The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873
|
VOLUME CXLIX, NO. 21 |
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
|
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2022
EDITORIAL PAGE 8
NEWS PAGE 9
SPORTS PAGE 10
Racist cruelty and its perpetrators have no place on our campus
HDS student group hosts conference on Black religion, spirituality
Men’s squash clinches third consecutive national championship
15 Anthropology Profs. Ask Comaroff to Resign By MEIMEI XU CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
More than three-quarters of Harvard’s tenured Anthropology faculty asked professor John L. Comaroff to resign over sexual harassment allegations on Sunday. In a three-sentence letter sent to Comaroff on Sunday evening, 15 Anthropology professors — including the department’s chair — wrote that they had “lost confidence” in him as a professor. The letter comes amid growing furor over sexual harassment allegations against Comaroff, who was placed on unpaid leave by Harvard last month. “We have lost confidence in your ability to be a teacher, mentor, colleague, and productive member of our department,” the letter said. “We believe that
your continued presence undercuts our viability as a unit and impedes our efforts to build a more safe, responsive, and responsible community.” Comaroff denies the allegations of misconduct. “I am deeply distressed that my colleagues have taken this stance in the face of Harvard’s own findings and processes,” he wrote in a statement Sunday. The letter was sent to Comaroff just after 5 p.m. on Sunday by the Harvard Anthropology Department’s chair, Ajantha Subramanian, who provided it to The Crimson in response to a related inquiry. The Sunday letter was signed by 14 other faculty members: David Carrasco, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Steven C. Caton, Gabriella Coleman, William L. Fash, Rowan K. Flad, Joseph P. Gone ’92, Byron J. Good,
Nicholas H. Harkness, Arthur M. Kleinman, Matthew Liebmann, Peter Der Manuelian ’81, Michael J. Puett, and Jason A. Ur. The senior faculty who organized the letter were unable to reach some tenured faculty members about their support for the statement before it was sent, Subramanian said. Earlier this month, three Anthropology graduate students filed a federal lawsuit against Harvard alleging that the school ignored years of sexual misconduct complaints against Comaroff, a professor of African and African American Studies and Anthropology. The suit outlined a decade of sexual harassment and professional retaliation allegations against Comaroff, who was not named
SEE COMAROFF PAGE 7
The Tozzer Anthropology Building is located in Harvard’s Peabody Quadrangle, near the Peabody Museum. AIYANA G. WHITE—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
Dr. Paul Farmer Dies at Age 62 By ARIEL H. KIM and MEIMEI XU CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Paul E. Farmer, the renowned Harvard physician and medical anthropologist who dedicated his career to delivering health care to some of the world’s poorest regions, has died at age 62. Farmer died in his sleep while in Rwanda, according to Partners in Health, the global health nonprofit he co-founded in 1987. The organization did not specify a cause of death. Farmer, a towering figure in global health, was remembered Monday with statements from a former United States president, top Harvard faculty, and leading public health officials. Farmer is survived by his wife, Didi Bertrand Farmer, and their three children.
Paul E. Farmer — a renowned physician and medical anthropologist — died in his sleep in Rwanda at age 62.
Farmer spent decades working to combat global health inequities. Partners in Health, which he founded alongside four others, works to build public health infrastructure and provide medical care to the poorest regions of developing nations. The organization now operates in 11 countries. “Paul Farmer’s loss is devastating, but his vision for the world will live on through Partners in Health,” the organization’s CEO, Sheila Davis, wrote in a statement Monday. “Paul taught all those around him the power of accompaniment, love for one another, and solidarity.” The author of 12 books, he was also a renowned academic, conducting pioneering work on infectious diseases, health and human rights, and social
Students across Harvard’s campus donned keffiyehs, traditional Palestinian scarves, in a show of support to Palestinians in Cambridge and abroad on Thursday. The Harvard College Palestinian Solidarity Committee — a student group advocating for “the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, justice, and equality” — organizes scarf-wearing each week in an ongoing campaign the committee calls Keffiyeh Thursday. “Keffiyeh Thursdays first and foremost are an expression of solidarity,” said Christian B. Tabash ’22, a PSC organizer. Joshua D. “Josh” Willcox ’23, a member of PSC, said the motivation behind Keffiyeh Thursdays is to foster inclusivity among Palestinians. “We want to bring more visibility to Palestinians on campus,” Willcox said. “They don’t have the space, and they don’t feel seen or heard.” PSC chose to use the keffiyeh to demonstrate their solidarity due to the scarf’s history as “a very visible kind of cultural identity marker for a lot of Palestinians,” Willcox explained.
