The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873
|
VOLUME CXLIX, NO. 53
| CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
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THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2022
EDITORIAL PAGE 4
SPORTS PAGE 6
SPORTS PAGE 6
Double concentrations fill a gap in the Harvard Curriculum
Crew brings home victory to Cambridge in weekend events
Baseball swept by UPenn Quakers in rain-shortened series
Harvard to Continue Covid Testing, For Now Bill Lee Talks SSFA Lawsuit By CARA J. CHANG and ISABELLA B. CHO CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Since the beginning of March, Harvard has gradually paired down its on-campus Covid-19 restrictions — a shift from the cautious approach the school took to managing the virus over the last two years. On March 1, faculty began removing their masks in lecture halls. Thirteen days later, the school’s mask mandate was lifted in most indoor spaces. Two weeks after that, social gatherings were allowed to resume in undergraduate residence halls. But one key requirement remains: testing. When Harvard announced in February that it would allow professors to begin teaching unmasked, University Health Services Director Giang T. Nguyen wrote that “regular surveillance testing will remain an important part of our campus protocols.” “It will continue to help us understand the presence of COVID-19 in our community and inform any subsequent steps we may take in response
to the data,” he wrote. But some experts say testing requirements, too, could soon be on the way out. Undergraduates are currently required to take a Covid test once per week. But some public health experts say phasing out asymptomatic Covid testing requirements is reasonable for schools that require full vaccination, like Harvard. In an interview last week, Harvard President Lawrence S. Bacow said the University will eventually stop requiring asymptomatic affiliates to test for Covid — but he stopped short of specifying when. A total of 430 Harvard affiliates tested positive for Covid-19 last week as the school saw a large uptick in cases among graduate students and staff, according to the University’s Covid-19 Testing Dashboard. While recent case counts remain lower than those in January, when the Omicron variant first emerged, the school has seen a surge over the past week. Boston University medical school professor Elissa M.
SEE TESTING PAGE 3
Lee discussed the suit at the first-ever Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Forum. By YUSUF S. MIAN and CHARLOTTE P. RITZ-JACK CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Across the Ivy League, prospective student-athletes may receive likely letters as part of their recruitment process. “An admissions office may issue probabilistic communications, in writing, to recruited student-athlete applicants who have submitted all required application materials,” Harvard spokesperson Rachael Dane wrote in an email. Per Ivy League regulations,
Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow William F. Lee ’72 discussed the lawsuit challenging Harvard’s race-conscious admissions policies during an event at the University’s first-ever Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Forum on Wednesday. The University’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Sherri Ann Charleston, joined Lee, who served as Harvard’s lead counsel in the trial challenging its race-conscious admissions system. The suit, which seeks to overturn affirmative action in higher education, is set to be taken up by the Supreme Court in the fall alongside a similar case against the University of North Carolina. The three-day virtual EDIB forum, themed “Reimagine Our Community,” kicked off on Tuesday. It features speakers such as actress Lauren Ridloff and Black Voters Matter Fund co-founder LaTosha Brown, along with interactive activities and breakout room discussions. During the final day of programming on Thursday, the event will include panel discussions with Brown, Harvard University Police Department Chief Victor A. Clay, and Harvard Human Resources Vice President Manuel Cuevas-Trisán. On Wednesday, Lee discussed the admissions lawsuits brought by the anti-affirmative action group Students for Fair Admissions, which charge that Harvard College and UNC discriminate against Asian American applicants and violate civil rights law by considering race in their admissions processes. Lower courts have ruled in
SEE LETTERS PAGE 3
SEE LEE PAGE 3
Harvard University President Lawrence S. Bacow, pictured in his office during an interview with The Crimson last Friday. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
Who Receives Likely Letters from Harvard College? By NIA L. ORAKWUE and RAHEM D. HAMID CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Galdino Guzman-Navarro ’23 was bundling up to go feed his horses on a March day in Nebraska when he got a call from Cambridge, Mass. An admissions officer was on the phone and informed Guzman-Navarro that he would be admitted to Harvard. “The guy on the phone with me was like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to admit you,’” Navarro said. “I think the whole thing was just pitching Harvard.” Colleges send likely letters — or, in some cases, make likely phone calls — to prospective students to notify them they are likely to be admitted on the official decision release date. To receive one is rare: Harvard College doesn’t release how many likely letters it sends out, but in the past, the school has sent roughly 200 to recruited athletes and 100 to non-athletes. Harvard College Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 said in an interview last month the College uses likely letters to tar
The Harvard College Office of Admissions and Financial Aid is located at 86 Brattle Street near Radcliffe Yard. MEIMEI XU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
Harvard Campus Covid Cases Rise By LUCAS J. WALSH CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Covid-19 cases on Harvard’s campus have risen steadily in the last week-and-a-half, driven in large part by a spike among graduate students and faculty and staff. The on-campus Covid-19 positivity rate sat at 1.54 percent as of Wednesday evening, according to Harvard’s Covid-19 Dashboard. Last week, 430 Harvard affiliates tested positive — up from 279 from the week prior. Just over half of the positive cases on campus last week were graduate students. The spike comes one month after Harvard lifted its on-campus mask requirement during Spring Break. Case counts, though rising, have not matched the peak of the Omicron spike in January, when the school reported 976 positives in a single week. Undergraduate case counts rose last week, but not to preSpring Break levels. During the INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Harvard Today 2
first week of March, 342 College students tested positive — the highest single-week sum since the beginning of the pandemic. “While we have seen recent increases in cases, they are not as high as what we saw in January,” Harvard University Health Services Director Giang T. Nguyen wrote to University affiliates on Wednesday. “Increases are consistent with virus levels that the state of Massachusetts is reporting through its tracking of sewer wastewater.” The State of Massachusetts reported a 2.93 percent seven-day positivity rate as of April 7. The city of Cambridge reported a 2.3 percent 14-day positivity rate as of the same day. Harvard also updated its travel guidance on Wednesday to remove a requirement that unvaccinated affiliates submit travel petitions for University-related travel. Affiliates who are fully vaccinated and boosted are no longer required to
SEE COVID PAGE 3
News 3
Editorial 4
get students from rural areas or otherwise underrepresented backgrounds. “If you’re, say, the first in your family to go to college and come from a very rural part of America, having a little longer period of time might help you start to get your family ready for the idea that maybe you’re going to be going off a long way away,” Fitzsimmons said. “You try out a way for people who might be outside that sort of normal, mainstream of applicants to send a signal,” he added. Recruited Athletes
Rep. Raskin Discusses Jan. 6 Committee at IOP By DANISH BAJWA, KATE DELVAL GONZALEZ, and ANDREW M. LU CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
United States Representative Jamie B. Raskin ’83 (D-Md.) discussed the state of American democracy and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol during a Harvard Institute of Politics forum on Wednesday evening. Raskin, a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, serves on the U.S. House’s January 6 Select Committee, which is tasked with investigating the attack on the Capitol that took place that day. “Our January 6 Select Committee has made tremendous progress towards defining exactly the character of the events on January 6, and the causes behind them,” Raskin said during the forum. “So I think that we’re making progress, but we’re obviously in a very polarized condition in the country,” he added, placing blame on the Republican Party.
SEE RASKIN PAGE 3
Sports 6
U.S. Rep. Jamie B. Raskin ’83 (D-Md.) discussed the state of American democracy and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol during a Harvard IOP forum on Wednesday evening. PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE INSTITUTE OF POLITICS.
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