The Harvard Crimson - Volume CXLV, No. 31

THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873 | VOLUME CXLV, NO. 31 | CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS | FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2018

The Harvard Crimson Uncertainties about sanction implementation need to be clarified.

Men’s Basketball honors seniors in final Ivy weekend.

EDITORIAL PAGE 8

SPORTS PAGE 9

College Debuts Plan for Social Groups Ad Board Will Enforce Sanctions

By CAROLINE S. ENGELMAYER and MICHAEL E. XIE CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

The Administrative Board will enforce the College’s penalties on members of single-gender social groups, the College announced Thursday as part of its long-anticipated final implementation plan for its controversial social life policy.

Dean of Students Katherine G. O’Dair emailed the plan, developed in large part by the Office of Student ­

Life and hosted on a newly debuted Harvard website, to students Thursday morning. The guidelines—initially slated to be released at the start of the spring semester—detail exactly how the College will implement its sanctions.

Starting with the Class of 2021, the penalties—the subject of more than a year of campus debate and protest—bar members of unrecognized single-gender social groups from holding campus

SEE SANCTIONS PAGE 5

Faculty Will Vote on Adding Sanctions to Handbook

College Cancels ‘Bridge’ Program for All-Female Social Clubs

By ANGELA N. FU and LUCY WANG

By CAROLINE S. ENGELMAYER and MICHAEL E. XIE

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences will vote to either accept or reject the appearance of the College’s policy on single-gender social organizations in the Harvard student handbook, Dean of Students Katherine G. O’Dair announced Thursday.

This acceptance or rejection will occur at the end of the semester as ­

The College debuted its implementation plan for its controversial social group policy Thursday. University Hall houses the offices of Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana, who has become the face of the policy on campus. JUSTIN F. GONZÁLEZ—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

The College canceled a proposed “bridge” program that would have allowed traditionally all-female final clubs and sororities a longer period of time to go gender-neutral in the final enforcement plan for its social group policy administrators released Thursday morning.

Harvard’s roughly year-old ­

SEE HANDBOOK PAGE 3

SEE BRIDGE PAGE 3

Committee on Student Life Examines Final Plan

By WILLIAM S. FLANAGAN and KATHERINE E. WANG CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

The Committee on Student Life met Thursday morning to discuss the College’s long-anticipated final implementation plan for its social group policy— ­

and to begin to determine the committee’s role in evaluating that policy.

The College’s penalties, which took effect with the Class of 2021, bar members of unrecognized single-gender social groups from campus leadership positions, the captaincies of varsity athletic teams, and from receiving College

endorsement for various prestigious fellowships. After at least a month of delay, administrators published a final plan detailing how Harvard will enforce these penalties Thursday.

University President Drew G. Faust

SEE CSL PAGE 3

Bacow Advocate for Inclusion, Peers Claim

By KRISTIN E. GUILLAME CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Free Speech

Diversity

HBCUs

Financial Aid

When Harvard’s presidential search committee announced they had appointed Lawrence S. Bacow as Harvard’s next president, there was no denying the elephant in the room. Despite calls from Harvard affiliates for diversity during the search, Bacow, who was a member of the search committee, will be the 28th white male president of the University.

Some Harvard affiliates, including students and alumni, had hoped the face of the University’s leadership would look a bit different. Several alumni groups—including the Harvard Business School Latino Alumni Association, the Coalition for a Diverse Harvard, and the Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance—sent letters to the 15-person search committee during the “information-gathering mode” of the search, asking the com­

Republican Club Endorses Carbon Tax

By TRUELIAN LEE and JACQUELINE P. PATEL

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

The Harvard Republican Club has joined forces with over 30 college political groups across the country to advocate for a climate change policy that would place a tax on carbon emissions while also reducing environmental regulations.

The new group, known as Students for Carbon Dividends, endorses the socalled Baker-Shultz plan, named after two of its signatories, former Secretaries of State James A. Baker III and George P. Shultz. The Harvard College Democrats and Harvard College Conservation Society have also joined the ­

SEE CARBON PAGE 5

Harvard Today 2

SEE DIVERSITY PAGE 4

Continuum Leases All Residential Space

By JONAH S. BERGER and SIMONE C. CHU

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

mittee to consider a diverse slate of candidates.

“Given that Harvard’s selection of its President will have an immense impact and influence in international academia for years to come, we hope you will exhaustively seek to identify, recruit, and consider candidates from diverse backgrounds, including candidates of color, LGBTQ candidates, and candidates from other underrepresented groups,” a letter from the Coalition for a Diverse Harvard to the search committee read.

Soon after Bacow’s selection, some students expressed their disappointment with the selection of a familiar-looking face.

“A thought that I had earlier was that, in a few years, if the diversity of the incoming class keeps increasing, [a] white president will no longer be representative of the Harvard student

Continuum, a residential and retail complex built on Harvard-owned land in Allston, has leased all its residential space and reached full capacity—a milestone employees attribute in part to community building efforts.

Leslie Cohen, principal and chief operations officer at Samuels & Associates, the firm Harvard chose to develop Continuum in 2012, wrote in an emailed statement Thursday that Continuum’s residential spaces are currently “fully occupied.” ­

Continuum, a 325-unit apartment complex in Allston, has reached full capacity. J ACQUELINE S. CHEA—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

News 3

Editorial 8

Sports 9

TODAY’S FORECAST

RAINY High: 43 Low: 36

SEE CONTINUUM PAGE 6

VISIT THECRIMSON.COM. FOLLOW @THECRIMSON ON TWITTER.

hamantaschen

HARVARD TODAY

FOR LUNCH

FOR DINNER

“Local Fresh Catch”

St. Louis Style Pork Baby Back Ribs

Chicken Vindaloo

FRIDAY| MARCH 2, 2018

Roasted Vegetable Panini made with Eggplant, Pepper & Squash

Taco Turkey Burger Vegetarian Pot Pie

AROUND THE IVIES

STRFKR AT THE SINCLAIR STRFKR’s frontman Joshua Hodges donned a short wig during their performance Saturday evening.

CASEY M. ALLEN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Princeton to Increase Enrollment, Accept Transfer Students from Community Colleges for First Time Princeton will increase its enrollment by about 10% in the coming years in order to diversify its student body, according to the Wall Street Journal. According to statistics on the University’s website, minorities currently make up nearly 47 percent of undergraduates. Princeton, which has an undergraduate enrollment of 5,400, will also accept transfer students from community colleges for the first time.

Tuition at Penn Will Exceed $70,000 for 2018-2019 School Year The cost of attendance at Penn will exceed $70,000 next school year, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian, representing a 3.8 percent increase over last year. Tuition will increase from $47,416 to $49,220, while room and board will rise from $15,066 to $15,616. Penn is the second Ivy league university to reach the $70,000 mark, after Columbia. The University’s financial aid budget will increase by 5.25 percent next year to $237 million, according to the Pennsylvanian.

Police Arrest Ithaca Man, Who Barricaded Himself Inside Possible Meth Lab

HAPPY FRIDAY, HARVARD! Repeat after us: Spring break is a week away. Spring break is a week away. Spring break is a week away.

In the Atmosphere…

We said it’s spring. We were wrong; there’s a high wind warning for today.

It’s raining too. Temperature’s at 43 degrees. High flood risk. The dreaded

bomb cyclone is back!

Why the hell is Monday weather coming on a Friday?​​ EVENTS Legal Strategies for Fighting Back: A Conversation with Top Immigration Lawyers Go to Wasserstein Hall at 12 p.m. to hear from some of the most prominent immigration scholars

IN THE REAL WORLD Putin Warns the US In his annual state of the nation speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened the United States and other Western nations with new nuclear weapons. He also promised that increased social spending would help ordinary Russians.

from Harvard, Yale, and Boston College. This event, an installment of the DACA seminar, is sure to be informative and fascinating!

American Modern Opera Company in Allston Alexandra Tejblum Evans, an Ernest May Fellow in History & Policy, will be speaking about U.S. policy toward Lebanon from 1981 to 1985. Go to 1 Brattle Square (Room 350) at 12:15 p.m. to listen in!

An Ithaca man, accused of robbing a pizza delivery driver, was arrested Tuesday after barricading himself inside of an apartment, according to the Cornell Sun. After arresting the man, police said they found evidence that the apartment may contain a small meth lab.

Police had gone to the apartment to look into a report of an armed robbery of a Domino’s delivery man. The delivery man, who told police he was robbed of money and multiple credit cards, claimed the suspect fired two shots into the roadway after robbing him. Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick praised the city’s Police Department in an online statement. “Their investigative work quickly identified the suspect, and their negotiating got him to surrender without incident,” Myrick said.

FAKE NEWS AND MISINFORMATION University of Washington professor Kate Starbird speaks about the spread of misinformation through the use of social media during crisis events.

HAYOUNG HWANG—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Nor’easter Going to Be a Doozy Officials are stating that the upcoming storm is going to be more severe than the one that battered the Northeastern coastline—Boston included—on January 4th. Get ready for today, folks. Walks of shame are going to be especially shameful when the thin napkin/towel holding your outfit together blows off.

Stocks Tumble as Trump Announces New Tariffs The stock market stumbled after President Trump’s announcement of new tariffs on products such as steel and aluminium imports. The market is now headed towards its third straight sessions of losses.

WAITING AT THE DOT

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

“There is a lot of liability when you throw a bunch of college students in a room to socailize.”

Night Editor Brian P. Yu ’19

Assistant Dean of Student Life Alexander R. Miller

Assistant Night Editors Jonah Berger ’21 Editorial Editor Anna M. Kuritzkes ’20 Caleb J. Esrig ’20

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.

Story Editors Graham W. Bishai ’19 Mia C. Karr ’19 Hannah Natanson ’19 Claire E. Parker ’19 Kenton K. Shimozaki ’19 Phelan Yu ’19

Design Editor Deedee R. Jiang ’20 Diana C. Perez ’19

Photo Editors Casey M. Allen ’20 Amy Y. Li ’20 Sports Editor Henry Zhu ’20

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | MARCH 2, 2018 | PAGE 3

Nancy Gibbs Joins HKS Faculty CAMHS and iHope Debut Online Group

By ALEXANDRA A. CHAIDEZ CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Former Time Magazine Editor-in-Chief Nancy R. Gibbs will join the Harvard Kennedy School faculty beginning this March as a visiting professor and a faculty affiliate at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy.

Gibbs will serve as the Edward R. Murrow Professor of Press, Politics, and Public Policy. At the Kennedy School, she will teach courses based on her experience in media, participate in research, and engage with the fellows program at the Shorenstein Center, according to a Thursday press release.

Gibbs said in an interview Thursday that her positive encounters with the Kennedy School and the Shorenstein Center in the past motivated her decision to come teach there.

“I really was pleased at the idea of being able to join them, particularly right now when I think the challenges facing the media generally—and for that mat­

CSL Examines Final Policy CSL FROM PAGE 1 and the Harvard Corporation previously charged the committee—a student-faculty group that discusses undergraduate social life—with regularly reviewing the College’s penalties and submitting “periodic, interim reports” to Faculty members and administrators about the sanctions.

The Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, also mandated a comprehensive review of the penalties, set to take place in five years.

At the meeting Thursday, the committee began to discuss what these reports and this review might look like.

