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NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2022 · VOL. CXLIV, NO. 15 · yaledailynews.com
Yale pressed on divestment, diversity Yale reports holding in fracking giant in the fossil fuel industry violate state law. “I’m shocked and dismayed by Yale’s decision to invest tens of millions of dollars in Antero, a fossil fuel corporation with a horrifying track record of violations of environmental law, threatening our planet and our futures,” said Josephine Steuer Ingall ’24, a member of the Endowment Justice Coalition. “There is no justification for an academic institution to seek to profit from activities which are rapidly rendering our planet uninhabitable. Yale must, must, must do better.” Antero first appeared on the University's 13F filings in the second quarter of 2015. The University’s equity stake in Antero soared as high as $230 million at the end of the second quarter of 2016. At the end of the third quarter of 2018, Yale held $78 million worth of Antero stock, the filings revealed. Yale reduced these direct holdings by 99 percent during the end of 2018 and only held $357,000 of Antero stock at the end of the fourth quarter of 2018. The drop in investments came after a February 2018 teach-in where student activists criticized Yale’s investments in the fossil fuel industry, especially in Antero Resources. At the event, Rachel
BY CHARLOTTE HUGHES STAFF REPORTER Two years after selling off its $80 million equity stake in the Appalachian fracking corporation Antero Resources, Yale again has millions of dollars in investment holdings in the company, according to the University's latest 13F form. The University’s Dec. 31, 2021 Securities and Exchange Commission filing states that Yale held $41 million worth of shares in the fracking company at the end of 2021. Previously, Antero Resources had not appeared on Yale’s filings since the last quarter of 2018, after there were widespread calls for divestment from student activists, including those from the Endowment Justice Coalition. A recent Yale School of Public Health study found that the carcinogenic chemicals used in fracking — which is the process of extracting natural gas or oil from shale — can contaminate the air and water in nearby communities. A representative for the Yale Investments Office said that the office has a policy of not commenting on individual investments. The news was met with criticism from the Endowment Justice Coalition, a Yale student activist group which filed a complaint on Feb. 16, 2021 alleging that the University’s continued investments
SEE FRACKING PAGE 4
ZOE BERG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Amid leadership turnover at Yale’s Investments Office, it is unclear how much progress has been made towards Yale’s efforts to lead firms to diversify.
YIO without diversity update BY MICHAEL NDUBISI AND CARTER DEWEES STAFF REPORTERS More than a year since Yale Chief Investments Officer David Swensen GRD ’80 demanded that Yale’s money managers diversify their firms or risk Yale pulling its assets, the University has not published the metrics it is using
Climate progress questioned
PAULA PINEDA/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
The results of Yale’s annual Sustainability Survey were released in February. The survey asked students and staff how they felt about climate change. BY ISABEL MANEY STAFF REPORTER Students are becoming increasingly disillusioned with the University’s progress on sustainability, according to the results of the Yale Office of Sustainability’s most recent Sustainability Report.
The report, which was released in February, outlined the results of a survey sent to students and staff this fall, which included general sustainability knowledge questions, questions on respondents’ sustainable behavior, opinions on environmental issues and questions soliciting feedback on the University’s sustainability
initiatives. The survey was last distributed in 2018. According to the results, students' views toward sustainable progress have become more pessimistic since the survey was first released in 2018. About five percent of first-year students in 2018 strongly agreed that Yale was a leader in sustainability. Almost none of the fourth-year students in 2021 strongly agreed. Similarly, less than 20 percent of both students and staff strongly agreed that their peers or coworkers cared about the environment. “I don't think that there's much guidance or efforts promoted to students, [so] that even the ones who would choose to live sustainably if they could, don’t have access to those resources,” said Zoe Kanga ’24, a Yale conservation scholar. “There's no
to assess firms or provided an update on its follow-through. Swensen’s letter, released in October 2020, came in the wake of racial justice protests and social turbulence that defined the summer of 2020. He wrote to take a “more systematic approach” to addressing the lack of women and racial minorities in the asset management industry. The let-
ter outlined a goal of diversification in the firms the University uses to manage its funds. Though it did not dictate metrics to measure the firms’ progress towards diversifying their ranks, the letter stipulated that Yale would administer a yearly survey of the number of “diverse profesSEE DIVERSIFY PAGE 4
Aminé to close Spring Fling GAMZE KAZAKOGLU STAFF REPORTER After a three-year hiatus, Spring Fling is finally returning to Yale. The year-end concert will feature a four artist lineup: Japanese Breakfast, Masego, Sofi Tukker and Aminé. Spring Fling will take place on Old Campus on May 2, the first day of reading period. Student bands will kick off the day-long festival, followed by Japanese Breakfast, Masego and Sofi Tukker. Headliner Aminé will close out the show. The previous two
editions of the concert, originally to take place in 2020 and 2021, were canceled due to the COVID19 pandemic. “What we really love about the Yale student body is that it clearly has a deep love and respect for music, and art and creativity in general,” Spring Fling Committee co-chair Olivia Marwell ’24 said. “That’s one of the things that we like to focus on — finding artists who are in line with those values. Not people who are doing the norm, but people who are pushing their artistic expression. The artSEE SPRING FLING PAGE 5
SEE SURVEY PAGE 4
Elicker unveils budget BY YASH ROY AND SADIE BOGRAD STAFF REPORTERS After local legislators spent much of 2021 fighting a crippling budget crisis, Mayor Justin Elicker proposed a no-cuts budget on Tuesday focused on reinvigorating city services and stabilizing New Haven’s economy. Elicker submitted the budget to the Board of Alders and shared it with the public at a press conference at City Hall. Elicker is asking for more funding for schools, youth services, public
YALE DAILY NEWS
The mayor’s proposal increases funding for libraries, housing inspections, police and more. SEE BUDGET PAGE 5
CROSS CAMPUS THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY, 1973..
The New Haven Board of Alders rejects the University's plan to build two new residential colleges. Without approval, the University must find other ways to deal with expanding enrollment.
INSIDE THE NEWS DOMINUS TEACHES 'JOURNALISM' AFTER WOODWARD PAUSE PAGE 3 UNIVERSITY
COURTESY OF SPRING FLING COMMITTEE
Japanese Breakfast, Masego, Sofi Tukker and Aminé will perform at Spring Fling, which will take place on Old Campus on May 2.
ISOLATION
TAXES
UKRAINE
In interviews with the News, students reported discrepancies in isolation duration policies.
New Haven's most recent revaluation showed a significant spike in the value of Yale's tax-exempt properties.
At a rally on Cross Campus on Sunday, students and locals gathered to stand in solidarity with Ukraine.
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PAGE 11 CITY
PAGE 12 PHOTO
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2022 · yaledailynews.com
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OPINION Intentional Spontaneity L
ast year, I decided to study outside on Cross Campus nearly every week. One chilly Monday in November, two girls were throwing white frisbees. Others were seated in benches, their backpacks as their companions. I placed my sweater and notebooks on top of the stone leading up to Sterling Memorial Library. Although the cold numbed my fingers, the sun warmed the stone. I tied my hair up in a ponytail, ready to begin my homework. 3 p.m. Two minutes in, someone approached me. “Do you mind if I take your picture?” she asked. “Oh, yeah, yeah,” I said, trying to hide my enthusiasm. She stepped back and I took off my ponytail (to look cooler). She thanked me. As she walked away, I called out, “Wait, what are those photos for?” She turned around and smiled. “They’re for my photography class. We’re studying shadows.” We briefly talk about the class, and she shows me the photos. They seem candid, but I know that my “studious” face is a pose: I’m pretending to concentrate on my Japanese grammar worksheet. “I’m trying to get over my fear of approaching people in public and asking to take pictures of them,” she said.
IT’S AN ACT THAT I CALL “INTENTIONAL SPONTANEITY.” IT SOUNDS LIKE A CONTRADICTION. AND IT IS. Two other people pass by, one after the other. The first hugs me. He had a biochemistry exam in the morning and a physics exam in the evening the next day. Another girl joins us. “How do you know each other?” I ask. “Shared trauma. We were both here in the winter.” I look up and see someone on a scooter with a purple backpack. I call out her name. “Can I join you?” she asks. I say, “Of course.” In the next two minutes, another friend passes by. I call out his name. He waves and takes out his earbuds. He also joins us on the stone. They chat. She talks about her “Halloween curse” and how past Halloweekend “was no exception.”
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These conversations happened in the span of three hours. I deliberately planned this time to see what kind of conversaISA I could DOMINGUEZ tions hold with othe rs. I t’s a n Isaential act that I call “ i n te n t i o n a l Readings s p o n ta n e i ty.” It sounds like a contradiction. And it is. I’m referring to the intent to be spontaneous. To do whatever it is that can be done because you want to do it.
SPONTANEITY OFTEN DOESN’T HAVE INTENT. BUT LET’S MAKE IT INTENTIONAL. Forgetting to enjoy college is easy. Classes and extracurriculars quickly accumulate before one realizes that they need to catch up. I might remember how many times a week I’ve gone to the Sterling Starr Reading room to study — or to look like I’ve been studying — but I won’t remember the passages I read or the facts that I memorized for a test. I probably had an assignment due that November afternoon, but I don’t remember. What I do remember are those conversations and the people. They were random, simple, short, long. When I look at Cross Campus now, I wonder how many conversations I’m missing, how many people I haven’t seen or have yet to run into. I’m waiting for a warmer time when the ice has melted from the stone, and people gather to sit down and bask in the sun before it sets at 6 p.m. instead of at 4 p.m. I’m leaving my Google Calendar open for that day. Spontaneity often doesn’t have intent. But let’s make it intentional. ISA DOMINGUEZ is a sophomore in Timothy Dwight College. Her column, “Isaential Readings,” runs every other Monday. Contact her at isa.dominguez@yale.edu .
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COPYRIGHT 2022 — VOL. CXLIV, NO. 15
G U E S T C O L U M N I S T M ATA S Z I N K EV I C I U S
Will Yale finance Russian aggression? U
niversity President Peter Salovey recently condemned the Russian Federation’s war of aggression against Ukraine and announced other gestures of support for Ukraine: a panel discussion at the Jackson Institute and a “vigil for peace.” Anyone who supports Ukraine’s fight for its existence as an independent state will welcome these gestures, if they are meant seriously, but Yale runs the danger of rank hypocrisy if it continues to finance President Putin’s regime at the same time as it supports Ukraine with words. Any investment in Russian state enterprises and firms controlled by Putin’s associates, whether directly or through mazes of offshore accounts, was ethically dubious in the past. Now, any investment in Russia means providing Putin’s regime with the capital, technology and sense of impunity it needs to wage war against Ukraine. The United States, the European Union and other democratic countries have already announced sanctions targeting the props of Putin’s regime. More sanctions will surely be announced in the coming days. But Yale should not wait to follow the government’s lead. Mere compliance with the law
is not ethically serious. The Yale Investments Office prides itself for being “one of the first institutions to address formally the ethical responsibilities of institutional investors.” If Yale counts not financing a war of aggression among its ethical responsibilities, it will follow the example of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund and many other institutional investors and divest from assets linked to Russia.
YALE RUNS THE DANGER OF RANK HYPOCRISY IF IT CONTINUES TO FINANCE PRESIDENT PUTIN’S REGIME AT THE SAME TIME AS IT SUPPORTS UKRAINE WITH WORDS.
According to Yale’s latest SEC filing, Yale’s endowment is exposed to at least $10 million of Russian assets through emerging-market funds. Yale should exit these funds until they have divested from Russian assets. For what we know, Yale’s financial entanglements with Russia could go much deeper. According to the latest endowment update, 6.5 percent of Yale’s portfolio was allocated to emerging markets. That’s nearly $3 billion. Regardless of the scale of Yale’s investments, the University should immediately begin a review of its investments in Russian assets and state for the record whether financing Putin’s war of aggression is compatible with its values. Yale set a hopeful precedent in January when it opened a review of its investments in China in light of the human rights abuses in that country. This is an opportunity for Yale to show that it stands with Ukraine in deeds, not just words. If the administration succumbs to bureaucratic inertia, it will be up to Yale students to ensure that the University lives up to its principles. MATAS ZINKEVICIUS is a senior in Pierson College. Contact him at matas.zinkevicius@yale.edu .
Affirmative action won’t save us A
s a single parent and a city government employee, my mom didn’t have the money to send me to a fancy private school. So my best shot at a good education was testing into one of the few quality public elementary schools in Chicago. When I spoke with her about this, she recalled walking with me into the building where I would take my elementary school entrance exam. In the building’s lobby, groups of parents sat whispering in anxious tones, quizzing their kids at the last minute and talking to each other about what questions their kids should anticipate. Within minutes, I was whisked away to an obscure back room and subjected to questioning by two adults whom I had never met. After some time, I returned, my mom unsure of what I’d been asked and what the outcome of my test would be. If I didn’t do well on that test, I would have ended up at one of the elementary schools in my neighborhood, many of which were closed in 2013 because they were under-resourced, under-enrolled and underperforming. I probably would’ve dropped out or been funneled through the school-to-prison pipeline, as is often the case at my neighborhood schools. I never would’ve made it to this campus. And so my academic future largely rode on how well I, as a four-year-old self prone to fits of distraction, impatience and crankiness, did on an arbitrary test. I got lucky. I have thought about this fact as the Supreme Court’s decision to hear lawsuits against Harvard and UNC have renewed debates about affirmative action. In recent weeks, I’ve heard everyone, from politicians to pundits to random people, offer their takes on the matter. I’m not here to add my voice to the already oversaturated debate. Rather, I’m here to say that this entire conversation is unproductive. It misses the broader, much more pressing, issue. For whatever reason, we have come to tacitly accept the extreme selectivity of elite American universities as a given and that is precisely the problem. Instead of examining this selectivity, it seems we have leaned into, and thus legitimized, the idea that elite college admissions ought
to be a ruthless zero-sum ga m e . The lucrative college consulting industry is now an essential part of the college admisCALEB sions process. DUNSON Online forums where students What We and parents discuss ways Owe to game their way into one of these schools are commonplace. The release of college decisions might as well be a holiday, with students YouTubing their reactions, and media coverage heaping praise and attention onto the few winners of this perverse system. This alarming embrace of competition has bled into our high school and elementary school systems as parents increasingly view them as gateways to elite colleges. In my hometown, it wasn’t uncommon for parents to relentlessly drill their kids on test prep material, fake their home addresses to be considered disadvantaged and gain a leg up in school admissions processes and attempt to schmooze school leaders who could influence what students got into which schools. Stories like this, where parents and students train for the competition of elementary and high school admissions as though it’s the Olympics, are frighteningly common. But the debate over affirmative action does not get at the heart of this systemic issue. Neither do debates about legacy and athlete admissions for that matter. They are fundamentally conversations about who deserves to walk these hallowed halls, to have access to a world-class education, to enter the elite class of American society. But every student deserves to be here, every student deserves an opportunity like this. When we argue over admissions policies, affirmative action or otherwise, we indict each other and leave intact a system that forces us to compete for what should be available to all. We cling to the ill-defined ideas of merit that undergird college admissions and paint over the inequalities entrenched in our educational system. We neglect to critique the ability of universities like Yale to create exclusive elite classes, opt-
ing instead to tinker around the edges of a wholly unjust system. For us, the winners of this twisted game, it’s easy to engage in these sorts of debates, because it keeps us from having to reckon with the troubling privilege we’ve all been afforded. It allows us to avoid examining the presupposition of those debates –– that it’s okay for elite colleges to exclude a majority of Americans from their spaces, so long as the method by which they choose to exclude seems unbiased. And while we might be able to attribute our place at this university to our hard work, dedication and merit, our success is as much a result of our luck and privilege as it is a result of those all-nighters and intense extracurriculars. It’s as much a result of the hours of test prep as it is the result of getting test questions that played to our strengths. It’s as much a result of the strong essays we wrote as it is the good mood the admissions committee was in the day they considered our application. To deny this reality and defend the selectivity of universities like our own is a tragic moral failing. When I tested into my elementary school, I effectively got into Yale. That test opened the doors to a lifetime of power and privilege. It gave me access to the best teachers, the best facilities, the best test prep programs, the best education. As I reflect on that, on how easily my test could have gone the other way, on how the test did go the other way for so many children, I feel so deeply disturbed. When I’m walking around campus, I’ll occasionally pause to look at some of the students touring Yale. I see their eyes light up with some mix of wonder and anxiety as they see the grandeur of Old Campus and Sterling Memorial Library. This makes me sad. Sad because a lot of them won’t get to see the inside of an Old Campus dorm or study in the stacks. Sad because they’ll have to endure a grueling college admissions process to find that out. Sad because we continue to sell people on a false dream of opportunity and success. CALEB DUNSON is a sophomore in Saybrook College. His column, “What We Owe,” runs every other Thursday. Contact him at caleb.dunson@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2022 · yaledailynews.com
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NEWS
“There can be no peace without erasing the harshness of the growing contrast between the rich and the poor.” INDIRA GANDHI THIRD PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA
Dominus takes over ‘Journalism’ after Woodward pause BY LUCY HODGMAN AND ISAAC YU STAFF REPORTERS Yale’s core journalism course has its first new instructor in nearly a decade. Bob Woodward ’65 is not teaching the English seminar “Journalism” this spring. Woodward began teaching the seminar — the foundational requirement for students in the Yale Journalism Initiative — in 2014, and he has taught it nearly every spring since. The last time Woodward taught the class, in the spring of 2021, students left several class sessions unsatisfied with discussions about reporting on race and sexual harassment. Woodward’s habit of cold-calling on students could make for uncomfortable conversations, several said, even as many praised class assignments and Woodward’s mentorship. Woodward’s departure makes way for Susan Dominus ’92 LAW ’99, who has been a staff writer for the New York Times Magazine since 2011. Beyond a routine faculty turnover, the change signifies a generational shift in the teaching of journalism at Yale. “Steve Brill and myself, who taught this class — he still teaches it — are older white males, and I think to bring in a younger woman is actually not only smart, but necessary,” Woodward told the News. “I’m glad that they did it and I wish her luck.” The Yale Journalism Initiative focuses on providing students interested in journalism with career opportunities and resources. Stephen Brill ’72 LAW ’75, who endowed the program in 2006 with his wife Cynthia Margolin Brill ’72, will continue to teach the English seminar offered in the fall semester. ProPublica’s Mark Schoofs ’85 and the Times’ Jill Abramson have also taught iterations of the seminar. Although the Yale Journalism Initiative is largely aimed towards prospective journalists, the journalism class, according to Dominus’ syllabus, is intended to develop the “universally practical” skills of gathering and evaluating information which can then be synthesized into fair and compelling writing. “I am always really interested in the ethics of journalism,” Dominus told the News. “That’s something that most reporters I know grapple with. In every single story they do, new issues come up, new challenges arise. … It’s something that I could hear people’s thoughts about endlessly and I have learned from students in other classes before about thoughtful approaches.” “The world is changing, and we’re all changing with it,” she added. Woodward’s departure Woodward, whose reporting with Carl Bernstein for the Washington Post exposed the Watergate scandal that preceded President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974, and has written 21 books about American politics. Woodward began teaching at Yale in 2014 and has taught the “Journalism” course each spring since then except for the spring of 2020, when he was focused on reporting on the upcoming presidential election. The course was not offered during this semester. When Woodward returned to Yale in 2021, he said that the COVID-19 pandemic and the transition to remote learning made the semester difficult.
