The Harvard Crimson - Vol. CLII, No. 5

The Harvard Crimson

THE ROOM WHERE IT

HAPPENS. The Harvard Undergraduate Association is attempting to secure increased student representation on Harvard College’s Administrative Board, HUA officers announced at a Sunday meeting.

Following the Money Behind Harvard’s State Rep.

EDIB FORUM. Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 argued diversity enables academic excellence in remarks at the annual Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Forum on Tuesday, avoiding reference to Trump’s threats.

UNIVERSITY FINANCES

Harvard Received $151 Million From Foreign Governments Since January 2020

Harvard received more than $100 million in donations from government sources in the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Bangladesh in the last four years, according to data released by the Department of Education.

The University received more than $151 million in total donations from foreign governments between January 2020 and October 2024 — making up more than 13 percent of the total $1.1 billion received from foreign donors over the same period.

In compliance with Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, universities report contracts and gifts from foreign sources larger than $250,000. Harvard is the largest recipient of foreign invest-

ment among its Ivy-league peers, receiving nearly $200 million more than the second-highest recipient, Cornell University. Philanthropy, including current use gifts and endowment contributions, accounted for 45 percent of the University’s operating revenue in the fiscal year 2024. According to University spokesperson Jason A. Newton, the donations are used to fund Harvard’s financial aid program, in addition to educational and operational expenses.

While total current use gifts to the University increased by nine percent in fiscal year 2024, endowment contributions dropped substantially, resulting in a $151 million decrease in total philanthropic contributions — a 14 percent drop from the previous year.

As top Harvard officials attempted to contain their fundraising crisis, contributions from foreign governmental sources decreased by more than $1 mil-

Judge Dismisses Lawsuit by Harvard Alumni

BY DHRUV T. PATEL AND GRACE E. YOON CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit brought by 10 Harvard alumni who alleged “rampant” antisemitism on campus after Oct. 7, 2023, had devalued their degrees, ruling that the plaintiffs lacked standing in the case.

The judge — George A. O’Toole Jr. — wrote in his Wednesday order that the plaintiffs, who graduated between 1973 and 1996 from different schools across the University, had demonstrated “no cognizable legal injury that could be redressed through this suit.”

“They graduated from Harvard many years before the central events referred to in the complaint,” O’Toole wrote. “They are not themselves directly affected by Harvard’s recent administrative actions and/or omissions.”

In their Feb. 2024 complaint, the plaintiffs accused Harvard of having “permitted, even sanctioned, proHamas rallies” and hired antisemitic professors.

They sought an injunction requiring Harvard to terminate employees,

including top administrators, “who facilitate or fail to respond to the antisemitism permeating Harvard” and to suspend or expel students who participate in antisemitic conduct.

The plaintiffs also asked for compensatory damages over “reputational damage” to the value of their Harvard degrees and punitive damages against Harvard.

Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton wrote in a statement that the University is “committed to ensuring our Jewish community is embraced, respected, and can thrive at Harvard.”

Harvard first moved to dismiss the lawsuit in May and filed a second motion to dismiss in July.

Wednesday’s order ends one of the three antisemitism lawsuits filed against Harvard in the wake of Oct. 7. Harvard settled the other two in January shortly after President Donald Trump took office, agreeing to modify its nondiscrimination policies with explicit protections for Jewish, Israeli, and Zionist students. In their February complaint, the alumni plaintiffs alleged that Harvard was contractually obligated to “uphold

lion between October 2022 to 2023 and October 2023 to 2024. Total foreign funding decreased by $67 million.

Harvard has been repeatedly criticized for accepting donations from governments, and universities’ financial ties to Iran and China have been the subject of particular scrutiny.

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce revealed in May that top Harvard officials considered investigating foreign donations after former Harvard President Claudine Gay’s Antisemitism Advisory Group raised concerns about the influence of donors from the Middle East.

According to University documents subpoenaed and published by the House Committee, Harvard’s lawyers “identified information about contracts and gift agreements from middle eastern countries,” and concluded that “no issues were identified.”

In January, Rep. Ritchie J. Torres

(D-N.Y.) — an outspoken critic of Harvard’s response to antisemitism on campus — introduced a bill to the House to prohibit any U.S. university from receiving gifts from any country that “has provided material support to a foreign terrorist organization, as determined by the Secretary of State.”

The House is also considering a bill by Rep. Michael J. Baumgartner (R-Wash.) that would reduce the Section 117 reporting threshold for donations and fine universities that do not comply.

During President Donald Trump’s first term, the administration launched an investigation into Harvard’s foreign funding sources. An October 2020 report released by the Department of Education as a result of the investigation found that Harvard “appears to possess inadequate institutional controls over its foreign donations and contracts.”

Grad Students Request To Subpoena Harvard

BY LAUREL M. SHUGART AND GRACE E. YOON CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Attorneys for two Harvard graduate students filed to subpoena Harvard University Police Department sergeant Thomas F. Karns and the University for information regarding an October 2023 protest and following investigations. Elom Tettey-Tamaklo, a student at the Harvard Divinity School, and Ibrahim I. Bharmal, a student jointly enrolled at Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School, were charged with assault and battery following a confrontation with an Israeli student at a pro-Palestine “die-in” protest at the Harvard Business School in October 2023. If approved, the subpoena for Harvard will request evidence relating to the University’s internal disciplinary review following the October incident, which the defense alleged was not shared with HUPD nor with the Court.

Since then, the legal battle over the charges has dragged on for more than a year. The arraignment was postponed three times before being finally held on Nov. 15, 2024.

After the judge dismssed civil rights

charges against the students earlier this month, the Thursday hearing was held to discuss the status of the case. The hearing will be continued in April to give both parties additional time to gather information on the case.

Lawyers for Bharmal and Tettey-Tamaklo — who did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday’s hearing — filed two motions under Rule 17, which asks the Court to issue subpoenas for Harvard and Karns. Karns — who wrote the HUPD report following the 2023 protest — has repeatedly come under public scrutiny in his nearly two-decade career at HUPD.

HUPD temporarily suspended Karns from the department in 2019 after he reportedly called a Black officer a racial and homophobic slur. While Karns disputed the use of the racial slur, an investigation found that he used a homophobic slur.

Karns also came under scrutiny from the American Civil Liberties Union in 2008, when he photographed demonstrators to gather intelligence in civilian clothes. An attorney for HUPD filed an objection to the defense’s request to file a subpoena.

“It is the longstanding policy of the Harvard University Police Department not to

CATHERINE H. FENG — CRIMSON DESIGNER

CAMPAIGN CASH. Massachusetts Rep. Marjorie C. Decker, who represents the heart of Harvard’s campus, has spent her 12 years in office raising — and spending — a formidable war chest. In 2023, nearly half her campaign dollars came from lobbyists.

DAY 2025

CORNELL BSU HOLDS

‘EMERGENCY MEETING’ AS AFFINITY GROUPS, PROGRAM HOUSES ARE THREATENED BY ED DEPARTMENT GUIDELINES

law.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN

BROWN UNIVERSITY APPROVES CREATION OF NEW CENTER FOR GLOBAL HEALTH EQUITY

Brown University’s Academic Priorities Committee approved the establishment of the Center for Global Health Equity, The Brown Daily Herald reported on Wednesday. The aim of CGHE is to support residents, fellows, and undergraduates, as well as address global health challenges through research, technological innovation, and hands-on fieldwork in nearly 50 countries. The center will also foster collaboration among faculty across multiple departments.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Penn spent $180,000 on federal lobbying in the fourth quarter of 2024, its highest

CLOSURE PROTEST. Mary Lyon High School affiliates and Brighton residents gathered outside Mary Lyon Upper School to protest its proposed closure Tuesday evening. BY EMILY T. SCHWARTZ—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

TRUMP CUTS NEARLY 10,000 FOREIGN AID PROGRAMS, CHIEF JUSTICE ALLOWS FREEZE TO CONTINUE

The New York Times reported Wednesday that Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department were not obligated to immediately pay for more than $1.5 billion worth of previously completed aid efforts. He also wrote on Truth Social that Zelenskyy dragged America into a costly “war that couldn’t be won.” Trump had previously withheld all funds for foreign aid work, and a federal judge set a deadline for agencies to release the funds. The Trump administration appealed this notion, which was answered in Roberts’ statement with a victory for the administration

TRUMP SETS SIGHTS ON CRITICAL MINERALS DEAL

President Donald Trump is now adopting a foreign policy of seizing mineral wealth overseas to secure power. The New York Times reported that last Thursday, Ukrainian and U.S. officials came to an agreement on how they would split Ukraine’s critical minerals. Because of the minerals’ important role in energy production, the U.S. has been in competition with China to control the supply of said minerals for more than five years. On first proposal, Zelensky “balked” at Trump’s ambition — but the contract ultimately agreed upon is said to ensure “securities” for Ukraine in exchange for some part of the mineral supply.

ISRAEL, HAMAS EXCHANGE HOSTAGES AND PRISONERS

According to the New York Times, Hamas has handed over bodies of four Israeli hostages in the last part of the first phase of a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas. The hostages’ remains were exchanged for a group of Palestinian prisoners, done without displays or “humiliating ceremonies,” unlike previous exchanges between the groups.

PRINT CORRECTIONS

The article “Researchers, Educators Rally To Protest Research Funding Cuts,” which ran in The Crimson’s Feb. 21 print issue, incorrectly stated that History professor Mary D. Lewis criticized proposed limits on NIH funding for indirect costs as unconstitutional. In fact, Lewis was criticizing an earlier attempt to broadly freeze federal funding.

The article “Pforzheimer House To Install Locks on Bathrooms,” which ran in The Crimson’s Feb. 21 print issue, incorrectly stated that Monique A. Roy’s email was sent to Pforzheimer House. In fact, it was sent to students on some floors of Comstock, not to the entire House.

This list may not be comprehensive. For the most up-to-date versions of articles in The Crimson, please visit thecrimson.com.

What’s Next

Start every week with a preview of what’s on the agenda around Harvard University

Friday 2/28

HARVARD WIND ENSEMBLE SPRING

CONCERT

Lowell Lecture Hall, 8-10 p.m.

Join the Harvard Wind Ensemble at night for its “Dances and Dreams” spring concert, featuring the work of Ticheli, Shostakovich, Smetana, Bryce Craig, and Carol Brittin Chambers. Admission is free for all attendees.

Saturday 3/1

HARVARD UNIVERSITY WOMEN’S

WATER POLO VS. CALIFORNIA

BAPTIST UNIVERSITY

Blodgett Pool, 9-10:30 a.m.

Watch Harvard’s nearly undefeated Women’s Water Polo team face off against California Baptist University in its first invitational game of this season in the Blodgett Pool, located at 65 North Harvard St.

Sunday 3/2

KUUMBA SINGERS AT THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS

Harvard Art Museums, 1-2 p.m.

Come to the Calderwood Courtyard for an hour of music performed by Harvard College’s Kuumba Singers, who will be singing in conjunction with the exhibition “Joana Choumali: Languages of West African Marketplaces.”

Monday 3/3

ECONOMICS Q&A AND PIZZA

Littauer Center 301, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.

First-years interested in concentrating in economics are invited to join the Economics Advising Team in the Hansen-Mason Room of the Littauer Center to ask questions about the Economics concentration, classes, and possible career paths. Pizza will be served.

Tuesday 3/4

COFFEE CHATS WITH TINK TINKER

Memorial Church, 9:30-10:30 a.m.

Join Tink Tinker, a faculty member at the Iliff School of Theology, and the Harvard University Native American Program to discuss Indigenous culture, history, and religious traditions. Tinker volunteers as director of the Four Winds American Indian Survival Project in Denver.

Wednesday 3/5

NANOMATERIALS-BASED SOFT ELECTRONICS AT THE SEC Science and Engineering Complex LL2.223, 11 a.m.-12 p.m.

Dae-Hyeong Kim, a professor in chemical and biological engineering at Seoul National University will visit next week to present on recent advances in soft bioelectronics.

Thursday 3/6

PIZZA & POLITICS WITH JAKE LATURNER Institute of Politics L-166, 12 p.m. Join the Institute of Politics for a conversation featuring Jake LaTurner, a Republican who formerly served as a representative for Kansas’ 2nd Congressional District from 2021 to 2025. Pizza will be served.

Friday 3/7

GEORGE BARBASTATHIS: HUMANS AND AI IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD Pierce Hall, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. George Barbastathis, professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, will lecture on the significance of the 2024 Nobel Prizes in both Physics and Chemistry being awarded to scientists in the field of artificial intelligence.

SUN AND SNOW

MEGAN M. ROSS — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Khurana Praises Diversity Amid Trump Threats

banned race-conscious college admissions — prohibits universities from considering race in any academic decisions, including prizes, scholarships, and housing.

The administration has also moved to restrict financial support for university research, describing large chunks of federal research spending as wasteful.

Outgoing Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana affirmed the importance of diversity at Harvard in a Friday interview amid President Donald Trump’s ongoing battle against universities’ diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

“Our diverse backgrounds and experiences and talents drive academic excellence,” Khurana said Friday. But Khurana — though he did not say Trump’s name once in the hour-long interview — positioned the president’s attacks on research funding and DEI as antithetical to Harvard’s values.

“We have, for 400 years, recognized the power of a variety of different backgrounds and experiences,” Khurana said. “Diverse thinking actually creates fertile ground for new ideas.”

During Trump’s first two days in office, he directed federal agencies to terminate equity-related grants and crack down on DEI initiatives at federally funded institutions — efforts that were temporarily blocked by a federal judge on Friday.

The orders are part of a systematic effort to gut DEI programs. Trump appointed outspoken DEI critics to key positions in the Department of Education. The department circulated a letter earlier this month arguing that the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling against Harvard — which

Defending the National Institutes of Health’s bid to limit funding for overhead costs in a Feb. 9 press conference aboard Air Force One, Trump asked, “Why are we giving money to Harvard when it’s got a $50 billion endowment?”

But Khurana mounted a forceful defense of federal research spending, saying the support Harvard receives from the federal government — including Harvard’s nonprofit status and federal funding for research — enables the University to “create value that is meaningful to society.”

“When we want to do something, or we want to do it in a sustainable way, we need to allocate material resources to it,” Khurana said.

Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 has suggested the University needs to reorient its communications strategy around proving Harvard’s value to the world. And disclosure forms show that Harvard’s lobbying expenses — which spiked in 2024 — have focused on research funding and policy. On Friday, Khurana said he thought it was easy for the public to undervalue Harvard’s contributions.

“I do worry, because I do think that institutions like ours produce a lot of good for the world. Research is complex. It’s multiyear. The benefits of it are not immediate,” Khurana said. “We need to make sure that people un-

derstand how important this investment is.”

“It pays off in global competitiveness, and it pays off in the beneficiaries of having a healthy citizenry for our democracy,” he added.

During the interview, Khurana also addressed the Trump administration’s aggressive stances on immigration. Last month, Trump signed an order which told federal agencies to assist in revoking the visas of students who broke the law while participating in pro-Palestine encampments.

Khurana said international students are navigating a “fluid” environment and advised those affected to visit the Harvard International Office.

“It’s really important at a time when rules are changing — or how they’re being interpreted is changing — to have the most recent information and understanding,” Khurana said.

Apparently in anticipation of new restrictions under Trump,

Students Fear for Affinity Groups

achieve this.”

Roughly a dozen students expressed concern about the future of Harvard affinity groups amid Trump administration threats to diversity programming at a town hall hosted by the African and African American Resistance Organization Thursday evening. The event was held to discuss the U.S. Department of Education’s Dear Colleague letter earlier this month directing federally-funded universities to end all race-based decision-making by Feb. 28. The education department letter, written by the Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig W. Trainor, threatened to revoke federal funding for institutions that treat “students differently on the basis of race” including using “non-racial information as a proxy for race.” Trainor argued such policies or programs are not compliant with the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling that struck down affirmative action. During the group discussion, attendees and members of AFRO, an unrecognized student group on campus, expressed concerns that affinity groups on Harvard’s campus may be shut down in the wake of the department’s letter.

“They’re definitely coming after our affinity spaces, and we have so many here at Harvard that make people feel welcome,” said Sophia E. Young ’28, a freshman representative of the Generational African American Students Association.

“It’s really important to have this conversation to first digest this letter that came out and also think about possible courses of action

moving forward,” she added. According to the education department letter, institutions must eliminate race-based decision making in “admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life.”

The letter is the latest in a series of Trump administration efforts to end diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in federal agencies and federally funded institutions. The day after his inauguration, Trump directed universities to terminate any race or gender-based diversity programs, although the order was temporarily blocked by a judge.

Chloe C. McKain ’27, who attended the forum, said the policies could be broadly interpreted to significantly affect the landscape of affinity spaces and student organizations on campus.

“Diversity, equity, and inclusion are seen as bad words now,” McKain said. McKain said she could not rule out the possibility that universities and the government would “go so far as to say ‘Oh yeah, seven black students meeting together is now not allowed.’”

“How are they going to define our affinity spaces? And how are they going to define student organizations?” she added.

A University spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday evening. In a previous statement to The Crimson, a spokesperson wrote that Harvard is “committed to ensuring our campus is an environment where everyone can thrive and that there are programs, policies, and resources in place to

“To nurture free expression and academic freedom, Harvard students, faculty, and staff must be able to engage in discourse and learning without facing harassment, discrimination, or bias,” they wrote. “The University is reviewing the U.S. Department of Education’s Dear Colleague Letter and will continue to ensure we comply with the law.”

At the Thursday event, Mia Montrose ’26 said she wished Harvard would provide clarity on how Trump’s orders against diversity, equity, and inclusion programs may impact students at Harvard.

“Harvard really plays themselves as our friend,” Montrose said. “And now, when DEI is being attacked, they’re not really saying anything.”

“We don’t know what’s going to happen,” she added.

While top Harvard officials have issued multiple public statements about research funding, they have been quieter in response to threats against diversity programs.

