The Harvard Crimson - Volume CL, No. 9 by The Harvard Crimson

THE HARVARD CRIMSON THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873

| VOLUME CL, NO. 9 | CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

BOARD OF OVERSEERS

OPINION

SPORTS

A Letter To My High School in Mourning

Historic End to the Harvard Women’s Basketball Season

PAGE 9

PAGE 15

| FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2023

External Ice Hockey Review Underway SPEEDY REVIEW. Jenner and Block, the law firm investigating Harvard’s women’s ice hockey program amid allegations of abuse, aims to conclude its review by the end of the term. SEE PAGE 4

Meet the Candidates

LAWSUITS

Judge Says Therapy Claim Can Proceed COMAROFF LAWSUIT. A judge denied Harvard’s motion for summary judgment on one count of a lawsuit by students who say Harvard failed to properly address harassment and retaliation. reports. SEE PAGE 8

NINE VIE FOR FIVE SEATS ON BOARD OF OVERSEERS. Sylvia M. Burwell ’87, Jeffrey D. Dunn ’77, Arturo Elizondo ’14, Srishti K. Gupta Narasimhan ’97, Fiona Hill, Vanessa W. Liu ’96, Robert L. Satcher, Jr, Harvey A. Silverglate, and Luis A. Ubiñas ’85 are campaigning for a seat on the Board of Overseers, Harvard’s second-highest governing board, in this spring’s election. SEE PAGE 6 LAURINNE EUGENIO—CRIMSON DESIGNER

ADMISSIONS

College Accepts 3.41% of Applicants to Class of 2027, Marking Second-Lowest Admissions Rate BY MICHELLE N. AMPONSAH AND EMMA H. HAIDAR

METRO

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

H MBTA Draws Criticism From Locals DELAYS CONTINUE. MBTA warned commuters of delays of up to 20 minutes on all metro lines due to ongoing inspections to verify the documentation of track defects and repairs. SEE PAGE 11

arvard College admitted 3.41 percent of applicants to the Class of 2027, marking the second-lowest admissions rate in the College’s history. The College’s Admissions Office notified 1,220 students of their acceptances in the regular decision cycle at 7 p.m. Thursday. The admitted students join 722 applicants accepted through the College’s early action program in December, totaling 1,942 admitted students from a pool of 56,937 applications. This year’s acceptance rate reflects a slight increase from last year’s record-low acceptance rate of 3.19 percent, with a 7 percent decrease in the total number of

SEE PAGE 8

Students Occupy University Hall

IOP Student Leaders Say Warren is ‘Stable’ Pick

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

ARTS

SEE PAGE 12

Legal scholars widely expect the Court’s strong conservative majority to overturn affirmative action, with a decision expected in late spring or summer. Students admitted to the Class of 2027 come from all 50 states and 102 countries. Roughly 22 percent of admits hail from the Mid-Atlantic, 17.4 percent from the South, 15.9 percent from New England, 17 percent from the Western/Mountain region, 10.1 percent from the Midwest, and 15.8 percent from U.S. territories and abroad. After the U.S., the countries with the highest numbers of permanent residents admitted to the Class of 2027 include Canada with 44 admitted students, the United Kingdom with 24 students, and China

INSTITUTE OF POLITICS

AND ELIAS J. SCHISGALL

CONVERSATION WITH ATWOOD. The esteemed award-winning Canadian author discussed her recently released book “Old Babes in the Wood,” her writing process, and how the two relate.

year before. Just over 2 percent of admits are Native American, a drop from 2.9 percent last year. Native Hawaiian students made up 0.5 percent of accepted students this year, a drop from 0.8 percent last year. Harvard admitted the highest ever proportion of Asian American applicants at 29.9 percent, marking a 2.1 percentage point increase from the 27.8 percent accepted to the Class of 2026. “It’s been part of a long-term trend,” Fitzsimmons said. “The percentages have been going up steadily. It’s not a surprise.” The uptick comes in advance of the Supreme Court’s decision on a lawsuit against Harvard brought by Students for Fair Admissions, an anti-affirmative action group that claims the College’s race-conscious admissions policies discriminate against Asian American applicants.

COMAROFF

BY RAHEM D. HAMID

Margaret Atwood Talks Book

applications from last year’s all-time high of 61,220 applicants. Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 said in an interview Thursday that he believes the Class of 2027, like every admitted class, is “unique.” “Our admissions committee would say the proof in all this is the individuals we recruited, first of all — from around the country and around the world — and then ended up over a long period of time, admitting,” Fitzsimmons said. “Now, of course, we hope they’ll choose to come here,” he added. African American or Black students comprise 15.3 percent of applicants admitted to the Class of 2027, a decrease from 15.5 percent last year. The proportion of Latinx students admitted dropped to 11.3 percent from 12.6 percent in the

Dozens of Harvard students occupied University Hall from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday in protest of the school’s sexual harassment and professional conduct policies. Organized by Our Harvard Can Do Better — a campus group that advocates against campus rape culture — the demonstration follows a wave of protests this semester, including a walkout, an email campaign, and a march, against Harvard’s sexual misconduct policies and its continued employment of professor John L. Comaroff, who is under fire for sexual harassment allegations levied by graduate students. Comaroff has denied all allegations of harassment and misconduct. University Hall — located in Harvard Yard — houses the offices of several of

Harvard’s top administrators, including the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and dean of the College. Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana spoke with and listened to the demonstrators for roughly 50 minutes in the middle of Wednesday’s demonstration. Protesters voiced concerns about Comaroff’s continued employment as a professor, as well as what they see as the University’s lack of action on sexual assault and harassment. Khurana agreed to reach out to organizers to set up meetings, but he did not share any concrete plans in response to their demands. On Twitter, Our Harvard Can Do Better is also circulating an email template for supporters to prompt Khurana to make a public statement. “I am writing in solidarity with the student protestors currently occupying University Hall, and asking you to send a

SEE PAGE 4

BY THOMAS J. METE CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

urrent and former members of the HarC vard Institute of Politics Student Advisory Committee praised “the stable pick” of Setti D. Warren as the permanent IOP director, adding they are pleased the appointment stayed within the IOP. Warren’s appointment to the permanent role was announced Wednesday, concluding a national search that narrowed to four finalists earlier this month. Student interviewers had viewed Warren as a viable candidate prior to his selection, though he was not their top choice. “I trust the Dean’s decision,” said IOP Communications Director Ethan C. Kelly ’25. “If the Dean thought Setti was the right choice, then I believe he is the right choice.” Warren — the former mayor of Newton, Massachusetts — joined the IOP in 2021 as its executive director and became

its interim director in July 2022 after the unexpected departure of former IOP Director Mark D. Gearan ’78. Former IOP Vice President Tabitha L. Escalante ’23 wrote in a statement she is “thankful that the IOP will not undergo another senior staff transition,” with Warren staying in the top role. Members of the Student Advisory Committee said they were also pleased with the decision to keep the appointment in-house. “Having a director with already a year’s experience means he knows how to hit the ground running,” Kelly said. Former IOP Vice President Tabitha L. Escalante ’23 wrote in a statement she is “thankful that the IOP will not undergo another senior staff transition,” with Warren staying in the top role. Members of the Student Advisory Committee said they were also pleased with the decision to keep the appointment in-house. “Having a director with already a year’s

SEE PAGE 5

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

LAST WEEK

MARCH 31, 2023

UNIVERSITY

METRO

Harvard, MIT Launch Nonprofit

Former Anthro Chair Departs Harvard

Cambridge Parents Criticize Budget Cuts

KHURANA AT AXIM. Stephanie R. Khurana will serve as chief executive officer of Axim Collaborative, a new nonprofit launched by Harvard University and MIT, the organization announced in a press release Thursday morning. Axim Collaborative, previously known as the Center for Reimagining Learning, is a nonprofit created by the two universities using proceeds from their sale of the jointly owned education platform edX. An online learning initiative started by Harvard and MIT in 2012, edX was sold to tech startup 2U, Inc. for $800 million in 2021. BY MILES J. HERSZENHORN AND CLAIRE YUAN—CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

ANTHRO CHAIR TO CUNY. Harvard Anthropology professor and former Department Chair Ajantha Subramanian will leave Cambridge to teach at the City University of New York, citing a lack of support from Harvard’s administration in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against three Anthropology professors. Subramanian was on temporary leave as department chair when The Crimson reported in May 2020 that the professors were facing complaints of sexual misconduct, including some levied by graduate students. BY RAHEM D. HAMID AND

PROPOSED BUDGET CUTS. Cambridge residents advocated against staff cuts in the budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year at a Cambridge Public Schools meeting Thursday evening. The current budget details the district’s plan to cut nearly 30 education interventionists and paraprofessionals, who currently work within CPS schools to provide additional academic support to students. These positions were funded with federal grants established in 2020 to support school districts during the Covid-19 pandemic. BY SALLY E. EDWARDS AND AYUMI

ELIAS J. SCHISGAL—CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

NAGATOMI—CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Get breaking news. thecrimson.com/subscribe

The Week in Photos

AROUND THE IVIES BARNARD COLLEGE ADMITS A RECORD-LOW 6.5 PERCENT OF APPLICANTS FOR THE CLASS OF 2027

UNIVERSITY HALL IN PROTEST OF COMAROFF. Dozens of students occupied University Hall from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday in protest of the Univesity’s sexual harassment policies and continued employment of professor John L. Comaroff.

Columbia’s Barnard College admitted a record-low 6.5 percent of 11,803 applications, the Columbia Spectator reported Wednesday. The class of 2027’s acceptance rate follows a three-year downward trend, with this year’s acceptance rate 5.2 percentage points below the acceptance rate of Barnard’s current seniors.

JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

THE COLUMBIA SPECTATOR

THC Read more at THECRIMSON.COM

PENN WILL END DEAN’S LIST RECOGNITION FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS The University of Pennsylvania will stop awarding the dean’s list to undergraduates starting July 1. Deans and student representatives from the Undergraduate Assembly and Student Committee on Undergraduate Education decided that other distinctions, such as departmental or school awards, better represent academic achievement. Undergraduates had mixed reactions to the change, with several students wishing for Penn to maintain the dean’s list. THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

SKELETAL REMAINS OF 15 NATIVE AMERICANS DISCOVERED IN DARTMOUTH COLLEGE’S COLLECTIONS Dartmouth College announced Tuesday that the Anthropology department and the Hood Museum of Art discovered the remains of 15 Native American individuals in their collections. Initially believed to be of non-Native origin, the human remains were identified as Native American after a series of internal re-inventories. The college wrote that it is “actively pursuing” repatriation and will be taking steps to offer support to those affected by the discoveries.

RAMADAN. Hundreds of Muslim Harvard affiliates gathered in the Student Organization Center at Hilles for Iftar — the meal to break their fast after sunset during Ramadan, which began on March 22 and will end on April 20. BY JOEY HUANG—CRIMSON

MINI GOLF. TAs spring arrives on campus, the Science Center Plaza has onc again become home to a variety of outdoor activities, including a mini golf course. BY ADDISON Y. LIU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRA-

PHOTOGRAPHER

PHER

THE DARTMOUTH

TERRI SEWELL ANNOUNCED AS 2023 CLASS DAY SPEAKER FOR PRINCETON Terri Sewell, the representative for Alabama’s 7th congressional district, was chosen as Princeton’s 2023 Class Day speaker. Sewell is the first Black woman to represent Alabama in Congress. Sewell concentrated in the School of Public and International Affairs and received a certificate in African American Studies as an undergraduate at Princeton before earning a law degree from Harvard. THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

APARTHEID WEEK. Last Sunday, the Harvard College Palestine Solidarity Committee kicked off its annual Israeli Apartheid week. BY ADDISON Y. LIU—

STUDENTS MARCH. After students occupied University Hall on Wednesday in protest of the University’s sexual harrassment and professional conduct policies, they marched and chanted around the Harvard Statue. Demonstrators condemned Harvard’s continued employment of professor John L. Comaroff. BY CLAIRE YUAN—CRIM-

CREATIVE PROCESS. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner discussed his Jewish identity and his creative process during a conversation hosted by Harvard’s Center for Jewish Studies Tuesday evening. BY JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIM-

CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

SON PHOTOGRAPHER

NEXT WEEK

THE HARVARD CRIMSON MARCH 31, 2023

What’s Next

IN THE REAL WORLD FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP INDICTED BY GRAND JURY A Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Trump on charges related to a hush money scheme with porn star Stormy Daniels, making Trump the first former President to face criminal charges. In a statement released Thursday evening, Trump said the indictment is “political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history.” Trump’s legal team has been contacted by prosecutors, and the former president is expected to turn himself in Tuesday. The developments will alter the landscape of the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, though Trump’s expected rivals have condemned the indictment, declaring it is more about politics than criminal activity.

BIDEN ANNOUNCES $10,000 STUDENT LOAN DEBT CANCELLATION President Joe Biden announced a plan on Wednesday to cancel $10,000 of student loan debt for Americans who earn less than $125,000 each year. Progressives praised the move, though many had called for forgiveness of far more than that. Critics — most of them conservative — condemned the plan as unfair and unsound for the economy. Experts expect legal challenges to the executive action, according to the New York Times. The issue is also expected to impact the midterm elections in November, which will determine which party controls the chambers of Con-

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

Friday 3/31

Monday 4/3

Wednesday 4/5

SCIENCE BOOK TALK: BRUCE SCHNEIER’S “A HACKER’S MIND”

SOLIDARITY! TRANSNATIONAL FEMINISMS THEN AND NOW

HKS SEMINAR: HOW GOVERNMENT MEASURES OF ECONOMIC WELL-BEING INFORM OUR POLICY DEBATES

Science Center Hall D, 6 p.m. Listen to renowned security technologist Bruce Schneier talk to Hiawatha Bray about how hackers can influence our economic, political, and legal systems at the expense of others.

Saturday 4/1

The Lia and William Poorvu Gallery, Schlesinger Library, 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Explore this exhibition of 50 years of feminist collections, including posters, newspapers, and photos. The materials showcase women of color activism from the 1970s to the present.

Thursday 4/6

Tuesday 4/4

TRANSQUINCEAÑERA

Adams Dining Hall, 7:30 p.m. Join the Harvard GSAS’s Latinx Student Association to celebrate Trans Day of Visibility and Women’s History month. There will be a showing of Mis XXy Años, a documentary about guest of honor, Lía “La Novia Sirena” García.

Malkin Penthouse, HKS, 12:15 - 1:30 p.m. Hear former Senator Phil Gramm discuss his research on the government’s measures of economic wellbeing at this Kennedy School seminar.

HORIZON AWARD CEREMONY FOR DR. ROBERT BULLARD

Austin Hall, 6 p.m. Watch the Environmental Law Society present the Horizon Award to Dr. Robert Bullard, the “father of Environmental Justice.”

UKRAINIAN LITERATURE LECTURE Kresge Room, Barker Center, 4:30 - 7 p.m. Join the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies for a lecture from professor Tamara Hundorova, who will discuss the formation of modernist writing at the end of 19th century in Ukrainian literature.

Sunday 4/2

Friday 4/7

CAREXDESIGN CONFERENCE

SCREENING: THINGS OF THE AIMLESS WANDERER

Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 9 a.m. Join creative thinkers, industry leaders, professors, and students at HarvardxDesign, an annual conference led by Harvard Graduate School of Design students. This year, attendees will uncover the role of Care by Design in transforming society.

Harvard Film Archive, 9 - 10:20 p.m. Take this opportunity to see Kivu Ruhorahoza’s film focusing on the Western gaze upon Africa. The film highlights the continent’s colonial encounter with explorers and the journey and life of Bayard Rustin.

NASHVILLE SCHOOL SHOOTING KILLS SIX A mass shooting occurred at the Covenant School, a private Presbyterian elementary school, in Nashville, Tenn. on Monday morning. Six victims, three of whom were children, were killed in the gunfire. The police identified the attacker to be Audrey Hale, a 28-year-old who was a former student at the school, but authorities have not identified a motive for the shooting as she was killed by police quickly. Hale had legally bought seven firearms — three of which were guns he fired in the attack. Still, Congress has not pursued any measures on the issue.

SPRING RAIN

KENTUCKY LAWMAKERS PASS ANTI-TRANSGENDER BILL Republican lawmakers in Kentucky overrode Governor Andy Beshear’s — a Democrat — veto of a bill regulating life for transgender people. The veto votes won by significant margins in both chambers of the state government as the Senate voted 29-8 and the House voted 76-23. The new legislation notably includes a ban on access to gender-affirming health care and a restriction on the bathrooms accessible to transgender people. Conflicts over this anti-transgender bill is expected to be a highlighted topic in this year’s gubernatorial election as Beshear looks towards reelection to a second term in office.

