The Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee stated that Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks demonstrated “apartheid cannot stand” and called for renewed campus activism in a statement on Monday, the one-year anniversary of the war in Israel and Gaza.
“One year ago today, Gaza broke through Israel’s blockade, showing the world that the ongoing Nakba and apartheid cannot stand,” the PSC wrote in a post on Instagram. Nakba, which translates to “catastrophe” in Arabic, references the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and the subsequent displacement of Palestinians.
The post comes one year after the PSC drew national backlash for a similar statement published on Oct. 8, 2023 that held Israel “entirely responsible for all the unfolding violence,” and as University
President Alan M. Garber ’76 has sought to bridge divides between students and faculty members on campus while also
cracking down on protests.
Last year’s post drew widespread condemnation and marked the start of intense turmoil that divided the student body and sparked national criticism of the University’s leadership.
Monday’s statement — co-signed by Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine, the African and African American Resistance Organization, and Harvard Jews for Palestine — condemned the “University’s callous disregard for Palestinian life.”
A Harvard spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday night.
Harvard Hillel Israel Chair Daniel O. Denenberg ’26 criticized the PSC’s post as “dangerously antisemitic.”
“The post’s defense of October 7th demonstrates a vile moral decay. In portraying October 7th as a legitimate resistance, they justify Hamas’ actions on that horrible day — the rape, murder, and mutilation of 1200 of my people,” Denenberg wrote in a statement. “A year after they explained away Hamas’ attack, they shamelessly showed us again that when Jewish blood is shed, it is always justified in their
eyes.”
The PSC’s statement may further inflame tensions at Harvard, where students and faculty have been deeply divided over the war in Gaza.
The Monday post urged pro-Palestine student activists to ramp up protests during a semester with significantly fewer demonstrations compared to the previous academic year. In the spring, activists affiliated with HOOP staged a 20-day occupation of Harvard Yard.
“Now is the time to escalate,” the PSC wrote on Monday.
“Harvard continues to defend its investments in this genocidal regime despite repeated student and faculty demands for disclosure and divestment,” they wrote. “Harvard’s insistence on funding slaughter only strengthens our moral imperative and commitment to our demands.”
Though pro-Palestine student activists have mostly avoided large-scale, disruptive actions since students returned to campus in September, Harvard administrators have sought to discourage even quieter forms of protests.
More than 12 students were banned from Widener Library last week for staging a silent “study-in” protest while holding signs and wearing keffiyehs — traditional Palestinian scarves.
In January, Garber formed twin presidential task forces to combat antisemitism and anti-Arab bias on campus. In September, Garber met with representatives from HOOP to discuss the University’s endowment amid their demands for Harvard to divest from Israel.
Despite the University’s efforts to soothe tensions, the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks demonstrated that deep divisions remain on campus. On Monday evening, Garber attended a vigil in the Yard organized by Harvard Hillel and Harvard Chabad to mourn the victims of the Oct. 7 attacks and the hostages that remain in captivity in Gaza. Hours earlier, a billboard truck drove through Harvard Square displaying anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab messaging that appeared to specifically target pro-Palestine student protesters.
BOSTON — Gary B. Ruvkun, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and a microbiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Medicine, the Nobel Committee announced early Monday morning.
Ruvkun — who shared the award with Victor R. Ambros, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School — received the prize for their discovery of microRNA, “a new class of tiny RNA molecules that play a crucial role in gene regulation,” according to the Nobel Committee.
Ruvkun and Ambros previously shared the Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 2008 in recognition of their work on microRNA. The Lasker Award is sometimes described as the “American Nobel Prize” because a significant number of laureates have later received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the work — a list that Ruvkun and Ambros added their names to on Monday.
Still, though, Ruvkun says that winning the Nobel is unlike anything else.
“It’s been a good morning,” Ruvkun said during a press conference on Monday.
“There are a lot of awards, but the Nobel is its own class in terms of how much attention it gets,” he added. “It’s a completely different world.”
Ruvkun is the first Harvard Medical School professor to win a Nobel Prize in medicine in five years, when William G. Kaelin received the prize in 2019, and the 17th Harvard professor ever to win the prize since it was first awarded in 1901. The geneticist has been at Harvard since 1976, when he began his Ph.D. after obtaining his bachelor’s degree at the University of California, Berkeley.
Although Ruvkun initially discovered microRNAs in the tiny worm C. elegans in 1993, Ruvkun said that the pressure of writing a grant application was what led him to realize that the finding was much larger than a small worm.
“Turns out writing grants — the tension of writing grants — is good for you,”
Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76
said he was disappointed by some of the University’s fundraising numbers during an interview with The Crimson on Tuesday, a sign that Harvard officials are bracing for donations to dip after a year of campus turmoil.
Garber’s comments come ahead of the release of the University’s 2023 financial report later this month, which is expected to show that fundraising numbers fell as a result of alumni and donor backlash to Harvard’s initial response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
“Some of the new commitments have been disappointing compared to past years,” Garber said.
“There are also some indications that we will see improvements in the future,” Garber added. “I can’t get more specific than that right now.”
As the University grappled with months of donor fallout over its response to campus protests and an unprecedent-
ed leadership crisis, Garber had privately warned in March of a decline in new gifts. But he confirmed those suspicions publicly for the first time on Tuesday. Harvard has faced public condemnation from even its most loyal supporters over its response to campus antisemitism, with several high-profile donors publicly suspending their donations to the University.
While total giving to the University is down from last fiscal year, according to four people familiar with the University’s fundraising data, the true extent of the damage will be revealed by the October report. It will also reveal changes to the University’s endowment returns, budget operations, and revenue from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024. Philanthropy, including current use gifts and endowment contributions, has historically been Harvard’s largest revenue source. Donations to the University’s endowment have supported financial aid, research initiatives, and professorships in addition to other operating expenses.
Members of the Lampoon, a semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization that used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine, identified themselves as Crimson reporters in interviews with members of the press at the rally and gave away red t-shirts emblazoned with The Crimson’s stamp that stated “Trump for Truth.” BY HIRAL M. CHAVRE AND SAMUEL A. CHURCH — CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
AROUND THE IVIES
Princeton will resume accepting research funding from fossil fuel companies that fail to meet its dissociation criteria, according to an announcement released Thursday and reported by the Daily Princetonian. The move comes around two weeks after the release of a Sunrise Princeton report, which argues that, despite having cut ties with certain fossil fuel producers two years ago, the University continues “to invest in, profit from, and produce research that serves the interests of fossil fuel companies.”
THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
The University of Pennsylvania has discontinued its seven-year Bio-Dental submatriculation program and will not be accepting a new class this admission cycle — but the program’s director and a School of Dental Medicine administrator disagreed on whether current students are still able to submatriculate into the Dental School, the Daily Pennsylvanian reports. The program’s discontinuation means that Penn will no longer admit first-year students into it.
THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN
Brown University will not divest from companies with Israeli military ties, its governing body voted Tuesday, according to the Brown Daily Herald. Brown was one of few schools to consider divestment in an official capacity. It did so in exchange for an agreement by student protesters to dismantle a week-long encampment on the Main Green. The decision drew mixed reactions, and prompted a warning from 24 Republican state attorneys general and the resignation of a trustee on the Corporation.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
As Columbia grapples with a donor crisis — born out of concerns regarding campus protests — this year saw a 27.9 percent drop in the number of gifts, falling from 19,229 in 2022 to 13,870, the lowest since 2015. This year is the first that the total monetary amount of donations has declined from the previous Giving Day since the event’s inception in 2012.This year’s results follow the university’s decision to postpone last year’s Giving Day in response to Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and campus protests. THE COLUMBIA SPECTATOR Yale Law School saw a drop
BY ELYSE C. GONCALVES
CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
—
SWEET SHOWDOWN — Dozens of competing honeys
QUEST
Beekeeper Charlie Donnelly Moran speaks to passersby.
PUMPKIN PRIZE — This year’s winning pumpkin, grown by Steve Connolly, weighed in at 2,211 pounds. He celebrated with a surprise guest — Massachusetts Governor Maura T.
CLIARE YUAN — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
JOEY HUANG — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
RYAN N. GAJARAWALA — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
What’s Next
Start every week with a preview of what’s on the agenda around Harvard University
Friday 10/11
Milton moved ashore Wednesday evening in a populous stretch of Central Florida, making landfall as the second powerful hurricane to pound the region in less than two weeks. Within an hour of making landfall, the storm has left over a million without power. The large Category 3 storm battered the state for much of the day, with heavy winds, pelting rain and a spate of tornadoes thrashing cities far from its center. Most of Florida’s counties were under a state of emergency on Wednesday.
JUSTICE DEPT. CONSIDERS ASKING FEDERAL COURT TO BREAK UP GOOGLE HURRICANE MILTON MAKES LANDFALL ON
The Department of Justice is considering asking a federal judge to break up Google after its search engine was declared an illegal monopoly in August, according to a court filing. In court papers filed Tuesday, government lawyers outlined a series of potential remedies it may pursue, including restricting how Google’s artificial intelligence mines other websites for search results, and blocking Google from paying companies billions of dollars annually to ensure that Google is the default search engine presented to consumers.
UN WARNS GAZA AID WORK MAY ‘DISINTEGRATE’ IF ISRAELI LEGISLATION PASSES
The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees warned Wednesday that if pending Israeli legislation is adopted, all humanitarian operations in Gaza and the West Bank may “disintegrate,” leaving hundreds of thousands in dire need as war rages on. An Israeli parliamentary committee approved a pair of bills to ban the main provider of humanitarian aid in Gaza from operating in Israeli territory; however, the bill still needs final approval.
U.S. RACES TO REPLENISH STORM-BATTERED IV FLUID SUPPLIES AT HOSPITALS
The F.D.A. authorized airlifts of IV bags from overseas plants this Wednesday to ease shortages caused by Hurricane Helene as hospitals begin rationing supplies to protect the sickest patients. The current shortage occurred when flooding in North Carolina damaged a plant making 60 percent of the nation’s supply of IV fluids. The situation could become even more dire now that Hurricane Milton is hitting Florida.
ANOTHER MEMBER OF ERIC ADAMS’ ADMINISTRATION ARRESTED
In another development in the string of indictments of New York City officials in Mayor Erin Adams’ administration, former chief liaison to the Muslim community Mohamed Bahi was arrested Tuesday. The arrest comes after Adams himself was indicted on bribery charges in late September. Bahi was charged for witness tampering and destruction of evidence in a criminal complaint filed by the FBI.
AFRICA ALIVE 2024!
Harvard Law School, WCC, Milstein East AB
3-5:30 p.m.
Join us for the Africa Alive! 2024 Opening Keynote Address by Her Excellency Sahle-Work Zewde, Former President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Reception immediately following.
Saturday
HARVARD WOMEN’S RUGBY
Roberto A. Mignone Field, 2 p.m.
Monday 10/14
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ DAY
Matthews Hall, 12-3 p.m.
Celebrate Indigenous People’s Day on the lawn in front of Matthews Hall with performances from students, raffle prizes, food, and speeches from guest speakers. This event is organized by Natives at Harvard College student group.
Tuesday 10/15
HOW TO BECOME FAMOUS: AUTHOR
TALK WITH CASS SUNSTEIN
Harvard Coop, 6-7:30 p.m.
Wednesday 10/16
2024 TRUTH AND TRANSFORMATION CONFERENCE Virtual, 2-5 p.m.
The Institutional Antiracism and Accountability (IARA) Project and the Ash Center are holding the virtual conference focused on the theme “Standing our Ground: Strategic responses to the anti-DEI movement.”
Thursday 10/17
THROUGH THE GATES
Various locations, 2:45-7 p.m.
Sunday 10/13
NATIONAL FOSSIL DAY
Harvard Museum of Natural History, 1 p.m.
Harvard paleontologists give short talks and answer questions about their research and more. The event is for all ages. Presented by the Harvard Museum of Natural History and the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture with the Stephanie Pierce Lab of Vertebrate Paleontology and the Javier Ortega-Hernández Lab of Invertebrate Paleontology.
The Harvard Crimson Women’s Rugby team will play the Dartmouth Women’s Rugby team for Alumni and Family Weekend this Saturday. Fans can watch this Ivy League match up in person at Mignone Field or enjoy the live stream of the game on ESPN+. FALLING INTO FALL
Law School Professor Cass Sunstein discusses his book How to Become Famous that investigates the numerous factors behind fame. Registration is free on Eventbrite, and seating is first come, first served.
The Phillip Brooks House Association is offering group tours and dinner in seven Boston and Cambridge neighborhoods led by staff and students who have experience working in them. There will be information on PBHA programs, and registration is free and required.
Friday 10/18
CAN HIGHER EDUCATION HELP RENOVATE AMERICAN DEMOCRACY?
Virtual, 12:30-1:30 p.m.
Panelists John Bridgeland, Cecilia Muñoz, and Jenna Storey discuss declining trust in others and key institutions with moderator Danielle Allen. The webinar will highlight new campus initiatives offering ways for higher education to strengthen democracy by encouraging students to develop civic skills.
KIANA V. PAN — CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Garber Says Widener Protest Punishment Warranted
and “Israel Bombs, Harvard Pays.”
During the action, library staff took down participants’ ID numbers and distributed notices that informed students that they were participating in a protest that violated University policies.
Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 said that he believed it was “appropriate” to discipline student protesters who staged a silent “study-in” in Widener Library last month, but stopped short of saying he agreed with the decision to ban students from the library for twoweeks.
Garber’s comments, which came during an interview with The Crimson on Tuesday, come after the University faced criticism from some faculty members and students for temporarily banning the protesters from entering Widener even though their access to library materials was not affected.
Garber, however, said that the suspension itself was determined by library administrators and indicated that he was not familiar with the specific nature of the protest.
“The decision is really in the hands of the library,” Garber said.
“I don’t know all of the details about the action, but it seemed to me that applying some form of consequence for violating a policy that is fairly clear cut is appropriate.”
Still, he acknowledged that the University needed to carefully consider any disciplinary action that prevented students from accessing a library.
“I think that a decision to pose any restrictions on library access needs to be taken with a great deal of thought and care,” Garber said.
The students were banned from Widener following a Sept. 21 “study-in,” during which protesters wore keffiyehs and attached signs to their computers that stated: “Imagine it Happened Here”
“We have very clear rules that there are certain spaces where protests cannot occur,” Garber said. “These are time, place, and manner restrictions — and libraries are one of the locations where they cannot occur.”
In letters informing students of their suspensions, library administrators wrote that the students had “assembled with the stated purpose of making their presence known by occupying the Loker Reading Room and displaying flyers provided by the event organizers.” In defending the administration’s decision, Garber fixated on the group’s intent to protest, as opposed to how they chose to make their statement.
“Clearly, a sticker or an article of clothing by itself would not necessarily be a form of protest,” Garber said.
“It’s important to consider factors such as whether it was an organized event, whether there was an intention for a large group of people to gather to deliver a common message,” he added.
The temporary library ban has come under fire from a wide range of faculty groups including Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine and the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard, which accused Garber and his administration of violating free speech protections articulated in the University-wide Statement on Rights and Responsibilities.
Math professor Melanie Matchett Wood, who serves as a co-president of CAFH, wrote in an op-ed on behalf of CAFH leadership that “the students who sat quietly and studied did not interfere with normal campus activity, and Harvard thus has no compelling reason to prohibit their speech.”
“Indeed, our commitment to free expression requires us to allow it,” Wood added.
During the interview, Garber said that a protest does not necessarily need to be disruptive to violate time, place, and manner restrictions.
“However, I think the degree of disruption is a very pertinent fact to be considered in any kind of disciplinary proceeding,” he said.
CAFH’s leadership also questioned what definition of protest Harvard administrators were using to determine whether University policies had been violated.
“Not only do we not have answers to these questions, but it seems implausible that the University could determine what constitutes a “protest” in a content-neutral manner,” Wood wrote in the op-ed.
Garber declined to explain which specific actions would constitute a protest, and acknowledged there was some “gray area” around the rules.
“One can debate whether or not a specific set of actions constitutes a protest, and I think this is a situation that we may be facing in the future again,” Garber said.
“It’s very healthy to have a discussion about this issue of what actually constitutes a protest.”
Ahead of the Widener protest, Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine — a coalition of unrecognized student groups — publicized the “study-in” on Instagram, asking students to gather at the library’s steps and display flyers passed out by organizers once inside the reading room.
The decision to discipline study-in protesters reflects Garber’s stricter approach to regulating demonstrations after his administration released a statement in January clarifying the University-wide Statement on Rights and Responsibilities.
Pro-Palestine protesters held a similar Widener “study-in” in December 2023 that did not elicit a disciplinary response from the University. Garber said that the
protest last year had prompted a discussion among administrators about clarifying policies.
“We realized that not everybody had the same understanding of what that statement meant, and there needed to be greater clarification of the statement, and that’s why we issued this update that explained more clearly,” Garber said.
The rules were updated again over the summer, specifically banning overnight camping, unapproved signage, and chalking on University property.
During the interview, Garber added that precedent — a key point of contention in determining the appropriate response to the spring encampment — may not always apply with new or newly-clarified rules in place.
“Precedent doesn’t actually dictate what happens if we have policies today that didn’t exist then,” Garber said.