“Exposure to different backgrounds, different perspectives, different experiences, leads to intellectual and personal growth,” Garber said on Tuesday.

Attendees of the town hall said student groups like AFRO will play an important role in organizing a student response to the White House’s threats.

“Fighting back against this institution to make sure they don’t just allow the Trump agendas to just steamroll over our communities — that’s gonna be our role,” said Kojo Acheampong ’26, a co-founder of AFRO.

the HIO advised international students to return before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday — the day of Trump’s inauguration.

But Khurana did not describe general guidance for international students, saying Harvard would handle advice at an individual level because “different countries and different communities face different rules.”

In the face of political uncertainty, Khurana — who during Trump’s first term advocated for undocumented undergraduates at Harvard — said the University should stay true to its values.

“We should not be an institution that operates out of fear, but operates out of a sense of conviction that the truth is important,” he said.

“One of the things I feel so lucky about being at Harvard — and especially at the College — is that it’s always served as a candle in the darkness,” he added.

The Harvard Law School Student Government has scheduled a student-wide vote in March on a referendum to divest from companies involved in Israel’s war in Gaza.

The referendum, which will be administered to the student body from March 11 to March 13, urges students to vote in favor of Harvard’s divestment from companies “aiding violations of international humanitarian law” — including those that have provided support for the war in Gaza, which the referendum refers to as a genocide.

More than 300 HLS students signed a petition in favor of holding the referendum earlier this month, pushing it over the threshold that requires the student government to bring it to a vote before the full student body.

If the divestment referendum moves forward, it will represent a success for the student government, which clashed with HLS administrators over a separate referendum that the student government first attempted to schedule last fall.

The referendum — which condemned the library bans doled out to students following a series of studyins at Langdell Library — was repeatedly delayed amid a dispute with the Law School Dean of Students Office.

Dean of Students Stephen L. Ball first hit pause on the library ban referendum after the student government announced a voting date without consulting his office. No voting date is currently set.

The student government presidents, John M. Fossum and Déborah V. Aléxis, declined to state whether they had consulted the DSO before setting a voting date. HLS spokesperson Jeff Neal declined to comment on whether Law School administrators would prevent the referendum from proceeding as planned.

Earlier this month, the HLS Student Council — a group of 20 elected representatives within the student government — passed a resolution claiming that the student government has historically worked with the HLS administration to “co-facilitate” elections, but that the administration “refused” to administer the library ban referendum.

The resolution affirmed the student government’s “constitutional authority” to administer elections

and referenda independent of HLS administration.

In a statement to The Crimson, Fossum and Aléxis wrote that “the student petitioners who brought this referendum used the process that the University provides through the Student Government Constitution.”

“The Election Commission is empowered by our Constitution to administer special and spring elections,” they wrote.

Public campaigning for the divestment referendum — which includes public social media posts and the distribution of printed materials — began Wednesday, and will continue until March 10, the day before the ballot is released. Harvard has relinquished controversial investments in the past — but the HLS referendum stands little chance of altering the University’s stance against divestment from Israeli companies.

In 1986, Harvard began to selectively withdraw investments from apartheid-era South Africa, though the University never completely divested. In 1990, Harvard completely divested from tobacco stocks. In

Vice Provost for Special Projects Sara N. Bleich forcefully defended Harvard’s Legacy of Slavery Initiative in a Friday interview following departures from the initiative and criticism of the University’s decision to outsource the research of its Harvard Slavery Remembrance Program.

During the interview, Bleich appeared to repeatedly push back against former HSRP Director Richard J. Cellini’s public accusation that she and other administrators sought to restrict the scope of his team’s research. On four separate occasions, Bleich said there was “no limit” on the initiative’s work.

“We know that the scale of both enslaved individuals and direct descendants is going to grow considerably,” she said.

The Friday interview follows a September Crimson investigation which revealed strife among initiative leadership and allegations from current and former initiative affiliates that they were pressured to expedite their work for public relations victories.

Bleich also justified the decision to outsource descendant research to Boston-based genealogical nonprofit American Ancestors, saying it would allow them to “scale the work” of identifying enslaved individuals owned by Harvard affiliates and their direct descendants.

“This is really exciting,” Bleich said. “American Ancestors is the oldest

“We know that Harvard can do it,” Johnson added. Johnson said that she “cannot predict” how the administration might respond.

“But I am excited and I’m confident that we are going to have the referendum,” she said.

and most recognized genealogical organization in the country, if not the world.”

Bleich wrote in a statement after the interview that the initiative currently anticipates eventually “publicly sharing names and other identifying information of enslaved individuals as this work advances.”

Bleich declined to comment on the layoffs of Harvard’s internal HSRP team, which took place on the same day the expanded partnership with American Ancestors was announced.

Bleich stressed that despite the decision to outsource HSRP’s work, it represented only one facet of the larger Legacy of Slavery initiative.

“The more that I go out and I speak to people, what I continuously hear is how low awareness is and how pleasantly surprised people are about how the work is moving forward,” she added.

Bleich said the initiative is currently selecting its second cohort for its Du Bois Scholars program, which

welcomes a group of students from historically black colleges and universities each summer to participate in Harvard’s Summer Undergraduate Research Village. Bleich also said the University is still searching for a new executive director of the Legacy of Slavery initiative following Roeshana Moore-Evans’ June departure from the position, though she declined to comment on the timeline or state of the search.

She emphasized the progress the initiative had made since its inception, saying that “three years ago, this work didn’t exist at Harvard.” Work on addressing Harvard’s legacy of slavery “is intended to go on in perpetuity — so, long after the rest of

Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana said Harvard should maintain diversity and federally funded research. JINA H. CHOE — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Garber Defends Diversity as Key to Academic Excellence

it institutions from associating students with race or distributing benefits based on race.

Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 argued diversity is a “critical enabler of learning” in opening remarks at the University’s annual Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Forum on Tuesday, avoiding reference to sustained threats to diversity programming from the Trump administration.

In his brief remarks on Wednesday to the forum crowd — gathered at Smith Campus Center for a series of panels on equity, diversity, and freedom of speech at Harvard — Garber focused his speech on academics and said diversity enhances higher education.

“Academic excellence continues to resonate with individuals across the country and around the world,” Garber said. “Despite the great uncertainty that we face at the present moment, the possibility that knowledge will pave the way to a better future has not lost its luster.”

“Exposure to different backgrounds, different perspectives, different experiences, leads to intellectual and personal growth,” Garber added.

The annual forum, which was first held in 2022, was hosted less than two weeks after the Department of Education warned federally funded institutions against using race as a factor in any programs or decision making processes. According to the letter, which threatens further legal action, the department will prohib-

In her opening remarks at the forum, Harvard’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Sherri A. Charleston also said diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and policies to counteract discrimination, bias, and harassment help create an environment conducive to academic freedom and free expression.

“To nurture free expression and uphold academic freedom, it is imperative that Harvard students, faculty, and staff can engage in discourse and learning without encountering harassment, discrimination, or bias,” she added.

But the event’s keynote speaker, Donna Hicks — an expert in conflict resolution at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs — spoke instead about dignity, a value she argued could connect people and help resolve differences.

“Our shared yearning for dignity, our shared yearning to be treated as if we matter, I think, is our highest common denominator,” Hicks said. “This can elevate us. This can raise us up to a way of being, together in the world, that can outsmart any of the technological advances that we’re doing.”

During a question and answer session after her speech, Hicks was asked why there was a growing backlash against dignity.

“Actually, I have not experienced a backlash against dignity,” Hicks responded. “We’ve experienced backlashes against DEI and other people who are canceling out certain literature and novels. But when it comes to this issue of dignity, I have never had pushback.”

At a student panel later in the event, several speakers said they are fearful about the Trump ad-

ministration’s effect on DEI policies and programs.

Jamaal ‘Jama’ N.A. Willis ’25, who is Black and interned at the Department of State over the summer, said Trump’s comments in June about positions he saw as “Black jobs” undermined the work of employees hired through diversity initiatives.

“I just think we have to start calling out nonsense and recognizing that this does not mean you’re unqualified,” he said. “It just means that you are getting the ability to be in a space that you have not necessarily been granted to be in systematically.”

In an interview following the panel discussion, Willis said that conversations about diversity and inclusion are important “because a lot of people are afraid to just say the word DEI” as government agencies have removed DEI pages and material from their websites.

He added that misconceptions about DEI have allowed people to politicize and “scapegoat” the initiatives and the people they support.

“It becomes an attack on a population who does not deserve it,” Willis said.

Where Garber and Charleston avoided calls to respond to political threats against DEI programming, Willis asked forum attendees to “stop being quiet.”

“We have the privilege of going to Harvard University, having the best opportunities ever,” he said.

“Yet it seems as if a lot of people on our campus right now are quiet and afraid.”

“We should be the ones standing up, holding space, holding forums, holding dialogues and discussions,” Willis added.

alexander.anoma@thecrimson.com chantel.dejesus@thecrimson.com

BY SAMUEL A. CHURCH AND CAM A. SRIVASTAVA CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

SECTION 117 FROM PAGE 1

Foreign Cash Flows To Harvard

According to a December 2024 letter from the Department of Education, the investigation has been closed.

Out of the 29 governments that donated to Harvard since 2020, government sources in the UAE have consistently given the most, including $14 million in the 12-month period ending in October 2024.

According to the filings, $4 million from Saudi Arabia and $3.8 million from Qatar were also donated in the same period. Harvard received the most non-governmental funding from England, Switzerland, China and Hong Kong.

According to Dan G. Currell, a former deputy under secretary at the Department of Education, Qatar’s donations are especially significant as a proportion of the country’s gross domestic product.

“Qatar has a GDP roughly equivalent to Iowa,” Currell said. “The amounts of money that are being thrown around are not impossible, but I did some calculations back of the envelope. And you’re like, that seems implausible.”

Across Harvard’s largest foreign donor hubs, some countries have contributed the most in the form of contracts, including tuition payments from foreign sources and purchase of Uni-

versity materials. In the last four years, 90 percent of financial contributions from Japan — the University’s fifth largest donor country — have been donated in the form of a contract.

According to Newton, Harvard’s contracts include the purchase of academic materials from university presses and payments for participation in Harvard’s executive education programs for non-degree-seeking students.

Donations from England, Harvard’s largest donor, are greater than any other nation with $179 million since January 2020. More than 70 percent of these funds are individual gifts.

Still, Terry W. Hartle, a senior fellow at the American Council on Education said it is difficult to draw conclusions from the Section 117 data about where individual contributions come from and how foreign funding is used.

“There are a lot of grants and contracts that colleges, universities take or receive from foreign individuals, corporations and governments,” he said. “It is, in essence, a haystack.”

“It probably undercounts — maybe by a lot — the influence of foreign money,” Currell added.

abigail.gerstein@thecrimson.com avi.burstein@thecrimson.com

a certain standard of higher education and reputability” so that its graduates could enjoy “life-long prestige.” But they argued that the University’s failure to “adequately address antisemitism on its campus” breached that contract.

In a July memo supporting Harvard’s second motion to dismiss, the University contended that the plaintiffs’ status as Harvard graduates did not create a contractual relationship between them and the University. The plaintiffs’ proposed contractual terms — such as a commitment to providing “life-long prestige” — were “too vague and indefinite to be actionable,” Harvard argued. Several plaintiffs said they were disappointed by O’Toole’s decision to dismiss their case.

Andrew “Andy” J. Neff, a Harvard Business School alumnus, said he was disappointed that the judge refused to acknowledge his “lifelong association with Harvard.”

“We’re disappointed because we thought the lawsuit had a great deal of merit and we had a very strong standing,” he said. “It seems very strange for someone to say that someone who graduates from Harvard doesn’t have a strong connection with Harvard.”

He added that the group is now “looking at what our options are” but declined to comment on whether he and other plaintiffs would pursue further litigation.

Alan J. Bauer ’87, a co-plaintiff in the case, said he was dismayed that O’Toole failed to acknowledge the “enormous damage” Harvard has done to itself “by letting things get out of control.”

“Harvard can say everything’s under control and everything’s fine, but Harvard has a very serious problem, and if it doesn’t address it, its reputation is only going to get worse and worse,” Bauer said.

But Bauer said that the plaintiffs knew the lawsuit

“was a long shot” from the very outset, saying it was a last-ditch effort to push the University to act against allegations of antisemitism.

“We just tried to find whatever we had in our toolbox to hopefully push Harvard to take the issue of antisemitism more seriously and address it,” Bauer said. “So we’re not all that surprised.”

Bauer said the plaintiffs were inspired by the Title VI suit filed by Students Against Antisemitism in January 2024 over similar allegations of campus antisemitism, which he said the plaintiffs thought had a stronger chance of succeeding in court. The SAA case was among the two that the University settled for an undisclosed amount last month — though some of the case’s plaintiffs will continue to pursue litigation against Harvard under new counsel.

College Dean Rakesh Khurana said in a Friday interview that “recentering academics” will be one of his top priorities in his last semester in the position.

Khurana’s remarks come amid a push to make Harvard students take their coursework more seriously. In January, a Faculty of Arts and Sciences report concluded that many Harvard College students “do not prioritize their courses,” adding that “faculty view student curricular disengagement with alarm.”

Over the past year, faculty have made policy changes to discourage skipping class and neglecting course readings — and to combat grade inflation at a school where nearly 80 percent of undergraduates receive A-range grades.

But asked whether Harvard was doing enough to address grade inflation among undergraduates, Khurana did not answer directly.

“We all have an important role to play in making sure that we are providing students accurate feedback,” he said.

Khurana — who also highlighted his work on the College’s Intellectual Vitality initiative — said he plans to spend all the “political capital” he has left to push his initiatives to the finish line and pave a smooth road for his successor.

The College has doubled down on Intellectual Vitality programming in an attempt to combat self-censorship among students. The January report, citing interviews and findings from student surveys, concluded that many undergraduates hesitate to share controversial opinions in class.

On Friday, Khurana seemed to endorse one of the report’s key recommendations: adopting a non-attribution policy, like the Chatham House rules, which allows students to share the contents of class discussion but not attribute comments to

individuals.

“Faculty have a role to play of creating an environment where people feel they can speak openly,” Khurana said. “Students can play a role by respecting the Chatham House rules that are being suggested.”

Hoekstra endorsed the report’s recommendations in January.

If the College does not foster an environment where students are willing to challenge prevailing views in class, Khurana said, it will become just “another credentialing mechanism.”

“The ability to speak and not feel that you would get the opprobrium of the community if you ask a sincere and authentic question, or if you present a non-conforming view, is essential to human dignity,” he said. “This is the essence of a liberal arts and sciences education.”

Khurana said his commitment to facilitating dialogue will continue past his tenure as College dean as he returns to teaching. Next year, Khurana will teach a class on organizational sociology, which he said is scheduled to meet at 9 a.m.

Although Khurana said he is playing no role in the search for his successor — which FAS Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra has indicated will conclude before the end of the semester — he said whoever succeeds him must “really love and learn from the students.”

“Go to their performances, go sit in on classes,” he said. “Life is too short, and we’re too lucky to be in a place like this not to enjoy the work we’re doing.”

Khurana said an enthusiasm for interacting with students is critical for a College dean.

“You shouldn’t do this job if you don’t love working with students,” Khurana said. “We are here to educate the citizens and citizen leaders of society.”

“We’re not here to build a parking lot,” he added.

the Thursday hearing. Daniel Cloherty, a lawyer representing the University at the Thursday hearing, said that Harvard would be willing to share the requested information regarding its disciplinary review readily once the subpoena is formally issued.

“We don’t have a problem working to get them to the parties,” Cloherty said at the hearing. A University spokesperson declined to comment on the Thursday hearing. The defense also filed a motion for pretrial diversion on Wednesday afternoon, serving the motion to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office shortly after 6 p.m. Certain cases in district courts can qualify for pretrial diversion under state law, where cases are diverted from criminal courts and resolved before a criminal record is made. A judge must determine eligibility for a diversionary program, which is dependent on a number of factors in the case — including the lack of an existing criminal record. Both the defense and prosecution have until the April hearing to identify appropriate diversionary programs for Bharmal and Tettey-Tamaklo, which were not specified in the Wednesday motion. Charges may be reduced or dismissed entirely upon successful completion of a diversion program.

VICTORIA CHEN — CRIMSON DESIGNER

How Rep. Marjorie Decker

Raises and Spends Her War Chest

BY MATAN H. JOSEPHY CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

For the past 12 years, State Rep. Marjorie C. Decker’s campaign has reaped the rewards of extensive fundraising — nearly half of which came from registered lobbyists in 2023, the most recent year for which fully reviewed data was available.

And over nine of her 12 years in office, Decker — who represents the 25th Middlesex district, including much of Cambridge and the heart of Harvard’s campus — has spent more than $11,000 of her campaign’s money at University of Massachusetts Club. The private, members-only social club sits on the top floor of one of Boston’s tallest skyscrapers just a few blocks away from Beacon Hill — and is frequented by the state’s most powerful.

The social club is only one of the many places where Decker spends her campaign’s money. According to decades worth of public filings reviewed by The Crimson, Decker is a prolific fundraiser — she’s raised over $750,000 since 2013 — and has spent even more.

But even in the absence of serious opposition on the ballot for much of her career, Decker has spent her campaign funds liberally — from more than $11,000 at the UMass club and $4,600 on parking tickets, to thousands more on high-priced meals, gifts to colleagues, and even a wedding present.

Decker’s spending is not

unique among legislators in Massachusetts, where campaign finance law allows lawmakers to tap into campaign coffers for anything deemed an “enhancement” of their “political future,” so long as it is not “primarily for personal use.” Legislative leadership, including the Senate President and Speaker of the House, have been known to dip extensively into campaign accounts to finance anything from car expenses to a suite at TD Garden during the Beanpot Tournament, an investigation by The Boston Globe last July found. But a Crimson analysis of more than a decade’s worth of public campaign finance reports by Decker — who chairs the Joint Committee on Public Health but has never served in top State House leadership — reveals that this phenomenon extends far beyond the upper echelons of Beacon Hill and right to the heart of Cambridge. Decker also became increasingly reliant on donations by lobbyists as her spending continued to rise. Reports of contributions between 2019 and 2023, obtained by The Crimson through a series of public records requests, reveal that she has risen to become among the State House’s top recipients of donations from registered lobbyists.

