The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873
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VOLUME CXLIX, NO. 18 |
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2022
OP-ED PAGE 6
NEWS PAGE 7
SPORTS PAGE 8
Fifteen questions to fall in love: learning to love beyond Datamatch
Professors at HKS land $7.5 million grant to establish new project
Ivy League play brings mixes results for men’s wrestling
Pritzker to Serve as Senior Fellow HMC Sells Apple, Meta Holdings By CARA J. CHANG and ISABELLA B. CHO CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny S. Pritzker ’81 will become the first woman to serve as senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — on July 1. University President Lawrence S. Bacow announced Pritzker’s selection Tuesday, just over four months before current Senior Fellow William F. Lee ’72 is set to step down upon reaching the body’s 12year term limit. Pritzker, who has served as a member of the board for four years, will be the first woman to hold the post in the Corporation’s 372-year history. Lee, a partner at the law firm WilmerHale, praised Pritzker in a press release issued Tuesday. He led the selection process for his successor, according to Bacow. “Penny Pritzker has been an outstanding colleague on the Corporation, and she’ll be a terrific new senior fellow, fully dedicated to helping Harvard thrive,” Lee wrote in a press release. “Our role on the boards is largely about doing what we
can to enable our remarkable faculty, students, and staff to do their best work. And at its best, that work can make an enormous positive difference in the world.” Pritzker, a member of one of America’s wealthiest families, has a net worth of about $3.3 billion, according to Forbes, making her the 368th richest person in the country. She has donated millions to Democratic political causes, non-profits in her home city of Chicago, and Harvard. In September 2021, she gave the school $100 million for a new Economics Department building. Pritzker’s brother, J.B. Pritzker, is the governor of Illinois. After receiving her Economics degree from Harvard and business and law degrees from Stanford University, the Chicago native went into the Pritzker family business, eventually founding several branches of the investment giant along with real estate, senior living, and technology companies. She first joined Harvard governance in 2002 when she served a six-year term on the Board of Overseers, the University’s second-highest governing body. In 2013, Former President
By DEKYI T. TSOTSONG and ERIC YAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Harvard Management Company sold its holdings in Apple and nearly half its shares in Meta Platforms – formerly known as Facebook – as the school shrunk its public securities portfolio by almost 38 percent to $1.07 billion during the fourth quarter of last year. The move marks a reversal from HMC’s position at the end of the third quarter, when it increased its holdings in Facebook by 37 percent. At the end of the fourth quarter, which ran from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, Meta Platforms accounted for $125 million of the University’s stock portfolio, down from $242 million. HMC’s acquisitions and liquidations were reported in its latest filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which requires investment managers who oversee more than $100 million in assets to disclose their public securities portfolio each quarter.
Penny S. Pritzker ‘81 will serve as the next senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation. COURTSEY OF MOSHE ZUSMAN PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIO
Barack Obama nominated Pritzker for Secretary of Commerce, a post she held until the end of his second term. Since leaving government, she has joined the boards of several corporations, including Microsoft. Pritzker was elected to the Harvard Corporation in 2018. As a member of the board, she has served on finance, governance, and alumni affairs committees. She is also involved in
the University’s Allston development plans as a board member of the Harvard Allston Land Company. Pritzker wrote she was “deeply honored” to take up the role in a press release Tuesday. “Harvard’s commitment to educating citizen leaders, to pathbreaking research, and to creating opportunity
SEE PRITZKER PAGE 4
Though HMC sold off stocks in Apple and Meta Platforms, it maintained almost all of its holdings in Alphabet, the parent company of Google. HMC’s holdings in the major technology corporation are currently valued at $177 million, up from $163 million in the previous quarter. Additionally, HMC sold all of its exchange-traded funds, or ETFs – managed funds that hold many underlying securities. Activist groups such as the Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign have previously criticized the University’s investments in certain ETFs, claiming that they represent Harvard’s indirect holdings in the prison industry. The University also expanded its investments in the electronics industry, purchasing shares of Intel and NVIDIA, as well as various semiconductor companies, including Advanced Micro Devices, ASML Holding N.V., and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.
