The Harvard Crimson - Volume CXLVI, No. 46

The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873 | VOLUME CXLVI, NO. 46 | CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS | FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2019

EDITORIAL PAGE 4

NEWS PAGE 3

SPORTS PAGE 8

Harvard must commit itself to championing merit in admissions.

Harvard Business School is expanding offerings for female students.

Patrick McColl leads Harvard to 14-6 record midway through season.

Univ. to Divestment Protesters Interrupt Bacow Talk Probe Fencing Coach

By ALEXANDRA A. CHAIDEZ and AMY Y. LI CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Roughly 30 protestors from two prominent Harvard divestment campaigns interrupted an Institute of Politics event featuring University President Lawrence S. Bacow and Graduate School of Education Dean Bridget T. Long to continue their calls for fossil fuel and prison divestment Thursday evening.

Over the past few months, the two campaigns — Divest Harvard and the Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign — have ramped up their demands for the University to divest its nearly $40 billion endowment from companies related to the fossil fuel industry and the United States prison system.

Before the two Harvard administrators — who were slated to discuss how universities can promote economic opportunity — could begin their exchange at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum, protesters within the crowd stood up from their seats holding signs with slogans like “Demand: Divest!”

Six protestors took the stage and sat down in front of Long and Bacow.

Kennedy School Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf told protestors they could demonstrate but urged them to move to the back of the forum to allow audience members to see Long and Bacow.

“I understand that some of you want to make a point, and you can make that point, but I’m ­

By JONAH S. BERGER and MOLLY C. MCCAFFERTY CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Harvard is investigating the University’s head fencing coach after he allegedly engaged in real estate and non-profit transactions involving the family of current and former students on the team, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Claudine Gay wrote in an email to FAS affiliates Thursday.

Peter Brand, Harvard’s head men and women’s fencing coach, sold his Needham, Mass. house to iTalk Global Communications, Inc. co-founder Jie Zhao in 2016 for hundreds of thousands of dollars above its valuation, the Boston Globe reported Thursday. Zhao’s younger son, a sophomore, was admitted to Harvard shortly after and is currently a member of the fencing team. His older son, who was also a member of the fencing team, graduated from Harvard in 2018.

Harvard was notified of the allegations against Brand on Monday, according to Gay’s email. The University has since opened an “independent review.”

Zhao told the Globe he decided to buy Brand’s house after he heard Brand complain about his long commute to campus. He denied that Brand sought him out for the purchase, calling it a “good investment.” Zhao never lived in the house, and he sold it at a loss of more than $300,000 just 17 months after first purchasing it.

One week after Zhao purchased Brand’s Needham residence, Brand and his wife allegedly paid $1.3 million for a Cambridge home, roughly $300,000 above its asking price.

Zhao and Brand did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Gay’s announcement about the independent investigation comes in the wake of a nationwide admissions scandal in which 50 people have been charged for participating in a scheme involving bribing university officials and falsifying test scores to earn the children of wealthy entrepreneurs and celebrities entrance to top universities. Harvard was not one of the universities implicated.

Gay wrote in her email that it is the University’s “current understanding” that the allegations against Brand are not related to the scandal and that Harvard has admissions protocols meant to safeguard the process from interference. She noted that all athletes must be interviewed and approved by the College’s roughly 40-person admissions committee.

SEE FENCING PAGE 5

SEE DIVEST PAGE 5

Protestors from Divest Harvard and the Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign interrupt an Institute of Politics event featuring University President Lawrence S. Bacow Thursday evening. AMY Y. LI—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

University President Lawrence S. Bacow attempts to quiet protestors before exiting the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum. AMY Y. LI—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

SEE PARENTS PAGE 4

Graduate Student Parents Face Steep Costs, Isolation

By LUKE A. WILLIAMS CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Forty-eight hours before the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences’ first week of classes began, new Ph.D. student and active military member Timothy R. Bauler welcomed his first child at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Two days later, Bauler rode the train from MGH to Harvard Square, wandered around campus, entered multiple wrong buildings, and finally walked into his first class at GSAS — with spit up on his shirt.

But the trials of being both a graduate student and a parent often go much further beyond spit up­

caused embarrassment.

In any given year, more than one in twenty graduate students in GSAS are also parents. Some are single parents, some are married to other Ph.D. students, and others have one, two, or three or more children. But they all face similar issues, ranging from healthcare and childcare costs to the social isolation that comes with being a student-parent.

As recently as 1995, Harvard had no significant financial or social policies in place specifically addressing the challenges student-parents face. Resources for student-parents were limited to daycare services, and the University was just starting to

talk about maternity and paternity leaves, according to self-proclaimed scholar of GSAS student-parenthood Blakely B. O’Connor.

“You had your children and you just did it by yourself. There was nothing.

You didn’t expect that the graduate school was going to help you,” said Dean of Student Affairs Garth O. McCavana — a GSAS student-parent himself during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The lack of assistance prompted McCavana to create new student-parenthood policies and assistance at GSAS when he became dean of student affairs in 1995.

SEE PARENTS PAGE 4

Several buildings on campus, including Agassiz House in Radcliffe Yard, bear the Agassiz name. ROBERT H. EDWARDS—CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

By JULIET E. ISSELBACHER CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

A recent lawsuit accusing former zoology professor Louis Agassiz of using photos of slaves to promote racist ideologies has reignited conversations about his name and legacy, but, according to Harvard staff and faculty, the Agassiz name on campus honors the contributions of his wife and son rather than his own.

The lawsuit — which was ­

filed in March — alleges that Harvard illegally owns and commodifies daguerreotypes depicting slaves from the American South. Tamara Lanier, the plaintiff, is arguing that the two of the people depicted are her ancestors and that the University has refused to recognize her claim to the images. All 15 people — both male and female — are shirtless, and two of the men

SEE AGASSIZ PAGE 5

Law School Students Call for Release of Mental Health Survey Results

By CONNOR W.K. BROWN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Posters calling on Harvard Law School to publicly release the findings of a student mental health survey conducted in 2017 were plastered across campus last weekend as prospective Law School students visited campus for an admitted students weekend.

Harvard University Health Services distributed the survey to Law School students in November 2017 as part of a broad­

Anastacia Awad, Ruben Lozano-Aguilera, Ken Armstead and Lydia Villa-Komaroff speak about their experiences with diversity in STEM during a SEAS event. KATHRYN S. KUMAR —CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Harvard Today 2

Agassiz Name Honors Wife and Son

From spending much of their stipend on healthcare to experiencing social isolation and stress, student-parents face many issues.

SEE PAGE 3

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Bacow responds to audience questions about the role of higher education in creating economic opportunity. AMY Y. LI—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

News 3

Editorial 6

Sports 8

TODAY’S FORECAST

er administrative effort across the University to address mental health issues on campus. The Law School has yet to release the full findings, but administrators presented a portion of the results at a public event in March 2018 and previous members of the Law School’s student government wrote an op-ed on the results.

The posters, addressed to prospective students, accused administrators of refusing to release the entire survey because of their reluctance to address

CLOUDY High: 47 Low: 38

mental health concerns on campus.

“The administration is refusing to release — and actively covering up — data from this mental health survey, in part because they are trying to escape responsibility for their failing mental health support systems,” the posters read. “The student body and the broader public deserve to know how bad things are, and we must know to be part of any real conversation

SEE LAW PAGE 3

VISIT THECRIMSON.COM. FOLLOW @THECRIMSON ON TWITTER.

kettle

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

APRIL 5, 2019

PAGE 2

HARVARD TODAY

For Lunch Honey Mustard Chicken Red’s Best Fresh Catch Hummus Florentine Sandwich

For Dinner Caribbean Jerk Chicken Creole Shrimp Roasted Jamaican Tofu

TODAY’S EVENTS Cheat Codes Production Workshop 6-8 p.m.

IN THE REAL WORLD

Promise me no promises… besides your attendance at this production workshop and Q&A with Cheat Codes!

Due to limited space, there is a lottery for the event, so hope that you’re lucky enough to keep your promise.

Trump Reacts to Accusations Against Biden

On Thursday, Trump posted a video mocking a homemade video released by former vice president Biden in which Biden addresses allegations of sexual misconduct. To many, Trump’s post is a reminder of the dozen women who accused him of sexual misconduct and assault.

2019 Student Art Show 6-9 p.m.

Trump Retreats on Border Threat

Join the Harvard Undergraduate Student Art Collective for the opening night of the 11th Annual Student Art Show. Bring your friends and your ~artsy~ side to the Arts Wing of the Smith Campus Center for a wholesome night of student art, performances, and refreshments.

Flowers bloom along the Charles river as crew teams practice in the afternoon sunlight.

KATHRYN S. KUHAR —CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

FBI Says Missing Child Still Lost

DAILY BRIEFING IGP Presents: The Spring Show 8-9 p.m.

Celebrate the start of spring with Harvard’s premier long-form improv comedy group, the Immediate Gratification Players. Come to the Fong Auditorium for a free and fun-ny use of your Friday night.

