EYE ON THE TIGERS. Harvard is looking for its first win against Princeton since 2016 this weekend. But Saturday’s game has another crucial wrinkle to it: Andrew Aurich’s first matchup against his alma mater as Harvard’s head coach.
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TAILGATE GATE. If the College continues central planning Harvard-Yale, they guarantee that the game will be less fun, less safe, and less inclusive. Quite frankly, the best thing administrators can do on that fateful Saturday is make themselves scarce and let students take the lead.
12
Your
to the 5 Mass. Ballot
ELECTION DAY. On Nov. 5, Mass. residents will cast their votes on five ballot questions, each with the potential to have a massive impact. From the MCAS exams to the minimum wage to legalizing psychedelics, here’s everything you need to know about each proposal before you vote. SEE PAGE 6
EMBRACING AI. The Harvard Medical School started offering a month-long introductory course on artificial intelligence in healthcare for students on its Health Sciences and Technology track — the first of its kind offered at a medical school. SEE PAGE 10 AI Arrives at Harvard Medical School NEWS
Prevalence of Sexual Misconduct Drops Sharply
The prevalence of sexual misconduct at Harvard dropped sharply since 2019, according to results released on Monday from the Higher Education Sexual Misconduct and Awareness survey.
While the prevalence of sexual misconduct at Harvard declined significantly, graduate and undergraduate students at Harvard reported being less knowledgeable about resources on campus despite the University’s efforts to expand Title IX support for students over the past five years.
The percentage of female undergraduates who experienced sexual contact involving “physical force, inability to consent or stop what was happening, coercion, or without voluntary agreement” dropped from 32.5 to 22.1 percent, while for the gender nonbinary, transgender, questioning, or self-identified group, the same figure decreased from 24.8 to 14.7 percent.
However, students also expressed less confidence in the University’s ability to in-
vestigate cases of sexual misconduct this year, in addition to being less knowledgeable about campus resources.
Across all gender identity groups, at all colleges surveyed, the percentage of individuals who responded that they believe a campus official would take a report of sexual assault or other sexual misconduct “very” or “extremely” seriously dropped significantly from 2019.
The aggregate data showed a decline from 54.6 in 2019 to 45.4 percent in 2024 for undergraduate women and 75.8 to 67.6 percent for undergraduate men.
At Harvard, the number for undergraduate women fell even more sharply from 49.3 percent to 37.7 percent. For undergraduate men the decline was even more significant, dropping by nearly 20 percentage points from 74.7 percent in 2019 to 55 percent in 2024.
Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 wrote in a University-wide email on Monday announcing the results that despite a “statistically significant decline in sexual misconduct since the most recent AAU Survey in 2019, its prevalence remains alarmingly high and challenges the notion that all members of our community are able to pursue their academic and professional work unhindered.”
“One instance of sexual assault or sexual harassment is too many,” Garber added.
The HESMA survey was administered during the month of April to students at 10 universities in the United States, and was focused on assessing campus climate on matters pertaining to sexual assault and sexual misconduct. This year marked the third time Harvard was included in the survey, after previously participating in 2015 and 2019.
The survey consisted of a core set of 54 questions, with additional follow-ups if a respondent reported being “victimized.”
Each potential respondent was offered a $20 gift card to complete the survey, but of the 24,115 enrolled students invited to participate, just 35.1 percent completed the survey — a 1 percent decline from 2019 and an 18 percent decline from 2015.
Garber wrote in his statement that he was “encouraged” by the participation level, which was more than 10 percentage points higher than the average participation rate for the other institutions taking part in the survey.
Aside from the inclusion of more categories for gender identity markers, disability status, and sexual orientation, the 2024 questionnaire “replicated the 2019
AAU survey” to allow schools to track changes since 2019, according to the HESMA report. Following the 2019 survey, the Title IX office under the Office for Gender Equity underwent significant changes and reprogramming. The Title IX Office and the Office for Sexual Assault Prevention and Response office were dissolved in 2021 and moved under the OGE as one entity — causing concern that students would be less willing to seek out confidential help if they thought those services would be entangled with Title IX reporting processes. New positions have also been added to the team. In August, Lindsey Ciolfi was appointed assistant director of College Title IX, a newly created role.
In addition to staffing expansions, there have been considerable policy changes in the past five years. In 2022, Harvard proposed changes to its discrimination and sexual harassment policies to update the University-wide definition of consent to require “active, mutual agreement.”
The survey asked undergraduate women whether they had experienced sexual harassment “since entering”
Harvard Library suspended roughly 25 faculty members from entering Widener Library for two weeks after they conducted a silent “study-in” protest in the library’s main reading room last week — an extraordinary disciplinary action taken by the University against its own faculty.
The faculty study-in protested the library’s decision to similarly suspend student protesters who conducted a pro-Palestine study-in last month. The University’s decision to suspend students from the library had already come under fire from free speech groups, including the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard.
During the faculty study-in, professors silently read materials on free speech and dissent while placing signs related to free speech and University policy on the tables in front of them. As they did so, Securitas guards noted down their names and ID numbers.
The faculty protest forced Harvard administrators to choose between sanction-
ing their own colleagues and relaxing the disciplinary precedent it set by suspending student activists three weeks ago.
Though the University has previously disciplined faculty members for academic misconduct or violating policies on sexual harassment, the decision to suspend professors from a library for protesting appears to be unprecedented. The Crimson could not identify any past cases where Harvard barred a group of faculty members from entering a specific campus space as a result of their activism.
The suspension notification sent to faculty members, obtained by The Crimson, was largely the same as the email sent to student activists last month, though it doubled down on the move to suspend study-in participants by citing “the University’s response in prior situations.”
In particular, library administrators charged the faculty members with gathering in the library “with the purpose of capturing people’s attention through the display of tent-card signs, which administrators said violated library policies. Faculty members were told their bor-
Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino filed a motion on Monday to amend her $25 million lawsuit against the University to include Title VII and discrimination claims. This motion comes more than a month after U.S. District Court Judge Myong J. Joun dismissed Gino’s defamation charges against Harvard. Still, Joun allowed a key portion of Gino’s lawsuit to proceed: the claim that Gino’s contract with Harvard was breached by allegedly subjecting her to unfair disciplinary actions.
Gino currently faces the possibility of her tenure being revoked over allegations that she committed data fraud in her academic work. In July 2023, the University’s top administration began a review of Gino’s tenure as professor at Harvard.
Gino, who has denied all allegations of academic misconduct, revised her initial complaint alleging Title IX discrimination to incorporate Title VII claims that
specifically prohibit sex-based discrimination as it applies to discipline and firing in the workplace.
Harvard Business School spokesperson Mark Cautela declined to comment on the filing.
Andrew T. Miltenberg, an attorney for Gino, wrote in a statement on Monday that “in a system that claims fairness, Professor Gino was subject to an unprecedented and retroactive policy — one crafted specifically for her as a woman, while her male peers were protected by long-established protocols.”
“This is not just selective justice; this is discrimination hiding in plain sight,” Miltenberg wrote.
Gino was placed on a two-year unpaid administrative leave following the investigation — a move made in accordance with a newly created “Interim Policy and Procedures for Responding to Allegations of Research Misconduct.”
Gino alleged in her lawsuit that the new interim policy was created in order to sanction her. She also claimed that she was unfairly targeted because of her gen-
In Photos: The 30th Annual Boston Fashion Week
BY KACY BAO AND A. SKYE SCHMIEGELOW
JONATHAN G. YUAN — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER ELYSE C. GONCALVES
HARRIS LABOR ALLIES START PLEA TO WHITE WORKING CLASS
Less than two weeks ahead of the election, powerful names in organized labor have rallied behind Vice President Kamala Harris in an effort to reach white working-class voters. A subgroup of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations has enlisted 1,600 paid volunteers to knock on doors, according to the New York Times. The initiative aims to sway the demographic with traditionally the least support for Harris.
ELON MUSK RANDOM AWARD FOR TRUMP VOTERS DRAWS CRITICISM
Billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has faced backlash from democratic politicians for political action committee’s latest plan: to randomly lottery $1 million every day to voters who complete his petition regarding the first and second amendments. Musk announced the initiative — part of his efforts to support Donald Trump’s presidential bid — Saturday night at a Harrisburg, Pa. rally, according to the Wall Street Journal.
SECRETARY BLINKEN URGES ISRAEL TO REACH CEASEFIRE DEAL
In his most recent visit to the Middle East, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken ’84 said Israel must reach an “enduring strategic success.” U.S., Israel, and Egypt officials said a “limited” cease-fire deal has been discussed recently. Still, Hamas — holding approximately 100 hostages from its Oct. 7, 2023 attack — said it is committed to reaching an end to the war.
NORTH KOREAN TROOPS IN RUSSIA ‘LEGITIMATE TARGETS’ FOR U.S.
More than two years into Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine, senior Biden officials announced Wednesday that at least 3,000 North Korean soldiers are currently training in Russia — a group that would merit U.S. military attention. The war’s overall death toll is estimated in the hundreds of thousands.
L.A. TIMES EDITORIAL CHIEF QUITS OVER SHUTDOWN OF HARRIS BACKING
endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. The Trump campaign followed Garza’s resignation with a triumphant email blast, writing that “even her fellow Californians know she’s not up for the job.”
What’s Next
Start every week with a preview of what’s on the agenda around Harvard University
Friday 10/25
HARVARD BANDS MONTAGE CONCERT
Sanders Theater, 8-10 p.m.
Attend the annual Montage concert with the Office for the Arts at Harvard and the Harvard University Bands to kick off the 105th Harvard Band Reunion. Arrangements include the Harvard Medley, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Flourish for Wind Band, and Frank Ticheli’s Cajun Folk Songs.
Saturday
HARVARD FOOTBALL VS PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Harvard Stadium, 3-6 p.m.
Students and families are welcome as first- and third-year students celebrate family weekend. Harvard undergraduates can attend the game for free. Regular tickets are available starting at $20.
Sunday 10/27
Monday 10/28
“VISCOSITY AND THE ART OF THE PERFECT SAUCE”
Science Center Hall C, 7 p.m.
Attend a lecture with Karen Akunowicz, Fox & The Knife Enoteca owner, which has been named to several best new restaurants lists. Akunowicz received the 2018 James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: Northeast and was a Judge on Top Chef.
Tuesday 10/29
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. COMMEMORATIVE LECTURE AT HARVARD HBS Klarman Hall, 5:30-8:30 p.m.
Attend a speech on by civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill. Learn from an individual that has made contribution to justice and equality work as she discusses the 14th amendment, grassroots action, and the role of colleges and universities in maintaining democracy.
Wednesday 10/30
EARLY-UNIVERSE SIGNALS OF ENERGY INJECTION FROM DARK MATTER
Virtual Event
Learn about from theoretical physics professor Tracy R. Slatyer about the unsolved puzzle of dark matter. This is your chance to hear about the intersection of particle physics and astrophysics .
Thursday 10/31
MAINTAINING A CULTURE OF FREE EXPRESSION ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES Virtual Event, 3-3:30 p.m. The Harvard Graduate School
Friday 11/1
JOHN S. KIM
CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
ROBBIE H EDWARDS — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
ELECTION 2024
Political Donations
From Harvard’s Faculty
DEMS. Harvard faculty and members of the
BY CRIMSON NEWS STAFF
Members of Harvard’s governing boards and faculty donated more than $2.3 million to political candidates and causes ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, a Crimson analysis found.
The analysis, which comes just 10 days before Americans head to the polls, found that 94 percent of political contributions from Harvard affiliates went to Democratic candidates, with the majority going toward Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. The liberal skew of faculty and governing board members’ donations continues a long-standing trend at Harvard.
In the 2020 election cycle, affiliates also donated overwhelmingly to Democratic candidates. The Crimson analyzed thousands of records from the Federal Elections Commission for all members of the Harvard Corporation and Board of Overseers, as well as professors within the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Harvard Kennedy School, and the Harvard Law School.
The Harvard Corporation Members of the Harvard Corporation, the University’s highest governing board, donated more than $790,000 to political candidates and political action committees during the 2024 election cycle. Roughly 95 percent of those funds went to Democratic candidates.
Kenneth C. Frazier, the former CEO of pharmaceutical company Merck &. Co, donat-
ed the most out of the 12 members of the Corporation. Frazier, who was elected to the board in February, contributed nearly $307,000 to Democratic candidates, including $100,000 to a PAC affiliated with Harris.
Kenneth I. Chenault, the chairman of venture capital firm General Catalyst, donated almost $250,000 exclusively to Democratic candidates. Chenault, who spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August, is regarded as a top candidate to serve as Treasury Secretary in a Harris administration, according to Semafor.
One name notably missing from the list of top benefactors this year was Senior Fellow Penny S. Pritzker ’81, who served as Commerce Secretary under former President Barack Obama. Pritzker has previously led the Corporation in political donations.
While Pritzker, a billionaire heiress to the Hyatt Ho -
tel fortune, donated more than $861,000 leading up to the 2020 presidential election and more than $760,000 ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, she has only given roughly $23,000 to political candidates ahead of this year’s election. Her brother J.B. Pritzker currently serves as the governor of Illinois.
Penny Pritzker heavily supported her brother in his bid to bring the 2024 DNC to Chicago, which included offering to foot the bill for the convention.
Harvard Treasurer Timothy R. Barakett ’87 and Joseph Y. Bae ’94, the co-chief executive officer of private equity firm KKR, were the only members of the board to donate to Republican candidates.
Barakett, the CEO of private investment firm TRB Advisors, donated $6,600 to Curtis Bashaw, a Republican running for Senate in New Jersey.
Bae, who joined the board in February, donated $33,000 to
three political action committees associated with Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), and Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.). He also donated $6,600 to Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.).
Other members that donated to political candidates included Diana L. Nelson ’84, who donated more than $58,000; Theodore V. Wells, who contributed more than $83,000; and former Obama cabinet official Karen Gordon Mills ’75, who donated $26,000. The Crimson was unable to find records of political contributions from the four other members of the board.
Both Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 and Provost John F. Manning ’82 did not donate to political candidates in 2023 or 2024, according to FEC filings. A Harvard spokesperson declined to comment on the contributions.
