The Harvard Crimson - Volume CXLIX, No. 31

The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873

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VOLUME CXLIX, NO. 31

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CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

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TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2022

EDITORIAL PAGE 4

NEWS PAGE 9

SPORTS PAGE 6

It is up to us to make or break this year’s Housing Day

Activists from five schools filed legal complaints to push for divestment

Harvard women’s basketball crushes Dartmouth, 85-52

University to Lift Indoor Mask Mandate Unions Restrictions Relaxed Renew Despite Uptick in Cases Push to Merge

By CARA J. CHANG and ISABELLA B. CHO CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Harvard will lift its mask mandate for most indoor spaces starting March 14, the school announced Monday.

Strict mask requirements have been central to Harvard’s efforts to prevent the spread of Covid on its campus for the last two years.

But on Monday, top University administrators signaled that the school will usher in a new phase of its approach to managing the pandemic later this month, with relaxed requirements in nearly all indoor spaces.

The announcement comes as Covid restrictions are being relaxed across the country — including in the Greater Boston area.

The revisions to Harvard’s on-campus requirements on March 14 will coincide with changes to Covid policies in the city of Cambridge, which announced last month that it will lift its indoor mask mandate on the same day.

Masks will still be required at large indoor gatherings, in health care facilities, and in transit facilities. Individual professors will be able to require masks in the classroom.

Top University administrators — including University President Lawrence S. Bacow and Provost Alan M. Garber ’76 — wrote in a Monday email to Harvard affiliates Monday that

Harvard has seen few hospitalizations and no Intensive Care Unit admissions this year, despite reporting a large number of cases.

“Although public health authorities have concluded that the virus causing COVID is likely to continue to circulate among us like the cold or flu, the risks it poses for the health of our community can be managed effectively with less intrusive measures than before,” they wrote.

While case rates are declining across most of the University, cases have surged among undergraduates in recent weeks.

Between Feb. 28 through March 4, 294 College students tested positive for Covid-19, accounting for more than 80 percent of Harvard’s total cases, according to the University’s Covid-19 testing dashboard.

In a follow-up email on Monday, the College announced a set of more stringent requirements for undergraduates that will take effect immediately.

Non-sponsored social gatherings will be banned in indoor residential spaces until March 28.

Students living in residence at the College will also be required to test three times per week, per the email.

“We will assess case counts on March 28 to determine if we can return to our current practice and will

SEE MASKS PAGE 9

Members of the largest and smallest unions at the University are once again seeking to merge.

By SOPHIA C. SCOTT and CLAIRE YUAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

dent endorsing affirmative action in the 2003 case Grutter v.

Bollinger.

The suits will mark the first time the court will consider an affirmative action case since the addition of Justices Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett expanded the court to its 6-3 conservative majority.

To understand where the court may stand on the issue, The Crimson profiled each of the eight justices who will remain next term, as well as President Joe Biden’s nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson ’92.

The profiles examine their prior rulings, amicus curiae briefs, and other legal documents.

Backed by a pair of local politicians, two Harvard unions are redoubling longstanding efforts to push for a merger, which have failed three times before.

The roughly 80-member Harvard University Security, Parking and Museum Guards Union and the 5,000-person Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers have long sought to merge under the umbrella of HUCTW. Now, they hope support from a pair of local elected officials — Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui and Boston City Councilor Elizabeth A. “Liz” Breadon — will help put pressure on the University to support the change.

The unions released statements of support from Siddiqui and Breadon last week after more than 136 members signed onto a petition calling for HUSPMGU to be included as part of HUCTW. HUSPMGU represents Harvard security, parking, and museum guards, while HUCTW represents clerical and technical workers across campus.

HUSPMGU is currently negotiating for a new contract with the University, with HUCTW bargaining on its behalf, according to Danielle R. Boudrow, HUCTW’s recording secretary.

The unions plan to hold campaigns in Harvard Square in the coming weeks.

“These people are saying what union they want to be in, and the University ought to respect it,” Boudrow said.

“HUCTW is here, ready to be completely flexible in what that looks like.”

University spokesperson Jason A. Newton declined to comment on the renewed push.

The unions first tried to merge in 2016.

In response to the original proposal, Harvard

SEE JUSTICES PAGE 7

SEE UNIONS PAGE 9

Harvard University released new plans for an optional masking policy beginning March 14. CORY K. GORCZYCKI— CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Here’s What You Need to Know About Changes to Covid Policies

By LUCAS J. WALSH and VIVIAN ZHAO CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Just shy of two years after Covid-19 shuttered Harvard’s campus in 2020, the University announced it would lift one of its primary pandemic prevention measures — its strict indoor mask mandate.

The changes come even amid a surge in Covid cases among undergraduates. More Harvard College students tested positive for the virus last week than during any other seven-day pe­

riod since the start of the pandemic.

The University announced the policy shift in a series of emails Monday morning. Here’s what you need to know about the upcoming changes.

Why Now? Starting March 14, the University will no longer require face coverings to be worn in most indoor spaces.

The announcement comes as Covid-19 cases in the Greater Boston area continue to drop.

Massachusetts authorities have already lifted the state’s mask mandate, and the City of Cambridge announced last week that it will end its restrictions on the same day as Harvard.

But at Harvard, undergraduate cases have surged in recent weeks. In an email announcing the changes on Monday, administrators said that despite high case rates, very few affiliates have gotten seriously sick and none have been sent to the ICU. In the emails announcing

SEE POLICIES PAGE 9

How Justices View Affirmative Action CHEIF JUSTICE ROBERTS

By RAHEM D. HAMID and NIA L. ORAKWUE

JUSTICE ALITO

JUSTICE THOMAS

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

With the retirement of one of its justices on the horizon, the Supreme Court is preparing to hear a case that could decide the future of affirmative action in higher education.

The Supreme Court agreed in January to take up a pair of lawsuits brought by anti-affirmative action group Students for Fair Admissions against Harvard and the University of North Carolina.

The suits allege that the schools discriminate against Asian American applications through their race-conscious admissions practices and ask the court to overturn prece­

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR

JUSTICE KAGAN

JUSTICE GORSUCH

JUSTICE KAVANAUGH

JUSTICE BARRETT

NOMINEE JACKSON

CAMILLE G. CALDERA—CRIMSON DESIGNER, IMAGES VIA WIKIMEDIA

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Graduate Council Discusses Club Funding, 3 Amendments

By PATON D. ROBERTS CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

The Harvard Graduate Council discussed funding applications from religious groups, an initiative to provide free menstrual products across the University, and three constitutional amendments at their biweekly meeting Monday.

Members from nine of Harvard’s 12 graduate and professional schools attended the meeting, held at the Harvard Kennedy School, either in person or through Zoom.

Parisa L. Hamm kicked off the meeting by providing an update on her proposal to provide free menstrual products across the University. Hamm said she ­

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Harvard Today 2

aims to have the proposal — which the Council of Deans heard Friday — implemented by fall 2023.

The Council also considered two applications to the One Harvard Catalyst Fund, which offers funds to organizations for events that promote interaction among Harvard schools.

The HGC approved the Harvard Business School Islamic Society’s request for funding of a Ramadan celebration, with seven representatives voting in favor of the proposal. The Council also voted to reopen consideration of funding for the Christian Fellowship, another HBS organization.

The Council also opened two amendments to its constitution

Arts 3

News 7

and one amendment to its bylaws for notice and comment, a two-week period in which members can suggest revisions.

The first amendment, proposed in response to members’ requests for additional HGC representatives in order to distribute the workload, would set a minimum of two representatives per school and a maximum of four, depending on the school’s enrollment.

The second amendment offers a restructuring of the Council’s executive board, with new positions related to programming and advocacy.

The suggested amendment to the bylaws would set the

Editorial 8

SEE COUNCIL PAGE 7

Sports 10

The Harvard Graduate student council met at the Harvard Kennedy School on Monday night.

JULIAN J. GIORDANO—

CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

TODAY’S FORECAST

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THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

MARCH 8, 2022

PAGE 2

HARVARD TODAY

For Lunch Chicken a la Plancha Pork Fajita Sandwich Seitan Tinga

For Dinner Chicken Tikka Masala Salmon with Green Curry Alu Chole

TODAY’S EVENTS 500 Years of Women Authors, Authorizing Themselves Houghton Library

IN THE REAL WORLD

The Houghton Library invites you to hear about female authors who have made their mark on history, yet are scarcely mentioned. Explore exhibitions like the first edition of

U.S. to Ban Russian Oil Amid Stock Market Slide

Democrats and Republicans came to an agreement on Monday to ban imports of Russian oil in the U.S. and halt trading with Russia and Belarus in support of Ukraine. This comes on Wall Street’s worst day in more than a year, as the S&P 500 fell 3 percent.

Mind the Gap The Inn, 1201 Mass Ave., 217, 6 p.m.-7 p.m.

Worldwide Covid-19 Death Toll Surpasses 6 Million

Join the First-Year Experience Office to meet and interact with fellow gappers, veterans, and non-traditional students. It is a great event with incredible company and food from Pinocchio’s Pizza!

Global deaths from Covid-19 exceeded 6 million Monday amid the pandemic’s third year, with experts calling the death count an underestimate. Roughly 4 percent of all Covid-19 mortalities were reported in the last month.

The mild weather to start the week has caused the snow to melt across campus. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

AROUND THE IVIES Make the Most Out of Your Summer Internship 3 p.m.-3:30 p.m.

YALE: Residential College Communities Respond to Ukraine Crisis

—THE YALE DAILY

NEWS

A shooting at East High School in Des Moines, Iowa, left one teen dead and two critically injured. Police brought multiple people in for questioning and said the shots appeared to have come from a passing vehicle.

COLUMBIA: Bacchanal’s Spring Concert to be Hosted Off Campus stronomy professor —THE COLUMBIA SPECTATOR CORNELL: Johnson Museum of Art, Closed to Field Trips, Continues to Educate Children —THE CORNELL DAILY SUN PRINCETON: Princeton Sees New Construction Across Campus in 2021-22 Academic Year, More to Begin This Summer —THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

COVID UPDATES

CAMPUS LAST 7 DAYS CURRENTLY

Congrats on securing that internship that everyone’s been pining for! Now it’s time to develop the skills to make the most of it. Hop on a zoom with the Office of Career Services and gain insider’s advice on how to maximize your internship experience.

Teen Killed, 2 Critically Injured in Iowa High School Shooting

221

In Isolation

1.13%

381

Total New Cases

Positivity Rate

LAST 7 DAYS

CAMBRIDGE

369 1.09% 76%

Total New Cases

Positivity Rate

Fully Vaccinated

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY HLS to Abide by Court’s Decision

Law School Dean Elena Kagan announced to students that Harvard Law School would allow the military to recruit there following a Supreme Court ruling that HLS could not require the military to sign a “non-discriminatory pledge” if the school wanted to remain eligible for $400 million in federal funds..

March 8, 2006

Women’s Group Seizes Harvard Building

An International Women’s Day march ended in the seizure of a Harvard building by 150 women who participated in the demonstration. The dean of the Graduate School of Design called the seizure “unauthorized and unlawful.”