And back home, Decker’s spending and fundraising efforts are an outlier: over much of her time in the Legislature, she has frequently outspent and outraised other members of Cambridge and Somerville’s delegations to the State House. Only House Majority Leader Michael J. Moran, whose Boston district also includes two Cambridge precincts, has con -

sistently raised more. In a statement to The Crimson on Tuesday afternoon, Decker defended her campaign’s fundraising and spending: “I host town halls, office hours, meet and greets throughout the year and provide food, drinks, and other refreshments to the constituents in attendance,” she wrote in an email. “I am proud to offer those courtesies and hospitality measures to my constituents, just as I am proud to provide jobs to young people from Cambridge.”

Presents and Parking Tickets

Though Decker got her start in politics when she joined the Cambridge City Council in 1999, her political fundraising didn’t kick into gear until more than a decade later, when she was elected without serious opposition to the State House in 2013. Public filings with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance, the independent agency that regulates campaign finance in Massachusetts, show that Decker’s spending began

to pick up quickly after she entered Beacon Hill. Decker reported spending less than $33,000 from her campaign account in 2013, her first year in the State House. Between 2014 and 2022, that number fluctuated between roughly $18,800 and more than $61,000; in 2023, she spent nearly $79,000. Decker did not have a serious challenger on the ballot at any point until 2024, and was unopposed entirely in 2020 and 2022.

Much of this money supported expenditures typical of an incumbent politician, such as salaries for campaign staff, fees to print and mail campaign literature, advertisements, Little League sponsorships, and website maintenance, among others.

But many of Decker’s expenses have gone toward gifts and social gatherings — which, she said, have helped her build ties with constituents and show appreciation to her staff and legislative colleagues.

Nearly $11,000 of Decker’s campaign funds have gone to the UMass Club, where she has been a member since at least 2016. While Decker has spent more than $4,700 on membership fees, her campaign’s financial disclosures show she has spent an additional nearly $4,500 on meals and meetings at the club just since mid-2023.

“Members of the public are welcome to join the UMass Club,” Decker wrote in an emailed statement, adding that “associate memberships are available to the general public at extremely reasonable costs compared to most other meeting space options in the Beacon Hill area.” Decker wrote that she uses her membership to “host constituents, advocates, staff, interns, and colleagues for lunch” and defended her spending as a means of “funding public education” for UMass students. During the pandemic, she wrote, “I continued to pay my dues to help save jobs” at the club from layoffs. Transportation was another large expense for Decker’s campaign — and more than $4,600 of her transportation spending was on “parking tickets” during the first six years of her term, filings show. The costs “resulted from expiring meters in Cambridge during work events,” Decker wrote in a statement, adding that she stopped paying tickets using campaign funds after OCPF regulations shifted to bar the practice several years ago.

COVER STORY 7

of her spending at the restaurant is labeled as lunches with her legislative or campaign staff — though a November 2023 filing saw Decker spend $210 on a “Colleague Lunch re: Healthcare.”

Decker wrote “I am always very happy to spend money in my district and to celebrate the hard work of my staff and the people I work with,” including local advocates and campaign staff.

Just

veal who they met with or what they talked about.

Lobbyist Contributions

As Decker continued to spend, records show that she began to rely more and more on contributions from registered lobbyists — who are capped at spending $200 per year per candidate. Though Decker reported raising just more than $9,000 from registered lobbyists in 2019, she

because it’s legal by letter of the law in Massachusetts doesn’t make it a good sign of a healthy democracy, that someone would be able to use campaign accounts for something like this.

Executive Director of Act on Mass

Decker has also spent more than $4,400 from her campaign account on gifts to colleagues since 2015, records show, including more than $2,500 since 2020. Campaign filings do not disclose what the gifts are, but simply list the amount and a brief explanation of their purpose.

She also spent $500 in Nov. 2023 on a wedding gift — the largest amount ever reported by a member of the Legislature on a wedding gift funded by campaign dollars, according to more than two decades of wedding-related political expenditures reviewed by The Crimson.

Decker reimbursed the wedding gift to her campaign on May 31, six months after the initial expenditure, after “it was brought to my attention that this was not an allowable use of campaign funds,” she wrote. Campaign finance law in Massachusetts is notoriously permissive, giving legislators enormous latitude in how they spend their donations.

Other states have much stricter rules. In Washington, for instance, candidates are prohibited from spending campaign funds on anything “not directly related to the candidate’s election campaign,” such as social club fees, subscriptions to newspapers, or gifts to constituents, according to state regulations.

Decker’s spending, though legal, is still “remarkable,” said

Scotia M. Hilles, the executive director of pro-transparency group Act on Mass.

“Just because it’s legal by letter of the law in Massachusetts doesn’t make it a good sign of a healthy democracy, that someone would be able to use campaign accounts for something like this,” Hilles said.

States such as Florida and Colorado have also adopted laws requiring elected officials to disclose information about their meetings with other lawmakers, such as who attended or what was discussed. But when legislators in Massachusetts use campaign funds to pay for meals or meetings, the law does not require them to re -

raised more than $21,000 from lobbyists just four years later. In 2023, the latest year for which data is available, nearly half of Decker’s fundraising came from registered lobbyists.

Lobbyists spend heavily across the Legislature and are subject to strict contribution limits, but Decker’s reliance on them still makes her stand out among others in the House. A Crimson analysis of contributions by lobbyists for every sitting representative found that, from 2021 onwards, Decker has consistently been among the lawmakers who received the most individual lobbyist contributions. (In a statement in response, Decker wrote that her

overall fundraising has not been much higher or lower than that of others in the Legislature.)

In 2021, when Decker received 162 donations from registered lobbyists amounting to more than $25,000, only two House members — Franklin Democrat Jeffrey N. Roy (D-Mass.) and House Budget Chair Aaron Michlewitz (D-Mass.), representing the North End and other parts of Boston — took in more contributions.

Decker tied for third in the number of lobbyist contributions the following year, taking in the most individual contributions, at 100, from lobbyists of any lawmaker not in House leadership. Only Michlewitz and Speaker of the House Ronald J. Mariano (D-Mass.) reported more, while North Shore Democrat Ann-Margaret Ferrante (D-Mass.) tied with Decker.

Decker ranked seventh in 2023, with 129 reported contributions from lobbyists.

“I am proud to have the support of key nonprofit leaders and policy professionals who work on issues that support the public good,” Decker wrote in an emailed response to a summary of The Crimson’s findings.

“The fact that some of their work on these issues requires them to disclose their advocacy activity does not legally or morally disqualify them from backing candidates who are effective on issues that support the public good,” she added.

Some of the lobbyists are registered on behalf of interest groups or nonprofits such as the Project Bread or the Massachusetts Nurses Association, many come from firms that represent a broad range of clients.

Decker denied ever being influenced by lobbyist contri -

butions, writing that she has “stayed entirely consistent” over her time in the Legislature.

A Well-Funded War Chest

Decker has raised money at a breakneck pace throughout her career in the State House — where she has largely remained unchallenged.

Decker had faced three primary opponents before 2024, though none ever formed a serious threat to her incumbency. She has never dipped below 83 percent of the vote, and from 2020 until 2024, faced no opposition at all.

“I take everyone seriously,” Decker wrote in a statement.

For years, her spending has vastly exceeded that of other state representatives from Cambridge and Somerville.

The two cities are primarily represented by four Democratic members of the State House beyond Decker: Erika Uyterhoeven and Christine P. Barber of Somerville; Mike L. Connolly of Cambridge and Somerville; and Steven C. Owens, whose district straddles Cambridge and Watertown.

Decker has outspent them all individually since 2021. In 2023, when she wasn’t on the ballot, Decker spent more than two and a half times what Uyterhoeven, Barber, Connolly, and Owens did combined.

OCPF filings from 2015 disclose that Decker raised over $27,500 that year while spending more than $24,000. By 2019 — a year where she was not on the ballot at all — Decker reported raising more than $68,000 and spent more than $43,000. Her fundraising dipped in 2020, then fluctuated between $45,000 and nearly $174,000 over the next four years.

Decker was able to build up a war chest of cash, fundraising aggressively while continuing to spend. By December 2023, when Evan C. MacKay ’19 — a former Harvard labor leader who lost last summer’s Democratic primary to Decker by a mere 41 votes — first launched their campaign for State Representative, Decker sat on nearly $112,000 in the bank.

For a longtime incumbent to maintain an extensive pile of cash is far from unique, and often may be a deliberate strategy to ward off competition.

“It’s an advantage of incumbency. You have more name recognition, and you’re raising money always for the next election,” said John Portz, a political science professor at Northeastern University who studies state and local politics.

“If you raise money, it’s going to discourage other people to run against you,” Portz added.

Though Decker’s war chest may have helped her stay functionally uncontested for years, that advantage eventually gave way. Even as Decker raised more than $170,000 in 2024 — vastly outspending MacKay for the duration of their Democratic primary campaign — she eked out a razor-thin win.

“War chests can ward off competition, that’s for sure — that said, successful challengers don’t need to match dollar-for-dollar what the incumbents have,” David C. King, a Harvard Kennedy School professor, said. “They just need to be able to have a viable campaign, which is actually relatively inexpensive in a primary, to get some traction.”

Decker entered August 2024, the final month of her primary campaign, with more than $107,000 on hand — but rapid spending reduced that figure to just above $65,000 by election

day in early September.

Another local incumbent — Uyterhoeven, a representative from Somerville — raised less than a third as much money as Decker that year, even as she faced a heated primary. Decker’s race against MacKay required “meaningful fundraising and spending,” she wrote in an email. But as she moves past the closest-fought win of her career, Decker’s cash pile has shrunk considerably.

“I have not made an effort in the past few months since the election to raise money,” she wrote in a statement. “I have used this time to file legislation, meet with advocates and constituents, and catch up on work that was postponed due to the elections.” From September 2024 to January 2025, Decker raised slightly more than $13,000 — all while blowing through nearly $73,000 in the same period. Her campaign’s latest financial report revealed less than $6,000 on hand by the end of January, and over the last two months, Decker has raised less than $750. She has spent more than $10,000.

matan.josephy@thecrimson.com

SALLY E. EDWARDS — CRIMSON DESIGNER

SALLY E. EDWARDS — CRIMSON DESIGNER

Scotia M. Hilles

HIR Removes Article on Sikh Separatism

RETRACTION.

Editors of the Harvard International Review took down an article criticizing the Khalistan movement after pushback.

BY SOPHIA Y KING AND ANNELIESE S. MATTOX CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

The Harvard International Review removed an article criticizing the Sikh separatist Khalistan movement on Feb. 22 after the piece drew a wave of backlash from Sikh readers, including a complaint from Harvard’s Sikh chaplain.

The article, initially published Feb. 15 and titled “A Thorn in the Maple: How the Khalistan Question is Reshaping India-Canada Relations,” argued the Khalistan movement lacked widespread support and echoed allegations from the Indian government that key leaders were terrorists.

When complaints began to pour in, the HIR’s editors-in-chief

asked the article’s author, Zyna Dhillon ’28, to make changes. Dhillon refused, writing in an email that the article already reflected the “balance” that she wished to achieve.

“I think the HIR buckled down under pressure and the decision to remove the article was, in my opinion, a knee-jerk reaction,” Dhillon wrote in a statement.

The magazine’s editors-in-chief, Sydney C. Black ’27 and Elizabeth R. Place ’27, wrote in a statement that the article was removed “temporarily” but would not be reinstated “unless the author chooses to make the edits we have determined are necessary.”

“When we receive complaints about a published article, we review both the article and the critiques,” wrote Black and Place, who is a Crimson Editorial editor. “If we determine that any criticism may have merit, we temporarily remove the article from our website, to facilitate further research and a more detailed review.” They wrote that the article did

not meet their standards for neutrality, describing Dhillon’s article as an “opinionated style of journalism rather than the analytical reporting HIR has published for nearly 50 years.”

The Khalistan movement advocates for a separate Sikh state, which would exist in what is now the Punjab region of India and Pakistan. The movement reached its height in the 1970s and 1980s — a period that saw thousands of deaths from secessionist attacks, a government crackdown, and anti-Sikh riots after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards.

Today, the Khalistan movement is not mainstream in Punjab but is strong among segments of the Sikh diaspora. Dhillon’s article argued that the strength of Sikh nationalism in Canada has inflamed tensions between Canada and India, which outlaws the Khalistan movement. When Canadian Khalistan movement leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar was killed in 2023, Canadian

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused “agents of the government of India” of planning his death. The Indian government denied the allegations.

On Feb. 16, one day after Dhillon’s article was published, Black and Place emailed Dhillon, asking to discuss comments from a reader who thought the article focused on violence in the Khalistani movement without contextualizing the movement’s suppression. The editors wrote that Dhillon had “a couple of options to consider” but did not threaten to remove her article.

“You can keep the article as is, as it’s already well-structured and persuasive,” Black and Place wrote. “Alternatively, you might consider adding a few sentences or a paragraph to provide more background on how the Khalistani movement originated and evolved.”

But six days later, on Feb. 22, Black and Place wrote to Dhillon again to notify her that the article had been removed in response to a four-page complaint from Har-

preet Singh, Harvard’s Sikh chaplain.

Singh denounced Dhillon’s argument as “a dangerous equivalency” that conflated “all Khalistan activism with ‘terrorism.’” He accused Dhillon of presenting uncorroborated data from the Indian government and downplaying global and Punjabi support for Khalistan.

Black and Place wrote in their Feb. 22 email that they would republish the article if Dhillon made two changes: removing Indian government statistics on deaths caused by Sikh militants, which they wrote could not be independently verified, and adding a sentence confirming whether Khalistan supporters had harassed Indian diplomats in Canada. The editors also met with Dhillon in person to discuss the article.

Dhillon refused the proposed changes. She wrote in a statement that she thought an additional set of proposed edits — including the statement that “India defines terrorism broadly” — would have “actively pandered to the proKhalistan critics of the article.”

She added that she would have found the proposed changes more credible if they had come before the editors began receiving reader complaints. In an interview, Dhillon — who is from Punjab — said she thought the HIR’s proposed modifications arose because its editors were “perhaps not intimately familiar with the context of the Khalistan movement.”

“They seem to think that me presenting the Khalistan movement in a certain way is a matter of my opinion, rather than what is like the actual situation on the ground,” Dhillon said.

Black and Place wrote in their statement to The Crimson that the HIR had begun “instituting stronger editorial checks on all reporting in order to improve content and coverage” and was building out its faculty advisory network “in order to deepen our expertise on complex regional issues.”

sophia.king@thecrimson.com anneliese.mattox@thecrimson.com

HUA Wants To Increase Student Representation on the Ad Board

BY NINA A. EJINDU CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

The Harvard Undergraduate Association is attempting to secure increased student representation on Harvard College’s Administrative Board, HUA officers announced at their first in-person meeting of the year on Sunday evening.

The HUA Academic Team shared that they had met with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ Committee of Undergraduate Education to discuss student representation on the Ad Board, which handles student disciplinary issues.

The HUA’s ask comes amid an ongoing FAS review of the college’s disciplinary process, follow-

ing faculty frustration with the Ad Board’s decision to sanction student protestors involved in last spring’s Harvard Yard encampment.

While the review is conducted by professors and administrators, HUA Academic Team officer Matthew R. Tobin ’27 said the group had talked with Dean of Student Services Michael Burke about including students on the Ad Board.

“We brought a few issues of student interest to their attention, the first being student representation on the Ad Board,” Tobin said. “We met with one of the members of the committee — the Dean of Student Services Michael Burke, who, in his capacity, oversees the Administrative Board — and we have talked with him about the

potential benefits of including student representation on the ad board, either in an official or an advisory capacity.”

The Academic Team also shared that they are working with the CUE to improve active learning in the classroom and delay course registration for undergraduates.

“We reminded the CUE of these issues to essentially say that there are many things that affect students’ engagement with their courses and many things the University can do before just asking students or pointing the finger at students,” Tobin said.

The Academic Team also noted their development of a new course advisory report. The proposed report combines student

opinions and department suggestions to aid student course decisions.

“That way students can find in one place all the information that they’re going to need for making their selection for courses,” Tobin said.

Beyond academics, the Social Life, Well-Being, and Extracurricular Teams brought forward initiatives for the upcoming semester.

Only one initiative — a spring spa day event proposed by the Well-Being Team — was voted on at the meeting. The HUA voted to allocate $600 for the event, a collaboration with the Center for Wellness and Health Promotion at Harvard University Health Services.

The Social Life Team and Extracurricular Team also shared

Dean of Students Dunne Says He Is Uninvolved in HUA Push To Put Students on the Ad Board

Dean of Students Thomas G. Dunne has not been involved with the Harvard Undergraduate Association’s attempts to secure student representation on the College’s Administrative Board — though he is broadly in support of student representation at the College, he said in a Tuesday interview with The Crimson. To take a stance on the matter, Dunne said, he would need to better understand the HUA’s proposal and learn whether the College had tried to include students on the Ad Board in the past. He also expressed interest in exploring similar disciplinary boards and structures at “Ivy Plus schools” like Dartmouth and Brown to guide decision-making. When asked why students do not currently sit on the College Ad Board, which adjudicates undergraduate rule violations through its disciplinary committee, Dunne said that he did not know.

The Harvard College Honor Council, which reviews possible violations of student academic integrity policies, includes both student and faculty members. Still, Dunne said he is generally supportive of student involvement in administrative projects and “decision-making” at the College and in the Dean of Students Office.

“Anytime you have those opportunities to partner with students, I think it is enormously helpful,” he said. “They’re able to have a perspective and viewpoint that is hard for people in DSO to fully access as non-students.”