President Donald Trump has threatened to close the border from earlier this week and is giving Mexico one year to address the smuggling of illegal drugs into the U.S. Trump says that if the inflow of drugs continues, the U.S. will place tariffs on Mexico or eventually close the border if all else fails.

The University has commissioned an independent investigation into head fencing coach Peter Brand after allegations surfaced that Brand had engaged in real estate and non-profit transactions with the family of current and former student-athletes. The father of the students bought Brand’s Needham, Mass. home for hundreds of thousands of dollars above its valuation. In other news, divestment protesters interrupted a Institute of Politics panel featuring University President Lawrence S. Bacow, forcing the event to relocate into a nearby classroom.

Individuals who discovered a person wandering in a Kentucky neighborhood identified him as Timmothy Pitzen, who disappeared from Aurora, Ill. nearly eight years ago. DNA results have proved that he is not the missing child, and unfortunately the search for Pitzen continues.

AROUND THE IVIES DARTMOUTH

Dartmouth will implement changes to its admissions practices after the nationwide ‘Operation Varsity Blues’ college admissions scandal, according to The Dartmouth. College spokesperson Diana Lawrence said that the Admissions Office will first review an applicant’s academic credentials, ensuring that they are fully qualified, before an athletic coach is allowed to vouch for them as a recruit. The director of IMG Academy, which has been charged for its fraudulent practices in helping students gain admission to several universities, claimed in his online biography that he has previously helped applicants get into Dartmouth. The FBI has not implicated Dartmouth in its investigation.

BROWN

CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta discussed his experience reporting in the current political atmosphere at an event at Brown, the Daily Herald reported. “You have to be willing to sacrifice yourself and take the hits in order to get the news that will be penetrating,” Acosta said. “We cannot let intimidation efforts bully us into silence.” Acosta also spoke about the impact of technology on the field of journalism.

He said that due to increasing concerns around the safety of reporters’ communications, he began using encrypted messaging under the Obama administration, citing the “climate of fear” that envelops the profession.

YALE

Yale graduate student leaders are negotiating with administrators to improve dental care access, according to the Daily News. Dental care is currently not included in the health insurance package, although students can purchase care outside of Yale’s health system. Currently, the dental plan is overseen by unpaid student volunteers, making it the only graduate student dental plan in the entire Ivy League that is entirely student-run.

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 Luke W. Xu ’20

Design Editor Matthew J. Tyler ’22

Assistant Night Editors Jonah S. Berger ’21 Katelyn X. Li ’21

Photo Editor Kathryn S. Kuhar ’20

Story Editors Caroline S. Engelmayer ’20 Angela N. Fu ’20 Jamie D. Halper ’20 Michael E. Xie ’20

Editorial Editor Anna M. Kuritzkes ’20 Sports Editor James Joyce ’22

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 5, 2019

HMS Financial Aid Group Formed SEAS Highlights Diversity Week

By ALEXIS K. BOLNER CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Harvard Medical School convened a student financial aid subcommittee last semester to incorporate student voices into financial aid policy decisions.

The subcommittee was created to bring student voices into the fold as administrators consider ways to address student debt concerns surrounding higher education, according to Sarah Carey, associate director of financial aid at the Medical School. Four student representatives sit on the subcommittee after completing an annual application process coordinated by the student council. Applicants must also meet with the director of financial aid.

“The Financial Aid Committee has long included students among its membership. This fall we convened a student subcommittee to further strengthen our partnership with students,” Carey wrote in a email. “They are volunteers who join us in working toward a shared goal of

LAW FROM PAGE 1

Law Students: Release Survey about change.”

Law School Dean of Students Marcia L. Sells wrote in an email to The Crimson that the claims accusing the Law School of intentionally hiding the full results out of fear of public perceptions have no basis.

“The suggestion that the Law School is withholding information to protect its reputation or to wait students out is ridiculous and offensive,” Sells wrote.“The well-being of our students is an important issue that we take very seriously, and we are committed to creating substantive solutions and support mechanisms for all of our students.”

Mary C. Rockett, a Law School student involved in the production and distribution of the posters, said she decided to take direct action after numerous conversations with Sells where Rockett said the dean declined to release the full results.

“We tried to do this activism because we’re not getting any response from the administration through traditional kind of meetings and follow up calls,” Rockett said. ­

This process has been going on for a year.

Mary C. Rockett Law School Student

“This process has been going on for a year. It is not really about showing up the administration, but putting these issues back into the conversation,” she added. “This is one of the only ways we really have at this point.”

Rockett she said she believes Law School administrators are worried about how students would react to the survey results if they were fully released.

Sells wrote that in addition to presenting the abridged survey findings during a public forum, the administration has taken other steps to improve student well-being on campus. These initiatives include establishing a working group comprising students, faculty, administrators, and mental health professionals to evaluate mental health issues at the school. The Law School has also coordinated with HUHS. “HLS is working in partnership with [HUHS Director Paul J.] Barreira and HUHS to understand the data and to consider what additional support services may be needed,” Sells wrote.

Sells added that the Law School’s results were consistent with findings at other Harvard graduate schools.

“While the survey results are in line with those seen among students in other professions and graduate programs, we are taking them seriously and they are an important indicator that all of us – in graduate programs and in the legal profession – must continue to work on this important issue,” Sells wrote. connor.brown@thecrimson.com

reducing student debt.”

Keizra S. Mecklai, a Medical School student on the subcommittee, said the group provides students with an opportunity to speak directly with administrators about ideas that either haven’t been tried before or “deserve to be further investigated.” The subcommittee also allows students to make more substantial contributions to larger committee meetings.

Harvard, in general, really values its diversity.

Nicholos P. Joseph HMS Student Council Presidnet

“We meet the month before the full financial aid committee meeting to further investigate an idea,” Mecklai said. “That would actually allow us to have agenda time on the financial aid committee’s agenda, so that we could present the idea. It’s ba-

sically just an infrastructural way to make sure that student ideas are being heard.”

Nicholos P. Joseph, president of the Medical School student council, said the formation of this subcommittee was one of his goals coming into his term.

“I came in this year with a vision to really foster community and to incorporate student voices into financial aid,” he said. “I think one big thing is that Harvard, in general, really values its diversity. That’s one of the cornerstones of it’s admissions policies, so we have been trying to foster that community through a variety of different ways.”

Harvard’s involvement of student voices in conversations about financial aid and mitigating student debt comes in the wake of New York University Medical School’s decision last summer to eliminate tuition for all MD students. At the same, Harvard Medical School Dean George Q. Daly ’82 informed students that Harvard would not be following suit.

Edward Hundert, dean for

medical education, said at the time that the school makes need based financial aid decisions.

“What we’re trying to do is make sure that, as we allocate our scholarship funds, that we do it based on the calculated ability to pay of people who apply, so that we don’t get into the possibility that a students from a family of considerable means is getting more of our aid relative to a student of more limited means,” he said in September.

Harvard’s newly formed student subcommittee met once in January, but Mecklai said she has already seen the committee’s influence.

“I think the biggest impact right now is establishing a structural way for students to have input on part of the agenda for financial aid committee meetings,” she said. “At the least, we are just offering our opinions on initiatives or agenda items that were offered by the administration and actually being able to have a hand in that.” alexis.bolner@thecrimson.com.

HBS Seeks to Expand Female Student Oriented Offerings

By SAM E. SHARFSTEIN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Dean of Harvard Business School Nitin Nohria said the school has continued to focus on improving gender diversity in recent years following a 2015 push to address deep-rooted disparities at the school.

Nohria said in recent years the school has created a number of admissions and outreach strategies aimed at attracting and retaining a more diverse student population during an interview Tuesday.

“There’s a much more intentional effort to create an educational, as well as a social, experience at Harvard Business School that reflects the diversity of our students,” Nohria said.

He said the school has built its efforts around the goal of ensuring that students from all backgrounds can thrive at the school. One way the school has attempted to do this is by reaching out to newly admitted students and talking to them about the ways the school supports students who might not traditionally see themselves as part of the demographic the school serves.

“Whenever we admit someone, [we] approach that person to make sure that they understand that Harvard Business School would be welcoming of them,” Nohria said.

In recent years, the school has broadened programs like Peek Weekend, which allows students to visit campus and experience the MBA program before applying to the business school. The program, launched in 2015 alongside a series of other gender diversity-focused initiatives, at first only targeted students from traditionally women’s colleges, but has ­

since expanded to include students from other backgrounds and schools as well. “That’s a way to make sure that the funnel of people coming into Harvard Business School is more diverse,” said Nohria.

Once new students arrive on campus, the school has also created a variety of structures and groups to fuel a more inclusive environment. Nohria said that creating specific roles in the business school’s sections — groups of students in each class year that take courses together — has helped teach the value of diversity in the classroom.

“Every section at Harvard Business School now has the students have elected a [Diversity and Inclusion] officer, they have created a [Diversity and Inclusion] council,” said Nohria.

