The Harvard Crimson - Volume CXLIX, No. 65

The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873

|

VOLUME CXLIX, NO. 65

|

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

|

WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 2022

OP ED PAGE 8

NEWS PAGE 9

SPORTS PAGE 10

I am a Harvard Crimson editor and I stand with Israel

University CFO Tom Hollister says Harvard in ‘healthy’ financial state

Men’s lacrosse succumbs to Yale in heartbreaking overtime defeat

FAS Votes to End SFFA Submits Brief to Supreme Court Shopping Week

By RAHEM D. HAMID and NIA L. ORAKWUE CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

By ARIEL H. KIM and MEIMEI XU CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

­ arvard faculty voted narrowH ly to eliminate shopping week in favor of a previous-term course registration system on Tuesday, ending a decades-old scheduling quirk that allowed students to sample courses before enrolling during the first week of each semester.

More than 60 percent of faculty voted in favor of the previous-term registration system, which will require students to register for classes at the end of the previous semester, starting for Spring 2024. The vote comes despite organizing efforts from students and some high-profile professors who lobbied faculty to keep shopping week.

With the passage of the proposal on Tuesday, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences formed a committee of faculty, students, and administrators who will be tasked with crafting an implementation plan for the new system.

Under the newly-adopted

system, students will be able to add or drop courses without instructor approval during the first week of the semester.

Instructors will be required to prepare course material earlier.

In addition, student advising timelines will adjust to the new course registration schedule. The legislation also calls for “technological enhancements” to make Harvard’s course registration process smoother.

Faculty debated the new system for about one hour prior to the vote at Tuesday’s faculty meeting.

Bernhard Nickel, professor of Philosophy who chairs the FAS’ Committee on Course Registration, said prior to the vote on Tuesday that “nothing short of previous-term registration” will better allow undergraduates to explore their course options while providing them with “robust” advising.

“The case for previous-term registration is an educational case, first and foremost,” he said. “It is not an administrative

The group suing Harvard and the University of North Carolina over their race-conscious admissions practices asked the United States Supreme Court to ban affirmative action in American higher education in a brief filed Monday, calling on justices to overturn precedents that allow universities to consider race as a factor in admissions.

The court agreed in January to take up a pair of lawsuits filed by the anti-affirmative action group Students for Fair Admission that claim Harvard College and the University of North Carolina discriminate against Asian American applicants. SFFA’s Monday brief is the first major filing since the court announced it would take up the cases.

In the 99-page filing, SFFA called on justices to overturn Grutter v. Bollinger, the Supreme Court’s 2003 decision that said the University of Michigan Law School could consider race as a factor in its admission process.

SEE SHOPPING PAGE 7

SEE SFFA PAGE 9

The U.S. Supreme Court, pictured in December 2019, is located at One First Street NE in Washington, D.C., where it stands across from the U.S. Captiol. CAMILLE G. CALDERA—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Adams Removes Air Disinfection System BIDMC Postpones Panel After Backlash

By CHRISTINE MUI CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Last summer, as Harvard prepared to fully reopen its campus to students for the first time in more than a year, preventing the spread of Covid-19 was top of mind.

Harvard, after all, had kept most students off campus for the entire 2020-2021 academic year — a more conservative approach than many other schools in the Boston area — leaving affiliates unsure of what the return to campus would bring.

In July, as the new semester loomed, administrators in Adams House installed a set of air disinfection devices that appeared to be a part of the solution to preventing the spread of the virus in the house. The price tag was just shy of $9,000 — a reduced rate.

But the devices — which were installed in the house’s dining hall and lower common room — lasted just a few weeks.

In early December, Harvard removed them, following a recommendation from the University’s Coronavirus Advisory Group.

SEE ADAMS PAGE 7

By VIVI E. LU and LEAH J. TEICHHOLTZ CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Adams House is located at 26 Plympton Street. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

­ research center at the HarA vard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has postponed a panel on autism awareness after an undergraduate-authored petition garnered more than 1,400 signatures condemning the College for publicizing the event.

The petition, circulated widely on Change.org, calls on Harvard College to publicly “withdraw support” for an event titled “Autism Awareness: Thinking Outside the Box” hosted by the Sadhguru Center for a Conscious Planet — a multidisciplinary research center at the BIDMC, a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital. The authors of the petition alleged the College implicitly supported the event by including it in a Weekly Update email to undergraduates.

The event, described as a “multidisciplinary panel to explore Autism beyond conventions,” was set to feature nine speakers. After the petition was

circulated, the event listing for the panel, which was set to occur virtually last Wednesday, was taken down.

“One of the panel’s goals is to highlight methods of ‘treating’ Autism. This is not only violently ableist but scientifically incorrect,” the petition reads.

“Adding in phrases like ‘how to communicate’ and ‘savant autism’ in conjunction suggest an alien-like nature to Autistic people. We are human, too.”

In an emailed statement, a Sadhguru Center spokesperson apologized for “any unintended distress” due to the event and wrote that the Center postponed the panel after learning of the concerns in the petition.

“We are grateful to those who brought important aspects of the event to light and always intend for our actions to be respectful and inclusive,” the statement read. “We are pausing, deeply reflecting and learning before we consciously take next steps.”

Kristin B. King ’23-’24 authored and circulated the

SEE PETITION PAGE 9

Some Ivy Schools Have Stopped Publicizing Admissions Data

By RAHEM D. HAMID and NIA L. ORAKWUE CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

As acceptance rates to the country’s most selective universities fall to all-time lows each year, more elite schools have stopped promoting key admissions data, including acceptance numbers and demographic breakdowns.

This year, three Ivy League schools — the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, and Princeton — declined to release admissions data on the day acceptance letters were sent out, a trend Stanford started in 2018.

Cornell first stopped publicizing its data in 2020.

Schools are required by the federal government to report admissions data each year — but the numbers come out months after admissions decisions, buried in a Department of Education documents and Common INSIDE Harvard Today 2 THIS ISSUE

Data Set filings.

In August 2018, as future 2023 college graduates began filling out applications, Stanford University announced it would not publish its admissions data when decisions would be released. The year prior, the school’s acceptance rate was just 4.3 percent — the lowest in the country.

“The main result we observe is stories that aim to identify which universities experience the most demand and have the lowest admit rates,” Stanford Provost Persis Drell said in the 2018 announcement. “That is not a race we are interested in being a part of.”

Most of its peer institutions — including Harvard — initially declined to follow suit.

But two years later, Cornell announced it would also stop publicizing its data, beginning with the class of 2024, for which

Arts 3

News 7

it only published early decision numbers.

This year, two more Ivies — Princeton and Penn — followed.

Harvard has continued to release its admissions data — including this March, when the College accepted a record-low 3.19 percent of applicants.

Asked about the school’s policies, Harvard College spokesperson Rachael Dane wrote that the school has “made no decisions regarding sharing this information.”

Rationale Behind the Shift The elite institutions that have stopped publicizing data all cited the effect the numbers can have on prospective applicants, given increased selectivity.

SEE RATES PAGE 7

Editorial 8

Sports 10

CAMILLE G. CALDERA—CRIMSON DESIGNER

TODAY’S FORECAST

RAINY High: 54 Low: 48

VISIT THECRIMSON.COM. FOLLOW @THECRIMSON ON TWITTER.

lost

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

MAY 4, 2022

PAGE 2

HARVARD TODAY

For Lunch Spicy Chicken Stir-Fry Turkey Burger Quinoa and Tofu

For Dinner Locally Caught Fresh Fish Roast Beef Roasted Vegetable Vegan Ravioli

TODAY’S EVENTS 2023 Medical School Application Q&A 10 a.m.-1:00 a.m., Virtual

IN THE REAL WORLD

Join Harvard’s Office of Career Services virtually to ask questions about AMCAS, the application process, and more.

Antonio Delgado to Serve as New York Lt. Governor

New York Governor Kathy Hochul tapped U.S. Representative Antonio Delgado to serve as her lieutenant governor on Tuesday. Delgado will replace Brian Benjamin, who resigned last month. Delgado has served in Congress since 2019.

The Time of Slavery: History, Memory, Politics, and the Constitution 12 p.m., Virtual

Relax, Relate, and Exhale for Black Identified Undergraduate Students 2 p.m.-3:30 p.m.

In this affinity group Black Identified Students will have space to share, take care, and express black love, black joy, black power, and positivity. It will promote a space of affirmation and courage while acknowledging the need to navigate the demands of school, the particular stress of the pandemic, and social injustice.the ARC to learn how to read more efficiently and effectively.

PHOTOGRAPHER

JD Vance defeated Josh Mandel in a Republican primary for a U.S. Senate seat in Ohio on Tuesday. Vance authored the book “Hillbilly Elegy.” He will face U.S. Representative Tim Ryan in the general election in November.

AROUND THE IVIES

Norman Y. Mineta Dies at 90

People walk in front of Lamont Library on a sunny day in December. JULIAN J. JIORDANO—CRIMSON

YALE: Religious Group Facing “Cult” Allegations Looks To Recruit Members on Yale’s Campus

—THE YALE DAILY NEWS

COLUMBIA: Interschool Governing Board Contests University Senate’s Attempts to Depoliticize the Organization, Pause Elections and Activities —THE COLUMBIA

Former Congressman Norman Y. Mineta, who served 10 terms in Congress and in the Cabinets of Democrats and Republicans, died on Tuesday at his home in Maryland. He was 90.