The HUA announced their effort to secure Ad Board student representation at a Sunday meeting. The advocacy comes amid an ongoing Faculty of Arts and Sciences review of the College’s disciplinary proceedings, launched after last spring’s sanctions on Harvard Yard encampment student protesters sparked widespread frustration. Dunne said he has not been in conversa - tion with

Board members about the issue of student representation. He said he does not have “a position” on the HUA’s proposal, which he said he only learned of after reading The Crimson’s Monday article.

The HUA receives funding from the Student Activities Fee, which is disbursed by the DSO, in addition to some direct support from the DSO. The HUA communicates plans and initiatives with the Assistant Dean of Student Engagement and Leadership Andy Donahue, a DSO administrator who works under Dunne.

According to Matthew R. Tobin ’27, HUA Academic Team officer and Crimson Editorial editor, the HUA Academic Team had met with Dean of Student Services Michael Burke — who oversees the Ad Board. Tobin also has a meeting scheduled with the secretary of the Ad Board, he wrote in a Tuesday statement to The Crimson.

HUA Co-President Jonathan Haileselassie ’26 wrote in a statement that the group “started having sentation on the Ad Board over the summer after hearing directly from

students who had engaged with the disciplinary board.”

“We focused on discussions with the Office of Academic Integrity and Student Conduct (OAISC), where the Ad Board is housed, and Dean Khurana,” he added. “We have already met with OAISC and will be discussing this further with Dean Khurana in an upcoming meeting.”

The DSO and the University have made several attempts to include student voices and leadership in previous initiatives.

As part of the 2023-2024 club recognition review process, conducted during a year-long club freeze, the DSO recruited an advisory committee of a dozen undergraduate students. But the committee ultimately fell apart due to “no interest in student participation,” Donahue said in a September interview.

plans for a Student Organization Closet Program with the Student Organization Center at Hilles on Feb. 25. This program is an expansion of the HUA party closet launched last February. The closet will be a space for student organizations to rent speakers, LED lights, and other supplies needed to host club events.

With 18 days until Housing Day, the HUA also discussed several initiatives to build student excitement for the yearly tradition.

“A lot of the members of the Social Life Team are first years, and they communicated how they aren’t really sure what to expect with Housing Day,” Tsion Daniel ’27 said. “They wanted to have some fun way to commemorate this really monu-

mental tradition at Harvard.” HUA co-president Jonathan Haileselassie ’26 presented proposals from the First-Year Life Team, including a food truck the night before Housing Day and a House preference survey. The Social Life Team is also planning an Instagram series with Harvard College’s House Committees to inform and excite first-year students about their houses.

“It’ll be a cool way for each house to talk about why they’re the best house — let freshmen know that they exist because a lot of freshmen don’t know the specifics of each house,” Daniel said. “It’ll be a countdown to housing day,” she added.

nina.ejindu@thecrimson.com

Faculty Union Delivers Petition on Time Caps

Non-tenure-track faculty delivered a petition with almost 1,400 signatures calling for an end to time caps to top Harvard officials on Thursday as the group’s new union bargains for its first contract with the University.

The petition, signed by more than 350 tenure- and non-tenuretrack faculty, alleged Harvard’s timecap policy — which limits the time that lecturers and preceptors can be employed at Harvard to two, three, or eight years — is “out of step with peer institutions” and hurts the University’s educational offerings.

ing a report that found the policy harmed workers’ mental health and career planning. In a statement to the HAW-UAW bargaining committee rejecting the initial proposed moratorium in October, University representatives wrote that the policy could be considered “in the full context” of the first contract.

“We appreciate the Union’s desire to suspend a policy with which it disagrees,” they wrote. “The University will not, however, waive long-standing policies as part of a stand-alone proposal before the parties have fully engaged in bargaining.”

Dunne said he has facilitated connections with undergraduates through mixers at his home, inviting the Peer Advising Fellows and the Crimson Key Society this semester.

“As a broad principle, something I would advocate for personally and have in my work benefited from, is opportunities to be in conversation with student representatives,” Dunne said on Tuesday.

Recent DSO projects — including the Mattering Movement, which officially launched on Feb. 10 and seeks to promote a sense of campus belonging — will also feature student leadership. Over Wintersession, Dunne went on a Vermont retreat with students to learn more about campus culture and brainstorm initiatives to nurture a sense of “mattering.” Later this week, the group will split into one faculty and five student task forces as they carry out new ideas, Dunne said.

Members of the campaign, organized by Harvard Academic Workers-United Auto Workers, delivered the petition at Massachusetts Hall to Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 and Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra on Thursday. They have asked for a response by March 3, delivered directly or via the University’s bargaining representatives.

A University spokesperson declined to comment on the petition’s demands.

Ending time caps has long been a key goal for HAW-UAW, which has been bargaining with the University since September and represents roughly 3,600 non-tenure-track faculty and postdoctoral researchers.

While Harvard offered to end time caps for preceptors at a Feb. 6 bargaining session, workers are hoping for the limits to be abolished completely.

The University has also repeatedly declined to consider a moratorium on time cap-based terminations while contract negotiations are underway. After the proposal was first rejected in October, the union began circulating the petition against time caps, later releas-

HAW-UAW members also delivered copies of the moratorium proposal — presented again at a Feb. 6 bargaining session — to Garber and Hoekstra on Thursday. According to HAW-UAW bargaining committee member Thomas A. Dichter ’08, the union was on a “time crunch” to deliver the petition for members whose contracts expire at the end of the year.

“Departments that are expecting people to time out under this policy at the end of the semester are already well in the process of trying to find replacements,” he said. “We want to minimize the risk of people in our unit being let go and being replaced in March and April as new faculty members are hired to replace them for the coming year.” The final petition includes signatures from 291 non-tenure-track faculty and 64 tenure-track faculty from over a dozen departments, 92 researchers, 69 staff members, 140 alumni, 123 community supporters; and nearly 600 undergraduate and graduate students. According to bargaining committee member J. Gregory Given, Harvard did not respond to the petition at a Monday afternoon bargaining session.

hugo.chiasson@thecrimson.com amann.mahajan@thecrimson.com

BY HUGO C. CHIASSON AND AMANN S. MAHAJAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

Administrative Reports Won’t Make Students Speak Their Minds

BY ISAAC R. MANSELL

There’s an old story about a man whose boat springs a leak. At first, it’s just a trickle, so he scoops the water out with his hands. But the water keeps rising, so he grabs a bucket and bails faster. As the leak worsens, he works harder — frantically tossing water overboard, convinced that if he just keeps going, he can stay afloat. But no matter how fast he bails, the boat keeps filling. He never stops to patch the hole.

When it comes to campus discourse, Harvard finds itself in a similar predicament — and its latest efforts to manage the issue have been as revealing as they are absurd.

A Faculty of Arts and Sciences committee recently urged the University to assure professors

that their outside speech will not affect their teaching assignments, while also recommending that instructors make clear to students that they will not be penalized for disagreeing.

If a university has to formally remind students and teachers that they are allowed to think for themselves, something has gone deeply wrong.

Yet Harvard’s repeated administrative pronouncements will do nothing to stem the tide of ever-increasing concern over freedom of expression — only a serious cultural change, one that normalizes unreserved disagreement, can fix this issue.

The mere fact that the University feels the need to officially reiterate the value of classroom debate exposes a reality that no amount of administrative smoothing can disguise: Free inquiry at Harvard has become fragile, volatile, and in

need of constant oversight. The intellectual environment is so brittle that the University believes that it requires faculty committees to legislate its continued existence. In trying to appease every competing interest, Harvard has turned free speech into a logistical challenge to be controlled and refined. It apparently fears being seen as punitive toward faculty speech, yet also worries that professors’ outside opinions might make students feel hesitant to express their own views. It wants to protect expression while ensuring that no one feels unduly influenced. The result is an institution caught in a futile cycle of policy revisions, each meant to restore confidence but only confirming its absence.

That same Faculty of Arts and Sciences report also noted that only 35 percent of graduat-

ing seniors felt comfortable expressing opposing views about controversial class topics. Respondents cited concern about criticism from peers or fear of being branded offensive as top reasons why. You can lead a horse to water, the saying goes, but you cannot make it drink: No university-issued statement will make students confident enough to dissent if they believe the social cost is too high, and no faculty reassurance will convince a professor that their words will not be used against them when recent history suggests otherwise.

The hesitancy that defines campus discourse is clearly not the result of formal censorship; it is the product of a culture in which social mores mean speech has become too fraught to be exercised freely.

Nevertheless, Harvard keeps drafting regulations, as if memoranda alone can contrive an environment of free inquiry and intellectual resilience. But no rule can override the unspoken consensus that some arguments are simply too risky to make. As long as that consensus holds, the University will keep preaching to a student body that remains silent and a faculty that remains skeptical.

The only real solution to this crisis is to normalize unreserved disagreement. That does not mean cultivating an atmosphere of needless provocation. It simply means treating debate as a natural feature of academic life rather than a social and professional minefield to be navigated with extreme caution, if at all.

Professors should model this practice by engaging in open intellectual conflict, trusting that students are capable of grappling with difficult ideas. Students should abandon the habit of qualifying and hedging their opinions out of fear of misinterpretation. Both groups should stop apologizing in advance for remarks they have yet to make that could be perceived as offensive or jarring. With as few exceptions as possible, speech ought to be designed not to minimize hurt but to maximize learning.

These changes are not merely cultural corrections — they’re intellectual necessities. Disagreement requires far more cognitive effort than agreement. To challenge an idea, one must first understand it, engage with it, and formulate a coherent response. Agreement is passive; disagreement is active. Sustaining this type of rigorous intellectual conflict is the crux of a university’s mission.

Harvard cannot regulate its way out of this. The problem is cultural, not administrative, so no legislation will reverse it. In a campus climate where many assume disagreement is dangerous, the single most powerful thing anyone can do is to demonstrate that it is not.

The way forward is not more policies — it is simply to raise your hand in lecture or section and state, “I completely disagree with what you said, and here is why.”

–Isaac R. Mansell ’26, a Crimson Editorial Editor, is an Economics concentrator in Kirkland House

Harvard’s Development Can’t Leave Allstonians in the Dust

BY KAYLA P.S. SPRINGER

Over the last 30 years, Harvard has been the driving force behind Allston’s rising housing costs and neighborhood change. Now, it has a chance to finally begin making amends. In the coming weeks, Harvard will finalize its Institutional Master Plan in Allston, the blueprint for the University’s development and planned benefits for neighborhood residents. Community members have laid out their requests, including additional affordable housing and support for the redevelopment of the neighborhood’s only community center. As I’ve argued, Allston residents have long been forced to bear the costs of Harvard’s expansion, often without ever seeing the gains. To right the wrongs of past development and plan for Allsto -

nians and Harvard affiliates alike, the University must meet community demands.

Fulfilling these asks is well within reach. Harvard should begin by accepting recommendations laid out by the Harvard Allston Task Force, a city-appointed group of Allston residents. In a recent letter, the Task Force called for the University to donate currently dormant land for affordable housing development, make a significant contribution to the Allston-Brighton Affordable Housing Fund, and support the revitalization of the Jackson Mann Community Center.

Developing affordable housing in the neighborhood requires available land, which is in short supply following Harvard’s purchases. The University owns about a third of the land and almost 40 commercial properties in the neighborhood. As of 2024, nearly a quarter lay empty.

Today, these properties represent lost oppor-

tunities for neighborhood residents. In light of the skyrocketing costs and limited supply of land in Allston, the University’s underutilized parcels should instead be donated for affordable housing construction and play a critical role in supporting community stability.

Such a move would not be unprecedented. Harvard has previously contributed two of its unused properties, 90 Antwerp Street and 65-79 Seattle Street, for affordable housing development. These donations total less than two acres — not even one percent of Harvard’s Allston holdings.

To counteract rising costs and future displacement, Harvard must dedicate more land to the development of affordable housing. While the University can afford to let its properties sit empty, Allston residents cannot.

Monetary contributions by the University can also support affordable housing preservation, as

recognized in earlier community benefits agreements. In 2022, Harvard committed $25 million to establish the Allston-Brighton Affordable Housing Fund during the Enterprise Research Campus Phase A approval process.

The move was a step in the right direction. That said, the rapidly rising cost of constructing housing necessitates significant continued contributions. In Greater Boston, financing and building just one new unit can cost between $500,000 and $600,000. With such high costs, even $25 million can only go so far — 50 units at a cost of half a million per unit, to be exact. Community benefits must not stop at affordability. Helping residents stay in their own neighborhood is the bare minimum — to ensure residents will flourish, the University must also direct investments into public community infrastructure. Jackson Mann, the neighborhood’s only cityrun community center, has been slated for demolition since 2019. And yet, delays induced by funding shortfalls have left many critical services, including after-school and preschool programming, on pause. Contributions by Harvard to the Jackson Mann Community Center Revitalization Fund could allow the community center to once again operate as an indispensable instrument for community development and social support.

While true that Harvard’s other community programming initiatives, such as the Harvard Ed Portal, have provided meaningful arts and small business opportunities for community members, only investing in Harvard-branded projects isn’t enough. If the University is truly committed to providing sustainable social infrastructure for Allstonians, it must also invest in vital community programming operated for and by community members. As Harvard finalizes its community benefits during the ongoing IMP process, Allston’s future hangs in the balance. Will the University take the course of minimum expenditure? Or will it commit to supporting the livelihood of its long-time neighbors? Allston community members have made their voices heard.

COLUMN

There Is a 300% Workload Gap Between Some Majors

BY JACOB M. MILLER

Harvard faculty — and College Dean Rakesh Khurana — are increasingly concerned about students failing to take their coursework seriously.

As far as I can tell, no one has quantified this trend, so I did: Students spend, on average, 6.5 hours per course on work outside the classroom each week, or a total of 36 hours weekly on academics, assuming a standard four-course load with two one-hour and fifteen minute weekly meetings. That leaves 132 hours each week for eating, sleeping, socializing, exercising, networking, campaigning, partying, influencing, protesting — and, well, writing columns in The Crimson.

There is nothing inherently wrong with any of these activities — in fact, some of my most formative and educational activities at Harvard have been my extracur-

ricular research and work at The Crimson and Harvard Hillel. It is also true that the time Harvard students spend on coursework significantly exceeds the national average of college students as estimated in a 2018 study. But insofar as faculty are worried about students’ scholastic commitment — an understandable concern if students currently spend less than a full work-week on academics — they must acknowledge that levels of curricular engagement vary vastly by department. The crisis of academic rigor is not a school-wide epidemic: It is concentrated in a select set of concentrations, and any solutions to it must be differentiated by department.

To understand the current landscape of Harvard’s academics, I downloaded five semesters of Q guide data scraped from the Internet by my peer Jay Chooi ’26. I then filtered the data, which spanned Spring 2022 to Spring 2024, and removed entries with course codes indicating they were graduate courses; 5,651 courses re-

mained with an aggregate response rate of 83 percent.

To compute departments’ mean workloads, I calculated a weighted average of students’ self-reported workload, weighing courses proportional to their number of Q Guide respondents.

The resulting graph is striking. The most time-consuming subjects — computer science, math, and statistics — all demand an average of over nine hours per week for each course. The least time-consuming — music and theatre, dance, and media courses — require nearly a third as much time.

Overall, the divide between hard sciences and language courses on one side and humanities and social sciences on the other is quite notable.

To be fair, my analysis is not comprehensive. Though the response rate is high, the sample is still incomplete. The data is also all self-reported and therefore error-prone. Moreover, reports on weekly work

JACOB M. MILLER — CONTRIBUTING DESIGNER

are capped at 30 hours, and so some of the course workloads might be underestimated. Finally, some graduate courses with unconventional course numberings may have been inadvertently left in the sample (and, conversely, some undergraduate courses may have been unduly excluded). Nevertheless, the magnitude of variance in time commitments is unlikely explained by these factors alone. Also, since students frequently take classes outside their concentration, their actual workload can easily differ from their department’s average. Regardless, these numbers paint a picture of vast divides in curricular commitment across fields.

As faculty and administrators seek to return rigor to the classroom, this breakdown of coursework by department raises a number of questions. Will all courses be expected to increase rigor, or will Harvard mandate that music classes assign double-digit workloads while leaving math courses untouched? Will the University permit certain courses and departments to assign less work? In essence, what requirements of students are fair, and to what degree are they permitted to fluctuate by subject and class?

A one-size-fits-all strategy is the wrong approach. Learning in an English seminar is best served by reading a book while learning in a statistics class is achieved by laboring over problem sets; there’s no reason to expect that the hours required to do these activities arbitrarily match.

However, the current status quo is far too extreme. Just as it would be absurd to insist on uniform workloads across departments, it is absurd to tell students that an average of only four hours per course is necessary to master psychology concepts while the requisite workload in physics is twice that. Self-respecting disciplines should demand more of their students.

If administrators like Dean Khurana are serious about academic laxity at Harvard, they must be prepared to have frank conversations about the source of this problem and recognize its disparate incidence in humanities and social science courses.

Perhaps the administration is unsatisfied with the level of effort supplied by hard science concentrators too. Regardless, more significant reforms are necessary in the soft sciences and humanities compared to STEM fields. Furthermore, because the types of work in these departments are different — social sciences and humanities generally assign more readings while the hard sciences assign more problem sets — a division-by-division approach is warranted.

How exactly to implement solutions is complicated. There are important debates about what quantity of homework is reasonable, what grading guidelines are fair, and how uniformly these expectations should apply to different departments and classes. It is also worth considering faculty independence and the consequences of both top-down and bottom-up approaches. The one thing that is clear is that solutions must be guided by data. And here the data is unambiguous: Some departments require merely a push — others need a wake-up call.

– Jacob M. Miller ’25, a former Crimson Editorial chair, is a double concentrator in Mathematics and Economics in Lowell House.

Harvard Preaches Progressivism — It Also Preserves Power

BY ANDRES MUEDANO

Aspectre is haunting Harvard — the spectre of Neo-Marxism. All the powers of late-capitalist America have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise its presence.

