Yale Daily News — Week of April 8, 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, APRIL 8, 2022 · VOL. CXLIV, NO. 19 · yaledailynews.com

81 in anthro class ExCommed

BY ERIC KREBS CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Eighty one students from last semester’s “Introduction to Biological Anthropology,” more than half the class, were referred to the University’s Executive Committee for academic dishonesty during online open-note examinations.

On Jan. 2, professor of anthropology Jessica Thompson formally brought the incident to the attention of the Executive Committee, the University body that adjudicates disciplinary infractions. Multiple documents reviewed by the News — including Thompson’s official report, student exam submissions and communications from the committee — confirm the events. Several of the students’ cases are still ongoing within the Executive Committee. The 81 students referred to the Committee for this class alone make up a group larger than the University-wide total for academic ExComm cases decided on in all of 2020, according to public reports.

The incident comes as faculty have raised concerns about preserving academic integrity during hybrid or online instruction. Last month, Executive Committee members met with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Senate to discuss online examinations and the need for updated guidelines as to what constitutes academic dishonesty.

“While I was grading the final, I noticed several instances of direct copy-pasting from a class reading,” Thompson wrote in

BY LUCY HODGMAN STAFF REPORTER

The University has allowed Haifan Lin, a professor of cell biology and director of Yale’s Stem Cell Center, to return to his lab after a months-long suspension.

But Lin’s colleagues continue to question the University’s handling of Lin’s case as well as raise the possibility that others have been treated the same way.

Lin quietly returned to his office on Monday for the first time in more than two months. During his suspension, School of Medicine faculty had stepped in to oversee activities for his nine-member research group. One member of his lab had expressed fears about members’ graduation plans without Lin’s guidance and said that the lab’s activities had slowed in Lin’s absence.

But Lin is a researcher well-established in his field. In interviews with the News, five faculty members expressed continued worry that the University had not adequately protected Lin — and that

demic dishonesty, ranging from minor instances of borrowed definitions to “truly egregious” instances of copying entire paragraphs from the internet.

She reported 81 of 136 total students to the Executive Committee for improper

After years of advocacy, Yale has amended its oft-criticized withdrawal policies to expedite the reinstatement process for students who leave campus mid-semester.

Per the new policies, students will no longer be required to complete outside coursework or to interview with the Chair of the Committee on Reinstatement as conditions of their return to Yale. Changes to interview policies are effective immediately, while changes to coursework requirements will go into effect for the 2022-23 academic year. The University’s Reinstatement FAQ website was updated on April 1 to reflect the new changes, but no other announcement has been made.

“The biggest thing for me is the sense that students feel reluctant to take a withdrawal when their health or other circumstances really would make a withdrawal very beneficial to their wellbeing and to their healing,” Dean of Yale College Marvin Chun told the News. “We really want students to take a withdrawal and not feel any stigma or any kind of barrier associated with it.”

Although students are permitted to take four

SEE EXCOMM PAGE 4

SEE REINSTATEMENT PAGE 4

AMAY TEWARI/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

The incident comes as faculty have raised concerns about preserving academic integrity during hybrid or online instruction. her Jan. 2 email to Assistant Dean of Yale College and Secretary of the Executive Committee Rachel Russell. “Many students did this, although I was explicit that they could not copy/paste anything, even from the class readings.”

Thompson reported that she found a variety of potential cases of aca-

As Lin returns to lab, fears remain

BY ISAAC YU STAFF REPORTER

Withdrawal policies quietly amended

there may be other, younger faculty who have also been suspended with even less support.

“In some ways, I feel relieved, but in some other ways, I still have lingering concerns about the whole process,” professor of pathology Qin Yan said. “This shouldn't have happened in the first place. The suspension seemed to come from nowhere, with no formal charges and no results.”

University officials have largely kept silent throughout Lin’s suspension. Lin was quietly removed from his lab by University Provost Scott Strobel and School of Medicine Dean Nancy Brown in late January after a 2019 National Institutes of Health inquiry and subsequent investigations by the Justice Department and University officials. The DOJ dropped its investigation six days ago, Lin’s lawyers told the News, but it remains unclear whether Lin has been fully reinstated, or if the University’s internal investigaSEE LIN PAGE 4

Yale’s ties to Skolkovo

BY WILLIAM PORAYOUW AND SANCHITA KEDIA STAFF REPORTERS Following global institutional distancing from Russia and Russian figures in the wake of the country’s invasion of Ukraine, criticism has sparked over Yale’s ties to the Moscow School of Management, also known as Skolkovo.

The University’s connection to Skolkovo, a Moscow-based graduate business school, began in 2013 and stemmed from the Russian school’s goal of fostering relationships between major Russian and international business leaders. Both universities were part of the Global Network for Advanced Management, a network of 32 leading business schools around the world that can share curricula, expertise and opportunities with students.

Skolkovo was founded in 2006, and was funded solely by commercial activities and private investment. Among its founders were Russian oligarchs Viktor Vekselberg and Roman Abramovich, both of whom currently face worldwide sanctions.

“A number of [top business] schools… already worked with Skolkovo,” said Former SOM

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Skolkovo was founded in 2006, and was funded solely by commercial activities and private investment.

Deputy Dean David Bach, who handled Yale’s partnership with Skolkovo. “[They] felt it was the only top business school in Russia that had a shot at becoming a leading, internationally-oriented business school.”

But in March 2022, Skolkovo was suspended from the Global Network following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the result-

ing criticism of the Russian government. By then, Yale professors had been raising concerns about its close ties to Russian business interests for years.

In fall 2013, Skolkovo “inquired informally” about membership in the Global Network – yet a majority of members of the group felt SEE SKOLKOVO PAGE 5

Stith denounces YLS protest

BY PHILIP MOUSAVIZADEH STAFF REPORTER

MICHAEL GARMAN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

About 120 student protesters took issue with Waggoner’s presence, arguing that the organization she works for aims to limit LGBTQ rights.

CROSS CAMPUS THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY, 1965.

Led by political science professor Robert A. Dahl, 179 professors sign a letter to President Johnson expressing dissatisfaction with United States policy in Vietnam and the ongoing conflict.

Law professor Kate Stith, who moderated the March 10 panel that was disrupted by student protesters, sent tenured law faculty a blistering memorandum on Thursday arguing that the students had violated Yale’s free speech policy and should be educated and potentially sanctioned.

Stith’s letter came the same day the Graduate and Professional Student Senate met and discussed the protest. There, attendees were informed that students would meet

INSIDE THE NEWS

with representatives from the office of University-wide administrators.

The March 10 panel, hosted by the Yale chapter of the Federalist Society, featured two speakers on opposite ends of the political spectrum who spoke of their support for freedom of speech. Monica Miller, senior counsel for the progressive American Humanist Association, and Kristen Waggoner, general counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, both supported a recent civil liberties case which Waggoner had argued and won before the Supreme Court.

But about 120 student protesters took issue with Waggoner’s pres-

ence on the panel, arguing that the organization she works for aims to limit LGBTQ rights in the name of religious liberty. At the event, Miller said that her organization views ADF as a “hate group,” but emphasized the importance of proper discourse and noted that the job of a lawyer is to represent their client, and she argued a case that hinged on the results of Waggoner’s.

But audio of the panel shows that protests drowned out much of Miller’s statement. At the event, protesters stood and challenged Stith as she SEE MEMO PAGE 5

CDC

STRONG

ADVISING ISN'T WORKING. HOW WILL YALE FIX IT?

The YIGH hosted a public panel with three former CDC directors to discuss CDC reform and the credibility of public health officials.

Jeremy Strong ’01, who starred in the hit HBO show 'Succession', returned to campus to deliver a talk about his own acting career.

The city has picked a contractor for 500 surveillance cameras but doesn’t have a timeline for installing them.

NHPD

PAGE 3 UNIVERSITY

PAGE 6 SCITECH

PAGE 7 ARTS

PAGE 13 CITY

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 2

OPINION O

EDITORIAL: Mask off

n March 21, Yale updated its COVID-19 policy to account for recent improvements in the public health situation. As a result of this change, masks are now required only in classrooms, on public transportation and in Yale Health facilities. Although this represents an important step forward for the Yale community, it is still an imperfect policy and one that represents a continuation of the University’s inconsistent handling of the pandemic.

Since March 7, there has been no mask mandate, except for public transportation, in either the city of New Haven or the state of Connecticut. Similarly, most of Yale’s peer institutions, including Harvard, Princeton and MIT — all of which are located in the Northeast and experiencing similar public health conditions — have lifted their mandates and made masking the personal choice that it should be at this stage of the pandemic. We are not aware of a single state or local jurisdiction anywhere in America that requires everyone to wear masks, nor any peer institution that does so, except Cornell and Penn.

THE ONLY PLAUSIBLE EXPLANATION SEEMS TO BE VIRTUE SIGNALING — A PURELY PERFORMATIVE MOTIVE. One of the most common arguments in favor of continuing Yale’s mask mandate is that the University has an obligation to protect the surrounding community. There are several key issues with this claim, though. For one, we don’t represent New Haveners. Rather, they are represented by their elected mayor and more broadly, by the state legislature and governor, who have, in consultation with their communities, ended all mask mandates. New Haveners are now free to make their own health decisions and as a part of their community, we should match local guidelines. Nevertheless, Yale has continued to ban visitors who are not preapproved by the administration and restrict Yale student groups from volunteering in the community.

As long as the pandemic continues to have a significant impact on the New Haven community, it is crucial that Yale adopts requirements consistent with those recommended by local and national health professionals rather than implementing divergent mandates and policies. Rather than enacting policies that seem symbolic, Yale should lift the restriction on visitors, like public school students participating in Yale student-led activ-

ities and on Dwight Hall groups venturing off campus to serve the community.

Another issue with the updated policy is that it is inconsistent with administration’s repeated insistence that COVID-19 does not spread in classrooms. On Sept. 3, 2021, Stephanie Spangler informed the student body that there was “very little evidence of COVID-19 transmission” in such settings, a sentiment she repeated on Dec. 10 and 17. Even in the midst of the Omicron surge, which led to unprecedented case counts, Spangler, along with Provost Scott Strobel, Melanie Boyd and Dean of Yale College Marvin Chun, continued to articulate this message, repeating it almost verbatim on Feb. 9, 10, 16, 24 and 25, as well as March 10. Yet, when the University updated its regulations, classrooms were one of the only spaces in which masks were still required. Why, we must ask, is this the case? The idea that students should wear masks during class but not in libraries or during office hours, when they are in equally close proximity to their fellow students and professors, is both confusing and counterproductive.

If Yale administrators believed that we continue to be in an emergency — or if Yale truly wanted to maximally protect immunocompromised students — then stricter measures would be required across the board; COVID-19 does not disappear when we move from classrooms to butteries or from shuttles to serveries. The only plausible explanation seems to be virtue signaling — a purely performative motive. Trusting the science requires consistently following its advice, not doing so only in arbitrarily chosen situations.

The Centers for Disease Control says that 95 percent of Americans, including 100 percent of those in Connecticut, don’t need to wear masks unless they choose to do so, shouldn’t test unless symptomatic, and those who test positive need not quarantine beyond five days.

Yale’s current protocol contradicts all of these policies: requiring masking in classrooms, twice weekly testing and an indefinite quarantine for those who test positive until a negative result is received. Are our University officials suggesting that they have more accurate information than these groups? If so, why?

The University’s decision to maintain pandemic restrictions at a time when almost all states and localities have, en masse, removed them, is deeply troubling and only reinforces a divide between our institution and the surrounding community. We have a responsibility to respect and support those around us, but inconsistent mask mandates will have little impact on a community that is not doing the same and will only continue to detract from our college experience and Yale’s extraordinary potential to contribute to our community.

Contact the EDITORIAL BOARD at opinion@yaledailynews.com .

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 PRODUCTION & DESIGN STAFF: Chris de Santis, Catherine Kwon, Chen Lin, Yash Roy, Anika Seth, Sophie Sonnenfeld PRODUCTION & DESIGN ASSISTANTS: Beril Birlik, Jessica Sanchez, Owen Tucker-Smith 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. 19

Say one thing, do another W

hen I wrote Abolish Yale, I pissed a lot of people off. One critique stood out to me in particular, though. It was that I, as a Yale student actively benefiting from the exploitative actions of the University, am a hypocrite for criticizing those exploitative actions and that to resolve that hypocrisy I should leave the University. The argument is an interesting one in that it implies that my hypocrisy discredits my argument and any action I would take in protest of the University.

And it’s led me to think about the hypocrisy of activism coming from Yale’s students.

IT IS TO SHOW THAT WHEN WE DO THIS SORT OF UNSUBSTANTIAL MORAL POSTURING, WE DILUTE THE MEANING OF THE VALUES WE CLAIM TO HOLD. This is an idea I’ve been wrestling with since I stepped foot on campus. In my second ever column for the YDN, I lamented how “My presence as a student, much like the rest of my Yale peers, gives this ancient institution life and power and conflicts with my goal to help disadvantaged communities.” I felt that this hypocrisy, this complicity in hurting people, discredited my desire to make the world a better place.

And yet, I knew that I couldn’t just leave Yale.

I knew that the world still ran on power and status and that Yale was the ultimate staCALEB tus symbol. So DUNSON leaving Yale in an effort to What We maintain moral co n s i s te n cy Owe would be akin to acting as “one small drop of water pushing against a wave of entrenched convictions about higher education.” So what should I do about this hypocrisy?

My resolution was to simply “strive to come out on the positive side of our moral equations,” to spend my life striving to do good and not worry too much about my moral culpability in perpetuating harm. Reflecting on that idea, it now feels unsatisfactory.

There’s a tendency on this campus to lean into those sorts of tidy solutions to moral conundrums, to think deeply about how we fail to live up to our stated beliefs but then to either box the conversation up and store it away or chalk up our moral failings to humans’ inherently flawed nature in order to assuage our guilt. For most things in life, the impacts of this moral evasion are relatively benign — if I commit to working out, for example, and then skip the gym, I’m not really harming anyone except myself. But failing to live up to our values and evading personal accountability for that failure can really hurt people.

It’s moral evasion that allows Yalies to join tons of community organizations in New Haven and then abandon them — dropping projects, skipping meetings and ghosting those organizations — as

soon as the work becomes uninteresting or a more exciting extracurricular activity comes along. It’s the sort of evasion that gives rise to lines like “I can change McKinsey from the inside!” It’s the sort of evasion that allows white liberals to chant Black Lives Matter while begging for increased YPD presence on campus.

This is not to condescend. I’m just as guilty of hypocrisy as you are.

This is also not to say that we should spend our lives striving for moral perfection — it’s an impossible goal, one that will immobilize us and keep us from taking any action at all. But this is to point out how our dishonesty, inconsistency and moral slippage fails others. It is to show that when we do this sort of unsubstantial moral posturing, we dilute the meaning of the values we claim to hold. And when we dilute the meaning of those values, we undermine the credibility of our activism. We allow ourselves to skirt accountability and that keeps us from pursuing meaningful change.

This isn’t a call to change all of your actions so that they align with your values either, because there are material conditions that often prevent us from living up to our values. I might very well want to work as an organizer, but I might also choose to go into consulting because I need to pay my bills. That’s the sort of thing that can’t be easily resolved.

Instead, I am asking that we stop trying to absolve ourselves from our hypocrisies by minimizing or dismissing them.

I am asking that, if we are going to be hypocritical, we acknowledge our hypocrisy and learn to live with the harm that it may cause.

CALEB DUNSON is a sophomore in Saybrook College. His column, titled ‘What We Owe’, runs on alternate Thursdays. Contact him at caleb.dunson@yale.edu .

G U E S T C O L U M N I S T E L Y A LT M A N

A

Cruz and Knowles are speaking — don’t go

t the invitation of a conservative political organization on campus, Sen. Ted Cruz and Michael Knowles are coming to speak at Yale.

Ted Cruz has fallen in line with Trump’s claims of a fraudulent election since the beginning, leading the charge to prevent certifying the 2020 election. He opposes voter rights legislation that would expand absentee ballots, enable online voter registration and make election day a federal holiday. Instead, Cruz endorses bills that curtail access to the ballot box because he believes that expanding voting rights will cause “illegal votes” to suppress the influence of his constituents.

Michael Knowles is a popular conservative commentator and podcast host. He serves as a host for Prager University and has been featured on the Rush Limbaugh Show. On the anniversary of Jan. 6, Knowles implored us to remember “the wise men who traveled a great distance for their leader, the true leader of us all, in defiance of an unjust government.” Additionally, he has called to outlaw widespread mail-ins and ballot drop boxes, also arguing for voter ID laws and substantially shorter election seasons.

Cruz and Knowles exist in the backdrop of a larger movement against the right to vote.

This past year, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, 19 states have enacted over 33 laws making it harder to vote. These laws are often highly racially discriminatory. This is not happening randomly.

Let’s be clear: Ted Cruz and Michael Knowles are guilty of chipping away at democracy.

There is an important difference between cancel culture and defending democracy from real threats.

We should care about democracy because it is the method by which we can contest injus-

tice. All attempts to address our problems rest on sustaining democratic ideals. Our democracy is flawed. The solution is more democracy, not less. Better democracy, not plutocracy, not oligarchy, not autocracy.

ESSENTIALLY, IF YOU TREAT THIS TALK AS JUST ANOTHER FAMOUS SPEAKER SERIES IN THE IVORY TOWER, RICH WITH GLIB IDEAS YOU CAN SWIRL ABOUT IN YOUR BRAIN, YOU IGNORE YOUR DUTY TO DEMOCRACY. Neve r t h e l e ss, i n te re s te d s t u d e n ts m ay a rg u e t h a t attending this event is not an endorsement of Cruz and Knowles’ ideas. Instead, they say, the event is a chance to hear (or laugh at) interesting perspectives from the other side. After all, don’t we want free speech on college campuses? In our classrooms, hearing both sides of an idea is a virtue. It signals open-mindedness and willingness to grow.

This perspective dangerously misses the mark. In the words of political scientists Thomas Mann and Norm Ornstein, “A balanced treatment of an unbalanced phenomenon distorts reality.” Attending the event legitimizes Cruz and Knowles’ ideas as valid positions that can, in theory, be engaged in academic debate. It

slowly defangs the terror that we should feel at their attempts to overturn a democratically elected president. I want you to confront the terror. Reflect on why they are scary.

In response to the free speech supporters, I would counter that free speech is only instrumentally good insofar as it promotes a healthy democracy. Blatant lies are bad. We must draw the line in the sand to reject antidemocratic ideas.

Those that would sacrifice democracy for political influence do not deserve the veneer of academicism. Would you give Putin a platform?

Essentially, if you treat this talk as just another famous speaker series in the ivory tower, rich with glib ideas you can swirl about in your brain, you ignore your duty to democracy.

Holding fast to democracy starts at the local level by refusing Cruz and Knowles an audience. You have a method of intervention: buy tickets, but don’t attend. Refuse to legitimize the event. You signal to other Yale students, and to the organization that invited them, that democracy is non-negotiable and that you refuse to normalize the abnormal. This is what good civic action looks like. There are many ways to do this, and I am only suggesting one.