Much of the meeting centered on gathering input from committee members on three questions in particular, which attendees wrote and pasted on the wall: (1) “In 5 years, what does success look like?” (2) “How will we measure the evolution of the UG experience?”

(3) “What data do we need?”

Committee members then wrote

It was really interestng to think of what Harvard could look like Catherine L. Zhang Undergraduate Council President

their answers on sticky notes and pasted the notes on the wall underneath the relevant questions.

Answering the first question, some members responded that one example of five-year success would comprise a reduction in what they called the unequal benefits students derive from single-gender social groups—specifically, networking opportunities. In particular, attendees said they think clubs foster “face time” between undergraduate members and prominent alumni unavailable to non-members.

Others said they think the College should add alumni networking events within Harvard’s 12 residential Houses to better meet this need, currently filled in part by the clubs.

Near the beginning of the meeting, several members of the committee said they are concerned the policy will not apply to the Undergraduate Council or to The Crimson—a development detailed in Thursday’s implementation plan.

In response, Dean of Students Katherine G. O’Dair, who helped lead the meeting, pointed to the view—previously espoused by Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana—that the UC and The Crimson are different from other student organizations in “fundamental ways,” as Khurana wrote in a May 2017 letter.

“They are the primary forums through which students can hold the College accountable and, in the case of the UC, through which students can advocate for change,” Khurana wrote in that letter. “These important functions have long been recognized by the Faculty as deserving special consideration, as evidenced by the unique privileges extended to them.”

Undergraduate Council President Catherine L. Zhang ’19, who attended the meeting, said “it was really interesting thinking about what Harvard could look like” in the context of the finalized implementation plan.

“The idea is how do we shift our thinking, when we’re here at the College, so that students here are not so focused on the exclusivity, or so focused on what is happening particularly within the walls of Harvard,” Zhang said.

ter a lot of democratic institutions—are very significant,” Gibbs said.

Gibbs was the first woman to hold the position of managing editor at Time.

She was also one of the most published writers in the history of the magazine with experience reporting on four presidential campaigns and writing more cover stories than any other writer on the magazine’s staff.

“Nancy Gibbs is an extremely thoughtful and respected voice on issues of politics, values, and society,” Dean of the Kennedy School Douglas W. Elmendorf said in the press release.

“Her extensive knowledge and insights will help illuminate research and discussions at the school about the role of journalism in democracies and in the digital age.”

Gibbs said she was interested in working with projects that the Shorenstein Center launched around misinformation and disinformation, a topic she said was “exactly the right focus” for research.She also said scholarship

on “fake news” is a crucial issue for sustaining a functioning democracy.

“We are still learning more every day about the role that fake news, as broadly defined, has been playing not just in our most recent elections but in the way even an extraordinary news story like the Parkland shooting gets covered and understood,” Gibbs said.

Gibbs sees tackling current debates on news media as more than just a political trope—but as a critical societal task.

“I think it’s very hard to have a functioning democracy, if we aren’t able to really weigh solutions to problems and address them fairly and rigorously, if we can’t even agree on the facts of the case,” Gibbs added.

Gibbs said the “increasing attacks” on journalism are notable at a time when the field is performing at a “higher level” than ever before.

“This concerns me not only as someone who cares about the health of journalism but the health of democracy as well,” Gibbs said.

Faculty Weighs Adding Policy to Handbook HANDBOOK FROM PAGE 1 part of the Faculty’s annual review of changes to the handbook.

The Office of Student Life will oversee the implementation of Harvard’s social group policy and will request that the Faculty approve the policy and add it to the handbook, O’Dair wrote in an email Thursday detailing the College’s final plan to implement its yearold social group policy.

The penalties—the subject of months of review and debate—prohibit members of single-gender final clubs and Greek organizations from holding leadership positions in student organizations and athletic teams and from receiving endorsements for certain prestigious fellowships. The sanctions took effect with the Class of 2021.

Dean of FAS Michael D. Smith previously said in an interview that large changes to the handbook would have to go before the Faculty Council—FAS’s highest governing body—twice before being presented to the full Faculty for

a vote.

The Faculty typically vote on changes to the handbook at their May meeting.

The handbook vote will mark the first time the Faculty vote directly on the policy. Last semester, former Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 proposed a motion designed explicitly to cancel the sanctions. The text of the legislation, though, did not mention the penalties directly, but discussed student organizations more broadly.

The motion instead stated that the College shall not “discipline, penalize, or otherwise sanction students” for joining “any lawful organization.”

At the November Faculty meeting, 90 professors voted for the motion and 130 professors voted against it, striking it down.

In interviews last semester and last month, Smith, University President Drew G. Faust, and Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana all repeatedly said they did not yet know whether the policy would be listed in the handbook.

By AHAB CHOPRA and ASHLEY M. COOPER CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Starting this semester, Counseling and Mental Health Services is providing group, online mental health workshops through an online program called iHope, that provides care through video-conferencing.

CAMHS started working with iHope in April 2017 and last semester, rolled out their program for virtual individual therapy treatment to University students, free of charge.

After the program’s popularity in the fall, CAMHS decided to launch a series of new group workshops from iHope in order to better address mental health on Harvard’s campus.

Current workshops cover topics like “Calming a Worried Mind,” “Overcoming Perfectionism” and “Sleeping Soundly.”

“Over the course of the fall semester, especially after the Crimson article was printed, we had more students calling, asking to access it. I think it was a lot of students who were not on campus, or even local, called and reached out for connecting with a therapist,” said Chief of CAMHS Barbara Lewis.

According to Lewis, CAMHS formed a task force of about a dozen clinicians, who evaluated current CAMHS services, including iHope’s virtual therapy, last December.

One of the task groups focused on developing an evidence-based program for students.

“What evidence-based treatment means is that these are programs developed by clinical researchers in randomized clinical trials in academic medical centers,” said Steven Locke, co-founder and chief medical officer of iHope.

“It’s very clear from a lot of the research that evidence-based treatments are very effective for a huge range of mental health issues,” Maureen Rezendes, associate chief of CAMHS, added.

According to Rezendes, these new workshops will allow CAMHS “to reach as many students as possible” as the program has availability during evenings and on weekends. iHope CEO Tom Hunter said the workshops are very carefully curat­

ed to help students learn important skills, and are capped at a maximum of ten students to ensure every student’s voice is heard.

“The workshops have a plan, a series of sessions which teach different skills,” Hunter said.

“Some of them are eight sessions long with the intention that they would run for the semester.”

Hunter and Locke said the video programs are similar to other video-conferencing platforms users might have prior experience using, and have the ability for interactive exercises, screensharing and demonstrations.= “You can share a portion of the screen that might have something that’s very interactive or it might be illustrative; it could even be a demonstration of something, an animation, any kind of graphic or interactive tools that we use in the program,” Locke said.

According to Hunter, the platform is secure and HIPAA compliant.

“We actually audit these folks once every year to make sure that they’re doing what they say they’re doing,” he said.

After the program’s launch earlier this semester, students are already signing up for the workshops.

“Many students have signed up for these workshops but many students have signed up for multiple workshops simultaneously,” Rezendes said.

Participants might find a familiar face running their workshop.

“One of the people who’s providing one of these groups provided the same group here as a part of the CAMHS staff and then she moved across the country. Now she’s doing it this way,” Hunter said.

Hunter said though the workshops have been successful so far, iHope is looking forward to continually improving their service.

“This is new, so we’re still starting at a good foundation, but I expect that we’ll learn some things that will allow it to be a better experience as time goes by,” Hunter said.

Staff writer Ahab Chopra can be reached at ahab.chopra@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @ahab_chopra Staff writer Ashley M. Cooper can be reached at ashley.cooper@thecrimson.com.

College Cancels ‘Bridge’ Program for Female USGSOs BRIDGE FROM PAGE 1 policy, which took effect with the Class of 2021, bars members of single-gender final clubs and Greek organizations from campus leadership positions, the captaincies of varsity athletic teams, and from receiving College endorsement for certain fellowships. ­

We welcome all organizations, and especially those whose membership is currently restricted to women to partner with us.

Implementation Plan

The sanctions target both all-male and all-female groups. But under a proposal put forth in March 2017 by a committee tasked with reviewing the penalties, women’s groups would have been able to retain a “gender focus” while still complying with the College’s policy for three to five years.

Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana accepted that particular recommendation—along with many others— in March 2017. Now, though, the College has decided against the bridge program.

In lieu of that initiative, administrators are dedicating resources and personnel specifically to help women’s groups transition to co-ed status, according to the final plan released Thursday. The designated staff includes Heidi Wickersham, the program manager at the Harvard College Women’s Center, and unspecified employees in the Office of Student Life. “[These administrators] will jointly partner with groups wishing to transition from having a women’s exclusive membership while maintaining a women’s-focused mission,” the plan reads. “We welcome all organizations, and especially those whose membership is currently restricted to women, to partner with us.”

The additional resources devoted to women’s groups are different from the suggested bridge program, according to Harvard spokesperson Rachael Dane. Administrators ultimately chose not to accept that program—and the process to go gender-neutral will now be the same for both men’s and women’s groups, Dane said.

The final plan cited what it called Harvard’s “long and complex history of grappling with gender discrimination” in justifying the College’s decision to allocate staff specifically to women’s groups.

Khurana also pointed to historic inequalities faced by women at Harvard when he accepted the recommendation for the bridge program in March 2017. The dean wrote in a College-wide email at the time that he thought these disparities meant all-female groups might require additional resources to transition into “inclusive organizations.”

“I will consult with the Dean of Students and the Committee on Student Life on how to best support a vigorous and non-discriminatory social experience responsive to the realities that our students… are not all starting from the same place,” Khurana wrote in the email.

Shortly after its debut, the College’s social group policy drew protest from hundreds of Harvard women, who took to Harvard Yard to march in protest of what they described as unfair targeting of spaces for women.

Some all-female clubs have since chosen to openly defy the sanctions.

The Harvard chapters of Alpha Phi, Delta Gamma, and Kappa Alpha Theta proceeded with standard all-female recruitment this spring, though the sororities drew roughly half as much interest as in previous years.

Other women-only groups, though, have taken the opposite tactic. Earlier this year, formerly all-female Kappa Kappa Gamma adopted gender-neutral membership practices and severed ties with its national organization to become the co-ed “Fleur-de-Lis” club.

In its first-ever recruitment season, the Fleur garnered interest from 187 students and ultimately accepted 44.

Though the Fleur plans to accept men, it will remain a “female-focused group,” according to members.

Staff writer Caroline S. Engelmayer can be reached at caroline.engelmayer@thecrimson.com.

Staff writer Michael E. Xie can be reached at michael.xie@thecrimson.com.

Harvard, from the Law School to Longwood

A NEW ERA IN TEACHER PREPARATION. Earn your M.Ed at a pioneering graduate school of education, developed in collaboration with MIT.

The Crimson thecrimson.com

The Woodrow Wilson Academy of Teaching and Learning is a new kind of master’s degree program that makes the most of the way learners learn. It throws out the clock and does away with traditional courses and credits. Candidates will have the opportunity to practice and prove their skills in simulated classrooms, creating a safe, low-stakes environment where they can learn from both their successes and mistakes.

Students in the master’s of education program will experience the challenge-based curriculum in a blended environment including online, face-to-face, and clinical education.