The only problem? This spectre is little more than fiction. For an institution increasingly conflated with American progressivism, Harvard remains a conservative bastion.

This conservatism is most evident in Harvard’s outputs. Consider, for instance, The Crimson’s annual senior survey over the last few years: Among graduating students entering the workforce, the most popular industries are finance, tech, and consulting — lucrative fields that reproduce the status quo Harvard purportedly challenges.

Equally symptomatic of such conservatism is the University’s highest governing board, the Harvard Corporation — the oldest in the Western Hemisphere. With an endowment valued at over $50 billion, it surely seeks to preserve and expand the University’s wealth, not upend the economic system that made its accumulation possible.

It is true that only a minority of Harvard affiliates identify as conservative — just 13 percent of students in the most recent graduating class according to a Crimson survey, and a few vocal professors. But to reduce an institution’s politics to that of its members is to ignore the material actions of the institution itself.

Harvard’s financial tactics vividly underscore this dissonance. Even as undergraduates engage in climate activism, faculty produce scholarship on prison abolition, and affiliates constructed a three-week long encampment in the Yard, Harvard has failed to publicly divest all endowment holdings tied to fossil fuels, the prison-industrial complex, and a state perpetuating crimes against humanity.

While the former actions — advocacy, research, and protests — tend to capture more media attention, it is the latter — financial complicity — that has a substantial, economic impact. When it comes to the endowment, it’s hard to believe that the University is guided by a progressive ethic and not a commitment to hoarding wealth.

This profit-driven approach also manifests itself in Harvard’s labor practices. Time-caps on non-tenure-track positions force preceptors and lecturers into difficult, precarious conditions. And while recent union negotiations offer a more promising outlook, Harvard continues to partake in anti-union behavior, engaging, for example, in alleged union-busting tactics against residential advisers in 2024.

And yes, a Harvard education is far from conservative. Foundational courses like Social Studies 10 emphasize the work of revolutionary thinkers like Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud, neglecting the contributions of conservative scholars like Edmund Burke and Milton Friedman — this is lamentable. But a curriculum that features progressive perspectives over conservative ideas does not necessarily make for a progressive institution.

Put simply, a university that teaches Marx is not a Marxist university. Indeed, curricular engagement with radical thought can be understood as an exercise in containment rather than an endorsement. By incorporating leftist critiques into the curriculum, the University performs a façade of ideological openness, all while ensuring that critical analysis stays confined to the classroom — lest students engage in disruption and protest.

And only a minority of Harvard students read thinkers like Marx each semester. Those studying Economics or Computer Science — two of the most popular concentrations at the College — tend to have little exposure to critical theory or radical leftist thought in their courses.

Regardless of concentration, Harvard’s social culture also remains deeply elitist and class-divided. Indeed, some self-proclaimed student activists reject conservatism yet participate in selective pre-professional

student organizations or exclusionary social clubs — vocally advocating for equity and inclusion while reinforcing structures of privilege and hierarchy.

I admit that the perception of Harvard as progressive is not unfounded. But it is incomplete. University affiliates might employ the rhetoric of social justice, but Harvard’s material actions continue to prioritize institutional stability and the accumulation of wealth. Behind its progressive image lies Harvard’s fundamental conservatism.

The spectre of Neo-Marxism is not haunting Harvard. We may speak the language of transformation, but the actions of our University remain anchored in the preservation of power. We do not threaten the status quo. We are one of conservatism’s most powerful assets.

– Andrés Muedano ’27, a Crimson Editorial editor, is a Social Studies concentrator in Adams House

Privacy Concerns Over ShotSpotter

understand the number of rounds fired, the sequence, the timing,” Filip said.

The sensors often mistakenly pick up noises like cars backfiring or fireworks. Almost two-thirds of the ShotSpotter alerts in 2025 have been confirmed to be gunshot-related, according to Robert P. Reardon Jr., a CPD spokesperson.

Cambridge police rushed to respond to reports of gunfire and fleeing suspects near Kendall Square on Monday afternoon, the latest development in Cambridge’s ongoing battle against gun violence.

As city officials explore new technologies to secure the city, the Cambridge Police Department continues to rely on ShotSpotter — a widely-used but controversial gunshot detection system. While Cambridge has employed the technology since 2014, advocates worry that the technology impedes on residents’ privacy.

ShotSpotter, which is owned by private company SoundThinking, uses audio sensors placed on the tops of buildings or street lights to listen for sounds that may be gunfire.

“The array of sensors that we put in any ShotSpotter coverage area basically capture data on any loud, impulsive sounds that they hear,” SoundThinking spokesperson Jerome Filip said.

While the sensors’ microphones are always listening for potential gunshots, they are not constantly recording. When sensors detect a loud noise, SoundThinking’s algorithm determines whether the sound is a gunshot and then alerts local police departments. Police are provided with a seconds-long audio recording of the sound after it has been flagged by the system.

“That audio snippet helps them

“It is worth noting that the absence of a victim or ballistic evidence does not automatically rule out that a gunshot had caused the alert,” Reardon wrote. “All that this means is that the alert could not be definitively tied to a known shooting incident by the officers who responded to investigate due to a lack of available evidence.”

Still, activists have expressed concern with ShotSpotter’s perceived ability to record conversations.

“It’s this unaccountable private company that is collecting all of our conversations. So I think it’s obviously a stupid dystopian idea,” said Mila Halgren, a member of the MIT Coalition for Palestine.

Filip stressed that it is “extremely improbable” that the sensors would pick up conversations from street level.

“For you to have an alert and to begin with, you need to have at least three or more sensors actually capturing that sound because that’s essentially how we triangulate and determine the location,” Filip said.

Filip cited a New York University Policing Project audit which concluded that the “risk of voice surveillance is extremely limited.”

ShotSpotter sensors cover roughly a one mile area in the city, though neither CPD nor SoundThinking disclose their locations or how many sensors are in the city.

A document detailing purported locations of ShotSpotter sen-

sors across the nation was leaked to WIRED in February 2024, including at least 25 sensors in Cambridge. The document shows that Cambridge’s ShotSpotter system encompasses land stretching from Harvard to MIT’s campus, but does not operate on either of the two campuses.

When ShotSpotter came to Cambridge ten years ago, it was implemented in areas with historically high rates of gun-related violent crime. The sensor locations have not changed since it was implemented, according to a 2024 CPD report sent to the City Council.

“While we have not put forth any formal proposal to expand the system, it is something we’d be open to exploring with the community,” Reardon said.

While CPD could request to move the sensors, the report highlighted that the high concentration of gun-related violence has persisted in the same area.

Still, advocates stress that ShotSpotter’s implementation in the city is racially biased — claiming that the technology disproportionately covers predominantly Black

neighborhoods.

Cambridge-based civil liberties group Digital Fourth wrote a 35-page objection to multiple surveillance technologies, including ShotSpotter, to Cambridge’s Public Safety Committee last March.

“In short, if you’re living in a poorer and more diverse area, you’re subjected to ongoing audio recording. If you’re a student living on the Harvard or MIT campus, or a resident of West Cambridge, you aren’t, irrespective of the level of violent crime near you,” Digital Fourth Chair Alex Marthews wrote in the March statement.

City spokesperson Jeremy H. Warnick wrote in an email that ShotSpotter technology is employed across the city, according to an annual report from CPD. Filip, the SoundThinking spokesperson, defended the ShotSpotter technology in a written statement.

“Critics have raised concerns that ShotSpotter contributes to over-policing, particularly in black and brown neighborhoods,” he wrote. “But customers themselves –not SoundThinking – decide where

to deploy ShotSpotter based on objective historical data.”

The exact number of sensors in Cambridge is still unknown, but Sound Thinking generally sells between 15 to 25 sensors per square mile, according to Filip.

Cambridge spends roughly $50,000 on ShotSpotter annually, funded through the federal Department of Homeland Security’s Urban Areas Security Initiative, which designates federal funds to counterterrorism efforts.

Marthews said in an interview that the federal funding “puts a thumb on the scale for the adoption and rollout of new surveillance technologies,” leaving residents and City Councilors in a “really difficult position.”

“They have to come in right at the end of a funding process, at a time when the City Council is being offered free money by the Feds that includes funding for really important things and that they have to accept on an all or nothing basis,” he added.

laurel.shugart@thecrimson.com matan.josephy@thecrimson.com

Family of MIT Cyclist Killed in Collision Sues Truck Driver

BY LAUREL M. SHUGART

The family of a Cambridge cyclist who was killed in a collision with a truck last June is suing the truck driver and his employer for more than $30 million, alleging negligence and wrongful death.

The suit, filed in Middlesex Superior Court on Wednesday, names Charles P. Blouin Inc. as the business that owned and operated the truck and Michael G. Fitts, the driver, as defendants.

Minh-Thi Nguyen, a 24-yearold graduate student at MIT, was fatally hit by a truck near Kendall Square last summer. The eightpage suit, filed by her father Hieu Nguyen, alleges that the defendants’ negligence caused Nguyen to suffer “mortal fear of death, conscious pain and suffering, and ultimately to perish.”

The suit seeks roughly $28,000 to cover hospital ex-

penses and $30 million for wrongful death from Boulin. The company and their lawyers did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

Police and the Middlesex County District Attorney’s office have not yet released names of the driver or company involved in the crash. The case remains under investigation, according to Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Meghan Kelly.

The driver was identified through an independent investigation conducted by Sweeney Merrigan, the firm representing Nguyen’s family.

“Minh-Thi’s tragic death is an immeasurable loss for her family, the scientific community, and the world. She is totally blameless,” J. Tucker Merrigan, a managing partner for the firm, wrote in a Wednesday statement.

“There needs to be accountability for the 10-ton box truck that failed to yield the right of way

and robbed the world of a brilliant mind and huge heart,” he wrote.

The suit details Nguyen’s accident, noting that she was “in her bike lane, wearing a helmet, and following the rules of the road.”

Nguyen was biking towards MIT and was struck at the intersection of Hampshire Street and Portland Street, according to the suit. She had the right of way to continue straight through the intersection when she was struck by the truck, which did not yield when making a right-hand turn onto Portland Street, according to a court filing.

Nguyen was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital where she died from her injuries less than an hour later.

Nguyen is remembered for her “unbreakable spirit” and “boundless generosity,” according to a statement where the family shared reflections about their daughter’s accident.

“My heart aches for my daughter, who worked tireless-

ly her entire life, striving for success, only to meet such an unfair and tragic end,” her father wrote, “I once imagined the words I would say at her wedding, never thinking I would one day have to speak at her funeral instead.”

Nguyen was the second cyclist in Cambridge killed by a truck making a right turn last June. Less than two weeks before Nguyen’s death, a 55-yearold Florida woman, Kim Staley, was killed at the intersection of DeWolfe Street and Mt. Auburn Street in Harvard Square after being hit by a truck while riding her bicycle.

The two deaths reignited a divisive and controversial debate in Cambridge around cyclist safety; one day before Nguyen’s death, the Cambridge City Council voted to launch an audit of vehicle intersections around the city. Shortly after, the City Council voted to ask city staff to work with federal and state lawmakers to advocate for stricter truck regulations.

In a September 2024 meeting, city officials concluded that without federal intervention, their power to implement more stringent traffic safety regulations was limited.

Still, activists continue to push for safer streets for bikers.

“Our community deserves a comprehensive network of separated bike lanes to be able to move around safely and comfortably and efficiently, and to make sure that people are safe when they’re able to do it,” Chris A. Cassa, a volunteer with advocacy group Cambridge Bike Safety, said.

“I think there’s more work to do to improve the safety of all of these intersections and to make sure that people who are driving are guided in a way so that it’s very challenging for them to do things that might result in injury and death,” he added.

laurel.shugart@thecrimson.com matan.josephy@thecrimson.com

CorePower Yoga Set to Close Harvard Square Studio

BY JAYA N. KARAMCHETI AND KEVIN ZHONG CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

“Everyone

a decade of operation.

The yoga studio set up shop in Harvard Square at 57 JFK St. in 2018. The company, based in Denver, also has studios in Fresh Pond and Kendall Square. CorePower offers a variety of yoga classes, as well as yogi teacher certifications, at their location.

Rejena Carmichael, a CorePower spokesperson, wrote in an email that although the company “loved being a part of the Harvard Square community,” they will close the studio in the coming weeks.

“Unfortunately, due to business challenges beyond our control, we had to make the difficult decision to close the studio,” Carmichael wrote.

Im, who frequently attends classes at CorePower, speculated that the closure may be because of a heating problem, which complicated the logistics for CorePower’s hot yoga classes.

“The main room that classes usually take place in had been closed because their heating system was broken,” she said. “And I think the problem was they just weren’t able to fix it.”

“They would just put everyone in the smaller room and it would get way too crammed,” Im added. Carmichael did not comment on the reported heating problems.

Denise A. Jillson, president of the Harvard Square Business Association, wrote in an email she did not know why the location is closing. She did note, however, that CorePower did not renew its membership with the HSBA after their first year in the Square.

“I have no idea why they are closing and can only assume, if business was robust, they wouldn’t be leaving,” Jillson wrote.

As the studio transitions, Carmichael encouraged Harvard Square members to attend classes at their Kendall Square and Fresh Pond studios. Individuals who had memberships at the Harvard Square location will be able to continue their memberships elsewhere with a 15 percent discount.

“We’re excited to welcome members and students at our nearby Kendall Square studio, or any of our 11 other locations across the Boston area,” Carmichael wrote. jaya.karamcheti@thecrimson.com kevin.zhong@thecrimson.com

BY AYAAN AHMAD AND CLAIRE A. MICHAL CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

More than 200 students at the Kennedy-Longfellow School received their new school placements on Feb. 10 as Cambridge Public Schools prepares to shut down the elementary school after this academic year. The School Committee voted to close the school, which has long suffered from low enrollment and test scores — and is also disproportionately home to students from low-income and immigrant backgrounds — on Dec. 17. Last month, the school district gave parents a choice: transition their student to one of the two schools nearest K-Lo, or attempt to lottery into an elementary school of their preference. While parents The Crimson spoke to said they were grateful to have some say in the tran -

sition, many emphasized that the timeline for that choice felt rushed — the district gave them exactly two weeks to make a decision.

The majority of parents selected the former option, transitioning their students into schools located near K-Lo. Just 32 out of the 215 students decided to participate in the special lottery instead. CPS spokesperson Jaclyn Piques wrote in an emailed statement that 99 percent of students who participated in the special lottery were assigned one of their school choices, with 69 percent getting their first choice.

Kara Keating Bench, the parent of a current first grader at K-Lo, said she appreciated that parents had the option to choose between a lottery and a guaranteed school, adding that some parents might end up disappointed with the lottery results.

Rather than enter a lottery, Bench chose to stick with the designated cohort option, and her child will attend King Open School next year. She noted that proximity to her home was an important factor in her decision.

“Being able to walk to school is something of a priority for us, so the King Open School is the next walkable school,” she said. Bench added that although she was satisfied with her choice, she — like many other K-Lo parents navigating the transition — still would have stayed at K-Lo if given the option.

Jia-Jing Lee, another K-Lo parent, was one of the few who opted into the special lottery, and is now on the waitlist for the King Open school. In an interview, Lee criticized the process, saying parents had too little time to make their decision, which risked leaving behind working parents and non-native English speakers.

“A lot of parents have to work. They don’t have that much time to understand all this,” Lee said.

“I have to take time off from my other things to actually follow this, to make sure that we don’t miss any important information,” she said.

Though the district held several open houses for families about the transition options, they all occurred in the final three days before the Jan. 24 deadline for parents’ decision to lottery or go with the default option.

“The district could have provided more time and scheduled the open houses much earlier,” Lee said, adding that she was skeptical the district was able to fully communicate essential information to families with language barriers. More than half of K-Lo students speak English as a second language.

Kate L. Whelan, a parent of current fourth and fifth graders at K-Lo, said the decision to

close the school was “kind of thrust upon” parents on “pretty short notice.”

While all students have now received their school placements for next year, the school’s staff faces lingering uncertainty.

Dan Monahan, president of the Cambridge Public Schools’ educators union, said that the union is currently in negotiations with the district about the timeline and process for the reallocation of K-Lo staff.

“We’re hoping that this week, we can have some real conversations to try to come closer to some kind of agreement as to how to make this happen,” he said.

Monahan also said that some K-Lo teachers may have an opportunity to take positions that open up in the district, when contracts are not renewed due to poor performance or retirements.

“Essentially what we’re trying to negotiate is a smooth and

easy process for K-Lo educators to be transitioned into those positions without having to go through the whole interview process,” he said.

“Classroom teachers are critically important, and they are only one piece of the staff at the school that needs to find a new place,” Monahan added. The fate of administrators, custodians, and other members of the school’s staff is still being determined, according to Interim Superintendent David G. Murphy, who spoke on the issue during a joint roundtable between the CPS School Committee and Cambridge City Council on Monday.

“We have not finalized the entirety of the staffing structure,” Murphy said, adding that “it is definitely true that a high concentration of staffing resources will be redeployed.”

ayaan.ahmad@thecrimson.com claire.michal@thecrimson.com

Cambridge City Hall is located at 795 Massachusetts Ave. The city uses ShotSpotter senors to detect

How Ivies Negotiate PILOT Payments

NEGOTIATIONS. Other Ivy League universities agree to different Payment in Lieu of Taxes programs with local governments.

BY SHAWN A. BOEHMER AND JACK B. REARDON CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

In a recent Cambridge City Council meeting, the tensions underlying negotiations between Harvard and the city over its Payment in Lieu of Taxes program came to the surface in a half-serious threat: opening up a sewer line running under Harvard, a certain nightmare for the University.

“There have been occasions in the past when we have felt that we would need to open up that sewer line so as to do further investigations,” Deputy City Manager Owen O’Riordan said.

“So that’s also perhaps a little bit of leverage that we may be able to utilize,” O’Riordan added.

