The Harvard Crimson - Volume CL, No. 14: Commencement 2023

THE HARVARD CRIMSON THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873

OPINION

SECURITAS

To The Class of 2023: Public Service Is Its Own Reward

More Than 1,400 Sign Petition Supporting Guard Mike Grant

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THURSDAY, MAY 25, 2023

COMMENCEMENT 2023

JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

FACULTY

RUSSIA

METRO

Harvard Lifts Sanctions on Professor Linked to Epstein

Pritzker Among Nearly 500 Kenzie Bok ’11 Talks Harvard Banned From Russia and Public Service

PAGE 4. Harvard Mathematics and Biology professor

PAGE 6. Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny S. Pritzker ’81 was one of eight Harvard affiliates blacklisted from entering Russia, the country’s ministry of foreign affairs announced Friday.

Martin A. Nowak, who was sanctioned in 2021 for his association with sex trafficker Jeffrey E. Epstein, had all advising and research privileges restored in March.

PAGE 41. Outgoing Boston City Councilor and former Harvard Social Studies lecturer Kenzie Bok ’11 discusses her path from studies at Harvard to public service, examining the influence of her time at the College.

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THE HARVARD CRIMSON

IN THIS ISSUE

COMMENCEMENT 2023

Table of Contents 5

TOP ADMINISTRATOR SALARIES

THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873

Harvard President Lawrence S. Bacow earned more than $1.3 million in the calendar year 2021, an increase from 2020.

VOLUME CL, NO. 14 |

SECURITAS

More Than 1,400 Sign Petition Supporting Guard Mike Grant PAGE 43

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CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

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THURSDAY, MAY 25, 2023

STUDENTS CALL FOR WAGE RAISE More than 1,600 people signed a petition calling on Harvard to raise student researcher and teaching salaries.

A POST-COVID CAMPUS The pandemic has torn us away from some of Harvard’s institutional inertia, inviting us to reimagine what campus could look like.

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OPINION

To The Class of 2023: Public Service Is Its Own Reward

COMMENCEMENT 2023

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THE HARVARD CRIMSON

POLICE CHIEF BACKS STUDENTS HUPD Chief Victor A. Clay said he “100%” backs student and alumni calls for answers after a Leverett House swatting attack.

JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

FACULTY

RUSSIA

METRO

Harvard Lifts Sanctions on Professor Linked to Epstein

Pritzker Among Nearly 500 Kenzie Bok ’11 Talks Harvard Banned From Russia and Public Service

PAGE 4. Harvard Mathematics and Biology professor Martin A. Nowak, who was sanctioned in 2021 for his association with sex trafficker Jeffrey E. Epstein, had all advising and research privileges restored in March.

PAGE 6. Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny S. Pritzker ’81 was one of eight Harvard affiliates blacklisted from entering Russia, the country’s ministry of foreign affairs announced Friday.

PAGE 41. Outgoing Boston City Councilor and former Harvard Social Studies lecturer Kenzie Bok ’11 discusses her path from studies at Harvard to public service, examining the influence of her time at the College.

ON THE COVER. The Class of 2023’s first class marshal Athena Q. Ye ’23 stands in front of Widener Library in her graduation regalia reading the first issue of volume CL of The Harvard Crimson.

FACULTY LEAN LIBERAL More than 77 percent of surveyed Harvard faculty identify as “very liberal” or “liberal,” per The Crimson’s annual FAS survey.

JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

The Week in Photos

AROUND THE IVIES AT YALE, TRANSGENDER STUDENTS FACE HEALTHCARE BARRIERS

COMMENCEMENT PREPARATION WIDENER SHINES. Harvard shield banners hang on Widener Library in preparation for the Class of 2023’s Commencement ceremony.

During the ceremony, actor Tom Hanks will deliver the commencement address.

Trasngender students and faculty expressed frustration over their experiences with Yale Health, citing limited coverage under the Basic Student Health Services insurance plan and a pattern of being deadnamed and misgendered by health care providers. The Yale Daily News interviewed 17 Yale students and faculty who sought gender-affirming healthcare, of whom 11 sought care outside of Yale Health as a result of delays or poor treatment options. Eleven students said they had experienced misgendering or deadnaming by Yale Health.

JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

THC

THE YALE DAILY NEWS

Read more at THECRIMSON.COM

BROWN UNIVERSITY TO END CAMPUS-WIDE COVID-19 VACCINATION REQUIREMENT Starting June 1, Brown will no longer require students, faculty, staff, and visitors to be vaccinated against Covid-19, according to a campus-wide email Thursday. Students at the medical school or in the Gateways Program and Program in Liberal Medical Education, however, will still be required to receive vaccinations and a booster prior to matriculation due to the time they spend in clinical settings.

JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

BOLLINGER STEPS DOWN AS PRESIDENT OF COLUMBIA After 21 years at the university, Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger will step down from his post on June 30. The university’s 19th president, Bollinger oversaw the creation of the Manhattanville campus — a $6.3 billion and 17-acre development — during his presidency. Bollinger also led the establishment of the Climate School, Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, and the Data Science Institute. University president-elect Minouche Shafik, who has served at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, is poised to take over after Bollinger departs.

SETTING UP. A stack of chairs sits in Tercentenary Theatre on Sunday.

Thousands of chairs were set up in Harvard Yard over the weekend.

LANDSCAPING. Teams of landscapers have spent weeks treating the Yard’s lawns and trees ahead of Commencement.

HOUSE PRIDE. Workers in a cherry picker hang banners with Harvard house shields on trees around Tercentenary Theatre. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—

VERITAS. The Commencement morning exercises for the Class of 2023 will be held in Tercentenary Theater on May 25. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—

JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

THE COLUMBIA SPECTATOR

PRINCETON INSTALLS SECURITY CAMERAS INDOORS, DESPITE PREVIOUS STATEMENT Princeton has commenced its camera expansion project, which includes installing cameras inside residential entryways — a move that comes despite previous University statements indicating cameras would be added to building exteriors.

The university’s Environmental, Safety, and Risk Management Committee first approved the project in December 2022. However, the decision prompted criticism from students and student groups across campus, including Students for Prison Education, Abolition, and Reform.

THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Listen to The Crimson’s News Podcast Today THREE PART COMMENCEMENT SERIES: I. The Harvard Alumni Who Run Massachusetts II. Does Harvard Have an Academic Freedom Problem?

III. Harvard’s Denaming Dillema

THIS MONTH

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

COMMENCEMENT 2023

3

UNIVERSITY

IN THE REAL WORLD

HGC Votes to Remove Finance Chair ALLEGED MISCONDUCT. The Harvard Graduate Council voted on April 17 to remove outgoing finance chair Mir Jahanzeb “M.J.” Mehdi and disqualify him from serving on the council in the future. The April resolution claimed that during HGC’s March elections — in which Mehdi was not reelected — Mehdi had gone on an “inappropriate and unprofessional tirade,” “suggesting that the Council should not have elected a white student​​as president over candidates of color or a woman” in reference to the election of Brett A. Monson, an Extension School student who will serve as the council’s next president. Mehdi disputed all points made in the sanctioning in a 60-page written statement.

BOWING TO PRESSURE, BIDEN RELENTS ON F-16S TO UKRAINE U.S. President Joe Biden told allies at the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima, Japan, that the United States would no longer block countries from supplying Ukraine with F-16 warplanes, paving the way for Ukraine to receive F-16s later this year as it continues to defend itself from Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country, per the Washington Post. With the move, Biden reversed his longtime stance that F-16s should not be supplied to Ukraine.

The decision, however, does not mean that Ukraine will start using the F-16s in the battlefield immediately. Ukrainian pilots and mechanics will first need to receive appropriate training for the F-16s, before they will be allowed to start flying the warplanes in battle.

COLLEGE

Chenoweth and Marks Named Pfoho Deans FACULTY DEANS. Harvard Kennedy School professor Erica Chenoweth and their wife Zoe Marks, an HKS lecturer in public policy, will serve as the faculty deans of Pforzheimer House beginning July 1, Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana announced in an email to house affiliates Monday.

Chenoweth and Marks — along with their daughter, Vera — will replace outgoing Faculty Deans Anne Harrington ’82 and John R. Durant.

WITH HIS PARTY AHEAD IN ELECTIONS, GREEK LEADER CLAIMS ‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’

ALUMNI

HAA Will Retain Email Forwarding EMAIL OUTCRY. The Harvard Alumni Association announced Monday that it will continue to offer email forwarding services for alumni in partnership with an external company, reversing course following alumni outcry. The HAA wrote in an emailed announcement that it would partner with an external email forwarding service to “effectively manage privacy regulations and compliance requirements” to address problems including frequently bounced emails, spam, and phishing emails that affect the current service.

New Democracy, the party of Greece’s conservative prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis ’90, won the most votes in the country’s election on Sunday, but fell short of winning the majority necessary to lead a one-party government in the country, per the New York Times.

Despite the victory, Greece looks set for a second election after Mitsotakis said he would not seek to establish a coalition government. The center-left Syriza came in second place to Mitsotakis’ New Democracy with just over 20 percent of the vote. The election was another poor performance for Syriza, the party led by former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

BIDEN AND MCCARTHY SET TO RESUME NEGOTIATIONS ON DEBT LIMIT U.S. President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy agreed on Sunday to meet Monday to restart negotiations in order to stave off the country from defaulting on its debt.

Per the New York Times, the White House and Republican leadership have made little progress on negotiations to avoid a debt default as Republicans have insisted that Democrats agree to slash federal spending in return for raising the debt limit. The meeting will occur after Biden returns from the G-7 meeting, but the sides are running out of time to reach a deal as the debt ceiling is expected to be reached on June 1.

SPRING TIME SUNSHINE

DEATH TOLL IN ITALY RISES AS FLOODS DEVASTATE FARMLAND, DISPLACE THOUSANDS Devastating floods killed at least 13 people and displaced tens of thousands of people in northern Italy, prompting a national emergency response by the country’s authorities, per the Washington Post. The floods followed days of heavy rainfall in the region, submerging roads underwater and causing damage to infrastructure.

The flooding in the region caused Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni to return early from her trip to Japan for the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima.

JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

THE HARVARD CRIMSON Cara J. Chang ’24 President

STAFF FOR THIS ISSUE Brandon L. Kingdollar ’24

Cynthia V. Lu ’24

Managing Editor

Business Manager

Magazine Chairs Io Y. Gilman ’25 Amber H. Levis ’25

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Multimedia Chairs Joey Huang ’24 Julian J. Giordano ’25

Arts Chairs Anya L. Henry ’24 Alisa S. Regassa ’24

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Associate Managing Editors Leah J. Teichholtz ’24 Meimei Xu ’24 Editorial Chairs

Night Editors Isabella B. Cho ’24 Ariel H. Kim ’24 Vivi E. Lu ’24 Eric Yan ’24 Andy Z. Wang ’24

Story Editors Cara J. Chang ’24 Brandon L. Kingdollar ’24 Leah Teichholtz ’24 Meimei Xu ’24 Eric Yan ’24

Assistant Night Editors

Design Editors Toby R. Ma ’24 Sami E. Turner ’25

Miles J. Herszenhorn ’25 J. Sellers Hill ’25 Neil H. Shah ’26 Elias J. Schisgall ’25 Claire Yuan ’25

Editorial Editor Eleanor V. Wikstrom ’24 Christina M. Xiao ’24 Sports Editors Mairead B. Baker ’24 Katharine Forst ’25 Aaron B. Schuchman ’25

Photo Editors Julian J. Giordano ’25 Marina Qu ’25 Frank S. Zhou ’26

Associate Business Manager Derek S. Chang ’24 Copyright 2023, The Harvard Crimson (USPS 236-560). No articles, editorials, cartoons or any part thereof appearing in The Crimson may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the President. The Associated Press holds the right to reprint any materials published in The Crimson. The Crimson is a non-profit, independent corporation, founded in 1873 and incorporated in 1967. Second-class postage paid in Boston, Massachusetts. Published Monday through Friday except holidays and during vacations, three times weekly during reading and exam periods by The Harvard Crimson Inc., 14 Plympton St., Cambridge, Mass. 02138

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

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THE HARVARD CRIMSON

NEWS

COMMENCEMENT 2023

HARVARD FACULTY

Sanctions Lifted on Prof. Martin Nowak FAS. Professor Martin A. Nowak, sanctioned in 2021 for his ties to Jeffrey E. Epstein, regained his advising and research privileges.

BY RAHEM D. HAMID AND ELIAS J. SCHISGALL CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

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artin A. Nowak, the Harvard professor sanctioned in 2021 for his association with sex trafficker Jeffrey E. Epstein, had all his advising and research privileges restored in March, a faculty department chair confirmed last week.

Professor Scott V. Edwards ’86, who chairs Harvard’s Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Department, said in an interview that he and Mathematics Department chair Michael J. Hopkins had been directed by Dean of Science Christopher W. Stubbs to “welcome Dr. Nowak back to our respective departments.”

“I don’t remember the details, but essentially all sanctions have been lifted,” he said.

Edwards said he understood Nowak to be subject to “mild check-ins,” but did not know any more specifics. He said he did not know if the decision had been made by Stubbs or Claudine Gay, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and President-elect.

FAS spokesperson Rachael Dane and University spokesperson Jason A. Newton declined to comment for this article. Nowak also declined to comment.

In 2020, a University report on Harvard’s relationship with Epstein found close ties between

Epstein and Nowak, a Math and Biology professor, prompting Gay to put Nowak on paid administrative leave.

In March 2021, Gay shut down the Nowak-directed Program for Evolutionary Dynamics — which had received substantial financial support from Epstein — and barred Nowak from accepting new advisees or serving as the principal investigator on any new grants or contracts.

She said at the time that she would decide whether to lift the sanctions after two years. In addition to Edwards, two other faculty members said they believed the sanctions were lifted this semester.

Edwards said Nowak had “very little communication” with others in the OEB department before the sanctions were lifted.

“We’re glad to have him back,” he added.

According to Harvard’s 2020 report on its ties to Epstein, the sex trafficker donated $6.5 million to Harvard to establish the PED, led by Nowak, in 2003. Following Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution, he may have visited the PED office at One Brattle Square more than 40 times through 2018, the report noted.

The report revealed that PED maintained an office for Epstein, known as “Jeffrey’s Office,” and gave him unfettered access to the facility, in what Gay later determined to be a violation of Harvard’s policies on campus access.

“Epstein was routinely accompanied on these visits by young women, described as being in their 20s, who acted as his assistants,” the report said.