“Last year was a difficult year doing it by Zoom,” Woodward said. “That has an artificiality to it that a classroom does not.” Woodward explained that he ultimately chose not to teach the course in 2022 because he worried that COVID-19 restrictions would prevent him from traveling to New Haven and holding his seminar in person, replicating the challenges with Zoom he had experienced in 2021.
“I THINK TO BRING IN A YOUNGER WOMAN IS ACTUALLY NOT ONLY SMART, BUT NECESSARY,” WOODWARD TOLD THE NEWS. “I’M GLAD THAT THEY DID IT AND I WISH HER LUCK.” Woodward also spoke about professional projects he is working on. Director of Creative Writing Richard Deming and Brill also referenced Woodward’s book commitments. According to Deming, Woodward told the English department last spring that a new book dealing with former President Donald Trump would dominate his time and energy this year. Brill noted that Woodward told him that his current project was more intense and consuming than others he has undertaken in the past. Woodward told the News that he has a current contract for a book about his career, and is also considering writing about the Biden administration and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Woodward did not rule out the possibility of returning to Yale for future semesters, noting that often when you commit to “doing x and y, you wind up doing a and b.” Woodward’s return would not displace Dominus from teaching again, Brill told the News, since the Yale Journalism Initiative endowment has remained strong since 2006 and could support more than two cohorts a year. Neither Brill nor Woodward have taken salaries during their time teaching the seminar. “If Bob wants to do it again next year, there’s plenty of room for more than two seminars, especially since the endowment never spent any money,” Brill told the News. Woodward, who currently resides in the District of Columbia, added that he had an offer from a dean at Georgetown to teach a journalism course there, which would spare him the weekly commute to and from New Haven. “It’s possible I may do that,” Woodward said. “Each time, you learn something from the students. Some of the students last year did some of the very best work I’ve seen.”
“Pretty combative”: Tension in the classroom Woodward’s departure comes after a tense final semester. Speaking to undergraduates who have taken Woodward’s seminar, the News found that the journalist’s teaching style often clashed with his students’ expectations. The virtual version of his course taught in spring 2021 received an abnormally low course rating, with several comments pointing to specific incidents that made some students uncomfortable. Course ratings and evaluations are anonymous and are currently available to Yale students on Yale Course Search, the University’s online course registration system. The course was rated by 10 out of the course’s 12 students, and it received an average score of 3.0 out of 5.0. In the previous six iterations of the seminar Woodward has taught, none received an average rating of lower than 3.9. Some course evaluations praised Woodward’s teaching, saying that it was “wonderful” to learn from him and that he “encourages discussion and debate on difficult topics.” But in other evaluations, three students made references to specific class discussions about race and sexual assault. “During the semester, there were two key events that colored the rest of the semester,” one student wrote. “The first was a conversation about race that was poorly run that quickly turned away from race. This was an unsatisfying conversation, and I wish that we had had a guest speaker instead. The second was during the #MeToo reporting class, which will probably be detailed in other responses. The bottom line is that there should be more guest speakers for these weeks.” Woodward’s spring 2021 syllabus, which is publicly available to Yale students on Yale Course Search, details the “class themes” for each day of class, which met for nearly two hours weekly on Tuesdays. March 23 was themed around “reporting on race,” and March 30 was themed around “Origins and impact of #MeToo reporting,” according to the syllabus. When asked about discussions during those two classes, Woodward told the News that even the students who were “not happy with some of [his] questioning” wrote to him with positive feedback after the class had ended. The News spoke to two students about the two class incidents. One of the students asked to remain anonymous out of professional concerns. Lukas Flippo ’24, who took the class in the spring 2021 semester, described class discussions as “pretty combative,” and said that they heavily revolved around anecdotes about Woodward’s career. Woodward also had a habit of cold-calling students. Flippo described class conversations about race as “wishywashy.” He told the News that while the seminar began with a discussion about reporting on a spree of racially-motivated spa shootings in Atlanta, the conversation was “derailed” and switched focus to social media usage and other topics less than halfway through the class. Both students told the News that the discussion did not engage with class readings.
YALE DAILY NEWS
Woodward’s successor is Pulitzer-winning Yale alum who has extensively reported for the New York Times.
“I wish we would have had speakers who were more aligned with those topics when we did tackle them,” Flippo said. “It felt like we weren’t learning from someone who had real expertise on the topic.” Woodward noted that Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, the reporters who broke sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein in the New York Times, had spoken virtually to the class during a previous iteration of the course. Flippo said that Woodward’s handling of discussion on #MeToo reporting in the subsequent class session quickly made some students uncomfortable. “He pretty much asked the women in the class if they had had any experience with the #MeToo movement, and the way that it came across was that he was asking the women in the class to share their examples of being harassed,” Flippo said. “There was an immediate tension in the air.” None of the women replied, Flippo said, and other students in the class began turning off their Zoom cameras, prompting teaching fellow Simone Seiver ’17 LAW ’21 to suggest taking a ten-minute break. Seiver did not comment for this story. When class resumed, several women had logged off, which one other student confirmed to the News. Discussion continued without any reference to the incident, which Flippo said acted as a “dampener” on the remainder of the semester. Outside of class, students discussed whether Woodward would apologize or reference the incident, Flippo said.When asked about this incident, Woodward said that the uncomfortable atmosphere of some of these conversations reflect a fundamental truth about the nature of journalism. “It is kind of the business of a journalist to ask uncomfortable questions,” Woodward said. “I have asked uncomfortable questions of many presidents. Nixon, I asked the questions. I never got an answer directly from him, but from four or five other presidents. I’ve asked the most uncomfortable questions sitting in their office. That comes with the territory of being a journalist.” Woodward also noted that his syllabus specifically made accommodations for students who did not want to discuss certain topics. The first half of the class on #MeToo, for example, had optional attendance. The News attempted to contact all 12 students in the class, except for the current editor-in-chief of the News, Rose Horowitch ’23, who was not interviewed for this story or involved in the reporting process. Besides the two students who spoke to the News and Horowitch, the nine others declined to speak for attribution or could not be reached. The News did not determine whether the events of Woodward’s final semester played any role in his departure. A fresh voice Dominus is significantly younger than both Woodward and Brill, and she has directly grappled with reporting on issues such as #MeToo. Two months after Kantor and Twohey first broke allegations of sexual assault against Weinstein in the Times, Dominus joined Kantor, Twohey and two other reporters for a follow-up story on “Weinstein’s Complicity Machine”. Flippo expressed appreciation for having a younger journalist faculty member. Though Woodward’s anecdotes were interesting, Flippo said, class discussions were theoretical and did not tend to offer insight on practical reporting skills. Woodward also summarily dismissed Twitter as a platform. “I think the way journalism is going, we could very much benefit from having a person in their early 40s or 50s,” Flippo said. “Every journalist I know is active on Twitter. The journalism we’re doing and responding to is all about how it’s received and read on the internet.” Mark Oppenheimer ’96 GRD ’03, who coordinates the Yale Journalism Initiative, told the News that “fresh voices on the English faculty are always important.” Deming described Dominus as “one of the finest journalists working today” and pointed to her past positions as a Poynter Fellow and a fellow at the Yale Law School. “We have no doubts that Susan will bring that compassionate rigor that is the hallmark of her writing into the classroom,” Deming said. “Journalism is a field in flux during these dynamic, fraught times, and writers such as Susan are at the front, helping it meet, head on, unblinkingly, unswerv-
ingly, the demands and needs of our contemporary moment.” Although Dominus’ syllabus, like Brill’s fall syllabus, does not have specific classes dedicated to reporting on race or #MeToo, several class sessions have assigned reading related to the subject.
“THE WORLD IS CHANGING, AND WE’RE CHANGING WITH IT,” SAID DOMINUS. The syllabus features Kantor and Twohey’s book “She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement,” using the book as a case study for identifying important stories as well as strategies on breaking them. Despite Dominus’ firsthand knowledge from reporting on the #MeToo movement, she noted that she “still learned so much” in reading “She Said.” In an interview with the News, Dominus said that pausing to examine more closely the ethical issues that arise in the throes of reporting is one of the primary rewards of studying and teaching journalism as a craft. “The truth is that one could hash out the kinds of thorny and challenging issues around journalism all day long, and love it,” Dominus said. “The problem is instead of doing that, you are actually doing the reporting … So what I always love about showing up in a class is having the moment to pause and think through process and choice and approach and methodology and ethics in a really thoughtful way.” Dominus attended Yale College before joining the Times as a Metro columnist in 2007. In 2009 she was a member of a team of journalists that won the Pulitzer Prize in breaking news for their coverage of the scandal that ultimately led New York Governor Eliot Spitzer to resign. Oppenheimer also pointed to work that Dominus did before joining the Times — specifically when she served as an editor of Nerve.com — as demonstrative of her early involvement in the then-novel field of online magazine journalism. Nerve, Oppenheimer said, was a literary website about sex and sexuality during a time when there was limited reporting on sexuality compared to today. “She was writing terrific stuff at a very early point,” Oppenheimer said. “I remember hearing her talked about as a star writer and editor in the late 1990s, so it’s really been about a quarter century that I have seen her work from afar and I’ve always admired it and envied it.” In 2012, Dominus taught a class alongside Dody Tsiantar as an adjunct professor at the Columbia School of Journalism — an experience which she loved, she told the News. “I think that journalism, in a way that’s maybe different from other classes, does really force you to wrestle in a deep way with the ethical issues of how you interact with human beings in the world,” Dominus said. “I think that’s really a value in a very practical way and just a deep sort of human way for anybody who’s about to head into a workforce.” Dominus said that she had tentatively expressed interest in teaching a course at Yale to a few people before she was approached by Deming about teaching “Journalism.” After a certain point, Dominus explained, she began to feel ready to give back some of what she had learned in her career as a journalist. Dominus’ husband Alan Burdick, a lecturer of English at Yale and a staff writer for the New Yorker, told the News that he was “thrilled” for Dominus. He recalled how positively his students had responded when she visited his classes in the past. Burdick emphasized Dominus’ broad range of reporting experiences, all of which he said, were “people-oriented.” “She was on the team that won a Pulitzer at the Times a couple of years ago for Me Too coverage, so she has a very inside look at the challenges of dealing with a sharp edge like that, journalistically,” Burdick said. “She’s just a fantastic generalist, in the best sense. She brings a tremendous enthusiasm and, certainly, a certain amount of youthful experience to it.” Dominus began teaching at the start of the spring 2022 semester, which began on Jan. 25. Contact LUCY HODGMAN at lucy.hodgman@yale.edu and ISAAC YU at isaac.yu@yale.edu.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2022 · yaledailynews.com
FROM THE FRONT
“The most valuable possession you can own is an open heart. The most powerful weapon you can be is an instrument of peace.” CARLOS SANTANA AMERICAN GUITARIST
Antero holdings up for first time in years
PIXABAY
Antero Resources reappeared in Yale’s latest 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. FRACKING FROM PAGE 1 Calnek-Sugin ’19 said that after Yale invested in Antero, dozens of other universities followed suit, in part due to the reputation of Yale’s then-Chief Investment Officer David Swensen.
Antero then disappeared from the University's 13F filings, starting in the first quarter of 2019. Yale is not required to report public securities for which it holds fewer than 10,000 shares or less than $200,000 in aggregate fair market value.
But Yale’s most recent 13F form showed a sharp rise in Antero holdings, and the University had a $41 million stake in the corporation at the end of 2021. These filings only represent the investments made directly
by staff in the Yale Investments Office, and do not show endowment investments made by external investment managers. “Sometimes investors rethink their strategy based on changing circumstances, and circumstances have certainly changed,” said Charles Skorina, founder of an investment management firm that works with endowments and foundations. “The Yale Investments Office knew Antero from its prior investment in the company and may have felt that additional gas energy investments made sense given the upward trend in oil and gas prices and the difficulty in bringing renewable energy online.” Skorina is not associated with the Yale Investments Office. Antero is a member of several voluntary industry programs aimed at “reducing climate change risks,” according to a sustainability statement on its website. These associations include the EPA Natural Gas STAR Program, ONE Future and the Environmental Partnership, an initiative of the United States natural gas and oil industry. Antero Resources Corporation and its affiliated company, Antero Midstream, have received 11 environmental violations since 2010. In a 2019 settlement, Antero paid $3.15 million in civil damages for allegedly violating the Clean Water Act after 32 hydraulic fracking
operations in West Virginia disposed of their waste products into U.S. waters. Yale’s Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility recommends fossil fuel producers that should no longer be eligible for investment by the Yale Endowment based on a set of criteria. The principles state that fossil fuel producers must “operate in a manner consistent with best industry practices to reduce GHG emissions” and “support sensible government regulation and industry self-regulation addressing climate change” to be eligible for Yale investment. While the committee recently added fossil fuel companies ExxonMobil and Chevron to the list of companies ineligible for Yale investment due to ethical concerns, Antero is not currently on that list. “Once again, Yale must answer for its practice of investing in fracking companies even as Yale researchers raise awareness about the links between fracking and numerous risks to public health and the environment,” EJC member Moses Goren ’23 said. Stock prices of Antero Resources Corporation rose 133.98 percent over the past year. Contact CHARLOTTE HUGHES at charlotte.hughes@yale.edu.
Data unknown on Swensen diversity goals DIVERSIFY FROM PAGE 1 sionals” at various ranks in firms’ workforces. The YIO planned to assess these firms’ progress in “hiring, training, mentoring and retaining women and minority” managers, Swensen wrote. But in May, the legendary investor died. Since his passing, it is unclear whether Yale has followed through on the aims he outlined. “Our goal is a level of diversity in investment management firms that reflects the diversity in the world in which we live,” Swensen wrote. “Genuine diversity remains elusive, giving investors like Yale and your firm an opportunity to drive change.” University Spokesperson Karen Peart told the News on behalf of the Investments Office that “matters of diversity, equity, and inclusion continue to be important to the Investments Office,” adding the office would focus on building a “more diverse set of investment partners” and would provide an update “when appropriate.” Peart did not directly respond to questions about what metrics the University was assessing to show progress. Peart could not respond late Wednesday to a follow-up question on whether Yale had administered a second yearly survey in October. “Finance and asset management is still a man's world,” Charles Skorina, an investment
executive recruiter, told the News. “We're not going to see much happen until the next generation. Women CIOs are absolutely on a par with the men in terms of investment performance. We have to work our way down — if the women are just as good as the men at the top, and often better, then why aren't there more women?” The Oct. 2020 letter was addressed to the around 70 U.S. firms that Yale contracts to manage its investments. In the letter, Swensen suggested “a rethinking” of the firms’ recruitment strategies. “Many of you report that the pools from which you recruit are not diverse,” he wrote. “Why not hire directly from college campuses? Colleges and universities are richly diverse. Many students have little knowledge of career options outside of investment banking and consulting. You would be doing a great service by introducing them to the fascinating profession of investment management.” A 2017 Knight Foundation study reported that in 2017, women- and minority-owned firms accounted for only about 1 percent of assets under management. But one professor said that the intervening years had seen a strong growth in diversity in the industry. Professor of Accounting at the Yale School of Management Frank Zhang told the News that
the finance space is seeing a “huge increase” of diversity. “There is more demand for diversity and inclusion,” Zhang said. “So, you see more female managers and non-white managers.” Looking from an empirical perspective, Zhang said that greater diversity on corporate boards leads to better performance. A variety of perspectives and experiences on a board reduces the risk of major mistakes, according to Zhang. He said that if everyone is from the same background, they might overlook certain important details. Zhang went on to cite studies which show that female managers perform better as managers in finance, a historically male-dominated field. He clarified that these statements apply to investment specifically, and more research is needed to explore the performance effects of diversity in the endowment space. “Because the Yale endowment is such a big institution, other endowments follow the model,” Zhang said. “If Yale does something, others will follow.” Skorina noted that diversity is also an issue within Yale’s investment office. Six of the 23 investment professionals listed on the Yale Investment Office’s website are women. The majority of directors are white. Skorina told the News that if Yale were to have “an even playing field” for men and women,
Swensen “would have needed to have a fair number of solid women five years ago,” so that these managers could be trained and gain experience. He pointed out that Lisa Howie, who was a director in the Investments Office and who Skorina said was “the one that seemed to be closest to” Swensen’s successor, CIO Matthew Mendelsohn ’07, left the University when she took a job at Smith College in April. “The next question is what's Matt Mendelsohn going to do?” Skorina said. “Is he going to follow in the spirit and take concrete action? I don't know yet. We'll have to see. We can't judge now.” Mendelsohn, who was selected for his role by a panel including only one woman, will now take on the challenge of diversifying the Yale Investments Office. The issue of diversity in asset management has permeated national politics. In 2020, former Rep. Joseph Kennedy and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver conducted an inquiry into diversity among the managers of the U.S.’s 25 largest university endowments. The congressmen released their results in an Oct. 2020 report, published six days after Swensen sent his letter, that included a set of recommendations for colleges and universities. The last of Kennedy and Cleaver’s recommendations asked the colleges — which included Yale —
to publicly disclose their progress and efforts. “Universities should include information about diversity and inclusion efforts, including assets allocated to diverse managers, in addition to other regularly disclosed endowment information,” the representatives wrote. “Transparency invites accountability, may help decrease barriers to adoption at other institutions, and contributes to industry data and/or research beneficial to all participants.” In response to the announcement of Kennedy and Cleaver’s inquiry — and a list of questions that accompanied it — Harvard University released a set of answers to the questions. Officials from the Harvard Management Company wrote that 27 percent of Harvard’s active manager relationships are with “majority diverse” external managers. The document defined “majority diverse” as majority owned by either women or those of racial or ethnic majorities. Yale did not publish a public response to the inquiry. The University’s endowment was most recently valued at $42.3 billion. Contact MICHAEL NDUBISI at michael.ndubisi@yale.edu and CARTER DEWEES at carter.dewees@yale.edu.