Eligible applicants will hold a degree in a math or science field by summer 2018.

Applications must be received by March 15, 2018.

woodrowacademy.org

PAGE 4 | MARCH 2, 2018 | THE HARVARD CRIMSON

Bacow Worked for Diversity at Tufts, MIT Frei Leaves Uber for HBS DIVERSITY FROM PAGE 1

body, which is a big issue,” Diego Navarrete ’21 said.

Bacow, a member of the Corporation and former president of Tufts, will succeed University President Drew G. Faust this summer.

In the Feb. 11 press conference introducing him to Harvard affiliates as the University’s 29th president, Bacow responded to a question about the calls during the search for a president from an underrepresented background, and emphasized his commitment to diversity.

“During my time at both Tufts and at MIT, I worked very, very hard to promote excellence. And I think diversity is a pathway to excellence,” he said.

“We need to look for the very best and during my time at Tufts I’m proud of the record of bringing women and minorities and people of color into the senior leadership, into the faculty, and also into the student body, and I hope to do the same thing here.”

Bacow has repeatedly referenced his own background as a son of immigrants, and he recounted his “American Dream” story at the press conference.

Personal background aside, Bacow will inherit a range of diversity-related tasks at Harvard, including the final recommendations of the Presidential Task Force for Inclusion and Belonging, which are slated for release before Faust leaves office this spring.

Bacow, according to many of his colleagues at Tufts and MIT, is no stranger to challenges of diversity and inclusion—and his past actions might hint at how he will tackle these issues from Massachusetts Hall.

THE GUY WHO ‘GOT IT’ Bacow began confronting issues of diversity in academia early on as a professor of environmental studies at MIT in the ’90s, according to John S. Wilson, Jr., former president of Morehouse College and current president-in-residence at the Graduate School of Education.

Wilson was an administrator at MIT while Bacow taught at the school, and Wilson had to confront concerns about the “quality of life” for black undergraduates. A 1984 “Quality of Student Life Survey” conducted by MIT had indicated that black alumni had largely negative experiences at the school. In response, Wilson joined a task force convened by the university to study the “racial climate” on MIT’s campus.

The task force, which Wilson likened to Harvard’s current Task Force on Inclusion and Belonging met with faculty—including Bacow—about the results of the survey.

“When we did that tour and tried to convey what the challenges were, some of the faculty got it and some not so much,” Wilson said. “Some were in fact dismissive of it and so we had the challenges in trying to help reshape the undergraduate experience, so it would be more welcoming and inclusive.”

Bacow, however, was one of the faculty who “got it,” Wilson said.

“Larry Bacow sort of bubbled up as somebody who was very aware of the issues, who cared about them, and who was creative and innovative in his engagement with them,” he added.

Bacow’s attention to issues concerning minority students was something that Wilson said showed in the years following the task force’s 1986 report. Wilson said he was “pleased” when Bacow was promoted to chancellor of MIT in 1998, since Bacow was “enlightened” about the issues.

A TUFTS TRANSFORMATION After 24 years at MIT, Bacow ascended to the presidency of nearby Tufts University, four stops north on the Red Line in 2001.

The undergraduate population of

Tufts at the time was embroiled in debate over the small number of minority students attending the college. In 2003, the Tufts Daily published an article that said the numbers of Latino and Asian students attending the college had increased, but the numbers for black students remained static— and low.

By the end of Bacow’s tenure in 2011, the proportion of minority undergraduates had risen slightly; 4.3 percent of Tufts undergraduates identified as black, 6.5 percent as Hispanic or Latino, and 10.4 percent as Asian, according to the 2011 Tufts University Fact Book.

According to Lisa Coleman, who served as Tufts’s first Chief Diversity Officer from 2007 to 2010, Bacow worked to expand Tufts’s financial aid program to make the university more accessible to students from underrepresented backgrounds.

“He has been very attentive to issues of affordability, which is crucial for first generation students, who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford going to schools like Harvard or Tufts,” said Coleman, who came to Harvard in 2010 and served as Chief Diversity Of-

He has been very attentive to issues of affordability Lisa Coleman

Former Chief Diversity Officer, Tufts University ficer and Special Assistant to the President under Faust until May 2017.

Bacow worked to expand programs for first-generation students and collaborated with the financial aid office at Tufts to improve affordability for low-income students despite the fact that Tufts is not a need-blind institution like Harvard, Coleman said.

Bacow’s capital campaign, Beyond Boundaries, surpassed $1 billion in donations in 2009.A 15 million dollar gift from Tufts trustee Karen Pritzker took the form of a fundraising project to increase affordability for students of underrepresented backgrounds in 2006.

Tufts Dean of Admissions Lee Coffin told the Tufts Daily that the gift would not influence admissions, but would increase the amount of financial aid available to the university.

In addition to benefiting “historically disenfranchised groups,” Coleman also said Bacow’s financial aid expansion was “crucial” for students with disabilities because of the “affordability issues in terms of accessibility.”

Bacow’s track record on financial aid during his tenure at Tufts prompted Wilson to recommend him in 2009 as an advisor to President Barack Obama on the White House Initiative for Historically Black Colleges. Wilson, who headed the initiative, wrote in an email that Bacow’s success in keeping Tufts more financially “stable” than many peer institutions during the financial crisis of 2008 was a key point for his selection.

“The transformation he led at Tufts was an ideal model for all HBCUs,” Wilson wrote.

Aside from student diversity, Tufts also faced criticism for its low retention rates among female faculty and faculty of color, according to a study conducted by Tufts released in 2004.

The study found that that the overall retention rate of white faculty was 57 percent, while that of faculty of color was 35 percent.

Coleman said that Bacow worked to diversify the faculty even before he hired her as Chief Diversity Officer. Bacow engaged many faculty members, including Coleman, who was Director of Africana Studies at Tufts at the time, in conversations about faculty diversi-

fication, according to Coleman.

“I would say that the faculty was not as diverse as Larry would have liked, which is why he was working with the provost on these initiatives,” Coleman said.

As Chief Diversity Officer, Coleman worked with a faculty subcommittee on “strategic initiatives” for diversification among the faculty. Bacow and then-University Provost Jamshed Bharucha were “very supportive” of their efforts, Coleman said.

Coleman said Bacow supported a pipeline program from Tufts’ graduate schools and a post-doc initiative to bring in post-doc students with a focus on “area studies” like Native American and Indigenous studies, Latinx studies, and Cuban studies.

“Those kinds of things add to the diversification of the curriculum in terms of studies,” Coleman said.

Tufts Political Science professor James M. Glaser, the former dean of undergraduate education under Bacow, said Bacow assembled a diverse team during his presidency.

“President Bacow brought a really excellent and diverse leadership team to Tufts,” Glaser said. “He attracted them. He recruited them. And he hired them. And that includes deans, the provost of course, and high-level administration.”

Still, a March 2010 editorial in the Tufts Daily charged that Bacow had not fixed the diversity problem within the Tufts faculty.

“Only 7.7 percent of all tenure-tracked professors at Tufts identify as either African American or Hispanic,” the editorial reads.

The editorial also flagged that the university still lacked an African American Studies department.

“There are still many improvements that can be made that will allow for greater equality and diversity on the Tufts campus,” the editorial reads.

‘MORE SPEECH, NOT LESS’ Under Bacow, Tufts did not see many large student protests, save for mass opposition to a student newspaper titled Primary Source that published a racially charged series of satirical articles in 2007 implying Muslims were violent and African-Americans were academically unqualified for college. The newspaper also published a mocking caricature of a woman affiliated with a feminist group, according to Coleman.

“People don’t remember it now, it was 13 years ago. But at the time, it was such a profound event on our campus and it rocked us,” Glaser said. “It was a traumatic event in our little community.”

According to Glaser, who was dean of undergraduate education at the time, Bacow had been across the country on a business trip for Tufts when the incident occured and returned to campus right away.

“He recognized immediately it was a crisis,” Glaser said.

A student-faculty committee ordered the newspaper to put bylines on all the pieces, which it had previously published anonymously, according to Glaser. Primary Source appealed the decision and Glaser, working with Bacow, decided the fate of the paper: it could continue to publish sans bylines.

“At the end of the day, I, with President Bacow’s support, eliminated the penalty because that felt like punishment for speech,” Glaser said.

Bacow announced the decision by advocating for freedom of expression in a 2007 email to Tufts affiliates following the incident.

“The appropriate response to offensive speech is more speech, not less,” Bacow wrote. “We must be vigilant in defending individual liberties even if it means that, from time to time, we must tolerate speech that violates our standards of civility and respect.”

The defense of free speech, however, was combined with a series of con-

Media Expert Discusses Fake News

By EDWARD W. CARR CONTRIBUTING WRITER ­K ate Starbird, a University of Washington professor, discussed the distribution of misinformation and “fake news” in the media at a Shorenstein Center event on Thursday.

Starbird, an assistant professor of human centered design and engineering, spent nine months probing Twitter and Reddit to study the prevalence and incentive behind propagating misinformation and its effect on politics and society. She said misinformation is much more prevalent and influential than many people would expect.

Over the course of nine months, Starbird and her team conducted research concerning fake news using her so-called “Grounded, Interpretive, Mixed Method.” She began on Twitter, searching for phrases commonly associated with crisis events. Then, she would filter the millions of resulting tweets by fine-tuning her search with specific fake news terms, like “false flag” and “crime actor.”

“There are weird connections between folks we didn’t think would be politically aligned,” Starbird said.

“Misinformation is a political strategy.

The purpose of this information is not to convince, the purpose of this information is to confuse—to create muddled thinking throughout society.”

In addition to the unethical propagation of fake news, Starbird said the influence of fake news on society can

There are weird connections between folks we didn’t think would be politically aligned.

Misinformation is a political strategy.

Kate Starbird

Professor, University of Washington

have many negative consequences. “[Society] becomes passive and unable to bond together against power,” she said. “It is an attack on democracy; that’s the whole point. It’s using our values of freedom of speech and undermining those same values.”

She said reading fake news was “depressing” to her because it exploits the psychological vulnerabilities of readers and viewers.

Starbird said the perceived bias of large media corporations undermines their content and advised viewers to “tune in to how the information is affecting you emotionally, and how it is appealing to your political or emotional biases.”

While Starbird said fake news might be damaging to society by reducing the trust of individuals, she said there was a silver lining.

“I think it’s good that we have diverse ways of thinking,” she said. “I don’t think we need to go fix everybody and have them all think alike.”

Despite her research, Starbird said she may not be stemming the proliferation of fake news.

“When I give this talk, I don’t think I’m helping,” Starbird said. “I think I’m actually contributing.”

versations surrounding diversity and inclusion at Tufts that Coleman said emphasized the “values of the institution,” according to Coleman.

“There was a website that was created, Community Conversations, a number of things that were created as a result of that to engage the community in meaningful conversations about diversity and inclusion and belonging and equity and what it looks like and why it might be important to have conversations rather than caricatures or making fun of individuals,” she said.

Bacow also commissioned a task force that eventually created a university-wide policy on freedom of expression that was approved by the Tufts Board of Trustees in Nov. 2009.

“Freedom of expression and inquiry are fundamental to the academic enterprise,” the policy reads, “Without freedom of expression, community members cannot fully share their knowledge or test ideas on the anvil of open debate and criticism.”

