Scrutiny
Volume XXXV, Issue IV
Dear FM, Spring is in the air. The air today may have been rainy and still a bit chilly, but it’s there. We are crawling out of the 30º weather, crawling out of dark-at-4pm-days, crawling out of the trenches, and facing the light — of our biggest FM issue yet. Opening this issue is another incredible scrut by iconic duo JL and ESKS on Harvard’s efforts — or lack thereof — in fulfilling the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Progress on this front has been slow, spanning over three decades now, and time after time, we have covered this. But what’s missing has been the emotional toll that such slow work takes on Indigenous tribes who are waiting to be reunited with the remains of their ancestors and burial items. With a balance of human-centered reporting and retrospective research, this scrut brings out exactly that, set on the foreground of questions surrounding colonialism and what it means to repair relations. This theme of bringing out the faces in our reporting runs through the rest of our issue. DRZ strikes with yet another extremely well-reported 15Q with psychiatrist and medical anthropologist Arthur M. Kleinman that touches on not just his academic work, but also his experiences caring for his late wife until her death. It is profound and touching and made both HD and me cry — and got raving reviews from MJH, who said, "Good 15Q." Next, DRZ and SSL embark on a journey to Vilna Shul in Boston, where they make pickles while talking to people about finding Jewish community in the city. KJK writes an incredibly colorful profile of Wesley Wang ’26, whose short film “nothing, except everything.” won him national attention, and who is now on a path to creating a full-length feature film. Language, too, is a theme in this issue as TMR writes about the complex history of the Eliot Bible, which was originally written in 1663 in Wôpanâak to Christianize local Indigenous tribes but is now being used in language preservation efforts. MTB talks to Ava E. Silva ’27 about a project she is spearheading to preserve the endangered Alabama language. In a retrospection that reads almost like historical fiction, AI brings to life the philosophers’ camp that would happen in the Adirondacks in the 19th century — except it was really “far more ‘philosopher’ than ‘camp.’” In the spirit of spring, FM staff gives Josh advice again, this time, on when winter ends. Finally, wrapping up our issue is an poignant endpaper by XSC exploring what it means to be Asian non-American; an international student living in the U.S., trying to figure out who and how to be. Now, a huge list of kudos are in order! Super duper special shoutout to SET, LJPE, XCZ, JND, OWZ, and all the other design execs for not just churning out fire graphics as usual, but for making our VERY FIRST GLOSSY possible!! (Extra love to SET and LJPE for answering all of HD’s and my glossy questions.) Special shoutout to AHL and IYG for all the how-to videos and guides that literally carried me through glossy production, and also for the emotional support slug plush. Thank you to LLL and BHP for coordinating multi things for us, and to JJG and AYL for amazing Quad Bikes photos + glossy spread. Thank you to MJH, EJS, and CY for diligent proofing, editorial wisdom, and, of course, vibes. Thank you to YAK, SSL, and DRZ for planning a very flower very power mixer. Thank you JL and YAK for helping us handle our ever-growing! content and for the best pitch email conceits. Thank you all FM execs for pulling through for our biggest issue yet and staying on top of shit even though it’s been midterm hell for a lot of you. And finally, thank you to HD for being my partner-in-chaos and for becoming an InDesign master overnight so our next glossy will go by even more smoothly. FMLove, HD + KT
The Painful Progress of Native American Repatriation
Over three decades after the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was passed, the Peabody Museum has repatriated less than half of its holdings. For tribes who are waiting to receive their ancestors and funerary belongings, this slow progress has taken a heavy toll.
