The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873
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VOLUME CXLIX, NO. 41 |
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
| TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 2022
EDITORIAL PAGE 8
NEWS PAGE 9
SPORTS PAGE 10
This week’s UC referendum only gives students two bad choices
An HLS student group called on the school to reinstate its mask mandate
Men’s lacrosse defeated Dartmouth, 19 - 10
College Reduces Cheng Apologizes for Former Slogans Testing Cadence By J. SELLERS HILL CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
By LUCAS J. WALSH and VIVIAN ZHAO CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Following a drop in Covid-19 cases among undergraduates, Harvard College joined the rest of the University in relaxing its public health protocols, announcing loosened restrictions on social gatherings and decreased testing requirements in a Monday email. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences officially lifted its indoor mask mandate starting March 14 alongside the City of Cambridge, but the College held off on loosening other Covid-19 restrictions, including its limits on non-sponsored social gatherings, until the school could re-examine case counts after spring break. As the majority of the University saw a drop in Covid-19 cases in early March, the College experienced a spike in its case count. Covid-19 cases among College students have dropped significantly since the return from spring break, with
66 undergraduates testing positive for the virus during last week, compared to 342 positive cases in the first week of March. Dean of Students Katherine G. O’Dair and University Health Services Director Giang T. Nguyen wrote in the Monday email that the required testing cadence for undergraduates will be reduced to once per week and non-sponsored social gatherings can resume in residential spaces. Undergraduates may elect to continue testing more than once per week. While previous guidance “strongly” recommended masking in indoor public spaces within the College, the Monday announcement confirmed masks are optional across campus, excluding University buses and shuttles and indoor gatherings exceeding 250 people. Many instructors have also required mask-wearing in their classes. Students who test positive for Covid-19 are still required to
Following sustained criticism from Undergraduate Council members, UC President Michael Y. Cheng ’22 and Vice President Emmett E. de Kanter ’24 formally apologized last Friday for using “defund” and “abolish” as slogans in their campaign calling for Harvard College’s student government to be restructured and renamed. Cheng and de Kanter vowed to “defund” and “abolish” the UC during their campaign to lead the body last fall, and they have continued using the slogans in the months since they were elected. But some Council members have called their language inappropriate given its roots with Black racial justice organizers. The pair posted a video apology via a shared Instagram account. “You have rightfully raised concerns about our use of the terms ‘defund’ and ‘abolish,’” Cheng said in the video. “These are words that have been used and continue to be
SEE COVID PAGE 9
SEE CHENG PAGE 7
Harvard Undergraduate Council President Michael Y. Cheng ’22, pictured at the UC’s weekly meeting on Sunday. J. SELLERS HILL—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
Interhouse Transfer Apps See Uptick By AUDREY M. APOLLON and CHRISTINE MUI
Univ. Slow to Release Sustainability Plan
CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Harvard undergraduates seeking to transfer into a new upperclassman house learned their fates last month, when the College’s Dean of Students Office released decisions for the fall interhouse transfer lottery. More than 200 students applied to change houses in the first round of the fall interhouse transfer process, and roughly 40 percent were accepted, according to College spokesperson Aaron Goldman. Approved students are set to move into their new houses after the summer break. In previous years, the DSO typically approved roughly 60 percent of applicants, per Goldman. Goldman attributed this round’s lower acceptance rate to an uptick in applicants and the freshman class’ unusually large size. “This increase is not surprising, given the larger-than-usual overall class size. Due to the increase in the number of applications, the housing office was
By CHRISTIE K. CHOI and CARRIE HSU
Many students attempted to transfer between houses this year, with the rate of acceptance decreasing from previous years. CHRISTOPHER HILDAGO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
SEE TRANSFER PAGE 7
CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Harvard has yet to release updated sustainability goals after its previous University-wide plan lapsed in 2021. The University’s first sustainability plan — announced in 2014 — spanned fiscal years 2015 to 2020, outlining goals for reductions in water usage, waste, and greenhouse gas emissions, among other targets. The plan set deadlines ranging between 2016 and 2020. But two years after the deadlines timed out, the school hasn’t released new objectives. Heather A. Henriksen, managing director of Harvard’s Office for Sustainability, wrote in an email that Harvard has continued operating under the first-generation plan, though nearly all the target dates it set have passed. Two longer-term goals were added to the plan in 2018 by then-University President Drew G. Faust, who committed to achieving fossil fuel-free campus operations.
“Harvard continues to make progress on the goals, standards, and commitments set in its sustainability plan and is on track to achieve its climate goals – to be fossil fuel-neutral by 2026 and fossil fuel-free by 2050 – which were set in February 2018,” Henrikson wrote. Harvard met most of its sustainability targets, but it fell short of its 2020 goal for reducing waste and water usage. Its campus greenhouse gas emissions have been flat for five straight years after a decrease over the previous decade. The first-generation plan aimed to slash per capita waste in half by 2020 compared to a 2006 baseline. But in 2020, trash per-capita hit a 27 percent increase from 2006 numbers, which the University attributed to operational changes required by the Covid-19 pandemic. Harvard also failed to achieve its goal of reducing water usage by 30 percent between 2006 and 2020, only meeting the target a year past the
SEE SUSTAINABILITY PAGE 7
Kennedy School Receives $5 Million for Inequality Program By KENNETH C. MURRAY and MILES J. HERSZENHORN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
The Harvard Kennedy School announced it received a $5 million gift from the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Foundation to establish a new program that will study wealth inequality on Monday. The donation, which was announced hours before HKS’s annual Stone Lecture in Economic Inequality, seeks to bring together scholars to study and tackle economic disparities around the globe. The Stone Program will consist of the Kennedy School’s previously-existing Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social Policy, in addition to adding a group of doctoral students and more public programming. HKS Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf said in a press release the program will enable the Kennedy School to assemble “a
INSIDE THIS Harvard Today 2 ISSUE
critical mass of scholars” who will work on tackling wealth inequality. “Income inequality and concentrated wealth can leave many people at economic and social disadvantage,” Elmendorf said. “Appropriate public policy to create a fairer economic system can provide economic opportunity and mobility for people currently deprived of such prospects.” Maya Sen ’00, a professor of public policy at the Kennedy School, will serve as the new program’s faculty director. “The new Stone Program will position Harvard to be at the forefront of studying and researching inequality,” Sen said in the press release. “We are thrilled to be able to build on our existing strengths while also helping push the boundaries of research and scholarship with the exciting new opportunities afforded by the Stone Program.”
Arts 3
News 7
The announcement came before Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz delivered a lecture on wealth inequality at a Harvard Institute of Politics forum. It was the third event in a series of annual wealth inequality lectures financed by a previous donation from the Stone Foundation. At the IOP event, Stiglitz underlined the importance of tackling economic inequality, explaining that the United States is one of the countries with the most inequality in the world. “The United States has a distinction where we do everything bigger and better than other countries,” he said. “And one of the things we do bigger and better than other countries is inequality.” “We have more inequality than other countries and actually, remarkably, less equality of opportunity than any
SEE IOP PAGE 7
Editorial 8
Sports 10
Joseph E. Stiglitz, the 2001 recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, spoke at the JFK Jr. Forum Monday evening. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
TODAY’S FORECAST
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THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
MARCH 29, 2022
PAGE 2
HARVARD TODAY
For Lunch Chicken Fajitas Shrimp & Cheese Quesadilla Vegan Sausage Flatbread
For Dinner Beef Fajita with Fettuccine Butter Chicken Vegetable & Potato Curry
TODAY’S EVENTS Performance Workshop: Sophocles’ Oedipus the King SOCH, 12-3 p.m.
IN THE REAL WORLD
For students looking to hone their acting skills or dip their toes in the performing arts, head to the SOCH to join Paul O’Mahony, Artistic Director of Reading Greek Tragedy Online and Out of Chaos Theatre, as he dissects Sophocles’ Oedipus the King.
Will Smith Issues an Apology to Chris Rock After Slapping Him at the Academy Awards
Greens & Grains Tour Annenberg, 12-12:45 p.m.
Federal Judge Rules that Trump is Most Likely Guilty For Crimes Committed Over 2020 Election
Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations Poetry Night Harvard Museum of Ancient Near East, 3-3:30 p.m. Interested in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations? Then head over to the Harvard Museum of Ancient Near East for a night of poetry readings and performances in multiple languages from the Near East.
Temperatures dropped and flurries arrived as the week began on Harvard’s campus.
TRUONG L.
NGUYEN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
AROUND THE IVIES YALE: Administrators Weigh Reduction in COVID-19 Testing Requirements —THE YALE DAILY NEWS
PENN: Penn Graduate Donates $10 Million to Establish Business Ventures Program —THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN
COLUMBIA: Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Prohibit Legacy and Early Admissions
Judge David O. Carter of the Central District of California ruled that former President Donald Trump and his lawyer John Eastman likely committed crimes in their efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, including obstructing the work of Congress. Trump has not been charged with any crime.
Ukraine Claims Some Victories as War with Russia Rages On Ukrainian troops managed to fend off Russian forces in some areas around Kyiv and in northeastern Ukraine, Ukrainians reported on Monday. The mayor of Irpin reported that most Russian troops had retreated from the town, though the deputy chief noted that Russians continued to shell the suburb.
Policies Statewide —THE COLUMBIA SPECTATOR
PRINCETON: Firestone Exhibition of Jewish American Artists Featuring Works from Confederate Soldiers Canceled —THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
COVID UPDATES
CAMPUS LAST 7 DAYS CURRENTLY
If you’re a first-year student who’s a big fan of grain bowls and salads but have found it difficult navigating Annenberg’s new Greens and Grains station, then register for a guided tour by the Food Literacy Project and HUDS Registered Dietician Karen Jew. Participants will be able to create their own bowls during the tour while receiving tips about how to maximize nutrition and flavor.
