The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873
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VOLUME CXLIX, NO. 68
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CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
| WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 2022
OP ED PAGE 4
SPORTS PAGE 6
SPORTS PAGE 6
I am Palestinian and I stand with The Crimson
Track and field claims 10 titles at Ivy League Outdoor Championships
Men’s tennis falls short of reaching the Sweet 16 at NCAA tournament
City Weighs Alternative Policing By SARAH GIRMA and BRANDON L. KINGDOLLAR CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
The Cambridge City Council’s Finance Committee unanimously voted on Tuesday to advance a $3 million proposal for a planned Community Safety Department. The committee approved the proposal during a 2023 fiscal year budget meeting. The proposal will now proceed to a full council vote with a favorable recommendation from the finance committee. If approved, the CSD would serve as a launching point for the city’s non-police emergency response programs, organizing initiatives such as the Cambridge Alternative Response Program, which would be tasked with responding to mental health crises and other non-violent emergencies. Cambridge launched its exploration of non-police public safety alternatives in response to the George Floyd’s murder in May 2020. The council issued a policy order in June establishing an Alternate Public Safety Task Force with a mandate to propose changes to the city’s approach to policing and public
Republicans File Support for SFFA By RAHEM D. HAMID and NIA L. ORAKWUE
CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
A Cambridge Police Department cruiser, pictured here last month. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
safety in general. Councilor Marc C. McGovern, who co-chaired the task force, said in an interview that CDS would allow the city to remagine public safety while moving away from criminal punishment of homelessness,
mental health issues, and substance use disorders. “We need more and different resources for people who are in need of services but may not want to rely on the police,” McGovern said. The CSD would also be re-
sponsible for coordinating public safety initiatives beyond Cambridge’s city government, with the city allocating roughly $1.5 million to “community-based programs and
SEE SAFETY PAGE 3
Duke Grad’s Speech Appears to Plagiarize Harvard Address By VIVI E. LU and LEAH J. TEICHHOLTZ CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
D uke University’s 2022 undergraduate commencement speaker, Priya Parkash, told her classmates to pursue their own individual “revolutions” at the school’s graduation ceremony last week, reflecting on how the university could be its own “Duke Nation.” If an attendee of the ceremony had a relative in Harvard’s Class of 2014, the message may have rung a bell. Parkash’s speech, delivered on Sunday, appears to have been plagiarized from a 2014 student commencement address at Harvard by Sarah F. Abushaar ’14. The central themes of the two speeches were indistinguish
More than 80 Republican lawmakers filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court on Monday supporting anti-affirmative action group Students for Fair Admissions’ lawsuit against Harvard and the University of North Carolina. The lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin O. McCarthy, urged the Supreme Court to rule in favor of SFFA and ban affirmative action in higher education. The brief advocates for the court to overturn Grutter v. Bollinger, the landmark 2003 case that permitted the University of Michigan Law School to use race as a factor in its admissions process. Two Harvard College alums, Senator Thomas B. Cotton ’99 and Rep. Elise M. Stefanik ’06, also signed on to the brief. “We hold diverse views about educational policy,” the lawmakers wrote. “But we all
able, and significant portions of the language were nearly identical. The Duke Chronicle, the school’s independent student newspaper, first reported the similarities between the two speeches on Monday. In Abushaar’s 2014 speech at Harvard, titled “The Harvard Spring,” she described a revelation she had during her time in college after growing up in Kuwait. “If Harvard shut its gates, it could be its own country,” she recalled someone telling her, leading her to view the school as “the Harvard Nation.” On Sunday, Parkash, who is Pakistani, told a crowd at Duke’s Wallace Wade Stadium that she had a similar realization during her time in college.
Priya Parkash Duke University 2022
SEE SFFA PAGE 5
Sarah Abushaar Harvard University 2014
Over the last four years, as the sole of our shoes have collected a world of experiences, we all have become this place in rather perplexing ways, each one of us internalizing pieces of people and perspectives and the past that have transformed our outlook on the world— stockpiles that I hope will empower us to bring the best of Duke to our next port of call.
“She soon came to realize that if Duke were to dig a moat around its perimeter and fill that with water, it could be its own tiny island nation, like Cuba or maybe even Sri Lanka,” Parkash said, referring to herself in the third person. The name she coined for the imaginary country: “the Duke Nation.” In a statement sent Tuesday via a public relations firm, Parkash acknowledged the similarities between her speech and the 2014 Harvard address. “When I was asked to give the commencement speech, I was thrilled by such an honor and I sought advice from respected friends and family about topics I might address,”
agree that no American should be denied educational opportunities because of race.” The brief calls the Grutter case “a constitutional anomaly” and argues that race-conscious admissions policies “are untrue to the Constitution’s guarantee of equality under law.” “It flies in the face of decades of decisions holding that ‘racial discrimination in education violates a most fundamental national public policy, as well as rights of individuals,’” the lawmakers argue. The lawmakers called Harvard and UNC’s admissions practices “severely disappointing” and “part of a growing trend of laws and policies singling out Asian-Americans for special burdens.” “Race-conscious admissions decisions inflict a heavy toll on Asian-American students,” the brief reads. “Treating them differently because of their race is a stark departure from equal protection decisions issued early on by this Court.” “Asian-Americans are
...over the past four years, the skin of our feet collecting a world of experiences, we each become this place in a strange way, each of us picking up bits of people and history and ideas that changed the way we saw the world, accumulations I hope we will continue to wear on our "soles" and leave a footprintof all the best we took from Harvard Yard on our new destinations.