ADDISON Y. LIU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

THE HARVARD CRIMSON Cara J. Chang ’24 President Associate Managing Editors Leah J. Teichholtz ’24 Meimei Xu ’24

STAFF FOR THIS ISSUE Brandon L. Kingdollar ’24

Cynthia V. Lu ’24

Managing Editor

Business Manager

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

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

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

Blog Chairs Tina Chen ’24 Hana Rehman ’25

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

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

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

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

Editorial Chairs

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

Night Editors Isabella B. Cho ’24 James R. Jolin ’24 Mayesha R. Soshi ’24 Assistant Night Editors Jeremiah C. Curran ’25 Claire Yuan ’25 Emily L. Ding ’26 Sabrina R. Hu ’26 Thomas J. Mete ’26 Dylan H. Phan ’26 Story Editors James R. Jolin ’24 Ariel H. Kim ’24

Brandon L. Kingdollar ’24 Vivi E. Lu ’24 Leah J. Teichholtz ’24 Andy Z. Wang ’23-’24 Meimei Xu ’24 Eric Yan ’24

Julian J. Giordano ’25 Christopher L. Li ’25 Addison Y. Liu ’25 Nathanael Tjandra ’26 Editorial Editor

Ian D. Svetkey ’25 Design Editors Toby R. Ma ’24 Nayeli Cardozo ’25 Sami E. Turner ’25 Laurinne P. Eugenio ’26 Photo Editors Cory K. Gorczycki ’24 Joey Huang ’24

Sports Editor Bridget T. Sands ’23 Hannah Bebar ’24 Aaron B. Schuchman ’25 Arts Editors

Anya L. Henry ’24

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

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

NEWS

MARCH 31, 2023

HARVARD ATHLETICS

Hockey Investigation May End by April TIMELINE FOR REVIEW. The external investigation of Harvard’s women’s ice hockey team aims to conclude by the end of term. BY PATON D. ROBERTS AND SOPHIA C. SCOTT CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

enner and Block, the New York-based law firm investigating Harvard’s women’s ice hockey program in light of allegations of abuse against the program and its head coach, aims to complete its review by the end of April, according to a former team member. The investigation comes amid accusations that head coach Katey Stone fostered a toxic environment on the team, including making disparaging comments to players and other coaches, downplaying injuries, and displaying insensitivity to mental health issues. The allegations — published in the Athletic and the Boston Globe — date back more than 20 years. The review — which was announced by Harvard Athletic Director Erin McDermott on March 14 — will be the eighth surrounding Harvard Athletics in the last seven years. Abra A. Kinkopf ’06, a former Harvard women’s ice hockey player on the 2002-03 team, said Jenner and Block told her during a March 25 phone call that the firm hopes to make the review process efficient. “They said that they were going to try to make it as swift as

possible, and they were hoping it would be end of April,” Kinkopf said. Kinkopf said there was uncertainty around the timeline, and she was told “it could extend further” or conclude earlier than expected. Jenner and Block did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Harvard spokesperson Rachael Dane wrote in an email that the investigation is expected to end “by the end of the academic year.” The last day of spring term classes for the College is April 26, and the final exam period for 2023 lasts from May 4 to May 13. Two current women’s ice hockey players said they had not been informed of the investigation’s timeline by Jenner and Block or Harvard Athletics. Kinkopf said Jenner and Block has offered to connect review participants — including former players — to mental health resources. Harvard Counseling and Mental Health Service has also offered support to current team members, according to a Harvard spokesperson. While any individual with knowledge of the situation can share comments with Jenner and Block, Kinkopf said that, according to her phone call with the firm, the investigators will not be actively reaching out to alumni or current players. “They will talk to anyone, but they’re not going to seek out people of note,” she said. “They’re also not going to dig for information. And they are very clear they cannot force any students or athletes to speak.”

Harvard’s women’s ice hockey program is undergoing an external review by New York-based law firm Jenner and Block. The firm aims to complete its review by the end of April. PATON D. ROBERTS—CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Kinkopf said lawyers from Jenner and Block made it clear during the call that “they represent the school, they don’t represent people.” “Their job is to publish recommendations for the school,” she said. “So the recommenda-

tions they publish will belong to Harvard, and Harvard can then choose whether or not it wants to make it public.” On March 24, the Athletic reported that top freshman defender Jade A. Arnone ’26 had entered the transfer portal, and associ-

ate head coach Lee-J Mirasolo had taken a leave of absence. The Globe investigation reported that 14 players have left Stone’s team since 2016. Kinkopf questioned why Stone is permitted to remain in her role as the investigation takes place.

“One of my concerns with the investigation is that Katey Stone’s still on campus,” she added. Dane declined to comment on criticisms of the ongoing review. paton.roberts@thecrimson.com sophia.scott@thecrimson.com

Palestine Solidarity Committee Hosts Israeli Apartheid Week BY J. SELLERS HILL AND NIA L. ORAKWUE CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

The Harvard College Palestine Solidarity Committee kicked off its annual Israeli Apartheid Week on Sunday, which includes a slate of events around Palestine and an art installation that received criticism from some Jewish campus organizations. The Committee organized seven events for the week, including panels that highlighted student activism, experiences of LGBTQ+ Palestinians, and South African-Palestinian and Kurdish-Palestinian solidarity. The final organized event of the week is a Sunday drag performance by Egyptian-Canadian artist Halal Bae. The PSC, described on its website as an organization “dedicated to supporting the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, justice, and equality through raising awareness, advocacy, and non-violent resistance,” hosts the

programs as part of the international Israeli Apartheid Week movement that began in 2005. Like previous years, several of the Committee’s events centered on intersectionality between different identifiers. Dalal Hassane ’26, a PSC organizer, said these sessions were important for recognizing both parallels and tensions between different groups. “I think, like with any other group, it’s very important to highlight the significance and impact of solidarity between Palestinians and other occupied groups around the world,” Hassane said. A Thursday conversation titled “South African Palestinian Solidarity” featured Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions co-founder Omar Bargouti and drew parallels between the apartheid in South Africa and its “modern counterpart in Israel,” according to a post on the PSC’s Instagram account. On Tuesday, the Committee hosted a panel on student activism with guest speakers from

the University of Chicago and the University of California, Berkeley, who discussed the climate around pro-Palestine activism on their respective campuses. Nadine S. Bahour ’22, who moderated the panel, said Tuesday that the Israeli-Palestinian geopolitical conflict is relevant to other global social issues. “Every single topic that you can think of, Palestine, it’s happening there, because it’s a full country with people that have all the same problems that everyone else has,” she said. “I think that’s why it applies to everywhere. As part of the week, the Committee also installed a mock apartheid wall composed of a series of painted panels, with one reading, “There is no zionist state without racism colonialism ethnic cleansing.” Another reads, “Veritas? Harvard upholds apartheid. We are all complicit.” Harvard spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo declined to comment on the PSC’s installation. The wall, installed in Science

Center Plaza, is intended to serve as a reminder that “freedom from state violence and oppression is a universal struggle,” according to a post on the PSC’s Instagram. On Monday, Harvard Hillel Israel Chair Daniel O. Denenberg ’26, Hillel Intern for Combating Antisemitism Sabrina P. Goldfischer ’23, and Hillel President and Crimson Editorial editor Jacob M. Miller ’25 wrote in an email to Hillel affiliates that they found the wall “offensive.” “We’re emailing you because in previous years this wall has been a talking point for much of Harvard’s Jewish community. For some Jews, it has also been painful and offensive,” they wrote. “However much you care, Israel is the world’s only Jewish state. It is our historic homeland. It has held together our people and shaped our culture and practice for eighty generations.” “We therefore unambiguously reject the PSC’s characterization of Zionism as racist or colonialist,” they added. The statement specifically

COMAROFF FROM PAGE 1

Student Occupy University Hall college-wide email stating sexual violence is a crisis on campus,” the email template reads. Wednesday’s demonstration comes after Harvard released its first University-wide anti-bullying and non-discrimination policies last week. The University is waiting until after the release of new regulations from the Department of Education to publish its updated Title IX policies, Garber announced in an email to University affiliates last week. In a emailed statement, University spokesperson Jason A. Newton pointed to new hires by Harvard’s Office for Gender Equity: three new Sexual Harassment/Assault Resources and Education employees in spring 2022 and Restorative Practitioner Jonathan Berry in January 2023. Newton declined on specific criticisms made during the demonstration. The protesters sat in University Hall’s bottom floor, sharing speeches, chanting, and playing music. They held signs with

phrases reading, “Time’s Up,” “No More Complicity,” and “Justice for Survivors.” In various speeches and chants, students pointed to recent developments in a federal lawsuit filed by three Anthropology graduate students against the University for allegedly ignoring reports of sexual harassment and retaliation by Comaroff, a professor in the African and African American Studies and Anthropology Departments. In particular, they condemned Harvard’s recent request for summary judgment on the last count of the suit, which alleges that the University illegally obtained one of the graduate student’s therapy records and shared them with Comaroff. “Stealing health notes can’t be done, legal ethics 101,” they chanted. Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean and Harvard President-elect Claudine Gay placed Comaroff on a semester of unpaid leave in spring 2022 after two University investigations found

that Comaroff’s verbal conduct had violated Harvard’s sexual harassment and professional conduct policies. Comaroff returned to teaching non-required courses in fall 2022. Comaroff’s lawyers — Ruth K. O’Meara-Costello ’02, Janet Halley, and Norman S. Zalkind — wrote in an emailed statement that Comaroff “is not a ‘sexual abuser,’” saying that the University only found him responsible for an instance of verbal harassment. “The protesters would have Harvard make decisions based upon rumor and manufactured outrage instead of the facts its own investigation found. All members of the Harvard community should find that demand disturbing,” they wrote in the email. They added that Comaroff “should not be fired.” “The idea that Harvard should fire him based on unsupported allegations, ignoring the final results of its own very thorough investigation, is disturbingly incompatible with basic values of

fairness and due process,” they wrote. In its press release Wednesday, Our Harvard Can Do Better reiterated calls for Comaroff to resign from his position. The campus group’s demands do not include Comaroff’s termination. Rosalie P. Couture ’26, a member of Our Harvard Can Do Better, said she was frustrated with the suggestion of more conversations and the lack of administrative action. “We’ve talked to everybody in the Title IX office. We can talk to talk all day, but at the end of the day, we need to be speaking with decision makers who have the power to actually act on any proposals that we put forth,” Couture said. “Harvard themselves have experts that have laid out very clear ways for them to address sexual violence on campus and Harvard just is not doing anything,” she added. darley.boit@thecrimson.com charlotte.ritz-jack@thecrimson.com

criticized one panel of the wall “featuring black and white imagery” that they called “reminiscent of the Holocaust concentration camps for many last year.” Some members of Hillel, Harvard Chabad, and Harvard Israel Initiative stood in Science Center Plaza and Harvard Yard to provide Jewish student perspectives on the installation to passersby. Sarah Bolnick ’23, co-president of Harvard Israel Initiative, acknowledged the intention behind the installation, but said she considers it “a form of hate speech.” “It’s supposed to be beautiful and symbolic, but I think if you look at it, it really is very offensive and aggressive,” Bolnick said. In an emailed statement to The Crimson Thursday, Miller said Hillel encourages dialogue between different views but criticized the PSC’s rhetoric. “At Harvard Hillel we welcome a variety of views on Israel and believe that dialogue and debate are vital when discussing such a complex issue,” Mill-

er said. “But ridding our discussions of substance and throwing around inaccurate buzzwords to describe a complicated situation is counterproductive and immature.” Hassane said those who find the wall offensive should reflect on the installation from the perspective of someone from Palestine. “This is an art installation that’s supposed to represent the apartheid wall that currently stands in Palestine,” Hassane said. “I think that they need to ask themselves, ‘How does this wall affect Palestinians? How does this wall affect the people that it was built to oppress?’” “I think that it’s just very important for us to recognize, to listen to the voices of Palestinian people. Not only the voices coming from Palestine, but the voices of Palestinians on campus,” she added. “They’re often overshadowed. They’re often silenced.” sellers.hill@thecrimson.com nia.orakwue@thecrimson.com

NEWS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON MARCH 31, 2023

UNIVERSITY FINANCES

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CFO Urges Caution Amid Economic Uncertainty FINAL REFLECTIONS. Outgoing Harvard CFO says “It’s time to be very cautious,” amid rising economic turmoil. BY KRISHI KISHORE AND ROHAN RAJEEV CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

utgoing Harvard Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer Thomas J. Hollister said in a Thursday interview that the University should be “very cautious” in its financial management as the school confronts an increasingly uncertain economic climate. The United States is currently facing an array of economic challenges, including record-high inflation levels, rising interest rates, recent bank failures, and stock market volatility. During the interview, Hollister said these challenges, which he called a “quadruple whammy,” will affect Harvard’s financial results in the coming years. “There are storm clouds: Inflation is very clear and present and revealing in construction costs, supplies, services, everywhere,”

Hollister said. “Capital market difficulties, bank failures, rising interest rates, and the fear, of course, upon the present — fear of a recession — so it’s time to be very cautious.” Hollister also said current-use donations so far this fiscal year are “running behind last year.” “Whether that’s a certain indication that the economy is softening, we don’t know yet. It’s also the year trend – we’re not sure how it will play out,” he said.

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Staying watchful, being prepared, maintaining sound financial footing were important most recently and in years ahead. Thomas J. Hollister Harvard Chief Financial Officer

Hollister added the financial headwinds will “inevitably” affect Harvard’s endowment returns for fiscal year 2023, “and therefore the endowment’s ca-

pacity to make distributions in the next few years in the budget.” Last fall, Harvard reported a $2.3 billion loss in endowment value for fiscal year 2022 — its first year of negative returns since 2016. Still, the University’s financial report for the last fiscal year cautioned that the reported endowment value, $50.9 billion, may not accurately reflect the current market value of the endowment’s assets due to uncertainty surrounding the valuation of private equity and venture capital investments. Hollister said the recent financial turmoil has made it even more difficult to estimate the value of private assets in Harvard’s endowment. “The recent disruption in both venture capital and startup funding as well as bank failures has no doubt further exacerbated the question of what is the proper valuation for certain classes of assets,” he said. Despite financial challenges, Hollister said Harvard is “fortunate” to have entered fiscal year 2023 in a “sound financial condition.” Harvard reported a $406 million surplus at the end of fiscal year 2022 — its highest in at least the last two decades.

Outgoing Harvard CFO Thomas J. Hollister said the University should be cautious in its approach to current economic challenges. COURTESY OF STEPHANIE MITCHELL/HARVARD STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

IOP Student Leaders Happy With Warren

The Thursday interview marked Hollister’s final interview with The Crimson. Harvard announced last November that Hollister would retire at the end of the academic year after serving as the school’s CFO for eight years. Hollister is credited with preparing Harvard well for financial challenges resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2019, Hollister led recession planning with financial teams across the University to ensure the school was well-prepared for future eco-

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I’ve had the opportunity to work with Claudine closely and think she’s terrific. Thomas J. Hollister Harvard Chief Financial Officer

nomic downturns. Reflecting on his tenure, Hollister said Harvard must remain prepared for economic turmoil. “Harvard in its almost 400 year history has seen many ups and downs, and we’ve certainly seen some of those in the last seven or eight years,” Hollister said. “Staying watchful, being prepared, maintaining sound financial footing were important most recently and in years ahead.” Hollister’s retirement will coincide with that of University President Lawrence S. Bacow, who will be succeeded by FAS Dean Claudine Gay in July. s“I’ve had the opportunity to work with Claudine closely and think she’s terrific,” Hollister said. “One disappointment is that I will not have the chance to work with her or work under her leadership in the years ahead.” During the presidential search, Hollister said he provided input on the “working relationship” between the CFO and Harvard’s top administrators. Hollister said he looks forward to new endeavors following his retirement from Harvard. “It has been a privilege to work at a place with such a worthy mission and so many interesting and dedicated people,” Hollister said. “But I have family, friends, adventures, and hopefully new chapters of contribution that I look forward to.” krishi.kishore@thecrimson.com rohan.rajeev@thecrimson.com

Setti D. Warren was named as permanent IOP director Tuesday morning. CLAIRE YUAN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

experience means he knows how to hit the ground running,” Kelly said. “With any organization, with any company, with any entity, picking someone internal by nature is more of a seamless transition,” said Robert Fogel ’25, one of the JFK Jr. Forum Committee cochairs. The sense of relief among current and former IOP student leadership comes after a series of staff changes in recent years. “It’s gonna be a strong start in leadership at the IOP. There have been some issues with turnover in the past,” current IOP Vice President Pratyush Mallick ’25 said. “There probably doesn’t need to be a transition because Setti is already interim director,” Fogel added. Current student leaders also said Warren was a “pretty good choice” and the IOP will not experience “infrastructure change” as a result of his appointment. Former Student Advisory Committee members, however, are conflicted about whether Warren will be able to help the IOP reach its full potential. “It’s not really bringing anything new to the IOP because, not only was he just interim director, he was executive director,” former Student Advisory Committee member Luis F. Esteva Sueiro ’24 said. “I am confident that his meaningful collaboration with students can allow the Institute to successfully grow and flourish,” former IOP Vice President Escalante said, referring to Warren. Esteva Sueiro said that selecting a director “jumping on MSNBC every now and then,” rather than Warren, would have disad-

vantaged students. “If we got a David Axelrod to the IOP, how much time would he have for students, and how much time would he have to truthfully engage with student programming?” Esteva Sueiro asked, referencing the former University of Chicago Institute of Politics director. “Setti is an IOP guy for sure; the IOP is Setti’s thing,” Esteva Sueiro added.