In 2023, donations made up nearly half of the University’s total revenue. Amid the fallout, as Harvard remained under international scrutiny and facing a congressional investigation, the University’s development office shifted its strategy to “listening mode” in an attempt to win back outraged donors instead of aggressively soliciting more donations. But as tensions have calmed
past six months, Garber has also visited Miami, Washington D.C., Seattle, and Los Angeles, participating in Q&As for alumni and meeting privately with donors.
“There are many alumni who have concerns about what is happening at Harvard — what has happened at Harvard — and remain very much committed to the University and care deeply about its future,” Garber said.
“They’ve been quite vocal,” he added.
There might, as Garber said, be some evidence of resilience in the University’s development office. The Harvard College Fund, made up of current use gifts and endowment contributions for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, did not decline from its total in 2022, although the number of individual contributors has decreased, according to a person directly familiar with the 2023 data.
In the interview on Tuesday, Garber said that he hopes that new University policies and his own messages will encourage alumni and donors to support Harvard’s mission.
“I believe that they are reassured by the direction that the University is taking,” Garber said. “They are relieved, at least that so far, this academic year has been somewhat quieter.”
Harvard Updates Gen Ed Guidelines to Curb Grade Inflation
The Harvard College Program in General Education updated its guidelines for Gen Ed instructors in an attempt to standardize grading across classes and mitigate grade inflation. The new guidelines, rolled out last spring, come amid persistent gripes among students
fellows’ grading policies, and enforce requirements to “ensure students who do not attend class regularly or do not complete course readings and course assignments are not able to earn an A/A- grade.”
They represent one part of an effort to shore up the rigor of Gen Eds. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences is also consider ing phasing out stu dents’ ability to take one of their four re quired Gen Ed class es pass-fail.
In recent years, Gen Eds’ difficulty may have been headed in the oppo site direction.
Music professor Alex ander Rehding, who cochaired the Standing Committee on General Ed ucation during the 202324 academic year, said he wanted the guidelines to address grade inflation among undergraduates.
about inconsistent Gen Ed grading and concerns among faculty that students perceive their four required Gen Ed courses as easy A’s — or “gems” — rather than genuine intellectual commitments. The guidelines urge instructors to share grading criteria with students, “set clear expectations” for graduate teaching
“Over the course of our discussions over the year, it became clear that Gen Ed is actually really wellequipped to take on that challenge of addressing issues of grade compression for the
simple reason that every student has to take four classes from Gen Ed,” Rehding said.
A 2023 report found that Harvard undergraduates’ grades had risen dramatically over time. In the 2021-
ademic year, 79 percent of grades given to undergraduates were in the A range. The new Gen Ed guidelines instruct faculty to make sure they assign final grades across a range that allows them to
tinguish it from less excellent work.”
Classics professor Kathleen M. Coleman, who co-chaired the committee alongside Rehding, said it’s difficult to ensure that classes are graded consistently across a large, -
course sometimes applied vastly different standards.
But, she said, theage faculty to be upfront about what standards they are looking
ency as possible is what we’ve recommended, so that students know what to expect,” Coleman said.
“What must I do to try and get such-and-such a gradevard, what do I do to get an In interviews, students
ent teaching fellows in the same
“All four Gen Eds that I’ve taken, it’s been a different amount of work that you have to put in, a different amount of effort to get the grade that you want,” said Pavan V. Pandurangi ’25. “I feel like that’s not how Gen Eds should work.” Taj S. Gulati ’25 said he aced one Gen Ed despite practically sleeping through it — but found the grading in another to be much stricter.
“Their standard for an A was an essay they deem publishable,” Gulati said, “which is a little bit of a high bar for a Gen Ed.” Ultimately, Coleman and Rehding said, one of their main goals was simply to convince undergraduates to take Gen Eds more seriously.
“The idea is not to make these courses harder,” Coleman said. “It’s to make everybody respect them as proper intellectual efforts.”
But Rehding admitted he wasn’t sure how much the new guidelines will change students’ attitudes.
“I think there
Harvard President
Israel Trek Reinstated After 1 Year Hiatus
Israel Trek was canceled in 2024 shortly after the Oct. 7 attacks and ongoing war in Gaza.
Harvard College Israel Trek, an annual subsidized trip to Israel over spring break, will return in March after a one-year hiatus.
While no official reason was given for the decision, Israel Trek leader Doron Ben Haim ’27 cited a lower “level of certainty” about the trip’s feasibility. Now, following several successful trips to Israel organized by Harvard affiliates and graduate schools, the annual Trek will be reinstated in March 2025.
“Overall, the situation seems more in control than it used to be,” Ben Haim said. “So, we feel
more confident in starting to plan the trip and adjusting as needed.”
Traditionally, Israel Trek has included a day trip to the West Bank with a Palestinian tour guide. This year, however, that segment will be replaced by a visit to eastern Jerusalem, according to Ben Haim.
This year’s planned visit to “a Hezbollah tunnel at the border” may also be canceled “if the conditions would not allow us,” Ben Haim said.
The Israel Trek itinerary is
subject to change, with organizers closely monitoring the situation in Israel.
“We have almost five months until the trip in spring break, so a lot of things can change,” Ben Haim said. “The overall plan is to keep following up, see if there are any changes for better or for worse, and recalibrate the plan.”
Past iterations of Israel Trek have faced controversy on campus and calls for a boycott from pro-Palestine student activists.
Natalie L. Kahn ’23, president of
Harvard Hillel during the 2023 Israel Trek, said that the Trek created “anger” in previous years.
“I recognize that it will again maybe infuriate people who are anti-Israel on campus,” said Kahn, a former Crimson News editor. “That’s all the more reason that we should be reinstating it and getting it going again.” “The
KENITH W. TAUKOLO CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Ruvkun said. “I said, ‘Oh, I should look and see what’s in humans,’” Ruvkun recalled. “And boom — it comes back matching the human genome.” In the 1980s, Ambros and Ruvkun were postdocs in the lab of H. Robert Horvitz, an MIT biology professor and 2002 Nobel Laureate, when they began working together on the research that would win them the Nobel nearly 40 years later.
Ambros himself taught at Harvard from 1984 to 1992, when he began teaching at Dartmouth College before later moving to the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 wrote in a statement to The Crimson that “nobody who knows Gary or his work could be surprised by this recognition for his research on microRNA.”
“A brilliant investigator, his curiosity has led him to one remarkable insight into fundamental biology after another,” he added.
Harvard Medical School Dean George Q. Daley ’82 said in a statement that “Ruvkun’s and Ambros’s research elegantly combines evolutionary biology and genetics and reveals a completely novel dimension of gene regulation.”
“This curiosity-driven research is a powerful example of how fundamental discovery can provide insights that illuminate causes of disease and consequently can benefit humanity,” Daley added. At the press conference, Daley also noted the “importance” of Ruvkun’s findings in the work of HMS researchers.
“We’ve been waiting for this accolade to be bestowed on you for quite a long time,” Daley said.
“Micro-RNA biology is essential to numerous laboratories across the globe, including my own,” he added.
Mass General Brigham President Anne Klibanski said that “his work extends a legacy of innovation, and it inspires the next generation.”
“As the largest hospital system research enterprise in the country, we are so uniquely positioned to convene academic medical centers, university-based research, cutting-edge industry partners to advance discovery — of local, national and global impact. Dr. Ruvkun’s work is such a vital part of that legacy,” she said.
Beyond being an impactful researcher, MGH Department of Molecular Biology Chair Jeannie Lee ’86 said that Ruvkun is also “an amazing colleague” and “an excellent mentor to all the young scientists in the department.” Thomas Perlmann, secretary-general of the Nobel Committee, said during a press conference in Stockholm that he was “able to wake up Gary Ruvkun” to deliver the news about winning the Nobel Prize.“His wife answered and it took a long time before he came to the phone and sounded very tired, but he quite rapidly was quite excited and happy when he understood what it was all about,” Perlmann added.
Though Ambros is no longer affiliated with Harvard, the Nobel Committee said in their announcement on Monday that the microRNA research that led to Ruvkun and Ambros winning the Nobel Prize was performed at
Harvard by Ambros, and at HMS and MGH by Ruvkun.
Garber, who is the first person in decades to serve at the helm of Harvard with an M.D., said that “the implications of those discoveries aren’t always obvious at the outset.”
“With promising medical applications of microRNA research on the horizon, we are reminded — again — that basic research can lead to dramatic progress in addressing human diseases,” he added.
The Nobel Prize in Medicine comes with a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor or $1 million.
The official Nobel Prize ceremony will be held on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel’s death.
Monday’s announcement marks the beginning of a week filled with Nobel Prize announcements. On Tuesday, the Nobel committee will announce the prize in physics, followed by the prize in chemistry on Wednesday, literature on Thursday, and the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.
At the Nobel Prize press conference, Perlmann said that he had not been able to speak with Ambros to deliver the news.
“I was not able to reach Victor Ambros yet,” Perlmann said. “I left a message on his mobile phone and hope he gives me a call soon.”
Ruvkun, reflecting on his trip to Sweden for Horvitz’s 2002 Nobel ceremony, said that he is excited to return to Stockholm in December.
“They know how to party,” Ruvkun said.
The Harvard Graduate School of Education faculty voted on Monday to take the first steps toward establishing a University-wide faculty senate.
The decision makes HGSE the fifth faculty division to support the creation of a faculty senate planning body, following the Harvard School of Public Health, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Graduate School of Design, and Divinity School.
According to an April memo obtained by the Crimson, 18 Harvard professors proposed a University-wide faculty senate to increase faculty perspectives in Harvard’s governance “amid a year of turmoil” and “growing skepticism” towards the University’s top governing boards.
HGSE professor Julie A. Reuben — who introduced the planning body resolution at the Ed School — wrote to The Crimson that the “HGSE faculty just voted overwhelmingly to join the planning process for a university-wide Faculty Senate.”
There is strong sentiment among HGSE faculty that a well-designed faculty senate can play a constructive role in university affairs,” she wrote. “We hope that the creation of a Faculty Senate will provide a mechanism for faculty to consider and express their views on major issues that impact the University as a whole.”
HGSE professor Ebony N. Bridwell-Mitchell, who attended the HGSE meeting, said in an interview with The Crimson that she was struck by the “consensus” in the room.
“There was no contention — in my recollection — during the vote,” Bridwell-Mitchell said.
The resolution allows HGSE to select three delegates for the faculty senate planning committee to join 12 representatives from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, four from Harvard Medical School, and three from each of the other schools.
Bridwell-Mitchell said the nomination and election process for the HGSE delegates will proceed “fairly quickly” and is likely to conclude by “the end of the semester, certainly before the middle of next spring.”
“I am proud of what the Ed school faculty have decided in what was almost a near unanimous decision to put forward members to the planning committee,” Bridwell-Mitchell said.
John Harvard Statue, University Hall Vandalized
WINDOWS SMASHED. An anonymous pro-Palestine activist vandalized University Hall early on Tuesday.
BY MICHELLE N. AMPONSAH
An individual smashed the ground-floor windows to University Hall and covered the John Harvard statue in red paint as an “act of solidarity with the Palestinian resistance,” according to a video posted on social media.
The perpetrator of the anonymous act of vandalism appeared to film themselves using a blunt object to break the windows of University Hall, which houses the Fac-
ulty of Arts and Sciences. The video was published on Instagram by “Unity of Fields,” an account that does not appear to have any affiliation with Harvard.
The account, which describes itself as an “anti-imperialist propaganda front bringing the war home,” wrote that the video of the vandalism at Harvard came from an “anonymous submission.”
“In the early hours of 10/8, autonomous actors at Harvard smashed windows of the main administrative building and vandalized the John Harvard statue in an act of solidarity with the Palestinian resistance,” the caption stated.
“We are committed to bringing the war home and answering the call to open up a new front here in the belly of the beast,” they added.
Harvard Campus Services em-
ployees were seen boarding up the windows on Tuesday and access to the John Harvard statue was restricted.
The vandalism comes amid rising tensions on Harvard’s campus around the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. In a statement Monday night, the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee called on student activists to ramp up their protest activities.
“Now is the time to escalate,” the PSC wrote on Monday. “Harvard’s insistence on funding slaughter only strengthens our moral imperative and commitment to our demands.”
Harvard University Police Department spokesperson Steven G. Catalano wrote in a statement Tuesday morning that the “inci-
dent is under investigation.”
“It is the longstanding policy of the Harvard University Police Department to not comment on open investigations,” he added.
Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine, an unrecognized pro-Palestine group that organized the encampment in Harvard Yard last semester, denied involvement with the act of vandalism.
“We were not involved in this action, and in fact learned of it through the same Instagram video you linked,” HOOP wrote in a statement on Tuesday.
Rep. Elise M. Stefanik ’06 (R-N.Y.), one of Harvard’s most vocal critics in Congress, wrote in a Tuesday post on X that the vandalism was “absolutely criminal and any and all individuals involved must be immediately expelled and
prosecuted to the fullest of the law.”
“Now is not the time @Harvard for another working group, it is long past time for consequences and disciplinary action,” she added.
It is unclear if the perpetrator of the act of vandalism is affiliated with the University. Harvard Yard, where University Hall and the John Harvard statue are located, has been accessible to the public “in line with the normal protocol for this semester,” according to a University spokesperson.
There were also a series of anonymous acts last semester, including antisemitic and anti-Palestinian posters that appeared on campus as well as messages posted on Sidechat, a social media app that allows users to post anonymously.
Harvard Jewish Groups Hold Vigil on Oct. 7 Anniversary
BY
More than 400 people, including University President Alan M. Garber ’76 and College Dean Rakesh Khurana, gathered in front of Widener Library Monday evening for a vigil marking the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. Attendees embraced, lit candles, and held Israeli flags during the vigil, which was jointly organized by several Jewish groups including Harvard Chabad and Harvard Hillel. Israeli and Jewish students and faculty gave speeches and read aloud the names of people “dear to this community” who were killed in the attacks.
Several Harvard University Police Department officers watched the vigil from a distance. Hillel Campus Rabbi Getzel Davis said that Counseling and Mental Health Services and staff from Riverside Trauma Center were also on-site to provide grief counseling.
Dani M. Bregman ’25 opened the vigil, reflecting on the lives lost and hostages taken on Oct. 7.
“Today is Oct. 7, which marks one year from the day that forever changed the history of the Jewish people,” Bregman said.
“We are gathered here today to mourn those who were murdered on Oct. 7 and honor their memory, and to remember and pray for the hostages — 101 of whom are still being held today by Hamas in the tunnels of Gaza,” he added.
Eric M. Nelson ’99, a Jewish professor in the Government department, shared memories of his late grandfather with attendees. Nelson said his grandfather visited him during his freshman year at Harvard.
“There have been few mercies to speak of in the wake of Oct. 7, but one of them, assuredly, is that my grandfather did not live to see the horrors of the last 12 months,” Nelson said.
“I am grateful, too, that my grandfather never had to learn that here in the very place where he shed tears of joy on a Shabbat morning all those years ago, mem-
bers of our own Harvard community would gather in their hundreds to declare that the Jewish people are an alien colonial presence in their ancestral land,” he added. Harvard Chabad Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi called on faculty to speak up against “dangerous lies” about Israel.
“When academic institutions
— including the one that you’re teaching — instead of leading the charge to illuminate young minds and hearts, provided space for conspiracies that fuel hate, what did you do to stop it? What did you do to counter the lies?” Zarchi asked.
The Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee, with three other pro-Palestine student groups, wrote in a Monday
social media post that “now is the time to escalate.”
“Harvard continues to defend its investments in this genocidal regime despite repeated student and faculty demands for disclosure and divestment,” the PSC statement read. “After a year of genocide, we only grow more committed to the struggle for a liberated Palestine.”
University spokesperson Jason A. Newton wrote in a past statement that “Harvard has and will continue to be unequivocal — in our words and actions — that antisemitism is not and will not be tolerated on our campus.”
“We remain committed to combating hate and to promoting and nurturing civil dialogue and respectful engagement,” he wrote.
In his speech, Zarchi criticized recent campus events featuring pro-Palestine speakers, including an Oct. 2 event organized by the PSC titled “Palestine on the Olympic Stage” and an Oct. 3 Israel-Palestine study group at the Harvard Kennedy School featuring former Human Rights Watch Director Kenneth Roth.
Hillel Executive Director Jason Rubenstein ’04 asked attendees to reflect on the “uncertain” history of the Jewish diaspora.
“To be Jewish right now means to pray with a degree of pain and an urgency that I never imagined when I moved into that room in Weld 24 years ago,” Rubenstein said, pointing to Weld Hall, a freshman dorm in Harvard Yard.
Students delivered musical performances. Danny Denenberg ’26, the Israel Chair of Harvard Hillel, sang “October Rain,” written by Israeli singer Eden Golan about the Oct. 7 attack.
At the vigil’s close, Yael A. Danon ’28 led attendees in singing the Hatikvah, Israel’s national anthem, before they gathered in circles.
Harvard Chabad installed a display between the Science Center and Annenberg, the freshman dining hall, featuring photos of Israeli hostages on milk cartons. The installation will remain up through Oct. 10, according to a Sunday social media post from Chabad.
