YDN - October 1

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NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2021 · VOL. CXLIV, NO. 1 · yaledailynews.com

Gage resigns as Grand Strategy Director, citing donor pressure the program in 2017. Her efforts, she told the News, have been focused on both preserving Grand Strategy’s strengths and expanding the curriculum to include domestic policy and grassroots social movements. Her resignation in March, which was publicly announced Thursday morning in the New York Times, is a direct reaction to the two donors’ attempts to influence the course by instituting an advisory board to oversee the program that would have included conservative figures such as former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Gage’s resignation raises complex questions about free expression and the influence donors exercise on University campuses. “This is not a pay-to-play institution,” Gage told the News in an interview. “That is not how you get to influence the curriculum — you want people who have expertise, pedagogy, skills making those kinds of decisions.” For years, Gage said, Brady and Johnson did not attempt to influ-

BY PHILIP MOUSAVIZADEH AND ISAAC YU STAFF REPORTERS Prominent 20th-century historian and professor Beverly Gage said that she will step down as director of Yale’s Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy in December. She cited the Yale administration’s failure to stave off inappropriate influence over the curriculum from the program’s donors. The Grand Strategy program, a year-long statecraft and politics course that accepts about 20 undergraduate and graduate students, was largely funded by two donors — Nicholas F. Brady ’52, a former United States treasury secretary under former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and conservative donor Charles B. Johnson ’54, who gave the largest donation in Yale’s history. Gage, a tenured history professor who was recently nominated to President Biden’s National Council on the Humanities, began steering

YALE DAILY NEWS

Gage’s decision to resign from the program in December places greater scrutiny on donor influence on academia.

ence the program’s curriculum or slate of lecturers. But after the 2020 presidential election, a Times op-ed by professor of political science and humanities Bryan Garsten, who previously co-taught Grand Strategy with Gage, prompted Brady to begin pushing for changes to the program. The Times reported that Brady told Gage that she had not been teaching it “the way Henry Kissinger would.” “That’s absolutely right,” she responded. “I am not teaching Grand Strategy the way Henry Kissinger would.” In the months following the publication of Garsten’s op-ed, the University moved to institute a new advisory board to recommend practitioners to the course. To do so, Yale seized on a previously unused measure in the bylaws of the 2006 gift agreement allowing for an external five-member “board of visitors” to advise on practitioner appointments. Brady and Johnson sugSEE GAGE PAGE 4

Antitrust exemption promises Ivy shakeup Package center changes spark student frustration

ZOE BERG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

A letter circulated to the eight Ivy presidents argues a Supreme Court ruling may have significant implications on the provision of financial aid. BY PHILIP MOUSAVIZADEH AND JAMES RICHARDSON STAFF REPORTERS The Ivy League — the only Division I conference to not offer merit-based scholarships to student-athletes — may face a lawsuit upon the expiration of a congressional antitrust exemption next year, according to a letter sent from two lawyers to the eight Ivy League university presidents.

In a landmark June 21 decision, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in NCAA v. Alston that the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s barring of modest education-related payments to student-athletes is in violation of antitrust law. In an August letter to the eight Ivy League university presidents, lawyers Alan Cotler and Robert Litan LAW ’77 MA ’77 GRD ’87 suggested that the decision

now opens the door to changes within the Ancient Eight as the colleges may be required to expand financial aid beyond need-based calculations, making them compete with each other for students — athletes and non-athletes alike. “All Ivy schools should compete for the students’ services and unique skills, just as the reasoning of the Supreme Court’s decision in Alston has recognized,” the letter reads. “This means terminating the Ivy League’s policy that prevents this outcome.” The Ivy League has had a congressional exemption from antitrust law since 1994, allowing Ancient Eight schools to unilaterally ban merit-based scholarships. But that exemption is up for congressional review and renewal for the fourth time in September 2022. The implications extend beyond the athletic fields, with the potential for merit-based scholarships on academic grounds as well. Litan, who worked in the Justice Department during the SEE ANTITRUST PAGE 4

BY OLIVIA TUCKER AND YEJI KIM STAFF REPORTER AND CONTRIBUTING REPORTER A sick day is usually an excuse to stay in bed, but for Caroline Twyman ’24, it was the perfect opportunity to visit the package receiving center. Twyman — who may have come down with the Yale Plague befalling many students — had received nine emails in three days informing her of package arrivals. Because the line outside the package receiving center — currently located in the old Durfee’s Sweet Shoppe storefront

at 200 Elm St. — typically stretched down the block, she didn’t have time to visit during an ordinary school day. So Twyman took advantage of the sick day to visit the center, waiting outside for over two hours before making it to the front of the line, where center employees informed her that none of her packages were available for pickup. “I went home and went back to sleep because I was sick and sad and wasted so much time,” Twyman said. “They said they were probaSEE PACKAGES PAGE 4

ZOE BERG/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Flooding at the Church St. facility prompted several residential colleges to open their own package receiving centers.

Yale Health visits at Students rally for climate ARP funds “unprecedented” levels BY ANASTASIA HUFHAM STAFF REPORTER

BY ISABELLE QIAN AND ISAAC YU STAFF REPORTERS Dubbed the “Yale Plague,” a nonCOVID-19 sickness has spread among students, and some are struggling to make up missed classes.

A large number of students have reported experiencing flu symptoms in recent weeks — with triage calls to Yale Student Health this month up 40 percent from Sept. SEE PLAGUE PAGE 5

VAIBHAV SHARMA/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Triage requests for Student Health services on MyChart this month are up 40 percent compared to September 2019.

On Friday, the New Haven Climate Movement held a rally on the New Haven Green and at City Hall to demand that the city dedicate 10 percent of its incoming American Rescue Plan funding to climate initiatives. The rally, titled “New Haven Act Now”, was affiliated with Fridays for Future — a youthled global climate strike movement. Adrian Huq, co-founder of the NHCM Youth Action Team, emceed the event as participants, clad in black, chanted and marched across the New Haven Green while holding signs. Their primary demand is that the City of New Haven allocate 10 percent of the $90 million it receives in American Rescue Plan funding towards projects fighting climate change. According to Huq,

CROSS CAMPUS

INSIDE THE NEWS

THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY, 1966.

EXHIBIT

Harkness Tower's carillon of bells is completed, adding 44 new bells to the original 10. The new bells cost over $100,000, and the completed carillon weighs 86,621 pounds. A dedication ceremony is held in Branford College courtyard.

Artspace New Haven’s new exhibition titled “Everywhere and Here” features works inspired by items in the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. Page 7 ARTS

FUNDING

LUKAS FLIPPO/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Student organizers with the New Haven Climate Movement led a rally demanding that New Haven allocate $9 million towards climate initiatives in the city. such projects could include increasing green jobs, investing in better public transportation and implementing energy efficiency outreach and programs for low-income families. “We see these funds as a way to really transform New Haven,” Huq told the News. “It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to access this funding,

The Yale Center for Clinical Investigation received a renewed five-year grant of more than $60 million to support its work. Page 8 SCITECH

UNIONS

The tentative agreement covers more than 5,000 unionized staff members at the University. Page 9 CITY

and we think it would be very valuable if at least 10 percent could be allocated towards projects that will help our community and help our planet.” The rally started on the corner of Church and Chapel Streets before moving to an area of the Green directly across from Phelps SEE CLIMATE PAGE 5 BUTTERIES

For the first time since the spring 2020 semester, Yalies return to butteries for late-night snacks and community. Page 11 UNIVERSITY


YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

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OPINION G U E S T C O L U M N I S T R AY H A N A S AT

GUEST COLUMNIST BRIAN ZHANG

Yale Must Fight for Why I will no longer pursue Uyghur Freedom my favorite pastime at Yale T

he first time I ever shared my tortuous journey to pursue justice for my brother Ekpar Asat in a public and in-person forum was at Harvard Law School on March 9, 2020. That day changed the course of my life, as I launched a public advocacy campaign to secure Ekpar’s freedom from the Chinese government’s racist and genocidal concentration camps. For at least five years, China has placed millions of Uyghurs and other Turkic people in prison camps where torture, slavery and political indoctrination are the norms. I learned that since January 2019, my brother has been and continues to be held in the torture of indefinite solitary confinement. Almost a year and a half later, I came to Yale as a World Fellow at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs to fight for my brother and people like him. Upon my arrival, I led a human rights workshop on the fight for justice for Uyghur people. I took the audience on a journey, describing what it was like for me to witness Uyghur community life before and after the camps, which are forced labor factories. Then I told them the story of Ekpar. The screen displayed a picture of a man surrounded by hundreds of people carrying his photo with a sign that demands “Free Ekpar.” My voice was shaking as I uttered, “The man on the screen is my brother….” The Chinese government has a singular notion of what a model citizen looks like. My brother and I tried to conform to that notion by excelling in every way that we could — he became a successful tech entrepreneur and I became a lawyer and diplomatic bridge builder. But, after returning to China from a prestigious U.S. State Department fellowship, Epkar disappeared into the shadows of concentration camps. Imagine if a Yale student on a Fulbright scholarship disappeared after returning to their country? I ask myself: if put in that situation, would Yalies protest for their fellow student or feel powerless against an authoritarian government? From strolling with climate activists on the beautiful Cross Campus rose walk, learning from new perspectives in classroom discussions and exchanging ideas in one-on-one meetings with students, I am fascinated by the wealth of experience and commitment to positive change in the Yale community. I am heartened that many students are aware of the plight of Uyghurs and, at the same time, disheartened that many feel nothing can be done against China’s totalitarian government. When I discuss the oppression of Uyghurs, my peers say: “What can be done?

It’s the Chinese government. The Chinese government is too powerful. But I’m so delighted that you’re positive about an incredibly helpless situation.” Yalies seem to forget the privileges they have by virtue of their affiliation with the University, and they seem to forget the responsibility that comes with that affiliation. Yale has produced five U.S. presidents and leaders of countless influential NGOs, newsrooms and corporations. Here, we are given the opportunity to seek the truth, learn from the best and shape the world. And while we are surrounded by breathtakingly beautiful architecture, engaging in stimulating discussions, challenging professors as free-thinkers and enjoying New Haven’s best pizzerias, many people in other corners of the world are fighting for their freedom and dignity. Thus, we must use our privilege to help the voiceless and oppressed, and that includes Uyghurs in the far reaches of China. Yale is home to children of Chinese political elites and has close relationships with several Chinese universities. Therefore, the University must use its leverage to both refuse to accept tuition and donations from the Chinese officials involved in the genocide and also demand that the Chinese government free my brother Ekpar and other innocent Uyghurs suffering in the camps. Second, no Yale affiliate or researcher should be involved in the repression against the Uyghurs. Third, Yale students must demand that the University divests from entities that are enabling this genocide. And finally, we should march as a University-wide community in support of Uyghur freedom. Such solidarity sends a strong message to China that the Yale community will not remain bystanders to genocide. Yalies, we should not allow China to continue running dehumanizing and racist prison camps. In an extraordinary show of unanimity in January 2021, more than 70 Harvard student organizations rallied around me to call on the Chinese government to free my brother. Yale can do the same. I am at Yale on a mission to achieve a better world where no person is oppressed because of their race, but I cannot achieve this mission without the support of the Yale Community. So Yalies, join me and let’s fight against racism, segregation, dehumanization and genocide. Let’s fight for Uyghur freedom. RAYHAN ASAT is a Yale University World Fellow. Contact her at rayhan.asat@yale.edu .

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I

walked into the Franklin dance studio on Sept. 13, my heart throbbing with excitement as I prepared to audition for Taps at Yale. Mental flashbacks of the leaders’ warm Instagram posts and welcoming energy during the Extracurricular Bazaar made me jump at the prospect of finally finding a community I can come home to and stomp the ground with after a hard day of classes. I left that same night having decided that I will no longer pursue tap dancing at Yale — regardless of whether or not I get into the group. Throughout the audition, which consisted of prospective members tapping in a group, I felt uncomfortable and out of place. In the moment, surrounded by a nearly completely white group of auditionees, instructors and club alumni, I wasn’t an individual, but rather something to be compared against— a pretty easy thing to do given my dark skin tone and the pennies I had glued to the bottom of my sneakers. All I had wanted to do was have a good time, dance and meet new people, but I found myself hesitant to ask questions about the choreography for fear of being judged. I intentionally masked my energy because I felt as though I wasn’t good enough. Not once did someone approach me for a check-in, and no one acknowledged that I felt bad until I personally asked to speak to the leader afterwards. The reason why we applied to college is to pursue something we know we aren’t perfect at but love, or to explore new things that pique our budding interests as we continue to make sense of the world around us. We shouldn’t be punished for doing either of those

things. At an institution like Yale where social elitism runs rampant, there needs to be active encouragement and support for historically marginalized groups. Modern efforts to make the world more inclusive often include useless attempts at making numbers — we are 80 percent international, we have X number of diverse people in our group. Diversity is more than about achieving a particular statistic or doing it for the name, as a testament to a particular group’s degree of “acceptance.” We must realize that it is no longer enough to see other cultures as a subset of the cumulative colonizer perspective. Actively seeking out a Black person to be present at an open house to appear “diverse,” telling others to heart react BLM posts or reading books authored by a Latinx writer only during Hispanic Heritage Month only further perpetuates this vision in which other cultures and identities must depend on firmly rooted whiteness. What’s more, these juvenile efforts suggest that little else is required aside from a certain statistic. They assume that newly recruited members of underrepresented backgrounds will be completely happy and comfortable in their new position simply because they have people who look like them to look up to. They fail to check up on them until it’s too late. This piece is not to dump on a particular club that I didn’t vibe with. It is frustration at a systemic pattern in which white perpetrators of power give themselves the right to dictate what diversity is and what it isn’t — to determine how certain activities that historically originate from other groups should be run. Tap is a traditional

Black art form that started with enslaved peoples finding other outlets of dance expression after slave owners took away their percussive instruments. The first dancers didn’t have tap shoes, and instead relied on wooden attachments or coins. The dance style was learned, performed and perfected in a communal setting where everyone celebrated each other’s history, struggles and achievements. It wasn’t meant to be a way to compare financially underprivileged people of color to dancers who have already had years of professional lessons. Being accepting requires establishing an environment where people aren’t afraid to speak up and ask questions. It means making resources easily accessible to people who need support. These can appear in the form of consulting sessions, and individualized help on a given academic or extracurricular skill. No one should be put in a position in which they need to be the ones physically asking for help. Though change at an institution like Yale — where everything stands on centuries of oppression and classism — can be challenging, we can always begin small— in the next club meeting you’re headed to or while checking in on the next person we meet. Furthermore, realize that whatever currently exists at Yale is not your only option when it comes to channeling your interests. Start your own activity or even take it outside. Who’s going to stop me from tap dancing in the rain anyway? BRIAN ZHANG is a first-year in Davenport College. Contact him at brian.zhang@yale.edu .

G U E ST C O LU M N I ST JAC K B A R K E R

Stop the Mask-arade I

concluded my previous article for the News — written at the start of the spring 2021 semester — by stating, “So at least until the COVID-19 crisis is over, it’s like Bob Dylan said: ‘You can always come back, but you can’t come back all the way.’” It turns out I was too optimistic. The COVID-19 crisis is over for Yalies, but we still aren’t back all the way. According to the New York Times’ COVID-19 tracker, Connecticut has never averaged more than 8.1 deaths per day due to COVID-19 since June 1. It has spent most of that time hovering between zero and five deaths per day. With only 14 cases per 100,000 residents in the last seven days (as of the writing of this article), Connecticut has the least amount of COVID-19 spread of any state in the country. And Yale’s COVID-19 dashboard shows that only one Yale undergraduate has tested positive in the last seven days. COVID-19, then, no longer represents a public health crisis for the Yale community. Yet, Yale still insists on imposing a litany of restrictions on campus life. Among other things, indoor social gatherings are restricted to 20 people and outdoor social gatherings are restricted to 50 people — unless these seven conditions are met or prior approval is granted from a health and safety leader. The University requires weekly testing, even for vaccinated students. And, most frustratingly, the Yale community is required to wear masks in indoor spaces. These policies are pure performance, as the inconsistency of their application is immediately apparent. There are plenty of University-sanctioned scenarios — including large lectures, gyms and the extracurricular bazaar — in which the capacity limits are greatly exceeded. Yale College Dean of Student Affairs Melanie Boyd acknowledged that “some official gatherings … will exceed these numbers” due to

careful planning that social settings may lack. But this planning — which, according to an August 26 Town Hall, includes mask usage and ventilation checks, as well as limits on duration, interpersonal mingling and eating and drinking — largely does not apply to dining halls, where hundreds of students move around, eat and drink and socialize unmasked. Masks, though, are the most illustrative case of symbolic COVID-19 measures. It’s been painful to see professors gasping for breath and squinting through foggy glasses as they speak for hours into what is a moist breeding ground for bacteria. I am all the more indignant because there is a very compelling argument to be made against mask mandates. This randomized controlled trial from Denmark found that “a recommendation to wear a surgical mask when outside the home among others did not reduce, at conventional levels of statistical significance, incident SARSCoV-2 infection compared with no mask recommendation.” The first, and to my knowledge, only randomized controlled trial that purports to show masks having a positive effect has an important methodological problem, as acknowledged by the lead author in this thread — participants self-reported symptoms and then self-selected into getting blood drawn for COVID-19 testing. And, even ignoring this concern, the study failed to find a statistically significant benefit for cloth masks. The CDC’s webpage surveying the evidence on masks is limited to low-quality observational studies, and it is telling that it does not cite a single randomized controlled trial to support wearing masks. Masks are especially puzzling because the science prior to COVID-19 overwhelmingly showed that masks had, at best, a minimal effect on the transmission of respiratory viruses. The World Health Organization’s 2019 report on influenza examined 10

relevant randomized controlled trials and found that despite the “ mechanistic plausibility” of face masks, “there was no evidence that face masks are effective in reducing transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza.” I cite the above studies not to say that masks don’t work. All we can conclude from the above is that the evidence for masking is not well supported by randomized controlled trials: there’s no conclusive evidence to show that they do work. And yet the mask mandate is still in place. Even when we put aside the efficacy question, though, these restrictions signal Yale’s inability to come to terms with a dawning reality: COVID-19 is endemic and will be with us for years to come. An outbreak of cases at Yale seems inevitable, given what is happening at other colleges. But these cases will not result in significant numbers of hospitalizations or deaths. It is hard to imagine a better-situated community; Yale is disproportionately young and healthy. Virtually everyone is vaccinated. And Connecticut has the lowest number of cases per capita of any state in the country. At this stage, then, Yale’s COVID-19 policies are completely gratuitous. They operate on unreasonable levels of fear and imply that restrictions could continue ad infinitum. There is no endgame, even though COVID-19 no longer poses a serious threat to our community’s health. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the prospect of enduring pandemic measures for years and years to come. The only logical solution is to accept reality: COVID-19 is here to stay. Cases of the virus may rise, but COVID-19 is no longer a crisis. Knowing this, Yale, it’s time to let us fully live our lives. Stop the mask-arade, end the restrictions and let us come back all the way. JACK BARKER is a senior in Pauli Murray College. Contact him at jack.barker@yale.edu .


