The Harvard Crimson - Volume CXLVI, No. 61

The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873 | VOLUME CXLVI, NO. 61 | CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS | FRIDAY, APRIL 26 2019

EDITORIAL PAGE 8

NEWS PAGE 3

SPORTS PAGE 9

If you want to create lasting change, there’s no better place than Harvard.

Three students created a debit card capable of microtransactions.

Harvard’s gymanstics team saw its official closure in 1991.

Fox Club May Go Students Mourn Sri Lanka Victims Gender-Neutral

By RUTH ZHENG

CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

By SANJANA L. NARAYANAN and SAMUEL W. ZWICKEL CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

After its undergraduate membership voted twice to go co-ed this spring, the Fox Club Graduate Association will meet May 14 to approve or reject the proposal, according to documents obtained by The Crimson.

“RESOLVED that the Fox Club Graduate Association grant its approval for the undergraduate members of the Fox Club to adopt a gender-neutral membership policy,” the ballot for graduate members to vote on the measure reads.

Fox Graduate Board President Hugh M. Nesbit ’77 confirmed in emails to the club’s graduate affiliates that undergraduate members voted in favor of going co-ed on two separate occasions between Feb. 13 and March 22. At least twothirds of undergraduate members had to vote affirmatively each time for the proposal to pass.

Following the undergraduates’ second vote, the graduate board held a two-hour “informal gathering” April 6 in its clubhouse where members discussed — but did not vote on — the motion to go co-ed, according to an internal email.

Two-thirds of dues-paying graduate members must vote in favor of the motion before the Fox can officially change its membership policies, according to an April 4 letter Nesbit sent to graduates members. Voters have until May 14 to cast their ballots.

The Fox’s graduate board has adopted a neutral stance on the issue, according to Nesbit’s letter.

“The Board does not take a position on the question of membership, believing it is up to each of you to determine what type of club you choose to belong to and support,” the letter reads.

Nesbit wrote in his letter that even if the Fox’s graduate members vote to go co-ed, the College’s penalties on single-gender social groups will likely still apply to the club. The sanctions — which took effect with the Class of 2021 — prohibit members of single-sex Greek organizations and final clubs from leading student organizations, serving as athletic team captains, and receiving College endorsement for prestigious fellowships.

“The outcome of this vote either way will have no bearing on the Club’s continued status as independent of Harvard University,” Nesbit wrote. “Based on the Board’s understanding of Harvard policies, the Club will remain ineligible to become a ‘recognized’ social organization at Harvard regardless of the outcome of this vote.”

Recognized Social Organizations are social groups that are exempt from the sanctions because of their cooperation with Harvard and commitment to gender-neutral membership policies.

All but one all-female social organization have chosen to pursue RSO status with the College, though several male-only fraternities and final clubs — including the Porcellian, the A.D., the Fly, the Owl, and the PSK — continue to defy Harvard’s controversial rules.

The Fox has a history of

SEE FOX PAGE 6

Satish Wasti ‘21 takes part in a prayer vigil on the steps of Memorial Hall hosted by several student groups in light of the recent terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka. KAI R. MCNAMEE—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Harvard affiliates lit candles during a prayer vigil for Sri Lanka held on the steps of Memorial Church Thursday evening to remember the victims of the terror attacks in Sri Lanka. KAI R. MCNAMEE—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Elite Private Schools Overrepresented in PBK List Junior 24 and Senior 48 PBK Inductees (Class of 2011-2019)

By SHERA S. AVI-YONAH and DELANO R. FRANKLIN

Junior 24 & Senior 48 PBK Inductees (Class of 2011-2019)

48% 47.95%

Public

5.56%

Private

Magnet

The students elected to Harvard’s chapter of the national academic society Phi Beta Kappa each year boast near-perfect grades and glowing recommendations. Most of them also hold diplomas from wealthy private high schools or well-funded public ones.

From the Class of 2011 on, roughly 48 percent of the “Junior 24” and “Senior 48”attended private or parochial schools and 52 percent attended public schools, including magnet and exam schools. The Crimson found secondary school information for 611 of the 648 early Phi Beta Kappa inductees

46.15%

From Private Schools

0.33%

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Other

MATTHEW J. TYLER—CRIMSON DESIGNER

Grad Student Town Hall Sees Sparse Attendance

By LUKE A. WILLIAMS and RUOQI ZHENG CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Harvard’s graduate student union and Graduate Student Council co-hosted their first-ever joint town hall meeting Thursday, drawing only one attendee beyond the organizers.

The purpose of the meeting was to update graduate students on the status of the union bargaining committee’s efforts and how students can get involved with ongoing union organizing.

Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Automobile Workers bargaining committee INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Harvard Today 2

member and Physics graduate student Cole M. Meisenhelder shared the status of the union’s collective bargaining process with Harvard, highlighting issues like grievance procedures, compensation, and healthcare.

The union’s economic proposals would bring a “significant raise” to graduate student stipends in the contract’s inaugural year, and additional six percent raises each subsequent year, according to Meisenhelder.

The University, on the other hand, has proposed a three percent raise in the contract’s first year and two percent raises

SEE HGSU PAGE 5

News 3

Editorial 8

AKHIL S. WAGHMARE—CRIMSON DESIGNER

SEE PBK PAGE 6

SEE PAGE 5

Peter Navarro, Director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, speaks about US trade policy at the Institute of Politics Thursday evening.

Sports 9

TODAY’S FORECAST

RAINY High: 50 Low: 47

University affiliates gathered on the steps of Memorial Church Thursday evening to honor the victims of a series of coordinated bombings at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

Reshini Premaratne ’21, Steffan B. Paul ’19, Urshella N. Hishaam ’20, and Miriam ‘Mimi’ Alphonsus ’21 — Sri Lankan students at the College — organized the vigil along with the Harvard South Asian Association.

The Catholic Student Association co-sponsored the event and offered additional services at St. Paul Parish Thursday night.

Roughly 40 individuals attended the vigil on the steps of Memorial Church.

Patrick J. Fiorillo — a Catholic chaplain at Harvard — spoke at the vigil, and Khalil Abdur-Rashid — the University’s Muslim chaplain — attended and offered his support to student organizers after the gathering.

The bombings — which took place in three separate cities across the country — shook Sri Lanka early this week.

The attacks started in the morning at several hotels and Roman Catholic Churches where attendees were in the midst of Easter services.

Two additional explosions took place in Colombo, the capital city, later in the day.

Sri Lankan government officials currently estimate the death toll is roughly 250.

Government officials have also said they believe a homegrown radical Islamic group is responsible for Sunday’s attacks. Paul said he is grateful

SEE VIGIL PAGE 4

Harvard Prepares Events for Ramadan

By RUTH ZHENG CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Khalil Abdur-Rashid, Harvard’s Muslim Chaplain, announced Thursday that he intends to host Ramadan programming for students on campus during the month of May. Ramadan begins May 5, the first time in almost 30 years that it will overlap with spring semester reading and final exam periods at the College. In upcoming years, Ramadan will continue to shift up in the Gregorian calendar.

Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic Calendar, is a time when many Muslims fast from sunrise to sundown each day. The University currently lacks a designated space for Muslim students to congregate and break their fast every night for a month, according to Abdur-Rashid.

“The issue of space is very urgent for Muslim students for Ramadan, because there will need to be a space for food,” he said.

The Harvard Ramadan Program, sponsored by the Muslim Chaplain’s Office, will consist of nightly fast-breaking and prayers, followed by communal dinner. Programming will take place in a variety of locations, starting at the Office of the Arts on May 6, before moving to the Student Organization Center at Hilles and Lowell Lecture Hall on subsequent days.

Abdur-Rashid said a

SEE RAMADAM PAGE 4

VISIT THECRIMSON.COM. FOLLOW @THECRIMSON ON TWITTER.

comp crimson

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

APRIL 26, 2019

PAGE 2

HARVARD TODAY

For Lunch Harissa Chicken Red’s Best Fresh Catch Portobello Mushroom with Quinoa Stuffing

For Dinner Chicken Francais Chinese Style Pork Chops Seitan Pepper Sizzle

TODAY’S EVENTS

IN THE REAL WORLD

Thrift Market Party 3-5:30 p.m.

Leverett Library Theater is being transformed into a trendy thrift store with clothes, snacks, music, and friends. The event is hosted by Honest Closet, a movement encouraging consumers to think critically about the fashion industry and to sell and buy clothes smartly.

