustainability Agencies that draft Groundwater Sustainability Plans to manage use.

Jennifer Clary, a manager at the grassroots environmental advocacy group Clean Water Action, said the law will change the landscape for groundwater use in California.

“The main impact of SGMA is that for the first time it’s requiring balanced and sustainable use of groundwater,” Clary said. “The difficulty is that groundwater has always been our fallback supply.”

Cuyama Valley, along with 20 other basins, has earned the classification “critically overdrafted.” This means that, over multiple years, more water is withdrawn from the basin than is replenished, and the depletion could have significant adverse impacts. For basins in critical overdraft, the timeline is accelerated and the sustainability plan must be implemented by Jan. 2020.

The Cuyama Basin GSA, formed in June 2017, comprises representatives from the Cuyama Basin Water District, the counties that hold land in the valley, and the Cuyama Community Services District, which provides water and wastewater treatment to residents living in the New Cuyama area.

The GSA has the power to potentially tax water use, impose restrictions, and fund projects that could increase inflow of water into the valley.

To get a seat on the GSA, property owners in the Cuyama Valley formed the water district, which the county certified in 2017.

“It was partially formed because the large landowners wanted to be in the driving seat,” Williams said.

The special election to form the water district—a group of landowners who will weigh in on water issues— took place in February of last year.

The district, which holds a plurality of seats on the GSA, does not include the Harvard-owned vineyard.

Harvard is not represented through the district, but rather, through the counties in which the vineyard lies.

Williams said it was unexpected to see a major landowner like the vineyard owner sitting out of the process.

“We did not anticipate that there would be large entities that didn’t participate with the district,” Williams said, adding he has met with vineyard representatives to ask them to participate directly on the GSA. “They have come to some meetings, all of the large landowners are paying part of the cost, except for them,” Williams said. “I have asked them to participate voluntarily in the cost, that hasn’t happened.”

HMC spokesperson Patrick S. McKiernan declined to comment for this story.

The Groundwater Sustainability Agency may end up imposing water restrictions on landowners in the valley, Williams said.

And, as one of the most precious resources in the region, restrictions on groundwater could keep Harvard from turning water into wine in Cuyama.

“I do believe that the plan could impose restrictions on groundwater uses. It’s one of the most endangered groundwater basins in the state. It’s very possible,” Williams said.

In early 2016, Santa Barbara County filed a proposal with the Department of Water Resources that seeks to modify the boundary of Cuyama Valley. Their recommendation cites a recent USGS study that suggests that the Russell fault divides the groundwater basin.

The Harvard-owned vineyard has advanced a similar argument.

But in June 2016, the DWR rejected the boundary change proposal, which would have split the vineyard away from the critically overdrafted Cuyama Basin.

The ruling placed the vineyard under the purview of the Cuyama Basin GSA, meaning any groundwater sustainability plan the group develops will apply to the vineyard.

Meanwhile, though, to protect its vineyard from frost, Brodiaea is applying for a permit to construct three reservoirs slated to hold over 52 million gallons of water.

Staff writer Eli W. Burnes can be reached at eli. burnes@thecrimson.com.

Staff writer William L. Wang can be reached at william.wang@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @wlwang20.

New FAS Policy Restricts Professors’ Public Service Work service From Page 1 “total professional effort” must take a maximum of two years unpaid leave.

The policy also forbids service that could take the professor’s “primary professional loyalty” away from Harvard.

A faculty committee appointed by Smith in late 2016 proposed the changes to three Faculty steering bodies. After making some small adjustments in consultation with these three groups, members of the original committee presented the policy to Smith.

Smith approved the policy as written, according to Economics Professor James H. Stock, who served on the committee.

Economics Professor Jeremy C. Stein, who chaired the committee, said that, until recently, Harvard “didn’t need” a clear public service leave policy for faculty.

“Most of the cases that I think they have dealt with in the past have been mostly Americans looking to do U.S.

public service,” Stein said. “We didn’t need much of a policy because the U.S. government would force you to go on leave.”

But Stock said it “became apparent” that Harvard professors engage in other kinds of public service—like working for foreign governments—that were not “really covered” by Harvard’s previous policy.

Stock and Stein said the committee formed to adjudicate these “complicated” cases.

Stein particularly pointed to the example of History Professor Sugata Bose, who was elected to serve in Indian Parliament starting in Sept. 2014.

While Bose’s current parliamentary duties do not take him away from Harvard during the year, Stein said Smith worried that unforeseen circumstances could distract Bose from his duties in Cambridge going forward.

Bose’s specific situation in part led to the formation of the committee, Stein said.

“We were not questioning the idea

that the leave could never be more than two years in any circumstance, because that’s a Corporation-level rule,” Stein said, referring to the Harvard Corporation, the University’s highest governing body. “[The question] was, within those parameters, when would you have to take leave to do public service as opposed to when could you do certain things while remaining on the faculty?”

Stein said the committee decided to use a “common law approach” to answer the question. This meant the committee sought to establish “high level principles” that Smith could apply according to his best judgment.

Stein said committee members took this approach because they wanted to acknowledge the committee itself could not anticipate “every contingency.”

History Department Chair Daniel L. Smail, however, said he is concerned this policy is too broad and will have far-reaching effects on professors’

abilities to work in the public sector.

Smail said he objected to the scope of the policy changes when the faculty committee first presented them to the Social Sciences steering committee in late 2016.

In arguing against the changes, Smail cited the experience of History Professor Nancy F. Cott, who served as a consultant and expert witness for the lawyers arguing against the Defense of Marriage Act, which was struck down in 2013. Cott performed these services while still working as a full-time Harvard professor.

Smail said he fears the new policy will deter professors from taking on the kind of project Cott undertook.

“She was a very important figure in terms of turning the national wheel toward allowing same-sex marriage,” Smail said. “[But] it was a huge commitment that probably exceeded 20 percent of her time.”

“I worry: is it possible that someone under this policy might look at the kinds of things Nancy Cott was doing

and say no, that exceeds this undue commitment, this 20 percent?” Smail asked.

More broadly, Smail argued that— unlike private, for-profit consulting, which he agrees should be restricted— public service could never be in conflict with a professor’s mission at or loyalty to Harvard.

“I still think there’s no case where my loyalty to the university can be in conflict with my loyalty to the public good,” Smail said. “Because what is the point of a university? It’s a nonprofit.

It’s meant to serve the public good.”

Stein, however, disagreed.

“There’s some [public service] jobs you could have where even if they don’t necessarily have a lot of hours, you could imagine a situation where if there was a conflict, you’d be pulled towards that rather than towards your teaching or your research or your students,” Stein said.

—Crimson staff writer Cecilia R. D’Arms can be reached at cecilia.d’arms@thecrimson.com

Global Services Warns of Assault Abroad By edith M. herwitz and lainey a. Newman Crimson Staff Writers

Global Support Services, a University department that supports Harvard-affiliated international travel, distributed fact sheets informing students of sexual assault risks and resources when travelling abroad.

The flyers and posters, which Global Support Services slid under dormitory doors last week, warn that “sexual assault and gender-based violence have no borders.” They urge students to research cultural norms in their destination countries and consult Global Support Services regarding safety measures prior to traveling.

The department was founded in 2011 to support students, faculty, and staff activities abroad. In recent years, it has been working to increase awareness about historically underreported sexual assault and harassment abroad.

The office has distributed printed awareness materials every April since 2016 to coincide with Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

University spokesperson Liz Marr wrote in an emailed statement that the recent distribution of flyers to students aims to increase awareness of sexual assault resources abroad.

“One of our priorities in GSS is to ensure that Harvard travelers are aware of the laws, cultural norms, and resources abroad,” Marr wrote. “These can vary greatly by country, including those for sexual harassment and as-

sault and gender-based violence.”

The pamphlets were originally created in 2016 after the University released findings from a spring 2015 survey about sexual assault and misconduct within Harvard. According to Marr, these findings prompted the

One of our priorities in GSS is to ensure that Harvard travelers are aware of the laws, cultural norms, and resources abroad.

Elizabeth Esparza GSS Senior Manager

Global Support Services to introduce initiatives to generate more awareness for resources available to students outside of the United States.

Elizabeth H. Esparza, senior program manager for strategic initiatives, wrote about her own experiences with sexual assault while studying abroad in the mid-1990s in a Harvard Business School blog post published in 2017. As

a member of the International Safety and Security team within Global Support Services, Esparza is involved in the pre-departure programming and preparation for students going abroad.

When crises do occur overseas, Esparza said her office is also there to support students and Harvard-affiliated individuals.

“In the case of sexual assault, the immediate thing that we are going to focus on is the traveler’s safety,” Esparza said.

“If they need immediate medical attention, we work to get them the medical resources they need. In some places, those resources are readily available. In other locations, we may have to move someone to ensure that they are getting the help they need.”

Global Support Services also works with University administrators in the Title IX Office, Harvard University Health Services, and the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response to provide assistance to Harvard students who disclose experiences of sexual harassment or assault abroad, according to Marr.

Caroline S. Ko ’21, a student who will be in Venice, Italy, this summer, said that Global Support Services has already been in contact with her to make her aware of the resources available while she is studying abroad.

“I’m glad that they are trying to make students aware of sexual assault and harassment, instead of trying to ignore these issues,” Ko said. “Awareness is key for prevention.”

Never miss a moment.