March 8. 1971

THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873

The Harvard Crimson Raquel Coronell Uribe ’22-’23 Associate Managing Editors President Kelsey J. Griffin ’23 Taylor C. Peterman ’23-’24 Jasper G. Goodman ’23 Managing Editor Associate Business Managers Amy X. Zhou ’23 Taia M.Y. Cheng ’23-’24 Business Manager Isabelle L. Guillaume ’24

STAFF FOR THIS ISSUE Arts Chairs Sofia Andrade ’23-’24 Jaden S. Thompson ’23

Design Chairs Yuen Ting Chow ’23 Madison A. Shirazi ’23-’24

Magazine Chairs Maliya V. Ellis ’23-’24 Sophia S. Liang ’23

Multimedia Chairs Aiyana G. White ’23 Pei Chao Zhuo ’23

Blog Chairs Ellen S. Deng ’23-’24 Janani Sekar ’23-’24

Technology Chairs Ziyong Cui ’24 Justin Y. Ye ’24

Editorial Chairs Guillermo S. Hava ’23-24 Orlee G.S. Marini-Rapoport ’23-24 Sports Chairs Alexandra N. Wilson ’23-’24 Griffin H. Wong ’24

Copyright 2022, The Harvard Crimson (USPS 236-560). No articles, editorials, cartoons or any part thereof appearing in The Crimson may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the President. The Associated Press holds the right to reprint any materials published in The Crimson. The Crimson is a non-profit, independent corporation, founded in 1873 and incorporated in 1967. Second-class postage paid in Boston, Massachusetts. Published Monday through Friday except holidays and during vacations, three times weekly during reading and exam periods by The Harvard Crimson Inc., 14 Plympton St., Cambridge, Mass. 02138 Weather icons made by Freepik, Yannick, Situ Herrera, OCHA, SimpleIcon, Catalin Fertu from flaticon.com is licensed by CC BY 3.0.

Night Editor Natalie L. Kahn ’23

Design Editors Camille G. Caldera ’22

Assistant Night Editor Vivian Zhao ’24

Photo Editor Cory K. Gorczycki ’24

Story Editors Raquel Coronell Uribe ’22-’23 Jasper G. Goodman ’23 Kelsey J. Griffin ’23 Taylor C. Peterman ’23-’24

Editorial Editor Gemma J. Schneider ’23 Sports Editor Alexandra N. Wilson ’23-’24

CORRECTIONS The March 7 article “Gay to Revise Tenure System” misquoted FAS Dean Claudine Gay. She said “engagement and mentors” will help “make our tenure track system as successful as it can be.” She did not say “engagement and metrics” will help “make our tenure track system as successful as it can be.”

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

MARCH 8, 2022 |

PAGE 3

ARTS CULTURE

WUSONG ROAD PT. 2: TRACES OF EMPIRE IN THE FOOD WE EAT

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A second look into Wusong Road’s interior — decor, philosophy, and history.

Wusong Road Pt. 2: Traces of Empire

CULTURE

HANNAH TSAI KIM STAFF WRITER

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‘WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME’ IS A TIMELY NARRATIVE FOR TODAY

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‘OCEAN FILIBUSTER’ REVIEW: THE SHOW WANTS TO SAVE THE OCEAN, WASTES YOUR TIME INSTEAD

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HOW ANIME MUSIC MARKS EMOTIONAL JOURNEYS

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“KILLING EVE” SEASON FOUR PREMEIRE REVIEW: A ROCKY START, BUT PROMISING NONETHELESS

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DISENCHANTMENT: THE REALITY OF DISNEY’S DESIRE FOR A DOLLAR

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‘UNCHARTED’ REVIEW: STALE, PREDICTABLE TAKE ON BELOVED VIDEO GAME

THEATER

THEATER

MUSIC

The show is a funny, thought-provoking piece that both celebrates and criticizes one of the most significant documents in this country’s history.

One would be forgiven to expect a relatively quick, somewhat educational show that manages to both soothe and stimulate, but they would be wrong to do so.

There’s a level of exclusive appeal in being able to know a song in a foreign language, and, ironically, “speak the same language” of anime with others.

It’s queer, it’s high-stakes, it’s… taken a religious turn?

TV

FILM

FILM

If the Walt Disney Company sticks to its habit of choosing money over magic, fan disillusionment is sure to persist.

With intrigue, adventure, and an eye-drawing cast list, Ruben Fleischer’s “Uncharted” takes on the task of bringing a popular video game to the big screen.

WA

If you think Wusong Road’s “Chinese Tiki” concept is unique, think again. Confusing? Sure. Problematic?

Agreed. But Chinese Tiki is not new. A quick Google search of “Chinese Tiki” will bring up seven other similarly-themed restaurants in the state of Massachusetts alone. Some of these establishments are operating under the label of “Chinese Tiki” or something akin, like “Cantonese and Polynesian,” while others have more implicitly been deemed as “Chinese Tiki” by Google’s algorithmic calculus, based on keywords from reviews, menus, and websites. Wusong Road follows the former’s explicit mode of characterization: It’s website describes the new restaurant and bar as “American Chinese cuisine and tropical Tiki escapism.”

Chinese Tiki establishments can be found all over the US — especially in big coastal cities. Wusong Road is not alone in marrying Chinese and Tiki exotica, nor is it a revival of the practice. Wusong Road is the latest, more modern and stylized iteration of a tradition that runs through the fabric of culinary history.

On the website, Chef-owner Jason Doo, insists that the establishment “is not intended to be a ‘political’ or ‘social’ commentary on Tiki culture.” I would push back and ask, how can Chinese Tiki not be political? Sure, patrons enjoying a weekend dinner are likely not thinking about the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, U.S. military occupation, or the facetious history of white American attitudes towards Chinese food. Sure, Wusong Road may not be intentionally perpetuating harmful stereotypes about Hawaiian and Chinese women. However, it is vital to contextualize the history of oppression, colonialism, and cultural exchange that Wusong Road operates within.

By its very nature — ethos, design, food — Wusong Road is a result of the American empire’s living legacy, occupying a position in both culinary and broader American history. With Chinese Tiki comes a messy set of implications, fueled by entangled histories of Chinese ethnic and racial identification, assimilation, the colonization of the Hawaiian Islands, U.S. militarism, Cold War anti-communism, the promulgation of U.S. liberalism and capitalism, and more.

This review will offer a sliver of Chinese American food history, and Wusong Road’s intervention on a longstanding political history.

Let’s break these dynamics down: As part of a digital archive project titled “150 Years of Chinese Cuisine in America,” a student group from UCLA cites that there are “over 45,000 Chinese restaurants across the United States, more than the number of McDonalds, Burger Kings, Kentucky Fried Chickens, and Wendy’s, combined.” It is safe to assume most of these restaurants are not Chinese Tiki, Cantonese Polynesian, or any other ambiguous permutation.

The post-1965 immigration boom oversaw a significant diversification of Chinese food, as immigrants from different regions of China — for example, Sichuan, Hunan, Beijing, Hong Kong, etcetera— brought with them their localized culinary traditions.

Chinese Tiki occupies a unique place in Chinese food history. Dr. Tanfer Emin Tunç, a professor at the Hacettepe University Department of American Culture and Literature, places its peak popularity in the 1950s. In “Chop Suey and Sushi from Sea to the Shining Sea,” Tunç has written that during the 1950s, “most of these restaurants shared the same culinary palate — anything that featured pineapple or maraschino cherries suddenly became Polynesian or Hawaiian — and aesthetic, conflating a variety of Asian and South Pacific cuisines and cultures into menus decorated with hula girls and kitschy tiki artifacts.”

She references two California-based Chinese Tiki restaurants, the China Trader and the Don the Beachcomber chains that “served a number of Hawaiian drinks and dishes,” while their menus “deployed sketches of relaxed and sexually accessible Hawaiian girls to sell cocktails, exploiting another culture in much the same way Chinese culture was being prostituted.” Restaurants like these did not just bastardize Hawaiian aesthetics to line their walls and decorate their bars, they also participated in a history of sexual violence that exploited and fetishized

Hawaiian women. Sexualizing the sacred hula tradition filled seats in supposedly “authentic” Chinese and Polynesian eateries. These Chinese restaurants, owned by Chinese or non-Chinese people alike, catered to white customers by offering them escapes into a tropical-exotic-Orient hybrid.

Wusong Road Chef-owner Doo explains, “Growing up in my parent’s American Chinese restaurant…

Scorpion bowls, pupu platters, zombies, Mai Tais, and Peking ravioli were all standard dishes… these dishes and drinks to me were Chinese, because if anything Chinese food is highly adaptable and will always change to serve local taste.” In a place like Cambridge, Doo offers Wusong Road as a tropical escape, while qualifying that the restaurant “purposefully lacks many of the totems and imagery from Maori mythology commonly found in Tiki bars.”

Wusong Road is also absent of the sexually exploitative imagery of Hawaiian women. Does this mean Wusong Road loses all of its political implications and potential to be critiqued? I do not think so. The restaurant’s interior is still overwhelmingly decorated with conflations of Hawaiian culture and aesthetics. Imbued in these pieces of decor are reminders of empire, and the impact of U.S. capitalism and militarism in Hawai’i, and on Chinese Americans, too.

In analyzing the aforementioned Don the Beachcomber restaurant chain example, which was ironically started by a white man from the U.S. South, Tunç reveals that “[the restaurant] depicted imperialist maps and was decorated with nude hula girls.”

She continues by arguing these depictions “attempted to counteract fears of Chinese immigrants as inassimilable yellow perils by comforting American society with entertaining buffoonery and gratuitous sex.” Don the Beachcomber had lasting impacts on white American perceptions of Chinese immigration and how Chinese Americans saw themselves. Tunç gives an apt analysis, as many Chinese restaurants serve as a space in which Chinese Americans are confronted with their own racialization, forced to hash out their racial identity to fit American capitalist and multicultural society calls for assimilation.

For white consumers, Chinese restaurants have historically served as playgrounds to venture into the so-called unknown, the “Orient.”

Chinese food has a long and fraught history in America, and has undergone countless different iterations, evolutions, and reimaginings. This culinary exchange dates back to the 1700s when Western merchants first landed in Chinese ports. Like Doo, I agree that Chinese cuisine was — and is — a path for some Chinese people to find economic survival, and for others, success. Chinese food’s adaptability enabled it to become the sensation it is today, however, I would again push back on Doo’s willingness to assert that Chinese food’s adaptability necessitates the birth of Chinese Tiki.

Chinese Tiki subsumes Hawaiian culture and appropriates its aesthetics under the ambiguous guise of Chineseness — that which defines or is associated with Chinese ethnic identity — making nonsense of already uneven power dynamics. One thing is for sure: Hawaiian cuisine and culture are wholly different from Chinese cuisine and culture. The two are not synonymous and to envelope cherry-picked aspects of Hawaiian culture and aesthetics into the fold of Chinese cuisine erases individual identities and divergent historical challenges.

Looking at the complicated entanglement of Chinese Tiki, the concept is hardly an escapist fantasy to tropical paradise. Where are we, as patrons, owners, and critics of Wusong Road, escaping to? And why?

The exotic and the Orient, images crafted by oppressive white hands, seems a hellscape I surely do not want to land in. Right in our backyard, Wusong Road provides us with something more than mai tai’s in fancy cups and $8.88 eats. What has arrived is an opportunity to interrogate our own interactions with American imperial history and the food that crossed oceans as a result of this devastating conquest and the colonial project.

—Staff Writer Hannah Tsai Kim can be reached at hannah.kim@thecrimson.com.