Harvard Board of Overseers Members of the Board of Overseers, the University’s second-highest governing body, made more than $700,000 in political contributions leading up to this year’s elections. Todd Y. Park ’94, the former chief technology officer in the White House during the Obama administration, donated the most to political candidates by a significant margin, accounting for approximately 94 percent of the board members’ donations. Park donated nearly $670,000 to Democratic PACs and to 47 of the 50 Democratic state parties as well as the DC Democratic State Committee. Park was followed in total donations by Alice Chen, the chief health officer of healthcare giant Centene Corporation, who contributed $20,000 to Harris’ presidential campaign. Several members donated to Harris’s campaign or other Dem-
JUSTIN F. GONZALEZ — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
THE HARVARD CRIMSON
OCTOBER 25, 2024
ocratic PACs immediately following President Joe Biden’s announcement on July 21 that he was withdrawing from the 2024 presidential race and endorsing Harris to succeed him.
Sangu J. Delle ’10, the CEO of tech healthcare firm CarePoint, donated $300 to Harris’ campaign and the Democratic-affiliated PAC ActBlue on July 22
— his first and only political contribution this election cycle. Jayson U. Toweh, a Ph.D. student at Stanford University, also made his first donation on the day after Biden withdrew, donating $47 to ActBlue.
Roughly half of the donations from Danielle A. Feinberg ’96, a visual effects supervisor at Pixar Studios, were made after Biden dropped out of the race.
Overseers donated almost exclusively to Democratic PACs and campaigns, with the one exception being Christopher B. Howard — the chief operating officer at Arizona State University — who donated $500 to the bipartisan With Honor PAC, which is focused on electing military veterans.
Reshma M. Saujani, the CEO of Girls Who Code, donated $14,000 to Democratic PACs and political candidates, including $2,000 to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).
The Crimson could only find records of political donations from 11 of the 30 members on the board.
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School professors have contributed roughly $320,000 to political candidates since January 2023. Like their colleagues at other corners of the University, almost all of their donations went to Democratic campaigns.
Law and Economics professor Louis E. Kaplow was responsible for more than half of the total donations from HLS faculty members, with his donations exceeding $148,000 this election cycle. Kaplow donated more than $10,000 to American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful pro-Israel lobbying group that has donated more than $41 million dollars in the 2024 election cycle.
Kaplow also made seventeen contributions of $6,600, the maximum individual contribution allowed by the FEC, including to an array of AIPAC-endorsed Democratic and Republican congressional candidates, including both House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).
Other major donors at HLS included professors Michael J. Klarman, Joseph W. Singer, and former Dean Martha L. Minow, all of whom donated exclusively to Democratic candidates. Klarman wrote in a statement to The Crimson that the reason for the HLS faculty’s overwhelming support of Democrats was “clear and pretty obvious.”
“Of course, Harvard faculty — and especially law faculty — are unlikely to support a party whose presidential candidate says he will ‘terminate the Constitution,’” Klarman wrote, referencing past comments made by Trump. Interim Dean John C.P. Goldberg and his deputy deans I. Glenn Cohen and Maureen E. “Molly” Brady ’08, who have been named as candidates to serve as the school’s next dean, did not donate to any political candidates this election cycle. Their colleagues, Deputy Dean John C. Coates and vice deans Gabriella Blum and David B. Wilkins ’77, all contributed to Harris’ presidential campaign. Not a single HLS professor directly donated to Trump’s reelection campaign. Of the 118 professors at HLS, only 38 donated to a political cause this election cycle, according to a Crimson analysis. The only member of HLS faculty to exclusively donate to Republican candidates was Stephen E. Sachs ’02, who serves as faculty adviser to the conservative HLS Federalist Society.
Sachs, a former Crimson Editorial chair, made several small contributions of $250 or less to AIPAC, Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and the National Republican Congressional Committee.
In a statement to The Crimson, Sachs wrote that there were so few donations to Republican
candidates because Republicans are underrepresented on law school faculties.
“Empirical research has suggested that Republicans are underrepresented among law professors as compared to lawyers generally, especially when adjusting for qualifications and citations,” Sachs wrote.
“The fact that HLS professors donate to Democratic candidates is less important than the fact that there are remarkably fewer conservative professors than there are qualified conservative candidates in the legal profession,” he added.
Harvard Kennedy School
At the Harvard Kennedy School, professors have donated nearly $133,000 to political candidates since 2023 — approximately 40 percent more than the figure from 2018, the last time The Crimson analyzed HKS faculty donations.
HKS professor Deval L. Patrick ’78 — the first Black governor of Massachusetts — led the faculty in politician contributions with $52,500 in donations to Democratic candidates, including Sen. Amy J. Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Rep. Elissa B. Slotkin (D-Mich.)
The school’s faculty contributed overwhelmingly to Democratic candidates. HKS professor Linda J. Bilmes ’80 bucked the
ELECTION 2024 5
trend by contributing $50 earmarked for Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign to Republican PAC WinRed, though she also donated $200 to ActBlue.
“Democrats have become to some extent the party of the well-educated, and so in this sense it is not a surprise that Harvard professors, who are very highly educated, would skew strongly Democratic,” Archon Fung, director of the HKS Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, wrote in a statement.
“The pattern that you observe is consistent with the broader trend of political polarization by education,” he added.
Kennedy School professor Mark L. Fagan was the sole HKS professor to contribute to an independent campaign, donating approximately $209 to Shelane Etchison, an independent congressional candidate in North Carolina.
HKS Dean Jeremy M. Weinstein, whose tenure started in July, did not donate to any political campaigns during his time as a professor at Stanford or since arriving in Cambridge. Weinstein, however, has worked in several Democratic administrations, including from 2014 to 2015 as the deputy to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha J. Power, a former professor at HKS.
Of the 205 professors, assis-
tant professors, and adjunct lecturers at the Kennedy School, only 32 donated in the last year. HKS spokesperson Daniel B. Harsha declined to comment. Faculty of Arts and Sciences In line with governing board members and professors across the University, members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences donated primarily to Democratic candidates and PACs.
FAS faculty members have contributed nearly $430,000 since January 2023. The Harris Victory Fund and Harris for President received the bulk of the donations — $176,945 in total. The donations from FAS members also spiked close to major milestones in this year’s tumultuous presidential contest, including the day that Biden withdrew from the race and Harris secured the nomination. On July 21 — the day Biden announced his decision to step aside — FAS faculty members donated more than $8,400 to various Democratic groups. When Harris unofficially
presidential campaign between September 2023 and January 2024. Hankins’ final donation came only five days before DeSantis withdrew from the race. Harvard Business School professor Amy C. Edmondson ’81 — who holds a joint appointment at the FAS — also donated $1,041 to Aaron Dimmock, a Republican candidate who ran for Congress in Florida. Dimmock challenged Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) in the Republican primary, but ultimately failed to unseat the incumbent. FAS spokesperson James M.
Methodology
Your Guide to Massachusetts’ 5 Ballot Questions
In Question 1, A Test of Trust in the Mass. State Legislature
BY JACK R. TRAPANICK CRIMSON
The Massachusetts State Legislature is facing a referendum of sorts on Nov. 5 after a chaotic last two years has sparked a drumbeat of negative headlines.
Ballot Question 1 will ask voters whether to expand the state auditor’s power to investigate government agencies to encompass the state legislature, potentially opening up at least a part of the body’s workings to the public eye. An audit could also place particular pressure on members in leadership positions, many of whom represent Cambridge and Allston-Brighton. House Majority Leader Michael J. Moran; Sen. William N. Brownsberger ’78, a former president of the Senate;
and Rep. Kevin A. Honan, the body’s longest continuously serving member, all represent Allston-Brighton.
And Rep. Marjorie C. Decker, who represents part of Cambridge and chairs the powerful Joint Committee on Public Health, narrowly survived a primary challenge last month from Evan C. MacKay ’19, who sought to tie her to the Beacon Hill status quo. She won by 41 votes. The question comes after the current state auditor, Diana DiZoglio, unsuccessfully tried to launch an audit last year. “Everyone should have equitable and transparent access to and information about all state-funded agencies, including the Legislature,” she wrote in a statement at the time. Now, Massachusetts voters will be deciding whether to
dramatically expand DiZoglio’s oversight — even as scattered opposition, including from the legislature, argues that the proposal violates the separation of powers and could even be unconstitutional. The state’s Attorney General has also mentioned “constitutional concerns” around auditing the legislature if the ballot passes.
For proponents — who now boast polls showing more than 70 percent support for the measure — it nevertheless represents an important chance to reform a broken institution.
This summer, the legislature passed the state budget a month late for the 14th straight year, a record unmatched by any other state. Days later, they closed the legislative session without passing a host of bills on climate, economic development, and mater-
nal health which took months to develop.
“The scrap pile was bigger than the list of accomplishments,” wrote GBH on Aug. 1, the morning after the session ended. State House leaders promised to reconvene in informal sessions in the coming months to pass at least some of their unfinished work.
DiZoglio’s predecessor, former state auditor Suzanne M. Bump, said that the proposition went “beyond the bounds of legitimate government auditing.”
An audit of the legislature, she said, would be inherently subjective, given there are no hard legal standards for how the legislature should legislate.
“I’m sure, indeed, there are steps that could be taken to open up more of the legislative process to scrutiny, but this idea of audit-
ing the deliberative processes of the legislature is not the way to go,” she said. “This is not a matter that’s going to be resolved at the ballot box.”
But two organizers who spoke with The Crimson on Sunday said the proposition was a chance for voters to get more information about how their government works.
Jonathan Cohn, policy director at Progressive Mass, pointed out that it was difficult to get any internal information about the legislature’s workings. Neither its committee votes nor hearing testimony are available to the public.
“We hold the status of being the only state where the governor’s office, the legislature, and the judiciary, all claim full exemption from the public records law,” he said.
The legislature, Cohn add-
ed, “doesn’t view information, in general, as the public good” — though he conceded that the measure was likely to face a lawsuit if it passes. If the proposition passed, primary legislative functions like voting and committee assignments would still remain exempt, according to analysis by the Tufts Center for State Policy Analysis. The Tufts report also emphasized that the legislature would have “a lot of leverage to resist investigations,” like refusing to consent. But for Marisol Santiago, policy and organizing director at MassVote, the measure is a first step toward a more accountable legislature.
“I think that this Question 1 is a starting point to say, ‘We want to get transparency,’” she said.
jack.trapanick@thecrimson.com
When Massachusetts voters head to the polls on Nov. 5, all eyes will be on a hotly contested referendum: whether to eliminate a statewide exam as a high school graduation requirement.
The campaign for Ballot Question 2 — which would remove the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System as a high school graduation requirement — has raised more than $7 million from the Massachusetts Teachers Association, making it the most expensive of the state’s five ballot questions.
It has pit two of the state’s progressive champions in Washington — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Ayanna S. Pressley (D-Mass.), who endorsed the proposition — against leadership at home, including Governor Maura T. Healey ’92.
And it has divided Cambridge, as parents, teachers, and policymakers on both sides of the issue make their case that their way would best address the city’s persistent racial and economic achievement gaps.
The measure’s proponents say that the MCAS requirement leaves students stressed and discouraged — especially low-income students and students of color — while forcing schools to adapt their curriculum to the test.
“It just seems wrong to make a high stakes test for their graduation requirement, particularly since the test was never designed for that purpose in the first place,” said Dan Monahan, the president of the Cambridge Educators Association, a union representing Cambridge teach -
ers.
“We’re not trying to educate test takers,” he said. “We’re trying to educate citizens.”
But opponents such as Paul Reville — a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and former Massachusetts Secretary of Education, who was involved in the implementation of the MCAS — said the requirement remains necessary to standardize graduation expectations statewide and track educational performance across district and demographic lines.
“If we don’t have a high standard, and we don’t apply it to all, if the mantra of education reform at the time was ‘All means all,’ then some kids are going to get left behind,” Reville said.
In Cambridge, no one argument has won out. The City Council narrowly rejected a policy order endorsing Question Two by a 4-4-1 vote during an Oct. 7 meeting, while a similar resolution before the Cambridge School Committee received a lukewarm reception a week later.
Though critics have raised concerns about the MCAS graduation requirement disproportionately hurting students of color, with disabilities, or from lower socioeconomic means, HGSE professor Irvin L. Scott, a former chief academic officer for Boston Public Schools, said the requirement holds schools and educators accountable toward equity goals.
“I just never believed in taking away a challenge or lowering a standard because someone’s struggling to meet the standard,” Scott said. “I think it’s on the system to provide adequate supports to ensure that they meet the standards.”
Scott equated removing the MCAS graduation requirement to “turning the lights off.”
“You’re not shining the light on who’s passing, who’s not passing. You’re not making it high stakes enough,” Scott said. “I think that hurts generally Massachusetts, but specifically kids of color, who oftentimes they get treated differently.”
Over the past 11 years, 37 Cambridge students did not receive a diploma due to failing the MCAS, according to a memo from interim Superintendent David G. Murphy to the School Committee and obtained by The Crimson. Of those students, 56 percent had an Individualized Education Plan and only 8 percent were white.
Though students sit for the examination in 10th grade, they may take the exam four more times to meet the graduation requirements.
But Lily R. Read, a Cambridge Rindge and Latin School history teacher, said voters should not underestimate the negative impacts of the exam on student wellbeing.
“I don’t see that it does any positives for students,” she said. “But I do see negative outcomes. I do see stress being caused. I do see kids being worried about graduation. I do see kids having to take classes that are geared towards the test instead of getting to take other electives because they need to pass that test.”
“That really is limiting for students for whom maybe testing simply isn’t something that they’re good at,” she added.
Kathy E. Greeley, an MTA member and organizer with Cambridge Retired Educators United, said the MCAS altered the way she taught: from interdisciplinary and project-based work to an increased focus on literacy and math.
“We just started looking at numbers and I found myself realizing that I wasn’t thinking
about children. I was thinking about statistics,” she said. Cambridge parents who spoke to The Crimson were torn over whether the proposal would be best for their children.
Meredith A. Stoddard said that she is waiting to see a practical alternative before eliminating the standard.
“Should we improve the system? Yes, but I think that getting rid of the system, without anything else in place, creates a little bit of a void,” she said.
Tina T. Lieu, a co-leader of Cambridge Families of Asian Descent, said she is voting “yes” because the MCAS is “a lousy diagnostic tool,” omitting important subjects such as social studies and taking months to return results.
She added that Massachusetts’ test scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which measures student achievement through nationwide tests, have barely changed since the MCAS graduation requirement was implemented in 2003.
But Manikka Bowman — a former School Committee vicechair — said though the MCAS is “imperfect,” it still plays an important role in keeping schools and educators responsible for academic progress.
“I am not one to believe that MCAS is perfect. It is imperfect,” she said. “However, I do not believe that its imperfections negate the need for a standard across the state.”
