The Harvard Crimson - Volume CL, No. 1

THE HARVARD CRIMSON THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873

VIGIL

| VOLUME CL, NO. 1 | CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

NEWS

SPORTS

Harvard Remembers David Forst, From Beloved Tai Chi Harvard Baseball to Instructor Yon Lee Moneyball PAGE 7

|

PAGE 17

FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2023

CLAUDINE GAY

Vigil Held for Victims of California Shootings HONORING VICTIMS. Harvard affiliates gathered on the steps of University Hall Thursday for a candlelight vigil to honor the victims — who were predominantly Asian and Asian American — of three shootings in California.

The Scholar Everyone Sought

SEE PAGE 8

OPINION

Introducing Spring 2023 Opinion Columnists MEET THE STAFF. The Editorial Board is pleased to announce its columnists for the upcoming Spring semester. Opinion columnists will publish on a bi-weekly basis, each focusing on a theme of their choice.

SEE PAGE 9

FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES DEAN Claudine Gay will make history on July 1, when she will become the first person of color and only the second woman to lead America’s oldest institution of higher education. But despite Gay’s historic appointment, many of her colleagues and friends say they were unsurprised by her selection to Harvard’s top post. SEE PAGE 6

SAMI E. TURNER—CRIMSON DESIGNER

CITY HALL

Protesters March Into City Hall to Demand Justice for Sayed Faisal

BY JINA H. CHOE AND SAMUEL P. GOLDSTON

SPECIAL HEARING

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

P City Council Debates Police Body Cameras FIERCE DEBATE. Cambridge City Councilors sparred over whether the Cambridge Police Department should implement body cameras and how the Council should oversee the department at a special meeting Wednesday.

SEE PAGE 11

rotesters stormed Cambridge City Hall and marched into Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui’s office Monday evening to demand answers on the police killing of Sayed Faisal, calling on city officials to release the names of the officers involved in the shooting.

The protest interrupted an otherwise ordinary city council meeting, with more than a dozen protesters demanding justice and transparency on the Jan. 4 fatal shooting of Faisal — a 20-year-old University of Massachusetts Boston student and Cambridge resident— by a Cambridge Police Department officer.

Led by Somerville resident Suhail P.

COMAROFF WALKOUT

BY DARLEY A.C. BOIT AND ELIAS J. SCHISGALL

Family Appeals Dismissal APPEAL FILED. The family of Luke Z. Tang ’18, a Harvard undergraduate who died by suicide in 2015, has appealed the December dismissal of a wrongful death lawsuit against the University.

SEE PAGE 5

lease the names,” “No justice, no peace,” and “Send those killer cops to jail,” for several minutes.

CPD spokesperson Jeremy C. Warnick wrote in an emailed statement that no one was arrested in connection to the protest.

In a Jan. 6 statement, Warnick wrote that it “would not be appropriate” to comment on specific allegations while the shooting remains under investigation by the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office.

Siddiqui did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On the afternoon of Jan. 4, police responded to a report of a man harming himself with a weapon. According to a CPD press release, officers asked the man, Faisal, to drop the weapon, and fired non-lethal sponge rounds when he allegedly advanced toward them. An officer shot and killed Faisal when he continued

to approach, the press release said.

Purkar, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, said in an interview that the protesters sought the release of the full, unredacted police report and the names of the officers involved in the killing, as well as their removal from the department.

“They’re on paid vacation right now,” Purkar said. “In what other profession can you murder somebody and then go on paid vacation the very next day?”

The chants continued outside the chamber as protesters stormed Siddiqui’s office and pounded on her door, disrupting Siddiqui’s attempt to resume the meeting over Zoom and following through on their chant to shut down “business as usual.”

SEE PAGE 11

HARVARD ADMISSIONS

Over 100 Students Walk Judge Releases Parts of Out of Comaroff Class Sidebar Transcripts RAHEM D. HAMID

TANG LAWSUIT

Purkar, the protest was the latest in a series of demonstrations sparked by resident outrage at the killing, with gatherings at Cambridge City Hall on Jan. 9 and Harvard Square on Jan. 14.

“City Manager Huang, Mayor Siddiqui, it has been two weeks since our brother Faisal was murdered!” Purkar shouted from the audience, as the Council voted on a motion to conclude public comment.

“We still do not know the names of the officers who murdered Faisal!”

The councilors immediately motioned to recess as protesters shouted from the rear of the chamber, with some demonstrators holding a large banner with a portrait of Faisal and the inscription “Justice for Faisal.”

As councilors rose from their seats and hurried to the exits, the protesters remained in the chamber and chanted “Re-

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

M

ore than 100 students walked out of embattled Harvard professor John L. Comaroff’s class Tuesday afternoon, protesting his continued presence on campus after he was placed on leave last year for violating the University’s sexual harassment and professional conduct policies.

Students flooded Comaroff’s classroom in Northwest Building classroom B108 — overflowing into the hallway — to protest the first lecture of his class African and African-American Studies 172X: “Colonialism and its Postcolonial/Decolonial Afterlives: Critical Readings.”

As Comaroff began to speak, students rose from their seats and filed out of the classroom, chanting, “Justice for survivors,” and “No more Comaroff, no more

complicity.”

As the walkout begin, Comaroff, a professor of African and African American Studies and Anthropology, broke into a smile and nodded at the protesters. As the last students left the classroom, one told the professor, “Smile in hell, asshole.”

The walkout was organized by members of Our Harvard Can Do Better and the Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers’ Feminist Working Group. Students associated with Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard and the Student Labor Action Movement also attended the protest.

Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean and University president-elect Claudine Gay placed Comaroff on unpaid administrative leave for the spring 2022 semester after two internal investigations found that Comaroff violated Harvard’s sexual harassment and professional conduct policies.

SEE PAGE 8

BY MICHELLE N. AMPONSAH AND EMMA H. HAIDAR CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

A

s Harvard’s admissions lawsuit unfolds at the Supreme Court, Massachusetts District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs unsealed parts of 2018 Harvard admissions courtroom transcripts of private conversations between the judge and the lawyers — known as sidebars — last month.

Harvard law professor Jeannie C. Suk Gersen filed a request to unseal on Nov. 11, arguing that the high-profile case required greater transparency. Several days after Gersen, The New York Times and the New Yorker — for which Gersen is a contributing writer — also filed in support of unsealing the sidebars.

“When I went to go look at the transcripts back from 2018 to try to make sure I had a complete record of what happened at trial, I discovered that all of the side-

bars were sealed, and that certainly is not normal,” Gersen said in an interview with The Crimson. “In fact, I can hardly think of other civil cases where a blanket sealing of every single sidebar of a trial would have occurred.”

Some transcript excerpts from the sixth, seventh, and tenth days of the threeweek trial between Harvard and anti-affirmative action group Students for Fair Admissions, which alleges that the College discriminates against Asian American applicants, remain sealed.

Ten days after the Dec. 19 order to unseal, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed an appeal, stating that the “undefined category” of applicant information is not “sensitive enough to overcome the presumption of access.” On Jan. 11, the New Yorker filed another letter of appeal.

Burroughs said in her decision that the Court weighed the “sensitivity of the

SEE PAGE 5

2

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

LAST WEEK

JANUARY 27, 2023

TECHNOLOGY

BOSTON

RELIGION

Khan Academy CEO Talks ChatGPT

Wu Promises City Planning Overhaul

First Umrah Trip in Four Years

CHATGPT. Khan Academy founder Salman Khan told attendees of a Harvard Graduate School of Education webinar that banning artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT in schools is the “wrong approach,” calling the service “transformative” for the future of education. The HGSE hosted Khan Wednesday afternoon as part of its Education Now webinar series, which aims to address the evolving state of education following changes brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. The webinar was hosted by Uche B. Amaechi ’99, an education lecturer at HGSE. BY AZUSA M. LIPPIT — CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

STATE OF THE CITY. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu ’07 promised to overhaul the city’s urban planning strategy and build more affordable housing during her first State of the City address on Wednesday evening. Wu laid out her agenda for the coming year at the ​​MGM Music Hall in Fenway, with several thousand people in attendance. Massachusetts Governor Maura T. Healey ’92 — who was inaugurated earlier this month — was present for the event, along with many Boston city officials. BY

MECCA. Thirty-two Muslim Harvard undergraduates traveled to Mecca, Saudi Araiba over winter break for the University’s second Umrah pilgrimage — one of two religious pilgrimages within the Muslim faith. Umrah is an optional pilgrimage that can be performed at any time of the year and involves a series of rituals in Mecca. The other — known as the “grand pilgrimage” or Hajj — is obligatory for Muslims to complete at least once in their lifetime, if they are able, and takes place on specific calendar days over the course of five to six days. BY

MILES J. HERSZENHORN AND DYLAN H. PHAN — CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

TYLER J. H. ORY — CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

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The Week in Photos

AROUND THE IVIES YALE LAW SCHOOL REAFFIRMS DECISION TO WITHDRAW FROM U.S. NEWS RANKINGS

SPEAKERS DISCUSS ROE V. WADE AT HARVARD RADCLIFFE INSTITUTE

Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken said the school will continue to refrain from participating in the rankings, after U.S. News & World Report announced a series of changes to its rankings amid a boycott by law schools across the country. Gerken said that “having a window into the operations and decision-making process at U.S. News in recent weeks has only cemented our decision to stop participating in the rankings.”

RADCLIFFE CONFERENCE. The institute hosted “The Age of Roe: The Past, The Present, and the Future of Abortion in America,” a conference focused on Roe v. Wade’s impact. BY JULIAN J. GIORDANO ­­— CRIMSON

THE YALE DAILY NEWS

PHOTOGRAPHER

THC Read more at THECRIMSON.COM

PENN APPOINTS ANNENBERG DEAN JOHN L. JACKSON JR. TO SERVE AS NEXT PROVOST University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill selected Annenberg School for Communication Dean John L. Jackson Jr. to serve as the next provost of the university. Magill will succeed Beth Winkelstein, who had served as the interim provost of the university since former provost Wendell Prichett departed the role during a leave of absence in May 2021. Winkelstein will now return to the position of deputy provost.

THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

COLUMBIA MEDICAL SCHOOL ENDS PARTICIPATION IN U.S. NEWS RANKINGS The Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia’s Medical School, will no longer submit data to the U.S. News & World Report for rankings, becoming the nation’s second top medical school to withdraw from the rankings following Harvard Medical School’s announcement last Tuesday. In a statement announcing the decision, Dean Katrina Armstrong wrote that the “USNWR medical school rankings perpetuate a narrow and elitist perspective on medical education.”

REMEMBRANCE VIGIL. On Thursday, the Harvard Foundation organized a candlelight vigil in honor of the victims of the tragic shootings that occurred in Monterey Park, Half Moon Bay, and Oakland, California. BY MAKANAKA NYANDORO—CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

THE COLUMBIA SPECTATOR

PROTESTING COMARROF. Students plastered articles from The Crimson on the John Harvard statue on Wednesday, highlighting John L. Comaroff’s controversial presence on campus. BY JOEY HUANG­—CRIMSON

SNOW-COVERED CAMPUS. A blanket of snow covers Adams House outside of The Crimson’s building Monday. BY DYLAN J. GOODMAN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

PHOTOGRAPHER

POLICE INVESTIGATE CASES OF ALLEGED SEXUAL ASSAULT A temporary Dartmouth College employee is being investigated by the Hanover Police Department for up to four cases of assault involving “unwanted sexual touching,” according to Dean of the College Scott Brown and Department of Safety and Security Director Keiselim Montas.

The incidents took place Tuesday afternoon and evening, with the police alerted around 2 p.m.

According to Brown and Montas, the suspect was immediately fired and banned from Dartmouth’s campus.

THE DARTMOUTH

ARTS CENTER PROPOSAL. A Cambridge City Council meeting discussed transforming the home of Cambridge artist Peter Z. Valentine into an arts center in Central Square. BY JOEY

PROTESTERS IN CITY HALL. Monday, protestors marched into Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui’s office, demanding answers over the shooting of Saiyed Faisal. BY JULIAN J. GIORDANO—

COMAROFF WALKOUT. Protesters marched through Harvard Yard with signs Tuesday, demanding that Harvard fire professor John L. Comaroff.

BOOK TALK. Harvard Book Store hosted Ilyon Woo, author of “Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom” for a book talk on Monday. Author Kellie Carter Jackson joined her in discussion. BY JULIAN J. GIORDANO—

BY CHRISTOPHER L. LI—CRIMSON PHOTOG-

CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

HUANG—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

RAPHER

NEXT WEEK

THE HARVARD CRIMSON JANUARY 27, 2023

What’s Next

IN THE REAL WORLD POPE CONDEMNS LAWS BARRING HOMOSEXUALITY Pope Francis denounced laws criminalizing homosexuality in an interview with the Associated Press on Tuesday. Francis called on Catholic bishops to show LGBTQ+ people the love “God has for each one of us.” Francis urged the Catholic church to work to decriminalize sexual activity between members of the same sex in the 67 countries in which it is illegal. Francis’ comments marked the first time a pope had spoken on such laws.

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

Friday 1/27

Monday 1/30

Wednesday 2/1

SCREENING: UGETSU

CENTRAL ASIAN REGIONAL COOPERATION ON WATER, ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE: WAYS FORWARD

GLOBALWE CONNECT WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT FIRESIDE CHAT SERIES

Tuesday 1/31

Thursday 2/2

CHILEAN CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM: MOTHER NATURE, MAPUCHE WOMEN, AND DECOLONIAL PERSPECTIVES

OUR BELOVED COMMUNITY: A CONVERSATION WITH MARTIN LUTHER KING III

Harvard Film Archive, 9 p.m. - 10:40 p.m.

A screening of Ugetsu will be shown at the Harvard Film Archive Friday night. The film, directed by ​​Kenji Mizoguchi, will be shown in Japanese with English subtitles.

Saturday 1/28 LIFE OF PI

TRUMP SET TO RETURN TO FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM FOLLOWING TWO-YEAR BAN Facebook parent, Meta announced Wednesday that Donald Trump will be unbanned from both platforms in the coming weeks, ending a two-year suspension. Trump was suspended from both Facebook and Instagram following the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. Trump, who was recently reinstated on Twitter after Elon Musk took over the company, has been relying on Truth Social — which he launched after being blocked from mainstream social media platforms — for the past two years. In Washington, Democratic lawmakers criticized the decision, citing the ongoing investigation into Trump’s involvement in the Capitol riots. Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, Anthony D. Romero defended Meta’s decision, arguing that Trump is a politician and possesses a voice that his supporters want to hear.

3

Loeb Drama Center, 7:30 p.m. - 10 p.m.

Presented by the American Repertory Theater, “Life of Pi” is being performed at the Loeb Drama Center Saturday evening. The two hour and 15 minute long production follows the adventure of 16-year-old Pi when he becomes stranded at sea in a lifeboat after the sinking of his family’s ship in the Pacific Ocean.

Online webinar, 9 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.

This event will discuss regional cooperation in Central Asia on various issues related to the environment and climate change. Panelists will discuss opportunities and constraints for increased collaboration in the region.

Harvard Radcliffe Institute, 4 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Former president of the Chilean Constitutional Convention Elisa Loncón Antileo will deliver the Rama S. Mehta Lecture for 2022–2023 at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute.

Sunday 1/29

Online webinar, 9 a.m. - 10 a.m.

The Fireside Chat Series features different organizations working for global change for girls and women. This event, the fifth of the series, will feature Vital Strategies.

Sanders Theatre, 5 p.m.

This talk is the first in a series of events celebrating the lives of Dr. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King. It will feature activist Martin Luther King III and will be moderated by Professor Brandon Terry.

Friday 2/3

2023 IVY LEAGUE SPRING FESTIVAL GALA

HARVARD-YALE MEN’S BASKETBALL GAME

Sanders Theatre, 6:30 – 9 p.m.

Celebrate the Lunar Chinese New Year with Harvard Chinese Students & Scholars Association with a night of music, dance, and other performances. Professor of Chinese and Inner Asian History Mark C. Elliott will speak at the event.

Lavietes Pavilion, 5 p.m.

The Harvard men’s basketball team will face archrival Yale in Friday’s game. The Crimson will be seeking to avenge a 54-58 loss to Yale when the teams last on Jan. 7.

BIDEN AGREES TO SEND 31 M1 ABRAMS TANKS TO UKRAINE President Joe Biden announced Wednesday the shipment of 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine to aid in their war with Russia. The move came after weeks of debate between the United States and Germany over whether or not to supply Ukraine with tanks. Germany agreed to arm Ukraine with 14 of their own Leopard tanks and authorized an assortment of European countries to re-export other Leopard tanks manufactured by the Germans.

The struggle between the United States and Germany signaled the first major disagreement between two of Kyiv’s three closest allies.

WIDENER IN WINTER

RUSSIAN MISSILE ATTACK ON KYIV Russia unleashed a barrage of missiles on Kyiv, Ukraine, resulting in the destruction of 35 buildings and the deaths of at least 11 individuals on Thursday. The attack followed the announcement of increased military aid to Ukraine, with Germany and the United States pledging to send a number of tanks to the country. Russia is aiming to hinder Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and deprive Ukrainian citizens of vital necessities such as electricity, heat, and light throughout the winter.

JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

THE HARVARD CRIMSON Cara J. Chang ’24 President

STAFF FOR THIS ISSUE Brandon L. Kingdollar ’24

Cynthia V. Lu ’24

Managing Editor

Business Manager

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

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

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

Blog Chairs Tina Chen ’24 Hana Rehman ’25

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

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

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

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

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

Copyright 2023, The Harvard Crimson (USPS 236-560). No articles, editorials, cartoons or any part thereof appearing in The Crimson may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the President. The Associated Press holds the right to reprint any materials published in The Crimson. The Crimson is a non-profit, independent corporation, founded in 1873 and incorporated in 1967. Second-class postage paid in Boston, Massachusetts.

Published Monday through Friday except holidays and during vacations, three times weekly during reading and exam periods by The Harvard Crimson Inc., 14 Plympton St., Cambridge, Mass. 02138

Night Editors James R. Jolin ’24 Eric Yan ’24 Assistant Night Editors Dorcas Y. Gadri ’25 Rahem D. Hamid ’25 Miles J. Herszenhorn ’25 Jonah C. Karafiol ’26 John N. Peña ’25 Claire Yuan ’25 Story Editors Isabella B. Cho ’24 James R. Jolin ’24 Ariel H. Kim ’24

Brandon L. Kingdollar ’24 Vivi E. Lu ’24 Leah J. Teichholtz ’24 Meimei Xu ’24 Eric Yan ’24 Design Editors Toby R. Ma ’24 Sami E. Turner ’25 Laurinne P. Eugenio ’26

Editorial Editor

Shanivi Srikonda ’24 Sports Editors

Mairead B. Baker ’24 Aaron B. Schuman ’25 Arts Editors

Zachary J. Lech ’24

Photo Editors Julian J. Giordano ’25 Joey Huang ’24 Addison Y. Liu ’25

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

NEWS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON JANUARY 27, 2023

WRONGFUL DEATH CASE

HARVARD ADMISSIONS FROM PAGE 1

Family Appeals Dismissal of Wrongful Death Lawsuit LEGAL BATTLE. A judge dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit against Harvard in December.

The family of the former student has now filed an appeal.

BY J. SELLERS HILL AND NIA ORAKWUE CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

­T

he family of Luke Z. Tang ’18, a Harvard undergraduate who died by suicide in 2015, has appealed the December dismissal of a wrongful death lawsuit which alleges the University and two residential deans were negligent in their care of Tang.

Filed in 2018 by Tang’s father, the complaint accuses the defendants — Harvard itself, Senior Resident Dean Catherine R. Shapiro, former Lowell House Resident Dean Caitlin M. Casey ’03, and Counseling and Mental Health Services employee Melanie G. Northrop — of “negligence and carelessness” resulting in Tang’s death.

Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Brent A. Tingle heard the case on Nov. 1. Last month, he dismissed claims against Harvard, Shapiro, and Casey, writing that the parties sufficiently satisfied their duty of care to Tang following an initial suicide attempt in spring 2015.

The appeal, which was filed in the Massachusetts Appeals Court on Jan. 19, argues that be-

5

cause Harvard and its deans were aware of Tang’s previous suicide attempt, they carried an “affirmative duty” to Tang which did not cease until a medical professional declared he was no longer at risk of suicide. The appeal argues the court “erroneously made a factual finding” that Harvard did not owe Tang care.

“The non-clinician has an affirmative duty to make sure the at-risk student is receiving the ‘comprehensive coordinated’ care he/she needs regardless of the student’s words or actions,” the filing reads.

“No one at Harvard did anything affirmatively to make sure Luke was receiving the treatment it knew he needed and required him to have,” the filing reads.

David W. Heinlein, the attorney representing Tang’s family in the suit, could not be immediately reached for comment following the appeal.

Both the original complaints and arguments made in the appeal by Tang’s family are built on precedent originating from Nguyen v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court case

“

No one at Harvard did anything affirmatively to make sure Luke was receiving the treatment it knew he needed and required him to have.

David W. Heinlein Attorney representing the family of Luke Z. Tang ’18

According to the filing, the College — by requiring Tang to enter into a “care contract” and providing mental health services through Harvard University Health Services — “assumed a duty of reasonable care” to Tang.

This duty renders Harvard liable for harm due to a failure to provide this care for Tang, it claims.

concerning a student suicide on Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s campus in 2009.

The ruling in that case established conditions in which universities can be held legally responsible for student suicide, including the student informing university officials of suicidal ideation or past suicide attempts.

Heinlein’s appeal explicitly references the precedent set in Nguyen v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“Despite the controlling mandate of Nguyen, and the factors of this case which indisputably give rise to a duty of case under it, the Superior Court — in an almost unheard-of fashion given the applicable standard of review — granted summary judgment to the defendants on the issue of breach of duty — an element of the claim that must be considered by the jury,” the appeal reads.

The filing also argues that the University still owed a duty of care to Tang even after he “continually denied” to officials that he was still suicidal.

“One known suicide attempt is enough to trigger the affirmative duty,” the filing reads.

“What is absent from the record is any evidence that a medical professional opined that Luke was no longer at risk of death by suicide or that Luke no longer required counseling,” the filing reads.

Harvard spokesperson Rachael Dane declined to comment on the appeal.

In November 2022, Tingle allowed claims in the suit against Counseling and Mental Health Service employee Northrop, who served as Tang’s case manager after his suicide attempt, to proceed. Her case will go to a jury trial if it is not settled out of court. sellers.hill@thecrimson.com nia.orakwue@thecrimson.com

‘A Little Bit Like Being at Home’: Harvard Student Groups Celebrate Lunar New Year

Admissions Trial Transcipts Released

A judge released transcripts from a 2019 admissions trial held at the John J. Moakley Courthouse. JUSTIN F. GONZALEZ—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

information, the nature and degree of the harm, the reliability of the information, and the interest that the public has in the information” when deciding which sidebars should be unsealed.

The sealed transcripts include an email exchange between Thomas J. Hibino, director of the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, and William R. Fitzsimmons ’67, dean of Admissions and Financial Aid. According to Burroughs, Hibino’s email contained a “joke memo” written as if a Harvard admissions officer was “inappropriately satirizing” Asian American applicants.

Hibino had previously headed the investigation of Harvard College’s admissions process for discrimination against Asian American applicants. Burroughs did not specify the date the email was sent.

“The material is dated, it implicates the interests of a third party who was never cross-examined at trial, and its relevance to the case is limited only to the Dean’s response, which shall be unsealed,” Burroughs wrote.

“Further, the offensive attempt at humor includes inappropriate and inflammatory language that does not need to be repeated or aired,” Burroughs added. “The specific words used are not relevant to the case — the salient information is the recipient’s reaction to the email, which will be unsealed.”

In response to Hibino’s email, Fitzsimmons wrote, “I’m

stunned. This person passed away a few years ago, and I had forgotten she had such a sense of humor. Will deconstruct at lunch. Where should we go?”

Harvard spokesperson Rachael Dane declined to comment on the decision or Fitzsimmons’ response.

In a Nov. 15 letter to Burroughs, Harvard lawyer Seth P. Waxman ’73 requested that trial transcripts containing sidebars remain sealed to protect “personal and confidential information.”

On Nov. 17, SFFA filed a letter agreeing that identifying information should remain sealed, but opposed Harvard’s blanket request to keep the sidebars sealed.

“SFFA had no objections to unsealing,” SFFA President Edward J. Blum said in an emailed statement to The Crimson on Friday.

Burroughs ruled in favor of Harvard in the 2018 admissions trial, striking down allegations of discrimination against Asian Americans in the College’s admissions process.

“I was surprised that Harvard objected to unsealing the sidebars because it really had been four years since the trial,” Gersen said. “And the case is now at the Supreme Court of the United States.”

The Supreme Court is expected to hand down a decision ending race-conscious admissions in higher education in early spring or summer. michelle.amponsah@thecrimson.com emma.haidar@thecrimson.com

HLS Pledges $500k Gift to Royall House and Slave Quarters

BY JO B. LEMANN AND NEIL H. SHAH CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Hanging decorations adorn Leverett House dining hall to celebrate Lunar New Year. JOEY HUANG—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

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

Ushering in the Year of the Rabbit, student groups across campus celebrated Lunar New Year with plans of banquets and dinners in the near future.

This year, the Lunar New Year fell on Jan. 22 — the day before spring semester classes began.

Through their celebrations, affinity groups and some upperclassman houses hoped to bring the feeling of home to Harvard.

The Harvard-Radcliffe Chinese Students Association will host their annual Lunar New Year banquet next Friday, featuring performances from the Harvard Taekwondo Club, a traditional lion dance, and a multicourse family-style dinner.

Christy Zheng ’25, co-president of the Chinese Students Association, said she was “excited to bring everyone back together again.”

“Lunar New Year is just such an important holiday to the Asian community, and normally, we would be at home celebrating with our families,” she said. “But since we’re at college, we want-

ed to create a space where people could come and celebrate with their friends and still have the big feast and performances that they might have at home.”

“Lunar New Year as a holiday is just the most important, and it’s a symbol of growth and renewal — just like the new year,” she added. “And so we wanted to make sure that there’s a space to celebrate that.”

Amy Huang ’24, another co-president of the Chinese Students Association, said it is important for students to celebrate with others during the Lunar New Year.

“

It’s kind of like Christmas in Taiwan – and everyone would go and visit their grandparents and eat together.

Henry Kuo ’23 Co-President, Harvard Taiwanese Cultural Society

“I think it’s really important to a lot of people here — a lot of students — to be surrounded by that

community,” she said.

Henry Kuo ’23, co-president of the Harvard Taiwanese Cultural Society, said the organization plans to hold a dinner gathering in the next few weeks to celebrate Lunar New Year.

“It’s to bring together people in a community,” Kuo said. “I think people bond through eating.”

Kuo described Lunar New Year in Taiwan as a time for families to get together and see relatives they have not visited in the past year.

“This is probably the only time when everyone is on holiday,” Kuo said. “It’s kind of like Christmas in Taiwan — and everyone would go and visit their grandparents and eat together, have fun together.”

“It’s more of a family gathering for us — for TCS,” he added.

On Thursday, the Harvard Vietnamese Association hosted a Vietnamese New Year celebration — Tet — in the Lowell House dining hall. The event featured traditional food, as well as music and games.

Anna G. Luong ’25 said she attended the event because she found it difficult being away from family for the New Year.

“I think — especially being

away from home and being away from family — having a little bit of an experience of what at home would be called Tet with my peers is what really drew me to this event,” she said.

“Also, they have amazing Vietnamese food,” Luong added.

Luong said that her appreciation for Lunar New Year has deepened as she has grown older.

“In the past, I would have said, ‘Oh, it’s a means of getting some extra money throughout the year,’” she said. “But now that I’m older, it really symbolizes for me appreciating my family and being able to grow up a little bit — sit at the adults’ table and talk to them, let everyone know how I’m doing, and staying in touch.”

Ethan N. Phan ’25 — social chair of the Harvard Vietnamese Association — said he enjoys their events because they feel “a little bit like being at home.”

“I really miss home and I miss my family,” he said. “And going to the Vietnamese events really feels kind of comforting and reminds me of home. It makes Harvard feel more like a welcoming space.” madeleine.hung@thecrimson.com joyce.kim@thecrimson.com

­ arvard Law School announced H a gift of $500,000 to the Royall House and Slave Quarters on Wednesday as part of a continued effort to recognize the University’s historical ties to slavery.

The Royall House and Slave Quarters, a museum in Medford, Massachusetts, is located on the former plantation of the Royall family, which was the largest slaveholding family in the state. At least 60 enslaved people lived on the plantation, and their forced labor contributed to the Royall’s fortune.

Isaac Royall Jr. bequeathed an endowed professorship in 1781 that became Harvard’s first professorship of law and the forerunner of the Law School. In 2016, HLS retired its school seal — which contained the Royall family’s crest — due to its connections to slavery. The school unveiled a new seal in 2021 and permanently retired the Royall Professorship of Law last year.

According to the school’s press release, HLS and Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences aim to work with the Royall House and Slave Quarters on “future research and educational programming” and facilitate visits

by Harvard affiliates to the site “for reflection, learning, and research.”

In recent years, Harvard has worked to study and confront the role slavery played in its rise to prominence. The University released its landmark Harvard and

the Legacy of Slavery report in April 2022, which includes mentions of Isaac Royall Jr. and the Royall family’s connections to the University.

The report also acknowledged HLS professor Janet E. Halley’s research into Isaac Royall Jr. in 2008, which inspired students to advocate for the Law School’s seal to be changed.

Harvard Law School Dean John F. Manning ’82 said in the press release that the school has “grappled with the painful history” of its origins.

“Our work with the Royall House and Slave Quarters will help us continue together to acknowledge, learn from, and share with others our complicated history, to honor and commemorate the enslaved people whose labor generated wealth that contributed to the establishment of our law school, and to better understand and address the ongoing legacy of slavery in today’s society,” Manning said.

Kyera Singleton, the executive director of the Royall House and Slave Quarters, said in the release that she hopes the Law School’s donation to the museum will help educate more people about “how the legacies of slavery impact communities, particularly Black communities and communities of color, today.”

“To understand contemporary society, we all must contend with the history of slavery and the institutions it founded and shaped in our own backyards,” Singleton said. jo.lemann@thecrimson.com neil.shah@thecrimson.com

6

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

COVER STORY

JANUARY 27, 2023

Claudine Gay: Harvard’s Next President CLAUDINE GAY has swiftly ascended through the ranks of academia.

BY MILES J. HERSZENHORN AND CLAIRE YUAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

F

rom the moment she finished her Ph.D. in Government at Harvard nearly 25 years ago, Claudine Gay was one of the most sought-after young scholars in the country.

Jennifer L. Hochschild, a Princeton politics professor at the time, recalled trying to recruit Gay to the university — only to have Gay choose Stanford instead, where she attained tenure in just five years.

After coming to Harvard, Hochschild got a second chance to persuade Gay to work with her in 2006, when she served on another search committee seeking to hire Gay. This time, Hochschild succeeded.

Since then, Gay has had a meteoric rise through Harvard’s administration. Within a decade, she was tapped as dean of Social Sciences. Three years later, she was appointed dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Less than five years after that, on Dec. 15, 2022, Gay was selected as the 30th University president.

Gay, 52, will make history on July 1, when she will become the first person of color and only the second woman to lead America’s oldest institution of higher education. But despite Gay’s historic appointment, many of her colleagues and friends say they were unsurprised by her selection to Harvard’s top post.

‘Outstanding From the Beginning’

In many ways, Gay is an insider in the elite academic world, having walked the halls of some of the nation’s most prestigious institutions: Phillips Exeter Academy for high school, Princeton and Stanford for college, and Harvard for graduate school.

The daughter of Haitian immigrants, Gay was born and raised in New York with her older brother, Sony Gay Jr. After attending the City College of New York, her mother became a registered nurse and her father a civil engineer.

Gay also grew up in Saudi Arabia, where her father, Sony Gay Sr., worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Gay later moved back to the U.S. where she lived in Georgia and Colorado, before attending the elite preparatory high school Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire.

Roxane Gay, Claudine Gay’s first cousin, said she believes the experience of growing up in several countries and cities prepared her cousin for a career of adjusting to new circumstances and challenges.

“When you live abroad you have to learn how to navigate other cultures and you have to learn how to not necessarily assimilate, but adapt,” Roxane Gay said. “If you do that from an early age, that enables you to be able to thrive in almost any situation.”

At Exeter, Claudine Gay competed on the women’s track team and served as director of circulation for the school’s newspaper, the Exonian, before graduating from the school in 1988. Her

cousin, Roxane Gay, also attended the school, graduating in 1992.

Claudine Gay currently serves as a trustee at Phillips Exeter.

Roxane Gay said her cousin is still the same as her younger self: “Very resolute and badass and confident of her place in the world.”

Claudine Gay first enrolled in Princeton University as an undergraduate, but she transferred to Stanford after her freshman year because she needed a change, according to a 1989 article in the Stanford Daily.

“Princeton is cold, traditional and austere. Stanford has a much more nurturing, humane environment,” Gay told the Stanford Daily. “Everybody at Princeton was already middle-aged.

At Stanford people are working but still seem to be having a really good time.”

Gay majored in economics at Stanford and also served as a resident assistant on the second floor of Kimball Hall, an undergraduate dormitory.

Angela E. Rickford and John R. Rickford, who served as Kimball Hall resident fellows at the time, said they received around 100 applications for the position of resident assistant before narrowing it down to 30 people.

During the interview process, the Rickfords individually evaluated each applicant with a letter grade.

When they compared notes at the end, both realized they gave an A+ to only one person: Claudine Gay. “She was outstanding from the beginning,” Angela Rickford said.

Angela Rickford said she remembered being nervous that Gay would decline their offer — despite Kimball Hall being a popular location for resident assistants — because she expected everyone would try to hire Gay. “I remember saying to John, ‘I don’t think we will get her because if we both independently gave her an A+, then everybody else who is interviewing her is probably going to give her a high grade and she’ll end up having lots of options,’” she said. “But, lucky for us, she did choose us.”

Gay graduated from Stanford in 1992, winning the Anna Laura Myers Prize for best senior thesis in the economics department.

She moved to Harvard for graduate school and completed her Ph.D. in 1998, receiving the Toppan Prize for best political science dissertation.

Rising through the Ranks

Taking the podium where Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny S. Pritzker ’81 had just announced her as the next president, Gay laughed, shook her head, and covered her mouth in disbelief. Gay, the otherwise formal and composed Harvard administrator, was visibly overwhelmed by emotion as she faced the cheering crowd who now recognized her as their future leader.

“This is crazy,” Gay said, laughing.

But many of Gay’s current and former colleagues disagree, pointing to her intellectual talent, leadership abilities, and personality.

Hochschild, who taught several Harvard seminar courses alongside the future president, said Gay’s talent was easily recognizable from the start.

