The Harvard Crimson - Volume CXLV, No. 29

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The University Daily, Est. 1873  | Volume CXLV No. 29  |  Cambridge, Massachusetts  |  wednesday, february 28, 2018

The Harvard Crimson The new counseling and mental health system is a good start for the University. editorial PAGE 6

Women’s Softball gets two wins in five-game opening weekend in Florida. sports PAGE 7

GenderNeutral Housing for Yard

Student TFs Could See Union Fees

By William S. flanagan and katherine e. wang

By Shera S. Avi-Yonah and Molly c. MCcafferty

Crimson Staff Writers

Crimson Staff Writers

The College is working to debut a gender-neutral housing option for firstyear students starting next year with the Class of 2022, according to Harvard administrators. Sheehan D. Scarborough ’07, director of the Office of BGLTQ Student Life, wrote in an email to The Crimson last week that his office “has been working closely” with the Freshman Dean’s Office and the Housing Office to “create a gender-inclusive housing option” that would be available to freshmen starting in the fall of 2018. Harvard spokesperson Aaron M. Goldman wrote in an emailed statement Tuesday that several “current undergraduates” are also workshopping the proposal, which would mark a first for the University.

I­n a month and a half, some undergraduates will be eligible to step into booths, grab pencil and paper, and fill out a ballot to determine whether eligible Harvard student teaching staff can form a union—but many College students say they remain unaware of what this means. In particular, some undergraduate teaching fellows and course assistants say they do not realize they would have to pay dues if unionization supporters prevail. Of roughly a dozen eligible students reached by The Crimson Tuesday, the vast majority—nine—said they had no idea unionization might come with a fee. Others are totally unaware of the years-long push to unionize. “What is unionization?” Computer Science undergraduate teaching fellow John Na ’20 asked. Harvard will hold a second unionization election April 18 and 19 to decide whether graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants can collectively bargain with the University. The election follows an extended legal battle between unionization advocates and the University over the validity of the results of the original Nov. 2016 election, which showed 1,526 votes against unionization and 1,396 in favor. If the second election’s results fall in favor of unionization, Harvard Graduate Student Union-United Automobile Workers—the group making a bid to represent Harvard’s eligible teaching staff—would solicit a percentage of each union member’s salary as dues in order to hire organizers, fund strikes, and retain legal counsel. HSGU-UAW has not announced expected rates for dues, but the UAW’s base rate for members is set at a minimum of 1.44 percent of monthly wages. Per UAW policy, the money collected from members is split between the local UAW, the international UAW, and the Strike and Defense Fund. Union advocate Evan C. Mackay ’19—who has served as a teaching fellow for multiple Statistics courses— said he thinks pay increases from collective bargaining would outweigh the cost of dues. “Currently, the way that I understand it is that the union dues would be the same for undergraduates as graduate students,” Mackay said. “I know that 1.44 percent would be coming out for me, but looking into the research

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See housing Page 5

The Office of BGLTQ Student Life recently relocated to the basement of Grays Hall. AMY Y. LI—Crimson photographer

Business School Looks To Honor Black Alumni By grace a. greason and anna KURITZKES Crimson Staff Writers

Harvard Business School will honor the accomplishments of black alumni this spring to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the school’s African American Student Union. The AASU50 celebration—a joint effort between the AASU and the HBS Leadership Initiative—kicked off with the opening of an exhibit showcasing experiences and achievements of black alumni at Baker Library Friday. It will culminate with a conference in midApril. AASU50 Project Director Taran Swan said members of the Leadership Initiative have spent two and a half years planning the celebration, which will include an academic symposium on African American leadership in March. Though AASU was founded in 1968, the legacy of African-Americans at HBS extends back more than a century, according to Anthony Mayo, the Director of the Leadership Initiative. Wendell Thomas Cunningham, the school’s first black student, graduated in 1915, but minority enrollment re­

