The Harvard Crimson - Volume CXLIX, No. 15

The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873

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VOLUME CXLIX, NO. 15 |

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2022

EDITORIAL PAGE 4

SPORTS PAGE 6

NEWS PAGE 5

Harvard’s investment in the City of Cambridge is inadequate

Men’s basketball fell to Yale, 59-62, in New Haven last weekend

Student-athletes report mixed experiences in second Covid season

Harvard Faces Harassment Scandal, Again Students Call for Diversity at SEAS

By ARIEL H. KIM and MEIMEI XU

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Harvard is back in the news for a sexual misconduct controversy.

The school is reeling this week in the wake of allegations of sexual harassment against a powerful professor and of sweeping failures in its Title IX processes.

The controversy came to a head on Tuesday when three graduate students filed a federal lawsuit against Harvard claiming the school ignored reports of sexual misconduct against professor John L. Comaroff for years.

Less than 36 hours after the suit was filed, 34 faculty members retracted their support for a letter they had signed just days earlier that questioned the results of misconduct investigations into Comaroff, a professor of African and African American Studies and Anthropology.

The signatories included some of Harvard’s best-known scholars. ­

TOBY R. MA—CRIMSON DESIGNER

Here’s what you need to know about the controversy.

What are the allegations against Comaroff?

Sexual misconduct allegations against Comaroff first emerged publicly in May 2020 when The Crimson reported that three students were in contact with Harvard’s Title IX Office about allegations of unwanted touching, verbal sexual harassment, and professional retaliation by Comaroff.

A lawsuit filed against Harvard on Tuesday by three graduate students in the Anthropology Department detailed over a decade of alleged misconduct

by Comaroff.

The complaint — filed by Margaret G. Czerwienski, Lilia M. Kilburn, and Amulya Mandava — charges that Harvard failed to prevent Comaroff’s misbehavior, despite receiving reports of harassment and retaliation.

SEE COMAROFF PAGE 3

HGSE Receives Record-Setting Gift

By PATON D. ROBERTS CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

The Harvard Graduate School of Education received the largest donation in its 102-year history last week.

Provided by two anonymous Harvard Business School alumni, the gift includes a direct $30 million and an offer to match up to $10 million in additional donations. The donors earmarked the funds to provide scholarships for the school’s newly redesigned master’s program, Teaching and Teacher Leadership.

HGSE Dean Bridget T. Long said the school has already made progress toward raising the additional $10 million in donations to fulfill the matching offer.

She noted she has worked with the two donors since the beginning of her tenure as dean and has engaged in discussions about the gift since last fall.

“I was incredibly, incredibly ­

pleased — overjoyed is probably a better word — of their generosity and our ability to secure this gift,” Long said.

Heather C. Hill, one of the program’s co-chairs, recounted the moment she heard the news of the record-breaking donation.

“My jaw had dropped. I was on the floor — all of it, the whole nine yards,” she said.

Her co-chair Victor M. Pereira Jr. said the gift would allow a diverse cohort of current and future teachers to learn in the new master’s program.

“Simply put, it removes a barrier,” Pereira said.

Launching in 2022, the new master’s program combines three previous HGSE programs — the Harvard Teacher Fellows, the master’s-level Teacher’s Education Program, and the Undergraduate Teacher Education Program. It provides two tracks — one that allows novice and

SEE HGSE PAGE 5

The Harvard Graduate School of Education received a $40 million donation from anonymous Harvard Business School alumni, marking the largest gift in HGSE’s history. JOEY HUANG—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

By JAMES R. JOLIN and FELICIA HE CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

A s the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences enters the third year of its five-year Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging plan and undergoes multiple leadership transitions, students and faculty look toward future progress.

SEAS announced its DIB plan in 2019 in a report drafted by the Committee on Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. Alexis J. Stokes, then-assistant dean for diversity, inclusion, and belonging, led the team before departing SEAS in December 2021 to assume the position of Harvard’s associate chief diversity and inclusion officer.

One of the committee’s priorities was developing a DIB dashboard that would enable SEAS to effectively diagnose disparities, according to the committee’s website. However, leadership transitions delayed the dashboard’s publication, which was scheduled for fall 2021.

“Some of the main obstacles, or some of the reasons the timeline got pushed back, was that we were searching for an institutional research analyst,” Stokes said. “This would be the data person within the SEAS community that would be helping to launch that dashboard.”

Christina Z. Patel, who stepped up as the interim assistant director for diversity, inclusion, and belonging at SEAS last month, said turnover in administrative faculty is part of “the nature of Harvard” and acknowledged that these transitions can “slow some things down.”

Patel lauded Stokes’s work, adding that it “makes absolute sense” that she would transition into the University’s central administration given its desire to standardize the protocols governing diversity, inclusion, and belonging across its multiple schools. ­

SEE SEAS PAGE 5

Hammonds Regrets Cambridge Greenlights The Garage Renovation Signing Letter

By KATHERINE M. BURSTEIN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

By DARLEY A.C. BOIT, CAROLINE E. CURRAN, and SARA DAHIYA CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Former Harvard College Dean Evelynn M. Hammonds said at an event Thursday she “truly” regrets initially signing onto a letter that questioned the results of misconduct investigations into professor John L. Comaroff, who is accused of sexual harassment.

Hammonds, a professor of African and African American Studies, moderated a discussion with Anita Hill, a professor at Brandeis University who was thrust into the public spotlight 30 years ago when she accused then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. The event, which focused on gender-based violence, was hosted by the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Harvard is reeling over allegations of sexual misconduct against Comaroff, who was placed on unpaid leave in January after University investigations found that he violated the ­

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Harvard Today 2

school’s sexual and professional conduct policies.

Hammonds, who served as the dean of Harvard College from 2008 to 2013, signed onto an open letter last week that questioned the results of the misconduct investigations into Comaroff. But after a lawsuit filed Tuesday detailed years of sexual misconduct allegations against Comaroff, Hammonds retracted her support for the original message, along with most other professors who initially signed it.

“This has been a difficult soul-searching moment,” she said at the event Thursday. “After receiving additional information, I retracted my name from the statement. And I want to state that I absolutely stand with the students in this case.

And I want to state that I completely support them and I applaud their enormous courage in bringing their charges forward and making these charges known to us all.”

