The Harvard Crimson - Vol. CLII, No. 7

The Harvard Crimson

I‘A Roadmap’

n the Trump administration’s campaign to punish colleges and universities for their response to pro-Palestine protests, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act has emerged as the clear legal weapon of choice.

The 1964 law was used earlier this month to justify slashing $400 million in government contracts to Columbia University, where, like Harvard, the White House alleged antisemitism was allowed to fester.

While the move was an unprecedented escalation in Republicans’ long-standing crusade against elite universities, it was hardly the first time the Trump administration has turned to Title VI — which prohibits discrimination in federally-funded programs and institutions — as a political cudgel.

Last month, the Department of Health and Human Services opened a Title VI investigation into Harvard Medical School for pro-Palestine messaging worn by students at last spring’s graduation ceremonies.

And just hours after a federal antisemitism task force announced that it would visit Harvard and nine other colleges over allegations

of campus antisemitism, task force head Leo J. Terrell promised to use Title VI to strip funding across the higher education landscape.

“Let me tell you what we’re going to do: we’re going to take away your funding, we’re going to sue you under Title VII, we’re going to sue you under Title VI,” he said in an interview with Fox News on Feb. 28.

Despite Terrell’s threat and the limited investigation into HMS, Harvard itself is not under a Title VI investigation, and Trump has not taken steps to sue.

The Department of Education created confusion over that fact earlier this month, after it included Harvard on a list of 60 colleges and universities that could face “potential enforcement actions.” While the list included schools that are under investigation, a person familiar with the matter said Harvard itself is only being informally monitored.

But in interviews with The Crimson, more than a dozen legal experts warned that if the $400 million cut at Columbia is any indication, the Trump administration could significantly reinterpret Title VI and strategically use it to target Harvard and peer institutions.

“If the end goal is to withdraw federal funding from these educational institutions, Title VI would be the way to do it,” said Hannah N. Perls, a lecturer at Harvard Law School.

While Trump’s return to the White House in January energized Republicans seeking to punish Harvard and other elite institutions suspected of tolerating antisemitism, Republicans in Congress began building a Title VI case against Harvard just weeks after Oct. 7, 2023.

During former President Claudine Gay’s now-infamous testimony in front of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, former Rep. Bob Good bluntly suggested that Harvard’s response to pro-Palestine protests was in violation of Title VI.

“Why should Congress continue to invest money in Harvard when Harvard clearly violates Title VI and helps foster a hostile environment for Jewish students,” Good asked Gay.

Gay barely got a word in.

“Your institution is clearly producing students who are sympathetic to a terrorist organization,” he snapped. Since then, the Education and Workforce Committee has continued to suggest that Harvard and peer institutions have violated Title VI.

In a highly-anticipated 325-page October report, the House Committee on Education

2 Years After SFFA, Harvard Admits Class of

BY CASSIDY M. CHENG AND CLAIRE T. GRUMBACHER CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Harvard College released its regular decision offers of admission to the Class of 2029 on Thursday evening, but for the first time in almost seven decades, the school did not report its regular decision acceptance rate.

Students applying in the Regular Decision round received their admissions decisions at 7 p.m.

Following precedent set in the Restrictive Early Action round last December, Harvard did not publicly release information about the number of applicants or admits on Thursday. In the past five years, the College has accepted between 1,085 and 1,245 regular decision applicants.

The Admissions Office first announced in October that it would not release any information on the Class of 2029 — including acceptance rate, geographic data, yield rate, and more — until this fall, when it must report it to the Department of Education.

That meant Harvard students, and the public, will not know the profile of the incoming class until its students are well into their first semester on campus.

According to Harvard College’s admissions statistics website, the new policy to not release data was implemented to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to overturn affirmative action.

“Due to the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision, we are unable to access all information about Harvard’s applicants, admitted students, and enrolling students, while the application review process is still underway,” the website reads.

Admissions experts said withholding the data for several months could delay speculation about how Harvard’s admissions practices have changed since the Supreme Court decision — and delay accusations that Harvard’s data implies an unofficial consideration of race in admissions.

Jon Boeckenstedt, Vice Provost of Enrollment Management at Oregon State University, wrote in an emailed statement that he suspects the decision was “due to the enormous and disproportionate amount of attention Harvard gets on something as fundamentally unimportant as admissions statistics.”

Dan Lee, co-founder of Solomon Admissions Counseling, added that in light of the Trump administration’s decision to cut $400 million in federal grants from Columbia University, there is even more reason to share less about admissions practices.

“The Trump administration has been making a lot of demands on top colleges around the country,” he said.

“If you have an admissions process hypothetically that’s still admitting based on racial preferences, that would probably draw attention to you,” Lee added.

In previous years, the College announced an acceptance rate for both the Restrictive Early Action and Regular Decision rounds.

Harvard released acceptance rates for the Class of 2028 — the first to be impacted by the Supreme Court’s ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard — when students were admitted, but published demographic data several months later. The announcement appeared to show a four percent drop in the number of enrolled Black students.

But because the College changed its scale for reporting racial demographics, it’s difficult to draw apples-to-apples comparisons between the data for the Class of 2028 and prior years. The College later clarified that international students had not been included after The Crimson and other outlets reported the discrepancies.

The Department of Education circulated a threatening Dear Colleague letter last month, where Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor delivered an expansive interpretation of the SFFA decision — which has been challenged by some legal experts — and warned federally funded colleges and universities that any consideration of race could be punished.

“Put simply, educational institutions may neither separate or segregate students based on race, nor distribute benefits or burdens based on race,” Trainor wrote.

“And race-based decision-making, no matter the form, remains impermissible,” he wrote.

engineered by the United States Attorney’s Office,” he wrote and referred to a 2023 statement that alleged clients included “elected officials,” among other professions.

visa, had lived in the U.S. for six years before she was detained at Logan Airport this month. She was later deported to Lebanon, her home country, despite a judge’s orders that required 48 hours notice of Alawieh’s removal from Massachusetts. THE BROWN DAILY

A HISTORIC SEASON

BAGELS

NEXT WEEK 3

What’s Next

Start every week with a preview of what’s on the agenda around Harvard University

COLUMBIA CONCEDES TO TRUMP DEMANDS

After President Donald Trump canceled $400 million in grant funding to Columbia University earlier this month, Columbia agreed to Trump’s demands regarding their handling of student protests of the Gaza war, the Associated Press reported. Last Friday, the university announced that it would “adopt a new definition of antisemitism” and its Middle Eastern studies program would be supervised by a new vice provost.

SIGNAL CHAT LEAKS REVEAL PLANS FOR YEMEN STRIKE

Trump administration officials which revolved around military action in Yemen. The leak, which occurred on the messaging service Signal, revealed that the Trump administration was planning a potential airstrike campaign against the Houthis.

WHITE HOUSE TO IMPOSE 25 PERCENT TARIFF ON ALL AUTO PARTS

Trump announced on Wednesday that he would impose a 25 percent tariff on cars and car parts that are imported into the United States, per the Associated Press. The White House claimed the move would promote domestic manufacturing, but it could also put automakers under financial pressure as the costs of trading through the global supply chains they depend on rise.

RUSSIA TO BEGIN TENTATIVE MARITIME CEASEFIRE WITH UKRAINE

The White House said Tuesday that Russia and Ukraine had reached a tentative agreement to stop fighting in the Black Sea, the Associated Press reported. Many details, however, remain unresolved and Moscow placed significant caveats on the deal.

Friday 3/28

COFFEE, CRIBBAGE AND CHESS!

Cambridge Public Library O’Neill Boudreau

Branch, 11 a.m.-12 p.m.

Join the Boudreau Branch of the Cambridge Public Library for coffee, treats, and games — including chess, cribbage, and Rummikub — at midday on Friday. The Boudreau Branch is a short walk up Concord Avenue and past the Radcliffe Quadrangle.

Saturday 3/29

THE OFFICE FOR THE ARTS PRESENTS ARCADIA

Agassiz Theatre, 2 p.m.

Head to Agassiz Theatre for a student-run rendition of Arcadia, a Broadway play written by Tom Stoppard. The play depicts the wealthy Coverly family in two timelines — the historic estate in 1809 and a present-day investigation into the household’s past.

Sunday 3/30

HOUSING DAY DODGEBALL

TOURNAMENT

Lavietes Pavilion, 12 p.m.

Compete for your house in the intramural dodgeball tournament, hosted at Lavietes Pavilion this Sunday. The much-anticipated annual event offers an exciting chance for newly-inducted freshmen to immediately experience the best of House culture and community.

Monday 3/31

FIRESIDE CHAT WITH HARVARD EMERITA PRESIDENT DREW FAUST

Register for location, 6-7 p.m.

The First-Year Experience office has organized a fireside chat with former Harvard President Drew G. Faust on Monday evening. Because there is limited space, freshman students must register by Friday at 2 p.m. to reserve a spot at the event.

Tuesday 4/1

AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE: THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION & K-12 EDUCATION POLICY

Askwith Hall, 5-6:30 p.m.

The Harvard Graduate School of Education is convening a panel of education policy experts on Tuesday to discuss President Trump’s efforts to reshape the federal government’s role in K-12 education.

Wednesday 4/2

‘THE GAZA DOCTRINE’: WAR, POLITICS, ETHICS IN THE AFTERMATH Tsai Auditorium, CGIS South, 6-7:30 p.m. The Center for Middle Eastern Studies is hosting Nadia Abu El-Haj, the co-director of Columbia University’s Center for Palestinian Studies, for a discussion on the implications of the current conflict in Gaza.

Thursday 4/3

The article “New Protest Rules Leave Lines Blurred,” which ran in The Crimson’s March 7 print issue, incorrectly omitted the word “not” from a clause describing whether changes to University policies since Claudine Gay’s testimony have introduced substantial new limits on speech. In fact, such changes have not appeared to introduce new limits on the content of speech.

The article “Harvard, Union Clash Over Open Bargaining,” which ran in The Crimson’s March 7 print issue, incorrectly referred to Bea Wall-Feng ’25 as the HUWU-UAW president. In fact, WallFeng is a member of the HUWU-UAW bargaining committee, not the president. This list may not be comprehensive. For the most up-to-date versions of articles in The Crimson, please visit thecrimson.com.

GLOOMY RETURN

Friday 4/4

PAVAN V. THAKKAR

CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

JONATHAN G. YUAN — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Amid Trump Cuts, HSPH Has Most To Lose

Simon wrote.

Several of the school’s Ph.D. programs have also shrunk their admissions pools, and the decade-old Harvard Public Health Magazine shuttered its operations late last month.

As President Donald Trump escalates his attacks on universities’ access to federal research funding, the Harvard School of Public Health has felt the pain especially acutely.

HSPH is by far the most reliant of all the University’s schools on sponsored support, with 59 percent of its operating budget coming from the government and private funds. That figure is 22 percentage points higher than the school with the second-highest dependence on federal funding, Harvard Medical School. Funding cuts have already terminated at least a dozen grants at HSPH and led the school to pause its national search for a dean of research, according to HSPH spokesperson Stephanie Simon.

Simon wrote in a statement that HSPH’s heavy reliance on federal funds has left its research operations “seriously jeopardized.” Research projects have been halted by stop-work orders, and school leaders remain alarmed by a proposal — currently halted by a court — that would cap National Institutes of Health funding for universities’ indirect costs.

“When the grants are terminated, research stops,” Simon wrote. “We are deeply concerned about the impact of these cuts on our work.”

HSPH has already started tightening its belt in response to funding pressures. A “high-level working group” has begun meeting weekly to address budget issues as they arise, and administrators have instructed all departments to limit discretionary spending to essential costs,

The school’s funding model, according to HSPH professor John Quackenbush, makes it “nominally a soft money institution” — where many costs such as research expenses and salaries for Ph.D. students are largely grant-funded, rather than covered by institutional sources like endowment income.

“What that means is that anything that threatens grant funding puts us in a particularly precarious or potentially precarious position,” Quackenbush said.

Even with the school’s efforts to shore up its finances, stalled and cancelled grants — and the potential for more to come — have left HSPH professors scrambling to find other ways to fund their work.

HSPH professor Nancy J. Krieger ’80, whose study on methods for measuring exposure to discrimination was terminated, said she was actively searching for new funding sources after being forced to stop drawing funds from her NIH grant.

“It is my personal prerogative to figure out ways to have this research survive without this grant,” Krieger said.

Universities’ funding fears have grown increasingly existential in recent weeks after the Trump administration slashed $400 million from Columbia University’s federal research funding and $175 million from the University of Pennsylvania. But the cuts at HSPH have come as part of a broader crackdown on grants by the Trump administration. Federal agencies began canceling grants related to DEI in January following an executive order from Trump which required all federally funded educational institutions to terminate “illegal” diversity programs.

Several of the terminated

grants at HSPH funded studies on vaccine hesitancy, LGBTQ health, and the impact of racial discrimination on health outcomes.

HSPH Professor Brittany Charlton, who researches how discriminatory laws impact mental health among LGBTQ teenagers, had her entire NIH grant portfolio terminated. Charlton wrote in a statement that she could no longer continue her research or keep the center she founded, the LGBTQ Health Center of Excellence, without new sources of funding.

The center has an executive director, three staff members, nine graduate students, and seven postdoctoral fellows, according to its website. The site also lists 14 affiliated faculty members.

Recent studies by researchers at the center have examined low engagement in HIV-related care among Medicare beneficiaries, the rate of workplace harassment experienced by LGBTQ Singaporeans, and differences in cancer rates among lesbian versus heterosexual women.

Harvard Suspends Research Partnership With Birzeit

The Harvard School of Public Health suspended its research partnership with Birzeit University in the West Bank, bowing to longstanding calls to sever the collaboration.

HSPH launched an internal review into Harvard’s François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights — a University-wide center housed at HSPH — late last summer. After a memorandum of understanding between the FXB Center and Birzeit expired in recent months, Harvard decided not to renew the agreement, according to HSPH spokesperson Stephanie Simon. According to Simon, Harvard chose to hit pause on the University’s institutional ties to Birzeit as part of the investigation into the FXB Center — and will decide whether to issue a permanent halt when the probe finishes this spring.

HSPH Dean Andrea A. Baccarelli told the Harvard Gazette, a University-run publication, on Wednesday that the internal review was intended to evaluate the “current status and future potential” of the partnership with Birzeit.

“This allows the panel to objectively evaluate partnerships and collaborations and ensure the center exemplifies academic excellence in alignment with our mission,” he said. Simon, the HSPH spokesperson, said the FXB Center review came as part of the school’s regular practice of conducting periodic reviews of its centers. She wrote in a statement that reviews had been paused or disrupted in the years following the Covid-19 pandemic, but Baccarelli restarted them after he took office in January 2024. The FXB Center, she wrote, “was one of the first up in the queue.”

As soon as he took office, Dean Baccarelli made it a priority to restart the review process, as part of his commitment to strengthen our research and academic excellence. The FXB Center was one of the first up in the queue.

Since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Harvard’s partnership with the largest university in the West Bank has faced heightened scrutiny, as critics have sought to tie — without evidence — the Birzeit administration to Hamas. The university’s

Harvard also will not co-sponsor the Palestine Social Medicine Course at Birzeit this year, according to Simon, who cited safety concerns of having Harvard students study in the West Bank. Last year, the program relocated to Jordan in the wake of instability in the West Bank following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

Simon said that senior administrators at the School of Public Health prepared a document last summer summarizing the programming and research supported by the part-

student government elected candidates running with a Hamas-affiliated bloc in their election last spring.

In July, Rep. Elise M. Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and 27 other Republicans penned a letter to Harvard’s top brass calling on the University to “immediately end” its relationship with Birzeit after the Harvard task force to address antisemitism did not recommend dissolving the partnership.

Former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers urged the University to “immediately dissolve” the partnership in a post on X five days later. Under the terms of the pause, Harvard will no longer have an official institutional relationship with Birzeit — but the FXB Center’s Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights, which often collaborates with scholars at Birzeit, will continue to run without interruption, according to Simon.

nership, as well as its funding and finances.

That document will be delivered to a team of three reviewers — composed of two internal Harvard affiliates and one researcher from another university — who were appointed by Provost John F. Manning ’82.

Later this spring, the internal review group will issue a final recommendation on the scope of Harvard’s partnership with Birzeit.

Baccarelli said that the review panel would ensure that the FXB Center was meeting “the highest standards of excellence expected of a University-wide center at Harvard.”

“The charge to the review panel is to rigorously evaluate the FXB Center’s current status and future potential, offering candid, forthright, and thorough feedback, “he said.

“This research is vital for assessing the real-world implications of policies that disproportionately affect the LGBTQ community,” Charlton wrote.

“Having our NIH funding be terminated is unprecedented and deeply concerning.”

Charlton called on philanthropic foundations and individual donors to fill the growing gaps in HSPH’s budget — allowing the school’s decades-long studies to continue.

“We desperately need foundations and individual philanthropists to continue to help us fund our vital research,” Charlton wrote.

But Krieger and Charlton both said philanthropic funding could never fully replace federal funding.

“Philanthropic organizations, foundations don’t have a responsibility in the same way as the U.S. government for providing research funding to understand the conditions of life in which people live and what that means for their health,” Krieger said.

“Getting NIH funds is crucial,” Krieger added. Trump’s actions against DEI programs have provoked outrage among many Harvard faculty. Two HMS professors sued the Trump administration on March 12 for taking down their research that mentioned recently banned terms — including “LGBTQ” and “transgender” — from a government website, alleging the removals violated their First Amendment rights.

And on March 3, more than 500 researchers, physicians, and students rallied at Boston Common to protest a host of Trump’s attacks on universities — including his executive orders on DEI programs. Unlike several of its peer institutions, Harvard has largely stood by its DEI programs even as the Trump administration has railed against diversity initiatives in higher education and pushed some universities to close them down.

Last month, University President Alan M. Garber ’76 voiced

support for diversity on campus in his speech at Harvard’s annual Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Forum. And Harvard University Health Services quickly rescheduled a panel on LGBTQ care, after postponing in February in response to executive orders from Trump.

Still, the University has not openly criticized the federal government’s attacks on DEI — and it has not been able to fully shield HSPH research on diversity from the worst of Trump’s onslaught on DEI-related work.

Charlton wrote that the decision to cancel her grants “seems to be based solely on the perceived conflict with the recent executive order related to ‘gender ideology’” and ignores her research’s scientific rigor.

“We’re not trying to advance any radical ideology,” Charlton wrote. “We’re scientists, trying to keep people healthy.”

Khurana Says Harvard Is Preparing for Federal Funding Loss

BY

SAMUEL A. CHURCH AND CAM N. SRIVASTAVA

STAFF WRITERS

Following the Trump administration’s decision to cut $400 million in government grants to Columbia University, outgoing Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana said in a Tuesday interview that top administrators are planning for the possibility that Harvard may be next.

Addressing threats from the Trump administration to strip Harvard of millions in federal funding, Khurana said the administration is preparing for a range of possible penalties from Washington.

“We are very cognizant of the fluid and changing environment that we are in,” Khurana said in the Tuesday interview with The Crimson. “As part of the institution, we are trying to support these efforts to make sure that we can adapt effectively to this environment and minimize any negative consequences to our core mission.”

He added that Harvard officials were in the process of reviewing the University budget, where they annually consider different possible financial challenges. Earlier this month, Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 announced a University-wide hiring freeze and instructed schools, including the College, to cut back on discretionary spending.

The freeze came just three days after the Trump administration announced the funding cuts to Columbia, alleging the university failed to protect Jewish students. Last week, the White House also suspended $175 million in funding for the University of Pennsylvania over policies allowing transgender athletes to compete in sports.

Fears about cuts at Harvard grew last week, when Columbia agreed to several of the Trump

administration’s demands, including modifying its protest policies and appointing a senior official to review the university’s Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department. Even with the changes, Columbia has not regained its funding.

Khurana said that because of the hiring freeze, searches for unfilled positions in the College have been halted.

“We are trying to support these efforts to make sure that we can adapt effectively to this environment and minimize any negative consequences to our core mission,” Khurana said. The College will honor job offers extended before the freeze was announced.

During the interview, Khurana also said the College’s student affinity groups are not in jeopardy of being disbanded after the Department of Education directed Harvard and other federally funded institutions to end all programs that separate students based on race.

“As long as nobody’s discriminating — which is, again, a long standing rule at the College — all our affinity groups are in good standing,” he said. “We have very clear commitments around that in our student handbook — that there is no discrimination allowed, and that also in the allocation of resources and opportunities and membership, those groups have to be non-discriminatory.”

The College currently supports more than 80 recognized student groups that center around a particular racial or cultural identity. Though some Harvard undergraduates have recently said they fear for affinity groups after Trump’s threats against diversity programming, Khurana said the groups had no reason to worry.

A “hallmark” of affinity groups, he said, “is they’re open to all students.”

But when asked to address concerns from international students about free speech, Khurana declined to offer the same reassurance.

The Trump administration’s decision to arrest and initiate deportation proceedings against Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate and green card holder, for leading pro-Palestine demonstrations at Columbia has drawn wide-ranging backlash from Harvard undergraduates and professors.

Several other international students and faculty across universities have faced visa revocations after Trump issued an executive order threatening to cancel the visas of students who broke the law while participating in pro-Palestine demonstrations. Khurana encouraged concerned international students to take their own prerogative in monitoring how federal policy is currently being applied.

“Moments like this can create a great deal of uncertainty, and immigration rules, and how they’re being interpreted, seem to be changing quite frequently,” Khurana said.

“I would say to our international students that perhaps one of the best ways to understand how those rules are being applied is to inform themselves by tracking what’s happening,” he said, adding that they should use resources provided by the Harvard International Office. But under threat from an increasingly aggressive White House, Khurana pledged to advocate for students.

“Our values are not negotiable,” Khurana said. “Values are only values when you stand up for them at difficult moments.”

“Otherwise, it’s just marketing,” he added.

CRIMSON

The Harvard School of Public Health has struggled to cope with attacks on access to federal research funding. NYLA NASIR — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

FUNDING CUTS. As Trump officials slashes federal grants, the Harvard School of Public Health is uniquely vulnerable.

BY WILLIAM C. MAO AND VERONICA H. PAULUS CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS BY

FACULTY

Harvard AAUP Sues Trump Administration

COURT CHALLENGE.

The group argued threats to noncitizen students and faculty violated members’ First Amendment rights.

BY WILLIAM C. MAO AND VERONICA H. PAULUS CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

The Harvard chapter of the American Association of University Professors filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Tuesday morning for allegedly violating its members’ First Amendment rights by arresting and attempting to deport noncitizens for expressing pro-Palestine views.

