ARTS

Yale Cabaret stages its first spring play “The Hedgehog’s Dilemma”

BY TAMAKI KUNO STAFF REPORTER

The Yale Cabaret returns with its fi rst in-person production of the semester, “The Hedgehog’s Dilemma” written by Harry Davis and directed by Cooper Bruhns DRA ’24 and Lucas Iverson DRA ’24.

The play explores the themes of queerness and struggles in human relationships through interactions between two queer characters, both of whom are performed by the directors. The show is the Yale Cabaret’s fi rst production of the spring season and will be open only to fully-vaccinated Yale community members.

“One of my goals as an artist is to be unapologetically queer and to not shy away from being loud and proud,” Bruhns said. “I think about my younger self and how much more of a difference it would have made to see myself represented on stage.”

Bruhns grew up in a “very, very small town” in Northern California that they felt was homophobic and transphobic. It was not until a trip to San Francisco and a visit to drag-themed bar “Hamburger Mary’s” with friends that Bruhns felt that there was a place for them in the world.

“Because of where I grew up, it is still taking me a long time to undo a lot of the self-hatred or internalized homophobia and transphobia … [Through productions], I hope to show the humanness of queer people and destigmatize [queer sex],” Bruhns said.

Harry Davis wrote the play’s original script when he was an undergraduate student at UC Santa Barbara. It was initially about a relationship between a man and a woman, yet as Bruhns “fell in love” with the play, the directors adapted the plot into a story between two queer characters. For example, one of the play’s original scenes about a pregnancy scare was replaced by a scene about an HIV scare in hopes of “bringing these issues into the conversation and making them less taboo.”

Iverson joined Bruhns in directing the show because he was “drawn to the ship between the characters in the play. It references a real phenomenon in which two hedgehogs try to huddle together under cold weather yet must remain apart

COURTESY OF YALE CABARET

nature of the [play’s] relationship,” which he described as “a case study between two specifi c human beings who are desperately seeking ‘big love’ in their life yet have no clue how to go about that.”

The show’s title “The Hedgehog’s Dilemma” is a metaphor for the relationto avoid hurting one another with their sharp spines.

“I think it’s so beautiful that these 19-year-olds are trying to find themselves in the world, despite a complicated mess of what relationships can be like when they’re trying their best and sometimes say the wrong thing,” Bruhns said.

Due to University COVID-19 restrictions, a number of changes were made to the show’s initial plan.

According to Yale Cabaret artistic director Sarah Cain DRA ’22, “The Hedgehog’s Dilemma” was initially supposed to open in mid-January, but was postponed when COVID-19 cases began to spike in December. Cain noted, however, that in the end the change was benefi cial not just in public health terms, but also because it allowed the production team more time to “build the world of the play.”

While the show is running, the Cabaret will not serve food and drinks as it typically does, and the performers will be masked throughout the performance.

Despite these abnormalities, the team came up with ways to ensure a high production quality. Because the show is set entirely in a dorm room, the team placed seats on three sides of the stage to create a sense of intimacy while also reducing audience capacity.

Iverson added that “we obey the University’s COVID-19 restrictions, but we put the audience as close as possible to the set so that they can see the details of the scenes — so there’s almost a fi lm-like quality.”

Cain added that performing with masks on for a show defined by its intimate moments can be challenging, but the directors did “a fantastic job” of creating palpable chemistry despite the face coverings.

“We spent all of the previous school year on Zoom, so there was just this eagerness and hunger to do a show,” Bruhns said, refl ecting on the rehearsals. “At the end of the day, we’re just really, really grateful to fi nally be doing a show live with other people and share the experience with you.”

“The Hedgehog’s Dilemma” is being staged from Feb. 10-12.

Contact TAMAKI KUNO at tamaki.kuno@yale.edu .

Professor Jing Tsu doubles as NBC commentator at Beijing Olympics

BY ISAAC YU STAFF REPORTER

As Yalies take to the ice at the Winter Olympics, a professor is standing on the sidelines, o ering fans context on the Games’ cultural and political signifi cance.

Jing Tsu, John M. Schi Professor of East Asian Languages & Literatures and Comparative Literature, is serving as cultural commentator for NBC Olympics in Beijing. Olympic fans in the United States met Tsu last Friday night during the Games’ opening ceremony, a dazzling and politically-weighty spectacle that drew on ancient and modern Chinese symbols. The professor, a specialist on Sinophone culture and literature and a 2016 Guggenheim fellow, fi lled in the ceremony’s details that might not have been obvious to the average American fan. The ceremony opened, for example, with a countdown from 24.

