The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873
FACULTY
| VOLUME CLII, NO.25 | CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
|
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2025
ELECTIONS
Planning Group Draws Up Bylaws for Faculty Senate SKETCHING A SENATE. A University-wide planning body recommended a 34-member senate with advisory, but not legislative, powers.
Cambridge Elections 2025
SEE PAGE 15
EDUCATION
Full School Committee Was Not Told of $40K Payment to Search Firm FINE PRINT. Cambridge quietly paid The Equity Process an additional $40,000 for a large amount of work that was included in the firm’s previous contract. SEE PAGE 17
ELECTION PREVIEW. Cambridge voters will head to the polls on Nov. 4, and early voting is underway. As residents decide who will fill Cambridge’s nine City Council positions and six at-large School Committee seats in a historically competitive year, read The Crimson’s coverage of the candidates, the issues, and the campaigns. SEE PAGE 4 XINYI C. ZHANG — CRIMSON DESIGNER
ADMISSIONS
Harvard Bans Alumni Interviewers From Sharing Applicants’ Race, Ethnicity, or National Origin BY CASSIDY M. CHENG AND ELIAS M. VALENCIA CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
COLLEGE
Students Slam Grade Inflation Report BACKLASH. Harvard students pushed back forcefully against a new University report condemning grade inflation, arguing that it misrepresented their academic experience and would add pressure to an already demanding campus environment. SEE PAGE 16
H
arvard has warned alumni interviewers not to include any information about an applicant’s race, ethnicity, or national origin in their written evaluations this admissions cycle — or risk seeing their evaluations thrown out. The changes have been shared with alumni interviewers in a series of training sessions conducted this fall. They are also cemented in a new line in the alumni interviewer handbook: “Since race, ethnicity, and national origin may not be considered, interviewers should not reference them in the interview report.” In a recording of one training session for interviewers obtained by The Crimson, interviewers were instructed by admissions office administrators not to report the languages applicants say they speak. They were told not to mention the religions
Harvard Closes Dental Center in Cambridge BUDGET CUTS. The Harvard School of Dental Medicine’s dean announced the permanent shutdown last month, citing “current financial challenges.” The center had previously been closed for six months after a fire. A second clinic remains in Longwood. SEE PAGE 13
ly complying by this law and really not considering race, ethnicity, or national origin” in admissions,” Hoffstot said. A Harvard spokesperson declined to comment on the change. In the information session, Annie Medina, an assistant director of admissions, cautioned attendees to not share the change publicly. “We don’t want students to be debriefed on this kind of update and your limitations in writing the report,” Medina said. The latest changes go much further than previous amendments to Harvard’s alumni interview policy. After the Supreme Court ruled against the University in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, Harvard told alumni interviewers to not consider an interviewee’s race, ethnicity, or country of origin in evaluating applicants. However, interviewers were still permitted to write about those facts in their written reports. Now, interviewers will not even have that option. In the training session, Hoffstot provid-
ed examples of information that interviewers may and may not share under the new guidelines. Interviewers may write that a student speaks a second language at home, but not specify which language it is. If a student is an immigrant, they may write that the student immigrated from a different country — but not what country of origin they are from. When it comes to extracurriculars, interviewers cannot mention the specific name of an affinity group. Under the new policy, if an applicant founded their school’s Black Student Union, their interviewer would write that the student leads an affinity, community, or cultural group — without specifying anything about race or ethnicity. Interviewers were also instructed not to name students’ religions. Though only Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh students are protected from religious discrimination based on
SEE INTERVIEWS ON PAGE 12
STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
COLLEGE
Salient Vows To Resist Suspension by Board
Report Says Harvard Gives Too Many A Grades
BY SAMUEL A. CHURCH AND CAM N. SRIVASTAVA CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
HEALTH