The warning was perhaps more a reminder of the city’s municipal powers than a genuine intention to dig up a sewer line running under the largest university library in the state. Yet it was also a reflection of the at-times awkward relationship between the immense wealth and influence of Harvard and the still-formidable powers over utilities and development that the city of Cambridge wields over it. Now, as Harvard’s twenty-year agreement with Cambridge approaches its June expiration date and Boston looks to revamp its voluntary payment program altogether – perhaps with a binding

agreement this time — that tense relationship has been thrust back into the spotlight. With potential turning points imminent for Harvard’s tax relationships with Boston and Cambridge, the Crimson looked at the PILOT programs of the seven other Ivy Leagues to understand how elite universities and their host cities negotiate their tax relationships across the American Northeast.

Relying on a mix of public records and university reports, the Crimson found existing agreements that ranged from contractual to voluntary, and running from just a few years long to several decades, each reflecting a possibility for the next iteration of Harvard’s own PILOT programs. Ultimately, how much the University ends up committing to pay — and for how long — may come to reflect the extent of goodwill existing between the institution and the cities that host it.beds,” Kalsow said. PILOT programs are a popular way for municipalities across the

country to recoup property taxes that they rely on to fund their budgets, but which are lost to the tax-exempt land holdings of wealthy nonprofits like Harvard. Since 2024, each University in the Ivy League has PILOT payments to their host city to compensate for their nonprofit, tax-exempt status.

Harvard has the longest history of PILOT payments among the Ivies, starting with its first to Cambridge in 1929. At the time, it was the first such agreement between a nonprofit institution and a municipality in the country.

The University’s current PILOT agreement with Cambridge was signed in 2004 and meant to last 50 years. But the city terminated the agreement after just 20, forcing them back to the negotiating table.

That means the agreement is set to end in June, with negotiations still ongoing. Cambridge is asking Harvard to increase its annual payments from $4.7 million, pointing out that both its endowment and annual budget have both more than doubled since the agreement was signed two decades ago.

Harvard’s 50-year contract with Cambridge represents the longest out of the Ivies’ PILOT agreements, a possible sign of goodwill between the two entities.

Ivies in much smaller towns, like Cornell and Princeton, tend to have shorter-term contracts — and joined the program later in the game. Princeton’s agreement with the borough of Princeton, the municipality it lies in, is just five years long, making it the shortest of the Ivies.

And while Harvard has been making PILOT payments since

1929, Cornell, located in the town of Ithaca, entered its first ever PILOT agreement with the municipality just last year.

Overall, Yale’s PILOT payments are the highest of the eight, averaging $22.5 million to the city of New Haven annually over a six year period.

Columbia’s payments, meanwhile, total to $4.72 million annually, as part of a 36 year agreement with West Harlem — a similar amount to that of Harvard’s original 50-year PILOT agreement that had since been terminated.

Along with stark differences in the length and amount of payment agreements, the allocation of these funds within municipalities also varies widely between the universities. Some universities, such as Yale and Brown, pay their sum directly to the city’s budget without strings attached.

Others, like UPenn and Princeton, focus their money on specific initiatives within the municipalities, such as addressing environmental hazards in Philadelphia public schools or Princeton’s sewer infrastructure and fire department improvement.

Princeton’s choice of contribution reflects a popular argument advanced by PILOT advocates, who say that tax-exempt universities still benefit from core city services like sewer systems, police and fire services, or snow removal, and therefore ought to direct a portion of property taxes back to the city to help fund those services.

Partly as a result, some universities’ preference for participating in PILOT programs through community benefits has angered resi-

dents, who criticize it as a cop-out from making the hard payments that cities need. In Boston, Harvard counts half of its PILOT contributions in community benefits, and has failed to meet the city’s requested cash payments for the last 12 years of available data.

Similarly, UPenn specifically has faced scrutiny over their unwillingness to pay PILOT payments outside of their public school initiative.

The Crimson reached out to spokespeople for every Ivy League University for this article, none of which provided comment.

Ultimately, the lagging efforts by Harvard, Cambridge, and Boston to settle on new agreements that will perhaps take inspiration from those of the other Ivies — either from their successes, or mistakes — will add to a longer, century-long struggle to agree on tax arrangements between town and gown.

The Deputy City Manager’s warning this January year recalled similar comments that were made decades ago. Like O’Riordan, Cambridge Mayor Alfred E. Vellucci once attempted to remind Harvard of the city’s municipal powers in the 1980s with a threat to seize Harvard Yard by eminent domain — and then pave it over to create more public parking.

“We will cut all their trees and all their landscape after confiscating their land by police force if necessary,” Vellucci said in a perhaps equally-unserious threat. In the end, the Yard survived, as have Harvard’s ties with the city.

jack.reardon@thecrimson.com shawn.boehmer@thecrimson.com

Brighton Residents Protest Proposed High School Closure

BY ANGELINA J. PARKER AND EMILY T. SCHWARTZ CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Approximately 50 parents, students, teachers and Brighton residents rallied outside the Mary Lyon Upper School on Tuesday night to protest the high school’s proposed closure, before attending a meeting with district officials inside.

The meeting — which was closed to the media — was the first in-person discussion between Lyon parents and officials since the district announced its closure plans last month. Parents and Lyon alumni left the meeting hopeful that the Boston School Committee may still amend the proposal to close the school, which they said seemingly remains unclear and far from final.

The Lyon would be among four schools to close at the end of next school year, in an attempt to consolidate amid enrollment decline across the district and improve building infrastructure. Since BPS

proposed the closures at a virtual press conference in early January, parents at the Lyon have organized weekly community meetings, written a petition that has garnered more than 100 signatures, lobbied their elected representatives, and planned Tuesday’s rally to protest the school’s closure. Parents’ concerns include losing the Lyon’s specialized full-inclusion classrooms that integrate students with and without special education needs, as well as its unique support for students and its tight-knit community.

Irma Yuman Revolorio, who graduated from the Lyon in 2020, returned on Tuesday to attend both the rally and the community meeting that followed. For Revolorio, attending the Lyon is a family tradition — all three of her older brothers did so before her.

“I had an amazing experience with all the teachers that I had. They helped me with everything that I know now today as an adult,” Revolorio said.

She said that attending the rally made her hopeful and gave people the opportunity for their “voices to be heard.”

“I feel like we came together as a community and as a family,” Revolorio added.

Savannah Lewis, who graduated from the Lyon in 2014, said that the school’s teachers have developed a talent for teaching full-inclusion classrooms, a skill that would go untapped if the school were to close.

“I really think that those teachers have a lot to teach the community, and they could build something really beautiful based on the foundation that they were given, but they’re deciding to close the school instead,” Lewis said.

According to Lewis, the Lyon’s reputation of support has even attracted students from outside of Boston.

“A lot of my peers have had their parents move to this area or move across the country just so that they could have their educational and social and emotional needs met,”

Lewis said. Parents also spoke about the importance of the Lyon’s dedication to teaching children with Individualized Education Plans and other special needs to parents living in the Boston area.

“To close this school, especially for families that have children on IEPs and 504s, not only does that do such a disservice to the community, but it’s making it harder for families to access special education,” Dana J. Green, a former parent, said in an interview earlier this month. “It meant that we weren’t sending them out to Foxboro or an hour away.”

Despite the closure announcement, some meeting attendees believe there is still a chance that the school remains open past the proposed closure date.

“I think there are a lot of community members hoping that the district changes their mind,” Lewis said.

Kerry A. Flaherty, parent at the Lyon, said that the plan did not

seem to be finalized yet — and that there remain many “what ifs.”

According to Cristin M. Stegemann, a Lyon parent and president of the Lyon’s School Council, an advisory board of school affiliates, officials said at the meeting that “no decision has been made” and that there remains “a glimmer of hope.”

“Maybe they’ll see us and hear us and keep us open, or maybe give us an opportunity to merge someplace, instead of just shutting us down,” she said. “I’m not done fighting.”

“I’m hopeful, but not 100 percent hopeful,” she added. “I’m worried about Allston-Brighton. You’ve taken away another school, and they’ve got other Allston-Brighton schools supposedly on the chopping block.”

Both Stegemann and Flaherty said they will continue organizing until the School Committee’s final vote, which they expect to come next month.

angelina.parker@thecrimson.com emily.schwartz@thecrimson.com

Massport Floats Uber, Lyft Fee Hike for Airport Travel Price

BY STEPHANIE DRAGOI AND THAMINI VIJEYASINGAM CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Fees on trips to and from Boston Logan International Airport could more than double by 2027, as the Massachusetts Port Authority considers hiking rates on ride-hailing pick-ups and drop-offs at the airport. At a board committee meeting Feb. 13, Massport, the agency that oversees Logan’s operations, discussed increasing airport fees on ride-booking services like Uber and Lyft from $3.25 to $5.50 this summer, and to $7.50 by July 2027, according to materials obtained by the Boston Globe. A roundtrip fee of $15 would be the highest in the nation, surpassing airports like Chicago O’Hare International Airport’s $10 roundtrip fee and San Francisco International Airport’s $11 fee.

The proposed increase follows an especially busy year for Logan airport, which saw 43 million passengers in 2024. Nearly 30 percent of those passengers used a ridehail service for their commute to or from the airport. Airport traffic is projected to in-

crease even further in 2025, and Massport spokesperson Jennifer B. Mehigan wrote in a statement that the airport needs to “make improvements to all of our ground transportation modes.” Revenue generated from the fee hikes would be funnelled into infrastructure upgrades, including a new parking garage meant to support the increased traffic.

“Any changes in transportation fees would be intended to fund those investments,” Mehigan wrote in an emailed statement.

The Massport board is expected to vote on the fee increase at its next meeting on March 20. The proposed rate hike was met with outrage from the state’s two biggest ride-booking companies, Uber and Lyft.

Uber spokesperson Josh Gold wrote in a statement that Massport’s decision not to include the company in fee discussions was a “missed opportunity.”

Gold wrote that ride-hail services were unfairly targeted by the fees because taxis and personal vehicles continue to pay nothing for curb access to the airport.

“This disparity raises serious equity concerns,” Gold said.

Lyft spokesperson CJ Macklin

also argued the policy would hurt visitors to the city, as well as driver earnings.

“A $15 roundtrip fee just to go to the airport and back would be an outrageous burden on the people of Boston and its visitors,” he wrote in a statement, adding that price increases amid high inflation would be the “wrong way to go.”

Though the fee would be directly applied to ride-booking companies, consumers — including Harvard students traveling between Logan and campus — would face steeper costs for each ride.

Depending on the time, a oneway trip from Harvard Square to Logan airport could cost as much as $50. And while taking the MBTA is a much cheaper alternative, the trains can be unreliable and trips can take up to an hour.

Complaints about high taxi and ride-share costs prompted the Harvard Undergraduate Association to put $10,000 towards a free shuttle service to Logan airport for students traveling home in December.

Ray A. Mundy, former executive director of the Airport Ground Transport Association, said that fees like those at Logan are important for improving airport infrastructure.

“Parking and travel rules are where the airport makes most of their usable revenue,” Mundy said.

But Shannon E. Liss-Riordan ’90, a Massachusetts employment lawyer who has represented Uber and Lyft drivers in past class action cases against the companies, said the drivers will likely shoulder the heaviest burden from the fee hikes.

“Maybe riders don’t take Uber or Lyft as much, maybe they won’t tip as much if they have these higher fees. There are a lot of concerns,” Liss-Riordan, a former Crimson editor, said.

“I would be much happier with this proposal if Uber and Lyft themselves had to bear this cost, because they’re the ones, really, who have created this congestion issue through their business models,” she added.

Boston has some of the worst traffic in the world, ranking fourth for worst congestion among U.S. cities. According to a 2021 MIT study, ride-hail companies have increased the intensity and duration of congestion, also causing a substantial drop in public transit usage.

Spokespeople for Uber and Lyft did not respond to criticism that they created congestion, but Uber spokesperson Freddi Goldstein

said the tax would be detrimental across the board.

“Massport’s tax will hurt riders, drivers and the surrounding communities,” Goldstein wrote. “Riders will be stuck with a $15 bill just for going to the airport, drivers will lose business when riders opt to drive themselves instead and congestion will only get worse.”

But Christopher Dempsey, a partner at urban planning firm Speck Dempsey and former Massachusetts Assistant Secretary of Transportation, said that raising the fees would be a beneficial push toward public transit.

“It makes all the sense in the world for Massport to be trying to incentivize the trips that don’t slow everybody else down — and those tend to be the ones that are buses and trains,” Dempsey said.

Mundy, the former AGTA executive director, said Massport is justified in raising the fee after six years, but said he wished there was a gradual transition.

“I suspect that the airport and maybe its board are saying, ‘Look, it’s time we did catch up. We wish we would have increased their fees

stephanie.dragoi@thecrimson.com thamini.vijeyasingam@thecrimson.com

BY SHAWN A. BOEHMER AND JACK B. REARDON CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Every Monday, Cambridge residents filter into City Council meetings, using their two minutes of public comment in Sullivan Chamber to inform their leaders’ decisions. But on Tuesday, decision-makers and residents sat side-by-side in the decorated chamber to review Cambridge’s biggest successes — and challenges — in this year’s State of the City Address. A joint address from Mayor E. Denise Simmons and City Manager Yi-An Huang ’05 covered the city’s recent accomplishments and future priorities, with both leaders candidly sharing their worries about the Trump administration’s impact on the city.

“Even in these early weeks, we’ve seen an escalation of chaos and unpredictability sending shock waves that could disrupt critical funding programs and policies that directly impact our residents,” Simmons said. “Make no mistake, the road ahead of us will not be easy.” “But let me also be clear that Cambridge will not yield,” she added.

Huang echoed Simmons’ sentiments, adding that the new federal administration and its “chaos” would present a major challenge to the city’s future.

“We are entering a time of lower growth, of flat valuations and tremendous uncertainty in federal funding,” he said.

But despite the challenging road ahead, Huang also reassured attendees that Cambridge will remain committed to its core ideals.

“We are committed to the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion, which is not about identity-based politics, but about creating a real meritocracy where everyone has a chance to succeed and to lead,” Huang said. “We will remain a welcoming community that supports everyone in our city.”

Councilors were joined by the Cambridge delegation to the Massachusetts legislature and Lieutenant Governor Kimberly L. Driscoll, who connected Cambridge’s progress to state-level initiatives — specifically tackling affordable housing.

“The City of Cambridge has really done outsized work in tackling the state’s housing crisis and being a real partner in that effort,” Driscoll said.

“You’re really helping drive the agenda, and I want to say thank you for that because somebody needs to drive the agenda,” she added. Simmons and Huang highlighted Cambridge’s recent policy successes, including a recent end to single-family zoning, the launch of the city’s universal preschool program, and the expansion of unarmed police alternatives.

Echoing Driscoll’s comments on affordable housing, Simmons praised the Council’s move to restructure zoning laws.

“We are taking bold steps to increase housing supply, promote equity, and create a more inclusive community,” Simmons said. Simmons also touted the Cambridge Preschool Program, which was launched last February after more than 30 years of development.

“This program will benefit 800 children in its first year. The program has been a huge success, and we’re looking ahead to find new ways to expand this program to include all of our three-year-olds in the future,” Simmons said.

As Cambridge works to resolve ongoing problems with gun violence in the city, Simmons discussed safety measures — including the installation of surveillance cameras in Central Square and the launch of CARE, Cambridge’s behavioral health response team — as positive steps forward.

Huang also spoke highly of the CARE team, which launched last year.

“CARE started responding to 911 calls this past summer and has served, since then, more than 200 911 calls,” Huang said. Despite the evolving challenges that Huang mentioned, Simmons stressed the stability of the city.

“Tonight, I’m proud to report, the state of our city is resilient, unbowed, and strong,” Simmons said.

BARBARA A. SHEEHAN — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Lovestruck Books Wins Over Hearts

THIS NEW OPENING IS SURE TO MAKE ANY BOOK LOVER FALL HEAD OVER HEELS IN LOVE.

BY HANNAH E.

Lovestruck Books is here to win over booklovers’ hearts. This new independent and woman-owned bookstore located on Brattle Street specializes in romance novels and focuses on “celebrating love in all its forms.” Alongside its literary mission, Lovestruck sports a cozy cafe offering George Howell coffee and even anticipates serving wine in the near future. With its celebration of an often-overlooked genre exploding in popularity and its inviting atmosphere, Lovestruck Books is set to be a match made in heaven for Cambridge book lovers.

The bookstore opened on Jan. 17 and celebrated its Grand Opening Weekend with a slate of activities from tarot card readings to cupcake eating. Rachel Kanter, Lovestruck’s owner, was present to head the festivities. In

the month or so since the shop’s opening, it’s been buzzing with customers and gaining popularity on social media.

It’s no wonder that videos of the store are racking up views, as its decor is candy for the eye.

Lavish pink-and-red faux flowers decorate the exterior of the store, and the store’s porch offers seating for warmer weather. Inside, visitors are greeted with a pyramid of romance-themed merchandise and red, white, and black shelves stocked with subgenres ranging from LGBTQ+ novels to historical romance to romantasy, a subgenre that’s especially popular online for its mixing of fantastical elements with classic love plots.

The cafe area is more subtly love-themed but still smoothly integrated into the bookselling. One can either study quietly with their latte or shop while they sip. There’s plenty of plush seating and a wide-ranging selection of books, so it’s easy to get lost in Lovestruck for a full afternoon.

Beyond selling romance and smut, Lovestruck is also focused on normalizing the genre and creating a comfortable community space in Cambridge. Kay -

la Januchowski, Lovestruck’s general manager, sat down with The Crimson to discuss some of these goals.

“I think with the resurgence of the romance genre, in general, becoming very popular and well-loved, especially coming out of the pandemic, there was a need for everyone to have a safe, inclusive place to enjoy the genre without feeling shame or embarrassment for liking it,” Januchowski said.

There’s been a boom in romance novel sales, but it’s often taboo to openly discuss the works offline. Lovestruck wants to change that.