08 March 2022 | Vol CXLIX, ISSUE 31 Arts Chairs Sofia Andrade ’23-’24 Jaden S. Thompson ’23

Editors-at-Large Clara V. Nguyen ’23-’24 Sara Komatsu ’23 Chibuike K. Uwakwe ’23

Editor Associates Hannah T. Chew ’23 Isabella B. Cho ’24 Daniel S. de Castro ’24 Nina M. Foster ’23 Anya L. Henry ’24 Ryan S. Kim ’23

Zachary J. Lech ’24 Charles W. McCormick ’24 Jamila R. O’Hara ’23 Harper R. Oreck ’23 Alisa S. Regassa ’24

Executive Designer Nayeli Cardozo ’25

Design Associates Samantha Simpson ’23

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

MARCH 8, 2022 |

PAGE 4

THEATER ‘What the Constitution Means to Me’ Is a Timely Narrative for Today SAMANTHA H. CHUNG CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Courtesy of Joan Marcus

W

hen Heidi Schreck was 15 years old, she paid her way through college by traveling through the United States and winning speech competitions about the U.S. Constitution. 30 years later, Schreck has brought her experience to the stage in the form of a (mostly) one-woman play, “What the Constitution Means to Me.” Like 15-year-old Schreck, the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-nominated “What the Constitution Means to Me” is benefitting from a national tour. Directed by Oliver Butler, “What the Constitution Means to Me” arrived at Emerson College’s Cutler Majestic Theater on Feb. 22, where it will run until March 20. The show is a funny, thought-provoking piece that both celebrates and criticizes one of the most significant documents in this country’s history.

While Schreck played herself during the show’s original Broadway run, Cassie Beck has now stepped into the role for

THEATER ‘Ocean Filibuster’ Review: The Show Wants to Save the Ocean, Wastes Your Time CARMINE J. PASSARELLA CONTRIBUTING WRITER

the national tour. Beck brings a buoyant, breathless energy to her portrayal of a teenage Heidi as she pontificates at a podium, likening the Constitution to a witch’s crucible. Beck’s animated speech is enhanced by Rachel Hauck’s simple set design. Inspired by the American Legion Hall (“It’s reconstructed from my dreams, like one of those crime victim drawings,” Beck says), the walls are covered in portraits of U.S. veterans.

At the start of the play, Heidi asks us to pretend to be the old, white men who judged her speech and debate competitions. She speaks at length about the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution, showing how the ideals of equal rights for the people have not, historically, applied to all of the people. Over and over again, the rights of women, people of color, and other marginalized groups have not been protected by the Constitution.

T

he American Repertory Theater’s latest theater offering, “Ocean Filibuster” set out with the goal to “depict the reality of the climate crisis” by blurring the lines between entertainment and education. Unfortunately, it lacks clarity at times and loses track of its aim by engaging in tangential commentary. The result is a show that struggles to gain its footing. “Ocean Filibuster” would be better off presenting itself as a challenge to time, boldly commanding it to move slower than it has ever moved before.

Jennifer Kidwell plays “Mr. Majority,” in the show — a runof-the-mill, allegedly forward-facing politician who presents a bill to a global senate sometime in the future. The bill’s champions hope to dramatically decrease the size of the ocean in an effort to curb natural disasters and have more land. Kidwell also plays Ocean; all of Earth’s waters inexplicably took the form of a human being who unexpectedly arrives to filibuster the bill in order to save itself — and the many creatures that reside in it — from destruction.

Throughout Ocean’s filibuster, the audience is educated on how inappropriate it is to gender this human manifestation of the ocean. One performer stands behind the audience and asks Mr. Majority if he is referring to the ocean as “she” because it is “something to be conquered.” Ocean then declares “o” as o’s preferred pronoun. Mr. Majority then continues to struggle to refer to Ocean as o, providing a useless and confusing commentary on gender identity and patriarchal realities. This struggle would distract less from the main points — that biodiversity is a good thing, humankind relies on the ocean to survive, and the answer to the rise in water-related natural disasters is not to rid the earth of much of the ocean, but instead to cut carbon emissions — if those points were presented in a more clear and engaging way.

A white, vinyl-paneled stage with a dramatic white podiumin the center makes it seem as if the audience were a part of the senate, blurring the line between the audience and the performance. The screens on the sides read “Thank you for being here,” “Welcome to the Global Federation of Humans on Earth,” and “Zambiethopia,” although the last name goes unexplained. After a few minutes, these messages give way to scenes of nature projected on the stage’s sides.

This sleek design and the choice to almost include the audience in the show — reinforced by the unceremonious beginning — gives the show the feel of a planetarium. One could be forgiven for expecting a relatively quick, somewhat educational show that manages to both soothe and stimulate, but they would be wrong to do so.

What begins as a high schooler’s speech eventually turns into a personal story about Heidi and the women in her own family, many of whom suffered from depression and were victims of domestic abuse. Beck speaks candidly to the audience as Heidi, bringing both humor and solemnity to the show when they are needed. She switches comfortably between speaking about losing her stuffed monkey at the airport and having an abortion. A recording of Supreme Court justices coughing uncontrollably as they discuss birth control eventually leads into the dizzying statistic that more women have been killed by a male partner since 2000 than Americans have died in wars.

Midway through the play, Beck transitions to speak as the adult version of Heidi. She then leaves the character of Heidi for a while and speaks as herself, telling the audience about her friendship with Schreck and her own relationship with the Constitution. Beck navigates these multiple character changes with ease, giving the audience a sense of intimacy with Heidi’s character and Beck herself. From her first sentence, the audience feels as if they are in a casual conversation with a close friend.

Beck brings to life Schreck’s exceptional writing. Heidi’s speech feels spontaneous, but behind its conversational tone is a tightly-written script. (“In spite of how it feels, this play is quite carefully constructed,” Beck says during the show.)

The play manages to weave in nuanced arguments about immigration, abortion rights, and violence against women in one fell swoop.

While most of the show is a monologue by Beck and Beck as Heidi, she is not alone onstage. Gabriel Marin plays the Legionnaire, who counts down Heidi’s allotted time to speak and brings a humorous sense of urgency to the play. Later in the show, Marin also sheds his character and speaks about his own experiences with toxic masculinity.

One of the most entertaining parts of the show comes in its final act. High school debater Emilyn Toffler (who alternates the role with Jocelyn Shek) comes onstage to debate Heidi about whether the Constitution should be kept or abolished. At the end of the debate, an audience member is selected at random to decide the Constitution’s fate.

Although “What the Constitution Means to Me” was first performed in 2017, it still feels prescient today. It speaks clearly to the way that this 200-year-old document still sparks discourse about the United States’ modern issues. “What the Constitution Means to Me” is a remarkable show that both entertains and informs, truly helping the audience understand why the Constitution matters in their everyday lives.

—Staff writer Samantha H. Chung can be reached at samantha.chung@thecrimson.com.

The interactive intermission, which further draws the audience into the show, features a series of educational exhibits and a man in a dress who claims to be a cod. Indeed, the show enters so far into the realm of the absurd that one can only go with the flow and find some brief peace — though a dinnertime cocktail or two before the event might help.

“Ocean Filibuster” is at least consistent, closing with an “ocean choir” that sings something about whales calling to one another. It is probably meant to be mesmerizing and profound, a fitting end to what is supposed to be a mesmerizing and profound work of art. This scene, too, fails in this respect, coming across as a jumble of unintelligible, highpitched voices that simulates the experience of entering a disorienting wedding reception.

The show’s numerous flaws aside, there are high points that deserve to be praised. Kidwell makes a valiant effort to keep the audience engaged, deftly switching between her two roles and delivering each line with charisma and conviction. The lighting and stage design — which frequently and arrestingly transition from blinding white to an array of glowing colors and ocean scenes — are quite beautiful.

Moreover, they provide sufficient visual stimuli for one to dissociate from reality — just long enough to be pleasantly surprised when they check their watch and see that the show’s two hours have already passed.

Courtesy of Maggie Hall

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

MARCH 8, 2022 |

PAGE 5

MUSIC

W

hen it comes to assessing musical elements within anime, the same thematic questions emerge time and time again.Why does anime music so often fall within a category of its own? Why do listeners experience such a connection to music from a completely foreign language and culture? Why is it that in any conversation about anime and its most compelling features, musical matters invariably remain at the heart of the discussion?

Anime is defined as hand-drawn and computer animated TV series that are either original screenplay or adapted from manga Japanese comics similar to the manhwa of Korea and manhua of China — all of which all mean “comic” in their respective languages. The true heart of anime, however, lies beyond its technicalities. It’s better defined by its attention to art and emotion. Oftentimes, these motifs are spurred and propelled by the musical elements that have developed into a genre of their own, grasping the attention and appreciation of many.

In discussing the nature of anime music itself, one need only look towards a specific anime’s soundtrack, a series’ opening theme. Unlike most Western television counterparts, anime’s opening credits play a much larger role in any given show’s plot. These openings expertly introduce the anime’s main characters, relevant recurring motifs, and set the tone for the anime all through visual cues. Throughout the lifetime of a series, openings may change to reflect the characters’ growth, different plotlines and themes, and the music in particular can often reflect a wholly different mood for the subsequent anime arc.

Take pop culture favorite “Attack on Titan,” for example.

From the very start, the show’s first opening, “Guren No Yumiya” carries a strong beat and catchy tune; almost like a national anthem, it sends the reader into a state of excitement and anticipation for this standout anime. And like an anthem indeed, “Guren No Yumiya” is quite distinctive and recognizable especially within the anime-loving community, despite the song containing a mix of Japanese and German lyrics.

The song’s author, Linked Horizon, uses a unique rock palette that blends together elements of fantastical musical beats and swelling melodies. Much like a rallying cry or patriotic tune, anime openings, when recognized, can serve as a great distinguisher for fans in the U.S. trying to recognize other fans of a particular anime. There’s a level of exclusive appeal in being able to know a song in a foreign language, not to mention feeling like a part of a greater subculture of anime lovers by being able to discern a melody or phrase and, ironically, “speak the same language” of anime with others.

Not only do these opening tracks serve to rally hearts, but they also change to reflect the dynamic development of the plot and characters. Take “Attack on Titan”’s fourth opening, “Red Swan” by Yoshiki featuring HYDE, with its entirely different musical tone. The grand percussion and soothing piano chord progressions opening the song are not overwhelming-

ly powerful like “Guren No Yumiya,” but rather bring a more poignant and surging melody. Rather than rock, “Red Swan” has more pop elements, its melody littered with twinges of sadness and longing. This parallels the more emotional and wistful plot points of the anime where many main characters’ backgrounds and past traumas are more fully fleshed out and explored than ever before.

Indeed, there’s a wide spectrum of emotionality that anime music can convey, from adrenaline-pumping marches to calming swells and serene diminuendos. Similarly, openings like “We Go” from globally renowned pirate adventure manga and anime “One Piece,” and “Gurenge” of the beautifully animated and heart-wrenching “Demon Slayer” are other examples of livelier and spurring anime music that give voice to the tumult of each journey’s exciting trial and tribulations. On the other end of that narrative, “Unravel” from psychological horror anime “Tokyo Ghoul” and “Fuyu No Hanashi” from romance and music anime “Given” possess a quality of dynamic emotion and melancholy that make the sound addictively nostalgic.