“China has traditionally used a mix of lunar and solar calendars,” Tsu told the network’s 14 million U.S. viewers. “The four seasons are subdivided into 24 divisions with spring at the start — each division here is presented in the context of a poem or a story. That number was chosen here because of its auspicious coincidence because these are, after all, the 24th Winter Olympic Games.”

Over the course of Saturday’s two-hour ceremony, Tsu conversed with fellow hosts Andrew Browne, another China scholar, and NBC Sports anchor Mike Tirico. They were among the few reporting on the ground from Beijing: NBC kept the majority of its broadcast teams in Stamford, Connecticut due to COVID-19 concerns. The trio’s discussion engaged in the Beijing Games’ political meanings amid rising tensions in Eastern Europe as well as China’s repression of its Uyghur minority. The professor’s expertise, however, was called in for the cultural background of the Beijing Olympics.

The order of countries in the ceremonial procession, Tsu explained, was determined by the number of strokes required to write the one character in the country’s Chinese name. Tsu also commented on the historical significance of Taiwan and Hong Kong, and on the repeal of China’s one-child policy and ensuing struggle to boost birth rates.

At Yale, Tsu has taught numerous graduate seminars and an undergraduate lecture, “China in the World.” She joined Yale’s faculty in 2006 as an assistant professor, and chaired the Council on East Asian Studies between 2014 and 2021.

East Asian Languages & Literature department chair Aaron Gerow said that faculty in his department were “pleasantly surprised” by the announcement of Tsu’s Beijing post. He applauded NBC’s decision of having Tsu, a humanist, as cultural commentator, noting that political science and international relations scholars generally fi ll the role.

“I hope people watching the Olympics get a broader fuller sense of: what is China, and what do these games mean?” Gerow said. “We’re just so happy not only that Jing was selected, but that someone from the humanities is talking about something so crucial.”

Tsu also chaired the Council on East Asian Studies between 2014 and 2021, and became an a liate scholar of the Jackson Institute for Global A airs last year. She has now authored and co-edited four books, delving into literature, nationalism and globalization. Tsu’s latest book, “Kingdom of Characters”, appeared on the front page of the New York Times’ Book Review on Sunday. Published on Jan. 18, her book tells the stories of the pioneer linguists and scholars who radically transformed Chinese script and language in the 20th century, and thereby transformed China itself.

Pericles Lewis, vice president for Global Strategy, called Tsu an “outstanding scholar”.

“It is great to have our faculty reach broader audiences through traditional and social media — [it] gives them a chance to elevate popular discourse on important topics,” Lewis wrote in an email to the News.

The 2022 Olympic Games began on Feb. 4.

Contact ISAAC YU at isaac.yu@yale.edu .

NEWS

“The entire North Polar ice cap is disappearing before our very eyes. It’s been the size of the continental United States for the last 3 million years and now 40 percent is gone and the rest of it is going.” AL GORE 45TH VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Residents protest the move of controversial methadone clinic to Newhallville

BY SYLVAN LEBRUN AND HANNAH QU STAFF REPORTERS

Holding signs and passing around petitions, a crowd of over 50 elected officials, activists and Newhallville residents gathered at 794 Dixwell Ave. on a cold Saturday afternoon to send a message — the APT Foundation’s methadone clinic will not be welcomed in their neighborhood.

The protest took place outside the planned site for the methadone clinic, a building that once housed Elm City College Preparatory Middle School. The APT Foundation, which currently operates two outpatient methadone clinics in Long Wharf and the Hill district, purchased the building in December 2021 with plans to relocate services from their Long Wharf location to Newhallville.

Until the New Haven Independent reported that the clinic was moving in January, the residents of Newhallville — including Ward 20 Alder Devin Avshalom-Smith — were not informed of the purchase. In the month since, the community has organized to prevent the APT Foundation from moving into their neighborhood, citing concerns for public safety based on the foundation’s tumultuous track record in the Hill neighborhood, where the clinic became a hotspot for violence and public drug use and solicitation.

“We are sympathetic to the needs of those who are in need of some type of assistance,” Imam Saladin Hasan from Newhallville’s Abdul-Majid Karim Hasan Islamic Center said during his speech at the press conference. “But we don’t want our children living under conditions where everyone they see or deal with needs some type of help. You’re interfering with progress. Trauma is real and our youth continually are traumatized…You do not set up trauma sites in communities that are traumatized.”