‘THE VERY BEST PERSON’ When Wilson was a student at the Harvard Divinity School and Graduate School of Education in the 1980s, he and other students were upset about the lack of diversity among Harvard leaders, as they watched white man after white man assume positions of power.

Reflecting on the experience in a recent email, Wilson wrote that some of those people “turned out to be progressive forces for good”—and he said he turned his focus to personal qualities rather than physical appearances when assessing a person’s ability to create change.

“Even while we still wanted people of color, we shifted to also scrutinizing for people of character,” he wrote. “We looked beyond who they were, physically, and focused on whether they listen and hear, how they think and express, and what they prioritize and do.”

These characteristics were on the minds of search committee members throughout the seven-month-long process. In a Nov. 2017 interview published in the Harvard Gazette, a Universi-

It was a traumatic event in our little community James M. Glaser

Political Science Professor, Tufts University ty-owned publication, Senior Fellow of the Corporation and search committee chair William F. Lee ’72 said the committee would prioritize “fundamental human characteristics” like integrity, communication skills, and emotional intelligence.

Asked about the committee’s consideration of calls for a minority president, Harvard Corporation and search committee member Shirley M. Tilghman said the committee considered a wide range of candidates.

“Our charge was to find the very best person that could lead Harvard for the next decade,” Tighlman said. “In order to execute that charge appropriately we looked very broadly and inclusively at candidates, and so I feel as though we took very seriously our charge but we did it in a very broad way.”

Lee emphasized Bacow’s experience with diversity and inclusion initiatives from his former posts. In an email to Harvard affiliates announcing Bacow’s selection, Lee wrote that Bacow will be well-prepared to “realiz[e] the full potential of our growing diversity to assuring that Harvard continues to attract faculty, students, and staff whose talent and promise can change the world.”

By GRACE A. GREASON CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Business School professor Frances X. Frei will return to teaching full-time at Harvard after working for Uber, where she had been hired in June as part of an effort to remedy a corporate culture many have called toxic.

Frei, who is currently on a leave of absence from her roles as senior associate dean for executive education and professor of service management at HBS, had been hired as a senior vice president of leadership and strategy for the ridesharing company, which has been criticized as a hotbed of sexual misconduct and unethical business practices.

In an interview with Recode, a technology news website, on Tuesday, Frei said she was specifically brought on to serve as a “coach and complement” for former CEO Travis C. Kalanick, who had been accused of covering up allegations of sexual harassment and berating an Uber driver in a viral video.

Fewer than two weeks after Frei was hired, Kalanick was forced to resign amidst an overhaul of the company’s corporate employees.

Frei stayed on as Uber hired former Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi to replace Kalanick.

“As soon as the executive team was calmer, I turned my attention to 3,000 managers whose jobs grew well beyond their skills, which I think was the real work,” Frei told Recode.

At Uber, Frei designed an online Harvard Executive Education program that used the HBS case method to teach more than 6,000 of the company’s employees about leadership.

Before returning to Harvard, she will implement another such program for the company “with a focus on women and underrepresented minorities,” Khosrowshahi wrote in a company memo released by Recode.

“Because of her, Uber now has a world-class corporate education program that thousands of you have attended, and an enthusiastic partnership with one of the best universities in the world,” Khosrowshahi wrote in a company memo.

Alix Anfang, a spokesperson for Uber, wrote in an email that Frei will continue teaching for the first program and remain an adviser to the company after returning to Cambridge, from where she has been commuting to Uber headquarters in San Francisco for the past nine months.

“Frances has made an incredible contribution to Uber at a critical time in our company’s history, from building and running a first-of-its-kind leadership and education program to helping our new leaders be set up for success,” Anfang wrote.

“We are delighted that Frances will continue to serve as an advisor to Uber and teach the Harvard Executive Education program she designed.”

“To all my friends here at Uber — thank YOU for such a terrific experience and for being my teachers throughout the last nine months,” wrote Frei in a separate memo.

“I’ll miss everyone here, but I also can’t wait to apply everything I learned to my next project — while wearing an Uber t-shirt, of course.”

Frei did not respond to requests for comment. ­

Staff writer Grace A. Greason can be reached at grace.greason@thecrimson.com.

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THE HARVARD CRIMSON | MARCH 2, 2018 | PAGE 5

Ad Board To Enforce Sanctions HRC Joins Students for Carbon Dividends SANCTIONS FROM PAGE 1

leadership positions or varsity athletic team captaincies and from receiving College endorsement for certain fellowships.

“This is primarily a social policy.

Our expectation is that it will be adjudicated through the Administrative Board,” O’Dair said in an interview Wednesday. “If there are questions about what body this would go to, the Danoff Dean of Harvard College, currently Rakesh Khurana, would be the individual who would make that decision.”

“But our expectation is that the Administrative Board will,” she said.

Though the College has finalized its plan, the sanctions themselves are not yet fully finalized—per O’Dair’s email Thursday, the College will formally request that the sanctions be incorporated in the Harvard College Student Handbook. This means the Faculty of Arts and Sciences will need to formally vote to accept or reject the penalties as part of the handbook.

The choice to task the Ad Board with enforcing the sanctions goes against previous implementation recommendations Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana accepted in March 2017. The March proposals—authored by a committee charged with recommending how to implement the sanctions—suggested the Honor Council help enforce the policy.

The final implementation plan also reverses several other key recommendations in the March report, according to O’Dair and Assistant Dean of Student Life Alexander R. Miller.

O’Dair and Miller said in an interview Wednesday that—contradicting previous proposals—the College will not require students to sign a pledge affirming their compliance with the policy; will not mandate that social groups publish demographic breakdowns of their memberships; and will not offer a transitional program for all-female social groups.

The March report recommended the College offer a three to five year “bridge” program during which all-female social organizations could retain their gender-focus without penalties.

But the final plan cancels this suggestion.

The new plan also expands the number of campus leadership positions subject to the policy—positions which students in single-gender social groups will be unable to hold. In addition to all recognized student groups, the policy will also apply to College-affiliated and Phillips Brook House Association student programs.

But—as Khurana wrote in a March 2017 letter to students—the sanctions will not apply to leadership positions on The Crimson and the Undergraduate Council.

O’Dair and Miller detailed the reasoning behind the College’s decision to overturn some of the March recommendations in the interview Wednesday.

The March 2017 implementation report specifically suggested students seeking leadership positions, captaincies, and fellowships sign a written statement affirming their commitment ­

to “nondiscrimination on the basis of characteristics of ‘intrinsic identity,’ including gender.” But O’Dair said the College ultimately decided a pledge was unnecessary.

“What we did not accept is any pledge or affirmation by students,” O’Dair said. “The change in this is that we… have accepted approaching this with trust, honesty, and transparency.”

Administrators also ultimately decided against the proposal that unrecognized single-gender social groups submit demographic breakdowns. The March report suggested some social organizations affected by the policy should regularly publish breakdowns of their membership, an initiative meant to hold the groups to “higher expectations” than “currently existing recognized groups.”

But Miller said Wednesday he thinks this suggestion is unnecessary.

“We don’t do that with recognized organizations, so we would not do that with these types of organizations,” Miller said.

The two administrators also discussed the College’s next steps regarding the social group penalties—both in the next few weeks and the next few months.

O’Dair and Miller said the Office of Student Life will not immediately publish a comprehensive list detailing which campus social groups are subject to the policy. The decision not to compile a list breaks with a promise Khurana made in a Dec. 2017 interview. At the time, Khurana said he would make sure that the list of affected organizations—first catalogued in the March report—is “up to date.”

Miller said he thinks it is still too early for the College to make and publish a definitive list.

“Once we’re in a place where we have some commitment from these organizations, groups who are interested in this provisional status, we will partner with them to release that information,” Miller said. “Because, for them, they’re also learning what does this mean to go gender-inclusive? So, it’s a little premature to share those names at this point for us.”

Over the past three years, at least seven of Harvard’s formerly single-gender social groups chose to go co-ed, raising the question of whether they are still subject to the College’s penalties. Some of these organizations have worked with administrators as they transitioned to gender-neutral membership practices.

In one example, members of the Fleur-de-Lis—formerly Harvard’s chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma—said the group partnered with the College in its efforts to go co-ed.

Miller said organizations currently working with representatives at the Office of Student Life will be “fine”— meaning not subject to the penalties.

“For the groups that are working with us, we’ve made clear to them that now, you are fine as long as you’re talking with us and you’re working with us,” Miller said.

He said the groups choosing to cooperate with the Office have demonstrated they want to work “to the end of gender-inclusivity.”

Regarding long-term implemen-

tation, O’Dair said the College will not enforce the sanctions by actively searching for students who violate the policy. She also said Harvard will not solicit or act on “anonymous complaints” to discover violators.

She said any kind of anonymous system is “not what we are, in our community.”

“We trust our students, and we’re going to inform our students, we inform our students of all policies,” O’Dair said. “We are not going to undertake any efforts to go find students.

We’ve been really clear about that.”

O’Dair and Miller did not specify further how the College plans to determine whether or not students are in violation of the sanctions.

The website-hosted guidelines administrators debuted Thursday also specify the Office of Student Life will work with the Athletics Department to ensure the penalties are enforced across varsity athletic teams. The Office will “partner” with the department to make certain that—when student-athletes vote to choose team captains—they “are aware of the current policy.”

Finally, the plan released Thursday announces the Office of Student Life plans to create a “new framework for governing primarily social organizations.” O’Dair wrote in an email to students she hopes this framework will be released in “the coming months” and be implemented next fall.

The social groups eligible for this new system will not include currently recognized student organizations, according to O’Dair’s email. Miller said Wednesday that eligible groups will comprise organizations that are “on this road of being part of the larger college organization landscape.”

He said he and other administrators are still working with students “to really figure out what that means.”

Asked why the College wants to create a new governance system for a new category of social group, Miller said the Office of Student Life has “a lot of different things to consider.”

“These are things that I would like to think about with these groups that I currently don’t think about with the math club,” Miller said. “There is a lot of liability when you throw a bunch of college students in a room to socialize.”

“So, at the core there, it requires me to think differently,” he said.

In the coming spring and fall semesters, O’Dair said the Office of Student Life will continue to work with social groups to bring them into compliance with the College’s policy.

“This next step that we are doing in the policy development is to figure out what are those criteria by which groups will be adherent to the policy, whether or not that leads to an official recognition, whether or not that leads to some annual adherence to the policy,” O’Dair said. “I just want to be really clear that we haven’t figured that out yet, but that is our next step in the process.”

Staff writer Caroline S. Engelmayer can be reached at caroline.engelmayer@thecrimson.com.

Staff writer Michael E. Xie can be reached at michael.xie@thecrimson.com.

Case Could Threaten Union Support

By MOLLY C. MCCAFFERTY CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

National labor unions are anticipated to take a significant hit in a case on public-sector unions that the Supreme Court heard earlier this week and this could indirectly effect Harvard unions, according to labor experts and leaders of two of the University’s largest unions.

The key issue in the case—Janus v.

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees—is whether objectors to public-sector unions can opt out of paying dues.

Existing precedent allows unions to require all members of the bargaining unit to pay in exchange for representation.

Former National Labor Relations Board Chairman William B. Gould IV and University of Oregon Professor of Labor Education Gordon Lafer predicted the Supreme Court’s decision in Janus v. AFSCME will “undercut” that legal standard.