“We meet with that group so that we’re trying to work these issues not one group by one group, but even to look across things that are common across all of the underrepresented minority groups at Harvard Business School,” he added.

The school has also put in place programs aimed to increase gender diversity in the business world at large. The Gender Initiative, also launched in 2015, is a three pronged program supporting women business leaders and gender equity through greater faculty engagement with the topic of gender, according to Colleen C. Ammerman, the initiative’s director. “The school saw a need and an opportunity to create more of a community for that work,” Ammerman said.

One of the Gender Initiative’s aspects is educational opportunities, which include the Women on Boards executive education program. The

mid-career program started in 2015 and has seen an increase in enrollment from 60 women in its first year to more than 140 women last year.

Program co-chair and Business School Professor Boris Groysberg said it is meant to put women in a position to move up the corporate ladder and secure seats on corporate boards.

“We take unbelievably great women from around the world and we hope to teach them — during the period of the program — how boards work, what are the stakeholders, what are the functions and responsibilities of the board,” Groysberg said.

Nohria said the school has also worked to ensure that gender diversity efforts don’t end when students graduate. The Business School hosts periodic conferences to bring together female alumni around the world in an effort to bolster their networks.

“We had the Boston Women’s Leadership Accelerator — these are women alumnae who have organized a conference where they get together,” Nohria said. “Now we have had one after that in San Francisco, we’ve now had one in New York, we are thinking of one in London.”

The school plans to use these conferences as a model for creating events supporting underrepresented minority groups as well, according to Nohria.

“People from some of these underrepresented groups at Harvard Business School, even after they graduate from the school, [can] be a resource to each other,” Nohria said. “How can we as a school help them be a resource for each other?” sam.sharfstein@thecrimson.com

Transformative coverage.

The Crimson thecrimson.com

By RUTH A. HAILU and AMY L. JIA CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

The School of Engineering and Applied Sciences hosted its second annual “Building Relationships, Increasing Diversity, and Growing Engineers” Week this past week, bringing together students, faculty, staff, and administrators for a series of events highlighting diversity issues in STEM. BRIDGE Week originated after leaders of three student organizations at SEAS — the Society of Women Engineers, the National Society of Black Engineers, and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers — collaborated to celebrate a SEAS alumnus who had contributed to engineering and advanced diversity in STEM, according to SEAS Director of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Alexis J. Stokes.

“They decided to do a number of events that celebrated diversity but was also about expanding our knowledge of the best practices of creating this diverse, inclusive, and welcoming environment,” Stokes said.

Sayo R. Eweje ’19, who helped organize the inaugural BRIDGE Week last year as president of Harvard’s chapter of NSBE, said he hoped the event would provide a space for people with diverse backgrounds to come together and discuss approaches to address ongoing diversity issues in STEM. This year’s BRIDGE Week programming included a summit on gender equity in STEM and an “Out in STEM” panel discussion featuring BGLTQ faculty, researchers, and industry professionals. Guest speakers included Computer Science Professor Edward W. Kohler; President Emeritus of NSBE Boston Chiderah Okoye Nordee; and Nigel Jacob, the co-founder of a civic innovation incubator.

SEAS alumna Michi E. Garrison ’83 received the Harvard SEAS Distinguished Engineer Award at the BRIDGE Banquet held in the Faculty Club Wednesday. In her acceptance speech, she shared her experiences working in the medical device industry after graduating with a degree in Biomechanical Engineering.

Garrison said she thinks gender and racial disparities in engineering stem from an “inherent bias many people have about women and minorities, especially in the technical field.” She urged students to develop professional networks and form personal connections in order to open the door to new opportunities, regardless of the particular career path they chose to pursue.

Andrea S. Rodriguez-Marin Freudmann ’20, president of the Society of Women Engineers, said she thinks it is important for the awardee to be a Harvard graduate. “If it’s a big struggle for you and you don’t have anybody you feel like you can rely on and you don’t feel like you’re included in the com­

munity, then you might be inclined to leave,” she said. “We’re there to try and fix that problem and I think that we thought that showcasing someone who made it — you know, providing role models essentially — would be a great way to encourage people to stick with it.”

Thursday’s BRIDGE Week event showcased a panel discussion on promoting diversity in STEM industry spaces.

This event was a part of the “I’ll Make Me a World” speaker series, developed last summer by Electrical Engineering student Winston E. Michalak ’21 in collaboration with History of Science Department Chair Evelynn M. Hammonds.

The panel featured Lydia Villa-Komaroff, founder and principal of consulting firm Intersections SBD; Rubén Lozano-Aguilera, a product manager at Google; Kenneth Armstead, co-founder and principal of BHC Macro Investment Management, LLC; and Anastacia Awad, the associate director and head of emerging talent and leadership at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research “The aim of the speaker series is to celebrate the diversity that already exists in STEM by highlighting the accomplishments of the incredible panelists that we’ve invited tonight and the incredible individuals that we’ll invite in the future and that we have invited in the past,” Michalak said.

The conversation, which Hammonds moderated, began with brief remarks from each of the panelists and questions from the moderator, before transitioning into a dialogue between audience members and the panelists.

“For me, STEM and science and technology are about solving problems, but we need to be able to identify what the problems are,” Lozano-Aguilera said. “If we can’t identify those problems, we can’t solve them, and that’s where having a diverse workforce will be able to rectify those problems.”

Several people at the event discussed ways to increase support for diversity-related initiatives in STEM. “I think what we haven’t done is scale the things that we know work and provide support for people and keep a lot of knowledge out there about what these things do. I think that’s the problem we’ve gotta solve at some point,” Hammonds said.

Michalak said he hopes to broaden the range of panelists invited to speak at future lecture series in order to demonstrate to students, faculty, administration, and staff that “there are people, all sorts of people, working in all sorts of field in STEM.” “If you are a student or if you are anyone at the College or anyone anywhere, no matter what you look like, no matter where you come from, there is someone like you working in a STEM-related field,” he said. ruth.hailu@thecrimson.com amy.jia@thecrimson.com

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

APRIL 5, 2019

PAGE 4

PARENTS FROM PAGE 1

GSAS Student-Parents Struggle In 2012, GSAS started the Parental Accommodation and Financial Support “was inadequate.” Even though it paid for one year of health insurance for her child, she wasn’t sure how she would afford insurance the next year.

Graduate students receive a stipend of approximately $36,000 before taxes, and many teach classes once they are eligible to earn more money. International students, however, are restricted in how much they can work — leaving some hardpressed to support families.

As Osuna prepared for her general exams, she searched for a way to renew her child’s health insurance, which she said she found to be “almost impossible” to pay for. Unable to bear the financial burden, she sought advice from a Harvard financial adviser, who repeatedly told her loans would be the best option.

“I felt so sad when I was asking for money,” she said. “Then, with the support of my advisor, my mind changed.”

All eight student-parents interviewed said their professors and advisers have been the most helpful resource they’ve found at Harvard after becoming a parent. With the help of her adviser and Yun, Osuna ­

I felt so sad when I was asking for money. Then, with the support of my advisor, my mind changed.

Angélica Marquez Osuna Student-Parent

abandoned the Harvard insurance plan and instead enrolled in Massachusetts State Health Connector, which on average decreases the cost of child health insurance by $1,500. In comparison, Harvard’s insurance plan costs $2,000 on average per semester.

GSAS administrators have said PAFS can serve as a resource for student-parents needing funding for health insurance or other costs associated with having a child.

“Supporting student parents is an important goal for GSAS and we work with individual students and with student leaders to assist and develop new programming,” wrote GSAS spokesperson Ann Hall.

Erin E. Williams, student-parent and active member of the military, receives healthcare and subsidized child care from her military benefits. She said she frequently sees other parents reduce their personal coverage to save money.

“But you don’t want to do that to your kids,” Williams said. “They’re too valuable to you. So that’s where it becomes hard.”

SPO Co-Chair David A. Romney said he shared Osuna’s disappointment with the University’s lack of assistance with healthcare after parents use up PAFS funds. Romney and his wife took on debt to assist covering the cost of health insurance for their two children before his wife started working.

“Paying for my wife’s insurance and for insurance for the two kids was, you know, $10,000 to $15,000 a year, which is...close to half of your stipend,” Romney said. “There’s not a lot left after that.”

‘THE BIGGEST ISSUE’

The financial burdens student-parents face extend well beyond just healthcare costs.

Though some student-parents are able to have their partner’s insurance plans cover their children, all must pay for child care. Each of the eight stu-

I know that child care often costs more than rent.

Blakely B. O’Connor Co-Chair, Student-Parents Organization

dent-parents interviewed said child care in Boston costs between $2,000 and $2,500 per month.

“I know that child care often costs more than rent,” O’Connor said. “Boston is already one of the most expensive cities to live in, so if your child care is even one half times your rent, it makes it very difficult to manage your budget.”

Student-parent Kelsey Hanson-Woodruff called child care costs the “biggest issue” she has faced as a student.

