PAGE 4 | MARCH 9, 2018 | THE HARVARD CRIMSON
Cheers, Tears on Housing Day Students Campaign for HCFA Penalties By KATHERINE E. WANG CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
A s colorful House f lags and banners were raised in front of University Hall Thursday morning and various chants echoed across the Yard freshmen anxiously waited in their dorm rooms on the annual tradition of Housing Day. Cheers of joy—and palpable silences—soon followed, as members of Harvard’s Class of 2021 discovered which of the 12 residential houses they would live in for the next three years. To prepare for the festivities, upperclassmen started their days around 6 a.m., with some Houses coming even earlier to the Yard to claim the highly-coveted perch atop the John Harvard statue. Kirkland House reached the statue first this year, according to current House Committee Co-Chair Anne K. Mills ’19. “Kirkland always gets here super early and sings and dances on the statue,” Mills said. “I’m not going to give times because we don’t want other Houses to steal our stuff.” At 8:30 a.m., House Committee chairs rushed out of University Hall waving envelopes containing Housing assignments, ready to storm dorm rooms and welcome rising sophomores into their respective Houses. Mills and former HoCo Co-Chair Handong Park ’18 both said that freshmen were generally glad to be assigned to Kirkland House, with one student particularly excited. “She didn’t stop jumping until we left,” Mills said. “Frantically jumping,” Park added. “It was wild.”
Cabot dorm stormer Brian Y. Zhao ’19 said that the rising sophomores’ responses to their Cabot House placements were “better this year.” When asked about his own Housing Day experience, he said, “I wasn’t exactly sure how I felt in the moment, but I’m really happy that I am in Cabot now.”
I don’t think they had ever seen a group more excited to be in Mather. Gomez, Couto, Jimenez ’21
Blockmates in Mather Blockmates Silvana Gomez ’21, Lucia M. Couto ’21, and Carolina Jimenez ’21 said they were “so excited” about their placement into Mather House. “We just started screaming,” they said in unison. “I don’t think they had ever seen a group more excited to be in Mather.” “The Latinx community is really big there, and it’s also just like—singles,” Gomez added. Future Quincy residents Ryan R. Bayer ’21, Richard M. Sweeney ’21, William J. Matheson ’21, Benjamin L. Owens ’21 said the storming upperclassmen shouted different House names as they approached the freshmen’s room. “When they were coming up the
stairs, they were yelling Mather, then they switched to Cabot, and then we were really confused,” Owens said. “It was exciting to open the door and have it be Quincy,” Sweeney added. Although many students were excited about their House assignments, others were not as thrilled. Blockmates Lydia Pan ’21, Peter J. Morrissey ’21, Alexandra S. Norris ’21, Natea E. Beshada ’21, Crimson editor Elizabeth H. Yang ’21, and Jacob A. Licht ’21 were placed into the Radcliffe Quadrangle’s Cabot House, with some members saying they were “actually really excited” about the placement, while others had mixed feelings. “I think Cabot is certifiably best housing, nicest House, number one House, I can’t wait honestly,” Licht said . Morrissey said the rest of the group’s first choice was Lowell House, but that they remain “optimistic.” Leul S. Dadi ’21, who was placed into Pforzheimer House, also in the Quad, said his day had been “a mix of feelings” as well. “I wasn’t expecting to get quadded,” Dadi said. “When Pfoho came into my room, I assumed they were joking. It’s alright though, I’m trying to make do.” Dadi said he did a lot of “metric manipulations” in an attempt to not get quadded by “looking at the stats” and trends. “It didn’t work,” he added with a laugh. Staff writer Katherine E. Wang can be reached at katie.wang@thecrimson.com.
HSPH Alum Bids for Congress By SIMONE C. CHU and LUKE W. VROTSOS CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
E ric L. Ding, an alumni of the School of Public Health, has announced his bid for the U.S. House of Representatives to represent Pennsylvania’s 10th congressional district. Ding, who holds a doctorate in the fields of nutrition and epidemiology from the School of Public Health, is running as a Democrat to represent a district that includes central and northwestern regions of the state. Ding said he will advocate for affordable health care and bring evidence-based policy back to Washington. When he was in high school, Ding was diagnosed with a tumor the size of a tennis ball in his chest. Though doctors predicted the tumor would be fatal, Ding survived. Ding said the experience left him with a desire to give back to the world, as well as a passion for public health. “Affordable healthcare for all is not only the right thing to do—as a public [health] scientist, I know it is cheaper and saves more lives,” Ding wrote in an email. “Workers should not have to worry about how they are going to afford healthcare if they are laid-off, seniors should not choose between food on the table and seeing the doc
tor, and a family should not go bankrupt because their child has cancer.” Vasanti Malik, a nutrition research scientist at the School of Public Health who was in the same doctoral program as Ding, wrote in an email that Ding attracted attention during his time as a graduate student at Harvard for his dedication to public health research. “As a doctoral student, he was always extremely passionate about all things public health,” Malik wrote. “He used to pull many all-nighters, not just working on class assignments, but also personal projects like uncovering controversies about the safety of Vioxx (a drug used for pain management).” Malik added that he did all this “while at the same time helping friends with assignments and serving as a TA for various classes.” Ding said he loved conducting public health research, but he also wanted to apply his knowledge of science to “offer unique solutions” and insights that other policymakers might not be able to. “Life is about what you do for the world, not the number of letters behind your name,” he said. Ding said this inspired him to create Campaign for Cancer Prevention, a web platform that raised $400,000 for cancer research and was profiled in the New York Times.