The Crimson @thecrimson

Page 4 | April 13, 2018 | The Harvard Crimson

Flake to Speak at Law School

By Aiden F. Ryan Crimson Staff Writer

Harvard Law School announced Wednesday that Arizona Senator Jeffry L. Flake will be its 2018 Class Day Speaker.

Since President Donald Trump took office, the 55-year-old Republican has been one of his most outspoken critics on the right, even going so far as comparing the president’s attacks on the media to former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

Last summer, Flake also published a book— “Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle”—criticizing the president.

Flake wrote in a statement provided by a spokesperson that he was “honored” the Law School invited him to speak.

“I’m very honored to have been asked to speak. As un-senatorial as it may seem, I’ll try to be as brief and concise as possible,” he wrote.

Flake announced in Oct. 2017 that he would not seek re-election to the Senate, raising speculation that he would challenge Trump in 2020.

Flake spoke at a “Politics and Eggs” breakfast in March at New Hampshire’s Saint Anselm College, a key stop for presidential candidates.

Asked whether he would run for pres-

ident, Flake did not rule out the possibility.

“It has not been in my plans to run for president, but I have not ruled it out,” Flake said at the New Hampshire event.

Flake, a graduate of Brigham Young University, served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives before becoming a senator for one term.

Flake is currently the chair of the Africa Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Flake has also served as the executive director of the conservative and libertarian think tank Goldwater Institute in Arizona as well as the Foundation for Democracy in Namibia.

As a senator, Flake has been at the forefront of efforts to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba. Representing the border state of Arizona, Flake has also pushed for immigration reform and recently introduced a bill to confirm the legal status of DACA recipients.

Flake will address graduating Law students on May 23, the day before Commencement.

Class Day speakers are selected by representatives of the graduating class, but not all students approved of the choice.

Pete D. Davis ’12, a third-year Law student, voiced his disapproval of Flake in two Harvard Law Record

opinion pieces published Wednesday and Thursday.

Davis, who has been a vocal critic of what he calls a lack of support for public interest at the Law School, wrote in the first piece that he believes the political Right has “work[ed] the ref” in an effort to push liberal institutions to move toward the center by courting conservatives. Davis argued that this strategy motivated the school to select of Flake.

“An understanding of this rightwing power tactic helps make sense of the selection of Jeff Flake as Harvard Law School’s 2018 Class Day Speaker. The selection of such a figure...is a consequence of another successful effort by the right to work the ref,” Davis wrote.

Davis criticized Flake’s voting record—highlighting his support of the Iraq War and his opposition to gay marriage, among other stances.

Davis’s second letter specifically criticizes Flake’s support of closing the Legal Services Corporation, citing Flake’s long-term opposition to funding the program, which provides funding for civil legal aid to the less fortunate.

Flake could not be reached for comment on Davis’s criticisms. The Law School class marshals who selected Flake did not immediately respond to request for comment.

GSAS Hires Diversity Fellows

By Shera s. avi-yonah Crimson Staff Writer

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences’ Office of Diversity and Minority Affairs hired its first pair of diversity fellows at the beginning of this semester.

The 2018 fellows, Ph.D. students Alyssa M. Hernandez and Alfredo M. Valencia, both said they applied for the position as a way to make underrepresented minorities feel more welcome on Harvard’s campus.

Sheila Thomas, the GSAS dean for academic programs and diversity, wrote in an email that the fellows are a valuable addition because they can ask questions of their peers in a way that administrators cannot.

“While we have gathered student feedback from regular meetings with student groups and town halls, one of the most important things the Fellows will do is go out into the community and have honest conversations with underrepresented students,” Thomas wrote.

On April 15, admitted students will decide whether to accept an offer from one of Harvard’s Ph.D. programs at GSAS. Hernandez and Valencia, both of whom spoke to prospective students at visiting events last month, said many of their discussions centered on the sense of “impostor syndrome” that admits feel when coming to Harvard.

“There’s such a reputation, and it’s intimidating. I felt intimidated and I still feel intimidated,” Hernandez said.

“Graduate students talk a lot about impostor syndrome and feeling like they didn’t deserve to get in. We want to make Harvard more welcoming to students of color.”

Both fellows are members of affinity groups within GSAS, including the W.E.B. DuBois Graduate Society, Harvard Graduate Women in Science and Engineering, and the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science. Valencia said these groups “help students feel safe in a new environment.”

“When I first moved across the country from Southern California to

the northeast, I felt like it was a very different culture,” Valencia said. “In student groups I found a really closeknit community.”

Hernandez added that one of the fellows’ major priorities for the coming year is making both admitted and current students more aware of diversity efforts at the departmental level.

“When I was applying to schools, I went directly to the program websites,” she said. “Freddy and I talked about what we saw when we applied, and whether they advertised diversity. It is something I noticed and something I took into consideration, so I thought a lot about how it might affect other students.”

Valencia estimated that about one in four program websites currently include information on departmental diversity efforts. He also noted that some other departments link to information on diversity at GSAS more broadly.

Moving forward, he said he and Hernandez hope to work with administrators to increase the visibility of diversity efforts on these websites.

IOP Hosts Panel on Opioid Epidemic

By Luke w. vrotsos Crimson Staff Writer

Five former governors spoke about state responses to the opioid epidemic at a roundtable discussion at the Harvard School of Public Health Thursday.

The panel featured Steve Beshear of Kentucky, Jim Douglas of Vermont, Jack Markell of Delaware, Ted Strickland of Ohio, and Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, who also served as Secretary of Health and Human Services under the Obama administration. Douglas is a Republican; the other four are Democrats.

Strickland was unable to attend in person, so he participated remotely.

Throughout the event, the panelists discussed their experiences working to stymie the opioid epidemic at the state and federal levels. Proposed solutions included residential treatment centers, needle exchanges, and combating the overprescription of opioids.

Sebelius criticized the Trump administration, specifically mentioning financial support for opioid treatment as an area where federal leadership has fallen short.

“Ideally we would have an administration that would cease trying to take ­

payment for treatment away from millions of people who desperately need it, stop trying to roll back Medicaid expansion,” she said.

She also said federal officials are prosecuting perpetrators of non-violent drug crimes too aggressively.

“The Justice Department continues to believe this is a criminal justice issue—‘lock ’em up’—which has been a proven failure and cost a lot of money,” Sebelius said.

The governors also shared personal anecdotes about the opioid epidemic in their states.

Strickland said that last December he picked up a hitchhiker on the highway who was walking to his drug-treatment appointment.

“I’ve thought about that man a lot.

No car, no job, prison record, an addiction, walking to drug treatment on a very cold morning. And that gives me hope,” he said. “I may never see him again, but I hope that he is a success story because I know he’s trying.”

The event was held at the School of Public Health’s Leadership Studio, and was organized in cooperation with Reuters. Reuters Boston Bureau Chief Scott Malone moderated the event.

Lisa Mirowitz, executive producer and director of the Leadership Studio,

said that this event differed from past opioid-focused programming because it focused on treatment programs, a choice inspired by recent polling from Robert J. Blendon, a professor at the School of Public Health.

Blendon’s surveys indicated 34 percent of Americans do not think there is a treatment for prescription-painkiller abuse that is effective in the long term, and 49 percent oppose requiring insurers to provide more extensive coverage of treatment programs.

“The public really does not understand if treatment is worthwhile.

They’re confused about treatment,” Mirowitz said.

Christina Roache, associate director for production and web at the studio, said the governors provided valuable information on the opioid issue.

She said that they had “a unique perspective into the tools that can be used to address the issue and some of the challenges that they’ve had to grapple with.”

The roundtable comes as Harvard faculty across the Longwood Medical Area are stepping up their research and education efforts in response to the opioid epidemic, which claims an average of 115 lives every day in the United States.

HKS and Bank of America Study AI By arnav agrawal Crimson Staff Writer

Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs has partnered with Bank of America to start an initiative to study the societal impacts of artificial intelligence, the Kennedy School announced Tuesday.

The effort, called the Council on the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence, aims to bring together academics with public and private sector professionals to discuss the “legal, moral, and policy implications” of adopting AI technologies. Bank of America will fund the program for its first three years, according to a Kennedy School press release.

Geology Professor Daniel P. Schrag, who is the co-director of the Belfer Center’s Science, Technology, and ­

Public Policy Program, said the aim of the council will be to “figure out the rules of the road” for AI technologies in the future.

Four themes that the Council will cover include “privacy,” “rights, justice, and equality,” “transparency,” as well as “workforce,” according to the press release.

Schrag also said that Harvard’s resources and stature will help the initiative bring together a diverse group of experts.

“The idea of the council is to convene a group using Harvard’s convening power and wide range of expertise in the space to explore the ethical and policy dimensions of [machine learning] and AI,” Schrag said. “These fields potentially have enormous benefits, but also risks.”

Catherine P. Bessant, Bank of America’s Chief Operations and Technology

Officer, outlined the council’s mandate in the press release.

“As business, public, and private entities rush to realize the efficiencies and effectiveness of AI, we will examine how these benefits are balanced with the human components of AI to determine how best to reskill the workforce for an AI world,” Bessant wrote.

Previous efforts to convene working groups on AI, according to Schrag, tended to be focused within the technology industry, rather than involving the broader service and manufacturing sectors, which also utilize these technologies.

In addition to the Kennedy School, Schrag said the council will include affiliates from the Law School, the Business School, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, along with researchers from outside universities including MIT.

