The Harvard Crimson - Volume CL, No. 25

THE HARVARD CRIMSON THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873

| VOLUME CL, NO. 25 | CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

COLLEGE

KENNEDY SCHOOL

ARTS

SPORTS

Boston Ballet’s 60th Season Show, ‘Fall Experience’

Harvard Football Defeats Howard, Improves to 5-0

PAGE 13

PAGE 17

| FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2023

Khurana Discusses ‘Restorative Justice’ COLLEGE DEAN Rakesh Khurana said in an interview that Harvard has integrated “restorative justice” into its disciplinary approach. The move coincides with a downward trend in Ad Board cases.

SEE PAGE 5

Finding the Next Kennedy School Dean

LAW SCHOOL

Obama Misses Internet Summit LAB LAUNCH. Former President Barack Obama was slated to speak at a summit on Wednesday to celebrate the launch of a new lab on campus, but he skipped the event due to Covid-like symptoms.

‘THE EYE OF EVERY STORM’: Six weeks after Harvard Kennedy School Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf announced he would step down, the search for his successor has begun in earnest. In the months to come, the search committee will have to consider backlash against the University, global conflict, and competing views over what the next dean should prioritize. SEE PAGE 6

TOBY R. MA — CRIMSON DESIGNER

UNIVERSITY FINANCES

SEE PAGE 8

Harvard Endowment Value Falls For Second Consecutive Year, Records Modest 2.9% Return

ARTS

BY KRISHI KISHORE AND ROHAN RAJEEV CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

­T Artist Profile: Phil Chan on Storytelling Through Art ‘HUMAN STORY’ The Crimson interviewed choreographer and author Phil Chan, who discussed his artistic journey and his experience as directing a reimagined version of “Madama Butterfly.”

SEE PAGE 14

he value of Harvard’s endowment fell for the second consecutive year, despite delivering a 2.9 percent return for fiscal year 2023, as distributions to school operations outpaced investment gains and new contributions.

The low investment returns, which generated just $1.3 billion, left the market value of Harvard’s endowment at $50.7 billion — down from $50.9 billion at the end of the previous fiscal year. The decrease comes one year after Harvard reported a $2.3 billion decline in endowment value during fiscal year 2022, representing the first time in two decades that the school

COMAROFF

Housing Policy Passes CITY COUNCIL. The Cambridge City Council voted to pass amendments to the city’s 100%-Affordable Housing Zoning Overlay Monday, setting the stage for taller housing developments in the city.

SEE PAGE 11

“generally muted returns for asset classes outside of public equities.”

Public equity markets rallied in the second half of fiscal year 2023, which ended in June. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ indices rose by 16.9 and 32.3 percent, respectively, between January and June.

Despite the “dramatic equity rally,” Narvekar wrote that the endowment’s performance “does not reflect a significant impact from public equity movements” due to HMC’s “limited long-only public equity exposure.”

“This portfolio construction also helps brace against significant swings in either direction, as it did last year when the FY22 return (-1.8%) was not meaningfully impacted by an overall double-digit public equity decline,” he wrote.

Harvard’s endowment is heavily al-

located towards alternative investment strategies such as private equity and hedge funds, which respectively accounted for 39 and 31 percent of its assets at the end of fiscal year 2023, according to Narvekar’s note. In contrast, just 11 percent of the endowment is invested in public equities.

While Narvekar disclosed the endowment’s asset allocation in his note, he did not provide a breakdown of investment returns by asset class, a longtime practice HMC abandoned last year. Since HMC did not release its asset allocation last year, the updated figures reflect changes in the company’s investments over the past two years.

HMC’s private equity portfolio reported “only slightly positive” returns during

SEE PAGE 5

UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT

Hoekstra Confirms Gay’s First 100 Days Comaroff Still Sanctioned Marked By Turmoil

BY RAHEM D. HAMID

CAMBRIDGE

has experienced two consecutive years of endowment drops.

Harvard’s peer institutions also reported lackluster returns. MIT and Duke University saw investment losses of 2.9 and 1 percent, respectively. Stanford University, Yale University, and the University of Pennsylvania reported respective investment gains of 4.4, 1.8, and 1.3 percent.

Harvard disclosed its fiscal year 2023 results on Thursday in its Annual Financial Report, which offers a rare glimpse into the University’s finances and investment strategy each October.

In a note included in the financial report, Harvard Management Company CEO N.P. “Narv” Narvekar wrote that the endowment’s low investment returns are consistent with market conditions in fiscal year 2023, which he called a year of

AND ELIAS J. SCHISGALL CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

John L. Comaroff — the Harvard professor accused of sexual harassment and professional retaliation — is still prohibited from teaching required College courses, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra said in an interview last week.

“To my knowledge, there are still sanctions in place,” Hoekstra said, specifying that Comaroff is “not permitted to teach required undergraduate courses” and noting that she did not make the decision to continue his sanctions.

Besides noting that Comaroff was on leave, Hoekstra did not comment further on the professor. Ruth K. O’Meara-Costello ’02, one of Comaroff’s lawyers, confirmed in an email that he is on medical leave.

In January 2022, Comaroff was sanctioned by then-FAS Dean Claudine Gay — now serving as Harvard’s president — for violating FAS’ sexual harassment and professional conduct policies. Gay announced he would be barred from teaching required courses or taking on new graduate students.

Gay wrote then that she would determine at the end of the following academic year on whether or not to lift the sanctions.

That decision would have come at the end of the 2022-23 academic year, when Gay was wrapping up her tenure as FAS dean and transitioning to the presidency.

In a follow-up email, FAS spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo declined to comment on whether the prohibition on Comaroff taking on new graduate students was also still in effect or how long the sanctions would last. He did not specify

SEE PAGE 8

BY MILES J. HERSZENHORN AND CLAIRE YUAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

As dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Claudine Gay largely managed to avoid national media scrutiny even as several faculty members became the subjects of highly publicized scandals.

Now, as the public face of Harvard, that’s no longer possible.

As Gay marked her 100th day as president on Oct. 9, tensions flared on campus after 34 student groups signed onto a statement calling Israel “entirely responsible” for a deadly attack by Hamas.

Gay’s administration drew intense criticism — including from former University President Lawrence H. Summers — over its slow response to the violence in Israel while allowing the student groups’ statement to grab national headlines.

The messaging stumble on Israel was just part of a 100-day trial by fire: the Supreme Court’s ruling against Harvard on affirmative action, the increased political pressure on the University to abolish legacy admissions preferences, and the need to fill several high-level dean positions.

Since assuming office on July 1, Gay has sought to focus on the at-home aspects of her new job, but external events — like political distractions in Washington — have made that difficult.

‘Say Something About the Real World’ Gay largely avoided criticism from Harvard affiliates during her first 100 days in office — a honeymoon that ended last Monday.

Slightly more than one week after Summers sat onstage during Gay’s inauguration,

SEE PAGE 4

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THE HARVARD CRIMSON

LAST WEEK

OCTOBER 20, 2023

H4A GLOBAL SUMMIT

HUIT LLM PILOT

KNAFEL CENTER TALK

Asian American Alums Meet

Harvard IT Launches AI Sandbox

Ifill Discusses End of Affirmative Action

ALUMS DISCUSS LEADERSHIP. Hundreds of alumni returned to campus to join students and faculty in discussing issues facing Asian Americans during the fourth Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance Global Summit. From Oct. 13 to 15, the Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance hosted its global summit, “Beyond Representation,” featuring keynote speaker Boston Mayor Michelle Wu ’07. Harvard-affiliated Asian American alumni — which included University faculty, CEOs, and politicians — also gave addresses and spoke on panels.

LLM MODEL. Harvard University Information Technology

began a limited rollout of the pilot version of its artificial intelligence “sandbox” tool on Sept. 4, with the aim of providing Harvard affiliates with secure access to large language models. The AI sandbox provides a “walled-off” environment where prompts and data entered into the interface are seen by the user only — the data is not shared with LLM vendors and cannot be used as training data for these models, according to a press release on HUIT’s website.

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION DISCUSSION. Civil rights lawyer and scholar Sherrilyn Ifill and Harvard Radcliffe Institute Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin discussed the Supreme Court’s decision to effectively strike down affirmative action at a Wednesday talk at the Knafel Center. Brown-Nagin and Ifill — a recipient of the 2022 Radcliffe Medal who previously led the NAACP Legal Defense Fund — discussed the immediate aftermath of the Students for Fair Admissions’ suit against Harvard as well as the broader history of affirmative action at the Court.

BY MADELEINE A. HUNG AND JOYCE E. KIM – CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

BY CAMILLA J. MARTINEZ AND TIFFANI A. MEZITIS – CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

BY NOAH V. PARKER AND EMILY T. SCHWARTZ – CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

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Get breaking news. thecrimson.com/subscribe AROUND THE IVIES

The Week in Photos

BROWN STUDENTS RAISE MONEY FOR AFGHANISTAN EARTHQUAKE RELIEF

PSC RALLY PROTEST AT WIDENER. The Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee held a demonstration in Harvard Yard last Saturday, protesting Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and Harvard’s response to the doxxing of pro-Palestine students .

After a 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit Afghanistan two weeks ago, Suhaila Hashimi led a fundraiser with three other students which raised over $3,000 for earthquake relief. The initial earthquake was also followed by three aftershocks, which have resulted in over 1500 deaths.

The students organized a GoFundMe to raise money, and are considering organizing more fundraisers for supplies.

BY JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

THC

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Read more at THECRIMSON.COM

PENN AFFILIATES GATHER FOR WALKOUT AND VIGIL FOR VICTIMS OF ISRAEL-GAZA WAR

Around 200 University of Pennsylvania affiliates gathered for a walkout and a vigil Wednesday to mourn Palestinian individuals killed during the war in Israel and Gaza. A separate group of 50 supporters of Israel stood next to the Benjamin Franklin statue. The walkout in support of Palestine was organized by Penn Against the Occupation and Drexel University Students for Justice in Palestine.

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

PRINCETON FINALLY ACKNOWLEDGES KIDNAPPING OF A DOCTORAL CANDIDATE IN IRAQ DURING TRAVEL FOR DISSERTATION Doctoral candidate Elizabeth Tsurkov was conducting dissertation research in Iraq where she was kidnapped last March. In July, the University previously confirmed she was missing, but this statement is the first by the University that confirms her kidnapping and reason for being in Iraq. The statement said the University is working with government officials to try and negotiate for Tsurkov’s release.

HILLEL WIDENER VIGIL. More than 1,000 attendees gathered in Harvard Yard on Sunday to mourn the civilians who died in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. The vigil was organized by Harvard Hillel and Harvard Chabad. BY JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

FOOTBALL. Harvard beat Howard Univeristy 48-7 on Oct. 14, improving their record to 5-0 and sending their opponent back to 2-4. Harvard’s record gainst Howard is 3-0 since 2019.

BY NICHOLAS T. JACOBSSON — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

COLUMBIA STUDENT ASSAULTS ISRAELI SCHOOL OF GENERAL STUDIES STUDENT The New York Police Department took a 19-yearold female Columbia student into custody on an assault charge after she assaulted a 24-year-old General Studies student with a stick this past Wednesday. The suspect was observed ripping posters off a wall and yelling at a group of Jewish students before she committed the assault.

THE COLUMBIA SPECTATOR

BOB ODELL. British singer-songwriter Bob Odell Performed at Big Night Live in Boston on Oct. 9 as part of his tour of North America. Odell’s performance was emotionally stirring and intimate, moving some audience members to tears. Odell performed “Smiling all the Way Home,“ “Numb,“ “Black Friday,“ and “Songs From Another Love.”

REOPENING. Lamont Cafe opened for business Tuesday, bringing an end to a three-year closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The cafe is located directly to the right upon entering Lamont Library and serves coffee and other refreshments.

BY RO DUDEVOIR — CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

BY PATON D. ROBERTS — CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

NEXT WEEK

THE HARVARD CRIMSON OCTOBER 20, 2023

What’s Next

IN THE REAL WORLD THOUSANDS TAKE TO THE STREETS IN THE MIDDLE EAST TO PROTEST ISRAEL’S CONTINUED BOMBING OF GAZA After an explosion in a Gaza hospital killed hundreds of Palestinianas, protestors gathered throughout the Middle East to condemn Israel’s assault on Palestine. The New York Times also reported that leaders of Jordan and Egypt canceled meetings with Joe Biden – who has been a strong Israel supporter, and leaders in Morocco supported their citizens in blaming Israel for the attack.

UNITED STATES FINDS ISRAEL IS “NOT RESPONSIBLE” FOR GAZA HOSPITAL BOMBING After Joe Biden claimed a group of Palestinian military fighters were behind the blast in a Gazan hospital, the United States National Security Council said their intelligence assessment also found evidence to suggest Israel was “not responsible” for the attack.

According to CNN, a later statement further clarified that the blast was likely caused by an “errant rocket or missile launch.”

Start every week with a preview of what’s on the agenda around Harvard University

Friday 10/20

Monday 10/23

Wednesday 10/25

WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY VS UNION

RECODING AMERICA: WHY GOVERNMENT IS FAILING IN THE DIGITAL AGE AND HOW WE CAN DO BETTER

ALL THE WORLD IS HERE EXHIBITION

Bright Landry Hockey Center, 6:00 p.m.

Join Harvard Women’s Ice Hockey this Friday as they take on Union College with a special Schedule Poster Giveaway. The Crimson has seen historical success against Union with a 34-3-1 alltime record.

Saturday 10/21 SPOTLIGHT TOUR: SENSING THE DIVINE, WITH HANNA CARNEY ’25

Harvard Art Museums, 2:00 p.m.–2:50 p.m.

Join comparative religion and history of art and architecture student Hanna Carney ’25 on a tour of art based in ritual and religion at the Harvard Art Museums. Some tour highlights include a ritual vessel from the Chinese Zhou dynasty, and a painting of the Holy Land.

Sunday 10/22

Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University, Taubman 3rd Floor, Harvard Kennedy School, 4:15 p.m.-5:30 p.m.

Listen to Jennifer Pahlka, the former U.S. Deputy chief technology officer, discuss how policymaking can keep up with digital growth and stay connected to how it is implemented.

Tuesday 10/24

Peabody Museum, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

Visit this gallery filled with more than 600 objects recovered from Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. Follow along as these objects come together into a cohesive narrative that traces the history of American anthropology.

Thursday 10/26 CRITICAL POINTS OF DISCRETE PERIODIC OPERATORS

OVERCOME PERFECTIONISM THROUGH SELF-COMPASSION

Virtual, 4:00 p.m.-5:15 p.m.

Join this 8-session workshop that seeks to find the difference between perfectionism and striving for excellence. The workshops seek to develop a skill each time to use self-compassion to alleviate anxiety and fear about your self-worth.

Maxwell Dworkin G125, 3:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m.

Listen to Texas A&M Math Professor Frank Sottile give a scientific talk about combinatorial algebraic geometry and its applications in finding critical points. He is joined by Matthew Faust, a sixth year math Ph.D. student and lab member.

Friday 10/27 RECREATING THE THRONE OF EGYPTIAN QUEEN HETEPHERES EXHIBITION

RETHINKING ADDICTION: A DRAMA THERAPY WORKSHOP

Harvard Art Museum, Materials Lab – Lower Level Explore the history of the opium trade in China and its interconnectedness to the development of Chinese art. Learn about the economy, cultural landscape, and education effects of the opium trade that have lasted to this day.

Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East See a full-scale replica of Queen Hetepheres’ ancient Egyptian throne developed using original materials like cedar and copper. The development of this throne was only helped by small fragments and expedition records.

JIM JORDAN LOSES A SECOND SPEAKER VOTE Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) lost a second house speaker vote on Wednesday.

The Washington Post reported that while he won 200 votes on Tuesday – falling 20 votes short — he actually lost votes in the subsequent election, ending Wednesday with 199. The House of Representatives has now been without a speaker for two weeks since Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was voted out on Oct. 3.

TRUMP’S FORMER LEGAL ADVISER SIDNEY POWELL PLEADS GUILTY IN GEORGIA ELECTION INTERFERENCE CASE

DUNSTER HOUSE DUSK

Sidney Powell pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges in the Georgia election interference case on Thursday. The Wall Street Journal reported that Powell has accepted probation for six years and will give the state a $6,000 fine along with an apology letter. Powell has also “agreed to testify against other defendants in the case and hand over any relevant documents.”

POLISH OPPOSITION WINS ELECTORAL VICTORY Poland’s Law and Justice Party lost its parliamentary majority in elections on Tuesday, paving the way for opposition parites to form a governing coalition . The upset came as a major political surprise, according to The Associated Press, given the incumbent’s control of state media and political institutions.

JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

THE HARVARD CRIMSON Cara J. Chang ’24 President

STAFF FOR THIS ISSUE Brandon L. Kingdollar ’24

Cynthia V. Lu ’24

Managing Editor

Business Manager

Magazine Chairs Io Y. Gilman ’25 Amber H. Levis ’25

Design Chairs Sophia Salamanca ’25 Sami E. Turner ’25

Eleanor V. Wikstrom ’24 Christina M. Xiao ’24

Blog Chairs Tina Chen ’24 Hana Rehman ’25

Multimedia Chairs Joey Huang ’24 Julian J. Giordano ’25

Arts Chairs Anya L. Henry ’24 Alisa S. Regassa ’24

Sports Chairs Mairead B. Baker ’24 Aaron B. Shuchman ’25

Technology Chairs Kevin Luo ’24 Justin Y. Ye ’24

Associate Managing Editors Leah J. Teichholtz ’24 Meimei Xu ’24 Editorial Chairs

3

Associate Business Manager Derek S. Chang ’24 Copyright 2023, The Harvard Crimson (USPS 236-560). No articles, editorials, cartoons or any part thereof appearing in The Crimson may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the President. The Associated Press holds the right to reprint any materials published in The Crimson. The Crimson is a non-profit, independent corporation, founded in 1873 and incorporated in 1967. Second-class postage paid in Boston, Massachusetts. Published Monday through Friday except holidays and during vacations, three times weekly during reading and exam periods by The Harvard Crimson Inc., 14 Plympton St., Cambridge, Mass. 02138

Night Editors Isabella B. Cho ’24 Vivi E. Lu ’24 Mayesha R. Soshi ’24 Assistant Night Editors Alexander I. Fung ’25 Krishi Kishore ’25 Madeleine A. Hung ’26 Cam E. Kettles ’26 Azusa M. Lippit ’26 Story Editors Vivi E. Lu ’24 Brandon L. Kingdollar ’24 Leah J. Teichholtz ’24

Meimei Xu ’24 Eric Yan ’24 Design Editors Toby R. Ma ’24 Sami E. Turner ’25 Laurinne P. Eugenio ’26 Photo Editors Joey Huang ’24 Cory K. Gorczycki ’24 Julian J. Giordano ’25 Christopher L. Li ’25 Nathanael Tjandra ’26

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

Editorial Editors Ellie H. Ashby ’24 Christina M. Xiao ’24 Arts Editor Zachary J. Lech ’24 Sports Editors Mairead B. Baker ’24 Aaron B. Shuchman ’25

Undecided

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THE HARVARD CRIMSON

NEWS

OCTOBER 20, 2023

KENNEDY SCHOOL

Wexner Foundation Cuts Ties With Harvard ‘DISMAL FAILURE’ Wexner Foundation will end its relationship with Harvard, condemning the University’s response to Hamas’ attack on Israel.

