Yale Daily News — Week of March 18, 2022

T H E O L D E ST C O L L E G E DA I LY · FO U N D E D 1 8 7 8

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2022 · VOL. CXLIV, NO. 17 · yaledailynews.com

YSM prof faces DOJ inquiry

YALE OFF TO THE BIG DANCE

BY ISAAC YU STAFF REPORTER A School of Medicine professor has been suspended amid an internal investigation that may be related to the Department of Justice’s China Initiative. The University has pledged to vigorously advocate on the professor’s behalf as he faces questions over reporting of outside support.

A March 9 letter addressed to University President Peter Salovey, and signed by nearly 100 Yale faculty members, claimed that the University suspended Haifan Lin, professor of cell biology and director of Yale’s Stem Cell Center, without apparent due process. Lin has been placed on involuntary administrative leave and “abruptly cut off” from his research group, the letter alleged, without legal charges or clear evidence of misconduct. The letter raised questions about whether Lin is under investigation by a governmental agency, emphasized a lack of known facts regarding why actions were taken against Lin and called the developments “disturbing on many levels.” The letter also places Lin’s case against the backdrop of the China Initiative, a Department of Justice anti-espioSEE CHINA PAGE 5

TIM TAI/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Yale players celebrate their bid to the NCAA Tournament after beating Princeton at Ivy Madness.

Elis face No. 3 Purdue

BY WILLIAM McCORMACK STAFF REPORTER MILWAUKEE — It all happens quickly in March. The Yale men’s basketball team learned its NCAA Tournament seed and opponent just a few hours after beating Princeton in the Ivy Madness championship last Sunday, made it back

to New Haven for two days and then took a chartered flight from Hartford to Milwaukee on Wednesday.

The Bulldogs practiced in the Milwaukee Bucks training facility after landing, and on Thursday morning, they took to the real court — across the street at Fiserv Forum — where first-round March Madness action will tip off on Friday.

“In terms of the celebration, it was fast and furious,” Yale head coach James Jones told media during a Thursday morning press conference at the arena.

Bright stage lights shone as he sat on a makeshift stage in front of a backdrop dotted with the NCAA’s March Madness logo. “What’s great about the world now is everything’s on Instagram, so I got to relive some of the moments of my players,” Jones added. By Sunday night, he started watching film on Purdue.

This NCAA Tournament routine — with league titles, team watch parties for the Selection Sunday show and media obligations on the brightest stage in college sports — is growing familiar for Jones, who is taking the Elis into their third NCAA Tournament appearance and fourth game since 2016.

Many of Yale’s upperclassmen are making their second run through the tournament regimen as well, though Yale guard Azar Swain ’22 is the only player on this season’s roster to appear in the Bulldogs’ 2019 game vs. No. 3 LSU — he scored 12 points off the bench in a 79–74 loss to third-seeded LSU. For Yale, the main event in Milwaukee still remains: the No. 14 Bulldogs (19–11, 11–3 Ivy) tip off against No. 3 Purdue (27–7, 14–6 Big Ten) Friday at 2 p.m. eastern time and 1 p.m. local time in Wisconsin. In the Boilermarkers, the upset-minded Bulldogs are up against one of the nation’s best offenses and tallest rosters. Highlighted by 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey, Purdue’s average height ranks 17th out of 358 Division I teams in men’s college basketball, per college basketball ratings site KenPom. SEE BASKETBALL PAGE 4

Blavatnik ties scrutinized

BY WILLIAM PORAYOUW STAFF REPORTER Russia-linked cash across the world — including at Yale — has sparked controversy and criticism amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

At the University, faculty have drawn attention to Yale’s connection to Len Blavatnik, a billionaire and philanthropist who received his wealth from state-owned aluminum and oil assets after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale — an

YALE NEWS

established entrepreneurship fund that supports early-stage companies in the life sciences at Yale — and the Blavatnik Fellowship — which links emerging business leaders with breakthrough innovations across the University — carry the philanthropist’s name. Blavatnik has come under scrutiny for his personal and working relationships with powerful Russian oligarchs as well as his association with the Russian government’s economic dealings.

“As many of us have begun to learn more about Kremlin-associated oligarchs, we’re deeply uncomfortable with being affiliated with these awards,” Aaron Ring, a former recipient of a Blavatnik Fund monetary award and assistant professor of immunology at the Yale School of Medicine, told the News.

Ring, whose March 3 tweet called for the Yale administration to suspend or cancel the Blavatnik Fund, noted that there were ethical concerns surrounding the terms of the award.

He explained from his experience that receiving funding from the program was not solely a “gift”, but rather came with terms.

His contract with the Blavatnik Fund – which receives its financial support from donations by the Blavatnik Family Foundation, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established by Blavatnik – saw Yale permit significant investment control over new ventures to SEE BLAVATNIK PAGE 4

YLS students protest speaker

BY EDA AKER AND PHILIP MOUSAVIZADEH STAFF REPORTERS At a Thursday event at the Yale Law School, more than 120 students gathered to protest Kristen Waggoner, a controversial anti-LGBTQ speaker invited by the Federalist Society. At least six Yale police officers were present at the protest.

Waggoner, who is a general counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, was invited by the Federalist Society, alongside Monica Miller, an associate at the American Humanist Association, to discuss civil rights litigation. In a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on first amendment rights, Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski, both groups took the same stance, with

Waggoner arguing the case before the Court, and Miller filing amicus briefs at the cert and merit stages. However, Waggoner’s affiliation with the Alliance Defending Freedom, an organization that has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, generated a large student protest to which police were called.

Over 400 law students — more than half of the current Law School student body — have signed an open letter condemning the presence of armed police at a student protest at the Federalist Society meeting. In the open letter, the students pointed in particular to the history of SEE YLS PAGE 5

CROSS CAMPUS

INSIDE THE NEWS

THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY, 1899.

French-Swiss poet Edouard Rod spoke at the Yale Art Gallery. He will offer a critique of Edmond Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac."

YALE DAILY NEWS

At City Hall, University and community activists say that Yale’s voluntary payment is only a first step.

Payment plan advances

BY MEGAN VAZ STAFF REPORTER Activists representing Yale student organizations, unions and city social justice groups arrived at City Hall on Monday to demand Yale do more in the wake of a historic town-and-gown agreement.

The city’s Board of Alders Finance Committee voted in support of Yale’s agreement to contribute an additional $52 million in voluntary payments to the city over the next six years. The city will also convert parts of High Street into a pedestrian-only walkway and Yale’s School of Management will create the Center for Inclusive Growth, which will “identify economic and social development initiatives that will bolster growth” in the community. After nearly 20 activists and community members voiced support for Yale’s contribution to New Haven, the committee unanimously voted to recommend the agreement for the full Board of Alders’ approval. Meanwhile, all activist speakers and alders argued that Yale must do more to fight rampant socioeconomic inequality in the city, especially in the face of the University’s tax-exempt status.

“We all know that something in our city is wrong when it hosts one of the world’s wealthiest universities while there is so much suffering here in New Haven,” said Ken Suzuki, secretary-treasurer of Local 34, a union representing Yale employees.

CHORUS

City Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli, Acting Controller Michael Gormany and Yale’s Associate Vice President for New Haven Affairs Lauren Zucker presented the payment plan as a collaborative effort between the city and University. Speakers said the agreement, which Piscitelli noted was not legally binding “in a formal sense,” will attempt to make up for historic economic injustices in the city.

When Alders broached what comes after the six years, University officials gave a general description of “long-term economic growth.” Zucker also read a statement on behalf of Kerwin Charles, dean of the School of Management, on the upcoming Center for Inclusive Growth.

Charles promised that the Center’s efforts would allow collaboration with city leaders, nonprofits and residents, prioritizing respect for the city for a “mutually beneficial” relationship.

While they ultimately voted to recommend the payment plan, some alders expressed skepticism over certain aspects of the deal.

Although Ward 10 Alder Anna Festa concluded she was “not going to refuse any money,” she expressed several concerns over the agreement to make High Street a pedestrian-only space.

According to Festa, roughly 30 metered parking spaces currently exist on High Street, and

FATIGUE

SEE PAYMENTS PAGE 4

PARADE

MENA STUDENTS PUSH FOR COMMUNITY CENTER

The Russian Chorus will change repertoire, but several Ukrainian students said the potential tour is wrong.

Nearly two years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, members of the Yale community reflected on senses of loss and change.

After a two-year pause due to the pandemic, the Greater New Haven St. Patrick’s Day Parade returned.

PAGE 3 UNIVERSITY

PAGE 6 ARTS

PAGE 9 UNIVERSITY

PAGE 11 CITY

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 2

OPINION The accent police I

have been called many things in my life, but “cute” certainly isn’t up there on the list of traits I’d associate myself with. Yet, this word seems to come up every single time I lapse into Singlish in front of my American friends. Perhaps it is because I’ve watched one too many American sitcoms that I know how to feign a pretty decent American accent. For some reason, almost every single American friend I’ve met at Yale seems to think that I’m from Orange County, or Brooklyn, or Jersey City. Which is why when they hear me lapse into Singlish, they start giggling: “Your accent is so different from anything I’ve heard before! It’s so … cute.”

Growing up, I have always been accustomed to what is commonly thought of as “Singlish”. A portmanteau of “Singapore” and “English”, Singlish is the unofficial national language of Singapore.

Broadly speaking, it can be thought of as a sort of British English, with many loan words from the national languages of Singapore (Malay, Tamil, Chinese) and a few Chinese dialects. It is very different from American English in many ways.

We are not good at pronouncing aspirated vowels, so “three” and “tree” are homophones. Especially when speaking fast, we often leave out dental end-consonants, so “haven’t” and “heaven” sound quite similar.

I’ve often found that if I speak the way I do back home, people tell me that I sound quite “uneducated” and that I speak some form of bad English that needs to be corrected. Worse still, I’ve had professors stop class just to make me repeat something I said again and again, because the sort of English that I speak is so unintelligible to the American-trained ear. Singlish is, of course, difficult to understand for someone not attuned to the language’s nuanced textures. It technically also violates many rules of “good” pronunciation, which is why even in Singapore, you probably would not hear Singlish in its full form commonly spoken in professional settings.

This is why, upon coming to the U.S. for college, I made a decision to leave Singlish behind for four years.

I watched all of the sitcoms that I could and made sure that I knew exactly when to roll my “r”s and aspirate my “t”s. Over the years, I’ve even picked up little phrases to use in polite conversations and in awkward social situations that I would never have thought to say in Singapore. Phrases like “how’s it going?” to a complete stranger, “you’re totally good” when someone apologizes for running into me, and “take it easy” have made their way into this little accent-slash-vocabulary I’ve constructed for myself. I still struggle with some words — most recently, “laboratory” — but I think I’ve mostly got the hang of it. Part of the decision was also grounded in the conviction that I did not want to “ruin” my Singlish by speaking some convoluted mix of Singlish and American English all the time. At the same time, I desired with all my heart to still be under-

stood amongst my American friends and by my American professors, rather than bear the brunt of unintended humiliation in SHI WEN class and other social settings.

YEO This is especially importGod, ant to me as an Country English major, because a lot and Yale of my learning happens in seminars where class participation is vital. Being unable to be understood is a huge stumbling block.

However, a worrying problem that I repeatedly encounter is when people misconstrue this as “fake”. To them, when I call my parents on the phone and switch to Singlish, they start to think about how much I’ve been “pretending” around them all this while, speaking one way around them and then another way around someone else.

They might not verbalize it, but under the surface there is always that lingering sense of judgment.

Judgment for being “fake”, or even for “leaving behind” my cultural identity. In those situations, it is always deeply frustrating to me that those who police my accent probably have never had to be misunderstood again and again in a classroom or in a social setting.

Moreover, code-switching is not something unique to me. In fact, almost everyone does it in their lives, albeit unknowingly.

We don’t talk the same way to our friends as to our professors. I’ve also met Yalies from places like Kentucky who significantly tone down aspects of their accent just to be better understood at Yale.

Code-switching is a natural fact of life; it is just more obvious for people like myself.

The truth of the matter is that accents are very much a function of privilege. I sometimes feel deeply envious of my British and Australian friends at Yale who don’t quite seem to have the same problem as I do. Perhaps it is the work of popular culture that has accustomed people to understanding them.

Their accents are often thought of as intelligent, easy to understand and extremely charming.

Not mine.

I am incredibly proud of Singlish, and wish that more people understood it. At the same time, I really do not want to have to repeat myself twenty times a day just to be understood by people. Nor do I wish to be called “cute” or “fake” or whatever it is that people call those not fortunate enough to have accents that are easily accepted. Wanting to code-switch is a personal decision that no one should ever have to feel ashamed for.

SHI WEN YEO is a junior in Morse College. Her Column, “God, Country and Yale”, runs every other Wednesday.

Contact her at shiwen.yeo@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS PUBLISHING CO., INC. 202 York Street, New Haven, CT 06511 (203) 432-2400 Editorial: (203) 432-2418 editor@yaledailynews.com Business: (203) 432-2424 business@yaledailynews.com

EDITOR IN CHIEF & PRESIDENT Rose Horowitch

NEWS Julia Brown Amelia Davidson

PRINT MANAGING EDITORS Ryan Chiao Owen Tucker-Smith

CITY Ángela Pérez Christian Robles

MULTIMEDIA MANAGING EDITOR Natalie Kainz PUBLISHER Christian Martinez Contreras OPINION Awuor Onguru Hanwen Zhang

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Anjali Mangla Nicole Rodriguez ARTS Marisol Carty SPORTS Eugenio Garza García Melanie Heller INVESTIGATIONS Serena Puang

WEEKEND Claire Fang Jordan Fitzgerald Tony Hao YTV Maya WeldonLagrimas Olivia Sally PODCAST Andrea Lee Simi Olurin DATA Leon Lufkin Amy Zhao MAGAZINE Claire Lee Marie Sanford

COPY Josie Jahng Chris Lee Hailey O’Connor Caroline Parker Yingying Zhao PRODUCTION & DESIGN Jose Estrada Rachel Folmar Elifnaz Onder Stephanie Shao Isaac Yu PHOTOGRAPHY Zoe Berg Yasmine Halmane Karen Lin Vaibhav Sharma Regina Sung

ILLUSTRATIONS Sophie Henry Cecilia Lee WEB DEVELOPMENT Julia Macri Iris Yang DIR. OF FINANCE Melissa Kim DIR. OF OPERATIONS Angela Lee INTERNAL AFFAIRS Zully Arias EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Megan Graham

THIS ISSUE COPY STAFF: Will Aarons, Grace Aitken, Maya Melnik, Paola Santos, Olivia Schnur, Patrick SebaRaj, Sydney Zoehrer COPY ASSISTANTS: Clara Lee, Kylie Volavongsa PRODUCTION & DESIGN STAFF: Chris de Santis, Catherine Kwon, Chen Lin, Yash Roy, Anika Seth, Sophie Sonnenfeld PRODUCTION & DESIGN ASSISTANTS: Beril Birlik, Jessica Sanchez EDITORIALS & ADS

The Editorial Board represents the opinion of 12-15 members of the Yale community.

Other content on this page with bylines represents the opinions of those authors and not necessarily those of the Managing Board.

Opinions set forth in ads do not necessarily reflect the views of the Managing Board. We reserve the right to refuse any ad for any reason and to delete or change any copy we consider objectionable, false or in poor taste.

We do not verify the contents of any ad. The Yale Daily News Publishing Co., Inc. and its officers, employees and agents disclaim any responsibility for all liabilities, injuries or

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT

damages arising from any ad. The Yale Daily News Publishing Co. ISSN 0890-2240

SUBMISSIONS

All letters submitted for publication must include the author’s name, phone number and description of Yale University affiliation.

Please limit letters to 250 words and guest columns to 750. The Yale Daily News reserves the right to edit letters and columns before publication. E-mail is the preferred method of submission.

ADVERTISEMENT

(203) 432-2424 (before 5 p.m.)

(203) 432-2400 (after 5 p.m.)

Direct all letters, columns, artwork and inquiries to: Caleb Dunson and Awuor Onguru Opinion Editors opinion@yaledailynews.com Direct all comments regarding the fairness or accuracy of stories to: Rose Horowitch Editor-in-Chief (203) 432-2418 Julia Bialek, Jose Davila IV, Phoebe Liu Public Editors public@yaledailynews.com

COPYRIGHT 2022 — VOL. CXLIV, NO. 17

Athletes and activism I

was thoroughly annoyed. Why my coach had asked me to watch “13th” — a documentary about racism in the American carceral system — when I had signed up to play basketball, was beyond me. So as I sat in front of my bedroom TV and prepared to watch the film, I was determined to hate it. And yet, I couldn’t. As a 14-year old kid from the west side of Chicago, “13th” illuminated the challenges my community faced. It clearly explained how federal and state policy on crime contributed to the disadvantage in my neighborhood, a neighborhood that was — and still is — over-policed and starved of resources. It gave voice to an injustice I was vaguely aware of but could not articulate. And it did the same for my entire team, which was comprised of students from various racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. In simply getting my team to watch a film, my basketball coach had effectively organized our sentiments in support of a more just legal system, using our common passion for sports to bridge the divides in our backgrounds.

The start of March Madness had led me to reflect on this moment, and on the strange ability of sports to unite people around a common goal. It now seems quite clear that sports have the unique potential to be hubs of activism. They can be used to found, build and expand transformative social movements — movements that challenge dominant cultural narratives and change our world for the better.

The skills that sports teach — like teamwork, diligence, perseverance and communication — lend themselves well to the work of activism and community organizing. Like the activist, the athlete must work with diverse groups of people to achieve a common objective. Like the activist, the athlete routinely has to overcome failure and continue their push toward success. And like the activist, the athlete has to be able to articulate to others how and why they want to accomplish their goal.

The transferability of these skills means that athletes can easily transition from sports to activism, and researchers Peter Kaufman and Eli Wolff agree. In their research, Kaufman and Wolff

found that, through sports, “People could learn initiative, community endeavor, collective rather than individual values, self CALEB determinaDUNSON tion, etc., that could permit What We them to begin to take charge Owe of their own lives and communities.” Just look at how sports have been a hotbed of activism in recent years. The WNBA has been at the forefront of the Black Lives Matter movement, Colin Kaepernick’s kneel transformed the way we think about patriotism and Naomi Osaka’s fashion statements brought worldwide attention to police brutality. These actions are part of a long and rich legacy of sports activism, which once again points to the potential of sports to create change.