SEE SPEECH PAGE 5
Paul L. Choi ’86 to Lead Board of Overseers Newspaper Editors
Talk Digital Journalism
By CARA J. CHANG CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Paul L. Choi ’86, a lawyer with expertise in corporate governance, will serve as the president of Harvard’s Board of Overseers for the next year, the University announced Monday. Leslie P. Tolbert ’73, a neuroscience professor, will serve as vice president. The Board of Overseers — Harvard’s second-highest governing body — consists of 30 alumni who provide input on the direction of the school, advise top administrators, and approve certain actions by the Harvard Corporation. Choi and Tolbert were elected to the board in 2017 and will lead the body in the final year of their six-year terms. The announcement comes in the middle of voting for new Board of Overseers members. Nine Harvard alumni are vying for six vacancies. Barring those already serving in University governance, all Harvard degree holders who received their degrees by Jan. 1 can vote. Voting closes May 17. Six candidates were endorsed by the Coalition for a Diverse Harvard, a network of Harvard affiliates dedicated to increasing diversity and pro-
By MILES J. HERSZENHORN
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Harvard Today 2
CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Top newspaper editors at daily regional news outlets discussed the shift to digital journalism and the business challenges they face at a panel hosted by the Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy on Tuesday. Jennifer Preston, a Shorenstein Center senior fellow, moderated the virtual panel discussion which featured Brian McGrory, editor of the Boston Globe; Suki Dardarian, editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune; Gabriel Escobar, editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer; Michele M. Flores, executive editor of the Seattle Times; and Mizell Stewart III, vice president of Gannett and the USA TODAY Network. McGrory said local newspapers were forced to “rebuild a new business model on the fly and newsrooms have had to be more in sync with the business sides of all our news organizations” than ever before because of the collapse of the traditional model. “For the first time in modern journalism, the journalism that people read is more reliant
Paul L. Choi ’86 COURTESY ROSE LINCOLN/HARVARD UNIVERSITY
moting equity at the University. After graduating from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Choi went on to clerk at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Today, he is a partner at Sidley Austin, an international law firm, where he is a global cohead of its mergers and acquisitions practice and a member of the firm’s executive committee. As a member of the Board of Overseers, Choi serves on
News 3
Editorial 4
Leslie P. Tolbert ’73 COURTESY HARVARD UNIVERSITY
several internal committees, including the body’s executive committee, institutional policy committee, and working group on elections. Choi has also served or is serving on visiting committees — groups of experts and alumni tasked with assessing schools and departments — across the University. Before joining University governance, Choi served as president of the Harvard Alum-
Sports 6
ni Association from 2015-2016 and sits on the dean’s leadership council at the Law School. “It’s a tremendous honor and privilege to be elected as president of the Board of Overseers and to have the opportunity to serve the University and my fellow board members in this new role,” Choi said in an interview with The Harvard Gazette, a
SEE OVERSEERS PAGE 5
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLOUDY High: 53 Low: 50
on the actual readers for revenue than ever before,” he said. “We used to be more reliant on advertising revenue, and subscriptions were almost just kind of icing on the cake.” According to McGrory, the Globe “can no longer afford to be the paper of record.” “We need to be the paper of interest,” he said. “There’s incredible competition for people’s time, and their pocketbooks, and their attention.” “If the Globe is not interesting, searingly relevant, provocative on a day-to-day basis,” McGrory warned, “we’re simply not going to survive as a news organization.” Stewart said Gannett, his media company, is “focused squarely on accelerating the growth of digital-only subscribers.” “We’ve been working to do that by focusing on the kind of local journalism that readers value: unique and exclusive storytelling, with an emphasis on enterprise and investigative work,” Stewart said. The Seattle Times also significantly depends on its readership, with 70 percent of its
SEE JOURNALISM PAGE 5
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4NEs
THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
MAY 11, 2022
PAGE 2
HARVARD TODAY
For Lunch Pad Thai with Egg Popcorn Chicken Miso Eggplant
For Dinner Fish with Lemon Crumb Spicy Honey Chicken Vegan Enchiladas
TODAY’S EVENTS Arctic Ocean Governance: Cooperation After Conflict? Harvard Kennedy School, 3:30 p.m.5 p.m.
IN THE REAL WORLD Musk says he would reverse Twitter ban on Donald Trump
Panelists will discuss the future of international cooperation in the Arctic following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Billionaire Elon Musk — the world’s richest person, who recently secured a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter Inc. — promised to reverse Twitter’s ban on former U.S. President Donald J. Trump once he takes over the social media platform. Trump previously said he will not return to Twitter.
Is Jesus Kinda Hot Virtual, 7 p.m.- 8:30 p.m. Journalist Phillip Picardi will discuss his Master of Religion and Public Life project which centered on writing his forthcoming memoir “Is Jesus Kinda Hot.” How and Where to Publish Your Data Virtual, 3 p.m.-3:30 p.m. Using hands-on experience, Harvard Library instructors will advise participants on how to prepare data and metadata for sharing, as well as the role and use of data repositories in a larger data-sharing landscape.
House approves nearly $40 billion in aid to Ukraine as it fights off Russian aggression
Students and visitors walk through the Yard on a warm Tuesday. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
AROUND THE IVIES YALE: Students protest draft decision overturning Roe V. Wade —THE YALE DAILY NEWS DARTMOUTH: Pride 2022 celebrates intersectionality within LGBTQ+ community—THE DARTHMOUTH
COLUMBIA: Pushback mounts ahead of restructuring vote —THE COLUMBIA SPECTATOR
In the third month of Russia’s invasion, the U.S. House of Representatives approved almost $40 billion in additional aid for Ukraine — $7 billion more than President Joe Biden requested. The package includes military, economic, and humanitarian measures. It passed the House 368-57.
Abortion protests: Security tightened around court justices
After a draft majority opinion suggesting the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked, sparking protests across the country, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bill that would provide police protection to the immediate families of the nine justices and other officers of the court, if deemed necessary by the U.S. Marshals Service.
CORNELL: Starbucks unionization: Baristas behind that first sip feeling —THE CORNELL DAILY SUN
COVID UPDATES
LAST 7 DAYS CURRENTLY
CAMPUS
347 In Isolation
542 3.38% Total New Cases
Positivity Rate
LAST 7 DAYS
CAMBRIDGE
955 4.65% 77%
Total New Cases
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Fully Vaccinated
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY More Than 1000 From Harvard Lobby in Congress Against War
Harvard affiliates met with almost 40 senators and more than 100 congressmen while lobbying for an immediate end to the war in Southeast Asia. Organized by Harvard Peace Action Strike, the lobbying effort included picketing outside Henry Kissinger’s home and calls for congressmen to vote for anti-war motions. May 11, 1970
UC Passes Bill to Up Number of Reps
The Undergraduate Council passed an act increasing the number of its representatives from 35 to 51. It raised the number of representatives per “district” — upperclassmen Houses and clusters of freshman dorms — from two to three. May 11, 2009
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
Night Editor Alex M. Koller ’22-23
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
Assistant Night Editors Cara J. Chang ’24 Miles J. Herszenhorn ’25 Paton D. Roberts ’25 Eric Yan ’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
Story Editors Jasper G. Goodman ’23 Kelsey J. Griffin ’23 Natalie L. Kahn ’23 Taylor C. Peterman ’23-’24 Kevin A. Simauchi ’21-’22
Design Editors Camille G. Caldera ’22 Madison A. Shirazi ’23 Photo Editor Addison Y. Liu ’25 Editorial Editor Guillermo S. Hava ’23-’24 Sports Editor Thomas G. Harris ’25
CORRECTIONS Copyright 2022, The Harvard Crimson (USPS 236-560). No articles, editorials, cartoons or any part thereof appearing in The Crimson may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the President. The Associated Press holds the right to reprint any materials published in The Crimson. The Crimson is a non-profit, independent corporation, founded in 1873 and incorporated in 1967. Second-class postage paid in Boston, Massachusetts. Published Monday through Friday except holidays and during vacations, three times weekly during reading and exam periods by The Harvard Crimson Inc., 14 Plympton St., Cambridge, Mass. 02138 Weather icons made by Freepik, Yannick, Situ Herrera, OCHA, SimpleIcon, Catalin Fertu from flaticon.com is licensed by CC BY 3.0.
