THE HARVARD CRIMSON THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873
| VOLUME CLI, NO. 2
NO HEAT
CLAUDINE GAY
| CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
OPINION
SPORTS
Penslar is Right to Lead Task Force on Antisemitism
Harvard Football Head Coach Tim Murphy Retires
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| FRIDAY, JANUARY 26, 2024
Students Face Heating Issues in Dorms COLD DORMS. As students returned to campus amid below-freezing temperatures, many were greeted by heating issues inside their dorm rooms, including a lack of hot water for several days.
88 Days: The Unraveling of a Harvard Presidency
SEE PAGE 4
DATA
Dana-Farber to Retract 6 Papers, Correct 31 DATA MANIPULATION. Following allegations of data manipulation in numerous papers authored by top researchers, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute institute will retract 6 papers and correct 31. SEE PAGE 5
RISE AND FALL. Claudine Gay resigned from the Harvard presidency after just more than six months in office. In the final days of Gay’s tumultuous presidency, a flurry of phone calls between her and members of the Harvard Corporation led to Gay’s realization that she lost the board’s confidence. SEE PAGE 6
SAMI E. TURNER — CRIMSON DESIGNER
SIDECHAT
Harvard Asks Sidechat to Enforce Content Moderation as Students Decry Antisemitism BY MICHELLE N. AMPONSAH AND JOYCE E. KIM
SCHOOLS
CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
A Allegations of Toxicity at Cambridge School TOXICITY. Cambrige Public Schools engaged a law firm to review toxicity allegations against the principal of the Graham & Parks Elementary School, according to an email from the CPS superintendent. SEE PAGE 11
rise in antisemitic content on Sidechat — a social media app that allows users to publish posts anonymously — prompted Harvard University officials to ask Sidechat leadership earlier this month to more strictly enforce the app’s policies on content moderation. Harvard has faced fierce criticism since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel for allegedly failing to sufficiently protect Jewish students and combat antisemitism on campus. The surge of antisemitic posts on Harvard’s Sidechat page has served as a focal point for criticisms of the University’s efforts to combat antisemitism. While Sidechat is not offered, man-
SEE PAGE 4
House Committee Threatens Subpoena
Amid Support, Penslar Considers Resignation
CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
CITY COUNCIL
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bigotry” have no place on Sidechat. “We recognize these are difficult times on campuses and we’re committed to ensuring Sidechat remains a safe environment for students,” Gil added. The University’s efforts to ask Sidechat to better moderate its content comes as affiliates have slammed the University over a rise in antisemitic content on Sidechat. Incoming Hillel President Nathan B. Gershengorn ’26 wrote in an email that the antisemitic posts have become a major topic of conversation within Hillel and are “really hard to ignore.” “It’s affected every Jewish student I’ve talked to about it,” Gershengorn said. “It’s a genuinely horrible feeling to know that so many of your classmates at a place that’s supposed to be the forefront of
PENSLAR
AND CAM E. KETTLES
RESOLUTION. The Cambridge City Council is expected to pass a policy order in support of a ceasefire between Israel and Palestine during its upcoming Monday meeting.
Newton. The Harvard page on Sidechat — intended to facilitate anonymous messages between Harvard undergraduates — accidentally began to allow all Harvard affiliates to join the page in May 2023, Harvard Sidechat moderators wrote in a Jan. 16 post. The platform has since been updated to restrict membership access to undergraduates. “We always intended Harvard Sidechat to be for Harvard College,” the moderators wrote on Sidechat. “As a result, we have removed everyone without a @college.harvard.edu email address from the community and have reimplemented our original membership condition.” Sidechat CEO and co-founder Sebastian Gil wrote in an emailed statement on Jan. 12 that “antisemitism, racism, and
CONGRESS
BY EMMA H. HAIDAR
Ceasefire Resolution Expected
aged, or endorsed by Harvard, the University has taken steps to address concerns of antisemitism on the third-party platform, including forwarding a sample of content to the Harvard University Police Department to determine whether a post warrants law enforcement action, according to University spokesperson Jason A. Newton. Newton wrote in an emailed statement that Harvard has met with Sidechat leadership, who told University officials that content will be moderated according to the platform’s terms of use and community guidelines and that they will limit membership to current undergraduate students. Harvard’s Information Security and Data Privacy Office will also escalate further reports of concerning content directly to Sidechat leadership, according to
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, called Harvard’s submission to the committee’s antisemitism investigation on Tuesday “woefully inadequate,” raising the prospect that the University could soon face a congressional subpoena. Harvard faced deadlines this week to submit extensive internal communications in response to two congressional inquiries from the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the House Ways and Means Committee. The committees, both controlled by Republicans, requested the University respond to their deadlines by Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. “Rather than answering the Committee’s request in a substantive manner, Har-
vard has chosen to provide letters from nonprofits and student handbooks, many of which are already publicly available,” Foxx wrote. “This is unacceptable.” “Harvard must produce the remaining documents in a timely manner, or risk compulsory measures,” Foxx wrote. The committee initially requested a slew of both formal documents and informal communications in a Jan. 9 letter to the Harvard Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — and interim Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76. The list included text messages between Corporation members and meeting notes from the last three years. It is now increasingly likely that Foxx will still try to obtain those documents and internal communications by issuing a congressional subpoena. “The committee is prepared to subpoena Harvard,” said Nick Barley, a spokesperson for the House Committee on
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BY TILLY R. ROBINSON AND NEIL H. SHAH CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
History professor Derek J. Penslar considered stepping down as co-chair of the presidential task force on antisemitism following pressure from high-profile critics as faculty and students rallied to his defense. Interim President Alan M. Garber ’76 tapped Penslar, a prominent scholar of Jewish history, to lead the task force on Friday. His appointment was quickly slammed by leading Harvard critics including former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers, billionaire donor Bill A. Ackman ’88, and Rep. Elise M. Stefanik ’06 (R-N.Y.), who accused him of being too soft on campus antisemitism and overly critical of Israel. “Of course anyone would ask themselves if they should continue,” Penslar, the director of Harvard’s Center for Jew-
ish Studies, wrote in a statement. “I am grateful for the outpouring of support I have received from my colleagues and students, and from President Garber, and I remain committed to helping advance the important work of this task force.” As a result of the backlash, one faculty member familiar with the situation said, Penslar discussed the prospect of stepping down as co-chair in conversations with other Harvard faculty, who urged him to stay on. While former University presidents have typically refrained from criticizing the actions of their successors, Summers has been publicly vocal since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel about the University’s current direction. In a Sunday post on X, Summers called Penslar “unsuited” to lead the antisemitism task force and said he should step down from his co-chair position. “Prof Penslar has publicly minimized
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