The suit — which the Harvard AAUP chapter filed with the Middle East Studies Association, the AAUP, and AAUP chapters at New York University and Rutgers University — argued that the arrests violated their right to hear from noncitizen students and professors.

The First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech, also guarantees Americans the right to receive information regardless of the source and bars the government from preventing citizens from freely accessing such information.

“Because the ideological-deportation policy abridges these rights without adequate justification, the policy is unconstitutional,” the complaint argued.

The plaintiffs contended that the Trump administration’s policies make it “practically impossible” for them to participate in political expression alongside their noncitizen peers or benefit from their academic insights.

“By design, the agencies’ policy has created a climate of repression and fear on university campuses,” they wrote in the complaint.

The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts

and assigned to Judge William G. Young ’62, a Ronald Reagan nominee. History professor Maya R. Jasanoff ’96 and History and Literature lecturer Lauren Kaminsky, who both said the Trump policy on freedom of speech has impeded their research and work, both included declarations in the complaint. Kaminsky specifically said several noncitizen faculty had opted against joining the AAUP in recent weeks because they feared their membership could make them future targets of the Trump administration. In recent weeks, the Trump administration has arrested and

revoked visas from several international students and faculty associated with pro-Palestine causes.

Mahmoud Khalil, a leading pro-Palestine organizer at Columbia, was arrested on March 8 and is currently detained in Louisiana while he sues to block his deportation. Several other international students and faculty have had their visas revoked, including Georgetown University postdoctoral fellow Badar Khan Suri, Cornell University Ph.D. student Momodou Taal, Columbia student Yunseo Chung, and Columbia student and NYU adjunct professor Ranjani Srinivasan, whose cases were cited

Harvard Demands Kestenbaum’s Messages With Politicians

respond to a request for comment for this article.

Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, as well as documents related to Kestenbaum’s RNC appearance.

in the complaint. The moves follow months of threats from Trump and his administration. In a fact sheet accompanying a January executive order, White House officials promised to “quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”

The order urged universities to monitor international students for suspected participation in crime or terrorism and followed a series of threats to cancel the visas of student protesters.

Two weeks ago, the AAUP organized a demonstration that drew

nearly 200 Harvard affiliates to protest Khalil’s arrest and call for Harvard to take a more assertive stance against Trump’s attacks on universities.

The president of Harvard’s AAUP chapter, History professor Kirsten A. Weld, slammed the Trump administration in an interview Tuesday for the “chilling effect” its new arrest and deportation policies have wrought on university campuses.

“The chilling of the speech of that significant portion of our community deprives everyone in our community of the right to receive and to hear the ideas, the thoughts, the opinions, the interventions of

District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Its plaintiffs are represented by the Cambridge law firm Zimmer, Citron, & Clarke. The AAUP also sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over its freezing of and demands to restore Columbia’s federal funding.

The lawsuit’s lead defendants are U.S. Secretary of State Marco A. Rubio, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Todd M. Lyons.

The plaintiffs claimed that in addition to violating

“They

Harvard filed a motion on Friday to compel Harvard Divinity School graduate Alexander “Shabbos” Kestenbaum, the lead plaintiff in an ongoing Title VI lawsuit, to turn over extensive documentation of his campaign against Harvard — including communication with politicians and messages from the “Harvard Pro-Israel WhatsApp group.”

In the filing, the University accused Kestenbaum of dragging his feet by not sending Harvard the materials it had requested in the case. An attorney for Harvard wrote that Kestenbaum had not responded to Harvard’s requests for information during discovery, and had not indicated he would respond.

Harvard first requested the documents in December in response to two Title VI suits against the University — one from Kestenbaum, along with the group Students Against Antisemitism, and one from Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education. Both groups alleged that the University failed to combat antisemitism on campus.

Settlements were reached in both suits in January, in which Harvard agreed to adopt the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism and pay an undisclosed amount. But Kestenbaum did not accept the settlement and opted to continue pursuing litigation with different counsel.

They also asked for documents relating to any effort to publicize private information about Harvard affiliates — “including, but not limited to, Communications with individuals or organizations that engage in such activities, such as the Twitter account @StopAntisemitism and the website canarymission.org.”

Both sites have posted the names and faces of Harvard students, accusing them of antisemitism.

administration’s actions jeopardize the core missions of U.S. universities.

“The abduction, caging, and deportation of noncitizen students on ideological grounds threatens the university’s purpose and function because the pursuit of knowledge cannot prosper in a climate of fear and repression,” Brown said.

600 Faculty Urge Harvard To Resist Demands From Trump

an administrative review of its Middle Eastern studies programs — sparked fears across academia that the White House could use its threats to extract compromises from other universities.

The Harvard letter represents an outpouring of indignation from an extraordinary cross-section of the University’s faculty — and a unified demand that Harvard, which has so far been silent on the events at Columbia, take a public stand.

The Crimson

If approved by a judge, the motion would force Kestenbaum to produce the requested material.

“The time has passed for Mr. Kestenbaum to boast about his lawsuit while refusing to engage in his responsibilities as a litigant,” the Harvard lawyer wrote.

“Having risen to fame as an ‘American suing Harvard,’ he must now decide if he is actually willing to engage in the litigation that launched his public persona.”

The list of materials requested by Harvard — which, according to the filings, the University initially asked for on Dec. 27 — has not been previously reported. It illustrates an apparent strategy by Harvard to investigate how Kestenbaum, who has emerged as a leading public voice accusing Harvard of antisemitism, has amplified his allegations.

The materials, if handed over, would give the University’s lawyers a window into Kestenbaum’s relationship with politicians who have hounded Harvard with investigations and threats — putting administrators on the defensive as they try to salvage the school’s public image and federal funding.

Kestenbaum’s lawyers did not

His most recent proposed complaint, which would add two anonymous plaintiffs, has yet to be approved by a judge. In their motion, Harvard’s lawyers demanded an extensive list of documents related to Kestenbaum’s allegations, including communication between the plaintiffs and Harvard affiliates, media outlets, advocacy groups, nonprofits or “any public official or candidate for public office” about the allegations — specifically listing the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which began the first investigation into antisemitism at Harvard in December 2023. Kestenbaum has testified before the House committee multiple times, and was featured as a speaker at the Republican National Convention in July, where he slammed Harvard for a “culture that is anti-Western, that is anti-American, and that is antisemitic.”

The University lawyers also requested all documents concerning compensation or offers of compensation Kestenbaum may have received for public appearances or statements about the allegations against Harvard. They also specifically asked for communications between Kestenbaum and Donald

The University argued the documents and communications from Kestenbaum were “relevant to his allegations that he experienced harassment and discrimination to which Harvard was deliberately indifferent in violation of Title VI” and added that they could be used to assess his claims of damages.

The request also included all communications in the Harvard Pro-Israel WhatsApp group, citing a post from Kestenbaum on X where he included a screenshot from the group chat where a member expressed support for Kestenbaum and others.

A Harvard spokesperson declined to comment for this article.

Harvard’s discovery request also asked for documents describing the ownership, funding, financial backing, management, and structure of the three organizations — SAA, the Brandeis Center, and JAFE — that were plaintiffs in the original Title VI suits.

In the motion, Harvard lawyers wrote that Kestenbaum’s refusal to provide the material voluntarily has prevented the University from scheduling depositions with witnesses.

“The close of fact discovery is rapidly approaching,” they wrote. “Accordingly, this Court should compel Mr. Kestenbaum to produce the requested documents so that this case can proceed.”

Its signatories span academic disciplines — from Computer Science and Mathematics to Comparative Literature and Economics — and political inclinations. The largest contingent came from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, with more than 260 signatories, followed by the Harvard Medical School with more than 110.

Government professors Ryan D. Enos and Steven R. Levitsky sent the letter in an email to faculty Monday morning, though Harvard Law School professor Nikolas E. Bowie said several faculty helped draft it.

“Universities like Harvard have a responsibility to defend education as a force of justice in democratic society,” Bowie, a signatory of the letter, said in an interview.

A Harvard University spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

The letter asks Harvard to work with its alumni and other universities to “mount a coordinated opposition.”

Harvard Kennedy School professor Archon Fung, another signatory of the letter, said cooperation between universities could address a collective action problem — where individual universities may be willing to compromise in their own self-interest, even if doing so sets a dangerous precedent.

“If you’re just considering Harvard University or Columbia University all by itself, maybe it is organizationally rational to try to get the best deal that you can,” Fung said. “But that might be quite bad for higher education as a whole.”

Top Harvard administrators

have told alumni that the University plans to collaborate with peer institutions as it addresses federal funding threats — rather than leading a charge on its own.

And University President Alan M. Garber ’76 has told faculty he is engaged in private discussions with leaders at peer universities around growing concerns about the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against higher education, according to a Harvard professor.

But large contingents of students, faculty, and alumni have pushed — in protests and open letters — for the University to be more vocal in its condemnation of the Trump administration’s actions.

More than 500 Harvard alumni signed a letter to Garber Monday evening urging the University to publicly commit to protecting its affiliates’ free speech and maintain the independence of its operations.

And nearly 80 Jewish Harvard affiliates, including at least three dozen faculty, signed another statement calling on universities to denounce the arrest of Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, who is one of several noncitizen students and instructors who now face deportation proceedings over their role in pro-Palestine campus protests.

History professor Derek J. Penslar, a signatory of the faculty letter to Harvard’s governing boards, called the letter’s message “minimalist, moderate, and com-

According to Bowie, the Law School professor, several citizen and noncitizen faculty told colleagues they agreed with the letter’s message but declined to sign it out of fear of being targeted by the Trump administration. That fear “speaks to the value of standing together,” Bowie said. “As a faculty, we are much stronger when hundreds of people join a statement than when only one person does.” Harvard’s American Association of University Professors chapter sued the Trump administration Tuesday morning for allegedly breaching its members’ First Amendment rights by silencing speech from international faculty and students.

Fung — the Kennedy School professor, who studies democratic participation — said he saw defending the independence of universities as necessary to safeguarding democracy. “It is a very predictable pattern that authoritarian governments go after two institutions first, which is the media and universities,” Fung said. “We’re one of the two or three pillars that are really, really important for free discussion and inquiry in a democratic society, which is the beating heart of a democracy.”

Harvard faculty and staff gather at a rally to protest the arrest of Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil. WILLIAM C. MAO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

LETTER FROM PAGE 1

A letter urging Harvard to publicly condemn attacks on universities has gained over 600 faculty signatures. MEGAN M. ROSS — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

An Old Law Is a New Weapon in Fights Over Harvard

and the Workforce — which spearheaded the Republican charge against Harvard and other elite universities — laid out what they called a “roadmap” for “investigations into potential violations of Title VI.”

House Republicans suggested that the 20-day pro-Palestine encampment in Harvard Yard, one-day occupation of University Hall, and a flurry of other high-profile demonstrations on campus were enough proof that Jewish students had been “intimidated and harassed” on campus.

They alleged that Harvard deliberately gave lighter punishments to pro-Palestinian protestors and criticized the University for downgrading probation periods for some protestors.

While the claim that universities have a legal obligation to protect students from discrimination is not new, and it was Democrats who first began investigating Harvard for possible Title VI violations, the scale of Republican threats on the basis of Title VI is unprecedented.

“I think we have to at least ask ourselves why this tool that has been around for so long is now being discussed in the ways that it is, when it has never actually been a tool that was intended to regulate or to get in the middle of protest and speech,” said Raquel E. Aldana, a professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law.

The statute — which prevents discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin — applies to any entity benefiting-

from federal funds, including government agencies, hospital systems, and colleges and universities.

For forty years, it did not include an explicit provision on the basis of religion, and could not be used as part of antisemitism complaints.

But in 2004, the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights ruled that Title VI extends to religion when the discrimination is based on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, including citizenship in a country with a dominant religious ancestry.

The ruling, which was affirmed by the Obama administration in 2010 and Trump in 2019, has guided antisemitism litigation for the past two decades. And since returning to the White House in January, Trump has made a concerted effort to expand its applicability.

In a Dear Colleague letter issued on Feb. 14, Trump’s Department of Education wrote that Title VI prevented the use of race in decisions relating to hiring, admissions, and “all other aspects of students, academic, and campus life” — a free-handed interpretation of what has traditionally been a narrowly applied statute.

“We have a very different interpretation of Title VI, both through the executive orders and the February 14 Dear Colleague letter,” said Scott Z. Goldschmidt, a higher education lawyer. “I think the new administration has used pretty significant, aggressive language in what they’re expecting in terms of Title VI compliance.”

The Legal Basis

Even in the face of public threats, winning a Title VI case over antisemitism allegations remains an uphill battle.

Claims under Title VI are evaluated by the the Department of Education’s OCR with two considerations: whether an institution fostered a “hostile learning environment” and whether it subjected a select group of students to “disparate treatment” according to Marc Brenman, a former OCR attorney.

In a separate Dear Colleague letter issued in May 2024, the education department explained that a learning environment could be considered “hostile” if discrimination “is so severe or pervasive that it limits or denies a person’s ability to participate in or benefit from a school’s education program” — the same language in Harvard’s Discipline policies.

Brenman said disparate treatment — when a group is treated differently because of a protected class — needs to show both impact and intent to hold legal ground.

“Intent is where we say we are not hiring any Jews as faculty,” he said. “Disparate impact is where you look at statistics and history and you see if there’s a difference in different treatment among groups.”

“It is much harder to prove intent,” Brenman added.

But of the two provisions, legal experts said it would be compar-

atively easier to show that Jewish students faced a hostile learning environment and would be lower hanging fruit for the Trump administration to build a case against Harvard.

“If I had to choose between the two — if I’m the one defending this in court — hostile environment is the pathway to go forward,” said Ronak D. Desai, a partner at law firm Paul Hastings.

In the October report, House Republicans argued that Jewish students’ learning experience had been “intimidated and harassed” on campus.

They pointed to a Dec. 4, 2023 demonstration on campus where pro-Palestine protestors interrupted classes with bullhorns — chanting phrases including “from the river to the sea” and “long live the intifada” — and argued that the encampment had effectively prevented Jewish students from attending classes.

They’ve also seized on Garber’s own words, arguing his public warnings about the spring encampment proved the environment was hostile toward Jewish students.

At the height of the encampment, Garber wrote in an email to affiliates that the protests presented “a significant risk to the educational environment of the University” — a statement lawmakers took as a public admission that the University had permitted a hostile learning environment for Jewish students.

“We have also received reports that passers-by have been confronted, surveilled, and followed,” Garber wrote on May 6, 12 days after the encampment began.

According to Desai, the argument that universities failed to protect Jewish students has substantial legal precedent and would meet the legal threshold set by prior cases.

“Hostile environment — the language, the rhetoric they’re using on failing to protect — that’s deliberate, that’s intentional, and that reaches the precedent here that they’re looking to in order to ensure that this survives judicial scrutiny,” he said.

A Harvard spokesperson declined to comment for this article.

But to make a successful disparate treatment argument, the Trump administration would need to show that Harvard responded more leniently to pro-Palestine protests than it did to protests organized by Jewish, Israeli, or Zionist students — a difficult argument without largescale pro-Israel protests to use as a comparison.

The argument that Harvard would have responded to other groups differently would be an uphill battle for Republicans in court, according to former Office of Civil Rights attorney Miriam A. Nunberg.

“Any time there’s evidence of one group being disciplined more harshly than another group for similar behavior, that could be a finding of a Title VI violation for sure — but it has to be for engaging in similar behavior,” she said.

‘A Rhetorical Piece’

But in the last two months, the Trump administration has shown little sign that it plans to wait for Title VI investigations to be adjudicated through the legal system.

The White House unilaterally moved to cut off $400 million in federal funding for Columbia just one month after the Department of Education opened a Title VI investigation into the school and before any federal court had weighed in on allegations of campus antisemitism.

According to Brenman, the former OCR attorney, the funding cut came without “a real investigation.”

“A real investigation includes looking at a lot of documents, interviewing a lot of witnesses, making on-site visits, interviewing a lot of people,” he said. “I’ve seen no evidence that the Office for Civil Rights has done any of those things.”

“Taking away this money without having done a proper investigation and making a proper finding and attempting to settle the case through a negotiated settlement, appears to me, as an expert in the field, to be arbitrary and capricious,” Brenman added. (The White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the depth of its investigation into Columbia.)

But in the meantime, the premise of an impending lawsuit has allowed Trump to impose unilateral penalties on Columbia. And even the threat of similar cuts at Harvard forced Garber to institute cost-saving measures that had thus far been reserved for financial crises.

According to Goldschmidt, the higher education lawyer and former deputy general counsel at the Catholic University of America, the Trump administration’s use of Title VI serves both a legal and messaging function — the latter of which would withstand the Department of Education’s demise or legal challenges to

Trump’s $400 million cut to Columbia.

“Is it a rhetorical piece where they’re trying to get more voluntary compliance and trying to change behavior, or will they really announce and take a big swing and really come after schools’ existence if they don’t comply,” Goldschmidt said.

Days after losing its funding, Columbia officials agreed to adopt new disciplinary policies, overhaul its Middle Eastern Studies department, and hire nearly 40 new security guards to police campus protests — effectively bowing to the administration’s demand without assurance the funding would be restored.

Adam Kissel, Trump’s former education department deputy assistant secretary, said instilling fear in other universities is explicitly part of the plan.

“The first time that an institution does lose its federal funding, even if only for one day, that will dramatically change behavior across the whole sector,” he said. The response to the Columbia cuts has largely proven Kissel’s prediction true.

Since the $400 million funding cut, a number of universities have preemptively adjusted their policies on protests and DEI programming in the hopes of staying out of the White House’s crosshairs. On Wednesday, Case Western Reserve University shut down its diversity, equity, and inclusion office, citing concerns that continuing its operations could jeopardize federal funding.

At Harvard, the changes have been small: replacing the word “multicultural” with the word “community,” axing the campus climate task forces, and on Wednesday, quietly removing the Harvard Catalyst Program for Diversity and Inclusion — a mentorship program aimed at retaining faculty from underrepresented backgrounds.

The changes suggest that even absent full investigations or legal resolution, Title VI is becoming a powerful catalyst for institutional action — a form of compliance born not out of adjudicated legal findings, but out of fear of political retribution. Harvard Law School professor Kenneth W. Mack, an expert in civil rights law, said invoking Title VI, even without a formal complaint, has the potential to reshape the higher education landscape. “The power of that lever can’t be overestimated,” Mack said.

FRANK S. ZHOU — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Can Amaker’s Recruiting Legacy Last?

Coach Tommy Amak-

er was hired to turn Harvard men’s basketball into a championship team. With a series of Ivy League titles and March Madness appearances under his belt, he hasn’t fallen short on that promise.

But with the introduction of cash to the world of college sports, that dream has become increasingly fraught — and Harvard’s basketball might be headed for a fitful awakening.

Amaker, who has been coaching at Harvard now for 17 seasons, has collected accomplishments with the men’s basketball team since his start in 2007. In his first five years on the team, he won the team’s first share of the Ivy League championship, which they proceeded to win four years in a row. He led Harvard to its first-ever victory in the first round of the National Collegiate Athletic Association March Madness tournament.

In 2016, Amaker became the winningest coach in Harvard history with 179 victories, and went on to achieve 300 victories with the team earlier in the 2024-25 season.

Legendary Duke men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, also known as Coach K, coached Amaker during his time as an undergraduate at Duke and mentored him when Amaker worked as his assistant coach. Krzyzewski said the talent Amaker brought to Harvard forced the Ivy League as a whole to step up its game.

“They saw how Tommy did it. They mimicked him,” Krzyzewski said.

But Harvard men’s basketball has struggled over the past five years, falling short of an Ivy Madness postseason run since 2019.

After going 21-8 in the 2019-20 season, Harvard basketball has struggled with subpar seasons, most recently finishing with a 1215 record.

Kryzyzewski said Amaker “made his job tougher by being so good at his job” as the Ivy League caught up to Harvard, building stronger teams season after season.

Though the NCAA allowed athletes to profit off of their name, image, and likeness after a Supreme Court ruling in 2021, the Ivy League has taken a restrained approach, with alumni and the Ancient Eight making no coordinated efforts to pay students.

Last year, the team lost star point guard Malik O. Mack, who — following his freshman year at the College, where he was set to graduate in 2027 — decided to transfer to Georgetown, where he likely receives a large sum of NIL compensation.

While the remaining team — made up of a young group of players — is working to restore Harvard’s standing in the league having ended the season strong, NIL still looms large.

The Crimson interviewed nearly 30 current and former

players and coaches, as well as experts — all of whom characterized Amaker as a different kind of coach: a mentor on and off the court. Yet many were concerned that Amaker’s charm would not be enough compared to cash and collectives at other schools.

Harvard Athletics spokesperson Imry Halevi wrote in a Thursday statement that despite the ever-moving world of NIL, Harvard intends to forge forward without directly compensating athletes.

“Our commitment to attracting high caliber student-athletes without financial inducements, and adhering to the Ivy principle that athletics is aligned with the educational purpose of the institution, remain unwavering,” Halevi wrote.

A New World of NIL

Since the NCAA allowed athletes to profit off of NIL, athletes began receiving thousands of dollars from donor-backed NIL collectives at universities and signing lucrative brand deals.

To Brendan Marks — who has covered college basketball for The Athletic since 2019 — the change in incentives has altered what it takes to recruit the best talent.

“The way it used to work is the kid would come in — high school or [transfer] portal, whatever — and you would talk about academics, and you would talk about the degree, and you would talk about the players you had sent to the NBA,” Marks said. “Now, that stuff is still there, but a lot of the time, the first question coming out of a kid’s mouth when he gets on campus is, ‘What am I getting?

How much can I expect to earn here?’”

With life-changing money on the line, NIL has made college recruiting into a numbers game. At the University of Michigan, where Amaker coached before Harvard, the fan-funded Champions Circle collective has given millions to Michigan athletes.

Amaker said in an interview with The Crimson that schools

across the country — not just Harvard and the Ivy League — are feeling the instability of recruiting and retaining players.

“Whether you’re Duke, Kentucky, Stanford, UCLA, Ohio State — you name the school — everyone is involved in trying to get a better understanding, or a footing here, where you can feel like there’s some stability,” Amaker said. “And I don’t know that anyone has been able to find that as of yet.”

But as many athletics departments become increasingly aggressive in their NIL offerings, Harvard and the Ivy League have taken a more cautious approach.

In January, the Ivy League announced it would opt out of a proposed NCAA settlement that would allow athletes to have direct compensation through revenue sharing.