Survey results show limited progress SURVEY FROM PAGE 1 effort, I think, to expand on that knowledge on campus.” The Sustainability Survey is a part of the University's 2025 Sustainability Plan to develop and launch a sustainability literacy initiative. The results of the report will be used by the Office of Sustainability when developing new projects and initiatives, according to Lisa Noriega, sustainability data analyst at the Office of Sustainability. The results also did not report significant progress on students’ confidence that they have the resources to act sustainably. Less than ten percent of first-year students in 2018 and fourth-year students in 2021 strongly agreed that they knew how to find information for questions they have related to sustainability on campus or that they knew how to get involved in sustainability efforts at Yale. “[A] possible contributor to students’ feelings is the current
global reality — the climate crisis has raised expectations for action because the stakes are higher,” Noriega told the News. While 90 percent of students strongly agreed with the statement that the world faces environmental threats that are real and must be dealt with as soon as possible, a much lower percentage of staff, at 70 percent, strongly agreed. Nearly a hundred percent of students and ninety percent of staff strongly agreed with the statement that “climate change is happening, and it is caused mostly by human activities.” Kanga said that the slightly lower rate at which faculty affirmed the threat of climate change was reflected in the classes she’s taken at the School of Environment. “I think that the School of the Environment could benefit from hiring new, diverse, young thinkers,” Kanga said. “A lot of my professors are a lot older than me … And none of them look like me, which is disconcerting because, moving forward, climate action
needs to be centered around justice and diversity and equity. We can't have those conversations at this institution if our environmental studies program is all white men.” Noriega noted the importance of surveying staff as well as students, as she said this gives the University a fuller picture of the community’s attitudes towards sustainability . “Notably, we are among a small group of institutions of higher education that survey more stakeholders than just students, and we do this so that we can adequately address what the Yale community as a collective thinks, needs, and wants in relation to sustainability,” Noriega told the News. About 40 percent of faculty and staff and 50 percent of students strongly agreed that being involved in environmental issues was their responsibility. “There is a perceivable culture around environmental science and sustainability,” said Parker Chang ’25, who serves as
a Trumbull Sustainability Liaison. “At the same time, I'm not willing to say that like every single student would necessarily be on board.” More than 80 percent of students and staff answered that they would practice more sustainable behaviors if they had a clearer way to see and measure the difference it makes. Madeline Meade ’23, the former secretary of Green, a sustainability club, told the News that, alongside many survey respondents, she feels like the University could do far more to address sustainability, especially on the smaller scale. “Every student can see how much food waste there is or feel our drafty windows.” Meade said. “There's definitely good, big moves being made or are in the process of being made by Yale as a whole, but I think some things can be kind of hard to see on the smallest scale.” The University is currently working on its 2025 Sustainabil-
ity Plan, which the Sustainability Survey is a part of. The nineyear plan was launched in 2016 and outlines the University's goals towards sustainability, which range from waste management to promoting student engagement and literacy on sustainability. Less than 15 percent of students and about 20 percent of faculty and staff said they were familiar with the University’s Sustainability Plan 2025, according to the Sustainability Survey Report. ity Survey is a part of. The nineyear plan was launched in 2016 and outlines the University's goals towards sustainability, which range from waste management to promoting student engagement and literacy on sustainability. Less than 15 percent of students and about 20 percent of staff said they were familiar with the University’s Sustainability Plan 2025, according to the Sustainability Survey Report. Contact ISABEL MANEY at isabel.maney@yale.edu.
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2022 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 5
FROM THE FRONT
“All we are saying is give peace a chance.” JOHN LENNON ENGLISH SINGER
Spring Fling Committee reveals lineup SPRING FLING FROM PAGE 1 ists who will perform this year are doing super experimental things and bending between genres.” When planning this year’s lineup, the committee specifically factored in three aspects: the performer’s stage presence, students’ diverse music tastes and supporting innovative up-and-coming artists. According to Marwell, the selection process included examining artists’ live performances to get a sense of their onstage energy and the crowds’ reactions. The committee additionally strived to achieve genre diversity with their picks, as they thought a single music genre could not encompass the many different music tastes represented among Yale students. The three co-chairs are “super excited” that this year’s lineup covers a wide array of genres: jazz, R&B and indie pop, to name a few. In addition, the committee sought out artists who are still actively making music, touring and releasing new albums. Marwell said that as a college festival, Spring Fling is a “great place” for new artists to “broaden their audience” and “introduce themselves to young people.” The Spring Fling Committee, according to co-chair Alexandra
Gers ’24, consists of 25 students, which she believes is reflective of the student body’s diverse music tastes and brings different qualities to the planning team. Japanese Breakfast is an experimental pop band headed by Korean-American musician and author Michelle Zauner. Primarily known for its hits “Be Sweet,” “Paprika” and “Everybody Wants to Love You,” the band released its debut album “Psychopomp” in 2016, which was followed by “Soft Sounds from Another Planet” and “Jubilee.” Zauner published a memoir in 2021 titled “Crying in H Mart,” which soon became a New York Times bestseller and found its place on former president Barack Obama’s 2021 book list. Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern comprise Sofi Tukker, a musical duo best known for their hits “Purple Hat,” “Drinkee” and “Best Friend.” According to Marwell, Hawley-Weld and Halpern both attended Brown University and were involved in different social circles — Tucker a basketball star and Hawley-Weld in the arts. The duo performed at the same show at Brown and began to jam and collaborate before eventually moving to New York after graduation. Masego is a Jamaican-American musician and singer known
for jazz-fusion and incorporating saxophone into music. According to Spring Fling Committee co-chair Jarett Malouf ’23, although Masego’s music may appear to be closer to soul and R&B, he is a jazz musician “at his core.” “If you watch any of his performances, he brings his saxophone onstage.” Malouf said. “What is so exciting about this particular performer is that, even for people who don’t know him ahead of time, I think anybody will get a kick out of someone who can come on and not just be the vocalist, but an incredible musician as well.” Aminé is a rapper, singer and songwriter, whose commercial debut single “Caroline” peaked at number 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100 Chart. In 2021, his song “My High” received a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Recording. “I think [Aminé] just brings something really unique to the stereotypical rap artist that we have brought to Spring Fling in the past,” Gers said. “He blends a wide array of genres of pop, R&B with his rap and he’s really an all-around musician, a musical artist. We are super excited about the energy he brings to his live performances — he is really dynamic and engages with the crowd.”
According to Gers, the funds in Spring Fling’s budget come from the Yale College Council, the student activities fund and the President’s office. This year’s budget is “about double” that of a normal year, with funds originally earmarked for a fall 2021 edition reallocated towards this year’s concert. Gers added that usually two or three artists perform at Spring Fling. However, the committee felt that the student body generally prefers having more than one or two acts, since this enables them to experience a day-long music festival and also to be exposed to a wider variety of genres that appeal to more students’ tastes. “If you don’t like one, there’s one other that you will hopefully like and can enjoy,” Gers said. “Four artists isn’t really much of a factor of the budget, but I think the scope of the artists is what we were able to achieve with the bigger budget this year.” Spring Fling will also feature student performances, which will be selected in “Battle of the Bands” on Mar. 12. According to Marwell, the committee was “really stoked” by the large number of submissions they received this year. While the committee selects eight bands out of the sub-
missions to perform at Battle of the Bands, students in attendance at the event will be able to vote on the musicians who ultimately perform at Spring Fling. In response to student calls for Pitbull to perform at Spring Fling, the committee indicated that booking Mr. Worldwide would have been “impossible,” as he exceeded their entire allocated budget. However, Marwell added that they “love the enthusiasm” of the movement. “I also think it’s really important for us to think about newer artists, people who are coming up in the industry, people who really embody this type of creative expression that is really authentic, exciting and new,” Marwell said. “I think college festivals are a place for newer acts.” “We think that most students will already know at least one of the artists and really enjoy their music, but we also think that—even if they have never heard of them—everyone is going to go to their sets and will hopefully become a fan afterwards,” Marwell added. Ari Lennox, the Aces, Elohim and Rico Nasty were slated to perform at Spring Fling in 2020, which was called off due to the pandemic. Contact GAMZE KAZAKOGLU at gamze.kazakoglu@yale.edu.
Mayor crafts no-cuts budget for next year BUDGET FROM PAGE 1 safety, the Livable City Initiative and more. Those investments are made possible in part by increased contributions from the state government, federal government and from Yale, which came about after years of public protest and advocacy. This year, the city also conducted a revaluation of all New Haven properties, which revealed a rise in property values across the board. Elicker announced plans to phase in property tax increases over the next five years. “I am proud to present the City’s Fiscal Year 22-23 proposed annual budget,” Elicker wrote in a letter accompanying the budget. “Looking forward to this new fiscal year, we continue our commitment to fiscal responsibility and to meet the resident priorities of public safety, essential services, sound infrastructure, and enriching community programs … The City will continue to provide efficient, quality services while being conscientious of our financial position this year and in years to come.” Under the proposal, New Haven’s general fund expenditures will grow from $606 million to $633.1 million. Elicker highlighted multiple programs that will contribute to that increase. All libraries will now be open seven days a week. The city will hire 25 new employees, including housing inspectors, Youth Department staff members and a Chief Technology Officer. Elicker also wants to spend more on public safety, hiring a new lieutenant and sergeant for the police department while also increasing the number of officers on the force. The city is still searching for a new police chief to replace Acting Police Chief Renee Dominguez. Despite these increases, Elicker acknowledged that many departments will not receive the full funding they requested. New Haven’s fixed costs, which include the historically underfunded pension system as well as debt service payments, continue to increase. The city has also had to spend more on healthcare due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while revenues from parking meters are down. “I hear constantly from pretty much every staff member that we do not have enough resources and do not have enough staff to do the job that we feel like we want to do,” Elicker said during the press conference. “We're doing our best to give you the support you need, but also balancing the residents’ concerns around an ability to pay taxes that are reasonable. And that balance is something that I think we will always feel that tug and pull over.”
City sees influx of cash to deal with budget deficit The specter of debt, underfunded pensions and impacts of the pandemic on city financing had pushed New Haven to the edge of financial ruin in the past. During the 2021 fiscal year budget, Elicker unveiled two budgets: a “Crisis” Budget that had cuts due to funding issues and a “Forward Together” budget without the cuts. In the end, the Board of Alders passed the Forward Together budget with some changes due to gaps in state and University funding. This year, due to work done by New Haven advocates, Elicker and State Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, the state reformed its Payment in Lieu of Taxes, or PILOT, program which reimburses municipalities in the state for non-taxable property. More than 50 percent of New Haven’s property is non-taxable and previously the city was only reimbursed at a 26 percent rate. But with the reforms passed by the state, the reimbursement rate is now 50 percent. This has led the city to see an increase in funding from $41 million to $90 million. “[I’m] really grateful for the work not just by City Staff and Elected Officials, but also New Haven residents, in getting Yale to pay more to the city, as well as securing more PILOT money from the state,” Ward 1 Alder Alex Guzhnay ’24 told the News. “[It] allows us a lot more leeway and I believe they’ve had positive effects for the proposed budget and our city’s finances.” The recent agreement between Yale and New Haven to increase Yale’s contribution to New Haven has also helped bridge the gap with an additional $10 million in contribution. Although Yale is one of the largest property owners in the city, the majority of its property is tax-exempt. Historically, Yale has paid New Haven around $10 million in lieu of taxes, in addition to paying approximately $5 million in property taxes. In November, New Haven and Yale announced a new agreement to pay over $20 million in lieu of taxes for the next five years. Local organizers affirmed the role that New Haven residents played in getting Yale to pay more to the city. “I don't think that the increase in the budget would have changed without community advocacy, for sure,” Karissa McCright ’22, who is involved in campus organizing, told the News. “I think a big part of that is both the community and the students, undergrad and graduate students, coming together to demand more of the University.” However, with the recent revaluation of Yale’s non-taxable prop-
erty increasing by almost $700 million dollars, Elicker was questioned about the deal and whether he would ask Yale to increase its contribution to the city. “I stand by that agreement,” said Elicker. “There's always more work to do with the University to explore additional ways that they can help the city. But I'm not going to stand here and demand that you know, give even more right now, I think that we've made a lot of progress.” BOE asks for $9 million, gets $5 million Notably, the Board of Education is not receiving all of its requested funding. Elicker said the Board requested an additional $9 million; Under the current proposal, they would receive an additional $5 million, for a total of $195.8 million. Last year, the mayor proposed only a $3 million increase in NHPS’s funding. The Board of Alders halved that request in the end and only provided an additional $1.5 million dollars to the BOE. “At a time when record numbers of educators are resigning and retiring from our district, we would hope that city leaders recognize the urgency of the current situation,” said New Haven Federation of Teachers President Leslie Blatteau. “Our students deserve fully staffed schools to meet the complex needs of this intense time. And our communities deserve the reassurance that the city will fully fund our public schools.” Following last year’s budget approval, NHPS has faced staff leaving the district, chronic student absenteeism, bus shortages and an increase in food prices, which has further stressed the school system. NHPS unveiled its general funds budget two weeks ago, branding it as a status-quo budget. According to NHPS spokesperson Justin Harmon, the district has planned mitigation strategies in place to produce a balanced budget even without the full funding request the district made. “The budget proposed by the New Haven Public Schools covers our current operations with no services added,” Harmon wrote in an email to the News. “We have been significantly underfunded for a number of years. The mayor’s budget proposal does not include our entire budget request, but it goes further toward full funding than we have seen in the past. We hope the alders will sustain this crucial funding.” Elicker acknowledged that the BOE is regularly criticized for requesting large sums of money. However, he pointed out that the BOE employs the largest number of city employees and is the largest branch of the city government. Elicker also fielded criticism from Addys Castillo, the director
of the Citywide Youth Coalition, who said that she believes that it is important for the city to invest into local organizers and community groups instead of adding more staff members in the youth services department and providing indirect funding. “If [Elicker’s] doing it to just provide more positions within the city, how does that impact young people?” Castillo said. “I think sometimes the city takes on more than they can chew. And by that I mean the city wants to be a provider of direct services. That is very expensive, and it's not cost effective when there's already folks in the community, other community based organizations that could be easily doing that work.” Elicker informs the city about a phase-in of property tax increases The city also anticipates that it will receive more revenue from property taxes: $294.3 million this year, compared to $288.7 million in the current fiscal year. Under Connecticut state law, cities must conduct a revaluation of all real estate every five years. This year’s revaluation revealed that property values have risen significantly in the last five years — by more than 60 percent in parts of Fair Haven, Chapel West, the Hill and Newhallville. Elicker said that while this revaluation is generally a positive sign, it also means that property taxes will increase for most residents. In order to be “more equitable and fair” and prevent a sudden jump in taxes, Elicker is proposing that the city phase in its property tax increase over the next five years. City Assessor Alex Pullen explained that this phase-in will occur in five equal increments and will be the same for residential, commercial and industrial property. Elicker also wants to decrease the property tax rate, from $43.88 to $42.75 for every $1,000 worth of taxable property. This, he said, would help to com-
bat the spike in property taxes brought on by New Haven’s rise in property value. Ward 25 Alder Adam Marchand said there have been city budgets with and without property tax phase-ins in the past, and that the phase-in question “will be one of the topics that gets discussed a lot.” Elicker was also asked if he supported shifting revaluation from every five years to an annual evaluation. “In an ideal world, I think we do that, but there's just such a high cost to that,” Elicker said. “It's costly. I mean, it is an opportunity to talk about our overreliance on real estate taxes, and how I think we all can agree that there should be a much different system for collecting revenue, because cities like New Haven are disproportionately relying on real estate taxes when we have so much non-taxable property and real estate taxes don't effectively correlate to one's income, like income tax, or like some other taxes.” Much work remains to be done before the mayor’s 500-page plan is implemented. The Board of Alders will conduct a series of public hearings and workshops to gather input on the budget. Elicker said he also plans to host “several virtual town hall meetings” to review the budget and explain the revaluation process. Once the Board votes on the final budget proposal, the mayor can approve it as adopted or veto specific items. “Of course it’s helpful to have more resources to work with,” Ward 14 Alder Sarah Miller ’03 told the News. “The question now before the Board of Alders and our community is whether this is the best way to spend it.” The Board of Alders approved last year's budget at its second May meeting. Contact YASH ROY at yash.roy@yale.edu and SADIE BOGRAD at sadie.bograd@yale.edu.
TIM TAI/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
A year after the Mayor was forced to release two budget proposals due to New Haven's financial crisis, he has proposed a more optimistic one for next year.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2022 · yaledailynews.com
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Yale experts make strides in Multiple Sclerosis research
ERIC WANG/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
BY RAHMA AHMED CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine have found that B-cell depleting drugs can help reduce symptoms of inflammation in patients with multiple sclerosis. Multiple sclerosis, or MS, is an autoimmune neurodegenerative condition in which a patient’s overactive immune system attacks their nerves, causing neurologic dysfunction. Professor of neurology and immunobiology David Hafler, assistant professor of neurology Erin Longbrake, assistant professor of neurology Tomokazu Sumida and professor of rheumatology, pathology and epidemiology Richard Bucala ’79 have paved the way in MS research. Their work has focused on potential treatments for this debilitating inflammatory disease. “The working model for MS is that you have autoreactive T-cells recognizing brain antigens, particularly myelin antigens, that get activated in
a genetically susceptible host,” Hafler said. T-cells are a type of immune cell that recognizes particular antigens – or proteins that are present on the surface of cells – before targeting them and killing them. Autoreactive T-cells essentially cause autoimmune disease because they recognize antigens on the body’s own cells, rather than the foreign cells of disease which need to be destroyed. Thus, T-cells play a central role in MS. According to Hafler, T-cells recognize cellular signatures called antigens like those on the myelin sheath and then cause inflammation by secreting inflammatory cytokines. The myelin sheath is important for increasing the speed of signals sent between the brain and different parts of the body, so destroying these cells makes this essential communication in MS slower and more difficult. Genetic susceptibility is a key component of MS. Hafler’s lab identified 233 common genes and eight rare mutations
that are associated with disease risk. For decades, Hafler’s work has been pivotal in the field of multiple sclerosis. In fact, in the 1980s, his lab was the first to identify autoreactive T-cells in patients with MS. “It was the first demonstration of autoreactive T-cells in humans for any self-antigens,” Hafler said. “The surprising thing back then was, not only did we find autoreactive T-cells in patients with MS, but [we] also found them in healthy individuals. They were [present with a] lower frequency but they were present, and that was a conundrum that we dealt with for decades … We finally figured … that the difference [between] patients with MS [and healthy individuals] … [is that] in healthy individuals, T-cells are autoreactive but they are secreting … a suppressive cytokine that turns off immune responses.” Hafler added that these T-cells then recruit other cells –– scavenger cells –– to destroy the myelin sheath. In
comparison, healthy individuals’ “T-cells are not setting up an inflammatory response.” B - ce l l s, l i ke T- ce l l s, are the immune system’s other main cells. They produce antibodies to fight off infections. Antibodies, like T-cells, recognize antigens on foreign cells and kill those cells that invade the body, which typically come from infectious disease. “One of the big breakthroughs in the field is drugs that deplete B-cells — in particular, Ocreluzimab [Ocrevus], the FDA-approved drug we use,” Hafler said. “The drug Rituxan for rheumatoid arthritis was tried in a number of different autoimmune models and it worked very well in rheumatoid arthritis. Eventually, it was tried in multiple sclerosis … and we’ve been using it for five years in our clinic with absolutely spectacular results.” Rituxan and Ocrevus are both B-cell depleting monoclonal antibodies. Anti-inflammatory medications don’t target the underlying cause of MS, but work to reduce symptoms and increase the quality of life in patients suffering from the disease. According to Bucala, the symptoms of MS are caused by inflammatory cells and immune cells infiltrating the brain. These cells then release mediators that destroy the surrounding neurons and the neural connections. “If you can reduce those inflammatory mediators by blocking [their] action or by blocking [their] production, then there’s less tissue damage,” Bucala said. “There’s less brain damage that occurs. They’re not curative, in the sense the disease never returns, but the symptoms — the pain, the disability — are reduced. And the progression of the disease is slowed.” In addition to slowing the disease progression, research
is paving the way for earlier diagnosis of MS. Patients with MS are usually diagnosed much after its main, debilitating symptoms, or immunopathology, start to show. “[When] the immune system becomes dysregulated and starts to damage the central nervous system, [the] damage that is caused most likely begins well in advance of someone actually having symptoms of multiple sclerosis,” Longbrake noted. “We can’t actually make a diagnosis of MS until someone has a symptom of the disease. But we do know that at the time that those first symptoms develop, it’s pretty clear that there’s been underlying damage taking place for … probably, years.” Even without any concrete symptoms, neurological damage can be seen in people who haven’t yet received a diagnosis. According to Longbrake, while MS patients are still asymptomatic, some of them exhibit brain lesions that appear to be MS. If these individuals are studied closely, they may have subtle cognitive problems. Longbrake noted that their study is interested in the concept of preclinical MS and diagnosing the disease closer to its onset. “We are learning that within those five years leading up to a diagnosis … [they] start to access healthcare systems more frequently,” Longbrake said. “We know that with MS, treating early gives you the best long-term outcomes. The natural extension of that observation is to say — if you treat it before the symptoms actually became noticeable, could the disease be prevented altogether?” Experts estimate that there are around one million people in the United States living with MS. Contact RAHMA AHMED at rahma.ahmed@yale.edu .
Changes in Earth’s oxygen levels sculpted origins of multicellular diversity BY CHASE BROWNSTEIN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER A new study led by researchers at Yale and McGill University reveals how fluctuations in the Earth’s oxygen levels over 700 million years ago may have set the stage for the diversification of multicellular life. This age, known as the Proterozoic Era, is the longest geological period in Earth’s history, stretching over a billion years between 2500 and 540 million years ago. At the end of the Proterozoic Era, multicellular life forms, including the earliest animals and algae, began to populate the Earth. This diversification of multicellular organisms has been linked to an increase in Earth’s oxygen levels at the start of the Proterozoic, an event known as the Great Oxygenation Event. However, it has long been unclear how oxygen levels changed between the Great Oxygenation Event and the first “big bang” of multicellular life on Earth. In a new study, a team of researchers led by Changle Wang, a visiting fellow at the Yale Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Maxwell Lechte, postdoctoral researcher at the McGill Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, further resolve how the Earth’s oxygen levels changed in this intermediate period. To accomplish this, the team analyzed ironstones, which Lechte noted are a “rare rock type in the [Proterozoic] sedimentary record.”
[organisms with a cell nucleus] should be related to this [smaller] event,” said Wang. Pinpointing the timing of when oxygen concentrations increased also might tell scientists where to look for the earliest physical evidence of multicellular life on Earth. The likelihood that fossils of early eukaryotes are preserved is related to the relative concent ra -
“To our knowledge, there exists only three suitable ironstone units exist in this time window — so our results only provide temporal snapshots,” Lechte said. The research team looked to fluctuations in the relative presence of two isotopes of iron — one soluble in oxygenated water — to understand fluctuating oxygen levels in the coastal environments where the ironstones
The results have wide-reaching implications for understanding how early multicellular life evolved. Although Wang and Lechte noted that their work does not constrain the snapshot of time in which oxygen concentrations went up beyond the range
were deposited. In contrast to several recent studies that found oxygen concentrations sufficient for the proliferation of early multicellular life that was present before this diversification took place, Wang and colleagues found strong evidence for relatively low oxygen concentrations in water bodies from this intermediate period.
tions of diff e r e n t EIN ST chemicals in WN O BR the environments AS E F CH SY O E they occupied. Lechte T R CO U noted that evidence from other of 900-750 million years ago, recent studies suggests that early other geological data points to eukaryote fossils might be better an oxygen increase that took less preserved in environments that time than the Great Oxygenation lack organic carbon. Event after this period. According to Lechte, sedi“One thing is for sure that ments from low-oxygen envithe diversification of eukaryotes ronments tend to have higher
organic carbon content, demonstrating how “an improved understanding of the redox conditions of Precambrian marine environments may help us to get a better idea of where to look for different types of fossils in future studies.” There may be some hints from the oxygen concentration record of early Earth for where to go searching for extraterrestrial life. The study, which connects the early diversification of eukaryotic life in the Proterozoic to a discrete oxygenation event, supports the hypothesis that higher oxygen concentrations may be a target for scientists searching for living things on other planets. Ozone is a gaseous form of oxygen composed of three oxygen atoms, and can be the key to discovering extraterrestrial life. “Ozone strongly absorbs ultraviolet light, making ozone detection possible even at low atmospheric oxygen levels,” Noah Planavsky, associate professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, told Yale News. “This work stresses that ultraviolet detection in space-based telescopes will significantly increase our chances of finding likely signs of life on planets outside our solar system.” The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences is located out of the Kline Geology Laboratory and the Earth Sciences Center. Contact CHASE BROWNSTEIN at chase.brownstein@yale.edu
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2022 · yaledailynews.com
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Yale researchers develop digital tool to identify cases of elder abuse
SOPHIE HENRY/ILLUSTRATIONS EDITOR
A team of Yale researchers has developed a web-based app to empower and identify victims of elder abuse. BY SHANDRA AHSAN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER In the United States, 5 to 10 percent of older adults are victims of elder abuse. However, due to a lack of education, awareness and support, only one in 24 cases are ever identified. VOICES, a web-based app developed by Yale researchers, aims to change that.
VOICES is a digital medical screening tool that utilizes multimedia presentations to educate and empower older adults on elder abuse. Conducted on an iPad, the web-based app guides the patients through video modules which outline the potential outcomes and escalations of elder abuse and describe different behaviors that constitute elder abuse, such as financial mistreatment, emo-
tional abuse and property withholding. The app then asks a series of voiceover questions, prompting the patient to reflect on their own experiences. If the app identifies the user as a victim, a final module urges the user to seek help. “Older adults are not willing to speak about [elder abuse],” said Fuad Abujarad, associate professor of emergency medicine and principal investigator of the project. “They feel like it’s their fault, they are ashamed they are getting old, and they don’t want to get their loved ones in legal trouble.” A number of factors contribute to the underreporting of elder abuse, including the lack of efficient screening mechanisms, hesitancy to come forward and fear of loss of autonomy if the older adult’s care provider faces legal repercussions. To combat this, health care providers are often trained on identifying abuse and giving caretakers tools they can administer to their patients. However, this method can be ineffective, as primary care providers often fail to identify cases without visible signs of abuse. VOICES brings older adults into the process and allows them to be in control of their circumstances. Kellen McDonald NUR ’24 has helped recruit study participants for the past year.
“I just give [the users] the iPad, let them put their headphones in, and give them the privacy to go through the video modules on their own,” McDonald said. “Using the tool really streamlines the process of going from care provider to social worker.” McDonald said that for an issue so relatively widespread, there are little to no efforts to curb its effects. “Stigma plays a huge role in [having little efforts],” McDonald said. “The culture in our country around aging does too. We see [aging] as a tragedy, as a loss, but we don’t think about it in terms of all the life experiences a person has had.” When the NIH-funded project first launched in 2018, the screening tool was used in the emergency room, the first point of care for many older adults. The tool has since been expanded to primary care settings and is being developed to be accessible to older adults with cognitive impairments and Spanish-speaking patients. Maripaz Garcia, a senior lecturer in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, has been working alongside Abujarad and his team to translate the video modules into Spanish. Garcia, along with four other translators, worked to create two independent translations and synthesized them into one in order to preserve the integrity of the trans-
lation. One translation was done by two translators whose strongest languages were English, and the other was done by two translators whose strongest language was Spanish. “Translating is a meticulous work that requires a person with high linguistic skills and paying attention to the details,” Garcia said. “When you hire two people, you can see more linguistic options and decide which one suits better in a particular context.” Abujarad said that meticulous translation is important when discussing such a sensitive and taboo topic. Cultural considerations have to be taken into account so that older adults feel comfortable answering the questions. VOICES will continue to expand and the researchers aim to include more geriatric care facilities as the study continues. “There’s a huge stigma around elder abuse,” Abujarad said. “The system has failed to address these problems, and if we want to create scalable intervention, we must bring the older adults in control of their circumstances and care.” According to the Administration for Community Living, in 2020 there were 74.6 million adults over the age of 60 in the United States. Contact SHANDRA AHSAN at shandra.ahsan@yale.edu .
Yale study explores the effects of gendered racism on Black girls BY AISLINN KINSELLA STAFF REPORTER A new study by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health and the School of Medicine looked at how the stereotypes produced by gendered racism can impact the lives of Black teenage girls aged 14-18. The study emerged from a larger project to create a video game called InvestiDate to help Black teenage girls make healthy dating decisions. While conducting research to develop the game, the team collected data to see what Black girls would want out of the project. Although the focus group questions were centered around the game’s development, many participants provided detailed accounts of their experiences of gendered racism. “Once they gave Black girls a voice to tell them what they wanted to see in sexual health prevention programming, stories about their experiences involving fondling, colorism, discrimination and gendered racist stereotypes, emerged on its own,” Ijeoma Opara, assistant professor of public health and lead author of the study, wrote in an email. The team looked specifically at Black teenage girls and how they are affected by the combined effects of racism and misogyny. According to Opara, the unique form of discrimination faced by girls and women of color is known as gendered racism. “Gendered racism is different than the racism that Black boys
and men experience and different from the sexism that White girls and women experience,” Opara explained. “It’s a form of discrimination that is harmful and contributes to increase stressors and vulnerability among Black girls and women and other girls and women of color.” According to Brandon Sands, a research assistant at the School of Medicine and co-author of the study, some examples of gendered racism that Black girls frequently experience include hypersexualization and the stereotype of the “loud” Black girl. He also noted that the girls faced such forms of discrimination and internalized racial biases in several different spaces, including home, school and online. Opara noted that she was surprised by how aware the girls were of the negative treatment they faced due to gendered racism. They knew that adults treated them unfairly due to racial biases, and they understood that they would often be judged negatively despite their actions. “What bothered me the most is how ignored girls in the study felt by not only their teachers but even members of their family when it came to reporting instances of being fondled and disrespected by boys,” Opara said. Veronica Weser, an associate research scientist at the School of Medicine and co-author of the study, said that the invalidation
experienced by many of the girls was part of the reason why the paper was titled “Feeling Invisible and Unheard…” When the girls tried to tell a parent or teacher about an issue that they experienced, they were not taken seriously or supported. Sands also noted that many Black girls do not feel like their experiences and identities are validated at home and at school. Going forward, Sands said that it is important to make parents and teachers aware of these problems. He emphasized the need to provide the information and tools necessary to address inaccurate biases and prevent them from being reproduced. According to Opara, more attention in the classroom should be devoted to countering these stereotypes. This includes listening when Black girls feel harmed or threatened, empowering Black girls through leadership positions and incorporating positive images of Black girls and women. In addition to listening, Opara stressed that adult allies should reflect on their own biases against Black girls, which they may not even be aware of. In order to undo the effects of gendered racism, she said that adults need to think about how they react to Black girls as opposed to white girls and why. Weser noted that many of the girls who reported incidents of sexual harassment to adults did not receive the response that most people would hope for.
YALE DAILY NEWS
Researchers at Yale study the effects of gendered racism on Black girls and propose possible solutions to mitigate these effects. “A teen told us about how she was in class, and a boy slapped her butt and she yelled at him, and the teacher told her that she didn’t handle the situation appropriately,” Weser said. Another example that Weser gave was a girl who went outside in her pajamas and was harassed by an adult man. When the girl told her mom about the incident, her mom told her not to go outside while wearing her pajamas. Opara said that her research focuses on sexual health and drug use among youth, with prevention interventions that are specific to race and gender. The findings from this study will be incorpo-
rated into several of the education programs that Opara and her colleagues are developing in their research labs. “It is important to me to teach youth not only to recognize gendered racism but to become advocates against gendered racism and understand how such stereotypes contribute to their sense of self and behaviors,” Opara wrote. According to projections by the U.S. census, the majority of women in the U.S. will be women of color by the year 2060. Contact AISLINN KINSELLA at aislinn.kinsella@yale.edu.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2022 · yaledailynews.com
BULLETIN BOARD CROSSWORD Themeless Toughie ACROSS 1. Hunting pattern 5. Present date, informally 9. Mafia boss 13. Desert-like 14. Stitch partner 15. Disney character based on a Chinese folk heroine 16. Feared losing 18. Corrupt 19. Division of the Geologic Time Table 20. Polar regions 22. Short change? 23. Creature that almost devoured Boba Fett 25. "Hang on..." 27. Author Larsson 28. Wafer 31. Grammy-winning blues singer ____ Thomas 32. Pot dispensary? 35. Healthy smoothies 37. 2 and 3, for 6 38. I 39. One bouncing on the bed 40. "It's possible." 44. Clip 46. Nets, for one 48. One in vogue 49. Connecting cable 52. Indian honorific 53. Trinity creation 55. Lakeside resort activity 57. Ranges 58. "Woe is me!" 59. River that forms part of the border between Poland and Germany 60. Equine of old TV 61. TV's Warrior Princess 62. Knack DOWN 1. Stroke
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SOPHIA ZHAO is a junior in Pauli Murray College. Contact her at sophia.j.zhao@yale.edu .
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2. Biblical landing place 3. Oscar-nominated movie starring Youn Yuh-Jung and Steven Yeun 4. Takes too much 5. Rapper Aloe _____ who sang "I Need a Dollar" 6. Call that bypasses the operator 7. Guinness onstage 8. Noted character voiced by Frank Oz 9. Den denizen 10. Like many menus 11. Hobbies 12. Quite horrible 15. Side made from parsnips, perhaps 17. The Plame Affair, in newsspeak 21. Rainy day wear
24. 26. 29. 30. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 41. 42. 43. 45. 47. 50. 51. 54. 56.
Small plastic figurine Indicates slyly Consequently Spray-on cosmetic Did some field work, perhaps Dog tag, perhaps? Union strong First African-American Poet Laureate Chop house? "Absolutely." Noble companion One in flight, perhaps Hail collectors _____ nova Greek warrior who dueled with Hector Volcano goddess of Hawaiian myth ___ student B+, but not A-
DORA GUO is a junior in Pierson College. Contact her at dora.guo@yale.edu .
JEM BURCH is a first-year in Jonathan Edwards College. Contact him at jem.burch@yale.edu .
ANASTHASIA SHILOV is a junior in Silliman College. Contact her at anasthasia.shilov@yale.edu .
SOPHIE HENRY is a junior in Jonathan Edwards College. Contact her at sophie.henry@yale.edu .
LAST WEEK’S SOLUTIONS T A M I N G
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2022 · yaledailynews.com
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NEWS
“I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.” THOMAS PAINE AMERICAN POLITICAL ACTIVIST
Akiko Iwasaki named Sterling Professor BY BRIAN ZHANG STAFF REPORTER Last Friday, Yale appointed Akiko Iwasaki as a Sterling Professor of Immunobiology and Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, making her one of 40 current professors across numerous academic disciplines to hold this honor. The Sterling professorship is the highest academic rank at Yale, awarded to professors who are considered to be among the best in their academic field. According to the Yale Office of Public Affairs, the University President heralds the appointments, which are then approved by the Yale Corporation. The original endowment left by John William Sterling — Class of 1864 — as well as additional contributions by the estate’s trustees throughout the years, continues to support research grants, salaries and additional benefits for Sterling professors. “I received a phone call from President Salovey,” Iwasaki wrote to the News. “I am still a bit in disbelief that this happened to me — to an immigrant woman from Japan. When I was a student, I was told that I was not cut out for science and that I should look for other career paths. I never listened to such advice.” Throughout the pandemic, Iwasaki spearheaded research in human immune response to infection, experimenting with a novel way of administering booster shots to infection-susceptible nasal mucosal areas and exploring the immunopathological pathways behind long and severe COVID-19.
She said that the pathways involve a myriad of cell types and factors working together to prevent infection, comparing the immune system to an “orchestra” in which each “instrument” plays a distinct, yet interconnected role in “creating the masterpiece.” Iwasaki is currently examining such mechanisms — among others that foster “adaptive immunity” — in a lab she leads at the Yale School of Medicine. “The … lab has given me a mix of unrestricted technical and conceptual support with complete independence and freedom to ask the most challenging biological questions,” said Postdoctoral Fellow Carolina Lucas, a member of Iwasaki’s lab. In addition to her scientific work — which includes a total of 238 published manuscripts — Iwasaki has also focused on educating others about various aspects of the pandemic, holding conversations about gender disparities underlying infections and speaking to the changes that the public can expect to see amid a new viral landscape under the Omicron variant. Iwasaki emphasized that her journey as an Asian American woman in STEM has not been a smooth one. Rather, it was and continues to be riddled with “stereotypes and biases,” a problem that she acknowledges is exacerbated for “younger” women whose scientific achievements are valued less than those of their male counterparts. According to Iwasaki, her identity — and the discrimina-
tion she has navigated — help her develop a better understanding of others in the same situation as she once was. They are a constant personal reminder to make academia a “more welcoming place” for people of all backgrounds, to support those who are struggling to have their stories and voices heard. Iwasaki’s colleagues acknowledged her humility, dedication and commitment to a definition of science that promotes inquiry and inclusivity. “Akiko is a Yale treasure, who is remarkable not only for her groundbreaking science, but because of the way [she] smashes traditional norms in academic science and as she shows the power of collaboration, generosity, openness,” Professor of Medicine Harlan Krumholz wrote to the News. He has collaborated on projects with Iwasaki over the past year to “accelerate” breakthrough research, commenting on both Iwasaki’s “breathtaking[ly]”-paced laboratory work and her personal qualities. Krumholz further praised Iwasaki for her work in diversity, equity and inclusion. “She lifts up others around her – and is fearless in promoting the rights of women in science – and other traditionally under-represented groups,” Krumholz said. Iwasaki was previously the Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Immunobiology and Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology. Contact BRIAN ZHANG at brian.zhang@yale.edu .
YALE NEWS
On Feb. 25, Akiko Iwasaki was appointed as the Sterling Professor of Immunobiology and of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology.
Students report discrepancies in isolation duration policies
ZOE BERG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Some students have found Yale’s isolation duration policies to be inconsistent and confusing. BY OLIVIA TUCKER STAFF REPORTER When undergraduates test positive for COVID-19, the length of their isolation period hinges largely on whether they live on-campus or off. The University’s current public health guidance calls for on-campus students who test positive to isolate for at least five days, with the date of their positive test marking day zero. On day five, those students can begin taking daily proctored rapid antigen tests and are released from isolation upon obtaining a negative result. For students who live off-campus, the protocol is different – University guidelines require them to be isolated for seven days, after which they may resume normal activities without first testing negative. As the undergraduate community has grappled with a surge in cases in recent weeks, some students say they have found the University’s isolation policies to be inconsistent and frustrating. “The test-out process has evolved over the past few weeks, based on what is being learned along the way,” Dean of Student Affairs Melanie Boyd wrote in a statement to the News.