Volume XXXV, Issue III
Dear FM, This week, I am a little ashamed to admit, I entered my gym bro era. If you see me stomping down the Cabot tunnels wearing bulky headphones and a tank top, I’m sorry. To the dismay of many people in my life, I have suddenly found myself wholly devoted to the pursuit of gains. I don’t know when the gains will come — or when I’ll snap out of it. But I do know this: in the meantime, there’s a new issue to read. IYG kicks us off with a top-notch cover story on the uncertain future of diversity and inclusion at Harvard. Amid nationwide controversy over allegations of antisemitism on university campuses, Harvard’s DEI efforts have come under fire from conservative activists. But this attack was brewing long before Oct. 7, and now many within the University are also calling for reform. How will Harvard respond? It is a fascinating and vital story: if you want to understand the ideological battle over Harvard’s values and campus culture, this is a must-read. Editing this piece, I have been in awe of the clarity and nuance of IYG’s writing, the ocean-floor depth of her reporting, and the unbelievable amount of work she has put in over the last month. Next up, JL gets a golf cart tour of the Arnold Arboretum from its director, Professor Ned Friedman, and asks him (almost) 15 Questions about his love of plants, evolution before Darwin, and “botanizing.” SSL visits the Abigail Adams Institute, which is trying to resurrect a more “traditional” vision of the humanities. VWR takes a trek up to Cabot House and talks to the student managers of the recently-reopened Quad Bikes about fixing tires and sustainable transit. And doubling back for this week’s endpaper, SSL reveals her defining personality trait: a penchant for asking to pet strangers’ dogs. Some thanks are in order: to GRW for sticking out a multi-day scroofing process and to IYG for not going over the semicolon budget. Thank you to SET, LPE, and the design execs for putting together a magnificent short-notice glossy, to LLL and BHP for holding down the Multi fort, and to MJH, CY, and EJS for making sure nobody runs into brick walls. Thank you to our lovely FM execs, to our new compers for bringing great pitches to writer’s meeting, to YAK and JL for making EAL meetings so entertaining, and to KT, for weathering storms and always, always helping. FMLove, HD & KT
Harry Lewis DEI Scrut
Former Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 wants Harvard to re-evaluate the effectiveness of its equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging programs.
The Fight Over DEI Arrives at Harvard
Diversity, equity, and inclusion at Harvard has come under fire from conservative activists, and now many within the University are calling on Harvard to reform. Will the administration stand by its current DEI efforts, or will it change course?
Suk Gersen DEI Scrut Portrait
According to Harvard Law School professor Jeannie Suk Gersen, the “seeping of D.E.I. programs into many aspects of university life” has led to a troubling problem with free expression on campus.
Andrew Ho DEI Scrut
Graduate School of Education professor Andrew D. Ho has worked extensively on Harvard’s equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging efforts.
Hillel Interior
Harvard Hillel, the oldest and largest center for Jewish life on campus, is one of the organizations that has seen internal changes as students have grappled with these difficult questions involving their identities.
Volume XXXV, Issue II
Dear FM, This week was the week of love. Mushy gushy Valentine’s Day love? Sure. Gal/bro/non-gender-specific-friends-lentines love? Hit me. But most of all, this was the week of love for hometowns, nonstandard units of length, and unhinged answers on the Datamatch survey. First-time scrut writers and news reporter extraordinaires MAH and AJM brought to the cover of this issue their labor of love: a long-awaited scrut on Jewish students’ and organizations’ challenges navigating the politicization of antisemitism and their identities following Oct. 7. It is a deeply important and well-reported piece, full of interviews with students with a range of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. It is interrogative yet respectful, compelling and sharp, targeting questions about defining antisemitism and the political tensions within and between groups that our existing coverage has long danced around. Words cannot emphasize how amazing this piece is — MAH and AJM, I am completely blown away by both of you. The rest of this issue, too, is full of labors of love, from the silly to the serious — and everything in between! For this week’s 15Q, DRZ speaks to biological anthropologist Daniel E. Lieberman about exercise and evolution, barefoot running, and his paper on why pregnant people don’t just “tip over.” YAK, ever on her relationships/sex/conservatism(?) beat, speaks to the matchmakers advertising clients in personals in the Harvard Magazine. After attending an event on historians’ and scientists’ efforts to identify the enslaved individuals buried in the Catoctin Furnace Cemetery, AI investigates the role of gene sequencing in tracing African American history. CJK speaks to Lee S. Smith ’69, managing editor of his class’s Harvard Yearbook, about photojournalism and documenting the Black political activism of his time. On a lighter note, OGP and AEP talked to Oliver R. Smoot about how there came to be markings on the Harvard Bridge measuring it in terms of his height. Prolific JKW, carrier of FM, strikes again with a levity on a perfectly horrific Datamatch date between Pisa Schitt and Steve Vulguy. And finally, tying our issue to a close, SZS writes a beautiful homage to her hometown, Chico, CA, which she learned to love when she finally left it. Thank you SET, LPE, and design execs for amazing graphics always and for helping with glossy planning. Thank you to LLL and BHP, our beloved FM-multi execs, for helping us with getting photos — I know it can be tough! Thank you to MJH, EJS, and CY, the holy trinity of damage control. Thank you to all FM execs, especially YAK for diligent scroofing, and JL and YAK for keeping FM a well-oiled machine. And of course, thank you to HD for your support this week, your speedy proofing, and your quick thinking — what would I do without you? FMLove, HD & KT
Harvard Chabad House
The Chabad house is tall and tan and fits in well with the other 19th-century-style homes on the street where it sits. If you pass by on a Tuesday night when the weather is good, you’ll see a crowd of people talking, eating and laughing.