Yale is an influential cultural, political, and economic institution. Yale students, flush with that great power, hold the great responsibility to fight for a more just society and a healthy democracy. Democracy is non-negotiable.

On April 11, Ted Cruz and Michael Knowles are coming to speak at Yale. A fair number of students are considering attending.

I think this is an error.

ELY ALTMAN is a first-year in Branford College.

Contact him at ely.altman@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

NEWS

PAGE 3

“I’m very much a humanist. I’m very much pro-choice. I’m very much politically correct.” SANDRA BERNHARD AMERICAN ACTRESS

Advising isn’t working. How will Yale fix it?

BY ISAAC YU AND GAVIN GUERRETTE STAFF REPORTERS Lula Talenfeld ’25 did not hear from her advisor during the crucial first weeks of the fall semester. When she finally succeeded in tracking her advisor down, the two had a ten minute call over Zoom and have not followed up since.

“I didn’t know who my advisor was,” Talenfeld ’25 said. “She never reached out to me, ever. Then we had a little ten minute Zoom where she was like ‘it seems like you know what you’re doing’, and then we never talked again.”

In interviews with the News, dozens of Yale College students recounted similar experiences with the University’s advising system.

Many students emphasized that their advisors were friendly and willing to provide support, but that they lacked the knowledge to make recommendations on selecting courses or other academic opportunities. Others simply never met their advisors at all.

Many four-year colleges, including Yale, tout low class sizes and close student-faculty relationships as integral components of the liberal arts education. But interviews with faculty, administration and students revealed a growing impression that the state of advising at Yale is falling short of students’ needs and that the system is due for an overhaul.

“I think advising has gone downhill,” said Jay Gitlin ’71 MUS ’74 GRD ’82 ’02, a professor of history who advises around a dozen students, ranging from first years to seniors.

“Generally speaking, when I was a student, faculty met with students fairly often, and there was a sense of camaraderie. And I think that’s declined a little bit.”

His ideal advisor, Gitlin said, should act as a “uncle.” He recalled his own advisor, professor emeritus of history Howard Lomar, treating him as a member of his family.

Yale undergraduates are typically assigned a slate of advisors to guide them through course selection and help them access career and extracurricular resources. First-year advisors, typically fellows within a student’s residential college, are generally the first step. Residential college deans and heads are another source of early support, as are firstyear counselors, who are typically closest in experience to issues that underclassmen face. Rising sophomores may then choose a new fac-

ulty member to become an academic advisor or remain with their previous first-year advisor. Later on, as students begin choosing majors and concentrations, the directors of undergraduate studies in each program or department become primary advisors, as do the faculty members who ultimately serve as thesis advisors. All in all, students have access to at least half a dozen advisors during their four years at Yale.

But many students report underwhelming experiences with advising — especially with the first-year academic advisor system. Out of 35 undergraduate students asked by the News whether they found the advising system to be helpful, 30 said that they did not. Some reported that they had not expected much out of their advisors to begin with, while others said they felt let down and struggled with constructing schedules or exploring various fields on their own. Students noted that first-year academic advisors were often unable to answer questions about course selection or did not have knowledge of Yale College.

“I feel like my advisor had good intentions, but I didn’t find our meeting particularly helpful,” Cindy Li ’25 said. “After the first meeting, I didn’t really feel like it was worth reaching out for a second one.”

First-year advisors are volunteers drawn from nearly every corner of the University and are not necessarily professors. They may bring a wide range of experience to their advising, but this sometimes comes at the expense of their ability to offer specific advice for undergraduate course selection and long-term planning, students said.

“My advisor has been pretty helpful as far as navigating Yale goes, helping me explore the resources and options that Yale students have available to them such as study abroad programs,” Justin Dominic ’25 said.

“But when it comes to academic advising, I feel like they haven’t been as helpful.”

Another issue with the advising system, worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, is that students are not meeting with their advisors with the same frequency and depth.

Several students interviewed by the News have only met with their advisors once since the beginning of the year — for the mandatory initial meetings that occured in August and September.

“The first and only time we met was at the beginning of last semester,” Samuel Getachew ’25 told the News.

University administrators, Dean of Undergraduate Education Pamela Schirmeister are exploring ways to make these advising relationships less transactional while encouraging follow-up meetings.

She further emphasized the significance of understanding student needs with respect to advising, noting a possible disconnect in what students and faculty expect from the advising relationship.

“I think the faculty and the administration feel that there should be holistic advising conversations, not ‘take these six courses,’ but ‘what do you want out of your education?’”

Schirmeister said. “But my sense is that students do not want to have those conversations. And I feel in a way, what they want is something more transactional, like out of these four physics courses, how do I know which one to take?”

Questions about specific courses are often directed at first-year counselors, or FroCos. FroCo Luis León Medina ’22 explained that many of the academic needs of first-year students can be met with the help of peer-to-peer advising, with students who have had years of experience in Yale College providing first years with practical scheduling and course selection advice.

But while this system has proven helpful for many first-year students, it cannot fill all the gaps left by the current advising system, León Medina said. FroCos can provide advice based on their experience, but are limited as a group in the breadth of academic subjects on which they can offer insight.

“While the FroCo job is a team effort, there are limitations of the number of majors that a group of 8 -10 seniors has sufficient knowledge about to be able to support every firstyear properly,” León Medina wrote to the News. “Yale students love being able to provide support. However, peer-to-peer shouldn’t be the only resource for students. It shouldn’t be solely in my hands as FroCo (as someone majoring in sociology) to sway a student one way or another.”

Administrators appear to be aware of the system’s shortcomings: about five years ago, a new committee called the Committee on Advising, Placement and Enrollment was formed.

This committee, alongside various University deans and administrators,

enacted a number of policy changes, such as the shift to an early registration system as well as the removal of the signature requirement for schedule approval.

But professors such as Gitlin see the ensuing shift to online advising as harmful to the characteristically personal component of the advisor-advisee relationship. English professor Leslie Brisman specifically condemned the elimination of the signature requirement, and Schirmeister concurred, explaining that while it was intended to make advisor meetings more than just about getting a signature, instead it made the meetings stop occurring altogether.

“Now students do not need to consult us at all before more or less deciding on their programs, and even if they do, we are no longer asked to approve a program but to attest that we have spoken with the student about it,” Brisman wrote to the News in February. “Yale is still the Ivy League school with the most commitment to teaching, but the abolition of faculty advising is a blow to the values that commitment represents.”

The Committee on Advising, Placement and Enrollment is not convening in 2021-22, but the Committee on Teaching, Learning and Advising will meet. Advising was not a focus of that committee this year, Schirmeister said, but will likely be taken up by the committee in depth during the next academic year.

When considering why the advising system seems to have unraveled in recent years, Karin Gosselink, the director of the undergraduate Academic Strategies Program and a co-supervisor of the First-Generation, Low-Income Community Initiative, said that the University has not kept pace with the needs of a student body that is increasingly coming from more varied backgrounds.

Yale has undergone radical change in the diversity of its students with respect to racial and ethnic diversity, socioeconomic diversity and a diversity in past educational experience, she noted. These differences in student experience, she said, mean that the advising system must adjust as well.

“The need that’s emerging is this differential between the expectations that the old system had when we had a more homogenous student body with a more homogenous degree of experiences and the radi-

cal diversity of our student experiences,” Gosselink said.

Faculty may also be discussing the state of advising now because of the establishment of the Poorvu Center and the increased visibility of low-income students on campus.

Changing advising seems to be a process of trial-and-error and could take some years. The elimination of the signature requirement, for example, served as a reminder that a policy shift meant to strengthen the advising system — and which had seen approval in focus groups conducted by Schirmeister and another dean — can, in practice, end up having negative effects on advisor-advisee relationships.

Risa Sodi, assistant dean of Yale College and director of advising and special programs at Yale, told the News that she is working with Dean of Academic Programs George Levesque and Schirmeister to develop a summer advising plan, which they hope to finalize in the next few weeks.

“A team within the YCDO has been working on designing enhancements to advising, to be implemented as early as this summer,” Sodi wrote to the News. “A range of options is under consideration, with a focus on providing summer advising to incoming first-year students, transfer students, and Eli Whitney students, and better aligning advising with our online registration system. We hope to be able to announce some new initiatives soon.”

Sodi also acknowledged the continued role of the dean of Yale College in addressing undergraduate advising through various responsibilities. The dean is in charge of convening the Teaching, Learning and Advising Committee as well as maintaining regular contact with heads of college, directors of undergraduate studies, department chairs and the Office of Undergraduate Education. The policy agenda of the next dean will likely influence the future of undergraduate advising, she said.

Yale College Dean Marvin Chun concludes his term on June 30, 2022. His successor has not yet been announced.

Contact ISAAC YU at isaac.yu@yale.edu and GAVIN GUERRETTE at gavin.guerrette@yale.edu .

Where is Yale spending its money?

BY ALEX YE STAFF REPORTER Since the release of the University’s fiscal year 2021 endowment gains – which were the largest in recent years – Yale officials have announced a slew of new spending projects, with some totalling hundreds of millions of dollars. All of this comes as administrators begin to plan the University’s budget for fiscal year 2023.

The budget for fiscal year 2023 — which begins on July 1, 2022, and concludes on June 30, 2023 — will be officially approved during the Yale Corporation’s June meeting. But the process for planning the budget began last fall, when individual schools and administrative units presented “five-year” plans to a group of senior administrators and tenured faculty, according to Chief Financial Officer Stephen Murphy ’87.

The budget will be the first that is impacted by the endowment gains of fiscal year 2021, which saw the endowment soar to $42.3 billion — a 40.2 percent return. The University has already announced several spending commitments made possible by last year’s gains, notably the creation of funds totalling $250 million for Yale’s medical, nursing and public health schools, increases in financial aid and the addition of 45 new faculty positions in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

“The endowment is growing because of the investment return from last year, and the other area that is growing relatively fast is the clinical revenue,” Murphy said. “The other big thing that’s going on this year is COVID, the finances of the University have been impacted. We’re hoping that those revenues will be higher than they have been during this year and last year.”

While data is not yet available for fiscal year 2022, Yale reported an

operational surplus of $276 million within an overall $4.275 billion budget for fiscal year 2021.

Budget Approval Process In the fall, the individual schools’ and units’ “five-year long-range” plans were presented to Yale’s Budget Advisory Group, which includes six tenured faculty members in addition to Murphy, Senior Vice President of Operations Jack Callahan ’80 and other senior administrators. In February 2022, the schools and administrative units then submitted their budget proposals for fiscal year 2023 for consideration by University Provost Scott Strobel and the Budget Advisory Group.

Murphy explained that, for budget purposes, schools and units are assigned to one of two categories: self-supporting schools or units and centrally supported schools or units.

Self-supported schools are responsible for generating all of their own revenue and do not depend on the central University — with funds allocated by the President and Provost — for funding. These schools and units have more independence in deciding where money is spent, he said.

Centrally supported schools, meanwhile, rely on the President and Provost for some level of funding, and they request this funding as part of the annual budget process.

“The Budget Advisory Group [is] listening to understand what the priorities are of the different schools and units and … opportunities to invest in new areas or areas they might want to strengthen,” Murphy said. “They’re trying to prioritize the requests, because we always get more requests than we can say yes to.”

After the proposals have been reviewed by the Budget Advisory Group, the Provost, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer then recommend the budget to University President Peter Salovey, who

requests approval from the Board of Trustees, or Yale Corporation. The board will review and approve the budget at the June 2022 meeting.

“The Board of Trustees are all fiduciaries, and as fiduciaries, we have a legal obligation to oversee the operation of the University,” current trustee Bill Kennard LAW ’81 said. “Our job is to work closely with the administration to make sure that the financial resources that the University has are spent in furtherance of the overall longterm mission of the University.”

Spending Commitments Although the official budget for fiscal year 2023 has not yet been approved by the board, University officials have recently unveiled a slew of spending commitments.

For one, the University announced in February that the School of Public Health would become independent and that $250 million in endowment funds would be allocated for the School of Medicine, School of Nursing and School of Public Health.

During that same week, officials also announced several investments into the University’s science and engineering programs, which include the addition of 45 faculty positions as well as new construction and renovation projects to take place over the next 10 years.

Last fall, Yale also unveiled an expansion of the financial aid program, which included an elimination of the student income contribution.

Officials shared that the University would invest $3 million to support this initiative. Around the same time, Yale also announced a $52 million increase in Yale’s voluntary contribution to the City of New Haven.

This amounts to an extra $10 million for the next five years and an extra $2 million in the sixth year.

In a typical year, personnel costs make up the largest percentage of the

University’s operating expenses. For example, in Fiscal Year 2022, salaries and wages along with employee benefits represented 38 percent and 13 percent of operating expenses, respectively. Together, the two categories contributed $2.94 billion to operating expenses net of internal revenue, which totalled $4.6 billion. Other categories that fall under operating expenses include depreciation, amortization, interest and other expenses such as services, materials and supplies.

In addition to the operating budget, a separate category of Yale’s spending is grouped under the capital budget – which focuses on renovating and maintaining existing facilities along with building new ones, according to Murphy. In Fiscal Year 2022 capital spending totalled $509 million.

Sources of Revenue During fiscal year 2022, Yale saw total external revenue of $4.76 billion, according to the University’s 2022 budget book. During that year, endowment income was the largest contributor, adding $1.57 billion to the total. Medical services were the second highest, contributing $1.37 billion. Tuition, room and board also provided $453 million in net income.

Other categories of income include current use gifts and grant and contract income.

Murphy explained that two areas of growth in revenue are endowment income and clinical revenue from medical services.

Yale’s endowment income is determined by a smoothing rule, which aims to protect Yale from market volatility. The rule applies the targeted spending rate of 5.25 percent to the endowment’s year-end value from two years ago. Twenty percent of that amount is added to 80 percent of the total amount spent in the most recent fiscal year to deter-

mine the amount that Yale will spend out of its endowment. The spending amount is then adjusted for inflation and constrained so that the overall rate is at least 4.5 percent, but no more than 6 percent of the Endowment’s inflation-adjusted market value two years prior.

As such, calculations for the 2023 fiscal year’s budget will use Yale’s endowment value from the end of the 2021 fiscal year: $40.2 billion.

“The work of the investment office over the years has been a huge compliment to the school’s efforts to run a modest budget surplus and to the generous support from alumni and friends,” former Dean of the Yale School of Management Ted Snyder wrote to the News.

Murphy added that clinical revenue — revenue from the Yale School of Medicine — is growing because Yale is seeing more patients and expanding into new areas with Yale New Haven Hospital and its affiliated hospitals.

In addition to the endowment income and clinical income, Murphy explained that COVID-19 will continue to play a role in determining future revenue.

“The other big thing that’s going on this year is COVID: the finances of the University have been impacted,” Murphy said. “Some revenue sources have been depressed because of not being able to do things in person. So, for instance, we haven’t been able to have performances and athletic events with full capacity crowds.

That’s changing, we certainly hope it’s going to stay that way.”

Last month, Yale also announced a four percent tuition hike, increasing the Yale College term bill from $77,750 to $80,700. It remains unclear how much this will affect overall University revenues.

Contact ALEX YE at alex.ye@yale.edu .

PAGE 4

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

FROM THE FRONT

“You never completely have your rights, one person, until you all have your rights.” MARSHA P. JOHNSON GAY LIBERATION ACTIVIST

Professor refers 81 students to ExComm EXCOMM FROM PAGE 1 use of online and lecture materials, totaling nearly 60 percent of the class.

Thompson, who is currently in Malawi conducting fieldwork, declined to comment.

According to Thompson’s report, she noticed a pattern of copied-and-pasted answers while grading her class’s online, open-note final. Though students were allowed to consult their notes, the exam’s instructions forbade direct transcription from outside sources.

“The exam is open book and open note, but you MUST NOT work with another person while taking it,” the instructions read.

“You also MUST not copy/paste anything directly from ANY source other than your own personal notes. This includes no copy/pasting from lecture slides, from the internet, or from any of the readings. All short answers must be compiled in your own words.”

This was not the first time Thompson noticed such behavior last semester. Her class was structured around nine short, opennote quizzes administered during class but completed via Canvas.

On Oct. 22, after the fourth quiz, Thompson sent a reminder of the policy to the class via Canvas, saying that she noticed some students had been filling out the short-answer questions by “copy-pasting from various sources;” she reiterated that plagiarism is prohibited.

After noticing multiple instances of copy-pasted material on the final, Thompson downloaded the exam results and uploaded a compiled file of all the students’ responses to Turnitin.com, an assignment-submission website that includes plagiarism detection. “ In doing this, I discovered many, many more instances [of plagiarism],” Thompson wrote to Russell. “I then realized that some

students may have only done this on the final, and other students may have not done it on the final but done it earlier in the class.”

Thompson then decided to cross-examine all the quizzes given after her Oct. 22 reminder about plagiarism. This Turnitin. com algorithm ultimately produced a list of 81 names, all of which she referred to the Executive Committee.

In her email to the committee, Thompson noted that the list included a large variation in severity of students’ conduct, some of which might have been “careless study habits” in which students integrated verbatim material into their notes. However, Thompson wrote, she deemed it more appropriate for the committee to discern between the cases.

The recourse that students from the class faced varied, according to interviews with four students who were among those included on Thompson’s list.

Several students were referred to the committee because the software flagged text on their assignments, but quickly received an email that their case had been dismissed because they had not committed plagiarism. Some students received only a notification that they had been referred to the committee, and — weeks later — were notified that their case had been dismissed, though the News could not verify the number of students whose cases were dismissed.

Other students were required to prepare written statements for the committee. At least three students who sent written statements in February received notice from the committee last week giving them the option to either attend a formal hearing with the committee or receive a reprimand — an informal kind of pre-probation outcome wherein the student admits guilt and the incident is recorded on their internal record until graduation.

YALE DAILY NEWS

Thompson, who is currently in Malawi conducting fieldwork, declined to comment.

“I can’t speak directly about how many cases from this class are still unresolved,” said Committee Chair David Vassuer in an email to the News. Executive Committee proceedings are confidential.

“Our committee aims to resolve cases in an expedient manner, as we recognize that the process creates a lot of stress for students.

At the same time, our committee has experienced an unusually high number of complaints over the past few years, so we do end up with backlogs in our system.”

In the spring and fall semesters of 2020, the Executive Committee decided on 78 academic cases, according to the Committee's most recent public reports.

Of the 78, 49 students were reprimanded, 10 were placed on probation, five were suspended and 14 were found not responsible or had their charges withdrawn.

In the spring 2020 semester, three academic cases heard by the Executive Committee pertained specifically to take-home exams, with two of those students

being placed on probation. Per the report, one senior “who copy and pasted answers from the internet on a take home exam without citation” was suspended for two semesters and had to petition for reinstatement.

The Executive Committee is made up of Yale College Dean’s Office administrators, University faculty and undergraduate students.

Contact ERIC KREBS at eric.krebs@yale.edu .