Athletic Director Erin McDermott previously described Harvard as a “40-year opportunity, not a four-year opportunity” for athletes. Still, Marks believes that can be a hard sell to young athletes against the “immediate gratification and the potentially life-changing financial windfall” of playing at the best basketball programs.

“You’re asking them to choose something that’s not tangible versus something that is,” Marks said.

In an October interview, McDermott said the fact that Harvard does not offer NIL deals to athletes could affect the recruitment processes of low-income students, who may have to think more about immediate compensation than a Harvard degree.

Following the departures last year of Mack and fellow standout Chisom Okpara from the men’s basketball team, in addition to football player Cooper H. Barkate and tennis player Cooper Williams, alumni are increasingly concerned about keeping Harvard’s teams competitive.

Basketball at Harvard has proven particularly vulnerable to NIL competition. As a team that

Harvard basketball has had to fight harder than ever for its most talented athletes.

In an April interview after Mack entered the transfer portal, McDermott said it was too early to understand the effects of NIL, but acknowledged that recent changes disproportionately affect men’s basketball.

‘Teach, Lead, Serve’ Oliver R. McNally ’12 was a member of the first class Amaker recruited to Harvard. At the time, the school hadn’t been successful in years.

But McNally was convinced when Amaker sat him down and detailed how he as an individual fit into the team’s plan for success. McNally said in the recruiting process, “most coaches are telling you a lot of things you want to hear,” but he felt Harvard was different.

“I believed in what they were telling me was going to happen, and it ended up actually coming through with us,” he said.

Amaker said honesty is what he values most in the recruitment process — adding that he is “never trying to sell Harvard,” but rather presenting it as an “opportunity and an option.”

“It’s Harvard. It’s a very powerful institution, and the brand of it is incredible across the globe,” Amaker said. “We have a huge responsibility and the privilege to present that to the right people.”

But Harvard’s appeal for athletes is not just the school’s brand. Amaker’s distinctive coaching — which former assistant coach Yanni Hufnagel called “cool, calm, and collected” — emphasizes efficiency and intention, according to his former players.

Amid tense moments or difficult stretches in games, Amaker can usually be seen calmly commanding the sidelines, a quality that has enabled his success for the past decade.

“Oftentimes the team takes on the personality of its head coach,” former assistant coach Brian Eskildsen said.

“He tries to act with an incredible amount of poise and composure, and I think that helps the team in close games,” he added.

Amaker has defined his legacy in equal parts on and off the court, redefining basketball coaching at Harvard in the process.

That started in his first season at Harvard in 2008, when Harvard Law School professors Ronald S. Sullivan Jr. and the late Charles J. Ogletree Jr. organized a Black leaders group called Tommy’s Kitchen Cabinet.

That group evolved into the Breakfast Club, which hosts monthly events where Amaker invites prominent speakers from basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Hufnagel said the Breakfast Club is one of many ways Amak-

er uses his own network to benefit those around him.

“Coach Amaker is as good of a connector and a builder of bridges as any person that I’ve met,” Hufnagel said. “The chance to go to Harvard, to play basketball at Harvard, and then to be a part of Tommy Amaker’s circle in perpetuity — that, to me, is just such a magical trifecta.”

J. Christian Webster ’13, a member of Amaker’s second class of recruits at Harvard and a current assistant coach at Virginia Tech, said Amaker was a life mentor to him as much as he was a coach.

“His motto — ‘teach, lead, serve’ — that he preaches a lot exactly embodies him,” Webster said. “He was literally the best teacher that I had in my time at Harvard.”

Amaker said his focus as a coach — and educator — lies off the court, in connecting his athletes to opportunities they wouldn’t get elsewhere.

“That’s what I think I can bring to the lives of the kids that we’re coaching, we’re teaching, and we’re leading,” Amaker said.

But it remains unclear whether Amaker’s mentoring will continue to be enough to draw star players to Harvard amid the growing allure of NIL compensation at competing teams.

The Long Run

When Amaker started during his time at Harvard, he told Webster that he wanted to build a championship team.

“He really just sold us a vision on, ‘We’re going to be an upstart team. We’re going to turn into a contender, then we’re going to be a winner, then we’re going to be champions,” Webster said.

Webster was offered the opportunity to change Harvard’s legacy and build a team with Amaker, something he said he couldn’t turn down. But he wasn’t inspired by the idea of victory alone — Amaker’s promise of academic excellence was a key influence as well.

Amaker came to Harvard motivated to build a nationally competitive basketball program at a school already renowned for its academics, without sacrificing one for the other.

Donny Guerinoni, who coached for Amaker from 2015 to 2022, said Amaker prioritized building a team of “scholars and ballers.”

Brian Eskildsen, who served as an assistant coach from 2014 to 2022, recalled recruiting Christopher W. Lewis ’20, who was interested in pursuing a degree in engineering. Eskildsen, Amaker, and the team’s staff set up a four-year plan for Lewis during the recruiting process — from internships they could help him get to classes he’d have the opportunity to take. Even now, with NIL controlling the conversation around recruitment, star freshman Robert T. Hinton ’28 in large part chose Harvard for the quality of its degree.

Hinton said that Amaker did not discuss NIL with him “at all” during his recruitment process.

“If a kid is curious about what money they’re going to get to come here, then I don’t know if their mind is in the right place,” Hinton said. But while many alumni credit the incredible value of a Harvard degree, some of Amaker’s former players shared a concern with the diversion from NIL within the Ivy League.

McNally said that he was “very concerned with Ivy athletics being able to compete” without compensating players.

Krzyzewski explained that while Harvard can remain competitive within the Ivy League, it remains to be seen whether that success is sustainable in out-of-conference play.

“The Ivies are trying to stay pure, but that doesn’t mean the people around them are, so they’re going to still raid the Ivies if there’s somebody good,” Krzyzewski said.

To stay competitive, experts and alumni agree that Amaker may need to be more selective with the talent he recruits, vetting athletes to ensure they’re in the program for the long haul.

“Even though you might recruit that once-in-a-generation player to commit to Harvard, he’s got to want to say, ‘I’m staying here for four years,’” Boston Globe basketball reporter Gary Washburn said.

Basketball alum Andrew R. Pusar ’09 explained that while Harvard’s recruitment may need to be “more strategic and thoughtful,” he feels confident in Amaker’s ability to adapt.

“The combination of what Harvard has to offer, the improved prestige of the program — in large part because of Coach Amaker, and because of Coach Amaker being the quality, charismatic coach that he is — I think he has laid the framework to be able to continue that success,” Pusar said.

Christian A. Juzang ’20, an alum of the team, similarly said that there was “no coach in the world that I am more comfortable with at the helm,” despite the uncertainty of the current landscape. Amaker himself plans on relying on the very quality that has followed him his entire career: consistency.

“Nothing has really changed in terms of how I’m going to present this incredible, life-changing opportunity,” he said. “The right kids will resonate.” While the rules of the Ivy League disallow Amaker from dramatically changing his recruitment practices, Amaker said every team is looking for places to make adjustments.

Though Amaker plans to “rely on our principles and our people,” that doesn’t mean that the team will operate the same as always. “We can get better. We can find ways to do things differently,” he said.

has cracked the Associated Press Top 25 poll in a sport with money flowing through it, and with other schools of a similar academic caliber dominating play,

Harvard men’s basketball head coach Tommy Amaker is the winningest coach in Harvard history, with more than 300 victories. MAE T. WEIR — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

COLLEGE ADMINISTRATION

Khurana: Unrecognized Orgs Can’t Use Campus Resources

INTERVIEW. The College dean said unrecognized student groups may not use campus resources.

BY SAMUEL A. CHURCH AND CAM N. SRIVASTAVA CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

utgoing Dean of the College

ORakesh Khurana said unrecognized student groups — which include the majority of pro-Palestine protest groups on campus — are not allowed to use campus resources in a Tuesday interview with The Crimson. His comments come in the wake of several protests organized by unrecognized groups and at least one panel event held in a Harvard academic building by the African and African American Resistance Organiza-

tion, also an unrecognized student group. Khurana reaffirmed the Harvard College Student Handbook policy that unrecognized student organizations are “not permitted to conduct any activity at Harvard,” but said he was not aware of the event and declined to comment on if it was approved.

Instead, he urged any student aware of policy violations to report them to the DSO.

“I would ask any student who believes that there was abuse — or people who were at the event — of our student organization policies to report that to the Dean of Students Office,” Khurana said.

Because they are not recognized by the College’s Dean of Students Office, unrecognized groups cannot reserve certain rooms and spaces across the University, apply for funding through the Harvard Un-

dergraduate Association, or access

Harvard mailing lists.

Organizers for AFRO did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the College also did not comment on room reservation policies for unrecognized groups.

Multiple other unrecognized groups have used Harvard academic buildings and house spaces for events, including the Harvard Vote Socialist 2024 campaign and Harvard for Harris.

While the handbook prohibits public events hosted by outside or unrecognized groups, the University has largely refrained from taking disciplinary action against organizers for outdoor events on campus — though protests inside Harvard’s libraries, classrooms, and in one administrative building have been met with swift responses.

“Unrecognized student organi-

zations cannot and should not use our resources,” Khurana said. “We must use our resources in a way that is consistent with the intent of what those spaces have been set up for, with resources that donors have provided us.”

During the interview, Khurana also addressed recent controversy surrounding a speaker event with Palestinian writer Mohammed ElKurd hosted by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee — a student group which regained its recognized status in September after a five-month suspension.

Citing the March 12 event, where El-Kurd said Israel is a “racist endeavour” and likened Zionism to white supremacy and Nazism, more than 200 Harvard affiliates signed an open letter calling for Harvard to disband the PSC.

The letter argued El-Kurd’s com-

ments violated Harvard’s antisemitism policies after the University decided to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Association definition of antisemitism in January, though the policies do not explicitly prohibit language classified as antisemitic by the definition. The Harvard Israel Business Club also faced backlash for one of their events earlier this month, where featured

and

Minister

Israeli

li Bennett joked about sending

ploding devices to dissenting event attendees.

Khurana said Harvard provides

Too Uncensored? Mather House Newsletter To Tone Down Lewd Jokes

ulty Deans.

BY AKSHAYA RAVI CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Following weeks of complaints from students and faculty intervention, the Gorilla Gazette

— Mather House’s satire newspaper — has promised to scale back lewd and personal jokes, according to the newspapers’ authors. The Gazette, which satirizes political events, prominent members of the House, and sometimes ordinary students, is written by Sonya Kulkarni ’27 and Abdullah S. Sial ’27, the 2025 Mather House Committee Historians. The paper, named after Mather’s gorilla mascot, is emailed to House residents each week and featured on dining hall tables.

The Gazette is not reviewed by house administrators before its publication each week.

The first issue, which was released on Jan. 26, included lewd jokes referencing individual students. The cracks continued in the next three issues, with writers naming a student as “Cultural Appropriator of the Year”and joking that another student was arrested for public indecency after being “Seen Running in Booty Shorts.”

In a statement to The Crimson, Kulkarni and Sial wrote that the Gazette will be “more thoughtful in its language, more mindful of tone, and more inviting for a wider range of students” moving forward.

Kulkarni and Sial also clarified that — with the exception of the first issue — all students named in jokes were explicit-

The newsletter, which has existed for several years, is a beloved Mather institution, and House residents proudly wear hoodies displaying its logo. But this semester, the Gazette’s uncensored satire sparked debate over the boundaries of tasteful humor — and eventually intervention from House leadership, a brief rebellion against bowdlerization, and changes of heart from the paper’s writers. House administrators — including tutors, Resident Dean Luke Leafgren, and Faculty Deans Amala Mahadevan and Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan — received complaints following the release of the first Spring 2025 issue, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Natasha Bedingfield

BY DARCY G LIN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Natasha Bedingfield will headline Yardfest 2025, Harvard College’s annual outdoor spring concert, the College Events Board announced Monday — shortly after The Crimson reported Bedingfield was in talks to perform at the event. Yardfest will also feature student bands Yardbops, Stryk9, and Big Tuesday as opening acts. The student bands competed to perform at the College Events Board’s annual Battle for Yardfest competition on March 7.

“Best known for her iconic 2004 hit, ‘Unwritten,’ Natasha Bedingfield has re-emerged nearly 20 years later to remind us all of the feel-good virality of the 2000s,” the CEB wrote in a statement posted to Instagram.

No announcement was made until weeks after the Battle for Yardfest — a wait that has become normal since Yardfest resumed after the pandemic. The Dean of Students Office assistant director of student programs, Miguel Tejada, suggested in an email to The Crimson on March 6 that a contract with a headliner had not yet been signed.

“We are still waiting to finalize our contract,” Tejada wrote at the time.

College spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo declined to comment in early March on whether Bedingfield was in talks with Harvard and whether a contract had been finalized.

Bedingfield is best known for her songs “Unwritten” and “Pocketful of Sunshine,” which were both released in the 2000s. In 2023, “Unwritten” regained popularity after it was featured in the romantic-comedy film “Anyone But You,” reach-

ly asked for permission beforehand.

Mather house faculty and resident deans did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the publication’s change.

Though the Gazette had previously satirized various political events and students in leadership positions on campus, past issues refrained from explicit content and naming non-prominent students.

One student in the House took matters into their own hands, launching a counter-newsletter named after Mather’s other mascot, the Lion’s Share. On March 2, Mather residents woke up to papers on each dining hall table proclaiming “DEMOCRACY DIES IN DICK JOKES” and accusing the Gazette of running “exclusively sex and masturbation jokes.”

“This is a full frontal assault on our democracy,” they added on the other side. “The Lion’s Share is publishing this #resistance, single-handedly outdoing literally anything the Democratic Party has done in the last few weeks to stand up to fascism.”

Its author, who could not be

reached for comment, begged for a cleaner brand of humor — though not without employing some salty repartee of their own.

“Please, Gorilla Gazette, return to normal satire that doesn’t just rely on the shock factor of seeing every lewd word I know staring back at me while I eat powdered scrambled eggs at 8:34 a.m.,” the newsletter pleaded.

After house administrators received complaints about the Gazette, Kulkarni and Sial met with Leafgren in early February. But the inappropriate jokes continued in the following issues.

The jokes stopped on March 2, the same day the Lion’s Share was distributed, when the pair released a blank version of the paper’s usual template. The Gazette’s “All the News that Mathers” slogan at the top of the issue was also replaced with “All the News that Pleases Everyone.”

“Still have concerns and feedback? Tell US,” the issue said at the bottom.

That same day, the pair met with the faculty deans, who again discussed complaints raised by Mather residents. The following week, Kulkarni and

Sial met with current and former House Committee members to discuss future guidelines for the paper’s content. The following issue — the Gazette’s sixth of the semester — was titled “Reflections, Changes, and the Future,” and contained a note from Kulkarni and Sial apologizing for their jokes.

“We sincerely apologize to anyone who has felt alienated, disrespected, or unheard by our editorial choices,” they wrote. “While the Gazette has always aimed to be a space for bold satire and humor, we recognize that in some instances, we have miscalculated.”

The pair committed to a “more thoughtful approach to language and tone” moving forward, and also attached an anonymous feedback form for students to express their concerns.

“Our goal is to make the Gazette compelling, not alienating,” they wrote.

In their statement, Kulkarni and Sial wrote that they “took steps to ensure the Gazette felt more accessible and responsive to the broader Mather community” after meeting with the Fac -

“We care deeply about this House, and we’ve never viewed the Gazette as something that belongs to just the two of us—it’s always been about the Mather community,” the pair wrote.

“We’re learning as we go, and we’re doing our best to keep that learning public, transparent, and collaborative.”

Kulkarni and Sial also acknowledged that they intended to “bring a sharper, more topical voice to the Gazette” when taking over the role, accepting that “not everyone will resonate with every joke or every edition, and that’s okay.”

While Mather resident Thomas E. Cardenas ’27 said that the writers “should have seen this coming,” he praised the pair for their apology.

“I think their response was well done and practically addressed a lot of the concerns that happened, that were made,” Cardenas said.

Fellow Mather resident Benjamin D. Manetta ’27 said that he typically enjoyed reading the Gazette.

“It’s all in good fun,” he said.

akshaya.ravi@thecrimson.com

ing number 16 for global Spotify streams in Feb. 2024.

Bedingfield’s media representatives did not respond to a request for comment confirming her performance.

Last year, R&B singer-songwriter Tinashe performed the main act at Yardfest. Five days after her Yard performance, Tinashe released the song “Nasty,” which reached number 61 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June.

Tinashe’s performance drew enthusiastic reactions from undergraduates. But students have frequently complained about Yardfest headliners, asking why the College can’t bring on higher-profile artists.

DSO administrators have said that’s because Yardfest performers are paid through the College’s Student Activities Fee — which undergrads have increasingly opted out of, placing financial strain on SAF-funded events and student organizations.

“We’re never going to get the headliners that you all want for Crimson Jam and Yardfest,” Associate Dean for Student Engagement Jason R. Meier said in a February 2024 interview. “Everyone was like, ‘Oh, get Ice Spice’ last year. Ice Spice was going for a cool half a million dollars last year, without an album yet.” Yardfest will be held on April 6 in Tercentenary Theatre.

darcy.lin@thecrimson.com

BY SAMUEL A. CHURCH AND CAM N. SRIVASTAVA CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Campus Rabbi Getzel Davis suddenly left Harvard Hillel after 12 years at the organization, surprising students in Hillel, who were not aware of his departure until it was announced in a Monday morning email to Hillel affiliates.

Davis, who has worked at Hillel since 2012, was promoted to campus rabbi and senior director of religious and spiritual life in August 2023. He also served as one of Harvard’s Jewish chaplains. In Monday’s email, he cited his family as the reason for his sudden departure.

“While my rabbinate and chaplaincy have been and continue to be immensely fulfilling, the needs of my young family are calling more urgently at this moment,” Davis wrote.

Davis was performing his regular duties up until Harvard’s spring recess last week, according to a person familiar with the matter.

But by Monday evening, his page had been removed from the Harvard Hillel website. In the email announcing his departure, Harvard Hillel Executive Director Jason B. Rubenstein ’04 “direct any questions that you would have brought”

to Davis to Rubenstein or Harvard Hillel Orthodox Rabbi Noah Marlowe. Both Davis and Rubenstein declined to comment beyond their emails to Hillel affiliates.

A University spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Monday evening.

Davis’s departure follows the exit of two other Harvard Hillel staff members from student-facing roles this school year. Former Director of Jewish Student Life Jacklyn Soffer announced her departure in October, and former Student Engagement and Outreach Coordinator Maggie Fayer stepped down in February.

(Soffer left after the birth of her child, and Fayer left for a new job.)

With both Hillel’s student life director and campus rabbi positions open, Rubenstein has an opportunity to reshape the organization amid continued debates over its role as a center for Jewish life on campus. During Hillel’s most recent election, students debated how to maintain the organization’s political diversity while honoring institutional commitments to Zionism. Rubenstein thanked Davis for guiding Jewish affiliates through the Covid-19 pandemic and the backlash that ensued after the University’s initial response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.

“I can’t thank R’ Getzel enough for what he has given this place, this community, and a full half-generation of Jewish Harvard students: teaching, offering pastoral guidance, building links between the Jewish community and Harvard’s other communities - and most recently, guiding our community through the pandemic and the tumultuous year following 10/7,” Rubenstein wrote in the Monday email. Rubenstein praised Davis for his ability to form meaningful relationships with anyone, irrespective of differences in opinion.

“Of the many people I have worked with, and observed, in higher education - none is a better exemplar of assiduously cultivating relationships with colleagues across difference,” Rubenstein wrote. Davis wrote that he has confidence in Harvard Hillel under Rubenstein’s leadership.

“Through leadership transitions, the impact of the COVID pandemic, and the events and aftermath of October 7th, the community has evolved and now, with Rabbi Jason at the helm, it is clear to me that this is the right moment for me to step away from Harvard Hillel,” Davis wrote.

College Dean Rakesh Khurana speaks at an interview with The Crimson Tuesday afternoon. GRACE E. YOON — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Students crowdsurf at the 2024 edition of Yardfest, Harvard’s annual spring concert in Tercentenary Theatre. BRIANA HOWARD PAGÁN — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL

Russian HMS Researcher Detained by CBP

VISA REVOKED. Kseniia

Petrova was detained in February in the Boston airport by ICE agents.

BY WILLIAM C. MAO AND VERONICA H. PAULUS CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Harvard Medical School researcher Kseniia Petro-

va is detained at a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana after her research visa was revoked last month because she inadvertently failed to properly declare frog embryos she brought into the country.

Petrova was returning to the U.S. from a personal trip in France when Customs and Border Protection officials halted her at Boston Logan International Airport on Feb. 16 and revoked her visa.

Petrova has filed two petitions through an attorney aimed at securing her release from the detention facility. Her lawyer argued that her failure to declare an object at customs — a violation which can result in up to a $500 fine and the object’s seizure — did not grant CBP the authority to cancel her visa.

Petrova — a Russian citizen who was arrested in Russia in 2022 for protesting President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine — was initially

given a choice after being stopped by CBP: return to France and reapply for a visa, or be deported and barred from entering the U.S. for five years.

She opted to return to France, but when she told a CBP officer who questioned her that she feared political persecution if she returned to Russia, the agency decided to detain her instead, according to one of the petitions filed by her lawyer, Gregory Romanovsky.

“They definitely overstepped their authority by punishing Kseniia through the immigration penalties, as opposed to what they were supposed to do,” Romanovsky said in an interview.

After being detained by CBP, Petrova was transferred to a correctional facility operated by ICE

in Chittenden, Vermont. Less than two weeks later, she was sent to another ICE correctional facility in Louisiana, where she is currently being held with at least 70 other inmates, according to Romanovsky.

If Petrova is deported, she will return to France rather than Russia, Romanovsky said. She currently holds a Schengen visa, which allows her to stay in countries in the European Union’s Schengen area for up to 90 days within a 180-day period.

Though Petrova was arrested for a customs violation, her detention comes as President Donald Trump’s administration has ramped up arrests of international students across the country for their associations with pro-Palestine campus protests. On Tues-

day, Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk was arrested and transferred to an ICE detention center in Louisiana.

Romanovsky filed a habeas corpus petition on Petrova’s behalf on February 23. The petition argued the cancellation of her visa was unlawful because the CBP erroneously followed a process known as “expedited removal,” which allows noncitizens to be quickly deported without a full hearing before an immigration judge.

