19 minute read
Editorial
The Crimson Edi orial board Excited for LabXchange
In 2013, we expressed hope that edX, which we saw as “the future of schol arship,” would be allowed to grow in its scope and range of content.
Today, we applaud the launch of LabXchange — an interactive learning platform that will bring free, quality sci ence education to students around the world. The result of a collaboration be tween the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Amgen Foundation, this initia tive utilizes the open-source infrastructure from edX to create a virtual scientific lab environment, particularly for students in areas without the infrastructure necessary for lab-setting experimenta tion.
As technology’s potential to reshape education — and particularly to expand its accessibility — is considerable, we are glad that Harvard is working to set the standard for high-quality, widely avail
As funding for education has remained inadequate and inequitable, we commend Harvard for its efforts to make scientific education more accessible to all.
able online education. We encourage the platform’s use of interactive formats and other multimedia tools to make on line content engaging, and we hope that LabXchange keeps innovating the ways in which it delivers information to stu dents.
But more than the novelty and poten tial of educational technology, we are heartened by the ways this technology is being utilized. As funding for education has remained inadequate and inequita ble, we commend Harvard for its efforts to make scientific education more acces sible to all.
These efforts are critical in guaran teeing access to knowledge and increasing social mobility for those with limited access to more conventional institution al approaches to learning.
We have previously affirmed the util ity of the Extension School in encouraging social mobility, and we appreciate the bite-sized nature of these modules, which better serves those who may not have the time to commit to a full course offered by the Extension School through edX.
As of right now, the diversity of scien tific fields offered through the program is laudable and we hope that Harvard will continue to expand its online educa tion program in the humanities.
That said, we recognize that LabX change cannot fully replace the experience of having the opportunity to be in a real lab and actually do hands-on work. There are certainly components, such as providing modes of interaction and the ability to ask and answer questions, that can be added to the current program in order to enhance learning experiences and more accurately capture in-class en vironment.
But there is still a long way to go, and we believe that the current program is a good start to remedy the inequities in learning.
All in all, we hope that the University continues to pursue its efforts in making education accessible and devoting its re sources to enriching society as a whole. The LabXchange launch is, indeed, representative of the sort of general ap proach toward engagement with the broader community — including high schoolers, working adults, and those around the world — that we would like Harvard to embody in all of its endeav ors.
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 journal ism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar top ics.
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Appreciating an Allergy-Friendly HUDS op-ed
By Or G. S. Marini-Rap p r W hen I arrived at Harvard, one of my primary concerns was not making friends or pick ing my classes, but rather navigating the dining hall.
I have life-threatening allergies to milk and tree nuts.
I’ve needed an EpiPen on multiple occasions despite taking extreme cau tion every day and have ended up in the emergency room in the aftermath of these reactions.
So it’s not surprising that my food allergies were an incredibly import ant consideration in choosing a college. There was no margin for error; I would be eating at this new school three times a day for four years. After facing chal lenging dining experiences at two different school dining halls in middle and high school, I recognized the weight of my decision.
Recent articles have presented stu dent criticisms of the dining experience for students with food allergies and celi ac disease at Harvard.
A few students have expressed con cerns about the possibility of cross-contamination in the self-serve areas and the fact that complete and updated in gredient lists must be accessed online rather than posted by each food.
One student wrote that the “email method,” in which students with food allergies order individualized cookedto-order meals by sending an email to dining services, was “reinventing the wheel.”
Ironically, this is exactly the program I had hoped to find in a college dining hall.
I am one of the students on the “email method.” I email Annenberg each night and let them know what time I’ll be eat ing meals during the next day and what I’d like for each meal.
They’ll make me a safe version of anything they have available and dou ble-check all ingredients.
I usually order a “safe” version of something from the grill menu, but any time there’s something special like mus sels or salmon (personal favorites) on the line, I’ve emailed and asked whether it was possible to cook them in a way that avoided my allergens.
On each occasion, the dish that ap peared filled me with gratitude because it was clear how much thought and at tention had been put into creating a safe dish for me.
There’s no doubt that the “email method” requires a bit of planning on the student’s part. As I was deciding on what college to attend, I met with the dining hall manager and head chef and expressed concern about the email method, and particularly about what would happen if my plans changed last minute.
Annenberg’s manager assured me that they understood that students’ plans are fluid, and that there would be no consequences if I ordered a meal and didn’t pick it up.
No harm, no foul. There have been times when I’ve ar rived early for a meal or forgotten to place my order the night before.