Some of the allegations against Comaroff that were

SEE HAMMONDS PAGE 5

News 3

Editorial 4

The City of Cambridge’s Planning Board approved a special permit application for the Garage’s renovation process Tuesday, clearing the path for the next step in the historic landmark’s redevelopment.

Trinity Property Management, the developer that owns The Garage, was granted special approval pursuant to six zoning codes, including renovating the existing structure into a six-story building.

The Garage — one of the oldest structures in Harvard Square — was constructed as a horse stable in the 1860s and later used as a parking garage. It was last renovated in 1972 when it was converted into a shopping mall.

Trinity Property Management owner John P. DiGiovanni unveiled a plan last year meant to pay homage to the building’s historic presence in the Square.

The plan was granted a Certificate of Appropriateness by the Cambridge Historical Commission in June 2021.

Jason J. Jewhurst, the lead architect of the proposed ­

SEE GARAGE PAGE 3

Sports 6

The Garage, a popular mall located in Harvard Square, is set to undergo renovations. JULIAN GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

TODAY’S FORECAST

PARTLY SUNNY High: 51 Low: 43

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5 percent

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

FEBRUARY 11, 2022

PAGE 2

HARVARD TODAY

For Lunch Beer-Battered Red’s Best Catch Dan Dan Noodles Tofu Curry Noodle Stir-fry

For Dinner Chinese-Style Pork Chops Teriyaki Turkey Tips Spicy Tofu with Green Beeans

TODAY’S EVENTS Should Alexa Diagnose Alzheimer’s? A Health Policy and Bioethics Consortium Virtual, 12:30 p.m.

IN THE REAL WORLD

This event will challenge you to think deeper about whether Alexa’s advanced features will help or hurt us. Dr. Barbara Evans and Dr. Jason Karlawish will weigh in on the medical, legal, and ethical implications of disease-diagnosing tech.

As Omicron Covid-19 cases decline, many states have recently announced measures eliminating or reducing mask mandates. However, public health experts are divided on whether removing masks now will serve as a needed respite or will just further prolong the pandemic.

States Drop Mask Mandates: Covid-19 Once Again Brings Uncertainty

Olympic Medalists Receive Stuffed Panda at Podium

Men’s Ice Hockey Game vs. Yale Bright-Landry Hockey Center, 7 p.m.

Find yourself reminiscing about Harvard-Yale or feeling sad about the quickly melting ice? Then show up to the ice rink to unleash your Crimson pride as they defeat everyone’s least favorite hockey team.

Overcast skies stretch over the half-thawed puddles in Harvard Yard on Thursday. MEIMEI XU— CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

AROUND THE IVIES PRINCETON: Republican lawsuit that implicated Princeton Gerrymandering Project dismissed in court —THE DAIL Y PRINCETONIAN

HPT 173: Ship Happens Farkas Hall, 8 p.m.

COLUMBIA: Todd Gitlin, longtime journalism and sociology professor, dies at 79 —

Join Hasty Pudding Theatricals for the opening night of their new production Ship Happens! Reserve your tickets in advance as you join the eclectic cast in their adventures at sea.

THE COLUMBIA SPECTATOR

One defining aspect of the 2022 Winter Olympics is that right after competing, medallists do not receive their medals at the podium, but rather this year’s mascot — a stuffed panda — inside of a plastic shell. The winners will receive the traditional medals at a later ceremony in a specified venue.

Luc Montagnier, Virologist Who Discovered H.I.V., Dies at 89 French virologist Luc Montagnier died earlier this week at the age of 89. He was most famous for co-discovering the human immunodeficiency virus which causes AIDS. For this discovery, he won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

BROWN: U.S. Attorney’s Office reaches settlement agreement with Brown Dermatology —THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PENN: Fossil Free Penn launches campaign demanding University to ‘cut all ties’ to fossil fuels —THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

COVID UPDATES

LAST 7 DAYS CURRENTLY

CAMPUS

82

In Isolation

0.35%

117

Total New Cases

Positivity Rate

LAST 7 DAYS

CAMBRIDGE

223 1.73% 75%

Total New Cases

Positivity Rate

Fully Vaccinated

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY Fire Department Evacuates Currier

The Cambridge Fire Department responded to a grease fire in the Currier House kitchen because of a failure in the building’s automatic fire extinguishing system.

The fire, which was confined to the kitchen area, forced the evacuation of all house residents. No injuries were reported.

February 11, 1992

Men’s Hockey Wins a Smaller Pot of Beans

The Harvard’s men’s hockey team defeated Northeastern 4-1, marking its first Beanpot win in three years. The game also marked the Crimson’s first win in 15 games against a Hockey East opponent.

February 11, 2003

THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873

The Harvard Crimson Raquel Coronell Uribe ’22-’23 President Jasper G. Goodman ’23 Managing Editor Amy X. Zhou ’23 Business Manager

Associate Managing Editors Kelsey J. Griffin ’23 Taylor C. Peterman ’23-’24 Associate Business Managers Taia M.Y. Cheng ’23-’24 Isabelle L. Guillaume ’24 Editorial Chairs Guillermo S. Hava ’23-24 Orlee G.S. Marini-Rapoport ’23-24

STAFF FOR THIS ISSUE Arts Chairs Sofia Andrade ’23-’24 Jaden S. Thompson ’23

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Copyright 2022, The Harvard Crimson (USPS 236-560). No articles, editorials, cartoons or any part thereof appearing in The Crimson may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the President. The Associated Press holds the right to reprint any materials published in The Crimson. The Crimson is a non-profit, independent corporation, founded in 1873 and incorporated in 1967. Second-class postage paid in Boston, Massachusetts. Published Monday through Friday except holidays and during vacations, three times weekly during reading and exam periods by The Harvard Crimson Inc., 14 Plympton St., Cambridge, Mass. 02138 Weather icons made by Freepik, Yannick, Situ Herrera, OCHA, SimpleIcon, Catalin Fertu from flaticon.com is licensed by CC BY 3.0.