Whittaker Awarded Truman Scholarship

By Sanjana L. Narayanan Crimson Staff Writer

Philosophy concentrator Nicholas P. Whittaker ’19 was one of 59 college students from across the country to be selected for the Truman Scholarship, a selective graduate scholarship awarded for outstanding commitment to public service.

The Scholarship provides each winner up to $30,000 to support their graduate studies, along with career and leadership training and priority admission at some top-tier graduate universities.

Whittaker and the other Truman Scholars were chosen from a pool of 756 candidates, all of whom were endorsed by the university they attend, according to an announcement Thursday.

Throughout his time at Harvard, Whittaker has served on the Undergraduate Council and has focused his efforts on supporting underrepresented minorities on campus. As a UC representative for Adams House, Whittaker said that he has worked to include minority voices in UC decisions by co-founding the minority caucus system.

“Essentially, representatives from these marginalized communities can get together and form an official structure that has multiple soft and hard powers,” Whittaker said. “They are also supposed to be the communicative body between the UC and marginalized communities.”

Whittaker is also involved in the Harvard Black Community and Student Theater organization, also known as Black C.A.S.T., and writes opinion articles for The Crimson.

He said both activities are tied to ­

his advocacy for underrepresented groups.

“It’s very refreshing to write all these things about blackness, do all this bureaucratic work about the multicultural center and the caucus system, and then it’s really refreshing to then go to a black arts space that’s doing black protest art, and be involved in that community,” he added.

In terms of his academic interests, Whittaker is exploring “the philosophy of race and gender and the way that intersects with the radical political commitments and also the 3,000, 4,000 year old tradition of philosophy, which is dominated by white, cis, straight men.”

“It’s been really cool to work within that academic tradition particularly at this institution, which is like a white male institution, and to see how there’s little nuggets or spaces where I can sneak my way in and then broaden them, and make this tradition into this powerfully radical, and really cool and useful tool of liberation for marginalized communities,” he added.

Whittaker said he plans to pursue graduate and postdoctoral studies in philosophy, with the goal of becoming a professor in the field. wHe said although many people think that philosophy does not welcome marginalized groups, he believes that minorities can find their own niche.

“The thing that keeps me going is knowing that philosophy and education and academia doesn’t have to be elitist. It doesn’t have to be inaccessible,” Whittaker said. “All of our modern liberation movements came from philosophy, like feminism, the project of class equality, anti-racism and anti-white supremacy movements, the queer liberation movement.”

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Black Sheep Bagel Cafe Secures License By andrea M. Bossi Crimson Staff Writer

Black Sheep Bagel Cafe successfully earned a license from the Cambridge License Commission Tuesday, paving the way for the bagel eatery to officially open its doors at 56 JFK St. in Harvard Square.

Owners Shoshanah Garber and Manny Ramirez said they are excited their new cafe will soon come to Harvard. The two hope to work with student groups and organizations, Garber said.

Some students said they are pleased Black Sheep is opening given the Square does not currently boast any bagel stores. Gelila G. Wolle ’21, who said she often has “a lot of trouble deciding where to go to breakfast” given what she called a scarcity of local options, noted she is looking forward to being able to visit a new type of eatery.

“I think people would go because there isn’t that much choice,” Wolle said.

Elizabeth M. Cordoves ’20 said she thinks Black Sheep will be a “nice place to meet up when you want to get out of the d-hall… that is not too expensive either.”

Black Sheep will be open seven days a week for breakfast and lunch and ­

will offer twelve different types of bagels, according to Garber and Ramirez.

Both said they are currently working on planning the menu—and pricing the bagels.

“We’ve definitely done our research in regards to the surrounding bagel spots and cafes,” said Ramirez. “We don’t want to be on the high spectrum of pricing, which is very important to us because we understand we are surrounded by college students.”

Ramirez said Black Sheep hopes to price its offerings lower than nearby cafes. The store will also offer student discounts, Garber said.

These student discounts will be available for both graduates and undergraduates, Garber said, in part given that Black Sheep is close to the Harvard Kennedy School.

Garber and Ramirez are local Cantabrigians. The two said they were inspired to open Black Sheep after realizing the Square could benefit from a cafe with lower-priced offerings.

“We’ve noticed the need for a more affordable breakfast and lunch option, and we are here to fill that need,” Garber said.

Staff Writer Andrea M. Bossi can be reached at andrea.bossi@thecrimson.com and on Twitter @bossi147

Old Decor, Improved Accessibility for Adams By katherine e. wang Crimson Staff Writer

Adams House will retain several of its historic features—such as the pool theater and the former suite of President Franklin D. Roosevelt—when it undergoes renovations, starting in the spring of 2019.

The renovations will also preserve the Coolidge Room and the elliptical stairs in Randolph Hall—one of the seven buildings that comprise Adams—and the lobby of Claverly Hall, another building, according to a press release.

These specifics follow the hosting of a town hall in March intended to elicit residents’ input on the renovations. At the town hall many students emphasized the need for the preservation of Adams House’s “finer details.”

The pool theater in Westmorly Court, a building that houses mostly upperclassmen, was originally a 100-year-old swimming pool.

After its closing in March 1990, the space was converted into a theater intended to host both student and professional productions, and it remains a popular performance venue.

In addition to these preservations, administrators and architects are look-

ing to improve accessibility. The seven buildings of Adams House now include only one elevator in Claverly Hall; by the end of the project, there will be eight spanning across the House. All entrances will also be made accessible as well.

Architect Elizabeth R. Leber, a partner at Beyer Blinder Belle, the firm overseeing the project, said in the press release that the renewal of Adams is “particularly exciting.

“Each House renewal project comes with a distinct set of challenges and opportunities,” Leber said.

“Adams House is a particularly exciting project for us, in that it occupies some of the oldest and most historically significant buildings in the House system, with architectural details that are about as unique and extraordinary as the Adams House culture.”

Adams is the next house slated to undergo renewal, with renovations of Lowell House wrapping up in 2019.

Previously, the University renovated Dunster and Winthrop Houses, and portions of Quincy and Leverett Houses.

Staff writer Katherine E. Wang can be reached at katie.wang@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter at @katherineewang.

The Harvard Crimson | APRIL 13, 2018 | page 5

FAS Science Dept Reaches Gender Parity IOP, Again, Hosts Spicer sciences From Page 1

hired its second-ever tenured female professor, Lauren K. Williams ’00, who will join the department in the fall.

Similarly, the Statistics department gained its first ever tenured female faculty member, Susan A. Murphy, last semester.

“This is the way you do it. You start with one, that person helps recruit the next one, and then you continue the progress,” Singer said.

While women have made strides in the sciences, only 3 percent of tenure-track faculty and 6 percent of tenured faculty in the sciences are minorities.

Across FAS, 9 percent of tenured faculty are underrepresented minorities and 12 percent are Asian; the numbers for tenure-track faculty are 9 percent and 21 percent, respectively.

Engineering has the smallest percentage of underrepresented minority tenured faculty, at 1 percent, while social sciences has the largest percentage, at 16 percent.

Engineering, however, has the largest percentage of underrepresented minority tenure-track faculty at 19 per-

cent.

The report outlined several ways FAS has attempted to increase the number of women and minority faculty members, including providing “guidance, support, and data” for departments as they recruit faculty.

You start with one, that person helps recruit the next one.

Judith D. Singer Vice Provost

“Encouraging underrepresented students to engage in academic endeavors and surveying and recruiting from the full range of talent in the Ph.D. pipeline are vital if we are to bring the most extraordinary faculty into the FAS,” the report reads. “We cannot simply hope that the best scholars will find their way to us. We need to actively develop and search for them.”

Singer pointed out, as an example,

that the Graduate School of Education has complete gender parity in the faculty, at 50 percent men and 50 percent women. She said she attributes the parity to the large percentage of women earning Ph.D.s in education and related fields.

“That’s not terribly surprising,” Singer said.

“I mean, if you look at the pool of people getting doctorates in education or in social science or humanities fields that are related to education, they are disproportionately women.”

Singer added, though, that the composition of recruitment pools is also one reason why SEAS faces a low representation of women and minorities.

“If you look at our engineering school, which has made progress and knows it still needs to make more progress, there’s no doubt we still need to make more progress,” Singer said. “We are pulling talent from a pool of people who are themselves less diverse than the undergraduate class at Harvard College.”

FAS Dean Michael D. Smith also said in an interview last week that the applicant pool poses a challenge for departments during the hiring process.

Smith said FAS is working towards increasing the percentage of women and minorities in the pool of applicants from which Harvard hires.

“We still have more things to do, but we’re shifting our focus to try to do more outreach and programs around what to do to increase the amount of minority applicants that we have in faculty positions across the board,” Smith said.

Tanaka said one thing that could help promote gender equality across the sciences would be if STEM students who identify as men begin educating themselves about gender issues in their fields.

“As with any gender issue, I don’t think the burden can fall on the people being adversely affected,” Tanaka said. “People who take advantage, consciously or not, of the system really need to help make a change too.”

Crimson Staff Writers

ing the expansion was emailed to all College students, Lewis said she anticipates a challenge in garnering pub-

This is a way or a first stop for students who don’t want to come to counseling.

BLACKLISTED? BLACKLISTED? BLACKLISTED? BLACKLISTED?