YALE DAILY NEWS  ·  FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2021  ·  yaledailynews.com

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NEWS

“Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague.” WILLIAM SAFIRE AMERICAN AUTHOR

Jackson Institute of Global Affairs incorporates two new programs BY PHILIP MOUSAVIZADEH STAFF REPORTER On October 1, the University’s International Security Studies, or ISS, program and the newly established International Leadership Center, or ILC, will join the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs as the two newest additions to the emerging professional school. The ISS program, which was established in 1988 by history professor Paul Kennedy and used to be an independent program, is now coming under the banner of the Jackson Institute. The ILC,

however, was especially developed this year within Jackson to house both the Maurice R. Greenberg World Fellows Program and the Petraeus-Recanati-Kaplan Fellowship. These new changes and additions mark one stage in the Jackson Institute’s transformation into Yale’s newest professional school, which is expected to conclude in fall of 2022. “I am thrilled that ISS will become part of Jackson, effective Oct. 1,” Director of the Jackson Institute Jim Levinsohn wrote in an email to the News. “As we build out the framework for the new School, it’s important to keep our eye on

both the teaching and research missions of the new School. The Jackson School will focus on four key areas — International Security and Diplomacy; International Economics; Social, Political, and Economic Development, and Global Public Goods. ISS will play a key role in the first of these.” The International Security Studies program was established to connect faculty studying international security in history and political science. In the 1990s, the program served as the host institution for the Academic Center for United Nations Studies. In 2000, ISS established the Grand Strat-

YASMINE HALMANE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Jackson Institute for Global Affairs to house centers for international security and leadership.

egy Program, which is currently the independent Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy. “It is an honor to partner with ISS Director Arne Westad and Founding Director Paul Kennedy to support this enhanced focus on International Security Studies at Jackson,” Executive Director of ISS Ted Wittenstein told the News. “Given the complexity of threats to global security, it is so important to analyze these challenges from multiple vantage points and perspectives. ISS convenes scholars and practitioners, supports teaching and research across academic disciplines, and mentors and inspires the next generation of student leaders passionate about security studies.” The ILC program has a less extensive history. Established this year, it will bring together two Jackson programs under a single umbrella organization. Global Affairs lecturer Emma Sky will head up the International Leadership Center. The World Fellows program is a leadership development and training program that brings global professionals to Yale’s campus to further their own academic and professional enrichment while contributing mentoring, teaching and research to the Yale community. The Petraeus-Recanati-Kaplan Fellowship brings special military operators to Yale to develop their understanding of global affairs. The fellows graduate with a one-year Masters of Advanced Study in Global Affairs. “By bringing existing leadership programs together, we will be able to realize synergies across programs,” Levinsohn wrote about the ILC. “And with the mandate to grow new leadership programs, Prof. Sky is sure to build out other creative and impactful programs that will extend Jackson’s, and Yale’s, impact into new areas.”

Westad, who will serve as the director of ISS, said that one of his goals in the coming year is to bring in faculty who might not have traditionally been involved with the program, but whose expertise is closely linked to issues of international security. Wittenstein added that the shift towards nontraditional security issues is a “natural one.” “The pandemic is highlighting a lot of what used to be considered non-traditional or softer security issues [which] really are central to security studies,” Wittenstein said. “And so I think that is an important direction for ISS.” He pointed to one of the newest ISS-affiliated faculty members — professor of anthropology, health and global affairs Catherine Panter-Brick — as an example of someone who studies nontraditional security issues but who will be involved in the ISS. Reflecting on the broader implications of incorporating the programs into Jackson, Westad said that he thinks that the ISS will help to push the Jackson Institute towards more research and engagement with undergraduates outside of the institute. Levinsohn echoed Westad’s sentiments, expressing hope for the future of the Jackson Institute with these new additions. “We’re quickly realizing that an old adage is actually true,” Levinsohn wrote to the News. “The sum really is greater than its parts. For example, we’ve seen how bringing the Greenberg World Fellows Program to Jackson has led to some pretty cool opportunities for Jackson’s undergrads and grad students. I am confident we’ll see a lot more of that sort of synergy in the near future.” The World Fellows program was established in 2002. Contact PHILIP MOUSAVIZADEH at philip.mousavizadeh@yale.edu .

Senators and first-year representatives elected to YCC BY LUCY HODGMAN STAFF REPORTER After an election fraught with technical issues and campaign guideline violations, the Yale College Council on Saturday announced the winners of the First Year Class Council and Senate races. Elections were held for all FCC representatives, as well as 10 open Senate seats across Davenport, Ezra Stiles, Grace Hopper, Pauli Murray, Saybrook and Trumbull Colleges. The window for student voting began on Thursday, Sept. 23 and was originally scheduled to end on Friday, but was extended another day after a technical issue with Yale Connect briefly prevented first-year students from voting. In the days leading up to the election, the YCC election process included several minor violations of campaign guidelines. “Needless to say, while the student body only saw glimpses of the elections through infographics and newsletters, there were many obstacles throughout the election process that I had to address,” said YCC Vice-President Zoe Hsu ’24. Hsu explained that all student profiles on Yale Connect, the platform where voting for YCC candidates occurs, are linked to residential colleges. This aims to ensure that students only vote for representatives from their own colleges. Although profiles are typically linked to residential colleges prior to the beginning of the election, this was not the case for members of the Class of 2025. Their profiles did not automatically connect to their colleges, so first years were unable to vote until Yale Connect Staff and Yale IT were able to resolve this issue. First-year students were prevented from voting from the time voting opened at 9 a.m. on Sept. 23 to around 6 p.m. that evening, according to Hsu. The student voting window was extended to Sept. 25 in order to compensate for the time students were initially unable to vote. “Unfortunately, I received several disrespectful emails

throughout the elections regarding several aspects of the elections, such as the Yale Connect logistical problem — a problem that was completely outside of my control — even though I was actively addressing each and every problem that arose the best that I could,” Hsu wrote in an email to the News. Even before issues arose with student voting, the YCC’s Council Elections Commission was faced with a series of violations of the YCC campaign guidelines. An FCC candidate was reported for hanging up posters that exceeded the CEC’s guidelines for poster sizing, which prevents candidates from putting up posters larger than eight by 11 inches. According to YCC Chief of Staff Julia Sulkowski ’24, this candidate was prohibited from hanging up posters for 24 hours after the violation was discovered. Sulkowski said that two violations were also reported among Senate candidates. One candidate was docked 10 votes for sending emails to 30 people above the CEC limit, which requires that campaign emails be sent out to no more than 100 total people. Another was required to send an apology email to their fellow candidates for failing to include a disclaimer in an email they had sent stating that it was promotional material for their campaign. “Running the election was more complex and difficult than I had imagined,” Hsu said. “There were many unexpected logistical challenges that I had to solve on a daily basis throughout the entire election process.” Despite these challenges, the YCC announced the election of 10 senators in a Saturday email to the student body. Twenty-four representatives were elected to the FCC, with races for FCC representative in Morse College and Timothy Dwight Colleges ending in ties. An election that ends in a tie calls for a runoff election, which took place on Saturday. According to an email sent by Hsu to the student body, voting for runoff elections in these colleges occurred between noon and 11

YALE DAILY NEWS

The Yale College Council held elections between Sept. 23 and 25 for First-Year Class Council and 10 available Senate seats. p.m. on Saturday. Isaac Moskowitz ’25 and Ciara Lonergan ’25 were elected as the first-year representatives from Timothy Dwight and Morse College, respectively. “I was inspired by the possibility to create real, meaningful and lasting change in the lives of students and New Haveners through our student government,” Michael Ndubisi ’25, who was elected to the Senate as a representative from Saybrook College, told the News. “Yale is an institution with a lot of power, and I think student government, if done seriously and with conviction, can be a way to turn that power into a force for good.” In the YCC, Ndubisi said that he hopes to prioritize reforming the student packaging system, emphasizing the importance of focusing on the issues that most directly affect students’ lives.

Similarly, Abe Baker-Butler ’25, who was elected as an Ezra Stiles Senator, told the News that understanding the “needs, views and aspirations” of the Stiles community was his central focus in campaigning, and listed the expansion of dining hall services, the Yale Shuttle and access to air conditioning and filtered water on campus as among his immediate priorities in the Senate. “I think that YCC is really serious about making things happen, so I’m excited to bring a new perspective and help implement changes that will make Yale a truly more inclusive and accessible environment for everyone,” Pauli Murray Senator Akua Agyemang ’24 said. In the FCC, Lizbeth Lozano ’25, who was elected as the first year representative from Pauli

Murray, told the News that her main goal will be to support New Haven’s small businesses while helping to plan FCC events. Lozano suggested sourcing merchandise for the Yale-Harvard game and food for student events from local establishments. “It was so exciting getting to be a part of the YCC elections which allowed our newest members on campus and returning students to share their visions for a better student body,” Sulkowski said. “Not only a joy to read the statements of all those who ran, it made me extra excited to truly begin our work with a full senate.” The newly elected YCC representatives officially took office on Sunday. Contact LUCY HODGMAN at lucy.hodgman@yale.edu .


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YALE DAILY NEWS  ·  FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2021  ·  yaledailynews.com

FROM THE FRONT

“We are a plague on the Earth.” DAVID ATTENBOROUGH ENGLISH BROADCASTER

Director leaves Grand Strategy program GAGE FROM PAGE 1 gested several members who were ultimately chosen to join the advisory board. These people included Kissinger, who served under former President Richard Nixon, as well as Stephen J. Hadley, former national security adviser to George W. Bush and Thomas H. Kean, the former Republican governor of New Jersey. Garsten told the News that he “fully support[s]” Gage’s decision to resign, and he will not be teaching Grand Strategy anymore. Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Pericles Lewis told the News that Yale had a legal obligation to create the board, in accordance with the 2006 gift agreement. According to the Times, upon learning of the legal agreement, Gage acquiesced, but insisted that the board include diversity across ideological, gender and racial lines. “He represents the opposite of the generational shift I have been trying to make,” Gage told the Times about

Kissinger. Kissinger did not immediately respond to multiple phone calls on Thursday. Gage told the Times that throughout the months-long deliberation regarding the advisory board, she pushed University administrators to include more diversity on the board, threatening to resign her post should they not follow through. In March, University President Peter Salovey announced the new board, which included the conservative slate of members suggested by Johnson and other donors. The Times reported that the board did not include any members with a background in social activism — at the donors’ request. Soon after, Gage followed through on her threatened resignation. “I have the greatest respect for Professor Gage's excellent leadership of the program over the past four years,” Salovey wrote in an email to the News. “We have consulted and will continue to consult faculty in the program concerning her successor.”

Lewis denied that the donors had exerted undue influence over the program. The two donors expressed a “strong desire” for Kissinger to join the board but did not pick additional members, he told the Times. Following the news of Gage’s resignation, some University professors spoke out in her defense on social media. “This is hugely disappointing for a program in which I have guest taught, should concern people of all political views, and remind us that donors are welcome to patronize academic life without dictating content,” Yale Law School professor Samuel Moyn wrote on Twitter. He called Gage a “hero.” History professor John Lewis Gaddis, one of the co-founders of the Grand Strategy program, told the News that “the Yale administration could have made it unambiguously clear to the donors that the faculty shape the curriculum. The administration should now, equally unambiguously, commit itself and

recommit this institution to this fundamental principle.” Durel Crosby ’22, a current student in the Grand Strategy program, told the News that when he heard about Gage’s resignation on Thursday morning, he was shocked. He further added that he felt a “sense of loss” for the students who will participate in the program in the future and not get to experience Gage’s teaching. Crosby said that the loss of Gage would put in jeopardy the diversity of opinion that the course created and would potentially “deter” certain students who bring that diversity. Gage told the News that she is not seeking reinstatement to the program. In a series of tweets posted Thursday morning, Gage also wrote that she is “grateful to the program's founders, [history professors] John Gaddis and Paul Kennedy, for their steadfast support over many years.” She continued, expressing her appreciation for the students in the program who have “made teaching in

the Grand Strategy Program such an adventure and a delight.” Gage added that she would continue to serve as a history professor at Yale. No successor has been named so far. History lecturer Michael Brenes, the associate director of Grand Strategy, told the News that Gage’s efforts had diversified the program’s curriculum and student body. “Professor Gage’s resignation is upsetting, but I believe strongly that faculty autonomy and academic freedom is essential for vibrant teaching within America’s universities,” Brenes told the News. The program recently invited former defense secretary James N. Mattis and racial justice activist Heather McGhee as guest teachers and speakers. Contact PHILIP MOUSAVIZADEH at philip.mousavizadeh@yale.edu and ISAAC YU at isaac.yu@yale.edu .

Ivy aid in limbo ahead of antitrust exemption ANTITRUST FROM PAGE 1 1993 Massachusetts Institute of Technology lawsuit which led to the development of the congressional antitrust exemption, explained the Ivy League’s support for the exemption. The League believed it was operating with a limited amount of money for financial aid and if it did not limit awards, universities would have to compete for athletes and may be unable to guarantee necessary support for other students with financial need. “That was their argument,” Litan said. “I did not believe that argument was valid at the time. These were rich schools then, they are much richer now.” According to the U.S. Department of Education, Ivy League school athletics generated, on average, a total of $34 million in 2019 — compared to the national average of $14 million, which accounts for all members of the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision, including Ivy League universities. In addition, the Ivy League represents five of the 10 largest university endowments in the United States, according to a 2021 U.S. News report. Harvard University’s endowment totals $41 billion and Yale’s totals $31 billion. In the past, Congress has extended the Ivy League’s antitrust exemption without significant issue. However, Litan and Cotler are hoping that the recent Alston decision will draw greater attention to the matter.

The immediate, narrow conclusion of the Supreme Court’s decision in Alston was outlined by law professor George Priest ’69 in an essay published in the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law this year. Priest wrote that “through antitrust litigation, the Supreme Court’s ruling in NCAA v. Alston forced the NCAA to allow universities to provide greater compensation to their most productive athletes, such as scholarships for graduate study, payment for tutors.” Priest, as well as Cotler and Litan, note that the most significant aspect of the Alston ruling is the concurring opinion by Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh ’87 LAW ’90, which reveals the impact the decision could have on Ivy League athletics. “Nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers a fair market rate,” Kavanaugh wrote. “And under ordinary principles of antitrust law, it is not evident why college sports should be any different.” Cotler and Litan also wrote that Ivy League athletics has so far been defined by its “unwillingness” to provide athletic scholarships. “When Kavanaugh speaks of ‘college sports’ being treated ‘any different’ under the antitrust laws, he could just as easily be speaking about the ‘Ivy League,’” Cotler and Litan wrote in their letter. According to Priest, the agreement by Ivy League universities is

“now such an obvious violation” of antitrust law. “If this happened in any other industry, the leaders of the industry who agree to this will go to jail,” Priest said. “So let's say [all] restaurants in New Haven agreed ‘We don't want to pay our chefs [and] we’re going to have amateur chefs only,’ they go to jail.” However, Priest says that an expiration of the exemption will not compel Ivy League members to give athletic scholarships. But it may make illegal a group in which all members agree not to pay their athletes, which the Ivy League currently does. If the antitrust exemption is not extended, both Priest and Richard Kent, a sports lawyer representing a number of Yale head coaches, believe that the University and League will face legal action from students. In such a scenario, Kent suggested that the “playing field is weighted in favour of the student-athlete,” while Priest went further, saying that the chance the student loses is “zero.” In an email to the News, University spokesperson Karen Peart wrote that Yale supports the renewal of the antitrust exemption “because colleges and universities should be able to discuss recurring issues and develop guidelines that advance accuracy and equity in assessing students’ financial need.” Peart also added that any changes to federal antitrust exemptions or Ivy League policy would not change Yale’s “bedrock commitment” to meeting the full demonstrated financial need of all students.

"Yale is also extremely fortunate to attract students with exceptional talents and abilities — along with great academic strength — without needing to add additional enticements in the form of athletic or merit scholarships,” Peart added. According to Litan, at the time of publication, University President Peter Salovey was the only Ivy League president to respond to the August letter. Salovey referred the letter and the two lawyers’ legal analysis to the University’s general counsel. Jennifer Abruzzo, the National Labor Relations Board General Counsel, wrote Wednesday in a public memo that, under the National Labor Relations Act, student-athletes are considered employees and are therefore entitled to protections under the law. Abruzzo’s position was bolstered both by the unanimous Supreme Court decision in Alston, as well as “recent collective actions [taken by student-athletes] about racial justice issues and demands for fair treatment, as well as for safety protocols to play during the pandemic, which all directly concern their terms and conditions of employment.” If the act is put into law, Litan believes that all NCAA conferences, including the Ivy League, will be forced to pay athletes on top of awarding scholarships. Furthermore, even if the antitrust exemption were to be renewed, Ancient Eight institutions “could not collude” on the compensation of athletes, he said.

