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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