News

Virus Forces Museums to Shutter By ELLEN M. BURSTEIN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER Museums affiliated with Harvard University announced that they will close “until further notice” in response to the coronavirus outbreak that has shuttered much of the University’s campus.At least five museums, including the Harvard Art Museums, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, the Harvard Semitic Museum, and the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, sent mass emails Thursday announcing the decision to close.

“This decision has been carefully considered, as we know museums are community spaces,” the museums wrote. The email encouraged would-be visitors to explore the museum’s online classes in order “to continue to provide opportunities for learning and reflection.”

In an unprecedented move, Harvard administrators announced in emails Tuesday morning that classes will be held online following spring break,. Remote classes will begin March 23. Most students will also be required to vacate campus by 5 p.m. on Sunday, March 15, unless they successfully petition to remain in residence.

Governor Charlie D. Baker ’79 declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts on Tuesday in response to the ongoing outbreak.

As of Wednesday, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health had confirmed at least 95 cases in the state.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston also announced in an email to subscribers that it will remain closed after Thursday “for up to 30 days.”

The Institute of Contemporary Art and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum — both also in Boston — will likewise close Friday.

Paul D. Tamburro ’21, a senior guide at the Harvard Art Museums, wrote in an email that the museum’s closure “drove home the severity of the crisis we’re currently facing.” Tamburro, a former Crimson news editor who has worked at the museum for a year and a half, added that he supported the decision to close.

“I am deeply sad that I won’t be able to give tours or see some of my favorite works for several months, but I think this is the right call in the end,” Tamburro wrote. Harvard FAS Scales Down Lab Research Due to the outbreak of coronavirus across the globe many museums at Harvard University have decided to close to the public until it is deemed safe to reopen. RYAN N. GAJARAWALA—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

ellen.burstein@thecrimson.com heart failure and metabolic diseases and develop therapies to combat them.

“I’m sure that there are different kinds of research that can keep certain things going, but for us, the actual experiments require being in the lab and we won’t be able to do that,” Lee said.

Lee said he will ensure that the mice in his lab are cared for, and he and his researchers can continue with planning, reading, data analysis, and writing remotely.

“It’s certainly going to be a change in our daily activities, but it’s not going to be a shutdown of all of the things that we do,” Lee said.

In addition to the reduction in operations, the undergraduates who work in Lee’s lab will not be able to return to their research after spring break due to the University directive issued Tuesday.

Emma V. Stimpfl ’21 — who works in Lee’s lab — said she was disappointed with the effects that Tuesday’s decision could have on her thesis research, which she planned to complete by the end of this semester.

“I have no idea what’s going to happen with my project,” Stimpfl said.

Asked for comment in response to concerns about thesis research, Harvard College spokesperson Rachael Dane referred to administrators’ email on lab operations reductions.

Stimpfl said Lee and her department advisors have been “super helpful” and “very flexible” with requirements.

Her department, Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, sent an email to students taking the SCRB 91R: “Introduction to Research” course — a lab research class — that it would change class requirements to focus on writing over experiments.

“Students will be expected to provide a more in-depth and comprehensive review of background literature, expanding the introduction and discussion sections of their paper to compensate for missing time in the lab,” Amie L. Holmes, SCRB’s assistant director of undergraduate studies, wrote in the email to 91R students.

Priya Veeraraghavan, a Medical Sciences Ph.D. candidate at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, said while the suspension was disappointing, it also gives lab members time to reflect on their research and spend more time reading and performing analysis. “Sometimes we get very much caught up in kind of the day-to-day experimental work, and we might neglect, and especially the early stage graduate students, reading a lot of literature or really thinking about the new or clever strategies for approaching the questions of their thesis,” Veeraraghavan said. “There’s more time to read and to do analysis without the pressure of like, working, you know, 12-hour days at the bench.”

While many labs are consolidating operations to essential personnel to continue their ongoing projects, others — particularly computational labs — are shifting focus entirely to prioritize coronavirus-related research.

Marc Lipsitch, the director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at the Harvard School of Public Health, said the center’s research is moving “twice as fast and twice as hard as usual” since the outbreak began. He said researchers have launched more than 20 new coronavirus-related projects since the outbreak began School of Public Health epidemiology professor Michael J. Mina — who also works at the CCDD — said the outbreak has presented faculty, postdocs, and graduate students with a unique opportunity to see the direct impact of their research on the world’s population.

“There are very few times when a researcher gets to apply their expertise in real time,” Mina said. “I think that we all feel very good about being able to use essentially our expertise and our knowledge and our own research that we’re now doing on a daily basis to really inform public health decisions in foreign policy locally and nationally and internationally.”

james.bikales@thecrimson.com virginia.ma@thecrimson.com RESEARCH FROM PAGE 1 College Explains Moving Logistics

Harvard’s Title IX Office Publishes Website for BGLTQ Students MOVE-OUT FROM PAGE 1

By CAMILLE G. CALDERA and ISABEL L. ISSELBACHER CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS The Title IX Office has launched a new LGBTQ+ Resources page on its website as part of an ongoing initiative to improve gender equity at the University.

The office developed the page in conjunction with a number of other campus partners, including the College Office of BGLTQ Student Life, the GSAS Office of Diversity and Minority Affairs, the Harvard Medical School Sexual and Gender Minorities Equity Initiative, and the Office of the President and Provost. University Title IX Officer Nicole Merhill said that the website’s Feb. 12 launch represented the culmination of more than a year and a half’s work on the project.