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If we got a David Axelrod to the IOP, how much time would he have for students, and how much time would he have to truthfully engage with student programming? Luis F. Esteva Sueiro ’24 Former IOP Student Adv iser

IOP spokesperson Lauren Miller wrote that IOP staff are “excited to continue working under Setti’s strong and capable leadership to inspire students’ lives in politics and public service.” The current Student Advisory Committee looks forward to further collaboration with Warren, who has been “super receptive to student feedback,” according to Mallick, and is overall supportive of Elmendorf’s decision. “I’m excited. I think that a lot of students have been able to have good working relationships with him over the past year,” Kelly said. “Setti is amazing,” Fogel said. “We’re really happy to get to continue working with him.” thomas.mete@thecrimson.com

Commission Votes Against Social Prescribing Group Reservoir Project After Criticism Launches National Campaign BY MILES J. HERSZENHORN AND CLAIRE YUAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

he Santa Barbara County PlanT ning Commission voted Wednesday against a proposed project that would construct three water storage reservoirs on former University land holdings in central California. The commission voted 3-1 against the project after local California farmers and Harvard affiliates denounced the project and voiced concerns during the meeting about environmental impacts that could arise from building the reservoirs. The project would be distributed across a 6,500-acre project site, and each reservoir would cover an area of five acres and store 45 acre-feet of water. California farmers said during the meeting that the project would pose a serious risk to the water supply in the region. The area is located in a critically overdrafted groundwater basin, according to Roberta “Robbie” Jaffe, a local farmer who is the co-owner of Condor’s Hope Vineyard. “The reservoirs would have pulled out potentially millions of gallons of water in one year,” Jaffe said. “There are lots of shallow wells around there for residences and cattle, and it would have eventually, over time, just really

decimated all of that.” The project site is part of more than 7,500 acres of vineyard land previously controlled by the Harvard Management Company, which oversees the University’s $50.9 billion endowment. In 2014, Brodiaea Inc. — a Delaware-based company fully owned by the Harvard Management Company at the time — purchased the vineyard land for $10.1 million dollars. In 2020, the Harvard Management Company spun out its natural resources team — including its ownership of Brodiaea — to a new investment management firm, Solum Partners. The Harvard Management Company remains a limited partner in Solum Partners, meaning the vineyard land is still indirectly part of Harvard’s endowment, though the University’s investment arm retains little involvement in the day-to-day operations of Solum or Brodiaea. Hannah Weinronk, a staff member at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, said during the meeting that Harvard “has a track record of selling their land investments when it’s advantageous to them, no matter the effects on the community it has invested in.” “I ask that the commission please vote in opposition of the permit application, which will only give control of water to a cor-

porate entity at the expense of water rights and farmers’ livelihoods in the Cuyama Valley,” Weinronk said. Kelsey Ichikawa ’20, who also attended the meeting, said there were “deep contradictions” between Harvard’s academic emphasis on climate and sustainability research while also maintaining investments in natural resources. “It saddens me that’s also happening in California where I grew up and where my family still lives,” she said. “I’m asking you to push back against this external investor who, let’s be honest, is not accountable to your constituents and is not accountable to the public good.” Harvard Management Company spokesperson Patrick S. McKiernan declined to comment, citing a company policy against commenting on individual investments. The planning commission’s vote on Wednesday to deny the project was only tentative, as the Santa Barbara County Development Review Division must now produce a report with findings for denial of the project. Brodiaea, however, will still be able to appeal the final vote to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. miles.herszenhorn@thecrimson.com claire.yuan@thecrimson.com

BY MAKANAKA NYANDORO CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

A group of Harvard College students kicked off a nationwide movement advocating for social prescribing — a practice allowing physicians to prescribe non-medical interventions — in a webinar Monday. The student group, known as the Harvard Undergraduate Initiative Students for Social Prescribing, formally launched the national movement — the United States Social Prescribing Student Movement — in conjunction with Social Prescribing USA and the Harvard Global Health Institute. The undergraduate group was founded last March and is the first chapter of the new nationwide movement. The chapter has 12 members working to design social prescribing pilot projects, develop best practices around social prescribing, and advise activists and policymakers. “America faces a bunch of silent crises,” Morse said. “We aren’t solving these effectively with just pills and procedures alone. We need something else.” Morse pointed to a 2019 review published by the World Health Organization, which found through an examination of more than 3,000 studies that engaging in the arts can improve physical and mental health. He also refer-

enced a 2020 study by Harvard’s School of Public Health showing an association between volunteering and living longer. Under social prescribing, physicians refer patients to local organizations for volunteering, engagement in the arts, and other activities, in addition to prescribing medical treatments.

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It’s people knowing that they can turn to each other for support, rather than going just to a doctor for a pill. Rachel Chen ’23 Co-Founder

“These flourishing activities can be essential drivers of wellness,” Morse said. Morse added that traditionally, health care has not addressed the importance of social activities in promoting health. “A new chapter in our understanding of health is emerging, and it starts with a simple idea and a simple question,” Morse said. “That question is, ‘What if doctors prescribe more than just pills? What if they prescribe those very activities that bolster health — access to arts, nature, volunteering, access to social ser-

vices like food and housing assistance?’” he asked. In an interview, Madeline Maier ’23, the president and co-founder of the undergraduate social prescribing organization, said that her internship at the National Academy for Social Prescribing in the United Kingdom was the inspiration behind launching the Harvard group. “We can bring the principles that they have there to us in the U.S., and those principles are that not everything just boils down to your biological health,” Maier said. “Everything contributes to your overall well-being, your stress, your eating, your financial situation, your overall environment.” Rachel Chen ’23, another co-founder of the group, said social prescribing inspires her because it represents more than “a systematic health care change.” “This is a cultural revolution,” Chen said. “This is a cultural shift toward understanding patients as people, having a better and more compassionate holistic care system, and empowering local communities to take care of each other.” “It’s people knowing that they can turn to each other for support, rather than going just to a doctor for a pill,” she added. makanaka.nyandoro@thecrimson.com

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

COVER STORY

MARCH 31, 2023

Harvard Board of Overseers Candidates ELECTIONS COMMENCE. Eight candidates are on the ballot for an expected five vacancies in Harvard’s Board of Overseers — the University’s second-highest governing body — while a ninth seeks to stage a write-in campaign. Voting began today and lasts until May 16, with all Harvard graduates who received their degree as of Jan. 1, except faculty and administrators, eligible to vote. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Sylvia Burwell ’87 Pledges to Promote ‘Inclusive Excellence’ BY MILES J. HERSZENHORN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Since becoming the president of American University in 2017, Sylvia M. Burwell ’87 has acquired nearly six years of experience working with a university’s governing board. Now, she wants to join one for the next six years. Burwell said she is running for election to Harvard’s Board of Overseers — the University’s second-highest governing body — because she wants to serve “a place that’s really important and doing really important work.” “It is a special thing in terms of

COURTESY OF JEFF WATTS

what it means to me personally and why I want to, if given the opportunity, to be able to give back,” she added. Burwell said that promoting diversity and inclusion would be one of her priorities if elected to the Board of Overseers. She has advocated for “inclusive excellence” at American University, where she said 57 percent of her senior leadership are people of color. “You can’t be excellent as an institution of higher learning without actually having inclusion,” she said. Despite Burwell’s focus on diversity and inclusion in her bid for a seat on the Board of Overseers, the Coalition for a Diverse Harvard did not endorse her. The Coalition, an alumni advocacy group, is a strong supporter of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. In addition to her experience in higher education, Burwell boasts a lengthy career in politics. She held two cabinet positions in President Barack Obama’s administration, serving as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services from 2014 to 2017 during the Ebola and Zika outbreaks. Burwell would be the second Obama administration secretary to sit on the Board of Overseers if elected, joining former Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. ’96. Two members of the Harvard Corporation, the University’s highest governing body — Se-

nior Fellow Penny S. Pritzker ’81 and former Small Business Administrator Karen Gordon Mills ’75 — were also both members of Obama’s cabinet. Burwell said that she is “very excited” about Harvard University President-elect Claudine Gay, adding that she hopes to provide Gay with a helpful perspective as a former university president. “Having someone who sits in their seat and can see and understand from their perspective on a daily basis is something that I hope would be valuable,” Burwell said. On the Board of Overseers, Burwell is excited to tap into the “generative part” of the Overseer role and shape higher education over the coming decade. In particular, Burwell said she hopes to increase trust in higher education by listening to critics on the political left and right. “One of the things that I think we all need to do in higher education is recognize the legitimacy of some of the concerns, versus saying, ‘We’re being attacked,’” Burwell said. “I actually believe that some criticisms of higher education are legitimate,” she added. “So therefore, what I would want to encourage Harvard to do is to think through what are the legitimate concerns that are being expressed and what are we doing about them.” miles.herszenhorn@thecrimson.com

Arturo Elizondo ’14 Vows to Bring More Voices into Admin BY CLAIRE YUAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Harvard Government concentrator turned food entrepreneur Arturo Elizondo ’14 is campaigning for a spot on the Board of Overseers, the University’s second-highest governing body. One of five candidates endorsed by the Coalition for a Diverse Harvard, an alumni advocacy group that aims to promote diversity and equity at the University, Elizondo is a first-time candidate focused on bringing a wider range of voices into the ranks of Harvard’s administration. Elizondo is co-founder and CEO of The EVERY Company, a food technology startup dedicated to shifting menus toward sustain-

COURTESY OF THE EVERY CO

able, animal-free protein. A former Lowell House resident, Elizondo helped to create the Harvard Latinx Student Association and volunteered at the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter during his years as an undergraduate. Elizondo pointed to climate change, artificial intelligence, and student mental health as the most pressing challenges facing Harvard in the coming years. Citing an undergraduate experience that inspired him to believe he could “change the world,” Elizondo said if he wins a seat on the Board of Overseers, he hopes to give students the “confidence to take this leap of faith.” “I’m incredibly privileged and lucky to have had the education that I had, to have the resources I had to do it, and I want everyone to feel that way,” he said. Elizondo said his campaign’s focus on student well-being and mental health stems from a personal understanding of the challenges that come with attending Harvard. “I lost a friend to suicide while I was at Harvard. I lost a housemate to suicide,” he said. “We need to do everything we can to not have that story repeat itself.” “I think that Harvard can be a really incredible place but also a really tough place to thrive,” he added. “I’d love to see Harvard continue building on the tools that it has so that everyone can thrive in this kind of environment, no matter where we come from.”

After graduating from the College, Elizondo interned for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. By then, his focus was already shifting to biotechnology, food, and entrepreneurship. Elizondo was named the National Hispanic Institute’s Person of the Year in 2019 and recognized in the Forbes “30 Under 30” list at the age of 27, alongside several other awards honoring his entrepreneurial work. If elected, Elizondo said he would commit to transparency around Harvard’s governing boards “as much as I’m allowed to.” Still, Elizondo said he believes individuals have a “limited” ability to change the governing system and hopes to instead provide a “perspective from alumni and from people outside the ivory tower.” “Ultimately, these are my views,” he said. “At the very least, I want to ensure that that voice is in the room so that when the administration is making decisions, that there’s a seat at that table, that there’s a voice in that room.” Elizondo stressed the importance of maintaining Harvard’s role on the international stage. “Our world is changing so quickly, and we can’t afford to be on the sidelines,” he said. “I want Harvard to become a beacon of hope — be that example of what institutions can do to lead,” he added. claire.yuan@thecrimson.com

Jeffrey Dunn ’77 Vows to Lead Fight to Protect Democracy BY CLAIRE YUAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Jeffrey D. Dunn ’77 said he would bring an “insider’s and outsider’s” perspective if elected to the Board of Overseers, the University’s second-highest governing body, and stressed the importance of working to protect democracy amid global upheaval. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School, Dunn said the University must work to produce the next generation of leaders to navigate the moral challenges posed by what he sees as growing threats to democracy and the rapid development of technology. President and CEO of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Dunn formerly served as the executive chair, president, and CEO of Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that produces Sesame Street. During his time with the nonprofit, Dunn earned 38 Emmy awards, a Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award, and the MacArthur Foundation’s inaugural $100 million change grant. Previously, Dunn was also president and CEO of HiT Entertainment, president of Nickelodeon Film & Enterprises, and COO of the Nickelodeon Networks Group. At the University, Dunn has been a member of the Harvard Student Agencies board, a Harvard Advanced Leadership fellow, and an executive in residence at the

Graduate School of Education. For Dunn, the most critical challenges facing the University are the rise of authoritarianism, the threat to democracy driven by income inequality, and rapid technological change. “Globalization and computers have upended industries and the livelihoods of large numbers of people, and the result has been a dramatic rise in income inequality, which has fueled populism and authoritarianism,” he said. “Polls now show that democracy and capitalism are now both vulnerable.” Dunn said he hopes Harvard will “lead the education sector” through this “profound change.” “People often take their cues from Harvard. Leading universities drive what happens below them because they admit students and so the feeder system below them reacts to what they think those universities value,” he added. “Harvard has a very significant role to play in setting the educational agenda for the country.” “Every school at Harvard is going to need to prepare its graduates for a much more demanding and complex future leadership role than today,” he added. Dunn said if elected to the Board of Overseers, he is “strongly in favor of the most transparent leadership.” “I’m all for transparency,” he said. “I believe in transparency.” To Dunn, though, the respon-

COURTESY OF SESAME WORKSHOP

sibility for transparency extends beyond the University’s governing boards. “The Board of Overseers is not a governing board; they don’t make decisions,” he said. “It’s really the leaders’ job, the Harvard administration’s job to be transparent. I would counsel them and advise them to do that.” Dunn said he hopes the Board of Overseers will act as a “conscience” for University leadership. “I don’t come to this with an agenda or politics,” he said. “I would hope the Overseers would put aside any personal agendas and listen thoughtfully to everybody and to the broader alumni community and help the leadership of Harvard arrive at the best decisions.” claire.yuan@thecrimson.com

Fiona Hill Wants to Tackle Legacy Admissions, Inequities BY MILES J. HERSZENHORN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Fiona Hill is not a fan of legacy admissions. A first-generation college student who described her scholarship to attend graduate school at Harvard as “transformational,” Hill is making legacy admissions a cornerstone issue of her campaign for the Board of Overseers. “I think most people are coming to that conclusion that it’s just untenable over the longer term,” Hill said. “It’s intrinsically unfair.” Hill, who was born in Durham, England to a family that “always struggled with poverty,” received her undergraduate degree from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. She noted that legacy admissions is a distinctly American phenomenon. “Universities around the world don’t do that,” Hill said. “Nobody would get any special positioning in Durham or in St. Andrews because of family ties.” “Harvard is already addressing it to make sure that people who were already donors at the university cannot increase their donation if they’ve got a child who’s about to apply,” Hill added. “But that’s probably not sufficient.” Hill graduated from Harvard in 1998 with a Ph.D. in history and a specialization in Russian

and European affairs. At Harvard, she served as a resident tutor for Cabot House, where she met her future husband. Hill worked at the Brookings Institution before becoming a national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia, advising former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Hill went on to serve in former President Donald Trump’s National Security Council, where she was the senior director for Europe and Russia. Hill left the White House in July 2019, later providing key testimony against Trump that led to his first impeachment by the House of Representatives. Despite her extensive credentials, Hill says it is her personal experience she hopes will prove to be a valuable asset on the Board of Overseers. “I think I’ve got a lot to bring to the table,” Hill said. “Coming from a forgotten, former industrial, semi-rural area — there’s a lot of overlap with people from across the United States who also come to Harvard.” Hill, who was endorsed by the Coalition for a Diverse Harvard, also said she supports the creation of an ethnic studies department. “It’s kind of bizarre, in fact, that the University isn’t supporting that,” she said. “It was a debate when I was at Harvard and I assumed that we were already moving along in

this past decade since I’ve left,” Hill added. “I was really quite shocked to find that that still hasn’t been resolved.” Hill also said she would use a seat on the Board of Overseers to advocate for making financial aid, student housing, and mental health support key priorities during Harvard’s next capital campaign. “Ultimately, university is there for the students,” she said. “I, myself, was really very grateful that a lot of that support was there when I was in graduate school,” Hill added. “But it wasn’t there for everyone.” miles.herszenhorn@thecrimson.com

COURTESY OF FIONA HILL

COVER STORY

THE HARVARD CRIMSON MARCH 31, 2023

Vanessa Liu ’96 Focuses on Diversity, Ethnic Studies BY MILES J. HERSZENHORN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

With the Supreme Court on the brink of upending affirmative action, Harvard Board of Overseers candidate Vanessa W. Liu ’96 said she intends to focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion if elected to serve on the University’s second-highest governing body. Liu said she is prepared to help Harvard navigate the consequences of the potential end to the practice of race-conscious college admissions. Equally important, Liu said, is improving the diversity of the University’s faculty. “That’s certainly what a lot of students are looking for and de-

COURTESY OF KEVIN ABOSCH

manding,” Liu said. “Being able to say, ‘Hey, when it comes to faculty appointments, can we have more transparency around that? Can we have an overview of what the pipeline looks like?’” “I think that’s also going to be just as important,” she added. Liu was raised in New York City’s Financial District and attended Stuyvesant High School before enrolling at Harvard College, where she was a resident of Dunster House. After college, Liu obtained a degree from Harvard Law School and spent over a decade working as an associate principal from McKinsey & Company. In 2005, Liu began working as an alumni interviewer for Harvard. She deepened her ties to the University in 2014 after she was selected to join the Harvard Alumni Association’s board as an elected director. Liu rose through the HAA ranks over the years, becoming president of the organization from July 2021 to June 2022. Speaking to The Crimson from a cafe just blocks from where she grew up, Liu said she sometimes pinches herself when thinking about her life trajectory. Despite her long track record of service to the University, Liu said her friends from college would never have imagined that she would become this deeply involved with Harvard as an alumna. “I wasn’t singing Harvard from the rooftops like many people were,” Liu said. “But it’s only afterwards that I’ve just realized that

that gave me a path in life that was incredible, and I’m thankful for it.” Endorsed by alumni advocacy group Coalition for a Diverse Harvard, Liu said she would be a “fervent supporter” of creating an ethnic studies department at Harvard if elected to the Board of Overseers. While Liu said she is optimistic Harvard will establish an ethnic studies department under the tenure of President-elect Claudine Gay, she noted that it will require administrative and faculty support, as well as financial resources. “I would very much hope that the Board of Overseers is going to be working with President-elect Dean Gay to basically say what is it that’s needed for that path, and to make sure that’s something that everybody gets a chance to weigh in on,” Liu said. Liu also said that she believes that her experience as president of HAA will prove valuable as the University gears up for its next capital campaign. “Most people, probably — you can never say everybody — is proud of the fact that they went to Harvard and also feel very strongly that Harvard should remain a very strong institution,” Liu said. “Being able to drive towards that to say, ‘Hey, we can rally and think about ways that we can ensure the future success of Harvard,’ is something that I’ve been able to talk a lot to alumni about.” miles.herszenhorn@thecrimson.com

Robert Satcher Jr. Hopes to Prioritize Climate Change BY MARINA QU CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