‘And Then The Politics Came Into It’: Evolving Jewish Community Spaces at Harvard
While political tensions are pervasive to many, and dictate the actions of some, many Jewish students have remained united by the recognition of a common identity with some of those they disagree with, and an aspiration for mutual understanding.
Volume XXXV, Issue I
Dear FM, This weekend, it has felt like winter might already be over. But the new year of Fifteen Minutes is only just beginning, and we are brimming with joy to be bringing you its first issue. In this week’s cover story, AEP and first-time scrut writer CNS investigate the high school creative writing competition circuit. Contests like YoungArts and the Scholastic Awards offer students a chance to showcase their literary talent and can open pathways to prestigious colleges, but they can also incentivize students to commodify their identity or write about painful experiences. The jury’s still out on the competitions, but you don’t need a judge to tell you how hard our two brilliant reporters worked to put together such a sharp story — I’m so proud of them. Leading us into the issue is a trio of 15Qs: JL chats with the newly-minted Nobel Prize winner Claudia Goldin about economics and Barbie; JKW talks to HLS professor Jeannie Suk Gersen, who has incisive answers on everything from free speech to fast fashion; and ESK receives insights and book recommendations from Sarah Richardson, a historian who founded an interdisciplinary gender science lab. This rest of this issue takes us far from home — in time, in place, and in magnitude. JKW uncovers the strange history of Harvard’s 17th-century ferry monopoly and the Supreme Court case it eventually inspired. MAT reflects on what fossil fuels and their precarious future mean to his community in Texas’s Permian Basin, which produces most of the country’s oil and gas. Finally, in a delicate and beautiful endpaper, EMK questions her relationship to science, poetry, and approximation. Thank you to SET, LPE, JJG, AYL — and everyone else from Multi and Design who held our hands through this issue — and to our trio of guiding lights: MJH, EJS, and CY. Thank you to our execs, especially SEW for extremely efficient scrut-proofing, to our new Editors-At-Large YAK and JL for top-tier themes on their pitch emails, and of course to my co-chair KT for being on top of everything, always. A special thank you to IYG and AHL, for tutorials that make adminning feel like Mario Kart, for banana slug plushies, and for making sure we were as prepared for this role as possible. We can only hope to be as steadfast and strong for this coming year as you were in your leadership. And what a year we have ahead of us. FMLove, HD & KT
Craft or Commodity? The ‘Paradox’ of High School Creative Writing Competitions
Creative writing contests aim to promote self expression and foster a new generation of artists. But does turning creative writing into a competition for admissions erode its artistic purpose?
Creative writing competitions scrut cover graphic
By propelling winners to elite colleges and empowering them to pursue writing, these competitions can change the course of students’ lives. But the pressure to win can also stunt young writers’ growth and complicate their relationship with their craft and themselves.
Volume XXXIV, Issue XX
Dear Reader, This semester has gone by all too fast. Just as the year seems to have started, the end of the semester is upon us. But for this year’s seniors, the semester’s end is just the first of many lasts, the primer to many goodbyes. But before they leave, FM has profiled 15 of those graduating seniors. To select them, we asked students to nominate seniors for different superlative categories, just like your old high school yearbook. In this issue, we profiled the Class of 2024’s Most Likely to be President, Most Whimsical, Biggest Risk-taker, and Most Chill, among others. Read on to see how these seniors both fit and transcend their categories and to learn about all the cool things they’ve gotten up to in their four years in college — one senior competed on American Idol, another spent a summer cataloging a papuan language, and yet another is researching how the post-industrial Western diet has changed humans’ gut microbiota and overall health. Harvard kids, am I right? Read HWD’s 15Q with Yevgenia Albats, the editor-in-chief and CEO of the Russian publication The New Times. Don’t forget to check out PC’s comic on pregaming and SWF’s amazing crossword, the last one of the year (!), and try to find the easter egg for each profiled senior. Also check out our “Parting Shots” to read our reflections from our outgoing and incoming mastheads. Ending the issue are endpapers from CJC and BLK, the 150th’s president and managing editor. In her endpaper, CJC writes about what it means to lead The Crimson, and how all that takes on new stakes and new meaning during times of crisis. BLK reflects on the ways that his father has shaped him. Unlike our dear seniors, we are not graduating at the end of this year, but at the end of this semester we are saying a goodbye of our own and stepping down as the chairs of Fifteen Minutes. We’d be remiss to sign off without sharing a few words of gratitude. Thank you to SS, SCS, MHS, MQ, JH, JJG, and SET for maestro magic. Your photos and designs never cease to amaze, it’s truly been a joy to work with you. Special thanks SET for redesigning the glossy, and for your kindness and constant willingness to help — both as a collaborator and as a friend. BLK and MX, thank you so much for grounding us this year. Your