BY ASHER J. MONTGOMERY CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

A

fter a 34-year partnership, the Wexner Foundation will end its financial and programmatic relationship with Harvard and the Harvard Kennedy School, condemning the University’s response to the Hamas attack on Israel as a “dismal failure.”

In a letter to the Board of Overseers — Harvard’s second-highest governing body — on Monday, Wexner Foundation President Elka Abrahamson, Director General Ra’anan Avital, and chairmen Abigail S. Wexner and Leslie H. Wexner criticized University President Claudine Gay’s “tiptoeing, equivocating” response to a joint statement by more than 30 Harvard student groups holding Israel responsible for the ongoing violence.

“In the absence of this clear moral stand, we have determined that the Harvard Kennedy School and the Wexner Foundation are no longer compatible partners,” the Wexner letter stated.

The joint student statement provoked international backlash and was denounced by more than 4,000 Harvard affiliates across two open letters.

The Wexner Foundation do-

nated significantly to HKS and helped support 10 fellows annually to complete the school’s oneyear Master in Public Administration program through its Wexner Israel Fellowship. The fellowship — which will now be discontinued — aimed to “provide Israel’s next generation of public leaders with advanced leadership and public management training,” according to the foundation’s website. More than 280 Israeli public officials have participated in the fellowship.

HKS spokesperson Sofiya Cabalquinto wrote in an emailed statement that Gay and HKS Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf “made clear our rejection of the terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas” in statements last week.

“We are grateful to the Wexner Foundation for its very longstanding support of student scholarships,” Cabalquinto wrote.

In a statement to HKS affiliates on Friday, Elemendorf condemned Hamas, calling the attacks against Israel “terrorist atrocities.”

“I am outraged by the savageness and brutality of the crimes perpetrated by Hamas against defenseless Israeli civilians,” he wrote.

Gay also fiercely condemned Hamas in video remarks — her third statement in four days on the attacks — released to Harvard affiliates on Thursday.

“Let me be clear: Our University rejects terrorism — that includes the barbaric atrocities perpetrated by Hamas,” Gay said.

“Our University rejects hate —

The Wexner Foundation announced it will cut ties with Harvard due to its response to Hamas’ attack on Israel. TRUONG L. NGUYEN — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

hate of Jews, hate of Muslims, hate of any group of people based on their faith, their national origin, or any aspect of their identity.”

The Wexner Foundation’s decision to cut ties with HKS represents the latest reproach of the University over its response to the invasion and the subsequent student statements. Harvard has faced intense criticism from political leaders and top scholars over its delayed response and initial lack of explicit condemnation of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.

The letter announced that the current class of Wexner Israel Fellows will be the last after 34 years of partnership with the University, adding that in years, the fellow have been “increasingly marginalized” and their voices “shouted down.”

“We have observed that this cherished tolerance for diverse perspectives has slowly but perceptibly narrowed over the

years,” the letter read. “Disappointingly, HKS has been slow to craft a strategy to enable Israeli students to engage in productive - even if difficult - dialogue within the school.”

In late August, the Jerusalem Post reported that Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar BenGvir banned Israel police and firefighters from the Wexner fellowship due to what he described as the “left-wing political bent” of the foundation.

Leslie Wexner, the co-founder of the Wexner Foundation and the founder of Bath and Body Works, donated more than $42 million to the Kennedy School before 2012.

One of the school’s six main buildings is named after him. Wexner has faced scrutiny over a pattern of inappropriate conduct and misogyny under his watch as CEO of Victoria’s Secret, as well as for his ties to sex trafficker Jeffrey E. Epstein, who served as his financial manager for decades.

Wexner is not the first promi-

nent donor to sever ties with the Kennedy School over the University’s response to the attacks by Hamas.

On Friday, CNN reported on Friday that Israeli billionaires Idan and Batia Ofer quit the Kennedy School’s executive board in protest of the University’s leadership’s response to Hamas’ attack on Israel.

“Unfortunately, our faith in the University’s leadership has been broken and we cannot in good faith continue to support Harvard and its committees,” the couple said in a statement to CNN. The backlash against HKS in the wake of Hamas’ attacks is the latest example of controversy at the school over its approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Earlier this year, Elmendorf faced calls to resign after allegedly vetoing a fellowship for former Human Rights Watch head Kenneth Roth over perceived anti-Israel bias. Elmendorf later reversed his decision. During a Feb-

ruary Institute of Politics forum, Roth accused Harvard of demonstrating “plenty of pro-Israel tilting.”

In April 2022, protesters with Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine — an initiative of the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee — staged a walkout of a talk with Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog, condemning the school for hosting “perpetrators of apartheid.”

In a May interview with The Crimson, Elmendorf said the school hosts affiliates with a “range of views about Israel and the Palestinians” and denied that HKS is biased on any political issues.

“The school is not pro- or antiany particular position on public policy issues,” he said. “The school is a place for people to learn and form their own views about public policy issues.” asher.montgomery@thecrimson.com

UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT FROM PAGE 1

President Claudine Gay’s First 100 Days Marked By Political Turmoil he slammed Gay on X over the University’s silence on the violence in Israel and Gaza and the controversial student groups’ statement.

“Harvard is being defined by the morally unconscionable statement apparently coming from two dozen student groups blaming all the violence on Israel,” Summers wrote. “I am sickened. I cannot fathom the Administration’s failure to disassociate the University and condemn this statement.”

Summers’ posts shocked current University officials as they violated a tacit understanding among former Harvard presidents to avoid public criticisms of the incumbent president and their administration.

Kelly Friendly, a spokesperson for Summers, wrote in an emailed statement Tuesday that the remarks should not have been surprising.

“Well before his statements, Professor Summers alerted university officials to his concerns and intention to speak publicly if the university did not separate itself from the PSC statement,” Friendly wrote.

Things were no better behind the scenes.

After the University finally issued a statement, Theda R. Skocpol, a professor of Government and Sociology and former dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, privately criticized Harvard’s response in an email addressed to Gay and University Provost Alan M. Garber ’76.

“Can’t you do better than psychobabble mush?”

Skocpol wrote.

“You do not have to directly condemn the awful 31 student group statement,” she added. “All you have to do is say something about the real world.”

Gay continued to face a barrage of criticism from Harvard faculty members, major donors, and members of Congress. Many took issue with the statement’s failure to explicitly condemn Hamas or renounce the student groups’ statement.

By the end of the week, the University’s handling of the situation even prompted U.S. Representative Elise M. Stefanik ’06 (R-N.Y.), the fourth-ranking House Republican, to call for Gay to resign. “@Harvard continues to disgrace itself on the global stage,”

Pictured at her inauguration, Gay has faced a series of political battles in her first 100 days in office. FRANK S. ZHOU — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Stefanik wrote on X. “Claudine Gay should resign.”

In an Oct. 10 follow-up statement, Gay explicitly condemned Hamas and distanced the University from the student organizations — but the damage was done, and getting worse.

Students who were allegedly linked to the organizations that originally signed onto the student statement faced several doxxing attacks.

While Gay later rejected calls to punish members of the organizations that signed onto the student statement, the palpable tension on campus lingered.

The tense environment contrasted starkly with the joyous atmosphere in Harvard Yard only days earlier for Gay’s inauguration.

‘Harvard Has Your Back’ After former Harvard President Lawrence S. Bacow assumed office in 2018, he quickly went on trips to Washington and Michigan as he sought to combat the hostile political climate facing higher education across the country.

Gay, however, has taken a very different approach. Despite inheriting leadership of the University in a no less contentious moment for higher education, she has mostly remained in Cambridge over the summer.

Just two days before Gay took office, the Supreme Court ruled Harvard’s race-conscious admissions policies unconstitutional.

Gay posed for a picture with her three predecessors during her inauguration. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

But 13 days after the ruling, Gay was talking with students at ice cream socials across campus.

The socials were the first in a series of appearances Gay made during the early days of her presidency as she sought to make herself a familiar presence on campus.

On day 25 of Gay’s presidency, Harvard was back in the news after the Department of Education launched an investigation into whether the University’s use of legacy and donor admissions preferences violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

But even amid the political strife, Gay continued to find opportunities to meet with students — sometimes in unexpected locations.

On day 32 of her presidency, Gay attended Beyoncé’s Renais-

sance World Tour concert at Gillette Stadium where she ran into Carter G. Demaray ’25, who took a photo with Gay and posted it on Sidechat, an app popular with undergraduate students at schools across the country.

The post went viral, furthering an image of Gay as a president who enjoys connecting with students.

Ahead of the fall semester, Gay continued to find ways to be present in various corners of the University. She helped freshmen and their families carry boxes in Harvard Yard during move-in, sat in on a class at the Law School, and delivered a speech at the Divinity School’s convocation.

University Provost Alan M. Garber ’76 wrote in a Thursday statement to The Crimson that Gay “gave up one very difficult job

for another” when she became president.

“She has managed that transition extraordinarily well, learning quickly about the rest of the University and calmly handling situations that could overwhelm even an experienced leader, such as the repercussions of the Supreme Court’s admissions decision and the terrorist attack and war in Israel and Gaza,” Garber wrote.

As Gay tried to ease tensions over the University’s response to the situation in Israel, she returned to her earlier efforts to connect with the student body.

On Friday, Gay attended Shabbat 1000, an event billed as Harvard’s largest Shabbat celebration.

In a speech at the event, Gay said that she “learned a lot over the course of this week.”

“I can’t imagine any other space I’d want to be in, in a week like this,” Gay said.

“What I want to say is that Harvard has your back,” she added.

“We know the difference between right and wrong.”

Leading Close to Home The fallout from the University’s response to the fighting in Israel also buried the news of one of Gay’s most important leadership selections of her early tenure — the appointment of Andrea A. Baccarelli as the next Harvard School of Public Health dean.

But throughout her first three

months in office, Gay has been forced to juggle political blowback against Harvard while filling administrative holes.

With Baccarelli’s selection, Gay has now filled the four dean vacancies she inherited as president-elect.

She is also in the early stages of searching for a fifth dean, the successor to outgoing Harvard Kennedy School Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf.

Gay’s picks have all come from within the University’s ranks — in one way or another. Gay opted for internal candidates to lead the FAS and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

But even her two external selections to lead the Harvard Divinity School and the School of Public Health have 16 and six years of teaching experience at the University, respectively.

The four dean appointments suggest Gay is seeking to establish trust with Harvard’s faculty members by opting to fill her leadership team with familiar faces.

The moves also indicate that Gay cares about building a closer relationship with faculty across the University, in addition to the students.

There will be at least one more opportunity for Gay to elevate a professor with strong connections with the faculty to a key leadership post when she names a successor to outgoing Harvard Kennedy School Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf.

In addition, the two vacancies Gay will need to fill on the Harvard Corporation — the University’s highest governing board — will also allow her to curry favor among powerful alumni and donors.

The departure of billionaire philanthropist David M. Rubenstein left the board down one member, and former University Treasurer Paul J. Finnegan ’75 will also be stepping down in June at the conclusion of his term.

Until both Corporation seats and the HKS deanship are filled, Gay’s first year in office will continue to heavily feature candidate interviews and meetings with search committees.

“I feel like my life at this point is just a collection of searches,” Gay said in an interview with The Crimson earlier this month. miles.herszenhorn@thecrimson.com claire.yuan@thecrimson.com

NEWS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON OCTOBER 20, 2023

5

FACULTY

Faculty Push Gay to Condemn Doxxing LETTER TO PRESIDENT. Harvard academics signed an open letter calling for President Gay to condemn harrasment of students who support Palestine.

BY RAHEM D. HAMID AND ELIAS J. SCHISGALL CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

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ore than 70 Harvard academics signed an open letter to University President Claudine Gay on Tues-

day, calling on her to condemn harassment of students of color and “other supporters of Palestinian liberation at Harvard.”

A statement released last week originally signed by 34 student groups called Israel “entirely responsible” for Hamas’ attacks, drawing swift condemnation from national lawmakers and Harvard affiliates and making international headlines.

In the following days, students in the organizations that originally signed the statement faced doxxing attacks, including a

truck that drove around campus displaying the names and faces of students. Early last week, Gay distanced Harvard from the statement, but she condemned the harassment of students, saying they would not be sanctioned for their beliefs in a video message last Thursday. These messages from Gay came after two earlier announcements from the University and Gay that week.

According to the Tuesday letter, “the administration’s refusal to actively protect the free speech of Palestinian, Arab, Black, and

Dozens of Harvard faculty signed an open letter demanding that President Gay condemn safety threats and harrassment of students in support of Palestine. RYAN N. GAJARAWALA — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Muslim students has had a chilling and dangerous effect across campus.”

The letter’s signatories include prominent academics, such as History department chair Sidney Chalhoub and Cemal Kafadar, the director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

The faculty members and academic fellows who signed the letter called on Gay and University leadership to “denounce all forms of racism, Islamophobia, and xenophobia, including antisemitism and anti-Palestinian racism,” stating that they should “hold responsible all those involved in the attacks against our students and provide adequate measures to protect them.”

“It is our collective responsibility to foster a safe environment for all Harvard students,” the letter stated.

Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton confirmed that Gay received the letter on Tuesday. He referred The Crimson to past administrators’ statements on the matter, but he declined to comment further.

In a Harvard-wide message last week, Executive Vice President Meredith L. Weenick ’90 said Harvard does not “condone or ignore intimidation” or threats

of violence, and that student wellbeing and safety was a priority.

The signatories of Tuesday’s letter also “took issue” with Gay’s early statements on the conflict in Israel and Gaza, with the letter stating that the response “reproduced the differential valuing of Israeli and Palestinian lives.”

Gay’s first statement, issued late last Monday, said the school has “no illusion that Harvard alone can readily bridge the widely different views of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” but called for empathy and an understanding of “common humanity and shared values.”

After facing criticism that her statement failed to explicitly denounce terrorism or Hamas, Gay released a second statement the following day condemning “the terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas.”

The Tuesday letter noted Gay’s historic appointment as the first Harvard president of color, stating it “brought much needed hope and inspiration.”

“We trusted your resolute commitment to inclusion, such that historically underrepresented and silenced communities might feel a greater sense of belonging at Harvard,” it stated.

But the faculty criticized Gay’s omission of Palestine in her com-

munications with University affiliates.

“Indeed, the failure to even mention the words “Palestine” or “Palestinians” — except in one passing reference to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—or to condemn the killing of Palestinian civilians, is to willfully ignore the fact that it is Palestinian and allied students who are being targeted on our campus,” the letter continued.

The letter also stated that Gay did not sufficiently address the humanitarian crisis and violations of international law in Gaza.

“Hamas’s offensive caused unjustifiable and condemnable civilian casualties. The violence did not begin then,” the letter stated. “Systemic Israeli state violence has defined Palestinian life in Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip since 1948.”

“Your words and actions in the days to come will have a huge impact on all our students, on our campus, and indeed across the country,” it continued. “Publicly stating that you see our Palestinian students in their suffering and humanity can make a palpable difference.” rahem.hamid@thecrimson.com elias.schisgall@thecrimson.com

‘Vibrant Again’: Lamont Cafe Reopens After Three-Year Hiatus Due to Covid-19 Pandemic

BY NIA L. ORAKWUE AND SOPHIA C. SCOTT CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

KRISHI KISHORE — CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

UNIVERSITY FINANCES FROM PAGE 1

Endowment Falls For Second Year this timeframe.

Under Narvekar’s tenure thus far, HMC has delivered a 9.2 percent annualized return.

“Over the course of the last six fiscal years, the alpha generated by HMC’s manager selection has been very strong, greater than we would have anticipated,” Narvekar wrote.

“Although we are confident that HMC will continue to do very well, it is hard to imagine that the next six years of alpha production can be as strong as the previous six years.”

Upon Narvekar’s arrival to HMC, he instituted a restructuring plan that shifted the vast majority of the endowment’s assets to external managers, spinning out in-house natural resources and real estate investment teams.

“Ultimately, we believe that the measured increase in risk — carefully calibrated to en-

sure long-term endowment stability — and the improved asset allocation (versus when we started, six years ago) will continue to generate strong returns even if the manager selection alpha attenuates,” Narvekar wrote. krishi.kishore@thecrimson.com rohan.rajeev@thecrimson.com

Harvard’s Lamont Cafe opened its doors Tuesday afternoon after a three-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic — the latest in a string of student-run campus eateries making their returns after pandemic closures.

Alexandre V. Gontchar, a fellow in Harvard’s Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, said he is “excited” about the reopening of the cafe, which is located on the first floor of Lamont Library.

“This place — the opening of LamCaf, the famous LamCaf — signifies that we might be very close to back to normal after Covid,” Gontchar said.

During the hiatus, Gontchar still met with students at the cafe, but “the place felt cold.”

“I think people were hoping that it would become vibrant again,” he said. “I think that the opening of the Lamont Cafe today marks exactly this point.”

Delilah Brown, the assistant manager of both the Lamont and Barker cafes, said that, when reopening Lamont Cafe, she considered issues of student comfort in light of the pandemic.

“With students feeling anxious about coming back in big spaces or large groups, how can we make them feel more comfortable?” Brown said. “How can we get students back collaborating with one another, communicating with one another, and working together again, and feeling safe in those environments?”

Despite concerns surrounding student engagement, Brown said the cafe’s opening day had “an amazing turnout.”

“We’ve also had a couple of students that are looking for jobs,” she said. “I see that there’s a lot of excitement for students who want to get involved in not only just coming to the cafes but also working and being a part of the cafe culture here.”

Vi h a a n Gupta ’27 visited the cafe Tuesday evening looking for a place to

study and grab a coffee. Being able to use Boardplus funds, he said, was “a cherry on top.”

“It’s a little social but not too loud, which is — I believe — a perfect environment for studying,” Gupta said. “The coffee is great.

The vibe is great.”

Colette L. Tesoro ’26, who works as a barista in the cafe, said its reopening has been highly anticipated and well received, with “steady” attendance throughout the day.

“There are people who work in

the building who said that they’ve been waiting for this for a while,” Tesoro said. “There’s been a couple big, smiling reactions when they see that it’s open.”

“I think it’ll be a good semester, and people will be excited to have a good coffee and study spot for late nights,” Tesoro added.

“Hopefully next week, there will be more excitement and engagement.” nia.orakwue@thecrimson.com sophia.scott@thecrimson.com

After three years on hiatus, Lamont Cafe has reopened on the first floor of Lamont Library.

PATON D. ROBERTS — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

THC Read more at THECRIMSON.COM

College Dean Rakesh Khurana Discusses ‘Restorative Justice’ Disciplinary Practices

BY J. SELLERS HILL AND NIA L. ORAKWUE CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

KRISHI KISHORE — CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Dean of Harvard College Rakesh Khurana said in an interview earlier this month that the school has taken steps to integrate “restorative justice” into its disciplinary practices, a move that coincides with a downward trend in Administrative Board cases.

Restorative justice is a disciplinary philosophy that aims to rehabilitate offenders by encouraging them to take responsibility for harm they have caused, reconcile directly with victims, and redeem themselves.

When employed in educational settings, restorative justice practices have been touted as a way to reduce stress and racial disparities compared to zero-tolerance discipline policies.

“One of the things that we’re trying to do is include restorative justice practices into disciplinary

areas,” Khurana said in response to a question about the low number of disciplinary cases that appeared before the Ad Board during the 2021-22 academic year.

“One of the areas that we’re trying to do that most is in our Houses,” he added.

