Yale Daily News — Week of April 29, 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 29, 2022 · VOL. CXLIV, NO. 22 · yaledailynews.com

SPECIAL ISSUE

YCC

BONE CENTER

AMPLIFYING AAPI VOICES

Yale students elected a new President, Vice President and Events Director to the Yale College Council at the end of last week.

The School of Medicine's Yale Bone Center celebrated its 35th year of groundbreaking research and advancement.

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CROSS CAMPUS

THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY, 1959.

The Yale Corporation approves the preliminary plans for a new auditorium in the Yale School of Medicine. The total cost is estimated to be $485,000.

Alleged cult group Hundreds rally for Local 33 recruits on campus

BY SARAH COOK AND MIRANDA JEYARETNAM STAFF REPORTERS ASEZ, the university volunteer branch of the World Mission Society Church of God — a Christian group that has faced criticism for functioning like a cult and is known to recruit on other college campuses — has been active on campus, looking to recruit members to form an official student group.

Over 10 students have described to the News instances of being approached by a group known as ASEZ, which stands for Save the World from A to Z, with one student having characterized the group as “cult-like” and describing it as a “cult” that “masquerade[s] as just a religious group and a way to do

Bible study.” Davornne Lindo ’22, the main student leader working to recruit students to the group, told the News that ASEZ’s mission is “to save the Earth from A to Z” and is an international volunteer group established by the Church of God, composed of university students from across the world.

ASEZ’s central beliefs stray from traditional Christianity The Church of God was founded in South Korea in 1964. The main tenets of the church include the belief in “god the mother” as well as the sabbath on Saturday. The Church of God believes that SahngHong Ahn, who founded the church in 1964, is the second coming of SEE ASEZ PAGE 4

Af-Am house prepares for 50th anniversary

BY DANTE MOTLEY STAFF REPORTER In the fall of 1969, the doors of Yale’s Afro-American Cultural Center opened as a second home for Black students on campus.

This weekend, the oldest cultural house in the Ivy League will celebrate 50 years of political, cultural and social activities.

After a two-year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the House is celebrating its golden

anniversary with an expected 500 guests during three days of mixed in-person and virtual panels, events and receptions.

The weekend’s programming is titled “Renaissance & Revolution: Celebrating 50 Years of the Afro-American Cultural Center’s Legacy at Yale & Beyond.”

“It truly will be a blessing to reconnect after all the distancing that the pandemic has required,” SEE AF-AM PAGE 5

ZOE BERG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

The Af-Am House is celebrating its “50 plus” anniversary this weekend in a three-day event featuring in-person and virtual celebratory programming.

MEGAN VAZ/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

After receiving support from the majority of Yale graduate students, the unrecognized graduate student union Local 33 took to the streets to demand improved working conditions and benefits.

BY MEGAN VAZ STAFF REPORTER On Wednesday evening, hundreds gathered at a rally in front of Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall, or SSS, in support of unionization efforts by Local 33 — Yale’s graduate student union that has gone unrecognized by the University for decades.

The rally, which began with a slate of speakers in front of the “Yale: Respect New Haven” street painting, attracted attendees including Yale undergraduates and graduate students, unionized University employees, local union activists and elected officials. Organizers, introduced

by Local 33 activist Abigail Fields GRD ’24, stood on the cargo bed of a pickup truck emblazoned with Local 33 stickers as they shared their struggles as student workers, grievances against the University and hopes for future official union recognition.

Aside from several Local 33 organizers and leaders, speakers included New Haven Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers, Ward 3 Alder Ron Hurt, and representatives from Students Unite Now, Yale’s service and maintenance worker’s union Local 35, and other non-Yale union leaders. Local 33 recently received majority support from graduate stu-

dents. After delivering over 1,600 signatures from graduate students in approval of unionization to University President Peter Salovey’s office, organizers directed the chanting crowd on a march to Salovey’s home on Hillhouse Ave., where activists delivered more speeches.

“We will get Yale to follow the law and acknowledge that graduate workers are workers. We will win a union!” declared Local 33 Co-President Paul Seltzer GRD ’23 as the crowd roared outside of SSS. “We will build power for the working people across the city, and we will win together!”

Seltzer referred to a 2021 ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) affirming graduate student employees’ right to unionize at private universities.

The decision reversed a proposal barring unionization at private universities that was passed two years earlier. The policy shift provides renewed hope for Local 33, which faced hardships like opposition from the University and other graduate students several years ago over alleged aggressive organizing tactics. Coupled with the NLRB ruling, the majority support for Local 33 signifies a potential shift toward University recognition, according to activists.

“Yale supports open and robust discussion on the topic of graduate student unionization, with respect for everyone’s viewpoint,” University spokesperson Karen Peart wrote to the News. She included information about existing benefits for graduate student workers, including competitive living stipends ranging from $38,300 to $40,000 per year, tuition fellowships to cover costs, “full coverage at Yale Health (Basic/Hospitalization/Specialty),” annual family subsidies for graduate students with children — “$7500 for the first child under 18, $2500 for each additional child,” and access to the Dean’s emergency fund for “unexpected one-time expenses.” A chart explaining Yale’s Ph.D. Student Health & Family Support coverage can be accessed here.

Addressing the crowd, the other Local 33 Co-President, Ridge Liu GRD ’24, said the University took advantage of the previous Trump-appointed NLRB to affirm their opposition to unionization. Speakers like Seltzer, Fields, Arita Acharya GRD ’24 and Elizabeth Marcone GRD ’27 noted that “comrades” have recently achieved the recognition of graduate worker unions at MIT and Fordham. These schools join other private univerSEE RALLY PAGE 5

State judge asks interim NHPD chief to step down from post

BY HANNAH QU, SADIE BOGRAD AND SOPHIE SONNENFELD STAFF REPORTERS Faced with differing interpretations of New Haven’s foundational document, the city remains divided.

On one side of the months-long debate over Renee Dominguez’s position as interim NHPD chief are two influential religious leaders, the city’s legislature and a state judge — all of whom allege that Dominguez is occupying the role illegally. But in ardent defense of Dominguez and the police department is Mayor Justin Elicker, who announced Monday afternoon that he will appeal a Connecticut Superior Court judge’s order for the interim chief to leave her post.

The initial lawsuit was filed in January by First Calvary Baptist Church Rev. Boise Kimber and Way of the Cross pastor Donarell Elder. After the New Haven Board of Alders rejected Dominguez for the role of permanent chief in December, Elicker decided

to keep Dominguez as acting chief while the city launched a nationwide search to pick a new chief. In his lawsuit, Kimber claimed that Elicker’s decision was in conflict with the city charter, which states that the Mayor cannot pick someone to hold an acting role for over six months “without being submitted for confirmation by the Board of Alders.”

“Indeed, if the argument advanced by the defendant’s counsel were adopted by this court, there would be nothing that would prevent this mayor, or any mayor of the city of New Haven, from appointing a temporary police chief, having that nominee rejected by the Board of Alders, then allowing the rejected nominee to serve for the rest of the mayor’s administration,” Judge Michael Kamp wrote in a Memorandum of Decision accompanying his order filed in the Connecticut Superior Court. “Such a position is illogical and it is contrary to the express and implied language of the New Haven charter.”

Boise and Elder’s attorney Jerald Barber declined to provide an immediate comment and plans to hold a press conference on Tuesday.

“I have been focused and committed to performing my duties as Police Chief since I was named Acting Chief in March 2021,” Dominguez wrote in a statement provided to the News by NHPD Public Information Officer Scott Shumway. “This ruling has no effect on me continuing to successfully perform my job for the officers and the community.”

Judge calls city justification “illogical” With Dominguez occupying the role for nearly five months, Kamp wrote that the interim chief has been skirting alder approval to hold onto the role “without any definite end in sight.”

The city charter allows the mayor to appoint someone to fill an acting role in the city. In the memorandum, Kamp explained

YALE DAILY NEWS

A judge ordered NHPD Acting Chief Renee Dominguez to vacate her role in accordance with the city charter following a lawsuit brought against her. that such appointment power comes into play if a role is vacant due to death, resignation, inability, disability, or removal. But, Kamp wrote, those powers do not apply in this case, because

Dominguez never served as the permanent chief.

The role was officially vacated when former NHPD Chief SEE DOMINGUEZ PAGE 4

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

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OPINION GUE ST COLUMNIST RE STY FUFUNAN

G U E S T C O L U M N I S T K A L A’ I A N D E R S O N

Let Them Drink Boba

Reflecting on Pacific Islander inclusion during AAPI month

I like boba. I’ve racked up countless Snackpass points at Loose Leaf; for my birthday, half of my gifts were Strawberry Matcha Lattes. In my prefrosh Facebook introduction post, I welcomed other Yalies to “hit me up if they want to be boba buds!”

I am not the only Asian American that likes boba. Far from it actually! There’s a whole class of Asian Americans derided as “boba liberals” who, just like the drink, tend to be mostly sugar and little substance. The term has come to encompass substanceless, apolitical, and commercialized liberal “activism” — one that reduces the complexity of the Asian American experience to mere tokens — like boba. Twitter user @diaspora_red is commonly cited as the original articulator of many of the ideas, and they conceptualize boba liberalism as “thinking t-shirts, products, and merchandise are the main way of affirming one’s racial identity.” It is the epitome of performative activism. They’ll show up in droves to 88rising concerts but fail to match that energy for South and Southeast Asian creatives. They’ll clamor for #representASIAN but fail to recognize how other axes like class, gender and sexuality interact with — and are inseparable from — racial representation. They’ll fight for the elevation of “Asian American culture,” but it’s a narrow conception: one that prioritizes an upper-class, predominantly East Asian-centric experience.

YET, FOR ME AND COUNTLESS OTHER ASIAN AMERICANS, BOBA LIBERALISM WAS A STARTING POINT. IT MADE ME THINK ABOUT ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES IN THE FIRST PLACE — EVEN IF MY CONCEPTIONS WERE NOT FULLY FLESHED OUT. Yet, for me and countless other Asian Americans, boba liberalism was a starting point. It made me think about Asian American issues in the first place — even if my conceptions were not fully fleshed out.

Entering political spaces is intimidating; those who wish to broaden

their political consciousness may be put off by the ease at which organizers can deftly articulate theoretical frameworks and historical contexts at seeming ease. How, then, can grassroots movements appeal to a broader audience?

A couple weeks ago, “Pachinko” author Min Jin Lee returned to campus to deliver a talk. I got the opportunity to ask her a question live, and I asked about her experiences in Asian American organizing during her time as a student here at Yale.

She left me with one guiding principle: “I’m trying to build the largest tent with the strongest players.”

At first glance, boba liberals may not seem like players at all — perhaps more eager to go to Whale Tea than to go to a protest. Under their materialism, however, boba liberals are ultimately just Asian Americans passionate about their communities. How can we redirect this passion to create material change?

The Asian American Alliance at Yale is committed to building the largest tent possible. Coalition-building has always been central to our work. In 1969, co-founder Don Nakanishi, picked up “Asian-sounding names” from a phonebook. Thirty-five students — out of the only 50 or so on campus — answered the call and gathered over dinner. Over the years, AASA has served many roles: a coalition of clubs, a community outreach organization, an occasional headache for Yale administrators. It has always, however, remained firm to its commitment to elevating the political consciousness of Asian Americans.

These days, more than fifty years later, our meetings still look about the same. We meet in the AACC’s living room — a space our predecessors fought to claim decades ago.

Over the past academic year, our efforts have ranged from our massive Night Market to intimate discussions. These past few years, one of the most requested topics for our signature “What is Asian American?” discussion has been boba liberalism. Most of those in attendance — including, in 2020, myself — were just beginning to reckon with the political implications of their identity. We breezed through a crash course on diasporic history; now, I can recite the lecture by heart. I am grateful to have had this space to grow, and I hope that we continue to be a place for all Asian Americans — including boba liberals — to be comfortable exploring and expanding the complexities of their identity.

Look out in the fall for AASA’s open meeting times. I promise our tent is quite big here — sometimes, we even have free boba.

RESTY FUFUNAN is a sophomore in Trumbull College. He is a co-moderator of the Asian American Students Alliance. Contact him at resty.fufunan@yale.edu .

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COPYRIGHT 2022 — VOL. CXLIV, NO. 22

In the United States, the month of May is meant to recognize Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage, a group historically labeled as AAPI. Often, however, the “PI” of “AAPI” is neglected and such discourse focuses predominantly on Asian American narratives.

My name is Kala’i Anderson and I am a Native Hawaiian first-year student at Yale College, and a Peer Liaison for the Native American Cultural Center, or NACC. With AAPI month upon us, I find myself grappling with a prominent issue that this time of year intensifies: the conflation of Pacific Islander identities with Asian American ones. For years, I have witnessed and consumed countless articles and journals that claim to highlight the stories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, yet upon completion, I find that the majority of these publications feature zero Pacific Islander narratives.

It is quite literally the definition of performative activism and representation, and to be frank, I would prefer the month of May to be called AA Heritage Month instead. Yale is no exception — even now, I find myself writing to be featured in the YDN’s AAPI special edition issue, yet for a month dedicated to both

AA and PI, only one article is from the perspective of a Pacific Islander.

In my experience as a Pacific Islander at Yale College, it can be difficult to navigate social circles in relation to cultural upbringing. Because Pacific Islanders compose such a small percentage of the undergraduate population — around 0.2 percent — the resources and spaces we are allotted are of a similar minuscule size.

Staff of both the NACC and the Asian American Cultural Center, or AACC, have approached me to state that Pacific Islanders are welcome at either cultural house, but this messaging fails to address the fact that Pacific Islanders fall into neither of these two categories. While both cultural centers have been extremely welcoming on a personal level — and the NACC in particular has allowed me to to interact with other Indigenous students — I cannot validate either organization as a space that truly represents Pacific Islander experiences.

This conflation of identities prompts non-Pacific Islanders to misinterpret what legitimate Pacific Islander culture looks like. If an article features a title including “AAPI,” but only features

Asian-centered narratives, how is the intended audience supposed to differentiate between what is and is not Pacific Islander? They cannot. And this misinformation, too, is present in the Yale community.

For example, during Bulldog Days, I had the opportunity to speak with incoming first years, one of which was surprised to learn both that Native Hawaiians existed and that the word “aloha,” which is a Hawaiian greeting meaning “love,” is not in fact a word of East Asian origin.

While these experiences are purely my own, I believe that many other Pacific Islanders at Yale and across the country share similar sentiments about the term AAPI and the month of May. It is a constant push and pull between wanting more representation in media that labels itself as AAPI, yet simultaneously longing for separation from Asian American tangential spaces. While both groups have experienced similar historical processes and trauma, to link us under one term is a blatant disregard for the unique beauty that each group has to offer.

KALA’I ANDERSON is a first-year in Berkeley College. Contact him at kalai.anderson@yale.edu .

GUEST COLUMNIST MOLLIE JOHNSON

Shut DKE Down Now Content warning: This article contains mention of sexual violence.

Last week, the News reported that Delta Kappa Epsilon is returning to Yale. But why is Yale giving the fraternity that seems to have more complaints for sexual misconduct than any other campus organization yet another chance?

As it has before, DKE is taking advantage of the short-term institutional memory that is inherent to four-year universities to return to campus life. It has never changed its ways before; what makes anyone think it will now?

I personally know the pain caused by Yale’s refusal to shut DKE down. During my junior year, the president of DKE raped me just months after publicly praising his organization for becoming a safer place for women and learning from its sordid past. After a long and difficult investigation, Yale suspended him for “penetration without consent” until after I graduated. My senior year, after 10 women came forward in spring 2018 with sexual misconduct allegations against members of the fraternity, I penned an anonymous op-ed in this very newspaper, begging Yale to finally take action and shut DKE down.

Today, four years later, I can tell my story under my own name. I no longer fear retaliation from Yale.

As an involved alumna who cares deeply about the institution and its students, I simply cannot stand by and watch history repeat itself.

No one should go through what I went through.

In fall 2016, at the fraternity’s annual Christmas party, DKEmas, the then-president cornered me and ignored me when I repeatedly said “no” to his advances. The next morning, I did what I was “supposed” to do. I went to the hospital. I got a rape kit. I immediately reported the assault to Yale and the New Haven police.

Then, I waited. The man who had raped me lived blocks from my home, ate in the same dining halls and studied in the same libraries.

After a year the NHPD admitted they lost my file, and that my case had been “a mistake from an investigative point of view.”

It was only thanks to Obama-era Title IX guidelines, which – crucially – are no longer in place, that I was able to seek justice through the university. After a few grueling months, the committee ruled in my favor, and I was able to graduate on time, with honors, spared from the fear and trauma of sharing a campus with the man who raped me.

Today’s students do not have this level of protection from the fed-

eral government after the Trump administration gutted Title IX. Now, universities can ignore any sexual misconduct that occurs off campus, outside of officially recognized university programs and activities. Despite existing steps from campus and being exclusively inhabited by Yale students, Yale’s fraternity houses fall into this category, an open secret that means regulation can be bypassed with a wink and a nod. Unlike Yale’s previous sexual misconduct policy, which did not limit protection by location, Yale’s new policy makes it clear that it applies only to sexual misconduct in “Yale-related” off-campus activities. Under this new regime, I would have had no recourse because I was raped in the wrong place.

It is notable that the new Trump Title IX regulations force schools and universities to handle sexual assaults differently from any other crime. With hate crimes and robberies, for example, schools discipline students regardless of where the crime occurred. The reasoning?

Those crimes endanger the greater community. Why should sexual assault be any different?

DKE withdrew from campus life in 2018 under one set of federal guidelines, and it is now returning to an entirely different reality. The erosion of these important Title IX protections makes DKE’s official return to Yale all the more horrifying, and the need for Yale to take action all the more urgent.

Let me pause, and share a short history of DKE’s recent issues.

In 2010, the fraternity’s pledges got nationwide press after marching outside the Yale Women’s Center chanting “No means yes, yes means anal!” and “I f— dead women and fill them with my semen!”

Shortly after, 16 students and alumnae filed a civil rights complaint against DKE with the Department of Education. The Yale College Executive Committee then convened for months before finally banning DKE from campus for five years. This toothless ban had little effect: During its period of formal sanctioning, DKE regularly hosted events and continued to recruit members. Shockingly, its membership numbers actually increased.

And, as it often does, DKE made a big show of celebrating a culture change. In 2016, immediately after the ban was lifted, the then-president of the fraternity told the News that it had a “positive impact” on DKE’s culture. I have reason to dispute that: just two months later, he raped me.

Unfortunately, my experience was not unique. After a 2018 Busi-

ness Insider article about two DKE assaults (against me and another Yale student), eight other women forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against members of the fraternity.

DKE again sought to present itself as non-threatening. In response, the fraternity conducted an internal investigation that ultimately found “no evidence of a culture of sexual hostility or sexual harassment.”

Remarkably, DKE did not find it important to interview a woman, let alone a survivor of sexual assault, in coming to this conclusion.

The public relations nightmare that ensued forced Yale to formally review DKE’s behavior, which it took 11 months to do.

The University’s ultimate report condemned DKE’s culture – described by students as a “meat market” for women – and encouraged students not to attend the fraternity’s events. Despite this, Yale still refused to sanction the organization, citing the impossibility of regulating off-campus organizations. That’s a bogus charge: Peer institutions like Princeton have managed to do so with relative ease.

After the 2018 allegations, DKE’s landlord had had enough – the group lost its lease that fall, handicapping its ability to host large student parties.

Since 2018 the group’s public presence has been diminished, at least until now.

Yale once again finds itself at a turning point with DKE. On Sunday, DKE plans to kick off its return to campus with a “Bacchanalian” event.

Stomping out dangerous organizations is not the responsibility of individual Yale students – that duty falls on the Yale administration, which has repeatedly neglected the safety of its students by ignoring DKE’s obvious problems. DKE has never reformed itself, despite a near constant ebb and flow of bans and binge drinking, sanctions and sexual assaults.

Time and time again, it has proven its failure to learn anything of value from its past.

So, I’m writing to say enough: Too many women have been collateral damage of DKE’s indisputable institutional rot and Yale’s inaction: Shut DKE down now.

MOLLIE JOHNSON ’18 is the Practice Manager of McAllister Olivarius, a transatlantic law firm that specializes in fighting sex discrimination in educational institutions and employment settings.

Contact her at mollie.johnson@aya.yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

NEWS

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“When we say ‘Asian American’ we are talking about so much more than can be fit in a single stereotype.”

IJEOMA OLUO AMERICAN WRITER

Chun, first Asian American dean of Yale college, reflects on term

BY LUCY HODGMAN AND WILLIAM PORAYOUW STAFF REPORTERS As the end of his term nears, Dean of Yale College Marvin Chun is feeling sentimental.

Chun, a professor of psychology, neuroscience and cognitive science and the first Asian American dean of Yale College, announced at the beginning of the semester that he would step down on June 30, marking the end of his five-year term. Chun spoke to the News about his time as Dean, his proudest accomplishments and his plans for the future — but not without a reminder that, “you know me, I don’t like attention.”

“Yale is like my second family,” Chun said. “It’s so much a part of my being. Most of my professional career was here, but in my role as dean, I was involved with the University in very deep and extensive ways. I feel very plugged into the institution. I feel that my wellbeing is directly tied to the institutional wellbeing in many respects. It’s just a big part of my life.”

After earning his doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Chun joined Yale’s faculty in 2003. He served as a professor in the psychology department and held joint appointments at Yale College as well as the Yale School of Medicine and other graduate schools.

In 2007, he was appointed head of Berkeley College, a position he held for nine years.

When Chun was named dean by University President Peter Salovey in 2017, it marked the first time an Asian American was selected to oversee Yale College.

Although Asian American and Pacific Islander students average around 20 percent of the Ivy League, AAPI representation in both university faculty and administration remains scarce.

AAPI faculty, for example, are less likely to obtain tenure and report lower levels of job satisfaction working in higher education than their white colleagues. AAPI individuals in academia have also been shown to be provided with fewer opportunities to increase their salaries than other groups.

On the administrative level, AAPI faculty are further underrepresented in higher education. Since 2001, there has been little change to the proportion of AAPI faculty who are hired as University presidents, with the previous school year seeing AAPI individuals represent three percent of new University president hires.

AAPI students, on the other hand, represent approximately seven percent of the current undergraduate population in the nation – and remain the fastest growing major racial or ethinc group in the United States.

In general, Chun told the News, his focus during his term has been on being the best and most committed dean he can be, regardless of his status as a “first.” But if the example he is setting as the first Asian American dean is one that has a positive impact on students, he said, then he is happy to serve in that role.

“In that regard, if a student says, ‘Well, it’s kind of cool to see an Asian American in administration,’ if any student feels that way, then I feel very happy and proud to see them as well,” Chun said.