“I’m paying more for child care than I get paid in my stipend,” Hanson-Woodruff said.

Harvard owns six child care facilities across campus. Many students said they opt for Boston-based centers instead because they are cheaper and closer to where they live.

Daycare aside, even the cost of single-night care or the use of nannies can get expensive. Romney said he regularly spends anywhere from $19-$22 an hour for child supervision.

GSAS recently started subsidizing online child care service “Care.com” for graduate students. Though several student-parents said they have found the program useful, they said it often serves more as an emergency resource because the school will only subsidize ten uses of the website per semester.

In contrast, Cornell’s Student Child-Care Grant Program allows student-parent families with an annual income of less than $120,000 to apply each year for $12,000 childcare grants, $1,000 of additional awards, and employment for a non-student unemployed spouse, according to Assistant Dean of Graduate Life at Cornell Janna S. Lamey.

While the Cornell grant program is application-based, Harvard provides funding and paid leave to all students who request a PAFS grant, according to Hall.

In 2018 the SPO leadership surveyed student-parents and found that more than 50 percent of respondents had ranked subsidized child care as “the most important family-related initiative that the university could undertake.”

They presented their findings to the GSAS administration and suggested the finan-

cial burden of child care could be alleviated by adding a bonus to student-parents’ stipends for each child.

Though the suggestion was “positively” received, the SPO never heard back from GSAS administration, according to Romney.

Hall declined to comment on the meeting.

Student-parents have also asked the graduate students union to address student-parent needs in the contract they are currently negotiating with the University.

Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers bargaining committee member Madeleine F. Jennewein wrote in an email that HGSU-UAW has supported the interests of student-parents since bargaining first started.

“The costs of having a family while also being a student are too high, and Harvard should do more to support student worker parents, both financially and with other forms of support,” Jennewein wrote. “Our union is calling for policies such as subsidies for childcare, guaranteed paid leaves, and dependent health insurance at no cost.”

Osuna said that when she lived in California with her husband who is also a graduate student, the union at his school — University of California, Santa Barbara — pushed the university to offer subsidized child care. “[The UC’s] have a union, and that union is helpful,” she said.

“If you’re an international student with a partner and you come to the university, they have a list of jobs your partner can take in the university…

They also have fellowships specifically for student-parents.

They also have a reduced rate for child care. It’s about $400 per month, and here it’s about $2,000.”

“There’s this cultural awareness about what’s going on when you’re a parent in the UC system that doesn’t exist here at Harvard,” she added.

THE STUDENT-PARENT EXPERIENCE

Though some student-parents manage to connect with other students facing similar issues and create a supportive network, others are not as lucky.

“Socially I’m kind of a lone wolf,” said student-parent and single mother Lisa A. Kostur.

“I don’t have anybody around me who has the same situation with the same responsibilities…

I don’t have a mirror.”

Kostur said that she “buffers” her student and parent identities. While at school, she keeps her parenthood to herself, and while at home she tries not to bring up her work.

“I’m never being a student-parent. I’m either being a student, or a parent. That’s how I do it. I can’t do it any other way,” she said.

The lack of a formalized path or example to follow is a common struggle many student-parents said they face at GSAS. “There are no institutional paths that you can follow,” Osuna said. “And as an international student of color that’s very complicated. I think that Har-

vard is about 60 years behind where it should be.”

Yun said GSAS purposefully allows students to decide how they will spend their PAFS funding because it allows student-parents to better suit their own needs.

The time associated with child care also means that student-parents rarely have time to participate in extracurricular groups or programming, often leaving them socially isolated.

Graduate student-parents’ days usually begin before 8 a.m., when they drop their chil-

It was extremely mentally distracting.

David A. Romney Co-Chair, Student-Parents Organization

dren off at daycare. For many, 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. is reserved for schoolwork — made difficult by the fact that collaborative projects and office hours generally do not operate so early in the day. Then, when classes end at 6 p.m., student-parents often rush home to pick up children, make dinner, and put their kids to bed.

“I’d love to be involved in student activities, but I can’t,” Osuna said.

Romney said he struggled to balance his work as a graduate student with parenting responsibilities during his first year as a father.

“It was extremely mentally distracting,” he said. “I want to do research and there’s this constant nagging in the back of my mind, like, you know, we’re living from paycheck to paycheck, and I don’t know exactly where we’re going to find the money to pay for health insurance when it comes due.”

Under O’Connor’s direction, the Graduate Student Council and SPO have worked to create programming specifically for student-parents. Their most important event of the year is the GSAS Family’s Brunch, an event during orientation week focused on connecting student-parents and creating a support network.

The GSC and SPO have also worked to gather data on student-parents and their challenges — information they regularly present to GSAS deans and from which they formulate policy proposals.

Even now, the GSC is looking to perform an in-depth assessment of lactation rooms across campus — many of which have fallen into disarray and are only accessible via a cumbersome online reservation system. After the assessment, the GSC will discuss renovating the rooms and rebuilding the online system to make it easier to use.

Despite the help that faculty and groups like the GSC and SPO offer, many graduate student-parents maintain that the work of the University is not finished.

“If there is no awareness about healthcare, housing, childcare, about the families needing help, and international students having babies, I think

Dean Claybaugh Outlines Priorities

By JONAH S. BERGER and MOLLY C. MCCAFERTY CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh said she plans on reexamining undergraduate advising, improving professors’ teaching, and reforming courses that “weed” out students in an interview Thursday.

Claybaugh — who assumed her position in July 2018, replacing Jewish Studies Professor Jay M. Harris — is responsible for overseeing the College’s curriculum, the Program in General Education, academic advising, and career services.

Claybaugh said one of her main priorities in the years ahead is to “do more” with academic advising, a request undergraduates have put to her since she took office. In particular, she hopes to pair students with advisers more tailored to their concentrations and focus on identifying common sources of academic stress.

“At the College, we care about the whole student, but each of us has a particular responsibility to a particular part of the student,” Claybaugh said.

“I think that what we can do on the academic side is help respond to students’ stress, student anxiety, by helping to address the root causes.”

Claybaugh said she hopes to develop a pedagogical class for faculty members to teach them “best practices” to address the “particular” needs of Harvard students. She said such an instructional program is still in its early stages, but believes that it would be well-received among faculty.

“I think it would send a very clear signal that Harvard expects its faculty to be excellent ­

teachers as well as excellent researchers,” Claybaugh said. “I think that I very seldom meet a faculty member who doesn’t care about teaching, but many of us have received no actual training in teaching.”

It would send a very clear signal that Harvard expects its faculty to be excellent teachers Amanda Claybaugh Dean of Undergraduate Education

She noted that many professors simply teach the way they were taught as students, even if that style is not ideal for the material they are now teaching.

“There are many kinds of assignments and many models of course design other than a kind of standard lecture or seminar that faculty just didn’t experience themselves,” Claybaugh said. “So I think faculty are very willing. I think it would just be helpful to give them tools.”

Claybaugh also said she wants to work with individual departments to ensure students are not forced out of concentrations because of their ability level.

“I think we are no longer willing to just watch students sink or swim,” she said. “And so that means that we need to really scrutinize where students seem to be falling through the cracks, and figure out how we can work with individual courses, with departments, to ensure that all of our students flourish equally.” jonah.berger@thecrimson.com molly.mccafferty@thecrimson.com

The latest on student life.

luke.williams@thecrimson.com.

The inside scoop, 24/7.

The Crimson @thecrimson

The Crimson @crimsonflyby

PAGE 5

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | APRIL 5, 2019

FENCING FROM PAGE 1

DIVEST FROM PAGE 1

AGASSIZ FROM PAGE 1

Head Fencing Coach Faces Investigation

Protestors Push Bacow to Divest

Agassiz Name Honors Wife, Son

Zhao and Brand are also tenuously connected through a separate set of non-profit financial transactions that took place around the time his older son, who was also on the fencing team, was admitted to the College. Zhao told the Globe he donated $1 million to the National Fencing Foundation of Washington D.C. in 2013, the largest donation by far that the foundation had ever received. That same year, Brand and his wife formed a non-profit foundation in Delaware which received $100,000 from the National Fencing Foundation.

Zhao’s older son said in an interview with The Crimson that he was unaware of the donations until this week and has not heard from the University or outside counsel about the investigation. He pointed out that he was admitted to the College through the Early Action program in December 2013, months before he says his father’s donation “went through.”

College spokesperson Rachael Dane wrote in an emailed

statement that the University is “committed” to upholding the “integrity of our recruitment practices.”

Brand could have violated National Collegiate Athletic Association rules with the acceptance of that donation, de-

There’s potential there that that could end up being a violation of the rules regarding coaches reporting and accepting outside income if he personally benefitted from that money.

Rick Allen Founder of Informed Athlete

pending on how he used it and whether he took the requisite steps to record the contribution, according to Rick Allen,

founder of Informed Athlete, which helps prospective college athletes navigate NCAA rules.

“There’s potential there that that could end up being a violation of the rules regarding coaches reporting and accepting outside income if he personally benefited from that money,” he said in an interview with The Crimson. “It would have to depend on whether the money was reported and how it was utilized.”

Though Allen said Zhao’s purchase of the house would likely not constitute an NCAA violation, Zhao’s decision to buy plane tickets for multiple members of the fencing team could run afoul of regulations around “impermissible benefits.”

Allen cautioned, though, that it likely depended on whether the other students on the flights were longtime friends of Zhao’s sons and if the trips were for competition or purely for leisure. jonah.berger@thecrimson.com molly.mccafferty@thecrimson.com

Never miss a moment.

The Crimson @thecrimson

afraid [what] you can’t do is hinder the ability of other people here to listen to our speakers,” Elmendorf said.

Elmendorf struggled to quiet the protestors for several minutes, until Bacow stood up and gave a terse address.

“First of all, I would like to tell you that Harvard has never had an experience to my knowledge in recent memory where a speaker has not been allowed to speak,” Bacow said. “I hope this will not be the first time that that happens.”

Bacow also told the protestors he would respond to “reason” instead of “pressure,” reiterating comments he made during a meeting with members of the prison divestment campaign last month.

He noted that he was “happy” to meet with them again, but for the sake of those in attendance at the discussion, he planned to continue the event.

“You can hold your signs in the back, but we’re all here to have a conservation about higher education,” Bacow said.

“You’re not being helpful to your cause and I suspect you’re also not gaining many friends or many allies in the audience by virtue in the way in which you choose to express your point of view.”

After protestors refused to leave the stage, Bacow, along with Long, Elmendorf, and members of the audience, left the forum to congregate in a fourth-floor Kennedy School classroom to continue their conversation.

Once Bacow had left the room, divestment protestors remained chanting “Who shut it down? We shut it down. If we don’t get it, shut it down.”

Law School student Joanna C. Anyanwu, a member of HPDC, said after the protest that the activists had succeeded in garnering the desired response from administrators.

“I mean they were obviously upset,” Anyanwu said. “And I guess I didn’t expect them to be as visibly livid. But it’s clear that we got under their skin, which is good.”

Still, Anyanwu said her group was “open to more dialogue” with Bacow.

“He has our information and if he ever wants to talk to us, he’s free to do so,” she said.

After relocating, Bacow and Long continued their conversation without further disruptions. In an interview with The Crimson following the event, Bacow addressed his frustrations with the protestors.

“If they believe this is the way to persuade people of the rightness of their cause, they’re grossly mistaken,” Bacow said.

Bacow also referenced his “multiple” meetings with students about divestment, a trend he said he is now hesitant to

The T closes. We don’t.

Breaking news, 24/7.

The Crimson thecrimson.com

continue.

“Their behavior tonight does not encourage me to meet with them again,” Bacow said.

“As I said, I respond to reason, not to pressure, and what we saw tonight was not reason.” he added.

While Harvard is not a stranger to divestment movements on its campus, the two groups have escalated their efforts in recent months.

Both fossil fuel and prison divestment advocates have marched through Harvard Yard, released petitions that have garnered wide-support from Harvard affiliates, and met withBacow himself.

Prison divestment advocates also displayed a banner condemning Harvard’s investments in prison-related companies during a Tuesday gender equity summer where Bacow was speaking.

Thursday’s protest, however, marks the first time the groups have come together to demonstrate for their causes.

In addition to Thursday evening’s encounter, Bacow’s chief of staff, Patricia Bellinger, wrote an email Wednesday to fossil fuel divestment advocates

As I said, I respond to reason, not to pressure, and what we saw tonight was not reason.

Lawrence S. Bacow University President

declining their request that he attend a public forum to discuss Harvard’s holdings of fossil fuel-related assets.

His decline comes on the heels of a Tuesday Faculty of Arts and Sciences meeting in which Bacow said he would look into hosting in a forum with professors about the subject.

Ilana A. Cohen ’22, a member of Divest Harvard, said an open dialogue between students and administrators on divestment is vital to upholding the University’s position as a “responsible institutional actor.”

“We think it’s essential that the administration is actually willing to engage with us in a dialogue,” Cohen said.

“It’s very different to simply put out positions, or make points in articles to The Crimson than it is to actually engage your students in conversation around an issue that is so pertinent,” Cohen added.

University spokesperson Jonathan L. Swain declined to comment on the call for a student forum, referring to Bellinger’s email. alexandra.chaidez@thecrimson.com amy.li@thecrimson.com

are stripped entirely nude, according to Ilisa Barbash, curator of visual anthropology at the Peabody Museum, which keeps the photos in its collections.

The suit alleges that Agassiz “commissioned” the photos, but Barbash said there is no evidence to suggest he actually did so. Nonetheless, she said Agassiz did eventually obtain the photos and use them to support his “despicable theory of polygenesis,” which states that different racial groups have different biological origins. This theory was used by defenders of slavery in the 19th century to argue that African and African-American people were inferior to white people.

Harvard spokesperson Rachael Dane declined to comment on further allegations in the lawsuit. Today, the Agassiz name is affiliated with named professorships, campus buildings, and Harvard museums.

The Museum of Comparative Zoology — which Agassiz founded in 1859 — is sometimes referred to as “the Agassiz Museum,” but James Hanken, the museum director, said it is unclear whether this nickname is a nod to Louis Agassiz or to his son, Alexander Agassiz, Class of 1855, who succeeded his father as director. “[Alexander is] responsible — because he was so wealthy — for building up the museum and everything. So my own hunch is that the term ‘the Agassiz Museum’ dates from his term,” Hanken said.

Hanken also noted that a large marble slab at the museum entrance bears Alexander Agassiz’s name. “This makes it more problematic — I mean, there’s a lot of different Agassiz’s,” Hanken added. “I think we owe them the courtesy and the the fairness of treating each individual on their own terms.”

The museum’s current website describes Louis Agassiz as “a great systematist, paleontologist and renowned teacher of natural history” — a fact Lanier specifically mentions in her complaint. The descriptions, however, does not mention his views on race or support of polygenesis. “We just figured, why get into all the controversies in that just quick overview?” Hanken said. “You know, he also was a scientific creationist, which we don’t embrace here, either, but we didn’t put that in.”

“He’s a great man of many contrasts and paradoxes,” Hanken added. “He did maintain views that are quite reprehensible by today’s standards and just flat out wrong, but he also was one of the world’s great naturalists of his day.” Hanken also said no named professorships given to faculty members recognize Louis Agassiz. Instead, the Agassiz name honors his son. “In my [email] footer, it says ‘Alexander Agassiz Professor.’

That’s the full name. By shorthand, we will refer to, ‘Yeah, he’s an Agassiz Professor’ — just among ourselves,” Hanken said.

“But everybody knows there’s only one kind of Agassiz professor.” A few blocks away from the museum in the Radcliffe Yard, the Agassiz House also prominently displays the Agassiz family name. But rather than Louis Agassiz, the full name inscribed is that of his wife: Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, who founded and served as the first president of Radcliffe College.

“It is worth noting that ECA was widowed by the time she founded Radcliffe,” Radcliffe Institute spokesperson Jane F. Huber wrote in an email Wednesday. “The building named for her here at Radcliffe was not constructed until 1904 and, by that time, Louis had been dead more than three decades.”

“The tendency to conflate a woman’s intellectual life with that of her domestic partner (without significant inquiry) is deeply incurious at best,” Huber added. Barbash said she remains “interested” in the Agassiz name’s legacy and effect on campus. “I’m interested in the name Agassiz as what that signals to people,” Barbash said.

“People have to make choices in how they deal with legacies.”

“We at the Peabody connect the works with the legacy of the person who collected them, and when we go to do right about them, we keep that legacy intact,” Barbash added. juliet.isselbacher@thecrimson.com

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | APRIL 5, 2019

PAGE 6

EDITORIAL THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD

COLUMN

No Auction, No Problem

Critique of Militarized Reason

L

ast week, Michael Cappucci — a senior vice president at the Harvard Management Company — asked on social media why colleges did not auction off some proportion of acceptance offers as a more transparent alternative to “a system where wealthy parents have to make shady payments.”

These comments, published on Cappucci’s public Linkedin page, come in the midst of the nationwide admissions scandal that has sparked broader conversations about inequities in college admissions.

Though this scandal has not affected Harvard as of publication, the University has announced plans to open an investigation into a separate scandal involving the head fencing coach.

The investigation comes as a response to his alleged involvement in suspicious real estate and non-profit transactions with the family of current and former team students.

It’s important to note that the comments made by Cappucci, which have since been deleted, were posted on his personal social media page; we fully recognize the distinction between Cappucci’s personal views and those of the HMC. However they remain disturbing in that they shed light on how a middle manager of Harvard’s $39.2 billion endowment perceives the role of merit in admissions.

The fact that Cappucci would suggest such an idea only serves to show how deeply entrenched the systems that exist to help wealthy families subvert the standard application process have become.