After slapping Chris Rock during the Oscars Sunday night, Will Smith issued a public apology to the comedian on Instagram. Rock has decided not to press charges, though it is yet to be seen what, if any, punishments Smith will receive from the Academy.
100 In Isolation
252 0.84% Total New Cases
Positivity Rate
LAST 7 DAYS
CAMBRIDGE
357 1.63% 76%
Total New Cases
Positivity Rate
Fully Vaccinated
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY Fourth House to Replace Off-Campus Housing?
In a poll on the building of a fourth dormitory building, Radcliffe students were concerned that the building would be used to increase enrollment, rather than relieve crowding. Other students worried that the new building would mean the abolishing of off-campus housing. March 29, 1965
Harvard Student Dies in WWI
Student John D. Love ’19 reportedly died in France during World War I. Love was the seventeenth student from the class of 1919 to be killed in the war. March 29, 1919
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873
The Harvard Crimson Raquel Coronell Uribe ’22-’23 Associate Managing Editors Kelsey J. Griffin ’23 President Taylor C. Peterman ’23-’24 Jasper G. Goodman ’23 Associate Business Managers Managing Editor Taia M.Y. Cheng ’23-’24 Isabelle L. Guillaume ’24 Amy X. Zhou ’23 Business Manager Editorial Chairs Guillermo S. Hava ’23-24 Orlee G.S. Marini-Rapoport ’23-24
STAFF FOR THIS ISSUE Arts Chairs Sofia Andrade ’23-’24 Jaden S. Thompson ’23
Design Chairs Yuen Ting Chow ’23 Madison A. Shirazi ’23-’24
Magazine Chairs Maliya V. Ellis ’23-’24 Sophia S. Liang ’23
Multimedia Chairs Aiyana G. White ’23 Pei Chao Zhuo ’23
Blog Chairs Ellen S. Deng ’23-’24 Janani Sekar ’23-’24
Technology Chairs Ziyong Cui ’24 Justin Y. Ye ’24
Night Editor Hannah J. Martinez ’23 Assistant Night Editor Omar Abdel Haq ’24 Story Editors Jasper G. Goodman ’23 Kelsey J. Griffin ’23 Kevin A. Simauchi ’21-’22 Taylor C. Peterman ’23-’24
Sports Chairs Alexandra N. Wilson ’23-’24 Griffin H. Wong ’24
Design Editors Camille G. Caldera ’22 Toby R. Ma ’24 Photo Editor Cory K. Gorczycki ’24 Editorial Editor Guillermo S. Hava ’23-’24 Sports Editor Christopher Wright ’25
CORRECTIONS Copyright 2022, 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 Weather icons made by Freepik, Yannick, Situ Herrera, OCHA, SimpleIcon, Catalin Fertu from flaticon.com is licensed by CC BY 3.0.
The March 28 story “UC Removes Election Day Question” incorrectly stated the proposed Harvard Undergraduate Association would approve club funding on a monthly basis. In fact, the body would approve club grants for “expected” costs on a semesterly basis. The article also incorrectly stated the UC referendum that will determine the body’s future will run from Monday to Wednesday. In fact, it is scheduled to conclude on Thursday.
THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
MARCH 29, 2022
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ARTS CAMPUS
BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY EXHIBITION EXPLORES CLIMATE CHANGE AND SOCIAL INEQUALITY
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CAMPUS
A new exhibition at the Boston Public Library’s Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center aims to explore the intersection between climate change and social justice.
‘MULTITUDE’ REVIEW: STROMAE RETURNS WITH PLAYFUL WISDOM
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MUSIC
“Multitude,” a boisterous album that proves Stromae hasn’t lost his trademark talent for infusing vivacious electro-pop anthems with sharp social commentary.
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‘THE TOURIST’ REVIEW: A WILD RIDE THROUGH THE OUTBACK
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‘VIOLETA’ REVIEW: AN AVERAGE NOVEL FROM AN ABOVE AVERAGE AUTHOR
“The Tourist” will take you on a wild ride — so buckle up.
TV
BOOKS
Allende’s latest work gives her fans many of the hallmarks they will be expecting: heart wrenching but honest depictions of the Pinochet regime and complex, interwoven, endlessly interesting family dynamics.
‘TURNING RED’ REVIEW: FAMILIAR TROPE MADE FRESH BY DISTINCTIVE VISUAL STYLE
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FILM
In many ways, the clever color contrast between Mei and Ming is what drives the story.
6
A SECOND LOOK AT YELP, WHERE CRITICS GO UNCRITIQUED
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‘FREESTYLE LOVE SUPREME’ TURNS THE WACKIEST SUGGESTIONS INTO THE BIGGEST LAUGHS
CULTURE
THEATER
Boston Public Library Exhibition Explores Climate Change and Social Inequality
With restaurants’ reputations and restaurateurs’ livelihoods at stake, the question remains: How much should Yelp ratings really matter?
Kidnapping, display toilets in Home Depot, and miniature toy bongs were under the spotlight at the Emerson Colonial Theater on March 19 as “Freestyle Love Supreme” improvised their way through 90 minutes of laughter and curveball audience suggestions.
CAROLINE GAGE STAFF WRITER A new exhibition at the Boston Public Library’s Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center titled More or Less in Common: Environment and Justice in the Human Landscape, aims to explore the intersection between climate change and social justice, shifting the conversation about these two critical issues. The exhibition, which is free to the public, opened on Friday, Mar. 18, at the Boston Public Library and runs through the end of the year. More or Less in Common approaches the vast issues of environmental and social justice locally, nationally, and globally. The show gives visitors the opportunity to visualize the climate crisis through historical and contemporary maps from the Leventhal Center’s collection, illuminating the inextricable relationship between environment and social inequality both in greater Boston and the world beyond. President and Head Curator of the Leventhal Center, Garrett Dash Nelson ‘09, expressed his hopes that the exhibition will change the way people think about the environment in a conversation with The Crimson. “People still maintain in their minds this distinction between social issues and environmental issues, but there really is no way of maintaining that distinction when you really think hard about it,” Nelson explained. “Where we choose to build schools, how people choose to get around to get their groceries, those are all both social justice and climate justice issues, and they deserve to be in the same conversation.” The exhibition is part of the discussion and celebration of renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted’s 200th birthday. Olmsted, whose work shaped public spaces in Boston and other major cities, was an early figure of the environmental movement. More or Less in Common explores the role of these spaces and their intersection with modern social issues. “We wanted to think about particularly the way that urban landscapes are designed and shaped and managed,” said Nelson. “That’s a story that in some ways begins with attempts to change the shape of cities in the late 19th century, and runs all the way through contemporary climate change issues.” More or Less in Common investigates the deep connection between social and environmental justice by delving into urban planning. A 1925 map from the Boston Parks Department showing underdeveloped areas and green spaces is superimposed with redlined neighborhoods, which were typically home to marginalized groups. These diverse working-class communities were often densely-packed and separated from parks. The map is a reminder of the way the environment was and is used to enforce social inequality. “In almost any city in the United States, or even in the whole world, there’s a really close correlation between where the rich and powerful communities are, and where the clean and healthy environments are,” Nelson said. “The people who are on the most exposed edges of climate change are also the ones who have been put on the exposed edges of society.”
The Leventhal Center created two of their own maps to add to the exhibition, synthesizing contemporary data into clear visuals. Their representation of vulnerable communities in the Greater Boston area is printed in large scale on the ground. This unique format and the eye-opening data it represents makes the map a particularly memorable and affecting aspect of the exhibition. “This exhibition tries to take some of the massive amounts of data and analytic resources that are needed to understand a complicated question like climate change, and show how we might narrate that in a way that spurs political action,” Nelson said. The exhibition concludes by showcasing projects from the Green New Deal Superstudio, an initiative which called for designers from around the country to create models of sustainable and inclusive landscapes and buildings. This ending is poignant — visitors are meant to leave with a sense of optimism, rather than hopelessness, in the face of these issues. “It’s not just this massive and impersonal climate system that’s inexorably changing,” Nelson expounded. “If people find new ways of organizing and articulating how a society and an economy ought to be run, then there are ways out.” The examples of progress and challenges showcased in More or Less in Common highlight the vast community effort that will be necessary to face the climate crisis and social inequality. Importantly, the exhibition recognizes that institutions which guide much of the scientific discourse on the environment only make up a fraction of the population and economic system, and aims to change this. “In order for that kind of discourse to really affect the way the world works, it needs to be something that everybody is talking about,” Nelson emphasized. “That’s why I think work like exhibitions, and some of the work we’re doing with digital exhibitions and trying to reach a broader public audience, is really crucial.” The Leventhal Map & Education Center and its vast collection is open to all visitors for free. More or Less in Common: Environment and Justice in the Human Landscape will be open until Dec. 28.
Courtesy of Cryptic C62 via Wikimedia Commons
WA
29 March 2022 | Vol CXLIX, ISSUE 41 Arts Chairs Sofia Andrade ’23-’24 Jaden S. Thompson ’23
Editors-at-Large Clara V. Nguyen ’23-’24 Sara Komatsu ’23 Chibuike K. Uwakwe ’23
Editor Associates Hannah T. Chew ’23 Isabella B. Cho ’24 Daniel S. de Castro ’24 Nina M. Foster ’23 Anya L. Henry ’24 Ryan S. Kim ’23
Zachary J. Lech ’24 Charles W. McCormick ’24 Jamila R. O’Hara ’23 Harper R. Oreck ’23 Alisa S. Regassa ’24
Executive Designer Nayeli Cardozo ’25
Design Associates Sami E. Turner ’25 Madison A. Shirazi ’23
THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
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MUSIC ‘Multitude’ Review: Stromae Returns with Playful Wisdom BY SIDONIE L. BROWN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER alized fantasy of parenting against its exhausting actuality.