Following a fall semester launch, Harvard University Health Services is expanding “Let’s Talk,” a drop-in program that enables students to speak with a Counseling and Mental Health Services counselor without scheduling an appointment.

The expansion was announced in an email to Harvard affiliates by Dr. Paul J. Barreira, director of Harvard University Health Services, and CAMHS Chief Barbara Lewis on Tuesday.

The Let’s Talk program launched in fall of 2017. During that semester, the program was limited in location to a few campus buildings in Cambridge and Longwood.

HUHS has now instituted the program in Dudley House, Lyman Laboratory, Littauer Hall and Cabot Li-

brary among other campus spaces.

As of last week, the Let’s Talk Program is collectively available five days a week, according to Lewis.

“The clinicians are available for 15 or 20 minute chats about anything from ‘I just want to get input from someone other than my friends, an advisor, or a professor’” Lewis said. “It’s a non-clinical encounter. We don’t write a note, it can be anonymous.”

The impetus for Let’s Talk was sparked by an overburdening of CAMHS counselors, according to Lewis.

Since its launch campus-wide, there has been a steady increase in students utilizing Let’s Talk.

“Throughout the spring term, CAMHS increased the number of Let’s Talk locations, providing opportunities for students to visit a location Monday through Friday,” Barreira and Lewis wrote.

Although the statement announc-

Barbara Lewis

Chief of Counseling and Mental Health Services

lic awareness of the resource. She said

BLACKLISTED?

Crimson Staff Writer

Staff writer Ahab Chopra can be reached at ahab.chopra@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @ahab_chopra

Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer spoke Thursday at an offthe-record Institute of Politics study group in the Kirkland Junior Common Room.

The conversation was to center around the 2018 midterm elections, according to an email sent over an Institute of Politics email list the previous day.

Spicer previously came to Harvard to serve as a visiting fellow at the Institute in Oct. 2017.

During his time visiting the IOP he spent three days attending various classes and off-the-record meals and events with students from across the University.

The IOP’s decision to grant Spicer the fellowship sparked pushback from students and alumni when it was announced to Harvard afilliates last year.

At the time more than 600 Harvard alumni signed an open letter that called upon the IOP to rescind its fellowships for Spicer and for former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.

Following a tumultuous six months as President Donald Trump’s press secretary—including often-contentious exchanges with reporters— Spicer’s three days on campus were comparatively quiet.

While on campus in October, Spicer attended 11 events, all of them off-the-record and closed to the general public.

The IOP Weekly Newsletter did not feature an announcement about Spicer’s visit.

The email announcing his visit was sent out to students at 8:00 p.m.

Wednesday.

Staff writer Ashley M. Cooper can be reached at ashley.cooper@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @ashleymcooper_

Staff writer Caroline S. Engelmayer can be reached at caroline.engelmayer@thecrimson. com. Follow her on Twitter @cengelmayer13.

—Staff writer Angela N. Fu can be reached at angela.fu@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @angelanfu.

—Staff writer Lucy Wang can be reached at lucy. wang@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @lucyyloo22.

Health Services Expands its “Let’s Talk” Program

By Ahab chopra and ashley m. cooper

By caroline S. Engelmayer

her goal is for more students to know about and take advantage of the program.

“Our hope in the fall is that when new students are coming and students are coming back we can really advertise that as a way or a first stop or for students who don’t want to come to counseling and would rather do something more informal” Lewis said.

In the future, CAMHS is interested in expanding the hours of Let’s Talk, but Lewis said doing so, amidst Smith Campus Center renovations and changing locations of CAHMS services, is a difficult process.

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Page 6 | April 13, 2018 | The Harvard Crimson

Harvard Senior Pushes for Gun Control Legislation bill From Page 1 Ostas was an outgoing and happy child, but he developed anxiety, depression, and mild Asperger’s Syndrome during high school. He struggled with suicidal thoughts for the last three years of his life, but was proactive in seeking help— his family spent years working through psychiatric and prescription therapies, and he self-admitted to mental health facilities on six separate occasions.

“This was a young man who was asking for help,” said his mother, Andrea Scopelitis. “Joseph was very open—he wore his heart on his sleeve.”

“I think the most tragic part about the whole thing is that everyone knew it was coming,” said Reed T. Shafer-Ray ’18, who grew up down the street from the Ostas family.

Ostas had already purchased handguns twice before committing suicide; but because none of his mental health facility admissions were court-ordered, he passed all background checks and never earned a spot on a nosell list, despite his parents’ pleading with the local gun store owner.

In the wake of Ostas’s death, Shafer-Ray, a Social Studies concentrator, decided to take legal action to ensure something similar would never happen again. After reaching out to legislators, Shafer-Ray began pushing for two separate bills in Massachusetts meant to improve gun safety for individuals like Ostas.

One bill seeks to make it more difficult for those at risk of self-harm to obtain guns by allowing family members or law enforcement officials to petition to prohibit or revoke those individuals’ access to firearms. The other would allow Massachusetts residents to voluntarily put themselves on a “no-sell” list.

Both bills are currently wending their way through various Massachusetts House committees; it is unclear when they will come to a full vote. In order to advance the twin laws, Shafer-Ray has spent hours negotiating with Massachusetts legislators, has testified in committee several times, and spoke in front of tens of thousands of people at last month’s March for Our Lives protest in Boston.

Scopelitis is working with Shafer-Ray to argue for the bills; though she lives in Oklahoma, she traveled to Boston in Nov. 2017 to testify along with her son’s childhood friend.

Scopelitis said she believes her son would have taken advantage of the legislation she now hopes to bring into existence.

“If Joseph had the option to have himself put on a do-not-sell list, or the option for me to be able to put him on a do-not-sell list, he would have chosen that option, because he wanted protection for himself,” she said.

“It was this very preventable death,” Shafer-Ray said. “If you could just prevent him from getting a gun, he wouldn’t have been able to do what he did.”

PROTECTIVE ORDERS AND SIREN BILLS Shafer-Ray was preparing to return to Harvard for the 2016-2017 school year when he heard Ostas had committed suicide. He swiftly reached out to Scopelitis to discuss trying to push through gun control legislation in their home state, but the filing deadline in Oklahoma had already passed.

“Instead of just waiting a whole year to try to pass it in Oklahoma, I was like, ‘Why don’t we bring it to Massachusetts, where I can actually advocate for it?’” Shafer-Ray said.

Shafer-Ray contacted Massachusetts Rep. Marjorie C. Decker, who said she was interested in his ideas.

The two met for the first time in fall 2016; soon after that meeting, Decker’s office drafted versions of the two bills, dubbed H.3610 and H.3611, respectively. Decker could not be reached for comment.

H.3610—“An Act temporarily preventing firearm access for extremely dangerous or suicidal individuals”— seeks to prohibit high-risk individuals from obtaining firearms via “Extreme Risk Protection Orders.” Under the bill, petitioners—comprising family members, household members, or law enforcement officials—can file written applications for these orders in civil court.

Within the court day, a judge considers the written petition and determines whether or not there is reasonable cause to believe the individual in question “poses a significant danger of causing imminent personal injury to self or others.”

If the judge agrees with the petitioner, the court immediately issues a temporary version of the order that prohibits the individual from acquir-

ing new firearms and takes away firearms he or she already owns for a maximum of two weeks.

The judge later holds a full court hearing, during which the petitioner and respondent are both allowed to present “credible evidence,” including recent acts or patterns of violence and dangerous mental health issues.

If the court finds a “preponderance of evidence” that the individual is a danger to themself or others, the judge issues a more permanent version of the order that bars access to firearms for one year.

Laws establishing similar programs have already been enacted in Connecticut, Indiana, California, Washington, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Florida. On Wednesday, the governor of Vermont added his state to that list by also signing into law an initiative allowing for protective orders.

The other bill Decker’s office drafted, H.3611—“An Act authorizing the voluntary disavowal of eligibility to purchase a firearm”—would establish a statewide list of people who voluntarily deny themselves the ability to buy guns. Individuals who place themselves on the no-sell list would have to petition the court to regain access to firearms.

Shafer-Ray acknowledged some have criticized gun control measures for infringing on Americans’ Second Amendment rights, but said he does think either H.3610 or H.3611 violate the Constitution. He noted the no-sell list, in particular, is “completely voluntary.”

“3611 is more novel, and it’s something that Joseph’s mom and I came up with pretty independently,” Shafer-Ray said. “What his mom likes to call his bill is the Siren bill, referring to Odysseus.”

In the Odyssey, Homer tells of Sirens—horrific creatures with angelic, seductive voices. At one point in the epic, Odysseus asks his crew to lash him to the mast so he can listen to the Sirens’ song without giving into temptation and swimming to his death. “[Joseph] knows that the temptation is great for himself, and he knows that it’s extremely dangerous and it’s something he doesn’t want when his mind is clear,” Shafer-Ray said. “But he knows also that he will be tempted and he will, on bad days, he’ll reach out for the guns.”

In addition to joining forces with Decker, Shafer-Ray has worked with Frederick E. Vars, a law professor at the University of Alabama, who independently developed the idea of a voluntary do-not-sell list in 2015. Vars, like Scopelitis, has traveled to Massachusetts to testify in committee as part of Shafer-Ray’s push to pass the bills.