Chaired by Khurana and composed of approximately 30 College administrators and faculty, the Ad Board enforces Harvard College policies, including disciplining students.

According to annual statistics released by the College, the 2021-22 academic year saw total Ad board disciplinary actions fall to a seven-year low, though the number of required withdrawals — the Board’s harshest sanction short of dismissal — remained consistent with previous years.

According to Charnele S. Luster, director of residential programs at the College’s Dean of Students Office, restorative justice initiatives at the College were championed by the Harvard Col-

lege Women’s Center. In 2021, the center rolled out “Harm to Harmony,” a program aimed at piloting restorative justice practices in select spaces. Following the pilot, in 2022 and 2023 restorative justice programs and training were expanded, Luster wrote in an emailed statement this week.

“The initial introduction to restorative justice took place during the Fall 2022 Residential Life training, where proctors and tutors were introduced to the fundamental principles of RJ, with a particular focus on building a sense of community,” she wrote, adding that additional training programs continued to be offered this year.

“This dedication to continued learning ensures that practitioners always have access to the latest insights, best practices, and resources in the realm of restorative justice, thereby further strengthening their ability to apply these principles within the campus community,” Luster

wrote.

Khurana also addressed a report released by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences earlier this month found that the percentage of A-range grades at the College has risen from 60 percent to 79 percent over the last decade.

“We use one instrument to mean a lot of things,” Khurana said of letter grading.

“Sometimes that instrument is a little clunky to get at all of the aspects of what it means — at one level it is seen as an evaluation of how well people have mastered a certain amount of material,” he said. “In other areas, it is seen as doing a relative comparison across a group and holds significance in certain areas like fellowships, or applying for graduate schools.”

Khurana said that grades should not be the only system for evaluating students. sellers.hill@thecrimson.com nia.orakwue@thecrimson.com

6

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

COVER STORY

OCTOBER 20, 2023

Searching for the Next HKS Dean Amid Global Crisis JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

DEAN SEARCH. The Kennedy School’s next leader will be tasked with rebuilding confidence in the school’s administration.

BY THOMAS J. METE AND ASHER J. MONTGOMERY CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

­S

ix weeks after Harvard Kennedy School Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf announced his decision to step down at the end of the year, the search for his successor has begun in earnest.

In an email to Kennedy School affiliates, University President Claudine Gay and Provost Alan M. Garber ’76 — who will colead the search — announced the members of a 15-person advisory committee who will assist in the search and invited students and faculty to weigh in on the priorities and traits sought in the next dean.

“The mission of Harvard Kennedy School — to improve public policy and public leadership, so people can live in societies that are safe, free, just, and sustainably prosperous — has never been more important,” Gay and Garber wrote.

In the coming months, the pair will prioritize finding a new dean who can “marshal the rich intellectual resources and energy of HKS to address the myriad challenges facing our nation and our world,” they said.

With more than 23,000 alumni, the Kennedy School has served as a launchpad for a vast array of public servants, government officials, military leaders, and academics both in the United States and abroad since its founding in 1936.

Elmendorf’s exit raises questions about the future of Harvard’s vaunted policy school as its scholars are called to confront escalating geopolitical crises, with ongoing wars between Israel and Hamas as well as Ukraine and Russia — both of which have become major focuses of U.S. foreign policy.

Gay’s fifth dean search could be her most precarious, coming

as the University faces intense scrutiny for statements by its administration and its students on the Israel-Hamas war and centering on the school whose work most closely involves that conflict. Already, HKS has received backlash, with several prominent donors severing their ties with the school over what they viewed as insufficient support for Israel.

Democracy and governance professor Tarek E. Masoud said he believes the Kennedy School is “one of the most public facing parts of Harvard University.”

“A lot of the issues that we deal with at the Kennedy School are hot-button issues that rouse a lot of intense emotions,” he said. “What we try to do at the Kennedy School is substitute emotion with logic, evidence, rigor, reasoned argument, but the Kennedy School is almost in the eye of every storm by design, given how central public policy is to our mission.”

The Crimson spoke with 22 HKS faculty members about their priorities in the search and the scholars they hope to see considered for the school’s top post. Some faculty mem-

years of fraught relations between the school and many of its affiliates.

In the past year, Elmendorf faced clarion calls to resign from Kennedy School affiliates in two separate instances — first, following accusations that he had vetoed a fellowship for former Human Rights Watch head Kenneth Roth over his criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestine, and second after The Crimson reported he was abruptly forcing misinformation expert Joan M. Donovan out of her role at the school.

After his veto of the Roth fellowship, more than 1,000 Harvard affiliates demanded Elmendorf step down in an open letter.

Following the Donovan news, 121 signed a renewed call for his resignation.

“I believe the HKS community is still in the process of restoring trust and something more has to be done for the community to heal,” HKS graduate Akira Shimabukuro wrote in a statement at the time.

Elmendorf declined to comment for this article.

The next dean will also need to decide whether to push for-

“

I believe the HKS community is still in the process of restoring trust and something more has to be done for the community to heal.

Akira Shimabukuro HKS Graduate

bers were granted anonymity to speak freely about the search and the school’s current administration.

‘Restoring Trust’ The next dean of the Kennedy School will be tasked with rebuilding confidence in the school’s administration after

ward or roll back controversial initiatives advanced by Elmendorf in his final year in the role.

In a March email to students, Elmendorf announced that the school was in the “early stages of exploring” a merger of its Master in Public Policy and Master in Public Administration programs, sparking backlash from the HKS student government.

The school also faced significant criticism over a consolidation of the Kennedy School’s student-run policy journals into a single “HKS Student Policy Review” — a move the journals’ student editors said they had little input in.

“Some of the challenges and feedback that we’re seeing is that

tions reflect a dynamic in which there will “almost invariably be people who will be disappointed or even upset with things that faculty or administrators produce.”

“An adept administrator needs to be able to navigate and continue to just communicate that the goal of an institution of

“

Finding a dean who really is student facing is probably the most important thing. Just for emotional well-being for the student body, they need to feel like the dean that’s coming in actually cares.

NanaEfua Afoh-Manin Kennedy School Student Government President

this dean in particular hasn’t been student-facing,” Kennedy School Student Government President NanaEfua AfohManin said. “Finding a dean who really is student facing is probably the most important thing.

Just for emotional well-being for the student body, they need to feel like the dean that’s coming in actually cares.”

Perhaps most pressingly, the next Kennedy School dean will be entrusted with mending fractured relationships with some of the school’s donors over the University’s response to the attacks on Israel by Hamas.

In a statement to Harvard’s Board of Overseers, the Wexner Foundation severed its financial and programmatic ties to the University, ending a fellowship that sent Israeli students to HKS for decades. Leslie H. Wexner, the foundation’s co-founder, is the namesake of one of the Kennedy School’s six buildings and gave more than $42 million to the school prior to 2012.

Citing similar concerns about the University’s response to the invasion, Israeli billionaires Idan and Batia Ofer quit the HKS executive board last Friday.

Masoud said that these reac-

higher education is to convene debate, not to weigh in on one side or the other of a debate,” he said.

Roth said Elmendorf allowed himself to be too easily influenced by the school’s donors in his role as dean, citing the initial rejection of his fellowship.

“The Kennedy School has invited donor pressure to curtail academic freedom by getting into the censorship business,” Roth said.

Professor Mathias Risse, who spoke out against Elmendorf’s decision to veto Roth’s fellowship, wrote in an email that the severing of the Wexner Foundation’s ties with the Kennedy School “makes clear again how demanding” the dean role is.

“Being dean of the Harvard Kennedy School is as close to having an impossible academic job as it gets,” Risse wrote. “At the same time, the demandingness of the job also plainly reflects how unusual and exciting an academic institution the Harvard Kennedy School is.”

Elmendorf will play no formal role in the search for his successor, according to University spokesperson Jonathan L. Swain, though consis-

tent with other outgoing deans, he “will be available to the advisory committee for consultation to inform their consideration around challenges and opportunities for HKS.” The Search Begins The search for Elmendorf’s successor will likely accelerate in the coming days with the advisory committee now in place and a meeting with faculty members slated for Monday.

The 15-person body consists primarily of Kennedy School faculty, but also includes prominent figures from elsewhere in the University.

Members include Harvard Business School Dean Srikant M. Datar, Law School professor Richard J. Lazarus, and Dean of Social Science Lawrence D. Bobo. Two academic deans at the Kennedy School — Erica Chenoweth and David J. Deming — are also serving on the committee, as is Meghan L. O’Sullivan, the director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Other committee members are Marcella M. Alsan ’99, Christopher N. Avery ’88, Hannah Riley Bowles, Jason Furman ’92, Fredrik Logevall, Rana Mitter, Carmen M. Reinhart, Daniel Schneider, and Sandra S. Smith.

These individuals will also participate in a “broader outreach plan,” according to Gay and Garber’s letter, which requests that HKS affiliates offer thoughts on the challenges and opportunities facing the school and put forward their priorities and preferred picks.

Though the Kennedy School Student Government had sought a greater formal role in the process, in the form of three seats on the advisory committee, the University has provided only an email address, a Qualtrics form, and a mailing address for student insight on the dean search.

According to University spokesperson Jason A. Newton, the search for the Kennedy School Dean will look similar to other leadership searches. The process will involve considering

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

COVER STORY

OCTOBER 20, 2023

nominations for the role, along with broader input and insights from affiliates.

Gay will meet with all faculty who choose to attend next week on Oct. 23 for a preliminary consultation.

Based on previous searches, this initial meeting will likely be followed by a gathering of the search committee, where Gay and Garber will discuss issues facing the Kennedy School and the qualities necessary for a new dean. In the following days, as in past searches, nomination submissions from search advisers and from other University deans around the country will likely be gathered into a list with around 60 names and basic biographical information.

After this list is compiled, Gay and Garber will likely select a shortlist of about a dozen names from the initial list who advisers will speak to in greater detail and assess.

From this point, the list will steadily winnow — with greater involvement from the president and provost in individual candidate assessments — until a final candidate is selected.

‘A Broad Range of Concerns’ At next week’s consultation, faculty from all corners of the Kennedy School will put forward what they view as the most pressing issues facing the school.

Over the last decade, the Kennedy School has experienced a dramatic surge in international students, with more than 50 percent of the student body coming from outside the U.S. The focus of the school’s curriculum, however, has not shifted quite as fast.

“The Kennedy School in the time I’ve been here has really become a global place where there are students from around the world with a broad range of concerns and different challenges that they’re dealing with,” Masoud said.

Masoud added that the Kennedy School should be a place where international student can gain knowledge that is relevant to “the missions that they’re going to fulfill when they go back to their home country.”

This influx of international students has led several professors to suggest a reevaluation of the Kennedy School’s selection

sues concerning Israel and Palestine — but “each refused to do it,” he said.

“If the dean has that commitment, then I don’t really care what their personal views are,” Roth said. “But if the selection committee is going to look for somebody who is going to enforce censorship on their favorite topics, that’s a big problem.”

The next dean of the Kenne-

Deming, Archon Fung, and Deval L. Patrick ’78 as particularly strong picks to lead the Kennedy School into its next chapter.

Chenoweth, the HKS dean of faculty engagement, and Deming, one of the school’s academic deans, were both subsequently named as part of the advisory committee; they would likely have to step down from the body to be considered for the role.

“

As a general principle, I favor having a female dean after a long string of men — just as I might well favor a male dean after a long string of women in some other position.

Sheila S. Jasanoff ’64 Professor of Science and Technology Studies

dy School will also have to guide the school’s approach to addressing global gender issues — both domestically after the fall of Roe v. Wade as well as internationally with ongoing clashes over women’s rights in Iran and Afghanistan.

Pointing to these issues, several faculty members said Gay should appoint a woman to lead the Kennedy School for the first time in its history.

“A woman dean would send a signal and I think it would send a signal that is powerfully needed in the world,” said HKS professor Sheila S. Jasanoff ’64.

“As a general principle, I favor having a female dean after a long string of men — just as I might well favor a male dean after a long string of women in some other position,” Public Policy, Government and African and African American Studies professor Jennifer Hochschild wrote in an email.

Some faculty are also hoping for a change of pace in terms of academic background. The next dean will succeed two decades of economists holding the top post at HKS, a contentious point among portions of the faculty.

“We do not need another person who is an economist to lead the Kennedy School,” Muham-

Of the names mentioned — three are women, three are people of color, and one is international. All would be firsts for the Kennedy School, which has only had white American men at the helm since its founding in 1936.

Muhammad said he viewed the dean search as an opportunity for the University to embrace diversity at the Kennedy School.

“I’d be surprised if this weren’t an opportunity to find a dean who was not a white man, and I wholeheartedly support that,” he said. “I would caution though, that representation alone is insufficient to the kind of leader I imagine in this role.”

Chenoweth received praise for their commitment to consensus and inclusivity, though declined having interest in the role in a statement to The Crimson.

“I am deeply appreciative of my colleagues’ confidence.

However, I have many satisfying responsibilities to the Kennedy School, the College, and my family,” they wrote.

Deming, the faculty dean of Kirkland House since 2020, declined that he was considering additional roles, including the Kennedy School job.

“I have made a commitment to the wonderful students of Kirkland House,” he wrote in an email.

Fung, the former HKS interim dean and director of the school’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, was applauded for his distinguished research and academic profile by several colleagues.

“Archon Fung is a scholar of enormous renown,” Masoud said. “He is also a fundamentally good human being — I’ve known him now for 15 years. As the director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, he’s brought tremendous energy to that institution and really imbued it with a new spirit.”

Six faculty members, however, said Fung’s stint as interim dean from June 2015 to January 2016 exhibited a lack of vision and weak leadership. Some questioned his ability to move the school in a new direction.

Fung, who has served as a professor of citizenship and self-government since 1999, served as the chair of the faculty and staff advisory panel to the presidential search committee that tapped Gay for Harvard’s top post earlier this year.

Fung did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Allen, the director of the Ash Center’s Lab for Democracy Renovation and a University Professor — Harvard’s highest faculty honor — has long been held in high regard by her colleagues.

She was considered one of four favorites late in the process for the 2018 Harvard presidential search that

ultimately landed on Lawrence S. Bacow.

Allen set her sights on higher office in 2022, running in the Massachusetts Democratic gubernatorial primary before suspending her campaign that February.

In an emailed statement, Allen wrote she is “not a candidate for the role,” adding that she is “very glad to have joined the Ash

7

ground.

Patrick, the former Massachusetts governor, is the only one of the six who has served in public office, an attribute that has divided those within HKS. Patrick’s experience is seen as an asset for a training based school, but others said his minimal research background could harm the Kennedy School’s academic credibility.

“

I’d be surprised if this weren’t an opportunity to find a dean who was not a white man, and I wholeheartedly support that.

Khalil Gibran Muhammad History, Race, and Public Policy Professor

Center and HKS” and to be working on the Democracy Renovation lab.

Bohnet, a Swiss economist, is considered a potential pick by many senior economists at the Kennedy School — a faction that largely supports and predicts her potential deanship, according to two tenured economics professors. Bohnet declined to comment on her potential candidacy for the deanship.

With 25 years of experience at HKS as a professor with a stint as academic dean, Bohnet has acquired the institutional knowledge necessary to serve as dean, with one faculty member noting that she is already deeply embedded in HKS administrative decisions.

Some faculty members, however, believe there should be a significant shift from the Kennedy School’s focus on economics — a change in vision that Bohnet would not necessarily usher in, given her academic back-

Patrick could find himself as the next dean with little opposition, according to two senior faculty members — though he has actively told faculty members he has no interest in the role, they added.

Patrick declined to comment on whether he had any interest in the deanship.

While internal speculation surrounds names familiar to the Kennedy School, the search will almost certainly consider names both inside and out.

Masoud said though many Kennedy School faculty members could “step into the role of dean and perform with flying colors,” a comprehensive search is necessary.

“It would behoove the president of the University to cast an extremely wide net,” Masoud said. “The idea here is really not just to get somebody who would be good enough as dean of the Kennedy School, but really, the very best person that we can get.” thomas.mete@thecrimson.com asher.montgomery@thecrimson.com

“

The Kennedy School in the time I’ve been here has really become a global place where there are students from around the world with a broad range of concerns.

Tarek E. Masoud Democracy and Governance Professor

of policy classes — which presently skew toward U.S. concerns.

“If we’re going to continue to build classes that are at this level of international students, we will have to diversify the curriculum and enhance the faculty’s skill sets to meet their particular needs,” said history, race, and public policy professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad.

“The school remains U.S.-centric in terms of the expertise of its faculty, and that mismatch is a source of some challenge in the classroom, both for me and for many of my colleagues,” he added.

As the Kennedy School expands its curricular domain, it also wades into conflicts without easy policy prescriptions — and where academic exploration meets the constraints of external pressures to limit debate.

“The Kennedy School needs courageous and transparent leadership at a time of tremendous uncertainty in the world, and a crisis of legitimacy for expertise and truth,” Muhammad said. “A future dean will have to model trust and character and integrity in order to build a stronger and more effective institution to meet the challenges that we face.”

Roth said it is critical for the University to select someone who is “committed to academic freedom.”

Roth added that he had pushed both Elmendorf and Garber, the University provost, to publicly declare that commitment to academic freedom on is-

mad said.

“We are well resourced in terms of faculty who can bring the best of economics to the school’s curriculum. We need people who bring more balance to how the school conceptualizes this leadership,” he added.

Looking Inward Of the four deans that Gay has appointed in her first year as president, all have been current or former Harvard faculty members — which some have taken as a sign that she is likely to look close to home for the next Kennedy School dean.

In conversations with The Crimson, Kennedy School faculty members said a set of six internal choices stood out as uniquely qualified to head the school.

F a c u l ty members identified Kennedy School professors Danielle S. Allen, Iris Bohnet, Chenoweth, Harvard Kennedy School Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf announced will step down at the end of the school year. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

8

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

NEWS

OCTOBER 20, 2023

CAMPUS PROTEST

Hundreds of Protesters Disrupt Classes IN SUPPORT OF PALESTINE. Hundreds of Harvard affiliates march through Harvard Law School and Kennedy School

BY CAM E. KETTLES AND AZUSA M. LIPPIT CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

­A

round 500 protesters supporting Palestine walked out of class and marched through multiple Harvard schools Thursday afternoon — the third protest on campus in support of Palestine following the start of the war in Israel and Gaza.

Organized by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee and Graduate Students 4 Palestine, the protest traveled across campus. While classes were in session, demonstrators marched through the Science Center, then through the Law School’s Caspersen Student Center and Wasserstein Hall, before marching through Harvard Square to protest in the Harvard Kennedy School courtyard.

Several protesters were holding noisemakers, including drumsticks and buckets. The demonstrators halted traffic on JFK Street for two traffic light cycles.

The protest was not originally intended to reach HLS and HKS, according to a PSC statement to The Crimson. The protesters were accompanied by a significant police presence, who were in communication with the PSC prior to the event.

The PSC has received nationwide backlash for an Oct. 8 statement originally signed by more than 30 student groups that held the Israeli government “entirely responsible” for the violence in the region. In the past week, pro-Palestine demonstrators held a rally that drew more

than 1,000 people Saturday and a “die-in” attended by hundreds Wednesday.

A news helicopter hovered above the protesters for the second day in a row. After the event concluded, the PSC and GS4P announced plans for an additional protest Friday morning at Harvard Medical School’s Longwood campus.