“I think a lot of communities, not just Cambridge, need a place like this where folks can come in and not only feel like they belong, but also can open any book and find themselves in it, and can relate to our characters, our diverse selection of authors, and just our amazing stories,” Januchowski said.

Part of getting this message out into the world is making sure that customers are aware of Lovestruck Books. With the rise of online communities like BookTok, social media has been shown to get readers ex -

cited about coming together to discuss and share books. Lovestruck is cognizant of how impactful an online presence can be from a marketing and community-building standpoint.

“I think that it’s just as important to create a community online and virtually, as well as in person,” Januchowski said.

“Some people may not be able to get to our store physically. Perhaps they are uncomfortable coming in a physical setting, and that is valid, and we want to create a safe space for them to enjoy our community that we’ve built together. That’s where our online presence comes in.”

The presence seems to be translating into in-person customers as well as views and likes. One customer, Taylor Bliss, visited the store while visiting Boston from Connecticut. She was made aware of the store’s opening via social media.

“I was just scrolling and I happened to see it, and I didn’t notice that it was actually in Boston. And then my friend saw it and sent it to me,” Bliss said.

“She was like, ‘We have to stop and check out this place.’ And I remembered that I had seen it on Tiktok like a week prior.”

Lovestruck is also focused on expanding its events schedule, to provide reasons for people to keep visiting the shop. This could help the store become a new third place for Cambridge and New England community members to connect over common interests.

Januchowski expanded on Lovestruck’s most pressing plans: creating more events to get people in the store.

“We’re going to be introducing a writer circle soon,” Januchowski said. “Our first book club just happened. We have more coming down the pipeline. And even some non-book events in the future, is something that we’re thinking about. Again, creating a community for everyone to come in and enjoy this space and to share their love for indie authors and for the independent bookstore.” Lovestruck Books is a romance bookstore, but it’s also set to become a place to meet bookish peers, a cafe study spot, and perhaps a multi-faceted community space. This new opening is sure to make any book lover fall head over heels in love.

hannah.gadway@thecrimson.com

‘The Odyssey’ Review: An Unraveling of an Epic Tale

BY SELORNA A. ACKUAYI CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

From the moment audiences enter the house of the American Repertory Theater’s Loeb Proscenium to see “The Odyssey,” they are transported to Ithaca, the home to the play’s protagonists, Penelope (Andrus Nichols) and Odysseus (Wayne T. Carr). A bronze bowl rests, faintly lit, at the center of the stage. With this centerpiece, framed by a proscenium arch adorned with ropes of varying lengths and accompanied by a soundscape of crashing waves, the stage begins to tell the story of Odysseus’s return to Ithaca and his wife’s struggles to fend off power-hungry suitors, before any character is introduced. This dynamism is the central thesis of the play. When Odysseus enters the stage, he immediately begins washing himself — as dusty and dirty as the stage floor — with water from the bowl. Before words are spoken, the world on the stage is made real through the tactility of the props. Carr is not afraid to be messy, water splashes onto his clothes and the floor so that the scene flows from and within every surface of the stage.

Alongside Odysseus, are the three unnamed Fates — played by Alejandra Escalente, playwright Kate Hamill, and Nike Imoru. Acting as Odysseus’s living conscience, they narrate Odysseus’s past and give context to the present that the audiences now find themselves thrust into. In a unique contrast between interiority and exteriority, they also portray Penelope’s handmaidens who bear witness to her externalized moral struggles as she tries to stay loyal to her husband.

Just

Just as the Fates move between roles, each transition seamlessly weaves each scene together like one of the featured tapestries Penelope makes in “The Odyssey.” With natural blocking by director Shana Cooper, transitions make full use of the stage — preceding scenes are inconspicuously contained in one half of the stage while

a new scene begins in the other. In one notable moment, the Fates suddenly bleat like sheep, triggering a scene transition to Odysseus and his men on the evil cyclops Polyphemus’s (Jason O’Connell) island where the women now portray Polyphemus’s prized flock. The creative team of “The Odyssey” demonstrate that they are ready to command all of the audience’s senses. Light and sound evoke the presence of Ancient Greek gods on the stage and amidst the audience, as evidenced by the sound of a large exhale and dimming lights when Odysseus and his men enter Polyphemus’s cave. The subtle nod to invisible characters controlling the fates of the ones the audience can see makes the world on the stage feel more rich.

While named “The Odyssey” after Homer’s iconic epic poem, the play does more than focus on Odysseus. Penelope is introduced in the first full scene of the play — a major shift from Penelope’s lesser role in Homer’s original poem and indicative of playwright Kate Hamill’s efforts to re-imagine this story with a feminist lens. However, Nichol’s portrayal of Penelope lacks the dynamic complexity her revitalized character demands.

Her line delivery falls flat and lacks the dynamic nuance — Penelope’s mood is monotonously morose and mismatched with the intertwined themes of resilience and yearning that her character is meant to represent. However, mixed media elements of “The Odyssey” rescue potential moments of stagnation. The actors became a part of the cloth, rope, wood, and string motifs of Sibyl Wickersheimer’s scenic design as they supplement expository monologues with shadow puppetry meant to represent Penelope’s weaving. Throughout the play, shadow puppetry is utilized to interpret the character of the cyclops Polyphemus and convey the story of Odysseus’s brutal attack on Troy. Ithaca is represented by a neutral-colored asymmetrical set, but designer An-Lin Dauber’s costumes bring each individual to the forefront of each scene, emphasizing Hamill’s efforts to break each character out of the story that audiences think they know. Male characters dress in dark modern clothing such as dark jeans and combat boots — with Odysseus’s soldiers occasionally sporting Cold War-era gas masks and combat helmets — and female charac-

ters wear brighter colors such as the Fates’ neutral off-white robes that match the set’s muted palette. This contrast in costumes establishes the women in the play as scene creators and the men in the play as story disruptors. Penelope’s suitors, in particular, are dressed in gaudy fur coats, colorful beanies, headbands, and sunglasses in jarring “frat-bro” caricatures. These costumes alongside the anachronistic characterization of the suitors as young, vulgar drunkards slightly undermine the play’s gravity, but can be understood as an attempt to add familiarity and humor to the play for audience members who may feel detached from the play’s ancient origins — true to Hamill’s vision of the original classic’s “potential to speak to the times in which we live.”

Humor plays a role in mellowing villainous characters beyond the suitors in “The Odyssey.” The cyclops Polyphemus is a buffonish but sympathetic oaf, and the witch Circe (Kate Hamill) is silly and child-like despite paralleling Odysseus’s dark side. These flattened character portrayals are shallowly reimagined, but serve to highlight Odysseus’s austerity and allow the audience to con-

sider his acts of violence and ask whether he is the true villain. The play’s humor begins to unravel the Odyssey’s traditional hero narrative, but occasionally seems awkwardly out of place. Instead of serving to build the story, actors mooing like cows and frequently over-emphasized profanity often distract from moments of poignancy. Hamill’s play asks the essential question “If you’ve gone through something traumatic, can you ever go back to who you were?” It also challenges audiences to hold themselves accountable for their contributions to the romanticization of the violent actions of heroes. By the end of the play, when the water motif comes full circle and the lights come down on Penelope and Odysseus washing each other of blood, The A.R.T’s “The Odyssey” has unraveled and re-spun a moving tale that questions whether violence is ever justified and asks us all to reconsider the stories we celebrate.

“The Odyssey” runs at the Loeb Drama Center until March 16.

LOWELL HOUSE OPERA RETURNS TO HISTORIC DINING HALL

rom Feb. 21 to Feb. 23, Lowell House Opera returned to its historic venue, the Lowell House Dining Hall, with a three-performance run of Dominick Argento’s opera “Postcard from Morocco.” Directed by Haley M. Stark ’25 and music directed by Benjamin T. Rossen ’23, “Postcard from Morocco” is the 79th season production of the opera company, which is composed of Harvard undergraduates, Lowell affiliates, and Boston-based theater professionals.

“This is sort of our proof of concept year, demonstrating that it can happen,” Rossen said in an interview with The Crimson.

Lowell House Opera is the oldest currently performing opera company in New England, described by Stark as “full of tradition and ritual.”

Due to House renovations, Covid-19, and administrative changes in Lowell House, the company has faced several ven -

ue changes and a show cancellation. “Postcard from Morocco” is its first full production in the dining hall since 2017.

“To go back to the dining hall is to go back to some of those traditions and rituals that we have foregone recently for various reasons,” Stark said. The process of return has been incremental. “The Unknowable,” an original operatic ballet by Rossen, premiered at Sanders Theatre on Feb. 10, 2024. “Viva La Vie Bohème,” a concert featuring songs from the 1996 rock musical “Rent” and its loose inspiration, Pucicni’s 1896 opera “La Bohème,” ran in the Lowell House Dining Hall on April 12, 2024.

“After the success of ‘The Unknowable,’ it became clear that we could return back un -

der the right conditions, and as

long as we did it in a way that was more flexible in terms of the scope of the production,” Rossen said.

A strategic report assembled by Harvard’s Office for the Arts in 2023 identified arts programming in the Houses as one of “four distinct areas” needing greater investment, a plan Rossen says is deeply relevant to Lowell House Opera.

While pre-2017 productions featured elaborate sets built on the dais at the end of the dining hall, Stark’s team followed a stripped-down vision that was more sustainable yet remained artistically impactful, taking advantage of the dining hall’s grand windows and striking yellow walls. Placing the orchestra on the dais, the team built a makeshift stage in the center of the dining hall to immerse audiences in the show’s unconventional setting: a train station.

“I hope that this show offers [Lowell House Opera] an insight into what avant-garde staging can do for the modernization of some of these operas

‘The White Lotus’ Review: Monkey See, Monkey Do

BY JORDEN S. WALLICAN-OKYERECRIMSON STAFF WRITER

As Season 3 of HBO’s hit series “The White Lotus” relocates to Thailand, it follows its established formula: a cold open at inevitable death — gunshots interrupt a meditation session — followed by a week-long rewind introducing a fresh batch of privileged, often oblivious guests. This season’s debut feels especially sharp, wasting no time in finding its footing. The show’s new credit sequence provides a roadmap for the season’s themes. It features serene, colorful images of Buddhist shrines, followed by unsettling images of devoured and maimed bodies. This slow corruption of paradise is familiar territory, yet the first episode sets up a fresh narrative. The revamped title sequence itself reminds viewers that although the world of “The White Lotus” looks the same in its first episode’s structure, things are also ominously new, with an undercurrent of danger that is waiting to rise to the surface. An opening shot of “The White Lotus” premiere frames the three Ratliff siblings in an almost eerie tableau, setting the tone for yet another season of luxurious discontent. Much of the intrigue rests with the Ratliff family, particularly Tim (Jason Isaacs), a high-strung Southern businessman, who is beginning to unravel under the weight of looming scandal and possible financial ruin. Tim clashes immediately with Walton Goggins’s character Rick,

another hyper-masculine figure who, despite his laid-back facade, is just as performative in his machismo. Alongside Rick is his hilarious and slightly eccentric girlfriend, Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood), whose astute observations seem to hint at the season’s overarching motifs. Parker Posey delivers a stunningly meme-able performance as Victoria, a Southern mother perpetually teetering between poise and prescription-induced drowsiness. Her interactions with her children — sex-obsessed nepo-baby Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), spiritually curious Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook), whose thesis research about Buddhism is the reason for the family’s trip, and much sought-after Lochlan (Sam Nivola), caught in an incestuous tug-of-war between his siblings — add depth to an otherwise surface-level nuclear family. “We’re a normal family, you’ll see,” says Victoria to one

Rothwell) makes a long-awaited return, this time navigating the world of high-end wellness training. Her presence —though welcome —feels vastly empty thus far. Notably, her phone call with her son towards the end of the episode ironically highlights the show’s lack of Black characters. “I saw two Black people tonight,” Belinda observes, “ane they weren’t staff.” The line resonates even more given the season’s release during Black History Month. The show’s chronic lack of Black characters remains evident, making Belinda’s presence — and her son’s foreshadowed presence in future episodes — all the more significant. As in past seasons, guests arrive by boat, echoing the colonialist undertones of wealthy outsiders “settling” into unfamiliar lands. The local staff in Thailand, including the flirty pair Mook (Lalisa Manobal) and Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong)

As in past seasons, guests arrive by boat, echoing the colonialist undertones of wealthy outsiders “settling” into unfamiliar lands.

of the hotel staff as they settle into their room; it is clear that the Ratliffs are most likely anything but. Elsewhere, Belinda (Natasha

add a layer of tension that underscores the social and economic hierarchies at play at the resort. Mook’s attention drifts away from Gaitok’s wooing to -

that might seem a little out of reach,” Stark said. “Postcard from Morocco,” which premiered in 1971, is a far shot from the typical opera. A one-act show composed of narrative vignettes about seven characters waiting in a train station, it lacks a large chorus, symphonic orchestra, or even a narrative throughline. While abstract, the story reflects the human condition in its “very human” characters, according to Rossen.

“Some people seek connection. Some people keep to

The cast, which spans from professional performers to a firstyear undergraduate, rehearsed nearly every night in the Lowell basement to prepare the show in a matter of weeks.

themselves and don’t want to talk to anyone. Some people invent their whole new personality just for that liminal space and when they leave it, they leave that behind as well,” said Chen Wine, a graduate student at the Longy School of Music of

Bard College, who plays A Lady with a Hand Mirror. The cast, which spans from professional performers to a first-year undergraduate, rehearsed nearly every night in the Lowell basement to prepare the show in a matter of weeks.

Wine described the process as “intense, difficult, and joyous.”

Upon moving to the dining hall, the Lowell House Opera team’s work coincided with resident student life.

“Sometimes we rehearsed with Lowell House students coming there, and drinking their drinks, doing their homework in the back,” Wine said.

The choice of a rather modern and unconventional opera fits with Lowell House Opera’s mission to prove impactful and accessible opera can exist in 2025, even in “intimate venues with strange configurations,” in Rossen’s words.

“I hope that people feel as though this venue is a legitimate one, and can absolutely house this kind of art making,” Rossen said. “We believe it has.”

“Postcard from Morocco” ran at Lowell House from Feb. 21 to Feb. 23.

ward the more “masculine” and better-paid security guards who work at the hotel — a dynamic that seems poised to spark an arc of self-discovery for Gaitok. In moments like those between Mook and Gaitok — where the facade of subservient hospitality fades — the show raises deeper questions about the ethics of tourism and the power imbalances it perpetuates. One would be remiss not to mention what can be described as the season’s evil triplets — a name that encapsulates the simmering toxicity within their friendship, and their insistence on reminding everyone, including themselves, that as children they were constantly mistaken for one another. The trio consists of perpetual third wheel Laurie (Carrie

Coon), famous actress Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan), and appearance-obsessed Kate (Leslie Bibb), indulging in a midlife girls’s trip. The animosity and envy between them is palpable, with their every conversation dripping in thinly veiled resentment. Though they grew up together, their childhoods seem to provide the bulk of the happy memories they share. As Jaclyn and Kate sideline a wine-guzzling Laurie in nearly every conversation, the old axiom rings true: “There’s a duo in every trio.” Who needs enemies with friends like these? Lastly, the unexpected return of Greg (Jon Gries) — widowed after the death of Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) in Season 2, in which he had a hand —adds a sinister layer to the episode.

Whether Greg’s reappearance will provide further connections to the second season remains to be seen. The premiere establishes many compelling dynamics, with a pacing and tension that makes it just as, if not more, gripping than its predecessors. With seven more episodes ahead, “The White Lotus” continues to prove why it remains one of HBO’s sharpest social satires — dark, delicious, and impossible to look away from.

4

The English professor sat down with Fifteen Minutes to discuss cultural production, writing with ChatGPT, and modeling a chatbot after himself. Professor Martin Puchner is the Byron and Anita Wien Chair of Drama and of English and Comparative Literature. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

FM: When did you realize that literature was something you wanted to research?

MP: Pretty late. I was not a great reader in middle or high school. I read some literature, but I was preoccupied with other things

Q&A:

MARTIN PUCHNER ON PHILOSOPHER CHATBOTS, AI WRITING, AND THE FUTURE

THE PROFESSOR OF DRAMA, ENGLISH, AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE sat down with Fifteen Minutes to discuss cultural production, writing with ChatGPT, and modeling a chatbot after himself.

Maybe you could train it on your own books.

MP: Okay, all right, I’ll admit I did create one. It’s not publicly available, but I did feed it a couple of my books — now, I don’t own the copyright to many of my books, but, early versions, non-edited versions of a couple of my books. Though I have to say, I have not spent a lot of time in conversation with myself, but I tried it, and it works well enough.

FM: Did you really make the Machiavelli chatbot to give leadership advice to President Garber?

MP: It was sort of tongue in cheek, but I did send it to him, and he said he liked it — but no. I actually think Machiavelli gets a bad rap. He really invented politics as we know it. His reputation is as the scheming, backroom kind of figure, but in “The

Prince,” he creates basically a theory of modern politics. So I thought, ‘Yes, it would be very interesting to have someone like that.’ So it was more for general purposes, but I’m very glad that our university is in good hands.

FM: I’ve heard a lot of concerns about AI, especially among academics. Was it natural for you to respond to these technologies by experimenting with them, or were you also initially afraid?

MP: I think both. I completely get how people react to this crazy new technology by being afraid. I grew up on the same “Terminator,” “Skynet,” “Frankenstein” stories. I get the fear, but I’ve become very skeptical of apocalyptic scenarios in general. For me, it started when I was thinking about storytelling and climate change, where I became skeptical of a certain kind of apocalyptic narrative. I think that’s also true of technology. We

live at a time, I feel like, where the default is almost apocalyptic thinking. That can, in certain contexts, maybe have limited use — I can see that it might activate a certain kind of person — but on the whole, I think it does more damage than good. In any case, this is maybe one reason why I then was relatively quick to check my own apocalyptic impulses. And I’ve always been interested in technology. I’ve written a lot about the deep history of technology and culture, from the invention of writing to the printing press. I felt like, “Here, this is just happening around me. I should give it a try.”