“On October 7, 2023, terrorists committed the worst attacks on Jews since the Holocaust,” the post stated. “Terrorists kidnapped more than 250 hostages that day. More than 100 of the kidnapped are still held hostage in the dungeons of Gaza, subject to torture, sexual assault, and starvation.”
“Let them go,” Chabad wrote.
Unity of Fields also posted photos on X of graffiti on the campus of University of Massachusetts Amherst on Tuesday.
“Autonomous activists struck the Engineering Quad and Fine Arts Center of UMass Amherst… Expect more autonomous actions at UMass Amherst. We will not rest until war profiteers are gone, and Palestine is fully liberated,” the post stated. After similar acts of vandalism at SUNY New Paltz on Sunday night and the City University of New York, New York Governor Kathy Hochul wrote in a post on X that the state has “offered the NYPD and CUNY support to ensure all students are safe.”
COLLEGE FROM PAGE 1 michelle.amponsah@thecrimson.com azusa.lippit@thecrimson.com
A Harvard spokesperson said the Harvard University Police Department “was made aware of the presence of the truck in the Harvard Square area.” Over the past year, billboard trucks have frequented the streets surrounding Harvard’s campus, criticizing University leadership, displaying anti-Palestinian messaging, and doxxing pro-Palestine students. In October 2023, a “doxxing truck” drove around Harvard’s campus displaying the names and faces of students who were a part of organizations that signed onto the controversial PSC letter. The truck was a part of a doxxing campaign against pro-Palestine students, several of whom had their full names, photos, and personal information posted on websites and social media accounts that labeled them as “terrorist sympathizers” and antisemites. In their Monday statement, the PSC mourned the 41,000 Palestinians killed during a year of war, and referenced student activism during the South African anti-apartheid movement and the Vietnam War-era anti-war protests.
“It is in this tradition that the student intifada rises to demand that Harvard end all support for death and colonialism in Palestine and beyond,” the PSC wrote.
“Our role in the United States, at Harvard, in the imperial core, is to remain unflinching in our solidarity,” the PSC added. “After a year of genocide, military campaigns, and forced displacement, we only grow more committed to the struggle for a liberated Palestine.”
madeleine.hung@thecrimson.com
Chabad and Hillel members gathered
CENTRAL ADMIN
Garber Calls PSC Statement ‘Offensive’
Garber declined to issue an official University statement on the PSC’s post.
BY
Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 criticized a statement by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee that described Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7 as the day “Gaza broke through Israel’s blockade.”
“I would remind everyone that they speak for themselves,” Garber said in an interview with The Crimson on Tuesday, his first since his appointment as Harvard’s 31st president.
However, Garber said he would not respond to the PSC’s Monday statement with an official University message, demonstrating how he will lean on the University’s new institutional voice policy to avoid speaking about public events.
“Although I don’t agree with the statement — in fact, there are aspects of it that I personally find offensive — I am not about to make
University statements about matters of public affairs that are not part of the core of the University,” Garber said.
Garber’s comments came just hours after the PSC issued another controversial statement on Instagram, which stated that Oct. 7 showed the world “that the ongoing Nakba and apartheid cannot stand.”
In their statement on Monday, the PSC also called for student protesters to ramp up their pro-Palestine activism on campus.
“Now is the time to escalate,” the PSC wrote on Monday.
“Harvard continues to defend its investments in this genocidal regime despite repeated student and faculty demands for disclosure and divestment,” they wrote.
“Harvard’s insistence on funding slaughter only strengthens our moral imperative and commitment to our demands.”
The PSC post on Monday echoed a statement released in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks that held Israel “entirely responsible for all the unfolding violence.”
The original statement last year faced national criticism and placed intense pressure on former Harvard President Claudine
Gay to condemn the attacks and distance the University from the statement, which had been initially co-signed by more than 30 student groups at Harvard.
The new pro-Palestine student group statement is likely to test Garber against the same pressures that led to Gay’s fateful Dec. 5 testimony before Congress and, eventually, her resignation as president.
Gay’s widely-criticized Oct. 9, 2023, statement — and the series of clarifying remarks that followed — first ignited debate among Harvard affiliates about when the University should comment on world events. Two days after her initial statement, Gay followed with another message that condemned Hamas and distanced the University from the student statement, though it did little to quell the backlash.
As interim president, Garber moved quickly to adopt a new institutional voice policy that discourages University officials from making statements on controversial issues that are not “directly related to the core function of the university.” The statement was in large part crafted to address the situation Gay faced in 2023 and that Garber faces now.
“Given the diversity of viewpoints within the university, choosing a side, or appearing to do so can undermine the inclusivity of the university community,” the institutional voice policy states. Garber, however, said that the message issued by Gay last year — which distanced the University from the student groups’ pro-Palestine statement — would not necessarily violate the University’s new policy.
Hillel Temporarily Suspends J Street After Flyering Campaign
BY SALLY E. EDWARDS CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Harvard Hillel Executive Director Jason B. Rubenstein ’04 temporarily suspended J Street U on Tues-
day after the group’s members used Hillel funding to print and display flyers around Harvard Square that Hillel staff reported to campus and city police as “intimidating.”
The flyers, which featured text from the Jewish liturgy alongside photos of the war in Gaza and the West Bank, were sourced from an external progressive Jewish organization but printed using Hillel funding, according to two students who participated in the flyering.
Members of Hillel leadership — unaware that the organization had paid for the flyers — discovered them on poles near Rosovsky Hall on Mt. Auburn Street early Tuesday morning. The staffers then flagged down a Harvard University Police Department officer to report the flyers, according to HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano.
As the flyers were discovered on property that belonged to the City of Cambridge, HUPD alerted the Cambridge Police Department, which took a report from Hillel.
“The reporting party stated the flyers contained graphic content they felt was meant to be intimidating,” CPD spokesperson Robert Goulston wrote in a statement. “Officers removed the flyers that were on city property and submitted them for evidence.”
Rubenstein wrote in a statement Tuesday night that Hillel’s leadership were “shocked when a student betrayed our trust, flagrantly violated the affiliation agreement they had signed just a
month earlier, deceived our staff, and misappropriated Harvard Hillel’s funds to produce and distribute these dangerous materials across campus.”
“We are reviewing the status of the organization led by this student as a recognized group within Harvard Hillel, and have in the interim suspended this student’s and their group’s use of Hillel’s resources pending the outcome of the review,” he added.
The suspended student serves as co-chair of Hillel’s chapter of J Street U, a movement across college campuses dedicated to advocacy for a two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hillel’s website describes its branch of J Street U as “the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans.”
The flyer on the pole by Hillel showed an image of a crying child in Gaza covered in rubble, with the words “we have sinned before you” written in both English and Hebrew. Another poster on Plympton Street showed the aftermath of an explosion in Gaza with the text “we have been evil before heaven and mankind” in both languages. The posters’ text is pulled from the liturgy of Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement which begins Friday evening.
Halachic Left, the group that originally designed the flyers, wrote in a statement early Wednesday morning that the “posters articulate what we picture during
prayer as religious Jews in this moment of repentance and shaping of our coming year, and are not an attack on our Jewish communities.”
“Instead they’re an invitation for dialogue about the meaning of repentance in a time of collective suffering and ongoing destruction,” the group added. “While Harvard Hillel was not the target of this action, we invite Harvard Hillel to take this opportunity to speak with and support its students — of all political views — as they navigate being Jewish in this terrible time.”
Rubenstein wrote in his Tuesday night statement that “spreading words like these — even when they come from a Jewish student’s sincere religious and moral concern for Palestinian lives and Jewish virtue — is recklessly irresponsible at a time of surging violence against Jews and Jewish institutions inspired by precisely these grotesque portrayals of Jews as collectively and uniquely sinful.”
“As such, their appearance throughout campus is antithetical to Harvard Hillel’s central purpose of ensuring the safety and flourishing of Jewish life at Harvard,” Rubenstein added.
The controversy surrounding the Hillel flyers comes a day after the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, and at a time of heightened tensions on Harvard’s campus.
In an initial statement Tuesday morning — before Rubenstein was
aware that Hillel students were responsible for the flyering campaign — he noted that the fliers had appeared outside Hillel just hours after the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee published a controversial social media post calling for increased campus activism.
“We are deeply concerned by the rising rhetoric on campus, now finding physical expression just feet from Harvard Hillel,” he wrote in the Tuesday morning email.
“Last week Harvard affiliates charged Hillel with complicity in genocide; last night the PSC wrote that ‘now is the time to escalate’ — which is exactly what these posters represent.” At the same time the HUPD responded to the flyers on Tuesday, Harvard Campus Services employees worked to clean red paint off the John Harvard Statue — the result of an anonymous act of vandalism in solidarity with the “Palestinian resistance.”
In a Tuesday evening statement, Halachic Left wrote that the postering campaign was designed “to draw our communities’ attention to the ongoing massacre in Gaza by the Israeli military.”
“We understand that facing the reality of what is happening in Gaza — with material and rhetorical support from diaspora communities — is frightening for many,” the group added.
sally.edwards@thecrimson.com
PSC Holds Vigil in Harvard Yard to Mourn ‘1 Year of Genocide’
installation was intended to stand in contrast to the University’s policy of refraining from public statements on controversial public matters.
Rakesh Khurana, attended a Thursday evening vigil organized by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee to commemorate “one year of genocide.” Holding candles on the steps of Memorial Church, attendees listened to speeches mourning Palestinian civilian lives lost in Gaza and reading a portion of the Quran. Khurana briefly stood and listened at the back of the crowd for a portion of the vigil. The group wrote in a Wednesday Instagram post that the vigil marked the conclusion of their twoday art installation in Tercentenary Theatre, which featured posters and wooden structures displaying information about the Palestinian death toll in Gaza. After the vigil, speakers encouraged attendees to walk through the exhibition. In a Thursday email to The Crimson, the PSC wrote that the art
“In a campus that purports itself to be ‘institutionally neutral,’ we created a space in Harvard Yard intended explicitly for Palestinian grief,” the group wrote.
“After a year of genocide, decades of student organizing against the occupation, and illegitimate Israeli military campaigns, today’s vigil brought the installation to a close and reminded the Harvard community that the grief we feel over the 42,000 lives lost over the course of this year will continue to underscore our organizing,” they added.
Thursday’s vigil came three days after the PSC wrote in an Instagram post that Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel demonstrated that “the ongoing Nakba and apartheid cannot stand,” adding that now “is the time to escalate” campus protest activity. University President Alan M. Garber ’76 called the statement “offensive” in a Tuesday interview with The Crimson.
Several speakers at the vigil discussed particular aspects of the art installation, which student organizers said they set up early Wednesday morning in Harvard Yard after driving in a truck of supplies.
Eva C. Frazier ’26, an organizer with the PSC, encouraged attendees to specifically engage with one component of the installation: 1,000 slips of paper displaying the names of Palestinian citizens who died in the conflict which she said took students 10 hours to construct.
“Each of these losses is an entire universe,” Frazier said.
“A university that refuses to even acknowledge Palestinian grief is actually complicit in the ongoing genocide,” she added. “We have a duty to honor the individuality that is denied of these names each and every day.”
A University spokesperson did not immediately respond to a Thursday evening request for comment.
The PSC’s art installation also featured a timeline from 1948 to October 2024, describing particular Israeli attacks and marking an increasing number of Palestinian deaths.
“Creating the timeline was hard,” Kulani B. Temesgen ’26, an organizer with the PSC, said. “It was and is emotionally exhausting, because it is a painful reality to have to bear witness to.” During the vigil, Elom Tettey-Tamaklo — a Harvard Divinity School student who was criminally charged for a confrontation with a pro-Israel student during a demonstration last October — criticized attempts to “justify” and “intellectualize” the impact of the conflict, pointing to the University’s policy of refraining from public statements on controversial public matters. “We decline institutional neutrality when our investments are killing the children of Gaza,” Tettey-Tamaklo said. “We are as guilty as those who hold the gun.”
“Even the stones of Gaza cry out — the rocks that crush the heads of innocent children,” he added. “These stones condemn you, America. These stones condemn you, Harvard.”
No One Wants to Join GSAS Student Council
EMPTY SEATS. The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Student Council has struggled to fill its ranks.
Laura E. König, the president of the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Student Council, came to the body’s first fall meeting in September with a mission: fill some of the GSC’s more than 80 open positions.
She had a compelling pitch, telling attendees about how fun and fulfilling her time on the council had been. “We would really love to fill these positions,” she pleaded. “Those are great roles, and they give you a seat at the table.”
But it has increasingly become a hard sell.
Though the GSC is the official student government of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences — responsible for advocating for graduate students, allocating research grants, and organizing social events — it has been plagued with problems of meager attendance and recruitment, with dozens of representatives and several major executive positions regularly going vacant.
Last semester, the GSC failed to elect a candidate for president during its semesterly general elections, and left over half of its executive board positions unfilled. And most of the GSC’s recent meetings were spent hosting special elections for open positions rather than working on student advocacy.
In interviews, more than a dozen GSAS students said they were unfamiliar with the council’s work or purpose and added they were too busy to consider serving.
And though König, a Ph.D. candidate in Neuroscience, has committed to prioritizing engagement and communication with GSAS students this semester, she acknowledged that doing so is difficult without a chair of communications to spearhead those efforts.
The other vacant positions include co-chair of support, three at-large representatives, and nearly 80 program representatives, who are responsible for advocating for students in their degree programs. Under the GSC’s constitution, the council is required to keep holding special elections until the executive and at-large positions are filled — meaning that at the current rate of recruitment, the GSC is likely to spend most of the fall semester trying to fill its ranks. And in April, when presidential elections begin, the whole process will start again.
‘Not Visible’ Attendance at the GSC has seen better days. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, meetings drew a much higher turnout, according to GSC treasurer Fardin Aryan, a Ph.D.
candidate in Molecular and Cellular Biology.
“Wall-to-wall packed,” he said. “From what I heard. I wasn’t there.”
But now, students say they are mostly unaware about the GSC’s function — something that drives them away from running for positions or attending meetings.
“My impression was like, what is it? What does a graduate school student council get done? What does the student council in general get done? So I haven’t really looked into it,” said Shawn C. Holstein, a first-year Ph.D. candidate in the East Asian Studies program.
Despite advertising via email lists, flyers, and social media the GSC has struggled to communicate its purpose to rank-and-file GSAS students.
“I’m not informed of what it
does, what it means. I think that’s reason number one,” said Rajiv K. Swamy, a first-year student in the Computational Science master’s program.
“It’s not visible, you know,” said Adan Ramirez-Figueroa, a Ph.D. Candidate in the department of Romance Languages and Literature. “It’s very hard to find what they are doing if you are not actively looking for it.”
Many students said they were simply more concerned with their personal research or academics than getting involved in student government.
“I only attend a two-year master’s program, and I’m also an international student,” said Roujia Li, a master’s student in East Asian Studies. “So I think my major issue right now is getting used to the workload of my seminars.”
“Maybe I will participate more in next semester, or next year, but
this year I want to focus more on my own studies,” Li added.
Kenneth S. Alyass, a Ph.D. candidate in History, said that for students in the later years of their program, “it gets to a point where you don’t want to make the University the entirety of your social network and community.”
“You want to branch out,” he said. “You want to be part of the city of Boston.”
König said the GSC has tried to reach students by posting on Instagram and sending messages to a GSAS-wide Slack, but many students said those communications slipped through their inboxes. And König said she recognizes the need for more “face-to-face” recruitment efforts.
“What really got me into the GSC was when I actually met up with people and got to know them,” König said. The council is currently planning a meet-and-
greet event for all representatives in late October.
Ethan Sontarp, who is now running for chair of communications, said it took a face-to-face referral from a friend to get him involved.
“There’s another student in my department who is active in the GSC, and so he encouraged me to look into it, if I was interested in learning more about how the Graduate School functioned and wanted to give back and build community,” said Sontarp, a firstyear Ph.D. candidate in Environmental Science and Engineering. Now, he said, most of his friends know about the GSC — because he makes them know about it.
“Only because they’re around me, they’re aware, because I would talk about it,” Sontarp.
“But I’m not a good representative of the general student body.”
‘Matters of Mutual Concern’
The GSC sets lofty goals for itself: as GSAS’ official student government, its stated purpose is to support and recognize the challenges facing graduate students.
“Through monthly open meetings, the GSC brings together students across disciplines to raise matters of mutual concern,” its website reads.
“The group also provides a vehicle for students and administrators to have a meaningful dialogue about the issues that shape the graduate experience at Harvard.” And there are indeed “matters of mutual concern”: grad students face low program stipends, high costs of living, and a culture of harassment in faculty advising relationships. They take on heavy workloads as teaching fellows and face a difficult job market, with a decreasing number of graduates entering tenure-track positions.
But the GSC’s recruitment problems have made it difficult for the group to prioritize advocating on students’ behalf.
One particular issue is that of the GSC’s 138 program representatives, only 61 were filled as of August, with several major programs — including Economics, Computer Science, and Physics — lacking any representation at all.
Previously, all program representatives would be required to attend each meeting. But attendance dropped after the GSC eliminated the attendance requirement as of 2023.
If the GSC saw increased student participation, König said, it would see “more voices, more diversity” at meetings. “It just makes the process more and more effective,” she said.