In each instance, a chef has cheer fully asked me to wait just five minutes while they prepared a safe made-to-or der meal. I am constantly appreciative of the unflagging devotion of the Annen berg team to student health and well-being.
By definition, a food allergy is a mark er of difference. For years, I sat awkwardly at birthday parties while my friends had pizza and ice cream. College is no different.
Nearly every event requires inter vention. Whether it’s the Crimson Jam or simply dinner at a restaurant with a friend, food is a part of nearly every thing we do.
I understand the desire to inhabit the world like everyone else, to pull food off the line without checking ingredients online or placing an order the night be fore.
For me, the goal is always safety and the fact that HUDS has a process in place to keep me safe (a process that has, to date, resulted in zero reactions while in college) is far more important than the ability to wait in line with hundreds of my closest friends.
Of course, I would never presume to speak for all students with allergies at Harvard.
We are all different, whether it’s the sensitivity of our allergy or our level of comfort in trusting others to cook our
food. Having food allergies means that in order to keep ourselves safe, we lose a certain amount of spontaneity. Can Harvard do better? Clearly some people think so, and I suspect that Harvard’s structure of a separate dining hall for each house pres ents unique challenges for students who don’t know in what dining hall they’ll be eating the next day. Fair enough. But I’m grateful that Harvard offers a cook-to-order program and that every single HUDS worker I’ve ever spoken to has shown through word and deed that my safety and happiness matters.
As students with allergies speak up about their dining needs, let’s not for get that these are real people working to keep us safe.
Suggesting that we shouldn’t have to experience a moment of inconvenience or lose a tiny bit of spontaneity when there is quite literally a chef waiting to cook you your very own safe meal while you skip the line reeks of entitlement.
I have deep gratitude for the ways in which the workers at Annenberg have made my Harvard experience exponen tially easier (and less stressful) than I expected it to be.
Profiting from Harvard Square column
ANDREW W. LIANG a BOX OF CHOCOLATES
Astore closes in Harvard Square. Tributes flood in, recalling fond memories of af ternoons spent in a coffee shop, or a warm bowl of soup on a cold winter night. Inevitably, the topic of rising rents in Harvard Square comes up, and many conclude that some greedy land lord was responsible for pushing out yet another historic establishment. It seems that they do this stuff for fun. The story becomes even juicier when we remember that, lately, a few of these landlords have been investment firms. Yes, now the narra tive is shaping up well: wealthy investors are destroying local businesses.
This story is convenient, but it’s incomplete. That’s because we pretty much absolve ourselves — the consumer — of any responsibility for the closures. In truth, we too hold responsibility, be cause the stores are, after all, there for us. That is the nature of business.
If we had wanted Crema Cafe to stay open, we should have frequented it more. Crema’s owner told this newspaper that “Crema sales dropped 30 to 35 percent in two years” before its lease wasn’t renewed. “I don’t fault the landlord,” he said. Nei ther should we. As someone who was fond of Crema and Papyrus, among other bygone stores, I would have loved for them to stay open. But I also recognize that not enough other consumers went to those establishments, and my occasional cof fee or annual Christmas card was not sufficient to warrant a location in the square.
Put bluntly, property owners aim to find the most profitable tenants, which are the business es that can attract the most customers; if a landlord replaces an existing tenant with a store that is less popular, they’ll lose money themselves. In turn, stores with high demand last and become staples of the square. That’s how we got places like El Jefe’s (October 2015) and Tatte (October 2016). Investment firms that buy properties in the square are no different.
Interestingly, in our popular narrative, the phrase “investment firm” seems to be closely as sociated with the mental image of a mustachioed Monopoly man holding bags of money. But that’s hardly the case. Let’s look at Asana Partners, for instance, which is a commonly cited antagonist in the square closures story.
It turns out that Asana’s major investors in clude a litany of pension funds: the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System, the Los An geles Fire & Police Pension System, the New Mexico State Investment Council, the South Carolina Retirement System, the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System. The list goes on.
In fact, the largest investors in the investment firms that we love to lambast — ranging from real estate investment trusts to hedge funds — are of ten pension funds and endowments. The Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System pays out benefits to its more than 17,000 retirees by in vesting in firms that provide a sufficient return.
Every U.S. state has such funds — sometimes separate for teachers and firefighters and public servants. Individual cities have them too. Har vard has a massive endowment, as do many other schools, from the University of Texas system to Yale University. It turns out that a more accurate mental image of those profiting from Flat Patties’ demise would probably be of firefighters and pub lic school teachers — and maybe even professors and students of other universities.
That is not to say that firefighters’ pension ben efits warrant the closing of the square’s old businesses; that’s a value judgment where people can disagree. But landlords aren’t closing stores to spite us; they’re doing it because they think we’ll shop, eat, and drink at their new tenants.
Even if newer stores in the square aren’t fre quented most by students, there must still be demand coming from somewhere, if the stores last. If the demand is from tourists, we may not like their preferences, but they nevertheless matter. Indeed, this should probably make us feel even more responsible for square closures as Har vard students, because our institution brings them here. And if the demand is from other Bos ton area residents, then we have even less to complain about. They actually live here long-term, while we are only transplants for a few years. In any case, we shouldn’t call upon government in tervention to stop the closures either.
Calling on a government authority to limit what the owners of land can do with their own property would be contrary to the basis of a free society. And quite authoritarian. If an individual owns a plot of land, they have the right to decide who can operate there. My mandating who could live in your house would be a gross violation of your basic freedom. In just the same vein, it would be very illiberal for a fan of Zambrero to insist that it be mandated by the city to stay there, wheth er through artificially low rent or something else. If we truly want certain stores in the square, the strongest action we can justly take is to put our money where our mouth is. When we like a business, we should go to it more often. And if a landlord replaces it with one we don’t like, we should avoid it. On second thought, though, the firefighters might not like that.
MassDOT Updates Allston on Construction Plans
The Massachusetts Turnpike is set to undergo construction beginning in 2023 as part of broader changes to transportation in Allston. zadoc i. n. gee—Crimson photographer
By taylor c. peterman Crimson Staff Writer
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation and Fiscal and Management Control Board held a meeting on Feb. 10 to update Allston residents and address public concern surrounding its ten-year infra structure plan for the area.
The plan — known as the Allston Multimodal Project — will replace the Allston viaduct and straighten the Massachu setts Turnpike. It also includes plans to shrink the Allston in terchange, improve multimodal connections, and create a new stop on the Worcester/Fram ingham Commuter Line called West Station.
The concept for the project originated in spring 2014 and has been developed by Mass DOT and its design team, which is also working to file a final en vironmental impact statement for the plan. MassDOT Com munications Director Kristen E. Pennucci wrote in an emailed statement that construction should begin over the next sev eral years and should last for approximately eight to ten years, according to MassDOT.
“Environmental filings for the project are targeted for com pletion in the end of 2021 with the goal of beginning construc tion in late 2022,” she wrote.
The update presented at the Feb. 10 meeting listed the track configuration at West Station, minimization of single track op erations during construction, and environmental policy as “current areas of focus.”
Pennucci wrote that plans for West Station are currently under review as engineers de termine which configuration will better accommodate trans portation services.
“The project team is reas sessing the 3-track station and a 4-track configuration to en sure that West Station is robust enough to accommodate the commuter rail services and ur ban transit service envisioned in the planning study,” she wrote. The meeting’s agenda also included a report on the “ma jor themes of agency and public comment.”
Local residents have raised concerns about adverse im pacts the project may have on the community, particularly re garding congestion.
Anthony P. D’Isidoro, an All ston resident, said he hopes to see a mitigation plan in place to prevent excessive traffic and en able more efficient travel.
“We are gonna have a per fect storm of congestion as far as the eyes can see if we don’t take steps now to help minimize that,” D’Isidoro said.
Allston resident Harry E. Mattison said there needs to be a greater focus on transit as the project moves forward.
“I think there’s a really strong feeling that there needs to be much stronger reliance on tran sit for this project,” he said. “It will help people travel through Allston or to Allston while the highway is at a reduced capacity during construction.”
“There’s huge potential here, and so West Station needs to serve that potential,” he added. Pennucci wrote that Mass DOT is considering the public’s concerns as the team moves for ward with the project.
“MassDOT takes seriously all public comment on projects and is currently reviewing the comments received since the Federal Highway Administra tion (FHWA) National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) scoping document was filed,” Pennucci wrote.
taylor.peterman@thecrimson.com
Cambridge Appeals Reversal of Weed Sales Ban
By jasper G. Goodman Crimson Staff Writer
The City of Cambridge filed an emergency motion appealing a court ruling that lifted the city’s two-year moratorium on certain cannabis sales permits, according to a city announce ment Friday.
Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Kathleen M. Mc Carthy ruled last month that a moratorium passed by the Cambridge City Council giving “economic empowerment” ap plicants a two-year window to be the only recreational mari juana sellers in the city was illegal.
Economic empowerment applicants are businesses that receive recreational marijua na licenses from the state via a program that aims to help groups disproportionately im pacted by past drug policies.