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Courtesy of Stromae Mosaert Polydor
fter an eight year hiatus from solo work, Belgian rapper Stromae has triumphantly re-emerged with “Multitude” a boisterous album that proves he hasn’t lost his trademark talent for infusing vivacious electro-pop anthems with sharp social commentary. Released on March 4, 2022, the Belgian singer-songwriter’s third studio album puts forth 12 masterfully crafted songs that can be appreciated without understanding a word of French. From the Chinese erhu to the Bolivian charango, “Multitude” weaves together sounds and styles from all corners of the world in an eccentric amalgamation that makes for a striking listening experience based on instrumentals alone. But as Stromae shines brightest for his unique subject matter, spending time with the clever lyricism elevates his music to the special status it deserves.
CULTURE ‘The Tourist’ Review: A Wild Ride Through the Outback SIDONIE L. BROWN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Courtesy of Ian Routledge/Two Brothers Pictures
There is a palpable maturity present in “Multitude” that marks Stromae’s growth since his earlier work. Perhaps this wisdom comes from fatherhood, as he and his wife welcomed a son in 2018. While he famously sang from a child’s perspective on his 2013 hit “Papaoutai,” Stromae flips the narrative and takes on the father figure himself in “C’est que de bonheur.” Rather than parrot the party line that “c’est d’la joie” / “it’s only joy,” Stromae is upfront about the brutal reality of “le métier d’parent” / “the profession of parenting.” He raps about the toll childbirth has on his wife, and he gripes about smelly diapers and vomit. The melody underscores that supposed ‘endless joy’ with a cheerful hook of swinging vocals and a bouncy beat courtesy of Caribbean percussion. But by overlapping this catchy tune with bitter lines about pee and poop, Stromae fills the piece with a rich irony that pits the ide-
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s promised by an opening scene in which a decrepit hatchback careens off-road through the Australian Outback so as to outmaneuver the 18-wheeler attempting to maul it, “The Tourist” will take you on a wild ride — so buckle up. The relentless twists and turns of this six-part series might result in some collateral damage, but the artful performances and macabre humor more than make up for a few pot holes — as in plot holes — along the way. Originally released in the U.K. on New Year’s Day and available on HBO Max as of March 3, “The Tourist” follows an amnesiac (Jamie Dornan) who wakes up from a car crash to find himself at the center of a brutal manhunt. Incapable of recalling even basic knowledge about himself, The Man sets out
“People who forget the past repeat it. We have to remember. We have to atone. And now the opportunity had come” on a desperate journey to piece together the mystery of who he is and why he’s in the middle of nowhere. As he traipses through the Outback with nothing but a Northern Irish accent and the clothes on his back, he finds friends in café waitress Luci Miller (Shalom Brune-Franklin) and Helen Chambers (Danielle Macdonald), the detective assigned to his case. But enemies lurk around every corner, and figuring out his true identity is made all the more difficult by the tenacious figures who, for some unknown reason, want him dead. Viewers know just as much about The Man as he knows about himself, and the thrill of “The Tourist” is trying to solve the puzzle with him. As the episodes progress, each new revelation about The Man’s past raises more questions than it answers, and it quickly becomes clear that it’s not all pretty. Brothers Harry and Jack Williams, the show’s writers, have whipped up a jarring tale that often feels like one ongoing cliffhanger, and all of the shocking discoveries will keep viewers glued to the screen. Unfortunately, when everything has been presented to us, only a bit of scrutiny easily exposes
Back in October, Stromae released the lead single of the album, “Santé,” which raises a glass “à ceux qui n’en ont pas” / “to those who don’t have one.” As the peppiest number on the tracklist, “Santé” celebrates all of the “champions des pires horaires” / “champions of the worst schedules” — the cleaners, the servers, the nurses, etc. In line with the spirit of this song, throughout the album Stromae takes those who are often overlooked and places them in the spotlight. For example, in “Fils de joie,” he sings about a sex worker through the viewpoints of a client, her manager, and a policeman, highlighting how each character is complicit in a system that places stigma solely on women. The choruses share the perspective of her son, who defends his mother with pride while critiquing that “tout l’monde ferme les yeux” / “everybody closes their eyes.” Leaving listeners on edge with a riveting violin strain, the song forces one’s eyes open through the gut-wrenching lyrics sung in guttural intonations. Advocating for those who are too frequently the target of shame rather than support, “Fils de joie” is Stromae at his best. “Multitude” tends to extract witty depth from surprising places. In “Mauvaise journée” Stromae dwells on the days when he can’t escape the malaise, complaining, “Y a mon caca qui a mal fini / J’vais devoir frotter une heure et demie” / “There’s my poo that ended badly / I’m going to have to scrub for an hour and a half.” Complete with whining warbles and overflowing phrases that emulate the frustration of mundanity, this penultimate track sets up its partner song, “Bonne journée,” which closes out the album on a promising note. This time around, “le caca est parfait, même pas besoin qu’ je l’essuie” / “the poop is perfect, I do not even need to wipe it.” Ah yes, the duality of poop; only Stromae can manage to wax meaningful verses about the woes of wiping. Larger than that, however, this fecal metaphor is emblematic of the overall tone of the album. In “Multitude,” listeners are often reminded that life is, well, shit. Stromae’s tracklist meditates on inescapable depression, unfaithful partners, and unbearable loneliness. There are no false pretenses or sugar-coated reveries, and yet there is an ever-present undercurrent of optimism lingering behind all of that gloom. It is in fact by acknowledging these dark realities in the first place, and doing so with heartfelt lyrics over thrilling refrains, that Stromae manages to leave us basking in the light. Staff writer Sidonie L. Brown can be reached at sidonie.brown@ thecrimson.com
many inconsistencies in the finished narrative. On top of some plot holes, the show also stumbles in its closeout. After a fantastically paced first half, the later chapters are comparatively overstuffed. This attempt to accomplish too much at once shows how “The Tourist” would have benefited from a simpler storyline that allowed for enough time to properly delve into the compelling plot points it often overlooks. Likewise, the script, which meditates on whether or not people can truly change, ends up stating its moral takeaway much too explicitly. Rather than letting the viewer grapple with the moral conundrum on their own, the concluding sequence borders on preaching while hitting its stance home. In the end, however, buoyed by brilliant comedy and an exceptional performance from Dornan, “The Tourist” never actually falls to its shortcomings. The amnesiac antihero is nothing new, but the Williams brothers have taken a recycled trope and still managed to create a spectacle that appeases our inexhaustible appetite for fresh content. Part of this success is due to the genre-blending nature of the show. On top of electrifying action and genuinely touching moments of compassion — many of which are found in scenes shared with the warmhearted Helen Chambers — the series is simultaneously soaked in a subtle yet biting dark humor and the captivating ambience of a classic Western. The heavy content of “The Tourist” ultimately rests on the shoulders of its star, and Jamie Dornan bears the weight with artful skill. From straightforward confusion to hidden anger that bubbles to the surface, Dornan accomplishes the remarkably difficult task of capturing the nuances of a character whose tortured and complicated past exists only in his subconscious. Dornan is so effective that, as The Man learns more and more unsavory details about himself, it is difficult to choose where to place our own loyalties. As the later episodes zoom out from a hyperfocus on The Man to a wider convoluted web of characters, the show loses its groove. Still, “The Tourist” is worth your time, even if just for its depiction of the Australian Outback, which takes on a role of its own. A fun mishmash of local oddballs and breathtaking wide-frame shots of the desert awash in a searing golden color palette are the finishing touches that complement the flashy car chases and staggering secrets of this ambitious show. Staff writer Sidonie L. Brown can be reached at sidonie.brown@ thecrimson.com
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BOOKS
W
ith twenty five best-selling novels and a Presidential Medal of Freedom, it is no secret that Isabel Allende is a literary tour-de-force. Her latest work, “Violeta,” gives her fans many of the hallmarks they will be expecting: heart wrenching but honest depictions of the Pinochet regime and complex, interwoven, endlessly interesting family dynamics. But that’s just the problem. Allende’s prolific abilities become repetitive in “Violeta,” ultimately producing a book that loses itself in monotonous historical scenes and rotating characters, and which fails to stand out in any specific way. “Violeta” is a bildungsroman that follows the life of the eponymous character Violeta from birth until near-death, a period of one hundred years. Violeta lives a thoroughly entertaining life. She marries three different men, experiences the rise and fall of Salvador Allende, the subsequent military Junta and its aftermath, and raises two children to adulthood. She also starts a housing materials empire, and lives a life of adventure and intrigue until she predicts she will die in 2020. The challenge with a story that tracks one character through so many years is that the plot is necessarily as meandering as a life. There is no climax nor much rhythmic flow to the story, merely milestones in a long series of episodes. On top of that, the story is written as an account that Violeta is telling Camilo, her grandson/adopted son. The compounded plot-as-life and the feedback loop created by the main character-as-narrator structure gives the story a didactic mood. Violeta appears to edit herself, inserting pithy aphorisms and bits of advice rather than lush description. This style, heavy with “telling” and light on the “showing” becomes exhausting as the reader endures literally one hundred years of Violeta’s thoughts. A lot of buzz surrounding this book was due to the fact that it is one of the first books written during the Coronavirus pandemic to include it as a historical event. This advance is somewhat misleading, as Covid-19 only appears at the very end of the story as a neat bookend for Violeta’s childhood in the aftermath of the Spanish Flu outbreak of the early 1920s. Over the course of her lifetime, Violeta lives through many important political and historical events, including pandemics, wars, and natural disasters. Ultimately, however, the mix of historical evidence and personal anecdotes are crudely blended which causes the narrative to fundamentally lack cohesion. In the acknowledgements section of “Violeta,” Allende ref-
erences Wikipedia as an invaluable source. The issue is that “Violeta” reads, at times, like an embellished Wikipedia page, taking well-known scenes of Chilean history and inserting random personal details that could plausibly be attributed to one of the many characters in this novel. For example, Violeta hears about a neighbor being abused by her husband and creates an entire foundation to support survivors of abuse that becomes nationally recognized. The reader never knows why Violeta is so moved by this neighbor’s story, nor how she created an entire foundation, nor does her apparent life’s work take more than a sidebar role in the overall narrative. The episode appears to exist only so that Allende can conveniently comment on bureaucratic corruption in Chile post-Pinochet. Or when Violeta’s daughter, Nieves, becomes embroiled with drugs and sex trafficking in Las Vegas, it feels more like a crude attempt to situate the timeline in the 1970s than meaningful plot development. It is hard to categorize “Violeta” because like much of Allende’s work, the scope is staggering. To address an entire life in 319 pages is a significant undertaking. Violeta herself also eludes definition. From a petulant child to a wise grandmother, the reader watches her develop as the decades pass. Allende doesn’t shy away from life’s more difficult moments, like when Violeta experiences multiple familial tragedies, and is liberal in her depiction of more private moments. Violeta is a sexual woman well into her old age, which is refreshing and empowering, but Allende’s liberalism can be contradictory and problematic. When Violeta speaks of her sexuality, it is mostly to explain her connection to the current man of her life, and only feels beautiful if a man desires her. The story’s token queer couple, Josephine Taylor and Teresa Rivas, seem to exist to merely appeal to audiences in 2022 rather than as a worthwhile story in their own right. Make no mistake, fiction written in 2022 does not need to be “liberal” or to have certain representation or morals or anything of the sort to be valuable. But at times “Violeta” seems too preoccupied with appealing to a certain audience than telling a cohesive story. Overall, “Violeta” is an impressive undertaking that combines a century of history into a relatively slim novel. However, a lack of narrative flow and its rote similarity to Allende’s other, more complicated works makes this book a step below the masterful literary fiction that made her famous.