Julius Caesar Play 7:30-9:30 p.m.

Tickets for this classic play, brought to you by Hyperion Shakespeare Company, are totally free. Reserve one and head to the Swedenborg Chapel for a unique and entertaining study break, and be transported back to the Roman Republic. Immerse yourself in the production, and support the arts community at Harvard!

Grille Crawl 9-11 p.m.

Extra Board Plus? College Events Board has got you covered. Just be sure to take a punch card, and get stamped at each Grille you grub at. Out of Board Plus? Groups can still enjoy karaoke at Eliot; glow in the dark slime and temporary tattoos at Winthrop; DIY bookmarks and Just Dance Wii at Dunster; Cards Against Humanity at Quincy; and Mario Kart, dart board, cornhole, and giant jenga at Pfoho.

$200 Million Donation Funds Vaccine Research at Mass. General Hospital

Cambridge entrepreneur Phillip “Terry” Ragon was inspired by a trip he took to South Africa 12 years ago where he witnessed doctors tirelessly treating patients dying from AIDS. The $200 million gift will permanently endow a vaccine research facility and allow researchers to work on developing vaccines for tuberculosis and influenza.

Trump’s Title X Abortion ‘Gag Rule’ is Blocked The weather has warmed up enough that the colorful Luxembourg chairs are back in Harvard Yard. KATHRYN S. KUHAR— CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

DAILY BRIEFING The Fox Club may change its mind and go co-ed again. Undergraduate members have already voted in favor of adopting gender-neutral membership policies twice in the last three months, and graduate members are gearing up to vote as well. In other news, students held a vigil to honor the victims of the Easter Sunday church and hotel bombings in Sri Lanka.

A Title X revision proposed by the Trump administration that opponents call a “gag rule” prevents family planning clinics that are funded by taxpayers from talking about abortion or referring patients to abortion providers. A federal judge in Washington granted a preliminary injunction Thursday, blocking it from going into effect nationwide while a lawsuit opposing it is litigated in court.

AROUND THE IVIES PRINCETON

Princeton trustees have decided to increase the University’s financial aid budget by 7.2 percent for the next academic year, according to the Daily Princetonian. The increase in financial aid coincided with a 4.9 percent increase in the cost of room and board at the college. According to Princeton’s Chief Budget Officer and Provost Deborah Prentice, this decision is in line with the “simple but important principle that a Princeton education should be affordable and accessible to any family.”

BROWN

NASA Astronaut Jessica Meir, Brown Class of 1999, will undertake her first space voyage on September 25, according to the Brown Daily Herald. After copiloting the Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station, she will conduct life science experiments on the ISS for a period of six months.

Meir, who studied biology at Brown, has dreamed of becoming an astronaut since the age of five. “The driving force of everything that I’ve done in my life has been exploration,” Meir told the Brown Daily Herald.

YALE

Lil Uzi Vert canceled his headlining performance scheduled for Yale’s Spring Fling concert this Saturday, the Yale Daily News reported. The Yale College Events Committee announced that the cancellation was due to “circumstances beyond [their] control.” While the rest of the lineup will remain the same, the rapper will be replaced by Playboi Carti as the main artist. Some students were disappointed by the change, given that Lil Uzi Vert would have been one of the annual concert’s most popular headliners yet.

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 Michael E. Xie ’20

Design Editor Matthew J. Tyler ’22

Assistant Night Editors Ellen M. Burstein ’22 Isabel L. Isselbacher ’22

Photo Editor Kathryn S. Kuhar ’20

Story Editors Caroline S. Engelmayer ’20 Angela N. Fu ’20 Kristine E. Guillaume ’20 Jamie D. Halper ’20 Jordan E. Virtue ’20

Editorial Editor Romy Dolgin ’21 Sports Editor Henry Zhu ’20

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.

PAGE 3

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | APRIL 26, 2019

Axle Now Offers Square Discounts Activities Fee OptOut Rate Grows

By SANJANA L. NARAYANAN and SAMUEL W. ZWICKEL CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

El Jefe’s Taqueria, which is now accepting student-created debit card Axle as payment, is located at 83 Mt. Auburn St. ANWIT SINGH MARTA—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

By ELLEN M. BURSTEIN and SYDNIE M. COBB CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Three College students recently launched a debit card capable of making rapid microtransactions and offering discounts to several popular Harvard Square stores in an effort to woo undergraduates.

The debit card system, Axle, was developed by Abdul M. Jamjoom ’19, Matteo A. Carroll ’19, and Vojta T. Drmota ’20.

Axle eliminates the fees that often come along with charging and processing standard debit card transactions, according to Carroll. Student users can currently save 10 percent on every purchase at the partnering stores.

Three Harvard Square businesses currently accept the card — BerryLine, Tommy’s Convenience Store, and El Jefe’s Taqueria. The developers said they plan to increase the number of partner stores in the near future.

As of Thursday afternoon,

Axle had 93 users, according to Carroll.

Though Axle’s primary marketing strategy is to provide discounts to students at the College, the developers said the underlying purpose of the project is to facilitate rapid, small-value transactions for customers beyond Harvard’s campus.

“Online media outlets are having trouble monetizing their content. What we imagine is having this as an avenue for online content to be monetized,” Drmota said. “For example, we imagine someone not having to pay a subscription fee to just view one article, rather, they can just hit a button and pay 20 cents to view that one article.”

Interested potential users can sign up for Axle by adding their name to the waitlist on the card’s website.

As of Wednesday, both Berryline and El Jefe’s Taqueria displayed signs notifying customers that they now accept the Axle card.

El Jefe’s general manager

Jon Eller said the restaurant is excited to support the students’ business venture.

“We’re involved with the students and the Harvard community a lot,” Eller said. “The students started Axle, and they walked in to see if we wanted to be a part of it since they’re huge

We’re involved with the students and the Harvard community a lot.

Jon Eller El Jefe’s Taqueria General Manager

fans of El Jefe’s.”

Though Eller said Axle has only been used by a handful of students thus far, he said he believes that it will become increasingly popular among students at the College and that stores will see additional patrons requesting to use the discount.

Samantha R. Zarkower, a manager at Berryline, said that only “two or three” people had come in to use the card, but that it had helped to facilitate connections among customers.

“This one girl came in and was like, ‘Oh, you guys have Axle’ and this guy said, ‘Oh, you’re one of the Axle people, I have it too,’ and then they started talking,” Zarkower said.

Some students said they are interested in learning more about Axle.

Benjamin J. Dreier ’22, a self-proclaimed devoted patron of El Jefe’s, said the card has the potential to increase his frequent trips to the Square’s latenight taqueria.

“El Jefe’s has the best burritos on campus — better than Felipe’s, in my opinion. I heard you get 10 percent off of El Jefe’s orders,” Dreier said.

“I would definitely use the Axle card, especially if it’s at El Jefe’s.” ellen.burstein@thecrimson.com sydnie.cobb@thecrimson.com

Following the College’s decision last year to raise the student activities fee — an optional sum Harvard undergraduates pay as part of their enrollment costs — more students opted out of paying the fee this year, according to College spokesperson Aaron M. Goldman.

The fee, which is now administered by the newly formed Dean of Students Office, rose by more than150 percent from $75 to $200 this academic year.

The change marked the first increase to the fee in more than a decade.

In an interview Tuesday, Associate Dean of Student Engagement Alexander R. Miller said the the purpose of the fee is to “create a vibrant student experience” and support student organizations through grants distributed by the Undergraduate Council.

I think they should have let people know because that’s a lot.

Anna Mazur ’20 College Student

The fee also supports student House Committees and events run by the College Events Board, Miller wrote in an emailed statement in fall 2018.

By default, undergraduates pay the student activities fee, but they can avoid the charge by mailing a letter to the College before Sept. 30 each year detailing their reasons for opting out.

All requests are honored, according to the Harvard College Student Handbook.

In spring 2018, College spokesperson Rachael Dane said roughly 1 percent of students at the College had opted out of the fee between 2015 and 2018.

The fee is optional for all undergraduates regardless of whether or not they receive financial aid, according to Dane.

As of last spring, the fee brought in roughly $500,000 in revenue, according to Miller. Dean of Students Katherine G. O’Dair and Associate Dean of Students Lauren E. Brandt ’01 said in an interview Tuesday that, with the fee’s increase this year, revenue has also increased.

Goldman declined to comment on the amount of revenue the fee generated this academic year.