Yale relaxes reinstatement requirements

AMAY TEWARI/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Unlike students who take leaves of absence, those that withdraw from Yale are not automatically granted a place at the University upon their return.

REINSTATEMENT FROM PAGE 1 semester-long leaves of absence during their time at Yale — a cap that has been temporarily lifted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic — those who opt to leave campus after the 15th day of the semester must formally withdraw from Yale College. Withdrawals can occur for academic, medical, personal, disciplinary or financial reasons, and students who withdraw are barred from campus without permission from either their residential college dean or the Dean of Student Affairs.

Unlike students who take leaves of absence, those that withdraw from Yale are not automatically granted a place at the University upon their return. Before Friday, requirements for reinstatement included an application form, two letters of support, a personal statement, interviews with members of the reinstatement committee, the equivalent of two term courses at an accredited four-year university or Yale-sanctioned community college and, in the case of students on medical withdrawal, documented treatment from a clinician.

Now, the base requirement for general reinstatement will only

include an application form, letters of support and a personal statement. Students applying for reinstatement after medical withdrawals must still receive documented treatment from a clinician and interview with either the director of Student Health, the chief of Mental Health and Counseling or their designee.

The University’s reinstatement policies have long been a lightning rod for advocacy surrounding Yale’s investment in mental health.

Last year, the weeks after the death of a Yale College student by suicide saw renewed discussion of Yale’s reinstatement policies, as alumni and current students shared their experiences and grievances with the process en masse.

Mental health advocacy groups, in particular Elis for Rachael and Mental Health Justice at Yale, have prioritized loosening University requirements for reinstatement. In a petition circulated this November, Elis for Rachael called for the University to “Eliminate costly, non-medical roadblocks to reinstatement to Yale College following a medical withdrawal.”

Willow Sylvester ’23, who has advocated for changes to Yale’s mental health policies through both Elis for Rachael and Men-

tal Health Justice at Yale, said she views the changes as a victory for the mental health advocacy groups that have called for them over the past year.

“This is definitely a win,” Sylvester said. “It would be more of a win if they could give credit to the student groups and the alumni who worked towards this. But this is going to have a tangible impact on students — not having to pay money to take courses, just being able to focus on their own recovery.”

But Sylvester noted that while she was “very, very happy” about the policy changes, she was surprised at the University’s decision not to announce them more publicly.

“It feels really disappointing that they’re not publicizing the changes, and, especially, that they’re not talking at all about the advocacy from students and from alumni and from Rachael’s loved ones about these changes,” Sylvester said.

Discussing the potential rollout of the policy in mid-March, Chun told the News that the policy changes “affect so few students” that he did not then know whether the update would be announced via an email or a change to the website. Senior Associate Dean of Strategic Initiatives and Com-

munications Paul McKinley did not respond to requests for clarification on the lack of a community-wide announcement.

The slate of changes marks the most dramatic overhaul to Yale’s reinstatement policies since 2016, when the name of the process was changed to “reinstatement” from “readmission.” The 2016 host of reforms, overseen by then-Dean of Yale College Jonathan Holloway, also included changes to reinstatement application deadlines, an elimination of the application fee for reinstatement and changes to financial aid for students who take medical withdrawals.

Unlike this round of changes, the 2016 reforms were announced in an email and preceded by an extensive report from the Yale College Withdrawal and Readmission Review Committee. The committee released a public list of recommendations.

Chief of Yale Mental Health and Counseling Paul Hoffman told the News that while the new changes to the reinstatement process have been in discussion for “some time,” the University has focused on honing specific policy updates over the past few months.

“These changes are geared toward reducing barriers to reinstatement and making it easier for students, regardless of economic status, to feel confident in requesting medical withdrawals,” Hoffman said. “The goa l is for all students who take a medical withdrawal to return and be ready to fully engage academically and socially. I think this removes a potential economic barrier to reinstatement which may not be reflective of a student’s readiness to return.”

Yale’s previous requirement that students on withdrawal complete academic courses was often viewed as a financial burden, as the University’s financial aid does not extend to courses taken at other institutions during a withdrawal.

Withdrawn students who remain away from full-time academic work for more than four terms must still fulfill coursework requirements, according to the University FAQ page. The

page also states that reinstatement may be conditional on the completion of coursework in “some circumstances,” but Chun told the News that these cases would likely be rare.

“It’s not going to be mandatory for everybody, which is the case right now,” Chun said. “I think it’s going to go a long way. I think it addresses the issue that it’s a financial burden for students on aid because Yale doesn’t provide financial aid for courses you take on withdrawal. There’s a lot of good there by just removing that requirement.”

McKinley told the News that while an interview with the reinstatement committee would no longer be a requirement for most reinstatements, students could still use those who would have interviewed them in the past — such as members of the Yale College Dean’s office — as a resource to discuss the process of reinstatement.

The decision to remove the interview with the reinstatement committee, Chun said, was intended to make the process of reinstatement “a little bit more automatic.”

“I do think that the changes to the medical withdrawal policy will make it easier for students to ask for a medical withdrawal,” Hoffman said.

Looking ahead, Sylvester said, mental health advocates plan to continue their push to further reform the reinstatement process. She pointed specifically to increasing campus access for students on withdrawal as a change that could ease the sense of alienation that she said students who withdraw often experience.

Additionally, students have long called for greater transparency around financial aid status and healthcare access during withdrawals.

"Now is not the time for activism [and] advocacy groups to have a light touch because ‘Yale is really trying,’” Elis for Rachael organizer Alicia Floyd agreed. “Now is the time to dig in and push for what's right because we might actually get somewhere.”

Yale’s full reinstatement requirements are available online.

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

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 5

FROM THE FRONT

“Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.” DOLORES HUERTA AMERICAN LABOR LEADER

Lin returns to work after investigation

YALE NEWS AND YALE DAILY NEWS

In interviews with the News, five faculty members expressed continued worry that the University had not adequately protected Lin. LIN FROM PAGE 1 tion or the NIH’s inquiry have since closed. The University had previously claimed to have “credible” information about Lin’s reporting of outside funding that necessitated an internal investigation.

University spokesperson Karen Peart confirmed to the News that

Lin returned from administrative leave on April 4 and has resumed meeting with students and trainees. She did not directly answer questions about whether the investigations from the NIH or the University itself remain open.

“In the rare situation in which a faculty is placed on administrative leave, the circumstance is specific

to the case and it is only done with very careful consideration,” Peart wrote to the News.

Lin and his lawyers could not be reached for comment. Members of Lin’s lab group declined to comment or could not be reached for this article.

Still, faculty remain concerned about the limited information the University has disclosed. Lin’s colleagues first began raising alarms in early March with a letter sent to University officials that expressed support for Lin and demanded more information about his suspension. The letter also alleged that the University had violated due process by suspending Lin without adequate input.

The University’s response letter stated that Lin had been provided with legal counsel and had been placed on leave amid the federal and internal investigations.

T h re e fa c u l ty m e m b e rs, including professor emeritus of cell biology Joel Rosenbaum, questioned whether the University would choose to suspend

faculty members under federal scrutiny in order to maintain its funding sources.

Regardless of the reasons behind the suspension, Sterling professor of immunobiology and molecular, cellular and developmental biology Akiko Iwasaki took issue with Yale’s handling of Lin’s case.

“I feel that suspending a Yale faculty member without due process, and without the conclusion of that investigation, seems unfair,” Iwasaki said. “Should any future cases like this arise, we need to know where the University stands in protecting us.”

Several other faculty members noted the possibility of other faculty being similarly suspended by the University, though all declined to speak on any specific cases.

These could be junior faculty who may not have received the same level of legal or financial assistance that a high-profile professor like Lin would, two professors added.

But the University’s reluctance to release information about faculty in suspension, Yan said, as well as the

high numbers of faculty still working at least part-time from home, would have made it difficult to know exactly how many faculty other than Lin have been suspended. Suspended faculty members themselves would be reluctant to speak out for fear of retaliation, Yan added.

“For transparency, I believe the University has an obligation to disclose how many other Yale faculty members have been investigated like Haifan Lin at the request of federal funding agencies (like NIH, NSF, DoE, etc) and what [their ethnicities are],” professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology Weimin Zhong wrote to the News. “Among those investigated, how many have lost their federal grants as a result, have been suspended by the university and have decided to leave Yale because they can no longer do research at Yale?”

The Yale School of Medicine was founded in 1810.

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

“So much is at stake”: Yale and Skolkovo SKOLKOVO FROM PAGE 1 that Skolkovo was still “too early in its development to be a robust member,” according to Bach.

Bach said that like many young business schools in emerging markets, Skolkovo’s main interest was to learn from its more established peers via partnerships with universities such as Yale. But concerns arose that Skolkovo was falling short of expectations in these partnerships.

At the time Skolkovo originally applied to be a part of the Global Network, many members were reluctant to accept it, according to Bach. Concerns about the school's readiness to join the partnership were only put to rest years later in 2019, when Skolkovo received the prestigious EQUIS accreditation for higher education institutions of management and business administration. Skolkovo was allowed to join the partnership in earnest in December 2019.

In the meantime, according to Bach, Skolkovo formed individual relationships with a number of Global Network members, including Yale. In 2015, at Skolkovo’s request, Yale and Skolkovo formed a non-degree executive education partnership.

As a part of this partnership, SOM professors were invited to teach at Skolkovo’s Moscow School of Management. Among the professors invited after the partnership’s 2015 formation were SOM Professors Shane Frederick and Jeffrey Sonnenfeld.

Frederick accepted the request,

and told the News about his 2016 trip to Moscow, where he was greeted with “white wine [and] salmon eggs” at a welcome reception. He mentioned that he had not been familiar with many of the people he met at the school, and that many only spoke Russian, making it difficult for him and other faculty to easily connect with the students at the school.

According to a syllabus obtained by the News, Frederick taught a series of sessions on marketing and behavioral economics in the summer of 2016.

He noted that the list of program participants he was instructing included not only students, but also Russian business managers and executives.

When asked for a list of attendees who participated in the Yale faculty-led courses, SOM media spokesperson Emily Gordon said that as a matter of policy, no Yale SOM program releases the names of its students.

Bach recalled to the News that participants in Yale professors’ workshops at Skolkovo included leaders from the Russian subsidiaries of a number of Western companies, including Coca Cola, Procter & Gamble, and EY. Skolkovo has delivered more than 350 programs for more than 150 corporate clients, including Russia’s largest corporations, such as Lukoil, Rosatom, and TNK BP. Sonnenfeld, on the other hand, declined the request to visit Moscow and lead a workshop at the school. By 2018, when he was supposed to visit Moscow, Vekselberg, one of Skokol-

vo’s founders, was already sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department.

In 2017, two of Skolkovo’s founders, Vekselberg and Abramovich, were identified as Russian oligarchs named by then-President Donald Trump in the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, or CAATSA. “[I] recommended that we not engage further with that institution given its founding and governance

by Russian government officials and what had become internationally sanctioned oligarchs as well as [its] questionable academic status,” Sonnenfeld wrote in an email to the News.

After consulting with experts on the Skolkovo school’s creation and governance facts, Sonnenfeld convinced his faculty colleagues who had been invited to the Moscow-based school to decline their individual opportunities to teach there in 2018. The University’s administrative leaders then conducted another review of Skolkovo, and further declined the opportunity on behalf of the institution.

“That process and outcome should be a source of school pride,” Sonnenfeld said.

However, Skolkovo remained connected to the SOM. In December 2019, Skolkovo joined the Global Network after it was nominated by member school Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, or HKUST, and approved by a vote of the deans and directors of the member schools.

The Russian school’s admission to the network meant that it and

other member schools, including Yale, could share curriculum, expertise and opportunities with students, allowing them to learn from leaders around the world. This happens through three programs: Global Network Weeks, in which students can visit other schools in the network; Small Network Online Courses, in which students can take online courses taught by professors around the world; and Global Virtual teams, in which students from different institutions engage in different projects together.

Former SOM Dean Ted Snyder told the News that he believed Skolkovo became part of the Global Network because it was one the best business schools in Russia.

In March 2022, Skolkovo’s membership in the Global Network was suspended by the Global Network’s nine-member steering committee.

While the official reason for the suspension was the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the fact that some members of the steering committee, there were other apparent causes.

According to Snyder, Skolkovo Dean Yuri Levin himself had requested that Skolkovo be suspended from the Global Network prior to the Russian invasion, as the school was only able to participate in virtual team projects, but was unable to participate in other programs and events that required students to travel to different schools in the network due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Snyder also noted that Skolkovo was experiencing an “exodus” of

students, staff and faculty, and as such would be unable to contribute meaningfully in any partnership with top business schools such as Yale. He also emphasized that in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it would be difficult for Skolkovo to run a global network program in which students from other institutions would visit Skolkovo because it would be unlikely that many students would feel comfortable visiting.

History professor Arne Westad told the News that institutions such as Yale needed to be aware of which partnerships they choose to pursue.

“One has to be vigilant on these kinds of issues,” Westad said. “So much is at stake in terms of reputation.”

But Westad noted that there are differing opinions on whether all ties with Russian institutions should be severed due to actions of the Russian government.

He mentioned that cutting off ties with these institutions may hurt people whom it would be best to stay in touch with, such as academics in Russia. On the other hand, Westad noted that unless these scholars were willing to speak up against the Kremlin, he wasn’t sure it was practical to continue fostering a relationship with them.

The Yale School of Management was first established in 1976.

Contact WILLIAM PORAYOUW at william.porayouw@yale.edu and SANCHITA KEDIA at sanchita.kedia@yale.edu .

Moderator issues memo on YLS protest MEMO FROM PAGE 1 introduced the panelists. They left the room after Stith read aloud the University’s free speech policy, but continued to loudly make noise in the hallway. Throughout the event, students can be heard chanting, cheering, stomping and yelling outside the lecture hall, muffling, if not all but drowning out, the sounds of the speakers. At times, Stith wrote, the speakers ceased talking or listening due to the disruption.

“Any formal determination that the March protest at Yale Law School did not violate Yale’s policy on Free Expression would set a terrible precedent at Yale and elsewhere,” Stith wrote. “There is no doubt that the event in Room 127 was significantly disrupted.”

According to Zack Austin ’17 LAW ’22, president of the Yale Federalist society, the professor teaching across the hall asked students to “yell” to be heard over the din.

Stith’s letter notes that protesters also disrupted another course and forced a faculty meeting to switch to a Zoom-based format. Audio of the panel confirms that the decibel level made it difficult to hear the speakers.

More than two weeks later, Dean of the Yale Law School Heather Gerken sent a strongly worded let-

ter claiming the protesters engaged in “unacceptable” behavior, but that they did not violate Yale’s free speech policy. Three days later, Stith sent her memo outlining how the protesters had violated Yale’s free speech policy. The policy not only prohibits shutting down an event, but also “disrupting” one, including interfering with a speaker’s ability to be heard and the audience’s ability to listen.

But the protesters have continued to question the Law School’s focus on the students’ disruption rather than the decision to invite Waggoner to speak.

“The First Amendment is complicated and it protects both sides of an argument,” AJ Hudson LAW ’23 said in an interview early last week. “But it seems like it’s only ever used as a tool to tell students of color, queer students, or female students to shut up.”

Stith argued that protesters should be educated about the importance of free expression on university campuses.

“As a former prosecutor, I know well that not every violation has to be an occasion for sanctions,” Stith wrote. “In my judgment we should use this moment as an opportunity to educate our students about the core importance of free expression to our academic mission—and to make

clear, as Dean Gerken has forcefully written, this can never happen again.”

In Gerken’s letter, the dean wrote that the administration would be in “serious discussion” with students about policies and norms throughout the rest of the semester.

Following substantial back-andforth about the content of the meetings and who could attend, the Law School decided to hold a preliminary meeting with Dean of Student Affairs Ellen Cosgrove and YLS’ elected student representatives.

According to a string of emails obtained by the News between student representatives and Cosgrove, there were no plans to discuss free speech at the meetings as of last week.

“Just confirming my understanding of the agenda of the meeting: 1.

The presence of police at the protests. 2. The decision to have armed police rather than unarmed security.

3. The circumstances around the presence of plain clothed officers in the law school buildings,” Cosgrove wrote in a March 26 email to student representatives. “The University’s free speech policy is a University policy and discussions about that would be appropriately directed to the Graduate and Professional Student Senate.”

However, plans for the meeting appear to have shifted in the inter-

ceding days, as Law School spokesperson Debra Kroszner said that the meeting “will cover a wide range of topics related to protests, rallies and University protocols.”

All student representatives declined to comment on the meeting, where they will decide future meeting agendas and who can attend.

On Thursday, the Graduate and Professional Student Senate met and discussed, among other topics, the March 10 protest. Two law students addressed the Senate at the invitation of Hudson, who serves as a co-chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion on GPSS. Patrice Collins GRD ’22, president of the GPSS senate, told those gathered that she had met with Kimberly Goff-Crews, vice president for University life at Yale, to discuss free speech policy at Yale Law School.

Collins added that representatives from Salovey’s office and members of the Yale Police Department will meet with students to further discuss these issues, according to Austin. Kroszner denied that members of Salovey’s office or of the YPD would meet with students. Instead, Kroszner said an administrator from Goff-Crews’ office would hold the meeting.

Austin expressed his disappointment, however, that representatives of the Federalist Society, which orga-

nized the panel, were not included in the meeting. Additionally, he took issue with the students who addressed the Senate having organized an open letter condemning the police presence at the protest.

“Obviously, I believe representatives of my chapter deserve a seat at the table when this discussion takes place, particularly if the letter-writers are invited,” Austin told the News. “I would welcome the opportunity to respectfully discuss these issues with university administrators and my fellow law students.”

But several of the protesters hoped to instead discuss why armed police were present at the event. In previous conversations with the News, Rachel Perler LAW ’22 and Henry Robinson LAW ’24 expressed their hope that any meeting with students and law school administrators would focus on the police presence at the protest.

“Organizers of the demonstration are planning to meet with members of the law school administration later this week, and we’re hoping that this issue will take center stage in our discussion,” Robinson told the News.

The Sterling Law Building was opened in 1931.

Contact PHILIP MOUSAVIZADEH at philip.mousavizadeh@yale.edu .

PAGE 6

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Yale hosts first Entrepreneurship in STEM panel

BY MANAS SHARMA STAFF REPORTER Last Thursday, Sandy Chang, associate dean for Science and Quantitative Reasoning Education, held an inaugural discussion panel titled “Entrepreneurship in STEM,” featuring three leading entrepreneurs at Yale and Harvard University.

The panel included conversations on the panelists’ journeys in STEM and within their startups, how entrepreneurship can be prevalent in STEM and advice for students interested in the field.

The panelists included Co-Director of the Yale Brain Tumor Center and founder of Cybrexa Therapeutics Ranjit Bindra ’98 MED ’07, professor of chemistry and pharmacology and founder of Proteolix Inc. Craig Crews and ENT surgeon at Harvard Medical School and lecturer of healthcare ventures at the Yale and MIT Schools of Management Ayesha Khalid.

