The Harvard Crimson - Volume CXLV, No. 80

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The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873  |  VOLUME CXLV, NO. 80  |  CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS  |  WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2018

EDITORIAL PAGE 4

FEATURE PAGE 4

SPORTS PAGE 8

Harvard’s equal treatment of its contracted workers is commendable.

Students, faculty will meet with Bacow about support for undocumented students.

NFL policy on hits to the head helps both players and the sport.

Admit Profile Reveals Process

Harvard Partners With UMich

By DELANO R. FRANKLIN and SAMUEL W. ZWICKEL

By JAMIE D. HALPER CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

“Clear admit; one to recruit,” one reviewer wrote of Harvard applicant Thang Q. Diep ’19. The reviewer then checked a box next to the words “Diamond in the rough.” “Not a bad package when you put it all together,” a Harvard admissions officer later wrote in Diep’s file. It was early 2015, and the interviewer and several employees in the College’s admissions office were evaluating the candidacy of Harvard hopeful Diep, who ultimately won acceptance to the College. In a document totaling at least four pages, the reviewers commented on Diep’s “perfect grades,” his “incredibly hard working” nature, and his impressive roll call of student group leadership

SEE FILE PAGE 7

Thang Q. Diep ‘19 submitted his admissions profile in support of the lawyers fighting the admissions lawsuit that will go to trial this October. CALEB D. SCHWARTZ—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

HKS Ramps Up Voter Registration Efforts By ALEXANDRA A. CHAIDEZ CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

The Harvard Kennedy School is gearing up for the upcoming midterm elections by introducing a University-wide voting challenge to encourage Harvard affiliates to register to vote before the Nov. 6 elections. The Harvard Votes Challenge, centered at the Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the Institute of Politics, currently has leaders assigned to nine of Harvard’s schools to help students register to vote and to host several “Harvard Votes Action Days” to actively get out the vote. Theodore “Teddy” N. Landis ’20, a co-founder of the project, said he and fellow founder Derek Paulhus ’19 came together to solve the “big problem” of “lower voter participation rate” at the University. “I learned the statistic that millennials and post-milleni­

als combined will make up the largest voting block in America for the first time in 2018 but at the same time, we don’t really vote,” Landis said. “I felt that it was really important that we take action.” The program will also encourage Harvard schools to incorporate Turbovote, an online voter registration platform, into their class registration processes. Turbovote — after its inception by three Kennedy School alums in 2011 — was introduced into the College’s check-in process in 2016. According to the National Study of Voting, Learning, and Engagement, just 23.6 percent of eligible Harvard students voted in the 2014 midterms. However, in the run-up to this year’s election, the Institute of Politics’s biannual youth poll determined that more than 37 percent of young Americans

SEE VOTING PAGE 4

DACA PAGE 4

DACA In Limbo Students, Faculty, and Staff Plan to Meet with Bacow to Strategize Support for Undocumented Harvard Affiliates By KRISTINE E. GUILLAUME and RUTH A. HAILU CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Almost as soon as Harvard’s new president officially took office, concerned University affiliates reached out hoping to discuss another president — the one in Washington. A group of faculty, students, and staff will huddle this fall with University President Lawrence S. Bacow, who assumed the post over the summer, to strategize about the ways Harvard can support those at the University affected by the Trump administration’s controversial policies on immigration. Though an official date for the meeting has not been set, Bacow’s office proposed

Oct. 1 as a potential date for the cohort to congregate, according to an email provided to The Crimson. Aparicio is the co-chair of UndocuAllies, an organization formed in Spring 2017 at the Graduate School of Education that supports and advocates for undocumented students. The planned discussion falls roughly a year after the Trump administration terminated Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era program that allows undocumented youth to live and work in the United States. Roughly 65 Harvard affiliates were undocumented in the 2017-2018 academic year. Several court injunctions in the past year have

compelled the Trump administration to continue processing DACA renewal applications — so for now, Harvard’s DACA recipients can renew their status. The future of the program remains uncertain, though. The upcoming meeting with Bacow also comes after Trump’s 2017 executive order limiting travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries, a ban that was upheld by the Supreme Court in June. That order caused at least four Harvard affiliates to be temporarily barred from the United States. The coalition slated to meet with Bacow includes leaders of student groups such as UndocuAllies and Act on a Dream — an organization

By JONAH S. BERGER CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

When Arnav Agrawal ’20 decided to run for a seat on the Undergraduate Council during his freshman fall, he ran on a largely single-issue platform: bringing menstrual hygiene products to every dormitory on campus. Two years later, after a pilot program, campus-wide survey, town hall, and multiple meetings with administrators, the UC and a menstrual hygiene advocacy group convinced the College to finally make that platform a reality. “I’m from New Delhi, India, where there’s a lot more awareness and enthusiasm about provision of free products, and I thought Harvard, being the best college, should definitely have it,” Agrawal said. “If the College can provide free condoms, why can they not provide free tampons?” Agrawal added. ­

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Former Secretary of Education Arne S. Duncan ‘87 shares his thoughts about American education Tuesday night at the Institute of Politics. HENRY ZHU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Harvard Today 2

SEE MICHIGAN PAGE 5

Dorms to Provide Free Menstrual Products

SEE PAGE 5

TALKING TRUMP

Harvard and the University of Michigan will partner on initiatives and summits to address economic opportunity and the opioid epidemic, the universities announced jointly Wednesday. The Equality of Opportunity Project, led by two Harvard professors, will work with the University of Michigan’s Poverty Solutions initiative on developing “interventions” in Detroit, Mich. regarding economic mobility. The schools will plan two policy summits together on the national opioid crisis featuring experts in government, medicine, and public health, according to a press release. The collaboration comes as University President Lawrence S. Bacow is scheduled to return to Michigan — his home state — this week to participate in a panel of high-profile former Detroit natives for the program. “I am delighted that Harvard will be partnering with one of the country’s leading public research universities to make progress on issues that are among the most pressing of our time,” Bacow said in the press release. “I am also excited to further deepen Harvard’s work in Michigan where we will engage with local partners, contribute to solutions and learn from collaborators in Detroit and beyond.” The partnership will work with Detroit and its mayor, Mike E. Duggan, to create programs on neighborhood revitalization and affordable housing. University of Michigan’s Poverty Solutions initiative seeks to reduce poverty in the United States, and the Equality of Opportunity Project studies the causes of economic success and failure across the country. Duggan said in the press release he is excited about the partnership. “We are trying to build a comeback that includes all Detroiters and we welcome the support of these two prestigious institutions in that effort,” he said. The summits on the opioid epidemic will address issues like opioid prescriptions, access to treatment, according to the ­

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News 3

Editorial 6

Sports 8

TODAY’S FORECAST

SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS High: 69 Low: 64

Over the summer, the College worked with House building managers to install a dispenser in each upperclassman House and freshman yard that will provide tampons and pads. The dispensers, which custodial staff will fill regularly, are mostly located in gender-neutral restrooms in order to reach students who may not be comfortable in a women’s bathroom, according to UC Vice President Nicholas D. Boucher ’19. The process of gaining financial backing for the initiative from administrators was a long one. After Agrawal was elected in 2016, discussions of the issue began to occur more widely within the Council. And outside of the UC, an advocacy organization on campus called the Hygiene Campaign — now known as PERIOD — ramped

SEE MENSTRUAL PAGE 7

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peter kavinsky


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