In 2009, Board of Overseers candidate Robert L. Satcher, Jr. boarded the space shuttle Atlantis on a 10-day mission to the International Space Station, becoming the first orthopedic surgeon in space. From 2004 to 2011, astronaut-physician Satcher worked for NASA, logging more than 259 hours in space. Today, Satcher works as a physician and associate professor of orthopedic oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. He earned his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1994 after receiving his bachelor’s and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from MIT in 1986 and 1993, respectively. Satcher’s interest in joining the Board of Overseers stems from the “convergence” of issues that he claims currently face Harvard, including climate change, diversity, equity and inclusion, recent

COURTESY OF ROBERT SATCHER

changes in leadership, and Harvard’s role in shaping higher education at large. In terms of pushing Harvard to prioritize climate change, Satcher cited his background in chemical engineering and as an astronaut who had seen Earth from space. “My commitment to the stewardship of the earth, of course, stems from the privilege that I had of being an astronaut and being able to see the Earth from space and from orbit and knowing what a precious resource it is for us that we have to work together to preserve,” he said. Satcher said he is also committed to continuing Harvard’s efforts in educating the next generation of leaders and ensuring equitable representation. During his time at HMS, Satcher said he had noticed that the faculty, relative to the student body, was significantly less diverse. To address this issue, Satcher worked with three other M.D.-Ph.D. students to write a white paper examining faculty diversity for then-Medical School Dean Daniel C. Tosteson. “[The report] was instrumental in moving forward and establishing the Office of Diversity, which still is there and I think has done a great job in terms of keeping that issue appropriately in the forefront of considerations in terms of faculty hires at Harvard Medical School,” he said. Satcher noted his efforts towards the establishment of what

is now the Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Partnership as one legacy he is “most proud of” leaving behind at Harvard. Upon graduating from HMS, Satcher has continued to stay involved with the University as an alumni, giving talks at various alumni-sponsored events. Most recently, Satcher was chosen to speak at the Harvard Medical and Dental School’s 2020 virtual Class Day ceremonies. “Coming back and talking to the graduates and being in that role was a pretty special experience,” Satcher said. “It was right in the midst of Covid.” He noted that the pandemic backdrop brought even more attention to Harvard students and their leadership, particularly as graduating medical students prepared to enter the crisis-stricken health care workforce. Having served in numerous roles at Harvard, even including as a former proctor in Pennypacker Hall, Satcher said he feels a commitment to contribute to Harvard as part of the Board of Overseers because of how transformative his experience had been. “It’s not only the education,” Satcher said. “It’s just the thinking beyond and outside of traditional boundaries. It’s such a collection of fantastic people, doing things that you may not have ever thought or thought to do or thought to be possible.” marina.qu@thecrimson.com

Srishti Gupta Narasimhan ’97 Campaigns on Inclusivity BY MARINA QU CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

People tease Srishti K. Gupta Narasimhan ’97 for having “too many Harvard degrees,” the Board of Overseers candidate said. How many is “too many”? Narasimhan holds four degrees from the University: a bachelor’s in Biology and master’s in Molecular and Cellular Biology from 1997, an M.D. from Harvard Medical School completed in 2002, and a master’s in public policy from Harvard Kennedy School completed in 2003. “I think it’s just a testament to the fact that I loved, I was nurtured, and I [was] incredibly supported by the Harvard community.” Narasimhan added. Narasimhan’s campaign for the Board of Overseers focuses on promoting diversity, cultivating interdisciplinary thinking, and supporting the future of higher education. After graduation, Narasimhan worked at McKinsey and Company for 18 years, first on child mortality and access to vaccines and later on diversity, equity, and inclusion within the company and its global talent program. Currently living in Basel, Switzerland, Narasimhan sits on the board of Swiss biotech company Idorsia Pharmaceuticals and the Norrsken Foundation, a nonprofit that supports social impact startups. Narasimhan said her multifaceted education and career have

given her interdisciplinary skills to improve access to education and health equity globally. “Both my career in global health equity plus my life has gotten me to work and live abroad,” Narasimhan said. “What I think would be really exciting to bring back to the University is bringing perspectives that reflect thinking from around the world. “ Narasimhan has worked in health and education policy in Peru, Tanzania, India, Botswana, and Indonesia, and has lived in Europe for nearly 10 years. She said serving on the Board of Overseers would help her grow Harvard as a “global institution.” Narasimhan, an alumni interviewer for the College for the past decade, said it is critical for Harvard to continue to admit a diverse pool of students “in spite of how the Supreme Court decides on this challenge,” referencing the lawsuit brought by Students for Fair Admissions against Harvard over its race-conscious admissions policies. She said Harvard should also support inclusivity through providing generous financial aid, ensuring undergraduates are academically ready to join desired programs regardless of educational background, and encouraging them to explore a variety of academic disciplines. “It’s really important to figure out how Harvard is going to transmit the knowledge that it creates in each of the departments and

COURTESY OF SRISHTI K. GUPTA NARASIMHAN

schools into something that feels more interdisciplinary,” Narasimhan said. As an undergraduate, Narasimhan served as the co-president of the South Asian Association, contributed to a nearly 300-page ethnic studies report as part of the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations’ Academic Affairs Committee, and was chosen as one of Glamour Magazine’s top 10 promising college women of 1996. For the past decade, Narasimhan has been part of Harvard’s Global Advisory Council. She is also active in organizing activities for the Class of 1997 and served as the co-chair of its 25th reunion last June. Narasimhan said she is grateful for her time at Harvard, where she met many of her friends and mentors, as well as her husband, who was also part of the University’s M.D.-M.P.P. program. “Harvard transformed my life,” she said. marina.qu@thecrimson.com

Harvey Silverglate Stages Writein Campaign, Fewer Admin BY MARINA QU CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Harvey A. Silverglate, a 1967 Harvard Law School graduate, is staging an outsider campaign for election to the Board of Overseers. His mission? Fewer administrators, more academic freedom. Despite not being tapped by the Harvard Alumni Association as one of eight candidates to the official ballot, Silverglate staged an outsider campaign to appear on this year’s ballot. Candidates who are not selected by the HAA can still join through a petition campaign if they receive signatures from 1 percent of the number of eligible voters in the previous year’s election by Feb. 1. In 2009, Silverglate gained enough signatures but ran an unsuccessful campaign for the Board of Overseers. This year, Silverglate did not receive the 3,000 signatures needed to appear on the ballot. Instead, he continues his bid with a write-in campaign. Since graduating from HLS, Silverglate has worked in criminal defense, civil liberties, and academic freedom and students’ rights cases and currently practices in an “of counsel” capacity at Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP, a Boston-based law firm whose current and former clients include embattled professor John L. Comaroff, CS50 students accused of cheating, and the Fly Club.

When he graduated from Harvard Law School in 1967, Silverglade said there were “very few” administrators. He added it is “outrageous” that there are now more administrators than faculty members at Harvard. “If you got rid of 90 percent of the administrators, which is what I’d like to do, you make college more affordable,” Silverglate said. “And more people can go without having to worry about getting scholarships, which are relatively scarce, although Harvard has more scholarships than most institutions because of its wealth.” “It would generally improve the academic climate because you would have people who would be prepared to state their real views about things,” he added. “You would get rid of speech codes, which are the brainchild of administrators.” Silverglate believes that Harvard currently lacks a focus on academics, and instead prioritizes “not getting in trouble.” Silverglate’s first major case as a lawyer was representing 200 Harvard students charged with rioting in an anti-Vietnam war demonstration in 1969. The jury acquitted the charges. “My first impression of academic administrators was that they were enemies of true teaching and true scholarship,” Silverglate said. After publishing a book on universities censoring speech that he believes should have been

protected, Silverglate said many faculty and students around the country reached out to him for help. “We started a nonprofit to deal with it,” Silverglate said, referring to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. Since the 1980s, Silverglate has held law tables at Dunster House once a semester. In 1985, he taught a class at the Law School and was offered a tenure-track position. Silverglate declined the offer because he saw that Harvard was “increasingly run by the bureaucrats.” “Somebody has to say something to an audience that matters,” Silverglate said. “I’m prepared to do it because I don’t want to be invited to anybody’s cocktail parties. I’m not worried about being socially ostracized. I don’t go to parties anyway.” marina.qu@thecrimson.com

COURTESY OF ELSA DORFMAN

Luis Ubiñas ’85 Makes a Bid to Pay Back a ‘Debt of Gratitude’ BY CLAIRE YUAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

A newcomer to Harvard’s governance scene, Luis A. Ubiñas ’85 is pledging steadfast support for University President-elect Claudine Gay and vowing to bring transparency back to the table. Endorsed by the Coalition for a Diverse Harvard, Ubiñas — a College and Harvard Business School graduate — is campaigning for a seat on the Board of Overseers, the University’s second-highest governing body. Chair of Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation and former president of the Ford Foundation, Ubiñas is a nonprofit leader focused on “advancing human opportunity.” He is also an advisor to the

United Nations Fund for International Partnerships, serves on the Council on Foreign Relations, and previously worked as a senior partner at McKinsey. For his work, Ubiñas has been honored by the National Council for La Raza, the NAACP, and the Business School’s Latino Alumni Association. Ubiñas said his decision to campaign for a position on the Board of Overseers was driven by a desire to pay back a “debt of gratitude” owed to Harvard. “Much of my life was driven by the fact that Harvard had enough faith in me to invest what to me seemed an imponderable amount of money back then,” he said. “So, when given the opportunity to give back to Harvard, when given the opportunity to

to serve in almost any way, I say, ‘Yes,’” he added. Ubiñas said his family’s background motivates him to facilitate Gay’s transition into her new role. He added that he plans to “provide advice and counsel as needed” to the University’s first president of Afro-Caribbean descent. “My parents also came to America. My parents also placed an incredibly high value in education, hard work, and the idea that I can be part of her journey, a part of a group of people who want to make the University successful and want to make its president successful, is really important to me right now,” he said. Ubiñas also said it is important to support Gay to foster “sustained leadership.” “My hope is that all of us —

students, faculty, administrators, alumni — can enter her tenure with the hope and desire for providing her support so that she can make the most of her tenure and we can see her be there for 10 years or maybe even longer,” he said. Ubiñas said he will commit to increased openness if elected to the Board of Overseers, adding that there is “nothing more clarifying than transparency.” “I’m deeply personally committed to transparency,” he said. “We know that transparency at the University and elsewhere — more transparency is typically better,” he added. “It is in disclosure and accountability that better decisions are made.” Beyond the University’s administration, Ubiñas also said he hopes Harvard will be a forum for

fostering “respectful and open” conversations with a wider range of voices. “The University has a powerful place in our society as being the kind of place where people

COURTESY OF LUIS A. UBIÑAS

can meet — people who may even disagree can meet — and have the kind of civil dialogue that we collectively need to have,” he added. claire.yuan@thecrimson.com

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

NEWS

MARCH 31, 2023

COLLEGE ACADEMICS

Phi Beta Kappa Elects New ‘Junior 24’ TWENTY-FOUR inductees

awarded for demonstrating academic performance that shows depth and breadth.

BY RYAN H. DOAN-NGUYEN AND RAHEM D. HAMID CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

ai K. Khurana ’24 was waiting at the Charles/Massachusetts General subway station in Boston when he received an email notifying him that he had been selected to join Harvard College’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest academic honor society. “I was actually trapped in Boston. I was coming back from MGH, and the Red Line was down. So I was waiting for the Red Line — and I just saw it on my phone,” said Khurana, a History and Science concentrator in Winthrop House. Khurana joins 23 other Har-

vard juniors who learned Monday afternoon that they were the first members of their class tapped for the Alpha Iota chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. No more than 10 percent of each graduating class are elected to Phi Beta Kappa, with an additional 48 students selected in the fall of their senior year and an additional 96 before commencement. The Senior 48 for the Class of 2023 were elected last November. Students must demonstrate academic performance that shows “both depth of study and breadth of intellectual interest” to be admitted into the society, according to the College’s chapter website. This year’s students hail from all houses except Cabot House and study disciplines across all three academic divisions. Winthrop House produced the most ‘Junior 24’ inductees, with five Several of the inductees said

they were excited for the social connections Phi Beta Kappa offers. Sarrah Bushara ’22-’24, a Philosophy concentrator in Winthrop House who took a fouryear hiatus after high school to pursue classical music before beginning at Harvard, said she looks forward to having “an excuse to make new friends here.” “I think it’ll be nice just because I am kind of a non-traditional student,” Bushara said. “My main social ties to the school are just going into office hours and talking about schoolwork.” Trey Sullivan ’24, a Winthrop House resident studying History and Literature, said he is excited to meet students from other disciplines. “One of my favorite things about being at Harvard in general, and about being in different spaces at Harvard, is how different, but passionate, people are about different things,” Sullivan

said. “This seems like just another space where there are people from the humanities like me, but also the social sciences and the natural sciences, who are all super passionate and engaged scholars,” he added. Kaylie S. Hausknecht ’23-’24, an Astrophysics and Physics joint concentrator in Pforzheimer House, said that she hopes to meet more people in her class through PBK because she took a gap year. “I’m not sure if I’ll know most of them, so I’m excited to meet them,” she said. Some of the inductees said the recognition was a testament to their dedication to making a positive scholarly impact on the world. “I really truly believe that each of our roles is to make the world a better place than we left it,” said Simar S. Bajaj ’24, a double concentrator in Chemistry and His-

tory and Science, who lives in Dunster House. “And to that end, I think Phi Beta Kappa and being inducted is a recognition of that social role and the need to really have a larger social role rather than just using your gifts for self-aggrandizement,” he added. William A. Nickols ’24, a Kirkland House resident pursuing a joint concentration in Statistics and Chemical and Physical Biology, said receiving the honor was “a really nice recognition of work along the path of exploring issues and understanding how we are in a position to improve the world.” The award encourages him “going deep into particular subjects and really exploring the long histories of thought and developments that people have made,” Nickols said. “It means a lot to me that I’m being recognized for the thought that I’ve been exposed to here and my ability to work with

those thoughts.” The inductees said that while the award served as validation for their hard work, their academic careers were not influenced by the award. “It naturally appeals to me, pursuing a wide variety of fields,” said Alexander J. Chen ’24, a Neuroscience and Chemistry concentrator in Quincy House. “I’m probably more glad that I pursued these pursuits for the sake of them, rather than for any particular honor. But I’m — of course — happy that they’ve been recognized,” he added. Hausknecht said that the award does not impact how she sees her academic interests. “It’s exciting to get the award,” she said. “I love learning. I love physics, which is what I study. I always will, with or without this award.” ryan.doannguyen@thecrimson.com rahem.hamid@thecrimson.com

ADMISSIONS FROM PAGE 1

Harvard College Accepts 3.41% of Applicants to the Class of 2027 ith 16 students. The College w also admitted 12 residents of Australia, 10 from Italy, eight residents each from Germany, Turkey, and India, and seven residents of Ukraine. For the sixth consecutive year, women make up at least half of the admitted class. 53.6 percent of students identify as women, a decrease from 54.2 percent last year. 32 admitted students identify as nonbinary. This year’s admitted class also includes 23 veterans, a jump from 18 veterans accepted last year, amid Harvard’s campaign to increase veteran recruitment. 43 students expressed interest in the ROTC program, a slight increase from 40 students in each of the last two admitted classes. Roughly 28 percent of admitted students intend to concentrate within social sciences, 17.4 percent intend to concentrate in biological sciences, 16 percent in the humanities, 9.5 percent in engineering, 8.8 percent in Computer Science, 6.8 percent in the physical sciences, and 6.5 percent in math. The remaining students,

around 6.7 percent of applicants, were undecided. For the second year in a row, Harvard expanded its financial aid policy for low- and middle-income families. The cost to attend Harvard College will be free for families with annual incomes falling below $85,000, a $10,000 increase from last year’s threshold of $75,000. The College also announced that for the 2023-2024 academic year, the total cost of attendance would increase by 3.5 percent to $79,450 for students not receiving need-based financial aid. The Admissions and Financial Aid office estimated that 55 percent of admits will qualify for need-based grants, reducing costs for families to $13,000 annually. An estimated 19 percent of accepted students qualified for Pell Grants, a decrease from 20.5 percent last year. Fitzsimmons said that the changes to Harvard’s financial aid initiative were “revolutionary.” “You cannot pick up the

newspaper today without looking at people’s concern about inflation and all kinds of issues in the world,” Fitzsimmons said. “In that context, this is again, to me, part of a stunning revolution,” he said. This marks the College’s third test-optional admissions cycle, which allows students to apply without submitting standardized test scores. The Admissions Office lifted its testing requirement in June 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and announced in December 2021 that the policy will extend through applicants to the Class of 2030. When asked about the future of Harvard’s test-optional policy, Fitzsimmons said it is “too early to tell.” “We put it out there that we would be test-optional through the Class of 2030 and that seems realistic,” Fitzsimmons said. “We continue to look at what’s been happening and we’ll have plenty of evidence to make a good decision when the time comes,” he added. The Class of 2027 will have

the chance to explore campus during Visitas — the College’s annual admitted students weekend — from April 23 to 24. “In some ways, the opportunity they have to learn from each

other even during the two days of Visitas will make the biggest difference in terms of whether or not they’ll come,” Fitzsimmons said. Admitted students have until

May 1 to accept or decline their offer to join the College’s Class of 2027. michelle.amponsah@thecrimson.com emma.haidar@thecrimson.com

Harvard Admissions Acceptance Rate Classes of 2006-2007

RAHEM D. HAMID—CRIMSON DESIGNER

Harvard’s Request for Summary Judgment in Comaroff Suit Denied BY RAHEM D. HAMID AND ELIAS J. SCHISGALL CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