Community says “Stop APT”

Plans for the new clinic involve the transfer of almost 400 patients to Newhallville to receive their methadone, a substitute drug used to treat morphine and heroin addiction. The 15 speakers at Saturday’s gathering attacked the APT Foundation for their failure to give the community prior notice and their history of being a “bad neighbor” in the Hill, accompanied by cheers of “Stop APT” from the crowd.

Imam Hasan said that the APT Foundation will ensure the high quality of treatment and care inside their own property, but “once it leaves this building they could care less…it’s the community’s problem, it’s our babies’ problem.”

He shared concerns that the clinic would also lower the property value in the historically Black residential neighborhood, providing a list of alternative non-residential New Haven locations that the APT Foundation could consider relocating to instead.

Saturday’s gathering, which lasted over an hour, was attended by local residents as well as three state senators and representatives. Both New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker and Hamden Mayor Lauren Garrett were in attendance, as the proposed clinic would sit near the border of the two towns. Over a dozen cars were parked around the block honking their horns in support, carrying elderly and immunocompromised residents who did not want to join the crowd.

Jeanette Sykes, Newhallville resident and founder of the leadership nonprofit The Perfect Blend, emphasized at the start of the event that the opposition to the APT Foundation is not about an opposition to drug addiction treatment, but rather about “a lack of respect for our community…and we want to demand the respect for our community.”

“Newhallville is a historic neighborhood in the city of New Haven,” Avshalom-Smith said in an interview with the News. “It has even today some of the highest rates of Black homeownership. And I asked Lynn from APT if she did any research on our neighborhood before deciding to purchase a

SYLVAN LEBRUN/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

The APT Foundation’s methadone clinic on the Hill was pointed to as evidence of the crime and “trauma” that they would bring to Newhallville.

building there, and she said no, they did not ‘characterize the neighborhood’...know the history of where you’re going, or have the common decency to speak to the tax-paying residents there and inform them of what your plans are.”

He added that the APT Foundation’s proposed location is in a neighborhood where the residents are primarily elderly people who “don’t even lock their doors.”

Newhallville resident and senior citizen Mary Gates, who was introduced at the press conference as a “matriarch in our community,” shared her fears that the new clinic would bring an influx of crime as it has in the Hill, threatening the safety of elderly people and children.

“Elderly people like myself…we won’t be able to come out here and sit on our porches like we used to, entertain each other from across the street,” Gates said. “What’s going to happen is when we come home from work at 11 or 12 o’clock at night, we got to worry if we have to duck and dodge a bullet, or if there’s somebody out here in our streets lurking to rob us.”

Lossie Gorham, who has lived on Basset Street in Newhallville for 30 years, told the News that she already feels “imprisoned in her home” due to the pandemic and the threat of gun violence in the community, and said that the new clinic would only bring more fear to her life.

Pat Solomon and Katurah Bryant, members of the steering committee for the movement against the APT Foundation, shared that their work had begun the day after the news came out in a Zoom meeting with over 200 participants. Committee meetings have continued every Saturday since.

According to Ward 20 Co-Chair Barbara Vereen, the petition to stop the clinic’s move has already gathered 700 signatures — copies were available for signing at the protest as well. The movement has also involved letter-writing campaigns and phone calls to local authorities.

State Rep. Robyn Porter, who attended the protest along with Rep. Toni Walker and Sen. Gary Winfield, shared that she had been told on Friday that the APT Foundation would have to obtain a new license in order to move from Long Wharf from Newhallville, and go through the Board of Zoning Appeals in the process.

This was news to Porter and the organizers, who had originally been told that the license would simply transfer. Porter told the crowd that in light of this, they had the opportunity to “make sure that we’ve got players on our team and we’re doing what we need to do to shut it down.”

Elicker delivered a speech about the need for compromise with the APT Foundation, but he was met with hostility and shouts of “shut it down,” “Black people aren’t experiments” and “stand up for the people, Justin!” from the crowd.

“I want to be real with people because you know, I’m not going to stand up here and give promises I can’t deliver on,” Elicker said. “The city can’t just decide to put it somewhere else…I can stand up here as a politician and say ‘we’re gonna stop this thing,’ I could do that. But in reality, I legally cannot do that.”

He emphasized that the APT Foundation had “control of their property” after purchasing it, after which a resident retorted, “you have control of the city!” In the end, Elicker promised to work with the APT Foundation and the steering committee to find a solution, noting that Lynn Madden, APT Foundation CEO, had not submitted paperwork to the city yet, which he took as a sign of her willingness to work with the residents.