The May 9 story “Crimson Faces Backlash for Editorial Supporting BDS” incorrectly stated a letter to the editor by former Crimson President Ira E. Stoll ’94 said alumni of the newspaper should withhold donations in light of an April 29 staff editorial. In fact, the letter said alumni “may ask ourselves” why they would support the newspaper in light of the editorial, but did not call on others to stop donating.
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THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
MAY 11, 2022
SPEECH FROM PAGE 1
Duke Graduation Speech Resembles Harvard Address Parkash wrote. “I was embarrassed and confused to find out too late that some of the suggested passages were taken from a recent commencement speech at another university. I take full responsibility for this oversight and I regret if this incident has in any way distracted from the accomplishments of the Duke class of 2022.” Abushaar’s Harvard speech came on the heels of the Arab Spring, a series of pro-democracy uprisings that took place in the Middle East and North Africa between 2010 and 2013. In a statement to The Crimson on Tuesday night, Abushaar wrote that she hopes the incident can be a learning opportunity for Parkash. “The goal of my address was to inspire young people, and especially young women, from all backgrounds to break barriers in striving for their aims and to have the courage to use their voices to share their stories and serve as forces of good,” she wrote. “I hope that this incident was a serious error in judgment and that the student can take this opportunity to learn and grow from it.” Throughout the speech, Parkash used language and rhetoric that appears to have been pulled directly from Abushaar’s 2014 remarks at Harvard.In Abushaar’s “Harvard Nation,” the iconic John Harvard Statue was the Statue of Liberty. The Harvard Alumni Association was its tax collection agency. The University’s endowment, Abushaar quipped during the address, was larger than the gross domestic product of more than half the world’s countries. Parkash’s description of the
“Duke Nation” was strikingly similar: She compared the James Buchanan Duke Statue — which sits in front of the school’s chapel — to Christ the Redeemer in Brazil. The tax collection agency, she said, was the Duke Alumni Association. And she noted that Duke’s $12.7 billion endowment is larger than the GDP of one-third of the world’s countries. Both speakers referred to “diplomatic passports” from their schools that helped them get through U.S. immigration. “I would be sure to raid the Duke store like our overly enthusiastic Duke moms and dads sitting here today,” Parkash said. “We’re talking Duke cap, Duke sweatshirt, Duke sweatpants, Duke sunglasses, Duke slides, and even Duke underwear.” “I made sure I dressed like our overly proud Harvard dads, with Harvard hat, Harvard shirt, Harvard shorts, and Harvard underwear,” Abushaar said in 2014. After dressing in college gear, each speaker said they were no longer seen as a “national security threat.” Once making it past immigration, “suddenly all the gates to the American Dream opened wide,” Abushaar said in 2014. For Parkash, “the doors to this whole new world of possibilities flung wide open.” The similarities did not end there. “Over the past four years, the skin of our feet collecting a world of experiences, we each become this place in a strange way, each of us picking up bits of people and history and ideas that changed the way we saw the world,” Abushaar contin-
Duke University’s student speaker, Priya Parkash, delivered her speech at Sunday’s Commencement ceremony. PHOTO COURTESY REBECCA SCHNEID/THE DUKE CHRONICLE
ued in her 2014 speech, which has garnered 3.8 million views on YouTube. Eight years later, Parkash described her peers’ growth throughout college with a similar metaphor. “Over the last four years, as the sole of our shoes have collected a world of experiences, we all have become this place in rather perplexing ways, each one of us internalizing pieces of people, perspectives, and the past, all of which have transformed our outlook on the world,” Parkash said.
Abushaar said she saw the “Harvard Nation” in “the invisible institutions — the invisible scaffolds around and undergirding the hard institutions.” On Sunday, Parkash said: “Soon the overtly visible, the concrete institutions, melted into the background and the unseen wiring that holds our school together began to scream out loud.” The “invisible institutions” Abushaar described in 2014 included the “quarreling columns of The Crimson” and their “potency to propel policy changes.”
Parkash pointed to the “dissenting opinion pieces of the Duke Chronicle, ripe with the potency to make you rethink your beliefs.” Parkash said her “cluttered inbox” was “a testament to the beating heart of my Duke citizens” — similar to the way in which Abushaar said she saw “a heartbeat of civic community’s vivacity” in Harvard’s “cluttered bulletin boards” eight years earlier.The transcript of Parkash’s speech was taken down from the website of Duke Today, a publication run by the
school, on Tuesday. Duke spokesperson Michael J. Schoenfeld wrote in a statement that the university has “initiated a process to understand the facts of the situation.” “We are aware of and concerned about these allegations,” Schoenfeld wrote. “Duke University expects all students to abide by their commitment to the Duke Community Standard in everything they do as students,” he added. viv.lu@thecrimson.com leah.teichholtz@thecrimson.com
SAFETY FROM PAGE 1
SFFA FROM PAGE 1
Cambridge Advances $3M Safety Department Proposal
81 Republican Lawmakers File Amicus Brief Supporting SFFA
services.” Christina Giacobbe, who directs Cambridge’s emergency communications, said the Holistic Emergency Alternative Response Team — a resident-led public safety alternative — could be one of the organizations the CDS partners with. “We hope HEART will work with us and we believe that we’re getting close to really understanding each other,” Giacobbe said. HEART spokesperson Stephanie Guirand said the organization has concerns about how CSD will function in practice, citing CDS’s proposed six-member staff. “We’re still very much unclear as to what it is this department will do,” Guirand said. “If four to six people can receive 10 percent of 911 calls, then we have to wonder why the city has increased the police budget, and why the police has such a large force in the first place.”