According to Boyd, students who live on campus must test negative before being released from isolation. Roughly 95 percent of on-campus students have tested out between days five and seven so far, Boyd wrote. On-campus students live in congregate housing, Boyd noted, and are thus subject to the test-out requirement to ensure that they do not “emerge from the isolation precautions too early.” Boyd noted that the University’s umbrella policy — which applies to off-campus undergraduates, in addition to graduate and professional students and faculty and staff — requires COVID-positive members of the Yale community to isolate for seven days. “This is more conservative than the CDC guidelines, but was identified by Yale’s public health advisors as a prudent interval,” Boyd wrote. “That policy is being supported by what we are learning with the on-campus test-out process, in which 95 [percent] of students are testing out on or before day [seven].” Betty Kubovy-Weiss ’25, a firstyear student in Branford College, characterized her experience with the University’s isolation guidelines as “confusing.” Her proctored rapid antigen tests came back positive on days five, six and seven of
isolation in McClellan Hall. During her Microsoft Teams testing call on day seven, Kubovy-Weiss asked her proctor whether she would be released from isolation on day 10 even if she had yet to obtain a negative result. The proctor informed her that the Yale Health team had recently decided to lengthen the isolation period to 14 days for students who kept testing positive. “Basically my entire testing schedule and isolation could’ve been extended, and that information wouldn’t have been given to me except for the fact that I asked about it,” said Kubovy-Weiss – who ended up testing out on day eight. Kubovy-Weiss said that her proctor told her that because most students were testing out before day 10, the 14-day contingency plan wasn’t frequently implemented — and was thus perhaps less well-advertised. On-campus students who cannot obtain a negative result on a proctored rapid antigen test by day 10 receive “individual clinical assessment[s]” from Student Medicine to determine when they can leave isolation, Boyd wrote. Boyd told the News that the longest on-campus isolation period thus far this semester has been 14 days. “I understand that this pandemic has thrown us curveballs
all the time, but it’s nerve-wracking as someone who is ill to feel like the authority on your health does not have concrete information about what you’re supposed to be doing and what you can do to keep yourself safe and other people safe,” Kubovy-Weiss told the News. Emails obtained by the News show that while the University had previously strictly enforced a policy requiring at least 24 hours between proctored rapid antigen tests for students isolating on-campus, it scrapped the policy on Feb. 28. According to screenshots of text messages between students in isolation housing obtained by the News, students received varied guidance from the Campus COVID Resource Line regarding public health protocol after completing isolation. Some students said they were initially informed that if they tested out of isolation before day 10, they would need to return to their room in Arnold or McClellan Hall to sleep every night until day 10 if they lived in a double bedroom on-campus. But other students who called were given the opposite guidance and were told they could resume sleeping in their double immediately upon release, despite references to the policy in the University fact sheet for students isolating on campus. Others said that upon calling back a few days later, they were told the policy no longer applied, though the official online guidance still stated that it did. The fact sheet no longer mentions such a policy. Boyd did not respond to questions about the situation, but told the News on Feb. 24 that the University’s isolation guidelines website was being updated to reflect current protocols. Some students who isolated off-campus were frustrated by what they perceived as inconsistencies in policy. Rachel Cifu ’24 told the News that when she tested positive, she was instructed to isolate in her off-campus apartment. Cifu said when she asked the employee performing her contact-tracing call what the rationale was for allowing on-campus students to start testing out on day five, while off-campus students had to isolate through day seven, she was told that the University needed to turn isolation housing rooms over “as quickly as possible.” “I think it’s kind of a detriment to public health,” Cifu said. “If you’re arguing that on-campus kids could still be positive and contagious through day eight or
nine, then why wouldn’t off-campus kids also be?” After seven days of isolation, she was permitted to resume attending classes in person without obtaining a negative test — University guidelines dictate that all students released from isolation before day 10 should continue to mask at all times and take advantage of grab-and-go options in the dining hall until day 11. The test-out requirement does not currently apply to off-campus students in part because remotely proctoring rapid antigen testing is “resource-intensive,” Boyd told the News. She noted that the Yale Health team is “actively exploring” the possibility of expanding the proctoring program, so that element of the system may “evolve.” “I think that’s kind of ridiculous,” Cifu said. “If you’re still testing positive on day seven, eight, nine, 10 as an off-campus student, we wouldn’t have any idea, just because you don’t have to take a test.” Audrey Bernstein ’25 told the News that when she tested positive, she was informed that as an on-campus student, if she chose to travel home to isolate, she would have to isolate for eight days, rather than the prescribed five-day minimum for students in on-campus isolation housing. No rationale was offered for this policy, which also differed from isolation guidelines for off-campus students, she said. Bernstein said that she was initially told she could start attending in-person classes and utilizing the dining halls again on day eight, regardless of her testing status, but that she would not be permitted to “fully move back [onto] campus” until day 11. She said that she “guess[ed] they assumed I’d be commuting” from her home in Westport, Conn., about 45 minutes away from campus, to attend classes between days eight and 11. But midway through her isolation period, Bernstein received an email from a Yale Health team member notifying her that a testout policy had been instituted for all on-campus students, regardless of their isolation location. Boyd did not respond to questions about the situation. “I think in general, the lack of coherent logic that underlies all of the COVID policy is just a little bit disconcerting,” Kubovy-Weiss said. 213 students tested positive for COVID-19 in the seven-day period ending on Feb. 27. Contact OLIVIA TUCKER at olivia.tucker@yale.edu.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2022 · yaledailynews.com
SPORTS
“I want to play, I love our game, but I know we need to get this CBA right. Instead of bargaining in good faith – MLB locked us out. Instead of negotiating a fair deal – Rob canceled games.” MIKE TROUT LOS ANGELES ANGELS CENTER FIELDER
Record-breaking meet at Ivy Classic
YASMINE HALMANE/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Yale downs Penn, Brown and Cornell for 17th Ivy Classic crown with season-best score of 195.050. GYMNASTICS FROM PAGE 14 with teammate Walker closely behind in second. Chia also won the individual all-around with a score of 39.150. Seina Cho ’22, the team’s captain, attributes her squad’s win as “a combined effort that would not have been possible without every single person’s commitment to the team.” The highlight of the meet for her was when Chia, the last gymnast to compete on the last event for the Bulldogs, stuck her landing on the vault. “At that moment we knew we had just become the Ivy Champions,” Seina said. According to Sherry Wang ’24, some of the team's best performances included Raegan scoring a 9.9 on the balance beam despite a fall, and Lindsay’s stuck vault at the end of the meet. Sherry also helped the squad get back on track after a fall from her teammate on the uneven bars, the team’s first event of the day. Sherry also stuck her vault and earned her career high score. Sherry described the moment the team won as “truly surreal” and Seina described it as “super emotional.” Seina said,
“It wasn’t just about accomplishing the goal that we had set for ourselves but about competing for each other and for Barb. It was extra special to be able to honor Barb and add to her legacy in front of a home crowd.” This was the team’s first Ivy Classic win since the death of head coach Barbara Tonry in 2021. The win also put the Bulldogs much closer to Penn in the Gymnastics East Conference rankings in terms of their average score, which is now just one point away. According to Riley Meeks ’23, the team's motto this season, “fuel the fire,” was what pushed them to win the event. “That fire certainly showed up on the competition floor,” Riley said. She further added that she is excited to see what else YGT 49 has left to offer this competition season. Leis is “incredibly proud of his team” and he knows “how motivated they have been to get back out onto the competition floor.” The Bulldogs will compete against Maryland, North Carolina State and William and Mary on Sunday, March 6 in College Park, Maryland. Contact PALOMA VIGIL at paloma.vigil@yale.edu.
Semifinals: Bulldogs vs Tigers W HOCKEY FROM PAGE 14 Whale, which Wall Street Journal said had the “Best Design,” will certainly be a raucous environment come Friday afternoon when the Bulldogs take the ice. Hosting the tournament is just one of many firsts for the program in the first two years of Mark Bolding’s tenure as head coach. Building off of setting the program record for wins in his first season with 17, Bolding broke that record again this year, with 22 regular season wins. “It’s so easy to be at home and the Yale crowd was so great today. Students, faculty, staff, just friends, people who are family, so I mean really a treat to have that happen. Home ice is going to be a lot of fun and I think, you know, you think about it, the players deserve it,” head coach Mark Bolding said. “When you are actually the number two seed and you get it done, you actually deserve it, so I’m really happy for them. It’ll be fun for the hockey community to support us and we’re looking forward to Friday.” Bolding was rewarded for the team’s outstanding year by being named ECAC Hockey Coach of the Year. However, the awards did not stop with Bolding as the Bull-
dogs filled out many of the ECAC year-end awards. Both forward Elle Hartje ’24, a finalist for ECAC Hockey Best Forward, who broke the single-season program record with 33 assists, and defenseman Emma Seitz ’23 were named to the ECAC First-Team All-League. Forward Claire Dalton ’23 and goaltender Gianna Meloni ’22, who was a finalist for ECAC Goalie of the Year, were also named to the ECAC Third-Team All-League. The team also had success in the end of year Ivy League awards. Seitz was named to the First Team, forwards Dalton and Charlotte Welch ’23, the teams Academic All-Ivy League player, were honored on the Second Team, and Hartje and Meloni were both All-Ivy Honorable Mentions. Defenseman Vita Poniatovskaia ’25 was also named to the ECAC All-Rookie team. Seitz, who is a finalist for ECAC Hockey Player of the Year, leads all ECAC defenseman with 13 goals, was also named the ECAC Hockey Best Defenseman of the Year. Seitz was also second in the ECAC with a +17 on-ice rating. “That’s huge, just for the program,” Seitz said about hosting the ECAC tournament, “When I came here it was a goal of mine
MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM
Women’s golf win Ford Invitational W GOLF FROM PAGE 14
YALE DAILY NEWS
This is the first time Yale has started the season 2–0 since 2018.
It has been a great start to the season for the Yale women’s lacrosse team, as this is the first time they have started the season 2–0 since 2018. Going into the game, Yale was looking to improve their shooting percentage. “As a team we are always looking to improve in different areas. We really need to capitalize on taking every opportunity possible to go to the cage, along with finishing our shots,” Meghan McCarthy ’25 said. The Bulldogs improved notably in this area, as last week 28 of their 44 shots were on goal, and this week 26-of-33 hit the target. Boasting an impressive 48 percent shot-to-goal conversion
rate, it seems like Yale achieved its objective of shooting with greater efficiency. The Blue and White also showed off their grit when they earned 13 free position shots, only giving up three to the Danes. Olivia Markert ’22 scored on a free position shot in the last two minutes to increase the lead to two and put the nail in the coffin for Albany’s chances. One of Yale’s goals for the week was to play with more composure, and the retention of their slight lead deep in the fourth quarter is evidence towards their success. “This week had a big situational focus — handling the game with composure no matter the time and score,” Chloe Conaghan ’24 said.
Contact SPENCER KING at spencer.king@yale.edu.
The Bulldogs will host the ECAC semifinals and finals this weekend for the first time in program history.
Elis stay undefeated in Albany
W LACROSSE FROM PAGE 14
and I know it was a goal of the other girls in my class and the senior class.” For Princeton, the focus will be on continuing to upset highly ranked teams. The Tigers’ upset over first seed Harvard was the first time the eighth seed has ever advanced in the ECAC women’s quarterfinals. If the Bulldogs want to advance to the ECAC championship, the top priority will be finding a way to get the puck past the Tigers’ standout senior goalie Rachel McQuigge, a member of the First-Team All-Ivy. McQuigge held Harvard, the No. 9 ranked team in the nation, to only two goals in the three quarterfinal games, averaging over 34 saves a game. The Bulldogs and Tigers have already faced off twice this year, with Princeton winning the first meeting 2–0 and then the Bulldogs winning 3–0 in the second meeting on Feb. 19. The ECAC semifinals between Yale and Princeton will drop the puck at 3 p.m. on Friday at Ingalls Rink. The winner will face off against either Quinnipiac or Colgate on Saturday at 3 p.m.
Markert and Fallon Vaughn ’25 each scored four goals on Saturday evening. The rookie standout is now the team’s goal leader with eight points over two games — seven goals and an assist. On the defensive end, Yale managed to hold Albany’s two main scorers, senior Hailey Carroll and sophomore Katie Pascale, to three and zero goals, respectively. The Bulldogs gave up 27 shots, with 21 of them being on goal. Goalkeeper Cami Donadio ’25 made seven saves. The women’s lacrosse team’s next game will be against Dartmouth College at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 5 in Hanover, NH. Contact RYAN VAKIL at ryan.vakil@yale.edu.
“Our team had a lot of fun this weekend,” Lee said. “Everyone played really well and I’m excited to see what we got in store for the rest of the season. It was super exciting to get this win and I think it was a great reflection of the hard work we put into this winter. We just gotta keep this momentum going into the rest of the spring season.” According to a February 22 Golfstat report, Yale ranked 98th in NCAA Division I women’s golf while Columbia and Dartmouth ranked at 132 and 170, respectively. Only Princeton leads Yale in women’s Ancient Eight golf competition by ranking 95th. Columbia had previously hosted the Bulldogs at the Columbia Clas-
sic in Melbourne, Florida on Monday, Feb. 14. While the Blue and White came in ninth overall, they led the Ancient Eight members present that weekend. The Bulldogs will finish the spring season with another Ivy League competition during the weekend of April 22 at the Ivy League Championship in Ringoes, New Jersey. “I am definitely looking forward to the Ivy League championships at the end of the year, it is the most prestigious and well run tournament by far for the league,” rookie Daphne Chao ’25 told the News before the spring season began. Neither Cornell nor Brown field a women’s golf team. Contact HAMERA SHABBIR at hamera.shabbir@yale.edu.
MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM
Yale ranked 98th in NCAA Division I women’s golf while Columbia and Dartmouth ranked at 132 and 170, respectively.
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2022 · yaledailynews.com
NEWS
PAGE 11
“When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.” JIMI HENDRIX AMERICAN MUSICIAN
A cappella community looks to future of gender integration BY LUCY HODGMAN STAFF REPORTER Fifty-three years after Yale opened its doors to women, Yale’s a cappella groups are some of the last spaces on campus where gender integration remains an open question. Yale’s prestigious senior a cappella groups, the Whiffenpoofs and Whim ’n Rhythm, were limited to men and women, respectively, until they announced their intention to tap singers of all genders in 2018. In the years following, the discussion of gender integration has been ongoing among Yale’s 16 recognized a cappella groups, complicated by questions of musicality, tradition and equality. Ten members of Yale’s a cappella community spoke about the status — and the future — of gender integration of a cappella groups on campus. “I think that a lot of the time, the music — and wanting a certain range of voices — can kind of be a cloak to justify certain decisions and justify keeping some traditions in place that might be quite exclusive,” Mars Adams ’24 told the News. Adams is the co-president of Red Hot and Blue, which was founded in 1977 as Yale’s first all-gender a cappella group. Red Hot and Blue’s musical repertoire encompasses a wide range of voices, and is labeled in choral notation as “SATB” or Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass. By contrast, historically female groups like Whim ’n Rhythm are labeled “SSAA” or Soprano I and II and Alto I and II, while historically male groups like the Whiffenpoofs are labeled “TTBB,” or Tenor I and II, Baritone and Bass. Yaakov Huba ’23, a member of the all-male a cappella group the Alley Cats, explained that the impulse to preserve the sound associated with TTBB repertoires could dissuade traditionally male groups from accepting people of all genders. “If there is a delay on accepting people, it’ll be purely a musical thing,” Huba said. “Voices of different registers are extremely different, so a male-presenting person singing a tenor is a very, very different sound than someone who’s female-presenting singing a tenor. It’s a very, very different sound. Not many people can sing that range and not many people can sing it comfortably.” But Syd Bakal ’23, the business manager of the Whiffenpoofs, told the News that the TTBB vocal
range is not necessarily limited to male singers. Both the Whiffenpoofs and Doox of Yale — previously known as the Dukesmen — have begun accepting singers of all genders without deviating from their TTBB standard. “I think that arguments supporting an all-male TTBB sound often come from not having heard non-male voices sing TTBB parts before or not recognizing that people of all genders and sexes have expansive vocal ranges that can reach SSAA and TTBB parts,” Bakal wrote in an email to the News. Huba, a member of the Alley Cats, told the News that while the group’s long-standing TTBB repertoire meant that they typically tapped “masculine-voiced people,” the group was open to tapping non-male singers and had done so in the past. The longevity of the Alley Cats’ all-male moniker, Huba said, is connected to the group’s branding for paid performances. “A lot of our clients are old folks’ homes, retirement homes, country clubs — places that are probably less friendly and less open to the idea of a ‘masculine voice,’ or less understanding of that term,” Huba said. “It’s mostly a business thing.” Although Huba described the question of whether to formally go all-gender as largely “semantic,” the role of gender affiliation within a cappella groups plays a significant role for many members of Yale’s a cappella scene. Ivana Barnes ’23, the musical director of the non-male group Something Extra, emphasized the importance of a musical environment that specifically highlights the voices of gender minorities. “A big part of the spirit of having a women’s group is fostering that space for yourself on campus,” Barnes said. “Especially because at Yale, women weren’t allowed for a while, so all the a cappella groups were all-male, so a lot of those groups have longer histories. I think it’s nice to have those spaces that we kind of carved out for ourselves.” For others, like Simon Van Der Weide ’24, the business manager of Out of the Blue, the inclusivity of all-gender groups was a draw in the rush process. Van Der Weide told the News that the fact that Out of the Blue is all-gender was the “primary reason” why he decided to rush the group this fall.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Ten members of Yale’s a cappella community weighed in on the future of gender integration across different groups. Dania Baig ’23, president of the all-gender group Mixed Company, agreed, noting that the all-gender nature of the group was “really important” to her decision to rush. “I knew that I could do well in SSAA groups, or generally women’s groups, but I wanted a fuller kind of sound and I wanted a co-ed environment,” Baig said. “I just feel that I’ve always kind of worked the best when there’s a balance of voices, of people, of opinions and of all sorts of things.” In theory, Baig suggested, allmale a cappella groups could be affirming to some students in the same way that non-male or all-gender groups are affirming to others. “A cappella itself is so inherently communal, and in and of itself is less perpetuating of toxic masculinity in the same way as a lot of frats are because you’re singing or performing,” Baig said. “In my personal experience, and from my knowledge, it doesn’t produce the same kind of exclusionary or toxic environments that frats are known to cause.” But Red Hot and Blue co-president Charnice Hoegnifioh ’24 told the News that a culture of exclusivity still permeated all-male a cappella groups on campus. The presence of this culture among historically a cappella male groups means that officially going all-gender is not the only step the groups will need to take to make their organizations welcoming spaces for non-men, Hoegnifioh said.
“Some of the groups do have kind of a fratty vibe,” Hoegnifioh said. “Some of them are over 100 years old … they just need to work on diversity, period. Some groups are very white. That’s something else I’m really happy about, because I’m a Black woman and Red Hot is one of the most diverse groups on campus, so we have diversity on all those spectrums.” Groups that hope to make good on the process of becoming all gender, Hoegnifioh said, will need to tap members who are genuinely interested in recruiting and initiating non-men into the group. “You could go ahead and say tomorrow that you’re all gender, but that’s not going to make any change,” Hoegnifioh said. “Because next year, if you’ve only got a whole bunch of guys who are interested in rushing and you’re still a male group, can you really say that you’re all-gender without other genders represented?” Sara Armstrong ’22, the musical director of Whim ’n Rhythm, emphasized the importance of leveling the economic playing field between traditionally male and traditionally non-male or all-gender groups, noting that traditionally male groups often have larger budgets with which to travel and perform. Traditionally male groups, Armstrong added, often receive generous contributions from alumni, who she said are not always receptive to the
idea of gender integration. But at least among the Whiffenpoofs, Bakal told the News, alumni took no issue with the group’s decision to accept members of all genders. “If anything, when the group has performed for audiences with older alumni, they have expressed pride and excitement to hear the group with non-men and to sing ‘The Whiffenpoof Song’ alongside us at the end of our concerts,” Bakal wrote. Huba also said that when the question of gender integration had come up in conversations with Alley Cats alumni, they had largely been receptive to the idea. Four people said that they believed that single-gender a cappella groups would one day become a thing of the past on Yale’s campus. “I do think Yale is definitely heading down a path where a lot of the groups on campus will continue to go all gender,” Hoegnifioh said. “The way that Red Hot takes pride in now and always being all gender, more groups may start to be able to take pride in the fact that they’re defying their heritage and becoming all gender.” A complete list of Yale’s recognized a cappella groups is available online. Contact LUCY HODGMAN at lucy.hodgman@yale.edu .