Night Editor Kevin A. Simauchi ’22 Assistant Night Editors Caroline E. Curran ’25 James R. Jolin ’24 Story Editors Raquel Coronell Uribe ’22-’23 Jasper G. Goodman ’23 Kelsey J. Griffin ’23 Taylor C. Peterman ’23-’24

Design Editors Ashley R. Masci ’24 Toby R. Ma ’24 Photo Editor Julian J. Giordano ’25 Editorial Editor Orlee G.S. Marini-Rapoport ’23-’24 Sports Editor Nicholas Daley ’23

CORRECTIONS The Harvard Crimson is committed to accuracy in its reporting. Factual errors are corrected promptly on this page. Readers with information about errors are asked to e-mail the managing editor at managingeditor@thecrimson.com.

PAGE 3

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

GARAGE FROM PAGE 1

Renovations Set for Garage Mall renovation, said the plan balances the historic importance of the building with modern features and “reimagines a future for a memorable and active contributor for Harvard Square for decades to come.”

DiGiovanni discussed the building’s current state, saying that modern changes to the shopping mall are needed.

“Its interior food court and internal ramps, both relics of an early era, make it less appealing and, quite frankly, less accessible to people today,” he said, “It is no longer engaged in the life of Harvard Square as it once was.” ­

It’s been really wonderful to have this terrific collaboration.

Suzanne P. Blier HSBA President

The proposed development will retain the original masonwork of the gable facade and will feature basement entertainment capacity, office space, and six outdoor terraces, according to Trinity’s website.

Harvard professor Suzanne P. Blier, who is president of the Harvard Square Neighborhood Association, thanked the developers at Trinity for their communication.

“It’s been really wonderful to have this terrific collabora-

Follow

tion,” she said.

Harvard Square resident Philip A. Borden said he applauds the developers for their proposed renovations.

“We are very, very appreciative of how this developer has communicated directly with residents like us all throughout the design process,” he said.

Some members of the planning board expressed concerns over the type of tenants who would be occupying the new space. Steven A. Cohen, a member of the planning board, said first floor tenants should encourage foot traffic.

“I would like to make sure that there are rules and restrictions there for this project so that the first floor shall be, and will always be, retail and not office space,” he said.

In response, the board added an amendment mandating first floor storefronts to hold “active” residents, meaning non-office space establishments.Denise A. Jillson, executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association, said she was “delighted” with the board’s decision to approve the permit.

As for disturbances to Harvard Square during the construction, Jillson pointed to the potential economic benefit for local restaurants with the influx of construction jobs to the area.

“We’ll put up with a disruption and hope that all the construction workers are very hungry,” Jillson said. katherine.burstein@thecrimson.com

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FEBRUARY 11, 2022

Athletes Report Mixed Experiences

By JUSTIN LEE and JENNIFER L. POWLEY CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Nearly two years after the Ivy League first canceled its season due to Covid-19, Harvard varsity athletics are inching toward normalcy.

Harvard athletics resurrected last fall with a full competition schedule after a four-season hiatus. Since the long-awaited return, Harvard’s varsity student-athletes have reported mixed experiences practicing and playing during a pandemic.

Noah A. Kirkwood ’22, a guard on Harvard men’s basketball team, said it was difficult returning to the sport after the canceled season because he was “fully removed from basketball” last year.

“I still feel like right now I’m getting used to playing again and getting my rhythm back, but it was definitely tough,” Kirkwood said.

At one point over winter ­

break, seven players — including Kirkwood — tested positive for Covid-19, he said. With so many players out, the team had to postpone a game against Princeton and cancel their game against the University of Kansas.

Margaret P. “Maggie” McCarthy ’23, who plays on both the women’s basketball and lacrosse teams, said Covid-19 has fortunately not affected their gameplay.

“We didn’t have to have any games postponed luckily, but some of the teams we played had players with [Covid-19] and that caused some nerves within people,” McCarthy said. “Our coaching staff and training staff did a really good job at keeping people calm, so luckily it hasn’t affected our season so far.”

Other student-athletes reported public health guidelines have impacted team camaraderie. Allaura M. Osborne ’25, a thrower on the track and field team, said Covid-19 restrictions

have limited her ability to get to know her team.

“This is a really large team,” Osborne said. “It’s been really hard to just bond with the teammates and actually see everyone because we are trying to be Covid-cautious.”

Despite limited team bonding events, Osborne said that “the coaches have done everything that they can to build that community.”

Harvard men’s lacrosse player Jake E. Brownley ’25, on the other hand, said he believes the ongoing pandemic has brought the team closer together rather than farther apart.

“I feel like team bonding hasn’t been affected at all,” Brownley said. “If anything, I think it all brings us closer because you’re only supposed to be around your teammates and the guys that you hang out with the most so you don’t catch anything or spread anything.”

Brownley also said that the coaching staff has been focused

on enforcing safety guidelines and keeping players healthy so that they are able to compete.

“They’re always harping on us wearing masks and keeping distance,” Brownley said. “Obviously haven’t had a real season in a while, so that’s the only thing on their minds, is making sure that we’re following the rules and that they’re keeping us safe so we can play this year.”

Kirkwood lauded University Covid-19 testing protocols and said he is excited to have supporters return to the stands.

Harvard announced last month it would welcome spectators back to indoor competitions, as long as they show proof of vaccination.

“We were so fortunate to have the fans come out to the Penn game and watch us play,” Kirkwood said. “It’s always a great atmosphere to have them back.” justin.lee@thecrimson.com jennifer.powley@thecrimson.com

COMAROFF FROM PAGE 1

The Comaroff Controversy, Explained Comaroff allegedly sexually assaulted and threatened Kilburn and retaliated against Czerwienski and Mandava for speaking to others about his behavior, according to the suit.

Comaroff, who is not named in the suit, denies the claims. In a statement Tuesday, his lawyers — Norman S. Zalkin, Ruth K. O’Meara-Costello ’02, and Janet E. Halley — wrote that he “categorically denies ever harassing or retaliating against any student.”

“Attacks on his career based on gossip and fantasy rather than actual evidence are shameful,” the lawyers wrote.

What has been Harvard’s response?

In August 2020, after The Crimson reported on the allegations against Comaroff, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Claudine Gay placed him on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into his behavior.

Gay announced last month that Comaroff would be placed on unpaid administrative leave after the school’s investigations found that he violated sexual harassment and professional conduct policies. Comaroff is barred from teaching required courses, taking on additional advisees, or chairing any dissertation committees through the next academic year.

Gay’s sanctions were based on two separate investigations Harvard conducted into Comaroff — one by the school’s Office for Dispute Resolution and another by the FAS. Gay’s sanctions were based on the results of both inquiries.