increasingly victimized by discriminatory practices,” it continues. Harvard denies the claims. On its website, the school notes that 23 percent of the admitted class of 2022 were Asian American — a figure that has grown since 2010. In a statement after SFFA filed its first major brief with the Supreme Court since the case was taken up, Harvard spokesperson Rachael Dane wrote that the school “will continue to vigorously defend its admissions practices.” “More than 40 years of Supreme Court precedent have held that race can be one of many factors considered in college admissions, recognizing the importance of these policies to create diverse educational communities that benefit all students,” she wrote at that time. “In an increasingly diverse workplace and world, colleges
The proposed 2023 budget for the Cambridge Police Department increased by nearly 7 percent, from approximately $69 million to more than $73 million. While HEART explicitly does not coordinate with the police, CSD would have access to police radios and may relay calls to the Cambridge Police Department. In an interview, City Councilor Quinton Y. Zondervan said the CSD’s collaboration with police is “exactly why [the proposal] is not good enough,” adding that “what we really want is a HEART model.” McGovern said he understood why some residents would prefer emergency response help outside of the city government given CDS’s coordination with the police. “It’s a government department — no matter where they’re housed, no matter where they sit, there are some people that
aren’t going to want to deal with that, and they should have another response,” he said. “HEART could be another response.” McGovern added that the city does not see the HEART proposal as mutually exclusive with the new department, and that Cambridge has sufficient financial resources to support both initiatives. City Councilor E. Denise Simmons said at the meeting that she was also optimistic about the future of CSD and its new approach to community safety. “It was a pleasure to do this groundbreaking work on behalf of the city and its citizens,” Simmons said. “It was truly a collaborative, engaged process and I look forward to seeing its outcome,” she added. sarah.girma@thecrimson.com brandon.kingdollar@thecrimson.com
must have the ability to create diverse learning communities needed to prepare students to succeed,” she added. Dane declined to comment on the amicus briefs. SFFA first sued Harvard in 2014, alleging that the College’s race-conscious admissions process violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits institutions that receive federal funds from discriminating “on the grounds of race, color, or national origin.” Two lower courts previously ruled in Harvard’s favor before SFFA appealed the case to the Supreme Court, which agreed in January to take up the lawsuit alongside a similar one against UNC. The brief argued that the Supreme Court has explicitly banned racial discrimination in K-12 schools and institutions of higher education must be held to the same standards. “The same degree of clarity
has eluded the Court in its consideration of race-conscious admissions policies in higher education,” the brief reads. The inclusion of the UNC suit also introduces the question of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution since UNC is a public institution. “If Grutter is overruled, as we urge, then the Equal Protection Clause would disallow the supposedly ‘holistic’ use of race in college admissions,” the brief reads. More than 30 other entities also filed supporting briefs by deadline on Monday, including the states of Texas and Oklahoma and former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III. Harvard and UNC’s responses to SFFA are due to the Supreme Court by July 25. rahem.hamid@thecrimson.com nia.orakwue@thecrimson.com
Harvard, 24/7.
The Crimson thecrimson.com
THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
MAY 11, 2022
PAGE 4
EDITORIAL OP-ED
OP-ED
Balancing the Story of Harvard and Slavery By DAVID E. KAISER
H
arvard University recently released a report on its “entanglements with slavery” and announced the establishment of a $100 million fund to research and redress its historic ties to that abominable institution. The report, “Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery,” identifies more than 70 slaves owned by Harvard faculty and staff before abolition in 1783, various donors who had made money from slavery, and various faculty members and administrators of the past who held racist views. But the report gives much less attention to the ways in which Harvard graduates, faculty, and staff contributed to the end of slavery and to racial progress since the Civil War. As a Harvard-trained historian and former faculty member, I find this imbalance disturbing. The report does discuss the prominent antebellum abolitionists who had graduated from Harvard or worked there, but it spends far more time listing selected Harvard affiliates who owned slaves before 1783, when Massachusetts abolished the institution. As the data in the report shows, Harvard men favored the Union over the Confederacy by a wide margin during the Civil War. Union soldiers from Harvard outnumbered Confederates by 1,358 to 304, and 176 Union soldiers died, compared to 70 Confederates. The report does not mention that the builders of Memorial Hall, where the names of the Harvard Union dead are honored, did not memorialize those 70 graduates, presumably because they were traitors who had fought to destroy the Union and preserve slavery. The sum of dead Confederate soldiers from Harvard and the report-mentioned Harvard faculty and staff who owned a confirmed total of 70 slaves before 1783 falls considerably short of the total of Union dead from Harvard, to say nothing of the larger number who fought and survived. Many Harvard graduates, who byand-large go unrecognized in the re-
port, played critical roles in anti-slavery politics. John Quincy Adams, Class of 1787, became the leading enemy of slavery in Congress after his presidency and waged a successful campaign to end the gag rule against discussion of slavery on the floor of the House. He also suggested the usage of war powers to emancipate the slaves if Southern states seceded. Supreme Court Justice Benjamin R. Curtis, Class of 1829, who graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, wrote a scathing dissent in the 1857 Dred Scott case that upheld slavery and claimed that Black people could never be U.S. citizens. Charles Sumner, Class of 1830, receives a few mentions in the report, but he was one of the leading abolitionists in the Senate in the late 1850s (and was nearly murdered because of it). He later played a critical role in drafting and promoting Reconstruction legislation and constitutional amendments to give freed slaves equal rights. While the report closely examines the role of Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Class of 1829, in the expulsion of Black students and promotion of race science within the University as Dean of Harvard Medical School, it says nothing about his son Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Class of 1861. The younger Holmes graduated from Harvard College in 1861 and immediately volunteered for the Union Army, in which he survived three wounds. Later, as a Supreme Court Justice, Holmes wrote some of the first court opinions protecting civil rights in the South. His 1927 majority opinion in Nixon v. Herndon attempted to outlaw whites-only primaries in Texas. In Moore v. Dempsey (1923), he led the court in throwing out a murder conviction of five Arkansas men on the grounds that the whole proceeding had taken place in an atmosphere of racist intimidation. The report also omits critical contributions to racial progress from some of Harvard’s most famous alumni. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Class of 1903, made vital contributions to Black American progress. Roosevelt’s New
Deal provided critical economic help to Black Americans, and his wartime Fair Employment Practices Commission ensured that they received a fair share of jobs in defense plants. The success of the New Deal in fostering racial progress is evident in the bulk of Black voters who shifted from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party as a result. Three administrations later, John F. Kennedy ’40 used federal troops to integrate two Southern universities. In June of 1963, his last year of office, he introduced what became the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the wake of his death. Similarly, the report points out that Charles Hamilton Houston, the Howard Law School dean who trained Thurgood Marshall and helped design the strategy that led to Brown v. Board of Education, received his law degree from Harvard, as did two of Marshall’s fellow attorneys in that case, William H. Hastie Jr. and William T. Coleman Jr. — but it does not mention that Felix Frankfurter, a graduate and former faculty member at Harvard Law School, sat on the court that handed down that unanimous decision. Much of this abolitionist and civil rights history is familiar, or ought to be. But it is in danger of being subsumed by modern efforts to recast history with a blinkered reading of the past. Whatever their intention, the distinguished academics who signed the Harvard report contributed to the now-popular image of the racial history of the United States: an unremitting struggle between racist whites and oppressed nonwhites. Both white and Black Americans have been fighting for racial equality at least since the time of the American Revolution — which is why we no longer have slavery and legal segregation in the United States. Today’s popular one-sided view is effective propaganda, but terrible history.