“Since coming out of gradu-

ate school — which of course she did here — it’s just been real clear that she is just a very high quality person,” Hochschild said.

Barry R. Weingast, a professor of political science at Stanford, said that Gay stood out among her peers when she started teaching at Stanford University.

“She was not nervous as many assistant professors are,” Weingast said. “She knew where she was going. She knew what she needed to do.”

Gay received “early tenure” at Stanford after publishing several articles that gained widespread recognition before she was poached by Harvard in 2006, according to Weingast.

A scholar of political behavior, Gay has written numerous articles focusing on issues of race and politics in the United States. She has co-edited a book with Hochschild and two other scholars, but she has not authored a book.

“She just thinks very clearly,” Hochschild said. “She has the capacity to hone in on what really matters.”

Ariel White, a former graduate student in the Government Department, said Gay — the chair of her dissertation committee — was a “brilliant scholar” and someone she was lucky to work with.

“She always listens very attentively, and then she asks these

how what we do here can help improve lives far beyond our walls.”

When Bacow announced in June 2022 that he would step down, Dean of Arts and Humanities Robin E. Kelsey said he immediately knew who Bacow’s successor should be.

“My first thought was that Dean Gay should be our next president,” he said.

‘Receptive Institutional Leader’

As Gay prepares to move from University Hall to Massachusetts Hall, colleagues said they expect intellectual and demographic diversity to be key items on her agenda.

Kelsey highlighted faculty appointments and curriculum changes as important issues for Gay’s tenure.

“She’s been really determined to ensure that we have the faculty we need to meet the challenges and to match the interests of a new generation,” he said. “I think she will continue to do that from Massachusetts Hall.”

During her time as dean of the FAS, Gay worked to bring more ethnic studies scholars to Harvard, hiring three ethnic studies professors last year. In an April 2022 interview, Gay said she supports the creation of an undergraduate concentration in ethnicity, indigeneity, and migration.

“

She’s been really determined to ensure that we have the faculty we need to match the interests of a new generation.

Robin E. Kelsey Dean of Arts and Humanities

very simple-sounding questions that get right to the heart of the matter,” she said. “That was the thing that made me realize, ‘Oh, this is the scholar who I want reading my work and reacting to it and making it better.’”

In 2015, former Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith tapped Gay to serve as dean of Social Sciences.

“Her name came up with lots of fantastic comments by many of her colleagues about the kinds of skills and actions that she’d already been doing simply as a faculty member within the Social Sciences,” he said.

Smith recalled being “severely impressed” by Gay during the hiring process and praised her diligence as dean.

“I loved working with her day in and day out on the issues that would come up,” he said. “When she would come to our meetings, she was always extremely well-prepared, understood the issues that we needed to be talking about when we had difficult problems.”

Three years later, Harvard University President Lawrence S. Bacow appointed Gay to succeed Smith as FAS dean.

“She is a scholar of uncommon creativity and rigor, with a strong working knowledge of the opportunities and challenges facing the FAS,” Bacow said in a July 2018 press release announcing her appointment. “She radiates a concern for others, and for

Taeku Lee, a Government professor who joined Harvard in 2022 as part of the ethnic studies cluser hire, wrote in an emailed statement that he joined Harvard in large part because of Gay’s “vision for and leadership on the Ethnicity, Indigeneity, and Migration initiative.”

“I am filled with hope for the University and, no surprise, for the future of ethnic studies by her selection as Harvard’s 30th president,” Lee wrote.

As president, Gay will also face a decades-old demand for an ethnic studies department.

Dean of the Social Sciences Lawrence D. Bobo said Gay “fundamentally has bought into the core aspirations” of the push for a department.

“She has worked very hard to build a faculty that is not only more intellectually diverse along these lines, but really demographically more diverse,” he said. “She will certainly, I would expect, continue that as a priority.”

Bobo said he would not be surprised to see the creation of an ethnic studies department during Gay’s tenure, but said that it is “not obvious” to him that a department is “the form it ought to take.”

“There are several options here,” he said. “I want people to be able to sit down and design it knowing that — if they reach consensus on a plan and lay out the intellectual case for it — knowing

that they’re going to have a very receptive institutional leader in Claudine Gay.” Gay also steered the FAS through several scandals related to sexual harassment during her tenure as dean.

In summer 2019, Gay stripped Government professor Jorge I. Domínguez of his emeritus status and disinvited him from the FAS campus after an investigation. Gay also suspended Economics professor Roland G. Fryer Jr., who faced accusations of sexually harassing co-workers. In 2021, the school reinstated Fryer’s teaching and research roles.

Following a 2020 Crimson investigation that uncovered allegations of sexual harassment in the Anthropology Department, Gay stripped professor Gary Urton of his emeritus status and sanctioned professor John L. Comaroff for violating the school’s sexual harassment and professional conduct policies.

Harvard faculty also praised Gay’s leadership of the FAS after the Covid-19 pandemic forced students to depart campus in March 2020.

Bobo pointed to a meeting in early March 2020 when Gay informed FAS leadership that campus would be closing and learning would shift online.

“She handled that meeting with extraordinary aplomb and confidence and planfulness,” Bobo said. “Over the months that followed, she exhibited what I can only regard as really exceptional clarity of purpose, steadiness at the helm, and exuded a real confidence that we were going to make a very difficult situation work.”

Kelsey agreed.

“She never seemed shaken by the pandemic and the challenges that it posed,” Kelsey said. “She kept the team together.”

Hochschild, who served as the Government Department chair for the first two years of Gay’s tenure as FAS dean, said Gay has “strong views.”

“She’s not shy about expressing them or about wanting to implement them when it was her job to make a decision in her role as dean,” Hochschild said. “But she’s very committed to participation in the process of reaching the right answer.”

Smith described Gay as a “straightforward” person who is “not playing any games.”

“She doesn’t feel the need to hide any aspects of herself, and I don’t see any reason why she would because she has so many strong attributes,” he said.

“You can’t push her around, and I think that’s a fantastic quality,” he added.

‘Genuinely Warm’

When moving into Haskins Hall as a first-year graduate student at Harvard, Gay brought the three things “that seemed most essential to my success at the time,” she said at the December press conference: “A futon, a Mac Classic II, and a cast iron skillet for frying plantains.”

Gay continued to share her love for cooking at Harvard several decades later as a professor.

Hochschild said that Gay would invite their whole class to her house at the end of every year.

“She was the one who organized it and brought in lots and lots of food and made sure that everybody was engaged and

talking,” she said.

While Hochschild said Gay was funny and a “very good hostess,” Gay also maintained her classroom persona during these informal gatherings.

“She never loosened up a whole lot, or at least not in broad company,” Hochschild said.

Kelsey said Gay also enjoys going on runs and eating hot lunches, adding that she “does not like a cold buffet.”

White also praised Gay for being a “genuinely warm and caring” mentor despite her hectic schedule.

“She was getting pulled in a million directions,” White said.

“But invariably, when I had a meeting on the calendar with her, and I got into her office, she had always read the thing that I had sent her. She had thoughtful comments on it.”

“During that time that we were meeting, it was like I was the only person she had to talk to that day,” White added.

The New Face of Harvard

With degrees from Exeter, Stanford, and Harvard, Gay’s ascension through the ranks of academia seemed almost inevitable.

Her cousin, Roxane Gay, recognized this potential in Claudine Gay from a young age.

“I think she was always well-suited for academia,” Roxane Gay said. “She’s always been graciously curious and interested in how things work and how people work and how we can do the business of life better.”

Roxane Gay said she knew her cousin could reach the top in academia if she set her mind on it, adding that she can’t imagine a better person to serve as “the face and the heart of Harvard in the public sphere.”

Bobo said the presidential search committee made the right decision by far.

“I don’t think there was anybody else who was genuinely a close second,” he said. “This was very definitely the right outcome — and an exciting one.”

Roxane Gay also recognized the history behind her cousin’s selection.

“It’s always nice when institutions like Harvard that are so steeped in tradition and steeped in resisting change are able to move forward and be a part of the world as it is, instead of as it once was,” Roxane Gay added.

Lee, the first hire in Claudine Gay’s ethnic studies faculty search, wrote in an emailed statement that Gay is the president that the Harvard student body has “long awaited and rightly deserve.”

“We often tout our students as the future leaders of their communities and of the world, yet the example of far too many in positions of power today is deplorable and demoralizing,” Lee wrote. “So I am also filled with hope for our students, who can now take from Dean Gay as president a shining example of what ethical, impactful leadership can be.”

More than three decades later and thousands of miles away from where they once lived in Kimball Hall together, Angela Rickford said some of Gay’s characteristics have not changed.

“She’s just a winner,” Rickford said. “Always was.” miles.herszenhorn@thecrimson.com claire.yuan@thecrimson.com

NEWS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON JANUARY 27, 2023

YON G. LEE coached martial arts at Harvard for more than three decades, eventually becoming the University’s chief instructor of kung fu and tai chi. A beloved affiliate of Adams House, Lee died on Jan. 6 at the age of 74.

Yon Lee, 1948–2023

CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

­W

hen Mansfield, Massachusetts-based martial artist Deb A. Zion woke up one morning after a long and difficult night of kung fu, she said she found herself unable to move her arms.

Feeling the soreness from her training and the toll of years of practicing martial arts on her body, Zion was unsure how much longer she would be able to meet kung fu’s physical demands.

Searching for wisdom, she looked to her close friend Yon G. Lee for advice. Zion asked Lee, a master of kung fu and tai chi, when she would know that she was too old for the martial art.

But Lee surprised Zion with reassurance, telling her that she would never be too old and advising her to adapt kung fu to herself.

“That was a great piece of advice because I was at that point ready to step away from the arts because I’m like, ‘I’m too old. This is for young people. This is crazy for me to try to do this,’” Zion said.

“But I adapted.”

Lee first coached kung fu at Harvard in 1986, and he eventually became the University’s chief instructor of kung fu and tai chi.

In all, he spent more than three decades at Harvard. Lee was also a beloved affiliate in Adams House, which he joined in 1997.

Lee died from Parkinson’s disease on Jan. 6 at the age of 74.

Former Adams House Faculty Deans Judith S. Palfrey ’67 and John G. “Sean” Palfrey ’67 described Lee as a generous and loving person who was always interested in the lives of his many friends in Adams House and beyond.

“He did bring life to anything you did with him,” Sean Palfrey said.

Kim Kardashian Guest Lectures at HBS

OBITUARY

BY JOHN N. PEÑA

BY SAGE S. LATTMAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Yon G. Lee, an Adams House affiliate who taught kung fu and tai chi classes at Harvard, died on Jan. 6. KRYSTAL K. PHU— CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

‘One Short of a Great One’

Zion recalled making a “big mistake” the first time she trained in kung fu with Lee, whose small frame she described as “98 pounds soaking wet.”

“I was trying to be gentle because I see this little guy,” she said. “Next thing I know, I am tied up in a knot and I didn’t even know what got me.”

Lee was a master of kung fu and tai chi — a meditative form of kung fu that focuses on the proper flow of one’s energy, or chi, throughout their body, Zion said.

Timothy J. LaVallee, a martial artist and longtime friend of Lee, remembered Lee as an exceptional teacher of tai chi who could explain its complex nature in ways that made sense to his students.

“On the one hand, you’re learning how to defend yourself and you’re learning how to use your body as a weapon. But on the other hand, you’re also learning how to fix stuff,” he said. “And so he was constantly using math and physics as a way of trying to explain and understand both the martial art aspect of it and the healing aspect.”

Andrew J. Green ’99 said he began taking Lee’s classes as refuge from the stress of life as a college student. He said the classes provided balance “intellectually, and emotionally, and interpersonally.”

“It gives one a centering, where you can be in the middle of whatever chaos is going on around you and it’s okay,” he said.

Former Adams resident Eboni C. White ’17 recalled the way that Lee would serendipitously teach others around him new skills.

White, who had then just begun learning how to throw knives, recalled Lee approaching her to teach her a new technique after she had finished a practice.

“He showed me these videos of tai chi masters throwing chopsticks through cement,” she said.

“And so, long story short, he ended up teaching me how to throw my knives in a way that it looked like an accident.”

“That’s part of the reason why I think he was so endearing,” she added. “He’s not gonna be like, ‘Oh, that’s dangerous.’ It’s more just like, ‘If you’re gonna do it, do

Lee, front, planned a Lunar New Year celebration in Adams House dining hall with a group of lion dancers from Boston’s Chinatown. COURTESY OF SEAN PALFREY

Lee demonstrates his form in Adams House’s Randolph Courtyard. COURTESY OF SEAN PALFREY

Lee, right, launched an annual exchange program between Harvard students and the Shaolin Temple in Dengfeng, China. COURTESY OF SEAN PALFREY

it right.’”

Zion, who said Lee is part of her “kung fu family,” will remember Lee as a “great martial artist.”

“The martial arts world is one short of a great one,” she said.

‘Ambassador’

An immigrant from China, Lee was dedicated to fostering cultural exchange between his birthplace and the United States.

“He wanted the Chinese culture and the Chinese people to be seen by us in the United States.

That was his passion,” said retired Adams House cook Edward B. Childs.

Born in Taishan City, China in 1948, Lee moved to Boston when he was 10. He graduated from Brandeis in 1973, where he studied physics and went abroad to the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Lee later received a master’s degree in nuclear physics from Northeastern.

Part of Lee’s effort to foster connections between the U.S. and China included setting up a scholarship program to fund an exchange program for students in Harvard and China. The program, led by Lee, provided groups of Harvard students the opportunity to learn about Chinese culture as emissaries in Beijing or Dengfeng.

Sean Palfrey, who made two trips to China, credits Lee’s friendliness for the warm welcome the delegations from Harvards received from their hosts.

“He has, obviously, a lot of connections there, both friends and family and artists,” he said.

“We were greeted everywhere.

There were times that we literally would go into a small town and across the street at the entrance of the town, it said ‘Welcome, Yon Lee and Dr. Sean Palfrey from Harvard.’”

Lee also brought students, educators, and artists from China to Adams. On one occasion, he welcomed the abbot of the Shaolin Temple, a renowned monastery recognized as the birthplace of Chan Buddhism and Shaolin kung fu.

“He was a guy who made friends extremely easily and saw himself as really this ambassador, not just between Boston and Chinatown, but between this region and China,” Sean Palfrey said.

“He would say, ‘coming with a bunch of my friends.’ That might be anywhere between 20 and 100. You never knew who would come,” he added.

In Boston, Lee also served as Mayor’s Liaison to the Chinese Community under former mayor Raymond L. Flynn, who credited

Lee with progress in countering gang violence in the city’s Chinatown during the late ’80s and early ’90s.

LaVallee said Lee was “always looking for an opportunity to bring folks together from different places.”

“He wanted to make sure that the community at the University — the students — had an opportunity to experience this stuff from people from around the world, instead of just himself,” LaVallee said.

‘The Real Deal’

When the Palfreys began their tenure as Adams House faculty deans in 1999, they said they were impressed by the commitment that Lee brought to the house.

“We sort of thought there was a building and there were some students, and we had no idea that there actually were these wonderful people who were committed to being part of the community,” Judith Palfrey said.

“It was just a charming partnership with this man in every sort of setting,” Sean Palfrey added.

Childs said he and the rest of the dining hall staff carried “tremendous” respect for Lee, who regularly invited them to his kung fu classes and house events.

7

Once, Lee trained the Adams dining staff to cook traditional Chinese food for a Lunar New Year celebration in the house, Childs said.

“We had traditional foods, all traditional recipes, from scallion pancakes to the gravies, the sauces, how to cut the Chinese broccoli — everything,” Childs said.

“The big thing was he trained us, and he did it with passion, and it was obviously excellent,” Childs added.

Judith Palfrey said Lee had a “knee-jerk” reaction to help others, citing his help in organizing a vigil for Adams affiliates after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“By noon that day, there were no candles anywhere in Cambridge and Boston, and Yon got wind of that,” Palfrey said.

“He went to every suburban little town and place himself,” she said. “He came back just in time with exactly the right number of candles.”

Green, one of Lee’s former kung fu students, called him “the real deal.”

“He took each student as they were and helped give them, I think, the inner strength and the outer physical strength to grow and become who they needed to be at Harvard,” Green said. john.pena@thecrimson.com

Students were abuzz last Friday following a guest lecture from Kim Kardashian at Harvard Business School.

Kardashian, an entrepreneur and media personality who rose to fame after starring in the reality television show “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” delivered a lecture to students in an HBS short intensive course “Moving Beyond Direct to Consumer.” Kardashian spoke about her clothing brand SKIMS for the course, which examines companies that sell directly to customers without a traditional retail middleman.

After an investor told HBS Professor Leonard A. Schlesinger — who teaches the class — that SKIMS would be “an amazing case” for students to study, he set up a meeting with SKIMS’s co-founder Jens Grede.

Schlesinger said the meeting “reaffirmed, quite honestly, my own excitement about the learning opportunities for students.”

Part of what interested Schlesinger about SKIMS was its growth and revenue numbers, which he said are “at a pace that are virtually unheard of in the world. Though the company was started just three years ago, Schlesinger said it was recently valued at $3.2 billion. Last year, he added, 140 million users visited SKIMS’s website.

For Schlesinger, SKIMS’s meteoric rise gets at the core of his course’s message, which reiterates how businesses are able to acquire customers at a lower cost than their competitors through social media.

Palis Pisuttisarun ’24, an undergraduate technology innovation fellow at HBS, was thrilled to see Kardashian — one of his “top three role models” — in person.