The report does not detail who was present at the meetings, describing them as simply “leading scholars from Harvard and elsewhere in science and math and, occasionally, individuals involved in public life.”

A Wall Street Journal investigation last month found that Epstein previously had an unreported meeting with Nowak and renowned linguist Noam Chomsky, along with other Harvard faculty, in March 2015 at the PED office.

The Journal later reported that former University President Lawrence H. Summers met repeatedly with Epstein and in 2014, solicited donations from Epstein on behalf of Summers’ wife, Harvard English professor Elisa F. New. Summers, who was in office when the PED was established in 2003, stepped down from the presidency in 2006, prior to Epstein’s first conviction.

In a footnote, the report briefly mentions a $110,000 donation that Gratitude America, Ltd., a charity connected to Epstein, made to New’s nonprofit, though adds that the review did not explore this further as this was not a gift to Harvard itself. Of Summers, the report only notes that he established the PED. Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig said in an interview he felt Nowak was “scapegoated” by the report, which he said omitted the involvement of Summers, the “most important actor in the whole story.”

Lessig said Summers was crucial in developing Epstein’s ties with the University.

Nowak’s “institution had a re-

Sex trafficker Jeffrey E. Epstein may have visited the office of Program for Evolutionary Dynamics’ office in One Brattle Square more than 40 times in 2018. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

lationship to Epstein because the administration told him he had to have one and he had to maintain it and he had to support it,” Lessig said.

“Martin is recruited to run the center, and it’s made clear from the very beginning Martin’s job

in running the center is to continue to encourage the funding of its chief funder, which was Epstein,” he added.

“But for Larry Summers, it’s not even clear any of it would have happened,” Lessig said.

A spokesperson for Summers

wrote that his involvement with the PED was entirely during his presidency and prior to Epstein’s arrest, and that Harvard’s gift procedures were followed. rahem.hamid@thecrimson.com elias.schisgall@thecrimson.com

Eight Harvard Affiliates Banned From Entering Russian Territory

BY MILES J. HERSZENHORN AND CLAIRE YUAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

The Russian government sanctioned Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny S. Pritzker ’81 and seven other Harvard affiliates, the country’s ministry of foreign affairs announced in a Friday press release.

In addition to Pritzker, the Russian government sanctioned Corporation member Mariano-Florentino “Tino” Cuéllar ’93, Economics professor Jason Furman ’92, former Harvard Kennedy School Dean Joseph S. Nye, and four members of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute — Emily Channell-Justice, Volodymyr Dibrova, Lubomyr A. Hajda, and Tymish J. Holowinsky.

The eight Harvard affiliates are among nearly 500 American citizens who were blacklisted from entering Russia by the Russian foreign ministry on Friday.

Several former senior American government officials were also

sanctioned, including former President Barack Obama and former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie L. Yovanovitch.

A press release published in Russian stated that the sanctions were a “countermeasure” to sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on Russia after the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.

Furman, who served as an economic adviser to Obama, said he learned of his inclusion on the list when The Crimson reached out to him for comment on Friday.

“My Ukrainian-born grandfather would be proud,” Furman wrote in a statement.

“I can’t wait to visit Russia again after they have withdrawn from Ukraine and [the] current autocratic regime is no longer in charge,” Furman wrote. “Until then any sanctions on me are irrelevant.”

Pritzker and Cuéllar, who are fellows of the University’s highest governing body, declined to comment through Harvard spokesperson Jonathan L. Swain.

Swain also declined to comment on the sanctions on behalf of the University.

Dibrova, a researcher at HURI and a Ukrainian language preceptor, also learned he was sanctioned by the Russian government when The Crimson reached out to him for comment.

Dibrova wrote in an emailed statement on Friday that he was “both surprised and flattered” to find himself in the “company of such worthy Americans.”

“There are several ways to handle this news,” he wrote. “We can joke about it, We can call it an act of insanity. Or we can think about a government for whom a language teacher in a foreign university could be a clear and present danger to their national security.”

Serhii Plokhy, a professor of Ukrainian history and the director of HURI, called the sanctions against four of the institute’s staffers a “bizarre action and a bizarre list.”

“The names of our Harvard colleagues on it remind us once

again that Russia wages its war in Ukraine not only against the Ukrainian armed forces but also against Ukrainian history, identity and culture, and people who teach and study them,” Plokhy wrote in an email.

Channell-Justice, director of the Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program at HURI, wrote in an email that she is honored to see her name “and the name of the Ukrainian Research Institute recognized at the same level as political leaders like Barack Obama and Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.”

“The Russian Federation has used the tool of personal sanctions to publicly name people whom it considers threatening to the Russian narrative of its genocidal war in Ukraine,” she wrote.

Days after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Channell-Justice spoke at a rally in Harvard Yard in support of Ukraine.

Holowinsky, executive director of HURI, wrote in an emailed statement that it was not “completely surprising” to find himself

on the sanctions list.

“Apparently, the Institute’s mission to support scholarly research focusing on topics concerning Ukrainian history, literature, language, and contemporary society is viewed

as a threat to Russia’s foreign ministry,” Holowinsky wrote.

“I have no response to the Russian government,” he added. miles.herszenhorn@thecrimson.com claire.yuan@thecrimson.com

Four members of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute were sanctioned by the Russian government. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

NEWS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

COMMENCEMENT 2023

5

COMAROFF

Letter Calls for Comaroff’s AAAS Removal OPEN LETTER. Harvard students and student groups pressure the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to remove Comaroff’s membership.

BY ELIAS J. SCHISGALL AND DARLEY A.C. BOIT CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

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ore than 70 Harvard students and three student groups called on the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to review Harvard professor John L. Comaroff’s membership in an open letter to the organization Saturday.

“Membership in the Academy of Arts and Sciences is a rare honor,” the letter states. “Professor John Comaroff’s repeated

harassment and professional conduct policies.

The letter points to the Academy’s rules stating a professor may be removed from the academy following an “institutional triggering event,” meaning “the individual’s employer or a reputable third party” took action against the scholar in question, arguing Gay’s sanctions on Comaroff constituted a triggering event.

“Per AAAS procedures, wherein Harvard’s finding of culpability should trigger an automatic investigation by the Academy, we call for the Board and Membership Committee to take appropriate action quickly and transparently,” the letter reads.

The letter also references a federal lawsuit against Harvard

What really sets this action apart – even though it is obviously about John Comaroff – is that we’re really here looking for allies and looking to open a conversation about academic freedom and its intersections with sexual violence and power-based harassment.

Will M. Sutton ’23 Co-drafter of the open letter to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences In March, the John Harvard Statue was postered in a demonstration against Comaroff’s employment. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

assaults on academic freedom, intellectual vitality, and a safe learning environment mean that he has failed to live up to the values and expectations of this position.”

Comaroff, a professor of African and African American Studies and Anthropology, was placed on unpaid administrative leave by Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Claudine Gay in 2022 after two University investigations found Comaroff in violation of the school’s sexual

filed by three female graduate Anthropology students claiming the University ignored years of harassment allegations against the professor.

Referring to accounts of harassment in the suit, which is awaiting trial, the letter states that “harassing or assaulting students represents a significant disruption to their education and freedom of inquiry.”

Comaroff’s lawyers have consistently denied all allegations of sexual harassment and profes-

sional retaliation.

“The letter to AAAS is another publicity stunt in a relentless campaign by a small group of protestors to smear Professor John Comaroff,” wrote Comaroff’s attorneys, Harvard Law School professor Janet E. Halley, Ruth K. O’Meara-Costello ’02, and Norman S. Zalkind.

“This campaign against Professor Comaroff, which eschews fairness and due process, is based on allegations that have been either rejected in a full investigation or that are complete-

ly untested, anonymous, and second-hand at best,” they added.

In a statement, Will M. Sutton ’23, who helped draft the letter, said he trusted the Academy to make the correct decision and declined to respond to “those who have no bearing on the Academy’s internal process.”

Alison Franklin, the Academy’s chief communications officer, confirmed the letter was received in an email. She declined to comment further, citing a policy that membership proceedings are confidential.

Saturday’s letter follows a wave of student activism surrounding Comaroff after he returned to campus in fall 2022 to teach an elective course. The campaign has largely been lead by anti-rape culture student activist group Our Harvard Can Do Better, which signed the letter.

Connor Chung ’23, who helped draft the letter, said professors like Comaroff “have spent decades using their power to stifle free speech and undermine survivors and whistleblowers.”

In an interview, Sutton said part of the intention was to help build a coalition against sexual harassment in academia.

“What really sets this action apart – even though it is obviously about John Comaroff – is that we’re really here looking for allies and looking to open a conversation about academic freedom and its intersections with sexual violence and power-based harassment,” he said. elias.schisgall@thecrimson.com darley.boit@thecrimson.com

President Bacow Earned $1.3 Million in 2021, Tax Filings Show

BY KRISHI KISHORE AND ROHAN RAJEEV CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Harvard University President Lawrence S. Bacow earned more than $1.3 million in calendar year

2021, a pay increase from the $1.1 million he made in 2020.

Bacow, who will step down at the end of June, earned a base salary of $1,021,179 in 2021, a marked pay bump from his $888,371 base salary in the previous year. Other parts of Bacow’s compensation

Harvard University President Lawrence S. Bacow earned more than $1.3 million in the 2021 calendar year ADDISON Y. LU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

384,552 That’s the number of hours of pro bono legal work contributed by the J.D. Class of 2023.

That’s an average of 673 hours per student!

package consisted of $244,855 in nontaxable benefits, $36,360 in deferred compensation, and $27,806 in other reportable compensation. Bacow’s nontaxable benefits include his housing at Elmwood, the Harvard president’s residence.

Harvard disclosed the earnings of its highest-paid and key administrators and faculty members in the school’s annual Form 990 tax filings on Friday, as required by the Internal Revenue Service for all tax-exempt organizations. Salaries are reported on a calendar year basis rather than a fiscal year.

Other top administrators at Harvard also received pay hikes.

University Provost Alan M. Garber ’76 earned $946,159 in total compensation in 2021, up from $825,670 in 2020. Former Executive Vice President Katherine N. Lapp, who departed Harvard in the summer of 2022, made $783,839 in 2021, a slight increase over her $770,423 compensation reported for the previous year.

Harvard President-elect and Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Claudine Gay earned

$879,079 in 2021, up from the $824,068 reported in 2020.

Compensation for Bacow, Garber, and Lapp in 2020 was reduced after they cut their salaries by 25 percent in April 2020 as part of University-wide efforts to reduce spending during the onset of the pandemic. Other Harvard administrators, including deans of the University’s 12 schools, were given the option to take a pay cut or contribute to a support fund for employees experiencing hardship. For some administrators, the pay cuts continued into fiscal year 2022.

Harvard’s highest-paid employee in 2021 was David J. Malan ’99, who teaches the popular introductory computer science course Computer Science 50: “Introduction to Computer Science I.” Malan earned almost $1.6 million, up from $1.4 million in 2020.

Unlike many other highpaid faculty members at Harvard, Malan’s earnings primarily come from other reportable compensation rather than from base salary. In 2021, Malan earned $1.16 million in other reportable compensation while

making $389,856 in base salary.

Top executives at the Harvard Management Company, the entity responsible for managing Harvard’s $50.9 billion endowment, also received significant pay bumps and earned far more than University officials, consistent with past compensation trends. Harvard and HMC file taxes separately.

As was the case in 2020, several top HMC executives, including Chief Executive Officer N.P. “Narv” Narvekar and Chief Investment Officer Richard W. Slocum, deferred millions of their 2021 compensation to future years.

Narvekar earned $8.7 million in compensation in calendar year 2021 but deferred more than $2 million of that sum to future years, making the total compensation he was awarded $6.65 million. Narvekar’s deferral-adjusted compensation marks a sharp increase from the $6.24 million he made in 2020.

Similarly, Slocum was awarded $5.3 million in compensation in 2021 but made a total of $7 million after adjusting for deferrals, up from his 2020 earnings

of roughly $5 million in deferral-adjusted compensation.

HMC Chief Operating Officer Sanjeev Daga earned a deferral-adjusted compensation total of $5.52 million, a decrease from the $6 million he earned in 2020. Daga’s 2020 compensation reflected more than $1 million in reimbursements for lost compensation resulting from his departure from Columbia University’s Investment Management Company in 2018.

At the University, other top-earning administrators in 2021 included Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Development Brian K. Lee, who earned $847,878, and Vice President and General Counsel Diane E. Lopez, who earned $679,096.

Consistent with previous years, Harvard Business School Dean Srikant M. Datar and Harvard Medical School Dean George Q. Daley ’82 were the highest-paid deans across the University, earning more than $982,000 and $930,000, respectively. krishi.kishore@thecrimson.com rohan.rajeev@thecrimson.com

Harvard Law School • 24 IN-HOUSE CLINICS • ANIMAL LAW & POLICY CLINIC • FOOD LAW & POLICY CLINIC •

HEALTH LAW & POLICY CLINIC • CRIMINAL JUSTICE INSTITUTE • CYBERLAW CLINIC • EDUCATION LAW CLINIC • ELECTION LAW CLINIC • EMMETT ENVIRONMENTAL LAW & POLICY CLINIC • IMMIGRATION & REFUGEE ADVOCACY CLINIC • CRIMMIGRATION CLINIC • HARVARD LEGAL AID BUREAU • HARVARD DISPUTE SYSTEMS DESIGN CLINIC • INSTITUTE TO END MASS INCARCERATION • INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS CLINIC • RELIGIOUS FREEDOM CLINIC • TRANSACTIONAL LAW CLINICS • DOMESTIC VIOLENCE & FAMILY LAW CLINIC • FEDERAL TAX CLINIC • HOUSING LAW CLINIC • LGBTQ+ ADVOCACY CLINIC • MAKING RIGHTS REAL: THE GHANA PROJECT CLINIC • MEDIATION CLINIC • CONSUMER PROTECTION CLINIC • VETERANS LAW & DISABILITY BENEFITS CLINIC • 13 EXTERNSHIP CLINICS • CAPITAL PUNISHMENT CLINIC • CHILD ADVOCACY CLINIC • CRIMINAL JUSTICE APPELLATE CLINIC • CRIMINAL PROSECUTION CLINIC • DEMOCRACY AND THE RULE OF LAW CLINIC • EMPLOYMENT LAW CLINIC • FEDERAL COURTS CLINIC • GOVERNMENT LAWYER: ATTORNEY GENERAL CLINIC • GOVERNMENT LAWYER: U.S. ATTORNEY CLINIC • GOVERNMENT LAWYER: SEMESTER IN WASHINGTON • JUDICIAL PROCESS IN TRIAL COURTS CLINIC • SPORTS LAW CLINIC • SUPREME COURT LITIGATION CLINIC • 11 STUDENT PRACTICE ORGANIZATIONS • HARVARD DEFENDERS • HARVARD LAW ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROJECT • HARVARD MEDIATION PROGRAM • HARVARD PRISON LEGAL ASSISTANCE PROJECT • HLS ADVOCATES FOR HUMAN RIGHTS • HLS IMMIGRATION PROJECT • HLS MISSISSIPPI DELTA PROJECT • HLS NEGOTIATORS • PROJECT NO ONE LEAVES • RECORDING ARTISTS PROJECT • TENANT ADVOCACY PROJECT

The faculty and staff of Harvard Law School extend our warmest congratulations to the Class of 2023 — we are extraordinarily proud of your commitment to service!