FM: How often do you use ChatGPT day-to-day?

MP: ChatGPT in general, several times a day — not necessarily my customized GPTs, but yeah, I definitely use it. Mostly as a kind of research assistant, I would say, is the main use.

FM: In a speech you gave, you described AI as something that will transform us as we incorporate it into our lives. I’m curious, as you’ve used AI for recent projects, how you’ve personally been transformed.

MP: I would say that I’ve been — but it’s just an effect of basically having an army of research assistants at my disposal — more confident to wade into areas I don’t know very much about.

FM: What do you think writing courses should look like at Harvard in 15 years?

MP: I’m working on a writing course right now.

I have a job at the Provost’s Office at VPAL [the Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning]. In that capacity, I’ve been working for almost two years on an online writing course that’s trying to do what doesn’t really exist yet — namely, to

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Miracle Shot Keeps Harvard’s Hopes Alive SPORTS 16

BY PRAVEEN KUMAR CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

The Palestra, dubbed the Cathedral of College Basketball, added another instant classic to its rich history as Harvard (10-14, 5-6 Ivy) defeated Penn (7-17, 3-8 Ivy) in a thrilling 79-78 overtime duel. The win keeps the Crimson one game out of the fourth and final spot in the Ivy Madness tournament. The contest between the 5th and 6th ranked Ivy League foes saw Harvard’s efficient offense that included five double-digit scorers matched by paint dominance from the Quakers. The Crimson — who blew a 17-point first half lead — found itself down by five points with just over a minute left in regulation.

“It was a vintage, typical, as we’ve seen through the years Ivy League contest on a Saturday night,” said Head Coach Tommy Amaker. “We’ve been in a number of these through the years. I can’t say enough about the will that both teams had here on senior night for their team. I was so impressed with the guts that our kids had to have,

especially our young kids – Austin Hunt, Robert Hinton, Tey Barbour. Just amazing plays by all our guys.” After forcing a critical turnover, Amaker smartly played the fouling game. The next sequence between the teams included eight fouls and several free throw attempts, boiling down to one last chance for Harvard to keep its season alive. In the arena that’s seen the most NCAA basketball games, hosted the most collegiate teams, and witnessed Kobe Bryant’s penultimate high school contest, the crowd stood on its feet with just over five seconds remaining as the Crimson trailed the Quakers 68-71. Freshman Austin Hunt heaved a one-handed inbound pass across the court as three players jumped for control of the ball past the halfcourt mark. Sophomore Thomas Batties II was able to tip the rock to senior guard Evan Nelson. Wasting no time, Nelson sprinted to the right wing, launched an off-balance three point attempt, and said a prayer. The ball sank into the basket with 1.1 seconds remaining and Harvard’s bench erupted. Penn guard Sam Brown’s full-court subsequent full-court

attempt fell short as both teams knew what was next: overtime.

“I told my teammates, if we tip it, I’d get it,” said Nelson. “You know, I just have confidence. I like the palestra. I knew if I got a look, I was gonna make it. So I’m happy he tipped it and it worked out how it did.”

Entering the overtime period, Harvard opened with possession. Batties drew a foul and nailed both shots from the charity stripe, giving the Crimson a 73-71 lead.

Following two minutes of scoreless action, the Quakers responded with two free throws of their own to tie the game at 73 points apiece. A hook shot from Nick Spinoso — who finished with a career high 24 points — swung the game back in Penn’s favor. On the ensuing possession, Hunt lost his defender with a backdoor cut, giving him an easy reverse layup to tie the game at 75.

After trading another pair of free throws, the teams stood pat at 77 with under a minute remaining. With 35 seconds left on the clock, Spinoso missed his first shot, but sank his second to make the score 78-77.

Attempting to take the lead,

freshman guard Robert Hinton, who finished with a team-high 22 points, cut to the basket and fell to the floor as George Smith was called for a foul with 26 seconds left, much to the crowd’s displeasure. The freshman made both shots from the charity stripe to give the Crimson a one point 7978 lead.

Following a timeout, the Quakers put the ball in guard Evan Roberts’ hands. Roberts missed a driving layup, but the ball deflected off of Harvard, giving Penn another opportunity to win the game. After yet another timeout, the Quakers ran a set featuring star guard Sam Brown.

Brown, standing behind the arc in the corner, flung a shot into the air, senior guard Louis Lesmond’s outstretched hands blocked the ball. Spinoso recovered the rock with just over two seconds remaining, but was unable to cash in the jumper, sealing the tense victory for the Crimson. “That was a team win. I love the effort. Everybody played together. We didn’t, we didn’t

Indoor Track Hopeful For Ivy Championship

Harvard Track and Field will look to build on a record-breaking season this weekend at Indoor Ivy League championships, after setting more than ten school and league records since December.

The record-setting athletes attributed their success to the team’s “camaraderie” and consistent intensity at practice.

The Crimson’s Ivy League records from this season include the women’s distance medley relay, the women’s pentathlon, and women’s pole vault, while the team has set school records in the men’s 60 meters, men’s high jump, women’s 4x400-meter relay, women’s long jump, and sprinting events like the women’s 300 meters, 800 meters, and 1000 meters.

This weekend, the Crimson will travel up to Ithaca, NY to compete in the Ivy League Indoor Heptagonal Championships at Cornell. Several Track and Field athletes said they are unsure whether Harvard will clinch the league title. Last year, the titles went to the Princeton men’s and Penn women’s teams, though Harvard women’s and men’s teams took respective first and second place wins in 2023.

“Last year was a little tough for us. We weren’t really in a place we wanted,” senior sprinter Izzy

Goudros said. “We have a fire in us now that we want to come back and we want to be on the top, so I think there’s a lot of energy. I think we all have this big goal again.”

“We tried to have that championship mentality the entire season, so that it’s not like, ‘Let’s just turn this on the week before,’” she said. “We practice every single day with that mindset, so that this

really good philosophy to have,” he said. At the start of each season, the team sets a number of collective goals, Goudros said, including getting the women’s relay to nationals.

Senior sprinter Victoria Bossong, who holds several short distance school records and the Ivy League women’s distance medley record, said she expects the meet to be a “battle,” but one the Crimson have been preparing for all season.

week can just be a regular week of training like a champion.”

The team’s “competitive nature” has driven them to new heights this season, according to sophomore sprinter Timi Esan.

“Everyone wants to be the best — which is, especially in track, a

“Knowing that we have these goals and it’s a collective thing that we all want — it helps hold each other accountable when we’re at practice,” she said.

The team’s goal is likely to become a reality, as the women’s 4x400-meter relay is currently

eighth in the NCAA and well within the top 12 teams set to receive an invite to next month’s national championship in Virginia Beach. But the eighth place spot was hard won — dissatisfied with their previous 12th place standing, the team chose to run the event once more Friday night to see if they could improve their rank.

The four runners — Bossong and Goudros, along with senior Chloe Fair and sophomore Sophia Gorriaran — warmed up in a “silent,” “empty” arena before they were joined at the last minute by a familiar cheering squad.

“It was like ten minutes before the 4x4,” Bossong said. “We just watched our whole team just pour out, walk into the indoor track. We were about to cry, it was so beautiful seeing everyone come together – guys and girls. They brought signs, and honestly that helped us so much.” Friday night’s race cut more than one second off the relay team’s time with a finish of 3:30.28, moving them to a more comfortable eighth place.

“It really was a team effort that day. If they weren’t there, I don’t know if we would’ve been able to do it,” Bossong added. Esan — who set a school record of 6.68 in the men’s 60 meters at the Crimson Elite meet on Feb. 7 — also said he could thank his teammates’ support at “every sin-

gle practice” for extra motivation to push himself.

“When people are cheering for you, and you hear certain voices and you recognize them, it just boosts you, gives you that extra spring in your step that you need,” he said. Goudros said the team’s success could be traced to an “excellence” in team culture and a “change in the mindset” after a series of Harvard national championship wins and Olympics appearances, including by Gabby Thomas ’19, Maia Ramsden ’24 and senior Graham Blanks.

“All the excellence that surrounds you, I think it pushes you,” Goudros said. “When you see Graham win the title for cross country, I think you realize — it is possible to be at the top level of your sport and be a student at Harvard.” Several Harvard Track and Field athletes said they have noticed an increase in national renown for the program.

“We still get asked the question every now and then — at meets, they’re like, ‘Oh Harvard, you’re here?” they’re like, ‘Oh, you guys are Division One?’” Bossong said. “I get where that comes from, but I think we’ve worked so hard to change that narrative.”

“I think now, people aren’t going to be too surprised to see Harvard at nationals,” she added.

Basketball Clinches Ivy Madness

Harvard women’s basketball (20-3, 9-2 Ivy) prevailed on the road 60-57 over Brown (10-14, 4-7) in a game that came down to the wire — securing the team’s spot in the Ivy Madness Tournament in the process. In the 20th win for the team this season, senior guard Harmoni Turner put together a stellar all-around performance, tallying 23-7-5 points-rebounds-assists while senior forward Elena Rodriguez added 15 points and 6 rebounds to fuel the Crimson’s victory.

Harvard got off to a shaky start, turning the ball over on its first two possessions, while Turner misfired on her first four attempts. The early struggles left the Crimson trailing 7-2. Turner finally broke through, using a Rodriguez screen to create space for a smooth jump -

er. The ensuing possession, she delivered a cross-court pass to Rodriguez, who knocked down a deep jumper — just shy of a three-pointer with her foot on the line — cutting the deficit to 7-6. The Bears broke through the Crimson press for a basket, briefly halting Harvard’s momentum. But Turner responded with another jumper off a Rodriguez screen. Moments later, Harvard’s full court press forced a turnover, setting up sophomore Abigail Wright for a layup that gave Harvard its first lead of the game 10-9.

The teams traded triples but Brown’s efficiency from the free throw line, hitting 5-of-6 in the quarter, gave the Bears a 17-13 lead after one.

Harvard again struggled to open in the second quarter, shooting 0-for-5 and committing three turnovers. The miscues fueled an 8-0 Brown run, extending the Bears’ lead to a

game high 25-13. Desperately needing a basket, junior captain Katie Krupa stepped up and buried a deep three-pointer from way downtown. Krupa’s three ignited the Crimson offense, sparking a swift 7-2 run capped by a Krupa assist to freshman Alayna Rocco for a triple, cutting the lead to 26-23. Brown’s Grace Arnolie answered with a three-pointer of her own, keeping Harvard at bay as the Crimson trailed 31-27 at halftime.

The Bears continued shooting lights out to open the third quarter, knocking down backto-back three-pointers. Turner momentarily slowed Brown’s momentum, penetrating the defense for a tough left-handed layup, but Brown’s free throw success pushed its lead to 39-29. Freshman guard Karlee White took control of the Crimson offense, assisting Turner and Rocco on back-to-back treys that cut the lead to single

digits. Harvard’s senior tandem also stepped up, executing their lethal pick-and-roll and capitalizing on Brown’s foul trouble for easy free throws, eventually knotting the game at 40-40. White sank a jumper from the top of the key to put the Crimson back in front, but the lead was short-lived as Brown responded with another three-pointer. In the final minute, Turner found Rocco for an open triple, freed up by a welltimed screen from White. Moments later, she intercepted an errant Brown inbound pass and converted a layup, giving Harvard a 47-43 lead heading to the fourth quarter.

Jumpers from Rodriguez and Wright extended Harvard’s lead to 51-43 early in the fourth quarter. Harvard struggled from the field, but its aggressive drives earned frequent trips to the free throw line that helped keep the Bears at bay. White set up Rodriguez for a crafty reverse layup,

pushing Harvard’s lead to 56-50. However, the Crimson went cold from the field, failing to score for the next four minutes. The Crimson’s stingy defense limited the damage during this stretch, but Harvard finally relinquished its lead with 30 seconds remaining after an Arnolie layup and free throws.

Following a timeout, Turner demanded the ball be in her hands, driving down the lane and dishing to Rodriguez for a clutch layup that put Harvard back on top. With under 10 seconds left, Brown’s Gianna Aiello caught a pass that narrowly evaded Rodriguez’s reach in the paint, but she missed the open left-handed layup. Turner then sealed the win at the free-throw line, securing Harvard’s 60-57 victory. Despite reaching the 60-point mark for the ninth straight game, the Crimson struggled offensively, shooting just 38.3% from the field. A significant factor in Harvard’s

shooting struggles was its reliance on the three-point shot, accounting for half of its field goal attempts. Harvard also felt the absence of junior guard Saniyah Glenn-Bello, the team’s third leading scoring and defensive anchor, who was sidelined due to injury. Despite the struggles, the team’s 12 offensive rebounds and 17 second-chance points –far outpacing Brown’s three –proved vital in securing the gritty victory. The win paired

Standout Hinton Takes Conference by Storm

When freshman basketball phenom Robert Hinton wants to unwind and reminisce about home, he pulls out an Al Green record from his dad’s collection. The vinyl scratches and the soulful rasp of Al Green fills the air, singing, “Just being around you is all I see. Here’s what I want us to do. Let’s, we oughta stay together.”

And the Hinton family members do stay together — especially in leaving their mark on Ivy League athletics. Robert Hinton’s father, Robert “Bob” Hinton, attended Princeton — where he played quarterback for the Tigers — and later went to Harvard Law School. Cornell’s basketball roster also features a familiar face, Hinton’s older brother, Adam Hinton.

Following in the footsteps of his father and brother, the California native had his sights set on playing in the Ivy League. As a child, Hinton looked to imitate his father’s path of success by playing football.

“My favorite sport was football. My dad, he played football. He went to Princeton for football,” Hinton said. “I love playing football, but my parents did not let me play tackle football. So my football dreams actually got shut down very quickly.”

Deterred by his parents disapproval, the young Hinton emulated his older brother, shifting to basketball by the age of four.

“Everytime I opened my eyes, I would see my brother playing basketball, and of course, as a little brother, I needed to join him,” Hinton said.

The young Hinton fell in love with the game of basketball in mid-

dle school — spending hours on the court honing his skills and developing a love of competition that would make others take note.

At Harvard-Westlake, Hinton led the Wolverines to win two state championships, once as varsity captain.

Hinton spoke about his time at the prestigious preparatory school as a great opportunity to prepare himself both academically and athletically to compete in the Ivy League.

“We played the best competition in the whole country every single year,” Hinton said. “There’s no better way to get ready for college than playing the best competition you possibly can.”

The four-star recruit was not

only garnering attention in California but across the country. Hinton was the first athlete of Taiwanese descent nominated for the All-American Game, received BALLISLIFE All-American Accolades, and was selected to play for the Chinese Taipei men’s basketball national team, which represents Taiwan at international competition, by 17. For Hinton, playing for the national team was an opportunity to honor his heritage alongside his older brother.

“I’m biracial. I am half Black, half Chinese,” he said. “It’s such a blessing to represent my mother’s country with my brother, and it was just a deal we couldn’t pass up”

Robert Hinton was now playing

with a lot of older and experienced players — challenging him to improve quickly. This Ivy League brotherhood plans to head back to Taiwan this summer to represent their country and compete on the national team once again.

“We’re going back every summer to represent our country,” Hinton said. “Definitely a great choice” Hinton committed to Harvard as a sophomore, a surprisingly early decision for such a promising shooting guard.

“I went on the visits, and right when I stepped on campus at Harvard, I was like, this is the place I need to be,” Hinton said of his choice to commit. “I fell in love with the campus, the coaching staff and

just the people here in general. It made it an easy choice.”

Hinton’s presence is now a boon to a Harvard team hurting after Malik Mack, a record-breaking freshman for the Crimson last year, transferred to Georgetown and then-sophomore Chisom Okpara left for Stanford after last season. The losses raised questions about Harvard’s ability to attract and retain its best talent without competitive name, image, and likeness offerings.

This season, the Crimson — led in scoring by Hinton — has struggled to stay in contention for the Ivy Madness tournament, but Hinton’s performance has proven crucial in keeping them in the running.

Hinton’s success is largely due to his ability to see the floor and create scoring opportunities. The freshman playmaker has captured the Ivy League’s Rookie of the Week an impressive seven times this season — a record that puts him behind only Mack in program history.

For Hinton the weekly accolades are a perk, but he has another award in mind.

“As long as we get the Rookie of the Year Award,” he said. With sights set high, the freshman combo guard said he’s learned to bounce back after losses.

“There is no time to become isolated or to be hard on yourself,” he said. “We have to get back to work and get ready for our next game, cause now we have to win the next one.”

Despite a season of highs and lows, Hinton is confident in the Crimson’s ability to rule the Ivy in the future.

“If you look into the past years, a lot of the top teams, it’s the teams that have a lot of the older guys, and to see that our team has been

doing so well with so many young guys,” Hinton said. “I think that really speaks to how great we’re going to be in the near future.”

A Harvard victory over Cornell on Valentine’s Day not only showed the Crimson’s potential, but also evened the playing field to 1-1, between the Ivy brothers.

“It’s definitely unique, but it is something we’ve always dreamt about when we were younger, like playing against each another in college basketball,” Robert Hinton said. The game on February 14th was packed with big plays and clutch moments. Harvard held the lead over Cornell throughout the first half. It was in the remaining minutes of the second half that the Big Red mounted a comeback attempt against the Crimson. The elder Hinton knocked down a three-pointer over his younger brother, Harvard’s top player.

“I was like, oh no, this is defi-

Freshman Robert Hinton shoots in a game against Columbia. SUDISH M. SWAIN — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Behind the Reels: A Tour of the Harvard Film Archive

BY KACY BAO – CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

PRESERVING

The HFA often acquires film prints for their screenings, displaying select posters on Steenbeck flatbed editing tables where visitors can view prints they have requested to access.

Guest smiles in front of his poster for Shohei Imamura’s Histoire du Japon racontée par une hôtesse de bar, showcasing his appreciation for the acclaimed filmmaker’s work.