While the financial health of the University is important, we believe that Harvard must first and foremost com-

mit itself to championing merit as the grounds for admission — a commitment which Cappucci’s proposal directly contravenes.

Cappucci’s suggestion that the University further institutionalize wealthy students’ privileges seems to view wealth’s role in college admissions process as intractable, and that a fair admissions system is beyond our grasp. We do not agree with this assessment.

There are concrete steps the University can take to minimize the influence socioeconomic status has on a student’s chance of admission. We have previously opined in favor of abolishing the preference given to legacy students and the

Cappucci’s suggestion that the University further institutionalize wealthy students’ privileges seems to view wealth’s role in college admissions process as intractable, and that a fair admissions system is beyond our grasp. We do not agree with this assessment. children of wealthy donors in the College’s admissions process. This would mark concrete progress towards ensuring that students from advantaged backgrounds do not receive an additional boost from preferential treatment in admissions deliberations.

Even if the University does not believe the proposals outlined above or others like them are feasible, it cannot abandon the search for a fair and financially viable

admissions system.

The ideological foundations of an educational institution demand that Harvard not give up on the ideal of pursuing merit in admissions simply because an obvious solution has not yet presented itself.

As a research institution, Harvard has established itself as a perennial champion of inquiry and intellectual exploration.

If convinced that there is no financially workable model for achieving equity in college admissions right now, Harvard should work to find one, rather than dismiss the ideals of merit-based admissions.

It is with this spirit that Harvard teaches its students to approach the problems we find in our studies, and it is this spirit that Harvard must embody in striving to better live up to its own ideals.

In its current admissions practices, we reiterate our praise of Harvard for making a good-faith effort to recognize that an applicant’s merit manifests itself is shaped by opportunity.

We also support Harvard’s pursuit of need-blind and race-conscious admissions policies.

But these policies, while laudable, constitute only valuable first steps on the path towards true realization of the merit ideal. There remains much work to be done.

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.

Be a Crimson Cartoonist!

The Crimson @thecrimson OP-ED

Silent No Longer

By CALEB J. ESRIG and JACOB A. FORTINSKY

T

his week is the annual Israeli Apartheid Week run by the Harvard College Palestine Solidarity Committee. For the past few years, we have watched it with dismay. We have seen the annual disregard for veracity and truth. We have observed the destruction of dialogue and the harm wrought on the cause of peace. We have eyed the contempt shown to Jewish history and narratives.

And we will not remain silent any longer.

Combined, we have spent years living and working in Israel.

We have volunteered for non-profits, interned in the Knesset, and worked for universities. We are proud liberal Zionists, believers that the quest for a Jewish homeland is only complete with a Palestinian state alongside it.

And we are confident that our fellow Harvard students will believe in and support that quest too.

Yet, the entire premise of this week is factually incorrect. Israel, quite simply, is nothing like apartheid South Africa.

Within Israel’s 1948 borders, Arab citizens make up more than 20 percent of the citizenry.

Like in other democracies, Israeli law guarantees equal individual rights for all, but minorities are subjected to discrimination not dissimilar to that in the United States.

Indeed, Arab Israelis serve in the Knesset, the military — although most are not conscripted — and on the Supreme Court, and they even receive funding for religious institutions.

Encouragingly, more Arab Israelis have positive views of the Israeli presidency, police, and military than hold negative ones. They approve of the Knesset at almost double the rate Americans do of Congress.

In apartheid South Africa, people of color largely could not form multiracial parties, possess full voting rights, live in the same areas, or even have interracial sex.

Equating this with Israel is simply delusional.

If the organizers of Israeli Apartheid Week wish to distinguish between Israel proper and the West Bank, where Palestinians live under military occupation, they do not do so publicly. Israel captured the West Bank during defensive maneuvers in the Six-Day War, and the situation there is a military occupation.

It must end.

That is why we are so supportive

of the 2000 and 2008 peace proposals made by Israeli prime ministers to Palestinian leadership.

Those were full two-state solutions, with a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem and sovereignty in Gaza and the West Bank. They were met only with rejection. This so enraged former U.S. President Bill Clinton that he banged his fist on the table and yelled: “You are leading your people and the region to a catastrophe.”

Palestinian pain at the hands of Israeli policies — from the Nakba to the present — is real and legitimate. And understanding the history and narratives of both sides is critical. There are two peoples, and a solution demands recognizing that no peaceful future will arise through one alone.

We have eyed the contempt shown to Jewish history and narratives. And we will not remain silent any longer.

We have worked at Harvard for years to foster this mutual understanding. We have supported progressive pro-Israel movements, helped bring to Harvard a diverse range of speakers — including Breaking the Silence, an activist group dedicated to exposing the mistreatment of Palestinians by the Israeli military — and led and backed respectively the creation of the Coalition at Harvard for Israel and Palestine, a group affiliated with J Street, a left-wing Israel advocacy organization.

The cause of peace requires this mutual understanding.But this cause of peace is harmed by PSC’s hosting of speakers like Omar Barghouti, who founded the campaign to boycott Israel.

He has frequently endorsed violent resistance, including explicitly against Israeli civilians. He has said that ending the occupation will not end the boycott movement and that he opposes a Jewish state “in any shape or form.”

He even explicitly traces the boycott movement not to the occupation, not to the founding of Israel, but before either, to the presence of Jews anywhere in Israel.

And we will not remain silent in the face of such destructive rhetoric.

His movement is used gleefully by anti-Semites around the world to cloak their hatred.

Perhaps that is why, at a PSC event this week, a participant felt comfortable ranting about the “so-called Jews”

and the “myth of the Holocaust.” When the organizers finally responded, at the end of the event, they did so only by condemning “all forms of oppression” and mentioned anti-Semitism only to compare its denunciation to that deserved by Israel.

The cause of peace is further wounded by speakers like Marc Lamont Hill, who called at the UN for “a free Palestine from the river to the sea.” This exclamation, chanted again at a PSC event this week, is not a call for peace, justice, or democracy.

By encompassing the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, it makes no distinction between settlements, occupied territories, and cities that have been Jewish for thousands of years. It advocates the eradication of any Jewish sovereignty in the historic Jewish homeland.

The cause of peace requires recognizing the Jewish narrative. It demands understanding that Israel is not an abstract idea but a real refuge. Seventy years ago, this importance became clear.

Almost one million Jews then had a thriving culture in Arab nations, including Egypt, Algeria, and Yemen. Those countries today have just a handful left.

Arab countries robbed, expelled, and murdered their Jews. This is not new.

But for the first time in two thousand years, Jews facing destruction could not be annihilated.

This time, they had a homeland to which they could flee. Today, they and their descendants comprise the majority of the Jewish Israeli population. And we will not remain silent as this history of persecution is ignored.

This history cannot be forgotten. It is why in the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, the founders of Israel declared that the country “will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.” They knew that a Jewish homeland is not complete until all are equal.

It is a vision that is far from fulfilled.

Next week, when Israelis vote in the Middle East’s only free elections, they will hopefully bring it closer to fruition.

We hope that the Harvard community, by recognizing the problems with apartheid week and the need for mutual understanding, will do the same.

—Caleb J. Esrig ’20, a former Associate Editorial Editor, is an Economics concentrator in Quincy House. Jacob A. Fortinsky ’21, a Crimson Editorial editor, is a Social Studies concentrator in Winthrop House.

Anwar Omeish THE UNIVERSITY AND ITS DISCONTENTS

I

n 2007, I went to a protest against the Iraq War with my family. Unbeknownst to us, the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency was using the protest to test new technologies: Small, surveilling “insect-drones” disguised as dragonflies flew over our slogans and signs.

Since the Cold War and, more earnestly, since 9/11, the U.S. government has funneled billions into developing such technologies: Defense and security research comprise over 48 percent of the overall U.S. Research and Development budget — the Department of Defense holds the largest share of such funding by a wide margin. The impact of this funding is clear: It underlies the sordid history of the 21st century’s well-documented travesties in Iraq and Afghanistan, and others less-documented across the world.

But all this money — $57.7 billion just this year — was not spent concocting technologies of war in secret government labs.

Instead, it was distributed to universities, deputizing them and their researchers to generate much-needed technologies — needed, that is, for military priorities.

From scientists funded for artificial intelligence research and weapons development to anthropologists analyzing culture for “better killing,” the 21st century has seen a resurgence of government — and specifically military — control over university research agendas.

Defense and security research comprise over 48 percent of the overall U.S. Research and Development budget – the Department of Defense holds the largest share of such funding by a wide margin. The impact of this funding is clear: It underlies the sordid history of the 21st century’s well-documented travesties in Iraq and Afghanistan, and others lessdocumented across the world.

This concern is not new; universities’ relationships with institutional power have increasingly deepened since the Cold War. At Harvard, next week marks 50 years since the 1969 University Hall occupation, during which — in protest of the Vietnam War — “liberated documents” highlighted administrative and faculty collaboration on U.S. military and intelligence projects.

In fact, this collaboration across American universities was the very reason for the development of many disciplines’ ethical guidelines in the 1970s. But as defense spending has increased in the last 18 years, even these guidelines have been loosened in pursuit of government funds (also symptomatic of increasing corporatization of universities).

Harvard is by no means unique in these collaborations. While our primary culprits are the Harvard Kennedy School’s national security programs and STEM research in collaboration with military research agencies (placing us in the top 100 most militarized schools in the country), schools nationwide participate in research funded by programs like DARPA pursuing U.S. military interests. Consider the Pat Robertson Intelligence Scholars Program, for example, which (like others) funds graduate and undergraduate study in return for undisclosed funding and mandatory military or intelligence conscription.

Or Intelligence Community Centers for Academic Excellence, funding university recruitment of minority students for intelligence careers beginning in middle school, and aiming, as its proponents describe, to recruit “spies that look like their targets.”

These programs belie a national security infrastructure that defines academic priorities across disciplines and across the country, regardless of their transparency, moral-ethical value, or alignment with the pursuit of justice. This power, of course, is not only monetary. We all watched as Chelsea Manning’s Institute Of Politics fellowship was revoked at then-CIA director Mike Pompeo’s behest.

This concern is not new; universities’ relationships with institutional power have increasingly deepened since the Cold War. Meanwhile, this school and others grant platforms to not only orchestrators of 21st-century U.S. military operations, but also war criminals and architects of destructive policies. We continue hosting ROTC programs — not an affinity group but the military itself — on campus despite the U.S. military’s devastating and often illegal combat operations (and despite its predatory and discriminatory practices).

In turn, these phenomena feed the revolving doors between government and the private sector and between the private sector and educational institutions, leading to what Henry A. Giroux calls the “military-industrial-academic complex” consuming modern universities.

—Anwar Omeish ’19 is a Social Studies Concentrator in Lowell House. Her column appears on alternate Fridays.

ARTS

THE HARVARD CRIMSON | APRIL 5, 2019 | PAGE 7

BOOKS

‘A Woman Is No Man’ Is No Great Revelation JENNA X. BAO CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

In a book about family, trauma, freedom, and womanhood that spans several decades, Etaf Rum’s debut novel “A Woman Is No Man” aims to tell a story about women who are “born without a voice.” With four narrators in two parallel timelines, Rum seeks to capture a world in which Palestinian and American values war in Brooklyn and women are trapped by convention and each other.

She nearly succeeds in this task, but the novel’s repetitive scenarios and persistent determinism leave the reader shy of satisfied.

“A Woman is No Man” jumps back and forth between two primary stories. The first follows Isra, starting in 1990 when she is a 17-year-old girl in Palestine who moves to the United States with her husband Adam after an arranged marriage. She struggles to adapt to a lonely new life and confronts the pressures of being a young wife and mother, seeking the love of her husband and her mother in law, Fareeda. The second begins in 2008, narrated by Deya, Isra’s oldest daughter, as her grandparents force her to meet marriage suitors when all she wants is to read and go to college.

Rum’s story reveals a perspective on the American immigrant experience that mainstream media rarely displays. Isra and Deya live in Brooklyn, but as Fareeda says, “It doesn’t matter where we live. Preserving our culture is what’s most important.” Both girls are forbidden from leaving the home alone or participating in American culture. Deya and her sisters go to an all-girls Muslim school in which most of their peers lead similar lives, in which the

most important parts of a woman’s life are (arranged) marriage and providing sons to carry on her husband’s family name.

Their community is driven by tradition and shaming. The novel disregards the concept of the American Dream: Isra dreams that life for a woman can be different in America but quickly comes to realize that even if this country can provide a nicer house and a consistent supply of food on the table, she is just as powerless and trapped in New York as her mother was in Palestine.

The unique setting provides an interesting context for an indepth exploration of the divide between cultures that is often explored in immigrant stories: While some characters like Fareeda and Adam work desperately to preserve their identity after the loss of their home by maintaining an Arab lifestyle, others like Deya struggle with being unable to belong easily in either world.

As the title may suggest, “A Woman is No Man” carries a dialogue on womanhood and its constraints at its core. Internal and external discussion of what is possible for a woman in this world, particularly a Muslim American woman, are everywhere, and they paint a grim picture.

Isra and Deya are constantly reminded that “marriage is what’s most important for women” and domestic abuse is a fact of life as women are at the mercy of their husbands. Isra is shamed for having daughters that are considered burdens on her family, and female characters are perpetually shamed by others for being both too quiet or too loud, too lazy or too driven.

The novel also shines a light on the frustrating reality of women pushing their daughters and granddaughters into the shame cycle out of a sense of helplessness. This may be a reality for many

women, which Isra expresses with her desire to find stories of women like her in the books that become her solace, but hope for change is sparse.

These conversations and conflicts become old, however, as they take place over and over in both timelines. The vast majority of the novel shows characters reinforcing or accepting the state of their lives as a given. While the story structure generates a sense of momentum, only a few meaningful events or shifts in character development take place in the plot and each one is stretched out just a tad longer than feels necessary.

Even the ending, which takes place in the earlier timeline, seems to be a step towards change for the role of women in this culture, but it is also colored by the knowledge that tragedy will follow shortly. Eventually, the constant reiteration of the role of women and the cycle of shame is exacerbating as a desperate hope to see one of the characters break out of the mold.

Rum handles the complex story structure and shifting point of view in the novel effectively with solid but inconspicuous prose.

Its detailed setting and depiction of the effects of trauma, loss, and the refugee experience give it great potential to be an impactful debut novel. However, the plot is unsurprising with predictable twists and eventually becomes tiresome as change and character development come too little, too late. Thus, “A Woman is No Man” concludes with just a hint of disappointment at the story that it could have been.

Staff writer Jenna X. Bao can be reached at jenna.bao@ thecrimson.com.

MUSIC

Style Trumps Substance in ‘The World Is Yours 2’

COURTESY OF INTERSCOPE RECORDS/RICH THE KID

VIVIEN L. TRAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

For an artist who claims to be the “hottest rapper out of New York,” Rich the Kid did not do himself any favors with his latest album, “The World Is Yours 2.” Released March 22, the 16-track ensemble consists of hard-hitting beats and vapid lyrics — a combination that pulls through when done right.

Unfortunately, Kid’s newest album falls just short of the possibility. His first album, “The World is Yours,” premiered to mixed and positive reviews, with many citing Rich the Kid’s potential in upcoming albums. His sophomore album felt like more of the same. The songs are well-produced and braggadocious, but that is the extent of the album’s artistry. A chance for Rich the Kid to develop and add something new to the genre resulted in several powerful, slick beats and features that eclipsed the rapper’s presence on his own album.

“The World Is Yours 2” follows up on its predecessor with more assertions of fame, wealth, and power. Rich the Kid makes sure his listeners hear about his racks and Lambos in every single song.

“They might say I’m trippin’, my bank account says different,” is just one of many iterations of the artist’s abundance of money.

On other occasions, he graciously spends some of his lyrics on his prowess with women (“Bitches wanting clout and I ain’t kissin’ ‘em / Since I first got them hundreds, I’ve been flippin’ ‘em”). At one point, one wonders if Rich the Kid does anything not pertaining to girls, money, and music. His lack of lyrical substance stands in stark contrast with the skills of most of the album’s features.

Big-name rappers and players of the hip-hop genre saturate “The World Is Yours 2” and enhance the album in ways Rich the Kid does not. Big Sean adds a verse in “Two Cups” and does not disappoint.

His smooth, devil-may-care delivery of a story — even if it’s about his lack of heart — alongside an interpolated nod to Drake’s “ God Plan” in the middle of his verse show off Big Sean’s prowess.

The featured artist has a natural ability to give meaning and depth to what would otherwise be the common story of getting girls. In an entirely different way, rapper A Boogie wit da Hoodie outshines Rich the Kid with a verse in the track “Like Mike.” A Boogie wit da Hoodie raps about the very same things Kid does, but to greater effect. In his verse, he rhymes “gooey” with “Choo things,” dragging an “ooh” sound that he repeats to give the climax of his verse a charged ending. This expert use of internal and end rhyme in his particular verse, along with clear and lingering line delivery makes the verse so clever and well done.

While Rich the Kid’s lyrics may disappoint, his beats definitely do not. One of the best parts about this album is the impressive

production that lies behind many of his songs. Songs like “Splashin” and “Save That” feature a contrast between a deep bass drum and an airier and lighter woodwind instrument.

The combination creates a gritty but mysterious ambience throughout the songs. This is prominent on the song “Woah,” a mellow and melodic song that changes the pace of the album and adds a refreshing outlook on Kid’s lavish lifestyle. While Kid raps most of his lyrics, he also sings certain words or phrases, encouraging the soothing tone of the song. One of the more interesting songs in terms of sound is “Like Mike,” as dissonant note after note punctuate the beat of the song, emphasizing each line and particularly, each word landing on the beat. The underlying discordant sounds stick around long after the song ends.