SPECTATOR

CORNELL: Following Multiple Arson Incidents, Ganędago: Hall Ups Security

—THE

CORNELL DAILY SUN

DARTMOUTH: NFL Quarterback Russell Wilson to Speak at 2022 Commencement—THE DARTMOUTH

COVID UPDATES

CAMPUS LAST 7 DAYS CURRENTLY

Ariela Gross, a law professor at USC, who is writing a book that will look at the way the history and memory of slavery reverberate through law, culture, and politics will speak at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

JD Vance Wins Republican Nomination for Senate in Ohio

252 In Isolation

421 2.06% Total New Cases

Positivity Rate

LAST 7 DAYS

CAMBRIDGE

852 4.2% 77%

Total New Cases

Positivity Rate

Fully Vaccinated

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY Labyrinth Charms Passerby

Visual and Environmental Studies and Psychology and Social Relations concentrator Charles F. Kahn ‘77 constructed a maze in the Lowell House courtyard, saying that the maze was a “physical expression of the concepts” in his senior thesis.

May 3, 1977

RUS Proposes Changes in Women’s Health Care

The Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS) suggested changes to the University Health Services in response to the results of a questionnaire administered to Radcliffe students. RUS proposed adding a walk-in gynecological clinic and objective contraceptive counseling, addressing concerns of long waits for birth control appointments and heteronormatic assumptions in care.

May 3, 1977

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 Brie K. Buchanan ’22-’23 Assistant Night Editors Tracy Jiang ’24 Katherine M. Burstein ’25 Story Editors Jasper G. Goodman ’23 Kelsey J. Griffin ’23 Simon J. Levien ’23-’24 Taylor C. Peterman ’23-’24

Design Editors Camille G. Caldera ’22 Toby R. Ma ’24 Photo Editor Addison Y. Liu ’25 Editorial Editor Manny A. Yepes ’24 Sports Editor Mimi S. Koenig ’25 Caroline G. Gage ’25

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

PAGE 3

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

MAY 4, 2022

ARTS CAMPUS

CULTIVATING PUBLIC ART IN CAMBRIDGE: PIEDMONT’S SHADOW BOX

3

CAMPUS

Every inch of Harvard Square must be utilized for small businesses to remain profitable. However, within this bustling, commercial zone of Cambridge, there lies a hidden gem: public art.

‘THE HACIENDA’ REVIEW: A MULTI-LAYERED AND POWERFUL DEBUT

4

BOOKS

Cañas delivers a chilling and compelling story that melds a childhood fear of the dark with the impacts of colonialism and Catholicism in Mexico after the War of Independence.

Cultivating Public Art in Cambridge: Piedmont’s Shadow Box ALLISON S. PARK STAFF WRITER

4

‘AIN’T TOO PROUD’ REVIEW: A CAPTIVATING, TOO FAST-PACED MUSICAL

5

TOM ODELL BRINGS HEARTBREAK AND HEALING TO PARADISE ROCK CLUB

5

‘THE NORTHMAN’ REVIEW: A TEDIOUSLY STOIC ADAPTATION OF HAMLET

6

CONCERT ARCHIVES IS THE ‘GOODREADS’ CONCERT-LOVERS NEVER KNEW THEY NEEDED

6

SPANISH 150 STUDENTS CURATE EXHIBIT ON MIGRATION IN BOYLSTON HALL

THEATER

MUSIC

FILM

CULTURE

CAMPUS

“There is no progress without sacrifice” — these words, narrated by Otis Williams (Marcus Paul James), capture the very essence of the musical “Ain’t too Proud.”

But the intimacy that Odell crafted with his audience was not limited to his songs about heartbreak. Rather, it held steady even in his more upbeat, uplifting songs.

Although replete with all the dark moodiness and savagery one expects from an Eggers film, “The Northman” tragically fails to extract any deep emotional investment from its audience.

With a quick search of an artist’s name and city, users can find just about any concert you can imagine.

The exhibit attempts to parse through the perpetual “bombardment of images” we consume regarding migration, according to Raquel Vega-Durán, who chairs the Faculty Advisory Committee for Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights.

When one thinks of Harvard Square, familiar images come to mind: the flagship CVS, red bricks, blaring music, the laughter of college students, and, most notably, countless local businesses. In an area primarily serving college students, the rent for local businesses is quite high, meaning every inch of the square must be utilized for small businesses to remain profitable. Within this bustling, commercial zone of Cambridge, however, there lies a hidden gem: A small place for public art.

A recent initiative sponsored by Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. in collaboration with the Harvard Square Business Association (HSBA) and the Cambridge Art Community is promoting the development of community art in the square. About six months ago, Piedmont — a real estate company that owns One Brattle Square — reached out to Denise Jillson, the Executive Director of HSBA, in hopes of figuring out what to do with the deserted shadow box sitting on the property.

In an email interview with The Crimson, Dawn Gideon, the assistant property manager of Piedmont, said, “We were hoping she would have suggestions for filling the shadow box with something that would reflect the spirit of Harvard Square and the culture that surrounds this unique and vibrant community.”

Since HSBA’s mission is to promote commerce in Harvard Square while also serving as an honorable steward of the public space, Jillson had already been working on several initiatives regarding the enhancement of the pedestrian experience when Piedmont reached out. In fact, she had been working with local artists on bringing art to Palmer Street since last summer.

Jillson initially decorated the shadow box herself with simple holiday ornaments in December.

However, she eventually met local artist and mother Kyoko Ono through another public arts project in Cambridge and Ono was immediately interested in bringing her artwork to Piedmont’s shadow box.

“I used my pieces as an entryway, but I really wanted to promote art by artists who are not known,” said Ono. “There are opportunities where you can apply and get juried to show in an gallery or enter a grant and so forth, but there are juries, where you are judged… Especially during [the] pandemic, when we were all cooped up but could [still] go out and walk, I thought, wow, this is an opportunity where we can get more art out in[to] the public.”

Ono carefully curated an exhibition featuring her pottery in Piedmont’s shadow box, marking its first use by a local artist. Although the shadow box is a tiny space, it has the potential to be quite significant to the community.“Walking by the shadow box affords the passersby the chance to observe, reflect, and enjoy art created by members of our community. Art provides a chance to step away from politics, the office and assorted problems of the day!” said Gideon.

Ono holds a similar view to the role of art in the world. To her, art is about communication. “As small as this window may be, it’s a huge window… for us.

It’s like a window to connect with the public.”

In line with her initial mission to share the works of unknown artists with the community, Ono has now curated a new exhibition featuring the pottery of students of the Ceramics Program at the Office for the Arts at Harvard. This display is set to be at the shadow box until mid-May, and Ono is currently in the works to find a photographer to take creative control of the next exhibition at Piedmont’s shadow box.

The box joins other informal art projects nearby like the sculpture of a blue elephant named Michelle being displayed across the street from the shadow box in Elliot Triangle. Public art is a growing feature of Harvard Square. “[You can] look across the street at the beautiful elegance of pottery, and then you come here [to the elephant sculpture], and it’s elegance of a different sort,” said Jillson. “There’s something for everybody.”

Staff writer Alison S. Park can be reached at allison. park@thecrimson.com

Courtesy of Kyoko Ono

WA

04 May 2022 | Vol CXLIX, ISSUE 65 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 Ashley E. Bryant ’23

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

MAY 4, 2022

PAGE 4

BOOKS ‘The Hacienda’ Review: A Multi-Layered and Powerful Debut KIARA H. GOMEZ CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Courtesy of Kilian Blum

I

sabel Cañas’s debut horror novel, “The Hacienda,” explores more than just fear. The book follows Beatriz, a mestiza woman, and her fight to survive the haunted hacienda she has recently been charged with. In it, Cañas delivers a chilling and compelling story that melds a childhood fear of the dark with the impacts of colonialism and Catholicism in Mexico after the War of Independence.

After the death of her father, a general in the war, Beatriz and her mother are forced to live off the charity of a distant relative, smiling in high society with the men who killed her father for his allegiance to the ousted emperor. When Rodolfo Solórzano, a wealthy military man associated with the newly-created Provisional Government, takes an interest in Be-

atriz at a ball, she jumps at the chance to marry him despite her mother’s protests. Beatriz quickly realizes, however, that she is being watched, and the house she thought would save her might just kill her. To survive, she enlists the help of the only priest who will listen to her, Padre Andrés, but he, too, harbors dangerous secrets.

The forbidden romance that grows between Beatriz and Andrés begins quickly without falling into the trap of insta-love. Cañas starts it off as a crush, manifesting in Andrés’s warm acquiescence to Beatriz’s plea for help despite his need to keep his identity as a witch hidden from the other priests.

Cañas then builds Beatriz and Andrés’s attraction into something sturdy and well-balanced through their moments facing

the house’s horrors together.

Cañas’s storytelling can be described as thoughtful and deliberate, complimented by prose that can either pack a punch or soothe an ache depending on the scene’s needs. While the identity of one of the novel’s villains is almost too obvious early in the work, Cañas elevates the stakes each time the reader gets closer to the on-page reveal, leaving readers on the edge of their seats, frantically flipping pages for the entire novel.

Cañas’s work is also well-informed on the realities of life in Mexico in the post-war period without being pedantic or burdening the novel with too much detail, an impressive feat for a historian-turned-novelist.