‘Violeta’ Review: An Average Novel From an Above Average Author SERENA JAMPEL CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
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Courtesy of Ballantine Books
FILM ‘Turning Red’ Review: Familiar Trope Made Fresh by Distinctive Visual Style This review contains spoilers for “Turning Red.” KIERAN FARRELL CRIMSON STAFF WRITER “I can’t be like this forever — my whole family would freak! Especially my mom… all her hopes and dreams are pinned on me.” As she makes evident in this line, Meilin “Mei” Lee is nothing short of her mother Ming’s whole world. The tight-knit relationship between the two is undoubtedly at the center of “Turning Red,” a film which largely confronts how the connection between Mei and Ming changes as Mei prepares to enter her teen years. It quickly becomes clear, though, that this trope of strained familial relations pertaining to adolescence has been tackled all too often in pop culture. Pixar itself has told countless stories that grapple with the difficult dynamics of childhood — “Finding Nemo” follows the journey of an overprotective father; “Toy Story 3” explores the sense of finality that comes with going away to college; and the short film “Bao,” helmed by “Turning Red” director Domee Shi, is largely a metaphor conveying a mother’s reluctance to let her son grow up. What ultimately sets “Turning Red” apart is its unabashed confidence in a unique visual style. With excellent color symbolism, thoughtful anime-inspired facial expressions, and careful attention to its characters’ each and every movement, the clever visual techniques utilized in “Turning Red” make an already strong story truly great. In many ways, the clever color contrast between Mei and Ming is what drives the story. As is foreshadowed early in the film, Mei’s central conflict arises when she is troubled by an ancestral condition that turns her into a gigantic red panda every time she displays too much emotion. While the volatile panda can be easily drawn up as a metaphor for the uncontrollable nature of puberty and the development of personal identity, the color usage in “Turning Red” continually makes this metaphor far more intriguing. Even before Mei first turns into the panda, the fiery, unkempt essence of this beast is heavily implied to represent who she is as a person, as she dresses in red and exhibits a flashy and shameless tween personality. Mei’s color scheme is directly juxtaposed with that of Ming, whose wardrobe of mint and emerald greens represents the
orderly, principled environment Mei has grown up in. Fittingly, Mei’s bedroom is predominantly green, showing just how curated her childhood experience has been. Mei also wears a green pin in her hair throughout much of the film, preserving a certain sense of tidiness and demonstrating that Ming’s desires are literally “pinned” on her, as Mei directly says. The strongest implication of the film’s color contrast comes near the end, when Ming, in a fit of rage, morphs into her own version of the red panda she encountered in her childhood. What’s different about Ming’s panda, though, is that it is hundreds of times larger than Mei’s, communicating that keeping one’s emotions pent up makes them all the more difficult to manage when they are finally unleashed. The frequent depiction of unfiltered emotion in the film is captured beautifully by a stylish, anime-inspired handling of facial expressions. Every intense emotion is exaggerated by a particular focus on the appearance of a character’s eyes. For instance, characters’ pupils are extremely tiny when they are scared, as is particularly evident during the scene in which Mei first turns into the panda and proceeds to scream at Ming; her pupils immediately shrink to a near-invisible size, craftily demonstrating just how much she fears Ming’s reaction. By contrast, a character’s pupils are often massive and swelling with tears when they look at something they love, as is showcased when Mei gushes over a cute boy in the hallway at school. Beyond just revealing emotion, though, the unique facial expressions are often used as an operative tool to reveal less obvious facets of a character. For instance, though Ming’s pupils characteristically appear normal throughout much of the film, they shrink to become incredibly tiny when she is on the phone with her own mother, peeling back an unforeseen layer of her oft-composed persona. The film’s confidence in its style is perhaps most evident in the ways its characters move, as the bond between characters is often exhibited in the synchronicity of their motions. This coherence is encapsulated in one sequence during which Mei and Ming clean their family’s temple and host guests; they
move in the exact same way as they sweep the floor and, once their guests leave, lean against opposite sides of the door and wipe the sweat from their foreheads in perfect symmetry. In a similar fashion, Mei’s motions are also perfectly in sync with those of her three best friends: in a scene during which the four admire a boy they think is cute, they all peek out from behind a wall at the same time, four heads vertically stacked atop one another. Similar to with the exaggerated facial expressions, the film’s focus on movement is both independently robust and has larger narrative implications. Mei’s synchronous movement with both Ming and her friends represents the idea that she has strong ties to each, and that she is at a point in her life where she often has to choose between the two. The best attribute of “Turning Red” is that it isn’t visually appealing just for the sake of it. While the story and visual style are both independently strong, the film’s ability to use its visuals to seamlessly build upon its plot is what really makes it excel — the result is something very different from anything Pixar has done before. By the end of the film, Mei is able to stay true to her burgeoning identity while also making peace with the transformed nature of her relationship with Ming. Still, when Ming questions Mei’s decision to go out in public with some of her panda features visible, Mei responds by saying, “My panda, my choice, Mom!” It ultimately seems that some small kinks will remain in the relationship between the two, and that matters between parent and child aren’t totally resolved — but are they ever?
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Courtesy of Disney:Pixar
THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
MARCH 29, 2022
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CULTURE A Second Look at Yelp, Where Critics Go Uncritiqued
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ocial media is all about bringing that which was previously reserved for professionals to the masses. An online dilettante can enjoy simultaneous avocations on platforms like Instagram, Medium, and TikTok, where blue checkmarks and easily-gained large followings lend authority to otherwise normal people. As the dangers of blindly trusting social media surface in public conversation, Yelp, a place whose content as many as 91% of people say they trust as much as a friend, seems immune to it all. That said, Yelp, where anyone can be a food critic, suffers from the same disinformation as more traditional social media, despite its stellar reputation. With restaurants’ reputations and restaurateurs’ livelihoods at stake, the question remains: how much should Yelp ratings really matter? The stereotypes of food critics are distilled into the vampiric Anton Ego from Ratatouille: a nocturnal, wan figure whose sophisticated tastes, formidable standards and caustic opinions stand to ruin the reputation of any urban chef. There are a few of the same characteristics in Pete Wells, the New York Times’ restaurant critic since 2012. His Twitter profile picture, the Muppet Statler, calls to mind the role of the cantankerous, unpleasable heckler (with a side of self-consciousness about Wells’ own position), while Wells’ picture hanging on the wall of many New York restaurant kitchens is a sign of the real fear he evokes in restaurateurs’ hearts. While Wells is no Ego in terms of mostly negative reviews, his most famous pieces include the sharp censure of Guy’s American Kitchen and Bar, owned by Guy Fieri, and the two-star downgrade of Thomas Keller’s restaurant Per Se in 2016. Wells’ stature in New York’s culinary world means his negative reviews carry particular weight to readers and restaurateurs alike. It makes sense that professional food critics like Wells be professionally associated with their respective art form. Irish playwright Bernard Shaw famously wrote that a music critic of any merit “must have a cultivated taste for music; he must be a skilled writer; and he must be a practised critic.” A theater critic should have experience in the industry, writes Najla Said. Similarly, art critic Ana Finel Honigman writes that “for all critics, a pre-requisite for the role of judging the art of others should be a period of struggle in the studio.” What qualifications are really necessary to be a food critic though? Most people in the world have extensive experience with both cooking and eating, some even practicing both crafts three times a day. We are endowed with a built-in food critic in the form of a tongue and a brain that immediately passes judgment on every bite. Though many argue that art and music are indispensable to the human experience, food is
LEIGH WILSON CONTRIBUTING WRITER indispensable to life. And while images of art and recordings of music are free online, there really is no such thing as a free lunch. Food uniquely sits at the intersection of entertainment and necessity, art and utility, luxury and subsistence. And because food’s gamut runs from near-inedible famine food to works of art from the finest dining experiences, and professional critics usually stick to the latter, Yelp is particularly useful for evaluating the vast majority of restaurants, which would otherwise go unnoticed. Though it might appear to be something nobler, Yelp is social media. And like all social media, it’s complicated, noisy, and regrettably vulnerable to bad actors. Yelp and others do what the Internet does best: dress the novice as an authority. You no longer have to be Pete Wells to be a published restaurant critic (and Pete Wells, by the way, to find places to review, uses Yelp). Any restaurant experience, good, bad, or routine, can be widely propagated online. The power bestowed on each individual diner is daunting to chefs and restaurant staff, whose livelihoods often depend on the success of their establishment. A Harvard Business School study in 2016 found that a one-star increase of a restaurant’s overall rating on Yelp led to a 5-9% increase in revenue. That power is unsurprisingly sullied by those wishing to cheat the system. Falsified or misleading review tactics have plagued Yelp and other review platforms like UberEats, Grubhub, and Google from their onset. The buying and selling of fake reviews is prolific. Professional review writers around the world are easily hired online to direct readers to a business, either by writing positive reviews of their clients or negative reviews of their client’s competitors. Many companies, often with in-house reviewers, engage in “astroturfing,” or manipulative marketing campaigns that appear to show organic grassroots feedback from the public, but are really orchestrated by the company themselves. Individuals often manipulate Yelp reviews for personal gain by leaving negative reviews in hopes that the business will give them special treatment to win back their favor. Restaurant owners who feel obligated to please every unhappy customer, especially with online ratings at stake, will often go to great lengths to appease a negative reviewer. Yelp has also recently fallen victim to politically-motivated spamming, in which groups of anti-vaxxers leave fake negative reviews en masse at establishments that require vaccine cards or passports. One particularly pernicious area of trouble is prejudiced reviewers who have a little to say about the food and a lot of ad hominem attacks against the staff. Many chefs bemoan the disproportionate power Yelp bestows on customers, who
chefs say often take their entitlement too far by making unreasonable requests, berating staff, and refusing to leave, all while threatening a poor Yelp review. When Yelp ratings hold power over a business’ success, customers are empowered to blackmail them. Though Yelp is adamant about ensuring trustworthy reviews float to the top, it takes little scrolling to find reviews of questionable integrity. Yelp’s algorithms are trained to sort out particularly suspect reviews, which are labeled “unrecommended” and do not affect a restaurant’s overall rating. As media companies are finding out, however, filtering out harmful content is no job for algorithms alone. Everything is reviewed in 2022. Light Googling will show that the Indian Ocean is a 5-star alternative to the 3.4-star Arctic and Southern Oceans (too cold, most reviews helpfully point out). What is obviously fake to one reader may appear gospel truth to another. What is needed is critical thinking about the criticism on Yelp. In an opinionated and unfair world, what’s written on Yelp might not be as it appears. When amateurs pose as professionals, when stars matter more than words, and when individuals are empowered to lie and cheat, then high quality analysis is lost in the noise. While Yelp can be useful with good actors, the evils of social media have taken root there too. At the end of the day, maybe just try the restaurant yourself.