AFSCME—which represents more than 1.6 million employees nationwide—serves as an umbrella organization for thousands of local unions in the US, including Harvard’s largest union, the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers.

Though the Supreme Court’s ruling would only directly affect public ­

sector unions’ ability to collect dues from members of a bargaining unit, both Gould and Lafler agreed a ruling against AFSCME could also affect the future of private-sector unions like those at Harvard in the long-term.

Specifically, the reasoning in the Court’s majority opinion might lay a foundation for future challenges to the obligations of those who are included in a union’s bargaining unit, but do not support the union, according to Gould.

“It’s quite possible that an issue that we had thought was already resolved under the National Labor Relations Act itself might reemerge, and that is whether non-union objectors have the obligation to opt out,” Gould said.

Representatives from Harvard unions, including HUCTW, said the consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision in Janus v. AFSCME could extend to their unions in the long-term.

HUCTW President Carrie Barbash said the union stands in support of their parent organization.

“AFSCME, in the past, has asked us to help out with various campaigns, and we would be happy to help them in any way that they ask,” Barbash said.

Edward B. Childs, a dining services worker in Adams House and chief steward of UNITE HERE Local 26, said a decision in favor of Janus could have an impact on his union’s funding.

UNITE HERE, which represents

Harvard University Dining Services workers, receives part of its funding from the general fund that its parent union, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, retains. That fund would be weakened if objectors to the public sector unions affiliated with AFL-CIO are allowed to refuse to pay dues.

“This will impede our ability to struggle on issues and also organize new members,” Childs said.

Childs also connected the Janus suit to what he says is a longer-term effort to undermini labor unions.

“The long-term impact is that what we see is that the union movement is under a direct attack. We don’t think AFSCME is the target, we think the whole union movement is the target,” Childs said.

Both Gould and Lafer agreed that the impact of the Janus case would extend beyond AFSCME. According to Gould, the implications of a ruling in favor of Janus would be a “major loss,” symbolically and politically, for labor movements nationwide.

“The public sector unions are the great strength of the labor movement in this country,” Gould said.

Lafer wrote in an email that all sectors of the labor movement would feel the “reverberations” of a decision in favor of Janus.

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CARBON FROM PAGE 1 initiative; but the Republican Club has been more heavily involved, with the club’s president, Kiera E. O’Brien ’20, serving as vice president of the new coalition.

The Baker-Shultz plan—yet to be formally proposed as a piece of legislation in Congress—suggests gradually increasing the carbon tax, with all revenue returned to American families via a monthly rebate.

O’Brien said she hopes combined student advocacy efforts from both sides of the aisle will encourage Congress to implement the plan.

“Climate change doesn’t have to be a partisan issue,” O’Brien said.

The new student coalition is composed mostly of Republican clubs, an unusual development given the GOP’s history with environmental regulation. Students for Carbon Dividends represents the first time a league of College Republican organizations has ever pushed for a policy intended explicitly to combat climate change.

A carbon tax could raise a substantial amount of tax revenue, while also reducing carbon emissions, according to independent analyses. A tax of $25 per ton of carbon pollution, for example, would raise about $1 trillion over 10 years while preventing over 12 billion tons of carbon emissions by 2030, according to Resources for the Future, an independent research organization based in Washington D.C. The Baker-Shultz plan has also found support among large corporations like ExxonMobil, BP, and Shell.

“I think a lot of corporations are sympathetic to this because they recognize that climate change is real, and they want a solution that’s the least invasive for their business model and for markets in general,” said Economics Professor N. Gregory Mankiw, a co-author of the Baker-Shultz proposal.

Mankiw, who served a chairman of the Council of Economics Advisors under President George W. Bush, said he believes what he called the Trump administration’s inaction on environmental policy stems from a lack of vocal public support for a climate change solution.

“Right now, climate change is not

high up on their agenda,” he said, referring to the Trump administration.

“Rarely does change come from the very top. This kind of change is going to have to come from the bottom. So I think these grassroots kinds of organizations, whether they’re at colleges or local communities, are tremendously important.”

Even as an increasing number of conservative academics and former Republican statesmen speak out to support the carbon tax scheme, the proposal has fallen on deaf ears among certain Republican congressmen and senators.

Economics professor Martin L. Weitzman said he thinks Republican opposition stems largely from a hostility towards any and all tax hikes.

“People, especially Republican politicians, hate the idea of any new taxes even if the revenues are reasonably rebated in some way or another,” Weitzman said.

In the midst of a complete standstill at the federal level, numerous states have attempted to craft their own climate policies. A bill currently working its way through the Massachusetts State House imposes a $20 per ton fee on carbon dioxide emissions that increases to $40 per ton over four years.

Stock said that, though it might appear that a national carbon tax is still far away, public opinion—and federal policy—can shift quickly.

“Years ago, it just would have been preposterous to say we’re going to have gay marriage nationally,” Stock said. “But what changed is that an entire generation...just said, ‘No, what’s preposterous about that?’”

“And then the laws, and our reading of the laws, changed with that,” he added.

O’Brien said Students for Carbon Dividends hopes to recruit more organizations beyond its founding groups.

After that, the coalition plans to hold events to raise awareness for its cause.

“Young conservatives are here, and we’re ready to take action on climate change,” O’Brien said.

Staff writer Jonah S. Berger can be reached at jonah.berger@thecrimson.com.

Staff writer Simone C. Chu can be reached at simone.chu@thecrimson.com.

Freshmen Choose Blocking Groups

By LEYLA J. K. BRITTAN and CECIL O. WILLIAMS CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

F reshmen submitted their blocking groups for the rising sophomore housing lottery Wednesday morning a week ahead of Housing Day—an annual College spirit-filled tradition of fanfare and celebration—a decision that some said they found exciting and others stressful.

Students were required to submit their blocking groups of up to eight students to the Office of Student Life.

On March 8, Harvard upperclassmen will descend on the Yard to distribute freshman housing assignments for the next three years..

Some students, like Nam H. Kim ’21 and Emily G. López ’21, figured out early who they wanted to live in the same House with for the next three ­

We know that blocking can be a stressful experience for freshmen. Last year, we raised the possibility that we would affiliate entryways with Houses.

Thomas A. Dingman ‘67

Dean of Freshman years. Several members of their blocking group met through the Catholic Student Association. Both freshmen said they were excited for the upcoming Housing Day and said they were satisfied with Harvard’s system of “blocking.”

“I like how blocking doesn’t set your group of friends, but it’s more like you know people going in so that you can meet more people,” Kim said.

The College uses a randomized housing lottery to assign blocking groups of freshmen to one of the 12 residential Houses. The fully randomized procedures were first approved

by College administrators in 1995 to quell concerns over self-segregation

between students of different racial, religious, and social backgrounds Some students said they did not find the process of blocking prior to entering the lottery quite so smooth.

Some freshmen said the task of deciding on people that they will live in the same House with for the remainder of their undergraduate years can pose an added burden to coursework, extracurriculars, and the adjustment to living away from home.

“I just think it’s a little bit unnecessary to essentially force people to define their relationships at such an early stage,” Austin E. Taylor ’21 said. “As a freshman in college you’re making a lot of new connections and forcing you to essentially rank those is a little bit much.”

“February is a little early to be choosing who you live with. Especially just coming out of first semester because friend groups change,” Jalen T. Daniels ’21 added.

College administrators have long said that the spirit of this system’s origin reflects a desire for students to have an undergraduate experience that involves an environment with a diversity of academic interests, student identities, and traditions.

But Taylor said she thinks asking freshmen to form a “condensed group” of friends actually runs counter to the College’s hope to have a “microcosm” of students from different backgrounds living together in each House.

“I would say that I have friends here, but they are a very diverse group which I think is what Harvard wants,” Taylor said.

“So, I think it’s interesting that they’re forcing you to form a condensed group when they really want you to be branching out and forming relationships with people who are completely unlike you.”

Thomas A. Dingman ’67, dean of freshmen, said administrators have previously explored the idea of changing the housing lottery. Last year, many House faculty deans, however, expressed skepticism about a proposal to replace Harvard’s model with one more similar to Yale.

“We know that blocking can be a stressful experience for freshmen. Last year, we raised the possibility that we would affiliate entryways with Houses. So as a student you would only have to try to find compatibility within your entryway instead of the entire freshman class,” Dingman said. “But this was not successful, so we just try to make ourselves as available to students as we can.”

PAGE 6 | MARCH 2, 2018 | THE HARVARD CRIMSON

Continuum Leases All Residential Space, Reaches Full Capacity CONTINUUM FROM PAGE 1 ­

“Interest in leasing at Continuum was strong throughout 2016 and 2017,” Cohen wrote. “Other than the usual online presence, word of mouth has been the largest driver of the building’s occupancy.”

Continuum, located at the intersection of Western Ave. and North Har-

vard St., comprises 325 residential units, including studios and one-bedroom apartments. In the past, Continuum has struggled to fill its residential spaces.

In Oct. 2015, 23 percent of the housing units had been leased to residents.

In Feb. 2016, the number rose to 40 percent.

Cohen wrote that plans for Contin-

uum going forward include a strong retail component to “enliven the street” and facilitate “a vibrant streetscape” with a diverse array of retail stores, offices, and housing.

As of March, the building has leased 89 percent of its retail space to stores like Trader Joe’s and Our Fathers.

Cohen also noted that Continuum has begun holding block parties, fea-

turing items like a petting zoo and free ice cream, to promote a sense of community.

“Community is the cornerstone of every decision we make,” she wrote.

“Allstonians have been vocal in expressing what they feel would best serve the neighborhood.”

“This has been invaluable input,” she added.

When Continuum first began leasing units in 2015, the average rent of an apartment in Boston was $2,100, around $200 less than the price of a studio apartment in Continuum.

To promote affordable housing, Continuum held a lottery in Jan. 2016 offering cheaper housing units in the complex and selected 42 people out of a pool of 386.

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THE HARVARD CRIMSON | MARCH 2, 2018 | PAGE 7

ARTS music

SEAN MIYASHIRO TALKS

88Rising, RAJ KARAN S. GAMBHIR CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

COURTESY OF SEAN MIYASHIRO

ASIANS IN THE MEDIA, AND HARVARD

On Feb. 22, the Harvard-Radcliffe Chinese Students Association hosted a panel discussion with 88rising, an upand-coming media brand that features Asian and AsianAmerican artists. Following the discussion, The Harvard Crimson sat down with 88rising’s founder and CEO Sean Miyashiro to talk about what the company has overcome, and what’s in store for the future.

The Harvard Crimson: In an interview with

Pitchfork, you described the initial idea for 88rising as VICE for Asian culture. What do you see 88rising as, and what is 88rising trying to promote?

Sean Miiyashiro: If I look back, that’s how I thought of the company in the beginning, and that’s certainly changed. VICE typically covers a lot of different things, where we’re more on the creation side. Obviously, the music has really taken precedent in how people perceive us and what people are falling in love with us for.

It’s not easy to continually put out good stuff in music and evolve and stay on top. It’s very serious, we work on it every single day. I can’t see too far into the future, but I can say that our brand comes first and everything that 88 is. We want to take our brand from more of a digital online experience and transcend that into different mediums which include film and live events around the world. Those are things that are immediate aspirations. It’s all about moving our brand into different mediums.