Members of the PSC and other groups that originally signed the statement have been the target of a series of doxxing attacks, including a billboard truck — funded by conservative media watchdog Accuracy in Media — displaying the names and faces of students alleged to be linked to the groups.

The Guardian reported Monday that the largest donor Accuracy in Media is the Informing

America Foundation. The Informing America Foundation’s largest donor is the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation, whose namesake serves on the advisory board for Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.

The truck was spotted on Harvard’s campus Thursday morning, and has frequently circled the College since its first appearance on campus last Wednesday.

When the protests stopped outside HKS, African and African American Resistance Organization co-founder Amari M. Butler ’25 addressed the crowd.

“You may recognize me from a certain vehicle that may or may not have been circling around Harvard Square recently,” Butler said.

Butler accused the University of not supporting doxxed

students and said groups like Accuracy in Media have used “intimidation and scare tactics to instill fear in student leaders at the helm of the Palestine solidarity movement.”

University spokesperson Jason A. Newton declined to comment on the doxxing of students, referring back to previous Harvard statements.

University President Claudine Gay and top Harvard officials released a series of statements following Hamas’ attack on Israel.

In a video message, Gay defended students’ right to express their views, saying the University “rejects the harassment or intimidation of individuals based on their beliefs.”

Though the statements did not reference PSC by name, Gay has also distanced the Univer-

CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society hosted panel discussions on the problems affecting social media and potential solutions during a “Future of the Internet” summit at Harvard Business School on Wednesday.

Former President Barack Obama was initially slated to speak at the event’s keynote panel. At the start of the event, however, Jason Goldman — Obama’s senior technology adviser — announced that the former president had withdrawn after experiencing “Covid-like symptoms.”

This would have marked Obama’s first Harvard appearance since his presidency. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991.

The programming continued with Goldman participating on Obama’s behalf.

The event celebrated the launch of BKC’s Applied Social Media Lab, which aims to develop social media technology to serve the public good.

The keynote panel, moderated by BKC co-founder Jonathan L. Zittrain, featured Goldman, former Twitter Trust and Safety head Yoel Roth, Data Nutrition Project co-founder Kasia S. Chmielinski ’06, and Block Party CEO Tracy Chou.

“It’s a slightly different ‘block party’ today than we were expecting,” Zittrain quipped, referring to Obama’s absence. “But, we have a lab to launch. We’re going to launch it right now and can’t think of a better group or setting in which to do it.”

Wednesday’s summit also featured two other discussions on the challenges the Applied Social Media Lab hopes to address and the impact of social media on information dissemination. These panels featured faculty members from across Harvard, including Computer Science professor James W. Mickens, Kenne-

are being attacked because they stand with the people of Palestine,” the letter reads.

At Thursday’s protest, speakers took aim at Harvard’s ties to Israel.

PSC organizers said the University has become complicit in “genocide” by investing in companies linked to Israeli settlements in Palestine. According to a 2020 analysis by The Crimson, the Harvard Management Company has invested more than $194 million into Brookings Holdings, a company with ties to Israeli settlements.

Newton declined to comment on Harvard’s financial ties to Israel.

As the demonstrators gathered outside the Kennedy School’s Wexner Building, a counter-protester drew Israeli flags and wrote “I stand with Israel” on the ground in chalk. Some protesters poured water over the chalk drawing as they walked past, though organizers subsequently warned protesters not to engage with the chalk or any counter-protesters.

Throughout the protest, demonstrators directed their chants toward Harvard administrators.

As Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana walked to his office in Harvard Yard, students not involved with the protest stopped him and requested a selfie. After Khurana posed in the selfie, the protesters entering the Yard began to shout at him.

“Dean Rakesh, we call on you to use your privilege. We call on you to use your position to free Palestine,” one protester said with a megaphone.

While Friday’s protest will be the third rally in three days held by the PSC, organizers declined to comment on how long the protests will continue. cam.kettles@thecrimson.com azusa.lippit@thecrimson.com

Protesters gathered in Harvard Yard to rally in support of Palestine. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Obama Cancels on Berkman Klein Center Summit Due to ‘Covid-like Symptoms’

BY NEIL H. SHAH

sity from the group’s statement, writing last week that “no student group — not even 30 student groups — speaks for Harvard University or its leadership.”

Multiple Harvard administrators have since addressed the doxxing of students in subsequent statements to individual schools. The University has also increased campus security.

Butler also encouraged protesters to sign an open letter written by Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, a national anti-war activist organization. The letter lists more than 50 initial signatories, including Harvard faculty members Vijay Iyer, Christopher F. Hasty, and John Womack Jr. ’59.

“We the undersigned stand with the courageous students at Harvard and elsewhere who

dy School professor Latanya A. Sweeney, and Law School professor Lawrence Lessig.

The speakers at the keynote panel discussed their past and present experiences with the Internet and the changes they hope to see implemented in its future.

According to Roth, social media platforms have not been built “in a way that engenders public trust.”

“There’s communities of, in Facebook’s case, billions of people on these platforms, but there’s no real sense that there is legitimacy to the governance that these platforms are exercising,” Roth said. “The solutions to that are straightforward.”

“We know what builds trust in institutions. We know that that’s communication. We know that it’s being forthright about how you are governing things. We know it’s accountability with data that is externally auditable,” Roth added.

Roth encouraged “whoever owns Twitter or whoever is building the new Twitter” to consider “trust” as their primary goal.

Chmielinski said they believe that not all problems can be solved by technology.

“Something that I definitely saw when I was working in government — people would come and say, ‘We’d like you to make an app that’s going to fix this problem.’ And we’d say, ‘Okay, we’ll

take that under consideration but like, why don’t you tell us about the problem?’” Chmielinski said.

“Often, technology is not the solution. It’s a people problem or it’s a process problem or it’s a culture problem or something like that,” they added.

Zittrain emphasized choosing “the concrete over the vague,” “action over complacency,” and “imagination over status quoism” when it comes to addressing the problems facing the Internet.

“It’s just a question of whether we close our eyes as the rollercoaster ratchets up the hill,” Zittrain said.

COMAROFF FROM PAGE 1

Comaroff Still Sanctioned

neil.shah@thecrimson.com

Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Hopi E. Hoekstra speaks at an October interview. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society hosted a summit Wednesday to celebrate the launch of its new Applied Social Media Lab. JOEY HUANG — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

why the decision was made to renew the sanctions.

In May 2020, an eight-month investigation by The Crimson revealed that at least three female graduate students had contacted Harvard’s Title IX office with complaints against Comaroff, a professor of African and African American Studies and Anthropology.

Following The Crimson’s reporting, Gay placed Comaroff on paid administrative leave, then on one semester of unpaid leave.

Comaroff’s return to teaching in the fall 2022 semester sparked a student walkout and protest.

Protests continued through the spring 2023 semester, with students calling for Comaroff to resign and for the school to fire him.

Harvard firing tenured professors is exceedingly rare.

Those protests also called for Harvard to take stronger action

to prevent sexual misconduct and power-based harassment on campus. The University is also facing a lawsuit filed by three Anthropology graduate students who allege that Harvard ignored years of sexual harassment complaints against Comaroff.

Hoekstra, in the interview, acknowledged that “we, certainly, as faculty are responsible for setting culture.”

“That’s something that is really important to me that we set that right culture,” Hoekstra added. “Especially in the academy, which is hierarchical by nature, I think we have to be especially vigilant and have a particular responsibility to speak up and drive the changes that we want to see in this institution.” rahem.hamid@thecrimson.com elias.schisgall@thecrimson.com

EDITORIAL

THE HARVARD CRIMSON OCTOBER 20, 2023

9

OP-ED

Don’t Bully Students With Dissenting Views. Protect Them.

NONE OF THIS IS EASY. But reasonable people can debate the roots of violence and conflict. And as a university that claims “Veritas” as our goal, we should be working to to create the conditions in which such a debate is possible.

BY MELANI CAMMETT, RYAN D. ENOS, AND STEVEN LEVITSKY

­H

amas’ horrific terrorist attacks on Israel and Israel’s brutal ongoing assault on Gaza have opened emotional wounds and divided our community. We must not make matters worse by creating an atmosphere in which vulnerable students are demonized by those in power, afraid to share their opinions, or fear for their safety.

We do not support the joint statement written by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee, which held “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” Indeed, we are quite critical of it. Whatever one’s view of the roots of Hamas’ terrorist attack, the statement was horrendously timed and, in failing to recognize the massive toll in human lives and profound grief the attack brought to so many members of our community, displayed a troubling lack of empathy and compassion. An explanation without condemnation can be perceived by critics as justification.

But two things should be made clear: First, the statement did not endorse the terrorist attack, Hamas, or the use of violence. And second, the statement was not antisemitic. Harsh criticism of Israel should not be conflated with antisemitism. That conflation can stifle debate and silence critical views. What the PSC statement did do was present a position that many people strongly objected to.

Individuals have a right to object to the PSC statement. But no one should be punished for dissenting views. For this reason, we are deeply troubled by powerful individuals’ public attacks on the students, often based on a misconstrued reading of the

statement.

A prominent former University President fanned the flames of anger and pressured University leaders to condemn the students. A local congressman accused them of antisemitism and, sounding more like a social media troll than an elected representative, called their statement “morally depraved.”

Hundreds of Harvard faculty members used their collective professional weight to call upon University leaders to condemn what they described (in our view, inaccurately) as the students’ “condoning” of Hamas terrorism.

University presidents, and billionaire CEOs who use their clout to silence and potentially endanger these students.

In our view, these attacks by powerful people within and outside our university showed a disregard for pluralism. They failed to recognize that members of our community come from different backgrounds, have different life experiences, and hold legitimately different beliefs.

All of these factors have helped create an atmosphere in which our students feel not only that they have been denied the right to speak their views but

“

We believe the students made a poor choice. But those of us with powerful positions and years of experience should use a mistake as a teachable moment, not an opportunity to intimidate.

It was certainly not the intent of these faculty, but their and others’ actions helped create an environment of threat and intimidation for members of the student groups that signed the original statement, including targeted harassment, doxxing in Harvard Square, promises by prominent business leaders to blacklist them from future employment, and even reports of death threats against students.

All the while, many of these students were living with the knowledge that their friends and families face an increasingly horrifying situation in the Middle East. The actions of anonymous internet trolls and media provocateurs are to be expected.

The same cannot be said for congressmen, former

that their lives and careers are threatened. This is especially troubling when the target of these attacks is a small and vulnerable population within the university. Many Palestinian and Muslim students, groups that already often feel alienated, now believe that Harvard is openly hostile to them.

We believe the students made a poor choice. But those of us with powerful positions and years of experience should use a mistake as a teachable moment, not an opportunity to intimidate.

Why not counter what is perceived as offensive speech with more speech by engaging in dialogue to seek a deeper understanding of points of difference and agreement? It is incumbent on us to recognize

the humanity in all people, especially our community members. Recognizing this humanity means we acknowledge that people make mistakes, come from different backgrounds and perspectives, and share common grief and even anger when violence befalls people we love.

As a university that values the diversity of its student body, we must take special care to protect vulnerable students. We can all recognize that when violence occurs, it may touch some of us very deeply. For both Palestinian and Israeli students at Harvard, this is an experience with which they are tragically familiar. These students need our support and protection.

For faculty members and others with the privilege of a large platform, offering an open ear, a supportive presence, and perhaps guidance on the best way to express ourselves during difficult moments, may be a healthier way to support our community.

In our view, the students were misguided in the release of their statement, but they were not wrong in seeking a deeper discussion of the roots of Israeli-Palestinian violence. That discussion will require a mutual recognition that members of our community have different — and legitimate — perspectives that are informed by profoundly different life experiences. It will require recognition that terrorism like that committed by Hamas is never acceptable; but it also requires recognition that this violence occurs in the context of decades of dehumanizing occupation.

None of this is easy. But reasonable people can debate the roots of violence and conflict. And as a university that claims “Veritas” as our goal, we should be working to create the conditions in which such a debate is possible. If thoughtful discourse cannot prosper here, where can it?

–Melani Cammett is the Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs in the Department of Government. Ryan D. Enos is a Professor of Government. Steven Levitsky is the David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies and a Professor of Government.

OP-ED

OP-ED

To Kill a Child

An Educator’s Obligation

BY GUILLERMO S. HAVA

­T

o kill a child is a terrible, unjustifiable thing. To kill many, for enough years that their younger siblings and their children, too, will grow in the shadow of that fear, is an unforgivable sin.

Roughly half of Gaza’s residents are under 18 years old; so too are a number of the Israeli hostages and casualties from last week’s escalation.

That, legally speaking, makes them children.

The Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee — in whose name I don’t write this op-ed — has condemned the ongoing onslaught of violence against civilians, young and old, Palestinian and Israeli alike. They have condemned, too, the thousands of innocent deaths that prefaced the current tragedy.

The spilling of innocent blood is never a welcome sight; it seeps into the ground, crimson stained, and taints those standing on it with resentment and loathing, with despair and anger too heavy to carry. That is and has been the story of the region since the dawn of the colonial project; that is and has been the story of Gaza’s besieged residents for years.

Opposing violence against civilians is and must remain a core and unalienable part of the PSC’s mission. Avoiding further loss of life and achieving a political resolution that guarantees basic rights for the millions denied them must be the motivating force behind the struggle for Palestinian freedom.

Opposing violence, however, must go beyond regretting its specific manifestations, beyond the loathing of individual bullets, no matter how loathsome they may be. Condemning an attack without addressing, or even trying to understand, the factors that triggered it only lets the stain grow; it is no better than responding to violence with thoughts and prayers while refusing meaningful reform. It’s an exercise in virtue signaling, a social media-attuned flattening of a hideous reality — one unlikely to save the next generation of innocents.

For any cycle of violence to end, its root causes must be ascertained and addressed.

Those structural factors are the same today that they were before the attack — the same they have been for decades of internationally recognized illegal settlement-building and occupation by Israel, the same that have led international and Israeli human rights organizations alike to characterize the current legal regime as one of dispossession and apartheid, the same that preside over forced evictions of Palestinians to make way for Jewish settlers, the same that produce a steady stream of dead Palestinian civilians and children without sparking any meaningful outrage.

Israel treats Palestinian lives as disposable; Palestinians, denied their right to return to their homes (and, in Gaza, largely denied even the right to exit their narrow, resource-starved strip) have suffered that truth in their own land for far too long.

There are no explicitly labeled terrorist at-

tacks against Palestinians — because an onslaught of constant, state-sponsored, unbridled terror is their daily reality, one common enough to fail to elicit headlines. But you don’t need headlines to feel pain. Grief can be a lonely endeavor.

Children can, and do, die without anyone looking.

Gaza was broadly acknowledged to be the world’s largest open-air prison well before the attacks, subject to an aggressive blockade for 16 years that prevented most of its inhabitants from leaving the strip. Israel’s increasingly far-right government had escalated attacks on Palestinians within and beyond its borders, storming the holy Al Aqsa Mosque, accelerating the annexation of territories and settlement construction, and dehumanizing Palestinians while seeking to deny them statehood. A people was refused their own land, their own nation, within a polity that seeks to govern them only as a disempowered, defeated minority.

The toll from the incoming escalation will almost certainly be more unforgiving on Palestinian lives, following the depressing path of the last seven decades.

Collective punishment, a war crime in its own right, now seems virtually unavoidable. Israel’s president has already deemed an “entire nation,” even civilians, “responsible” for the bloodshed; the country’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, has enacted a “complete siege” of Gaza to ensure, in his own words, that “no electricity, no food, no fuel” can reach a region home to roughly 2 million Palestinians. Gallant has also, ambiguously and revealingly, declared the nation’s enemy “human animals” who will be dealt with “accordingly.” “Accordingly,” in this context, can only mean slaughter, an accelerated path to genocide.

And children are rarely excused from genocide.

It is thus precisely because we all abhor violence against civilians — precisely because we want to escape the cruel cycle of bullets and barbed wire — that we all must acknowledge the factors that triggered Hamas’s attacks. We all must bring the root causes to the forefront of any conversation. Failing to do so would entail abdicating any possibility of resolving the current conflict — looking the other way, and foolishly praying for better decades.

To quote Israel’s paper of record, hardly a stranger to the depths of Jewish grief: The bloodshed is “the clear responsibility of one person: Benjamin Netanyahu,” who has created “a government of annexation and dispossession” and embraced “a foreign policy that openly ignored the existence and rights of Palestinians.”

I agree. To kill a child is a terrible, unjustifiable thing. But to allow the cruel cycle to continue, to sustain the institutions that enable the continuous oppression of Palestinians and feed unending violence — that, too, is an unforgivable sin.

–Guillermo S. Hava ’23-’24, a former Crimson Editorial Chair, is a Government and Philosophy concentrator in Winthrop House. He joined the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee as an organizer in the fall of 2023.

BY JULIA B. APPEL

­I

n Judaism, we have an ethical category called “tochecha” — “rebuke” in English. It is the idea that should you see someone committing an ethical or ritual violation, especially someone with whom you have a close relationship or to whom you are a mentor or teacher, you are responsible for telling them that they have strayed and urging them to correct their behavior.

President Claudine Gay, as the leader of an educational institution shaping the minds and actions of thousands of future world leaders, has the responsibility to issue tochecha to the community of students she leads whenever necessary. As a rabbi and Harvard College graduate, I am dismayed at President Gay’s continued refusal to publicly rebuke her students who signed on to the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee’s statement last week.

Perhaps more importantly, just because you can say anything doesn’t mean you should.

Speech can cause great harm. A just society is not only one where people have freedom of speech; it is one in which individuals consider the impact of their speech on others.

I learned this from Harvard professor Michael Sandel as an undergraduate. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.”

These student signatories must grow up and carry the weight of what they have said. We are not only financially and socially responsible for our speech and its repercussions — we are also morally responsible.

Instead, President Gay has asked all students to “meet one another with compassion.” That is not possible when the other person appears to

“

Freedom of speech means that the government does not imprison you or murder you for your speech. It does not mean that you are immune from criticism or consequence. President Gay must uphold her position as an educator by reminding the student signatories of this truth.

First, she has not truly guided these students about what it means to have freedom of expression. Harvard University says it prepares its students for success in the world outside the academy. This should include understanding that, while you are able to say what you like, you are also responsible for the consequences of your speech.

Those who “hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence” and say that Israel “is the only one to blame” for the autonomous actions of Hamas terrorists, who kidnapped children and elderly Holocaust survivors, tortured and raped people house by house, murdered entire families, burned people alive, slew more than 260 concertgoers, paraded the dead in the streets, and did unspeakably worse, accounting for more than 1,300 deaths that amount to the largest murder of Jews on a single day since the Holocaust — no one is required to befriend or support them, to hire them, or keep them on staff.

Freedom of speech means that the government does not imprison you or murder you for your speech. It does not mean that you are immune from criticism or consequence. President Gay must uphold her position as an educator by reminding the student signatories of this truth.

accept the murder, torture, rape, and kidnapping of your parents, siblings, cousins, and friends. I am astonished it needs to be said, but President Gay must guide the student signatories in understanding that they should not rationalize mass murder. That the student groups later walked back their statement by clarifying that they “remain staunchly opposed against violence against civilians” does not undo their original statement.

Instead, President Gay has characterized the horror many rightfully feel at the statement of Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee as “declaring the rightness of our own points of view and vilify[ing] those who disagree.” The signatories of this statement have vilified themselves by apparently justifying mass murder. President Gay has failed in her duties as an educator by not rebuking their position, for the sake of what is right, but also for the sake of the signatories themselves.