Courtesy of Eaters Collective
THEATER ‘Freestyle Love Supreme’ Turns the Wackiest Suggestions Into the Biggest Laughs Courtesy of Joan Marcus
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idnapping, display toilets in Home Depot, and miniature toy bongs were under the spotlight at the Emerson Colonial Theater on March 19th as “Freestyle Love Supreme” improvised their way through 90 minutes of laughter and curveball audience suggestions. The improv troop comes to the Emerson Colonial Theater as a part of their national tour following a Broadway run that earned the show a Special Tony Award in 2020. The tour’s Boston leg runs from March 18th until April 2nd. The show promises an unconventional theatrical experience. The self-described freestyle, improvisational hip- hop comedy group features an ever-changing cast of talented comedians and musicians. Each show consists of a collection of improv “games” following a predetermined structure. However, the topics and outcomes of each game are dependent on audience suggestions. The Covid-19 pandemic made improv much harder. Distinguishing what audience members are shouting as suggestions is made all the more difficult when masks make sounds muffled and lip reading impossible. But by embracing technology, the group turns the challenge into one of the show’s strengths, making “Freestyle Love Supreme” even more interactive. While some games still rely on muffled shouts, others allow audience members to scan a QR code leading to a word
JEN HUGHES CONTRIBUTING WRITER suggestion form. These words are then, for example, used in a game where Two Touch (Anthony Veneziele) is tasked with incorporating them into a freestyle rap. The audience’s role in the show cannot be understated. For each of the six improv games, audience suggestions drive the show’s topics. While some suggestions are inevitable — Covid-19, Politics, in-laws — and make for excellent joke material, the more outlandish ones prove to be the best fodder for the cast’s creativity. In a game of “Pet Peeves,” an audience member’s disdain for fruit baskets leads to a scathing freestyle about the inadequacy of the gift from Young Nees (Aneesa Folds). Her delightfully absurd rap concludes with a suggestion that there might be a very different place where you could “shove a banana.” Folds’ willingness and aptitude for taking prompts in unexpected directions is proof that while suggestions from the audience present a challenge, the “Freestyle Love Supreme” cast can brilliantly spin even seemingly mundane topics in unexpected directions. Take for instance the audience suggestion of “ranch dressing” during the game “Things We Love.” Hummingbird (Morgan Reilly) begins with a verse, ditching rap in favor of melody, about her life-long love affair with the condiment. But things quickly take a turn toward the bizarre. Young Nees surprises the audience by completely
shifting to a case against ranch in favor of blue cheese, while Jelly Donut (Andrew Bancroft) leaves the audience perplexed, giving a lengthy description of his old job cleaning stables, before ending with a pun about his “ranch dressing” attire. While the main cast are certainly the stars, the true magic of “Freestyle Love Supreme” lies in the production team hiding behind the scenes. The seamlessness with which they are able to adjust to shifting tones, themes, and topics on the fly and in sync with the main cast is a remarkable achievement. They make it all too easy to forget that the entirety of the show — down to the musical cues and the lighting — is improvised. The small touches, like using purple lighting when a game called upon a “shiny purple toilet” or nailing the timing of a beat drop to end an improvised verse set “Freestyle Love Supreme” apart from any run of the mill improv show. The number of attendees decked out in the group’s merch made it clear that many in the audience were “Freestyle Love Supreme” veterans. This comes as no surprise: With constant laughter shaped by audience suggestions, the show is uniquely suited for repeat viewing. Each performance promises new stories to explore and a fresh batch of jokes delivered by the all-star cast.
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THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
MARCH 29, 2022
Women’s Cabinet Seeks Health Care Accessibility By DARLEY A. C. BOIT CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
The Harvard Women’s Center is located underneath Canaday Hall in Harvard Yard. TRUONG L. NGUYEN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
The Harvard Women’s Cabinet, a student group dedicated to addressing gender issues on campus, is aiming to partner with the Undergraduate Council on an initiative to centralize health care resources at the University. Women’s Cabinet co-chairs Sawyer L. Taylor-Arnold ’23 and Jailene Ramos ’24 are spearheading the initiative, which seeks to improve access to health care for students from gender minority backgrounds. Taylor-Arnold and Ramos pointed to the University’s decentralized structure as a cause of confusion about what resources are available to students. “We’re trying to figure out ways to centralize resources relating to health care, and health care services to make sure that students know where to access health care services on campus, like what’s available to them, what’s covered, how they can be reimbursed, and then also specifically thinking for services that are used by students who are gender minorities,” Taylor-Arnold said. Ramos noted Harvard University Health Services offers
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Plan B for $15 and the school’s health care insurance covers transgender conversion therapy and hormone replacement therapies, but many students on campus are not aware of these services.Taylor-Arnold and Ramos said they decided to begin the project by gathering information on student awareness of health care offerings. “We want to know just how prevalent of an issue it is,” Ramos said. “Which is why we decided that our big project was going to be to create a survey because there is no data on campus.” This survey, which will be sent out to all undergraduates, will be essential to decide the next steps of the Women’s Cabinet health care initiative, which may include creating a repository of available resources or issuing recommendations to HUHS, Taylor-Arnold said. The cabinet plans to distribute its survey with the help of the Undergraduate Council. Travis A. Johnson ’24, representative of Winthrop House and chief of diversity, equity, and inclusion on the Council, is collaborating on the group’s initiative. “It’s through him that we’re going to all work on this survey,” Ramos said. “Once we
have the final product, we can send it out to the entire Harvard College campus.” To plan out its initiative, Women’s Cabinet has divided itself into four committees: mental health; sexual, reproductive, and menstrual health; BGLTQ health care; and financial insurance. “This specific initiative we have chosen about HUHS has a lot of groundwork that needs to be done, so the splitting of responsibilities and faith in other committees was a necessity,” Sidra Naheed ’23, a cabinet member on the Women’s Cabinet BGLTQ committee, wrote. The cabinet has also updated its membership policies ahead of the project. Previously open only to representatives from student organizations, the group now welcomes individual students to join. Ramos and Taylor-Arnold said they value the contributions of all cabinet members to the launch of the health care initiative. “We want it to be an equal place where everybody feels like they’re contributing and stuff like that and everybody’s doing good for the Harvard community,” Ramos said. darley.boit@thecrimson.com
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Interhouse Transfer Applications Rise HKS to Launch not able to approve as many applications as in previous years,” Goldman wrote in an email. After living in their assigned upperclassman house for two semesters, students become eligible to apply to transfer to another of Harvard’s 12 upperclassman houses. Over the course of a school year, students may apply for interhouse transfer up to three times — one round that takes place in the fall and two that take place in the spring. In all three rounds, students can choose to move alone or in a pair, often forcing them to leave behind blockmates if successful. Each student then ranks the houses they want to join in order of preference. If approved, they are required to transfer into the new house. For both the most recent transfer round and last semester’s round, applications are considered as part of an “impartial lottery.” The transfer application does not consider reasons for transferring. Applicants cited proximity to friends, classes, and Harvard Square as reasons for wanting to transfer. Juliana Ruggieri ’23-24, a
member of the women’s sailing team who transferred from Cabot House to Adams House, called the distance from the remote Radcliffe Quadrangle to the Charles River “super annoying.” “It’s a huge time drain and really tough because our boathouse is three miles away from campus, but we leave from the river,” Ruggieri said.