Hamden Mayor Lauren Garrett spoke immediately after Elicker and shared that she had written a letter of concern to the state commissioner of public health, promising to “stand with [the community] and fight.” Her speech was received with cheers, and a call of “that’s what leadership looks like.”

With no clear end in sight to the conflict, Remedy Sharif, a New Haven Rising organizer and director of outreach for Ice The Beef, encouraged the community to keep their resistance to the clinic going, noting that “consistency is the key.”

“Mr. Mayor, we respect you and appreciate you for just showing up,” Sharif said. “Now we need to see you as a man, as a father, not as the Mayor of New Haven but as the father I watch carrying his children on his shoulders when you come to events…It is your responsibility to tell these people hell no. Because you’re a father, because you care. Because our children have been traumatized for too long by the colonizers of this country and the colonizers of our community.”

Paul Joudrey, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine and a Yale Drug Use, Addiction, and HIV Research Scholar, said that the issue of methadone clinic location stems partially from the fact that methadone treatment for opioid addiction is segregated from the rest of the healthcare system.

“People’s understanding of methadone is still … old view of addiction that was more punitive…criminal issue.” Joudrey said. “From a public health perspective…in a different healthcare system, where methadone treatment was allowed to occur in the same clinics and other health care treatment is delivered, you wouldn’t have this question about where to locate methadone clinics, because all clinics would be methadone clinics.”

What Happened in the Hill Neighborhood

The Foundation’s Legion Clinic on Congress Avenue is a regional clinic that serves people from New Haven and nearby counties.

At Saturday’s protest, Hill North Community Management Team Chair Howard Boyd said that Madden and the APT Foundation team “never stepped out of the door and asked, what can we do to help?” with crime outside the clinic, as the local police department and fire department had to “work overtime” in the area.

“I can’t get kids or parents to walk down their street because of the trash, the syringes, picking up syringes every day,” Boyd said. “Our kids have enough stuff in their minds, enough trauma… they seem to give [methadone clinic patients] the treatment to help them and they put them right out the door.”

“The APT Foundation does a great job with their treatment.” Jose DeJesus, treasurer of the Hill North Management Team, said. “But the problem is that it always brings secondary problems. You have problems with people loitering…drug dealing, drug use… dirty needles around the school… fights… stabbings… shootings. And all of this is attributed to the crowd of folks that are not necessarily APT foundation patients, but they run in those same circles.”

According to DeJesus, there are 20 to 30 people in the corner of Davenport Avenue Baldwin Street at 5:30 a.m. using drugs and drinking. The New Haven Independent reported that a man was stabbed 16 times outside the clinic in 2017.

DeJesus said that he is not against the clinic, but that the problem is that it is regional, and therefore will attract people from outside the community. He urged the APT Foundation to open more clinics in other counties so that each area had its own.

“The neighborhood will be better if other cities and towns in Connecticut would put a methadone clinic in their town,” DeJesus said. “We’re not anti-treatment, we want more treatment. And we need more treatment in the areas where these people live, so they don’t have to commute to Congress Avenue.”

Angela Hatley, who has lived in the Hill for over 30 years, agreed with DeJesus. Hatley told the News that a few years ago, she called an ambulance for a woman who did not live in Hill, but the woman collapsed three houses down from her house and started taking off her clothes and “doing drug scratch.”

“I would wholeheartedly support Newhallville to keep them out.” Hatley said. “It should not all be one city to take care of an entire region’s problems.”

APT Response

In response to concerns about crime levels in the Hill neighborhood, Madden said they have made a number of operational changes, including changing hours of operation so that the surrounding area is less congested when school buses and others may be present. Additionally, APT has built another clinic outside of New Haven, it has transferred some patients to another program and, at the request of the city, it has paid for a police officer to be stationed near the clinic.

In an email to the News, Hill North and Hill South District Manager Justin Marshall wrote that in his time leading the neighborhood, he has “developed a great relationship” with Kathy Eggart, director of the APT foundation.

“I understand that she is trying to help people with substance abuse problems and she is doing everything in her power to get those people the help they need,” Marshall added.

The New Haven Independent reported on Feb. 14, 2018 that the APT Foundation has been paying for an off-duty New Haven police officer to be stationed outside of its primary methadone dispensary at the clinic in Hill, from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Monday through Friday.

DeJesus and Hatley both acknowledged that APT is trying to address the crime brought by the clinic. However, Hatley told the News that the increase of security around the clinic only pushed those activities from the clinic and deeper into the neighborhood.

Madden also told the News that the building on Long Wharf will be mostly used for administrative offices, and only less than half of the space will be used for patient care.