—Nadine S. Bahour ’22, a Neurosciences concentrator in Leverett House, was co-president of the Palestinian Solidarity Committee.
— Phoebe Barr ’23-’24 is a History and Literature concentrator in Lowell House and an organizer with Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard.
I Am Palestinian and I Stand With The Crimson
F
or the first time at Harvard, I feel heard as a Palestinian. When The Crimson Editorial Board published their unequivocal backing of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions of Israel, I felt that a milestone had been reached. For years, organizers with the Harvard College Palestine Solidarity Committee and its divestment campaign have hosted speaker events, held rallies, and called for boycotts. Our mission has always been simple: supporting the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, justice, and equality. Too often, unfortunately, this organizing attracts backlash, hate, and relentless smear campaigns, the intent of which is to deny the reality of lived Palestinian experience and silence voices. This year’s Board has shown us that our work is being seen. Our voices are being heard. Now, it is time for wider action from the Harvard community. PSC members have persevered despite the constant backlash, institutionally-backed opposition, and threats. I will not shy away from the fact that these challenges frequently came from The Crimson itself. On some occasions, we struggled to guarantee representative reporting. On others, members voiced their distress that they were denied the right to publish anonymously as supporting Palestine publicly can lead to online harassment, a profile on websites like Canary Mission, or the blatant label of antisemitism. But today, I am proud to be at Harvard during this time. I am proud that The Crimson Editorial Board is listening to our voices. They were brave enough to stand for justice. Their support of BDS is a defiant recognition of Israel’s crimes against humanity. They finally listened to what Palestinians, including those at Harvard, have been calling for for de-
H
ian humanity and human rights are up for debate; they proudly stand behind an apartheid system. All this does is fuel us to speak louder. They will push back. They will slander. They will intimidate. We will organize. We will boycott. We will hold our ground. Why? Because our morals compel us to take this stand. Because the tide is changing on campus. Because we cannot be silent about human rights abuses. There are still those members of our community who feel it’s “too complicated” to take a stand. I say to those people as they waver on the fence to open their eyes to the brutal apartheid regime that Palestinians live under. I admire the courage of the students who decided to take a stance this semester and boycott Israel Trek. You have shown Harvard that BDS has an impact. You are proof that we can and must fight injustice at every point we confront in the world. You do not need to see it or experience it to understand it. A significant milestone it may be, but this is merely one stop in a long struggle toward freedom. Calls for divestment are not attempts to politicize a ‘neutral’ institution. This institution has never been neutral. The decision to invest in fossil fuels, prisons, and Israeli apartheid were politicized decisions. Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine demands the University rectify that decision. We will continue to demand that the University disclose its direct and indirect investments in companies complicit in human rights abuses towards Palestinians; divest such holdings; and reinvest in Palestinian history, culture, and communities. You should too.
—David E. Kaiser ’69 is a historian and former assistant professor in the Harvard University Department of History from 1976 to 1980.
OP-ED
cades. As expected, The Crimson has been inundated with immense opposition. This opposition is all too familiar to PSC members and social justice activists. The uncomfortable truth is that people don’t like to be called out for excusing apartheid. There will always be those who treat Palestine as an exception; there will always be those who refuse to admit the reality which is only now coming to be seen as truth: that Palestinians live under apartheid. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are typically considered credible sources. When it comes to Palestine, however, it seems that their readers throw their credibility out the window. Even the reports of leading Israeli organizations like B’tselem and Yesh Din have fallen on deaf ears. People simply refuse to confront the blatant facts that stare them dead in the eye. Why? Because to do so means confronting the reality that the narrative they cherish so dearly is a reality of what U.N. human rights investigators have deemed ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.Protesting and speaking up are encouraged until the moment you mention Palestine. Then you must stay silent. Boycott and divestment are effective tools for achieving political liberation until you apply them to Palestine. Then you aren’t being ‘nuanced’ enough. The Board put it best: “Israel remains America’s favorite first amendment blindspot.” Must the world always be this way? No. The time for change is here, human rights are not complicated. There are no preconditions for ending apartheid. There is no exception. There is no inconvenient time to call for the liberation of a suffering people. We will not stop advocating for justice no matter who stands against us. Some loud, powerful, and influential voices on campus believe that Palestin-
By PHOEBE G. BARR
arvard’s connections to the fossil fuel industry run deep. From the academic programs awash in fossil fuel conflicts of interest, to the University leaders who sit on the boards of major oil companies, to the Harvard Corporation’s decade-long refusal to divest from fossil fuels, Harvard has consistently put profit over its community. Last September, Harvard finally made a public commitment to do better — to eventually divest its endowment from the companies that are burning our planet — a step that came after 10 years of tireless community organizing and that had an avalanche effect of other schools committing to the same in the months that followed. But this “better” is only a start. If Harvard is serious about its future as a climate leader — and the future of the students it was built to care for — it must go further, and remove oil and gas profiteers like David M. Rubenstein from its governing bodies. Rubenstein is a Wall Street billionaire who has served as a member of the Harvard Corporation since 2017. Since 1987, he has earned enormous profits from the private equity firm he co-founded and co-chairs: The Carlyle Group, which invests heavily in the fossil fuel industry. The Carlyle Group’s portfolio contains more than 70 fossil fuel companies, including some of the worst private oil companies in America. It is a firm that fuels the climate crisis, pollutes and victimizes poor and vulnerable communities, and profits off it all. The Private Equity Stakeholder Project and LittleSis have recently released a report that details The Carlyle Group’s dirtiest partnerships. One is Hilcorp Energy, which The Carlyle Group helped in gobbling up Southwestern fossil fuel assets. Hilcorp is known for massive methane emissions. Methane can have over 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide, and