The Harvard Crimson - Volume CXLVI, No. 111

The Harvard Crimson The University Daily, Est. 1873 | Volume CXLVI, No. 111 | Cambridge, Massachusetts | friday, October 25, 2019

editorial PAGE 6

news PAGE 4

sports PAGE 8

The University must reflect and clarify the role of athletics at Harvard.

The Institute of Politics hosted a talk on financial regulation.

Football will take on Ancient Eight rival Princeton this weekend.

Univ. Posts $298 Million Surplus

By Luke W. Vrostos and Cindy H. Zhang

Fiscal Year 2019 Sources of Operating Revenue Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Fiscal Year 2019 University Revenue Sources

Crimson Staff Writers

Harvard had a University-wide surplus of $298 million in fiscal year 2019, up from $196 million in 2018, according to Harvard’s annual financial report released Thursday.

University revenues rose to $5.5 billion, a 6 percent increase, according to the report.

The largest source of University revenue was distributions from Harvard’s more than $40 billion endowment, which made up 35 percent of total revenue.

Tuition, at 22 percent of revenue, and research grants, at 17 percent, were the next-largest revenue sources.

Increased demand for executive and continuing education programs bolstered general tuition revenues in 2019, according to the report. Executive and continuing education programs, representing 9 percent of the University’s revenues, have been consistently profitable and saw a 12 percent increase in net income this fiscal year. These programs are offered at nine of Harvard’s 12 schools, including Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School.

Expenses also edged up in fiscal year 2019 to $5.2 billion, a 4 percent increase. By far the

Divest Meets with Bacow and Lee

By Kevin R. chen Crimson Staff Writer

­

43%

50% From Endowment Income

From Philantropy

Other - 7% Philantropy - 43%

Gifts for Current Use - 7%

Other - 18%

Endowment Income - 50%

Education/Tuition - 22%

Student Income - 23%

Research - 17%

Sponsored Support - 13%

Madison A. Shirazi—Contributing Designer

University’s largest expense was employee salaries, wages, and benefits at half the total value.

University President Lawrence S. Bacow wrote in the report that, while the University is in good financial condition, it faces challenges several challenges from Washington, D.C. — from the endowment tax to fluctuating research spending.

“Uncertainty in federal research funding and the damaging tax on college and university endowments in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act also have the po-

Colleges Report Misconduct Rates

tential to hinder Harvard’s ability to grow investments in financial aid, teaching, and research across campus,” he wrote.

Though the endowment tax guidelines have not been finalized by the United States Treasury, the tax went into effect for the first time this fiscal year.

University estimates put the additional burden of the endowment tax at $49.8 million for fiscal year 2019. The implications of this tax on operations, however, remain uncertain, according to the report.

“This new burden is approx-

imately equal to 1% of revenues, or viewed in the context of maintaining affordability, less money is now available for University to maintain financial aid, which totaled $193 million for undergraduates this past year,” the report reads.

The report also focused heavily on Harvard’s advanced planning for a period of economic downturn. It highlights several measures that University leaders have asked each school to prepare, including

See Surplus Page 5

Five members of Divest Harvard met with University President Lawrence S. Bacow and Senior Corporation Fellow William F. Lee ’72 Wednesday to discuss their demands for the University to divest its more than $40 billion endowment from fossil fuels.

Wednesday’s meeting comes as the campaign has escalated their activism in recent years.

Their current demands include complete fossil fuel divestment

by Earth Day 2020 and a commitment to reinvest those funds more sustainably.

“We’re here because we care about this university,” wrote Ilana A. Cohen ’22 in a statement Divest Harvard issued Thursday. “We take that deadline of Earth Day 2020 very seriously. There’s a moral and financial imperative [to divest], and the case for divestment has been made.”

In addition to Bacow and Lee, Harvard Management Company’s Managing Director for Sustainable Investing Kathryn I. Murtagh attended the meeting.

Lee — who leads the Harvard Corporation, the University’s highest governing body — re-

33.5%

Harvard

By JAMES S. BIKALES and RUOQI ZHANG

33%

Crimson Staff Writer

26.7%

MIT Stanford

33%

Yale

39%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Percent of Female Respondents

Students Who Understand School’s Definition of Sexual Harassment Brown

Heath P. Tarbert, chairman and chief executive of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, gives a lecture on financial regulation at the Institute of Politics Thursday. Jenny M. Lu—Crimson photographer

29%

Harvard

34%

Stanford

31%

Crimson Staff Writer

40%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Percent of Respondents Matthew J. Tyler—Crimson Designer

By SIMONE C. CHU and IRIS M. LEWIS Crimson Staff Writers

A national sexual misconduct climate survey administered to universities across the country earlier this year revealed that most schools did not see a significant change in the prevalence of sexual assault compared with incident rates four years ago, according to the results released earlier this month.

The American Association of Universities survey found that among similarly sized peer institutions, Harvard’s rate of sexual misconduct tended toward average.

Harvard’s prevalence rate of “nonconsensual sexual contact” for undergraduate women was within a percentage point of both Stanford’s and Brown’s.

Harvard and Stanford both saw rates of roughly 33 percent, while Brown’s rate is 34 perInside this issue

Harvard Today 2

See GARBER Page 5

By Amanda Y. Su

Yale

10%

University Provost Alan M. Garber ’76 defended in a Thursday interview Harvard’s position on controversial proposals in Harvard’s negotiation process with its graduate student union.

Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers announced two weeks ago that it would hold a strike authorization vote to enable its bargaining committee to call a strike if

Prison Divestment Hosts ‘Free-Them’ Week Event

33%

MIT

See DIVEST Page 4

Garber Defends Harvard’s Position

SEE PAGE 4

Undergraduate Women Who Have Experienced Nonconsensual Sexual Contact Brown

iterated administrators’ longstanding position that Harvard does not use its endowment for political purposes, the Divest Harvard statement said. It also noted that Bacow said the University must use its scholarship to address climate change and that Murtagh told students that Harvard has various environmental, social, and corporate governance guidelines that dictate their investment strategy.

University spokesperson Jonathan L. Swain wrote in an emailed statement that the administrators “appreciated” Wednesday’s conversation.

“Bacow, Lee and Murtagh appreciated the thoughtful exchange of perspectives and the opportunity to continue the conversation with members of Divest Harvard,” Swain wrote.

Divest Harvard spokesperson Caleb D. Schwartz ’20, an inactive Crimson editor, declined to comment on the meeting, referring The Crimson to the group’s public statement.

Divest Harvard provided an account of the various issues discussed at the meeting, including students’ own experiences with climate change and the group’s demands. The count

cent. Yale’s rate is higher at 39 percent, while MIT’s is lower at 27 percent.

Harvard’s prevalence of harassment also falls within a similar range as peer institutions. Its rate — 17 percent — was slightly lower than that of Stanford, Yale, and Brown; MIT reported less harassment than Harvard, at 16 percent. All of the school’s harassment rates were within eight percentage points of each other.

The schools varied more in their students’ reported knowledge of their campus’s definition of sexual misconduct, but overall, reported knowledge was higher than it had been during the survey’s first iteration in 2015. Brown students reported the least confidence in their knowledge at 29 percent, though still saw an increase from 18.4 percent in 2015. Yale

See aau Page 5

News 4

Editorial 6

The Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign hosted “FreeThem Week” this week to promote prison divestment at the University through a series of seminars, office hours, and workshops.

HPDC launched the week’s events by delivering a 64-page report — released last Wednesday — detailing what they say are the University’s investments in companies with ties to the prison industry to Massachusetts Hall Monday.

The report estimated the University has at least $3 million invested in companies with such ties. It also demanded the University divest and disclose all endowment holdings in companies connected to the industry.

On Wednesday night, students gathered at Harvard Law School for a seminar about connecting Jewish values to calls for divestment and dismantling the U.S. prison system. Participants drew parallels between contemporary prisons and the historic confinement of Jewish people as a basis for solidarity. Event organizer and gradu-

Sports 8

Law School alum Derecka Purnell and organizers for the Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign discuss prison abolition at an event Thursday evening. Amanda Y. Su—Crimson photographer

ate student Gabriel L. Schwartz said he feels that Jews had a “moral obligation” to protest racism in the prison industry.

“Our faith as Jews is deeply

Today’s Forecast

wrapped up in the fate of other marginalized people in the United States,” he said. “Anti-semitism and anti-black racism are historically and con-

cLOUDY High: 63 Low: 48

currently intertwined.”

The following day, Law School graduate Derecka M.

See Prisons Page 4

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Follow @TheCrimson on Twitter.

dark horse

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

October 25, 2019

Page 2

Harvard Today

For Lunch Buffalo Chicken Pizza Red’s Best Fresh Catch Cheese Pizza

For Dinner Blackened Arcadian Redfish Rosemary and Garlic Roasted Chicken

Today’s Events IGP’s Murder Mystery Show 8-9 p.m.

in The Real World

Walk over to the Advocate for a totally improvised murder mystery show put on by the Immediate Gratification Players. Seating is limited, so reserve your free ticket before the show by emailing igpharvard@gmail.com.

Trump Wants to Cut WaPo and NYT Subscriptions for Federal Agencies

Trump plans to order the entire federal government to not renew its subscriptions to the Washington Post and the New York Times, calling both papers “fake.” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham stated that the cancellations will save “hundreds of thousands” of taxpayer dollars.

MFA Late Nite!

Take the T to the Museum of Fine Art for a Late Nite celebration complete with art, music, a “live painting experience,” and a first look at a new contemporary art gallery. All ages are welcome, and there will be drinks for 21+. Bring your HUID for the student discount interested.

The Beyoncé Experience 8:30-9:30 p.m.

Beyhive, this one’s for you. The Museum of Science is putting on “The Beyoncé Experience,” which fuses Bey’s music with visuals and lasers projected onto a Planetarium dome.

Get tickets in advance through the link and arrive before the show starts at 8:30.

Unity Between Sects Characterizes Lebanon Protests

As the weather cools, the trees in Harvard Yard have begun to shed their leaves. Ryan N. Gajarawala—Crimson photographer

Daily Briefing Harvard had a University-wide surplus of $298 million in fiscal year 2019, up from $196 million in 2018, according to Harvard’s annual financial report released Thursday. University revenues rose to $5.5 billion, a 6 percent increase, according to the report. The largest source of University revenue was distributions from Harvard’s more than $40 billion endowment, which made up 35 percent of total revenue. In other news, five members of Divest Harvard met with University President Lawrence S. Bacow and Senior Corporation Fellow William F. Lee ’72 Wednesday to discuss their demands for the University to divest its more than $40 billion endowment from fossil fuels.

As Lebanon enters the weekend and its ninth day of protests, demonstrators are reflecting on the nature of the movement that has caused 1 million of the country’s 4 million to take to the streets.

They are calling for a revolution against the Lebanese government, which is based on a division of power between religious sects. When asked about what sect he was from, one protester pushed back: “We’re all Lebanese. On the streets, we are not Shiite or Sunni or Christians. We are citizens.”

Marketing Consultant Jane Buckingham Gets Only 3 Weeks in Admissions Scandal

Buckingham, who wrote the “Modern Girl’s Guides” series of advice books has been sentenced to just three weeks in prison after she paid for a test expert to take the ACT for her son. She dished out $50k to a college consultant, who had a proctor take the test using a sample of the son’s handwriting to be convincing in the fraud.

Around the Ivies YALE

Residents of Yale’s Saybrook College reported their suites robbed after they returned to school from fall break. Thomas Near, the head of the residential college, attributed the string of break-ins to students’ failure to properly secure their rooms.

Earlier this month, 54-year-old Jose Palanco was arrested for trespassing, after he allegedly entered the Saybrook courtyard. Authorities say that Palanco might possibly be responsible for the break-ins that occurred over fall break as well.

princeton

Princeton, alongside 93 other colleges, won the 2019 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award. The Heed Award is extended to institutions that have shown dedication in advancing diversity and inclusion on their respective campuses.

Princeton’s diverse freshman class, comprising 56 percent students of color and 18 percent first-generation students, was a strong factor in determining Princeton’s eligibility for this award. Despite boasting a diverse freshman class, Princeton still struggles with gender parity among faculty, according to a report by the Common Data Set.

PENN

Penn administrators canceled a talk by the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Thomas Homan, after dozens of protesters led loud chants. After taking the stage with two other speakers for the event, titled “Detention and Deportation from Obama to Trump,” Homan sat on the stage for 15 minutes as protesters chanted “No hate. No fear. Immigrants are welcome here.” Under Homan, who led ICE from January 2017 until June 2018, the agency revoked a policy allowing some critically ill undocumented immigrants to stay in the United States to receive medical care.

THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873

The Harvard Crimson Kristine E. Guillaume President Angela N. Fu Managing Editor Charlie B. Zhu Business Manager

Staff for This Issue

Associate Managing Editor Jamie D. Halper ’20

Arts Chairs Kaylee S. Kim ’20 Caroline A. Tsai ’20

Design Chairs Elena M. Ramos ’20 Akhil S. Waghmare ’20

Associate Business Manager Amy E. Zhou ’20

FM Chairs Norah M. Murphy ’20 Abigail L. Simon ’20

Multimedia Chairs Kathryn S. Kuhar ’20 Kai R. McNamee ’21

Editorial Chairs Jessenia N. Class ’20 Robert Miranda ’20

Blog Chairs Lorenzo F. Manuali ’21 Trula J. Rael ’21

Technology Chairs Nenya A. Edjah ’20 Theodore T. Liu ’20

Sports Chairs Joseph W. Minatel ’21 Henry Zhu ’20

Copyright 2019, 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 Weather icons made by Freepik, Yannick, Situ Herrera, OCHA, SimpleIcon, Catalin Fertu from flaticon.com is licensed by CC BY 3.0.

Night Editor Caroline S. Engelmayer’20

Design Editor Matthew J. Tyler ’22

Assistant Night Editors Jonah S. Berger ’21 Sydnie M. Cobb ’22

Photo Editor Shera S. Avi-Yonah ’21

Story Editors Angela N. Fu ’20 Jamie D. Halper ’20 Devin B. Srivastava ’21 Michael E. Xie ’20 Samuel W. Zwickel ’21

Editorial Editor Shireen Younus ’20 Sports Editor Leon K. Yang ’21

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

ARTS

The Harvard Crimson | October 25, 2019 | page 3

CAMPUS

Veggies in the Spotlight: Veggie Grill Comes to Harvard Square Hannah Chew Contributing Writer

Steve S. Li / crimson photographer

Harvard Square has just become a little more vegan-friendly — the California fast-casual vegan chain Veggie Grill recently opened a location on JFK Street. Offering everything from farm bowls to veggie burgers, Oct. 13 marked the opening of Veggie Grill’s first East Coast location. Veggie Grill’s dishes often incorporate the popular Beyond Burger beef, but some dishes stay completely vegetable-based. The pseudo-healthy menu at Veggie Grill attempts to make vegetarian and vegan options more accessible with creative meat substitutes, but their best dishes are the ones that wholeheartedly embrace the quality and versatility of their very namesake: veggies.

Founded in 2006 in Irvine, Calif., Veggie Grill initially aimed to center their restaurant around vegetables and grains, rather

than traditional meats and proteins. Kevin Boylan and T.K. Pillan, the founders of what later became the largest vegan and vegetarian restaurant company in the United States, sought to make vegetarian options more mainstream. Their current menu offers something for everyone — from the “Quinoa Power Salad” for the lifetime all-natural vegan expert to the addictive “Crispy Cauliflower” to satisfy the late-night fried food craving of any college student.

In addition to health-conscious salads and bowls, Veggie Grill offers mainstream items like burgers, sandwiches, and burritos with a twist. Instead of meat, all their protein options are plantbased, from the fast-growing “Beyond Burger” beef substitute to “Gardein Chickin’,” a soybean and grain-based substitute. Origi-

nally focused on their health-conscious consumer base in California, Veggie Grill has lately implemented more mainstream fast-casual food into their restaurants.

Veggie Grill’s new Boston location matches the modern, welcoming feel of its California cousins, and sitting in the whiteand-green themed, decorative plant-filled restaurant certainly reinforces the concept of clean, healthy eating. With its fall menu, including pumpkin spice cake and cheesesteak, the restaurant uses the limited-time hype to pull in foodies and mainstream customers alike.

From their normal menu section “shares,” the crispy cauliflower satisfies any fried-food craving without leaving the unpleasant, heavy greasiness of french fries or mozzarella sticks. Most of the shared dishes cook traditionally healthy foods with not-so-healthy methods in the tastiest way possible, and are light and addictive enough not to be shared.

With its overwhelming range of options, choosing an actual meal at Veggie Grill poses a dilemma. After trying a vegetable heavy plant-based bowl and a Beyond Burger, the bowl left me far more satisfied. Veggie Grill’s fake meats are pretty convincing, but they are merely slightly-more-expensive substitutes for the real thing. While these substitutes are a healthier option, their efforts to appeal broadly and seem as similar as possible to real meat undermine the emphasis on vegetables that consumers expect at a place named “Veggie Grill.”

However, the dishes where Veggie Grill focuses its creative efforts on the versatility of the vegetables stand out. Well-cooked and liberally seasoned vegetables are hard to beat, and Veggie Grill’s emphasis on fresh, local produce ensures each bite combats the common conception of bland, underwhelming vegetable sides.

The Californian health-conscious advertising, environment, and taste of the bowls and salads push forward Veggie Grill’s slogan: “More veggies, please!”

To top off this vegan meal, Veggie Grill offers slightly healthier versions of common desserts. While their cookies and gluten-free brownies offer a sweet ending to your meal or provide a satisfying snack, the real star of the desserts is Veggie Grill’s carrot cake.

Dairy-free creamy frosting with walnuts and a not-overly-sugary distinctly carroty cake, Veggie Grill’s carrot cake is a success: an unapologetically vegetable-based dish that tastes and feels different than its non-vegan original.

While Veggie Grill may not be the place to go grab a late-night burger or burrito (look towards Jefe’s or Felipe’s), their vegetable-focused dishes break the stereotypes around restaurant vegetables and encourage customers to explore the potential of the plant options they offer. The meat alternatives may certainly aid in attracting mainstream attention to the vegan option, but the dishes that emphasize the vegetables themselves remain the most memorable and likely to bring customers back. Delicious and healthy, Veggie Grill is making vegetables the talk of Harvard Square.

FILM

‘Honey Boy’: Shia LaBeouf’s Poignant Magnum Opus Confronts His Painful Childhood Jaden S. Thompson Contributing Writer Actor Shia LaBeouf, from Disney’s “Even Stevens” to “Transformers” to A24’s indie-drama “American Honey,” has been gracing the screen for over two decades. Whether you know him as mischievous adolescent Louis Stevens, Bumblebee’s sidekick Sam Witwicky, or the actor who seems to apologize frequently for his controversial actions, LaBeouf has been immersed in Hollywood culture for the majority of his life. But his latest movie, “Honey Boy,” is by far his most personal endeavor. Not only is he the screenwriter, but the film is based on his rise to fame and the dysfunctional relationship he had with his abusive father, who is played by LaBeouf himself.

“Honey Boy,” following a nonlinear timeline, revolves around Otis Lort — who represents a young Shia — at 12 years old (Noah Jupe) as a child actor living with his father in a motel, and at 22 years old (Lucas Hedges) as a blockbuster-movie star in rehab, struggling with addiction and PTSD from his childhood. 12-year-old Otis has a complex relationship with his abusive yet loving father; an ex-rodeo clown, James Lort (LaBeouf) is volatile, argumentative, and unreliable, yet also fiercely protective of his son. The film documents the intense highs and lows of their relationship, and how Otis’s childhood experiences shape him later in life. “Honey Boy,” with introspective directing and powerfully honest performances from Jupe, Hedges, and LaBeouf, is a heartbreaking reflection on the inextricable ties of family.

LaBeouf embarks on a challenging yet potentially healing experience by writing and portraying a highly nuanced and developed character based on his father. While James Lort relentlessly bullies his son, or abandons him on set, he also grapples with his own demons. As a recovering alcoholic and heroin addict, he attends group meetings where he has emotional reflections on his struggles with substance abuse, and ex-

presses his desire to be a good father; his multidimensional character ultimately adds great depth to the film. Jupe and LaBeouf have natural onscreen chemistry, and convincingly portray the tense dynamic between father and son. Jupe is brilliant as young Otis, effortlessly innocent and evocative as a boy torn between the love he feels for his father and the abuse he endures from him — “I’ve missed you for a long time, Dad,” he imagines saying to him in a bittersweet scene at the motel. LaBeouf is nothing short of painfully authentic, embodying the cruel and conflicting nature of his character with ease.

The film is cleverly edited to switch from 2005 to 1995 in a way that showcases deliberate parallels between the two phases of Otis’s life. Small moments mirror each other to depict the lasting impact of Otis’s childhood on his adult psyche.

For instance, he’s shown swimming at his motel’s pool at 12 years old, then swimming at rehab 10 years later.

Hedges delivers a simultaneously sensitive and frenetic performance as a mature Otis dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. Living at a state-of-the-art rehab facility, he goes from therapy sessions to tending a farm with chickens to group swimming exercises; all the while, his addiction and trauma haunt him. “My dad’s not the reason I drink,” he insists in therapy. “He’s the reason I work.” As he reflects upon the physical abuse he faced, his hardened facade begins to crumble, and Hedges painstakingly portrays this fragile vulnerability.

The secondary relationship in the movie, which isn’t elaborated upon much, is between 12-year-old Otis and his neighbor, a young woman credited simply as Shy Girl, played by singer FKA Twigs. The two share a protective and tender bond as Shy Girl looks after Otis when his father falls short. Their dynamic is confusing as it is ambiguously intimate, bordering on inappro-

Courtesy of Amazon Studios

priate, and driven by little dialogue. Her confusing presence in the film leaves something to be desired, aside from one impactful quote as the pair watch a snake skitter across the surface of their motel’s pool — “You can walk on water ‘til someone tells you that you don’t know how to,” she intones quietly.

“Honey Boy” is music video director and documentarian Alma Har’el’s first time directing a narrative film. With warmth in each scene, every moment of “Honey Boy” feels intentional and re-

flective. What the film lacks in breadth — viewers see little beyond Otis and his father’s relationship — it more than makes up for in depth, with every nuance of their dynamic explored. What has the potential to come across as a selfish and ego-driven project on LaBeouf’s part is really a moving and bold depiction of the empathetic power of cinematic storytelling. As singer Alex Ebert croons the heartfelt lyrics of his song “Glimpses” in the final scene, “Honey Boy” proves to be a bittersweet and beautiful exploration of trauma.

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

October 25, 2019

Page 4

Team Introduces ‘Prime Editing’

By Virginia l. ma and meena s. nair Contributing Writers

A team of researchers from the Broad Institute led by professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology David R. Liu ’94 developed a novel gene-editing technique called “prime editing.”

The technique, published in the scientific journal Nature on Monday, could “correct about 89% of known pathogenic human genetic variants,” with broad applications in the field of medicine, according to Nature.

Liu and his team’s research has captured the attention of scientists and experts in the field. Harvard Medical School genetics Professor George M. Church wrote in an email that the research from Liu’s lab has made significant progress from previous gene-editing technologies.

“This prime-editing method is much, much closer to the grail of unlimited and precise edits than any simple nuclease,” Church wrote.

The technique could have larger implications on the field of gene editing, according to Fyodor Urnov, a biology professor at the University of California, Berkeley and scientific director at the Innovative Genomics Institute. “I think it could become a tool of major impact in the arsenal that gene editors have to engineer the cell and organism,” Urnov said.

Still, the field of gene editing continues to face ethical questions. The technology could be used to enhance human performance, according to Urnov.

Prime editing implements a

contributing Writers

Heath P. Tarbert, chairman and chief executive of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, spoke about rules-based and principles-based financial regulations during the Institute of Politics’s annual Robert Glauber Lecture Thursday at the John F. Kennedy Forum.

Harvard Kennedy School lecturer Robert R. Glauber moderated the talk, which was open to the public and drew roughly 50 people.

He introduced Tarbert as a prime example of someone involved in both the private and public sectors.

“Heath’s career which spans private practice as a lawyer and public service in a number of senior financial policy and regulatory positions is really a paradigm career path for our graduates,” Glauber said.

Tarbert stated that the mission of the CFTC is to “promote the integrity, resilience, and vi-

HPDC Hosts ‘Free Them’ Week Purnell led a workshop about prison abolition, during which she described divestment as a “tenet” of abolition.

“What these student organizers are trying to do is get Harvard to remove some of its billions of dollars from profiting off the caging of human beings,” she said in an interview

Scientists at the Broad Institute in Kendall Square have made advances in gene-editing technology in recent years.. Owen A. Berger—Crimson photographer

search-and-replace tactic that “is capable of directly editing human cells in a precise, efficient, and highly versatile fashion,” according to a Broad Institute press release.

This allows scientists to create all possible types of point mutations, insertions, and deletions, whereas prior iterations of gene-editing technologies did not have this capability.

“If CRISPR-Cas9 and other programmable nucleases are like scissors, and base editors are like pencils, then prime editors are like word processors, capable of searching for target DNA sequences and precise-

ly replacing them with edited DNA sequences,” Liu wrote in an email. Currently, there are few viable treatments for rare genetic diseases like cystic fibrosis and sickle cell disease.

Prime editing could potentially contribute to treatments for these diseases, according to Urnov.

Andrew V. Anzalone, a postdoctoral fellow and first author on the paper, said the lab has used their new technique to edit mammalian cells in a petri dish.

This capability has applications in the field of therapeutics, as researchers can study effects of “changes to genes” or model

“biological pathways,” according to Anzalone.

Liu wrote that the ultimate goal of gene editing is “to be able to make any DNA change, in any position of a living cell or organism, including human patients with genetic diseases.”

“Much more work is needed to fully realize this goal,” he wrote. The development of this technique comes at a time when the Broad Institute is involved in a separate dispute over CRISPR Cas9 patent rights with UC Berkeley, which alleges that the Broad used “deceit” to win patent rights to CRISPR-Cas9 in eukaryotic cells.

IOP Hosts Talk on Financial Regulation

By Aisha C. Abdelhamid and Ethan Lee

Prisons From Page 1

brancy” of the American derivatives markets.

He added that the organization strives to set the “global

­

Health’s career...is really a paradigm career path for our graduates Robert R. Glauber Kennedy School Lecturer

standard for sound derivatives regulation.”

Tarbert said he defines sound regulation as “using the right tools, at the right time, for the right reasons.”

During the talk, Tarbert introduced and analogized principles-based and rules-based regulation to speed limit signs. He said that principles-based regulation is similar to a sign reading “Please drive with care” — which focuses on generality — whereas rules-based regulation is similar to a sign with an exact speed limit value — which em-

ploys strict, quantitative methodology.

Tarbert added that though these two ideologies are sometimes considered to be opposing, he believes it is possible to reconcile both sides and employ a hybrid form of regulation.

To demonstrate the impact of sound regulation, Tarbert asked the audience to identify which regulatory approach to use in specific real-world applications.

“Unless we take the time to really think about it — what should we use — we could end up spending a lot of time on things that could be ineffective,” Tarbert said.

As he concluded his talk, Tarbert referred to the belief of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy ’40 that one should pursue not the Republican or the Democratic solution, but the right answer.

“I hope today that by at least articulating some principles for rules, and some rules for principles, I’ve at least gone a step in the right direction to focusing on that right answer, and I hope that in so doing, I’ve per-

Never miss a moment.

The Crimson @thecrimson

haps shed a little light in making a little sense of financial regula-

It was interesting to hear the sort of almost psychological framework Miles Neumann ’20 Attendee

tion,” Tarbert said.

Some of the attendees said they were interested in the talk because they seek to pursue careers in the finance sector.

“I closely follow financial regulation,” attendee Miles Neumann ’20 said.

“I think it’s an extremely interesting space considering the broader effects it has on global capital markets.”

“It was interesting to hear the sort of almost psychological framework behind how these rule-makers come to these specific pieces of legislation,” attendee Zachary U. Buttenwieser ’20 said.

There are so many other things to invest in. The fact that they are committed to investing and profiting from the caging of human beings is immoral.

Derecka M. Purnell ’20 Law School Graduate

after the event.

“There are so many other things to invest in. The fact that they are committed to investing and profiting from the caging of human beings is immoral.”

The week’s events also included a seminar about socially responsible investing, a session about restoring the right to vote for prisoners in Massachusetts, and office hours for people to learn more about prison divestment and abolition.

The last event, planned for Fri-

day, will feature an immigrant who spent time in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement prison.

University spokesperson Jonathan L. Swain referenced previous comments in response to calls for the University to divest from companies with ties to the prison industry. “[University] President [Lawrence S.] Bacow has met with advocates for prison divestment,” Swain wrote in an emailed statement.

“He has also invited them to meet with members of the Corporation Committee on Shareholder Responsibility and looks forward to further discussion,” he added.

HPDC is scheduled to meet with Bacow and the Corporation’s Committee on Shareholder Responsibility Oct. 28.

The CCSR is a subcommittee of the Harvard Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — that advises the University on matters related to social responsibility in its investment decisions.

HPDC organizer and Law School student Anna L. Nathanson said HPDC is committed to prison divestment for the “long haul.”

“We’ll have to see how the meeting goes on Monday,” she said. “The ball is really going to be in the court of Lawrence Bacow and the rest of the administration.” amanda.su@thecrimson.com

DIVEST From Page 1

Divest Meets with Bacow and Lee also includes the group’s assertion that Harvard’s recent efforts to address climate change by means besides divestment are insufficient. In late September, Harvard announced its commitment to join Climate Action 100+, a group of investors who have signed on to reduce their emissions. Divest members wrote in their statement, however, that they find this insufficient. “Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard believes that the slowpaced shareholder engagement initiatives touted by the University are not only insufficient in addressing the climate crisis, but a harmful option that will distract from necessary climate action,” the statement reads.

Gabrielle T. Langkilde ’21, one student in attendance, told administrators how climate change impacts her life as a citizen of American Samoa — which is threatened by rising sea levels — and why that pushes her to call for divestment, according to

the statement.

Divest Harvard has staged several demonstrations already this semester. The group held a protest earlier this week regarding the University’s ownership of Brazilian land and led Har-

Health’s career...is really a paradigm career path for our Robert R. Glauber Kennedy School Lecturer

vard affiliates during the global climate strike in September.

Divest Harvard member Eva K. Rosenfeld ’21, a Crimson magazine editor, closed the conversation, arguing that Harvard will soon “lose its opportunity to be on the right side of history on the issue of climate change,” according to the statement. kevin.chen@thecrimson.com

Page 5

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | October 25, 2019

Pfoho Opens Game Room

By Haemaru Chung and Jessica Lee Contributing Writers

A new game room featuring retro arcade machines with games like Galaga, Pac-Man, and Centipede opened in Pforzheimer House on Oct. 13.

“The Den” — brightened by neon lights, painted walls, and multicolored floor tiles — also houses a pinball machine and an air hockey table. House staff and students worked throughout the summer to renovate a bike room in the basement of Comstock Hall and convert it into a social space that fits several dozen people.

Pforzheimer’s House Committee coordinated with house faculty deans and the building manager to develop plans for the Den over the spring semester.

Two HoCo members, Connor C. Sakmar ’20 and Francisco Matos Jr. ’20, stayed on campus throughout the summer and worked for more than 150 hours to assist with the renovation and design.

In an emailed statement, HoCo members called the project a “team effort” and wrote that the Pforzheimer House staff and faculty deans were supportive in constructing the space.

“The Den was created with the intention of fostering community within Pforzheimer ­

House and providing an additional inclusive and safe social and recreational space for students here,” Matos wrote.

After constructing the space, HoCo members tasked fellow students with testing the game equipment and decorating the Den. Though many Pforzheimer residents have not yet had a chance to visit the Den, some students say they look forward to socializing there.

Calvin M. Stewart ’20 wrote in an email that he plans to visit the space to “destress and just have a little fun.”

“Whenever I get the urge to play some retro games, or I want to show my roommates who’s the best at Street Fighter II, I’ll be there,” Stewart wrote. “People tend to get competitive with the high scores. Hopefully, I’ll get my initials to the top of one of the scoreboards.”

Maximilian J. Wang ’20 said he especially likes the ambiance of the Den. “I really like the vibe in there,” he said. “It’s got all the lights, the neon.”

Pforzheimer HoCo members wrote that they are pleased with the number of students who visited the Den over its first few days open and hope it will become a popular spot.

“The best part of The Den has been the strengthened House Community that it has fostered,” they wrote.

Surplus From Page 1

Univ. Posts $298 Million Surplus five-year plans and creating a “Recession Playbook.”

Bacow wrote that an economic downturn could threaten the University’s financial health even with proper planning.

“The prospect of a long-running period of economic expansion coming to an end is very real,” he wrote, referring to the possibility of a recession.

Harvard’s schools that depend more heavily on the endowment face the most uncertainty in times of economic challenge.

The report indicated that Harvard’s schools “vary widely” in their dependence on the endowment for funding. The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and Harvard Divinity School draw the highest portions of their funding from the endowment, at 87 percent and 74 percent, respectively. ­

The prospect of a long-running period of economic expansion coming to an end is very real Lawrence S. Bacow Harvard President

Donors supported 43 percent of University revenues in fiscal year 2019. Current use gifts increased slightly to $472 million from $467 million last fiscal year, which saw record numbers for current use giving in part because of a five-year capital campaign.

Harvard also relies heavily on research funding — both public and private.

In fiscal year 2019, the University saw a 6 percent increase in non-federal sponsored research funding, part of a shift toward privately funded research in recent years.

“Nonfederal funding has

been an area of growth in the past few years, as researchers look beyond the federal government for research funding sup-

We are obviously disappointed with persistent negative returns in this legacy part of our portfolio N.P. “Narv” Narvekar HMC CEO

port,” read the annual report.

Harvard Management Company CEO N.P. “Narv” Narvekar wrote for the second consecutive year that he was “not pleased” with this year’s endowment performance, which returned a lackluster 6.5 percent earlier this month, a decrease from the past two years.

Natural resources investments, which make up 4 percent of the endowment, posted a 12.4 percent loss in fiscal year 2019, making it the endowment’s worst-performing asset class for at least the second year in a row.

“We are obviously disappointed with persistent negative returns in this legacy part of our portfolio; however, we are pleased to have cut our exposure by more than half — from 9% to roughly 4% of the overall endowment — since my arrival,” Narvekar wrote.

Harvard’s natural resources investments have come under increased scrutiny from climate activists in recent years.

In addition to calls for Harvard to divest its endowment from fossil fuels — which are not held in this asset class — activists have criticized Harvard’s land holdings in Brazil and California’s Central Valley. luke.vrostos@thecrimson.com cindy.zhang@thecrimson.com

AAU From Page 1

Colleges Report Rates of Misconduct students had the highest reported rate, at 40 percent. At Harvard, 34 percent of students said they were very or extremely knowledgeable about how Harvard defines sexual assault and other misconduct — up from the 14.5 percent reported in 2015.

The majority of respondents at each school who experienced sexual misconduct noted that they did not report the misconduct because they thought the harassment was not serious enough or that they could handle the situation themselves.

While there was alignment between schools in many respects, response rates varied widely across institutions.

The results provide cause for both hope and continued concern Mary Sue Coleman AAU President

Stanford — which had the second-highest response rate among all participating institutions — saw a response rate of 62 percent. Stanford students were offered a $20 incentive to complete the survey.

In comparison, Harvard’s response rate was 36 percent; Yale reported a 45 percent response rate, MIT reported 40 percent, and Brown reported 31.5 percent.

Harvard’s responses were roughly average across the entire survey group AAU, howev-

University President Lawrence S. Bacow works out of Massachusetts Hall in the center of Harvard Yard. Sydney R. Mason—Crimson photographer

er.

“The results provide cause for both hope and continued concern,” AAU President Mary Sue Coleman wrote in a press release.

“They reveal that, while students know more about university-sponsored resources for victims of sexual assault and misconduct, they still aren’t using these resources often enough.”

Following the release of the survey’s results, administrators across the various universities have said they will make changes to reduce incidents of sexual misconduct on campus. Title IX Officer Nicole M. Merhill wrote in an emailed statement that Harvard will continue to lead conversations with other schools in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Action Collab-

Garber Talks Strike Authorization deems necessary. The vote is set to wrap up Friday, according to a Tuesday email HGSU bargaining committee member Jennifer K. Austiff sent to members and would require twothirds of voters’ support to pass.

Garber said the University does not believe a strike is justified.

“We don’t think that there is any reason for a strike when we’re in the midst of negotiations that are happening in a very serious way,” Garber said.

“It’s the right of the union to pursue a strike authorization vote, and we respect that,” Garber added.

Garber also said it would be “premature” to specify the measures the University plans to take in the event of a strike, but noted that Harvard is looking at other universities’ historic responses to strikes.

“We do need to take various kinds of precautions and have learned from the experiences of the other universities,” he said.

Garber also defended Harvard’s position on much-debated proposals between the union and the University including health insurance, protections against discrimination and harassment, and compensation.

HGSU and the University re-

main at an impasse regarding the union’s sexual harassment and nondiscrimination proposal.

The union’s version would give members the option to address discrimination and sexual harassment complaints using a third-party grievance procedure outside of Harvard’s normal adjudication methods.

Garber said that protections against discrimination and harassment are a “top priority for the University,” but that he is not supportive of the union proposal’s “fairly narrow process” that would only apply to a small portion of the University’s members.

“We are not going to commit our approach to these high priority issues to just a narrow segment of the population,” Garber said. “We’re committed to improving everything we do about Title IX and non-discrimination, and we have a committee — the Title IX policy review committee — that will be continuously reviewing our TItle IX policies with an aim to improving them.”

The two sides still have not come to agreement on compensation and health benefits either. HGSU’s healthcare proposal includes paid dependent

health care, dental coverage, and increased coverage for specialist and mental health care visits.

Garber noted that the two sides have a “difference of approach” to changing the insurance plan. HGSU’s proposal would only apply to student workers, not other students, he said.

“If there is a good idea that should be implemented, we want to implement it broadly,” Garber said. “Carving out a separate health insurance plan just for the time that people are in the union...is not feasible, nor is it the best way to deliver effective health care.”

He also said it would be difficult to implement changes through HGSU’s contract because student workers do not necessarily “serve continuously” in roles that allow them to be eligible for HGSU membership.

“It’s simply not feasible to have one health insurance plan one semester and a different health insurance plan another semester,” Garber said.

Garber added that the union has requested “much greater increases” than the University’s most recent proposal on compensation.

“The compensation proposal

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orative — an ongoing initiative which Harvard helped to found, and will continue to work with in order to best apply the AAU survey’s findings.

“We are also working closely with our Ivy Plus peers on establishing, and sharing, best practice in prevention,” Merhill wrote.

The Crimson thecrimson.com

that we last put forward is more generous than what the UAW has secured in other negotiations with universities recently,” he said.

Harvard and HGSU recently entered the second year of negotiations for their first contract. HGSU bargaining committee member Hector F. Medina-Abarca wrote in an emailed statement that the union was frustrated by the lack of progress in key contract provisions.

“For over a year of negotiations, our union has called for fair pay, comprehensive and affordable healthcare, and protections against discrimination and harassment,” Medina-Abarca wrote.

“In response, the University is proposing pay raises that are lower than current practice in many departments; refusing to bargain over our health care plan; and insisting on denying student workers protections against harassment that every other union employee at Harvard has.”

The next bargaining session between HGSU and Harvard is scheduled to take place on Oct. 30. james.bikales@thecrimson.com ruoqi.zhang@thecrimson.com

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | october 25, 2019

Page 6

Editorial The Crimson Editorial board

op-ed

A New Direction For Athletics — But Which One?

Harvard Agrees to ‘Divest’— Just Not From Prisons

I

n response to the scandal over admissions and athletic qualifications at Harvard and across the nation, the University has instituted a variety of policies requiring proof of athletic prowess as part of the athletic recruitment process, according to Athletics Director Robert L. Scalise.

The reforms, which also include increased conflict of interest training, come as Scalise is preparing to step down from his position.

Looking forward, we are encouraged that there is room for a new direction in the Athletics Department along a number of dimensions, including the strengthening of these kinds of processes to prevent fraud.

Beyond that, we also hope to see improvement in regards to gender parity and multiple instances of sexual misconduct in the department.

In addition, the Athletics Department should consider the efficacy of conflict of interest measures, given the unambiguous nature of the infractions in the admissions scandal.

These policies, as well as the fact-checking processes and the way in which the department approaches its new sanctions enforcement policy, are further areas to consider for improvement.

Needless to say, these are vast domains that span across many fields under the purview of the Athletics Department, each with its specific challenges and opportunities. However, before con-

sidering any specifics and implementing any changes, the University must reflect and clarify the role of athletics at Harvard, since it is impossible to move to more detailed processes without an explicit, well-understood goal.

Currently, the Harvard Athletics mission statement offers two broad objectives: “Education through Athletics” and “Build[ing] Community and Pride in Harvard.”

More specifically, the department values “the lessons that have long been

Looking forward, we are encouraged that there is room for a new direction in the Athletics Department along a number of dimensions, including the strengthening of these kinds of processes to prevent fraud. taught by athletic participation” and aims to “[build] community through the engagement of students, faculty, staff, and alumni.”

However, these high-minded goals still leave many questions unanswered.

How should student-athletes balance their roles in athletics and at the College more broadly, and how should they be evaluated for admissions? How do athletics contribute to student life and cul-

ture at the College? How should the Athletics Department reconcile the need for socioeconomic diversity with existing entry barriers in certain sports? What role should coaches and the department play in an admissions process that is supposed to be “the same” for athletes and for other students?

We do not have definitive answers to these questions. In fact, we may not be informed to make these decisions, but we believe that the answers to these questions should form the basis of the new direction that Scalise’s successor should pursue.

As Scalise will continue to advise Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Claudine Gay until 2021, we hope he can share his institutional knowledge in this search.

That knowledge, coupled with a sincere desire to clarify the place of athletics at the University achieve concrete improvements in each of these domains, should animate the search for a candidate well-equipped to take on these challenges and lead the Athletics Department in a new era.

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.

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The Crimson @thecrimson Column

Ways We Learn to Cope Tajrean Rahman on the edge of the elite

S

ometime earlier this year, I was waiting for the walk sign that would let me cross from Harvard Yard to Harvard Square. I can’t quite remember where I was heading, only that I had a million and one things to do once I got there — and maybe because I was so caught up, I almost missed the yelling behind me.

I turned abruptly, mostly confused until I spied the man on the other side of the road, shouting out a string of rather unimaginative slurs about Muslims, foreigners, and the age old classic bit on terrorists.

But there’s a limit to how much we can ignore and for how long. Because the pointed looks and insensitive comments, the ignorant slurs and hateful jeers, they’re all going to reach an inevitable breaking point for us — if they haven’t already.

He noticed my attention and got more animated in his insults, perhaps emboldened by the distance between us, but at that point I’d already dismissed the situation and carried on my merry way.

Those million and one things couldn’t just wait around for Islamophobia.

Friends of mine later urged me to go to HUPD to report the incident but I didn’t bother for two reasons: Even if the campus police did track down this guy, bigots tend to be determined when it comes to holding onto their narrow-minded ways, and secondly — I was used to it.

See, I’ve been conditioned to know how to read the way a person looks at me, my family, and my friends; taking in the hidden judgments from their stiff

expressions or blatant biases in their direct glares as cues on how any given interaction will proceed.

I was dutifully told in the comments of my previous article that: “If you choose to wear the uniform shared by terrorists and suicide bombers then you should expect to have people look” — but unfortunate as it is, hatred doesn’t have one specific attire.

It can come in the form of anything from a boarding school outfit to a presidential suit and tie.

There’s no precise gamble on when people will show their ugly colors, which is why I’ve learned to never engage: not in middle school when the man sitting beside me on the bus kept making leering comments, or with the woman on the train who screamed at me to go back to my country when I was in high school.

And these are just some of the tamer incidents.

With all this, I was not surprised that the same festering sentiments of racism and bigotry had found a home in the cracks and corners of Harvard.

After the 2016 election, for example, a fellow student joked that I should start packing up my things. Holly Yan wrote in a CNN article on everyday racial profiling: “For every story that makes the news, there are countless others that don’t involve police. Black customers who get followed too closely by store employees.

Hispanic students and Muslims who get asked if they’re really American.” It is easier to cope with laughter. Joking about a difficult encounter with your friends makes the situation easier to process.

We’ve used this familiar cushion many times to brush off the scary incidents that frequent our lives too often.

In the aftermath we’re always just grateful that things that things did not escalate into anything worse.

From my experience, I will admit

that I have a learned-wariness when it comes to authority figures, which is why it is especially disappointing that The Crimson has reaffirmed a commitment to continuing to request comment from ICE’s media office. How easy must it be to claim objectivity at the cost of those who are vulnerable to an organization that has perpetuated a continuous harm through severe measures of racial profiling.

Safety is not an assurance for certain communities in the United States, not even a place as prestigious as Harvard.

There will always be students who have to be a little more on guard, a little more careful.

Safety is not an assurance for certain communities in the United States, not even a place as prestigious as Harvard.

There will always be students who have to be a little more on guard, a little more careful.

I already shared how my own mechanism of defense is to brush off the moments that don’t feel safe, to repeat my parent’s advice of knowing when to stand up and when it is better to tread closer with caution when it comes to adding fuels to the unpredictable fires of racism and bigotry.

But there’s a limit to how much we can ignore and for how long. Because the pointed looks and insensitive comments, the ignorant slurs and hateful jeers, they’re all going to reach an inevitable breaking point for us — if they haven’t already.

—Tajrean Rahman ’20 is a History and Science concentrator in Currier House.

Her column appears on alternate Fridays.

By David A. Piña

R

esponding to public pressure, Harvard recently announced plans to divest from a source of funding it called “utterly abhorrent.” The announcement declared shared community values, gave hard numbers, and laid out a plan to both address immediate harm and create structural change. In other words, it was everything the Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign has asked for — just not for prisons.

HPDC has been petitioning Harvard to divest from the complex web of companies propping up and incentivizing the continued construction and filling of prisons — inevitably with black, brown and other politically marginalized bodies. The group’s arguments have largely been met with either silence or straw men responses.

By contrast, the revelations surrounding billionaire Jeffrey E. Epstein’s human trafficking and his extensive connections to Harvard led to a community-wide response that almost directly parallels HPDC’s demands. Harvard clearly knows how to do the right thing — when it cares to. So, I’m asking Harvard to listen to Harvard and take some lessons from its own announcement.

First, show your values. University President Lawrence S. Bacow’s announcement opened by condemning the actions and losing no time in considering the victims. This kind of unequivocal language is how all healing should start. Harvard’s response to HPDC, however, has been to deflect any commitment to values by holding that divestment from prisons would make the endowment “political.”

Not only is it farcical to hold that all investment is not inherently political, but prisons themselves are the sites of concentrated sexual violence against black and brown people, including against minors. So representing the horror of prisons as an issue to be debated rather than condemned as unequivocally as the human trafficking involved in the Epstein case points to a possible racist divide on whose lives Harvard values.

Next, take responsibility and think structurally. The administration’s reaction in the Epstein case — committing to “review how we prevent these situations in the future” rather than considering this an isolated event — acknowledges the effect donations can have on research and dramatically contradicts the “apolitical” and “slippery slope” arguments comparing divestment from prisons to divesting from corn syrup by creating standards by which to judge the sources of their donations (and, by extension, the endowment).

In admitting that such standards indeed exist (which we all knew, given that Harvard has divested from tobacco, South African apartheid, and PetroChina), Harvard reaches the same conclusion as HPDC. All that’s left is to convince the administration that state violence against marginalized communities falls on a different side of those standards than corn syrup.

No one is saying this won’t be hard — including Harvard. Bacow stressed that Harvard’s decentralized process would make tracking Epstein’s donations and those directed by him difficult but worth the effort. He has also insisted, however, that only Harvard’s investments in private prison companies like CoreCivic should be up for debate, denying the existence of the vast prison-industrial complex that continues to incentivize the caging of black and brown people. This expansive view may make divestment more difficult, but, as with the Epstein case, it’s worth the effort.

The administration was also refreshingly transparent in the Epstein case, not only sharing hard numbers but also trusting their audience to understand that this is still a first step. The administration’s transparency in the Epstein case was refreshing.

By contrast, requests for information about the University’s investment in the prison-industrial complex have seen Harvard playing dumb by holding to the narrow view of the prison-industrial complex described above, claiming without evidence that investments amount to “only” $18,000, a number that has been contradicted by mandatory public filings. Harvard also seems to know the value of reparatory justice. In the Epstein case, Harvard plans to “redirect the unspent resources to organizations that support victims of human trafficking and sexual assault.”

Acknowledging this as “an unusual” but “proper” step for the University, Harvard reaches the same conclusion that HPDC does when asking for reinvestment of divested funds into the communities most harmed by state violence: It’s not enough to acknowledge the harm. Apologies require reparations.

As unjust as it is, moves by Harvard have an outsized influence, and its leadership position therefore comes with its own set of obligations.

That’s why arguing that the costs of divestment aren’t worth the alleged $18,000 invested falls flat: Harvard is perfectly willing to play hero by “engag[ing] [their] peer institutions” in addressing the structural problems that led to the Epstein case. When the values match up, Harvard knows the alleged $18,000 isn’t actually $18,000; it is, in fact, the limitless potential of a major voice in American discourse ringing the bell that something is deeply wrong and giving an example of what can be done about it.

Bacow closed his message by repeating shared values and with the humbling posture that “Harvard is not perfect.” While healing and justice require these acknowledgements of harm, they also require shifting one’s disposition when discovering new harms, not just speaking the words when cornered.

If Harvard is truly acknowledging that it is not perfect and will indeed “always strive to be better,” then it should start now: Divest.

—David A. Piña is a second-year student at Harvard Law School.

Page 7

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | October 25, 2019

Proud to cover Harvard for 146 years and counting.

Keep the old sheet flying.

The Crimson thecrimson.com

Sports

Weekend event

schedule

Friday ______________________________________

saturday ______________________________________

sunday ______________________________________

Men’s Water Polo vs. California Baptist 4:20 p.m., Sullivan Aquatic Center

Women’s Rugby vs. Dartmouth 11 a.m., Roberto A. Mignone Field

Crew vs. Princeton Chase All Day, Lake Carnegie

Women’s Ice Hockey @ Dartmouth 6 p.m., Thompson Arena

Field Hockey vs. Princeton 12:00 p.m., Berylson Family Field

Men’s Water Polo vs. Chapman 12:20 p.m., Sullivan Aquatic Center

FOOTBALL

Harvard to Challenge Nationally Ranked Princeton

By James Joyce Crimson Staff Writer

When it comes to rankings, Harvard just can’t seem to outscore Princeton. There’s the oft-cited U.S. News National University Rankings, which the Tigers have sat atop the past eight years (Harvard coming in at a measly second place). You’ve got your pre-season Ivy League football power rankings, where the Crimson fell just below Princeton’s third-place start.

Harvard even loses when it comes to food – the Tigers’ dining services beat HUDS by over 200 spots (though I’m not sure how a school without Red’s Best Catch even clawed its way out of the top 500). However, the Harvard football team is hoping to change that narrative in this weekend’s battle on the gridiron.

“Princeton’s a very good team — they’re obviously scoring a lot of points out there,” head coach Tim Murphy said.

“But at the end of the day, every game we go into is a game we believe we can win. This weekend is no exception.”

Coach Murphy’s optimistic outlook may not be enough to cage the undefeated Tigers, who haven’t lost a game since 2017. The Powers Field-powerhouse outscored their opponents by a margin of 340 points last season; however, last year’s battle against the Crimson was certainly a speed bump on Princeton’s road to the Ancient Eight title.

Though Harvard ended up losing to the Tigers by a touchdown, the Crimson defense ensured that Princeton was never ahead by more than two possessions.

“It’s definitely a sour taste in our mouth,” said Harvard quarterback Jake Smith on last year’s loss to the Tigers. “We’re looking forward to getting back on the field and showing them how ­

we started this team.”

The Crimson is currently riding a win streak of its own. The squad leads the nation in sacks, blocked kicks, and blocked punts, its most recent win coming in a 31-21 crusade against Holy Cross last Saturday. Coach Murphy cites his team as being “much improved” since the last time it took on the Tigers, a sentiment that many players seem to echo.

“We’re looking forward to this weekend’s challenge,” said Crimson junior running back B.J. Watson. “[Princeton has] a great defense that we’re going to face, and we have a great offense, but we also have a great defense of our own, and they have a great offense. It’s really going to be fight — it’s going to be a battle.”

As the trend goes, Princeton leads Harvard in scoring offense this season — the Tigers are ranked first in the Ivy League and second nationally to the Crimson’s second and 10thplace standings, respectively.

Quarterback Kevin Davidson has truly taken the Tigers’ reins, the California native leading the FCS in both passing efficiency and completion percentage.

Even more prominent for Princeton this season has been the team’s game on the ground.

A trio of top running backs have propelled the Tigers to offensive dominance, with junior Collin Eaddy coming in at sixth in the country in scoring. “[Eaddy] is a speed guy and a big guy — he’s a little bit like our DeMarkas Stratford but bigger,” Murphy said. “He’s a guy you’d better focus on and contain because he’s an elite track athlete and can take it to the house on any snap.”

Though Harvard’s defense may have its hands full, the Crimson’s special teams squad is hoping to maintain its punt-blocking prepotency. Harvard has blocked five of 34 at-

INTO THE TIGER’S DEN Riding a four-game winning streak after a 31-21 victory over Holy Cross last weekend, Harvard looks to topple undefeated Princeton in a game that will be defined by strong offensive and defensive performances from both teams. Timothy R. O’Meara—Crimson photographer

tempted punts this season, adding yet another first-place statistic to the team’s national repertoire.

On the other side of the pigskin, Harvard will certainly have the tiger by the tail in taking on the Princeton defense, the Tigers second only to the Crimson itself in sacks per game.

“We’re expecting to see an athletic defense out there on the field,” Watson said. “Their defense is pretty straightforward, but they’re a fast and physical football team that’s going to come out there and go until the last whistle.”

Aside from the potential of snapping Princeton’s win streak, Harvard has a few re-

cords of its own that the team is coming closer and closer to breaking. Smith is a mere 11 touchdowns shy of breaking the squad’s single-season touchdown record, and Murphy is only two wins away from beating out Yale’s Carmen Cozza for most total wins in Ancient Eight history.

“That’s just a testament to

how great Coach Murphy is as a coach,” Watson said. “We don’t ever really look into statistics — we’re all about wins and losses.

The fact that he has so many of those just shows how great he is. Hopefully, we’re going to go out there and get those wins for him.” james.joyce@thecrimson.com

Women’s tennis

Young Talent Leads The Way for Harvard at Regionals

By David Aley Contributing Writer

Men’s Tennis

It is hard enough to match up against some of the best tennis players in the country and perform at an elite level, but it is even harder when the conditions for playing are windy, rainy, and close to freezing.

But these challenging conditions barely slowed down Harvard’s men’s tennis team this

past weekend at the ITA Northeast Regionals at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pa. The Crimson were led by two first-years, Ronan Jachuck and Henry von der Schulenberg, who advanced to the semifinals and quarterfinals of the tournament, respectively. Injuries to some athletes and a few logistical issues resulted in only the pair of first-years staying for the entire weekend.

The erratic weather made the tournament quite difficult, as matches each day alternated between being indoors and outdoors, depending on the conditions of the day. Jachuck mentioned that although conditions were far from ideal, he was still able to find his groove.

“The first day was difficult because it was really the first time hitting the courts [at Penn], and it was tough to get my rhythm in the first match,”

the first-year said. “Once I got through that, though, I started to feel pretty good and had two matches on the second day. After that, I was matched up and ready to go, which led to my best match on Monday.”

The Crimson athlete squared up against a familiar opponent, Princeton sophomore Karl Poling, who he had known and played against at tournaments in New York since he was around 11 years old. It was this

sense of familiarity that made Jachuck even more locked-in and ready to go. He defeated Poling in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3.

The other Harvard firstyear, von der Schulenberg, won his first three matches against athletes from Buffalo, Princeton, and Columbia, eventually advancing to the quarterfinals before falling to Dartmouth senior Charlie Broom, 7-6(5), 6-2.

In the semifinals this past Tuesday, Jachuck faced off against a Columbia senior, Jackie Tang, but eventually lost after a long battle, 6-4, 7-6.

Jachuck noted that the team’s camaraderie and mindset has grown tremendously since the start of the year.

“I think in practice we all compete really well; we all have similar levels,” Jachuck said.

“When some of us have success, like this past weekend, it’s really good to see and we all really like to push each other in that way.”

Although it has been the first-years who have stepped up and capitalized on their opportunities so far this year, everyone on the team, Jachuck says, has been a leader because of the high standards they hold each other to and the mutual respect they have for one another.

Next up for the Harvard men is Chowder Fest, the final tournament of the fall season, held at home in Cambridge starting on Nov. 8.

Women’s Tennis

CAUSING A RACQUET Senior captain Natasha Gonzalez paired up with sophomore Rachel Lim in doubles matches at Regionals. The two had an impressive showing at the tournament and reached the quarterfinals before falling to a Columbia pair. Timothy R. O’Meara—Crimson photographer

The Crimson women’s tennis team also competed this past weekend at the ITA Northeast Regionals at the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., led by the trio of senior captain Natasha Gonzalez, sophomore Rachel Lim, and first-year Mihaela Marculescu.

Gonzalez and Lim competed together in doubles through-

out the weekend, beating teams from Brown, UMass Amherst, and Boston University 8-6, 8-4, and 8-6, respectively. The duo then faced off against another pair from Columbia in the quarterfinals, eventually being eliminated 8-2.

Marculescu noted that the quarterfinal performance, in particular, was incredible to watch, as it was the first time this season that Gonzalez and Lim competed in doubles together.

Marculescu, who hails from Romania, competed twice in singles herself, defeating Columbia first-year Michelle Xu 6-1, 6-1, before falling to Yale junior Caroline Dunleavy 6-3, 6-3.

Marculescu made sure to mention that although the level of play at the tournaments has been quite high and she has been challenged greatly, her overall transition to playing in college has been fantastic. ”I’m not used to having so many people supporting me, but [Gonzalez, Lim and the coaches] helped so much,” said Marculescu of her showdown with the Columbia athlete. “I managed to play at my best, and that match went really well for me.”

Marculescu also noted that the team has already grown significantly this year, as they have developed their support network and increased their respect for each other. These qualities have allowed the players to flourish and become forces to be reckoned with moving forward.

The Harvard women are close to wrapping up their fall season, with one final tournament at home on Nov. 1 for the Harvard Invitational. The team looks to continue its success, and if they continue their upward trajectory, success seems to be well within reach.