“I think we should improve that standard. We should not get rid of it,” she said. Despite the fervent debate and organizing, however, the measure may have only a mild impact in Cambridge, where students rarely fail the test, School Committee member Richard Harding, Jr. said. The real consequences, he added, will be felt elsewhere.
“If we have a public school system that is assessment-less, the kids who are most vulnerable and closest to the pain will feel the brunt,” Harding said. “Look, the kids who are affluent, the kids who are sophisticated, the kids who do well in the Cambridge Public Schools system — the MCAS doesn’t matter.”
STAFF WRITER
BY SALLY E. EDWARDS AND JACK R. TRAPANICK CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
As Massachusetts voters head to the polls, Ballot Question 3 will let them decide whether Uber and Lyft drivers will be able to form unions to negotiate their wages, benefits, and working conditions.
Ballot Question 3 would allow any active rideshare drivers — individuals who “completed more than the median number of rides in the previous six months” — to unionize. That would not include delivery drivers for companies like Amazon.
However, even if the ballot measure passes, drivers would still remain classified as independent contractors, not employees — a distinction that a lawsuit by the state attorney general, settled in June, also failed to change.
“These persons often suffer poor pay, inadequate health coverage, and irregular or inadequate working hours,” the ballot measure reads. “The best interests of the commonwealth are served by providing transportation network drivers the opportunity to self-organize and designate representatives of their own choosing, and to bargain collectively in
order to obtain sustainable wages, benefits, and working conditions, subject to approval and ongoing supervision by the commonwealth.”
The ballot measure outlines a detailed process for drivers to unionize and collectively bargain. According to a summary from the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s Office, union membership must include at least 5 percent of active drivers and secure confirmation as the “exclusive bargaining representative” for 25 percent of these drivers in order to gain the authority to negotiate with employers.
The Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University described the plan as “a kind of ladder-climbing process for union formation and bargaining” in their report on the measure.
“If you’re not an active driver, you don’t get to choose your representatives; and if you drove less than 100 trips in the previous quarter, you won’t get to vote on contract terms,” Evan Horowitz, the center’s executive director, wrote in the report. Once the union reaches an agreement with the companies, it must be approved by a majority of drivers who have “completed at least 100 trips the previous quarter.”
Though the concept of allowing gig drivers to unionize has drawn little public opposition, even from their biggest employers like Uber and Lyft, some labor advocates are arguing against the proposition under the belief it is not expansive enough.
Across the country, the conversation about which workers have the right to unionize has increasingly focused on classifying drivers as employees rather than as independent contractors. However, courts and voters in California, Seattle, and other regions have rejected these efforts.
In Massachusetts, the attorney general recently led a successful lawsuit against Uber and Lyft, accusing them of violating state labor laws by refusing to classify drivers as employees, which denied them minimum wage and basic benefits.
The companies settled that lawsuit in June for $175 million and agreed to offer significant benefits, including a $32.50 minimum hourly wage and sick time. However, they maintained the classification of their workers as independent contractors rather than employees.
ELECTION 2024 7
Ultimately, a “no” vote on the ballot measure would preserve the current system, where independent drivers receive basic wage and benefit guarantees. A “yes” vote would give workers more power to negotiate their working conditions through unionization. United for Justice, a group advocating a “yes” vote on the ques-
has raised over $6 million for the cause. “Question 3 would give rideshare drivers new leverage to improve their working conditions,” Horowitz wrote in the report. “And that’s really the point — not just to
BY HUGO C. CHIASSON, SAKETH SUNDAR, AND THAMINI VIJEYASINGAM CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Medical professionals, billion-
aires, and activists from around the country are watching Massachusetts voters closely as they decide Ballot Question 4 — a complex proposal on the legalization of psychedelic substances. Supporters — including the Washington, D.C.-based New Approach PAC and Massachusetts for Mental Health Options — have raised more than $6 million dollars in support of the ballot proposal. An opposition committee has raised just more than $100,000.
hibited. Instead, licensed centers could provide psychedelics to customers in a controlled setting. Both the centers and the substances would be regulated by a proposed state commission.
staff support from the New Approach PAC since its inception. The PAC, which advocates for the legalization of cannabis and psychedelic substances across the country, has given over $200,000 to MMHO since July of 2023.
thoughtfully — and that’s the only reason I would say my wife is supportive financially and I support it morally,” he added. “I really think we need new medicines.”
delics in treating his patient’s mental health, arguing that the substances may not more be effective than a placebo — and can be more dangerous.
If the measure passes, Massachusetts residents over 21 would be able to grow, possess, and use certain natural psychedelics — but the commercial sale of the substances would remain pro -
But legal experts expressed concerns that the lengthy ballot proposal proves too dense for voters to parse as they head to the polls.
“It is misleading because it’s really just a skeleton. It doesn’t tell you exactly what rules you’ll end up with,” said Mason Marks, a visiting professor at HLS who studies psychedelics law.
“You really have to be a lawyer to be able to interpret it,” he added.
James P. Davis, co-founder of the Bay Staters for Natural Medicine, said that the initiative is more complex than voting for or against psychedelic substances.
“It’s a lot more nuanced — because even the psychiatrists who are coming out strongly against it are conceding that they do have benefits and that they do have potential,” Davis said.
The complexities go beyond the language of the initiative. The ballot measure has attracted the attention of political actors and donors from across the country.
Massachusetts for Mental Health Options — the main proponent of the initiative in the state — has received funding and
Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps — which donated $1 million and $9.87 million to MMHO and New Approach PAC, respectively — is also providing supplies for an event hosted by the Harvard Undergraduate Psychedelics Club campaigning for the “yes” vote.
Chase M. Bourbon ’27, president of the Psychedelics Club, said the ballot measure is one of the “steps in the right direction” toward legalized psychedelic usage.
“I don’t see this being the final endpoint of where we’re going with the use of psychedelic medicine, but I see this as a step in the positive direction,” he added.
Intercontinental Real Estate CEO Peter Palandjian ’87, whose wife donated $100,000 to get Question 4 on the ballot, said that the couple supported the initiative because they believed in the positive benefits of psychedelics.
Palandjian, the brother-inlaw of Harvard Corporation member Tracy P. Palandjian ’93, said that he wants “trauma victims” to have psychedelic treatments as a “tool in the tool bag.”
“I think this will be done
effects.”
Opponents of the initiative, however, said it poses real risks for Massachsuetts patients.
Anahita Dua, a surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital who chairs the opposition committee, wrote a brief against the ballot measure for the Information for Voters Booklet. In an interview, she said that the effects of psychedelic substances on other medications is “a giant question mark” that needs to be studied further before it is legalized.
“It’s actually way too much, too fast,” she added.
Massachusetts Psychiatric Society — an organization of over 1,500 psychiatrists — released a position paper opposing the ballot measure. MPS President Nassir Ghaemi said the initiative doesn’t address the needs of his patients, but instead benefits wealthy businesspeople.
“This bill is not about public health or mental health. It’s about the private wealth of the venture capital millionaires who want to make billions more,” said Ghaemi.
Ghaemi added that he is skeptical of the efficacy of psyche -
“The claim that we already know enough that this will solve the mental health crisis is a highly unscientific and false statement,” he said, “It’s not science. It’s science fiction.”
Although Davis and the BSNM are vocal proponents of psychedelics, they also oppose the ballot initiative. They believe it doesn’t go far enough to ensure the substances will be accessible to all Massachusetts residents.
“The average price per session, with just a few grams of mushrooms is between $2,000 and $3,500 for a session lasting several hours,” according to a BSNM memo on Question 4 obtained by The Crimson.
“It’s not legal if no one can afford it,” Davis said of the costs of psychedelics. Marks, the HLS professor, said that as legislators and activists debate the ballot measure’s merits, voters are bound to get lost in the complexities of the initiative.
“There’s just a lot of confused messaging about this and what it would achieve,” he said.
saketh.sundar@thecrimson.com
Tipped workers in Massachusetts might see their minimum wage increase by more than $8 an hour if voters approve Ballot Question 5 during the Nov. 5 elections. They’re not thrilled. While the state’s minimum wage is $15 per hour, tipped workers can be paid as little as $6.75 per hour if tips account for the remainder. Question 5 would gradually raise the minimum to $15 per hour across the board by 2029. But in seven interviews with The Crimson, waiters and other tipped workers in the Greater Boston area said they had deep-seated fears about the proposal, which they said could cost them tips, hours, and at worst, their jobs.
However, Question 5 supporters insist that this is not representative of all servers. OFW garnered significant support for their initiative, collecting 4,300 petitions from tipped workers during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to OFW Lead Organizer and tipped-worker Grace McGovern.
McGovern said that opponents to the ballot measure come from servers who have “made this system work for them,” with little focus on those still struggling to make ends meet.
“I really think that it’s unfortunate that the Restaurant Association has managed to pit a class of working people — restaurant workers — against one another, rather
“I have been up at night ever since I’ve seen this ballot initiative,” Kendra White, a server at the Friendly Toast in Burlington, said. Question 5 is heavily promoted by advocacy group One Fair Wage, a national nonprofit aiming to equalize minimum wages for tipped and non-tipped workers. The MA One Fair Wage Coalition, which has raised more than $990,000 for the lobbying effort in favor of Question 5, says that it would prevent wage theft from big corporations and give tipped workers a more stable and equitable income. The opposition to the measure is led by the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, which says the wage hike would lead to higher operating costs, lower income for servers, and rising prices for consumers. The Committee to Protect Tips, partially funded by the MRA, has raised more than $1.5 million for the lobbying effort against Question 5. The industry group, which represents restaurant owners and operators, cites an online survey of servers and bartenders conducted by research and consulting firm CorCom Inc which found that of 351 respondents, more than 90 percent wanted to keep the system as is.
than all of us sticking together and advocating those who really need help the most,” McGovern said.
But to the dismay of the OFW, the opposition campaign seems to be working: servers said that they and their colleagues are overwhelmingly worried about the proposal leading to an overall decrease in tipped workers’ income.
“In my immediate life and periphery, over 50 people in the service industry,” White said, “there is not a single one of them that wants a yes vote.”
For many restaurants, the profit margin is razor thin — less than 5 percent on average, according to the National Restaurant Association. Many in the industry fear that raising the minimum wage will force restaurants to raise menu prices to compensate, making customers less likely to tip as meal prices increase.
“If you’re paying $40 for a meal, it’s hard to ask for another $8 on top of that, as opposed to if you were paying $25 for it a couple months ago,” said Sean W. Gallagher ’26, a Crimson Business editor and a server of three years.
Question 5 supporters, on the other hand, claim that menu prices will only increase marginally — citing a policy brief from the University of Massachusett Amherst suggesting that the policy was “unlikely to produce significant price increases or negative employment
The policy brief concluded that an average restaurant could account for increased costs by raising its prices by roughly 2 percent — enough to raise a $50 meal to $51.
“So when restaurant owners are telling their employees that they’re going to have to increase everything by 30 to 50 percent — if they do that, that’s price gouging,” McGovern said.
If workers’ tips and base wage do not amount to $15 per hour under current state law, their employers are legally required to account for the difference — which Gallagher said amounts to an effective $15 minimum wage regardless of base wage.
“We’re gonna make the $15 an hour without tips, if we don’t get tipped that anyways,” he said. “Why would we make it $15 an hour and disincentivize tipping and then disincentivize this being a livable career for people?”
Several also said that tips form a substantial portion of their wage, allowing them to make upwards of $50 per hour some nights.
Rima Osornio, the manager of Sol Azteca, a Mexican restaurant on Beacon Street, emphasized that the servers in her restaurant are satisfied with their current wages and tips.
“They’re making way more than $15 an hour. So I don’t think they’re
unhappy with their pay,” Osornio said. The ballot measure comes as politicians and policymakers nationwide have increasingly turned their attention to tipped workers.
Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris pledged to eliminate taxes on tips as part of their presidential campaigns, and a minimum wage hike for tipped workers is also on the ballot in Illinois. But servers and industry experts say that the minimum wage proposal is not as rosy as it may appear: full-service restaurants in Washington D.C. lost 1,800 jobs in the nearly two years since voters approved a similar measure, according to the restaurant association. Annie T. Walsh, who has worked in the service industry for nearly a
decade, emphasized concerns of how those outside of the industry will
CATHERINE H. FENG — CRIMSON DESIGNER
Hoekstra Issues New Guidance to Allow Chalking
Though the campus use rules gave individual schools freedom to grant exceptions, a draft version of the policy obtained by The Crimson was poised to ban chalking outright.
BY NEIL H. SHAH CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences will once again permit chalking in campus spaces — so long as the chalk does not deface school property, according to a new interim guidance on how the FAS will enforce Harvard’s new campus use rules.
The move marks a reversal for the University after it first rolled out the policy in August after a year marked by intense campus protests over the war in Gaza. The campus use rules banned chalking but empowered individual schools and facilities to grant exceptions.
The policy drew the ire of students and faculty members, who claimed the chalking ban encroached on free expression and the right to protest. In September, a group of professors chalked messages — including “Why do preschoolers have more academic freedom than Harvard students” — in front of the John Harvard statue to protest the policy.
Before new guidance was released, a group of professors sent FAS Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra a draft motion they planned to introduce at a Nov. 5 faculty meeting. The motion, if passed, would’ve rolled back the prohibitions of chalking and postering in the FAS.
A professor said the FAS’ even-
tual guidance resembled the motion that the group put forward but an FAS spokesperson disputed that characterization, saying the guidance had been developed by an independent group and was not the same.
“Dean Hoekstra has made it clear that she welcomes faculty input,” the spokesperson said. “She characterized the feedback as clear and sensible and passed it along to the team who already had been working on FAS implementation
guidance,” the spokesperson said.
The FAS’ interim guidance, which also explicitly allowed posters in approved locations like “bulletin boards” and “display cases,” is expected to be finalized by fall 2025, according to the spokesperson.
The chalking protest was not the only time faculty members voiced opposition to the chalking ban.
The new rules faced loud opposition at an Oct. 1 FAS faculty meeting, during which several profes-
Faculty Members Suspended From Widener After ‘Study-In’
sors raised questions about how the policy had been determined.
During the meeting, Hoekstra told faculty that she had not been involved in designing the new rules.
Government professor Steven Levitsky, who participated in the chalking protest, said that he felt the new guidance was a step in the right direction but that there was still work to be done in improving academic freedom at the school.