And why is it that anime music touches so many hearts with its variety and assortment of sound? The quality of the music itself is not so different from music that most U.S. audiences are accustomed to listening to on the radio or in other TV shows. However, when examining what makes anime music so moving, there emerges the shared pattern of a heavy emphasis on the melody, the arrangement of chords used, how each melody progresses and weaves back to interplay with each other, and how the lyrics add a spoken dimension to the emotional component of the composition. You’d be hard pressed to find an obviously static and flat musical motif within any of these anime pieces; everything is intentionally fluid and masterfully composed with freedom and creativity in mind. And the constant shift in melodies and tunes in anime music are not there simply for the musical aesthetic and listening purpose.

As alluded to before, the music changes frequently to mark the change of story and character development within an anime.

The aforementioned anime “One Piece” alone currently has 24 different openings and counting! If anime characters are constantly leading the development of the show and exploring their own personal progression, then the music of the show should reflect those changes. As long as anime continues to depict life in the fantastical, sentimental, and brutally honest way as it has done since its inception, then its equally relatable music will constantly be an accompanying partner that elevates that entire emotional experience.

How Anime Music Marks Emotional Journeys ASHLEY Y. LEE CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

—Staff Writer Ashley Y. Lee can be reached at ashley.lee@thecrimson.com.

Courtesy of Samantha Simpson

TV ‘Killing Eve’ Season Four Premeire Review: A Rocky Start, But Promising Nonetheless SAWYER TAYLOR-ARNOLD CONTRIBUTING WRITER

I

t’s queer, it’s high-stakes, it’s… taken a religious turn?

The season four premiere of “Killing Eve” aired on Feb. 27, reuniting loyal fans with psychopath Villanelle (Jodie Comer) and obsessive intelligence agent Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh). The first episode of the final season was defined by a surprising reversal of roles as Eve becomes the season’s newest villain and Villanelle attempts to shed her lethal past and seek salvation in Christ. Though these out-of-character portrayals and other unconvincing moments are initially disappointing, enough of the duo’s familiar, alluring bad habits peek through their good girl/bad girl facades to make the episode interesting — hopefully promising a return to the women’s obsessive dynamic that warrants sticking with the final season.

In an apparent homage to characteristic Villanelle fashion, the episode opens with a woman in a skin-tight motorcycle suit, brandishing a gun and forcing her way into a Russian government building. The only difference? It’s not Villanelle at all — it’s Eve. She confronts Konstantin (Kim Bodnia), who now appears to be a small-town mayor, and proceeds to shoot him in the hand. Not only is Eve’s portrayal out of character and not entirely convincing, it’s overshadowed by the confusion this scene raises. Given no explanation as to how a man that was, as of the season three finale, involved in an all-powerful terrorist organization and almost executed is suddenly a small-town mayor, viewers are left with more questions than answers. Unfortunately, this seems to be a theme throughout the premiere.

Set almost entirely in Russia, episode one is devoid of the many idyllic European landscapes and bustling cities that fill the background of prior seasons. Beyond aesthetic considerations, however, the setting raises some logistical questions.

When Villanelle is able to leave her Baptism (yes, the same Villanelle who has spent three seasons killing without a trace of

remorse is getting Baptized), pop in to see Eve unannounced, and return to the church all in a matter of hours, viewers are left to wonder where these women are situated geographically and why they are so close. There is a lingering sense of disappointment as well: As the allure of “Killing Eve” lies in the chase, Villanelle showing up at Eve’s hotel with little effort and minimal conflict doesn’t do justice to the intricate game of cat and mouse fans have followed for three seasons.

Eve continues to investigate the Twelve — the top-secret terrorist organization that formerly employed Villanelle — under the guise of working for a private investigation company. While she is joined in this venture with a new co-worker and romantic interest Yusuf (Robert Gilbert), Villanelle seeks salvation in the Church. She takes refuge in the home of a priest and his daughter May (Zindzi Hudson) who seems to be the new object of Villanelle’s desire. At a family dinner with the two, Villanelle sports a tie-dyed “What Would Jesus Do?” T-shirt and a gold cross around her neck while serving loaves of bread and fish. Though Villanelle’s transformation has the potential to be a compelling change of pace, scenes like this one are almost too on the nose.

Because it is in such stark contrast to past seasons, the incongruity of Villanelle’s transformation into a devout Christian eclipses Eve’s own character development throughout the episode. If they weren’t occurring parallel to one another, perhaps the viewer might give more pause to moments when Eve tells Yusuf how good it felt to shoot Konstantin or when, upon Villanelle showing up unannounced and trying to demonstrate she’s changed, Eve slaps her across the face.

While both transformations are unsettling for characters who have historically seemed so set in their ways, the extremes of Villanelle’s new persona are especially unnerving and at times feel like a let down — who is Villanelle if not evil?

Who is Eve if not obsessively tracking down Villanelle? Lucky

for us, though, old habits die hard. As Villanelle’s possessive personality and violent tendencies break through the facade she’s created, Eve’s own obsession with the Twelve is rekindled when Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) brings her new evidence. Perhaps these new personalities aren’t as concrete as the writers would like us to believe.

The premiere of “Killing Eve”’s final season asks viewers to refrain from asking questions when plot points aren’t given adequate explanation and to place a certain amount of trust in the show’s writers as its two protagonists undergo significant transformations. While such stark changes and unconvincing moments throughout may put viewers off, seeing Eve and Villanelle fall into old habits is nevertheless promising. Fans of the show should suspend disbelief for maybe a bit longer, if only to see Eve and Villanelle back at it in their obsessive, dramatic, queer game of cat and mouse.

Courtesy of Anika Molnar/BBCA

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

MARCH 8, 2022 |

PAGE 6

FILM Disenchantment: The Reality of Disney’s Desire for a Dollar KIERAN FARRELL CONTRIBUTING WRITER

I

magine: You’re in Walt Disney World for the first time.

You’ve been saving for this trip for years, and you’re ecstatic to finally bask beneath the Florida sun. You and your party of five have just entered Hollywood Studios, one of the resort’s four theme parks, and you can’t wait to visit the new “Star Wars” area that has everyone buzzing. After spending all that money, you can’t believe you actually made it to the big day. But wait — your party wants to ride the most popular Star Wars attraction? That’ll be another $75.

This is the unfortunate reality of the Disney Genie Plus Service, a ride reservation system that debuted at Walt Disney World in Oct. 2021. The system, which replaces the FastPass Plus service that had operated at the parks for many years, requires guests to pay for “Lightning Lane” reservations in order to experience rides with a reduced wait time.

While the advent of Lightning Lane has caused an undoubted frenzy among Disney-goers, it is only the latest in a recent series of monetizing moves by the Mouse House. Disgruntled fans have largely associated this trend with CEO Bob Chapek, who has certainly earned a profit-pushing reputation since his appointment in Feb. 2020. In a memo to Disney staff at the start of 2022, Chapek outlined three pillars for the company: “First, storytelling excellence… second, innovation… and third, relentless focus on our audience.” While these goals are admirable on the surface, a closer look at Disney’s track record in recent years will show that the company’s cash-grab mentality works opposite to each one these purported pillars.

First, “storytelling excellence.” In the beginning, there was nothing. Then, there was Disney Plus. Disney’s undeniably popular streaming service burst onto the scene in Nov. 2019, fresh with content from across Disney’s media empire — Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel and more. As expected, this content base attracted subscribers rapidly, achieving a count of 50 million subscribers within five months of its debut. In recognition of this success, The Walt Disney Company reorganized its business divisions in favor of such direct-to-consumer channels in Oct[ober][.]

2020. However, this focus on Disney Plus has led to an excessive prioritization of the service, even as movie theaters have begun to regain prominence; for instance, the latest three releases by Pixar — “Soul,” “Luca,” and now this month’s “Turning Red” — have all been Disney Plus exclusives.

This trend toward exclusive virtual showings, however, doesn’t seem to be strictly for pandemic-related reasons alone; Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Raya and the Last

Dragon” debuted both in theaters and on Disney Plus (for an additional fee of $30) in March 2021, before the releases of both “Luca” and “Turning Red.” Given Pixar films’ tendency to receive greater acclaim than Walt Disney Animation Studios’, Disney’s recent habit of limiting Pixar films to Disney Plus may be a strategy to retain a robust subscriber stream for the company’s hottest commodity. Evidently, Disney’s business-driven outlook has begun to interfere with the ways in which its stories are experienced, which certainly complicates the proper execution of “storytelling excellence.”

While the company hopefully isn’t likely to lose the creators behind its stories that are adored by so many, it is upsetting to see optimal modes of storytelling disrespected in favor of a focus on numbers.

Second, “innovation.” Disney theme parks have been fully transformed by technology in recent years. Once upon a time, guests would have to print a FastPass ticket from a physical kiosk and present it upon arriving at a ride. This process has become completely digitized, though, to the point where 2021 even saw the debut of a virtual itinerary-maker — Disney Genie — which aims to craft a visitor’s day in the theme park according to their interests. The introduction of this function was accompanied by the aforementioned Disney Genie Plus Service, which replaces FastPass Plus and allows guests to make Lightning Lane reservations.

Whereas the ability to make FastPass Plus reservations was included with park admission, Lighting Lane privileges can be purchased for $15 per day, and some rides — like “Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance” — even require individual fees.

Disney Genie and the Disney Genie Plus Service have been cleverly marketed in tandem as a great innovation for the parks, but in reality, they are far from it. Compared to the clear infrastructure of the FastPass Plus system, which allowed guests to make three ride reservations prior to park entry, Lightning Lane reservations can only be made on the day of a visit, and guests may only make one reservation until they either go on that ride — or wait for a period of two hours. Ultimately, it seems that Lightning Lane is merely FastPass Plus with a new name, far less efficiency, and a greater cost.

Finally, “relentless focus on our audience.” When Walt Disney came up with the idea for Disneyland, his vision was very much family-oriented. As he watched his daughters ride a merry-go-round, Walt imagined a place “where parents and children could have fun together.” If the new Star Wars resort at Walt Disney World is anything to gauge by, the compa-

ny is losing sight of its founder’s vision more and more every day. The resort, which exclusively offers guests a two-night experience, is called “Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser,” and its price tag for a family of four is a whopping $5,999. This designation is undoubtedly a remarkably high ask for the average family, making it abundantly clear that the people whom Walt wanted to engage with his creations are gradually having that opportunity stripped from them. If anything, the company appears to be relentlessly focused on turning away the audience it has held dear for so long.

If the Walt Disney Company sticks to its habit of choosing money over magic, fan disillusionment is sure to persist as well. In a telling example of such sentiment, a constituent of Disney shareholders has threatened to vote against Bob Chapek’s re-election as CEO at an annual shareholder meeting to be held March 9. And while it’s true that no one person should be blamed for the company’s recent actions, its behavior is perhaps best encapsulated by a nickname for Chapek that has quickly gained traction on the internet: Bob Paycheck.

Courtesy of Guillermo GR Unsplash

FILM ‘Uncharted’ Review: Stale, Predictable Take on Beloved Video Game MONIQUE I. VOBECKY CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

I

ith intrigue, adventure, and an eye-drawing cast list, Ruben Fleischer’s “Uncharted” takes on the task of bringing a popular video game to the big screen — and the result is disappointing.

The highly anticipated film showcases Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg)’s recruitment of Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) to locate the coveted treasure left by Ferdinand Magellan. Along their journey, the duo encounters obstacles in the form of mysteries and scavenger hunts as well as danger through Chloe Frazer (Sophia Ali) and Jo Braddock (Tati Gabrielle) — two female antiheroes intent on acquiring wealth without sharing.