For Priest, there could be significant implications if just one of the Ancient Eight institutions were to begin offering merit-based scholarships. “[If] Yale keeps its schedule of playing against these other teams, Harvard, Cornell, Brown, Penn, Columbia, they can still do that. But if Harvard is paying for its athletes, [and Yale isn’t] Yale’s just gonna keep losing,” Priest said. “And that's why I think it's going to be ultimately fatal for the Ivy League.” Len Elmore, an attorney, sportscaster and former professional basketball player, told the News that should Ivy League members begin offering full scholarships to athletes, they would become much more attractive options for recruits, landing Ancient Eight schools on many more student-athletes’ “final lists.” “Basketball is one of those sports that changes immediately with additional personnel,” Elmore explained. “If you were getting the best player on some of these high school teams or some of these travel teams, and you're getting now maybe two of the best players, that could certainly fall into being far more competitive. I'm not saying they'd win a National Championship, but certainly could get them past the first round [of the NCAA tournament].” Contact PHILIP MOUSAVIZADEH at philip.mousavizadeh@yale.edu and JAMES RICHARDSON at james.richardson@yale.edu .

Long package center lines create confusion PACKAGES FROM PAGE 1 bly still processing and transferring them and that I should check back the next day.” In the early weeks of the fall semester, Twyman’s experience was relatively common. On Sept. 16, the Yale College Council put up an Instagram post seeking student feedback on the package receiving center. According to YCC Director of Health and Safety Jordi Bertrán Ramírez ’24, 151 students have submitted responses to date. Of the students who responded to the survey, 99.3 percent rated their package receiving center experience as either “unsatisfactory” or “extremely unsatisfactory,” Ber-

trán Ramírez said. Sixty percent reported spending over an hour in line, and 72.1 percent reported having received a false package arrival notification email. The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically reshaped the University’s student package processing system. Prior to the pandemic, Yale provided one centralized student package receiving center, located at 250 Church St. In order to receive United States Postal Service mail on campus, “all students are required to have a U.S. Post Office Box,” according to Yale’s website. Some students alternately chose to ship packages to the apartments of their off-campus friends or the houses of student organizations.

ZOE BERG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

A new package receiving center in the old Durfee's storefront opened this fall, but has been criticized for long lines and unreliable communication.

The pandemic changed all that. During the 2020-21 academic year, residential colleges opened their own package receiving centers for the first time, according to Davenport College Operations Manager Shaffrona Phillip-Christie. The colleges opened the centers as a public health measure in order to avoid long lines and crowding at the 250 Church St. facility, she said. Grace Hopper Head of College Julia Adams told the News — in a joint statement with provided Operations Managers Sarah Layedra and Susan Obert — that it became apparent last spring that it would be a “challenge” for the Church Street facility to handle the anticipated volume of student packages in the fall 2021 semester given the increased on-campus population. As a solution, in August, Yale opened a new package receiving center in the old Durfee’s storefront on Elm Street, which became responsible for processing packages for students living on Old Campus and in five residential colleges. But long lines and unreliable communication quickly plagued the facility, according to four students. Two employees at the Elm Street center declined to provide comment and declined to direct the News to a manager. Yale Mail Service manager

Gerald Apuzzo did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Jerry Shan ’23 described the situation as “a nightmare.” “Twice, I’ve waited in line for over an hour after receiving multiple emails that my packages had arrived only for them not to have my package,” Shan said. “I don’t blame the people running the package centers since they’re just contractors trying to do their job, but there really should be a more efficient system put into place.” The on-campus package receiving system has had an impact on off-campus students, as well. Emma McKinney ’23 told the News that in the early weeks of the semester, many friends asked if they could ship their packages to her off-campus apartment. The resulting influx of shipments filled her apartment building’s mailroom to capacity and packages were occasionally left in the building’s entryway,vulnerable to theft, she said. Some students have turned to the USPS facility at 206 Elm St. as an alternative to the package receiving centers, including Twyman, who rented a P.O. Box there following her sick day. She said the P.O. box has made it easier to receive mail in a timely manner, particularly time-sensitive medication, and she has offset the cost by sharing it with friends.

“The package center has certainly made me see the contrast even more because many of the students there have had to sacrifice class time to receive a necessary item," Axel de Vernou ’25 wrote to the News. According to Adams, the Church Street facility temporarily closed for repairs after Hurricane Ida-related flooding in early September, prompting some residential colleges to set up temporary package receiving centers. Conditions at the Durfee’s center have improved in recent weeks, according to several students. The change might be the result of several factors, including new staffing hires, the addition of residential college facilities and decreased package volume after the initial move-in period. “We know that the Student Package Center is grateful to the colleges that have pitched in to help, but also know that it is a temporary solution and not feasible for all colleges to continue long term,” Adams wrote in a statement to the News. “We hope that a centralized, permanent solution can be found that will first and foremost suit the needs of both the students and the University.” Contact OLIVIA TUCKER at olivia.tucker@yale.edu and YEJI KIM at yeji.kim@yale.edu .


YALE DAILY NEWS  ·  FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2021  ·  yaledailynews.com

PAGE 5

FROM THE FRONT

“As long as inequality and other social problems plague us, populists will try to exploit them.” KOFI ANNAN GHANAIAN DIPLOMAT

Students struggle to catch up after missing unrecorded lectures

LILY DORSTEWITZ/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Yale Health's Dr. Christine Chen recommended continued masking and social distancing to prevent the seasonal spread of viruses. PLAGUE FROM PAGE 1 2019, according to Chief of Student Health Christine Chen. Per the University’s COVID-19 guidelines, students with flu-like symptoms are advised to stay in their room and self-isolate until they receive a negative COVID-19 test. When students fall ill, they are therefore forced to miss class for at least a day, if not more. “We are experiencing an unprecedented number of visits, calls, and communications via [MyChart] this fall,” Chen wrote in an email to the News. “Though we continue to see COVID-19 cases, the virus that has been circulating among students appears to be something else.” Yale’s student outpatient clinic

currently has tests for COVID-19, influenza, strep and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Chen said that Student Health has seen no influenza cases and “sporadic” cases of strep. A weekly report on epidemic and seasonal viruses detected by labs at the Yale School of Medicine can be found here. Chen suggested that part of the increase in demand for clinic services can be attributed to an increased student population for this academic year. Still, she asked students to protect themselves from the circulating sickness with now-familiar pandemic precautions, like mask-wearing and social distancing. She also urged all students to sign up for mandatory flu vaccines as soon as possible, call-

ing the approaching influenza season a “great concern.” As sickness continues to spread, the News spoke to four students who expressed concerns about the difficulties of missing class while sick. The University has no official guidelines available online regarding class accommodations — instead, this is left to the discretion of individual faculty members. Dean of Student Affairs Melanie Boyd referred the News to a Sept. 28 announcement on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences website. “It is a reality that, with winter approaching, some students will become ill with colds or flu,” officials told all undergraduate and graduate school faculty. “Without reasonable absence policies, students may elect to attend class while sick, exposing others to illnesses. To avoid incentivizing attendance when students are ill, we urge flexibility.” Professors cannot block students from attending class based on apparent illnesses; instead, they are asked to reference course policy suggestions issued by the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning and are permitted to offer remote instruction options for students who fall ill. Still, three students reported that missing classes is more inconvenient than expected, as they struggle to find recorded lectures or uploaded slides. “I can understand why [my professor was] reluctant [to record the lecture], as implementing this involves more technological infrastructure, setup and might encourage more people to not attend class,” said Matt Shu ’25, who recently missed a class due to a sore throat and cough. “However, the alternative is that [this] has been the only one of my classes where you continuously hear people cough throughout the lecture.” Shu said that while his seminar professors accommodated his absence – they allowed him to make up discussion leader duties another day and attend Zoom office hours — professors who taught lectures had been less flesible. While two of Shu’s

three lectures were recorded, his third class — “Discrete Mathematics,” taught by professor of mathematics Richard Kenyon — was not. According to Shu, he emailed his professor earlier in the year requesting that classes be recorded both because he believed that he could learn math more easily asynchronously and because he thought lecture recordings would allow sick students to make up for missed content without having to rely on borrowed notes or the textbook. The professor denied his request. “I’m not in principle against recording my classes (although there is a certain start-up barrier to figuring out how to use the recording equipment properly....but as far as I know [that] might be very easy),” Kenyon wrote in an email to the News. “If many students asked me to, I would certainly do it.” Kenyon also expressed reluctance to consistently record lectures because he believes that it would reduce the number of students who show up to class, which could lead to a decrease in class participation and less content covered. “I feel like a lot of learning happens through interaction, which you can’t get with a recorded lecture,” Kenyon said. Some students, like Angela Zhao ’25, have found creative ways to make up for missed classes. When Zhao had to miss an unrecorded class due to sickness, she asked a friend to record it for her so that she could still access the content. Still, students reported feeling unsafe in classes that made no accommodations for sick students, as people showed up even while exhibiting symptoms. Chase Finney ’23 reached out to her professor with a concern similar to Shu’s. When she found herself sitting next to three “clearly sick people” in that day’s lecture, Finney was concerned that students were attending class even when they had the potential to spread COVID-19. But when Finney reached out to her professor requesting that the lecture be recorded, the professor denied her request.

“I understood that the professor’s inaccessible teaching style might’ve been preventing students from staying home, so I reached out to the professor explaining my concern for my health and safety in the class and asking her to reconsider her stance on refusing to post the lecture slides or record the lectures,” said Finney. “The professor’s response ... was upsetting, to say the least. Not only did she dismiss my worries about the health and safety of students in the class, she doubled down on her stance, claiming to have consulted a patent lawyer to back up her policy.” In an email to Finney, the professor, who Finney declined to name, said that recordings discouraged participation for “inexcusable reasons,” and were also potentially in violation of copyright laws. The professor added that students who were sick were encouraged to stay home and that they could reach out to teaching fellows and the professor herself should they need to catch up. The professor also commented that masks lowered the likelihood of transmission. “Refusing to post lecture slides on the basis of possible copyright violation is preposterous, and in light of increasing concern about accessibility at Yale, an unnecessarily insensitive excuse,” Finney told the News. Like Finney, Tiffany Toh ’25 has noticed an increase in the number of sick students in her classes. She added that has heard “like 20 different people” coughing during lectures or exams and that nearly all of her classmates have been sick in the last three weeks. Toh described her recent Physics 180 midterm exam. “There were like 300 people in the lecture hall and we didn’t have a single consecutive minute without someone coughing,” said Toh. Sick students can visit Yale Health at 55 Lock St. Contact ISABELLE QIAN at isabelle.qian@yale.edu and ISAAC YU at isaac.yu@yale.edu .

Protesters demand funds for climate projects CLIMATE FROM PAGE 1 Gate. Students and NHMC organizers shared how climate change has affected the places they love. Speakers emphasized climate change’s effect on racial and socioeconomic equality and the need to hold elected officials and academic institutions accountable for their environmental impacts. “Yale is culpable, too,” said Sebastian Duque ’24, co-chair of political outreach for the Yale Student Environmental Coalition. “We’re urging the university to divest its investment in fossil fuels and reinvest it in the community, and thoroughly fund a speedy transition to a carbon-free campus that is investing in the community.” University President Peter Salovey has previously responded to student criticisms about Yale’s investments in fossil fuels, most recently in mid-September, when Harvard University announced that it would pull all investments from the fossil fuel industry. Then, Salovey explained that only 2.6 percent of the endowment was invested in fossil fuel-related companies, with that percentage expected to decrease in the future. A committee on fossil fuel investment principles has publicly identified particularly bad actors in the industry; Yale will no longer invest in these companies, he explained. The University has previously argued that the total withdrawal from the fossil fuel industry by responsible investors would allow worse actors to take their place. “Yale students have spoken clearly on this issue, and they have been heard,” Salovey wrote in a Sept. 14 email to the News. “Yale’s action has also been directly informed by the Yale Investments Office’s longstanding insistence on applying ethics to investment decisions, as well as by the faculty’s strong belief that Yale must do its part to fight climate change.” On Friday, Tara Bhat ’25 shared how her first two weeks at Yale were impacted by the threats of Hurricanes Henri and Ida, two extreme weather events exacerbated by the

Earth’s changing climate. An organizer with the Yale Endowment Justice Coalition, Bhat referenced Harvard’s announcement that the university would divest from fossil fuels. Speakers at Friday’s rally heralded Yale’s rival’s decision as proof that grassroots activism can force large institutions to make change. “[Harvard’s] recent divestment puts a magnifying glass on Yale, and it shows just how far behind we are at this point in the climate crisis,” said Bhat. “Their continued investment makes it crystal clear that when given the option, Yale chooses profit over the futures of their students, faculty, community and the earth.” After stopping at Phelps Gate, protesters made their way to the cemetery on the New Haven Green. There, Huq and other organizers distributed postcards to participants which read: “Due to terminal climate inaction, I am grieving the loss of …” Rally participants were invited to fill in the blank and then place their postcards in a cardboard coffin. Some participants shared information on global losses due to climate change, which included recent drowning victims in New York City, limited access to clean water and destroyed habitats for endangered species. The rally then continued to its final stop at City Hall. Mayor Justin Elicker stepped out of the building as the protesters surrounded the steps and staged a “die-in.” Participants, including Elicker, knelt or lay down on the steps and sidewalk for 29 seconds, which Huq marked by beating on an upside-down bucket. The 29 seconds represented the 29 years of “failure to act” since the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change first publicly acknowledged climate change as a threat, according to Huq. Rosie Hampson and Young In Kim, both organizers with NHCM and students at Wilbur Cross High School, shared facts on how climate change affects public health and the global economy.

ZOE BERG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Protesters began at the corner of Chapel and Church Street, then moved to the New Haven Green. “The climate crisis is an all-encompassing issue,” said Kim. “When we fight climate change, we fight for countless other causes,” including education, poverty, racial justice and severe weather events. H u q re i te ra te d N H C M ’s demand that $9 million of the city’s incoming American Rescue Plan funding be allocated towards climate initiatives. In response to the demand, Elicker said his administration is compiling input from many community meetings to develop a plan, which he will then present to New Haven’s Board of Alders. He committed to allocating “a portion” of the funds towards climate initiatives but did not promise the $9 million figure. Huq then asked Elicker his plan to cut emissions and prevent global warming. “The City of New Haven has a strong record and we are making

progress, but we absolutely have more work to be doing,” Elicker said. He cited the city’s efforts to increase sustainable transportation with more cyclist and pedestrian-friendly transportation networks, as well as moves toward reducing electricity consumption. He reported that the city purchased 100 percent renewable energy for all municipal electricity use and stated his desire to create a climate and sustainability office. Elicker also mentioned his efforts to secure more funding from Yale and the state for environmental uses. He said that New Haven has received $49 million in additional funding from the state to invest in infrastructure. “In the end, equity isn’t just about the City of New Haven playing a strong role in climate change, but it is about those with the resources actually putting those resources up,” he said. “We are having positive con-

versations with the university about its commitment to this city.” At the rally’s end, Huq gave the mayor the postcards participants had written to mourn climate change. Following Elicker’s address, Huq told the News that progress toward the city’s goal of reducing emissions to zero by 2030 has been “slow.” They also noted that losing two years of climate mobilization to the pandemic left them worried about the city’s progress. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released earlier this year stated that without urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, the earth’s global warming will surpass 1.5 degrees Celsius and lead to “irreversible” damage to ecosystems and communities worldwide. Contact ANASTASIA HUFHAM at anastasia.hufham@yale.edu .


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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

ARTS Beinecke Library opens exhibition “Road Show” on writers’ travels BY AUDREY KIM CONTRIBUTING REPORTER On Sept. 1, an exhibition called “Road Show: Travel Papers in American Literature” opened for viewing at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The exhibition investigates how travel was marked and documented by figures across the American literary landscape, including Langston Hughes, Annie Dillard and Gertrude Stein, among others. Because it was originally planned for installation during the summer, when the Beinecke

Library typically welcomes its largest numbers of tourists and off-campus visitors, the exhibition includes a diverse range of materials that can be enjoyed by both scholars and casual viewers alike. Students can view items such as photographs, sections of notebooks, telegrams and letters from writers and artists including Georgia O’Keeffe and Joe Brainard. “There’s all different ways of thinking about travel,” said Nancy Kuhl, curator of poetry at the Yale Collection of American Literature, in a video covering the exhibition. “Certainly, we were thinking about tourism,

AUDREY KIM/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

and traveling for leisure, but the archives at the Yale Collection of American Literature also document writers in exile, writers who are refugees, many of whom then turn those experiences into works of literature.” According to Kuhl, the project started as a conversation between fellow curators Timothy Young and Melissa Barton about the ways writers’ archives might document travel of different kinds, and what people today could learn from literary archives about the travels of entertainers, expatriates, journalists, migrants, translators and tourists, among other figures. The exhibition featured a series of vignettes, with each section devoted to a particular trip, medium, or work of literature. Each vignette is enclosed in separate display boxes at the Beinecke that visitors can walk through, including a section on Truman Capote’s 1959 trip to Holcomb, Kansas, inspiring his novel “In Cold Blood,” and the 1957 trip that writer and novel-

ist James Baldwin took to Georgia and Alabama during the civil rights movement. Exhibits production manager Kerri Sancomb oversaw the whole process of production and layout, making sure that “all parts are speaking and agreeing to one another,” along with exhibit technician Megan Czekaj. “One thing that is interesting and unique to Nancy is that she likes to tell the whole story. For example, instead of just showing one side of a postcard, we’ll be showing both the front and back,” Sancomb said. “There are upwards of 400 objects in the exhibit, so having these vignettes allows for visitors to come to a new section and have a new experience each time.” Timothy Young, curator of Modern Books and Manuscripts at the Beinecke, also organized a companion exhibition currently on view called “Imaginary Voyages,” which focuses on how writers have used the theme of travel to newly-discovered lands and planets to create fan-

tastic tales. The companion exhibition includes materials from Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales and Mark Twain’s last work published during his lifetime, “Extract from Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven.” “Many of these novels and stories focus on encountering ‘the other,’ whether they are terrestrial neighbors whose existence was unknown to explorers or imagined alien races who serve as allegorical characters for discussions of difference and for commentary on politics and human behavior,” Young said. “Other works are pure fantasy, presaging the science fiction genre.” In addition to co-curators Kuhl and Young, student curators Raffaella Donatich ’20, Isabelle Laurenzi GRD ’24 and Rachel Kaufman ’19 also assisted with the exhibition. “Road Show: Travel Papers in American Literature” will remain on view until Jan. 10, 2022. Contact AUDREY KIM at audrey.kim@yale.edu .