“There’s more to be done because there’s an effort to impose a
culture shift,” Levitsky said, referencing how students had recently been suspended from Widener Library for holding a silent study-in. “As long as forces outside the University and elements within the University administration are coming up with new ways to regulate and restrict students’ right to expression, I think there’s going to be dialogue, pushback, and protest by faculty,” he added.
der as Harvard conducted an internal investigation into the data fraud allegations against her.
In a 2023 op-ed published by The Crimson, seven tenured HBS faculty voiced their concerns about the lack of transparency regarding the interim policy, writing that the “policy was in place for two years before ever being mentioned to faculty.”
“The new policy appears to have been designed specifically for Gino. It created artificial and arbitrary restrictions that limited her ability to defend herself,” the professors wrote. Key details in Gino’s new filing about discrimination hinge on HBS Dean Srikant Datar allegedly discriminating against female faculty members at the school.
Gino’s lawyers wrote in the complaint that she has “specifically alleged facts that, in their totality, support a reasonable inference that Dean Datar bore discriminatory animus toward Professor Gino’s protected class.”
The filing also cites inconsistencies between institutional discipline for female and male faculty, referencing the case of an unnamed male junior professor at HBS who was charged with research misconduct in November 2019. After being investigated under the 2013 policy, the unnamed professor cited in the complaint allegedly faced no sanctions and was later awarded tenure.
Gino’s revised complaint also alleges Datar handpicked members for the investigation committee that had a history of not promoting women.
The lawsuit was also amended to allege that Datar asked a colleague at HBS to “counsel out” Gino, “meaning to ask Plaintiff to resign based on anonymous allegations of research misconduct.”
Miltenberg wrote in his Monday statement that “Datar asking an HBS colleague to ‘counsel out’ Professor Gino when concerns about her work manifested was not a matter of justice, but a desperate attempt to quiet a voice they could not truthfully condemn.”
“When those in positions of power lack evidence to support their decisions, they resort to silence through coercion,” he added.
rowing privileges from the library had not been affected and that they would still be able to access other locations in the library system. However, the email said they would not be allowed inside Widener — the University’s flagship library.
The decision to suspend faculty members’ library access appears to have been made by Harvard Library directly as opposed to the individual schools. The email notification said the professors’ deans had been “informed of this violation.”
The faculty protesters were told they could appeal the suspensions to Martha J. Whitehead, the head of the Harvard Library system, by Oct. 29 if they felt the suspension was made “in error.
Harvard spokesperson Jonathan L. Swain declined to comment on the suspensions, saying the University wouldn’t comment on “individual matters.” Harvard Library spokesperson Kerry Conley referred The Crimson to a Thursday statement from Whitehead.
In her statement, Whitehead wrote that while libraries support free speech and civil discourse, reading rooms are “not intended to be used as a venue for a group action, quiet or otherwise, to capture people’s attention.”
“In the study-ins in our spaces, we heard from students who saw them publicized and chose not to come to the library,” she continued.
“During the events, large numbers of people filed in at once, and several moved around the room taking photos or filming.”
“Seeking attention is in itself disruptive,” she added.
Whitehead clarified in her statement that though the protests were silent, it was the coordinated placement of signs she felt made them unacceptable per library policy.
“An assembly of people displaying signs changes a reading room from a place for individual learning
and reflection to a forum for public statements,” she wrote.
The faculty members were not the only Harvard affiliates who were suspended from libraries on Thursday over study-in protests.
More than 60 students found out Thursday morning that they were banned for two weeks from the Harvard Law School’s main library for participating in a pro-Palestine study-in last week. Just a few hours later, more than 50 other students staged a second studyin Thursday afternoon at the HLS libary to protest the sanctions against their peers.
The student protesters who participated in Thursday’s study-in are expected to receive a similar suspension from the library — especially now that the University has now twice referred to its “response in prior situations.”
Board members of Harvard’s American Association of University Professors chapter — several of whom, including President Kirsten A. Weld and Vice President Walter Johnson, participated in the studyin — called the decision to suspend professors “disturbing” in a statement.
Weld and Johnson wrote that “it highlights more serious problems on Harvard’s campus: the proliferation of new rules without meaningful faculty oversight or even input, a problematic lack of clarity regarding the definition of ‘protest,’ and the administration’s inclination to punish in lieu of opening up dialogue.”
Government professor Ryan D. Enos, who also participated in the study-in, condemned the library’s decision to suspend faculty members, saying “it’s very clear to us that these rules are being constructed on the fly.”
“The logic for them is shifting and, in that sense, they don’t seem just. It’s hard to say that people should be punished — for exam-
ple — for calling attention to themselves,” Enos said. “That’s a new logic that the library has not expressed before and it doesn’t seem just to penalize people for rules that are being interpreted differently every time they’re applied.”
Harvard Library gave similar reasoning for suspending both student and faculty protesters over the last month for study-in participation. However, the library system has previously chosen not to discipline study-in participants — even for protests in Widener Library.
Enos also pushed back against Whitehead’s characterization of the study-ins as disruptive.
“I was there and Martha Whitehead was not and I can guarantee you that it was not disruptive to the other patrons of the library,” he said. “Nobody got up and left,” he added. “Nobody was disrupted from their studying.”
Enos said study-in participants had not decided if they would appeal the library suspension and that they will continue to raise the issue “elsewhere,” such as in faculty meetings.
But not all faculty members opposed Harvard’s decision to discipline their peers.
In a thread on X posted prior to the suspension, Harvard Law School professor Stephen E. Sachs ’02, a former Crimson Editorial chair, said the protest wasn’t “honest” and that “in libraries you should try *not* to get people to notice you.”
“There are lots of places to get eyeballs for your protest. The only point of attention-seeking in a library is because you know it’s against the rules that others have to obey,” Sachs wrote in an email.
After The Crimson first reported the suspensions on Thursday, Sachs posted a one-word reaction: “Good.”
school. The reported rate of harassment was 8.1, 17.2, 21.9, and 21.3 percent for first-year, second-year, third-year, and fourthyear or higher students, respectively.
Most members of the Class of 2024, who were in their fourth year at the time the survey was collected, started college at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in fall 2020, which was marked by restrictions on social activities, online classes, and fewer students present on campus.
Still, despite changes to Title IX programming at Harvard in the past five years, the rate of undergraduate women who reported being knowledgeable about resources for help if they or a friend experienced sexual assault or misconduct saw a statistically significant decline from 47.6 percent in 2019 to 38 percent in 2024.
Similarly, the percentage of undergraduate women who stated they were knowledgeable about where to make a report on an incident of sexual assault or sexual misconduct declined sharply from 32.3 percent to 29.4 percent in the last five years. The same figure for undergraduate men declined from 40.4 to 35.0 percent.
Despite this, female undergraduates at Harvard who experienced nonconsensual sexual contact involving physical force or inability to consent as a result
of penetration contacted a program or resource at a higher percentage than the average across all surveyed schools. At Harvard, just over 56 percent said they did not contact a program or resource, while the same figure was 69.8 percent in the aggregate report. The most common reason for not using available resources — cited by 58.3 percent of female respondents — was “I could handle it myself.” The second-most commonly cited reason, listed by 34.7 percent of female respondents, was that they did not believe the matter was “serious enough” to seek support from available resources.
Peggy Newell, vice president and deputy to the president, said in an interview with the Harvard Gazette, a University-run publication, that “a critical part of this communication involves engagement with our faculty and staff.” In the coming weeks, an updated version of the required eLearning course addressing sexual harassment and other sexual misconduct will be assigned to all faculty, staff, and postdoctoral fellows in order “to encourage this dialogue,” according to Newell.
“This is an important conversation for every member of our community,” she said.
An HUPD officer looks at signs and chalk messages written by five Harvard professors in September. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
About 25 faculty members suspended from Widener Library after study-in last. TILLY R. ROBINSON — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
10 Faculty to Advise College Dean Search
THE NEXT RAKESH. Ten faculty joined a committee to advise FAS Dean Hopi Hoekstra on the College dean search.
BY MICHELLE N. AMPONSAH AND JOYCE E. KIM CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Ten members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences will serve on a committee to advise FAS Dean Hopi E. Hoesktra on the search for the next Dean of the College, per the Harvard Office of the Secretary website. The members of the faculty advisory committee include History professor Philip J. Deloria; Physics professor Cora Dvorkin; Classics and Comparative Literature professor Emily Greenwood; Government professor Joshua D. Kertzer; Economics professor David I. Laibson ’88; Applied Mathematics, Biology, and Physics professor Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan; Philosophy professor Regina “Gina” L. Schouten; Dean of Faculty Affairs and Planning Nina Zipser; and Lisa Mincieli, director of special projects.
The formation of the faculty
advisory committee marks Hoesktra’s first concrete step in the College Dean search since Rakesh Khurana announced last month that he would be stepping down at the end of the 2024-2025 academic year, concluding his 11-year tenure. Laibson, Zipser, and Ma-
hadevan all serve as faculty deans, as Khurana did when he was tapped to be Dean of the College. Serving in roles that grant them both administrative experience and frequent interactions with undergraduates, faculty deans are often candidates for the College deanship.
Laibson also leads the FAS committee on classroom norms alongside History professor Maya R. Jasanoff ’96, while other members of the committee serve on various department-specific committees. Deloria serves as the chair of the History and Literature standing committee, while Kertz-
er is on the selection committee for the Hoopes Prize in Social Science. In a Thursday afternoon interview, Khurana deferred all questions about the ongoing dean search to Hoekstra, saying he had no involvement in the process, but said a wide swath of opinions
should be considered.
“I think it’s really critical that the input of all our stakeholders is taken to account, and I think it’s really important to listen to our students,” Khurana said, though he declined to answer on the specifics of how input should be weighed. In emails sent to undergraduates on Tuesday, Hoesktra publicized a series of town halls where students can share their thoughts and ideas about what qualities they would like to see in the Khurana’s successor.
The town halls will take place on the evenings of Nov. 12, 18, and 19, and members of the faculty advisory committee will be in attendance.
Hoekstra also sent an email to undergraduates at the beginning of the semester directly requesting input on the search for the next College dean.
“This is an important process, and your input is crucial,” she wrote. “I genuinely want to hear your thoughts on the challenges and opportunities facing the
Rakesh Khurana Talks Post-Affirmative Action Race Data
BY MICHELLE N. AMPONSAH AND JOYCE
After Harvard reported a drop in the number of Black students enrolled in the Class of 2028, Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana said in an interview on Thursday he was “disappointed” the College could not use race-conscious admissions practices to admit its current crop of freshmen students.
“I believe that the College benefits from the full diversity of backgrounds and experiences of this country,” Khurana said during the interview.
“I am disappointed when we’re not able to engage in acknowledging the full recognition that talent is everywhere and op -
portunities are not,” he added.
The racial demographics of the Class of 2028, which were released last month, reflected a four percentage point drop in Black enrollment from the previous year, sliding from 18 to 14 percent, though the College simultaneously adjusted how it calculated its statistics.
The Class of 2028 was the first class admitted to the College after the Supreme Court reshaped undergraduate admissions in 2023 after the Court ruled that Harvard’s race-conscious admissions practices were unconstitutional.
The proportion of Hispanic students rose by 2 percentage points to 16 percent from 14 percent in the Class of 2027, while the proportion of students who identified as Asian American re -
mained the same at 37 percent.
The number of students who chose not to disclose their race or ethnicity in their college application rose from 4 percent in the Class of 2027 to 8 percent in the Class of 2028. The College calculated reported data from the total number of students who disclosed their race or ethnicity, rather than out of the entire freshman class, as in the past.
Khurana stressed that the College would continue to make “a very strong effort” to encourage students to apply regardless of their background, including publicizing the school’s financial aid program and enlisting alumni and current students to conduct outreach to potential applicants.
“I think we need to just do more of making sure people
know that Harvard could be a place for them, and that we’d be really lucky if they would consider us,” Khurana said.
The demographic data released by the College remains, for the most part, similar to that of previous years — particularly in comparison to institutions like MIT, Amherst College, and Tufts University that saw more drastic changes in the makeup of their student body.
The Class of 2028’s race data offers the first indication of how the Supreme Court’s ruling may transform the makeup of the student body, though senior University officials said it may take several years to fully realize the effects of the decision.
Jeffries Says Dems Will Let Investigations Into Harvard ‘Run Their Course’
A. Newton declined to comment for this article.
Breakfast Club when the two had met “a few years ago.”
Harvard Senior Ryan Murdock ’25 Dies
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Democrats will let the ongoing congressional investigations into Harvard “run their course” during a press conference Wednesday morning.
“Top Democrats on those respective committees will handle those investigations, and then at some point, it’ll reach the leadership level,” he said.
House Republicans, led by Rep. Elise M. Stefanik ’06 and Committee on Education and the Workforce Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), are investigating the University’s handling of campus antisemitism after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
While some Democrats have also publicly criticized the University’s response to antisemitism, Jeffries and fellow Democrats in Congress have largely avoided discussing the investigations into Harvard.
Jeffries’ brief remarks came shortly after he spoke at the Breakfast Club, a monthly speaker series led by Harvard men’s basketball head coach Tommy Amaker, which invites prominent public figures to speak to student athletes and other community leaders.
His low-profile visit to Harvard’s campus comes as the University’s relationship with Washington has become increasingly fraught. During the press conference, Jeffries said he was not scheduled to meet with any members of Harvard’s administration.
University spokesperson Jason
Jeffries’ talk at Harvard was the first stop in a day-long trip to campaign for Democratic congressional candidates in New Hampshire just two weeks before millions of Americans head to the ballot box. The event also featured Massachusetts Governor Maura T. Healey ’92, who later moderated a panel discussion with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Harvard Square. Celtics all-star player Jaylen Brown also attended the event. Amaker said the talk with Jeffries was a long time in the making, mentioning that Jeffries had expressed interest in speaking at the
“He said, ‘I’ve heard a lot about your Breakfast Club’,” Amaker recalled during the press conference. “‘I said, ‘You’re more than welcome.’”
Jeffries also discussed the 2024 presidential election during his brief media availability.
Jeffries said Black male voters would play an important role in the 2024 election, adding that Vice President Kamala Harris’ proposed “opportunity economy” will directly address “the needs of African American men in terms of economic development and economic empowerment.”
“My message is, we hear you,
we see you, and we’re committed to making life better for you,” Jeffries said. “We know that while there’s been significant progress under the Biden-Harris administration, that there’s more work that needs to be done.”
Jeffries stressed the stakes of the upcoming election, saying that Democrats need to remain vigilant over the next 13 days and not “put the cart before the horse.”
“As we run through the finish line, we’re going to continue to continue to draw a contrast between our vision for putting people over politics,” he said.
