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HARVARD TODAY
For Lunch Popcorn Chicken Tofu Scramble Spicy Manhattan Clam Chowder For Dinner Shrimp with Fettuccine Seitan Pepper Sizzle Barley Risotto
TODAY’S EVENTS
Women’s Week 2020 Kickoff Canaday B basement, 11:30 a.m.
Harvard College Women’s Week kicks off today at the Women’s Center (Canaday B basement)! Stop by for donuts, Women’s Week shirts, and stickers (first come, first serve) to celebrate the beginning of a great week-long series of events centered around gender issues and #NewVisions.
Auditions for the Harvard University Choir JFK Jr. Forum, 6-7:15 p.m.
Stop by the JFK Jr. Forum for an ~explosive~ discussion on expanding the use of nuclear energy and its impact on nuclear proliferation with professors Ernest Moniz, former Secretary of Energy, Meghan O’Sullivan, Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, and Dan Ponema, former Deputy Secretary of Energy. (the Faculty Dining Room) if you’re interested. Pedestrians enjoy WinterFest activities in the Science Center Plaza. AIYANA G. WHITE—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
DAILY BRIEFING
Harvard has restricted travel to Italy and Iran amid an outbreak of coronavirus cases in the two countries, according to an email from University Provost Alan M. Garber ’76 and Harvard University Health Services Director Giang T. Nguyen Saturday. The University’s African and African American Studies department celebrated its 50th anniversary at a two-day symposium Friday and Saturday, which boasted a global guest list of pre-eminent scholars in the field.
IN THE REAL WORLD
Mayor Pete Drops Out of Presidential Race Pete Buttigieg concluded his campaign this Sunday after a historic run as a little-known mayor from Indiana and the first openly gay man to launch a competitive campaign for president.
People Take to Social Media to Mourn Death of Trader Joe’s Founder Joe Coulombe, founder of Trader Joe’s, passed away last Friday at the age of 89 in Pasadena, California. Coulombe started this iconic grocery store chain in the 1960s, which ushered in an era of healthy, trendy food shopping for a new generation. Many took to social media to pay their respects.
US-Taliban Peace Talks Timeline Halted by Prisoner Swap Deal The U.S. and the militant Islamist group signed a deal one year in the making on Saturday in Qatar that calls for the full withdrawal of American troops and personnel, as well as the release of 5,000 prisoners by the Afghan government slated for March 10th. Afghan president Ashraf Ghani asserted that the U.S. does not have the jurisdiction to release prisoners.
AROUND THE IVIES
BROWN Brown University cancelled its study abroad program in Bologna, Italy, due to increasing concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, the Brown Daily Herald reported Saturday. The notice from the Office of International Programs follows the cancellation of all classes at the University of Bologna since Feb. 24, as well as warnings from both the Department of State and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding travel to Italy. The seven Brown students who are part of the program were given the choice to either formally withdraw from the program or take online courses with the University of Bologna remotely. The University is covering flights out of Italy until March 7 and providing full refunds for both the program fee and housing for students who choose to withdraw.
UPENN Fossil Free Penn (FFP), a student organization focused on fossil fuel divestment, protested outside Penn’s Board of Trustees’ office Friday, the Daily Pennsylvanian reported Friday. The group aimed not to shut down the meeting, as they had done in November, but instead to create a partial blockade that would elicit the attention of the trustees. The group brought protest signs fashioned into gravestones with epitaphs containing statistics about the effects of climate change.
YALE The Students Unite Now organization gathered Thursday to march from Old Campus to the Undergraduate Admissions Office to protest the student income contribution fee, the Yale Daily News reported Thursday. SUN strives to create a more equitable financial aid policy at Yale, arguing that the university does not fully meet the financial need of low-income students. Currently, students receiving full financial aid are still required to pay $4,450 their first year and $4,950 in subsequent years to cover the student income contribution fee. Yale administration recently announced a decrease in the student income contribution from $4,450- $4,950 to $3,700, which will be implemented starting in the 2020-2021 school year.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873
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ADVISOR FROM PAGE 1 Grad Students’ Mentors Depart
departmentand to someone and be like, you’re my third choice,” Elmore said. “The whole department feels really bad for me.”
