The Harvard Crimson - Volume CXLIX, No. 69: Commencement 2022

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The Harvard Crimson COMMENCEMENT 2022

The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873

|

VOLUME CXLIX, NO. 69 |

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

| THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2022

COMMENCEMENT 2022

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Today’s News SECTION A

Year in Review SECTION B

Year in Sports SECTION C

Senior Section SECTION D

TODAY’S FORECAST

CLOUDY High: 74 Low: 59

VISIT THECRIMSON.COM. FOLLOW @THECRIMSON ON TWITTER.

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COMMENCEMENT 2022

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HARVARD TODAY TODAY’S EVENTS Commencement Tercentenary Theatre, 8 a.m.

IN THE REAL WORLD

Join the Class of 2022 in celebrating their graduation from all of Harvard’s degree-granting schools! Watch as the graduates receive some wisdom from the Commencement day speakers.

Congratulations to the graduating class!

‘Ashamed’ Russian Diplomat Resigns Over Putin’s ‘Aggressive War’

A Russian diplomat resigned on Monday in protest of the war in Ukraine in a letter sent to colleagues and posted on Facebook and LinkedIn. The diplomat, Boris Bondarev, was a counselor at the Russian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva.

Writing for the Web (IT Academy) Virtual, 10-11:30 a.m.

In a world becoming increasingly digital each day, it’s important to know how to write for websites and other digital platforms. Harvard Web Publishing, in this 90 minute course, will teach you content strategy, online content consumption, and how to improve your website’s usability.

Harvard Art Museums at Night Harvard Art Museums, 5-9 p.m.

Looking for a night of food, fun, and fine art? Check out the new special exhibitions at the Harvard Art Museums or take a stroll through their permanent galleries, all while mingling with friends over snacks and drinks in the courtyard!

Princeton Fires Tenured Professor in Campus Controversy

Graduates clad in caps and gowns gather in Tercentenary Theatre for Harvard’s first AAPI graduation. CARA J. CHANG—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

AROUND THE IVIES YALE: Yale Awards 4,313 Degrees at 321st Commencement —THE YALE DAILY NEWS COLUMBIA: Ivy Champs: Baseball Beats Penn to Win Conference Title —THE COLUMBIA SPECTATOR

Joshua Katz, a Princeton classics professor, was fired by the university on Mondayfor being uncooperative and not fully honest during an investigation into a sexual relationship he had with an undergraduate student 15 years ago.

Biden Pledges to Defend Taiwan if It Faces a Chinese Attack

President Joe Biden suggested on Monday he would use the military to defend Taiwan if it were attacked by China at a news conference during his visit to Japan. Biden’s comments appeared to surprise members of his own administration and the White House quickly attempted to walk back the statement.

BROWN: ‘You’re Not as Alone as You Feel’: Former, Current Students Share Experiences with Abortion —THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PENN: Over 4,000 People Sign Petition Calling on Penn to Investigate Student Plagiarism Allegations —THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN

COVID UPDATES

LAST 7 DAYS CURRENTLY

CAMPUS

137

In Isolation

248 2.35% Total New Cases

Positivity Rate

LAST 7 DAYS

CAMBRIDGE

672 7.36% 77%

Total New Cases

Positivity Rate

Fully Vaccinated

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY Officials Reassess Minority Recruiting

Due to the declining number of Black students accepting Harvard’s offer of admissions, the University is reassessing the College’s minority recruiting program. The falling percentage was particularly disappointing given the admissions office’s revamping and strengthening of the program that year.

May 25, 1983

City May Pursue Arson Charges Against Lampoon President

The Cambridge Fire Department may file arson charges against the president of the Harvard Lampoon as a result of a small fire at the organization’s castle. The Lampoon president was accused of intentionally lighting a newspaper on fire during a party, an incident marking the latest in a series of police-related incidents with the organization.

May 26, 2000

THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873

The Harvard Crimson Raquel Coronell Uribe ’22-’23 Associate Managing Editors Kelsey J. Griffin ’23 President Taylor C. Peterman ’23-’24 Jasper G. Goodman ’23 Associate Business Managers Managing Editor Taia M.Y. Cheng ’23-’24 Isabelle L. Guillaume ’24 Amy X. Zhou ’23 Business Manager Editorial Chairs Guillermo S. Hava ’23-24 Orlee G.S. Marini-Rapoport ’23-24

STAFF FOR THIS ISSUE Arts Chairs Sofia Andrade ’23-’24 Jaden S. Thompson ’23

Design Chairs Yuen Ting Chow ’23 Madison A. Shirazi ’23-’24

Night Editors Brie K. Buchanan ’22-’23 Virginia L. Ma ’23

Design Editors Toby R. Ma ’24 Yuen Ting Chow ’23

Magazine Chairs Maliya V. Ellis ’23-’24 Sophia S. Liang ’23

Multimedia Chairs Aiyana G. White ’23 Pei Chao Zhuo ’23

Assistant Night Editors Meimei Xu ’24 Claire Yuan ’25

Photo Editor Julian J. Giordano ’25

Blog Chairs Ellen S. Deng ’23-’24 Janani Sekar ’23-’24

Technology Chairs Ziyong Cui ’24 Justin Y. Ye ’24

Story Editors Jasper G. Goodman ’23 Kelsey J. Griffin ’23 Taylor C. Peterman ’23-’24

Sports Chairs Alexandra N. Wilson ’23-’24 Griffin H. Wong ’24

Copyright 2022, The Harvard Crimson (USPS 236-560). No articles, editorials, cartoons or any part thereof appearing in The Crimson may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the President. The Associated Press holds the right to reprint any materials published in The Crimson. The Crimson is a non-profit, independent corporation, founded in 1873 and incorporated in 1967. Second-class postage paid in Boston, Massachusetts. Published Monday through Friday except holidays and during vacations, three times weekly during reading and exam periods by The Harvard Crimson Inc., 14 Plympton St., Cambridge, Mass. 02138 Weather icons made by Freepik, Yannick, Situ Herrera, OCHA, SimpleIcon, Catalin Fertu from flaticon.com is licensed by CC BY 3.0.

Editorial Editor Guillermo S. Hava ’23-’24

CORRECTIONS The Harvard Crimson is committed to accuracy in its reporting. Factual errors are corrected promptly on this page. Readers with information about errors are asked to e-mail the managing editor at managingeditor@thecrimson.com.