Roughly half of more than 30 undergraduates surveyed

by The Crimson in dining halls Thursday evening said they had not heard of the student activities fee. Of the 17 students surveyed who said they were familiar with the fee, eight said they were aware the fee was optional. Only three said they knew it had risen this academic year.

Anna Mazur ’20 said she opted out of the fee using the College’s procedures. Mazur said she learned the fee was optional through an email that a member of Harvard Primus — a group formerly known as the First-Generation Student Union — sent across the group’s mailing list.

“A lot of people [in Primus] were upset that we didn’t know about this earlier,” Mazur said.

Mazur said that she thought the College should have more prominently made students aware that the fee was optional for them.

“I think they should have let people know because that’s a lot. If [the increase] was like $75 to $85, then whatever,” she said.

In March 2018, Harvard announced that the cost of attendance for Harvard College would increase by about 3 percent — or $1,971 — from the previous year. The changes took effect in August. sanjana.narayanan@thecrimson.com samuel.zwickel@thecrimson.com

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

APRIL 26, 2019

Harvard Dems Boycott DCCC

By KEVIN R. CHEN and LAURA C. ESPINOZA CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

The Harvard College Democrats formed a coalition with more than 40 other college Democrats chapters across the nation Wednesday to boycott donations to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in response to a recent policy change that the college groups argue favors incumbents.

The DCCC announced in March that it will no longer hire any vendor who “works with an opponent of a sitting Member of the House Democratic Caucus.”

A press release issued by the college Democrats coalition argues the policy change will prevent new candidates from entering politics.

“Primary challengers are essential to ensure that the Democratic Party is continually held accountable to the needs of our constituents,” the press release reads. “The rule would financially deter and greatly disadvantage vital new voices in our party, who are often younger and come from underrepresented and historically marginalized communities and identities.”

The statement calls the DCCC’s new policy “undemocratic and antithetical to our values of inclusion and diversity.”

The coalition additionally advocates for “a national boycott of donations to the DCCC until it reverses this blacklist rule and institutes policies that support, not punish, new voices in the Democratic Party.”

The coalition comprises many types of schools from across the country, including historically black colleges and universities, liberal arts colleges, and state universities. Only one other Ivy League chapter — Dartmouth College Democrats — joined the coalition.

Jeremy A. Stepansky ’21, legislative director of the Harvard College Democrats, said he proposed creating the coalition be-

cause he opposes the DCCC’s new policy. He noted that several Democrats, including Representatives Ayanna S. Pressley and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have also spoken out against the rule.

“We can’t only be concerned with holding onto a Democratic majority — we have to push to change what a Democratic majority means: does it uphold the status quo? Or does it fight for economic, social, racial, and environmental justice for all, inside and outside the US?” Stepansky said.

DCCC officials, in contrast, have argued that the policy change protects incumbents and will help facilitate efforts to maintain the party’s majority in the House of Representatives.

Harvard College Democrats President Hank R. Sparks ’21 said he thinks the coalition of multiple college Democrats chapters will give their demands more weight.

“The power of a coalition is to say it’s not just us from our so-called ivory tower at Harvard saying, ‘You should change this,’” he said. “It’s college Democrats from every background, from every state across the nation speaking out against this policy.”

The Harvard College Democrats called for a boycott of the DCCC because the new policy makes group members uncomfortable donating to the Democratic committee, according to Sparks. He said he thinks instituting a boycott will draw more attention to the issue than just issuing a statement condemning the policy change.

“If we just released a statement saying we disagree with this, to be honest, it wouldn’t get much attention, and we feel like we had an obligation to bring attention to this issue,” he said.

“And so we might not have a big financial impact on the DCCC through this coalition, but I’m hoping that they’ll hear us.” kevin.chen@thecrimson.com laura.espinoza@thecrimson.com

The latest on student life.

PAGE 4

RAMADAN FROM PAGE 1

Harvard Prepares for Ramadan variety of venues have agreed to accommodate Muslim students this year as a temporary solution, but the issue of space will need to be addressed for years to come.

Facing several hurdles in its effort to find locations, the Chaplain’s Office assembled a Ramadan committee to establish programming and secure spaces. This year’s committee, composed of religious students and leaders from across the University, included Abdur-Rashid, and Sahar Omer ’20 and Laila Tauqeer ’21 of the Harvard Islamic Society.

Dean of Students Katherine G. O’Dair also helped secure the necessary space for Ramadan this year.

“The students have been proactive in engaging with us over the past year about how we can best support them and the Muslim community during Ramadan,” O’Dair wrote in an emailed statement.

“It has been helpful to think through the supports needed in the coming years as Ramadan will fall during exam period,” O’Dair added, acknowledging future challenges with scheduling given that Ramadan will begin to fall earlier in the semester

Lowell Lecture Hall is located at the corner of Oxford and Kirkland Streets. MICHELLE H. AYE—CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

in upcoming years.

Abdur-Rashid ended his email announcement by promising students that his office will continue its efforts to obtain “a single location next year for the full month of Ramadan Pro-

gramming on campus.”

Bilal Wurie ’21 said that despite the logistical challenge of securing a single space, he is appreciative of the efforts that have led to the current arrangements.

“I want to applaud those people who have been dedicating time to make sure we have the resources we do have in place,” he said. ruth.zheng@thecrimson.com

Rhode Island Man Threatened Students Harvard Professor, School Mourn Sri Lanka Victims VIGIL FROM PAGE 1

By MOLLY C. MCCAFFERTY CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

­ Rhode Island man was arA rested Wednesday for sending dozens of graphic, threatening emails to a Harvard professor, according to court documents and local news reports.

A Federal Bureau of Investigations officer charged the man, Matthew Haviland, with one count of cyberstalking and one count of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce, according to a complaint filed in Massachusetts District Court Tuesday. Haviland is currently in custody.

On the evening of March 10, Haviland allegedly sent approximately 28 emails threatening to rape, kill, and eat the unnamed professor, according to an affidavit filed by Chelsea Police Detective and FBI Task Force Officer Richard C. Laft, Jr. Several of the emails referenced the professor’s pur-

ported views on abortion, and Laft wrote that the professor’s public support of abortion and criticism of President Donald Trump motivated Haviland’s threats.

Haviland’s attorney, public defender Scott Lauer, declined to comment on the case.

Multiple Boston broadcast news outlets reported Thursday that the person who received the threats is a Harvard faculty member, though the victim is identified only as a professor who works at a Massachusetts professional school in the court documents. A Harvard spokesperson declined to comment on the threats.

According to an affidavit, the professor told Laft they are “very concerned” about the threats.

“Victim 1 stated that he/she expects some hate mail and has a very high tolerance for it, but is very fearful for himself/herself and his/her family as a re-

sult of the March 10 emails,” Laft wrote.

Haviland also allegedly sent emails to the professor’s professional school, accusing it of racism against white people and decrying recent “debate or discussion within the [REDACTED] University admissions platform.” He wrote in one message that the school should be bombed, though he took back that assertion in the last of his 12 messages to the school.

Haviland appeared in court Wednesday afternoon, where Magistrate Judge Jennifer C. Boal remanded him to the custody of United States Marshals.

He will return to court Monday for a detention and probable cause hearing.

Elizabeth O. McCarthy, a spokesperson for the United States District Attorney’s Office of Massachusetts, declined to comment for this story. molly.mccafferty@thecrimson.com

Transformative coverage.

to the SAA, which initially decided to organize the gathering, for allowing those most directly affected by Sunday’s events to take the lead in planning the vigil.

“When you hear about these things the first reaction is to make sure your family is okay,” Paul said.

“It makes a difference being from there because these sites are all places we have visited, been around, grown up in,” Paul said.

We’re so far away and we’re so invested — worried, unsure, and terrified. There is barely anything we can do except for send a few messages.

There is such a big part of me that wishes I could go back there.

Urshella N. Hishaam ’20 College Student

Sahar Omer ’20, president of the Harvard Islamic Society, spoke at Thursday’s vigil and said it broke her heart to see people persecuted so violently for expressing their spirituality. Omer said the bombings were “just as disgusting, just as harmful, and just as inhumane” as the recent mass shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Mahyaye Vineetha, a buddhist monk from Sri Lanka studying at the Divinity School, also offered a prayer at the vigil.

“We cannot tolerate this kind of tragedy,” Vineetha said in an interview after the vigil.

People are staying at home because they are upset and very afraid of going outside.

