Yale Daily News — Week of Dec. 3, 2021

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NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2021 · VOL. CXLIV, NO. 8 · yaledailynews.com

Rising cases, Omicron variant raise concerns COVID-19 alert level raised to yellow

BY OLIVIA TUCKER STAFF REPORTER The University announced Wednesday afternoon a shift back to the yellow COVID19 alert level — which represents “low to moderate risk” — following a rise in cases on campus and statewide and the emergence of the Omicron variant of the virus.

University COVID-19 Coordinator Stephanie Spangler wrote in an email to the Yale community that the alert level was changing back to yellow from green — where it had hovered since Nov. 4 — in response to both fluid public health conditions and the discovery of the Omicron variant. A host of updates to University public health guidelines accompany this change, including additional testing, re-emphasized recommendations for booster shots and limited travel and off-campus indoor gatherings.

“The goal of this change and the related guidance below is to allow us to identify and SEE YELLOW PAGE 4

IN MEMORIAM FRANCES ROSENBLUTH, 63 A preeminent scholar of Japanese comparative politics, her teaching inspired thousands and paved the way for women behind her.

WILLIAM FARRIS THOMPSON, 81 A head of Timothy Dwight College for more than three decades, his work defined the horizons of African art history.

PAGE 11 UNIVERSITY

Yale-New Haven hiring pact deadline looms

BY SAI RAYALA STAFF REPORTER

gence, on other nations who were competing to host the FIFA World Cup — the world’s most popular sporting event. He was first hired in 2010, when Qatar was competing to host the tournament, and signed a further set of contracts with the Gulf state in the summer of 2017, a year before he began as a senior fellow at Yale. It is not clear when the contract ended or whether Chalker spied for the Qatari government while teaching at Yale. Chalker did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

“Whenever we consider bringing someone on as a senior fellow, we learn what we can about the person based on input from people who know them, and on whatever might be available in the press, etc.” Jim Levinsohn,

Six years ago, Yale committed to hiring 500 New Haven residents from “neighborhoods of focus” by April 2019. It has now passed the threshold — two-and-a-half years after its original deadline.

When the University failed to fulfill its agreement on schedule, it made a revised commitment to hire 300 new residents from the targeted areas by the end of 2021.

As of Oct. 31, the most recent data available, Yale was still 80 employees short of the goal.

Chris Brown, director of the New Haven Hiring Initiative, told the News that between Jan. 1, 2019 and Oct. 31, 2021, the University hired 220 full-time employees, with 56 of those jobs being temporary to regular conversions in designated neighborhoods of focus. These neighborhoods include historically low-income areas and neighborhoods with large minority populations, such as the Dixwell and Newhallville neighborhoods.

Added to the pre-2019 count of 280 fulltime employees in the designated areas, the University has hired 500 full-time employees, meaning it has reached the goal it set in 2015. Unions Local 34 and Local 35 are in the process of confirming the numbers, according to Brown and Ken Suzuki, secretary-treasurer of Local 34.

“When 500 residents in those neighborhoods get jobs, jobs that are union jobs, that’s tens of millions of dollars in salary and benefits to bring into families and to uplift and stabilize families,” Suzuki said. “If there had been 500 in 2019 when COVID hit, hundreds more would have been situated to face that crisis. Forget about the 500, let’s look at the next 500.”

In 2015, Yale made a commitment to hire 1,000 New Haven residents with at least 500 of those residents coming from

SEE QATAR PAGE 4

SEE HIRING PAGE 4

YASMINE HALMANE/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

The change comes in response to uncertainty about the Omicron variant and concern over increased campus cases following Thanksgiving break travel.

Jackson affiliate spied for Qatari government

BY PHILIP MOUSAVIZADEH STAFF REPORTER Kevin Chalker, who taught two classes at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs in Fall 2018 and Spring 2020, had been working as a spy for the Qatari government since 2010, helping them secure the rights to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup and subsequently monitoring nations who voiced criticism over their bid, according to an investigation from the Associated Press.

Chalker worked for the Central Intelligence Agency for around five years as an operations officer before leaving to start his own private security firm, Global Risk Advisory. His firm was contracted by the Qatari government to gather cell phone data, among other intelli-

YNHH COVID-19 patients double

Four win Rhodes Scholarships

90 percent are unvaccinated

BY SOPHIE WANG CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Around 90 percent of patients who were treated at Yale New Haven Hospital for COVID-19 over the past few months were unvaccinated.

This statistic was announced at a recent briefing which addressed the pandemic’s impact on the community and at YNHH. Since the start of the academic year, the number of COVID-19 patients admitted to YNHH has remained roughly the same, although case numbers have more than doubled in recent weeks. Given that the vast majority of hospitalized COVID-19 patients were unvaccinated, Yale public health experts emphasized the importance of immunizing every individual to prevent severe COVID19 symptoms that may lead to hospitalization.

“The majority of our patients that are being admitted because of COVID symptoms are unvaccinated,” Thomas Balcezak, chief clinical officer for the Yale New Haven Health system, said in a Sunday interview. “I have colleagues in other parts of the state that are seeing a much higher percentage of vaccinated people being admitted for COVID, but for us, it's been around 90 percent.”

Balcezak explained that at the start of the school year in September, the hospital saw around 30 to 40 cases per day. This number stayed in the range of 30 to 50 daily patients throughout the fall season, and there was never really a “large spike” in these numbers, Balcezak said.

However, within the last couple of weeks, Balcezak observed “an uptick,” when he noticed “about a doubling of cases [per day] to 110.”

Chief Medical Officer of YNHH Alan Friedman noted that Connecticut’s population is more than 72 percent vaccinated and that vaccines are “excellent in preventing COVID-19 infection.” However, with the holiday season fast approaching, he anticipates an increase in cases given that people tend to travel and gather in close proximity indoors.

Balcezak highlighted the importance of getting vaccinated and of receiving booster shots.

“There's no question that the cases in people that are fully vaccinated are substantially more benign or mild,” Balcezak said. “That doesn't mean that you're completely protected … but your chances of avoiding hospitalization is much [more], your chance of avoiding the ICU is much much [more] and your chance of death is almost zero.”

CROSS CAMPUS

THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY, 1955.

At the John Chester Adams Inter-College Debate Tournament, lack of co-education as a "grave deficiency" at Yale is to be discussed. The debaters are intended to approach their arguments humourously.

SEE YNHH PAGE 5

YALE NEWS

A majority of each Rhodes Scholarship cohort is female this year.

BY JORDAN FITZGERALD STAFF REPORTER Mary Orsak ’22 hid in the Pierson College seminar room on Nov. 20, shielding herself from the Yale-Harvard game festivities while she found out which applicants received this cycle’s prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.

She won.

Orsak and three other Yalies — Liam Elkind ’22, Kate Pundyk ’22 and Shreeya Singh ’22 — were awarded the Rhodes, which funds

INSIDE THE NEWS

one to three years of studies at England’s University of Oxford.

Elkind, Orsak and Singh are three of 32 Americans selected for the Rhodes Scholarship, while Pundyk, a former SciTech editor for the News, will join 10 other Canadians at Oxford in October 2022.

A majority of each Rhodes Scholarship cohort is female this year. There are 22 American women and seven Canadian women preparing to move to England next fall, compared to 10 American men and four Canadian men.