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Arts 3
SEE KEFFIYEH PAGE 9
SEE NGUYEN PAGE 9
News 7
Editorial 8
CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
A fter three graduate students filed a federal lawsuit last week alleging that Harvard ignored years of sexual harassment complaints against a powerful professor, the school’s Title IX coordinator was quick to stand up in defense of the University’s practices. In a statement issued last week, Nicole M. Merhill, who has directed Title IX at Harvard since 2017, said the suit’s claims about the school’s investigatory processes were “extremely troubling” because of their “potential chilling effect on our community members’ confidence” in the system. But on Friday, Merhill said it was her own statement that fostered mistrust in the system. In a letter sent to a student group that advises Harvard’s Office for Gender Equity — which handles Title IX at the University — Merhill apologized for her statement, writing that it “has contributed to further concerns around trust.” The lawsuit — filed by Margaret G. Czerwienski, Lilia M. Kilburn, and Amulya Mandava — claimed that Harvard mishandled sexual harassment investigations into professor John L. Comaroff, who the suit alleged harassed and intimidated students for decades.
Sports 10
Nicole M. Merhill is the director of Harvard’s Office for Gender Equity. PHOTO COURTSEY KRIS SNIBBE/HARVARD PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND COMMUNICATIONS
Comaroff, who denies the allegations, was placed on unpaid leave by Harvard last month. The suit charged that Harvard obtained Kilburn’s private therapy records without her consent while investigating allegations that Comaroff sexually harassed her, and then provided them to Comaroff as part of a draft report. Comaroff later used the notes to claim Kilburn must have imagined the harassment because she was experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder — “a condition that she developed as a direct result of his
TODAY’S FORECAST
CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
SEE TITLE IX PAGE 7
By ANJELI R. MACARANAS
CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
By LUCAS J. WALSH and VIVIAN ZHAO
conduct,” according to the complaint. Harvard denies the claims in the suit. Merhill issued a statement the day after the claim was filed defending its Title IX 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
SEE FARMER PAGE 9
Students Organize Title IX Coordinator Apologizes Keffiyeh Thursdays for Statement on Comaroff Suit The keffiyeh has long been a part of traditional Palestinian garb, according to Nadine S. Bahour ’22, a PSC organizer. “Farmers would wear it to protect their heads from the sun,” Bahour said. Palestinians also used the keffiyeh as a protective measure to avoid arrest during the British rule of Palestine, giving the scarf a new significance as a sign of resistance, Bahour said. “Going out of British mandate and into Israeli occupation, it also became a national symbol of resilience,” Bahour said. PSC’s membership has seen a sharp rise over the past year, with more students participating in events held by the group, according to Tabash. “This year has been really special because you have a group of students who are so enthusiastic about spreading this cause,” Tabash said. “We started off the year with a small group, and now there’s a much more sizable contingent and that has not stopped expanding.” Despite the increased interest in Keffiyeh Thursdays, PSC still struggles to combat the association of its work with anti-Semitic sentiment, Tabash said.
Harvard Health Services Director Says University is Moving in the Right Direction Post-Omicron
Harvard University Health Services Director Giang T. Nguyen said in a Friday interview that school officials are discussing newly-relaxed state mask guidelines, but did not specify when — or if — the University will roll back its on-campus public health regulations. An advisory released by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health last week no longer recommends indoor masking in most locations for healthy, fully-vaccinated residents. Masks are still required in certain settings, including transportation and health care facilities. Cambridge and Harvard still require masks to be worn indoors. “We have been discussing this and will continue to very seriously consider the trajectory for the mask guidelines on campus,” Nguyen said of the new state recommendations. Nguyen’s comments come as Covid-19 cases in the greater Boston area continue to decline rapidly. There were 151 positive cases on Harvard’s campus in the last seven days, amounting to a positivity rate of 0.48 percent, according to the University’s Covid-19 dashboard. In early January, the University recorded 976 positive cases during the peak of the Omicron variant on campus. “The Omicron surge has receded tremendously over the last several weeks,” Nguyen said Friday. “We really hit the peak at the beginning of January and subsequently we’ve been dropping down pretty steeply, which has been great to see.” He said it will take time for the surge to drop “all the way” due to many cases recorded across the country in January. “I don’t know exactly where we’ll land in terms of a steady state,” he said. “It may not be where we were as a steady state
PHOTO COURTSEY STEPHANIE MITCHELL/HARVARD UNIVERSITY
By ELLA L. JONES and MONIQUE I. VOBECKY
Nguyen Talks Covid-19 Policy
RAINY High: 55 Low: 30
VISIT THECRIMSON.COM. FOLLOW @THECRIMSON ON TWITTER.
impossible weather