Yale’s tax-exempt property value surges by nearly $700 million
MICHAEL GARMAN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Over the last six years, the value of New Haven’s tax-exempt property has risen — but the value of Yale’s has risen faster. BY SAI RAYALA STAFF REPORTER The value of Yale’s tax-exempt holdings has ballooned by nearly 20 percent, or by roughly $690 million, since 2016, according to an estimate by New Haven tax assessor Alex Pullen. In the same timeframe, the value of Yale’s taxable properties has also increased by around 28 percent to a total of roughly $161 million. But the University’s tax-exempt holdings shot up in value at a rate above that of the average New Haven tax-exempt property. Meanwhile, the value of Yale’s taxable properties climbed slower than average. The new figures were released in the city’s property revaluation for 2021. A revaluation is an assessment of local properties’ official, taxable values, and it is meant to bring these properties in line with their actual market
worth. The state requires that all properties are revalued every five years to reflect the changing market conditions. The last time a revaluation was completed for New Haven was in 2016. In this latest assessment, New Haven’s taxable grand list, which includes all of the taxable properties in the city, grew by over 32 percent — from $6.7 billion five years ago to nearly $8.9 billion. The city’s tax-exempt properties, which include Yale properties and other properties, also increased by over 16 percent in value from $8.5 billion to $9.8 billion. Of the $9.8 billion valuation of the city’s tax-exempt properties during the latest revaluation, 4.2 billion — or nearly 43 percent — are owned by Yale University. The value of Yale’s tax-exempt property has been an issue of contention in New Haven, especially among activists in the city’s unions. Both city residents
and politicians have repeatedly called on Yale to increase its voluntary contribution to New Haven’s budget. A new town-gown deal introduced in November aims to alleviate the impact of Yale’s tax-exempt properties. For properties taken off the tax roll in the next six years, the deal stipulates, the University will offset some of the lost tax revenue through additional voluntary payments. Yale is among New Haven’s top three taxpayers, Pullen said. But the University’s tax-exempt properties continue to make up around a quarter of all city taxable and tax-exempt property. The citywide increase in value of tax-exempt properties during the reevaluation was 16 percent — four percentage points below the increase of Yale’s tax-exempt holdings. “Yale’s properties went up in value. But that doesn’t mean they took anything off the tax rolls necessarily,” said Henry Fernandez, executive director of LEAP. “It’s that the areas where they are, the quality of the construction [and] the other things that have been built around them mean that their property values went up.” In the past, New Haven has removed properties from the tax roll due to their purchase by the University. In the 2017-18 fiscal year, six Yale buildings were taken off the grand list. The change meant that the Elm City lost $3 million that year in potential taxes. In October of 2019, questions over Yale’s tax-exempt status were a talking point in the year’s Mayoral race. Cynthia Netercut, director of special projects at the University Controller’s Office, wrote to Pullen that Yale “has backfilled and acquired” prop-
erties in New Haven “to provide stability in the market.” But Ward 7 Alder Eli Sabin, who then represented Ward 1, called the University’s removal of properties from the grandlist “shortsighted,” noting that the decision could lead to cuts to services across the city. Pullen told the News that an increase in private construction happening near University properties could also be a factor for the rise in property value. Pullen explained that part of the reason for the difference between Yale’s tax-exempt and taxable property increases is due to how tax-exempt property value is considered. Many of Yale’s properties are tax-exempt and for academic use, which will be valued differently than commercial properties. Taxable properties like commercial properties are valued based on their income, while tax-exempt properties like schools are valued based on their construction costs. For example, while the recently developed Schwarzman building does not generate an income, it can be valued based on its $150 million construction costs. Pullen said that while commercial properties took a bigger hit during the pandemic as businesses closed down or had fewer customers, the value of tax-exempt properties is not as affected. According to the University, most of its recent developments since 2016 have been on Yaleowned property. Karen Peart, University spokesperson, said that the University added to the city’s taxable grand list when it created the retail space L.L. Bean in 2018. It also developed its nontaxable property such as the project to open the Science Building in 2019.
“Like any taxpayer, the University will pay taxes on its properties,” Peart said. “This will not impact our recent agreement with the City.” While the new numbers would not affect the details of the agreement, they could affect how much Yale pays under the agreement. Under the Yale-New Haven 2021 agreement, the university agreed to voluntarily offset the city’s loss of tax revenues for any properties that Yale takes off the tax rolls in the next six years. The purpose of the agreement, Fernandez explained, was to ensure that if a property was taken off the tax rolls, it would not negatively affect the city, at least in the short-term. He added that if Yale decided to take a property off the tax roll after the latest revaluation, the amount that the University would have to compensate the city would now be higher than before. Pullen expects the city’s Mill rate, currently a $43.88 tax per every $1,000 in property value, to fall this year. He said that this is the usual result of a revaluation, but it is too early to tell by how much the mayor and Board of Alders will decrease it. “Even with the mill rate going down, you may still see tax bills go up in some neighborhoods, and some may be closer to what they paid last time,” Pullen said. “It is all going to be a function of how much your property went up and how much the mill rate went down.” The last time New Haven did a revaluation in 2016, the city’s taxable grand list increased in value by around 11 percent. Contact SAI RAYALA at sai.rayala@yale.edu .
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2022 · yaledailynews.com
THROUGH THE LENS
“W
e need to make clear with more than just our voice, more than just words, that we will take Action. That’s why you’re here today. That’s why America will continue to say to Putin, you cannot have Ukraine, you will not have Ukraine.” - Sen. Richard Blumenthal
“U
kraine wants peace, Ukraine wants the occupants and the aggressors out of their borders. Russia, we urge you to put your arms down and get the hell out of my country.” - Yuliia Zhukovets ‘23 ZOE BERG reports.
Photos by ZOE BERG, LUKAS FLIPPO and ISAAC YU.
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2022 · yaledailynews.com
NEWS
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“It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.” ELEANOR ROOSEVELT AMERICAN DIPLOMAT AND ACTIVIST
Yale affiliates, government officials rally in solidarity with Ukraine BY ALESSIA DEGRAEVE STAFF REPORTER Hundreds of students, faculty and New Haven residents gathered in front of Sterling Memorial Library on Sunday to show their support for Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s invasion. Organized by Ukrainian students, the event featured speeches from local and state politicians, alongside calls for action from Yale and international organizations. The event was organized by Yuliia Zhukovets ’23 with the help of Oleksii Antoniuk ’24 and Sofiya Bidochko ’24, all of whom are Ukrainian students who have been personally affected by the crisis. The organizers invited numerous politicians who spoke to the crowd, including Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Rep. Rosa DeLauro and New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker. Professors Marci Shore and Timothy Snyder also spoke on the complexities of the conflict, and various Ukrainian students spoke about their personal experiences with the violence. “I couldn’t just sit and do nothing,” Zhukovets said. “Some people cry, some people read the news, but organizing an action step is my way of coping. The support was incredible, it is like a chain reaction. The amount of people who showed up was completely unexpected, and I didn’t expect how many people would come prepared with beautiful posters. You could feel the energy from people of all different countries supporting Ukraine.” Event organizers specifically called on Yale to divest from Russian-related investments. Antoniuk told the News that Yale, alongside other universities and organizations, can help to prevent Russia’s further attacks by divesting from Russian-based stocks and investments. “This morning we found out that Yale invests around $9 million dol-
lars in Russia-related assets,” Antoniuk told the crowd. “We demand from Yale to divest from every stock that is connected to Russia. Yale invests in Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock, which has ties to Russia.” When asked about the University’s association with Russian investments, University spokesperson Karen Peart told the News in an email that she could “confirm that Russia has not been an area of interest for the Investments office.” The event centered around the presentation of an open letter from Yale’s Ukrainian students and affiliates to the countries of NATO. Attendees of the event were encouraged to sign the open letter, and were given QR codes which listed various ways to donate to Ukrainian organizations. “We call for a no-fly zone over the territory of Ukraine, to exclude the Russian Federation from the United Nations security council, to recognize Putin as a war-criminal, to introduce a Russian oil and gas embargo, to support the Ukrainian armed forces and to clarify Ukraine’s NATO membership action plan,” Elena Danilenko ’07, who is Ukrainian, told the crowd of the terms of the open letter to NATO. Danilenko said that closing the air space will protect civilians from enemy airstrikes and prevent the authoritarian dictatorship from advancing into the west and other parts of the world. She argued that in initiating this conflict with Ukraine, Russia forfeits its ability to take part in global security discussions. The crowd at the event held signs and Ukrainian flags, and repeated the Ukrainian chant “Слава Україні! Героям слава!” which translates to “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!” Antoniuk taught the chant to the audience and said the most moving part of the event was how passionately the crowd shouted the chant.
“Seeing so many people show up, ready to dedicate a Sunday afternoon to rally for Ukraine, made me feel very confident that international solidarity actually exists,” Antoniuk told the News. “This rally showed me that Ukraine is not alone in this. The most moving part of the event was uniting everyone with our Ukrainian chant — shouting that together was another level of power.” Other speakers at the event included Shore and Snyder, who sought to provide a historical background on the Ukraine-Russia war. The professors both portrayed Vladimir Putin as acting illogically. “My first thought when I heard Putin give his speech on Monday is that he sounded very different,” Shore said at the rally. “He no longer sounded like the tricky, devious, grand chess master who was clever and strategic. He sounded unhinged, deranged, like someone living in an alternative reality.” Shore highlighted the need to understand the nuances of the Ukraine conflict. She described the war as being created by one person — Putin. Shore explained that from her perspective as a historian, there is no guarantee that leaders will act rationally. Instead, she underscored the role that “lunatics” have played in history. “None of the reasons Putin gave for starting the war make any sense,” Shore said. “I don’t think there is any reason to engage them.” Elicker talked at the rally about how he met with Gov. Ned Lamont, Blumenthal and DeLauro at St. Michael’s Ukrainian church in New Haven Sunday morning to speak about the importance of government involvement in the conflict in Ukraine. At the rally, Elicker, Blumenthal and DeLauro underscored this same point. Lamont was not present at the rally. “Our national security is at stake,” Blumenthal said. “Today, we are all Ukrainian, all over the
world. We have a stake in this fight. If history teaches one lesson, it is that a dictator will continue until he is stopped.” Blumenthal supported the student leaders in their call to financially target Russia. Describing Putin as a “delusional butcher autocrat” and a “thug,” Blumenthal called upon attendees to boycott Russian products and advocated for a set of stronger sanctions on financial engagements with Russia. “Boycott everything produced in Russia,” Blumenthal said in his speech. “Make Putin pay personally. Crack down on his bank account, on his real estate holdings. Putin needs to feel the heightened pain of sanctions, like the pain he is causing to the people of Ukraine.” In his speech to the crowd, Elicker similarly emphasized the importance of being willing to sacrifice small comforts in order to help the people of Ukraine. He specifically noted the way in which economic sanctions are imperative, even if they lead to repercussions for the American economy. “We must be clear to all our political leaders our willingness to sacrifice,” Elicker told the crowd. “This is about our values of supporting countries that want to be free and saying no to an autocratic dictator who decided to advance his power by taking another country. … If we do what we need to do as a country, in terms of sanctions, that will hurt us economically in the short term. But if we don’t do it, it will hurt us even more in the long run.” In addition to the political speeches, the rally was permeated with Ukrainians’ personal anecdotes. Zhukovets, whose parents were required to evacuate to the west of Ukraine, shared with the crowd her story of first hearing the news of Russia’s invasion and calling her mom to tell her that Ukraine was being bombed. Recalling her family’s evacuation journey, Zhukovets spoke
of her intense fear throughout the past days that she would never see her family again. She explained that the night before the rally was the first time her parents had slept in an actual room, and not a bomb shelter hiding from the Russian attacks. “I was sitting in my room at Yale thousands of miles away from my family. Putin attacked Ukraine at 5 a.m. They were sleeping. I called my mom and yelled that she had to get out of the city now,” Zhukovets told the crowd. “Our lives will never be the same. This is an act against humanity.” Students and members of the New Haven community held posters with slogans such as “Putin is a criminal” and “No war.” Some Ukrainian New Haven residents wore pins emblazoned with “I’m proud to be Ukrainian.” “My sign says stronger sanctions on Russia,” attendee Aidan Stretch ’25 said. “This is an especially important message to convey because the West is in part to blame for what is going on — we haven’t been tough enough on Putin in the past.” Participants of the rally stood silently throughout the majority of the speeches, chiming in at crucial moments with the Ukrainian chant they had learned. With over 100 people in attendance, a majority of the Sterling walkway was covered. “Sometimes you sit at home and think you can’t do anything about events like this,” New Haven resident Clarise Begemann told the News. “Today I saw how important it is that normal people rally to support causes like this. The Ukrainian students really appreciated our show of solidarity.” The city of New Haven will be flying the Ukrainian flag on the New Haven Green this week in solidarity with the Ukrainian nation. Contact ALESSIA DEGRAEVE at alessia.degraeve@yale.edu .
Local Ukrainian diaspora members share grievances and solidarity BY MEGAN VAZ AND BRIAN ZHANG STAFF REPORTERS At a Sunday afternoon rally, local Ukrainians protested the atrocities occurring in their home country, calling upon those around the world to take action and spread awareness. Rally-goers hailed from surrounding towns and communities and donned homemade signs and flags, with many learning about today’s demonstrations through local church services. Connecticut locals Roman and Iryna Harasymishyn came from Newtown to New Haven with their friend, Taras Korzhak, after they found out about the event from the Ukrainian church they attend in Bridgeport. They pointed to the broad Ukrainian diaspora in the state as a source of strength. “We’re basically trying to get all the resources all the people here put together around the area. We have a big Ukrainian diaspora,” Korzhak said. “All we can do to get the resources — find places like this, rallies — where we can go and speak our voices, explain what happened to people so they know, and ask for more support.” Diaspora members found themselves at today’s rally to spread awareness about Russia’s occupation of the country and the hardships Ukrainians face at home. Andrew Michalik of Hamden, donning a Ukrainian national pride button, emphasized the importance of showing support to Ukraine from abroad. Natalie Chernov, a local Ukrainian woman who attended with her husband and some friends, wanted to take a stand for her home country. “Ukrainian soldiers and Ukrainian people, who are fighting so hard to stop [Putin], because it’s very unfair that he went to our land and he is killing people — he is killing innocent people,” she exclaimed, with tears in her eyes. “And we actually stand for our land. That’s why I’m here.” The Harasymishyns and Korzhak have supported nonprofit organizations that send resources and support to Ukrainians. They mentioned efforts to provide Ukrainians with medical sup-
plies through Razom for Ukraine, which purchased over $100,000 in supplies to ship to the country two days ago. Korzhak is also part of Maidan United, a Connecticut-based organization that also sends medical aid to Ukraine. Maidan United members participated in another event at the Ukrainian National House in Hartford today, where Gov. Ned Lamont spoke alongside Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Rep. Rosa DeLauro. Some rally participants came representing local Ukrainian advocacy groups. Carl Harvey, who “married into” Ukrainian culture in 1964, stood holding a Ukrainian American Veterans, or UAV, flag at the back of the crowd. The national group, which is organized into local posts, aims to foster unity among “patriotic veterans that have been Honorably Discharged from the United States Armed Forces and who are of Ukrainian heritage or descent.” Harvey, according to the organization’s website, helped found the New Haven post of the UAV in 1991. He shared that he and another UAV member who attended, Myron Melnyk, have collaborated with Blumenthal on legislative efforts to protect Ukraine from Russian military aggression in the past. “We first started working with Senator Blumenthal in 2014 … we developed to work on the Ukrainian Security Assistance Initiative,” Harvey said. “We’re also working very closely with the Ukrainian embassy in Washington DC. So we provide them with advice and connections to our legislators through our veterans’ organization.” Ukrainian churches in the area have united the community. Harvey spoke about a previous rally organized at St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church in New Haven, which has also held masses and prayer services in support of the Ukrainian people. Rev. Ivan Mazuryk of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church in Bridgeport attended today’s rally and said that most congregants of his church were young Ukrainians and immigrants. “We are collecting monetary help for Ukraine, and it’s going to
MEGAN VAZ/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
On Sunday afternoon, members of the local Ukrainian community shared their grievances and support for one another. be sent through our archdiocese in Philadelphia,” Mazuryk said. “There is a fund established, and most likely we’ll organize a collection of things of first aid for the people there.” All local Ukrainians who spoke to the News have family members and friends facing violence in the country. Michalik shared that his mother’s side of the family still lives in Lviv, a city in the country’s far west. Chernov explained that while some Ukrainian women she knew have been able to flee to Poland and other neighboring countries with their children, men needed to stay to fight the Russian invaders. Iryna’s parents refused to leave the country, spending nights in their basement to avoid bombing. Liena Kuchrerova said her mother, who lives in Kyiv, sleeps in the bathtub and flees to her basement whenever the signal for bomb violence goes off. Alla Vash-Margita, assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine, spoke to the News about the taxing situation her family experiences at home. “It’s an absolute nightmare in Ukraine,” Vash-Margita explained. “My cousin is sheltering a family — a mother and three small children — whose father is fighting this war.
So here’s their sheltering, it’s living between bombshells, and waiting for the sirens to go off and going down to the basement.” Locals spoke to the emotional turmoil confronting their loved ones as they make their arduous and uncertain journeys to safety. Korzhak’s sister recently crossed the border into Romania with her young daughter. Harvey accompanied Nadia Ivantsiv, an elderly Ukrainian woman who works as his housekeeper. Translating for Ivantsiv, he shared that they had kept constant contact with her family members as they moved across the country. Ivantsiv shed tears as she spoke to Harvey in Ukrainian about her family’s scramble to flee violence. Many attendees brought young children. The Harasymishyns’ children played with Korzhak’s children as they spoke to the News. Michalik cradled his infant son, Theodore, whose cheeks were decorated with small blue and yellow stripes of face paint. One child held up a sign that read, “I’m only 9 but I know this war is wrong.” While their children provide a sense of hope, some rallygoers dually noted their concerns for young people back home. Iryna mentioned her nephew in Ukraine, who had called her earlier and told
her he was afraid that he was going to die soon. Those who spoke to the News mentioned ways that localers – including non-Ukrainians – could help. They emphasized that the conflict extends beyond the Ukrainian and Russian communities. Many pointed to American foreign policy influence, expressing that Americans should encourage the government to increase sanctions on Russia and provide Ukrainian fighters with arms. Michalik raised the importance of directly donating to Ukrainians and holding events like today’s demonstration to show support. Ivantsiv’s eyes welled with tears as she spoke, expressing she appreciated the community’s solidarity. “It’s really scary, but Ukrainians are really strong,” Kuchrerova said. “We’re not afraid. We have a hope and we believe we are not afraid at all. Nobody, even children, we’re not afraid.” New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker attended the protest. Keenan Miller and Dante Motley contributed reporting. Contact MEGAN VAZ at megan.vaz@yale.edu and BRIAN ZHANG at brian.zhang@yale.edu .
W HOCKEY Princeton 3 Harvard 2
M BASKETBALL Princeton 74 Harvard 73
SPORTS
W BASKETBALL Columbia 85 Brown 56
M SWIM & DIVE Cornell 572 Dartmouth 299
M HOCKEY Cornell 4 Princeton 0
FOR MORE SPORTS CONTENT, VISIT OUR WEB SITE goydn.com/YDNsports Twitter: @YDNSports YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2022 · yaledailynews.com
FENCING BULLDOGS DOMINATE AT DREW The Yale fencing squads showed their mettle this weekend as they won all of their matches at the Drew Invitational. This is the last competition before the NCAA Tournament.