BOE

“The Scholarships recognize a set of timeless virtues — intellectual excellence, strength of character, energy to strive, commitment to serve and instinct to lead,” said Richard Pan, the Canadian Secretary of the Rhodes Trust and the Chair for the Rhodes Scholarships in Canada. “We are proud of the opportunities that the Scholarships provide to our most talented, passionate and charismatic university graduates.”

SEE OXFORD PAGE 5

OFFICER

NHPD Officer Christopher Troche was investigated for “unwanted contact” from an undocumented immigrant.

KERRY

YALE PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERTS DISCUSS OMICRON VARIANT

Two new faces are set to join the New Haven Board of Education — and two familiar faces are set to leave.

PAGE 6 SCITECH

PAGE 3 CITY

PAGE 9 ARTS

PAGE 13 UNIVERSITY

23 University students have been named Kerry Fellows, representing three professional schools, Yale College, and the Jackson institute.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 2

OPINION America, on trial

GUEST COLUMNIST ERIC KREBS

Sustainability blows I

n “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” first published in the October 1923 Yale Review, poet Robert Frost perfectly encapsulates the melancholy bliss of autumn in New England: Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

It’s December now, and nature’s gold is nearly gone. Yale’s campus is prettiest in fall. Autumn’s ephemeral beauty cast against eternal architecture, there’s just nothing like it. But, walking amidst the mounds of red and yellow earlier this week, I couldn’t help but focus on the orange.

The orange I saw was a STIHL BR 500 gas-powered leaf blower, strapped to the back of a Yale groundskeeper. And there wasn’t just one. The STIHLs were all around — precisely where they shouldn’t be.

Gas leaf blowers are loud and emit fumes that are harmful to the environment. Yale knows that.

That’s why, on September 20, 2017, the University announced that it would replace its grounds equipment with electric alternatives: “[Dev Hawley, director at University Planning & Facilities Operations] expressed that while the gas equipment is effective, it is loud and emits fumes that are harmful to the environment,” the announcement notes.

September 20, 2017 was over four years ago. I was in my first semester then. I’m in my penultimate semester now, and I even took a year off to give the University some time to catch up. Yet gas blowers still abound. What’s the hold-up?

To the University’s credit, they have replaced some of their leaf blower fleet — which numbered over 30 in 2017 — with electric alternatives. They use the quieter electric blowers inside colleges and courtyards, and the gas ones outside. “We leverage electric blowers for all times of the year except when heavy wet leaves are not efficiently moved by that equipment. We are currently in the middle of testing the most recent electric powered equipment and will continue to phase-out our gas blowers,” Hawley said in an email to the News.

Change takes time, I know. The original announcement stated that half would be replaced immediately, and that Hawley expected the other half to be replaced by 2018.

It’s 2021 now, and New Haven is currently considering a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers, following the lead of over fifty municipalities across the United States. And

if Yale wants to be a model neighbor, it should lead by example.

Now, I know: “He that has never blown leaves with gas, let him cast the first stone,” the verse goes. Am I nitpicking here? Yes. Am I being unreasonable? No. An unreasonable person would suggest that the University clean its leaves with brooms because the electricity in electric leaf blowers isn’t 100 percent renewable-generated. I’m not saying that. What I’m saying is that replacing gas leaf blowers with electric ones — all the time — is an intervention with an uniquely low cost-to-benefit ratio.

Leaf blowers are really, really bad for the environment. A famous 2011 study compared the emissions from a two-stroke gas motor to that of a Ford F-150 Raptor and found that the leaf blower emitted 23 times more carbon dioxide and more than 300 times the non-methane hydrocarbons than the truck, noting that halfan-hour of two-stroke blowing emitted more hydrocarbons than a cross-country drive from Texas to Alaska.

There are corded and battery-powered leaf blowers that are just as powerful as gas ones.

Sure, they might not run as long, recharging might be annoying, and extra batteries are costly. But they’re not that costly. This is a school with billions at its fingertips — a couple thousand blown on some beefy electric blowers won’t break the bank. And gas has its costs too. “By reducing localized emissions and cutting back on noise,” the 2017 announcement noted, “the initiative will also benefit the health and well-being of the Facilities grounds staff.” So, do it: initiate!

Whatever the barriers to leaf blower electrification, I have faith that Yale can overcome by “doing what we do best—integrating science, the humanities, and our community” and adopting “innovative solutions to the environmental and social challenges we all face,” as the 2017 statement so aptly put it.

I’m not insisting that any one individual staff member or administrator is personally culpable for this oversight. A lot has happened between 2017 and now, and little things like leaf blowers just fall through the cracks. But that’s exactly it. If the University doesn’t follow through on its smallest pledges, how will it make good on the big ones?

The STIHL 500’s are bright orange, and in the pale late-autumn light, they shine. They look brighter, almost golden. And as Frost said: nothing gold can stay.

ERIC KREBS is a senior in Jonathan Edwards College. Contact him at eric.krebs@yale.edu .

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A

mong other things, America is the only country in which a 17-year-old can set his hands on an AR-15, shoot three people, shed a few tears and then walk off scot-free, plane tickets to Mar-a-Lago and 1211 Avenue of the Americas booked for free.

The verdict that came 13 days ago was at once surprising and all too predictable. Trembling in the stands was, in the end, just a teenager. The prosecution was uninspiring and the defense showed it had done its homework. Rosenbaum, one of the shooting’s victims who had lunged for Kyle Rittenhouse’s rifle, was not entirely an innocent man, either. And only to complicate matters, Grosskreutz — the lone survivor of the three Rittenhouse had shot — offered testimony that cast fellow victim Joseph Huber as the aggressor. Charging Kyle Rittenhouse required an unequivocal proof of unwarranted aggression, which was simply too much to ask from blurry footage and anecdotal evidence.

It’s a frustrating outcome for a case that had more to do with the semantic twists and turns of arcane legalese than what otherwise seemed proper. The trial wasn’t about reckoning with the loss of two lives, but the differences between short and long barreled guns. It succeeded where the narrowest interpretations of the Wisconsin law were concerned but lost touch with morality and just about everything else.

By framing his shootings as a measure of self-defense, Rittenhouse exposed the unbreachable power of an argument that’s given cover to far too many police officers. His testimony of pouncing protestors added fuel to the NRA’s age-old fantasies of toting guns in dangerous inner cities. It seems slightly jarring, maybe even a little perverse, how someone with two deaths under his name — regardless of original intentions — came away perfectly clean in a society where others have often faced life behind bars for a broken tail light or outdated license plate. The verdict scrubbed his bloodstained jeans

and returned them newer than new.

Even greater problems arise when we allow Fox News and the likes of HANWEN Marjorie Taylor Greene to ZHANG wallow in the results. Acquit?

Thoughtful Well, the evidence was less spot definitive than it first seemed and the jury has already cast its verdict. But don’t fawn over a teenager for tangling himself in a place where he shouldn’t have been and at a time that was not appropriate — carrying a loaded firearm, no less. Don’t parade a bill named in his honor around Congress floors that makes complete mockery of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mother Theresa or praise him as a mascot of white victimhood.