Dunster House senior Ryan H. Murdock ’25 died last Friday after a brief illness, the College announced Sunday.
Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana announced Murdock’s death in an email to College students and staff on Sunday morning after speaking with the student’s family.
“Ryan was a remarkable person and had an amazing presence on campus. He came to Harvard from Wayland, MA, and his spirit of kindness and advocacy work was an inspiration to everyone he met,” Khurana wrote.
Dunster House Faculty
Deans Cheryl Chen and Sean D. Kelly and Resident Dean Gregory Davis wrote that Murdock passed away on Friday evening after a “brief illness” in an email to Dunster House residents, prior to Khurana’s email. They described Murdock as a “a frequent and much-loved presence in the House” who “could often be seen chatting with friends and fellow Meese in the Dining Hall.”
“Our hearts go out to Ryan’s loved ones and family members, some of whom you may have also seen around the House. We too are heartbroken,” they wrote.
“Ryan was a beloved member of the Dunster community, and his passing is a deep loss for us all.”
of kindness and advocacy work was an inspiration to everyone
for Bipartisan Solutions and the Catholic Student Association and, prior to his freshman year, participated in the First-Year Outdoor Program. Khurana and the Dunster deans urged students to attend a gathering in the Junior Common Room at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday for support.
“It is important to remember that loss impacts each of us differently, and there is no right way to mourn,” Khurana wrote. “As you grieve, I encourage you to turn to family members, friends, or others close to you who can help you process this loss.”
Murdock, who hailed from Wayland, Mass., was a double concentrator in Earth and Planetary Sciences and Government who “was passionate about environmental issues, public health, and human rights law,” according to Khurana’s email. During his time at College, Murdock served as an officer in the Harvard Undergraduate Disability Justice Club and wrote for the Harvard International Review. He was also a member of Harvard Undergraduates
University Hall houses many of Harvard’s administrative offices, including the office of the College dean. SHARLEEN Y. LOH — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
From left to right, U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Massachusetts governor Maura T. Healey ‘92, and Harvard men’s basketball coach Tommy Amaker speak at The Breakfast Club. COURTESY OF DYLAN GOODMAN/HARVARD ATHLETICS
Rakesh Khurana Harvard College Dean Ryan was a remarkable person and had an amazing presence on campus. His spirit
AI Is Changing Health. HMS is Following.
EVOLVE. AI is making its mark on healthcare, and HMS is teaching students to use and understand it.
BY VERONICA H. PAULUS AND AKSHAYA RAVI CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
n her first course at Harvard Medical School this fall, Kayton E. “Katie” Rotenberg ’23 wasn’t taught anatomy or biochemistry.
Instead, she learned how to be a physician-scientist in a world that is beginning to depend on artificial intelligence for research and medicine.
The month-long introductory course on AI in healthcare is required of all students in HMS’ Health Sciences and Technology track — an inter-institutional M.D. and Ph.D. program between Harvard and MIT that focuses on translational medicine and engineering.
But the class — the first of its kind offered at a medical school — is just one of the ways HMS is adapting to the changing medical landscape and AI’s increasing role in healthcare.
‘Need to Evolve’ HMS Dean for Medical Education Bernard S. Chang ’93 is one of several senior administrators pushing to integrate AI into the training curriculum at the school.
AI is being introduced in three broad categories, Chang said. The first is as an educational tool. Chang pointed to HMS’ flipped classroom model — in which students learn content on their own, practice cases during class, and take quizzes on the material afterwards — as one case already benefiting from AI. “AI can take all of these however many hundreds of responses each day. And the pilot tool allows faculty to determine the level of granularity that they want to get the feedback,” Chang said. Students and faculty across the University have already incorporated AI into the classroom.
In 2023, Computer Science 50: “Introduction to Computer Science” integrated artificial intelligence via a “CS50 bot” that finds bugs and offers feedback on projects. Earlier this year, Economics 50A: “Using Big Data to Solve Economic and Social Problems” introduced a similar chatbot, called “ec50.ai,” which answers students’ questions.
In August, the University also began providing Harvard College students with access to OpenAI’s ChatGPT Edu as part of a broader set of initiatives to probe the use of AI in teaching and research. Chang said HMS is also trying to develop an AI “tutor bot,” aiming to roll out the software by 2025.
The second two categories, Chang said, prepare M.D. and M.D.-Ph.D. students for how AI
may impact their future clinics and laboratories.
“As the world of healthcare changes around us, we also need to evolve to respond to that, to prepare our students the best way,” Chang said.
Chang highlighted the ability of AI to automate routine tasks for clinicians, allowing medical schools to focus on teaching the intangible skills of being a physician and spend more time on “how to apply the more difficult and higher level analyses to information.”
‘Not Just Knowledge’
In response to the growing presence of AI in healthcare and education, HMS has adjusted its course offerings.
The school piloted HT 16: “Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare I” in August and September, HMS’s Fall 1 term, and its counterpart, HT 18: “Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare II,” will run in January.
The course — now mandatory for the 30 HST students entering each year’s medical class of about 160 — is taught by Collin Stultz, director of the HST program on the MIT side.
“It covered AI, machine learning, LLMs, particularly with a focus on ways in which AI is already going to emerge into healthcare,” Chang said.
Chang also emphasized that the class strived to be an interactive introduction to AI, engaging
students through a project-based model.
“We’re trying to teach not just knowledge but skills,” Chang said. “Part of it is, yes, teaching about how AI works and how it is present in healthcare, and how it might revolutionize healthcare. And part of it is, here’s some problem sets. Do these coding examples. Write a paper with your group, present it, get feedback.”
Chang praised HMS Dean George Q. Daley ’82 for the push towards incorporating AI, praising his “investment” in making HMS a “worldwide leader in AI, in our educational programs, in our research enterprise.
To Rotenberg, the AI course provides students with two main takeaways.
The first is understanding new tools and methods at the frontier of medicine: “To see a new study, a new paper that comes across your desk, a new diagnostic tool when you are a future doctor,” Rotenberg said, and to “ask questions about if it really is a reliable piece of technology.”
Natalie E. Fulton — a first-year medical student in the HST program — said the course taught her to appreciate how AI tools can make better predictions than physicians, and how they can improve the risk stratification of specific patients.
“Navigating their use in clinical practice is the biggest thing I got from the class,” Fulton said.
The second goal of the course, according to Rotenberg, is to arm students with the knowledge needed to conduct research involving AI.
“You don’t have to be the person doing all of the AI coding, but I think the goal of this class is to get you up to speed so that you can have a strong understanding of what types of AI tools you would want to be using to ask those questions,” Rotenberg said.
“You can then collaborate with another researcher that has more of a computational background to solve those challenges,” she added.
Though the course is only currently mandatory for a fraction of the HMS class, Chang said he hopes more students — including those from the more traditional pathways program — will engage with the course.
“I think the rest of the medical students are definitely going to benefit from some formal introduction to AI,” Chang added.
‘Taken the Intentional Lead’
The introduction of AI in medicine courses marks one change in a broader cultural and programmatic shift at the Medical School.
HMS offers students “other opportunities to go into greater depth,” according to Chan.
The Department of Biomedical Informatics has started offering an Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Ph.D. program, which encompasses coursework in medical AI, collaborations with AI researchers,
and clinical rotations at HMS-affiliated hospitals. The Office of External Education also offers an intensive continuing education course, dubbed “AI in Clinical Medicine,” that seeks to offer additional training in emerging medical technologies for already-licensed physicians from other institutions.
Last year, Daley also established the Dean Innovation Awards for the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Education, Research, and Administration, which provide selected projects with grants of up to $100,000 for education, further diversity, healthy aging, and more.
“The grantees are the educational leaders who teach our medical students, who are trying out various projects,” Chang said. “So we have really taken the intentional lead on this, which I’m very happy about.” Chang said the integration of AI into healthcare is following the same arc as the arrival of Google.
“I remember when patients used to say, ‘Ah, I hope you’re not one of those doctors that uses Google.’ And now, can you imagine a patient saying that?” Chang said.
“In a couple of years, most patients would very much want to see physicians who were using the latest technology to help them in diagnosis and treatment — and that will be AI,” he added.
veronica.paulus@thecrimson.com
akshaya.ravi@thecrimson.com
City Council Moves Up Bike Lane Rollout Amid Cyclist Outcry
BY BENJAMIN ISAAC CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
More than 120 Cambridge residents voiced their concerns for biker safety at Monday’s City Council meeting, where councilors voted to move up the deadline to expand bike lanes on Main Street, Cambridge Street, and Broadway from 2027 to 2026. In April, the Council voted to delay the deadline for the city to construct a 25-mile network of separated bike lanes from May 2026 to November 2027 due to concerns around parking and the impact on local businesses. But following three cyclist deaths in summer, including the recent death of John H. Corcoran ’84, bike safety activists have stepped up their advocacy for infrastructure improvements.
Vice Mayor Marc C. McGovern, who introduced the amendment with Councilors Sumbul Siddiqui, Burhan Azeem, and Jivan G. Sobrinho-Wheeler, said the city’s goals for bike lane expansion could still be met by the reinstated 2026 deadline.
“We don’t have to wait as long, risking people’s safety,” he added. The vote is an early sign that Councilor Catherine “Cathie” Zusy
will be more friendly to bicyclist advocates than her predecessor, Joan F. Pickett, who died in August. Zusy cast the decisive vote Monday to move the deadline up, while Pickett — who had previously sued the city over the bike lane expansion — voted to push the deadline back earlier in spring.
The vast majority of residents who spoke at the meeting advocated to move the deadline back to 2026, citing ongoing safety concerns.
“I stood here about six months ago urging you — begging you — please not delay this implementation of the safety ordinance,” resident Downing Liu said. “Unfortunately, we’ve mourned three cyclist deaths in the past four months.”
Farid Arthur said the city’s bike safety problem worries his mother because he regularly bikes on Cambridge Street, which lacks protected bike lanes.
“Help reassure my mother by putting up these bike lanes and allow her to hear good news rather than the death of someone else,” he added.
Other residents voiced skepticism about the basis of the delays. Vivek Sikri said he first brought up the issue of bike lanes more than a
decade ago.
“I don’t believe for a second that, you know, a delay of a year or two years is going to dramatically change road designs,” he said.
Former Councilor Quinton Y. Zondervan echoed Sikri’s concerns, saying the debate had gone on for too long.
“We’ve been fighting this battle for over 10 years, and all the data shows that the more protected bike lanes you put in, the safer it is for people to bike,” he said.
The public comment period was followed by contentious debate between the councilors, echoing years of arguments among city officials over bike lanes and bike safety in Cambridge.
McGovern urged the Council to vote to move the deadline up, emphasizing that the city still had two years to execute.
“We’re not talking about this happening in three months or two months or four months,” he said.
“It’s two years.”
He added, however, that procedural concerns would endure regardless of the timing
“If we extend this to 2026, when we get there, there are going to be people saying, ‘We need more time, not enough process,’” Mc-
Govern said. “If we did this to 2027, there would be people saying, ‘Not enough time, we need more process.’”
Mayor E. Denise Simmons — who voted against the measure — was worried that the process was too rushed and would not sufficiently involve resident input.
“I certainly want us not to sacrifice common sense public input or careful planning for the sake of speed,” she said. “If we do it quickly and not do it well, then no one benefits.”
Councilor Paul F. Toner voiced concerns about local businesses losing street parking.
“I think everybody on the Council wants to do everything we can to make things safer,” he said. “But there are also other things to be considered — and that’s the small businesses in our community, the residents in the densest part of our city — that are going to lose parking until there’s some mitigation.”
With the original vote to delay the bike lane deadline, the Council also asked city staff to produce zoning language to allow businesses to open up their lots for on-street parking — a proposal that was returned to at the Monday meeting.
Councilor Ayesha M. Wilson — who initially voted present on the
deadline, but switched her vote to yes after it passed— lamented the political charge of the debate and the difficult choice between the interests of bike safety advocates and local businesses.
“I think what we are really challenged with here is a situation where we’re talking about the safe-
ty of all on our streets and the accessibility of how we utilize our streets — and what’s being prioritized here is to make it a political statement,” she said. “This position sucks,” she added.
Harvard’s Financial Report Shows It Can Afford Independence
MONEY TALKS. Harvard’s future lies not in pleasing the powerful, but in clingling firmly to its mission.
For all the saber-rattling, criticism, and controversy Harvard has endured, one would expect a catastrophe to befall the University’s financial treasure chest.
Donations did drop by 14 percent — certainly no meager sum. But for one of Harvard’s worst PR years on record, it is hardly earth-shattering. If anything, it demonstrates the University can afford to chart its course without bending to the demands of powerful external interests. Hopefully, that means the voices of prominent donors and alumni will stop impeding the University’s self-governance.
Despite the drying donations — which reflected several high-profile givers’ decisions to cut ties with the University largely over its political response to post-Oct. 7 campus tensions — Harvard’s endowment rose from $50.7 billion to $53.2 billion this year, more than offsetting the $193 million lost in donations. In a year that Harvard’s coffers seemed destined for doom, the endowment increased in value for the first time in years, and current-use donations increased by $42 million.
The returns on its investments ought to translate into confidence in the University’s independence.
When Harvard refuses to cower before donors, we signal to other universities across the country that conceding our integrity is too costly, no matter the price.
Over the past year, we’ve witnessed the pressure donors can apply to Harvard — from demands the Corporation fire then-President Claudine Gay to calls for stricter protest rules. Harvard, as a leader in higher education, must resist this impulse. The University’s future lies not in pleasing the powerful, but in clingling firmly to its mission. The endowment returns show we can afford to do so.
And Harvard’s newly underscored financial independence reminds us of one other fundamental truth: Donations to Harvard remain money well-spent — despite what disgruntled or disappointed donors may have you believe. Gifts earmarked for research or financial aid have major positive impacts. The founding of the Salata Institute, Harvard’s premier climate research initiative, is the result of a generous donation. So was Harvard’s coat fund, which provides warm clothes for students without the means to procure their own.
Philanthropic contributions to Harvard’s financial aid program bolster the University’s ability to recruit top students irrespective of background, shaping a diverse University and giving a world-class education to those without the means to afford it.
Through investments in initiatives that benefit both the University and society at large — whether it be funding research, promoting accessibility, or tangibly improving students’ lives — donors help shape the future of Harvard. Financial resilience gives us a choice — Harvard should choose integrity.