6

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

NEWS

COMMENCEMENT 2023

LABOR

1,600 Sign Petition to Raise Student Wages A LIVING WAGE. The Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Automobile Workers called for higher student wages.

BY CAM E. KETTLES CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

­M

the rent is too damn high and it just keeps going up,” HGSU-UAW organizer TomHenry J. Reagan said at the rally. “We are here because the wealthiest academic institution in history thinks it’s okay to tell its employees to go on food stamps.”

Organizers from the Harvard Academic Workers campaign also spoke at the rally. HAW is attempting to unionize non-tenure-track academic workers and has been collecting union authorization cards since February, when they first launched publicly.

“Asking for a living wage is not greedy, it’s not selfish, and it doesn’t undermine that commitment to what you do,” HAW organizer and Harvard Medical School postdoctoral fellow Morgan Gilman said.

“We all know that the money is in the budget. They have no trouble finding the money when they’re writing their own paychecks. This is a matter of priorities,” Gilman added.

Harvard President Lawrence S. Bacow earned more than $1.3 million in 2021, an increase of around $200,000 from what he made in 2020.

Rally goers also criticized the University’s acceptance of the donation from Griffin, taking issue with his support of Republican politicians.

Griffin donated nearly $60 million to Republican candidates during the 2022 midterm election cycle and has publicly supported Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for president in 2024, though DeSantis has not yet announced a presidential bid. Griffin has also contributed to Democratic politicians, including $500,000 to U.S. President Joe Biden’s inaugural committee.

“We’re here because when a billionaire Republican sugar daddy wants to boost his ego, Harvard will happily oblige for a bargaining cost of $300 million,” said Reagan, a first-year Ph.D. student in Engineering Sciences.

University President Lawrence S. Bacow has defended the school’s decision to accept Griffin’s donation and rename GSAS in his honor, adding that Harvard should not screen donors for their political affiliations.

The HGSU-UAW petition states Harvard’s decision to accept Griffin’s donation “reinforces a long history of association with the billionaire class and per-

nicious anti-labor figures.”

The letter criticizes Griffin for opposing teachers’ unions. In a February 2022 interview with billionaire David M. Rubenstein — a member of the Harvard Corporation, the University’s highest governing board — Griffin said he believes an important part of achieving the American Dream is “by having an on-ramp to education.”

“And unfortunately, we’ve put a detour on that on-ramp in many parts of our country where the interest of the public sector unions dominates the rights of the children,” he said.

The petition also condemns Griffin for his support of DeSantis, who it says “has built his national political profile off of ruthless attacks on queer and trans people.” In 2022, DeSantis signed a state law — referred to by many detractors as the “Don’t Say Gay” law — forbidding kindergarten to third-grade public school teachers from teaching about gender identity and sexual orientation. DeSantis has also opposed gender-affirming health care for transgender minors.

In an April 12 statement to The Crimson, Jaquelyn M. Scharnick ’06, a spokesperson for Griffin, wrote that it is “patently false that Ken would in any way support viewpoint restriction as he has been one of the strongest supporters of free speech and free inquiry in the country.”

“Ken said as recently as today that no one who contributes to a politician agrees 100% with their views and policy positions,” wrote Scharnick, a former Crimson News editor. “This is as true for Ken’s financial support of Governor DeSantis as it was for his backing of the campaigns of President Obama and Mayor Rahm Emanuel.”

Per Forbes, Griffin has publicly backed DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” law, saying that DeSantis has “a really important point of view.”

Following the rally, recently elected HGSU-UAW president Evan C. MacKay ’19 led a march around Harvard Yard to deliver the petition to Massachusetts Hall.

“We know that at the richest institution in higher education in the history of the world, Harvard can pay its workers a living wage,” MacKay said.

HGSU-UAW rally attendees march around Harvard Yard while chanting and banging drums in support of raising wages for student workers. BY CAM E. KETTLES—CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

ore than 1,600 people have signed a petition calling on Harvard to raise student researcher and teacher salaries up to living wage in Middlesex County for members of the University’s graduate student union by July 1.

On May 10, more than 100 graduate students rallied in Harvard Yard before delivering the petition to Massachusetts Hall. The petition, created by the Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Automobile Workers, began gathering signatures May 1.

According to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, the living wage for one adult with no children in Middlesex County is $23.45 per hour. Scaled to an annual salary, graduate students would need to make $48,779 to meet the living wage rate.

HGSU-UAW’s petition comes in response to Harvard’s recent decision to name the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences after Kenneth C. Griffin ’89, a billionaire hedge fund CEO and Republican megadonor who donated $300 million to Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The petition states that graduate students “are kept in the dark about decisions to sell off parts of our university” and have no input about the use of the funds.

University spokesperson Jason A. Newton declined to comment on the criticisms levied at the rally and in the petition.

At the rally, organizers argued that the current yearly wage increase of 3 percent does not keep pace with the rising cost of living.

“Harvard has failed to reach that rock bottom standard over and over and over again,” HGSU-UAW organizer Alexandra C. Stanton said at the rally.

Speakers at the rally referenced a flier circulated by Harvard University Health Services encouraging graduate students to attend an informational meeting to “learn more about qualifying for SNAP benefits” as clearly demonstrating the need for higher wages.

“We are united here because

Harvard and Endeavor Launch Leadership Training Platform

Grad Students Union Enters Arbitration Over Exclusion

Kara Hartig, a student at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, leads a chant in front of Massachusetts Hall as rally attendees poster the door. BY CAM E. KETTLES—CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

BY MILES J. HERSZENHORN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Endeavor and Harvard University announced the launch of Versity, a new online professional development learning platform, in a joint press release on May 2.

Versity will officially launch in June with three courses that are each co-taught by a Harvard professor and a celebrity actor affiliated with Endeavor.

Endeavor is a global sports and entertainment company based in Beverly Hills, California overseeing talent agencies, sports leagues, and brand marketing.

Most notably, Endeavor maintains a controlling interest in the company that owns UFC and WWE, the premiere mixed martial arts and wrestling leagues.

Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton wrote in an emailed statement Thursday that Versity is “a new opportunity for Harvard faculty to create high-quality short-form courses with new educational content for different types of learners whom Harvard faculty might not otherwise reach.”

The new platform is geared toward companies that seek to provide their employees with educational opportunities to help them build leadership skills.

Versity is a collaboration between Endeavor and Harvard’s

Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning, a University administrative wing that focuses on online learning and innovations in education.

The collaboration with Endeavor to establish Versity will allow professors to share their expertise in a manner that protects the intellectual property of the faculty member and Harvard, according to Newton.

When Versity launches next month, three of Harvard’s most well-known professors will be the first on the platform.

Government professor Michael J. Sandel and Michael B. Jordan will collaborate on a course about tech ethics; Harvard Law School professor Jody L. Freeman and Amy Poehler will co-teach a course titled “Purpose, Perspective, and Persuasion”; and University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cynthia Erivo will serve as the instructors of “How to Bring the Real You to Work.”

Guy Schory, who serves as chief digital officer at Endeavor, said in the press release that Versity “combines results-driven pedagogy with world-class storytellers to bring a unique and engaging perspective to learning.”

“By combining leading global minds, creative talent, and a dynamic, interactive technology platform, we are creating a whole new way to develop the leaders of tomorrow,” Schory added.

Versity expects to unveil ad-

ditional courses throughout the rest of 2023, according to the press release.

Harvard will use any proceeds it receives from the collaboration with Endeavor to support Versity’s course design and to reinvest in the University’s teaching and learning initiatives, according to Newton.

Versity isn’t the University’s first online educational partnership.

The initiative is similar to the $30 million collaboration between Harvard and MIT in 2012 that established edX, an online learning platform that allowed users to take digital courses from the two institutions for free.

The virtual learning platform was sold in 2021 for $800 million to 2U, Inc., a Maryland-based education technology firm — though the company’s stock price has since plummeted.

Gates said in the press release that he is “deeply honored” to be teaching one of Versity’s three inaugural courses.

“Since Socrates, great teaching has always been characterized by great storytelling,” Gates said.

“Working alongside the brilliant actor Cynthia Erivo, we thread a wide range of riveting narratives into the fabric of our pioneering course on social identity and cultural authenticity,” he added. miles.herszenhorn@thecrimson.com

BY CAM E. KETTLES CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Harvard and its graduate student union have entered arbitration this month for a grievance filed by the union urging the University to include graduate students from its Department of Human Evolutionary Biology in the union.

Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Automobile Workers, which initially filed the grievance on June 30, 2021, argues that the excluded HEB students perform research that contributes to the work of their principal investigator — and therefore conduct work that would be compensated under the contract.

The group represented by the union includes all students who provide instructional services and who serve as research assistants, “regardless of funding sources, including those compensated through Training Grants,” according to Article 1 of the contract.

Some HEB students receive a stipend, which counts as financial aid, but do not receive compensation. According to University spokesperson Jason A. Newton, students who are receiving a stipend only for financial aid and are not performing work for the University are not included in the union’s bargaining unit, and performing research for one’s academic work does not amount to providing a service for the University.

In the presence of a mediator,

Harvard and the union will conduct arbitration hearings until October 2023, after which the mediator will make a decision about the grievance.

During a May 10 rally in Harvard Yard, union leaders, including then-HGSU-UAW president Koby D. Ljunggren, attended the first arbitration meeting to dis-

“

These student workers have no access to our benefit funds.

Sal E. Suri

CEEC member

cuss the inclusion of HEB workers in the bargaining unit.

HEB students first contacted the union’s Contract Enforcement and Education Committee, according to Sal E. Suri, a CEEC member and a third-year Ph.D. candidate in History of Science.

“Despite doing the same work as other student workers in other science departments, they have been told they do not qualify to be in unit,” Suri said at the rally last week.

“These student workers have no access to our benefit funds.

They don’t have access to the collective security of our union. In response to this decision by the Harvard administration, CEEC has decided to fight this as much as humanly possible,” Suri said.

Though the grievance was first filed in June 2021, both the University and its union had

cam.kettles@thecrimson.com

agreed to extend the timeline of the grievance process.

In March 2023, a National Labor Relations Board official ruled that MIT graduate fellows cannot be included in MIT Graduate Student Union-United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America because fellows receive funding in exchange for their own academic work, not as compensation for work for MIT. According to Ljunggren, who is set to take on a part-time organizing position with HUWU and Graduate Employees of Northeastern University-United Automobile Workers, “Harvard’s attempts to exclude certain workers from our unit” include denying them the guarantee of a yearly raise.

“Although the University has typically followed through on that promise of yearly raises, if people aren’t covered by the contract, there’s not really much of a guarantee,” they added. cam.kettles@thecrimson.com

THC Read more at THECRIMSON.COM

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NEWS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

COMMENCEMENT 2023

29

HONOR COUNCIL

College Sees Drop in Honor Council Cases HONOR REPORT. Updated statistics from the College’s Honor Council showed a sharp decrease in the number of academic dishonesty cases referred to the body for the 2021-22 school year. Last year saw a six-year high in Honor Code violations.

BY J. SELLERS HILL AND NIA L. ORAKWUE CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

­T

he Harvard College Honor Council reviewed 100 academic dishonesty cases in the 2021-22 school year, 12 of which resulted in withdrawals, according to a report released this semester.

The number reflects a marked drop from the 2020-21 academic year, during which the Council heard 138 cases and forced 27 students to withdraw, the highest number of cases and withdrawals since the Honor Council came into effect in 2015.

Students who are forced to withdraw are typically required to work in a full-time, paid, non-academic job for more than six months before petitioning to return to the College.

This withdrawal normally lasts for one to two academic years.

The Honor Council is chaired

by Dean of the College Dean Rakesh Khurana and consists of 24 voting members, including undergraduate students, teaching fellows, faculty members, and administrators.

The body is responsible for adjudicating cases of suspected academic dishonesty across the Col-

lege.

Of the 100 cases, 42 concerned instances of plagiarism, 35 were exam cheating, and 15 were inappropriate collaboration.

Three cases involved “lying to a University officer,” and one case was described as “misuse of sources.”

In addition to the 12 forced withdrawals, 34 students were placed on probation, a notice that further academic misconduct will lead to more serious repercussions.

Twenty students were admonished, a result similar to probation but that does not change a student’s “in good standing” status.

Four students received local sanctions, where the course instructor determines the student’s punishment, which can range from a grade penalty to mandatory tutoring.

In 30 cases, it was found that either no violation occurred or the allegation could not be substantiated.

For the sixth consecutive year, the majority of cases — 63 percent — involved freshmen, who “continue to be significantly overrepresented” in hearings, according to the report.

Previous Honor Council reports have identified this pattern and cited it as a reason the body commits additional resources toward outreach and trainings for freshmen.

“Early in their academic careers, students are more likely to be in large courses, trying out difficult or new material while at the same time they are adjusting to college and Yard and House life,” the Honor Council’s 2019-20 report read.

Of the remaining cases in the

2021-22 year, 19 percent involved sophomores, 11 percent juniors, and 6 percent seniors.

The majority of cases were referred to the Council by courses in the Sciences Division and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

The report does not speculate on potential reasons for the overrepresentation of freshmen and students enrolled in STEM classes.

Harvard College spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo declined to comment on the report beyond reiterating the College’s commitment to transparency.

The 2019-20 report wrote that the overrepresentation of STEM cases “is not an exception from other universities,” noting a higher prevalence of graded assignments and the use of software to detect plagiarism in computer programs.

“Both the cause and the effect of this disparity should continue to be the focus of discussion among the faculty, students, and community at large,” the report continued.