HLS Profs Slam Sexual Harassment Policies

mained low for the next few decades. The lack of diversity was among the primary concerns of the five HBS students who coalesced to form AASU. These five, Clifford E. Darden, E. Theodore Lewis, Jr., Lillian Lincoln Lambert, George R. Price, and A. Leroy Willis, approached former HBS Dean George P. Baker with a series of requests aimed at increasing representation of black students and faculty on campus. The founders also worked to recruit black college students to HBS themselves. Their efforts resulted in more than a fourfold increase in enrollment of black students at HBS between 1968 and 1969, according to Mayo. Their experiences and the history of AASU are chronicled in cases at the Baker Library exhibit. It also includes an interactive display that showcases other notable alumni and panels featuring three black professors at HBS. The two-day conference in April will open with an alumni dinner and the premiere of a documentary that chronicles the experiences of black students at HBS. The following day will feature small-group discussions

See Alumni Page 3

An exhibit at the Business School’s Baker Library commemorates the 50th anniversary of the HBS African-American Student Union. CALEB D. SCHWARTZ—Crimson photographer

Longwood Students Protest Gun Violence

SEE PAGE 3

By Luke W. Vrotsos Crimson Staff Writer

Crimson Staff Writer ­

See letter Page 5 Inside this issue

Harvard Today 2

Students at Harvard Medical School and the School of Public Health joined affiliates of Harvard’s teaching hospitals to take a group photo protesting gun violence in the wake of a Parkland, Fla. school shooting that killed 17 people. They assembled Tuesday afternoon in front of Gordon Hall on the campus of Harvard Medical School, where they were photographed holding a banner that read “Gun reform is healthcare reform.” Individual students held signs that read “Gun control is doctor recommended” and “Gun violence is a public health issue.” Shivangi Goel, a co-president of the HMS Class of 2021 student council, organized and spoke at the event. “Medical providers and scientists devote their whole lives to ameliorating the lives of their patients. It seems ridiculous that guns and people with guns can undo all of that, and hurt those who we work desperately each day to save,” she wrote in an email. Goel also wrote that in her first two years as an emergency medical technician, she saw two patients who were victims of gun violence—one died, and ­

By aidan F. ryan

T wo Harvard Law professors have joined nearly 140 professors from universities across the country in signing a public letter that critiques what the authors call “victim-centered practices” in higher education sexual harassment policies and procedures. Law professors Janet E. Halley and Elizabeth Bartholet ’62 signed the letter three weeks ago, along with academics hailing from institutions including Northwestern University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. “‘Victim-centered’ practices… threaten to subvert the objective collection and presentation of evidence in administrative, civil, and criminal sexual assault proceedings,” the letter reads. The letter states these victim-centered practices are based in the “believe the victim” ideology they say

University President Drew G. Faust, who created the University’s Committee on the Arts, gave a speech on the importance of monuments. JASI D. LAMPKIN—Crimson photographer

News 3

Editorial 6

See unions Page 3

Sports 7

Today’s Forecast

Sunny High: 58 Low: 42

the other sustained severe injuries. “Since then I have been a staunch believer in the idea that saving lives will always matter more to me than protecting guns,” Goel wrote. Chana A. Sacks, a doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital, spoke after Goel. Sacks’s cousin was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School inw Newtown, Conn. in 2012. She called on healthcare professionals to ensure that gun violence stays in the headlines even when memories of the most recent mass shooting have faded, according to a press release from the School of Public Health. The students are not the only people in Longwood advocating gun reform: After the Parkland shooting, School of Public Health Dean Michelle A. Williams wrote a letter to school affiliates calling for more gun violence research. Both Williams and Goel took a stance against the Dickey Amendment, a 1996 stipulation that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cannot “advocate or promote gun control.” According to Goel, the students plan to continue their activism next month, with a walk-out on March 14 and the Boston “March for Our Lives” demonstration on March 24.

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