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THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

COMMENCEMENT 2022

HUPD Chief to Develop Unarmed Officer Positions

By SARAH GIRMA CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Harvard University Police Department Chief Victor A. Clay plans to develop a proposal that would create five new unarmed Campus Support Officer positions, he said in an interview last week.

The new CSOs would be uniformed and hired from the local area. They would respond to lockouts, lost property calls, and other situations in which an armed officer is “not really the best use of personnel,” Clay said. The department aims to establish the five positions by fall 2022.

The plan comes less than a year after Clay began his tenure as Harvard’s police chief. Since he took over, HUPD has seen a series of internal changes, leaving just three members of previous HUPD Chief Francis D. “Bud” Riley’s senior leadership team on the department’s current command staff.

Clay cited the growing popularity of CSOs as a reason why HUPD is looking into establishing the new positions.

“All over the country, we have CSOs, so it’s time to bring it here to Harvard,” Clay said.

“We’re going to hire from the community, and hopefully I can get that going really quick before the fall semester.”

Clay also said that HUPD will expand officer training beyond what is currently mandated by the state and industry to include aspects such as emotional intelligence and de-escalation training.

Clay said the CSOs would not necessarily respond to mental health crises, noting that such calls would require more skill to handle. Still, he said he is considering changes to HUPD’s response to mental health cri-

ses and has met regularly with Harvard University Health Services Director Giang T. Nguyen to discuss potential reforms.

Clay also serves on a committee that will implement recommendations to improve students’ mental health that were developed by the Task Force on Managing Student Mental Health, convened by Harvard Provost Alan M. Garber ’76 in April 2019.

Several college police departments nationwide have incorporated CSOs. Last March, Tufts University announced that within the next two years, it would adopt a similar model in which unarmed Campus Security Officers not in uniform will respond to routine calls.

“The presence of these unarmed security personnel will reduce the number of interactions between armed officers and those members of our community who have experienced racial harm or trauma because of police presence or police encounters,” Yolanda Smith, executive director of Tufts University Department of Public Safety, wrote in an email Friday.

Meanwhile, the Cambridge City Council has weighed non-police public safety alternatives, such as the Holistic Emergency Alternative Response Team, which would address mental health crises. In May, the Cambridge City Council’s Finance Committee voted unanimously to advance a $3 million proposal to fund a future Department of Community Safety.

Some students are skeptical of the effort.

Claire E. Pryor ’23, a police abolitionist, said CSOs would not appropriately address students’ mental health needs because of their ties to the police and called on the University to

Harvard University Police Department Chief Victor A. Clay told The Crimson last week that he plans to develop a proposal to create five new unarmed Campus Support Officer positions. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

consider adopting a model similar to HEART instead.

“HEART is so powerful because the whole structure of the program came out of community research, out of community survey, asking people who are most impacted, ‘What do you need?’” Pryor said.

“It’s really clear to me that any kind of alternative crisis response system, especially a mental health crisis response system, number one, needs to start with talking to people who are most impacted and, number two, can’t involve the police at all — and this proposal from Chief Clay is not doing either of those things,” Pryor added.

HUPD Spokesperson Steven

G. Catalano did not respond to a request for comment.

Sarah Shaughnessy, chief of staff to Harvard Executive Vice President Katherine N. Lapp, said in an interview the CSO positions will potentially be discussed during the HUPD Advisory Board’s meeting in June.

The board was established after an external review concluded that the department should consider procedural changes and engage in a community-driven process of defining public safety and reimagining HUPD. Former Harvard Undergraduate Council President Noah A. Harris ’22, who serves on the Advisory Board, said the board

had previously discussed the possibility of having unarmed officers who could build more trust with students.

“I thought that would be a really good opportunity to start to build more relationships with the community,” Harris said.

Harvard Undergraduate Association Co-President Travis Allen Johnson ’24 said the addition of CSOs would make students more likely to call HUPD during lockouts.

He added that Clay should consider expanding the number of CSO positions after the five proposed ones are implemented.

“The presence of armed officers causes a lot of fear and

anxiety for so many students,” Johnson said. “I do think unarmed police officers are the right way to go.”

Pryor, however, stated she is opposed to the future CSO proposal.

“If that actually means creating five new positions and getting the money for five new salaries, I feel deeply opposed to that because I know from history that more money going to police departments never actually reduces police power,” Pryor said.

Staff writer Brandon L. Kingdollar contributed reporting. sarah.girma@thecrimson.com

Bacow Lobbies on Washington Trip TD Bank Suffers

By CARA J. CHANG and ISABELLA B.CHO

Harvard University President Lawrence S. Bacow traveled to Washington, D.C., last week to lobby against taxes on large university endowments and tightened federal regulations for foreign funding disclosures.

Bacow met with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including Senator Mike K. Braun (R-Ind.), Secretary of Labor Martin J. Walsh, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer ’71 (D-N.Y.), and Domestic Policy Council Director Susan E. Rice. He also met with members of the Massachusetts delegation.

“Depending upon who I’m speaking to, the agenda changes slightly, but pretty much it’s the same,” Bacow said in an interview last Wednesday. “It’s about federal support for universities, broadly defined.”

Harvard spent $560,000 on federal lobbying during President Joe Biden’s first year in office. During his visit last week, Bacow said he advocated for greater federal research funding and immigration reform to support international students and scholars. He also urged lawmakers to double the maximum Federal Pell Grant award.

More than one-third of American undergraduates rely on the Pell Grant program.

Bacow also continued to lobby against the 1.4 percent excise tax on the returns of university endowments that amount to more than $500,000 per student. The law — enacted under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a landmark piece of legislation under the Trump administration — costs Harvard tens of millions of dollars per year.

Former University President Drew G. Faust took sharp aim at the tax when it was signed

into law, calling it “a blow at the strength of higher American education” in a 2018 interview.

Last week, Bacow called the endowment tax “bad public policy,” noting more schools fall under its scope than in years past.

“Taxing charitable resources away from higher education institutions does not make them more affordable — it has exactly the opposite effect,” he said.

“With the growth in endowment returns, there are now a far larger number of colleges and universities that are subject to this tax than were previously, so it just keeps capturing more and more institutions.”

Harvard will pay more in federal taxes than Ford Motor Company and General Motors, Bacow said during an event at The Economic Club of Washington, D.C., last Wednesday.

At the same event, Bacow noted that “all but a handful of

schools” subject to the tax are in Democratic states.

Bacow also criticized proposals for stricter foreign research funding disclosure requirements, saying the rules would be a roadblock to recruiting foreign scholars and a burden on the federal government’s processing power.

Bills currently in Congress, such as the Bipartisan Innovation Act, would lower the reporting threshold for foreign funds.

While on Capitol Hill, Bacow balanced lobbying with other presidential duties: Between conversations with lawmakers, he participated in a Zoom event addressing the University’s recent release of its Legacy of Slavery report alongside Radcliffe Dean Tomiko BrownNagin last Tuesday. cara.chang@thecrimson.com isabello.cho@thecrimson.com

State Rep. Criticizes Harvard’s Allston Plans

By MICHAL GOLDSTEIN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Earlier this month, Massachusetts State Representative Michael J. Moran and University Executive Vice President Katherine N. “Katie” Lapp exchanged a pair of letters discussing Harvard’s communication with Allston residents about its plans for the Department of Transportation’s I-90/ Allston Multimodal project.

The project, which would replace the Allston Interchange, aims to improve accessibility to public transportation, including the Commuter Rail and West Station.

In her May 11 letter, Lapp describes Harvard’s desire to “create connectivity across historically separated north and south Allston neighborhoods” by installing decking over the highway and rail yard.

The project is still in the process of securing a federal environmental permit, though the city anticipates that work will begin in the fall.

Moran’s letter, sent May 9, raises concerns about the University’s level of communication with residents regarding its plans for the decking development.

“As an environmental justice community with a vast expanse of highway that separates us from our neighbors and the Charles River, we seek

to improve the livability and connectivity of our neighborhood dramatically,” Moran wrote. “Allston residents have always advocated for decking over infrastructure to enhance the fabric of our neighborhood and increase access to the riverfront.”

In his letter, Moran called on Harvard to include Allston residents in the planning process and posed questions regarding the “type, size, and density” of the development — details that have yet to be shared publicly.

“We seek a comprehensive urban planning process rather than Harvard’s current piecemeal approach, which is fragmented and opaque,” he wrote.

Moran also urged Harvard to utilize the Harvard Allston Task Force, an advisory group for Harvard’s developments that includes residents and University representatives.

In her letter, Lapp explained that Harvard does not yet have specific details about the extent of its decking plans, writing that the public planning process is a “prerequisite” to making any decisions about the matter.

Lapp concluded her letter by expressing Harvard’s willingness to meet with the Task Force.

“We are enthusiastic to participate in public meetings of the Harvard Allston Task Force, as you have requested,”

she wrote.

Moran is not the only one to criticize Harvard’s transparency with Allston residents about its future developments in the neighborhood.

Earlier this spring, the Coalition for a Just Allston and Brighton — a group of Allston-Brighton residents, local organizations, and government officials, including Moran — sent a 19-page letter to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu ’07 outlining a set of recommendations for Harvard’s development processes in Allston. The letter included a section on public outreach, which called on the University to make a larger effort to include residents in its decision-making for proposed projects.

Around the same time, Lapp also sent a letter to Wu outlining a set of commitments for the University’s communication with residents.

Lapp referenced those pledges in her response to Moran’s May 9 letter, stating that Harvard has already “committed to an area-wide public planning process” in writing.

In response to Lapp’s May 11 letter, Moran said in an interview that he believes discussions about the project have already happened “behind closed doors,” despite the University’s insistence that no project will go forth without a public city planning process.

“That’s not private property.

That’s state land,” Moran said.

“These discussions should be happening in the public, not between Harvard and an administration that’s on its way out the door. And that’s what I’m fearful of,” he added, referencing Lapp’s announcement that she would step down from her role this summer, which came one day after she sent her letter.

University spokesperson Brigid O’Rourke declined to comment on Moran’s concerns, pointing to Lapp’s May 11 letter as a response.

Looking to the future, Moran said he believes the discussion over air rights for the Allston Multimodal project will have implications for the planning process for Harvard’s Enterprise Research Campus — a proposed 900,000 square-foot development that will include a hotel and conference center, housing units, open space, retail use, and lab space.

“Maybe it’s time that we think about putting proper planning in place with our new city planner that accurately [reflects] the entire Beacon Yards project including the potential air right over West Station,” he wrote in a statement. “ERC is a much different project now given the additional acres of development from the air rights.” michal.goldstein@thecrimson.com

Repeated Robberies

A TD Bank branch in Harvard Square was robbed Monday afternoon for the third time in the last month. AIYANA G. WHITE—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

By BRANDON L. KINGDOLLAR CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

A TD Bank branch in Harvard Square was robbed Monday afternoon for the third time in the last month.

Cambridge Police arrested Jacob Pimentel, 31, of Boston, who allegedly passed a note to the teller demanding money at about 4:43 p.m. Monday, according to CPD spokesperson Jeremy C. Warnick.

Officers apprehended Pimentel, who was unarmed, in front of Harvard’s Smith Campus Center.

Pimentel was arrested by several officers who had weapons drawn while he was attempting to flee the scene in a taxi.

The suspect held his hands out the window of the car as officers surrounded the vehicle on foot, according to a video of the arrest provided by an eyewitness.

An officer retrieved a stack of bills from Pimentel’s left hand, while another opened the cab door.

Pimentel is expected to be charged with unarmed robbery and arraigned later in the week, Warnick said.

Anna Y. Gong ’23, an eyewitness, said she and a friend saw the incident after walking back from Kung Fu Tea. Gong described it as a “stressful” experience.

“I heard some yelling, and we turned around and other people were turning around too, and we saw police with weapons drawn pointing into the window of his taxi,” Gong said. “It

was very action-packed.”

Prior to Monday, that TD Bank location had been robbed twice in the last month — once on April 27 and once on May 2.

According to Warnick, Pimentel is not believed to be a suspect in the other two incidents.

CPD has issued a warrant for the arrest of another individual in connection with one of the prior robberies.

The robbery came amid a spike in robberies in Cambridge through the first 17 weeks of 2022.

Harvard Square’s a pretty safe place.

Ryan K. Hong ‘23

According to the city’s monthly crime report, there had been 36 robberies between January and May 2, more than double the figure at that point in 2021.

In addition to the three TD Bank robberies, another Cambridge location was struck in February, Webster Bank in Brattle Square.

Ryan K. Hong ’23, who witnessed the arrest from outside the Smith Center, said he was “a bit shocked” by the incident.

“Harvard Square’s a pretty safe place,” Hong said. “Pretty interesting that this would happen right in an intersection, probably the most-walked crosswalk by Harvard students.” brandon.kingdollar@thecrimson.com

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How Harvard Square Has Changed Class of 2021 to Receive NFTs

By KATHERINE M. BURSTEIN and MICHAL GOLDSTEIN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Harvard will host its first in-person Commencement Exercises since 2019 on Thursday.

With three classes set to graduate this week, Harvard Square is alive and bustling with students, families, friends, and tourists.

But since the last Commencement, the Square has undergone a series of changes.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, Harvard Square was devastated by the sudden loss of customers as students returned home and travel came to a halt.

“What we always knew — but the pandemic drove the message home — was how much Harvard Square relies on tourism,” said Denise A. Jillson, the executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association.

Daniel P. Roughan, the owner of recent Harvard Square addition, Source Restaurant, described the Square as a “transient epicenter of movement,” explaining that the area is constantly changing.

Here’s a look at how the Square has transformed.

What’s Gone During the initial lockdowns, roughly 480 Cambridge businesses shuttered their doors — some temporarily and some for good — according to small business advocacy group Cambridge Local First.

Staple Harvard Square businesses were forced to close permanently, including Thai restaurant Spicies, Tex-Mex favorite Border Cafe, and nearly 50-year-old coffee shop Cafe Pamplona.

The location of beloved Harvard Square staple Cafe Pamplona now serves as the clubhouse to the all-female Bee Club after the building was purchased by the club’s then-president.

Other businesses that have bid farewell to the Square in the past two years include robotic kitchen Spyce, &pizza, Chinese restaurant Tom’s BaoBao, bakery café Au Bon Pain, Italian restaurant Benedetto, Boston

By VIVI E. LU and LEAH J. TEICHHOLTZ CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Harvard Square has taken on a new face since the University’s last in-person Commencement in May 2019.

JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Tea Stop, and seafood restaurant Legal Sea Foods.

Blue Bottle Coffee closed temporarily but has since reopened, and 105-year-old Brattle Square Florist was set to close permanently before its longtime manager — a member of the store’s founding family — purchased it.

To students’ great dismay, the Mass Ave. Starbucks also closed down last year. Its location will now house a Harvard Shop run by the Harvard Student Agencies.

What’s New Though the Square has said goodbye to a number of beloved businesses since the last Commencement, many shops and restaurants have also opened their doors for the first time.

Source Restaurant, a farmto-table pizzeria, opened on Church Street in November 2020. Lovepop, a specialty card store, opened in July 2021 at 18 John F. Kennedy Street. Ben

and Jerry’s reopened in a new location in January after a twoyear-long hiatus, and Wusong Road, a Chinese restaurant and bar, opened in February.

Life Alive Organic Cafe opened in March in a collaborative storefront with a yoga studio on JFK Street.

The renovated Abbott Building located on Brattle Street is slated to open later this year after a long construction process that began in 2016. The new storefronts will feature a Starbucks, a comedy club, and the new location of El Jefe’s Taqueria.

Other new restaurants include boba tea chains Gong Cha and Kung Fu Tea, sandwich shop Sally’s Sandwiches, Dominican restaurant Las Palmas, seafood restaurants The Boiling Crab and Summer Shack, BBQ eatery The Smoke Shop, and Italian restaurant Bar Enza.

The Square also welcomed Cambridge Uncommon, an e-commerce pop-up store, and Cookies, a cannabis shop.

Regional diner chain The Friendly Toast is set to open in the former location of Grafton Street Pub, which moved to JFK Street where Park Restaurant and Bar was previously housed.

A Look to the Future Suzanne P. Blier, president of Harvard Square Neighborhood Association, attributed changes to the Harvard Square landscape to the “turnover” of local businesses to national companies. The HSNA is currently advocating for a 70 percent local businesses zoning ordinance — a goal Blier says will help retain the amount of small local businesses. Longtime local businesses noted that the Square has bounced back following the pandemic.

“The place is definitely back to the energy it used to have,” said Stephen Zedros, owner of Brattle Square Florist. katherine.burstein@thecrimson.com michal.goldstein@thecrimson.com

When members of the Harvard College Class of 2021 returns to campus this month, they will receive more than a long-awaited in-person Commencement — for the first time in Harvard’s history, they will also have the opportunity to claim a commemorative non-fungible token, or NFT. NFTs are a form of digital asset that represent ownership over the original copy of a real-world image or other object.

First minted in 2014, the tokens’ popularity has erupted in recent years, with some selling for tens of millions of dollars in auction.

The commemorative NFTs the Class of 2021 will receive were created in partnership with FTX.US, a cryptocurrency exchange based in the United States.

“To commemorate our time at Harvard College and recognize the unique moment we are at in history, we have a timeless gift for each of you,” the 2021 Class Committee announced in an email to the graduates last week.

Thirteen random recipients will also win a “rare” NFT redeemable for merchandise and other “benefits” at graduation and alumni reunions, according to the announcement.

Following their eviction from campus due to the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, members of the Class of 2021 spent the rest of their college experience under pandemic restrictions and took classes virtually.

After spending a semester on a low-density campus, the Class of 2021 attended a virtual Commencement.

Class Committee Secretary Devin B. Srivastava ’21 said the committee members hoped to provide each graduate a unique “digital representation of this time.”

“We want to commemorate this special moment in history, and we were thinking of a way that we could do that,” said Srivastava, a former Crimson

News editor. “And I think topical in this time period is digital ways to remember the special moments.”

Yuke Zheng ’21, who spearheaded the launch of the commemorative NFTs alongside Cyrus N. Faruque ’21, said they were “inspired” by a MIT student who gave undergrads at the school $100 worth of Bitcoin in 2014.

The cryptocurrency has since multiplied in value significantly.

Though Srivastava said he was unable to provide an “explicit value” for the NFTs, he said they may appreciate in value “in many years” depending on the market’s circumstances.

Zheng said he and Faruque are “optimistic” about the potential future value of the commemorative NFTs due to the buzz they have generated — including Twitter memes created by members of the Class of 2021.

“The virality of NFTs his-

I think topical in this time period is digital ways to remember the special moments.

Devin B. Srivastava ’21 Class Committee Secretary

torically is what tends to bring the most value to them,” Zheng said. “It depends on the market and the hype generated around them, but overall, we’re definitely optimistic.”

Faruque said he believes the commemorative NFTs could become a “popular or valuable collector’s item” in the future.

According to Srivastava, anyone who graduated in the academic or social Class of 2021 — including those who took a leave of absence — will be eligible to redeem an NFT. “This is really the first of its kind, and we’re really happy that the Class of 2021 is going to be able to be the class that has it,” Srivastava said. vivi.lu@thecrimson.com leah.teichholtz@thecrimson.com

Harvard 24/7.

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CONGRATULATIONS & BEST WISHES

MBA & DOCTORAL GRADUATES

#HBS2022

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liaand_ny_ibd\home\Downloads\Collage for Blockmates.pptx

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CONGRATULATIONS 2022 GRADUATES

Welcome to the Alumni Community You’ve just joined the ranks of nearly 10,000 HMS MD alumni who are committed to helping people live longer, healthier lives.

Stay connected and get involved Attend alumni events Volunteer for your class Advise a current MD student Give back to HMS

alumni.hms.havard.edu

617-384-8520 | hmsalum@hms.harvard.edu

Congratulations Class of 2022

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Tats off to you grads!

We and your families are so proud of you!

Mention “Mom” and receive 30% off your first session.

www.disappearinginc.com

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Congratulations 2022 Graduates Dean Michelle A. Williams and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health wish you continuing success.

www.hsph.harvard.edu

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Congratulations graduates!

Stop by and prove to Mom you've been eating your vegetables at Harvard.

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COMMENCEMENT 2022

HLS Clinic Sues Gov. for Fellow Denied Entry to U.S.

By PATON D. ROBERTS CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Harvard Law School’s Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program filed a lawsuit against the federal government on April 27, alleging an incoming Harvard Medical School fellow was unlawfully denied entrance to the United States.

In addition to the lawsuit — which named U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas among the defendants — the Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program filed a complaint to the Department of Homeland Security Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

Iranian-born Maryam Shamloo, a Canadian citizen, first attempted to enter the ­

United States on April 2, 2021 to begin her fellowship at Harvard Medical School on May 1.

A diabetes researcher, Shamloo applied to the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in July 2020 and was accepted from a pool of 200 candidates.

Per a press release, her attempt to enter the U.S. in 2021 was marked by “discriminatory and demeaning treatment” by Customs and Border Control, which the lawsuit alleges denied entry to Shamloo and her husband “because they were both born in Iran.”

“Ultimately, the family was denied entry due to baseless accusations that they intended to permanently reside in the US when in fact their entire lives, including their house, assets, and jobs, are in Canada,” the press release reads.

On April 18, 2021, Shamloo tried to enter the U.S. for a second time without her husband and children, where she was yet again denied entry.

Canadian citizens are typically not required to obtain visas to visit or study in the U.S., but Shamloo was told by customs officials to “apply for a visa as all Iranians must do,” per the complaint. Agents also allegedly questioned Shamloo about her Iranian background, asking if she was trained as a spy and demanding she read a document in Arabic — a language she does not speak.

Despite applying for a visa after being denied entry, Shamloo has yet to receive one, though the time the U.S. deems an acceptable waiting period, 180 days, has long passed. Her visa is in an “indefinite state of administrative processing at the

Harvard Law School’s Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program filed a lawsuit against the federal government on April 27. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

US Consulate in Calgary, Canada,” the lawsuit says.

The Law School clinic called on the federal government to provide Shamloo with a visa as

soon as possible.

The Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Homeland Security Office of Civil

Rights and Civil Liberties did not immediately respond for comment. paton.roberts@thecrimson.com

HBS Receives $5 Million for Sports Management Fund

bright

T H E F UTU R E IS

Harvard Business School received a $5 million donation to support students interested in sports management.

JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

By CLAIRE YUAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

The Harvard Business School received a $5 million donation to create programming and provide financial support for students interested in sports management careers.

The gift — donated by alumnus Josh Harris and his wife, Marjorie — will create a Harris Family Fund for Sports Management and Alternative Investments at Harvard Business School and aim to “promote the diversity, equity, and inclusion of underrepresented individuals in these fields, while simultaneously advancing research,” per a press release. The fund will expand upon a previous donation from Harris in 2015, which established the Josh Harris Endowment for Sports Management.

“This generous gift from Josh and Marjorie will remove barriers for our students and

spur research among our faculty, creating exciting new opportunities,” HBS Dean Srikant Datar said in a press release.

In an effort to eliminate financial barriers to entry into sports management careers, the fund will help launch fellowship programs that provide salary supplements to recent graduates. It will also offer scholarships to Executive Education or HBS Online students who are interested in sport-related fields and support faculty research, curriculum development, and case writing within HBS. “We know that diversity, equity, and inclusion are essential to the long-term viability of every organization,” Datar said.

“This is not just a social or moral imperative, but increasingly an economic imperative, too,” he added.

Harris, who graduated from HBS in 1990, is the co-founder of Apollo Global Management,

Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, and Harris Philanthropies. He is also a managing partner of the Philadelphia 76ers and general partner of the Crystal Palace Football Club.

Both Harris and his wife serve on the HBS Board of Dean Advisors.

“Attending Harvard Business School had an immeasurable impact on my career, and I am thrilled to give back to an institution that provided me so many incredible opportunities,” Harris said in a press release.

“This fund will go towards supporting students from diverse backgrounds who are interested in pursuing careers in either Alternative Investments or Sports Management — two industries that are close to my heart but that urgently need to include more voices from more communities,” he added. claire.yuan@thecrimson.com

Congratulations to the 148!

We’ll miss you! Thanks for everything!

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

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EDITORIAL

SOPHIA SALAMANCA—CRIMSON DESIGNER

THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD

A Harvard Legacy Legacies aren’t made in a day; they are not fixed or unmovable.

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oncentration, not major; comp, instead of join; teaching fellow, never assistant. Harvard students speak differently. Upon arrival to campus, our tongues adapt, picking up a uniquely Cantabrigian lingo, a dialect of the in-group and the in-group alone. Every minute spent in Annenberg (well, ’Berg) or in line at Pinocchio’s (’Nochs) solidifies the new terminology.

This mildly pretentious lexicon is hardly our institution’s primary imprint on the graduating class. The places we live in hold power; their histories bleed through, making and unmaking us in their image. Like plant stakes, these tales ground us in our physical surroundings, inconspicuously guiding the ways we are able to grow.

In America, few such histories reach back further than Harvard’s. This is an institution older than the country itself, a training ground for much of our nation’s elite, a mirror and creator of every stigma, hierarchy, and social leap. At Harvard, our physical surroundings and the attached set of communities and norms shape us in ways we sometimes don’t recognize or perceive.

Long after our commencement ceremonies are over, some of our most recent graduates might still allude offhandedly to “the yard,” or accidentally speak of “comping” a book club in their new, fancy city with the new, fancy job. They will also, however, carry the more subtle marks of the Harvard graduate, the remnants of a brush with Harvard’s history. Our institution’s legacy is, in many ways, theirs too. Our graduates will, for the rest of their lives, look at the world through Crimson-tinted glasses. The long, grassy stretches by the Charles, the maze that is Widener library, even the beloved Radcliffe Quadrangle, for those studying abroad — all have helped mold us more than we know.

Leveraging our voices means stepping up and leading when we can and should.

But these Cambridge buildings aren’t just backdrops for college nostalgia. Architecture isn’t neutral at Harvard. Bearing witness to this institution and all of its glorious and shameful chapters, our buildings offer grim reminders of days past, fixing in stone once commonplace views. This year brought us yet another example: Westmorly Court’s fireplace, deep within one of the University’s better-known halls and covered up by concerned administrators, featured three distinct, grotesque racial caricatures. The hearth, with its ‘civilized’ and ‘uncivilized’ dichotomy, signals that Harvard’s legacy is one of benefitting from and helping entrench existing hierarchies. For decades, Harvard students who inhabited the residence — including later-president Franklin D. Roosevelt, Class of 1904, who would go on to authorize the internment of Japanese Americans — existed next to the fireplace’s racist depictions of Asian, African and Indigenous minorities. Harvard’s destructive racial legacy undoubtedly influenced its student body. If our homes shape us, so too do we shape our homes. The now infamous Westmorly fireplace once helped trivialize racist caricatures; in archival footage, our predecessors can be seen kissing by the grotesque pillars, apparently un-

fazed by their surroundings. Fast forward a few decades and student journalism and uproar alike have paved the path for the chiseling out of the abhorrent sculptures. Unwilling to passively inherit our institution’s legacy, we made it our own.

The lesson from the hearth isn’t that our university is defined exclusively as a home to despicably racist artwork, nor that it’s far enough from its dark past to comfortably conceal it behind hollow panels. Instead, the fireplace shows that our history is very much alive. No chapter can remain unread, no stone unturned: A full biopsy of the systems we create, strengthen, and perpetuate is warranted. Wrestling with our past so as to better understand our present must mean more than removing its most gruesome indicators and keeping them out of sight. It’s a matter of reckoning with our legacies — with the things we carry and those we leave behind.

Sometimes that reckoning is more explicit — and more expensive — than symbolic statue removals. The University’s report on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery, with its attached $100 million price tag to implement recommendations, is a good example. The University didn’t decide to wrestle with its role in enslaving over 70 human beings overnight or entirely of its own accord; an early undergraduate-led push to inspect our ties to slavery was crucial in inspiring the report. We are as grateful for the students who spearheaded that effort as we are for the administrators who, in time, decided to champion and expand it. Still, the findings of the report remind us of a devastating and relevant chapter of Harvard’s history. The same campus that prides itself on the birth of countless notable figures is also a cruel burial ground for the until now, largely nameless individuals it exploited.

Harvard is still in possession of Native American artifacts, daguerreotypes of enslaved individuals initially created to promote scientific racism, and many unidentified human remains. The university must proactively right these past wrongs, or watch them fester and cast new shades of shame upon its legacy. More importantly, affected individuals — from the modern incarnation of Native American tribes from which the artifacts originate, to the descendants of those whose bodies are collected as objects for display — deserve justice and peace. They deserve their own legacies.

Harvard’s legacies, of course, aren’t only racial. As the opulent Westmorly Court reminded us, Harvard has long been an institution for and by the upper echelons of the economic elite, a university geared largely toward capital. Our laudable financial aid program has made a small dent in the numbers, offering a ladder to the ivory tower, yet our classes remain disproportionately wealthy. We are reminded not just of the legacy admissions system, which benefits (largely well-off and white) students with familial ties to our institution, but of the legacies that aren’t. Those who, lacking a crimson parent or a niche, expensive sport to highlight in their application, see the Yard’s stately gates close before them. Our legacy of exclusion, present and past.

It is every Harvard affiliate’s responsibility to continue our fight for greater inclusivity. Yet re-shaping our student body to more closely mirror the surrounding society will take decades and inevitably involve forces outside our control — positive ones, like

the reforms to school district funding we’ve advocated for, and negative ones, including looming challenges to the affirmative action system that has so radically improved our school’s representativeness.

In the meantime, correcting the legacy of excessive class hierarchies within Harvard itself must remain our top priority. That starts with recognizing the value and dignity of manual labor, which our university has undervalued even in places where it was once central, like dorm crew. This year more than ever, class analysis cannot be separated from a discussion of organized labor. Amid a national resurgence in union power, Harvard’s graduate students and staff embraced the power of collective action. We must recognize the efforts of graduate students who put their jobs on the line and undergraduate course workers who showed solidarity.

Last fall, the Harvard Graduate Student Union fiercely fought for and eventually obtained a better contract. Students sought conditions and pay raises they deserved, creating, through picket lines and signs, physical reminders of the clashes between workers and their employers. In doing so, they helped make strikes and strike culture an indelible part of the Harvard legacy, a framework for graduating classes to follow or implement. For that, we are immensely grateful. The efforts of labor organizers demand our support, and the fruits of such organizing are spread far and wide, well beyond what is suggested by class-only readings of our surroundings. Third-party arbitration, which HGSU-UAW pushed so hard for, could have brought much-needed reform to Harvard’s Title IX procedures.

The University’s intransigence on this point was not merely a reinforcement of the class hierarchies at our institution. It strengthened gender hierarchies as well, hurting future victims of sexual misconduct at our school.

The hierarchies of class and economic status are thus inseparable from other standing power imbalances at our school, including gender inequity. We see that intersection in the demographic homogeneity of our 66 percent male tenured faculty.

We see it in the astonishingly persistent culture of sexual misconduct. We see it, time and time again, in the inadequate nature of the administration’s responses. Earlier this year, a lawsuit surfaced yet another batch of deeply disturbing allegations of misconduct against a prominent Harvard professor. Had the University’s own recommended policy changes been in place, they may have prevented yet another case of a professor harassing students. Without reform, legacies perpetuate themselves. Conformity in the face of deep rot is not only unproductive, but actively harmful.

The above is no less true when our focus shifts from University decision-making to everyday student life. After a years-long hiatus, our peers have returned to in-person social spaces, where imbalances of power permeate male-dominated social spaces like final clubs. Against this backdrop, the Bee’s new physical space in the Square embodies the potential to steer final club culture (a largely regrettable, if seemingly unmovable fixture of our campus) away from exclusivity, elitism, and gendered violence and toward a safer, more equal footing for women.

Yet with marked increases in the percentage of students that identify as queer on campus in the past few years, we must

grapple with the implications of a heavily gendered social culture on non-conforming members of the student body. What, if anything, is the legacy of gender-exclusive spaces for those who reject gender exclusivity or labels outright? And what trail will our queer peers leave at the clubs they join or refuse to join, the ones they shape through their presence or absence alike?

We simply don’t know. Legacies aren’t made in a day; they are not fixed or unmovable. As the new, fireplace-free Westmorly will soon show, the Harvard legacy is an unfinished draft, subject to edits by students and affiliates alike. Future communities will scrutinize our norms, dot our i’s, and overturn our precedents. The graduating classes of 2020-22 have now, more than ever before, a responsibility to leverage their voices to rewrite that draft — or, in failing to do so, to solidify its most egregious errors.

Leveraging our voices means stepping up and leading when we can and should. In our time at Havard, we’ve seen examples of leadership to follow and to flee from in equal measure. The mess of student government showed us the perils of seeking positions for self-advancement. Efforts to replace the Undergraduate Council had their own serious flaws, but they showed that we have the agency to reshape old legacies for better or worse.

No chapter can remain unread, no stone unturned: A full biopsy of the systems we create, strengthen, and perpetuate is warranted.

Of course, dozens of members of the graduating classes have been UC representatives or Crimson editors or club presidents. A far smaller number will go on to become U.S. Representatives, journalists, or CEOs. Harvard produces an unusual number of leaders, but part of graduating college is realizing that your impact on the world will likely be less dramatic than your grandest college dreams. As we pursue our highest aspirations, we need to think about what good citizenship might look like — not as a future thought leader but as a software engineer, advertising manager, or public defender — as a member of a unionized workplace, perhaps. These are thoughts for commencement time. When we’re knee deep in problem sets, with some admirable exceptions, we don’t have time to reflect. When we’re busy in the office, college will fade rapidly into nostalgia. It’s awfully hard to see the big picture when your nose is scrunched against a grindstone.

But at this moment of transition, we have time to reckon with our legacies to date and think consciously about what legacies we want to leave. The world changes Harvard, and Harvard changes us. In some small way, we can complete the loop: change Harvard and the world, too.

Now is the time to think about how.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular meetings. To ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.

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THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

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EDITORIAL OP-ED

The Clock of the World

By TIYA MILES

“W

SOPHIA SALAMANCA—CRIMSON DESIGNER

OP-ED

Your Careful Everyday Work Matters

By MARGARET G. CZERWIENSKI, LILIA M. KILBURN, and AMULYA MANDAVA

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ongratulations on your graduation! We have been privileged to work alongside you as your instructors and collaborators over the last several years. We have witnessed firsthand your intelligence, perseverance, and integrity, and we are filled with pride at your accomplishments.

During your time at Harvard, and this year especially, the University has been rocked by several public cases of sexual misconduct. We are among the many who have been affected by these abuses.

We write to you today to share some lessons we have learned while struggling to navigate these harms.

We have seen how challenging it can be to merely discuss abuses of power, let alone address them. This can be especially difficult when harm is perpetrated by someone with a responsibility for doing good or the power to determine the fates of others — like a religious leader, professor, coach, doctor, or family mem-

During your time at Harvard, and this year especially, the University has been rocked by several public cases of sexual misconduct. We are among the many who have been affected by these abuses. ber.

It can feel like whole worlds ride on these conflicts — and indeed they often do: Whole selves, families, communities, and institutions may have to be reorganized for the truth of such harm to be acknowledged and addressed. Powerful institutions especially fight being remade in this way, because part of what enables them to survive over time is resistance to public truths that would require their transformation, oversight, or even their obsolescence.

But our worlds are not so brittle that they cannot be remade.

And so our first piece of advice for you concerns how to live with an ordinary and painful truth — that we all know and love people who have done harmful

things, and we all know and love people who have been harmed.

Throughout our lives, each of us will have times when we are surprised by the depth of our own mistakes and by the cruelty of the people we love. Each of us will also have times when we are surprised by our own bravery and integrity, and by the bravery and integrity of others. We urge you to embrace such revelations, and not to turn away from the complexities and contradictions they may evince. Confronting these truths will

Throughout our lives, each of us will have times when we are surprised by the depth of our own mistakes and by the cruelty of the people we love give you humility and compassion as you go forward.

We can all cultivate skills of public truth-telling and accountability that can bring our communities into greater safety and knowledge: Practice talking with real and great specificity about the details of life. Be comfortable challenging others and being challenged. Learn to apologize well when you hurt others, and proactively look for ways to enact repair. Find the people who will tell you the truth and help you grow.

Our second piece of advice is this: When you stand at a juncture at which you have the choice to address harm or ignore it, we encourage you to think and act on broader timescales of humanity and history, rather than on timescales of your own success or failure.

What we have learned in our time at Harvard is that you will rarely get to choose which struggles you are a part of, or what happens as a result of engaging with them — but you can do your best to observe carefully and respond with courage.

