Harvard University

Newman, who is now in his final year at Howard completing his doctoral thesis, was initially afraid to speak out about his experience at Harvard because of potential legal or reputational retribution but affirmed that he did nothing wrong. “I was absolutely passionate,” he said. “I was very diligent in my research and in my work.”

He had been hired as part of a diversity initiative to “cultivate the next generation” of researchers and librarians from underrepresented backgrounds, but Newman said he was fired for false accusations, and the work he did for Harvard remains unpublished.

“It was very triggering for me on various levels,” he said, “particularly with the presence of the police and just how everything happened so abruptly”. But the lingering feeling a year and a half later, he says, is disappointment. “There was a great opportunity for Harvard to really be involved with the outside community,” he said. “They turned their backs.”

As for the content of the emails… much of it is, in a word, gross. Certainly, we all write emails that, deprived of context, could embarrass us if they went public. But Summers’ emails went to a deeper, darker place; there is no context that absolves them. An ongoing theme is his recurring need for fraternal support from Epstein, repeatedly asking for advice on how to prolong an affair with a younger woman who was not his wife. In one exchange, Epstein called himself Summers’ “wing man.” The two men referred to the object of Summers’ lust — reported by the Harvard Crimson to be a Chinese economist — as “peril,” apparently short for “yellow peril,” the racist canard dating to Western imperialism of the late 19th century. When the clandestine relationship appeared to be fizzling out, Summers lamented that he “dint [sic] want to be in a gift giving competition while being the friend without benefits.” That sounds disturbingly like a sexual quid pro quo. In November 2018 Summers wrote, “I think for now I’m going nowhere with her except economics mentor,” which is the kind of relationship that should make Harvard think twice about Larry Summers, teacher.

The suit lists the direct experiences of five anonymous students who allege Harvard’s mental health policies and practices directly harm them. The students report having to sign the contract and receive specific mental health treatment.

One of the plaintiffs was barred by the University from entering campus after experiencing a mental health-related hospitalization, resulting in her having to take a semester-long leave of absence.

“Because Harvard did not permit Student A back on campus after her hospitalization, even to finish final exams, she risked being forced into an academic withdrawal,” the group wrote in the suit. “Given the limited choice between being forced into academic withdrawal or taking a medical leave of absence for the rest of the term and entire next semester, Student A chose the latter.”

The lawsuit also cited an instance where a student “was deterred from seeking on-campus mental health treatment for suicidal ideation because she feared that she would be placed on a leave of absence” as an example of how the University’s policies allegedly harm students on campus.

Determined to move to a suite that fit her needs, Shang called her DAO adviser, who said that they were not working and would deal with her situation the next day. They told her not to call again and hung up.

Eventually, administrators, including her DAO officer, Faculty Dean, and Building Manager, told her they would resolve the situation within a week. For two days, Shang was left in her room, unable to unpack, unable to shower, and unable to leave her room for meals or gatherings without her PCA. Shang felt that none of the administrators acknowledged the gravity of her situation.

After many more emails urging them to fix the problem sooner, Shang finally moved into the suite that she had been promised.

“The DAO’s actions don’t reflect a genuine care for students with disabilities,” she says. “What happened to me should never happen to any student.”

At least five armed Harvard University Police Department officers raided an undergraduate suite in Leverett House in response to a false 911 call about an armed individual in the suite early Monday morning.

The four Harvard College seniors in the suite, who are Black, awoke to the sound of banging on their door. Moments later, HUPD officers ordered them into the hallway at gunpoint.

HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano said in an interview that Harvard University Police were dispatched to the building after a report “threatening violence against occupants.” The officers searched the Leverett House suite with “negative results for an individual with a firearm or any persons acting in a suspicious manner,” Catalano said.

In 2020, after Lilia Kilburn, a graduate student, filed a formal complaint notifying Harvard University that an anthropology professor was sexually harassing her, an investigation was opened, as required by federal law.

What happened next stunned Ms. Kilburn, according to her lawyers.

In the course of that investigation, Harvard obtained notes from her psychotherapy sessions, according to a federal lawsuit filed last week in Boston, and gave them to John Comaroff — the professor she had accused of kissing, hugging and groping her — who then used them to try to undermine her credibility, according to the lawsuit.

In the wide-ranging lawsuit by Ms. Kilburn and two other graduate students, Ms. Kilburn accuses Harvard of obtaining her confidential therapy records without her consent and then giving them to Dr. Comaroff, as well as to other Harvard officials.