Revolutionary Clinics — a recreational marijuana seller — filed a lawsuit seeking to over turn the ban in October.
Keith W. Cooper ’83, the CEO of Revolutionary Clinics, claimed in an October affida vit that the moratorium would cost Revolutionary Clinics “up wards of $700,000 in profits per month at each of its Cam bridge stores.”
In a response filed Wednes day afternoon, Revolutionary Clinics alleged the city’s appeal will “irreparably harm” the company’s interests.
October Legal Filing from Revolutionary Clinic
“Cambridge now, on an emergency basis no less, seeks the ability to disregard this Court’s Decision and contin ue to enforce an illegal law for years while it pursues appeals before both the Single Justice and full panel of the Appeals Court, knowing that doing so would irreparably harm Plain tiff and undermine the public interest,” the filing reads.
As it awaits a ruling on the appeal, Cambridge will not agree to new contracts with recreational pot companies, according to the city’s state ment.
Despite statewide efforts, the vast majority of recreation al marijuana licenses have been given to business owners not part of the Massachusetts’s so cial equity program.
Western Front, an econom ic empowerment business that is replacing Central Kitchen in Central Square, is hoping to open its doors in the next five months.
Western Front was co-founded by Dennis A. Benzan, the former vice-may or of Cambridge. Sumbul Siddiqui – who now serves as Cambridge’s mayor – told The Crimson in June that the mor atorium is intended to give a “head start” to local business es.
Massachusetts legalized recreational marijuana in 2016 via a ballot referendum. The Cambridge City Coun cil passed legislation last fall that approved the sale of rec reational marijuana in the city. City Councilors Quinton Zondervan and Siddiqui add ed the amendment providing a two-year exclusivity period for economic empowerment appli cants.
jasper.goodman@thecrimson.com
Harvard Maintains Ties to Foreign Foundations ties From Page 1
The Foundation and Caton did not respond to requests for com ment, and Mahdavi-Damghani could not be reached for com ment.
The Qatar Foundation — founded in 1995 by then-emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and his wife Sheikha Moza bint Nasser to “realize their ambitions for the future of Qatar” — and its subsidiar ies appear to have had partnerships with multiple Harvard schools in the past decade.
Arabian Business Industries reported in 2012 that the Qatar Foundation joined forces with the Institute for Global Law and Policy at Harvard Law School to establish a graduate law school at Hamad Bin Khalifa Univer sity in Doha, Qatar. The Bilateral US-Arab Chamber of Commerce — a non-profit — reported in 2016 that the Qatar Founda tion’s Education Development Institute had partnered with the Harvard Graduate School of Education to launch a leader ship program specific to teaching and learning in Qatar Foundation Academies.
The website for bint Nasser, the current chairperson of Qa tar Foundation, also lists a 2016 visit to Harvard’s Stem Cell In stitute to “discuss ways of collaboration between the institute and Qatar’s Biomedical Research Institute.” The 2015- 2016 Annual Report of the Qa tar Foundation also lists a partnership between the Biomedical Research Institute and Harvard Medical School, enti tled “Cancer Biology and Therapeutics Program.”
The Moscow Times reported that Harvard Graduate School of Design Professor Mohsen Mostafavi designed the main research facility at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Tech nology in 2012.
Mostafavi, who served as the Dean of the Design School from 2008 to 2019, has also been listed as a member of multiple boards at the Skolkovo Foun dation, including the Skolkovo Town Planning Board and the Urban Council Board.
The Skolkovo Foundation is a Russian-government-funded non-profit intended to bolster technological innovation and entrepreneurship in Russia.
Harvard Law School profes sor Roberto Unger also praised the Skolkovo Foundation in a 2013 video on their website. “I have studied the work of Skolkovo with enormous admi ration,” he said in the video.
In 2012, The Telegraph also named “on-going Russian-US partnerships between the Foundation and NASA, Boston’s MIT and Harvard University.” Viktor Vekselberg — the Russian billionaire who chairs the Foundation’s board — facili tated the much-celebrated 2007 repatriation of the Russian Or thodox bells that once hung in Lowell House back to Russia. Vekselberg reportedly paid sev eral millions of dollars to transport and replace the bells.
The Skolkovo Foundation, Mostafavi, and Unger did not respond to requests for com ment.
Harvard has not yet been publicly linked to the telecom munications companies Huawei and ZTE Corp., which are both based in China, or to Kaspersky Lab, a Russian cy bersecurity firm. The three firms did not respond to re quests for comment.
camille.caldera@thecrimson.com
The sights and sounds of Harvard.