A federal judge denied Harvard’s motion for summary judgment on one of the counts of a lawsuit filed last year by three Anthropology graduate students who alleged the University failed to properly handle years of sexual harassment and retaliation reports against professor John L. Comaroff. U.S. District Court Judge Judith G. Dein denied Harvard’s motion to rule in its favor without a trial on the last of 10 counts in the lawsuit, which alleges that Harvard violated the law by obtaining and disseminating the therapy notes of one of the plaintiffs, Lilia M. Kilburn. The tenth count, on behalf of Kilburn, alleges Harvard breached fiduciary duty and illegally invaded Kilburn’s privacy by obtaining Kilburn’s private therapy records from a non-Harvard therapist and sharing them with Comaroff. Harvard says Kilburn encouraged the University’s Office for Dispute Resolution to obtain these records and knew they would be shared with Comaroff as part of Harvard’s Title IX investigation process. The two parties argued over the matter in filings last fall. In a 23-page ruling, Dein wrote that the facts of the case were not clear enough to merit summary judgment, adding the “facts are sufficient at this stage” to “support” Kilburn’s claim that Harvard’s actions constituted a

breach of fiduciary duty. Dein also wrote that Kilburn was “entitled” to “sufficient time and opportunity for discovery.” “This court concludes that the extent of Ms. Kilburn’s consent is unclear and in dispute, and that this issue must await further development of the record,” Dein wrote. “Harvard is relying on ambiguous documents and disputed oral conversations that have been untested by discovery.” Harvard spokesperson Rachael Dane declined to comment on the ruling. The University also asked Dein to dismiss counts one through nine of the lawsuit, which detail the plaintiffs’ allegations of Harvard’s indifference to complaints of sexual harassment and professional retaliation. The motion for dismissal of these counts is still pending an order from the judge. Kilburn, Margaret G. Czerwienski, and Amulya Mandava, three graduate students in Harvard’s Department of Anthropology, originally sued Harvard last February, saying the University’s “deliberate indifference” allowed Comaroff to assault Kilburn and retaliate against Mandava and Czerwienski. “All three Plaintiffs repeatedly complained to Harvard administrators,” the February filing said. “But the University brushed them aside and opted to protect its star professor over vulnerable students.” Comaroff has repeatedly denied all allegations of harassment and retaliation made against him. After the plaintiffs submitted an amended complaint in June

with further instances of alleged sexual harassment during Comaroff’s tenure at the University of Chicago, Harvard resubmitted its motions to dismiss counts one through nine and for summary judgment of count ten in July. In a memorandum supporting the motion for summary judgment, Harvard argued that Kilburn had consented to the ODR contacting and interviewing her therapist directly when she told the ODR verbally in an August 2020 meeting that the therapist “should have a bunch of notes or memories” corroborating her account of Comaroff’s behavior. In a response to the motion, Kilburn’s attorneys argued Harvard failed to obtain necessary written authorization from Kilburn to access her medical records and took Kilburn’s “ambiguous” remarks as “license to obtain full psychotherapy progress notes from two private sessions.” On Monday, Dein described Harvard’s arguments as “unpersuasive.” “The record amply supports a finding that Harvard knew or should have known that Ms. Kilburn’s therapist required written, specific authorization before she was able to release personal medical information,” Dein wrote. “There is also evidence, even at this pre-discovery stage, that Harvard should have known that the therapist did not have the authorization she required, but that ODR nevertheless interviewed the therapist at some length and obtained information which went beyond anything that Ms. Kilburn had said the therapist

could provide,” Dein added. In an emailed statement, attorneys Russell L. Kornblith, Sean R. Ouellette ’12, and Carolin Guentert, who represent the three graduate students, wrote they were “heartened” by the judge’s ruling. “Harvard knew or at least should have known that interviewing Ms. Kilburn’s therapist and asking for her medical records required written, specific consent, yet Harvard failed to get that consent,” they wrote. “Students have the right to access their school’s Title IX process without fearing that the school will obtain their private medical information and disclose it to their harasser without their consent.” In a statement, Ruth K. O’Meara-Costello ’02, an attorney for Comaroff, wrote that the professor is not a party to the lawsuit and did not take a position on Harvard’s motion for summary judgment. Comaroff “disputes Ms. Kilburn’s characterization of his participation and statements in ODR’s process,” O’Meara-Costello wrote. “Discovery in this case will reveal that he did not sexually harass or retaliate against any of the plaintiffs,” she added. The Department of Justice submitted an amicus brief on behalf of

the plaintiffs in September, arguing that Harvard could still be held liable for allegations that Comaroff retaliated against the students who warned others of his alleged misconduct. Allegations against Comaroff were first publicized in a 2020 investigation by The Crimson. Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Claudine Gay — who was elected as the University’s 30th president last December — put Comaroff on paid administrative leave shortly af-

terward, before placing him on unpaid leave. Comaroff returned to teaching in the fall 2022 semester, prompting a student walkout and a protest by Harvard’s graduate student union. A similar protest followed this spring, with more than 100 students participating in a walkout. rahem.hamid@thecrimson.com elias.schisgall@thecrimson.com

EDITORIAL

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

MARCH 31, 2023

STAFF EDITORIAL

AI Ethics: Not Eventually, but Now WE SUPPORT the two recently-founded AI ethics groups, but much more remains to be done, and soon — especially due to the real harms caused by AI right now. BY THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD

he name “Governance of Emerging Technology and Technology Innovations for Next-Generation Governance” sounds a bit like someone asked ChatGPT to come up with a phrase that spells out GETTING. However, apart from the somewhat entertaining acronym, the launch of GETTING-Plurality by Harvard’s Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics is nothing to laugh at. Together with the Harvard AI Safety Team, a student organization founded last spring, these new initiatives represent a welcome enterprise undertaken by Harvard affiliates to tackle the myriad concerns arising from the recent boom in AI and adjacent technologies. And what a boom it has been! The past couple months’ headlines have been saturated with news of AI development, from GPT-4’s launch to Midjourney version 5 to Google and Microsoft announcing AI integration in their services.

The moral quandaries facing AI advancement are far from being fully addressed.

The necessity of conversations around AI usage and how to ethically govern tech integration seems undeniable, and it’s heartening to see the ways in which the academic world is confronting this challenge. The interdisciplinary nature of groups like GETTING-Plurality — bringing together philosophers, legal scholars, computer scientists, and more — is especially commendable. However, the moral quandaries facing AI advancement are far from being fully addressed. AI ethics is a problem here and now. GETTING-Plurality and HAIST seem to focus more on long-term issues in the dangerous future deployment of AI. Though these potential existential threats emanating from AI are formidable, immediate concerns are even more pressing. At this very moment, AI is being used to police, surveil, and discriminate, in biased ways that further harm already disadvantaged demographics. The philosophy of longtermism, with its ideological ties to eugenics, will not cover this current violence. We call for a newcomer into the still-developing space of AI ethics at Harvard to substantively work on mitigating AI’s destructive effects on marginalized communities right now. We also find it alarming that much groundbreaking AI research is coming from private companies who are largely motivated by profits. This can result in a mentality focused on building quickly and recklessly in order to compete with the other companies,

Harvard should create an AI research institutional review board, which will use a costbenefit framework. leaving less room for ethical consideration. This sad state of affairs is deeply worrisome, especially given all the potential for malign abuses of AI technology. Any research into AI ethics must contend with the realities of this market-driven industry. Finally, institutions must use their authority to shape the trajectory of AI’s development, guiding it along an ethical path. Similar to review boards that approve human subject research, Harvard should create an AI research institutional review board, which will use a cost-benefit framework to evaluate concerns about bias and other harms. Additionally, we call on Congress to create a regulatory agency to ensure the morality of new AI technologies. As Moore’s law makes way for specially designed AI acceleration, ethics research is becoming increasingly important. With many technologies trained to learn from experience, such research is not only relevant in anticipation of some distant dystopian future — it is vital today, right now.

–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.

COLUMN

TOWARD A HIGHER HIGHER EDUCATION

Rising Tuition? It’s Not About Sticker Prices HIGHER COSTS of college do not tell the full story. Price inflation cannot be attributed to one factor, and financial aid is consistently increasing. BY JULIEN BERMAN

niversity tuition is high, and it’s been climbing for decades. Listed tuition and fees at both public and private institutions have steadily increased since 2002. Harvard’s price tag for tuition now exceeds $50,000 — then, it was below $25,000. These exorbitant sticker prices are unaffordable for most families and deter low-income students from applying in the first place. Many critics stop there, blanching at the announced tuition price and proclaiming an affordability crisis in higher education. A closer look at the data, though, reveals a far more complex story. Higher sticker prices can actually decrease net costs for some families by increasing available financial aid. And some tuition increases — though not all — are genuine responses to higher costs. Though there are ways to make high-quality education more affordable, the solutions are not as simple as lowering the listed price of tuition. First, why has tuition increased so much? For public institutions, which educate approximately three out of every four undergraduate students in America, the reason is clear: substantial cuts in state funding. Since 2001, states have, on average, cut funding for higher education by nearly 18 percent per student. In 2003, just over 30 percent of revenue at public institutions came from tuition. By 2018, it was almost 50 percent. To compensate for the loss of state funding, public universities have, unsurprisingly, had to raise tuition. For private institutions, the story is more complicated. Indeed, it’s hard to pin price hikes on any one factor in particular, and studies that do often miss the full picture. For example, some say prices have risen simply because universities have expanded their administrative staff, contributing to “bloat” — wasteful spending that fails to improve educational quality. To be sure, administrative inefficiencies ex-

ist aplenty. But to explain continually rising costs, the bloat theory requires more and more waste each year — a trend not reflected in the data. The administrative share of higher education spending has held relatively constant. Moreover, university administration is not a vast nebula of useless bureaucrats. In fact, many new administrators include mental health counselors, student advisers, the Title IX office, and IT support staff, among others. Some of these positions are as integral to a thriving student body as instructional faculty and staff. Ultimately, these new hires are likely only responsible for a small fraction of tuition increases — they don’t explain the massive jumps we’ve been seeing over the past several decades. Instead, as Harvard dean and professor Bridget Terry Long explained in her testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Finance, tuition growth is “related to a myriad of other internal and external factors.” For instance, the cost of hiring and retaining teaching staff — especially tenured professors — has skyrocketed. But these increases are not unreasonable; adjusted for inflation, prices for hiring doctors, lawyers, and other similar professionals have risen at similar rates. In addition, universities now spend more per student on amenities, such as dining services, dormitories, and physical education facilities. They also borrow more money to fund construction ventures and building upgrades. All these factors and more require private universities to raise tuition sticker prices each year. Thus, it is often simply the case that institutions need more revenue to finance expenditures that they believe will improve the overall educational experience. And institutions can’t offset those necessary expenditures only by trimming administrative fat. But high price tags might not be so bad, as long as universities redistribute the extra reve-

nue to financial aid for students with more limited means. Last year, Syracuse University, for example, raised tuition by 4.5 percent and increased aid by 9 percent. Princeton announced a new financial aid strategy that eliminates costs for most families earning up to $100,000 a year. Rather than worrying about listed tuition prices, we should instead focus on the net tuition paid by students in different income brackets post financial aid. Universities should engage in more aggressive price discrimination, shifting from merit-based to need-based aid and forcing the wealthy elite to foot the bill so that low- and middle-income students can attend college functionally for free. This is what has been happening. In the past ten years, private universities have steadily increased their tuition discounting. As a result, average net tuition has actually decreased. College rankings should factor in the progressiveness of each institution’s aid curve to encourage this trend. Unfortunately, high sticker prices have an unintended consequence: They deter low- and middle-income students from applying in the first place. Thus, universities should also take steps to advertise how inexpensive they actually are for those students with limited means and make the financial aid process as seamless as possible. Ultimately, we should focus on the net cost of attending college, not rising sticker prices. For public institutions, it’s up to the government to increase appropriations to decrease student costs. But for private universities, the high-tuition, high-aid model might be the best we can do. If tuition prices must rise, let’s make the most of it.

–Julien Berman ’26 lives in Canaday Hall. His column, “Toward a Higher Higher Education,” appears on alternate Tuesdays.

Administrative Expenditures as Percentage of Total Expenditures at Private Nonprofit Institutions (2006-07 to 2019-20)

Source: National Center for Education Statistics (1) Academic Support: Activities and services that support instruction, research, and public service. (2) Student Services: Expenses related to admissions, registrar activities, and activities that help students’ emotional and physical well-being and intellectual, cultural, and social development outside the formal instructional program. (3) Institutional Support: Expenses for the day-to-day operational support of the institution.

Average Tuition Discount Rate for All Undergraduates at Private Nonprofit Institutions (2012-13 to 2021-22)

Percent Change Since 2006 in Listed and Net Tuition at Private Nonprofit Institutions(2006-07 to 2022-23)

Source: 2021 National Association of College and University Business Officers Tuition Discounting Study The discount rate is calculated by dividing total grant aid awarded by total gross sticker price tuition and fee revenue. The 2021-22 rate is an estimate from the time of the study.

Source: College Board Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid 2022 All values are adjusted for inflation. (1) Listed Tuition and Fees: the sticker price charged by institutions. (2) Net Tuition and Fees: what students cover after grant aid is subtracted. Because College Board calculates net price using Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System Student Financial Aid data, which is only available until 2019-20, net prices after that date are projected.

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

EDITORIAL

OP-ED

MARCH 31, 2023

COLUMN

RHYME AND REASON

Stop Pretending You’re Poor BY MIREYA SÁNCHEZ-MAES

In getting them to where they are… It’s like they are afraid.

emme tell a story You’ve probably heard a lot. About a needy Harvard kid Whose family owns a yacht.

Like, if they were to say that, yes, Their family has dollars, Then all their peers would question Their ability as scholars.

Mommy is a lawyer. Daddy’s got a Ph.D. They paid for cello lessons Ever since their kid was three. Signs from a recent student protest lay near the entrance of Denver’s East High School. COURTESY OF KATIE A. HELLRUNG

To My High School in Mourning DEDICATED TO Luis Garcia, Eric Sinclair, and Jerald Mason. BY MATTHEW E. NEKRITZ

ast Wednesday at around noon, my mom texted me. “Are you in class?” “No, why?” Immediately, my phone rang. My mind sifted through the countless snippets of bad news I could possibly hear when I picked up the phone call. I still wasn’t ready. “There’s been a shooting at East.” My heart sank. It wasn’t a hoax this time. Not a “swatting” call. Not a kid with a BB gun. The unthinkable had happened in my former high school — a place that I still see as home. It happened to a community still mourning the death of a classmate, Luis Garcia, who was shot just a block away from school last month. I scrambled to text my closest friends. For the first time in years, old group chats resurfaced. Within hours, “East High School” was a top 10 trending topic on Twitter in the United States. According to officials, a student enlisted in a personalized “safety plan” for daily pat-downs had pulled a gun and shot two deans. The presence of paramedics at the school for an unrelated medical emergency may have saved a dean’s life. Ultimately, the shooting ended with one death — the shooter — whom law enforcement says died by apparent suicide far away from school. At this point, it feels like there’s only so much one can say about this epidemic plaguing our country. We know the statistics. We know that firearms are the leading cause of death for American children and teens. A recent Crimson staff editorial aptly wrote that “We are the Generation of Mass Shootings.” So, instead, I’ll direct this to East High School students, current and former — to my peers. And in that vein, to all students who have feared for their lives within the confines of their school. The power and spirit that you hold in the heart of Denver is indomitable. I remember marching down Colfax Avenue to the state Capitol with hundreds of classmates in March of 2018 to demand more gun control after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High. I remember when our legislators met us at the steps and listened and I remember our teachers cheering us on. I have never felt prouder to be an East Angel than at that moment. Last month, when Luis was shot, you swiftly came together and fundraised more than $200,000 for his family. You wielded your power with other schools by walking out of class and to the Capitol, filling the chambers with your presence and your voices, calling for change. You lobbied. You made the news. You demanded more from leaders that have failed us for far too long. And last Friday, the day after Dean Sinclair and Dean Mason were shot, after you once again hid in classrooms, texted loved ones, and were

forced to fear for your life, you marched right back, like East Angels do. I would expect no less. This past week, news of our school graced the New York Times. CNN and Fox News picked up the story, too. People who have never stepped foot in Denver, let alone walked the halls of East, will read the news, judge, generalize, and form every opinion imaginable about our school. Don’t listen to them. Media and politicians will take these recent tragedies and frame them to fit their narrative. “This is why we need more gun control.” “This is a mental health issue, not a gun issue.” “This wouldn’t have happened if teachers were armed.” “There should have been police in the school.” “This is why you should vote for me for Denver mayor.” Don’t let the voices of the adults, God forbid the politicians and pundits, drown yours out. Keep organizing. Be a pain in the ass at the Capitol. Attend school board meetings. Speak at them. Write about what you want to see change within the walls of our high school, because nobody knows it better than you do. Build a culture that encourages the next students after you to do the same.

And so, to best preserve This shaky meritocracy Many will remove themselves From aristocracy.

His parents own two houses. They vacation near and far. And once he learned to drive Of course, his folks bought him a car.

Alone, they’ll moan and groan with you. They’ll gossip, and they’ll scoff, “Kids here are so rich and stuff. They’re all, like, so well off.”

Now, if you called this student rich, He’d say that wasn’t true. Admitting he’s well off, it seems, Is something he can’t do.

But rarely will they take a pause To think ‘bout where they are, And how their financial safety net Has let them get this far.

Sure, his family income Has more digits than your hand, But if you call him privileged, he’ll say, “You don’t understand.

And if you ask their income It will be at your expense For such a blatant question Is offensive to their cents.

My parents aren’t CEO’s They aren’t billionaires. I’m simply ‘Harvard middle class.’ I’m not like other heirs!”

“Sure, my parents have some dough, But that’s not mine, it’s theirs. Right now, I’m like, so poor That I can’t even buy new shares!”

If you pushed the matter, He might then push back and list All the ways his life was rough that you seem to have missed.