LEAH J. TEICHHOLTZ—CONTRIBUTING DESIGNER

sellers.hill@thecrimson.com nia.orakwue@thecrimson.com

THC Read more at THECRIMSON.COM

LEAH J. TEICHHOLTZ—CONTRIBUTING DESIGNER

30

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

NEWS

COMMENCEMENT 2023

COLLEGE

Khurana Defends Commencement Fees COLLEGE DEAN Rakesh Khurana defended a controversial decision to charge student groups for extended Commencement housing.

BY J. SELLERS HILL AND NIA L. ORAKWUE CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

­D

ean of the College Rakesh Khurana defended the College’s decision to begin charging students for Commencement housing in an interview Friday.

In late April, Harvard informed student group leaders they would have to pay $45 per night for each student they planned to grant extended housing — an option that was previously free. The announcement came just four days ahead of the May 1 application deadline.

Several student groups criticized the decision, which the school said was made to allow Harvard to provide meals to students, citing concerns in previous years over a lack of access to food.

Khurana defended the policy but acknowledged student concerns around the short timeline.

“It’s a very complex undertaking, and perhaps more complex than we maybe even initially anticipated,” Khurana said of the new policy. “We felt that it was important before this summer started — knowing what we had learned and heard from students about the importance of addressing the issues of food insecurity — that we address it this summer and not let it go for one more summer.”

In response to The Crimson’s reporting that some clubs had considered canceling their Commencement plans in light of the

new policy, Khurana underscored that financial aid is available, and that students can reach out to the school with specific concerns.

“We recognize that this change, as with any change, can be a little bit disruptive to plans.

We are trying to minimize that by having clear places for people to contact for questions,” Khurana said.

Khurana also expressed a muted reaction to a Crimson report that the Dean of Students Office is considering a proposal to temporarily freeze the creation of new undergraduate clubs. The DSO website states that the College has more than 500 student organizations, a number which Khurana said the school is seeking to verify.

“The accuracy of that is important for us,” Khurana said, deferring further questions to the DSO. Khurana also addressed the following topics: Pforzheimer Deans Selection Earlier this month, Khurana announced that he had selected Harvard Kennedy School professor Erica Chenoweth and their wife Zoe Marks, an HKS lecturer in public policy, to serve as the faculty deans of Pforzheimer House beginning July 1.

“Erica and Zoe were so excited about the opportunity of living among and with the students and building on what is already an excellent house,” said Khurana, who made the final decision in conjunction with advice from House affiliates, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean and President-elect Claudine Gay, and president Lawrence S. Bacow.

“When I received the comments from the students and tu-

tors, staff who were on the search committee, what stood out for me was how people expressed their capacity to listen,” Khurana said of Chenoweth and Marks. “In particular, they emphasized a humanity and a desire, a real intent to listen — to understand rather than think about what to say next.”

Leverett House Swatting Khurana attended a meeting last month with representatives of Black student organizations and other top administrators to discuss the University’s response to an April swatting attack that sent armed police to a Leverett House suite occupied by four Black students.

The meeting came after dozens of Black student organizations penned a letter to Harvard administrators outlining a list of demands, including a meeting with University leadership.

Khurana acknowledged the effects of the attack and said the College is focused on student well-being.

“Our goal as a Harvard community is to ensure the well-being of every student,” Khurana said. “I know it was a painful incident for the students who are impacted, but it had ripples beyond not only the impacted students or the students in one house, and beyond even the college.”

Although students present at the meeting said their demands were not met, Khurana said the College has plans to improve.

“The College committed to listen, and then from there learn and do better.”

Class of 2023 With the Harvard College class of 2023 set to graduate later this

Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana addresses the Class of 2022 at Class Day. DYLAN J. GOODMAN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

month, Khurana expressed admiration for their resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“This is a group of students who took every version of the way we could possibly offer classes,” Khurana said of the graduating class. “They had to adapt and pivot. They had to figure out how to build community outside of the Harvard structure and then rebuild and renew it when they came back. They had to be a bridge of restarting student organizations. They also found ways to sort of think about new traditions and new ideas for their communities.”

“It’s really a remarkable group of students, and I’m very excited

for them and their families and friends to celebrate what they’ve accomplished,” he added.

Gender-Neutral Bathrooms In early April, the Harvard Undergraduate Queer Advocates launched a petition requesting increased access to gender-inclusive restrooms in major academic and residential buildings on campus.

In the interview Friday, Khurana underscored the implementation of gender-neutral bathrooms as a priority as the school undergoes renovations and new construction.

“The College is committed to

ensuring that every space that we have — academic, social, residential — feels inclusive to every member of our community. As we’ve been doing house renewal, we’ve really been trying to ensure a philosophy of inclusive design and universal design,” Khurana said.

“I think we’ve made some progress over the last few years, but there’s more work to do to make sure things are not only available, but that they’re convenient and provide the privacy and dignity every single individual deserves,” he added. sellers.hill@thecrimson.com nia.orakwue@thecrimson.com

EDITORIAL

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

COMMENCEMENT 2023

OP-ED

31

STAFF EDITORIAL

Celebrating the Stories

BY ANNE HARRINGTON AND JOHN R. DURANT

­W

hen Anne was growing up in New York City, her mother would sometimes reminisce about a radio drama show she remembered from her own childhood called “Grand Central Station.” Each week, the show began with an announcer describing the massive train station as a “crossroad” of innumerable private lives, “a gigantic stage on which a thousand dramas play out daily.”

Since we became Faculty Deans a decade ago, and began each year to share our daily lives with hundreds of students, we have learned to think about Harvard undergraduate life as being a little like this.

These years have been a profoundly meaningful journey for us. We have eaten with students, sat in quiet companionship with them, hosted them, played with them, advised them, laughed with them, and, on occasion — thankfully, more rarely — weathered struggles, uncertainties, and even tears with them.

But perhaps most of all, the years of living in community with students has helped us to appreciate them as people with complex private stories that had previously been mostly invisible to us, back when we were ‘just’ a professor and a museum director.

Some students worked long hours at campus jobs, not just to help pay for their own needs or social activities, but because their parents expected them to send money back home to help with living expenses. Some stayed up most of the night to comfort a distraught friend, but still managed to make it to their organic chemistry lecture. Some came out to their parents, only to find they were no longer welcome at home for Thanksgiving.

There were always new stories: the student who grew up in a refugee camp; the student who looked after the mental well-being of struggling younger siblings in high school because parents, for whatever reason, could not; the student who was the primary English-language translator for their family, even after arriving on campus.

At Commencement, we tend to spend a lot of time celebrating the many visible triumphs of our students: the prizes and scholarships; the Phi Beta Kappa honors; the championship varsity games; the prestigious or incredibly cool jobs; the internships; the great medical, law, or graduate schools.

We don’t generally stop to think about the many students who blend into the sea of gowns, but for whom simply arriving at this point is the hardest and most important thing they have ever achieved. Their Harvard experience may not have been primarily about landing that great job or winning that plum prize (though some achieve that too). It may have been primarily about something else that we don’t generally give prizes for: resilience, showing up, giving back, grace, grit, compassion, and perseverance.

This, therefore, is an essay of appreciation for all of these students. Students whose time here has been defined by milestones that they may never share with their professors or future employers, and that may never end up in their letters of recommendation. The ones who did not maintain a perfect GPA, but who were there for that friend all night, or showed up for their families in the midst of finals week. The ones who arrived on campus burdened with sometimes difficult stories, but who then also came to realize that they didn’t have to be wholly defined by those stories — that they had the ability to become authors of new stories, stories of their own.

And here’s a thought: Maybe these kinds of students offer all of us a different kind of metric of success — one that measures the distance run and the promises kept, and not just the tributes won and the public acclaim received.

Maybe the most interesting question we can ask friends as they prepare to depart is not, “What was your concentration?” Or, “What are you doing next?” But, “What’s your story?” “What was your story when you arrived, what did it become, and what is it now?” Some stories are gifts, easily told and publicly celebrated. But others are hard-earned accomplishments, marked by twists and turns that fewer people will ever hear about.

This Commencement, as we look out with affection at the final senior class we will help graduate, we will be thinking about these quieter stories, these less frequently told stories, and feeling a special sense of pride.

Anne Harrington ’82 is the Franklin L. Ford Professor of the History of Science and an outgoing Faculty Dean of Pforzheimer House. John R. Durant is the Director of the MIT Museum at MIT and an outgoing Faculty Dean of Pforzheimer House.

SOPHIA SALAMANCA—CRIMSON DESIGNER

A Post-Covid Campus by Students, for Students

BY THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD

A NEW BEGINNING. The pandemic’s blip on this record has torn us away from institutional inertia. This new beginning, like any, comes with near-limitless potential for what our campus could look like.

­T

his was the year we were finally done talking about Covid-19.

For the past three years, the pandemic dominated our lives, and, in turn, it dominated these pages. Now, pandemic restrictions lifted, we have the blissful freedom to forget. And forget we have: These same pages no longer know of a pandemic.

Forgetting, though, does not beget learning — veritas doesn’t emerge from the void.

Covid-19 cases still occur today, and we are all grappling with the pandemic’s aftereffects. Rather than disregarding the last few years and picking up exactly where we left off in 2020, we must acknowledge the cavity that Covid-19 left us in, to fully appreciate our current flourishing.

Rebuilding, From the Same Red-Brick Buildings

Harvard is not merely a collection of red-brick buildings. It’s a campus, where students, teachers, and administrators come together in community. Our campus is not stagnant: Each year, as new freshmen cycle in and tutors swap Houses, its culture is molded by a slightly different set of hands.

For us undergraduates, Harvard is home for just four disarming, uninhibited, formative years. Yet our past four years have been wracked by discontinuity. This is only the second year of a full in-person campus, and the first entirely without Covid restrictions. Only the current graduating class has even witnessed the pre-pandemic era.

We’ve been attempting to figure out what Harvard’s campus should look like, without any reference point. Sometimes, unable to rebuild from blueprints we can no longer access, we’ve had to build anew.

This new beginning, like any, comes with near-limitless potential.

Harvard is a university drenched in history, influenced by a chain of traditions, norms, and practices stretching back centuries. The pandemic’s blip on this record has torn us away from institutional inertia — leaving the trajectory of our campus unusually and delightfully unbounded.

In this absurd yet joyous new normal, options branched out before us. We could have found comfort in an inheritance of old habits.

We could have fallen into new routines without questioning their origins. Or we could have actively rethought what Harvard should look like, and taken intentional steps towards defining a better normal.

It would be a cliche — and plain wrong — to say that we chose to fundamentally transform Harvard’s culture; that, because of us, post-pandemic Harvard no longer reeks of elitism or institutional failure. But over the past year, we have made strides worth celebrating to improve our campus.

Students — Not Administrators — in Charge Since the Covid-19 era, we’ve gone from graband-go meals to moshing at Yardfest, from pinning each others’ boxes on Zoom to seeing the lower half of our peers’ bodies, and from living across dozens of time zones to residing in a single dozen of Houses. Students have come together, embraced their proximity (literally and figuratively), and harnessed their collective energy to cultivate a new campus culture.

Over the past year, this Editorial Board has been spellbound witnessing the ceaseless fight for a better Harvard — a fight driven by students, rather than the administration we’d ex-

pect to be steering.

As our fellow undergraduate course assistants and teaching fellows were undercompensated and overworked, it was students who reported and followed up on their plight. As non-tenured faculty faced untenable working conditions, it was students who supported their quest for unionization. As one of our residential Houses carried the name of two of slavery’s greatest enablers in colonial America, it was students who mounted a denaming campaign.

And so forth beyond campus grounds: As the nation’s gun violence epidemic only worsened, it was students who leveraged the Harvard name to advocate for justice. As a third of Pakistan went underwater, it was students who fundraised, in common areas and dining halls. As people across China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Tibet called for liberty, it was students who echoed their calls.

And they did it all without institutional backing.

To be clear, the administration is not some tyrannical oppressor. As affirmative action awaited a gavel drop, students and administrators alike flocked to Washington, D.C., and vouched for race-conscious admissions.

Tension between students and administrators is how the relationship is supposed to be. Bright-eyed students dream of sweeping reform tangible within their four-year Harvard lifespans, while seasoned administrators know firsthand the disinclination of a hundreds-year-old institution with more than a dozen separate schools to change. The two parties are locked in an age-old tug of war, apparent even today.

All year, the administration has set up unpopular restrictions for students to operate within, such as the Dean of Students Office’s ridiculous rules around club naming and potential freeze on club creation. But we found a path forward by continuing to tug: pushing for the changes we wish to see from Harvard and refusing to let administrative disagreement hinder our aims.

This steady tug captures exactly what makes this campus home: students, hand in hand, taking charge to construct precisely the campus they want. Protesting and criticizing, advocating and leading, students this year have unrelentingly fought — even against the administration — for the best possible post-pandemic Harvard.

We Confess: Sometimes We Mess Up Improving Harvard is no easy feat. As students, we chip away at the daunting task of building a campus we’re proud to call home with the best of intentions. But sometimes, in the midst of this complex process, we get it wrong.

From a student transferring thousands of dollars in club funds to her personal bank account, to an astoundingly dysfunctional student government election, there was no shortage of avoidable student error on our campus this year.

But this margin of error is no reason to curtail student freedom and usher us along predetermined safe paths, as some administrators might believe. Mistakes are the natural mechanism by which our community of students can keep itself in check. We must be allowed to make our own blunders, so that we can learn and grow from them.

This authentic growth is needed so that we as students can engage with the intractable yet fundamental problems of living in community.

These are problems the administration alone couldn’t solve even if we wanted it to. Ensuring that our campus culture does not tolerate bullying, for example, requires more than University-wide policy; it requires students striving to support one another.

Sometimes, the solutions are less clear.

Within this politically polarized nation, our campus has grappled without resolution over how to best support free speech. This Editorial Board has taken a very particular stance on free speech, leading us to cast suspicions over student petitions and academic councils that seem to simply throw the phrase around as a

shield from accountability. Others may disagree, finding us too severe on unconventional beliefs or too lenient on dangerous ones.

While this particular debate is far from finished, we have firm faith in the ability of our student body to come to a conclusion on our campus’s biggest challenges, as long as we put in the work to collectively renegotiate community norms.

We’d prefer an administration that gives us more space — not less — in this delicate rebuilding process. We know that students can beautifully revive campus from the ashes of pandemic; we just need the administration to trust us — even if there are a couple hiccups along the way.

But When Will These Fights End? Despite our best efforts to revitalize campus outside of the administration’s static perspective, we students are still dealing with some unsavory administration-enabled remnants of pre-pandemic Harvard, one pandemic later.