While the production is great, it ultimately does not cover the shortfalls of Rich the Kid. He has the confidence, the money, and the lifestyle, but the prominence of featured artists highlight the problem: Kid does not have the uniqueness that others possess to stand alone and still be interesting.

The better songs in his album are the ones with guests like Offset or NBA YoungBoy; alone, it is harder for Kid to add something new.

While there are exceptions like “Splashin,” Rich the Kid primarily makes music good for energizing a party crowd. Until he breaks out of the box he’s in, he’ll only be a trap rapper with a beat that slaps — until it’s forgotten.

SPORTS

WEEKEND EVENT

SCHEDULE

FRIDAY ______________________________________

SATURDAY ______________________________________

SUNDAY ______________________________________

Men’s Volleyball vs. Princeton 7p.m., at Princeton

Men’s Lacrosse vs. Cornell 12 p.m., Harvard Stadium

Men’s LTWT Crew, Wales-Kirane Cup 9 a.m., vs. Columbia and Georgetown

Women’s Water Polo vs. GWU 1 p.m., Blodgett Pool

Baseball vs. Yale 12 p.m., O’Donnell Field

MEN’S VOLLEYBALL

From California to Harvard: Matthew Ctvrtlik’s Journey

By MATTHEW MU CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

“I grew up in a volleyball family. My dad played volleyball in college and at the professional level, playing in three different Olympics for the US volleyball team. Both of my brothers played volleyball in high school and one of them played at Stanford.”

For Matthew Ctvrtlik, a current junior and co-captain of the Harvard Men’s Volleyball team, volleyball had always been a part of his life. From a young age, his family had played volleyball and other sports together. So, when he made the transition to playing team volleyball in seventh grade, he found that the game came naturally to him.

“Volleyball was definitely a huge part of the community that I was in growing up. We had a middle school league and some of the teachers would even ref the games. In seventh grade, when I joined the middle school team, I really started becoming invested in the sport. I still talk to some of my great friends on that middle school team.”

As he transitioned to high school, Ctvrtlik found that his time was split between both volleyball and basketball. However, as his eye turned toward college, volleyball won out.

“Playing club volleyball in high school definitely let more college coaches see me in terms of scouting. Also, I played varsity volleyball for all four years of high school in a community of southern California that’s really strong in volleyball. But I as soon as I heard that Harvard wanted me, choosing to go here was definitely an easy decision for me. I love it here.” ­

“In my senior year of high school on my official visit, I was sitting outside of Eliot Courtyard and I was talking to my Dad on the phone and it was a beautiful weekend in the fall. I remember telling my Dad, ‘Hey, I think I could really see myself here.’ And that definitely summed it all up. The weather was nice, I was surrounded in a place that was wonderful and academically challenging and I loved every part of my visit.”

As a freshman and sophomore, Ctvrtlik overcame the natural adjustment from high school to college, both on and off the court. From starting college weight-training regiments, as well as focusing on fundamentals, the Newport Beach native quickly adapted to the steep learning curve.

“Definitely the biggest change is that everyone is taller and jumps higher. Physically, everyone’s a lot more gifted, and as a freshman, I hadn’t done any college training or experienced the speed of the game that college offers. It was definitely a wakeup call, as I didn’t even play the first month or so of season as I was still adjusting to college ball.”

“As a freshman, I was welcomed so quickly by the team.

Being a younger guy on a team is difficult. You’re trying to fit in with the team, both on the court and off the court. Not only is there this period of your niche on the team, but for me there was also a focus on competing for that starting spot.”

However, last year, Ctvrtlik became one of the few junior captains in Harvard’s Men’s Volleyball history.

“Traditionally, at the end of the season, the entire team votes on who the next year’s captains

SPIKEOLOGY Captain Matthew Ctvrtlik prepares to spike the volleyball in February’s game against Purdue Fort Wayne. Ctvrtlik, a Newport Beach, Calif. native, has started in eighteen matches this season, averaging just under four sets and three kills per match. QUINN G. PERINI—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

will be. As a junior, this leadership role has definitely been one of the more challenging aspects for me personally. You need to find the balance of captaining and being a supportive friend; Everyone on the team is a grown man and is smart, intelligent, and a friend.”

In speaking about his role as a captain, Ctvrtlik put the emphasis on his team and his

co-captain, senior Trevor Dow, before any personal achievements.

“I’m so proud of my team – I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but the guys are just amazing. Trev and I have worked out together really well and it’s definitely been a highlight of the season. The entire team has just blown past any of my expectations as people,

players, friends, and just who they are. I’m just so happy that I’m here at Harvard playing volleyball.”

In regard to future endeavors with volleyball, Ctvrtlik could only chuckle and give a guess at what would happen in the future.

“Future volleyball career… maybe? I’m not exactly sure. I’ll be in southern California this

summer which will be conducive to playing beach volleyball and indoor volleyball in my free time. I would love to continue playing volleyball. There’s always a bigger plan out there and I know hard work always pays off. So, I guess we’ll see where this path is going to lead.” matthew.mu@thecrimson.com

MEN’S BASEBALL

McColl Leads Harvard to 14-6 Record Midway through Season

By WILLIAM CONNAUGHTON CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Through March 25th, senior first baseman Patrick McColl was hitting a blistering .515, ranking first in the nation in batting average, winning three of the first four Ivy League Player of the Week awards.

Since then, McColl has cooled down to a still stellar .442, good for 6th in the nation in batting average. Hitting in the heart of the lineup, McColl has been the catalyst for a strong start for the Harvard Baseball team as they have gone 14-6 overall and 4-2 in the Ivy ­

League.

“It feels great. It’s been pretty fun so far. You kinda go up there and try to get a hit every time you get up, and it’s been happening a good amount for me,” commented McColl on his early season success. “It definitely helps to have Jake Suddleson behind me in the order.

He’s been hitting really well too, so I just think about that in the back of my mind when I’m up at the plate.”

The mentioned Suddleson is batting a hot .355 thus far, making the one two punch between the two, a key piece of the Crimson offense. The pair has ac-

counted for just under half of Harvard runs, demonstrating their value to the team’s overall success.

In addition to his high batting average, McColl has hit 6 home runs and has batted in 25 runs. He ranks 4th in the NCAA in hits per game at 1.9 and 7th in slugging percentage at .826.

It’s clear that McColl is not just a slap hitter poking singles just over the infield. He has hit for both power and average, anchoring the third spot in the order for the Harvard team.

Much of his incredible success this year is due to some strategy change and dedicated hard

work in the offseason.

“You’re just playing baseball, and something kinda clicked a little bit with my swing path,” McColl said about his tweaks to his swing. “[I’m] trying to get under the ball and put balls in the air - I’ve been trying to work on that over the summer and continue into the season, and it’s been working.”

There is no better way to provide context to this start than looking at the record books. If the season ended today, McColl would land second in all time single season batting average, just behind the leader

Mike Stenhouse who hit .475 way back in 1977, and just above Barry Wood who hit .440 further back in 1932.

The point is, this accomplishment is rare for any college athlete across the country and especially rare for any recent Crimson hitters.

However, this is not entirely uncharted territory for the infielder. As a sophomore, McColl hit a strong slash line of .355/.459/.621 on the way to AllIvy League second team. Last season was not as strong for McColl on offense, but he found other ways to produce, leading the team in putouts and fielding

McCOLLIN’ THE PLAY First baseman Patrick McColl takes his position in last weekend’s home series against Princeton. The team won the showdown against the Tigers, along with Tuesday’s Beanpot game versus Northeastern, setting the Crimson up for this weekend’s series against Harvard’s Ivy League rival, the Yale Bulldogs. QUINN G. PERINI—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

percentage. This is one of the reasons McColl is more than a just a hitter. A leader on and off the field, the senior encapsulates hard work, which his teammates follow to their benefit.

“He’s so fun to play with.

He’s a good leader and leads by example,” stated senior pitcher Kevin Stone on McColl. “He’s not a guy who jumps down your throat or yells at the top of his lungs all the time. He’s a quiet leader everyone feeds off. His energy he brings to the game makes him a pleasure to play with.”

McColl is a leader, incredible hitter, and the guy who the team counts on in big spots. As a freshman, the first baseman had the talent and skill to take him far, but his development has been up to him. He, every step of the way, has remained committed to making himself the best player he can be and the work is paying off this season. The effects have rippled throughout the team as the Harvard squad is playing with high confidence through the first month.

“I think that having that camaraderie and that confidence in the dugout really helps in games. You look in the dugout and you can compare our team to whatever team we’re playing - our team is usually having more fun, joking around and staying loose but also focusing in game,” commented McColl on the keys to the team’s strong performance. “I think that’s the way you gotta play baseball, because at the end of the day, it’s just a game and you’re trying to have fun.”

Looking forward, the baseball team has three games home against Yale this weekend. The team is excited for the rivalry matchup, riding the early season success. McColl will look to continue his hot start throughout the month, helping the Crimson to key victories in the process.