Even more promising is the fact that the issues that plague athletes, from labor rights to harmful stereotypes to unfair compensation, run parallel to the most pressing political issues of our day. These parallels create an opportunity for athletes fighting for their rights to bolster similar movements outside of sports. For example, when Allyson Felix, Alysia Montano,and other athlete-mothers spoke out against Nike’s unjust maternity leave policy, they positioned their argument in the larger movement for paid maternity leave across the United States. That same strategy can be used for athletes’ labor rights and the larger unionization movement occurring across the United States or for stereotypes of athletes and the larger movement to address systemic discrimination or for fair compensation and the larger movement to increase the federal minimum wage.

But it’s sports’ ability to create solidarity across demographic lines that make them an incredible space for grassroots organizing.

Amateur travel sports allow young athletes to traverse the country and compete against a wide variety of teams, which exposes them to diverse people and perspectives at an early age. College sports

bring players from around the world together, creating a tightknit community based on a common desire: competitive success.

And professional sports often occur on the international stage, with events like the Olympics gathering the world’s top athletes in one place to commune and celebrate their athletic excellence. In this way, sports’ ability to connect athletes across backgrounds makes them a potential catalyst for widescale social change, especially as athletes identify common struggles and develop plans to address those struggles together. The 1968 Olympic protests are case in point.

THE SKILLS THAT SPORTS TEACH — LIKE TEAMWORK, DILIGENCE, PERSEVERANCE AND COMMUNICATION — LEND THEMSELVES WELL TO THE WORK OF ACTIVISM AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZING. Sports have incredible political power. They can be at the center of a revolution, but only if we are willing to stretch our imagination and see sports as a viable place for activism. Only if we stop seeing athletes as bodies meant to entertain and start seeing them as people with the capacity to thoughtfully and meaningfully engage in our democracy. Only if we empower and encourage athletes at all levels to use their voices to speak out against injustice.

Let’s keep that in mind as we cheer on college athletes this month.

CALEB DUNSON is a sophomore in Saybrook College. His column, titled “What We Owe,” runs every other Tuesday. Contact him at caleb.dunson@yale.edu .

For crying out loud I

n my first week of Zoom college, I attended a Yale Political Union debate on the topic, “Resolved: Sign the Harper’s Letter.” In the two years that followed, countless op-eds have been published to diagnose the uniquely modern malaise of cancel culture and the way it plagues college campuses, chafes hungry young minds and silences those who hold alternative perspectives. So it came as no surprise to me that last Monday the op-ed published in the New York Times has thoroughly made its rounds through the minds of professors and students alike. The phrase “I Came to College Eager to do X. I Found Y Instead” has altogether become a meme.

IF WE NEVERTHELESS DESIRE AN AGORA, THE PLACES WHERE OPINIONS ARE TRULY DEVELOPED AND NURTURED ARE THE NICHES WE CHOOSE FOR OURSELVES. There is a very particular type of student who comes to college eager for debate and political discourse. They are often well-read and well-spoken, and they want to talk and listen. But they also tend to romanticize the idea of discourse as a beatific struggle that hovers to discover something great and sen-

sible, under the aegis of ideals like Freedom, Justice, and Equality. When they speak of debate and discourse, they think of Roman JEAN WANG great orators and the openness of Frames of the Athenian Preference agora. It is this myth that gives rise to ridiculous proclamations such as how today’s discourse atmosphere would seek to cancel Socrates himself. (Socrates was indeed given the ultimate cancellation – he was sentenced to death.)

The romanticized agora has never existed in the first place. Through my work in Directed Studies, I realized that Socrates was exiled and shunned because people believed that his ideas corrupted the youth, and self-censorship was all but routine in the Roman empire. Controversial opinions have always been subject to consequences when they are presented to a large public, and a place as diverse as the modern college campus is no exception.

If the same problems have always existed in public discourse, we might as well question why they are raised now with particular fury under the name of cancel culture.

It is often the politics surrounding the identity and safety of particular groups that invites cries of cancel culture in the face of public outrage: student discourse around COVID19 policies at Yale is a particular example. If one’s very identity and personhood is called to question under the guise of discourse, then one should not be asked to defend the very bases of their identity and integrity in debate and interrogation. The form of campus discourse

is equally important as its content, and the things we talk about are equally important as to why we talk about them.

The opinions that people accept without question are often the most important and the most interesting, and it is necessary for college students to examine them.

For those who seek debate, they will find a diverse array of welcoming spaces at Yale, although some are more white and male than others. I may find meaning in welcoming guests and students to debate on the Yale Political Union floor every Tuesday, but people can arrive at a cohesive politics of their own through other means. Debate is often not the sum of discourse: art, theater, literature and science are all potent political educators.

Everything is political, but political debate need not be everywhere.

So where is the true Yale, and how do most of us think about things? The answer is that the common opinion is rootless, and that Yale is nowhere. In all the small spaces we inhabit with others, in common rooms and dining halls, in all the corners of Yale that we extend ourselves, different thoughts and ways of life are brewing, and we are becoming different people. If we nevertheless desire an agora, the places where opinions are truly developed and nurtured are the niches we choose for ourselves. Most often than not, our politics are shaped not by what is told to us in a classroom or on a debate floor, but by our experiences in society and relationships to others. What is politics for, if not to lead us back to each other?

JEAN WANG is a sophomore in Jonathan Edwards College. She serves as the Vice President of the Yale Political Union. Her Column, “Frames of Preference”, runs every other Friday.

Contact her at jean.wang@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

NEWS

PAGE 3

“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.” PABLO NERUDA CHILEAN POET-DIPLOMAT AND POLITICIAN

Residential colleges face housing shortages for class of 2024

BY SARAH COOK AND ANIKA SETH STAFF REPORTERS With a total of 1,789 students, the class of 2025’s historic size is exacerbating existing housing shortages, especially for rising juniors in the class of 2024.

Due to the disproportionately large first-year class, residential colleges are reporting potential housing shortages, which may force students who wish to live on campus to find off-campus alternatives. The particularities of the housing draw process vary across residential colleges.

Per Yale College policy, students are guaranteed housing on-campus for their first two years at Yale — and these students are also not permitted to move off-campus unless they are 21 years or older, married or first matriculated more than two years prior. Seniors and juniors, however, are not required to remain on campus and are also not necessarily guaranteed to have an on-campus option. Students are required to declare their intent to live either on or off campus by March 18, and each college will run its own draw process in late March and early April.

Last spring, the University decided that students in the class of 2025 in Branford, Davenport, Morse and Saybrook colleges would live in their residential colleges during their first year, rather than on Old Campus, as per tradition. Students from these four colleges in the class of 2024 are

instead living on Old Campus this year. Next year, however, the University is reverting back to its typical housing arrangement. First-years — the class of 2026 — in these colleges will live on Old Campus during the 2022-23 academic year, and sophomores — the class of 2025 — will live again in their residential colleges.

Dean of Yale College Marvin Chun told the News that next year’s sophomore housing — for the class of 2025, or current first-years — “should be okay” because the class ahead of them — 2024 — is so large. In the current sophomore class, which totals 1,759 students, 568 students were originally members of the class of 2023 and took gap years during the pandemic. Chun said that rising seniors — the class of 2023 — will also not face housing problems because seniors get top priority in housing.

However, Chun said housing “may get tighter” for juniors.

Branford College, for example, is setting aside enough beds to fit the entire rising sophomore class. Rising seniors and juniors will draw from the unreserved rooms, with seniors going first and then juniors claiming the remaining rooms. All classes will go through a lottery-based system, in which each group of suitemates will receive a designated random time slot in which they can select their room.

Those who receive later timeslots and are thus unable to secure housing within their residential college — members of the rising junior class

— will first be pushed into annex housing on-campus, in places such as on Old Campus, or may be forced to seek accomodations off-campus.

The Branford draw process will primarily transpire over the week after spring break.

Sheikh Nahiyan ’24, a member of the Morse Housing Committee, told the News that the same premise applies to Morse College: If students are not able to secure on-campus housing during the draw, they will be annexed to other residential colleges or may need to move off-campus. Nahiyan added that he spoke with the Dean of Morse College’s Assistant, Mary-Ann Bergstrom, who told him that students will only be annexed under “extenuating circumstances,” so most students unable to secure a room during the draw will need to find off-campus housing. Bergstrom did not respond to a request for comment.

Chun told the News that the University is working to organize and clarify the options for annex housing, and that the college deans are working to provide students with information for their respective colleges.

“We’re working right now to try to maximize the annex housing and those kinds of options that are around campus,” Chun said. “Some students may need to be annexed … which is the case every year and was the case even this year. I think what helps with annexing is just making things as predictable as possible for

students so they can make the right choices about whether they want to do annexing or whether they want to move off campus. I think what students need is good information.”

While Nahiyan is unsure exactly how many students in Morse will be forced off campus, he estimated that this figure could be around 30 to 40 students. He, along with Dean of Student Affairs Melanie Boyd, added that after March 18 — which is when students must declare their intent to live on or off campus — the housing committees will have a better sense of the severity of the anticipated housing shortage.

Chun similarly noted that once the number of seniors planning to live on campus is determined, the colleges will be able to calculate the number of juniors who can stay on campus.

Chun explained that there are “no global plans” to require any members of the class of 2025 — rising sophomores — to be annexed next year. Still, in light of the high number of students in the class of 2024 who are likely to be annexed or forced off campus, Chun emphasized the importance of strengthening the ties between the class of 2024 and their residential college communities.

“I think we have to keep thinking about ways to make [the class of 2024] feel full and connected with the residential colleges,” Chun told the News.

According to Nahiyan, the 568 students originally admitted to the

class of 2023 who took gap years, and are now in the class of 2024, can choose between entering the senior or junior housing draw.

Entering the senior draw would extend priority in securing on-campus housing, if they so choose, for the next academic year. This, however, would be “under the full understanding” that they will be unable to enter the senior draw for the following year, and would have to enter the junior draw or live off campus.

Members of the Pauli Murray Housing Committee Camden Rider ’23, Jennifer Yakubov ’24 and Grayson Phillips ’25 explained this policy in an email to Murray students on March 13.

“If you matriculated in the Fall of 2019 (i.e. you are a 2023, 2023.5 or a 2023+1), you will be defaulted into the senior draw,” the trio wrote in their email. “Similarly, if you matriculated in the Fall of 2020 (i.e. you are a 2024, 2024.5 or a 2024+1), you will be defaulted into the junior draw.”

In the email, students were told that if students want to switch out of their default draw, they need to research out to Dean of Pauli Murray College Alexander Rosas.

Yale’s first residential colleges were opened in 1933.

Contact SARAH COOK at sarah.cook@yale.edu and ANIKA SETH at anika.seth@yale.edu .

Middle Eastern and North African students push for cultural center

BY LUCY HODGMAN STAFF REPORTER As Middle Eastern and North African students continue to fight for an increased campus presence, a potential room for MENA students set aside in the Asian American Cultural Center marks a step forward, ten students told the News. But many demands remain unmet by the University, including those for a peer liaison program and a distinct cultural house.

Yale’s MENA students have called for a more established presence on campus since 2018, working specifically toward an official cultural center and a peer liaison program. MENA students spoke to the News about the potential of a space in the AACC and their hopes for the future of MENA representation at Yale.

“The purpose of having a cultural center is having a safe space where you’re with other people who share the same backgrounds and experiences, where you can come together and be like, ‘We all can identify this as something that plagues us, and here’s how we form solidarity and fight for social justice,’” Anastasia Ibrahim ’23 said. “We don’t have that.

We’re kind of set up to fail here, because you don’t know what your community looks like and you don’t really have a distinct place for that community.”

Joliana Yee, the director of the AACC and assistant dean of Yale College, told the News that while she has yet to set a meeting time with MENA student leaders to discuss the logistics of the room, a space in the AACC had been cleared out for potential MENA student use. Yee emphasized the support that the MENA Student Association, or MENASA, had received from both the AACC and the Afro-American Cultural Center since the group’s founding in the 2018-2019 academic year.

Joaquín Lara Midkiff ’24, the community policy director of the Yale College Council, has advocated for the establishment of a MENA room in the AACC. He told the News that setting aside a room in the AACC would mean designating a “real space” for the MENA community on campus.

“This isn’t sexy in the sense that it’s a PL program or a cultural house, but this is important because it’s a physical space,” Lara Midkiff said. “It is a representative entity of the [University] — recognizing the community and the necessity for the community to have communal space.”

Ibrahim, the former MENASA president, told the News that she hoped the MENA community on campus would soon be able to establish a cultural house of their own.

While she would support the designation of a room in the AACC, Ibrahim said, an individual cultural house would provide additional structure for the MENA community. She pointed to the ability of other cultural houses to host both formal and informal gatherings in which members of underrepresented communities on campus could come together.

“We’re kind of just left on our own to grapple with so many rough things, and it would be so much better if we could come together as a community to face them,” Ibrahim said. “I think that recognizing us on campus is the first step to doing that.”

The representation of MENA students on campus and beyond has long been a contested issue.

Because the United States census does not recognize MENA as a racial group, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeremiah Quinlan told the News last year that the University’s admissions form and Student Information Systems also don’t. Instead, students applying to Yale must choose between one of five racial categories, including “white,” “Black,” “American Indian or Alaska Native,” “Asian” and “Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.”

According to Ibrahim, this policy makes it challenging for either the University or MENA student organizations to quantify the number of MENA students on campus.

“There’s really no identifiable or concrete statistic for how many MENA students there are,” Ibrahim said. “So that’s kind of a prerequisite to getting a cultural house because if we want a cultural house, we have to go to the administration with the numbers, saying, ‘This is how many students identify as MENA on campus, and we still don’t have a cultural house.’”

Without an official statistic, Ibrahim explained, the best metric for tracking the number of MENA students at Yale is the amount of students that sign up for the MENASA mailing list at the extracurricular bazaar held at the beginning of each academic year. This, in turn, has been affected by the gathering restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ibrahim said.

Although the MENASA mailing list currently has about 400 members, Ibrahim said that this also includes graduated alumni.

President of the Arab Students Association Tanya Jomaa ’23 said that regardless of the exact number of MENA students on campus, the distinct culture of the MENA region should be reason enough to provide MENA students at Yale with a place to congregate.

“It’s lonely coming to college if you’re from a country in the Middle East, or if you’re not, and you’ve grown up with your par-

ents cooking your traditional ethnic food, speaking a specific language and whatever it is, and then you come to college and nobody does that,” Jomaa said. “You long for that sense of community. I think that it’s not that big of an ask … that the school provide it, particularly because there’s already a precedent for providing that type of cultural community.”

Because no cultural house or peer liaison program exists on campus for members of the MENA community, Ibrahim explained that MENA students at Yale are largely split between the AACC and the AFAM House, depending on the specific country with which they identify. According to Ibrahim, this has created a division between members of the MENA community at Yale.

Youssef Ibrahim ’25 agreed, noting that he did not feel represented by either the AFAM house or the AACC. Ibrahim, an international student from Egypt, told the News that he generally shared more traditions and cultural touchstones with people from countries like “Syria, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia” than with people from other African countries.

“Just because Egypt lies in Africa does not mean that I’m culturally identified as African,” Ibrahim said. “[MENA] is a distinct culture. It’s very different from African culture. It’s very different from Asian culture as well.”

MENASA Vice President Zahra Yarali ’24 explained that even the term MENA is not universally accepted. “‘Middle East,’ as normalized as it is in both English and languages such as Arabic and Farsi, inherently produces a colonial and imperial understanding of the region,” Yarali said. “It reduces this span of land to being acknowledgeable only in its proximity to the West.”

Yarali noted that she preferred the term SWANA, or Southwest Asia-North Africa, which she said generally better encapsulated the experiences of people from these areas and referred more objectively to their places of origin.

MENASA was founded with the stated mission of advocating for a MENA cultural center on campus, planning programming similar to that of Yale’s other four cultural centers alongside its advocacy.

Dean of Yale College Marvin Chun told the News that increased on-campus representation for the MENA community would likely come gradually.

“We’re keen to expand our support for the MENA community,” Chun said. “Everything around here happens in steps. Their first step was to form a student organization, and show that strong interest and that it is vibrant and active.

They’ve done that, and I’m very

TENZIN JORDEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The AACC recently cleared a room for use by MENA students, marking a step forward in students’ push for more MENA recognition on campus. proud and grateful that Dean Yee is trying to help support them as a separate community within the larger community, so this is a good next step.”

Because establishing a cultural house would require securing a space and hiring staff, Chun said, he thought that members of the MENA community would first need to establish a peer liaison program. Although Chun will soon depart his role, he expressed hope that the next Dean of Yale College will oversee that process.

Lara Midkiff, who advocated for the addition of a PL program for students with disabilities last year, emphasized the importance of PL programs to developing the community necessary to pave the road to a cultural house.

But even establishing a PL program, Lara Midkiff noted, can be difficult without the structural support of a cultural house, creating a type of vicious cycle.

“You start butting against this realization that we don’t have for MENA what [Student Accessibility Services] is to the disability community or what the AACC is to the Asian community or the House is to the African American and Black community or what the

NACC is to the Native community,” Lara Midkiff said.

Ibrahim further emphasized the importance of cultural houses on campus to supporting students from underrepresented communities in the face of discrimination, both on campus and in the world more broadly.

Without a cultural house, Ibrahim said, Yale’s MENA community lacks that institutional support. Although Ibrahim voiced her gratitude for the AACC’s recognition of the MENA community, she emphasized that MENA students would be best served by a body specific to their interests.

“The AACC struggled to get their house as well, so I think that will be a part of our process too,” Layla Hedroug ’25 added. “But I don’t necessarily define myself as Asian American, because I’m from the [North African] region of MENA … I want an area that encompasses all of the MENA region.”

The AFAM House was established in 1969 and the AACC was established in 1981.

Yeji Kim contributed reporting.

Contact LUCY HODGMAN at lucy.hodgman@yale.edu .

PAGE 4

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

FROM THE FRONT

"Here comes the sun, and I say it's all right” THE BEATLES, ICONIC BRITISH BAND

City-University deal moves forward PAYMENTS FROM PAGE 1 once those spaces are gone, the city could lose revenue generated from parking and automobile use. Festa added that many residents residing on or near High Street, including Yale employees, were not notified about the plan, creating problems with food and package delivery services and commuting. She also questioned the limited timeframe of the agreement, especially since the projected contribution in the final year of the plan will be only $2 million.

“Year six is only $2 million, and that’s nothing compared to what Yale makes and what Yale will be making,” Festa said. “And do we get our street back after that?”

Tyisha Walker-Myers, president of the Board of Alders, joined Festa to recommend that Yale and the city work on a more specific plan for the financial agreement. Several alders repeated that the town-and-gown agreement was a “move in the right direction,” but pointed to the hundreds of millions in property taxes that the University does not pay to the city each year because its academic spaces are tax-exempt. Festa noted that the total $52 million in additional payments will not make up for the value of Yale’s tax exemptions.

In response to calls for Yale to increase its contributions, University officials have previously pointed to voluntary payments, alongside Yale’s various programs that support New Haven residents. Yale recently increased funding toward New Haven Promise, a college scholarship

that pays tuition for local students.

Officials have also pointed to the fact that Yale’s voluntary payments have traditionally been larger than those of its peer institutions.

Piscitelli said that the University and city began negotiations for this voluntary payment plan “a year and a half to two years” ago, but community activists and groups have long fought for increased contributions from Yale. Abby Feldman, a leader of New Haven Rising, listed various ways the group has put pressure on Yale over the years, including distributing thousands of “Respect New Haven” lawn signs and literature pamphlets door-to-door, organizing neighborhood meetings and teach-ins on Yale-New Haven relations, creating a tax calculator to show how much property owners could save if Yale paid “equitable mill rates” and holding street protests and a car fair.

Members of student activist groups noted their own fight to boost Yale’s contributions. Several members of Local 33, the Yale graduate student union that remains unrecognized by the University, testified to their own time spent educating New Haven residents and Yale affiliates on the impact of Yale’s tax exemptions. Ridge Liu GRD ’24, Local 33 co-president, acknowledged that Yale’s agreement is a good first step, but said that it must continue to pay New Haven and give more power to employee unions,

including Local 33 and Local 34.

Members of Students Unite Now, an undergraduate organization, spoke about their campaign to gather student support for improving YaleNew Haven relations.

“This historic agreement that we’re talking about tonight, between New Haven and Yale, is the culmination of all those years of hard work,” said Dolores Colón, the former Ward 6 Alder who now works as a Library Service Assistant at the Beinecke. “But it is not the end. To adequately address decades of disinvestment and change the maps of segregated development, New Haven will need much more.”

Colón and other community members highlighted the city’s most dire problems, including the housing crisis, unequal access to wealth and healthcare and segregated development across neighborhoods, as areas for further investment. Charlie Taylor, another New Haven Rising member, pointed to the creation of luxury apartments as an obstacle to a more equitable housing landscape, while others drew connections between property taxes paid by residents and Yale’s tax-exempt properties.

Public education posed another area for improvement. Cynthia Stretch, an English professor at Southern Connecticut State University, discussed the financial struggles of her students, who live in the city where Yale students attend classes. She argued that Yale’s increased investment must

TIM TAI/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Members of student activist groups noted their own fight to boost Yale’s contributions. address the housing crisis so that students experience better living conditions and public schools receive more funding.

“While Yale’s endowment has grown to unimaginable levels — over 40 billion dollars right now — our city’s youth are in a state of crisis,” said Marika Phillips, a New Haven Rising organizer. “We’re going to need Yale to increase their voluntary pay much more… I envision a New Haven where we have the funding for our children to have all that they need — small classes, new textbooks, safe places to go, community centers.”

After hearing from the public, Festa noted that New Haven residents should not bear the burden of Yale’s tax exemptions and that the “city of New Haven is still missing out on about $140 million in tax dollars each year.” Other alders concurred that Yale’s payments should be greater. Nevertheless, they recommended for the plan to move forward to be approved by the full Board of Alders.

During the 2021 fiscal year, Yale’s endowment rose to $42.3 billion.

Contact MEGAN VAZ at megan.vaz@yale.edu .

Criticism sparks over Russia-linked billionaire Yale donor BLAVATNIK FROM PAGE 1 Access Industries, a privately-held multinational industrial group also led by Blavatnik, who serves as its founder and chairman.

In Ring’s contract, which was obtained by the News, a venture provision declares the University’s commitment to affording Access Industries or other Blavatnik venture funds with an opportunity to invest funds in the award recipients’ entrepreneurial ventures in an amount up to and equal to the amount committed by any other lead investor. Since companies at an earlier stage are historically often undervalued, Ring said, this grants Blavatnik with significant investment power.

When Ring asked for the investment provision to be removed, he was rebuffed.

“It’s a very significant kickback that the University gives to Access Industries – right to invest in Yale’s most innovative spinout companies,” Ring told the News. “At the end of the day, innovation cannot spring from a corrupt source.”

In a statement to the News, Access Industries claimed that this investment provision has not been exercised during the life of the fund.

“The Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale combines essential funding with development and business expertise,” Access wrote in a statement to the News. “The idea of commercial partnerships is designed to

encourage potential sources of capital to bring about biomedical discoveries that create value and benefit society.

During the life of the fund, Access has not exercised the provision [cited].

Access has no control over the Yale scientific initiatives selected for support by the fund’s advisory board, comprised for the most part by life science-oriented investors who are Yale alumni. Also, the fund is run independently by Yale’s Office of Cooperative Research.”

In another statement, University spokeswoman Karen Peart said that out of 33 spinoffs that have received investment from the Blavatnik Fund, none have received funding from Access Industries, although Access Industries has funded at least one Yale start-up independent of the Blavatnik Fund.

“Many sponsored-research agreements at Yale and among our peers permit the entity providing the funding with the non-exclusive opportunity to invest in companies that might spin out from the research resulting from the relevant grants,” Peart wrote in an email to the News. “In the case of the Blavatnik Fund, Access Industries has the non-exclusive right to invest in a given spinoff, but not at a level greater than any other investor also interested in the spinoff.”

According to its website, Access Biotechnology, which serves as the strategic investment arm of Access Industries, has invested in two companies founded by Yale professors – Arvinas and Halda Therapeutics.

It could not be determined whether either company was connected to the Blavatnik Fund.

Faculty members also criticized the consequences of Yale’s relationship with Blavatnik in the context of increased scrutiny toward Russia and individuals with Russian ties. Physician-professor Howard Forman claimed that the intent behind Blavatnik’s donations is associated with brandishing his reputation.

According to a New York Times article, Blavatnik has been involved in transactions with individuals who have “checkered pasts, deep Kremlin ties and a reputation for corruption.”

He served as a major shareholder in the aluminum giant Rusal, which was once sanctioned by the United States and gave up ownership of United Trading Company alongside oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, both of whom sold their shares to three Kremlin-linked investors, Dmitri Pyatkin, Aleksandr Fraiman and Igor Annensky. When he sold his stake in Russian oil company TNK-BP in 2013, it was to Rosneft – which is run by Vladimir Putin’s close ally and a former deputy prime minister Igor Sechin.

“When donors give money in a non-anonymous manner and put their name on something, they are elevating their name,” Forman said.

He added that while the sentiment alone was not problematic, there was a question to be asked – “what [is the University] giving him, and what is he giving us?”

He noted that while the donations received from Blavatnik have been relatively small, the philanthropist’s reputation may be supported by his funds – with the implication that the University becomes vulnerable to harming its name due to his background. He advised that the administration review Blavatnik’s donorship and determine whether his values “align with Yale values.”

Ring also believed that the University’s relationship with Blavatnik poses a concerning dilemma – by attaching the Yale name to the award, he said it creates a sense that the University is endorsing the source of the funds.

Access Industries claimed that Blavatnik and the company do not have any involvement in Russian government affairs.

“Mr. Blavatnik is an American citizen and has been for almost 40 years,” the company’s statement said. “He is not involved in Russian politics or the Russian government and has never been a Russian citizen. He is not now and never has been on any U.S., UK and EU list of sanctioned oligarchs or among those facing economic sanctions. Access Industries, a New Yorkbased company, strictly complies with all U.S., UK and EU laws, rules and regulations.”

Yet Blavatnik has close personal or working relationships with Victor Vekselberg and Oleg Deripaska, both of whom are sanctioned by the United States and are widely considered Russian oligarchs. He has also benefited from Russian economic

dealings; for example, he received $7 billion when he sold his stake in TNK-BP in 2013.

When asked by the News about whether an investigation had or would be conducted by the University on Blavatnik’s donorship, Peart told the News in an email that Yale would remain cognizant of sanctions against Russia and Russian individuals.

“As President Salovey states in his response to the invasion of Ukraine, Yale will respect all U.S. government sanctions applicable to Russia and will continue to be aware of the sanctions imposed by other countries,” Peart wrote. “We will not allow individuals subject to U.S. sanctions to make donations to the university or serve on university boards or committees.”

Faculty expressed their hope that the program itself would continue, even if Blavatnik’s name was to be removed.

“I would really hope that an alternative source of funds, maybe even coming internally from the Yale endowment, could be used to continue the very meritorious goals of this program — but from a source of funds that we can really be proud of,” Ring said.

The Blavatnik Family Foundation could not be reached for comment.

The Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale was first established in 2016 with a grant of $10 million.

Contact WILLIAM PORAYOUW at william.poranyouw@yale.edu .

Men's basketball plays in March Madness

WILIAM MCCORMACK/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Yale head coach James Jones, pictured above speaking to reporters in Milwaukee.

BASKETBALL FROM PAGE 1 “Everybody knows that they’re big,” Swain, Yale’s leading scorer averaging 19.2 points per game, told the media during a student-athlete press conference in

which he and Yale captain Jalen Gabbidon ’22 participated before Jones took the stage. “And they’ve been one of the top teams all year, so they’ve been on a national stage and in the limelight. So their size isn’t something that’s been hid-

den or anything like that. As far as us, we’re looking kind of inwards and making sure that the little things like toughness and physicality aren’t going to lack, and we'll be ready to compete regardless of size.”

Jones was asked how Yale was trying to prepare to face a post player like Edey, who stands half a foot higher than the tallest player in the Elis’ rotation — 6-foot-8 forward EJ Jarvis ’23. Purdue forward Trevion Williams, the Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year, also stands 6-foot-11-inches.

Jones joked that he went out, got a dump truck, put it in the middle of the floor at practice and tried to get his players to move it while in park.

“You can talk as much as you can, [but] you can't simulate it,” he said.

The challenge is exacerbated by Yale’s smaller lineup this season. In terms of average height, this year’s Bulldogs are the shortest team Jones has coached since the 2010–11 sea-

son, per KenPom. That size disparity has caused many to count out Yale as a potential bracket-buster in this year’s tournament. Only 7.5 percent of ESPN brackets have Yale beating Purdue; in 2019, when Yale was also seeded fourteenth, the Elis were a more popular upset choice — about 16 percent of ESPN brackets predicted they would beat LSU. “A lot of people will kind of go overboard about our centers and size,” Purdue head coach Matt Painter said. “But there’s still four other positions out there, and [Yale has] great positional size in those positions — those combo forwards that are athletic and strong, they can cause a lot of problems for you by taking away things and getting into passing lanes.”

Yale defenders will also be tasked with containing Purdue’s Jaden Ivey, a projected top-five pick in the 2022 NBA Draft and an explosive guard whom Jones called “one of the fastest human beings I've ever seen with

the basketball going up and down the court.” Jones coached Ivey last summer at the U.S. FIBA U19 World Cup, and Ivey said the two had coincidentally exchanged text messages a couple weeks ago. The Purdue star said Jones taught him a lot “from an emotional standpoint” about attitude.

Yale, of course, has its own star in Swain, whose ability to score the ball on seemingly any shot commanded attention from Purdue. “When you have a guy out there that can get 30, 35 points in a game, as a coach, that always scares you,” Painter said.

Describing him to reporters who have never seen Yale play up close before, Jones called Swain, who is 6-foot-1, the “best player in the entire country that can't dunk a basketball.”

TBS will broadcast Yale’s firstround matchup.

Contact WILLIAM MCCORMACK at william.mccormack@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 5

FROM THE FRONT

“Spring is nature's way of saying, 'let's party.'”

ROBIN WILLIAMS, AMERICAN ACTOR

Prof. Haifan Lin invinvestigated by Department of Justice CHINA FROM PAGE 1 nage effort that critics say harms research and unfairly targets scientists of Chinese descent.

“In our view, without due process and clear evidence of misconduct, Yale’s administrative action in the case of Prof. Lin appears to suggest that Yale’s own faculty members are guilty until proven innocent; and if so, everyone will be vulnerable,” the letter, obtained by the News, reads.

In response to the letter, University Provost Scott Strobel and School of Medicine Dean Nancy Brown wrote to faculty signatories early Wednesday morning. Their response describes a March 2019 inquiry from the National Institutes of Health regarding “the sufficiency of reporting of outside support” by several faculty funded

by NIH grants. The University responded to the questioning with information provided by faculty including Lin. NIH subsequently questioned whether the information was accurate, and the University took the position that it was, the letter reads.

After continued discussions, in July 2020, the University was noti-

fied that the Department of Justice had opened a criminal investigation into the matter, and complied with the DOJ’s subpoena. In March 2021, the DOJ requested to speak with Lin, and the University retained separate counsel to represent him.

In January 2022, the NIH provided Yale with information that appeared inconsistent with the information that Lin had provided and that the University had based its response on, prompting the University to conduct its own internal investigation. Lin has been placed on paid administrative leave, and the investigation is ongoing.

The University has “acted assertively to support Professor Lin” throughout the process, the response states.

The response emphasizes that no judgments have been made so far, and maintains that the University has followed due process throughout the investigation and will continue to do so.

It is unclear whether the DOJ’s actions fall under the umbrella of the China Initiative, which the agency recently said is being overhauled.

Strobel and Brown’s response statement does not reference the China Initiative. An investigation by the M.I.T. Technology Review found that the DOJ does not have an offi-

YALE NEWS

Following a letter of concern by nearly 100 Yale facutly, University says it plans to defend cell biology prof. while conducting internal investigation

cial definition under which it labels China Initiative cases. The same investigation also found that the DOJ has increasingly focused on cases of “research integrity”, typically failure to fully disclose all ties to Chinese institutions. The majority of research integrity cases under the China Initiative have fallen apart, and defense attorneys and other observers criticize the federal government’s rules regarding disclosure as unclear.

Strobel and Brown note that they are “acutely aware of the pain, fear, and stress” that Asian and Asian American have experienced in “recent years”.

“While it happens rarely, when a faculty member is subjected to an investigation, it is distressing to the faculty member and to those who support and care about our colleague’s well-being and productivity,” they wrote. “We are keenly aware of these challenges. We greatly appreciate your care and concern for our colleague. It is a testament to the extraordinary spirit of collegiality and collaboration that is a hallmark of our campus community.”

Lin did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Members of Lin’s direct research group, as well as the letter’s organizers, also did not respond to requests for comment.

Yale Vice President of Communications Nate Nickerson wrote to the News that the University is “committed” to principles of academic freedom and follows all policies in the Faculty Handbook.

The original letter, which has not been made public, circulated among individual faculty members, primarily in the School of Medicine and some science and engineering departments in the Faculty of Arts & Sciences.

“I am concerned that my colleague Haifan Lin is not being given appropriate due process,” Valerie Horsley, the chair of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences Senate who is associated with the Stem Cell Center and one of the letter’s signatories, wrote in an email to the News. “It is not clear to me why he is on leave, especially if he has not been charged with a crime or has gone against a University policy. His leadership in Yale’s Stem Cell Center and in his own laboratory have inspired and motivated my own work and I want to make sure that we retain this important leader at our Institution.”

Lin, whose research examines the self-renewing mechanism of stem cells, came to Yale in 2006 and established the Stem Cell Center, an organization with over 100 member labs that is widely recognized as one of the country’s most prominent centers for such research. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and was recently elected as president of the International Society of Stem Cell Research. Lin is also currently an adjunct dean at ShanghaiTech University.

Six professors who signed the letter declined to be interviewed, citing a lack of substantiated information about Lin’s circumstances. Five others spoke to the News in support of Lin but also emphasized that they did not personally know Lin. Yan and two other professors who have worked with Lin in the past said they have not had contact with him since the apparent suspension, but heard from colleagues that Lin was barred from his lab and instructed not to contact his graduate researchers. An interim director of the Stem Cell Center has been appointed, and the chair of Lin’s department has pledged to support any affected students in Lin’s program, which will be supported by bridge funding from YSM. Many of Lin’s colleagues praised both his leadership skills and advanced contributions to the field of cell biology. Daniel Colón-Ramos, a professor of neuroscience, as well as several other professors of cell biology remarked that Lin’s contributions to the field involve stem cell division in fruit flies and other organisms, and would not appear to be of concern to federal inquiries on national security.

Still, Lin’s suspension comes on the heels of a sensitive period of time for scientific research, particularly for scientists of Chinese descent. Echoing the faculty letter, several professors invoked a high-profile China Initiative case brought against Gang Chen at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Chen was arrested in January 2021, accused of concealing ties to the Chinese government and barred from campus and his research projects. Chene was ultimately cleared on all charges a year later, but by then his research had stalled and his postdoctoral researchers had been transferred to other groups.

As many across the University described the “chilling” effects that

the China Initiative has had on scientific inquiry, nearly 200 faculty members — including Lin — signed onto an open letter to the Justice Department, calling for the Initiative's end in January. The Department of Justice announced changes to the initiative, including dropping its name, in late February.

The original letter emphasized that faculty did not know whether Lin’s suspension mirrors Chen’s case, but called on the University to protect Lin if he is under investigation by a governmental agency, noting M.I.T’s consistent legal support for Chen throughout his case. Ultimately, the letter calls on University administrators to take three specific steps: reinstate Lin according to all guidelines in the Faculty Handbook, provide greater transparency regarding policies on suspended faculty and protect professors from undue political pressure and investigations from governmental agencies.

“For many of us, it is the time to heal the wounds, to recover from the great damage done to our academic life, to refocus on striving for academic excellence, and to regain faith in the ideals of freedom, equality, and fairness,” the letter states. Lin’s apparent punishment, it continues, will “have strong chilling effects and propagate a new wave of anxiety among Yale faculty.”

Such anxiety will rise even if Lin’s suspension has no connection to the China Initiative, Colón-Ramos said, because researchers may be less inclined to collaborate with scientists of Chinese descent and Chinese universities amid the uncertainty, damaging the overall research environment.

“He’s one of the most brilliant scientists I know, a person of great integrity with an unimpeachable scientific record of achievements,” Colón-Ramos said. “It would be completely consistent with what I know about [Lin] that they would find absolutely nothing, but in the meantime, they will have really hurt his lab, and the postdocs, graduate students, junior faculty that are seeing what's happening,” The China Initiative was announced in 2018.