Don’t confuse foolishness with fortitude. None of this would have happened if a military-grade semi automatic rifle with a 20-inch barrel hadn’t been eagerly dropped into his hands in the first place.

What about the underage possession of firearms that had instigated all this? Why had curfew even been violated to begin with? It is one thing to accept the terms of law; it is another to hail our Don Quixotes as heroes. Self-defense and firearm clauses might erase intentional homicide charges, but they can’t suddenly turn senselessness into bravery or courage.

We like to think of every headline-worthy case as some kind of inflection point. Rittenhouse’s trial certainly seemed that way: at the stake was a 17-year-old’s future, but also so much more — gun violence, right-wing extremism and race. The verdict set a precedent that will likely embolden vigilante mobs, give cause for gun rights activists to rejoice and set the stage for even more violent, avoidable accidents in the years to come. But either cringing or cheering — allowing

what was essentially a squabble over legal fine print to metastasize and become a stand-in for something greater than it actually is — also runs the risk of forgetting the thousand other daily injustices we have yet to tend to. We must not let the thirst for retributive victory or self-pitying vindication distract us from all the more insidious forms of injustice that remain. A controversial trial won’t singlehandedly reverse the current trajectory of public policy, just as a life sentence in prison wouldn’t have miraculously ushered a change of heart in the Proud Boys or the NRA. History usually doesn’t work that way.

IT IS ONE THING TO ACCEPT THE TERMS OF LAW; IT IS ANOTHER TO HAIL OUR DON QUIXOTES AS HEROES. Instead, constructive reform sometimes requires us to look past the breaking news and high-profile trials. Chrystul Kizer shot her adult sexual abuser; she currently sits with a life sentence in prison, along with thousands of others who killed or wounded in the name of self-defense but bear far different consequences. Two million have had their futures cut short by poorly handled confrontations or similarly unintentional accidents, a figure in a system that lies beyond the power of a single conviction or acquittal to ever set right. The time for finger-pointing and gavel-pounding has passed. Now we need to move on and reconsider what justice should truly look like.

HANWEN ZHANG is a sophomore in Benjamin Franklin College. His column, “Thoughtful spot,” runs biweekly on Thursdays. Contact him at hanwen.zhang.hhz3@yale.edu .

GUEST COLUMNIST RUCHI AGASHE

The Hill We Die On W

hen I turned in my last midterm for “Organic Chemistry II,” I was relieved. I had been studying remotely for the entire year, and the isolation had made my first year at Yale a difficult, lonely experience.

Only three weeks left of this hell, I kept reminding myself as I opened up Canvas one night to rewatch some lectures. I clicked on the first video and internally groaned when I saw that it was an hour and a half long. The video was black, so I enabled captions and clicked on the first time someone spoke. It was the end of the video and the two male TAs were talking. I realized that this was a Zoom recording of the midterm, and was about to close out when the first TA mentioned my name. To my disbelief, the TAs began to discuss my exam — and question my integrity and intelligence.

For problems I got right, the first TA insisted that I cheated. “How could she have known that?”

When I got a question wrong, I was mocked. “If you don’t f***ing know Baiyer’s Villager by now,” the second TA laughed.

The first TA then proceeded to tell his colleague about how badly I was doing in the organic chemistry sequence, listing my midterm grades from the first semester. It was clear that they had no idea this had been uploaded; the Zoom had been set up so that when the recording ended, it was automatically uploaded to Canvas.

I cried for hours that night, on the opposite side of the country in California. From thousands of miles and multiple time zones away, I had attended office hours, found residential college and individual tutors at Yale and formed study groups for this class. I had pored over hours of lecture videos, endless textbook readings and review sheets. And I had never considered cheating to make my life easier.

How, in a class of over a hundred students, was that TA able to list my grades to the exact percentage? How was he able to look at my name on an “anonymous” exam and instantly label me, the girl he told to “go back to gen chem” during a review session, as unintelligent and dishonest?

What was it about me that made him think that there was no way that I could have solved problems that the rest of the class could?

Was it my questions during office hours? Was it the way I talked, the way I looked? As a woman of color in STEM, these are the questions I have to ask myself every day.

After speaking with the professor, who examined my test and determined there was no way I had cheated, I received apology emails from both TAs. “We try our best to grade the students’ work anonymously. Incidentally, you were the first person whose last name begins with ‘A’ to submit the examination.” These are direct quotes from the first TA’s “apology.” These are lies. My exam was clearly not graded anonymously, and I wasn’t the first student to finish, nor was I even the first student on the alphabetical roster.

I had little time to process this at that moment, as the final exam was still coming up. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it when these same TAs were the ones grading my final exam. So I tried to move on, although it still affects the way I interact with my male TAs. I carefully ask each question so that my intelligence will not be questioned. It affects how I feel about myself, and I still wonder how I should change to make sure that I’m not perceived as someone who isn’t capable of doing well in a hard STEM class. I was hesitant about even writing this because I was afraid it would invite more strangers to make judgments about my integrity and intelligence.

Today I refuse to hold my silence.

I’ve always known that women and minorities in STEM fight an uphill battle, but I had hoped that Yale was a safe community of equals. I soon realized, however, that misogyny is deeply rooted in the common consciousness, especially at a historically white and male institution such as Yale. I feel hopeless knowing that I face so many barriers, some of which I will never be made aware of. If the Zoom recording hadn’t been uploaded automatically, if the TAs had realized what had happened and deleted the video before I saw it, if I hadn’t happened to find the video, would I have ever known? How many other women have faced this kind of discrimination but never got to hear of it?

TODAY I REFUSE TO HOLD MY SILENCE. I used to think that it was a curse that I found the video, but now I’m more aware of the hostility that I face as a woman of color in STEM. I realize now that finding that video reminded me of the odds I overcome every day to pursue my dreams in STEM. Knowledge is a burden I would rather bear than that of ignorance.

I share my experience now because of the impact I want to make for other women like me.

We stand on this hill, looking up at the summit. Some of us turn back from the climb. Our dreams and goals, no matter what challenges we face, are valid. If my story can tell others that they’re not alone in this upward trek — if I can bring hope to just one more discouraged woman — then I am happy.

RUCHI AGASHE is a sophomore in Pauli Murray College. Contact her at ruchi.agashe@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

NEWS

PAGE 3

“I think if you’re everyone’s cup of tea, that probably means you’re a little bit boring, or you’re not pushing yourself.” KACEY MUSGRAVES AMERICAN SINGER

Elicker’s two BOE appointments met with pushback

BY YASH ROY CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Last Wednesday, Mayor Justin Elicker announced the appointment of OrLando Yarborough III GRD ’10 and Abie Quiñones-Benítez to the New Haven Board of Education to replace current board members Larry Conaway and Tamiko Jackson-McArthur.

Some community members have criticized Elicker’s decision to not reappoint the two outgoing board members, citing concerns about the mayor using the appointments to silence dissenting voices on the board. There is also criticism over replacing the only Black woman currently serving on the Board of Education.

“I’m also looking forward to serving with Dr. Yarborough and Dr. Quiñones-Benítez,” Elicker wrote in a statement to the News. “Each brings a unique perspective with them that will serve the board well.”