“Ugh, it’s so expensive.” “Guys I’m like, sooo broke.” “I’m just a college student And my bank account’s a joke.”

Sure he went to Europe, But, like, only once or twice! He always had to wait to buy the newest smart device.

It seems that many Harvard folks Are filled with endless dread At the prospect of admitting Money helped them get ahead.

Though he went to private school It wasn’t, like, the best For only half the students there Got 5’s on AP tests.

I’m not just talking ‘bout the kids Of billionaire descent. (Though over half of y’all Come from the top 20 percent)—

Though he has some money Surely, other kids have more. “And that is why,” he says, “By Harvard standards, I am poor!”

But also all those Harvard folks Of upper-middle class Who fail to see the privileges That helped them to surpass.

Clearly, you and I can see Straight through this phony show. ‘Cause not owning a mansion Doesn’t mean you don’t have dough.

Care for each other, for your teachers, and for your administrators. Let the warmth of the community wrap its arms around you in love, support, and solidarity.

But please, please, allow yourselves time and space to mourn. Care for each other, for your teachers, and for your administrators. Let the warmth of the community wrap its arms around you in love, support, and solidarity. It will only make you stronger. In four years or less, high school will be but a patchwork of memories for all of you. It is now for me. From spirited pep rallies, to meeting at the “E” before lunch, to marching down Colfax Avenue, these experiences shaped who I am today. I can’t even begin to imagine how the last few months have shaped you. Whatever you choose to do next in your life, I urge you: Remember the East Angel spirit. Bring it with you and spread it to the communities within which you find yourselves. Don’t stop wielding your voice and your power, and don’t stop caring for each other. We are Angels forever.

–Matthew E. Nekritz ’25, a Crimson Editorial editor, is a Social Studies concentrator in Cabot House and a graduate of East High School.

Cause what these students fail to see and others just ignore, is that Being upper-middle class Does not mean you are poor.

And yet so many students here, Whose parents make a lot, When asked if they have money, Try to act like they do not.

The average Harvard income Is like, far above the norm And financial stability Can help kids to perform.

It speaks to the phenomena That happens at this school, Where privileged Harvard students Think that being poor is cool. They’ll start with off-hand comments like, “Oh God, I’m like, so poor.” Then, they’ll buy their daily latte From the coffee store. Come time for summer rent They’re like, “I can’t afford it, see?” Despite the fact their parents Pay their rent in NYC. And in a weird attempt to seem Less stuck up or less snobby They’ll get a campus job That’s really more a campus hobby. ‘Cause if things really did get tight Their folks could bail them out. They’ve got a solid safety net So they won’t go without. Yet, still, they try to minimize The role that privilege played

But mostly, folks, this fake “I’m poor” act that you’ve been deploying? I’m here to tell you all that It is, frankly, quite annoying. Although I am low-income, I’ve still got some lucky stuff. My parents own a home Where I can go if things get rough. But real financial struggles Aren’t trendy, hip, or cool And very few of us actually Feel them at this school. So yeah, this was my PSA. Y’all, please, hear what I’m saying. Stop acting like you’re poor. We know you’re not, so quit your playing.

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

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The Crimson East High School students protest at the Colorado Capitol on March 3, two days after the death of their classmate, Luis. Luis was shot while sitting in his car outside of East in February. COURTESY OF ODEN R. DAVISON

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METRO

THE HARVARD CRIMSON MARCH 31, 2023

CAMBRIDGE EDUCATION

Cambridge Expands After-School Care CAMBRIDGE CITY COUNCILORS are developing a proposal to expand afterschool programs after more than a year of parents’ advocacy. BY SALLY E. EDWARDS AND AYUMI NAGATOMI CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

ambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui and City Councilors Marc C. McGovern and Burhan Azeem are developing a policy order aimed at expanding after-school care, following more than a year of advocacy by Cambridge Public Schools parents. The proposed changes, first presented in a February meeting of the council’s Human Services and Veterans Committee, would expand the city’s childcare after-school programs by 170 seats in the 2023-24 school year. Cambridge’s Department of Human Service Programs currently offers 20 of the city’s 27 elementary after-school programs. Despite high demand from working parents in Cambridge, the city only provides enough space for roughly half of the eligible children in the city — with a ratio of 710 slots to 1,378 students. Eugenia B. Schraa ’04, a CPS parent and former Crimson editor, said she was inspired to advocate for expanded after-school services after a difficult personal experience with the city’s current program. After navigating the “really con-

fusing” process of enrollment in 2022, Schraa said she decided to write a blog post for other parents to spread information about how to register. “I got flooded with lots of parents being like, ‘Thank you, this is so helpful,’” Schraa said of the response to her post. “Then, I got a lot of parents being like, ‘We need you to help us advocate; there’s not enough seats.’” After this realization, Schraa said she worked alongside CPS parent Amanda Beatty to advocate for expanded after-school care, meeting with McGovern and City Manager Yi-An Huang ’05 to discuss the issue. Beatty and Schraa also circulated a petition to improve after-school care, which Schraa said had nearly 500 signatures as of Thursday. The petition calls on the Department of Human Service Programs to create enough space so that every child who wants to attend the program is guaranteed a spot, to prioritize low-income students if spots continue to be limited, and to create an information dashboard on program opening and waitlist numbers. The petition also asks the department to coordinate with CPS to ensure student transportation to after-school programs by bus or with walking accompaniment, or through “any other safe means.” “We don’t want magic, we don’t expect something unachievable of the city — but we do expect them to be taking it really seriously and have a plan to achieve significant

change,” Schraa said. A pre-pandemic survey of Massachusetts parents by the Afterschool Alliance found that for every child enrolled in an after-school program, three more are unable to access them. Cambridge, having a higher average than the state and national level, currently enrolls 42 percent of elementary students in its after-school programs. During the February meeting, Michelle Farnum, an assistant director at the department, said the primary obstacle to after-school expansion is staffing shortages. Farnum said childcare providers have struggled to recover from a workforce decline sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic. “Particularly in Massachusetts, we have not fully recovered to our pre-pandemic rate,” she said. “Our recovery rate is less than other areas around the country.” A national survey conducted by the Afterschool Alliance in spring 2022 found that 69 percent of childcare providers are extremely or very concerned about hiring shortages in spring 2022. “This is not a Cambridge problem; it’s not even a Massachusetts problem,” Farnum said. “Still in 2022, providers of after-school care continue to be impacted by the staffing shortage.” To support the existing program providers, the city’s proposal extends their temporary agency contracts to meet their fall 2023 expansion goals. The city would also promote high-performing temporary workers to permanent em-

Cambridge City Councilors are preparing a policy order to expand after-school care. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

ployees and partner with external recruiting firms to find additional full-time staff. McGovern, who is working on the proposal, said “there’s still some back and forth going on” in finalizing the policy order, but added that he hopes it will soon come before the council. The new policy order, according to McGovern, would direct the city manager to craft a three-year plan to improve the after-school program. The plan would seek to address issues including staffing,

space, transportation, and special education, he said. During the February meeting, Huang said that the city is “on the right track,” but needs to make decisions on how to make the best out of the city’s “scarce resource” of after-school childcare. “I know that we’re still going to have many people on the waitlist and that it will really affect people and families and working parents,” Huang said. “I think there’s continued conversations for us to make sure that we’re grappling

with this.” Councilor Quinton Y. Zondervan wrote in a statement to The Crimson that he is excited to see the city’s initiatives “after years of demands from hundreds of caregivers.” “Expanded slots for Fall 2023 is only the beginning,” he wrote. “I look forward to the expansion of the proven King Open Extended Day model as soon as possible.” sally.edwards@thecrimson.com ayumi.nagatomi@thecrimson.com

Students Make App to Connect Unhoused People with Resources BY ERIKA K. CHUNG AND EMILY L. DING CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Harvard Square Homeless Shelter operates out of the basement of University Lutheran Church. TRUONG L. NGUYEN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Local undergraduates are developing an app to connect Greater Boston’s unhoused population to essential resources, with hopes to launch in the coming weeks. The app — known as “Alliance for the Homeless” or “Allforth,” for short — will use a map to display food, shelter, and medical resources offered at different locations in a user’s vicinity. Benjamin Chang ’23-’24, the team’s executive director, said his experience working at Y2Y — a student-run shelter for unhoused young adults in Harvard Square — motivated him to develop the app. “There are a lot of resources out there for the homeless community in Boston and Cambridge, and the shelters have a lot of information about it,” Chang said. “But something that I noticed was that a lot of the homeless guests that we had did not

actually have access to the information, even though it was online.” Chang said an app is an efficient way to reach the unhoused population and provide them with personalized information, citing his own observation that many Y2Y guests own a cellphone. “We have a bunch of data from the Y2Y as well as different homeless shelters in the area, so we’re just compiling that data and putting it onto a map to make it more accessible to the homeless community here in Boston,” Allforth Director of Resources Harold Peón Castro ’25 said. In his research for Allforth, Peón Castro — a director at HSHS, another student-run unhoused shelter in Harvard Square — said he discovered that an app with a centralized set of resources for unhoused people does not exist in Boston. “I was surprised to research and find that there doesn’t really exist an app that’s done this before — a centralized directory

for the resources here in Boston, or really a model that’s scalable to other cities, which I think is something that Ben has thought about doing further down the line,” Peón Castro said, referring to Chang. Chang offered community fridges as an example of a resource that Allforth plans to include in its app. “Harold’s found over 20 community fridges just in the Boston, Cambridge area,” Chang said, referring to Peón Castro. “What is the point of an amazing resource like that if it’s not being utilized by the people who need it the most?” Chang said the response to his initial email recruiting interested students for app development was “inspiring,” adding he received “double digit sign-ups within an hour.” Allforth’s team comprises both students from a variety of concentrations at Harvard and from other local universities such as Tufts and Boston University, according to Chang.

“I think it’s great that we’re able to actually connect the people who want to help also with the people who need this help,” he added. As for the team environment, Director of Engineering Kushal Chattopadhyay ’25 described the technical side as “collaborative,” with tasks being delegated to individuals “from different angles, but all of it coming together at the very end.” Chang said once the app is released, it would be relatively easy to expand the app’s reach to include unhoused populations in other regions worldwide. “We are potentially thinking about scaling this up to other high-need areas around the country or around the world,” Chang said. “Once you have the platform, you can just add more data, and you can connect people with resources wherever there is location data for it,” Chang added. erika.chung@thecrimson.com emily.ding@thecrimson.com

MBTA in ‘Crisis’: Slowdowns Frustrate Riders, Add to T’s Woes BY DYLAN H. PHAN AND JACK R. TRAPANICK CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Boston-area commuters are facing a slew of new slowdowns and service disruptions on the T as a regular state inspection of the Red Line track in early March led to emergency system-wide speed restrictions. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has warned commuters of delays of up to 20 minutes on all metro lines due to ongoing inspections to verify the documentation of track defects and repairs. Speed restrictions will then remain in place on defective parts of the track until the sections are fixed or entirely replaced. The T imposes speed restrictions of 10 to 25 miles per hour — creating what is often referred to as “slow zones” — to minimize damage to vulnerable stretches of track, whether because of defect, age, or weather conditions, according to the MBTA website. “If you don’t catch the train that’s on its way, you have to wait at least 15, 20 minutes for the next one,” said Claire E. Myers, a Brandeis University student

working at Clover in Harvard Square. Myers added she is often late for work due to the T. According to the MBTA website — which recently launched a service for tracking slow zones by location, underlying cause, and distance — 172 speed restrictions have been opened over the last month. In total, 27 percent of all MBTA subway tracks are currently under a speed restriction, more than triple last month’s total. “The dashboard delivers information that is clear and will assist riders in better understanding why they are experiencing slower conditions while riding the T,” said MBTA Interim General Manager Jeff Gonneville in a March 23 press release. “As we continue to validate and address track deficiencies, we also expect that over time, this platform will demonstrate the progress we’re making to remove speed restrictions.” “We know these restrictions impact riders’ daily commutes and we will continue to be transparent about the ongoing, daily work to improve our transit system,” Gonneville added. The new restrictions add to a deluge of disruptions and service

changes faced by T riders since an investigation into the system was launched last May by the Federal Transit Administration. The FTA ultimately forced the T to form a plan to address findings that included overworked operators, high accident rates, and numerous other safety violations. With the dramatic increase in slow zones across the metro system, riders have complained about delays in their commutes. The current total delay from slow zones on the Red Line is more than 30 times greater than it was one year ago, according to TransitMatters, a public transportation advocacy organization. The MBTA has begun offering commuter rail as an alternative to some of its metro lines, including the Red, Orange, and Green lines. The ferry is also available as an alternative to the Blue Line. “As we work to lift speed restrictions & plan repairs, we’re providing alternate transit options for all subway lines,” the MBTA tweeted on March 26. Commuters are also dissatisfied with inconsistencies in the T’s running speed, as the landscape of slow zones changes near-constantly. “Between Porter and Harvard,

it can take anywhere from the normal two minutes to five, eight minutes,” Myers said. “That inconsistency is really an issue for me.” This weekend, shuttle buses replaced train service on the Red Line from Harvard Station to JFK/UMass in a shutdown planned prior to the Department of Public Utilities’ site visit and subsequent speed restrictions. The Red Line also received criticism over a falling ceiling panel that nearly struck a commuter earlier this month. Seth Kaplan, a software engineer and volunteer at TransitMatters, said the T has become “exponentially worse” since 2022. “The MBTA is in a crisis,” Kaplan said. “It’s just not functioning.” “It’s been almost debilitating,” said Clyve Lawrence ’25, a Crimson Editorial editor who regularly takes the T. Lawrence, who worked in Boston City Hall during the fall semester, said the delays are “frustrating” because they indicate a lack of attention from government officials. “It shows transit isn’t a priority for our government,” he added. As disruptions, accidents, and

The MBTA has warned commuters of delays on all metro lines due to ongoing inspections. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

delays mount for riders, Kaplan said the effect is beyond a daily inconvenience. “The MBTA and its leadership are failing the people of Boston,” he added.“It’s pushing people off

the T and into cars, into Ubers, and it’s hard to gain those people back once you lose their trust.” dylan.phan@thecrimson.com jack.trapanick@thecrimson.com

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

ARTS

MARCH 31, 2023

BOOKS

Artist Profile: Margaret Atwood BY VIVIENNE N. GERMAIN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

ward-winning author Margaret Atwood, best known for her dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale,” is celebrated internationally for her dozens of works spanning literary forms. Her highly-anticipated, recently released book “Old Babes in the Wood” explores the shared human experiences of family, relationships, loss, and memory through fifteen gripping short stories. Atwood sat down in conversation with The Harvard Crimson to discuss “Old Babes in the Wood,” her writing process, and how the two relate: she wrote the book to her own taste, and it worked. When prompted to describe her new book in just a few words, Atwood first said, “a bunch of short stories” — both earnestly and in jest. Upon further thought,

she said, “Jokes, griefs, snails, aliens, murders, World War II, and more.” Both of these cryptic descriptions brilliantly highlight the collection as a whole: It is a series of varied stories about varied characters who, while seemingly disconnected ,still thread together with concurrent levity and heaviness. A married couple, Nell and Tig, serve as the collection’s home — where the collection begins and ends,and where its heart resides — but the couple harmonizes with a multitude of other characters (including a snail in a woman’s body, a young girl raised by a witch, an emergency aid alien, and the ghost of George Orwell) who render the book all the more real. Atwood described “Old Babes in the Wood” as “an ongoing process, a continuous process.” She explained that writing the book was like pottery: she started with a “lump of clay” and shaped it as it developed, not necessarily with specific inspiration for start or end points. Accordingly, her favorite story in the collection was whichever one she worked on at a

given moment. “The inspiration emerges from the work as you’re doing it,” she said. Atwood emphasized that no specific idea or incident sparked her to create “Old Babes in the Wood.” She sat down; she wrote. She paid attention to the present and nurtured her art as she moved along with it, a style present in both her writing and speaking.

