The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873
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VOLUME CXLIX, NO. 39 |
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
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FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2022
OP ED PAGE 4
SPORTS PAGE 6
SPORTS PAGE 6
A mid-semester evaluation of assault on campus: Harvard fails
Men’s lacrosse earned its fourth straight victory over BU
Men’s ice hockey fells to Minnesota State in first round of NCAAs
HUPD Sees Leadership Shakeup Under Clay Audit of UC Clears Names By SARAH GIRMA and BRANDON L. KINGDOLLAR CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
When longtime Harvard University Police Chief Francis D. “Bud” Riley retired in 2020, he left behind a department roiled by allegations of racism, sexism, and favoritism — part of a toxic work environment some current and former officers alleged he created.Now, two years after Riley’s departure, with a new police chief in place, just three members of his senior leadership team remain on the department’s command staff. Since Victor A. Clay took over as HUPD’s new chief in July, the department’s leadership has undergone a series of sweeping changes. Of the seven senior staff members at the time of Clay’s arrival, four have been reassigned to other divisions or left the school entirely, according to archives of the department’s website. Three new members have since been promoted to the senior leadership team, which has been restructured to include one fewer member and renamed to command staff. HUPD’s longtime deputy
chief, Kevin W. Regan, who was second-in-command for years under Riley, left the department in February. Scott Simas, Robert Harrington, and Wilmon D. Chipman — formerly members of the senior staff team — were reassigned to serve as the department’s watch commanders. Two new senior roles — assistant chief and captain — were established in December, according to HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano. “Since his arrival at the Harvard University Police Department, Chief Clay has prioritized an analysis and consideration of the structure of the Department and its leadership to address organizational needs and to increase operational effectiveness,” Catalano wrote on Thursday. “These internal changes are a part of Chief Clay’s ongoing efforts to meet Department, community and University priorities related to the role of public safety on campus, as well as to ensure both internal and external accountability,” he added. Following Riley’s departure, Regan stayed on as deputy chief
SEE HUPD PAGE 3
An audit of the UC’s finances has “yet to find evidence of any financial irregularities.” By J. SELLERS HILL CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Following a spike in Covid-19 cases earlier this month, many Harvard instructors have opted to continue requiring masks in classrooms, even after the University lifted its mask mandate for most indoor spaces last week. As of March 14, instructors may choose whether or not to require students to mask in their classrooms. Many professors are mandating masks for the first week after spring break to wait out a potential spike. Some have taken a stricter approach, requiring masks for the rest of the semester, while others have gone fully mask-optional. Students in classes larger than 250 people are still required to wear masks, but instructors may teach unmasked in classes of all sizes. Harvard saw a surge of Covid-19 cases among undergraduates just before it lifted its mask requirement this month, with 765 undergraduates
An audit of the Undergraduate Council’s finances has “yet to find evidence of any financial irregularities,” according to the report released Thursday in an email from Undergraduate Council President Michael Y. Cheng ’22 and Vice President Emmett E. de Kanter ’24. The audit, which began in January and was conducted by Harvard Risk Management and Audit Services, dispelled allegations of financial mismanagement that have plagued the Council since a particularly contentious presidential election last November. It also made recommendations on procedural changes for the body. The Council voted unanimously to “fully cooperate” with the investigation last December. The audit was expected to conclude by the end of February but was extended several times “in part because of refusals to answer questions,” Cheng wrote in his email. The Dean of Students Office, which disperses funding to the UC, had withheld more than $125,000 from the body in response to the audit. Throughout his Thursday email, Cheng asserted multiple times that the audit had uncovered “extensive financial mismanagement in the UC,” and that some more serious findings had been withheld from the report due to concerns over optics. “Some of the findings of the investigation will not be released publicly because they could cause substantial harm to Harvard’s reputation, given that the UC nominally represents Harvard students to the public,” Cheng wrote in the email. Assistant Dean of Student Engagement and Leadership
SEE MASKS PAGE 5
SEE UC PAGE 3
The Harvard University Police Department’s headquarters are located at 1033 Massachusetts Avenue. JULIAN GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
Author Professors Split on Masking in Classrooms Talks Culinary History By ARIEL H. KIM and MEIMEI XU
CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
By JOLIN CHAN and JADE LOZADA CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Culinary author and historian Michael W. Twitty delivered a lecture on African and African American food history at a virtual event hosted by the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Thursday. The lecture, entitled “Feeding the Nation,” addressed the legacy of enslaved Africans and African Americans in American food culture. Dean of Harvard Radcliffe Institute Tomiko Brown-Nagin later joined in conversation with Twitty and fielded audience questions. Twitty began the discussion by addressing a central misconception of African American culinary culture. “We have another sort of fake lore, which is, Black people’s food traditions come from their lack of ownership, their lack of agency, their lack of willpower,” Twitty said. “All of that is completely not true.” Rather, Twitty explained, enslaved African Americans in the American South replicated food traditions and staple recipes from their homelands. Twitty cited the example of dried okra, a recipe that was popular among enslaved Africans in the South but originated in West Africa. Twitty discussed the tendency for society to construct narratives that misrepresent African American culinary history. “When I do my work of reconstructing and piecing back together this narrative, I found that there were so many elements that were just totally overlooked because we were so interested in attaching the narrative of how enslaved people ate, cooked, lived to a trauma narrative,” Twitty said. Twitty also commented on the importance of his research and the obstacles that he faces as a food historian. “As a Black person who has taken on this work for his life, to talk about our ancestors — and these are not just specimens,
SEE RADCLIFFE PAGE 3 INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Harvard Today 2
Harvard University lifted its masking requirement for indoor spaces earlier this month. Truong L. Nguyen —CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
Julián Castro Discusses Future of Democrats By MILES J. HERSZENHORN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro discussed the future of the progressive movement in the Democratic Party Thursday evening at a Harvard Institute of Politics forum moderated by Maya Rupert, Castro’s former campaign manager and an IOP spring resident fellow. Castro, who served as mayor of San Antonio for five years, ran an unsuccessful presidential bid in 2020. He announced that he intends to return to politics and said he believes U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) could lose if he runs for reelection in 2024. “I think I’ll jump back into public service at some point,” Castro said. “I haven’t made a decision about ’24 or beyond that, but I do think that Cruz is very vulnerable.” Castro will join the faculty of
News 3
Editorial 4
Harvard Law School for the fall semester where he will teach a course about post-pandemic city leadership, according to a press release Monday. He also said he believes Texas can become a Democratic state over the next few years, pointing to California as an example of a state that moved from red to blue. “California was a reliably Republican state for the longest time,” he said. “This is the state that produced Nixon, produced Reagan, produced governors like Deukmejian, Pete Wilson in the 1990s.” Texas shifted towards the Democratic party under former President Donald J. Trump and is continuing to trend in that direction as suburbs that were Republican strongholds become increasingly competitive, according to Castro. “It was that Trump
SEE IOP PAGE 3
Sports 6
Former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro spoke at a Thursday IOP Forum moderated by Maya Rupert, the former manager of his presidential campaign. BEN CAMMARATA—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
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