The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873 | VOLUME CXLVI, NO. 48 | CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS | WEEKDAY, APRIL 9, 2019
EDITORIAL PAGE 8
EDITORIAL PAGE 8
SPORTS PAGE 10
By speaking our minds with courage, we shine the way toward truth.
The heckler’s veto has no place at Harvard.
Women’s lacrosse suffers last-minute loss against Columbia.
HMC Site Omits HBS Sees Spike In Online Enrollment Divestment Info By SAM E. SHARFSTEIN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
By ALEXANDRA A. CHAIDEZ and LUKE W. VROTSOS CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Harvard Management Company updated its website within the last month to remove any mention of past instances of divestment and to include references to its protocols on its investment in land and agriculture. For years, Harvard affiliates have sharply criticized HMC — the University’s investment arm — for its investments in fossil fuel companies and most recently, companies tied to the prison industry. Activists have also raised concerns about some of Harvard’s nearly $40 billion endowment’s being used to buy farmland in California and Brazil. The old webpage contained several paragraphs about Harvard’s attitude and historical practices regarding divestment — which appear to have been removed in the new version of the site. The old page also noted that Harvard is generally against divestment because the Uni-
versity does not want its investments to be viewed as political or controversial. “Harvard conceives of the endowment fundamentally as an economic resource, not as a lever to advance political positions or to exert economic pressure for social purposes, which could entail serious risks to the independence of the academic enterprise and the ideal of free inquiry,” the old page read. But the site stated that, on “very rare occasions,” the Harvard Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — may encourage HMC to divest from companies with “deeply repugnant and ethically unjustifiable” activities. It cited companies involved in South African apartheid, tobacco, and the Darfur genocide as historical examples of when Harvard has divested. Harvard divested from the tobacco industry in 1990 and companies tied to the Sudanese government in 2005. The school also withdrew some of its investments from firms that conducted business with the
SEE HMC PAGE 9
Enrollment in HBS Online, Harvard Business School’s online education program, spiked by 70 percent in the first months of 2019 following the attachment of the Business School’s name in January, Dean of the Business School Nitin Nohria said in an interview April 2. The program, formerly known as HBX, allows both non-Harvard and Harvard students to earn credentials and certificates from the Business School. Web traffic and enrollment in the courses increased by 40 and 70 percent respectively in January through March 2019 as compared to October through December 2018. In fiscal year 2017, the most recent year from which annual data is available, the program had more than 8,000 participants. “The impact [of the rebranding] has been immediate,” Nohria said. “We’ve seen 40 to 50 percent rise in applications already. It’s been literally a step change in the number of people who can now find us and through that are applying.” The school debated changing its name for almost a year before ultimately deciding to
Between January and March 2019 as compared to between October and December 2018
40% increase in web trafic
70% increase in course enrollment
MATTHEW J, TYLER—CRIMSON DESIGNER
rebrand in January to allow more people to reach its online program. The program has already seen about 40,000 people complete a course since its inception in 2014. “Most people did not know that HBX was actually associated with Harvard Business
School,” Nohria said. “We said, ‘You know, we’re proud of it, so why should we not put our name on an education experience we are proud of?’” Business School administrators also felt at the time that the HBX program had proven itself to be a worthy part of the larger
Harvard Business School apparatus — another source of motivation for the rebranding, according to Nohria. “We wanted it to be case based, we wanted it to be interactive, we wanted it to be
SEE HBS PAGE 9
DSO To Al Gore Analyzes Trump’s ‘Radically New’ Path at IOP Halt ‘Gift Account’ Creation By CAMILLE G. CALDERA CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
By SANJANA L. NARAYANAN and SAMUEL W. ZWICKEL CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
The Dean of Students Office has suspended the creation of new “gift accounts” for student organizations due to personnel vacancies, a DSO administrator wrote in an email to the leadership of the Harvard College Social Enterprise Association Monday. “Unfortunately, as we are currently so short staffed on our Finance team, we have suspended the creation of new gift accounts,” Kate Colleran, senior director for student organizations and resources at the Dean of Students Office, wrote in the email. Gift accounts are owned by the University and allow College student organizations to receive tax-deductible support from donors. Harvard can receive donations on behalf of the groups via the gift accounts and then provide official acknowledgement stating the gift is tax-deductible for use in tax reporting, according to the DSO website. Without such an account, if the group is not incorporated as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, gifts may not be tax-deductible. Allison P. Pao ’21, who serves as HCSEA’s co-chair of International Projects, emailed Colleran Saturday to inquire about creating a gift account for donations toward an international trip. HCSEA seeks to support English education in East Asia and coordinates two service trips each spring break, according to its website. Colleran notified HCSEA leadership in a subsequent email that low staffing levels preclude the DSO from setting up such accounts at this time, and the organization should instead continue to deposit donations into its account at Harvard University Employees Credit Union. In an email to The Crimson Monday, Colleran attributed the suspension of gift accounts to “open positions that need to
SEE DSO PAGE 7 INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Harvard Today 2
Former Vice President Al Gore spoke at the Institute of Politics’s “The American Presidency in the 21st Century” event on Monday evening. CAMILLE G. CALDERA—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
Former Vice President Al Gore ’69 said President Donald Trump has pursued a “radically new” strategy by ignoring Americans outside of his core constituency at an Institute of Politics event Wednesday evening. Before the event began, Kennedy School Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf discussed the right of free speech in the wake of student protestors’ interruption of a talk featuring University President Lawrence S. Bacow last week. The demonstration, put on by fossil fuel and prison divestment activists, resulted in Bacow and his fellow speakers leaving the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum and continuing the event in a classroom. In front of a packed crowd, Gore told audience members that the status quo is “not normal” while speaking on a panel entitled “The American Presidency in the 21st Century” at the Institute of Politics Monday evening.
“Uniquely, President Trump has persistently followed a strategy of ignoring, for the most part, those outside of his base and has concentrated on keeping his base in a high fever, in a state of agitation and enthusiasm for him standing against everybody who’s outside the base,” Gore said. “That is something radically new in the American presidency.” Gore also opined on social media, economic inequality, and demagoguery. Gore said stagnant income growth among the middle class has contributed to the current state of political affairs. “The very fact that we have gone more than 40 years with no increase in real take-home pay for middle class Americans is the most salient fact explaining what is going on right now,” Gore said. Hosted in honor of the hundredth birthday of Richard E. Neustadt — the first director of the IOP, a professor at the Kennedy School, and a renowed
SEE GORE PAGE 7
LF Leaves The Square Amid Other Departures By ELLEN M. BURSTEIN and SYDNIE M. COBB CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
LF, a fashion retailer based in Los Angeles, Calif., closed its Harvard Square store March 30 after operating at its Church Street location for seven years. The store’s closure comes as other businesses on Church Street have seen decreased foot traffic and shuttered as well. Shannon Lebherz, the former manager of LF Harvard Square, attributed the store’s departure to recent changes in the makeup of the Square’s business offerings. “What contributed to us leaving were stores like us leaving the Square, too,” Lebherz said. “Free People, Urban Outfitters, American Apparel — they’re all gone. Harvard Square is not a shopping destination anymore.” LF’s departure is the newest addition to the list of stores — including Urban Outfitters,
News 7
Editorial 8
Chipotle, Starbucks, and Au Bon Pain — that have exited the Square in recent months. Several of the stores have cited development acquisitions as the rationale behind their closings. Denise A. Jillson, the executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association, cited decreased foot traffic in the wake of the Harvard Square Theater’s closing in 2012 as a reason for the commercial turnover in the Church Street area. “It goes back to what we know about the theater and our concern about that building… being dark for such a long time. The theater closed in July of ’12, we’re coming up on July of ’19, and it’s estimated that there are 1,000 fewer people on Church Street every day,” Jillson said. Jillson added that the decreasing foot traffic has been a long-standing cause for concern. “[The HSBA has] been
SEE LF PAGE 7
Sports 10
Harvard Square’s LF store, a fashion retail chain, closed its doors on March 30. ISABEL A. GIOVANNETTI—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
TODAY’S FORECAST
RAINY High: 43 Low: 39
VISIT THECRIMSON.COM. FOLLOW @THECRIMSON ON TWITTER.
sour creamless