We do not rebuke in order to shame. We rebuke in order to open the door to personal reflection and change for the better. I would hope that Harvard University would still consider such a goal to be important.

–Julia B. Appel graduated from Harvard College in 2004.

10

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

EDITORIAL

OCTOBER 20, 2023

OP-ED

OP-ED

A Call for Empathy

Indeed, There Is No Justification

BY VIOLET T. M. BARRON

­I

srael is a beautiful nation whose government has committed unspeakable crimes.

For many, only half of that sentence will register.

On our campus, viewpoints have grown highly polarized at a time when we most need solidarity. Chants of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” clash with “Am Yisrael Chai” until the discordance becomes deafening. Indistinguishable noise is as productive as silence.

The fights for Palestinian and Israeli self-determination need not be mutually exclusive.

As a Jew, I’ve found myself returning to this truth time and time again amidst the constant stream of news, volatile campus discourse, and my own internal debate over the past week and a half. It is possible to grieve for the Israeli people while acknowledging their government’s past and likely present violations of international humanitarian law. I do not betray my people by demanding more of our leadership.

Likewise, it is possible to grieve for the Palestinian people while acknowledging the role Hamas has played in this bloodshed. As many have aptly noted, the statement released Saturday by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestinian Solidarity Committee calling the government of Israel “entirely responsible” for ongoing violence in the region was dangerously reductionist. While Israel has committed countless atrocities, it is not the sole perpetrator in this recent conflict.

The PSC’s original statement shamefully fails to identify Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by many nations, as complicit.

Hamas does not simply act out of solidarity with Palestine, but necessarily out of hate for Israel. It seeks the complete and total elimination of the Jewish state, as it has since its inception in the 1980s. The PSC’s failure to place blame on Hamas is striking and saddening, and in fact weakens the legitimate call to end a cycle of violence which has trapped Palestinians for decades.

Yet two wrongs don’t make a right. While the PSC’s statement has this glaring flaw, the response has been unacceptable. This week, I watched in horror as the safety of pro-Palestinian activists — many of them students of color, and many of them my friends — was compromised, their identities blasted across the internet and displayed on a “doxxing truck” in Harvard Square.

To add insult to injury, in its statements, Harvard administration has remained cowardly vague. The University has provided four statements so far: the first, too late and too weak; the second, denouncing Hamas but distancing the University from the student groups who signed with the PSC; the third, redirecting students with safety concerns to other resources; and the fourth, a broad rejection of hate and harassment and affirmation of free expression, with no direct reference to the groups targeted.

None of the statements are enough to address the urgent threat to student security.

I understand why my peers on the PSC and their allies are irate, because I am too. They have been attacked, largely on the basis of one sentence, and the very institution designed to protect such intellectual discourse has failed to do so. Still, I urge them not to let their fight for the human rights of the Palestinian people and effort to contextualize this violence become tacit acceptance of terrorism.

I understand why my Jewish peers mourn, because I do too. Israel is the land in which I had my bat mitzvah six and a half years ago at the Western Wall. It is the birthplace of significant technological advancements like drip irrigation, and home to a people whose every greeting and parting, “shalom,” translates to “peace.”

It has been unimaginably hard — the kind of hard that can only be put into tears, never words — to observe helplessly as more than 1,400 Israelis have been killed, raped, and tortured.

Hyperfixation on what the PSC’s statement lacks, rather than what it aims to reveal, is equally unproductive. I, along with my fellow Jewish students, cannot let grief distort the cruelty of Israel’s crimes. We must turn this devastation into a call to action and demand that the Netanyahu administration immediately lay down their arms; restore basic necessities, like fuel and electricity, to the roughly 2.2 million residents of Gaza; and lift the callous 16-year blockade it has imposed on a population that was majority below the poverty line as of 2017 and is nearly half children today. Israeli occupation must end on all fronts: The government should seize this momentum and promptly remove its settlements from the West Bank, too.

The current conflict in Israel and Palestine has unmasked deep injustices in the region and brought them to the forefront of public consciousness. I do not know when the fighting will end, but when it does, I know that the region cannot return to a status quo marked by unthinkable Palestinian suffering.

To my fellow Jews: Now, more than ever, we need not look any further than our faith for guidance. A fundamental principle of Reform Judaism, the tradition I grew up in, is that of “tikkun olam,” which translates to “repairing the world.” Tikkun olam is rooted in the fact that persecution is intrinsically intertwined with the collective Jewish identity. Our tragic history engenders us with a particular obligation to recognize injustice, even if its perpetrators are the very leaders we have elected to office. We must fight to ensure that the oppression which has plagued us — from biblical enslavement in Egypt to systematic extermination in Auschwitz — does not extend to others.

We cannot allow the violence unfolding abroad to drive us away from each other — or from the capacity for empathy — at home. In the face of devastating loss, the path forward is for each of us to make concessions, take time to understand opposing perspectives, and seek out the commonalities and the ways in which our perspectives might not be so different after all. To say this path will be easy would be a lie. But to say we have any other option would be a lie, too.

–Violet T. M. Barron ’26, a Crimson Editorial editor, lives in Adams House.

GAZA’S DESTRUCTION. I cannot help but notice that the world has not yet come to believe that there is no justification for the slaughtering and forced removal of Palestinians, either.

BY FAWWAZ MALKI SHOUKFEH

­J

ust days ago, I published an article recognizing the vicious cycle of conflict in Israel and Palestine, and the bloodshed that it ha wrought over the past 75 years. In light of the heart-wrenching and reprehensible killings of over 1,300 Israeli civilians, I agreed with my classmates who firmly stated that “there is no justification” for such terrorism. I stood in solidarity with them, as I do now, as we mourned both Jewish and Palestinian lives lost.

Yet in light of the recent surge in Palestinian civilian killings and the destruction of Gaza, I cannot help but notice that the world has not yet come to believe that there is no justification for the slaughtering and forced removal of Palestinians, either.

Late Thursday night, Israel Defense Forces liaison officers informed the United Nations of their order for an estimated 1.1 million Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza within 24 hours; warning leaflets were airdropped on the north Gaza strip on Friday.

This decision to displace civilians from northern Gaza — a region already rendered inhospitable by a history of military blockades — to an overcrowded and overwhelmed southern Gaza will only exacerbate decades worth of displacement. The U.N. called upon Israel to revoke their order, emphasizing that such an evacuation would be “impossible” without “devastating humanitarian consequences.”

I refuse to believe that a displacement of this magnitude is simply an ‘evacuation order’ when I hear an Israeli army veteran urge Israeli civilians to kill their Arab neighbors, to “erase the memory of them,” to “erase them, their families, mothers and children.” When I see fleeing Gazans, who were complying with Israel’s order, get obliterated by an Israeli air-

strike anyways. When I hear Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declare, “Gaza won’t return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything.”

The real victims of Israel’s retaliation are not Hamas militants. They are the more than 724 Palestinian children who have been killed in Gaza since last Saturday. They are the medical workers operating on bleeding babies as their hospitals are being missile-struck by the IDF. They are the fleeing Gazans — sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers — who are being decimated by Israeli rockets, both while trying to evacuate and even after reaching the ‘safe’ south.

They are the journalists who are being slain as they seek to make the world see, hear, and stop yet another Palestinian massacre.

These actions evoke a long, tragic history of Palestinian displacement and destruction.

I am reminded of the Nakba of 1948, when the Arab-Israeli War led to the expulsion of approximately 750,000 Palestinians from their homes. I am reminded of 1967, when more than 250,000 Palestinians fled the West Bank and Gaza during the Six-Day War. And I am reminded of the countless displacements since.

These events come to my mind because, somewhere along the way, my great-grandfather’s family was among the millions displaced. And now, 75 years later, it is my aunt’s family who is evacuating northern Gaza, fleeing their homes and running for their lives.

So, please, do not be fooled into thinking that this is just an Israeli incursion against Hamas. None of the 2,215 Palestinian civilians massacred thus far are responsible for the terrorism we witnessed last week. Their only crime was that they were born in a land that they could not fully claim, raised in a world that normalized their suffering. Their only mistake was that they lived in a region where decades of foreign intervention and disregard for human rights bred a minority extremism for which they all would be blamed. And because of these choices that they did not make, it will be them — innocent Palestinians — that suffer from Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

In no way, shape, or form are Palestinians the only ones that have been killed this week,

nor are they the only ones with a history of bloodshed. Yet today, the significant power imbalance favoring the United States-backed Israeli government means that Israeli citizens inherently possess more protective measures, that their suffering will have a more defined end point.

Even some impacted in Israel recognize that power disparity. A brave Israeli survivor from the attack on Kibbutz Be’eri, Israel, explained that, “For me, it was over after 12 hours,” while “in Gaza, there are people for whom this event has not ended.” Historically, Palestinian death counts are disproportionately higher, and their unlawful killings, forced evictions, and arbitrary detentions will persist once global headlines move on.

I do not intend to sow division within our community during this fraught, heartbreaking time. The past week on campus has already been characterized by heightened anxiety, as evidenced by the doxxing of pro-Palestinian activists and students affiliated with such groups, who now face credible safety concerns.

I myself feared writing this piece, and was advised not to by many people I trust.

But the world is now looking at Harvard as a new generation grapples with an age-old conflict. Over the past week, I have mourned alongside my Jewish and Israeli peers, and I have heard, read, and respected their many perspectives. In writing today, my intent is nothing more than to share my own perspective of the bloodshed that Palestinians are now facing, and to place this destruction in the context of a long history of subjugation. If we truly seek to end this endless violence, we must affirm the humanity and experiences of Israelis and Palestinians alike.

As countless more innocent Palestinians are slaughtered in the coming days, as their homes are obliterated yet again, their screams will reverberate among those of hundreds of thousands slain before them. I hope that the world will finally hear the harrowing echoes of their cries and realize that there is no justification.

–Fawwaz Malki Shoukfeh ’24 is a History concentrator in Lowell House.

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OP-ED

For Gaza’s Fate, Heed the Sri Lankan Civil War

BY TASCHA SHAHRIARI-PARSA

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he unfolding horror in Israel and Palestine has left our community and the world grieving and searching for answers. We have seen people slaughtered in the streets and watched families in unimaginable anguish after losing their loved ones.

In response to Hamas’ terror attack, the Israeli military has decimated neighborhoods, bombed hospitals, and cut off electricity, water, and food from the Palestinian people. At least 11 United Nations staff, 30 students at U.N. schools, and four international Red Cross paramedics have been killed in Gaza, according to those organizations. And hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been made homeless by Israeli airstrikes.

Now, as Israel prepares for its ground invasion, it has asked an estimated 1.1 million Palestinians to relocate to the south of Gaza — an order the U.N. has called “impossible.” When asked what worries him most about a potential ground invasion, United States President Joe Biden’s answer was the same as mine: “Death.”

The lessons of the Sri Lankan Civil War lead me to fear for what may be yet to come for Gaza.

For decades, the Sri Lankan government engaged in violent conflict with the Tamil Tigers, a separatist organization that committed acts of terrorism to further its cause. The group attacked civilians, recruited children, and tortured prisoners. As a result, their actions were rightly condemned by the international com-

munity, just as Hamas’ have been this week.

In the final years of their conflict with the Tamil Tigers, the Sri Lankan government made steady advances into Tiger-controlled territory, while designating no fire zones for civilians caught in the conflict. By the last year of the civil war, the government gained control of all but a tiny strip of land inhabited by around 300,000 Tamil civilians, which it again designated as a no-fire zone.

Then, with the world watching, the Sri Lankan government indiscriminately slaughtered civilians in the same no-fire zones it said were safe. It blocked provision of humanitarian aid. And it bombed food distribution lines and hospitals, including ones administered by the Red Cross.

The U.N. reported that, during the final stages of the war, 40,000 to 70,000 Tamil civilians were killed by the Sri Lankan government — figures that the Sri Lankan government continues to deny. To put it in perspective, this would be proportionally equivalent to the killing of around 600,000 to 1.1 million civilians in the U.S. today.

Did the Tamil Tigers, like Hamas, commit unjustifiable acts of terror against civilians?

Yes. Did both precipitate humanitarian crises, through reprehensible acts such as using civilians as “human shields”? Again, yes. The West has rightly labeled both the Tamil Tigers and Hamas as terrorist organizations.

But the West did not just condemn the Tamil Tigers. During the war, the United States and United Kingdom remained largely in support of the Sri Lankan government. The U.S. only halted some aid late in 2007 as human rights

abuses soared to a level of sufficient concern.

Even as the Sri Lankan government’s worst atrocities became clear in the last three years of the conflict, the United Kingdom continued selling arms to the country. The consequence: tens of thousands of innocent lives taken with near impunity.

The governments of the U.S. and all other liberal democracies must do everything in their power to prevent a similar outcome in Gaza. The horrific crimes committed by the Sri Lankan government against the Tamil population are a reminder of an important truth: It is in times of grief, trauma, and fear — such as the aftermath of a horrendous terrorist attack — that it is most difficult to protect human rights.

It is also when our commitment to those principles is most necessary.

Just as we unequivocally denounce Hamas notwithstanding the airstrikes, daily checkpoints, and blockades that people in Gaza have endured for decades, we must also hold the government of Israel accountable for any actions it takes, notwithstanding the rockets, mass kidnapping, and fear of extinction that drive its military assaults. For thousands of Palestinians, such accountability may mean the choice between life or death.

In the end, the true test of a liberal democracy is our ability to hold other countries accountable for their actions, not just when they are our enemies, but even — especially — when they are our allies.

–Tascha Shahriari-Parsa is a fourth-year joint-degree student at Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School.

METRO

THE HARVARD CRIMSON OCTOBER 20, 2023

11

CAMBRIDGE MAYOR

Mayor Siddiqui Accused of Toxicity FACING ALLEGATIONS. Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui was accused of workplace toxicity and retaliation ahead of City Council elections.

BY MUSKAAN ARSHAD CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

C

ambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui is facing allegations that she fostered a “toxic” workplace environment for her staff, as reported in a sixmonth Boston Globe investigation released on Monday — just weeks ahead of Cambridge’s City Council elections.

Eight women who worked for Siddiqui since 2017 alleged a culture of toxicity and retaliation under her leadership, referencing disparaging personal comments from

Siddiqui and acts of professional retaliation that “jeopardized their future job prospects,” according to the Globe.

Of the eight staffers, six remained anonymous “for fear the mayor would hinder their careers or credibility,” the Globe reported.

Two former staff spoke on the record about the Mayor’s behavior, including Theo M. Skeadas ’12 — a former campaign manager for Siddiqui — and former mayoral aide and Council candidate Adrienne Klein.

In an emailed statement to The Crimson Tuesday, Siddiqui wrote that she was “surprised by the one sided nature” of the Globe article.

“I have many employees past and present, who consider my style of management collabora-

tive and respectful. I strongly reject any notion that I have ever created a toxic workplace,” Siddiqui wrote.

“The specific accusations referenced in the article are mischaracterizations, most of them levelled anonymously, and motivated perhaps by politics,” she added. “However, I take any concern as an opportunity to reflect and improve my supervisory skills. I have high standards, both personally and professionally, and I have learned a great deal as a manager over the past six years on how to most constructively provide and accept feedback.”

Siddiqui was first elected to the Council in 2017. After winning a second term in 2019, Siddiqui was unanimously chosen as mayor — becoming the first Muslim mayor in Massachusetts. She is currently serving her second term as mayor and third term on the council

The Boston Globe published an investigation Monday containing allegations from eight women that Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui created a hostile workplace environment. CLAIRE YUAN — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

after being reelected in 2021. Siddiqui is seeking a fourth term on the Council this year.

Skeadas, who formerly worked for Siddiqui, said in the article that during her time as Siddiqui’s campaign manager, she was treated poorly. Skeadas, who ran for Council in 2021, also told the Globe that she learned Siddiqui made disparaging remarks about her to others, which she said had a role in her 2021 election loss.

“Over the years, many individuals — predominantly young people of color from immigrant families — have approached me to express frustration, grief, and anxiety about the relentless abuse they felt they were experiencing from Sumbul,” Skeadas added in a Monday interview with The Crimson.

According to the Globe, Klein’s run for Council has also faced obstacles due to Siddiqui.

Earlier this year, Klein was required to step away from her role as Siddiqui’s director of constituent services after the city instituted a new policy requiring city employees to either resign or go on unpaid leave.

City Manager Yi-An Huang ’05 told the Globe in July that the policy change was made after Siddiqui asked “that we look into this.”

Klein, the sole breadwinner of her household, said in an interview with The Crimson in September that the policy felt “personally targeted” toward her as she was the only affected candidate.

Concerned that Siddiqui might retaliate against her, Klein contacted human resources before launching her campaign, she told the Globe.

Klein said in a Monday interview with The Crimson that she spoke to the Globe because “It’s really important to me that I use my privilege to speak up and speak out whenever I can.”

“So many that I worked with weren’t able to because of fear of retaliation,” Klein said.

Other concerns were brought up by former staffers who asked the Globe to remain anonymous, including allegations that Siddiqui ignored an employee’s scheduled vacation days, targeted one individual by bringing her desserts and telling her to “fatten up,” and sent an aggrieved email to a former aide’s new employer, calling the hiring “deeply disrespectful,” according to the Globe.

Others who work with Siddiqui defended her against the allegations in the Globe article.

Siddiqui’s education and policy director Ammarah Rehman told the Globe that “it’s a challenging position, but the challenges aren’t created by her,” citing the fast-paced work environment instead.

In her statement to the Globe, Siddiqui denied disparaging Skeadas and said she was not involved in creating the policy that ended up requiring Klein to take a leave, and did not retaliate against employees that resigned.

According to the Globe, Siddiqui and her supporters also suggested the timing of the accu-

sations was politically motivated, given the proximity to Election Day. Klein disagreed with that sentiment during the interview Monday, noting that “the story has been in the process of being written for months.”

“It’s really about making sure workplaces treat us fairly, and are places where we can grow and feel valued,” Klein said.

Siddiqui’s rivals in the Council campaign and her fellow councilors largely had not publicly commented on the allegations as of Monday night.

Councilor Quinton Y. Zondervan, who is not seeking reelection, told the Globe that he did not know enough to speak on dynamics within Siddiqui’s staff.

“I hope that if there are issues with her management style then those can be addressed and that she can continue to be a great leader, because we need people like her to be in leadership positions,” he said.

Candidate Robert Winters, whose own campaign has been marked by controversy, decried the state of local politics in light of the news in a post on his blog, the Cambridge Civic Journal.

“How does it make you feel, Madame Mayor, to have your political rivals gang up on you several weeks before the municipal election?” Winters wrote.

“Regardless of the merit or lack thereof in what is stated in the article, welcome to the sewer that Cambridge politics has become.” muskaan.arshad@thecrimson.com

Cambridge Educators’ Union Calls for Contract Nearing Election

BY SALLY E. EDWARDS CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

As election day for Cambridge School Committee rapidly approaches, the Cambridge Educators Association is working to ensure the ongoing contract negotiations are on the top of voters’ — and candidates’ — minds.

In recent weeks, the CEA has held demonstrations across the school district, urged residents to write their School Committee representatives, and endorsed a slate of candidates for School Committee — though they remain without a contract, leading the CEA to consider escalating its tactics.

The CEA’s contract with Cambridge Public Schools expired on Aug. 31, more than eight months into negotiations for a renewal. Now, more than a year after those negotiations began, educators are working without a new contract under the terms of their previous contract, which will remain in effect until a new agreement is reached. Mediation by the Massachusetts Department

of Labor Relations remains ongoing.