THC: Speaking of film, I saw the promotional video of the 88rising crew on the Asia tour and I loved the chemistry between the artists. Can you talk about the dynamic between personalities like Brian, Keith Ape, and Joji?

SM: The chemistry is amazing. I think we’re super fortunate to have that kind of chemistry. It has all happened very naturally. We’re extremely fortunate, because everybody is obviously an individual, but somehow everyone has meshed really well together. Everyone really respects and loves and is passionate about what we’re doing.

Whenever we get together, it’s a great time.

THC: What project or collaboration in the last year has got you the most excited?

SM: Music is one of the biggest and most influential things in the world. There are quite a bit of artists that we have, and all are starting to put out content that people love under one banner. One thing that I’m extremely proud of is how our music is driving so many positive thoughts around our brand, and people being proud of it.

We had a show in LA last weekend and there were 5,500 people there. What I thought was really unique was that for all the opening acts everybody cheered their asses off for, even though they weren’t super familiar with the artists. Even though these are new artists, everyone was so supportive of everyone who is with us. The 88rising crew is really meaningful to people, and that’s one thing that I’m super proud of. It was a moment I’ll never forget.

Charli XCX, she came to the show, and she pulled me aside and said, “Dude, this is a fucking moment.” So many people came up to me that day and told me that when they grew up, none of this ever existed. Now we can look to something and say, “This shit is cool.” When I was growing up, there was nothing to look to. No living breathing examples in entertainment or music or anything.

THC: 88rising represents an outlet where Asians and Asian-Americans can be represented in a way that is completely counter to the norm. 88rising members like Brian, Joji and Higher Brothers are so cool and on top of it. It’s really empowering to see that. It’s empowering to see a song about WeChat [a Chinese multi-purpose social media app]. It was empowering to see, at my predominantly white high school, how many people loved Rich Brian’s “Dat $tick.” When starting 88rising, was a goal of yours to give Asian culture a platform in a new media landscape?

SM: Yeah! When I started, I knew that there was so much cool Asian shit and I wanted to build a home for that.

Over the last 18 months we’ve gotten Higher Brothers, Rich, Joji, and we’re signing more people. Everyone is likeminded and an individual and a star in their own right.

You know, Brian has a tremendously engaged Asian

fanbase, they really love him. But it’s cool as you said, a lot of people love Brian. It’s all races and they’re coming from all over the world and supporting him. That’s how you know you’re really on to something. At our New York show there were so many non-Asian kids buying merch and immediately putting it on. It was just wild.

THC: I am only 18 years old, but it’s something I couldn’t have imagined a few years ago. Companies like 88rising are creating a world where the next generation won’t look at their Asian identity as something to be ashamed of, but rather as a badge of honor.

SM: Thank you so much. Today meant so much to us. I really didn’t know what to expect, and it was really awesome. I’ll be honest, I was nervous last night. When I got to the hotel I had a little bit of trouble sleeping. I’ve never done something like this before. There were so many people that came. There was a lot of laughter, there was a lot of energy, and there were tons of questions. We went way overtime. Once we closed, so many people came to the front and spent time with us. It was special. I can’t sugar-coat it.

It was very special, I’m still buzzing over it.

We just came off the back of thousands of people coming to our shows, but today was amazing because we were really able to have a dialogue with fans. Some of the people who came to the chat took a bus from NYC just to come to the show. My parents even asked me how it went. It was badass, I enjoyed it so much.

THC: Any closing thoughts or announcements you want to make to the fans of 88rising?

SM: Today was such an amazing moment for us, for being able to have a dialogue with such passionate and bright students at this amazing university. It was as much of a pleasure for us as we hope it was for the students. This year we’re gonna do a lot. We’re gonna work twice as hard.

We just wanna keep making everybody proud.

Staff writer Raj Karan S. Gambhir can be reached at raj.gambhir@thecrimson.com.

theater

Phantom of the Opera: 30th Anniversary HAE-IN SEONG CONTRIBUTING WRITER

COURTESY OF JOAN MARCUS

An eternal masquerade, a romantic escape, and a nightmare. A musical of shadows and fear, but also intrigue. This is the world of “The Phantom of the Opera.”

2018 marks the 30th anniversary of the Broadway (as opposed to 1986 West End premiere) debut of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s gothic romance, “The Phantom of the Opera,” based on the eponymous novel

by Gaston Leroux. It follows orphan Christine Daaé, who rises as a star singer of the Opera Populaire under the tutelage of a mysterious “Angel of Music.” This Angel, also known as the Phantom, is an incredibly gifted musician equally cursed with deformity. In the gothic tradition of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” the Phantom seeks redemption through Christine, who becomes torn between her shadowy benefactor and her handsome lover Raoul.

Before Webber even conceived of the story as a musical, others retold the “The Phantom of the Opera” numerous times through film, theater production, and television. Yet of all the images of the ghostly mentor presented throughout the past century, the incarnation we remember most vividly is the half-masked, sensuous, embittered Michael Crawford, the original West End and Broadway actor. But what sets Crawford and Webber’s creation apart from any other antihero?

Despite its melodramatic tropes—the subterranean chambers, the masquerade ball, and the infamous chandelier—“Phantom” engenders a bevy of emotions that captivates and intrigues the audience. The songs may suffer from trite expressions, like “Say the word and I will follow you,” yet the music uses these superfluities to emotionally affect the listener. Though the title character is a monster of depravity, we love him and sympathize with his struggles for acceptance. When he sings, “Close your eyes, and let music set you free,” we can feel his longing to escape the cruelty and bigotry of those who look down on him. Likewise, when Christine

sings “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again,” she evokes mourning not only for her father, but also for innocence and naiveté.

To the casual viewer, Christine Daaé appears like the stock damsel in distress. She does not fight, and does not challenge the stereotypes of her gender or her station, nor is her rise to fame accomplished through any initiative of her own. Her relationships with men define her. Having said this, it is within this frame of apparent weakness that Christine’s greatest strengths shine through. She reaches out to others, because she knows the pain of isolation.

The Phantom seeks redemption through power and secrecy, but his desire for acknowledgement causes the loss of his humanity. His thirst for revenge and his own artistic genius conflict and converge onto Christine, desiring both her love and her voice. During the climax, the Phantom holds Raoul hostage in exchange for Christine’s eternal servitude. She does not refuse nor does she scorn the hideous man. She sees through the Phantom’s games and gives him the compassion that he has sought all along. Confronted with his own vulnerability, the Angel suddenly releases the couple and withdraws.

Music does not conquer and the Phantom remains a shadow, while Christine and Raoul return to their happy lives above. Realism trumps fantasy.

In 2006, Webber decided that this ending was unsatisfactory, and so he penned a sequel, “Love Never Dies,” a version in which Christine realizes that the real world is unfulfilling and reconciles once again with the Phantom. While certainly deserving of merit, “Love Never Dies” overturns a fundamental truth of Webber’s original gothic vision: The most beautiful dreams are transient by necessity. The man most deserving of praise must also be the most despicable, and the woman who has so much to give must have so much of her own taken away.

The truth may not be what we want to hear, but the “Music of the Night” is strictly forbidden.

EDITORIAL THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD

Almost Two Years Later, Sanctions are Unclear and Unfinished

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esterday, Dean of Students Katherine G. O’Dair announced the long-awaited implementation policy for the College’s penalties on members of unrecognized single-gender social organizations. Starting with the Class of 2021, these students will be barred from holding leadership positions in recognized student organizations, becoming captains of varsity athletic teams, and receiving College endorsement for certain fellowships. In opposition to some earlier proposals, violations of the policy will be adjudicated through the Administrative Board.

In early February, we wrote that the administration’s plan to execute the sanctions remained “stunningly unclear.” Yet in spite of the Office of Student Life’s announcement, we are disappointed that our previous sentiment remains true. Fundamental questions about the sanctions’ enforcement and effects remain, stunningly, unanswered.

As their freshman year comes to a close, members of the Class of 2021 will begin, if they have not already, assuming leadership positions in student organizations. Many have already joined unrecognized single-gender sororities and fraternities, and, come this fall, some will likely join final clubs as well. The rules of the sanctions are established, yet how this policy will be enforced is unclear.

O’Dair said that the College will not actively search for nor solicit “anonymous complaints” on students who violate the policy. It remains to be seen, then, how

sanctions violations will be discovered or reach the Ad Board. This is unfortunate.

Though students should not breach the College’s policy, there must be a clear, concrete plan for action when they do.

Further, O’Dair remarked Wednesday that the administration still needs to “figure out” what it means for eligible social

Fundamental questions about the sanctions’ enforcement and effects remain, stunningly, unanswered. organizations to successfully adhere to the policy. In her email Thursday, O’Dair only specified that the OSL intends to create a “new framework for governing primarily social organizations” that will be debuted in the fall. Given that many unrecognized single-gender social groups have announced their intentions to go gender neutral in response to the sanctions, clarity on this issue is critical. With nearly two years having passed since the original announcement of the social group policy, it is truly remarkable that we must wait yet another few months for the College to finalize this part of the policy.

Concerns about implementation should have been answered by now. As we have previously opined, in the past the administration has consistently failed to clearly communicate how it will implement its sanctions policy. These failures

were little addressed by yesterday’s announcement.

Furthermore, the College has failed to fulfill its most basic responsibility—to develop a complete and transparent policy. The enforcement mechanism given by the administration is vague at best and non-existent at worse. Incredibly, policies for how formerly single-gender organizations can go co-ed and gain recognition are still missing.

Given the impactful nature of the sanctions, we are thoroughly disappointed with this announcement. As we have reiterated before, we are supportive of the sanctions on members of unrecognized single-gender social groups. We wrote that they serve as “an initial corrective to the outsized influence of final clubs over undergraduate student life while helping combat their discriminatory practices.”

We still stand by these statements, but we implore the administration to concretely and clearly implement the sanctions. The great potential they have to reshape College life for the better will not be realized with this unclear, unfinished implementation policy.

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).

Conservative Conservation

By KIERA E. O’BRIEN

E

arlier this month, the Harvard Office for Sustainability released a statement declaring the University’s intent to be fossil fuel-neutral by 2026 and fossil fuel-free by 2050. In doing so, the University is aligning with many other universities and private corporations that are seeking similar conservation results. However, these goals, while self-critical and laudable, focus only on their own immediate campuses and environments. Advocacy for national action is the next step.

This may seem surprising coming from the president of the Harvard College Republicans. After all, conservative support for the Harvard Corporation’s use of its lobbying clout may be unexpected, but what shouldn’t be surprising is a conservative angle on advocacy for responsible climate policy formulation. While the national Republican Party has long lacked consensus on environmental policy, it’s crucial that this changes. Without a proposed conservative solution, Republicans cede influence entirely on a subject that should not be a partisan issue.

Harvard is uniquely connected to these national efforts. In fact, five of the eight authors of one of the best currently proposed solutions supported by conservatives have past or current Harvard affiliations. The Conservative Case For Carbon Dividends, published by the Climate Leadership Council, was written, researched, and formulated by Economics professors Martin M. Feldstein ’61 and N. Gregory Mankiw; Henry M. Paulson Jr., who graduated from the Business School; Ted Halstead, who graduated from the Kennedy School; and Thomas F. Stephenson ’64. The plan is known as the Baker-Schultz Plan, and it is the plan endorsed by the newly formed Students for Carbon Dividends Coalition, officially launched Wednes-

day.