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

YLS students question police presence at talk YLS FROM PAGE 1 “Understandably, a large swath of [Yale Law School] students felt a that [the Federlist Society’s] decision to lend legitimacy to this hate group by inviting its general counsel to speak at [Yale Law School] profoundly undermined our community’s values of equity and inclusivity at a time when LGBTQ youth are actively under attack in Texas, Florida, and other states,” the open letter reads. “... Even with all of the privilege afforded to us at YLS, the decision to allow police officers in as a response to the protest put YLS’ queer student body at risk of harm.”

The letter was primarily concerned with the presence of armed police at the protest, but additionally condemned law professor Kate Stith, who moderated the event and told the protesters to “grow up.” The letter, which was initially submitted to Law School administrators with over 130 signatures and has since more than tripled in signatories, notes that signatories are “a coalition of queer students and allies deeply concerned with the presence of armed police at a peaceful protest of law students.”

At the Thursday event, around 160 students were present, 120 of whom were protesting the event, according to multiple attendees. Students in the Federalist Society have expressed that they found the protesters disruptive and inappropriate, as they sometimes interrupted the event with questions and comments. The protesters, however, said that they believe they abided by all University restrictions and did not inhibit the event from taking place. The protesters have further taken issue with the presence of Yale Police officers at the event.

As the speakers were being introduced by a Federalist Society member, student protesters stood up in

unison, some with signs and some with clothing that expressed their support of the LGBT community, according to Rachel Perler LAW ’22 — and confirmed by eight other students. Students left one by one as Stith continued to introduce Waggoner, but a handful of protesters remained in the room.

Yale’s free speech policies allow speakers to express views that are “unpopular or controversial,” as well as permit community members to protest. But protesters are not allowed to interfere with the speech.

As Stith began to read aloud the University’s free speech policy in response to the disruption, multiple protesters responded that “this protest is free speech.” Stith continued on to say “come on, grow up,” and was met with an uproar from the protesters. One protester responded, asking “will those trans kids grow up,” and another reiterated that “this is free speech.”

Stith told the protesters, “you are welcome to be outside as long as you don’t disrupt the event.”

Around half of the people in the room then proceeded to leave, and more continued out the door as Stith introduced Waggoner. Some protesters went on to occupy the hallway outside. According to Perler, though the protesters in the hallway were audible, the event continued and lasted the entirety of its intended time.

Stith declined to comment on the protest.

When the Q&A portion of the event began, protesters asked some provocative questions of Waggoner.

“What’s the price of a dead trans kid?” one student asked.

“I felt like Waggoner did not make any good-faith effort to engage with questions from LGBT students who came to ask her questions about her organization's work,” Perler told

the News. “She referred to the questions as talking points, and pretty much refused to engage in any way.”

Waggoner condemned the protesters’ behavior in an email to the News.

“Future lawyers should have the critical thinking skills, intellectual curiosity, humility, and maturity to engage with ideas and legal principles that they may disagree with,” she wrote.

“Unfortunately, some students who attended the Federalist Society event refused to allow others to speak and acted in an aggressive and hostile manner towards me, Professor Kate Stith, and Monica Miller from the American Humanist Association.”

Of the six YPD officers present, four were armed and in uniform, and two were unarmed and wearing plainclothes. Many of the protesters expressed to the News that they were not aware of the police presence in the room, and various students expressed concern and confusion over the presence of the police officers at the event. Yale Law School spokesperson Debra Kroszner, however, said that the officers were present in accordance with longstanding Law School policy.

“We regularly work with student groups for various events and speakers,” Kroszner said. “When visitors to Yale campus bring their own security, University policy requires the Law School to inform Yale Police. We then work with the police to determine the appropriate level of support for the particular visitor and/or event.”

According to Yale Police Department Assistant Chief Anthony Campbell, the presence of officers at the event was to protect the safety of the demonstrators and those they were protesting.

Wa g go n e r ’s p re se n ce o n campus and the response from faculty and security have drawn strong criticism from some law students. But Austin defended the Federalist Society’s decision to invite Waggoner, writing to the News that they “hosted this event to show two litigators working on the same case across some of the deepest divides in American political and religious life to advance free speech rights.”

Seve ra l s t u d e n t p ro te s t ers characterized the armed response as disproportionate, given what they viewed to be the peaceful and non-disruptive nature of the protest.

Sources with the Federalist Society and close to the speakers disputed this, saying that the protest, although peaceful, disrupted the event.

“I was horrified when I first heard that [the Federalist Society] had invited [Alliance Defending Freedom] ADF to campus,” Alex Johnson LAW ’24 told the News.

“ADF has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and for good reason: their entire mission is to devalue queer lives. To provide them a platform for that mission, especially under the disingenuous guise of what it means to ‘litigate civil rights,’ is disgraceful, and I hope — although I doubt — FedSoc has learned that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated in silence.”

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the ADF has a history of anti-LGBTQ bigotry, which includes defending the state-sanctioned sterilization of trans people abroad and has argued that LGBTQ people are more likely to engage in pedophilia and claims that a “homosexual agenda” will destroy Christianity and society.

“ADF also works to develop “religious liberty” legislation and case law that will allow the denial of goods and services to LGBTQ people on the basis of religion,” the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote in their report on the ADF. “Since the election of President Trump, ADF has become one of the most influential groups informing the administration’s attack on LGBTQ rights.”

Waggoner responded to the News that the Southern Poverty Law Center “has been exposed for decades by credible voices on the left and the right as a scam,” and their criticism was not valid.

Several years ago, the Yale Law School received backlash from Senator Ted Cruz on its policy to not provide summer public interest fellowships at the ADF. This decision by the Law School was made because of its long-standing nondiscrimination policy.

This is not the first time this school year that the Federalist Society has faced controversy. In September, a member of the group sent a school-wide email inviting students to a “trap house” themed party. The email, as well as student reactions and Law School administrators' dealings with the Federalist Society member, received national attention.

The American Humanist Association, the organization with which the other speaker was associated, is a non-profit organization founded in 1941 that provides legal assistance to defend the constitutional rights of secular and religious minorities in the United States.

Contact EDA AKER at eda.aker@yale.edu and PHILIP MOUSAVIZADEH at philip.mousavizadeh@yale.edu

PAGE 6

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

ARTS Yale University Art Gallery exhibits “Midcentury Abstraction”

than casting a wide net, the Langs focused on collecting the works of specific artists. Their collection Currently on view at the Yale Uni- allows one to see the trajectory these versity Art Gallery is “Midcentury artists traveled through the course of Abstraction: A Closer Look” — an their careers. Curators of the exhibit exhibition which groups together — Elisabeth Hodermarsky, Keely the works of a diverse array of artists, Orgeman and Gregor Quack GRD ’24 capturing the breadth and variety of — drew inspiration from the Langs in mid-20th century art. seeking other works within the Yale Through these carefully selected University Art Gallery’s collection to artworks, the exhibition stitches strike similar conversations with the together specific moments within paths of other artists. each artist’s career that together tell According to Quack, “when a the complex stories of their processes major gift comes it always forces you in breaking through medium, genre to reexamine what you already have.” and style into abstraction. The exhi“The Friday Foundation knew bition opened on Feb. 25 and is on what we had in holdings, so the gift view through June 21. It is inspired by reflects what we didn’t have,” Hodera donation to the gallery from the Fri- marsky said. “They knew we did not day Foundation honoring the legacy have an early Kline or Rothko.” of the late Seattle collectors Jane Lang The curators built a non-linear Davis and Richard E. Lang, who held tapestry of mid-century abstraction an exceptional collection of mid- by pairing together the development 20th century artworks. The donation of a diverse array of artists — from consisted of six works on canvas and across Europe, China, America and paper by American artists Franz Kline Latin-America — through historiand Mark Rothko. cal overlaps and formal corresponThe Langs had a unique manner dences. Many artists shared simiof collecting the works of art that lar struggles of fleeing their homes informed this installation. Rather during World War II whilst finding their artistic voice.

The exhibition begins in a small room with a series of pieces by Kline. The first painting, “Portrait of Nijinsky,” is an early work depicting the famous ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. By juxtaposing this portrait — made with broad, expressive strokes and contrasts of black, white and blood-red paint — with a later work like DANIELA SANCHEZ/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

BY DANIELLA SANCHEZ CONTRIBUTING REPORTER

“Ravenna,” which contains his iconic abstract, gestural style, one visually grasps the connection between where the artist started and where he was able to step into his style. Furthermore, by positioning a study for “Ravenna” next to the complete work, the curators sought to change the usual interpretations of the artist’s work.

“Through the studies, and by looking closely at how clean the lines are in “Ravenna”, one can see how he is much more careful and deliberate than what people have come to believe of his association with gestural abstraction,” curator Keely Orgeman said.

Both Hodermarsky and Orgeman explained that beginning the exhibition in this way sets the stage for the rest of the comparisons and juxtapositions made throughout the exhibition.

In the next room, viewers are faced with a wall filled with black voids.

There hangs a Rothko painting made in the 1950s, before the artist’s style shifted towards his notable threetiered color-field paintings. On the adjacent wall, there are two works

by Lee Bontecou, who is still active today, that evoke black holes.

“There is something about pairing these black holes or voids together,” Hodermarsky said. “The void draws the viewer inside.”

Quack said that one of the best parts about putting these works together in person was seeing how “what talks to what” in the room can be surprising.

Pieces also evoke dialogue through themes artists considered in their creation. An untitled early Rothko from the 1940s depicts a Greek tragedy with faces represented on the top register that moves into more

abstract territory further down.

Not only does the work encapsulate the transition into the artist’s abstract career, but one can also see the way Rothko seeks to incite human emotion through drama, and then later through color.

As Rothko himself once stated, “without DANIELA SANCHEZ/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER monsters and gods, art cannot enact drama,” demon- work focused on suspended color strating how he continued to think fields, and Jesús Rafael Soto, who of these myths in his late work. invites the viewer to be an active The curators also had the participant in pieces like “Écriopportunity to bring out from ture Noire,” but later moves into storage works by artists who have creating entire rooms in which the similar moments of suspension viewers can immerse themselves. and transition in their careers.

“Thanks to the Friday FoundaOne painting titled “7-10-63” by tion gift and through this exhibition Chinese-French painter Zao Wou-Ki we can go beyond seeing these artabstractly captures what appears to ists as a single, canonical moment in be a landscape or seascape. their art, but rather see them as artists “The specificity of the title is evoc- thinking and working through a probative of this specific moment, a day in lem throughout various points in their time that he chose to capture through work,” Quack said. abstraction,” Orgeman said. It relates Quack hopes that this exhibition to all the individual moments that helps students in the arts see artbuild these artists’ paths as they posi- works in a museum as not simply a gold-standard, but rather as examtion themselves in the world.

The exhibition shows how ples of artists going through the same artists move across mediums struggles, successes and failures in throughout time. It includes the art world. The exhibition explores works by Louise Nevelson, who how these artists were able to position blurs the line between sculpture their work in times of war and within and two-dimensional art, as well their personal lives and reveals what it as the in-between stages of art- means to step into being an artist and ists’ work that holds remnants embrace each step towards mastery. of what they would become. For instance, Gilliam Bevel’s paintContact DANIELLA SANCHEZ at ings were followed by his later daniella.sanchez@yale.edu.

Yale Russian Chorus hopes to tour Russia in August

BY HANNAH QU STAFF REPORTER Amidst rising tensions between the U.S. and Russia in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Yale Russian Chorus plans to go ahead with its upcoming Russia tour, drawing criticism from Ukrainian students at Yale.

Founded in 1953 on the principles of fostering understanding between East and West through music, the Yale Russian Chorus, or YRC, plans to embark on an upcoming tour in the U.S. and Russia. The chorus plans to sing at various churches, retirement homes and other venues in the Miami Bay Area in two weeks, and will sing with the children’s choir of Dubna, Russia virtually in late April. Their current plans for the Russian tour, for which they received a State Department grant, include concerts in Petrozavodsk, Saint Petersburg, Yaroslavl and Moscow, where they will sing the liturgy in the largest church in Eastern Christendom.

The group has not yet finalized the tour, as diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Russia continue to deteriorate. Yet the chorus’ tour committee is interested in moving ahead with the plan, but altering the repertoire to emphasize songs that call for peace. Still, Ukrainian students expressed disappointment with the planned tour given Russia’s recent human rights abuses.

“The mission of the Yale Russian Chorus Alumni Association is to promote intercultural understanding through the music we sing, music from Russia, Central and Eastern Europe (including Ukraine), and elsewhere from Eurasia, as well as from America.” Gabriel Mesa ’23, the musical director of YRC, wrote to the News. “Devoted to intercultural understanding and peace, we have always sung and will continue to sing music of these regions, including the music of Russia and Ukraine, to promote peace throughout the world and foster global understanding.”

YRC will adjust its repertoire to include more Ukrainian songs and

COURTESY OF YALE RUSSIAN CHORUS

avoid promoting Russian patriotism and militarism through Soviet war songs. The chorus will also focus on songs that reflect on the horror of conflicts and war and appeal for peace, according to YRC president Andrew Scott ’23.

“We’ve been trying to be a lot more cognizant of people’s experiences, especially with some of us having friends, and a lot of people have family in Ukraine,” Mesa said. “I felt more of a responsibility to go [to Russia] if we could… we care about spreading peace and understanding through music.”

But Sasha Yankovskaya ’22, a member of YRC, noted that the tour is not yet finalized. Yankovskaya told the News that the chorus has not made a public announcement on whether or not the Russian tour will happen, given the uncertain situation.

Yankovskaya emphasized that if the tour does take place, she believes it is especially important that YRC builds a cultural bridge and continues to promote cultural dialogue during a time of intense political tension.

Mesa and Scott traveled with YRC to Russia in 2019. During

their concerts, they recalled that “there are multiple points where people in the audience would be crying, as they hear the music, because it carries a very emotional aspect.” According to Scott, this forms a part of the choir’s motivation to return to Russia — to connect with audiences on a deep level once again.

According to Mesa, YRC’s tour committee, composed of Yale students and alumni, is still interested in continuing the Russia tour despite diplomatic tensions between the U.S. and Russia.

“It’s a different kind of diplomatic attitude that we have to take towards engaging with not only Russian audiences, but Russian contacts, and how we’re seen both domestically and abroad.” Mesa said.

YRC business manager Ben Snyder ’23 agreed with Mesa, further adding that YRC will take into consideration how American audiences and Russian audiences will be impacted by their work.

“Our mission is two-fold.”

Snyder said. “In the U.S., our

mission is to help people avoid generalizing all Russians… [thinking] all Russian culture is destructive. [The way the] Russian government is acting is not representative of all its people.

When we go to Russia, we want to build that bridge the other way and show Russians that not all Americans totally dismiss Russian culture.”

Still, several of Yale’s Ukrainian students took issue with the plan to tour through Russia, which they said would financially benefit the Russian government and finance its invasion.

“I think traveling to Russia when there is a war going on is really incorrect,” Oleksii Antoniuk ’24 said.

Antoniuk clarified that he doesn’t see a problem with studying Russian culture or Russian music. However, going to Russia and contributing any money to the Russian state government makes the group “pretty much complicit” with the state’s actions, he said.

According to Antoniuk, traveling to Russia will financially benefit the Russian government. The

government collects taxes from people’s accommodations and food expenses, and could use this money to finance the war.

YRC will consider organizing an alternative summer tour to countries like Poland to perform for places hosting Ukrainian refugees, according to Snyder.

Scott said that YRC and its alumni are also considering what they can do for the people of Ukraine in other ways.

For example, they are currently helping Ukrainian choral groups and directors to make backup copies of their sheet music collections in the U.S. in case there is interference with infrastructure in Ukraine.

Still, Ukrainian students at Yale expressed their shock at YRC’s plans and were disheartened to hear that it intends to tour in Russia.

“It does feel weird that a group would go there to entertain people while there’s a war going on.” said Yuliia Zhukovets ’23.

Sofiya Bidochko ‘24, whose entire extended family lives in Ukraine, echoed Antoniuk’s sentiment. Bidochko said the YRC’s decision is “so insensitive and ignorant” and “anyone that gives money to Russia has the blood of innocent Ukrainians on their hands.”

“It is incredibly disheartening and makes me feel very upset.”

Bidochko said. “I highly hope that they actually consider the consequences of their decisions and the disrespect it shows to all the people suffering the terrible consequences of this unjustified war. Some of those people are directly on the Yale campus, fearing every day that Russia will take away the lives of their loved ones. I think it’s a shame on Yale that they are allowing them to go on this tour.”

Antoniuk said that if Russia withdraws its troops from Ukraine by the time YRC makes its trip, then he finds no problem with it.

Since its founding, the YRC has made 19 tours of the USSR, Russia and Eastern Europe.

Contact HANNAH QU at hannah.qu@yale.edu.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 7

St. Thomas More Chapel holds “Vigil for Peace” concerts for Ukraine

BY GAMZE KAZAKOGLU STAFF REPORTER On March 16 and 20 at 7 p.m., the St. Thomas More Chapel will hold two “Vigil for Peace” benefit concerts. The first will be for Yale students and faculty, and the second will be open to the public. Both concerts will also be streamed online.

Karolina Wojteczko MUS ’20, who has served as STM’s interim music director since last October, came up with the idea for the concerts. Wojteczko grew up on the far northeastern border of Poland, which was home to various cross-cultural communities — including Polish, Ukrainian and Russian populations. She will perform all the pieces on the program — which range from songs telling of the Crucifixion of Jesus to traditional Ukrainian songs — accompanied by piano, violin, cello and organ. The concert is free, but attendees will be asked to donate if they are able. Donations will go to Polish organizations providing support to Ukraine.

“Besides sending packages of clothing or food, I thought to myself, what else can I actually do [for Ukraine],” Wojteczko said.

“Then, I thought the only thing that I’ve been doing my whole life is singing.”

Wojteczko will perform from the choir loft in the back of the church, meaning audience members will not be able to see her.

The lights will be dimmed and the church will instead have candle lights on the altar. The cross at the middle of the altar will be lit up from the back. According to Wojteczko, the shadow of a dove will be reflected on the fingers of Jesus on the cross such that it appears to be in flight.

Violinist Kate Arndt MUS ’26, who will be performing at the March 20 concert, said a setting in which the performers are out of sight yet their music is the “focal point” will hopefully inspire a meditative quality to the concerts.

“It’s about creating an environment where people can feel at peace,” Arndt said. “They can feel

welcomed and able to reflect on what’s going on. Hopefully it will be very effective and very beautiful.”