Cañas’s biggest accomplishment, however, is her thorough examination of the specter of colonialism in Mexico. Everyone — from the main characters struggling with their mixed status in the racial casta system, to the hacienda’s staff, to the physical house itself — is caught up in the same daunting web of colonial power relations. Andrés, for example, lives a divided life, trying to balance his belief in God, his grandmother’s witch practices, and a dark power that is entirely his own in the aftermath of the Inquisition. Cañas ensures the speculative and historical elements in the book intertwine to make the setting — rural Mexico in the wake of the War of Independence — a living, breathing character. The night, the wind, and the animals surrounding the hacienda are personified with wills of their own that sometimes align with Andrés’s needs and at other times conflict to add to his turmoil. Perhaps most impressively, Cañas not only makes the trope of the haunted house a character, but a character with an arc that the reader slowly begins to sympathize with as they realize that the house may also have been changed by colonial unrest.

Ultimately, Cañas delivers an ending that respects the needs of the characters and the house, wrapping up the story’s loose ends with care and kindly leaving a few strands open for the more romantic readers. It is quietly hopeful — a satisfying tone to end on for what is otherwise a tense and electrifying story — and marks her as a serious writer to watch.

Staff Writer Kiara H. Gomez can be reached at kiara.gomez@ thecrimson.com.

THEATER ‘Ain’t Too Proud’ Review: A Captivating, Too FastPaced Musical JENNIFER Y. GAO CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

“There is no progress without sacrifice” — these words, narrated by Otis Williams (Marcus Paul James), capture the very essence of the musical “Ain’t too Proud.”

Following a successful 2019 debut on Broadway, the twelvetime Tony nominated show “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations” is embarking on its first national tour, running in Boston from April 19 to May 1. Including over 30 songs from the Temptations and the Motown Records catalog, the show depicts the rise of the vocal group The Temptations to stardom and everything they sacrificed along the way. The show’s energetic choreography and masterful musical renditions create a lively depiction of the Temptations, although the fast pacing prevents parts of the plot from reaching its full potential.

With the 2019 Tony for Best Choreography under its belt, “Ain’t Too Proud” carries a high expectation for its dance numbers, and this run does not disappoint. Featuring high-energy sequences and a talented cast able to dance and sing fabulously without missing a beat, the show provides a very enjoyable experience and manages to capture the soul of The Temptations and their songs. The choreography transitions from one moment to another seamlessly and balances well between individual and group moments without overwhelming the audience.

Along with the incredible choreography, it’s the musical arrangements that make the show. “Ain’t Too Proud” starts out with some bangers, immediately drawing the audience in.

Iconic Temptations’ hits, including “My Girl” and “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” are adapted brilliantly to fit into the storyline of the show. The musical numbers blend in seamlessly with the dialogue and often help tell the story, an effect achieved by creatively splitting up a song and transitioning in and out of parts of it. The arrangements manage to both emulate the original spirit of the songs and add further layers of meaning by contextualizing the stories of their creation.

However, the pacing of the show leaves something to be desired. The story covers a significant period of time, but most of the time progression is driven by narration, leaving short pockets of action separated by long temporal gaps.

While this large time span does allow for a multifaceted view into the different challenges faced by The Temptations, the short amount of time spent on individual moments makes it difficult to form emotional attachments to many of the issues “Ain’t Too Proud” explores.

This is not a problem when it comes to the recurring tensions and sacrifices that come up, such as Otis’s (Marcus Paul James) relationship with his family and the conflicts within

the group. On the other hand, other issues seem to come to the forefront briefly and then go away quickly as the show moves on to the next stage, leaving many facets underexplored. Racial complexities are briefly touched on: Martin Luther King Jr.’s death is written in, The Temptations get shot at while trying to perform in the South, and one of The Temptations mentions the irony of there being some who likes to listen to their music but hates who they are. However, there is not much of an attempt to connect these pieces — instead they exist as isolated moments. Gambling, drugs, and alcohol are also in the periphery, mostly mentioned when they affect the group dynamic and work schedule rather than the continuous struggle and toll taken on the individuals on a personal level. Additionally, moments of grief, especially concerning the loss or changing of group members, pass too quickly, sometimes leaving the audience little time to feel the weight of the loss.

Furthermore, at times the story feels overnarrated and could benefit from more acted out parts rather than verbal explanations, particularly in the first half.

At its heart, “Ain’t Too Proud” is a depiction of the sacrifices necessary to achieve success. The show manages to convey its message while also telling a detailed story of The Temptations’ rise to fame and showcasing many of their top hits.

Whether already a Temptations fan or not, the story of their rise from the streets of Detroit to becoming one of the greatest R&B groups of all time will have everyone rooting for them, making the show enjoyable for all.

Courtesy of Emilio Madrid

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

PAGE 5

MAY 4, 2022

MUSIC

U

nder threatening storm clouds on the evening of April 16, an anxious crowd of New Englanders lined up outside the Paradise Rock Club to see English singer-songwriter Tom Odell perform the North American leg of his “Monsters” Tour. The following few hours would be consumed in a musical storm of passionately articulated healing amidst raw heartbreak.

Even though Odell didn’t take the stage until 9 p.m., the ambience in the club was lively and jovial. Minnesotan singer-songwriter Ber came out as Odell’s opener around 8 p.m., jogging onstage and casually calling out, “What’s up, Coachella?”

This lighthearted air continued throughout Ber’s performance; at one point, while recounting the backstory of a song, she said, “One time I dated a Boston guy,” and someone from the audience promptly shouted back, “Sorry!” Ber’s vibe seemed to work really well with the crowd, who sang along to some of her choruses and engaged with her jokes. Her girland-guitar act was a good precursor to Odell’s boy-and-piano performance. The greatest similarity between the two was the topic central to their music: heartbreak. “We all love Tom — heartbroken and all,” Ber said, met with shrieking cheers.

“Anyone else planning on crying tonight?”

Indeed, when Odell took the stage, the singer only lasted two songs before tearing up himself. “You can’t take back a song once it’s been written — that’s the beauty of it,” he said.

It became clear that Odell is a songwriter who feels all the emotions he felt when writing a song every time he goes to perform it. An exhausting act, surely, but also an incredibly powerful one.

Odell took time to talk about his journey with his mental health, particularly detailing how he struggled with bouts of apathy in between panic attacks. His willingness to be so vulnerable while in a performance environment was striking — the crowd fell silent as though listening to a close friend talk about their pain. The intimacy of the moment ebbed onward as he finished talking and led into “Numb,” the first song he wrote on the album “Monsters.”

Continuing in the vein of serious discussion, Odell shared his experience of hearing about horrific school shootings happening while he was living on the West Coast. For someone from England, where gun violence is not as prevalent an issue as it is in America (due to there not being a constitution-

FILM

al right to bear arms), hearing about massacre after massacre was deeply frightening. His song “Streets of Heaven” was written in homage to, and from the imagined perspective of the young lives lost to school gun violence. “Another shot, wasted life / Another friend to walk beside,” Odell crooned, an amalgam of grief and anger lodged in his throat. “I know it hurts but wipe your eyes / And we’ll sing until the old men cry.”

But the intimacy that Odell crafted with his audience was not limited to his songs about heartbreak. Rather, it held steady even in his more upbeat, uplifting songs. For instance, the fan favorite “Grow Old with Me” was performed not only

by Odell but by the whole crowd, who sang every word as if they were the ones who had penned the lyrics. And when Odell played “Best Day of My Life,” released just two weeks ago, he ended with a flourishing “a ha ha!” chord to lighten the mood.

Maintaining a connection with his crowd seemed of particular importance to Odell. Though he was stationed at his piano for almost the entire act, he did at one point walk around to the other side of the stage, acknowledging the people to whom his back was turned. He jokingly talked about how Billy Joel, legendary “Pianoman” and one of Odell’s self-professed idols, had a piano that turned and went round and round the stage, but “we decided to spend the budget on something else.”

This connection kept the energy high even when Odell dipped back into more melancholy songs, like his cover of Lana Del Rey’s “Video Games.” He talked about how Del Rey was present the first time he ever performed live on TV in the UK, and she spoke reassuring words to him before he took the stage. His rendition of “Video Games” cast a special magic over the crowd; hearing Del Rey’s mesmerizing lyrics voiced in Odell’s signature croon was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Collaborator Max Clilverd came out to play guitar with Odell on a few songs, including “Heal,” whose arrangement they changed so that it became a slow, enthralling crescendo that ultimately crashed over the crowd in a wave of emotive sound. “Take my mind and take my pain / Like an empty bottle takes the rain / And heal.”

Tom Odell Brings Heartbreak and Healing to Paradise Rock Club AARYA A. KAUSHIK CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Staff writer Aarya A. Kaushik can be reached at aarya.kaushik@thecrimson.com.

Courtesy of Aarya A. Kaushik

‘The Northman’ Review: A Tediously Stoic Adaptation of Hamlet Dir. Robert Eggers DEBBY DAS CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

H

amlet returns to his Scandinavian origins as Amleth in director Robert Eggers’s new historical epic “The Northman.” Told through a series of titled vignettes, the film follows the well-known story of Prince Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård) as he struggles to avenge his uncle Fjölnir’s wrongful murder of his father and save his mother Gudrún (Nicole Kidman) from her marriage to Fjölnir. Although replete with all the dark moodiness and savagery one expects from an Eggers film, “The Northman” tragically fails to extract any deep emotional investment from its audience.