“It makes such a difference knowing what the students want instead of guessing what people might want based on your own experience,” König added.
Another obstacle is that the body must run — and rerun — special elections for unfilled positions, which often takes time away from discussing substantial issues in open meetings.
Still, at the GSC’s latest open meeting — following nominations for special elections — the body did devote some time to briefly discussing the advocacy issue of the month: professional development.
Max Street, a divisional representative for the Humanities, raised that funding for graduate students to pursue professional goals “seems incredibly arbitrary” across departments. Aden Solway, a former GSC Vice President, raised the idea of a fund to support students’ transition into the job market — similar to a discontinued professional development fund that GSAS used to offer. Another attendee echoed Street’s complaints of inconsistent departmental funding. But by then, it was past 7:30 p.m. and people had begun filing out. The meeting was over.
GSAS to Overhaul Advising in 6 Departments, Dench Announces
BY MAEVE T.
AND
The Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences will overhaul advising across six academic departments to address longstanding concerns about structure and transparency in the advising process, GSAS Dean Emma Dench said in a Tuesday interview. The changes — months in the making — implement recommendations made by the GSAS Graduate Admissions & Graduate Education working group last fall. The GAGE report, commissioned by former FAS Dean Claudine Gay, called for comprehensive degree requirements, clear expectations for students and faculty, and the creation
of an “advising village” that includes multiple mentors.
“We have six pilot departments” that will be pursuing “full GAGE implementation,” Dench said, adding that other departments are also implementing certain recommendations, such as the advising village.
In addition to the six pilot programs, GSAS relaunched The Advising Project, which provides advising resources and workshops for faculty, Dench said.
“Faculty can just sort of drop in and find out more about advising, and see what models we’ve got for better advising,” Dench said.
Starting on Oct. 22, GSAS will hold six open-enrollment faculty workshops to help “faculty and students optimize their advising relationships” over the
course of the fall semester, according to the GSAS website.
The initiatives seek to address concerns about ineffective or poorly structured advising and its impact on student mental health, which have long been complaints raised by graduate students.
Dench said the new programs hope to remove the “guessing game of advising.”
“Often, the advisor is not doing anything wrong or anything like that,” Dench said. “It’s more that we all need to articulate expectations.”
The majority of GSAS students — between 84 and 94 percent — reported their primary advisors to be “excellent” or “very good,” the report found. Nevertheless, the report read, “students who experience less effective advising experiences
cannot be dismissed.”
“In many cases, it is the lack of structures to support individual advising or the absence of departmental processes to help students progress that can lead to a breakdown in the faculty-student relationship and, in some instances, an inability on the part of the student to thrive in the program,” the report read.
Dench also added that graduate students could also look beyond just faculty members for support during the academic year.
“They might imagine an expanded village that includes friends, narratives, etc., who can be supportive,” Dench said. “It’s a long and sometimes a lonely process of writing a dissertation.”
FINDING HOPE. A year later, I am struck by what many, including those leading our Jewish communities, still won’t say.
BY MATTHEW E. NEKRITZ
Itried to ignore the notifications. The stories of violence were too much to digest and the impending Israeli response too horrifying to consider. Frozen in bed, I dreaded any idea of engaging with my classmates — especially those with no personal ties to the region or in-depth knowledge about its history.
By midday on October 7th, as details poured in and Jewish and Israeli students sat in fear, texting loved ones and praying that their friends and family were safe, the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee had already published their infamously heartless statement. I tried to ignore that too.
On the morning of Oct. 9, I saw my friend Aidan. He and I think very differently about Israel, but we still connect where we agree and fiercely debate where we don’t. We leaned on each other often last year.
With tears in his eyes, he told me that his close friend from United Synagogue Youth, a Jewish youth organization, was taken into Gaza by Hamas. He wasn’t yet confirmed alive. For all we know, Hamas is still holding Omer Neutra hostage. That day, we were supposed to throw a party. Our friends were relying on us to show up for them and wear a smile, and we did our best. Nobody knew what Aidan was going through. There are some things you just don’t say.
As I reflect on a year filled with pleas for dialogue and pedantic editorializing about “discourse,” I am struck by what many, including those leading our Jewish communities, still won’t say.
As University President Alan M. Garber ’76 read the Haftarah portion at Rosh Hashanah services, I thought about when encampment goers depicted him with horns and a tail last spring. I’m astonished that, while pro-Palestine coalition members removed the poster after backlash, they couldn’t even find the simple humility and self-awareness to say sorry. Even left-wing Jewish groups on campus made quick excuses, as if devil horns and a pointy tail on a Jew don’t set off every lowbrow antisemitism alarm in the books. Of course, it was just another bullet point in a running list of “inadvertencies” and an equally long list of shallow rationalizations by students who — when not minimizing Jewish concerns — otherwise act with moral steadfastness and a commitment to justice.
Again, what some won’t say.
There’s no doubt one can be staunchly anti-war, anti-occupation, and unapologetically Jewish, but much of the vocal Jewish left on American campuses is failing — capitulating to ideological conformity and providing valuable content for tokenization. Just look at Jewish Voice for Peace at the University of Michigan amplifying calls for “death to Israel” last month. Not very peaceful — enough said. Harvard “Jews for Palestine” risks the same. Just this weekend, they advertised a flagrantly revisionist “One Year of Genocide, One Year of Resistance” event the day before October 7th, while not even pluralistic memorial gatherings from national left-wing Jewish groups like IfNotNow were worthy of their promotion.
Offering scant Judaism, their online communications lack autonomy from organizations whose unserious leaders laud Hamas’s violence with grins at “Intifada Roundtables.”
At this point, rather than cultivating a robust and impactful Jewish left, Harvard Jews for Palestine has become no more than a de-facto social media megaphone with bundled antisemitism insurance for Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine — the campus pro-Palestine coalition that frames nearly anything Israeli as an absolute ontological evil.
As a leader of a public-service-focused pre-orientation program, I’ve watched the acrobatics used by organizers to avoid acknowledging the atrocities of October 7th and the anti-Israeli prejudice at Harvard when recapping the last year.
I’ve seen firsthand a room of otherwise outspoken students stay silent after a co-leader, unprompted, attacked a student who wasn’t even there under a coded presumption that they were “a Zionist — I mean, a bad Zionist.”
Jewish or not, is there not a single person left in these rooms with the moral courage and ideological conviction to say, “let’s not do that, guys”?
But there, too, is still much that our established Jewish organizations won’t say.
At the vigil for the six hostages murdered by Hamas in late August, I stood in the back with a few friends. We discussed how the crowd contained only a fragment of our diverse Jewish student body.
I thought about why. Maybe out of fear of labels, maybe out of frustration that many leaders of our American Jewish institutions still struggle to even say “Palestinian.”
Maybe it’s because vigil attendees were told “this isn’t a political issue,” as if Jewish organizations on campus haven’t politicized our identities all year long.
As if Harvard Chabad hasn’t attacked student activists and academic organizations with broad strokes, peddling propaganda through its events and on social media with nebulous online organizations like “Israel War Room.”
And so, as we memorialized the hostages, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who has become a symbol of desperation and hope for Jews worldwide, I thought about what they didn’t say.
That on Hersh’s bedroom desk as he left it, behind stacks of clothes never to be worn again, was a drawing of the Western Wall and Al-Aqsa Mosque, the words “JERUSALEM IS EVERYONE’S” superimposed above in English, Arabic, and Hebrew.
His values shouted from the floor-to-ceiling stickers on his walls: Sprawling anti-fascist symbols, “Refugees Welcome” decals, and an unmistakable love for left wing football clubs.
They didn’t mention that Hersh’s parents have been calling for a ceasefire deal for months. That negotiations have brought home 105 hostages, while a year of military operations has saved only eight and killed at least six, all the while ravaging and displacing most of Gaza, killing thousands of innocent Palestinians.
That week after week, tens of thousands of Israelis are taking to the streets to protest Netanyahu’s disregard for humanity, abandonment of the hostages, and avoidance of a ceasefire deal.
Without the courage to say what is hard but true, the “bring them home” chants ring hollow.
This Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur challenge us to search for sources of hope in our Jewish community amid a year of darkness.
I find hope in my friends on campus who have organized the Forward-Thinking Jewish Union, and like-minded others who endeavor to host discussions and Jewish events that don’t eschew tough questions yet retain their identity, independence, and pride.
I find hope in the brave activism of hostage family members and in the masses demonstrating in the streets of Tel Aviv and organizing with Standing Together, an Israeli-Palestinian grassroots movement that fiercely advocates against Israel’s deadly war and occupation.
I find hope in Standing Together’s shared vision for a profound reshaping of Israeli society and a theory of change that does not rationalize violence nor close their ideological tent through moral posturing.
I find hope in the memory of those like 74-year old Kibbutz Be’eri resident Vivian Silver — a lifelong activist who would drive sick Gazan children to Israeli hospitals — even as I am painfully reminded that she, like many inspiring Israeli peaceniks living near the Gaza border, was killed on October 7th. Burned to death in her home by Hamas.
I find hope in the multitudes, like my friend Aidan, who have endured the pain of loss and the dread of the unknown in the wake of senseless violence, and who are far too often absent from people’s consideration as they debate geopolitics, antisemitism, and campus free speech. Amid fear, uncertainty, grief, and frustration, we find hope.
–Matthew E. Nekritz ’25, an Associate Editorial editor, is a Social Studies concentrator in Cabot House.
October 7th One Year On, According to 7 Harvard Affiliates
FOR SO MANY PEOPLE, life has not been the same since October 7th. This week, in commemoration of the anniversary of that day, we have published a series of deeply personal op-eds and columns reflecting on what it — and the year that has followed — has meant to people in the Harvard community. — Tommy Barone ’25 and Jacob M. Miller ’25
OP-ED
My October 7th Story: Everything Changed
COMPLICATED CAMPUS. It’s been a year since October 7th. As I walk through Harvard Yard to class, I am constantly reminded that I live two realities.
BY YEHUDA TOR
Last year, on October 7th, I took the SAT. I was visiting Seoul at the time. I planned to apply to Harvard, and though I knew my chances of admission were slim, I was determined to try. After finishing the test, I walked to where my parents were staying, feeling relieved because I thought the test had gone well. I was already thinking ahead to my planned travels through Southeast Asia. In an instant, everything changed. I powered up my phone to find dozens of missed calls and hundreds of messages from my friends and extended family back home. Strange, given the six-hour time difference between Seoul and Tel Aviv, where it was still early morning. As I scrolled, the first images and videos appeared. Trucks filled with armed terrorists streaming into Israeli cities. Men with guns attacking innocent civilians in their homes. I was shocked. I understood that something very bad was underway, though I couldn’t yet grasp the full scale of the horror unfolding before me. I called a close friend who was on his way to Ben Gurion Airport. We were supposed to meet in the Philippines for a surfing trip, but he had been called up to his army unit. We tried to salvage our plans, naively suggesting that we could postpone the trip by a week or two. Neither of us knew that as we spoke, a massacre and mass rape was underway in the south of Israel.
We ended the conversation as we usually did — “take care of yourself,” I told him. But something felt different as these words came out of my mouth — they had real implications. “Take care” was no longer just a phrase. It was an insistent request that he do his best to stay alive, while still doing his duty. I didn’t know if I would ever speak to him again. I can’t explain it but I felt it in my bones. Now, I end many of my conversations with friends and family using these same words, and I’ve grown accustomed to the feeling that this may be our last exchange.
I called my friend again to see how he was. He had already arrived in the south, before the media could document the carnage. He told me that the situation was much worse than anyone knew, and he described what he had witnessed: bodies scattered across the streets, houses turned to ash, whole communities destroyed.
I decided then to cancel my travel and rejoin my army unit, but it proved nearly impossible to get home, as rockets fired by Hamas and Hezbollah led to airlines canceling flights en masse. Every Israeli that I knew abroad was trying to make their way back, hoping to help in whatever way they could.
I finally secured a ticket through Switzerland, and found myself roaming the streets of Zurich, confronted by the contradictory nature of my reality. Around me, people sipped coffee at sidewalk cafes and shopped in gleaming stores, enjoying themselves on a beautiful October day, while my world crumbled. I was thinking about the months ahead, about what I was headed for, about the prospect of death.
At the airport in Zurich, in order to prevent further attacks on Israelis on their way home, there was no sign indicating where I could find my checkin, and a heavy security presence policed the area.
There must have been at least a hundred people from the Swiss Jewish community who had come to show their support. They had organized suitcases filled with donations to send to their loved ones in Israel. As I was standing in line, they asked if my family was safe, wished me safety, and thanked me for what I was doing. It felt like the apocalypse, but I also felt a strong consolation in this expression of Jewish solidarity. In the following weeks, while serving on reserve duty, I went through a period when I didn’t want to answer phone calls. Too often, the ring brought devastating news — a friend from work killed trying to save people from the massacre at Kibbutz Beeri, a friend’s brother murdered in his home, and more. I attended enough funerals for a lifetime. Two boyhood friends who were at the Nova music festival managed to survive, and that was a ray of light. Then came the news about the hostages taken into Gaza, and I couldn’t stop imagining the horrors they must be going through. Unfortunately, Israelis have some experience with hostages, and we understand well that when Hamas captures an Israeli hostage, getting them back will be extremely difficult. No one was able to grasp the magnitude of the number of hostages, when it was announced. Two-hundred fifty-one hostages, seized from their homes. Among the hostages taken were children, grandparents, and even a baby. Twelve of the hostages were American citizens. As of today, a year after their abduction, at least 97 people taken hostage on October 7th are believed to remain in the hands of Hamas in Gaza. When I was admitted to Harvard, I was hesitant to come. I love my home, and I’m proud of my heritage, and I was bothered by the idea of being in a place where the anti-Israel sentiment is so strong, and where people might judge my morals and values before knowing anything about me. However, when I came for Visitas, I met incredible, open minded people. My gut told me that I should come here, and that it would be okay.
In my short few weeks as a Harvard student, I’ve discovered how complicated and incredible this place is. I’ve experienced discrimination purely based on my identity as an Israeli. I have also met many students who are sincere and curious. Several have become close friends, and I’m looking forward to getting to know many more of my classmates. It’s been a year since October 7th, and Israel is still at war. As I walk through Harvard Yard to class, I am constantly reminded that I live two realities. In front of me, students go to lectures, solve problem sets, and relax on the grass. Back in Israel, my family is in bomb shelters, my friends are serving on the front line, and my home is under attack. As we continue to suffer, we mark one year since we lost the first victims of October 7th, one year since our neighbors, friends, and family were dragged into captivity in Gaza. May the memory of the 1,195 victims of October 7th be a blessing, and may the hostages return home safely and soon.
–Yehudah Tor ’28, a Crimson Editorial comper, lives in Hurlbut Hall.
N. DIAL— CRIMSON DESIGNER
I’m an Israeli Professor at Harvard. It Has Never Been Harder.
IMPRACTICAL DEMANDS. Being an Israeli-American faculty member at Harvard has been complicated this year. Pursuing truth and justice are both crucially important, but as a university we should be dedicated to the former, lest we lose sight of the latter. A year after October 7th, much of Harvard is not living up to that standard.
BOAZ BARAK
On the morning of Saturday, October 7th, 2023, I texted my friend Yohai to check on his family in Kibbutz Be’eri. He replied “My sister has been locked with her kids in a safe room for 9 hours. There were terrorists inside her house, but she is OK. My mother is also locked in her safe room and also had terrorists inside her house. We do not know where my dad is.”
Yohai’s sister, mom, and nephews were evacuated safely. Yohai’s dad was considered missing for two weeks until his body was identified. Being an Israeli-American faculty member at Harvard has been complicated since then. For starters, up to this year, I did not think of myself as a “Zionist” any more than my U.S.-born daughter is an “Americanist.” I did not consider the existence of my birth country as being up for debate.
Yet apparently, at Harvard, it is.
On Sidechat, one Harvard student said to another that Hamas “can do whatever they can to those hostages” and that “i hope your relatives were kidnapped.”
The situation in the Middle East is complicated, yet the chants on campus have been simple. Pro-Palestine protesters argue that any offense or discomfort felt by Jewish students pales in comparison with what Gazans are experiencing. They are right. You don’t have to be a Palestinian to be horrified at the news from Gaza, with more than 40,000 Palestinians killed, the majority of them innocent civilians. On the other hand, even if Israel conducted itself better — as it must — this war, brought on by Hamas’ attack, was never going to be free of civilian casualties.
In an anonymous letter self-attributed to “Harvard Students” and emailed to me and over 400 other faculty members, the authors admit that some activists in their movement “will accept nothing less than total reconquest, total evacuation, or total eradication of the Jews.” Thankfully, they also included that there are some “who still believe a two-state solution could somehow work.”
“Pro-Israel” activists often portray all protes -
tors as antisemites or “pro-Hamas.” While some such elements exist, this did not match my experience when I visited the Harvard encampment. The protestors I talked to were chiefly motivated by empathy and a desire for justice. To be honest, as much as I detest the “intifada” chants, if I believed that they could help with the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, I might have joined in.
But there is a troubling disconnect between the urgency of the situation and the protestors’ focus on demands such as divestment, which, even if granted, will make zero practical difference. I visited the encampment during a particularly fraught period in the ceasefire negotiations. Yet the (non-Palestinian) students I talked to did not seem to follow the news.
Afterward, I could not shake the feeling that some protestors care more about expressing their righteousness than about making an actual difference for the Palestinian people.
One manifestation of this is the calls to boycott the 2024 election or vote for third-party candidates, despite the fact that a win by former President Donald Trump — who denounced President Joe Biden for not letting Israel “finish the job” and uses “Palestinian” as a slur — will have dire consequences for Palestinians.
To make it worse, there is a new wave of support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, which is notoriously explicit in its opposition to any normalization between Israelis and Arabs.
Portions of BDS have even boycotted organizations such as Standing Together, a joint Arab-Jewish peace movement that has been protesting the war and protecting humanitarian aid convoys.
Jewish settlers and Islamic militants both believe it is divinely ordained that they will eventually win the entire territory “from the river to the sea.” At Harvard, activists believe it is ordained by being “on the right side of history.”
This secular determinism is no more rational than the religious one. As I have previously written, there are about seven million Jews and seven million Arabs between the river and the sea, and neither is going anywhere. The only way for a peaceful resolution is through exactly the sort of work that the BDS movement is boycotting.
So why are intelligent and well-meaning students making demands that will have little practical impact on the people they purport to help? I worry that it is a symptom of a broader issue. Students — and, I’m sorry to say, some faculty as well — struggle to distinguish between what they want to be true and what is actually true. They put (their vision of) justice ahead of their critical faculties and accept without question assertions by those they view as representing oppressed groups.
Pursuing truth and justice are both crucially important, but as a university we should be dedicated to the former, lest we lose sight of the latter. A year after October 7th, much of Harvard is not living up to that standard.
For example, one section of a required course at the Harvard Graduate School of Education titled “Equity and Opportunity” featured a “Pyramid of White Supremacy,” which lists the Anti-Defamation League and “anti-BDS” as “coded” white supremacy, more explicit than hiring discrimination and on par with redlining, confederate symbols, and the War on Drugs.
Shortly after October 7th, 2023, a leading Harvard activist (who later decried their treatment by the University) described the massacre as “palestinian efforts to reclaim land” and was aghast that they had “read frantz fanon in no less than four classes here” but their peers “side with the colonizer.”
If this is the conclusion they came to after taking four classes on the topic, Harvard must be doing something wrong.
As any reader might have gleaned, I have taken to heart the events of October 7th and their aftermath. I have written open letters and op-eds, organized a visit by families of hostages, talked to activists on both sides and joined Harvard’s Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias.
But one thing I did not do was talk about it in my class. Students take my “Introduction to Theoretical Computer Science” course to learn about computer science, not my political opinions, as just as I believe these opinions to be. The best way I can teach them integrity is to just do my job. –Boaz Barak is the Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science.
October 7’s Twin Crises — In Israel and at Harvard
HISTORIC LINKS. The massacre of 1,200 people, along with its immediate and ongoing justification by many at Harvard and around the world, breached the two bulwarks that have sheltered the preponderance of the Jewish people for the past three generations: Zionism and American liberalism.
OP-ED BY
JASON B. RUBENSTEIN
The gruesome images of Hamas’s slaughter on October 7, 2023 only hint at the scars that day and its aftermath have left on the Jewish community. The massacre of 1,200 people, along with its immediate and ongoing justification by many at Harvard and around the world, breached the two bulwarks that have sheltered the preponderance of the Jewish people for the past three generations: Zionism and American liberalism. Understanding this, like so much of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, means not merely knowing history, but feeling the past’s afterlife in the present. October 7 was a metastasized echo of the infamous 1903 pogrom in Kishinev, Russia. For three days, Kishinev’s Christian residents rampaged through the Jewish quarter, murdering and raping their Jewish neighbors, and extinguishing thousands of Jews’ hopes for a peaceful, dignified life in the diaspora.
Haim Nachman Bialik, the preeminent Hebrew poet of his generation, eulogized Kishinev in his epic poem, “In the City of Slaughter.” Its verses read like captions to the horrifying videos that Hamas fighters proudly recorded and grotesquely broadcast to the world: Arise and go now to the city of slaughter; Into its courtyard wind your way; There with your own hand touch, and with the eyes of your head, Behold on tree, on stone, on fence, on clay, The spattered blood and dried brains of the dead… Descend then, to the cellars of the town, There where the daughters of thy folk were fouled, Where seven foreigners flung a woman down, The daughter in the presence of her mother, The mother in the presence of her daughter, Before slaughter, during slaughter, and after slaughter…
For Bialik and his fellow Zionists, Kishinev’s lesson was clear: Jewish safety and dignity depended on Jews acquiring the capacity to defend ourselves.
The 20th century’s unceasing anti-Jewish violence — from the massacre of 100,000 Ukrainian Jews during and after the First World War, to the Holocaust, to the 1955 decimation of the Jewish quarter of Mazagan, Morocco — provided a tragic surplus of evidence for this argument. For decades, had you asked almost any Zionist leader to
define the purpose of Zionism, they would have told you, “So another Kishinev will never occur.”
Then, in the very place that was imagined and created to ward off these horrors — twenty-five Kishinevs in a single morning. A breach in the bulwark of Zionism.
But Bialik’s wasn’t the only path chosen by Jews, then or now. Part of Judaism’s genius is the rejection of any central authority, freeing communities to chart diverse and conflicting paths through history.
Many Jews of the early 20th century saw the solution to centuries of hatred and violence in the forces of rationalism and tolerance — and their embodiment in liberal democratic principles.
For Jewish communities built on the foundation of our neighbors’ reasonableness and acceptance, no events in recent memory have been more destabilizing than the justification and celebration of Hamas’s brutality — at Harvard and beyond.
This crisis began that very day, with the infamous letter from dozens of student groups, which held “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” continued with excusal of material antisemitism, assumed physical form in the shunning of grieving Israeli students, and continues to this day.
Several months ago a student told me that, in light of his non-Jewish friends’ insensitivity to the encampment’s antisemitism, he had begun to wonder how his great-grandparents realized, in 1936, that they must leave Germany. They fled, against their families’ wishes, leaving everything behind, and were the only two members of their families to survive.
A historical contrast illuminates here as well — this time the 2018 massacre of 11 Jews praying in Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue. The shooter, Robert Bowers, believed that a major Jewish organization was perpetrating a genocide.
In Bowers’s case, it was a genocide of the white race, abetted by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society’s advocacy for immigrants and refugees, but the logic isn’t too distant from that of Hamas apologists at Harvard: An unwarranted allegation of genocide against a Jewish collective justifies all means of “resistance.”
Bowers’s conspiratorial delusions, coming from the far-right fringes of American politics, were easily recognized and forcefully rejected here and in the left-of-center circles where most Harvard affiliates travel.
But coming from the left, the antisemitism of Soviet and post-Soviet export of anti-Zionism, has become entrenched at Harvard, proving hard for many to detect, and harder yet to denounce.
For four centuries, American Judaism’s bedrock has been not only our neighbors’ neighborliness, but their capacity to reject antisemitic libels that inspire violence, regardless of their political bent. As Hamas’s violence was to Zionism, Harvard affiliates’ framing of the onslaught was to American Judaism: A tectonic rupture, sundering the invisible foundations of everything we have built.
Amid all this, we know we are not the only ones grieving, and that ours is not the only world that has been shattered.
Gaza is in ruins. Its residents have suffered immense loss, and their prospects for a promising future are more precarious than ever. Judaism insists that we steadfastly attend the entirety of the loss, anguish, and grief — never allowing our hearts to contract and harden as an escape from the profound tragedy of war.
To be Jewish today means to be the descendant of a hundred generations in search of peace, and to be a builder: Here at Harvard, working within and beyond the Jewish community to create a tolerant pluralism stronger than the ascendant illiberal forces of polarization; and in Israel, and across its borders, to foster the flourishing of every citizen and community in dignity and safety.
As we honor the memories of Hamas’s victims and pray that the 101 remaining hostages languish not one day longer in captivity — I invite you to join in the community of Harvard Hillel, as we together rebuild the world they cherished and dreamed of, carrying their memories every day as a guide and as a blessing.
– Rabbi Jason B. Rubenstein ’04 is the Executive Director of Harvard Hillel.
The safety and dignity of Israel’s Palestinian citizens and neighbors are matters of Jewish concern. Regarding their future, like our own, we feel an aching mixture of hope, pain, and most recently, despair. Soothing a dispersed and demoralized Jewish people, Isaiah promised a deferred redemption, proclaiming “Great will be the peace of your children” — a prophecy that has grown only more remote since Oct. 7. The Talmud, profoundly serious and perpetually playful, suggested an emendation: “Do not read ‘your children,’ but rather, ‘your builders.’”
JACK R. TRAPANICK— CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
COLUMN
The Year I Left Israel Behind
ILLUSORY STORY. I have spent my whole life wondering what it means to be Jewish. I used to imagine Judaism through the celebration of holidays, recitation of prayers, and a commitment to “tikkun olam,” or repairing the world. I conceived it through my memories of and allegiance to Israel. But when I think about Judaism these days, I just feel deceived.
BY VIOLET T.M. BARRON
The last time I was in Israel, I didn’t know it was also Palestine.
It was June 2017, and my family and I were in Jerusalem for my bat mitzvah. We held the ceremony at the Western Wall and then traveled south, to the Negev desert. There, we toured the Ramon Air Force Base and ate ice cream on the side of the road. We stayed with friends on a kibbutz — a communal settlement unique to Israel — and then flew home on El Al, the national carrier. We laughed about how outdated the plane was (the seats had built-in ashtrays, not TVs).
I had been to this land — which I used to think was mine — once before. I was five. I surveyed desert expanses from the peak of Masada, explored ancient cities overrun by cats, and felt the Dead Sea’s brine in every split of my skin. I remember, with biting clarity, crisp white hotel sheets, smoothies served in shot glasses, a man reading in a lawn chair buoyed by the sea.
I remember standing, then, in the kitchen of a house in Kibbutz Ein Dor. I’ve craned my neck to study the fridge. It’s a picture of the family we’re staying with: two parents and four children. I’ve met all of them but Nadav, the oldest brother. I ask where he is. Nadav is away, serving in the Israel Defense Forces. I am afraid of guns and bombs and death; I ask why anyone would want to join the military. It was not a choice, I am told; service is mandatory for all Israeli citizens over the age of 18. I look up to the fridge one more time, and I think of Nadav. I wonder where he is at that moment. I wonder if he is scared.
***
I spent last Oct. 7 — and the days following — crying. I recited the Mi Shebeirach, the Jewish prayer for healing, again and again. I prayed for the 1,200 Israelis killed and mourned the breach of somewhere sacred. When, that same day, more than 30 student organizations held Israel “entirely responsible” for all unfolding violence,” my grief warped into anger. They didn’t get it; they didn’t know the Israel I knew. But when those same students were publicly and recklessly accused of antisemitism, I took pause. I couldn’t understand why their criticisms of Israel (albeit maddening) had been advertised as prejudice. On campus, disingenuous claims of antisemitism were wielded to silence anyone who sought to challenge Israel’s immediate and devastating re -
taliation in Gaza. Forged allegations were levied against anyone who, like those 35 student organizations, sought to situate the violence of October 7th in the context of the decades-long occupation that arguably bred it. And on a global scale, exaggerated charges of antisemitism were used to justify very real hatred — and indiscriminate violence — against Palestinians.
Grief turned to anger turned to guilt. As a Jewish student on campus where — according to University administration and every major media outlet — the Jewish community was imperiled and afraid, I felt directly responsible for this narrative perversion.
For the no-hire lists and “doxxing trucks,” for the students driven to remove their names from their doors and walk to class in pairs, for the imagination of Jewish grief and Jewish safety as above all else. And as a Jewish person in a world where Jewish safety is prioritized over and at the direct expense of Palestinian safety, I felt — I feel — directly responsible for what I came to understand was a genocide in Gaza. So, hesitantly at first and wholeheartedly now, I took to organizing. I occupied University Hall last November to call for a ceasefire; I camped in Harvard Yard this spring to protest the University’s investments in Israel; I was suspended (and unsuspended) from school for my participation in said encampment.
And still, I haven’t even come close to achieving what I view as a central goal of my organizing for Palestine: to reproduce the undoing of my own Zionism on a mass scale.
The conflation of antisemitism and anti-Zionism — the latter which, notably, only entered my vocabulary this past year — did not begin with doxxing trucks, congressional subpoenas, or federal lawsuits. It merely (and shamefully) took the campus-turned-national controversy for me to realize just how far back this conflation stretched.
Indeed, since its inception, Zionism has worked to trap Jews in a state of perpetual, existential fear to excuse the inexcusable: the existence of an ethnostate and, now, the genocide it commits.
Israel’s story is an illusory one. It cannot be told without burying another story: that of Palestine. I know this because for twenty years, I peddled it.
In Hebrew school, I colored in maps that treated Gaza, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights as undifferentiated parts of Israel — a single, crayoned mass of blue. In my third-grade class I was told, outright, that “Palestine never existed.” I was taught an incomplete history: 1948 as the declaration of Israeli independence, without mention of the catastrophic
expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians.
I have spent my whole life wondering what it means to be Jewish. I used to imagine Judaism through the celebration of holidays, recitation of prayers, and a commitment to “tikkun olam,” or repairing the world. I conceived it through my memories of and allegiance to Israel.
But when I think about Judaism these days, I just feel deceived.
***
The memory of the ride back from Ben Gurion Airport makes me sick. What that crappy, outdated El Al plane represents — unfettered access to the land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean — is not afforded to millions of Palestinians. In 2018, the Israeli Knesset passed the now-infamous “Nation State Law,” which declares that “the right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.”
I feel foolish for laughing at that plane, for making light of the fundamental right to return home, granted to Palestinians under international law but not by Israel. I feel ashamed for ever deriving joy from a state and ever believing in an ideology which lie at the root of generations of Palestinian trauma, dispossession, and destruction.
Israel’s deception is convincing, its narrative compelling, and its trauma gripping. It requires us to believe that the Holocaust is unique not just in particulars, but in essence. It is not. The evil that consists in the extermination of a people — and the annihilating bigotry that engenders it — is hardly exceptional. Genocides have raged across history and the world — in Myanmar, Armenia, Rwanda, Cambodia, and now Gaza.
To imagine the Holocaust as the ultimate, inimitable evil — to clutch and disfigure its memory as Zionism has — is to disgrace its memory and the mandate of “never again.” I was raised saying these words; I grew up attending Jewish World Watch’s annual “Walk to End Genocide” with my synagogue. That chants of “never again” have, for many Jews, become “not in our name” means we have not just failed to learn our history, but twisted it to wreak similar horrors. It is Palestinians who are the chief victims of that failure — made unsafe by the lethal lie that Jews can only be safe in a state of and for Jews.
Jews don’t need a state of and for Jews. Certainly not one that comes at this cost. We can live and have lived in diaspora — we did so for thousands of years prior to 1948, and more than half of us still do. I, for
one, am not made any safer, nor is my Judaism any more affirmed, by the existence of a country halfway across the world.
I understand why those in my grandparents’ and parents’ generations might disagree — they are that much closer to the Holocaust, that much closer to the shattering of everything we had known. I know, though, that the world is safer for diasporic Jews now, that “never again” rings true for us. But if the last year shows anything, it is that Israel’s so-called safety — the mirror image of Gaza’s unsafety — is as fragile as it is tainted.
For the past year, my world has spun on an unfamiliar axis. Not a day passes that I don’t think about Palestine. Every day I am haunted by the near-paralyzing guilt that this time it is us Jews who are winning the narrative war, us Jews who are carrying out the genocide. The distortion of my world pales in comparison to the more than 42,000 worlds Israel has extinguished, the nearly 100,000 it has debilitated, and the almost two million it has uprooted since October 7th. To the 750,000 worlds seized and relocated to make room for a Jewish state in 1948. To the six million worlds that exist, to this day, in forced diaspora. I finally met Nadav — the soldier, the eldest son — on my second trip to Israel; it was he who gave us the tour of the Israeli Air Force base, where he was working at the time. I don’t know where he is now. My childhood fear for him has matured into rage — at the state that conscripted him and at the ideology that legitimizes that state. In fact, since I stopped valorizing Israel and started organizing for Palestine, I’ve felt a lot less fear than hope.
I dream of the day when there are no more Nadavs, because there will no longer be a need for guns and bombs to keep Palestinians out of a place they call home. I dream of the day when I can stomach my children having their own b’nai mitzvahs at the Western Wall. I dream of the day when my Palestinian friends and their families can join us — when “us” means all of us. The next time I am in Israel, it will also be Palestine.
–Violet T.M. Barron ’26, an Associate Editorial editor, is a Social Studies concentrator in Adams House and an organizer with Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine and Harvard Jews for Palestine.
The Palestine Exception Hurts Us All
HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT. For Palestinian students like me, the Palestine exception isn’t just a term — it defines our daily reality. I’ve policed myself in op-eds, classrooms, and everyday conversations. I’ve held back contributions that would enrich the dialogue and provide factual context — all because I know the risks. Every time, I’m reminded not only of what I lose, but what we all lose when an entire perspective is silenced.