The significance of Chun’s appointment as the first Asian American dean was not lost on Joliana Yee, an assistant dean of Yale College and the director of the Asian American Cultural Center.

Chun’s leadership, Yee explained, was a reminder that Asian Americans could effectively lead an institution like Yale.

“It is important to have expansive representation in positions of leadership at Yale so that the heterogeneity of perspectives, lived experiences, history and cultures within the Asian diaspora can permeate and shape the institution,” Yee said.

Chun also emphasized the importance of representation at the highest levels of University administration. Even beyond the role of dean, he explained, the administration should “look like what the student body looks like.”

During Chun’s tenure, he oversaw efforts to diversify the student body, such as increasing financial aid packages, eliminating parental tuition for

YALE NEWS

Chun will conclude his five-year term in June. His successor has not yet been announced. families making less than $75,000 a year and improving aid and benefits for students in the Eli Whitney Students Program, which supports nontraditional students who pursue a Yale education.

He also developed The Community Initiative and expanded the Science, Technology and Research Scholars Program by 60 percent, both of which are administrative efforts that seek to support first-generation, low-income students.

In his time as dean, Chun has also overseen expansions to the University’s mental health care resources, including the addition of the Yale College Community Care Program and the reform of the University’s reinstatement and readmission policies.

These reforms, he said, represent “a lot of hard work from a lot of people,” emphasizing his appreciation for his colleagues in the dean’s office and beyond.

Senior Associate Dean of Strategic Initiatives and Communications Paul McKinley emphatically told the News that if a survey were conducted of all

of Chun’s colleagues, it would certainly reveal that they feel “terrible” about him leaving.

“We really like him,” McKinley said. “He’s been a great dean. Mission accomplished. We hope that the [new] dean is great, that the president will name a very good successor.

I think that’s probably true, but until that happens, we’re also feeling very sentimental and really regret seeing him going.”

Yee also described her supportive working relationship with Chun, noting that she was always amazed at how much energy he brought to the room, even after a long day.

“While Marvin is someone my direct supervisor reports to, he has always maintained an open-door policy and has always responded enthusiastically to event invitations, questions, new ideas and learning what he can do to ensure Yale College students as well as colleagues feel supported,” Yee said.

In January, Chun told the News that before the conclusion of his term, he hoped to see Yale return to a sense of normalcy in relation to the

COVID-19 pandemic. Now, Chun says, things feel “pretty normal,” — a realization of his January hope.

While he is sad to be leaving, Chun said, he also feels enormously grateful. He emphasized his excitement to return to his lab and the classroom, as well as to see who would be named as his successor.

“It’s the best job in the world,” Chun told the News, when asked what advice he would give to the next dean of the college. “I’ll share some advice which I got as well, which is to stay very closely connected to the students. One, it’ll help you do your job better, but two, it’s also just the fun, rewarding part of the job. We can never lose sight of the fact that this job is about making our student experience on campus and even beyond campus, the best possible.”

Marvin Chun has served as the dean of Yale College since July 2017.

Contact LUCY HODGMAN at lucy.hodgman@yale.edu and WILLIAM PORAYOUW at william.porayouw@yale.edu .

Beraki elected as first Black woman YCC president

BY PALOMA VIGIL STAFF REPORTER Leleda Beraki ’24 and Iris Li ’24 were elected as Yale College Council president and vice president, respectively, after voting ended in an uncontested election on Friday.

The election also determined the 2022-2023 events director, junior and sophomore class council presidents and residential college senators. Beraki’s win sets a historic precedent for the Council.

She will be the first Black woman to serve as YCC president.

“Being the first Black woman in this space means the absolute world to me,” Beraki said. “It’s an opportunity to uplift often drowned out voices on campus, but also use my background and experiences to reshape the YCC. I know how much it would’ve meant to see someone like me in this position as a kid, and I am literally shocked that I could be that person for someone else.”

Agastya Rana ’24 was elected as events director with 410 votes, 233 more votes than his competitor, Liz Carter ’24, who had 177 votes.

Agastya won with substantially fewer votes than did the previous YCC events director, Diba Ghaed ’24, who ran unopposed and won with 1,852 votes.

This election cycle saw the lowest voter turnout in recent years: while there are currently over 6,000 students in Yale College, Beraki received only 615 votes to be elected president.

The total number of votes fell by nearly half this election season after a steady decline in voter turnout since the onset of the pandemic.

Outgoing YCC president Bayan Galal ’23 won her 2021 election with 1,131 votes while former YCC president Aliesa Bahri ’23 was elected in 2020 with 1,694 votes. “[The low voter turnout] speaks to the problems of YCC engagement with our constituents,” recently re-elected Pierson College Senator Viktor Kagan ’24 said.

“People don’t think YCC does anything and therefore do not see it as a great space for change. Uncontested elections are a result of our failed engagement, which is something I’ve stressed over and over as a fact that needs addressing.”

Kagan said that the YCC Senate had “almost entirely committed” one of its meetings to the organization’s “failed communication,” but that no changes have been made to improve the YCC’s structure since.

Beraki told the News that the biggest challenge she anticipates facing during her tenure is working to change the YCC culture “both internally and externally.” She believes that productivity in the YCC will come once people work “cohesively” and only if the student body “believes in the work” and “feels heard.”

Ijeamaka Achebe ’25 speculated that the elections for YCC president and vice president were uncontested in part because students had doubts about the impact of the YCC’s work.

“While YCC definitely did try to get things done this year, at least I saw many emails about what they were working on, not much actually came to fruition,” Achebe said. “I think this school is just really bureaucratic and people might have felt discouraged from running given the current council’s track record. Like in all honesty, would you still run if you knew you wouldn’t be able to meet your goals?”

COURTESY OF LELANDA BERAKI AND IRIS LI

Lelanda Beraki ’24 and Iris Li ’24 were elected YCC president and vice president.

Achebe also expressed excitement about the incoming executive board. She said Beraki and Li’s platform addresses many of the goals she hopes to see achieved, and that Beraki, who she knows personally, “truly puts her all into everything she does.”

Raymond Jin ’25, a returning Branford College Senator, was surprised that the election was uncontested, originally expecting the presidential race to be “competitive.”

Still, Jin said his platform shares many values with Beraki and Li’s, and he hopes to increase communication between students and the administration during his term.

“My primary goal is to create an active and ongoing dialogue between YCC and the student body. It appears that many students do not know exactly what YCC does, how we do our work, what challenges we face, and how students can help us mitigate those challenges,” Jin said.

“There should not be a barrier between the populace and their elected representatives in a representative student government.

My goal is to break this barrier and replace it with throughways of communication.”

Li said that she is excited to alter the structure of the YCC to make it more inclusive and an “empowering” space for students. She also said she is also looking to reshape the relationship that the YCC has with other student organizations.

Beraki similarly expressed her excitement to work with student organizations, and hopes that student groups can feel a “direct” connection to the YCC, and thus to administrators, as well. According to Beraki, she hopes to accomplish this in coordination with a reinstated Council of Representatives — composed of student organization representatives — as well as with the newly created Student Organization Liaison.

Beraki added that she also wants to work with the people of New Haven to give them the “tools” to define what she and Li see as a

functioning relationship between Yale and the City.

In his role as Events Director, Rana also expressed excitement to bring back a number of traditional Yale events that have not been held since pre-pandemic times.

“I can’t wait to facilitate a return to the Yale normal,” Rana wrote in a statement to the News.

“I’m so excited to unveil the exciting, vibrant, and rewarding array of events that are in store for the undergraduate community next year!”

Kagan outlined that there are many reforms he would like to see the YCC make next year.

He pointed out that the lack of communication between the YCC and students is due to their “bare” website and poor enforcement of the YCC constitution, which outlines that the YCC must publish its meeting minutes and policy efforts.

“We need to channel student frustration and our masses into our advocacy and stop gatekeeping the false power [that] administration grants us,” Kagan said.

“We need to see students as partners in our work to change Yale and that involves real transparency and communication with the communities we represent.”

Kagan said he is “excited” to work with Beraki and Li next year, and said that he has worked with them both in the past.

Specifically, Kagan commended the “clearly outlined policy efforts” for Beraki and Li’s executive board, as well as their emphasis on building a close-knit community within the YCC. Beraki underscored that this vision, and their corresponding campaign, was not just full of “empty promises,” and that they want to be held accountable for making positive changes.

“For me, this is a really empowering opportunity to enact the vision that Leleda and I have,” Li said.

The new YCC administration began their tenure on Saturday.

Contact PALOMA VIGIL at paloma.vigil@yale.edu.

PAGE 4

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

FROM THE FRONT

“There is something missing in Asian America. They're missing people to tell them, 'It's okay to be who you are - you belong. Just be unapologetically you; you're not less than anybody else.'” SIMU LIU CANADIAN ACTOR

Group facing cult allegations recruits at Yale ASEZ FROM PAGE 1 Christ. The church refers to him as Christ Ahnsahnghong, believing that he restored the Passover and fulfilled the prophecy of King David, which was only partially fulfilled by Jesus Christ. While ASEZ was established by the Church of God, Lindo told the News that members can be part of ASEZ — which is volunteer-oriented — without being a part of the church.

But students who attended some of ASEZ’s meetings said they found the lines more blurred.

When asked by the News about ASEZ’s beliefs, Lindo read directly from its brochure, saying that “we cherish God's love in the basis of the Bible-centric faith, communicate with the world citizens to resolve problems that the world is faced with and realize the well being of mankind.”

Tytiana Washington, ASEZ Coordinator for the Connecticut chapter of the Church of God, told the News that the church follows a literal reading of the Bible. According to their website, the Church of God teaches its members that Passover is a Christian tradition, that the symbol of the cross is a form of idolatry and to believe in God Elohim — God the Father and God the Mother.

God the Mother reportedly refers to Ahn Sahng-Hong’s spiritual wife, a South Korean woman in her mid70s named Jang Gil-ja. She is also described as ‘Heavenly Mother’ and ‘The Bride.’

Lindo explained that ASEZ is “not the same” as the Church of God because ASEZ is “primarily [geared around] volunteer service.” She said those who are interested can participate in Bible studies, but it is not required for members of ASEZ, as volunteering is the group’s predominant goal.

Lindo is currently in the process of establishing ASEZ as an official student organization at Yale, which requires at least five members. Meetings, however, are already occurring on Yale’s campus — the News confirmed instances of meetings at William L. Harkness Hall and Bass Library.

The University Chaplain’s office confirmed that ASEZ is not an officially recognized student group.

Students’ experiences with ASEZ recruitment and meetings on campus The News confirmed over 10 instances of students being approached by ASEZ. All confirmed instances were from women, and most were from women of color.

Three students were willing to speak further about their experiences, but two requested anonymity due to fear of continued attention from the group.

“By using concerning practices like repeatedly, persistently approaching students with friendly smiles and empty compliments, asking for their contact information, repeatedly texting them, and using concerning psychological control tactics like reprimanding people for having beliefs that diverge from their own, WMSCOG is a concerning presence on campus historically and today, especially when being promoted by trusted students on campus,” one student approached by ASEZ told the News.

One student who was approached

by ASEZ said that the separation of ASEZ and the Church of God was not “how it was framed” to her. The ASEZ representatives she spoke to focused largely on religious aspects and

“hardly talked about volunteerism at all.” She said they primarily told her about when they go to church and when the Bible study sessions were.

The other student concurred, saying that when they were approached by ASEZ, God the Mother came up almost immediately and they were invited to attend Bible study sessions. An email obtained by the News from ASEZ to a recruited student specifically invited them to a “Bible seminar,” on the topic of “how to be protected from disaster through the ‘Seal of God.’” Charnice Hoegnifioh ’24 told the News she first met Lindo through a tutoring job last spring, and became involved with ASEZ soon after. Hoegnifioh said she was never offered volunteering opportunities through ASEZ, with all outreach focusing mostly on the religious aspects, and she was interested initially because she wanted to explore her spirituality in a deeper way. She did not get the sense that the group was about sustainability or the environment, except for when she was told by ASEZ leaders that the only part about saving the earth was “saving the people on earth from the end of the world.”

Although she initially found the Bible study sessions impressive, Hoegnifioh said that the interpretations of the Bible that were soon introduced “felt like [there was] an agenda.” She was told that if she did not follow the beliefs of the Church of God, she would “go to hell,” and that she should not want this if she was “a good person.”

In an email to the News, Lindo said that she “would never” tell someone that they are going to Heaven or Hell, since only “God is Judge.” As a Church of God member, her goal is to “share hope for the Kingdom of Heaven,” and not to instill fear. “[The bible study sessions] weren't thinking about and interpreting the word of God in different ways,” Hoegnifioh said. “It was like pushing an agenda forward.”

Hoegnifioh described feeling “invalidated” and “gaslighted” at times during these sessions. She said that if she showed signs of disagreement or disbelief, she would be made to listen to teachings again and repeat them back.

Assistant Chief Anthony Campbell from the Yale Police Department told the News that he is not aware of any reports being made by students about ASEZ. Cult-like characteristics of ASEZ Steven Hassan, an author and mental health counselor specializing in cults, told the News that the experiences described by students — such as rote memorization — matches the characteristics typical of what he calls “authoritarian” or “destructive” cults. He described ASEZ as a form of “deceptive recruitment” on the part of the Church of God. Hassan describes cults as being on a continuum from ethical to unethical influence. There are groups that may seem “cultish,” Hassan said, but members have full knowledge of what they are getting into, are not restricted in their lifestyles and are free to leave without fear of threats or harassment. Authoritarian or unethical cults, on the other hand, demand that members create what Hassan called a “pseudo-self” that is obedient to the cult and that suppresses the real self.

“The thing about destructive cults is they use a million fringe groups,” Hassan said. “And as soon as they're exposed with one name, they change it to another name.”

The goal of these “fringe groups,” Hassan said, is to recruit more members into the larger organization.

Often, this involves alienating members from environments where they can seek support — like family or school — or situating members strategically in order to recruit others.

Hassan stressed that one organization may have many smaller groups to aid in recruitment.

At least four other sub-organizations have been established by the Church of God. The first student attended a Bible study meeting after being approached by two girls about two months ago while talking with a group of friends. She said the ASEZ representatives introduced themselves as a group that discusses “compelling questions” about the universe and the presence of a female god. She also said, from her experience and discussions with friends, that ASEZ seems to usually approach women of color such as herself.

Hoegnifioh also told the News that she was shown a list of students who had been reached out to by ASEZ, which included primarily Black female upperclassmen.

Lindo told the News that ASEZ is “not limited to any specific gender or ethnicity” and that its members are from many different backgrounds.

When ASEZ approached the first student, they asked for her name, year and residential college, but she said she did not give them her email address and has not received emails from the group. They invited her to attend a Bible study at both WLH and Bass Library.

Lindo described ASEZ’s outreach efforts as “very casual” and said that she usually reaches out to her immediate friends and will set up a table at Bass Library where students can “freely” approach her. She emphasized that ASEZ does not “recruit” people, but did confirm that she does reach out to students on the street to ask them questions.

“If I'm just walking, then I will approach and say, ‘can [you] answer a quick survey question?’ and then some people are like, yeah, I have time, and some people say no, but the ones who have time participate and they help me — they give me their thoughts about what they think about my question,” Lindo explained.

The first student said she was initially interested in the group because she thought it might be an opportunity to build community and discuss Christianity through an academic lens with questions like the existence of a female god.

“I thought that it would be somewhere that I could find community in the religious aspects,” the student told the News.

But the meeting — which was with two other attendees — was not what she expected. The student described the meeting itself as both “uncomfortable” and “creepy,” and that they were asked to do “call and response” exercises, in a style that she said was how you might “teach a kid.” The group leaders also at one point asked to see her calendar to see if she was observing the Saturday sabbath or attending church on Sunday.

“I was led under the impression that it would be me and a group of people discussing something,” the student said. “But when I went into the classroom, it was only me and two other girls and I started getting shown videos of their church and they started teaching me.”

The student left after an hour due to a prior obligation and was unclear about how long the meeting was

intended to last. Before she left, she was invited to attend the group’s church in Middletown, Connecticut.

Lindo told the News that she tries to “garner the interest” of students and tailor the Bible study sessions to them.

After her first few meetings with ASEZ, Hoegnifioh said, she agreed to attend a 20-minute Bible study session with Lindo.

Hoegnifioh was surprised to find a minister from the Church of God present at the session and felt that Lindo was following a “curriculum” in the previous Bible study sessions. At the meeting, Hoegnifioh said the minister asked Lindo if they had previously discussed specific ideas such as the end of days and God the Mother.

“Each one of the goals or designs that we had was actually all part of the curriculum or what they use to induct new members,” Hoegnifioh told the News, “So even though she told me that nothing was planned or figured out ahead of time, she was reading things out to me that they had already all gone over together in the Church of God in order to try to convert me.”

According to Hoegnifioh, at this specific meeting, Lindo and the minister held her through the time she said she was available for and encouraged her to stay even when she requested to leave. As a result, Hoegnifioh said, she stopped attending meetings and ceased communication with Lindo.

“It just all seemed very disturbing to me,” Hoegnifioh said. “Especially because when I tried to leave, they were like ‘don’t, don't,’ and I ended up being late to my meeting.”

During the spring 2021 semester, Hoegnifioh said that Bible study sessions, both individual and larger group sessions, were held over Zoom, typically in small breakout rooms.

These, she said, were often with ministers or members of the Church of God from across the country, and not specifically with other Yale students.

In those sessions, Hoegnifioh said the ideas she had learned at an individual level were re-emphasized.

In addition to being invited to the Bible study, the first student was invited to attend a one-onone meeting at Starbucks. But after attending the Bible study, the student said she was disillusioned with the group. Despite her lack of interest in ASEZ, its representatives have continued to reach out to her on the street, she said.

The other student told the News that she has been approached by an ASEZ member near Science Hill, Bass Library and in the Saybrook common room. She said they typically ask “Do you want to join my Bible study?” then proceed to ask about a female god and usually “has a weird tone of voice, smiles and makes direct eye contact.”

Despite repeatedly telling Lindo she was busy, Hoegnifioh said that Lindo continued to ask about her availability to have one-on-one sessions, and felt as if Lindo had memorized her schedule. Hoegnifioh was encouraged to skip class for Church of God meetings, she said.

Additionally, Hoegnifioh told the News her emails from Lindo and ASEZ “expired” and could not be forwarded to others. She said the emails were sent using Gmail’s confidential mode.

Lindo told the News that she personally sends out all emails to Yale students and has never done so in confidential mode.

Despite ASEZ’s presence across campus, the group has yet to

recruit the five students necessary to receive official club status.

When asked multiple times for an estimation on the number of students involved with ASEZ at Yale or who regularly attend Bible study sessions, Lindo did not provide a number. She said that number depends on a “case-by-case basis” and that the number of members was “not certain.” Previously, Lindo did state that the organization only needed a “couple more members” before the group could establish itself as an official student organization.

Kayla Hardin, a student at the University of Connecticut who successfully helped establish an official ASEZ chapter on her campus, told the News that ASEZ made sense for the University of Connecticut given the students’ passion for the environment.

Lindo and Hardin said ASEZ sometimes hosts events across multiple universities, including a Zoom mental health forum in April 2021 that included Paul Hoffman, the director of Mental Health and Counseling at Yale, as a guest speaker. Hoffman did not reply to a request for comment.

At the University of Connecticut, Hardin said, the group hosts game nights, general body meetings and a “paint and plant” event. Additionally, there are Bible studies for those who are interested.

The Church of God remains at the center of controversy over its beliefs and methods. The Christian Church, as well as governments of several countries, including Singapore, have labeled the group as being a “cult” or “cult-like.” Several ex-members have alleged that the group is a doomsday and mind-control cult that convinced members the world was going to end in 1988, 1999 and 2012. Ex-members have also alleged that they were required to pay mandatory tithes of 10-15 percent of their salaries.

In 2013, Michele Colon, a former member of the Church of God, filed a civil suit against the church, calling it a “profit-making cult.”

Michelle Ramirez, a former member of the World Mission Society Church of God, alleged that she was alienated from her family and loved ones, deprived of sleep and felt forced to get an abortion because members were not allowed to get pregnant.

The Church of God denied these allegations in a court hearing.

Hoegnifioh found many of the practices of ASEZ to resemble the main characteristics of cults, including the presence of a charismatic leader and transcendent belief systems. She said she felt the transcendent messages were especially apparent with the emphasis on following the ideas of the Church of God to promote the “well being of your future.” Hoegnifioh also said the group used systems of control and influence in encouraging her to give up other commitments to attend Bible studies.

“The more time spent is the more they're trying to force you to be there and less involved in the other things and isolating and separating you from the rest of your family,” Hoegnifioh told the News.

The Church of God is “leading the true religious reformation by restoring the truth of the early Church to lead humankind to eternal life,” according to its website.

Contact SARAH COOK at sarah.cook@yale.edu and MIRANDA JEYARETNAM at miranda.jetyaretnam@yale.edu.

Judge rules Dominguez unable to serve as chief DOMINGUEZ FROM PAGE 1 Ontoniel Reyes retired in January 2021. It was then that Dominguez stepped in to serve as interim acting chief. In December 2021, the Board of Alders voted against her appointment as permanent police chief, citing concerns over the lack of concrete plans and accusations of racism. A few days after this, Dominguez announced her retirement from the NHPD but has continued serving as interim chief with no alternate candidate in sight.

Mayor: “Politically motivated stunt show” “We have kept Chief Dominguez in this position to ensure continuity and stability as we work to identify a new chief of

police and strongly believe we have followed the charter in doing so,” Elicker said at Monday’s press conference.

The city faced heat for allegedly dragging its heels in launching the search for a new chief. In Monday’s presser, Elicker noted that the city has hired an outsider recruiter, posted the job, and conducted community engagement meetings.

Elicker said that the city hopes to pick a new chief as quickly as possible, and that he is proud of the process the city has conducted.

City Corporation Counsel Pat King said at Monday’s presser that because Dominguez has pledged to retire as soon as her successor is found, she would not be in the position indefinitely. Instead, King argued, the city was seeking to maintain “stability

and efficiency” in city government.

King said she believes the city stands on firm legal grounds, particularly because the mayor is actively looking for a new police chief.

“In my view, to have a merrygo-round of police chiefs every six months is not necessarily in the best interest of the city,” said King.

Elicker called the lawsuit “politically motivated” because Kimber “does not like Chief Dominguez being in her position.” He said the lawsuit was a “distraction” and questioned what Kimber hopes to accomplish with the lawsuit.

“We want a new police chief, we’re working hard to do that,” Elicker said. “So let’s focus on the task at hand and not disrupt things and try to create chaos and instability right now.”

But members of the Board of Alders, who have the power to approve or reject police chief appointments, called on the Mayor to stand by the state judge’s decision.

“Today’s decision in Boise Kimber, et al. v. Renee Dominguez regarding the interpretation of the charter language is clear,” Board of Alders President Tysha Walker-Myers wrote in a statement. “The authority to approve or deny a police chief sits solely with the Board of Alders. The city should respect the decision of the judge and name an interim chief or submit a name for consideration as chief.

Again, the City Charter is clear about the powers of city officials and should be followed and respected.”

Ward 1 Alder Alex Guzhnay ’24 echoed Walker-Myers’ statement, saying that he believes the mayor

should find another individual to serve as interim chief, then, “once the community process and search process for a police chief concludes, submit whoever’s name that may be for consideration before the Board.”

NHPD Assistant Chief Karl Jacobson declined to immediately comment but said he will provide comments on Tuesday.

The applications for NHPD Chief close May 8, after which Elicker will then review and submit a candidate to the Board of Alders for a confirmation process.

Contact HANNAH QU at hannah.qu@yale.edu , SADIE BOGRAD at sadie.bograd@yale.edu and SOPHIE SONNENFELD at sophie.sonnenfeld@yale.edu

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 5

FROM THE FRONT

“The American Dream belongs to all of us.”

KAMALA HARRIS VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Community members rally with Local 33 RALLY FROM PAGE 1 sities, like Columbia, NYU, Brown, Georgetown and Harvard, in creating contracts with graduate worker unions amid the pandemic’s uptick in union activism.

Large boxes papered with fill-inthe-blank flyers, where graduate students wrote their demands, littered the sidewalks. Written reasons for unionization included “overtime pay,” “TF conditions,” “free dental insurance, protected stipends, vision benefits,” “safety protection,” and “decent protection for international student workers.” Organizers later stacked these boxes into a small wall in front of Salovey’s house.

Marcone, who recently completed her Masters’ degree at Fordham, shared that higher pay from the University will allow her to soon start a family with her partner.

“I hope to become a parent during my time at Yale,” Marcone told the News. “The average cost of daycare is $12,000 per year in Connecticut, so I hope to get a higher salary, make more money, and be able to provide for any kids I might have.”

Others talked about the difficulties living and conducting research on their current salaries and funding grants, which they say are often susceptible to dropping without union protections. While Seltzer said his hours teaching “went up drastically without an increase in pay” during the pandemic, Liu told the News that his previous Principal Investigator fired him because they did not want to spend their limited funding on training. This left Liu without pay going into his third year as a graduate student.

Graduate worker speakers also seized on the importance of unionization for better healthcare and dental care coverage. Bu ra Sahin GRD ’26 shared that he recently spent $3,000 on dental work, despite purchasing Yale’s premium dental plan.

Seltzer heralded “boos” from the crowd as he explained that Yale’s dental insurance plan for graduate workers did not cover his emergency root canal procedure, forcing him to pay $1,000 out-of-pocket. According to Seltzer, the “union wages” and healthcare his wife receives as a member of Local 34, the union representing Yale’s technical and clerical workers, makes housing and medical visits more affordable for them.

Some graduate students in the sciences discussed a lack of benefits and labor protections while working under hazardous research conditions.

Cecelia Harold GRD ’24, who studies and works in genetics research, contrasted her Yale experience with a positive one as a unionized lab manager at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. She described that masking regulations — which resulted in fogged-up goggles — during the pandemic made work with

radioactive isotopes especially dangerous. Harold told the crowd that if she ever became injured from work at Yale and took medical leave, she would lose both her pay and medical benefits without the “safety net” of a union contract.

“I know the difference that a union job can make, and not being one medical disaster away from complete financial ruin,” said Harold. “I had the benefits and protections of a contract and collective bargaining power...

The main difference between there and here at Yale is I don't have a contract and I don't have protections for my work in my lab here at Yale.”

Activists zeroed in on cultures of subordination and abuse that graduate workers may experience at the hands of faculty advisors and University employers without union protection. Acharya spoke about other graduate workers who had been “thrown out of labs” after confiding in other faculty members about issues with their advisors.

Seltzer told the News that his wife’s experience in Local 34 has exposed him to stories where unionized workers held abusive managers accountable and successfully lobbied for more understanding working conditions. Adam Treback, who serves as an organizer for MIT’s newly recognized graduate students’ union, shared that these factors also drove him and other graduate students to begin organizing.

“We all faced serious obstacles to doing our best work. Some of us were being driven to depression by abusive advisors,” he said, as the crowd responded with loud ‘boos.’

“Some of us simply could not afford to live in Cambridge on a grad worker stipend. And some of us, when harassed or discriminated against for the fourteenth time, could not stomach the MIT administration's promise of a committee for ‘a working group for a strategic vision for hypothetical progress at some point in the distant future.’”

Local 33 is not the only group of workers currently seeking to unionize in the city. Fields introduced Jackie Sims, a worker at the Graduate New Haven, who joined coworkers to file for a union — Local 217 — that morning. Sims shared that a few weeks ago, she worked three backto-back shifts for a total of 21 hours just to be rewarded with “some candy, a gift card, and fruit punch” by her managers.

Board of Alders President Walker-Myers, who has long served as chief steward for Local 35, joined Ward 3 Alder Ron Hurt to characterize Local 33’s fight for unionization in terms of Yale’s broader commitment to contributing more to the city of New Haven. Holding her baby, who repeated her words back to the audience, she called on the University to recognize Local 33 and provide graduate workers with more support.

MEGAN VAZ/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Graduate worker speakers also seized on the importance of unionization for better healthcare and dental care coverage.

She described Yale’s recent moves to give back to the city as “a small step” compared to her 23 years of experience in activism and labor organizing, especially as Yale refused to recognize maintenance workers like herself during the 1980s.

“You want to say you're a world renowned institution about research and learning and teaching,” Walker-Myers said. “Well guess what?

The graduate student teachers teach.

It's work — they do work — and it's time that you recognize it. So we will be back if you don't concede politically, and we want you to do it now.”

“Say ‘now,’” she added to her baby, who exclaimed, “now!” to the laughter of the crowd.

Hurt also talked about political activism Local 33 has participated in outside of unionization efforts.

This includes successfully lobbying Yale to increase its voluntary contributions to the city and canvassing in support of progressive political campaigns.

Micah English GRD ’26, who spoke at the rally, told the News that unionizing will also push Yale to advance racial justice in New Haven.

She pointed out that multiple political science studies demonstrate that unions can disrupt discriminatory attitudes and that white union members showed decreasing racist attitudes post-unionization. According to English, historical trends have

shown that unions promote “sharing commonality” among those of different backgrounds.

All Local 33 organizers who spoke to the News expressed that they wanted “a seat at the table” in negotiations on the University’s labor conditions and policies for graduate workers. Madison Rackear GRD ’25, who helped deliver signatures to Salovey’s office, told the News that today’s event was a “celebration” of the majority, and that she hoped today’s event would show the University that graduate student workers are workers.

Others emphasized that graduate student labor is what allows the University to function. Acharya told the News that her research lab makes scientific discoveries that are important to maintaining Yale’s reputation, while Fields spoke about many graduate students’ roles as instructors for undergraduate classes. Rackear said that as a teacher and graduate student worker, she balances working at the medical school with a 9-to-5 lab position.

Rally attendees, who donned orange Local 33 shirts, shared various reasons for attending. Several graduate students did not speak to the News on the record in fear of retaliation from University employ-

ers, but shared that they provided Local 33 with “Union Yes” signatures in hopes of better pay and benefits. While some undergraduates shared that they came out of curiosity to learn more about Yale’s labor movements, others came to express solidarity.

“I heard about this from other students who are in the Yale Democrats with me and also people in my ‘Race, Politics, and the Law’ class,” said Isabella Walther-Meade ’25. “I have had really good experiences with all my TFs this year, and I’ve been following labor movements at other universities, and so I thought it was a really important place to be.”

Following the rally, organizers expressed optimism and hope after seeing high turnout and energy from the crowd. While English noted that seeing the “visual reference” of people in support of unionization was inspiring, she also emphasized that the new NRLB affirmation could bring change. Beaming, Liu told the News he felt “very pumped up,” and expected the high turnout after receiving the majority approval from graduate students.

Founded in 1990, Local 33 was originally branded as the Graduate Employees and Students Organization.

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

Afro-American Cultural Center turns 50

ZOE BERG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

In a March 28 panel discussion, Nelson said that she and the committee have been working on this event since 2017.

AF-AM FROM PAGE 1 Dean Risë Nelson, former director of the Af-Am House, wrote in an email to the News. “Really, the entire weekend will allow our newer students to finally be able to fully experience (and our older students, alums, and community to re-experience) the House as most of us have known it throughout its history—engaged, impactful, connected, and alive!”

The event was planned by the Af-Am House’s 50th Anniversary Planning Committee, which is made up of a variety of community member volunteers.

In a March 28 panel discussion, Nelson said that she and the committee have been working on this event since 2017, and she has been envisioning the celebration since she first took up the role of Af-Am House director in 2015.

“The 50th anniversary is a monumental event in the history of the House,” Sheryl Carter ’82, a co-chair on the planning committee, told the News. “It provides us the opportunity to both reflect and be aspirational. Understanding the challenges that were overcome and the sacrifices that were made over the prior decades will allow us to understand and more fully appreciate where we are today. It will also create space for us to consider the original goals and aspirations of the Founders of the House and assess how much farther we, Black Yale, still need to go in order to reach those goals.”

The vision for the event, as proclaimed on the event’s official website, includes honoring the Af-Am House’s legacy and highlighting community members' contributions to academia, the professional world, arts, politics and culture.

The weekend will see a wide range of in-person events, as well as six prerecorded and two virtual events, Nelson told the News. The entire weekend will feature around 50 speakers in total.

“It's been really rewarding to just be able to see the things that the house has done over the years, and the many alumni that are doing great things that are going to be brought back because of the event to speak at the event, run panels and just be a part of it,” Amara Mgbeik SPH ’23, who worked on communications for the celebrations, told

the News. “So it's been great to see that institutional memory in a sense come alive.”

The event kicks off with a Yale Black Alumni Welcome Reception at 4 p.m. on Friday, followed by a celebration of the arts later that evening at 7 p.m.

That celebration includes a panel of alumni discussing their experiences in the arts and reflecting on the importance of art. That will be followed by a showcase of student arts groups from the Af-Am House and other cultural centers.

“I think it's also really exciting to see these people in person,” said Yamil Rivas ’24, who will emcee the celebration of the arts. “I feel the pandemic made nothing, or anybody, be real in a Zoom call .... and I'm really looking forward to and glad to see these people's work be thoroughly and properly acknowledged and celebrated.”

Saturday will see a plethora of events. Some highlights include a talk by Cara McClellan ’10 LAW ’15, attorney at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, tours of the Schwarzman Center, a mixer and a panel on the importance of teaching and studying Black history.

The day will also include an intergenerational conversation between alumni spanning from the class of 1970 to the class of 2019.

Saturday night will end with the traditional Bouchet Ball and Awards Ceremony, where students and

alumni get to meet and celebrate each other’s achievements.

“I'm so excited for the Bouchet Ball because it was something the Black community has always had and it’s literally been nothing but a myth,” Rivas said. “I’m a junior and so much of Yale has been nothing but a myth. I think during the pandemic these parts of the cultural centers were the first to go, and I am really, really, really excited that [the Af-Am House] is finally getting the celebration that it deserves.”

The awardees are being recognized for a wide variety of work, from Albert Lucas’ ’90 contributions to New Haven and urban youth to Zora Howards’ ’14 writing and performance abilities.

One of the many awardees is Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee ’72 of the 18th Congressional District of Texas, who will be receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award.

On Sunday, there will be a service recognizing those in the House community that have passed on, followed by a Black Church at Yale service and a farewell brunch.

“It’ll just be a great time to bring people together and kind of remind us that we've come this far by faith,” Mgbeik said.

The Af-Am House is located at 211 Park St. Contact DANTE MOTLEY at dante.motley@yale.edu.

PAGE 6

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Yale Bone Center celebrates 35 years

BY MANAS SHARMA STAFF REPORTER The Yale Bone Center is celebrating its 35th year of medical research and treatment advancement since its founding in 1987.

The Yale Bone Center was established at a time when medical diagnoses and treatment for skeletal diseases such as osteoporosis, hyperparathyroidism, and Paget’s disease of bone were rapidly improving. Initially, the center offered consultative services on acquired skeletal diseases and genetic disorders of skeletal structure and mineral content. However, it has now grown to improve the accuracy of diagnoses and expand clinical research programs. The center has now incorporated entities such as the bone density and body composition service and the mineral metabolism laboratory, both of which provide cutting edge research and clinical expertise.

“The Yale Bone Center Mineral Metabolism Lab has made it easy to obtain measurements of blood vitamin D levels, and provided access to resources that allow us to measure bone mass of our mice,” Clemens Bergwitz, associate professor of endocrinology, wrote to the News.

“For our clinical studies, it has been helpful to have access to the bone center’s advanced equipment and to have guidance for specialized analysis of patient data.”

Bergwitz is a world expert in hereditary hypophosphatemic rickets with hypercalciuria, known as HRHH, a rare bone disorder characterized by symptoms including muscle weakness, short stature, skeletal deformities and bone pain. Bergwitz’s research has utilized the Bone Center’s resources, and since his identification of the genetic defect underlying HHRH, he has developed a

research focus on inborn errors of bone and mineral metabolism.

Bergwitz’s lab uses mouse models of hypophosphatemia to better understand the responses of the body to oral phosphate therapy. The lab’s rising research interest is to understand how human and other animal cells sense inorganic phosphate, a molecule important for metabolism, and to identify mammalian systems suitable to study it using genome-wide RNAi screens.

“With the support of the Yale Bone Center and the director, Dr. Karl Insogna, I have initiated a research study to determine the use of newer methods to determine bone density in individuals with spinal cord injury,” Anika Aman, assistant professor of endocrinology, wrote to the News. “Although the most common osteoporotic-related fractures in postmenopausal women and older men are those of the spine, hip and wrist, people with spinal cord injuries have an increased fracture risk at the distal femur and proximal tibia.”

Aman focuses on researching bone densities in populations at risk for osteoporosis. Through the resources provided by the Bone Center she has been able to develop many groundbreaking technologies for screening and management. She even recently co-authored an article with Insogna exploring the significance of healthy eating, exercise and other lifestyle choices on postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.

As current measurement technologies are inadequate, Aman emphasized that it is necessary to be able to accurately and reproducibly measure bone density in order to view the impact of treatment and predict future fracture risk since more than 80 percent of patients develop osteo-

HEDY TUNG/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Yale Bone Center has now grown to improve the accuracy of diagnoses and expand clinical research programs. porosis long-term. With the support of the Yale Bone Center, Aman was able to obtain a knee positioner from the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, which has pioneered the use of distal femur and proximal tibia bone density measurement. Teaming up with the Bone Center’s bone densitometry technologists, Aman and her team have launched a study to determine the precision of a knee bone density protocol using this knee positioner in healthy individuals.

“There is a great possibility of disproportionate impacts on musculoskeletal health with patients who have had COVID-19, due to the intensive experience of hospitalization and illness,” Evelyn Hsieh, assistant professor of rheumatology and epidemiology and

chief of rheumatology at VA Connecticut Healthcare, wrote to the News. “My team and I are working hard to understand the impact of isolation and lack of access to physical therapy, rehabilitation and social support on outcomes of musculoskeletal health such as fractures, bone metabolism, osteoporosis and sarcopenia.”

Hsieh has conducted extensive research on osteoporosis in patients who have underlying medical conditions that may predispose them to low bone mineral density, either from the disease itself or from the medications that they’re on.

The Bone Center has provided her with significant support and mentorship as she tackles her work examining the effect

of COVID-19 hospitalization on musculoskeletal health in older patients. She is a lead co-investigator of VALIANT, a longitudinal study that assesses COVID-19 in older adults and follows up with patients at different time intervals to interview them regarding their well-being, physical function and any physical deficits. She is working to assess bone density, body composition measures and muscle strength for the patients in this study as well.

Karl Insogna, professor of endocrinology, is the current director of the Yale Bone Center.

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

Initiative tests for allergies in pregnant women

BY SELIN NALBANTOGLU STAFF REPORTER Yale physicians developed an allergy testing program for pregnant women that aims to verify penicillin allergies, keeping patients from taking unnecessary stronger antibiotics and helping to curb drug resistance.

Jason Kwah, an immunologist and assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine, and Moeun Son, an assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive science at YSM, founded the Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Care in Pregnant Mothers Program in September 2020. For the past two years, they have been conducting allergy testing on 235 expectant mothers and have found that all but 2 of those women were cleared of their penicillin allergy after testing. “[A penicillin allergy] is the most commonly reported drug

allergy,” Son wrote to the News.

“Penicillins and cephalosporins (cousins to penicillin) are beta-lactam antibiotics, which are the most commonly used antibiotics that are considered first-line for many infections. Therefore, when a patient reports a penicillin allergy, it becomes a challenge to the physician, and we often prescribe alternative antibiotics that may have more side effects, be less effective and more costly.”

According to Son, 10 percent of the U.S. population reports penicillin allergies to their physicians.

Many patients who report penicillin allergies end up taking more aggressive antibiotics.

This issue is especially important for pregnant patients. The majority of pregnant women will need to take an antibiotic during their pregnancy for a variety of reasons. For example, physiological changes during pregnancy

can lead women to become more prone to urinary tract infections, or certain patients may need antibiotics after delivery to prevent infections, according to Son. While penicillin is usually the first line of defense in these situations, pregnant patients who report a penicillin allergy will have to take an alternative antibiotic even though it may not be warranted.

“We have studies showing that for 80 percent of those who did have a reaction once, indicating an actual allergy, it is gone after 10 years,” Kwah said to Yale Medicine. “We don’t know if it means someone was allergic and outgrew it, or if the immune system has simply changed over time.”

While some patients may have had an allergic reaction earlier in their lives, studies have shown that this reaction may wane over time.

In fact, most allergies resolve after ten years, according to Son.

In addition, some patients may mistake a symptom that appeared concurrently while taking the antibiotic as an allergy to penicillin even though the symptom was not directly related to the antibiotic. For example, some patients who developed a rash while taking penicillin were actually suffering from viral hives or sensitive skin rather than an allergic reaction, Son added.

Kwah and Son focused on pregnant patients for several reasons. First, pregnant women represent a vulnerable population who are more likely to need antibiotics than the general population. Second, pregnant women are already engaged in medical care through the obstetrics department and can be tested through their provider.

In creating this initiative, the physicians’ goal was to improve

hospital-wide care quality.

Obstetric care providers with patients that had unverified penicillin allergies would refer their patients to allergy testing. Ultimately, the patients themselves made the decision to undergo or forego allergy testing.

Son explained that the program is crucial from a public health standpoint. Identifying patients who may falsely believe they have a penicillin allergy and clearing them of that allergy can help optimize antibiotic use. Using more aggressive antibiotics when penicillin is sufficient could increase the risk of antibiotic resistance, so limiting the use of those antibiotics for patients with verified allergies to penicillin is optimal.

YNHH Allergy and Immunology is located in North Haven, CT. Contact ELIZABETH WATSON at elizabeth.watson@yale.edu .

Students tie in 3-Minute Thesis Competition

BY SELIN NALBANTOGLU STAFF REPORTER Two Yale doctoral students were named first prize recipients in the 2022 3-Minute Thesis Competition, or 3MT, sponsored by the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the McDougal Graduate Student Center.

The 3-Minute Thesis Competition challenges doctoral students to develop a presentation and convey a thesis in a live, three-minute presentation. On April 14, 11 finalists competed before a panel of judges: Lynn Cooley, dean of the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; Max Golts, a chief investment officer of 4x4invest; Andrea Levitt, professor emerita of French and linguistics at Wellesley College and Jenny Rooke, managing director of Genoa Ventures and Advisor to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This year, Kimmy Cushman GRD ’23 and Diondra Dilworth GRD ’24 tied for first place and received the People’s Choice Award from votes cast by the audience, each winning a cash prize of $1,000.

“I enjoy hearing our students convey the breadth of research we do at Yale and their passion for their respective disciplines,” Cooley said. “When I hear them, I know that we are preparing them well for careers within and outside academia. It is thrilling to imagine where their training could take them and what they might bring to the world.”

Cushman’s presentation, titled “Dark Matter: The Mysteries of Mass,” stemmed from her work as a particle physicist studying the role of mass in the universe, particularly in the context of dark matter. Theories such as the standard model of particle physics apply to atoms, which account for only 15 percent of the universe’s mass. Cushman is studying a hypothetical model that could apply to the part of the universe that remains unknown in dark matter, simulating her theory with supercomputers to make predictions and compare astronomical observations.

Cushman viewed the competition as not only a way to continue her involvement within the Yale community, but also as a chance

to test her communication skills.

“I really enjoyed pushing myself to explain my research clearly and

tors are working on, as well as to see all of the work they put into their presentations.”

CECILIA LEE/ILLUSTRATIONS EDITOR

concisely for a lay audience, and then convey that in a video and live presentation,” Cushman said.

“It was awesome to learn about the research the other competi-

D i lwo r t h ’s p re se n ta t i o n , titled “The Ribosome: Modifiable Machine - A Chemist’s Approach,” was centered around her work at the Yale NSF Center

for Genetically Encoded Materials, or C-GEM, which explores the functions of the ribosome by developing new types of ribosomal inputs to produce new outputs. In addition to the NSF Center, she is also involved with Yale Open Labs’ Exploring Science initiative, an outreach program for students in New Haven and its surrounding areas.

Dilworth was drawn to 3MT because of her career aspirations. She aims to combine her chemistry studies with her work in intellectual property law and saw the competition as an opportunity to improve her communication skills.

“I enjoyed the iterative preparation of my presentation the most,” Dilworth said. “I love my work, and being able to create a digestible presentation, in just three minutes, was a difficult, but highly-rewarding challenge.”

The Yale 3MT competition was inspired by the 3MT program created at the University of Queensland in 2008.

Contact SELIN NALBANTOGLU at selin.nalbantoglu@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 7

ARTS Student band “3 PM Noise Complaint” performs for the first time

COURTESEY OF LACHLAN KELLER

“3 PM Noise Complaint,” a new band composed of Yale students, played at 1 a.m. on Sunday at Stella Blues, a local bar located at 204 Crown St.

BY LUKAS NEL CONTRIBUTING REPORTER What does it take to start a band?

For Evan Branham ’24, the bass guitarist in a recently formed rock and metal band, the answer is two years.