“I live in New Haven and there is drug dealing in my neighborhood, without a drug treatment program being located here.” Madden said. “So the idea that somehow drug treatment programs are the cause of drug dealing, I think is an unfair inference.”

The APT Foundation purchased the building at 794 Dixwell Ave. for $2.45 million.

Contact SYLVAN LEBRUN at sylvan.lebrun@yale.edu and HANNAH QU at hannah.qu@yale.edu.

SPORTS

Two Yale alumni on Team USA roster Hockey makes comback victory

COURTESY OF USA HOCKEY

Caption caption caption caption caption caption caption caption caption caption caption caption caption.

MEN'S HOCKEY FROM PAGE 12

The scrimmage was also crucial for building chemistry as a team as head coach David Quinn noted.

“In these situations, we’ve been together for a week,” Quinn said to USA Hockey following the scrimmage. “It seems like a month — and it’s certainly good to see another opponent.”

Despite the relaxed nature of the scrimmage, the match against Canada will likely be more indicative of the rest of the tournament for the U.S., rather than the opening game against China.

The U.S. will be playing round robin-style at the preliminary rounds in Group A with China, Canada and Germany. The later games to come against Canada and Germany — the 2018 bronze and silver medalists, respectively — will truly show just how strong this 2022 U.S. team will be.

From team selection to the first scrimmage, the style of play the U.S. will look to adopt seems to come down to one word: speed.

No NHL players have competed in the last two Olympic games, making the team selection process more important for the team general manager and head coach. For the 2018 Olympics, from which O’Neill is the only returning player for the Americans, the U.S. leaned on experience, preferring former NHL players with lots of experience over younger, more inexperienced players.

For Beijing, first-time general manager John Vanbiesbrouck decided to opt for a nearly opposite strategy. The squad he built is the youngest U.S. team since 1994 — before professional players were allowed at the Olympic Games — and is filled with speed on all four lines.

“I really liked our speed, and I thought we did a lot of good things from that end of it,” Quinn said to USA Hockey in an interview. “When we stayed on top of them, I thought we were successful. When we backed off, we got ourselves in a little bit of trouble. But overall it was a pretty good effort.”

The U.S. and China faced off on Feb. 10 at 8:10 a.m. EST, 9:10 p.m. China Standard Time.

Contact SPENCER KING at spencer.king@yale.edu . where.” MAX SCHERZER NEW YORK METS STARTING PITCHER

WOMEN'S HOCKEY FROM PAGE 12

tling into the goal, displacing the pipes off-center. The play was declared a no-goal upon video review. After twenty minutes, the Bulldogs outshot the Dutchwomen 12–5, but the scoreboard still showed zeros.

Union was the first to score after taking advantage of a crosschecking penalty called on Kaitlyn Rippon ’23. Five minutes later, the Dutchwomen got lucky again and dug a 2–0 hole for the Bulldogs.

“When you miss your chances early, it can come back to bite you,” head coach Mark Bolding said. “We haven’t come back from two before this year.”

The two-goal deficit did not last long as just 29 seconds after the center ice faceoff, Charlotte Welch ’23 fed the puck to Rebecca Vanstone ’23, who shot it in from the backdoor.

As time was expiring in the second period, the Elis bombarded netminder Matsoukas. Emma Seitz ’23 found an opening and made it through, beating the goalie but not the buzzer.

Midway through the third, Vita Poniatovskaia ’25 fed the puck to Hartje from the corner, who shot a one-timer past the goaltender from the slot to tie the score at two.

With just over three minutes remaining in regulation, a boarding minor from Emily King gave the Bulldogs an opportunity to secure the victory. Despite converting on three of five power plays last Saturday, the Bulldogs were unsuccessful across four advantages. The final minute of evenstrength play showed desperation on both sides as they were looking to collect three points and avoid overtime.

Hartje put a shot on net while Claire Dalton ’23 and Grace Lee ’24 got to work crashing the net and battling to get past Matsoukas. It was Lee who had the lucky poke to put the Elis ahead 3–2 with 26.3 seconds remaining in the game.

“Luckily it was headed toward the net and I got a piece of it,” Lee told Yale Athletics. “It was not our best game, but we had [the] resilience and came through at the end.”

The victory set the Yale squad up in a favorable position going into the last few games of the regular season, catapulting them over No. 9 Clarkson and No. 6 Harvard and into first place in the ECAC. Tuesday night’s 13th conference win also tied a season-best for the Bulldogs.