“The morning of her visit, I was picking out my best look because I knew Kim Kardashian was going to see me, and I had to look my finest,” said Pisuttisarun.

Pisuttisarun said he admires Kardashian’s business acumen and persona.

“I think people have this notion of Kim being dumb or she doesn’t deserve the success that she has. I think that woman knows what she’s doing,” Pisuttisarun said. “She’s very strategic, and she definitely is an entrepreneur at heart.”

Izumi H. Vazquez ’25 waited for 45 minutes in the rain with a pack of HBS students to see the reality television star set foot on campus.

“It was a surreal moment,” Vazquez said. “I did not expect to wake up and see Kim Kardashian that day.”

Students weren’t the only

“

She’s very strategic, and she definitely is an entrepreneur at heart.

Palis Pisuttisarun ’24 HBS Technology Innovation Fellow

ones thrilled to have Kardashian on campus. In a tweet thanking Schlesinger, Kardashian said her visit was a “#BucketListDream.”

After Kardashian’s lecture about SKIMS, the students chatted with Kardashian more freely.

“Folks loved her and how she was really kind of approachable,” Pisuttisarun said.

“She took a copious number of selfies with the folks in the class.”

sage.lattman@thecrimson.com

THC Read more at THECRIMSON.COM

8

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

NEWS

JANUARY 27, 2023

VIGIL

Vigil Held for Mass Shootings Victims MULTIPLE SHOOTINGS. In just three days, California has experienced three mass shootings, resulting in 20 deaths.

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

H

arvard students, staff, and faculty gathered on the steps of University Hall Thursday evening for a candlelight vigil to honor the victims — who were predominantly Asian and Asian American — of three shootings in California in the last week.

Attacks in Oakland and Half Moon Bay occurred on Jan. 23, while a shooting in Monterey Park occurred on Jan. 21, the eve of the Lunar New Year. In all, the

shootings left 20 people dead and 14 injured.

Chinese immigrant farmer Chunli Zhao has been charged with seven counts of murder and one count of attempted murder in the Half Moon Bay shooting. Huu Can Tran, an immigrant from China who California police suspected of killing 11 people in Monterey Park, was found dead after the shooting. Police are still investigating the Oakland shooting.

Jada Pisani Lee ’26 said hearing about the attack in Monterey Park was a “punch to the gut,” especially as she prepared for the Lunar New Year festivities with her family.

Pisani Lee, who is from San Mateo, California, said hearing about the subsequent shooting in neighboring Half Moon Bay was “a second punch I got right after the first one.”

Graduate School of Education student and vigil organizer Catherine G. Huang said that the loss “hits our Asian American and Pacific Islander community particularly hard.”

“The shootings happened the weekend of Lunar New Year and targeted members and elders from our AAPI community in California,” Huang said in a speech. “On a day and during a time when we should be celebrating with our communities, we are instead forced to learn how to mourn, process, and grieve the loss of life and safety.”

The vigil was intended as a space for people to “come together” and “recognize that this grief is real,” Huang said in an interview following the event.

“We have the right to take the time for ourselves. We have the right to grieve. We have the right to care for our mental health, es-

pecially when Harvard keeps moving and the world kind of keeps moving, too,” Huang said.

“I just wanted to offer that space for those who might be seeking it.”

Huang said that she felt a “sense of frustration” over the “lack of a statement from Harvard even recognizing that this incident even happened.”

A University spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday night.

Margarita Rosa, a 2021 Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow and a resident scholar at Adams House, emphasized the importance of solidarity with students of color.

“I thought it was very important to show support for the people affected, and it’s not only the Asian American community,” Rosa said in an interview after the

vigil. “I think it’s all people of the faith, who really care about other humans and are grieving the most recent loss of members of our community.”

The vigil was followed by a space for support and solidarity hosted by the Harvard Foundation, where attendees and organizers reflected on the shootings and their grief.

Harvard Kennedy School student Jonathan Loc, who grew up just one mile from Monterey Park, said he attended the vigil because he “wanted to pay respects in some way.”

“I knew that probably other people like me are from that area or identify in some way with the community and are looking for support, and I’m looking for support,” Loc said. “It just helps to be together and to support each other.”

Loc also said that “it feels espe-

cially difficult this time” because the Monterey Park shooter was himself Asian.

“I think it’s important to rely on one another, to seek help from one another, and also to destigmatize seeking mental health care or even just counseling in general,” he said.

If you or someone you know needs help at Harvard, contact Counseling and Mental Health Services at (617) 495-2042 or the Harvard University Police Department at (617) 495-1212. Several peer counseling groups offer confidential peer conversations; learn more here.

You can contact a University Chaplain to speak one-on-one at chaplains@harvard. edu or here.

You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or text the Crisis Text Line at 741741. madeleine.hung@thecrimson.com joyce.kim@thecrimson.com makanaka.nyandoro@thecrimson.com

COMAROFF WALK OUT FROM PAGE 1

Students Walk Out of Professor Comaroff’s First Class of Semester Protesters chanted, “Time’s up,” and “Shut it down,” as they marched to the Barker Center, where several taped posters and pages from a 2022 lawsuit filed against Harvard to his office door.

The lawsuit, filed against the school by Anthropology graduate students Margaret G. Czerwienski, Lilia M. Kilburn, and Amulya Mandava, alleges that Harvard ignored and mishandled allegations of sexual harassment and professional retaliation by Comaroff.

Comaroff returned to the classroom for the fall 2022 semester, and his first class faced a similar walkout and protest.

Gay first put Comaroff on paid leave in 2020 after an investigation by The Crimson found that at least three female graduate students had contacted Harvard’s Title IX office with complaints of harassment and professional retaliation against the professor.

Comaroff’s class — which began at 3 p.m. — was nearly empty within 10 minutes, with only two other individuals remaining.

Three students were enrolled in the course as of Tuesday morning, per the FAS Registrar’s office. The other course that Comaroff teaches, African and African American Studies 190X: “The Anthropology of Law,” has one student enrolled.

A plainclothes Harvard University Police Department officer at the Barker Center declined to comment.

HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano declined to comment on the presence of officers at the walkout, citing a longstanding department policy not to comment on personnel and security measures.

Austin Siebold ’23, who said she was the first to flag Comaroff’s courses to the walkout’s organizers, said she learned Comaroff was teaching this semester after scrolling through Harvard’s course catalog.

“I saw this class, it was on colonialism, postcolonialism and decolonialism, and I thought that sounded really interesting and it fit on my schedule,” she said.

“And then I clicked on it and it was taught by John Comaroff and I was like, ‘Holy.’”

Siebold then reached out to activist groups to help plan the event.

“I enrolled in the class and used information I was able to gather from that to help me plan this,” she said. “I was the first person in that room.”

Our Harvard Can Do Better — an organization focused on combating campus rape culture — described Comaroff’s continued presence at the University as “shameful.”

The organization called for his resignation in a statement endorsing Tuesday’s demonstration.

“This man is not safe to interact with undergraduate students,” said organizer Rebecca S. Araten ’23.

“Harvard is marketed as a place where all students should be able to succeed and get the

Students demonstrate against the University’s handling of allegations against Comaroff in the Yard. CHRISTOPHER L. LI—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

best education in the world. And the reality is that our campus promotes a culture of sexual abuse, aculture of misogyny and harassment and discrimination,” added Rosalie P. Couture ’26, another organizer.

In an emailed statement, Comaroff’s attorneys Norman S. Zalkin, Ruth K. O’Meara-Costello ’02, and Janet E. Halley wrote that Comaroff “categorically denies that he ought to resign” and that he “is doing nothing to create unsafe conditions for any Harvard student.”

“He is fully authorized to teach Harvard students who sign up for his courses,” they wrote, adding “the claim that he poses a danger is ludicrous in light of the actual facts.”

Harvard spokesperson Rachael Dane declined to comment.

Tenzin R. Gund-Morrow ’26, a Crimson editorial editor, said he hopes a new administration will bring changes to the University’s policies around handling allegations of harassment and misconduct by faculty.

“I’m just hoping that with any change in the administration, there will be some shift in the policy,” Gund-Morrow said. “But obviously, as the organizers said, that is sadly a low chance.”

Hannah L. Munzberg ’25, who attended the demonstration, said seeing so many other students protesting made her feel “hopeful.”

“It’s nice to see that it’s not just me that’s angry,” Munzberg said.

Koby D. Ljunggren, president of HGSU-UAW and a Ph.D. candidate in Biophysics, said they were “so proud of our undergrads for collectively getting together and planning this.”

“It really warms my heart,” they said.

Ljunggren added that while the protest “might be symbolic in nature,” putting continued pressure on University administration is critical.

Kilburn, another plaintiff in the lawsuit against Harvard, tweeted that she “wept” upon seeing photos of the protest.

“Because no one should have to go through what I went through with John Comaroff to get an education,” Kilburn wrote.

“Because Harvard was warned about Comaroff and did nothing, but these students are making sure warnings reach everyone,” she added. darley.boit@thecrimson.com rahem.hamid@thecrimson.com elias.schisgall@thecrimson.com

THC View the related video on our website THECRIMSON.COM

Syd D. Sanders ’24 leads a march as students voice their dissent. ADDISON

Students walk out of Comaroff’s first class of the semester. ADDISON Y. LIU—

Y. LIU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

EDITORIAL

THE HARVARD CRIMSON JANUARY 27, 2023

9

Announcing The Crimson Editorial Board’s Spring 2023 Columnists ON OUR COLUMNISTS: The Editorial Board is pleased to announce its columnists for the upcoming fall semester. Columnists will publish on a bi-weekly basis, each focusing on a theme of their choice. We are also proud to continue our reported columns initiative, piloted in 2020, which incorporates both journalistic research and interviews, as well as editorial commentary.

ADAM V. ALEKSIC

THE HARVARD BELOW OUR FEET Adam V. Aleksic is a senior in Kirkland House studying Government and Linguistics. His column will explore hidden spaces underneath campus, urging us to stop and consider the unseen.

GUILLERMO S. HAVA

BETWEEN THE CRACKS Guillermo S. Hava is a Spanish junior in Winthrop House pursuing a joint concentration in Government and Philosophy, as well as a former Editorial Chair. His reported column will explore Harvard stories that fell “between the cracks” — articles that should’ve been written, but for some reason or another, never were. He will show that we can never invest enough in journalism, and certainly not at a uniquely powerful, influential university like ours.

ROMAN C. UGARTE AND K. OSKAR SCHULZ

UNDER-INDEXED From Austin, Texas, Roman C. Ugarte is a junior in Eliot House studying Applied Math in Economics. Originally from Germany, K. Oskar Schulz is on leave and currently building a technology startup in New York City. Their column will reveal under-appreciated yet powerful insights in decision-making, geopolitics, technology, and economics that will shape the world and our individual futures in the coming decades.

ALEXANDER JUNXIANG CHEN

CHARLOTTE A. NICKERSON

ELLIE H. ASHBY

ARTIFACTUAL

AIRSPACE

A LEAP INTO FAITH

Alexander Junxiang Chen is a junior in Quincy House pursuing a concentration in Neuroscience and Chemistry. Originally from the outskirts of the Silicon Valley, Alexander’s intellectual interests have long been a synthesis of the technical and creative. His column will examine Harvard’s unparalleled cultural heritage collections and the insights they can reveal about both the historic past and the world in which we live today.

Charlotte A. Nickerson is a junior in Dudley House studying History. From hamburgers at Keflavik Airport to groovy serif fonts advertising yogurt, Charlotte’s column will break down designs and take a deep dive into the origins, abstractions, and powers of aesthetic homogeneity — and how it might just be destroying human health and sanity.

Ellie H. Ashby is a junior in Adams House studying Social Studies. Her reported column will explore religious discourse at Harvard — how it is shaped, the questions it poses, and how we interact with it. It is an investigation into faith and religion and how beliefs influence opinions and actions.

JULIEN BERMAN

MANUEL A. YEPES

TOWARD A HIGHER HIGHER EDUCATION

THE POSTGRADUATE WAY OF LIFE

Julien Berman is a freshman from Washington, D.C., likely studying Economics. His column will analyze key challenges facing higher education in the United States, expose potential flaws in the education model, and provide suggestions for improvement. In his free time, Julien loves to play the violin and write fiction.

Manuel A. Yepes is a Crimson Editorial editor who grew up in Atlanta, Ga., now lives in Cabot House, and studies Social Studies. His column aims to reveal the cultures and ways of life of the students at Harvard’s various postgraduate schools.

SANDHYA KUMAR

SUHAAS M. BHAT

MIREYA SÁNCHEZ-MAES

RHYME AND REASON

Mireya Sánchez-Maes is a junior in Currier House.

Born and raised in Las Cruces, N.M., Mireya is pursuing a joint concentration in English and Theater, Dance, and Media. Her column will explore the satirical nuances of navigating Harvard as a low-income Latina and will be written entirely using longform rhyme.

VANESSA B. HU

SCIENCE ‘N TRADITION

DEMYSTIFYING THERAPY

HOPES AND HYPOCRISIES

Sandhya Kumar is a freshman in Greenough Hall interested in studying Molecular and Cellular Biology. Originally from Tallahassee, Fla., she is intrigued by the ways science impacts daily life and decision-making. Her column will explore the science behind Harvard culture and traditions, and make suggestions for student actions.

Suhaas M. Bhat is a junior from Marshfield, Wis., concentrating in Physics and Social Studies. His column will explore psychotherapy: how it works, how we as a culture (mis)understand it, and how we can use it to make Harvard a healthier place.

Vanessa B. Hu is a junior in Currier House, studying Computer Science. Her column hopes to illuminate what’s under the pretty and progressive veneers of modern-day existence, from pop culture trends to student lives — teasing out the hopes and hypocrisies both in our bids for social wokeness.

10

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

EDITORIAL

JANUARY 27, 2023

COLUMN

COLUMN

THE HARVARD BELOW OUR FEET

RHYME AND REASON

Inside Weeks Bridge

Have Some Fun, Hon

A DEEPER LOOK. Weeks Bridge exists as a reminder to take a deeper look at what we’ve written off as commonplace or mundane.

GUILTY FUN. So what’s this first piece all about?

What’s column number one? People at this school, it seems, Feel guilty having fun.

BY ADAM V. ALEKSIC

BY MIREYA SÁNCHEZ-MAES

A

sepia ectoplasm of leaf imprints is caked onto the concrete blocks of a bridge dedicated to a dead man. As students, we interact with the John Weeks Bridge regularly, but we never stop to consider the history the structure holds. Scuff marks hint at footsteps that once thundered there, as ephemeral as the leaves that once lay on the drying cement. Scattered stories are the only scraps of vestigial proof we have to document the thousands of people who walked across, ritually jumped off, and fell in love on this bridge.

The little secrets ensconced on the Weeks footbridge belie a greater one: why it’s there.

Rather than being built as a quaint pedestrian thoroughfare, it was constructed in 1926 for the far more utilitarian purpose of funneling steam over to the Business School. An ever-expanding Harvard needed a new method to bring heat from what is now the Blackstone plant on the Cambridge side to their facilities on the Allston side. The bridge was ultimately built as a way to extend their sprawling network of steam tunnels.

This means that the landmark’s hollow brick facade conceals a secret passageway. A damp, dimly lit wooden walkway rises and falls with the three swooping arches and compresses into a crawl space at each of their apices. Staircases and sets of steel doors sandwich either end, leading into other recesses of the tunnel system. Scalding hot pipes snake along the sides, carrying vapors that typically exceed 400 degrees Fahrenheit. The space simultaneously seems sweltering from the steam and cold from the grimy liquid on the ground. Graffiti immortalizing past generations adorns the sticky walls, and the stuffy smell of stale air permanently lingers throughout the cramped corridor.

The names and illustrations scribbled on the sides of the tunnel reside as relics of an era when this forgotten world was far more accessible. Intrepid undergrads could venture down through trapdoors on the abutments and into the passageway. Homeless Cantabrigians would often

go down there to find a warm, quiet shelter from the rough New England weather. What is a mere memory to us today was once an open secret around campus.

The Weeks tunnel began to be forgotten 60 years ago when security was tightened across the steam tunnels following a series of breakins. The College started to see the space as a liability and security risk, and wanted to keep out both nosy students and the unhoused. Any information about the tunnels was carefully withheld from the public, and knowledge of it became diluted with every cohort of graduates.

Today, the only indications that the bridge might be more than a pretty structure are the heavy, internally padlocked metal panels interspersed at periodic intervals along its surface.

We don’t question their purpose any more than we take time to marvel at the haunting, faded oak leaf impressions nearby.

Although this particular portal to the past has passed into obscurity, the John Weeks Bridge continues to be a conduit for our collective memories. As an important social hub on campus, it constantly serves as a catalyst for the creation of new stories, stories that will one day also be forgotten. Inherently a point of transition, the bridge stands as a testament of the transience and impermanence of the college experience.

Nevertheless, it is important to appreciate the remnants of history that we can salvage. Weeks Bridge also exists as a reminder to take a deeper look at what we’ve written off as commonplace or mundane. Every building, street, and landmark on campus holds a secret, and it’s up to us to uncover them. In doing this, we stop taking things for granted and learn to better value what we have before our transient college experience too comes to an end.

–Adam V. Aleksic ’23 is a joint concentrator in Government and Linguistics in Kirkland House.

His column “The Harvard Beneath Our Feet” appears on alternate Thursdays.

OP-ART A CAMBRIDGE WINTER The weather is finally predictable… predictably cold.

W

elcome one, and welcome all It’s great to have you here.

This will be my column For the next, like, half a year.