According to the lawsuit filed Tuesday, the ODR probe

did not recommend sanctions against him. After its conclusion, the lawsuit said, the FAS hired an outside factfinder who found that Comaroff violated the FAS Professional Conduct Policy.

After Gay announced the sanctions against Comaroff last month, his legal team claimed that Harvard mishandled its investigations.

In a press release, Comaroff’s lawyers wrote that Harvard opened a “second, kangaroo court process” — referring to the FAS probe — to reexamine conduct that had already been thoroughly investigated in the Title IX process.

The Tuesday lawsuit alleged that Harvard mishandled the probes in other ways.

The suit said Harvard allowed “its investigatory process to be used in service of Professor Comaroff’s campaign of professional blacklisting.”

Harvard denies the claims in the suit.

In a statement Wednesday evening, Rachael Dane, a spokesperson for the school, wrote that the allegations “are in no way a fair or accurate representation of the thoughtful steps taken by the University in response to concerns that were brought forward, the thorough reviews conducted, and the results of those reviews.”

What about that faculty letter?

Last week, prior to the lawsuit, 38 Harvard faculty members signed onto an open letter questioning the results of the University’s investigations into Comaroff.

The letter was signed by some of Harvard’s most prom-

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inent faculty, including Henry Louis Gates Jr., Jamaica Kincaid, Jill Lepore, and Paul E. Farmer.

The letter described Comaroff as “an excellent colleague, advisor and committed university citizen.”

“We are dismayed by Harvard’s sanctions against him and concerned about its effects on our ability to advise our own students,” the letter said.

The open letter sparked furor on campus. More than 70 other faculty members published a response in The Crimson condemning its message, and graduate students took to social media in outrage.

In a striking reversal, nearly all the faculty members who signed onto the original letter retracted their support for the message after the lawsuit was filed on Tuesday.They wrote in a retraction letter that they “failed to appreciate the impact” the letter would have on students.

“Our concerns were transparency, process and university procedures, which go beyond the merits of any individual case,” the retraction letter said.

“We failed to appreciate the impact that this would have on our students, and we were lacking full information about the case.

We are committed to all students experiencing Harvard as a safe and equitable institution for teaching and learning.”

What’s the broader context?

The suit on Tuesday alleged that Harvard’s failure to act against Comaroff is part of a broader problem of unchecked gender-based harassment.

“Harvard’s continued failure to act on repeated reports of

harassment against Professor Comaroff—until spurred to do so by the media—demonstrates an institutional policy of indifference: a system designed to protect the University, its reputation, and the faculty who sustain that reputation at the expense of its students,” the lawsuit said.

It alleged that faculty administrators at the school knew of past harassment complaints against Comaroff when it hired him from the University of Chicago in 2012.

The suit was filed just over one year after an external review first commissioned in 2019 found a “permissive culture regarding sexual harassment” at the school that allowed a star Government professor to harass female students and colleagues over a span of four decades without penalty.

Harvard’s Title IX coordinator, Nicole M. Merhill, wrote in a statement Wednesday that the lawsuit misrepresented its investigatory processes.

“Representations that do not describe fairly or accurately the University’s processes with regard to obtaining and maintaining material during an investigatory process are extremely troubling to me because they may have a potential chilling effect on our community members’ confidence in the investigatory process and their ability to access counseling and other resources,” she wrote.

A demonstration in support of the three plaintiffs — Czerwienski, Kilburn, and Mandava — is planned for Monday afternoon on Harvard’s Science Center Plaza. ariel.kim@thecrimson.com meimei.xu@thecrimson.com

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

FEBRUARY 11, 2022

PAGE 4

EDITORIAL THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD

OP ED

Harvard’s Self-Written Report Card and the City of Cambridge

H

arvard’s community engagement report card is in. Just one problem — Harvard wrote it.

Harvard’s latest Town Gown report, submitted to the City of Cambridge, describes the University’s investments in the city, partnerships with city organizations, and general goals around sustainability and equity. We welcome the report because it details the inadequacy of Harvard’s community engagement when measured against the harm that comes from the University’s massive footprint in Cambridge.

In thinking about the University’s impacts on Cambridge, however, we feel that there is a lot more Harvard can do.

Take homelessness, for example. Housing insecurity is a big issue in Cambridge and Boston writ large, but it is also something that we’re sure many of us have seen on a daily basis in Harvard Square.

The University is not responsible for addressing homelessness writ large, but it can address the issue locally, starting with removing anti-homeless benches.

These quotidian things may seem small and often slip our minds, but nowhere is the contrast between Harvard’s liberal words and conservative actions thrown into more jarring relief.

Granted, not every Town/Gown tradeoff is so clearcut. Harvard’s presence in Cambridge brings hundreds of millions of dollars into the region; we don’t dispute that. Instead, we take issue with the distribution of those resources.

The Presidential Initiative on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery is all well and good, but can we claim that Harvard has cleared its balance with Black Cantabridgians while Harvard’s aggressive expansion drives gentrification throughout its environs?

That expansion has benefits, to be sure. It seems a fair bet that more than one discovery made in the SEC will one day significantly advance the wellbeing

of humanity. But once again, we have to think about the distribution of harm.

The benefits of Harvard’s research will be spread diffusely across the world, while the harms of its expansion are overwhelmingly felt by underprivileged communities around Allston and Cambridge.

In thinking about the University’s impacts on Cambridge, however, we feel that there is a lot more Harvard can do.

Divining the nature of those harms isn’t rocket science. We need only listen to residents to hear that Harvard’s level of collaboration with Allston residents while planning its expansion there was “deeply disappoint[ing].” The consequences of that level of collaboration spread from the long-term environmental future of the city to its acute and ongoing housing problems.

It shouldn’t be surprising that the welfare of the region, today and going forward, will depend heavily on the decisions of an institution that owns nearly 10 percent of the land in Cambridge and added 10 times more to its endowment last year than Cambridge spent in its annual budget.

Going forward, Harvard should think very carefully about each instance of expansion. Is a new building going up because of urgent and insuperable need, or because a donor needs a monument to stave off the sudden realization of their mortality? When a real need exists, can it be satisfied by retrofitting or more efficiently using existing space? Given that many of the costs of new building are

borne by others, any institution would tend to default toward building more than socially optimal. Harvard must actively combat that instinct.