Thrumming with Nordic tribal beats and imposing Icelandic landscapes, “The Northman” introduces its audience to the primal, brutal world of the Vikings with effective iciness.

Villages are savagely raided, innocents slaughtered, women raped, and children burned in front of the cold-blooded camera’s roving eye, which glides from one barbaric feat to the next with a strange sense of documentary detachedness.

Worldbuilding is usually Eggers’ strong point — previous works like “The Witch” (2015) and “The Lighthouse” (2019) are both testaments to the director’s skill in crafting a consistent tone and mood and in recreating historical landscapes with anthropological accuracy. Compared to these past triumphs, however, “The Northman” feels somewhat lackluster in this regard. Rituals involving hallucinatory drinks and human sacrifices occur frequently and with little to no context in the film, creating a sense of alienation unalloyed with mo-

ments of tenderness or intimacy in the narrative. Eggers unflinchingly — almost gleefully — depicts the ferocious nature of Viking culture and of his equally violent characters. But at some point, extreme violence stops being novel and starts becoming tedious. At no point in the film can a viewer empathize with any of the characters on screen, except maybe with Gudrún, whose late-stage confession of marrying Amleth’s uncle to save herself from a loveless marriage with his father is the closest the audience ever gets to witnessing a character’s humanity.

Even the violence in the film feels coquettish at times: The camera always coyly avoids truly outrageous visuals, like a set of mutilated bodies hanging from pikes on a hut or Amleth and his lover Olga’s naked bodies during a love scene.

Although certain scenes attest to Eggers’ visionary aesthetics — a terrifying Valkyrie emits a shrill battle-cry and rides into the heavens on her winged horse, and a fully-naked Amleth and Fjölnir swing swords at each other inside of a burning volcano — the visuals in “The Northman” as a whole feel more appropriate to a pseudo-documentary film about Vikings rather than what’s supposed to be an emotionally moving heroic tale.

In fact, “The Northman” feels more like an epic poem accompanied by sound and visuals rather than a true cinematic reimagining of the classic tragedy of Amleth (or Hamlet). The dialogue, spoken with varying vaguely Scandinavian-sounding accents and co-written by Icelandic poet and novelist

Sjón, has all the stilted formality of Shakespearean English without the imaginative poetry. The result is a script as cringey to listen to as it is difficult to understand. “I will avenge you, Father. I will save you, Mother. I will kill you, Fjölnir,” becomes the steadfast mantra both for a young, traumatized Amleth who witnesses his father’s brutal death and for a grown Amleth who disappointingly never evolves from the single-mindedness of his youth.

Skarsgård’s acting is simultaneously stoic and simmering with hidden emotion, but the script unfortunately renders him little more than a ripped and roaring sword-wielder.

Anya Taylor-Joy as Olga plays up the wiliness of her witchy character wonderfully, but ultimately remains shallow and unexplored as the script transforms her into a mechanism for Amleth’s lineage by impregnating her with twins.

Amleth is at heart a story about revenge that’s been told and retold so many times that the narrative has almost become a cliché. But where Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and other modern adaptations of the tale complicate the hero’s arc or at the very least introduce philosophical questions that raise the story from its literalness, “The Northman” stubbornly (and mistakenly) sticks to the original text as unimaginatively as possible. It’s a surprising move for a director as unconventional and interested in deep psychological inquiry as Eggers.

The consequence is a narrative that is as predictable as it is gory.

vvv

Courtesy of Aidan Monaghan/Focus Features

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

MAY 4, 2022

PAGE 6

CULTURE Concert Archives is the ‘Goodreads’ Concert-Lovers Never Knew They Needed JEN A. HUGHES CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

A

ny frequent concertgoer is all too familiar with the feeling of P.C.D., or Post-Concert Depression.

Now, when the high of screaming along to your favorite song subsides and you’re left with nothing more than a hoarse voice and blurry memories of a set that is increasingly difficult to recall, you can now turn to Concert Archives, the Goodreads concert-lovers never knew they needed.

Similar to the way Goodreads creates an interactive and archivable reading experience, Concert Archives is a hybrid platform that allows users to catalog every concert they have attended on the app or website. In an interview with us, founder Justin Thiele describes it as the “home for concerts to live beyond just the time that you’re at a concert.” Part crowdsourced database and part social media, Concert Archives provides music lovers an innovative and unique way to find community while displaying their love of live music.

With a quick search of an artist’s name and city, users can find just about any concert you can imagine. Yes — even that Big Time Rush concert they went to in fifth grade where Cody Simpson opened and all anyone wanted was to be chosen as James’ “Worldwide Girl”.

If users run into a situation where they can’t find a concert already documented on the platform, they can add their own entry which then becomes available to other users who may have attended the same concert. Each concert page is a hub for photos, setlists, and notes about the event, helping attendees remember the details for years to come.

The platform dates all the way back to 2013, when founder Justin Thiele found an old file saved to a CD-R disc containing a list of every band he had seen during his college years.

Despite his best efforts to update the list, he remained bothered that he didn’t have a way to cross[-]reference his list with friends who might remember shows he had forgotten.

“Concerts just mean so much to me, having that shared experience with bands I love and fans,” said Thiele. “People connect so hard to that, that they want to remember and share and interact with other people that were at the shows.”

The platform has a host of features that go beyond providing users with just a list of concerts they’ve attended. On every profile, the user is automatically provided with summary stats prime for music-lovers to geek-out on. From the artist they’ve seen the most, to the venue they’ve frequented most often, creating a profile gives users a rabbit hole of statistics to dive into.

In addition to providing users with their own concert archive, the platform also serves as a form of social media. Users have the ability to follow one another and get updates on their newsfeed when one of their mutuals adds a new concert.

On these posts, users can leave likes and comments, building up networks of music fans long after the concert has ended.

Concert Archives both centers a user’s concert history and amasses a database of concerts internationally. While some users fancy themselves “concert historians,” using it as a space to document the careers of their favorite artists, Concert Archives has the potential to fascinate even the casual

concert-goer.

With Concert Archives downloaded, perhaps users can fight off the P.C.D. and ride the concert high for a little while longer.

Courtesy of Reiner Bajo:Lionsgate

CAMPUS

F

Spanish 150 Students Curate Exhibit on Migration in Boylston Hall CHARLES W. MCCORMICK CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Courtesy of Charles W. McCormick

rom journalistic snapshots of people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border to portraits of Syrian refugees’ life jackets afloat in Greek waters, visual representations of the migrant experience are varied in form and content — a lesson the students of Spanish 150: Migration and Border-Crossing in Film and Photography, taught this semester by Professor Raquel Vega-Durán, are quite familiar with. The class’s 16 students have created their own art exhibit on campus distilling broader course themes on borders and exploring diverse migration narratives, on display from April 25 through May 6.

Adorning the walls of Ticknor Lounge on the first floor of Boylston Hall, the exhibit consists of multiple projects.

Alongside collages of works highlighting the migrant experience in five distinct mediums — animated films, narrative films, documentary films, children’s literature, and graphic novels — visitors can find selected examples of visual culture with captions written by the students. In addition, each student crafted their own physical representation of a concept pertinent to the exhibit, such as hope, vulnerability, and invisibility, which course head Vega-Durán compiled together into a quilt. The quilt is accompanied by poems selected from a text the students read for the course to expand on their individual concepts.

The exhibit attempts to parse through the perpetual “bombardment of images” we consume regarding migration, according to Vega-Durán, who chairs the Faculty Advisory Committee for Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights (EMR) — a secondary field Harvard offers.

“What is something that we have all the time? We’re exposed to visual culture all the time. I think people take for granted… all the different languages of visual culture,” said Vega-Durán. “You have to understand how to read images.”

While the exhibit was a collaborative effort between every member of the class, students were largely self-guided. Taking inspiration from the works of outside artists selected for the exhibit, which span photography, water color, and sculpture, among other mediums, students used both drawings and digital art to create their quilt squares.

“Everyone has such different ideas, such different experiences, such different visual narratives they want to convey with their specific word,” said Maria V. Kaltchenko ’23, a Romance Languages and Literatures secondary student enrolled in the course. She selected “emigrant/immigrant” as her concept for the quilt.

To further the dialogue at the intersection of visual studies and EMR, Spanish 150 welcomed several guest lecturers to speak about their work with the students, including Mexican-born activist and artist Arleene Correa Valencia, whose work is also featured in the exhibit. Correa Valencia finds art to be a liberating vehicle for discussion.

“The visual arts are a way of communicating without need-

ing to actually have a spoken language or a method of communication that is limiting to certain audiences,” said Correa Valencia in an interview with The Crimson. “And when we bring that into an academic space, it’s a tool for a different perspective, of understanding information from a point of view that is not necessarily traditional in academia or numerical in any way.”

Vega-Durán explained that while the scope of the project was initially limited to migration from Spanish-speaking countries to the U.S., the class realized quickly that the exhibit would benefit from accommodating more global narratives — a choice that reflects the class’s commitment to considering new perspectives. Capturing the migrant experience need not be a limited endeavor: In the words of Correa Valencia, art “has the power to traverse borders.”

While Vega-Durán maintains that the small class size is necessary to promote discussion, she hopes Harvard will continue to expand the EMR curriculum. While many peer institutions likewise haven’t done so, 70 schools across the nation — including Columbia University, the University of Chicago, and Stanford University — have already devoted their resources to entire ethnic studies departments. Promoting EMR at Harvard will require support across academic fields.

“It’s complex to think about: How can you have an interdisciplinary department or concentration in a place where you have divisions?” said Vega-Durán. “My goal is to make EMR interdisciplinary. So not to have five different methodologies and courses and say ‘Okay, I have my secondary.’ But, ‘How are they connected? How are we understanding migration in a global or transnational way?’”

Correa Valencia recounted feeling surprised that there was such an engaged audience for her story at Harvard. Vega-Durán stated that the popularity of the EMR secondary has grown consistently recently — a development beneficial for students and teachers alike.

“I think that’s the really great thing about EMR. You teach, but also you learn from the students and you have that thing that is really fulfilling for everyone,” said Vega-Durán.

As for the students, their goal is to foster a dialogue and encourage others to reflect on their personal relationship to the theme of migration.

“The immigrant experience cannot be homogenized. It is so different for every person. This art shows us basically that there are universal elements that are present in migration that recapitulate what it means to be human,” said Kaltchenko. “All of these parts of the exhibit are in conversation and I think the spectator is part of that conversation.”

Visitors can view the exhibit until May 6 in Boylston Hall, which is located in Harvard Yard.

Staff Writer Charles W. McCormick can be reached at charles.mccormick@thecrimson.com

PAGE 7

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

SHOPPING FROM PAGE 1

MAY 4, 2022

ADAMS FROM PAGE 1

FAS Votes to End Adams Installs, Uninstalls Air Units Shopping Week case.”

Ewa Lajer-Burcharth, professor of Fine Arts, questioned when faculty would have the time to conduct research for their courses, since previous-term registration requires faculty to post syllabi and course material earlier than what is currently required.

In response, Nickel said previous-term registration would require course materials in March for the fall and October or November for the spring, which avoids the difficulties of planning courses over breaks Earlier this semester, a group of undergraduates calling for faculty to preserve shopping week submitted a counterproposal in response to the Committee on Course Registration recommending a move to the previous-term system.

Some faculty say the shopping week system creates instability for teaching staff because enrollment numbers remain unknown until the second week of the semester.

Students who support shopping week criticized the vote.

William A. Mcconnell ’22 wrote in an email to The Crimson that the adoption of previous-term registration demonstrates the need for greater student representation in school

decisions.

“Not the end of the world, but I think it’s a real loss for Harvard,” he wrote. “I predict lower average Q scores, fewer humanities concentrators, and a more pre-professional campus climate. This mistake highlights the need for students to have a bigger seat at the table for campus decision-making.”

Michael Y. Cheng ’22, the former president of the Undergraduate Council who led the effort to dissolve the body last month in favor of a new student government, wrote in an email that the new system is “a historic mistake.”

“Education should not be about technocratic pre-planning, but rather genuine learning,” he wrote.

LyLena D. Estabine ’24, one of the newly-elected co-presidents of the Harvard Undergraduate Association, wrote in an email that she respects the vote, but will continue to advocate for undergraduates to be included in determining how the new system will be implemented.

“I cannot stress enough that the work is not done just because pre-registration passed,” she wrote. meimei.xu@thecrimson.com

The devices, which resemble fluorescent lamps, use germicidal ultraviolet light to disinfect the air. Once airborne pathogens are exposed to a certain level of UV radiation, they can become inactivated and no longer contagious.

But according to Adams House Faculty Dean Salmaan Keshavjee, the University’s Covid advisory group determined that the installation of the new devices was unnecessary on top of existing ventilation systems.

Twelve Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation units were installed in July by AeroMed Technologies, which manufactures the devices. UVGI has been researched and used to “eliminate airborne pathogens” for over 70 years, according to the CDC. Adams Faculty Dean Salmaan Keshavjee wrote in an email that the decision to install the technology came from a “collaboration” with one of the outgoing faculty deans at the time, John G. “Sean” Palfrey ’67.

Keshavjee, a global health professor, wrote that studies demonstrating that a certain type of UV light can inactivate viruses like Covid-19 helped inform the decision.

He added that the fixtures were in spaces where people would be eating without masks: the dining hall and lower common room.

Asked about his involvement, Palfrey wrote that “this was a project of the new faculty dean’s that sounded innovative and an excellent way to limit the spread of COVID.” Bill Palmer, AeroMed’s vice president, wrote in an email that there were plans to add the devices in “another common room and other spaces at Adams, but a decision was made to begin with those two areas before moving forward with any others.”

The equipment, installation, and safety testing cost Adams House $8,900, according to Palmer — a figure that Keshavjee had significantly negotiated down.

The lights were on for less than a month.

Then, Harvard’s Covid advisory group — a committee that provides recommendations on Covid-19 protocols — recommended that the devices be switched off and removed, according to Keshavjee. “[The group] determined that ventilation methods already in place were well suited for that space, and the determination was made that the upper room germicidal lighting did not add much,” Keshavjee wrote.

Still, Keshavjee emphasized the technology’s benefits, citing its long history of use in hospital wards and research that showed transmission of “influenza was reduced by 90%” in wards with

UVGI. He called UVGI “important as an extra layer where you have large numbers of people and a high potential for transmission.”

Before he brought the fixtures to Adams, Keshavjee and Harvard School of Public Health professor Edward Nardell recommended the technology to Cambridge Friends School, where the devices are currently installed.

Keshavjee wrote that after the installment, Cambridge Friends “was able to remain open throughout the COVID-19 epidemic with no ensuing inschool transmission to date.”

On its website, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says “UVGI can be part of a plan to protect people indoors” when combined with other public health practices, but by itself, “using an UVGI system is not enough to protect people from COVID-19.”

The EPA warns that improper installation can result in hazardous levels of radiation and cause skin or eye injuries. Devices designed specifically for the disinfection of indoor spaces are typically installed at a minimum height so that the UV light is directed above the occupied space.

Palmer said in testing, the fixtures were below threshold limits for exposure to radiation.

“These fixtures were installed at a height exceeding what the UL [safety] test would

recommend and safety tests done on-site confirmed that the installation complied with safety standards,” Palmer wrote.

Keshavjee confirmed “the fixtures are louvered to face upward” so no light would reflect downward onto Adams residents.

He added that labels were placed near the fixtures to warn workers performing maintenance.

The technology’s installment and removal were not announced to Adams residents over the House email list. But Keshavjee said students were made aware in other ways.

“There was a framed explanation card with a QR code at the entrance to the Dining Hall.

As well, when students asked, the technology was explained to them,” he wrote.

Asked why the fixtures were not expanded to the other houses, Keshavjee wrote the project was “very specific to the incoming FDs.” Palmer said Harvard asked AeroMed to tour spaces like dining halls and libraries in other houses after installing the fixtures in Adams.

“We had agreed with Dean Keshavjee that we would provide this discounted price for other installations done within that calendar year,” he wrote.

“But nothing happened after our tour of those spaces.” christine.mui@thecrimson.com

RATES FROM PAGE 1

Some Ivy Schools Have Stopped Publicizing Admissions Data “Neither prospective students nor the University benefit from the admissions process being boiled down in headlines to a single statistic like the admission rate,” Princeton University’s Dean of Admissions Karen Richardson wrote in a column earlier this month. “We do not want to discourage prospective students from applying to Princeton because of its selectivity.”

But some admissions consultants remain skeptical of the true motivations behind the shift.

“I understand the mental health perspective, but at the same time, it may be that some of these schools are looking to get more people to apply,” said Dan Lee, co-founder of Solomon Admissions Consulting.

Lee said “elite universities are always trying to increase the applicant pool every year” due to “institutional objectives.”

“Because of that, this may simply just be a method they’re

experimenting with to potentially get more applicants next year,” he said.

Lee said he thinks the move may be a move on the part of the schools to see if “more people will apply as a result of not being turned off by the 2, 3, 4 percent acceptance rate.”

Spokespeople from Princeton, Penn, Stanford, and Cornell did not respond to requests for comment about the claim.

Phillip Trout, a college counselor at Minnetonka High School in Minnesota who formerly served as president of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, said he doesn’t “know of a good reason why a college or university would choose to stop announcing, or to be unwilling, to confirm their acceptance rates.”

“But I can see why it is that this could occur,” Trout said. “A college like Stanford or Princeton or Cornell, perhaps, doesn’t want to appear to be elitist or unapproachable.”

“Some of these acceptance rates are just ridiculously low,” he said.

College admissions experts said influential annual rankings may influence the change.

“I think it is more around the optics of prestige,” said Anna Ivey, founder of Anna Ivey Admissions Counseling who formerly ran the University of Chicago Law School’s admissions office.

Lee said applicants often put more stock in schools’ rankings than the strength of their particular programs.

“One thing we encounter a lot is a lot of students are simply just brainwashed by the rankings,” Lee said. “It doesn’t matter whether you tell them that a certain school is actually much better for computer science than a higher-ranked school overall, they’ll still want to go to the higher-ranked school.”

Trout, the former NACAC president, echoed the sentiments, saying that colleges take pride in the number of students

who apply.

“Totally driven by rankings,” Trout said. “Colleges and universities benefit greatly from moving up the chain.”

‘The Wrong Direction’ Despite schools’ claims that the shift was made in an effort to decrease stress among prospective applicants, some students and consultants said a lack of transparency will be unhelpful.

“Knowing doesn’t necessarily change many things, but it does give you a sense of comfort, being given that extra information,” said Omenma P. Abengowe, a student in Harvard’s newly-admitted Class of 2026. “Having that being taken away just kind of feels strange.”

Ryan D. Garcia, another accepted student, concurred.

“I 100 percent wish they would release that data,” said Garcia. “The unknown to me would scare me the most.”

Trout said publishing ac-

ceptance rates can be helpful to students.

“I think announcing and sharing the data in a transparent way is helpful, and I think it serves students,” he said. “I do not know that it, in any way, alleviates or lessens stress.”

Consultants praised Harvard’s move to continue publicizing its acceptance rates, citing the importance of transparency.

“I think Harvard is doing the right thing by releasing its acceptance rates,” Lee said. “Just being transparent about what the actual acceptance rate is is always going to be helpful to students.”

Aditya Tummala, another admitted student, said some schools’ decision to not promote admissions data may be more of a “play to publicity.”

“I don’t think it really has an effect pragmatically,” Tummala said. “I think you may as well release the acceptance rates, get a little more transparency — that’s always nice.”

Lee said elite institutions often move in sync regarding admissions.

“Princeton, UPenn, Cornell are testing this out, and other institutions are going to look at that and see what the impact of that policy has on the number of applicants next year,” he said.

“Based on that, they will assess whether this is a good idea for them as well.”

Though the data is still made available through the federal government and the Common Data Set later in the year, Ivey said the change will impact applicants who “aren’t already savvy about this process.”

“There’s a fair amount of cynicism among applicants about holistic admissions because it does look like such a big black box,” Ivey said. “And anything that makes it more of a black box by intent? I think that’s going in the wrong direction.” rahem.hamid@thecrimson.com nia.orakwue@thecrimson.com

Harvard, 24/7.

The Crimson

thecrimson.com

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

MAY 4, 2022

PAGE 8

EDITORIAL OP-ED

COLUMN

I Am a Crimson Editor and I Stand with Israel

By NATALIE L. KAHN

O

n April 29, I woke up to a flurry of messages from students, alumni, and journalists regarding a new piece published by The Crimson’s Editorial Board declaring it was “proud to finally lend our support to both Palestinian liberation and [Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions]” and now would “call on everyone to do the same.”

As both president of Harvard Hillel and Associate News Editor for The Crimson, many of the questions I received pertained to my dual affiliation with these two organizations, now seemingly at odds with one another.

I have worked for The Crimson since freshman year, and it has been an integral part of my time at Harvard — some nights I am there until 2 or 3 a.m. as an executive, after four semesters of reporting.

But integral as The Crimson has been, I am first and foremost a Jew; and in light of the role Israel plays in my people’s history as our homeland and haven from persecution, I am a Zionist, and I stand with Israel.

People have asked me whether I plan on quitting, whether I could have prevented this, and who is to blame. I have no intention of quitting; I understand this piece does not reflect the views of other boards, or even the views of some members of the Editorial Board who may not have been at the meeting.

We live in a country where peaceful protest is strongly encouraged. But the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement — overwhelmingly condemned by Congress in a 2019 resolution passed 398-17 — is not just a boycott; BDS rejects Jewish self-determination altogether.

If you doubt me, ask its founders: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine,” said co-founder Omar Barghouti, who also declared that Palestinians have a right to “resistance by any means, in-

cluding armed resistance.”

Perhaps the Editorial Board would agree, since its piece fails to condemn Palestinian terrorism or the charter of Hamas — the governing regime elected to power in Gaza in 2006 — that explicitly calls for the annihilation of the Jewish people. On top of that, a 2019 New York Times article reported that the BDS National Committee lists among its members the Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine, which in turn includes both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Does the Editorial Board believe Israel even has a right to exist? Because, if so, that line is coincidentally missing.

How many members of the Editorial Board can tell me the story of Israel’s history — numerous peace treaties the Palestinians have rejected, human shields used by Hamas to gaslight Israel, and thousands of Israeli civilians murdered by terrorists? What about the millions of dollars used by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank for the “Pay to Slay” Program, rewarding terrorists for crimes against Israelis?

Israel is not perfect, nor is any other country. But this editorial is part of a larger trend of singling out Jews, conveniently neglecting our half of the story — and by extension our right to self-determination — while claiming to “oppose antisemitism.”

Judaism is not just a religion; the Holocaust is only one of many examples of Jews targeted as a people. Exiled after centuries in the Land of Israel, the Jewish people have always been outsiders — they have been pushed out of Europe and the Middle East, and 2019 FBI data indicate American Jews were 2.6 times more likely than Black people and 2.2 times

more likely than Muslims to be victims of hate crimes.

If this isn’t proof of a Jewish need for self-determination, I don’t know what is.

And yet this editorial does not even affirm support for Jewish self-determination. Does the Editorial Board believe Israel even has a right to exist? Because, if so, that line is coincidentally missing.

When the Editorial Board discusses “Palestinian liberation,” does it think that, after decades of rejected peace treaties and terror, Hamas and the PA would simply acquiesce and live in harmony with their Jewish neighbors? What does the Editorial Board think “from the river to the sea” means?

The Editorial Board believes it is advocating for the underdog in the name of social justice, but the “overwhelming power imbalance” has always been against the Jewish homeland, surrounded on all sides by those who wish to destroy it — the same wish that has led Israel’s neighbors to declare war on it again and again.

The leaders of Iran, now in the process of acquiring nuclear weapons, have also made clear that their aim is “the annihilation of Israel.”

I do my best to keep my personal views out of my work at The Crimson. My job is to report facts, and I welcome dialogue. But dialogue is not the goal of BDS or student anti-Israel groups, who have refused conversation and rely instead on substanceless platitudes like “Zionism is racism settler colonialism white supremacy apartheid” — their goal is demonizing Israel and delegitimizing its right to exist.

And so when my people and our homeland come under attack, I will not stay silent. I am still a Crimson editor, but this editorial does not represent me; I do and always will stand with Israel.

—Natalie L. Kahn ’23, an Associate News Editor, is president of Harvard Hillel and an Economics concentrator in Pforzheimer House.

Submit an Op-Ed Today!

The Crimson @thecrimson LETTER TO THE EDITOR

To the Editor: In Response to ‘In Support of Boycott, Divest, Sanctions’

By IRA E. STOLL

T

o the editor: In general I think the content of the Crimson should be up to undergraduates not alumni, and in the almost 30 years since I was president this is the first time I can remember that I am furious enough to write with a complaint. That is an indicator of how disgusted I was with the staff editorial, published the morning after Holocaust Remembrance Day, singling out Israel, among all other nations, for boycott, divestment, and sanctions.

What would Harvard boycotting Israel look like?

It would be a less diverse and inclusive Harvard. The Harvard University diversity and inclusion website states “we all belong here. Together, we strive to create an environment that values diversity, promotes an inclusive culture, and establishes a profound sense of belonging for each member of our community.” How are Israeli students, or Jewish students, supposed to feel valued and included when the Crimson is calling for a boycott of the Jewish state — literally, advocating exclusion in the form of unlawful discrimination on the basis of re-

ligion and national origin.

It would be a less educationally sound Harvard. How would students be supposed to study the history of Israel or the Middle East without interacting with any Israelis or without visiting Israel?

It would be a less healthy Harvard. No Pfizer coronavirus vaccine — Israeli public health data was used to validate its use here in America. No life-saving Teva generic pharmaceutical medicines dispensed at Harvard’s teaching hospitals.

If the Crimson has any sense it will apologize for the editorial and admit that it contradicts every important Harvard, journalistic and human value.

It would be a less environmentally friendly Harvard. No chance of eating vegetables grown with water-saving Israeli drip-irrigation agricultural technology. No gas-saving self-driving cars equipped with Israeli Lidar technology.

It would be a less secure Harvard.

No chance of using Israeli-proven mis-

sile defense technology like the Arrow or Iron Dome to protect Cambridge from missile attacks.

The Crimson’s position is so extreme it is almost laughably obsolete. Just months after diplomats from Israel’s Arab neighbors such as the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Egypt and Bahrain showed up in Israel to deepen trade, security and people-to-people ties, the Crimson wants to revert to the bad old days of Arab rejectionism.

If the Crimson has any sense it will apologize for the editorial and admit that it contradicts every important Harvard, journalistic and human value. In the old days, when the Crimson had paying subscribers and paying advertisers, some of them might cancel in response to such an antisemitic outrage. Nowadays, the paper is propped up by annual giving from alumni. We may ask ourselves why we’d volunteer anything — time, money, expertise — to fund an organization participating in a campaign to wipe the Jewish state off the map and to rid Harvard of any Israelis. It’s certainly nothing I feel like I want anything to do with.

—Ira E. Stoll ’94 was President of The Crimson in 1993.

To Be a Neurodivergent Harvard Student

Anuksha S. Wickramasinghe ADHDVENTURES

T

oday, er, tonight, I want to pull back the curtain on the writing process for the words you’re reading. Today (Saturday) was a bad executive function day, meaning that it took until 11:20 p.m. for me to even open this document and start typing. And then it took another five minutes for me to muster the energy to write the next sentence.

ADHD is something that I’ve had for as long as I can remember, even if I didn’t know that I had it.

It’s something that affects every facet of my existence, even if you’re not aware of it behind these words, or even if I do everything I can to make sure that you don’t notice it (old masking habits die hard). People seem to think of neurodivergent identities as ones that exist sporadically, confined to their own boxes — when in reality, especially for neurodevelopmental disorders like ADHD and autism, they always exist, since they’re fundamentally part of who we are.

So today, I want to go back to where it all began for me writing this column: being neurodivergent at Harvard. Having bad executive function days here. Existing at Harvard.

Part of the ability to continue stems simply from not knowing what possibilities for better existed. As Kris King ’24, who is autistic with ADHD and comorbid learning difficulties, wrote in a statement to me, “It is because I never experienced true accessibility I was able to survive at Harvard. I did not know that I deserved better, that I could have better. This is the responsibility of no individual, but rather a system that is inaccessible at every. possible. turn.”

Add to the fact that, as Jailene Ramos ‘24 points out, “Harvard is a major stressor.” Ramos, who has ADHD and clinical depression, continues, “Despite all the things they say, all the things they try to advertise, Harvard very much is not a safe space for BIPOC FGLI students, definitely not, and it probably won’t be for a long time.”

Upon coming to Harvard, I realized that my life was extraordinarily unsustainable. I was fully nocturnal, so overworked that I was missing meals, and my raging perfectionism had reached new levels that I didn’t even know were possible from the stress of doing a week’s worth of assignments in a night.

Yet, despite my struggles, it took me far longer than expected to provide myself with the space to acknowledge that it might not just be me because of how intense and unhealthy the work culture is at Harvard.

By second semester, I had a bad enough breakdown that flipped the switch from “my study habits are quirky and unorthodox,” to “I really need help. I can’t go on like this.”

If anything, knowing I’m neurodivergent has allowed me to take the time and compassion to forgive myself for bad executive function days or crashing for the second night in a row while writing a piece (it’s now Monday morning).

Maya P. ’24 summarizes Harvard’s lack of inclusivity, especially for neurodivergent students: “Harvard’s really intense,” and “it’s not very inclusive of people who operate in other ways.”

Maya, who has ADHD and an excoriation disorder, explains: “Even though there hasn’t really been anything explicitly said to me, I definitely feel like I’ve been forgotten about by a system that’s supposed to be inclusive of everyone.”

Though I and other neurodivergent students don’t hear it enough, we belong here, and we deserve to have similar opportunities and support to attain success, even though that’s far from the reality.

I know that no matter how much I write, no one will ever exactly be able to understand my or others’ experiences with neurodiversity.

It’s not that we’re not successful — as Maya explains, “My grades have been fine because I always managed, but I’ve been managing at the expense of my well-being.”

In this regard though, we deserve to celebrate our creativity, our inventiveness, and our solutions to find ways to attain success with limited support and additional barriers. As Maya notes, “there are definitely things that I think I’m better at purely because I’ve been forced to become better at it to compensate for other lapses,” from learning how to synthesize large amounts of information quickly or develop the skills necessary to get three psets done in one night by oneself, as Maya used to last semester.

I know that no matter how much I write, no one will ever exactly be able to understand my or others’ experiences with neurodiversity. These are just a handful of stories from Harvard students who identify with neurodiversity, and that’s all they are. And really, it doesn’t have to be about everyone else. If this piece makes one more person acknowledge their accomplishments or provides others with the validation I once felt when I read about a student at Yale discovering they had ADHD, that would be plenty.

As I wrap up the draft for this, nearly 36 hours later, I’m still in my pajamas, still sitting on my bed, hunched over my laptop in my disaster zone of a room. Yet, even if I am not as hyper-productive as Harvard typically necessitates, my ADHD and I — on both good and bad executive function days — still belong here all the same. And you do, too.

—Anuksha S. Wickramasinghe ’24 is a Neuroscience concentrator and Crimson Editorial editor in Mather House.

SPORTS

WEEKLY RECAP

SCORES

WOMEN’S LACROSSE VS. BROWN W, 15-14 __________________________________________________________

SAILING ICSA DINGHY CHAMPIONSHP 2ND ___________________________________________________________

WOMEN’S HEAVYWEIGHT CREW VS. EASTERN SPRINTS 3RD ___________________________________________________________

WOMEN’S LIGHTWEIGHT CREW VS. EASTERN SPRINTS 3RD ___________________________________________________________

BASEBALL VS. DARTMOUTH L, 15-2 ___________________________________________________________

SOFTBALL VS. CORNELL W, 8-3, W, 4-2 ___________________________________________________________

SOFTBALL VS. DARTMOUTH W, 4-3 ___________________________________________________________

MEN’S LACROSSE

Harvard Falls to Yale to End Regular Season, 17-16

By KATHARINE FORST CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

NEW HAVEN, CONN. – Saturday marked the end of a great regular season run for the No. 12 men’s lacrosse team, with a narrow defeat against archrival No. 9 Yale, which won on an overtime score from veteran midfielder Thomas Bragg.

Harvard (8-4, 3-3) battled to the very end, ultimately losing, 17-16, on a man-down goal that sealed Yale’s title as Ivy League regular season champions. The loss sealed the Crimson’s fate, eliminating it from Ivy Tournament contention. Harvard ranks No.15 in Division I, however, so there is a chance that the team might qualify for the NCAA Tournament on a wild card bid.

“This was a battle where no lead was safe. We lost several players to injury in the game but kept fighting back to take the lead late in [the fourth quarter],” head coach Gerry Byrne said. “We had our chances to win, but Yale made one more play than we did.”

The game started off in Yale’s hands, as the Bulldogs pulled out a three-goal run in the first few minutes of play. However, Harvard put in senior FOGO Kyle Massimilian on the x, energizing the unit, which began to win both initial clamps and get the ball out to the wings to battle for the scrums. The trios on the circle performed well against Bulldogs star FOGO Nicholas Ramsey, with Massimilian going 4-9 and senior Steven Cuccurullo going 9-26.

Sophomore LSM Greg Campisi, first-year LSM Martin Nelson, first-year midfielder Andrew O’Berry and junior midfielder Chase Yager were pivotal in the scrums, clearing the ball to the attacking end. This was an area that the Crimson needed to capitalize on in order to keep play even, as the squad struggled to gain possessions early on in previous contests.

The team had a bit of a struggle clearing the ball early on against Yale’s ferocious 10man ride, but began to find its rhythm, consistently clearing to the attacking end; senior goalie Kyle Mullin was pivotal in this process, clearing long-bombs and even taking the ball across ­

STICKING TOGETHER (From left) Junior Hayden Cheek , first-year Sam King and senior Austin Madronic come together to celebrate a goal in a win against Princeon on April 23rd.

DYLAN J.GOODMAN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

the 50 himself. Mullin put up a valiant effort for the Crimson before he was injured diving for a loose ground ball in the third quarter. Sophomore Christian Barnard stepped up for the team, overcoming nerves to make big stops for Harvard.

Barnard has not seen much play yet this season, but was confident and composed in goal, keeping the Crimson tight with the Bulldogs for the remainder of the game. Yale wasn’t able to seize momentum with Mullin’s injury, Barnard made plays, clearing well and leading the defense in the pivotal contest.

“It was definitely a bummer

to see Mullin go down,” Barnard commented.“It’s part of being the backup goalie, you have to be ready at all times …

Hopefully we get a next game.”

The offense played a cohesive game, overcoming nerves in the first few minutes of play with a goal from O’Berry, who dominated on both the offensive and defensive sides of the field.

The starting group of senior Austin Madronic, who recorded a hat trick, junior Hayden Cheek, who notched two goals, and first-year Sam King, who tallied a goal and two assists, was balanced by clean play from first-year midfielders Miles

Botkiss, Owen Gaffney, who had three points, Andrew Perry (two goals and two assists), Lucas Hilsenrath, who had a goal, and Joe Dowling. Dowling, who recorded three goals and an assist, was a standout for the day.

He has only been tested in a few settings due to an injury early in the season, but showed composure on the field.Veterans senior Charlie Olmert and junior Isaiah Dawson brought experience, drawing on past tight contests to act as leaders on the field. Overall, the offense played a clean game, picking up play to stay in the game by executing crisp sets after forcing the ball

and making silly mistakes early on.

“A lot of the young guys stepped up,” Dowling said. “We are gonna learn a lot from this loss, take what we can from film, and get better in the off season.

Props to Yale, they played really well, but the future’s looking bright.”

The defense, which consisted of first-years Collin Bergstrom and Tommy Martinson, as well as junior Chase Strupp, played a well-timed game, shutting down plays on the fast break and keeping Yale wide on its settled sets. The defense played well one-on-one, with

first-year midfielder Ray Dearth playing physically, but there was some miscommunication down low on the crease with the Bulldogs taking advantage of the switch, which allowed their stars Matt Brandau, who has the second most points in Division-1, and Leo Johnson, to test the shorties. This, coupled with a few late slides, resulted in some easy Bulldog possessions; the unit will also look to improve on its man-down play, as it allowed Yale to score on all four of its attempts. Overall, the defense played a tight game to remain competitive with the tenth-highest scoring offense in the country. All season, the unit has been a positive that the Crimson, which will see all of its defensive starters return in 2023, can hope to build off of in the offseason.

“Defensively, we played well but we needed to guard better on ball. They moved the ball really well on offense and we can’t afford to slide as often as we did,” Campisi said. “This has been and will continue to be a point of emphasis for us.”

When asked about the implications of the final game of the season being against Ancient Eight rival Yale, first-year Joe Dowling said that while there is a heightened sense of competition, the team treated it as just another competitive game that they would look to prepare for and win.

“Obviously, Harvard-Yale is huge,” he said. “We have been unproven in the Ivy League and Yale has been the top dog.

I think we had a little fire to knock them off the pedestal and I think we did a little bit. I think we gave them a good shot and a lot of people going into this game didn’t have us at this level with Yale, so I think it just shows how tough this group is, how the seniors lead from the front. We will come away stronger.”

The Crimson will hope to implement the lessons it learned against Yale if it qualifies for the NCAA Tournament, which will begin on May 28 in East Hartford, Conn.

“In defeat, we have redefined this rivalry and made clear our arrival to the upper tier of the [Inside Lacrosse rankings],” Byrne said.

GOOD LUCK CHARLIE Senior Charlie Olmert cradles the ball in his last regular-season game for the Crimson. DY;LAN J. GOODM,AN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER katharine.forst@thecrimson.com

PAGE 9

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

MAY 4, 2022

University CFO Says BIDMC Postponed Panel on Revenue Has ‘Rebounded’ Autism After Backlash PETITION FROM PAGE 1

By DEKYI T. TSOTSONG and ERIC YAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Harvard Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer Thomas J. Hollister said the University’s revenues have “rebounded” to pre-pandemic levels, placing Harvard in a “healthy” financial condition, in an interview last week.

Last fiscal year, Harvard saw its revenues drop by $124 million — fueled by the reduction in room and board income due to fewer students living on campus — marking the first time the University experienced two consecutive years of declining revenues since the Great Depression. Despite the drop in revenue, an influx of current-use gifts and savings in operational costs allowed the University to finish the fiscal year with a $283 million surplus.

After the return to in-person operations last fall, Hollister said revenues from tuition and room and board are back to 2019 levels, though he noted that not all revenue streams have recovered completely.

“Some areas such as parking fees, service fees of various kinds have not rebounded fully back,” he said.

He also noted that record levels of inflation and “signs of weakness in the stock market” may decrease the amount of current use gifts and endowment contributions Harvard receives this During the interview, Hollister also addressed the following topics: Pandemic Spending

In recent months, Harvard has eased its Covid-19 policies, lifting its mask mandate and announcing it will discontinue all mandatory viral testing by May 10.

Though Hollister called the reduction of spending on safety restrictions “helpful” for Harvard’s finances, he said that the University continues to spend heavily on pandemic measures.

“Testing and tracing continues to be front and center,” he said. “But as the faculty learns and gives feedback on what’s most effective, and how to teach in a hybrid fashion, reconfiguring classrooms is a lot of [the] spending that is being done and being planned for the future.”

The University also recently terminated its Coronavirus Workplace Policies — which expired on April 1 — ending emergency paid sick leave benefits and partial compensation for idled workers.

Hollister said financial considerations were not part of the decision, noting that Harvard’s idled workers are simply “back to work.”

Financial Aid Last month, the College announced an increase in the financial aid threshold beginning with the Class of 2026 — promising families who earn less than $75,000 will pay nothing for the cost of attendance.

To address the increasing costs, Hollister said the Faculty of Arts and Sciences engages in “scenario planning” and tries to “stretch the dollars” to efficiently meet its needs, noting

that funds for financial aid do not entirely come from the University’s endowment.

“Not all of our undergraduate financial aid is endowed, so the money does have to come from somewhere else,” he said. “ Often, it’s the annual funds from donors that make up the shortfall.”

Hollister said “it’s not always easy” to effectively allocate money within the FAS budget.

However, he said financial aid remains at the “top of the list.”

“The planners at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences make projections many years out,” he said. “They try to ready themselves to continue to fulfill that financial aid promise.”

Future Financial Uncertainty Hollister said the pandemic still adds “enormous uncertainty” to Harvard’s financials, but praised the University’s continued scenario planning to ensure it remains prepared for changing circumstances. He also said Harvard is “affirmatively” prepared and planning for a possible recession, pointing to the University’s “recession playbook,” released in 2019.

“Harvard tries to be disciplined in our financial planning,” he said.

Hollister called the uncertainty of the pandemic one of the most “difficult and crazy” parts of the University’s financial planning in recent years.

“We try to ready ourselves in the event that things change,” he said. dekyi.tsotsong@thecrimson.com eric.yan@thecrimson.com

SFFA FROM PAGE 1

Students for Fair Admissions Files Brief to Supreme Court “Grutter should be overruled, as it satisfies every factor that this Court considers when deciding to overrule precedent,” the filing said. “It was wrong the day it was decided, has spawned significant negative consequences, and has generated no legitimate reliance interests.”

SFFA first sued Harvard in 2014, alleging that the College’s race-conscious admissions process violates 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 to take up the lawsuit alongside a similar one against UNC. Harvard and UNC are required to submit response briefs by July 25. Amicus briefs in support of SFFA must be filed

by May 9.

In its brief, SFFA argued that Grutter “flouts basic equal-protection principles” set by the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. But it said the schools violate current federal law regardless of the 2003 ruling.

Harvard “penalizes Asian Americans, engages in racial balancing, overemphasizes race, and rejects workable race-neutral alternatives,” the filing said.

SFFA argued that Harvard discriminates against Asian American applicants with its “personal rating” scores that are assigned to every applicant.

“Harvard’s mistreatment of Asian-American applicants is particularly striking: Its admissions process penalizes them for supposedly lacking as much leadership, confidence, likability, or kindness as white applicants,” the brief said.

Harvard denies the claims, noting on its website that the percentage of Asian Americans in its admitted class has grown by more than 25 percent since 2010.

In an emailed statement, Harvard College spokesperson Rachael Dane defended the school’s admissions process.

“More than 40 years of Supreme Court precedent have held that race can be one of many factors considered in college admissions,” she wrote.

SFFA wrote that Harvard engages in “racial balancing” and that the school “does

petition among Harvard students and autism advocates at other colleges after the event was publicized in the weekly.

The petition, originally a Google Doc, was signed by more than 170 Harvard affiliates before moving to Change.org, where it garnered many more signatures.

King said they found the event “problematic from the get-go” due to the lack of autistic speakers and the language used by the panelists.

“Talking about things like treating and curing autism is a really toxic narrative. There isn’t anything wrong with being autistic,” King said.“That’s something that autistic people have to say every single day of their lives.”

Nina M. Jensen ’25, an autistic student on a leave of absence who signed the initial petition, said she first learned about the event through the College’s Weekly Update email — a newsletter sent to undergraduates publicizing announcements and events every Thursday.

Jensen, who said she reached out to the College about the event’s inclusion in the email, said the College claimed that publicizing the event in the email does not constitute an endorsement.

“It’s really sad to see that Harvard is not taking responsibility for being part of this,” Jensen said.

“Even though they’re not hosting the event, they should still have better policy for how to avoid putting something like

this in the weekly when it’s actually very harmful to autistic students,” Jensen added.

Harvard College spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo wrote in an email to The Crimson that the Weekly Update is used to inform College affiliates about “events and engagement opportunities.”

“Items are submitted via Harvard and its affiliates,” he wrote. “Feedback on specific events should be directed to the individual event sponsor.”

The petition specifically condemned the language of panelist Marcia L. Hinds, the author of a book entitled “I Know You’re In There: Winning Our War Against Autism,” calling it “violent.”

It’s really sad to see that Harvard is not taking responsibility for being part of this .

Nina M. Jensen ‘25 Student

Hinds said she understands the perspective of the petition and believes having autistic people on the panel would improve it, but she said she stands by the title of her book because it refers to her “personal war” raising an autistic son.

“Every once in a while, on a good day, I would catch a glimpse of the kid he was supposed to be before he

slipped away again,” she said.

“That’s the reason for the title, ‘I Know You’re In There: Winning Our War Against Autism.’

Autism was trying to steal my son and I couldn’t let that happen. And that’s why for me it was a war.”

King wrote in an update to the petition that they met with a representative from the Sadhguru Center on Friday to suggest “education, reparations and public apology.”

“I’m hoping that this event came from a place of ignorance rather than malicious intent,” King said.

“But certainly, with the depth of ignorance that came through in the different layers of problems that existed with the event, it came across really maliciously,” King added Three co-founders of the Harvard Undergraduate Disability Justice Club also signed the original petition. HUDJ co-founder Benjamin T. Elwy ’23 wrote in an email to The Crimson that HUDJ “unequivocally supports” the petition and condemns Harvard’s promotion of the event.

“While Harvard strives to improve itself in diversity and equity as it relates to race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality, to name a few areas, it must also include disability,” Elwy wrote. “It’s time that Harvard takes responsibility and proactively works towards creating the inclusive community it claims to believe in.”

From Boston to Boylston.

not use race as a mere plus to achieve overall diversity.”

“At Harvard, race matters more than every other diversity factor and all but the most elusive academic and extracurricular factors,” the brief said.

Harvard University President Lawrence S. Bacow wrote in a statement after the court took up the case that “considering race as one factor among many in admissions decisions produces a more diverse student body which strengthens the learning environment for all.”

Dane wrote that “Harvard will continue to vigorously defend its admissions practices.”

“In an increasingly diverse workplace and world, colleges must have the ability to create diverse learning communities needed to prepare students to succeed,” she wrote.

In a press release Monday afternoon, SFFA’s president, Edward J. Blum, wrote that the Harvard and UNC cases “are rescue missions for the colorblind legal principles that hold together Americans of all races and ethnicities.” rahem.hamid@thecrimson.com nia.orakwue@thecrimson.com

The Crimson thecrimson.com

vivi.lu@thecrimson.com leah.teichholtz@thecrimson.com