“What’s with all the rhymes?” you ask “You sound like you are three.”

First of all, rude.

And second, wait and see.

I’ve noticed something worrisome It’s really quite mysterious that many Harvard undergrads Are simply far too serious!

They only read the classics.

And work themselves to death They hope for Goldman Sachs and Bain With tense and baited breath.

The Ivies are notorious For hyper-toxic vibes They’re so hard to get into Some rich folks resort to bribes!

But all that competition means That students can feel trapped Like if they don’t speak Shakespeare Then they’ll never quite adapt!

This column is an argument Against all that BS Rhyming is a weapon I will use to self-express!

I hope that people read this And realize it’s okay To take themselves less seriously And add fun to their day.

I have a great semester planned!

From final clubs to school, We’ll touch on all things Harvard.

And if you’re like, “That’s not cool.”

Just know that rhymes are learning tools.

They worked when you were two.

And though you have regressed since then, They just might work anew.

So what’s this first piece all about?

What’s column number one?

People at this school, it seems, Feel guilty having fun.

They start their econ homework, Then pause to watch a show.

But after that they’ll curse their Lazy asses. “No, Chad, No! You fool! You numb nut!

You’ve wasted so much time!

Goldman Sachs will hate you If you watch more Shonda Rhimes!”

Then they drink a Red Bull And as penance, they stay up Till 5:30 in the morning.

Is this unproductive? Yup! As students we are busy, And rarely have the time To do things just for fun Like watch a show or write a rhyme! (wink) Harvard’s reputation Of academic clout Enforces this reality By filling us with doubt: “Should I start my essay?

I haven’t had lunch yet….

I really need some sleep But I should start the next pset!”

Because there’s always work to do, And we all want success, We often forgo pleasure Which results in undue stress.

But here’s a little secret That psychology supports: Too long without a break, creates problems – Times reports.

Taking breaks is healthy.

It helps prevent fatigue!

So don’t feel guilty taking time To check that football league.

Studies show that taking breaks And time away from work Creates healthy long term habits That we otherwise might shirk.

Like sleep! And exercise!

And human interaction!

Science says that rested folks Have “higher satisfaction.”

Psychologically, The human brain is built to wander We can focus ≈40 minutes Then our brain will quit its ponder!

So pushing through is by no means The “best” thing we should do Guilt’s not necessary— take some time that’s just for you!

But for you workaholics, Know there’s grade benefits, too Work tends to be better when Your brain is fresh and new Taking time to hang with friends Or doing things you like Is not anti-productive, It makes ideas spike!

And of course, for mental health, Some fun breaks are required!

They help us to escape The stressful patterns we’ve got wired.

Knowing it’s important To do things that we enjoy Will help us live our lives here With more happiness and joy.

Does that mean we should never work?

Or party every night?

Nah bro, make smart choices And I swear you’ll be alright.

My point here is, a show or two?

A day that’s just for fun?

It certainly won’t kill you And will help in the long run.

So if, to save your mental health, You need to take a break.

Then girl, you should do it!

At least, do it for my sake.

–Mireya Sánchez-Maes ’24 is a joint concentrator in English and Theater, Dance, and Media in Currier House. Her column “Rhyme and Reason” appears on alternate Mondays.

–Emily N. Dial ’25, a Crimson Editorial and Associate Design Editor, is a Philosophy concentrator in Adams House.

OP-ED

Let the Tourists be Tourists

BY NOAH B. KASSIS

C

ampus tourists are annoying.

At Harvard, this stance is a basic tenet of undergraduate life. Most of us adopt it quickly and uncritically, expressing disdain from the first instance of uninvited photography or blocked walkways. Our annoyance seems reasonable — this campus is our place, so goes the common refrain, and we shouldn’t have to deal with the constant, near-voyeuristic intrusion of outsiders in our place of living and learning.

Our unspoken logic is simple: We belong here, and they do not. Naturally salient but not explicit are claims of entitlement (we deserve to be here; they don’t), superiority (we’re good enough to be here; they’re not), and ownership (Harvard is ours, not theirs).

This line of reasoning is awfully precarious. Our sense of entitlement, superiority, and ownership all rely on status gained from a single decision made by the Admissions Office. Is it truly reasonable to claim that acceptance to Harvard — a mark of “merit” steeped heavily in chance, privilege, and legacy status — effects such immediate and certain distinction? Undoubtedly, Harvard students have a claim to ownership at Harvard — we’re the ones who power its research and pay its tuition. But we’re not the

only ones who can rightfully claim ownership.

Whether we like it or not, Harvard — the school, the symbol, the mythology, the history — is a project of joint ownership. As a practical matter, the university benefits from massive indirect public investment via hidden taxpayer subsidies disguised in the form of its tax-free endowment. As of 2015, this benefit was equivalent to $48,000 per student, almost five times the taxpayer investment per student at Massachusetts’s flagship public university. From a historical perspective, too, Harvard is a monument, a national symbol. Our university has educated eight U.S. presidents and is older than the nation itself. It is inextricably linked to American history. From any perspective, it’s only reasonable that Harvard be, at the very least, available for public viewing.

Most importantly, Harvard’s immense cultural clout marks it as an object of public interest and ownership. Consistent media coverage, recurrent public debates, outsize importance in politics and business, and regular Hollywood attention all contribute to a near-obsessive level of public attention — a veritable “cult of Harvard” in American popular culture. We’ve all encountered it in impressively uncreative nicknames from high school friends, copy-and-paste Linkedin entreaties from Harvard hopefuls, and the oddly exhilarating dread that arises when asked “Where do you go to college?” It’s the same cultish attraction driving the tourist swarms.

And we hate it.

Or so we say.

But we don’t actually hate the cult of Harvard; in fact, for many, if not most, of us, it’s part of the reason we’re here. It figured in our decision to commit to Harvard, and it undergirds our self-image and self-worth — whether we admit it or not. This makes sense: In our putatively meritocratic society, going to Harvard is the ultimate mark of success. The clout, attention, and brand power of the Harvard pin on our lapels provide real goods — both material and psychological.

So why do the tourists irritate us? If their presence is just a particularly immediate manifestation of the cultural fixation we seem to enjoy, our exasperation makes no sense. Shouldn’t we enjoy all the attention they provide? Rather, our excessive annoyance with campus tourists reveals something else: an ambivalence about the cult of Harvard — a preoccupation with several unresolved questions over our university’s peculiar cultural role. For example: Is the cult of Harvard just? I assume many would join me in arguing that the immense prestige afforded to Harvard alumni in the professional world produces and exacerbates systemic inequities.

Is the cult of Harvard democratic? The predominant bias toward Harvard graduates in American politics, almost by definition, is not conducive to

representative government.

Does the cult of Harvard reflect reality? Is this university really the best, permanently and axiomatically? Forbes, U.S. News, QS, Times Higher Education, and Niche don’t seem to think so.

And perhaps most importantly, is the cult of Harvard really good for us, Harvard’s students? Does it set realistic and healthy expectations? Does it prepare us to participate in our communities with humility and integrity? Each semester I spend here, I become increasingly concerned that the answer is no.

These are reasonable and important ethical questions. They should be pondered by every critical and compassionate thinker in this community of enormous privilege and cultural power. We should shout them at administrators, job recruiters, admissions officers, and each other. They should become topics of debate, reason for self-interrogation, and fodder for genuine unease.

No matter where it takes us, the targets of this unease should not be campus tourists, who are merely partaking in a cult of Harvard they had no part in creating. So long as the cult of Harvard continues to benefit us, we need to let go of the antipathy. Let the tourists be tourists.

–Noah B. Kassis ’25, a Crimson Editorial Editor, is a History concentrator in Mather House.

METRO

THE HARVARD CRIMSON JANUARY 27, 2023

CITY COUNCIL

Councilors Debate Body Cameras and Regulations COUNCIL MEETS. The Cambridge City Council met in a special session to discuss the implementation of body cameras.

BY RYAN H. DOAN-NGUYEN AND YUSUF S. MIAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

­C

ambridge City Councilors sparred over whether the Cambridge Police Department should implement body cameras and what role the Council should play in regulating the department at a special meeting Wednesday on the police killing of Sayed Faisal.

The nearly three-hour session — a continuation of last week’s special hearing — was switched to an online format the day after protesters stormed Cambridge City Hall to demand justice for Faisal. Despite the virtual gathering, dozens protested on the city hall steps, chanting and waving signs reading, “Jail All Racist Killer Cops,” and “Accountability Now.” Faisal, a 20-year-old University of Massachusetts Boston student and Cambridge resident, was shot and killed by a Cambridge Police Department officer on Jan. 4. The fatal shooting remains under investigation by the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office, but without body camera footage of the shooting, many questions about its circumstances linger.

Unlike neighboring Boston and Somerville, Cambridge has not instituted body cameras for police officers. Some demonstrators at recent protests in the wake of the shooting have called for Cambridge Police Department to adopt body cameras, while others said they were concerned about increasing police funding to support their implementation.

These debates were reflected

CITY HALL FROM PAGE 1

Protestors Storm City Hall, Want Justice As the meeting resumed at around 7 p.m., Councilor E. Denise Simmons asked if protesters were still in the building. Shouting was still heard in the Zoom webinar’s background several minutes after business resumed.

Purkar said he deeply distrusted city leadership, challenging claims that Cambridge’s leaders are progressive on policing.

“Both Mayor Siddiqui and the police commissioner present themselves as progressives, as people that represent the community,” Purkar said. “If they really represent the community, if they really stand for our interests, then they would give in to the demands of the community.”

“They want to kick the can down the road. They want to have a prolonged cover-up. They want to wait for the steam to dissipate from the movement,” Purkar added. “We refuse to do that.”

The Cambridge City Council will hold another special meeting on Wednesday in response to the police shooting of Faisal. Purkar said protesters would attend the special meeting, and would hold a march at Somerville High School on Sunday. jina.choe@thecrimson.com samuel.goldston@thecrimson.com

THC View the related video on our channel YOUTUBE.COM

Hundreds of demonstrators marched through Harvard Yard.

JOEY HUANG—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

in Wednesday’s Council meeting, in which councilors clashed over whether to take up a policy order calling for the use of body cameras by CPD. “My support for body cameras is not because I necessarily think that it’s going to lead to a particularly different outcome, but it really is about transparency and accountability,” said Councilor Marc C. McGovern.

Six councilors said they supported implementing body cameras. One councilor, Quinton Y. Zondervan, expressed opposition, citing privacy concerns.

“For the most part, they do not solve the problems that we are discussing here today,” Zondervan said.

“What’s happening is a systemic problem with policing and with our approach to community safety, and unfortunately, body cameras don’t really address that,” he added.

The implementation of body cameras has been “a topic of conversation for several years now,”

Cambridge Police Department Commissioner Christine A. Elow said during the Wednesday meeting.

City Manager Yi-An Huang ’05 noted that the city last explored requiring body cameras for officers in 2020 and the previous initiative could provide a foundation for a body camera program.

Elow said though obstacles remain for the implementation of body cameras, she is open to the idea of using them.

“Cameras are a valuable tool.

They enhance transparency, accountability, and build community trust,” Elow said.

“Body cameras are correlated with reductions of abuses of force and reduces citizens’ complaints,” she said.

Zondervan also proposed compensation from the city to the family of Faisal. Huang said that any compensation would require a legal settlement.

Following the discussion of compensation, Councilor Paul F. Toner said he was concerned that

the discussion was falling outside of the Council’s purview.

“In my opinion, the City Council is going way beyond the realm of our role,” Toner said.

“I’m not here to run the police department. I’m not here to make the decisions for the Commissioner,” he said.

“I do think we have a wonderful department,” he added.

Zondervan closed the meeting with a contentious response to Toner.

“I appreciate and understand that the rage of this conversation may be making him uncomfortable,” Zondervan said. “I do urge him to review our code of ordinances, where the City Council has complete purview and jurisdiction over our police department.”

“I also urge him to respect my First Amendment rights to speak about whatever I feel like,” he added. ryan.doannguyen@thecrimson.com yusuf.mian@thecrimson.com

11

Charter Commitee Discusses Elections

BY JINA H. CHOE AND SAMUEL P. GOLDSTON CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

The Cambridge Charter Re­ view Committee — tasked by the Cambridge City Council with recommending changes to the city’s charter — convened for its first public forum at the Cambridge Public Library Tuesday evening to discuss election procedures and civic engagement.

Comprised of 15 Cambridge residents from diverse backgrounds selected by the Council, the committee has met internally once or twice every month this year since August to discuss reforming the city’s plan of government.

The committee fielded several public comments Tuesday night concerning the short turnaround of the current two-year Council terms and the mayoral election process.

The last major updates to the charter occurred over 80 years ago when the city adopted the ‘Plan E’ government structure, in which an elected council selects a mayor to serve as a council chair and a city manager who oversees the day-to-day operation of the city, budget, and departments.

More than 20 residents attended the forum, including Councilor Patricia M. Nolan ’80, who said she was “disappointed” by the low turnout in an interview after the forum.

On the other hand, committee member and lecturer at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design James G. Stockard Jr. said that the turnout at the meeting on Tuesday was uncharacteristically high.

“All of our meetings so far have been on Zoom,” he said.

“There’s more people here tonight than we’ve had in any of those meetings,” Stockard Jr. added.

Many forum attendees decried the city’s lack of news and education for voters, with local Cambridge resident Heather Hoffman saying that Cambridge’s government is “way too often

opaque.”

“So often, people in the city government think that ‘If we actually tell people what we’re doing, they will just organize against us,’” Hoffman said.

“That could well be, and that maybe suggests that you are doing things that we don’t like, and that they are not necessarily for everyone’s good,” she added.

“

When is all this outreach? When is this rich dialogue? When is this informed citizenry going to be making informed decisions?

Mary Jane Kornacki Cambridge Resident

Others questioned whether the committee could develop recommendations for charter amendments and conduct meaningful outreach by its Council-imposed June deadline.

“When is all this outreach?

When is this rich dialogue? When is this informed citizenry going to be making informed decisions?” asked resident Mary Jane Kornacki. “I’m just saying that the short timeframe you have seems designed to do something short of robust civic engagement.”

Committee member Stockard said, in an interview following the forum that the committee will “very likely” request an extension and deliver its recommendations in the fall.

Charter Review Project Manager Anna K. Corning said that she was pleased with local residents’ comments during the forum.

“It was great to start these conversations and hear some of the feedback from the community about what we can be doing better, and some of the steps we can be taking to engage more of the community,” she said. jina.choe@thecrimson.com samuel.goldston@thecrimson.com

‘A Regenerative Space’: Faro Café Lights Up the Square

Faro Café, a new cafe located at 5 Arrow St., opened its doors last month.

BY CLAIRE YUAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Faro Café — a vibrant new coffee shop on the corner of Arrow Street — opened its doors last month, inviting passersby to step into the regenerative space for a hot cup of coffee.

Owned by Henry F. Hoffstot, Faro Café served its first cup of coffee on Dec. 14. Though it joins several other established coffee shops in Harvard Square, its owners say Faro aims to do more than just serve coffee: the vision behind the cafe, Hoffstot said, is around the “sensation” customers have when they enter the space.

“It’s about letting the space be something that people interpret how they want to envision it or define it or inhabit it,” he said.

“We’re hoping that people make Faro what they want — what they need — and that the space can lend itself to a variety of different community-focused purposes.”

The cafe’s name comes from the Spanish word for “lighthouse,” a nod to Buenos Aires, where Hoffstot lived for four years.

Trading paper to-go cups for ceramic mugs and latte art, Hoffstot said he hopes Faro Café gives a more “romanticized” idea of coffee — something to be enjoyed slowly, instead of just being fuel for productivity.

Even in the quiet of an early Sunday morning, customers had already found their way inside, settling in with books and laptops.

Priyanka Saxena, a Somerville resident, chose a spot tucked in behind the soundsystem of the

CLAIRE YUAN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

cafe.

“I come a pretty long way to get to a cafe early in the morning and it’s because it’s a really nice vibe,” she said. “There’s nothing too busy or ostentatious about it, but it’s cozy.”

“The pastries are great, the coffees are delicious, and it’s just a nice spot to relax in the morning,” she added.

Harris S. Kaplan, a postdoctoral fellow in Harvard’s Molecular and Cellular Biology Department, sat at a long table in the main space with a decaf coffee.

Kaplan was on the hunt for a new coffee shop haunt to replace Darwin’s Ltd. — a famous Cambridge coffee shop that recently closed its doors — when he stumbled on Faro.

“I live right around the corner, so that’s why I was looking for a new cafe,” he said. “I like it — I like

that it’s not too busy on a Sunday morning, like a lot of cafes are.”

Andre L. Ferreira ’23 de-

“

You can’t argue that [Harvard] were the beneficiaries of the scheme instead of the victims. You can’t argu Kevin J. O’Brien ‘74 Partner at Ford O’Brien Landy

scribed the cafe as “nice and calm for students.”

“I do like supporting local establishments rather than big franchises, so I think it’s a nice place to go,” said Ferreira, who was joined by Maria Keselj ’23 as they enjoyed the cafe’s offerings

and worked on their laptops.

“I feel like we need more cafes around,” Keselj said. “There aren’t too many coffee shops to study at, so I’m glad this opened up.”

Samantha D. Lilly, a barista at Faro, described the cafe as a place that “fills the community.”

“The cafe is supposed to be a regenerative space, not a space that you come into and it takes from you,” Lilly said. “It’s a space to get things back into you, which is love, community.”

“It’s not supposed to be like some bougie place where you can’t order what you want without feeling bad about it,” they added. “Get your vanilla lattes and your mochas and your vanilla mochas if you want.”

claire.yuan@thecrimson.com

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

ARTS

12

JANUARY 27, 2023

ARTS VANITY

Editors’ Note: To Our Friends IT IS FITTING that in our last act as Chairs, we present the tenth annual Year-in-Review.

BY SOFIA ANDRADE AND JADEN S. THOMPSON CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

D

earest readers, Neither of us were prepared for how fast 2022 would come and go. We know it sounds trite, but it has been the joy of our college careers to lead The Crimson Arts this year.

It is fitting that in our last act as Chairs, we present the tenth annual Year-in-Review — the films, TV shows, music, and cultural moments that defined these past twelve months. As all of this art was released, there was one constant in our lives: the steady production of Crimson Arts content, and the warm and effervescent community that goes along with it.

We are immensely proud of the work that The Crimson Arts has produced this year. We published over 600 — 600! — articles in 2022. It was our first full year

back on campus since the pandemic, and it was a historic year for The Crimson Arts. This was our first year covering the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Rolling Loud Music Festival, Dreamville Music Festival, as well as the Boston Underground Film Festival. We had the joy of editing some incredible concert reviews when up-and-coming artists like Lizzy McAlpine and The Driver Era stopped in Boston. We interviewed some fascinating artists like author Elif Batuman ’99, actor and singer Ben Platt, and Hollywood producer Marty Bowen ’91. We published insightful and hilarious additions to our Unpopular Opinion and What the Hell Happened series, several nuanced thinkpieces, and many beautifully crafted columns. We were continuously impressed by our writers’ wit, incisive commentary, and thoughtful approach to arts journalism.

We obviously could not have published over 600 articles on our own. We owe so much to so many. To Raquel and Jasper, thank you for always having answers to our questions and for fielding late night texts and phone calls. You put countless hours into this organization and you did it with grace. To our multimedia exec Allison and our de-

sign exec Nayeli, thank you for helping to bring our written content to life with dynamic visuals and beautiful print pages.

To our dedicated and loyal Arts execs who showed up again and again, who approached the editing process eagerly and with keen eyes — thank you, thank you, thank you. We will miss seeing you all every week. We will always

“

We know it sounds trite, but it has been the joy of our college careers to lead The Crimson Arts this year.

Sofia Andrade ’23-’24 Jaden S. Thompson ’23

think of the long hours spent at Monday production nights and smile fondly; we consider you not only our coworkers, but our friends. Production nights could have gone a whole lot faster if we sat quietly while we edited, but we could never help joking around with each other. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

To those that came before us, thank you. Joy and Kalos, we’re sorry for still texting you with

questions 12 months after you finished your tenure as Chairs. You paved the way for us and taught us everything we know. And to the compers and staff writers, the future generations of execs: Those 600+ articles would not exist without you. Nothing makes us happier than talking to a new writer who is passionate about contributing to Crimson Arts and being a part of our community.

There is no doubt in our minds that we’re leaving this organization in good hands.

We bonded as a community this year in our first full year in-person since the pandemic started. We were together at the Crimson Arts Oscars watch party when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock in February. We sent links to Wordle spin-off games to each other on Slack (Taylordle being a personal favorite). We hosted rooftop socials where compers and execs alike posed alongside a projection of a Robert Pattinson fan edit on YouTube. We posed for each others’ BeReals at pitch meetings and production nights. We could go on, but to put it simply, it was beyond special to spend this year alongside you all.

You made 14 Plympton St. home for us.

We would be lying if we said we didn’t tear up a little as we left

Harvard after our last production night as Chairs this December.

We both knew we’d be coming back to campus, but we knew we wouldn’t be coming back to The Crimson, at least not in the way we did this year. (Though we will definitely visit!) We’ll have free time on Monday nights, and that will be a strange, bittersweet sort of freedom. We won’t have to run to the Quad shuttle at midnight after production night only for it to pull away as we arrive because neither of us pays close enough attention to the time. This is a long winded way of saying…we’ll miss you, Crimson Arts. We’re so thankful for you. And we’re so excited to see the work that Anya, Alisa, and the new masthead will do to make our content better and our community even stronger.

We’ll be cheering you on ’til we graduate, and after that, too.

Okay, officially signing off now to go have a “Shrek” marathon and cry sentimental tears.

Artslove forever, Jaden S. Thompson and Sofia Andrade Arts Chairs of the 149th Guard of The Harvard Crimson

sofia.andrade@thecrimson.com jade.thompson@thecrimson.com

‘It Came From the Closet’ Review: A Tribute to Queerness

BY SAWYER TAYLOR-ARNOLD CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

“On some level I knew horror wasn’t just about monsters doing bad things,” S. Trimble writes in the opening essay of “It Came From the Closet,” “It’s also about doing gender badly.”

This notion undergirds much of Joe Vallese’s anthology, released in early October by the Feminist Publishing Press and comprised of 25 essays from a talented group of queer and trans writers. “It Came From the Closet” dives head first into the muddy waters of horror — a genre notorious for its demonization of queerness and gender nonconformity — and the queer people that consume, question, and love it despite its problematic history. Replete with beautiful, memoir-style narratives, this collection of essays is well worth the read regardless of the reader’s affinity for horror or movie analysis.

While many of the essays use queerness as a lens through

which to analyze horror, horror is also used to explore ambiguous notions of queerness. Though these two paradigms serve as the backbone of the anthology, they are far from the only things discussed as authors grapple with race, religion, disability, parenthood, family, illness, grief, friendship, and even twinship. These 25 essays traverse a vast sea of topics, gifting the reader with brief glimpses into an array of different lives, experiences, and interiorities. Some authors attempt to do what Trimble (author of the essay “A Demon-Girl’s Guide to Life”) citing Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick calls a “reparative reading”— an alternative way of looking at these films that explicates their resonances with queerness rather than their demonization of such; other authors like Zefyr Lisowski (writer of “The Girl, the Well, the Ring”) are far more critical of the genre that has historically weaponized queerness, transness, and gender non-conformity as a signifier of monstrosity.

These internal discrepan-

cies, however, speak to the most compelling things about this book: The diversity in stylistic approach, the varying ways authors found to weave together horror and queer existence, and the multitude of lives that come alive on the page. Particularly notable essays include “The Girl, the Well, the Ring” by Lisowski, which intertwines analysis of “The Ring” and “Pet Semetary” with musings on chronic illness and disability; “Black Body Snatchers” by Samuel Autman which links Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” to Autman’s experience as a Black, queer journalist surrounded by the omnipresent whiteness and Mormonism of Utah; and “Indescribable” by Carrow Narby who articulates a fascinating exploration of “The Blob” and “Society” in an essay about genderlessness, corporeality and pain, and the pursuit of imperfect intimacies.

Perhaps most compelling, however, is Vallese’s own contribution to the anthology. In it, Vallese interweaves a dissection of “Grace”, a 2009 film about an infant that feeds on human

blood, with a moving narrative about queer parenthood. The effect of this is a poignant essay about a gay couple’s journey to create a family intertwined with cinephilic analysis of a cannibalistic baby that, in spite of this seemingly contradictory and macabre content, leaves the reader feeling hopeful and light.

While many of the films discussed are predicated upon the vulnerability of bodies — in conjunction with the purported “monstrosity” of queer and gender nonconforming bodies — there is something undoubtedly resilient about authors using these films as the lens through which to explore their own lives and survival on the page. Many of the authors identify with the werewolves, witches, monsters, and blobs (yes, even blobs) that they write about, finding humanity and commonality in the monstrous, unearthing stories of community and self-discovery in the tales that normally haunt us.

The stakes of this should not be underestimated: “It Came From the Closet” finds value in iden-

tifying with the monsters that have historically been used to demonize queer people in film. Yet it does so with incredible success as this identification manages to humanize, deepen, and complicate all involved, alive and fictitious. While an ambitious project — to identify with the monster society has said you are — it is one that the writers of this anthology carry out with grace and skill. Notably, there is very little recognition of these high stakes throughout the anthology, and only one author acknowledges what it would mean for this book to fail: “It’s dangerous, I know, to connect transmasculinity or gender dysphoria with a movie about female self-mutilation,” Jude Ellison S. Doyle writes. “The idea that transmasculine people are self-harming ‘women’ is currently one of the main talking points TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) use to try to argue us out of existence.”

At its best, this anthology offers captivating personal essays, astute movie analysis, and lyrical prose that expands (and compli-

cates) conceptions of queerness.

In the moments it falters, authors rely on a tenuous link between the film they are purportedly discussing and a disconnected personal narrative. These low points are few and far between, however, and the quality of storytelling, prose, and analysis throughout the anthology more than makes up for occasional moments of disjointedness.

“It Came From the Closet” is a compelling read across the board — for those whose childhood was shaped by these cult classics to those whose horror movie consumption ends at the trailer — as much as it is an ambitious project to shift our conceptions of queerness and horror. sawyer.taylor-arnold@thecrimson.com

4.5 STARS

ARTS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON JANUARY 27, 2023

13

EDITOR’S PICK

MUSIC

‘BABYLON:’ HOLLYWOOD’S GLAMOUR AND UGLY SIDE

COURTESY OF PARAMOUNT PICTURES

ASHER J. MONTGOMERY—CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Concert Review: Modest Mouse Reminds Us Of The ‘90s

BY ASHER J. MONTGOMERY CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

I

ssac Brock, lead singer and guitarist of Modest Mouse, walked onto Roadrunner’s stage on Dec. 16 with a jean jacket and spiked hair, picked up his guitar, and began to perform a sloppy version of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” When the crowd cheered, he laughed to himself and stopped playing. Then the set began in earnest.

On tour to commemorate the 25th anniversary of their 1997 album “The Lonesome Crowded West,” the highly influential indie-rock band reminded the audience that they were grungy back in the day, and they still are. They may look slightly older and have bigger bellies, but that reckless teen spirit is still there.

They played tracks from “The Lonesome Crowded West” in order. Brock spit out the words to the first song “Teeth Like God’s Shoeshine” — the lyrics were almost incomprehensible, but that didn’t matter to the headbanging crowd. The performance was hard rock — energetic, loud, and crazy due to the guitars sounding

like an alarm blaring. The band embraced the eccentricity of the song, acting as if they were teenagers once again.

The concert mixed nostalgia with a hefty dose of good humor. Simon O’Connor on the guitar wore long bangs in front of his face in a style oddly reminiscent of the 90s. Many newer fans who know them for their Indie Rock hits like “Float On,” a song they didn’t play at the show, were introduced to the grunge of Modest Mouse’s starting days.

The fifth song of the set, “Jesus Christ Was An Only Child,” featured acoustic guitars to highlight the folksy feel behind the lyrics. “Jesus Christ was an only child, he went down to the river and drank and smiled,” Brock and O’Connor sang together, Brock’s face turning redder with exertion as the song got louder.

“Yeah I know now what I knew then,” he screamed three times as the song came to a climax.

The opener also contributed to the light hearted atmosphere before Modest Mouse’s set. The performer, who goes by the name Mattress, performed gothic experimental EDM music. He wore a gold suit and jewel-encrusted dress shoes that must have touched every part of the stage as

he danced around in an unusual stepping type of salsa.

He danced like a middle aged man might if no one was watching. The lyrics were so random they could have been made up on the spot. But that could also have been the point. Regardless, his performance was unforgettable.

In “Doin’ the Cockroach,” the drummer, Jeremiah Green, held the chaotic song together, switching between quick and complicated rhythms at lightning speed.

At one point, Green even took out maracas that he shook with one hand while he kept playing the drum set with the other.

Green was essential too, even when the set slowed down during the last two songs, “Bankrupt on Selling” and “Styrofoam Boots/ It’s All On Ice, Alright,” played mostly acoustically. The headbangs turned into sways, and people in the crowd took out their lighters. These two songs were the highlights of the set, as they stood out so drastically from the crazy energy of the first thirteen songs. The last song began with Brock on acoustic guitar playing a folk fingerpicking pattern, but Green joined back in on drums about halfway through, and Brock started screaming again.

They couldn’t let it end on a soft

note, not when they were focused on reminding everyone how grungy they are.

But it would be impossible to forget after this show. The song “Shit Luck,” started off with Brock screaming the first line of only four in the whole song. “This plane is definitely crashing,” he yelled. He leaned forward and slammed on the strings of the guitar at his shins. Then, as he stood up, he brought the guitar up to his face and played with his teeth, his mouth eating the strings.

At the end of the set, Mattress thanked Modest Mouse and told the audience to get ready for their performance. “They are going to make you cry,” he said. This statement proved to be true.

“The Lonesome Crowded West” deserved a tribute anniversary tour. The album transcends genre boundaries, not clearly falling into any category, but touching on blues, grunge, folk rock and many more, not to mention the level of comfort and enjoyment each of the members has on stage after so many years of performing.

At the start of “Babylon,” amid a 1920s Hollywood mansion party drowned in jazz, drugs, and genitalia, the only elephant in the room is… an actual elephant in the room, painstakingly corralled from the rural plains of California to be a unique party trick, writes Crimson Staff writer Kieran J. Farrell.

As it turns out, the elephant is ultimately used as a distraction for guests when the staff needs to carry out the body of an actress who died during the party. “Babylon” is clearly not afraid to thrust the audience into the boisterous reality it imagines, and once it brings on the noise, it refuses to quiet down.

The film, the latest from Oscar-winner Damien Chazelle ‘07, follows the careers of several individuals working in the cutthroat film industry of the 1920s. Chazelle, who graduated from Harvard College and whose previous credits include the critically-acclaimed films “Whiplash” and “La La Land,” turns in another gem, this time greater in scope but reminiscent of his earlier works in how carefully it chronicles the rise and fall of its central characters.

For a film that runs over three hours long, it is also masterfully paced, as its vivacious nature ensures that it is never in jeopardy of losing steam. Also touting superb editing, creative utilization of music, and a fascinating story that offers a rare indictment of film culture itself, “Babylon” ironically positions itself to be the film of the year.

In “Babylon,” careers burn bright and they die, unceremoniously. As such, after his moment in the spotlight has expired, Jack Conrad desperately tries to recall the good: “It was the most magical place in the world, wasn’t it?” But Jack’s query may unfortunately be stabbing at a revisionist history, or perhaps no history at all. By the time the credits roll, Damien Chazelle has magnificently filled our screen with an epic that alters the way we perceive the screen itself.

THC Read more at THECRIMSON.COM

asher.montgomery@thecrimson.com

‘The Recruit’ Review: Confusion, Captivation, and Centineo

BY HAILEY E. KRASNIKOV CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Noah Centineo takes on a new fast-paced, nail-biting role in the new Netflix series, “The Recruit.”

Centineo stars as Owen, an adrenaline junky and newly-hired CIA lawyer who gets thrown into the world of classified missions, in which people are constantly trying to kidnap or murder him.

“

In “The Recruit,” viewers can see the true versatility of Centineo’s acting skills.

For Centineo, who has previously starred primarily in teen romance films, this change of genre is refreshing. In “The Recruit,” viewers can see the true versatility of Centineo’s acting skills as Owen navigates several stressful situations, which differs from his usual humorous and lighthearted roles.

Owen’s character forms a complicated friendship with Max (Laura Haddock), a CIA asset trying to extort the CIA in return for keeping their secrets. Owen is

charged with making her see reason — an assignment that turns his life upside down. Their relationship conveys both a sense of distrust and romantic tension: Owen cannot decide if he can truly trust Max, but he cannot deny his natural attraction and attachment to her.

Haddock’s acting is so extraordinary, viewers would forget she’s just playing a role. Her character’s simultaneous assertiveness and mysteriousness makes it hard for the audience to fully understand her motives. This route of character development is quite unique because it is difficult to predict a plot if the character in question is so unpredictable.

The series sets itself apart from other spy thrillers, as it definitely paints the CIA in a new light. Unlike the typical protagonists of espionage stories, Owen maintains a certain sense of chaos and unpreparedness throughout the season — it seems like he never understands what’s going on with his mission or with the agency. Owen’s lack of smoothness and stealth make him a surprisingly compelling lead. However, he does not always follow his exact orders, yet seemingly faces no real consequences — a detail that facilitates the storytelling, but is ultimately much

more unrealistic than the usual portrayal of secret agents.

In addition to Owen’s continuously risky and impulsive decision-making,, it does not even seem like he can trust the agency or the other agents around him. Ironically, Owen comes to trust Max and lets her guide him through the chaos, despite the fact that she was a criminal and a murderer.

Max and Owen’s ambiguous and unclear relationship is a consistent, key factor of the twisty main plot, which follows Owen trying to do his job. Admittedly, this relationship draws attention away from the extremely complicated narrative, possibly hindering the overall effectiveness of the story itself for the viewers.

While the series succeeded in establishing a strong emotional attachment for the viewers in relation to Max and Owen, other characters were unfortunately far less developed. The lack of backstory or context for the series’ supporting characters often made it difficult to understand their actions and their true motives. However, in some ways this lack of context makes the series’ unexpected plot twists all the more surprising.

Overall, any viewer in search of adrenaline, drama, or sus-

pense is sure to enjoy “The Recruit”’s whirlwind, adrenaline-filled story. Tune in to watch the development of Owen and

Max’s romantic friendship at the heart of the series. Their starcrossed dynamic perfectly complements the politics and secret

missions highlighted by the series’ plot and twists. hailey.krasnikov@thecrimson.com

COURTESY OF NETFLIX

FIFTEEN QUESTIONS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON JANUARY 27, 2023

A

Glenda R. Carpio is Chair of the Department of English, a Professor of African and African American Studies, and lecturer for the flagship freshman literature course Humanities 10, otherwise known as Hum 10.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Fifteen Minutes: Why did you want to teach [Hum 10] when you came to Harvard?

Glenda R. Carpio: I think one of the major reasons why Hum 10 is so important is that it allows us to rethink the Great Books course. That template is so problematic. I think about what it would be like to convey to first-year students coming in the importance of literary history, the importance of deep thinking across time, in different genres, that we still really believe in that. I think Hum 10 at Harvard has tried — especially in the last few years — to really revise that structure to provide for students the benefits of Great Books courses without its Eurocentric biases. Of course, you can never quite get away from it. We repeatedly get criticisms from students that it doesn’t include this and doesn’t include that, but I don’t think you could ever have a perfect Hum 10.

Q&A:

FIFTEEN QUESTIONS: GLENDA CARPIO ON HUMOR, HUM 10, AND THE FAILURE OF “SUCCESS” STORIES THE CHAIR OF THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT sat down with Fifteen Minutes to discuss rethinking the literary canon and immigrant narratives. “I was the lucky one, I survived,” she says. “What happens to those who are undone by the violence of having to be uprooted?”

BY JADE LOZADA CRIMSON MAGAZINE ASSOCIATE EDITOR

GC: There’s a spectrum, and one part of the spectrum is if you’re an immigrant and you’re at Harvard then you are the poster child of the so-called American Dream. So I think in that way Harvard is a kind of marker of a very well-rehearsed mythical story. And I think there’s a lot under that that’s more complicated. If you’re an immigrant at Harvard you also have a kind of

FM: Why did that lead to English and African & African American Studies as your specific areas of scholarship?

GC: With my eighth graders in Compton, we would listen to books and read along, so that those who couldn’t really read could hear, and they started to be able to know stories about Malcolm X or Frederick Douglass, or really hear ideas and concepts that they didn’t associate with school. They associated school with doing time. For them, the carceral and school were very much interlinked.

I think some of the bigger questions that my students and their lives there made me ask led me to specialize in African and African American Studies and to writing about Black humor, which has a whole different set of intellectual questions about why we laugh. It’s such a big part of the human experience. I wanted to explore that and see how humor has been used not just as a coping mechanism, but also as a way of protesting without falling into sentiment or falling into straight aggression.

FM: I’ve heard that there is a really good conversation that happens around the idea of the immigrant success story and how immigrants are treated in the United States generally. I’m wondering what you think about that. What are the questions that you ask your students in the conversation you start?

FM: Where do you think Harvard fits into this spectrum of immigrant narratives from acculturation to really being a social and political examination of how the country works?

Compton looked to me and felt to me like Guatemala, and it made me ask really big questions about why. I was teaching eighth grade my first year, and I had students who were basically illiterate. They couldn’t really read and write, and they had a great deal of shame about it. And I really asked myself, “We’re like a half-hour drive from Hollywood, and what disparities of wealth and power — how?” So I think that made me want to go to grad school and understand America, not as the place that I longed to acculturate into but as the phenomenon that includes so much injustice within this democratic structure. So for me, Compton was a real school.

I wanted to explore that and see how humor has been used not just as a coping mechanism, but also as a way of protesting without falling into sentiment.

We need to think about things like undocumented migration. We need to think about how climate is already impacting migration.

GC: When you think of immigrant literature, you’re likely to think of a story about how one comes to America and makes a life in America.

And, for me, I think that’s been a really important story and needs to be told again and again. But I do think that that acculturation plot papers over other major concerns that people are writing about when they write about immigration.

We need to think about things like undocumented migration. We need to think about how climate is already impacting migration, and I think keeping with stories that are about a singular person or community doesn’t give us the broad perspective that we also need to understand migration. Some of my research in this area has informed our discussions in seminar.

I hope it’s an invitation for students to be curious about a whole set of artists who are not writing the acculturation plot and are employing different formal means to get us to think about migration in connection to climate, to politics, to economics, and not just the Bildungsroman of someone’s individual life or a community trying to acculturate.

14

FM: My very last question is if you could tell me something that no one knows about you?

As in, no other writer.

JOEY HUANG—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

social tax — do you really belong at Harvard? Experienced from the other side, there’s a sense of, it doesn’t feel like an American Dream at all.

It feels like something else. It’s very challenging.

It’s a comforting American myth for those who are not immigrants, but see immigrants at Harvard. The underbelly of that is much more complicated for people who are actually immigrants at Harvard. And then somewhere in the middle of that spectrum is the reality that Harvard is also a place that hasn’t embraced migration as much as it could as an area of inquiry.

With the restructuring of arts and humanities — I’ve been part of the committee with Dean Kelsey — we’re really thinking about how we need to make that more of an area where students can come and understand migration from different vantage points. Not just from literature, from economics, or from politics, but really investigate this area of life that’s so affecting the world.

FM: I want to know a little bit more about your own immigration to the United States and what that was like for you.

GC: I came to the States when I was 12. I didn’t speak English, and that was really rough, because 12 is a hard age for anybody.

I went to middle and high school in Westchester, New York — not very diverse. In high school, some really stupid people used to nickname me Taco Bell. It’s really rough stuff that can leave marks — I mean, really nasty, you know? I think it’s really important to understand just how much migration hurts psychologically, emotionally. But I also think that it’s important for me not to dwell on those things publicly, because I am one of the many, many people who have suffered, and sometimes I think the plot of acculturation is solipsistic.

Acculturation takes the suffering that you go through and says, “Yes, but look I’ve survived, and I’m successful!” I’m less interested in that and more interested in the millions of people who don’t make it — like what happens to those who undone by the violence of having to be uprooted, often separated from families, living under what I call carceral migration, which is the kind of waiting for papers, being undocumented. I think it behooves us to look up and see what I call in my book “mi-

grant solidarity.”

But I also think that it’s important for me not to dwell on those things publicly, because I am one of the many, many people who have suffered.

FM: How did your experience in high school and your initial years in the United States bring you to the Teach for America program?

GC: In college, I remember I didn’t want to go work for “the man.” I have to do something, right? So I went to Compton. I was only 21 and, as an immigrant, I had traveled from the so-called third world to the first world. But I hadn’t actually seen how the third world can be within the first world.

GC: This is pretty personal, but I had to divorce my family, which is very painful, so it made me have to think about the concept of family. I think that when it works, it’s amazing. I have many dear friends, and their families are so lovely, and I’m invited to be part of that. I think when family works, it’s an amazing institution. But when it doesn’t, it also shows you that it can be a very oppressive cultural institution.

Even though it wasn’t easy, it did show me that you don’t have to follow societal norms. If your wellbeing is challenged by that norm, that norm needs to be gone.

FM: Thank you for sharing that.

I’m glad I asked, because I think I’ve met a lot of students who could benefit from hearing that advice.

GC: I think we should be able to say more about that. It’s often not because people are evil. It’s just that people have intergenerational trauma. And it gets to a point that somebody has to break it.

FM Fifteen Minutes is the magazine of The Harvard Crimson. To read the full interview and other longform pieces, visit THECRIMSON.COM/ MAGAZINE

SPORTS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON JANUARY 27, 2023

15

MEN’S ICE HOCKEY

No. 10 Harvard Enters Key Stretch UNDER PRESSURE ­After a mixed winter break, No. 10 Harvard enters a critical stretch of the season, with key games against Cornell and Quinnipiac before the storied Beanpot on Feb. 6.

BY BRIDGET T. SANDS AND AARON B. SHUCHMAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

T

he Harvard men’s ice hockey team faces a daunting schedule in the coming weeks, with home games against No. 11 Cornell and No. 3 Quinnipiac preceding the first round of the Beanpot Tournament against Boston College.

Despite returning key players to the lineup in the past few weeks, including senior forward and captain John Farinacci, the Crimson is still searching for consistency as it looks to move past a mixed winter break and hit its stride through a challenging schedule.

“I think we’re still forming some chemistry and different combinations,” head coach Ted Donato said. “We have to be able to…find different ways to be successful when teams try to be very sound defensively and clog up the neutral zone. I think we’ve got to find a way to…use our speed to get in on forechecks and be able to play and generate offensive chances that way.”

In its first game back from winter break on December 30, the Crimson battled the No. 5 Boston University Terriers at Walter Brown Arena in a top-10 showdown. Terriers forward Quinn Hutson scored on the power play just over two minutes into the game, but senior goaltender Mitchell Gibson and BU goaltender Drew Commesso quickly took control. Despite allowing the early goal, Gibson put together an exceptional performance, and Commesso matched him save for save until a late tying goal from sophomore forward Matthew Coronato. Despite Harvard forcing overtime late in the third period, Terriers captain Domenick Fensore scored off the rush with less than a minute remaining in OT, securing a hard-fought 2-1 win for BU.

and Tresca and junior forward Alex Laferriere put the finishing touches on the victory in the third period.

Harvard began its first road trip of 2023 against the Princeton Tigers on January 6. After a scoreless first period, the Tigers took control in the second period, riding two goals from captain Liam Gorman to a 3-0 lead entering the final 20 minutes of action.

However, the Crimson refused to go away quietly. Coronato cut into the deficit on the power play midway through the third period, and goals from Miller and Coronato 16 seconds apart late in regulation sent the game to OT tied at 3-3. In overtime, an outstanding individual effort from Laferriere provided the game-winner,

in the first period, creating offense on a partial breakaway and off a well-executed give-and-go.

The Bobcats extended their lead in the second period by cleaning up a lively rebound in front of the net, and while sophomore forward Alex Gaffney pulled the Crimson within two with a goal early in the third period, Quinnipiac goaltender Yaniv Perets, who ranks fourth in the nation with a 1.75 goals-against average, slammed the door on a potential comeback with a strong third period, handing Harvard its first defeat of 2023.

“Q u i n n i p iac I thought played a very

lineup for his first action of the season, recording two power play assists in his return from injury.

“Feels nice to be back, with a long, long couple of months being out. Physically feeling a lot better,” Farinacci said. “There’s nothing like playing games.”

Within the first six minutes of the game, T h r u n

slaught at bay. Harvard continued the offensive aggression into the third period, starting with a power play advantage carried over from the end of the second.

Again the Crimson capitalized, as junior forward Sean Farrell put Harvard in front 2-1. Goals from Gaffney and Miller later in the third period provided critical insurance, giving the Crimson a 4-1 victory in its captain’s return to action.

“John is a real important part of our group…he’s been a leader for us and a real productive player all over the place in all situa-

Senior forward and captain John Farinacci huddles against Yale on Feb, 22, 2022. Farinacci returned to play over winter break after an extended injury absence. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

“

I think we’re still trying to find the proper recipe to find consistent success.

Ted Donato ’91 Harvard Head Coach

“

I think we’re still forming some chemistry and different combinations.

Ted Donato ’91 Harvard Head Coach

“I felt like we battled, but I don’t think we were as sharp as we could have been,” said Donato on the loss to the Terriers.

Despite suffering a difficult defeat less than 48 hours earlier, Harvard started 2023 on a strong note, defeating the Northeastern University Huskies 8-4 in front of a sold-out home crowd on New Year’s Day. Six different Crimson players scored, including junior forward Ryan Drkulec and first-year forward Philip Tresca, who each recorded their first collegiate goals. Despite Harvard controlling play early and maintaining a 3-0 advantage early in the second period, the Huskies quickly came to life, tying the game by the late stages of the period. However, late second-period goals from first-year forwards Casey Severo and Joe Miller restored the Crimson advantage,

with Farrell tallying two goals and Miller recording one. Miller and first-year defenseman Ryan Healey capped off the scoring with second period goals, and Mullahy continued his strong weekend in net, posting 23 saves for his first career shutout.

“I think that we’ve had some guys in and out of the lineup, which a lot of teams do, but I thought we made a step in the right direction last weekend,” Donato said.

In the Crimson’s second meeting of the season with Yale on January 20th, Harvard took down the Bulldogs in a 3-2 OT win. With Gibson back in net after a weekend off, the Bulldogs gave the Crimson all they could handle, taking the first lead of the game midway through the first period.

Harvard failed to respond for the remainder of the first, but came out swinging in the second, with goals from Miller and first-year defenseman Mason Langenbrunner (the first of his career) putting the Crimson back in front. Yale tied the game four minutes later, and after a scoreless third period, the bitter rivals headed for overtime tied at 2-2. After a backand-forth extra session, Coronato tallied the winning goal with 19 seconds to play, using a series of moves in the crease to slide home the game-winner and secure Harvard’s season sweep of the Bulldogs.

Junior forward Sean Farrell goes on the attack against Cornell on Nov. 5, 2021. Farrell is the Crimson’s leading goalscorer on the season.

OWEN A. BERGER — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

completing Harvard’s comeback and the Crimson’s season sweep of the Tigers.

Despite the thrilling win over Princeton, Harvard’s momentum ground to a halt the next night against the Quinnipiac Bobcats.

The Bobcats, currently ranked No. 1 in the NCAA, are second nationally in goals per game and first in goals-against per game. Quinnipiac put two goals on the board

good game,” Donato said. “We weren’t able to get enough going in the first few periods to be able to not chase the game.”

Back at home on January 13, Harvard overcame an early deficit to defeat Clarkson University 4-1. Junior goaltender Derek Mullahy, seeing his first action since November, posted an excellent performance, saving 25 of 26 shots. Farinacci also rejoined the

was forced to the box for interference and gave the Golden Knights a power play, which they converted via a goal by All-American Alex Campbell. Coronato responded immediately, capitalizing on Harvard’s first power play to tie the game at 1-1 after the first period. The Crimson dominated the second period with 19 shots on goal, but Clarkson goaltender Ethan Haider kept the on-

tions; an older, more mature center-iceman that’s been through some big games, whether that’s in the league or even U.S. World Juniors,” Donato said.

The following night, with Mullahy again between the posts, the Crimson welcomed the St. Lawrence Saints to Bright-Landry Hockey Center. Harvard started with a dominant first period, scoring three goals on 13 shots,

GAMES TO WATCH THIS WEEK FRIDAY Women’s Ice Hockey at Cornell 6:00 pm

Men’s Swin and Dive vs. Yale 6:00 pm, Blodgett Pool

Women’s Tennis at LSU 2:00 pm

Wrestling at Princeton 6:00 pm

bridget.sands@thecrimson.com aaron.shuchman@thecrimson.com

THC Read more at THECRIMSON.COM

SATURDAY

Men’s Volleyball vs. North Greenville 7:00 pm, MAC

Despite the thrilling victory on Friday, Harvard fell flat in a Saturday night defeat against the Brown Bears. Brown came out quick, scoring within the first three minutes of the game. However, Farrell answered less than a minute later, recording his 14th goal and 29th point of the season.

The game remained tied until the second period, when the Bears potted two goals to claim a 3-1 advantage heading into the third period. The Crimson turned up the pressure on Brown in the third, outshooting the Bears 19-2, but despite a late tally from Farrell, Brown held on for a 3-2 victory.

“I think we’re still trying to find the proper recipe to find consistent success,” Donato said.

With players moving in and out of the lineup, Harvard’s line combinations have frequently been in flux, but Farinacci believes the team’s strong chemistry will make any adjustments seamless.

“We’re all pretty close on the team…you can kind of throw anybody together and kind of make things happen, which I think is a great part about our team,” Farinacci said.

“Whatever comes our way, I think everybody’s kind of ready for it,” Farinacci added.

Harvard has a two game homestand this upcoming weekend, taking on ECAC rivals Colgate and Cornell.

Both will bring competitive hockey to Bright-Landry, especially on Saturday against longtime rival and No. 11 Cornell.

“Our guys will be excited to have these intense, emotional, important games coming up,” Donato said.

Men’s Ice Hockey vs. Cornell 7:00 pm, Bright-Landry Women’s Basketball vs. Penn 2:00 pm, Lavietes

Women’s Swin and Dive vs. Yale, Princeton 6:00 pm, Blodgett Pool

16

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

SPORTS

JANUARY 27, 2023

WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY

Harvard Keeps Pace in ECAC HITTING THEIR STRIDE? Harvard’s play improved over a strong winter break, keeping them in the thick of the ECAC playoff race.

BY CHRISTOPHER D. WRIGHT CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

A

fter a month -long pause for winter break, H a r v a r d ’s w o m e n ’s ice hockey team (6-12-3, 5-8-3 ECAC) returned to campus seeking to refocus and breathe new life into a season that has not gone its way thus far. Although the Crimson’s results in the win column were up-and-down, its performance on the ice was remarkably improved.

“I think our team is pretty focused,” head coach Katey Stone said. “We had boot camp, which we call two-a-days for a couple of days when they came back, and they were locked in. We have played some good hockey and haven’t gotten all the outcomes we wanted, but we are doing a lot of things better than the first semester.”

With no classes in session, the need for the usual Friday and Saturday game schedule is upended during the winter break. For Harvard, this translated to playing six games over the course of 14 days. Thus, finding the perfect balance between recovery and practice

Tigers 11-10 in the first and 1410 in the second. Great chances generated by first-year defender Jade Arnone and sophomore defender Mia Biotti almost opened the scoring in the second, but Harvard was unable to convert its chances into goals.

Princeton pushed the Crimson’s strong penalty kill to its breaking point in the third frame. A major penalty against sophomore forward Paige Lester and a minor infratction against sophomore defender Jenna MacDonald set up a five-on-three advantage for the Tigers. While playing with the two-skater advantage, Issy Wunder scored off a redirect to give Princeton the edge. After Wunder’s opening goal, the Tigers got a boost from the 1500 fans packed into the arena. Princeton capitalized on the momentum, as Wunder and Sarah Filler each added another goal to seal the 3-0 win.

Next, Harvard welcomed the St. Lawrence University Saints (11-15-2, 5-7-2) to the BrightLandry Hockey Center for a 10:30 am puck drop on January 10th. The Saints dominated the first period. After outshooting Princeton in the first period in their previous game, the Crimson was outshot 19-7 in the first. Along with the shot advantage, St. Lawrence led 1-0 after the first period, as Aly McLeod scored seven minutes into the game with a shot that rocketed past sophomore goaltender Alex Pellicci.

For the second straight con-

“

It was a lot of games, but at this point in the season, you want to be playing games.

Katey Stone Harvard Head Coach

is essential to a team’s performance during winter break play.

“It was a lot of games, but at this point in the season, you want to be playing games,” said Stone about the slate of winter break contests.“Kids know what to do. We are just trying to sharpen our tools in practice and get going on game days.”

Following the matchup against the Quinnipiac University Bobcats at Frozen Fenway on January 6th, Harvard kicked off its return from winter break on January 7th by traveling to Hobey Baker Rink on its 100th anniversary for a matchup against the Princeton University Tigers in Princeton, N.J.(910-1, 5-9-0). The Crimson’s offense came out firing on all cylinders: Harvard outshot the

test, Harvard’s inability to stay out of the penalty box led to a goal. In the second period, St. Lawrence jumped out to a twogoal lead as Kristina Bahl snuck the puck past Pellicci to capitalize on Arnone’s two-minute interference penalty. However, not even a minute later, Biotti responded with a goal to cut the lead in half.

From just inside the blue line, Biotti launched a shot on goal that found its way through traffic into the back of the net.

In the final minutes of the second, sophomore forward Hannah Chorske knotted the game up at two. After picking the pocket of a St. Lawrence defender, Chorske skated up the ice and beat the goaltender with a quick shot. The game remained tied the rest of the way,

Sophomore forward Gabi Davidson Adams waits for the puck against Dartmouth on Oct. 21, 2022 JOSIE W. CHEN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

as the Crimson failed to convert on a third-period power play, and neither team was able to gain momentum in the overtime period, ending the game in a 2-2 tie.

Despite the Crimson failing to secure the victory, the 800 sixth graders in attendance for the second annual education day hosted by Harvard Athletics helped spur the Harvard comeback. The matchup also saw the emergence of sophomore forward Gabi Davidson Adams in the starting lineup. Davidson Adams has experienced an offensive explosion this year, as she already has six more points than her total from last season with eight games remaining in the regular season.

“She keeps getting better and better,” Stone said. “She makes the right play at the right time, and she is good around the net.

We thought it was time for her to get an opportunity there, and I think she is a very good compliment to [senior forward Anne] Bloomer and [senior forward Kristin] Della Rovere.”

After the stalemate, the Crimson traveled to Hanover, N.H. for a matchup against the Dartmouth University Big Green (6-15-0, 2-12-0). Following a scoreless first period where neither team had double digit shots, both offenses kicked into gear in the second and began to generate offensive chances.

The Big Green struck first as Lauren Messier fired a shot into the back of the net as she collided with the post. The fourth

Senior defender and captain Kyra Willoughby follows through on a shot against Dartmouth on Oct. 21, 2022.

JOSIE W. CHEN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

time was the charm for the Harvard power play as it capitalized on Dartmouth’s fourth penalty of the game late in the second period, as Bloomer tied the game at one by following up on a shot from Della Rovere and depositing the rebound into the net.

The script of the third period was identical to the second.

The Big Green regained the lead on a snipe by Jenna Donohue, and once again, the Crimson tied it up, with Lester finding the back of the net moments after the Dartmouth goal. After neither team could break through to end the deadlock in the rest of regulation, Harvard headed to overtime for the second straight contest. However, this time the three-on-three play would go in the Crimson’s favor. Della Rovere took a perfect pass from Davidson Adams and guided it into the goal for the game-winner.

Looking to build upon its win against Dartmouth, Harvard faced the Sacred Heart University Pioneers (13-13-1, 107-1 NEWHA) in a contest full of firsts. The matchup was the first in history between the two programs, and the game was also the christening of the Martire Family Arena on the Sacred Heart campus in Fairfield, CT. The Pioneers opened the scoring four minutes into the match, as Delani MacKay beat Pellicci with a quick shot from the slot. However, seconds later, Lester extended her goal streak to two games on a wraparound shot from behind the goal. In response to the fastpaced first, both goalies locked in for the second and third frames, combining for 50 saves the rest of the way, and the

rock-solid goaltending sent the Crimson to an extra session for the third straight game.

In overtime, Sacred Heart secured the win with a breakaway goal. The game also included another milestone, as Della Rovere moved into the NCAA lead for faceoff wins despite the loss.

The Crimson concluded its winter break play with a homestand against the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers (7-18-1, 3-11-1 ECAC) and the Union College Dutchwomen (11-14-1, 4-10-1). Halfway through the first, the Engineers were the first to light the lamp as Taylor Zahirnyi skated the puck all the way up the ice from her defensive zone before lacing a shot into the net from just inside the blue line.

However, after the goal, it was all Harvard. Bloomer got the Crimson on the board late in the first with a shot that was deflected high into the air before bouncing awkwardly past the goaltender. Davidson Adams extended the lead with a score after using a series of fakes to maneuver through several defenders. Junior forward Shannon Hollands scored an empty netter in the third to ice the game and put the Crimson back in the win column.

In the winter break finale against Union, Harvard scored the opening goal. The score marked Harvard’s first 1-0 lead since its November matchup with UNH. Sophomore forward Ellie Bayard gave the Crimson an early advantage with her third goal of the season. While Harvard dominated the first period, outshooting Union 15-8, the Dutchwomen roared back in the second. This time the

Crimson was on the wrong side of a 3-1 scoreline. Goals by Carmen Merlo and Emily King gave Union a 2-1 lead at the end of the second. Any hopes of a Harvard comeback faded as Riley Walsh scored an empty netter to close out the game.

As the season winds down and each game becomes more meaningful, the Crimson’s offensive focus will be finishing and converting shots into goals. Since returning, Harvard has outshot its opponents three times, matching the number from before the break. Additionally, Harvard is averaging north of 35 shots on goal per game in its post-break contests, but it has failed to score more than three goals in each of those contests.

“I think we have gotten some good ones as of late,” said Stone about the Crimson’s shot generation. “It’s just time for us to finish.”

The results over the break kept the Crimson at the middle of the ECAC table and in contention for a round one home playoff series. Harvard’s upcoming weekend series versus Cornell (12-7-2, 9-4-1) and Colgate (204-1, 10-3-0) has significant playoff implications. The Crimson currently sit in sixth place, nine points behind Cornell, which sits in 4th — the last seed to be awarded a home playoff series.

Harvard will look to continue its high level of play and capitalize on its underdog status as it gears up for the final push before the ECAC playoffs.

“We need to take the mentality of being the hunter and not the hunted,” Stone said. “The pressure is on everyone else.” christopher.wright@thecrimson.com

SPORTS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON JANUARY 27, 2023

17

FORST

WEEKLY RECAP SCORES WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY VS. RPI

W, 3-1

BASKETBALL VS. CORNELL

W, 66-53

SQUASH VS. NO 4 PRINCETON

W, 7-2

TENNIS VS. BOSTON COLLEGE

W, 4-3

MEN’S

ICE HOCKEY VS. YALE

W, 3-2 OT

BASKETBALL VS. CORNELL

W, 95-89

WRESTLING VS. CORNELL SQUASH VS. NO 2 PENN

L, 12-27

W, 5-4

READ IT IN FIVE MINUTES ICE HOCKEY AT FENWAY David Forst ‘98, left, the former Harvard All-American shortstop, serves as the general manager of the Oakland Athletics. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

O’Donnell to Oakland HARVARD BASEBALL TO MONEYBALL David Forst, a former Harvard All-American, now serves as general manager of Oakland Athletics.

BY JACK CANAVAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

F

ormer Harvard baseball captain and shortstop David Forst’s journey saw him transition from an exciting point in Harvard baseball’s success to being on the front lines of one of the most influential MLB front offices in recent memory.

Let’s take a trip back in time.

The day is May 23, 1998, about a week and a half after Harvard baseball claimed an Ivy League Championship at Yale.

On this day, the Crimson traveled to Baton Rouge, L.A., to face California State University, Fullerton in the South II Regional round of the 1998 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament. A win would push the Crimson into the regional final, where it would be one game away from clinching a spot in the College World Series for the first time in 24 years. But those aspirations faded quickly, as Cal State Fullerton demolished Harvard, with a final score of 11-3.

It was a tough way to end the season, but the program was the best it had been in decades. Coming off a third consecutive trip to NCAA regionals, the Crimson capped off what was its deepest postseason run since 1983.

For senior captain and short-

stop David Forst ’98, the loss marked his last time playing for the Crimson. In his final season, Forst slashed a line of .406/.437/.624, earned a third team All- American selection, and was the common denominator for the Crimson’s recent success.

A year later, Forst attended the 1999 Boston Red Sox spring training camp, followed by stints in Independent League Baseball later that summer, with nothing materializing. At the end of the year, Forst’s playing career ended, but his career in the world of baseball was just beginning.

“I think playing baseball at that level sort of cemented the passion that I always had for the game,” Forst said.

Instead of pursuing his job search in other industries, he made a shift, just as any shortstop would, when the batter at the plate changed. But this time, instead of going from short to second, he took a slightly different route – from the playing field to the front office.

“I think we all dream about playing [professionally],” Forst said. “When someone else makes it clear [that you no longer can], then the next best thing is trying to make it your everyday life.”

In 2000, Forst joined the Oakland Athletics as a front office scouting executive and began a journey that would change the face of modern baseball. Under the guidance of fellow Harvard Alum and current Cleveland Browns Chief Strategy Officer Paul Depodesta and then-general manager Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s front office created the “Moneyball Approach” to baseball operations.

Moneyball is a method that incorporates sabermetrics – or a type of analysis that factors physical scouting, statistical analysis, and financial management – in baseball front office planning.

The two latter aspects of sabermetrics became Oakland’s forte.

By decreasing the importance of the “eye-test” and focusing on underutilized statistics, such as On Base Percentage (OBP) and walks (BBs), Oakland achieved immediate success, making the playoffs within the first two years of Moneyball’s implementation.

Since 2000, Oakland has had the sixth winningest record in all of baseball. They did this all while having one of the lowest payrolls in the MLB. Moneyball’s system succeeded under tight fiscal constraints and became the blueprint for teams across the MLB. “We were sort of considered different simply for considering college stats in evaluating players for the draft, and we’re not talking advanced stats, either,” Forst recalled. “We were talking about on base percentage and walks.

Whereas now, if you don’t have exit [velocities] and launch angles and spin rates on just about everybody on your draft board, you’re falling behind, so it is a totally different set of measurements and numbers that we’re calling ‘analytics’ today than we were 20 years ago.”

Free-agency and the MLB draft — the two most important facets of the game related to roster construction — most heavily felt the impact of the league-wide adoption of sabermetrics.

Utilizing these metrics gave smaller market teams, which do not have the same spending luxuries as bigger market teams,

Forst joined the Athletics front office in 2000, as the “Moneyball” approach, featured in the book and film of the same name, was coming to life. JULIAN J. GIORDANO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

the ability to excel in free agent signings on mid-level contracts, as well as finding a reliable, concrete drafting strategy. In many ways, the MLB draft, which scouts both high school and college athletes, is a black box, but sabermetrics provides a means to identify and acquire college players who were more likely to succeed in the MLB.

“

I think that playing baseball at that level sort of cemented the passion that I always had for the game Davis Forst ‘98 General Manager, Oakland Athletics

For Forst, it all started in a room with Beane and Depodesta.

“The luckiest thing that happened to me was getting to work with [Beane] and the fact that he brought me in on just about everything from day one,” Forst said. “We had a small group when I first started. It was basically [Beane], [Depodesta], and myself in the front office.”

The Athletics made the playoffs for the next four years, reaching the American League Division Series (ALDS) from 2000 to 2003.

In 2004, Forst was promoted to Assistant General Manager to Beane after Depodesta left Oakland to run baseball operations for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

For the next 11 years, Forst kept this title, acting as Beane’s second-in-command. Over that time, Beane deferred more leadership responsibilities to Forst, which positioned him perfectly to the transition into his role today as de-facto President of Baseball Operations. “[Beane] really sort of shared leadership responsibilities with me, which was incredibly generous of him and also the best way for me to learn on the job for now being the leader of our baseball operation,” Forst said.

In 2015, Forst was promoted to General Manager of the Athletics, where he sat under Beane’s role as Vice President of Baseball Operations.

In November 2022, Beane stepped down from the day-today baseball operations scene and moved towards an advisory role, making Forst the de-facto head of Athletics operations.

Forst give much credit to Beane for guiding him throughout his career and for helping him reach this point.

In the time that it took Forst

to ascend to the top of Oakland’s front office hierarchy, the baseball world completely changed as a result of the A’s strategies in the early 2000s. The introduction of technology and widespread adoption of statistical analysis revolutionized the way front offices operate.

The technological revolution also affects the game’s efficiency and time management. In recent years, many fans give America’s pastime labels of “boring” or “slow,” but the MLB is actively pushing to change these associations. In favor of this, Forst cites the pitch clock as an example of a positive change that only improves the game.

“Honestly, [the change that was needed] was the pitch clock, and now that we’re doing it I’m thrilled,” Forst said. “A lot of us have talked for years about wanting to speed up the pace of play.

That’s a (positive). I’m really glad we’re doing it.”

Minor league baseball serves as a testing ground for future changes, including the addition of base runners on second at the start of extra inning games and, potentially the biggest change of all, robotic umpires. Traditional umpires are subjects of frequent controversy, mainly due to arguments over strike zone calls, but are also considered a key part of the game and its history. Forst leans to the former and welcomes innovation in this regard as well.

“I think we have an obligation to our fans to adjust the product and make it as entertaining as possible,” Forst said. “I do think automatic balls and strikes will become part of that as well. I think there’s so much emphasis now on the strike zone.”

Technology as a whole has attempted to make a rather subjective sport into a quantifiable, objective endeavor. Thus, the foundation the Oakland A’s laid in the early 2000s seeped into other aspects of the game and will continue to innovate baseball in the future.

Forst, who now leads the A’s into a rebuild for the first time in decades, will have his work cut out for him in winter meetings in San Diego. For the first time, he will have full reign over the A’s front office, with a difficult task at hand.

“Our goal now is to build up the major league team,” Forst said.

For a front office that set the precedent for these circumstances, the Athletics will get their first true test at a technologically-influenced rebuild. jack.canavan@thecrimson.com

No. 23 Harvard women’s ice hockey team competed at the 2023 rendition of Frozen Fenway Park. Just days before, the historic green park hosted the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2023 NHL Winter Classic. Harvard faced No. 6 Quinnipiac, though the Crimson ultimately fell 3-1 to the Bobcats in a snowy contest. Harvard was one of the many local Boston-area teams to play at the frozen Fenway Park this month.

HARVARD BEATS CORNELL 95-89 In Ivy League standings, No. 4 men’s basketball defeated No. 2 Cornell in a thrilling 95-89 game at Lavietes Pavillion last Saturday afternoon. The start of Harvard’s 2022-23 Ivy League season has demonstrated that the margins are as fine as ever — four of the six games the Crimson has played against teams in the Ivy have been decided in the dying moments of the second half. The pressure is on, as now, Harvard occupies the last of four qualifying spots for the Ivy March Madness tournament.

BEANPOT LIES JUST AHEAD Harvard men’s ice hockey faces a daunting schedule in the coming weeks, with home games against No. 16 Cornell and No. 1 Quinnipiac preceding the first round of the Beanpot tournament against No. 18 Boston College. Despite returning key players to the lineup, the Crimson is still searching for consistency as it looks to move past a mixed winter break and hit its stride through a challenging schedule.

18

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

IN PHOTOS

JANUARY 27, 2023

A student marches alongside the line of people walking out of Harvard professor John L. Comaroff’s classroom.

ADDISON Y. LIU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Students postered the door and walls surrounding Northwest B108, the classroom where Comaroff teaches, with signs calling for his resignation. CHRISTOPHER L. LI—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Students Walk Out of Professor Comaroff’s First Class of Semester Students began to file out of Comaroff’s classroom at 3 p.m., chanting slogans like “No more Comaroff, no more complicity.” ADDISON Y. LIU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

AFTER VIOLATING SEXUAL HARASSMENT and professional conduct policies, professor John L. Comaroff once again returned to the classroom this semester. In response, students organized a walkout from his class on Tuesday, calling on Harvard to fire the professor.

Signs in the Northwest basement brand Comaroff as an abuser. Comaroff denies all allegations of abuse.

CHRISTOPHER L. LI—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Above, Syd D. Sanders ’24 leads a march through Science Center Plaza. ADDISON Y. LIU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Demonstrators walk past the Science Center as they make their way to Comaroff’s office in the Barker Center. expressing outrage at Comaroff’s return. ADDISON Y. LIU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Students raised signs and chanted in front of the Barker Center, where the march ended.

ADDISON Y. LIU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

The protest proceeded through Harvard Yard and past Widener Library, where a February 2022 rally against Harvard’s handling of Comaroff sexual harassment claims took place. ADDISON Y. LIU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Organizer rallied the protesters outside the Barker Center, where the annoucned plans for further protests and campaigns to call on the University to fire Comaroff. CHRISTOPHER L. LI—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER