The Harvard Crimson - Volume CL, No. 12

THE HARVARD CRIMSON THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873

| VOLUME CL, NO. 12

| CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

STUDENT GROUPS

INSIDE THE CLINIC

OPINION

SPORTS

Harvard, Take the Money Without the Values

Harvard Athletics Celebrates 50 Years of Title IX

PAGE 9

|

PAGE 16

FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 2023

DSO Weighs Pause on New Orgs CLUB FREEZE. Harvard College’s Dean of Students Office has proposed a temporary pause on the creation of new clubs, citing limited resources.

SEE PAGE 4

HOUSE RENEWAL

Bow & Arrow Press Set to Depart Adams MOVING OUT. Historic Bow & Arrow Press is set to leave Adams House after renovations conclude.

SEE PAGE 8

MARATHON

Advocating for Animal Rights at Harvard Law ANIMAL LAW. Harvard Law School’s Animal Law and Policy Clinic is set to enter a new chapter after the departure of its director at the end of the semester. The clinic has seen a rapid rise to prominence in an emerging field of legal advocacy, with faculty and students working to improve the treatment of animals through the courts. SEE PAGE 7 SAMI E. TURNER—CRIMSON DESIGNER, ANTHONY Y. TAO–CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

SACKLER PROTEST

Students Stage ‘Die-In’ at Harvard Art Museums, Demand Denaming of Sackler Buildings

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

H Harvard Students Run Boston Marathon ‘NEVER FELT MORE PROUD.’ Harvard students joined tens of thousands of runners from across the globe to compete in the 127th Boston Marathon on Monday, with most running on behalf of charitable causes.

SEE PAGE 11

arvard students and organizers staged a protest and “die-in” at the Harvard Art Museums Thursday to condemn the University’s connections to Arthur M. Sackler and his family, whom they charge with enabling and profiting from the opioid crisis.

More than 50 protesters called on Harvard to remove the Sackler name from all University sites and departments — including the Arthur M. Sackler Building and Arthur M. Sackler Museum. In addition, some protesters urged the school to

SEE SACKLER PAGE 4

Faculty Disapprove of Comaroff Returning

Black Orgs Condemn Response to Swatting

BY RAHEM D. HAMID

CULTURE

SEE PAGE 11

Purdue Pharma’s pain relief drug OxyContin was highly addictive, but they downplayed its dangers when marketing it to doctors.

In 2020, Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty to three federal criminal charges related to its promotion of OxyContin and reached a $8.3 billion settlement with the Department of Justice — a move that dissolved the company. In 2022, members of the Sackler family agreed to pay as much as $6 billion in a settlement related to the opioid crisis, though they have never admitted criminal wrongdoing.

Speakers at the protest cited examples of other neighboring institutions who

LEVERETT LETTER

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

YOUTUBE CHEF. Renowned pastry chef and author Claire J. Saffitz ’09 discusses her time at Harvard and the experience of discovering her passions for cooking and teaching, and reflects on her career.

Arts and Sciences Process for Denaming Spaces, Programs, or other Entities.

“The university has established a process for considering de-naming spaces, programs, or other entities. A proposal to de-name the Arthur M. Sackler Museum and the Arthur M. Sackler Building has been submitted and is currently under review,” Newton wrote.

The protesters are part of a larger group of activists who argue that members of the Sackler family who largely owned the multi-billion dollar drug company Purdue Pharma began the ongoing nationwide opioid crisis. Since 2007, local, state, and federal governments have claimed in an extensive series of lawsuits that members of the Sackler family knew

FACULTY SURVEY

AND ELIAS J. SCHISGALL

Chef Claire Saffitz ’09 on Passions

invest in a more available supply of the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone.

The protest, which started at 12:30 p.m., took place in the atrium of the Harvard Art Museums and included chants such as “Shame on Sackler,” “Take Down the Name,” and “No More Drug War.” Protesters also dropped empty pill bottles onto the floor as bloodied paper money and palm cards rained down from the second floor balcony.

In an emailed statement Thursday, Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton confirmed the school is reviewing a proposal to dename the two buildings, which was submitted last fall by members of the Harvard College Overdose Prevention and Education Students to the Faculty of

More than 50 percent of Harvard faculty who responded to The Crimson’s annual survey of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences indicated they felt Harvard should not have allowed professor John L. Comaroff — who has been publicly accused of sexual harassment and professional retaliation — back into the classroom.

The results come amid campus activism calling for the embattled African and African American Studies and Anthropology professor to resign. Allegations against Comaroff are also at the center of an active federal lawsuit against Harvard by three Ph.D. candidates in Anthropology, who allege the school mishandled years of complaints against the professor.

Comaroff has repeatedly denied all allegations that have been made against him.

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, non-tenure-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 survey centers around faculty views on the controversy surrounding Comaroff, as well as Harvard’s Title IX policies and procedures and departmental culture surrounding sexual harassment.

SEE SURVEY PAGE 7

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

Forty-five Harvard organizations cosigned a letter to administrators detailing a list of demands following the University’s response to a “swatting” attack that saw four Black undergraduates ordered out of their rooms at gunpoint by Harvard University Police Department officers earlier this month.

According to the letter, which was sent Wednesday, members of co-signatory organizations will stage a demonstration during Visitas — the College’s admitted students weekend — if the University does not respond to the demands by April 23.

This year’s Visitas will take place from April 23 to April 24.

The letter follows a wave of student and alumni outrage following the April 3 swatting attack, which prompted at least five HUPD officers to enter the students’

Leverett suite at approximately 4:15 a.m. with riot gear and assault rifles. The officers were responding to a false 911 call about an armed individual in the dormitory and later deemed the situation safe.

The letter, which was predominantly signed by Black student organizations, levies a series of criticisms of the University’s response to the attacks and makes five specific demands.

The letter calls for a University-wide statement recognizing the “significant racial impact” of the swatting, a “thorough investigation” by HUPD, increased transparency and accountability in campus policing, a “proactive” mental health response, and an in-person town hall with administrators.

“We condemn the University’s failure to, at large, protect its Black community’s emotional and physical wellbeing in the aftermath of such trauma,” the letter reads.

SEE LETTER PAGE 5

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THE HARVARD CRIMSON

LAST WEEK

APRIL 21, 2023

ART MUSEUMS

KENNEDY SCHOOL

SUSTAINABILITY

Professors Chat Blockchain and Art

Experts Discuss AI and Democracy

EPA Administrator Talks Climate

BLOCKCHAIN. Harvard Art Museums hosted New York University professors Kevin McCoy and Amy Whitaker for a Thursday evening discussion on the role of blockchain — a technology that allows for the secure distribution of data through a distributed ledger — in providing equality in the art market. The discussion was moderated by Ruth C. Streeter ’76, a 2021 Advanced Leadership Initiative fellow, and it focused on recent calls to create a new, fairer model for owning art and cultural property. BY FRANCESCO EFREM BONETTI AND CAMILLA WU—CONTRIB-

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. Former South Korean business minister Young-sun Park and social media CEO Will Hohyon Ryu discussed potential applications of artificial intelligence to democracy during a talk at Harvard Kennedy School Tuesday. More than 50 people attended the event, which was held in the Kennedy School’s Land Hall. Park, South Korea’s former minister of small and medium enterprises and startups and a fellow at the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia, opened the event with a discussion of the concept of “liquid democracy.” BY JADE LOZADA AND ADELAIDE E. PARKER— CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

FOREIGN POLICY. Former Environmental Protection Agency administrator and first-ever White House national climate adviser Gina McCarthy discussed President Joe Biden’s climate policies and obstacles to further legislation during a Wednesday lecture. McCarthy — who was joined by James H. Stock, the University’s vice provost for climate and sustainability and a professor of political economy — delivered the Warren and Anita Manshel Lecture in American Foreign Policy. More than 50 people attended McCarthy’s talk. BY ELISE D. HAWKINS AND JADE

UTING WRITERS

LOZADA—CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

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The Week in Photos

AROUND THE IVIES MORE THAN 1,700 SIGN PETITION CALLING FOR BETTER MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES

JEREMIH PERFORMS AT 2023 YARDFEST CONCERT STUDENT LIFE. Students returned to Tercentenary Theatre for Yardfest 2023, where rapper Jeremih performed alongside student groups Beacon St. and Weld 16. His performance included songs such as ‘Birthday Sex,’ ‘oui,’ and ‘Down on Me’. BY NATHANAEL TJAN-

More than 1,700 Columbia University affiliates and parents signed a petition urging the school to improve its mental health resources. The petition — addressed to the school’s president, provost, and deans — was authored by Columbia senior Tess Fallon in collaboration with fellow senior Alyssa Sales. The petition included demands to decrease wait times for mental health-related appointments and bring more health care providers to Columbia.

DRA—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

THC THE COLUMBIA SPECTATOR

Read more at THECRIMSON.COM

STUDENT GROUPS URGE YALE TO CUT TIES WITH BRITISH SECURITY COMPANY Yale student groups and New Haven organizations signed a resolution written by Yalies 4 Palestine urging Yale to cancel its contract with British private security company G4S. Yales 4 Palestine alleges that G4S has been involved in human rights violations, including in South Africa and at the U.S.-Mexico border. Other universities, including Columbia and the University of California system, have divested from G4S. YALE DAILY NEWS

BROWN PURCHASES $2.5 MILLION HOUSE AS NEW PROVOST RESIDENCE Brown University bought a $2.51 million property at 125 Hope St. in Providence, R.I. on Monday.

Brown’s incoming provost Francis J. Doyle III will reside in the house beginning in July. According to a Brown University press release, the school’s selection was motivated by a desire for a house that was better suited to host events. The house, which spans 5,624 square feet, was built in 1819 and is known as the Joseph Cooke House.

RENOVATED BOATHOUSE REOPENS. Weld Boathouse welcomed Harvard rowers back to its historic space last week after more than a year of renovations The facility, one of Harvard’s two crew boathouses, has not seen a renovation this large since its construction in 1906. Renovations began in July 2022 and were completed by contractor Consigli Construction and architecture firms Bruner/Cott Architects and Petersen Architects. The interior contains a new team locker room, coaches’ offices, and training space. BY MANUEL JOSE GONZALEZ­­— CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

MARATHON. A handful of Harvard students competed in the Boston Marathon on Monday, raising money for charities including the Phillips Brooks House Association. BY JACK R. TRA-

WEST. Cornel R. West ’74 addressed Harvard affiliates and residents of Cambridge at the 2023 Department of Peace Social Impact MVP Awards Ceremony at Sanders Theatre. BY

PANICK­­—CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

FRANK S. ZHOU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

GIBERSON PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO 6 VIOLATIONS OF U.S. CODE IN CONNECTION TO CAPITOL RIOT Larry Giberson, a college senior at Princeton University, pleaded not guilty to six U.S. code violations in relation to the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol. The Department of Justice alleges that Giberson chanted “Drag them out!” and cheered when pepper spray and weapons were used on Capitol police officers. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Rancourt, who is representing the U.S. government in the case, told the court that discovery for the case would be provided to Giberson’s attorney, Charles Burnham, by next Wednesday.

THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

PRESS. The Bow & Arrow Press, a student-run letterpress studio, has operated from the basement of Adams House for more than 45 years. But as the house undergoes renovations, the Press’s beloved physical space will be turned into a common room. BY SOFIA SANTOS DE OLIVEIRA ­—CONTRIBUTING

PANEL. Roughly 70 Harvard affiliates gathered at Harvard Kennedy School for a panel event discussing modern-day lynching and racialized violence.

Former NAACP President Cornell William Brooks condemned the 2018 death of William A. “Willie” Jones Jr, which was ruled a suicide by authorities, as racialized violence. BY RYAN H. DOAN-NGUYEN—CRIMSON

ROSEN. Former acting United States Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen discussed the growing threat of antisemitism at a forum hosted by the Harvard Institute of Politics Monday evening.

During the forum, Rosen highlighted the importance of confronting the negative cultural impacts of antisemitism. BY CLAIRE YUAN—CRIMSON

PHOTOGRAPHER

PHOTOGRAPHER

PHOTOGRAPHER

NEXT WEEK

THE HARVARD CRIMSON APRIL 21, 2023

What’s Next

IN THE REAL WORLD SCOTUS ENTERS DEBATE OVER ABORTION PILL ACCESS On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court extended the pause on a lower-court ruling that preserves access to mifepristone, a drug widely used for abortions and miscarriage management. While the administrative stay does not reveal anything on the Court’s anticipated ruling on the issue, it extends access to the drug amidst contradictory U.S. Federal District Court rulings on the legitimacy of the FDA’s approval of the treatment.

FOX AVERTS TRIAL WITH $787.5 MILLION DOMINION SETTLEMENT Fox News settled with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million, avoiding a public defamation trial on the network’s promotion of lies about the 2020 presidential election. The settlement was announced moments before the scheduled start of opening arguments. While Fox released a statement acknowledging “certain claims about Dominion to be false,” the news network did not release an apology.

According to the Associated Press, the settlement makes up close to one-quarter of the company’s earnings, which was reported at $2.96 billion last year.

The development of the case revealed internal emails and messages of Fox executives and hosts admitting the untruthful nature of their accusations.

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

Friday 4/21

Monday 4/24

Wednesday 4/26

JOHN LIST IN CONVERSATION WITH DAVID LAIBSON

THE SKY’S NOT THE LIMIT: MY JOURNEY INTO SPACE EXPLORATION AND STEM

EAT, POOP, DIE: HOW ANIMALS MAKE OUR WORLD

Emerson Hall 210, 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

University of Chicago Economics professor John A. List and Harvard Economics professor David I. Laibson, who is the director of the Foundations of Human Behavior Initiative, will discuss the latest topics in economics research and their experience working in the field.

Saturday 4/22

Knafel Center, 4 p.m. - 5 p.m.

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study is hosting Mimi Aung, who will talk about her career journey through space engineering, including leading the team in charge of the Mars Helicopter Ingenuity. Aung is currently working in the private sector to launch broadband access.

Tuesday 4/25

ELEGANZA

Bright-Landry Hockey Center, 7:30 p.m. - 11 p.m.

Come see Eleganza, Harvard’s student-run celebration of fashion, dance, music, and queer aesthetic expression. The organization was founded 28 years ago and typically features a sold-out crowd.

“I AM YOUR SISTER”: AUDRE LORDE IN THE CONTEXT OF BLACK FEMINIST ACTIVISM AND ETHICS

James Room East, Swartz Hall, 12 p.m..

Beverly Guy-Sheftall, who directs the Women’s Research and Resource Center at Spelman College, will discuss activist and writer Audre Lorde’s work in the context of Black feminist ethical thought.

Sunday 4/23

Virtual, 12 p.m. - 1 P.M. The University of Vermont conservationist Joe Roman will discuss conservation and marine mammal biology at this webinar hosted by the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Thursday 4/27 IN THE SHADOW OF GIANTS: A COMMEMORATIVE EVENING OF BLACK CONTEMPORARY ART

Smith Campus Center, 6 p.m.

The Black Arts Collective is hosting this celebration of Black creativity and the work of photographer Chuck Stewart in Smith Campus Center. The event will include a panel and the announcement of the winner of the inaugural Vanguard Award.

Friday 4/28 SEVENTH ANNUAL CAN’T STOP HIP HOP CONFERENCE

SWING IT & WING IT

Harvard Graduate School of Education, 6:30 p.m. - 8 p.m.

The Harvard Graduate School of Education and HipHopEx host the 7th Annual Can’t Stop Hip Hop Conference, celebrating Hip Hop’s 50th birthday. The event will include performances, panels, and interactive workshops.

Leverett Library Theater, 7 p.m. - 9 p.m.

The Harvard Jazz Combo Initiative is presnting its spring concert Swing It & Wing It, featuring student musicians and saxophonist Don Braden ’85. This concert, a program of the Office for the Arts, is free and open to members of the public.

HOUSE GOP REVEALS BILL TO LIFT DEBT CEILING On Wednesday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy released a bill to raise the debt ceiling following months of debate. The proposed bill cuts federal spending by almost $130 billion, undoing the Biden administration’s legislation on student loan cancellation, as well as introducing federal work requirements for welfare programs.

The work requirements would affect low-income Americans who are enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or Medicaid.

Additionally, the bill proposes that the federal government reclaim unspent funds from previous COVID-19 aid package, which federal officials estimate to amount to less than $100 billion.

TIME FOR SPRING

BOSTON JUDGE DELAYS PENTAGON LEAK CASE On Wednesday, Jack Teixeria — the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman accused of leaking classified military documents — appeared briefly in Boston’s federal court, where the judge postponed his hearing. The delay follows a joint request from prosecutors and defense lawyers to have additional time to prepare. Teixera was charged last week under the Espionage Act. for his alleged sharing of classified military documents about Russia’s war in Ukraine. According to the Associated Press, the judge has not set a new date for the hearing, and Teixeria — who is being represented by a federal public defender — has yet to enter a plea.

ADDISON Y. LIU—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

Design Chairs Sophia Salamanca ’25 Sami E. Turner ’25

Eleanor V. Wikstrom ’24 Christina M. Xiao ’24

Blog Chairs Tina Chen ’24 Hana Rehman ’25

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

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

Sports Chairs Mairead B. Baker ’24 Aaron B. Schuchman ’25

Technology Chairs Kevin Luo ’24 Justin Y. Ye ’24

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

Associate Business Manager Derek S. Chang ’24

Night Editors Isabella B. Cho ’24 Vivi E. Lu ’24 Assistant Night Editors Krishi Kishore ’25 Elias J. Schisgall ’25 Sally E. Edwards ’26 Jackson C. Sennott ’26 Neil H. Shah ’26 Story Editors James R. Jolin ’24 Brandon L. Kingdollar ’24 Leah J. Teichholtz ’24 Meimei Xu ’24

Eric Yan ’24

Editorial Editor

Design Editors Toby R. Ma ’24 Nayeli Cardozo ’25 Sami E. Turner ’25 Laurinne P. Eugenio ’26

Sports Editors Mairead B. Baker ‘24 Aaron B. Schuchuman ‘25

Aden Barton ‘24

Arts Editors Photo Editors Julian J. Giordano ’25 Joey Huang ’24 Christopher L. Li ’25 Addison Y. Liu ’25 Maria S. Cheng ’26

Zachary J. Lech ‘24

CORRECTIONS 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

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

APRIL 21, 2023

HUCTW

HUCTW Frustrated by Long Negotiations SLOW PACE. Clerical and technical workers have been in contracts negotiations for more than a year.

BY CAM E. KETTLES AND JULIA A. MACIEJAK CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

­A

s negotiations between Harvard’s clerical and technical union and the University pass their one-year mark, union employees have now gone more than a year and a half without a pay raise.

The current round of contract negotiations is the second-longest in Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers’ 34-year history.

Its previous one-year contract expired Sept. 30, 2022, and HUCTW and Harvard agreed to negotiate through a federal mediator in November 2022.

The slow pace of negotiations has caused frustrations to mount within the union.

In a March 1 newsletter, the union claimed Harvard has failed to make “a meaningful move since their last offer in January” — an 11.5 percent wage increase over three years, which “doesn’t come close to addressing high inflation rates,” the newsletter stated.

“They seem like they’re just digging in their heels,” said Leslie MacPherson, a department administrator at the Harvard Divinity School.

In an emailed statement, University spokesperson Jason A. Newton wrote that Harvard “re-

mains committed” to negotiating in good faith “with a full appreciation for the important role our HUCTW colleagues have in fulfilling Harvard’s mission and their contributions to our community as a whole.”

As the negotiations continue, union members face growing financial strain.

Average rent in Boston has increased by 8.1 percent over the past year according to housing website Zillow.

“People are feeling the pain,” said Timothy M. Conant, an access coordinator at the Harvard Kennedy School Library.

Sarah E. Hillman, an executive assistant at the Sharpe Laboratory at Harvard Medical School, said the lag in negotiations has caused “uncertainty” as she prepares to sign a new lease.

“I’m somebody who rents an apartment, and I need to commit to my landlord in May whether I’m staying or moving,” she said.

“I find that challenging to do not knowing what my salary will be going into the future.”

HUCTW members said many University workers have needed to go into credit card debt or dip into their retirement accounts to stay afloat.

“As an older worker, I’m concerned about my rate of pay and the value that it has as I look toward retirement,” Conant said.

Anna Taylor, an IT specialist at the Harvard-MIT Data Center, said her coworkers “are making tough choices about which bills to pay.”

The Pay

SACKLER FROM PAGE 1

Student Activists Protest Sackler Name ­ ave cut ties with the Sackler h family, including Tufts University, which in 2019 removed the Sackler name from all programs and facilities on its Boston health sciences campus.

“No family is more singularly responsible for the opioid crisis that has devastated so many lives,” Harvard Student Labor Action Movement organizer Will M. Sutton ’23 said in an address at the protest.

“The Sackler family specifically targeted working class communities for opioid distribution, fostering and then profiting from the addiction of marginalized people,” he added.

Sackler — who donated millions to Harvard University in the 1980s to fund the construction of the museum — died before the addictive opioid OxyContin came to market.

Still, activists contend he helped develop marketing tactics that Purdue would later use to sell OxyContin.

“Denaming is not erasing or rewriting history — it’s acknowledging and conceptualizing it,” Clyve Lawrence ’25, a leader of the Winthrop House denaming campaign and a Crimson Editorial editor, said in an interview following the demonstration on Thursday.

“We’re just trying to highlight that history in saying that it is a moral failure. It’s been a moral failure since those names were put up, and we should be very clear in future processes of naming how our community feels about it, what we can do to highlight histories that are much more positive,” he added.

The protest was organized by Harvard student activists in coordination with Prescription Addiction Intervention Now, an advocacy group founded by photographer Nan Goldin — whose works are featured in Harvard Art Museums’ private collection — that criticizes the Sackler family.

The demonstration comes almost five years after a similar protest and die-in at Harvard Art Museums, which was also led

by Goldin, demanded the buildings at Harvard remove Sackler’s name.

PAIN activist Harry Cullen led the crowd of protesters through a

call and response statement condemning Harvard’s continued association with the Sackler family.

“We are here today to call out Harvard for supporting the Sacklers — a family of billionaires that profited off our pain for generations starting with Arthur Sackler,” Cullen said, echoed by a crowd of chanting protesters.

“Five years ago, Nan Goldin and PAIN came here to show Harvard the way to reject the Sackler legacy. Now Harvard students have brought PAIN back to repeat our demands: take down the Sackler name, Cullen said during the protest.

“We won’t wait another five years. To uphold the Sackler name is to launder their reputation, to be complicit in their crimes,” Cullen added.

“

We’re just trying to highlight that history in saying that it is a moral failure. It’s been a moral failure since those names were put up, and we should be very clear in future processes of naming how our community feels about it.

The University’s last offer to the union — an 11.5 percent raise over three years — has drawn criticism from HUCTW members.

In a Feb. 7 email to clerical and technical union members, Harvard’s Vice President of Human Resources Manuel Cuevas-Trisán wrote the offer took into account “comparative market factors, as well as the total compensation and benefits package and low attrition rates.”

He also wrote the University had tentatively agreed with HUCTW on “14 topics proposed by the Union” unrelated to compensation.

Lamont Library assistant Geoffrey P. Carens said that if the union were to accept the 11.5 percent raise, “we would lose a lot of ground.”

Elizabeth C. “Liz” Hoveland ’22, communications coordinator at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, said she believed Cuevas-Trisán’s February email was an example of union-busting by “blaming union leaders for not saying yes to have this contract.”

Newton, the University spokesperson, declined to comment on the allegation of union busting.

“The University’s latest proposal reflects our commitment to addressing the important issues that remain the focus of these negotiations through significant increases in compensation, including retroactive pay to offset the impact of inflation, and enhanced benefits support,” he added.

The Strategy Since February, HUCTW has been holding informational pickets outside of Massachusetts Hall three days a week to speak to passersby about the union’s demands for Harvard.

At the picket last Tuesday, Taylor — the IT specialist — said she believed Harvard’s top leaders and administrators know “that we’re here and we’re not going to give up.”

“I think they’re having a really positive effect,” said Hillman, the Harvard Medical School executive assistant. “We have a lot of support in the broader Harvard community for the things that we’re asking for.”

On March 21, more than 250 protesters rallied in support of the union. Massachusetts State Rep. Marjorie C. Decker and Boston City Councilor Kenzie Bok ’11 both spoke at the rally.

Some HUCTW members disagree with the current picketing campaign, arguing the union should be employing a more forceful approach.

“I thought we’d be doing a bit more,” Hoveland said.

Carens said they would like the union to consider starting a strike fund.

“Personally, if we don’t get a contract offer that I can accept, I will organize a campaign against the contract,” Carens said.

Still, HUCTW members remain broadly in support of “what the union is doing,” said Conant, the HKS Library access coordinator, adding that past efforts at picketing and organizing “even-

Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers members picket in Harvard Yard. LUCY H. VUONG—CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

tually had an effect on the University.”

HUCTW President Carrie E. Barbash said union leadership is continuing to solicit feedback from members.

“We are trying to be very careful and listening to all types of members and reaching out to particularly the members that we don’t talk to and don’t hear from as much to see, ‘What are you comfortable with? How are you feeling about this? Do you want to keep pushing? Do you want to settle?’” Barbash said

Though frustrations with the bargaining process have grown, Conant said HUCTW will also see an increase in bargaining power.

“Think about what happens in May at the University. We’ve got graduation, we’ve got alumni, we’ve got parents coming through the campus,” Conant said. “Our platform only increases and our visibility only increases as we get farther and deeper into the spring.” cam.kettles@thecrimson.com julia.maciejak@thecrimson.com

College’s DSO Considering New Club Freeze

BY ELLA L. JONES AND JOHN N. PEÑA CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

­ arvard College’s Dean of StuH dents Office has proposed a temporary pause on the creation of new student organizations, citing limited resources to accommodate the needs of existing clubs.

According to the co-presidents of the Harvard Undergraduate Association, administrators from the DSO suggested the move at an April meeting of the Committee on Student Life, an advisory panel at the College composed of administrators, faculty deans, and undergraduates.

Associate Dean for Student Engagement Jason R. Meier said in a Wednesday interview that the pause would seek to address the imbalance between the volume of student organizations and the resources available to support them.

The DSO oversees more than 500 existing student organizations and has received between 80 and 100 applications for new organizations annually, a number that has increased over the

past two years, according to Meier.

“Reality is, the resources that we have in terms of space, finances, membership, and advising is not keeping pace with the amount of organizations that we have,” he said.

Meier said a pause would allow the DSO a chance to “stop the pile-on so that we can strategically think about how to properly manage the system.”

Alongside limited resources, Meier said the number of student organizations has created redundancy in clubs and made it difficult for some groups to recruit new members.

“If every student makes their own student org, who’s a member of that student org?” he said. “We really need to take a pause to really rethink what this process is to make sure that we’re setting our student orgs up for success.”

Meier said the DSO is “benchmarking” its student organization ecosystem with other peer institutions, adding that those schools manage fewer clubs and only approve around 20 annually. Despite the proposed pause, the DSO is not looking to limit or

reduce the number of student organizations in the long term.

“It would be against everything we stand for to tell an org, ‘You can’t exist anymore,’” he said.

The proposed pause would be the latest in a series of moves by the DSO to increase regulation of independent student organizations.

In recent months, the DSO has renewed efforts to restrict branding by student organizations, with a focus on groups’ use of the Harvard name. Meier said in an April interview that the DSO also plans to conduct an audit of independent student organizations in conjunction with Harvard’s Office of Risk Management, but he said Wednesday that the proposed pause is unrelated to the audit.

HUA Co-President John S. Cooke ’25 said he and Co-President Shikoh Misu Hirabayashi ’24 have spoken “vehemently against” the proposal.

“We were completely against it because obviously student organizations — and starting student orgs — are a big part of student life here,” Cooke said.

Hirabayashi called a freeze on creating new clubs “too extreme,” but he acknowledged the resource constraints faced by the DSO. “It is somewhat true that there are a lot of clubs and there are limited finances,” he said.

Cooke added that it would be “valuable” for students to offer feedback on whether they support or oppose the proposal directly to the DSO, adding that he and Hirabayashi can only do so much as co-presidents to convey student opinion.

Meier said he is “always happy to take critical feedback” and that he appreciates the co-presidents’ suggestions.

Meier declined to comment on the likelihood of a club creation freeze, but he said the DSO is soliciting feedback from students about the proposal.

“We’re also being really realistic about, ‘What can the ecosystem withstand?’ Because at some point, if it continues to grow at this rate, that system will break,” he said. ella.jones@thecrimson.com john.pena@thecrimson.com

Students Launch New Pro-Palestine Group

BY JO B. LEMANN AND ASHER J. MONTGOMERY CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Clyve Lawrence ’25 Protester

Harvard President Lawrence S. Bacow has previously said it would be “inappropriate” for the University to remove the Sackler family name from campus buildings, citing “legal and contractual considerations” as well as the fact that Arthur Sackler’s passing before OxyContin was developed and marketed.

Bridget S. O’Kelly ’23, co-president of HCOPES, said she was “shocked” by the student turnout.

“I think this is an issue that touches a lot of people,” said O’Kelly.

“It was really amazing to see all the students show up and kind of put their voices and their bodies behind this movement,” she added.

Graduate students across Harvard launched a new pro-Palestine activism group called Graduate Students 4 Palestine with an event Wednesday.

The new organization will create a network for graduate students in different schools at Harvard organizing around Palestinian rights, according to Harvard Divinity School student Elom Tettey-Tamaklo, an organizer for GS4P. “The basic idea is for there to be an institutional home for all grad students who are interested in Palestine and advocacy around Palestine, and for us to advocate with a united voice around the questions of Palestine within the University and beyond,” Tettey-Tamaklo said.

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

Tettey-Tamaklo said he sees value in graduate students from

different schools coming together in their advocacy for Palestine.

“The uniqueness of GS4P is within each school, folks are approaching the question of Palestine from their unique perspectives,” he said.

Organizers also said they hope to use their influence as Harvard students to create change.

“The brand of Harvard garners a lot of attention, so the things that we’re doing, the things that we’re talking about, how we’re advocating for Palestine, it goes beyond the walls of the institution, and it’s such a perfect space and opportunity for us to do this work,” Tettey-Tamaklo said.

The formation of the student group comes roughly a month after “PalTrek,” a funded, weeklong trip to Palestine over spring break that aims to “introduce trekkers to Palestinian culture, history, and people, to foster understanding of the reality of life under military occupation, and to highlight the Palestinian nar-

rative,” according to the organization’s website.

Harvard Kennedy School student Maya R.F. Alper said she believes PalTrek created a new spur of pro-Palestine advocacy among Harvard graduate students.

“Coming back after PalTrek, there’s been this renewed sense of urgency around organizing around Palestine,” Alper said.

“The opportunity to be in Palestine, to hear from Palestinians in their own homes, on their own terms, in their own words about their story was incredibly powerful for me, and so I felt that call to relay those stories really urgently.”

HKS students outside of GS4P, including Alper, hosted a teachin on Tuesday to talk about their experiences on PalTrek.

Though Alper is not currently part of GS4P, she said she sees value in creating a united front of pro-Palestine advocacy across the University.

“Finding a way to bring all of the folks together — all these dis-

parate grad students under one umbrella — is really important, since sort of the core of this kind of organizing work is solidarity and showing up for one another,” Alper said.

HKS student Kartikeya Bhatotia, who helped organize the teach-in, said he believed it was important to provide a Palestinian perspective to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during the event According to Bhatotia, pro-Palestine organizers are hoping to increase the representation of Palestinians on campus by aiding them during the application process and brainstorming a longterm strategy to provide resources for Palestinians on campus.

“I was a participant on the Trek, but I am now participating in the post-Trek activities because we decided that it was important to bring Palestinian voices on campus, just to have a fair representation,” Bhatotia said. jo.lemann@thecrimson.com asher.montgomery@thecrimson.com

NEWS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON APRIL 21, 2023

LETTER FROM PAGE 1

INSTITUTE OF POLITICS

Harvard IOP Director’s Internship Applicants Left Waiting Amid Delays WAITING ON RESULTS. Many students are still waiting for IOP Director’s Internship decisions after the program’s deadline.

BY THOMAS J. METE CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

­M

any Harvard College students opened their emails Sunday in hopes of learning whether they had been accepted to the Harvard Institute of Politics’ competitive Director’s Internship program.

Instead, a number of the program’s applicants have yet to hear back even after the program’s stated decision deadline, student leaders said, while some who have been accepted are unsure if they can afford their summer expenses through the program’s stipend.

“As the executive team, we have received many messages from students concerned about the confusion, lack of communication, and inconsistencies with this year’s Director’s Internship rollout,” IOP President Amen H. Gashaw ’24 said in an interview Monday.

“All host decisions will be shared with students before April 16, 2023,” the Director’s Internship application website reads in bold.

The IOP Director’s Internship is a 10-week summer program that matches more than 200 students with internships in politics, government, and public service. Interns work 35 to 40 hours per week in an unpaid role and receive a stipend of $5,000 — or $5,500 in high-cost areas — from the IOP. During the pandemic, U.S. inflation rates reached levels not seen since in decades. Still, the Director’s Internship stipend has remained at its pre-pandemic base sum, even after IOP student leadership and internship hopefuls have raised concerns with IOP Director Setti D. Warren.

“We recognize that rising prices have made cost of living difficult to sustain for many students, especially in cities where public service positions are concentrated, including DC and NY,”

Gashaw wrote in a statement Thursday.

Warren reaffirmed his commitment to exploring options to meet the financial needs of students in an April 6 statement to The Crimson.

“I am committed to changes necessary to ease financial burden and increase opportunity and I welcome conversations with student leaders to continually reevaluate and strengthen the program,” Warren wrote.

“Making these summer internship opportunities accessible, regardless of financial circumstance, is core to the impact of this program. We strive to support as many students as possible with robust funding both through the Director’s Internship and the Summer Stipend programs,” he added.

On Wednesday, four days before the Director’s Internship deadline, the IOP announced students would be able to apply for up to an additional $1,000 of funding through the Priscilla Chan Summer Service Stipend if they are on need-based financial aid from the College.

A stipend helps if I get the job because many internships in the political world are so unfortunately unpaid.

Nghia L. Nguyen ’26 IOP Director’s Intern

IOP Vice President Pratyush Mallick ’25 raised concerns about the short turnaround between this announcement and the stipend’s Sunday application deadline. Mallick noted that the application required a 750-word statement.

“It came so late, and it required an additional application.

That was the tough part,” Mallick said in an interview. “What I wish had happened is we could have transferred applications to whoever reviews Priscilla Chan and then gone through the supple-

Administrators from the Dean of Students Office said in an interview with The Crimson earlier this month that they are conducting an audit of independent student organizations in conjunction with Harvard’s risk management office.

The audit comes after a twomonth Crimson investigation found that the Harvard Undergraduate Foreign Policy Initiative was missing thousands of dollars after the departure of its former president.

The audit was not prompted by the leadership dispute, according to Harvard spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo.

Khurana said there are many resources available to student leaders, adding that he hopes students “take advantage” of guides put out by the College’s administration.

“As we receive input from our students, as we hear from our leadership, we’re always in the process of improving our processes,” Khurana said. sellers.hill@thecrimson.com nia.orakwue@thecrimson.com

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

The Harvard Institute of Politics’ competitive Director’s Internship program provides accepted undergraduates working in unpaid summer internships with a stipend of $5,000 or $5,500. ZADOC I. N. GEE—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

mentary funding process.”

As summer approaches, Gashaw said many Director’s Internship applicants remain confused about their internship prospects, which she attributed to disorganization within the internship program.

Throughout the application period, the Director’s Internship program has repeatedly pushed back application deadlines for internships. Thirteen of the program’s internships now feature Wednesday application deadlines, three days after the program’s stated Sunday decision deadline.

The Director’s Internship program has run three rounds of applications this semester in addition to these extensions. According to three IOP student leaders, the changes to the applica-

tion timeline were unplanned but were the result of a lack of coordination and clear deadlines between the IOP and organizations hosting summer interns.

Gashaw said the program should prioritize greater transparency and accessibility to applicants.

“I think one thing we want to account for moving forward is that any supplement opportunities we offer are available to every single applicant,” Gashaw said.

Among prospective IOP Director’s interns, some remain unsure how they will afford the costs associated with their internship even with the stipend.

“The $5,500 stipend is definitely not enough to live in such an expensive city,” said Nghia L. Nguyen ’26, who will be based in London as part of the program.

Adelaide E. Parker ’26, a student seeking to participate in the program, said the current stipend fails to cover the costs of housing and groceries in light of inflation-caused price increases.

“I definitely don’t think that the stipend is enough to cover expenses, especially if you’re living in D.C., which is where most of these jobs are,” Parker said.

Interns are expected to work 35 to 40 hours per week for 10 weeks, in some cases putting the $5,500 stipend below equivalent compensation under the min-

Council on Academic Freedom is a separate initiative from the group facilitated by Khurana.

As of Tuesday evening, Khurana had not joined the group, which was publicly announced last Wednesday.

“Today, there are many ideas that we accept as uncontroversial, but we have to remember most of those ideas were once seen as heterodox,” Khurana said.

“We should also have humility in that what we believe to be true today may prove to be more contingent, complex, or not even true in the future,” he added.

Khurana also addressed the following topics: Leverett House ‘Swatting’

Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana affirmed the value of the free exchange of ideas in an interview Tuesday.

MARINA QU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

AND NIA L. ORAKWUE CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana reiterated his commitment to free academic exchange in an interview Tuesday.

Last week, The Crimson reported that for nearly two years, Khurana has facilitated an “Intellectual Vitality Committee” comprised of Harvard undergraduates, faculty, and alumni. The group has quietly convened to discuss what they see as a lack of free idea exchange at the College.

Khurana said the group has

discussed how to equip instructors to facilitate constructive debate in the classroom.

“Open dialogue and the ability to express oneself is at the foundation of democracy and academic freedom,” Khurana said.

“A lot of what we have discussed is how do we strengthen active listening — how to think about skill building among teaching faculty for facilitating controversial or challenging dialogue.”

Khurana said that while several members of the committee have called on the College to release a statement in support of free inquiry, he thinks free idea exchange demands greater ac-

tion.

“If intellectual vitality was as simple as releasing a statement, that would be more easily achieved, but I think that idea belongs in the kindergarten of social thought,” Khurana said.

“What we’re talking about is capacity building for democracy, capacity building for a diverse community, to recognize that we can be hard on the problem and easy on each other.”

More than 80 Harvard faculty members are members of the newly formed Harvard Council on Academic Freedom, a group dedicated to promoting values of free speech and inquiry. The

Khurana expressed concern and support for four undergraduates who were the victims of a recent “swatting” attack in Leverett House earlier this month.

“I am so sorry that what happened, happened,” Khurana said.

“It was a terrible event, and I’m upset — frankly outraged — that something like this happens on our campus, that it happens in universities, in schools all around this country.”

Khurana said the College’s response — which was criticized by some students — was informed by prioritizing student wellbeing.

The College did not release a statement on the attack for more than 48 hours, a delay that drew criticism from students.

Khurana declined to comment on how the University specifically supported the affected

Open Letter Demands Change Harvard Undergraduate Black Community Leaders Co-Chair Brian A. Cromwell Jr. ’23, who helped write the letter, said the victims of the swatting were consulted throughout the drafting of the letter.

“I feel like this letter really brought a lot of aspects of all the Black Harvard community together,” Cromwell said Tuesday. “I think it kind of speaks to the demands and how really everyone feels like these are very reasonable and necessary things to be asked for.”

The letter also criticized an “inexcusable” delay in University communication after the incident.

Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana and HUPD Chief Victor A. Clay issued College-wide statements on the evening of April 5, roughly 66 hours after the swatting incident.

Ebony Joy Johnson — the president of the Black Graduate Student Alliance, which co-signed the letter — criticized the “administration’s failure to adequately address the swatting incident” in an emailed statement.

“It also does not sit well with my soul that there is silence around this incident. It is not acknowledged campus-wide and was only addressed at the college, leaving the broader Harvard community unaware of what actually took place on our campus grounds,” Johnson wrote.

Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton wrote in a statement that the University takes its responsibility to campus safety and wellbeing “very seriously.”

“University leaders have expressed their concern over the deeply troubling nature of the swatting incident that occurred on April 3, and the fear and anxiety it has caused in our community,” Newton wrote.

Two of the letter’s demands specifically concern HUPD, criticizing a “lack of transparency” and calling on the University to “immediately require HUPD to make its protocols and police reports available to students directly involved in police incidents.”

In an emailed statement Wednesday, HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano wrote that the investigation into the swatting is still active.

“HUPD’s investigation into the April 3 swatting incident is ongoing, and we are continuing to engage with the FBI on the investigation.

HUPD, along with the University and the College, is continuing to review both the incident and Harvard’s response to it,” he wrote.

Newton wrote that the University, College, and HUPD are working to “identify learnings that can be incorporated into the protocols that guide first responders, the University and our Schools when incidents like this happen.”

The letter also called for changes to the University’s mental health procedures around experiences of “racial trauma.”

“To help tend to the trauma they experienced from the swatting incident, the four Black students affected were forced to reach out to Harvard Counseling and Mental Health Service themselves in order to receive mental health support,” the letter reads.

“When the University is aware of incidents of racial trauma, particularly those inflicted by the University itself, CAMHS should be notified by the University with the student’s contact information so they are equipped to contact the students involved in a proactive and timely manner,” it adds.

Newton declined to comment on the letter’s claim that students sought support from CAMHS themselves when Harvard did not initially reach out.

In addition, the letter demanded a University-wide, in-person town hall with top Harvard leaders including President Lawrence S. Bacow, President-elect Claudine Gay, and Khurana.

Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, a Ph.D. candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School, helped organize graduate students behind the statement.

“The letter really is to honor the victims’ experience and to ensure that what they experienced doesn’t happen again,” OpokuAgyeman said.

“At bare minimum, the letter definitely asks for a conversation, and so we’ll see how that conversation unfolds,” she added.

imum wage in cities like New York, where 40 hours of work per week across 10 weeks would net a minimum of $6,000.

“If I end up doing a Director’s Internship job, I definitely will have to either do tutoring work on the side or contribute some of my own money to housing,” Parker said.

In an interview, IOP Treasurer Carter G. Demaray ’25 said Director’s Internship funding is “an issue,” adding that he hopes the IOP will meet the “good standard” set by the Phillips Brooks House Association, which offers a $6,000 fellowship stipend.

“Our team is united in striving to better support students in public service internships, and doing so is the very reason the Director’s Internship program exists,” Gashaw said, referencing the IOP Student Advisory Committee’s efforts.

Two IOP student leaders indicated that the stipend will likely not increase this summer, but they said discussions with Warren remain ongoing.

Nguyen said overall, he is still relieved that the Director’s Internship offers a stipend.

“A stipend helps if I get the job because many internships in the political world are so unfortunately unpaid,” Nguyen said. thomas.mete@thecrimson.com

Harvard College Dean Khurana Affirms Importance of Free Idea Exchange

BY J. SELLERS HILL

5

students, citing their privacy.

“In our responses, we can always do better, and we want to make sure that our students feel that they’re supported in all the ways they need to be and that we’re able to effectively work together as a team to give them that full support that we want to,” Khurana said.

Independent Student Organization Audit

6

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

COVER STORY

APRIL 21, 2023

Inside the Clinic: Advancing Animal Rights SAMI E. TURNER—CRIMSON DESIGNER

July 1, 2019 The Animal Law and Policy Program formally launches the Animal Law and Policy Clinic with founding director Katherine A. Meyer.

ANIMAL LAW. Harvard Law School’s Animal Law and Policy Clinic has scored key victories in an emerging legal field.

BY NEIL H. SHAH CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Nov. 13, 2019 The Animal Law and Policy Clinic files its first lawsuit on behalf of animal rights advocacy groups against the U.S. Department of Agriculture for failing to respond to the groups’ rulemaking petition.

April 17, 2020 The Animal Law and Policy Clinic files an amicus brief supporting scientists that challenged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s refusal to designate the Pacific walrus as endangered.

Nov. 21, 2022 The Animal Law and Policy Clinic files a petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reclassify West Indian manatees as endangered.

Aug. 15, 2022 The Animal Law and Policy Clinic files an amicus brief supporting California’s Proposition 12 — which increases regulations on housing for farm animals — in a Supreme Court case where the National Pork Producers Council is challenging the law.

Dec. 19, 2022 Katherine A. Meyer, director of the Animal Law and Policy Clinic, announces she will step down at the end of the academic year.

Feb. 8, 2023 The Animal Law and Policy Clinic and researchers at the University of St. Andrews publish an open letter to the National Institutes of Health asking the agency to defund a Harvard Medical School lab for its research involving animals.

Feb. 27, 2023 Federal judge Haywood S. Gilliam rules in favor of the U.S. National Park Service in the Animal Law and Policy Clinic’s lawsuit.

March 23, 2023 The Animal Law and Policy Clinic wins its first lawsuit — against the U.S. Department of Agriculture — in Maryland District Court.

April 19, 2023 The Animal Law and Policy Clinic appeals Gilliam’s ruling in favor of the U.S. National Park Service to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

H

arvard Law School’s Animal Law and Policy Clinic will enter a new chapter after the departure of its director at the end of this semester.

From an ongoing lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture regarding its laboratory inspection policies to successful advocacy efforts to allow plant-based milk alternatives to be labeled and sold as “milk,” students and staff at Harvard Law School’s Animal Law and Policy Clinic have been hard at work over the last few months.

The Animal Law and Policy Clinic has also campaigned in recent months to change policies governing the treatment of nonhuman primates in research.

The clinic co-authored an open letter to the National Institutes of Health in February, urging the agency to defund a Harvard Medical School lab over its animal research. Last month, the clinic won a lawsuit in Maryland District Court challenging the USDA’s denial of a rulemaking petition that called for improving standards for the treatment of primates involved in research.

Since its establishment by the Law School’s Animal Law and Policy Program in 2019, the clinic has aimed to improve the treatment of animals through policymaking, litigation, and other forms of legal advocacy.

Professor Katherine A. Meyer, the Animal Law and Policy Clinic’s founding director, announced last December that she will be stepping down from her position at the end of the 2022-23 academic year. The search for Meyer’s successor is still ongoing.

Meyer guided the clinic through a rapid rise to prominence, mentoring students as they pursued lawsuits against the USDA and U.S. National Park Service, as well as petitions to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

According to Law School professor Kristen A. Stilt — the faculty director of the Animal Law and Policy Program — the decision to launch the clinic was partly motivated by a “great need for really rigorous advocacy” to complement the program’s scholarly work. She also cited student interest in a clinic dedicated specifically to animal law.

“There’s no substitute for this very intensive work in-house, supervised by a clinical faculty member in this incredibly academically rich setting,” Stilt said.

An ‘Incubator for New Ideas’ The Animal Law and Policy Clinic represented Harvard Law School’s foray into what Law School Dean John F. Manning ’82 called a “burgeoning field” of legal advocacy at the time of its launch.

Meyer, the outgoing clinic director, said the process of starting the clinic was “kind of easy,” as years of experience in animal law at a public interest law firm left her with a plethora of potential policy projects and litigation.

As a result, she was ready to get started immediately.

“At my interview — I think — with Kristen Stilt for the job, she said, ‘What’s your vision for the clinic?’ and I pulled out a legal pad that had like 55 project ideas,” Meyer said. “I was like, ‘Go, go, go.’”

Chris Green, executive director of the Animal Law and Policy Program, said the Animal Law and Policy Clinic has sought to differentiate itself from other legal clinics — taking on heftier work than typical student projects and supporting amicus briefs.

“A lot of law school clinics — not just in the animal realm but just generally — they often will just piggyback on other work in the field,” he said. “We really didn’t want to do that.”

Green compared the Animal Law and Policy Clinic to major animal advocacy organizations, though he added that the clinic often has more freedom in choosing its projects.

“Even at a lot of the major animal protection groups, they have such broad donor bases and they have to please a lot of folks that it sometimes keeps them from being as progressive as they might otherwise be,” Green said.

“Whereas we have a much smaller donor base and all of our donors really want us to have the complete liberty to swing for the fences.”

important part of her litigation strategy,” Green said. “Often, you may actually not prevail in court, but the public attention that is generated about a case that you file is so massive that you sort of achieve the same ends anyway.”

Cultivating Careers Green said a priority of the clinic is “foregrounding” students and giving them “agency and ownership of their projects.”

Rebecca L. Garverman, a clinical fellow who was involved in the Animal Law and Policy Clinic when she was a student at Harvard Law School, discussed working on an amicus brief for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals when she was a student.

In the case, the Center for Biological Diversity — a nonprofit organization that aims to protect endangered species — challenged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to refuse to classify the Pacific walrus as an endangered species.

The Center for Biological Diversity argued that the Fish and Wildlife Service had failed to consider how climate change would affect walrus habitats. In June 2021, the court ruled in favor of the Center for Biological Diversity.

“It was for the Ninth Circuit, which is a very prestigious court, and so to be able to write

“

There’s no substitute for this very intensive work in-house, supervised by a clinical faculty member in this incredibly academically rich setting.

Kristen A. Stilt Faculty Director of the Animal Law and Policy Program

The clinic sees its role as an “incubator for new ideas,” Green said, adding that the clinic’s resources and “nimbleness” allow it to pursue its own cases and policy projects with relative freedom.

When choosing projects for the clinic to pursue, Meyer said she tries to ensure that the clinic diversifies its initiatives, as its clinicians pursue a wide variety of academic and professional interests.

Meyer stressed that she did not want the clinic to become too focused on certain areas of animal advocacy and that she instead wanted it to take on a broader scope of issues.

“I wanted to make sure this clinic was not just concentrated on advocacy to make animals be persons,” she said. “My position is there’s a lot of other work that can be done under existing laws to protect and advocate for animals.”

“I wanted to make sure that we were advocating on behalf of animals both in captivity — so research animals, zoo animals, animals used in entertainment — but also animals in the wild,” Meyer added.

Green highlighted another element of the clinic’s approach to animal law: its media strategy. The clinic — unlike some others at the Law School — has a fulltime communications director.

“When Kathy first arrived, she was saying how media is such an

a brief for them as a student was mind-blowing,” she said. According to an Animal Law and Policy Clinic release, one of the judges quoted from a passage that Garverman drafted in the amicus brief during oral argument.

Third-year law student Ben T. Rankin, who has worked at the Animal Law and Policy Clinic for four semesters and one winter term, spoke about writing a petition to the Fish and Wildlife Service requesting that the West Indian manatee be classified as an endangered species.

“I was working with a number of other students in doing the scientific research that undergirds that kind of rulemaking petition, essentially,” he said. “We got that submitted after three semesters of work. It’s a 156-page document, and it’s in the Fish and Wildlife Service’s hands as of last November and we’re currently waiting on a legally required finding.”

When asked how the Animal Law and Policy Clinic has influenced his legal career, Rankin said, “It has defined it.” He added that he found a summer position as a law clerk through his work at the clinic with the Center for Biological Diversity and that he hopes to enter animal law after law school.

Clinical instructor Rachel Mathews, who worked in PETA’s Captive Animal Law Enforcement division for nine years before joining the clinic, said she enjoys helping to mentor students in

the clin“ I love worki n g with the students,”

ic.

Mathews said. “I think the difference between a clinic and actually being in practice is that you have the luxury of really being able to focus on the educational part.”

Mathews, who worked on the Animal Law Clinic’s February open letter to the National Institutes of Health calling on them to stop funding Harvard professor Margaret S. Livingstone’s research with macaque monkeys, said the case was important for the clinic to address in part because it took place in “our backyard.”

In conjunction with researchers from the University of St. Andrews, the clinic published an open letter urging the NIH to rescind funding from Livingstone’s lab, alleging that the lab’s experiments involve “cruel and unnecessary treatment of laboratory animals.”

In a public statement published on Oct. 24, 2022, Livingstone said that the allegations mischaracterized research performed by her lab.

“I realize that working with animals is a privilege that requires vigilance and responsibility. To honor that, we take great care of our animals beyond what’s mandated by even the most stringent federal regulations,” she wrote.

According to Mathews, the clinic decided to go forward with the open letter after not receiving any response from the Medical School’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. She said the clinic received an acknowledgment from Harvard University administration copying Harvard Medical School, but that the Medical School itself has not responded.

“I can’t say yet what we’re doing next, but this is not the end of it,” she said.

“We’re not just going to send a letter off into space, but we’re looking at other alternatives both for change within the University but also systemic change.”

‘Big Shoes to Fill’ As Harvard Law School’s academic year comes to a close, so too does Meyer’s tenure as clinic director — kicking off the next chapter of the clinic’s animal advocacy.

Meyer said she hopes the clinic will continue to pursue a multitude of avenues for advocacy.

“I would love to see the diversity of kinds of projects: some litigation, some policy, some legislative, some organizing. All of the different aspects going on at the same time,” Meyer said. “I’m hoping whoever comes in here will continue the clinic in a similar vein.”

She said she hopes to remain

involved at the clinic in some capacity after stepping down from the directorship, such as in an advisory role.

Stilt, the faculty director of the Animal Law and Policy Program, said she sees two major opportunities for growth that she hopes the clinic will explore in the near future. In the near future, Stilt said she wants to see the clinic grow internationally.

She hopes the clinic will represent “places that have very strong traditions of their own but could benefit from a collaboration with us.”

The second area Stilt hopes to see progress in is climate change, explaining that the impacts of climate change on animal populations and agriculture are “already squarely within what the clinic is concerned about right now.”

Rankin, the third-year law student, said Meyer’s departure will leave a void at the Animal Law and Policy Clinic, adding that the next director “certainly has big shoes to fill.”

“What I’ve always found and loved about being in the clinic is that we’re able to get really personal feedback from this person who’s considered a titan in the field,” Rankin said of Meyer. “I don’t know that I would have been in the animal law space if she hadn’t been such a forceful proponent for making sure that it is really expansively conceived.”

Reflecting on the clinic’s four-year history, Green, the executive director of the Animal Law and Policy Program, quipped that if he could change one thing, he would “contact someone at MIT to see if they could clone Kathy and so we could have her a bit longer.”

“The success of the clinic is beyond o u r wildest dreams, honestly,” he added. neil.shah@thecrimson.com

NEWS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON APRIL 21, 2023

HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL

7

SURVEY FROM PAGE 1

Object to HKS Receives $15M for Indigenous Faculty Comaroff’s Return Governance and Development Comaroff Harassment Controversy

NEW FUNDING. The donation will fund a professorship, sernior fellowship, and program initiatives in Indigenous Governance and Development.

BY ASHER J. MONTGOMERY CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

T

he Harvard Kennedy School received more than $15 million to fund an expansion of the Harvard Project on Indigenous Governance and Development, the school announced in a Tuesday press release.

The gifts will fund a new professorship, a senior fellowship, and programming initiatives, according to the press release. The donation announcement coincides with the renaming of the project — originally called the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development — to better reflect its mission.

The donors include the Endeavor Foundation, the Chickasaw Nation, HKS professor emeritus Joseph P. Kalt and his wife Judith K. Gans, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, and members of the Circle of Supporters, the project’s advisory group.

“The generosity of our donors allows us to strengthen and expand our work with Native communities in meaningful ways, and we are grateful for this support,” Kennedy School Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf said in the press release.

The donation from the Endeavor Foundation will endow the new Julie Johnson Kidd Professorship in Indigenous Governance and Development, according to project Senior Director

Harvard Kennedy School will expand the Harvard Project on Indigenous Governance after receiving more than $15 million in donations, according to a Tuesday press release. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Megan Minoka Hill.

The position will be awarded to a scholar in the field of Indigenous nation-building who will lead the project going forward. Hill expects the nationwide search and administrative processes to take about a year.

“These research think tanks at universities, including Harvard, don’t really survive without a tenured professor,” Hill said. “So this is really a key piece to the sustainability of our work going forward.”

The Chickasaw Nation endowed the Ittapila Program for Nation Building Education and Outreach — named for the word “ittapila,” meaning “to help one another” in the Chickasaw language — which will focus on offering summer fellowships and grants to students working directly with Indigenous nations among other student engagement initiatives.

Kalt and Gans’ donation will fund the creation of the Senior Fellowship for Indigenous Governance and Development, which aims to bring together students and national leaders on Indigenous affairs.

“It’s such an important moment in the history of the Kennedy School and Harvard University to commit itself to Indigenous governance,” Hill said.

“The Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University will always have a focus on Indigenous eminence and there is nowhere else that I know of that has made that same commitment” While Kennedy School Native American and Public Service Fellow Vic Hogg came to HKS because of the project’s abundant resources, they said the school lacks Native American representation in its student body.

“I just really hope that now that we have the resources, even

more resources than we had before — we have all these amazing things that are coming down the pipe — that the admissions office follows suit, and prioritizes recruiting Native and Indigenous students,” Hogg said.

Hogg added that they believe the donations will make a positive difference in Indigenous studies at Harvard and beyond.

“This will be a huge game changer and it’ll make a lot of impact in Indian Country broadly,” they said.

Hogg added that the donation also held symbolic importance.

“It’s a big deal when an institution like Harvard says that a topic like this means enough and matters enough that $15 million should be allocated towards it,” Hogg said.

“It gives me a lot of hope,” they added. asher.montgomery@thecrimson.com

Seventeen Harvard Faculty Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences elected 17 Harvard professors in 2023. MAIREAD B. BAKER—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

BY ANDREW PARK AND RYSA TAHILRAMANI CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Seventeen Harvard professors were elected to become members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, according to a Wednesday press release by the honorary society.

Since its founding in 1780, the Academy has appointed more than 14,600 members.

This year, the Academy has selected a cohort of 269 individuals. The organization also conducts research across multiple disciplines, publishes a journal, and hosts events on a variety of topics.

Nancy C. Andrews, chair of the Academy’s board of directors, said in Wednesday’s press release that this year’s appointees bring “diverse expertise to meet the pressing challenges and possibilities that America and the world face today.”

The Harvard professors who will be inducted come from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Medical School, the Kennedy

School, the Business School, the Divinity School, the Law School, and the Graduate School of Education.

Government professor Daniel Ziblatt, whose research focuses on challenges facing American and European democracies, said he was “greatly honored by the recognition.”

He added it was meaningful to him to be recommended by current U.S. President Joe Biden and ex-President Barack Obama, as well as other advocates of democracy.

HKS professor William C. Clark, who advocates for sustainable development, wrote in an email that he was “grateful for the privilege of joining today this awesome group in its historic mission.”

HMS professor Benjamin L. Ebert, who studies leukemia and its potential treatments, thanked his coworkers in an email, writing that his selection “reflects the work of my entire laboratory and all of our collaborators much more than my personal contributions.”

David S. Pellman, an HMS

professor whose work focuses on cell division errors and their impact on evolution, also thanked his collaborators and students. He added that he hopes his work can lead to novel cancer therapy methods.

Jacob K. Olupona, an African and African American Studies and Divinity School professor who is currently studying the life of a southwestern Nigerian medicine man and chief named Lóòghò Bamatula, said the election “came as a big surprise.”

“To be a member of the Academy is not a joke at all,” he said.

“I will dedicate this fellowship to my parents: my late father, my mother, who brought me to this world and who gave me a good education when I was young.”

HDS professor emeritus David D. Hall ’58, who specializes in 17th century American history, said his election comes near the end of his academic career and celebrates “a large body of work stretching back some 40 years.”

Michèle Lamont, professor of Sociology, European Studies, and African and African American Studies, whose research fo-

cuses on how an individual’s work is valued throughout different communities, said she has received more from her students “than I have given in terms of my learning.”

“I would thank them for feeding my soul and my mind,” she said.

HKS and HBS professor Amitabh Chandra, whose research facilitates innovations in medicine, lauded those who have assisted the “great scientists and artists whose work has profoundly improved human experience” who have been elected to the Academy.

“They were supported by optimistic institutions and cheerful families, friends, and colleagues, who kept the elevator open for the pokey member, drowning in paperwork and laundry,” he wrote. “As in science and medicine, election to the AAAS is really a recognition that these invisible forces are too difficult to list, and it is easier to name the individual who alighted first from the elevator.” andrew.park@thecrimson.com rysa.tahilramani@thecrimson.com

Around 41 percent of respondents said they “strongly” agreed that Comaroff should not have been able to return to teaching courses, with about 13 percent saying they “somewhat” agreed.

Nearly 15 percent of faculty respondents said they somewhat or strongly disagreed, with more than 31 percent saying they neither agreed or disagreed.

Non-tenure-track faculty reported higher rates of objections than tenured and tenure-track faculty to Comaroff’s return to the classroom, at about 62 percent and 46 percent, respectively. Female-identifying respondents also reported higher rates of objections to his return than male-identifying respondents, at about 67 percent to 44 percent, respectively.

Allegations against Comaroff were first made public by The Crimson in 2020, where an eightmonth investigation found that at least three students had contacted Harvard’s Title IX Office with complaints about the professor’s behavior.

After two internal investigations launched after The Crimson’s reporting found that Comaroff violated Harvard’s sexual harassment and professional conduct policies, FAS Dean and President-elect Claudine Gay placed Comaroff on a semester of unpaid administrative leave, after initially placing him on paid administrative leave.

His return to the classroom in fall 2022 was met with a walkout

by Harvard’s graduate student union, and public outrage against the professor continued into this semester.

In an emailed statement, Ruth K. O’Meara-Costello ’02, an attorney for Comaroff, wrote that the survey results are “entirely misleading.”

“The Harvard community has not been provided with any of the factual findings of the Office for Dispute Resolution’s investigation and therefore has no basis to make responsible judgments about those findings or about the appropriateness of sanctions,” O’Meara-Costello wrote.

“Public discussion of the case has been heavily distorted by the media campaign surrounding the lawsuit against Harvard, by the Crimson’s consistently slanted editorializing, and by the vocal protests of a minority of students advocating punishment without due process,” she added.

In an emailed statement, Cara J. Chang ’24, The Crimson’s president, defended the newspaper’s coverage.

“The Crimson strives to bring our readers fair, accurate, and objective coverage, upholding the highest standards of journalistic ethics,” Chang wrote. “Our reporters and editors have done their due diligence throughout our coverage of Professor John L. Comaroff, and we stand by our reporting.”

When asked to expand on their answers in a free-response question, several faculty respondents criticized Harvard’s response to the allegations against Comaroff, with one alleging the school is “not committed to holding abusive faculty accountable.”

Another reported that they were “personally severely harassed and bullied” due to fallout from Harvard’s “severe mishan-

dling” of the allegations.

Many respondents said they did not have enough information to judge whether Harvard’s response was too severe or too lenient, with one writing that this was “the limitation of a non-transparent system.”

Others objected to recent calls for harsher sanctions against Comaroff.

“He wasn’t found guilty. Either we agree to the system in place or not but we cannot agree with it only when it produces results we like,” one respondent wrote. “This is not [serious] and not just.”

Title IX at Harvard Faculty respondents also weighed in on the University’s Title IX policies and practices more generally.

Approximately 36 percent of surveyed faculty somewhat or strongly disagreed that the University’s Office for Gender Equity and Office for Dispute Resolution were adequately equipped to handle sex and gender-based discrimination issues on campus, a 5 percentage point decrease from last year. Just over 31 percent of surveyed faculty agreed that the Office for Gender Equity and ODR were adequately prepared.

“The University is doing much better now than in the past, and still has much room for improvement,” one faculty member wrote.

But others slammed the University. One faculty member called Harvard’s policies “abominable, patriarchal and shameful,” and another wrote that Harvard’s “motivations are not about justice or reconciliation but instead the protection of themselves and the corporation.”

Just over 31 percent of surveyed faculty said they knew someone in their department — excluding themselves — who was sexually harassed, up from just under 26 percent last year.

Of those who knew someone who was sexually harassed, roughly equal percentages were men and women — 49 percent and 44 percent, respectively.

Like last year, faculty in Social Sciences knew of someone who was sexually harassed in their department more than in other divisions: 51 percent of respondents in the Social Sciences division said they knew someone who had been sexually harassed, followed by 30 percent of faculty in the Science division, 29 percent in SEAS, and 24 percent in the Arts and Humanities.

Roughly 7 percent of faculty said they themselves had been sexually harassed, while 88 percent said they had not been — which resemble last year’s percentages, when 7.9 percent of surveyed faculty said they had been sexually harassed.

Methodology The Crimson’s annual faculty survey was conducted via Qualtrics, 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. rahem.hamid@thecrimson.com elias.schsigall@thecrimson.com

University Hall is home to the office of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. NAOMI S. CASTELLON-PEREZ—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

8

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

NEWS

APRIL 21, 2023

LANIER V. HARVARD

Lawsuit Over Daguerreotypes Proceeds EMOTIONAL DISTRESS. The lawsuit Lanier filed against Harvard over images of enslaved people has moved to discovery.

BY JASMINE PALMA AND TESS C. WAYLAND CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

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revived lawsuit filed by Tamara K. Lanier against Harvard over its possession of daguerreotypes she alleges are of her enslaved ancestors will proceed to discovery, a Massachusetts state judge ruled at a hearing last Thursday.

Lanier first filed suit against Harvard in 2019, alleging that the Harvard Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology wrongfully possesses daguerreotypes depicting Renty and Delia, two enslaved people whom Lanier claims are her ancestors.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court partially overturned a lower court’s decision to dismiss the suit and ruled that Lanier had the grounds to sue the

University for emotional distress in June 2022.

At Thursday’s hearing, Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Christopher K. Barry-Smith ruled from the bench against Harvard’s December 2022 motion to strike clauses from the Lanier team’s third amended complaint filed in October 2022. These clauses claim that the University violated the rights of Renty and Delia by continuing to hold the daguerreotypes and that it breached its duty of care to Lanier by “publicly and cavalierly dismissing” her ancestral claim to Renty and Delia.

Barry-Smith noted that a standard case typically takes a year to go to trial from this point, though he added it could differ in this instance.

Barry-Smith also ruled that Lanier did not need to provide further details to support her claims of emotional distress, saying that the “same set of facts” could be used to determine whether Lanier’s allegations will “rise to the level” of negligence “or worse.”

Barry-Smith did not provide a

ruling on Lanier’s requests for relief, as he needs to know if he has the discretion to do so under Massachusetts statutes. He said he will issue a decision “very soon,” adding that his inclination is to wait until trial to rule on what relief Lanier is entitled to.

During the hearing, Harvard’s defense attorney Anton Metlitsky reiterated arguments made in the University’s December 2022 motion to dismiss Lanier’s emotional distress claim. Metlitsky said that Lanier’s request for the restitution of the daguerreotypes to her family is a “form of relief just cannot be available” after the SJC maintained in June 2022 that Lanier does not have a legal property claim to the daguerreotypes.

If Lanier had only brought the property charges in the initial suit, and not the charges of emotional distress, Mitlitsky said, “the case would be over. We wouldn’t be here.”

Lanier’s team argued that the case should proceed to trial and a jury should decide whether she had equitable grounds to repossess the daguerreotypes as a form

of punitive damages.

In addition, Metlitsky argued during the hearing that the University seeks to keep the daguerreotypes for educational purposes and “show them in context.”

“That is not possible when there is a legal cloud hanging over the title,” Metlitsky said.

One of Lanier’s lead attorneys, Benjamin L. Crump, argued that Lanier, rather than Harvard, should educate the public about the history of Renty and Delia.

“Ms. Lanier has always wanted to have those daguerreotypes to be used to educate the public on the evils of slavery,” Crump said. “What she has a problem with is that Harvard feels, because of their arrogance, that they’re in the best position to use the daguerreotypes.”

After the hearing, Lanier said in an interview that she was “over the moon excited” that the case will move forward.

“I was a little apprehensive going into the hearing, but the moment the judge started speaking, I just felt that he had really thor-

oughly reviewed the Supreme Court decision and that decision is a stinging indictment of Harvard,” Lanier said.

Joshua D. Koskoff, one of Lanier’s attorneys, said in an interview after the hearing that he is interested in collecting testimonies from former University President Drew G. Faust and current University President Lawrence S. Bacow about their justification for maintaining possession of the daguerreotypes and for their treatment of Lanier.

Peabody and Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences spokesperson Rachael Dane wrote in an emailed statement that the University is “hopeful the Court’s ruling will allow Harvard to explore an appropriate home for the daguerreotypes” that makes them “more accessible to a broader segment of the public and to tell the stories of the enslaved people that they depict.”

The daguerreotypes were commissioned by Louis Agassiz, a Harvard biologist that researched polygenism — a pseudoscientific and racist field that

maintains race determines genetic superiority.

Susanna M. Moore, a descendant of Agassiz, expressed her support for Lanier’s case and called on Harvard to return the daguerreotypes to Lanier in an interview after the hearing.

“It seems to me that in certain circumstances, moral authority needs to take the upper hand over technical issues with the law, and it’s about time for us to recognize what slavery meant in this country,” she said.

Lanier’s daughter Shonrael Lanier said in an interview after the hearing that the yearslong legal process has been “bittersweet” but is hopeful that the discovery and trial will allow the world to know Renty “for the man that he was and not for what the man that Harvard claims that he is or isn’t.”

“It’s been over 170 years in the making,” Koskoff said. “Finally, we’re going to get to tell this story to a jury.” jasmine.palma@thecrimson.com tess.wayland@thecrimson.com

Harvard OCS Becomes Mignone Center for Career Success

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

The Bow & Arrow Press is located in the B-entryway of Adams House. Tutors hold weekly events at the press.

ARIANA -DALIA VLAD—CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Bow & Arrow Press To Leave Adams House After Renovations

BY JOYCE E. KIM AND JACKSON C. SENNOTT CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

For more than 45 years, the Bow & Arrow Press — a student-run letterpress studio founded in 1978 — has quietly resided in the basement of one of Harvard’s undergraduate residences, Adams House, serving as a gathering place and creative venue for Harvard students and alumni.

But as the House continues its ongoing renovations, Adams Faculty Deans Mercedes C. Becerra ’91 and Salmaan A. Keshavjee informed Press manager Heather Hughes, a House non-resident tutor, on Monday via email that the studio’s location in the basement of Westmorly Court’s B-entryway will become a common room following completion of the building’s renewal in 2025.

Becerra and Keshavjee wrote the email, obtained by The Crimson, in response to a message

by Jeffrey E. Seifert ’81, a former Crimson editor, asking to keep the Press in Adams House following renovations. Hughes and Adams non-resident tutor Jonathan L. Biderman, who also manages the Press, said the message contradicted assurances given during a 2019 meeting with House Renewal architects and Project team members that the studio would remain in Adams after renovations are completed.

The message was repeated in another meeting with the same group of architects and team members late last year, according to Hughes, in which they discussed the temporary storage of Press supplies during renovation and presented floor plans for the renovated studio in the same location. But several months later, plans for the Press have taken a different direction.

“The plan, which has been in

place for years, has been walked back without any community involvement either from Adams residents or from the Bow and Arrow community,” Hughes said in an interview at the 45th-anniversary celebration of the Press, which took place this past weekend.

The move will require the storage and maintenance of the historic printing materials — including a Vandercook printing press, a manual printing press from 1914, a Chandler & Price tabletop printing press from mid- to late-1800s, and more than 1,000 printing blocks — prior to the start of Westmorly renovations.

While Press supplies remain in storage, many campus programs — including workshops, introductory courses, and weekly Open Press nights — which use the studio will be temporarily paused.

Andrew S. Birsh ’78, who helped found the press in 1978, described the press and these programs as “a fusion place for creativity” and an “important creative outlet.”

“That’s part of the great value that the accessibility and openness of the press has,” Birsh said.

“It provides an educational opportunity that most people didn’t even know they could receive.”

“The press’ history is pretty well known to the people who work there, and they do feel that they’re part of a developing process that should continue in the future,” Birsh added.”

Some Adams affiliates say they fear the move will change the reputationally “weird” nature of the House.

“I think it’s like a perfect place for Adams House,” Carly Braille ’26 said. “It’s the spirit of Adams: quirky, cool, old.”

Keshavjee, the Adams Faculty Dean, wrote in an email to The Crimson that the plan will not shut down the Press.

“In fact, our hope is for the Bow

& Arrow Press to continue its operations at another site in the Harvard community,” Keshavjee wrote. “We are working with the Dean of the College, and through his office, various campus partners, to secure a new home for the Press.”

Hughes and Biderman, the Press managers, said they believe Adams residents should be included in conversations about the location of the studio following renovations.

“We have not been part of discussions happening about what is going to be the fate of the press going forward,” Hughes said.

“If it’s going to cease to exist then why not be open about it,” Biderman added. “Why not involve people in the conversation, and let them try to save it before it has disappeared?”

James J. Barondess ’79, who also helped found the press, said he hopes Harvard will “meaningfully support the press in the future.”

“A lot of people outside Harvard know and love to press,” he said. “I’d love to see that grow in some way and get cemented in a financially sustainable way.”

As the interview came to a close at the Press anniversary celebration, Hughes demonstrated the art of letterpress, placing a blank page into two metal teeth, sliding the long cylinders along the press, and producing a note that read “thank you.”

Then, rolling the Vandercook press back, she explained, “There are four things you have to have to do printmaking. You need the thing to print, you need ink, you need paper, and you need pressure.”

“Our fifth ingredient is remaining in our space and with our community,” Hughes said. joyce.kim@thecrimson.com jackson.sennott@thecrimson.com

Harvard’s Office of Career Services has been renamed the Mignone Center for Career Success following a “generous” donation to the College from Allison Hughes Mignone ’94 and her husband Roberto A. Mignone ’92, the career center announced Sunday.

The sum of the donation was not announced. Both donors, who also received their MBAs from Harvard Business School, have a history of generosity toward the College. In 2016, they contributed to the construction of a new rugby facility, which was subsequently named the Roberto A. Mignone Field.

Roberto Mignone is the founder and managing partner of New York-based investment management firm Bridger Management LLC. He also serves as vice chair of the American Museum of Natural History and as a trustee of the New York University Langone Medical Center.

Allison Mignone served as cochair of the Class of 1994 Reunion Gift Committee and was named vice chair of the Museum of Natural History’s capital campaign.

The pair “have always been passionate about fostering strong academic advising and in particular career support for Harvard students and graduates to ensure they achieve the career success they aspire to,” Mignone Center Director Emanuel Contomanolis wrote in a Tuesday statement.

“

A series of discussions with senior College leadership led to a generous gift to the College.

Emanuel Contomanolis Mignone Center Director

“A series of discussions with senior College leadership led to a generous gift to the College, including specifically earmarked support to the Office of Career Services. In recognition of that gift, the office has been renamed the Mignone Center for Career Success,” he wrote.

According to the statement, the center’s new name is intended to reflect its vision for “success specifically through the eyes of the learners.”

Contomanolis wrote that the

gift has enabled the career office to renovate the first floor of their Dunster Street office building, “resulting in an open, far more inviting and engaging space.”

Contomanolis added that the center is also working to implement other initiatives supported by the gift, including a new website, more accessible career outcome data, and the introduction of a new interview practice platform.

The new platform, called “Big Interview,” offers “virtual interview practice and Ai feedback to improve performance,” according to Contomanolis’ email. sellers.hill@thecrimson.com nia.orakwue@thecrimson.com

THC Stay Up to Date with our Newsletter, Subscribe at THECRIMSON.COM

The newly renamed Mignone Center for Career Success is located at 54 Dunster St. ARIANA-DALIA VLAD—CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

EDITORIAL

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

APRIL 21, 2023

STAFF EDITORIAL

DISSENT

Take the Money Without the Values

Don’t Donate to Harvard

HARVARD SHOULD weigh the moral character of prospective donors against the good their donation can accomplish.

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BY THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD

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ven for a well-funded institution like Harvard, receiving a $300 million gift is no everyday occurrence.

So is renaming one of Harvard’s schools after a donor or those related to them — since John Harvard’s donation almost four centuries ago that named Harvard itself, it’s only happened thrice.

That third school is — as of last week — the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. From now until the end of times or the unlikely re-renaming of GSAS, our University bears the mark of a billionaire, hedge fund CEO, and Florida Governor Ron D. DeSantis supporter — Kenneth C. Griffin ’89.

This monumental change on campus has led to much chatter and conjecturing. One pokes at the timeline of this gift arriving just years before Griffin’s oldest child will begin applying to college. Another snarks, “Thanks for the money, Mr. Griffin! How much are you gonna shell out to influence democratic election processes next year?”

But with the money already taken and the building already renamed (with great haste, it appears), we can only think about how this change has and will impact Harvard.

As we have repeatedly written before, donations and namings are thorny moral areas because they hold tremendous potential for positive change, but also produce undue influences.

Thus, when deciding to accept donations, Harvard should weigh the moral character of prospective donors against the good their donation can accomplish.

Naming a school after Griffin was a mistake.

By adorning its schools with the names of donors, Harvard condones these individuals and their values.

Griffin is a vocal advocate for DeSantis. Even if not all of their views align, Griffin’s donations to DeSantis have helped enable the Sunshine State executive to suppress African American studies and LGBTQ education in schools — stances we cannot support and hope our University cannot either. Unless Harvard publicly issues a rejection of these positions, it is implicitly telling its Black and queer students that it sees nothing wrong with campaigns to sensationalize, slander, and

erase their identities.

At the same time, a $300 million donation undeniably has the opportunity to produce much good — though not as much as the improvement in social mobility that donations to community colleges and historically Black colleges and universities provide.

Well-monied as Harvard may be, the endowment has restrictions and is not infinite. As students who believe that Harvard’s resources can be leveraged for social good, we believe that funding in the right places can further such endeavors, benefitting us all.

We might never know if this donation came with strings, but now that the money has transferred hands, the unrestricted nature of Griffin’s donation means that the Faculty of Arts and Sciences can spend these funds where it pleases. We have only one request: Use this money well, to promote the social good.

Too much of Harvard’s money is wasted — on an oversized under-useful bureaucracy, or unwanted student services. We hope that Harvard will put these new $300 million into the pure pursuit of universal betterment.

From researching our most pressing contemporary challenges (think climate change or the decline of democracy) to pursuing an economically diverse student body (starting with low-income prefrosh recruitment and following through with support systems for these students) and paying our essential workers better (TFs and CAs included), Harvard now has the means to do more.

Best of all, Harvard should distribute Griffin’s money to academic departments that support the communities of color and queer people most affected by the renaming and DeSantis’s education policies. These departments include Ethnic Studies, African and African American Studies, and hopefully a new South East Asian Studies one.

It’s a cliche turn of phrase by now to call Harvard a “transformative” experience. Griffin’s donation carries the power to help our University metamorphose for the better — as long as we intentionally deter Griffin’s name from transforming us, too.

–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.

BY ADEN BARTON, CLYVE LAWRENCE, AND SAM E. MEACHAM

ast week, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences received a $300 million donation from hedge fund CEO and Republican donor Kenneth C. Griffin ’89. While our Editorial Board has chosen to focus on Griffin’s deplorable policy stances and the possible uses of his donation, we believe this approach overlooks the crux of the issue: Should billionaires be donating to rich universities in the first place?

“

Reflecting on the ethics of naming the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences after Griffin misses the forest for the trees.

Our answer is a resounding no.

Reflecting on the ethics of naming the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences after Griffin misses the forest for the trees. Even worse, celebrating the money, as the Board does, reeks of elitism.

The Board admires an institution with billions receiving billionaire philanthropy, claiming that Harvard has a distinguished capacity to do social good.

Higher education adds to the social good through instruction and research. Although Harvard provides an outstanding education and does excellent research, neither of these goals at large is best achieved by donating to Harvard.

With respect to instruction, Harvard is only a drop in the bucket of overall college enrollment. Enrollment at Harvard stands at a thousandth of community college enrollment. And, because Harvard is disproportionately wealthy, the school has a comparatively low effect on social mobility.

Even if all $300 million from Griffin went to the financial aid program, we think that its impact would still be negligible in making this school, or higher education in general, more socioeconomically diverse.

On the point of research, although we agree with the Board that this donation should go towards studying huge challenges like climate change and democratic decline, such funding would be subject to diminishing marginal returns. Harvard has millions of dollars already devoted for research on challenges of this scale.

If Griffin and other prospective billionaire philanthropists truly care about advancing edu-

cation or innovation, then they should donate to less well-known places of learning or smaller research foundations that need the money more.

Harvard doesn’t have a monopoly on smart people or good ideas. There are other institutions that can accomplish what Harvard can, given better resources.

For these reasons, we find a great material harm in Griffin’s donation — more than the symbolic harm of condoning Griffin’s views pointed out by the Board. This donation represents a missed opportunity to make the most of the money.

The $300 million in the hands of community colleges and historically Black colleges and universities, for example, would go much further in reducing inequality and increasing socioeconomic mobility.

As this Board has made clear before, the marginal benefit of a dollar for such schools is higher than that of Harvard.

This is not to say that Harvard should have turned down the donation. If anything, $300 million on GSAS is a better use than the same money on another Miami compound for Griffin. But there are still much better uses than $300 million on GSAS, even within the same realm of impacting higher education.

“

Given the host of things the uber-rich spend their money on, donating to an educational institution like Harvard is somewhat praiseworthy. It is, however, not the most effective use of $300 million — not even close.

Given the host of things the uber-rich spend their money on, donating to an educational institution like Harvard is somewhat praiseworthy.

It is, however, not the most effective use of $300 million — not even close.

–Aden Barton ’24, an Associate Editorial Editor, is an Economics concentrator in Eliot House.

Clyve Lawrence ’25, a Crimson Editorial editor, is a Government concentrator in Adams House.

Sam E. Meacham ’25, a Crimson Editorial editor, is a Social Studies concentrator in Pforzheimer House.

Dissenting Opinions: Occasionally, The Crimson Editorial Board is divided about the opinion we express in a staff editorial. In these cases, dissenting board members have the opportunity to express their opposition to staff opinion.

LETTERS

An Open Letter from 45 Black Student Organizations and Supporters

BY BRIAN A. CROMWELL JR. AND EBONY JOY JOHNSON

Submit an Op-Ed Today!

impact on both the targeted Black students and the larger Black community.

CONTRIBUTING OPINION WRITERS

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ear Harvard University Administration,

On April 3, Harvard University Police Department officers stormed the dorm room of four Black students at approximately 4:15 a.m. in response to an unfounded phone call. We are writing this letter because we strongly believe that the University’s response to the swatting incident reflects a deep investment in protecting a false institutional image over a sincere commitment to the well-being of the Black students targeted and the Black community as a whole.

The swatting incident served as a harsh reminder of the persistent struggles Black students face within an institution that has historically upheld white supremacy and the oppression of Black people both nationally and globally. The ill-intent behind the swatting call makes poignant the ways racism both informs and amplifies the numerous adversarial situations that Black students are met with the moment they step foot on campus.

We assert that Black students should not have to live in fear of the police force being used as a weapon against them. We condemn the University’s failure to, at large, protect its Black community’s emotional and physical wellbeing in the aftermath of such trauma.

We demand that the University take action to repair the manifestations of the inaction and to ensure that the victims of the phone call are served justice, the safety of Black Harvard students is maintained, and that in future incidents, the mistakes from this situation are not repeated.

Moving forward, we call on Harvard University leadership and administration to take the following actions to support the targeted students and the broader Black student community at large: 1) We demand that University leaders issue a comprehensive, institution-wide statement across all schools addressing the swatting incident and explicitly name the significant racial

2) We demand that University and HUPD officials fulfill their obligation to deliver justice for the targeted students and conduct a thorough investigation that centers their humanity rather than institutional interests.

3) We demand that Harvard University improves transparency and promotes accountability in its campus policing and HUPD operations by granting access to police reports and regular updates on ongoing investigations to those directly involved.

4) We demand that the University implement proactive mental health responses to incidents of racial trauma.

5) We demand that Harvard hold an in-person, University-wide town hall for students to speak directly to leadership, including University President Lawrence S. Bacow, President-elect Claudine Gay, Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana, and other top leaders to discuss Harvard’s handling of issues of racial policing and HUPD protocol.

Black students at Harvard University demand urgent action. We request an immediate meeting with the University administration and a written response to our demands by April 23, the start date of Visitas.

If this request is not met, the undersigned Black student organizations of Harvard University will stage a demonstration during Visitas.

We will not wait for justice and will take all necessary measures to ensure that the University is held accountable for its inaction in addressing the ongoing racial trauma and injustices inflicted on Black students.

–Brian A. Cromwell Jr. ’23 is an Economics concentrator in Kirkland House and the co-Chair of the Harvard Undergraduate Black Community Leaders. Ebony Joy Johnson is a second-year Master in Divinity Studies student at the Harvard Divinity School and the President of the Harvard Black Graduate Student Alliance.

9

The Crimson @thecrimson

10

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

EDITORIAL

APRIL 21, 2023

OP-ED

All Europe, All the Time —How Harvard is Failing Ethnic Studies ETHNIC STUDIES. Harvard has systematically neglected ethnic studies in the social sciences, signaling a deep-rooted problem.

Middle Eastern Studies 11

BY JOSEPH W. HERNANDEZ

­H

arvard needs an Ethnic Studies concentration.

This was the overwhelming consensus reached by College students in a 2021 survey — one that incoming President Claudine Gay tacitly began to work towards as FAS Dean. But even the creation of a concentration would not be a catch-all solution to a far more deep-rooted problem: Harvard’s systematic neglect of ethnic studies in the social sciences.

As a Government concentrator, I’ve felt this neglect firsthand, as it’s been a struggle to find ethnic studies courses that would count towards my concentration. In a recent interview, the Government Department’s Director of Undergraduate Studies, Nara Dillon, acknowledged to me the lack of Ethnic Studies courses within both the Government department and the College more broadly, expressing hope that recent hires could meet this need.

In the meantime, Dillon said that the option for Government students to petition to count outside courses for elective credit offers a temporary fix.

“We particularly try to give concentration elective credit in these petitions to cover gaps in our curriculum,” she told me.

This message seems at odds with the language of the petition for course credit itself, which explicitly states that courses taught in disciplines other than political science are “unlikely to be approved.” When asked for clarification, Dillon explained that “if about half of the course is political science, we’ll go ahead and give concentration elective credit for it.”

However, Dillon also noted that this approach can exclude students from credit-bearing options.

“Almost every field these days uses this term ‘governance,’” she said. “Sometimes the theoretical perspective they’re coming at this issue of governance [with] is very different than what you would find in a political science course.”

But Christina Shiao-Mei Villareal, a lecturer at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and an expert in ethnic studies education, told me that she would strongly reject such distinctions.

“Who has historically had a chance to define political science?” she asked. “Who has historically had a chance to even define the parameters of what a school of government is supposed to be, or government studies?”

Villareal, who goes by “Dr. V,” was clear about the broader implications of being more concerned with semantics than representation.

“We can’t take a term like academia for granted and continue to say, ‘We need to be accepted in academia.’ No, we need to fundamentally transform it,” she said. “Ethnic Studies does argue that the problem historically with academia was that it was absent of community, of action within surrounding communities.”

Today, ethnic studies faces challenges far beyond the Government Department. This academic year, History & Literature counted 132 courses for credit in European Studies, as compared to 25 in Latin American Studies, while altogether failing to offer subfields for Indigenous, Middle Eastern, PanAsian, or Pan-African Studies. Even if these fields were to be created, the College’s area-focused history departments — that is, History, History & Literature, and History of Art and Architecture — only offer eight undergraduate-focused courses in Indigenous history, five in Latin American history, three in Middle Eastern history, nine in Pan-African history, and eight in Pan-Asian history.

When including courses offered by other social science and humanities departments, these counts rise to 19 courses in Indigenous Studies, 26 in Latin American Studies, 11 in Middle Eastern Studies, 45 in

Pan-African Studies, 59 in Pan-Asian Studies, and 110 in European studies.

A total of 146 unique courses representing the entire non-white world is woefully inadequate when compared to the 110 courses that exist for European Studies alone. This disparity starkly illustrates the College’s prioritization of white academia.

Notably, these course counts diverge from those offered by the History & Literature concentration and the Ethnicity, Migration and Rights secondary because my analysis does not include language courses offered in subfields — by intention. As Villareal recognized, there is a clear difference between language learning and Ethnic Studies, as the latter “has a very clear, politicized stance.”

“If it is not focused on the project of decolonization, if it is not rooted directly in communities, if it is not intersectional,” she told me, then it’s not Ethnic Studies.

While language courses may not necessarily teach ethnic studies content, it remains clear that such courses can open avenues for students to learn ethnic studies, as recordings of the histories and societies of people of color are far from limited to the English language. With that in mind, there is no denying the complete inadequacy of Harvard’s language course offerings. Filipino — the standardized form of Tagalog, currently the fourth most common language in the U.S. — will only be offered for the first time next semester after years of student activism.

“

There is no denying the complete inadequacy of Harvard’s language course offerings.

In contrast, even when only ten undergraduates graduated with a degree in the concentration in 20212022, Classics is seen as too intrinsically valuable not to teach. Don’t get me wrong; Harvard should offer Classics. But there is no excuse for treating the languages and histories of white people that have been dead for thousands of years as if they have more inherent value than those of billions of people of color today.

The ‘We’re Hiring’ Problem When questioned on the lack of ethnic studies courses at Harvard today, administrators, including Dillon, have often offered the same sentiment: We’re hiring. This is certainly a welcome start; hiring Ethnic Studies faculty is essential. But it’s clear that hiring faculty alone can’t solve the underlying exclusion of ethnic studies from social science concentrations.

While hiring more ethnic studies faculty is it-

self good, we don’t have to look far in the past to find promises of new hires that have gone awry. Professor Lorgia García-Peña was an Ethnic Studies scholar who had done everything right — she taught popular classes, had the trust of the student body, and was well-respected within her field. Her reward? She was denied tenure in 2019 and, in turn, was effectively fired from Harvard University.

This decision was decried by students and academics alike, the latter of whom argued in a letter to President Bacow that the decision to deny GarcíaPeña tenure would render the University unable “to respond to students’ growing interest in ethnic studies” and “to recruit and retain top faculty working in our fields.”

“

Hiring faculty alone can’t solve the underlying exclusion of ethnic studies from social science concentrations.

The truth is, if we don’t tenure faculty like GarcíaPeña, many such scholars will eventually reach Harvard’s eight-year limit for untenured faculty and find themselves forced out of the University’s gates. This creates an endless cycle of instability for ethnic studies at Harvard and renders the excuse that “we’re hiring” entirely inadequate.

Access to Ethnic Studies At the end of the day, a new Ethnic Studies concentration with more courses means nothing if interested students cannot easily take them — regardless of their concentration choice. When Ethnic Studies courses are relegated to specific subfields and concentrations, they become a sacrifice to take, no matter their relevance.

Fixing this problem will require more than just tacking on an Ethnic Studies concentration — existing concentrations must move away from rigid, exclusionary systems, refocusing requirements around course relevance rather than department name. Doing so will allow students of color to take Ethnic Studies classes that not only accurately reflect their fields of interest but represent their identities, too.

Such a representative education is essential but rarely available before college. In the U.S. public education system, under 10 percent of K-12 class time is spent on Black history; the taught histories of Indigenous people largely end in the 1800s; education on the Middle East is often limited to the context of war; and the histories of Latines, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders are often ignored entirely. Ethnic Studies not only teaches the experiences of peo-

ple of color but also remedies centuries of untaught history.

When asked if she would be in favor of counting courses for elective credit based on relevance rather than department, Dillon agreed, arguing that the Government department had already taken the unconventional step of requiring only 10 courses for the concentration “to promote flexibility and encourage students to take a wide range of courses in other departments as part of a liberal arts education.” This comes in contrast to other concentrations, which can require as many as 20 courses.

Even still, joint and double concentrations are commonplace, and it seems unlikely that students will find room for Ethnic Studies courses until they’re counted for concentration credit everywhere they’re relevant.

Eric C. Henson, a lecturer at multiple of Harvard’s schools and research fellow at the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, recounted that for many of his students, particularly those at the Law School, his classes didn’t count towards their graduation requirements. According to Henson, since only five of his 27 students are degree-seeking from the school that offered his class, the perception of enrollment may be skewed.

“It looks to the administration like you’ve got nobody showing up or caring,” he told me.

So How Can We Fix It? Though there’s no denying that Harvard College needs an Ethnic Studies concentration, we can’t stop there. An Ethnic Studies concentration is a first step, but if it barely has any courses, what have we really accomplished? And even if we add ethnic studies courses, how much have we really changed if they’re only accessible for undergraduate students in a single concentration?

While the promise of new Ethnic Studies hires is a start, we need more than promises — we need an Ethnic Studies department where professors are afforded the same degree of job security and basic respect as their colleagues in other departments via tenure.

Further, to recognize the intrinsic value of ethnic studies, Harvard College should create an ethnic studies course requirement — stamping it as essential to an undergraduate education — similar to UCLA in 2015 and Princeton in 2020.

“

At the end of the day, a new Ethnic Studies concentration with more courses means nothing if interested students cannot easily take them — regardless of their concentration choice.

Today, the College requires that undergraduates take one formal social science course under the Divisional Distribution requirement, as well two General Education courses exploring social science themes.

It’s simple: If social science disciplines are incomplete without Ethnic Studies, as other institutions have recognized, then so are the College’s social science requirements.

It’s been over 50 years since San Francisco State’s Third World Liberation Front first took up the picket line demanding the eventual creation of the first Ethnic Studies department in the nation, but the fight for Ethnic Studies is far from over.

Change has never come easily, but no politician, no university, no set of handcuffs, can rob Ethnic Studies of its legitimacy.

–Joseph W. Hernandez ’25, a Crimson Editorial editor, is a Government concentrator in Adams House.

OP-ED

Don’t Be Afraid of Moving Far From Home

BY MCKENNA E. MCKRELL

­I

t was around this time last year that I had gotten back all of my college acceptances, and began to come to terms with the reality of leaving behind my friends and family in northern California to attend Harvard. For months I had claimed that moving far from home didn’t scare me, but once the decision was made, the first instances of doubt quickly crept in.

Long, expensive travel days to and from Visitas opened my eyes to the fact that if I moved across the country, my family and friends would not often be able to visit me. The reprieve of a weekend trip home would be wholly impractical. And as the summer before my first year progressed, more reasons for doubt crept in: Moving my belongings across the country became a logistical nightmare, and the reality of not personally knowing anyone else attending Harvard set in.

What had I gotten myself into?

This uncertainty left me seeking reassurance, but in the wake of the excitement and enthusiasm surrounding my acceptance, I was scared to voice these doubts. To high school seniors wondering whether moving far away for school is a good idea,

I’m here to offer you that reassurance I once sought.

It’s been about eight months since I moved, and while I miss my favorite coffee shop and getting to pet my dog, there have been a number of unexpected joys from moving thousands of miles away from home.

At Harvard, for the first time in many years, I had the chance to make an entirely new set of friends.

There was no petty drama of “cutting people off” or “dropping” familiar faces — I was in a new place, surrounded by entirely new people. Losing the built-in companionship of family forced me to totally reorient my everyday interactions and surround myself with friends that supported me the same way.

If you’re scared to leave people behind, a daily walk across campus becomes an opportunity for hometown gossip, and with nobody local around to overhear, you can fearlessly drop first and last names.

In other words: I’ve gotten good at talking on the phone. The distance will reveal who from home you can live without, and who you can’t. Then, when term breaks come around, you can make time for the people who really matter. Without the bristling caused by everyday interactions, conflict dwindles and reunions tend to be sweet and nostalgic.

The time difference from Massachusetts to Cal-

ifornia means that I can wake up late and go to bed late, and my family will idyllically trail three hours behind me. I often find myself on the phone with them after I’ve stayed up finishing an assignment; it’s midnight here, but it’s only 9 p.m. back home, and not even my 12-year-old brother has been sent to bed.

“

The opportunity to move away is a privilege, and if you do have that choice, I urge you to consider taking it.

Also, nobody here has to know what activities I did in high school, so there’s no social pressure keeping me from making changes and trying new things.

I’ve made big changes — like some friends I’ve made here, I no longer run competitively as I did in high school — but making little changes can be refreshing too. I could have picked a brand new favorite color upon arriving at Harvard, and instead of my

childhood best friend questioning when I swayed from blue to green, everyone here would have just smiled and said okay to this revolutionary new answer.

As the incoming class of 2027 continues to scour informational pages, make pro-con lists, and travel for admitted students days like Visitas in the lead up to acceptance deadlines, I want to offer assurance that distance from home is a factor worth embracing, not cowering away from.

As you prepare to move away, you’ll shove your belongings into oversized Ikea zipper bags, ship dorm supplies you ordered online to your brandnew mailing address, and relish the opportunity to reinvent your life: yourself, your friends, your daily routine. A fresh start, newfound independence, and a potential reputation rebrand all feel like cliché reasons to move away, but don’t dismiss them: Let yourself explore and rediscover.

The opportunity to move away is a privilege, and if you do have that choice, I urge you to consider taking it. Move across the country, move across the world, and I have a feeling you’ll find your own reasons to be grateful you did.

–McKenna E. McKrell ’26, a Crimson Editorial editor, lives in Pennypacker Hall.

METRO

THE HARVARD CRIMSON APRIL 21, 2023

11

BOSTON MARATHON

Harvard Students Run Boston Marathon

A handful of Harvard undergraduates participated in the Boston Marathon Monday by raising money for charities, including the Phillips Brooks House Association. JACK R. TRAPANICK—CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

HARVARD RUNNERS. Harvard undergraduates competed in the 127th Boston Marathon on Monday, running from Hopkinton to Copley Square.

BY DYLAN H. PHAN AND JACK R. TRAPANICK CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

H

a r va rd und ergraduates joined tens of thousands of runners from across the globe to complete the 127th Boston Marathon on Monday, starting from Hopkinton — a town in the MetroWest — and moving toward the finish line in Boston’s Copley Square.

The Boston Athletic Association has hosted the marathon annually since its inception in 1897, when it was first organized

by United States Olympic Team Manager John Graham. The race has almost always been held on

Patriot’s Day — currently designated as the third Monday of April — which commemorates the first battles of the American Revolution.

This year’s race also marked the 10th anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings, when extremists killed three people and injured hundreds more after setting off pressure cooker bombs at the race’s finish line.

The city has since observed One Boston Day every year on April 15 as a day of remembrance of the tragedy.

To participate in the Boston Marathon, runners must have a qualifying time of at most three hours for men ages 18–34, and three-and-a-half hours for women of the same age range. Runners who fail to meet their qualifying time can still participate on behalf of a member of the Official Charity Program by fundraising at least $5,000 for a charity of their choosing.

City Broadband Report Released

BY JINA H. CHOE AND SAMUEL P. GOLDSTON CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

The City of Cambridge is exploring the feasibility of implementing municipal broadband for residents, according to a report released last month.

Released on March 15, the report examined the possibility of creating a city-owned “fiber-to-the-premises” broadband network. FTTP is an internet access system relying on physical fiber optic cables running from the provider to households, which is generally faster and more reliable than other internet delivery options.

The report’s completion is the latest step in a yearslong campaign by advocates and policymakers to bring municipal broadband in Cambridge.

If municipal broadband is fully implemented by the city, the report estimates a necessary upfront investment of $150 million under “relatively conservative assumptions.” The report noted that partnering with a private company would decrease these costs.

The report also outlined four potential business models for the new broadband network. One option is full city ownership and operation, in which a public entity would build the FTTP and provide service.

Two other plans would have the city build the physical network, while private companies would provide internet service.

The report’s fourth option is a public-private partnership, in which a private company would build and operate the new network with city oversight.

Former City Manager Louis A. DePasquale ordered the report, which was produced by CTC Technology & Energy and Rebel Group. Calls for the report originated in large part from concerns over high prices resulting from Comcast Corporation’s 80 percent share of the current Cambridge network market.

In an interview, City Councilor Patricia M. “Patty” Nolan ’80 described herself as “a big fan of municipal broadband.”

“You wouldn’t have a modern city without providing water to everybody, so we shouldn’t have

a modern city without providing broadband to everyone,” she said.

“And should it really be the domain of the private sector? I don’t think so.”

Kristen L. Roberts, a spokesperson for Comcast, wrote in a statement that the company provides fast broadband services to “every neighborhood and every street in the City of Cambridge.”

“Removing barriers like lack of devices and digital skills training should be where the city steers its digital equity investments, rather than into duplicative networks run by a local government with many other pressing issues to address,” she wrote. “Comcast will continue working with the many community organizations committed to solving for barriers to broadband adoption so we can get every Cambridge resident connected and close the digital divide.”

Roy P. Russell — co-founder of Upgrade Cambridge, an advocacy organization raising public awareness and support for municipal broadband — said the organization is not “ready to step back at all” following the release of the report.

“If we have to step up and make a lot of noise with public input and so on, then we certainly can,” he said.

Russell said he believes the city missed an opportunity to incorporate more public input in the report, adding that city discussion on municipal broadband is “still very opaque.”

“The study was done in relative secrecy. That was one of our main complaints about it,” he said. “It’d be great to have a group of interested community members that were involved in the process.”

Nolan said she spoke with a local resident who raised concerns over the cost that the city would pay for municipal broadband, but Nolan said she believes the price tag is worth the benefits of the service.

“I don’t mind spending that much money for municipal broadband because I know we’re spending that much money just to build one school building,” Nolan said. “It is, I think, proof-positive that it is a well-spent investment for us to do.” jina.choe@thecrimson.com samuel.goldston@thecrimson.com

Almost all of the participating Harvard students qualified for the race through fundraising.

Five of the students running, Maia J. Alberts ’23, Andrew C. Holmes ’24, Jacob R. Jimenez ’24, Michael D. Wallace ’22-’23, and Crimson News editor Paz E. Meyers ’25, ran for the Harvard College Marathon Challenge — a group of Harvard affiliates that fundraises for Boston-area youth and families through running.

Funds raised will be donated to the Phillips Brooks House Association, a Harvard student-run public service organization.

Annie Miall ’23 ran for Mass Eye and Ear — a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. Miall said she raised $10,000, double the minimum required to qualify.

Bridget S. O’Kelly ’23, who only found out she would be running in the marathon last Thursday, made it into the race through less conventional means.

O’Kelley said she was at a Win-

Nearly 30,000 runners participated in the 127th installment of the Boston Marathon Monday.

JACK R. TRAPANICK—CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

throp House Senior Common Room event in February when she happened to tell an alumnus that she was training for the Providence Marathon, adding she particularly wanted to run in the Boston Marathon.

“I’d seen my brother run it, and it’s a really big deal in Boston,” O’Kelley said.

“And then he was just like, ‘Well, I can get you a spot,’” she added.

After months of back-andforth between the two over email and efforts by the alum to secure the spot through his contacts, it still wasn’t confirmed by the final Wednesday before the race. She reached out to her contact thanking him for his effort, which she assumed was unsuccessful.

“And then on Thursday I got an email that just said: ‘You’re in.’

Basically he had contacted some people who were really high up in the BAA — some former Harvard alum,” O’Kelley said, adding

she was told she was the last entry when she checked in for the race on Friday.

In an interview prior to the start of the race, Miall said she associated the marathon with a sense of solidarity.

“The entire city of Boston is running — it’s not just the runner,” Miall said.

“I was just so, so moved by everyone coming out to support us running, especially everyone who helped me get this far — my friends and loved ones,” she added. “I think I burst into tears of joy five times. Maybe more — only the spectators will really know.”

Jimenez wrote in a message that he felt a sense of pride running the race as a Harvard student.

“It was very special to have a Harvard jersey and get cheered on as ‘Harvard’ by so many strangers, and I’ve never felt more proud to be a student and member of the Boston community,” he wrote.

Alberts said two standout moments from the race included seeing her blockmates — whom she heard cheering from afar — and when one of her friends “hopped onto the course” to run a stretch of it with her.

“It’s been kind of like a dream,” Alberts said. dylan.phan@thecrimson.com jack.trapanick@thecrimson.com

THC Read more at THECRIMSON.COM

Weld Boathouse Reopens to a New Generation of Rowers

BY JACKSON C. SENNOTT CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Weld Boathouse, one of Harvard’s two crew boathouses, welcomed rowers back to its historic space last week after more than a year of renovations.

The boathouse — home to the Harvard-Radcliffe rowing teams as well as recreational and intramural rowing — has not seen a renovation this large since its construction in 1906.

Renovations, which began in July 2022, were completed by contractor Consigli Construction and architecture firms Bruner/ Cott Architects and Peterson Architects.

The interior space was renovated to include a new team locker room, coaches’ offices, and training space.

Harvard Athletics spokesperson Darin A. Wong wrote in an emailed statement that “the majority of the funding was from donor philanthropy.”

The exterior renovations include changes to the boathouse’s stucco, windows and doors, and the replacement of the terracotta roof.

The project also enhanced the electrical, plumbing and mechanical systems. This summer, new docks will be installed to replace the aging wooden planks.

“It’s like someone turned on the sun in here,” said Liz O’Leary, the Harvard-Radcliffe women’s heavyweight crew head coach, pointing to new, clear windows in the newly designated training room.

“They’ve done a spectacular job,” she added. “The space hasn’t changed, but the use is much more functional, much more efficient — and that’s great — but without losing the character.”

Kelly A. Evans ’10, the assistant Harvard-Radcliffe heavyweight crew coach, concurred with O’Leary.

“To see this boathouse restored and set up to provide both a state-of-the-art experience for future generations of Radcliffe women while sort of staying true to the history and tradition of the Radcliffe experience is really cool,” she said.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has warned commuters of delays of up to 20 minutes on all metro lines due to ongoing inspections. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Still, there were some obstacles to bringing the 22,000 square foot building into the 21st century.

Construction on the boathouse required Harvard to adhere to preservation restrictions

ic Places.

The project faced some pushback late last year when the Charles River Watershed Association advocated for public access to the boathouse, citing Chapter 91 of the Massachusetts Pub-

They’ve done a spectacular job. The space hasn’t changed, but the use is much more functional, much more efficient — and that’s great — but without losing the character.

Liz O’Leary Harvard-Radcliffe women’s heavyweight crew coach

due to its listing on the State Register of Historic Places, as well as its location on the Charles River Basin Historic District, which is in the National Register of Histor-

lic Waterfront Act — which states that private constructions on the Charles must “serve a proper public purpose.”

The renovations to Weld Boat-

house will be followed by a remodeling of Newell Boathouse, its counterpart across the Charles and home to Harvard men’s crew. During the renovations to Weld, the College’s rowing teams shared Newell, and while Newell is under construction, the teams will share Weld.

Despite the shared space, Weld Boathouse is still “a unique space in that it provides space for women and for women athletes to train to become the best versions of themselves,” Evans said.

“I feel the spirit of Radcliffe here,” said Radcliffe rower Aurelia M.M. Elliott ’26. “I feel the history — the legacy — of our team in this space, which is really empowering.”

“Just look at these walls,” added Meena S. Baher ’26, a freshman Radcliffe rower. “So many women have come before us, inside of this one space, and now we get to create the next chapter of it.” jackson.sennott@thecrimson.com

12

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

ARTS

APRIL 21, 2023

CULTURE

BY ANYA L. HENRY CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

I

n the unfortunate event that Claire Saffitz ’09 — renowned pastry chef, author, and YouTube personality behind “Dessert Person” — could only enjoy one food for the rest of her life, she would go back to the basics.

“Probably bread and butter,” Saffitz said in an interview with The Crimson. “Every time they have, like, good butter on homemade bread or something like that, I just am convinced it’s the best thing I’d ever eat. And I don’t think I would ever get tired of it.”

Since Saffitz’s time at Harvard, much has changed — Adams House, her former residence hall, is undergoing renovations, Café Pamplona has long since closed its doors, and STEM students find themselves walking over the bridge to Allston for course meetings. Perhaps surprisingly though, even more has stayed just the same.

From dinners with her sophomore seminar leader Tim at local restaurant Daedalus to various courses with English professor Glenda R. Carpio, Saffitz’s Harvard bears a remarkable resemblance to the one loved by current students.

“I had so many good memories of my time at Harvard and I loved, I loved, living in Cambridge. I just loved the kind of atmosphere and the amount of, a sort of like, cultural opportunities there,” Saffitz said.

“I regret that I actually didn’t take advantage of it more,” Saffitz finished. Despite her regrets, Saffitz is — in many respects — a Harvard success story. As a decorated pastry chef, author of two baking books (“Dessert Person” and “What’s for Dessert”), and well-known YouTube personality of Bon Appétit “Gourmet Makes” fame, Saffitz represents the joyful accomplishments that can come from pursuing the arguably unconventional path.

“I felt like at Harvard, at least at a time when I was a student, there were sort of set tracks and I didn’t really fit into any of them,” Saffitz said.

When asked about her career prospects while in college, Saffitz said that she was interested in journalism, which presented some challenges: “I remember just not really feeling like I had a lot of support or like there was just sort of a kind of built in support system for people that wanted to pursue that like there was for people who wanted to go into finance or medicine or law.”

For students aspiring to medical school, graduate degree pro-

Claire J. Saffitz ’09 on Bread, Butter, and the Roads Less Traveled

COURTESY OF EMMA FISHMAN grams, or the stereotypical Harvard-to-NewYork-consultant pipeline, there are often more extensively curated and visible career resources available. But for Saffitz, a Humanities concentrator whose only post-graduate North Star appeared to be the desire to do “something involving writing and literature,” the future was a bit blurrier.

Like many prospective graduates, “I didn’t really know what I wanted to be,” Saffitz said.

“There’s so many more career paths out there than is recognized by undergraduate

students and that was a really important thing for me to realize,” she explained.

“I had been out of undergrad for a couple of years and I just remember thinking to myself, like, the only thing I really seem to have a sustained intense interest in is cooking and baking.”

“And I thought to myself, if I want to pursue this, I should probably explore it now.”

Going on to study at both École Grégoire-Ferrandi, a French culinary and trade school, and McGill University, where

she earned a master’s degree in History, Saffitz discovered ways to combine her sustained interest in academics with food.

That being said, she acknowledges that turning one’s passion into their profession is not always sunshine and rainbows. The adage “Choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” was clearly not created in the 21st century.

“It’s not necessarily always a healthy thing to tell people that, like, you have to find happiness in your work or that has to be the source

of your happiness,” Saffitz said.

“My first boss said something to me very, very true. She said, if it wasn’t work, they wouldn’t pay you.”

“There’s deadlines and there’s pressure, and not every part of it is creative — like not 100 percent of what I do is being in the kitchen, you know, creating a recipe — not even close.”

“There’s a lot more that goes into work that is undoubtedly work. But if that thing can be at the core of what you do, then I think that’s great.”

Looking back on her career, more than a decade after she was one of countless black caps lining the Yard for Harvard Commencement, Saffitz seems to have made the right choice.

“I find it very reassuring that, you know, after 10 years of having this be my career, I still love it just as much now as I did, you know, before I even sort of went to culinary school,” Saffitz said, “That passion has not diminished.”

In fact, it has transformed: While she describes herself as “a bit of a social media skeptic,” her YouTube channel and Patreon allow her to engage meaningfully with audiences everywhere.

By merging recipe creation with digital media, Saffitz can visually demonstrate techniques which may be restrained by print publication.

“I think teaching is what I’ve become most passionate about.

You know, as far as my work, so I love being able to teach and empower homemakers through videos,” Saffitz said.

For undergraduates feeling anxious or overwhelmed by the infinite number of choices post-graduate life offers — or for those getting lost in the weeds as another spring semester breezes by — Saffitz stresses the importance of slowing down.

“The best advice that I could give someone at this stage is probably the advice that I would give myself — which is to relax a little bit, you know? You don’t have to have it all figured out,” Saffitz said.

“It’s easy to look at someone else and think that they have it all figured out. But I think everyone’s pretty much at the same point, which is like, figuring it out as they go.”

From her experience, “A lot of it made sense only in hindsight.”

In weaving through culinary school, academia, and YouTube stardom, Saffitz said, she kept coming back to one question: “Am I happy doing this right now?”

“And if the answer was yes, then I would continue to do it.” anya.henry@thecrimson.com

Annika Huprikar on Film Scoring and Following Passions

BY EMMA Y. MIAO CONTRIBUTING WRITER

For Annika Huprikar ’24, music feels like a second language. A junior in the Harvard-Berklee College of Music five-year dual degree program, Huprikrar is pursuing a BA in Computer Science from Harvard College as well as a Master’s of Film Scoring from Berklee College of Music.

Her energy and passion for music were striking as Huprikar remarked on her experience in her dual degree, and how she splits up her time.

“I usually try and take half of my coursework in CS every semester,” she said. “Honestly ideally, I would like to really pursue music more than CS; I know that by myself.”

Pursuing an EPS secondary, which takes up one class slot a semester, Huprikar explores liberally with her one remaining class slot, having taken courses in art history, government, and comparative literature. In addition, she takes two classes in film scoring at Berklee each semester, learning among others how to write for Brass or score a video game.

With a complete studio setup in her dorm room, including a fulllength 88-key MIDI controller and two 5’’ KRK Rokit Studio speakers, as well as an audio interface and a mic, Huprikar can experiment with sequencing and mixing at any time of day. The setup is symbolic of how comfortable and

ingrained music is within her everyday life.

“The great thing about these projects at Berklee is that they feel less like homework and more like you’re working on a continuous thing,” she said. “It’s really, really fun.”

Huprikar started playing piano at the age of six. Classically trained, she considered piano to be “her sport.” In high school, Huprikar entered the competition circuit as well as discovered the joy of composing. After noticing patterns in the classical scores she’d be playing growing up, Huprikar endeavored to create her own, more modern-leaning compositions.

In high school, she wrote a violin, cello, piano trio, then expanded to orchestral pieces.

A “mainly self-taught” scorer and conductor, she learned to use Sibelius and Dorico to notate her compositions, and would conduct student groups playing her work.

Nearing the end of high school, Huprikar realized that music production, and specifically film scoring, which brought together her fascination with film and music, piqued her interest more than pure piano performance.

She loved watching movies, and was specifically entranced

by Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack in “The Dark Knight Rises”: “it has such grit to the score,” she stated.

Inspired by Zimmer, she realized that she could marry her interests in film and music and started paving her own path in the film scor-

ing world.

Huprikar’s established practice is scoring silent scenes: movie sequences stripped of sound. Her mentors — one in LA and one in New York — would give her scenes without music from films that have already been scored. The exercise, then, would be to score the scene in an original way, to push her creative boundaries.

“The test,” Huprikar said, is to really get creative, think about things in a critical way; what are you seeing visually and how do you then take that and transform

“The Fortunates,” and The Harvard Undergraduate Drummers.

She had been asked to score some student projects. She makes audio backings for friends’ short films, and looks forward to upcoming senior theses where she will likely have the opportunity to collaborate with peers in the TDM or AFVS departments.

Originally from Chicago, Huprikar loves musicals, often watching them while growing up with her parents and friends. To this end, Hurpikar tried composing with lyrics for the 2021 First-

“

I can do automations of things that I need to be done. But when it comes to the actual creative compositions idea, I want that to come from me.

Annika Huprikar ’24

it into sound? musical narrative?

She chose the Harvard-Berklee Dual Degree Program because she felt that it offered direction beyond classical performance or theory, which differed from that offered at traditional music departments — even Harvard’s very own.

“I’m trying to do as much as I can out of class.”

To that end, Huprikar has been involved in the First-Year Musical,

Year Musical, where she worked with casted performers to personalize her score to the vocal ranges of the actors themselves after having worked one-on-one with them.

Although she realized she was not as interested in composing for musical theater or working with lyrics, she still appreciated the experience.

“Writing with lyrics in mind versus instrumental makes it like

a different battle. It’s challenging.”

An avid and relentless explorer even within the music industry, Huprikar keeps her eyes set ahead and upwards. Now, she stays busy with Harvard and Berklee assignments, scoring competitions, and independent projects within and outside of the Harvard ecosystem.

Most recently, her work was recorded, then premiered alongside seven other pieces at Sanders Theatre by Ensemble Veritas, a professional choir.

“It was like a masterclass rehearsal recording session.”

When asked about whether she would pursue music full-time, Huprikar was enthusiastic.

“I mean, every industry has its uncertainties. But I think there’s no mistake or misunderstanding that Fine Art and Music is a very risky, unstable industry. But I love music so much that I’m not averse to taking that path,” she said.

To that end, she sees her studies in CS as supplement to her ultimate goal of music. Studying technology, to her, has given her a path to understanding how to understand and conceptualize abstract backend processes in relation to music.

Understanding signal processing and how to apply effects — distortion, for instance — on different audio tracks to create the desired sonic effect on a theoretical, conceptual level allows her to get closer with music and interact with it through a different lens.

“It makes me more open minded and more willing to actual-

ly learn the technological knowhow to work in music.”

Even though artificial intelligence presents Huprikar with a unique opportunity to merge her academic interests in Computer Science and Music, she shared that she never intended to study their interaction.

“I believe in technology corrupting the authenticity of the human creative process,” she said.

“I can do automations of things that I need to be done. But when it comes to the actual creative compositions idea, I want that to come from me.”

Huprikar intends to graduate Harvard College with a degree in Computer Science in 2024 and complete her Masters in Film Scoring from Berklee in 2025. Afterwards, her dream is to live in New York or L.A. scoring films, attending festivals, and expanding the scale of her musical explorations.

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ARTS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON APRIL 21, 2023

13

EDITOR’S PICK:

CAMPUS

‘NATASHA, PIERRE, AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812’

COURTESY OF GRACE R. KIM

COURTESY OF BOSTON BALLET

Boston Ballet’s ‘Don Quixote’ Returns THE ACTING and directing were superb, making the romantic tension feel palpable.

BY ARIELLE C. FROMMER CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

T

he Boston Ballet’s showing of the iconic ballet “Don Quixote” fully lived up to its grand reputation with a cast that utterly dazzled, radiating pure technical precision and fierce energy. The show ran from March 16 through 26 and was the company’s first performance of the famous ballet in over a decade.

The show was staged by Rudolf Nureyev in 1982 for the Boston Ballet — with the famous ballerina and choreographer starring as Basilio in their original production — and features a larger-than-life cast of characters and a plot brimming with just the right balance of story and dance.

An ailing Don Quixote (Paul Craig) follows his fancies of saving the beautiful Dulcinea (Chisako Oga) from wicked monsters, traveling into the village with his squire Sancho Panza (Isaac Abika). There, the headstrong Kitri (also played by Oga) wishes to marry flirtatious barber Basilio (Derek Dunn), but her father Lorenzo (Alec Roberts) won’t allow it, instead insisting that she marry a nobleman (Lawrence Rines Munro). Various hijinks ensue as Don Quixote involves himself in the conflict and the pair elope, following a wild chase through the Spanish countryside that culminates in a faked death, a hilari-

ous duel, and a glorious wedding.

Everything was utterly exemplary, from the spectacular performances of the leads to the beautiful sets and costumes to the stunning soloists and corps de ballet who danced with great technique, artistry, and flair.

The prologue started off strong, with the ailing but chivalrous Don Quixote dreaming of adventure and damsels in distress among the books of his study. The performance was immediately captivating — the costumes and sets were utterly gorgeous, perfectly complementing the dynamic, expressive dancers on stage.

Craig captures the essence of the eponymous character amid his delusions of grandeur, at once embodying a silly old man and a dashing knight. Akiba’s animated performance as Sancho Panza was also superb as the focus of hilarious pantomimes and slapstick throughout the ballet. Ballet is an inherently performative art, and pantomiming is thus a crucial part of telling the story of the ballet. “Don Quixote” utterly succeeded in this aspect; the humor was sharp and witty, garnering lots of laughs from the audience throughout the ballet.

The opening scene of Act I was bursting with energy, with every dancer at the top of their game.

“Don Quixote” is an incredibly difficult ballet, requiring its dancers to have impeccable technique, precision, stamina, and artistic flair, and the Boston Ballet dancers rose to the challenge. Munro’s performance as the preening nobleman Ganache was especially memorable, and his affected mannerisms and self-important airs perfectly captured the frivoli-

ty of his character.

However, the leads stole the show. Dunn’s energetic performance as Basilio exuded charisma and charm, and he demonstrated the breadth of his skill in the many challenging yet flawlessly executed jumps, turns, and partnering sequences performed by his character. His dramatic faked death in the third act was a delight to watch, and the audience was in an uproar as he leapt back to life.

Oga was radiant as Kitri; her energy and spunk were infectious, imbuing each scene with greater liveliness. A naturally petite dancer, Oga nonetheless captured all attention when she leapt on stage with her gravity-defying leaps, whip-fast turns, precise petit allegro, and expressive acting — with many well-placed moments of sass. Her execution of the famous Kitri solo at the end of Act I was utterly spectacular, exhibiting both her explosive energy and phenomenal control as she hit every single beat in the iconic turn sequence.

A soloist at the Boston Ballet, Chisako Oga has been featured in several prominent roles already.

Fans of the Boston Ballet may recall her role as the elegant, sylphic Snow Queen in this past Nutcracker season, where she stood out among a sea of soloists. It was immensely satisfying to see such a deserving ballerina be given the opportunity to perform such a star role, and she absolutely blew it out of the water.

Thanks to the superb acting and artistic directing, the audience could clearly sense the romantic tension between Kitri and Basilio, witnessing the charac-

Based on a 70-page segment from Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” the musical “Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812” follows ingénue Countess Natasha Rostova’s arrival in Moscow, where she meets the rogue Anatole.

Meanwhile, Pierre, a sensitive and existential man, searches for higher meaning. The recent Harvard production of “Great Comet,” directed by Samuel F. Dvorak ’23, aimed to create a unique and emotional experience for both the artists and the audiences.

“I think it’s a beautiful story about characters finding the meaning of life — finding community and fellowship and each other,” Olympia M. A. Hatzilambrou ’24 said, who plays the titular role of Natasha. serena.jampel@thecrimson.com

ters’ growth from amorous, fickle lovers to a mature young couple.

The second act was excellent as well, and the audience enjoyed more humor and pantomime with the troupe of travelers, although some of the acting scenes became slightly harder to follow as the story’s complexity grew.

Another phenomenal aspect of Act II were the special effects, especially in the dream scene when a ghostly specter of Dulcinea emerged to tempt Don Quixote into adventure. The glittering dryads also performed several lovely variations, including the Queen of the Dryad’s carefully controlled Italian fouettes (Viktorina Kapitonova).

The wedding scene in Act III in this production felt a tad too long.

The ballet ran a full two hours and 48 minutes, including two 20 minute intermissions. Nonetheless, the dancers were still at the top of their game, demonstrating their remarkable stamina. However, the audience may not have that kind of endurance, and the ballet certainly could have benefited from trimming down the intermissions quite a bit.

Boston Ballet truly goes above and beyond in all aspects of the performance. The dancing was flawless and full of energy, the orchestra swelled at just the right moments, and the props and sets were vibrant and evocative of the whimsy of Don Quixote — such as an amusing two-person horse costume and the 30-foot tall mobile windmill. “Don Quixote” is not a show to be missed, and audiences will utterly enjoy this delight of a ballet.

SARAH NATOCHENNY ON VOICING ASH KETCHUM

COURTESY OF GRACE R. KIM

Sarah Natochenny has recently finished her time voicing main character 10-year-old boy, Ash Ketchum, in the English Dub of “Pokémon” — a role she held for 17 years.

The Harvard Crimson sat down with the New York City native to discuss her feelings about her personal career growth in the acting industry, and her departure from this well loved anime character.

“Voice acting is acting. To be a voice actor, you need to have a solid foundation as an actor first,” Natochenny said.

“We have all these parallels,” she said. “We were canonically born the same year. In 1999, he won the Orange League.

I won a bronze medal in the junior olympics for rhythmic gymnastics that year. 2019, he won the Alola League. I won a Voice Arts award. And now it’s 2023 — he won the World Championship. And hopefully, I’m gonna win that Webby. I have to win something. Otherwise, I’m gonna go to a claw machine in Japan and try to win a plushie, but I really don’t want that to be the story.” hailey.krasnikov@thecrimson.com

arielle.fromer@thecrimson.com

‘The Orange Tree’ Review: Rich Patterns of Association

BY SEAN WANG ZI-MING CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Complex, enigmatic, but undeniably compelling in its ephemeral images and bold creative choices, Dong Li’s poetry collection “The Orange Tree” showcases the expansiveness of the lyric voice and its capacity to cross borders, generations, and cultures. Dong Li, a recipient of the inaugural Phoenix Emerging Poet Book Prize for 2023, is unafraid to probe the recesses of familial sacrifice, national trauma, and cultural belonging to create a collection rife with images of immense suffering and extraordinary beauty.

The collection’s close attention to visual detail stands out immediately. Li presents images through lush descriptions that create intricate patterns of association. He transforms ordinary objects into multifaceted conduits that thread together narratives across generations and gather emotional momentum as the poems progress. In the poem “The Orange Tree,” the titular tree in “Grandfather’s house” becomes a symbol of generational movement as “each generation planted their own orange

tree.” Li takes this central image of the orange tree in creative and unexpected directions, slowly turning it into a symbol of remembrance as the poem progresses to the present day. Through Li’s evocative writing, a simple item becomes charged with memory and emotional weight.

These patterns of association become even more complex as they broaden beyond personal histories, expanding to accommodate both national and cultural memories. In the poem “The Orange Tree,” the simple image of oranges falling ominously parallels the rhythmic footsteps of marching invaders during the Nanjing Massacre as “the Oranges fell at night, one after another, soft on the ground./ The Japanese Army invaded the old capital.”

Moving deftly through historical events — from the Cultural Revolution where the speaker’s mother “survived famine on orange peels” to the Tiananmen Square Massacre with the “orange-red faces of the young guards” — this intricate braiding of visual and lyrical associations unifies these major events in a narrative that feels fluid while still remaining cohesive.

It is in these representations of trauma that the delicacy and complexity of Li’s lyrical voice shines through. In the poem “Live, By Lightning,” the discomfitingly surgical image of “bayonets drawn in and out” is amplified by the imperative “listen” and the transition to the second-person “they would find you” later in the poem. The perspective switches constantly from the third-person — “he would never stand up again” — to the impersonal — “a strange / face flies through fine silhouette.” Rather than being confusing, these numerous points of view make the events more immersive, as the reader is simultaneously internal and external to the narrative.

It is through this middle ground that everything feels more strangely lush; the suffering feels engrossing and inescapable.

The poetry’s lyrical quality reaches its peak in the juxtapositions between natural imagery and human activity in “The Army Dreamer”: “the crossing never again day slides against the anguish of night time shredding the mind

fog and rain in the mountains army dreamer on a white horse a sleeve of twilight pierced the waters” Numerous contrasts illuminate the images which shift back and forth — from the macroscopic “night” to the microscopic “mind,” the dark “night” and the luminous “white horse,” or even the blur of “fog and rain” in opposition to the sharp clarity of “twilight pieced the waters.” These rich images are more atmospheric than semantic, creating a reading experience that activates the imagination. Li’s poetry resists any straightforward interpretation. Instead, it encourages the reader to explore its numerous possibilities and the emotive force that drives its images.

The poetry moves beyond a recounting of history and charges its scenes with an ethereal quality, giving Li’s words a transcendental effect.

These vivid images are reinforced by the collection’s inventive typography and visual features. The poems are marked with traditional Chinese calligraphy placed alongside English words, prompting readers to consider the English words in the same pictorial con-

text, especially if they cannot read Chinese themselves. This use of Chinese calligraphy is also complemented by Li’s inclusion of empty space. Some pages feature single lines, while on other pages, the words are scattered across the page in a manner symbolic of the mood the words invoke. For example, in “Live,

By Lightning”, the stanza “Time sinks in the river / he could be dead / was he already memory” is placed at the bottom of a page that is empty for all but one other line, viscerally recreating an image of sinking.

Because of its lyrical intensity and free-flowing associations, the poems can at times feel enigmatic and esoteric.

However, Li’s use of patterns and carefully arranged typography ensures that readers never feel lost amidst the stunning images of this haunting collection. sean.wangzi-ming@thecrimson.com

5 STARS

14

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

FIFTEEN QUESTIONS

O

rlando Patterson is a Sociology professor who studies race, freedom, and slavery. He served as a special adviser for Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley from 1972 to 1979 and has written several novels.

Fifteen Minutes: You were born in Jamaica in 1940 and spent much of your upbringing in the town of May Pen. What was it like to grow up in Jamaica in that time?

Orlando Patterson: There was an extraordinary degree of freedom, which I had as a child growing up.

When you’re growing up in basically a rural area, especially in a poor country, kids are largely on their own. They go to school, come home, and then, I meet my parents and then I’m off. I go visit my friends, I roam around the bush, I go to the river.

The idea of a little kid going by themselves to the river would horrify the typical American parent. I mean, “What?” There are no lifeguards or anything, this is a river. This is my favorite spot, actually going to the river. And so there’s the kind of extreme freedom that you had as a child, which can be dangerous, but if you survive it, it can also be a good thing. It only builds independence.

APRIL 21, 2023

Q&A:

ORLANDO PATTERSON ON THE SOCIOLOGY OF SLAVERY, JAMAICAN PRIME MINISTER, AND CRICKET HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL SOCIOLOGIST Orlando Patterson sat down to discuss his upbringing and sociology research. “I didn’t get into academia just for the scholarship,” he says. “My work was motivated by the need to understand Jamaica.”

BY SAMMY DUGGASANI CRIMSON MAGAZINE WRITER

I felt that there are limits of social science that I couldn’t really express in a sociological treatise or an economics model, which I thought I could best explore through fiction.

There’s the kind of extreme freedom that you had as a child, which can be dangerous, but if you survive it, it can also be a good thing.

FM: You served as a special adviser for Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley from 1972 to 1979. What is something people get wrong about working in public service?

I had a kind of mischievous sort of childhood. I would raid the mango trees of wealthier people who had these very fancy mangoes, not the common mangoes. Kind of a Huckleberry Finn sort of background.

The schooling was extremely limited. My school was just one lawn shed in which the classes were separated by an easel with a big blackboard. And each class size would have been about between 60 and 70 kids divided by an aisle.

Looking back, I don’t know how they got any teaching done, quite frankly.

But one way in which the teachers kept order was every teacher had a strap, a leather strap, and they were very liberal in whacking the kids if they talked too much.

FM: You have written extensively about the influence of cricket in Jamaica and other former British colonies. How would you describe cricket’s cultural and political significance?

MARINA QU — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER AMANDA Y. SU — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

OP:It was very powerful.

Jamaica, we also were very much involved with cricket more so then when I was growing up, than the situation now, where the sporting world in Jamaica, the focus has shifted from cricket to sprinting. Jamaica has become a world class country in sprinting. That wasn’t the case when I was growing up.

Jamaica is one of the few countries in which the preeminent sporting events are athletes running. All the schools compete and so on. The whole country turns up. It’s similar to the Super Bowl.

When I was growing up, I wanted to be a great cricketer.

That was every schoolboy’s dream. Not so anymore. Now, every schoolboy wants to be Usain Bolt.

FM: Have you ever picked up a bat?

OP: Oh, everybody played.

Of course, it depends on what you call a bat. We had to make our own bat because cricket gear is very expensive. You made your own bat. You’d cut it out of wood or sometimes we use the ball of the coconut tree or dry ball. You knitted your own cricket ball.

You played obsessively during the holidays, on weekends. At

ogist, but also, I felt that there are limits of social science that I couldn’t really express in a sociological treatise or an economics model, which I thought I could best explore through fiction, understanding the world.

Something major happened while I was at college. It was a critical period in the growth of the Rastafarian movement in Jamaica.

They were going back to Africa. They sang about it, but they believed it, and they believed the Emperor would come and take them back. A large number of them gathered in Kingston on the shores of the slums there, under a man called Claudius Henry, who was a kind of millenarian leader, and are waiting for the ship to come with the Emperor.

So as an undergraduate studying sociology with anthropologists, I had to get involved with this.

So I was down there waiting with them for the Emperor. And my original idea is that I do a sociological treatise on this, but I said, “Nah, there’s no way I could capture that in a dry sociological text.” So, I turned to fiction.

school when you get a break, recess, you head for the little pitch, which is just a dust strip.

FM: You graduated from the University of the West Indies in 1962 with a degree in economics.

By 1965, you earned your Ph.D. in sociology from the London School of Economics where you wrote your thesis “Sociology of Slavery.” What motivated this interest in researching slavery academically?

OP: That came naturally. Growing up, as I mentioned, I was surrounded by sugarcane plantations. My little town was the center of the plantation system.

Plantation culture was all around you. And the sugar plantation was the scene of the great tragedy of slavery. Jamaica was a slave society for hundreds of years from when Columbus discovered it in 1492 and started to enslave the Indians, right through the coming of African slavery, to the British conquest of the island in 1655, and then large-scale slavery.

Most of our history was in condition of slavery.

It’s just incredible that America should still have such a high level of segregation.

FM: In your 1982 book “Slavery and Social Death,” you mention that what distinguishes slavery from other oppressive systems is this idea of social death: the denial of humanity and participation in society. You also mention that it exists to some extent today, so where do we see remnants of social death today?

OP: I should clear one thing up.

There is a movement among some Black intellectuals, Afro-pessimism, they call themselves, who have taken up the idea argue that it

exists today. I don’t hold that view.

I think this is too extreme a view. I think that there are consequences of slavery, which persist today.

Segregation, I see as, in many ways, one of the most important consequences of slavery. What is essential to the idea of social death is that the slave did not belong to the society, has no place in the society.

It’s just incredible that America should still have such a high level of segregation. The idea of not living with the Blacks, even in spite of all the many changes, still exists. And I see that going straight back to the notion of natal alienation, the fact that the slave does not belong.

FM: As much as you have work that is purely academic, you also have written a few fiction novels, namely “The Children of Sisyphus,” “An Absence of Ruins,” and “Die the Long Day.” How does your approach to fiction writing differ from your academic process?

OP: I was always involved with exploring the world, both as a sociol-

OP: They were trying to introduce a democratic socialist revolution. It didn’t quite work, and it scared the hell out of the Americas. I don’t know how they let me back into the country cause I used to go back and forth. They were suspicious of what I was up to because I’d go between Harvard and Jamaica.

Manley and Castro fell in love, I mean, they loved each other. They’re both very charismatic. There are only 90 miles away from Cuba to Jamaica, so they said, “What the hell, let’s get together.”

They just adored each other. And that just scared the hell out of the CIA. And so we had a hard time, a pretty hard time.

I don’t know all the details. But you know, a lot of the violence that emerged is part of the kind of underhand things which were done to destabilize the country.

It is a strange kind of existence, but was fascinating. I got things done. Not everything succeeded, and the overall plan to take the country towards a democratic socialist system collapsed for economic reasons.

I am now involved again, this time with a major project — total transformation of the education system of Jamaica.

FM Fifteen Minutes is the magazine of The Harvard Crimson. To read the full interview and other longform pieces, visit THECRIMSON.COM/ MAGAZINE

SPORTS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON APRIL 21, 2023

15

WOMEN’S LACROSSE

Harvard Streak Continues ON A ROLL H ­ arvard women’s lacrosse kept its recent hot streak moving on Saturday, defeating rival Yale in a narrow 10-9 victory at Jordan Field.

BY HANNAH BEBAR CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

T

his weekend, the historic Harvard-Yale clash ended with an emphatic Crimson victory in a game that did not disappoint. The Bulldogs and the Crimson both came into this matchup with five wins in their last six games, making this a pivotal match for both sides.

Saturday was a back and forth affair that left the two teams even after three quarters of play. However, the Crimson broke away in the fourth with an early goal by freshman midfielder Charlotte Hodgson and the go-ahead goal by leading goal-scorer Callie Hem to seal the deal at 10-9.

The game began with an energized Crimson attack led by sophomore midfielder Caroline Mullahy, who notched the first goal of the game as the start of a standout performance. Mullahy would go on to notch four assists to complement her goal and earn herself the honor of Ivy League Attacker of the Week. Junior goalkeeper Chloe Provenzano quickly stifled an explosive Yale attempt on goal shortly after Mullahy’s tally, keeping Yale off the scoreboard.

However, an early yellow card to freshman Despina Giannakopoulous proved too much to keep Yale from tying the game and then taking a one-goal lead with

five minutes left in the first quarter.

However, with crafty work from Mullahy and vision for the darting run of freshman Hannah Shiels, the Crimson tied the game 2-2 with just ten seconds left in the first quarter. “‘Assisting’ is my favorite part of the game,” Mullahy emphasized. “You are working together as an offense and it is so exciting when it pays off and to see in that game that every single person was a contributor.”

The second quarter was a back-and-forth frenzy with goal-scoring leaders and junior attackers Riley Campbell and Callie Hem creating an attack that left this quarter tied 5-5. The Crimson started its second quarter with junior Maddie Barkate dashing through the Bulldog’s defense to make her mark on the scoresheet. She continued to battle for control off of the draw, displaying her versatility and excellent form this season.

The Bulldogs proved to be a threat defensively, with big saves

by Yale’s sophomore goalkeeper Cami Donadio stopping multiple attempts by Shiels early in the quarter. Yale took the momentum from these plays and converted on two free position shots to put them in the lead by one with nine to go in the quarter. Not long after falling behind, the Crimson bounded back with great build up play, starting with senior captain and standout defenseman Shea Jenkins finding junior midfielder Charley Meier, who connected with Mullahy before a classic Hem finish. A goal for each side brought the score even at 5-5 into half.

Coach Devon Wills spoke to

the level of connection and chemistry that built such a successful attack throughout the first half and continued for the full 60 minutes.

“Our transition game is something that we try to practice a lot and it is an area that we think can be a strength of ours in terms of our speed and vision that both Maddie Barkate and Caroline Mullahy have,” Wills stated.

“I think the attackers figured out their timing. It’s been nice to see the connection and presence of mind letting the play come to us rather than trying to rush it and finding the right opportunity, not necessarily the first opportunity,” Wills added.

The Crimson led the charge into the third quarter with a quick goal by Shiels. The lead was fleeting as the Yale offense scored two goals off of quick play and a free position shot. Mullahy notched one of her four assists on the game to find Hodgson, who quickly went to her left hand to tie the game 7-7. Provenzano denied two strong shots with under five minutes to go in the third quarter, keeping the score tied.

“Chloe [Provenzano] saved us a couple of times. She had some really key saves and rebound saves. I think she really stepped up and is someone that is always consistent that we can trust,” Wills stated.

The third period ended tied 8-8 with a goal by junior midfielder Illana Kofman, who is continuing her stellar form after her thrilling overtime game winner at Cornell the previous week. The momentum rolled with the Crimson into the final quarter, where the team banded together to pull off the win. According to Mulla-

The Harvard defense and goaltender swarm the Cornell Big Red attack close to the net on Feb. 29, 2020. BRENDAN J. CHAPUIS—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

hy, it was the energy at the end of the third that was the turning point in the course of the game.

“Our team is really good with energy, so for us it was just maintaining that energy for the full 60 minutes. When it came to game time, it was about trusting what we know and what we practiced during the week. So heading into the game the nerves were high but we were super excited as a team.

During the game, our energy was through the roof through all four quarters,” Mullahy emphasized.

The Crimson led straight out of the gates in the fourth quarter after taking advantage of an ear-

ly yellow card called against Yale, with Hodgson tallying her 17th goal of the season. Callie Hem followed shortly after with her 36th goal of the season, which proved to be the game-winner.

In the fourth, the Crimson defense came up big, with defensive work by sophomore midfielder Grace Taylor working to earn a game-high of six ground balls.

The Crimson kept the Bulldogs to one goal with stellar saves by Provenzano and ruthless defending, and Harvard held on for a 10-9 win.

“We played that game like we knew we were going to win – all of

Ignim ipis id moluptiis es ipsum fuga.

Nequate mporiorerum earum entemo voluptates mos ea idiatur seque et ra que accuptam fugiae con cum dis nobitibus Harold S. Lewis ‘85 Vice-President of First Generation Harvard Alumni

our hard work paid off. These past two wins have given us the confidence and energy to go into the next two games. We know that we are capable of making it far,” Mullahy stated.

“Columbia is going to be huge, just like every Ivy League game.

We need to win each game one at a time and next up is Columbia so that is all we have to focus on,” Wills concluded.

Next up, Harvard welcomes Columbia this weekend to Jordan Field at 2:00 p.m. It will be streamed on ESPN+. hannah.bebar@thecrimson.com

16

THE HARVARD CRIMSON

SPORTS

APRIL 21, 2023

TITLE IX

Gala for 50 Years of Title IX A RED CARPET AFFAIR Lavietes Pavilion transformed into a red carpet to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Title IX.

BY MAIREAD B. BAKER AND SYDNEY E. FARNHAM CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

I

n commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the passage of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, Harvard Athletics has showcased the achievements of Harvard female student-athletes, past and present, through a season’s worth of programming.

Title IX was passed on June 23, 1972, enshrining the prohibition of discrimination, exclusion, or denial of benefits on the basis of sex into law.

“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance,” the law declared.

Half a century later, Harvard Athletics has dedicated its 202223 season to recognizing this milestone, holding lectures, interactive programming for female youth, games dedicated to Title IX, and a social media campaign to highlight Harvard female student-athletes.

The campaign began on June 23, 2022, with a virtual lecture titled “Title IX at 50: Progress Made and Challenges Ahead for Women’s Sports,” inviting current and former athletes — including Harvard women’s tennis head coach Traci Green — to reflect on personal experiences, progress, and future challenges related to Title IX. Since the lecture, more than 15 teams at Harvard have honored the anniversary of Title IX at games this season in addition to postgame clinics and Crimson Pub pop-ups.

Harvard Athletics hosted a Title IX Celebration Weekend from Sept. 30 through Oct. 1 in the fall with games from five different teams, including football and women’s soccer.

This past weekend, the Harvard Varsity Club hosted a “50 Years of Title IX Celebration.”

The weekend consisted of a welcome reception, an alumni panel discussion, and featured games from softball, women’s heavyweight rowing, and women’s lacrosse, concluding with a gala dinner at Lavietes Pavilion.

On Saturday, the home of Harvard basketball was transformed into a red carpet affair for the gala, a celebration of Harvard female student-athletes and alumni.

The gala event featured three Harvard alumni and pioneering women: award-winning journalist and broadcaster Soledad M. O’Brien ’88-’00, Massachusetts Governor Maura T. Healey ’92, and former Olympian, CEO and co-founder of the Sports Innovation Lab Angela Ruggiero ’04.

O’Brien, Healey, and Ruggiero each gave remarks after receiving the Trailblazer Award.

The event also hosted hundreds of Harvard and Radcliffe alumni, current student-athletes, present and former coaches, deans, and many others who have dedicated themselves to furthering opportunities for Havard’s female student-athletes.

Harvard Varsity Club President Johanna Neilson Boynton ’88, an alumna of the women’s hockey program, put together

the event alongside a committee of 11 others. The group brought together generations of female athletes for a night of celebrating their collective accomplishments and memories and for the creation of new friendships and mentorships.

Harvard Athletics Director Erin McDermott, who herself made history as the first woman to hold the role in University history, spoke about the opportunities Title IX provided her when she was a student-athlete.

During her remarks, McDermott celebrated the first female student-athletes to compete for Harvard as trailblazers. While not all of them could be in at-

scribed the lessons she learned as an athlete and the opportunities Title IX afforded her. She said that without Title IX and basketball, she would not have been able to reach the office of Governor of Massachusetts.

Healey lauded the great advances in equity in women’s athletics over the years and congratulated the Harvard women’s basketball team and Coach Carrie Moore on their past season.

She reminded attendees, however, that the fight is far from over. Though Title IX as a law changed structural access and created opportunities for women and girls, societal attitudes are not as easily changed, Healey

As the gala went on, Purce scored the game-winning goal for Gotham in their game against Orlando Pride on Saturday night in Orlando, Florida.

O’Brien’s speech centered on the same theme as Healey’s: opportunity. She reflected on her time at Harvard as “a time of possibilities – a time when so many doors opened for me and people like me.”

O’Brien noted that as a Black woman, she has had to overcome both sex-based discrimination and race-based discrimination.

Her parents raised six children on Long Island after moving to New York to legally marry, as in their previous home of Mary-

disparities that still exist.

“You get to see how schools and organizations do or do not support kids equally,” O’Brien said. “I can tell you that the toughest thing to change is not the quality of the locker room or whether boys and girls get the same equipment. It is kind of easy to measure that.”

“There is a law and there is recourse. What is difficult to change is attitudes and perceptions and how they affect young women and girls,” she added.

In closing, O’Brien stressed the importance of changing people’s views on women’s athletics., “I can’t tell you how many times I have reported on discrim-

Members of the Harvard women’s ice hockey team pose for a picture at the Harvard Varsity Club’s gala dinner celebrating 50 years of Title IX. COURTESY OF DYLAN GOODMAN/THE HARVARD VARSITY CLUB

Lavietes Pavilion turned into a red carpet to honor Harvard female student-athletes. COURTESY OF CASEY BRINN/THE HARVARD VARSITY CLUB

tendance on Saturday evening, those who were received a standing ovation as they were presented with varsity “H” sweaters, a traditional Harvard athletic sentiment they were never afforded during their athletic careers.

O’Brien, Healey, and Ruggiero each gave remarks after receiving the Trailblazer Award.

Introduced by her friend Sarah Leary, a two-time All-American and captain of the 1990 Harvard women’s lacrosse national championship team, Healey spoke on her early experience with sports as well as her time at Harvard.

Dropping her notes halfway through her remarks, Healey de-

said.

She added that she was struck by the number of young girls she has encountered in recent months who have never heard of Title IX, stressing the importance of educating future generations on how far we have come and still have to go.

Following Healey’s remarks, a short video was played featuring Harvard women’s soccer alumni, including current U.S. national team member, Margaret M. “Midge” Purce ’17. Purce could not attend the gala due to a game with the National Women’s Soccer League’s N.J/N.Y. team Gotham FC but shared her enthusiasm for the festivities.

Harvard Athletics honored trailblazers in field of Title IX, inviting alumni back to campus. COURTESY OF DYLAN GOODMAN/THE HARVARD VARSITY CLUB

land, interracial marriage was illegal until 1967. O’Brien was the fifth of six children to attend Harvard College.

O’Brien explained how the law “not only changed the legal landscape but created a set of values in this country about equality and opportunity.”

“We think of Title IX as sports equity, but it is [an] anti-discrimination civil rights law,” O’Brien said. “The original statue did not even mention sports.”

Now a mother of four children, O’Brien said her own children’s experiences in athletic programs — including soccer, lacrosse, and swimming — have given her a new perspective on

ination and thought ‘Isn’t this supposed to be against the law?’”

O’Brien said. “But laws only go so far — the rest is up to you and me.”

Following a brief video from former Olympian and Harvard track and field alumnus Gabby Thomas ‘19, Boynton introduced Ruggiero, the final Trailblazer Award recipient.

Entertaining the audience with jokes all evening, Boynton got an especially large laugh from attendees when she remarked that Ruggiero won her first gold medal before earning her driver’s license.

A four-time All-American, four-time Olympic team member, and four-time World Team

GAMES TO WATCH THIS WEEK FRIDAY 4/21

SATURDAY 4/22

Track and Field Sean Collier Invite at MIT

Men’s Lightweight Crew Haines Cup 8:00 am, Charles River Women’s Lightweight Crew vs. Bates College 8:00 am, Charles River

member, Ruggiero was also the Chief Strategy Officer for Los Angeles’s successful 2028 Olympic bid and serves as CEO of her company Sports Innovation Lab, among other endeavors.

After showing off her gold medal to the audience, Ruggiero discussed her own experiences with Title IX. From dressing as a professional hockey player at her elementary school career day, to becoming the first woman to play professionally in a men’s league — for the Tulsa Oilers in the Central Hockey League — Ruggiero discussed her trailblazing career, crediting the pioneering 1971-’74 Harvard female student-athletes and others who came before her to pave the road.

During her remarks, Ruggiero also gave thanks to current Harvard women’s hockey head coach Katey Stone, telling attendees that, “Coach Stone taught me a lot about who I am today.”

Since January, Stone has come under fire due to allegations of emotional abuse from former women’s ice hockey players, first reported in a Boston Globe investigation. Following the reports, Harvard launched an external review of the women’s ice hockey program.

Ruggiero offered her appreciation to Stone for instilling a “team-first” mentality in her and her teammates. The remarks received loud applause, including a standing ovation from some Harvard women’s ice hockey alumni and current players.

Ruggiero said Title IX has played a huge role in her life and the world around her.

“I believe sports [are] so important to give people equal access to opportunity because it is this beautiful safe space where you can learn about yourself,” Ruggiero said.

“I learned how to fall down and get back up. I learned grit.

I learned how to be an individual on a team,” she continued.

“Sports is this beautiful playground where we all get to experiment.”

Ruggiero said she is proud to live in a society where her children have strong female role models to look up to. In closing, Ruggiero responded to those who ask her where she sees Title IX 50 years from now.

“I think we will still need it in 50 years,” she said, pausing. “But for the men.”

The evening concluded with more mingling between generations of Crimson female student-athletes and their supporters. Among them, they had much to celebrate, with 38 national titles, 38 individual titles, 164 Ivy League Titles and 43 women who have competed for their respective nations in the Olympic or Paralympic Games.

“Power concedes nothing without a demand,” Healey remarked, quoting famous 19th-century abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglas, who Healey said was often quoted by her former coach and Harvard legend, Kathy Delaney-Smith.

While the women of Harvard Athletics have long endured the fight for equality of opportunity, this weekend, they had every reason to celebrate the victories won and glass ceilings shattered.

The 10,000 men of Harvard have a long history of competitive excellence, but it is the remarkable women in Crimson who Harvard Athletics is celebrating in this 50th year of Title IX. mairead.baker@thecrimson.com sydney.farnham@thecrimson.com

THC

SUNDAY 4/23 Women’s Tennis vs. Penn 1:00 pm, Beren Tennis Center Women’s Lacrosse vs. Columbia 2:00 pm, Jordan Field

Women’s Tennis vs. Princeton 1:00 pm, Beren Tennis Center

Read more at THECRIMSON.COM

SPORTS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON APRIL 21, 2023

17

GOLF

Junior Brian Ma has been an instrumental player to the Harvard men’s golf program this season. He went nineunder-par at the Princeton Invitational last weekend. COURTESY OF HARVARD ATHLETICS

Junior captain Meiyi Yan tees up for a stroke. Yan tied for ninth place at the Harvard Invitational with Crimson golfer Isabella Gomez with scores of three-over-par. COURTESY OF HARVARD ATHLETICS

Golf Gears Up for Ivy Title TEEING UP The Harvard golf teams will compete in the highest stakes tournament this year: the Ivy League title.

BY JOSEPHINE S. ELTING CONTRIBUTING WRITER

W

hile the majority of Harvard students are hitting the books in preparation for finals, Harvard golf will be playing in its biggest tournament of the year at the Ivy League Championships this weekend. The stakes of the tournament are high — not only is an Ivy League crown on the table, but a trip to NCAA regionals is as well.

Both the men’s and women’s

teams have had strong tournament finishes leading into the Ivy championship.

Last weekend, the men won the Princeton Invitational against a field of teams similar to the ones they will face this weekend in Greenwich, Conn.

The team’s success is due to the depth of the group, with several golfers scoring under-par, including junior Brian Ma, who went an outstanding nine-underpar. “​​Everyone has been stepping up to the occasion. Especially with their last two tournaments,” said Ma about the team’s overall performance. “I think all of us did our part.”

This will serve them well against the strong set of Ivy teams they are set to face in Greenwich at the Stanwich Club, which has

held many other professional tournaments in the past, such as the USGA Mid-Am Championship and the Wyndham Cup. The women field a young team featuring four freshmen. Despite

“

Everyone has been stepping up to the occasion, I think all of us did our part.

Brian Ma ’24 Harvard Men’s Golf

the team’s inexperience, it has found tremendous success this season, finishing in at least second place in all of its tournaments except for one.

In the fall season, the team finished in seventh place in the Ivy

Intercollegiate. The tournament included Ivy League teams and stronger ACC teams that dominated the field, including Florida State University, UNC, Clemson, and Notre Dame.

Since then, the group has improved and is primed to have a successful tournament this weekend. The team has shown tremendous growth this season and continues to grow to its full potential.

Sophomore Catie Schernecker broke her personal best this season in the fall at the Yale Invitational, and junior captain Meiyi Yan won first place for the first time in her Ivy career at the Intercollegiate at Prospect Bay. Despite the Crimson’s recent success, winning the tournament will be no easy feat for either team — last weekend, Ma was trailed

closely by two Yale golfers who both finished 7-under-par, Gabriel Ruiz and Robert You. The Yale squad will force the Crimson golfers to have its strongest tournament if they want to pull out the win.

On the women’s side, three Ivy golfers bested the top Harvard player, Charissa Shang, at last weekend’s Harvard Invitational. A Princeton, Penn, and Dartmouth golfer all went under-par while the Crimson were all onpar or above. If the team wants to continue its hot streak, all members, including the newcomers, will have to have a strong showing.

“Generally our teams and a lot of Ivy teams are interested in winning the tournament next week — but only one can,” head coach Naree Song about the team’s goals

going into the tournament and the season in general.

Song was named the head coach for the Harvard women’s golf program in January after guiding the team for 18 seasons in assistant coaching positions.

The Bangkok, Thailand native has been an associate coach for the Crimson since 2015 after years of playing professional golf.

She even played at the U.S. Open in 2000 and retired shortly after due to injury, changing course to education and coaching.

The women are set to tee off at the Century Country Club in N.Y., while the men will travel to Conn.

Both teams have had strong practice weeks at home and are eager to face off for the Ivy League crown.

18

IN PHOTOS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON APRIL 21, 2023

In Photos: STAHR-Gazing at the Loomis-Michael Observatory

R OG OT PH

HE AP

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JOE YH UA NG

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CR

IM

SO N

ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY. The Crimson Multimedia staff visit the Loomis-Michael Observatory on the 10th floor of the Science Center to take in the space and gaze at the stars.

FRANK S. ZHOU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

SOPHIA C. SCOTT—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Donated by Walter Michael in 1976, the telescope is the centerpiece of the observatory.

A wooden chair and ladder move along the dome to assist students in adjusting the telescope.

JOEY HUANG—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

SOPHIA C. SCOTT—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

A view from the eighth-floor deck below the observatory showcases stunning views of the campus and the Boston skyline beyond it. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

A custom-made spherical structure holding a chair found on the deck is used to visualize rotation of a celestial body. JOEY HUANG—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

The 10-inch refracting telescope can magnify more than 300 times.

The telescope is directed towards a vertical opening in the dome.

A wooden model stands next to the observatory logbook.

FRANK S. ZHOU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

JOEY HUANG—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER