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NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 2022 · VOL. CXLIV, NO. 20 · yaledailynews.com
IS THE COUNCIL IN CRISIS?
19 Yale College Council members speak out on year of Senate inefficiency BY LUCY HODGMAN STAFF REPORTER After a year punctuated by Senate apathy, 23 out of the 28 current senators in the Yale College Council will not seek re-election. On April 21, polls open for YCC elections, which will usher in a new slate of senators and executives. The 2022 candidates roster, which will launch officially on Friday and was obtained by the News in advance, comes as some members of the body question whether the organization’s current structure is conducive to the achievement of tangible policy goals. Facing issues with Senate engagement, the YCC has often failed to meet quorum requirements — the minimum
number of senators who must be present for a vote to be legitimate — at their weekly meetings. The body passed only three Senate-wide resolutions or amendments during the academic year, and some of those took multiple attempts at reaching quorum before a vote could be held. In interviews with the News, 19 current members of the YCC reflected on the effectiveness of the Council’s operational structure, recalling challenges with maintaining Senate engagement, meeting policy goals and pushing initiatives through the bureaucratic processes of the University administration. “Even though I would say we have done meaningful work, I’m having a hard time thinking of greatest successes, to be honest, because I feel
like this entire spring semester has been a push for things that haven’t come to fruition,” said Iris Li ’24, co-academic life director. The YCC, Yale College’s centralized student government, is led by an elected student president and divided into three branches — policy, operations and events. The events director supervises programming carried out by the respective class councils for the first year, sophomore and junior classes, while the vice president supervises the YCC Senate and its constituent policy teams. In the senate, two elected senators represent each of Yale’s 14 residential colleges. The retention rate for senators running for reelection is often low, pointing to a broad-
ly-felt sense of apathy with the YCC’s ability to make change. Currently, Bayan Galal ’23 serves as YCC president, working with Zoe Hsu ’24 as vice president and Diba Ghaed ’24 as events director. According to the YCC Constitution, representatives can raise issues at the council’s weekly senate meetings, where the rest of the body votes on issues ranging from associate senator confirmations and the establishment of event subcommittees to impeachment and constitutional amendments. Depending on their gravity, votes require either a simple, two-thirds or three-fourths majority. Due to inconsistent attendance records, YCC members were unable to provide exact numbers of times the
Senate met quorum during their weekly meetings, but nine anecdotally noted that it was not often. Policy proposals extending beyond the internal structure of the YCC are not voted on in the Senate, Galal told the News. Instead, any senator can draft a proposal for a policy change which members of the executive board can present to University administrators. Galal classified the process of drafting and proposing policies as the bulk of the YCC’s operations. Last spring, Galal and Hsu’s campaign hinged on the promise that they would build a “healthier Yale,” developing the physical, mental, community, finanSEE YCC PAGE 4
Yale Ventures to Feds seize stolen artifacts lead innovation BY SARAH COOK STAFF REPORTER On Tuesday morning, the University announced the creation of Yale Ventures, a new initiative to help faculty and students launch their ideas into medical, technology, science and engineering startups and support innovation and entrepreneurship throughout New Haven. Yale Ventures will be led by recently appointed Senior Associate Provost for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Josh Geballe. The initiative aims to provide more structured support for innovations designed at the University, transform ideas into startups, facilitate corporate sponsorships and grow the entrepreneurial community in the area. It will be organized into four primary units: Intellectual Property and Licensing Services, Innovation Training and Startups, Corporate Partnerships and Innovation Community. Each of these units will be funded with new University investments. “The launch of Yale Ventures is an important step in expanding the impact Yale will have on addressing many of the world’s biggest challenges,” Geballe said. “New
Haven is booming with exciting startups, imagined and led by talented people on the cutting edge of medicine, science and engineering, who are eager to see their work result in new products and services that make a large-scale impact. Yale Ventures intends to play a key role in making New Haven a globally recognized hub of innovation, and this is the ideal time to undergo this exciting transformation.” Geballe said the seeds for Yale Ventures were planted over a year ago by Vice Provost for Research Michael Crair. Crair conducted research on how to expand Yale’s support of entrepreneurship and innovation, and spoke to stakeholders across and outside the University along with other universities. His research ultimately culminated in the creation of the Senior Associate Provost for Entrepreneurship and Innovation position, which the University began to recruit for last summer. Geballe said the program is designed specifically for Yale. “We have a unique equation and unique strengths here at Yale and in SEE VENTURES PAGE 4
ZOE BERG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Thirteen artifacts of South Asian origin were confiscated after an investigation into art dealer Subhash Kapoor. BY WILLIAM PORAYOUW STAFF REPORTER The Department of Homeland Security recently seized 13 artifacts from the Yale University Art Gallery, or YUAG, on suspicion they were smuggled by a disgraced art dealer. The pieces, which were of Indian and South Asian origin, were allegedly stolen by art dealer Subhash Kapoor. Kapoor, who was convicted in
2012 for taking antiques from temples in South India as part of a $100 million international smuggling scheme, then sold these stolen artifacts to major art museums across the world, including the National Gallery of Australia and the Toledo Museum of Art. Thirteen of these smuggled artifacts ended up in the YUAG, which is recognized as the oldest university art gallery in the Western Hemisphere.
“Yale University, having been presented with information indicating that works of art in its collections were stolen from their countries of origin, delivered the works on March 30, 2022 to the New York District Attorney’s Office, which will coordinate the objects’ repatriation later this year,” a statement released by YUAG read. “Yale was glad to work cooperatively with the DA’s Office in this important matter.” SEE YUAG PAGE 5
Cruz criticizes Yale political discourse Yalies unhappy with early registration BY LUCY HODGMAN AND OLIVIA LOMBARDO STAFF REPORTERS
Students and other community members filled the ballroom of the Omni Hotel on Monday evening to watch Texas Sen. Ted Cruz record an episode of Verdict, the podcast he hosts with political commentator Michael Knowles ’12. Cruz and Knowles spoke for almost two hours, covering controversies at the Yale Law School, the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and the question of intellectual diversity on Yale’s campus. The event included a conversation between Cruz and Knowles, and then a question-and-answer session moderated by conservative political commentator Liz Wheeler. It was hosted by The William F. Buckley, Jr. Program, a group intended to “promote intelSEE CRUZ PAGE 5
CROSS CAMPUS
BY EVAN GORELICK AND ISAAC YU STAFF REPORTERS
LUKAS FLIPPO/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
The Buckley Program’s efforts toward political diversity have in large part been focused on the inclusion of conservative voices in campus dialogue.
THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY, 1951. Yale's inexperienced crew team faces off against seasoned teams from Harvard and England in the the first ever international intercollegiate crew race rowed in American waters. A crowd of 25,000 people is expected to attend the event.
INSIDE THE NEWS
Yesterday, students across campus woke up at 8 a.m. to register for fall-term courses. The new system, which requires students to register for courses a semester in advance, was implemented for the first time during the pandemic after years of planning, alongside the scrapping of the archaic Online Course Selection system in favor of a streamlined Yale Course Search website. But in the semesters since, students have been almost uniformly frustrated with the process. In an informal survey of 30 undergraduates on Wednesday afternoon, more than two-thirds reported being dissatisfied about the course registration process.
“My main issue with the course selection process is broadly that it forces students to make plans based on information they don't have and without the time to fully consider options,” Tai Michaels ’23 wrote to the News. The traditional shopping period, which allowed students to try out an unlimited number of courses during the first two weeks of each semester, was scrapped in spring 2021. Now, students register for courses in the middle of the previous semester. Certain courses, including creative writing workshops, language classes and certain upper-level seminars, have always required preregistration, but this now occurs the semester prior, in the days before early registration. SEE REGISTRATION PAGE 5
PAN
WASTEWATER
ALAMAN
THE STUDENTS DRIVING SONNENFELD'S LIST
14 months after he allegedly killed Yale grad student Kevin Jiang, Qinxuan Pan got another two months to review the evidence pointing to him as the murderer.
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A Yale team has conducted weekly analyses of New Haven’s wastewater as an early-warning measure of COVID19’s trajectory.
Upcoming Spring Fling performer Alaman Diadhiou ’23 performed in the Benjamin Franklin college common room.