Lee’s goal was the team’s 97th, breaking a program record for most goals in one season. Besides scoring the game-tying goal, Hartje’s assist on the Lee tally was her 29th on the year, giving her sole possession of the program’s single-season assist record. With 29 apples over 24 games played, Hartje is currently ranked third in the country for assists per game.

This weekend, Yale will remain at Ingalls rink to play No. 9 Clarkson (21–6–3, 12–5–1) and St. Lawrence (14–10–5, 10–5–2). During the first half of the season, the Bulldogs traveled to New York to face the Saints and the Golden Knights, coming home with four of six possible points.

A five-minute period of three-on-three overtime couldn’t settle the score in Canton, New York as the Yale team skated off the ice in a 4–4 draw. The next day, the Bulldogs came hungry, collecting a 4–2 victory over the Golden Knights.

Last weekend, Clarkson suffered an overtime loss to Quinnipiac, who shares the No. 9 national ranking with the Golden Knights. They ended the weekend on a high note after walloping Princeton 7–1.

St. Lawrence has won seven of its eight games, including backto-back victories over Quinnipiac last weekend.

In its last home games of the regular season, Yale will face off against Clarkson on Friday, Feb. 11 at 6:00 p.m. and against St. Lawrence on Saturday, Feb. 12 at 3:00 p.m.

Contact MELANIE HELLER at melanie.heller@yale.edu .

MELANIE HELLER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Two unlucky plays were not enough to stop No. 7 Yale from beating Union 3–2 Tuesday night.

Golf spring season begins

MUSCOSPORTSPHOTS.COM

Women’s golf will tee o its season with three competitions in the South, beginning with the Columbia Classic.

WOMEN'S GOLF FROM PAGE 12

we are playing tournaments further away from Connecticut, but I am looking forward to meeting new players and stepping foot onto courses I am not the most familiar with!”

In addition to three states in the South, the Bulldogs will travel to Rockville, Maryland to play the Hoya Invitational during the weekend of April 9 before capping o the season the two weeks later in Ringoes, New Jersey for the Ivy League Championship. Sophie Simon '25 expressed her excitement at the opportunity to play at the Hoya Invitational, hosted by Georgetown, as it marks a return to her home course — Woodmont Country Club — and an opportunity for friends and family to support the Bulldogs.

Simon also echoed a goal raised by Chao to play with less stress this season. Meanwhile, Alexis Kim '25 hopes to incorporate new elements into her mental game.

“This is my first northeast winter and one of my fi rst times practicing only indoors for a long period of time,” Kim said. “We are all so excited to travel so that we can get back on the golf course and play at our fi rst tournament of the season!”

While the squad is practicing indoors due to inclement weather, the Yale Golf Course is due for a renovation led by Gil Hanse. The course is expected to be closed for 22 to 24 months once restoration begins.

This spring will also present the first spring season for the sophomores and first years on the team, and the fi rst complete season for juniors who did not experience complete competition during the second half of the 2019–20 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bulldogs competed at the Dr. Donnis Thompson Invitational in Kaneohe, Hawaii before other events were canceled.

“I am really excited about this weekend since we will get a chance to see a lot of the top schools in the country,” team captain Ami Gianchandani ’23 said. “All our tournaments are going to be pretty high level this spring.”

Both of Yale’s golf teams will end their seasons at the Ivy League Championship during the weekend of April 22.

Spectator guidelines loosen

FANS FROM PAGE 12

“What basketball does and what sports do, they galvanize a community, and tonight we were galvanized, we won, and that’s when it’s really special. I think that all of Yale, all the kids here, they felt like they were part of that win, and they were.”

Along with pushing up Yale College attendance at games, policies such as limiting attendance to Yale community members and limiting capacity to 50 percent are now only in place through Feb. 11, when they were originally scheduled to be enforced until Feb. 21.

Starting Friday, Feb. 11, indoor arenas — such as Ingalls Rink and John J. Lee Amphitheater — opened up to 75 percent capacity and welcomed general community members, not just those with Yale a liations. Vaccinated fans between the ages of fi ve and 11 will be admitted to indoor games for the fi rst time this season.

At outdoor venues like Bush Field and Reese Stadium, guidelines are the same as they were in the fall. All fans can attend games and those who are unvaccinated must be masked for the duration of the competition. Concession stands will also make their return in time for springtime events. These guidelines went into effect just in time for the Yale men’s lacrosse team’s first official game against Villanova on Sunday, Feb. 13.

The first home game under the updated fan guidelines was a women’s hockey match against Clarkson at Ingalls Rink on Friday, Feb. 11 at 6:00 p.m.