Mahyaye Vineetha Divinity School Student

The Crimson @crimsonflyby

The Crimson thecrimson.com

“People are staying at home because they are upset and very afraid of going outside,” Vineetha added. Hishaam also said she felt helpless after hearing about the bombings. “We’re so far away and we’re so invested — worried, unsure, and terrified. There is barely anything we can do except for send a few messages,” she said.

“There is such a big part of me that wishes I could go back there and help people and do whatever I can,” she added. ruth.zheng@thecrimson.com

PAGE 5

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | APRIL 26, 2019

Trump Official Speaks at IOP

By DANIELLE K. KRANCHALK CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Peter K. Navarro, director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, presented his ideas on United States trade policy at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics Thursday evening.

Navarro, who also serves as assistant to United States President Donald Trump, outlined the trade policies he is pursuing under Trump and challenged economic principles taught at Harvard during his presentation entitled, “Ricardo is Dead.

Long Live Fair, Balanced, and Reciprocal Trade.”

Navarro, who earned a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1986, focused his presentation around three points of advice for Harvard students: cherish time at the school, stay flexible in learning, and seek information outside what is taught at the University.

“The real payoff comes from leveraging the resources of this university to broaden and deepen your toolbox and from establishing those networks that are going to be so valuable to you over the course of your career,” Navarro said.

“At least some of what you will be learning at Harvard today will certainly be wrong tomorrow as time, tides and technology change,” he added.

With regard to his third point — looking beyond Harvard’s gates for knowledge — Navarro pointed to what he calls an out-of-date trade theory taught in collegiate economics curricula.

“Some of the conventional wisdom you will learn at Harvard, particularly in the area of international trade, is at best outdated and at worst misleading,” he said.

That wisdom Navarro referred to was the free trade theory of 19th century Brit-

ish economist David Ricardo, which Navarro criticized as having “little or no relevance” to the way trade is actually conducted in the world.

Navarro said that a system of non-reciprocal international tariffs has led to many Americans facing higher taxes on their exports than the country levies on its imports.

“America, the piggy bank, will continue to be plundered by a trade deficit that transfers more than half a trillion dollars of American wealth a year to foreign lands,” Navarro said.

“The linkage I’ve just made between unfair trade practices and the trade deficit is not accepted by the economics profession,” Navarro added. “The Trump administration has become a positive if disruptive force in moving a broken world trading system much closer to the textbook ideal of fair, balanced, and reciprocal trade.”

Steven Wang, a Harvard Law School student who attended the event, said he found Navarro’s perspective interesting.

“It helps, especially in a place like Harvard, where there is a general consensus towards a more liberal economic international order, and especially with all the changes going on in the world and certainly what the Trump administration is doing, to understand why they’re doing it and the rationale and the perspectives justifying it, whether one agrees or not,” Wang said.

Stefanie Rosskopf, a master’s student at Tufts University who attended the talk, said she does not agree with Navarro’s views on trade policy.

“This whole discussion about trade deficit I find a little too over-simplistic the way its portrayed,” Rosskopf said. “If you look at trade in a more holistic [way], it kind of balances out over time.”

HGSU FROM PAGE 1

One Attends GSC-Union Town Hall in the subsequent years of the contract, according to Meisenhelder.

“We viewed it as trying to bring us to ourselves in line with some of our other unionized competitor schools,” Meisenhelder said.

University spokesperson Jonathan L. Swain confirmed in an emailed statement that the union’s proposal includes a double-digit raise in the first year.

Meisenhelder also said that Harvard rejected bargaining on the union’s healthcare proposal but that the union plans to persist in its efforts.

Swain wrote that while Harvard disagreed with “structural changes” in the union health plan, it proposed new funds for spouses’ and dependents’ premium costs, as well as assistance with dental expenses.

Thursday evening’s town hall went unattended for 22 minutes.

Three union representatives and one volunteer were present as well as three GSC executive board members. Five minutes into the empty town hall, GSC’s incoming president Zach M. Hayworth proposed filming the presentation and putting it online.

They need the information whether or not they want it.

Zach M. Hayworth Incoming Graduate Student Council President

“They need the information whether or not they want it,” GSC representative Michael Ortiz said.

Finally, the first and sole attendee arrived nearly halfway through the event — an undergraduate sophomore involved with Harvard Student Labor Action Movement. The organizers stayed for a full 30 minutes to give her the presenta-

Lisa Xu and Cole M. Meisenhelder speak about Harvard Graduate Students Union goals during an event hosted by the union and the Graduate Student Council Thursday evening. KATHRYN S. KUHAR — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

tion in person.

Meisenhelder said while he thinks the event is important, he does not consider the sparse attendance “a loss.”

“I think the timing is difficult just because it’s the end of the semester and we’re also building up our organizing towards the march on May 1,” said Meisenhelder, referencing a planned march for the oneyear anniversary of the union’s official recognition next week.

This meeting comes a week after the one-year anniversary of HGSU’s unionization vote.

On the anniversary, HGSU organized a work-in celebration, which drew attendance from roughly 450 Harvard affiliates, according to union bargaining committee member Rachel J. Sandalow-Ash ’15.

GSC recently voted in a prounion executive board and voted last month to support the union’s sexual harassment and

non-discrimination grievance proposal.

Organizers said the joint town hall was meant to highlight the union and the GSC’s shared population and goals.

HGSU and the GSC jointly represent 2,000 students at any given time — roughly 40 to 50 percent of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences population, according to Hayworth.

“These are two organizations that have overlapping populations, goals, and procedures for achieving those goals,” Meisenhelder said.

The GSC and graduate students union plan to elect a liaison in charge of bolstering conversation between the two organizations sometime soon, according to Hayworth.

“The liaison position would be someone who is participating in planning meetings for the Union, and at a bare minimum, coming to all the GSC

open meetings and sharing updates with the representatives,” Hayworth wrote in an emailed statement.

These are two organizations that have overlapping populations, goals, and procedures for achieving those goals.

Cole M. Meisenhelder Union Bargaining Committee Member “But ideally, they would also come to GSC executive board meetings, dean’s meetings, and participate as a non-voting member.”

Proud to cover Harvard for 146 years and counting.

The Crimson thecrimson.com

luke.williams@thecrimson.com ruoqi.zhang@thecrimson.com

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

APRIL 26, 2019

PAGE 6

PBK FROM PAGE 1

FOX FROM PAGE 1

Elite Schools Feed PBK List

Fox Club May Go Gender-Neutral

during this period.

Private school graduates were overrepresented in their ranks relative to the College as a whole. The percentage of private school graduates in Harvard’s classes hovers between 30 and 35 percent annually, according to The Crimson’s freshman surveys.

Twelve high schools have sent five or more graduates to the College who went on to join Alpha Iota, Harvard’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter in the first two rounds. Of these, four are New York City prep schools — Collegiate School, Trinity School, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, and Horace Mann School. Three are New England boarding schools — Deerfield Academy (Mass.), Phillips Academy Andover (Mass.), and Phillips Exeter Academy (N.H.).

The tuition of all seven schools exceeds $40,000 per year.

Other schools that sent five or more eventual Junior 24 or Senior 48 inductees to the College include urban, private institutions — Harvard-Westlake School (Calif.), University of Toronto Schools (Canada), Lakeside School (Wash.), and the Winsor School (Mass.). Just one public school — Lexington High School (Mass.) — produced more than five early Phi Beta Kappa inductees.

Only four public high schools sent more than three graduates that became early Phi Beta Kappa inductees. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (Va.) sent five, while both Newton North High School (Mass.) and Stuyvesant High School (N.Y.) sent four. All four public schools are located in counties that number among the nation’s wealthiest. The median household income in Lexington, Mass., for example, is $162,083.

The lion’s share of Junior 24 and Senior 48 inductees hailed from just a few states — 104 came from Massachusetts, 84 came from New York, and 83 came from California. Ten states yielded no early Phi Beta Kappa inductees.

Consideration for election to the Junior 24 and Senior 48 starts with clearing a grade point average cutoff. Appli-

cants then release their transcripts and submit recommendation letters to a committee of Harvard faculty and senior staff members who select the inductees, according to chapter secretary and Chemistry lecturer Logan S. McCarty ’96.

McCarty said he thinks grade inflation may contribute to the lopsided distribution of Phi Beta Kappa winners.

Because grade point averages at the College are high overall, students need near-perfect grades to win an early Phi Beta Kappa spot.