For many Harvard graduate students, faculty advisors are integral to their academic experience. Advisors help guide students through their research and advocate for their mentees to receive grants and scholarships.
Harvard faculty might depart from the University for a variety of reasons, including tenure denial, retirement, and job offers from other institutions. Multiple students said taking a younger, tenure-track professor as an advisor rather than a tenured faculty member increases the risk of departure impacting their studies.
When their advisors leave Harvard, graduate students have to alter their plans. They can choose to find a new mentor at the University, follow their mentor to their new job, or stay at Harvard and work with their mentor remotely.
In response to an email sent over the Graduate Student Council’s mailing list, 20 graduate students told The Crimson that their advisors left or would be leaving in the middle of their studies. Some students wrote they changed mentors up to three times.
“People can easily fall through the cracks,” Elmore said. “A lot of people really wanted to help me, and I want to help myself, and I still feel like I fell through the cracks.”
‘BUILDING A WHOLE NEW RELATIONSHIP’ Of the 20 graduate students who replied to The Crimson, 15 said they remained at the University to finish their studies even after the mentor they had been working with departed Harvard — leaving them responsible for finding a new advisor.
Harvard School of Public Health Ph.D. candidate Ian M. Leavitt said in an interview that his advisor, Andy S. L. Tan, announced he would be leaving at the end of this year to teach at another institution.
Leavitt said he will now be tasked with searching for a new advisor halfway through his program.
“It’s still a shifted ideology,” Leavitt said. “I came into the University expecting to be with one person.”
Though Leavitt said he came to Harvard to work with his original advisor, he said he would be open to working with another faculty member at the University.
Martha H. “Holly” Elmore Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Ph.D. Candidate
“I wouldn’t say it’s the end of the world at all,” Leavitt said. “I’m a very flexible person in terms of there were some other people that I identified that I had research interests that kind of aligned with.”
Other graduate students, however, said finding a new mentor can pose challenges.
Government Ph.D. candidate Pablo E. Balan — who said he has lost three advisors during his course of study at Harvard — said working with a new advisor requires “building a whole new relationship.”
“The department doesn’t have any institutional mechanism to take care of students who lose advisors for whatever reason,” Balan said.
“It’s up to us to reach out to other professors, which can be costly, since investing in a mentoring relationship is a long term investment,” he added.
When students do eventually find a new Harvard faculty member to assist them, that advisor may not necessarily have the same academic interests as them, according to Elmore.
“My advisor at Harvard I love, I’ve learned a lot from, but he doesn’t work on what I work on at all,” Elmore said. “So actually, it’s a terrible situation. Really bad, like really unacceptable.”
‘ADVENTURES AHEAD’ Other graduate students said they have found that the best course of action is to follow their mentors to another institution.
Medical Sciences Ph.D. candidate Michael A. Tartell said he plans to follow his advisor, Sean P.J. Whelan, to Washington University in St. Louis, where Whelan will serve as the Chair of the Department of Molecular Microbiology beginning later this year.
“You can’t do virus lab work from home,” Tartell said. “When you work in biology, a lot of your day-to-day work relies on a back and forth with your advisor about experiments.”
Tartell said he anticipates both benefits and drawbacks to changing universities. He said moving to a new institution could help him form new academic relationships with members of his field, but it would also involve leaving behind his previous life in Boston.
“It’s just kind of holding on to the idea that your friends will still be your friends no matter where you are, even though in the moment that feels very difficult,” Tartell said.
When former Harvard Chemistry professor Alán Aspuru-Guzik moved to the University of Toronto over concerns about the American political climate, most of his advisees followed him to Canada, Aspuru-Guzik said. Florian Hase — one of Aspuru-Guzik’s advisees — wrote in an email that he moved to the University of Toronto to continue his research alongside his colleagues.