COLUMN BY
ZAKIRIYA H.G. GLADNEY
In the face of overwhelming suffering abroad, you might expect a university like Harvard to lead in confronting difficult truths and fostering dialogue. Instead, even the word has become a taboo: When Palestine is at stake, Harvard may cancel your panel, jeopardize your enrollment, or barely act for months as you are doxxed for your views. Understanding the Palestine exception at Harvard — the constant, unfair repercussions facing those who support or even talk about Palestine — requires focusing on two key characteristics: its reliance on the ostensible neutrality of administrative rules, and the fact that suppressing speech may occur without explicit intent, much like other forms of discrimination.
That Gaza, one of the great humanitarian crises of our time, is met by a pervading silence on campus speaks volumes. The silence isn’t passive — it’s imposed.
It was imposed when Harvard administrators remained selectively silent, statement after statement. As Palestinians suffered, former University President Claudine Gay’s public communications — aside from a brief, isolated mention at Family Weekend — conspicuously lacked any reference to Palestinians, for months.
It was imposed when the Safra Ethics Center pulled their support from a panel on Islamophobia and antisemitism for a purported lack of ideological diversity, leading to its eventual cancellation. Even discussing forms of hatred — distinct
from the conflict — now requires a background check on your stance towards Palestine.
And it was imposed when Harvard suspended five students and forbade the graduation of 15 seniors for their peaceful protest against complicity in the genocide — an inordinate punishment compared to what previous movements faced.
The Palestine exception extends beyond disciplinary action, undermining our speech climate and stifling campus debate.
The perpetrator need not be one entity. For organizers, the administration becomes a source of repression. For students and faculty, online harassment targeted at people’s livelihoods is often the source. The outcome is the same: fear, pressure, and institutional bias suffocate crucial debate.
Regarding activism, some suggest that organizers supporting Palestine merely face the natural consequences of their actions, and that time, place, and manner restrictions on speech in certain campus spaces justify the suppression of speech and the punishment of protest. But ignoring the context in which these rules are created and applied misses the point.
Powerful political interests — Congressional investigations, donor pressure, and lawsuits — compel Harvard to silence protesters, panels, and Palestinians alike. To that end, administrators create new rules, while beginning to enforce old ones.
Consider how Harvard has historically responded to protest movements with far fewer
consequences, despite similarities in their tactics, or the new reformulation of protest rules — which now, oddly, prohibit chalk and signage.
It’s quite conceivable that these new rules emerged in response to all the understandable pressures Harvard faces. And it may be true that Harvard’s administrative decisions were not meant to discriminate against pro-Palestinian speech. But the effect is one and the same — speech is chilled, and pro-Palestine sentiment suppressed.
One begins to wonder if that was Congress’s and the donors’ intent all along.
The Palestine exception operates much like racism, sexism, and bigotry — it persists regardless of intent.
We don’t excuse a sexist employer because it’s not clear whether they “intended” to pass over female applicants for a job or if their actions were instead motivated by communal expectations. Even if sexist behavior was not their express intent, the result is the same, and we rightly consider the employer complicit in perpetuating misogyny.
The key is to notice that the collective effect of Harvard’s decisions creates a hostile environment for advocacy and discourse.
The punishments for pro-Palestine activism are harsher than for anyone else, and rules are applied strictly to anyone who dares mention Palestine across the University.
These disparities aren’t just coincidences, they reflect a long history of denying the very existence
of Palestine and Palestinians — a lie central to anti-Palestinian racism.
For Palestinian students like me, the Palestine exception isn’t just a term — it defines our daily reality. I’ve policed myself in op-eds, classrooms, and everyday conversations. I’ve held back contributions that would enrich the dialogue and provide factual context — all because I know the risks. Every time, I’m reminded not only of what I lose, but what we all lose when an entire perspective is silenced.
Harvard’s motto is veritas. But how may we pursue truth when we push important topics to the margins, or when faculty and students alike fear speaking openly? Can Harvard claim to value civil discourse when it allows external pressure to dictate which conversations and protests can occur — or even who’s worth mourning?
Denying the Palestine exception betrays the mission of higher education. It invites a future where academic freedom becomes a scarce luxury, where silence is rewarded, and where the intellectual mission is sacrificed for the illusion of order. If you’re still searching for the Palestine exception, look around. It’s here.
–Zakiriya H. Gladney ’27, a Crimson Editorial editor, is a double concentrator in Statistics and Social Studies in Dunster House.
ADDISON Y. LIU — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
CAMBRIDGE CITY COUNCIL
City Council Raises Property Taxes
The Cambridge City Council unanimously voted Monday to raise property taxes by 7.3 percent on residential property and 10.1 percent on commercial property amid concerns about the sustainability of the city’s growing budget. The overall tax increase is 9.21 percent, according to a report prepared by City Manager Yi-An Huang ’05 in advance of the meeting.
Huang said the tax increase was needed due to Cambridge’s rising budget and dwindling federal Covid-19 relief funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.
“This is the second year in a row that we have had a higher than average increase in the tax levy, which is driven by the growth in the city budget,” Huang said at the Monday meeting.
“Over the last couple of years, we have funded significant program expansion through both federal ARPA dollars and city budget growth,” he added.
The ballooning budget has recently been the subject of consternation among city leadership after reaching nearly $1 billion this year.
Huang said though the current situation is not dire, the city needs to tighten its belt in order
to avoid significant cuts in the future.
“We are not in any sort of a fiscal crisis, but it will be very important for us to moderate our budget growth, prioritize our new investments and ensure that we can sustainably fund all of the programs that are making a dif-
ference in our community,” he said. Huang also noted that Cambridge property rates remain lower than other nearby cities, such as Somerville, Boston, and Brookline.
Councilor Paul F. Toner said during the meeting that the city
needs to slow budget growth because the steep tax increases are unsustainable. “I know we all want to do many wonderful things for all of our residents, but going forward through the financial planning process, I think we’re just going to have to tighten our belts,” Toner
said. “Even though we have a very envious tax regime in the city, I don’t think people really love seeing the number 7 or 8 percent every year going up in taxes.”
Councilor Catherine “Cathie” Zusy specifically raised concerns about the city’s debt.
“What keeps me up at night,”
she said, is that “10 percent of our budget is for debt service.”
“We’re paying 100 million for debt service now,” she added, stating that the city has now borrowed a total of $930 million. But Councilor Sumbul Siddiqui expressed optimism with the city’s fiscal position, responding that the debt “doesn’t keep me up at night.”
“Councilor, magnesium, it’s good,” she said, addressing Zusy. “Take that.”
Siddiqui said she hoped future conditions
Council Declines to Endorse Ending MCAS Graduation Requirement
BY MACKENZIE L. BOUCHER
COLLIN
Councilor Patty M. Nolan ’80, who also voted against the policy order, said an alternative to the MCAS requirement should be proposed before it is removed. “I would love to see a comprehensive, holistic assessment that’s been vetted to replace MCAS,” Nolan said. “If Massachusetts does not have any statewide requirement, we would join the lowest performing states in the entire country who don’t have any statewide requirements.”
The ballot question was originally introduced by the Massachusetts Teachers Association and is backed by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep.
The Cambridge City Council rejected a policy order to endorse a ballot question to remove the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System standardized test as a graduation requirement for high schoolers at a meeting Monday evening. The policy order failed to pass by a 4-4-1 vote, with Mayor E. Denise Simmons voting present. The measure, sponsored by Councilors Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler, Sumbul Siddiqui, and Ayesha M. Wilson, supported a yes vote on ballot question two — which would allow school districts to establish their own graduation requirements in place of MCAS. Simmons, who chairs the Cambridge School Committee, did not say at the meeting why she voted present. Councilors opposing the policy order argued that a standardized testing graduation requirement was needed to maintain rigor in the school system. “We shouldn’t be letting kids graduate from our high schools without being able to demonstrate that they can meet these basic requirements,” Councilor Paul F. Toner said. “Even the kids who in the past didn’t pass it, they can come back and work with the school system to meet those requirements,” he added.
Ayanna S. Pressley (D-Mass.). Massachusetts Secretary of Education Patrick A. Tutwiler and Governor Maura T. Healey ’92 have both indicated that they oppose the measure.
The measure is aimed at supporting students with Individualized Education Plans, ESL learners, and students of color who are “historically marginalized” in the education system, according to the MTA’s website, In the 2023-24 academic year, test scores of Cambridge Public Schools students revealed a widening achievement gap, which has long existed along both racial and socioeconomic lines. In grades three to eight, 27 percent of Black students met or exceeded expectations on both the English Language Arts test and Math test, compared to 72 percent of white students on the English Language Arts Test and 70 percent of white students on the math test.
At the meeting, Siddiqui said the ballot proposal would help students of color in Cambridge.
“I believe that by eliminating
this graduation requirement, it will help eliminate the amount of stress and strain that many of our young people experience, especially our Black and brown students,” Siddiqui said.
If passed, the ballot initiative would remove the MCAS as a graduation requirement, but Massachusetts students would still take the test as a measure of aptitude.
Andrew King, an alum of Cambridge Rindge Latin School, said at the meeting that the measure would help alleviate stress surrounding the MCAS.
“I saw severe psychological impacts of this test firsthand when I was at Rindge and students who were perpetually stressed, failed the test multiple times, and were just held back,” King said. Massachusetts voters will decide the fate of the measure at the polls on November 5. The measure requires a simple majority to pass.
Nolan said during the meeting that the measure is “going backwards for all of us.”
Cambridge Resident Arrested for Possession of Ghost Gun, Cocaine
BY SALLY E. EDWARDS AND ASHER J. MONTGOMERY CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Cambridge Police arrested Michael Burke on Thursday for the possession of illegal drugs and a homemade firearm — commonly known as a “ghost gun” — and accused him of being involved in “cocaine distribution over an extended period of time” in a press release. CPD confiscated more than 200 grams of cocaine, more than $8,000, the ghost gun, and another unregistered firearm from Burke near Mount Auburn Street and Putnam Avenue. He was taken into custody without incident.
Burke — a 49-year-old Cambridge resident who is not affiliated with Harvard — is the subject of an ongoing investigation by CPD’s Criminal Investigations Section, the Massachusetts State Police, and the Drug Enforcement Agency, according to a Thursday CPD press release.
“As the result of a long investigation to address narcotics violations in Central Square and the larger Cambridge community, a search warrant was executed on Wednesday, October 9, 2024, in the area of Mount Auburn Street and Putnam Avenue,” the release stated.
Burke was previously arrested by CPD in March for trafficking cocaine and other drugs and carrying a knife. Ghost guns, which are often assembled from kits and are untraceable, have grown in prevalence in recent years, to the alarm of many gun control advocates and regulators. The Biden administration issued regulations in 2022 requiring that ghost guns must be marked with serial numbers and that their buyers must pass a background check. Though the regulations were challenged by gun rights groups, the Supreme Court signaled their support for the rules in oral arguments on Tuesday. Middlesex County District At-
torney Marian T. Ryan stressed the importance of law enforcement agencies collaborating for “the removal of drugs and guns from our communities.”
“Ghostguns are a significant threat to public safety and those who possess them are intentionally skirting the Massachusetts gun laws,” she said in the release. “These prosecutions reflect our commitment to holding those in possession of these guns accountable.”
Geoffrey D. Noble, the Massachusetts State Police Colonel, said in the release that the state police “remains committed to thoroughly investigating illegal firearms.”
“Our partners at the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office and the Cambridge Police Department share that resolve,” he said. “The items recovered during the arrest illustrate the positive impact of state and local law enforcement working together.”
The Cambridge Rindge and Latin School is located at 459 Broadway Ct. SOUMYAA MAZUMBER — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
The Cambridge City Council voted to raise property taxes amid concerns about the city’s growing budget. SANTIAGO A. SALDIVAR — CRIMSON
Alewife Economic Mobility Hub Launches
JUST A START. Local residents gathered for the opening of the Economics
More than 60 Cambridge residents gathered at Rindge Commons in Alewife on Thursday afternoon for the launch of the Economic Mobility Hub — a new building offering affordable housing, job training, trade education and child care services. The event celebrating the completion of Rindge Commons — a $37 million investment into Cambridge economic mobility — featured speeches from local and state politicians including Rep. Ayanna S. Pressley (D-Mass.), Cambridge Mayor E. Denise Simmons, and Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kim L. Driscoll.
In her speech, Pressley called the services offered by the hub a “must have.”
“Every member of our community deserves access to all of those things,” Pressley said. “The
Rindge Commons Economic Mobility Hub will not only provide housing, it will also integrate vital services that support residents in achieving their goals.” Carl Nagy-Koechlin, the exec-
utive director of Just A Start — the nonprofit leading the project — described the Economic Mobility Hub as “a bridge” between disadvantaged residents and job opportunities.
“Cambridge is booming — the life science industries in particular are booming — but so many people lack access to those opportunities,” Nagy-Koechlin said. “This project is really all about making that connection. ”
Simmons said in her speech that the success of the hub relies on collaboration between many governmental and nonprofit organizations.
“The Rindge Commons Economic Mobility Hub is a shining example of what we can accomplish when we all work together, guided by a shared belief that we can get it done for all that come to us,” Simmons said. “It speaks of the essence of what we truly value here in Cambridge: equity, inclusion and the determination to uplift every member of our community.”
Driscoll in her speech said that the Economic Mobility Hub and Just a Start are setting an example for other cities in the Greater Boston area.
“We’re so thrilled to have such
a strong partner here in the city,” Driscoll said. “You are leading the way for other communities.” Heather Robinson, an alumni of Just A Start programs who spoke at the event, said that the education provided was integral to her career in science after she became pregnant at 17 and had to drop out of high school.
“It gives you not only the science background, but it gives you the soft skills,” she said. “To communicate, to get along with people, the dynamics of
Officials Celebrate Beginning of $77 Million Fire Station Renovations
BY NADIA A. BORJA,
Top Cambridge officials celebrated the start of long-delayed renovations on the Cambridge Fire Department Headquarters at a Tuesday groundbreaking ceremony at the 491 Broadway St. construction site.
At the ceremony, Cambridge Mayor E. Denise Simmons acknowledged the project’s extended timeline and rising costs, which ballooned from $25 million to $77 mil-
lion as the city expanded its renovation plans.
“This $77 million investment represents our unwavering commitment to public safety, our firefighters and the well-being of every Cambridge resident,” she said.
Acting Cambridge Fire Department Chief Thomas F. Cahill attributed the changing plans to the city’s discovery of underlying issues with the existing building.
“Once they started digging into those problems, they found that the problems were all structural so you just couldn’t commit and put another Band-Aid,” Cahill said in an interview before the event.
The project was originally proposed in 2019 but has faced delays due to expanding construction plans, complications related to its urban location, and pandemic-related setbacks. The city now expects to finish renovations in summer 2026.
Architect Theodore Galante, whose Cambridge-based firm helped design the renovations, said in an interview that the high costs were necessary.
“Doing a building like this and getting it right, making the building as sustainable as we are, costs money,” he said. “You can either have it fast, cheap, or good.”
The project aims to improve the safety and functionality of the 92-year-old building with enhanced safety features, updated living quarters, and a new public art installation in office spaces.
At the event, city staff distributed a program highlighting their plans to make the building more sustainable — including charging stations for electric vehicles, LED lighting, better insulation, rooftop solar panels, and efficient heating and cooling systems.
Brian Paradee, the senior project manager for the renovations, praised the city’s efforts to make energy-efficient upgrades despite the
Cambridge School Committee to Consider Expanding Union Leader Speaking Time
The Cambridge School Committee has been discussing how to discuss at committee meetings. In recent weeks, the conversation has centered around how much time union leaders have to speak at meetings — and how to formalize rules around public comment time allocation. At the Oct. 1 School Committee meeting, committee members Rachel B. Weinstein and José Luis Rojas Villarreal proposed a motion that would extend the speaking time of union leaders with business with CPS — including Dan Monahan, president of Cambridge Education Association, the union for Cambridge Public Schools’ educators — from three to six minutes. During the meeting, 13 parents and teachers also delivered public comments in support of the motion, which is slated for discussion at the committee’s Oct. 15 meeting, according to the Cambridge Public Schools website. The extension courtesy was first informally offered during Vice Mayor Marc C. McGovern’s mayoral tenure from 2018 to 2020, he said, to “improve the relationship between the School Committee and the union.”
“We were trying to make an effort to work more collaboratively with the union,” McGovern said, adding that the union felt they “couldn’t get to everything that they wanted to say.”
But at recent meetings, such extensions have not been offered.
At the Sept. 17 School Committee meeting, committee members voted against extending Monahan’s speaking time. The vote, as well as Mayor E. Denise Simmons’ reference to Monahan as “the gentleman that usually speaks,” drove 17 parents to express frustration on a parent email listserv. Monahan also spoke at the Oct.
1 meeting but was cut off at the three-minute mark before touching on the motion. In the cut off portion of his remarks — which Monahan sent in an email to The Crimson — he planned to tell the committee that approving the motion would be “a symbolic recognition that you, the school committee, value the input of educators and the CEA.”
In an interview with The Crimson, Monahan said the shift away from the courtesy extension came without warning or a discussion, which he felt was “disrespectful.”
