The Harvard Crimson The University Daily, Est. 1873 | Volume CXLVI, No. 104 | Cambridge, Massachusetts | wednesday, october 16, 2019
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Harvard should promote anonymous Title IX reporting
Students gather for Democratic presidential debate
Women’s rugby dominates Notre Dame
Sexual Misconduct Still Prevalent Student Union Strike Vote Begins By simone C. Chu and iris m. lewis
Confidence the University will take a Sexual Misconduct Report Seriously
Crimson Staff Writers
Four years and several administrative changes after Harvard first participated in a national sexual misconduct climate survey, the prevalence of sexual assault and harassment on campus remains stagnant, according to the results of a 2019 iteration of the survey. This year’s version of the Association of American Universities survey was administered nationwide in April. Across the 33 participating schools, 180,000 students responded, making this the largest ever survey of its kind. Harvard had an overall response rate of 36.1 percent — slightly more than 8,300 students. Since the first iteration of the survey in 2015, Harvard’s Title IX Office has undergone substantial structural changes and instituted several new programs. The Office split in two in 2017, a move separating administrators who investigate sexual assault complaints from those who provide Title IX training and resources. Additionally, the University has since implemented mandatory trainings for students, faculty, and staff. Tuesday’s data, however, suggests that these changes have yet to make a substantial impact on sexual misconduct at the University. Roughly 33 percent of all undergraduate women surveyed this year reported that they had experienced some form of nonconsensual sexual contact. In 2015, 31 percent of senior undergraduate women reported experiencing some form of sexual assault. The national prevalence rate for nonconsensual sexual contact among undergraduate women, defined by the same
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Very or Extremely Knowledgeable About Harvard’s definition of Sexual Asault
The Harvard Graduate Student Union began a strike authorization vote. Voting will continue through Friday. MyeongSeo Kim—Crimson photographer
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By James s. bikales and ruoqi zhang
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Crimson Staff Writers
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Student workers across the University cast the first ballots Tuesday in a historic vote to decide whether Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Automobile Workers’ bargaining committee could call for a strike if it sees fit. Polls for the multi-day strike authorization vote will be open at least until Friday, according to an email from HGSU’s bargaining committee to its members. In the meantime, negotiators from Harvard and the union will convene for their 24th bargaining session Thursday. HGSU — which represents graduate research assistants and student teaching fellows at the University — needs to receive a two-thirds majority of voting members in favor of the strike to be granted the authority to initiate a strike.
eight criteria nationally as at Harvard, ranged from 17 percent to 32 percent. Still, the survey reported that more than half of students surveyed trust the University with their sexual misconduct-related concerns: 50 percent of undergraduate women and 75 percent of undergraduate men said they think it is very or extremely likely that a campus official would take their report seriously. Men were also significantly more likely than women to report that they had very or extremely good knowledge of the University’s definition of sexual misconduct, with 43 percent and 35 percent, respectively. Despite reported trust in the Title IX Office, only 41 percent of women and 27 percent of men made contact with a program or
Divisional Dean Hosts Town Hall
resource as a result of “penetration involving physical force or inability to consent.” The most highly cited reasons for female Harvard students — both undergraduates and graduate students — not reporting sexual misconduct were that students thought that they could handle the problem themselves, that they didn’t think their concerns were serious enough, and that they felt “embarrassed, ashamed, or that it would be too emotionally difficult.” The report offered several reasons why a student may not think an incident was serious enough to report. “It may be that the student did not feel the incident was serious enough to be considered a violation of the school’s code of conduct,” the report reads. “But
Matthew j. tyler—Crimson Designer
it may also be a judgment that the perceived consequences of contacting a program are greater than the consequences of the incident itself.” Seventy-two percent of Harvard students who said the incident of sexual assault they experienced was not serious enough said they did not make contact because they were “not injured or hurt.” In a letter from the survey’s steering committee to University President Lawrence S. Bacow, Deputy Provost Margaret E. Newell and Business School professor Kathleen L. McGinn wrote that it will take a culture shift — in addition to the University’s resources and policies — to alleviate students’ worries around reporting.
See survey Page 3
Union organizers staffed 11 polling stations across the University’s Cambridge and Longwood campuses Tuesday. Polling is set to occur at 10 other locations through the rest of the week. After casting his ballot in the Science Center Tuesday morning, HGSU bargaining committee member Cory W. McCartan said he believes it is “pretty clear” that the authorization will achieve the two-thirds majority it needs to pass. McCartan said he hopes for a “strong vote” in support, which will make a strike as “unlikely as possible” because it will send a clear message to Harvard administrators. “Looking back at all the proposals Harvard has made at the table, and the proposals we’ve made at the table, it’s pretty clear they’re not bargaining in good faith at all,” McCartan said. “So it’s going to take something to sort of shock them out
See vote Page 5
HLS Students Debate SFFA Lawyer Event By michelle g. kurilla Crimson Staff Writer
Following a Harvard Law School event last week featuring a lawyer representing anti-affirmative action group Students for Fair Admissions in its lawsuit against Harvard, several students engaged in debate over comments about discrimination against Asian American students made during the event. Last Tuesday, the Law School’s Federalist Society and Native American Law Students Association co-hosted an event featuring Adam K. Mortara, SFFA’s lead attorney in its lawsuit alleging that Harvard College discriminates against Asian American applicants in its admissions practices. At the event, Mortara challenged Federal Judge Allison D. Burroughs’s acceptance of discrepanies in personal ratings between Asian American students and those of students from other racial background as insufficient evidence of discrimination.
Arts and Humanities Dean Robin E. Kelsey and Academic Programs and Diversity Dean Sheila Thomas. delano r. franklin—Crimson photographer By shera s. avi-yonah Crimson Staff Writer
Dean of Arts and Humanities Robin E. Kelsey held a town hall Tuesday to discuss inclusion and belonging, and update division affiliates on the investigation into a “hateful” message delivered to a Harvard faculty member last month. The event — which drew roughly 40 professors, graduate students, and undergraduates — came roughly two weeks after a faculty member received a note posted on her office door that insulted her ethnicity and immigration status and questioned her place at Harvard. The faculty member was with several graduate students when she saw the posting, which also wished her ill. Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Claudine Gay and University President Lawrence S. Bacow sent an email about the incident to University affiliates Inside this issue
Harvard Today 2
the next day on Sept. 27, writing that they “unequivocally” condemn it. They also wrote that they would not be providing additional information about the incident out of concern for the faculty member’s privacy. Harvard University Police Department has assigned a detective to the case, Kelsey told affiliates at the meeting. Kelsey said the detective told him similar incidents of hate speech have happened before at Harvard. Kelsey said the incident and the town hall should serve as a starting point for discussions about diversity in the Arts and Humanities more broadly. “I’d really rather use it as a springboard to talk generally about the issues of inclusion and belonging within the division of Arts and Humanities, but if people feel some particular issues or concerns arising out of
See arts Page 3
News 3
Editorial 4
Harvard Law School’s Asian Pacific American Law Student Association released an internal statement reacting to an exchange at an event discussing the Harvard admissions lawsuit. camille g. caldera—Crimson photographer
“No one — not Judge Burroughs, not Harvard — has ever explained how it is that African Americans and Hispanics just have much better objective per-
sonal qualities than white and Asian applicants,” he said. “I guess there’s just something more personally appealing about African American and
Hispanic applicants,” Mortara quipped. In response, at least a dozen students in the crowd
See APALSA Page 5
Prof. Michael Kremer Wins Econ. Nobel Prize By joshua c. fang and Jeromel D. Lara Contributing Writers
Economics Professor Michael Kremer ’85 had just finished riding his bike to the London School of Economics Monday morning when he saw a message on Skype, asking to talk “urgently.” Assuming it was a scam message, Kremer said he began to respond but was interrupted by someone congratulating him.
Head of the Charles
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A boat on the Charles River on a sunny day in Cambridge. Naomi S. Castellon-Perez—Crimson photographer
Today’s Forecast
rainy High: 55 Low: 51
“For what?” he asked. Earlier that day, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences had awarded Kremer — along with MIT Economics Professors Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo — the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences. The award recognized the trio’s “experimental approach to alleviating global poverty,” according to a press release from the academy.
See nobel Page 3
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