“Someone who arrives at Harvard, and maybe doesn’t have the high school preparation, or even doesn’t have good advice about what classes to take freshman year, and gets one B-plus freshmen fall and then gets straight As for the whole rest of their college career here — they might not actually even be considered because the other grades are so high,” McCarty said.

“Essentially the only students that we see are people who got one or two A-minuses and everything else is an A,” he added.

“Unfortunately, I think with the way grades are right now in the College, a student who, you know, has a few missteps probably can’t recover from that later on by doing really, really stellar work.”

flitting between single-gender and co-ed membership policies.

In 2015, the Fox voted to accept nine junior and senior women — only to permanently revoke their membership a year and a half later.

Debates over going co-ed reignited in spring 2018, according to a Feb. 13 email Nesbitt sent to Fox members.

“Discussions with the Graduate Board began last spring and continued over the summer, but were overtaken by the University’s actions relating to the sanctions policy and the fall punch,” the email reads.

On Sept. 7, the Fox promised

the College it would go co-ed.

But come Sept. 18, administrators announced that the club was no longer seeking recognition as a co-ed RSO. Then this spring, the Fox held a vote among its undergraduates to adopt a gender-neutral membership policy.

Before the vote, the graduate board met with undergraduates at least once to discuss the proposed change, the Feb. 13 email states. During one meeting, graduate and undergraduate members discussed whether going co-ed would affect financial support from graduate

affiliates or prompt a change in guest policies.

The Fox determines its dues — which are required of voting graduate members — using a sliding scale based on class year, according to internal emails.

Those who recently graduated from the College must pay $44, for example, while those who graduated 11 to 50 years ago need to shell out $125 or more.

In the weeks leading up to the vote, the Fox plans to host gatherings in various cities to provide an opportunity for its graduate affiliates to discuss the upcoming referendum, internal emails state. The club

organized an evening meeting in Cambridge and a brunch in Washington, D.C., in addition to at least three conference calls with small groups of members.

Nesbit could not immediately be reached for comment early Friday morning.

The upcoming vote comes amidst parallel state and federal lawsuits contending that Harvard’s sanctions policy constitutes gender-based discrimination and infringes on students’ freedom of association. sanjana.narayanan@thecrimson.com samuel.zwickel@thecrimson.com

Proud to cover Harvard for 146 years and counting.

METHODOLOGY

The data includes secondary school information for 611 of the 648 Junior 24 and Senior 48 inductees, starting with the Class of 2011. The data does not include information for the seniors who join Phi Beta Kappa in the spring before graduation.

To gather data on where Phi Beta Kappa inductees attended high school, The Crimson reviewed Freshman Registers and yearbooks, the two College publications in which Harvard students can choose to self-report their secondary school. For students who did not self-report their secondary school, The Crimson reviewed a combination of alumni data and external publications. shera.avi-yonah@thecrimson.com delano.franklin@thecrimson.com

Keep the old sheet flying.

From the Law School to Longwood.

The Crimson @crimsonflyby

The Crimson thecrimson.com

ARTS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | APRIL 26, 2019 | PAGE 7

TV

‘Special’ is Just as Unique as Its Name Suggests HUNTER T. BALDWIN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER COURTESY OF NETFLIX

Representations of gay male characters on TV have been somewhat of a mixed bag — from largely applauded staples like “Will and Grace” to the decidedly mediocre “Glee.” The representation of disability faces a similar predicament, in which viewers are left with little more than a side character on “Breaking Bad” and… “Glee,” again. Both groups see little representation to begin with, and when they do, these portrayals risk falling into tropes that perpetuate harmful stereotypes. As such, there is good reason to be skeptical about a show that dares to tackle the intersection of these issues through the inclusion of a gay, disabled protagonist. Fortunately, “Special” quickly proves that these apprehensions are unwarranted. The show’s unconventionality, coupled with the experience that Ryan O’Connell brings to the table as a gay, disabled man himself make “Special” worth watching for people of all identities.

“Special” follows Ryan (Ryan O’Connell), a young man living with cerebral palsy and a particularly clingy mother. The show begins as Ryan embarks on two major life steps: starting his first real job and moving into his own place. Naturally, this “job” is actually an unpaid internship at the Buzzfeedesque millennial media source “Eggwoke,” which prioritizes views over integrity of their articles.

In other words, Ryan’s boss Olivia (Marla Mindelle) loves having her employees detail superficial “confessionals” about their lives and insecurities as long as it leads to more clicks. This is exemplified within moments of Olivia’s first introduction, when she asks Ryan’s new friend Kim (Punam Patel), “Can you just write another post about loving your curves, or whatever?”

Fortunately, Ryan and Kim’s commiseration over their boss’s shallowness only serves to strengthen their bond as friends and coworkers. Unfortunately, however, this relationship is threatened by a lack of honesty. Because he does not want to deal with stigmas surrounding cerebral palsy, Ryan devises a story in which his limp and idiosyncratic mannerisms are simply the result of a recent car accident.

This conflict — between the desire to live one’s truth and the need to maintain appearances — is what drives much of the intrigue of this first season. Beyond this theme, however, “Special” does not have much of an overarching plot and, in effect, each episode feels somewhat self-contained. This, combined with an unconventional runtime — each of the eight episodes is only about 15 minutes long — makes “Special” feel like a collection of YouTube videos more than a Netflix series. Since the main purpose of the show is to depart from the norm, however, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

This desire to stand apart is exactly why the show excels. “Special” takes just about every gay trope in the book and throws it out, which is refreshing in a world where gay men are only ever given the same three plotlines. Though Ryan exhibits stereotypically feminine mannerisms and is certainly a mama’s boy, these characteristics are framed as simply part of who he is rather than an inevitable result of his sexuality. Furthermore, Ryan does not have to go through an arc of struggling with his sexuality like many other characters do. From the beginning of the show, Ryan knows he is gay, and he is open about his sexuality to his mother and coworkers. By shifting focus away from the more exploratory gay storyline, the show is able to focus on more enjoyably relatable struggles like dealing

with Grindr hookups and crushing on a friend who’s in a relationship.

Perhaps even more refreshing is this show’s portrayal of disability. “Special” is unique in its unambiguous depiction of Ryan’s cerebral palsy as not only present, but front and center to his life. Like his sexuality, Ryan’s disability is shown not as a tragedy, but a part of who he is. There are certainly struggles and stigmas that come with it, but this does not mean it has to be Ryan’s focus 100 percent of the time. The show also lampshades the cliché views surrounding disability with an exchange between Ryan and his mom: “Your disability is part of you, it’s what makes you — ” to which Ryan interrupts, “Special, I know. And I should embrace it, I know.”

Interestingly, disability seems to take the place of one of the typical gay storylines that “Special” otherwise avoids. Ryan’s biggest secret is not his sexuality, but the true nature of his disability.

Ryan’s big “coming out” scene, then, entails his telling the office about his cerebral palsy. It turns out that most people don’t care. Kim, the only one who really does, is mostly just upset that Ryan has “betrayed” her by not being honest about who he is. While this sort of reaction has been seen a million times in sexuality storylines, it is refreshing to see it applied to another situation. It is also indicative of progress in depictions of disability. This progress is further cemented in the last two episodes when the oft-overlooked theme of internalized ableism is brought up, sending Ryan into a journey of selflove and improvement.

The most surprising twist in “Special,” however, is the realization that the show is not all about Ryan. The third episode features the first scene that does not include Ryan at all. In the episode, his mother Karen (Jessica Hecht) takes the spotlight as she begins flirting with the new silver fox neighbor. From then on, Karen consistently rises in prominence. In fact, the fifth episode (“Vagina Momologues”) sees Karen as the primary focus, with Ryan only making a cursory appearance. Karen’s storyline centers around her need to find a life outside of her son, as well as her budding romance with Phil (Patrick Fabian). Interestingly, this relationship between Karen and Phil is the primary love story of the show, which is refreshing to see in an industry that does not typically allow women in their 50s to have any semblance of sexual desires.

Karen is one of the most complex characters seen on TV today. Unfortunately, this does not entirely make up for the complete predictability of Ryan’s boss Olivia, who is essentially a composite of every single millennial stereotype, turned up to eleven. If there’s any other reason to be wary of “Special,” it is a lack of consistency in the comedy department. There are times in which it feels like the show is not quite sure whether it’s a drama or a comedy, and these long gaps without particularly funny moments can feel quite awkward. Still, there are far more reasons to hold out hope. “Special” stands out at every chance it gets — the show’s abandonment of conventions around runtime, sexuality, disability, and motherhood makes each episode feel especially refreshing, and leaves the viewer wanting more.

