Editor's Note

Dear Reader, Spring has sprung — it’s been rainy in both our hometowns, and we’ve heard it’s also rainy on campus. We know that April showers bring May flowers; we’re hoping they might also bring a safe end to the pandemic. But until then, our staff is using all that time spent indoors to think — we have lots of personal essays for you this week. HRTW wrote about feeling helpless and isolated in the era of social distancing. JZL narrated her experience of quarantine at home the two weeks following her return from campus. MVE reflected on the ways her mother’s role as an infectious disease doctor is changing life at home. PGS analyzed power dynamics and violence in relationships depicted in pornography and relationships in real life. And MHM wrote our lovely and insightful endpaper this week, about how the way she’s thought about race has changed over time. We’ve also done some remote reporting on how the pandemic has affected Harvard and Cambridge. SSI interviewed the director of the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program about how COVID-19 has affected asylum seekers and those at risk of deportation. JZL investigated the closing of Somerville Hospital’s Emergency Department in the face of a mounting global medical emergency. KL and SMS profiled an expert in handwashing about what role she believes corporations play in fighting the pandemic. And SPM and JEG talked to admitted students about how they will make their college decisions now that they can’t attend welcome weekends. In our cover story for this week, MKT and GWO report on the choice between salary and safety that HUDS workers say they face as a result of Harvard’s paid time off policies. Since employees can only get paid time off through sick days, vacation days, and two weeks of “borrowed time” that they have to eventually pay back, many must choose between a paycheck and staying home to keep themselves and others safe. Finally, if all our hard-hitting reporting and all our feelings are getting to be too heavy for you, read our lone levity for this week: GWO and HRTW wrote about the crushing realization that their new proctors are their moms. Yours, AWDA & NHP