I’m Begging Harvard Not to Ruin Lamont for Me
BY JACK P. FLANIGAN
A– This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.
t the end of last academic year, the Harvard Library system released a feasibility study for its “dream renovation” of the four Harvard Yard libraries — Widener, Lamont, Houghton, and Pusey — with hopes to complete the updates before Harvard’s 400th anniversary in 2036. Though the library system’s goals of increasing interdisciplinary scholarship and interaction with its holdings are admirable, the renovation plan misunderstands student needs and risks ruining the character of the individual Yard libraries.
for a secure reading room for handling sensitive materials from its collections.
The plans for the Lamont update specifically are awash in terms as overused as they are vacuous: “reimagining” various rooms, creating a “vertically integrated” space. The plan also proposes creating a “book arts studio” (complete with printing press!), taking possession of Harvard’s Fine Arts Library and Collection (currently located in the Littauer Center), and gutting the basement to provide space
Lamont was my home-away-from-home freshman year. I was enticed by the 24-hour schedule and the building’s quieter-as-you-ascend floor scheme. One moment, I could enjoy the unbridled sociality of the basement; the next, I could study in the deafening silence of the third floor. I became a Farnsworth Room regular and took up residence at the same desk almost every day during my second semester.
After renovations, I fear that ritual will be a thing of the past. The proposed changes put nice-to-have bells and whistles above the decidedly unsexy necessity of everyday space for undergraduate study. These heavy-handed and unnecessary changes appear likely to significantly decrease the library’s capacity — a daily inconvenience that will become untenable during midterms and finals when Lamont is packed to the gills.
This is not to say that some of the proposed additions, like a student-accessible bookbindery, are bad ideas per se. But why not give students the chance to engage with book arts in Harvard’s dedicated document preservation center, the labyrinth of preservation labs under Widener, or somewhere else with the preexisting infrastructure? Indeed, I worry about a kind of ‘feature creep,’ in which the library’s makeover serves as an excuse to introduce ultimately unneeded capacities into what should be a building dedicated to study.
Lamont’s physical infrastructure is decrepit and in obvious need of a renovation, but the renovation planners should remember that so-called “Lamonsters” don’t frequent the library to admire novelty cone-shaped spinning chairs. Instead, they ought
to design for the demographic of students Lamont actually serves — those who prefer a cozier, quieter, more lived-in study environment. Despite my disappointment with the possible fate of Lamont, starry-eyed proposals like this one do not surprise me in the slightest. Indeed, the feasibility study is a clear symptom of a phenomenon plaguing the Faculty of Arts and Sciences: A kind of makeover Midas touch, whereby every renovated space gets the same ‘modern’ (soulless) and ‘innovative’ (ill-conceived) facelift.
A brief trawl through the FAS’s page of completed space makeovers reveals a monotonous uniformity: little more than the enviro-corporate-pseudo-next-gen pastiche of the Smith Campus Center and Cabot Science Library.
It’s for this reason that — though the feasibility study reports that Lamont will maintain its mid-century modern design — I can’t help but be skeptical.
As the quadricentennial hurtles toward us, Harvard’s senior planners and administration would do well to remember the campus we built and lost over those 400 years: Gore Hall, the soaring gothic library torn down to make way for Widener; Hunt Hall, the original home of the Art Museum, demolished to make way for Canaday; Appleton Chapel, the Yard’s house of worship before Memorial Church.
Though my sadness at these demolitions is tempered by the knowledge they were ultimately necessary to accommodate a growing Harvard, destroying Lamont as it stands today is not. Harvard and its library system ought to remember that.
–Jack P. Flanigan ’27, a Crimson Editorial editor, is a Social Studies concentrator in Pforzheimer House.
Students Like Me Are Why Harvard Needs an Ethnic Studies Dept.
BY ITZEL A. ROSALES
At America’s most prominent university, an ethnic studies department is a necessity — not an option. Back in my hometown of Tucson, Arizona, I longed for something bigger. I resented the smallness of the city, its oppressive heat, the monotony of its quotidian routines. I needed an escape. My acceptance into Harvard was just that.
My journey represented the hard work and sacrifice of generations, from my grandmother, the first in her family to finish elementary school and attend college, to my great-grandfather, who couldn’t read or write but labored in the fields to support his family. It felt like I was achieving the much-fabled American dream. That dream began to lose its luster as soon as I set foot on campus. In high school, I rarely felt singled out or alienated because of my identity. But during my first year of college alone, I felt that my abilities as a person from a marginalized background were immediately put into question. I even had a professor question my ability to use Google, including a helpful (condescending) emailed tutorial.
Yes, the high of being at Harvard quickly wore off. I hated my classes. They didn’t represent what I wanted to learn. The portraits of old white men in Annenberg, stories of stolen Indigenous artifacts in the Peabody Museum, the names of upperclassman Houses that memorialize racism — it all became suffocating. My skin didn’t
match those of the men in Annenberg, and my identity as a Xicana woman felt invalidated and erased.
Harvard praises itself as a hub of diversity, but the reality is far more complicated. There is no ethnic studies department, limiting the institutional support and visibility of the courses. A number of official affinity spaces, meanwhile, languish in the basements of freshman dorms.
This frustration intensified as I began searching for classes this year. I scoured the course catalogs, talked
to friends and upperclassmen, and tried desperately to find something that represented me. Why are there so few courses in Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights or Women and Gender Studies? Why are there more interesting courses in these areas at MIT, of all places?
My disappointment runs deeper than just academic offerings, though. The lack of ethnic studies at Harvard creates a void in the educational experience of students of color. It leaves us grappling with our identities in a space that doesn’t seem to care about the complex-
ities of race, culture, and heritage. We are expected to navigate an institution that too often prioritizes tradition and prestige over the real, lived experiences of its diverse student body.
Harvard is not the end-all-be-all. It is not the only institution that offers amazing experiences, opportunities, and networks. I’ve started to realize that maybe I could receive the education I want at another school, one where I don’t feel invisible. Returning for this semester felt like a concession rather than an opportunity. And while it’s a privilege to attend Harvard, I’ve started to wonder: What is Harvard offering me?
In my short time here, I’ve realized that Harvard, despite its reputation, falls short in ways that deeply affect students like me. The lack of ethnic studies is more than just an academic shortfall — it’s a gap in identity. It’s a reminder that for all the talk of diversity, Harvard is still a predominantly white institution where students of color are expected to adapt to a curriculum that wasn’t made for us.
If Harvard is truly committed to inclusion, it must start by addressing this glaring omission. It must invest in ethnic studies, not as an afterthought, but as a core part of its mission to educate the next generation of leaders. Because until then, students like me will continue to feel like outsiders in a place that claims to be our academic home.
ALLISON G. LEE— CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
CAMILLE G. CALDERA— CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
STEVE S. LI — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
BY THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD
Once Again, Harvard’s Trying to Ruin Our Fun
POOPER. Harvard-Yale is the one day a year that social hierarchies break down and parties abound. The DSO cannot take that away from us.
BY THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD
For 364 days out of the year Harvard is hardly fun. Now, the Dean of Students Office is poised to make it 365.
When asked about his plans for this year’s Harvard-Yale football game, Dean of Students Thomas Dunne revealed he intends to crack down on unsanctioned events while planning a “safe” school-sponsored tailgate.
If the College continues central planning Harvard-Yale, they guarantee that the game will be less fun, less safe, and less inclusive. Quite frankly, the best thing administrators can do on that fateful Saturday is make themselves scarce and let students take the lead.
Harvard has already tried the approach Dean Dunne described — and it failed, miserably.
In 2022, the University held a highly regulated tailgate while enacting draconian restrictions on House and student-sponsored festivities. To no one’s surprise but the DSO’s, our classmates did not all quietly comply. Instead, hundreds of us flocked to an unofficial tailgate hosted by Final Clubs.
If the College follows through on Dean Dunne’s disaster plan, there’s no reason to believe this year will be any different.
Instead, to live up to its responsibility to ensure student safety and fun, the DSO is going to have to accept an inconvenient truth: Students — of all ages — will drink during Harvard-Yale. The only question is how.
Practically, every other University in America is aware of this reality, and allows students to run their own tailgates. Stop by any SEC school on a Saturday if you have any doubt. Even Yale had the right idea at The Game last year. Harvard student organizations were allowed to purchase space at their public tailgate, hosting a success-
ful gathering a stone’s throw from the Yale Bowl. Harvard — and it really pains us to say this — should follow their lead. By all means, the DSO is welcome to continue planning its pre-game festivities, replete with simple food trucks and over-21 drink tickets. They can and should supply porta potties, water coolers, and, if need be, ambulances. But just far enough away that the music doesn’t hurt Dean Dunne’s ears, official and
I’m a Jewish Faculty Member. Hillel Does Not Represent Me.
BY AARON D.A. SHAKOW
Dear Rabbi Rubenstein, I hope you’re having a meaningful Sukkot holiday.
I’m writing to ask that Harvard Hillel — the institution you oversee — stop claiming to represent the Jewish community on campus. Hillel’s longstanding hostility to dissent despite our community’s persistent disagreements on Israel, Palestine, Zionism, and campus free speech means that it is unable to serve as an honest broker.
Just last week, you went so far as to call the police about flyers put up outside Hillel critiquing Israel’s destruction of Gaza and killing of children. The flyers displayed images of carnage next to a Hebrew passage from the Yom Kippur liturgy calling for ritual atonement. The flyering campaign was organized by Hillel’s very own J Street U, a group of Jewish students which you subsequently temporarily suspended. You also called the flyers “intimidating,” as if they presented a threat to Jews’ physical safety rather than a challenge to Hillel’s political stances.
Meanwhile, Israeli war crimes in Gaza, the West Bank, and now Lebanon continue unabated. Historians have compared these abuses, and the silence of the U.S. establishment, to the Holocaust. But rather than helping us come to terms with this moral disaster, your public communication is focused on conflat-
ing expressions of dismay with bigotry against Jews.
You have argued to the New York Times that “antisemitism is a fear, and hatred, of Jewish power.” Such attempts to raise Jewish power beyond criticism are ethically corrosive. They exempt us from justifying the manner in which that power is wielded, using the devastation of the Holocaust as a shield for state violence. They are far too common among our community leaders.
On Friday, Harvard’s chief diversity and inclusion officer sent a University-wide email denouncing stickers found on campus which superimposed a swastika on an Israeli flag. There is no evidence that the perpetrator, who remains unknown, had any connection to the University. Nonetheless, the email stated, the University would continue to partner with groups including Hillel to organize campus programming on antisemitism, further institutionalizing its views on the subject at Harvard.
Ironically, although the stickers associating an Israeli flag with a Nazi symbol shocked administrators, in Israel such parallels are not unheard of. The term “Judeo-Nazi” has been used by intellectuals, pundits, and politicians in Israel — including now in reference to members of the current government.
When South Africa charged Israel with genocide in the International Court of Justice earlier this year, it cited quotations from Israeli officials which suggest that these parallels may not be wrong. I will mention one of the many here: Minister of National
Security Itamar Ben-Gvir’s declaration that “when we say that Hamas should be destroyed, it also means those who celebrate, those who support, and those who hand out candy — they’re all terrorists, and they should also be destroyed.”
By June, sitting officials were more cautious, but former Deputy Speaker of the Knesset Moshe Feiglin shed light on their political models: “As Hitler said, ‘I cannot live if one Jew is left.’ We can’t live here if one ‘Islamo-Nazi’ remains in Gaza.”
These public figures are the faces of the Jewish power you spoke of. They are the leading exponents of Zionism, and “fear and hatred” of the ideology and political project which they represent is not antisemitic.
There is a line from the biblical book of Jeremiah that speaks to the central problem in Jewish life today: Hoi boneh beto belo tzedek, “woe to him that builds his house by injustice.” For me and many other Jews at Harvard, this passage perfectly describes the state which has destroyed the lives of millions of Palestinians so that Jewish power can be upheld, and framing our critiques as antisemitic is a direct attack on our Jewish identity and heritage.
Every morning during Sukkot we read a few passages of Psalms, and one of them has stayed with me. “Their idols are silver and gold,” reads the text, “made by human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell.”
Hillel’s idolatry of Israel has made it not just unwilling to acknowledge the millions of Palestinians whom the Jewish state has harmed, but unable even to perceive their humanity in any morally significant way. Worse still, you push the Harvard administration to silence those of us who are not so impaired.
Rabbi Rubenstein, I myself am from an old rabbinic family — my great-great grandfather was head of the Beis Din in Mogilev — and I participated in quite a few Hillel events at U.C. Santa Cruz in the 1990s. The organization seemed committed to offering a space for all Jewish students to arrive at our own views on urgent questions like the fate of Jewish nationalism. I think its leaders saw this tolerant approach both in pedagogical terms and spiritual ones.
The vision of Jewish community at Harvard Hillel today is dramatically different, so focused on propagandizing for Israeli impunity between the Jordan and the Mediterranean that you are willing to break the bonds of our shared heritage and override every other moral, intellectual and cultural value. This is not the behavior of a good-faith community spokesperson, and I request that you stop masquerading as one. Thank you for hearing me out.
Moadim l’simcha, Aaron
–Aaron D.A. Shakow is a lecturer on Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
BY LORENZO E. RUIZ
Iwas on the Harvard Undergraduate Association’s problem solving team. We failed you, but it’s hardly our fault alone. If my time on the team has made one thing clear, it’s that the HUA is a fundamentally broken body from its foundation on up — and no constitutional clarification would be sufficient to fix that.
The seven-person team was assembled in the wake of last spring’s attempted student referendum on divestment from Israel. That referendum, proposed by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee, was tabled by HUA officers using an obscure constitutional mechanism after a second parody referendum was proposed in an apparent attempt to mock the PSC. As a result, all referenda were brought to a grinding halt. It was then up to me and the rest of the problem solving team to decide whether the PSC referendum could proceed.
Evidently, to solve any serious dispute among its members — or between its members and the student body writ-large — the HUA’s constitution only offers two recourses: absolute inaction or a problem solving team. “Randomly-selected groups of undergraduates can be convened as problem solving teams to solve
problems, resolve conflicts, or decide constitutional disputes when other efforts have been exhausted,” writes the HUA constitution. And when the co-presidents are unable to keep their officers in line, the constitution suggests a problem solving team be convened.
Officer suspension? Want a recall vote? Jurisdictional dispute? Problem solving team.