Expedited removal is usually reserved for people who try entering the U.S. without proper entry documents or who seek entry through fraud or misrepresentation. Petrova had not violated the terms of her visa and had traveled in and out of the U.S. several times without issue, according to the petition.

“There was no cause for CBP to instead follow an entirely different process, that of expedited removal,” the petition argued.

Romanovsky called the petition a “Hail Mary,” saying it was very difficult to challenge an expedited removal order and that the CBP has “so much discretion in the law.”

“My hopes are not too high on this particular element of the lawsuit,” he said.

A hearing for the habeas corpus petition is scheduled for June 9, though Romanovsky said he is trying to move the hearing to an ear-

lier date.

Romanovsky has also filed an asylum petition contending that Petrova has a “well-founded fear of future persecution” if she were deported from the U.S., given her past political activism criticizing the Kremlin for its war in Ukraine.

“She cannot return to Russia without being jailed or harmed,” Romanovsky said. “It’s going to be a suicide for her to go back.”

Petrova is scheduled to appear before an immigration judge on May 7 for a pretrial hearing, according to Romanovsky. He added that he expects neither legal action will conclude for several months.

In addition to the two petitions, Romanovsky submitted a request for Petrova to be released on parole. He said her parole was initially declined on March 14, but that ICE officials didn’t immediately inform him that the petition was declined.

More than two dozen Harvard affiliates who know Petrova submitted letters alongside the initial parole request vouching that she wouldn’t flee the country or pose a danger to citizens — the two factors considered in keeping someone detained during an ongoing case.

Romanovsky formally requested that ICE reconsider his petition for Petrova’s release on parole after he was informed it was declined. He specifically asked the agency to

consider the accompanying letters, which he said ICE didn’t seem to consider in its initial review.

While Romanovsky said Petrova was an ideal candidate for parole, he cautioned that there was a significant possibility that ICE would not allow Petrova to be released on parole, saying that the agency had been in “zero-tolerance, no-release mode” under the Trump administration.

“It all falls on deaf ears,” Romanovsky said. “They’re not releasing many people, if anyone, at the moment.”

Spokespeople for ICE and CBP did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

An HMS spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement that the school is “monitoring this situation.”

Leonid L. Peshkin, an HMS lecturer who worked closely with Petrova, said in an interview that she “has been probably the strongest person I’ve seen in 15 or so years at Harvard Medical School.” Peshkin, who speaks with Petrova frequently, said that she is “cheerful” given the circumstances and is hoping to return to Cambridge soon.

“She just wants to come back to do her science,” Peshkin added.

william.mao@thecrimson.com veronica.paulus@thecrimson.com

Harvard, Union Hash Out Immigration Policies Amid ICE Raids

BY HUGO C. CHIASSON AND AMANN S. MAHAJAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Harvard agreed to provide nontenure-track employees with paid leave during immigration proceedings, but declined to commit to sponsoring legal permanent residency applications in a contract counter proposal presented on Monday.

University representatives have been negotiating with Harvard Academic Workers-United Auto Workers for more than six months over their first union contract. At a Monday session, Harvard presented its first counter proposal on protections for non-citizen workers, keeping a provision to not provide Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers with students’ confidential information.

Existing contracts with sever-

al major campus unions do not include language about information requests by ICE, but the graduate student union contract does include a general policy of keeping immigration information confidential. In a session last month, the HAW-UAW bargaining unit presented the initial article with provisions for international students, asking the University to extend employment offers during the visa approval process before their official start date, in addition to sponsoring green card applicants. In their counter proposal, the University crossed out much of the union’s proposal — nixing the green-card provision entirely — but retained language on withholding information from ICE unless required by law.

A University spokesperson declined to comment for this article.

The union, which represents

roughly 3,600 post-doctoral fellows and non-tenure-track faculty, has been negotiating with the University since September after voting to unionize in April.

Amid outrage over the Trump administration’s decision to detain several international students at U.S. universities, the HAW-UAW contract negotiations provide a public window into Harvard’s policies for interactions with law enforcement.

Harvard officials have previously declined to elaborate on its policy of directing federal officials to the Harvard University Police Department or the Office of the General Counsel when they request access to non-public campus spaces.

On Tuesday, Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University, was detained by ICE after publishing an editorial in the student newspaper encouraging Tufts administrators to divest from

Garber Cancels Trip to India

BY DHRUV T. PATEL AND GRACE E. YOON CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 abruptly canceled a planned spring break trip to India last week as American universities nervously eyed Columbia’s response to a $400 million ultimatum from the Trump administration.

The trip to Mumbai and New Delhi was planned more than a month in advance and would have included talks with alumni and donors in each city, carrying on a tradition of international trips by Harvard presidents during the week of spring break.

University spokesperson Jason A. Newton declined to comment on why Garber’s trip was canceled or how the University president had spent his spring break instead. According to Newton, the trip to India would be rescheduled.

Four days before Garber’s first publicly advertised event on March 17, the Trump administration issued a scathing letter to Columbia University officials, demanding they change their disciplinary procedures and put the university’s Middle Eastern studies department into receivership before the administration would consider reinstating the $400 million in government grants that had been cancelled the week prior.

The letter sparked widespread fears that other colleges and universities would receive similar demands, only heightened by Columbia administrators’ decision

to agree to the Trump administration’s demands on Friday. Both of Garber’s scheduled speaking events at Harvard Club of Mumbai on March 17 and Harvard Club of New Delhi on March 20 were repurposed as networking opportunities for attendees in Garber’s absence, according to updated event details.

Harvard presidents often leverage spring break to travel abroad to meet with alumni and donors. Last year, Garber visited London and Florida to mend a growing donor exodus and reassure alumni of Harvard’s ability to address campus antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

But Garber’s visit to India this year was set against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s offensive against Ivy League institutions over alleged campus antisemitism.

One week before his scheduled trip, Garber hosted a private lunch with a small group of Harvard affiliates to discuss the visit and explore how Harvard could leverage opportunities for growth in India.

Saravanan Thangarajan, a Harvard Medical School student who was invited to the lunch, said Garber mentioned that he and Vice Provost of International Affairs

Mark C. Elliott were planning to meet with administrators at St. Xavier’s College — a liberal arts college in Mumbai — during their visit.

Harvard administrators often host meetings with officials of local universities as part of their trips.

Last year, Garber met with administrators and students at the University of Cambridge. The year before, former Harvard President Lawrence S. Bacow visited the University of Jordan, Tel Aviv University, the University of Haifa, and AlQuds University in the Middle East.

Thangarajan said Garber was particularly interested in learning how Harvard could learn from changes in liberal arts education in India after the Covid-19 pandemic.

“They wanted to strategically understand it – how things evolved in India, in terms of education, economic landscape, and how can Harvard be more collaborative, both in terms of meaningful and strategic engagement,” he said.

Garber’s visit to India would have been the first formal visit since 2006 when former University President Lawrence H. Summers toured South Asia and promised to increase exchange programs with Indian universities. Before former President Claudine Gay resigned over her administration’s slow-walked response to the Oct. 7 attack, she said that she was planning to travel to Asia, but did not specify what countries she would visit.

Since being tapped to lead Harvard after Gay’s resignation, Garber has traveled a number of times to speak with alumni, donors, and other University stakeholders. Last month, Garber visited Miami to attend a talk organized by three Florida-based Harvard clubs.

dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com grace.yoon@thecrimson.com

companies connected to Israel.

The union has also called on the University to provide clarity on its hiring freeze policy announced by Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 last month. At the Monday session, University officials fielded questions from faculty on research grant cuts and if there were hiring freeze exceptions.

Bargaining committee member J. Gregory Given said the University had “very few answers” to union members’ questions, but added that “the fact that the bargaining team had few answers does not mean that administrators at Harvard don’t have answers to these questions.”

“It just means that the bargaining team at that time had not been prepped on those answers, necessarily,” he said.

According to bargaining committee member Sara M. Feldman,

a Yiddish preceptor in the department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, the hiring freeze is especially concerning because it occurred as administrators were filling positions for time-capped workers leaving this year.

“We expect that other fields are also going to face cuts, and that in some departments, there are just going to be fewer faculty to teach the same number of students,” she said.

The union also presented a new “Protecting Disciplinary Vitality” proposal earlier this month to prevent the University from restructuring or eliminating academic programs without union consent.

The proposal includes language requiring the University to bargain before downsizing departments — a protection for smaller fields “that might find themselves on the chopping block in periods of political

pressure or financial austerity,” organizers wrote in an email update to members after the March 6 session.

“Harvard University is a very unusual institution and has an important role to play in the preservation and production of knowledge, even in small fields,” Feldman said. “So in the case of vulnerable and endangered languages, for example, if you cut that at Harvard, where is it going to be safe?” she added.

While the union has yet to conclude negotiations on some of its most contentious issues — including time caps — it reached a tentative agreement with the University on employee assistance programs, and, according to the union, is nearing an agreement on grievance and arbitration.

hugo.chiasson@thecrimson.com amann.mahajan@thecrimson.com

HLS Removes Threatening Posters

BY CAROLINE G. HENNIGAN AND BRADFORD D. KIMBALL CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Harvard Law School officials took down two stickers that threatened pro-Palestine activists with deportation from a pole in the school’s main plaza, condemning them in a Thursday email to the full student body.

The first sticker, observed by students on Tuesday, read “Don’t be Mahmood Khalil,” referring to Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University graduate student detained by ICE just over two weeks ago. Khalil, a green card holder, was arrested after serving as a negotiator on behalf of participants in Columbia’s pro-Palestine encampment.

The sticker also read, “Be a racist if you want, Just keep it to yourself #JFB (Jews fight back).”

The Trump administration has repeatedly alleged that Khalil supports Hamas and, in a March 10 post on his proprietary social media platform Truth Social, President Donald Trump said Khalil’s detention was “the first arrest of many to come” of pro-Palestine student activists. Many in higher education have rallied around Khalil’s case, alleging the arrest was retribution for his political views.

In a Tuesday Instagram post, unrecognized student group Dissent Collective posted a picture of the sticker, labeled “spotted at the law school.” In the picture, the phrase “Free Palestine” had been etched onto the sticker, though the group did not comment on whether they

were responsible. By the next morning, a second sticker was layered on top. “I am a green card holder who loves America. I will never be deported. Are You?” the new sticker read. Just three hours later, the second sticker was removed from the pole, revealing the original — though the words on the first sticker were fully scratched out. By Thursday evening, all traces of both stickers were fully removed.

In their Thursday email to students, Law School administrators said the stickers “were posted in violation of campus policies” and were “removed in accordance with our standard procedures.” They added that “initial indications” suggested that the stickers were not posted by a Law School affiliate. They added that the stickers “appear to be aimed at causing distress and fear among members of our community, many of whom are already feeling deeply vulnerable.”

“While we remain steadfast in our commitment to free expression, we condemn this and other acts that aim to intimidate and sow discord,” administrators wrote. The sticker removals align with the school’s policy on signage, which only allows pre-approved groups to post signs in designated areas.

The email from administrators added that they would not regularly notify HLS affiliates when “unauthorized materials of this nature” are discovered and removed.

Allie Ryave, a third-year law student, said she knew of at least twenty students who emailed the administration demanding that the

stickers be taken down. Ryave is the former co-president of HLS Tzedek, a progressive, pro-Palestine Jewish affinity group at the Law School. Ryave said she believed the administration should have taken a stronger stance against the stickers in their email, describing the email as “talking in circles to avoid saying the words ‘Palestine’ or ‘immigrant.’” HLS spokesperson Jeff Neal declined to comment on the criticism.

A spokesperson for Betar US, a far-right Zionist activist group, appeared to suggest that members of the group were responsible for posting the stickers.

“Great stickers, no?” they wrote when asked if they had posted them. “We will continue to take action against jihadis at Harvard and worldwide.”

A Betar US spokesperson wrote in a statement that the group has reported “thousands of names to the Trump administration” of pro-Palestine protesters on student visas. They added that the group is “present and active at Harvard.” Betar US has been labeled an extremist group by the Anti-Defamation League. Several students told The Crimson they felt distressed after seeing the posted messages. Moses Glickman, a first-year law student, said “it is fortunate that it sounds like it was from an outside organization.”

“Just being here is just sufficient for anyone to realize that everyone here on a green card is core to our community,” he added.

caroline.hennigan@thecrimson.com bradford.kimball@thecrimson.com

COURTESY OF GREGORY ROMANOVSKY

HUA Election Will Feature No Referenda

There will be no ballot ques-

tions gauging student opinion in the upcoming April 2 Harvard Undergraduate Association elections, according to Assistant Dean of Student Engagement and Leadership Andy Donahue, the DSO’s liaison with the HUA.

The HUA currently has two avenues by which undergraduates can pose questions to the student body: referendums, which pertain specifically to HUA policy, and College-wide surveys for non-HUA policy matters. The surveys are a newly-revised method by which student organizations can submit questions that debuted in this year’s election cycle.

But this year, no questions were submitted through either channel.

The lack of submissions appears to mark the end of the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee’s indefinitely postponed effort to conduct a student vote on whether Harvard should divest from institutions supporting “Israel’s occupation of Palestine.”

The PSC had the option to submit their divestment question by Tuesday night as a College-wide survey for non-HUA policy matters, a new process established in October and launched this spring following a lengthy bureaucratic standstill.

The PSC did not immediately respond to a Thursday request for comment about whether they intend to pursue an HUA divestment vote in the future.

On March 14, the Harvard Law School student government passed a referendum calling for Harvard to “divest from weapons, surveillance technology, and other com-

HOOP Holds ‘Die-In’ Outside Widener To Protest War in Gaza, Condemns ICE Raids NEWS

More than 60 Harvard affiliates wearing masks gathered on the steps of Widener Library on Thursday for a pro-Palestine “die-in” to protest the rising Palestinian death toll in the ongoing Israel-Hamas War. The protest — which was hosted by Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine, an unrecognized pro-Palestine student group — was announced in a Wednesday Instagram post, which required attendees to wear masks during the event. The masked protest in Harvard Yard follows Columbia University’s decision to ban masks “for the purpose of concealing one’s identity” after the Trump administration made the policy change a requirement to begin negotiations on restoring $400 million in feder-

Students

panies aiding violations of international humanitarian law, including Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its ongoing illegal occupation of Palestine.”

The results mark the second student body vote for divestment, following a June vote by students from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Earlier this month, the HUA co-presidents sent out a College-wide survey asking whether the College Administrative Board should include student representation. Co-President Jonathan Haileselassie ’26 wrote in a statement that the recent poll is “completely separate” from the referendum and survey processes and “serves solely to inform” the HUA’s advocacy. Before October, student opinion had only been gathered through the HUA’s referendum process as outlined in its constitution, which has always stated that “to set HUA policy, a referendum on any issue can be triggered by a petition signed by Harvard College students.”

But previous referenda posed to the student body have not always

directly related to HUA policy, including votes on whether Harvard should offer Ethnicity, Migration, Rights, and Indigeneity Studies or Educational Studies concentrations. In April, the PSC’s referendum was set to move forward until three days after its approval, when it was postponed indefinitely — in a step that sparked backlash — after the HUA received a second petition for a referendum by an unrecognized student group that included parody questions and an antisemitic question regarding the removal of Jews from Harvard’s governing body and faculty.

After receiving the competing petition, the HUA brought all pending referendums to a halt as officers invoked a constitutional procedural motion to form a problem solving team with the mission to “solve a dispute” about past inconsistent enforcement of their referendum policies.

After it was established in April, the problem solving team failed to produce a recommendation. Instead, co-presidents Ashley C. Adi-

rika ’26 and Haileselassie proposed a successful motion on Oct. 16 stating that the HUA would deny all future referendum questions unrelated to HUA policy — thereby more strictly adhering to the policy that was originally in their constitution but not always enforced.

Survey questions under the separate framework are only allowed to be submitted by student organizations, hindering the ability of anonymous groups not recognized by the College to pose questions.

Upon receiving a March 13 email from Donahue, recognized student groups like the PSC had 12 days to submit their questions. The option to submit questions came alongside options for submitting HUA-policy-related referendums, constitutional amendments, and declarations of candidacy for an HUA co-president or cabinet position.

Voting for the new HUA administration will commence on April 2.

claire.simon@thecrimson.com nina.ejindu@thecrimson.com

Nonie Lesaux Named HGSE Dean

BY MACKENZIE L. BOUCHER CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Interim Dean Nonie K. Lesaux will become dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education after holding the interim position since July, the University announced on Thursday.

The decision to elevate Lesaux to the permanent deanship comes more than a year after prior HGSE Dean Bridget Terry Long announced her plans to step down.

Lesaux, a developmental psychologist, has been a part of the HGSE faculty since 2003. Her research has focused on early learning and improving literacy outcomes among children.

She serves as an expert consultant to the Educational Opportunities Section of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Lesaux also served on the Massachusetts Board of Early Education and Care from 2015 to 2022. Before that, she sat on the U.S. Department of Education’s Reading First Advisory Committee from 2007 to 2009.

She spent a seven-year research-practice partnership working with the San Diego Unified School District to raise literacy rates and had a 10-year partnership with the New York City Department of Education.

Lesaux, who was considered a leading contender for the permanent HGSE deanship, has also held posts as academic dean and faculty director of doctoral studies at the school. She drew praise from colleagues both before and after Thursday’s announcement.

On Wednesday, before Lesaux was named dean, HGSE professor

Paul Reville praised Lesaux’s leadership and collaboration with faculty.

“Nonie Lesaux has done a really fantastic job under the circumstances of some real challenges, not only facing the school, but facing the University,” Reville said. He said Lesaux was prepared to lead HGSE at a moment when Harvard is bracing for the impact of threats to federal funding — and education policy faces a turbulent period as President Donald Trump attempts to dismantle the Department of Education.

“We’re, like others, trying to deal with the chaos of the moment in our national politics, we have various financial challenges and substantive challenges in terms of how we think about our work going forward in the future, and she’s well equipped to deal with these,” Reville said.

Lesaux, he said, was an astute leader.

“She’s incredibly adept at multitasking, managing complex situations — not only from a technical standpoint, but from a faculty politics standpoint, figuring out a way to get people moving forward,” he added.

HGSE professor Elizabeth Bonawitz wrote in an email shortly after the announcement that she had already received “excited” texts from her colleagues.

“The consensus is: we’re delighted,” Bonawitz wrote. “Nonie is a brilliant scholar and a deeply respected leader. She has already been guiding the school through challenging times, and I am confident she will continue to serve with thoughtfulness, vision, and strength.” mackenzie.boucher@thecrimson.com

al funding to the university.

A spokesperson for HOOP wrote in a statement that “we asked that attendees wear masks today as a means of both increasing accessibility and protecting our community from heightened surveillance on our campus and across the country.”

Harvard Yard was closed to the public early Thursday morning and remained closed throughout the evening. A University spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on why entrance was limited to Harvard University ID holders, but Harvard frequently restricts access to the Yard before advertised protests.

During the demonstration, the protesters gathered in a circle before lying silently on the steps of Widener Library for 17 minutes as a recording of the names of Palestinians killed in the conflict was played over several handheld speakers. After the audio concluded,

HOOP organizer Violet T.M. Barron ’26 led the group in several chants, including “from the river to the sea” and “we will honor all our martyrs.”

She then delivered a speech to the group about the rising death toll from Israel’s airstrikes in Gaza. Israel and Hamas reached an agreement in January to implement a complete ceasefire in Gaza. Earlier this month, Israel launched extensive strikes in Gaza, shattering the agreement.

“We listened to hundreds of names. There are tens of thousands more we did not hear,” Barron said.

“We want to make clear on our aim for a free and liberated Palestine — for Harvard to divest completely.”

In the Instagram post on Wednesday, HOOP leaders wrote that there “has never been a ‘ceasefire’ — not on January 19th and not on October 6th.”

Barron also called on Harvard to invest in academic studies of Palestine.

That wish, however, comes after Harvard’s School of Public Health paused its research partnership with Birzeit University in the West Bank. HSPH launched an internal review into Harvard’s François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights late last summer, and decided not to renew a memorandum of understanding that had expired between the FXB Center and Birzeit.

Thursday’s “die-in” also comes as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have ramped up arrests and deportation proceedings for international students with ties to pro-Palestine activity on college campuses.

Federal officers detained Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University, on Tuesday near her home in Somer-

ville before revoking her visa.

Ozturk, who penned a pro-Palestine op-ed in Tufts’s student newspaper last year, was accused of engaging in “activities in support of Hamas” by a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson. The spokesperson did not provide further details about Ozturk’s alleged activities.

According to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, at least 300 student visas have been revoked as of Thursday.

“Every time I find one of these lunatics I take away their visa,” Rubio told reporters at a news conference in Guyana. “Might be more than 300 at this point. Might be more. We do it every day.”

The HOOP spokesperson wrote that “as rising fascism and ICE abductions — including this week’s kidnapping of Rumeysa Ozturk — shift attention home, we must not misinterpret the criminalization of pro-Palestine advocacy as a mere crackdown on dissent.”

“Mass surveillance, detention, and the deportation of student organizers are all manifestations of Zionist aggression here — the same aggression that drives Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza,” they added.

Standing alongside Barron, another protester encouraged attendees to call a hotline operated by the Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts — an immigrant-led organization that uses the calls to alert nearby individuals of ICE activity — if they see federal agents on Harvard’s campus.

“There are forces at work that don’t want you or your comrades to speak out,” they said. “If you see ICE agents on campus or in your neighborhood, call the ICE hotline.”

samuel.church@thecrimson.com cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com

Six pairs of candidates are running to be the next co-presidents of the Harvard Undergraduate Association for the 2025-26 academic year.

The candidate slates include: Hamza T. Masoud ’26 and Avery G.D. Pratt ’26, Tsion A. Daniel ’27 and Sahil Sood ’27, Abdullah S. Sial ’27 and Caleb N. Thompson ’27, Sophia F. He ’27 and Malachi C.Miller ’27, Omosefe I. Noruwa ’27 and Matthew R. Tobin ’27, and Chase M. Bourbon ’27 and Nathan R. Westbrook ’27.

Last spring, the HUA’s election cycle was overshadowed by controversy surrounding a series of efforts to oust then Co-President John S. Cooke ’25 that led to a landslide recall election. In the end, Cooke’s recall election received 305 more votes than the HUA leadership elections had only one week prior.

This year, four candidate pairs are composed of executive team officers and cabinet members from the current HUA administration. Academic Team Officer Tobin and Internal Events Manager Noruwa comprise one entirely-HUA ticket, while Social Life Officer Daniel and Co-Treasurer Sood make up the other. He serves as current Residential Life Officer, and Masoud was the former residential life officer for last year’s administration.