Branham has wanted to start a band since his first semester at Yale, but his first few attempts failed to

get a group off the ground. But this year, he joined forces with his friend and band lead singer Anthony “T” Scarborough ’23, to form “3 PM Noise Complaint.” The group consists of Branham, Scarborough, Lachlan Keller ’22 and guitarist Thomas Zamora ’23.

Although Branham’s goal was to audition for the Spring Fling event

“Battle of the Bands,” the group was not chosen to perform. Still, they enjoyed jamming together so much that they decided to continue, and even ended up getting a noise complaint about them playing in the Silliman recording studio at 3 p.m., hence the band name.

“I guess the Silliman Recording studio isn’t completely soundproof,” Branham said.

Since deciding on a name for the band, the group has been trying to find opportunities to perform.

Once Keller heard about “Earth Night,” a concert at Stella Blues meant to raise awareness about environmental issues, the band reached out and was accepted.

“Our greatest strength as a band is that we’re all quite technically proficient musicians,” Keller said.

At the event, the group played a set of 13 cover songs — some rock, some metal and some classic theme songs.

“Not a lot of people at Yale listen to rock music, it’s much more new stuff,” Branham said. “A lot of the stuff we’re playing is tangential to ‘dad rock,’ but we are trying to connect with Yale students, connect

with the younger generation by playing stuff from when we’re kids, like the Phineas and Ferb or Johnny Test theme song.”

The group also played “Down with the Sickness” by “Disturbed” to appeal to a mainstream audience, as well as “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” by Metallica, where Branham replicated the sound of bells tolling by slamming his guitar with the guitar stand.

“Personally, it’s our first gig, so I’m very excited, and as a band we’re trying to make things work, and play songs that people are interested in, and not just play alt-jazz-rock.”, Scarborough, the band’s drummer, said.

Scarborough, who began singing in his final year of high school, said that the band plays both heavy and melodic music, including songs by bands like Green Day. “I feel like it’s just been a great time,” Keller said. “We’re just four guys who like metal and jamming, so we decided we should start jamming together.”

Keller first played the piano before realizing that “you can’t play metal

on a piano.” Over the summer, he released his own heavy metal album, “American Blight.”

Though the band is currently “just having fun playing cover songs,” Keller said that they did plan to write and perform more original music next semester. He said he felt very strongly about the metal they were playing.

“Heavy metal means empowerment. It’s definitely a genre that doesn’t shy away from hard topics or how life sometimes can kinda suck,” Keller said. “Heavy metal really embraces that and deals with those themes in an empowering way. I think when someone listens to heavy metal, they’re either scared out of their mind or feel very powerful, feel better about their life. It’s hard but I feel like I’m better equipped through metal to deal with it and just continue on.“ Saturday’s concert took place from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. in Stella Blues at 204 Crown St. Contact LUKAS NEL at lukas.nel@yale.edu

Yale Camerata, Glee Club and Symphony Orchestra stage “Music in Common Time”

BY GAMZE KAZAKOGLU STAFF REPORTER On Sunday, the Yale Camerata, Yale Glee Club and Yale Symphony Orchestra gave a joint concert at Woolsey Hall for the first time since 2020. The groups performed music composed by Caroline Shaw, Johannes Brahms, Julia Wolfe MUS ’86 and André Thomas.

The program, which opened with Shaw’s “Music in Common Time,” consisted of four pieces in total. The second piece, “Nänie,” was played on the organ

by Carolyn Craig MUS ’22, and was followed by the world premiere of “Letter from Abigail” by Wolfe, who is a Yale School of Music alum. The concert was conducted by Marguerite L. Brooks, Yale Glee Club director Jeffrey Jay Douma and André Thomas, a visiting professor at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music who conducted his own “Mass: A Celebration of Love and Joy” with the Camerata to close off the concert.

“We are very excited for our first large-scale choral-orchestral collabora-

tion with the Yale Symphony and Camerata since the start of the pandemic,” Douma said before the show.

According to Douma, it was initially unclear whether the Glee Club would be able to hire a professional orchestra due to COVID-19 restrictions around performances with non-Yale affiliates.

When YSO added this concert to their season, the Glee Club had an orchestra and could perform the works by Shaw, Wolfe and Thomas.

Douma explained that “Letter from Abigail” was a “major” new work by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Julia Wolfe. The concert also welcomed back Marguerite Brooks, the long-time director of the Camerata, whose last concert before her retirement in the spring of 2020 was canceled in the early weeks of the pandemic. According to Maya Ingram ’23, a soprano singer in the Yale Glee Club, “Letter from Abigail” was written for Brooks, making it “really special” for Brooks to come back to conduct the piece.

Peter Sykes ’23, a tenor singer in Yale Glee Club, added that the piece was also written as part of the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of women at Yale and the 150th anniversary of women at the School of Art. According to Douma, Craig performed a “beautiful” new transcription of Brahms’ “Nänie” created for Woolsey Hall’s famous Newberry Organ in Woolsey.

Ingram noted that Craig is an “amazing” organist, emphasizing that hearing the organ at Woolsey Hall made the performance “fantastic.”

Sykes also said he enjoyed both this concert’s specific program and the collaboration with YSO and Camerata.

“It was a nice blend of more traditional choral repertoire and new works and some more innovative techniques,” Sykes said.

Woolsey Hall is located at 500 College St. Contact GAMZE KAZAKOGLU at gamze.kazakoglu@yale.edu .

GAMZE KAZAKOGLU/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

On Sunday, Yale Camerata, Glee Club and Symphony Orchestra presented “Music in Common Time.”

Asian cultural shows make comeback

BY CLAIRE LEE STAFF REPORTER After two years, Asian American cultural groups at Yale, including South Asian Society, or SAS, Chinese American Student Association, or CASA, KASAMA: The Filipino Club at Yale and Korean American Students at Yale, or KASY, began resuming traditional cultural shows and other annual festivities this year.

Because of COVID-19 restrictions and complications, however, groups had to adapt to put on the in-person shows that students have not been able to experience for the past two years.

“Working with Yale admin… [was] particularly challenging because we were the first group to use Woolsey to such a large capacity both semesters,” said SAS cultural chair Isha Brahmbhatt ’24.

SAS hosts two main cultural shows each year: Roshni in the fall and Dhamaal in the spring.

The events feature South Asian dance, with performances from Yale South Asian dance groups Rangeela, Kalaa, Jashan Bhangra and MonstRAASity.

While Roshni only includes performances by Yale groups and students, Dhamaal has traditionally been an intercollegiate event, with dance and acapella groups from other colleges coming to Yale to perform along with Yale groups. In previous years, SAS has hosted groups from Harvard,

Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Duke and Boston University for Dhamaal, although the universities invited changes from year to year.

This year, however, COVID19 restrictions did not allow for SAS to host groups from other colleges, so Dhamaal was forced to present only the four dance teams from Yale, according to Anushka Nijhawan ’24, who serves as SAS’s cultural chair along with Brahmbhatt.

Brahmbhatt said that they changed the format of Dhamaal this year to include a talent show for the first time in the show’s history.

“We had a few singers … a stand-up act that related to South Asian comedy, spoken word poetry and a variety of other artistic forms of South Asian expression [in the talent show],” Brahmbhatt said.

Nijhawan and Brahmbhatt outlined the challenges COVID19 brought in planning Dhamaal, which took place this year on March 11 at Woolsey Hall. “[The show is] usually uncapped…[or] capped to 1000 people so we get a lot of turnout,” said Nijhawan. “But COVID-19 restrictions didn’t allow us to get more than 250 people inside the hall this time.”

Brahmbhatt mentioned the difficulties of securing facilities in preparation for the show.

“Typically we are able to rent out Woolsey ahead of time

to rehearse. We’re able to find spaces for the class acts practice or things like that … all that was limited,” she said.

Brahmbhatt also brought up the difficulties of masking during the show. “Everyone was forced to be masked which proved to be a challenge, especially for dancers who are doing something more heavy,” she said.

“Luckily for this talent show in the spring we were able to have it so that the singers didn’t have to wear masks.”

Members of other cultural groups shared Nijhawan’s and Brahmbhatt’s challenges. Hedy Tung ‘24, co-president of CASA, spoke about the logistical difficulties of COVID-19 in planning Lunar Ball — CASA’s annual formal celebrating Lunar New Year — which took place on April 22 at Great Wall Restaurant, and their upcoming CASA cultural show, set for April 30 from 7-9 p.m. at 53 Wall St. Auditorium.

“With Lunar Ball venue changes, space capacity restrictions, all of that played a huge factor especially with funding from the UOFC,” Tung said.

“There were a lot more restrictions with that so we had to play around with charging tickets, possibly not charging tickets… [it was] complicated since we wanted to make sure that logistics were most favorable for attendees but also make sure that these events were still feasible for our club to hold.”

“In terms of the cultural show [COVID-19] is equally an issue,” Tung added. “With a lot of the old auditoriums they are not allowing students to hold event there which really restricts us because we were thinking of 100-150 capacity auditoriums, but there only so many spaces and with a lot of other shows and acapella groups performances, it’s very difficult for us to navigate that.”

KASAMA Co-President Resty Fufunan ’24 ran into a similar issue when trying to book facilities for Barrio, a cultural show that highlights modern and traditional Filipino culture with traditional dances, clothing, dances and performances of modern and traditional songs.

Barrio took place on April 24 at the Hopper Cabaret.

“Our traditional venue has been Rosenfeld Hall but now it’s a COVID-19 testing site,” he said. “So we’ve had to scramble to find a similar venue which has been a really hard thing to do because there isn’t something that’s just the right size.

This year we’re holding it in the [Hopper] Cabaret, [which is] smaller than what we’re usually accustomed to but [was] one of the only spots available.”

Matthew Cheng ’23, co-president of KASY, spoke about the logistical difficulties in putting on their annual KASY cultural show when some of their board members tested positive for COVID-19. “[The week before the

show] two of our board members got COVID-19 but luckily both tested out in time for our show,” he said. “The board skit also had to be revised after a board member tested positive.”

Though COVID has made organizational efforts of the shows more difficult, students are nonetheless happy to put on the shows. Cheng talked about the excitement surrounding this year’s KASY cultural show, which took place on April 22 at SSS. The show was the first in-person KASY Cultural Show since 2019, as the show was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19 and KASY put forth an online version in 2021.

“Because only one of the four [current] classes has experienced a cultural show, we really want to make this one memorable since it’ll determine how the first years, sophomores and juniors remember [the] cultural show,” said Cheng. “We want to make sure that this show leaves a lasting impression and that it continues the strong tradition of cultural shows that has been integral to KASY for many years.”

This year’s KASY cultural show featured three class dances, performances from the K-Pop dance group Movement and acapella group Hangarak, masked singer performances and a skit by the KASY board members.

Contact CLAIRE LEE at claire.lee@yale.edu.

PAGE 8

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

SPORTS

“I was just shocked. I’ve never hit three homers in a game… I thought there was a 0% chance that it would be fair.” ANTHONY RIZZO NEW YORK YANKEES FIRST BASEMAN

Bulldogs recruit former Tigers assistant coach

COURTESY OF YALE ATHLETICS

Esche is the 11th head coach of the women's basketball team, replacing Allison Guth.

W BASKETBALL FROM PAGE 10 recruiting prowess translated to the court, as the Tigers have not dropped a conference game in over two seasons and nearly advanced to the Sweet Sixteen of March Madness in 2022.

“We’re all super excited about this hire,” forward Grace Thybulle ’25 said. “A few of us are familiar with her because she recruited us during her time at Princeton, and we’re all major fans . . . She knows what it takes to be great and will definitely be able to push us to that next level.”

Beyond the quality of her previous accomplishments, Eshe also brings a skill set that seems particularly well-suited for this Bulldogs team. Her past teams have dominated on the defensive end, which is where this year’s Yale squad has established its dominance.

Eshe’s experience as a frontcourt player may also allow her to further unlock the potential of

star player and forward Camilla Emsbo ’23. While Emsbo earned first-team All-Ivy honors this season, averaging 14.1 points and 10.2 rebounds per game, her teammates recognize that they can learn from Eshe how to play through the post more effectively.

“Obviously, my twin sister plays at Princeton and has spent the last few years playing under Coach Eshe,” Emsbo said. “I have only heard great things about her, and I know Princeton is going to miss her, which is a good sign for us… She also has experience playing in the post, which is really exciting for me and our other post players specifically.”

Eshe was formally introduced as the 11th head coach of the women’s basketball team at a press conference in John J. Lee Amphitheatre on Wednesday at 11:30 a.m.

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

Elis undefeated against six Ivies W LACROSSE FROM PAGE 10 ence. The Bulldogs, meanwhile, have yet to get a victory against a ranked opponent. Only one of these two streaks can remain the case after Saturday’s matchup against Princeton.

In Saturday’s game against Columbia, Yale was in full control from start to finish, dropping 10 goals to Columbia’s two in the first quarter. By the third quarter, the Bulldogs took their foot off the gas, allowing seven goals and only scoring three. But they soon picked up the pace, answering back with seven in the fourth to Columbia’s two.

The Elis shared the goals across the board, with 13 players putting up points against Columbia. The leading scorers were rookie standouts Fallon Vaughn ’25 and Taylor Everson ’25, who each put up four goals, and Olivia Markert ’22, who got a hat trick in the matchup.

As usual, much of the offense was facilitated by Liv Penoyer ’23, who racked up eight points across two goals and six assists.

“I am extremely pleased with the way our team competed and put together a complete game. We had contributions from so many women, which was special,” head coach Erica Bamford said.

On Monday, the Elis put up a great fight against No. 6 Stony Brook University, but ultimately fell a few goals short of victory.

Rookie Taylor Lane ’25 had a great showing on the day, scoring six and also getting an assist.

The Bulldogs started off incredibly strong, leading 4–1 at the end of the first quarter. The Seawolves started to claw their

way back in the second quarter, however, and the game remained close until midway through the third. But ultimately, Yale’s stamina faltered in the third quarter, and it was not able to make up for it in the fourth.

At the beginning of the season, Kelsey Dunn ’22 commented on how she — and her teammates collectively — felt going into this season as a senior after a long pandemic-induced hiatus.

“Regardless of the results this season, it’s my last time putting on the Yale jersey and getting to play with my best friends,” Dunn said.

The Bulldogs’ passion has served them well this season, and it will be exciting to watch them be a serious contender in the Ivy Tournament after proving the preseason poll wrong throughout the regular season. The upcoming match against Princeton is doubly important, as it will dictate who hosts the Ivy Tournament on May 6 and 8.

Princeton has also had an exemplary season despite lofty preseason expectations. The team’s record stands at 10–3 in aggregate, and 5–0 in the Ivies thus far, with matchups against Columbia and Yale remaining before it closes out regular season play. At the helm of the Princeton team is senior attacker Kyla Sears, who has put up 65 points with 42 goals and 23 assists for her team and is one of the 25 women’s nominees for the Tewaaraton Award.

The women’s lacrosse team will face off against Princeton on Saturday, April 30 at 3 p.m. in Princeton, New Jersey in their final game ahead of the Ivy Tournament.

Contact RYAN VAKIL at ryan.vakil@yale.edu.

Conn retires after 35 years at Yale YALE ATHLETICS FROM PAGE 10 ing with a fun, talented athletics staff,” Conn said. “I never took a day at Yale for granted.”

Conn grew up in Woodbridge, Connecticut and has long been interested in sports. As a child, Conn and his family lived on the campuses of Stanford, the University of California, Los Angeles and Washington University. When he was 14, he took pictures on the sidelines of Yale football games.

In 1981, Conn graduated from Amity High School and later became the school’s 2018 Hall of Honor inductee, as he played both basketball and baseball for the Spartans.

“He is such a great person,” sailing head coach Zachary Leonard said.

“Steve cares a lot about the student athletes. He is always thoughtful about the message, and he’s always thinking about the experience of the athlete competing.”

Conn later played football at the college level, walking on to the University of Miami team in 1983. Graduating in 1985, Conn interned at the University of South Alabama Athletics Department for a year before returning to the East Coast to write for Yale Athletics.

Beginning his official career at Yale in 1987, Conn worked as the assistant sports publicity director.

Simultaneously, Conn was writing for the Business Times, and he soon

took over the office of sports publicity at Yale in 1993.

That same year, Conn earned a master’s degree in industrial and organizational psychology from the University of New Haven.

“I have been so incredibly fortunate to work under Steve for the last 27 years,” Assistant Director of Strategic Communications Tim Bennett said. “There is no one with more knowledge and love of Yale Athletics than Steve. He has represented Yale with class and dignity his entire career.”

Conn has not only worked on campus and traveled to cover the Bulldogs, but has also helped the NCAA run postseason events, such as Frozen Fours, Final Fours, lacrosse national championships and hockey and golf regionals.

Conn’s writing has also won awards from the College Sports Information Directors of America or CoSIDA, and has been published in a number of magazines and newspapers.

“To me and countless student athletes and student media, he has been a mentor and friend,” Bennett said. “What I’ve learned from him will stay with me for the rest of my life. It’s been an honor and privilege to work with him all these years.”

During his time at Yale, Conn has served as the primary media contact for a number of national championship winning teams: men’s hockey in 2013, men’s lacrosse in

COURTESY OF STEVE CONN

2018 and heavyweight crew from 2017-19. Conn has also been active on a number of CoSIDA committees and established a crisis public relations plan at Yale that was shared by the organization.

While working as the primary media contact for Yale Athletics, Conn provided commentary for radio and television broadcasts at various Yale contests both in New Haven and on the road. Back on campus, Conn is also an advisor to Yale students in Morse College.

“Steve always infused his love and passion for Yale Athletics into whatever sport or event he was covering,” men’s golf head coach Colin Sheehan said. “I admire the seemingly small, yet specific details he would include in his dispatches that gave a more complete picture. I remember very fondly, during the men’s hockey national championship campaign in 2013, how I looked forward to his releases after each of the playoff games.”

In 2019, Conn was named a senior assistant director of strategic communications and currently is the main media contact for ice hockey, heavyweight crew, squash, women’s soccer, golf and sailing.

According to his colleagues, Conn’s greatest attribute is the relationships he has fostered over the years. He has remained close to a number of his former student athletes and student media members, which, according to Bennett, “shows the positive impact Steve had on them during their time at Yale.”

Over the course of his career, staff and student athletes have called Conn “Conn Man,” a testament to his close connections with those he has worked with. Conn said that one of his favorite elements of being at Yale is talking to alumni that he covered who now have kids playing for the Blue and White.

“I hope I earned everyone’s respect through my attempt to be a caring and loyal professional who loved helping Yale teams,” Conn said.

Conn and his wife, Emily Resnik Conn, have two sons, Jeremy and Jordan, who are college athletes.

Conn was the main press contact for the men's hockey team as it claimed the national championship in 2013.

Contact AMELIA LOWER at amelia.lower@yale.edu.

Yale-Harvard: "The race of the year" CREW FROM PAGE 10 For the oarsmen, the circumstances surrounding the race provide added significance.

At Gales Ferry, the crew is isolated from the outside world throughout their stay — without any possible distractions or WiFi access. With the semester over, the team is left to focus solely on the upcoming races.

Saigau noted that being there is like being in a “Yale bubble” where the compound is filled with pictures of past crews and the only thing to do aside from training is bonding. The experience is “meditative, in a way.”

“The semester is so fast paced and there is so much to do and all of a sudden it becomes so simple,” Saigau said. “You just wake up, train and walk back up the stairs. Nowhere to travel, nothing else to do.”

While the event always holds special significance to current and graduated heavyweight members, this year it is different. The pandemic led to cancellations in 2020 and 2021, meaning that for a large majority of the team, this will be their first time at The Race.

After three years, the upperclassmen are looking forward to culminating their Yale rowing careers at The Race, while the rest of the team experiences it for the first time.

“We are very excited,” said Fergus Hamilton ’23. “For the guys that got to race in 2019, we have been waiting for three years to do this again and all of the younger guys are excited. They can’t wait to get out there and race.”

Saigau told the News that in the moments leading up to the race, the oarsmen can’t dedicate their mind to the sentimen-

tal aspect of the race. But once it culminates, there is a “massive vacuum,” where all of the emotions flow in. He is sure it will be “quite overwhelming,” especially for the seniors on the team.

For the team, The Race each year is the last time a crew rows together as the varsity eight. For the graduating seniors, it is the culmination of their Yale rowing careers.

“After seeing the way that some of my close teammates had to finish their Yale careers with just being sent home and not able to go another season, I feel very fortunate and will be definitely thinking about them when we go do this race,” captain Jack Lopas ’22 said.

The last time Harvard defeated Yale in the first varsity race was 2015.

Contact NICOLE RODRIGUEZ at nicole.rodriguez.nr444@yale.edu.

DONNA K. NIGHT/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The Race is America's oldest intercollegiate sporting event, dating back to 1852.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 9

BULLETIN BOARD

ANGELIQUE DE ROUEN is a sophomore in Grace Hopper College.

Contact them at angelique.derouen@yale.edu .

SOPHIA ZHAO is a junior in Pauli Murray College.

Contact them atsophia.j.zhao@yale.edu .

JESSAI FLORES is a junior in Davenport College.

Contact them at jessai.flores@yale.edu .

EMILY CAI is a first year in Pauli Murray College.

Contact them at emily.cai@yale.edu .

EMILY CAI is a first year in Pauli Murray College.

Contact them at emily.cai@yale.edu

SOPHIA DESCHIFFART is a senior in Trumbull College.

Contact them at sophia.deschiffart@yale.edu

KAIA MLADENOVA is a sophomore in Pierson College.

Contact them at kaia.mladenova@yale.edu

W LACROSSE Princeton 18 Columbia 8

SOFTBALL Dartmouth 9 Penn 8

SPORTS

M LACROSSE Brown 13 Cornell 8

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

TENNIS FINISHING STRONG The men’s and women’s teams won three of their four final matchups. Both teams defeated Dartmouth on Friday.

On Sunday, the women bested Harvard while the Crimson edged out the men.

Dalila Eshe named as head coach W BASKETBALL

WILLIAM MCCORMACK / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Dalila Eshe, a former WNBA second-round pick and Princeton assistant coach, will serve as the new women’s basketball coach.

Dalila Eshe will take over as the head coach of the Yale women’s basketball team, the Athletic Department announced Monday.

Eshe will replace outgoing head coach Allison Guth, who left Yale to accept a position as the head coach at Loyola University Chicago. Eshe, who previously served as an assistant coach and recruiting director at Princeton, has no head coaching experience at the collegiate level, but has an impressive track record of success both as a player and a coach. She was a first-team All-SEC selection in her senior season at Florida in 2006 and played professionally for the Washington Mystics

SAILING Harvard 266 Brown 173

FOR MORE SPORTS CONTENT, VISIT OUR WEB SITE goydn.com/YDNsports Twitter: @YDNSports

SOFTBALL DOWN GOES CORNELL The Yale softball team took a series over Cornell last weekend after honoring its seniors, Miranda Papes ’22 and captain Kortney Ponce ’22. With the series win, Yale moved into a fourth place tie in the Ivy League.