Hilcorp emits more even than a giant like ExxonMobil. Another partnership is with NGP Energy Capital, a firm based in Texas which also has dozens of fossil fuel companies in its portfolio. These companies include Colgate Energy, a polluter of Texas communities that contain disproportionately low-income and Latino people, and Steward Energy, another prime offender with regard to methane emissions. The Philadelphia Energy Solutions oil refinery has Carlyle’s name on it as well. PES dumped toxic air into the Grays Ferry neighborhood of South Philadelphia, a predominantly Black neighborhood. Carlyle loaded PES with debt and extracted enormous payouts that contributed to the refinery’s 2018 bankruptcy. Yet Rubenstein retains his place in the Harvard Corporation, even as his personal financial interests harm Harvard’s own institutional priorities. Such conflicts may weaken the University’s ability to protect its portfolio and fulfill its fiduciary duties while following through with divestment. They might endanger the academic integrity of Harvard’s climate science research and stall the environmental solutions our world sorely needs from leading institutions like Harvard. Moreover, the University simply should not be burnishing the reputations of powerful and wealthy individuals who remain committed to fossil fuels. Harvard claims it is dedicated to a sustainable and just future — without a doubt, it has the potential for amazing leadership in that field. With the prestige of Harvard’s governing bodies, the talent within its research institutions, and the vast amounts of money at its disposal, Harvard has the ability to make the world better. However, the commitments of Harvard and Rubenstein cannot coexist. Rubenstein features his Harvard Corporation membership prominently in his many biographical sketches. Harvard must not continue giving its prestige and its power to someone working toward climate destruction. This call does not come only from Harvard. Rubenstein has a long record of trying to depict himself as a patron of arts and culture to distract from his dangerous record: Aside from serving as a Harvard trustee, Rubenstein also serves as Chairman of Boards of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Economic Club of Washington D.C., the National Gallery of Art, and the University of Chicago. Around the country, activists like the Cleanup Carlyle campaign are raising awareness about his hand in climate chaos — because so long as he puts his personal interests over those of his institutions and the planet, he shouldn’t be able to use these institutions’ names to cover up his profiteering from injustice. Here at Harvard, the call for Rubenstein is this: recuse or resign. Legal ethics 101 says he should have removed himself from votes within the Harvard Corporation that relate to the University’s response to the climate crisis years ago. If he can’t take this basic step now, he should immediately resign from the Harvard Corporation. It’s time for Harvard to do what it has promised: put people and the planet over profit.
Follow The Crimson Editorial Board on Twitter @crimsonopinion
By NADINE S. BAHOUR
If Harvard Wants to Lead on Climate, It Must Drop David Rubenstein
PAGE 5
THE HARVARD CRIMSON |
MAY 11, 2022
OVERSEERS FROM PAGE 1
JOURNALISM FROM PAGE 1
Paul L. Choi ’86 to Lead the Board of Overseers
Newspaper Editors Discuss Shift to Digital Journalism
publication overseen by the University’s public affairs department. After Tolbert graduated from Harvard College with honors, she earned a Ph.D. in anatomy from the University and continued research at Harvard Medical School and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Tolbert then left Cambridge for Washington D.C., where she joined the faculty at the Georgetown University School of medicine before later moving to the University of Arizona, where she is a professor emerita today. Tolbert’s research focuses on cellular and developmental neuroscience, namely the impact of sensory input on brain circuitry, the interactions of neurons and glial cells, and the development and plasticity of the olfactory system. She has also held leadership
revenue coming from subscribers, according to Flores. She said the coronavirus pandemic helped the Seattle Times increase its number of subscribers because “there was such a craving for news.” “We grew from like 48,000 digital subscriptions before the pandemic to over 80,000 now,” Flores said. Escobar, of the Philadelphia Inquirer, said that maintaining a print edition is “critical for us now, maybe actually too critical.” “We’re still publishing seven days a week,” he said. “The simple reason is that it’s still helping with the revenue.” Flores also attributed recent success at the Seattle Times to the newspaper’s “community funding” efforts. Philanthropic donors sup-
positions at the University of Arizona, including senior vice president for research, interim dean of the graduate college,
Paul has deep experience with the governance of complex organizations. Lawrence S. Bacow University President
and chair of the campus-wide committee on neuroscience. At Harvard, Tolbert serves on the executive board of the Board of Overseers and several other internal committees, including the committee on natural and applied sciences and visiting committee for the Har-
vard Library. Choi said he is “grateful to have Leslie Tolbert, a distinguished scientist and wonderful colleague, as a partner in leading the board.” University President Lawrence S. Bacow praised Choi and Tolbert to the Harvard Gazette. “Paul Choi and Leslie Tolbert have both served Harvard with uncommon devotion and distinction, especially during their past five years as Overseers,” he said. “Paul has deep experience with the governance of complex organizations, including Harvard, and a long record of leadership in alumni affairs. Leslie is a widely admired scientist, educator, and academic leader who has in recent years played a particularly valuable role in our visiting committee process.” cara.chang@thecrimson.com
The Harvard Crimson
@TheCrimson
@TheHarvardCrimson
@TheHarvardCrimson
port reporting teams covering mental health, homelessness, transportation, and education at the Seattle Times, according to Flores. When asked by Preston how the newspaper navigates the balance between the interests of its donors and its own impartiality, Flores said they are “really honest upfront about the need for us to maintain our independence.” “The only way we’ll succeed is if we have credibility and trust in all of our readers,” Flores said. “Almost all of the funders really get that.” “There have been a couple who said they got it, and it became clear down the road that they didn’t,” she added. “We’ve parted ways with those funders.” The panelists also discussed
how they moderate their online platforms’ comment sections, which can include offensive language. The Globe has “a lot of smart commenters,” but also “people who are there to vent in ways that are not reflective of larger life,” McGrory said. “There is an expectation — the small-d democratization of the news media — that people should have a say, and people do read these comments,” he said. Escobar said the Philadelphia Inquirer has stopped commenting altogether. Flores said the Seattle Times turns off comments on articles “of a sensitive nature.” “Sadly, people can’t behave on any story that has to do with race,” she said. miles.herszenhorn@thecrimson.com
From Weeks to Weld.