wisdom, support, and care made all that we do possible. CJC, thank you for leading this building with such impressive competence and grace, and for truly caring and believing in the work that FM does. To FM’s execs: You have been such a joy to work alongside. Thank you to MGB, poet extraordinaire, and always-composed JL for being such diligent and kind comp directors. Thank you BWF for being such a thoughtful and brilliant inquiry editor, and for keeping me humble. Thank you to JKW for being such a caring introspection editor, and for bringing your humor to every meeting. Thank you to CJK for being so real and for absolutely slaying social media with SWF, who, while studying Folk and Myth, is a legend herself. Thank you to DRZ for helping plan so many amazing socials, all while pre-med-ing. Thank you to MMFW for constant fun, always giving us perspective, and radical optimism. Thank you to KLM for bringing the sass and for being so reliable. Thank you to SEW for your constant cheer and enthusiasm, and for getting me through Hist Sci 100. Thank you to GRW for lending us your artistic chops, good convos, and for often lending us a helping hand. Thank you to HD for being such a cool CS major number cruncher for us on AET. Your talents are what really enable our magazine to thrive, and for that we cannot thank you enough. MG and KT, what is there I could possibly say to capture what you have been to this magazine this past year? You have been our foundation, taking on additional editing, and proofing, and scrut editing whenever needed and without a single complaint or hesitation. But more than that, you have been such good friends. We’ve dished, we’ve laughed, we’ve cried (or at least very much wanted to), and you have been there at every turn with words of encouragement, good advice, and a hug. Michal, have such a fantastic time in Rome. I cannot wait to hear all about it next fall. Kaitlyn, I am so for your chairdom, it’s gonna be so great. You two have been the best possible EALs, and I will miss our weekly meetings so so so much. To HD, KT, JL, YAK, AEP, JKW, and the rest of next year’s masthead: I can’t imagine a more talented, funny, and kind group of people to hand this magazine off to. It’s going to be so much fun. To SSL, MVE, thank you for teaching us so much, and for your never ending support. This year would not have been possible without you. To staff writers and recently elected compers: Joining FM, and committing to FM, has been by far the most meaningful thing I have done in college. Thank you for all you have given FM already, and know that though The Crimson can be scary and ask a lot, what you give FM you will get back. Finally, and most of all, Amber. I don’t think “thank you” is even adequate to express how deeply grateful I am to have gotten to work alongside you this year. There have been some real high highs and some real low lows, and through it all you have continued to pour your talents into this magazine and helped curate excellent vibes. This magazine is truly so much better for everything you have given it. Thank you for being such a great partner — I have so needed someone to commiserate with. But more than that, I have cherished our FM debriefs post Chinese class, collecting roast material, the life advice, the funny stories, the friendship. I’m going to miss you so much next semester, but have such a great time in Taiwan (and teach me some slang when you get back). Writing this last closeout was bittersweet, y’all. It’s hard to let go of something you’ve put so much time and care into. Leading FM has truly been such a rewarding and formative experience, and I feel so lucky to have gotten to be FM Chair. So thank you so so much, to everyone who has shown their faith and love for FM, it has been such an honor to know all of you. Retirement here we come! IYG & AHL
Caleb Satchel
A satchel that belonged to Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck. Gift of the American Antiquarian Society, 1890.
‘Medicine for Harvard’: Harvard's Struggles to Repair Relationship with Native American Tribes
It’s been almost 400 years since Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck graduated, and there have been few University-led initiatives to redress or reconcile Harvard’s role in the persecution of Native Americans. Today, few Indigenous students benefit from a Harvard education.
Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck Painting
Painted by Stephen E. Coit ’71 and first displayed in 2010, this is a portrait of Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, Class of 1665, the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College.
Lena Tinker
Lena M. Tinker ’25, a member of the Osage Nation, currently serves as NAHC’s co-president. “NAHC is family, and NAHC is home, and it’s distinctive from any other place on this campus,” she says.
Elizabeth Solomon
Elizabeth E. Solomon ’79, a member of the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag, was one of the first local Indigenous students to graduate from Harvard College after Cheeshahteaumuck and Iacoomes enrolled in 1661, and she’s worked at the University throughout her career, currently working as Director of Administration at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Wayne Newell
Wayne Newell addressing students at the 2018 HUNAP annual Powwow. When he was admitted to the GSE through the AIP, he did not have a bachelor’s degree. “I stayed up all night — and I get emotional to think about this part — and opened my heart to whatever needed to be written on that paper,” Newell said. “And I just wrote and wrote and wrote.”