BY ANDREW CRAMER STAFF REPORTER

M TENNIS Columbia 4 Princeton 3

and Atlanta Dream in the WNBA for two years. Eshe, who was selected 25th in the 2006 WNBA Draft by the Seattle Storm, also played overseas for nine years.

“It is an honor and a dream come true to accept this position as the next women's basketball coach at Yale University,” Eshe wrote in the press release. “This program has been very successful over the last few years with the hard work of the student-athletes and the staff. I am so excited to lead this amazing group of young women. We will pride ourselves on putting in the work to win championships. I’m looking forward to getting started.”

Members of the women’s basketball team expressed their excitement at Eshe’s hire, recognizing the achievements and tal-

Yale enters final game undefeated in Ivies

ents of their new coach.

In particular, point guard Jenna Clark ’24 hoped Eshe could instill a championship mentality within the Blue and White, which most recently finished in third place in the Ancient Eight conference before falling in the semifinals of Ivy Madness.

“Her playing career is super impressive,” Clark said. “To be able to play at the highest level is an amazing accomplishment, so we’re really lucky that we’re going to be able to learn from her… I think she’ll bring us a lot of great perspective and grow us all as players.”

In addition to her accomplishments as a player, Eshe’s resume also features a track record of success at every stop in her coaching career. After serving as the Director of Basketball Operations at Loyola University Maryland, Eshe got her first coaching opportunity as an assistant coach with Eastern Carolina University. During her stint from 201416, she helped the Pirates attract their best recruiting class in program history and secure their first WNIT victory.

As an assistant at LaSalle University, she helped lead the team to its best recruiting class in decades and best record in eight years in the 2016–17 season. Most recently, as a recruiting director and assistant coach with Princeton, Eshe helped secure recruiting classes that ranked in the top-40 nationally for three straight years. This SEE W BASKETBALL PAGE 8

“There’s been a universal sentiment that [we’re] stronger now than ever... quite frankly, we just really want a championship… that reflects that.”

JUMA SEI ’22 M. TRACK AND FIELD CAPTAIN

Steve Conn to retire from Yale Athletics

BY AMELIA LOWER STAFF REPORTER Steve Conn, senior assistant director of strategic communications, is set to retire at the end of the spring semester after 35 years at Yale.

YALE ATHLETICS Conn first joined Yale Athletics in 1987 and has served as the primary contact for almost every Yale

varsity sport as an associate athletics director and the director of sports publicity. He has the longest tenure of any Ivy athletics communications person and was the only sports information director to serve as a contact for both Division I ice hockey and lacrosse national championship winning teams.

“It’s been a fantastic privilege to serve our student-athletes and coaches while workSEE YALE ATHLETICS PAGE 8

COURTESY OF STEVE CONN

Senior Assistant Director of Strategic Communications Steve Conn is retiring at the end of the spring semester after working for Yale Athletics for 35 years.

Yale-Harvard Regatta returns

BY NICOLE RODRIGUEZ STAFF REPORTER After a three-year hiatus, the Yale-Harvard Regatta is set to return on June 11 in New London, CT.

CREW

COURTESY OF YALE ATHLETICS

The Bulldogs defeated the Lions 24–14 on Saturday to improve to a 6–0 conference record for the first time ever.

BY RYAN VAKIL CONTRIBUTING REPORTER After a resounding 24–14 victory against Columbia (2–11, 0–5 Ivy), the No. 24 Bulldogs fell 14–10 to the No. 6 Stony Brook Seawolves (13–2, 5–0 AEC).

WOMEN'S LACROSSE The Bulldogs (10–4, 6–0 Ivy) have managed to keep their undefeated streak against other Ivy League opponents alive thus

far but face a tough opponent in No. 12 Princeton this Saturday. “[We are focusing on] handling the game with composure no matter the time and score,” Chloe Conaghan ’24 said.

The Bulldogs have had a historic season, earning their first 6–0 Ivy start in program history. With just one regular season game left against Princeton, they are aiming for an undefeated season in the conferSEE W LACROSSE PAGE 8

STAT OF THE WEEK 103

The Yale-Harvard Regatta, commonly known as The Race, is America’s oldest intercollegiate sporting event, dating back to 1852. The event has annually hosted Yale and Harvard men’s heavyweight crews since its founding, with exceptions such as major world wars and the COVID-19 pandemic. The last race was held on June 8, 2019, when Yale captured the Sexton Cup, the trophy awarded to the winning first varsity crew.

“It’s not any other race. It is unique, both in its history and its format,” men’s heavyweight head coach Steve Gladstone said. “There is no question. For a Yale and Harvard oarsman, it is the race of the year.”

The Race is held in early June, shortly after nationals. Following the end of classes, the rowers move out of their dorms and into Old Campus, where they remain until the completion of the Eastern Sprints and IRA Championships. The day after graduation, the rowers, coaches and a series of volunteers who maintain the house drive an hour to Gales Ferry Boathouse — the home of the heavyweight crew — in New London, CT where the event is held. The crew remains there for two to three weeks to train for and compete in The Race.

A significant factor that sets The Race apart from other events is its added length. Throughout the season, regular races are two kilometers long. The event

COURTESY OF JOEL FURTEK '90

The Race returns for its 155th iteration after two consecutive cancelations due to the pandemic. includes three races: a two-mile race for the third varsity, threemiles for the second varsity and a four-mile race for the first varsity. Gladstone contextualized the difference in length by equating the regular two kilometer races to a sprint and the fourmile race to a marathon — a usual finish time for a two kilometer is less than six minutes but a fourmile can last up to twenty.

Vlad Saigau ’22, coxswain for the first varsity, added that during a two kilometer race there is no time to “play mind games.” The crew can only focus on getting to the finish line as quickly as possible. But in a longer race, each boat is focused on a fast start — putting in the level of effort comparable to that of a two kilometer early on. This level of exertion places a large physical and psychological toll on the crew.

“You are working a lot harder than you can sustain for twenty minutes,” Saigau noted. “Undoubt-

edly going to be the most painful race that any of these guys row this year. They are all aware of that.”

Aside from the difference in format, The Race is unique because of its rich history and the traditions that have surrounded the event for generations.

As the first American intercollegiate event, The Race has hosted generations of Yale and Harvard rowers, along with large “spectator fleets” throughout the years, according to Gladstone. While the crowd is not as large as it once was, he noted that yachts still line the side of the course to watch the event, along with the number of alumni who gather at Gales Ferry to follow the live-streamed race.

“When I talk to Yale rowing alumni, almost without question, [The Race] is the seminal experience of their Yale rowing career,” Gladstone told the News.

SEE CREW PAGE 8

THE NUMBER OF GOALS LACROSSE ATTACKER MATT BRANDAU ’23 HAS SCORED IN HIS COLLEGIATE CAREER. HE IS THE EIGHTH BULLDOG TO BREAK 100 TALLIES.

FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2022

AMPLIFYING AAPI VOICES // RACHEL FOLMAR

WHERE DO ASIANS FIT IN THE NEWSROOM? // BY SOPHIE WANG

“As an East Asian, you’re one of the least oppressed people in the world.”

This was one of many hate comments I received as a high schooler from readers responding to an article I wrote in 2020 about the cultural appropriation of the fox-eye trend. I had noticed a lack of Asian news stories in the general media and wondered why writing one might have caused this kind of reaction. Having been told that I am un-oppressed, I reflected on the role Asian Americans have in journalism at the Yale Daily News.

For a while, I didn’t realize how impactful my identity as an Asian American was in shaping my journalism until I found myself in a space that intentionally centered it. When I attended the first AAPI affinity group meeting in February, I felt grateful for the conversations around inclusion in the newsroom and related to other Asian journalists’ triumphs and struggles. I appreciated that there was a community within the News who cared about my racial identity and experiences. For this article, I decided to have more in-depth conversations with some of those people about the role that Asians have in the YDN newsroom.

According to the News’ most recent demographic survey results conducted in the fall of 2021 — which 100 of about 300 staff members filled out — Asians accounted for 36 percent of total staff, down slightly from 37.3 the previous year.

In the 2019-2020 school year, 20.8 percent of all Yale students identified as Asian. Nationally, across newsrooms in 2021, 7.7 percent of staffers were Asian journalists.

At the News, Asian students also are more likely to have roles outside of the newsroom. The most recent demographic survey results indicated that Asians accounted for 44 percent of non-newsroom staff, a category that includes photo, video, data, podcast and illustrations; production jobs which include copy editing and production and design; and long-

term project work which include business, tech and human resources.

However, for written content — reporting and opinion — Asians made up around 31% of newsroom staff. Currently, there aren’t any staff members who identify as Pacific Islanders.

Asian reporters are here to share their community’s stories and also to improve inclusion in stories that have traditionally not showcased their voices. Compared to national newsrooms, the News and other college newspapers such as The Crimson have a high concentration of Asian Americans on staff, giving us a unique opportunity to reflect on our roles as journalists.

I spoke to Brian Zhang ’25, who said that his Asian American identity has made him “more conscious” of the stories he writes. He noted that he has an interest in centralizing his work around Asian American Pacific Islander, or AAPI, achievements and challenges. Although he has not faced “many challenges” as an Asian American writer, he believes that there can be more Asian American representation in the media industry.

Staff photographer Tenzin Jordan ’25 said that having come from an immigrant background, he was taught important family values which included “be[ing] aware of your surroundings” and “know[ing] when to speak up [and] when to listen.” He’s also applied these key lessons in his photography. “[Photography] is a weird intersection between an art form, but also a form of recording and reporting,” said Jordan. “There’s an obvious gap between my experiences and the experiences of the older generation … like people who are my grandparents … so being able to stop, listen and evaluate the stories around you and then convey that in a medium is very important.”

One of the reasons behind my decision to write for the Sci-Tech desk was the editors, Anjali Mangla ’24 and Nicole Rodriguez ’24. As women of color, they understand

the importance of comprehensive reporting and encourage me to cover a diverse range of topics and to source multiple perspectives.

Mangla has started various initiatives to increase diversity coverage at the News. As a reporter last year, she created her own beat called science and social justice because she wanted to address “what it’s like to be in science and have a different identity” and to investigate how race and health intersect.

She also noted that she has had to advocate for greater South Asian representation in coverage and in sourcing. According to Mangla, most of the Asian coverage had involved events that focused on East Asian identities.

“I feel like just being a woman of color in general, I try to source pitches or general assignments and encourage reporters to cover stories about marginalized communities who normally don’t have a voice,” Mangla said. “I think with my Asian identity and just being a South Asian woman at Yale, I feel so much more cognizant of it than I do normally … That informs what I pitch and how I want the desk to write.”

Together with Isaac Yu ’24, Mangla created the News’ AAPI affinity group to connect people of similar identities. They hoped that members could share resources and information, along with “being there for each other” because of a shared sense of background.

Yu noted that very few publications have the access and resources that the News has in regard to Asian voices, so it is important to “platform those voices.” For him, “representation is not the endgame.”

“We need to make sure the space not only represents Asian people on campus but includes them and values their work and cherishes them,” said Yu. Yu mentioned that he took an active interest in Asian and Asian American politics in his journalism, which is one way he has tried to bring his identity to his work. In addition, he noted that being able to speak in

Chinese and having the experience of being an Asian American in the States has “made it more effective” for him to report on people in his community and to ensure that topics that might not be covered are reported on.

Having Asian Americans in leadership positions, within the News and at Yale, has played an instrumental role in inspiring journalists.

In this paper’s 144 year history, there have been only two Asian editorsin-chief: Vivian Yee ’11 and Sammy Westfall ’21. There have been a number of Asian managing editors — including current editors Ryan Chiao ’23 and Natalie Kainz ’23 — that identified as Asian, as well as more than ten Asian publishers.

Sarah Feng ’25 described that “a certain level of Asian American leadership has been encouraging,” as she discussed Yu’s presence at the YDN and the friendships she’s formed from writing for the Yale Daily News Magazine. Hamera Shabbir ’24, a reporter on the sports desk, noted that she appreciates writing about sports in a time when Victoria M. Chun, the first Asian American to serve as the Thomas A. Beckett Director of Athletics, serves in leadership along with other “diverse and representative members of athletics.” Chun’s leadership reassures Shabbir that “the school, the sports, and the people participating in them are continuously striving for equality and for diversity.”

Shabbir explained that although some sports have historically catered towards white audiences, her experience with writing for the sports desk has been very “positive” because there is a big community within sports and the News has “extremely supportive people” who never made her “feel singled out for her identity.”

Feng mentioned that conducting interviews with Asian American subjects sometimes becomes more of a conversation because they share experiences she can empathize with, and these interviews are some of the “most effective and the most enlightening” ones for her. She

recalled interviewing someone who described having to “straddle the line between being too meek and too aggressive,” which she related to and enjoyed “explor[ing] the interview .. and deepen[ing] it.”

As a staff reporter for the city desk, Zhang noted that New Haven’s Asian population is low compared to Yale’s, making up just 5.6 percent of the city’s population. According to Zhang, these residents may struggle with finding a news source they can read that represents their own stories, so having a news outlet that covers stories relevant to their cultures and perspectives is “important.”

“I think especially the Asian American experience is one that doesn’t receive a ton of coverage, and only recently, people are starting to feel more comfortable speaking out about it,” said Feng. “I feel lucky to be at a publication in the school that encourages that sort of coverage.”

Yet, reporters at the News still feel that more can be done about increasing diversity and inclusion.

Feng described the affinity groups as “comforting” since she knows that they are there if she “ever need[s] a support system.” But beyond being “a support network,” she does not feel that the News has so far “really cultivated that into a full community.” She noted that having the AAPI affinity group host more talks, readings, AAPI speakers in journalism and workshops for covering Asian American topics could help.

Shabbir recalled having to advocate for a reporter to cover a show that the South Asian Society, or SAS, hosted, which sold out tickets within 12 hours. She recognized that she had started pushing for SAS coverage because of her role as the SAS communications chair, but the fact she even had to do so in the first place was “just a bit confusing.” According to her, the institution claims to be “dedicated towards student life and student coverage,” but needs to “expand on its definition of student life to incorporate … groups and events that are significant to students.”

PAGE B2

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

SPECIAL ISSUE AMPLIFYING

AAPI VOICES

CT to pass first in nation AAPI studies legislation // BY YASH ROY This year, Connecticut is set to become the first state in the nation to begin the process of including AAPI education in the state’s educational curriculum in their K-12 system with dedicated funding and stakeholder input toward achieving this goal.

Connecticut has been a forerunner in including BIPOC voices in its curriculum. In late 2020, Connecticut required all public high schools across the state to offer an Latinx and African American history elective starting during the 2022-23 school year. In 2021, AAPI history was added into K-8 history curriculum through HB 6619. Now, thanks to the work of Make Us Visible CT and other AAPI advocacy groups, HB 5282, a bill that would add AAPI history to state education statutes, has passed through the state legislature’s Education and Appropriations Committee. The bill has 89 cosponsors from both major political parties and is expected to soon impact classrooms statewide.

“You get a sprinkle about internment or the presence of Chinese workers in the early and mid 1800s,” said Quan Tran, Senior Lecturer in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration at Yale and intern coordinator for Make Us Visible CT. “What we’re trying to do is expand the conversation on the civic engagement and contributions of Asian Americans, the relationship between Asian Americans and other social groups in the history of the United States and the important roles that Asian Americans play in the history of this country.”

According to Jeffrey Gu, members of Make Us Visible CT and other AAPI advocacy groups came together to create HB 5282 with the support of members of the state legislature, including house education chair Bobby Sanchez. Gu said that the partnership began following a string of anti-AAPI hate crimes in Connecticut, including an insistence where a man in Milford was told to “go back to China.”

As a result of this experience and other cases of race-based hatred, Make Us Visible CT looked toward what they viewed as the root cause of this hatred: education.

According to Tran, Make Us Visible CT views education as the crux of combating anti-Asian hate since the organization believes that exposing children from a young age on AAPI history will help decrease discrimination and racially motivated attacks agaiinst the group.

HB 5282 came before the General Assembly’s Education Committee in mid-February. On Feb. 28, members of the Connecticut community, including Yale students and alumnae, came before the committee to testify in favor of the bill.

“As an Asian American, I did not learn about my family and community’s history growing up,” said co-founder of aapiNHV Jennifer Heikkila Diaz ’00. “The students and families with whom I had the privilege of working will tell you that working to make our learning experiences more culturally sustaining specifically for Asian American Pacific Islander-identifying students

and families, or all of the above mattered and still matter to them and have shaped who they are and how they see the world in powerful and positive ways.”

Besides lip service to the AAPI community, the bill includes a commitment from the state to fund the creation of curriculums that include AAPI history, tradition and cultures. The amount committed is unspecified. This measure was voted out of the state’s appropriations committee unanimously, and the larger bill was voted out of the Education Committee with a joint favorable mark on March 7. According to Gu, the funding for this initiative will be $100,000.

This past Monday, the bill was placed on the state legislature’s calendar. According to Gu, Make Us Visible CT has been in contact with the offices of House Majority Leader Jason Rojas as well as Speaker of the House Matt Ritter and all parties are hopeful that the bill will be brought before the house for a full vote.

According to Gu, the bill has wide bipartisan support and the group is not worried about serious opposition to the bill.

In anticipation of its passage, AAPI advocates are preparing to help realize the bill’s promise of meaningfully including the community’s history in school curricula.

According to Tran, Make Us Visible CT has taken a three pronged approach to realize this goal with the bill’s passage being just the first prong. The next step

is helping create the curriculum for students in K-12.

“We’re really dedicated to creating a localized curriculum because Asian American history is very west coast based,” said Kate Lee, Make Us Visible CT organizer and Fairfield County middle school teacher.

“We are hoping to find and uplift the Asian American histories in all pockets of Connecticut … so we’ve been engaging a lot in a lot of conversations with community leaders and members in talking about their experiences and family history within the state of Connecticut.”

According to Lee, the group hopes to create a curriculum for students of all ages. Under one proposal, younger students would be exposed to Asian and Pacific Islander holidays, foods and traditions. The group is also hoping to increase representation of AAPI peoples in picture books and other educational devices.

Lee said that under that proposal, as students get older, they will be exposed to more “nuanced narratives” on AAPI peoples in the nation and how they have been historically marginalized as well as their interactions with other people in the United States.

Make Us Visible was founded in Connecticut in March 2021 and has now expanded to eight states across the nation.

Contact YASH ROY at yash.roy@yale.edu

South Asian Yalies speak on identity, belonging // BY ANIKA SETH South Asian Yalies reflected on the challenges of finding a cultural home away from home — but some said that no campus space has felt quite right for them.

Since it opened in 1981, the Asian American Cultural Center has been an important space for many students to interact with other Asian and Asian American students through events and programming. Operating in collaboration with the AACC as an affiliate organization, Yale’s South Asian Society offers a space for students of South Asian backgrounds to engage with one another and to share South Asian culture with the Yale community more broadly through various events and showcases.

For some South Asian students, SAS offers a sense of home that the AACC does not, particularly as the term “Asian” within United States contexts is often defaulted as East Asian. But at the same time, students told the News that SAS is not free of fault, noting the implicit ways in which they feel the organization centers on a certain kind of South Asian identity and falls short of including Yalies of all nationalities and religions.

“My experience with SAS has been very eye-opening because for me, it felt like home and was integral in supporting an important part of my identity,” a student from India, who requested to remain anonymous for this article to avoid backlash, wrote to the News.

“However, for a lot of my friends, it was not received as the same sort of safe space,” the same student added. “SAS tends to feel very centered on north India and very rarely makes an effort to actively promote culture from other countries.”

Nonetheless, for some, the organization offers an important community — especially relative to the AACC. “SAS has been an important part of my Yale experience, and having a strong South Asian community made it much easier for me to feel at home here,” another international student, who is also from India, wrote in an email to the News.

“Things like cultural performances, town halls about South Asian topics, and even just parties with Bollywood music have helped me maintain my connection to my South Asian identity.”

This student, who serves on the board of SAS, also asked to remain anonymous.

South Asian Society: filling in where the Asian American Cultural Center does not The United States Census Bureau defines a person of the Asian race as “having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.”

But as a 2020 Time article explored, the connotations of the term “Asian” in the United States go deeper than the census. The label is often perceived as centering on or only including East Asian identities — in 2016, College Board adjusted its race categories to explicitly include those of the“Indian subcontinent and Philippines origin” under the Asian category after discourse swirled on a college admissions forum as to whether Indians count as Asian.

This trend also emerges in national politics, and the 2020 Democratic presidential primary was no exception. Andrew Yang, a Taiwanese American candidate, was often slated as “the Asian candidate,” the Time article reads, ignor-

WKND HOT TAKE get hit by the yuttle for tuition

ing to some extent the South Asian and Southeast Asian heritages of competitors Kamala Harris and Tulsi Gabbard.

Yang himself spoke on the subject: “My Asianness is kind of obvious in a way that might not be true of Kamala or even Tulsi,” Yang said. “That’s not a choice. It’s just a fairly evident reality.”

This conflation of “Asian” with “East Asian” within the United States leaves students involved with SAS feeling varying levels of exclusion from the AACC. “While the AACC has made strides in including South Asians within the AACC’s space, I think there is always progress to be made on further including a group of Asians in the AACC who have historically felt like their identities and values have not been fully appreciated or emulated by the AACC,” a student involved with SAS, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid social repercussions, wrote to the News.

The anonymous board member concurred, similarly noting that the AACC — and Assistant AACC Director Sheraz Iqbal, in particular — works hard to promote the inclusion of South Asians, but that this task is complicated by the breadth of the term “Asian.”

Joliana Yee, director of the AACC, commented on the efforts by the AACC to include South Asians.

“The AACC has made deliberate efforts to challenge the misperception of who is included under these umbrella terms through our advocacy, communications, events, and initiatives,” Yee wrote to the News. “From ensuring South Asian representation on our AACC student staff, invited guest speakers, and artists, to supporting local South Asian restaurants and providing advising and funding for our affiliated South Asian student organizations, the AACC is committed to creating ongoing opportunities for South Asian and South Asian American students (undergraduate, graduate, and professional) to build community and feel a sense of belonging at Yale.”

The SAS board member further noted that the AACC is dedicated specifically to Asian American students, which might not cater entirely to the experience of international students who do not identify as American.

While organizations like the Office of International Students and Scholars and the International Students Organization exist to support international students, for some, SAS specifically provides a culturally supportive environment to American and international South Asian students alike.

“While the AACC is a very homely space, I do sometimes struggle to feel connected to it,” the board member wrote.