Wojteczko, whose family still lives in Poland near the Russian border, organized the musical program. The concert will open with a recently recovered 15th century Ukrainian chant of the “Kyrie Eleison” or “Lord have mercy” prayer and proceed with “Erbarme Dich, mein Gott” from the St. Matthew Passion and “O Mensch, bewein’ dein’ Sünde gross” by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Three Samuel Barber pieces will then follow — “Sure on This Shin-

COURTESY OF ST. THOMAS MORE CHAPEL

ing Night”, “St. Ita’s Vision” and “The Crucifixion”.

These pieces will be followed by “Meditation” from the opera “Thais” by Jules Massenet, which tells the story of the Virgin Mary observing her son’s acceptance of his death sentence, along with “Pie Jesu” from Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem.

The second part of the concert will feature several Ukrainian songs. According to Wojteczko, she planned a section of the concert devoted entirely to the Virgin Mary because she holds special significance to the Ukrainian people. The section will include “Ave Maria,” “The Sorrowful Mother” — which speaks from Mary’s point of view on her feelings about giving up her only son — and “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded” about the son Jesus Christ reflecting on leaving behind his mother.

The program will conclude with “O Rest in the Lord” from Elijah

by Felix Mendelssohn, which is “a smoother and more hopeful note” for Wojteczko.

“The aim of the concert is to bring Yale and the New Haven community together for an evening of prayer and fundraising, with all donations going to support the immediate needs of Ukrainian refugees,” said Katie Painter ’23, chair of the STM Undergraduate Council’s “Act” Committee. “It promises to be a very beautiful expression of solidarity with Ukraine and our collective hope for peace!”

St. Thomas More Chapel is located at 268 Park St. Contact GAMZE KAZAKOGLU at gamze.kazakoglu@yale.edu .

South Asian Society puts on spring arts showcase

ZOE BERG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

BY ANIKA SETH STAFF REPORTER Last Friday, over 400 audience members gathered in Woolsey Hall for the South Asian Society’s annual spring event, Dhamaal, an immersive South Asian arts showcase featuring music, dance, comedy and more.

The event included traditional Carnatic singing, instrumental performance, stand-up comedy, a variety of dance groups and even juggling. Typically, Dhamaal features performances from students across the country; however, COVID-19 blocked the characteristic intercollegiate element from this year’s showcase.

“Overall, I thought Dhamaal went really well and the energy in Woolsey made me excited to see all this talent and a supportive community,” Sandhya Kumar ’24,

South Asian Society co-president, wrote to the News. “Our SAS Board team did an incredible job running this event and I’m looking forward to seeing more events like Dhamaal bring people together next year.”

SAS is co-led by Vanya Shivashankar ’23. According to Kumar, their role is to oversee society events in collaboration with other leadership members on the SAS board. Dhamaal in particular was led by the cultural chairs Isha Brahmbhatt and Anushka Nijhawan.

Kumar also performed as part of Yale Rangeela, the University’s Bollywood dance group.

Kumar serves as captain alongside Shivashankar.

Eesha Bodapati ’25, involved in the SAS board as a first-year liaison, explained that Dhamaal typically involves students from other universities.

“Dhamaal is usually an intercollegiate showcase, but due to COVID-19 restrictions we were unable to invite other universities this year,” Bodapati said. “For next year, I’m excited to connect and perform with students in colleges around the U.S., as well as incorporate new elements like this year’s talent show to make Dhamaal spectacular.”

Kumar added that the showcase usually involves dance, a cappella and other performances from participating universities. This year’s event focused instead on showcasing “the talents of South Asian students on campus.”

Maanasi Nair ’25, who is part of Yale Rangeela and Indian classical dance group Yale Kalaa, called Dhamaal “a major highlight” of her first year at Yale.

“As part of both Yale Rangeela and Yale Kalaa, it was quite

ZOE BERG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

ZOE BERG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

a whirlwind of panicked choreography and intense practices,” Nair wrote to the News. “However, despite the chaos, I had so much fun and felt very loved and supported as a first-year.

I’m so grateful for the wonderful family I have grown closer to through these groups, as well as the opportunities to really push my creative imagination.”

Bodapati, who is also a member of Kalaa, expressed that the final event was “spectacular.”

“I loved the final event! Seeing so many people show up to support all the performers and being able to feature so many different kinds of talent made it an unforgettable experience,” Bodapati wrote. “Performing with Kalaa and cheering on all my other friends as they were on stage made the event very special to me.”

More broadly, Bodapati felt that the event brought her closer together with Yale’s South Asian community and increased her event coordination skills.

“Planning Dhamaal is a long and hectic process, and there’s a lot of effort that goes into putting together the final show,” Bodapati explained. “Since it involves so many elements such as coordinating with the Yale administration, liaising with the dance teams and publicizing the show, things can often get chaotic and stressful.

However, it is this planning process that really helped me bond with the rest of SAS board, and understand how to successfully plan such a large-scale event at Yale.”

Woolsey Hall is located at 500 College St. Contact ANIKA SETH at anika.seth@yale.edu .

ZOE BERG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

PAGE 8

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Study identifies risk factors for disability post-surgery

BY KAYLA YUP STAFF REPORTER It is projected that the number of Americans aged 65 or older will double from 46 to 98 million between 2014 and 2060. A study

by Yale researchers identified the chief risk factors associated with loss of independence in older patients after a major surgery.

This study, published Feb. 24 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, was led by professor of geriatrics and of epidemiology Thomas Gill. As a geriatrician, Gill’s clinical work primarily involves older people. He found that what older patients rated as most important, “time and time again,” was their independence. Post-surgery, the ability to manage one’s own personal care needs and not depend on family for day-to-day affairs was a crucial outcome for patients.

This study had two goals: to identify subgroups that are at high risk for poor functional outcomes and to identify factors that could serve as the basis for an intervention in the spirit of a co-management model, or the enlistment of geriatricians to assist surgeons in the care of older patients. “ I n d e p e n d e n c e i s ve r y important to older individuals,” Professor of Geriatrics Leo Cooney MED ’69 said. “The ability to take care of yourself allows you to stay in your own home, stay connected to your family and friends, continue to be a part of your community and stay who you are throughout your late life.”

The researchers followed 754 individuals in south-central Connecticut aged 70 or older.

From March 1997 to December

2017, 247 people underwent 327 major surgeries. The team identified ten factors associated with disability over six months after major surgery.

These factors included age 85 years or older, female sex, Black race or Hispanic ethnicity, neighborhood disadvantage, multimorbidity, frailty, one or more disabilities, low functional self-efficacy, smoking and obesity. The study measured the risk posed by each factor with regards to burden of disability: Women had a 15 percent greater burden, persons with frailty had 19 percent greater burden and being aged 85 or older posed a 30 percent greater burden.

“Women are more susceptible to having more poor functional outcomes after almost any illness,” Gill said. “And there are probably different explanations for that. One is that women tend to have lower mortality than men so they have more opportunities to have worse functional outcomes because they haven’t died.”

Gill explained that non-elective surgeries, by definition, are surgeries that “you don’t know [are] going to happen.” These urgent medical procedures warrant interventions post-surgery. However, for elective surgeries, which are procedures scheduled in advance, interventions may be implemented before the surgery and attempt to improve the person’s physical capacity to endure the surgery and recovery process.

In evaluating the risk posed by low socioeconomic status, Gill emphasized that Medicaid-eligible patients and more generally, people with fewer economic resources, may not be able to afford co-payments and other requirements for

post-hospital care, including rehabilitation. The co-payments that insurance does not cover are often the responsibility of the patient and their family. Gill speculated that co-payments could serve as an impediment to receiving the care that is recommended or required post-surgery.

“After major surgery, persons often need to have rehabilitation in order to regain some of the functions that they have lost,” Gill said.

A subset of these ten identified factors could be addressed by interventions –– notably, the factors of frailty, low functional self-efficacy, smoking and obesity. Preoperative screening for frailty and cognitive impairment after major elective surgery could trigger a referral to a geriatrician for further evaluation of vulnerability to disability after major surgery.

According to Gill, major surgery and hospitalization often lead to considerable decline in function. The team was interested in trying to diminish those declines by developing interventions that could accelerate recovery after a major disabling event, such as surgery.

This study will provide evidence in support of co-management models that could improve outcomes after surgery.

“Many programs across the country have gone to this co-management model,” Gill said. “Geriatricians are enlisted to assist in the care of older patients who are having major surgery because the surgeons either aren’t trained in that type of management, or they don’t have time because they are busy

in the operating room. But there’s not yet much evidence whether this co-management model is effective or not, so that’s one of the reasons why we conducted this research study.”

Assistant professor of geriatrics Marcia Mecca referenced a study by professor of geriatrics and Section Chief of Geriatric Medicine Terri Fried that was published 20 years ago, outlining the prominent role that the risk of functional dependence plays in the decision making of older adults. Fried found that in the case of seriously ill patients who would die without treatment, over 70 percent of older persons would decline treatment that causes severe functional disability even if their survival was assured.

In the preoperative setting, she declared it vital for older adults to understand both the anticipated benefit of a surgery and the risks.

Mecca urged health care providers to emphasize potential effects on older patients’ independence post-surgery when explaining health outcomes during discussion of treatment options.

“Dr. Gill and his colleagues have made an important contribution to our knowledge by identifying those factors connected to this new disability,” Cooney said. “This information will help healthcare institutions implement interventions designed to maintain independence. This is a crucial step in ensuring the quality of life of older persons.”

Gill is the director of the Program on Aging and Pepper Older Americans Independence Centers, as well as director of the Center on Disability and Disabling Disorders.

Contact KAYLA YUP at kayla.yup@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS

A primary concern for older people undergoing major surgery is fear of losing independence due to poor functional outcome post-surgery.

Researchers find certain immune cells predictive of COVID-19 death

BY CHLOE NIELD CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The conclusion comes after the researchers applied Multiscale PHATE, a machine learning tool, to extensive data from COVID-19 patients. Smita Krishnaswamy, professor of genetics and computer science at the Yale School of Medicine, was approached by Akiko Iwasaki, professor of immunology at the Yale School of Medicine, with a sample of immune cells from COVID-19 patients.

Some of those patients died from COVID-19, while others survived. Iwasaki was curious as to why, and believed that Krishnaswamy’s Multiscale PHATE tool could comb through the data for any signs of consistent differences between survivors and people who died from COVID19. It was found that certain immune cell types tended to be present in greater abundance in patients who died. These findings show that applying Multiscale PHATE to a COVID-19 patient’s immune cell sample can predict mortality with 83 percent accuracy.

“I contacted Dr. Krishnaswamy to help us make sense of the enormous amount of data we accumulated on COVID patients,” Iwasaki wrote in an email to the News.

“They included information about their immune cells, soluble factors, antibodies and their disease course. Looking at this data with human eyes was daunting …

When I met with Smita and her students to discuss the collaboration, I was delighted to hear her say, ‘We love large data.’”

Biomedical data is vague, broad and has many dimensions — also known as characteristics — Krishnaswamy explained.

PHATE enables the organization and visualization of this data.

In this case, immune cells were analyzed using PHATE. PHATE analyzed each cell as an individual data point, and plotted that point based on specific characteristics of the cell, such as the presence of certain genes or proteins.

“The main idea that we have is that even though we are measuring dozens of dimensions, the data isn’t spread out in space,” explained Krishnaswamy, “but it actually forms a lower-dimen-

sional shape that, when learned, can be really effective for learning.”

PHATE calculates the distance between each data point. This distance is representative of the similarity between two cells. Hypothetically, the greater the distance between the two cells, the less similar the cells are on the basis of the initial criteria used to plot the data points.

However, depending on the shape the data takes, this might not necessarily be the case, explained Krishnaswamy. Imagine the data as a spiral. The points next to one another forming the spiral shape are quite similar, but some distances may be calculated across the gaps in the spiral shape itself. Krishnaswamy characterized these distances across the gaps as “noise” in the data. These distances may be incorporated into the prediction of cell similarity when the points themselves represent different cell types.

To remove this noise in the data, Krishnaswamy explained that “diffusion probabilities” between each point are calculated. These probabilities are the likelihood of walking from one point to another. After the diffusion probabilities are calculated, the divergence between these probabilities is taken.

Essentially, the divergence is a comparison of the probability distributions that form an interpretable data shape. This data shape is converted from 3D to 2D using a 3D scaling technique.

After applying PHATE to the data, the data goes through a process called diffusion condensation. Diffusion condensation involves condensing clusters of data points into fewer individual data points that are representative of that cluster’s properties. This creates a more understandable image from which more information can be concluded. Multiscale PHATE, a technology that was developed at Yale, is the addition of diffusion condensation to PHATE. “Even if you have cluster structure data, you start to see substructures within it,” Krishnaswamy said. “And at some point, we really wanted to zoom in on these substructures, and that is really what gave rise to multiscale PHATE. Multiscale PHATE is really a way of taking data like [subgroups of thousands of data points] and summarizing it into clusters, giving it that ability to

JESSAI FLORES/STAFF ILLUSTRATOR

Yale researchers found that abundance of certain cell types can predict COVID-19 patient mortality at 83 percent accuracy. zoom in … when you’re zooming in, what you’re doing is going back to an earlier iteration … to see additional structure.”

Each large cluster of cells, or data points, generated from Multiscale PHATE is assigned to a cell type. Smaller clusters that are visible when zooming in are assigned to subtypes, explained Manik Kuchroo MED ’22, a doctoral candidate at the Yale School of Medicine and co-lead author on the study.

Each cluster features specific characteristics that differentiate it from the other immune cell types and subtypes plotted in the data. These differentiating characteristics were used to plot the points in the first place.

“Multiscale PHATE addresses what cell types, or sub-cell types, would be important to look at to get a picture of what cells are leading to death in patients,” said Kuchroo.

This process of plotting immune cells as data points and determining which cell types

are most abundant was repeated for many COVID-19 patients.

Kuchroo explained that, in patients who die from COVID19, they found a high abundance of granulocytes and monocytes.

Therefore, granulocytes and monocytes are immune cells that have a strong association with COVID-19 mortality. On the contrary, the presence of T-cells seemed to have little correlation with COVID-19 mortality. “[Kuchroo] found that neut ro p h i l s, wh i c h a re [ t h e] clean-up crew that removes dead cells, had the highest mortality score, meaning that they were most associated with lethal COVID,” Iwasaki wrote. “This made sense because neutrophils are known to spew out toxic factors during viral infection that [are] harmful to the host. On the other hand, T-cells capable of killing virally infected cells were the least associated with mortality. Among the T-cell subsets, however, there were some bad players. One called Th17*

had the worst mortality score of all T-cell subsets, suggesting their pathological involvement.”

In speaking on the implications of these findings, Krishnaswamy explained that running Multiscale PHATE on a patient’s immune cells can help determine the best path of treatment. Furthermore, this technology has the potential to be applied to many other diseases.

According to Iwasaki, these findings show that lethal COVID-19 infection is likely not caused by the virus itself, but may be influenced by the host’s malfunctioning immune response. She suggested that t rea t m e n t ta rge t i n g t h e se “rogue” immune system factors may be useful in preventing fatalities.

There have been a total of 963,244 deaths due to COVID19 in the United States as of March 15, 2022.

Contact CHLOE NIELD at chloe.nield@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

NEWS

PAGE 9

“If people did not love one another, I really don’t see what use there would be in having any spring.” VICTOR HUGO WRITER

Yale law professor represents Ukraine at World Court

BY WILLIAM PORAYOUW STAFF REPORTER Last week, a team of international lawyers including former Dean of Yale Law School Harold Hongju Koh represented Ukraine at the International Court of Justice, or ICJ, in the Hague.

Koh is a Sterling Professor of international law at Yale Law School and has also served as Legal Adviser for the United States Department of State under Barack Obama. In an interview with the News, Koh refuted Vladimir Putin’s claim — that he had sent troops to Ukraine on a special military operation to prevent genocide from being committed

by Neo Nazis.

Koh explained that there are two types of lies being made by the Russians: factual lies and legal lies. The factual lie, he said, is that Ukraine was committing genocide in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The legal lie is that the Russians were obligated to prevent this genocide, and that Russia had the legal right to invade Ukraine as a preemptive measure.

“The whole world knows that that’s a lie,” Koh said.

Lea Brilmayer, Howard M. Holtzmann professor of international law at Yale Law School, explained that the International Court of Justice — which was set up by the United Nations in 1945 — requires consent to jurisdiction by both states involved in a case in order to resolve disputes.

Koh noted that the Russian claims gave the International Court of Justice jurisdiction. If Russia had not created the dispute, Koh argued, there would not be a case for the court to pursue. “[The International Court of Justice is] very valuable in that it

helps to clarify international law,” Brilmayer said.

Both Russia and Ukraine have ratified the 1948 Genocide Convention, which allows parties to bring disputes against each other involving interpretation, application or fulfillment of the genocide treaty to the World Court.

Russia did not appear at the court hearing, and sent a letter to the court saying it “ha[d] decided not to participate in the oral proceedings due to open on 7 March 2022.”

“If [Russia] thought they actually had a lawful basis to do this, they would appear and defend,” Koh said.

While Koh and the rest of Ukraine’s legal team are waiting for a court order to get the United Nations’ peacekeeping forces involved, they requested and received provisional measure orders very quickly. Koh added that the ICJ judges understood the urgency of the situation.

A March 7 press release outlined the measures requested by Ukraine.

“The Russian Federation shall immediately suspend the military operations commenced on 24 February 2022 that have as their stated purpose and objective the prevention and punishment of a claimed genocide in the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts of Ukraine,” the press release stated. “The Russian Federation shall immediately ensure that any military or irregular armed units which may be directed or supported by it, as well as any organizations and persons which may be subject to its control, direction or influence, take no steps in furtherance of the military operations which have as their stated purpose and objective preventing or punishing Ukraine for committing genocide.”

RYAN CHIAO/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Harold Hongju Koh, Sterling Professor of international law, argued on behalf of Ukraine against Russian invasion.

Ukraine also requested that Russia refrain from any actions that may “aggravate or extend the dispute.”

Koh continued that, while Putin’s short game is centered around force, the world’s long game is law. Over the past two weeks, he said, the case has developed into much more than a dispute between Russia and Ukraine — rather, it has become a fight between Russia and “the post-World War II international legal order.”

“It’s a really genuine question,” Koh said. “If a permanent 5 member of the UN can just engage in a war of aggression and atrocity against an innocent neighbor and get away with it, then … why do we have a UN charter? Why do we have an International Court of Justice?”