BASEBALL ELIS DROP AUBURN OPENER Yale kicked off its season in Alabama, where it fell 1–2 to Auburn a rising threat in the SEC. In the series' third game, the Elis walked off the Tigers to win 5–4 in 10 innings.
Bulldogs win Ivy Classic GYMNASTICS
“Whatever fire’s going up, I’m dealing with all that. How do I still bring my best self in spite all that? I think that’s the burden of expectation” JALEN GABBIDON ’22 M BASKETBALL CAPTAIN
Yale to host ECAC Championships BY SPENCER KING STAFF REPORTER The No. 7 Yale women’s hockey team (24–7–1, 16–5–1 ECAC) will face off against the Princeton Tigers (13–14–5, 9–10–3) on Friday at Ingalls Rink in the ECAC semifinals.
WOMEN'S HOCKEY The Bulldogs entered the tournament as the second seed, but following Princeton’s upset of top-seeded Harvard, the Bulldogs were the highest remaining seed after defeating St. Lawrence University in a best-of-three series. The
win earned the team the right to host the ECAC championship weekend for the first time in program history. “I think we knew, from the start, that this team was gonna do it and we expected to win this series and move on [in] the tournament,” forward Becca Foggia ’22 said. “It’s a great feeling as a senior to get to host the tournament for the first time in program history.” Ingalls Rink, regarded by many as one the best collegiate rinks in the country, will finally get its chance to host the women’s ECAC tournament. The SEE W HOCKEY PAGE 10
MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM
In the last home meet of the season, the Yale gymnastics team dominated the Ivy Classic with its highest team score of 2022. BY PALOMA VIGIL STAFF REPORTER The Yale gymnastics team won the Ivy Classic, a competition against all the other Ivy League teams, earning its season-high team score of 195.050 last Sunday afternoon. Less than a point behind the Bulldogs was Penn (194.125), who were last year's Ivy Classic champions. In third place was Brown (192.250) and Cornell finished in fourth (191.625). “Coming into today we had some mistakes at previous meets that we have been working so hard in the gym on fixing and improv-
ing,” interim head coach Andrew Leis said. “We have believed in ourselves all year long and we were proud to show it in our performance at the Ivy Classic.” This was the Bulldogs’ 17th Ivy Classic title and the team’s highest score of the season. Yale beat its last highest score this season against Penn (194.200) by 0.85 points. The team’s best event of the meet was the balance beam (49.100), which was just .100 under than the school record. Raegan Walker ’23, Lindsay Chia ’22 and Kendal Toy ’22 were the top three scorers on the event. “Our standout was the beam,'' Leis said after his team put up
the third highest beam score in school history. Hitting their routines with “confidence and poise,” the team dominated the event, according to Leis. Not scoring below a 48.000 in any other event, the team also had many individual performance highlights as well. Chia, who placed first on vault (9.825), was less than a point away from the school record previously set by Tara Feld ’13. Walker tied for third on the uneven bars (9.875). Yale won the floor exercise with a 48.650 and Chia placed first SEE GYMNASTICS PAGE 10
MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM
The women’s hockey team will face off against the Princeton Tigers in the ECAC semifinals on home ice.
Bulldogs muzzle the Great Elis win, dominate top five at Ford Danes to stay undefeated BY HAMERA SHABBIR STAFF REPORTER
In its second game of the spring season, the Yale women’s golf team earned a decisive win ahead of its Ivy League competitors.
WOMEN'S GOLF On Saturday, Feb. 26, the Yale women’s golf team hosted Columbia and Dartmouth at the Ford Field & River Club in Richmond Hill, Georgia for two rounds of play. The Bulldogs won the Ford Invitational with a score of 585 — or nine over par — and dominated the top five spots on the leader-
board. Columbia came in second with a score of 607, or 31 over par, and Dartmouth followed with 62 over par for a score of 638. “This tournament was so much fun to play and a great experience for everyone on our team,” captain Ami Gianchandani ’23 said. “The [five] of us took the top [five] spots in the event which will give us the needed push to continue playing a strong season.” Gianchandani earned a first place finish with an even parscore of 144. Bulldog Ashley Au ’24 tied with teammate Coco Chai ’23 for second place as both finished with a score of 147. Au shot a score
of 73 and 74 over the two rounds while Chai finished with 72 and 75. Behind Au and Chai, with scores of 148 and 149 for fourth and fifthplace were Bulldogs Lexi Kim ’25 and Kaitlyn Lee ’23, respectively. The event began bright and early at 8 a.m. on Saturday with five groups of play for the first round. The second round began at 12:30 p.m. According to a Yale Athletics press release, Monmouth intended to participate in the invitational, but withdrew shortly before the event, eliminating the only non-Ancient Eight team participating. SEE W GOLF PAGE 10
COURTESY OF YALE ATHLETICS
Yale emerged victorious over the University of Albany in the team's first road game of the season. BY RYAN VAKIL CONTRIBUTING REPORTER In its first road game of the season, the Yale women’s lacrosse team (2–0, 0–0 Ivy) defeated the University of Albany (1–2, 0–0 AEC) in a 16–14 victory.
WOMEN'S LACROSSE The Bulldogs were preparing for a difficult opponent, coming into the matchup as the underdogs. But, they fought hard regardless of expectations, finishing the game with a two-goal lead. “I think the main feeling I have towards this season is one of appre-
ciation. After not being able to play for the past almost two years, my mindset has really shifted in terms of lacrosse. I try my best to view everything as an opportunity,” captain Kelsey Dunn ’22 said. Coming into the game with excitement and passion surely helped the Bulldogs, as they came back from a 5–2 deficit in the first quarter. Though the game remained close till the end, after taking the lead midway through the second quarter, the Bulldogs never trailed. The team’s scrappiness helped Yale clinch the win, as it picked up 17 ground balls to Albany’s 13.
STAT OF THE WEEK
SEE W LACROSSE PAGE 10
7
COURTESY OF YALE ATHLETICS
The women’s golf team earned its first win of the spring season on Saturday by besting Columbia and Dartmouth.
THE NUMBER OF GOALS SCORED BY OLIVIA MARKERT ’22 IN TUESDAY’S GAME AGAINST QUINNIPIAC.
FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2022
WEEKEND // WILLIAM MCCORMACK
BEHIND THE BROADCAST:
Going inside the ESPN+ control room for a Yale men’s basketball game
// BY WILLIAM MCCORMACK
It was just past 3:00 p.m. on the Saturday that the Yale men’s basketball team hosted Harvard last month, and the John J. Lee Amphitheater was empty. Undergraduate fans, allowed to return to an indoor athletic competition for the first time since mid-December, would file into the arena’s wooden stands and seats later that evening. With about four hours until tipoff, Yale players were starting with a pregame meal and would continue on to stretch, strategize and shoot around, bouncing between the court and their locker room in a familiar rhythm as game time neared. But in the middle of the afternoon, the court was still. In a small, windowless room two turns away from the shiny hardwood sat Stephanie Doheny and Evan Ellis ’12, Yale’s broadcast services coordinator. They served as the lead producer and director for that night’s game on ESPN+, ESPN’s subscription streaming service that has distributed Yale and Ivy League athletic events since the conference signed a 10-year contract with the company in 2018. The two sat before six monitors, lines of cables and a long table of complicated-looking control panels, with a human-sized tower of network hardware looming in the corner of the room. The show, as they called it, required a crew of 11 to put on — one more than the number of players that occupy a basketball court at any given time — and I was there to watch them do it. “This is live television,” Ellis told me as he and Doheny carried out pre-production preparation that afternoon. “No matter if it’s Yale-Harvard basketball on ESPN+, Daytona 500, the Super Bowl, there are going to be issues that come up … my blood pressure’s up from 5 o’clock until I tell the crew to leave.” As the men’s basketball beat reporter for the News, my usual seat for games is in the Lee Amphitheater’s snug, makeshift media seating — middle row, left side. In three seasons, I had walked by the broadcast control room a couple of times every home game to access the court and the media room where Yale head coach James Jones and a couple players hold a small postgame press conference. Stepping inside the control room and sitting down for the first time felt overwhelming: the space was like a walk-in closet, small but dense with expensive electronic accessories. “I promise you it’s not as scary as it looks,” Doheny, who
works for Yale Athletics on a freelance basis, assured me of the switcher, the colored board that she oversaw as the director of the game. She tells everyone she trains the same thing. She and Ellis, wearing a Yale cap and a KN95, outlined the basics for me. Four main crew members occupy the control room — Doheny in the director role, Ellis as the producer, Troy Turnwald on graphics and Connor Sauer working replay. Four camera operators capture footage in the actual arena, with a camera on each baseline and two filming the full court. As the game was beginning, an extra team member arrived to control the audio switch. And then there’s the “talent,” that night’s play-by-play announcer, Kevin Gehl, and color analyst, Christine Huber, who narrate the action for fans. Of the 11, they are the only two who appear on screen for the viewers. Ellis called Saturday’s game a “full build” for the crew. ESPNU, the company’s national channel dedicated to college athletics, had aired the Yale-Dartmouth men’s basketball game the night before, parking a broadcast truck outside Payne Whitney Gym and bringing their own cameras and crew for the higher-level production. Their presence on Friday meant that Ellis’s campus-based ESPN+ team had to fully set up all their cameras and equipment before Yale played Harvard the next night. As producer, Ellis said he “guides the storytelling part of the broadcast.” Turnwald creates the graphics, like game statistics, that pop up on viewers’ screens throughout the game. Sauer uses a NewTek “3Play” system to collect replays for the broadcast, the arena’s video boards and referees, who occasionally conduct official video reviews of close calls or contested plays. Operating the switcher, Doheny actually selects which feeds to show in real time. Packed into the control room for a few hours, the four-person team develops their own camaraderie. There are jokes and general fun, but Ellis warned me pregame that issues often emerge, forcing the crew to troubleshoot and resolve them in real time. “[There’s pressure] knowing that thousands of people are going to be watching the show and they want to see Yale-Harvard basketball,” Ellis said. “If something happens and it’s your fault, it’s a little bit terrifying, right?” Live television creates a stressful thrill in the control room, but that “rush of production” is
also what seems to draw people to broadcast careers. The production crew has no direct opponent, but they approach their jobs with a competitive rigor. With warmups having started around the corner, Ellis pulled up the ESPN+ stream for that evening’s Yale-Harvard women’s basketball game in Boston, which tipped off two hours before the men’s game in New Haven. I ask: Is he watching the women’s stream just to follow Yale, or is he studying the mechanics of Harvard’s broadcast too? “No comment,” Ellis joked. “Obviously I’m watching it from an interest standpoint, but I am very competitive.” Ellis, who played on the football team as a student at Yale, contributed to the University’s first athletic streaming service, Yale All-Access, in 2010. As a junior and senior, once the football season ended after the fall, he put together broadcasts of hockey, basketball and eventually some lacrosse. Upon graduating from Yale in 2012, he served as a graduate assistant in athletic broadcasting at the University of Tennessee and got a job at Yale Athletics heading into 2017. While he was gone, the Ivy League Digital Network standardized streaming operations across the conference in 2013. The Ivy League on ESPN and on ESPN+ followed. Ellis said broadcast standards and quality across the league have continued to improve. Yale now broadcasts 21 sports, and the University produced 131 athletic events during a pandemic-shortened 2019–20 year. Ellis said the production team often has discussions with partners at ESPN to collect feedback and focus on improvement. “[We’re] just seeking that feedback and assistance to try to put ourselves in a situation where this looks like you’re watching a game on ESPN,” Ellis said. “You can’t tell it’s done from a University control room with students and young professionals that are learning … we’re tasked with trying our best to live up to an ESPN linear standard.” With tipoff at 7 p.m. for that night’s game, Ellis arrived at the gym at 2:20. Doheny showed up at 2:30. Turnwald, Sauer and the camera operators settled in by the time Harvard and Yale players completed their pregame shootarounds on the court. About an hour before tipoff, Ellis called into a national ESPN operator for a routine pregame check-in. Up at the very top of the gym, Jaylan Granberry ’23, new to the team, was responsible for
Camera One, which captures the high-wide shot. Camera Two, operated by another crew member, sat next to Granberry’s and allowed the broadcast to zoom in on certain players, coaches or parts of the court with a “hightight” angle. “My job’s really basic,” Granberry shouted over 50 Cent’s “Many Men,” which was playing through the arena’s speakers on the pregame playlist. “It’s kind of nerve wracking because it’s my first time doing it I guess, but it’s simple. I watch a lot of sports games, so hopefully I have a little knack for it.” He captures the full scope of the action, rotating a mounted camera from one half of the court back to the other as the teams trade control of the ball throughout the game. Kristin Pantelis operates Camera Three on one baseline. She said she works most basketball games and generally knows what type of shots her producer and director will appreciate. Ellis and Doheny gave her key players to monitor. Before the game, the crew prepared a package to showcase each team’s top scorer, Yale guard Azar Swain ’22 and Harvard guard Noah Kirkwood, warming up. “We get players to watch for the game,” Pantelis said with another pregame song — YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s “Hot Now — playing in the background. The control room will direct her and the other camera operators over the course of the game but she said the heart of the action is usually easy to identify. “Follow the ball mostly — that’s what they tell us.” With about four hours of preparatory work now nearly complete — and as the actual basketball teams finished warmups out in the gym around 6:50 p.m. — the production team appeared poised to perform themselves. Ellis was standing and surveying the monitors like a fired-up field commander, giving directions over a headset that connected the control room to the rest of the broadcast team scattered throughout the gym. Doheny and Ellis communicated with Granberry at Camera One and also provided instructions for the operator of Camera Two, walking them through where to locate their desired subjects. They wanted shots of the head coaches — Jones and Harvard head coach Tommy Amaker — ready for the top of the broadcast. “Zoom all the way in to the left side,” Doheny instructed over a headset in the control room. A monitor in front of her showed the video feed closing in Cont. on page B2
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2022 · yaledailynews.com
WEEKEND BROADCASTING
Broadcasting basketball on ESPN+ Cont. from page B1 on the Harvard bench as the pair of camera operators made sure they knew which coach was Amaker — the one with the quarter-zip and the dark gray pants, they were told from the control room. Once they neared airtime, Ellis did almost all of the talking, communicating time markers over the headset — five minutes, four minutes, two minutes, one minute until air — and a game plan for the top of the show. A shot from Camera One with an animation and the “locator” would lead into Camera Four on the baseline. The star-player pack — first Swain, then Kirkwood — would follow before the feed shifted to Camera Three, to shots on each head coach and on into the rest of the night. They started recording with four minutes until air. The national anthem started with two minutes left. And then they were live: “Animation! Locator. Ready Four, take Four,” Ellis said standing in the small room, his concentration focused on the monitors a few feet away on the bare wall. Once they successfully orchestrated the opening, each team’s starting five had gathered at midcourt ready for the tipoff. “Let’s tip this, and let’s light this firecracker,” Ellis said. “We’re playing basketball.” The ESPN+ commentary that viewers at home hear is more or less neutral. The control room is definitely not. “What a move,” Ellis marveled when Swain created a three-point attempt for himself. “Money!” he shouted on another attempt. On big Yale shots, the crew made an active effort to showcase the student reaction. Due to the
University’s fan attendance restrictions at the time, the general public was not allowed to spectate the game, but 1,104 Yale community members, almost all of them undergraduates, still did. Their chants and cheers echoed over the volume of the announcers’ commentary in the control room. Exiting the broadcast bunker to peek out at the court was like emerging from a dive underwater, the crowd noise growing less muffled and then, with the court in full view, instantly clear. At the first media timeout, Ellis counted the team out of the live action and they got their first break: “Good first segment, y’all.” After an approximately 90-second pause, Ellis counted them back in. They started with a shot on Gehl and Huber, the announcers, and transitioned back to game action. When they moved from the next media timeout back to game action, they decided to televise a graphic with the series history. (Harvard had won eight straight regular-season games against Yale going into the weekend, though the Bulldogs had claimed their two most recent postseason matchups). Over the course of two halves, there are usually eight total media timeouts in a men’s college basketball game. As much as the actual action on the court varies, the control room usually responds with a consistent set of actions. Before the game, Ellis told me basketball was one of his favorite sports because of its speed. The control room reacts in real time for a frenzied few minutes and takes a breather, along with each team, during the television timeouts.
// TIM TAI
Harvard and Yale each had 69 possessions that Saturday, just under the average for a men’s college basketball game, which translated to almost 150 gliding camera transitions for Granberry on Camera One. In a low-scoring game that featured more defense than hot shooting, Yale led 27–14 at halftime. Although the Bulldogs were ahead for the large majority of the night, Harvard’s Kirkwood heated up in the second half to make it a close game in the final minutes. Minor issues emerged with the recording, Ellis told me seven hours later, when JLA returned to its dormant, resting state around 10 p.m., but the end result was a successful broadcast and a high-energy
58–55 Yale win. Even with some rookies on the production crew, Ellis thought it was one of the best shows they had produced: “When you have a good game, it’s a lot easier to make it look good.” It ended up being one of the last men’s basketball games that Ellis produced. A couple weeks after the game, Ellis announced that he was leaving his alma mater to accept a new job as Director of Video Operations at Western Carolina University. For Ellis, a Tennessee native, the new position is closer to home; according to his biography on the Yale Athletics website, his wife is also a Southerner, hailing from Charlotte, North Carolina.
Just past 10 p.m., Ellis’s final task of game night was straightforward: turning off the lights and locking up the control room. Cooling down from the thrill of live production would be more difficult. Ellis planned to go home, pet his dog and sit on the couch to watch anything except sports — maybe the Food Network. “For me sometimes, I have to come down,” Ellis said. “When you’re directing a show or producing a show, it’s kind of like playing a game. When I get home, my wife will be dead tired, and I’m still in that adrenaline. It’s the closest thing I’ve found to playing.” Contact WILLIAM MCCORMACK at william.mccormack@yale.edu .