“Any time that there’s a slight from one organization to another organization, it’s going to have an impact,” Monahan said of the CEA and School Committee’s relationship. “I am hopeful that we will be able to resolve it. If that’s the case, then we’ll be in a better place.”
At the Oct. 1 meeting, Duncan MacLaury, a teacher at CRLS, emphasized the importance of extending the CEA president’s time as a means of “outreach to the public,” who may be able to offer support for the union.
In July, the School Commit-
tee approved new contracts for paraprofessionals and family liaisons, ending months-long and protest-filled processes. In December, the committee ratified new teachers contracts.
In recent years, lengthy contract negotiations have resulted in educators walking out from School Committee meetings and dozens of charged public comments. Parents have expressed support for educators through both public comment and emails to a parents’ listserv.
Simmons wrote in a statement to The Crimson that she valued “fairness and equity for all voices wishing to be heard.”
“Granting extended time for public comment to one group, even if that group represents an educators’ union, raises questions about why this courtesy should not be extended to all unions,” she wrote, “or to other constituencies who may also feel they have significant perspectives to share.”
During the Oct. 1 meeting, CPS legal counsel Maureen A. MacFarlane also advised against the motion.
“The School Committee should
not be treating public comment speakers differently from each other based on their views or to which organization they belong to or to which organization they represent,” MacFarlane said, citing a “recent Massachusetts Supreme Court” decision.
Instead, MacFarlane recommended the committee invite union representatives to present during the meeting itself, drawing parallels to presentations given by two school principals at the Oct. 1 meeting, who were asked to speak about recent awards they received. Their remarks were listed under “Presentations” on the meeting’s agenda.
Though Monahan said he would be open to an agenda item as a CEA speaking apparatus, he proposed revisiting another old practice: giving the CEA a physical seat at the table.
“This actually used to be the case many years ago, to actually have a CEA seat at the School Committee table — just like there’s a student seat at the School Committee,” Monahan said. “It’s a non-voting member, but they can participate in discussions or ask questions.”
“That would be much preferable, to either public comment or even an item on the agenda,” he added.
According to Monahan, a seat at the table was custom under former Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves ’72. City Councilor Patricia M. “Patty” Nolan ’80 — who served on the School Committee during Reeves’ second tenure as mayor — wrote in a text message that she could not recall if such a seat existed.
Despite advocating for more union representation at School Committee meetings, Monahan said he is not hopeful that such customs will be implemented.
“I’m not super optimistic — given our current population of the School Committee — but I also wouldn’t rule it out,” Monahan said.
building’s location on a narrow triangle of land between busy streets and Harvard campus buildings.
“There’s a big commitment in the City of Cambridge for sustainability — 17 geothermal wells on a tight site like this, solar on the roof, all-electric buildings,” he said.
In a speech at the ceremony, Galante described the renovations as a cutting-edge investment in sustainable public infrastructure.
“The city has taken on climate change in a way that is foundational,” he said. “It sets an example for what’s happening nationwide.” Simmons said in an interview that she hopes the planned addi-
tion of new privacy features will improve working conditions for women in the building.
“They need to have the same kind and quality of working conditions and sleeping conditions as their fellow firefighters,” she said. Both Simmons and Cahill — who dedicated the upgraded headquarters “to the over 60 firefighters who call this building their home, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year” — emphasized that they hoped the building would work better for its staff.
“I’m glad that Cambridge is in a position that they can afford to do this,” Simmons said.
Council Asks Mass. to Lower Speed Limit
The Cambridge City Council asked state officials on Monday to lower the speed limit and implement a “road diet” of fewer lanes on Memorial Drive, just two weeks after bicyclist John H. Corcoran ’84 died in a fatal crash on the parkway.
The discussion, which was continued from last week, comes as local politicians and city officials have renewed calls for increased safety measures on Memorial Drive following the crash. The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation began construction on safety improvements for a particularly dangerous stretch of the drive on Monday.
But the Council’s proposal, which narrowly passed 5-4, would go further, calling for a lower speed limit and fewer lanes along the entire length of the drive — already a contested site between drivers and bicyclists.
Though the policy order initially proposed to reduce the number of lanes from four to two, the Council passed a series of amendments to explicitly mention bike safety and pare down language in regards to the road diet.
Even then, opponents of the final policy order — which called for “reductions in motor vehicle travel
lanes” — remained unhappy with its language. Councilor Paul F. Toner moved to strike the phrase, but his amendment failed by a 4-5 vote. In a statement, Mayor E. Denise Simmons said she voted against the policy order over concerns that it would lead to worse traffic on side streets.
“One of my primary concerns is the potential impact on adjacent streets,” Simmons wrote. “If traffic lanes on Memorial Drive are reduced, I am concerned this will worsen traffic on Western Avenue and Putnam Avenue. Any changes must consider the broader impact on traffic and street conditions in our community.” But councilors who voted in favor of the policy order — including Jivan G. Sobrinho-Wheeler — forcefully argued that imminent change was necessary, especially in the wake of Corcoran’s death.
“It’s not crazy to imagine another person getting killed on Memorial Drive, and DCR then rushing to do a lane reduction, rushing to make those improvements,” Sobrinho-Wheeler said during the meeting. “I can just imagine the family coming and saying why did it take my loved one being killed to make this change?”
“And I would like to not have that conversation,” he added.
Dan Monahan speaks at a union rally outside Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in September 2023. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
Ringing The Lowell Bells: The Great Symphony
BY STELLA A. GILBERT CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Writing a column about bell-ringing is, in a way, a hopeless endeavor. The experience is like taking a photocopy of a photocopy — the product takes you further from the art at hand, the lived experience. How can I convey in writing what the vibration of the bell feels like up there in the tower, what it feels like as the breeze off the Charles River numbs your fingers while you tap away at wires that physically connect bell-ringer to bell, and what it feels like to struggle with your fellow ringers to honor your inherited place in a centuries-old tradition without ever really knowing the people you inherited it from? I’m writing this column because I’d like to try.
The history of the Lowell Bells is fairly well-documented already, with articles and information on the Lowell House website and even published in the New Yorker. However, what I’m interested in documenting is not the bells themselves, but rather the process and experience of bell-ringing. I’ve been a Lowell Bell-Ringer for over a year now, ringing each week and participating in the bell exchange trip to Estonia and Finland to learn from traditional ringers. In that time, I’ve slowly fallen in love with the practice and principles of bell-ringing, while simulta-
neously understanding how strange and discordant the tradition might seem from the outside. It’s painfully easy to get someone to hear the bells — just exist within a half-mile radius of the bell tower on Sundays at 1pm and you can’t escape it — yet very difficult to describe what’s going on inside the tower. In fact, it’s near-impossible to convey what being a true bell-ringer actually feels like.
For this column, I will be living and breathing bells — taking photographs, interviewing ringers, reflecting on peals, reminiscing about the bell exchange trip — anything to try to bridge that 128step gap between the platform of the bell tower and the world below. This first installment will cover what it means, practically and metaphorically, to be a Lowell Bell-Ringer, based on personal reflections and conversations with Carly Y. Chen ’26 and Benjamin Walter ’26, Presidents of the Lowell House Society of Russian Bell-Ringers (or, informally, the “Klappermeisters”), as well as James Browning, bell-ringer and Harvard Ph.D. student in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures.
The Practice of Bell-Ringing Bell-ringing is a concert of the limbs. The Lowell tower contains 17 bells, ranging in size and ringing technique. These include small bells called “trills” played with a set of ropes arranged like reins, a melody section played by
pressing on wires arranged like a keyboard, stompers played by pulling chains below the platform or stomping on pedals above it, as well as the 13-ton “Mother Earth” played by swinging the heavy clapper with a large rope from within the bell itself. Traditionally, bell-ringing is a one-person practice, with a master bell-ringer coordinating several of those actions simultaneously to create a cohesive peal.
But one mere Harvard student can’t pull this off alone. Thus, to be a Lowell Bell-Ringer is to be one limb among many. In a given peal, you might be serving as the right arm pulling on the trills, while your fellow ringer is the left foot pressing on the stompers, and another is the heartbeat keeping time by ringing Mother Earth.
“It’s a really physical thing,” Walter said. “It’s unlike pretty much any instrument. You really have to heave and ho to do it. You do it with your whole body.”
“With the bells, there’s something very primal,” Browning said. “You recognize that it’s just metal, and it’s air, and it’s you, and you’re connected to it.”
“The bells are physically majestic,” Chen, a Crimson editor, said. “They’re so big, and they’re literally loud! You can’t ignore them.”
Chen is right that they can’t be ignored, much to the chagrin of river house residents. To make matters worse, what the many unwitting listeners at Harvard don’t realize is that Russian
bells aren’t like Western-style bells that play melodies. Instead, their style consists of rhythmic layered peals without specified notes, an experience that may be off-putting for listeners expecting to hear a typical church bell melody.
The Lowell bells are a unique blend of the two styles, being both Russian in origin and melodically tuned to a Western scale. Because of this combination, Lowell ringers can play a mix of traditional Russian rhythmic peals, contemporary pop melodies, and eclectic Lowell Bell-Ringer originals — a whiplash-inducing combination that may be appreciated only by those following along inside the tower.
The Resonance of Bell-Ringing
The bell is a noble metaphor. In Russian Orthodox tradition, bells represent the voice of God, and when you hear Mother Earth’s sonorous, omnipotent tone, it’s easy to understand why. Bells are cyclical — punctuating campus every Sunday at 1 p.m., in the case of the Lowell bells — yet they also symbolize linear time marching forward toward salvation as they play through religious holidays and mark special occasions.
“The beauty of a symbol like a bell, a sound symbol, is that you don’t have a lot of intelligibility to it. It’s all stuff that you map onto it,” Browning said. Browning’s dissertation work
involves a cultural and literary history of bell-ringing.
“The vibrations never really go away, they just diminish,” he said. “You’re adding to the song that someone else played before you, and they’re adding to the song that was played before them. You’re picking up this piece that was started when the bell was first cast.”
Time feels suspended up in the bell tower. The bells produce the same sounds from the same metal that has rung in Lowell for decades, replicated from ones that rang for centuries before that. In that sense, we’re connected with so many predecessors we will never know, connected across time by sound and space.
“You’re part of this great, unfinalizable symphony that everyone gets to participate in,” Browning said.
Being a bell-ringer can sometimes feel like a negotiation. We have so many contradictions passing through us when we ring: American pop melodies played on ornate Russian bells, the voice of God emanating out of a secular bell tower, our centuriesold traditions interspersed with refreshing comments on Sidechat, a profoundly meaningful experience that we know most of our listeners might never understand. Bell-ringing at Lowell means experiencing the ridiculous and the sacred all at the same time — in the same pull of a rope or press of a wire.
stella.gilbert@thecrimson.com
Harvard Author Leila A. Jackson ’26 on ‘Exit Wound’
BY EMILY FALLAS-CHACON G.
WRITER
For Leila A. Jackson ’26, poetry presents an opportunity to convey meaningful stories and powerful emotions.
Jackson’s recent poem “Exit Wound,” which won the 2024 Academy of American Poets Prize, explores the story of Jesse Owens, the American track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Owens, despite his success, returned to poverty in America shortly after. In an interview with The Crimson, Jackson shared how her thoughtful undertaking of the story came about as a way to honor the untold aspects of Owens’s journey.
“I thought if we start in a historical place, maybe that could prove fruitful,” Jackson said.
“Italicized parts of ‘Exit Wound’ are taken from various articles that talked about how amazing Jesse Owens was.”
However, Jackson felt there was a larger, more critical aspect regarding Owens’s story that she needed to convey.
“The middle text is meant to signify: ‘What is less written down, but must have been more experienced?’ I didn’t know until I started researching in the archives that Jesse Owens returned to poverty. I thought that was a very poignant fact that people should know about. I was thinking, ‘How do we engage with what that must have felt like?’” Jackson said. To convey these emotions, Jackson brought intentional language to the single-sentence, prose style of the narrative. This prose format presented her with unique challenges.
“When you’re writing a prose poem, it feels like there’s almost less significance attached to each word for the reader, so I felt like I had an extra responsibility to make each word purposeful,” Jackson said. Jackson uses symbolism
across the entirety of the poem, drawing parallels between Owens’s time as an athlete and the challenges of poverty later on — even racing against horses to earn money. She made creative use of his nickname at the time, “The Buckeye Bullet,” to convey this message.
“I thought about: ‘What’s the arc here? What references can I make?’ I wanted to play around with the symbolism of the word ‘bullet,’ the starting gun, but also ‘bullet’ as in the man himself, but also as in something that wounds,” Jackson said.
Jackson’s writing allows Owens’s story to extend beyond the surface level. For this deep dive into Owens’s story, Jackson won the 2024 Academy of American Poets Prize. She credits her professor, Tracy K. Smith, for pushing her to submit the piece, and she recounted the thrilling experience of discovering she had won for work she was proud to put out into the world.
“I got the email while I was
driving, and I had to pull over, because I had to read it. I was just not expecting it at all,” Jackson said.
Originally, Jackson was unsure her submission would receive any attention. After rereading her piece and finding a new appreciation for it, she realized she had “undercut” herself at the beginning.
“I was really, really excited, and I was glad that they had seen something in me, and specifically in that poem, that I hadn’t really seen,” Jackson said.
Within the poetry scene, Jackson is fervently paving her own path, notably through combining her appreciation for the humanities and biology. As an English concentrator, Jackson has grown to appreciate the freedom poetry provides; as a pre-med student, the life sciences have provided a new perspective through which she writes. Jackson has found an intersectionality through the
courses she has taken, referencing the “theory about the body” that she is frequently faced with in her studies.
“I feel like a lot of the English classes that I’ve taken have engaged with it [this theory] in some way or another, and so doing that alongside pre-med has gotten me to think in different ways about the body, in a humanities sense and a biological sense,” Jackson said.
While at Harvard, Jackson hopes to continue her artistic journey, aiming to put together a creative thesis within the next two years. She holds many aspirations for her future, all with the intention of keeping poetry in her everyday life.
“I think doing a poetry collection would really excite me. I feel like it would be a fitting capstone for my time here at Harvard,” she said. In the long run, Jackson is also preparing to go to medical school. Between college and professional school, she
also intends to move into literary and artistic spaces like publishing. This passion for literature and creative writing began in Jackson’s childhood. What started as a “hobby” ultimately led her to involve herself in poetry in high school, and eventually to land her where she is today: a prize-winning poet. For aspiring writers, particularly first-years, Jackson offered some valuable advice.
“Just show up to whatever. Like they say, ‘Try everything out,’” Jackson said. “For writing, it’s not ‘one size fits all,’ and sometimes spaces appeal to some people but don’t appeal to other people. You’ll never know what fits you until you [get] the lay of the land.” Trying new things has worked wonders for Jackson.
“Exit Wound” represents only the most recent piece in Jackson’s portfolio, demonstrating the power of poetry as an equally archival and creative art.
THE HARVARD CRIMSON
OCTOBER 11, 2024
Arthur C. Brooks is a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard Business School. His research centers on human happiness. Before coming to Harvard, he served for 10 years as president of the American Enterprise Institute, a public policy think tank in Washington, D.C.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
FM: You’ve had a lot of different career transformations, and articles about you have really portrayed them as transformations. You’ve been a liberal French horn player to a conservative academic to a think tank president to now a happiness guru, as some describe you. Do you think describing it as a transformation is accurate?
ACB: I learned how to perform and do music, and then I went to college late. I graduated a month before my 30th birthday, by correspondence. I never set foot on a campus, except for the first pass through where I was there for 10 months — and then they asked me to pursue my excellence elsewhere for not doing work — when I was 18.
Then I went to graduate school and got my Ph.D., and I studied art, music, and beauty as a behavioral scientist — connected, right? I learned how to lecture, and I learned how to teach. That was a new skill.
Then I left because I had gotten super interested in this idea of opportunity. I went to the best possible place to try to instantiate opportunities for people who needed them, which is the American Enterprise Institute. Enterprise! Enterprise! Right? Also, I wanted to see if I could run a nonprofit and see what it would be like to be an administrator. It was hard.
After that, I realized what I was called to do was to lift people up and bring them together in bonds of happiness and love for the rest of my life. And so this was the culmination of everything I’ve done.
FM: Within literature, is there a specific genre — say, poetry, fiction or memoir — that’s best at capturing these types of experiences?
ACB: The one that sticks for me — that I think has influenced not just me, but the whole culture — is Aldous Huxley’s account of his mescaline experience in “The Doors of Perception,” a very short, powerful essay that does a really good job of capturing it and not just capturing it, but shaping it for everyone who’s read that book and for lots of people who haven’t. I think the metaphors he uses and the way he framed the experience have — since it was one of the first accounts in the West — influenced everybody who’s come after.
FM: You’ve previously said that you converted from Protestantism to Catholicism at age 15, after a “mystical experience” at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico. Can you tell us more about that experience?
ACB: I came from a really Christian family, a strong Christian family, but I didn’t know any Catholics. And I was at the Shrine of Guadalupe, and I had this very strange experience.
The shrine of Guadalupe is in living remembrance of an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to a peasant named Juan Diego. It was during the time of the Spanish conquests, which were going very poorly for Catholicism because they had a bad marketing plan. The legend has it — reality to a lot of Catholics — that the Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego as a mestiza, which is a woman of mixed race, which was super, super transgressive at the time.