Staff writer Hunter T. Baldwin can be reached at hunter.baldwin@thecrimson.com.

BOOKS

‘With Gratitude’ Inspires Just That, But Not Much Else CASSANDRA LUCA CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Literature exists at an interesting crossroad: Departing from the flowery, convoluted prose of Proust, Wordsworth, or any author from the 16th through 19th centuries, prose and poetry has now generally moved to a diluted form of expression that is minimalist in its style and empty in substance.

Yes, poetry of the likes of Rupi Kaur can still touch one’s heartstrings and speak to specific experiences, but that does not inherently belie its quality. This style has become mainstream enough to present essentially glorified inspirational quotes as poetry in Marala Scott’s “Without Gratitude,” “a collection of relatable experiences” and selfdescribed “poetry and prose to reframe your days, renew your spirit.” Such writing works better as a poster on a wall framed with flowers as one-off sources of inspiration, not as quotes masquerading as poetry that collectively seem to run together in a stream of forgetability.

To be sure, some poems are better than others. (Passing off platitudes as poetry seems to be a dubious concept, but for the sake of clarity, they’ll be called poems from here on out.)

An early one, titled “The Way He Loves You,” reads, “He fits / in your life. / No disruption / to the essence of you. / The way you are / caused his gravitational pull.” This poem points out how love, at its core, should theoretically work, and does so with more subtlety than many others in the collection. So too does “Trust Me,” which is nothing more than four lines: “Consumed by darkness, / lost inside uncertainty, / He knelt and reignited the flame inside me/with two words.” Every poem’s title comes at the end, rather than the beginning, which works in “Trust Me,” but is otherwise an odd stylistic choice that does nothing to add extra meaning to the poems themselves.

This collection is quite good at pointing out certain human emotions, but not very good at doing much with these observations. It’s the literary equivalent of a child telling his mother, “It’s a duck!” — except the latter is far cuter and

does not need to represent anything deeper. Literature, and poetry in particular, serves a larger purpose: It should provoke in some way. Yet, as is the case in this collection, if a poem does nothing more than resting on its laurels for having pointed out something cool without adding any further depth, then what is the purpose in writing it? “With Gratitude” has many egregious examples of this, such as “My words are an interpretation of what’s inside / me. / I welcome the thoughts produced in my mind.” When did remarking the obvious begin to pass for profundity?

Many of these poems could serve as daily mantras, but that is where their usefulness stops there. Inserting line breaks wherever they seem to fit does not make poetry.

Scott’s writing makes the reader feel good, but literature should do more than that.

Scott’s book is an addition to a vast selection of poetry that makes us feel better, yet fails to actually make us feel things or provoke new emotions within us. It’s interesting that today, much of what we consume, literature now included, is framed in a self-help context in order for it to be “relatable.”

There’s this idea that something has to be universal to be relatable, but many books that fall explicitly within a genre or are not universal — read: period pieces, science fiction — remind us of the different aspects of our humanity. This trend is dangerous because it assumes that it has to pander to everyone to be legitimate, despite the impossibility of universalizing the human experience. An author can only offer other interpretations of how things feel or are in the hopes that someone can take a small nugget from that and become a more complex person.

Where does that leave Scott’s collection? Perhaps helpful to get one through a difficult time, but otherwise the collection is devoid of the deeper meaning that humans ultimately crave and to which they wish to connect. Of course, it’s hard to write like that, but isn’t that what good writing is?

COURTESY OF ANDREWS MCMEEL PUBLISHING

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | APRIL 26, 2019

PAGE 6

EDITORIAL THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD

OP-ED

Your Harvard Opportunity

C

lass of 2023, congratulations! You have all worked hard your whole lives to be the people that you are, and we are so excited to get to know you as our classmates and friends.

Every one of you is here for a reason, and you are all talented and exceptional in your own ways. Coming to Harvard — or to any university — is an enormous change no matter where you come from.

You may be nervous.

As you get your first taste of life on campus and the transition to college really begins, don’t be alarmed by those nerves. They’re natural. At the same time, be proud of what you’ve achieved and the opportunity you’ve earned. As you meet your future classmates and marvel at the similarities and differences of your experiences, remember: You are diverse, you are talented, and you belong here.

This Visitas weekend affords you the opportunity to reach out to students and see the human side of our school.

As you decide whether or not Harvard is the place for you to spend your next four years, this Visitas weekend affords you the opportunity to reach out to students and see the human side of our school, as well as meet your fellow ad-

mitted peers in the Class of 2023. Don’t waste it. We want to talk to you. We want to answer questions. You may have worries and fears about Harvard, or about college in general. Some may fade with time. Others may not.

Our campus, like many others, finds itself steeped in the difficult question of how to build a community of scholarship and personal growth that embodies our community values of justice and openness.

And we are deeply conscious that, because of the reputation and public position of this institution, the way in which we engage in these questions echoes beyond our gates. If you want to create lasting and institutional change, there is no better place to make your voice heard.

As students, we do not have all the answers to these questions, but we do have each other. Our community is built on a collaborative spirit, one that may not always agree but prides itself on the collective pursuit of knowledge. The questions are tough and the stakes are high, but as a student body we face the challenge with pride.

As undergraduates, we have the desire to seek to change the systems we do not support; we have the obligation to call out injustice wherever we see it; and we are fortunate to have the opportunity to live and work in a community of brilliant fellow-students. Choosing to join the Class of 2023 is a choice to take up that challenge on your terms and in

your voice.

Enjoy these last few weeks of high school — they are precious and fleeting.

But look ahead knowing that the four years waiting for you here can be magical. There will be moments of joy and laughter, and there will be moments of sorrow and tears.

If you want to create lasting and institutional change, there is no better place to make your voice heard.

The inscription above Dexter Gate reads, “Depart to serve better thy country and thy kind.” That imperative begins not just when you depart from this campus, but when you arrive on it. It extends not just to the world outside, but to Harvard itself and to the people you will come to know and love over the next four years.

Welcome to the fight.

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.

DANU A.K. MUDANNAYAKE—CRIMSON ILLUSTRATOR

COLUMN

Give Left-Capitalism a Chance For the most part, the Democrats still believe in markets. We should give their vision a shot.

Henry N. Brooks SOCIALLY LIBERAL, FISCALLY LIBERAL

J

oseph Stiglitz, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and a noted left-wing economist, came out last week in support of what he calls “progressive capitalism.” His announcement — in an incisive essay in the New York Times — puts him squarely alongside most of the 2020 Democratic presidential field in defending the market economy, long our most prized national possession.

I see that announcement as part of a trend that, unfortunately, hasn’t gotten its fair share of media attention, particularly as major news outlets — and U.S. President Donald Trump — remind audiences of the Democratic Party’s burgeoning left wing.

Against a backdrop painted something like the Pink Tide, we seem to have forgotten how much of the Democratic Party has committed itself to tackling our social and economic problems outside of a socialist frame. One author, writing on this very pattern, even described capitalism as the “big trend” among Democrats, observing that strikingly few of the party’s standard-bearers are on the warpath to socialism.

I admit, the Democrats have a curious question of nomenclature on their hands.

It is certainly possible that Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and the new cohort of young progressives in the House of Representatives — including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) — who identify as “democratic socialists” find themselves genuinely at odds with the platform of the Democratic Party.

Yet, for the moment, all ideological differences still seem to subtend a single, core belief: that deregulated capitalism is failing our country.

Many sides in the 2020 Democratic field have said as much in their words and actions. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) recently proposed a wealth tax of 2 percent on all individually held assets above $50 million dollars (a rate that graduates to 3 percent for assets above $1 billion).

The policy, a first of its kind in the United States, seeks only a small rent from those with supermassive savings. A similar tax on the savings of an average

earner could promote reckless spending, but at the top of the income distribution, the risk of a distortionary effect seems minimal.

Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), as part of her presidential platform, has proposed to close what she claims has been one trillion dollars in new corporate tax breaks opened up under the Trump tax plan. With those funds back in federal hands, Harris has said she would push for a dividend to low-income families.

In a similar gesture, Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) just announced the “Rise Credit,” a proposal to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, which entitles low- and middle-income workers to larger tax returns after filing.

The institutions we built to police our economy have fallen prey to moneyed interests and nepotistic impulses.

Though perhaps novel in the history of American economic policy, none of these proposed measures sounds as radical when divorced from the sensationalism of the right. And none comes close to undercutting capitalism as such.