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“If it doesn’t hold my attention, it’s certainly not going to hold anyone else’s,” she said. Margaret Atwood Author of “The Handmaid’s Tale”

As she spoke, her voice was thoughtful and pensive; her words grew from each other and carried weighty pauses in between. Despite the broad range of stories in the collection — from

“Widows,” a story about grief, to “Metempsychosis,” a story about a woman who believes she is a snail — the stories in “Old Babes in the Wood” are clearly not random. “There are a lot of people who are going to read the story called ‘Widows’ and know exactly what it is all about,” Atwood said. “Fewer will read the story called ‘Metempsychosis’ and identify with thinking they’re a snail.” Then, why a snail? Atwood said she wrote about snails because she is “keen on them,” but then she revealed more: they are easier to observe than birds because “they don’t move very fast.” “Old Babes in the Wood” did not come to Atwood; instead, Atwood came to “Old Babes in the Wood.” She wrote what made sense to her when her mind was in the story. Then, she found what convinced her, what held her attention. “If it doesn’t hold my attention, it certainly isn’t going to hold anyone else’s,” she said. Consequently, she was not concerned with the relevance of the book to the reader, or why a

reader might want to read it at a given moment. “That’s a question for a reader to answer,” she said. It’s a busy moment for Atwood. She brought up the recent ban of “The Handmaid’s Tale” in Madison County, Virginia schools, saying that this is “not [her] first rodeo being banned.” Returning to her alma mater (Radcliffe College, which later merged with Harvard College) to discuss her new book, she mentioned the memory of discovering witchcraft and demonology books in Widener Library as a student because women were not permitted in Lamont Library at the time. With these two topical examples in mind, it is understandable that she would focus her writing toward convincing herself instead of worrying about audience reception. She writes what works, and she writes for herself: a straightforward process. “Writing is fairly simple,” Atwood said. Even still, “Old Babes in the Wood” is wonderfully complex. vivienne.germain@thecrimson.com

‘Dark Side of the Moon:’ It Knows Us as it Did 50 Years Ago BY ALESSANDRO M. DRAKE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

There are some pieces of art that just feel powerful. The Mona Lisa innocently hanging in her 30inch frame in the Louvre, feels powerful. “2001: A Space Odyssey” feels powerful; when minutes of spaceship sequences accompanied by nothing but “The Blue Danube” remain impossibly captivating: That’s power. There’s a variety of musical entries too: Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and Beethoven’s “Symphony no. 5” both spring to mind. But in the rock world, none achieve this status quite like “Dark Side of the Moon.” The two sides of the album each play like one uninterrupted piece of music; without looking it’s incredibly difficult to pinpoint where one song ends and another begins. And in these two fluid acts, Pink Floyd’s exploration of the human mind and their exploration of musical experimentation come together to form an album that, like other timeless pieces of art, just feels powerful. “I’ve been mad for fucking years” are the first words to greet a listener of “Dark Side of the Moon,” and that might as well be the album in a nutshell. This blurb and others like it come from Pink Floyd bassist, songwriter, and co-founder Roger Waters’s recording members of the band’s crew answering questions ranging from the innocence of “What’s your favorite food?” to “When was the last time you were violent?” and “Were you in the right?” These answers, sprin-

kled throughout the album along with the occasional quasi-maniacal laughter, set the scene for an intense introspection into what makes a man mad. Yet perhaps the album’s greatest strength is the way it forces the listener to play an active role — the album is less of a display of human madness and more of a conversation that encourages the listener to tease the answers out for themselves. The lyrics “Breathe, breathe in the air / Don’t be afraid to care” are the first sung lyrics that a listener hears on the second track, “Breathe (In the Air),” and they might be the most upbeat ones of the whole album. Whatever lull of peace the opening manages to exude, by the time the carefree drumbeat and bluesy, sliding chords of “Breathe” reach their conclusion, guitarist and singer David Gilmour is already lamenting how the endless cycle of daily work is nothing more than a “race towards an early grave.” As “Breathe” transitions seamlessly into “On the Run,” the song’s two themes likewise move from trying to stay calm in the face of perpetual toil and clearly failing, to falling into what can only be described as a musical panic attack. In “On The Run,” the rapid, sixteenth note hi-hats underscore the EMS synthesizer, constantly stabbing the listener with the same eight note melody repeated ad infinitum. And yet, despite these two constants, Pink Floyd experiments with vocal clips, machine gunlike noises, and their signature maniacal laughter to build up to a carnage-filled plane crash wor-

thy of a Jimi Hendrix Woodstock performance. Once the panic attack of “On the Run” subsides, a cacophony of clock ticks and bell chimes drag the listener into arguably the album’s best song, and the only one to credit all four band members as writers, “Time.” Setting the scene with a relentless pairing of metronome and heartbeat followed by slow, powerful chord changes and echoing drums, the song seems to interrogate the listener’s perception of time from the very start. But in just two couplets, the sudden mood change and Gilm-

you’re older / shorter of breath and one day closer to death,” represents Waters’ deeper storytelling, which again forces the listener to figure out for themselves what the song means to them. “Time” runs through its magnificent guitar solo, a relieving reprise of “Breath,” and finally fades out, and Side One of “Dark Side of the Moon” comes to a close with “The Great Gig in the Sky.” With a title that impeccably captures its energy, session singer Clare Tory unleashes the full extent of her vocal prowess for over three minutes of wordless, pure expression.

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The album is less of a display of human madness and more of a conversation that encourages the listener to tease the answers out for themselves.

our’s singing immediately feel like a slap in the face, with lyrics that represent the very best of Pink Floyd’s songwriting. “Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day / Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way,” epitomizes Waters’ ability to capture and perfectly depict a mundane idea, like wasting away a day. Somehow, that couplet feels exactly like watching a day go by. The second couplet, “The sun is the same in a relative way, but

“Money,” one of the album’s singles, opens Side Two of the album with an aptly-themed rhythm made from sounds of coins and a cash register. Thematically quite distinct from the rest of the album, “Money” talks about just that, albeit somewhat ironically, as the release of “Dark Side of the Moon” first made the members of Pink Floyd incredibly rich. Interestingly, Waters encourages the rich not to engage in any “goody good bullshit,” which

has also aged somewhat poorly considering the recent controversial allegations on the subject of anti-semitism and the Israel-Palestine conflict. In any case, the biggest strengths of “Money” are its two solos, on saxophone and guitar, that burst with energy and carry momentum until the beginning of “Us and Them” calms down. The subsequent longest song on the album and the second single, “Us and Them” serves as an initially mellow and very vague interrogation into the meaninglessness of war. With lines like “God only knows it’s not what we would choose to do” and “the general sat and the lines on the map / moved from side to side,” Waters and fellow cofounder, keyboardist, and songwriter Richard Wright point out the counterintuitive and top-down nature of war in a method reminiscent of the decade prior. The song’s incredibly powerful chorus does the topic justice, but the most unique part is again an interview, where roadie Roger “The Hat” Manifold tells a story about an entanglement: “Well I mean, they’re not gonna kill ya, so like, if you give ‘em a quick sh ... short, sharp shock, they don’t do it again. Dig it? I mean ‘e got off light, ‘cause I coulda given ‘im a thrashin’ but I only hit ‘im once. It’s only the difference between right and wrong innit?” Effortlessly capturing the ideas of the song, moments like these are where the genius of Pink Floyd shine through: On a topic that’s been sung about hundreds of times, only Pink Floyd brings a first-hand experience that makes the listener bring war back to day-

to-day life. The album comes to a close with the instrumental “Any Colour You Like,” followed by the songs “Brain Damage” and “Eclipse,” which morph into one fluid outro. “Brain Damage” serves as a pivotal moment in the album, taking on the question of madness more directly than any other song, with lines like “the lunatic is in my head” being paired with the ever present laughter. But in the midst of these swells of mental instability, “Brain Damage” assures the listener, “And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too / I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon.” Somehow, in the deepest throes of mental health issues, “Brain Damage” brings a crumb of comfort: The listener will not be there alone. The album’s last lyrics, “everything under the sun is in tune / but the sun is eclipsed by the moon” lay the final claim: While darkness and turbulent emotions inevitably await the listener, they await everyone else too. And, as the heartbeat that faded in to open the album fades out to close it, Pink Floyd’s magnum opus reveals why it exudes that sense of sheer power like only select pieces of art. Because, as you listen to it in 2023, 50 years after its release, “Dark Side of the Moon” somehow still manages to leave you feeling like something inside you has changed irreversibly. With every listen, be it your first or twentieth, “Dark Side of the Moon” forces you to come to terms with your own sanity, all the while remaining one of the most legendary rock albums of all time.

ARTS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON MARCH 31, 2023

EDITOR’S PICK: THEATER

CULTURE

‘INTO THE WOODS’ REVIEW: A SPARKLING REVIVAL

MATTHEW MURPHY AND EVAN ZIMMERMAN FOR MURPHYMADE — COURTESY IMAGE

NETFLIX — COURTESY IMAGE

A Tale of Two Stores: Trader Joe’s Trade-Off BY ANDREW K. CHOE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

he Trader Joe’s on Memorial Drive in Cambridge embodies the grocer’s reputation as a community-centered store that offers hip, healthy food at affordable prices. A vibrant mural stretches across the squat stucco building’s riverfront facade, depicting smiling members of the Cambridge community sharing meals together. Inside, the bustling store truly feels like a trading post. Friendly crew members and regular shoppers create a welcoming environment that invites newcomers to join the search for delicious and affordable finds, like speculoos cookie butter or the plant-based tikki masala. The Trader Joe’s appears embedded in local history, and it continues to play an active role in the community today. The Trader Joe’s across the river in Allston seems to tell another story. Steel-paned floor-to-ceiling windows dominate the large storefront. A sleek new apartment building rises several stories above, and the Harvard Science and Engineering Complex looms down the road. These aggressively modern structures are conspicuous amidst the older, more charming brick buildings in the surrounding neighborhood. It’s hard to believe that a Trader Joe’s occupies this lot: A tech startup or an upscale grocer selling twenty-dollar kombucha seems more likely. In the store, the grocer’s characteristic hand-written labels and casually arranged displays feel out of place among the industrial lighting and sharp modern design. At first glance, this tale of two Trader Joe’s appears to follow the familiar story of a company that compromised its foundational values as it achieved success. The older Cambridge location represents the company’s economical, community-based ethos, while the newly-constructed Allston store demonstrates —

like the big supermarkets it originally sought to oppose — that Trader Joe’s has become an intrusive presence. While this evolution appears to violate the core values of the brand, this narrative ignores founder Joe Coulombe’s shrewd entrepreneurial spirit that has remained the driving force of the company’s operations. New Trader Joe’s stores are in line with Coulombe’s resourceful tactics that helped the company beat competitors and grow to a national scale. Although this business acumen inspired Trader Joe’s egalitarian image, it also limited the brand’s accessibility by catering to a specific demographic of middle-class, college-educated consumers. As Trader Joe’s continues to grow as one of the nation’s most popular grocery stores, it must reconcile these competing values to uphold its mission of making affordable, high-quality food accessible to all. Joe Coulombe started Trader Joe’s in 1967 as a grocer that offered affordable products not found in traditional convenience and grocery stores. For several years, he ran a chain of convenience stores in Southern California. Coulombe saw the value of filling product gaps and dealing directly with the supplier. He applied these lessons to Trader Joe’s, selling health-oriented and imported food not offered by competitors. This approach eliminated intermediaries, allowing Trader Joe’s to buy directly from suppliers and sell items at discounted rates. Trader Joe’s unique product offerings are both a core staple of their brand as well as a large reason for its enduring popularity. The company has built a unique and diverse selection of tasty and healthy items that keep customers coming back at one of the highest rates in the industry. Shoppers would be hard-pressed to find items like black tea boba coconut ice cream and Everything But the Bagel seasoning anywhere else. To keep shoppers curious and engaged, the grocer continuously adds new products

while removing less-successful ones, according to their company website. Customers respond positively to these efforts, and social media accounts and blogs with millions of followers have helped establish a community of Trader Joe’s regulars who bond over the store’s treasure trove of unexpected finds. A welcoming employee base, dressed in distinctive Hawaiian shirts and leis, further fosters an inviting, casual shopping environment with friendly service, hand-written signage, and recommendations galore. The brand’s private label allows it to accomplish all this at reasonable prices. Today, 80% of Trader Joe’s items are sold under the brand name. Standardizing these cheaper rates across all the brand’s numerous locations further guarantees accessible prices for customers across the nation. A Consumers’ Checkbook survey found that products at Trader Joe’s were on average 18% cheaper than the industry average, while 76% of customers believed the store was of “superior” quality. In addition to a unique selection of affordable offerings, a defining characteristic of Trader Joe’s has been its clear focus on serving an educated, middle-class demographic. When describing the target consumer he had in mind when starting Trader Joe’s, Coulombe would often use the phrase “overeducated and underpaid.” He envisioned a store that catered to university graduates who had adventurous, health-oriented palates but couldn’t afford gourmet meals on a middle-class budget. Coulombe and his successors in Trader Joe’s leadership crafted an economical assortment of healthy food items to fit the bill. Instead of adopting a full-service supermarket approach that would require a comprehensive set of groceries and necessities, Trader Joe’s features a narrow yet carefully curated product range to match the target consumer’s taste, a remarkably successful strategy.

Though good for business, this narrow focus has challenged Trader Joe’s commitment to accessibility and even made it a symbol of gentrification in lower-income communities. A list of store locations indicates that Trader Joe’s tend to pop up in wealthier parts of urban centers. There’s a glaring lack of stores in more rural parts of the Midwest, where access to cheap, healthy food is especially needed. Even in urban areas, less affluent residents choose other stores over Trader Joe’s, as it doesn’t offer a comprehensive set of necessities like other grocers. As a result of its close association with upper-middle-class consumers, many lower-income communities of color view Trader Joe’s as a force of gentrification. For example, the Portland African American Leadership Forum opposed the opening of a Trader Joe’s in a historically diverse and low-income neighborhood in 2016. Trader Joe’s ultimately abandoned construction. These concerns are not unwarranted, either. A study by Zillow found that the arrival of a Trader Joe’s caused neighborhood rent and property values to increase 4.5% faster than the city average. Another investigation by RCLCO consulting group reported that construction of a Trader Joe’s in an apartment complex raised rent by an average of 5.8%. The niche, distinctive products that make Trader Joe’s so beloved by many are also the reason why it has become a symbol of class privilege and gentrification for lower-income communities. Still, the grocer has undeniably succeeded in offering unique, healthier alternatives to traditional groceries. Expanding its target consumer base may allow Trader Joe’s to be more inclusive in its offerings and store locations. Reframing the business strategy that has guided the company since its founding will hopefully bring Trader Joe’s closer to achieving its goal of making healthy, delicious food accessible for all.

“Once upon a time.” With those four words, Narrator (David Patrick Kelly) of “Into the Woods” launches the audience into a well-known story. Directed by Lear Debessonet, with music direction by Rob Berman and choreography by Lorin Latarro, the national tour of “Into the Woods” on Broadway opened at the Emerson Colonial Theatre on March 21. A masterful take on the beloved Sondheim musical, the award-winning revival manages to make the show — which premiered on Broadway in 1987 — still seem fresh. “Into the Woods,” a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine, follows an ensemble cast of characters from different fairy tales as they journey into the woods, each hoping to fulfill their wish. The show has been revived multiple times, most recently in 2022, with a production that began at New York City Center and transferred to Broadway for a six-week run at the St. James Theatre, which ultimately became a six-month run after multiple extensions due to incredible popularity. The revival is now on tour, with several actors reprising their roles from Broadway.

‘WILD GOOSE DREAMS’ REVIEW:

NILE SCOTT STUDIOS — COURTESY IMAGE

As the sounds of Drake’s “Hotline Bling” and Doja Cat’s “Cyber Sex” fill the Roberts Studio Theatre at the The Calderwood Pavilion before SpeakEasy Stage Company’s production of “Wild Goose Dreams,” it’s hard to imagine how these songs could relate to a play about North Korea. But in the hands of playwright Hansol Jung and with the direction of Seonjae Kim, the seemingly contrasting elements come together seamlessly. “Wild Goose Dreams” weaves together serious themes of isolation, family, and digital communication with moments of levity at a break-neck pace. This tonal whiplash illuminates a side of North Korea that is rarely seen in the mainstream and highlights the joy and humor of a protagonist who reflects the complexities of her home country. “Wild Goose Dreams” follows a young woman and recent North Korean defector, Nanhee, and Minsung, a lonely “goose father” who works at Samsung to provide for his wife and teenage daughter while they live in America. Nanhee is haunted by her past and struggling to adapt to her new life in the South, and Minsung has difficulty connecting with his wife and daughter whose lives are far removed from his in South Korea. Both Minsung and Nanhee feel the isolation that their far away families create and this loneliness leads them to strike up an unlikely connection that begins online.

Gatsby / 51mm

To see dawn’s red face, angry against a brooding horizon. Your dowdy eyes, your tears: pearly, lactic. Two fingers pressed to the roof of your mouth, the prickle and the purge. I slice oranges one after the other and barely glean the juice from each half. Blade and butcher’s block, carrot fingers. To cut the kitchen knife like the rest of them.

static, white noise filling the jester’s box in my collarbone. The parking lot outside the stir-fry joint where I cried thinking of nooses and my friends fought fifteen feet away about their breaking relationship. I’ve seen love shatter before it was built (a tale fed to me like milk). I’ve seen the credits of the ballet roll and not worked up a single tear. The terminally ill patient and the dying dog. Double-o-seven. And I’ll cuff you over the ear, if you give me a shot. Stand within range. Put down the niceties and metric-measured tonalities and say it: I never loved you. How could I?

And I, I tell you—the panic like

51mm

BY DYLAN R. RAGAS CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Gatsby

I. In the night the dog’s run turns violent. Knifeclang, too close to my throat. Light wedging in with a dull ache, pressure on a bruise. I pant and I can hear it. I hurt and and I can see it, the wound eating me up, corroded, wadded and thrown away. Oh, to be away. The only place to breathe and yet where is air? II. Time fades in again, slowly and with hesitation. A bird learns how to beat wings

in early hours. I do not message you. My hands, clumsy and sure like a toddler, grasping refrigerator magnets. Dog, mailman, shovel, ladybug. Garden outside. Cool kitchen air. Lemonade— always a disappointment. And there you were, peeking from the stairway cupboard and hiding under the hem of the tablemat. Ménage à trois—although you were young, you couldn’t possibly have meant it like that.

each others’ faces, names. They say nothing— they pine.

III.

The girls sit clustered in the house with the siding. They know

One day in the linoleum bathroom fluorescent light strokes

IV. I know the spaces you move through. How you speak, at what cadence. With time I can feel my skin, again, it accepts moisture like dried pavement does rain. With time your mirage fades and I breathe, again, I return finally from the burning house with smoke in my lungs but they tell me there is fresh air all around.

my face like a wavering finger. I remember, finally, that french song sung by that french man on the trail leading back from Monet’s house, all those years ago. I cup my chin in my own palm, slow dance across grimy tile, brush my face away from its reflection. One step, two, while I still remember. La vie en rose. Tomorrow, she might be gone. The girl who never could be a girl, never really. An arm raised, a twirl. And if I wake up in the morning and she’s nowhere to be found, she was here, for a moment, the unretouched portrait of the girl who pulled me closer, held me fast. dylan.ragas@thecrimson.com

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

FIFTEEN QUESTIONS

ardis C. Sabeti is a professor at the Center for Systems Biology and the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, a professor in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Disease at Harvard School of Public Health, institute member of the Broad institute, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. She does work in computational biology, medical genetics, and evolutionary genetics. FM: You teach Life Sciences 1B — the flagship introductory genetics class — along with three other professors. Some LS1B alumni I talked to said they were surprised that you taught it, given your qualifications. What do you like about teaching an intro course compared to the smaller graduate classes you teach?