Yale Schola Cantorum hosts virtual Evensong performance BY LUCAS GIMBEL AND KEENAN MILLER CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS On Friday, the Yale Schola Cantorum staged a virtual Evensong performance — its first concert of the 2021-22 season — at the Berkeley Divinity School. Founded in 2003, the Schola is a chamber choir sponsored by the University’s Institute of Sacred Music. Friday’s Evensong performance, a ritual of sung prayer that originated in a 1549 Anglican

prayer book, marked the group’s first show since 2019. David Hill, the Schola’s principal conductor, directed the show. “We’ve all been learning how to create and celebrate community across great distances,” Andrew McGowan, dean of the Berkeley Divinity School, said in his opening remarks. “This service, drawing on ancient Christian practices of prayer and music from different periods, bridges history as well as space.”

The choir began its traditional Evensong performance with songs by composers including Charles Wood, Judith Bingham and Amy Beach. Between songs, audience members heard several short prayers and passages from the Book of Job and the Book of Matthew. To highlight the Schola, the performance included more music than traditional Evensong services do. Hill explained that Friday’s Evensong was also a chance to

include music by a diverse selection of artists. The performance spotlighted the work of several female composers — including Judith Bingham, Amy Beach and Errollyn Wallen — which, he explained, can be a rarity in Evensong. Gloria Yin MUS ’22, an alto in the choir, said she was particularly excited to sing several pieces she had never previously performed. “I really like the sound world that [Bingham] creates,” Yin said. “The way she builds up phrases

KEENAN MILLER/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

and creates moods through harmony is a little gritty and mysterious. We have to use our voices in a more colorful way.” Though the choir is able to meet, practice and perform together, public health restrictions still impact the nature of its rehearsal and performance. “The masks are a little bit annoying,” Yin said. “But they don’t change the sound a great deal. It’s really just great to be singing together again.” Hill echoed Yin’s words and explained that the masks are “designed for performance.” They are equipped with “more room between the nose and the lip and more space for sound and words.” Though the event was closed to the public, it was livestreamed and is publicly available on the Yale Institute of Sacred Music’s website. According to Yin, the Schola looks forward to a season with a frequency of performances similar to that of pre-pandemic years, albeit with less travel and more collaboration with external groups. Hill stressed that “this is only the start” for the Schola this academic year. “This gets us going,” he said. In October, the Schola’s principal guest conductor Maasaki Suzuki will lead another performance, and in November, the choir will take the stage at Woolsey Hall. Contact LUCAS GIMBEL at lucas.gimbel@yale.edu and KEENAN MILLER at keenan.miller@yale.edu.


YALE DAILY NEWS  ·  FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2021  ·  yaledailynews.com

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Artspace New Haven considers space and time

COURTESY OF ART SPACE NEW HAVEN

BY ANNIE RADILLO AND LIANA SCHMITTER-EMERSON STAFF REPORTER AND CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Artspace New Haven’s most recent exhibition, “Everywhere and Here,” features works inspired by items in the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. The exhibition, which will run through Nov. 20, shows work by artists Martha Friedman ‘03, Anina Major, Brittany Nelson, Cauleen Smith and Tuan Andrew Nguyen, and was curated by Lisa Dent. Their artworks are displayed beside the Peabody collection’s masks, fabrics, household goods and meteorites that inspired them. Since the Peabody will remain closed for renovation until 2024, the exhibition allows the public to interact with some of its items, which hail from places all across the world and even outer space. “There are different ways of approaching being asked — or given the opportunity — to sift through a collection of artifacts

at a place like the Peabody,” Friedman said. “And it’s a very complicated thing to do. Everyone did it a little differently.” The exhibition opened on Sept. 17, nearly three years after Artspace founder Helen Kauder, former Artspace curator Sarah Fritchey and Peabody Associate Director of Marketing and Communications Christopher Renton first met to discuss a collaboration between the institutions. Initially, said Renton, the project was seen as an opportunity for the Peabody to remain present and visible in the community during its renovation and gallery closure. Due to the pandemic, the artists were forced to choose their objects and conduct research remotely, Renton said. They had access to the two million objects in the Peabody’s collection that are digitally catalogued and accessible on the Peabody’s website. Peabody collection managers and the museum registrar aided artists in this process and provided additional background information on objects.

Though the Peabody has never collaborated with Artspace before, an important part of its mission is to use its collection to support the arts. “The Peabody has a long legacy of connecting art and science,” Renton said. “From the world-famous Zallinger murals to more recent work with [American artist] James Prosek, we continue to see tremendous value in facilitating artists’ engagement with our collections and research.” Friedman, who chose to work with swathes of linen wrappings taken from mummies, said that it is a delicate matter to make art with ancient objects like those in the Peabody’s collection. As museological practices have changed over time, objects like the linens have been treated with varying degrees of respect and disrespect. For example, newly-discovered mummies were often unwrapped haphazardly as tomb robbers searched for the amulets within, Friedman said. Pre-Raphaelite painters even made paint out of the ground up remains of mummies, a

pigment called “mummy brown.” The linen wrappings — which raiders once commonly tossed aside — fascinated Friedman. The weavings are incredibly intricate, as are the wrapping patterns used to encase the embalmed bodies in the fabrics, she said. In fact, Friedman said these wrappings are what made mummies sacred in the minds of ancient Egyptians. Friedman’s sculptures consist of glass figures wrapped in swaths of rubber, a material she often incorporates into her practice. One figure stands beside a jumbled pile of rubber wrappings, which are meant to resemble linens tossed aside in search for other treasure. Two other artists chose to engage with meteorites in the Peabody’s collection, rather than objects so heavily associated with human history. Cauleen Smith’s piece, for example, takes inspiration from the Allende meteorite, which, according to the statement accompanying the installation, is the largest carbonaceous chondrite ever dis-

covered on Earth. The statement further dictates that before the meteorite entered earth’s atmosphere, it was around the size of an automobile, but it ultimately shattered into thousands of pieces. Smith’s work features a fragment of this meteorite. For Friedman, working with meteorites “jumps over the problem of cultural authorship” associated with human-made objects that have been removed from their place of origin. “When I saw the meteorites, I was like ‘meteorites! That’s smart!’” Friedman said. “Meteorites belong to no terrestrial nation, and no earth peoples. The people belong to the meteorite,” Smith contemplated in her statement, noting this same lack of “ownership.” In working with objects from such distant pasts, both Friedman and Smith have also considered the future. “When one thinks about the journey charted by the Allende meteorite, one must consider both time and space; distance and duration,” Smith wrote in an email to the News. “The Allende meteorite is a visitor from our cosmic past and perhaps holds keys within its molecular structure to possible futures.” Friedman said she has recently been considering an essay by German artist and writer Hito Steyerl that wonders whether people are making art for future aliens. As she was incorporating bits of gold into the busts of one of her glass sculptures, she was struck by the fragility and ephemerality of her work. She started imagining aliens discovering her work years into the future and began to wonder how they might interpret her art. “There are these threads — pun intended — that run through the work and have to do with what’s lost over time,” Friedman said. “How do we engage with that which was preserved and that which was lost? And what is art’s role in mediating those spaces?” Artspace New Haven is hosting its annual citywide showcase over two weekends through Oct. 15-24. Contact ANNIE RADILLO at annie.radillo@yale.edu and LIANA SCHMITTER-EMERSON at liana.schmitter-emerson@yale.edu .

Yale Philharmonia performs in-person BY GAMZE KAZAKOGLU STAFF REPORTER On Friday, Sep. 24 in Woolsey Hall, Yale Philharmonia gave its first in-person concert since before the COVID-19 pandemic began, with music by Maurice Ravel and Modest Mussorgsky, Igor Stravinsky and Carl Maria von Weber. The program opened with von Weber’s “Overture to Oberon” and was followed by Stravinsky’s “The Firebird Suite.” After a brief pause, the performance concluded with Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.” The only in-person audiences allowed were students, faculty and staff from the Yale School of Music and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, but it was live streamed on the School of Music’s website. The concert’s principal conductor was Peter Oundijan, whose music career spans more than five decades. Oundjian has held positions in the Tokyo String Quartet, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Since the Yale Philharmonia returned to in-person performance after nearly 19 months, its current team of front-ofhouse staff and box office workers is almost entirely new, Katie Kelley, the director of communications at the School of Music, wrote in an email to the News. The process of rebuilding and training the new team led the School of Music to limit the audience to a smaller and more manageable group. Additionally, Yale has placed limits on event capacity to help quell the spread of COVID-19. As the University gradually expands audience-related permissions across campus, the School of Music antic-

ipates that it will incrementally expand its audiences to include other Yale ID holders, according to Kelley. “A part of [resuming in-person performances] is remembering how to communicate my musical message with the other people in the hall,” said Michael Ferri MUS ’22, Philharmonia violinist and concertmaster. “Our profession is the art of empathizing. We all have to breathe together in order to play at the same time. So it is a very visceral process and having everyone there is so impactful and meaningful.” Tubist Vivian Kung MUS ’22 expressed similar sentiments about the first live performance in over a year. For Kung, being able to play together with musicians, rehearsing with the acoustics at the school facilities and conducting live music proved to be “exciting and fun.” Although the orchestra usually rehearses between two and three times per week, they have only been rehearsing for the concert’s “pretty considerable program” since the beginning of September, Kung said. “It has been challenging to get used to technical things like watching the conductor, which is a skill that I haven’t been using for a year,” Kung said. “Listening to people live, tuning, pitches, all have gone rusty.” Woodwind and brass players are now allowed back in rehearsals. Although violinists could rehearse last year as long as they wore masks, the woodwind and the brass players weren’t able to play in a room with more than two or three people. The woodwind and brass players had only one rehearsal session last year, and it was outdoors in the parking lot behind the School of

Music, Ferri said. Whenever they played chamber music during the pandemic, the woodwinds and brass instrumentalists had to be in individual rooms and either played together over Zoom or made recordings and stitched them together. For both the rehearsals and concert, the woodwind and brass players had bellcovers and slit masks as an extra precaution. Slit masks have the same shape as normal face masks but include a mouth slit through which the instruments can be played. “It is very challenging to play with [the mask], actually,” Kung said. “But having that extra precaution allows us to rehearse together, so it is worth it.” The readjustment to coordinating with other players has also been a newfound challenge for the orchestra members. According to Ferri, it has been difficult to get everyone to play together again, since when the instrumentalists were playing by themselves, they did not have to make cue notes — indications informing musicians of important passages played by other sections of the orchestra. Ferri said that the players are out of practice with this “vital communication.” The presence of an in-person audience was also an adjustment. According to Ferri, the audience’s presence not only makes a difference in the players’ consciousness of listeners, but also changes the acoustics, requiring the orchestra to adjust their sound accordingly. When there are people in the hall, the sound is significantly warmer and it bounces off the walls. But when the hall is completely empty, the sound just keeps vibrating in the air. For Ferri, the presence of the audience has a

COURTESY OF GAMZE KAZAKOGLU

positive impact, both physically and for moral support. “This is the first orchestra concert for everybody, and I think we have all enjoyed it so much,” Jonah Ellsworth MUS ’22, a cellist and a member of the audience, said. “I really appreciate the orchestra’s enthusiasm for

the music and it’s just great to be back and doing this.” Yale School of Music’s concert series will continue to take place in Woolsey Hall and Morse Recital Hall in the upcoming months. Contact GAMZE KAZAKOGLU at gamze.kazakoglu@yale.edu .


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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Yale Center for Clinical Investigation receives $63.7 million grant

YALE DAILY NEWS

BY SELIN NALBANTOGLU CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences has awarded $63.7 million in grant funding to the Yale School of Medicine’s Center for Clinical Investigation, money that will support projects ranging from recruiting study participants from communities of color to developing a drug therapy for Type I diabetes. The grant supports the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation, an organization within the School of Medicine dedicated to supporting translational clinical research and training the next generation of clinical investigators. The YCCI previously received funding from the NCATS through its five-year Clinical and Translational Science Award. This new grant is a renewal of the previous grant. “The YCCI is a critical resource for our university, not just the medical school,” said John Krystal, co-director of the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation. “That is partly because translational research, taking new approaches

in research and applying them to patients in order to develop treatments, has become incredibly more elaborate than it once was and requires enormous infrastructure.” According to Krystal, the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation fulfills three main functions as a “resource” for the entire University. First, the YCCI is responsible for conducting research by partnering with Yale New Haven Hospital. The grant also supports the Center’s neuroimaging and genome sequencing laboratories. Second, the Center facilitates the regulatory and administrative side of research by providing support for bioinformatics, analysis of clinical data and administrative management for grant applications. Lastly, YCCI supports career development through grants and research training. For example, pilot grant programs help investigators receive monetary compensation to begin their careers or pivot in a new direction. “No one can claim ownership to the grant and say the grant’s supporting their work only,” said Kevan Herold, deputy director of YCCI.

The entirety of the grant will help maintain the YCCI’s current infrastructures and support the next generation of translational research. Instead of focusing the grant money on a specific project or laboratory, the award will be distributed to maintain the Center’s current projects and support ongoing investigations, according to Herold. The YCCI is also unique in its ability to provide support to investigators without corporate intervention. For example, Herold was able to conduct an investigational new drug application for Type I diabetes without the support of a pharmaceutical company because the YCCI provided the necessary infrastructure. The grant money will help maintain these networks, whether administrative or clinical. According to Krystal, the grant will help the YCCI continue its work on major health and translational research issues. “Translational research has to do with bringing the discoveries of basic science to the bedside,” Herold said. “It has to do with understanding the effects of our treatments on people.” Investigators want to learn more about the healthcare system and how data generated from hospitals can change treatment plans. YNHH and the VA Connecticut Healthcare System generate clinical data that can help researchers track the efficacy of certain treatments and monitor hospital patients’ progress. This data can help meet another YCCI goal: advancing personalized healthcare. According to Krystal, most research only considers a subset of patients that meet a certain criteria for a particular study. However, the average patient is a composite of a wide range of clinical presentations, and each patient is unique. Investigators are interested in considering a variety of factors such as genetics, nutrition or environment when developing a treatment plan for a particular patient.

As such, investigators at the YCCI want to use data from partner hospitals and new computational approaches like machine learning to better understand individual patients. This is not a specific project, but rather a new enterprise that the grant makes possible, Krystal said. The grant money will also support initiatives related to healthcare and patients of color. Historically, many research studies have been focused on white patients, but the YCCI aims to fill this gap through its community-based initiatives, according to Krystal. “We want people who are interested not only in figuring out how to develop a new treatment, but also how to better engage BIPOC patients,” Kyrstal said. Tesheia Johnson, chief operating officer and deputy director of the YCCI, is a leader of the YCCI’s community-based programs. She spearheaded the Cultural Ambassadors Program, an organization that aims to advance patient diversity and equity in clinical research. According to Johnson, the Yale Cultural Ambassadors program began in 2010 after YCCI leadership reached out to community leaders to discuss the lack of diversity within clinical research at Yale. The partnership includes the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Churches of Connecticut, one of the oldest African American congregations in the country, and JUNTA, a Latinx advocacy organization. “The group works directly with investigators through a monthly bi-directional forum that provides an opportunity for Yale researchers to present their work and for Cultural Ambassadors to express the needs of their communities, offer input about the design of clinical studies and give advice on recruitment,” Johnson wrote in an email to the News. “Cultural Ambassadors also work with investigators to create culturally sensitive materials and develop other avenues of accessing hard-to-reach populations.”

Local pastors Reverend Elvin Clayton and Reverend Dr. Leroy O. Perry Jr. are two of the Cultural Ambassadors. Through their church communities, they raise awareness about the importance of patient diversity in clinical trials. According to Johnson, over the past five years, 61 percent of enrolled patients in studies involving the Cultural Ambassadors have been underrepresented minorities. In addition, 97 percent of the underrepresented minorities enrolled in the study remained in it until its completion. Historically, recruiting and retaining underrepresented minorities in clinical research has been a challenge, she said. The partnership between community leaders and the YCCI has substantially improved these representation and retention issues, according to Johnson. The success of the Cultural Ambassadors program led to a Memorandum of Understanding, a formal agreement with the FDA’s Office of Minority Health and Health Equity. According to Johnson, the partnership between the YCCI and the FDA will help develop collaborations, outreach initiatives and educational programs. The NCATS grant will help continue these outreach efforts. “Engaging with community leaders is critical for teaching the YCCI, and the Yale medical research community, both about how to communicate more effectively with our surrounding community and how to conduct research that is more meaningful to our surrounding community.” Krystal said. “This gives us the opportunity to disseminate research more broadly while the interest of the participants is nurtured and protected.” In addition to the NCATS grants, the YCCI also receives support from the Yale School of Medicine. Contact SELIN NALBANTOGLU at selin.nalbantoglu@yale.edu .

Yale leads effort to explore multihazard climate risks in the Himalayas BY BRIAN ZHANG CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Yale scientists led a study on the multi-hazard effects of climate change in the rapidly urbanizing Himalayan region — the culmination of years of multi-institutional collaboration and interdisciplinary research. The research team, consisting of primary contributor and graduate student Jack Rusk, Yale Professor of Geography and Urbanization Science Karen Seto, her lab members, the University of British Columbia, Kumaun University and partnering international agencies, published an article detailing their findings in the journal Science of the Total Environment on Sept. 13. The team credited their efforts to a generous monetary fund and satellite data from NASA. The grant was part of NASA’s focus on sponsoring studies that investigate how urbanization is changing the Earth’s surface over time, Rusk said. “Right after the Nepal earthquake [in 2015], it became clear that there is very little understanding of … the intersection between urban development and hazards,” Seto explained, speaking to the motivation behind the project. With increasingly unpredictable Californian wildfires and large hurricane events, the United States has seen its share of climate-related hazards in recent years. The researchers, however, discuss that the story is different when told from the perspective of developing countries. While urbanization is a “dominating

force in the 21st century,” according to Rusk, its effects “are heterogeneously distributed.” In Nepal, urban development has attracted people to cities due to the relative abundance of education, economic and social opportunities and healthcare services, Rusk said. As a result, 49 percent of the population is highly concentrated within a small number of urbanized areas. These places suffer particularly high casualty counts and the destruction of infrastructure when hazards, namely floods, landslides and fires, strike, according to student project researcher Emma Levin ’23. In trying to carry out their research, the scientists found that the region’s highly mountainous topography not only made satellite observations challenging, but also contributes to the region’s vulnerability to certain hazards. According to Levin, people tend to live in areas where there are more risks, and that climate change is the driving force behind recent increases in the incidence and intensity of said hazards. The project also emphasized understanding connections between how different hazards occur and interact with one another rather than focusing on individual risks. “The way that hazards are managed right now in the Himalayas … you may have one agency managing forest fires … and another land agency managing landslides because they have that mandate,” Rusk said, claiming that a specialized approach may not be effective.