Under Massachusetts labor law, it is illegal for public school teachers to strike — though educators in cities like Malden, Woburn, and Haverhill have previously taken this step amid their own negotiations.

Jon Baring-Gould, a ceramics teacher at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, said that he is taking part in work-to-contract demonstrations — in which teachers begin and end work as dictated by the contractual day, and no longer — to push for a “fair contract.”

“The City of Cambridge — in my opinion — has been low-balling teachers for an incredibly long time,” he said. “Our salaries have not kept up with inflation, and they’re doing it again.”

Baring-Gould, who works three jobs, said he would like to see educators’ salaries be increased to both compensate for the high cost-of-living in Cambridge and reflect the growing responsibilities attached to teacher’s roles.

“If you look at how our jobs

have changed over the past 20 years — the workload is enormous,” he said. “Teachers are just being squished further and further and further by a city that pays its School Committee members incredibly well, pays its City Councilors incredibly well.”

“They talk about equity endlessly, but it’s equity for everyone except teachers,” he added.

CPS spokesperson Sujata Wycoff wrote in an emailed statement that CPS values “our talented and dedicated educators.” She also wrote that Baring-Gould’s claim that the City has been low-balling teachers is “false.”

“More than 60% of CPS teachers earn over $100,000 annually,” she wrote. “The School Committee has proposed salary increases for our teachers that will ensure Cambridge teachers continue to be among the highest paid teachers in the state.”

The ongoing contract negotiations come as the CEA has endorsed Andrew King, Caroline Hunter, and Robert V. Travers for School Committee. Endorsements were based on attendance

The Cambridge Education Association has held demonstrations across the district in recent weeks ahead of November’s election. JOEY HUANG — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

at the CEA candidate forum, as well as individual surveys on contract issues, MCAS elimination, and teacher evaluations.

Dan Monahan, the president of the CEA, said he believes the candidates “will be our strongest advocates on the School Committee.” Monahan added that he hopes voters consider ongoing contract negotiations when heading to the polls.

“That was actually a major

reason why we didn’t endorse some of the incumbents,” he said. “I hope voters take that into account when they’re making a decision.”

As election day approaches, Monahan said that the CEA is prepared to discuss employing new, broader tactics in contract negotiations. He cited the CEA’s recent community letter-writing campaign as an “escalation,” estimating that more than 2,000

emails were sent to the School Committee.

“We’re sort of doing a really big push right now to try to wrap up this contract and apply that pressure,” he said. “Our next step is to go back to our members and ask them you know, are you are you are you willing to support you know, a more significant open ended action.” sally.edwards@thecrimson.com

Cambridge Passes Long-Debated Affordable Housing Amendments

BY EMILY L. DING AND SAMUEL P. GOLDSTON CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

The Cambridge City Council voted 6-3 to pass a set of hotly debated amendments to the city’s 100%-Affordable Housing Zoning Overlay in a meeting Monday evening, setting the stage for taller, denser affordable housing developments throughout the city.

Introduced in February and sponsored by Councilors Burhan Azeem, Marc C. McGovern, E. Denise Simmons, and Quinton Y. Zondervan, the amendments — dubbed “AHO2” — increased height limits for buildings with 100 percent affordable housing from current maximums across the city, with the highest limits of 15 stories in Harvard, Central, and Porter Square.

The amendments are also set to expand open space around the city by allowing developers to consolidate housing into taller buildings and by removing the requirement for setbacks — the dis-

tance between developments and their adjacent property lines — for most buildings.

Councilors Dennis Carlone, Patricia M. “Patty” Nolan ’80, and Paul F. Toner voted against the amendments, citing concerns about the means through which the amendments would expand housing.

Passed in 2020 and set to expire on Oct. 29, the original housing overlay encouraged the development of affordable housing units by streamlining the permit approval process and reducing costs for building developers.

Since the passage of the original AHO, 616 units of housing have been approved under its provisions.

Councilor E. Denise Simmons said she supported the AHO2 amendments because they provide “long-needed opportunities for affordable housing.”

“There are no silver bullets that will resolve our affordable housing prices. But with tools like improved Affordable Housing Overlay, we are creating oppor-

The Cambridge City Council passed amendments to the 100%-Affordable Housing Zoning Overly. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

tunities for this critically needed housing to be built, homes to be built,” Simmons said.

“We are creating new opportunities for people to work in our schools and our fire department and our medical centers and our city hall to remain living in community,” she added.

Nolan, who voted against the amendments, stressed that she was not anti-housing and said her record reflected strong support for affordable housing policies. Nolan said she opposed the amendments in part because the city did not conduct a review of the original AHO following its

implementation, a practice not in line with “good governance.”

“The review would show that most of the 616 units — most of which are just under development, not yet developed — will expand existing affordable housing developments, which was not the main intent of the AHO and, arguably, all of those would and could have been built without the AHO — perhaps with a little more time and cost,” Nolan added.

Nolan said she also opposed the lack of flexibility in building height in the AHO2 amendments, referencing changes she proposed with Toner and Carlone that would have increased height restrictions in certain AHO “corridors” and set aside units for the middle class.

Changes Nolan proposed failed twice in 6-3 votes in September and October that preceded and predicted Monday’s final vote.

The opposing councilors said they realized the amendments would likely pass but still registered their discontent.

Zoning should “give reasonable knowledge of what can be

built next to where you live, you know what your neighbor can do,” Carlone said.

“But this is Russian Roulette zoning. No one knows what site is going to be purchased,” Carlone added.

Other councilors celebrated the end of what they viewed as a long fight.

Councilor Burhan Azeem said the vote on the amendments was long overdue, noting “over a dozen hearings, a lot of conversation, and a notable number of amendments” since the amendments’ introduction in February leading up to their passage this October.

Azeem also praised the impact of the Affordable Housing Overlay since its passage in 2020, adding that he is excited to be a part of expanding Cambridge’s housing.

“I imagine 616 families in front of us today that got to live in our city — just seeing them fill up an auditorium,” he said. emily.ding@thecrimson.com samuel.goldston@thecrimson.com

12

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

METRO

OCTOBER 20, 2023

POLITICS

GOP Alums Condemn Response to PSC GOP HARVARD ALUMS condemn response to PSC statement as too little, too late in a letter to President Claudine Gay.

BY JACK R. TRAPANICK CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

­A

group of Harvard-educated Republican lawmakers condemned Harvard’s response to a controversial student group statement that held Israel “entirely responsible” for violence after Hamas invaded Israel.

In a letter sent Friday to University President Claudine Gay, the lawmakers — Sen. Michael D. Crapo (R-Idaho), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Sen. Dan S. Sullivan ’87 (R-Texas), Rep. Dan R. Crenshaw (R-Texas), Rep. Kevin P. Kiley ’07 (R-Calif.), Rep. Brian J. Mast (R-Fla.), and Rep. Elise M. Stefanik ’06 (R-N.Y.) — accused Gay’s administration of “intentionally fostering an environment that allows rampant and dangerous antisemitism.”

The signatories also demanded an “immediate condemnation” of the student statement, which was endorsed by more than 30 student groups and penned by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee.

As of Friday, at least 10 of the original co-signing groups had retracted their support for the statement.

In a statement last week, the PSC wrote that it “staunchly opposes violence against civilians — Palestinian, Israeli, or other.”

Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton declined to comment, but he confirmed that the administration had received the lawmakers’ letter.

The letter described the ad-

ministration’s response — which has included several emailed statements from leadership and a video message from Gay — as “weak” and “too little, too late.”

“This heinous statement and the support it received from over thirty student organizations across Harvard University

security concerns and doxxing attacks on campus and online.

A “doxxing truck” circled Harvard Square last week, displaying the names and faces of student members of organizations that endorsed the PSC statement.

Both a PSC vigil and rally were rescheduled last week due to safety

Gay upheld the University’s commitment to free speech and rejected calls to punish and name students whose groups signed onto the PSC’s statement.

Melanie Lawhorn, a spokesperson for Crapo, wrote that the senator believes “students maintain the right to free speech to ex-

Republican lawmakers slammed Harvard’s response to PSC statement. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

should raise immediate concerns into Harvard’s curriculum regarding the State of Israel,” they wrote.

Students linked to groups that signed the statement have faced

concerns.

As a security precaution, the University has closed Harvard Yard to members of the public at night.

In a video message Thursday,

press their opinions” while reiterating that “speech filled with hate toward the Jewish community should be condemned.” In an emailed statement, Mast wrote that he believes Gay’s response

Cambridge Officials and City Council Candidates Denounce Hamas Attacks

BY MUSKAAN ARSHAD AND JULIAN J. GIORDANO CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Cambridge public officials and candidates for city office weighed in on the ongoing war in Israel and Gaza following demonstrations at City Hall and doxxing attacks against Harvard students.

Seven of the nine councilors — including all six councilors running for reelection — and four challengers released statements in the days and weeks since the war began.

All of the statements explicitly condemned the attacks by Hamas, though councilors expressed varying degrees of concern over Israel’s response to the invasion.

Councilors E. Denise Simmons, Patricia M. “Patty” Nolan ’80 and Paul F. Toner issued a joint statement in the Cambridge Day on Oct. 13, fiercely condemning the attack by Hamas.

The councilors also condemned a rally for Palestine that took place at City Hall the day after the invasion, writing that

“tiptoed around the issue.”

“If someone walked onto the campus with a student ID in one hand and a Nazi flag in the other, the Administration wouldn’t hesitate to denounce him or her,” he wrote. “This shouldn’t be any different.”

When asked about the threats

they “strongly object to the timing, tone and sentiment of this rally.”

“No matter how one feels about Israel and Palestine, an attack on a dance party for young people, on families and on whole towns, and taking civilian hostages and parading bodies as trophies should be condemned for what it is: terrorism,” the statement reads.

“We must recognize that the blood of thousands of innocent people, in Israel and in Gaza, is being spilled due to the unconscionable actions of Hamas,” they added.

They denounced the doxxing of Harvard students and affirmed their support for homelands for both Palestinians and the Jewish people. Offering prayers and condolences, they called for Cambridge to “move forward with empathy, understanding, and grace.”

After the initial letter was published, two other councilors sent in their own statements to the Day. Councilor Marc C. McGovern denounced the attacks

by Hamas — a U.S.-designated terrorist organization — and wrote that his “heart goes out to

Seven of nine Cambridge City Councilors released a statement regarding the war in Israel and Gaza. JOEY HUANG — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

the people of Gaza who are losing their lives in this conflict,” expressing hope for a two-state solution and lasting peace.

“It is my firm belief that Israel has a fundamental right to exist. At the same time, I firmly stand by the Palestinians’ right to live in freedom,” he wrote.

Councilor Burhan Azeem denounced violence against civilians as “fundamentally wrong.”

“The dreadful attacks on Israel by Hamas — 1,300 people killed at a music festival and in nearby towns, and many more missing or taken hostage — have left me searching for words,” Azeem wrote. “Many in our Jewish and Israeli communities have shared horrifying stories, and my heart aches thinking of all the friends and families awaiting updates anxiously on their loved ones.”

Azeem also expressed reservations over some aspects of Israel’s response to the attacks, including restrictions on the flow of water and electricity into Gaza and use of white phosphorus. He shared concerns about the rising civilian death toll in Gaza.

Azeem called on Cambridge to stand against the growing tide of Islamophobia and antisemitism, citing the vandalism of Boston’s Palestinian Cultural Center with the word “Nazis” as well as the Cambridge City Hall protest. He denounced protesters who sought to justify “the horrific killing of Israeli civilians as suitable resistance.”

In a separate statement Monday, Councilor Quinton Y. Zondervan condemned “all violence unequivocally” in a joint statement with candidates Ayah Al-Zubi ’23, Vernon K. Walker and Dan J. Totten published in the Day. “That includes the recent attacks from Hamas and Israel, and the ongoing Israeli occupation and apartheid of Palestinians for the past 75 years,” they wrote.

The group called the current situation in Gaza “an evolving humanitarian atrocity,” adding that collective punishment is a war crime.

The councilors accused Israel of perpetrating “genocide” in Gaza, and wrote that they oppose U.S. funding that supports it. They also called on Harvard to “protect its students from racist attacks and threats.” “We must all do what we can to alter the course of history toward peace, justice and freedom for Palestine,” wrote the councilors.

Council candidate Robert Winters — who opponents have condemned as Islamophobic over social media posts criticizing Islam — published a blog post commenting on the City Hall rally, denouncing the protesters for condemning Israel.

“I stood with the Israel supporters across the street, and I stand with Israel now,” he wrote, adding that he hopes the war is “resolved quickly with minimal loss of life.”

In a Tuesday post on X, School Committee Vice-Chair Rachel Weinstein shared a joint statement written with Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui, who chairs the Committee.

“As we — a Muslim Mayor and Jewish Vice-Chair — lead the Cambridge School Committee, we recommit to our common humanity and ask our community to join us,” they wrote.

Weinstein and Siddiqui condemned incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia in Cambridge, calling for any instances of hate in schools to be “forcefully” addressed.

“Cambridge must be a place where students, families, staff, and community come together to understand our diverse experiences and nurture compassion for one another,” they wrote.

On Wednesday, Siddiqui posted on X that city leadership is aware of the “doxxing truck” and that the vehicle has been repeatedly cited for traffic violations. “While we respect the principles of freedom of speech, the safety of students remains our concern,” she wrote. muskaan.arshad@thecrimson.com julian.giordano@thecrimson.com

and fear student members of the groups that had endorsed the PSC statement were facing, Mast replied that he believes “if someone is abusing his or her right to free speech by making threats, there

are consequences for that too.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin ’83 (D-Md.) criticized the premise of the Republicans’ letter in an interview with The Crimson.

“I agree that the president of Harvard could have and should’ve spoken out more forcefully in condemnation of the terrorism, but that’s an unusual point coming from right-wing conservatives,” he said.

“I do wish that my Republican colleagues that think it’s important for the president of Harvard to condemn terrorist atrocities in the Middle East would themselves condemn the violent insurrection that overran the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021,” he added.

While only Republicans signed the letter, several Democratic lawmakers who graduated from the College also criticized the administration for failing to explicitly condemn the statement.

Last week, Rep. Jake D. Auchincloss ’10 (D-Mass.) called the administration’s response “moral cowardice” and the PSC’s statement “morally depraved” in an interview with Politico.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal ’67 (D-Conn.) said in an interview with The Day that he believes “colleges and universities need to take a stronger stand” on Israel, adding that students “have a right to say whatever they want, and I have a right to condemn that point of view.”

In a press release on his website, Rep. Seth W. Moulton ’01 (D-Mass.) accused Harvard of “complicity” with the sentiments of the PSC statement.

“I cannot recall a moment when I was more embarrassed by my alma mater,” Moulton said. jack.trapanick@thecrimson.com

Superintendent Unveils Annual Plan

BY SALLY E. EDWARDS CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Superintendent Victoria L. Greer announced her drafted goals for the upcoming Superintendent’s Annual Plan, highlighting chronic student absenteeism, student success planning, and academic achievement at a School Committee meeting Tuesday night.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education uses a five-step cycle for continuous district improvement, where superintendents across the Commonwealth are instructed to evaluate their district yearly and respond to needs or shortcomings. Greer’s drafted proposals represent the second step in the process of “Analysis, Goal Setting, and Plan Development.”

In total, Greer presented five drafted goals for the School Committee’s review. These include “Chronic Absenteeism,” “Academic Achievement,” “Learning Walks,” “ELT Checks and Balances,” “Superintendent Family/Caregiver and Community Advisory Council,” and “Student Success Planning.”

School Committee member Alfred B. Fantini said Greer’s goals for the upcoming year are “similar to the goals we had this year,” specifically citing chronic absenteeism and academic achievement.

He also noted, however, that the number of goals had decreased from the prior year’s annual report.

“Last year, there were goals regarding RSTA, assessable college, and career paths,” he said, referring to the Rindge School of Technical Arts. “So last year we had nine goals — so you’ve cut the goal back to five?”

Greer said she “overshot” the number of Department of Elementary and Secondary Education recommended goals last year, and reduced the quantity this year as a “focused and intentional” effort to “move us forward.”

“It’s not really about the number of goals that you have — it’s about the depth of the goal, and what the actual work is, and what your action plans are, and how

you’re moving the work, and are those goals aligned to get areas of greatest need,” she said. “Our data shows that academic achievement for our high-needs students and chronic absenteeism are still two areas of student improvement.”

Focusing on her student learning goal for academic achievement, Greer said this year’s plan differs from 2022 in that it specifically focuses on the achievement of high-needs students.

“The difference between the student learning goal around academics is last year, I did not focus on high-needs students — I just focused on overall performance,” she said. “This year, I’m focusing on high-needs students — the data is being measured on how we are actually addressing the achievement gap.” Specifically, Greer’s goal regarding high-needs students promises that by June 2024, “high-needs students in grades 3-8 will exceed typical growth (100+) in Math and Reading as evidenced by the iReady Benchmark Assessments.”

School Committee member David J. Weinstein highlighted the specificity of the goal’s language, asking Greer if she has a “growth benchmark in mind for students who were not defined as high needs.”

In response, Greer said that while the district remains cognizant of the success of all students, her goal only includes high-needs students.

“It doesn’t mean that we’re not focusing on our students — it’s just that my particular goal isn’t focused on that,” she said.

Fantini also raised concerns that universal pre-K was no longer listed as a district goal for the upcoming annual plan, asking if the absence meant Greer was “assuming that that’s done”.

“No, we’re never done with universal preschool – there’s no way that I’d have a goal for everything I work on in the course of the day, even in the course of a week,” she said. “We launch it next year, so maybe in ’24-’25 — if I’m still superintendent — then that potentially could be a goal.” sally.edwards@thecrimson.com

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

ARTS

OCTOBER 20, 2023

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Boston Ballet principal dancers Ji Young Chae and Derek Dunn perform “Bach Cello Suites” in “Fall Experience.” ADDISON Y. LIU — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

CAMPUS ARTS

Boston Ballet’s ‘Fall Experience’ Review UNDER AN UNASSUMING NAME lies a truly unforgettable experienced accompanied by phenomenal music.

BY SELORNA A. ACKUAYI CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

F

­ll Experience,” Bosa ton Ballet’s 60th season show, running from Oct. 5 to Oct. 15 may appear unassuming. But beneath the name of Boston Ballet’s season premiere lies a show that did not fail to express the many intricacies of human experience and provided audiences a unique experience they will never forget.

The first ballet, “Bach Cello Suites,” was accompanied by famed Russian cellist Sergey Antonov. Antonov performed Cello Suites No. 1, No. 2, and No. 4 to a series of pas de deuxs and group ensemble pieces within the bal-

let. The first pas de deux was fluid and youthful and maintained high balletic technicality while still remaining playful.

This playfulness did not take away from the intentionality of the piece, however. Choreographer Jorma Elo distinctly incorporated the cellist in the ballet with various dancer-cellist interactions and explored many geometrical shapes in the piece as well. Dancers used their bodies to create unique shapes of diamonds, triangles, and rectangles with dynamic leaps in the air, elongated arabesques, and graceful pliés. Audiences could tell that each posed moment was meant to be seen and appreciated, much like one appreciates a painting or a sculpture.

A notable moment in this ballet was a pas de deux towards the end of the piece danced by Boston Ballet principal dancer Chyrstyn Fentroy and second soloist Tyson Clark. Fentroy brought life to the pas de deux with intricate

and precise épaulment, a term that describes body positioning and direction of the head in ballet. Whether looking at her dance partner, into the audience, or offstage, Fentroy’s gaze and body language always had a defined focus.

Following a brief intermission, the curtain rose again to reveal another classical music ballet, Hans van Manen’s “Trois Gnossiennes”, set to Erik Satie’s Gnossiennes Nos. 1-3 performed by pianist Alex Foaksman. In front of a black background, principal dancers Ji Young Chae and Patrick Yocum performed a duet.

As the duet partners performed, three male dancers followed them across the stage, pushing a grand piano all while the pianist played.

Manen’s choreography was subversively provocative. Amplified by Chae’s simple blue ballet costume and the classical ballet music, the piece initially presented itself as very classical but in reality leaned into something more

contemporary and avante-garde. The piece began with Chae being lifted and moved around by her dance partner, which introduced an interesting gender dynamic to the piece. In one particular lift, Yocum raised Chae high off the ground as she remained completely motionless, much like a mannequin and very reminiscent of the doll character in the famous ballet “Coppelia.”

“Trois Gnossiennes” was intricate and thought-provoking, but at times, the movement of the piano distracted from the dancers in the duet, especially with the light illuminating the stage flashing off of the shiny piano lid. This piece may have been attempting to bring the piano and pianist into the piece as dancers, but this integration was not as distinct and impactful as the interactions with the cellist in the Bach Suites were.

The third ballet in the show, “Form and Gesture” was the world premiere of the choreography of Boston Ballet company

artist My’Kal Stromile. The piece — a depiction of the journey towards becoming a professional dancer — was subdivided into four exhibits. In the first exhibit, four dancers moved gracefully around one soloist — Boston Ballet principal dancer Derek Dunn — performing simple movements typically found in an elementary ballet class, such as développés and tendus. One of the most striking moments of this exhibit was the pattern of the four dancers demonstrating movements to Dunn, then watching him perform them, as if tuning an instrument then testing it. These simple patterns of choreography combined with the unique music of ringing tuning forks truly conveyed the refined nature of ballet training that dancers go through at the beginning of their career.

Two more exhibits were also performed, but the final exhibit of “Form and Gesture” — “Exhibit D: sketches, graphs, and parabo-

las” — was the highlight of Boston Ballet’s entire show. What made this piece stand out from the rest was its dynamism and originality through its mix of modern and classical ballet steps, which worked together to cultivate a sense of shared joy and community in the piece. It was very easy to tell that the dancers on stage were having fun together, and their powerful and in sync movements conveyed that to the audience — bringing them into the enjoyment as well.

“Fall Experience” rounded out with a ballet called “Vertical Road (Reimagined) 2023 World Premiere” by Akram Khan. Khan’s choreography was powerful, most memorably the precise synchronized movements of the ensemble dancers that transformed them from individual dancers to one body made of many different parts, the literal definition of a “corps de ballet.” selorna.ackuayi@thecrimson.com

‘Lessons In Chemistry’ Show Is as Lovely as Source Material

BY HANNAH E. GADWAY CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

“Lessons in Chemistry,” the page-turning novel by Bonnie Garmus that took booklovers by storm, has hit the small screen.

Apple TV+ has adapted the 2022 book into a streaming miniseries starring Brie Larson and Lewis Pullman. The new release, delightfully book-accurate and reveling in its 1950s aesthetic, is set to make a new audience fall in love with Garmus’s well-regarded story.

“Lessons in Chemistry” follows Elizabeth Zott, a chemist battling sexist attitudes at her job as a lab assistant. Calvin Evans, a renowned researcher and exercise addict, notices her overlooked genius in abiogenesis and brings her into his chemistry research. As the two begin to share

their scientific focuses, they start to connect in other ways as well. It is a love story at its core, but also tackles heavy subject matter such as gender-based discrimination and sexual assault in the workplace.

The show begins with a flash-forward to the novel’s middle, where Zott has her own cooking show, hinting at how sexism will eventually lead to a career change for her. The ’50s aesthetic is cleverly established as Zott’s cooking lesson transforms from a high quality picture to the grainy black and white of old-school television. Throughout the premiere, the setting is meticulously built up, with accurate costuming and well-detailed sets. For example, the lunchroom in Zott’s workplace has period-accurate vending machines and a convincing layout that cements the show in the past. This attention to de-

tail is striking but does not idealize the past. The wonderful set design is presented alongside the sexist views of Zott’s coworkers, tempering the nostalgia one might feel for the show’s beautiful ’50s aesthetic.

After establishing where Zott will end up, the show’s narrative refocuses on the beginning of her story. Working at Hastings Research Institute as a lab tech instead of a full-fledged researcher, Zott is constantly reminded of the limitations forced upon her due to her gender. A flashback scene where she has an intense reaction to a locked tour also alludes to a traumatic moment in her past that affects her current comfort level in the lab. It is not until she displays her intellectual curiosity in a conversation with Evans, who at first mistakes her for a secretary, that Elizabeth begins to be taken seriously and relax in her

workplace.

The stand-out part of the “Lessons in Chemistry” premiere is the acting. Larson brings Zott to life, perfectly landing her serious and focused personality. She is steadfastly awkward amongst her coworkers in a way that is book-accurate but could look frustrating when executed poorly. Similarly, Pullman brings a lot of energy to the beloved Dr. Calvin Evans. Pullman nails the genius yet clueless scientist character; as Zott explains that sex discrimination is keeping her back, he delivers a hopelessly confused “What?” that aligns with Garmus’s characterization of Evans as well-meaning but sometimes socially clueless. As Evans and Zott get closer, there is a wonderful montage of him devouring the food that she cooks as they discuss scientific theories, signifying that he has been starv-

ing both for literal nourishment and food for thought with another like-minded person. Their contrasting personalities combine well to create an endearing dynamic. The well-orchestrated “chemistry” built between Larson and Pullman is sure to entice viewers into finding out how their relationship develops.

The premiere also contains a lot of details that will delight readers of “Lesson in Chemistry.”

The episode contains masterful foreshadowing of a plot point that will affect the story later on — a little girl crosses the street as her mother yells to watch for cars, and Calvin has a close encounter with a bus as he runs in the first minutes of the show. While a few plot details are changed to make the show run smoothly — for example, a beauty pageant that Zott is forced to join brings her and Evans together instead of a beaker

mix-up — the show mostly sticks to its source material. This faithfulness is sure to please existing fans of “Lessons in Chemistry.”

“Lessons in Chemistry” is an adaptation that appears just as loveable as its source material.

Larson and Pullman make their characters shine, and the show design displays a knowledge and care for the 1950s setting. The premiere is a promising look into a show that will hopefully ensnare just as many delighted fans as Garmus’s popular novel.

much fervor as Petras’s older hits — a sure sign of the singer’s star power.

Immersing the audience in a display of striking lighting, the show began with a production design mirroring Petras’s infectious energy, combining a captivating moment of Petras emerging from an egg with a direct nod to the name of the tour with Petras coming out singing, and swinging a sword, to “Feed the Beast.”

While Petras made a notably energetic impression in her entrance, the stage elements in her later songs failed to forge a comparable effect. With the start of the concert featuring engaging props forming an electric stage display, the show clearly relied too heavily on the psychedelic clips playing on screens behind Petras for the latter half of the show. These distracting, confusing displays, although seemingly providing a vibrant illustration of Petras’s creativity, in-

advertently took away from the few dancers on stage.

Although relevant to the nature of an October concert, Petras further exacerbated this feeling of an underwhelming show during her performance of Halloween-themed mixtape “Turn Off the Light.” As one of her less popular albums, it was unusual to see the heavy focus of these songs during the show. By focusing on this mixtape for six full songs, the audience seemed to lose the electric energy they maintained throughout the first half of the concert along with Petras. The venue then felt stuck listening to a less-engaging set of songs, and the notable lack of dancers and disinteresting stage elements that came along with them.

Simply put, this uneven distribution of songs made this part of the concert both disappointing and forgetful.

From maintaining stunning vocals to highlighting the breadth

of her discography, however, Petras’s strengths on stage surpass the downfalls of the show. Petras, with her compelling stage presence, forges her own irresistibly unique and memorable persona — ensuring that later shows will be equally as delighted with the electric energy of the pop icon.

4.5 STARS hannah.gadway@thecrimson.com

Kim Petras Concert Review

BY BRADY M. CONWAY AND MONIQUE I. VOBECKY CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Kim Petras is no stranger to risqué music. And on Oct. 7, Petras brought her infectious persona in all its raunchy glory to Boston’s MGM Music Hall at Fenway as a part of her ‘Feed the Beast’ World Tour. Providing a swarm of enthusiastic fans with a healthy serving of some of her biggest hits, such as “Slut Pop,” the Nicki Minaj collab “Alone,” and “King of Hearts,” Petras showcased her vocal talent in a show that was extremely enjoyable despite its uneven nature.

The first, and most memorable, strength of Petras’s concert were her powerful, crystal clear vocals. Perhaps owing to the production-heavy, club-style nature of Petras’s music, it can be all too easy to discount her voice and attribute the success of her songs

to well-engineered beats. But this misconception was quickly dispelled by Petras’s ability to hit impressively high notes and beautiful riffs throughout the entire concert.

“Hillside Boys,” an early classic of the singer’s canon, was a particularly strong moment in the concert, as Petras was able to build to the song’s catchy crescendo with ease and add vocal flares along the way that made her live version even more enjoyable than its recorded counterpart.

Along with including some of her earliest songs in the show’s setlist, Petras made an effort to highlight well-known singles and deep cuts from across her wide discography. Proving her immense love and appreciation for her fans that she expressed many times throughout the show, the singer turned what could have been a brief, one-album tour into a lengthy showcase of all her many eras. Petras accomplished this feat by splitting the

show up into distinct acts, each of which was primarily comprised of songs from one of her EPs or “Feed the Beast,” her debut album. The “Slut Pop” act came early on in the show and was perhaps the most cohesive segment of the show, with each song perfectly blending into the next and causing the energy of the general admission dance floor to skyrocket.

Rivaling the “Slut Pop” act for the most high-spirited moment of the night was Petras’s encore, which included “Alone,” “Problématique,” the title track of her Sept. 18 surprise release, and “Heart to Break.” By turning the encore into a kind of mini-act, Petras had ample time to thank the audience for their enthusiasm and bring her almost twohour long show to a high-octane, rainbow-decorated finish. Even though “Problématique” was released less than a month before the show, fans sang along with just as

brady.conway@thecrimson.com monique.vobecky@thecrimson.com

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ARTS

14

OCTOBER 20, 2023

ARTIST PROFILE

PHIL CHAN

ON REIMAGINATION AND RESILIENCE CHAN PROVES that meritorious but problematic operas can be reimagined.

BY SUMMER Z. SUN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

hil Chan is on a search for the “human story.” Since participating in musical theater in high school, majoring in ballet in college, and moving to New York to begin his career as a choreographer, Chan’s primary focus remains the impact of the stories he tells through art.

The Harvard Crimson sat down with Phil Chan — choreographer, advocate, author, and co-founder of Final Bow for Yellowface, an organization working to improve Asian representation in ballet — to discuss his journey and vision as an artist, as well as his experience as the stage director of a reimagined version of “Madama Butterfly,” presented by the Boston Lyric Opera.

Chan began his journey into the arts space by “gauging audiences.” He emphasized the importance of remaining aware of the impact art has on audiences and viewing art from different perspectives.

“What are we reinforcing when we keep repeating certain

stories and repeating certain narratives?” Chan said.

Chan’s vision and ethos clearly resonate in his artistic projects. Recently, Chan revived, staged, and choreographed “Ballet des Porcelaines,” a story that traditionally reinforces offensive views about Europe’s domination of China and includes racist portrayals of Chinese characters. However, in collaboration with New York University Professor Meredith Martin and a team of Asian American artists, Chan worked to create a reimagined version of the ballet, centering Asian culture and removing anti-Asian tropes.

“I love this idea of cultural counterpoint, where something can be both what it originally was, but also be commenting on what it is in a critical way,” he explained.

This September, Chan directed the Boston Lyric Opera’s production of “Madama Butterfly,” a well-known opera by Giacomo

Puccini. It is often criticized for its racist portrayal of Asia and Asian women, but Chan reworked the story to shift the experience away from its racist origins and shape it into “an Asian American story.”

As Chan reimagined the opera, he was driven by the question, “what else could it be?” He countered the idea that the opera must stay rigid and inflexible to remain the same story. Instead, his vision embraced change.

“It was proving that it is possible to save these works that have artistic merit and not necessarily do them in a way that perpetuates problematic racial tropes, but also retains a conservative impulse of keeping the work what it has to be artistically: the same intention, the same music, the same piece, the same emotional journey,” Chan said.

As an example of the “cultural counterpoint” idea prevalent in much of his work, Chan specifically highlighted a scene in Act One of “Madama Butterfly,” in which two Asian American characters donned in sparkling red white and blue cowboy outfits dance in a Western fashion around a white man singing about the United States, instead of, in Chan’s words, dressed in an “oriental way.”

“It flips with what you’re supposed to see,” Chan said. “It short circuits your brain and you realize, oh shit, what have we been actually looking at? And I haven’t changed the opera — but it’s in that moment that you get those layers onto it.”

Chan believes that the historical accuracy of a story doesn’t necessarily justify it. He said that repeating the same stories, even if they are historically true, is dangerous because it can lead to a “very narrow view” of that group of people. Chan instead underscored the importance of intentionality when choosing which stories to tell. In connection with “Madama Butterfly,” Chan acknowledged that the opera, despite its antiquated and offensive elements, is one of the most well-known artistic narratives about Asia — thus, its reimagining was a rare chance for Asian artists to “tell our own stories too.”

“You can do it in a way with integrity, and that’s what I’m trying to find that balance of,” Chan said.

Chan also discussed his own personal experiences as an Asian American, specifically during the Covid-19 pandemic. Chan was spat on multiple times, and his own father was “afraid to go out [or] leave the house at all.”

“I think it revealed to me that our acceptance of Asian Americans is just a thin veneer, and that Covid really just stripped that

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away,” Chan said.

These experiences also shaped the way Chan views his work, specifically “Madama Butterfly.”

“How do you get people to see with more integrity, when that’s the condition you’re working in?

And so that was really a driving force in this production: How do we get that back?” he said. “I think that was part of what we were pushing back against in a sort of beautiful way.”

Touching on his motivation as an artist, Chan discussed the power of seeing potential in places other people may not, like in his work with “Madama Butterfly.” Along with this motivator, he is fueled by the power of art in helping people “process” and “connect.”

“I do it in the service that we see each other better and see each other with more nuance,” he said.

“This is a really tricky time for a lot of folks. I think we need more discussion, and we need more clarity.”

Chan’s dedication to telling expansive and nuanced stories is admirable, reminding audiences to view not only art, but also the world around them — both in a refreshing light. summer.sun@thecrimson.com

Martin Scorsese on the Future of Cinema, Reconsidered

BY AVERY BRITT CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

For years the film world has been slowly progressing into the second age of the studio system.

Where indie blockbusters with auteur directors once ruled Hollywood in the New Wave era of the ’60s through the ’80s (your Coppolas and your Cassavetes), their work has been replaced by vapid, studio money-grabs. And one of those great auteurs of this late indie age has something to say about it, and he has for a while.

Martin Scorsese, arguably one of the greatest living directors, has been preaching from his pulpit of celluloid for a few years now, bequeathing some pretty famous headlines in the process like “Marvel Movies Aren’t Cinema” or, more recently, “Why Martin Scorsese Fears the Future of Cinema” from the BBC. While these headlines have been met with some skepticism in the past — these massive movies are killing cinematic art according to someone who has never made one — 2023 has a very different film landscape than 2019. The superhero movies that once had some redeemable artistic value, even if Scorsese did not think so, have become low quality money pits for studio interests.

These films that were once examples of the artistic blockbuster, have been spoiled by attempts at sequels planned out for decades to come. And, a film landscape that in the 20th century was filled with almost nothing but original screenplays based only on the creative mind of the screenwriter has been almost entirely re-

placed by adaptations of books, historical events, or famous people. Therefore, while Scorsese’s words in 2019 might not have rung true at the time, they have become almost a prophecy for what cinema is now and what it might be in the future.

Originally, Scorsese’s comments on Marvel Movies not being “real cinema” ignored a large part of what defines the experience of the movie theater: the gathering in a public place helping to spur on a cultural event. For the modern audience, the death of Iron Man is almost as shocking as “[Luke], I am your father.” How-

economics but by pure financial gain.

The same predicament cheapens even the greatest movies with the advent of sequel mania. “Top Gun ” was a massively successful blockbuster, and in turn entices a sequel; Avatar revolutionized visual effects on screen — let’s add four more of the same movies to the docket. Even the movie of the summer that helped bring back the same sort of “serious” blockbuster comedy that Scorsese speaks about in his BBC interview is in talks for an equally pink return to Barbieland. Sequels are a

“

Even when new films are made today, they seem to lack the creative sparkle that once ran rampant in Hollywood.

ever, re-examining his comments now lends his premise more credibility. Recent Marvel movies, post “Avengers: Endgame,” have lost their magic touch. The high stakes relationships and the intricate story lines were the heart of the tales that stood above the vapid action sequences. However, the once interesting quips and heart-wrenching stories died alongside everyone in “Avengers: Endgame,” and Marvel has been left to fester with lackluster dialogue and even more lackluster characters — films driven not by the perfect mix of artistry and

cash grab from studios thinking that what works once must work again for audience consumption, but they ignore the fact that what worked about these first films was their bombastic originality, creativity, and heart.

Even when new films are made today, they seem to lack the creative sparkle that once ran rampant in Hollywood. Where years ago you would tune in to the Oscars and some of the best movies nominated were original screenplays, now adaptations dominate the landscape. Even Scorsese, who early in his career

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was known for directing original work like “Taxi Driver,” has shifted into the world of the adaptation. Even his latest film, “Killers of the Flower Moon” is based on the thrilling book of the same name. And, when you do have fantastic original screenplays, the only blockbuster ones seem to come from Quentin Tarantino. A cinematic structure that lacks original screenplays lacks creativity and keeps Hollywood in the current rut in which it is stuck.

Martin Scorsese became the filmmaker that he is by growing up on the studio system in the ‘40s and ’50s, where even despite the stringent studio interest guidelines and auxiliary intervention

like the Hays Code, films were interesting and somewhat auteur-focused. Audiences wanted to watch Fred and Ginger in their elite dance routine, they wanted to experience gorgeous dialogue, and even when they wanted pretty people — like Paul Newman or Marlon Brando — those pretty people could act. Our new age studio system behaves more like a dark age, where financial interests trumps any sort of creativity, and instead of aiding in the production of the good film, studios want any film that can make them money.

The only hope of this new era is the exact thing that Scorsese disagrees with. While he believes that cinema today exists in

a world of negative “fragmentation,” where specific movies are being made for specific groups, and there is no longer a universal blockbuster. He uses “The Godfather” as an example of the unifying blockbuster of its age that everyone saw and connected to in some manner. With the advent of the streaming services and a more siloed approach to movie making, we get to see other films touch their audiences. And hopefully, as more spaces are allocated to underrepresented auteurs, those spaces will grow and we will once again see the resurgence of the auteur blockbuster that Scorsese has in mind. avery.britt@thecrimson.com

FIFTEEN QUESTIONS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON OCTOBER 20, 2023

M

aria Dominguez Gray has been at the Phillips Brooks House Association for going on 25 years, and has been the executive director for 11. She sat down with Fifteen Minutes to talk about what she’s learned in her time as the steward for public service on campus.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

FM: You’ve been working at PBHA for almost 25 years, is that correct?