Additionally, if a need is found to clear the high bar of necessity, what investment in the community is necessary to make sure that no one is made worse off in Harvard’s pursuit of ever-greater reach?

Sometimes, that investment will require providing aid directly to those most affected by the gentrification and displacement attendant with expansion. It will always require a level of community collaboration that reflects Harvard’s unique social responsibilities as both a seeker of truth and a vast reserve of wealth.

As people who often call Harvard our home away from home, we must recognize that Harvard’s investment in the city it calls home is inadequate. It must be expanded significantly, and it is partly up to us to remind Harvard that. When we enjoy the comfort of making our homes here, remember: Cambridge is home to so many people before us and outside of our Harvard bubble.

Cambridge is not some theme park built exclusively for our amusement, only relevant as the backdrop to our lives here as Harvard students. This city, like any other, has and will continue to contain the lifetimes of so many communities and generations. The least we and Harvard can do is recognize and respect that.

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.

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OP-ED

Cornel West is Gone

By STERLING M. BLAND

M

y freshman year, I ran across a soggy, wet poster, taped to an announcement board in the

Yard.

“Life Matters,” it read.

A few days later, I attended the conference of this name: a life-transforming public conversation featuring guest speaker Cornel R. West ’74, whom I had never heard of before the event. An unashamed Christian and an unflinching Democratic Socialist, West beautifully orated the meaning of love, the necessity of refusing to conform, and the radical-revolutionary power of Jesus Christ, which required him to love “the least of these.”

He coupled his love for Christ with a resistance to homophobia, to inequality, to white supremacy and militarism, in a way I had never heard before.

He coupled his love for Christ with a resistance to homophobia, to inequality, to white supremacy and militarism, in a way I had never heard before. He put Harvard’s two sides, the school at its best — a place that develops and challenges students to think outside of the box and imagine a new, more just world — and at its worst — a merch-producing, “Harvardite”-creating school emblematic of social stratification, global exploitation, and superficial “learning” — at odds, uplifting its better side.

These ideas were all new to me. In 1918, my great grandfather, Chester Morgan, traveled to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to establish the first Church of God in Christ in the state. Years down the road, Colorado Springs would grow to become the evangelical world’s “Christian mecca.”

It hosted a wide range of conservative faith-based organizations. My mother grew up in the historically Black Church

of God in Christ, but in exploration of her own faith, turned to what was available in the surrounding, white-evangelical world. She found refreshing theology and a new angle that seemed more systematic, with more emphasis on scripture and seemingly less unnecessary rules and regulations.

I grew up as a Black church boy transplanted in white churches. My Christianity — though it emphasized salvation by grace through faith, as a beautiful gift separate from anything one could earn — took on a white, conservative worldview.

I quickly learned the rules of some white, non-denominational churches. Topics of race? Insignificant.

God didn’t see color. We needed to talk out against abortion and same-sex marriage instead. This so-called “Christian worldview” was venomous. As I grew in knowledge, my autonomy, my perspective — subconsciously, perhaps — was diminishing. In a new, racialized way, I re-learned the legalism my mom so desperately ran from at my age. So long as I didn’t handle that, touch those, or, God forbid, look at that, I would be fine. The only problem was, too often, the unspoken “that” was tied to just existing. I learned the subtle delicacies which I — a tall Black boy at the time — had to follow for acceptance.

Thus, when I heard Cornel West speak — being the Bible-quoting, politically startling, free, intellectual Black man that he is — I was shaken to the core.

He helped me see that I could both be a Black Christian and hate homophobia. I could be a Black Christian and be race-conscious. I could be a Black Christian and call out injustice. I could be confident, even if it made others uncomfortable. And, as a matter of fact, it wasn’t just that I could be — it was that I should be.

This way of Christianity seemed more real to me.

The following semester, I enrolled in African and African American Studies 10: “Introduction to African American Studies” with Professor West. The class introduced me to one of West’s favorite Greek words, “paideia”: a deep, pain-

ful educational experience that requires death to oneself. The type of education that makes us question who we are. I remember reading the three “pillars” of the class: Lorraine Hansberry, W. E. B. Du Bois, and James Baldwin, and finally seeing my feelings and experiences fleshed out on paper and pen. I brought the books home to my mother, who had read them, but long ago, and watched as she re-awakened. We left my church and helped start a new booming, multi-ethnic, justice-oriented church in Colorado Springs.

In unflinchingly speaking out on behalf of the oppressed, Cornel West found himself in trouble with Harvard.

Impulsiveness Should Be The New Plan

By CHRISTINA M. CHAPERON

F

or most people, a season of newness is coupled with a cluster of future plans. Whether it’s a new workout regimen, new goals for a relationship, or — as is typical for Harvard students — a new academic approach in pursuit of a 4.0 grade point average, we as humans love to plan for a better future. But that is where the problem lies. We love to plan more than we love to do.

We procrastinate every day in our lives -- and if you’re like me, multiple times a day. But how did I plan on tackling this problem? By making a New Year’s resolution to stop procrastinating.

It’s a known fact. This past semester, I learned about the behavioral economics of procrastination and present bias through Economics 10a: “Principles of Economics (Microeconomics).”

Though this course is a fan favorite at Harvard, it doesn’t take a class to make most of us aware of our delaying tendencies.

We procrastinate every day in our lives — and if you’re like me, multiple times every day. But how did I plan on tackling this problem? By making one of my New Year’s resolutions to stop procrastinating.

There’s this quote by Cornelius Fichtner that’s very popular in vision boards across the nation: “Planning without action is futile, action without planning is fatal.” I disagree. Planning without action is the furthest thing from futile; in fact, it’s even more fatal than action without planning.

When time ticks away without a single move made, planning without action wastes potential to the point of no return. One of the worst things someone can do is trap themself in a continuous loop of planning without ever acting.

Such an endless cycle of planning without acting is worse than acting on every opportunity presented — no matter if it ends up good or bad.

Either way, you’d learn something about yourself and/or the world. Lessons are best learned actively. Reading something or being told something just doesn’t register the same as experiencing it. Think back to when you learned how to ride a bike.