CREATIVE COMMONS

Solutions for one type of hazard can become tradeoffs that increase the possibility of another type happening. To help contextualize this relationship, Rusk gave the example of clearing vegetation to create firelines that can then prevent fires, only to leave behind bare soil susceptible to landsliding. In its study, the team drew upon both quantifiable research methodologies — including data science, mathematical equations and modeling from space — with other techniques, such as local workshops and interviews. The researchers also connected with partner organizations and social

scientists in Nepal, according to Levin and Rusk. By offering resident perspectives and providing on-theground expertise that complemented satellite data, these partnerships were especially helpful during the pandemic, when the team of researchers was not able to stay in the Himalayas for extended periods of time. It was the constant coordination between the Nepalese and Indian organizations that allowed the researchers in New Haven to make sense of their observations from space. Rusk believes that this combined approach shows that “big data sci-

ence” is only one part of any scientific project. What is also central to the discussion is the human side of things — specifically, how this science “square[s] with the understanding of people on the ground, ethnographers and anthropologists” and making that information from space and the lab accessible to local experts, community members and government officials who can then collaborate to engineer potential solutions, he said. According to Rusk, multi-hazard approaches are currently being trialed in the Himalayas. Contact BRIAN ZHANG at brian.zhang@yale.edu .


YALE DAILY NEWS  ·  FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2021  ·  yaledailynews.com

NEWS

PAGE 9

“A revolution is interesting insofar as it avoids like the plague the plague it promised to heal.” DANIEL BERRIGAN AMERICAN PRIEST

Legislators extend Lamont’s emergency powers to February BY SOPHIE SONNENFELD CONTRIBUTING REPORTER In consecutive Connecticut General Assembly special sessions Monday and Tuesday, Connecticut legislators granted Governor Ned Lamont an extension on his emergency public health and civil preparedness powers through Feb. 15. This is the sixth extension granted to Lamont since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. The extension gives him the authority to keep a vaccination mandate for state and nursing home employees, require masks in schools and either vaccinations or regular testing for employees in schools and day care centers. Following four hours of debate Monday afternoon, the state House of Representatives passed the extension 80 to 60, with 11 representatives choosing to abstain. The state Senate voted 18 to 15, with three representatives choosing to abstain. Shouts from dozens of anti-mask and anti-vaccination mandate protestors outside the state capitol reverberated through the chamber walls during the House special session, as state Republicans inside criticized the extension as unwarranted and called on Lamont to step aside. “The emergency declarations make possible, and therefore, should remain in place as we prepare for any possible winter surge and adjust our public health campaign to deal with this continuing emergency,” Lamont wrote in a letter to legislative leaders calling for the special sessions to extend his powers. In the letter, Lamont said he was seeking the extension because “a very small number” of COVID-19 orders are still necessary “to ensure a comprehensive, robust and flexible response to and recovery from the pandemic.”

Martin Looney, Senate president pro tempore of New Haven, supported the extension alongside fellow Democrat state legislators Tuesday. He said it would help the state with its vaccination campaign, and it would allow officials to continue providing emergency fiscal relief and housing to those affected by the pandemic and its economic ripples. “Like it or not, accept it or not, deny it or not, we are still in the midst of an emergency and there are times when executive action has to be taken in a time sensitive way,” Looney said. But state Republicans, as well as two Democrats in the Senate and 10 in the House, voted against the extension. Rep. Jay Case (R-63) said he has been in touch with constituents who work as teachers and in group homes and could lose their jobs over refusing to comply with Lamont’s mandates. He called these instances “discrimination” in the workplace. “People want us here,” Case said. “They want us here working. They feel as though their voice is not being heard and it’s very frustrating.” Others opposing the extension, including Rep. Brian Lanoue (R-45), highlighted worries that vaccine mandates could deepen the already-existing shortage of school bus drivers across the state, although the expected mass exodus of bus drivers due to the vaccine Monday mostly fizzled. On Tuesday afternoon, state officials reported 553 new COVID cases. Hospitalizations are down by five people since yesterday, bringing the total to 259. Many Republicans opposing the extension commended Lamont for Connecticut’s high vaccination rates and low COVID-19 infection rates compared to other states; they cited those numbers

as reason for Lamont to relinquish his emergency powers. “In my opinion there no longer is an emergency,” Rep. Gale Mastrofrancesco (R-80) said at the session. “We are always gonna have a virus, we are always gonna have flus, there will always be a variant coming. That’s just the way we live and we fight them off all the time.” Mastrofrancesco, who does not believe masks “work,” also claimed the governor’s mask mandate in schools leads to distraction in class, headaches and issues with socializing — claims that scientists have pointed out are not true. “Our children can’t breathe in schools with these masks on,” she said. The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement in Aug. 2020 that cloth coverings could be safely worn by all children ages two and older — including the vast majority of children with underlying health conditions — with rare exception. The organization urged cloth face coverings for children when physical distance was not possible, “including while in schools, child care and other group settings.” Mastrofrancesco said the call on vaccine and mask mandates should be left to state legislators. “It is my job as a legislator to make those tough decisions,” she said. “That’s our job. That’s why we were elected. To let the governor make these unilateral decisions without the input from the legislature, without giving us the opportunity to vote on them is just wrong.” The only New Haven official who did not support the extension was Rep. Robyn Porter, who was one of 13 Democrats who voted against another extension of Lamont’s powers in July. Then, Porter told CT Mirror that she was worried about repercussions for legislators who did not support the extension.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Governor Lamont’s emergency powers to tackle COVID-19 recently extended for a sixth time. But New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, who was not present at the special session, told the News that he fully supports the legislature’s decision on extending Lamont’s emergency powers. “The Governor’s emergency declaration is appropriate and necessary for many federal programs, such as FEMA, which is currently helping us house over 100 individuals in non congregate settings,” Elicker wrote to the News on Tuesday. ​​House Majority Leader Rep. Jason Rojas (D-9) expressed similar sentiments at the debate, arguing that the state has benefitted “from the steady leadership” of Lamont over the course of the pandemic. “I’ve grown weary myself of the rhetoric denying what we all know to be true,” Rojas said. “Denial that we still face the continued threat of disruption to our lives due to COVID. Denial that COVID could disrupt our ability to educate our children and keep them in school, allow them to play sports and participate in clubs, to

have some normalcy. That denial is irresponsible.” In Tuesday’s Senate session, Looney said extending Lamont’s emergency powers is more necessary now than when the legislature last extended those powers in July, because of increased rates of infection and the threat of the Delta Variant. Due to an anticipated rise in COVID-19 cases in this fall due to the Delta Variant, Looney said allowing the governor to impose mandates is essential to keeping residents safe. He added that regardless of potential spikes ahead, the current COVID-19 emergency is “not over” for children under 12 who cannot yet receive the vaccine. A law passed in July allows the six top leaders of the Connecticut General Assembly to meet within 72 hours of any orders the Governor issues and potentially repeal those orders. Contact SOPHIE SONNENFELD at sophie.sonnenfeld@yale.edu .

Yale and local Labor unions arrive at tentative contract agreement BY SAI RAYALA STAFF REPORTER After nearly 15 months of negotiations, Yale University and two local labor unions have reached a tentative agreement for a fiveyear labor contract. University officials announced on Monday that Yale had reached a tentative labor deal with union representatives from Local 34 and 35 UNITE HERE. The two unions represent Yale’s service, clerical, technical and maintenance workers. The agreement covers more than 5,000 unionized staff members working in research, administrative, clinical, dining hospitality, facilities and plant positions at Yale. The contracts were a point of contention during the “Yale: Respect New Haven” car rally in May, when union members called on Yale not to cut salaries and benefits. “I am delighted that we have reached tentative agreements with Local 34 and Local 35,” University President Peter Salovey said in a Monday evening state-

ment. “Yale’s strong partnership with our unions has helped the community overcome many challenges, including the unforeseen difficulties brought about by the pandemic. I am deeply grateful for all that we have accomplished together and look forward to the work ahead of us.” The tentative agreement is subject to ratification by union members, which will take place in October. Ian Dunn, spokesperson for UNITE HERE, told the News that both Locals 34 and 35 are expected to have ratification meetings on Oct. 20, when a majority of the union members must agree to ratify the contract. If ratified, the contract will go into effect in January 2022 and last until 2027. “We have reached a tentative agreement with Yale University!” Local 34 posted on Facebook Tuesday afternoon. “Together we have fought for and secured the terms of a five-year contract that introduces historic new job security protections while protecting our economics and securing our retirement.”

The University’s press release stated that the 15 months of negotiations were conducted solely through video-conferencing technology. As the sides hashed out the contracts, union members spoke out against preliminary contract offers that they said included salary and benefit cuts. In the May protest over contract negotiations, workers stressed the importance of job stability, healthcare and retirement benefits and increased hiring of New Haven residents. University spokesperson Karen Peart referred the News to the press release. The University and union members worked to “preserve employment for union staff, provide unique COVID-related benefits, return employees to on-campus jobs with new safety procedures, agree on future wages and benefits, and creatively address union interests regarding job security and engagement in light of the accelerated use of technology in the workplace.” The press release also stated that more details about the

NATALIE KAINZ/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

The tentative agreement that all parties reached covers more than 5,000 unionized staff members at the University. terms of the contract would be available after ratification in October. Dunn said union leaders would not be able to comment on the tentative agreement until then.

The last time Locals 34 and 35 ratified contracts with Yale was in 2017. Contact SAI RAYALA at sai.rayala@yale.edu .


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YALE DAILY NEWS  ·  FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2021  ·  yaledailynews.com

SPORTS

“There is no harm in dreaming of becoming the world’s best player. It is all about trying to be the best. I will keep working hard to achieve it but it is within my capabilities.” CRISTIANO RONALDO PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALLER

Whaling Crew supports student athletes

YALE DAILY NEWS

The Whaling Crew is a tailgate group populated with students cheering on the Elis at sporting events. WHALING CREW FROM PAGE 14 Last week’s Cornell tailgate was the Whaling Crew’s third event of the 2021-22 school year. In the weeks prior, the Whaling Crew was present at women’s volleyball and women’s soccer matches. The group plans to keep supporting Yale’s various teams by showing up to at least one game a week. The COVID-19 pandemic proved to be a tough hurdle to overcome for a group so dedicated to the fan experience. “Honestly, I wish we had done a lot more to keep the group together during COVID ... but it is definitely an in-person club,” said former co-President Maya Sanghvi ’23. “There were a lot of lifestyle changes during COVID, and honestly not going to sporting events felt like the least of my worries at the time. In retrospect, it was really sad not to see the awesome people in the crew once a week for the whole year.” Roberts echoed that sentiment, stating that he believes that a major draw of the Whaling Crew is spending time with others in the group and that the pandemic made it much harder to do so. Even though Yale’s social distancing guidelines remain in place, the group is still full of optimism for the upcoming year. The Crew hopes to rebuild much of the com-

munity they lost last year, while also growing their ranks — especially among new underclassmen. The football tailgate on Saturday featured many veteran Whaling Crew members, but a few first years also took the time to stop by to enjoy hot-off-thegrill burgers, drink refreshing ice-cold water and make signs to mock Cornell. Bradley Bennett ’25, who had never attended a Whaling Crew event before Saturday, thought that the tailgate “was a really fun way to spend [his] time before the game started … [and] would definitely go back for [the] next home game.” The Whaling Crew community welcomes Yalies of every year. According to Roberts, the group prides itself on its spirited environment and strong group ties, and they hope that it can play an important role in rebuilding Yale’s community after the pandemic. “Sports bring the community together… It’s very important up here at Yale,” said Roberts. “The community here is so diverse that creating something everybody can get behind definitely, not to be cliche, increases school spirit and also builds a community where everybody can get along.” The Whaling Crew was founded in 2011. Contact ANDREW CRAMER at andrew.cramer@yale.edu .

A close look at Football strategy FOOTBALL FROM PAGE 14 After a successful rehab in the offseason following his earlier leg injury, Rawlings entered 2019 as the team’s unquestioned starter, where he went on to rewrite Yale record books himself en route to securing a second Ivy League title in three years. “Kurt has been such a good role model and great friend for me over the past several years,” O’Connor said. “Particularly during my sophomore year in 2019, I felt that the competition in that [quarterback] room served the team extremely well. … I think you saw that during my first year when I had to step up for Kurt after his injury, and I still have that same mindset and drive to compete this year.” This year, O’Connor made his much anticipated debut as Team 148’s full-time starting quarterback against Holy Cross. Reno, however, had something new up his sleeve. Backup quarterback Nolan Grooms ’24 saw extended game action, leading a field goal drive in the third quarter to tie the game. Grooms finished the game with three passing attempts, six rushes and a number of other snaps on the field, including one at wide receiver. The following week against Cornell, Grooms appeared in just four plays throughout the game. All of his snaps came within the first few offensive possessions in the first quarter and only one was a passing play. After O’Connor appeared to settle into the game in the second quarter, Grooms never reentered. “With that in mind, as I look at the quarterback room now, we have some great players like Nolan Grooms who you’ll see on the field a lot this year,” O’Connor said. “I think that it will prepare us to always have a guy ready.” A dual-quarterback scheme is relatively new to the NFL, but it has clearly piqued the Bulldogs coaching staff’s interest. An apt comparison, first made by Coach Reno in a press conference after the Holy Cross contest, is the New Orleans Saints’ package with Taysom Hill and now-retired Drew Brees that took form in the 2018 NFL season. “We looked at our roster and said, ‘How do we best showcase the guys we have that we feel can really help the team to be successful?’” Reno said. “We looked at Brees and Hill and said ‘Okay, it’s pretty interesting to see what the Saints are doing with these guys, where they aren’t rotating quarterbacks but they are using them in situations where they feel their skillset can best help the team.” To that end, the Elis have been ensuring that their pass catchers get exposure to both quarterbacks. “In practice, we’re able to get comfortable with both quarterbacks,” wide receiver Mason

SAAC focuses on athlete wellness SAAC FROM PAGE 14 student-athletes on their mental health experience. The SAAC also hosted the Bulldog Cup Challenge, a friendly competition between varsity sports teams to increase student-athlete participation and community service. The competition’s winning team received $500 from Under Armour for a locker room upgrade. Last fall, the committee held the inaugural Bulldog Ballot Challenge, which succeeded in getting 100 percent of eligible student-athletes and coaches registered to vote. This year, the SAAC plans to continue these efforts and also focus on re-establishing in-person meetings and social events, which typically include study breaks and SAAC-sponsored games. The committee also hopes to build its social media presence to increase student engagement and publicize home games. One of the SAAC’s first initiatives this year is “Let’s Talk,” a weekly program from 3-5 p.m. on Wednesdays where student athletes can book a 20 minute session to talk with Dr. Karen Hoffman from Yale Mental Health and Counseling. The group also plans on continu-

Tipton ’24 said. “We get a lot of reps with both of those guys. Both of those guys are ridiculously talented to be on the field. I think it actually helps the flow of the offense when you consider what both can do. Especially as a receiver, I know both of them can really get the job done. I think that in time, it’s going to look a lot better as both get more experience just from being out there. I think in time it’s going to work really well for our offense.” Hill first signed with the Green Bay Packers in 2017 as an undrafted free agent out of Brigham Young University. He was unable to stick in Green Bay and was cut on September 2 as the Packers trimmed their roster to 53 players. The Saints claimed Hill off waivers the next day. Over the course of the next few seasons, the Saints began to deploy Hill in a variety of unique roles. He played special teams, blocking a punt in 2019, caught a touchdown from Brees as a tight end and got some opportunities as a passer. The most unique part of what Yale has showcased thus far is the lack of time the quarterbacks have shared on the field. In two games, Grooms and O’Connor have rarely taken the field together, but the Bulldogs did feature one play in the Holy Cross game coming with Grooms split out wide and O’Connor under center. The Saints started the trend, but the rest of the league quickly began to catch up. Comparisons might be better made to the Eagles’ use of Jalen Hurts and Carson Wentz in 2020, which has extended to the San Francisco 49ers and Chicago Bears this year. The Eagles controversially drafted Hurts in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft. The team had just committed 128 million dollars to Wentz, whom they drafted second overall five years prior. “With Jalen Hurts, he has a unique skill set,” former Eagles head coach Doug Pederson said after the selection. “You see what Taysom Hill has done in New Orleans, and now he and Drew Brees have a connection there and a bond there, and you even look at when [Joe] Flacco and Lamar [Jackson] in Baltimore in the short period of time — how they gelled together. It’s just something we’re going to explore.” Pederson and the Eagles’ coaching staff slowly began rotating Hurts into games, eventually giving him action without Wentz on the field. As the season progressed and Wentz’s play declined, Hurts began seeing more game action and ultimately took over the starting job. Wentz demanded a trade in the following offseason and the Eagles dealt him to the Indianapolis Colts.

KAREN LIN/PHOTO EDITOR

ing a series of wellness workshops in collaboration with the Good Life Center, which focus on promoting dialogue surrounding the mental health of student-athletes. “Student athletes on campus are facing a lot of different [issues] in different ways.” SAAC YUMatter Chair Izzi Henig ’23 told the News. “I would love to combat that culture of silence around athletics because I think that sometimes those things are very hard to talk about, especially in the context of a place where you’re supposed to be super strong. We student athletes are stronger together — asking for

help doesn’t make you vulnerable, it makes you stronger.” For student-athletes who want to get involved with the committee, SAAC Vice President Anisha Arcot ’23 suggests they attend monthly All-SAAC meetings and SAAC-sponsored events. Information on these meetings and events can be found in the weekly student-athlete newsletter, which is sent out every Monday. All eight Ivy League schools have SAACs. Contact YUSUF RASHEED at yusuf.rasheed@yale.edu .

