Shots in the Dark

The Crimson and the Globe both report on the young man who may have shot and killed drug dealer Justin Cosby, but only the Globe reveals that a Harvard woman has been banned from campus and prohibited from graduating because of her relationship with alleged killer Jabrai Jordan Copney.

The woman, whom the Globe describes as a Brooklyn native and Kirkland House resident, may have let the killers into the House….

Drew Faust said the matter raises ”serious concerns that require both serious reflection and action.”

Michael Smith, Evelynn Hammonds, and Allan Brandt detail their cost-cutting philosophy in a Crimson op-ed today.

See if you can make sense of this:

As was publicized and explained, our efforts to trim the FAS budget focused on local planning and efficiency-increasing measures, and it asked the community for ideas. It produced an extensive set of suggestions…..

Must I correct the grammar of three Harvard deans? Isn’t that awkward for all of us?

To be fair, Smith, Hammonds and Brandt are in a difficult position. They find themselves in leadership posts at a time when leadership means packaging and selling bad news.

But to be honest, they do a strikingly bad job of it in this editorial, which reads like a five-year plan from a Soviet committee on agriculture.

As you have heard us say, this approach will most likely involve the restructuring or reshaping of some of our academic programs. Change is difficult, even when the goal is clear, and to successfully overcome the challenge before us….

Most likely involve? Restructuring or reshaping? To successfully overcome?

I mean, really—to successfully overcome?

Try this:

As you have heard us say, tThis approach will most likely involve the restructuring or reshaping of some of our academic programs. Change is difficult. , even when the goal is clear, and To successfully overcome the this challenge before us..

Sheesh. Did these three even read the work of whatever ghostwriter wrote this dreary text? Allan Brandt, you in particular—an accomplished scholar and writer—should know better.

Here’s some more!

The global economic crisis is having powerful impacts on higher education, and neither Harvard nor its peers have been immune. Difficult trade-offs among many traditional commitments have been and will continue to be made. We can promise you that the decisions we make will always reflect our core values, priorities, and mission. While the spotlight of attention will often be pulled toward that which has been eliminated….

While the spotlight of attention will often be pulled?

While my guitar gently weeps.

If candor is a part of leadership ability, and if eloquence helps to lead and inspire in difficult times, then FAS, you are screwed.

The Republican National Committee just passed a resolution condemning the Democratic Party as “dedicated to restructuring American society along socialist ideals.”

The vote, which has no practical impact, was cast as a victory by allies of [RNC chair Michael] Steele who insisted that catastrophe had been averted when an agreement was reached not to bring forward a resolution that would have re-nicknamed the Democratic party as the “Democrat Socialist Party.”

It’s like high school over there….

The Yale Alumni Magazine has a cover story this month about the renaissance of New Haven.

….there is little doubt now that New Haven is a healthier, more prosperous, more fun, and safer city than it has been in the memory of most alumni. “When we use the word ’spiral’ in speaking of our large cities,” wrote the Hartford Courant’s Tom Condon two years ago, “it is almost always preceded by ‘downward.’ In New Haven, they are saying ‘upward.’”

Judging from my own recent visits, this is true—New Haven has become a pleasant little city.

President Richard C. Levin ‘74PhD is even feeling cocky enough to take on Harvard in an area where the Crimson have always had the edge. “I would dare say that today if an alien were dropped from Mars and got to sample Harvard Square and Chapel Street — without being told where he was — he would come away saying that by far the most interesting, safest, cleanest, most active, most vital urban location is New Haven.”

Wow! Them’s fightin’ words….

Scooping the Crimson, the Globe reports that Drew Faust has endorsed federal legislation known as the Dream Act, which would create a pathway to citizenship for students who are also illegal immigrants.

She acknowledged that students with “immigration status issues” attend Harvard, and said the bill would be a “lifeline” to such students.

…Harvard students said they have been lobbying Faust for months on the issue. They held a rally and submitted a petition with 120 signatures, said Harvard junior Kyle de Beausset, one of the organizers….

It’s over!

Truth is, I’m glad—I like Ortiz. He’ll need to come clean about the steroids at some point, in my opinion. But he’s a good guy and 149 at-bats without a home run must have been miserable for him.

Now if he could just go another 149….

Was Justin Cosby Harvard’s drug dealer? (Or one of them?)

Some terrific reporting by the Crimson sure makes it sound that way.

Boy, is this going to be an interesting Commencement…

The website talkingbiznews.com interviewed me about the new Worth. One thing is clear: I need a new picture.

Here’s a difficult journalistic question: How do you balance a desire to avoid racial stereotyping with a desire to report as much information as you can?

Case in point: There’s an interesting debate going on on the Crimson comments section regarding whether the skin color of the young man killed in Kirkland house, and that of the three young men seen fleeing the house, is relevant.

The debate began because the Crimson posted this caption (which now seems to be gone):

“An unidentified black man was shot sometime before 5 p.m. Monday in J-Entry of Kirkland House.”

That caption would certainly strike me as problematic. Of the numerous details one could report about the victim—age, size, etc.—why choose his race?

But the following quote, which is printed in its entirety, also strikes me as problematic:

Bryant Bonner ’09, a student in E-entryway of Kirkland, said he heard bangs while sitting at his desk around 5:00 p.m., then “saw three people running from J-entryway through [his] window. They were wearing baseball caps.”

The article mentions “two or three suspects” several times.

But wouldn’t one want to know more information about these suspects, who appear to have been seen by a number of people? Were they young men wearing baseball caps? White men? Black men? Men or teens? Men or women?

Surely Bryant Bonner could have provided more details. (Perhaps he did, and they weren’t used.)

I’m embarrassed to say that in this context—young people, baseball caps, urban crime, gun use—I reflexively think that the three men fleeing were young black males. Statistically, there’s probably some reason for that, but it’s a regrettable instinct. (What, I wonder, would sociobiologists say?)

The Crimson, however, shouldn’t make the reader guess. There’s no reason not to print that information unless you’re afraid of stereotyping. It’s the newspaper’s job to print the facts.