He said that Yarborough, a scientist and chair of the Friends Center for Children board, will bring his knowledge of early childhood education and STEM education to the board. Quiñones-Benítez will bring a long history of service to New Haven Public Schools and her speciality in English as a Second Language curricula, Elicker added.

Quiñones-Benítez started working at New Haven Adult Education in 1986. Later in her career, she served for two years as vice principal of Hill Regional Career High School and 11 years as Principal of Christopher Columbus Family Academy, now FAME — Family Academy of Multilingual Exploration. She also served as the Lancaster, Pennsylvania director of schools, according to Elicker’s office.

“I’m honored and excited about the opportunity to serve on the New Haven Board of Education,” Quiñones-Benítez said. “I’ve seen firsthand not just the challenges our students face, but also the opportunities available to them.”

Yarborough has served as a pastor at the Black Church at Yale since 2015. He is also a school management coach and facilitator and

runs his own company that offers “coaching and consulting services for STEM and other professionals.”

“As a leader and coach, I’ve spent most of my life investing in the success of people,” Yarborough said. “As a father and Board Chair at Friends Center for Children, the success of these kids is personal to me. I’m thankful for this appointment and looking forward to helping each child in New Haven maximize their potential.”

Elicker also thanked the two retiring board members for their service to the community and NHPS, saying that “their commitment to the success of our students is laudable.” BOE member Matthew Wilcox echoed Elicker’s sentiments.

“I deeply respect the hard work and wisdom of Dr. Jackson-McArthur and Mr. Conaway and will miss serving with both of them,” Wilcox said.

While Elicker publicly thanked both of the retiring board members, some community members saw the appointments as a way of “eliminating” dissenting board members who were viewed by many in the New Haven Black community as “effective and well-experienced leaders.” Board member Darnell Goldson said that “there was no reason why either one of those people could not continue to serve on this board.”

He added that the mayor’s decision sends a “sad statement.”

Goldson heralded Conaway’s decades of service to NHPS including a three-year stint as principal of Riverside and New Light High School. He also praised Jackson-McArthur for attending New Haven public schools and placing her kids in NHPS instead of private school.

Addys Castillo, director of the Citywide Youth Coalition, said that she was “disappointed” with the Mayor’s decision to not reappoint both members since they “brough fresh perspectives to the table.”

Castillo pointed to a specific conflict over School Resource Officers, or SROs. Jackson-McArthur had been a vocal critic of the Mayor’s support for having SROs in New

YALE DAILY NEWS

Elicker’s decision to not reappoint two outgoing BOE members has been met with some community pushback.

Haven schools. Castillo explained that the Mayor had previously seated a commission to look at the issue, but that Jackson-McArthur eventually left the commission because she thought it was filled with individuals who supported the Mayor’s view.

Jackson-McArthur did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Community members have also pointed to this decision as another indication that Elicker is not listening to specific communities within New Haven. Reverend Dr. Boise Kimber, the president of the Greater New Haven Clergy Association, told the News that this decision showed how “Black people are being ignored by this administration.”

Goldson, Castillo, Kimber and Conaway all shared concerns that Jackson-McArthur was the “only Black woman” serving on the Board of Education right now.

Castillo said that New Haven “needs more Black women to be in there working on behalf of young people” and that while Quiñones-Benítez was a Latina woman, she “can’t speak to the experience of Black girls in the city.”

“By getting rid of Conaway and Jackson-McArthur and replacing them with a Hispanic woman and a

Black man, we now have three Black men, two Hispanics and a white man,” Kimber said. “The message this sends to his [Elicker’s] constituents is that Black women in this city don’t matter.”

Goldson added that there was a feeling within his community that there was a “backslide” to “15-20 years ago” with Elicker’s recent appointment decisions in both the BOE and the New Haven Police Department. Conaway added that he hoped in the future another Black woman would be appointed to the BOE. He added that it was “wrong” to not have a Black woman on the Board, adding that the Board needs “Black voices.”

In 2019, there was controversy at the confirmation vote of Conaway in the Board of Alders over Latino representation on the Board of Education.

In response to the criticisms leveled against the two picks, Elicker told the News that “Dr. Benitez and Yarborough are each strong leaders who will bring a diverse set of skills and experiences to the Board of Education. They were each chosen because of their respective skill sets and commitment to the success of young people.”

While Conaway acknowledged some of the controversy surround-

ing Elicker’s decision to appoint two new board members, he recognized that it was “his decision to make.”

Conaway added that he “supported the choice” and understood that Elicker “didn’t think he was the right person for the job.”

Conaway told the News that the decision was “bittersweet” but that he never expected to be reappointed since he had only been appointed by Mayor Toni Harp, Elicker’s predecessor, after the previous board member left his term midway through.

“It is bittersweet. I felt that I was making a contribution to the city of New Haven,” Conaway said. “I support [Mayor Elicker], and I support the two new board members. It’s not easy work. You have to really do your homework, you have to have a philosophy and take a position and move on. I thank the citizens of New Haven for allowing me to serve, and I’m just going to move on gracefully.”

The New Haven Board of Education has four members appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the Board of Alders as well as two elected members with Mayor Elicker serving as an ex officio member of the Board.

Contact YASH ROY at yash.roy@yale.edu .

Creative writing classes see record demand

YALE DAILY NEWS

Increased competition and an earlier application timeline sparked frustrations among students and professors.

BY ISAAC YU AND SARAH COOK STAFF REPORTER AND CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Creative writing at Yale is more popular — and more competitive to get into — than ever.

The program, which is run by the University’s English department, announced enrollment decisions for its spring 2022 semester creative writing courses on Nov. 22.

In a message to student applicants, creative writing director Richard Deming said that the program has seen “truly record” numbers of applications — so many that professors were given five extra days to make deliberations.

The News spoke to eight professors who are teaching creative writing courses in the spring.

All eight said that their courses received more applications than last year, though two noted that numbers for their courses were roughly on par with pre-pandemic years. Deming attributed the increased demand to a larger undergraduate population and the “growing pains” of an accelerated University-wide enrollment timeline.

“We were surprised — nobody across campus was able to antic-

ipate the perfect storm of this unprecedented size of the student body while we’re changing registration all across campus,” Deming said.

The creative writing program has also seen a steady increase in popularity since the program was formalized eight years ago, he said, though this spring’s application round still exceeded expectations.

Students, meanwhile, reported disappointment about the increased competition and difficulty of enrolling in creative writing courses. All of the program’s courses require a written application which can include several writing samples. English major Josh Atwater ’24 said that he applied for three courses and was rejected from each until being accepted to one from its waitlist.

“I was so frustrated when I didn’t get into any writing courses at first: it would’ve meant another semester of struggling to devote time towards improving my writing or developing a portfolio at all,” Atwater wrote to the News.

Four professors described difficulties grappling with processing applications earlier in the semester, in accordance with the new registration timeline which required

that the English department receive course applications by Nov. 11, nearly a month earlier than in previous years and in the midst of midterm season. The April application deadline for fall 2021 courses, too, was earlier than usual.

“I think the deadlines for writing classes are too early,” English professor Anne Fadiman, who will teach “Writing about Oneself” next semester, wrote to the News. “It’s very hard for students to apply during one of the busiest times of year. How can everyone be expected to know in April what they want to study in September, particularly in creative areas?”

