The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873 | VOLUME CXLV, NO. 101 | CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS | FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2018
EDITORIAL PAGE 4
NEWS PAGE 3
SPORTS PAGE 8
The Undergraduate Council should vote for accountability, not against it.
Harvard students celebrate National Coming Out Day with rainbow cake.
Football prepares to host Holy Cross in Friday’s non-conference matchup.
GSD Addresses Diversity, Title IX By RUTH ZHENG CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Harvard’s Graduate School of Design will hire a new administrator focused on diversity and inclusion as it seeks to implement a series of changes intended to improve the school’s culture. The recently announced policy changes are part of a series of ongoing initiatives to promote a culture of respect and to create institutional accountability at the Design School. In an email sent to students, Dean of Students Lauren Snowdon grouped the updates under three general categories: students, staff, and faculty. Regarding “students,” Snowdon wrote that the University-wide Title IX Office plans to create a graduate student liaison working group chaired by the Student Forum Chair of Diversity and Inclusion. The new group will work to assess the effectiveness of current programs and make recommendations to the office on behalf of students. Staff members from the Title IX Office and the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response also plan to reach out to students to seek interest in different types of programming for the year, according to the email.
Under the category of “staff,” Snowdon announced the creation of a new position at the Design School: an assistant dean for diversity, inclusion, and belonging. The hiring process is ongoing, she wrote. The Design School also recently unveiled a new course called “Gender, Diversity and Inclusion” that is being offered to staff members starting this month. Under “faculty,” the email confirmed the implementation of mandatory online Title IX training for faculty members — a new requirement across the University announced last spring. Drawing on student feedback from course evaluationsin which students raised concerns about disrespect, racism, and sexism at the school, department chairs have also been holding meetings with visiting faculty affiliates to discuss expectations of appropriate conduct. These changes came after a spreadsheet filled with anonymous accounts of sexual misconduct and racist acts allegedly perpetrated by men in architecture began circulating on campus last spring. The spreadsheet, titled
SEE GSD PAGE 3
SEE BACOW PAGE 5
Bacow Preps for Next Recession Bacow, University leaders prepare for the next economic downturn with financial “scenario planning” By KRISTINE E. GUILLAUME CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Before University President Lawrence S. Bacow rose to the helm of the nation’s oldest university, he was an economist. Judging from his plans for Harvard’s future, it’s clear he still is. Bacow’s economics expertise is evident as he navigates new financial challenges in the first months of his presidential tenure — including an endowment that continues to trail behind that of Harvard’s peers and an unprecedented tax on endowment returns levied by Republican lawmakers in Dec. 2017. Bacow said in a September interview the tax will prompt “belt-tightening” across the University’s budgets, though he does not yet know which areas will see cuts. Amid these fiscal hurdles, Bacow is examining the University’s financials at the macro level. Like a
true economist, he’s looking ahead to when the next recession hits. A decade after the 2008 global financial crisis — which decimated Harvard’s endowment and led to years of struggle — the United States economy is now booming. Bacow warned, however, that this will not always be the case, a point he has emphasized to the University’s administrators. Bacow said he has “challenged” all of Harvard’s schools to engage in “scenario planning” for when the markets inevitably dip. “What are we going to do when we have a recession — not if – I guarantee you there will be a recession, I don’t know when it’s coming, but it’s important to think about it in advance,” Bacow said. As history has shown, colleges and universities, which often depend largely on their endowments for funding, find themselves in
precarious positions when markets take a turn for the worse. “A lot depends upon the economy. When you’re endowment dependent, markets go up, markets go down,” Bacow said. “Nothing goes on forever.” A ‘SCARY’ TIME When former University President Drew G. Faust moved into her Massachusetts Hall office, one of her first tasks was to combat the serious ramifications of the 2008 financial crisis. Harvard’s then-$37 billion endowment plummeted $11 billion in value after a negative 27.3 percent return — a clear sign the University was in trouble. In a May 2017 interview near the end of her tenure, Faust called the experience of taking the University’s reins during the financial crisis “scary.” “Just in a matter of hours you watched the markets crash, and you
Black Activists Win Awards By CONNOR J. WAGMAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Harvard’s thousand-seat Sanders Theatre was packed to the gills for the annual presentation of the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal at the Hutchins Center Honors, a celebration of achievement, diversity, and activism. A grand total of 17 separate standing ovations greeted the stars present at the ceremony. Speakers ranging from professors Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cornel R. West ’73 to athlete-activist Colin Kaepernick, comedian Dave Chappelle, and Kehinde Wiley — an African American portrait artist who painted Barack Obama’s official presidential portrait — all called for increased advocacy for marginalized groups.
SEE DU BOIS PAGE 3
Kehinde Wiley speaks. CALEB D. SCHWARTZ—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
Pamela Joyner (left), Dave Chappelle (center), and Colin Kaepernick (right), all recipients of this year’s W.E.B. Du Bois award, listen to a speech during the medal ceremony. CALEB D. SCHWARTZ—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. speaks. CALEB D. SCHWARTZ—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
By SHERA S. AVI-YONAH CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
A s Harvard students marked National Coming Out Day with rainbow bandanas and pride pins, the College’s Office of BGLTQ Student Life and the University’s Title IX Office debuted a guide meant to keep affiliates up-to-date on campus resources for BGLTQ-identifying individuals. The twopage guide — now permanently housed on the Title IX Office’s website — provides information about University offices and student groups that work to address issues related to gender, sexuality, and diversity.
National Public Radio’s Ofeibea Quist-Arcton delivers the 2018-2019 Rama S. Mehta Lecture at the Radcliffe Institute. AMANDA Y. SU—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
Harvard Today 2
Law School students and faculty reflect on Kavanaugh’s confirmation in off-the-record forum
By AIDAN F. RYAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Harvard Law School students, faculty, and administrators convened behind closed doors at an off-the-record forum Thursday for two hours to reflect on the recent, and contentious, confirmation of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The event was meant to allow Law School affiliates to “listen generously to one another” after several weeks of Kavanaugh-related controversy roiled and divided campus and the nation, Law School Dean John F. Manning ’82 wrote in an email earlier this week announcing the gathering. But some students said the forum fell far short of that goal. Manning did not attend. Students who participated in the forum, which was closed to members of the press, said attendees gathered in small groups in Wasserstein Hall to discuss their general feelings about Kavanaugh’s troubled confirmation process and its historical reverberations. The conversations kicked off at 3 p.m. and lasted until roughly 5 p.m. Second-year Law student and forum attendee Sejal Singh, a member of the student advocacy group Pipeline Parity Project, said she “appreciated all the faculty” that took part. But she said the event was ultimately not “responsive to student concerns at all.” Singh said she and others would have preferred to spend the afternoon directly speaking to administrators about how Harvard addressed and plans to address issues raised over the past few weeks. President Donald Trump nominated Kavanaugh to the nation’s highest court in July; his confirmation seemed all but certain until at least two women stepped forward to allege he had sexually assaulted them decades ago. In the wake of the accusations and calls from some students and alumni for Kavanaugh’s resignation, the Law School announced Kavanaugh would not return to teach at Harvard in January 2019. But administrators appear to have taken no action to effect Kavanaugh’s departure —
SEE KAVANAUGH PAGE 3
Students Celebrate Coming Out Day
SEE PAGE 5
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Law School Discusses SCOTUS
News 4
Editorial 6
Sports 8
TODAY’S FORECAST
RAINY High: 63 Low: 46
Title IX administrators Nicole M. Merhill and Rachel A. DiBella said administrators developed the guide to help BGLTQ students identify resources available to them at the University. Merhill said disparities between Harvard’s schools can present a challenge for students seeking guidance. Members of campus group One Queer Harvard had raised concerns about the accessibility of campus offerings for BGLTQ students in meetings with Merhill and DiBella earlier this year. Ph.D. student Andrew A. Westover, who attended the meetings and helped develop
SEE CAKE PAGE 3
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