“I fell in love with drug discovery and drug screening from an academic standpoint … and I started my first company, Helix Therapeutics, and you learn a lot from both your mistakes and successes,” Bindra said about his initial venture into entrepreneurship after completing his education.

Bindra received his undergraduate degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale College in 1998, and both his master’s and doctorate from the Yale School of Medicine in 2007. He completed his medical internship, radiation oncology residency and post-doctoral research studies at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 2012, after which he received a faculty position.

In addition to Cybrexa, Bindra founded Alphina Therapeutics, B3 Therapeutics and Helix Therapeutics, which are all biotechnology companies that work on metabolic pathways of cancers.

Bindra currently works as a physician-scientist, treating adult and pediatric brain tumors while also running a lab that focuses on finding ways to target cancer cells for

new breakthrough treatments.

“My day-to-day work includes a little bit of everything, but entrepreneurship is something that I hope all of you will take away as something that is incredibly exciting and a wonderful side distraction from the classical hierarchy of academia,” Bindra said during the panel.

Bindra provided students with insights from his entrepreneurial experience and advice for undergraduates on how to approach mentorship. He shared how he was tasked with creating pitches for his lab for competitions in order to obtain funding and underscored the importance of learning how to pitch stories and ideas not just from an academic perspective, but also from an entrepreneurial perspective when obtaining funding for ventures.

Bindra advised undergraduates that showing initiative and drive for something is important for attracting potential mentors. Once an aspiring entrepreneur has the opportunity to work with faculty or other entrepreneurs on projects, he explained that it is important to be proactive in the organization to establish great connections and improve outcomes.

Along with his professorship at Yale, Crews has a background in chemistry, which has led to the success of his biotechnology company Proteolix Inc., whose proteasome inhibitor, Kyprolis, received FDA approval for the treatment of multiple myeloma.

He has also served as an editor of Cell Chemical Biology from 2008 to 2018, and his breadth of foundership in successful biotechnology companies includes Arvinas Inc., Halda Therapeutics and Siduma Therapeutics. Crews believes that his work demonstrates the importance of answering biological questions using chemical approaches, while creating effects for patients and society.

In the panel Q&A, some students raised concerns about entering the entrepreneurial world having only bench research and theoretical learning experience. Crews responded

The Yale Institute for Global Health hosted a public panel with three former CDC directors. that it is important for students to explore various entrepreneurial positions and opportunities to understand their day-today operations, which can help inform students as to what they actually want to be involved in.

Crews added that he has seen many students in his lab and his classes shift to working with his biotechnology companies during off-time in order to explore what they would like to pursue. Crews is a proponent of using gap years and summer internships to explore these interests.

The third speaker, Ayesha Khalid, served as the clinical director of the Yale School of Medicine’s Center for Biomedical Innovation to help launch early-stage ventures and has extensive board experience at many medical organizations. Khalid obtained her bachelor’s in physiology from McGill University and completed her master’s and surgical residency in otolaryngology from Penn State University. Khalid also wished to pursue differ-

ent avenues in entrepreneurship in digital health and therefore obtained an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

“Following Sloan, I worked on a digital health startup and worked full-time for two years, while practicing surgery on the side,” Khalid added. “I learned that startups are hard, and after selling the startup, I realized it was such a tough learning to see the business model generation that happens in digital health.”

Khalid described how past work in intensive sciences could provide benefits in pharmaceutical and biomedical work. Physicians can play key roles in study designs and understanding patient outcomes for these companies, but Khalid added that these degrees are not necessary to obtain success in the entrepreneurial realm.

She also noted that mentorship is key for success, and finding mentors outside of one’s sphere of practice could provide the fastest line to success in order to learn new things and create connec-

COUERTSY OF MANAS SHARMA

tions. This is facilitated even more by the virtual world brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. The virtual world has allowed undergraduates to infiltrate many different fields, not limited to entrepreneurship, by allowing attendance at many different educational events. This fosters the cross-pollination of passions and knowledge and encourages learning by taking full advantage of the opportunities available, she said.

“I try to teach my students about how to balance relaxing and finding your center, and how we cannot be the delivery of healthcare if we are all unhealthy as clinical health providers,” Khalid emphasized. “You cannot be perfect at everything and, in this journey, you must decide what matters and excites you most.”

The Yale Science and Quantitative Reasoning department provides many panels for student information and guidance.

Contact MANAS SHARMA at manas.sharma@yale.edu .

Former CDC directors explore public health distrust at Yale talk

BY SHANDRA AHSAN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER In a time of intense scrutiny and growing distrust of the CDC, the Yale Institute for Global Health invited three former CDC directors to address how to shore up confidence in the government agency.

As part of the Institute’s Global Health Conversation Series, YIGH hosted former CDC directors Jeff Koplan, who served from 19982002; Julie Gerberding, who served from 2002-2009; and Tom Frieden, who served from 2009-2017, on a public Zoom and Facebook live attended by nearly 300 virtual audience members. The inaugural director of the Yale Institute of Global Health Saad Omer moderated the discussion and fielded questions from the audience.

Although Omer directed each audience question to all three panelists and allowed them each to respond, common themes emerged among each former director’s responses.

Ko p l a n e m p h a s i z e d t h e importance of partnership and relations in public health. He touched on both the CDC’s relationships with legislators and the public’s relationship with scientific institutions.

Koplan stressed the importance of “engagement among elected officials at the local, state, and federal levels” so that the CDC could “have them as partners moving ahead.” Underscoring the importance of these officials, Koplan asserted that elected officials have had enthusiasm and appreciation for what the CDC has accomplished in past decades. Furthermore, he recognized that some elected officials in the House and Senate have played important roles in public health policies alongside the CDC and expressed optimism about rekindling that partnership.

In his responses, Koplan also warned of the dangers of the public’s intense scrutiny of the government agency in light of the pandemic. He expressed that

the current lack of public confidence in the CDC could stunt the development and improvement of the agency.

“One of the problems we are dealing with right now is an unfortunate drop in respect for science in general, for scientific institutions, for the people that work in them, [which] is disastrous for the well-being of our country,” Koplan asserted.

“That’s not where growth is.”

U.S. News conducted a survey in May 2020 and again in October 2020 and found that trust in the CDC had dropped 10 percent in just months.

Frieden echoed many of Koplan’s concerns and highlighted the importance of using science to inform public health policies.

“It’s not just a question of science,” Frieden told the audience. “It’s a question of science and policy.”

Frieden asserted that the Trump a d m i n i s t r a t i o n ’s involvement in CDC matters was “inappropriate” and blurred the lines between science and political interest. He cited the incident in which Trump administration staff posted documents on the CDC website downplaying the effects of the pandemic.

Frieden also acknowledged the importance of allowing science to inform policy, but he stressed that the CDC does not make the policies.

“When you say follow the science, the science will lead you so far, but the science ends where a community makes a decision,” Frieden said.

Frieden said the onus is on legislators to accept science and create policies that will benefit communities, so the relationship between lawmakers and the CDC is one that needs to be fortified for the greater interest of the country.

While Frieden and Koplan focused on returning to previous principles of the CDC, G e r b e rd i n g u rge d i n te r n a l

COUERTSY OF YALE INSTITUTE OF GLOBAL HEALTH

Three leading physicians and scientist entrepreneurs led an “Entrepreneurship in STEM” panel change to sustain the perpetuation of the CDC’s mission.

She conceded that restructuring can remedy inefficiencies and bring in different kinds of talent, but ultimately foundational changes are the answer to improving government scientific institutions such as the CDC. “We have to have a much greater degree of harmonization, [including] integration of our data systems, which currently are about as integrated as a children’s sandbox,” Gerberding said.

Gerberding cited the difficulty of obtaining hospitalization data at the onset of the pandemic due to a lack of centralized data to illustrate the importance of data integration. Before the emergency health declaration, the CDC did not have the authority to require health systems across the nation to report COVID19 hospitalizations and deaths.

Consolidating data from nearly 700 health systems across the country posed a serious challenge to the CDC, and Gerberding cited this as support for a national public health system.

The lack of data integration caused confusion about death and hospitalization numbers in the first weeks of the pandemic, which opened the CDC to become the subject of many conspiracy theories. Social media posts claimed that the CDC was adding deaths to the national count in order to incite panic amongst the public; however, a lag in reporting and data collection contributed to the unusual and inconsistent numbers.

Towards the end of the discussion, Omer cited a Feb. 8, 2020 survey conducted by Yale on attitudes toward the pandemic. The survey asked participants who they would like to hear pandemic-related information from. Overwhelmingly, participants stated they wanted to hear from the director of the CDC. Omer asked the former directors what could be done to restore this pre-pandemic level of faith and trust in the CDC. “The CDC needs to speak regularly to people directly,” Frieden said. “Trust is built a teaspoon at a time and lost buckets at a time.”

Gerberding echoed this sentiment and emphasized that

information to the public should come directly from the scientists “so it doesn’t look like something has come down from the mountain and is being disseminated into the valley.”

In response, Koplan again affirmed the importance of collaboration between municipal, state and federal institutions.

Moreover, Koplan advocated for the modernization of the agency.

He said that individuals who possess novel skills in data analytics must be recruited along with experts in technology and social media in order to effectively reach the public. However, Koplan stressed that these changes would only be possible with consistent and predictable funding, something heavily lacking at the CDC currently.

“The job of public health can be frustrating, underpaid, tiring,” Omer conceded in closing. “But it is never, ever meaningless.”

T h e h ea d q u a r te rs o f t h e Center for Disease Control and Prevention is located in Atlanta, Georgia.

Contact SHANDRA AHSAN at shandra.ahsan@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 7

ARTS

“No women can call herself free who does not have control over her body.” MARGARET SANGERE AMERICAN ACTIVIST

“Succession” star Jeremy Strong ’01 sits for sold-out talk

BY JORDAN FITZGERALD AND CAMILLE CHANG STAFF REPORTER AND CONTRIBUTING REPORTER When Jeremy Strong ’01 was a student at Yale, he nearly bankrupted the Dramat to bring his favorite actor to campus. Twenty years later, Strong returned to campus to deliver a talk about his own acting career.

Kathryn Lofton, professor of religious studies and American studies, moderated the question

and answer session, which convened in Sudler Hall on April 1.

Strong, best known for his role on the hit HBO show “Succession,” spoke for almost two hours and answered questions from both Lofton and the audience. After the talk concluded, an emotional Strong took photos, signed autographs and then went out to dinner with a select group of students involved with Yale Theater.

James Barringer ’23 organized the event and secured funding from the Elizabethan Club and the Trapha-

gen Alumni Speaker Fund. Trumbull College, Strong’s residential college, provided a guest suite to serve as his home base on Friday.

“To learn about Jeremy was to not only gain a window into thinking about ‘Succession’ but also a window into thinking about Yale, about in-groups and out-groups, about belonging and perseverance,” Barringer said.

Yalies must have shared Barringer’s passion. Tickets to the event — which was nicknamed “Kenchella” after Strong’s charac-

JORDAN FITZGERALD/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Strong, best known for his role on the hit HBO show “Succession,” spoke for almost two hours and answered questions from both Lofton and the audience.

ter, Kendall Roy, on “Succession” — sold out in 44 seconds. Hopeful attendees lined up almost three hours before the talk commenced.

Audience member Jordan Romano ’25 was among the first people to arrive at Sudler Hall, partly to secure a front-row seat and partly out of sheer anticipation for the event.

“He had such gravitas as Kendall Roy, and to see an alum of Trumbull College, my college, on the screen is really impactful,” Romano said. “I guess we’re all here because of the legend of Jeremy Strong.”

Audience members ranged from curious actors to Strong’s own father, but it was clear that all 200-something attendees held onto Strong’s every word. He received a standing ovation at the conclusion of the event.

Along with “Succession,” in which he has starred since 2018, Strong has appeared in Ava DuVernay’s “Selma,” Adam McKay’s “The Big Short” and Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”

Strong went viral after the New Yorker published a profile of the actor in December, highlighting — even deriding — the man’s method acting and his devotion to his craft.

Barringer said the profile inspired him to secure Strong as a Yale speaker. He reached out to Strong’s publicity team shortly before Christmas. After taking Lofton’s “Celebrity, Politics, and Power” course in Fall 2021, Barringer felt Lofton would be best suited to moderate the talk.

Lofton said the profile also motivated her to join the event team.

“The celebrity profile is a new political tool,” Lofton wrote in an email to the News. “Jeremy Strong is an electrifying artist who defines what acting is in the twenty-first century.”

For many student actors and theater-makers, the event also served as an educational opportunity to hear a master of their craft talk about his experiences.

Adam Shaukat DRA ’22 said he was motivated to go to the talk primarily because he was interested in Strong as an artist.

“It’s just good practice as an artist to learn from and try to understand the processes, journeys and energetic frequencies of an artist who has achieved this thing that we call commercial

success that a lot of us are pursuing,” Shaukat said.

Barringer agreed with Shaukat, noting that Strong — as someone who attended Yale on financial aid and did not achieve mainstream success until he was past his 20s— is an especially inspiring figure.

Lillian Wenker ’23 served as house manager of the event. She emphasized Strong’s physicality and intellectualism as a performer as well as how he addressed the challenges of making art at Yale and how to ease them.

“I think the common narrative is that you can be creative or be academic and you can be for Yale or against Yale and he proved that you can do both,” Wenker said.

Both Barringer and Wenker discussed the intimacy they felt with Strong as he spoke. Barringer said he experienced a sense of “tunnel vision” with Strong at the center, and Wenker stressed the rarity of witnessing someone “who is so vulnerable and so present.”

Barringer noted that the event was important for both performers and non-performers alike because of fundamental questions of how one views and presents themself to the outside world. He said that these questions are particularly resonant for college students who are still reckoning with their identities and ambitions.

Strong has not been back to New Haven since he was a college student. He reportedly spent his time on campus before the talk wandering Trumbull College and exploring the Elizabethan Club.

Though Strong did not directly tell the News why he decided to return to Yale, Barringer speculated on his motivation.

“I would imagine [Strong] was eager to provide a meaningful experience for students,” Barringer said. ”I think his returning to campus was an act of paying it forward and generously giving the next generation an opportunity to have such an experience with a campus special guest.”

Strong was an English major during his time at Yale.

Contact JORDAN FITZGERALD at jordan.fitzgerald@yale.edu and CAMILLE CHANG at camille.chang@yale.edu .

Toto Kisaku: “Risking it All”

BY ILANA ZAKS CONTRIBUTING REPORTER On Tuesday, the Schwarzman Center will welcome award-winning playwright Toto Kisaku to speak about his experiences creating art as a way of survival.

Detained for putting on plays criticizing the Congolese government, Kisaku arrived in the United States in late 2015 seeking political asylum, which he was granted in March 2018. His one-man play, “Requiem For An Electric Chair,” which he wrote upon his arrival in America, tells the story of his persecution and eventual exile from Congo and opens with his interview with a U.S. immigration officer. Through this narrative, Kisaku shares the story of his arrest, imprisonment and near-death in Congo and the way art ultimately saved his life. When he was in illegal detention, Kisaku wrote: “Basal’ ya Bazoba” — which translates to “stupid workers” — about children who are accused of witchcraft. This story provided some positivity that helped him cope during his imprisonment.

“The guy who saved my life was one of the people who identified himself through the piece,” Kisaku said. “He saw that piece and saved me. Putting the story on stage in the theater felt the most honest way to present my story and was my only weapon to tell my story.”

In his work, Kisaku explores themes of transgression, oppression and poverty, often challenging the boundaries between performance and daily life, which allows his audience to identify with his stories.

Kisaku emphasized the role of the artist in protesting unjust political practices.

“Today, a group of people is deciding what kind of democracy the world should take. For me, that’s a way of imposing the word ‘dictatorship,’” Kisaku said. “[Artists] are not breaking rules, we are just trying to put a piece of wood under an unbalanced table.

But there are a group of people who say the table should be unbalanced to shift power towards them. The artist is not making art to destroy the world or to lead people in a bad direction.”

The event is hosted by the Schwarzman Center alongside the Yale Council of African Studies and will take place in the Center’s Underground.

Jennifer Newman, Associate Artistic Director of the Sc hwa rz m a n C e n te r, s a i d Kisaku was a perfect speaker for the YSC spring season.

“Centering artistic disciplines as a way of creating space for interdisciplinary collaborations and conversations underscores our programming at YSC,” Newman said. “Kisaku is an artist whose multi-layered work exemplifies the arts and ideas approach. Collaborating with campus partners like CAS is essential to uplifting and amplifying the incredible breadth of work happening at Yale.”

Ultimately, Kisaku and Newman hope that students will be encouraged to look outside their comfort zone and turn their attention to what is happening in the world around them. For Kisaku in particular, it’s important that students are made aware of Congo’s political and economic climate rather than the tourism for which it is famous.

For Newman, storytelling is a way of communicating and evaluating the role of truth in society.

Yale Schwarzman Center hosts award-winning playwright Toto Kisaku.

“When I think about the role that storytelling plays in our understanding of the world we live in, I think that specifically playwrights get into a question and explore those questions through scenarios. Specifically, now, we’re living in a world, where critical race theory is being put up, and works are being censored in particular counties. I think as an artist, “Risking it all” totokisaku_

bw_CourtesyOfIlanaZaks is an important way of evaluating the role of the storyteller in African traditions, and seeing how shared values are communicated through the storyteller.”

K isaku also emphasized the importance of the arts in today’s difficult political climate and in combating those who censor words.

“They are showing how the world is impacted by the sys-

COURTESY OF OF ILANA ZAKS

tem,” Kisaku said. “That’s why political figures are afraid of artistic expression and of leaving space for artists to express themselves and how they see the world. The theater is telling us directly who we are, who we could be, and who we should be.”

Kisaku established the K-Mu Theater in 2003.

Contact ILANA ZAKS at ilana.zaks@yale.edu .

PAGE 8

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

BULLETIN BOARD

EMILY CAI is a first-year in Pauli Murray College.

Contact her at emily.cai@yale.edu .

TORI LU is a sophomore in Silliman College.

Contact them at victoria.lu@yale.edu .

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

NEWS

PAGE 9

“Being the first woman speaker and breaking the marble ceiling is pretty important.”

NANCY PELOSI SPEAKER OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Alders approve new Yale contribution plan

BY SYLVAN LEBRUN STAFF REPORTER The Board of Alders voted Monday night to grant final approval to a historic new agreement between Yale and New Haven, which will increase the University’s voluntary contribution by $52 million over the next six years.

This change comes after years of activism by local unions and community organizations, which demanded that Yale contribute more to its home city. In addition to the increased contribution, the deal includes provisions for a new Yale-funded Center for Inclusive Growth, the conversion of a portion of High Street into a pedestrian walkway and a commitment

by Yale to offset all city revenue lost on buildings taken off the tax roll.

The new six-year agreement between Yale and the New Haven city government was first announced at a press conference last November. Just three weeks after a favorable vote from the finance committee, the full Board of Alders has now unanimously approved the deal.