Making Up for My Relationship with Makeup
// BY JACQUELINE KASKEL
When I was twelve, I asked my mom if I could start wearing makeup, if I could buy some mascara. She almost burst into tears at that moment, out of pure relief, and perhaps a little bit of excitement. Prior to that day, I had been deep into my tomboy phase where I put all of my focus into schoolwork and nothing into my appearance. Well, maybe not nothing — I did have to put the work into putting my hair into a ponytail every day and gelling down the front (any photos of me in the sixth grade are almost too cringy to look at now). I honestly don’t remember my exact reasoning behind wearing khaki shorts and a dog tag to school every day that year, but I do remember feeling ugly. I remember feeling like I didn’t belong, like the other girls and me were two different species. And my tomboyishness certainly didn’t help alleviate these feelings. In my mind, I simply didn’t have the time or the need to shave my legs or tame my frizzy hair (a symptom of the Floridian humidity). Making myself a tomboy seemed like the best option. No fuss meant more focus, and more focus meant better work habits. What more could a mom ask for? Yet, I knew my mom secretly wished I would grow out of this phase. I know she dreamed of going to the mall with me solely for the purposes of window shopping. Or of spending hours flipping through sales racks to find the best deal. Or of helping me do my makeup for senior prom (which never ended up happening anyways). So, on that day when I asked her if I could buy mascara, she was positively ecstatic. She asked me no questions, afraid I might
change my mind. Together we went to the grocery store and walked down the aisle with the makeup section, a place I had never before dared to go. I remember thinking the options were endless — little did I know what Sephora was at that time. My mom convinced me to buy the ultimate beginner’s mascara: Maybelline Great Lash. Black, not clear. If I was going to start wearing makeup, I wanted it to be noticed. This was around the time when some of my classmates began to have their bar and bat mitzvahs. Usually, everyone would skip the ceremony and show up when the party began — a party that involved wearing a dress, a concept that was drastically unfamiliar to me as of late. For the first bar mitzvah I attended, I tried to flat iron my hair (I did a pretty terrible job), put on a black dress, and applied some mascara. My classmates were jaw-droppingly shocked. I don’t want to admit it, but I kind of liked shocking them. I kind of liked the way I looked that night and the way people looked at me. And so, my makeup escapades began. At first, it was just mascara. Then, flat-ironing my hair became a staple in my life — a time-consuming one at that — as a remedy for my eternally untamed hair. Shortly into seventh grade, I made a new friend who had a penchant for eyeliner. The way that I’m writing this makes it seem like I had traded a tomboy phase for a goth one — that wasn’t the case at all. I looked more or less natural (at the time, wearing a little
// SOPHIE HENRY
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makeup just felt like an excessive amount of makeup). I did, however, look completely different, in the sense that I began to embrace the tropes of femininity. I began wearing skirts, styling my hair down, and putting on makeup every day. But the main effect that makeup had on me that year was internal. What I didn’t know at the time was that wearing makeup so routinely would make me dependent on it, not just for functioning, but even for a modicum of confidence. It would take me years from that point to regain the confidence that I had in myself as a kid who didn’t have a care in the world. It started with eye makeup, but as teenage acne started to set in — and mine was consistently bad — thus began my coverup days. Foundation and concealer became my two closest acquaintances. They weren’t miracle workers, but they did a fairly good job of hiding my acne-riddled skin from my classmates and friends and family. By the time I reached ninth grade, I was fully addicted. Each morning I would find myself frantic and running late because I had spent so much time putting on my makeup. And the worst part is that I hated it. I hated all of it. I hated wasting all that time, putting it on my face, feeling like a different person, and having it melt off my face in the Florida sun. I wanted to just roll out of bed and go to school unconcerned with my appearance — or how other people judged my appearance. But people began to compliment me, and this created unwanted expectations — at least my teenage mind thought so. Once people perceived me a certain way, I wanted it to stay that way, no matter the cost. Over the years, the costs exacerbated. Makeup first took away my time, then it started siphoning my confidence, the opposite of what makeup is often advertised to do. I can recall only one day in all of high school when I didn’t wear a full face of makeup. I began to hate the way I looked both with makeup and without it. I told myself that it was normal to be experiencing these high school years of discomfort, and it was. But that didn’t make it any less painful and internally taxing. And it didn’t make me any more sure of myself. There was one time in senior year when not even a full face of makeup could give me an ounce of the self-assurance I so desperately desired. I was at a choral conference in
Tampa with some of my classmates, which should have been a highlight of my final year in high school. Instead, all I can remember is crying myself to sleep at night in a hotel room. This guy who I had known for almost my entire life was also at the conference — and who I had also really liked since eighth grade. We ended up going to different high schools, so choral functions were really the only times we ever saw each other. But when he invited me to meet up on the last evening of the conference, I said no. Only because I was too embarrassed by my skin and too disheartened to attempt to cover it all up. Who knows what could have been? I wish I had been more confident in my true self. My relationship with makeup would have been much less toxic. I relied on it to make myself feel worthy, when in the end, it only made me feel worthless. I wish I had had an epiphany that allowed me to conquer the need to hide my imperfections. I wish I realized that nobody cared. It took me forever to realize that, even though I thought everyone was always judging me, they were really just stuck inside their own heads, worrying about themselves. When the pandemic happened, I suddenly stopped wearing makeup altogether (didn’t everyone?). Online classes relieved me of the need to apply makeup and put on a brave face every morning. And after a while, my skin improved to a manageable level, so much to the point where — when the world opened back up — my dependence on makeup was close to none. It was liberating. Today, I can be just as confident and carefree wearing no makeup at all, as I often do. With everything going on in my busy college life, it doesn’t even warrant the hundredth spot on my to-do list. Everyone has imperfections, but ultimately, it’s a matter of how strong you are, of how resilient your confidence and willpower are. It’s okay to be imperfect, just as long as you can love yourself regardless. Don’t wear makeup to hide yourself. Don’t wear it to impress someone else. And definitely don’t wear it because you feel like you have to. It’s your choice, in the end. Just make sure that your confidence comes from within, and not from the products you don’t want to do without. Contact JACQUELINE KASKEL at jacqueline.kaskel@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2022 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE B3
WEEKEND SUGGESTIONS
Why You Should Watch ‘The Worst Person In The World’ This Weekend // BY CHRISTION ZAPPLEY As the midterm season slowly approaches, you are probably trying to find anything to do with your time but prepare for the onslaught of essays and exams that await you. Lucky for you, I am here to recommend a perfect distraction: watch “The Worst Person in The World.” If you have not yet heard of this Oscar-nominated masterpiece, “The Worst Person In The World” is a Norwegian film, directed by Joachim Trier. The plot follows a woman, Julia, who enters a relationship with an older man and feels her life viscerally come to a tipping point as she enters her 30s. I have nothing less than perfect things to say about this film. For one, it is sectioned into twelve chapters, as well as a prologue and epilogue to familiarize and change the audience’s perception of Julie, respectively. These chapters are presented as almost individual short films with nuanced, beautiful and heartbreaking plotlines of their own. One of these chapters, titled ‘Cheating,’ somehow portrays the entirety of growing accustomed to another person in a romantic relationship all in the span of one night with some of the most intense and intimate dialogue that could be possibly written. “The Worst Person In The World” not only has some of the best writing that I have ever witnessed — which is only reinforced by the film’s narrator — but also is an extremely visually pleasant experience. There are countless shots where you have no choice but to be awestruck by the artistry that went into them. Whether it be a gorgeous shot of all of Oslo as Julie runs in a world where time is standing still
around her, or Julie simply smoking a cigarette on a balcony with a city view, the attention to detail and aesthetics is present throughout. This is even further emphasized when the film begins subverting its genre numerous times making for an undoubtedly unique viewing experience. The film is clearly selfaware of its presence in cinematic history and every sequence goes the extra mile. These are intense, humorous and sometimes even disturbing psychedelic scenes. Lastly, the film contributes to a special and unique capacity that foreign films possess: representing the universality of emotion. Like groundbreaking films in the past such as Bong Joon-Ho’s “Parasite” and Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma,” “The Worst Person In The World” transcends the barrier of language and culture to explore themes that universally affect the lives of humans. The film takes extra care to explore what it means to be human in this era and how easy it is to feel as if you have nothing figured out and never will. It explores this intimate feeling that you cannot live up to what you think you are capable of, and how that affects your life in the long run. So if you need an activity to do this weekend because you’re bored, need to destress or simply want to experience great art, “The Worst Person In The World” is the experience for you. “The Worst Person In The World” is currently screening at the Criterion Bowtie Cinema on Temple Street. Contact CHRISTION ZAPPLEY at christion.zappley@yale.edu . // RACHEL FOLMAR
A Motion to Serve Fortune Cookies in the Dining Hall. And Also Here’s What They Should Say. // BY ANASTASIA IBRAHIM Yale is a fucking multi-cultural melting pot. But have you ever been to the dining hall? Of course you have — you’ve been forced onto the meal plan for your first two years here. And even if you decide to move out of the unfuckingbeatable 1800s architecture — the damp wood floors, the six hundred flights of stairs you have to climb with no AC, the rats, all of it — you are still going to the dining hall because you have approximately 64 seconds of free time everyday at this place, and you’d rather spend those 64 seconds of free time catching up on sleep than cooking soggy broccoli. I digress. I love it here. Anyways, you have been to the dining hall. Statement. You have seen the “Jamaican” chicken. You have eaten the “Jamaican” chicken. You have spit out the “Jamaican” chicken because you realize it’s too big of an insult to Jamaica. You didn’t learn your lesson and decided to try again with the “Singapore Chicken.” Zero effort on that one. Singapore chicken? Really? Couldn’t even say Singaporean chicken? And you absolutely cannot tell me you haven’t asked yourself what is Irish about the “SteelCut Irish Oatmeal”. Don’t you just get the jitters when it’s India day? That’s my favorite. Indian-spiced eggplant stew for the fucking win. Indian-spiced. Only the spices are Indian because Indians are soooo spicy right? And they aren’t the only ones! Spicy Ethiopian Doro Wat. Lord have mercy, it doesn’t get better than that. Africa isn’t all that spicy — it’s just colonized. Just like all of our food labels. And I must issue a fat fucking apology to any Mexican Yalie or anyone of Hispanic descent to ever come to this school ever. Mexican Spice Roasted Sweet Potato? Huevos Azteca with Just
Egg? It’s like they wanted to be exotic but then stopped halfway through. To the Hispanics, Mexicans, Latin Americans — you deserve better. You deserve to be exoticized all the way through. Ginger and Sesame Bok Choy is CHINESE everyone. I don’t know if you picked up on that because unlike the rest of these dishes, it isn’t FUCKING SPECIFIED in the TITLE of the DISH. Do better Yale Hospitality! Is it not spicy enough to be Chinese-spiced ginger and sesame bok choy? Don’t you claim that Inclusivity is your priority? The Texas French Toast, however, is exceptional — fuck internationalism. Finally keeping it insular. The Yale dining hall workers are wonderful. It isn’t their fault Yale is trying to plop every member of the rainbow coalition onto our plates. Every country and culture and Texas eats at our dining halls. So where are the fortune cookies? You heard me. The fortune cookies. The international Chinese takeout ones. I get that Yale doesn’t label things Chinese, but I think fortune cookies are essential to boosting campus morale. A student’s 64 seconds of free time should not be spent sleeping but rather reading their good fortune. But since Yale never fucking listens to the urgent demands of its students — like mental health resources or divesting from fossil fuels or supporting Yale Natives or putting the fucking fortune cookies in the fucking dining halls — I have crafted an individualized fortune cookie starter pack for each residential college dining hall with hopes that this movement gains traction, and the University finally puts fortune cookies in its dining halls. Please preview samples for each residential dining hall below.
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Benjamin Franklin Modesty can raise your social status. Please shut up about how you were unfairly serviced with a fro-yo machine way before anyone else. Berkeley A wise soul uses time wisely. There’s a better use of your time than waiting in line for food at dinner for 45 minutes. Branford A golden egg of opportunity will fall into your lap today. And it’s going to be a revelation to never fucking come to this dining hall again. Even renovations can’t rescue us from being this nasty! Davenport If your desires are not extravagant, they will be granted here. Also this is just a slip of paper that has been handed to you because we don’t believe in “Chinese” fortune cookies. We believe in attracting average whiteness in our students and our dining halls. Ezra Stiles Riding on the coattails of someone else will get you far. We do everything Morse does, only shittier. Grace Hopper Don’t think, just act! If you think about coming in and eating here, you never will.
Morse If you’re reading this, you’re an athlete, and you are the rightful owner of all the food in this dining hall. Please consume all of it so there’s nothing left for everyone else. Pauli Murray Do not make extra work for yourself. Save yourself the 500 steps and go to the Franklin dining hall. Pierson A beautiful, smart, and loving person will be coming into your life after eating here. And that person is one of the creepy men on the paintings hanging from our walls which adds immeasurable value to the elitist look we’ve already curated for ourselves! Saybrook Accept something that you cannot change, and you will feel better. And we know that if you’re eating here, any day above ground is a good day.
You’re doing great work ostracizing Timothy Dwight because you’re just so great. Timothy Dwight Although we have consistently produced the worst, wateriest, most ill-spiced food on campus, you have a pleasant surprise waiting for you. There’s an armed robber in your room! Trumbull Your time is coming. Just kidding. No it is not. If you’re eating here, you will always be overshadowed, outdone and forgotten. No matter how hard you try. Even if you’re right by Sterling and extend lunch ‘til 3. No one will give a fuck. Berkeley will forever be the overachieving older sibling, and you will always be the MFDTTF (motherfucking disappointment to the family). Contact ANASTASIA IBRAHIM at anastasia.ibrahim@yale.edu .
Silliman Don’t let your friends and counterparts impose on yo u , a n d squash y o u r e n e mies!
Jonathan Edwards A small donation is called for. It’s the right thing to do. We have a lot of money and want more and don’t intentionally put the rich kids or the legacies in here. Eradicate poverty. Clarification: E ra d i ca te t h e poor. // SOPHIE HENRY
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2022 · yaledailynews.com
WEEKEND AUTHENTICITY
TO BEREAL OR NOT TO BEREAL? // BY LUCY HODGMAN BeReal is the name of a social media platform, but the word has many uses — as a noun, as a verb and as a command. Sam Brody ’24 was eating in the dining hall when he had his first encounter with the app, which has swept Yale’s campus in recent weeks. “Someone checked their phone and then proceeded to yell,” Brody said. “I thought something bad had happened. I didn’t really know what they were yelling about. Then they pulled out their phone and took a photo of me. I was like, ‘What is happening?’ And they were like, ‘Oh, you’ve never been real?’” When his friend explained how BeReal worked, Brody said he “immediately fell in love.” The premise of the app is not complicated. Once a day, all users get a push notification alerting them that it is “time to BeReal.” From then, they have two minutes to take and upload a snapshot — all posts after the interval are marked late. The app uses both the phone’s front and back camera to capture simultaneous images of your face and your surroundings. The push notification can come at any time. The alerts are not random, but intentionally distributed across different times of the day, representatives of the BeReal staff told me in a collective statement. The app, representatives said, will never use likes. Instead, users can add comments or “RealMojis” — tiny, circular snapshots of their face — to their friends’ posts. BeReal, as its name would suggest, places a premium on authenticity. Sometimes, Brody says, it can even feel like the app is punishing its users when their activity deviates from its stated purpose. Not only does the app mark how many hours late each post is, the amount of times a user retakes a picture is also publicly accessible to their followers. “On BeReal you post a picture every day,” BeReal representatives wrote. “On other platforms you would usually just post a picture when you’re on vacation or experiencing something extraordinary. With posting a picture every day at a time that you can’t control, it creates authenticity.” Although the app has only reached widespread popularity in the United States in the past six months, it was founded in France by Alexis Barreyat in 2020. At the time, Barreyat worked as a video producer for GoPro, a job which enabled him to work alongside many professional influencers. “The job made him worry about the way people try to show unrealistic images of their lives online,” the staff wrote. “Every time he would open Instagram, it would be filled with ads and influencers and the perfect life of everyone. His life wasn’t as perfect as they were always showcasing. Back then he realized that he wanted to build another platform. The main idea was to stay in touch with his friends and discover what everyone was doing on a regular basis. BeReal brings authenticity back into our lives.” The app swept French universities last year — “« c’est quoi ton bereal ? » is the new « c’est quoi ton snap ?»” one user wrote on Twitter in June 2021. The app has
received millions of downloads, according to the BeReal staff, with the average user in their twenties. Shreya Nuli ’24 first heard about the app over winter break from her friends at home in New Jersey. When she returned to Yale, she said, everyone was starting to use it there, too. The app initially struck Nuli as a combination of Instagram and
the University of St. Andrews — BeReal, it seemed, had reached Edinburgh. I joined BeReal last week, and like Brody, I fell in love. Learning to use BeReal felt like I was 13 and finally allowed to have an Instagram account for the first time. I requested everyone I knew on the app: friends from Yale, from high school, from summer camps. I dutifully went through each of
// SOPHIE HENRY
Snapchat, but the daily alert to post and the two-minute window to do so made it feel like something different. “It’s almost like a collective comfort when you see that everyone else is also just sitting in their bed, or staring at a computer screen,” Josh Guo ’24 said. “There’s sort of a communal aspect because everyone’s posting at the same time. A lot of college is FOMO — like everyone else is having fun without me. BeReal makes it clear that they’re not and that everyone’s sort of just doing the same thing.” There is an intimacy to BeReal that other social media platforms lack, both because the
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app is interested in highlighting in small moments and because most of the students I talked to still have relatively few followers. “It’s a reminder of the beauty and the value of the small things,” Brody said. “You just take a photo and then you can go back a week later and see what you were doing on a given day. Even if it was writing a paper or
hanging out with friends, you can look back and enjoy it. It gives you something to look forward to each day— I’ll be like, ‘I wonder when the BeReal will happen. I wonder what I’ll be doing.’ It’s fantastic.” Each of the four students I spoke to said the app reached them by word of mouth, rather than any other social or news media platforms. This explains, at least partially, why it seems to reach one college at a time, spreading separately to Harvard and Georgetown in the past month. On Tuesday, Guo said, he received an influx of friend requests from acquaintances at
their BeReals and posed for RealMojis. I stood alone in front of my bedroom mirror and twisted my neck into swanlike contortions so I would look good in both the front-facing and reflected perspectives. During one of those precious two-minute windows, gazing into the looking glass of my phone, I started to rethink the claim that the app “brings authenticity back into our lives.” For me, social media cannot exist without performance. When the camera comes on, my whole being is going to realign to the idea that I am being watched. During the day, I find myself imagining that the call to BeReal
will come at just the right time — I’ll be surrounded by friends in a beautiful place, and the light will be hitting me perfectly. Even though anything I post on BeReal could also be posted on Instagram, part of what I like about the app is the absence of choice. Because it instructs me exactly when to post, I don’t feel vulnerable about having to decide what’s worth sharing. Other social media platforms, like Instagram or Twitter, expect us to make observations, elevating our takes or our surroundings. On BeReal, where the window into our lives can open at any time, we are not the observers, but the observed. I thought of Jeremy Bentham’s 18th century theory of the panopticon, originally developed as a prototype for a prison. In the panopticon, a brightly lit observation tower sits in the center of a circle of prison cells. From the tower, guards can look in on every inmate, but the inmates cannot see if the guards are watching them. If the guard can look into your cell at any time, Bentham argues, you will always behave correctly. If the BeReal camera can turn on you at any time, you will always be posing for it. Evelyn Chacón ’24, too, feels the pressure for the one moment captured from her day to be perfect. “I’ll feel like, ‘Damn, I’m in bed right now, but if the BeReal came a couple hours ago, people would have seen that I was doing stuff, or they would have seen that I have friends or that I’m out and about.’ The fact that it’s random just kind of makes you think about how you’re being perceived by others every day.” Although BeReal offers users the opportunity to wait to post, Chacón said that posting hours later means giving up any semblance of spontaneity. As he has gained more followers on the app, Brody said, he has begun to find himself waiting to post his BeReal until after the allotted time has passed, especially when he has plans for later. Sometimes, Guo said, posting on the app felt like a “performance of spontaneity.” He too sees people wait to post until they’re in the dining hall with friends. Once, he said, he wore the same sweater for two BeReals in a row, and his immediate concern was that “everyone would think I only had one sweater.” “We think that people’s behavior’s changed a lot since the beginning of social media,” BeReal representatives told me when I asked them if it was truly possible to present authentically on social media. “More and more people are second guessing their privacy and what an effect social media has on them. With BeReal, there’s finally an alternative.” All social media platforms fetishize authenticity — the thesis of Instagram or Snapchat or Twitter is the curation of a public-facing self that never seems curated. If BeReal is different, it is because it lays bare the pursuit of authenticity central to social media, regardless of whether that authenticity can ever be achieved. Contact LUCY HODGMAN at lucy.hodgman@yale.edu .