To date, only one state—Washington—has enacted some version of what Vars called “the Odysseus bill.” But Vars said he hopes more will follow; he noted that, when he asked highrisk patients at the University of Alabama Birmingham Medical Center if they would be interested in joining a no-sell list, 46 percent of patients answered yes.

“Suddenly the public health implications, if you could actually get that kind of percentage of people in a large and high-risk population to restrict their access to guns in this way, is no longer just saving a few lives—it’s saving hundreds of lives,” Vars said. “I really do think if it were national that it would have that kind of potential.”

‘STUDENT VOICES ARE HARD TO IGNORE’ As the two bills wind through the Massachusetts House of Representatives, Shafer-Ray is not sitting idle.

In addition to collaborating with Scopelitis in Oklahoma and Vars in Alabama, Shafer-Ray is working closer to home.

He has joined forces with local activists and members of the Harvard College Democrats to garner support for H.3610 and H.3611 as well as gun control measures more broadly.

During Shafer-Ray’s freshman year, he and Sharon Yang ’18, then the cochairs of the College Democrats’ policy and publicity committee, established a now-annual Lobby Day, during which Harvard students travel to the State House to promote certain pieces of legislation.

The College Democrats have lobbied for H.3610 and H.3611 during past Lobby Days, Yang said, and will continue to advocate for both bills.

Recently, Shafer-Ray lobbied for the bills in a different way, speaking in front of thousands of people at last month’s March for Our Lives protest in Boston. That march, meant to push for stricter gun control measures nationwide, came in the wake of a deadly

shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla. that left 17 people dead.

Shafer-Ray said his anger outweighed any fear he felt addressing such a large crowd.

“I just thought about all of the horrible, horrible things that have been happening in this country in terms of gun violence—thinking about Joseph, thinking about Parkland victims, thinking about Las Vegas, thinking about Columbine,” he said. “I honestly got out there and I was just very angry.

I was just full of rage. I was just full of defiance.”

Leonardo A. “Leo” Garcia ’21 and Te S. Palandjian ’21, who attended the march, said they found Shafer-Ray’s speech inspiring. Garcia and Palandjian have organized a Harvard sit-in for gun control, slated to take place April 20.

Both said they think Shafer-Ray’s twin bills are relevant to the sit-in and should form part of the larger campus discussion around gun control.

Garcia said the notion of a voluntary do-not-sell list is “changing the narrative” of the intersection between gun violence and mental health.

“Giving more autonomy to people who are diagnosed as mentally ill is a really important step,” Palandjian said.

Shafer-Ray and Vars both said they are hopeful for the future, noting there is a lot of support for gun control measures across the country right now. Both pointed to the #NeverAgain movement started by survivors of the Parkland shooting to illustrate the power and energy young people can bring to the fight for change.

Since its inception in February, the movement has had tangible effects—on March 9, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed an array of gun limits into law, including legislation that raises the minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21.

“It’s really exciting,” Shafer-Ray said. “Bills like this are getting passed across the country. I’m very, very optimistic about the chances of these bills being passed in Massachusetts, too.”

“Those student voices are hard to ignore,” Vars said.

Staff writer Nina H. Pasquini can be reached at nina.pasquini@thecrimson.com.

Staff writer Jordan E. Virtue can be reached at jordan.virtue@thecrimson.com.

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ARTS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | APRIL 13, 2018 | PAGE 7

A MOVING TARGET RICK LI CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Alison B. Reed ’17, a Visual and Environmental Studies concentrator, was working on her senior thesis when she decided something didn’t feel quite right. “I was just looking at the labels,” she recalls.

“I think I may have joked with my advisor that I’m terrified of all my materials.”

Her project seemed relatively benign: A stop-motion movie about an elephant. As both the director and set designer, she hoped to construct a puppet protagonist out of foam latex via a process she found on YouTube. The materials she used were familiar, like household objects: latex, silicone, dish soap, vaseline, oil. The construction of the puppet, however, was a bit more involved.

The first hiccup was the oven. “You needed an oven—an outdoor oven,” Reed says. “You were supposed to be doing part of this process outside.” Procuring this open-air oven like the tutorial suggested was a journey. After getting rejected by Harvard’s ceramics studio due to concerns about fumes, deliberating with the nearby Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and meeting with some graduate students in the chemistry department, she decided to abandon the foam latex for silicone.

Switching media wasn’t the end of her concerns. “I ended up bringing it back to my dorm room and I would spray [silicone] outside of my dorm,” Reed says. “By the end of winter break, my dorm smelled very much like this spray, which really scared me.” According to Reed, someone had a physical reaction to it after doing a thesis review in a room it was later stored in, and a professor in one of Reed’s later reviews characterized the smell as toxic.

Reed’s elephant’s narrative came together by the end of the semester. A year out from its completion, Reed has had ample time to reflect about the role of safety in her creative process.

“I think it’s because safety is always a moving target,” she says.

“What’s considered safe changes all the time.”

The concept of safety shares an interesting relationship with the artmaking process, a discipline which often values the unconventional and groundbreaking. Navigating this balance has been a key consideration of students and faculty, with regards to both the larger artworld and the more insular community at Harvard.

A MATERIAL WORLD As beautiful as the final products can be, working with various artistic media comes with a set of risks. And while the danger associated with performative pieces and heavy machinery might be obvious, other potential dangers are far less apparent.

Paints, especially oil paints, are popular in artmaking. A staple of arts curricula around the country, many are risky for the same reasons they’re colorful: Neurotoxic heavy metals are often responsible for producing the different hues.

“There are a set of paints that can only achieve that kind of color using cadmium and cobalt—heavy metals. They all say it on the paint tube,” former VES concentrator Michael C. Kennedy-Yoon ’17 says. “We were always aware of that.”

The health hazards of these metals are well documented with regards to industrial work. Though less information is known about their effects at the lower concentrations present in common paints, growing concern has caused manufacturers to begin placing relevant information on labels and shift towards synthetic— though potentially just as questionable—alternatives.

“The big danger in oil painting class was actually the flammable materials which we use for our solvent,” Kennedy-Yoon says. One substance commonly cited in these conversations as a necessary evil is the well-identified carcinogen formaldehyde, used to mix with oil paints. While proper disposal of the solvent significantly reduces the risk of fire, other health hazards related to exposure are more difficult to contain.

Artists in different disciplines face a whole different set of concerns. Resin, popular among modern sculptors, is a harsh irritant.

It’s rumored to have contributed to the untimely death of Eva Hesse, an experimental artist prolific in the mid-20th century.

Other sculptural materials are less insidious but still worthy of caution. Eriko M. I. Kay ’16, a current TA and former VES concentrator who worked extensively with concrete, says, “I didn’t realize how heavy my sculptures would be. I ended up having a bunch of 50-pound sculptures at the end of the year that I didn’t know

E C I T O N

how to move by myself.”

A quick Google search pulls up dozens more risks that come with art. For example, toluene, a component of spray paint, is known to harm the central nervous system. And while the federal government responded to these findings by passing the Labeling of Hazardous Art Materials Act (LHAMA) in 1990, which mandates federal oversight, the exact chemicals going into art media today are ever-changing.

It is no surprise, then, that Harvard’s own VES department keeps access to these chemicals on a tight leash. Students are encouraged to utilize University resources, but they must first enroll in a related class and work through training procedures. Thesis students trying to get ahold of their own materials must fill out a reimbursement form, and while the 2017 form does not explicitly mention safety, the request must be submitted to and cleared by department staff.

Prohibiting certain materials, however, might restrict students’ abilities to effectively express themselves. Instead, the front lines of material safety at Harvard exist in the classroom, where risk awareness and mitigation are skills being integrated into the curriculum.

HANDS ON AND OFF “Perhaps a certain group of individuals in the art world more broadly has a kind of tendency towards disregard for one’s health and body. You know, you just have to go to New York to see all the art kids smoking,” VES concentrator Ariana L. Chaivaranon ’18 says.

She is quick, however, to divorce that observation from her experiences with the University. “I don’t think that’s necessarily a problem that has anything to do with the faculty or the classes in the department. I think that’s more about the culture of art-making more broadly as intertwined, historically, with counterculture movements and those movements’ interests in resistance and alternative ways of living.”

VES, Harvard’s resident art department, walks a fine line between providing students appropriate guidance to manage safety and ample space for independent work.

“VES is the only concentration at Harvard where you make things with your hands,” Paula Soares, Manager of Academic Programs, says.

As one supervisor of curricular art-making on campus, the VES department keeps a close eye on risk. At just around 80 concentrators, it is a moderately sized department with famously small classes. Within this sampling of students, there is a wide range of experience: Some enter college having already compiled award-winning portfolios, while others come into the department with hardly anything at all. “I don’t think I got anywhere beyond Crayola,” Reed jokes.

VES, like many other departments, has a sophomore tutorial for building foundational skills. According to Matt Saunders ’97, the assistant professor who leads the class, the course provides students exposure to faculty members, canonical readings, and safety techniques. The result is the bedrock upon which future projects can flourish.

And though the course is fairly new and a work in progress, the class has received a warm response from several students. “It’s a chance to get to the other people in the department, and we experiment with a lot of different media,” VES concentrator Memie H. Osuga ’20 says.

Despite a focus on safety, the department still encourages academic and creative freedom. By the time they get to their senior year, many students opt to take on a senior thesis, an independent art project which is monitored by an advisor and three reviewers.