While “Uncharted” had the opportunity to display the acting range of Holland, the underdeveloped script — notably the biggest hindrance to the movie’s success — renders it nearly impossible for him to realize his potential. Writers had the opportunity to deepen the character arc of the wellknown video game character, an all-knowledgeable historian and explorer. However, most of Holland’s appearances fell short of being memorable, with his performance in the movie frequently relying on his ability to execute complex action sequences.

Holland fits well in the role of Nathan Drake, largely because of his successful execution of these stunts. The seamless execution of these stunts was remarkable, making them one of the major highlights of the film. Throughout the video games, Drake uses his historical knowledge and adventuring expertise to find the treasure he is after. Through this lens, it makes sense that the focus of the film should be on Drake’s skill — and Holland succeeds at highlighting this expertise in fighting. However, Drake in this film, while having the opportunity to be a remarkable character capable of solving any problem, feels stale as a character. Holland’s Drake falls short of the confident explorer version of Drake from the video games. As a result, the movie presents a hesitant Drake who tends to live in his brother’s shadow, resulting in a flat and underwhelming version of the well-known action character.

The promise of seeking riches beyond one’s dreams is a familiar movie trope that requires a niche perspective to distinguish it from others. “Uncharted” fails at this task, blending in alongside many other adventure-focused films.

As such, the plot is an expected, stale take on the betrayal trope of adventure movies. The film broadcasts seemingly endless cycles of betrayal and expected “surprises” that leave viewers wondering about their significance to the plot.

Although the script falls short, Holland and Wahlberg’s dynamic makes a lasting impression and carries the dialogue of the film. Both characters seem to tap into their

mentor-mentee relationship, a dynamic that gives the film much-needed comic relief. Mark Wahlberg’s appearance in the movie adds further depth to Holland’s character, providing vital plot points through his dialogue that Holland subsequently follows. Overall, Wahlberg successfully performs his character when Holland’s appearance becomes stale. In contrast to Holland’s unexciting portrayal of Drake, Wahlberg is able to deliver striking dialogue and saucy banter with Holland that presents him as a believable money-hungry and manipulative treasure seeker. Wahlberg’s compelling portrayal of the selfish explorer that grows to put behind his greedy motives and befriend Drake adds depth to the character of Sully — and provides new insights into the original game character.

Despite disappointments in the film’s dialogue and performances, the visuals through the sets of the film are stunning. Starting the movie in medias res could have been unsuccessful for the film, but it was a surprisingly refreshing way to engage the audience from starting with Holland’s stunt sequences and later tying back to this scene through an exciting full-circle fight sequence. The recurring images, such as a seemingly unimportant vintage red car that ends up hitting Holland out of a plane, work to enhance the details of the set design. Most notably, the film’s climax takes place with two Magellan ships docked in an idyllic grotto that get lifted into the air, with the characters fighting on these moving ships. These impressive scenes of picturesque rock islands turning into a battlefield vitalize the already stunning visual images seen throughout the film.

Though “Uncharted” has a mix of high and low points, most of these were forgettable after heading out of the theater. Most regrettably, the film fails to take advantage of the opportunity to add depth to the plot and characters of the video games — ones that have yet to be seen by fans of the games. Regardless, fans of the original game can be sure to get excited about future films. Featuring a post-credit scene that unsurprisingly alluded to a sequel, it is clear that cinema will see more of the “Uncharted” franchise for years to come.

—Staff writer Monique I. Vobecky can be reached at monique.vobecky@thecrimson.com.

PAGE 7

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

MARCH 8, 2022

JUSTICES FROM PAGE 1

Here are the Justices’ Views on Affirmative Action ­ hief Justice C John G. Roberts Jr. ’76

Since ascending to the court in 2005, Chief Justice John G. Roberts ’76 has ruled four times on the use of race in either high school or college admissions, each time making clear his opposition to affirmative action.

Two years into his tenure on the Supreme Court, Roberts wrote the majority opinion in a case shooting down the practices of a Seattle high school, which set racial quotas in its admission process. He acknowledged the value in “remedying the effects of past intentional discrimination” but asserted that “the way to stop discriminating on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”

In the 2014 case Schuette v.

Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, the Supreme Court ruled on the constitutionality of an amendment to the Michigan state constitution that barred affirmative action in public institutions.

In a concurring opinion, Roberts wrote that “racial preferences may themselves have the debilitating effect of reinforcing precisely that doubt, and—if so—that the preferences do more harm than good.”

A year earlier in the case Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, Abigail N. Fisher sued the University of Texas at Austin for its use of race in admissions. Roberts joined a seven-justice majority in ruling that race cannot be considered unless the school’s admissions practices are “narrowly tailored to obtain the educational benefits of diversity.”

When Fisher returned to the court two years later in 2015, Roberts disagreed with the majority opinion, which upheld the university’s consideration of race in admissions.

Associate Justice Clarence Thomas The most senior justice on the Court, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas has ruled on the use of race in college admissions seven times since his tenure began in 1991.

When Grutter v. Bollinger reached the Supreme Court in 2003, Thomas dissented from the court’s opinion, which declared the affirmative action policies utilized by the University of Michigan’s law school constitutional.

In Gratz v. Bollinger, a simi-

lar case concerning the University of Michigan’s undergraduate admissions, Thomas joined the majority opinion striking down the school’s point-based practices, which automatically awarded extra points to students from racial minorities.

“I would hold that a State’s use of racial discrimination in higher education admissions is categorically prohibited by the Equal Protection Clause,” Thomas wrote in a concurring opinion.

He reiterated his disapproval of affirmative action in higher education in several subsequent cases, including Schuette and both Fisher lawsuits against the University of Texas.

“As should be obvious, there is nothing ‘pressing’ or ‘necessary’ about obtaining whatever educational benefits may flow from racial diversity,” Thomas wrote in a concurring opinion in the first Fisher case.

Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. previously upheld race-conscious admissions in the 2007 Seattle high school admissions case and defended the rights of Michigan voters to alter their state constitution to ban the use of race or sex-based preferential treatment in university admissions.

In the first Fisher case, Alito joined the majority opinion in ruling that schools may implement affirmative action practices in their admissions so long as they meet strict scrutiny standards.

When the court examined the University of Texas’s admissions in the second Fisher lawsuit, he was one of the three justices to rule in favor of the plaintiff.

“When UT decided to adopt its race-conscious plan, it had every reason to know that its plan would have to satisfy strict scrutiny and that this meant that it would be its burden to show that the plan was narrowly tailored to serve compelling interests,” Alito wrote in a dissent. “UT has failed to make that showing.”

Associate Justice Sonia M. Sotomayor President Barack Obama’s first Supreme Court nominee ascended to the high court in 2009 and has since ruled in Schuette and both Fisher cases. A staunch defender of the constitutionality of affirmative

The United States Supreme Court is located at One First Street, NE, in Washington, DC. The Court sits directly across the street from the U.S. Capitol.

CAMILLE G. CALDERA—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

action, Sotomayor was part of the seven-justice majority that ruled in favor of the University of Texas in 2013. “[R]ace-sensitive admissions policies further a compelling state interest in achieving a diverse student body precisely because they increase minority enrollment, which necessarily benefits minority groups,” Sotomayor wrote in a dissent to the court’s Schuette ruling.

When the second Fisher reached the Supreme Court, Sotomayor was part of the majority that voted to preserve the use of race in college admissions.

Associate Justice Elena Kagan Since her tenure on the court began in 2010, Associate Justice Elena Kagan has recused herself from all three of the affirmative action cases that have reached the Supreme Court, including from both Fisher cases due to her previous involvement in their litigation when she served as United States Solicitor General from 2009-2010.

But prior to joining the court, Kagan defended race-conscious admissions practices.

As solicitor general, Kagan approved the filing of an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the Department of Justice in 2010 that supported the University of Texas’ affirmative action policies. The brief argued that the school showed sufficiently com-

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pelling interest in cultivating a diverse student body.

Decades earlier, while serving as a policy adviser to President Bill Clinton, Kagan and her co-author Bruce Reed wrote in a memo to the president that there is “still a need for narrowly tailored affirmative action programs, and certain other kinds of targeted initiatives.”

Associate Justice Neil M. Gorsuch While Associate Justice Neil M. Gorsuch has said little on affirmative action directly, he has displayed a strict interpretation of the Constitution. Penning the majority opinion in the case​​ Bostock v. Clayton County, Gorsuch wrote that “only the words on the page constitute the law adopted by Congress and approved by the President.”

Harvard Law Professor Jeannie C. Suk Gersen wrote in a 2020 New Yorker article that Gorsuch’s apparent textualist viewpoint does not bode well for the future of affirmative action.

But as Gorsuch has yet to weigh in on an affirmative action case, his perspective on the issue remains unclear.

Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh Appointed by former President Donald Trump in 2018, Kavanaugh has also not yet ruled on

affirmative action. His lack of rulings on the matter, however, have led legal experts to speculate about how he will vote in the Harvard admissions case.

When Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger reached the Supreme Court in 2003, Kavanaugh – serving as associate counsel – coordinated the White House’s opposition to the University of Michigan’s use of affirmative action, per the request of then-President George W. Bush.

During Kavanaugh’s confirmation process, the media reported on a newspaper column he wrote for the Wall Street Journal in 1999. In the column, he predicted that the Supreme Court would one day rule that “in the eyes of the government, we are just one race.”

Associate Justice Amy V. Coney Barrett Appointed in late 2020, Barrett has also not ruled on affirmative action throughout her career. Experts have attempted to draw clues on her stance from her general judicial philosophy.

Peter F. Lake ’81, a professor at Stetson University College of Law, told The Crimson in late 2020 that he thinks Barrett’s originalist views clash with affirmative action precedent.

“If she’s a true originalist, she’s going to have to contend with the fact that the level of

scrutiny that American higher education now experiences in the hands of the federal government is anything but original to the U.S. Constitution,” Lake said.

When the Supreme Court agreed to hear Students for Fair Admissions’ lawsuit in January, Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan M. Dershowitz said that Barrett may cast the deciding vote.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson ’92 Nominated last month to replace outgoing justice Stephen G. Breyer, Jackson did not opine on affirmative action during her tenure on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Outside of the courtroom, she has also kept her views on the issue concealed. While running for a seat on the Harvard Board of Overseers, all other candidates stated their support for Harvard’s use of affirmative action.

Jackson refused to provide her stance, citing her position as a federal judge who could potentially rule on an affirmative action case.

But Coalition for a Diverse Harvard, a pro-affirmative action group of nearly 700 alumni, endorsed Jackson’s ticket for the Board. rahem.hamid@thecrimson.com nia.orakwue@thecrimson.com

COUNCIL FROM PAGE 1

Graduate Council Talks Funding minimum meeting frequency to biweekly, allowing additional meetings to be scheduled at the discretion of the Executive Board.

Chair of Governance Carlos A. Gonzalez Sierra, a Harvard Law School student, explained the value of amending the meeting pattern.

“I think some of the benefits of more frequent meetings, whenever they start, is community building, but also [to] help HGC become more effective at carrying out initiatives,” he said. “That’s the spirit behind the proposed amendment.”

The Council also discussed actions they could take in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, such as serving as a “catch-all” organization for various student-led movements or researching the University’s ties to Russia.

Community Engagement

Chair Landon A. Fortenberry provided an update on the Harvard Votes Challenge, which he said is scheduled to launch “as soon as possible”.

“Our initiative could not be more timely — this year, Massachusetts will elect a new governor, state reps, and senators, along with the federal representatives,” Fortenberry said.

Other developments covered at the meeting included an upcoming meeting with Harvard University Health Services Director Giang T. Nguyen, plans for a women’s leadership conference, and a strategy book compiled by Council President Peter M. S. Choi that will serve as an “instruction booklet” for members to consult when starting projects.

The meeting concluded with an optional tour of HKS. paton.roberts@thecrimson.com

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THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

MARCH 8, 2022

PAGE 8

EDITORIAL THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD

COLUMN

At Long Last, Housing Day

11 P.M.

Lend a shoulder to anyone who gets sorted into the Quad, and make sure to take a shot at getting into a River House — if you know what we mean.

O

ut of the many things we lost when we were instructed to vacate campus in March 2020, the loss of Housing Day by just three days is one that is still sorely felt. For many students currently on campus, Housing Day traditions are merely college lore, like whatever it is that goes on in the Stacks or the so-called humor magazine that a semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization slides under our doors in the dead of night.

This year, however, marks a long-anticipated shift from the monotony of virtual celebrations and make-up traditions that, despite our best efforts, could never quite live up to pre-pandemic standards: We are having an in-person Housing Day, and we couldn’t be more grateful. On March 10th, we look forward to coming together as a community to celebrate and welcome the Class of 2025 into their new homes.

We know that this Housing Day won’t be identical to the ones prior to the pandemic — not that most of our peers, particularly freshmen, have a helpful reference point to compare to. Amid surging cases in the undergraduate community, the administration has opted for smaller, masked dorm-storming squads of upperclassmen to mitigate Covid-19 risks. Celebrations will be confined to hallways, rather than actual rooms; stormers and new house members will have only five minutes to rejoice inside before being forced to disperse.

But after the pains of our collective departure, the isolation of more than a year away, and the repeated fits and starts of a hopeful but gradual return, these differences represent at worst a minor inconvenience. This coming Thursday has tremendous potential to reinvigorate our community right on the anniversary of its collapse. Yet that potential will remain just that, an unfulfilled possibility, unless we step up and bring it to fruition. It is up to us to make or break this Housing Day. Granted, the last few years of virtual Housing Day have left us without a sizeable chunk of our institutional memo-

ry: details and specifics that graduated along with those upperclassmen who never returned to a full density campus after the first March 1oth. Traditions we always assumed would be passed on organically got lost or distorted in our collective absence, unwitnessed or unknown by our younger cohorts. Campus culture predictably withered without a campus.

Two years down the pandemic road, only students who started among the class of ’22 and before have any tangible sense of what an in-person Housing Day felt like. The rest of us have lived it only through vicarious, digital means, watching old Harvard Youtube vlogs or binging Housing Day videos while doing a virtual river run on Google street view with our scattered blocking groups on Zoom.

But what has been gone is not entirely forgotten— and from what has been lost we are presented with an opportunity.

We often critique our campus culture and all its exclusionary social scenes.

This Housing Day, freshmen and upperclassmen alike will receive something less tangible but more valuable than simple house allotments: a chance to act on our concerns and critiques, to change campus for the better. The bottled-up energy of the past few months — the excitement over re-densification, the joys of Harvard-Yale — should be channeled into making this Housing Day a particularly festive and regenerative moment for everyone. One of the rare joys of our sometimes anxiety-inducing, perenially exhausting campus community is precisely its self-renewing character. Our collective togetherness can be constantly redefined and recreated as we see fit, nudging it towards compassion at every step, generation after generation, class after class. Sometimes, the act of maintenance itself is also a repeated act of creation.

Our roles within this community are constantly changing, too. Many of us entered Harvard as newcomers, dazed and eager to take in all that it has to offer; many of us have benefited greatly from the efforts of upperclassmen, spe-

cifically House Committee individuals, to make sure that there is at least one community we feel welcome in. Our transition from Boston-stranded strangers to experienced community members may not have gone exactly how we envisioned it, but it is one that has happened and should be acknowledged. We are beyond grateful for the people that have made Harvard home for us — even when extenuating circumstances have made it extremely difficult to do so.

With that in mind: Upperclassmen, take this day as your own too!

Celebrate for all the years you missed and give the first-years the wholesome welcoming that your screen-based reception didn’t provide. Celebrate the growth you have had at Harvard by being a trustworthy upperclassman to the first-years the same way an upperclassman (or their camera-off Zoom avatar) was for you. Pass on the joy — or, lacking any joy to pass after years of stale digital cheers, nourish some to gift the Class of 2025.

This Housing Day is a revival as much as it is a debut: We are reviving a beloved tradition, and we are creating one that is unique to our circumstances.

This Thursday morning — or, for the bold running types, this Wednesday night — marks the beginning of a newly promising era. We encourage you to treat it that way. Please, go have plenty of responsible, at-times masked fun. Wear your House colors with pride, cheer loudly, binge Housing Day videos. Lend a shoulder to anyone who gets sorted into the Quad, and make sure to take a shot at getting into a River House — if you know what we mean.

Become the community we all missed.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.

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OP-ED

The Demand for (Beauty) Supply

By KYLA N. GOLDING

H

arvard Square is unfamiliar to me. T0 many, Harvard and its surrounding area are the locus of education, student life, tourism, and good times. Many revisit to relive their glory days, soak in the colonial architecture of the Yard, or learn about scholarship of the past and innovations of tomorrow. But I have come to this place, met with some of the world’s brightest minds, next world leaders, dreamers, achievers, changemakers — and to me it has never been more than a place without the beauty supply store.

And yes, I know, it sounds really shallow.

I sit in my childhood home and from every window in every direction I can tell you of a beauty supply store — affectionately known to me as the hair store — that is not more than 10 minutes away.

They are staples in the communities that surround them, suppliers of all things hair and personal care, but mostly, it was the place where I went to figure out who I was and who I wanted to be.

I now look out the window from my Harvard dorm room, and when I search for the road to myself in every direction, I don’t know which way to go.

I yearn for a reminder that I belong here.

The beauty supply store is a place not just about sales, but also about learning respect for, love for, and agency over my own body — starting from the very roots that grow from my head.

It was there for me before Solange rejected having her hair touched over a neo soul melody, before Beyoncé declared she liked her “baby heir with baby hair and afros”, before Miranda Bailey taught Derek Shepherd about Zola’s kitchen on Grey’s Anatomy, before pulling girls’ weaves and “yaga”s became pop culture phenomena.

It was always the place where I could go to find the supplies that would nurture the expression of my soul.

For Black women, hair has always been serious business. Historically, it’s a sacred cultural and spiritual symbol. We fashion our hair for more than just style, but rather as demonstrations of our individual essences and signifiers of Black culture.

The appearance of our hair is often taken as a statement about who we are, who we think we are, and who we want to be. And like many other things tied to Black culture, Black people’s — particularly Black women’s — hair is knotted and tangled in issues of race, politics, popular culture, history, and questions of self-worth.

I have come to this place, met with some of the world’s brightest minds, next world leaders, dreamers, achievers, changemakers — and to me it has never been more than a place without the beauty supply store.

And it’s no secret that eurocentric beauty standards for hair — long, thick, straight or particular forms of curly— have for generations been deemed the adequate down payment on the American Dream.

Because in America, to fit into a cherished ideal is to fit into normative white perspectives and aesthetics on what’s professional, or better yet, what’s beautiful.

But a neighborhood that lacks convenience for minority hair care products is one that I believe has failed its inhabitants. It insinuates that there is no im-

portance in predominantly-white towns being able to provide minority residents with daily essentials that meet our own personal preferences.

What’s more, is that it pushes forth the narrative that people of color — most often Black people — must compromise their identity to satisfy others. It’s a microaggressive way to emphasize our ever-standing position as central to American culture whilst perennially marginalized by it.

The hair store is more than a store. It’s more than just beauty supplies sold in the name of vanity. It is a cultural and community center.

It is a place with the power to create and support important foundational experiences — from finding oneself in the ’fro, to falling in silky love with yourself under a new hair scarf or bonnet, to choosing the right style and colors for your next braided hairdo, or maybe picking up the right brand of deodorant, body wash, hair mask, or lip gloss.

Trivial as these moments may seem, it’s in those instances that Black women have the access and ability to exercise agency over the way we choose to express ourselves, and with which styles, products, and personal care we intend to do so.

A hair store could make Harvard feel a bit more like home. At the very least, it would let me know that there is some semblance of belonging for those that look like me in the surrounding community, after all.

I hope to see a beauty supply store make its way into Harvard Square sometime soon. Put it on the short-list of Harvard Square community necessities — right next to a McDonald’s.

Kyla N. Golding ’24, a Crimson Editorial editor, is a History of Science and Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality concentrator in Adams House.

Ben T. Elwy, LIVING A DISABLED LIFE

E

veryone knows that scars tell stories. What we often overlook is that emotional scars tell stories, too.

I have many emotional scars, marks from past events — and I don’t just mean from that one time I thought it’d be a great idea to write 15 pages of my final paper on the due date.

If you see me outside my dorm room, I’m almost definitely wearing my Harvard ID on a lanyard. That’s an emotional scar. If you see me awkwardly standing at a door, trying to calm my anxiety about opening the door and probably looking like an eavesdropper in the process, that’s an emotional scar.

I’ll reiterate that I don’t want pity. Pity is actively detrimental to progress, especially when it comes to disability, an escape mechanism allowing people to disassociate themselves from problems while maintaining their sense of comfort. I don’t want sympathy, but empathy.

As obvious as my physical scars may be, people usually can’t see most of them — all the way down my back and around my legs, all the IV marks that are too small to notice.

Likewise, very few people know I’m visually impaired unless I tell them, because the natural instinct is to see my walker and stop there, assuming I don’t also have any disabilities that can’t be seen. And while I can’t speak to it, I need to acknowledge the unique challenges those whose disabilities are all invisible face, such as people doubting their disability.

We need to acknowledge invisibility. For me, invisibility comes at 11 p.m., the time of night when I’m alone in my dorm room. In some ways, being alone is freeing. I can do my homework while listening to my favorite video game music, or pretend to do my homework without actually doing it, or abandon any pretense of doing it and have a staring contest with my Kirby plushie instead (I’ll win someday).

If you see me outside my dorm room, I’m almost definitely wearing my Harvard ID on a lanyard. That’s an emotional scar. If you see me awkwardly standing at a door, trying to calm my anxiety about opening the door and probably looking like an eavesdropper in the process, that’s an emotional scar.

But also, at 11 p.m. I’m alone, and being alone is freeing, and that means thinking.

Being disabled isn’t great for mental health. In high school, when I first started reflecting about my condition, I internalized something obvious: I couldn’t do everything that my classmates did, at least not in the same way as they did. I couldn’t do athletics or build machines or get an entry-level job. There were two things I could do just as well, or occasionally better, than everyone else: academics and video games.

I put everything I had, my whole self-purpose, into them.

Disabled people face simultaneously low and high expectations. When someone sees I’m disabled, there is an inevitable subconscious assumption that I’m incompetent. My default state is needing to prove myself to everyone I meet, from friends to interviewers, or else I risk falling into stereotypes of what disabled people are. Yet, the moment I prove myself, I become an “exception” and a “model,” and I become trapped in high expectations that serve to differentiate me from “other disabled people” — who are perceived as unsuccessful largely because they aren’t given the environment and support they need to succeed.

In high school, every A- I got stung, as did every question I answered wrong in class, everything that wasn’t perfect. Societal ableist attitudes led me to doubt my skills and question whether I had any worth or self-purpose.