Whether your parents held onto the handlebars alongside you until you got the hang of it, or you started off with a tricycle, then matured to training wheels, and then finally the real thing, at some point you physically rode a bike. Now imagine you had read books and watched videos about riding a bike instead. Does that translate into you being a good bike rider? This has been the subject of much philosophical debate in the form of the thought experiment Mary’s Room.

Yet I, like many others, lean towards planning over acting. It’s easy to be comfortable with where you are physically, financially, and academically. It’s even easier to wish and plan for a better future. It’s much, much harder to start living for the future you want. In order to really achieve the lives we so desire, we need to impulsively create change. Only our impulses break the planning loop and allow us to reach our end goals.

The best things often come on a whim.

An impulse made me apply to Harvard. An impulse made me meet my best friends here. An impulse made me take my favorite course, English 179H: “The Harvard Novel,” last term. Impulses are good. They open up possibilities you never even knew existed.

An impulsive decision has the ability to transform your life for the better, by pushing you beyond your steady and safe, but limiting and terminal, comfort zone.

—Sterling M. Bland ’23, a Crimson Editorial editor, is a joint concentrator in Sociology and African and African American Studies in Quincy House.

An impulsive decision has the ability to transform your life for the better, by pushing you beyond your steady and safe, but limiting and terminal, comfort zone. You can experience new things, as opposed to merely thinking about them, and so you can grow in a way that endlessly planning will never achieve. Impulses prove that you are not a passing spectator in your own life, just going through the motions, but the fully autonomous protagonist, free to alter your life in any way you so choose. The ability to be instinctive is a testament to being alive. From familial expectations to surrounding limitations, in life, it’s easy to follow the path that has been created for you. Spontaneity means straying from the path and forging your own.

This semester, I’m ditching the planner in me and embracing the compulsions. I don’t want to overthink everything. Especially at an institution like Harvard, opportunities are all around us. If we shy away from things because they don’t fall neatly into our perfectly drafted life plans, we lose in the end.

Being impulsive pays off. Change doesn’t come from planning; it comes from simply doing, and continuing to do. Planning is always going to be a part of our lives, but does it have to encompass every part? There is so much more than what we can imagine in the months before the start of something new. Why should we withhold the joy of unprecedented experience from ourselves?

This piece is a part of a focus on Black authors and experiences for Black History Month.

—Christina N. Chaperon ’25, a Crimson Editorial editor, lives in Greenough Hall.

Then, Cornel West requested to be reviewed for tenure. Shockingly, it was denied. He left.

In unflinchingly speaking out on behalf of the oppressed, Cornel West found himself in trouble with Harvard. In an interview with The Crimson, West rightly identifies himself as an “undisciplinable” — one who refuses to conform to an institution’s expectations — and that is just what he is. The fact that Cornel West is gone is a tragedy for current and future Black Harvard students, but it is no surprise.

He did not belong here. But in his leaving, Professor West left a flame just bright enough to kindle prophetic fire in those students ready to answer the call and hold Harvard to its better side, envi-

PAGE 5

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

SEAS FROM PAGE 1

FEBRUARY 11, 2022

HAMMONDS FROM PAGE 1

SEAS To Improve Diversity Ex-Dean Regrets Signing Letter A s for who will serve as Stokes’ permanent replacement, Patel said she favors a candidate with previous experience in tackling issues of diversity and inclusion.

“Being able to engage the community and actually participating in some of these efforts I think is something really that — that’s what we would want in a DIB leader,” she said.

Some students still argue that more needs to be done to realize diversity, inclusion, and belonging at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, following a 2018 climate survey that revealed 27 percent of students at the school had experienced discrimination or harassment.

Patel said one of her goals as interim assistant director is to administer an updated SEAS climate survey.

Isaac A. Robinson ’23, who is a fellow in the school’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging, said that the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences faces many of the same challenges as its peer institutions.

He added that he has experienced firsthand the school’s lack of representation.

“It’s sometimes strange to look around, especially my advanced courses, and see that I’m kind of the only person that looks like me there,” Robinson said. “That is something that I would like to see change.” ­

Another fellow, Shi Le Wong ’22, said that she got involved in DIB at SEAS after “poking around” the SEAS website and later applied to be a fellow when she saw it publicized over email.

“Before I became a fellow, I was definitely not aware of the various channels through

It’s sometimes strange to look around, especially in my advanced courses, and see that I’m kind of the only person that looks like me there.

Isaac A. Robinson ’23

which this kind of work was being done,” she said. “Various channels in which I could be heard.”

Soyoun “Soy” Choi ’23, who serves as the president of the Harvard Society of Women Engineers, said she has not personally experienced discrimination.

But she has heard anecdotes from members in her organization surrounding professors making “hurtful” remarks about the lack of female students in engineering courses.

“I feel that it’s not with malicious intent,” Choi said. “It comes naturally to them.”

“They might feel like they are stating something obvious, but it puts a lot of pressure on minority groups,” she added.

Manciana Cardichon ’23, vice president of the Harvard Society of Black Scientists and Engineers, said there is “definitely some room for improvement” with regard to diversity in SEAS faculty and advising.

Cardichon added that she hopes the next assistant dean will empathize with the unique experiences and challenges minority students face.

“One of the most important things in terms of traits is just empathy, being able to understand where we are coming from as Black students in STEM and understanding that our experiences have another layer to them because we’re Black,” she said.

SEAS spokesperson Paul Karoff reaffirmed the school’s commitment to “inclusive excellence” in an emailed statement.

“While we are proud of the important steps we have taken and progress made toward becoming a more diverse and welcoming community, we recognize that there is much more to do,” he wrote. “In fact, this work will never be done.” felicia.he@thecrimson.com james.jolin@thecrimson.com

Pictures worth a thousand words.

The Crimson thecrimson.com

detailed in Tuesday’s lawsuit had been reported previously in The Crimson and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

At the start of the event, Radcliffe Institute Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin said that some Radcliffe affiliates had called for the discussion to be canceled in light of the Comaroff controversy.

“A conversation on the issue of gender-based violence with Anita Hill, who has spoken truth to power for 30 years could not be more important today,” she said. “My position is that as an institution of high­

er education, we must seize opportunities to explore issues like this and to engage deeply and openly we have an obligation to engage thoughtfully with one another.”

“And it is my hope that this afternoon’s conversation provides an opportunity for us to do precisely that,” BrownNagin added.

After introducing Hill, Hammonds said she regrets signing the letter.

“What I believed at the time was a lack of transparency with respect to very important and essential processes,” she said.

“The letter, though, has been read as supporting the accused and questioning the veracity of the students who brought forth the charges. That was never what I intended, and I truly regret signing the letter.”

The conversation centered around the launch of Hill’s book, “Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence,” which explores the mechanisms of gender-based violence. sara.dahiya@thecrimson.com caroline.curran@thecrimson.com darley.boit@thecrimson.com

HGSE FROM PAGE 1

HGSE Receives Donation t heir teaching certification and another for experienced teachers that focuses on developing leadership skills.

Long said the gift to the Harvard Graduate School of Education demonstrates an investment in teaching.

She noted that public support for teachers and essential school personnel has been “chipped away” over the last two years.

Long added she hopes the alumni’s record-setting donation will “send a signal about how important the profession ­

is, and how important it is for all of us, for all organizations and individuals, to recognize and support and invest in our teachers.”

Since the donors were not Harvard Graduate School of Education alumni, Long pointed to the gift as an example of crossschool investment, a trend she said she hopes will continue in the future.

“We have incredible, incredible alumni working all across the education ecosystem, but they don’t traditionally have the kinds of salaries that other

schools’ alumni have, and so we do have to be reliant and casting a wide net and I think they’re sending that signal,” she said.

Long also said donations to Harvard Graduate School of Education have a far-reaching impact.

“When you invest in one of our students, you’re not only investing in one person, you’re investing in all the other students and families and communities that they then go on to help,” she said. paton.roberts@thecrimson.com

SPORTS

MEN’S BASKETBALL

ABOUT THE TEAM

2021-22 Overall Record 11-9 ______________________________________

FG Percentage .431 ______________________________________

UPCOMING GAMES ______________________________________

Conference Record 3-5 ______________________________________

3PT Percentage .335 ______________________________________

Win Streak L2 ______________________________________

3PT per Game 8.8 ______________________________________

Away vs. Penn Saturday, 2PM

Points per Game 72.6 ______________________________________

Steals Per Game 8.1 ______________________________________

Scoring Margin 4.3 ______________________________________

PTS off Turnovers per Game 16 ______________________________________

Home vs. Columbia Feb. 18, 7PM

TRACK AND FIELD

Crimson Posts Winning Performances as Heps Near

By WILLIAM CONNAUGHTON CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

The Harvard Track and Field program has been in strong form recently, breaking school records and coming out on top in the home Crimson Elite meet and winning multiple events in Scarlet & White Invitational.

Following a cancellation of the annual HYP meet during the winter snowstorm on January 28th, the Crimson runners had a quick turnaround, competing in the John Thomas Terrier Classic at nearby Boston University. In the meet, multiple Harvard athletes extended their undefeated streak on the season. Freshman thrower Kenneth Ikeji, junior sprinter Tina Martin, and sophomore standout shot-put Alexander Kolesnikoff all extended their undefeated seasons in the meet, with Kolesnikoff tying his own Harvard record he had set the week before at the Battle of Beantown meet with a distance of 19.05m.

The following week, for the first time in two years, Harvard hosted the Crimson Elite meet with a field of 15 teams, including Ivy League competitors Yale, Brown, and Dartmouth.

The Crimson squad dominated the meet, with both the men and women’s teams placing first overall.

“Adjusting to this “new normal” on the athletics side has certainly been a frustrating experience,” commented senior co-captain Max Serrano-Wu. “With over half the team being completely new to campus and college athletics, we’ve had to put in a lot of work to bring back the team cohesion that got us runner up at Heps in 2020. And while we take things one step further than most teams, we’re grateful to have the opportunity to finally compete as a team again and do the sport we love.”

Leading the charge for Harvard was freshman pentathlete Izzy Goudros, who opened

up the day for Harvard with a win in the 60m hurdles and the long jump. The Toronto native set the tone for the Crimson capturing Harvard’s first event crown of the day in the event.

Following Goudros’ example, the Harvard women dominated the weight throw, with sophomore Estel Valeanu placing second with a distance of 17.76m and fellow sophomore Cammy Garabian finishing in first with a distance of 17.44m.

In a similar show of force, the Crimson women took the first, third, and fourth place in the shot put with junior Sarah Omoregie leading the way with a throw of 15.12m. In the final field events, juniors Alana Carroll, Kylie Hilton, and firstyear Anastasia Retsa took the top three spots in the pole vault, with Alana clearing a height of 4.11m. Both Alana and Kylie were the first Harvard women ever to clear 4.00m, with Kylie and Alana both breaking the Crimson record.

On the track, the Harvard women won in both the 60m, with Martin continuing her season-long dominance in her event, and 400m, with firstyear duo Victoria Bossong and Egbe Ndip-Agbor capturing first and second respectively in their event. In the 60m hurdles, senior Jada Jones broke the Harvard record previously set

by Olympian Brenda Taylor ‘01.

However, this performance was still only enough to net her second place in the event amongst strong competition.

For the men, Ikeji and Kolesnikoff remained undefeated in throws, capturing first in the shot-put and weight-throw.

Kolesnikoff’s throw of 18.98m was 0.96 meters ahead of second place and 2.53m ahead of third place. Ikeji with a throw of 21.20m broke his own Harvard record and was 1.78m ahead of second place. In the triple jump, the Crimson continued their dominant form in the field events, with sophomore Sebas-

ON YOUR MART, GET SET, GO Junior Sprinter Tina Martin extended her undefeated season in the 60m dash at Harvard’s home meet on Friday. She also moved up to run the 200m a day later at the Scarlet-and-White Invitational, finishing in second. SILAS R. GARCIA-GEORGE —CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

tian Pereira and first-year Daniel Falode taking the top two spots.

Finally on the track, freshman runner Peter Diebold won the 400m, with a time of 48.90.

In the 60m sprint, sophomore DeMarkes Stradford placed third with a time of 6.74, tying the Harvard all-time record in the event.

To finish out their week, a subset of the men and women’s team competed in a number of running events at the Scarlet & White Invitational. The Harvard men captured first in the 400m and the 3000m, with strong performances in the men’s 400m and the women’s 200m and the mile.