William McCormack contributed reporting.

Contact MELANIE HELLER at melanie.heller@yale.edu .

THROUGH THE LENS

If you didn’t come to Yale for neuroscience, then I’d assume you haven’t thought too much about the gray mass resting between your ears. However, without the brain, we’d be a mass of inactive nerves and immobile flesh — an inanimate object. To put it simply, the brain controls everything. Even as you read these words, the phonological awareness that allows you to put meaning to the words is governed by a complex synchronization between your auditory and visual cortices that has developed since you began learning to read. Beyond mechanical operations such as reading, however, the neurobiological foundations of more abstract concepts like qualia, consciousness, and dreams are still a mystery. For this reason, we can remain confident that our existence won’t be reduced to a Turing machine and that artificial intelligence won’t take over the world — at least in this lifetime. But even if you’re not interested in the science behind this critical organ, it’s interesting to know that Yale and its alumni have been instrumental in shaping our understanding of the human brain.

Some of Yale’s contributions can be found at the Cushing Center in the Harvey Cushing and John Hay Whitney Medical Library. Here you’ll find the donated collections of brains and several other unique artifacts from three pioneers in the field of neuroscience, including Dr. Harvey Cushing — a Yale graduate. Seeing a brain in person can have a genuine impact on your perspective of human essence. It promotes an appreciation for the fact that the most indisputably complex circuit system of limitless cognitive biases, trillions of synaptic connection and more is confined to a roughly 75 cubic inch space within you. So If you head over to 333 Cedar Street to admire the organ that you’ve utilized to pilot your journey to Yales.

JOSHUA BAEHRING reports.

SPORTS

TRACK AND FIELD

RECORDS FALL IN BOSTON Yale’s women’s squad brought home six new Yale all-times, six new personal bests and a one new school record, while the men’s team brought home a victory and a new Yale record.

W BASKETBALL

BULLDOGS SPLIT WEEKEND The Yale women’s basketball team opened its weekend on the road in dominant fashion with a 48–33 win over Dartmouth but fell narrowly to Harvard the next day.

FOR MORE SPORTS CONTENT, VISIT OUR WEB SITE

goydn.com/YDNsports Twitter: @YDNSports

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

“Our team has a lot to build on from this weekend and the losses give us more motivation... to prepare for an exciting week ahead”

CAROLINE DUNLEAVY ’22

WOMEN’S TENNIS CAPTAIN

U.S. to start Olympic tournament

MEN'S HOCKEY

The U.S. men’s hockey team began Olympic play against China on Thursday.

BY SPENCER KING STAFF REPORTER

The U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team began its pursuit of the gold medal on Thursday in a game against China. The team features two former Bulldogs, with forwards Brian O’Neill ’12 and Kenny Agostino ’14 donning the red, white and blue for the U.S.

The U.S. hoped to get off to a hot start against a Chinese team that many project to be worst in the field. While the men’s hockey tournament includes 12 teams, China is currently ranked 32nd in the world by the International Ice Hockey Federation, or IIHF, and is only playing in the Olympics due to the automatic qualification it was granted as the host nation.

Despite the automatic qualification, there was a long debate by the IIHF as to whether China should be allowed to compete in the Olympics while a team such as Norway, ranked 11th in the world, would not be.

“Watching a team being beaten 15–0 is not good for anyone,” IIHF President Luc Tardif said to Agence France-Presse. “Not for China or for ice hockey.”

For the Americans, the goal was to get their feet under them in a

COURTESY OF USA HOCKEY

fi rst game that projects to be their easiest of the tournament.

To prepare for the opener, the U.S. held a controlled scrimmage against Canada on Monday that allowed the two teams to adjust to the high speed of Olympic games.

The scrimmage’s lineup from head coach David Quinn pointed the spotlight firmly on the two former Bulldogs. O’Neill and Agostino played the wings on the top line for the U.S., with Andy Miele, Agostino’s teammate with Nizhny Novgorod Torpedo of the Kontinental Hockey League, centering the Yalies.

SEE MEN'S HOCKEY PAGE 10

Elis complete Union sweep on Tuesday

Undergrads return to the stands

BY MELANIE HELLER SPORTS EDITOR

The No. 7 Bulldogs learned the parameters of the 20-minute period in a Tuesday night matchup against Union.

WOMEN'S HOCKEY

Last time the Elis (19–5–1, 13–4–1 ECAC) took on the Dutchwomen (4–25–1, 1–17–0) was in Schenectady, New York last Saturday, where the Blue and White froze the home team solid, winning 7–0.

“I think that it’s important that we have a short-term memory and not to underestimate a good Union team that will be hungry to get three points and some redemption,” Tess Dettling ’22 told the News ahead of Tuesday’s game.

The second leg of the homeand-home series proved more difficult than the first, with Yale edging ahead of Union 3–2 despite a 37–15 shot advantage.

Midway through the first frame, Elle Hartje ’24 dangled through traffic in the slot to set up a rebound for Dettling. As goalie Sophie Matsoukas made the second save, Hartje dove to finally knock it home. As the puck was making its way through the crease, a Union defender checked Det-

SEE WOMEN'S HOCKEY PAGE 10

MELANIE HELLER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

A shot from Emma Seitz '23 crossed the goal line just after time ran out in the second period, nullifying the tally.

Bulldogs tee o spring season this Sunday

MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM

The Yale’s women’s golf team will begin its season this weekend in Florida before traveling to South Carolina and Tennessee in March.

BY HAMERA SHABBIR STAFF REPORTER

The Yale’s women’s golf team will tee o its season with three competitions in the South, beginning with the Columbia Classic in Melbourne, FL this weekend.

WOMEN'S GOLF

After ending the fall season with a consistent presence at each tournament, the women’s team will open its spring season on Sunday, Feb. 13 at the Duran Golf Club. The Columbia Classic will end Monday, Feb. 14, but the Bulldogs will travel south again — to South Carolina and Tennessee — in the next month. In the fall, the Blue and White earned first-place during their opener at the Boston College Intercollegiate, placed fourth at the Princeton Invitational, tied for second at the Yale Invitational and fi nished sixth at the abbreviated St. John’s Invitational. The Columbia Classic will allow the team to move out of indoor work and play in weather warmer than New Haven's frosty highs of 50 degrees.

“I am excited to see how the courses and players will differ in the South,” rookie Daphne Chao ’25 said. “It is most defi nitely warmer down there right now, so weather wise I am glad that we are traveling south. That also entails that our travel times will be longer because

SEE WOMEN'S GOLF PAGE 10

BY MELANIE HELLER

SPORTS EDITOR

Students packed the stands against Harvard on Saturday, marking one of the fi rst times undergraduates were allowed to attend home games this semester after fan attendance restrictions were loosened early.

FANS RETURN

Originally, undergraduates were barred from attending games until Feb. 7, in line with the resumption of in-person learning. On Friday, an email from Dean of Student A airs Melanie Boyd announced that students were able to attend athletic events starting Saturday, provided that they have completed their phaseone quarantine.

“I’m excited to be able to come back to games,” John Klinger ’22 said.

During the 48 hours of early fan attendance, many Yale teams played crucial games at home. The men’s lacrosse team opened up its season with two scrimmages against Hobart and Fairfield on Saturday. Men’s hockey took on Clarkson at the Whale on Saturday night, and the gymnastics team pulled out its first victory of the season against Southern Connecticut State at the John J. Lee Amphitheater on Sunday.

Perhaps the most anticipated matchup of the weekend was the men’s basketball game against Harvard on Saturday night.

While Netanel Crispe ’25 and his friends were originally headed to the men’s hockey game, it was the timeless rivalry between the Blue and White and the Crimson that led them to basketball. Crispe conceded that this was his fi rst-ever Yale basketball game and it was an “incredible experience.”

The Bulldogs donned their blue uniforms, usually reserved for road games, while spectators dressed in a black-out theme.

“I was trying to figure out what a theme could be, we were wearing blue, Harvard was wearing white, so I thought black out would be perfect. I sent it to my friends, put it on social media, said send it to everybody,” forward EJ Jarvis ’23 said. “I really didn’t know how many students would turn out, but it was great to see everybody come out like they did, just looking at the crowd and seeing it all the way packed to the top... After playing three games with no fans, it’s great to see that many come out to one game.”

John J. Lee Amphitheater holds 2,532 fans with the bleachers unfolded and a whopping 1,104 came out to support the Bulldogs on Saturday. With the current 50 percent capacity protocol, 87 percent of the available seats were accounted for.

Fan attendance certainly played a role on the court, with constant cheering for the Blue and White and chirps at the Crimson players. With the crowd on their side, the Bulldogs were able to maintain a lead over Harvard for the vast majority of the game and held on for a 58–55 victory.

“Tonight was special,” head coach James Jones said at the postgame press conference.

SEE FANS PAGE 10

TIM TAI/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Students crowded into the bleachers of John J. Lee Amphitheater to cheer on the Bulldogs and heckle the Crimson.