“The members of One Queer Harvard really expressed the importance of having a central resource tool around LGBT+ resources on campus and in the community,” Merhill said. “That’s when the conversation really started.”

According to Rachel DiBella, the Assistant Director of Title IX Education Programs, the website was envisioned with the goal of creating a centralized resource for BGLTQ students.

While there had formerly been a one-page resource guide available to LGBTQ+ students, the new website provides more comprehensive and extensive information.

Students who visit the site may navigate resources by clicking on their University affiliation or by selecting a certain topic, such as “Career/ Professional Development” or “Health and Wellness.”

The website also features information about where students can access all-gender restrooms around campus.

Jessica Halem — the LGBTQ Outreach and Engagement Director for the Medical School’s Sexual and Gender Minorities Health Equity Initiative — said the website represents an important partnership across the University.

“Even though we here at Harvard like to live in our separate silos, and are separate campuses, and we have separate budgets, that’s not how LGBTQ people work,” Halem said.

“We cross over lines, we find each other, we need each other,” Halem added.

No matter if we’re faculty, staff or students, we have to work together, because for many of us it’s really life or death to be connected to one another.”

Halem also said she believes that in a “massive” place like Harvard, an online hub for resources is “crucial.”

“We’re hoping that this website is a place that you could get a lot of your questions answered, and find out where to go for more,” she said.

In the month since the website went live, Merhill said the Title IX office has seen encouraging traffic.

“One of the things we noted is that those visitors who are visiting the LGBTQ+ resource page are spending more time on that page than on other pages within the Title IX site,” Merhill said.

“The length of time people are spending is almost more important than the number of visits.”

Halem said that, apart from the resources, the website’s most important feature is the inclusive message it delivers to Harvard affiliates.

“I believe it sends a clear message that Harvard University wants you here,” Halem said.

“I think that if you are applying for a job, if you’re applying for schools, if you’re looking to transfer, if you’re looking to find your next research home, you have to have a visual, on the web — a clear message at the highest level of a Harvard University website.”

“It has to be crystal clear that Harvard University wants you here, that we have dedicated resources, and that we have created community,” she added.

“The website is an important place where people look to see, ‘Is this a home for me?’” Harvard’s Title IX Office recently published a website of BGLTQ resources, activities, and information. JENNY M. LU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER camille.caldera@thecrimson.com isabel.isselbacher@thecrimson.com destination could change if you wait too long.”

The updates come after two days of confusion and shock on Harvard’s campus.

Following the announcement that students must depart their dorms by March 15 at 5 p.m., DSO and House staff scrambled to address students’ needs regarding travel, storage, and moving. Dane wrote that the DSO and the College notified faculty deans and residential staff of the decision Monday night.

The update also announced several academic extensions. According to Burke, the deadlines to drop courses and change grading statuses between letter-graded and Pass/Fail options have both been moved to April 13. He added that previous course withdrawals from this semester will be “automatically converted” to course drops. Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana notified students in an email Wednesday that all major academic deadlines — including senior thesis due dates — will be extended by at least a week for undergraduates.

All undergraduate dining halls will remain open through Friday dinner, according to Burke. On Saturday and Sunday, Quincy, Eliot, Kirkland, Cabot, and Pforzheimer House dining halls will continue to serve meals.

Burke wrote that, after Sunday, Harvard University Dining Services will serve meals to students who have received permission to remain in their dorms.

Burke also noted that the University has yet to make a final decision on the fate of Harvard’s 369th commencement ceremony. He wrote in the email that the “magnitude of logistical issues” has prevented the University from making a call. If held, commencement — scheduled for May 28 — will feature Washington Post executive editor Martin “Marty” Baron as speaker.

“Speaking with students throughout the week, it is clear that the status of commencement for the Class of 2020 is something that is on a lot of people’s minds,” Burke wrote. “When a determination has been made, it will be widely communicated to students.”

declan.knieriem@thecrimson.com I am deeply sad that I won’t be able to give tours or see some of my favorite works for several months. Paul D. Tamburro ‘21 Art Museum Senior Guide

SUBSIDIES FROM PAGE 1 College Subsidizes Travel and Storage Costs for Students on Financial Aid unanticipated travel and storage costs.

On Thursday, the College provided a more specific explanation of the guidelines and eligibility for receiving financial aid for travel.

With the College’s Tuesday announcement asking students to leave campus as soon as possible and no later than Sunday, many students were uncertain as to how they would finance their way home or store their items over the next several months.

The Dean of Students Office stationed staff in locations around the school — including in upperclassman houses, the Smith Campus Center, and Annenberg Dining Hall — for students to get assistance on making travel plans.

Finding off-campus storage or shipping belongings back home was also a concern for many students.

A day after the announcement that students must leave, the College announced that all students who receive financial aid are eligible for a $200 shipping or storage credit.

Students not on financial aid will have costs charged to their term bill.

The Undergraduate Council also worked to facilitate the move-out, announcing its “Storage Relief Program” in an email to students on Wednesday evening.

The program aims to supplement the College’s $200 grant to cover the remaining $55 that is required for the first level of storage with Olympia Moving & Storage, according to the email. Throughout Wednesday and Thursday, other student groups and Harvard affiliates worked to arrange emergency aid and assistance including the Asian American Christian Fellowship, graduate school students, and Primus — an organization for first-generation, low-income students that disseminated a moving-out guide.

benjamin.fu@thecrimson.com dohyun.kim@thecrimson.com I’m sure that there are different kinds of research that can keep certain things going, but for us, the actual experiments require being in the lab and we won’t be able to do that. Richard T. Lee ’79 Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Professor