Students for Carbon Dividends is co-founded by 22 college Republican groups, six college Democrat groups, and four energy and environmental groups from across the U.S. We are united in their belief that America needs a climate solution that both strengthens our economy and protects our shared environment. The Harvard Republican Club, Harvard College Democrats, and Harvard College Conservation Society are all founding signatories of the coalition. Only Harvard, Yale, and the University of Michigan have their respective Republican, Democrat, and Environmental clubs signed on jointly, demonstrating a powerful opportunity for unity and influence from these universities.

The Baker-Schultz Plan has four pillars. The first pillar is the creation of a gradually rising and revenue-neutral carbon tax. The second pillar is returning the proceeds of that tax to all Americans as carbon dividend payments.

These two pillars in tandem create a positive feedback mechanism: As taxes go up, so do dividends, and carbon emissions are likely to fall as they become more expensive. The third pillar appeals to Republicans specifically: rollback of carbon regulations, including a full repeal of the Clean Power Plan, that are no longer necessary after the enactment of the gradually increasing carbon tax. These three pillars form the bulk of the national policy that can be centrally implemented.

The fourth pillar demonstrates how a centralized policy, implemented nationally, can produce international policy changes. The plan’s creators refer to this as the “climate domino effect,” and it is induced through border carbon adjustments. These adjustments are used to solve the issue of a decreased ability for domestic producers to compete internationally after the implementation

of the tax. It is decentralized in how its enactment plays out. Nations using a carbon dividend system levy a Border Carbon Adjustment against nations that have not implemented such a system, so it creates a tariff paid by exporters in companies without carbon taxes. The revenue from these tariffs then returns to the country with carbon dividends.

This, therefore, encourages nations lacking a carbon dividend to implement their own revenue-neutral carbon dividend structures or else foot the bill for the dividends of other countries.

At first glance, one might worry that this passes the burden of higher prices onto the American people as suppliers raise prices to pay for the tax. However, examining the nature of the dividend system reveals that over 70 percent of Americans will receive more revenue in dividends than they would pay in taxes. This results in a net offset of price increases for most consumers while still encouraging carbon producers to seek alternative energy sources. By using the power of the free market to tackle the emissions problem head on and enacting a Pigouvian tax on imports, the Baker-Schultz Plan would both shrink the size of government and maintain American competitiveness internationally, all while nearly doubling the emissions reductions induced by all Obama-era regulations combined.

Aside from being the institutional origin of most of the primary researchers and contributing authors of the Baker-Schultz Plan, the Harvard community should care about this initiative and support it because it is one of the few issues generating bipartisan unity on campus today.

Kiera E. O’Brien ‘20, a Government concentrator in Leverett House, is the president of the Harvard Republican Club.

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | MARCH 2, 2018 | PAGE 8

The Most ‘Timely’ Movie of the Year Michelle I. GAO BETWEEN THE LINES

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very movie awards season makes me acutely aware of time passing. This time around, for example, it’s hard to believe that it has been a year since the “La La Land”-“Moonlight” mishap, which itself seemed like a moment out of a movie. Awards season also makes me acutely aware of the specific time. The year that just passed has to have meant something, and every movie claims to best fit that meaning.

For me, part of the fun of following awards season is getting to judge how believable the movies’ claims are. That is why, even without seeing all the frontrunners, I can develop favorites. But this year, it has been hard to distinguish between the movies based on their media campaigns. Perhaps because so many movements in 2017 have given voice to populations traditionally overlooked in American society, multiple movies are laying claim to the “moment” without stretching disbelief.

“Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri,” about a mother trying to get justice for her daughter, has been called a “timely portrait of outrage.” “Get Out,” a horror-comedy about a black man discovering the disturbing secret of his white girlfriend’s family, is lauded for being “thrilling, terrifying, and timely.” But it is not just the movies set in the present day that are making statements about the moment. “The Post” is a historical drama about the Washington Post’s decision to publish the Pentagon Papers in 1971, but it “could not be The value of being more timely.” Similarly, “The Shape “timely” seems to of Water,” a Cold end abruptly on the War-era love story between a mute night of the Academy janitor and an amAwards. phibious fish god, doubles as a “timely parable about pushing back against authoritarianism.”

I can see why we appreciate movies being “timely” in the context of awards shows. Presumably the movies that get nominated for the big awards are already widely accepted as being good, so it can be hard to choose a winner. If what goes on inside the theater cannot truly separate the best movies from the rest, then maybe what goes on outside the theater will. With that understanding, timeliness can be used as a justification for designating a winner. A movie means more to viewers if it touches on issues that apply to the outside world and makes them think critically after the two hours they spend watching it.

But another definition of “timely” is “opportune.” This definition reduces the significance attached to “timely” as a label, because movies take so much time to make. Hitting the cultural zeitgeist at the time of a film’s release is more a stroke of luck than the culmination of successful planning.

Therefore, such a film’s creators should not be celebrated as intensely for potentially unintentional acts. In a speech celebrating “Three Billboards’” win at the British Academy Film Awards, for example, its producer admitted that the movie “seems more timely now than we could ever have imagined.” Of course, the filmmakers will happily reap the rewards of their good fortune as if they had championed the movie all along because they knew it would eventually tap into the female rage and empowerment of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements.

Instead, making a movie that doesn’t seem to have any appeal should be worth celebrating more than something that is obviously “timely.” It is easy to make a movie like “The Post,” which was able to accelerate its entire development so that it could capitalize on a time when the media is under fire in this country. But it is hard to convince executives that a movie like “The Shape of Water,” with its unorthodox main characters and storyline, should exist. So instead of vying to be the representative of the moment like all the other films are doing, I think “The Shape of Water” should be marketing its untimeliness as an advantage in this awards season. When would people ever demand a romantic, sexual, love story between a woman and a fish man? This movie disregarded the popular desires of our time, or any time, and yet it is good enough to force people to pay attention.

Having made it to the end of this year’s awards season, I am reminded, as I am every year, that “timeliness” does not have a long shelf life. The value of being “timely” seems to end abruptly on the night of the Academy Awards. The next morning, all the recognized movies, even the winners, must move on to a new competition in which there will be no eager spectators and no trophy—the quest to become “timeless.”

Michelle I. Gao ’21, a Crimson editorial editor, lives in Weld Hall. Her column appears on alternate Fridays.

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 Associate Business Managers Dahlia S. Huh ’19 Max W. Sosland ’19 Editorial Chairs Emmanuel R. R. D’Agostino ’19 Cristian D. Pleters ’19 Arts Chairs Mila Gauvini II ’19 Grace Z. Li ’19 Blog Chairs Lydia L. Cawley ’20 Stuti Telidevara ’20 Design Chairs Morgan J. Spaulding ’19 Simon S. Sun ’19

Digital Strategists Caroline S. Engelmayer ’20 Jamie D. Halper ’20 Dianne Lee ’20 FM Chairs Marella A. Gayla ’19 Leah S. Yared ’19 Multimedia Chairs Amy Y. Li ’20 Ellis J. Yeo ’20 Sports Chairs Cade S. Palmer ’20 Jack R. Stockless ’19 Technology Chairs Nenya A. Edjah ’20 Theodore T. Liu ’20

SPORTS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | MARCH 2, 2018 | PAGE 9

Harvard Hosts Cornell, Columbia on Senior Weekend AROUND THE IVIES

By TROY BOCCELLI and STEPHEN J. GLEASON CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Since we didn’t run a preview in yesterday’s paper, we figured that we’d dedicate the first half of this column to giving you a sneak peek of Harvard’s two opponents this weekend, Cornell and Columbia. The Crimson will take on the Big Red on Friday and the Lions on Saturday, with both games tipping off at 7:00 at Lavietes Pavilion. The second game of the weekend will be Senior Night, during which Harvard will honor captain Chris Egi as well as his classmates Andre Chatfield and Zach Yoshor. Although the trio has combined for just 41 minutes of game action this season, the seniors have been lauded for their leadership off the court for a team that features 10 underclassmen.

While the Crimson (15-11, 10-2 Ivy League) is locked into a top two seed in next weekend’s Ivy League Tournament, both of New York’s Ivy League teams have much to play for this weekend. With both clubs sitting at 5-7 in conference play, the four seed in the conference tournament will almost certainly be whichever team fares better against Harvard and Dartmouth this weekend. While the Crimson’s seeding depends on the results of Penn’s games with Yale and Brown, Columbia controls its own destiny and would qualify for the conference tournament with two wins this weekend.

On paper, both the Lions and Big Red seemed poised to split the weekend, with each team expected to beat lowly Dartmouth and fall to Harvard.

If that were the case, Columbia would get the bid to the conference tournament by virtue of its win over Harvard back on Feb. 2 (since Columbia and Cornell split their two head-to-head meetings). However, two of the beauties of Ivy League basketball are that the sport is in fact played on hardwood and that anything can happen, especially given the league’s unique scheduling structure, in which teams play games on back-to-back nights.

As in life, there are very few certainties in Ivy League basketball, but being able to beat Dartmouth is usually one of them. However, a painless trip to Hanover is no sure thing for either of these teams. The Big Red edged their Big Green counterparts by one in Ithaca while the Lions’ margin of victory was a mere three. While Dartmouth has lost two straight, both of its conference wins came at home in February— the first on Flannel Night when Princeton was in town on Feb. 10 and then a week later when 767 people were on hand to watch the beloved Big Green top Brown. All kidding aside, just ask Yale coach James Jones how hard it is to win in Hanover a night after topping Harvard.

The Crimson has already seen both Columbia and Cornell once this season.

Harvard fell to to Columbia in Morningside Heights for the third straight season, 83-76, on Feb. 2 before topping Cornell in Ithaca, 76-73, the following night. Despite the teams’ identical conference records and notorious sideshows—the Columbia University Marching Band and the Big Red Cheerleaders—the Lions and Big Red are two very different teams.

Cornell is ultimately a two-man show and that reality was evident when it faced off with the Crimson last ­

month. Guard Matt Morgan and forward Stone Gettings make Cornell go and are largely the only two reasons why the Big Red has anything to play for this weekend.

Cornell averages 76.5 points per game (over 10 points more than Harvard scores per contest) but is dead last in the Ivy League in opponents’ points per game. Perhaps what is more interesting about the defensive inefficiency is that the Big Red is in the middle of the pack when it comes to opponents’ field goal percentage but is the worst team in the conference at defensive rebounding.

In Cornell’s first meeting with the Crimson, Morgan and Gettings did their damage as the rest of their team largely watched. The pair accounted for nearly 66 percent of Cornell’s points against Harvard in a season in which the juniors have combined for over 52 percent of their team’s scoring. Gettings has gone for 20 or more points nine times this season while Morgan has accomplished that feat on 17 different occasions. Needless to say, the matchup on Saturday will largely come down to how good of a job the Crimson does on stopping the Big Red’s dynamic duo. On the offensive side, Harvard will need more production out of its role players. Sophomore forwards Seth Towns and Chris Lewis combined for 13 field goals in Ithaca while the rest of the team had just 12.

Like Cornell, Columbia is near the top of the Ivy League on the offensive end. However, the Lions rely on their balance and are the more experienced of the two teams. Columbia coach Jim Engles has six players averaging over six points per game and 10 players logging over 10 minutes per contest.

While sophomore guard Mike Smith is the team’s leading scorer (fourth in the Ivy with 17 points per game), he is far from the only scoring option for the Lions. Junior guard Quinton Adlesh led Columbia with 20 points in his team’s first meeting with Harvard while senior guard Kyle Castlin and junior forward Lukas Meisner chipped in 16 points apiece.

Columbia is the second-best threepoint shooting team in the conference and has the second-lowest turnover rate in the Ancient Eight. In its first matchup with the Crimson, the Lions were able to capitalize on the skill of their imposing frontcourt. Sophomore Patrick Tape, Columbia’s starting center, is one of the few Ivy League centers who has a height advantage on Lewis while Meisner, who averages almost 12 points a game, has an inch on Towns. Although Towns went for a career-high 31 points against the Lions back in February, Columbia was able to hold the rest of Harvard’s roster to 15-of-42 shooting from the field. Lewis was particularly quiet, finishing with just seven points, his second-lowest output in a conference game this season, and the Crimson relied heavily on its three-point shooting.

Not for nothing, the Lions are pitiful on the road. Columbia is winless in six Ivy League away games and its only road victory this season came against Longwood, which finished the year in tenth place in the Big South after posting a 7-25 record.

The two keys for Harvard on Saturday will be whether it can get more production out of its frontcourt and whether it can neutralize Columbia’s potent backcourt. The Crimson has done an impressive job of containing

LOCKING IN Freshman guard Rio Haskett eyes the paint in the Crimson’s win against Yale on Feb. 17. Haskett has earned a consistent spot on Coach Amaker’s rotation as a gritty defensive player. TIMOTHY R. O’MEARA—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Smith in its three matchups with the sophomore but has lost two of those largely because it has allowed other guards to beat it. Harvard will need to keep Adlesh, Castlin, and company in check as well if it wants to send its seniors out in style.

Now to the picks: PRINCETON AT BROWN This will be the last time we make these picks—and we intend to go out in a burning and fiery blaze of glory.

Coming off an undefeated season that saw Princeton take Notre Dame to the wire at the tournament, let us say it has been an absolute pleasure to watch the Tigers fall harder than Harvard’s endowment over the past few years.

The Daily Princetonian has devolved in its coverage of the team—instead opting to cover incoming recruit Jaelin Llewellyn, rated the 96th best player in his class by ESPN. If you’re reading this Jaelin, please listen closely and keep in mind that it’s still very possible to decommit.

Princeton sucks.

First of all, you’ll probably be playing behind ball-hog-in-chief Devin Cannady. It’ll be like playing with Kobe, except you don’t win. Also you can’t pump your own gas in New Jersey and the only redeeming quality of Princeton is a sandwich shop called Hoagie Haven. That’s pretty much it.

On the other side of this matchup, Brown has dropped four in a row.

Pick: Princeton PENN AT YALE In theory we make our picks based off the relative skill of these teams but sometimes you have to go with your heart.

Truth be told, here in Cambridge people don’t actually hate Yale that much. If anything, we feel kind of sympathetic to the poor souls out in New Haven. Just think about it—Yale’s mascot is an inbred puppy and according to the Yale Daily News, just last week a Yale student was fined for jaywalking.

For a period of time the most popular class in New Haven was exported from Harvard. Coming off a historic win in the tournament two years back, the Bulldogs have dropped quicker than Bill Clinton’s trousers on a given day in the Oval Office. This is the sad reality of Yale.

For its part, though, Penn graduat-

ed our Dorito-in-Chief. No sympathy here.

Pick: Yale CORNELL AT HARVARD The following is the most recent headline to come out of Cornell.

“Ithaca Man Arrested for Pizza Delivery Robbery After Barricading Himself in Possible Meth Lab, Police Say.” Incredible.

While the Big Red has definitely had a resurgence these past few weeks, Ithaca has clearly devolved.

It would be tough to find a redeeming quality in Cornell, but the school has always bested its Ivy League counterparts in one aspect—its admissions rate. Hold on to that one tight, Cornell.

Pick: Harvard COLUMBIA AT DARTMOUTH Believe it or not, every team except for Dartmouth can still make the Ivy League tournament coming into this last weekend. The excitement around the tournament has been so great that the Ivy League just inked a sponsorship deal with none other than Porsche.

Hahahaha.

The real joke here, though, is the fact that both of these teams lost nine in a row at one point this season.

It’s a sad reality. Dartmouth’s athletics website has been relegated to finely worded titles on its previews.

The one for the men’s basketball team this weekend is a real gem—“Men Close Out Season at Home as Potential Spoilers.”

Pour one out for the Big Green.

Pick: Columbia PENN AT BROWN In the grand scheme of things, the past few years have been a true fall from glory for the Quakers—Penn boasts an overall winning record against every school in the conference and from 1970 until 2007 they would go to the Big Dance 22 times.

Sure they’ve lost in the first round their last eight times out, but it would be hard to deny the Quakers weren’t the kings—or more likely, yeomen—of the Ivy League.

Since that last dance in 2007, however, they’ve struggled—finishing top3 in conference just once.

With that said, things are looking up for the Quakers. They’re at the top of the conference and in what will cer-

tainly raise plenty of red flags, they have home court advantage for the conference tournament.

This might be their year, but this game is a lot more important to the Bears.

Pick: Brown CORNELL AT DARTMOUTH Brutal.

Pick: Cornell COLUMBIA AT HARVARD We would remiss if we didn’t make one last mention of the Columbia University Marching Band.

To be honest, if someone has a framed copy of the esteemed band’s constitution, we’d be willing to pay top dollar.

Unlike Penn, Harvard has the honor of being included in the band’s constitution. Article the Eighth reads as follows, “Harvard needs to keep their pants on and their lights off.”

Noted.

The plot between these two schools, however, thickens.

In a 2012 article form The Crimson entitled “Columbia: The Ivy League’s Worst Athletics Program” a venerable editor here argued just that and raised several valid reasons. Unsurprisingly, it was received with less enthusiasm in New York, amassing a grand total of 77 comments, most of which appeared to be disgruntled Columbia students.

In the spirit of this non-existent rivalry, we’d like to share our favorite line from the piece.

“They’re even bad at squash. Columbia didn’t take a single game against Harvard, Dartmouth or Yale on the men’s side, nor Princeton, Penn, Cornell, the Bulldogs or the Crimson on the women’s side. They play nine games a match in Ivy squash.”

You can’t argue with that.

Pick: Harvard PRINCETON AT YALE Ah, the annual battle between Harvard’s little brother and sister.

We’ll leave it to the audience to guess which is which.

Pick: Princeton Staff writer Troy Boccelli can be reached at troy. boccelli@thecrimson.com.

Staff writer Stephen J. Gleason can be reached at stephen.gleason@thecrimson.com.

Celtics’ Jaylen Brown Talks Social Activism at Ed. School

COUNTER-SPACE Boston Celtics second-year wing Jaylen Brown spoke in front of a packed crowd at the Ed. School Thursday night. HENRY ZHU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

By HENRY ZHU CRIMSON STAFF WRITER ­

For most who are familiar with the name Jaylen Brown, terms such as “third pick in the 2016 NBA Draft” or “young Celtics phenom” immediately come to mind. During Thursday’s night lecture talk entitled “One and One with Jaylen Brown: Athlete and Intellectual” at the Harvard Education School, Brown challenged his audience to judge athletes like himself beyond simply their physical skills and on-court talent.

“When I open my mouth and talk,

sometimes people say they are amazed of my intellect,” Brown said. “I don’t know if that’s because I truly speak in a way that people can understand or feel a certain way, or because they don’t expect it. I don’t know. That’s something I am curious about.”

In front of a packed crowd inside Longfellow Hall, Brown noted that he was greatly humbled by the opportunity and emphasized the importance of athletes using their platform in a positive, vocal manner.

He addressed recent comments by Fox News host Laura Ingraham that Cavaliers star Lebron James should

“shut up and dribble.”

“This has been the notion in our society for last 10 or 15 so years,” Brown said. “That athletes are not allowed to have an opinion, not allowed to have a voice. Even me coming up here today, I had concerns that there would be some kind of pushback...To be honest, I’m not afraid. This has been the notion for too long and it is time to change.”

Jaylen Brown—a student-athlete at the University of California, Berkeley for one year before declaring for the NBA Draft—has always been noted by his peers and evaluators for possessing a high academic curiosity and passion for learning.

As noted on the forum event page, Brown had “experienced the ‘too smart’ for basketball” stigma since his youth”. Off the court, Brown has committed himself toward learning Spanish and Arabic and is an avid chess and piano enthusiast.

“Jaylen joins a long tradition of athletes from Muhammad Ali and Colin Kaepernick who see their role not only to play but to lead, especially in an increasingly unstable and inequitable world.” said moderator and associate professor Jal Mehta. “While many people here might see an exciting night as going to a Celtics game, Jaylen sees an exciting night as coming here to talk to us.”

Additionally, the second-year professional maintains a passionate interest in understanding the American educational system, speaking out against

the opportunity gap and racial inequality present in American schools. Importantly, Brown addressed themes such as the “trapping” of African-American youth within a flawed and divided educational system.

Focusing on the banking concept of education—which he believes promotes passive education and regurgitation instead of skill-building and empowerment — Brown advocated that only through providing youth with the right avenues of positive learning and the appropriate “counter-spaces” for development could society see a lowering of educational stratification.

“Just because I escaped the barriers of society, why should I forget about the people who didn’t, or haven’t, or won’t?” Brown asked. “If I didn’t have the counter-space of basketball, what would my reality be? Where would I channel my energy? Would I do something positive with it? Would I resort to violence?”

When pressed about recent political controversies connected to sports, Brown emphasized that athlete activism today is “more accepted” and that the narrative around negative consequences is “changing”. Brown expressed support for Colin Kaepernick’s anthem kneel movement and said that he wants to be a similar pioneer among NBA players.

“Athletes have all the influence in the world,” Brown said. “Everyone wants to hear what you have to say.

More people care about LeBron James

than some religious leader. Just not be afraid is one of the things I would say.

Just continue to push forward.”

In continuing to build his awareness and elevate his platform, Brown mentioned that he is actively looking toward taking classes at Harvard in the offseason.

Additionally, Brown has acquainted himself with the Harvard Basketball program, even assisting Coach Tommy Amaker in last year’s attempt to recruit Wendell Carter. One of the top-rated recruits last season, Carter narrowed his decision between Duke and Harvard before committing to the Blue Devils.

“I talked to Tommy [Amaker] a few times,” Brown said. “He actually invited me on campus for some recruitment stuff and I came up to the school to play some open gym. I was trying to get Wendell Carter to come here.

Harvard was on his list...I think there is a lot of power in that such a prestigious university, having someone of such basketball stature and just combining the two. Sports and education, I think they overlap.”

This intersection between athletic and academic success has provided Jaylen Brown with a new platform.

As shown today, it won’t be a surprise for Harvard students to see the former Golden Bear walking around campus, playing pick-up, or attending classes in the near future.

Staff writer Henry Zhu can be reached at henry. zhu@thecrimson.com.

PAGE 10 | MARCH 2, 2018 | THE HARVARD CRIMSON