“Of course I was a little bit sad that I would have to leave Cambridge behind, but I was also excited by the adventures ahead of me, with lots of opportunities at the University of Toronto while still being affiliated with Harvard University,” Hase wrote.
‘PHYSICALLY PRESENT’ For students who cannot follow their mentors to another institution, they have the option to continue their existing advising relationships remotely.
Aspuru-Guzik said he communicates with his advisees who chose to stay at Harvard through Slack, Skype, and frequent visits to Boston.
“I explained to them that groups move all the time,” Aspuru-Guzik said. “I worked with them on an efficient plan that is individualized.”
Germanic Languages and Literatures Ph.D. candidate Hans M. Pech — whose advisor, Racha Kirakosian, will be leaving at the end of this year after being denied tenure — said he plans to work with Kirakosian remotely, though he fears communicating with an advisor remotely might prove “tedious.” “It’s always better to have
If I needed them, they’re there for me.
Ian M. Leavitt Harvard School of Public Health Ph.D. Candidate
somebody physically present to advocate for you getting a certain scholarship or whatever it may be,” Pech said.
“Just meeting on a weekly basis, for example, or regular basis in person to discuss your research is obviously more productive than writing an email,” he added.
Regardless of what course of action graduate students decide to take, many agreed that their advising relationships are crucial to academic success.
Balan said that in addition to providing intellectual advice and funding, mentors can “offer protection.”
“Having a strong supportive advisor lowers the probability that you are professionally harassed, harassed in the context of teaching, employer-employee relations and so on,” he said. Leavitt agreed that advising relationships can help graduate students, adding that they should not be “put on the back burner.”
“You’re just looking for somebody to basically help you navigate the process amongst many other things,” Leavitt said. “If I needed them, they’re there for me.
callia.chuang@thecrimson.com
HKS Dean Mum on Divestment
By SIXIAO YU CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Harvard Kennedy School Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf declined to comment on whether Harvard should divest from the fossil fuel industry in an interview last week.
After the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Harvard Medical School faculty each voted in support of divestment, Elmendorf refrained from weighing in on his own school’s decision to call a vote for divestment during a faculty meeting.
“I’m not going to comment on that,” Elmendorf said Wednesday. “Deans have a particular responsibility. This differs from that of individual faculty members.”
The Faculty Council of Harvard Medical School voted 23-5 in favor of divesting the school’s endowment from fossil fuels on February 12th. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences supported divestment in a 179-20 vote earlier this semester.
Elmendorf demurred when asked if divestment would come to a vote at the Kennedy School. “Whether our faculty vote on divestment is a matter that our faculty will decide,” he said. “In the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and I think also the Harvard Medical School, those votes are faculty-driven votes, not dean-driven votes,” he added. “And I think that same principle applies here.”
Students across the University have mobilized in the past year to push University President Lawrence S. Bacow and the Harvard Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — to divest the school’s endowment from fossil fuels.
In early February, Kennedy School students sent a proposal to the dean advocating for more robust climate change education. The proposal aimed to bolster faculty and teaching around the topic, improve academic structures, and create a center for climate research.
The dean said Wednesday that there is an “outstanding” group of 15 Kennedy School faculty members whose teaching and research focuses on climate change. During the interview, Elmendorf referred to a letter he sent in response to the students’ proposals. In the letter, which he sent Wednesday, he wrote that there are about a dozen courses at the Kennedy School and roughly 65 courses at other Harvard schools that give “substantial attention” to climate change.
“Including all courses that cover climate change in some way would roughly double those figures,” he wrote. “To provide the broadest set of options for students across the University—on climate change and other topics—we deliberately avoid offering courses that duplicate ones offered elsewhere on campus and instead aim to complement other courses.”
Elmendorf wrote in the letter that hiring faculty and researchers who are academic authorities on the climate crisis continues to be a priority. He wrote that the faculty members involved in designing curriculum for the school are “considering how to increase the coverage of climate change.”