There are two tickets that appear to be parody candidacies. While Masoud and Pratt’s platform features calls for “longer recess” and “better weather,” Bourbon and Westbrook — who

ran together on a similar playful platform last year — are running on a simple promise of “Making Harvard Great Again.” But not all campaigns are as light-hearted. Sial and Thompson are running a campaign that is seemingly critical of the current HUA administration, with emphasis on transparency and action following a system they allege has failed in the past. In their official platform, the pair claims that they “are not the administration’s mouthpiece” and that “the HUA has failed to show up” for students. There is no candidate pair running on a platform to abolish the HUA this year. Last year Lucas Chu ’23-’25 and Trinity A. Dysis ’27 promised to dissolve the body if elected — though Chu and Dysis’ ticket was suspended just before the vote. Another pair, Pratyush Mallick ’25 and Kevin A.Bokoum ’26, promised to remove the title of “co-president.” Voting for co-presidents and other cabinet positions opens to undergraduate students on April 2.

financial

BY IRA SHARMA

Tpreferences only deepen this divide.

One study suggested that recruited athletes have at least an 86 percent chance of getting into Harvard — leagues better than the average applicant. According to a recent Crimson freshman survey, most recruited athletes in the Class of 2027 are white. And in general, recruited athletes at elite schools skew wealthy, especially those who play exclusive sports. If Harvard can use its time and resources to identify student athletes — especially at feeder schools — it should do the same for high achievers in non-traditional communities. For the most recent financial aid change to make a significant difference, Harvard must make greater efforts to seek out low-income and middle class applicants from across the country.

Harvard needs more applications from hometowns unheard of at the College, from communities that lack the resources to support their top students, from the dreamers of the family, and from the students whose ambitions are rarely understood at home. These students stand to gain the most from the connections and access that elite education provides.

Student organizations like the Harvard Eritrean and Ethiopian Student Association and the Generational African American Students Association have done valuable work to promote applications from qualified, historically underprivileged groups to the College through application mentorship programs and annual college application webinars.

Harvard, too, has made some progress in encouraging students of diverse backgrounds to apply. The University participates in the Small Town Outreach, Recruitment, and Yield program and facilitates its own Undergraduate Minority Recruitment program, where admissions officers directly engage with prospective applicants. Still, Harvard should work far more with counselors from geographically underrepresented, low-to-middle income public schools to attract applications and make information about financial

legacy for their families and role models for generations. And if they choose to return home, the knowledge they gain is priceless in its power to change the course of their communities. I’m excited for Harvard to fund high achieving students. Now, it must make an effort to seek them out. –Ira Sharma ’28, a Crimson Editorial editor, lives in Matthews Hall.

Harvard Can’t Fight Dirty if Its Hands Aren’t Clean

In the classic telling of higher education’s biggest news story, President Donald Trump purchased Columbia University’s allegiance for $400 million. Rightly, administrators now worry about the size of Harvard’s price tag.

The narrative that Columbia sold out to a pugnacious government certainly contains some truth but misses important context. Trump’s stipulations include several justified requests, supported by many Americans, which schools would look foolish to fight. To preserve their credibility, Harvard and other institutions should preemptively accede to the most reasonable demands so that they can more forcefully attack the remaining ones. The primary question universities currently face — whether to confront or conform to the ultimata of an increasingly belligerent Washington — has no easy solution. Rebuffing Trump carries the risk of devastating financial loss; yielding, on the other hand, would set a precedent that elected officials can extract political concessions from schools by force.

Opposing Trump is, in theory, the most honorable option. Schools could conceivably mount a public messaging campaign attacking Trump for targeting universities while defending the tangible public goods they produce. They might also concurrently adopt an aggressive legal strategy, suing the White House for intervening in its affairs. Though this approach may anger Trump and trigger further reprisals, hurting universities in the short-term, it would discourage future hostilities over time.

The main problem with this strategy is that it has low odds of success, in part due to self-inflicted wounds. Schools’ reputations have become so diminished that the status quo is hard to defend in the American public’s eyes. Consider the last year and a half. At Columbia, masked protesters marched through campus, clamored for an intifada, voiced support for Houthi terrorism, chanted heinous antisemitic tirades, openly embraced violence, disrupted classes, and, at one point, forced the university to shift to virtual instruction. A discipline process for students who flagrantly occupied and vandalized an academic building trudged on for nearly a year, concluding only after the White House froze Columbia’s federal funding.

Viewed in this context, many of Trump’s preconditions for negotiations with Columbia — mask bans, enforcement of existing rules, reformed disciplinary proceedings — were quite fitting.

This is the insidious genius of Trump’s war

on higher ed. Reasonable requests — like asking schools to enforce its rules — were paired with dangerous demands — insisting an entire department be placed under academic receivership — and then presented in a threatening manner befitting a fascist dictator.

By abstaining from instituting common sense reforms for so long, Columbia accomplished the amazing feat of ceding their moral high ground to an aspiring autocrat. Harvard may soon face a similar dilemma. After faculty repeatedly interfered in disciplinary proceedings, changes are warranted in Harvard’s processes.

If Trump urged Harvard — as he did Columbia — to fix its rule enforcement body, administrators would have to defend an obviously broken Administrative Board, unless it conceded to Washington.

As the Department of Justice continues to probe Harvard, administrators must implement sensible changes before the White House preempts them and makes any future reforms resemble submission to Trump. Moreover, by pursuing intelligent changes now, Harvard can ensure any demands Washington might impose are extreme, denying Trump the cloak of reasonableness in which he disguised his

assault on Columbia.

There are many simple solutions the University can adopt. For one, it can admit that, while time, place, and manner restrictions on speech were largely ignored in the past, these speech limitations exist for a reason and will be enforced in the future.

If the University is uncomfortable strictly holding students to its existing speech guidelines, then it should revise them and notify the campus community that future rules will be strictly enforced.

Second, given faculty calls for amnesty for those who broke campus rules and the Ad Board’s historic reluctance to administer discipline to students, Harvard would be well justified in reforming the Ad Board to consist exclusively of administrators, with faculty providing input in a non-voting capacity. Finally, other forms of governance, like the FAS’ vote to confer degrees upon seniors, should also be reformed given past abuses of the current system.

For many Harvard affiliates, these proposals might seem truly radical. But I would argue, it is much more sensible than the current status quo.

Large majorities of Americans support punishing students who participated in rule-violating encampments: What is the purpose of time, place,

manner restrictions if they are not enforced and what is the purpose of the Ad Board if students can find faculty who will intercede on their behalf, allowing them to trample rules with impunity?

It is naïve to suggest that Trump’s war on universities was avoidable: The populist appeal of targeting elite institutions combined with the autocratic desire to defang universities is a potent political combination that would exist even had universities played all their cards right.

Yet, while universities’ blunders might not have caused the current onslaught on academia, they have drastically narrowed schools’ options to respond. By refusing to course-correct earlier, universities must now defend their wildly unpopular reputations and patently unreasonable policies or else create the appearance of submitting to Trump.

Trump has been itching to embarrass Harvard and defund the country’s oldest university. Harvard must be wise enough to put its house in order. Otherwise, Washington will tear it down.

– Jacob M. Miller ’25, a former Crimson Editorial chair, is a double concentrator in Mathematics and Economics in Lowell House.

BY JACOB M. MILLER

KATHRYN S. KUHAR— CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

FRANK S. ZHOU — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

STAFF EDITORIAL

We Need Open Doors, Not Just Open Wallets.

INCREASING ACCESS. Recent financial aid expansion certainly supports current undergraduates, but Harvard must do more to attract and retain socioeconomically diverse applicants, too.

BY THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD

Despite White House threats that the federal purse strings will be tightened, Harvard has loosened its own.

Last week, the College announced an expansion to its financial aid program. Starting in the fall, students whose families make $100,000 or less will now receive full financial aid, and students whose families make $200,000 or less will have free tuition — a substantial increase from the current policy, where full aid ends at $85,000 and families making up to $150,000 pay less than ten percent of their income. In the face of potential significant funding cuts in Harvard’s future, the University’s move demonstrates an ostensible commitment to financially supporting its students and ensuring top talent, once admitted, can attend. That said, increasing financial aid for students does not solve Harvard’s underlying lack of socioeconomic diversity.

First, we should give credit where it is due — the increase deserves commendation. Even as the University braces for a federal funding crisis — freezing hiring and planning a flat FAS budget — it has chosen to expand financial aid. In doing so, the University affirms making a Harvard education affordable amid great uncertainty. By making the College more affordable, Harvard doesn’t merely withstand Trump’s threats — it subverts them. At a moment when universities are under siege, Harvard has reasserted higher education’s public mission.

The decision also strikes at a commonly-held criticism against elite institutions that paints them as out-of-touch enclaves solely serving a liberal gentry. Making Harvard more affordable pushes back against that claim at its root, strengthening public trust by showing that the University serves the public — not just the privileged. That move does more to restore Harvard’s image — and undermine Trump’s rhetoric — than any concession to Trump ever could.

So, to current students and the soon-to-be admitted Class of 2029: If you’re worried about what

federal threats mean for your future at Harvard, rest assured that the University is doubling down on affordability. But affordability does not guarantee true accessibility. Yes, Harvard’s financial aid increases are laudable. And yet, they do nothing to solve Harvard’s pernicious wealth gap. In 2000, Harvard economist Raj Chetty found the ratio of high-income to low-income students to be 23 to one, and the percentage of students in the lowest quintile by family income remained between four and six percent between 2000 and 2010.

The heart of Harvard’s elitist reputation is that lack of socioeconomic diversity, and mending it requires more than generous aid packages — it de -

mands reforms that reach students long before they step onto our campus.

On top of these increases in financial aid, Harvard must begin to consider socioeconomic status in its admissions process, increase its recruiting efforts of low-income students, and start releasing socioeconomic data for admitted classes.

When talented low-income applicants face systemic barriers before financial aid is even on the table, expanding the program only addresses part of the problem — not the inequities that prevent many from applying or being admitted to begin with.

Nonetheless, we commend the University for taking this important step towards supporting stu-

dents from all socioeconomic backgrounds. But progress demands more than generosity — it requires reform. If Harvard truly hopes to champion socioeconomic diversity, it must do more than open its wallet — it must open its doors.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order 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.

We’re Harvard Professors Suing the Trump Admin. Here’s Why.

BY MAYA R. JASANOFF AND KIRSTEN A. WELD

AColumbia University graduate arrested for pro-Palestinian activism, a Brown University professor denied entry and deported after visiting her family in Lebanon, a Tufts University Ph.D. student snatched on the street on her way to Ramadan iftar by masked federal agents: In the past two weeks, we have watched in horror as scenes familiar from our studies of history have played out on and around U.S. university campuses.

Each of these individuals is or has been a U.S. lawful permanent resident or visa holder, and has been seemingly targeted for political speech that the government doesn’t like. Their persecution forms part of a frontal assault on higher education by the Trump administration designed to quash freedom of inquiry and expression. Nev -

er in our lifetimes have universities, one of the foundations of American democratic society, faced such an existential threat.

Harvard faculty recently established a chapter of the American Association of University Professors, a national organization founded in 1915 to advance academic freedom and “to ensure higher education’s contribution to the common good.” On Tuesday, the AAUP-Harvard chapter joined the national AAUP, AAUP-NYU, AAUP-Rutgers, and the Middle East Studies Association in suing the Trump administration to stop its campaign of “ideological deportation” against non-U.S. nationals.

“This is the first arrest of many to come,” crowed President Trump after the abduction of Columbia’s green-card-holding Mahmoud Khalil on March 8, essentially putting non-U.S. citizens on notice. The warning hits hard at Harvard. Roughly 15 percent of College students and over 30 percent of Graduate School of Arts and

Sciences students are international; virtually every department has non-citizen faculty and staff members. The administration is wielding its power over individuals’ immigration status to coerce them into silence on political issues. And so far, the tactic seems to be working.

Every day we hear from international students and colleagues who are frightened about what might happen next. Frightened that any expression of political ideas — whether related to Palestine or not — can be used to strip them of their legal residency status. Frightened that their movements, messages, and social media trails are being surveilled. Frightened that by conducting their research abroad or simply visiting their families they will be denied the ability to return to their homes in the United States.

Harvard’s International Office posted immigration resources for those traveling over spring break, following heightened anxieties about visaand green-card holders’ freedom of cross-bor -

der movement. Some non-citizen faculty have told us they are reluctant to join the AAUP chapter out of fear of retaliation. Across the country, some non-citizen students have gone into hiding. These arrests don’t simply appear to violate non-citizens’ Constitutional rights. As we argue in our lawsuit, AAUP v. Rubio, they violate the rights of U.S. citizens too. Implicit in the First Amendment is the right not just to speak, but to listen: to hear and be informed by the views of others. We all suffer when our non-citizen students and colleagues are forced to censor themselves and to withdraw from discussion and debate. There can be no free exchange of ideas under these conditions. And without the free exchange of ideas, the university loses its purpose. For now, the Trump administration has targeted pro-Palestinian campus activists, shored up by allegations of antisemitism and “terrorism.” (Ironically, the administration invoked a 1952 law in Khalil’s case alleging that his presence poses “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences” for the country — part of which was ruled unconstitutional in 1996 by President Trump’s own sister.) This is a clever gambit because of how effectively the Israel/Palestine issue divides opinion on and off campus. But whatever anybody thinks about its content, freedom of expression is protected under the First Amendment.

We have every reason to expect that the Trump administration’s plans extend far beyond these individuals, and far beyond the issue of Israel/Palestine. We don’t need to turn back to the well-worn example of Nazi Germany to see how the targeting of specific people or ideas can pave the way for far wider repression. The same playbook is being used by some of the democratically-elected leaders Trump most admires, such as Victor Orban in Hungary and Narendra Modi in India, who have fiercely suppressed dissent and open inquiry on campuses. “They won’t stop there,” says AAUP President Todd Wolfson, “They’ll come next for those who teach the history of slavery or who provide gender-affirming health care or who research climate change or who counsel students about their reproductive choices.”

The repressive techniques being wielded against non-citizen students and scholars threaten everybody invested in the values of freedom of expression and due process at the heart of U.S. constitutional democracy. Universities are currently on the front lines of a battle for basic civil liberties. We must fight for the values — and the people — that define us.

This lawsuit is a start.

–Maya R. Jasanoff is the X.D. and Nancy Yang Professor of Arts and Sciences and Coolidge Professor of History and a member of AAUP-Harvard Faculty Chapter. Kirsten A. Weld is a professor of History and is the president of AAUP-Harvard Faculty Chapter.

BRIANA HOWARD PAGÁN— CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

CITY POLITICS

Harvard To Pay Cambridge $6 Million

CAMBRIDGE.

Harvard University has agreed to voluntarily pay the City of Cambridge $6 million without committing to a long-term amount for the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program, citing federal funding uncertainties.

The announcement eases pressure on the city and Harvard to reach an agreement before the current contract expires in June for a program that represents goodwill between two institutions whose interests and history are closely intertwined.

But the University’s reluctance to make even a small financial commitment to the city in the long-term was also a sign of the anxiety driving its spending decisions.

In response to recent federal funding uncertainty, Harvard implemented a temporary freeze on all university hiring and denied waitlisted graduate students

across all its programs.

The $6 million payment represents a slight increase from what the university has been paying Cambridge annually as part of the PILOT, from around $4.7 million in the most recent year.

In a letter to the Cambridge City Council, City Manager Yi-An Huang ’05 stressed that federal funding uncertainty for Harvard and the short deadline contributed to the one-year agreement as opposed to a 20-year long-term agreement.

“As the Council is aware, we

are seeing an unprecedented shift in federal policies that has created significant uncertainty for universities,” Huang wrote.

“In this context, the City and Harvard have agreed that it would be difficult to finalize a long-term PILOT agreement in time for the upcoming fiscal year.”

PILOT programs are agreements by large nonprofit institutions to pay the city a fraction of what they would otherwise hand over in property taxes. Many cities depend on property taxes to fund their budgets, but the often

significant landholdings of nonprofits like universities, hospitals, and museums are tax-exempt — eating into the city’s revenue.

The city began renegotiating its current PILOT contract with Harvard two years ago in hopes of a higher annual payment, citing the near-doubling of Harvard’s endowment since the contract was first signed in 2004. But negotiations have dragged on extensively since that time, most recently failing to reach a year-end deadline set for 2024.

In a letter to Huang confirming the agreement, Thomas J. Lucey, Harvard’s senior director of government and community relations, reiterated Harvard’s commitment to the city of Cambridge and their desire to reach a fuller agreement over the coming year.

“We look forward to working with City leaders to finalize a longer-term agreement which will further invigorate the University’s historic commitment to supporting Cambridge,” Lucey wrote. Huang, in his letter, emphasized Harvard’s commitment to coming to a long-term agreement with the city.

“This represents the University’s commitment to the Cambridge community, even during

Prosecutors Seek Charges in Crash That Killed Corcoran ’84

this time of uncertainty, and an acknowledgement that an updated agreement is needed,” Huang said.

In a statement to The Crimson, City Councilor Paul F. Toner called the agreement a “reasonable compromise” given “all the uncertainty surrounding the economy and the policies of the current administration.”

The announcement also casts doubt on any potential agreement from a similar PILOT renegotiation underway with the city of Boston, where Harvard owns hundreds of acres of land. Harvard does not have a formal PILOT contract with Boston and has instead voluntarily paid a portion of the $5-14 million that the city has requested from it since 2012.

Activists have called on the university to make its PILOT payments in full, and the city is hoping the program’s revamp — affecting all 21 participating institutions — will make that a reality. But their chance at success now appears uncertain after the university’s announcement that its PILOT commitments to Cambridge will hinge on the federal funding environment.

shawn.boehmer@thecrimson.com jack.reardon@thecrimson.com

Massport Votes To Raise Fees on Uber, Lyft to Logan Airport

BY STEPHANIE DRAGOI AND THAMINI VIJEYASINGAM CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

After Uber and Lyft criticized the Massachusetts Port Authority’s proposed fees on rides to Boston Logan International Airport, the board approved a rate hike from $3.25 to $5.50 per trip for ride-hailing providers.

The $2.25 hike was initially the first of Massport’s two proposed hikes, adding up to $15 for a round trip to the airport. But after fierce criticism from rideshare companies, the second hike from $5.50 to $7.50 was removed from the March 20 proposal.

The hike was approved unanimously by the Massport board, and is set to take effect this summer. The board also voted to impose a $1.50 fee on shared ride-hailing trips to the airport. Beyond ride-hailing services, traditional transportation like limos and taxis will also be affected

by a price hike. Passengers taking limos or taxis to or from Logan will see increases from $3.25 to $7.50 and from $2.25 to $2.50, respectively, by 2028. The increased fees on ride-hailing services is intended to both reduce congestion and fund infrastructure improvements at Logan as Massport undertakes projects worth $1.5 billion to expand ground transportation, including the construction of a new garage in Terminal E. The fees are forecasted to raise $1.1 billion in revenue towards the airport’s 2025-2029 capital plan, according to Massport spokesperson Jennifer B. Mehigan. The pause on the second fee hike for ride-hailing services resulted in a $400 million adjustment to the five-year capital plan.

During the board meeting, director of aviation business and finance at Massport Daniel Gallagher presented data estimating an increase of 13,000 vehicles a day to the airport over the next 10 to

15 years, according to the Boston Globe.

“The airport will likely average about 9.5 million ride-app trips in 2025, equating to about 14 million vehicles,” Gallagher said. Ride-hailing services are one of the primary ways passengers get to the airport, representing 30 percent of passengers in 2024. Drop-off fees generated $15.6 million in revenue for the fiscal year 2024, or around 8.6 percent of Massport’s concession revenue.

The vote reflects a compromise reached between Massport, Uber, and Lyft on the fare hikes, which had raised concerns about negatively impacting riders and hurting drivers’ incomes.

The initial fee increases drew criticism from those who argued that it would hit Uber and Lyft drivers the hardest, a worry that has persisted even with the reduced hikes.

At Thursday’s meeting, ride-hailing drivers voiced concerns that a fee hike would cut their earnings at a time when living expenses con-

tinue to rise and take-home pay declines.

Uber and Lyft did not respond to requests for comment on this criticism.

Massport CEO Richard A. Davey said in a statement that the new agreement improves “the rider experience, establishes new, cheaper ways to get to Boston Logan and helps mitigate traffic around the airport and our surrounding neighborhoods.”

At Thursday’s meeting, WBUR reported that Davey nicknamed the updated proposal “the Goldilocks” version between Massport and ride-hailing companies’ demands.

“I think some folks thought we were maybe too hot, others too cold,” Davey said.

The agreements grant Uber and Lyft rides increased curbside access at Logan, with both ride-hailing companies expanding their shared ride services to increase the number of passengers in each vehicle. Gallagher emphasized at the

meeting that despite the new policy, not all ride-hailing trips will be granted curbside access.

“We’re not changing our policies on allowing all Ubers and Lyfts at the curb,” Gallagher said. Both companies will also be collaborating with Massport individually to develop shuttle services to Logan airport to reduce single occupancy trips.

“While we still have concerns about increasing fees on riders, this is a step in the right direction,” Brendan Joyce, public policy manager at Lyft, wrote in a statement.

Uber spokesperson Josh Gold expressed satisfaction with the “compromise” struck with Massport.

“We will continue to work with Massport to get travelers as close to the curb as possible and will always advocate for the best service for riders and the best platform for drivers,” Gold wrote.

stephanie.dragoi@thecrimson.com thamini.vijeyasingam@thecrimson.com

How Allston’s State Representatives Fund Their Campaigns

BY ANGELINA J. PARKER CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Michael J. Moran and Kevin G. Honan have served in the Massachusetts State House for decades — Moran for 20 years and Honan for nearly 40. Yet Moran, who has also served as majority leader of the house since 2023, draws from a far wider-reaching network of donors than Honan and maintains a higher cash amount in his campaign account. Just 20 percent of Moran’s donors from 2022 to 2024 reported addresses in Boston, compared to 49 percent of Honan’s. During the same period, Moran also raised about $41,000 in contributions from non-Massachusetts donors, while Honan raised a tenth of that.

Moran has enjoyed a successful career representing the 18th Suffolk legislative district in the State House since he was elected in 2005. After serving as the chair of the Joint Committee on Election Laws and the Special Joint Committee on redistricting, Moran was appointed assistant majority leader in 2017. But despite running unopposed since 2008, he has raised more than $700,000 in campaign contributions since the beginning of 2022. In contrast, Honan raised about $178,800 in campaign contributions over the same period — representing just more than a quarter of Moran’s fundraising.

The longest continuously serving legislator in the State House, Honan worked as the House Chair of the Joint Committee on Housing for 15 years before serving as the Chair of the House Committee on Steering, Policy, and Scheduling. Neither Moran nor Honan responded to requests for comment on this article.

Both representatives receive a plurality of their individual campaign contributions from individuals that report their occupation as ‘attorney’ to the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance. John H. Portz, a professor of political science at Northeastern University, said that many attorneys will donate to state representatives because of the greater affiliation they feel toward local elected officials, many of whom have law backgrounds themselves.

“It’s creating a network. And the legal world is a pretty important network around what happens in government,” Portz said. Portz added that another factor contributing to attorney donations is the establishment of a relationship between law firms and state legislatures.

“Another person that is a client of the law firm has interest in what’s going on in the legislature, and so the attorney can be in a position to help advise them, if not communicate with people in the state house,” Portz said. Individuals who self-reported

as attorneys comprised six percent of Moran’s donors and nine percent of Honan’s. Beyond attorney donations, the contributions of contributors who registered their occupation as real estate or construction made up two percent of Moran’s 2022-24 contributions and six percent of Honan’s.

According to Massachusetts state law, individuals may not donate more than $1,000 to any single campaign within a calendar year. This does not prevent multiple individuals employed by the same company from donating to a candidate — a prevalent trend in both Honan and Moran’s records.

Employees from Chestnut Hill Real Estate, which offers hundreds of estate listings in the Allston and Brighton neighborhoods, donated $3,000 to Honan’s campaign during the 2022-2024 period. This represents the second largest aggregate sum from a company’s employees according to publicly available information.

Employees from the New Balance Corporation — which is headquartered in the Allston neighborhood — also donated $3,000 over the same period. Employees from the Newton-Wellesley Hospital donated the most to Moran’s campaign at $3,100.

While much of Honan’s donations came from inside Boston, Moran drew funds from across — and outside of — the state.

Enterprise Mobility, a rental car and rideshare service based out of Missouri, is the firm with

the largest sum of employee donations to Moran’s campaign during the 2022-24 period. The second most represented firm was Enterprise Holdings, the rental car conglomerate that owns Enterprise Mobility, also based out of Missouri.

Tied for third on Moran’s list were Davis Companies, a real estate developer whose portfolio includes more than 400 units in Allston and Brighton, and Martignetti Companies, the largest alcohol distributor in New England.

Rachael V. Cobb, an associate professor of political science and legal studies at Suffolk University, said that it is not uncommon for state legislators — especially those in higher positions of power — to get donations from national or even international businesses.

“We could just take the biotech industry. It’s certainly not a local Boston industry, right? It’s international, and so business-oriented organizations — associations — that are national or international in focus are keeping their eye on legislation in all of the states,” Cobb said.

“They do not want to have different rules in different states that make their life more difficult, and they also don’t want one state to pass a set of regulations that other states are going to copy that they don’t like. They want to encourage regulations that they do like,” Cobb added.

Scotia M. Hille, a pro-transparency activist at Act On Mass, added that high-ranking incumbents tend to see a lot of repeat donations from lobbyists or businesses.

“For a lot of these members of leadership, you will see that a huge part of their donations come from lobbyists or businesses, people with a vested interest in certain policy outcomes in the state house,” said Hille, adding that it is especially true for Moran, “one of the most powerful members of the House.”

Despite Honan and Moran’s broad fundraising differences, both candidates raised more than $20,000 from registered political action committees during the 2022-24 period. As the elections for state representatives approach in 2026, Moran has more than $250,000 in his bank account, while Honan has nearly $69,000 as of February.

Portz said that it is not unusual for incumbents who have gone unchallenged for long periods of time to keep large sums of money on hand.

“You never want to take winning for granted,” he said.

“There could always be a challenger, and so you want to be prepared, and so you fundraise. I mean, some people will fundraise every year. They won’t necessarily wait till it’s an election year,” he added.

angelina.parker@thecrimson.com

BY MATAN H. JOSEPHY AND

The Middlesex District Attorney’s office is seeking criminal charges against the SUV driver that struck and killed cyclist John H. Corcoran ’84 in September, a spokesperson confirmed Wednesday. The prosecution has filed an application for a criminal complaint against the unidentified driver, according to Meghan Kelly, a spokesperson for the DA’s office. The application will now go before a clerk-magistrate, who will hold a probable cause hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence to criminally charge the driver. The specific charges have not yet been disclosed.

The Massachusetts State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section finished investigating the crash at the beginning of March — more than five months after Corcoran’s death. The driver was described as a “man in his 20s” by Massachusetts State Police shortly after the crash.

Cambridge averages more than 100 bicycle-involved crashes every year, according to a city analysis of crash data. Last summer, two cyclists in Cambridge were hit and killed by box trucks. MSP confirmed that investigations for both cases are still open. Corcoran’s death brought cyclists’ safety concerns back to the forefront of city debate, as residents called on elected officials to invest in improving safety measures across Cambridge.

Jack B. Corcoran ’25, John Corcoran’s son, wrote in a statement that the criminal charges are a “big step in the right direction towards achieving justice.”

“This is a big day for my family, for the city of Cambridge, and for bikers everywhere,” he added. Police wrote in a statement that an initial investigation into the crash found the SUV driver lost control of the car and swerved onto the sidewalk, striking and killing Corcoran as he was biking on Memorial Drive near Boston University’s DeWolfe Boathouse.

That particular stretch of Memorial Drive had been a point of concern for years, amassing safety warnings from local politicians and bike safety advocates alike.

“While charges are being pursued as a step toward accountability for John Corcoran’s tragic death, we must be clear that this action alone does not fix the persistent safety issues on Memorial Drive,” Chris A. Cassa, a volunteer with advocacy group Cambridge Bike Safety, wrote in a statement. The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation lowered speed limits and improved infrastructure on Memorial Drive near the Boston University Bridge just weeks after Corcoran was killed.

Still, the city has dragged out the construction of a 25-mile separated bike lane network as residents continue to object to construction plans. Despite briefly delaying the deadline, the bike lanes must be completed by May 2026.

“Despite improvements like the new shared use path, the parkway’s design remains dangerous—with two lanes still open on the overpass and a wide onramp that leads to a dangerous merge,” Cassa wrote.

“This is a somber reminder that real, structural changes are urgently needed by the DCR and MassDOT to protect our community,” he added.

METRO

CAMBRIDGE INDUSTRY

Nvidia To Open Research Center in Boston This Year

research center in Boston.

BY STEPHANIE DRAGOI AND THAMINI VIJEYASINGAM CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

echnology giant Nvidia an-

Tnounced last Thursday that it will open a quantum computing research center in Boston by the end of 2025, where it will host research in partnership with labs at Harvard, MIT, and tech firms in the area.

The center marks a major milestone in the emerging quantum computing scene in Boston, which has so far been dominated by well-funded start-ups like QuEra and Quantum Machines, in addition to computing giant Quantinuum. Now, Boston has attracted one of the world’s most valuable technology firms, cementing its much-touted status as a hub for technological

TONER FROM PAGE 1

innovation.

Nvidia, known for their graphics processing units and chips critical to powering modern computers and artificial intelligence technology, will use the center in their efforts to integrate AI supercomputing with newer quantum hardware.

The Nvidia Accelerated Quantum Research Center will work with Harvard’s Quantum Initiative and MIT’s Engineering Quantum Systems group, which the company said were Boston’s biggest draws.

“The most important thing is the great research community,” Sam Stanwyck, Nvidia senior product manager, said in an interview.

Where exactly the center will be remains unclear. Nvidia declined to disclose the exact location of the center, although Stanwyck confirmed that it has been selected.

“We have a location,” Stanwyck said. “We can’t be specific other than the Greater Boston area.” Quantum computing is a novel, more sophisticated way of processing information, in which bits — the fundamental units of infor-

mation in a computer — can store and process vastly more data by relying on quantum mechanics. To do so, however, also requires the development of special quantum algorithms that are still in their earliest stages.

Nvidia’s center will help advance those algorithms by training quantum computing models and largescale simulations. That means the company won’t be developing physical quantum computers themselves, but the algorithms necessary to operate their hardware.

“Working on quantum computing is really in our DNA,” Stanwyck said, referencing the company’s reputation for creating new computing technology, which has helped produce modern innovations like AI for self-driving cars.

“We don’t build our own self-driving car, but we work with every company that does to help them,” he added.

Mikhail Lukin, a co-director of the HQI, said Nvidia’s center offers a promising opportunity to further those quantum algorithms and ar-

chitectures using the company’s classical computing capabilities.

“We need powerful classical computers both to benchmark what quantum computers can do, and, also, often, the best quantum computers work alongside the best classical computers,” Lukin said.

The announcement of the research center comes after Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang previously struck a more pessimistic note on the progress of quantum innovation. In early January, Huang said that practical quantum computing applications are at least two decades away.

Following Huang’s remarks, both Nvidia’s stock prices and other related quantum computing stocks fell.

Matt Langione, a managing director at the Boston Consulting Group and leader of the company’s quantum computing program, said that Nvidia’s announcement was not inconsistent with Huang’s earlier remarks, emphasizing that progress often accelerates suddenly.

“When you think about a deep

How City Councilor Paul Toner Fought To Keep

ings for the 28 alleged clients.

technology like quantum computing, you often think about a kind of an S-curve, effectively, in terms of value creation,” he said.

While direct applications of quantum computing may still be more distant, Langione said the computing center in Boston suggests that the “initial inflection” where businesses can first make practical use of this technology is closer than many expect.

Quantum computing might also one day serve Cambridge’s vibrant biotechnology sector, particularly in the field of drug discovery, due to its superior capability to analyze complex data.

“Being employed in one of these occupations in and of itself, including being an ‘elected official,’ does not create a legitimate public interest that outweighs the accused’s right of privacy,” Flaherty wrote.

Show-cause hearings are generally held in private as the court decides if there is enough evidence to charge individuals. The suit to open the hearings to the public, filed by the Boston Globe, WBUR, and other media outlets, allowed alleged clients’ names to surface before an official criminal charge.

“There is no suggestion that the alleged conduct occurred in the performance of an official’s duties or bears upon his ability to perform those duties,” he wrote.

But Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Justice Frank M. Gaziano denied Flaherty’s motion, alongside all other motions to intervene, resulting in this month’s public show cause hear-

But if Flaherty’s efforts were successful, Toner’s name would have only become public once the case was arraigned and a formal criminal record was created. Flaherty argued that since Toner’s alleged involvement did not affect his work as a city councillor, his name should not be disclosed publicly in the show-cause hearings.

Cambridge Police reports from the hearings show that Toner frequently engaged with the brothel, reporting that he “agreed to pay to engage in sex with a woman” at least 13 times between February and September 2023.

Toner texted a phone number associated with the brothel to schedule the meetings, having “432 interactions with the Brothel Phone” within the eight-month period, according to a police report. In a sequence of April 17 texts, typical of the eight exchanges included in the police report, Toner messaged the brothel phone,

Dismantling Ed Dept. Will Have ‘Minimal’ Impact on CPS

BY AYAAN AHMAD CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday calling to dismantle the Department of Education — a change that will have “minimal” impact on Cambridge Public Schools, according to district officials.

While Trump’s executive order instructed Secretary of Education Linda M. McMahon to “take all steps necessary to facilitate the closure of the Department,” experts agree that it cannot be shut down without congressional approval. But this has not stopped Trump from shrinking the department, cutting nearly half of its staff.

The funds provided to public schools by the department are designated to two key areas: Title I grants to support low-income schools, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to help districts support students with disabilities.

Despite moves to shutter the Education Department, the Trump administration clarified that Title I and IDEA funding will be preserved and redistributed across federal agencies. They have yet to clarify where the funding will come from once the department is dissolved.

Federal funding accounts for only 2.7 percent of the CPS budget, with most of these funds coming from Title I and IDEA grants. CPS has a budget of nearly $300 million, spending more than $38,000 per student — almost twice the spending of the average district in Massachusetts.

School Committee member

Elizabeth C.P. Hudson said she does not expect the executive order will affect the district’s Title I

grants.

“We don’t know, but it looks like the impact is functionally zero,” she said.

But even in the “extreme” scenario where the district’s $7.5 million in federal funding is eliminated, Hudson said CPS will “absolutely” find a way to provide students with the same level of support.

President of the Cambridge Educators Association Dan Monahan agreed, writing that CPS has the resources to make up for potential funding lost from the federal government. But he said he was concerned about the potential impact to districts outside of Cambridge.

“We have resources to better weather the storm better and continue strong supports for scholars and caregivers than other districts in the state and across the country,” he wrote. “I fear more for them than us.”

As Governor Maura T. Healey ’92 warned that Trump’s moves jeopardize over $2 billion in funding across the state, the Somerville School Committee jointly filed a complaint against the administration’s attempt to shutter the department. In 2021, Cambridge’s neighboring school district received eight percent of its funding from the federal government.

While Monahan recognized that CPS will not be hit as hard by funding cuts, he wrote that he is hopeful the district will continue following special education laws “even if the accountability diminishes.”

Vice Mayor Marc C. McGovern, a former member of the School Committee, wrote that the Trump administration is “intent on attacking vulnerable populations,” and that they are now

“attacking children.”

“They have no shame,” McGovern wrote. “Cuts in funding to things like Head Start, Free and Reduced lunch, and special education will hurt children.”

Despite concerns, McGovern ensured that the district will make sure to address any funding losses resulting from the executive order.

“Cambridge is not going to let our students go hungry or not get the support they need,” he wrote.

But Hudson pointed to preexisting wissues in the district that predate the funding cuts and said CPS must focus on “figuring out why we have been talking about the same problems for 40 years and have yet to solve them.”

“We got to stop talking about anything that’s not directly under our control or that directly impacts us,” she said.

CPS spokesperson Jaclyn Piques declined to comment on how the executive order will impact the district.

Changes in the White House have been a relevant topic of discussion at recent School Committee meetings, as the Trump administration allowed Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers to conduct raids in schools, and amid threats to districts who promote “gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology.”

In a Feb. 4 meeting, CPS Interim Superintendent David G. Murphy addressed concerns of funding cuts, ensuring that CPS students “are going to be unaffected” by changes at the federal level.

“That’s a commitment that we’re very fortunate to be in a position to make because of our resources,” Murphy said.

ayaan.ahmad@thecrimson.com

asking whether two sex workers — whom he referred to by stage names, Tulip and Jisoo — were “free at 5 or 6 today.”

Someone sent a reply from the brothel phone: “5pm with Tulip gfe 1hr 340.”

Toner agreed to schedule one hour of the “girlfriend experience,” which police reports described as a payment for both commercial sex and “a more intimate experience.”

“I believe that TONER agreed with the user of the Brothel Phone, to engage in commercial sex with an unknown female with the stage name of ‘Tulip’ for one hour for the price of $340,” the report said.

“If one company had a quantum computer with a sufficient lead time over the rest of the field, they could effectively simulate and pat-

stephanie.dragoi@thecrimson.com thamini.vijeyasingam@thecrimson.com

Brothel Hearings Private

During the investigation, police pulled security footage outside the room whose number was sent to Toner, which showed a male enter the room at 4:59 pm and exit at 5:51 pm, “consistent with the amount of time that TONER paid for commercial sex, according to the report.

In five instances highlighted in the report, Toner agreed to pay $340 for commercial sex.

In a statement after Friday’s hearing to the Boston Globe, Toner wrote he “caused pain for the people I care about most. For that, I will be forever sorry.”

At Monday’s city council meeting, Toner apologized once again

and said he was “ashamed” of his connection to the case. While Toner was not present at Friday’s hearing, he will be required to attend an arraignment in May. In a statement to the Crimson about this story, Andrew M. Paven, a spokesman for Toner, wrote, “You have the legal arguments made at the time. Mr Toner will not further comment on those details while the case is pending. The arguments were heard. The Supreme Court ruled. The hearings are underway.”

jack.reardon@thecrimson.com

shawn.boehmer@thecrimson.com

PopUp Bagels To Pop Up in Harvard Square, Replacing Pokeworks

BY JAYA N. KARAMCHETI AND KEVIN ZHONG CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

This fall, East Coast bagel chain PopUp Bagels will fill the hole left by Pokeworks in Harvard Square.

PopUp Bagels is set to open at 1440 Massachusetts Ave. after Pokeworks closes its doors later this year, according to Gazit Horizons, a building management firm.

Pokeworks — which opened in 2018 — currently leases their storefront on a month-to-month basis from Gazit Horizons, but PopUp Bagels will operate under a more desirable longer-term lease, according to Brian Harrington, the owner and operator of many PopUp Bagels franchise locations.

The manager of the Harvard Square Pokeworks location said he was unaware of the planned closure. Pokeworks did not respond to multiple requests for comment regarding the reason for the store’s closure.

The Pokeworks closing and PopUp Bagels opening has been met with both anticipation and sadness from students who noted the numerous bagel shops in the surrounding area. Students can currently source bagels from Bagelsaurus, Black Sheep Bagel Cafe, and Pavement Coffeehouse.

“I’m devastated,” Jenny E. Ng ’28 said. “We already have a bagel shop in the Square, and you’re closing the one only poke store? Like, hello?”

Poké-City, which is located near Porter Square, would be the nearest poke shop following the closure of Pokeworks.

Despite the competition from other bagel shops, Harrington

— who owns the Seaport and Somerville PopUp Bagels locations — said that PopUp Bagels’s unique concept will allow it to penetrate the market.

Rather than purchasing a single bagel or bagel sandwich, PopUp Bagel customers choose at least three bagels and a tub of “schmear,” or cream cheese, making it easy to share with friends.

“We have a little bit different take on the bagel experience,” Harrington said. “We don’t make sandwiches. We don’t slice bagels. There’s no turkey. There’s no eggs. There’s no bacon. The bagel is the star of the show.”

“At PopUp, our ‘grip, rip, and dip’ philosophy applies at every one of our stores. We have amazing schmears that come on the side,” he added. Many students said they are excited for PopUp Bagels’ convenient location in Harvard Square.

“I’m really excited for a new bagel store,” Prisha N. Sheth ’28 said. “I think it’s fun to have different places to try because, obviously, there’s a limited amount of different bagel options.”

“To quote Cynthia Erivo, ‘I didn’t know this was happening.’ I love it. I’m excited’,” Matthew M. Wehling ’28 said. “I think having another bagel shop right next to the Yard — rather than far away — in the Square is really exciting.”

“With the success that we’ve had in the Seaport, we think a natural progression was to go to other kinds of vibrant areas full of young people,” he said.

“We see so many Harvard students coming into the Seaport, so we know already that Harvard students love PopUp, and so first and foremost, we want to make it easier for them to get to us,” Harrington added.

Many students are excited for PopUp to bring new bagel flavors to Harvard Square and a new addition to their brunch routines.

“I just like the experience of getting a bagel. I think it’s a lovely way to start my mornings, especially on a Sunday, and I’m excited to have a new bagel place here,” Samantha M. Adams ’28 said. “I totally agree with that,” Kaitlyn J. Ernst ’28 added. “I feel like a morning bagel run is like going to brunch, but without the same level of commitment.”

jaya.karamcheti@thecrimson.com kevin.zhong@thecrimson.com. THC

Read more at THECRIMSON.COM

PopUp Bagels was founded by Adam Goldberg in 2020. He first started selling bagels online from his kitchen in Connecticut, but its instant success quickly led to brick-and-mortar stores. PopUp Bagels currently operates 13 stores in New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, with two new locations opening in Cambridge and Somerville this year. Harrington said that he chose Harvard Square for his next location given its “vibrant” residential, commercial, and industrial life.

Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra Stuns

BY NATE H. COHEN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

On March 8 in Sanders Theatre, the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra gave the third concert of their 2024-2025 season — the first of this semester. They chose to do a concert featuring solely Soviet Era works: Ustvolskaya’s “Symphonic Poem No. 2,” as well as two works by Shostakovich, including excerpts from his “Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti” and his complete “Symphony No. 11.” The concert, though morbid, succeeded with flying colors. Ustvolskaya was a highly unconventional composer. A student of Shostakovich’s (his only female student at the time), her music unsettled even him — which is no mean feat considering the intensity of Shostakovich’s music. In her day, she was relatively unpopular, but interest in her music has increased in recent years. In 1959,

Ustvolskaya wrote her “Symphonic Poem No. 2,” a ten-minute work which is marked by unyielding darkness. The piece is texturally rich and requires continuous engagement from all parts of the orchestra to maintain its intensity. HRO did not hold back one bit — they have no fear of spectacle. The performance, conducted by music director Federico Cortese, was loud and forceful. At first the horns sounded a little shaky, but they quickly picked themselves up. The percussion section was on point, and the acoustics of Sanders Theatre aptly carried each timpani strike and cymbal crash. About halfway through the piece, the strings hold a high tremolo for an exceedingly lengthy amount of time. The string players maintained their focus the whole way through, and the sound never faltered. It was a really good performance of a fiery, despairing piece. Next came three songs out of Shostakovich’s “Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti.” Many know Michelangelo as a visual art-

ist, but many do not know that he was also a poet. In 1974, a year before he died, Shostakovich decided to put Michelangelo’s verses, translated into Russian by Avram Efos, to music. The orchestra performed the final three, called “Night,” “Death,” and “Immortality.” The poems shift in tone: The first is mysterious and only hints at despair, the second is truly despondent, and the third presents hope and joy in spite of mortality. The performances were once again superb. Led by Federico Cortese, the orchestra was capable of playing in a wide range of very precise volumes. The strings, especially, displayed keen dynamic sensitivity. Bass Junhan Choi has an excellent voice, and he was able to hit some of the higher notes beautifully while capturing the dark, bellowing tone needed for the lower ones. The harpist Olivia Lee — a guest musician — played elegantly and added a lot to the mystique and serenity of certain moments.