applicants say they practice, the racial or ethnic organizations they are part of, or the countries their families come from. Interviewers should instead use vague language, referring to “affinity groups” and “faith events,” to describe applicants’ backgrounds, beliefs, and activities. Otherwise, their interview reports will be discarded, they were told. The change comes two years after the Supreme Court ruled against Harvard’s use of race-conscious admissions — and as the Trump administration attempts to classify a broad range of practices as racial discrimination. But, though the interview guideline is new, one of the administrators leading the training session — associate director of admissions Maeve U. Hoffstot ’17 — clarified that “it’s no change in our compliance with the law as it has existed since 2023 in the Supreme Court’s decision.” The change “will help us continue to prove time and time again, as we are being asked to do these days, that we are absolute-
Harvard Salient editor-in-chief Richard Y. Rodgers ’28 announced on Tuesday that the conservative student magazine would remain active despite a Sunday statement from its board of directors suspending its operations pending a conduct investigation. Rodgers wrote in an email to the Salient’s mailing list that the board’s decision to temporarily halt its operations was “an unauthorized usurpation of power by a small number of individuals acting outside the bounds of their authority.” “This action was taken without notice to or consent from the duly appointed leadership of the organization and in direct violation of the bylaws governing The Harvard Salient,” Rodgers wrote. “The Harvard Salient continues to operate under its legitimate editorial leadership until further notice.” Rodger’s message came two days after the Salient’s 10-member board of directors announced the suspension, citing material published in the magazine that the board found “reprehensi-
ble, abusive, and demeaning” as well as “deeply disturbing and credible complaints about the broader culture of the organization.” The board’s statement did not detail the complaints, nor did it specify the published material at issue. It was unclear which pieces in the publication — which prides itself on standing against “liberal orthodoxy” and has not shied away from publishing material that some students find offensive or hateful — led the board to take the extraordinary step of ceasing the Salient’s operations entirely. But an article in the magazine’s September edition drew controversy over language echoing a line from a speech Adolf Hitler gave in 1939. Rodgers defended the piece and wrote that the article’s author and editors did not intentionally quote Hitler. A different Salient story, published online following the early September killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, described the left as “our enemies.” The Salient’s bylaws, as they appear on Harvard’s internal student organization directory, describe its student leadership structure but do not contain any mention of the board of directors.
SEE SALIENT ON PAGE 11
BY SAMUEL A. CHURCH AND CAM N. SRIVASTAVA CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
More Harvard College students than ever are passing their classes with flying colors, but the College’s evaluation system is “failing to perform the key functions of grading,” according to a report released by the Office of Undergraduate Education on Monday. The 25- page report, which was sent to faculty and Harvard College students on Monday, found that more than 60 percent of grades awarded to Harvard undergraduates are A’s, compared to only a quarter of grades two decades ago. It concluded that Harvard’s current grading system is “damaging the academic culture of the College.” In the 25-page report, Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh argued that the rising share of A grades necessitates reforms to “restore the integrity of our grading and return the academic culture of the College to what it was in the recent past.” A faculty committee is exploring whether instructors should be able to award a limited number of A+ grades to undergraduates to crack down on grade inflation, according to the report. The highest grade undergraduates can currently receive is an A. The committee is also considering a proposal to
include the median grade for every course on a student’s transcript. Concern over high grades at Harvard is not new. Two years ago, Claybaugh presented a report to Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences calling attention to skyrocketing undergraduate marks. A faculty committee concluded in January that undergraduates frequently prioritize other commitments over their classes. The latest report was released less than a month after the phenomenon catapulted back to national attention, with a New York Times headline concluding that “Harvard Students Skip Class and Still Get High Grades.” President Donald Trump and White House officials have repeatedly called the intelligence of Harvard’s student body into question. The report drew on years of data on student grades and course evaluations, as well as surveys of faculty and student leaders conducted this summer. “Nearly all faculty expressed serious concern,” Claybaugh wrote in the report. “They perceive there to be a misalignment between the grades awarded and the quality of student work.” Grade inflation has accelerated in the past decade, according to Claybaugh. Since
SEE REPORT ON PAGE 16