The Crimson’s headlines have made our team’s inaction plain: Months passed, and the team delivered nothing. Responsibility for that inaction should end with us. But let there be no mistake, the problem solving team was destined for failure from the very beginning; our mere existence is a reflection of the HUA’s basic dysfunction. In place of extensive procedures and systems crafted over the lifetime of its predecessor, the Undergraduate Council, to accommodate its varied and challenging responsibilities, the HUA has delivered government so pared down (detailed in a mere 22page constitution) as to render it a sham government without basic competency to discharge its purported functions. For thorny governance, the constitution asks our leaders to throw their hands up and call a problem solving team. Let the unelected, randomly selected folks lacking even an ounce of real procedural power make the tough call. Only then can our elected officers rubber stamp it.
In essence, the current constitution treats these teams as a “figure-out-later” card for an unfinished government.
Irrelevance and silence allowed that structural laziness to go unchecked — the HUA’s fatal mistake, provoked by the PSC referendum in April, was choosing to pipe up, convene a problem solving team, and let the public see what happens.
HUA leadership’s apparent resistance to the PSC referendum required that they reach for constitutional procedure — only to find none available except a volunteer committee devoid of clear mandate or purview.
The HUA’s function as a vessel for student voices, and indeed clarification of the organization’s basic constitutional powers, hinged for months on a body of randomly selected students, myself among them.
We proved just how dangerous the problem solving team — as a foundational mechanism for governance — truly is.
Months dragged on; the team failed to collaborate on a proposal.
By October of this semester, HUA executives presented the problem solving team with their own proposal for a fix — which would allow them to sidestep any contentious political referenda in the future. The team gave it their rubber stamp. I abstained.
But the damage has been done. The HUA failed to serve as a channel for student voices. The problem solving team failed to serve as a check on the student
government. And we are all worse off for it.
The HUA has proven itself incapable of governing on our behalf. In throwing a blanket on the PSC referendum and blocking future referenda on topics of any real contention, it has explicitly curtailed speech. Perhaps just as dangerously, by its complete ineptitude and dysfunction, the HUA has implicitly muted the democratic interests of the students it purports to serve.
If problem solving teams are the HUA’s best answer to our campus’ toughest moments, then our government has reached a sorry state indeed. And if our performance is any reflection on the potential for problem solving teams to effectively intervene in those moments, then we’re surely screwed.
Harvard students shut down the UC because its constitution was old and big and confusing — the body had grown too bureaucratic and aloof. We replaced that council with the HUA, hoping it would be simpler and more transparent — but that government was hastily conceived, and the ambiguity and carelessness expressed in its foundational documents render it incompetent.
The referenda process is clarified, and my team has apparently been disbanded. But make no mistake: The HUA’s problems are far from solved.
CLAIRE YUAN— CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
Lakon Review: Reimagining Croissants
Once viral for their cube croissants, Lakon— a Parisian bakery in Brookline — is a forgotten gem whose croissants have left a lasting impression on Boston’s food culture with their bold and unique flavors. Not far from the Coolidge Corner Theatre, this little cafe is perfect for a quick grab-andgo treat. The cafe was originally known for its chic Parisian vibe, but it has since shifted to a cleaner, modern look.
Lakon offers a variety of different pastries, from sweets like
éclairs and tiramisus to their famed croissants — both standard and cube-shaped. Unfortunately, some croissants, including their milk cream cube croissant, are limited to weekends only.
Lakon reimagines the traditional Parisian croissant and transforms it into a unique blend of sweet flavors. Each flavored croissant is a true aesthetic masterpiece, with unique designs infusing each one with a distinct character.
The pistachio croissant, for example, is topped with pistachios and a zig-zag drizzle that hints at the rich filling inside. At the first glance, the croissant’s design seems to imitate the shape of a football. Flavor-wise, the fill-
ing offers hints of pistachio that perfectly complement the sugary crust. Lakon also offers other flavors including almond, lemon meringue, and tiramisu, to name a few. Lakon also offers its famed cube croissants in two flavors: butter and milk cream. While these croissants are perfectly sized for one serving, they’re also delightful to share. Although Lakon’s aesthetically pleasing croissants steal the show, the coffee is underwhelming. Bland and not at all unique, it’s like something you’d make at home. However, unlike other coffee shops that tend to over-sweeten their coffee and other drinks, Lakon keeps things simple. In particular, their iced latte strikes a smooth blend of sweet
and bitter, offering a refreshing option for those who prefer an understated flavor in their coffee. If you’re looking for a quick, not-too-sweet pick-me-up, the iced latte is the way to go. While coffee may not be Lakon’s strong suit, it’s a step above the typical over-sweetened coffee commonly found in the Boston area. Ultimately, if you are looking for the taste of a traditional Parisian croissant, Lakon isn’t the place to go. Although Lakon markets itself as a genuine Parisian bakery, their croissants are not at all Parisian. Rather than the signature delicate, flaky, and crisp texture that defines Parisian croissants, Lakon’s version is disappointingly soft — quite like white bread.
The pistachio croissant also clearly uses green food coloring in the filling, which can be off-putting. The bright, unnatural green is the last thing one expects from real pistachios’ subtle and earthy tone. The croissant is aesthetically pleasing from the outside, but not so much on the inside — showing that while Lakon excels in creativity, it falls short in delivering the true Parisian experience. The viral hype around its cube croissants has faded, but Lakon’s imaginative and sweet creations — especially their flavored croissants — are definitely worth a visit. For those open to a reinterpretation of the classic French pastry, Lakon is the place to stop by whenever you happen
After a year of smaller collaborations and features, Jelly Roll has returned to the country charts with his tenth studio album, “Beautifully Broken.” Though “Winning Streak” is not its lead single, the song is a strong opening track for the album and an even stronger example of musical storytelling.
In a recent podcast episode of “Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist,” Jelly Roll revealed that “Winning Streak” was inspired by an exchange he witnessed between two people at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. In the song, a newcomer breaks down in tears and is comforted by an older man who has been sober for twenty years. The older man reminds the newcomer, “Nobody walks through these doors on a winning streak.” The song is in first-person perspective, providing a deeply intimate window into Jelly Roll’s personal struggles with alcoholism and addiction. The rapper-turned-country singer has been open in past releases and interviews about his mental health
challenges. However, according to a new interview with The New York Times, “Winning Streak” marks the first time that Jelly Roll has spoken publicly about attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings himself.
The lyric “Hello, my name’s Jason” is a particularly striking reference to the standard introduction among attendees of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, swiftly spotlighting substance abuse as a major theme of the album. The use of Jelly Roll’s real first name makes the lyrics even more vulnerable.
The storytelling in “Winning Streak” complements this vulnerability by putting listeners directly in the narrator’s shoes. In just one verse, Jelly Roll paints a picture of someone desperate for help. Poignant details such as “sweatin’ in an old church basement” hint at the challenging symptoms of alcohol withdrawal as well as the deep-rooted fear of asking for help. The song also features clever wordplay like, “wanna quit quittin’,” which encapsulates the inner turmoil involved in battling addiction. Though outshined by Jelly Roll’s songwriting, the gospel-inspired instrumentals of “Winning
Streak” offer a refreshing contrast to current musical trends. Dramatic background vocals and generous reverb add an airy, expansive sound that complements the artist’s emotional singing. Like many of today’s hits, however, the song cycles through the same four chords, missing out on a prime opportunity for exciting or unexpected modulations that would match the vocal drama. In the context of the album “Beautifully Broken,” the single “Winning Streak” is everything an opening track should be. The song immediately establishes the project’s focus and sets a high bar for what follows.
When asked about the impetus for writing the track, Jelly Roll explained, “I think that our responsibility as songwriters too, sometimes, is to tell the stories that aren’t being told.”
“Winning Streak” embraces this responsibility with pride. Spearheading Jelly Roll’s promising return to country stardom, this release transforms a private, painful experience into an uplifting message of solidarity and hope for all.
Experimental and doc-
umentary filmmaker
Samantha M. Galvin
’24 has always appreciated art, but never saw it as a means to reflect on her personal life. Even during her time as a visual artist, she did not experience the same emotional connection to her work that many artists do. That all changed when she came across film at Harvard. She entered a world where she could channel her emotions and explore the events and relationships that have shaped her life.
A concentrator in the department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies, Galvin has spent the better part of the past year working with 16mm film to tackle her thesis project, titled “Don’t Speak Ill of the Dead.” The film explores the maternal influences in her life across generations, illustrating their complexities and nuances. In making this project, Galvin did not always know that this was the
story she wanted to tell.
“I saw my grandma pass away in the start of my junior year,” Galvin said in an interview with The Crimson.
“And basically, as soon as she passed away, I was like, ‘I need to make some sort of film about her relationship with my grandfather, because the stories we were told when we were kids were always so cinematic.’”
Galvin added that she actually attempted to make an animation of their love story during her junior fall, but was ultimately unable to fully express her thoughts in a semester-long project. However, with the opportunity to dedicate a year to her thesis, she had more time to refine her vision for the film.
As she developed her proposal, Galvin compiled various images and stories that served as the building blocks for her thesis. Putting the project together was a cathartic experience, enabling her to reflect on her own emotions and familial connections.
Eventually, what was initially intended as a cinematic retelling
of her grandparents’ love story evolved into an exploration of Galvin’s relationship with her mother and her mother’s relationship with her grandmother — delving into shared experiences and stories that transcend time.
when she enrolled in Art, Film, Visual Studies 173: “Visual Music” with Professor Laura Frahm. This course sparked her interest in the medium and inspired her to seek out other course offerings in the AFVS department.
“My very first roll of film, everything was out of focus, because I didn’t know how to set the diopter. But then the next time I shot, I fell in love with the shooting process.”
“I realized how similar I was to my mom when she started talking about her mom, and I realized that I had a very similar relationship to my grandma as she did to her mom,” Galvin explained. Galvin’s journey with film started her sophomore year
It was there she fell in love with film. However, her love affair with the medium truly blossomed in her junior spring when she took Art, Film, and Visual Studies 152F: “The Bolex: Working in Film,” taught by Professor Robb Moss at the time. This
course, centered on 16mm film, provided her the opportunity to immerse herself in the unique qualities of traditional film that had always captivated her.
“My very first roll of film, everything was out of focus, because I didn’t know how to set the diopter. But then the next time I shot, I fell in love with the shooting process,” she explained.
“I feel like with the Bolex, color film possesses this color quality that is really good at showcasing memory, and I really liked to make films about psychological processes. I just feel like film is better at capturing that feeling than digital.”
She goes on to say that with 16mm, it was not so much the medium itself that propelled her into filmmaking; rather, it was Moss who truly believed in her creative ability to seriously pursue filmmaking beyond a mere side project.
“People should look at film as if it’s just one perspective, rather than the director or the storywriter being the god of the piece,” she said.
Galvin’s work in film not only reflects her artistic growth but also emphasizes the importance of fostering a culture at Harvard in which students perceive art to be something more than just a hobby but also a legitimate intellectual pursuit.
“I think that we should encourage all forms of intellectualism, not just the traditional ones here. So support your fellow AFVS and other art students here at the school,” she concluded.
When asked what she would like audiences to take away from her films, Galvin challenged the notion of audiences often forcing the director into a position where they have to provide definitive answers. Unlike in other artistic or creative mediums like painting or poetry where consumers often interpret the art how they see fit, movie-watchers tend to place a lot of responsibility on the filmmaker to understand a film, thus erasing any sense of ambiguity.
Review: ‘Gershwin Brothers’ Bites Off More Than It Can Chew
Who needs escapism? In a particularly turbulent election year, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Odyssey Opera embraced extreme timeliness with a double bill of 1931’s “Of Thee I Sing” and its 1933 sequel “Let ’Em Eat Cake,” both musical satires about presidential elections with music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin. This one-night-only staged reading, directed by Gil Rose, presented the two Gershwin musicals in abridged form. The mountain of source material made for a bit of a taxing watch, but the acting and directing were both accomplished well. When it comes to content, “Of Thee I Sing” seems escapist — it portrays a world where the vice presidential candidate does not matter, and where true love snaps into place in a single song — assisted by delicious corn muffins. Meanwhile, “Let ’Em Eat Cake” seems unfortunately real-
istic, portraying a world where the president loses re-election and his followers storm the capital. Then again, the second act mostly concerns a baseball game between Supreme Court justices and the League of Nations, so there’s still plenty of satirical whimsy. Unfortunately, even in their cut-down versions, trying to perform these two musicals in a single night creates a mammoth of a performance. The total show clocked in at a little over three hours, and by the end the sheer scope of the production was wearying. The actors laudably maintained high energy despite what one can only imagine was an intensely tiring show. The scope also seemed to hurt the show when it came to the synchronicity of the orchestra and singers — the singers were out of time with the orchestra several times. The chorus, while they sounded lovely, were sometimes difficult to understand. Thankfully, the performances of several of the lead actors made for a compelling watch, even as the
material began to buckle under its own weight.
Aaron Engebreth, who played President John P. Wintergreen, captured the charisma and confidence necessary for a platformless candidate to run for the nation’s highest office. Even when he becomes dictator, Engebreth convinces one to root for him. The standout performances undoubtably came from Abigail Paschke and Neal Ferreira, who played Diana Devereaux/Trixie Flynn and the French Ambassador/Comrade Kruger respectively. Paschke and Ferreira portrayed each character — one in each musical — with ridiculous physicality and accents that summoned laughs from the audience at each of their appearances. Paschke, in particular, did an excellent job of balancing the exaggerated speaking voice of her characters while also singing beautifully. The staging, while limited, made good use of New England Conservatory’s beautiful Jordan Hall. Each scene took place at the very front of the stage and
utilized space strategically — using the divide of the conductor’s podium to represent a difference in location between stage left and right. Furthermore, several small comedic moments made for some visual excitement, such as the Supreme Court justices popping out of formation like whack-a-moles. Much to one’s delight, there were even a couple short choreographed sequences during numbers like “Love is Sweeping the Country.” These moments both paid sweet homage to these shows’s more theatrical roots while also showcasing the wonderful instrumental music of the dance break. Everything felt aesthetically appropriate for the occasion, starting with the projected red, white, and blue stars, courtesy of lighting designer Chris Ostrum. Costume designer Brooke Stenton adorned the chorus in blue and red hats that would be periodically switched out for other headgear when playing news reporters. The leads’s costumes were all spiffy — the men looked dapper in suits of various hues.
Mary Turner and Diana Devereaux wore the most exciting pieces, albeit in diverging styles: Mary’s outfits captured First-Lady-Fashion with sensible capelets and cardigans, while Diana’s ridiculous pageant dress and tiara conveyed the over-the-top nature of her character.
On a phenomenological level, a double header of these shows is deeply exciting. Their relevance to this particular moment in history alone provides reason to put them on. However, on a different level, these two shows are interesting for their contrasting receptions.