After intermission, HRO was ready to perform the longest work

Nubar Restaurant and Bar

BY JULIET BU AND AUDREY ZHANG CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Tucked inside the Sheraton Commander Hotel, Nubar Restaurant and Bar seems, upon first glance, like an intimate yet unassuming fine dining spot just a little ways off from Harvard Square. With its sleek, contemporary decor and warm lighting from the fireplace and candles dotting every table, the restaurant sets the stage for an upscale yet comfortable dining experience. Simultaneously, though, it is unmistakably a restaurant attached to a hotel: It exudes the same elevated yet generic, polished yet impersonal feeling of the Sheraton Commander itself. Professionals getting off work engage in quiet conversation over drinks and dinner, as the waitstaff and hostess warmly welcome new diners in. While the inviting atmosphere and attentive service suggest the promise of a memorable meal, the fixed Dine Out Boston restaurant week menu options leave much to be desired. The prix fixe offerings include three each of appetizer and dessert selections and four entree choices, with the entire three-course meal amounting to $46. The Dine Out menu begins on a relatively high note with the crab cake, served with arugula and celery seed aioli. The crab cake is crisp and golden brown on the outside, offering a satisfying crunch with each bite that soon gives way to a salty fishiness on the flaky interior. While the textures make for a complementary consumption experience, the taste itself is too salty, despite the acidity of the celery seed aioli which only mildly helps balance the excessive seasoning. The crab cake texture, along with the arugula, which adds a lightness to counteract the potential heaviness of the dish, make this dish the standout of the menu. Nevertheless, it does not elevate itself beyond a competent, standard crab cake; the Nubar version lacks nuanced seasoning and a delicate balance of flavors, making the dish unmemorable.

Among the entree offerings is the shepherd’s pie, served with a thyme and gruyere bechamel. The shepherd’s pie seems promising initially: The top cheese layer, melted underneath, has a perfectly golden-brown crust. Yet the rest of the dish disappoints: The layer of mashed potatoes underneath the cheese is excessively thick and the texture is dry and grainy. The mashed potatoes are bland, and this lack of flavor, along with the sheer density of the layer, makes each bite of the dish feel more like a chore than a delight. While the beef at the bottom of the pie is quite tasty, the ratio of the beef layer to the rest of the dish is minimal. Every bite thus requires a generous dousing of the bechamel to make up for the dryness and overall dullness of the potato layer, making for a rather tenuous culinary experience.

Moreover, the temperature of the dish leaves a lasting impression — and not in a good way. From the first bite, the dish is colder than expected, a lukewarm chew rather than the piping hot sensation expected from a shepherd’s pie that has been removed just moments ago from the oven. The dish quickly loses heat while being eaten, leaving much to be desired from the last couple of bites. The overall impression is of a dish that has been assembled, rather than thoughtfully crafted.

For a satisfying conclusion to the meal, be sure to steer clear of the strawberry tart for dessert. Its unnaturally bright pink color and too-perfect dollop of whipped cream are reflected in the artificiality of its taste as well. Although the rose and vanilla whipped cream is light and not overly sweet, the freshness and quality of the cream is subpar. The strawberry compote drizzled on top is excessively sugary and only exacerbates the manufactured taste of the entire dish, overpowering the presence of supposedly-fresh fruit on the tart. For those who might desire a more homemade taste in their dessert, the strawberry tart at Nubar fails to deliver.

Although they are not featured on the official menu, Nubar offers a couple crowd-favorite mocktails: The Garden

and The Lemon Sky. Advertised as a refreshingly fruity drink that spotlights blueberry as the main flavor note and has a visually striking indigo tint, The Garden regrettably ends up tasting overwhelmingly sweet, reminiscent of a concentrated blueberry syrup rather than a subtly-flavored, high-end beverage. Any intended floral or herbal notes are drowned out by the excessive syrup. Meanwhile, the effervescent Lemon Sky, which initially creates a pleasant surprise with its slight fizz, also quickly becomes too cloying, lacking the crispness and complexity of a well-made mocktail. Both drinks lack depth, with no emergence of any unique flavor profiles, and their intense sweetness makes them difficult to finish.

Certainly, the hospitality of the servers and hostesses, with their friendly smiles and eagerto-please attitudes, deserves no complaints. But, at the end of the day, a dining experience centers around the food, so such service cannot forgive the fact that the whole meal was underwhelming, lackluster, and boring, with little evidence of the craft and meticulousness that define truly great fine dining.

Ultimately, Nubar’s Dine Out Boston menu falls short of expectations for how it presents itself as an upscale restaurant. While the restaurant certainly offers a comfortable space, wonderful mood lighting, and excellent hospitality, the food itself fails to impress. As one might expect from a hotel restaurant, all the items are quite generic, lacking complexity in flavor and a general experimentality in the cuisine. Perhaps this restaurant’s ambiance makes it a favorable option among visiting professionals seeking a sit-down dinner at the end of a work day, but a more adventurous diner will certainly feel disappointed leaving Nubar. Although the benefit of the doubt could be given to the unsampled menu items, with so many other establishments in the greater Cambridge area that are creating inventive menu selections with genuine care and authenticity, it is difficult to justify a return visit.

juliet.bu@thecrimson.com audreyzhang@thecrimson.com

of the night — Shostakovich’s “Symphony No. 11.” The symphony has a program, it is meant to describe (in music) the Russian Revolution of 1905 — specifically the events of Bloody Sunday, in which working class protestors were killed by the Tsar’s army. Each of the four movements carries the story along. Many believe that the symphony is a subtle condemnation of Soviet Russia, despite commemorating the early seeds of its rise. The first, a slow and very, very foreboding movement, relies heavily upon ethereal string playing. HRO, per usual, played it very well. Cortese chose a great tempo for this movement; it was slow enough to capture the mystery and dread, but not so slow as to hinder the forward motion. On certain occasions the horns seemed to have trouble controlling their dynamics, but overall they did a great job. The timpani, too, was well played. The second movement — which is very explosive — was certainly a highlight of the concert. The music swelled to tormented, violent

crescendos as it depicted the massacre, and the orchestra went full force. The horns were blasting and the strings were playing with arduous passion. It was a stunning moment. The third movement had touches of that same explosivity, but it also offered some tranquility. The most beautiful parts of the concert were found in this movement, when the violas recurrently played a gorgeous melody of lament. The fourth movement was, once again, performed excellently. The horns and the woodwinds, specifically, played very well, and the orchestra bookended a great concert with a great finale. The Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra is remarkable. At their best, they sound borderline professional — no mean feat for a group of students. This concert was long and the music was endlessly despairing, but the orchestra demonstrated their worth and, ultimately, the worth of the music.

nate.cohen@thecrimson.com

GRACE E. YOON — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

‘The Hunger Games’ Lives On: Fans Gather for Release of ‘Sunrise on

HARVARD BOOK STORE BUSTLED WITH UNUSUAL

Just past its typical closing hour on a late Monday evening, the Harvard Book Store bustled with unusual energy. It was the night of the highly-anticipated Midnight Release Party for Suzanne Collins’ fifth book of “The Hunger Games” series, “Sunrise on the Reaping.” Celebrating the eagerly-awaited book release, the event brought together readers from all walks of life, united by their love for Collins’ dystopian world.

For 90 minutes from doors opening at 10:30 PM on March 17, attendees had the opportunity to partake in festive activities — a trivia game full of niche knowledge across all four released “Hunger Games” novels, a spirited costume contest featuring a couple Effies and many Katnisses, and an origami workshop on how to fold a President Snow rose — before cheering and lining up to snag a fresh copy of the new book itself when the clock struck midnight.

“I have been a huge ‘Hunger Games’ fan for as long as I can remember, and for years and years, I have been praying that Suzanne Collins would write Haymitch’s story because we kind of got a glimpse of it in ‘Catching Fire,’ and I’ve always wanted to see the whole picture,” said Jacklyn Roussin, styled in Capitol flair with a pastel wig and extravagantly red dress.

For many, the event was about more than just the book — it was a chance to gather with like-minded fans. Some had grown up with “The Hunger Games,” while others had discovered the series more recently. Regardless of when they first stepped into the world of Panem, everyone in the room shared a deep connection to Collins’ realm and reacted excitedly to the new book’s announcement.

“I immediately texted all my friends whom I knew liked ‘The Hunger Games,’” Daniel Iannuzzo said. “I was like, ‘Guys, we’re getting the book that we’ve been asking for. It’s all paid off. Suzanne Collins is blessing us with Haymitch’s Games – cancel everything for this week, I am reading.’”

Anticipating such exuberance, the event organizers worked hard to create a space where fans

could fully immerse themselves in the “Hunger Games” universe. Pulling it together in just six weeks, they paid careful attention to detail — such as hiding pictures of Peeta around the bookstore for the scavenger hunt and building curated gift baskets to match each Panem district’s personality — to make the night truly memorable.

“We had a couple meetings, we kind of decided what crafts we wanted to do, brainstormed activities — like we thought of the scavenger hunt [and] looking for the disguised Peeta — and other than that, we kind of just broke up, and I did the raffle baskets,” Harvard Bookstore warehouse manager Alexandra Reid said. “We all kind of got our different jobs and things that we wanted to do and planned the crafts and the decorations we wanted to do.”

Special thought also went into why it would be a good idea to throw a release party for this book in particular.

“We try to think about the longevity of the fan bases and how enthusiastic we think that people are going to be the night of,” Reid said.

Reid added that hosting such events helps them keep track of new releases and target exciting ones to feature.

“[The event] lets us sort of

branch out into more diverse books and find different things that we want to share with people or things that our customers are just really excited about,” she said.

One of the evening’s most engaging moments for event-goers was the theorizing. As attendees waited for the book’s official release, they debated what “Sunrise on the Reaping” would add to the

Games, [that] it’ll get his first mentorship or maybe some more lore on Effie or even a young Caesar Flickerman. I would love to see more of them.” Her partner, Jack Hopkins, had purchased the event tickets as an early birthday present for Jeunelot, and in true “Hunger Games” fashion, they were dressed as Katniss and Peeta: Jeunelot sported the iconic all-

For many, the event was about more than just the book — it was a chance to gather with like-minded fans.

series, conversing heatedly over their folded paper roses or writing down their hypotheses on the massive display poster that questioned “What will happen?”

“I’m hoping that we get Katniss’ parents’ names revealed because we don’t know their names yet,” Lyndsey Jeunelot said. “I’m hoping that [the book will] be more than just [Haymitch’s]

black Mockingjay outfit and Hopkins donned a baker’s apron while holding a fake burnt bread loaf.

Whether dressed for the occasion or not, the sense of camaraderie among the fans was palpable. Strangers struck up conversations about their favorite characters, snapped pictures in front of the purple “Sunrise Reaping” banner, and found common

ground in their excitement. The joy of being surrounded by fellow series lovers further heightened the experience.

“I’m loving the atmosphere and I’m loving the people here, and everyone dressed up in their costumes are so cute,” Kenny Gastamiza said. “I love it, it’s so adorable.”

With the night drawing to a close, the attendees fell into line to finally get their hands on “Sunrise on the Reaping.” Some flipped open to the first page immediately while others clutched the book tightly to savor the moment.

“I just want to be fully surprised and, like, take it all in as it is,” Roussin

“Hunger Games”

of

And, that unity would persist into the night for the many attendees anxious to dive into the pages.

“I’m just excited to leave with the book,” Jeunelot said. “I’m probably going to be up for another hour after we leave, reading it.”

On March 8, the Queen’s Head Pub was enlivened with food, drinks, and laughs — all thanks to the Harvard College Women’s Center. In honor of Women’s Week, an annual week of events and celebrations dedicated to promoting the voices of women and gender-expansive people on campus, the Women’s Center held their second annual comedy show, titled “Men Aren’t Funny.”

The title, although jarring for some, is something Women’s Center undergraduate intern Olivia F. Data ’26 is proud of, she said in an interview with The Crimson.

Data recalled pitching the name and being shocked when it was green-lit, saying she “feels great” about being able to enjoy the liberties of free speech in such a public way. Referring to it as “a bit,” Data said the title is “very on the nose,” flipping the script of the unfortunately frequent comment that “women aren’t funny.” Despite inevitable backlash

from the community, which Data brilliantly worked into her set, the larger Queen’s Head Pub was booked for this year’s show rather than the smaller Lowell Screening Room, the setting of last year’s show. The change in venue was evidently necessary — Harvard students, affiliates, and even non-Harvard students filled the seats. Sarah Seligman, a student at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., attended after seeing the flyer advertising the show. Coming from a women’s college where the events are typically “women-centric or just kind of queer-centric,” Seligman was surprised by the men in the audience and was “glad to see that support.”

As implied by the title, however, there were no men to be found among the show’s performers. Three Letter Acronym (TLA), an improv troupe that performed, was small but mighty without their male counterparts. Katie A. Silverman ’27, who performed with TLA, commented on the separation of the group for this show and her moment of re -

alization that this show of exclusively women comics was rare: one dedicated to equity in comedy rather than equality. While this evening boasted a welcoming environment, both Silverman and Data noted their apprehension to join comedy spaces. For Silverman, she said that there’s a “very particular type of woman” who can be considered funny — a category that her and her comedy don’t fall into. For Data, starting comedy was an outlet for her bubbly personality and found it “liberating” for women who are encouraged to “be quiet” and “take up less space,” admonishments to which she is clearly no stranger.

Data enjoys the freedom of the space: “People laugh when you say things sometimes, and they give you a microphone, and you get to hold it and talk into it,” she said. Nonetheless, Data and Silverman remark on the vastly male-dominated comedic spaces that make it both “intimidating” for Silverman and difficult to begin comedy of any sort as a woman. Silverman has found there to be a typical

“group average” which makes it difficult to do any comedy that’s “identity-specific.” Similarly, Data finds these spaces can be unwelcoming at the very least.

“There are incredibly funny men out there. There are also a lot of spaces that let them be incredibly funny,” Data said. “And some of the women who

FIFTEEN MINUTES 17

Alison Frank Johnson is a Professor of History. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

FM: Your work has covered some surprising topics, from Austrian oil ambitions to the marketing of mountain air. How do seemingly obscure historical stories help us better understand today’s world?

AJF: I’m not sure exactly how to answer that question, as you can tell from my long silence.

The more obscure — in some sense — the more likely they are to be perspectives I haven’t thought of before. And one of my goals as an educator is to get students not only to understand where they come from and their own perspectives but also to borrow other people’s perspectives, other people’s problems, other people’s concerns, which I think increases their ability to be empathetic hu man beings which is one of — in my mind — my most important goals as an educator.

FM: You’ve researched quite a few topics that have a lot of cur rent relevance but from a histor ical perspective — for instance, capital punishment, oil, and climate change. The list goes on. I’m curious how that study has influenced your own views and perspectives as we go about nav igating these things today.

AJF: through problems if you can think through them in a place and time that feels distant. You can allow yourself to look at something with more detachment if it doesn’t feel like it is politically motivated in the present.

If I’m talking to you about the approach to capital punishment in 1848, then we can think about pros and cons of rushing through last-minute executions before regime change in a way that might be able to get you think about the wisdom of doing that — the ethics of doing that — differently than if I am talking to you about something that’s happening, for example, at the end of the Trump adminis tration and you feel immediately defensive if you are a supporter of President Trump because it feels like I am just making this point to attack President Trump.

FM: Is it possible to think about these things as not in the pres ent if it’s the same stuff that’s happening?

AJF: scholarly obligation to care about what the evidence says — when we like it, and when we don’t like it. That is a skill that I think people aren’t always able to exercise in the present. I think that many of us are struggling in this moment to force ourselves to consider all of the evidence whether we like it or not but rather look for evidence that supports an argument that we already want to make.

It’s not that I don’t expect people to draw conclusions — it’s that, as a history teacher, my students won’t listen to me if they think that I am using history to make a point about the present. I have to show them that the arguments I’m making about the past, I’m making based on evidence, not based on my own politics. And that, I hope, then in turn will lead them to think — maybe differently or maybe with more conviction — about the present.

Q&A: ALISON FRANK JOHNSON ON THE POWER OF STORIES, LACROSSE, AND WHY SHE SPEAKS UP

ally hard to go there. This is a sort of fun fact: the Russia program at my college sent students to Kyiv — which is, of course, in Ukraine, not in Russia — but that’s how simple-minded we were in the 80s and early 90s.

And my father, who was a scientist, wouldn’t let me go to Kyiv because he said it was too close to Chernobyl. So, Russia was off the table for study abroad, and Austria was close to Russia in my imagination. And so I went and then I just kind of got hooked.

War, right? And some of them had been on display for 500 years.

Honestly, at this point, if I could just get people to care more about evidence, that would already be a win.

FM: You’re working on a new book on post-war Germany and Austria. Tell me about it.

AJF: So, I discovered quite by accident that there were three churches in territory that used to be part of the Habsburg monarchy — one is now in Germany, one is in Austria, and one is in Italy — that displayed the human remains of children that local legends held had been murdered by Jews. And that they were on display until the 1960s or in one case the 1980s, and they were buried — the last one was buried in 1989.

First, I couldn’t believe that this physical representation of blood libel was still on display 20 years after the end of the Second World

And then, I was really curious about what happened in the 1960s slash 1989 so that somebody was like “No, okay, yeah. We didn’t get rid of these during the Napoleonic occupation, we didn’t get rid of these when all of the Jews in our country were emancipated, or after the first World War when we had a democratic government elected for the first time, or after World War II during the denazification. But, today is the day, right?” What is it that makes somebody wake up in 1967 and say, “Okay, I’m actually — now I’m ready”?

FM: What is it?

AJF: I think often it comes down to a coalition of a local Catholic person with some authority and a Jewish partner operating behind the scenes to help that person understand the tremendous moral urgency of doing something. But, the details are quite different in each of the three cases.

FM: What does this research look like? Is it you in the archives pull-

ing files, or is it you going to these towns and visiting?

AJF: I’m an archive rat, so my inclination is to want to look in archives for everything. For this particular project, I’ve had to do a lot more talking to people than I normally do and I found less material in archives than I would normally want to find.

To the extent that there has been research done, it’s being done by local scholars, and so I’ve really been trying to talk to them, trying to understand the places. These stories seem very deeply embedded in their locations and their towns. And I’m an outsider, so I’m very dependent on the generosity of people from these places to try to help me understand what makes them tick and what this actually means to them. I don’t want to sweep in from Harvard and say, “you’ve been behaving badly, and now I’m going to expose you.” I want to try to understand what’s happened. It’s a story that in my mind has to combine some praise for people who took action, with some recognition for the tremendous pain caused by the late date at which that action

was taken.

FM: You’ve taught students about how fairy tales like the Brothers Grimm shaped national identity in Germany. What’s your favorite fairy tale?

AJF: I guess I like Hansel and Gretel, because the siblings stick together. There are a lot of fairy tales that pit siblings against one another, or where all of the siblings are wretched and then there’s one, usually the youngest sibling, who has any value whatsoever as a human being. And Hansel and Gretel are a team.

FM: In college, you studied both German and Russian. What made you specialize in German?

AJF: It was really hard to get to Russia, and German-speaking countries were as close as I could get without needing a very special visa.

I started college in the fall of 1989 and I really wanted to study abroad in 1991-92 — so, if you think about what’s happening in what was becoming the former Soviet Union in 1991, it was re-

Also, there was a particular professor at my college at the time, Gail Newman, who was just an incredible teacher, and I took a class with her on German literature and translation. I would have taken any class that she offered, because she was my North Star of my education. And the easiest way to take a lot of classes with her was I started learning German my sophomore year in college, and that’s a message for all of you Harvard College undergraduates. You think you’re so old when you’re a sophomore and it’s too late to start a new language, but it’s not. You could start a new language, and then you could chair the department of that language at Harvard

FM: What’s your favorite part about the German language? That you can tell how to pronounce things just from seeing how they’re written. That is an incredible benefit in learning a foreign language. German pronunciation is very predictable. I

FM: You’re the Faculty Fellow for the men’s lacrosse team. Have you always been a lacrosse A funny thing happened last fall — meaning 2023, not 2024. I offered my German history lecture. I went in on the first day of class. All of the students were male, and all but three of them had matching backpacks. It quickly became clear that they all played lacrosse. So, once you have 11 lacrosse players in your class — or 12, or whatever it was — you get a little more curious

So, I went to a lacrosse scrimmage. I took my son, who was 11 at the time. One of my students, who was in my class, broke several ribs, was carried off in a stretcher, so that was a bit of a shock. But then I went to all of their home games in the spring, and I figured out a little bit about the sport. My son actually started playing lacrosse because of his exposure to the men’s lacrosse team, so now I’m a big fan.

FM: To go back to history, if you could spend a day with any historical figure from German-speaking Europe, who would it be and why? Can we set aside the possibility of seeing Hitler and assassinating him? Because I think everybody would say —

FM: Let’s set that aside.

AJF: It’s almost irresistible to say Mozart, because it would be fun to meet someone like this, although I suppose I’d rather hear him play the piano.

COURTESY OF NATALIE FRANK

Historic Season Ends in First Round Exit

ter the game sobbing and embracing her teammates. The two seniors were still fighting back tears when they took their seats at the postgame press conference.

State’s defense continued to cause problems for Harvard’s players who were repeatedly forced into taking bad shots that were rejected by the lower corner of the backboard.

drawing back-to-back charges to stifle the Spartans’ offense.

RALEIGH, N.C. — The Harvard women’s basketball team crashed out of the NCAA tournament with a 64-50 loss to the Michigan State Spartans on Saturday at the James T. Valvano Arena.

Though star senior guard Harmoni Turner scored 24 points, No. 10 seed Harvard fell short of upsetting the seventh-seeded Spartans.

The Crimson has now failed to advance out of the first round of the tournament in its last four appearances. Harvard ultimately lost the game at the foul line, allowing the Spartans to score 22 out of 27 free throws while the Crimson shot just 10-for-12 from the charity stripe. Michigan State also maintained consistent pressure on Turner throughout the game, which prevented Harvard from finding enough of an offensive response to offset the free throw discrepancy.

“We fouled way too much,”

Moore said. “You put a team on the free throw line 27 times, it’s hard to kind of overcome that, especially the later in the game that it gets.”

As the clock expired at the end of the fourth quarter, Harvard’s players were visibly emotional while leaving the floor. Senior guard Elena Rodriguez, tears streaming down her face, was comforted by a teammate as the Crimson’s players walked toward the family section for a final goodbye. Turner said she spent time af-

“At the end of the day, it was tears of joy and gratitude,” Turner said. “I’m incredibly grateful for the game, I’m grateful for my teammates, I’m grateful for my coaches.”

The loss ends a historic season for Harvard in head coach Carrie Moore’s third year leading the program. After Moore’s squad finished a stellar regular season with a 22-4 record, the Crimson pulled off two upset victories in the Ivy League’s postseason tournament to capture its first-ever championship and return to March Madness for the first time since 2007.

The Spartans will remain in Raleigh to battle No. 2 North Carolina State Wolfpack on Monday for a spot in the Sweet Sixteen, but Moore was adamant that the Crimson’s players would return to Cambridge with their heads held high.