But that’s the transgressive nature of divine love — crazy, man! When that was explained to me, that was explained to me as kind of a historical fact. What it did was it helped me understand, as a Christian, the nature of divine love itself, and that I wanted more of.
I went home, back to the United States — I grew up in Seattle — and I couldn’t get it out of my head. So I went to a Catholic Church. Kept thinking about it. It was the weirdest thing. I don’t know, is that mys-
Q&A:
ARTHUR BROOKS ON BARCELONA, BALDNESS, AND THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS FIFTEEN MINUTES 15
HARVARD PROFESSOR
tical? Is it non mystical? As a scientist now, I look back on it and say that I’m sure there were some biological correlates to it or something else that was happening in my life. But the bottom line is that I made my own way, and within a year, I was a Catholic.
FM: Was there anything else that drew you to Catholicism that you hadn’t found in Protestantism?
ACB: Probably adolescent rebellion.
FM: How did you choose the French horn?
ACB: It chose me. I learned to read music when I was four or five, and I started on the violin, then I went to piano. Then, at eight, I took up a French horn, because that’s what you do. You chose an orchestral instrument. I grew up in Seattle, which has a long classical music tradition and a great Youth Symphony system.
I was really good at it, and I really, really liked being good at something.
When you’re a kid, you get a ton of dopamine from the reward of being great at something. And so, why was I — Was I passionate about the French horn? No. I play the French horn, and people are like, “Oh my God, that kid is really good.”
That’s why I did it. And I love music, too, by the way.
FM: Did you ever play in a high school band?
ACB: I had to. I was actually on a high school band trip in Guadalupe.
FM: Was it a marching band?
ACB: I didn’t do very much of that. It’s very hard on your embouchure. It’s very, very hard on the musculature of your face. I was a serious player studying with the members of the Seattle Symphony from really young ages, and they were like, “No, you’re not doing that.” That would be as if you were a serious athlete and doing something dangerous.
FM: Your wife is from Barcelona. Did you learn how to speak either Spanish or Catalan?
ACB: I speak both fluently, actually, because I lived there.
I joined the orchestra there when I was 25, and I lived there until I was 28. I’ve been back and forth continuously for the past 30 plus years.
FM: Did you speak any before moving there?
propagated around the world, and people had lifted themselves up out of poverty, and 80 percent of starvation level poverty have been eradicated since my youth. And I said, why? It was the free enterprise system.
What I care about is lifting people up from the margins of society. That’s what I really, really care about in public policy, and then I found out later, “Oh, that means you’re a conservative.” But that’s not meaningful to me in that particular way.
I have kids in the military, and I’m traditionally religious. But again, I don’t want that to be conservative. I want that to be just the way you see the world, and I want to be with people who don’t see the world in that particular way. So the sort of conservative, liberal dichotomy is problematic for me, because that’s sort of tribal, and that’s not how I see it.
FM: Coming from AEI, what’s it like being in a majority liberal environment at Harvard?
ACB: It’s like a family Thanksgiving dinner in the Brooks household. I come from a liberal family. I was a classical musician. I played in a symphony orchestra. I became an academic. The only time in my life that I’ve been around other conservatives is when I was at AEI. So this is just normal for me. It’s completely comfortable.
FM: Is there an environment you prefer?
ACB: I like being around creative people. I like being around people who care about ideas and who appreciate new ideas. What I don’t like, conservative or liberal, is when people are really close-minded or really offended by ideas outside their own wheelhouse. And that’s a bigger problem in America. That’s not about conservative or liberal, that’s just being a siloed environment. In academia, a lot of people don’t want to hear things that they don’t agree with, and that’s a huge problem.
FM: You’ve written a lot about how workaholism — specifically, an addiction to success — can be deleterious to happiness. After graduation, many HBS students plan to start the type of jobs that really signify success and also require mountains of work. How do you advise these students about their life and career choices with happiness in mind?
ACB:We’re wired to believe that money, power, pleasure, and fame will bring happiness.
The things that bring happiness authentically are transcendental experiences like faith or life philosophy: the why of your life; family life, which is your kin-based relationships; friendships, which are your elected relationships; and your work, where you serve other people.
ACB: Not a single word. And my wife didn’t speak a word of English. I moved to Barcelona after having dated her for a week on the bet that this was my soulmate. I took a job in the orchestra, and then set about learning the language to try to convince her that I was worth taking a chance on.
FM: A couple articles describe how in your 20s, you reevaluated the liberalism you grew up with and became a conservative after learning about free market principles in an economics course. Do you personally feel like your views really took a 180, or do you feel like reading conservative political thought just helped you put your ideas into words?
ACB: I found not in conservative ideas, but in the ideas of free enterprise, the best way to execute what I thought was a better world. I was really, really concerned in my 20s, and I still am today, about poverty around the world. What I learned was that poverty had been to a very large extent, eradicated many places around the world, and it wasn’t because of big government ideas. It was because of market principles. It was because the ideas of the free enterprise system had been
Pursue happiness the right way, and you’ll be successful enough. That’s the truth. That’s scary to a lot of people, because it’s actually easier to turn the crank on success. I got into Harvard, I got out of Harvard, I got a good job, I got into business school. I got out of business school. Somebody offered me $210,000 to start. I’m going to be happy now, right? No.
There’s nothing wrong with $210,000 — it’s what you do with the money, of course. What you need to be thinking about is the elements of happiness that will actually, authentically bring you what you want, and then you will be successful enough. And that’s a leap of faith for a lot of people.
Fifteen Minutes is the magazine of The Harvard Crimson. To read the full interview and other longform pieces, visit THECRIMSON.COM/ MAGAZINE FM sage.lattman@thecrimson.com
SELORNA A. ACKUAYI — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
Harvard to Battle Cornell
BY PRAVEEN KUMAR
As Harvard’s football team put the finishing touches on an unlikely 2823 upset over No. 16 New Hampshire last Friday, head coach Andrew Aurich was already looking ahead and thinking about improvements to make for the next game.
Aurich’s squad will head to Ithaca, N.Y., to face Cornell University (1-2, 1-0 Ivy) for a pivotal conference game under the Friday night lights as the Crimson hopes to secure its first Ivy League win of the season and keep its championship hopes alive. In the history of the Ivy League, no team has ever been a sole champion with two losses. Only in three seasons has there even been a share of the Ivy title where the champions had two losses: 1963, 1982, and 2023. Last year, Harvard stumbled to a 5-2 conference finish down the stretch and tied for the title with Dartmouth and Yale — a fact that, oddly enough, could give the team solace early in the 2024 campaign.
Harvard (2-1, 0-1 Ivy) came close to winning its Ivy League opener against Brown University in Providence, but a botched snap that sailed over the head of rookie punter Kieran Corr during a routine field goal attempt led to a game-winning touchdown for the Bears.
The Big Red had a stronger start in conference play. Cornell trounced the Yale Bulldogs 47-23 two weekends ago, as the Big Red handily defeated the Ivy League’s preseason pick to win the title.
But Cornell will be looking to regroup on Friday following an embarrassing loss of its own last week, allowing 500 yards to the University of Albany in a home loss against its in-state rival.
The Crimson, however, will roll into Ithaca with momentum following their bounce-back win against the University of New Hampshire, riding a breakout performance by sophomore running back Xaviah Bascon.
Now, Aurich is hoping that his team can build on that victory to secure the first win of his young head coaching career against an Ivy opponent.
But Aurich won’t be the only one in Ithaca looking to prove himself as a first-year head coach. Standing across the sidelines from Aurich on Friday will be a familiar face: Cornell’s new head coach Dan Swanstrom. The former University of Pennsylvania offensive coordinator took charge of the program after longtime head coach David Archer was relieved of his duties following a disappointing 3-7 finish to the 2023 season. The pair of freshman coaches
have a shared history. “I know Dan very well. I’ve known him since he was at Johns Hopkins as the offensive coordinator,” Aurich said. “He would come and work camp when I was working at Princeton.”
“He’s a very good guy, a very, very good football coach, great offensive mind,” Aurich added.
To keep the dream of sole possession of the Ivy League crown alive, Harvard must march into Ithaca and knock off an explosive Cornell squad.
Junior quarterback Jaden Craig acknowledged the intensity of the Ivy League in an interview ahead of the Cornell game.
“When you play an Ivy League team, it’s a championship weekend,” Craig said. “You can’t afford to lose any games.”
The Big Red are poised to attack the Crimson with experi-
enced offensive skill players and a tenacious defensive line.
Cornell’s senior quarterback Jameson Wong, who posted the highest completion percentage in the Ivy League and ranked third in passing yards last season, threw for 278 yards and four touchdowns in the win over the Bulldogs.
Wong’s primary targets, sophomore wide receiver Brendan Lee and senior Samuel Musungu, each caught five passes for over 75 yards.
“Their quarterback has not turned the ball over once yet. He’s a very good player,” Aurich said. “We got to disrupt him and get the ball out.”
Adding to Harvard’s defensive challenges, Wong poses a threat on the ground, rushing for 55 yards and a touchdown against Yale. Alongside Wong stands
GAMES TO WATCH THIS WEEK
FRIDAY 10/11
SATURDAY
speedy sophomore running back Ean Pope, who rushed for 72 yards and a touchdown on just 11 carries in the same game.
Aurich highlighted the impor-
“We do a ball to ball security circuit two days a week, and we make it very hard on them. We challenge them.”
Harvard will be getting a boost on both sides of the ball as senior captain and running back Shane McLaughlin and senior defensive back Gavin Shipman, both key players for the team, return to the field.
in at wide receiver, resulting in chunk plays the past three games, and his flexibility has been Harvard’s secret weapon in confusing opponents’ defenses.
Capturing the importance of the moment,
tance of ball security heading into a hostile environment.
“The biggest thing is we got to make sure that we execute at a high level, and we take care of the ball on offense, and we’re creating takeaways,” he said.
The offensive line will be key for determining how effective McLaughlin will be now that he can get his hands back on the ball. After struggling in the second half of the Brown game, the line looked strong against UNH — providing Craig with essential protection and allowing sophomore running back Xaviah Bascon to maneuver past the line of scrimmage.
Senior Charles Deprima will be another asset for the team. The former quarterback has been
SUNDAY
Crimson Struggles in Ivy League Competition
Harvard women’s soccer (4-2-5, 0-2-1 Ivy) returned home to Jordan Field last weekend for its Ivy League home opener, losing 2-1 to Columbia, before earning a 1-1 draw at Dartmouth on Wednesday. The match-up with the Lions (4-3-3, 2-0-0 Ivy) was a rematch of last year’s Ivy League Tournament Championship, which Harvard dominated to the tune of a 3-0 victory. But this time around, the Lions left the Crimson stunned, departing Harvard with a win. Meanwhile, the draw against the Big Green (6-4-2, 0-21 Ivy) was the first time that Harvard failed to beat Dartmouth since 2018.
Harvard women’s soccer (42-5, 0-2-1 Ivy) returned home to Jordan Field for its Ivy League home opener versus the Columbia Lions (4-3-3, 2-0-0 Ivy), before traveling to take on the Dartmouth Big Green (6-4-2, 0-2-1 Ivy). The Columbia contest was a rematch of last year’s Ivy League Tournament Championship, but this time around, the Lions left the Crimson stunned, departing Harvard with a win, 2-1. Harvard bounced back with a 1-1 draw at Dartmouth. As autumn rolled around in Cambridge, anticipation hung in the crisp air. After a grueling road stretch, the team finally returned to familiar grounds to battle against a rolling Lions team. Columbia entered the matchup with elite confidence, considering the team’s last two dominating wins: 4-0 against Providence in the team’s final non-conference matchup and a 3-0 win against UPenn
in Philadelphia for its first Ivy League matchup. For the Crimson, on the other hand, the Ivy League opener did not proceed as planned, with a devastating loss to Brown last Saturday, 2-1. This game was an opportunity for Harvard to place its first Ivy League game firmly in the past. The stands buzzed with life, a sea of crimson and white. With several local youth teams in appearance, each dreaming of one day playing on that same field, it was not just a game — the homecoming for the Crimson’s players was a reminder of why they play and who they play for. As the whistle blew and the ball was set in motion, it was time for Harvard to reclaim its home turf.
In the early minutes of action, Harvard’s defense was crucial in defending the goal from Columbia. At first, junior starting goalkeeper Rhiannon Stewart saved an easy ground ball to make an early save for Harvard, after Columbia made a quick push up the field. Then, sophomore forward Anna Rayhill made a game-changing save in the goal for the Crimson after the second shot on goal for the Lions in the first half.
After a strong drive into Havard territory, a slew of white Harvard jerseys raced back to help Stewart defend the goal. The shot from Columbia slid by Stewart, who believed the ball was going to be kicked out of bounds by the right side of the post, but the ball continued to roll past the post and down the goal line. With the ball inches away from crossing over the line for a goal for the Lions, Rayhill swooped in to clear the ball and save Harvard from an early goal from Columbia.
On the offensive side of the ball, senior forward Nicola Golden recorded the first shot on goal for the Crimson fourteen minutes into the matchup. After a nifty move on her defender, Golden shot a ravishing shot from the left corner of the box,
appearing to be headed straight for the right side of the goal, but Colombia’s goalkeeper made a play on the ball. There was an opportunity to shoot off the rebound, but the Lions defenders rushed in to kick the ball out.
After a tough loss last week, Harvard’s defense played with a renewed sense of purpose and motivation early on against the Lions. The back line of defenders, including junior August Hunter, senior Sydney Farnham, and first-year Erin Gordon all contributed their efforts in the first half to keep Columbia scoreless. It was a gritty half, defined by resilience and close calls, with the players fighting to reclaim the pride of their home field. The score remained deadlocked at 0-0, but Harvard had weathered the storm, and with its defense holding firm, the stage was set for a second half that promised to be just as intense.
As the second half began, the Crimson sought to change the offensive narrative, considering that the Lions held a 5-3 advantage in shots. Harvard earned an early corner kick only eight minutes into the second half, when a good-looking ball was placed for senior midfielder Josefine Hasbo right at the goal, but she could not convert as the Lions cleared the ball once again. At the 60 minute mark, the dam finally broke for the Crimson. Columbia raced the ball up the left side of the field and crossed the ball into the box, where it was met by senior forward Nata Ramirez. Despite the pressure of Harvard defenders to push her out of bounds, including Stewart out of the goal, she was able to slice the ball through to senior defender Marcia Ojo, who fired the ball into the open goal to give the Lions the lead. For many teams, this goal would have been the death knell in the game, but not the Crimson. Just 31 seconds after a Columbia score, the Crimson
would score the equalizer. Harvard wasted no time to power the ball into Columbia territory, ending with Áslaug Gunnlaugsdóttir making yet another phenomenal play for the offense. In a fight for possession of the ball by the right side of the goal, Gunnlaugsdóttir gained possession and fired an unbelievable left-footed strike into a sliver of a window. The ball sailed past a Columbia defender and through the shoulder of the Lion goalkeeper into the top right of the net.
With time winding down and the game locked at 1-1, the energy at Jordan Field surged to another level. The Crimson, unfazed by Colombia’s goal, had ignited the home crowd with an equalizer of its own. The stands were alive with the roar of fans jumping in excitement, urging their team forward with every possession. Harvard’s offense pressed harder than ever, while the defense tried to remain impenetrable, refusing to give the Lions another opening. With two minutes left in the game, Harvard seemed poised to secure at least a hard-fought draw, if not complete what would have been an astounding comeback. But then, in a cruel twist of fate, Columbia found its opening.
After a quick, strong counterattack by the Lions, Harvard’s defense was caught in frantic disarray. Columbia’s Ramirez kicked the ball to her freshman teammate, forward Angel Akanyirige, who was in perfect position for a shot on goal. The first year received the ball and fired a prayer from outside the ball towards the goal. With a slightly delayed reaction from Stewart, the ball trickled agonizingly into the back of the net, a heartbreaking moment for Harvard. The roar of the crowd silenced in an instant, as the Lions celebrated their 2-1 lead. Harvard was unable to tie the game, as Columbia topped the Crimson with a 2-1 result.
Despite the unexpectedly difficult start to the conference season, Harvard’s spirits remain high, with the opportunity to improve in the coming weeks. The resilience shown in the battle against Columbia — a team that came in riding high — proved that the Crimson is not easily shaken. The defense channeled the fight and determination this team carries into every match, while Harvard’s offense has proved its ability to strike at any moment. The heartbreak of a late loss is undeniable, but the loss will undoubtedly serve as fuel for the team’s important games coming up. The Crimson returned to the field in Hanover, N.H., on Wednesday to take on Dartmouth, hoping to earn its first conference win of the season. Despite outshooting the Big Green, 15-13, the Crimson was playing catch-up for most of the second half after going down 1-0 at the end of the first. Junior forward Audrey Francois struck the equalizer at the 74th game, her first goal of the season and a score that clinched a 1-1 draw. The Quebec native earned her first goal since Oct. 7, 2023 against Cornell. Harvard will return to Jordan Field on Sunday to take on the Big Red, in a game that it hopes will be its return to Ivy League contention. It will be streamed on ESPN+.
