Harvard-linked employee apologizes over ‘affordable’ comment

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – An employee with a Harvard University-affiliated research centre has issued an apology after she was captured on video asking a neighbour and the woman’s biracial daughter if they lived in affordable apartments.

Theresa Lund, executive director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, told The Boston Globe on Monday that she’s “terribly sorry” and her comments were “inappropriate and wrong.”

Cambridge resident Alyson Laliberte says in a Facebook post that Lund had confronted her on Saturday saying that her daughter was being too loud.

Laliberte says Lund asked her apartment number, and when she refused to say, Lund asked if she lived in the “affordable units.”

Laliberte has declined to comment further.

Lund says “there was no reason for me to ask what type of unit she lives in.”