The beginning of this year gave us an unpleasant welcome back in the form of professor John L. Comaroff returning to the classroom after being accused by multiple graduate students of sexual misconduct. This administrative choice endangered students at the campus they had so painstakingly turned into their home.

The ensuing year has seen walkouts, occupations, and campaigns against Comaroff aplenty. Students have made clear their determination to see Comaroff removed from his post, and we couldn’t be prouder of their collective organizing to reshape our campus. Indeed, our Harvard can do better.

But the fight isn’t over until Comaroff is gone for good. We’re ending this year with Comaroff still disappointingly employed, the administration deaf to our calls otherwise.

More disheartening administrative silence comes in the statistics they won’t share: on the socioeconomic diversity of the College’s accepted classes. Despite its messaging of accessibility for low-income students, Harvard skews grossly, disproportionately wealthy.

This is not the Harvard we want. The bastion of privilege and wealth that the school represented during its founding should be left in the past, alongside Comaroff’s tenure. Harvard should capture diversity across every axis, bringing in new students from all kinds of backgrounds.

It’s a new era of Harvard, redefined since the lapse provided to us by the pandemic. We refuse to allow antiquated standards of student protection and diversity to persist.

The New Day of Incoming President Gay The upcoming year will present a clear symbol of Harvard’s new era, with Claudine Gay assuming the presidency. We hope Gay’s tenure will represent a more progressive relationship between students and administrators, but we will by no means stop holding the administration accountable or defining campus culture as students.

For centuries, students lived on Harvard’s campus and shaped its culture. Now, the University’s history fractured by the pandemic’s hard reset, we can create anew the culture that will define its next few centuries.

This year saw students at the helm of developing our new culture. Next year, as affirmative action appears poised to fall, we worry that a Harvard without its current breadth of student diversity will be a campus that no one can call home.

We’ll need all hands on deck then — students, faculty, and administration — to uphold our collective culture.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.

32

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

EDITORIAL

COMMENCEMENT 2023

OP-ED

OP-ED

Indifference Is the Enemy of Democracy

On SelfCensorship

BY KENNETH ROTH

­I

won’t sugarcoat it: You are entering a world where some of the most basic values of our democracy are under attack. Some politicians have found political profit in demonizing certain minorities. Rather than appeal to a broad national community, they preach divisiveness and exclusion. The quest for political power has become an end that in their view justifies these means.

It used to be that we could at least debate such dangerous policies. We could openly consider whether we really want to build our nation on such exclusionist dogma.

But today, even the facts for that debate are under attack. As the filtering of traditional media has given way to the immediacy of social media, spin and disinformation often replace fact-based discourse.

The devaluation of fact is dangerous because a common understanding of reality is a prerequisite to shaping a common vision. It is hard to build a community when we cannot even agree on the world that surrounds us.

A “post-fact” environment is also one without accountability. It is a place where politicians can evade responsibility by denying the consequences and even the nature of their acts.

Our universities were once considered bastions of deliberation — a setting where policies could be debated and morale visions measured.

But too often, even our universities have become infected by a censorious ethos in which disfavored views are no longer challenged and debated, but shouted down and suppressed.

For a while, until Harvard’s faculty and students reasserted the principle of academ-

ic freedom, I, myself, was excluded because of a dean’s view that certain criticisms — in my case, of Israel — were too threatening, according to a professor who spoke with him.

These developments are deeply worrying, but they are not written in stone. They are troubling trends, but they can be reversed. They have not always been, and, with your help, they are not destined always to be.

I have faith that these challenges can be overcome because I see the prospect of a better future in all of you.

You have grown up in an extraordinarily diverse America. For you, unlike some of your elders, a multicultural society is not a threatening development. It is reality. You are best positioned to defend the decency and respect for differences that alone will allow our nation to come together as a community and prosper.

With your Harvard education, you also have the capacity to redeem a fact-based discourse.

You can see through the convenient obfuscation of those who pretend that facts are mere opinions. You can resurrect a reality-based discourse that is needed to hold our leaders to account for their actions.

And having learned at Harvard how to consider and contest different points of view, you understand the value of free debate. You know that to hear a difficult perspective is not to endorse it. Censorship is the blind rejection used by those who fear knowing. Your education has given you the strength to hear, consider, and even learn from those with whom you disagree.

But, you might ask, how can you, a young graduate just leaving the College, possibly make a difference? These are seemingly tectonic trends. How can you influence them?

I have spent my professional life at Human Rights Watch taking on powerful forces. The task can seem daunting, but I have seen the enormous difference that even a handful of individuals can make. And not just heroic individuals. Ordinary young people of commitment like you.

In fact, your generation is perhaps better placed than any previous one to make itself heard. The same social media that enables the deniers of truth and the purveyors of exclusion gives each of you a platform to push back. We should not cede this platform to deceit and hatred. And even if you prefer in-person to electronic communication, your voice is enormously important.

Today, it appears that people are more likely to listen to others whom they know. Institutions are regarded skeptically, but friends and acquaintances are accorded more deference and trust.

Your views matter. While each individual’s voice can travel only so far, your collective voice has enormous resonance. It has reach and influence. It has the capacity to serve as a powerful antidote to the callousness and deception that endanger our democracy.

Indifference is the enemy of democracy.

Resignation is the accomplice of the autocrat.

Your engagement is a prerequisite to the future you deserve.

Use your voice. Act on your beliefs. Defend your values. These are not naive steps. They are feasible and essential to ensure a world where you will want to lead your adult lives.

—Kenneth Roth is a senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and the former executive director of Human Rights Watch.

OP-ED

BY HARVEY C. MANSFIELD

­N

ot long ago, an Iranian woman in my class told me that in her country, one had to be careful about what you said in public, but could say what you wanted in private.

“At Harvard, however, it’s the reverse,” she said.

This is the self-censorship some Harvard students complain of. Only some complain because the complaint is directed against the rest who dominate conversation and do not want to hear opposition.

These dominant students may not begin as a majority, but the activist few create the majority who accept their view and then impose it on those who disagree, forcing them to censor themselves.

The punishment for not censoring yourself is to lose the company of fellow students and to be disregarded and shunned. You are not put in jail, as happens in Iran and other countries, but you are deprived of the fellowship you want from college life.

I don’t know how widespread the necessity to censor oneself is felt, but I think the judgment behind it is pretty accurate. In practice, Harvard is a one-party spot, much more so than even the practically one-party state and one-party city in which it resides. But is this such an unhappy fact?

Self-censorship might seem to be a part of self-control based on the need to respect others. Everyone knows what tact is, and as one matures one gains experience of the great truth that it often pays to keep your mouth shut. You may be proud of the many wise and witty things you say, but with your mouth shut you will not be embarrassed by the few foolish remarks you let slip. From the standpoint of tact, self-censorship might seem to be an education in prudence and responsibility.

Perhaps the complainers about self-censorship should be boasting of their ability to exercise prudence. They are getting a better education than the many who live unprotesting and almost unconscious in the Harvard bubble. Conservatives, I like to say, get more from Harvard by having to be critical of its boring, politicized conformity — and by being forced into self-censorship. Upon graduation they can go elsewhere and enjoy a freedom they have prepared for themselves.

Yet if self-censorship is a benefit, should it not be made more general than it is? All should experience the feeling of taking a course where one sits in silence as an unaddressed minority. Why should genuine education be reserved for conservatives? But this reasoning might suggest that everyone should spend a term in jail to learn what it’s like. Then let’s move from the benefit to the harm of self-censorship.

Today, self-expression has much greater sway than self-control. To be free, it is said, you must be able to express yourself and be safe while doing so.

To express yourself fully means to fashion your own identity. And to do that, the danger of being offended in your identity becomes a vital point: You must be free both to take offense when you are disrespected and to give offense when your own identity demands it.

Everyday slight offenses loom as large as major ones that are rare. Self-expression permits, even requires, that the names people use be inspected for the harm they cause. Once respected names like Woodrow Wilson and John Winthrop may need to be abandoned and tossed into the trash can of non-history. Pronouns, too, need to be revised so as not to offend persons formerly known as women; no more impersonal he or him, no more chairman or freshman.

JESS L. JENKINS—CRIMSON DESIGNER

Public Service Is Its Own Reward

BY ALVIN L. BRAGG JR.

­C

ongratulations to the Class of 2023 on making it to graduation day! If you’re anything like I was approaching Commencement, you’re feeling proud, excited, a little sad to be ending your college journey, immensely relieved to be done with your final final exams, and grateful for four great years.

The world is open to you, and you undoubtedly have impressive professional accomplishments ahead. Some of you will pursue a career in public service, as I have. Some of you will not.

I will not try to dissuade anyone from their chosen career path. But I will make the case that service is for everyone, and you should find a place for it in your life. There is a tendency to think of success in terms of degrees, professional accomplishments, and job titles. But success is also measured in services to those without the same privilege you enjoy as Harvard alumni.

My mom was a career educator. My dad led the Manhattan chapter of the New York Urban League and later helped run homeless shelters. Some of my earliest memories with them are of being stopped on the street by their former students and clients who just wanted to say “thank you.”

As an impatient child, I was often pulling on them to move on, but those encounters made a tremendous impression on me. I saw the fruits of my parents’ service in the faces of people whose lives they improved in ways big and small.

When I got to Harvard, I incorporated service into my life there, volunteering as a teacher and mentor through the Phillips Brooks House Association.

And I have continued to teach — for a time as a law school professor and currently as a volunteer Sunday school teacher at my church.

Teaching and making genuine connections with young people remains deeply fulfilling to me, even though it’s been a relatively small part of my professional life.

As a student at the College, I also pursued service by advocating for policy change. I served on the Student Advisory Committee at the Institute of Politics, and as president of the Black Students Association.

Those experiences ultimately served me well in my career in government, although my path was not straight. My first job out of college was as a consultant (like so many of you!). But I continued to volunteer in my personal life, and since law school, the majority of my career has been in public service, as a federal and state prosecutor.

In many ways, I have achieved in my career in the traditional sense of the word. But achievement isn’t the most important throughline in my career.

The connecting thread, as I see it, is using different areas of the law to address power asymmetries: suing or prosecuting people in privileged positions who stole from government programs, companies that exploited workers, law enforcement officers who abused their power, healthcare companies that denied mental health treatment to people in need, and businesses that financed violent crime.

In the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, I have focused on expanding our services for survivors of crime who often feel left behind by the criminal justice system. We have embedded alternatives to incarceration into the core of our practice to ensure that people who have been failed by countless societal systems

get the services they need and break the cycle of recidivism.

I have not always seen the faces of the people who have benefited from my work, as I saw with my mom and dad’s former students and clients, but I know that I am using my Harvard education to help people who need a powerful ally to level the playing field.

Whether it is in your career or as a volunteer in your community, I encourage you to do something to serve. Advance your career, yes, but also measure your success but what you do for others — students taught, victims counseled, patients healed.

Systemic change requires advocates both inside and outside the government. You do not have to pick just one lane, and you do not have to take a straight path. Follow your particular passion at a particular moment in time.

And regardless of what your day job is, remember that there are lots of ways to serve.

One of my favorite scriptures comes from the Gospel of Luke: “To whom much is given, much will be required.” I was provided the opportunity of a great experience at Harvard. For me, that opportunity came with an obligation to serve.

When I was a kid, I don’t think I knew where my parents went to college. I may not have known their exact job titles. But I saw their resumes of accomplishments in the people who stopped us on the street to offer thanks.

If my kids can say the same about me in 40 years, I will have had a successful career. I wish you the same as you embark on your next chapter.

—Alvin L. Bragg Jr. ’95 is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the current District Attorney of Manhattan.

You must be free both to take offense when you are disrepected and to give offense when your own identity demands it.

Do people object to such changes, made without their consent? Mostly not, but if they did, they would be informed that justice overrides their sense of offense, and they must consent to the kind of censorship that actually puts words in your mouth. They must learn the new expressions and learn to like them. Self-censorship raises your consciousness and wakes you up so that you can join the woke.

Is anything lost by being woke? Yes, let me suggest there is.

Instead of arguing the point, one begins to search for character defects and pounce when they are found. You blind yourself by taking offense because in doing so you are led to simplify the justice you think is so unquestionable. Instead of thinking about what justice might require, you try to shame opposition out of existence.

Believing that justice is easy to think, you begin to believe it is easy to apply. You conclude that slavery was as easy to abolish as to denounce today after it is abolished. You regard those who gave their lives in a Civil War to gain that end as less just than we are now, bravely changing names and pronouns.

You agree that Harvard has a legacy of slavery rather than the legacy of anti-slavery you can see every day with a glimpse of Memorial Hall.

My argument against taking offense ends up by taking offense. I got there in defense of the honor of Harvard, which I have always loved a little more than it deserves. Now, facing my 70th reunion, it must be time to calm down and retire, accepting my own self-censorship.

To the Class of 2023: Make a life for yourselves that you can be proud of. And by the way, to keep our classrooms full, we teachers are always grateful to former students who have children.

—Harvey C. Mansfield ’53 is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Government.

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NEWS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

COMMENCEMENT 2023

37

HUPD

Chief Clay Backs Students After Swatting FULL SUPPORT. Harvard University Police Department Chief ‘100 percent’ backs demands from students and alumni following an April 3 swatting attack in Leverett House.

BY RYAN H. DOAN-NGUYEN AND YUSUF S. MIAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

­H

arvard University Police Chief Victor A. Clay clarified the department’s response to an April 3 swatting attack at Leverett House in a Friday interview with The Crimson, expressing his support for written demands made by students and alumni in the wake of the incident.

In the interview, Clay acknowledged student criticism and said the University “dropped the ball” by not issuing a statement to students sooner. Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana first emailed students about the swatting attack roughly 66 hours after it took place, drawing criticism from affiliates.

“A very vulnerable part of our community was targeted and affected by this incident,” Clay said.

“I’ve said this before: We took too long to talk to them. There was this delay that I still don’t understand why it occurred.”

On the morning of April 3, four Black undergraduates in Leverett House were ordered out of their rooms at gunpoint by HUPD officers responding to a false 911 call from an individual claiming to be armed and holding a woman hostage.

Clay said that the reason a campus-wide alert didn’t go out during the time of the attack was because the situation “was confined to a very small space, and we already had the problem con-

tained.”

“This thing that was being reported to us did not affect Longwood, or the Divinity School, or the Business School — it affected Leverett House,” Clay said. “So to send out an alert at three o’clock in the morning may have brought more people into the problem.”

Clay added that it was a “tactical decision” not to send a MessageMe alert to students.

Jarah K. Cotton ’23, one of the students in the Leverett suite, told The Crimson in April that she believes an email alert should have been sent, noting the threat posed by a potential shooter.

“They clearly, again, thought it was a serious threat because they had assault rifles pointed at our faces,” Cotton said. “I feel like if it warrants that kind of response, it most definitely war-

“

Every single officer involved in the Leverett House incident really wants to talk to the students because they are actually hurting right now.

Victor A. Clay Harvard University Police Department Chief

rants an email.”

In the interview, Clay also acknowledged a letter sent to administrators by 45 Harvard organizations in response to the swatting attack, which criticized the University’s response and listed five demands: a University-wide statement acknowledging the “significant racial impact” of the swatting, a thorough HUPD investigation, increased HUPD

transparency and accountability, “proactive” mental health support, and an in-person town hall by administrators.

“I agree with it 100 percent,” Clay said. “I don’t think their demands were unreasonable at all.”

Clay, who came to HUPD with a pledge for reform, added that he supports holding a town hall “if it’s a fruitful conversation” and if administrators are willing to participate.

“You learn a whole lot from the community when you give them an opportunity to speak, right?”

Clay said. “But if it’s just an opportunity for one or two folks with a very specific intent to shout you down or gain popularity on social media — not for it at all.”

Clay also stressed that “there’s a human side to both sides of this conversation” and that HUPD is “hurting” along with students over the incident.

“Every single officer involved in the Leverett House incident really wants to talk to the students because they are actually hurting right now,” he said. “The fact that they feel that they traumatized these students even more than being targeted by the caller — it affects the officers.”

Clay said after an HUPD meeting Thursday, officers told him that they wanted to talk to the students and explain that they are “not there to intimidate” or “hurt” them.

Clay added that he empathizes with the students involved due to his identity as a Black man.

“I am from the Black community,” Clay said. “I know what they’re feeling. I know exactly what they’re feeling.”

He added that he was frustrated that the department had been tricked into responding to the swatting call.

“This was a large hoax, and they’re playing this game across

HUPD Chief Victor A. Clay said that he fully agrees with students and alumni who raised concerns about the University and the department following an April swatting attack. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

the country,” Clay said. “It really bothered me that he — first of all — got Harvard. He got us. And secondly, he’s gonna get a lot of — in whatever weird little world he lives in — a lot of credibility from doing that.”

Clay also addressed the use of assault rifles and riot gear by the HUPD officers who conducted the raid, saying that the department’s equipment is “appropriate,” though adding that he believes more training on their use is necessary.

“I don’t think we’re militarized at all. I think we have the weaponry that is minimally adequate considering the amount of violence in the United States, ” Clay said.

Asked about the January Cam-

bridge Police killing of 20-year0ld University of Massachusetts Boston student Sayed Faisal, Clay said he doesn’t believe any police department is “appropriately equipped” to handle mental health crises.

“I’m a huge proponent of a partnership with mental health professionals, whether they be embedded in a police department or responsible for a co-response model,” he added.

“We are all desperately waiting for somebody to take the lead on this and say we are no longer going to allow 911 — the police department — to be the primary responder to mental health crises,” Clay said of police around the country. “Somebody else has

to come in and do this because by calling a cop to a mental health crisis, you limit the response.”

At the end of the interview, Clay expressed gratitude toward his staff for their “continued effort and diligence.”

“There have been some staff here who have given 100 percent effort to keep this department afloat and moving forward, and they are often not recognized,” Clay said. “They’re not thanked enough.”

“Culture change is tough,” he said. “But it’s not impossible. And if it’s not impossible, I’m going to do it.” ryan.doannguyen@thecrimson.com yusuf.mian@thecrimson.com

Congratulations

2023 Graduates

Dean Michelle A. Williams and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health wish you continuing success.

www.hsph.harvard.edu

38

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

NEWS

COMMENCEMENT 2023

LABOR

HUCTW Reaches Tentative Agreement IN AGREEMENT. Harvard’s clerical and technical union reached a tentative deal after more than a year of negotiations.

BY CAM E. KETTLES CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

­A

fter 13 months of negotiations and a protracted stalemate over compensation, Harvard’s clerical and technical union reached a tentative agreement with the University before noon May 11, six days before the union’s 35th birthday.

If ratified, members of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers will receive four raises that, for a member earning the median salary of $64,000, would increase the member’s base salary by 19 percent.

A typical HUCTW member will see a 5.9 percent raise effective Oct. 1, 2022, and three raises of 4.7 percent, 3.8 percent, and

3.5 percent from July 1, 2023, through 2025.

“I think the whole package over four years provides us with very meaningful protection against the extraordinarily high inflation that we’ve seen and creates a strong possibility of progress beyond inflation over the life of the contract,” HUCTW Executive Director Bill Jaeger said.

Because the tentative agreement also retroactively covers the months since the last contract expired Sept. 30, members will receive a lump sum payment that covers the raise they would have received had the agreement been formally reached before the last contract expired.

Union members will also receive an additional $1,400 onetime bonus May 31.According to a joint statement by the University and HUCTW, a ratification vote is expected by the end of the month.

The tentative deal comes after four months of picketing by union members, a March rally

with more than 250 attendees, and a letter-writing campaign that saw hundreds of members write to deans and faculty members in support of the union.

“Thousands of our members have gotten engaged in helping to raise awareness in the community,” Jaeger said.

The union’s campaign had also been endorsed by many public figures including Massachusetts State Senator Pat Jehlen, Boston City Councilors Ruthzee Louijeune and Liz Breadon, and Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey.

The tentative deal also includes provisions to increase HUCTW assistance funds, which include child care, education, and transportation assistance.

While HUCTW and the University had previously been using an independent, third-party mediator to facilitate negotiations, they had recently employed Harvard Economics professor Lawrence F. Katz.

“Having an academic econo-

mist mediator was very helpful in the end,” Jaeger said. “I think our economist mediator played a very positive role.”

Katz declined to comment on his involvement in the negotiations.

The union had planned to hold a rally on May 24, a day before Harvard’s Commencement exercises.

While organizers said this was not the only factor that contributed to the tentative agreement being reached, they said it played a role.

“We had the opportunity to plan Commencement week activities, and Harvard was very interested in reaching a deal before that time came so that they could prevent those activities from taking place,” said Danielle Boudrow, a member of HUCTW’s executive committee.

“It’s such a public moment for Harvard with so much attention on the campus, and they want it to be a happy event,” she added.

“I think Harvard considers it a PR problem to have a labor dispute

out front in public during such a public event.”

Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton declined to comment on the University’s reasons for agreeing.

HUCTW organizer Jaime Pepper said the tentative agreement was “the best possible agreement that we could get.”

“We made sure that we exhausted every last dollar that we could possibly get at the negotiating table before we settled,” Pepper said.

Boudrow called the agreement “excellent,” saying that organizers believe its pay raises will beat inflation over the duration of the agreement based on consulting economists with “a rock solid consensus” that inflation will decline.

Despite the broad support, some members said they felt the tentative agreement does not adequately address inflationary pressures.

HUCTW member Genevieve Butler said she thought the rais-

es included in the tentative agreement weren’t “nearly enough.”

Butler predicted the tentative agreement would most likely pass since she believes “people are desperate to get something.”

HUCTW President Carrie E. Barbash wrote in an email to The Crimson that it’s “fantastic” that lowest paid union members will receive raises of at least 7 percent in June and at least 6 percent in July.

“I understand why some folks might be frustrated it’s not more — people have been struggling and need every dollar HUCTW can get, but we also feel great about the fact that our average member is getting around 6% in June and then another 4.7% a few weeks later in July,” she wrote.

Members of union leadership, as well those who plan to vote against the tentative agreement, said they expect it to pass with overwhelming support. cam.kettles@thecrimson.com

Members of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers started weekly pickets outside Massachusetts Hall in February amid contract negotiations that began in April 2022. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

CFO Search Has Identified ‘Very Good Candidates,’ Pritzker Says

BY MILES J. HERSZENHORN AND CLAIRE YUAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Harvard Corporation senior fellow Penny S. Pritzker ’81 said “several very good candidates” have been identified in the search for the University’s next chief financial officer.

Pritzker, who helms the University’s highest governing board, said in a phone interview Monday that the search process for the next CFO is “mature” and “going well.”

Harvard launched its search for a new chief financial officer six months ago after Vice President for Finance and CFO Thomas J. Hollister announced he would retire at the end of the 2022-23 academic year. Hollister has served in the role since joining Harvard in 2015.

As the University’s top financial officer, Hollister steered Harvard through the financial challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. In a prescient move, Hollister led efforts to prepare for an economic recession, releasing a University-wide “recession playbook” in October 2019, just three months before the first Covid-19 case was detected in the

United States.

Harvard’s next CFO will also be tasked with guiding the school through economic uncertainty as the U.S. economy continues to grapple with heightened inflation and the possibility of a recession.

The new CFO will likely have to work closely with Harvard President-elect Claudine Gay in leading a new University-wide capital campaign, an initiative expected to be announced just a few years into her presidency.

Hollister arrived at Harvard amid its previous capital campaign, which ultimately netted a historic $9.6 billion.

Pritzker, however, said it is “unclear” if a new CFO will be appointed before Gay assumes her new post in Massachusetts Hall on July 1.

“They have a group of good candidates,” Pritzker said. “I would hope that that is something that gets announced sooner rather than later — but exactly when, I don’t know.”

Pritzker also said she does not know if Gay will announce her successor as Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean before she departs the role this July.

“She and the Provost are very focused on it,” Pritzker said.

“But I don’t know exactly when that will be complet-

ed.”

In recent weeks, Gay appointed an interim dean for the School of Public Health and announced outgoing Harvard Divinity School Dean David N. Hempton will serve in the role until the end of August as the search for the school’s next dean continues.

Gay has yet to announce who will serve as FAS dean or dean of Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences when the positions vacate on July 1.

Pritzker said during the interview that ensuring a successful presidential transition is currently “top of mind for the Corporation.”

“One of the most important things that we can do is to work with the new president, assuring that she has the support she needs to have her first year be successful,” she said.

Pritzker said the Corporation “has been in dialogue” with Gay, and she meets personally with the President-elect every one to two weeks.

“She and I have a regularly set call that we do, an engagement, and then we also speak between those times on topics as they arise,” she said. “I’m very, very, very excited about her leadership.” miles.herszenhorn@thecrimson.com claire.yuan@thecrimson.com

Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny S. Pritzker ‘81 introduced Claudine Gay as the University’s next president in a December event at Smith Campus Center. J. SELLERS HILL—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

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MBTA

Grad Student Plans to Sue MBTA INJURY. Falling equipment in Harvard Square T station struck and injured Harvard graduate student.

BY JACK R. TRAPANICK CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

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irst-year Harvard graduate student Joycelyn Johnson, who was struck and injured last week by falling equipment at the Harvard Square T station, said she plans to sue the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority after suffering a separated shoulder.

A utility box and its supporting equipment dislodged last Monday, hitting Johnson on the shoulder. The MBTA said the equipment has not been in use since 2013, and corrosion on straps holding up the box’s bracket caused it to fall out of place.

At a press conference outside the station Wednesday morning, Johnson, a Ph.D. candidate in Molecular and Cellular Biology, said she did not immediately realize the extent of her injury following the incident.

“I didn’t feel anything,” she said. “I was in a state of shock.”

Sean Martin, a spokesperson for Johnson and her lawyer, wrote that Johnson’s injury — which has left her arm in a sling — “will require ongoing and longterm medical treatment” and has affected her studies.

Johnson, who lives at the

southern end of the Red Line in Quincy, said in an interview with WBZ-TV that she could no longer do “everyday experiments” that she called “probably the most important” aspect of her studies.

In an interview with The Crimson after the press conference on Monday, Johnson’s attorney Thomas Flaws alleged that the MBTA knew about the “decrepit” state of the utility box for more than a month before the accident — but did not take action.

“On March 30, an MBTA rider noticed this utility box in its decrepit condition, sent a message off to an employee at the T, sent a picture, said, ‘This is going to injure somebody, you need to fix this, this is dangerous,’” Flaws said. “And the employee at the T set up a maintenance claim.”

“

I didn’t feel anything. I was in a state of shock.

Joycelyn Johnson Ph.D. Candidate in Molecular and Cellular Biology

“And the same rider contacted the T about two weeks later and said, ‘This is still there, it’s still dangerous,’” he added. “They had been explicitly told that there was a danger in the station, and quite apparently did nothing to treat it.”

MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo declined to comment on the

A section of the Harvard T station’s inbound platform was sectioned off after a utility box and its supporting equipment fell out of place and hit a first-year Harvard Ph.D. student. CLAIRE YUAN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

specifics of Johnson’s case or her lawyer’s assertion that the T knew about and failed to address the corroded condition of the equipment, citing a policy against discussing pending litigation.

“The MBTA deeply regrets that this incident occurred, and know that we continue to work every day to ensure safety for all,” Pesaturo wrote in an emailed statement.

Flaws formally submitted Johnson’s claim to the MBTA on

Thursday, according to Martin.

The process for filing a lawsuit against a state agency in Massachusetts provides a six-month waiting period for the agency to respond before a suit can be filed.

Last summer, the Federal Transit Authority ordered the MBTA to take immediate action to improve rider safety and address poor working conditions, including dangerously long working hours for its dispatchers.

MBTA riders have suffered an array of serious safety incidents over the last two years, including a fire on the Orange Line, a death on the Red Line after a man’s arm was caught between the train doors as it began moving, and a death at the JFK/UMass Station when a Boston University professor fell through a corroded staircase.

In March, a 20-pound panel fell from the ceiling of Harvard Square station — also due to corrosion — and just missed an ex-

iting rider. In both the instances of the falling panel and the dislodged utility box, the T has followed up with inspections that removed similar equipment from other Red Line stations.

By filing the claim, Flaws said he hopes to see “answers” from the MBTA about the incident, and, ultimately, “real action” that includes “in-depth safety inspections.” jack.trapanick@thecrimson.com

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41

HARVARD SQUARE

Cava Brings Mediterranean to the Square PASS THE PITA. Mediterranean-themed restaurant chain opens location in Harvard Square.

BY PATON D. ROBERTS CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

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ava opened its newest location Friday morning on Brattle Street, bringing a Mediterranean-themed fast-casual option to Harvard Square.

Prior to the grand opening, Cava held a fundraiser in partnership with Project Bread, a food assistance nonprofit based in Massachusetts. Their Thursday event — which sold out on Eventbrite — allowed attendees to receive a free meal of their choice, and encouraged donations for Project Bread. Cava matched donations up to $1,000.

Cava’s “Community Day” is a companywide opening tradition that has raised more than $350,000 in the past four years.

The donations often focus on ensuring food security in the surrounding communities.

Christian Starkes, Cava’s Northeast Regional Leader, wrote in a statement that the company “couldn’t be more excited” about the new Harvard Square location and stressed Cava’s ethos of generosity.

“Our mission is to bring heart, health, and humanity to food, and everything we do at CAVA is grounded in that spirit of generosity, to our guests, our team members, and our community,” he wrote.

Both Cambridge residents and tourists expressed excitement about the new location.

Shubhanshi N. Gaudani said while she hasn’t tried the food at Cava yet, she appreciated the ambience of the restaurant and the variety of food available.

“The building looks cool because of the glass windows,” she said. “So I was like, ‘Oh, that’s cute, a lot of sunlight,’ and it’s a nice color palette in terms of food, so, yeah, I like the options too.”

Kendall B. Clark, who was visiting from Chicago along with Gaudani, echoed her sentiments about the building’s

decor, and added that she was happy with Cava’s vegetarian options.

“Like Shubhansi said, it’s really cute in here, very aesthetically pleasing. And I like the food, generally — we’re both vegetarian so I was like, okay, yeah, this is a good place that’s gonna have options for us.”

Cameron Seamans said Cava is a good option for after the gym, when he might want “something quick.”

Cambridge resident Angelina Z. Wang said she used to visit a Cava location near Boston University when she was a student there and was happy to have a new location in the area.

“I used to go when I was in school, but there aren’t any Cavas around here really except for this one, so it’s nice to have something.”

According to a press release, the opening is one of more than 60 planned for 2023. The Harvard Square Cava joins nine other Massachusetts locations.

Cava, a Mediterranean-themed chain restaurant, opened a location at 22 Brattle St. last week. paton.roberts@thecrimson.com

Kenzie Bok ’11 Talks Path from Teacher to City Councilor

BY JACK R. TRAPANICK CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

In the spring of 2011, graduating senior Kenzie Bok ’11, a former president of the Institute of Politics, Marshall Scholar, and lifelong Bostonian, reflected on the purpose of a Harvard education in a Crimson op-ed titled “Veritas and Us.” “To respond to the freshman-year anxiety as to whether each of us ‘deserved’ to get into Harvard: I won’t know until I do something with it to serve others,” she wrote.

“So what kind of life should we lead?” Bok continued. “As I consider my own future, I wonder if I should spend my time shuttling between intellectual inquiry, political activity, and direct service, or try to settle on an intermediate location somewhere on the plane defined by those three points.”

Twelve years later, Bok is an outgoing Boston City Councilor, a recent lecturer on housing policy in Harvard’s Social Studies program, and an incoming head — or “Administrator” — of the Boston Housing Authority. In all these efforts, Bok seems to have kept the same spirit in her career of public service.

In an interview with The Crimson, Bok described the formative influence of her time at Harvard — both as a student and lecturer — on her career, including both her policy and her political philosophy.

After graduating from College, Bok went on to study intellectual history at the University of Cambridge. She began researching American political philosopher John Rawls while at Harvard, which would later give her the tools she said she now uses as a policymaker and administrator.

“A very simplistic way of

talking about one of John Rawls’ core principles is the idea that when you’re doing policymaking, you should have an initial instinct of, ‘What’s the impact of this on the least well-off set of folks in the situation?’” Bok said. “There’s actually a ton of undergirding and thinking about why that should be your instinct.”

“That’s also a very useful mental tool when thinking about actual policy problems,” she added.

Following her time in England, Bok returned to Harvard for a program on housing at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, before then becoming a lecturer on housing policy and political theory in the undergraduate Social Studies program.

In a class she taught about applying distributive justice — “who should get what and how, and what makes that fair and equal,” as Bok describes it — to housing, students analyzed existing housing policies for their final projects, which at one point were presented to members of the Boston Housing Authority itself.

The BHA, which Bok will lead after Boston Mayor Michelle Wu ’07 appointed her to the role in April, manages the city’s public housing stock and its housing voucher program while promoting fair housing throughout the city. At the time she was a Harvard lecturer, Bok also worked as a senior adviser to the BHA. Bok often talked over policies she was implementing there to her class, particularly the values undergirding them.

“If it’s just like, ‘This person needs that thing,’ you might give everybody vouchers and let them end up wherever they want in the private market,” she said in reference to housing. “Which then might exclude areas — and you might be like, ‘That’s fine, be-

cause the people needed housing and they have a roof now, right?’”

“But if you’re actually like, ‘No, no, it’s actually very important to our democracy that people of different incomes be able to live among each other and participate in the same local political world,’ then you become more focused on ways that you’re going to actually anchor that housing subsidy in place so that people can stay in the community,” she continued.

As a result, Bok has worked on policies like adjusting payment maximums for housing vouchers to keep consistent with the average rent of the zip code they are used in.

Assessing the value of her time as a Harvard undergraduate, Bok said extracurricular involvement in the Harvard College Democrats, IOP — where as president she oversaw a student budget of $60,000 — and other clubs was “very good training” for life post-graduation.

“A thing that’s really parallel about undergraduate extracurricular activities and the campaign world is that you’re sort of forming a group of people and standing up a project that almost always is less than a year from start to completion,” Bok said.

Though she credits her time at Harvard for helping her to develop her professional skills, Bok cautioned students against overlooking their academic experience.

“What I always tell Harvard students is, ‘You’ll have your whole life to work, and you only have these years — and maybe a few more as I did — to really study,’” she said. “Make sure that you make time for the life of the mind.” jack.trapanick@thecrimson.com

PATON D. ROBERTS—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Madras Dosa Co. Brings a Dose of Dosa to Harvard Square

BY CAROLINE K. HSU AND SIDNEY K. LEE CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Madras Dosa Co., a chain specializing in customizable dosas, opened its doors last Friday with the goal of bringing South Indian food to Harvard Square.

Located on 22 Eliot St., the new establishment’s menu centers around the dosa, a crepe-like dish made of lentils and rice that is usually stuffed with savory fillings. The Harvard Square location is the second for the chain, which opened its first storefront in Boston’s Seaport district in 2021.

Koushik “Babu” Koganti, the owner and operator of Madras Dosa Co., said that plans to open the chain came about because Indian food, especially from southern regions, is “underserved” in America. “A lot of people think Indian food is chicken tikka masala and naan,” he said.

“Dosa has its own character, so we want to make dosa as big as it can go. That’s why we want to focus on one single dish,” Koganti continued.

The menu includes options to fill the dosa with a wide variety of vegetables and meats, as well as fruits for those looking for a sweeter option. The restaurant also serves rice pilaf, chaat, and sandwiches.

On expanding into Harvard Square, Koganti said that he believes dosa is “a great to-go for the students.” He added that he hopes the restaurant will attract “millennials who are health conscious, who love vegan food.”

Inside the restaurant, customers sit alongside a wall adorned with green foliage, highlighted with a pink neon sign stating, “Dosa is the Answer.”

“We want people to take pictures with this wall,” Koganti said.

Shreeja Kikkisetti ’25, a student at the College from South India, said she decided to eat at Madras Dosa because dosas were a “staple” for her at home. “I feel like it resembles very closely to what I’m very used to,” she said.

Rachna Gupta ’25 described the atmosphere in the restaurant as “very homely” and said she was excited by the opening, despite repeated delays to its opening.

“Me and my friends have been anticipating it opening, like I follow its Instagram page. I know there were some delays, which made us a little disappointed, but we’re happy it’s here,” Gupta said.

Madras Dosa’s opening saw a series of delays as the restaurant brought the space up to code and obtained permits from the City of Cambridge. The establishment initially sought to open its doors to students in December 2022 or January 2023.

Madras Dosa is open until 3 a.m. every day as Koganti hopes to add the dosa to the list of latenight options in Harvard Square.

According to Koganti, the chain is seeking to expand to major cities around the world, with a location on Madison Avenue in New York City set to open in a few months, as well as another along the Las Vegas Strip. Negotiations are also under way for a potential location in Paris.

“One billion people in India love it. From north to south, east to west, everybody loves dosa,” Koganti said. caroline.hsu@thecrimson.com sidney.lee@thecrimson.com

Madras Dosa Co. is located at 22 Eliot St. in Harvard Square. MARINA QU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Harvard Awards Over $200,000 in Grants to Allston Nonprofits

BY JACK R. TRAPANICK CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Harvard announced grants totaling $200,000 to 20 different organizations and programs in Allston as part of the Harvard-Allston Partnership Fund at a ceremony last Thursday.

The grant total is double the $100,000 that had previously been distributed every year since 2008, when the fund was founded as part of a cooperation agreement between Harvard and the City of Boston. The agreement allowed Harvard to begin construction for its planned expansion into Allston, including what is now the Science and Engineering Complex.

The permanent funding in-

crease is part of a proposal by Harvard to the Boston Planning and Development Agency as the University seeks approval for further development at 92 Seattle St. “Increasing Harvard’s contributions to this partnership fund during my last year in office was a wonderful way to demonstrate our commitment to the Allston-Brighton community,” University President Lawrence S. Bacow, who attended the ceremony, said in a press release.

Among the recipients were multiple summer camps and food pantries, a YMCA, a school parent council, an art gallery, and the Charles River Watershed Association. Grant sizes ranged from $20,000 to support a learnto-skate program by Allston Brighton Youth Hockey, $15,000

to support instruction in string instruments at the Gardner Pilot Academy, and $5,000 to create a

“

It was a nice way to get a cross-section of need and evaluate proposals that would come in.

Karen Smith Member of the Harvard-Allston Partnership Fund

children’s “sensory space” at the Honan Allston library.

Heloisa M. Galvão, the executive director of the Brazilian Women’s Group, said her group — which received a grant of $20,000 this

year — has received grants from the fund of increasing size for the past three years after finding out about it through the Allston-Brighton Adult Education Coalition.

“The grant from Harvard is crucial, because the way we see it, Allston-Brighton has become the largest Brazilian community in Boston,” she said.

Galvão cited the “extremely high” cost of living in the area, food insecurity, and a lack of job opportunities for immigrants without documentation or who do not speak English as issues her organization attempts to address and will devote the funding received toward.

“They come because they need clothes, because they need something for the kids, because they need food, because they need us to help them to fill out some papers,

to read the letter that they got,” she said of individuals who seek help from the Brazilian Women’s Group.

She added that without external support from organizations such as Harvard, the organization’s work would be “extremely difficult.”

Karen Smith, a member of the fund’s advisory committee that reviews grant proposals, said the committee sought to award grants that reflect the diverse demographics in Allston.

“It was a nice way to get a cross-section of need and evaluate proposals that would come in,” she said.

Asked whether she believes the funding increase represents a positive step for Harvard’s historically fraught relationship with Allston, Smith said the fund is “completely standard — and

what’s expected of anyone looking to do development.”

“It is very common when developers get permission from city governments to do any one of a number of things — like housing, commercial buildings, whatever — the package that is negotiated includes mitigation and community benefits,” she said.

Nevertheless, Smith said the money Harvard has contributed towards the fund is “well spent” and benefits Allston.

“There are going to be kids going to the West End summer camp that wouldn’t have gone before.

There are kids getting music lessons in a school that doesn’t have a budget for music, and now they’re getting music lessons,” she said. jack.trapanick@thecrimson.com

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FAS

Majority of Faculty Identify as Liberal FACULTY SURVEY. This third installment of The Crimson’s survey of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences explores respondents’ political views on a range of issues, including academic freedom and affirmative action.

BY RAHEM D. HAMID AND ELIAS J. SCHISGALL CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

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ore than 77 percent of surveyed Harvard faculty identified as either “very liberal” or “liberal” in The Crimson’s annual survey of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Just under 32 percent of faculty respondents said they were “very liberal.” Approximately 45 percent of respondents identified as “liberal,” 20 percent as “moderate,” more than 2 percent as “conservative,” and less than 1 percent as “very conservative.”

These results largely track with last year’s results of The Crimson’s faculty survey, where more than 80 percent of respondents said they identified as liberal, with only 1 percent identifying as conservative.

The Crimson distributed its survey to more than 1,300 members of the FAS and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, including tenured and tenure-track professors, nontenure-track lecturers, and preceptors. The survey collected demographic information and opinions on a range of topics, including Harvard’s academic atmosphere, life as a professor, and political issues.

The anonymous 124-question survey received 386 responses,

including 234 fully-completed responses and 152 partially-completed responses. It was open to new responses between March 23 and April 14. Responses were not adjusted for selection bias.

The first installment of The Crimson’s faculty survey covered respondents’ views on the controversy surrounding accusations of harassment against professor John L. Comaroff and Harvard’s Title IX policies. The second installment concerned respondents’ opinions on top Harvard administrators including outgoing University President Lawrence S. Bacow and incoming president Claudine Gay. This third installment explores faculty respondents’ political views on a range of issues, including academic freedom, race-conscious admissions policies, and more.

FAS spokesperson Anna G. Cowenhoven declined to comment for this article.

Academic Freedom Almost 76 percent of surveyed faculty said they believe that academic freedom is under threat in America, with just over 11 percent disagreeing. A majority — approximately 52 percent— of surveyed ladder faculty said they “strongly agree” that academic freedom is under threat, compared to approximately 27 percent of non-ladder faculty.

More than 61 percent of surveyed faculty said Harvard emphasizes academic freedom just enough, with more than 36 percent saying it merits greater emphasis.

In a free-response question asking what they believed were the strongest threats to academic freedom right now, several fac-

ulty referenced right-wing political movements and figures.

“MAGA-inspired parents and politicians who want to ban books, restrict syllabi, revoke tenure, and destroy education more than they have,” one member wrote.

Still, not all faculty said that the threat came from the political right.

One faculty member cited “Woke-crazed students and cancel culture.” Another member wrote about the “lack of tolerance for diverging political views, especially more moderate or conservative leaning opinions.”

Approximately 57 percent of faculty respondents said they agreed that Harvard should give controversial speakers a platform, even when many faculty or students object to their views.

More than 20 percent disagreed.

In a free-response question about how Harvard ought to promote free speech, some faculty called on the school to sign the “Chicago Statement,” a free speech policy statement developed at the University of Chicago and signed by nearly 100 schools, including Princeton University and MIT. Affirmative Action As many legal scholars expect the Supreme Court to strike down race-based affirmative action this summer, surveyed faculty overwhelmingly backed race-conscious admissions policies.

Just over 76 percent of surveyed faculty said they strongly or somewhat agreed with Harvard’s defense of race-conscious admissions policies, with approximately 9 percent disagree-

ing.

A plurality of surveyed faculty — more than 44 percent — also somewhat or strongly disagreed with the Court’s decision to take up the case. Nearly 19 percent agreed with the decision.

In an open-response question, some faculty members took aim at legacy admissions, with one faculty member writing, “We need to keep affirmative action, but question both legacy admissions and athletic admissions policies.”

Still, some faculty members remained concerned over the impact that College’s admissions policies’ could have on Asian American applicants.

“Some of the evidence presented about Harvard’s discrimination against Asian and Asian-American students has made me very sad and upset, and has also been extremely harmful to the cause of supporting diversity-promoting admissions policies,” one member wrote.

More broadly, just over 50 percent said Harvard emphasizes diversity, inclusion, and belonging just enough, with approximately 20 percent saying it does so too much and approximately 29 percent saying it does so too little.

Issues on Campus In recent years, Harvard has seen a wave of student activism related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, caste discrimination, and Harvard’s investments in the fossil fuel and prison industries.

A majority of faculty — more than 57 percent — said they would not characterize their views as either pro-Israel or pro-Palestine, with approximately 10 percent saying they are more pro-Isra-

el and more than 32 percent saying they are more pro-Palestine.

Nonetheless, more than 77 percent of faculty said the University should not provide more support for pro-Israel or pro-Palestine causes.

Approximately 61 percent of surveyed faculty said they believed that Harvard should follow Brown University in banning caste discrimination, with just under 4 percent disagreeing.

Nearly two years after Harvard announced it would let its investments in fossil fuels expire, only about 15 percent of surveyed faculty said they agree that the University is doing enough to fight climate change, while nearly 59 percent of respondents said they disagreed.

Faculty respondents generally supported the move to divest from fossil fuels, while some called for faster action in an open-response question.

“Do more and hurry it up,” one faculty member wrote, with another writing that “divesting fossil fuels should move faster.”

Harvard still maintains investments in companies tied to the prison industry, long a point of contention for activists. Just under three-fourths of surveyed faculty said they felt Harvard should divest from prisons, with approximately 8 percent saying it should not.

Methodology The Crimson’s annual faculty survey for 2023 was conducted via Qualtrics, an online survey platform. The survey was open from March 23, 2023, to April 14, 2023.

A link to the anonymous survey was sent to 1,310 FAS and SEAS faculty members through

emails sourced in February 2021 from Harvard directory information and updated in subsequent years. The pool included individuals on Harvard’s Connections database with FAS affiliations, including tenured, tenure-track, and non-tenure-track faculty.

In total, 386 faculty replied, with 234 filling the survey completely and 152 partially completing the survey.

To check for response bias, The Crimson compared respondents’ self-reported demographic data with publicly available data on FAS faculty demographics for the 2021-22 academic year. Survey respondents’ demographic data generally match these publicly available data.

In The Crimson’s survey, 47 percent of respondents identified themselves as male and 45 percent as female, with 2 percent selecting “genderqueer/ non-binary,” 1 percent for “other,” and 5 percent for “prefer not to say.” According to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ 2022 Report, 39 percent of FAS faculty as a whole are female.

53 percent of respondents to The Crimson’s survey were tenured or tenure-track faculty and 47 percent were non-tenuretrack faculty. According to the FAS data, 58 percent of faculty are tenure-track and 38 percent are non-tenure-track.

31 percent of survey respondents reported their ethnic or racial background as something other than white or Caucasian, with 9 percent opting not to report their race. According to the FAS data, 27 percent of faculty are non-white. rahem.hamid@thecrimson.com elias.schisgall@thecrimson.com

RAHEM D. HAMID—CRIMSON DESIGNER

RAHEM D. HAMID—CRIMSON DESIGNER

RAHEM D. HAMID—CRIMSON DESIGNER

84% of Admits Accept Spots in Harvard College Class of 2027

BY MICHELLE N. AMPONSAH AND EMMA H. HAIDAR CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Roughly 84 percent of admitted students have accepted their place in the College’s Class of 2027, Harvard announced in a press release Friday.

The figure marks a slight uptick from last year’s yield rate of 83 percent, but lies just below the Class of 2025’s record-high yield of 85 percent. A total of 56,937 students applied to the Class of 2027, facing an acceptance rate of 3.41 percent.

Due to the high yield rate, “only a small number of students” will earn admission off the waiting list, according to the press release. The College also admitted 13 transfer students this year.

Asian Americans make up 29.8 percent of incoming freshmen, more than 2 percentage points higher than 2026. The record-setting figure comes as the Supreme Court is expected to

rule this summer on a lawsuit brought by anti-affirmative action group Students for Fair Admissions, which alleged Harvard discriminates against Asian American applicants. Harvard has denied SFFA’s claims.

Black students make up 14.1 percent of the class, down from 14.4 percent of the incoming Class of 2026, while Latinx students also decreased to 11.1 percent of the class from 11.9 percent the year before. Native Americans and Native Hawaiians represent 2.3 percent of the incoming class, down from 3.6 percent last year.

Around 29.8 percent of incoming freshmen intend to concentrate within the social sciences and another 30.2 percent are interested in the natural sciences. Just over 16 percent of incoming students expressed interest in computer science and engineering, while 16.3 percent plan to concentrate in the humanities. The remaining students are undecided.

For the second year in a row,

Harvard announced the expansion of its financial aid program, raising the threshold for zero-cost attendance to families making less than $85,000 per year. Last year, the threshold for zero-cost attendance was a family income of less than $75,000.

According to the press release, 68 percent of incoming freshmen applied for aid. Nearly 24 percent of the class comes from families earning under $85,000 annually, and 28.4 percent requested to waive application fees.

Those admitted to the Class of 2027 represent all 50 states and 102 countries. More than 15 percent of incoming freshmen hail from outside the United States.

Women and men make up 53 and 47 percent of the class, respectively, according to the press release. This continues a sixyear trend of women comprising at least half of the incoming class. michelle.amponsah@thecrimson.com emma.haidar@thecrimson.com

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SECURITAS

Students Voice Support for Mike Grant RALLYING IN SUPPORT. Harvard affiliates are speaking out in support of Leverett House security guard Mike Grant after a dispute with the house’s building manager.

BY CAM E. KETTLES CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

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ore than 1,400 people have signed a petition calling on Securitas to continue the employment of Mike Grant, a security guard at Leverett House, one of Harvard’s undergraduate residences.

After a disagreement with Leverett Building Manager Mohamed Zaker in late April, Grant stood at a disciplinary hearing on May 5. Grant, an employee of Securitas — an international security services firm which employs security guards at Harvard — answered questions from Securitas area managers Alonzo B. Herring and Angela Kinyua during the hearing.

“They came from every angle they could to find just cause to terminate Mike Grant but Mike has a chance to beat it but has to be careful,” Grant’s union shop steward Michael A. Nowiszewski wrote in a statement.

The petition states that Grant is “a boon to the community” and did “nothing wrong,” citing an article published in The Crimson’s Fifteen Minutes magazine about the appreciation students have for Grant and his kindness.

“We stand together in support of an inclusive and kind community at Harvard, that should not tolerate abuse of third party contractors, no matter who their boss is,” the petition reads.

Securitas did not respond to multiple requests for comment, and Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton declined to comment on Grant’s case.

Grant is awaiting a decision on his case.

The Grill Dispute On Friday, April 28, Leverett residents Jack R. Walker ’24 and Hayden Teeter ’24 wanted to have a barbecue in the House courtyard.

After receiving permission from Grant, Walker took their grill out of storage and began to set it up.

Grant then got a call from Zaker, the Leverett building manager, instructing him to tell the students they are not allowed to grill on Leverett property.

According to Grant, Zaker told him the Leverett faculty deans did not want the students to use the grill. Teeter and Walker offered to move the barbecue to the river, where they would no longer be on Leverett property. Grant agreed.

Zaker denies telling Grant the faculty deans did not want the students to use the grill but said he instructed Grant to call the tutor on call, who makes decisions about whether students can hold events. Grant did not call.

According to Grant, Zaker then told him a second time that the students cannot use the grill anywhere because Zaker said the grill belongs to Leverett and cannot leave the House grounds.

Zaker then told him to put the grill in storage, saying he didn’t want the students to start the fire in the courtyard.

Because the grill was outside last year and taken into storage, Zaker said he assumed it was used for Leverett’s House Committee, adding that he instructed Grant to tell the students to check with him the following Monday.

“So I went over and said, ‘Hey guys, unfortunately you won’t be able to use it at all. You know, the faculty dean and the building manager are insisting that I take it and put it into storage,’” Grant recalled.

Walker and Teeter explained to Grant that it was not, in fact, a Leverett grill. Walker had purchased the grill one year prior and showed Grant a purchase receipt on his phone.

“So I call [Zaker] back and I say, ‘Hey, the students actually have a receipt for the grill. It’s actually their grill,’” Grant said.

“I said, ‘I actually do remember the student had the grill last

Mike Grant, a security guard at Leverett House — an undergraduate dormitory — says his job remains at risk following a dispute over a student grill.

SAFFRON R. AGARWAL—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Harvard contracts security guards through Securitas, a third-party contractor. PEI CHAO ZHUO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

year and it was put into storage,’” he added.

According to Grant, Zaker then insisted the grill belongs to Leverett and that the students were lying.

The two got into an argument over the phone and at one point, Zaker said, “What do I even have you there for if you can’t even do your job? This is why you’re a guard. This is why you’re just a guard,” according to Grant.

Grant provided a similar report of events to Securitas Account Manager for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Robert M. Sabater, according to documents obtained by The Crimson.

Grant insisted he could not take the grill from Walker and

Teeter.

“If I did take the grill, oh yeah I’d be out of here,” Grant said.

“They would have sent me home that same day.”

“And nobody would have ever seen me or heard about me again,” he added.

Zaker said he told Grant that if the grill was not Leverett’s, the students could not store it in the house.

Zaker said he then instructed another Leverett employee, custodian Ever W. Martinez, to take the grill from the students, but Martinez decided not to confiscate the grill after seeing Walker’s receipt, according to Walker and Teeter.

Grant and Zaker then spoke

Grant became involved in a dispute over a grill in Leverett House courtyard. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

on the phone for a third time, getting into another heated argument during which Grant said he told Zaker, “I don’t appreciate your tone of voice or the way you’re trying to belittle me.”

Zaker said Grant “raised his voice and was aggravated.”

“I don’t want any altercations.

I don’t like confrontation,” Grant said. After hearing people laugh on Zaker’s side, Grant hung up.

“From a student perspective, he was doing what he should.

One, not taking the grill from people who actually owned it and two, not raising his voice,” Walker said.

Walker and Teeter kept the grill and went to the river as they had originally agreed to do.

‘Who is the Boss?’

Leverett Faculty Deans Daniel G. Deschler and Eileen E. Reynolds ’86 wrote a joint email to Walker later that day about what they described as a “misunderstanding today concerning Grilling In the Leverett Courtyards.”

“When informed of this occurring today, we asked that you be informed that it was not allowed and to relocate if you wished to grill,” Deschler and Reynolds wrote in the email. “We did not ask that your grill be confiscated.

We apologize for this misunderstanding and will speak with involved parties.”

Harvard spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo wrote in an email

to The Crimson that the deans had no comment on Grant’s situation.

That same day, Grant wrote an email to Leverett faculty deans about what had happened, while Zaker contacted Grant’s supervisor, Sabater. Grant was then informed of a disciplinary hearing scheduled for May 5 at Securitas’ Cambridge office.

While Grant had called the union that represents Securitas guards, Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, he said they told him a representative could not attend the meeting with him on such short notice. Instead, union shop steward Michael Nowiszewski went with Grant to his May 5 meeting.

“The union has literally done nothing for him to date despite him asking for their help,” Nowiszewski wrote in a statement.

Frank Soults, the spokesperson for 32BJ SEIU, and Roxana Rivera, assistant to the 32BJ SEIU president, did not respond to a request for comment about the union’s response.

At the meeting with area managers Herring and Kinyua, Grant said Securitas managers looked at his incident report and tried to “pick it apart and find any and every little thing that they can possibly use against me. ‘Oh did you say this? Oh you said this? Did you disrespect him?’”

“Our Human Resources Department, they don’t back us,” Grant said. “Their main priority is, ‘Harvard is our client and we’re going to do everything in our power to make Harvard happy.’”

Harvard contracts security guards through Securitas, a third-party contractor. 32BJ SEIU negotiates directly with Harvard, although Securitas employs individual guards.

Neither Herring, Kinyua, nor Securitas Area Vice President for Harvard Christopher Connolly responded to repeated requests for comment for this article.

According to Nowiszewski, the co-employer relationship makes it difficult for guards to know whether they should listen to managers from Harvard or Securitas.

“It’s stressful to walk a tight rope between ‘do they like me?’ and doing what 12+ bosses with competing incentives above you want done simultaneously at the houses,” Nowiszewski wrote.

“Who is the employer? Who is the boss?”

On May 3, Walker wrote to Leverett administrators about a number of grievances with Leverett management, including the incident involving their grill.

A week later, Harvard Associate Director of Residential Facilities Nancy Hodge wrote that “while I am not able to share information about the specific HR processes that we follow, I can let you know that I have worked with Mohamed to understand more thoroughly what happened in each of the instances you mentioned below, and to identify ways to improve the communication and processes where necessary.”

Since the May 5 meeting, Grant has not been contacted by Securitas about the status of his case or whether he will retain employment.

Both Grant and Nowiszewski said his security job continues to be at risk.

In a May 7 email to Leverett residents, Deschler and Reynolds wrote that they “have been reassured that Mike’s job is not at risk because of the incident.”

Grant, however, wrote in a May 18 email to The Crimson that his status is uncertain and that it “seems likely” that Securitas will wait until Commencement exercises on May 25 before acting.

“Once the students have departed, there is a possibility that they will attempt to relocate me to a different site, potentially outside of Harvard,” he wrote.

Regardless of the outcome of his case, Grant said he felt overwhelmed by “the love and support” that he has received from students.

“I’m just so thankful, regardless of which way this goes,” Grant said. “I truly have so much love in my heart for these students.” cam.kettles@thecrimson.com