The Crimson thecrimson.com
SPORTS
WEEKLY RECAP
SCORES
MEN’S BASKETBALL VS. BU W, 18-17 ___________________________________________________________
WOMEN’S SWIMMING IVY LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHP 2ND ___________________________________________________________
WOMEN’S HEAVYWEIGHT CREW VS. YALE L ___________________________________________________________
GOLF VS. PRINCETON W ___________________________________________________________
FOOTBALL VS. UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT L, 42, 36 ___________________________________________________________
MEN’S WRESTLING VS. PENN STATE L, 42, 36 ___________________________________________________________
FENCING NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONSHIP 15TH ___________________________________________________________
MEN’S TENNIS
Harvard Falls Short of NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 By DAVID ALEY CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
No. 14 Harvard men’s tennis, who recently came off of an undefeated season in Ivy League play, an Ivy League Championship victory, and a first round win in the NCAA tournament to Monmouth, faced off against No. 18 Stanford in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Saturday, May 7, at the Murr Center in Cambridge, M.A. Knowing it was a win-orstay-home scenario, the Crimson stepped up to the plate, and while they failed to secure the team victory, they stayed in it until the very last point. Harvard entered into an immediate slugfest with the Cardinal in doubles play. Junior Steven Sun and No. 38 sophomore Henry von der Schulenburg first dropped on court three to a Stanford duo, while the No. 42 ranked duo of (individually ranked) No. 66 senior captain Brian Shi and first-year Daniel Milavsky took on the No. 41 ranked duo from Stanford in a back-and-forth fight. Shi noted that although this was one of their toughest doubles matches of the season, they stepped up to the plate and were able to deliver on everything they had been working toward. “Yeah honestly, I think that was one of the best matches we played all year,” the senior captain said. “They made some unbelievable shots but we knew as long as we kept our foot on the pedal and maintained that fire that we were eventually going to get a break, and eventually we did. That’s how college tennis works, in doubles it can be just one or two points that make the difference.” Shi and Milavsky closed out their match by a score of 7-5, leaving it to No. 60 junior Harry Walker and sophomore Ronan Jachuck to secure the doubles point. Walker and Jachuck faced off against even stiffer competi-
tion, the No. 25 ranked pair Arthur Fery and Alexandre Rotsaert, and found themselves similarly playing down to the wire. The ball failed to land consistently on the right side of the paint for the Crimson, though; Stanford closed it out with a 7-5 victory, snatching the doubles point from Harvard and putting them up 1-0 in the match. Being down a point after doubles was not a position that the Crimson had found itself in very much recently, as it secured the doubles point in seven of its previous eight team matches. Even so, it felt like the team was still in a good position to stay in the match and rebound. “Since this was such a big match, there was really no time to be down or discouraged,” Shi said. “I think we were all feeding off the energy from the crowd, so none of us were really that down; we were ready to move to singles.” After two sets, however, Harvard found itself in an even bigger hole, as Jachuck dropped his match on Court 4 to No. 78 Alexandre Rotsaert, 2-6, 0-6, putting Stanford’s lead to 2-0. Still, the energy in the Murr Center was changing. On all five other courts, the Crimson was up a set, and it seemed as though the momentum had shifted Harvard’s way. Just as quickly as Jachuck was defeated, No. 60 Walker took down No. 112 Axel Geller in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3. Walker’s emergence this season has been one of the many bright spots for the Crimson, and paved the way for the team’s tournament berth. Not long after, Milavsky took his opponent to set three, finishing his last set in dominant style, ending his match 6-1, 4-6, 6-0. Harvard was now back in it, having tied things up at 2-2. “It was encouraging to see on one court we won a big point and you hear the crowd and then feed off of that energy even
if you’re on the court over, and it goes all the way down, from court one to six,” Shi said. Von der Schulenburg subsequently followed up with a tough three-set loss to No. 15 Fery, 6-1, 3-6, 2-6, putting Stanford back up, 3-2. Then, the court became quiet enough to hear a pin drop. There was a feeling of desperation, but also exuberance and excitement that you could almost taste in the air; you could cut the tension with a knife. This was the scene near the end of the match. Deep into singles play, his back against the wall, knowing his team was down 2-3, Sun battled to the finish in the third set on court six. “When I looked over and saw [Sun] was closing in on the third set, honestly I knew he was going to win that,” Shi said. “The guy is so clutch, he’s put in so much work, he’s such a confident kid, and I absolutely knew he was gonna pull away. I kept seeing some insane points being played there, and so it was very motivating on my side of the coin.” After countless deuce points, it seemed as though neither Sun nor Stanford’s Timothy Sah would pull away. Yet the junior kept fighting, eventually closing out his match with a final score of 6-4, 3-6, 7-5. Once Sun sealed it on the final point, the Murr Center erupted in a thunderous roar as the Crimson finally closed the gap in the overall team match and tied it up at 3-3. “That was one of the most amazing atmospheres I’ve ever seen at the Murr Center, and in all my four years I don’t think I’ve ever seen the courts that packed and I don’t think I’ve ever heard it that loud,” Shi said. After Sun’s match, the lone ongoing match was between Shi and No. 80 Max Basing. As in the Ivy League Championship match, the senior found the team’s fate once again resting on his shoulders. Shi and Basing were dead-
EYE ON THE BALL Harvard Men’s tennis faced Princeton on April 16, 2022. They Played the second round of the NCAA tournament against No.18 Stanford in Cambridge, MA. DYLAN J. GOODMAN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
even after two sets, trading identical blows and each securing a 6-4 set victory. Almost every point was a grueling rally for both players, as neither were making many unforced errors. And by the end of the second set, the exhaustion was starting to set in for the senior captain. “After I dropped the second set, I went up to [Coach Andrew Rueb] and was like, ‘Coach, I think I’m starting to cramp up a bit, I can feel it in my legs,’” Shi said. “It was strange because in my head and my heart I felt like I could go forever, but my body was starting to give up on me.” Despite his ailments, the senior did not back down. In fact, as he noted, he started playing even harder in the third set, hitting the ball with more force and going for bigger shots, in part because he wanted to avoid longer rallies, but perhaps even more because this might have been his final tennis match of his collegiate career. The strategy was working for Shi, as he found himself up 5-3 in the set, on the verge of sealing his match and securing a spot for Harvard in the Sweet
16 of the tournament. But, the senior lost multiple match points, allowing Basing to even the set once again. Basing then took a small lead, and then after the longest and perhaps most spectacular rally of the entire match, Shi went down with what looked to be a lower leg injury. After a few minutes, Shi got back on his feet, although this time with a noticeable limp. To finish the match he would need to play completely handicapped. “I think if you’re that close to finishing, I just had to do it for myself and for my teammates, to prove what I had in me,” the senior captain said. “It was obviously very difficult and hard to accept that that was how it was gonna end, but honestly I’m proud of myself for getting up there and actually leaving it all on the court.” Shi gutted out the last few points, as Basing took advantage of Shi’s present immobility and closed it out to win the overall match for Stanford, 4-3. Shi hung his head in disappointment, but was quickly embraced by all of his teammates and