SEE HMC PAGE 7
Danielle Allen Ends HLS Prof. Reignites Controversy Over Work Gubernatorial Bid By ARIEL H. KIM
CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
By YUSUF S. MIAN and CHARLOTTE P. RITZ-JACK
Chang-Diaz — are still vying for the Democratic nomination. The winner will face one of two major Republican candidates who are running to replace twoterm Governor Charlie D. Baker ’79. Allen did not endorse anyone as she exited the race. Allen, a political theorist, has taught at Harvard since 2015 and served as a University professor, Harvard’s highest
Harvard Law School professor J. Mark Ramseyer published a paper last month rebuking critics of a controversial article he wrote last year that claimed sex slaves taken by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II were actually recruited, contracted sex workers. But some scholars and activists say the new paper, published by a Harvard Law School center, fails to adequately respond to criticism of his original piece, which drew intense international scrutiny last year. Ramseyer’s original paper disputed the historical consensus that “comfort women” — a term referring to women and girls forced into sex slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army before and during World War II — were compelled into sex work against their will. The article, titled “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War,” garnered international attention after the abstract was re-printed in January 2021 by the conservative Japanese newspaper Sankei
SEE ALLEN PAGE 4
SEE HLS PAGE 3
CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Harvard Professor Danielle S. Allen announced the end of her campaign for governor of Massachusetts on Tuesday. Allen, who launched her campaign last June, was considered a long shot in the Democratic primary. Her path to Beacon Hill became even murkier last month when Massachusetts Attorney General Maura T. Healey ’92, who holds a sizable fundraising advantage and enjoys greater name recognition, entered the race. At the end of January, Allen had around $492,000 on hand, compared to over $3.9 million for Healey, according to the latest state campaign finance filings. In a press release announcing the end of her campaign, Allen took aim at the barriers the state’s primary system puts up for new candidates, saying it is “leading to a serious impoverishment of our democracy.” Two candidates — Healey and State Senator Sonia R.
Professor Danielle Allen has taught at Harvard since 2015. PHOTO COURTSEY OF DANIELLE ALLEN
Dozens of demonstrators gathered outside Johnston Gate in March 2021 in a protest against law professor J. Mark Ramseyer and his controversial paper on comfort women. SANTIAGO A. SALDIVAR—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
Harvard Senior Neha Seshadri Advances to ‘Jeopardy!’ Semifinals By RAHEM D. HAMID CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Neha Seshadri ‘22, an Economics concentrator in Eliot House from Ann Arbor, Mich., won her quarterfinal match of the Jeopardy! National College Championship on Thursday. PHOTO COURTSEY JEOPARDY PRODUCTIONS, INC.
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Harvard Today 2
News 3
Editorial 6
Sports 8
Neha Seshadri ’22 won her quarterfinal match of the “Jeopardy!” National College Championship on Thursday, besting students from Clemson University and Creighton University in a tight round that came down to the final question. Seshadri, an Economics concentrator in Eliot House from Ann Arbor, Mich., ran the board during the game in the “Medical Specialities” category and answered 15 out of 20 attempted questions correctly. “I was super shocked and super grateful,” Seshadri said of the support she has received, including from her previous middle and high school teachers. “Random people have been recognizing me on the street and telling me that they’re gon-
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na watch the games,” she said. Seshadri said she took the first qualifying test for the show in early 2021 “on a whim” after seeing it advertised online. “My family watched ‘Jeopardy!’ a lot — I watched it growing up,” she said. “I just thought, ‘Okay, might as well just take the first test.” After passing the initial assessment, Seshadri said she completed a months-long screening process that included a proctored test, an audition, mock games, and interviews to clinch a spot in the tournament. She flew out to California to tape the show last November in near-complete secrecy. “The only people who really knew were my parents,” she said. When her roommates learned the news, Seshadri said they were “screaming,
PARTLY CLOUDY High: 42 Low: 40
standing on the couches.” “I was sitting on this for quite some time,” she said. Seshadri said the “adrenaline” of being on the set was a highlight of her experience filming the competition. “To really finally be on that set after having watched ‘Jeopardy!’ growing up, it was cool for me to finally get my turn on the stage,” she said. With the tournament drawing 36 contestants from colleges and universities nationwide, Seshadri called the environment on set “fun and collaborative,” adding that the competitors bonded on and off set over dinners and while watching each other’s matches from the audience. “At the end of the day, it’s just a lot of college students just hanging out,” she said. “I think everyone came in
SEE JEOPARDY PAGE 4
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