Contact JARED FEL at jared.fel@yale.edu and NADER GRANMAYEH at nader.granmayeh@yale.edu .

Sailing makes waves at Mrs. Hurst Bowl SAILING FROM PAGE 14

The SAAC implemented a weekly check-in initiative this year for student athletes to speak 1-on-1 with a Yale Mental Health and Counseling professional.

Hurts played in nine of 12 games prior to taking over for Wentz full time but only threw the ball three times. The Eagles preferred to take advantage of his ability to run with the football, giving him 12 opportunities to do so when he was still the backup and targeting him through the air once. Grooms, like Hurts in 2020, has been given more chances to run the ball this year than do damage with his arm. This year, other NFL teams followed the Eagles lead and began rotating backup quarterbacks into game action. Namely, the 49ers with Trey Lance. The Niners drafted Lance out of North Dakota State with the fourth overall pick in this past year’s NFL draft. In an almost identical situation to the Bulldogs’ use of Grooms, the 49ers sprinkled Lance into their offense in the first quarter of the season opener. Lance had three rushing carries and threw his team’s first touchdown of 2021. The 49ers kept him off the field the following week. Following the Niners’ first game, former NFL quarterback and Fox Sports color commentator Mark Sanchez empathized with 49ers starter Jimmy Garoppolo. “That is one of the toughest things for a quarterback, I gotta say. When you convert a first down and in comes your replacement, you can’t get into a rhythm.” That ended up being Lance’s only pass of the game. "It's always an option throughout the game,” 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said after week two. “It's been two games and I've never had him in the openers and I've never had him at a designated time. I plan on doing that weekto-week and whenever I feel like putting him in. You saw when I did in week one and I never got that urge in week two.” Reno gave a similar justification for their dual quarterback scheme following the Elis win over Cornell. “There’s a lot of things that go into it, a lot of situational things,” Reno said. “When you’re in some of those situations where we can really take advantage of what Nolan can do on the field, we’ll do it. If we don’t get in those situations, we’re not going to force them. So, some games you could see more of him, some games you could see less. Nolan is a heck of a player and made a huge contribution to the team and those opportunities and those situations will come. We’re just going to take them in stride.” O’Connor, Grooms and the Bulldogs will take on Lehigh this Saturday at 12 p.m. in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

hosted by the University of Rhode Island. The Blue and White will also be racing in Connecticut, participating in the Sacred Heart Trophy and the Coast Guard’s Danmark Trophy. Yale will also be returning to Tufts to sail at the Lark Invite. The Bulldogs proved victorious at Sister Esther, Sacred Heart and Lark in 2019. The women’s team is headed south to St. Mary’s College of

Maryland to compete at the first round of the Atlantic Coast qualifiers, where they will be hoping to punch an early ticket to the fall championships hosted by Harvard on the notoriously shifty Charles River. The victory at Mrs. Hurst marks Yale’s fifth regatta win in three weekends. Contact MELANIE HELLER at melanie.heller@yale.edu .

YALE ATHLETICS

The coed teams placed fifth at the Hoyt Trophy, and third and seventh at the Hood Trophy.


YALE DAILY NEWS  ·  FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2021  ·  yaledailynews.com

NEWS

PAGE 11

“If you make money your god, it will plague you like the devil.”  HENRY FIELDING ENGLISH NOVELIST

SOM’s asset management program begins its first year BY BRIAN ZHANG CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The School of Management welcomed to campus its inaugural class of students pursuing master’s degrees in asset management. The new program’s inaugural class contains 56 students hailing from 13 different countries. Classes officially started on Sept. 1, following two weeks of boot camp and orientation in which students honed quantitative skills, learned about the program through sample lectures and got the opportunity to meet one another in recreational settings. The program had been slated to begin in the 2020-21 academic year, but its inaugural year was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “The program was developed by Professor Tobias Moskowitz and former Yale Investments Office CIO David Swensen to fill a need and demand for a finance program devoted to asset management that combines academic theory and practice,” Emily Whitehouse, SOM associate director of admissions, wrote in an email to the News. “The curriculum is truly unique, as it is taught by top

finance scholars at Yale SOM and leading investment managers at some of the world’s most successful firms and funds.” The program’s curriculum emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach to finance. Students must apply data science and coding strategies to solve real-world investment problems while considering the ethics of their decisions. In addition to their studies, students may also participate in a colloquium which invites financial executives and investors as guest speakers. Program chair Tobias Moskowitz said that one of his motivations for starting the program was to fill a “sorely missing gap” in the training of asset managers worldwide. “Our goal was to create a curriculum that not only trained future generations of asset managers but taught them how to do it ‘the right way,’” Moskowitz wrote in an email to the News. “The right way means putting your clients first in a fiduciary and socially responsible manner.” Moskowitz added that the mantra “do well while also doing good” was a hallmark of former endowment manager David

Swensen’s career. Swensen, who recently passed away, worked closely with Moskowtiz to develop the asset management program. Moskowitz said that Yale is uniquely suited to bring out the best in a program centered on asset management, citing the University’s history of financial research and its partnerships with other investment institutions, practitioners and leaders. All students in the program must take four core classes in the fall semester: “Asset Pricing Theory,” “Quantitative Investing,” “Financial Econometrics and Machine Learning” and “Investment Analysis and Private Equity.” In the spring semester, students are required to take “Behavioral Finance,” but may also explore the University’s other courses. Yalan Xiao SOM ’22 highlighted the multidisciplinary nature of the program’s courses, saying that some classes stress quantitative techniques in math and programming while others incorporate case studies. Xiao noted that the classes have been quite academically rigorous

KAI NIP/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Inaugural cohort of 56 students begins first-ever program in asset management at SOM. — a sentiment that Flurin Reiser SOM ’22 echoed to the News. “[My classmates] didn’t have a lot of time for leisure,” Xiao said. “It’s kind of overwhelming … these past few weeks.” The application process for the 2021-22 inaugural class began in 2020. However, the program was deferred for one year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Xiao. She said that students

had the option to either pursue a master’s program in Global Business and Society virtually through the SOM or to postpone their matriculation into the asset management program until 2021. The program is currently accepting applications for its 2022-2023 cohort. Contact BRIAN ZHANG at brian.zhang@yale.edu .

Residential college butteries make a comeback BY WARUGURU KIBUGA STAFF REPORTER After more than a year, residential college butteries — or late-night cafes — are finally up and running again, offering boba, cookie dough and midnight conversations. A few weeks into the fall 2021 semester, residential colleges have started to relaunch their butteries and Yalies are flocking to their college basements to enjoy the cheap food and drinks, as well as to reconnect with their residential college communities. As of Sept. 30, all residential college butteries are open besides those in Morse, Pierson, Saybrook, Grace Hopper and Jonathan Edwards colleges. In the past, the butteries have functioned as social hubs, work spaces and ideal spots for a late-night study break for Yale undergraduates. Many butteries include spaces for academic work and collaborative studying, as well as games and entertainment including pool and table tennis, which are open to all members of the residential colleges and their guests. “It’s one of the best places to create community,” said Berkeley College Head Aide Adomo Addo ’22, who works in the buttery. “It’s a great place for people to de-stress and relax.” This year, colleges are pulling out all the stops when craft-

ing their new menus. Pauli Murray College has added boba, fried rice and even fresh smoothies to its buttery menu. Yalies are also excited for the return of buttery classics like cookie dough, chicken quesadillas and chicken tenders. But the overarching sentiment is excitement for the sense of community that the butteries create. “It was nice because, as a freshman, [butteries were] a way to hang out with and get to know the upperclassmen,” Christine Zhu ’23 said. But not all is the same as pre-pandemic times. As each residential college finds its footing with COVID-19 regulations and safety concerns, some precautions remain in place for all buttery spaces. In all open butteries, students must wear a mask unless they are eating or drinking, and buttery workers are encouraged to keep an eye on crowding and congestion. “We encourage people to grab and go. We’re trying to keep it as small as possible,” Addo said about the Berkeley College buttery. For Yale’s first-years and sophomores, this year marks their first time experiencing the residential college butteries. But for many upperclassmen, including Abdoulie Sarr ’23, the butteries were formative spaces in their early college experiences and are now a way to connect with old friends and return to the Yale that they always knew.

AMAY TEWARI/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

For the first time since the spring 2020 semester, Yalies return to butteries for late-night snacks and community. Sarr added that the butteries’ openings still mark a much-needed return to preCOVID-19 times, even with precautions in place.

“It was great for the Franklin community to come together and connect over our love for ramen and mozz sticks,” Sarr said. “It meant that Yale was finally returning back to normal.”

There are 14 residential colleges at Yale. Contact WARUGURU KIBUGA at waruguru.kibuga@yale.edu .

Q House, a community center in Dixwell, readies for October reopen

COURTESY OF KEN YANAGISAWA

The rebuild, which culminates in a ribbon-cutting at the end of October, is a decade in the making. BY BRIAN ZHANG CONTIRBUTING REPORTER Following a decade of public pressure to rebuild the Q House — a community center in the historically low-income Dixwell neighborhood — the Board of Alders on Thursday approved what it referred to as the last step of the project: a 20-year initial lease of 15,374 square feet of space for the soon-to-reopen center.

The Q House advisory board met virtually on Monday to finalize the details leading up to a ribbon-cutting ceremony that will be held on Oct. 30. The board explained some of the features, programs and facilities that the public can expect to access. “I’m just so excited that all these are programs from New Haven people to New Haven people,” Ward 22 Alder Jeanette Morrison,

chair of the advisory board, said at the meeting. The reopening, along with the various social services that the new center plans to offer, was made possible by the center’s partnerships. These include the New Haven Free Public Library, the Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center and the New Haven Department of Elderly Services. After city officials deemed that it would be more sustainable to rebuild the community center on Dixwell Ave. rather than renovate it — leading to the demolition of the old Q House in January 2016 — several legislative steps have been taken to approve funds for the new building. In June, the Board of Alders approved a three-year, $300,000 contract between New Haven and Leadership, Education, and Athletics in Partnership, a nonprofit organization that provides tutoring and swimming instruction services. The contract gave LEAP the jurisdiction to manage the new center. “The building is fully signed off by the building department,” city engineer Giovanni Zinn said on Monday. “It is also fully signed off by engineering, traffic and park-

ing. We have full unlimited use of the building for any programs or anything else.” Traditionally, the Q House offered various social and recreational services for the Dixwell neighborhood, with specific programs tailored toward senior citizens and New Haven’s Black community. The new center features African motifs and designs in both the exterior and interior, thanks to the efforts of Regina Winters-Toussaint ARCH ’94, who was one of the first Black women to graduate from the School of Architecture and who served as architect for the project before she passed away in Apr. 2016. The new Q House will offer a wide variety of services and activities, ranging from sports programs to mental health support. The center will also provide career services, according to LEAP Executive Director Henry Fernandez. “We’ve ... done meetings with the folks at Yale Hiring as well,” Fernandez said.“[Discussing] potentially using some space ... for job readiness training so that people are in a position to apply for jobs — in particular, for jobs at Yale.” According to Fernandez, the new building will feature a secu-

rity camera and a specialized air filtration system to accommodate activities during the pandemic. There will also be sensors that adjust room temperatures based upon the number of people in a room. To account for COVID-19 restrictions, the center will facilitate small group tours of about 10 people each during the ribbon-cutting ceremony, which is scheduled to happen from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Dixwell outdoors plaza on Oct. 30. The tours will include both an exploration of building facilities and question-and-answer sessions in specific sections with partner organizations. There are still a few issues that need to be addressed, Q House leaders said. Zinn mentioned delays in furniture trucking, which is making it challenging to install furniture, and Fernandez said that the center still had a directorship position that needed to be filled. The next Q House advisory board discussion is scheduled for Oct. 25 at 6:30 p.m., five days before the opening ceremony. Contact BRIAN ZHANG at brian.zhang@yale.edu .


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YALE DAILY NEWS  ·  FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2021  ·  yaledailynews.com

THROUGH THE LENS

I

took a job as a Photo Editor to elevate the visuals of the Yale Daily News, and I had so much fun doing everything but

that. I was an FGLI rural Mississippi student 3 weeks into my First Year when I got my first assignment for the YDN. To be frank, I didn’t think I belonged on this campus, much less the YDN. I had never even done photojournalism before - I honestly thought I might just be a sports photographer and pursue law school after undergrad - but I took the flash assignment photographing Mayor Elicker’s primary win and celebration anyways. What’s the worst that could happen? I rushed to the venue from the dining hall, pushed and shoved my way past TV cameramen and got the shot. The photo went first page the next day. I got a copy and cried looking at it in my dorm room. While the tears were flowing, I got an email from EIC Sammy Westfall congratulating me on the photo. I’ll never forget that message. Right then on my dorm room floor, I knew that I wanted to tell stories for the rest of my life. The YDN gave me that. And even more than a complete life-plan change, the YDN gave me the opportunity to meet the people who are now my best friends. This newspaper is a beautiful thing, not only for what it does for the community of Yale and New Haven, but also for what it does for the people who have the honor of putting it together. It has changed my life. I have all of you to thank for that. Until next time, LUKAS FLIPPO

reports.


YALE DAILY NEWS  ·  FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2021  ·  yaledailynews.com

NEWS

PAGE 13

“The Renaissance took place in chaos and plague.” SHIVA AYYADURAI INDIAN-AMERICAN ENTREPRENEUR

NHPS, Connecticut set the groundwork for ethnic studies BY CHRISTIAN ROBLES, JABEZ CHOI AND PIA BALDWIN EDWARDS CITY EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS In the midst of a nationwide debate regarding how teachers are permitted to teach about race in K-12 schools, Connecticut has become the first state to require that public high schools offer an elective African American and Latinx studies combined course. Starting next fall, Connecticut public high schools will be required to offer the elective course. Beginning in the 2023-24 school year, schools will also be required to include Native American studies in their social studies curricula. The requirement for schools to offer the elective course was signed by Governor Ned Lamont in June 2019 and the Connecticut State Board of Education unanimously approved its curriculum last December. New Haven area organizations and one Yale professor have played a significant role in the courses’ creation and implementation. “Who’s going to tell our history?” said Addys Castillo, executive director of the Citywide Youth Coalition (CWYC). “Are our grandchildren going to be talking about folks that they never met or are they going to be talking about the sheroes and heroes there right now?” CWYC, a grassroots New Haven organization that advocates for youth voices, was one of many organizations that pushed for the Black and Latinx studies requirement. Castillo said that CWYC students, in tandem with groups affiliated with the Black and Brown Student Union, a group of youth and adult organizers in Connecticut committed to youth justice, showed up to testify for the legislation in March 2019. After the bill passed the state legislature, students continued to show support for the course, sending letters to legislators to express their enthusiasm. “Young people are at the forefront of change,” Castillo said. “Adults will follow behind.” Castillo explained that the original plan for the Black and Latinx studies requirement was to offer two courses — one for Black studies and the other for Latinx studies — instead of one combined course. Legislators were concerned that the two courses would not pass, so they combined them into one, Castillo said. When stu-

dents and educators suggested edits to the legislation, Castillo said none were implemented. “It would mean adding an entire level of critical race theory and the legislators weren’t ready for that,” Castillo said about the benefit of having two courses. “I think it’s still missing that portion, to be honest.” The state’s approved curriculum for the new elective teaches Black history in one semester and Latinx history in another. The first semester is divided into six units, which include topics such as the social construction of race, the struggle against Jim Crow and the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement. The second semester is divided into five units, which include topics such as the diversity of Latino cultures, the suppression of Indigenous languages in the Americas and the legacy of U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico. Castillo added that the CWYC’s work was modeled after an organization based in Seattle called Ending the Prison Industrial Complex, or EPIC. She further emphasized that while local organizers have been promoting the courses for their communities, the push for equitable education is a national priority. According to Chalkbeat, a premier education news outlet, 28 states have seen political efforts to “restrict education on racism, bias, the contributions of specific racial or ethnic groups to U.S. history or related topics.” For example, this past summer Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a law that banned the teaching of the New York Times’ 1619 project and prohibits students from getting school credit for participation in civic engagement activities. Proponents in the state legislature said that some Texas teachers were distorting the United States’ founding before the law’s passage. The education outlet tracked 15 states, including Connecticut, that have seen efforts to expand education on racism, bias and minority contributions to U.S. history. In Connecticut, a small number of “ban critical race theory” signs have appeared in wealthier suburbs, and some parents have decried anti-racist education at their local school boards. Implementing ethnic studies Shortly after the state legislature approved the Black and Latinx studies elective course in June 2019, Connecticut educators and

YALE DAILY NEWS

Black and Latinx studies will be mandatory in Connecticut high schools beginning in fall of 2022. community members formed the Anti Racist Teaching & Learning Collective (ARTLC). Nataliya Braginsky, a social studies teacher at the Metropolitan Business Academy, is a part of ARTLC’s steering committee. In an interview with the News, she said that throughout her K-12 education, she was taught the “dominant, Eurocentric” version of history, which included reading literature predominantly written by white people. She said that this kind of education leaves out “a huge part of the story.” Today, Braginsky has worked with ARTLC to help teachers implement narratives from marginalized communities in their curricula. “I think it’s also about not just what we teach, it’s also about how we write,” Braginsky said. “And there are so many pedagogical practices that promote education as a form of liberation, rather than education as a … model in which students are the active recipients of information from some kind of all knowing expert.” Braginsky recently won the 2021 National History Teacher of the Year award, and part of the strategy to her success is asking her students what they want to learn, she said. “One of their biggest pieces of feedback is that they don’t want to learn the same things over and over

again, they want new narratives,” she explained. Braginsky also said she aims to balance histories of oppression and domination with stories of resistance and collective struggle. “I really tried to focus my curriculum on movement rather than [the] individual, because that’s how I think history is actually made, and too often I think it’s taught as sort of the story of individual heroes, rather than collective struggles, which is how change happens.” Members of the Yale community have been involved in the push for the implementation of the course. Daniel HoSang, associate professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, Race and Migration, is a member of ARTLC’s steering committee. Through the Yale New Haven Teaching Initiative, HoSang has taught 13-week long seminars informing local teachers on anti-racist pedagogy and strategies. “I’ve certainly learned a lot from them about pedagogy, about the challenges they face and trying to adapt and innovate in their curriculum,” HoSang said. HoSang also emphasized the efforts Yale students have made, citing student interns working with ARTLC in developing the organization’s website and sending out weekly newsletters. The

student interns have also worked with other youth activist groups. HoSang agreed with Castillo that the legislation is limited in certain ways. Due to the pandemic, public engagement within the advisory group overseeing the legislation through the State Education Research Center was limited. The advisory group was made up of nine committees that oversaw the creation of the course, from development of the course syllabus to the implementation of the course itself. “The actual content was done by a small number of people,” HoSang noted. “We think there was an error in not really allowing teachers and students to help shape the process more.” Anticipating future challenges, HoSang expects a “learning period” in the implementation of the courses. He mentioned that varying levels of confidence and attitudes toward teaching the courses will add to those challenges. Public Act 19-12 — the act concerning the inclusion of Black and Latinx studies in public school curriculum — took effect on July 1, 2021. Contact CHRISTIAN ROBLES at christian.robles@yale.edu, JABEZ CHOI at jabez.choi@yale.edu and PIA BALDWIN EDWARDS at pia.baldwinedwards@yale.edu .