“The faculty members who are involved in designing the new core curriculum are considering how to increase the coverage of climate change, because we agree that it is a crucial issue for future public leaders,” Elmendorf wrote.
In the letter, Elmendorf wrote that there is an existing Harvard University Center for Environment that many Kennedy School students and faculty interact with regularly.
Elmendorf ended the letter by asserting that the school did not make decisions to prevent backlash from those who maynot support efforts to strengthen climate change education.
“When the School’s administrators or faculty members make decisions, we are not trying to avoid unpopularity with members of our community who hold any particular view on any particular substantive issue; instead, we are trying to advance our mission by creating the best environment for learning, research, and contributions to practice,” he wrote.
sixiao.yu@thecrimson.com
Hum 10 Students Criticize Lack of Diversity in Reading
By CHRISTINA T. PHAM CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Though the Humanities 10a and 10b curriculum has evolved over the past several years, some students say they are still dissatisfied with the lack of racial diversity in the year-long course’s reading list.
Several students criticized the brevity of an assignment that included seven pages of the essay “Criteria of Negro Art” from W. E. B. Du Bois, Class of 1890 — one of the only black authors on the course’s syllabus. The course — often referred to as “Hum 10” — is an intensive introductory course to the humanities, regularly assigning students hundreds of pages of reading per week.
Philosophy Professor Samantha M. Matherne — one of the eleven professors teaching the course — paired Du Bois’s essay with work by famed writer and philosopher Alaine Locke as part of a discussion on the philosophy of art and the Harlem Renaissance.
Hum 10 student Brittany G. Shrader ’23 said she perceived the inclusion of the short Du Bois essay to be reflective of the reading list’s lack of representation.
“We have thousands of pages of reading in Hum 10 overall, and you’re going to dedicate seven of those to black literature?” Shrader said. “Their justification was that it was for philosophy, and then this week we had [Friedrich] Schiller — and that’s philosophy — and they gave us 90 pages of reading.”
“Instead of actually giving us James Baldwin, works that are black art, they gave us a work about what it means to be black art, and it felt like a kind of disservice to that,” Shrader added. Some students also took issue with what they saw as a Western emphasis in the syllabus, which prompted a few students to disenroll from the course, according to course member Sahaj Singh ’23.
Charlotte A. Nickerson ’23 said she thought the course’s focus on Western works made its title misleading.
“I think it’s a little presumptuous to name it Humanities 10, because it does give a sort of implication that Hum 10 will teach you all of humanities, or give you a view of what all of humanities is. That’s simply not true,” Nickerson said.
Course leader and English professor Louis Menand IV said the reading list largely depends on the course’s invited professors, who each select two texts to teach.
He added he believes the professor’s care for and expertise in the material are the most important factors when designing the syllabus.
“The course is not designed to represent different ethnic groups or different national groups or anything like that. It’s designed for the instructors to teach two texts they care passionately about,” Menand said. Menand added that he aims to assemble a diverse group of instructors, but that the dearth of professors of color in the humanities has made that task difficult.
Anthony A. Derveniadis-Hernández, a teaching fellow in the course, said he believes students’ concerns relate to a broader issue of underrepresentation of people of color.
“It’s sort of stemming out from this larger, broader problem of the lack of representation in literature or in academia,” Derveniadis-Hernández said.
Nonetheless, some students say they appreciate previous changes to the course, despite their perceived shortcomings of the reading list.
“I feel like it has made a conscious effort to expand,” course member Jonathan Zhang ’23 said.
“I feel like, slowly but surely, it will become a more international, more widespread kind of curriculum,” he added.
christina.pham@thecrimson.com
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TRAVEL FROM PAGE 1
Harvard Bans Travel to Italy, Iran Amid Coronavirus Spread
Italy and Iran join China and South Korea on Harvard’s list of travel-restricted countries — all of which have Level 3 warnings from the CDC, as well as additional travel warnings from the U.S. State Department.
Harvard affiliates who had registered an upcoming trip to Italy in International SOS MyTrips received an email around noon on Saturday from Harvard Global Support Services announcing that Harvard had canceled all travel to Italy.
“In accordance with the University’s policy for COVID-19 travel restrictions, Harvard-related travel to Italy is restricted until further notice,” the email read.
OCS also sent an email Friday afternoon to certain students who had received funding to study abroad this coming summer, notifying them of the cancellation of awards for travel to restricted countries.
“No funding will be awarded for travel to any destination under Provostial restriction, and Harvard may rescind sponsorship of previously-approved planned travel if warranted prior to your departure,” the email read.
The email also noted changes to the OCS’s summer funding policy due to the cancellations. Students are permitted to accept a Harvard Summer School Study Abroad award even if they are not fully committed to traveling due to uncertainty regarding coronavirus.
They also are allowed to change their decision as to whether they will accept or decline summer funding after the fact.
According to the Global Support Services’s website, University affiliates will face restrictions on travel to any country that receives a Level 3 CDC warning in the future.
University Spokesperson Jason Newton declined to comment further on the restrictions, pointing to the guidance posted to the Global Support Services and Harvard University Health Services’s websites.
luke.williams@thecrimson.com matteo.wong@thecrimson.com
African and African American Studies Dept. Celebrates Anniversary AAAS FROM PAGE 1
multidisciplinary study of the global African diaspora in all its richness and complexity and even contradictions, the Department of African and African American Studies has become an unequaled leader in its field, to the enormous benefit of the Harvard community and the wider world,” Gay said in her remarks.
The AAAS department’s anniversary celebration featured multiple panels, including discussions on the founding and early days of AAAS, scholar activism, and alumni experiences.
Farah J. Griffin ’85, African American and African Diaspora Studies department chair at Columbia University, and Wale Adebanwi, director of the African Studies Centre at Oxford University, delivered the keynote addresses on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
Friday’s anniversary events included musical performances by the Kuumba Singers of Harvard College and the Yosvany Terry Quintet, as well as the presentation of artist Dell M. Hamilton’s exhibition “The Extraordinary Commission: Student Activism and the Birth of Afro-American Studies at Harvard.”
Saturday’s faculty panel on scholar activism discussed the extent to which black scholars have a responsibility to advocate for black people outside of academia.
Princeton University African American Studies professor Imani Perry, one of the panelists, said at the event that she does not consider herself a “scholar-activist” but believes that, as a professor, she has a responsibility to address the ways that academia may perpetuate inequality.
“To be a person of conscience in this career demands a commitment to disruption,” Perry said. “So, at the very least, I can try to undo the ways that I participate in injustice.” In an interview after the symposium, Shelby said the programming was meant to celebrate the department’s “extraordinary” achievements, but also to foster important discourse on ways to improve. “I think it did manage to be appropriately celebratory, reflective,” Shelby said in the interview. “What I wanted was, yes, celebration, but also dialogue with our peers in the field to think about places where we could be better.”
Politicians Talk Women in Politics
By MARIA G. GONZALEZ CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
At the start of their terms, Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui and Vice Mayor Alanna M. Mallon reflected on their decision to run for the city’s top offices and their plans for the City Council moving forward.
The Cambridge City Council unanimously elected Siqqiqui and Mallon as mayor and vice mayor, respectively, for the 2020-2021 term at the council’s inaugural meeting in January. Siddiqui and Mallon are both in their second term on City Council.
Siddiqui — a Pakistani immigrant raised in Cambridge — is Massachusetts’s first Muslim mayor. Siddiqui and Mallon are the first women to lead the City Council together as mayor and vice mayor.
Mallon wrote that the 2016 United States presidential election inspired her to run for office in a Feb. 24 email to The Crimson.
“I knew that this current administration would be a constant assault on vulnerable residents: our immigrant community, low income residents, LGBTQ+ residents and students, and more,” she wrote.
“I wanted to ensure we had City Councillors here in Cambridge who were going to be ever mindful of our vulnerable population, and actively work on policies that protected them,” she added.
Mallon added that she uses her “lens as someone who grew up low-income” to implement policies while on City Council that give resources to those who need them the most.
During her first term on council, Mallon worked on an initiative to expand the city’s summer food service program, a food security program that provides free lunches to anyone under eighteen. She also helped create a program that facilitates the opening of children’s savings accounts.
She wrote that she wants to focus on supporting small businesses and passing Cambridge’s affordable housing overlay during the 2020-2021 term.
In addition to their roles at City Hall, Siddiqui and Mallon also run a podcast entitled “Women Are Here” about their own lives and Cambridge events. The idea for the podcast emerged when the two met on the campaign trail in 2017.
“We immediately bonded over our shared experiences of running for office, as well as running as women,” Mallon wrote in an email. “We knocked on so many doors over that spring, summer, and fall, and we heard over and over again from residents that there was no easy way to keep connected to what was going on in the city.”
In a January interview with The Crimson, Siddiqui said she and Mallon started the podcast to make local government “more accessible” and “easier to digest.” Each week during the podcast, Siddiqui and Mallon discuss what is happening in the city — from council meetings to fun events.
“We keep it light sometimes talking about our favorite new restaurants or TV shows we are bingeing,” Mallon wrote in an email. “Other times we dive deep and personal into areas of family, how hard it is to do this job and be in the public eye.”
The podcast also touches on the experiences of women in state and local politics.
In an email to The Crimson, Mallon wrote that “a tremendous amount of talented and incredible women” have taken office since 2016.
“I am so proud that not only does Cambridge have an all female leadership team, the ViceChair of the School Committee is a woman as well,” Mallon wrote.
“We also have an incredible female led state and national delegation that includes State Representative Marjorie Decker, Congresswoman Katherine [M.] Clark, Congresswoman Ayanna [S.] Pressley and Senator Elizabeth Warren,” she added.
Mallon also wrote that women in politics serve as important role models for local youth.
“Cambridge kids needn’t look further than their own backyards to find strong, capable women leading the way and providing role model material,” Mallon wrote.
maria.gonzalez@thecrimson.com
UC Supports Condemnation of HUPD
By SHARON XU CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
The Undergraduate Council endorsed a statement condemning the actions of Harvard police during their arrest of a man at the Smith Campus Center last Thursday.
The statement, which the Council will present to University President Lawrence S. Bacow, Harvard University Police Department Chief Francis D. “Bud” Riley, and other administrators, has circulated around campus in the week since the arrest.
It includes a series of demands: that HUPD drop the trespassing charges against the man, that the department release its code of ethics and budget, and that police issue an apology and discipline the officer involved.
Council treasurer Noah Harris ’22 and Ivy Yard representative Chloe E. V. Koulefianou ’23 sponsored the legislation to endorse the statement.
The Council’s Black Caucus had previously endorsed the statement. Harris and Koulefianou proposed the legislation to have the entire Council adopt it. “With the UC being such a loud voice on campus, we believe that it’s our duty to stand up for not just members of the Harvard student community but the Cambridge community and the space we take up,” Harris said. “The following statement would be a start for what we can do to be sure that no injustices take place and we don’t say anything about it.”
Adams House representative Alexa C. Jordan ’22 raised concerns about the wording of the statement.
“I think it’s a great statement and it needs to go out. I just think for number one we should make it more specific,” Jordan said. “I think vagueness could cause more problems than we’re trying to solve. Otherwise, I completely support it.” The Council also voted to publicize an undergraduate health and wellness survey Sunday evening.
Leverett House representative Jenny H. Gan ’22 sponsored the legislation, under which the Council would publish the Harvard University Health Services survey to students at the College.
Council members also voted to fund a “Meet the Queer Caucus” Event,” after previously voting to fund similar events for the Black Caucus, First-Generation Low-Income Caucus, International Caucus, and Asian American Caucus. The Council will allocate $300 from its Burst Pack — which is marked for discretionary spending — to pay for food and publicity materials for the event.