“We definitely encourage experimentalism in the arts here,” Soares says. This promise, however, is not without caveats. “If something isn’t really consistent with what the student has worked in up to that point, it might be a red flag.”

The question of where to step in and where to step away has been an interesting question for the department. Some students take pride in challenging the norm and toying with the ensuing pushback. “I sort of went a little bit off the grid. I’m working on a project that no one else has done before in terms of medium or concept,” VES concentrator Essa Li ’19 says. Unlike her counterparts, Li has chosen to structure her thesis around exhibitions, running a space called the Vessel Gallery.

Some are content with an increased amount of space more detached from constant oversight.

“Honestly, I kind of like the VES method of ‘Go do stuff, and we’ll talk about it later,’” VES concentrator and thesis student Kevin Zhu ’18 says.

P O H S E N I MACH

D E Z I R O AUTH Y L N O S S ACCE

IMSON ANNA KIM / CR GRAPHIC BY H

EYE ON I T C E T O R P REQUIRED

TACT TION CON A M R O F IONAL IN OR FOR ADDIT SUPERVIS THE SHOP

A SPACE OF ONE’S OWN “For every hour you spend in class, I spent an hour or two outside of class,” Kennedy-Yoon says.

Art-making is a

long, labor-intensive process, and classroom instruction is only the tip of the iceberg. The majority of the effort put towards creating a piece is developed independently.

Thesis concentrators are afforded a space outside of the classroom in the form of Linden Studios. Perhaps fittingly, Linden’s history is a curious one suited to a creative center: Originally a set of squash courts, the building has since been re-outfitted into a studio space.

Today, the building boasts large rooms divided by partial walls and occupied by several students each. The tall, white walls are illuminated with ample lighting, and the shared air space blankets Linden beneath a quiet cover of conversation. Each room houses an assemblage of art supplies: Metalwork, canvases, and fabrics line the floor and walls. A flammable solution disposal container sits in the corner.

To a first-time visitor, the atmosphere is strikingly casual. And maybe that’s part of the point. “If I were to look on Linden and maybe some of the practices in VES, I might be concerned because of the inherent safety risks involved,” VES concentrator Susan Li ’18 says.

“The sort of freedom we get here is really important. It’s different from everywhere else on campus,” she says. “I think it’s necessary to have some degree of freedom in order to push the boundaries of art. You can’t make anything in a tiny box where you’re not allowed to touch any tools.”

Red, laminated safety guidelines are placed on the exits to the building. Each reads: “Security for yourself and others depends solely on each occupant.”

A TALE OF DISCRETION The issue of safety exists on a spectrum.

Some of the most dangerous pieces of machinery are located in the wood and metal shops, which are staffed by monitors. Students planning on using the facilities must undergo extensive training procedures. Even then, time spent at machines is minimized. According to Zhu, “You just learn the fabrication you need. You will usually go to the wood shop when you have an idea in mind.”

The protocols associated with various forms of media, however, are largely governed by the decisions of the professors who are most familiar with them.

Teaching fellows, too, are also valuable in this teaching process. Kay details some of the procedures she takes into account during her oil painting workshop. “A lot of the materials are much better than they used to be. They’re really not toxic in the ways we’re using them, but they do have smells that people can be sensitive to. So knowing to use masks and leave the windows open or find spaces in the room with ventilation is better.”

All things considered, much of the responsibility ultimately falls on the people actually doing the work. “Art-making often involves a kind of risk with materials because you’re using physical materials that have the potential to push back against you,” Chaivaranon says. Still, as in the case with her intaglio printing class, the department has always been careful to point out risks such as acid. “Artists should be aware of the materials in their surroundings and how their actions affect the materials.”

But even the development of a conscientious practice is not exempt from human error. Reed remembers moments when students working with resin were using inadequate gas masks to protect themselves. These lapses in judgment are not unheard of.

“If you’re working with things that have fumes, there is an open-air area that you’re supposed to go to. Not everyone does, and I find that very frustrating,” Kennedy-Yoon says. He recounts a story of when a student left open a bottle of acetone, causing the whole room to smell like the chemical and forcing an evacuation.

“It’s the sort of thing you’d never do in front of the teacher,” Kennedy-Yoon says.

UNDER CONTROL

DESIGNER

In spite of potential dangers in the materials he has worked with, Kennedy-Yoon affirms his positive experience with the university as a nurturing space. “I am grateful that VES was a very positive and safe place for me in a college that did not always feel super welcoming or supportive,” he says.

This sentiment is echoed by the department’s administrators.

“Nothing’s worth getting hurt or sick. That doesn’t mean you can’t do great work. And there is work out there, once you get out to do whatever you want,” VES Chair Robb Moss says.

Though influenced by the larger art world, Harvard’s VES department prides itself on providing a protected environment for burgeoning artists to learn. Physical safety is a well-established priority, but certain types of other risk are actually encouraged.

Saunders draws a distinction between physical and creative risk, the latter of which is promoted in the classroom and in similar learning spaces.

“I don’t want people taking physical risks in the class, but I want people taking conceptual risks or doing things that might fail,” he says. “An ambitiously conceived, rigorous project that doesn’t generate a great outcome—if the painting is a muddy mess at the end—that to me is still a successful art project.”

This emphasis on support may be emblematic of the atmosphere of the post-university world today. “I was here in the late ’90s, in a time of American confidence.

The Cold War had just ended, the economy was booming,” Saunders says. “I don’t see that sense of safety in your generation right now.

People seem a lot more anxious than I remember being. The world is a lot more anxious.”

This enclave of arts at Harvard today exists as a space that both deliberately exposes students to and shelters students from risk in the world around them.

“The connection between pushing the envelope and safety is a very tricky one to think about in a position of responsibility,” Saunders says.

“And if anything, I’d like to err towards safety now.”

SAFETY FIRST

DO NOT WEAR LOOSE CLOTHING

Staff Writer Rick Li can be reached at rick.li@thecrimson.com

EDITORIAL

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | APRIL 13, 2018 | PAGE 8

A People’s History of Yardfest

THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD

New Pre-Orientation Program Will Help Marginalized Students

A

fter a long push for a bridge program to ease the transition to Harvard for freshmen coming from under-resourced schools and first-generation and low-income backgrounds, the College announced a pre-orientation program for students coming from marginalized communities. This program will run from August 23 to August 26 and is part of a two-year pilot program. It has been named the First-Year Retreat and Experience, and it will be limited to 100 students.

While we think this is a step in the right direction, we believe Harvard is lagging behind in its pursuit of helping under-resourced students adjust to college life in a well-managed, comprehensive, and enjoyable way. Harvard prides itself on the diversity of students. While efforts to accept students from marginalized backgrounds are getting better, there is not enough support once they arrive here.

We’ve seen plenty of other colleges take steps to bridge the gap for incoming freshmen from marginalized communities. Yale offers a bridge program that focuses on issues of race and on aiding racially marginalized groups, particularly students of color, in the transition

to college. Called “Cultural Connections,” it consists of an extensive set of activities that include panels by faculty on academic expectations, and conversations with faculty members with expertise in the areas of ethnicity, nationality, and race. Furthermore, it also helps bridge the gap students in these marginalized communities face by familiarizing them with financial, academic, and social resources that can help them throughout their first year.

As another example, Wesleyan has a pre-orientation program dedicated to another under-resourced group: first-generation college students. The program allows participants to hear from current first-generation students, build up study techniques, learn about resources available to them at Wesleyan, and partake in fun activities to build community. Indeed, Harvard’s peers are ahead of us. The creation of FYRE is step in the right direction to remedying this.

Nevertheless, we are concerned that the program will conflict with other programs for new students that are vital in helping all students form a community. We encourage student organizers and the Freshman Dean’s Office and soon-to-be-

created Dean of Students Office to make their best efforts to help students have the opportunity to engage in other pre-orientation programs in addition to FYRE. Students should not have to choose between a bridge program and another pre-orientation opportunity; they should be able to have both.

Furthermore, Harvard should be highly appreciative of the students who put so much time into conceiving and organizing FYRE. However, we hope that the administration will take more responsibility in shifting the burden off of students. Other schools have programs to help transition students over the entire summer. Harvard is only offering students four days. There is no way that the educational gap can be bridged in such a short amount of time. We hope there are efforts to expand FYRE in the future to look more like other examples that have already been set.

Ruben E. REYES JR. BENDING THE ARC

L

created a viewing platform for the public in the place of the former dome, directly above the parliament chambers: The government operates only under the watchful eye of democracy. Perhaps, if the right architect were hired and the school were willing to take a risk, something similar could happen at Adams House—providing the future undergraduates who will live there with a more expansive view of the world.

Many will balk at the idea of reimagining undergraduate living quarters that are nostalgically associated with a certain idea of Harvard’s identity.

But as the Reichstag shows, a contemporary approach doesn’t need to mean erasing history. It can instead mean the introduction of new, contrasting elements that prompt the building’s residents to see its history in a new light.

Interiors can be updated, and portions of the building’s masonry structure— currently hidden by decoration—could be exposed. Small additions could be built in leftover spaces like the courtyard, with new outdoor spaces created through a green roof above.

Architects can work out the design specifics. But as they do so, they shouldn’t forget that our buildings need to evolve along with our identity. In the end, our architecture reflects who we are: our aspirations, our values, and our forward-facing vision.

efore we had Wale at Yardfest 2018, we had Wale at Yardfest 2010. And though Yardfest has a complicated history, some things—like Wale—have remained the same.

Before Yardfest, we had Springfest. From 1994 until 2006—when Yardfest got its name and came under the purview of the College Events Board—the Undergraduate Council planned an annual event called Springfest. The event featured a number of festivities missing today—carnival games, dunk tanks, sumo wrestling, jousting, and free beer.

Since conception, Yardfest has sought to unify the college student body. In reference to the goals of the first ever Springfest, one organizer said it was designed to be “one day when everyone at Harvard from gov jocks to pre-meds puts aside their work, leaves their rooms, and comes to the Yard where we all started off.”

The idea that Yardfest creates monolithic unity among undergraduates is only partially true. Even though thousands of undergrads come together for Yardfest, we arrive there from wildly different places—some from final clubs, others from kickbacks in our dorms. Yardfest should be used as time to bridge these divides. But even the debates around music selection undercuts this project.

Music has been a staple of the event since 1995 when several local bands were invited to play. Though initially a grab bag of nationally relevant artists (Violent Femmes in 1999) and in-house performers (purely student acts in 1998 and 2001), recent years have brought bigger names to Harvard.

Today, Yardfest is all about the headliner.

Choosing a headliner has never been a simple task. In 2002, the UC was considering OutKast for Springfest. In an email to the UC president, Associate Dean of the College David P. Illingworth wrote that “their language may not be acceptable for many audiences, and also that, reportedly, Rosa Parks once sued the group. These comments cause me to worry that OutKast may not be the best group for the Concert Commission to bring to campus.”

Most recently, and perhaps notoriously, over 1,000 students protested Tyga’s 2013 Yardfest performance because of his “explicitly and violently misogynistic” lyrics. The complaints prompted administrators to ask the CEB to reconsider their selection, while not forcing student organizers into anything. Though Tyga was ultimately allowed to perform, the event schedule was modified to allow people to leave before he came on stage.

Parsing through the complexities of Yardfests-past brings us to a simple truth: artist selection matters. It matters, not only because the performer is the factor that determines whether Yardfest will be—as the kids say—lit, but also because artists inherently send a message about who we as a community imagine ourselves to be. Beyond an artist’s lyrics, their selection can remind us of the ways we are not as united as brochures and administrator’s speeches portray us.

Artists will not be booked if they don’t have popular appeal, but notions of “popularity” privilege certain sectors of the College student body over others. Country music and Latino music have become increasingly popular in recent years, concurrent with the increase of regional and ethnic diversity at Harvard. Yet in 24 years, there has not been a single act under either of those genres.

The “popularity” of the Yardfest act caters to the tastes of a majority that is so wealthy and white that in 2012 a headliner yelled “What’s up, you drunk, overprivileged shits?” and “All you white people make some noise” at the crowd. Minority preferences at Harvard—though popular in other parts of the country—simply won’t make it onto the stage.

Even rap music, made by black folks and co-opted by white Harvard students, reveals the fractures in this amorphous entity we call our undergraduate community. In advertising Yardfest this year, the CEB put out a flyer with a whale and a yacht, presumably a homage to Lil Yachty and Wale. But the flyer is predicated on the mispronunciation of Wale’s name (pronounced wah-lay, not whale), an error also made in 2010 when The Crimson attempted to make a joke about how the rapper’s name rhymed with Yale.

Though seemingly minor, the transgression shows just how different member of our community consume music differently based on their backgrounds. Yardfest is then a reminder of how difficult transcending class, race, gender, and religious lines at Harvard can be. As a Crimson editor wrote in 2009, “Harvard is a diverse place with high expectations, and no artist choice will ever satisfy everyone.”

Acknowledging these fractures and criticizing naive notions of unity is not antithetical to continually reaching for them. We’ve always striven to frame Yardfest as a moment of unity. At Jesse J’s 2015 performance, Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana said “I think it’s a great way our community comes together,” echoing a comment made in 1996 by a Campus Life Committee co-chair about Springest being “a really great opportunity to bring the campus together.”

We should continue to strive for unity, but we should not do so blindly. We should realize that fostering a unified student body requires more effort than simply attending a social event with individuals we generally don’t cross path with. After we’ve recovered from one too many drinks and strained vocal chords, our responsibility lies in what we’ll do to achieve the cohesion Yardfest allows us to imagine.

Jennifer L. Horowitz ’19 is a Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations concentrator living in Kirkland House.

Ruben E. Reyes Jr. ’19, a former Crimson Editorial Chair, is a History & Literature concentrator in Leverett House. His column appears on alternate Fridays.

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.

BE A CRIMSON CARTOONIST Submit a sample cartoon or any questions to Associate Editorial Editor Wonik Son ‘19 (wonik.son@thecrimson.com).

Harvard Should Rethink Its Archectitural Approach

By JENNIFER L. HOROWITZ

I

t’s hard to miss Lowell House’s most recent set of renovations. Beneath the blanket of green tarps, we can see Harvard’s customary neo-Georgian aesthetic, Flemish bond brick, and paned-glass windows. If Lowell is any indicator, Adams House, Harvard’s next target in its River House renewals, will bow architecturally and unapologetically to the past. Lowell House and Adams House represent a 1930s era effort to capture the stylized Georgian architecture of Harvard Yard erected at the school’s founding circa 1720.

“What’s wrong with that?” the Cambridge Historical Commission might haughtily query. Quite a bit, actually.

One would hope that the cloud of nostalgia surrounding Harvard “as it was” has by now been blown away by a cold gust of historical reality that has exposed the exclusion, inequality and opacity of the past. As Harvard modernizes its values and aspires toward inclusion, equality and transparency, should the University’s architectural composition not mirror this change?

As Harvard completes the Lowell project and works through its designs for the Adams renovation, the University should seriously consider moving past its neo-Georgian fixation and updating its architectural approach. It is crucial that we build physical structures that reflect and and even amplify a more progressive outlook. Our buildings should reflect our contemporary values, inspiring occupants to feel included, welcome and connected to one another. We should dare to create distinctly 21st century spaces rather than letting the campus be defined solely by its history.

In expanding its undergraduate housing Yale serves as an excellent example of what not to do. At Yale’s new Pauli Murray and Benjamin Franklin Colleges, the school chose to duplicate, almost to a tee, the Gothic architectural stylings of its past. This choice, whether by intention or not, signals backward-looking priorities and values. Clinging to an architectural style of a bygone era that perpetuates an aura of elitism and exclusion, the private courtyards and hulking towers create a fortress-like divide between the campus and the city of New Haven, a separation emphasizing the stark

divide between a predominantly lower-income community of color and the elite world of Yale.

While Yale is mired in the architectural design strategies of the past, the University of Pennsylvania’s New College House, completed in 2016, provides an excellent example of an elite university designing for a modern era.

The sloping public field at its center, green roof, and extensive public walkways, reinforce, rather than undermine, values of inclusion and transparency. Inspiration can also be found closer to home in the notably avant-garde structures at MIT. In the creative patchwork of windows and sponge-like structure that comprise MIT’s Simmons Hall combined with the unmistakable form of Frank O. Gehry’s famous Stata Center, MIT’s architectural aesthetic pushes the viewer to break with normal preconceptions of elite New England academic institutions to recognize the cutting-edge nature of the University.

But Harvard doesn’t need to look to other schools for inspiration—our own campus is home to groundbreaking modern buildings that signaled the arrival of globalism in the postwar era. Harvard’s architectural victories include the Carpenter Center, the Design Research Building in Harvard Square, and Hilles Library, exciting modern counterpoints to older and more historic structures. Sadly, there have also been several notable missteps. The Harvard Science Center and the Smith Holyoke Campus Center, both designed by architect and former Dean of the Graduate School of Design Josep Lluis Sert, feel drab and overscaled rather than forward-facing and innovative.

It’s more difficult, of course, to express modern values in the context of renovating a historic complex like Adams House. But it isn’t impossible. To promote inclusion, Harvard could cut away the house’s imposing entryway to create a new set of transparent gathering spaces that are open to the Cambridge community—reversing Harvard’s usual inward focus.

Germany’s parliament building, the 1894 Reichstag, shows how such a reversal is possible. In renovating the building, architect Norman R. Foster

The Harvard Crimson President Derek G. Xiao ’19 Managing Editor Hannah Natanson ’19 Business Manager Nathan Y. Lee ’19

THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873 Associate Managing Editors Mia C. Karr ’19 Claire E. Parker ’19

Blog Chairs Lydia L. Cawley ’20 Stuti Telidevara ’20

FM Chairs Marella A. Gayla ’19 Leah S. Yared ’19

Associate Business Managers Dahlia S. Huh ’19 Max W. Sosland ’19

Design Chairs Morgan J. Spaulding ’19 Simon S. Sun ’19

Multimedia Chairs Amy Y. Li ’20 Ellis J. Yeo ’20

Editorial Chairs Emmanuel R. R. D’Agostino ’19 Cristian D. Pleters ’19

Digital Strategists Caroline S. Engelmayer ’20 Jamie D. Halper ’20 Dianne Lee ’20

Sports Chairs Cade S. Palmer ’20 Jack R. Stockless ’19

Arts Chairs Mila Gauvini II ’19 Grace Z. Li ’19

Technology Chairs Nenya A. Edjah ’20 Theodore T. Liu ’20

The Harvard Crimson | April 13, 2018 | page 9

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Sports

The Harvard Crimson | April 13, 2018 | page 10

What Next? Plans After Harvard for Hockey Seniors men’s hockey

By Spencer R. Morris Crimson Staff Writer

Each year, the end of the Harvard men’s hockey season is truly bittersweet. It provides a chance for the program to celebrate the individual and collective accomplishments of its players, while also forcing it to confront the reality that not everyone will return for next year’s run at a NCAA title.