W. SOCCER Harvard 3 Penn 0

VOLLEYBALL Columbia 3 Cornell 1

SPORTS

FOOTBALL Dartmouth 41 Sacred Heart 3

FIELD HOCKEY Harvard 4 Columbia 1

FOOTBALL Harvard 49 Brown 17

FOR MORE SPORTS CONTENT, VISIT OUR WEB SITE goydn.com/YDNsports Twitter: @YDNSports YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD STUDENT ATHLETES AS EMPLOYEES On Wednesday, National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo circulated a memo to field offices stating that student athletes are employees under the National Labor Relations Act. Read more on page 1.

CROSS COUNTRY BATTLE IN BEANTOWN Last Friday, Kayley DeLay and Robert Miranda ’22 finished third and ninth, respectively, at the Battle in Beantown. The men’s and women’s teams placed seventh and eighth out of 20 and 22 teams, respectively.

Whaling Crew supports athletes WHALING CREW

“The community here is so diverse that creating something everybody can get behind definitely, not to be cliche, increases school spirit.” LINTON ROBERTS ’24 PRES. OF WHALING CREW

The inspiration behind Team 148's offense BY JARED FEL AND NADER GRANMAYEH STAFF REPORTERS The Yale football team is familiar with having a dynamic quarterback room. One can look back nearly three years to see this play out on Oct. 19, 2018, when the Bulldogs found themselves in a gritty battle against Penn.

FOOTBALL Needing 10 yards to secure a first down, star quarterback Kurt Rawlings ’20 elusively scrambled towards the right sideline. Before he could hustle out of bounds, Rawlings was met by a charging Quaker who awkwardly tackled the Maryland native to the ground. Yale’s starting quarterback had just suffered a season-ending leg injury. The Bulldogs’ next-man-up mindset, which had already kept the Blue and White afloat prior

to Rawlings going down with the earlier sidelining of running back Zane Dudek ’22, would be on full display in the games to come. After experimenting with Jimmy Check ’21 and Patrick Conte ’22 at quarterback, head coach Tony Reno decided to give the reins of the offense to then-rookie signal-caller Griffin O’Connor ’23 for the season’s final three games. O’Connor went on to amass 1,229 passing yards and eight touchdowns, breaking a Yale single-game school record with 465 passing yards in a matchup against undefeated Princeton in the process. For this, the California native won Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors. Despite O’Connor’s herculean effort, the Bulldogs went just 1–2 in his three games and finished the year 3–4 against Ancient Eight opponents. SEE FOOTBALL PAGE 10

YALE DAILY NEWS

Students cheer on the Yale football team at The Game in 2019. BY ANDREW CRAMER CONTRIBUTING REPORTER After a long year devoid of athletics, the Whaling Crew — Yale’s athletics tailgating group — is back outside of the Yale Bowl to grill burgers and cheer on the school’s various sport teams.

Most recently, the group showed up to cheer on the football team against Cornell on Sept. 25. However, the team has been a constant presence at home games this fall. “This year, as sports are back, I think it’s incredibly important to get back on the rails and

try to get everybody excited about sports because half of the student population here haven’t gone to a Yale sports game before,” Whaling Crew President Linton Roberts ’24 said in an interview with the News.

SAAC looks to build on last year’s momentum

SEE WHALING CREW PAGE 10

Bulldogs place in Boston BY MELANIE HELLER STAFF REPORTER On the third weekend of competition, the Yale sailing teams competed in a number of races across New England. The women’s team captured a victory at Dartmouth’s Mrs. Hurst Bowl, while the coed teams finished in third and seventh at Tufts’ Hood Trophy as well as fifth at Brownhosted Hoyt Trophy.

SAILING PAULA PINEDA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee is focusing on mental health and wellbeing this semester. BY YUSUF RASHEED CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee aims to improve all aspects of student-athlete life and helps provide student input on pressing issues to the Athletic Department. After launching several new programs for student-athletes last year, the committee is continuing old efforts and adopting new ones this year.

SAAC Made up of an executive board comprising four specialized subcommittees — Events, YUMatter, Bulldog Cup and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging — along with student representatives from every varsity team, the committee works closely alongside Yale Athletics. According to SAAC President Chelsea Kung ’23, the

SAAC is not independent from Yale Athletics and works alongside senior administrative staff to determine what the committee can feasibly achieve. Last year, the organization implemented a variety of initiatives that support student-athlete well-being. “Our biggest goal is to improve the lives of student athletes.” Kung told the News. “Last year, there was a huge focus on mental health. Student athletes basically lost part of their identity with no competition and no practices. I plan to continue the effort on mental health, as well as explore further what we can do for our athletes.” During the pandemic, the SAAC spearheaded several initiatives for the athletic community. The committee launched its YUMatter video in the spring that promoted mental health advocacy through testimonials from

STAT OF THE WEEK

SEE SAAC PAGE 10

2

YALE ATHLETICS

Over the years, the football team's dynamic quarterback room has proven to be successful.

While there was only a light breeze on Saturday at Tufts, the wind picked up on Sunday to make for an exciting finish to the weekend competition. “[Because] the wind picked up on Sunday… we had some really nice pressure and very competitive races,” Catherine Cheung ’24 told Yale Athletics. “It was great experiencing the mysteries of Mystic Lake, sailing in Larks and spending time with the team.” Cheung, along with Nicholas Davies ’24, Becca Rose ’22 and Christophe Chaumont ’23, made up one of the two Yale teams that raced at Tufts. Their team finished the weekend in third place behind host Tufts and Boston College, while Yale’s second boat finished in seventh. In 2019, the last time the race was held, the Elis took second at the Hood. The wind also proved to be an issue in Hanover at the Mrs. Hurst Bowl. Depending on direction and velocity, sailors must adapt their boats to the conditions to sail most effectively. With barely any wind to fill the 420-class sail-

boats, only a few races were completed on Saturday. According to head coach Zachary Leonard ’89, ”Every wind condition is important to master so we are not too concerned if we have light wind or lots of wind.” Coming into the second day in pole position, the women’s team gave away its lead early on Sunday. After trailing behind Bowdoin and Brown, the Bulldogs dug deep and surpassed the Polar Bears and Bears to finish in first. Yale’s victory this year marks an improvement from its second-place finish in 2019. “The wind built throughout the day on Sunday making for exciting racing,” Megan Grimes ’24 said to Yale Athletics. “While our scores were up and down, it was a productive weekend and we all learned a lot.” At Brown, Yale took on tough competition at the Hoyt Trophy.

Though pair Carmen Cowles ’25 and Meredith Ryan ’23 placed second in the B division, the team was unable to match the 2019 team’s victory, finishing in fifth behind Harvard, Brown, the University of Rhode Island and the United States Coast Guard Academy. Originally, a fourth regatta — the Yale Invite — was in the books to compete this weekend. According to Leonard, the home regatta was canceled due to an insufficient number of teams as a result of last-minute team changes from other schools. The Bulldogs brought eight boats to the 2019 iteration of the event, where they swept the podium. This week, Yale sailors will be participating in six events. In Rhode Island, Bulldogs will sail at the Sister Esther Trophy at Salve Regina and the Moody Trophy SEE SAILING PAGE 10

YALE DAILY NEWS

Despite another weekend of still air, the Yale women’s sailing team finished in first at the Mrs. Hurst Bowl at Dartmouth.

THE NUMBER OF TIMES RODNEY THOMAS II ’22 HAS HAD TWO INTERCEPTIONS AGAINST CORNELL.


FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2021

WEEKEND

// ARIANE DE GENNARO

Meet Yale’s Newest Social Club:

THE COUNCIL OF DAVIDS // BY IRIS TSOURIS When David Gallagher ’22 placed an order for his ROTC lapel pins, he did not anticipate that the sender would abbreviate a crucial part of his address line — David Gallagher, Yale University — to just “David University.” Moreover, he did not expect Yale Campus Mail Service, which processed the package on Sept. 16, to email all 42 of Yale’s Davids in an attempt to unearth his identity. All this considered, he likely did not foresee the Davids coalescing and communicating extensively in a 15-part email chain that would give rise to a David-only GroupMe, a group photo appointment and a planned meetup. “Ah yes, the formation of David University,” said David McElfresh ’25, when I asked him about Yale’s current “David Situation.” “Quite a formative moment of Yale history.” Formative, indeed. But how did this all begin? I could not help but wonder: why did one simple email spiral into all of this? Who, or what, enabled it to grow, to flourish? The story, it seems, starts with our protagonist — Gallagher, and the famed “reply all.” The Initial Correspondence “David Gallagher — he is the guilty David,” said David Foster ’24, referring to the source of the David saga. “I say this out of the kindness of my heart.” Foster has a point. When Gallagher discerned the package was his from the tracking number Campus Mail provided, he replied all to his fellow Davids with the following message:

“I wanted to indicate to everyone that the package in question is in fact my package,” he wrote. “Anyways, I’m glad that I now have a mailing list in case I want to email every single David on campus.” According to David Metrick ’24, this sparked further discussion about the legitimacy of Gallagher’s claim. “People were saying, ‘David Gallagher may claim it is his package, but we don’t know for sure. Let’s meet at Cross Campus at dawn and fight over it,’” Metrick jokingly said. “And then there was a whole chain of like, people explaining why they were the best David.” Once the discussion took off, McElfresh, who had been carefully following the correspondence, realized that there needed to be a more streamlined way of connecting all the Davids. After all, some had already started laying down the framework for a “David University” base of operations in Yale’s Schwarzman Center. Thus, McElfresh felt compelled to create a GroupMe, which would ideally serve as a space for the Davids to thrive. Unfortunately, this David-exclusive space did not last for long. “The Davids had started trickling in,” McElfresh said, “and we look, and suddenly, there was someone named Michael.” A few messages later, Michael was swiftly removed. The Aftermath “Good afternoon,” said the Campus Mail Service in another package inquiry on Sept. 21. “I am once again asking the council of Davids for assistance.”

Not five days had passed, and another package addressed to David, with no last name, had surfaced. Then, a third David package appeared, just three hours after the second incident. Gallagher noted that the Campus Mail Service included all Davids in these emails’ recipient list, without BCC’ing anyone. He speculated that this could be intentional. “This was made possible by somebody who I think was probably having a lot of fun writing that email at the packaging center,” he said, “but I feel like all the Davids kind of played into it too.” In stressful times, instances like these are often healing. “I might take a break from my p-set for a while and then look on my phone and see a notification. And as soon as I would see the notification where it’s a package inquiry, I knew that was one of the David things,” said McElfresh. “It just kept me laughing. And it was really nice, because again, it broke up some of the stress. And especially being a first-year, there’s a lot of stress.” Metrick echoed McElfresh’s sentiments. “It was the little moments of just getting to enjoy a few minutes laughing with people, when you know there’s so much else going on,” he said, “that’s what made it so memorable for everyone.” And while the Davids I spoke with maintained that the escalation of their email chain was a unique occurence, there have been similar situations in the past. “I had heard they had done this before, with another name,” Foster said. “I spoke to my operations manager who had somehow heard about this … and she mentioned that Yale would never throw out the package or

get rid of it because it was addressed incorrectly, and they would do what it takes [to find the owner] — which I really respect.” Foster, additionally, posted a screenshot of the initial exchange on a Facebook group titled “Zoom Memes for Self Quaranteens,” where it has since garnered 976 comments and nearly 8,000 likes. Many in the Facebook group began likening the Davids’ experience to the Josh Fight of April 2021 — where hundreds of Joshes showed up in Lincoln, Nebraska with colorful pool noodles and staged a mock fight for their right to the name. “There was supposedly going to be a fight like the ‘Joshes’ that never did end up occurring,” Foster said. “Unfortunately, [the Davids] are probably a group in name only.” Name-only group or not, I cannot help but marvel at the various Davids I’ve met during these past few days: a David recovering from the Yale plague; a David working his way through the notorious p-sets of “Intro to Systems Programming and Computer Organization,” commonly known among Yale students as CS323; a David preparing to join the military; a David interested in bookbinding. Each wholly individual, yet unequivocally interconnected. They were brought together almost entirely by one exceptionally accommodating package receiving center staff member and a seemingly trivial piece of misaddressed mail. After all, as one Facebook comment asserts: “It’s David’s University, and we’re all just living in it.” Contact IRIS TSOURIS at iris.tsouris@yale.edu .


PAGE B2

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND MISCELLANY

An Ode to Edgewood // BY DILGE BUKSUR AND APARAJITA KAPHLE “Pass it over,” I say, before snatching the sunglasses off of Sharon’s face. She rolls her eyes jokingly before jumping onto Dilge’s bed. White chunky lenses atop my face, I look at my friends on the bed and check the time. It’s already 3 a.m. I pretend I don’t see, and when Sharon asks me the hour, I want to lie and say it’s only 2 a.m. so that we could hang out for a bit longer. But I know she has things to do tomorrow, responsibilities to take care of, so I tell her the truth. “It’s 3 a.m.,” I respond, looking over “my” sunglasses. She lets out a groan which prompts Dilge to let out a similar yet higher pitched noise. We had been staying up this late for the past week or so, ending each night and early morning with “tomorrow we’re going to get our shit together and go to bed at a reasonable time” only to find ourselves back in Dilge’s room, stealing her sunglasses and ranting about our lives. I realize how tired I am and how long the day was and I take off the glasses, placing them on the nightstand. I’m ready to leave. “Does anyone want tea?” Sharon asks, and suddenly I feel energy come back to me. I look at Dilge and she answers for me. “Yes.” And soon we’re in our tiny shoebox kitchen, “helping” Sharon brew milk tea, listening to the song “No Hands” as we had done several times before. Like so many other chaotic nights, this was our July. Now as I rush to get to bed after another 2 a.m. at Bass Library, I am nostalgic for the summer. The freedom to live life relatively on your own schedule seems so foreign when midterms, papers and p-sets are right around the corner. It’s not as if we didn’t do anything over the summer. We were all research assistants and spent a good chunk of our days in the labs, running gels and PCR tests. However, while we were involved in work, our lives did not revolve around it. Having your own house and living by yourself with three people who are just as confused as you are — if not more — is in fact hard. Most of the time, I came in to see Dilge sitting on our cute little bean bag in a room worse than a frat house. We were in disarray trying to figure out budgeting, cleaning, groceries, cooking and many more chores that seemed so easy when our parents did them. To say life over the summer was easy is an understatement, if not a boldfaced lie. I remember one day as we desperately scrambled to make pasta alfredo using only one pot and found ourselves outside of our apartment for 30 minutes, meeting our downstairs neighbors as firefighters investigated the overcooked

macaroni, burning in the pot. I can scroll back in my camera roll and find a picture of Vanessa, our fourth roommate and I, smiling insanely under the red light of the firetruck. It’s a live photo, and when you push on it, you can hear the sirens in the background drowned behind Vanessa and I’s laughter. Some days were less inviting as we crashed onto our bean bag, sweaty and in agony over our majors and careers. Yet, in this chaos we had each other. Every rant was accompanied with a “SAME” and a subsequent complaint. Being back in school feels too real. During the summer, hopping in bed and yelling with my friends was the best part of my days. Yet, going to bed right now feels like a form of escape from the continuous rush we have to live through. We still struggle through p-sets in Bass together, and I still religiously facetime my former roommates to talk about the smallest things that happened over the weekend. Yet, life is now less about living in the present. Leaving Bass, all of us are sunk into our own schedules and deep in thought about what tomorrow has to bring. We say goodbye and walk back to our colleges. Chaos felt easy to handle over the summer, it brought us closer. We found balance together back in our living room, but right now balance seems so unattainable. One day in July as the sun was shining so nicely on Cross Campus, we found the perfect spot to lay down a few blankets. I set down our canvases and paints as I put on a vibey playlist. For hours, we just painted. We praised Sharon’s meticulous image of Broadway as she outlined the silhouette of a church steeple. We watched intensely as Vanessa mixed in our cheap paints to make beautiful hues that we all then shared. We laughed at Dilge’s picture — which she fiercely defended as “aesthetic” — after I implied heavily that it would be sold at Urban Outfitters for $60. And in between all the laughs and the commentaries, we painted quietly and comfortably. As we walked back to our beloved Edgewood Avenue, life felt magical. Fireflies shining around us, we made a promise to live quietly in the present. Well, everybody knew we could never do quiet, but we can do the latter. Maybe it took us to write this article to remember our promise, but we are determined to keep it. Can you keep it with us? Contact DILGE BUKSUR at dilge.buksur@yale.edu and APARAJITA KAPHLE at aparajita.kaphle@yale.edu .