“This game does not define our season. This game does not define who we are,” Moore said. “We are a much better basketball team than we showed for 40 minutes today.”

Harvard struggled out of the gate, committing three turnovers that fueled a 9-0 Spartan run in the first three minutes of action. The rough start forced Moore to call a timeout, seeking to help her team shake off the first quarter jitters.

The timeout cooled some of the Crimson’s nerves, as Turner found her way to the charity stripe for the team’s first points. But Michigan

Harvard’s typically elite defense improved more quickly than its offense. The team forced Michigan State to commit a shot clock violation and an offensive foul on consecutive possessions.

The string of defensive stops fueled the Crimson on the other end, closing the quarter on a 9-2 run that cut the deficit to 15-11 heading into the second quarter. Harvard converted only two-of-16 field goal attempts in the opening period — a sign of shooting troubles that would plague the Crimson all day.

Harvard’s strong offensive and

After another Michigan State turnover, Turner split multiple defenders on her way to a bank shot jumper, cutting the deficit to 24-19 heading into halftime. Harvard’s defense kept the Spartans well below its season scoring average, but the team needed to address its offensive deficiencies if it wanted any hope of securing the upset.

The Crimson opened the second half with a renewed hunger, crashing the glass for several offensive rebounds. Rodriguez dominated in the post, using her footwork to gain separation for a jump hook and combining with Turner for cutting layups.

Former University President

defensive performance at the end of the first quarter appeared to boost the team’s confidence. When the Crimson returned to the floor, a smile had returned to Turner’s face and she walked over to Harvard’s parent section and shouted: “Let’s have some fun.”

But nothing came easy for the Crimson, as the team responded to increased defensive pressure from Michigan State by constantly moving the ball, generating contested looks at best. The few open shots that Harvard created, the team failed to take knock down, falling behind 22-15 just past the halfway point of the period.

Turner uncharacteristically struggled to knock down shots in the first half but she remained an impact star on the defensive end,

Claudine Gay, a Harvard women’s basketball superfan, University Marshal Katherine G. O’Dair, and Harvard Athletic Director Erin McDermott — who were seated in the first row behind the media section — were lifted out of their seats by the offensive outburst, cheering and raising their hands in the air.

After cutting Michigan State’s lead to one, the Crimson was tantalizingly close to taking the lead for the first time in the game. Instead, the Spartans drew a pair of shooting fouls to turn the tide and bring the Crimson’s offense to a screeching halt. A pair of backto-back triples capped an 11-0 Michigan State response midway through the third period.

“We were unhinged,” Moore said, plainly. “We just started to

unravel in a way that I didn’t love.”

Harvard sophomores Abigail Wright and Karlee White offered a temporary reprieve, scoring a layup and corner three, respectively, to trim the deficit down to 37-30. But the offensive momentum could not be sustained as Michigan State continued to draw fouls, which allowed the Spartans to preserve a 45-35 until the end of the period.

“We just needed to get more stops,” said Moore. “We were over helping in moments that we didn’t need to.”

Harvard’s loud and passionate family section voiced their displeasure with the officiating calls that went against the Crimson. Even Gay threw her hands up in disgust after one particularly controversial call by the referees.

Michigan State’s relentless drives to the baskets drew more free throws and easy inside baskets to start the quarter. By contrast, a desperate Crimson offense was forced to exclusively shoot three-pointers in an attempt to stay in the game.

The Spartans capitalized on several Crimson turnovers for simple transition layups, taking the largest lead of the night, 60-39, at the 4:31 mark of the fourth quarter. The once fierce chants of “defense, defense,” from the Harvard family section had become noticeably more subdued as some of the Crimson faithful began to wear grim looks of despair on their faces.

Harvard valiantly fought to the end, but an 11-4 surge in the final minutes of the fourth quarter was

only enough to bring the Crimson to within 14 points, as the buzzer sounded with a final score of 6450. After the game, Moore acknowledged that her team did not appear to be ready for a deep run in the NCAA tournament, contrasting the team’s performance against Michigan State with its success last weekend in Ivy Madness.

“At times during this game, I felt like the moment was a little too big for our team because we hadn’t been there before,” Moore said.

“You saw our team a weekend ago show up at our very best because we had been in that position before and we knew how we needed to show up and play in order to get it done,” she added. “And now we know.” But Moore was clear that another 18 years won’t pass until Harvard returns to March Madness.

“It

of the best players to ever wear the Crimson’s uniform, focused on the big picture.

“I don’t think we’re gonna take this as a loss,” she said. “I think we’re taking this as a learning experience.”

“At the end of the day,” Turner added, “we still are champions.”

Claudine Gay Is Still Rooting for Harvard

Claudine Gay may have been boxed out of Harvard’s top job by politics and scandal, but nothing will keep the former president from her courtside seat when the Harvard women’s basketball team takes the floor in Raleigh, N.C., on Saturday in its first NCAA tournament appearance in 18 years.

“Being courtside is a joy and a privilege, and where I feel most at home at Harvard,” Gay wrote in a statement to The Crimson about her love for the team.

The feeling is mutual, head coach Carrie Moore said in an emotional interview after winning the Ivy Championship. “She is and always will be this team’s president,” Moore said, tears welling as she spoke. “We love her to death.”

Since being ousted in January 2024, Gay has maintained — and even deepened — her superfan status, taking solace in the team’s embrace even as she largely receded from public life at Harvard.

Just four days after stepping down, she was courtside at Lavietes Pavilion watching the Crimson defeat the Yale Bulldogs. And last weekend, she was at center court with Moore, clutching the Ivy League trophy — and posing for a photo — just minutes after the Crimson dispatched the Columbia Lions to clinch their first March Madness berth since 2007.

“She held it like it was her own,” Moore said. “And I hope she felt that triumphant moment with us because she deserves that as well.” Amid plagiarism allegations and backlash over her administration’s response to pro-Palestine campus protests, Gay ultimate-

ly lost the confidence of the Harvard Corporation that elected her president a year earlier. But while the University’s governing board turned against Gay, the women’s basketball team welcomed her with open arms.

Moore recalled feeling filled with pride when she noticed Gay sitting on the sidelines at the first home game after she stepped down from her historic role as Havard’s first Black president.

“I saw her and almost got emotional mid-game, just knowing that she feels like she has a place where she can come and just be seen and accepted for who she is and not judged,” Moore said.

From November to March, Gay’s constant presence at home games has made her a fixture at Lavietes for women’s basketball games, a celebrity die-hard fan with an assigned seat like Spike Lee at Madison Square Garden watching the New York Knicks or Jack Nicholson at Los Angeles Lakers games.

“I just can’t think of a game when she hasn’t been there at home,” Moore said in an interview. “It’s almost more surprising when I look over and she’s not there.”

This season, shortly after the Crimson completed a 91-35 blowout victory over the Yale Bulldogs on Jan. 25, Gay stood up from her seat to congratulate the team. Each player and member of the coaching staff received a hug and a few words of praise.

It is a ritual Gay and the team practiced week after week, regardless of the final score. But this year, Gay missed just one home game due to travel, and those hugs usually followed a Crimson win as the team played to a 10-2 record at Lavietes and 22-4 overall. Junior guard Saniyah

Glenn-Bello told The Crimson that Gay’s “love, commitment, and respect for this program motivate us daily.”

“She is more than just a fan, she is a leader who embodies leadership, integrity, and unwavering dedication — qualities that elevate everyone around her, especially our team,” Glenn-Bello added.

As dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 2022, Gay supported Harvard Athletic Director Erin McDermott’s efforts to hire Moore to lead the women’s basketball team. Though Moore had no prior head coaching experience, she had just helped lead the Michigan Wolverines to an Elite Eight NCAA tournament run.

“Being my first head coach hire here, getting support from Claudine for the person I felt was the best coach for Harvard was critical,” McDermott wrote in a statement about Gay’s love for the Crimson. “Claudine became an instant fan of Carrie’s and in extension, the women’s

basketball team.”

“It is incredibly rewarding and touching to see the joy Claudine and the team bring each other and the genuine affection they have for each other, knowing it all happened because Claudine was so supportive of Carrie coming to Harvard,” McDermott added.

Gay has also forged close relationships with many members of the team, becoming a mentor and an inspiration to players like star senior guard Harmoni Turner. Gay also served as a freshman adviser for one student who joined the Crimson as a rare walk-on.

In an interview, Turner called Gay a “role model.”

“She has a lot ofcourage and a lot of support and a lot of love, and I admire that,” Turner added. “I really cherish that relationship with her and I’m just so happy that she’s a fan of Harvard women’s basketball.”

When the players are on the court, Gay, who often sits between her husband, Christopher C. Afen-

dulis, and McDermott, is laser-focused on the action. In response to a particularly impressive play by the Crimson, Gay will usually throw back her head in delight, then enthusiastically applaud. She also ensures that her outfits match the uniform color the players are wearing during any given game. And if someone asks, Gay doesn’t hesitate to rave about the quality of basketball played by the Crimson.

“There’s no question that the players are smart, skilled, and agile. But what I love most about watching them play is their communication on the court,” Gay wrote in her statement. “They are present and tuned in to one another. It’s seamless and awesome to witness.”

In return, Harvard’s athletes love the support. Senior guard Elena Rodriguez cried after the final home game of the season when she realized it was likely the last time Gay would watch her play in a Harvard uniform. As it

turned out, there would be at least one more chance for Gay to see the Crimson’s seniors play. Though she was unable to attend the Crimson’s Ivy Madness semifinal against Princeton, Gay and her husband streamed the game on their flight, 30,000 feet in the air. As they gripped their armrests, Turner dropped a record-breaking 44 points to will Harvard into the final. Gay immediately began to plan her trip to Providence for the final against Columbia.

“Claudine never fails to surprise me,”

Claudine Gay and Carrie Moore hold the Ivy Championship trophy. COURTESY OF HARVARD ATHLETICS

Harvard women’s basketball team huddles during the first half. KACY BAO

— CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Senior guard Harmoni Turner fights through Michigan State’s defense. KACY BAO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Sophomore Karlee White shoots a corner three. KACY BAO — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Koskenvuo Transitions to the Canucks

BY BIANCA M. EGAN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Since skating for the first time, Aku Koskenvuo dreamed about gliding with the pros in the NHL. Being a draft prospect is exciting for any hockey player, but signing to one’s childhood team is an unmatched experience. Koskenvuo, a proud three year goaltender for Harvard, will be taking everything he learned with him to his next destination: the Vancouver Canucks.

On Mar. 18, Koskenvuo signed an entry level contract with the Canucks, in yet another

change from playing at home in Espoo, Finland. “It’s gonna definitely be a new transition in my life again,” the NHL-bound goalie said.

From playing internationally in Finland to Division I in the United States, and now moving to Vancouver for professional hockey, Koskenvuo adds that, “just focusing on your own thing” has been key to him remaining present throughout his career, and will continue to center him as he moves forward.

The star goalie will also have no problem bringing his enthusiasm and excitement to the Canucks. Competing at the highest level has always been his primary aspiration.

“It’s like one of those childhood dreams come true,” he said.

Through years of training at Canucks development camps, Koskenvuo has familiarized himself with other draftees, prospects, and the team’s staff. The opportunity to develop as a player alongside incredible talent is once in a lifetime, made even more rewarding by the privilege of representing multiple homes.

“There’s always great pride when you get to represent your own country, be a Finn out in the big world,” he explained. “I’m trying to do my best to represent Finland and my family and friends as well as I can.”

Being from Harvard, too, has its own sense of pride. “There’s so many incredible people at this school, and being able to represent a small part of that, trying to show Harvard student athletes what we are, and represent them well,” he said.

During his career at Harvard, Koskenvuo developed significantly as a player. He attributed this to fellow goalkeepers Mitchell Gibson, Derek Mullahy and Ben Charette, who “taught me so much about the game.”

“It’s just an honor being able to practice and compete with world class guys like them,” he added.

With a career average goals allowed of 2.91 and a save average of .905, Koskenvuo’s performance with the Crimson has been one of many successes.

The skills learned off the ice are as important — if not more valuable — than those taught in the rink. Being an athlete at Harvard requires discipline, hard work, and above all, perseverance.

“It’s a great blessing, but also a challenge to be a student-athlete at Harvard, and really does push you to your limits.”

Koskenvuo highly valued the difficulty of balancing academics and athletics at an institution like Harvard.

“The lessons you learn as a student-athlete at Harvard, I don’t think you can learn them from anywhere else,” he added. However, it’s the lifelong friendships and memories in Cambridge that stand out most to Koskenvuo.

“Every time we win,” he ex -

plained. “All the boys rally up together, and we get into a huge pile. Everyone’s just screaming and shouting and everyone’s hyped. It’s just such a great, exciting feeling winning a game.

I think it’s just the best feeling ever. That’s the high you’re chasing all the time. When all the boys get together you feel like you accomplish something together, as teammates, as brothers.”

Koskenvuo ended his time with the Crimson on a special note, with the team making it to the quarterfinals of the ECAC playoffs. The team fell to Clarkson in a nail-biting game 3, but the goaltender made spectacular saves and was a major source of strength for the team.

In his last collegiate games, he said it was simply “A great honor just being out with the guys.”

While accomplishing a lifelong goal of playing professional hockey is an incredible feat,

Harvard Lacrosse Dominates BU 16-7

BY KATHARINE A. FORST CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

The dogs certainly weren’t let out on Tuesday night on Jordan Field as the No. 13 Harvard men’s lacrosse team (6-2, 1-1 Ivy) bested the No. 17 Boston University Terriers 16-7 in a contest that was dominated entirely by the Crimson. In a game that has been rebranded to The Charles River Rivalry, there wasn’t much of a healthy competition as the Crimson ended the first half up nine goals in a 12-3 lead that would never swing back into the Terriers’ favor. From BU Head Coach Ryan Polley’s technical foul on his attempt to call a third TO in the second quarter after using his allotted two to regroup early on, the Harvard bench knew that it was doing something right. In a game that was predicted to be much closer given BU’s OT upset win over No. 3 Army over the weekend, there was never hesitation as to who would walk off the field victorious.

“On the defensive side, when a team beats a No. 3 team in the country, it just makes the game more important,” junior defenseman Charlie Muller said. “And they’ve proven that when they play disciplined and play thoroughly that they can beat anyone in the country. For us to hold them to seven goals shows the talent that we have from the top down, and that we can hang with any team in the nation.” Setting the tone early was co-captain and standout defenseman Martin Nelson, who got things going on a fast-break pole goal off the assist from junior attackman Teddy Malone, who hit the cutting Nelson on a slick feed for a textbook finish just 22 seconds into the contest. The next three also went in for the Crimson, with junior middie Andrew Perry sniping the underside of the crossbar about a minute later on a left-to-right split that left his defender trailing. Sophomore attackman Jack Speidell had a day, with two of his five goals dropping in next to push Harvard to a 4-0 run. Both of the goals resulted

from Speidell’s sneaking the pipe, exploiting his defender’s getting caught ball-watching, which allowed him to creep around the opposing side of the

Senior middie Owen Gaffney took it to the hoop first on a right-to-left split down the wing in a move nearly identical to his snipe against Princeton

Aurandt didn’t even need the full 20, all he needed was five seconds to make some magic. Barrelling by his SSDM matchup, Aurandt took it down the

cage for a slick set of high-to-low passes first from Malone, and then from captain and attackman Sam King about three minutes later. Just a second-year, the St. Anthony’s product is making light work of some of the best defensive units in the nation.

“Jack [Speidell] won’t say it himself, but as a defender, sneaking pipes makes it really, really hard to play defense, and Jack got like three goals sneaking the pipes,” Muller said. “And that makes it almost impossible to play team defense, so from the attack, I think sneaking was a big emphasis.”

In between Speidell’s snipes the Terriers called a much-needed TO to regroup, but that decision ultimately came back to haunt them later in the contest, when the team found itself needing an additional reprieve from Harvard’s offensive onslaught. BU would crawl back into contention with two quick goals to make it a 4-2 game, but three responding snipes from Harvard would show who wanted it more.

last weekend. The next goal was quarterbacked by King following a win on the faceoff that fell in favor of the Crimson on a technical, as the senior made a nasty move on the right side of the crease that allowed him to find the inside lane on his matchup. The next faceoff went in favor of the Terriers, but senior SSDM Ray Dearth wasn’t about to let the visiting team take it to the cage.

On a stellar save from a pointblank bouncer, freshman goaltender Graham Stevens — who went over 50 percent last night — found Dearth on the quick outlet, and the veteran fought through a swarm of red jerseys before taking it across the midline. Showing poise throughout the entire contest, Harvard really worked through its entire possession clock, which allowed it to maintain its lead. Rotating on its middies, the attack got the ball to junior John Aurandt IV, who held at the midline until the clock hit 20, working through for one last take before the buzzer.

middle with his left hand, not even drawing a slide from the BU defense as he sprinted down towards the cage. A lethal outside shooter, the Terriers’ miscommunication on sending the help sealed the nail in the coffin as the clock hit 15 seconds.

The bench erupted. From that moment on, it was all Harvard.

The opening four goals of the second period dropped squarely in favor of the Crimson, the first one just 35 seconds into play on the man up snipe from middie Miles Botkiss. The crafty senior found a lane down the left alley and sent a little bouncer past the BU netminder on the feed from junior co-captain Logan Ip. The next faceoff was won by the Crimson, and despite a good offensive possession, the ball was turned over to the Terriers, who were subsequently shut down by Harvard’s low defense. Nelson, who held BU’s leading point scorer Timothy Shannehan to zero goals, made the smart move on a quick slide, getting on the hands of a BU middie and

forcing the contested GB before sending it into space for Mueller, who took his chances on a winding pole goal.

“We slid to our shorties well,” Muller said. “Our shorties have been getting heat from Coach about not getting out, but they got out today. They made contact, we were able to slide, and we also dug deep. In the third quarter they had four possessions in a row when we had trouble clearing, and the fact that we were able to get those stops, and provide cushion on those punches, is why we won this game.”

Not wasting the unsettled chance, Harvard realized that BU still hadn’t recovered from the fast break, and in its four-onthree matchup, Speidell again crept around the side of the cage from X for a quick hit from Malone and an instantaneous righty snipe. The BU defense shook its head in disbelief; such a blatant miscommunication on the substitution is not expected from a top-20 program, and the Terriers’ clearly recognized that as they called for their second TO to work through the kinks.

BU won the next face off, but Stevens read the Terriers’ attempt at an outside shot the entire way, making the easy stickside high save before finding the low outlet, who quickly hit junior SSDM Owen Guest. Guest — a high-IQ junior out of the Brunswick School — recognized that BU had left its net unguarded in the 10-man ride, and slung the ball almost 80 yards where it hit twine.

The Harvard bench found yet another Sports Center Top-10 worthy play to celebrate.

The next goal was also the result of an open net on the fast break, this time scored by Malone who received a long, arcing pass across midfield from Muller, who found the sophomore waiting in the low right corner. Malone got underneath his guy and bounced it squarely in the middle of the cage. There was no missing that one.

One more goal would go for each team, with Gaffney repeating the same move down the left alley to end the first 30 minutes of play.

there is also a bittersweetness that comes with the transition. Koskenvuo acknowledged that saying goodbye to the Crimson is difficult, but that the growth he experienced as a person and the family-like bonds formed, has made for an incredible three years. Despite his early departure, the goalie wants to have a lasting impact on the program.

“I’ve hoped to maybe instill a hard work ethic. Come in every day, work your ass off,” he said. “And also, remember to smile out there, have fun.” As he moves on to the Canucks, Aku Koskenvuo expressed gratitude to everyone who has gotten him to this point. His time at Harvard will remain special to him for many reasons, but above all he maintains that he’s “grateful for everything the team has done for me, and the opportunity that it has given me.”

bianca.egan@thecrimson.com

The first half was the decider for the contest, as Harvard found glory just four more times in the subsequent two quarters — including two more for Speidell, one more for King, and one for junior LSM Sean Jordan on a fast break opportunity — and BU only clawing its way back into contention with four more goals.

The defense — which was captained by Nelson and Dearth — played stellar team D through the whole evening. Coming back into competition following an injury that has kept him sidelined through the first seven games was senior defender Tommy Martinson, who wasted no time in tallying a GB and CTO in just his first few minutes back on the field. Rotating in players through the fourth quarter, Harvard showed the depth of its bench and its ability to adapt to new lines being introduced. While the first half was marked by clean, responsible play from the Crimson, the second half was decidedly sloppier, with the team failing to clear the ball on several occasions, and forcing offensive possessions that gave BU extra opportunities on its attack. Overall, though, the team showed up and did what it needed to do to secure the win.

“They came back after halftime pretty hot, they had the ball for the majority of that third quarter,” Botkiss said. “They battled back and we withstood the punches and came back to finish on top. It was a great team win.” Even withstanding the punches, the squad has areas of improvement heading into its next game on Saturday. According to Speidell, the imperative is “coming out hot and winning those first five minutes” to ensure that the team can once again protect its home turf. Heading into play this weekend, the squad will face off in another non-conference contest against Binghamton on Saturday. The game is set to take place at 1 p.m. on Jordan Field, and the action will also be streamed live on ESPN+.

Harvard rejoices after scoring one of 16 goals against the Terriers. ASSMA ALREFAI — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Koskenvuo skates off the ice at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center. ASSMA ALREFAI — CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

The Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard presents RUHA BENJAMIN

Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and Founding Director of the Ida B. Wells JUST Data Lab

LECTURE ONE

WHO OWNS THE FUTURE? THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENTSIA & THE NEW EUGENICS

Wednesday, April 9 at 4pm

John Knowles Paine Concert Hall, Music Building

RESPONDENT

Evelynn Hammonds

Harvard University

LECTURE TWO

DYSTOPIA, UTOPIA, OR USTOPIA? FROM ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO ABUNDANT IMAGINATION

Thursday, April 10 at 4pm

John Knowles Paine Concert Hall, Music Building

RESPONDENT

Tracy K. Smith

Harvard University and Harvard Radcliffe Institute

SEMINAR

Friday, April 11 at 12pm Thompson Room, Barker Center 110

MODERATOR

Gabeba Baderoon

Harvard Radcliffe Institute and Penn State University

The Lectures are free and open to the public. The seminar is open to Harvard ID-holders only, and registration is required. For full details, visit mahindrahumanities.harvard.edu

IMAGINING BEYOND THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENTSIA

RUHA BENJAMIN

TANNER LECTURES ON HUMAN VALUES | APRIL 9–11, 2025