With the conclusion of the 20172018 campaign, the Crimson says goodbye to seven seniors. Members of the Class of 2018 sported the emphatic “H” across their chests during a very transformative span of seasons for the program. Over the course of these four years, the outgoing group racked up 83 wins and reached the NCAA Tournament three times.

A 15-14-4 record may not suggest a glorious swan song for the seniors, but the season was historic in its own way.

The program’s first-ever trio of captains guided Harvard through a grueling schedule featuring formidable road opponents and dramatic, back-andforth tilts.

Of the seven players set to walk the stage in May, three will hang up the skates for now to pursue corporate professional careers. One is still deciding between professional hockey and the business lifestyle, and three are already navigating full-time professional schedules in the American Hockey League, the minor-league affiliate of the National Hockey League.

Here’s a glimpse at what each member of the class of 2018 is doing in his life beyond Harvard hockey: MERRICK MADSEN The Crimson’s backbone between the pipes and tri-captain this season, Merrick Madsen inked a professional contract with the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes organization mere days after Harvard’s season ended at the hands of Clarkson.

The goaltender was originally drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers before the team traded his rights to Arizona last summer. Madsen is currently honing his game with the Coyotes’ AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners, and will embark on his first full professional season in October.

“It’s surreal, honestly,” said Madsen in late-March, waiting at the airport for his flight to Phoenix just hours after the contract announcement. “It feels like the culmination of everything, at least hockey-wise, that I’ve worked toward. It took so many people along the way, whether it’s family, teammates, friends, teachers.”

Madsen’s decorated career for the Crimson includes program records for consecutive victories (16) and wins in a single season (28), both achieved during his junior campaign when the team reached its first Frozen Four in 23 years. And the Acton, Calif., native was no small part in Harvard’s deep playoff run, putting forth a stellar body of work (28-6-2, 2.11 GAA, .923 SV%) as a third-year.

As a senior, Madsen faced pressure from junior backup Michael Lackey— the likely starter for next year’s squad— but still finished the season in the nation’s top 20 for goals against average and save percentage. The 6’5” Statistics major will graduate as the third-winningest goaltender in program history with 56 victories.

JAKE HORTON Jake Horton, a perennial influence in the locker room, donned the covet-

one final photo The Class of 2018, which graduates as one of the program’s all-time winningest groups, is leaving a lasting impression. Timothy R. O’Meara—Crimson photographer

ed “C” alongside Madsen and fellow senior Eddie Ellis this season. Throughout his time with the Crimson, Horton embodied the ideals of grit and perseverance, never missing a game in his collegiate career. It’s no surprise that the Oakdale, Minn., native walks away from the Bright-Landry Hockey Center as the program’s all-time leader in games played (140).

Leading up to his final season at Harvard and hoping to once again reach the Frozen Four, Horton quit his summer internship, adopted a rigorous training regimen, and gave hockey an even larger chunk of his attention.

Overall, the centerman’s positive relationship with the game propelled him to look to the pros after the Crimson’s season ended.

“Winning a lot in hockey does something for you,” Horton noted. “Being around last year made me realize how much I loved the game still…. That goes hand-in-hand with me wanting to play after [college], knowing that I wanted to take a stab at pro hockey.”

Less than a week after Madsen’s pro signing, Horton announced that he had inked a deal with the Manchester Monarchs of the ECHL, another affiliate of the NHL. After debuting with the Monarchs, the former Harvard tri-captain was called up to the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds on a professional tryout basis. Horton has played five games with the Thunderbirds to date.

WILEY SHERMAN Of the seven outgoing seniors, lockdown defenseman Wiley Sherman is the third and final player to have already announced his professional aspirations. A day after Madsen boarded a

flight to Arizona, Sherman inked a deal with the AHL’s Providence Bruins and has since debuted for them.

Like his fellow pro-bound classmates, Sherman intends to complete his academic obligations while kicking off his career in the AHL. Throughout Sherman’s time at Harvard, the 6’7” blue-liner’s willingness to play an oft-overlooked defensive style helped protect Madsen’s cage and set an example of discipline and commitment to the team’s systems.

Sherman’s career plus-43 rating is evidence of his responsible play on the ice.

The Greenwich, Conn., native has also played the role of mentor over the last two seasons. In the majority of the Crimson’s contests since late2016, Sherman has skated alongside now-sophomore John Marino to comprise the team’s shut-down defensive pairing. With Marino entering his junior year and Sherman on his way out, the squad will look to Marino even more for both leadership and on-ice performance.

“John and I were usually matched with their top line,” Sherman said.

“Our one job was to shut them down [and] prevent them from scoring.

That’s a role that…I’ve been trying to work on and fill in the past four years.”

EDDIE ELLIS Power forward Eddie Ellis rounded out the historic trio of captains that guided Harvard this season. While Ellis was not much of a scorer for the Crimson (94 career GP, 4–5—9), the Phillips Academy product’s career— one which prioritized the team—is most aptly summarized by one of his fondest memories from his experience with the program.

“When we won the ECAC Tournament my freshman year,” Ellis began, “I separated my shoulder and I had to get undressed for the third period. But the guys ended up winning it, so I remember going onto the ice with my arm in a sling, and my roommate and teammate Seb Lloyd had separated his shoulder in the previous game. And I just remember using our single arms together to hold up the trophy…. [That] sort of summed up the sacrifice that goes into those tournaments at the end of the year.”

In spite of cherished stories like this one, Ellis is putting his hockey life on hold as he pursues a consulting opportunity in Boston. Luckily, the close proximity of his future workplace to the Bright means Ellis can frequent the team’s home games moving forward.

Because the Burlington, Mass., native lives with Madsen and Sherman, he has been able to stay in touch with them as they navigate their professional lives.

SEB LLOYD Winger Seb Lloyd is the only member of the class of 2018 who is still on the fence about his future. With multiple job offers in hand, the only Canadian in the outgoing group is still flirting with the possibility of playing professionally in Europe—plenty of Harvard alumni, most recently defenseman Clay Anderson ’17 and forward Dev Tringale ’17, have chosen this option.

Lloyd plans to decide on his immediate future within the next month or so.

“I’ve talked to all the guys that played here at Harvard who have gone that route,” Lloyd said. “I’ve picked their brains about it and asked how

Rock at the Back Tri-captain Merrick Madsen was a crucial part of Harvard’s resurgence into the national spotlight over the past four seasons. The net-minder, who anchored the Crimson’s Frozen Four run in 2017, will leave campus holding the program records for consecutive wins (16) and wins in a single season (28).. Timothy R. O’Meara—Crimson photographer

their experience was. I look at it as: I do have my whole life to work, and you only get one chance to go and get some life experience and go play professionally.”

Lloyd, who missed time in multiple seasons due to injury including the shoulder separation that Ellis remembers so fondly, dressed for 98 bouts during his college career and logged 34 points in the process (15–19—34).

His final collegiate goal came in dramatic fashion: a one-timer from in-close knocked off then-No. 19 Boston College in the Beanpot consolation game.

THOMAS AIKEN Defenseman Thomas Aiken has a slightly different perspective after four years with the Harvard hockey program. The Whitefish Bay, Wis., native initially walked onto the team and skated in just 13 games over his four seasons, failing to log a point.

Nevertheless, Aiken impacted the team with his attitude, work ethic, and academic prowess—the undersized blue-liner has received ECAC All-Academic honors in each of the last three seasons (award given after spring semester ends).

As such, Aiken will venture away from the ice in pursuit of a professional future. Like some of his teammates, the senior will also head into the consulting industry, starting at Bain & Company in August. “[It will] probably be a lot of hard work, but it should be pretty fun,” Aiken said. “Excited to be staying close enough to the Bright to come catch a few games next year.”

RYAN BEGOON Ryan Begoon will remember his Harvard hockey career much in the way that Aiken will. The rearguard played in just a single game during his time with the Crimson, in which he notched his first and only NCAA point by assisting a Tyler Moy ’17 goal.

“For four years, there were ups and downs,” Begoon reflected. “The first year or two, [playing time] was definitely something that was very much on my radar—a goal to strive towards.

It’s not that it wasn’t the last two years… but I did understand that I could be as impactful [but] in a different way.”

While some players focused primarily on their influence on the ice, Begoon made his mark in the weight room, around the rink, and in the classroom, too. Begoon and Aiken both played the role of unsung hero, in a sense, over their four seasons with the Harvard program.

Also like Aiken, Begoon will look to the corporate world for the future. The Economics major will return to the Blackstone Group after a successful summer internship last year and join the Strategic Partners team.

Regardless of what each senior ultimately does as a professional, the class of 2018 will surely carry with it into the “real world” the hard-working, team-oriented mentality that defined its Harvard career. And even though the seven fourth-years will never wear a Crimson jersey again, the class’s impact will be felt for years to come in the Harvard hockey program.

Staff writer Spencer R. Morris can be reached at spencer.morris@thecrimson.com.