He also created the online database Toxin Alert to aggregate water-testing data in response to the water crisis in Flint, Mich. “Science from within academia can only do so much to inf luence policy,” Ding said. “We have to cross over if we want to see the change we believe in. And for that, you need a scientist to run for office and become a lawmaker.” Ding faces four other candidates in the Democratic primary to date, the York Daily Herald reported. Pennsylvania’s new electoral map supplanted Republican-drawn districts that the state’s supreme court struck down in January because they “clearly, plainly and palpably” violated the state constitution. If elected, Ding would join several other Harvard alumni in the halls of Congress. More than 40 members of the 115th Congress have degrees from one of Harvard’s schools, including top-ranking Senate Democrat Charles “Chuck” E. Schumer ’71. The primary election will take place on May 15, and the general election on Nov. 6. Staff writer Simone C. Chu can be reached at simone.chu@thecrimson.com. Staff writer Luke W. Vrotsos can be reached at luke.vrotsos@thecrimson.com.
Florida Students to Speak at IOP Panel By ALEXANDRA A. CHAIDEZ CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.—the site of a shooting last month that killed 17 people—will discuss gun reform and student activism at an Institute of Politics panel on Mar. 20. The panel, entitled “#NEVERAGAIN: How Parkland Students are Changing the Conversation on Guns,” will feature many of the survivors of the shooting who have gained national attention for their efforts to enact gun reform across the country. Emma González, the 18-year-old high school senior who has quickly become the face of this movement, will attend, along with fellow student activists Matthew Deitsch, Ryan Deitsch, David Hogg, Cameron Kasky, and Alex Wind. Dustin Chiang ’19, president of the IOP Student Advisory Committee, wrote in an email that the IOP was eager to host the students. “These students have rapidly organized a nationwide movement and are currently at the center of our country’s political discourse,” Chiang wrote. “We are eager to hear their insight on how young people can make a difference on issues they believe in.” Meighan Stone, a senior fellow at the Kennedy School’s Women and Foreign Policy program, will moderate the event. “From Malala’s starting her activism in Pakistan at age 11 to Rep. John Lewis sneaking out from chores to hear Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speak when he was 14, young people have
long led powerful movements,” Stone wrote in an email. “The Parkland students have refused to be silent victims, instead realizing they need no one’s permission to be a prophetic voice for change and an end to gun violence in America.”
Titles of power and money mean absolutely nothing to me when we’re talking about innocent lives. Matthew Deitsch Oldest ‘Never Again’ movement member
Matthew Deitsch, the oldest member of the Never Again Movement at 20 years old, said the students will talk about more than just gun control at the event. A 2016 graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and the older brother of students who survived the shooting, Deitsch said by coming to Harvard he hopes to make the pressing nature of this issue clear. “By going to Harvard, we’re going to be speaking directly to the future leaders of America, and we’re going to
tell everyone what we’ve been telling everyone. We don’t care if it says Senator ‘insert senator’s name here’ or Representative or President whoever,” Deitsch said. “Titles of power and money mean absolutely nothing to me when we’re talking about innocent lives.” Deitsch also stressed the importance of “better” and more informed leaders to find solutions to the gun issue in America. “We don’t need leaders who are lifelong politicians and have been a part of this system,” Deitsch said. “We need leaders who are actually going to make the right choices and actually do the things that we need as a society to be more safe and to stop this senseless violence that we have in this country.” Deitsch said the Parkland shooting was an traumatic experience for everyone in his community, detailing how his brother and sister had to hide in closets for hours during the shooting in fear of the gunman. He said, however, they are still united in their desire to fix a “failed system.” “[If] we can be this broken up about everyone and be so personally affected and still have the wit to combat the hatred and just the lies that come from the other side in order to justify their stances continuing this bloodshed, then anyone can.” The event, which will be ticketed, will take place at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum. Staff writer Alexandra A. Chaidez can be reached at alexandra.chaidez@thecrimson.
HCFA FROM PAGE 1 harsher penalties on HCFA. Organizers sent students an email template that they suggested students use in their communications with administrators. “I urge the OSL to act rather than set vague expectations of disaffiliation that are unlikely to be met,” the template reads. The OSL announced in February it
We also continue to welcome everyone into our fellowship as we always have. Scott Ely ‘18 and Molly L. Richmond ‘18 HCFA Co-presidents
had put HCFA on a year-long “probation” after finding the group had acted in a manner “grossly inconsistent” with the OSL’s guidelines for recognized student organizations—including Harvard’s non-discrimination policy. The Crimson reported Feb. 22 that the decision to punish HCFA was almost certainly linked to the group’s Sept. 2017 move to ask a woman in a same-sex relationship to resign from her leadership position. To date, it appears the OSL’s probation will have little immediate, practical effect. HCFA will not lose the ability to book rooms, recruit students, or receive Undergraduate Council funding as part of its year-long probation, The Crimson reported earlier this week. Associate Dean of Student Engagement Alexander R. Miller wrote in an emailed statement Thursday that the OSL “will not discuss specific details
regarding discipline of students or organizations.” “We are working closely with the leadership of HCFA to ensure that they are in compliance with all of Harvard’s policies with respect to recognized student organizations,” Miller wrote. “We are committed to creating an environment of mutual respect in a diverse community. By listening to each other with the same passion that we want to be heard we strengthen our community.” Khurana, O’Dair, and Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion Roland S. Davis did not respond to requests for comment Thursday. In the email template, campaign organizers also decried HCFA’s decision to ask a woman in a same-sex relationship to step down from a leadership position. “Harvard can and should to better for its minority students, particularly when the discrimination taking place is at the hands of an outside organization,” the email template reads. Asked Thursday whether they plan to respond to the email campaign, HCFA co-presidents Scott Ely ’18 and Molly L. Richmond ’18 did not directly answer. “We cherish the diversity of religious organizations across Harvard and desire to continue living out our faith in Christ and our religious convictions on Harvard’s campus,” HCFA co-presidents Scott Ely ’18 and Molly L. Richmond ’18 wrote in an emailed statement. “We also continue to welcome everyone into our fellowship as we always have.” HCFA is the first-ever student group to be put on administrative probation by the College, according to Ely and Richmond. Staff writer Caroline S. Engelmayer can be reached at caroline.engelmayer@thecrimson. com. Staff writer Michael E. Xie can be reached at michael.xie@thecrimson.com.
Faust Condemns GOP Congress Involvement LOBBY FROM PAGE 1 student organizations” from penalizing members of the groups. That legislation—known as the PROSPER Act—passed a House committee 23-17 in December, but has yet to move to the full House or Senate for a vote. As it stands now, the amendment would likely not affect Harvard’s highly contested sanctions against single-gender social organizations, which Faust debuted in May 2016. The College does not have a policy officially recognizing final clubs and Greek organizations, meaning the legislation in its current form does not apply. But final club members and alumni have been lobbying Congress to rework the language of the amendment so that it would prevent Harvard from implementing the sanctions, the Wall Street Journal reported last month. The final club graduates’ efforts come as the implementation of the sanctions are already well underway. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted to include the penalties in the Harvard College Student Handbook at their meeting Tuesday. Faust said Thursday she is “distressed” by Republican lawmakers’ attempts to interfere in what she consid-
ers to be internal University affairs. “I don’t think this is an appropriate role for Congress,” Faust said. “Domestic local affairs of universities and
I don’t think this is an appropriate role for Congress. Drew G. Faust
University President how we manage student life seem to be appropriately the business of Harvard College and those in and around Harvard College, not the business of the United States Congress.” Faust said she spoke to lawmakers about the social group policy last fall. She traveled to Washington last week, but said she has not yet broached the amendment with members of Congress. Faust said she has previously been active in “expressing the foundations for why we have this policy, why it’s important, and why it ought to be our responsibility to direct student affairs articulating those purposes and goals.”
Mt. Auburn Hair Cuttery to Close as Rent Increases By FRANKLIN R. CIVANTOS and HENRY W. BURNES CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Hair Cuttery will be snipped from its Harvard Square location on March 17, according to its manager. Hair Cuttery is a national franchise of unisex hair salons founded in Virginia in 1974. The store has been at its location at the intersection of Mt. Auburn and Eliot St. since 2006, when it replaced a Supercuts. Karen A. Doyon, the store’s recently hired manager, said that the closing was due to a rent increase from the shop’s landlords. “They doubled on the rent,” Doyon said. A sign in the window of Hair Cuttery already advertises the retail space for a lease. According to Doyon, the store has been handing out $5 coupons to customers that detail other Hair Cuttery locations nearby, and has contacted customers about the closing through email. The decision to close the store came from Hair Cuttery management, and
was prompted by the rent increase, Doyon said. Intercontinental Real Estate, led by Peter Palandjian ’87, owns the 104 Mt. Auburn building that also houses a Cambridge Savings Bank and the Harvard University Employees Credit Union. Rents in the Square have skyrocketed in recent years, forcing some local businesses to shutter their doors and leading to persistent vacancies in prime locations. Large real estate companies like Intercontinental Real Estate and Harvard donor Gerald L. Chan’s Morningside have also increased their Square property holdings in the past few years. A spokesperson for Hair Cuttery could not be reached for comment. Denise A. Jillson, executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association, said the decision to close was unexpected. “It comes as a surprise,” Jillson said. “They are long members of the Business Association.” Jillson added that she has not heard of any potential businesses eyeing a move in to the storefront.