“Not being American and having grown up in a place where a majority of the population is Asian makes my experiences feel different from those of Asian Americans.

In addition, Asia is such a large continent encompassing so many different cultures, that it becomes difficult for the ‘Asian’ identity to feel universal.

“However, the AACC does do their best to support South Asians who may feel less included, and people like Sheraz put in a lot of effort to make this better,” the board member added.

Shortcomings and future steps within the South Asian Society Four South Asian students who talked to the News expressed gratitude for the South Asian Society’s role in filling these gaps in belonging.

Two of those four, in addition to five others, said they believe further change is necessary.

The first student noted that the organization carries an implicit feeling of centering Hindu and north Indian identities, reflecting long-standing issues in the subcontinent of prioritizing the safety and security of north Indian — and often lighter-skinned — Hindus. Three additional members of Yale’s South Asian community, who are not Hindu, told the News they felt “uncomfortable” or “unwelcome” in the organization due to religious ostracization.

One potential reason for this may be SAS’s commitment to secularity — or the selective enforcement thereof. Per AACC regulations, SAS is not permitted to host religious events, but one Yale senior said that some cultural events — such as Diwali — are imbricated so heavily with religious undertones that it is nearly impossible to fully secularize their communal importance. The senior said that historically, some students have felt the organization “picks and chooses” which events are and are not secularized causing it to disproportionately disregard non-Hindu holidays.

“For [SAS’s] intention to remain completely secular, it should either completely rid itself of any affiliation with some religious groups or make the effort to integrate all in their designs, aesthetic and learnings,” another student said.

Over the past year, SAS has not held any religiously affiliated events.

Two other South Asian students echoed the sentiment of implicit Indian dominance in conversations with the News. Specific examples that interviewees described included playing predominantly Hindi-language songs at various social events, as opposed to reflecting the musical diversity of the Indian subcontinent, as well as participants and performers dressing mostly in north Indian clothing at SAS-hosted cultural showcases.

For some, religious exclusion also arises from such showcases, as cultural performances also often carry religious themes. As such, one student said unequal performer representation at SAS-hosted showcases can further feelings of isolation.

In a text to the News, outgoing SAS presidents Vanya Shivashankar and Sandhya Kumar

acknowledged that SAS has not always felt wholly inclusive, and they discussed efforts taken over the past year to push for progress.

“The South Asian Society recognizes that there are gaps in the groups of South Asian people that have been represented in our organization since its creation,” Kumar and Shivashankar wrote in a statement to the News.

“A goal this year was to better listen and work with South Asian communities and identities that have been traditionally marginalized to make SAS a more welcoming space on Yale’s campus, and we’ve engaged in these discussions in meetings and community events. In coming years, we hope to continue prioritizing this goal and make significant progress in increasing representation of traditionally marginalized South Asian groups on our board and in our organization.”

Kumar added that over the past year, SAS has organized town halls to discuss important issues that face the diaspora, such as the model minority myth and religious polarization in South Asia, and is currently planning a teach-in event about the ongoing socioeconomic crisis in Sri Lanka. She also noted a recent South Asian fashion show, which highlighted styles from various areas of the subcontinent, and said that the SAS-hosted spring cultural showcase, Dhamaal, “incorporated talents from across South Asia.” Kumar further detailed specific efforts to appeal to a wider South Asian audience at Yale by tying in popular media and culture.

Looking toward the year ahead, incoming presidents Kirin Mueller and Anushka Nijhawan also said they are prioritizing the creation of a more inclusive SAS. “We recognize that in the past, South Asian Society has not been a place where all South Asians at Yale have had adequate representation,” Mueller wrote in a statement. “Over the past year, one of our primary goals was working with South Asian students from all ethnic, socioeconomic, religious, and national backgrounds to include more South Asian voices in our organization. As I and my co-President Anushka Nijhawan enter our year as leaders of the South Asian Society, our number one priority is to make SAS a place where students of all South Asian identities can feel welcomed and at home.”

The AACC is located at 295 Church St. Contact ANIKA SETH at anika.seth@yale.edu

//JACK LI

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

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COLLOQUIUM: Senior theses on Asian American issues // BY CLAIRE LEE

Cathy Duong ’22 Duong is an English major, and their thesis is titled “Literary Parentage in Vietnamese American Literature about Paris.”

“The question that I was asking that led me to these books is: Where is French colonization in Paris in Vietnamese history?

People mostly think about Vietnamese history and experience as related to the Vietnam War so I was curious about accessing a deeper past that Vietnamese Americans are still affected by.”

Sunnie Liu ’22 Liu is a history and art doubble major, and their history thesis is titled “Rocking the Boat: Vietnamese American Resistance to Racialized Violence Across the Gulf Coast.”

“My history thesis is studying Vietnamese refugee fishermen and their families and communities across the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida, and the ways in which they experience racialized anti-Communist violence from the local white townspeople and other white fish-

Abeyaz Amir ’22 Amir is an art major, and their thesis is titled “Undefeated.”

“My work is about all of the observations that I made throughout college and being a young adult and also studying history at Yale. The project is also about colonialism because who gets to go out at night and dance and sing with their friends and drink and do drugs? That answer is largely dictated by the outcome of history and colonialism.”

Jieun Yu ’22 Yu is an art major, and their thesis is titled “Dokkebi.”

“This thesis was about ... what I felt and experienced and project as a genderqueer and queer Korean person.

And what it means to have body and life and also death in a postcolonial world.

I think it mostly deals with identity or like body dysmorphia or any sort of dysmorphia that comes with being objectified as queers.”

Going to the doctor when you’re Asian in America // BY KAYLA YUP Peggy Wong NUR ’24 watched a mother and father weep at opposite sides of the patient room, separately mourning their child’s rapidly declining condition.

Their child was the first Asian patient Wong saw during this clinical round. The patient’s blood count and blood pressure were low — it became clear that they were very ill and quickly declining. When the rapid response team crowded the room, Wong saw the mother and father’s distress spike. Yet, they were isolated in their sorrow, crying at opposing ends of the room.

“As an Asian American, I completely understand,” Wong said. “I thought they should be consoling each other, holding each other and crying together. But at the same time, I think it’s because culturally, they’re just not used to that kind of affection.

It made me really sad to see them crying by themselves in separate corners

when they’re married. But it’s hard to navigate this because even though I’m Asian and they’re Asian, I felt like I couldn’t communicate with them — I couldn’t just tell them ‘I get it.’”

Wong said that many Asian American and Pacific Islander health care providers grapple with the uncertain role of cultural competency in health care — it is largely unknown how to communicate understanding when it comes to situations specifically influenced by cultural norms. Wong described the cultural training that would guide this approach as being largely absent in nursing education, and only learned either “on the job” or through one’s lived experiences.

In this case, consoling the parents would deserve more time than a few quick minutes, Wong said. There were emotional barriers she recognized coming from the same culture.

The process of figuring out how best to apply a cultural lens to the health

care setting will require more cases of “learning on the job.” But when caring for AAPI communities, the first barrier to treatment is actually getting the patient to the doctor’s office.

“AAPI folks tend to have really low service utilization,” assistant professor of psychiatry and Yale CHATogether founder Eunice Yuen said.

“Meaning they don’t get help until they’re severely sick, and then show up in the emergency room and need to be hospitalized. And it is not uncommon to hear an AAPI teen or young adult having depression and suicidal thinking for three to four years, and their parents having no idea until it’s really severe.”

According to Nikita Paudel ’25, in Nepal, medicine is usually seen as something “you succumb to” rather than as a tool to help. Paudel was born and raised in Nepal before immigrating to America with her family. In lieu of “giving up” by choosing medi-

cation, her family valued “fighting through” the pain. She noted that this affected women to a greater extent in her culture, with access to health care for women being “a little bit disenfranchised” because of gender bias.

Women are commonly expected to fight pain off on their own more often, Paudel said.

Paudel also noted the cultural fear of hypermedicalization, a perceived trend in American medicine that was “the complete opposite” of medicalization attitudes in Nepal. This, compounded with hesitancy towards substances that they “don’t understand fully coming to a whole different culture,” could influence the low service utilization rates when in America, she said. Paudel additionally questioned where the line was between respecting traditional cultural beliefs and prac-

tices — such as home remedies and “spiritual” approaches to healing sickness in her family — and also ensuring that families receive adequate medical care and attention.

“Some people feel like they need a culturally-oriented doctor or therapist or psychiatrist to understand the cultural perspective [of cases],” Yuen said. “If the provider has a similar cultural background, they feel like they will have a similar human connection and will be more easily understood. This is a well known factor for why many people under-utilize [health care] services — they cannot find a provider that shares their cultural background.”

Read in full online on the Yale Daily News website.

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

Three graduating Asian American athletes reflect // BY HAMERA SHABBIR This academic year, graduating Asian American athletes have competed at the highest levels.

Despite facing the stresses of academics and athletics in combination with the uncertainties of the pandemic, several Asian American Bulldogs are closing out their athletic careers with notable successes. Cody Lin ’22, the sole senior in men’s tennis, discussed the trajectory of his athletic career while women’s tennis players Jessie Gong ’22 and Kathy Wang ’22 spoke on the significance of a supportive team atmosphere in trying times.

“Over the pandemic, there was sort of a rise of Asian American hate crimes and our team has a lot of AAPI representation,” Wang said. “It was really a great space to talk about how we were feeling, stresses we were under, and share our emotions and have a very receptive audience [of] people who understood what we were going through.”

Cody Lin Lin matriculated in 2017 but was unable to play due to an injury and received the men’s tennis Stuart D. Ludlum Jr. ’62 Memorial Award for “enthusiasm, perseverance and team

spirit” as a first-year with teammate Nathan Brown ’19. Through physical therapy and team support, Lin returned to play during the 201819 season and won nine matches in singles competition. As a junior, Lin stood out among the team with a 14–6 record and was awarded the George A. Phelps Memorial Award for being the most improved player.

Lin emphasized the presence of Asian American athletes on campus.

He said that despite the lack of a formal community, he found the success of other Asian American athletes with similar backgrounds inspiring.

“It really hasn’t felt like I’ve been in the minority,” Lin said. “Even though tennis historically has not been the most diverse sport due to both its nature as a ‘country club sport’ and the high costs associated with equipment, facilities, etc. I think it’s been moving in the right direction for a while now in terms of diversity, especially for Asian Americans like myself.”

Jessie Gong Gong matriculated in the fall of 2018 and began her first season with 18 wins in both singles and doubles. She was named Ivy League Sec-

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// SOPHIE HENRY

ond Team in doubles with Samantha Martinelli ’21 and ITA Scholar-Athlete for that competitive season.

During her sophomore year, Martinelli and Gong made history by becoming the first Bulldogs to be named All-American in tennis and by becoming the first Ivy League women to win the ITA All-American title.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, her sophomore year of play was cut short and the Ivy League did not participate in competition during her junior year. Gong describes the squad’s AAPI representation as meaningful during times when AAPI hate was increasing during the pan-

demic. She also noted “emails of support” from the Asian American Cultural Center and events between the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and the cultural house as “efforts from the institution” to develop a community amongst Asian athletes.

“It’s also nice that our coaches give us space to discuss that,” Gong said.

“Our coaches are not AAPI so it’s just seeing people in our close group to make an effort to also understand or educate themselves is helpful.”

Kathy Wang Wang also matriculated during the fall of 2018. She began her first season by earning 16 wins in both singles

and doubles, along with ITA Scholar-Athlete. As a sophomore, Wang earned 10 wins in singles before the competition was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wang is a member of Yale Bulldogs for Change, a group dedicated to improving the varsity athletic experience for people of color, along with teammate Chelsea Kung ’23.

She described talks within the tennis team on the topic of diversity, equity and inclusion as positive spaces for discussion. Overall, Wang described the tennis team as working to foster a positive environment for athletes, especially through the pandemic.

“Athletics is very easy to just try and have the mindset to forget all on court and just play,” Wang said. “But sometimes it’s best to talk about it and create an open space for discussion.”

The women’s tennis Ivy League season concluded on Sunday.

In 2018, Asians were 60 percent less likely to have received mental health treatment services in comparison to white people.

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

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

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A look at Asians at the News Cont’d from B1 She noted that a part of this problem might be a lack of diversity in sourcing and perspectives being put into stories.

“A lot of times, I read stories [that are] definitely showing only one socio-economic, class, racial and gender experience,” Shabbir said. “Moving forward, YDN can do a better job of sourcing and considering what it thinks is newsworthy, given that there are a lot of stories that go uncovered that should be covered because they do have significance to the larger population and spark discussions outside of the YDN.” In a similar vein, Yu mentioned that diversity work at the News is often seen as a “side thing that’s to be performed out by people of color.”

According to him, other barriers might include not fitting the stereotype of what the typical journalist looks like, especially given that very few of the “star journalists” from the News who end up working at the Washington Post or the New York Times are Asian.

Yu noted that even in pop culture, most people in the newsroom are white journalists. For example, in the TV show Gilmore Girls, the characters Rory Gilmore, Paris Geller, Doyle McMaster and Logan Huntzberger all are reporters at the News and all are white people.

However, the Asian character Lane Kim, who did not attend Yale, was not a journalist.

“Could Lane have been a journalist? We will never know,” said Yu. “In popular narratives, we just haven’t been journalists. To be fair, there have been increases in diversity at the News …

I think maybe part of [the issue] is linked to the

News’ wider problem of being over competitive.

And competition that’s limited to very few people often leads to the same kinds of identities being represented.”

Overall, though, Yu and Shabbir both emphasized that there is a great community in the News of Asian American and Asian journalists that help each other out with sourcing and editing, along with internships and professional opportunities.

“My experience with my identity and the YDN intersecting has been an experience of personal growth and professional growth at the same time, while also building a strong network and hoping to hold the door open for other people down the line,” said Shabbir.

What the News has currently done in its efforts to increase diversity, equity and inclusion have made profound impacts in the institution. However, we still need to put more deliberate effort into ensuring that more groups across campus are covered and that articles have diverse sourcing. This burden does not lie with people of color. We have put in the effort.

As I continue to explore my identity in college, reporting for the News has helped me become more aware of my surroundings and find ways to increase diversity and inclusion in my stories whether through sourcing or content coverage — and my identity as an Asian woman influences that experience.

But clearly, more work needs to be done, and I hope to be a part of that change as I continue as a member of the News.

// JESSAI FLORES

Contact SOPHIE WANG at sophie.wang@yale.edu .

To Yingying // BY YINGYING ZHAO Over winter break, I went back home and saw my parents, friends, and more snow. After having dinner at the Mexican place downtown and boba for dessert, my friend Lauren and I decided to wander around. Small flakes began to fall, coating the sidewalks and roads in a thin layer of white. We trudged on through the coldness, snow sticking to our black leather Doc Martens.

Neither of us really wanted to go back home. We hadn’t talked in a long time — I had a whole lifetime of things to catch up on.

“What would you want to name your kids?” Lauren suddenly asked.

“I don’t know,” I told her.

She looked surprised. “You haven’t thought about it at all?”

“I guess.”

We crossed the street, ignoring the crosswalk signs.

“But like, if you had to choose something.

Anything.”

“I don’t know,” I said again. “I’d ask my parents to name them. Something Chinese.”

“Really?”

I glanced over at her. “What do you mean?”

Lauren shrugged. “I didn’t think you would say that.”

“Why?” But in my head, I knew what Lauren would say. I don’t think it’s any secret to my close friends that I’ve had a love-hate relationship with my name. Actually, love-hate is the wrong way to describe it: it’s more like an old wound, like the huge scab I got in middle school after I fell off my bike and slid across the basketball court pavement. And that wound opens and closes, and I can always feel a small sting that sometimes gets so large that I shouldn’t ignore it but I do anyway. Because it’s easier to not think about it then it is to constantly remember it’s there.

Imagine someone naming their kid Percy because they loved the Percy Jackson series: that’s a more modern version of what my mom did. She was — and still is — a huge fan of Ren Yingying, a character from “Xiào Ào Jiāng Hú” or in English, “The Smiling, Proud Wanderer,” a famous Chinese novel turned television series. In true fangirl style, she decided to have Ren Yingying be my namesake, though I’m definitely not a jaw-dropping gorgeous, evil-fighting princess warrior.

But my mom was probably thinking something along those lines: one of my nicknames in Chinese is “gōng zhǔ” — “princess” in Mandarin — and when I was little, she would have me wear brightly colored dresses, as if everyday was a ball. Although we moved to a new neighborhood when I was in fourth grade, the large Disney Magic Kingdom castle sticker from my old house was carefully packed and placed on the widest wall in my bedroom, overlooking my desk mirror.

In the beginning, I never realized how strange my name was to other people.

Yingying didn’t really mean anything to me — it was just what my parents said, what my brother tried to say because he was a toddler and couldn’t pronounce anything, what family friends called me. But in environments removed from the comfort of my own home and our small Chinese community, I learned that Yingying meant something to other people — and it wasn’t good.

I’m sure other people with non-English names have similar experiences: teachers struggling with pronunciation during roll call, the unpleasant “Where are you really from?” from ignorant strangers. I tried to let it not bother me too much: they didn’t have bad intentions, and in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t hurt.

“You’re so good at Spanish,” he said to me.

“Considering the fact that you had to learn English when you came over here — that’s really impressive.”

That’s really impressive.

That’s really impressive, he said, like English wasn’t my first language. Never mind that I couldn’t read any WeChat messages from my relatives in China, never mind that I could barely have a full conversation in Chinese, never mind that I only really considered myself fluent in Chinglish.

“That’s really impressive,” he said, like it was something I shouldn’t have been able to do.

Sometimes I think back to my second and last trip to Beijing. We lived in my grandma’s house — she became too sick to stay in her former

// MARK CHUNG

It just stung.

I smiled and shook my head when my teachers asked me if “preferred something else” and told them, “No, it’s just Yingying” and they smiled back and said “Wow, what a beautiful name” and then I wondered if they actually meant to comment on how “exotic” and “Oriental” my name was.

I told my eighth grade “Journalism 101” substitute teacher that “No, I really am from America,” and “Yes, I was born in the United States — in Massachusetts, in fact” and “Yes, my parents are Chinese, but I was born in America, so I’m American.”

I laughed it off when my elementary school classmate pointed out the fact that I have “an accent” and tried to brush off the anxiety from “But anyone can tell that you’re Chinese.”

But it was the boy in my seventh grade Spanish class that opened the wound so wide it wouldn’t close. We were work partners, and we sat next to each other everyday in class. We had been going to school together since I first entered the school district — almost four years.

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hometown — and there was no air conditioning. The heat was humid and sweltering, and my legs were covered in puffy mosquito bites. But in China, they still drink everything warm — coffee, tea, a glass of milk. Maybe my Americanness makes me like the opposite. I take everything iced, even in the winter. So when I asked for milk one morning, I was shocked to see my grandma put it in the microwave, and she was equally as shocked to hear that the milk in our household was always drunk straight from the refrigerator.

“This is better for your stomach,” she told me.

Small cultural differences about milk temperature preference aside, what I really remember from that trip is how my relatives perceived me. Like how all family reunions go, there was a lot of “Wow, you’re so big now!” and “I haven’t seen you since you were a baby!” and lots of hugging and too many dinners to attend. It was when I spoke that they seemed to recall why I had been gone — I was growing up in America.

I was growing up American.

“She sounds like she’s from the mountains,” my relatives said to my dad. “No one speaks her kind of Chinese.”

I knew what they meant — I wasn’t stupid.

There was no way my accent was going to sound native; after all, Chinese isn’t my native language. I was still mildly upset. Didn’t they know I was trying? Didn’t they know that English was my first language and Chinese was my second?

Didn’t they know I wasn’t from China, that my parents had me in Amherst, a small collegetown in the middle of nowhere?

Or maybe they knew, and they expected more from me. My English impressed that boy from Spanish class. My Chinese disappointed my aunts and uncles.

In Chinese, Yingying is the same character twice: 盈盈. In Chinese, Yingying signifies fullness, roundness, a surplus. In Chinese, Yingying holds my mother’s fantasies and dreams.

I grew up as Yingying, and I learned Yingying meant answering where I really come from, where I was born, where I call home. Yingying meant being questioned and questioning myself, because who am I if everyone else tells me who I’m supposed to be? Yingying meant wondering whether I sound American, and if I didn’t, wondering how to fix it. Yingying meant I was stuck in that place between the boy who told me my English is impressive because he knew my name and made assumptions and everyone in China who forcibly reminded me that my Chinese was no better than that of a grade school child.

I’m older now, and I can’t necessarily say those meanings are gone. But I’m old enough that I can talk about the impressive English incident as a funny story because in a way, his ignorance was really funny, and I’m sure he doesn’t even remember who I am or what he said.

I’m older now, and I’m learning how to love Yingying. So I say it’s like a wound because it cuts deep — it’s over a decade’s worth of minor pains. My relationship with Yingying ebbs and flows, and I don’t think we’ll ever be perfect.

Yet, there are times when I silently thank my mom for giving her to me, when the moon is shining bright through the big window in my room because I forgot to close the curtains even after my dad yelled at me. And even if the wound closes, I think it’ll leave a light scar like the one I have on my left knee — a sign that I survived.

In the end, I didn’t give Lauren a straight answer.

“I’ll keep thinking about it,” I said.

Yingying is something to keep thinking about. I’ll keep thinking and keep learning what it means to me. And I’ll think about how my mom says Yingying like it’s precious — as if addressing a noble princess.

Contact YINGYING ZHAO at yingying.zhao@yale.edu .

FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2022

WEEKEND

// ARIANE DE GENNARO

THE DEAD SHALL BE RAISED … or buried under the YUAG

// BY JACQUELINE KASKEL What would you say if I told you there was a dead guy buried under the Yale University Art Gallery?

Well, much to my dismay, there creepily is, and this man was purposefully buried under the gallery, commonly known as the YUAG, along with his artwork. And his name is John Trumbull.

When I asked Sam Bezilla ’24, a student worker at the YUAG, what he thought about John Trumbull’s burial under the gallery, he said, “I always thought it was weird, but he also is very much bound up with the mythos of the art gallery and its founding. It just seems like one of those weird things associated with classic Yale lore. I feel like there’s probably a dead person buried under all of our buildings.”

Funnily enough, this is not the same John Trumbull that the beloved Trumbull College is named after — that would be his father Jonathan Trumbull, the Connecticut governor during the American Revolution. Both men cemented

their own fame, though — Jonathan Trumbull as the only colonial governor to support the American Revolution and John Trumbull as the man to artistically tell the story of the Revolution.

It might not seem all that surprising that the YUAG houses Trumbull’s artwork, considering both who Trumbull’s father was and the national influence that Yale holds. But why is he buried there along with his wife beneath the art gallery? Was Grove Street Cemetery not good enough for him? And how did these prominent paintings of American history end up in the YUAG? To find this out and get a little more insight into John Trumbull’s life, I visited the YUAG and interviewed Mark Mitchell, the curator of American paintings and sculpture. What I discovered was partly an unsolved mystery and partly a profile of an American artist that I never expected to be such a rollercoaster.

If you’ve been to the YUAG, I

would hope you’ve seen some of John Trumbull’s artwork. And if you haven’t, you clearly did not delve deep enough into the gallery. Regardless, it’s almost a given that every student in the United States has seen at least a picture of a Trumbull painting in a history textbook. Having lived through the American Revolution arguably gave Trumbull the charge to record its most important moments on canvas. Yet, he was not just alive during the revolutionary era. He witnessed the war himself. Mitchell stated that the reason why his most eminent set of historical paintings is so famous “is not only because the images proved to be so indelible, but also because he was an eyewitness.”

During the Revolution, Trumbull served in Boston, where he observed the infamous Battle of Bunker Hill firsthand. He also had the advantage of knowing several of the Revolution’s leading figures — such as Thomas Jefferson and

Benjamin Franklin — which lent intimacy to his art. Who better to paint the scene than a man who was on the scene himself? Because of Trumbull’s status as a witness, Mitchell argued that Trumbull had “a degree of authority [over] the whole project.”

But Trumbull first had to become a renowned American artist in order to take on such a lofty task. In 1780, Trumbull went to London to study with the already famous history and portrait painter Benjamin West, a Pennsylvanian who was, in fact, the court painter to King George III. It’s therefore not a surprise that at this time, many young American painters were going to London to study with West. However, because of the ongoing conflict between the British and their American colonists, you can imagine that Trumbull’s fervently American art was not the most appreciated by the crown.

Consequently, he was thrown into the Tower of London, becoming a

prisoner during the American Revolution: the British believed him to be a spy.

His imprisonment seemed to work out in his favor, since he — once released some months later — was given a late commission as a colonel, receiving most of the recognition and standing he desired.

The rest, by virtue of his artistry, was still to come.

After the Revolution, there remained an elephant in the room — who would record what happened? Who would tell the story of the American Revolution with both heart and truth? West was the obvious answer to this question, given his American roots and artistic fame; he therefore began to communicate with artists in the United States to conduct proper research. He requested uniforms and other materials from the Revolution so that he could maintain a high degree of accuracy in his paintings. There was a major compli- Cont. on page B6

PAGE B6

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND THE

ARTS

John Trumbull rests in peace Cont. from page B5 cation, though: in the process of completing this research, it occurred to West that he was unable to be the author of this story. As the King’s painter, depicting the American victory in all its glory was simply something he could not do while still maintaining his loyalties.

And so, the story of the famous set of Trumbull paintings began.

Benjamin West, a loyalist at the time, turned to his student John Trumbull, a man singularly qualified to take on the task of depicting the story of the American Revolution, having witnessed battles and known many of the men involved.

Consequently, Trumbull conceptualized his famous series of paintings. To start, in 1786, Trumbull went to Paris to visit Thomas Jefferson, who helped initiate the iconic painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

In broadly summarizing what Jef-

ferson said to Trumbull, Mitchell stated, “It’s all well and good to paint these great battles and moments of the Revolution, but what distinguishes the American enterprise is the Declaration [of Independence], is the voice of the people.” Jefferson sketched the “room where it happened” on a sheet of paper from memory, which ended up being Trumbull’s sole source for the sense of space in the painting. In fact, Trumbull began sketching the beginnings of this piece on the exact sheet of paper that Jefferson gave him.

Mitchell praised the work of art: “It becomes … one of these major … moments of artists representing a historical moment in a way that fixes it in the popular imagination.”

Trumbull continued to work on the Declaration of Independence painting for decades, solely because he spent so much time gathering the portraits of the 48 figures in the painting. Tracking people down in that day and age must have been very difficult, to say the least. In some cases, he had to use people’s sons and other family members to gauge what their figures looked like.

He traveled around with his Declaration of Independence work, painting everyone that he could from real life, capturing people like Jefferson, Adams and Franklin in person.

During the interview, Mitchell said that “one of the amazing things about the painting is [that] it’s a synthesis of the entire unfolding of the negotiation of the Continental Congress, and so it’s more like a sort of class picture. Most of these people were no longer present by the time of the actual submission of the draft, but their contributions [were] recorded by Trumbull in this synthesis.”

Trumbull began and finished many of his conceived paintings, such as the one depicting the Battle of Bunker Hill, but he did n o t comp l e te all of t h e wo rk s he orig-

inally imagined. His work on this series persisted through the mid1790s, but due to the complete lack of interest by the American people, he eventually gave up. This particular fact struck me as quite counterintuitive — wouldn’t the American people feel even more fervor towards their newly formed country? Apparently not, as during the post-war period, the United States was completely drained of money, and therefore drained of any and all interest in memorializing the conflict that caused that downturn itself. Trumbull thought that he was going to finally secure fame as an artist, that he was creating a set of paintings people would “celebrate and be really grateful for.”

Instead, he was only really able to market his art to a French audience, who appreciated his work on the Siege of Quebec.

Interestingly enough, the size of Trumbull’s paintings was atypical for similar grandiose works of history, which Mitchell called “public objects,” fit for the courts of kings.

Trumbull’s paintings were instead much smaller, specifically as small as the largest available size of an engraving plate. This way, he could incrementally accumulate large amounts of money by selling the prints — reproductions made by an engraver — of larger paintings, something that Benjamin West did with his art. In the end, because of this strategic move, Trumbull would later find some artistic fame.

But first, he abandoned his series of paintings, succumbing to the disinterest of the American public for almost twenty years and becoming a diplomat through the War of 1812. Trumbull didn’t return to his art until after Aug. 24, 1814 — the day the British burned down the U.S. Capitol. The United States had to completely rebuild the structure after the devastating fire, and they decided to enhance the rotunda with a series of history paintings, for which they turned to John Trumbull. Four of his pieces — two of which were new, largescale remakes of his prior depictions of the Declaration and the Battle of Bunker Hill — were hung in the rotunda of the Capitol building. These enormous twelve by eighteen-feet frames still hang there to this day.

And so, Trumbull began to paint again, continuing his series through the 1820s and relying on

the fact that there must have been a “resurgence … of patriotic interest.” Unfortunately, Trumbull was wrong. For almost 20 years, he led the American Academy of Fine Arts in New York, which he hoped would be of the same caliber as the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Much to his dismay, he was incorrect again. And worse yet, he had no institution in which he could display his art, which leads us back to Yale University.

Throughout the decade, Trumbull toured his paintings around the United States, charging people a small fee to either look at or sell prints. He earned a sizable monetary accumulation from these efforts, but at this point, Trumbull was still not renowned as the “lavish” artist he had hoped he’d be. Then, in 1831, Benjamin Silliman, who was both a professor at Yale and the nephew-in-law of John Trumbull, asked the artist what the fate of his paintings would be. Inspired by this conversation, Trumbull decided to donate his paintings to Yale. In exchange, Yale offered to build a museum on Old Campus specifically for his art — one that Trumbull could design himself — and to pay him an annuity. In his will, Trumbull asked to be interred under his work in the museum, where he resided after his death in 1843.

In trying to discover a little bit more about Trumbull’s burial, I checked a book out of the Haas Arts Library Special Collections — per the recommendation of Professor Jay Gitlin — called “The Reinterments of Colonel Trumbull” by Theodore Sizer from the Walpole Society Note Book (Portland, Maine: The Anthoensen Press, 1948).

A quotation from Benjamin Sillman perfectly captures the lorish feeling that Bezilla expressed about John Trumbull’s reinterment: “[Trumbull] said to me one day when we were in the Gallery, ‘It is my wish to be interred beneath this Gallery… these are my children — those whom they represent have all gone before me, let me be buried with my family. … Let the tomb then be finally closed not to be opened again until earth and sea shall give up their dead,’” according to Sizer.

The drama in his request to build a tomb for the remains of him and his wife is tangible.

Both Trumbull and his paintings were housed in the gallery from 1832 until 1866, at which point the museum was turned into an office building. In 1866, Street Hall — the art gallery’s new building — opened. During spring recess so as to not attract crowds, all of Trumbull’s paintings were moved to the new location and his body was reinterred under the nascent structure as per his request. However, it wasn’t as easy as digging the couple up and moving them.

For a long while that day, excavation teams could not seem to find the bodies; eventually, after ripping up the basement floor, the crypt was found.

At this point, Trumbull’s wife had been buried three times, having died before Trumbull, she was originally buried in New York. When undertakers lifted her coffin, the “bottom gave way,” and they had to put her remains in a new one, Sizer said.

Trumbull had been twice buried, so his coffin was “in a perfect state of preservation.”

In the late 1920s, the YUAG added another building: if you walk through the ancient gallery, you can see a cenotaph on the ground marking where Trumbull was reburied for the second time. A third structure was added in the 1950s, as part of the gallery’s ever-expanding renovations, at which point Trumbull was supposedly moved back into the space he originally occupied in Street Hall.

As a believer that “teaching from the original works of art was the most instructive form of experience,” Trumbull taught as a professor at Yale University using his own paintings. Mitchell also held that “Trumbull remains a sort of inspiring figure for the institution and kind of created it as we know it.”

Despite all of this information that I uncovered about John Trumbull and how his paintings found their home in the YUAG, I was still unable to figure out where exactly Trumbull is buried under the gallery. Considering he was reinterred so many times, this is not necessarily surprising.

And so, the mystery remains. No pun intended.

Contact JACQUELINE KASKEL at

jacqueline.kaskel@yale.edu .

SEX ON THE WKND: Turn Ons 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-groupcest 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 To put it gently, I’m expressive in bed. I always try to drown out the noise with something else, but I spend way too much time deciding what exactly to play. Any tips?

-ShyAndSexy Media can act as a supplement to your sex life. It serves as an additional layer in

the process of getting and keeping you aroused, setting the mood for what’s to come. Of course, it’s not a determining factor—if the sex is bad, turning on a film is not going to change anything—but it’s a way to experiment and avoid the monotony that can plague frequent flings.

But media can also deliver a calculated distraction to those in your vicinity. At Yale, one lives in close quarters. The walls are thin, some doors hardly shut, and, if you’re living in a suite, you’re almost never completely alone. When a hookup is done right, it’s at least a little noisy; with these living conditions, that can be hard to conceal. But put on the right song or show, and you’ll convince the roommate you sexiled that their suspicions were delusional.

And so, choosing what to play in the background of your hookups depends on what your ultimate goal is.

We’ll start with the supplemental side of things: using media as a way to optimize your screw. Really, you have three options: sexy music, sexy movies or seXXXy porn. You want something that will add to the experience, so pick something that matches your desired intensity and pacing. In for something more hardcore? Go for the classic 50 Shades of Grey; both partners will immediately know what they’re in for. Want something more passionate? Throw on some songs by Sabrina Claudio—anything with a slow, steady,

WKND RECOMMENDS Oxford commas.

and strong beat will do the trick. If you’re considering what kind of porn you want to watch with your partner, know that it’s entirely up to your discretion; however, it’s always good to tailor your watchlist to your specific interests. And you can easily find any interest to view.

The distraction end of making-love-media gets a little more complicated. Yes, it can throw others off your scent. Play anything loud close enough to the door, and no one will have any reason to uncover your true intentions. However, you can easily get thrown off yourself. If you put on anything too interesting, obnoxious, or serious, you might end up focusing too much on your surroundings rather than the moment. For example, during a recent romantic encounter, I put on the Netflix show The Tinder Swindler.

I had never seen or heard of it before, and therefore figured I wouldn’t have anything to latch onto. I was wrong. I ended up honing in on the storyline and binging the rest after my lover had left, barely paying them any regard. It was not a good look. Just like watching porn, the end-goal of sex is not to digest a plot.

Some options that I have tried-and-trued are nature documentaries, Spotify-created playlists, and Wheel of Fortune. My favorites, though, are cooking competitions.

With the aural-combination of recipes, blenders, and screaming matches, there’s

always more than enough noise to drown out the real action. However, when choosing something to view or listen to, you also need to consider the real audience: your suitemates. The purpose driving your actions is to keep them out and away, so you want to stray from anything that might attract them or spark curiosity. Imagine this: you put on something you’re not particularly interested in, following my previous advice. Let’s say it’s Cake Boss. If your suitemate is practically a Michelin star chef, they’re gonna knock, completely blowing your cover.

However, if your suitemate recently decided that keto is a lifestyle, they’ll be less interested; in fact, they might even be repelled.

Whatever you decide, just make sure it’s long enough. You don’t want your playlist to run out of songs and start playing the “Interstellar” soundtrack or to look up and see that your showing of “The Notebook” has turned into “Marley and Me.” That was a lot of advice. There’s so much that goes into making this decision that it’s no wonder it takes so long to reach a consensus. I’d recommend making a list of shag-worthy shows, movies and songs before any given rendezvous.

That way, you have an arsenal to choose from upon arrival. But let’s be real. Your roommates know you’re fucking. Putting extreme effort toward deception is futile.

Choose what you enjoy, then make your own music: loud and proud.

FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2022

WEEKEND

// ARIANE DE GENNARO

THE DEAD SHALL BE RAISED … or buried under the YUAG

// BY JACQUELINE KASKEL What would you say if I told you there was a dead guy buried under the Yale University Art Gallery?

Well, much to my dismay, there creepily is, and this man was purposefully buried under the gallery, commonly known as the YUAG, along with his artwork. And his name is John Trumbull.

When I asked Sam Bezilla ’24, a student worker at the YUAG, what he thought about John Trumbull’s burial under the gallery, he said, “I always thought it was weird, but he also is very much bound up with the mythos of the art gallery and its founding. It just seems like one of those weird things associated with classic Yale lore. I feel like there’s probably a dead person buried under all of our buildings.”

Funnily enough, this is not the same John Trumbull that the beloved Trumbull College is named after — that would be his father Jonathan Trumbull, the Connecticut governor during the American Revolution. Both men cemented

their own fame, though — Jonathan Trumbull as the only colonial governor to support the American Revolution and John Trumbull as the man to artistically tell the story of the Revolution.

It might not seem all that surprising that the YUAG houses Trumbull’s artwork, considering both who Trumbull’s father was and the national influence that Yale holds. But why is he buried there along with his wife beneath the art gallery? Was Grove Street Cemetery not good enough for him? And how did these prominent paintings of American history end up in the YUAG? To find this out and get a little more insight into John Trumbull’s life, I visited the YUAG and interviewed Mark Mitchell, the curator of American paintings and sculpture. What I discovered was partly an unsolved mystery and partly a profile of an American artist that I never expected to be such a rollercoaster.

If you’ve been to the YUAG, I

would hope you’ve seen some of John Trumbull’s artwork. And if you haven’t, you clearly did not delve deep enough into the gallery. Regardless, it’s almost a given that every student in the United States has seen at least a picture of a Trumbull painting in a history textbook. Having lived through the American Revolution arguably gave Trumbull the charge to record its most important moments on canvas. Yet, he was not just alive during the revolutionary era. He witnessed the war himself. Mitchell stated that the reason why his most eminent set of historical paintings is so famous “is not only because the images proved to be so indelible, but also because he was an eyewitness.”

During the Revolution, Trumbull served in Boston, where he observed the infamous Battle of Bunker Hill firsthand. He also had the advantage of knowing several of the Revolution’s leading figures — such as Thomas Jefferson and

Benjamin Franklin — which lent intimacy to his art. Who better to paint the scene than a man who was on the scene himself? Because of Trumbull’s status as a witness, Mitchell argued that Trumbull had “a degree of authority [over] the whole project.”

But Trumbull first had to become a renowned American artist in order to take on such a lofty task. In 1780, Trumbull went to London to study with the already famous history and portrait painter Benjamin West, a Pennsylvanian who was, in fact, the court painter to King George III. It’s therefore not a surprise that at this time, many young American painters were going to London to study with West. However, because of the ongoing conflict between the British and their American colonists, you can imagine that Trumbull’s fervently American art was not the most appreciated by the crown.

Consequently, he was thrown into the Tower of London, becoming a

prisoner during the American Revolution: the British believed him to be a spy.

His imprisonment seemed to work out in his favor, since he — once released some months later — was given a late commission as a colonel, receiving most of the recognition and standing he desired.

The rest, by virtue of his artistry, was still to come.

After the Revolution, there remained an elephant in the room — who would record what happened? Who would tell the story of the American Revolution with both heart and truth? West was the obvious answer to this question, given his American roots and artistic fame; he therefore began to communicate with artists in the United States to conduct proper research. He requested uniforms and other materials from the Revolution so that he could maintain a high degree of accuracy in his paintings. There was a major compli- Cont. on page B6

PAGE B6

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND THE

ARTS

John Trumbull rests in peace Cont. from page B5 cation, though: in the process of completing this research, it occurred to West that he was unable to be the author of this story. As the King’s painter, depicting the American victory in all its glory was simply something he could not do while still maintaining his loyalties.

And so, the story of the famous set of Trumbull paintings began.

Benjamin West, a loyalist at the time, turned to his student John Trumbull, a man singularly qualified to take on the task of depicting the story of the American Revolution, having witnessed battles and known many of the men involved.

Consequently, Trumbull conceptualized his famous series of paintings. To start, in 1786, Trumbull went to Paris to visit Thomas Jefferson, who helped initiate the iconic painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

In broadly summarizing what Jef-

ferson said to Trumbull, Mitchell stated, “It’s all well and good to paint these great battles and moments of the Revolution, but what distinguishes the American enterprise is the Declaration [of Independence], is the voice of the people.” Jefferson sketched the “room where it happened” on a sheet of paper from memory, which ended up being Trumbull’s sole source for the sense of space in the painting. In fact, Trumbull began sketching the beginnings of this piece on the exact sheet of paper that Jefferson gave him.

Mitchell praised the work of art: “It becomes … one of these major … moments of artists representing a historical moment in a way that fixes it in the popular imagination.”

Trumbull continued to work on the Declaration of Independence painting for decades, solely because he spent so much time gathering the portraits of the 48 figures in the painting. Tracking people down in that day and age must have been very difficult, to say the least. In some cases, he had to use people’s sons and other family members to gauge what their figures looked like.

He traveled around with his Declaration of Independence work, painting everyone that he could from real life, capturing people like Jefferson, Adams and Franklin in person.

During the interview, Mitchell said that “one of the amazing things about the painting is [that] it’s a synthesis of the entire unfolding of the negotiation of the Continental Congress, and so it’s more like a sort of class picture. Most of these people were no longer present by the time of the actual submission of the draft, but their contributions [were] recorded by Trumbull in this synthesis.”

Trumbull began and finished many of his conceived paintings, such as the one depicting the Battle of Bunker Hill, but he did n o t comp l e te all of t h e wo rk s he orig-

inally imagined. His work on this series persisted through the mid1790s, but due to the complete lack of interest by the American people, he eventually gave up. This particular fact struck me as quite counterintuitive — wouldn’t the American people feel even more fervor towards their newly formed country? Apparently not, as during the post-war period, the United States was completely drained of money, and therefore drained of any and all interest in memorializing the conflict that caused that downturn itself. Trumbull thought that he was going to finally secure fame as an artist, that he was creating a set of paintings people would “celebrate and be really grateful for.”

Instead, he was only really able to market his art to a French audience, who appreciated his work on the Siege of Quebec.

Interestingly enough, the size of Trumbull’s paintings was atypical for similar grandiose works of history, which Mitchell called “public objects,” fit for the courts of kings.

Trumbull’s paintings were instead much smaller, specifically as small as the largest available size of an engraving plate. This way, he could incrementally accumulate large amounts of money by selling the prints — reproductions made by an engraver — of larger paintings, something that Benjamin West did with his art. In the end, because of this strategic move, Trumbull would later find some artistic fame.

But first, he abandoned his series of paintings, succumbing to the disinterest of the American public for almost twenty years and becoming a diplomat through the War of 1812. Trumbull didn’t return to his art until after Aug. 24, 1814 — the day the British burned down the U.S. Capitol. The United States had to completely rebuild the structure after the devastating fire, and they decided to enhance the rotunda with a series of history paintings, for which they turned to John Trumbull. Four of his pieces — two of which were new, largescale remakes of his prior depictions of the Declaration and the Battle of Bunker Hill — were hung in the rotunda of the Capitol building. These enormous twelve by eighteen-feet frames still hang there to this day.

And so, Trumbull began to paint again, continuing his series through the 1820s and relying on

the fact that there must have been a “resurgence … of patriotic interest.” Unfortunately, Trumbull was wrong. For almost 20 years, he led the American Academy of Fine Arts in New York, which he hoped would be of the same caliber as the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Much to his dismay, he was incorrect again. And worse yet, he had no institution in which he could display his art, which leads us back to Yale University.

Throughout the decade, Trumbull toured his paintings around the United States, charging people a small fee to either look at or sell prints. He earned a sizable monetary accumulation from these efforts, but at this point, Trumbull was still not renowned as the “lavish” artist he had hoped he’d be. Then, in 1831, Benjamin Silliman, who was both a professor at Yale and the nephew-in-law of John Trumbull, asked the artist what the fate of his paintings would be. Inspired by this conversation, Trumbull decided to donate his paintings to Yale. In exchange, Yale offered to build a museum on Old Campus specifically for his art — one that Trumbull could design himself — and to pay him an annuity. In his will, Trumbull asked to be interred under his work in the museum, where he resided after his death in 1843.

In trying to discover a little bit more about Trumbull’s burial, I checked a book out of the Haas Arts Library Special Collections — per the recommendation of Professor Jay Gitlin — called “The Reinterments of Colonel Trumbull” by Theodore Sizer from the Walpole Society Note Book (Portland, Maine: The Anthoensen Press, 1948).

A quotation from Benjamin Sillman perfectly captures the lorish feeling that Bezilla expressed about John Trumbull’s reinterment: “[Trumbull] said to me one day when we were in the Gallery, ‘It is my wish to be interred beneath this Gallery… these are my children — those whom they represent have all gone before me, let me be buried with my family. … Let the tomb then be finally closed not to be opened again until earth and sea shall give up their dead,’” according to Sizer.

The drama in his request to build a tomb for the remains of him and his wife is tangible.

Both Trumbull and his paintings were housed in the gallery from 1832 until 1866, at which point the museum was turned into an office building. In 1866, Street Hall — the art gallery’s new building — opened. During spring recess so as to not attract crowds, all of Trumbull’s paintings were moved to the new location and his body was reinterred under the nascent structure as per his request. However, it wasn’t as easy as digging the couple up and moving them.

For a long while that day, excavation teams could not seem to find the bodies; eventually, after ripping up the basement floor, the crypt was found.

At this point, Trumbull’s wife had been buried three times, having died before Trumbull, she was originally buried in New York. When undertakers lifted her coffin, the “bottom gave way,” and they had to put her remains in a new one, Sizer said.

Trumbull had been twice buried, so his coffin was “in a perfect state of preservation.”

In the late 1920s, the YUAG added another building: if you walk through the ancient gallery, you can see a cenotaph on the ground marking where Trumbull was reburied for the second time. A third structure was added in the 1950s, as part of the gallery’s ever-expanding renovations, at which point Trumbull was supposedly moved back into the space he originally occupied in Street Hall.

As a believer that “teaching from the original works of art was the most instructive form of experience,” Trumbull taught as a professor at Yale University using his own paintings. Mitchell also held that “Trumbull remains a sort of inspiring figure for the institution and kind of created it as we know it.”

Despite all of this information that I uncovered about John Trumbull and how his paintings found their home in the YUAG, I was still unable to figure out where exactly Trumbull is buried under the gallery. Considering he was reinterred so many times, this is not necessarily surprising.

And so, the mystery remains. No pun intended.

Contact JACQUELINE KASKEL at

jacqueline.kaskel@yale.edu .

SEX ON THE WKND: Turn Ons 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-groupcest 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 To put it gently, I’m expressive in bed. I always try to drown out the noise with something else, but I spend way too much time deciding what exactly to play. Any tips?

-ShyAndSexy Media can act as a supplement to your sex life. It serves as an additional layer in

the process of getting and keeping you aroused, setting the mood for what’s to come. Of course, it’s not a determining factor—if the sex is bad, turning on a film is not going to change anything—but it’s a way to experiment and avoid the monotony that can plague frequent flings.

But media can also deliver a calculated distraction to those in your vicinity. At Yale, one lives in close quarters. The walls are thin, some doors hardly shut, and, if you’re living in a suite, you’re almost never completely alone. When a hookup is done right, it’s at least a little noisy; with these living conditions, that can be hard to conceal. But put on the right song or show, and you’ll convince the roommate you sexiled that their suspicions were delusional.

And so, choosing what to play in the background of your hookups depends on what your ultimate goal is.

We’ll start with the supplemental side of things: using media as a way to optimize your screw. Really, you have three options: sexy music, sexy movies or seXXXy porn. You want something that will add to the experience, so pick something that matches your desired intensity and pacing. In for something more hardcore? Go for the classic 50 Shades of Grey; both partners will immediately know what they’re in for. Want something more passionate? Throw on some songs by Sabrina Claudio—anything with a slow, steady,

WKND RECOMMENDS Oxford commas.

and strong beat will do the trick. If you’re considering what kind of porn you want to watch with your partner, know that it’s entirely up to your discretion; however, it’s always good to tailor your watchlist to your specific interests. And you can easily find any interest to view.

The distraction end of making-love-media gets a little more complicated. Yes, it can throw others off your scent. Play anything loud close enough to the door, and no one will have any reason to uncover your true intentions. However, you can easily get thrown off yourself. If you put on anything too interesting, obnoxious, or serious, you might end up focusing too much on your surroundings rather than the moment. For example, during a recent romantic encounter, I put on the Netflix show The Tinder Swindler.

I had never seen or heard of it before, and therefore figured I wouldn’t have anything to latch onto. I was wrong. I ended up honing in on the storyline and binging the rest after my lover had left, barely paying them any regard. It was not a good look. Just like watching porn, the end-goal of sex is not to digest a plot.

Some options that I have tried-and-trued are nature documentaries, Spotify-created playlists, and Wheel of Fortune. My favorites, though, are cooking competitions.

With the aural-combination of recipes, blenders, and screaming matches, there’s

always more than enough noise to drown out the real action. However, when choosing something to view or listen to, you also need to consider the real audience: your suitemates. The purpose driving your actions is to keep them out and away, so you want to stray from anything that might attract them or spark curiosity. Imagine this: you put on something you’re not particularly interested in, following my previous advice. Let’s say it’s Cake Boss. If your suitemate is practically a Michelin star chef, they’re gonna knock, completely blowing your cover.

However, if your suitemate recently decided that keto is a lifestyle, they’ll be less interested; in fact, they might even be repelled.

Whatever you decide, just make sure it’s long enough. You don’t want your playlist to run out of songs and start playing the “Interstellar” soundtrack or to look up and see that your showing of “The Notebook” has turned into “Marley and Me.” That was a lot of advice. There’s so much that goes into making this decision that it’s no wonder it takes so long to reach a consensus. I’d recommend making a list of shag-worthy shows, movies and songs before any given rendezvous.

That way, you have an arsenal to choose from upon arrival. But let’s be real. Your roommates know you’re fucking. Putting extreme effort toward deception is futile.

Choose what you enjoy, then make your own music: loud and proud.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND NEW

PAGE B7

PERSPECTIVES

Looking for Love in the Classifieds // BY HANNAH MARK College days winding to a close?

Worried because you haven’t met your soulmate?

Never fear, lovelorn Yalie, the Yale Alumni Magazine is here!

Though a print publication seems an unlikely place to find the partner of your dreams, the magazine boasts a unique feature designed to boost your love life: personal ads. This novel form of matchmaking occurs in the classified section of each magazine issue. And the process is simple.

Write a short bio of around 20 words. Since there are no pictures, careful description is crucial. Bought a gym membership in January but haven’t been since?

You sound “goal-oriented, athletic and easy going.” Spend a lot of time watching Netflix in your parents’ basement? No problem!

You’re “financially-conscious, family-minded and an avid connoisseur of visual art.”

Include an email address so that potential suitors can contact you.

Now place your ad, sit back and wait for the lovers to make themselves known!

Cons? At a steep $3.75 per word, running a 20-word ad for six issues costs nearly three times as much as a one-year subscription to Tinder Platinum.

Pros? You can’t be left on read over email.

It’s shockingly foolproof, at least in theory.

But romantically-inclined Yalies may be wondering, does this seemingly-arcane process actually work? Of course it does!

In January 2021, The New York Times ran an article detailing the story of professor Liz Schneider and Ben Liptzin ’66, a couple who met through the Yale Alumni Magazine. Liptzin picked up a copy of the magazine, discovered Schneieder’s ad and reached out to her. Their connection was

immediate, and the couple later married.

Still, despite the occasional success, hundreds of personal ads go unanswered.

Nevertheless, Ann Bertega, whose name has been changed for the sake of this article, was willing to take this risk. After reading the Times article, she wrote her own ad for the Yale Alumni Magazine.

Energetic, petite, o u t r i g ge r ca n o eist, kayaker, railtrail cyclist, XC skier, involved with community betterment, politically left (Smith ‘78, Yale widow, no offspring, just dog) seeks fit, clever, outgoing man (54-65 y/o) to share interests and life.

Charlottesville. Long distance OK. gardenerwithenthusiasm@ gmail.com Like Bertega herself, the ad is bold, direct and meticulous. She even had friends proofread the blurb to ensure that the words were right.

“Every word counts!” she said.

Bertega knows better than anyone that love can be found in unexpected places. She met her late husband through a matchmaking service in the days before the internet. Participants filled out a 10-question profile, and then paid a $3 fee to see other potential partner’s profiles.

“What do you read for pleasure?” one such question asked.

Rob, her late husband who majored in English at Yale, answered with several of his favorite poets. Bertega, who is not much of a reader,

listed Consumer Reports and Calvin and Hobbes comics. Rob found this hysterical. But Bertega was serious. “I do read Consumer Reports. I subscribe to it, paper and digital.”

Delighted by her wit, Rob sent Bertega a beautifully written letter.

Notably, the letter was completely typo-free, which Bertega appreciated. “I’m a stickler for someone who cares what they produce,

because it reflects on them.”

Bertega was also drawn to Rob by their shared love for the outdoors — Rob worked for the National Park Service, while Bertega spent weekends kayaking, canoeing, and cross-country skiing as her later personal ad advertised.

The two arranged to talk on the phone. On Inauguration Weekend in 2001, Rob made the fateful phone call. They talked for an hour.

Bertega recalls that Rob was one

of few people she spoke with who took the time to really listen to her and ask thoughtful questions.

They hung up after an incredible conversation. “That was it,” Bertega said. “I knew he was the one.”

Five years later, after Rob’s retirement from the National Park Service, they were married. Bertega was 51 and it was her first marriage. “To say that I got married for the first time when I was 51, it does give people hope. It’s never too late,” she said.

Before Rob’s passing, he took the time to rewrite Bertega’s profile for The Right Stuff, the matchmaking service where they met.

“He told me to take out Calvin and Hobbes and be more mature.” She laughed.

“He liked it that I put in Consumer Reports.”

Bertega has spent the past six years since Rob’s passing using dating apps on and off, including Match, Eharmony, Fitness Singles, OKCupid and Plenty of Fish. But it’s difficult for her to meet someone who puts in the same level of effort as she does.

She recalls a phone conversation with someone she met on a dating app. “He was opening up a fruit cup. And he was slurping that while we talked. So, I politely got off the phone,” Bertega chuckled, recalling the scene. “I have standards.”

Those standards have led her to subscribe to dating services specifically serving Ivy League graduates. But evidently, the shortage of eligible Yale men transcends

undergraduate years.

So, when Bertega placed her ad in the Yale Alumni Magazine, she wasn’t expecting much. “I did it to have fun,” she said. “It was entertaining for my girlfriends, to tell them the responses.”

The responses — “four stories of really dysfunctional guys” — proved disappointing. But still, Bertega enjoyed seeing her ad in print. It ran in the magazine for four issues.

Perhaps that is the allure of this form of matchmaking: leaving a tiny piece of yourself somewhere in space, where it could be discovered by someone special. Going to the same school and reading the same publications all but guarantees you’ll be soulmates — just ask all the Yalies I ghosted on Tinder.

Bertega doesn’t think about the ad anymore. She’s busy living life. After retiring from a career working in education for people with visual impairments, she now devotes time to biking on old rail trails and participating in water sports. At the time of the interview, Bertega was on a week-long trip, kayaking and hiking along the South Carolina coast.

But who knows? Maybe Bertega’s ad hasn’t found the right person yet. Just because time has passed doesn’t mean the window of opportunity has passed. After all, Liptzin took nearly six months to respond to Schneider’s ad.

Bertega keeps her expectations low, but she says the personal ad was worth a try. “You never know what will happen.”

It might be a risk, but perhaps matchmaking at a slower pace could lead to romance. So, if you’re looking to place a personal ad in the Yale Alumni Magazine, why not shoot your shot? You might just find your Youlmate.

Contact HANNAH MARK at

YALE INTERRUPTED

// SOPHIE HENRY

// BY SARAH MARSLAND

Bipolar disorder obviously involves an abundance of feelings. But strangely, it can also bar you from one specific and very important kind of feeling: connection.

Mania can be wonderful, but it’s something you experience alone—sometimes devastatingly, crushingly alone. Despite those feverish highs, the most magical thing I’ve ever felt is the feeling of trusting someone enough to let them into your suffering with you. It’s a different kind of good feeling. It’s not easy; it’s not cheap. It’s not as simple as a haphazard cry for help or a rambling post on Instagram. It takes risk and muscle.

I will never forget the first time I felt it. It was sophomore year, in my ex-boyfriend’s room. I was in the middle of an episode, and everything in me was telling me to do what I normally did in these situations: isolate and take the feelings out, violently, onto my body. But something else, a quiet voice, told me to go to his room. So I walked in, crying and hyperventilating, and he watched as I paced back and forth and slowly began to vocalize—for the first time out loud— the thoughts I was having. Awful, violent thoughts about myself. They were fragmented, like multiple people in my head were arguing their contradictory points.

He sat there and took it all in. And when I was done, he looked at me and said, “I’m so sorry. I had no idea that all this time you were fighting with yourself.” Those words were so simple, but they changed my life.

And when he offered to pray for me—something no one had ever done before—I said yes, even though I didn’t know if I believed.

In that moment, I knew this was his way of saying he saw my pain. Ever since then, I’ve tried to exercise that muscle of asking for help when I need it. I know it’s safe to do so now.

Bipolar can make you live your entire life by yourself, in your head. It can make you selfish and disconnected from the world

around you, unable to see past your own suffering. I don’t think I ever knew what a true, give-and-take friendship was until I started to acknowledge that other people could understand my pain, and could see things about me—flaws and virtues— that I couldn’t see amidst the storm of my own emotions. I just wasn’t giving them the chance to do it before. All this time, all I wanted was to be known—to not be alone in those moments of ecstasy or brokenness.

My pride was just getting in the way of ever letting anyone give me that.

I grew up a ballerina. I am an expert at stuffing things down, keeping a calm face, enduring pain, and never letting anyone see that I’m struggling. This was the part of me that used to dance on stage: composed, technically correct, obedient. I quit ballet when I was sixteen, just as my bipolar was beginning to progress from depression to hypomania. I didn’t dance for two years, and I became more and more disconnected from my body, as my mind and its crazy rollercoaster rabbit holes became my whole world.

When I was diagnosed the fall of my first year at Yale, I was put on a mood stabilizer.

Suddenly, all the noise of the past two years faded. I felt as though I was waking up from a coma, like I had had nothing to do with how I had gotten where I was now. I felt like I had been dropped into my body for the first time in years, and it was bewildering.

What would I do with all this groundedness, this silence?

I danced. I went down to the Branford basement, put on a Fiona Apple song, and started moving. I knew right away that there was something different about this movement. My body had so many things to say—things that looked so different than how I had moved in the past. I was out of shape, my extensions were low and my balance was shaky, but a new physicality was

cautiously emerging. I wasn’t that ballerina who shut off her feelings anymore.

I was a person, and for the first time, my feelings were allowed into the studio with me. In that basement studio I told myself the story of the past few years without any words. And when the song ended, I knew I had found something important. Maybe this was the way I could get through.

It’s been three years since that day in the basement. Since then, I’ve become a dancer again. I’ve gotten to explore this part of me with other people, share my choreography and experience the magical feeling of performing again. And yet, my bipolar still ruins me sometimes. There are weeks and months when I’m glued to my bed, and the world feels deceptively heavy and terminal, or worse–too sparkly to tear myself away from. But through all these phases, dance has taught me that the answer is almost always outside of my head. Maybe it’s in my body, or those moments of connection with other people, or maybe in that God that somebody once prayed to for me. I used to really believe in that saying, “the only way out is through.” But these days, it’s more helpful to think the opposite: sometimes, the only way through is out.

I have no idea what my life is going to look like after I graduate. My main priority over the past three years has just been getting through. I’m excited to take some time and see what life could be like if I had the space to really take care of myself. I have smaller goals than I did before (bipolar has a way of humbling you). I want an apartment, a stable job, a cat, time with the people I love, and a life full of real, joyful moments, rather than the illusory zeal of mania. I want the kind of joy that takes muscle.

So here are some moments of my college experience. Going hypomanic in Germany, basking in the sunlight and feeling the world get sparkly around me.

Alone in my junior year dorm, crying and half-believing I was a mystic communing with God. Dancing in the Branford basement when I should’ve been doing work, and thrashing around in my bedroom because I forgot to take my meds the Wednesday before my thesis was due.

At Yale, these are moments we’re subtly encouraged to hide, cut short, avoid and manage out of our lives. They’re unproductive. Most of the time, they leave no trace — no Ted Talk, no essay, no theory, no grand work of art. I used to tell myself that all of this would be worth it once I made something monumental out of my experiences. Then everyone would see that I really was trying, that my experiences had value, and that I had a purpose.

Most importantly, I wouldn’t be alone.

But if I’ve learned anything these past few years, it’s that the living itself is the monumental thing. The getting up when getting up feels impossible, the way your heart can open when you finally let someone else see you at your worst. The minuscule decisions every day to keep fighting — decisions that no one will ever see, and that might still not be enough for somebody else. Over the past four years, I’ve developed a faith, at once wavering and relentless, in the idea that I am not powerless to these pendulum swings, and that there is something in me which — however quiet it can be — remains the same through every episode. In my head I picture her emerging from the latest fire, burned and exhausted but intact, and stronger every time. She is the part of me that will always be okay. She’s wiser and steadier than the me of my illness. When I feel disconnected, like I don’t know who I am, where I came from or where I’m going, she is the one who has been there all along and will be there in the future.

She’s the me who moves when I dance.

// SARAH MARSLAND

WKND Recommends Making margaritas on Cross Campus.

PAGE B8

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2022 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND SPISSUE

Asian Girl Who Turned Red Watches “Turning Red” // BY KAYLA YUP When I was sixteen, I Turned Red. It was a teenager’s cliché attempt at setting the world on fire with red hair dye. I had quit my fast food job, broken up with my boyfriend and decided that the next natural step was to dye my hair red — becoming a visual wildfire. According to my dad, this meant I would next get a tramp stamp.

When I entered college, all that was left were red split-ends.

Over winter break, my mom trimmed those last fiery tendrils from my hair, leaving me a black pile of ashes. Over spring break, I watched “Turning Red’’ alone as a tribute to my own, retired Red Panda. Spoiler alert, it made me cry and want to spend my last day at home watching it with my mom. *** The opening scene of the movie introduces Meilin as the perfect Chinese daughter. She is studious, she is obedient and she is so cute. Meilin spends her afternoons helping her mother at the family temple, where they worship their ancestor Sun Yee. Her friends — who are not Chinese — however, think she has been brainwashed by her mom to be constantly working instead of chasing classic teenage fun.

After Meilin Turns Red, unleashing all the rage and emotions that trigger her Red Panda side, she stops trying to be perfect.

When her mother refuses to allow her to go to a boy band’s concert, Meilin and her friends create a fake math club while secretly making money for the concert tickets. The kicker is that instead of Meilin hiding her Red Panda as her mother commanded, she markets the novelty of it, profiting

off of photos, hugs, T-shirts and plenty of cute merchandise. Leading up to this, her mother recognizes a new look in her daughter’s eyes — one of genuine anger and frustration towards her.

As Meilin’s reality begins to unravel, so too does her personal history of “being brainwashed.”

The movie poses the question: is it worth honoring your family if you aren’t honoring yourself? A common struggle to those split between two cultures, this theme is a play on filial piety, urging the little Asian children watching to evaluate their obligation not only to their family but to themselves.

Ming, Meilin’s mom, ends up revealing that the curse of “turning red” is intergenerational. Even though centuries have passed since Sun Yee’s lifetime — in a whole different continent for that matter — all women in the family have gone through a phase of turning into giant red pandas upon bursts of emotion. But her own mother and several sisters have all physically locked up their pandas, in items ranging from jade bangles to a pendant. In a turn of events, when Meilin refuses to lock up her panda, Meilin’s mother’s own panda is unleashed.

I cried when Ming’s red panda finally escaped its confinement.

Ming’s red panda is a huge, terrifying force — and so is my mom when she turns red. But when the panda is freed, the intimidating mother figure of Ming suddenly becomes humanized. As my mother saw me in Meilin, I saw her in Ming. *** I resonate with “Turning Red” particularly because of its shift of the gender focus, from the stereotypical Kung Fu masters or elite

// KAYLA YUP

WKND Recommends hugging your senior friends.

entrepreneurs to Chinese daughters. Like how it unleashes the red pandas, the movie also unleashes itself from the male-centric orientation in traditional East Asian culture. My mom told me that my dad originally never wanted a daughter. My dad’s the type with black belts in three martial arts and an addiction to exercise. He clearly wanted strong sons and was naturally disappointed by my gender’s reveal until I entered the world and managed to change his mind. I guess I’m just that amazing.

It is refreshing to see that Meilin, the main character, is a girl and the family’s only child. I find it cathartically pleasing to see Meilin getting all the love, in a Chinese culture whose traditional gender biases skew towards the sons of a family. *** I think I can proudly say that I am my dad’s favorite, but everyone knows my mom likes my twin brother more. To be fair, he is a lot more obedient. He never turns red and can always be counted on to maintain a stable neutral state.

I, on the other hand, have a lot of loud emotions that are not always under control.

When I was a little girl who watched too much TV, I wondered why there were so many jokes about parents fearing the “diva” age of daughters, in which they were “moody” and “dramatic.”

Eight-year-old Kayla found those TV daughters rude and disrespectful and was confident that she would have enough self-control to remain a calm and composed daughter.

Well, high school Kayla was constantly a giant red panda. It wasn’t just because of the hor-

mones. Becoming a red panda was a necessary step on the way to recognizing a world beyond my home.

It was how I, and perhaps other Chinese daughters, strengthened their voices without necessarily sacrificing their past selves. *** Meilin is still dedicated to the temple at the end of the movie.

But at the same time, she also allows herself a life outside of it.

Meilin’s friends represent more Western attitudes towards familial obligations. They think she has been brainwashed because of how much of her life she devotes to her family unit.

They do not understand that, for Meilin, to “turn red” is to turn her whole family red. Even though I claim to have been a giant red panda, I recognized my limits. I can never allow myself to be the problem, just as Meilin never becomes truly selfish.

After all, selfishness does not salvage Meilin — being part of a family does.

Meilin’s extended family is almost a perfect mirror to my own. Meilin’s mom has several powerful Cantonese-speaking sisters, all in Canada. My mom hails from Hong Kong and has six sisters, all now living in America. But a deeper similarity lies in our mother-daughter relationships. In one of the final scenes of the movie, Meilin guides the younger versions of Ming to help her tame her panda. Ming is shown to be crying and in a state of distress similar to Meilin’s own “red” state.

It reminded me of the first time I saw my mom cry. When her closest sister died, I realized that my mom was not superhuman. And because she was human, I felt

that I could understand her, and she could understand me. *** “Turning Red” is for generations of Chinese daughters, mothers and grandmothers. It shows that these “intergenerational curses” are cyclical and are not meant to be endured alone. The curses can be resolved within a family, without dissolving the family.

While “Turning Red” celebrates personal freedom and extols individuality, it never stops celebrating actions that honor the family. The two are not mutually exclusive. They never have been. As I reflect on my first year at Yale, having cared for friends who turned red and having been the red panda that was cared for, I have learned my lesson at the intersection of traditional Chinese collectivist ideology and Western individualism. By recognizing yourself as an individual, you realize your individual impact on others and others’ individual impacts on you. “Turning Red” is not about Meilin finally taking control of her own life but rather her understanding what it means to be one individual in a loving, supportive network of many.

One of the biggest criticisms of “Turning Red” is that it is too “niche” of a movie. It is. But for all the people who have felt “niche” their whole life, it feels good to find a mainstream fit. “Turning Red” conjures youth in a pastel 90s wonderland with teenage heartthrobs, cuddly red pandas and a Chinese family’s love at its best. It’s intimate, and it’s the first movie to feel custom made for me and the people I love.

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