MARCH 31, 2023

Q&A:

PARDIS SABETI ON LS1B, GENETICS, AND HOLIDAY CARDS THE ORGANISMIC AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGIST sat down with Fifteen Questions to talk about her famed class, the quirks of her lab, and being a woman in science. “A successful life is not one that is free of setbacks. It’s defined by setbacks,” she says. BY HEWSON DUFFY CRIMSON MAGAZINE ASSOCIATE EDITOR

PCS: I just love all teaching. I love teaching in the small group, where there’s such personal connections. But I love teaching in the big group, and trying to figure out how to make the big group experience seem personal. LS1B has been one of the greatest highlights of my career. I’ve never not taught it, even during the Ebola outbreak. After I shattered my pelvis and my knees, during SARS-CoV-2 … No matter what’s going on, it just grounds me to come back to LS1B. It’s such a privilege and an honor to get to teach, to introduce amazing, young, brilliant minds to this topic in their college education.

a lot of papers myself as first author, that are developing new algorithms. And yet, most people literally don’t think I know the math. It’s laughable, but it’s also sad. It really doesn’t bother me that much. I clear the dishes. I clear the dishes. That’s what a nice person would do. Sometimes I think I shouldn’t, because that’s not helping the cause. And sometimes I think I need to be more forceful. I know that that impacts other people that don’t have a voice more. I’m always trying to balance like, when do you say something? During Covid, the same thing happened: I got kicked out of every room. All these women who were just brilliant scientists, like the people that were in charge in outbreaks before, were all told to sit this one out, and I was told to sit this one out. Essentially it was being told that the men take charge here. And it’s why you saw most of the prominent voices during Covid were men, even though a lot of the people I know and I work with are women.

It’s pretty relentless, because people are innately suspicious of women and their ability to manage things.

The world is not fair. It’s just not fair. None of these races are run equally in any way. So for me, I keep going because it’s important for the people that come after me and for everybody else that’s in it with me.

FM: What are you most excited about right now — in and out of the lab? PCS: So many things. It’s hard to say what I’m most excited about. I love my days. I really do. I’m working on four papers right now with my students, running the gamut of so many different topics. On every one, I’m like: this is my favorite project! Every project is my favorite project.

FM: Aside from your teaching and research, you’re also the lead singer of indie rock band Thousand Days. Is there a new album in the works?

I usually find where there’s nobody else working, where my being there might make a difference. I’m not in it to win a race. I’m in it to find what races aren’t being run.

FM: Your resume is practically exploding with academic achievements — a Rhodes Scholarship, multiple publications in Nature, a winner of the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator award, and, on top of that, you’re one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2015 for your work on Ebola. Yet you also played varsity tennis in college, started bands at Oxford and Harvard Medical School, and you continue to sing for Thousand Days even as a full-time professor and researcher. How do you balance all your commitments?

PCS: There are a lot of songs we haven’t released yet, some of which are so old that it’s almost silly to release. And there is new music being written but I’m pretty focused on a few other things right now.

MARINA QU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

FM: It seems that computational genetics is an inherently interdisciplinary field. But your research has also spanned other disciplines, including statistics, information theory, and medicine. How do you keep up with such a wide range of fields, and how do you decide what to work on? PCS: I have always been somebody who’s just very curious about a lot of different fields. I surround myself with brilliant people who can bring a lot of the expertise that I don’t have. I usually find where there’s nobody else working, where my being there might make a difference. I’m not in it to win a race. I’m in it to find what races aren’t being run. FM: Since at least the sequencing of the human genome in the early 2000s, as you talked about, using algorithms and statistical tools to study biology has become commonplace. Now the advent of artificial intelligence-based technology like AlphaFold and the possibility of genome editing with CRISPR seems to open up new frontiers. Where do you think the future of biology lies? PCS: Yeah, we’re generating genomes from every organism on this planet, and every individual of different species on this planet. And we’re starting to understand the logic of how these genomes work. And then with these new generative AI models, we can actually create complete-

ly novel sequences that have their own properties. It’s exciting to know that we could really have a lock on every infectious disease spreading, and we could use that to then build precision therapies that really target the thing that’s making you sick, and nothing else. So all of that is really exciting. But it’s also terrifying, because there’s so many ways that we can misuse this. And, you know, I’m an M.D., and I literally am the last person you know that will take a medicine. Literally everything is natural. If I get sick, I take avocado and water. That’s it, you know what I mean? I will not take an antibiotic. I don’t think that most of the medicines we’ve created make us healthier. FM: Why is that? PCS: So far we’ve made them pretty poorly. Antibiotics blast our entire microbiome, and we have no idea the doggone effects of that. I do think that medicines are powerful and transformative. But I do think that they should be more of a last resort choice, not the first go-to. FM: Your lab has a tradition of making extremely elaborate holiday cards. The one in 2021, for example, featured members of your lab dressed up and photoshopped onto the covers of popular board games, like Candy Land and Operation. How did this tradition start, and how does it work now that the lab is so big? PCS: It was my first year as faculty: 2008.

I started getting this whole slew of family holiday cards. And I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t really have a picture to share, but I do kind of have a family; there’s this really cute lab, you know, delightful lab that I’m making. So just one night on a whim, I drove to a local K-Mart and bought a lot of ugly holiday sweaters and a menorah and some different multi-denominational things. And I just was like, let’s just take a photo. And then we got the bug. We had a completely underwater holiday card where I ended up renting scuba gear. We just started getting really intense about every part of this. We’ve got celebrity guest cameos; we had Chris Martin from Coldplay and Seth Meyers from SNL in our SNL card. Longzhi Tan — who is a former undergraduate with me, and now professor at Stanford — I need to give him a shoutout. He started photoshopping for us as an undergraduate, and he’s still photoshopping for us through graduate school at Harvard and postdoc at Stanford and now professorship at Stanford. FM: Which was your favorite? PCS: You can’t do this to me. I don’t do favorites. Like literally everyone is magical in its own right. FM: What was your biggest setback on the way to becoming a leading genetics researcher? PCS: So many. Like I can’t pick my favorites, I can’t pick my biggest setbacks. They’re all pretty big. I think the one thing I’ll say that you should know is that a successful

life is not one that is free of setbacks. It’s defined by setbacks. Probably the most important setbacks were just being lost in graduate school and having my project not going anywhere. In a way, college is your childhood for being an adult, and graduate school is your adolescence for being a professional. It’s a time where there’s a lot of existential angst. And if you don’t really have good support and people there to make you feel like you’re on the right track and tell you when you’re not, in a healthy way, then you could get lost. FM: When you graduated Harvard Medical School in 2006, you were only the third woman to receive summa cum laude honors. What are the difficulties, as you see it, for women pursuing careers in science and medical research? PCS: It is not to say it is not difficult to be a man, and to be a good person in society today. I actually feel for all of my students very much. Even at this age of now 47 years old and a tenured professor, I’m still asked to clear dishes at conferences where I might be the keynote speaker, and shushed when the men are talking. That happens all the time. And overlooked for grants that I proposed that are given to junior faculty who have never done the work before. It’s pretty relentless. Because people are innately suspicious of women and their ability to manage things. Or just the fact that I’m a computational biologist who has written

PCS: If you really do things you love, it’s not like commitments. It’s just like, I love playing music. I love playing tennis. I love the kind of work I do. You’re actually finding the path of least resistance. People waste a lot of time working really hard in something they don’t actually care about, but that some external driver made them think they care about it. I just make things move faster by doing things I really like to do. FM: Follow-up question: Do you sleep? PCS: Yeah, I do.

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

SPORTS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON MARCH 31, 2023

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

A Historic End to Women’s Basketball’s Season Harvard Women’s Basketball celebrates after their win against URI, advancing to the Great Eight of the WNIT Tournament. COURTESY OF DYLAN GOODMAN/HARVARD ATHLETICS

STORY AT A GLANCE History Made: Harvard Women’s basketball advanced to the Great Eight of the Women’s National Invitational Tournament for the first time in program history.

20 Victories for head coach Carrie Moore, making her the winningnest first-year head coach in Harvard women’s basketball history.

Building for the future: “As far as building winning programs goes, to sit in that culture and that standard of play: we play deep into March, we play in the postseason, and we win games,” claimed Forbes, speaking on the experience the underclass will take with them next season.

71-77 The final score of Harvard Women’s Basketball fourth matchup of the seasonagainst Columbia University, losing to its Ivy League Rival in the Great Eight of the Women’s NIT tournament. The Crimson held a 1-3 record against the Lions.

GREAT EIGHT Harvard Women’s Basketball advanced to quarterfinals of the Women’s National Invitational Tournament; falls to Columbia by 6.

all we have is all we need, right here in this program with us.” This season, Harvard was forced to play several games in the late Fall through January with only seven to eight dressed players, putting an extensive

of our players was hurt,” junior guard Lola Mullaney said. “It was kind of a weird game.” The second time around, the Crimson held on until late. They put together a fourth-quarter rally, outsourcing the Lions 33-

BY MAIREAD B. BAKER AND MOLLY R. MALAGUE CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

ou better “believe it.” The 2023 Harvard women’s basketball team (2012, 9-5 Ivy League) made history this past weekend by playing in the Great Eight of the NCAA Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) for the first time in program history. The Crimson traveled to the Big Apple to meet familiar Ivy adversary Columbia for the fourth time this season, though Harvard wasn’t able to fend off the Lions, losing in a close six-point game by the score of 77-71. The Crimson first made its mark in the history books when it defeated the University of Massachusetts in a two-point matchup in Amherst, Mass., giving it a ticket to the third round of the WNIT for the first time ever. Harvard kept the ball rolling in a win over the University of Rhode Island at Lavietes Pavilion, beating the Rams 74-63 in a back-andforth battle. Back in November, Harvard faced Rhode Island in its second game of the season, emerging with an 88-74 triumph. This win also made head coach Carrie Moore the winningest first-year head coach for the Crimson with 20 victories. Coach Moore was a new addition to Harvard women’s basketball after the retirement of long-time head coach for Harvard Kathy Delaney-Smith. Moore has led Harvard to its most successful season despite it being her first year as coach, let alone the string of injuries the team endured this season. “I think that says a lot about our team as a unit,” said senior captain and guard McKenzie Forbes. “Coach Moore has always said, ‘all we got is all we need’ — we had to apply that a lot this year, whether that’s being out for injury, not having practice players, or whatever the case may be — we’ve always felt like

We just work hard. We find ways to get the job done, no matter who we’re up against or who we have suited up on. McKenzie Forbes ‘23 Captain and starting senior guard

amount of pressure on active players. Despite the odds, these players, such as first-year Katie Krupa and star sophomore guard Harmoni Turner, did not disappoint. “We’re super gritty. We just work hard,” Forbes commented. “We find ways to get the job done, no matter who we’re up against or who we have suited up on our end.” After the Crimson prevailed over the Rams, Harvard awaited its quarterfinal lot based on the Columbia-Syracuse game, from which the Lions came out on top, likewise sending them to the Great Eight. This Columbia team has completely reinvented itself, rebuilding into a strong program after winning only nine combined games between the 2016 and 2018 seasons. In the first game Harvard played against Columbia in mid-January, the Lions trounced the Crimson 82-56. However, Harvard did not let the New York school have it so easy the second time around, falling to the Lions in a five-point match at home on February 17. Columbia poured in over 150 points between the two games, more than 30 of which were off second-chance buckets. The Crimson also committed 44 personal fouls. The stats don’t tell the full story, though. “The first time we played them, we lost one of our starters to injury, and then another one

24 in the final frame, but ultimately fell 75-70. Columbia has put together two strong seasons, boasting a 12-2 conference record both this year and last. The team also made the final of the 2022 Ivy Madness Tournament, losing to Princeton 77-59, which went on to win the tournament. Harvard defeated Columbia 72-65 in an overtime thriller in the 2023 Ivy Madness Tournament on March 10 before losing to Princeton. “We know each other very well, on both sides — everyone is very aware of players’ tendencies and things like that,” said Forbes when asked about the competition between Harvard and Columbia. “I think it just comes down to grit, toughness, and who can execute down the stretch. I don’t think it’s anything about strategy. It’s kind of a game of chess, but I think it just comes down to the execution when it matters most.” For the Crimson, locking in on defense just might be the key to turning things around in its next season. “We know each other really well on the court,” Forbes said. “I think that shows up in our offense, which is why we’ve been able to put up some of the points in this postseason tournament run.” “I think defensively, we have to be a bit better,” the senior cap-

tain continued. “I think we were pretty solid against Rhode Island in the second half. But I think [we need to] start games with more stops to be able to contain the other team for 40 minutes.” Though Harvard was unable to clinch a semifinal pass to the WNIT tournament, this season will go down in history, all while a new coach stood at the helm. With Forbes and senior guard and captain Maggie McCarthy departing after the season, up-and-coming first-years and sophomores, equipped with strong postseason experience, will be critical to Harvard’s campaign to return to t h e t o p

of the Ivy League and to the NCAA Tournament “If you have this freshman group that came in this year and we made a deep run — that’s the standard for them. And they’re gonna know nothing different,” Forbes said. “So by the time that they’re seniors, the class below them and below that will have that standard set – that’s important.” “You’re building a winning culture. I’m super grateful to be a part of the group that’s kind of set that tone for the years to come,” the captain continued. “As far as building winning programs goes, to sit in that culture and that standard of play: we play deep into March, we play in the postseason, and we win games. mairead.baker@thecrimson.com molly.malague@thecrimson.com

Guard Harmoni Turner ‘25 dribbles the ball down the court Sunday night. COURTESY OF DYLAN GOODMAN/HARVARD ATHLETICS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

SPORTS

MARCH 31, 2023

Sophomore Defender Jenna MacDonald starts the attack against Clarkson Feb. 10. LEANNE ALVARADO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY

Beanpot Heads to TD in 2024 GARDEN BOUND After previously rotating between the four schools, the Women’s Beanpot will be hosted at TD Garden beginning in 2024. BY CHRISTOPHER D. WRIGHT CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

or the first time in its history, the Women’s Beanpot will be contested in an NHL arena. On March 21, the TD Garden announced that the 45th Dunkin’ Women’s Beanpot Championship will be played at TD Garden, home of the Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics, on Jan. 23, 2024. Additionally, the NESN

will broadcast the two games throughout the New England region. In her remarks from the announcement, the President of TD Garden, Amy Latimer, emphasized the effects of the decision on players and the growth of women’s hockey overall. “We are thrilled to announce that TD Garden will be the proud home of The Dunkin’ Women’s Beanpot Championship in 2024,” Latimer said. “As a former collegiate athlete, a fan, and an executive in the sports industry, I am so excited for aspiring female hockey players, the current student-athletes, and the fans, to have this unforgettable experience. TD Garden and The Beanpot are amazing platforms to

showcase the talent and amplify the growth of women’s hockey.” In honor of the announcement, junior forward Shannon Hollands, sophomore goaltender Alex Pellicci, and players from the other Beanpot schools were invited to TD Garden as the Boston Bruins celebrated “Women in Sports Night” on the same night as the announcement. The tournament will also mark the first time that the Women’s Beanpot has a title sponsor. After serving as the first-ever title sponsor of the Men’s Beanpot in 2023, Dunkin’ will extend its sponsorship deal to cover the Women’s Beanpot in 2024. The Women’s Beanpot, an annual college hockey tournament consisting of Harvard, Boston

College, Northeastern, and Boston University, has traditionally rotated between the on-campus rinks at each university. Following Boston College’s hosting of the 2023 iteration of the tournament, the 2024 tournament was scheduled to be hosted by the Crimson at Bright-Landry Hockey Center. While TD Garden will host the 2024 championship and consolation games, the opening round will likely still occur on Harvard’s campus. The move to TD Garden comes on the heels of other recent developments to further showcase women’s ice hockey. In January, the Crimson took the ice against Quinnipiac in the nearly 40,000-seat Fenway Park

as part of the 2023 Frozen Fenway Series. Furthermore, the NCAA women’s ice hockey tournament was expanded from eight schools to eleven in 2022. The NCAA Competition Oversight Committee recommended the change as it grew the size proportional to the men’s field of 16. Similar to the decision to expand the NCAA tournament, the relocation of the championship game to TD Garden brings the Women’s Beanpot to the same level as the men’s. The men’s version of the Beanpot, held on the first and second Monday of each February, has always been showcased on the big stage. Following the first tournament, which was played at Bos-

GAMES TO WATCH THIS WEEK FRIDAY

SATURDAY

Softball vs. Brown 2:00 p.m., Soldiers Field

Baseball vs. Princeton 1:00 p.m., O’Donnell

Women’s Tennis vs. Dartmouth 2:00 p.m., Murr Center

Men’s Lacrosse at Colgate 1:00 p.m.

Women’s Water Polo vs. Michigan 10:00 a.m., Blodgett

Women’s Lacrosse at Dartmouth 2:00 p.m.

christopher.wright@thecrimson.com

THC

FRIDAY

Men’s Volleyball vs. Penn State 7:00 p.m., MAC

ton Arena, now known as Matthews Arena, the tournament has been contested at either the Boston Garden or TD Garden, which replaced the former in 1996. For Harvard senior captain Kyra Willoughby, the move was long overdue. “I think it means everything,” the Academic All-Ivy Leaguerd said. “It’s an overdue decision to elevate women’s hockey and put it on the same level as the Men’s Beanpot.” With the Women’s Beanpot moving away from its traditional slot, the Tuesday after the Men’s Beanpot, and on to Jan. 23, the 2024 tournament will put all eyes on women’s hockey.

Baseball vs. Princeton 2:00 p.m., O’Donnell