Some Democrats have even made capitalism a part of their case for reform. In a telling — if underappreciated — moment in the runup to the 2018 midterm elections, an interviewer asked Warren if she thought poorly of “capitalists,” to which she replied, unflinching, “I am a capitalist. Come on. I believe in markets.”

In her later comments, she couched her reform agenda in a grander effort to save the market economy from its own excesses. “[Markets] are what make us rich, they are what create opportunity,” Warren said. “But only fair markets, markets with rules.”Call it left-capitalism: an economic system that democratizes the benefits of the marketplace.

That — more than socialism — is the new dominant philosophy of the Democratic Party.

Left-capitalism is certainly more liberal than the deregulatory, small-government agenda of Bill Clinton’s Democratic Party, but it doesn’t break with that administration’s foundational commitment to a market economy.

What’s more, left-capitalism is hard-

ly unprecedented in American history.

The New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Class of 1904, was the first time that national politicians seriously considered restructuring our economic and political system to enshrine workers’ rights.

In a sense, we’ve all grown up in the shadow of that deal, taking for granted programs like Social Security, disability insurance, and securities regulation.

Even at the fringes of the American left, the New Deal — and not socialism — continues to frame our basic economic thinking. We see this with Ocasio-Cortez, whose reform proposals have included restoring portions of the Glass-Steagall Act (a New Deal law that limited the role of commercial banks in securities trading) and adopting a “Green New Deal” to match Roosevelt’s interventionist fiscal policy after the Great Depression. These read more like an homage to American liberalism than the blueprints for a socialist future.

Stiglitz is right to remind us that “progressive capitalism is not an oxymoron.” Capitalism, more than any other economic system historically, has set up a robust incentives-driven economy that encourages innovation and strives always to outmode itself. This is what Stiglitz calls “wealth creation” (as opposed to the more insidious activity of “wealth-grabbing”), and it’s what keeps our economy spry.

But Stiglitz isn’t a blind defender of capitalism. He’s a vocal critic, and his recent defense doubles as a timely dig against profiteering: If we’re going to save our market economy, we need to hem in corporate economic power and disestablish its political authority.

Here, I happen to agree with Stiglitz, and many other economists (including, up to a point, our beloved N. Gregory Mankiw): The institutions we built to police our economy have fallen prey to moneyed interests and nepotistic impulses.

Some believe that these are the necessary — the only possible — results of capitalism. Others, like Stiglitz and myself, want to take a closer look under the hood to see exactly what’s keeping the economic engine from running properly.

—Henry N. Brooks ’19 is a Social Studies concentrator in Currier House. His column appears on alternate Fridays.

#MeToo: Why I Didn’t Want Winthrop

By PHOEBE H. SUH

W

hen a frenzied mob chanting, “Winthrop!” burst through my door on Housing Day, I should have been thrilled. After all, Winthrop House was the last House to be renovated before Lowell House. It’s close to the Yard and clean, without the roaches endemic to Eliot and Kirkland Houses. It’s not Mather House. In terms of living spaces, Winthrop is one of the most desirable Houses. And, to be fair, I was quite pleased not to be placed in the Quad.

But I also felt a looming dread because of Winthrop Faculty Dean Ronald S. Sullivan, Jr., and his decision to defend former film producer Harvey Weinstein against numerous charges of sexual assault and misconduct.

My name is Phoebe, and I am a survivor of sexual assault.

My story is similar to many others. I was raped in September after a party, three weeks after first arriving on campus. I spoke to the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response and the Title IX Office. I filed for a No-Contact order against my rapist and received one.

But Harvard failed me in the month following my assault. The morning after I was raped, I went to University Health Services.

They gave me emergency birth control but could not provide me a rape kit there; now I have no physical evidence that I was assaulted. And when I spoke to the Title IX Office, I learned that a formal investigation, an emotionally exhausting process in itself, could stretch for months.

I walked away without filing for one, desperate to restore some measure of normalcy to my life and bring an end to a terrible experience that had already gone on for long enough.

After half a year, I began to feel safe again. I am changed, but I persist. But now I am afraid. In joining Weinstein’s legal defense team, I believe Sullivan has signaled to students that he does not support survivors of sexual assault.

He is actively working as Weinstein’s lawyer to discredit witnesses who have come forward, and, in doing so, discouraging others from telling their stories.

Even setting aside his work on the case, which could be explained as a desire to uphold the constitutional rights of all defendants, there are other indicators suggesting his predisposition against survivors.

Sullivan has accused witnesses testifying against Harvard Economics professor Roland G. Fryer, Jr., who is currently under investigation for allegations of sexual harassment, of being coached.

Sullivan stated that the process through which Harvard is investigating “shows what the current [#MeToo] movement, some blood in the water, and good coaching [of witnesses] can produce.” I fear he would accuse me of lying as well.

Supporters of Sullivan have defended his work as a matter of academic and professional freedom.

But, because he is the faculty dean of Winthrop House, Sullivan’s obligations exceed those of the typical Law School professor. As an authority figure, Sullivan sets the tone for the community. He has a duty to create a climate where all students feel safe.

I do not feel safe knowing that Sullivan is currently working to discredit those who have come forward against Weinstein and has attempted to discredit those who have come forward against Fryer.

Let me clarify: I do not think that anyone will doubt my account of events. What I fear is that if I tell my story in Winthrop next year, I will be seen as having been just assaulted, but not raped; just wronged, but not violated. I fear that the profound impact sexual violence has had on my life will be dismissed as exaggeration and that my emotions will be dismissed as overreaction.

It is hard enough for me to speak about my experience to a community I know accepts my story as truth.

But to tell my story without the assurance that people will understand the extent of my pain and trauma? I would rather not speak at all. This is the violent impact of Sullivan’s decision on one survivor of sexual assault, as well as on many others: silence.

I would like to believe that Harvard does not tolerate violence. But in reality, the University is rife with it.

Beyond decades of suppressing allegations of sexual misconduct brought by both students and employees across the entire University, the Law School was found in violation of Title IX for its response to sexual violence in 2014.

Harvard is also currently embroiled in a battle with the Harvard Graduate Students Union over the latter’s demand for protections against discrimination and sexual harassment, a standard feature of most union contracts, to be included in the agreement between the two parties. The University has repeatedly shown its disinterest in eliminating systemic violence.

I did not open a formal investigation into my sexual assault because I was tired and scared and sick of reliving my trauma. I stayed quiet. But my silence will not protect me, and once more I find myself feeling threatened, expected to live in Winthrop House under the authority of a man who, in the case of representing Weinstein and defending Fryer, has exhibited hostility to survivors of sexual assault.

So here is my voice. I am calling for Sullivan to resign from his position as faculty dean of Winthrop House, and, should he refuse, for his removal. I am calling for Harvard to finally address the systemic violence that impacts survivors of sexual assault on campus.

I am calling for justice.

—Phoebe H. Suh ’22 lives in Weld Hall.

PAGE 9

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | APRIL 26, 2019

SPORTS FRIDAY ______________________________________

Women’s Water Polo WEEKEND

SCHEDULE

CWPA Championships at Brown, 4 p.m.

SATURDAY ______________________________________

SUNDAY ______________________________________

Baseball vs. Columbia 12 p.m., 2:30 p.m.

Softball vs. Yale 12:30 p.m.

GYMNASTICS

A Look Back at The Last Gymnasts of Hemenway

By ELIEL IG-IZEVBEKHAI CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

At the varsity level, Harvard sponsors over 40 Division I men’s and women’s sports, more than any other school in the country. These teams have combined for 146 national championships, 440 Ivy League titles and representation in every single Olympic Games.

Missing however from this eclectic mix of teams — ranging from skiing to women’s rugby — is one of the more popular sports in the world: gymnastics.

Unlike fellow Ivy League competitors Penn, Cornell, Brown, and Yale, the school does not currently offer traditional gymnastics at the varsity level.

Although a rhythmic gymnastics club does exist on campus, there is no longer a traditional gymnastics club team.

This, however, was not always the case.

Based on records from the Harvard Yearbook and Harvard Crimson, the last known written record of a small, self-sufficient club gymnastics team was in 1984. To understand the experiences of being a Harvard gymnast in those culminating years of the eighties, we interviewed some of the last collegiate gymnastics performers to represent the Crimson. ­

HISTORY

The history of the program dates back to 1903, when the Harvard Gymnastics Club was conceived in the Trophy Room of the Hemenway Gymnasium by A. Tyng ‘04. The sport had been offered as an athletics class stretching back at least to 1896, with activities “consisting of prescribed calisthenics drills with wands, dumb bells, etc.; light work on the apparatus, jumping, burbling and running-in fact exercises for the general building up of the body.”