“It’s a little shrouded in mystery how this whole thing works.” Jamila R. O’Hara ‘23
Ian S. Kimbell ’23, a student in Pforzheimer House, applied to transfer to Kirkland House but was “bummed” when he got rejected in the first round of applications. “I thought if I got accepted, I can hype it up a lot,” Kimbell said. “I can have this Ian Kimbell-themed holiday in Kirkland. It would be Ian Kimbell Day, and so that would be the day that my transfer acceptance was in.”
Students who applied to transfer during the fall said they have acclimated well to their new homes. Omar Shareef ’23 said he transferred from Currier House to Winthrop House to be closer to friends living on the river, his classes, and restaurants in Harvard Square. “Coming to the river has very drastically altered what my day-to-day looks like at Harvard,” he said. “It’s just kind of sad that there are people at Harvard who have a very different experience, just by virtue of the fact that they were put into a different house.” Marlee K. Masters ’23 said her time living off-campus during the pandemic allowed for a smooth transition when she and a roommate transferred from Pforzheimer House to Winthrop House this spring. “I wouldn’t say there was too much adjustment,” she said. “We didn’t live on campus our sophomore year. If we had that sophomore year in Pfoho, I would imagine that it would be a little bit more difficult to leave.” Jamila R. O’Hara ’23, who moved from Cabot House to
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audrey.apollon@thecrimson.com christine.mui@thecrimson.com
New Program other country,” he added. Stiglitz, who served on the Council of Economic Advisers under the Clinton administration, said policymakers “underestimated the adverse inequality effects” of deindustrialization. “We said we ought to have a more active policy on inequality, and we should be very careful about going ahead with trade liberalization and other forms of liberalization if we don’t have accompanying policies for retraining people and moving people to new jobs,” he said of a cohort of like-minded Clinton administration policymakers. Stiglitz said he is concerned that rising inequality in the U.S. creates “a fertile field for populists.” “The failure to address problems of inequality — including inequality associated with particular places and particular groups — does create a real problem,” he said. Nevertheless, “the populists don’t have answers,” he said. “They prey on the discontent.”
According to Stiglitz, the Democratic Party is more closely aligned with labor interests.
Diminishing inequality is the key, I believe, to reestablishing support for democracy. Barney Frank Former U.S. Representative
“Concern about labor policy, about labor relations — you’re not going to find that in the other party,” he said, referring to the GOP. “You don’t have people saying we ought to have stronger unions.” Former U.S. Rep Barney Frank ’61, who attended the lecture, said he hopes to be involved with the Stone Program. “Diminishing inequality is the key, I believe, to re-establishing support for democracy,” Frank said. miles.herszenhorn@thecrimson.com
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Cheng Apologizes for Slogans Used During UC Campaign used by organizers — especially Black organizers,” de Kanter added. “It is not something to be taken lightly.” The apology came just days before the start of a school-wide referendum vote on a proposed new constitution that would dismantle and replace the Council. Cheng led the effort to propose the “Harvard Undergraduate Association.” In the video, Cheng and de Kanter vowed to immediately stop using the words “defund” and “abolish” in favor of the word “reimagine.” The anonymous Instagram account @harvardknowyourvote, which has taken aim at
Quincy House, said that though the spring transfer round application was a “very simple form,” she wished the process had been more transparent. “It’s a little shrouded in mystery how this whole thing works,” she said. “It feels like you’re kind of just sending an application into the void, and you don’t really know what factors that’s like depending on.” “Say somebody just wants to, for example, go from the Quad to a River house or something, there’s not really any information about like, do some houses have more space than others?” O’Hara added. Goldman did not respond to student criticisms of the interhouse transfer process. Unsuccessful applicants in the first round can apply again later this semester, when personal circumstances are considered. Students are notified of their results in the summer on a space-available basis determined by the number of students returning for the fall semester.
Cheng and the proposed new constitution in recent days, questioned the timing of the apology and called on students to boycott this week’s vote. “You are apologizing because it is politically convenient. Not because you care,” the caption of one post reads. Maple Yard UC Representative Jada Pierre ’25, a longtime critic of Cheng’s use of the terms, said she appreciated the gesture, but added that it was long overdue. “It took a really long time,” Pierre said. “But I’m glad he recognized the problem, and I’m so grateful because honestly accountability is all I asked for.”
Pierre expressed dissatisfaction with the delivery. “That is one of the most disingenuous apologies that I have ever seen,” she said. “I don’t like how they fail to acknowledge that they dismissed this problem before.” In response to criticisms of his apology, Cheng pointed to a portion of the response where de Kanter addressed the timing. “This message is overdue, and we apologize for that,” de Kanter said in the video, adding that he had been stuck out of the country due to a Covid-19 infection. sellers.hill@thecrimson.com
Harvard Has Yet to Adopt New Sustainability Plan, Missing Target deadline when campus was de-densified. The most recent sustainability report pointed to the 14 percent cut in water use achieved by 2018 as “the most accurate” measure of Harvard’s progress, notably short of the sustainability plan’s goal. With the trajectory of Harvard’s waste production and water usage uncertain following the return to full campus density in the fall, the school is without updated benchmarks. Harvard’s 2020 sustainability report said that the Sustainability Plan Subcommittee of the school’s Presidential Committee on Sustainability would publish the next generation
plan “by 2022.” Harvard Law School professor Jody L. Freeman, who serves as co-chair of the subcommittee, wrote in an email that the team is still in the process of updating the plan. “One of the things we are doing is consulting broadly so that we can take into consideration the views of the university’s many stakeholders,” Freeman wrote. Henrikson wrote that the Presidential Committee on Sustainability and the Harvard Office for Sustainability are seeking input from affiliates — including students, faculty, alumni — and climate experts in drafting the University’s up-
dated plan. “At the same time, it is important to know that the university has not somehow stopped working on sustainability,” Freeman wrote. “Harvard continues to make progress to meet and exceed the sustainability goals, standards, and commitments set in the original plan,” she added. Freeman pointed to the University’s establishment of the two new climate goals in 2018 as a “first step” that is already underway, but will be included in the second generation sustainability plan. christie.choi@thecrimson.com carrie.hsu@thecrimson.com
Pictures worth a thousand words. The Crimson thecrimson.com
THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
MARCH 29, 2022
PAGE 8
EDITORIAL THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD
COLUMN
One UC, Two Bad Choices We can only abolish the UC once. We must do it right.
T
he ultimate low-stakes, high-vitriol constitutional convention is coming to Harvard. This week, our peers will select their student government of choice via referendum — or, at least, their student government of choice from among two flawed, artificially limited alternatives. On one hand, a deeply flawed constitution that has produced a dysfunctional, detached government rife with shallow social-media-based campaigns and unpopular enough to spark massive support for its abolition and those who’ve championed it. On the other, an extremely rushed, imperfect, and untested alternative in the shape of a Harvard Undergraduate Association. We can’t, despite our long-held distaste for the current paradigm, support either. The new constitution isn’t good enough; its would-be predecessor is an outright mess. Our deeply-broken student government won’t be abolished more than once — and we can’t risk squandering our only shot at reform. The current reform process, while aligned with our general desire to radically change the Undergraduate Council, was doomed from the start. It attempted to re-shape our student government through a process overseen by the student government itself, and hence imbued with its cutthroat toxicity. Any serious discussion of the merits of either document was, from day one, overshadowed by the antics surrounding the UC, ranging from the serious, like outright racist aggressions, to the infantile and petty, like locking leadership out of email accounts by changing passwords. Amid an array of alleged threats, leaks, and attacks from UC proponents to other competitors and broadspread uncertainty among clubs about their future funding, we have grown weary of anything and everything linked to the incessant, Instagram-fueled drama. The solution to the present chaos cannot be spun from and through its very fi-
bers; it cannot take the form of a rushed document, drafted by a tiny sample of students, backed by an assembly mired by allegations of lackluster diversity. The good news is it doesn’t have to be. We need to go back to the drawing board — UC President Michael Y. Cheng ’22, who led an almost unprecedented, commendable effort to radically reshape our government, must go back to the drawing board. In this redrafting process, it is important that we, the entire student body, are more involved. The well over 99 percent of students who were not a part of the citizens’ assembly should not be offering our input or critiques only after the referendum has been completed. Only then will we get an alternative we won’t feel forced to reject. In the meantime, we can only offer our thoughts as to what this new government ought to look like. The caveat, of course, is that student government is plagued by a self-selecting, everyonewho-wants-to-run-is-exactly-who-wewould-seek-to-avoid problem. While systemic change can’t erase that completely, let alone guarantee a slate of laudable candidates, it can nudge us towards a healthier culture. First, we would love to see House Committees play a bigger role in structuring our student government. They are, in our eyes, the perfect example of an on-campus institution that represents students’ interests and manages budgets effectively and quietly, devoid of the UC’s idiosyncratic theatrics. Their comparatively lower prestige has ensured that they attract people less predisposed to seek the center stage and more eager to put in the grunt work necessary to keep the wheels running. While there are some marginal disadvantages (the lack of freshmen representation, at least until after housing day, being top of the list) we would love to see an expanded role for House Committee members on the UC, perhaps even as representatives themselves.
That leads us to the question of representation and elections more broadly. We decisively back the HUA’s suggestion that we should directly elect specific roles like treasurer, giving them an added varnish of democratic legitimacy and promoting more policy-focused debate. Yet that need not come at the expense of a larger, more representative body — something the HUA would do away with, with its shift to only nine elected members. Trying to find an effective constitution for a student body is difficult, to say the least. Harvard has a long, well-documented history of having a culture problem of students who choose to run for student office for all the wrong reasons, and peers who watch from the sidelines, eager to criticize but not to join a ticket themselves. We are plagued, internally, by a fastpaced culture that promotes success, power, and resume boosters over kind action. A culture that, for better or (usually) worse, defines those we elect to lead us. We are not exempt from that; this is not just a UC problem. There are limits to what a constitution, any constitution, can change to fix this issue. But precisely because of that, we must be intentional and critical about the changes we seek to make, being careful that we don’t end up in square one, with none of the original momentum for reform. Until we’re offered an adequate alternative — until we get a seat at the table to help create that alternative — we cannot support the scramble to reform. This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.
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OP-ED
As a Member of the Citizens’ Assembly, the HUA Must Fail By ALDO M. STEFANONI
I
joined the Citizens’ Assembly, a body of Harvard students tasked with writing a new constitution for Harvard College’s student government, because I want our elected officials to better represent us. Under the Harvard Undergraduate Association, the system proposed to replace the Undergraduate Council, student government at Harvard would be reduced in size to nine elected officers tasked with advocating directly to the administration, complemented by a number of volunteers under officer direction. However, problems inherent to the structure of the Citizens’ Assembly have created a situation where the changes proposed in the new HUA constitution only worsen many of the current problems with the UC. Improving a deeply flawed student government is a noble goal. It is one that should be pursued at length, not over the course of 11 short meetings by a body whose diversity is questionable. With the pressure of an impending deadline amid the ongoing challenges of academic life, there was not enough time for members of the Citizens’ Assembly to adequately learn about different forms of government before finalizing a replacement constitution. During the brainstorming period, only three members of the Citizens’ Assembly attended a Zoom briefing that had been set up with experts in the field of governance, and when the Citizens’ Assembly decided upon the form of governance to proceed with, after seriously considering just two structures, only 19 out of the 30 original members were present and voted. The problems with the HUA are not the fault of any members of the Citizens’ Assembly; rather, they are the fault of naivety with regards to how long the process of developing a new student government would realistically take. As a result of these limitations in the brainstorming process, the HUA fails to resolve the main flaws of the current UC. While a recent professional investigation cleared the UC of financial mismanagement, which was previously one of
the primary allegations of its incompetence, the main remaining problem with the UC — representative in-fighting and resulting ineffectiveness — is not properly addressed by the proposed HUA. UC members in-fight because they disagree over policy for valid reasons; however, these disagreements often become the focus of attention rather than the problem that students are trying to solve. This can create a destructive cycle that leads some to walk away from the UC and others to wish to replace the whole system. The HUA does not limit this in-fighting; instead, its structure actually promotes conflict through the creation of territoriality. The HUA has a system of seven elected officers — led by two co-presidents — split into seven teams, each tasked with a somewhat different mission. This means that issues which don’t fall neatly into these seven categories are less likely to receive targeted attention. For example, because important missions like diversity, equity, and inclusion are present in all aspects of student life represented by the Finance, Social Life, Extracurricular, Academic, Residential Life, and Sports Teams, responsibility to deal with these initiatives will be ultimately split, even if the proposed constitution attempts to confine them all to the Well-being Officer. DEI issues are abundant on campus, and I can foresee valid and substantial disagreement about which team is supposed to deal with problems that arise, not to mention the conflicting opinions that each of the nine individual officers may have on solutions. In a worst-case scenario, the HUA could advocate to the Harvard administration up to eight conflicting solutions to one inter-team problem. While there are band-aid solutions to these types of conflicts, such as requiring all officers to vote on each’s activities, doing so would simply turn the HUA into a nine-person UC. As each officer is tasked with working within their own territory, and has their own discretionary budget, the HUA is a situation primed for the wasting of stu-
dent time and money. Under the HUA, each team also consists of a number of volunteers who can contribute their thoughts in advocating to the administration. However, these volunteers do not save the HUA from the dangers of giving too much authority to a small group of individuals, as the new constitution does not establish a minimum number of volunteers that must be present before a team’s decision is made. Worse still, as the HUA’s main guideline on transparency is “some records,” officers could largely avoid accountability to the student body. The issues facing Harvard College — such as DEI, Shopping Week, and campus dining — do not fit neatly into the boxes of the HUA teams. By proposing a system of government which divides itself among these categories and gives ultimate authority to only nine officers, the HUA is set up to produce conflict that would do nothing to serve the interests of students. Legitimate disagreement over policy is a fact of our student body, so any system of government must manage this disagreement internally. A government which cannot act in unity does not foster consensus or create a positive image. The HUA does nothing to systematically solve the issues of ineffectiveness within the UC. Rather, the HUA would bare its disagreements publicly to the Harvard administration through multiple competing policy proposals, making the consequences much more damaging to the student body. If the members of the HUA all worked together in unity, then it would be an effective organization to advocate on behalf of the students — but if this kind of ideal harmony were even attainable, the UC would also effectively advocate on behalf of the students. Knowing this reality, we cannot evaluate the HUA with rose-colored glasses. While the UC is itself flawed, our current form of student government is clearly the lesser poison. —Aldo M. Stefanoni ’25 lives in Thayer Hall.
These Students Will Inspire You
Ben T. Elwy LIVING A DISABLED LIFE
D
isclaimer: This piece is satirical in nature, and these students do not exist. This week, I decided to sit down with two disabled students to discuss their experiences at Harvard and what “living a disabled life” means to them. First, I met with Stevie U. Smith, a senior in Lowell. Smith is the quintessential Harvard student: They started out studying History and Literature, but inevitably ended up an Economics concentrator, set to work at McKinsey in the fall. Or at least they were, until “divine inspiration” struck. “So, I was at this restaurant with my friends,” Smith said. “And when it came time to order, the waiter asked my friends what I wanted, instead of asking me, even though I was right there. That’s when it hit me: I have invisibility superpowers.” Smith, a wheelchair user, attributes their superpowers to their disability. “After that day, I kept noticing it happening. People talk about me like I’m not in the room, or if they do notice me, they talk to me in this weird sing-song baby voice. They can’t see me, so they must be talking to the crewmate plushies I keep in my chair,” Smith speculated, referring to the astronaut characters from the popular social deduction game Among Us. Smith, a true Harvard Economics concentrator, is nothing if not opportunistic. When they realized they were invisible, they turned their newfound ability towards becoming the Harvard Among Us champion. “No one ever suspects that I’m the impostor. Ever. It’s kinda sus.” Smith’s invisibility always lets them escape accusations of being the murderer, effortlessly winning them game after game. Even Smith’s close friends, who are able to see them, never consider accusing them, because they are “just so pure, like an angel.” “I mean, look at them,” one of Smith’s friends, who wished to remain anonymous, said. “They’re in a wheelchair. How could they be the impostor?” Following these life-changing revelations, Smith has decided to switch their career. “I’m training to become a spy for the CIA,” Smith boasted. “With my invisibility, I can infiltrate secret bases all impostor-like and just chill there, listening while supervillains monologue about their evil plans.” This method is “an earth-shattering revolution in the intelligence field,” according to a CIA spokesperson. “Effective immediately, we’re laying off all of our non-disabled agents. Unfortunately, granting them necessary and reasonable accommodations such as camouflage equipment would burden our operations going forward.” And Smith owes everything to their disability. “I understand now. This is the reason I was born with a disability. The spark I lost after becoming an Econ major — it’s finally been rekindled. This is my calling in life.” Next, I sat down with Justin A. Fukunaga, a first-year in Thayer. Fukunaga, who is blind, unexpectedly found himself becoming the founder of the start-up Ableism Can Be Fun (ACBF) this semester when he invented Ableism Bingo. “The goal is simple: Pick someone to talk to, whip out your Ableism Bingo board, and see how fast they give you five in a row,” Fukunaga explained. With spaces such as “told that you aren’t disabled,” “grabbed without consent,” and “called inspirational for living,” among many others, there’s an ableist option for everyone. The central idea of Ableism Bingo is, unsurprisingly, that “ableism can be fun.” “It all started one day in Annenberg. I was sitting with this guy. We’re talking about orchestras, and he asks me, ‘Do you know what a cello is?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah… I know what a cello is…?’ He’d never ask that to anyone abled, but whatever. But then five minutes later, we’re talking about Korea, and he asks me, ‘Do you know what Korea is?’ And I’m like, ‘…Yep! Yep, I know what Korea is!’ And I hightail it out of there.” (Author’s note: Satire aside, this conversation actually happened to me in Annenberg. It was not the best time.) Afterwards, Fukunaga realized that if disabled people have to deal with feeling subhuman every day without anyone noticing, they should at least make the most of it. “Here at ACBF, we recognize a core truth: abled people are weird. If we can’t get them to learn anything, we can at least laugh and practice our bingo speedruns.” Ableism Bingo exploded into a global phenomenon, selling 20 million units worldwide. In response, Fukunaga expanded the game by adding customizable boards, including the popular d/Deaf, chronic pain, and ADHD editions. All proceeds go towards improving Harvard’s accessibility. “It’s a powerful emotional tug for consumers,” Fukunaga noted. “It’s like those charity commercials with cute puppies and sad music. People understand that Harvard can’t afford to fix its own accessibility. The cause resonates with them.” With Fukunaga’s funding, Harvard is already installing an elevator in the PBHA building and developing fire evacuation protocols that don’t ask disabled students to shelter in place inside burning buildings in the hope that someone from the Operations Center will arrive. Fukunaga is “proud” to see Harvard proactively responding to its disabled students’ concerns, he said. “They’re going above and beyond, fixing all these decades-old civil rights violations for us. I feel like they really value us as people.” And it’s all possible because of Ableism Bingo. “Who would’ve thought the solution to our problems was for abled people to be abled people?” Fukunaga laughed.
—Ben T. Elwy ’23, lives in Quincy House. His column “Living a Disabled Life” appears on alternate Tuesdays.