At the end of the meeting, Council members proposed a pair of acts aimed at increasing transparency and accountability.
The first act, which passed, changed the bylaws of the Council to require that representatives submit monthly reports updating their constituents.
The Council’s bylaws previously included an unenforced rule mandating weekly reports. The second act, which did not pass, attempted to change the Council’s attendance review procedures.
The UC reviews members’ attendance after they rack up three unexcused absences.
Still, the executive board of the UC can decide to dismiss absences due to reasons set in the Council constitution.
The act presented at Sunday’s meeting would expel representatives called to a second attendance review, unless twothirds of the entire Council vote otherwise.
The legislation represented a reversal of UC procedures — currently, representatives stay by default and are only dismissed after a vote.
Council vice president Ifeoma “Ify” E. White-Thorpe ’21 and secretary Nicholas J. Brennan ’23 sponsored the ill-fated act.
At the meeting, several representatives gave speeches in opposition to the legislation.
“This bill would basically say that the metric of attendance directly determines how committed you are to the UC,” Currier House representative Jack M. Swanson ’22 said. “I don’t think any of us agree here that if you miss four meetings you should be kicked off the UC automatically.”
Brennan disagreed, and after the meeting, he said he was disappointed that the act did not pass.
“This bill was motivated out of an earnest desire to increase our accountability to the constituencies,” Brennan said.
sharon.xu@thecrimson.com
Global Meetups Bridge Students
By ANDY Z. WANG CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
The Global Ambassador program at the Harvard Extension School aims to foster connections between students taking courses off-campus by tasking select student representatives with hosting events for their respective cities.
Launched in fall 2018, the initiative has since expanded to 25 student ambassadors spanning 10 countries and five continents. The ambassadors receive support from the Extension School to host meetups in their designated cities and create local networks of Extension School students.
Extension School students may choose from a mix of online and on-campus courses to complete their Bachelor of Liberal Arts or Master of Liberal Arts degrees, as well as a variety of certificate programs.
Kenneth M. Marshall, a Seattle-based ambassador, said he chose the Extension School in part due to its flexible online learning options.
“I was interested in attending an online school that was challenging in terms of core curriculum and also something I might be able to do around full time work,” Marshall said.
Several current ambassadors said they first heard about the initiative last fall through an email encouraging them to apply.
“After learning about the program and reading about it, I was motivated to apply because I wanted to help contribute,” April Fong, an ambassador based in Taipei, Taiwan, said. Extension School ambassadors are granted access to the Zoom video conferencing platform, which allows them to facilitate discussions digitally.
“The meeting kind of took a life on its own, and people started having real conversations between them and pretty much they forgot about me, which I love,” Pablo G. Maceiras De Araujo, an ambassador who recently hosted a digital meet-up for students in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, said. “They started talking and giving recommendations to each other.”
Several current ambassadors said the program gives students the chance to build support networks, especially amidst confusion regarding the Extension School’s role at Harvard.
“One interesting discussion we had was how did you represent yourself to people who don’t understand, who don’t know what HES is,” Eric X. Ding, a New York ambassador who hosted a panel discussion last week, said. “I think that is a very interesting and a tricky matter for a lot of new students to navigate.”
Chicago-based ambassador Carmen Gardner, who also serves as the President of the Harvard Extension Student Association, said students are enthusiastic about the initiative.
“They’re excited that there are efforts to engage them,” Gardner said. “It’s really exciting to me just because I think that these kinds of programs need to exist because it allows the Extension School to collaborate with dedicated students.” Gardner added that there are some barriers that prevent Global Ambassadors from reaching the entire student
Carmen Gardner President of the Harvard Extension Student Association
body.
“As a Global Ambassador, you don’t receive an email list, so you don’t necessarily know how many students are a part of your community,” Gardner said.
“The other challenge is that as a Global Ambassador, you do not receive any funding, so what you’re essentially doing is organizing an event and asking people to either buy tickets or just show up and pay cash.”
Division of Continuing Education spokesperson Harry J. Pierre said the DCE is excited about the Global Ambassador program’s positive reception, though he added that the program is still in its pilot phase.
“We’re glad that a lot of students are getting more involved in the Global Ambassador program and that they’re finding a sense of community through this program,” Pierre said. “Those are concerns that the program is going to work through and work on as it gets more mature and as it gains more members.”
andy.wang@thecrimson.com
ELECTION FROM PAGE 1
Harvard Affiliates Prepare for Mass. to Vote in Super Tuesday Elections
III (D-Mass.), and state Attorney General Maura T. Healy ’92. Warren recently also picked up the endorsement of a high-profile Harvard student: Jaclyn L. Corin ’23, a survivor of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., who went on to co-found the gun-violence prevention group March for Our Lives. Corin, who canvassed for Warren over the weekend with other Harvard students, said she is confident in where the campaign stands.
“Going around Cambridge and talking to voters, I felt so much excitement around Elizabeth specifically,” she said.
“I know that Cambridge is really loving Warren right now and I’m hoping that Massachusetts swings that way,” Corin added.
UNITED STATES SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT.) After finishing in first place in three out of four of the state primaries that have taken place so far, including a dominant finish with almost 47 percent of the vote in Nevada, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is entering Super Tuesday as a clear front-runner.
He announced Sunday morning that he had raised $46.5 million in February — far more than any other 2020 candidate in any given month. Sanders held a rally in Boston that was attended by more than 13,000 people on Saturday.
Xavier R. Morales ’23 said he believes Tuesday’s primaries — including the Massachusetts contest — will buoy Sanders’s chance of winning the nomination.
“I don’t necessarily agree with everything he wants and how he wants it,” Morales said. “But I think he’s the best fit.”
FORMER VICE PRESIDENT JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR. Like Warren, Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. also struggled to gain traction in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada.
But after a 29-point win in the South Carolina primary on Saturday, Biden supporters on campus hope his campaign is on a rebound.
“A lot of the pundits tried to count us out, but the campaign is still alive and it seems like we’re poised to be a strong contender for the nomination,” Harvard College Democrats for Biden co-founder Diego A.
Jaclyn L. Corin ‘23 Canvasser for Elizabeth Warren
Garcia ’20 said.
Biden is not scheduled to campaign in Massachusetts ahead of Super Tuesday, but several high-profile surrogates who support him will do so, including former Secretary of State John F. Kerry and U.S. Representative Seth W. Moulton ’01 (D-Mass.).
Garcia, who has canvassed for Biden around the country, said he hopes that Buttigieg’s decision to drop out of the race will help Biden. “I hope that some of his supporters both across the country and on campus will consider the Biden campaign,” Garcia said.
As early-state primaries rolled on, former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has loomed over the race as an unknown.
Bloomberg, whose net-worth is estimated to be around $55 billion, has been spending big in Super Tuesday states, including Massachusetts. Bloomberg has 60 staffers and six field offices open in the Bay State.
Ubertaccio said he is skeptical of Bloomberg’s ability to succeed in Massachusetts, despite his spending.
“I don’t make much of people who pour hundreds of millions of dollars into a race and think that that’s somehow going to translate into support on the ground,” Ubertaccio said.
Bloomberg has surged in national polling quickly since entering the race last November, but he lags well behind Sanders and Warren in Massachusetts polls.
UNITED STATES SENATOR AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MINN.) For U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Super Tuesday will likely be her last shot at reviving a campaign that has endured disappointing results in all of the primaries thus far.
Harvard College Democrats for Amy Klobuchar founder J. Alexander White ’23 said the group will hold a canvass Tuesday morning to “hit a few houses with literature.”
“My only hope is that some of the support can go Klobuchar’s way,” he said. “She should try to remain viable in case there’s a brokered convention and people are looking for a candidate at that time that maybe isn’t quite as controversial.”
“I can see her being that if she can make it there,” White added.
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