Constantly wearing my ID on a lanyard is convenient, but the real reason I do it is out of insecurity, so my classmates recognize me as a Harvard student — in many of their eyes, I know I don’t look like one. I think about that at night.

At the same time as I try to make myself seem strong, I feel like a burden to other people. In high school, I was afraid of talking to people in case they were only being nice to me out of pity, and they didn’t want me around.

Imposing myself on others scares me, since because of the way disabled people are generally treated, I’m conditioned to think that I’m not worth it.

I eventually learned that most people genuinely did want to talk with me. But I’m still sensitive about it, terrified of overstepping others’ boundaries. If I’m standing outside a room, staring awkwardly at the closed door, it’s not because I’m eavesdropping, but because I’m irrationally anxious about bothering others. I think about that at night.

At 11 p.m., I think about these things, and what is invisible becomes perceptible. But no one is around to know. Of course, everyone has experiences — emotional scars, reasons why they do what they do — that others don’t know about, but it is exactly because of this universality that the point becomes so important: Disability cannot be reduced to a mechanical inconvenience, of needing to find convoluted accessible entrances or to magnify small text.

Living a disabled life means that disability forms part of my identity, shaping the experience of my life in a meaningful way beyond what others can see. Because disability leaves a mental impact, and mental health takes a tangible form.

— Ben T. Elwy ’23 lives in Quincy House. His column “Living a Disabled Life” appears on alternate Tuesdays.

PAGE 9

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

POLICIES FROM PAGE 1

The New Covid Rules, Explained the changes, administrators stressed that students who wish to continue masking will be able to do so.

“Nobody should be made to feel uncomfortable, unwelcome, or marginalized because they choose to wear a mask,” University administrators wrote to all Harvard affiliates Monday. “They should never feel obliged to explain the reasons for their decision.”

What Covid-19 Protocols will Stay in Place?

Individual schools and classrooms may still require mask-wearing, though it will no longer be mandated by the University.

The school will continue to require masks in health care settings, on public transport, and at indoor gatherings that exceed 250 people.

Instructors at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences were told to inform students by March 14 if they intend to continue to mandate mask-wearing in classrooms.

Students and faculty will also be required to conduct regular testing.

Affiliates who test positive must self-isolate for five days and continue to wear a high-quality mask with others

for ten days.

Booster shots are required for all affiliates.

What About the Covid-19 Surge Among Students?

Harvard College’s high case rate is an outlier at the University. Over the last two weeks, undergraduate students have accounted for more than 79 percent of Harvard’s total case count.

Just after the University announced the changes to its mask requirements on Monday, the College sent out its own school-specific guidelines that include some stricter measures.

College students will not be allowed to gather in any indoor residential spaces for non-sponsored social gatherings until March 28.

Housing Day festivities, which were already modified due to the pandemic, will continue as planned on Thursday.

The College also bumped the undergraduate testing cadence up from twice per week to three times per week.

Students will also be required to test negative before leaving campus for spring break. lucas.walsh@thecrimson.com vivian.zhao@thecrimson.com

MARCH 8, 2022

Other Schools File Divest Complaints

By CHRISTIE K. CHOI and CARRIE HSU CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Following guidance from a student divestment group at Harvard, activists from five peer universities filed legal complaints last month in an effort to push their schools to divest from the fossil fuel industry.

Students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Yale University, Stanford University, and Vanderbilt University all filed complaints to their respective state attorneys general alleging that their institutions’ fossil fuel investments are illegal.

The complaints, which were supported by the nonprofit Climate Defense Project, followed a similar approach taken by Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard last year. In March 2021, FFDH filed a legal complaint to Massachusetts Attorney General Maura T. Healey ’92 that claimed Harvard violated the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act, which stipulates that nonprofits must invest with their charitable purposes in mind.

In their complaints, the student activists at the five colleges argued that their respective schools’ investments in the fossil fuel industry also violated the law.

Lawrence Z. Tang — a member of Yale’s Endowment Justice Coalition — said that, under UPMIFA, Yale has to “work for ­

the advancement of humanity.”

“We think that their continued investment and funding of the fossil fuel industry is against that agenda,” he said.

A Yale spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Harvard student organizers said they provided advice to their peer activists.

FFDH organizer Klara A. Kuemmerle ’24 said there has been “a lot of both inspiration and direct one-on-one working,” adding that the barriers to filing a legal complaint are “lowered” for other schools because FFDH had already gone through the process.

“We’re very supportive of other schools because if this is the way that we will get other schools to respond, then that’s amazing,” Kuemmerle said.

“We are grateful that, if anything, Harvard and other institutions might listen to the legal argument for why divesting is not only necessary for our futures, but also for them as an institution and what they stand for.”

MIT Divest’s outreach coordinator, Ellie S. Rabenold, said Harvard organizers “prepared a very impressive guide detailing all the steps in preparing a legal complaint.”

Like Harvard, the groups at other schools worked with the Climate Defense Project to file their complaints.

“We think this strategy is valuable because it reminds institutional investors that they

have a legal obligation not to undermine their institutions’ missions and values,” the organization’s co-founder, Joseph E. “Ted” Hamilton, wrote in an email. “Ideally, universities will divest of their own volition in light of these fiduciary obligations.”

FFDH organizer Suhaas M. Bhat ’23-’24 said the recent efforts by activists at other schools have been “really heartening.”

We think this strategy is valuable because it reminds institutional investors that they have a legal obligation not to undermine their institutions’ missions and values Joseph E. “Ted” Hamilton Climate Defense Project Co-founder

“This complaint strategy spread is incredible,” he said.

“It seems to me — and it seems to us — to be an incredibly viable strategy for divestment.”

Harvard announced last September that it will move to divest its endowment from fossil fuels by letting its remaining investments in the industry expire.

University President Lawrence S. Bacow said in a Sep-

tember interview that the complaint filed by FFDH organizers did not play a role in the school’s decision to let its fossil fuel investments wind down.

Still, Harvard’s move provided hope to activists from peer schools.

“For MIT Divest, we really hammered home that Harvard and Boston University had publicly announced divestment, and specifically Harvard because it is so close,” Rabenold said.

MIT’s divestment group organized a three day sit-in in front of the university president’s office after the group filed its legal complaint last month.

MIT spokesperson Kimberly Allen pointed to the school’s climate action plans, as well as its commitment to achieve net-zero emissions in its investment portfolio by 2050 — a pledge Harvard has also made.

“People look to our institution as a bastion of learning and technology and future progress,” Rabenold said. “It’s shameful that MIT continues to invest in the very companies that are leading to our planet’s ruin.”

Still, none of the peer institutions have subsequently pledged to wind down fossil fuel investments following the complaints.

“We are disappointed,” Tang said, “but obviously not that surprised.” christie.choi@thecrimson.com carrie.hsu@thecrimson.com

McDermott ‘Very Grateful’ Harvard to Labor Unions Renew Athletes Can Play Again Lift Mask Push for Merger UNIONS FROM PAGE 1

By JUSTIN LEE and JENNIFER L. POWLEY CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Harvard Athletics Director Erin McDermott said in a Friday interview that the full return to in-person athletics has “meant everything” for student-athletes.

After a four-season time out, Harvard Athletics resurrected last fall with a full competition schedule, including normal travel and training. McDermott said the homecoming has been marked by success and excitement for student-athletes training under Covid-19 restrictions.

“Even though it certainly continues to be challenging in ways, the full return was so palpable in the fall,” McDermott said. “I just was going around and meeting with teams and it was giving me such joy to see their joy.”

McDermott said the halt to sports inspired a renewed appreciation among student-athletes.

“They so much more appreciated the fact that they were together,” McDermott said.

“They were with each other, ­

they were with their coaches, they were training, and they were playing, and I don’t think I’ve seen people more happy to practice in my life.”

McDermott attributed the recent success of Harvard’s varsity teams even after a year without much training to this sentiment.

Many of Harvard’s teams have made their mark this year.

The Women’s Basketball team is headed to the Ivy League Championship Friday, and the Women’s Ice Hockey team recently won a bid to the NCAA tournament. The Men’s Volleyball team also won the Ivy League Championship after back-to-back victories.

Although the return has been filled with joy, it has not been without hiccups. Student-athletes have reported mixed experiences with Covid19’s impact on the athletic experience at Harvard, citing postponed competitions and difficulty in team bonding.

Amid the Omicron surge, Harvard rolled back its indoor spectator policy. McDermott called this a necessary step to preserve the overall continuity

of competitions.

“That’s a big effect on the teams that were really looking forward to just having the normalcy of people at their games, and we were able to do that in the fall all throughout, so to then scale back in the winter felt like we were taking a step back,” McDermott said. “But it was all in the effort to preserve the ability to keep playing and move forward.”

McDermott said she was grateful that athletics has been able to avoid a complete halt so far, thanks to safety measures in place. Some measures include regular testing, grab-andgo dining during travel for competitions, and a mask mandate in athletic facilities for those not actively training.

“When we started this year, we really had this main priority and goal of maintaining protocols in a way that would preserve, at least as much as we could, the opportunities to compete,” she said. “I’m very grateful that that’s been the case — we haven’t stopped altogether.”

justin.lee@thecrimson.com jennifer.powley@thecrimson.com

Director of Labor Relations Paul R. Curran raised legal questions about the plan, citing a provision in the National Labor Relations Act that does not allow “guards” and non-guards to join under one bargaining unit. The petition — signed by more than 130 union members — said HUSPMGU members “deserve the same opportunities, benefits, and protections that all other employee groups at Harvard enjoy.”

“We strongly support the rights of HUSPMGU members to choose the union that represents them — to be included in HUCTW and covered under the HUCTW Agreement,” the statement said.

The petition called on Harvard leaders to work “constructively and expeditiously” to establish a plan that would include HUSPMGU members in HUCTW “in the very near future.”

According to Boudrow, members of HUSPMGU are the lowest paid workers at the University at $17.69 per hour.

“It will cost slightly more to

MASKS FROM PAGE 1

have HUSPMGU in HUCTW than to have them on their own,” Boudrow said.

“Their wages and their benefits are so substandard that to bring them up to an appropriate level will have a cost associated with it,” Boudrow added.

In statements last week, Siddiqui and Breadon called on Harvard to allow the unions to merge.

“This disparity among Harvard service workers doesn’t make sense, and is clearly unfair to the dedicated members of the long-established HUSPMGU union,” wrote Breadon, who represents District 9 — Allston-Brighton — on the Bston City Council.

Siddiqui wrote that HUSPMGU members “have clearly and repeatedly expressed their desire to be included in HUCTW.” “After six years of negotiation on this topic it is past time for Harvard to stop standing in their way,” she wrote. sophia.scott@thecrimson.com claire.yuan@thecrimson.com

Mandate Next Week

consider several factors when easing restrictions – among them, high testing compliance rate and positivity rate that aligns with the rest of the campus,” Harvard University Health Services Director Giang T. Nguyen and Dean of Students Katherine G. O’Dair wrote in an email to undergrads.

Administrators also urged undergraduates to continue wearing masks indoors, even after the University’s requirement is lifted.

Beginning March 14, all Faculty of Arts and Sciences instructions will be able to teach without a mask, regardless of class size.

Masks will be optional for students in the classroom, though individual instructors will be allowed to require them. cara.chang@thecrimson.com isabella.cho@thecrimson.com

From Weeks to Weld.

The Crimson thecrimson.com

SPORTS

WEEKLY RECAP

SCORES

WOMEN’S WATER POLO VS. RV CAL STATE W, 10-7 ___________________________________________________________

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL VS. RICE UNIVERSITY L, 73-53 ___________________________________________________________

WOMEN’S TENNIS VS. OLD DOMINION L, 7-0 ___________________________________________________________

MEN’S WRESTLING VS. EIWA CHAMPIONSHIPS 9TH ___________________________________________________________

BASEBALL VS. RICE UNIVERSITY L, 42, 36 ___________________________________________________________

MEN’S VOLLEYBALL VS. PRINCETON W, 3-1 ___________________________________________________________

SOFTBALL VS. ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM. L, 5-0 ___________________________________________________________

SQUASH

Individual Squash Accolades: Crouin, Moataz Shine

By CALLUM J. DIAK CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

With two new College Squash Association (CSA) team national championships already in the trophy case, the Harvard squash program set out this weekend to give players their chances to shine at the CSA Individual Nationals.

Seniors Victor Crouin (13-1) and Samuel Scherl (15-0), and junior Marwan Tarek (14-1) returned to Philadelphia, the site of the Crimson’s team title win less than two weeks ago, in a bid for the Pool Trophy. The trio accompanied seniors Hana Moataz (12-1) and Amina Yousry (7-1), who, alongside sophomore Marina Stefanoni (12-1), were representing Harvard in the women’s draw for the Ramsay Cup. None of Harvard’s individual representatives in either division had lost more than one match throughout the entire team season. In this tournament, though, each school sent their top performers, ensuring that the Crimson athletes’ nearly unblemished records would be challenged.

Yet Harvard was ready. Second-seeded Crouin set an early precedent, defeating his challenger from Trinity College in three well-played games. Later the same day, the Frenchman faced off against No. 7 Velavan Senthilkumar from Columbia, obtaining an identical result.

Defending champion Marwan Tarek opened play against the tournament’s eleventh seed, who hailed from Yale.

Tarek executed an efficient and effective tactic against his op­

ponent, scoring 33 points while only conceding 14 to take the match in straight games and join Crouin in the quarterfinals.

After the early victories, though, the Crimson’s lone undefeated man fell. No. 12 Scherl started his weekend off against the University of Pennsylvania’s Aly Abou El Einen. Despite putting up a good fight, losing each game by no more than three points, the veteran player was not able to join his teammates in the next round of play.

In the second stage of the tournament, Tarek faced off against one of Harvard’s regular season rivals from the University of Pennsylvania, No. 3 Andrew Douglas, who proved to be a challenging opponent.

After dropping the first two games, Tarek made a late run to take the third game in a thrilling 11-9 fashion. The comeback, however, was not to be, as Douglas claimed the fourth to secure his spot in the semifinals.

And thus three became one: if the Crimson hoped to secure its fifth straight Pool Trophy, it had to be because Victor Crouin, the two-time Ivy League Player of the Year and 2018-19 Individual National Champion.

In Ramsay Cup action, all three of Moataz, Yousry, and Stefanoni emerged victorious from the initial round of sixteen, vanquishing opponents from Trinity College, the University of Virginia, and Princeton respectively. The top-seeded Moataz allowed just six points in her first match to ad-

vance to the quarterfinals.

Moataz then cruised past Cornell’s No. 7 Wen Li Lai in three straight games in the second round. No. 4 Stefanoni followed her teammate through to the national semifinals after a sweep of Yale’s No. 12 Sneha Sivakumar.

Yousry found herself early in a 2-0 game deficit to No. 3 Malak Ashraf Kamal, even after taking her into extra points in game one. Yousry seemed to apply a tactic change, commanding control of the pace of the play. After two more games, the match was tied. In the final game, though, Kamal recovered her edge. A colossal battle climaxed with Kamal barely scrounging out the final point required to take the game 11-9 and the match 3-2.

Saturday at the Specter Center proved to be just as action-packed as the previous day. The Crimson had three national semifinalists in Crouin, Moataz, and Stefanoni.

In his semifinal match-up, Crouin had a chance to avenge Tarek’s elimination as he faced off against Douglas. The Frenchman seized the opportunity and executed a convincing sweep, winning the second game 11-1 to send himself into the finals the next day.

While Stefanoni battled with No.1 Sivasangari Subramaniam from Cornell, Moataz was locked in a duel against Trinity’s Kamal. Each game, the two traded point after point, until Moataz was finally able to string together a quick set of points to edge out her opponent and take the match 3-1.

Stefanoni lost in a tight bat-

tle against Subramaniam, just missing out on an all-Harvard Ramsay Cup final.

The draw was set for Sunday: senior squash stars Crouin and Moataz each had one match left to bring the CSA individual title home to Cambridge.

Moataz found herself in an exciting final, looking to complete a comeback from two games to one down against Subramaniam. An exceptionally composed fourth game meant Moataz had tied the match at two games apiece. But in the final deciding game, Subramaniam managed to come out on top. At the end of a successful season, Moataz now adds another CSA individual runner-up accolade to her collection, a feat which she previously accomplished as a sophomore in 2019-20.

The Crimson’s last hope for an individual title, Crouin, took the court against Princeton star No.1 Youssef Ibrahim.

Crouin’s sole regular season loss was in a five-game thriller against Ibrahim, but this time around the Harvard phenom hoped to flip the script. Five exhilarating games later, that’s exactly what he did.

After an exhausting first set, culminating in a 16-14 win for Crouin, the senior seemed to take the match’s momentum in hand. Ibrahim however, did not go away. The two athletes battled intensely the next two games, with the Princeton player narrowly winning both.

Down 2-1, Crouin dug deep into his bag to gather the ingredients for a comeback: stamina, force, and intentionality in his

DUELING WITH DARTMOUTH Junior George Crowne goes up again Dartmouth at home on Dec. 1, 2021. CRIMSON STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

shots. Crouin dove and lunged for each play, forcing Ibrahim to follow suit to return the thunderous backhands from the Crimson athlete’s racket.

The spectacular play in game four and game five of the final was drowned out by the roars of the Specter Squash Center.

Emerging from the aftermath

of an incredible match was Crouin clutching the Pool Trophy to conclude his incredible collegiate career.

In his time at Harvard, Crouin has accumulated three CSA team national titles and two individual national titles. callum.diak@thecrimson.com

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Crimson Clinches Spot in Ivy League Tournament

By A.J. DILTS and OSCAR E. MERCADO CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

POST BATTLE Forward Maddie Stuhlreyer faces off against post player counterpart in a game versus Merrimack College on November 30, 2021. OWEN A. BERGER—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

The Crimson (13-13, 7-7) traveled to Hanover, N.H. to square off against the Big Green (323, 2-12) in a must win game to keep their Ivy Madness hopes alive. Harvard responded to the pressure in dominant fashion, crushing their conference rivals by a 33-point margin.

Senior guard Tess Sussman led the team with a career-high 25 points, shooting an efficient 10-for-13 on her field goal attempts. Junior guard McKenzie Forbes and sophomore guard Lola Mullaney also scored double figures, tallying 17 and 13 points respectively. The win, paired with a loss by UPenn the same day, allowed Harvard to clinch the final spot in the Ivy League playoff tournament.

“We knew we had to win [this] game,” said junior guard Maggie McCarthy. “We played with no pressure even though we knew there was pressure.

We played like we deserved to win [this] game; we’ve worked all season to get to the Ivy Tournament.”

The contest started off slow until Sussman and Forbes drained back-to-back triples to tie the game at 8-8. Sussman then converted back-to-back layups for the final lead change of the game, as Harvard led 129. The Crimson nailed backto-back triples again, this time courtesy of Mullaney and firstyear guard Harmoni Turner, to extend its lead to 18-13. Sussman tallied her ninth point of the first quarter off of a nifty dish from junior guard Annie Stritzel. The teams continued to trade baskets as Harvard closed the quarter with a 24-17 lead.

Harvard made its push in the second quarter, embarking on an enormous 23-4 run in which Forbes drained three consecutive triples. The Crimson outscored Big Green 28-9 in the second quarter to widen its lead to an astounding 52-26 margin at halftime.

Harvard continued its of-

fensive explosion in the third quarter as a barrage of threes ensued from Forbes, Sussman, McCarthy, and Mullaney.

Sussman continued her career night, going on a personal 10-1 run to balloon the Crimson’s lead to 74-37. The third quarter concluded with a couple of baskets by each team, with Harvard leading 76-41.

The Crimson started the final stanza with five straight points to reach the apex of its lead, 81-41. The team proceeded to take its foot off the gas pedal in this period as Dartmouth outscored Harvard 11-9 in the period. All in all, the Crimson cruised to a comfortable 85-52 victory to earn a spot in Ivy Madness, which it will host the following week.

After senior day festivities for guard Tess Sussman and forward Maddie Stuhlreyer, Harvard and Princeton (22-4, 14-0) tipped off Saturday afternoon in Cambridge and traded a series of offensive spurts throughout the first quarter. After the Tigers ran out to a nine-to-two lead, the Crimson responded with a trio of layups to narrow the margin midway through the period, which concluded with a five-point Princeton lead, 20-15.

The Tigers, however, outscored Harvard 17-7 in the second quarter, primarily due to the Crimson’s struggles from the field (three for eighteen) and three-point line (one for nine). Junior guard Maggie McCarthy recorded the lone threepoint make in the period, and her standout play on defense complemented her efficient 12-point offensive performance.

Despite the 37-22 halftime deficit, Harvard emerged from the locker room to cut the Princeton lead to single digits. First-year guard Harmoni Turner led the third quarter offensive surge, recording seven consecutive points on her way to a team-leading 15.

“We know Princeton’s a good team,” McCarthy said.

“They have a reputation of being a good team, but we know they’re beatable, too, and that’s

what we took from this game.

We lost on the scoreboard by 20, but we were in it the whole game. In the second quarter, I think we let up. [...] On the defensive end, rotating and being there for each other and then offensively, we did not shoot well, and that’s not typical of us.”

Junior guard McKenzie Forbes’ three-point conversion cut the Tigers’ lead to 4132, but the Ivy League regular season champions continued their hot shooting from the first half to extend the lead to 57-40 by the end of the third period. The Princeton lead expanded to 20 throughout the fourth quarter, finishing at 7353 when the final buzzer of the regular season sounded.

“I’m not discouraged, I’m disappointed,” Coach Delaney-Smith said. “There were some mistakes — we allowed the middle drive, we allowed the baseline drive, and our rotation was off on too many possessions. [...] Those are correctable errors, those are things that are unacceptable and shouldn’t have happened. But the bottom line was, we have got to hit shots.”

Correcting her team’s defensive errors will be the focus of Delaney-Smith’s practices this week ahead of Harvard’s rematch against Princeton in the Ivy League conference tournament. The Crimson and Tigers will return to Lavietes Pavilion on Friday, March 11 at 4:30 p.m. as both teams aim for an Ivy League tournament championship and a bid to the NCAA tournament.

“This whole year flew by for me,” McCarthy said. “Especially being a junior after three seasons, things start to go by faster. It’s not believable for [Delaney-Smith], either. I’m gonna remind everyone early [this week in practice], this is potentially our last week, and I’ll remind everyone that we’re playing for Kathy, [...] and bringing the emotion, bringing everything for her for her 40 years.” aj.dilts@thecrimson.com oscar.mercado@thecrimson.com