Five alders spoke in support of the deal at the meeting, although almost all expressed that it is only a first step — and a hard-fought one at that.

“The city can use the money, so I’m glad for the cash and grateful to the people who made it happen,” said Ward 10 alder Anna Festa. “But it’s also upsetting that we must always wheel and deal like this, and in the end always have to give something up … I feel like our hands get tied when dealing with these types of negotiations. And it’s a take it or leave it type of situation.”

In her speech to the board, Festa shared her concerns about the “loopholes” and unanswered questions in the deal as it currently stands. She shared that she was troubled by a lack of clarity regarding what will happen after the set term of the deal is up, “because we still need the money after six years.”

Festa warned of the reversion of Yale’s voluntary contribution to what she called the “pins” currently being paid to the city annually — $13 million out of a $42.3 billion endowment. That figure increases by $10 million for the first five years and only $2 million in the sixth, and the recompensation policy ends after six years, both of which are of concern to Festa.

In response to complaints regarding Yale’s voluntary contribution, University officials have emphasized that Yale’s voluntary payments already were more significant than those of its peer institutions prior to this new ideal.

Other alders spoke on the importance of continued activism and collaboration to ensure Yale continues to contribute to the city beyond the six-year scope of the commitment. “[This new deal], in my point of view, is a down payment,” said Ward 14 alder Sarah Miller. “We need more money from the University in order for the city to function, and I am committed to working with the community to keep pushing until we get what we need.”

Ward 22 alder Jeanette Morrison, whose ward includes both Yale properties and permanent Dixwell residents, shared that, despite its flaws, this agreement is central to her goal as a city leader

to “close the gap between this town and the University.”

“I’m a lifelong resident, 54 years old, and there’s always been the unsaid rule that Yale individuals and city individuals should not involve themselves with one another,” Morrison said. “So to see something like this happen, to see that the University sees the importance of the city, sees the importance of these residents … To have this money be given to the city in order for our city to continue to grow is definitely a step in the right direction.”

Ward 25 alder Adam Marchand reported community feedback from the March 14 finance committee meeting on the new deal to the committee. Marchand said that the public wants clear communication from the city and University to ensure the “proper implementation” of all four components of the deal.

Overall, Marchand said, residents urged approval of the commitment, which they saw as “hard-won progress” by community activists. However, central to the conversation was the “sizable need for additional future support and investment in the community

by New Haven’s most prominent institutional partner.”

“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 New Haven Rising organizer Marika Phillips in her speech to the committee last month. “We’re going to need Yale to increase their voluntary pay much more.”

KAREN LIN/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Although the Board voted unanimously in favor of the new deal between Yale and the city, some shared reservations about what the future will hold.

Regarding the proposed Center for Inclusive Growth, Festa noted that the finance committee had not yet received a “rough draft” of the plans. She emphasized that members of the Board of Alders and other city leaders should be included in the decision-making process for the new center.

Kerwin Charles, dean of the School of Management, will preside over the new center, which Yale will establish with an additional $5 million funding base.

University President Peter Salovey said in November that the Center’s programming will be designed to guide “the problems and challenges of urban centers like the city of New Haven in the current age,” encouraging collaboration between Yale students and faculty and New Haven community members.

Another crucial component of the deal is the conversion of the block of High Street between Elm and Chapel Streets, which passes

by Old Campus, into a pedestrian walkway. These renovations will be funded by Yale, but the street will remain under city ownership as a public space.

Festa reminded the board that the city would lose the revenue from 30 metered parking spaces as a result of this conversion, arguing that this would also increase the difficulty of finding parking spaces downtown.

Festa clarified that despite her concerns, she supported the plan’s immediate approval.

Yale’s tax-exempt properties in New Haven were recently valued at $4.2 billion.

Contact SYLVAN LEBRUN at sylvan.lebrun@yale.edu .

Yale considers increased Ukrainian admissions

BY SARAH COOK, JORDAN FITZGERALD AND WILLIAM PORAYOUW STAFF REPORTERS Few high school seniors open their acceptances in a war zone.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February, instigating a war that the International Committee of the Red Cross has deemed a “humanitarian crisis.” In the month between the Russian invasion and Yale’s release of its admissions decisions for the class of 2026, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions looked to increase the number of Ukrainian students admitted into the class, according to Vice President of Global Strategy Pericles Lewis.

“We are looking carefully at Ukrainian students in the course of admissions, to the college and to other parts of the University,” Lewis told the News. “The number is obviously not large relative to the need of the Ukrainian people.

But I do hope that [there] will be some expansion of the number of Ukrainians on campus next year.”

All of the schools at the University are looking into admitting more Ukrainian students, Lewis added, though he does not think the admissions rate for Russian students will see any change in the near future. Lewis also said that Yale hopes to allow more Ukrainian visitors on campus, but that will most likely not take place until the fall.

Dean of Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid Jere-

miah Quinlan told the News that he cannot disclose the number of Ukrainian applicants, or students from any particular interest group or country, admitted on March 31.

But in an email to the News, Pavlo Kononenko — who serves as the director of college counseling at Ukraine Global Scholars, a nonprofit supporting Ukrainian high school students in their quest to attend elite boarding schools and colleges — wrote that two students from Ukraine Global Scholars were accepted into Yale, which is similar to the number of students accepted in the past few years.

The two admitted students still have to decide whether or not they will matriculate to Yale or choose other universities. It is unclear if more students were accepted independent of Ukrainian Global Scholars.

Quinlan said Yale applied the same rigorous admissions criteria to applicants from Ukraine and the rest of the world.

“We took a careful look at the students who applied from Ukraine this spring, recognizing the unique hardships these students are enduring,” Quinlan wrote in an email to the News.

“But our approach here was the same as for students from any part of the world dealing with acute or ongoing challenges.”

Quinlan added that Yale consistently receives applications from countries facing signifi-

cant military or political conflicts.

He cited Afghanistan, Myanmar, Rwanda, Syria and Lebanon specifically as some of these regions.

In general, he noted, the University is looking to increase its involvement in initiatives that recruit students from war-torn countries. According to Quinlan, Yale has partnered with institutions in the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, or COFHE — a group of schools including Harvard and Princeton which have committed to meet the full demonstrated financial need of their students — to explore a “cohort model” for matching refugee applicants with schools like Yale during and after crises.

In March, current Ukrainian students reached out to meet with Quinlan and address the extraordinary challenges Ukrainians applicants have faced even before the war.

Quinlan said he had a “productive meeting” with his office’s director of international admissions as well as two Ukrainian students — Oleksii Antoniuk ’24 and Yuliia Zhukovets ’23 — who he notes have become “strong and outspoken representatives of their homeland and culture.”

Zhukovets told the News that the meeting with Quinlan was a “broader conversation” about the necessity of having more students from countries where war is happening. At the meeting, she,

along with Antoniuk, shared how Ukrainian students can improve the Yale community and why attending Yale can be beneficial for Ukrainian students. Zhukovets said that representatives from the admissions office told them that they understand that the number of applicants and quality of applications from Ukraine will decrease due to the war.

She added that the conversation was focused on how current students and alumni can help Ukrainians applying to Yale increase their likelihood of getting in. Zhukovets said that at the meeting, the representatives from the Office of Undergraduate Admissions told Antoniuk and her that they would like to meet with them again once this admissions cycle ended.

“The current students have committed to helping us communicate with admitted Ukrainian students and support their transition to Yale and have also connected us with their contacts at Ukraine Global Scholars,” Quinlan wrote in an email to the News.

Antoniuk told the News he viewed some admissions data on Ukrainian students after he and Zhukovets’ initial meeting with Quinlan, and that he considered this year “groundbreaking” in terms of the admission of Ukrainian students.

“I am pleasantly surprised by how accessible [and] how helpful

the admissions office here at Yale is,” Antoniuk said. “It’s just incredible.”

Antoniuk, who was a part of the Ukraine Global Scholars program and now serves as a mentor within the organization, said he had a “pleasant” experience with the program and is glad to see it now connecting with Yale.

Antoniuk explained that obstacles have historically prevented Ukrainian students from being recruited by Yale, including poor English-speaking skills and weak formal education resulting from poorly-funded educational institutions. He noted that his goal was twofold — to increase the number of students who become eligible and willing to attend the University.

One way to do this, Antoniuk explained, was for current Ukrainian students to reach out to admitted Ukrainian students following decision day, because “it is much easier for me and for other [students] at Yale to connect with Ukrainians than for the Yale admissions office to [do so].”

Admitted students must submit their matriculation decisions

by May 2.

Contact SARAH COOK at sarah.cook@yale.edu, JORDAN FITZGERALD at jordan.fitzgerald@yale.edu, and WILLIAM PORAYOUW at william.porayouw@yale.edu .

Reshma Saujani chosen as 2022 Class Day speaker

BY SARAH COOK AND ANIKA SETH STAFF REPORTERS Reshma Saujani LAW ’02, Girls Who Code founder and lauded advocate of women’s economic and academic empowerment, will be this year’s Class Day speaker, the University announced on Monday.

Saujani, who has spent most of her career as a women’s rights advocate, will speak at the annual event on May 22 at 2 p.m. on Old Campus to celebrate the Yale College class of 2022. Commencement will take place on May 23 for the class of 2022 and on May 14 for the class of 2020. In the announcement, Saujani said she is looking forward to her return to Yale and is excited about the future the class of 2022 graduates are going to be a part of building.

“I am thrilled to return to campus and be inspired by the graduating class’ resilience, bravery, and determination,” Saujani said. “We are at a pivotal moment in history. We have a once-ina-lifetime opportunity to radically reimagine business, culture and advocacy, to redesign our systems and structures for a post-pandemic world. I already see Yale graduates stepping up and demanding better futures for themselves, our country, and our world. It is an honor to celebrate this milestone with them.”

A first-generation American, Saujani grew up in Illinois. She attended the University of Illinois and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government before arriving in New Haven to attend Yale Law School. After graduation,

Saujani worked as an attorney and political organizer, later running for the United States Congress in 2010 and serving as New York City’s deputy public advocate.

In 2012, Saujani founded the organization Girls Who Code after noticing gender imbalances in computer science classes while visiting schools during her campaign for the House of Representatives. The organization aims to support young women in technology and has thus far taught over 500,000 girls about computer programming virtually and in-person. Girls Who Code is working to achieve its goal of closing the gender gap in new entry-level tech jobs by 2030. In 2019, Girls Who Code was named

by Forbes as the most innovative nonprofit company.

Now, Saujani has served on the Board of Overseers at Harvard University since 2019 and has been recognized as one of Fortune’s “Greatest Leaders” in its “40 under 40” list. In addition, WSJ Magazine named her the “Innovator of the Year,” and Forbes named her one of the “Most Powerful Women Changing the World.”

Saujani is also an author of the bestselling book “PAY UP: The Future of Women And Work (And Why It’s Different Than You Think,” which was published in March. She gave a Ted Talk entitled “Teach girls bravery, not perfection” in 2016 that has gained over five million views. She also founded the Marshall Plan for Moms in January 2021, which she was named Leader of the Year in the inaugural

Anthem Awards for. The Marshall Plan for Moms aims to help advocate for policy to support the work of women in and out of the home.

On Twitter, congratulations for Saujani flowed in, ranging from fellow authors to individuals previously in attendance at one of Saujani’s speeches to New York congresswoman Grace Meng.

“They’re lucky to have you,” Meng wrote on Twitter in a reply to Saujani’s own tweets.

Past Class Day speakers have included writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie GRD ’08 and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton LAW ’73.

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

PAGE 10

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

SPORTS

“I am beyond happy to know that I will be playing the rest of my career with Bills Mafia.” STEFON DIGGS BUFFALO BILLS WIDE RECEIVER

Both Bulldogs best Brown Bears

MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM

Each Yale tennis team dropped just one match to Brown last weekend. They hope to carry the momentum as they take Princeton and Penn this weekend.

TENNIS FROM PAGE 14 On the women’s side however, the Bulldogs cracked into the national rankings at No. 67.

They are joined in the rankings by Princeton at No. 47 and Columbia at No. 58.

This weekend, the women will host Princeton (6–9, 2–0) on Saturday and Penn (10–8, 0–1) on Sunday. The men will hit the road and take on Princeton (14–6, 0–1) on Saturday and Penn (14–4, 1–0) on Sunday.

“Princeton and Penn are both very tough opponents, and we will be focusing on what we have all season and that is just continuing to improve every time we step on the court,” Kahan said.

This week, the teams will practice outside and indoors, watch film from their conference-opener matches and focus on collaborating as a team and continuing to push one another to improve on the court.

Contact GRAYSON LAMBERT at grayson.lambert@yale.edu

Elis to play Harvard this weekend W LACROSSE FROM PAGE 14 Throughout the season, the Bulldogs have remained composed regardless of the score and how the games have started.

Against Brown, Yale started the game down 4–0, the Bulldogs came back quickly, scoring 10 unanswered goals late in the first quarter and throughout most of the second. The Bulldogs played great team lacrosse to get back into the game and take the lead, as five of the goals in their 10 goal run were off of assists. Fallon Vaughn ’25 got one assist, while Liv Penoyer ’23 and Taylor Everson ’25 each got two.

After the 10-goal run, there was a lot more back and forth, but Yale ended up taking the victory 15–13, holding onto the 14–10 lead they had early in the fourth. For Brown, junior middie Mia Mascone carried the offense scoring two goals early in the first. By the end of the game, she had netted five goals and put up an assist.

“Brown came out strong and got us on our heels early. Our women were able to shift the momentum starting with Jenna Collignon ’25 and Taylor Lane ’25 on the draw,” head coach Erica Bamford remarked.

The freshmen on the team have provided Yale with the spark they have needed, as 12 of Yale’s 15 goals came from rookies. Lane and Vaughn led the scoring with four goals apiece,

along with Collignon, who scored three in the matchup.

The Bulldogs saw significant success off the draw as well, winning 22 to Brown’s 10. There were only 12 ground balls picked up in aggregate throughout the game, with Yale and Brown splitting them evenly.

Yale’s success off the draw demonstrated a significant improvement compared to last week, where Penn won 17 to Yale’s eight.

On the defensive end, the Blue and White showed off their grit by disrupting the flow of Brown’s offense, holding the entire team to two assists, only allowing 25 shots, 19 of which were on cage.

Goalie Clare Boone ’23 made six saves, bringing her tally up to 54 for the season.

Though sitting atop the Ivy standings at the midseason point is promising, the work isn’t over yet.

“I'm so proud of how our team gritted out back-to-back Ivy wins against Penn and Brown. In both games, we competed really hard and executed our game plan. We're just going to continue working hard and carry this momentum into our next game against Army on Tuesday,” Boone said.

The women’s lacrosse team’s next game will be against Harvard at 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 9 at Reese Stadium.

Contact RYAN VAKIL at ryan.vakil@yale.edu

MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM

10 unanswered goals late in the first half was enough to put the Bulldogs ahead of the Bears last weekend.

Golf teams travel GOLF FROM PAGE 14 ally among NCAA Division I golf squads — making them the highest-ranked Ancient Eight squad.

In recent weeks, the Bulldogs have posted competitive results.

After winning the Ford Invitational in Georgia by placing first with a score of 585, the Bulldogs have earned two top-five finishes. The two fourth-place results came at the Low Country Intercollegiate in South Carolina during the weekend of March 14 and the Chattanooga Classic in Tennessee during the spring break weekend of March 21.

“Woodmont, the course we are playing at the Hoya Invitational will be a really good track for our team as we have a strong game off the tee as well as around the greens,” captain Ami Gianchandani ’23 wrote to the News. “This will definitely be one of the most challenging courses we will play this year, but we are up for the test and excited to cap off our regular season this weekend and start preparing for the Ivy League Championship.”

The Ivy League Championship, the Bulldog’s final event of the season, will take place in Ringoes, New Jersey on April 22 through April 24.

The men’s team still have three competitions left in their season, including the Princeton Invitational, hosted by the eponymous Ivy, where they will face off against No. 152 Harvard, No. 193

Princeton, No. 201 Columbia, No. 239 Dartmouth and No. 263 University of Pennsylvania. According to an April 6 Golfstat report, the Bulldogs are currently ranked No. 166 nationally.

Gabriel Ruiz ’24 noted that he is “excited for Princeton” and that with the forecasted good weather, it “should be a great weekend.”

Over spring break, the Bulldogs tied with UC Irvine for sixth place at the UC San Diego Invitational

on Monday, March 21 and Tuesday, March 22. The Bulldogs were one of two East Coast schools present at the competition and played this event two weeks after placing 12th at the Wake Forest Invitational in North Carolina.

The men's next competition will be the home Yale Invitational next Saturday, April 16.

Contact HAMERA SHABBIR at hamera.shabbir@yale.edu.

COURTESY OF YALE ATHLETICS

The women's golf team ranks No. 75 nationally, the best in the Ivy League.

Yale goes 1–2 to Big Red BASEBALL FROM PAGE 14 Yale proceeded to have a monstrous six-run seventh that began with another RBI single from Chatfield. After another run later that inning, third baseman Carson Swank ’23 stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded. As the ball sailed over left field, his grand slam propelled the Bulldogs forward to a 9–2 lead. Despite this strong performance, the Big Red countered with their own offensive success in the same inning, scoring eight runs as a result of four walks, a single, two doubles and a home run.

“We were just pressing too much,” Atkinson said about the Bulldogs’ losses. “We were too caught up, trying to do too much and just not being in the moment. We were getting caught up in the pressure of the considerations of each game, and not just focusing on the task at hand, which is for each of us to do our individual jobs.”

Cornell wrapped up the game with a two-RBI single in the eighth inning. Despite having the bases loaded in the top of the eighth and another opportunity to score in the ninth, the Bulldogs came up short in their quest for a comeback. They lost 9–12.

However, the Elis were able to close the weekend with a comfortable 18–5 win on Sunday that came as a result of efficient offensive performances. While the Blue and White yielded a few runs to Cornell in late innings, the Bulldogs dominated throughout the game both at the plate and on the mound. At one point during the sixth inning, the Eli’s led 17–0.

Following the weekend’s pattern, Yale struck first. The Bulldogs scored their first run in thrilling fashion with a double steal that involved captain Mason LaPlante ’22 and two-way player Shaw, who was both the game’s starting pitcher and designated hitter. After scoring, Shaw pitched a clean 1–2–3 bottom of the first inning. The first-year from Richardson, Texas was outstanding throughout the game, allowing only two runs through six innings while also contributing four runs as a hitter.

“This year has definitely been the most locked in I’ve been on both sides of the ball,” Shaw said. “I usually don’t hit and pitch in the same game, so to be able to do that on Sunday was definitely a test to see if I could

really balance [them] the way I think I can. The toughest part was making sure that I separated the two, and didn’t let the results of one pour into the process of the other. I thought that I did a pretty good job of separating, and I think that is what’s going to help me for the rest of the year.”

Other players had strong performances at the plate on Sunday. Catcher Jake Gehri ’22 showed spectators that he had fully shaken off his early season rust with a strong six-RBI performance, which included a solo homerun and two singles.

Chatfield also demonstrated his ability with a two-RBI homerun in the second inning. Atkinson went 2–3, Swank went 3–6 and middle infielder Jeff Pierantoni ’24 went 2–4.

Despite the series loss against Cornell, the Bulldogs remained sharp both defensively and on the basepaths. Yale stole 11 total bases in the three games against the Big Red, further solidifying its position as the league's leader in stolen bases with 43. The Bulldogs are also ranked first in the conference in fielding percentage, properly handling batted or thrown balls 97.3 percent of the time.

“With base running, it’s no secret that we have really fast guys up and down the lineup,” captain LaPlante said. “Honestly, every team we play against throughout the country knows

that we have built up that reputation [of high quality baserunning]. It’s the same with defense in that it’s working on it every day. It’s making sure that at practice that we have the utmost focus on improving even though we’re already really good at those areas. You can’t be good unless you work at it, and that’s what we’ve done.”

The Bulldogs will now look to gain winning momentum this week as they prepare for a midweek match-up against Fairfield. The first pitch of the game against the Stags will be thrown at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, April 6 in Fairfield’s Alumni Baseball Diamond. The last time these two squads faced off was in April 2019, which resulted in a narrow 9–10 loss for the Elis.

“We are looking forward to just getting better,” Shaw said about the team’s upcoming game. “We were kind of on a hot streak before, and those Saturday games kind of cooled it down a little. Now, we’re looking to start it back up and we’re trying to take Fairfield, like any game. We are going to take our lessons from this weekend, prepare, practice, and try to get better in the game on Wednesday.”

After playing against the Stags, the Bulldogs will spend their next two weekends at home for threegame conference series match-ups against Dartmouth and Brown.

Contact WEI-TING SHIH at wei-ting.shih@yale.edu.

MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM

The Bulldogs will look to rebound this weekend as they host Dartmouth in a three-game series.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 11

NEWS

“The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern.

Every class is unfit to govern.” LORD ACTON POLITICIAN

Students critical of impending Cruz visit

BY LUCY HODGEMAN STAFF REPORTER Ted Cruz’s forthcoming visit to Yale has underscored a divide on campus between an organization stressing a need for political diversity and those critical of the conservative Texas senator’s often controversial career.

Cruz will record an episode of Verdict, the political podcast he hosts with Michael Knowles ’12, at the Omni Hotel on April 11. The sold-out event will be hosted by the William F. Buckley, Jr. Program in partnership with the Young America’s Foundation’s Irving Brown Lecture Series. In the days following the event’s announcement, students have called into question the Program’s decision to welcome the iconoclast conservative to campus.

“That some perspectives diverging from those held commonly may have value, does not mean that perspectives have value because they diverge from the majority,” Texan student Naomi D’Arbell Bobadilla ’22 told the News. “This is especially worth remembering when the majority in question is the majority of people who did not enable a rightwing insurrection, which Ted Cruz did.”

Cruz will be the latest in the Program’s string of controversial invites. A loyal ally of former President Donald Trump, Cruz questioned the legitimacy of then-President-elect Joseph Biden’s election on the Senate floor on Jan. 6, 2021, shortly before more than 2,000 rioters laid siege to the U.S. Capitol. This January, he described the Capitol insurrection as a “terrorist attack,” a statement which he publicly revoked less than 24 hours later, calling his own words “frankly dumb.”

The senator has long championed traditionally conservative causes, including restricting immigration, limiting abortion access and protecting gun-ownership rights. But Cruz most recently made national headlines for his role in the confirma-

tion hearings of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, during which he appeared to dismiss the ability of transgender people to experience gender discrimination and questioned Judge Brown Jackson’s beliefs on critical race theory.

The Buckley Program, a student group which organizes primarily political programming, strives to “promote intellectual diversity on Yale’s campus,” according to its mission. It has also traditionally hosted a “disinvitation dinner” for guests who have been protested for their views — previous guests include Henry Kissinger, Peter Thiel and Charles Murray.

According to Buckley Program President Kevin Xiao ’23, the group was offered the opportunity to host Sen. Cruz several months ago, but it had only recently been able to set a date. Hundreds of students will be in attendance.

“Yale students rarely have the opportunity to hear from speakers like Senator Cruz, and listening to different perspectives in good faith fosters a healthy and lively discourse both on campus and beyond,” Xiao wrote in an email to the News.

Students will have the opportunity to ask questions, and the Senator has specifically said he welcomes questions from those who disagree with himself and Knowles, according to Xiao.

But for some students, the fact of Sen. Cruz being invited to Yale at all poses a concern.

“I feel like, in this case, it’s better to not give him the platform, given his actions, and bringing him to campus kind of affirms those actions,” Jamie Nicolas ’25 said.

Carly Benson ’24, who is from Texas, said she felt confused as to why Cruz would bother coming to campus at all, noting that she had already heard people plan to boycott or protest the event.

Benson noted, however, that Cruz has “a history of going to the wrong place,” recalling the controversy that ensued last year after

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The conservative Texas senator will record an episode of his podcast in New Haven in an event organized by the William F. Buckley, Jr. Program next week.

Cruz left for vacation in Cancún while Texas was walloped by a blizzard and a power crisis.

“I think he has to understand that people are not going to be that excited about him coming,” Benson added. “I feel like he’s probably excited for people to hate him because then he can be the victim … he gets to be like, ‘Oh, I went to Yale and look what the radical left did.’”

Both Nicolas and Zaharaa Altwaij ’25 told the News that they expected student protest surrounding Cruz’s visit to campus next week.

Xiao, too, noted that the Buckley Program anticipated that some students would protest the event, and that he respected these students’ right to free expression “peacefully and in a manner that does not disrupt the event.”

Free speech — especially with regard to campus speakers — has risen to the forefront of discussion

in recent weeks, after a protest at Yale Law School disrupted a panel that included a staunchly conservative guest speaker.

Students’ disagreement with Cruz or Knowles, X iao suggested, did not make it any less important for students to hear out new perspectives.

“In fact, such differences of opinion remind us of why we have free speech, especially at institutions of higher learning where the mission is the cultivation and creation of new knowledge,” Xiao told the News. “Students should be able to hear different voices, engage with them in good faith, and decide for ourselves whether we agree or disagree.

Only through open and honest discussion can we grow and better understand our own values and beliefs.”

But Altwaij expressed concerns that offering Cruz a platform like this one could legiti-

mize “polarized” and, “to some groups, problematic” ideas.

In particular, she pointed to Cruz’s questioning of the legitimacy of the 2020 election results and his questioning of Judge Brown Jackson during the Senate Confirmation hearing, suggesting that he might not be an appropriate person to address students.

“Although I do believe there is value in having a voice that diverges from many student perspectives, I do not believe that Ted Cruz should be that voice,” Altwaij said. “I believe that there are other individuals with divergent political beliefs who may be better suited for speaking to Yale students, since their beliefs do not implicate racial harms or possible anarchy.”

The Buckley Program was founded in 2010.

Contact LUCY HODGMAN at lucy.hodgman@yale.edu

“If your neighbor is hungry”: The tenacity of Nieda Abbas

COURTESY OF HAVENLY

From a young age, she wanted to support her working mother by doing chores around the house: organizing, cleaning and cooking.

BY RACHEL SHIN STAFF REPORTER It was an early spring afternoon, and the warm orange tones of Havenly’s interior were glowing in the natural light.

Rays of sun trickled in through the cafe’s windows and puddled on the neatly tiled floor. Guests lounged about sipping Turkish coffee from dainty ceramic cups, nibbling “kleicha” and chatting over soft music. The aromas of pita and falafel spilled out of the kitchen and suffused the air with the homey smell of fresh carbs.

Nieda Abbas sat at a booth, observing the sunlight, diners and passersby on Temple Street. The corners of her eyes crinkled as she began to speak.

“My mother was a strong woman, and a hard working

woman,” Abbas said. “Even when I was very young, I had to be responsible because I didn’t want my mother to work too hard and be too tired.”

Abbas was born and raised in Baghdad, Iraq and was one of ten children in her family. From a young age, she wanted to support her working mother by doing chores around the house: organizing, cleaning and cooking. She soon discovered that she had a special talent for cooking and by the age of 12 could cook “everything that comes to your mind.”

By 13, she could bake her own bread from scratch, and by 14, she could make “kubba,” an Iraqi dish so delicate that even experienced cooks struggle to prepare it. But Abbas’ favorite meal to prepare as a girl was a rather simple one

— “dolma” — a stuffed vegetable platter that takes only an hour to cook. She loved it because it brought people together like no other dish.

“That meal gets everyone together — family together and friends together,” Abbas said.

“Other meals don’t do that. When I used to cook it, everyone used to come: my sisters, my brothers, everyone had to come because it is such a big dish that you can’t eat it by yourself.”

Later, in adulthood, Abbas maintained her love for cooking and ran four different food businesses with her husband over the span of several decades. These businesses were successful, and she enjoyed her work, but in 2005 Abbas and her family had to flee their country to escape the Iraq War.

Abbas relocated to Syria with her four young children.

“I decided to move to Syria because I didn’t want my children to see those things — killing and war,” Abbas said.

She lived in Syria for nearly eight years, during which she and her husband ran a laundromat and market. For a time, they lived “the most beautiful days” there, but in 2011 the Syrian Civil War began.

Abbas sold “everything [she] had… for cheap” and was forced to start over as a refugee for the second time in under a decade.

Fleeing the Syrian Civil War, Abbas moved with her family to Turkey. There, she said, her family faced xenophobia. They were charged unfair prices, scammed out of housing and otherwise taken advantage of due to the language barrier.

While they eventually established themselves and became acclimated to the country, Abbas said that she needed to be somewhere with better education for her children. She applied to a United Nations relocation program, which moved her family to New Haven in 2014.

“When I first came to the United States I was very scared because I spoke no English and didn’t know anything about the country,” Abbas said. “And I was scared that my kids wouldn’t be able to learn the language.”

Her family secured temporary housing through the resettlement agency IRIS. IRIS also helped Abbas to find a job, but it was one that she felt unfulfilled in. Her initial job was rolling cigarettes in a tobacco product factory. Following that, she worked in a hotel’s laundry room.

During this time, Caterina Passoni ’18 was working as an English tutor for IRIS and volunteered to tutor Abbas’ daughters.

Passoni visited the family nearly every day, and Abbas would make her treats, which she loved. The two quickly became close, and Abbas shared her frustrations with Passoni.

“I told Caterina that I was tired of my job and that I did not want to work there anymore,” Abbas said. “I asked: what do you think about us opening a business and trying to sell the food I make at home? And she trusted me and I trusted her.”

Passoni supported the idea, and in 2018 the pair began selling Abbas’ homemade baklava on Yale’s campus. The makeshift business was so popular that eventually they sold out consistently every day. Due to the popularity of Abbas’ treats, they decided to move into a permanent location, and Havenly was born.

Abbas and Passoni chose to open Havenly as a nonprofit rather than a for profit business, as they wanted their revenue to support other refugee and immigrant women. They also established political advocacy as a pillar of their organization, hoping to change and provide an alternative to the resettlement system that Abbas experienced.

Havenly runs a fellowship program through which cohorts of refugee and immigrant women can receive paid job training; ESL, digital and financial literacy classes; and political education.

Public service is important in her country and religion as a Muslim, so she is happy that Havenly prioritizes this, Abbas said.

After being forced to start over three times in three different countries, Abbas now runs Havenly alongside Passoni and is “excited because this is just the beginning.” She oversees job training in the kitchen and teaches fellow refugee and immigrant women how to cook.

When asked about the connection between cooking and advocacy, Abbas paused and said, “they say in my country: don’t sleep if your neighbor is hungry.”

Havenly is located at 25 Temple St. Contact RACHEL SHIN at rachel.shin@yale.edu

PAGE 12

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

PAID ADVERTISEMENT

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

NEWS

PAGE 13

“We must vote for hope, vote for life, vote for a brighter future for all of our loved ones.”

ED MARKEY MEMBER OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE

Elis for Rachael holds candlelight vigil

BY LUCY HODGMAN STAFF REPORTER Content warning: This article contains references to suicide.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a hotline for individuals in crisis or for those looking to help someone else. To speak with a certified listener, call 1-800-273-8255.

Crisis Text Line is a texting service for emotional crisis support.

To speak with a trained listener, text HELLO to 741741. It is free, available 24/7 and confidential.

To talk with a counselor from Yale Mental Health and Counseling, schedule a session here.

On-call counselors are available at any time: call (203) 432-0290.

Additional resources are available in a guide compiled by the Yale College Council.

Members of the Yale community gathered on the New Haven Green on Saturday night at a candlelight vigil for suicide prevention, organized by the mental health advocacy group Elis for Rachael.

Participants stood on the Green holding candles in memory of suicide victims, including Rachael Shaw-Rosenbaum ’24. When the wind caused some participants’ candles to flicker out, other attendees wordlessly relit them using their own flames.

It is this spirit of compassion that Elis for Rachael hopes to foster at Yale, both on the administrative level and among the student body. The organization, which formed in the weeks after Shaw-Rosenbaum’s passing last

spring, is composed of alumni, current students and some people who knew Shaw-Rosenbaum.

“I want to do all we can to support suicide prevention,” Shaw-Rosenbaum’s mother Pamela Shaw told the News. “I hope the effort … will help prevent future suicides or self harm and encourage people to seek mental health amongst the Yale community and beyond.”

Organizers had been thinking about holding a suicide prevention vigil for months. Elis for Rachael member Paul Johansen ’88 told the News that the group initially discussed holding a vigil in September 2021, but that plans for Saturday’s event began to take shape after Elis for Rachael was invited to participate in the Mind Over Matter Mental Health Fair hosted by the Yale Student Mental Health Association earlier that day.

When the geographically far-flung members of the organization realized that many of them would be on the east coast around the time of the Yale Student Mental Health Association fair, Johansen said it seemed like “a sign” that the group should hold the vigil in tandem with the event.

Organizers originally planned to hold the vigil on Cross Campus, Johansen told the News, with projections onto Sterling Library. The group relocated to the Green after the University asked them not to use Cross Campus, in part because non-student groups are not permitted to hold events on Cross Campus.

Shaw and other members of Elis for Rachael spoke at the vigil. For the first hour and a half of the event, speakers told stories about their own experiences with mental health

challenges and their commitment to the cause of suicide prevention.

Johansen noted that this first portion of the vigil was meant to showcase alumni who have struggled with their mental health but “have managed to get through [it].”

Alicia Floyd ’05 spoke at the vigil, noting at the beginning of her speech that she had not originally planned to attend but found she “just couldn’t stay away” and flew in from Minnesota to go to the event.

“I know you don’t know me – I graduated from Yale like 20 years ago – but there is a group of alums out there who went through tough experiences and came out the other side,” Floyd said. “I really do care about you and I want you to be kinder to yourselves than I was to myself when I was 19 or 20 or 21 years old.”

This sense of solidarity and compassion with current Yale students, Floyd said, is widely-felt among University alumni.

Also consistent throughout the speeches was an emphasis on prioritizing mental health despite the competitive culture present at universities like Yale.

“I hope you all do the hard thing,” Zack Dugue, who was Shaw-Rosenbaum’s boyfriend, said at the vigil.

“The hardest thing. It’s not the late nights. It’s not the coursework. It’s putting yourself first, in a place that tells you that your goals … your grades, that internship, are the only thing that matters. It’s tough. It takes patience and to give yourself time to heal when you’re hurting. It takes a willingness to accept failures and not see them as the end.”

Aside from the vigil held this week, Elis for Rachael has been

COURTESY OF LILY COLBY

Elis for Rachael gathered to share their own experiences with mental health challenges and their commitment to the cause of suicide prevention. actively working to effect change at Yale throughout the last year.

The group released a petition in November 2021, listing a set of six specific demands. Most urgently, organizers have called on the University to relax requirements for reinstatement to Yale College following medical withdrawals and offer an affordable preferred provider organization option of University health insurance, allowing both enrolled and medically withdrawn students to seek mental healthcare through providers outside the University.

The group is not solely focused on advocacy for changes in University policy — Elis for Rachael has surveyed alumni and current students about their experiences with mental health care at Yale and directly supported students with the financial and logistical burdens associated with the withdrawal and reinstatement process. They are also currently preparing a report on the factors that contribute to stu-

dent mental health struggles and potential best-practice solutions.

And throughout, the group has worked to honor Shaw-Rosenbaum’s memory. In Shaw’s speech, the last of the evening, she focused on the impact that Rachael’s passing has had on her over the past year, as well as her own journey with mental health.

Shaw said that even now, to be vulnerable and open about struggling is difficult. But, quoting work

by Brené Brown, a New York Times bestselling author and research professor at the University of Houston, Shaw also has come to believe that “vulnerability is our most accurate way to measure courage.”

At the end of the evening, members of Elis for Rachael distributed and lit candles, and attendees of the vigil observed a moment of silence, listening to “After All” from Dar Williams’ 2000 album The Green World.

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

Teen organizers criticize “fossil fools”

BY CHARLOTTE HUGHES STAFF REPORTER To celebrate April Fool’s Day, teens from the New Haven Climate Movement, or NHCM, threw a “pity party” on the steps of City Hall to shame “fossil fools” that they believe have not adequately addressed the climate crisis.

The NHCM is a coalition of individuals and local organizations that are devoted to climate action. On Friday, teen organizers gave awards to five “fossil fools” and also called for the city to allocate more funds toward climate solutions that reduce carbon pollution and improve public health, create green jobs, build affordable and safe streets and transportation options and reduce energy costs and waste. In the mayor’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2022-23, $50,000 of the approximately $700 million city budget has been allocated for the city’s climate change task force.

“Without consistent investment, we can expect the costs of climate change to skyrocket,” Patricia Joseph, a senior at Engineering & Science University Magnet School, said. “But we don’t live in a world of no alternatives.”

Elisa Cruz, a senior at Hill Regional Career High School, and Kawtar Nadama, a senior at West Haven High School, pointed to five “fossil fools.” One of them is Yale University because they offer climate education through academic course offerings without sufficient action, like divestment or electrification, the activists said. Others include the state of Connecticut because of its failure to declare a climate emergency, local business leaders for their failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and the city of New Haven because of its lack of sustainability staff. Finally, “sixty year olds” are “fossil fools” because their generation successfully managed local, social and political insti-

tutions while failing to recognize their contributions to climate injustice, according to activists.

At the rally, Abiba Biao, a senior at Amistad High School, described how flooding exacerbated by climate change directly impacted her, and called for more funding for flood prevention.

“I wrote my college essay on flooding,” Biao said. “Every two years, our basement would get flooded and we’d have to move stuff out. Last year our heater got broken and our refrigerators got broken. It was a messy process and there was a lot of water damage, as well.”

By 2050, Connecticut’s sea levels are predicted to rise by approximately 20 inches. New Haven recently received $160 million in federal funding to build a flood wall at Long Wharf, but the NHCM called for the city to address the climate emergency, rather than merely the effects of the climate emergency.

The NHCM called for the city to allocate more funding for the transition to 100 percent renewable energy, the improvement of public health, growth of green jobs and establishment of equitable transportation.

Kiana Flores ’25 also spoke on the benefits of electrification at the rally.

“Doing so is necessary for the health of the planet and our own,” she said. “To reduce emissions, we need to switch as many systems as possible from natural gas to the Connecticut grid, which continues to include more and more renewable energy sources.”

The audience booed when Flores mentioned natural gas. Not only would the transition away from fossil fuels to electricity reduce greenhouse gas emissions, she said, but it would also reduce air pollution and noise while making energy use more efficient.

When Governor Ned Lamont stopped by the rally and heard the organizers’ calls for more cli-

mate change funding in the New Haven budget, he offered his encouragement.

“Make sure you take that message up to the legislature,” Lamont told rallygoers. “Our biggest commitment is getting our transportation system electrified.”

Young In Kim, a junior at Wilbur Cross High School, spoke about the NHCM Climate Education Committee’s efforts to pass a climate emergency resolution in the New Haven Board of Education. This resolution would hold New Haven schools accountable for their contributions to climate change especially from school bus greenhouse gas emissions.

The New Haven Climate and Sustainability Framework outlining key strategies to address the climate emergency in New Haven was passed in 2018.

Contact CHARLOTTE HUGHES at charlotte.hughes @yale.edu .

City hears updates on plan for surveillance cameras

BY HANNAH QU STAFF REPORTER On Monday, the New Haven Police Department provided an update on violent crime statistics and its plan to install 500 new surveillance cameras around the city.

The city saw its first and second homicide cases of the year

in March and made 10 gun-related arrests for incidents occurring between July 2020 and late March of this year. In response to violent crime and the department’s difficulties locating perpetrators, Mayor Justin Elicker’s administration has spearheaded a plan with NHPD to place 500 surveillance cameras around the city.

After the Board of Alders approved

HANNAH QU/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

The city has picked a contractor for the 500 surveillance cameras but doesn’t have a timeline for installing them.

the plan in December, the city has picked a contractor but has yet to offer a timeline for the program’s implementation.

“Having the additional cameras to the city, it’ll be a little bit easier to begin to have these first steps in the investigation and instead of losing some of that valuable time in the beginning,” Acting Police Chief Renee Dominguez said. “We’re still going to reach out to the community and still look around businesses in the area because we never know what other angle they would be getting. But the ability to have these cameras look back after an incident right here in the install center is going to give valuable information to the officers on the street who are responding and the detectives who are following up on the investigation.”

The city has picked Hamden-based company Utility Communication to be the surveillance camera contractor. According to Elicker, the two parties have yet to sign a formal contract because the city is still working on the contract’s language.

The city does not have a timeline for the 500 surveillance camera placement — nor does it plan to

make one. On Monday, Elicker said the cameras will go out in batches.

“Because I don’t want an article every other week saying that we’re behind our timeline, and there’s not a timeline, we will work as best we can,” Elicker said.

According to Dominguez, it’s going to be “probably many years” before all the cameras are installed.

City leaders also disclosed crime statistics for the year. So far, the city has seen 18 nonfatal shootings and two homicides, seized 54 guns and made 49 gun-related arrests. In comparison, this time last year, the city had seen 21 nonfatal shootings and nine homicides, seized 46 guns and made 49 gun-related arrests, according to Dominguez.

Dominguez and Assistant Chief Karl Jacobson said that most of those incidents are affiliated with a “group or gang.”

According to a press release sent out by NHPD public information officer Scott Shumway, one of the two homicide victims for the year was Keiron Jones, a 17-year-old junior at Hillhouse High School. Jones was struck by gunfire on Orchard Place, between Orchard Street and Charles Street on March 20.

He was remembered as “a great,

mild-mannered kid. Never disrespectful. [And] responded to adults appropriately,” by Hillhouse’s staff community care coordinator Darrell Brown in a New Haven Independent article.

When asked for an update on the investigation, Dominguez said it’s an active investigation and detectives are working very hard. But the department has often struggled to solve cases in a timely manner. Last year, no arrests were made in 22 out of the city’s 25 reported homicides.

The other homicide victim was Brian Faulks, who was shot on March 17 on Spring Street, between Dewitt Street and Button Street. He was pronounced dead at Yale New Haven Hospital.

In addition, on March 16, NHPD received a call from a concerned citizen regarding a body found on Springside Avenue, between Hard Street and Wintergreen Avenue. The unknown female death is being treated as a “suspicious death” and is being investigated by the Major Crimes Unit.

32 new police officers will enter the force by late August, according to Elicker.

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

W ROWING Brown 6:19.4 Radcliffe 6:42.8

M TENNIS Penn 7 Princeton 0

SPORTS

TENNIS

MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM

The Yale tennis teams started conference play with victories over Brown. The women hosted the bears on Saturday, and the men traveled to Brown on Sunday. the third set before being pulled once the Bulldogs secured their fourth point.

“The Brown win was definitely a team effort. We started off well in doubles and in singles,” women’s head coach Rachel Kahan said.

Dunleavy, the women’s team captain, noted her pride in how her team embraced the match and reflected all of the work that they have put in throughout the year.

Chelsea Kung ’23 led the women’s team in singles, followed by Dunleavy, Mirabelle Brettkelly ’25, Jessie Gong ’23, Shrivastava and Cheng. Kung and Gong played the first line of doubles, ahead of Brettkelly with Shrivastava and Kathy Wang ’22 with Dunleavy.

The Bulldogs clinched the doubles point from their wins at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles. The Elis also took points from the first, second and fifth lines of singles.

Wang noted that her team’s match against Brown was the first ever conference match for the overwhelming majority of the team. Of the nine players on the team, only three have faced Ivy opponents in conference play in previous seasons. She highlighted how her teammates did a great job of taming their nerves and excitement in order to secure their win.

Wang’s personal highlight of the match was when she and her partner Dunleavy “battled back from getting broken with quadruple match point to winning the next game at love” as it showcased their grit and resilience.

In Providence, Michael Sun ’23 led the men’s team in singles against the Bears, followed by Theo Dean ’24, Aidan Reilly ’25, Cody Lin ’22, Walker Oberg ’25 and Renaud Lefevre ’24. Lefevre and Lin led the team in doubles, ahead of Reilly with Dean and Oberg with Sun. Reilly and Dean eked out a 7–6 victory at the second line of doubles, taking the doubles point for the Bulldogs. Only Brown’s third line of singles was able to win over Yale.

“I’m most looking forward to getting the chance to compete in high-level college tennis against many ranked teams,” Luke Neal ’25 said. Going into the rest of the season, he expects his team to focus on playing “fearless tennis” in order to dominate against ranked Ivy League squads.

Currently, Yale, Dartmouth and Brown are the only teams in the conference not ranked in the ITA’s top 75 Poll. Harvard leads the Ivy League at No. 15, followed by Columbia at No. 22, Princeton at No. 34, Penn at No. 46 and Cornell at No. 59.

Yale beats Brown to go 3-0 in conference play

SEE TENNIS PAGE 10

MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM

Yale remains undefeated against Ivy League opponents, tallying a win against Brown in its third Ivy conference game of the season.

Coming off of a historic win against Penn (3–7, 0–2 Ivy), the Yale women’s lacrosse team (6–2, 3–0 Ivy) defeated Brown (5–4, 2–1 Ivy) 15–13 last Saturday and rose to 3–0 in conference play.

WOMEN'S LACROSSE After an impressive come-frombehind victory over Penn last weekend — their first victory over Penn since 2014 — the Bulldogs were hungry for more as they prepared for their next conference game.

Despite being ranked seventh in the Ivy League Preseason Poll, the Bulldogs have turned things around.

They are currently leading the league in both conference and overall records. Their prowess, however, was not enough to secure them a spot in the latest Inside Lacrosse Media Poll.

“We were preseason seventh in the Ivy League,” captain Kelsey Dunn ’22 said. “Regardless of if we are now top-25 or not, we will continue to play with that chip on our shoulder.”

Before the matchup, there was a ceremony to honor Yale Lacrosse alum and Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai for his donation that was used to build the Tsai Lacrosse Field House, a 34,800 square foot athletic facility next to Reese Stadium.

STAT OF THE WEEK

SEE W LACROSSE PAGE 10

11

“In tough conditions, the team met the challenge. We have things to work on and will get back to it on Monday.”

WILL PORTER YALE WOMEN'S ROWING HEAD COACH

Women's Golf heads to Georgetown, men to NJ

BY HAMERA SHABBIR STAFF REPORTER As the spring season draws to a close, the Yale men’s and women’s golf teams are beginning to play closer to home.

GOLF This weekend, both teams will travel to play against strong competitors. The women’s golf team will play at their penultimate tournament at the Hoya Invitational on the Woodmont North Golf Course from Saturday through Sunday. The men’s team will play the Princeton Invitational at the Springdale Golf Club on the same dates.

“We’re excited to play the Hoya Invitational because it’s the first tournament of the year that has the most amount of Ivy League schools playing,” Coco Chai ’23 said. “It’s the last tournament before [the] Ivy League Championship, so we’ll have a good idea of where we stand going into the championship after this tournament.”

Competitors at the Hoya Invitational will include No. 85 Princeton, No. 127 Columbia, No. 157 Harvard and No. 167 University of Pennsylvania. These rankings come from an April 5 Golfstat report, in which the Bulldogs were listed at No. 75 nationSEE GOLF PAGE 10

MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM

Both Yale golf squads will be traveling this weekend as the women play their last tournament outside of the Northeast and the men travel to New Jersey.

Bulldogs drop series against Cornell

BY WEI-TING SHIH STAFF REPORTER The offensive ability of the Yale baseball team (13–8, 4–2 Ivy) fluctuated last weekend as the squad traveled to New York to face off against Cornell (5–12, 2–4 Ivy). The Bulldogs lost the first two games of their threegame match-up against the Big Red, but avoided the series sweep by winning the final game in dominant fashion.

BASEBALL

BY RYAN VAKIL CONTRIBUTING REPORTER

W SAILING Cornell 11 Penn 8

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

M LACROSSE YALE DOWNS BU, DARTMOUTH NEXT After a record-breaking 22–15 triumph over Boston University, the Bulldogs will next face Dartmouth in Hanover on Saturday. Brandau, Johnson and Lyons combined for 13 goals against the Terriers.

Bulldogs crush Brown home and away

This week, both of Yale’s tennis teams kicked off conference play with commanding wins over Brown University.

The women’s tennis team (10–7, 1–0 Ivy) defeated Brown (6–10, 0–1) in a 4–1 win and the men clinched a 6–1 victory over the bears (9–9, 0–1). For the men, Sunday’s match marked the first Bulldog conference victory against an Ivy League team since 2017.

On the women’s side, Brown was successful in pushing some of the matches to third sets. However, Rhea Shrivastava ’23, Caroline Dunleavy ’22 and Vivian Cheng ’23 did not let the third set intimidate them. Shrivastava and Dunleavy clinched third set victories of 6–0 and 6–3, respectively, and Cheng was up 5–1 in

W LACROSSE Harvard 11 Dartmouth 7 FOR MORE SPORTS CONTENT, VISIT OUR WEB SITE goydn.com/YDNsports Twitter: @YDNSports

SOFTBALL ELIS DROP BROWN SERIES After winning the first game of their Saturday double-header, the Bulldogs lost their three-game series to Brown in the third weekend of Ivy League play. Yale hopes to rebound this weekend at Columbia

BY GRAYSON LAMBERT CONTRIBUTING REPORTER

BASEBALL Columbia 16 Princeton 1

Previously at the top of the Ivy League standings, the Bulldogs are now tied second with Penn (16–8, 4–2 Ivy) and sit just behind Harvard (13–9, 5–1 Ivy).

Yale dropped both of Saturday’s doubleheader games, 1–2 and 9–12, respectively, but won its last game, 18–5. The Blue and White’s losses ended a five-game winning streak that had been fueled by a successful spring break stretch and a midweek victory against Sacred Heart.

“Obviously, it’s unfortunate that we lost the first two games of the series,” middle infielder Alec Atkinson ’24 said. “[That] always happens in baseball — some teams aren’t going to come out with their best stuff every day … But it was really nice to come out for game three and play the type of baseball that we’re accustomed to playing against a good Cornell team.”

The Bulldogs had a promising start to the first game against the Big Red, drawing first blood with an RBI single

from clean-up hitter Jimmy Chatfield ’24. However, Yale struggled against the opposing pitching staff after the first inning and were shutout for the rest of the game. Cornell’s offense was strong, scoring a run and gaining the upper hand in the third before later clinching the go-ahead run on a walkoff sacrifice fly in the ninth.

Stellar performances on the mound were the highlights of the first match of the doubleheader, as both starters engaged in a pitchers' duel through seven innings and each struck out seven batters. Yale’s arm, right hander Michael

Walsh ’23, looked sharp as he threw 107 pitches and allowed only three hits.

Less than an hour later, the Bulldogs regained some of their firepower. In the second game of the day, the Blue and White once again took the early initiative on the attack. First baseman Colton Shaw ’25 put Yale on the board in the third inning with a solo blast to left field, his second home run of the season. Though Cornell countered with a homer of their own in the fourth, Yale would score two runs in the fifth and sixth innings to take a 3–2 lead.

SEE BASEBALL PAGE 10

COURTESY OF SAM RUBIN

Yale avoided a Cornell sweep with a commanding 18–5 victory on Sunday in Ithaca, New York.

THE NUMBER OF GOALS THE YALE MEN’S LACROSSE TEAM SCORED IN THE SECOND QUARTER AGAINST BU, A PROGRAM RECORD.

FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022

WEEKEND

What I Was Doing When I Opened My Yale Acceptance Letter?

// JESSAI FLORES

Anastasia Ibrahim: Two days before my acceptance letter came out, my mom knocked lightly on my door and kneeled at my bedside with the most endearing look I had ever seen since my brother won the Sensitivity Character Award in 1st grade, when she thought he would come out as gay soon after. She was coming to talk to me about my imminent college decision. She looked at me, so full of love — but with an equal amount of pity — and said, “Anna… don’t be upset if you don’t get in… We all know you didn’t deserve it anyways.”

You think I’m lying — you also think she was kidding. Neither’s true. Two days later I said, “FUCK YOUUUUU BITCH!!!!” over shrimp tacos at Red Lobster while she berated me that getting into Yale was not enough and that I should apply to Stanford and Harvard also. Also, I’m kidding. I didn’t say “fuck you bitch” to my own mother. I said “fuck that bitch” to my father about my mother, and he laughed.

Am I airing out trauma from 3.5 years ago?

No, not at all. But also, I didn’t think I was going to get into Yale, so I really had no idea what time the decision was going to come out, and I didn’t really care either because I knew I wasn’t going to get in because my mom told me I didn’t deserve it. I came home from school, ate Nutella straight from the jar like a G, invited my secret “boyfriend” over for 15 minutes because I didn’t want to get caught so I kicked him out after a literal 15 minutes (even though he had driven 30 minutes to see me), and then took a nap.

When I opened the decision letter, it was some arbitrary time like 9:07 pm, and that stupid Bulldog dancing video came up, and I thought it was an advertisement to make me

feel better about getting rejected. I couldn’t figure out how to skip it, so I waited for the whole thing to play thinking the entire time that it was an advertisement for Yale College, and I was like, “Are you kidding me? I already applied to your school dumbasses. I know you exist,”, and then I opened my letter, and I was like “no way”, and then the next Monday at school, the girl who also applied to Yale and got rejected (who was, by the way, exponentially more qualified than me) told me that video was a welcome video.

The more you know.

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

Anabel Moore: In the hours preceding the release of Yale early decisions – unfortunately empty, owing to a wonky pandemic high-school schedule – I was wandering the aisles of Costco with my dad. Both my phone and his were tucked snugly into his pocket, notifications silenced. He feigned nonchalance, but our nerves were equally frayed: I’m the youngest of three children by far, and this decision would be the beginning of the end of my dad’s nearly forty-year run of raising kids. He was ready, I was ready.

The first hour of this Costco trip was productive. We collected the usual groceries, stopping first to chat with Christine, the front-of-house clerk who’s known me since I was a small child being pushed around in the shopping cart. My dad told her that today was the big day, to which she responded: “oh honey, you’ll be fine.” Even these words made me want to burst out in anxious tears. How do you know, Christine? How can anyone know?

I’ve always enjoyed Costco, for the fact that when it’s not you opening the wallet it’s terribly fun to find random things you didn’t know you needed to spend money on. Memory foam bath mat? Need it. Electric toothbrush heads? Hm, maybe we’ll run out at some point in the next three years. Highlighters in seven colors? Yes. Sorry I keep stealing your favorite pens, Dad. But it soon became clear that we were doing laps of the store wandering and trying to talk about anything but the decision that we knew would soon be in my inbox. At one point, we took turns riding down massive empty aisles, giggling like children. My dad and I had done this since I was little. He retired when I was born, so I was his grocery buddy. Albertsons, Top Foods, Fred Meyer, Costco. I know all these aisles by heart. We were adding three hours to the countless I had spent as a little girl.

It was then that I remembered Brittany Stinson, who wrote her Common Application essay about her childlike wonder at wandering through Costco, exactly as we were now doing. She had been accepted to Yale, amongst other top schools. I should have written my essay about Costco. I’ve certainly spent a lot of time here. Why didn’t I write about Costco?

It was eventually 3:45, at which point we drove home for the PST decision time. I sat down at the kitchen island, the same place where I’d done so much studying and homework over the last four years, and even more when the pandemic struck and my family would gather around the stovetop to work or read together. We called my grandmother on my mom’s phone, my two older brothers on FaceTime. My dad held up his phone to record

my reaction (though he never pressed record, which in hindsight I consider fortunate).

I started to sob, and those on the phone couldn’t tell if they were happy or sad tears.

Then my brothers spotted my dad crying – one of two times in my entire life I’ve seen him cry. I knew it, he said. I knew it.

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

Jessai Flores: I was rushing to finish a biology report for class the night I was accepted to Yale. I had almost three weeks to do it, but I ended up doing it at the last minute because I hated writing lab reports. To make matters worse, the report was due at midnight, but I had promised my friend, Annie, that I’d go to her sixteenth birthday party, so I had to finish the report by 6 pm. I started the report at 4 pm, but then I lost an hour because I couldn’t find my laptop charger.

As I was looking for my charger, my sister, who was at my school formal, which was held the same night, called me because she found my charger in the cafeteria. Just as my computer was about to die, I decided to check my Yale application status because of a sadistic need to make things worse.

Instead of being met with rejection, I came face-to-face with a dancing bulldog and realized that I was, in fact, accepted. I was shocked, but I didn’t have time to celebrate because I had a report to finish and party to go to. Looking back, it was the most stressful and disorganized night of my life.

Contact JESSAI FLORES at jessai.flores@yale.edu .

PAGE B2

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND LEGACY

LEAVING HIS LEGACY

// CATE ROSER

// BY HANNAH MARK My dad loves ice cream. Our freezer is always stocked with it. His favorite flavor hasn’t changed in thirty years: coffee oreo.

I learned this as a child, about to go on a grocery run. I asked my dad his favorite flavor, because I wanted to surprise him with especially good ice cream. But there was no coffee oreo ice cream on the shelves of the smalltown IGA. Even when we drove the 45 miles to the nearest big grocery store, they didn’t have coffee oreo.

Coffee oreo ice cream, or at least the variety my dad prefers, can be found in only one store in the entire world: Ashley’s Ice Cream, on Yale’s campus, in New Haven, Connecticut. I wondered about this fantastical place, this place that produced a dessert so tasty even my father’s seasoned, ice-cream-loving taste buds could find no comparison. It must be magical.

There were other tantalizing clues about this place called “Yale”: for example, the Yale Alumni magazine got delivered to our house six times a year. When I was supposed to be washing dishes, I liked to sit in the bathroom with a copy and read the classifieds in which the rich old people try to find love.

All the people in the magazine seemed to have done something spectacular: discovered a planet, cured a disease, published a novel or inherited a lot of money. They owned yachts and vacation houses in Europe and entire countries, probably. They listened to classical music, wore fancy suits, hosted dinner parties and discussed grand ideas of philosophy and politics. The pages of the magazine told the same story over and over again: a story of power, wealth, prestige and privilege.

It was strange to think of my dad as part of that institution. I could not picture him on a yacht or a European vacation. He hates wearing ties, and my mom said she fell in love with him because he always drives a junky car.

Although my dad spent four years at Yale, it remained a mystery to me. All I knew about Yale was that it had great ice cream and a lot of graduates in their seventies were using the alumni magazine as an analog version of Tinder.

I didn’t know anything about the Ivy League, except that it was bougie, Harvard should be avoided at all costs and MIT was part of it somehow?

In fact, I didn’t know much about college in general, except that it was expensive and I was expected to go. So I could get a degree. So I could earn money. So I could be an adult.

Nobody told me how to go about choosing a college, so in my senior year, I just applied to the three schools where my mom, dad and

grandma went. It’s a privilege of legacy, to have somebody who went before you.

In the summer before my senior year, I went to tour Yale with my dad and grandma.

It was the first time my dad had been back to campus since he graduated. We shuffled into SSS with the other prospective students and listened to a man in a brown suit talk about how great Yale is. I thought,” Why does the ceiling have so many lions on it?”

My dad took a picture of me standing on Cross Campus so that we could feel like tourists. I still have that photo: me squinting into the sunlight, giving a thumbs up in my “I love Montana!” t-shirt. I had a giant pimple on my chin.

My dad rarely talks about his college days.

I thought maybe here, on Yale’s campus, with the weirdly-shaped gyms and tree-lined streets, my private father would finally open up. And he did. Sort of.

I made a careful list of the things my dad told me about Yale: He brought rock-climbing gear to college and made it his mission to climb on the roof of every campus building.

He started a band with his friends. He was the lead singer.

He brought a car to college so that he could drive places. He ended up walking all over New Haven to find his car after it got towed for the sixth time.

He was in Ezra Stiles college and his roommate was a math major.

He changed his major four times, from theater to environmental engineering to physics and finally to biology.

Then, I asked him why he turned down a full-ride at MIT to go to Yale. He told me that at 17, he went to visit Yale with some friends and had an excellent time playing frisbee and participating in a prank war. I asked him, was that really why? He thought about it. He told me that besides being fun, Yale had good food and was just far enough from home that he didn’t feel smothered by his parents but close enough that he could take the train home on the weekends to do laundry.

At the end of that first campus visit, my dad and I went to Ashley’s. We sat at the counter booth and shared a bowl of coffee oreo. And, as I tasted that first creamy, caffeinated spoonful, I realized that I had found my new favorite ice cream flavor.

The entire campus visit felt surreal, and I knew this institution was a dream entirely out of reach. So I was content with my decision to attend my mother’s college, a tiny, religious, liberal arts school in the hills of Virginia.

But then I got into Yale.

WKND RECOMMENDS Diet Dr. Pepper

My dad did not say “Go to Yale!”

Instead he said, “You will thrive wherever you go!” Then he paused for a moment.

“Except Harvard. Don’t go to Harvard.”

My parents, very generously, told me they just wanted me to be happy and didn’t care where I went to college. My parents then told me that my choice of college would determine not only the place where I would to spend the next four years, but also which parent I loved more. Just kidding. They didn’t say that.

Anyway, I chose Yale.

Soon, everyone in my town knew I was going to Yale, and everyone was planning my future. “You’re going to go to Yale and be a doctor, just like your dad!” they’d say, admiringly. I’d smile and nod, because that was, in fact, my plan. Because I am my father’s daughter, I must follow in his footsteps.

I decided that now, since I was actually going to Yale, I needed to know about my dad’s experience as a student. Since he wasn’t talking, I recruited my grandmother to give me the inside scoop. She enthusiastically agreed. Moms never say no to talking about their sons. And gradually, as she talked, I realized that my dad was good at Yale. Like, really good.

He fit the definition of a Yale Man almost to a T, or a Y: attended an excellent public school in Massachusetts, acted in eight shows by his sophomore year, joined the Yale Dramat, volunteered at the soup kitchen, ran in marathon club, did research on birds, led a youth group, took FOOT leader training, went an entire semester without washing his bedsheets and was a FroCo. And he did all this seemingly effortlessly.

When I was deciding on Yale, I was worried about the academic rigor. My dad told me it would be no problem. He said everyone thought the classes would be difficult, but he thought they were fine.

It may have been fine for him, but I am struggling. What do I do when my dad becomes just another Yale student to compare myself to?

I went to a shitty public school and got an average ACT score. I didn’t join any clubs my first semester at Yale because I was too overwhelmed with the academic-heavy classes that far exceed the challenge of anything I’d done in high school. Besides that, all the things I considered myself to be “good” at before were not up to the standards of Yale’s competitive extracurriculars. My violin sits in the corner of my suite, gathering dust.

I’ve been here for less than two semesters, and I’ve thought about dropping out at

least once a week. My secret, nagging worry — like probably every Yale student — is that, while I may be mediocre at a lot of things, I am good at nothing.

When I fail yet another chemistry midterm, I wonder, why am I here at all?

Thirty years ago, my father was good at Yale. And I came here too, carried on the wave of my father’s legacy. But why?

I wonder what I would find if I read my admissions file. Did they see him in me?

I did not inherit his quiet brilliance, his effortless ability to succeed in everything he tries or his propensity for science and math.

Instead, I have his strawberry blonde hair and freckled arms.

I have his bad eyesight, his love for running, his habit of stashing candy in desk drawers.

His integrity, I hope.

I wonder if Yale only wants me because of my father.

I went home for winter break and sent my FAFSA to five other colleges. Maybe, I thought, if I transferred to my state school, I would feel like I belonged.

Over break, my dad invited me to Taco John’s for lunch. We ordered bean burritos, his favorite. I sat there for a moment, quiet before confessing. “Dad, I cannot do this. You did it, but I am not like you.” We talked for two hours in the sticky booth. I don’t remember what he said, just that it was some word of reassurance. Yale is just a school. It doesn’t define you.

I realize I do want to follow my father’s legacy. Just maybe not in this, in being good at Yale.

I want to be like my dad, who waves at each car we drive by in case it is somebody he knows — it often is. I want to be like my dad, who lets a trip to the grocery store for milk stretch for two hours as he unselfishly answers questions from his patients he sees there. I want to be like my dad, who makes coffee for my family every morning, even when he leaves before any of us are awake, and always leaves a note: “Made coffee! Just turn the knob!” I want to be like my dad, who sheds his button-downs and slacks on the weekends for holey, paint-splattered pants, and goes back to the office to pull weeds. I want to be like my dad who listens deeply and speaks with compassion and strives for excellence and never complains.

My father has a legacy beyond Yale. And that is the legacy I want.

Contact HANNAH MARK at h.mark@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE B3

WEEKEND SOTW

Banging Bulldogs: A How-To Welcome back to Sex on the WKND! We’re an anonymous YDN column dedicated to answering your burning questions about sex, love and anything in between.

Last year, we had one writer, but now we are a collective of students, each with our own unique sexual and romantic experiences. We’ve had straight sex, queer sex and long, long periods without sex. We’ve been in long-term relationships, we’ve walked twenty minutes to avoid former hookups on Cross Campus and we’ve done the whole FroCo-group-cest thing. We may be different this year, but we’re still sex-positive, we’re still anti-capitalist, and we sure as hell still support the Green New Deal.

Obsessing over sex is a Yale tradition as old as the Oldest College Daily itself. Whether you’re fucking your roommate, still yearning for your first kiss, or dealing with an unsettling skin rash, Sex on the WKND is here for you. Nothing is too personal or silly. Ask us anything ;) Submit your anonymous question here: https://bit. ly/sexonthewknd Bulldog Days is coming up, and I keep hearing about it being the sex festival of the year. Is this true? Where do I sign up?

-PrussyFrosh Bulldog Days! I never got one of those. While I am still a little envious, I ended up finding my niche at Yale without it: giving raunchy advice to a group of 18-22 year old horndogs. It’s a noble pursuit. That being said, I’ve been hearing a lot of questions about hooking up as a newly admitted student. I agree, it can be daunting, but with the right mindset you can be the sexpert of your dreams. I’m going to give it a go and answer all possible questions: Here is the who, what, where, when, why, and how of becoming a Banging Bulldog.

WKND Recommends Dining hall bacon

Who: Bulldog Days is a multiple day event, which means there’s massive potential for a range of partners. Personally, I’m always an advocate for ambitious pursuits: screw everyone you see. However, there is no shame if you align with the monogamist side of things. When searching for partners, try and limit yourself to people in your own class. It is really, really weird otherwise. And, for the love of God, do not hook up with your host. That is setting yourself up for an awkward stay (although, a great story). One thing you should know: At Yale, sex is a vehicle for ascending the social ladder. It may sound a little alarming, but that’s life. Consider discussing career goals, extracurriculars, and parental tax brackets. You always want to make informed decisions; the best way to do this is being transparent with your wants and needs.

What (on): As an incoming student, you will not be provided a bed. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a couch or a futon, and if you’re not, be prepared for the cold, hard wooden floor.

This is a definite barrier in your journey to pound town, but it also encourages an abundance of creativity. Consider using chairs, desks, tables, counters, pianos or the Benjamin Franklin statue. The great outdoors can also be your friend; when there’s a bush, there’s a way. When all else fails, you can invest in a two-person sleeping bag. My recommendations are TETON Sports’ “Mammoth Queen” and L.L. Bean’s “Double Adventure.” The names say it all.

Where: The “what” brings us to the “where”. While it may seem tempting, you should not hook up in your host’s room. I’m not only saying this because a couple of you will be staying with me this time around (although it is a dominant factor); this is a surefire way to get caught.

A host’s job is to ensure a fun and uplifting atmosphere.

This requires frequent check-ins. You get the idea?

Instead, get a headstart on your Yale Bucket List and try sex in the stackxxx, a practice room, or a shower. Use that innovation that got you here.

When: Timing is everything. While it may be exciting to see all the programming during Bulldog Days, scheduled events offer an optimal period for banging. If you can’t hold a tune, dip out of the acapella showcase early. If you’re a SigNu triple legacy, no need to go to the extracurricular bazaar. If you’re wondering why you’re being forced to listen to a Dean that won’t even be here next year, take that as a cue. Ultimately, all judgment is yours. If you decidedly can’t miss a single moment of the action, there’s a sweet spot in the late night/ early morning from 3am-5am where the most ambitious have gone to bed and the rowers aren’t up yet.

Use that time wisely.

Why: These three days are for you to explore all aspects of Yale, whether it be the courses, clubs, or culture of boning. You’re likely traveling long and far to get a comprehensive peek at what’s to come. Experimenting with sexuality will not only help with deciding if Yale is the right place for you, but it also serves as a medium for personal growth. You want the full experience, so why not get filled with experience?

How: Whatever you do, please do it safely. There is protection in all the laundry rooms. This event is for curating the Class of 2026, not creating the class of 2045. Remember, Yale Health covers abortions but not childcare.

Happy boinking!

PAGE B4

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND MIXED

COMPANY

WHY NOT YALE? // BY AVA SAYLOR

So, you got into Yale. Congratulations! You’ve worked so hard for this moment, balancing AP classes, standardized tests, and nonprofits that you dropped immediately after being admitted. It’s no easy feat! While it may feel obvious to accept an offer from any institution with gothic architecture, you might want to reconsider. Yale isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. So far, you’ve likely only heard from admissions officers and wannabe-Youtuber students.

Lucky for you, I’m here to tell you the truth.

Do not choose Yale if…

1. You can’t sing.

Ever seen Pitch Perfect? Yeah, that exists in real life. And it’s scary. Like, really scary. Going through the audition process is similar to how I imagine the Church of Scientology conducts its recruitment. If you aren’t a member of a musical group, you will still be forced to listen to rehearsals while late-night studying in WLH, get swarmed with Instagram stories promoting shows and sit through section “fun facts” about being in acapella.

2. You’re excited about Yale being “halfway between NYC and Boston.”

Oh, that innocent prefrosh state of mind. I was excited about this too, but the reality is that you will not be making those weekly getaway trips. You think you will, but you won’t. The train ride takes two hours one-way. Yale is not the place for your city-girl era. When I took my first trip to New York, I left at 8 in the morning, fell asleep on the way back, and lost my half-eaten salted pretzel. I never took another day trip to New York.

3. You hate the movie Ratatouille Last week, my friend sent me a delightful photo of a little rat in the dining hall.

While I firmly believe that anyone can cook, I know this is not great news for everyone.

On the topic of dining halls, be prepared to eat your body weight in flakey chicken every week and get comfortable with leftovers.

While Yale Dining is definitely not among the worst campus food services, some

schools let you use your meal plans at chain restaurants; our only “claim to fame” is a mid-tier basement coffee shop that doesn’t take points. Do better!

4. You don’t want to pay for laundry.

Sadly, Yale is far behind its peer institutions when it comes to machine pricing.

One load of laundry will ring you up $3.00 total; in comparison, Stanford’s laundry services are free of charge. Even further, students are forced to live in fecal fear of the “poopetrator,” an unknown individual who defecated on various loads of laundry who is rumored to make a comeback.

Victims seemed to be chosen at random.

5. You’re going into finance.

Not that Yale isn’t good for that, I just think we’ve had enough. Try consulting instead!

9. You want a relationship.

While a lucky few find their perfect match at Yale, the vast majority are painfully unsuccessful. Sure, the Clintons did it, but that was in primordial times. Nowadays, Yalies are so desperate to find love that they rely on CS kids (see the problem?). Algorithmic pairings come in many forms here, whether it be through Marriage Pact or DataMatch. Regardless of method, they never work. Trust me.

10. You suffer from imposter syndrome.

Okay, this one’s a bit clickbaity. Everyone at Yale reckons with themselves and their belonging at some point. The work culture here is often described as collaborative. While I maintain that’s true, students here often have a toxic relationship with success. Most clubs require applica-

Contact AVA SAYLOR at ava.saylor@yale.edu .

7. You’re a nudist.

While we do boast a strip-friendly library run, sadly, nakedness at Yale is typically expressed behind closed doors. Naked parties are invite-only with a strict no-camera policy, leaving little space for those who thrive in nudity to share their wisdom. And to think, we call ourselves progressive.

8. You love froyo.

What college town doesn’t have a froyo place? While you’ll have easy access to boba and traditional ice cream, frozen yogurt is hard to come by in New Haven. Occasionally, Ashley’s will offer a few flavors, but if it’s the self-service and freedom of choice you’re after, Yale is not the place for you. If any entrepreneurs are reading this, please jump on this business opportunity. It’s for the good of everyone.

// BY EDA AKER

// SOPHIE HENRY

// SOPHIE HENRY

Springjob Sunday 4/10/22 SSS 7:30pm

With all that being said, welcome to Yale! It can certainly be difficult and discouraging at times, but it can also be rewarding as ever. It may be a typical saying, but the people truly make the place.

I’ve found a home here, and I hope you will too (unless I’ve convinced you otherwise). Boola Boola!

6. You idolize Rory Gilmore (or any other fictional Yale personality).

There’s a very strange connection between Yale and Hollywood, but, for the most part, it is highly inaccurate. The majority of people here have actual personalities. Not everyone is in the YDN. I haven’t met any dropouts (ask me again in a few weeks). While the theatrics of campus life exist, they mainly come in the form of prank emails and unsolved paintball perpetrators.

COLLEGE DECISION YOUTUBE IS PROBLEMATIC

WKND Hot Take:

tions, students get high-paying internships a year in advance, and some will begin taking grad-level classes their first year. It’s easy to compare yourself to others, but you shouldn’t. The truth is that you’re here for a reason and we’re lucky to have you; try and remember that as you begin your Yale experience.

// MARK CHUNG

My relatives who were high school students in Turkey and I, being a student in the United States, bonded over our fears about college.

Their concerns surrounding college focused on having to choose a career path in order to apply to occupation-specific universities. They were concerned about their university exam scores because it was the only thing that determined which career, university, or life they could lead.

On the other hand, I was concerned about which school’s hoodie I would be sporting around and advertising for free to my peers. I was concerned about whether I would live the Rory Gilmore experience at an Ivy League school, or end up god-knows-where.

In reflecting on my obsession with college decision Youtube videos (which were solely focused on Ivy League acceptances), I came to the realization of how incredibly annoying I was back then. My mother had struggled to get out of her small town in Turkey and get into a university. She pushed even harder for me to be able to study in the United States, where I would not have to stress about potentially having a bad future because of my university prospects. Yet, there I was, everyday leading up to Ivy Day, binge watching college reaction videos.

My heart would pound uncontrollably fast whenever I saw the hopeful eyes of students open up their letters to their dream schools. I would smile as if I had gotten in myself. If they did not get in, my body would

shut off in terror. And, if they were waitlisted, I would revert to the state of torpor that is synonymous with waiting for a text from a boy you like.

I have to admit that having gotten into an elite school like Yale, it is absolutely mind-blowing that I have met many of the big name college decision Youtubers. For instance, it is a major flex that Josh Beasley was in my residential college and performed magic shows during my first year.

The fact that there was basically only one Turkish college decision Youtuber from Harvard did not phase me at the time. Now, looking back, it just makes sense. I mean, how many Turkish students get to go to Harvard? How many can afford it? How many are selected given the vastly different application process in the United States as opposed to Turkey?

College decision Youtube, along with valuing our college sweatshirts to the point that they become our sleepwear, is problematic. It is a clear indicator of how we fetishize college in the United States. We treat college decision Youtubers like celebrities. But it is hard to keep in perspective that many of us here at Yale watched these videos knowing that we would end up at some school.

We watched them knowing we likely had a choice in our college and could take charge of our future. Meanwhile, most who I know in Turkey are not as lucky.

Contact EDA AKER at eda.aker@yale.edu .