coaches, once again reminding him of the amazing season he had just been a part of. “It’s been incredible, I wouldn’t have traded this experience for any other in the world,” Shi said. “Through the good times, and the bad times, the guys have always been there for me, the coaches have always believed in me, and I think that has helped me so much in becoming the person I am today. While the season did not end the way it had hoped, the Crimson built a foundation for success that will surely last for years to come; as Shi notes, he is the sole graduating senior and all other five starters, in addition to new recruits, will hold the helm next season. There are feelings of hope, energy, and excitement in the program that Shi remarks will no doubt lead to big things. “I’m very, very grateful that I’ve been a part of this journey, and it really is not the end for these guys,” the captain said. “I’m so hyped to see where they go in the next few years.” david.aley@thecrimson.com
TRACK AND FIELD
Crimson Claims 10 Titles at Ivy League Outdoor Champs By WILLIAM CONNAUGHTON CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
This past weekend, the Harvard track and field team traveled to New Haven, Conn. to compete in the Ivy League Outdoor Heptagonal Championships for the first time since 2019. With ten individual titles, the men and women both finished second overall, marking a strong end to the team’s season. Following an indoor Heps win for the Harvard women and a second place finish for the men this past winter, both teams put up 136 points in the outdoor meet. For the men, the result represented the best place and point total since 1983, when they last won the outdoor Heps meet. The women’s strong
effort left them just one point shy of Penn, which scored 137 points behind dominant 200m, 400m, and 800m performances. On the first day of the meet, the weather was a factor; at 55 degrees and rainy, the conditions of the outdoor meet were atypically cool for the time of the year. The rain had stopped by the second day of the competition, but the temperature remained below 60 degrees. “The weather definitely wasn’t ideal going into the meet, but we tried to completely ignore that and focus on the aspects we could control,” noted junior co-captain Max Serrano-Wu on the weather. “We always try to be the best versions of ourselves on meet day, and I
think the boys did exactly that. We’ve been dealing with this all year in practice and competitions, so what was important for us was to stay focused and locked in.” The Crimson also adjusted by dressing in sweats during downtime to maintain warm muscles. This adjustment helped ensure athletes were ready when their races began. Nevertheless, weather does not discriminate, and every team had to push through despite the conditions. “The weather was a huge bummer, but we do our best not to let it change the way we perform. We just have to prepare differently so if that means bringing extra sweats or starting the warm up a little bit ear-
STRAIGHT TO THE FINISH LINE The Crimson competes in the Ivy and HBCU Meet on Dec. 4, 2021. This past weekend, it claimed ten individual titles in a second-place finish for both the men and the women at the Ivy League Championship. ANGELA DE LA CRUZ—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
ly so be it,” commented senior co-captain Jada Jones. “Especially when we remember that the elements are rough for everyone.” On the first day of the championships, Harvard captured four individual titles and set one school record. Leading the charge for the Crimson in the field was first-year Kenneth Ikeji, who broke his own school record in the hammer throw with a distance of 69.01m, nearly 10m clear of second place. Fellow first-year Izzy Goudros took the long jump with a personal best of 6.16m, just short of Harvard all-time record-holder Olympian Gabby Thomas ‘19. In addition, junior Kyle Murphy placed second in the long jump for the men, with a team season-best of 7.44m, just four centimeters short of first place. In the distance events, Harvard continued its dominance. Sophomore standout Acer Iverson and junior Iz Sagar won the 10k for the men and women, respectively. Iverson was neck-and-neck with teammate Matthew Pereira over the last three kilometers of the event, with Pereira finishing in second. Iverson crossed the line with a time of 29:16.31 and his teammate followed closely in 29:17.20. Sagar and junior Eloise Freitag broke off into the leading pack early in the event, with Sagar out-kicking a runner from Columbia to capture first with a time of 34:43.52. Freitag ended up in third, finishing in 34:57.42. On the second day of the championships, Harvard captured six more individual titles. Senior Sam Welsh set a school and Ivy League record in the discus with a throw of 63.26m, which earned him Most Outstanding Men’s Field Perform-
er of the event. In other field events, freshman Daniel Falode won the men’s triple jump with a personal-best distance of 15.83m. The Crimson also picked up a pair of second-place finishes in the shot put, with first-years Sarah Omoregie and Alexander Kolesnikoff’s throws of 14.89m and 18.37m, respectively. Finally, junior John Minicus set a personal best in the decathlon, placing in third with 6,552 points. In the long-distance events, Iverson continued his streak of strong performances, winning the 5k with a time of 13:56.53. Sophomore Maia Ramsden took the individual title in the women’s 1500m4:23.04, pulling away in the final stretch to cross the line in 4:23.04. Senior Anna Juul and first-year Marianne Mihas captured third and fourth in the 1500m, respectively. In addition, freshman Isabelle Goldstein had a standout performance in the 3000m steeplechase, placing second. In the short-distance events, Jones recorded her first outdoor individual title, winning the 100m hurdles with a time of 13.33 seconds. First-year Eden Finkelstein won the women’s 100m dash in 10.67 seconds, 0.24 seconds ahead of second place. Despite finishing in third, sophomore Lance Ward broke a 20-year-old school record in the 100m, with his 10.32 edging out Olympian Christopher Lambert ‘03 by 0.04 seconds. First-year Victoria Bossong placed second in the women’s 400m, 0.52 seconds out of first place. Finally, all of the Crimson relay teams finished in second in their events. In the women’s 4x100m, Bossong, sophomore Egbe Ndip-Agbor, Jones, and Finkelstein recorded a season-best 45.30 seconds.
For the men, senior DeMarkes Stradford, Ward, freshman Oliver Murko, and junior Marcus Miller finished 0.01 seconds ahead of third place with a time of 40.70 seconds. In the women’s 4x400m, Ndip-Agbor, Jones, sophomore Jada Johnson, and Bossong finished 0.31 seconds ahead of third place, and the four-man team of Ward, sophomore Greg Lapit, Murko, and sophomore Peter Diebold crossed the line with a season-best of 3:09.61. The strong performances by both teams at the Ivy League Outdoor Heptagonal Championships represented a culmination of a season of growth and development for the program. From the NCAA bid for the program at Cross Country Nationals to the Heps win for the women in the indoor track, the program has become not only a force in the Ivy League, but also a force in the broader collegiate landscape. “I’m really happy and proud of our performances this year. We finished second and scored the most points ever by a Harvard team at both the indoor Heps and outdoor Heps, besting previous Harvard teams which had won the championship. We’ve been on an upward trajectory since my freshman year and we want to keep this momentum going into next season,” Serrano-Wu noted. “I’m especially proud of our seniors who have been instrumental in turning our team around and promoting positive team culture throughout their time with Harvard Track and Field.” Following Heps, individual athletes will have the opportunity to compete at NCAA nationals, starting on May 26th. william.connaughton@thecrimson.com