The Harvard Crimson - Volume CXLIX, No. 43

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The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873

|

VOLUME CXLIX, NO. 43

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CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

| WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 2022

EDITORIAL PAGE 4

SPORTS PAGE 6

NEWS PAGE 3

Where is the urgency on sexual harassment?

Nick Abruzzese is set to make his NHL debut with the Toronto Maple Leafs

Professor Eddie S. Glaude Jr. spoke about racism at an IOP forum

HUA Opponents Retract Call to Boycott Vote Covid-19 Paid Leave to Expire By J. SELLERS HILL CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

With the future of Harvard’s Undergraduate Council on the line, some opponents of a controversial referendum question that will determine the body’s fate made a high-stakes gamble: they told their supporters not to vote. It may have just backfired. Voting is set to close at noon on Thursday for a referendum asking students whether to replace the UC with a new student government. Seeking to suppress voter turnout below the required 40 percent threshold, opponents of the new student government initially encouraged students to boycott the referendum. But with less than 24 hours left to vote, some have now reversed course. UC President Michael Y. Cheng ’22 ran on a pledge to “abolish” and restructure the body he now leads. Earlier this month, Cheng unveiled a draft for a new student government called the “Harvard Undergraduate Association,” which is now on the ballot in the schoolwide referendum. ­

Under the current UC constitution, a referendum requires two-fifths of students turn out to vote — with two-thirds voting in favor — to be binding. The rule is the product of a controversial constitutional amendment passed just days after Cheng was elected that upped the required number of “yes” votes from a simple majority to two-thirds and added a minimum turnout threshold. Following the passage of the amendment, Cheng deemed the proposal an effort to “undermine the election results,” calling the new standard “an impossible threshold.” Before voting on Cheng’s signature campaign promise went live on Monday, an anonymous Instagram account, @harvardknowyourvote, began calling on students to boycott the referendum to prevent it from reaching the necessary two-fifths turnout threshold. In a since-deleted post, the account argued that boycotting would be more effective than voting “No.” “Voting ‘No’ on the HUA referendum could help it pass,” it

SEE UC PAGE 3

By CARA J. CHANG and SOPHIA C. SCOTT CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

flict and the other much more diplomatic. “One is, do you have unmanaged strategic competition? That is no rules of the road, no guardrails, no nothing,” Rudd said. “Just fasten your seat belt — if there is one — and hope that the bus doesn’t careen off the side of the cliff.” “Or can the two governments, and their senior representatives between them, agree on de minima rules of the road?” he asked. “Basic guardrails which reduce — not eliminate — the prospects of crisis escalation, conflict, and war for the decade ahead.” Rudd advocated for letting the world choose among the competing ideologies of China and the U.S. “In the court of global pub-

T wo weeks after Harvard lifted indoor mask mandates, the University is set to end its Coronavirus Workplace Policies, which will eliminate emergency paid sick leave benefits and partial compensation for some employees who were involuntarily idled by the pandemic. On Friday, the University will reinstate the 5-12 day yearly limit for time-off to care for ill dependents, immediate family, or household members who must isolate or quarantine due to Covid-19 exposure. All directly hired and contracted workers at Harvard involuntarily idled by the pandemic will also no longer receive up to 70 percent of their pay and benefits. From March 2020 until Janary 2021, Harvard provided full compensation for all employees before modifying its emergency excused absence pay policy, reducing pay for involuntarily idled direct hires to 70 percent and ending pay and benefits for idled contract employees. Most graduate schools individually moved to extend the 70 percent pay policy to idled contract employees. The Coronavirus Workplace Policies also included four new or expanded paid leave benefits. The first allowed workers to accumulate negative sick leave balances — employees could use up to 14 days of paid sick leave not yet earned. The second and third benefits set to expire centered around dependent care: Harvard broadened the reasons employees could use paid time off beyond caring for dependents who are quarantined, isolated, or sick. The University also introduced up to 10 days of paid time off for workers to take care of dependents “whose schooling or care arrangements have

SEE IOP PAGE 5

SEE COVID PAGE 5

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Voting concludes at noon on Thursday in a referendum in which Harvard undergraduates will vote on questions about a new student government and the University’s Covid-19 policies. AIYANA G. WHITE—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Former Aussie PM Speaks at IOP By MILES J. HERSZENHORN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER ­

Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin M. Rudd discussed the possibility of military conflict between the United States and China with ex-Harvard Kennedy School Dean Graham T. Allison Jr. ’62 at a JFK Jr. Forum event Wednesday evening. Rudd served two stints as prime minister of Australia, leading the country from 2007 to 2010 and then again in 2013 for less than three months. He has studied U.S.-China relations as a senior fellow at HKS since 2014. Rudd launched the forum with an explanation of his new book, “The Avoidable War,” in which he argues U.S.-China competition will result in two potential outcomes — one involving potential military con-

At Wednesday’s IOP Forum, Kevin Rudd, the 26th Prime Minister of Australia, discussed the future of the U.S.-China relationship. MILES J. HERSZENHORN — CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Colombian Student Group Reconvenes By ELLA L. JONES and MONIQUE I. VOBECKY CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Harvard’s Colombian Student Association gathered to share in traditional food and good company last week for the first time since the club’s reestablishment. Harvard’s Colombian Student Association co-presidents Manuel A. “Manny” Yepes ’24 and Anthony Morales ’24 were motivated to revive the organization in response to a lack of Colombian student engagement on campus in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. “When we asked around, we couldn’t really find any information on it,” Yepes, a Crimson Editorial editor, said. “So we reached out to Tomás [Guerrero-Jaramillo], who was a previous president, and he basically told us why it kind of fell apart and gave us all the resources we needed to bring it back up again,” Yepes said. With the group’s revival on campus this semester, previous board members like Manuela Arroyave Monsalve ’22 watched Harvard College’s next genera­

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Harvard Today 2

tion of Colombian students take the reins. “It felt a little bit like passing the baton,” Arroyave Monsalve said. “We played a role in kind of guiding them towards reestablishing,” Arroyave Monsalve added. Other Colombian Student Association members echoed the sentiments of Yepes and Morales. Elisa M. Gonzalez ’23 said she wanted to connect with other Colombian students at the College. “As someone who is Colombian, I obviously wanted to get to know other Colombians on campus,” Gonzalez said. Arroyave Monsalve said she did not have the opportunity to engage with other Colombians in high school and hoped Harvard would be different. “It’s something that I didn’t get to have in high school — there weren’t any other Colombians in my high school — so that was something that I definitely wanted to have here,” she said.

SEE COLOMBIAN PAGE 3

News 3

Editorial 4

Stephen Ball Named New HLS Dean of Students By ANNE M. BRANDES CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Harvard Law School tapped Stephen L. Ball, a senior vice president at Wells Fargo, as its new dean of students last month. Ball is the first Black male to hold the title at Harvard Ball, who also served as an adjunct professor at Pace University and a contributing writer for Black Enterprise Magazine, is responsible for promoting the well-being of the nearly 2,000 students attending HLS. He took office March 7 and oversees student support and programming, preparation for the Bar application process, and major campus events such as orientation and commencement. He succeeds former Dean of Students Marcia L. Sells, who stepped down from the post in February 2021. Ball said his mother, who worked as a legal secretary, inspired him to enter the law profession. He credits his mother with helping him learn how to write and communicate well. “I think a lot of times when you’re growing up, people cite an argumentative streak as indicative of future strengths and abilities in terms of becoming an attorney,” Ball said. “I re­

Sports 6

member her citing that a little bit early on, especially in my adolescent years. So she kind of planted the seed.” After graduating from Harvard Law School in 2010, Ball worked across the private sector. During his time at Wells Fargo, he developed a cross-enterprise, integrated strategy to support historically Black colleges and universities and Hispanic-serving institutions, which he said prepared him for his new role at HLS. “This notion of empathetic leadership, and being able to disagree respectfully without personalizing things — all those things, to me, model leadership,” Ball said. “The HBCUs do a great job of building that within their students.” Ball said the Law School can look to the resources HBCUs provide their students and incorporate similar strategies on HLS’ campus. “We don’t have any firm plans around this yet, but I know that HBCUs, for example, many of them offer a campus closet to their students to use for interviewing for jobs,” Ball said. “Maybe there are elements of that approach that so many of the HBCUs have and have done

TODAY’S FORECAST

SEE HLS PAGE 5

Harvard Law School welcomes Stephen L. Ball as its new Dean of Students. COURTESTY OF ERIN PATRICE O’BRIEN

CLOUDY High: 63 Low: 54

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