To understand the necessity of the law, Koh recalled a previous visit he had made to Kyiv in March 2020, where he was invited to judge an international law moot court competition due to his previous role in arguing for Ukraine at the ICJ for a separate case.

When Koh arrived, a young law student took him on a tour around the city, and he recalled that she expressed great pride in Kyiv. Just two years later, he saw her on CNN in full military gear working at a military hospital, where she testified that she was surrounded by dead bodies and asked viewers what happened to the laws she once studied.

“Our lawsuit was designed to be part of the answer [to her question],” Koh said. “It’s here … your

friends are here, we’re fighting for you with law.”

Both Koh and Brilmayer reflected on Yale’s role in international law, both in the past and in the future.

Koh said that students come to Yale to “level the playing field” and use their knowledge to create a more just, equal and fair world — not to accept the status quo and “let bullies push other people around.”

“Yale should be very proud to have [Koh] there [at the ICJ],” Brilmayer said. “This is obviously a very important matter.

It’s a real sign of his esteem in [the] profession.”

Koh has taught at Yale Law School since 1985.

Contact WILLIAM PORAYOUW at william.porayouw@yale.edu .

Not another coronavirus story

BY LUCY HODGMAN STAFF REPORTER When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Abby Parrish ’25 was in her junior year of high school. Now, she’s nearly through with her first year of college, and is still adjusting to life on-campus amid volatile public health conditions.

In the two years since the pandemic started, as public health conditions fluctuated and the University sent students onto and off of campus, Parrish applied to Yale, finished out high school virtually, and this fall, entered a classroom for the first time in 18 months.

“It’s interesting, talking to some of my friends here, who are in higher grades or who took a gap year, and who had more of a high school experience than I ever got to have,” Parrish said. “There are moments when it really hits me, realizing just how much I missed out on. One of the things that’s been difficult about this sustained limbo that we’re living in — where we’re not in shutdown, but we’re not fully open — is that I am still going about my life as best as I can, but there is that sense that, if things were normal, I would be doing so much more.”

March 14 marks two years since the University’s announcement that classes would remain online for the remainder of the spring

2020 semester and most students could not return. After a largely locked down 2020-21 academic year, some degree of normalcy has resumed — students returned to in-person classes and a campus at full capacity this fall. On Thursday, the University announced a plan to relax masking restrictions.

But for many Yale students, the COVID-19 pandemic has meaningfully impacted both the shape of their college experiences and their mental health. Six members of the Yale community spoke about the effect that the past two years of continued uncertainty has had on the student body, describing anxiety, grief and more recently, a shared sense of fatigue.

“One of the top issues on my mind when I wake up in the morning and before I go to bed at night is just thinking about how tired everyone is,” said Dean of Yale College Marvin Chun. “It’s on my mind constantly.”

For Gabriella Gutierrez ’23, part of the challenge of living through the pandemic has been the lack of a “clear end in sight.”

The emergence of the Delta variant over the summer and the Omicron variant this fall have created public health conditions that Parrish compared to a “rollercoaster,” necessitating frequent changes to on-campus restrictions and the in-person status of

classes, dining halls and extracurricular activities.

“The uncertainty of everything is exhausting,” Gutierrez said.

Parrish agreed, suggesting that people can only handle so many “rounds” of heightened stress and fear before their response is not only one of anxiety, but one of exhaustion, too.

Sarah Lowe, a clinical psychologist and an assistant professor of social and behavioral sciences at the Yale School of Public Health, explained how the ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic coupled with the fatigue that many feel after the past two years has had a significant effect on student mental health.

The American Medical Association has identified COVID-19 fatigue as a sense of burnout and exhaustion caused by the mental and emotional stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think there is a sense of fatigue, as well as uncertainty about the future,” Lowe said.

“Those two in combination could enhance risk for a variety of mental health problems, including depression and anxiety. One of the key predictors of anxiety is intolerance of uncertainty. So, for some people who have difficulty with uncertainty generally, living through an uncertain time is going to be especially difficult for them.”

KAREN LIN/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Nearly two years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, members of the Yale community reflected on loss and change.

The continued pandemic uncertainty can create fatigue, Lowe said, which is both a symptom of and a risk factor for depression.

The mental toll associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, Lowe noted, is compounded by additional social stressors that have arisen in the past two years.

She pointed specifically to the threat of climate change, police brutality and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Even as restrictions have relaxed, Parrish, who is immunocompromised, continues to feel the anxiety about contracting COVID-19 that for many is primarily associated with the early stages of the pandemic.

But as she abides by these restrictions, Parrish said, there are times when she feels like she is going to “go insane” if she doesn’t see other people.

“But when I do interact with people,” Parrish said, “there’s this little voice in the back of my mind constantly — ‘You are putting yourself at risk right now.

You don’t know who this person has been around. No matter how close you are to them, no matter how close your relationship is with them, you cannot trust them 100 percent.’”

Even as the University has relaxed some of the strictest of the on-campus guidelines and is planning for an in-person Spring Fling and Commencement, all students interviewed told the News that the effects of the pandemic on their college experiences have been both dramatic and permanent.

Abigail Grimes ’22 said that she notices a stark divide between juniors and seniors — those that spent time at Yale before the pandemic struck — and the sophomores and first years who have never known a Yale without the coronavirus.

The sense of mourning that adolescents might feel for experiences lost to the pandemic should not be ignored, Lowe said, adding that trivializing the loss of a prom or graduation ceremony can foster feelings of guilt and shame.

“I think it’s a sort of grief,” Lowe said, “Things that you imagined for yourself, you are unable to have because of circumstances beyond your control. It’s maybe a heightened version of what sometimes happens anyway — I think

growing up, people have a vision for what their life is going to be like, and it doesn’t always turn out that way, and that can be very sad.

But with this, there’s nothing you could have done.”

Although Grimes’ own relationship to Yale was “radically changed” by the pandemic, the effects of the past two years have not all been negative ones, she said.

Grimes spent the majority of the pandemic at home in rural Georgia and took courses remotely until fall 2021.

“I don’t have any sense of FOMO because I feel like I actually got to have an experience of youth that I wouldn’t have had at Yale because I was worried and anxious all the time, and caught up in competitiveness all the time,” Grimes said. “I think that getting to not be competitive, just doing classes and going to my friend down the street and drinking wine in our bedrooms, was nice, and I wouldn’t have had experiences like that otherwise.”

Looking forward, Parrish said, she still feels some anxiety about the potential of COVID-19 restrictions lifting prematurely.

Having to remain restrictive in her own socialization while her friends return to pre-COVID-19 habits can heighten a sense of isolation, she said, and sometimes feels like “looking through a window.”

Nonetheless, Parrish, who described herself as “a hopeful person by nature,” emphasized the optimism she still feels about the future.

“As someone who had to be cautious for so long and still to some extent is, I have really learned to savor the small moments,” Parrish said. “There was a long period of time last semester when I was able to eat in dining halls with my friends, and even if I was anxious, I felt comfortable enough doing that. That is something that I cannot afford to take for granted at this point because I’ve learned how easily that can all be snatched away. So any moments that I get like that, any social interactions, any school trips, school experiences, whatever — I’ve learned to be a lot more grateful for those now.”

Yale’s loosened mask restrictions will go into effect on March 21.

Contact LUCY HODGMAN at lucy.hodgman@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

THROUGH THE LENS

B

right colors, beautiful dances and traditional singing graced Woolsey Hall last Friday, as an audience of over 400 gathered to experience a night of South Asian culture. Dhamaal, an annual spring showcase put on by Yale’s South Asian Society, featured Yalies of all grades showing off their heritage — with unique acts like stand-up comedy and juggling captivating those in attendance.

Typically, the showcase is an intercollegiate event, with undergraduates from universities nationwide participating. This year, however, COVID restrictions led to a Yale-centric event that focused on the various talents of South Asian Yalies.

Photos by ZOE BERG. Words by ANIKA SETH.

PAGE 10

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 11

NEWS

“I feel that ice is slowly melting. Little darling, it seems like years since it’s been clear. Here comes the sun.” THE BEATLES HERE COMES THE SUN

Faculty senate renamed to encompass distinct engineering faculty

BY ISAAC YU STAFF REPORTER Yale’s faculty senate will soon have a new name — and new seats for engineering faculty.

Per an announcement in late February, engineering faculty will soon become a distinct entity — the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences — separate from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, with their own dean, budget and governing rules. They are currently represented under the umbrella of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Senate, a body elected by faculty vote that frequently weighs in on both University-wide and national issues.

With SEAS formally exiting the FAS, it was not immediately clear whether engineering faculty would continue in the Senate. Last Thursday, however, senators approved bylaw changes that would allow SEAS faculty, who continue to teach Yale College students alongside their FAS colleagues, to remain under the Senate’s representation.

For now, the body is being described as the Senate of FAS and SEAS, though senators are currently soliciting suggestions for its final name.

“FAS and SEAS faculty face many similar issues, and it is in our (and Yale’s) best interest to work together,” wrote Paul Van Tassel, a senator and professor of chemical and environmental engineering as well as biomedical engineering.

In addition, the Senate will seek to increase the number of seats, from 22 to 25 senators, as well as redistribute seats across divisions.

The humanities and social sciences will gain one seat each for a total of seven and five senators, respectively. SEAS faculty, which was previously included under the larger umbrella of science faculty, will be allocated three seats, while the FAS’ Biological and Physical Sciences division will now have five senators instead of six. The Senate will also subtract one at-large seat from the current six.

The proposed allocation, Senate Chair Valerie Horsley wrote, is

ISAAC YU/PRODUCTION AND DESIGN EDITOR

Last Thursday, senators approved bylaw changes that would allow SEAS faculty to remain under the Senate’s representation. based on figures provided by the FAS Dean Tamar Gendler’s office.

Both the number and distribution changes will require approval by the full Yale College faculty.

Horsley also noted that changing the number of seats to 25 would prevent tie votes, though the vast majority of Senate decisions are reached via broad consensus.

“This number allows the Senate to maintain an adequate number of voices from each of the 3 FAS

divisions and SEAS faculty,” Horsley wrote in a faculty-wide email on Friday.

According to Gendler’s office, 35 percent of the Yale College faculty body are humanities faculty, 26 percent are social sciences faculty, 25 percent are physical and biological sciences faculty and 13 percent are SEAS faculty — though SEAS expects to increase its faculty by more than a third over the next five to six years. Gendler indicated

Greater New Haven St. Patrick’s Day Parade returns after two-year hiatus

BY BRIAN ZHANG STAFF REPORTER Chapel Street roared with eager spectators in all shades of green on Sunday afternoon, as the 2022 Greater New Haven St. Patrick’s parade brought marching bands, flag bearers, costumed knights and more.

Dating back to 1842, the annual celebration has become a keepsake of the city’s Irish population, attracting residents of all ages and backgrounds to one of the most historic regions of the Downtown New Haven area. The parade is the sixth oldest of its kind in the nation and the oldest in New England, holding the title of being the “largest, single-day spectator event” in Connecticut, according to its website. This year’s parade featured first-generation Irish-American Seamus Bohan as its Grand Marshal, as well as thousands of marchers hailing from various states, nationalities and ethnocultures.

“My baby always watched this since he was one in the window from our house, [but] we walked to Downtown to watch everything,” said New Havener Tyhisha Penn, sporting a green hat and pointing to her son.

“This parade — it means a lot to Irish families, but I just love the parades, period, because I’m a resident, so I love it when they do it, especially for the kids.”

For Penn, events like these are not only a way to spend time with family, but also to enjoy a “community spirit” in tandem with other families who attend them.

She explained that going out to the parade also afforded the convenient opportunity to explore new places in the city, mentioning that she and her son were trying out the newly opened Korean hot dog place as parts of the parade were taking place.

In addition to featuring Irish culture through hand-drawn symbols, sayings and posters, this

support for the continued inclusion of engineering faculty and praised the Senate for “[responding] quickly and constructively to the administrative changes.”

Alessandro Gomez, another engineering representative on the Senate, also voiced support for the change.

“Even though we are gaining some form of autonomy, we are still very much part of Yale College and the graduate

school,” said Gomez, who has long advocated for an expansion of engineering faculty. “As a result, the goals and ambitions of the Senate are the same as the future school of engineering and applied sciences.”

The FAS Senate was first elected in 2015.

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

Harkness bells toll for the second anniversary of COVID-19

BY JULIA WOJTKOWSKI CONTRIBUTING REPORTER

SOPHIE SONNENFELD/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

The celebration has become a keepsake of the city’s Irish population. year’s commemoration also celebrated Black and LGBTQ+ communities. Spectators watched as trolleys decorated with paintings of African American history — along with a carriage bearing a giant rainbow pride wreath — traversed down Chapel.

Abby Wells, who attended the parade, was especially grateful to see the celebration — along with its many sponsor organizations — up and running after its two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Other visitors were thankful for the security measures taken during the celebration, noting the presence of guards and flatbed trucks that helped enforce community guidelines amid intense crowd participation. These measures are something that localer Ted Olinsky said not to take for granted as the city continues to make public events as accessible and family-friendly as possible during an enduring pandemic, he said.

Overall, the 2022 St. Patrick’s Day parade was more than a celebration of culture. It was a reminder of New Haven’s pre-pandemic vibrancy and the feeling of community that defined the city, exemplified by the many spectators that cheered on the marchers on Chapel Street this Sunday afternoon — the children donning green antlers and the grandparents holding their hands.

“We always look forward to coming,” said Bob Lambert, sitting beside Olinsky outside the Yale University Art Gallery at the conclusion of the parade. “A lot of fun — it’s always a win-win [and] a very nice time.”

This year’s parade started on Chapel Street at Sherman Avenue. at 1:30 p.m., proceeding toward the Green, Church Street, Elm Street and finally Orange Street.

Contact BRIAN ZHANG at brian.zhang@yale.edu .

The bells of Harkness Tower rang out last Friday at noon in a special concert commemorating the second anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The concert, played by three members of the Yale University Guild of Carillonneurs, aimed to uplift and inspire the University community after two years of hardship brought upon by the pandemic. Guild advisor Ellen Dickinson ’97 MUS ’99 said that all of the music was specially chosen for the occasion to emphasize hope and highlight the spirit of the memorial. “[The concert served] both as a memorial to those who have died, and in gratitude for all those who have given so much of themselves during this time, such as health care workers and many others, as well as in celebration of community and the ways in which we all have worked together over these two years,” Dickinson said.

As the carillon can be heard from a mile away, and therefore reaches distant areas of campus, the Guild aimed to be broad and inclusive in its repertoire. The first selection, performed by Evan Hochstein ’23, was “Healing Bells,” a piece written in 2020 during the pandemic and based on the Ukrainian folk song “Plyve Kacha.”

Mitchell Dubin ’25 performed three songs at the concert, including “Memorial” by Theophil Rusterholz and “Heal the World” by Michael Jackson. Joyce Liao ’25 closed out the concert by playing “Hana wa Saku” (“Flowers will Bloom”), a Japanese song of hope.

“I really like the juxtaposition of two of my songs: one song specifically written for memorializing tragedy and a second song that was uplifting,” Dubin

JULIA WOJTKOWSKI/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

said. “Neither of them would have been as meaningful without the other.”

Dubin shared that the concert was special given that the Harkness bells were not operating at certain points in the pandemic.

Dickinson said she hoped that the music was “meaningful” to the campus community.

The concert was specially requested by the President’s Office, which had also organized a similar concert celebrating the first anniversary of the pandemic.

“I am immensely grateful to the Yale Guild of Carillonneurs for helping our community take a moment to remember and reflect and to the students who [played at the concert],” University President Peter Salovey said.

“It’s nice after last year when it was not operating at all but now we are back and not only are we there playing but we are there together,” Dubin said.

The Carillon has a total of 54 bells, 10 of which were installed in 1921, and the remainder in 1964.

Contact JULIA WOJTKOWSKI at julia.wojtkowski@yale.edu .

PAGE 12

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

BULLETIN BOARD

CREATIVE COMMONS

KALINA MLADENOVA is a sophomore in Pierson College. Contact her at kalina.mladenova@yale.edu .

SOPHIE HENRY is a junior in Jonathan Edwards College.

Contact her at sophie.henry@yale.edu .

MARK CHUNG is a first-year in Trumbull College.

Contact him at mark.chung@yale.edu .

LAST WEEK’S SOLUTIONS J E S S

O C H O

S N E A D

C O V E R S L I P S

A L O U

N A H S O L I M E A S T A L N I L S H E L O P E S P A R N E S H Y R O A L A T D O H O W A N O H A S U S H O S P O E E S T R

M A R T O M O A D I U M L E O V E S N E T E S T S T E R E S E E G E D T E L O L E E A D D M S I U T N

M A N G O L A S S I

A D I E U A D I E U

C O B S

S I C R A A N

E T N A

A S I S

D Y E D S N L

L E A N S

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

SPORTS

“For the past 15 years I got to be a part of your organization. It was truly an honor. We went through the very highs together and some lows but those lows is what made last year so special.” FREDDIE FREEMAN FORMER ATLANTA BRAVES FIRST BASEMAN

Bulldogs win in New Jersey, Deleware TENNIS FROM PAGE 14 No. 2 singles, Dean narrowly won the first set in a tiebreaker 7–6, but he quickly dominated (6–2) in the second set.

Drake gave praise to Sun for his successful battle against Monmouth despite having taken “two midterm exams earlier that day.”

On Saturday, the team changed up the line-ups with Dean playing the first line of singles, followed by Lin, Reilly, Shervin Dehmoubed ’25, Neal and Oberg.

The doubles team of Lin and Lefevre debuted at No. 1 doubles, ahead of Dean with Reilly and the other new doubles team of Dehmoubed with Oberg.

Against Delaware, Drake pointed out Oberg’s “good job coming back from 2–5 down in his first set to win 7–6 and then [clinching] the match for [the team] in the second set.” He also noted Lefevre and Lin’s doubles victory at No. 1 doubles despite having only practiced together for one day.

The men will return to competition next Saturday at the University of California, Berkeley (6–3, 0–0 Pac-12). They will continue their tour of the west coast with matches against Saint Mary’s (5–10, 0–3 West Coast) and Santa Clara (4–6, 0–0) on Sunday and Tuesday, respectively.

PAGE 13

Sun looks forward to his team’s upcoming trip to California for the opportunity to “play outdoor tennis again in great weather.” He also is excited to spend time with his teammates off of the court because “[their] Spring Break trip is usually a good chance to bond before Ivy season starts.”

Drake echoed these sentiments and is grateful for the “great alumni support that allows [them] to do something like this.” He looks forward to his team “[training] hard, [playing] three good opponents and [having] some fun in the nice weather.”

Neal, one of the team’s northern Californians, is thrilled for the opportunity to “[play] against schools like Cal that [he] would watch play when [he] was younger.” He sees this trip as “a good challenge for the team and fun for [him] to have family and friends out to watch.”

Yale’s women’s tennis team (6–6, 0–0 Ivy) will head to Florida next week, where it will take on Florida Atlantic University (10–6, 0–0 CUSA) on Sunday, March 20, Florida International University (10–2, 0–0) on Tuesday, March 22 and the University of Central Florida (7–6, 0–0 AAC) on Thursday, March 24.

Contact GRAYSON LAMBERT at grayson.lambert@yale.edu.

MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM

The team rose to the challenge and claimed a 7–0 victory over Monmouth. They continued their winning ways Saturday afternoon with a 4–1 win over Delaware.

Yale wins ranked matchup

COURTESY OF YALE ATHLETICS

The Bulldogs’ top 20 matchup win saw them climb up the Inside Lacrosse rankings from the No. 14 ranking to No. 11.

M LACROSSE FROM PAGE 14 gram is based on and these guys are proving they can play well in those games.”

Yale started the game hot with two straight goals and never looked back. The Bulldogs’ wireto-wire victory was thanks to their red-hot offense that scored 16 goals: three more than in last week’s game against the University of Massachusetts.

Brandau led the way yet again, with a massive eight point performance, and was followed by Leo Johnson ’25 who posted a hat trick.

Johnson entered the game having been named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week following his two goal and one assist performance against University of Massachusetts. Johnson continues to prove his skill as a young player every week, having started every game for the Bulldogs.

Kaley DeLay '22 earns All-American title TRACK FROM PAGE 14 hovering around fifth for the first half of the race. She persisted and saw the race through with a time of 16:19.14. The winning time of 15:30.17 was set by Courtney Wayment of Brigham Young University.

“Seeing someone from Yale able to achieve that high a level of performance is so incredible,” Bridget Vitu ’25, one of DeLay’s teammates on the women’s track and field team, said.

The Florida native ended her indoor collegiate career with three Ivy League indoor championship wins.

DeLay was also one of three other Bulldogs that won the

most recent Ivy League Heptagonals two weekends ago. At Heps, she ran the 3000 meter to the tune of 9:09.19, setting a meet record.

“The special thing about Kayley is she had the confidence in herself to believe that and whenever she believes something I have yet to see her not achieve it,” head coach Taryn Sheehan said to the News.

DeLay currently holds the program record in the 3000 meter event over previous record holder and Olympian Kate O’Neill ’03, as well as the school record in the 5000 meter race.

“Outdoors starts in less than two weeks,” DeLay, who is also

the captain of the women’s cross country team, reminded the News. “I am excited to have the chance to race other outdoor events for Yale besides just the steeplechase — as I have exclusively done in the past. I am looking forward to Heps at home in May, and NCAAs and USAs in June at Hayward!”

The track and field teams will travel south next week to Raleigh, North Carolina for their first outdoor meet on March 24. This will be the first time the Bulldogs compete in the outdoor track since 2019.

“It was a great trip for us to challenge ourselves against a very talented team,” Brandau said.

“We were able to battle throughout the game and are very excited to come out with a win before starting Ivy play on Saturday.”

On the defensive end, Bulldogs goalie Jared Paquette ’24 faced an onslaught of shots by the Pioneers, as they managed 28 shots on goal in the game. However, Paquette was up to the task, making 15 saves and continuing a string of strong performances in his first season.

Chris Fake ’22 led the way for the defense with two caused turnovers and two ground balls while also playing a big part in the clearing game as the Bulldogs went 20–22 in clears.

The matchup was the Bulldogs’ final game before they begin their Ivy League schedule, however, the two programs do know each other quite well as they have been

two of the best in the nation over the past couple of years.

“It’s a unique one, as you mentioned, in that we don’t get many Ivy League teams to play us,” Denver head coach Bill Tierney said on his podcast with Denver Athletics.

“Andy Shay, their coach and I, go way back. He’s a great coach and a good friend.”

The Bulldogs can now turn fully to the upcoming Ivy League matchups, where things will get no easier for the team.

Of the seven teams that play Ivy League lacrosse — Columbia does not field a team — six of them are ranked in the top 20 teams in the nation by Inside Lacrosse.

The Bulldogs’ next game will come against the No. 4 team in the nation, the undefeated Cornell Big Red, on Saturday at noon in Ithaca.

Contact SPENCER KING at spencer.king@yale.edu.

Bulldogs in Frozen Four Semifinals

Contact TOIA RODRIGUES DA CUNHA at toia. conderodriguesdacunha@yale.edu

MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM

Yale built on its experience to get by a tough Colgate team, with Tess Dettling ’22 playing the role of hero with the overtime winner.

W HOCKEY FROM PAGE 14

COURTESY OF YALE ATHLETICS

Despite starting in 11th place, and hovering around 5th for the first half of the race, DeLay persisted, finishing with 16:19.14.

Much of the credit for reaching this point must go to head coach Mark Bolding, who in only two years has transformed the program into a national powerhouse.

Bolding, already the ECAC Coach of the Year, has now been named as a finalist for the AHCA Coach of the Year. The Bulldogs have set new program records in each of his two seasons. This year, many of his players have also earned impressive personal accolades.

“Very proud of how the team handled it [in their first NCAA tournament game],” Bolding said in a post game press conference.

“But it’s a great thing, Yale has a great hockey tradition, we haven’t won a national championship and been very successful, so this is really what we wanted to do.”

Bolding will certainly have his hands full devising his game plan this weekend as he will be going up against another AHCA Coach of the Year finalist in Ohio State’s Nadine Muzerall, who was also named the WCHA Coach of the Year.

The Bulldogs, led by Bolding, are in a position the program has never been in but have not been fazed by the feeling so far this year. The team hosted its first ever ECAC championship tournament game, and also played in its first ever ECAC championship final, before qualifying for and winning in its premier NCAA tournament game.

The Bulldogs and Buckeyes will square off on Friday, March 18 at 7:00 p.m. at the Pegula Ice Arena in University Park, Pennsylvania.

Contact SPENCER KING at spencer. king@yale.edu.

M BASKETBALL Princeton 77 Cornell 73

W BASKETBALL Princeton 77 Columbia 59

SPORTS

W BASKETBALL Princeton 72 Harvard 67

SOFTBALL Saint Mary's 7 Harvard 5

BASEBALL Mississippi St. 3 Princeton 2

FOR MORE SPORTS CONTENT, VISIT OUR WEB SITE goydn.com/YDNsports Twitter: @YDNSports YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

WOMEN'S LACROSSE BULLDOGS LOSE TO BC The Bulldogs’ winning streak ends at four after recording their first loss to Boston College.

SOFTBALL BULLDOGS COMPETE IN ARIZONA The Bulldogs struggled at the Bear Down Fiesta tournament, failing to earn a win. Yale will have to quickly turn its attention to the Ancient Eight, as rival Harvard comes to New Haven for a three-game series this weekend.

Yale beats Monmouth, Delaware MEN'S TENNIS

"The two games last week piggybacked off of what we already knew — [that] we're going to be a really good team throughout the season.”

CARSON SWANK ’23 BASEBALL

No. 11 Bulldogs down No. 20 Denver

BY SPENCER KING STAFF REPORTER The Yale men’s lacrosse team (3–1, 0–0 Ivy), then ranked No. 14 in the nation, beat the then No. 20 ranked University of Denver (3–4, 0–0 Big East), 16–13, on Sunday. The Bulldogs were powered to victory by star attackman Matt Brandau ’23 who posted an eight-point night with five goals and three assists.

MEN'S LACROSSE The Bulldogs’ top 20 matchup win saw them climb up the Inside Lacrosse rankings from the No. 14 ranking to No. 11. The

game wasn’t all smooth sailing, however, and was full of challenges for the Bulldogs as the team had to contend with a different time zone, Denver’s high altitude and the Pioneers’ physical brand of play.

“I give Denver a ton a credit for a very physical game. I think we felt the road trip a little bit and Denver is not an easy place to play with the altitude but clearly it didn't bother Brandau,” head coach Andy Shay said to Yale Athletics. “I was really impressed by Matt today while our team came together to make it a grind. That is what this proSEE M LACROSSE PAGE 13

MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM

On Wednesday, Yale’s men’s tennis team dominated Monmouth University. On Saturday, Delaware.

BY GRAYSON LAMBERT CONTRIBUTING REPORTER This week, the Yale men’s tennis team (8–4, 0–0 Ivy) added two new wins to its record. On Wednesday, the Elis hosted Monmouth University (9–1, 0–0 Metro Atlantic), and on Saturday, they welcomed the University of Delaware (4–7, 0–0 Colonial) to New Haven.

The Wednesday evening match against the Hawks was the team’s first mid-week match of the season.

The team rose to the challenge and claimed a 7–0 victory over Monmouth. They continued their winning ways on Saturday afternoon with a 4–1 win over Delaware.

“We haven’t had a mid-week match yet this year so I think the guys did a good job making the transition from class to the match,” men’s tennis head coach Chris Drake said.

In a week of firsts, the team also rotated in two new teams of doubles for the Delaware match. Drake added that “[the team] came out

DeLay ’22 gets second All-American this season

with good energy and focused on securing the doubles point.”

On Wednesday, Michael Sun ’23 led the team in singles, followed by Theo Dean ’24, Cody Lin ’22, Aidan Reilly ’25, Luke Neal ’25 and Walker Oberg ’25. Sun and Lin played No. 1 doubles, ahead of Dean with Reilly and Oberg with Renaud Lefevre ’24.

Sun and Reilly both took their singles matches to three sets and clinched tight third-set victories (7–6 and 7–5, respectively). In SEE M TENNIS PAGE 13

Yale heads to their first Frozen Four

BY SPENCER KING STAFF REPORTER The Yale women’s hockey team (26–8–1, 16–5–1 ECAC) will skate in the program’s first ever Frozen Four semifinal against Ohio State (30–6–0, 21–6–0 WCHA) on Friday with a spot in the National Championship game on the line.

WOMEN'S HOCKEY

LUKAS FLIPPO/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Yale’s distance runner Kayley DeLay ’22 finished 15th in the 5k race at the NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships Friday.

BY TOIA CONDE RODRIGUES DA CUNHA CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Cross country captain Kayley DeLay ’22 took to the national stage for the second time this season. She came home with another All-American title.

TRACK & FIELD The distance runner represented the Blue and White in the 5000 meter race at the NCAA Division I Indoor Track

and Field Championships last Friday in Birmingham, Alabama. DeLay placed 15th overall in a pool of 16 competitors.

“I am always grateful to have the chance to compete,” DeLay wrote in an email. “It was an incredible opportunity to get to race some of the best in the country and I am excited to get to do it again outdoors!”

DeLay started the final leg of the competition in 11th place, SEE TRACK PAGE 13

STAT OF THE WEEK 6.5

COURTESY OF DAVID SCHAMIS

Matt Brandau ’23 scored five goals and made eight assists to propel the team to victory over Denver.

The Bulldogs advanced to the national tournament off of a record-setting 25 regular season wins for the program. The Elis then reached the Frozen Four by winning a 2–1 overtime thriller over Colgate in their first ever game in the NCAA tournament, avenging their loss in the ECAC championship game.

Yale built on its experience to get by a tough Colgate team, with Tess Dettling ’22 playing the role of hero with the overtime winner.

“In [overtime] emotions are so high, especially in the playoffs, so to score a goal in overtime just instantly takes all that pressure off which makes it all that much better,” Dettling said of her goal. “I saw [Emma] DeCorby [’25] gather the puck, and it looked like she had a pretty clear lane to get the puck to the net, so I did my best to get in a good position in front of the net, and luckily the puck popped out right in front of me, and I was able to get my stick on it.”

However, at the highest level of women's collegiate hockey, the games do not get any easier. Following their regional final win, the No. 5 seed Elis will now face

the Ohio State Buckeyes, the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament.

The Buckeyes head into the tournament on a hot streak and are the favorites to secure the national title. Ohio State is undefeated in its last eight games with its last loss dating back to Feb. 11.

The Buckeyes boast perhaps the most well-rounded play in the nation, as they lead the country in scoring margin at 3.19. The team has scored the most goals this season with 170, while starting goalie Amanda Thiele has the fourth best goals against average in the country at 1.294.

However, the Buckeyes nearly didn’t make it to the Frozen Four, as one of Yale’s biggest rivals, Quinnipiac, took the Buckeyes to double overtime in their regional final before Ohio State won, 4–3.

The biggest scouting note for the Bulldogs from that game will be the importance of star goalie Gianna Meloni ’22. Meloni will need to bring her best if the Bull-

dogs are to pull off the upset, as the Buckeyes shelled the Quinnipiac net with 77 shots on goal over 82 minutes.

If any goalie is up to the challenge, it may be Meloni. Meloni ranks eighth in the nation in goals against average at 1.471 and is 10th in save percentage at .938.

Meloni will hope that the game will end in a similar fashion to her last, a 28-save performance that got her team to this point before Dettling scored the overtime winner.

“I was literally shocked. I didn’t see the shot taken. I saw the puck pop out and just go in that empty net and then I looked at the bench and there's gloves flying and the lights are going,” Meloni said in a post game press conference. “It’s insane.

Such a moment to remember.”

The moment is one that no one will forget soon, as the Bulldogs won their first ever NCAA tournament game.

SEE W HOCKEY PAGE 13

COURTESY OF YALE ATHLETICS

The Yale women’s hockey team will face off against Ohio State Friday in the Frozen Four with a spot in the National Championship Final on the line.

THE AVERAGE NUMBER OF THREES AZAR SWAIN ’22, YALE MEN’S BASKETBALL'S LEADING SCORER, HAS BEEN SHOOTING

FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2022

WEEKEND

Why do I say “like” so much more

// ANGELIQUE DE ROUEN

and read so much less?

// BY ANABEL MOORE

Monday morning: chemistry lecture, biology quiz, chemistry lab. Monday evening: lab reports, adaptive quizzes, readings for seminar the next day. Next, next, next, tasks checked off the list. What have I done since Saturday night?

Tomorrow I will go to the Cabaret show.

Maybe I’ll read a bit of my book for pleasure before then. “Princeton Anthology of Writing.” Maybe I’ll go for a walk up to the Divinity school, as I’ve been doing late at night recently. I’ll work out, for sure. Ah yes, I need to call my grandmother. She’s two hours behind. No, one hour. Daylight savings? Shoot, I forgot I need to get a COVID test. Schwarzman or York Street?

Schwarzman. I can get it on my way up Science Hill. Still need to make up that Chem lab. Interview for study abroad. Sticky note that. Get new Bio textbook. How did I forget about that assignment? Get lunch with suitemate. Suitemates? Reschedule meeting with tissue factor researcher. Is it really going to snow again on Saturday? Coffee.

Wait, no coffee. I’ve had too much coffee recently. Sleep? Not enough time. Remember, Anabel, remember. This is on you. I want to go out tonight. Can’t though.

I package these moments in so many ways: GCal, sticky notes, scrawled to-dos beneath my art history notes — spend time in front of “The Greek Slave” on Saturday.

Write introduction to paper. These packages are lame memories that exist in hands holding a void — “Mains Tenant le Vide.” Alberto Giacometti. 1934. Compartmentalized, existing beyond the context of living. I can give you no narrative of the last three weeks.

Moments that should make stories don’t.

Memories I wish were stories are factoids written on different pages. Moments that occurred next to one another are plucked out of time by my … mind? choices? life. Turn the page, do the next thing, and what happened before is checked off, gone. Not even forgotten. Just gone.

How can other people remember what they need to do without all the packaging? I wish the sun could wake me up. To hold something other than the plasticky feeling of my phone notched into my fingers, the device that seems to hold all my memories for me.

Maybe it’s because the doctor told me I’m low on iron. Is that why I can’t remember? The big moments? The little ones? *** I remember someone I don’t see in the mirror now.

Seventy miles off the coast of Eastern Florida, there is a small island of approximately 370 acres. Great Sale Cay, part of the northern chain of islands in the Bahamas known as the Abacos, is still uninhabited and filled with concrete remnants of a Cold-War-era satellite tracking station, hunks of stone inscribed with dates and unknown numbers that jut out into the sea. It is a five-hour journey by boat from Green Turtle Cay to Great Sale, more if the weather is bad, then another eight hours from Great Sale to Florida. I do hope the island is never sold.

My dad and I spent a week here last summer, anchored in siltier water towards the eastern side of the island. We were alone. I only took a few photos during these days; we had no cell reception, just a GPS signal that allowed us to later navigate across the Gulf Stream back to Florida. Back in the St. Lucie Inlet and murky brown water, pleasure cruisers donning Trump flags and throttle-heavy quad-engine t-tops would whiz through no-wake canals.

I had nothing to do.

The generator oil had been changed; we were only running it a few hours a day, anyway, just to keep the fridges cold. The hull had been scrubbed of the last month’s growth, a small miracle given my panic attack when a barracuda brushed my foot as I was scrubbing whilst hooked up to an air compres-

sor. We were full of fuel; everything was tied down. The cabins were clean, laundry done.

Boxes checked. The only reminder was the alarm set for 4 a.m. Saturday, when we’d pick up the anchor and cross back to the States in clear weather. We were, it was, we would, we had, we spent, I remember.

I swam off the back TNT and read Donna Tartt’s “The Goldfinch,” played gin rummy with my dad and ate fish and off-brand Otter Pops. I wore a blue bikini top, purple bottoms, my dad in his oil-stained squash t-shirt with more holes than fabric, and lounged on bright white cushions I’d recently scrubbed of pesky mildew. I’d read a few chapters, then fall asleep. Doodle flowers on the yellow legal pad in the galley next to the catch-all bin with the Really Big Scissors that were on the boat when we bought it. They are much more corroded now than they were then. At night, I’d turn the anchor light on, but then that light burnt out, so we left the galley overhead on – the second switch on the circuit board, the one next to the bright red waste tank discharge switch next to the very angry label in my dad’s hand: “ROB ONLY.” The rocky beach on this side of the island, the one with sea grass growing in six inches of water at low tide, required Crocs to reach sand. I laid on this beach on a blueand-green Costco beach towel, woozier from the seasickness patch I tried for the first time than the seasickness itself. The sun was a bit orange, and a past visitor had dug a branch into the sand, now adorned with braided fishing line and dangling bits of marine plastic. I was angry at first, seeing the plastic, but then it started to be a bit beautiful.

Perhaps we were there longer than a week.

How long we were there is the only thing I don’t remember perfectly. *** I now return to a poem by Billy Collins titled “Osso Buco,” shared by my 12th grade English teacher. “Then we will slip below the surface of

the night / into miles of water, drifting down and down to the dark, soundless bottom / until the weight of dreams pulls us lower still, / below the shale and layered rock, / beneath the strata of hunger and pleasure, / into the broken bones of the earth itself, / into the marrow of the only place we know.”

How long has it been since I visited “the marrow of the only place [I] know,” since I dove so deep into living that I don’t care what comes next, nor care what came before? Why does life feel so blurry, why do I say “like” so much more and read so much less? I don’t know why I walk so fast here. When was the last time I dreamt? Am I impulsive or just busy? Both, I think. I have to stop saying “um.” Maybe I should just talk less. I should certainly speak slower. Will this help me remember more?

It’s funny how I conceive of memory in the same way I think about tasks. It is difficult to think in anything but boxes.

If I must be pulled out to sea, let it be “beneath the strata of hunger and pleasure.” Let me remember who I was yesterday, last week, month, semester when I look in a mirror adorned with Yale stickers. Let the reminders be life itself. If I can’t remember something, then what is the point of doing it at all?

There are many things I could be swept away by: youth, the quest for achievement, to be the best I can be, to become all I am capable of being, to be someone. Or perhaps I am simply drowning in reminders of these goals, packaged differently, some hand-delivered, some I wrap up myself. Let me be more than what I do.

Donna Tartt wrote: “you can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again.

You can also look at a picture for a second and think of it all your life.”

Is there any in-between?

Contact ANABEL MOORE at anabel.moore@yale.edu .

PAGE B2

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND SURVIVAL

THE SWISS ROOM

// IRIS TSOURIS

// IRIS TSOURIS It was a small, opulent room, guarded by a heavy, medieval door on the second floor of Berkeley College, entryway C. Its mahogany ceiling was low, about eight feet.

The light, flooding in from the south side of Elm Street, was warped by stained glass and colored cornflower blue.

Geographically, if Yale University were a person, then Berkeley would be its lungs, and the Swiss Room its heart. I first learned about the Swiss Room from a collection of lantern slides in the Manuscripts and Archives reading room. I gathered that it was a bizarre-looking place, with two varnished tables of unequal lengths and an assortment of red dining chairs. Suspended from its ceiling are three German “Leuchterweibchen”–chandeliers made of antlers, with tiny, smiling women carved into their base. A green Alpine stove, fashioned from glazed clay, appeared to inhabit its left corner. The furniture itself looked ancient, arranged to reproduce the look of a 16th-century sitting room. A soft, doeeyed portrait of Mary of Burgundy adorned one of the stained glass windows.

For a long time, I was very fond of the Swiss Room, perhaps especially because it was available exclusively to Berkeley fellows and stripped of any known, widespread existence. The room, secluded and mysterious, began to occupy a significant portion of my daydreaming life. I would imagine how its secret cohort would fill such a space, shelling snow peas, plaiting each other’s hair, strumming quiet melodies on guitar. I thought the room held something that, for an ordinary person like myself, was just out of reach; the charms of both a grand, processional hall and a small, intimate cottage.

I longed to access it.

When the clock struck noon, I walked through the Berkeley common room, past the bloated, taxidermied elk heads, to where Annette was standing. Annette was a tall, wiry woman who worked in the dining hall. She had auburn hair, kohl-lined eyes, and spoke to me with such earnestness that I felt we shared a similar, urgent sense of curiosity. I was writing an art history paper, I told her. I wanted to see the Swiss Room.

Annette understood and retrieved the dining hall manager, who, after some time, reached for the ring of keys in her back pocket.

I entered the Swiss Room for the first time. It was lifeless, with none of the sweetness and joy of my daydreams. Annette patted the ceramic Alpine stove, which had seemed so pockmarked and beautiful in my lantern slides. It now looked terribly obsolete. The Leuchterweibchen above us winked sadly. The lanterns embedded in the walls shone with fluorescent electricity.

The place, I felt, had been depleted of any chance to develop a history beyond a perverse, aristocratic origin. It is true that the entirety of Yale, its colleges and lecture halls, were built for the elite; yet these spaces, with their gradually-growing accessibility, feel as though they have evolved to accommodate people of all classes and histories. The Swiss Room, on the contrary, remains frozen in time.

I would have liked to see it now, ablaze and impassioned, burning away its life with hurried, feverish fervor. Who dined there now? Who possessed it? Very few people. It was a somber, lonely space — complete and utter fiction.

“Restrict the use of the Swiss Room to small, faculty-sponsored events and enforce a no-smoking policy,” wrote Judith Francis Kennedy, a proponent of saving the room from decay and varnish leaks, ostensibly brought by the barbarous undergraduates who once frequented it. “It should be stressed that these recommendations are not the only possible solutions. However, lack of any action will lead to a predictable path of entropy and the eventual demolition of the Swiss Room.” *** When I was younger, I would run through my neighborhood to play in an abandoned homestead, yellowed by time and tucked away at the edge of a forest on Briarlake Road in Atlanta, just fifteen minutes from where I lived. Like the Swiss Room, its existence was unique and precarious, threat-

WKND HOT TAKE grilled cheese day > chicken tender day

ened by the lightest human touch. This did not deter me. I remember leaping onto its porch and clinging dearly to its pillars.

Sometimes, I would venture inside, stepping tentatively on dulled, wooden planks.

It was in Briarlake Forest where I came to know my father as a warm, unbothered person. He lived and worked in an entirely different state, nearly four hours away. Yet every Friday, he would return, and we would walk together to the homestead. I remember clutching his leg and tugging at the course, silver hairs on his beard. My father would laugh at this, touch my mother’s cheek, and kiss the crown of my head. We would sit on the homestead’s staircase and eat sliced tomatoes on hunks of bread and cheese. The world moved with our footsteps.

A few months after my high school graduation, our city council convened and voted to demolish the homestead. Too many had roamed its fraying, wooden floors, they told us. It had since rotted through. *** I contemplated all of this as I walked back from Berkeley — the Swiss Room and the Briarlake homestead, each holding on to their last, shuddering breaths. One dead, the other dying. It was during this time that it began to rain. I stood under my umbrella, at the corner of York and Elm Street and observed Yale’s happenings — the crosswalks and people, the great, impersonal architecture, the grandiose, gothic air. I thought about its inward-facing courtyards and expansive, subjugating tendencies. Yale will march on, I had been told, ousting residential communities and eating away at its city, all while the rare and precious Swiss Room, its geographic heart, collects dust and embodies a terrible, persisting state of neglect. I wondered what hid, within those cold and ashen walls, that was so worth protecting.

I felt very sad, then. I would have much preferred to watch the room die.

Contact IRIS TSOURIS at jacqueline.kaskel@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE B3

WEEKEND SUGGESTIONS

Majors At Yale That Shouldn’t Exist + The Two That Should // BY ANASTASIA IBRAHIM Majors That Should Not Exist:

12. Political Science There is nothing scientific about political. Apparently, in 2016, we felt overwhelming pressure to elect a president that proves that.

1. Economics The official major for what we like to call “Econ” requires courses in Econometrics and Quantitative Economics, and I can assure you 90 percent of the self-proclaimed “Econ” majors don’t know what any of that is. Econometrics also sounds like a Transformer and probably is one.

Majors That Should Exist 1. Open Curriculum It’s difficult to imagine not boxing students into weird, unfit categories and making them toil and suffer through requirements that make no sense and add no tangible benefits to their life. But since Yale has decided to become the ~funky~ and ~cool~ aunt and actually NOT be need blind — allegedly — when it makes its admissions decisions, maybe it can make MoRe InFoRmEd DeCiSiOnS about majors too!

2. English Language and Literature I’m an English major, and I’m paying $70,000 a year to learn a language I already know.

3. Psychology 4. American Studies When I was drafting this piece, my outline note for why American Studies shouldn’t exist said: “DOWN WITH AMERICA,” and I think that’s solid enough.

5. Romance Language, Literatures, and Linguistics All college relationships are crashing and burning. This major doesn’t contribute shit to campus.

6. Applied Physics Any major that requires you to apply yourself should not exist.

7. Mathematics and Computer Science This is not a major. This is two majors.

This is also a breeding ground for lots and lots of testosterone.

- Mathematics and Philosophy This is not a major. This is two majors.

And they have nothing to do with each other. This is also a breeding ground for assholes.

// SOPHIE HENRY

- Mathematics and Physics This is university assisted masochism and should not be promoted nor encouraged. Please seek treatment and join a humanities extracurricular, but not the YDN. 8. Applied Math Anyone who’s taken calculus knows that math cannot be applied. At all. To anything. In fact, there’s no such thing as “math.” “Math” was invented by someone who couldn’t read.

9. Middle/Near Eastern and Semitic Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics I’m Egyptian, and the British coloni-

zation of Egypt was less colonialist than this.

- Modern Middle East Studies Closer, except make sure there’s at least one Middle Eastern professor. This doesn’t work when all the professors are white.

10. Urban Studies The urbans are fine. The rurals are the ones always voting red — shouldn’t we be studying them instead?

11. Classical Civilization What does this mean? Any major that is vague in its title should cease to exist as the major it has been declared.

2.

Pre-Med I don’t know if you’ve heard, because every “pre-med” student ever has declared to the rest of the world that they are, in fact, “pre-med” — pre-medicine? or pre in desperate need of cognitive corrective medication? haha — but there’s this thing called “pre-med” that apparently makes you better than everyone else? And I can’t imagine a world where it wouldn’t be the only defined major to make sure that the rest of the college students are constantly aware of their inferior status1.

This inferior status will be enforced through daily mandated COVID tests for all non-pre-med students where the consequence of missing a test is expulsion. This is also called the “weed out” method that the “pre-meds” love to talk about.

1

Contact ANASTASIA IBRAHIM at anastasia.ibrahim@yale.edu .

E&R Laundry represents the death of the American Spirit on Yale’s campus // BY ANDREW CRAMER I write today regarding the infection rampantly spreading across our campus: the use of E&R Laundry Service.

I support capitalist greed as much as any of my fellow patriots. In fact, I profess great admiration for those crafty, crafty entrepreneurs who found a business opportunity in exploiting the laziness of the Yale student body and the deep pockets of their parents. But, upon different grounds, I must assert myself as a conscientious objector to this outrageous practice. Allow me to enumerate my grievances below: 1. Using E&R Campus Laundry — to be referred to henceforth as E&R— is distinctly un-American. It robs students of the opportunity to learn how to be a rugged individualist, to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, to be strong and independent like the antebellum yeoman farmer.

You don’t know how tough you are until you’re out of clothes and only a trip to a dank basement can save you.

Doing your own laundry tests your grit. It tests your strength. It tests how willing you are to wear dirty underwear inside-out.

You learn things when you have to do your own laundry, like how to wear your underwear inside-out. It teaches you the difference between what you need and what you want. When you first say to yourself, “I need to do laundry today,” that’s a lie. But when it’s been piling up in your room for a week, your drawers are empty, your roommate’s complaining about the stench, that’s when you need to do laundry, and not a moment before.

2. E&R deprives us of friendship opportunities. As the old adage says, “a moment in the laundry room is worth an eternity on the outside.” As you awkwardly maneuver around those crowded machines, inhaling the potent smell of detergent, you can’t help but share a magical moment of eye contact with your comrades in laundering.

Once that connection is made, conversation follows as surely as CompSci breaks a student’s love for learning. You give

WKND Recommends Abolishing Daylight Savings

them a nod and start talking. They take out their headphones. “Laundry day?” you ask. “Yup,” they respond. You nod at each other, and return to your respective tasks.

That indeed is true friendship.

3. Being a college student means that it’s time for all of us to take on more personal accountability. We must learn to become masters of the self, doers of our own laundry. Those meddlesome folks at E&R ought to preserve a neutral stance in the matter.

An E&R user — or should I say enabler — tried to explain to me that they used money that they earned with their own two hands to pay for the laundry service, and, ergo, they were personally getting their laundry done. Bah humbug! Such foolishness scarcely even warrants a response, but nonetheless, I shall grant it one.

When I lose my socks on a laundry trip, I know who’s to blame. Far too often have I heard an E&R subscriber lament the loss of their favorite t-shirt, or a slow turnaround on the week’s batch of clothes. But when you sell your soul to E&R, that is part of the price you pay.

4. The little moments — the ones that words can never truly capture — mean even more than the big ideas; they are what make the laundry experience so special: You bang your head on the low basement ceiling and say “ouch” out loud while someone smirks from the side … You see your laundry aggressively dumped on the floor because you didn’t take it out within five minutes of the timer going off … You leave a passive-aggressive note to someone who didn’t take their laundry out within five minutes of the timer going off, and then you dump their clothes on the floor … or you see a used condom lying on the floor before chuckling and giving it a knowing smile.

5. But perhaps one triumph stands above the rest: few things rival the superiority complex you get from walking into the laundry room and seeing the bags of the E&R users. Oh, they’ll try to justify themselves. They’ll tell you that they feel

// JESSAI FLORES

smarter, more efficient, like key cogs in the capitalist machine.

You and I, my fellow brothers, sisters, and siblings in laundry, we know the importance of a little elbow grease.

We know the satisfaction of sticking our head into the dryer and just basking in the warmth radiating from our clean clothes — I’ve been told other people don’t do this, but they should. And most importantly, we know that they don’t even know the half of what they’re missing out on.

Laundry is about so much more than cleaning clothes. It’s about a principle, a principle that used to mean something: a principle of hard work, of community, of love. Pay someone to do my laundry?

Absurd. You couldn’t pay me enough to surrender the privilege, the joy, and the swell of patriotic fervor that I derive from every laundry room trip.

Contact ANDREW CRAMER at andrew.cramer@yale.edu.

PAGE B4

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND GUILTY

PLEASURES

WKND’S GUILTY PLEASURES Mahesh Agarwal: Last week, I was enjoying a thick dollop of yogurt when I heard laughter, followed by murmurs: “Fascinating. I’ve never seen someone eat cream cheese with a spoon before.” It was an entertaining moment but, to be real, it had to be recognized by the outside world. I grabbed my phone, translated the story into text-speak, and sent it to a WhatsApp group of close friends. But as soon as I sent the message, I regretted it. Did it seem like I was complaining? Was I oversharing?

Was this even a funny story?

It was the same feeling that I had in ninth grade when a girl asked me if I thought she was pretty and I responded notso-gracefully: “I really hope a time machine tumbles from the clouds and offers me a redo”.

My 14-year-old prayers went unanswered but, this time, the WhatsApp gods had my back.

Crying-laughter emojis were replaced by one sentence: This message was deleted.

On almost every platform except vanilla SMS, messages can vanish with the click of a finger. I used to think this was an emergency option, just in case someone acci-

dentally forwards their social security number to the college GroupMe. But unsharing content is like borrowing your suitemates’ toothpaste or asking for extensions: it starts as a last resort but becomes a lifestyle. Texting can be stressful.

I instinctively want to connect with friends by sharing anecdotes and distributing hottakes fresh from the synapses.

At the same time, live tweeting can turn into unwelcome oversharing and miscommunication that trigger my deepest people-pleasing fears. The result is perpetual doubt: to send or not to send? Having a digital eraser removes this pressure and allows me to live recklessly. Almost every day, I live-tweet an event to my friends, realize the information is overwhelming, and delete the story two minutes later. It’s the best of both worlds: all of the catharsis of sharing without any of the consequences.

Saying “expelliarmus!” to accidental awkwardness is liberating, but it’s also kind of reprehensible. Imagine hearing the buzz of a notification and preparing for a dopamine rush only to discover that the message has disappeared. Even worse than irritation is the

suspicion. I don’t mind people wondering if I’m a secret CIA-agent, but I’d prefer that friends trust me and know that I trust them back. One day, I’ll leave the delete-button behind and embrace a more authentic life. For now, though, it’s too tempting to unleash in the moment and curate later. I’m still waiting for guilt to outweigh pleasure.

Maddie Soule: TW: Twilight From the blank canvas that is the books’ most unfortunate narrator to the film’s uncanny ability to make even Robert Pattinson seem unappealing, there is no shortage of content to stoke the flames of ambivalence among anyone — un — lucky enough to experience the Twilight Saga. Yet whilst almost every facet of the book series, from Stephenie Meyer’s astronomical use of adverbs — “Jacob whined unhappily,” “Edward answered blackly” — to gaping holes in the plot — vampires’ only bodily fluid is venom and Edward still manages to impregnate Bella — to unnecessarily convoluted conflict — the age-old vam-

pire-werewolf conflict based on vampires’ consumption of human blood despite the fact that the Cullen clan consumes only animal blood — there is something uncanny and intriguing about the story.

It may be that I am drawn to the dramatic potential of such an otherworldly love story and hooked by the story’s atrocious execution, left ever-dissatisfied and ever-wondering what the story might have been in the hands of a more competent source. Like the strange inability to look away from an accident or a dumpster fire, no matter how atrocious I find the “Twilight” series, I can’t seem to look away — nor can I determine whether the series is one I love to hate or hate to love.

Anabel Moore: There are eleven books stacked on my desk, most of them unread, but all with my name and phone number inscribed in blue ballpoint ink on the inside cover. Four were bought at Book Trader, three from the poorly-lit but wonderfully mysterious used bookstore in the basement of Pike Place Market in Seattle. Two were gifts from my mom. I’m

not sure where I got the other two. I do know that the pile will get larger before it gets smaller.

I love buying books with the intention of reading them in one sitting, artfully perched beneath a stained glass window with a coconut milk vanilla latte in hand — extra shot of espresso, half the vanilla — as I underline and highlight the moving passages that I simply know will redefine my entire worldview. Mary Oliver’s guide to writing poetry, an advanced copy of E.M. Hulse’s “Eden Mine,” John McPhee’s “Princeton Anthology of Writing.” I’ve started all of them, but finished only a few. I hate that I love reading eleven books at one time. Perhaps I should write a book made of all the small bites I take of others. An anthology of quarter-loved writing, first chapters, books read for the sake of a single sentence.

The thing is, I’m going to tote these books around with me until they’ve been read cover-to-cover. My back is paying the price.

Contact MAHESH AGARWAL at mahesh.agarwal@yale.edu, MADDIE SOULE at maddie.soule@yale.edu and ANABEL MOORE at

// ELLIE HUH

WKND Recommends Studying in the Humanities Quadrangle after 9:15 p.m.