// JAQUELINE LIU

A Sex Education Review // BY SURAJ SINGAREDDY I had a reminder for the release of season three of “Sex Education” set before even watching the trailer. To put it lightly, my expectations based on previous seasons were high, and I was optimistic that the third season would meet those expectations. For the unfamiliar — “Sex Education” is a Netflix original series focusing on the teenage inhabitants of Moordale (a fictional British town), as they navigate sexuality and explore intimacy in all its forms. This season sets the main cast plus newcomer nonbinary transfer student Cal (Dua Saleh) against new principal Hope Haddon (Jemima Kirke), who enacts increasingly controlling measures over the students’ lives. Shame signs, school uniforms and pro-abstinence sex education does not stop Moordale Secondary from spinning out of her control. Relationships blossom, feces go flying and vulva cupcakes are on full display as tension builds over eight episodes. Tonally, season three occasionally struggles. Heavy underscoring — the type usually reserved for heartbreaking finale moments — seems to play underneath every other scene. Meanwhile, the characters, while as compelling as always, are alternately exaggerated and toned down throughout the season. It seems as if the actors and writers are overcompensating for the COVID-19 filming break through overacted mannerisms, which jar with their attempts to inject more “realism” into their actions. This results in the show feeling like a caricature of itself at times. Another major change is how

easily characters seem to communicate this season. For example, Adam (Connor Swindells) talks openly about his aspirations after two seasons of playing the brooding, silent type. Meanwhile, Ruby (Mimi Keene), a supposed mean girl, stops using the silent treatment on Otis (Asa Butterfield) and instead frankly expresses herself. It’s worth noting that this open communication falls in line with most characters’ arcs, but the development of nearly all these arcs in such a similar fashion, simultaneously, is off-putting. The show ends up swapping its grounded tone for easily-resolved tension. This season is different, for sure. However, once I acclimated to its small quirks, I found it just as heartwarming as previous seasons. The characters’ communication styles, although one of my complaints, ends up driving home a key theme — open communication and its importance in our lives. Combined with the writers’ choice to put nearly all of the main characters in romantic relationships, this communication sets up a more mature message than previous seasons. Sometimes relationships just don’t work out — not because someone messes up — but for reasons outside of anyone’s control, and the best thing people can do then is to communicate honestly. It makes for a season that is bittersweet to the max — bitter with the feeling of missed opportunities and sweet with the knowledge that this was the best, most honest possible outcome for every character involved. Contact SURAJ SINGAREDDY at suraj.singareddy@yale.edu .

Governors Ball: Yalies Attend First Post-Pandemic Music Festival in NYC // BY PIA BALDWIN EDWARDS Toes: bruised. Brain: concussed. Hair: pulled. Phone: dropped. Head: empty. This was the aftermath of the mosh pits at A$AP Rocky’s Governors Ball set, especially for a Gov Ball attendee who stacks up to just 5 feet 3 inches. It was worth it. This past weekend, my friends and I took the train down to New York City for Governors Ball, a music festival featuring artists such as Billie Eilish, J Balvin, Megan Thee Stallion, A$AP Rocky, King Princess, Phoebe Bridgers and Post Malone. Gov Ball was the first

live music event we had been to post-pandemic. To enter, we had to show either proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test, but masks were not required. Being in New York City, riding the subway and standing fewer than six feet away from someone — let alone in the center of a crowd — are three things that I couldn’t have imagined doing a year ago. Though it was exciting to be at a festival after so long in confinement, feeling everyone’s breath without the barrier of a mask still seemed risky. It was easy to adapt to, however. Maybe we can finally have some semblance of normalcy in our lives again. Aside from the masses of bodies that characterize any festival, the performances also took me back to the good old, pre-rona days. Megan Thee Stallion coming out in full force with “WAP” was insane. A$AP Rocky screaming at attendees to “open that b**** up!” and King Princess making eye contact and pointing at me (which of course, brought me to tears) were some other highlights. Nevertheless, as a native Chicagoan, I remain convinced that Lollapalooza is the superior festival. When I tried to get on my friend’s shoulders, something I’ve done at many a Lolla, Gov Ball security yelled at me. What kind of festival doesn’t let you climb on peoples’ shoulders? What are they going to clamp down on next? Mosh pits and pregaming? Gov Ball was the first time my friends and I had left New Haven since we

started at Yale. Arriving at Grand Central Station and being in New York City for the weekend made us feel like we were in Gossip Girl (not the reboot). It was a dream — but that might be the concussion speaking. Contact PIA BALDWIN EDWARDS at piabaldwards@gmail.com .

// VALERIE PAVILONIS

WKND RECOMMENDS NOT Yale Health *cough*


YALE DAILY NEWS  ·  FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2021  ·  yaledailynews.com

PAGE B3

WEEKEND BERKELEY

A Portrait of George Berkeley: Philosopher or Subjugator?

// TIGERLILY HOPSON

// BY TIGERLILY HOPSON

Bishop George Berkeley stands at the front of the Berkeley dining hall, frozen in a faded and red painting. As students enter, they glance up at him and his long black robes. He gazes down, silent in the clatter of giggles, conversations and the clank of silverware. His solemn stare serves as an ever-present reminder of the dark depths of Yale’s past. The namesake of Berkeley College was a slave owner, a supporter of slavery, and a believer, in the case of indigenous peoples, that “no part of the Gentile world are so inhumane and barbarous as the savage Americans.” For several decades, the question of who Yale honors has rung out on and off campus. In 2017, Calhoun College, named after a vicous proponent of slavery, was renamed as Grace Hopper College, and yet eight out of the 14 residential colleges carry names of slave holders or defenders of slavery. “It’s definitely uncomfortable to know that you live, you eat, you play, you exercise in a place that was founded by someone who had beliefs that do not align with yours,” Michaela Wang ’25 said. When Berkeley students enter campus, they are thrust into a world in which they are expected to wear Berkeley’s name on shirts and lanyards, proudly yell his name out into the halls and smile up at his name ubiquitously plastered on posters and carved out into the walls. Should students learn the story behind the name they so quickly learn to embrace? George Berkeley — Dean of Derry, Bishop of Cyclone in Ireland and famed 18th Century idealist philosopher — started his American journey with the purpose of setting up a seminary in Bermuda to “educate” and Christianize indigenous people. In his 1725 proposal, he outlined his strategy of kidnapping Native American children to gain pupils; he planned to procure indigenous youth “by peaceable methods” when possible, “or by taking captive the children of our enemies.” It was the colonizer’s duty, Berkeley believed, to “reclaim these poor wretches.” However, only “such savages” under 10 would be allowed into the seminary, “before evil habits have taken a deep root.” Similarly, Berkeley believed that slavery was the best way to Christianize Black people and vigorously declared in his Bermuda proposal that enslaved people “to the infamy of England, and scandal of the world, continue Heathen under Christian masters,” because they had not been converted. To baptize enslaved people, he wrote, would

be to the benefit of “their masters.” He concluded, “their slaves would only become better slaves by being Christian.” According to the 1879 “Yale College: A Sketch of Its History,” edited by William L. Kingsley, Berkeley’s 1725 proposal “is the most extraordinary production of the kind ever published. It reads like a chapter from a romance.” In the Berkeley buttery, carved in the black stone panels which line the floor, it reads that Berkeley’s attempted seminary was a “great missionary effort.” Out of the five Berkeley students interviewed, none knew details of George Berkeley or his beliefs. However, many said they navigate Yale under the assumption that buildings are named after those with troubling legacies. “Judging by the fact that this is Yale and that this person was probably super old,” Jason Jiang ’25 said, “he probably was an asshole.” While Berkeley waited for the proper funds from the British Parliament for his seminary, he bought 96 acres of land in Newport, Rhode Island that he described as “fit for cows and sheep and may be of good use in supplying our college at Bermuda.” In October 1730, he purchased three enslaved people: 14-year-old Philip, 20-year-old Edward (later referred to as Anthony) and Agnes, whose age is unspecified. Philip, Anthony and Agnes lived and worked on the farm, sleeping on stone pallets in the cellar by the cooking fireplace. “It’s really important to address these things rather than hide them away or sweep them under the rug,” Michael Ying ’24 said in regards to Yale’s shadowed past. But, no one ever tells students the history behind their college’s name, explained Charlotte Emerson ’22, who is a Berkley FroCo and knew little herself about Berkeley himself. Emerson felt that this history “could be easily integrated” into an opening address to Berkeley first-years, such as how Dean Marvin Chun began his first-year address with a land acknowledgement, something new for Yale and quickly becoming commonplace. Head of College David Evans’ speech during the first-year dinner on Aug. 31 spent a few paragraphs discussing George Berkeley — the Americanizing of his name which was originally pronounced “Barkley,” his philosophical beliefs and successes, his pointed bishop’s hat and his contributions to higher education — there was no mention of anything beyond this.

WKND RECOMMENDS Jitterbus chaiders

“We occupy this space under the watchful eye of our benefactor and patron saint George ‘Barkley,’” Evans announced as Berkeley stared down from the wall. Wang questioned if the first-year dinner was the space to call out the gory aspects of Berkeley’s past, but emphasized that Berkeley students should not “live in oblivion” about the history of their college. Wang proposed having a community conversation on this topic as a starting point, perhaps led jointly with a cultural center that is “versed in the language and talking about these issues.” Evans has a lot to balance and consider when bringing up these conversations, including alumni and former staff member perspectives along with those of the current Berkeley community, but acknowledged “a form of recognition is needed at a university-wide level” to recognize Yale’s role in “American genocide and slavery.” Ezra Stiles College in 2016 installed a plaque memorializing the lives of Stiles’ one enslaved person and two indentured servants. As for Berkeley, he suspects that a plaque could be put up “without much bureaucracy.” In November 2016, a Yale report was published establishing the principles on renaming, which was used in renaming Calhoun College to Hopper College. Several students voiced confusion on why other colleges’ names were not changed at this same time. The report emphasizes that changing a name should be a highly exceptional event, and states, “the presumption against renaming is at its strongest when a building has been named for someone who made major contributions to the university.” Berkeley is known as one of Yale’s most generous early benefactors. In 1731, after still not receiving the proper financing for his planned seminary, Berkeley returned to Europe. Before he left, he baptised the three people he held enslaved, but did not free them, and donated his land to the Yale Corporation. He also donated a collection of 880 books, increasing the Yale library by half at the time. In 1762, Yale leased the farm to Captain John Whiting for 999 years; the lease passed through many hands until settling with The Colonial Dames of America of Rhode Island in 1899. The annual profits Yale gained went to fund the education of a few chosen Yale schol-

ars fluent in Greek and Latin. In 1972, Yale ceded the title to the house, but still owns the Whitehall farm. When the lease expires in the year 2761, Yale will gain back full control of the property. The first Yale scholarships were funded by enslaved labor. Those who rented the Whitehall land in the 18th and 19th centuries, such as Captain Silas Cooke who held the lease from 1776 to 1780, had enslaved people working and caring for the land. When an enslaved man who worked as a distiller at the Whitehall farm ran away, Cooke sought to have him arrested and exclaimed that “if any Body in Providence wants such a fellow [I] will sell him cheap.” On the Rhode Island census of 1774, Charles Handy, who owned the lease before Cooke, is shown to have four Black people living in his household, and it can be assumed these individuals were held enslaved. Apart from Yale, Berkeley’s name is on buildings across the world, including most famously the city and university in California. Trinity College Dublin in Ireland, Berkeley’s alma mater, publicly debated removing Berkeley’s name from one of its libraries last year. Evans noted that name changing is above his level of authority and must be guided by the newly established renaming principles, but that ultimately, if Yale decided to rename Berkeley College, “such action wouldn’t happen overnight.” “In the meantime, every day, I’ll do what I can to promote the association of our name with diversity, belonging and mutual respect,” Evans said. For many at Yale, the name Berkeley has become detached from the person. Yet George Berkeley’s image still haunts us as Berekelyites try to reform and redefine the college beyond a name. “I separate the name from the place,” Kim Lagunas ‘25 explained. “We are definitely not holding those beliefs, and that’s what I care about.” While Emerson talked with the News, she perpetually looked up at the hanging portrait of Berkeley, still in the midst of the never-ending movement of the dining hall. What would truly acknowledging and taking action on this past look like? “Maybe his portrait shouldn’t hang in our dining hall,” she announced. Perhaps there is an opportunity to “find another Berkeley.” Contact TIGERLILY HOPSON at tigerlily.hopson@yale.edu .


PAGE B4

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND SOLAR

POWER // ELIZABETH WATSON

Solace in the Sun

// BY APARAJITA KAPHLE

“What the fuck are perfect places, anywa“What the fuck are perfect places, anyway?” Lorde asks in the last line of “Perfect Places,” the final song on her 2017 album “Melodrama.” Despite the upbeat pop hooks and infectious beats, the lyrics of “Perfect Places” encapsulate the angst of growing up and finding out that there is no perfect “teenage moment.” In the context of the rest of the album, the title of the closing song seems sarcastic, poking fun at those who expect perfection in an age of turmoil. Lorde left us to ruminate on these lines for over four years before coming back with her third album, “Solar Power,” released on Aug. 20. Despite mixed reviews from critics and fans alike, the album serves as an answer to the questions raised in “Perfect Places.” It seems like Lorde has finally found a way to live without them. “Now I’m alone on a windswept island,” begins Lorde in the title track “The Path,” painting a dramatic Odyssey-esque scene that recalls her home in New Zealand. After riding the acclaim of “Melodrama,” Lorde has retreated back to her home, away from the “camera flash” and the “museum gala.” Gone are the heavy beats and the deep basses. “The Path” opens with a light piano and guitar intro. The new Lorde floats along the lines instead of pounding on them. The urge to be seen and heard that is so prominent in adolescence has faded to a wistful tone, urging listeners to seek solace in the sun and nature. She builds on this notion of letting go in the second track “Solar Power,” where she describes throwing her phone into the water (you can’t reach her even if you tried).

Cleverly alluding to her social media hiatus of four years, Lorde doesn’t seem the least bit apologetic. Rather, she’s ready to spread her new realizations. Tongue-in-cheek, she describes herself as a “prettier Jesus.” The loose nature of Lorde’s new sound is not easy to adjust to. Her sweet and playful tone might initially come off as cliche. Sung by Colbie Caillat? Sure! But not by Lorde. How do you go from “You said you love the beach/ you’re such a damn liar” in “Green Light” to “Lead the boys and girls onto the beaches/ Come one, come all” in “Solar Power?” Lorde offers some insight on this shift in her third song “California,” which begins playfully, under the guise of a children’s story. “Once upon a time in Hollywood,” she begins, recounting her rise to fame and her eventual departure from the limelight. However, this song leaves listeners dissatisfied. We don’t hear any of the reasons Lorde chose to leave. There’s no heart or climax, just a haunting and sickeningly sweet chorus that sings “Don’t want that California love” repeatedly. From a lyrical powerhouse, this chorus leaves much to be desired. The lack of resolve to explain herself is a flaw of “Solar Power,” which detracts from its otherwise intriguing sound. Fortunately, Lorde saves herself with “Stoned at the Nail Salon,” the most complex and, arguably, beautiful song off the album. Here we see Lorde at her best, reminiscing about her past pop stardom, but eventually feeling content with her current situation. The softness of her voice and her lyrics questioning her current state contrast the edgy and jaded questions of “Perfect Places.” She understands

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that these “perfect places” we spend adolescence looking for may never materialize, but if we “spend time with the people who raised [us],” we can get pretty close. Perhaps the most jarring aspect of Lorde’s “Solar Power” is the shift of alignment. For the longest time, Lorde’s lyrics have been synonymous with relatability. The lyrics almost felt like they could’ve been ripped from your high school diary that was hidden under the mattress. The intimacy of songs such as “Liability” and “Ribs” from her sophomore and first album made her a voice of the youth. However, “Solar Power” turns this notion on its head. She comments that the song “Secrets from a Girl (Who’s seen it all)” was actually a response to her relistening to her song “Ribs’’ from her first album, Pure Heroine. In the song, the listener realizes that Lorde is no longer the lamenting teenager. In place of her relatability, however, comes a refreshing perspective. We might expect to hear Ribs 2.0, but instead, Lorde serenades us with “Couldn’t wait to turn fifteen/ Then you blink and it’s been ten years … Growing up a little at a time then all at once/ Everybody wants the best for you/ But you gotta want it for yourself.” There’s no anger, no animosity. Lorde, who was once our best friend, is now our older sister telling us to move on and grow up. Yet, she doesn’t allude to a perfect life. In “Man with an Axe and Big Star,” she reflects on themes of love, family, heartbreak and perseverance. Her songs still tell stories of pain, yet they no longer come with a bitter edge.

Though the first four songs off the album introduce us to the Lorde who has found peace on the New Zealand coast, the songs “Fallen Fruit” and “Leader of the New Regime” feel out of place, as she peppers in her anxieties about the climate crisis. While this worry is extremely valid, it is disconnected to the theme of the work as a whole. The thread linking her newfound love for the sun to the current climate crisis falls flat. Similarly, the song “Mood Ring,” which is meant to be a satirical comment on wellness culture, does not quite fit in with the central tone of the album. However, it is saved by a refreshing beat and catchy guitar hook. The same is true of the song “Dominos,” which offers a lighthearted condemnation of people who treat the earth as disposable: “Just another phase you’re rushing on through … Fifty gleaming chances in a row/ And I watch you flick them down like dominoes.” Lorde is known for her conclusions. In “Pure Heroine,” she ends with a bittersweet and quintessentially teenage line: “You’re my best friend and we’re dancing in a world alone/ World alone, we’re all alone.” In “Solar Power,” she’s different. She’s refreshed and recharged. “Oceanic Feeling,” the closer, provides some of her best lyricism, but none of the music and the sound that made Lorde so recognizable. This song seems purely for herself. We fans are lucky to simply listen and learn what we may. Lorde no longer holds our hand, but rather holds a mirror to a new way of living. Contact APARAJITA KAPHLE at aparajita.kaphle@yale.edu .

Yale Blue Ingredients: 1 ounce of vodka 1 ounce of blue curaçao 4 ounces of lemonade Garnish: lemon wheel and maraschino cherry Instructions: Mix vodka and blue curaçao in a shaker with ice. Pour into a glass over ice and add lemonade. Garnish with lemon wheel and maraschino cherry.


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