PAGE 9
THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
MARCH 29, 2022
Grad Council Debates Finances, Diploma Phrasing By PATON D. ROBERTS CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
The Harvard Graduate Council discussed financing for events promoting cross-school interaction and the language on Harvard Extension School degrees at its meeting Monday. Eight of Harvard’s graduate and professional schools were represented at the meeting, hosted at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The meeting began with a review of the current applications for funding through the One Harvard Catalyst Fund, which subsidizes approved graduate school events. While the Harvard Business School Christian Fellowship, Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, and the HBS Middle East & North Africa Club all requested funds, discussion of funding applications evolved into more general discourse surrounding criteria for approval and the timeline for fulfilling those requests. “In a very philosophical sense, the Harvard One Catalyst fund’s objective is are we supporting activities, events, initiatives that really bring the student body together in some capacity,” said Council President Peter M. S. Choi.
Some representatives questioned whether the Council should set requirements for event funding, including requiring that a minimum number of schools be in attendance at each event, and if retroactive funding should be permitted. Harvard Kennedy School Representative Camille N. Choe noted that the Council had to reopen the HBS Christian Fellowship’s funding application and expressed concern over how delayed grant approval reflects on the Council. “My challenge with this application is that it’s now been so long and I feel like it really does not reflect well on us as the body with the One Catalyst fund and being kind of a gatekeeper of funding, and kind of putting them in a tenuous position, because it’s kind of our fault the application is now retroactive,” Choe said. The Council approved funding for the HBS Christian Fellowship, with the stipulation that the money be used either this year or next year. The Council also approved the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association’s funding request and voted to reconsider a previous financing request from the HBS Middle East &
COVID FROM PAGE 1
Covid Protocols Change at College isolate for five days and mask for ten days. The email also urged students to continue to mask if they felt more comfortable doing so and to be mindful of other students’ preferences. “If you feel the need to continue to wear a mask for your own protection, or to pro-
tect someone close to you, you should do so,” the email stated. “As we adjust to this phase of the pandemic, please be thoughtful about your choices and mindful of others who may have different risk factors than you do.” lucas.walsh@thecrimson.com vivian.zhao@thecrimson.com
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North Africa Club. The Council also discussed the current language used in Harvard Extension School diplomas. Harvard Extension Student Association member Kody Christiansen asked the Council to support his bill, which seeks to remove the phrase “in extension studies” from HES degrees. “I just think this is really important for the dignity of our students, and we represent the entire graduate student community who I think would very forcefully be in favor of this,” said Gabrielle “Gabe” L. Crofford, a Harvard Law School student, while expressing her support for the bill. The Council voted to be a signatory on the bill. Later in the meeting, the council approved a series of constitutional amendments that would increase the minimum number of voting representatives required from each school from one to two and set a maximum of four representatives according to the school’s enrollment. The Council voted to conclude the meeting at 8:30 p.m., half an hour after it was scheduled to end, and failed to address half of their agenda items.
The Harvard Graduate Council had its weekly meeting Monday night. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
paton.roberts@thecrimson.com
HLS Students Voice Masking Concerns By ANNE M. BRANDES CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Harvard Law School’s Disability Law Student Association filed an open letter earlier this month asking administrators to refrain from ending the Law School’s mask mandate. The Law School made face coverings optional after students returned from spring break on the heels of the University’s announcement that it would lift its indoor mask mandate on March 14. In the DLSA’s March 8 letter, students requested that HLS administrators establish an anonymous process for students to request medical accommodations from professors as well as loosen the class recording policy. The letter has not been sent directly to administrators, but has been shared with student groups and published in the Harvard Law Record. In the letter, DLSA leaders expressed concerns over the timing of the mask mandate lift. DLSA officer Marty Strauss
said in an interview with The Crimson that the Law School’s decision left many immunocompromised students feeling vulnerable and worried. “Especially changing the policy in the middle of the semester is particularly unfair to people who are immunocompromised,” Strauss said. “They will have difficult choices to make at this point.” In addition to the timing dispute, Linh Tang, a first-year law student, mentioned she found no reference to the considerations of disabled students in any communication about lifting the mask mandate from HLS officials. “There was a last minute one-liner saying that if you want to keep your mask on, feel free to do so,” Tang said. “There wasn’t enough of a window for people to voice their opinion.” Law School Dean for Administration L. Tracee Whitley ’88 wrote in a March 7 email to HLS affiliates that individuals can “freely exercise the personal choice” to continue masking indoors.
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“HLS leadership joins the University in supporting such personal health decisions by our community members, and asks that everyone support and respect any member of our community who wishes to continue taking advantage of the extra level of personal health protection offered by face coverings,” Whitley wrote. Tang also said that no students were consulted throughout the school’s decision making process. “We don’t know if there was even a poll for the faculty,” Tang said. “But as far as we know, nobody ever polled the student body to ask. It was a unilateral decision from the administration without a lot of consideration of student voices.” Lucy Litt, the DLSA’s president, said this was not the first time disabled students have had trouble receiving accommodations from the Law School. Litt stressed that it was important for professors to make class recordings available so disabled students have the option of attending class asyn-
chronously to reduce their exposure to the coronavirus. “What I’ve heard the most is frustration with getting access to class recordings in particular,” Litt said. “We’ve had students who have sort of needed that all along or could have benefited from that all along. It’s extremely difficult to get any kind of accommodation like that.” In the past few days, as students have experienced campus life without masks, Litt added that members of the DLSA have raised new requests since publishing the open letter, such as creating a designated socially distanced eating area for immunocompromised students who wished to continue eating on campus. “When this school originally went remote… they made recordings available,” Litt said. “I think people have just been frustrated that they might become invisible again once this whole thing stops affecting everybody else.” anne.brandes@thecrimson.com
a
SPORTS
WEEKLY RECAP
SCORES
WOMEN’S TENNIS VS. HOFSTRA W, 7-0 ___________________________________________________________
WOMEN’S TENNIS VS. UMASS W, 4- 3 ___________________________________________________________
SOFTBALL VS. PRINCETON L, 5-1 ___________________________________________________________
BASEBALL AT CORNELL W, 12-11 ___________________________________________________________
MEN’S VOLLEYBALL AT. SAINT FRANCIS W,3-1 ___________________________________________________________
MEN’S SWIM & DIVE AT NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS 13TH ___________________________________________________________
WOMEN’S LACROSSE VS. CORNELL L, 10-9 ___________________________________________________________
MEN’S LACROSSE
Harvard Beats Dartmouth to Extend Winning Streak By KATHARINE FORST CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
On Saturday, the No.10 men’s lacrosse team (6-1, 2-0 Ivy League) secured its fifth straight victory with a 19-10 win against the Dartmouth Big Green, bumping its record in conference play to 2-0. Harvard played to honor the memory of Yeardley Love by partnering with organization One Love for the contest. The win marked another strong showing for Ivy League men’s lacrosse. Of the 7 men’s Ancient Eight lacrosse teams, 5 are ranked in the top 10 nationally. Harvard is the only Ivy League team to have an undefeated conference record. Harvard did not come out of the gate as hot as it had in previous showings, trailing in the first quarter 5-2. . The Crimson did not display its usual tight play, with the offense forcing shots and the defense miscommunicating through slides. However, the team shook off its nerves and subsequently picked up its pace to make the first half competitive with the Big Green, going into halftime with a 8-7 lead. After the break, the squad returned to its higher caliber play and took control of the game. With this shift came more cohesion and communication, which was evident on the attacking end, where first-year attackman Sam King totaled 9 points on the day with 6 goals and 3 assists. He was lethal from start to finish, facilitating play from behind, as well as taking oneon-one drives from the x. Junior attackman Hayden Cheek notched a goal and an assist, while senior attackman Austin Madronic put on a great showing with a hat trick and four ground balls. In the midfield, there was standout play by junior Nick Loring, who sank three goals and facilitated Cheek in the second quarter with an assist, as well as sophomore attackman/ middie Graham Blake, who add
KING OF THE HILL Attacker Sam King seeks to move the ball past the Dartmouth defender in the Crimson’s 19-10 victory over the Big Green on Saturday. He had a career-high six goals in the contest. DYLAN J. GOODMAN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
ed two goals. “Unfortunately, we got off to a slow start but I thought we responded extremely well. I thought we did a good job clearing and riding this game which really helped us get more possessions on offense,” King stated. In the first half, the game reflected this battle for possession
time. Coming into play, scouts believed that the victor would be determined by the teams’ defenses, as both squads sport strong units on that end – Harvard’s defense ranks ninth nationally with 73 goals against (10.43 average), and Dartmouth is No.10 with 74 (10.57) – and that the winning team would be the one with tighter defensive
HAT-TRICK HERO Attacker Austin Madronic plays a ball at midfield in the Crimson’s victory over Dartmouth. He scored the Crimson’s first goal of the game and later added two more. DYLAN J. GOODMAN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
sets. For the majority of play on Saturday, both the Crimson’s and the Big Green’s defenses held strong. Sophomore LSM Greg Campisi was a standout, both on the face-off wings, as well as a member of the defensive sets. He tallied eight ground balls, which were crucial in ensuring that Harvard maintained pos-
session off the face-off scrums and in the midfield. First-year defensive midfielder Andrew O’Berry also performed well. He was crucial in clearing the ball for transitions, and tallied a goal on a fast break. “I felt that we did a really good job taking the first punch and not being fazed. We started off slow, but we competed re-
ally well and made the plays we needed to make throughout the game,” Campisi said. Looking to build on its strong start to the season, Harvard will next welcome Colgate to Jordan Field on Saturday, April 2 at 1 p.m. The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+. katharine.forst@thecrimson.com
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Attacker Austin Madronic tries to hold off a Dartmouth attacker in the Crimson’s Saturday victory over Dartmouth. DYLAN J. GOODMAN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER