THE HARVARD CRIMSON THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873
| VOLUME CL, NO. 9 | CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
WOMEN’S HOCKEY
BOARD OF OVERSEERS
OPINION
SPORTS
A Letter To My High School in Mourning
Historic End to the Harvard Women’s Basketball Season
PAGE 9
PAGE 15
| FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2023
External Ice Hockey Review Underway SPEEDY REVIEW. Jenner and Block, the law firm investigating Harvard’s women’s ice hockey program amid allegations of abuse, aims to conclude its review by the end of the term. SEE PAGE 4
Meet the Candidates
LAWSUITS
Judge Says Therapy Claim Can Proceed COMAROFF LAWSUIT. A judge denied Harvard’s motion for summary judgment on one count of a lawsuit by students who say Harvard failed to properly address harassment and retaliation. reports. SEE PAGE 8
NINE VIE FOR FIVE SEATS ON BOARD OF OVERSEERS. Sylvia M. Burwell ’87, Jeffrey D. Dunn ’77, Arturo Elizondo ’14, Srishti K. Gupta Narasimhan ’97, Fiona Hill, Vanessa W. Liu ’96, Robert L. Satcher, Jr, Harvey A. Silverglate, and Luis A. Ubiñas ’85 are campaigning for a seat on the Board of Overseers, Harvard’s second-highest governing board, in this spring’s election. SEE PAGE 6 LAURINNE EUGENIO—CRIMSON DESIGNER
ADMISSIONS
College Accepts 3.41% of Applicants to Class of 2027, Marking Second-Lowest Admissions Rate BY MICHELLE N. AMPONSAH AND EMMA H. HAIDAR
METRO
CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
H MBTA Draws Criticism From Locals DELAYS CONTINUE. MBTA warned commuters of delays of up to 20 minutes on all metro lines due to ongoing inspections to verify the documentation of track defects and repairs. SEE PAGE 11
arvard College admitted 3.41 percent of applicants to the Class of 2027, marking the second-lowest admissions rate in the College’s history. The College’s Admissions Office notified 1,220 students of their acceptances in the regular decision cycle at 7 p.m. Thursday. The admitted students join 722 applicants accepted through the College’s early action program in December, totaling 1,942 admitted students from a pool of 56,937 applications. This year’s acceptance rate reflects a slight increase from last year’s record-low acceptance rate of 3.19 percent, with a 7 percent decrease in the total number of
SEE PAGE 8
Students Occupy University Hall
IOP Student Leaders Say Warren is ‘Stable’ Pick
CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
ARTS
SEE PAGE 12
Legal scholars widely expect the Court’s strong conservative majority to overturn affirmative action, with a decision expected in late spring or summer. Students admitted to the Class of 2027 come from all 50 states and 102 countries. Roughly 22 percent of admits hail from the Mid-Atlantic, 17.4 percent from the South, 15.9 percent from New England, 17 percent from the Western/Mountain region, 10.1 percent from the Midwest, and 15.8 percent from U.S. territories and abroad. After the U.S., the countries with the highest numbers of permanent residents admitted to the Class of 2027 include Canada with 44 admitted students, the United Kingdom with 24 students, and China
INSTITUTE OF POLITICS
AND ELIAS J. SCHISGALL
CONVERSATION WITH ATWOOD. The esteemed award-winning Canadian author discussed her recently released book “Old Babes in the Wood,” her writing process, and how the two relate.
year before. Just over 2 percent of admits are Native American, a drop from 2.9 percent last year. Native Hawaiian students made up 0.5 percent of accepted students this year, a drop from 0.8 percent last year. Harvard admitted the highest ever proportion of Asian American applicants at 29.9 percent, marking a 2.1 percentage point increase from the 27.8 percent accepted to the Class of 2026. “It’s been part of a long-term trend,” Fitzsimmons said. “The percentages have been going up steadily. It’s not a surprise.” The uptick comes in advance of the Supreme Court’s decision on a lawsuit against Harvard brought by Students for Fair Admissions, an anti-affirmative action group that claims the College’s race-conscious admissions policies discriminate against Asian American applicants.
COMAROFF
BY RAHEM D. HAMID
Margaret Atwood Talks Book
applications from last year’s all-time high of 61,220 applicants. Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 said in an interview Thursday that he believes the Class of 2027, like every admitted class, is “unique.” “Our admissions committee would say the proof in all this is the individuals we recruited, first of all — from around the country and around the world — and then ended up over a long period of time, admitting,” Fitzsimmons said. “Now, of course, we hope they’ll choose to come here,” he added. African American or Black students comprise 15.3 percent of applicants admitted to the Class of 2027, a decrease from 15.5 percent last year. The proportion of Latinx students admitted dropped to 11.3 percent from 12.6 percent in the
Dozens of Harvard students occupied University Hall from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday in protest of the school’s sexual harassment and professional conduct policies. Organized by Our Harvard Can Do Better — a campus group that advocates against campus rape culture — the demonstration follows a wave of protests this semester, including a walkout, an email campaign, and a march, against Harvard’s sexual misconduct policies and its continued employment of professor John L. Comaroff, who is under fire for sexual harassment allegations levied by graduate students. Comaroff has denied all allegations of harassment and misconduct. University Hall — located in Harvard Yard — houses the offices of several of
Harvard’s top administrators, including the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and dean of the College. Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana spoke with and listened to the demonstrators for roughly 50 minutes in the middle of Wednesday’s demonstration. Protesters voiced concerns about Comaroff’s continued employment as a professor, as well as what they see as the University’s lack of action on sexual assault and harassment. Khurana agreed to reach out to organizers to set up meetings, but he did not share any concrete plans in response to their demands. On Twitter, Our Harvard Can Do Better is also circulating an email template for supporters to prompt Khurana to make a public statement. “I am writing in solidarity with the student protestors currently occupying University Hall, and asking you to send a
SEE PAGE 4
BY THOMAS J. METE CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
urrent and former members of the HarC vard Institute of Politics Student Advisory Committee praised “the stable pick” of Setti D. Warren as the permanent IOP director, adding they are pleased the appointment stayed within the IOP. Warren’s appointment to the permanent role was announced Wednesday, concluding a national search that narrowed to four finalists earlier this month. Student interviewers had viewed Warren as a viable candidate prior to his selection, though he was not their top choice. “I trust the Dean’s decision,” said IOP Communications Director Ethan C. Kelly ’25. “If the Dean thought Setti was the right choice, then I believe he is the right choice.” Warren — the former mayor of Newton, Massachusetts — joined the IOP in 2021 as its executive director and became
its interim director in July 2022 after the unexpected departure of former IOP Director Mark D. Gearan ’78. Former IOP Vice President Tabitha L. Escalante ’23 wrote in a statement she is “thankful that the IOP will not undergo another senior staff transition,” with Warren staying in the top role. Members of the Student Advisory Committee said they were also pleased with the decision to keep the appointment in-house. “Having a director with already a year’s experience means he knows how to hit the ground running,” Kelly said. Former IOP Vice President Tabitha L. Escalante ’23 wrote in a statement she is “thankful that the IOP will not undergo another senior staff transition,” with Warren staying in the top role. Members of the Student Advisory Committee said they were also pleased with the decision to keep the appointment in-house. “Having a director with already a year’s
SEE PAGE 5