Editorial

Harvard Affiliates Honor Late Quincy Faculty Dean MEMORIAL FROM PAGE 1

unrealistic — plan Deborah Gehrke had originally proposed to mark Stone Hall’s reopening. “When planning the grand opening of Stone Hall, Deb had the bright idea to mount a zip line from the faculty dean’s residence into the courtyard which she intended to ride down herself to kick-start the festivities!” she said. “While that did not happen, I have no trouble picturing Deb flying down the zip line, golden hair flying, and laughing her infectious deep laugh.”

Christakis said students’ devotion to the late faculty dean bordered on “fanaticism” and praised Gehrke’s ability to always be “playful” and “genuine.”

“Deb was funny and spirited, and an astute observer of human frailty,” he said. “I have spent my whole professional career trying to understand the human condition — as a hospice physician and as a social scientist.”

“But I can tell you that no training in the world — no science, no education — can capture the meaning of losing someone as truly alive as Deb,” Christakis added.

Other speakers included Director of the Office for the Arts Jack Megan, Quincy House alumni Giannina “Gia” Marciano ’18 and Karen Chee ’17, current Quincy House resident Cameron B. Jones ’20, non-resident tutor Field Brown, and Divinity School Professor and Interim Pusey Minister Stephanie A. Paulsell.

Quincy House tutor Michael F. Esposito ’09 recalled the lessons that Gehrke taught him during his time living in the House, describing them as “Yoda-like.” One particular adage — that “no one is safe” — served as both a serious reminder and a source of humor for him and other tutors.

“It’s less ominous than it sounds, although, as tutors, seeing that subject line in your inbox usually meant an email with the silliest and most ridiculous pictures of us Deb could find from the most recent House event,” he said. “For tutors, ‘no one is safe,’ also means that you need to be ready to step up on behalf of the House at any moment, and that may require leaving your dignity at the door.”

Esposito added that Gehrke’s refrain, “no crying in ping pong,” not only displayed her love for the game — often pulling unsuspecting Quincy students into spontaneous matches — but also her attitude of selflessness and service.

“When I found out that Deb had died, I cried for a long time,” he said. “And then I practically felt her jab me in the ribs and tell me: ‘no crying in ping pong.’ Get back out there and keep going.”

declan.knieriem@thecrimson.com

Harvard affiliates gathered in Memorial Church Saturday to honor former Quincy House Faculty Deab Deborah J. Gehrke. AIYANA G. WHITE—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

HBS Students Launch “Uncharted” Weekend

By HAEMARU CHUNG CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

A pair of Harvard Business School students launched two new events this weekend — the Black New Venture Competition and the Black Tech Masters Series — which they say are meant to help black entrepreneurs clear hurdles in the business world.

Created by Business School students Tyler Simpson and Kimberly E. Foster, the new events combined with the African American Student Union’s 47th annual conference to form a two-day experience dubbed “Uncharted: Black Visionary Leadership and Redefining What Is Possible.”

Simpson and Foster partnered with multiple external sponsors, including General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, Google for Startups, and eBay, to put on the events.

Simpson and Foster said they created the events to ensure that black entrepreneurs both inside and outside the Business School have access to the skill sets and knowledge to succeed, adding that most attendees were not Harvard affiliates.

“Our goal for the project this weekend is to really invite and enable people within the black community to gain an understanding of entrepreneurship in a way that is much more dynamic than looking things up online or trying to understand resources that they don’t have access to,” Simpson said.

“The hurdle to get capital is so much higher for this demographic,” Foster added.

The Black New Venture Competition is designed to connect aspiring black entrepreneurs with resources, mentors, and advisors to develop and expand their ventures, according to the competition’s website. Competitors pitch ventures to a panel of judges and audience members, vying for $175,000 in prize money.

Simpson and Foster described Friday’s Black Tech Masters Series, meanwhile, as a “one-day masterclass on how to be a good entrepreneur.”

The day consisted of workshops and panels covering subjects like “how to build a winning team” and “brand value and marketing in the digital age.”

Jewel Burks Solomon, the head of Google for Startups, gave the morning keynote address over the weekend.

Damien Hooper-Campbell, the Chief Diversity Officer of eBay, closed the event with an afternoon keynote session, in which he shared advice about diversity in networking and discussed his experience hiring an eBay CEO who was actively engaging in diversity and inclusion. Alfred Y. Jackson, who traveled from St. Louis, MO, to attend the Black Tech Masters Series, said one of his main takeaways from Hooper-Campbell’s speech was that employees should actively attempt to intervene when their workplaces fail to adequately address concerns of diversity and inclusion.

“We have to be the ones to raise our voice when things are not going the way things should be going, sometimes we have to provoke our coworkers to action and our team members to action,” Jackson said in an interview.

Another attendee — Amoi S. Nelson, who works for American Express — said she came to the event because she wanted to better understand the trials and financial struggles that business owners and entrepreneurs go through.

“It actually exceeded my expectations, because I was able to take even just little bits, although I am not an entrepreneur myself, that I can apply to my own career — hiring, learning how to balance diversity within work,” Nelson said.

Simpson and Foster stressed that they want their projects to continue even after they graduate, saying that “we want this to be a part of the institution in some way.”

haemaru.chung@thecrimson.com

Transformative coverage.

The Crimson thecrimson.com

Harvard Law School to Debut Voting Rights, Religion Clinics

By KELSEY J. GRIFFIN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Harvard Law School announced Wednesday that it has launched a new Voting Rights Litigation and Advocacy Clinic and plans to launch a Religious Freedom Clinic.

The Voting Rights Litigation and Advocacy Clinic offers students the opportunity to work with local or national nonprofit litigation and advocacy groups, including the League of Women Voters and the American Civil Liberties Union Voting Rights Project. The clinic will focus on redistricting law, voter suppression, and threats to voting rights. Students in the program will take Election Law, taught by Professor Nicholas O. Stephanopoulos, and can individualize their approach to election law by focusing on areas such as election administration, political party regulation, or campaign finance.

“The Voting Rights Litigation and Advocacy Clinic will give our students the opportunity to learn, contribute, and practice law in a field that is central to American democracy,” Law School Dean John F. Manning ’82 wrote in a press release.

Ruth Greenwood will lead the clinic. A graduate of the University of Sydney and Columbia Law School, Greenwood previously served as an adjunct professor of law at Loyola University Chicago and as co-director of voting rights and redistricting for the Campaign Legal Center in Chicago. Greenwood has worked as an advocate for voting rights for more than a decade and advised several states on the implementation of independent redistricting commissions. She was also the Lead Counsel for Voting Rights at the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and a Redistricting Fellow with the Democratic National Committee’s Voting Rights Institute.

Students will have the opportunity to directly serve individuals from a wide range of faiths who would not otherwise have an advocate.

Kristen A. Stilt Law Professor

Her work focuses on ending partisan gerrymandering and promoting minority representation. She has litigated two cases involving partisan gerrymandering — Whiteford v. Gill and LWVNC v. Rucho — from the initial trial level to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Ruth Greenwood is a deeply experienced practitioner, thoughtful and principled lawyer who will be both a superb teacher and a wonderful mentor to our students,” Manning wrote. “I am delighted to welcome Ruth to Harvard Law School.”

The forthcoming Religious Freedom Clinic will be based on the Religious Liberty Clinic at Stanford Law School. It is designed to allow students to represent people who are restricted in the exercise of their religious freedom, according to a Law School press release.

In the Stanford clinic program, students can either represent individuals facing obstacles in the exercise of their faith or small churches, synagogues, or mosques with zoning issues.

Examples of the Stanford clinic’s work include the representation of a Muslim person sentenced to capital punishment who sought pastoral services in the execution chamber and a Seventh-day Adventist employee who could not work on Sunday because they observed the Sabbath.

“Students will have the opportunity to directly serve individuals from a wide range of faiths who would not otherwise have an advocate,” Law School professor Kristen A. Stilt, who directs the Law School’s Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World, wrote in a press release. “Students will learn the skills needed to engage with clients from diverse backgrounds, understand their faith commitments and the obstacles they are facing, and make legal arguments to achieve their clients’ goals.” The Law School currently offers 46 legal clinics and student practice organizations aimed at giving students an opportunity to apply their education outside of the classroom.

“Providing students with practical lawyering experience and skills is one of the most important aspects of a Harvard

kelsey.griffin@thecrimson.com

FAS to Discuss Simultaneous Course Enrollment at Meeting

By JAMES S. BIKALES and KEVIN R. CHEN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences will discuss a motion to simplify rules for simultaneous course enrollment during its monthly meeting Tuesday.

Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh submitted the motion on behalf of the Standing Committee on Undergraduate Educational Policy following the committee’s review of simultaneous enrollment policies.The proposed revision will allow students to enroll in two courses that meet at the same time or overlapping times in one of two cases.

Students must receive permission from the heads of both courses and the Administrative Board, or may enroll without a petition if the Standing Committee has granted one of the two courses a waiver from the simultaneous enrollment petition process.

According to the Harvard College Handbook, FAS currently allows simultaneous enrollment in one of three circumstances: when one of the course heads agrees to provide “hourfor-hour direct and personal compensatory instruction” for the missed class time, when lectures are available on videotape and a student will miss no more than one-third of them, or when a senior needs both courses for graduation requirements

It has become increasingly clear that the current translation of the underlying principle into a policy and system is dysfunctional.

Amanda Claybaugh Dean of Undergraduate Education

“It has become increasingly clear that the current translation of the underlying principle into a policy and system is dysfunctional,” the committee’s report reads.

Claybaugh wrote in a letter to the Faculty Council that current procedures do not make sense for courses such as Statistics 110: “Introduction to Probability” and Economics 10a: “Principles of Microeconomics,” which upload online lectures as an alternative to in-person lectures and provide other opportunities for in-person instruction.

If adopted, the motion would create a formal process through which course heads may apply for a waiver from normal simultaneous enrollment rules, which some courses have already been granted.

FAS has exempted Computer Science 50: “Introduction to Computer Science” from simultaneous enrollment rules since 2014; Ec 10 and Stat 110 received similar exemptions in 2019 as an interim measure.

Additionally, the new rules will no longer mandate that instructors provide hour-forhour compensatory instruction for missed class time.

Instead, the motion recommends that the Administrative Board only approve simultaneous enrollment petitions for students who provide a plan indicating they can “participate fully in all course components” for both courses, which may include compensatory instruction.

During the faculty meeting Tuesday, Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Francis J. Doyle III