MDG: That’s correct.

FM: That’s crazy. What about this organization has caused you to make it home for so long?

Q&A:

MARIA DOMINGUEZ GRAY ON PBHA, LEADERSHIP, AND PUBLIC SERVICE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR of the Phillips Brooks House Association Maria Dominguez Gray sat down with Fifteen Minutes to talk about what she’s learned in her time as the steward for public service on campus.

BY MAYA M.F. WILSON

MDG: I think the most recent was a painting at the beach a couple years ago. I haven’t done anything super recent. It’s a place that I always want to carve out more space for. I bought oil paints five months ago to try doing it again and it’s still sitting there. I used to make little gifts for all the people here before I had children. This is not a good example because this is the one that got left that wasn’t very good, but I made these little PBHA candleholders that I used to do.

That’s a lot of how I try to spend my time. A lot of time in community and relaxing and hanging out. Probably not as much anymore, but I’m also very artsy craft. When I can, I do.

It’s the fact that I can play a role in making a difference in our broader community.

I love the service work we do, I love our community partners, that’s really what my calling is.

FM: How do you think the landscape of student service has shifted in the past 25 years? What do you notice?

MDG: One of the shifts for PBHA public service that I think I really appreciate is that I think we have intentionally built more opportunities for leadership of students who grew up in our programs and don’t go to Harvard to work alongside Harvard students and I think everyone benefits from that kind of intentional leadership development, and it’s an important part of our program quality, of all the students’ experience because they’re learning from one another.

Just because someone’s doing service doesn’t mean they’re doing good. So I think we’ve built a lot of systems for thinking critically about the outcomes that the folks we work with deserve, the quality of what we’re providing, and making sure there’s training and reflection. A lot of those systems did not really exist before 25 years ago.

What I think has been beauti-

in high school. One is a senior and one is a sophomore. Both on IEPs. Quite honestly, most of my life outside of PBHA is supporting them and advocating for them.

That’s been its own interesting set of having to advocate within the school systems and ensure they have the supports they need to be seen as the incredibly smart, intelligent, great kids they are. Most of it is just fun. My kids are awesome, my husband’s awesome, I’m very lucky I have a great family. We just like to do stuff together, watch TV shows together. So that’s a lot of how I try to spend my time. A lot of time in community and relaxing and hanging out. Probably not as much anymore, but I’m also very artsy crafty. When I can, I do.

And I love the beach. And I love to travel.

FM: Is there an art project that you’ve made recently?

CRIMSON MAGAZINE ASSOCIATE EDITOR

MDG: At the core of it, even though this sounds cheesy, it’s the mission. It’s the fact that I can play a role in making a difference in our broader community. I love the service work we do, I love our community partners, that’s really what my calling is.

I love Boston and Cambridge and have such a personal connection there. But I also love the development, and the learning, and the “aha!” moments, and the passion that students get to fine tune and cultivate and build on through their experience here.

And I love seeing where they start on that journey, and where they graduate, and then when they’re kicking butt in terms of changing the world 10 years later. I just love that process.

Because the students respond so much to what the moment is.

I think this age in particular is such an amazing age for folks trying to figure out who they are in the world and how they want to make a change in the world. They have such a frontline seat to change, and have the idealism, and don’t have the cynicism yet to not care. And I kind of thrive off of being around that.

When I first got here, they asked me if I would stay three years, and I said yes. And then I went home and cried and said, “I think I lied.”

The work is never quite done.

Just when you feel like you’ve figured something out, like, “Okay! We solved this problem,” the next group comes in and says “Why not? We have to do this now more.” We have to constantly do more. And that’s good.

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FM: Can you tell me about one of your favorite spots or neighborhoods?

MDG: That’s a hard one. So many to choose from. One of my favorite spots is actually in my neighborhood, I live in Fort Hill, Roxbury. There is a Fort Hill park. It’s at the top of the hill and it’s part of the Emerald Necklace.

When you’re up there, you have a view of the city. It’s a really pretty, small little park with an old water tower.

FM: Have you done any memorable site visits recently?

Maybe from the summer?

MARINA QU — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

ful about PBHA and other Harvard programs’ approach to service historically — and there are exceptions to this rule — is that what should come first is the impact on the community, and then when we center that, we develop the right kind of student leaders. And I think that as we grow, we want to be intentional about making sure that the service we’re developing is not just about the students.

FM: How many meetings do you have in a day on average?

MDG: Want me to pull up my calendar? You’ll laugh. On average? Six, easily.

I think the good outweighs the bad. But, it’s a little like Groundhog Day, in that there’s constant turnover, and inevitably, because we have limited capacity, sometimes with turnover, stuff can get lost. We saw that in a big way during Covid and the pandemic. It’s an apprenticeship model in so many ways in that the older students start their first year, for example, volunteering at the shelter once a week. And then over time, build more understanding and gain more responsibility, so that by the time they’re seniors, they’ve seen a lot. They understand the policies, they understand the nuance, and then they’re mentoring

the first year students. That’s a vulnerable model.

And I think there’s also always an important need to be cognizant or aware of savior complex, or differences in privilege and the reality that all students and all people have their own biases coming into the world.But, compared to other service models where you may outsource, send an internship to another nonprofit, PBHA is really unique in the country.

Compared to other service models where you may outsource, send an internship to another nonprofit, PBHA is really unique in the country.

FM: You’ve lived in Boston for most of your life. Can you tell me more about your relationship to the city?

MDG: I actually was a Harvard baby. When I lived here, my parents were both in grad school. And then I moved away, grew up outside D.C.,

and came back for grad school to go to the Harvard Ed School. When I was at the Ed School, I worked in Chelsea with young moms who were gang-involved. After the Ed School, I knew I wanted to stay around here. I was interviewed for a few different jobs, but the ones that really struck me or spoke to something that continues to be my calling was the early years of City Year.

I was like, ‘Oh, you can get paid to do this stuff?’

So I was involved in some early years of City Year, working first in some schools, because I had gone to the Grad School of Education, so I was like, ‘Oh, I want to do something in schools.’ But then as I was doing that work, I realized I love working with 17- t0 24-year-olds.

Boston is a small enough city in that it can be relational. I think that’s harder in bigger communities. I think it’s always important but the relationships are both about the work, but they’re also deeply personal and supportive. When it’s at its best, that’s a big part of the culture of Boston organizing, which I love.

FM: What do you do with your life outside of PBHA? MDG: I’m a mom of two incredible children who are very creative and

MDG: Yeah so many! I feel like especially with SUP and summer, the years all blur together.

The images that consistently stand out are children, there was one third-grade class, they’re doing long division, and all these kids were raising their hands like they were going to jump out of their chairs to answer long division questions.I swear every time I visit a SUP camp I still am amazed.

Again, it’s imperfect, but there’s so many of those moments where I leave in awe. On those site visits, sometimes there are senior counselors who I’ve known most of their lives. And that goes back to that original thing of what keeps me here. This person is the most amazing powerful person ever, and they’re talking about how they’re going to be teachers, they’re going to have so many children over their lifetime. It’s that kind of ripple effect.

FM Fifteen Minutes is the magazine of The Harvard Crimson. To read the full interview and other longform pieces, visit THECRIMSON.COM/ MAGAZINE

16

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

SPORTS

OCTOBER 20, 2023

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL

Back in 2021, then-sophomore setter/hitter Ashley Wang strikes the ball in Harvard’s matchup against Austin Peay, where the Crimson lost 3-0. OWEN A. BERGER — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Wang, Harvard on the Rise ON THE RISE Senior Ashley Wang has returned from injury with a bang, tallying several triple-doubles and driving the Crimson’s hot start.

BY LAUREN K. CHOY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A

shley Wang recorded her sixth triple-double of the season on Oct. 6 as Harvard women’s volleyball (11-5, 4-3 Ivy League) took on Princeton in its 13th game of the season. An athlete that scores double figures in three or more of five statistical categories— aces, kills, digs, blocks, assists — posts a triple-double. Wang is now one triple-double shy of setting the school record, meaning she had double-figures.

Standout performances like these have become common for Wang, as she currently has the season of her career.

From the very start of the season, Wang has dominated on the court for Harvard volleyball. At the Harvard Invitational that started the Crimson’s season, Wang made Harvard history, becoming the first volleyball play-

er to record two triple-doubles in one day against University of New Hampshire (11-8, 1-3 American East) and Holy Cross (3-15, 0-9 Patriot League).

Wang has also been named Ivy League Player of the Week for the weeks of Sept. 4 and Oct. 9 — both a stunning and respectable feat.

“Ashley is unique in that she can hit and set together, and hitting and setting is something that not many women in the country are doing right now at the Division I volleyball level,” head coach Jennifer Weiss said.

It is clear that this season, whether it be through her impressive triple-double performances, her ability to both hit and set, or her leadership and energy, Wang has been giving it her all on the court,” Weiss explained.“All those things that she brings on the court are contagious.”

Wang’s senior season has been about making the most of the time that she has left. Despite her great success this season, the prior three seasons with the Crimson have not been as seamlessly put-together.

Throughout previous seasons with Harvard volleyball, Wang struggled with a series of different injuries, and she explained that it was a “struggle learn-

ing how to give back to the team while being on the sidelines and not being able to actively participate in volleyball practices or games.”

Wang, however, persevered through the injuries and did not let that limit her ability to contribute to the team.

Weiss noticed Ashley’s efforts

Now that Wang is finally healthy and able to play to her full potential, she is taking advantage of every moment she has left.

“Like Coach Weiss has said, it’s been a long time coming for being able to play finally, and having all the pieces line up,” she reflected.

It’s been a long time coming for being able to play finally, and having all the pieces line up.

Ashley Wang Senior opposite/setter

even when she was injured, remarking that Wang “stayed engaged all that time even when she wasn’t on the floor. And I think that’s paying off right now and she’s scoring a lot of points in each rotation. She touches every second ball. It’s just really awesome to have this opportunity for her after what she’s been through.”

Despite her outstanding individual performances, Wang’s overall goal for the season is not centered around her own success but that of her team’s.

Wang, along with the rest of the team, hopes to win the Ivy League Championship this year.

“Everyone’s super excited for this season and has been planning to put their all into

this season, give everything we got, in order to hopefully win that championship or have the best season we can have,” Wang adds.

And that has definitely been the case with the Crimson thus far. With nine games left to play before the Ivy League Tournament and a current record of 115, Harvard volleyball has high hopes and expectations.

On Sept. 30, the Crimson lost 3-0 to Cornell (5-11, 3-4 Ivy League), but rather than letting it be a setback, the team saw it as an opportunity to learn and improve. “We will bounce back from it, and we learned from it for sure,” Coach Weiss elaborated.

Since the loss against Cornell, Harvard volleyball surged back and defeated Princeton (9-7, 6-2) and the University of Pennsylvania (3-15, 1-7) in backto-back games in early October.

Though Harvard has since lost to Yale (12-3, 7-0) and Brown (143, 5-2) in a pair of 0-3 sets, the Crimson will try to redeem itself in an Ancient Eight rival Dartmouth (6-10, 3-4) this Saturday.

The wins over the long weekend were an all-around team effort. Against Princeton, the Crimson dominated on the court. Senior Katie Vorhies had

GAMES TO WATCH THIS WEEK

15 posted kills and junior Rocky Aguirre led the team with 31 assists. The next day, Harvard volleyball swept Penn with the support of first-year Ryleigh Patterson, who had six block assists and one solo block.

The Crimson’s success can be attributed not only to their immeasurable talent but also their strong connections and teamwork.

“Harvard volleyball is going to be your extended family,” coach Weiss emphasized.

“I have known Coach Weiss for a long time now, probably over eight years, since sophomore year of high school,” Wang reflected. “She was such a role model to me — someone I can always talk to and look up to.”

As Wang finishes her last season with Harvard volleyball, she noted that “this team, and Harvard women’s volleyball, has meant the world to me and has changed my life exponentially. So I hope that when I leave, I leave that same mark on my teammates, the coaches, and the team to come in.”

Next up, Wang will lead the Crimson in a Saturday evening matchup against the Big Green on Saturday, Oct. 21 at 5:00 p.m.

EST. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.

THC Read more at THECRIMSON.COM

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

Women’s Ice Hockey vs. Union 6:00 p.m., Bright-Landry

Men’s/Women’s Rowing Head of the Charles All Day

Field Hockey vs. Penn 12:00 p.m., Berylson Field

Men’s Water Polo at Santa Clara University 5:00 p.m. ET

Women’s Soccer vs. Penn 4:00 p.m., Jordan Field

Women’s Rugby at Dartmouth 11:00 a.m.

Football at Princeton 1:00 p.m.

Women’s Volleyball vs. Dartmouth 5:00 p.m., Malkin Athletic Center

SPORTS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON OCTOBER 20, 2023

17

FOOTBALL

Harvard Thrashes Howard 48-7 to Remain Unbeaten Harvard’s defensive squad hits the sideline for a mid-game talk at the Crimson’s Saturday game against Howard. NICHOLAS T. JACOBSSON — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

ROLLING Harvard extended its win streak against Howard University, with the team’s dominant rushing attack leading the way.

BY NADIA A. FAIRFAX CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

T

he Harvard football team (5-0, 2-0) hosted Howard (2-4) at home, dominating against the Bison and defeating them 48-7. With the win, the Crimson improved its winning streak to 5-0 for the first time since 2021, as well as improving to 3-0 against Howard. “[It was] one of those games where the whole planet, moons, and stars came together,” remarked Head Coach Tim Murphy about the game. “We played very well in all phases, I think we got to give them some credit, in the context of they’ve had a very hard fought Big Ten game last week, and I think they didn’t have as much juice as maybe they would have normally had.”

“They’re a really good team, they’re a really well coached team, and extremely proud of the University and program,” he continued. “If we can continue to play and have a good defense, we’ll continue to compete in every game, and I think our offense has done a really good job with our assistant coaches putting our players in the best position to be successful.”

The first score of the game started off with sophomore running back Isaiah Abbey rushing for a one yard touchdown, putting the score at 7-0 for Harvard.

The touchdown was the result of a 77-yard drive over 5:21 seconds, which included two pass connections over 30 yards between juniors quarterback Charles DePrima and wide receiver Scott Woods II. The defense showed up for the Crimson, stopping the Bison at the 29-yard line near the end of the first quarter. Junior defensive end Jacob Psyk had a big play when he sacked Howard quarterback Quinton Williams, forcing a fumble that the Crimson’s Nick Yagodich picked up.

Going into the second quarter, Harvard continued to hold onto the 7-0 lead. The Crimson doubled their lead with first-year running back Xaviah Bascon — the recentIvy League Rookie of the Week — who received a seven-yard pass from DePrima to the endzone, doubling the score 14-0.

Howard then had an opportunity to score, as the Bison received ball possession over a three-play drive. However, Harvard was ready, as on the third play, the Bison were intercepted

by junior linebacker Eric Little.

The Crimson offense then returned to the field, and DePrima threw a 30-yard wide open pass to Woods II, who walked into the endzone and raised the Harvard score to 21-0. Before the end of the first half, Harvard added to its already dominant lead with Abbey scoring his second touchdown through an eight-yard run. The sophomore ended the first half with 62 rushing yards.

“My O-line is insane,” Abbey said. “It says I have three touchdowns, but it was the O-line. All I did was take the ball and run in the direction that they set up for me. I’m very good with my O-line, and I think that anyone, whether it was me or the running back behind me, the O-line makes everything possible.”

To start off the third quarter, Abbey returned to get his third touchdown of the day, sprinting 52 yards to score for Harvard on the first play of the opening drive.

The Crimson’s lead was increased to 35-0 with 11:17 left in the third quarter, giving them a strong advantage over the Bison.

“Just going off what Coach Murphy was saying, it’s all about preparation for us,” said DePrima about being able to run the offense. “On top of that, it’s just trusting the guys that are out there. I think we’re in a great place in terms of relationships, and we trust each other a lot out there. We’re just going out there with the game plan that was brought upon us by the coaches all week, and it’s just a lot of confidence too.”

Harvard was stopped by Howard at 14 yards during the next drive. Senior Cali Canaval was then called onto the field to put up points for the Crimson, and he delivered, kicking 32 yards to give Harvard three extra points on the board and brought the score to 38-0 with 2:35 seconds left in the third quarter. The Crimson to this point still managed to keep the Bison from scoring, and stunting their offense.

“The thing with Howard is they had some really good blockers up front,” said senior captain and defensive lineman Nate Leskovec about preparing for Howard’s offense. “Really skilled guys on the outside, playing receiver, a quarterback who plays conservative style, a blocking passer who doesn’t really make too many mistakes. Fortunately we were able to turn the ball over a cou-

ple of times, and without looking at the stats, I think we were much better at third downs than we have been, which has been a point of emphasis.”

To start off the fourth quarter, Canaval kicked a 39 yard field goal to help Harvard increase their lead to 41-0. With such a huge lead over the Bison, the Crimson coaching staff gave some of the starters a break, and introduced junior quarterback Conor Easthope to the action.

Easthope rose to the occasion, successfully executing a fiveplay, 80-yard drive that resulted in him rushing 19 yards for a touchdown. Howard responded with 3:36 seconds left in the fourth quarter, when the B i s o n ’s T o n y Bedell rushed

f o r eight yards into the endzone.

At the conclusion of the game, the Crimson nearly shut out the Bison until the late fourth quarter. Harvard — unranked at the beginning of the season — now sits at No. 17. The win marked Harvard’s fourth win at home this season, improving to 4-0 at home, compared to their 1-4 home wins record last season. “[Harvard] has done a great job of being focused,” Coach Murphy said. “We always talk about taking it not one week at a time, but one day at a time. Let’s just focus on getting better each practice, let’s focus on the things that we need to focus on, different practices

you’re going to concentrate on different things. Our kids have done a great job at that.”

“The other thing we’ve done is eliminating doubts,” he continued. “That was a big thing coming up from last season.

We just had too many penalties, and the kids have really done a good job with making good decisions on the field and playing hard, playing fast. Making sure we don’t give our opponent anything.”

Multiple players also had impactful games. Sophomore safty

Ty Bartrum finished the game with a career high of ten tackles. Little had his first interception of the year, as well as putting four tackles on the board.

“It means a lot today,” said Lescovek about the team being 5-0. “You know, we’re excited about winning the game, we’ll enjoy this win today, and focus on going 6-0 next week. Beyond that, we’re not really all that concerned, just continue to take it one day at a time. It’s been our recipe so far, and it’s been working for us, so why would we devi-

ate from that?”

The Crimson return to play this Saturday against Princeton (2-3,1-1) at Powers Field in Princeton, N.J. The Tigers will go into the game having just suffered a 28-27 loss against Brown. Harvard, who currently has the best record in the Ivy League, seeks to continue its winning streak.

The Ancient Eight matchup will kick off at 1:00 p.m. EST on Saturday, Oct. 21. The game will be streamed on ESPN+. nadia.fairfax@thecrimson.com

Sophomore running back Isaiah Abbey makes a run for one of his three total touchdowns of the game.

NICHOLAS T. JACOBSSON — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

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