“Of Thee I Sing” was a huge box office success. On top of that, it was the first musical to ever win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, representing a serious victory for the perceived dignity of musical theater as an art form. Meanwhile, “Let ’Em Eat Cake” ran for only 89 performances and promptly fell into obscurity. There are a variety of explanations for why this could have happened: a sequel’s fundamental incompatibility with the for -
mat of musical theater, the onset of the Great Depression, or just the darker tone of “Let ’Em Eat Cake.” By presenting the musicals together, it’s easier to see whether the moment or the material led to its downfall (plot twist: It was probably both). Turning a charming, if self-satisfied, main character into an egotistical dictator might have soured the Broadway audiences in 1933 who did manage to remember the plot of the first musical — which is to say nothing of those who didn’t. Even if it makes sense to present these shows in a single package theoretically, the practical presentation suffered from a noticeably long runtime. That being said, the cast and team created an enjoyable night out — just one that might have fared better as two.
“Gershwin Brothers’ Two Political Satire Musicals in Concert” ran at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall on Oct. 12.
Review: A Dazzling Maggie Rogers Concert
Through a cloud of fog and mist, Maggie Rogers rose onto the stage, veiled in a glamorous dress, to begin her show on Oct. 17 at TD Garden. Rogers’s glittering entrance — which elicited both immense audience excitement and palpable anticipation — was just a glimpse at the excellent performance soon to come.
For her “Don’t Forget Me Tour, Part II,” Maggie Rogers brought her third studio album to life. The Easton, Maryland
native’s ability to sell out the Garden was no surprise given her immense debut success. Rogers received a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist for her 2019 debut album “Heard it in a Past Life,” which also entered as No. 1 in the Billboard’s Top Album Sales Chart
Simply put, Rogers’s strength is performance. Fittingly, the concert’s stage design beautifully complemented her natural charisma and low-key demeanor. With glittering stage lights that expertly aligned with the tone of the song, Rogers turned her concert into an immersive experience rather than just a show. These elements, selected
and curated to accurately fit her indie sound, effectively transported fans and newcomers alike into each song she performed.
To not highlight the awe-striking power of Rogers’s live vocals would similarly be a disservice. There was not a moment where Rogers’s voice waned, and her melodious vocals remained consistent throughout the setlist. Particularly impressive in her performance of “Love You for a Long Time” and “Alaska,” Rogers mastered the balance of focusing on performance and executing her vocal talents. While Rogers’s unique dancing style of seemingly erratic movements was jarring at first,
the expressiveness of her performance throughout the night allowed her to paint a clear picture of who she is as an artist to her audience. She is clearly not one to fit into the typical concert conventions. Instead, she has her own unique performance style that effectively mesmerizes audiences. Rogers’s confidence helped her convey this message through her performance. Continuing her bewitching start, Rogers never shied away from performing to the tone of both the music and audience. Her improv to best fit the setting was refreshing and impressive, giving her performance a real sense of authentic-
ity. Her connection to Boston should also not go unnoticed. Rogers graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 2022 and dedicated a few moments to reminiscing on her time in Cambridge. Although this is unique to the location of this show, Rogers did well in connecting to the city she was performing in, creating a stark contrast between her tribute to Boston and other artists’ tendency to solely mention the name of the city they are in. Although not immensely impactful to the quality of Rogers’s performance, the concert’s tone remained stagnant through-
out the night. By changing the lighting and tempo of each song more frequently, Rogers could have added more dimensions to the show. During lulls between songs, these slight changes would have allowed the audience’s excitement to fill in the empty gaps, a feature that the show lacked. While it is no surprise that a Grammy-nominated artist would put on a dazzling performance, Rogers takes it to the next level. Her attention to detail, striking performance, and natural authenticity made her concert an unforgettable night. monique.vobecky@thecrimson.com
BY MONIQUE I. VOBECKY CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
COURTESY OF MONIQUE I. VOBECKY
Aurich to Face Alma Mater
CRUCIAL BATTLE.
BY PRAVEEN KUMAR AND JO B. LEMANN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Long before Harvard football’s Head Coach Andrew Aurich arrived in Cambridge, he started his college coaching career at Albright College making $168 a week after tax, with housing and a meal plan.
Aurich’s former roommate and fellow Princeton offensive lineman Dave Szelingowski remembered Aurich’s frugal lifestyle back then, when he would travel for recruiting trips and lacked the budget for a hotel room.
“I remember back to the days when he was recruiting for Albright in Reading, Pennsylvania,” Szelingowski said. “And Andy would be in town recruiting local high schools and couch surfing and just grinding.”
But for Aurich, who at that point knew that coaching football was his passion, the long hours and unglamorous work didn’t feel so difficult.
“It never felt like a grind, especially in those early years,” Aurich said. “It was just so much fun. I was like, ‘This is great.’”
‘The Most Important Thing’ Aurich grew up in Minnesota in a family with four boys and a father who coached the football team — among other teaching roles — at a
came an offensive lineman when it was all said and done,” Aurich said.
‘You Could Have Seen The Writing on the Wall’
After being recruited as a walk-on at Nebraska — the Aurich family’s preferred college team — Aurich ultimately settled on Princeton.
Justin Stull, Aurich’s teammate at Princeton and the team captain their senior year, recalled Aurich as a leader on the team even in college.
“He was always a very strong leader,” Stull said. “He was always somebody that was relatively reserved, but had just kind of like a supreme understanding for the strategy of the game. And he was always a coach on the field.”
Another Princeton teammate, Robert Holuba, said that Aurich’s midwestern upbringing came through in his “glass always half full” attitude.
“He’s from Minnesota, and he comes with that Midwest nice and meaning, he’s just such a nice guy,” Holuba said.
Holuba also noted that Aurich’s choice of career didn’t come as a shock. While he personally wanted nothing to do with football after each week’s game, he spoke of Aurich sitting every weekend with his eyes “glued to the television.”
“You could have seen the writing on the wall from the very beginning,” Holuba said.
“Whether it was playing NCAA football on PlayStation, or whether it was studying his playbook, he was always 100% about football,” he added.
For his part, Aurich said he realized early on in college that he wanted to be a coach despite discouragement from his own coach at the time.
“I went to talk to my college
made on the football team were the most important part of his time at Princeton.
“It wasn’t the stadium, the playing experience, it was about the relationships that I end up building with those people,” Aurich said.
‘I Just Want to See Those Guys Beat Princeton’
Aurich will see several of these friends again on Saturday, but this time, they’ll be rooting for opposite teams.
Harvard and Princeton have a longstanding rivalry — one that was often stoked by Aurich’s predecessor Tim Murphy — and Harvard is looking for its first win over the Tigers since 2016 this weekend.
For Aurich’s old teammates, this means they’re seeing their long-time friend coach for the enemy team for the first time.
The group of players in the 2006 Princeton class have stayed remarkably close — often using Slack to keep in touch from all corners of the country nearly 20 years after graduating.
Despite the potentially awkward situation, Szeligowski said that the group of friends from the early-2000s Tigers is proud of Aurich — though he drew the line at rooting for Harvard.
“I know a lot of my classmates and people around the Princeton program gave him a lot of flak, I think initially, just as a joke, but we’re all super proud of him,” Szelingowski said.
“We’re all old enough and mature enough to recognize it’s a tremendous opportunity to be named head coach anywhere, let alone at Harvard. So I think, from the grand scheme of things, am I happy to cheer for him nine weeks a year, absolutely.”
Stull also said this week will be an exception for the Princeton
them in the best position to win,” Aurich said.
“I just want to see those guys beat Princeton,” he added, about his talented Crimson roster.
“How You Do Anything is How You Do Everything”
As a coach, Aurich’s philosophy boils down to three words: sacrifice, integrity, and toughness.
“I want to help them to understand how to be a sacrificial person who’s going to put the team before themselves,” Aurich explained.
In addition to teaching his student-athletes important life lessons, on and off the field, Aurich preaches a completely open and transparent relationship between the players and coaches.
He added, “Walk to my door and come in and see me and be brutally honest with me, because that’s what I need to hear, I’m the guy. If there’s something that we gotta change, I’m the one who can change it, so bring it to my attention.”
At the same time, Aurich recognizes the need to be tough on his players.
“They know I’m gonna be the same with them if I don’t like something they’re doing,” he said. “I’m not scared to have a hard conversation with them and say, ‘I don’t like you doing that. If you keep doing that, you’re not going to be a part of this program.’”
Aurich believes that how his players operate on the football field is an extension of how they operate in their day-to-day lives — a penchant for character-development which puts him in the same bucket of coaches as his decorated predecessor.
In their first meeting, Aurich showed the team a video of Ed Reed talking about the Baltimore Ravens Super Bowl winning season in 2000. When discussing a singular spark for the team, Aurich relayed Reed’s story.
“He talked about how they had firefighters that would come and clean the locker room at night, volunteer firefighters that did it for free,” Aurich said. “They just wanted to be part of the Ravens team.”
The players didn’t treat their space with respect, leaving gar-
washed? And his point was like, how you do anything is how you do everything. So for the guys to understand, like, you can’t be a successful football player if you can’t go to class, turn in your assignments on time, like it’s not either or it’s and like you have to be able to do both.”
On gameday, mental toughness is everything for Aurich’s squad. He believes that every single one of the roughly 150 snaps throughout the course of a game is vital.
“Each play is its own independent event. And if you are more mentally tough than your opponent, you can focus on one play at a time over and over and over and over again, and focus on the process,” he said. “And then you look up at the scoreboard, you’re like, ‘Oh, we won,’ as opposed to being results driven.”
What matters most to Aurich, however, are the lessons his players take from the field and how they apply them in life.
“It’s a skill that’s going to help you for the rest of your life, your mental toughness,” Aurich continued. “Life has problems, and the reality is, like some of these problems, you can’t do anything but do your job. You have to focus on your job and be the best you can at your job.” He concluded, “That’s what I’m trying to teach these guys, so they can go be successful after football.
Coaching in the Ivy League
When Aurich was first announced as Harvard’s new head coach, he faced pushback from some players and alumni who would have preferred to see an internal hire. Harvard Athletic Director Erin McDermott, who made the controversial call and dealt with the ensuing criticism, said she feels happy about the decision halfway through Aurich’s first season.
“I’m feeling great,” McDermott said. “I feel he has been so terrific in many ways to work with — how I see him engage with the team, how I see him engage with alums, how I see him engage with people on campus and administratively or with faculty. He is consistently very upbeat and positive, but at the
cere.”
Aurich said he took it as a given that he would need to connect with alumni — even if they’d initially been hesitant about him.
“When I got hired, I knew that was going to be something I needed to do just so they can get to know me,” Aurich said.
“They’ve been great. They are great people who love this school, and love this football program, and they want these young men to be successful as football players and then after,” he added. “It’s not that different than the people that I went to school with at Princeton, because they had the same feelings about Princeton and the Princeton football program.”
Having seen Ivy League football from the sidelines and between the hash marks, Aurich recognizes the particular importance of playing Princeton and Yale, believing that many athletes faced a choice between those three schools and want to reaffirm the validity of their decision.
On the recruiting side of the role, Aurich still sees the Ivy League as an amazing opportunity for any aspiring scholar and football player. But the recruiting process isn’t without its challenges.
“If you’re dealing with a recruit who has scholarship offers, who also has NIL opportunities, where it’s how that world lives these days, and that’s the important factor to them, you’re gonna have to move on,” Aurich explained.
Despite the differences between the Ivy League and other conferences, Aurich remains confident in the team’s recruiting ability.
“If you go about your recruitment the right way, and you, you find the right type of young men who want this academic experience and this opportunity that can open doors for them that they don’t even know exists right now. You can win plenty of those recruiting battles.” At the end of the day, coaching in the Ivy League doesn’t feel like a job for Aurich. “It makes it a very fun group to be around, because, you know, they love football, just like you love football,” he said. Aurich’s first year continues
Coach Andrew Aurich’s
An Overtime Heartbreak
BY ISABEL C. SMAIL
On Saturday, during the Head of the Charles Regatta, two Ivy League rivals faced off at Berylson Field, the perfect place for field hockey along the
Lucy Leel opened up the scoring for Harvard in the first quarter of play. The goal, hammered into the back of the net in the 12th minute of the game, marked the fifth of the season for the London, U.K. native. Leel’s point was assisted off of a beautiful centering pass into the circle from freshman Martha le Huray. The home crowd cheered in celebration, and the Crimson took a 1-0 lead.
Although Harvard managed to light up the scoreboard first, it was clear that the Tigers were not discouraged by the deficit. In the first 15 minutes alone, the Princeton team sent three shots
threat. For the majority of the quarter, the ball bounced between teams in the midfield, locked in a standstill. When the referee’s whistle blew to single the halftime break, the Crimson still maintained its 1-0 lead.
Harvard’s Head Coach Tjerk van Herwaarden must have given the team a rousing pep talk during the break, as the Crimson was dominant in the third quarter. All four of Harvard’s corner opportunities occurred during the 15-minute frame, as the Crimson, spurred on by the cheers of its alumni, thoroughly tested the Tiger’s defense. Compared to a first half in which the
unable to notch a shot on the net, while Princeton was only able to fire one off. The horn blew, noting the end of regulation time, and fans watched nervously as the contest extended to overtime. Princeton seized possession at the start of extra time and maintained it throughout almost all of the overtime period. For a brief moment, le Huray made a valiant push toward the Tigers’ net, but the visiting team quickly thwarted her effort. After repossessing the ball, the Tigers were able to dictate the pace of the game. Four minutes later, Cashman struck again, scor-
was so special,” Guckian shared. That being said, the current Harvard team will now look to reignite a winning streak as it approaches the playoffs. Last weekend, the team fell in a close 1-0 game to No. 2 Northwestern, and after its upset loss to Princeton, the Crimson will need to build some positive momentum before concluding regular season play if it wants to be competitive in the postseason. Next, Harvard will travel to Philadelphia to take on the UPenn Quakers (4-9, 2-3 Ivy League). The Crimson will then set its sights on No. 6 Saint Joseph’s (13-2, 4-1 Atlantic 10),
UPSET DEFEAT. Despite being the favorite team, the Crimson fell to Princeton in overtime at a game that celebrated 50 years of the program.
CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Senior Lucy Leel celebrates her game-opening goal against Princeton last Saturday. Despite the score from Leel, Harvard lost 2-1 in overtime. ZACH WEBSTER— COURTESY OF HARVARD ATHLETICS