For the men, sophomore cross-country standout Acer

Iverson led the Crimson to the win in the 3000m and fellow sophomore Greg Lapit pulled out the win by only 0.08 seconds in the 400m. With his time of 46.98, Lapit set the new Harvard record. Diebold placed second in the 500m and freshman Joe Ewing placed third in the mile with a time of 3:58.87, good enough for third and second best in the all-time Crimson record books respectively.

The Harvard women enjoyed similar success across the track events. Senior cross-country runner Anna Juul led the way in the mile, with the team placing second, fourth, eighth, ninth, and tenth behind her.

Martin continued her dominant streak this time in the longer 200m event, finishing sec-

ond with a time of 23.80. Finally, to close out the day for the Crimson, sophomore Eloise Freitag crossed the finish line in fourth in the 3000m with a time of 9:35.17.

Splitting up the roster this coming weekend, a portion of the team will compete in South Carolina at the Clemson Tiger Paw Invite, while another portion of the team will compete in BU’s Valentine Invitational. Despite the challenges of integrating the roster after two years off of competing, the team has high hopes to bring both the Ivy League indoor and the outdoor track titles back to Harvard following the championship seasons for men and women’s cross country team in the fall and the second place finish in 2020.

“It’s pretty simple, we want to bring the indoor and outdoor track and field championship trophies back to Cambridge,” noted Serrano-Wu. “The cross country women did an outstanding job winning the Ivy League Championship this past fall, and the men finished in a close second. The league is the strongest it’s ever been, but I believe that both teams can build on our second place finishes from 2020 and come out on top this time.”

Beyond team goals, the program has many athletes competing for individual NCAA championships in their respective events, something to follow as the season progresses. william.connaughton@thecrimson.com

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Harvard Suffers 2nd Straight Defeat to Yale, 62-59

By LEV COHEN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Harvard mustered a late comeback but fell 62-59 to Yale on Wednesday night at a rocking Lavietes Pavilion, a second consecutive three-point loss to the Ivy League-leading Bulldogs (13-9, 7-1 Ivy League). A career-best performance from senior center Mason Forbes was not enough to propel the Crimson (11-9, 3-5 Ivy) to victory as a last second three-pointer from junior guard Luka Sakota fell short, sending Harvard to an 0-3 home start in conference

play.

Four days after suffering a narrow defeat in New Haven, Conn., the Crimson again struggled to score and trailed for almost the entire game.

Harvard’s only lead came in the first few minutes, when Forbes asserted himself with two andone baskets and an emphatic block as the Crimson jumped out in front, 7-3. Then,after falling behind by as many as 14 points midway through the second half, Harvard gradually chipped away at the deficit, just as it had on Saturday in New Haven, eventually cutting the

lead to one in the final minute.

Most of the Crimson’s offensive success came fromForbes, who scored a career-high 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting and added three emphatic blocks.

The Folsom, Calif., native has missed most of the season due to injury but scored almost at will in the paint, especially when he attacked from the baseline and could finish around Yale defenders with a reverse layup.

“I’m obviously coming off a long road of recovery,” Forbes said. “[It] has been an uphill battle throughout the season for me, but I’m lucky to have sup-

portive teammates. My parents have been super supportive and having the coaches believe in me and my game makes it that much easier to just go out there and do what I do.”

But Forbes’s heroics were for naught as the Crimson fell short in its final two offensive trips, with senior guard and leading scorer Noah Kirkwood failing to earn a whistle on his game-tying layup attempt before Sakota came up just short on his clean look from three that would have sent the game to overtime.

Kirkwood again struggled to

SAKOTA’S BALL Harvard junior guard Luka Sakota holds the ball during a game against Babson in December. Harvard fell to Yale over the weekend in New Haven. DYLAN J. GOODMAN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

get going, following up a twopoint first half in New Haven with a similarly slow start at home. Harvard’s offensive fulcrum finished with only nine points on 3-of-13 shooting and added just one assist. Kirkwood began to look comfortable inside the arc late in the game, when he worked the ball into the post and generated a few good looks for himself and his teammates, but his three-point stroke continued to elude him.

After a 1-for-8 performance, he has hit just four of his last 23 long-range efforts over four games.

Kirkwood’s struggles from three are emblematic of a longterm team-wide shooting slump. Another cold shooting night leaves the Crimson shooting just 29 percent from deep in the team’s last 12 games, a bad omen for a team that has generally relied on three-point shooting to generate efficient offense.

Head coach Tommy Amaker shuffled his lineup early in the second half with Kirkwood and Sakota struggling and for one three-minute stretch also played without Forbes, turning instead to inexperienced substitutes first-year guard Evan Nelson, sophomore guard Sam Silverstein, and sophomore forward Justice Ajogbor.

“You’re trying to get guys to see the game differently,” Amaker said. “We were trying to manage [Forbes’] minutes, at least we were trying to at that point… But the other two kids — sometimes you need to take a step back and see it from the bench and see the energy that other kids are bringing and hopefully fill in from there. It didn’t help them offensively but they did what they could do.”

Nelson and Silverstein joined

Forbes as bright spots from Wednesday’s performance, contributing 19 combined points off the bench. Silverstein nailed two three-pointers down the stretch — one from each corner — to get Harvard back into the game, cutting the Yale lead to four and then three inside the last four minutes.

“I cannot say enough about Evan Nelson and Mason Forbes and Sam Silverstein,” Amaker said. “I thought those three kids were incredible for us tonight.

I feel horrible for our team obviously, but in particular those three kids who — you talk about putting your heart on the line and playing in a manner that was somewhat of a desperation and urgency, and the team fed off of it, our crowd did.”

The Crimson played a strong defensive game, limiting Yale to 41 percent shooting and the conference’s leading scorer Azar Swain to nine points, his joint lowest of the season, on 3-of-12 shooting. Yale hit just two shots — both layups, one of which came off a Harvard turnover — in the game’s final 10 minutes, supplementing their scoring with frequent trips to the line.

First-year guard Louis Lesmond joined a long list of injured Crimson contributors and did not play, leaving Amaker with the eight-man rotation that he relied on. Lesmond will not have long to recover before Harvard’s next game, a crucial showdown at Penn on Saturday. The Crimson is a game and a half out of fourth in the Ivies and will look to keep its hopes alive for the Ivy League Tournament, which will begin March 12 at Lavietes Pavilion. lev.cohen@thecrimson.com