Those of you graduating will have already seen years of active struggle to address injustices perpetuated within and by the institution that is Harvard University. You have seen the first strikes by unionized student workers in Harvard’s history. Your own advocacy, capping off years of concerted organizing, has resulted in Harvard’s divestment from fos-

sil fuels.

Yet Harvard has made no similar commitment regarding its profits from private prisons and prison-serving companies. Harvard has not returned to Tamara Lanier the photos it holds of her enslaved kin Renty and Delia, which are the spoils of theft. Sexual violence remains rampant across our campus. Fifty years after Title IX’s passage sought to protect students from sex discrimination in education, our lawsuit contends that those civil rights — like so many others — remain unfulfilled. We never expected to file a lawsuit during our time in graduate school. But our experiences transformed what our work would have to be.

As you move on to other places and continue to think about the nature of institutions, of influence, and of power, celebrate the transformative work that succeeds. And have the courage to support the work that cannot be successful yet because it is asking for things power and norms will not yet allow.

Each of us will also have times when we are surprised by our own bravery and integrity, and by the bravery and integrity of others That a change is adamantly resisted by those in power is all the more reason to take notice, to listen carefully, and most of all, to insist on a more fair and just world. As a letter written by our peers states, even when a desired change has not yet come about, “the refusal to give or take scraps is world-making in other ways.”

Remember that your careful everyday work matters, and it will always touch other lives, whether now or in the future world you are building. Remember too that all meaningful work is slow, and you will need plenty of rest, laughter, and shared meals to keep going.

Each of you deserves joy and justice.

We can’t wait to see where you find it.

—Margaret G. Czerwienski, Lilia M. Kilburn, and Amulya Mandava are graduate students in Harvard’s Anthropology Department and plaintiffs of an on-going lawsuit against Harvard University.

hat time is it on the clock of the world?” The Chinese American philosopher and Detroit-based community activist, Grace Lee Boggs, posed this question at the beginning of public events in the late 1900s and early 2000s. Hers was a piercing question, a prescient question, which compelled members of her audiences, me among them, to take note of our global moments and recognize states of urgency.

Since then, the alarm on Grace Lee Boggs’ proverbial clock has been incessantly ringing. Perhaps it is clanging most loudly for you, dear and cherished members of the Harvard Classes of 2022, 2021, and 2020.

You have spent the last few years reeling from the physical and emotional costs of a global pandemic and the social disruptions it wrought. You have seen political upheavals previously unthinkable here in the United States, the vulnerability of American democracy, an erosion of rights secured long before you were born, a rise in racist and antisemitic violence, and a series of extreme weather crises that indicate a dangerously changing climate.

You have observed the swift deterioration of national stability in Europe, increased violence in the Middle East, and a rise in authoritarian rhetoric and leadership around the world. You have witnessed for yourself truths that you surely learned at Harvard — that the globe is intricately interconnected, societies are excruciatingly complex, and human beings are tragically flawed.

And you have watched your elders — statesmen and women, financiers and entrepreneurs, the people in charge of governments and international institutions — straining for solutions to staggering moral and material dilemmas.

You have even learned in recent weeks that your alma mater holds responsibility for the historical enslavement of at least 70 souls — grandchildren, grandparents, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles — and has ties to individuals responsible for the dispossession, exile, sale, and captivity of many more people across New England, the American South, and the Caribbean. You now know that all you have gained here at heralded Harvard — in illuminated knowledge, in lifelong friendship, in unparalleled opportunity for rich, full, and resourced lives — stands in stark contrast to all that was stolen from populations in the past.

You may feel dazed by these revelations, disclosures, and betrayals. If so, you are not alone.

The hallmark of our time seems to be destabilization and fragmentation, profound disorientation, and the dimming of collective civic lights. And what are you to do with all this? How are you to stride through the ornate gates of Harvard Yard and enter this chaotic world without getting lost in the storm of uncertainty?

Let’s ask Harriet Tubman. I will venture a guess that you know the name of one of African America’s legendary freedom fighters. Some of you may also know that this is the 200th anniversary of Harriet Tubman’s birth on the eastern shore of Maryland in 1822. She was born into chattel slavery, separated from her parents as a young child, and neglected and abused by the various people who legally owned or rented her. Her skin color consigned her to subjugation. Her caste was inherited and heritable. She grew up in a system and society that offered no hope for her wellbeing. Tubman’s situation was desperate, until she changed it.

Harriet Tubman saved hundreds from enslavement, but she started with herself. She learned all she could in the context of community, through the love and guidance of her family.

She identified her enslavement and the captivity of those around her as an egregious wrong, and she acted to combat that wrong by escaping to the North.

To accomplish this, she had to identify allies, walk close to a hundred miles, and navigate through hostile territory in the dead of night. Harriet Tubman oriented by way of the sky. She mapped her escape route by setting her sights on the North Star. Physicist Chanda R. S. H. Prescod-Weinstein ’03 describes Harriet Tubman’s use of Polaris as “a natural compass.”

Tubman also moved in accordance with an ethical compass, doing what she believed was right in her heart and mind. She was sharp, brave, and resilient. She was, at the same time, exhausted by her strenuous efforts, pained by a childhood injury that resulted in a disability, and traumatized by the loss of her older sisters to sale. In other words, she was human.

After she freed herself, Tubman returned South to rescue relatives and compatriots, relying on a secret network of fellow freedom fighters. She aided approximately 70 people, leading small groups through dark forests and across cold creeks. During the U.S. Civil War, she commanded a Union Army attack on rice plantations along South Carolina’s Combahee River, freeing nearly 800 people from bondage.

Perhaps Harriet Tubman realized that amid chaos and uncertainty, there is no way out but forward. She had faith in her ability to change her society for the better, and hundreds of people had faith in her.

Classes of 2022, 2021, and 2020: I have faith in you. You are sharp. You are brave. You are resilient.

What time is it on the clock of the world? Your time. It is your time to chart the stars and fly hard and fast until you grab them, raining down light on this tainted ground that you will inherit. Congratulations on your graduation and all the goodness you will bring to our broken, yet beautiful, world.

—Tiya Miles ’92 is the Michael Garvey Professor of History, a 2021-22 Walter Channing Cabot Fellow in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and a Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at Harvard University.

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