Flashing forward to 1968, the gymnastics program appeared to remain in good hands. The equipment in Hemenway Gymnasium had been replaced with a $2,500 investment, and former Olympic gymnast Joseph L. Massimo had joined as a coach/ instructor.

By 1972, the gymnastic class offered by the athletic department had 61 enrollees, and about 15 expressed interest in intercollegiate competition.

INCEPTION

Moving to the latter part of the decade, however, there no longer appeared to be a gymnastics team, despite classes still existing.

It was not until the proactiveness of three students in the latter part of the decade that a club was officially created to participate in intercollegiate meets.

“The athletic department had classes you could take in various sports,” Todd Morrison ‘81 said. “There was a gymnastics one. We didn’t have a team or a club at that point [in 1977]. It turns out there were other people in the class that were interested. Sophomore year, 78-79,... the three of us, Ken [Mendez], Sarah Johnson, and I started the club. We went to the club office, said we could be the club officers, and that Harvard needs a gymnastics team. That meant we had access to financial needs, and the three of us went to Ivies that year.”

In the since-discontinued Ivy League Gymnastics Championships, the aforementioned Kenneth Mendez ‘82 finished as high as 11th out of 27 competitors in the floor exercise, tying fellow Crimson competitor Todd Morrison.

“I knew there was [no varsity program] at Harvard… that there might have been a club team but there was really no one to talk about it,” Mendez, who was a freshman during the club’s inception, said about his prospects for varsity college gymnastics as a high schooler.

We were practicing in Hemenway Gymnasium on the top

PERFECT FORM Harvard’s gymnastics hosted its first ever meet in 1980 against Northeastern, in which the men’s side swept the Huskies. Less than a decade later, the club faded into oblivion. Only four Ivy League institutions currently support a varsity gymnastics program. COURTESY OF HARVARD ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS

floor,” Mendez added. “There was a small gym there with old equipment. It just was not safe up there. There wasn’t enough equipment and we didn’t have a coach. What we ended up doing was going over to MIT and practicing during the season with their team.”

Less than two years since its inception, the Gymnastics Club held its first-ever meet in Northeastern’s Cabot Gym. The Crimson men defeated the Huskies in all of its events, while the Crimson group of five women performed solo(since no Northeastern women competed) in a public exhibition.

One of those women, Anne Harrington ‘81, noted the importance of various alumni in supporting the program despite limited opportunities for competition on the women’s side.

“We went to the Harvard Club of New York and did an exhibition program.” Harrington said. “We demonstrated our passion for the sport, and we then got some gift money to buy some equipment.”

She also noted the challenges of running a club sport, as a lack of a varsity designation meant no recruiting to continue the line of athletes and no paid coaches to oversee and commit to the program.

“There was no funding for coaching, it was volunteer work,” Harrington said. “When you look at a very organized club sport let varsity sport with a team, a schedule of training, and a coach, there are all sorts of support systems and systems that keep you accountable that we didn’t have.”

THE GOLDEN YEARS

Elsewhere in the Ancient Eight, support for gymnastics was growing, including on the women’s side. At a time when Ivy League institutions were just beginning to accept women,

raw but promising gymnastics talent began to cultivate into polished teams.

The first women’s gymnastics Ivy League Championships were held during the 1976-77 season.

“When women are admitted to an all-male school, it’s hard to be a part of [athletics] right away and be accepted if tradition is being changed,” said Yale varsity women’s gymnastics coach Barbara Tonry.

Tonry has led the women’s side since its inception in 1973, joining forces with her husband and former Olympic gymnast Don Tonry, the coach of the men’s gymnastics team. By then, the men’s team had already been well established, and had enjoyed incredible success.

The women’s team, on the other hand, was built from a small physical education class “When women were admitted, I was still teaching and coaching kids,” Tonry said. “(Don) asked if I would come in and help some of the women… he just cared about the sport. He only wanted to help these women. With all the administrative and coaching duties, he asked if I would come do it.”

Tonry coached the team without pay initially, maintaining her job in teaching. Like many women’s teams at that time, nearly everything was built from scratch by a passion for the sport.

Tonry took a group of newly trained gymnasts at the school and started competing with some of the local teams, as well as Princeton. They enjoyed early success despite their relative inexperience, and by 1977, the Bulldogs had already built a blossoming program for the first Ivy League Championships.

“We had seven out of eight Ivies competing within a few years,” Tonry noted.

Yale took the first title

against a full line of competition as the Ancient Eight began to build a thriving gymnastics program. Only Columbia did not send a competitor to the 1979 Ivy League championships. Some of the teams were fully varsity, while others — like Harvard — had club teams, not officially registered under the NCAA. When teams were not fully supported by their school’s funds and infrastructure, the friendship and support from across the Ivy League stepped in. Surely, competition was an aspect of gymnastics, but the love of the game was the backbone.

“As you know there is a lot of friends between all of the Ivy Leagues, so a lot of the people who were at Harvard knew the people at Yale,” Tonry said.

“Harvard came down on Sundays and we trained all together at Yale. It was all for the sport; it was not for anything other than that.”

Those early years of the 1980s was the peak of success for Ivy League gymnastics.

In 1981, the Harvard team had a fair amount of competitors, was sending athletes to the Ivies, and even had local meets with teams like Boston University.

CHALLENGES

Still, both men’s and women’s teams at Harvard and in the Ivy League faced challenges, financially and logistically.

The Crimson team stayed around even after the graduation of its founding members with help from Morrison and other alumni, but before long, nobody was competing in the club program.

“Eventually, I don’t know if it fell apart, other people took up the torch, or if it just expired.”

Morrison said.

Similar challenges as far as

enrollment and financial support plagued the once-promising foundation from the early-eighties, beginning with the dropping of Dartmouth women’s gymnastics and later Princeton.

Men’s gymnastics lost its support at Yale, despite winning three consecutive Ancient Eight championships, and other programs followed soon after.

“The women continued,” Tonry said. “We had, at that time, the most successful team, men or women, at Yale. It was difficult to have a rationale for not having us continue.”

Despite other programs such as Yale and Penn later designating women’s gymnastics as a varsity sport, this consideration was not made in Cambridge.

One factor during that period was the relative lack of space for athletics on campus.

“With limited resources, we decided that other things carried precedence,” Jack Reardon, Harvard Director of Athletics from 1978 to 1990 stated.

“If everybody in our league had strong teams, that would have affected our thinking. The Hemenway gym needed to accommodate other sports such as intramural basketball. We didn’t have enough floor space at the university.”

By 1990, there were no longer enough teams to be considered an Ivy League sport (varsity and non-varsity), since more than four teams are required to form a conference division. Only Cornell, Brown, Penn, and Yale preserved women’s gymnastics programs.

The Brown varsity women’s gymnastics team lost funding from the university in 1991, but the school later reinstated the program a year later following a Title IX lawsuit.

In Cambridge, the 1991 Harvard Yearbook confirms the official closure of the Crimson

gymnastics team, with no mentioning of the program in the club sports section.

MEMORIES

Despite the what ifs in the story of Harvard Gymnastics, there was no regret for participating amongst those in the late seventies and early eighties.

“It’s a life changing and influencing sport,” Mendez said.

“It’s a disappointment that Harvard never really made the commitment.”

Teammates echoed the same sentiment.

Even after sustaining a devastating injury to end her gymnastics career, Harrington spoke very highly of her time on the team.

“There was a pride because we created the team from the ground up. We raised our own funds, coached ourselves. I was a never a superstar, but I was proud to be in competition. We made something happen, even if it was for a little while.”

Morrison was no less grateful for his time.

“I enjoyed it. A lot,” Morrison said. “Eventually I got to the point in my life where I didn’t have any working joints anymore, but I coached for a few years after that. I wouldn’t do it differently, it was an enormously good time.”

Though gymnastics is idle at Harvard, many associated with past programs would love to see Ancient Eight gymnastics return to its former glory and join the four current teams who compete at the varsity level.

“I would love to have Harvard gymnastics back,” Tonry said. “It would make it harder on us, but I would love to see all eight schools sponsor gymnastics again because it’s a fantastic and beautiful sport for both men and women.” eliel.ig-izevbekhai@thecrimson.com

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | April 26, 2019