Theater studies professor Deborah Margolin, who teaches a playwriting seminar each fall, described the new registration process as a “double shopping period” and said that using Canvas and Course Search to review and approve applicants in multiple rounds proved “unbearingly cumbersome.”

Part of the pressure professors face, however, can be attributed to the creative writing program’s overall growth.

Since creative writing was formalized as a program in 2013, demand has increased significantly, both in the number of

English majors concentrating in creative writing and in interest from non-majors, Deming said.

The program has tried to meet this demand by nearly doubling its course offerings, adding a slew of new nonfiction lecturers and most recently, courses in writing for television and drama. The program is offering a total of 23 courses for the upcoming semester.

According to lecturer Susan Choi ’90, who will teach two courses on fiction writing, demand has always exceeded supply for creative writing courses, even when she was an undergraduate at Yale 30 years ago.

Choi wrote to the News that she receives about four to five applications for every seat in her class “Introduction to Writing Fiction,” and three to four applications for every seat in “Advanced Fiction Writing.” Recently, Choi has had to create waitlists of 15 to 18 people for her courses.

“My waitlists have grown longer in recent years because the harder it is to get a class, the more classes each student applies to,” Choi wrote to the News, “So there can be a lot of shuffling around and it’s nerve-wracking for everyone.”

However, Choi’s “Introduction to Writing Fiction” offered this spring received double the applicants than the normal four to five applicants per spot. Instead, Choi said that there were more than 10 applicants for every available seat in the class. In addition, “a number of students” requested to apply after the deadline, which was not possible with the already high number of applicants, according to Choi. So far, Choi wrote that only two people from the 20-person waitlist for the class have been able to sign up for the class.

The creative writing program has no official recommendation for how professors should select students from their applicant pools, Deming said. Generally, however, he said that the program strives to build communities

in each workshop and that rejections are not a reflection of any student’s weaknesses.

“The mistaken impression is that professors only take the absolute best,” Deming said.

“What they’re trying to do is to shape a community, and be attentive to having a diverse set of students from various backgrounds, and the voices that work best together.”

Four professors reported prioritizing students by major and class year, while two others admitted students on a first come first serve basis.

Atwater said that — in their rejection letters to students — professors described “hardly any difference” between accepted and rejected applications, noting that all of them were generally exceptional.

“That’s really frustrating to people who take their writing very seriously,” Atwater wrote. “It’s almost easier to be rejected for your own shortcomings than for a structural barrier like excess demand.”

Four professors, including Choi and English lecturer Carl Zimmer, said that the collaborative nature of their seminars makes it difficult for them to scale up the number of available seats. Each instead advocated for the University to add more classes.

Atwater agrees the University should expand writing course offerings to include more sections of foundational courses, such as fiction and poetry writing seminars. While centralizing the application form would make the process of applying less labor-intensive and more approachable, Atwater said he thinks it would only “exacerbate the problem” of high demand for creative writing courses and ultimately make them less accessible for students.

The English department is located in Linsly-Chittenden Hall.

Contact ISAAC YU at isaac.yu@yale.edu and SARAH COOK at sarah.cook@yale.edu .

PAGE 4

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

FROM THE FRONT

"Tea: a drink with jam and bread."

MARIA VON TRAPP THE SOUND OF MUSIC

With uptick in cases, alert moves to yellow YELLOW FROM PAGE 1 isolate any infections on campus as quickly as possible and to reduce the risk of importing infections from off-campus activities during the final weeks of the semester,” Spangler wrote.

According to the University’s COVID-19 data dashboard, cases have risen over the past week. In the seven-day period ending Nov. 30, 63 individuals tested positive for the virus. Graduate and professional students reflect the bulk of those cases, logging 28 positives, with 17 undergraduates and 18 faculty members also testing positive.

The current campus positivity rate is 0.64 percent. On-campus isolation housing capacity currently stands at 85 percent.

Professor Howard Forman told the News that the jump in cases is “nothing surprising” given last week’s fall recess. Many students spent time off campus over the break, traveling the country via car, plane and train and visiting family and friends

who are less likely to be vaccinated.

He also told the News this week that an uptick in cases was expected to come with colder weather. Forman said he thinks upshifting to yellow is an “appropriate approach” given the current numbers.

“I think the best strategy of the University is to continually readjust depending on the circumstances rather than wait for perfect,” Forman — a professor of radiology and biomedical imaging, public health, management and economics — said.

The change to yellow brings with it an array of additional public health requirements and recommendations.

Yale affiliates with weekly testing requirements are asked to procure a second test this week — ideally three to four days after their first — and those without testing requirements are encouraged to test twice if they traveled over Thanksgiving break.

Campus test sites will increase appointment capacity this week by expanding hours, according to Spangler’s email. For the first time, the University’s COVID-19 screen-

ing program will also introduce unobserved self-administered nasal swab tests for “experienced testers,” likely to reduce the burden on test site employees associated with increased appointment volume.

Madeline Wilson, chief quality officer for Yale Health, sent a community-wide email Wednesday afternoon about the ramped-up testing guidelines. Additional test sites will be open this Saturday and Sunday to accommodate the second-test request, she wrote.

Spangler wrote in her email that while the University’s public health experts are actively studying Omicron and “regularly exchange” information with external public health bodies, much remains unknown about the new variant.

She urged the Yale community to act with caution as additional information is collected and expressed confidence in the University’s test laboratories’ ability to detect positive Omicron cases should they appear.

University President Peter Salovey said in an interview

with the News that he is “concerned” about Omicron, adding that the University will continue to “[monitor] the numbers” to identify any potential outbreaks.

Should an outbreak occur, the primary aim is to contain it quickly to avoid spreading the virus to the larger New Haven community, overloading the health care system or risking the health of students, faculty or staff, Salovey said.

Spangler listed several recommendations for additional precautions. She asked students to limit nonessential travel through the end of the semester and encouraged them to avoid indoor dining at off-campus restaurants or bars, promoting delivery and takeout options as alternatives. Students should avoid large indoor gatherings that are not University-sponsored, Spangler wrote.

Preapproved University-sponsored events that comply with health and safety guidelines may proceed as planned. Spangler urged those with even mild symptoms to

Yale hits 2015 hiring target two years late

refrain from attending such gatherings and seek testing.

Yale affiliates planning on hosting guests should review the University’s visitors policy and consider asking guests to obtain a negative test before arriving on campus, Spangler wrote.

Spangler also emphasized the importance of vaccine boosters. Everyone over the age of 18 who received a two-dose series of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine more than six months ago should get boosted, as should recipients of the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine who got the jab over two months ago. The University is “strongly encouraging” all eligible community members to get boosted as soon as possible, Spangler wrote.

“We’re taking it seriously,” Salovey said.

The Yale COVID-19 Vaccine Program clinic is located at 310 Winchester Ave. Contact OLIVIA TUCKER at olivia.tucker@yale.edu .

Jackson lecturer spied for Qatari govt QATAR FROM PAGE 1

rehired at the library in a full-time permanent position.

Suess grew up in Connecticut and went to high school in New Haven. She moved to New Haven straight after high school and worked in food services. After realizing that working in food services would not provide her with any of the healthcare or benefits she wanted, she joined New Haven Works.

Through the program, she received a job coach who informed her of open temporary positions at Yale’s libraries, which led to the full-time job she currently has.

“It’s incredible to have the stability that I have now,” Suess said. “Since I started working at Yale, I am so much less stressed about my life.”

Suess said that one of the main benefits of the University job for her was the healthcare plan it offered. She added that growing up, her family did not have enough money for private healthcare and she was always on state healthcare. It was only after becoming a fixed-duration worker at Yale that she was under a private healthcare plan for the first time in her life.

Suess noted that she was very “lucky” and mentioned that she knew coworkers who had gone from being in the same temporary position as her to being laid off later and being “completely on their own.”

Suess said that Yale could do more in hiring residents.

“It’s really upsetting,” Suess said. “I live in a neighborhood where one out of every three kids goes to bed hungry. I feel like they need to give more chances to people that live in New Haven because there are so many qualified people.”

Brown said that with the recent labor agreement, Yale remains committed to continuing “the ongoing cooperation and problem-solving of that partnership, and … [continuing] to develop and evolve pathway programs that would lead to employment for New Haven residents, particularly those from neighborhoods of focus.”

Local 34 and 35 ratified their most recent contracts with the University in October 2021.

director of the Jackson Institute, wrote in an email to the News. “In Mr. Chalker’s case, we were bringing on board a person with deep relevant experience in matters of policy and intelligence. Mr. Chalker taught one seminar in 2018 and another seminar in 2020, both to graduate students. Recent press coverage raises questions about Mr. Chalker’s professional activities that simply were not in the air during his time here.”

When Chalker was hired by the University in 2018, he was not required to fill out “any forms declaring any relationship like the one reported in the press,” according to Levinsohn, because University rules dictate that disclosure forms only apply to those who work more than half time, and “Mr. Chalker’s work fell below that threshold.”

“Jackson has well-defined rules which apply university-wide when it comes to Conflict of Interest disclosures and those rules have been followed,” Levinsohn added.

The documents obtained by the AP investigation reveal that the work for which Chalker’s firm was contracted included hiring an individual pretending to be a photojournalist to monitor a rival nation’s hosting bid, as well as creating a fake Facebook profile posing as an attractive woman to get close to a different target. The investigation also revealed that Chalker and his associates tried to obtain the cell phone data of at least one top FIFA official ahead of the 2010 vote.

According to the firm’s website, Global Risk Advisory is “an international strategic consultancy specializing in cybersecurity, military and law enforcement training, and intelligence-based advisory services.”

Qatar’s hosting of the soccer tournament drew international controversy, with allegations of bribery of FIFA officials and human rights abuses of workers.

Per the AP article, in one document Chalker promised that he could help Qatar “maintain dominance” over its foreign workers, many of whom helped construct the stadiums necessary to host the tournament. Qatar has a particularly large population of foreign workers, with only 10 percent of its population of 2.8 million people being Qatari citizens.

In a statement provided to the AP, representatives for Chalker said that he and his company would not “ever engage in illegal surveillance,” and claimed that many of the documents reviewed by the AP were forgeries.

The AP detailed that it took a series of steps to verify the hundreds of pages of documents provided to it by anonymous sources with connections to the work. Those steps included confirming details with Chalker’s associates and soccer officials, and “cross-checking contents of documents with contemporaneous news accounts and publicly available business records.”

During his time at the Jackson Institute, Chalker taught two classes. In the fall of 2018, he taught a graduate-level seminar, “Rethinking Iranian-American Competition and the Current Iran Strategy,” which was designed to replicate a consulting contract in which the students were called on to advise the U.S. Special Operations Force on the “long-term consequences of America’s newly articulated posture toward Iran.”

In the spring of 2020, Chalker taught another graduate seminar titled “Exploring Russian Utilization of Private Military Companies.”

Contact SAI RAYALA at sai.rayala@yale.edu .

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

NATALIE KAINZ/MULTIMEDIA MANAGING EDITOR

In 2015, the University committed to hiring 500 New Haven residents from disadvantaged neighborhoods by 2019.

HIRING FROM PAGE 1 seven “neighborhoods of need” around the city: Fair Haven, the Hill, West River, Dwight, Dixwell, Newhallville and West Rock. The agreement came after continued pressure from unions and activists to make local hiring a priority for the University. Yale set April 1, 2019 as the deadline for the hiring targets.

After Local 34 and Local 35 settled their 2017 contracts, Suzuki said they and the broader community began to refocus on Yale’s hiring commitments.

“There was a clock ticking. It was a long clock,” Suzuki said. “Yale had made a commitment and the community was asking where are we in the commitment.”

Suzuki said that once the unions turned to the hiring targets, they found that the University was “nowhere near” filling the 500 jobs. He said that it was “quite shocking and also very concerning.”

As April 2019 neared, activists started calling out the University for not being close to its target. At a February 2019 Board of Alders hearing, hundreds of residents and community leaders criticized Yale’s failure to meet its hiring commitments. Although Yale’s representatives at that meeting told the city that it had met the terms of the agreement, the University clashed with union leaders and some alders for its methodology of determining which jobs and hires counted towards the total numbers.

For example, the University counted certain positions such as subcontracted construction workers hired for short-term gigs as “full-time.”

Members at the hearing criticized the University for failing to ensure that 500 positions would go to individuals from the designated “neighborhoods of need.” By the University’s count, the total number of individuals hired from the areas was 413.

But by prominent union leaders’ counts, it was just 267.

After months of pressure from community activists and negotiations with union leaders, Yale unveiled a new agreement in August of 2019. In the agreement, the University recommitted to hiring employees living in New Haven and also established pathways to employment at Yale

through measures such as training programs and investing in partnerships with local schools such as Gateway Community College. Notably, Yale committed to 300 additional hires from neighborhoods of need from 2019 to 2021.

Suzuki said the unions are in the process of verifying the numbers that they had received from the University and said he could not give any comment on the numbers at this time.

Pointing to the recent union contracts as well as the $52 million increase in Yale’s voluntary contribution to the city, Suzuki noted this was the “moment” for Yale to do additional hiring.

In the 2022 labor agreement with Local 34 and Local 35, the University committed to continuing the New Haven Hiring Initiative program, which supports New Haven's economic growth by connecting qualified city residents to open positions at the University, along with continuing support for its partnerships with New Haven Works, Local 34 and Local 35.

New Haven Works, started in 2013 by the Board of Alders and the city, trains New Haven residents and helps them get employed locally. According to its website, New Haven Works has helped over 1,500 of its members get hired since opening. Executive director of New Haven Works, Melissa Mason, said that over half of the people the program places come from low-income neighborhoods with over 80 percent being people of color.

While the program has worked with over 100 local employers, Mason said the University was one of the largest employers for New Haven Works. Suzuki said that the program was vital in providing residents with opportunities.

One resident who went through New Haven Works is Amber Suess, who works as a front-line services assistant at Sterling and Bass Library. She has been working in her current position for over a year, but first started at the library in 2018 as a temporary worker. She then moved to a fixed duration position -— a temporary worker who works for a fixed amount of time -— before being moved to the layoff pool in May 2020 when the pandemic hit. About a year ago, she was

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 5

FROM THE FRONT

If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee. ABRAHAM LINCOLN PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

90 percent of YNHH COVID-19 patients not vaccinated YNHH FROM PAGE 1 Responding to the recent emergence of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, Richard Martinello, medical director for infection prevention at YNHH, noted that professionals should have more information on the variant and its potential impact on the community within the next few days.

“What I am concerned about is how it has been identified in different countries of the world,” Martinello said. “That does make me concerned that we are going to see much more widespread infection related to this variant. But … there's still much more we don't know than what we do know at this point. But absolutely, we should be very concerned about it.”

With temperatures falling and the winter season setting in, Martinello also shared concerns

about how preparations for the holidays and increased indoor activity may facilitate the spread of the virus, especially with the novel Omicron variant and highly transmissible Delta variant.

Friedman emphasized the need to listen to medical professionals during this period of uncertainty.

“We as a community, as a profession and certainly as a hospital, we rely on science and public health to help us navigate these challenges,” Friedman said. “I have no doubt that we will be able to create new strategies and effective therapies if we need to.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 data tracker, as of Nov. 30, there are 1,472 COVID-19 cases in New Haven.

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

YALE DAILY NEWS

Yale New Haven Hospital revealed that 90 percent of hospitalized COVID-19 patients did not receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

Yale to send Elkind, Orsak, Pundyk, Singh to Oxford OXFORD FROM PAGE 1 Last year, three Yalies won Rhodes Scholarships. In recent years, one or two Yale students generally receive the honor. For the second consecutive year in its century-long history — the application process was conducted entirely online. Still, Elliot F. Gerson, American secretary of the Rhodes Trust, said he hopes to return to in-person selection next year.

Though he described the online process as “weird,” Elkind said that he found it less nerve-racking to participate in virtual panel interviews.

Elkind took a leave of absence last year and founded a non-profit called Invisible Hands, which delivered necessities such as food and groceries to those most at risk during the pandemic. Invisible Hands grew exponentially, he said. At one point, a New York City hotline referred hungry residents to Invisible Hands, which then used Elkind’s personal phone number.

“It seemed unacceptable that we as a society are reliant on these patchwork mutual aid groups,”

Elkind said. “Even New York City’s food system relied on a 20-year-old answering his phone. Why is it that government isn’t filling these roles?

Why is it that government isn’t able to help people in meaningful and effective ways?”

At Oxford, Elkind is looking to study comparative government between the United States and the United Kingdom — specifically reform, campaign financing and voting rights — before returning to the U.S. and strengthening American democratic infrastructure.

For Orsak, the Rhodes Scholarship is about service.

“Everyone who gets involved in this — at some level — wants to see change in the world,” she said.

Orsak, who studies Russian at Yale, will pursue a master’s degree at Oxford to learn from eminent professors in East European studies.

She said that she aspires to teach Russian and Czech at the university level in the future.

In one of her Rhodes interviews, Orsak said, a panelist asked her why she is “just going to be a professor.” Orsak responded that as an academic, she will make her

impact by educating the next generation and adding scholarship to a smaller field.

Similar to Orsak, Pundyk shares a value for education and credited Yale and Wellesley College — where she completed her first two years of undergraduate studies before taking time off to work for the Premier of Alberta and then moving to New Haven — for preparing her for the scholarship. Still, she emphasized that she is excited for “a new adventure.”

Pundyk, who has wanted to matriculate at Oxford since she was 11, studies technology's role in crimes against humanity. She said she wants to join Canada’s “strong” group of technology policy scholars and activists to “amplify Canada’s role in discussing how technology is changing conflict and humanitarian crises.”

The Rhodes Scholarship requires applicants to examine the values underpinning their accomplishments, Pundyk said.

Singh partook in the application process for several prestigious

programs this year, earning finalist spots for both the Marshall and Rhodes Scholarships, though she only won the latter. “[The Rhodes] is one of those impossible dreams,” she said.

“Throughout the entire process I never internalized it as a real possibility.”

Singh, who was born in India before immigrating to the U.S. as a child, examines Hindu nationalism and anti-Muslim policies in her native country. She said she is excited to pursue her graduate degree, to meet the international cohort of Rhodes Scholars in her class and to begin paying forward the “kindness, love and wisdom” she received during her application.

Singh said anyone can win a Rhodes Scholarship. ​​“It’s one of those things that people look at like you have to be perfect or like there’s a certain type of person who wins the Rhodes,” Singh explained. “They’re an athlete, and they have perfect grades, and they have everything together.

This isn’t true. So much of it is luck and hard work and the people around you. There is no one type

of person who is a Rhodes scholar.

If you’re thinking of it, I encourage you to throw your hat in the ring.”

Rebekah Westphal, assistant dean in Yale College and director of fellowships and funding, called this year’s class “incredible and inspiring,” though she emphasized that all the students who received Yale’s nomination were “absolutely stellar in terms of their academic success and accomplishments.”

Westphal, who Singh describes as “a wizard,” meets with every Yale student interested in pursuing the Rhodes.

“I think a lot of people don’t apply because they think it’s too hard, but the process of applying is an incredibly useful one in and of itself,” Westphal said.

“Candidates always learn a great deal about themselves, they strengthen their networks and they get some great interviewing practice and support which is helpful for so many other things.”

The Rhodes Scholarship was first awarded in 1902.

Contact JORDAN FITZGERALD at jordan.fitzgerald@yale.edu .

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Four Yale seniors will cross the Atlantic next fall for graduate studies at the University of Oxford as part of the Rhodes Scholarship.

PAGE 6

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Beinecke Library digitally reconstructs ancient papyrus

BY KHUAN-YU HALL CONTRIBUTING REPORTER After two sections of a papyrus roll were separated for more than a century, curators at Yale’s Beinecke Library and the British Library, the national library of the United Kingdom, collaborated to digitally reunite the fragments.

The two fragments constitute a portion of the Acta Appiani, the Acts of Appian, which form part of a broader body of literature known as the Acta Alexandrinorum, the Acts of the Alexandrian Martyrs. According to Andrew Hogan ’18, a former Beinecke Fellow who is currently the acting collection manager at The Center for the Tebtunis Papyri at the University of California, Berkeley, these works present the minutes of the trials of citizens of Alexandria confronting Rome.

They offer a window into the social and political tensions that the authors wished to portray between the Alexandrians and the Romans.

“We don’t normally digitally stitch papyrus together,” Raymond Clemens, a curator at the Beinecke, wrote in an email to the News.

“The fact that the fragments of Appian ended up on different continents speaks to the widespread sale and diffusion of these materials in the19th and 20th centuries at a time when trade in antiquities was not regulated.”

The Acta Appiani, according to a summary written by Car-

son Koepke, a curatorial assistant at the Beinecke, recounts the story of a citizen named Appian who accused the Roman Emperor Commodus of profiteering from the export of Egyptian goods.

Appian repeatedly chastises Commodus, who just as often threatens Appian with execution.

Although the conclusion of the story is missing, the Acta can still offer insights into Roman Egypt’s social history and “provide suggestions for how political dynamics and legal procedures occurred (or were imagined to occur by the authors),” according to Hogan.

According to Peter Toth, curator of ancient and medieval manuscripts at the British Library, the first step in the digital reconstruction process involved creating high resolution digital images of the papyri held by each institution. Last August, the British Library catalogued about 200 papyri that have counterparts in American collections. Eighteen of these papyri have been digitized for reconstruction.

“For the text now in Yale, we also used Photoshop to reconstruct how the fragments would have appeared together originally, by scaling them based on their dimensions,” Toth wrote in an email to the News. “As part of this process particular attention was paid to the fibres and to the letters to ensure that the reconstruction was as accurate as possible.”

Toth said that he hopes these reconstructions will boost inter-

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

est and stimulate further research into the fragments that remain from ancient civilizations.

Hogan is currently working on editing the recto, or other side of the papyrus. Unlike the Acts, which is a formal piece of writing, the recto offers authentic, candid insights into how people lived in the ancient world, Hogan said.

“The original use of this papyrus was from a local office: it

contained summaries of various papyri in the office and served as a sort of cheat-sheet for the local scribe, who would no doubt need to be able to locate and know the contents of a substantial number of texts as part of his duties,” Hogan wrote.

According to Clemens, the Beinecke is not currently reconstructing other papyri, but would be “open to it” if other

institutions approached them with an opportunity.

High resolution images from the Beinecke Library and the British Library are now both available online, and more examples of digital reconstruction in partnership with the British Library can be found here.

Contact KHUAN-YU HALL at khuan.hall@yale.edu .

Yale professors weigh in on the new Omicron COVID-19 variant

BY KAYLA YUP CONTRIBUTING REPORTER On Nov. 27, the World Health Organization designated the COVID-19 Omicron variant as a variant of concern. From tweets criticizing the recent travel bans to sharing probe sequencing data, Yale’s public health experts are weighing in on discourse surrounding the emerging variant.

Omicron was first identified by scientists in South Africa and reported on Nov. 24. According to the World Health Organization, the first known case of infection by the Omicron variant was from a specimen collected on Nov. 9. In recent weeks, South Africa experienced a drastic increase in new daily cases due to this variant, which has been identified in the United States, Australia, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, Israel, Hong Kong, Botswana, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada. Within South Africa, cases spiked from an average of 200 new confirmed cases per day to more than 3,200 cases on Nov. 27.

Albert Ko, professor of public health and epidemiology at the School of Public Health, said it is concerning that the variant has already spread to other countries within a week of its identification. The News spoke with Ko before the varient was first identified in the U.S. “Because of how interconnected the world is, this probably has already spread quite a bit,” Ko said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we were to detect it here in Connecticut in the coming weeks.”

The Omicron variant’s relative transmissibility — how likely it is to spread — and virulence — its ability to cause damage to a host — are currently unknown. According to Akiko Iwasaki, professor of immunobiology and epidemiology at the School of Medicine, early reports suggested that symptoms caused by the variant are unusual and mostly mild. However, the virulence needs to be investigated on a larger scale before conclusions can be made.

A cause for concern surrounding the new variant is its number of mutations.

Omicron has more than 30 mutations on the spike protein, which is the viral protein that vaccines teach bodies to recognize and attack. Of those 30 mutations, 26 are unique spike mutations; in comparison, the Delta variant has 10 while Beta has six.

Iwasaki believes that overall vaccine effectiveness against Omicron will likely drop compared to the COVID-19 ancestral lineage and the Delta variant. However, despite the mutations, some of the antibodies generated by vaccines or prior infection are still expected to neutralize the virus in the body –– though this neutralization may be significantly reduced.

“This means getting a third shot with the existing vaccine is very important, as well as getting variant spike-specific vaccines when they become available,” Iwasaki said.

“Even though the existing vaccines will not elicit antibodies specific to the Omicron spike, it will elevate the amount of neutralizing antibodies, some of which will likely cross react to the Omicron spike.”

According to Nathan Grubaugh, associate professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health, it might take a few weeks to reach concrete answers. While researchers around the world race to test coronavirus vaccines against this new variant, transmissibility will remain unclear.

Though South Africa has seen a sharp increase in Omicron cases, epidemiological studies are being conducted to figure out whether the spike can be attributed to the nature of the variant or other factors.

The alert from scientists in South Africa last week has been followed by detection in travelers from several countries, including Australia and the Netherlands. Though the variant has been detected in several other countries, the United States only imposed a travel ban on countries within Africa, including South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.

Saad Omer, director of the Global Health Institute at Yale, criticized the effectiveness of the ban.

JESSAI FLORES

“They are trying to close the door when the horse has already left the barn,” said Omer. “What a blanket ban does is it disincentivizes countries from reporting. It’s a real concern if you know the dynamics in these countries. There are critics of the government that push back against disclosure in several of those countries.”

Gregg Gonsalves, associate professor of epidemiology and co-director of the Global Health Justice Partnership at the School of Public Health, emphasized that these travel bans are too late to be effective as the Omicron variant has already had weeks to spread globally.

“Cutting off Southern African countries from the rest of the world, while the variant is likely already dispersed, while allowing travel from other countries where the variant has emerged, as well as creating loopholes in the ban for certain individuals, all points to this being ‘pandemic theater,’ while scapegoating an entire region unnecessarily,” Gonsalves said.

According to Omer, one of the keys to fighting the spread of variants is global vaccine equity. In a Twitter thread posted on Nov. 26, Omer explained that while the United States has donated more vaccines than any other country, these donations are insufficient compared to the overall need.

Meanwhile, Europe announced donations of around 0.5 billion doses, but has only delivered around 14 percent of those donations. Countries with low vaccination rates are at risk of an increased rate of replication of COVID-19 through community transmission. Each replication is another chance for the virus to mutate and thereby form new variants of concern — therefore, global vaccination rates must be raised in order to stop the formation of new variants.

Omer also advised that travel interventions such as pre-departure testing and rapid tests upon arrival would prove more effective than travel bans. Gonsalves, Omer, Ko, Iwasaki and Grubaugh all emphasized the continual importance of vaccination, masking and testing in preventing the spread of COVID-19.

“Regardless of Omicron, we have the Delta variant that is causing many new infections in the country,” Iwasaki said.

“As we head into the winter break and travel season, we need to tighten our measures, not loosen them.”

There are now seven “variants of interest” or “variants of concern” outlined by the WHO. Contact KAYLA YUP at kayla.yup@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 7

Ovarian transplant reverses fertility loss in cancer survivors

BY VALENTINA SIMON CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Yale researchers designed a robot-assisted ovarian transplant procedure that increases the lifespan of the implanted organ by more than a year in comparison to previous methods. The technology has been employed to facilitate multiple healthy pregnancies.

Some cancer treatments, such as certain chemotherapies, can sterilize women. For patients for whom the traditional fertility preservation method of harvesting eggs is not an option, ovarian tissue freezing can provide a source of hope. Kutluk Oktay, professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and director of Laboratory of Molecular Reproduction and Fertility Preservation, pioneered the first ovarian transplant in 1999 and has since improved upon the technique by spearheading a successful robot-assisted surgical method. His results were published in the journal Fertility and Sterility on Nov. 17.

“We found we could extend the function of the graft 14 months and every patient that wanted to have a baby either had one or two children or had embryos frozen,” Oktay said. “Compared to the worldwide 25 percent success rate our technique seems to be highly successful.”

One of the major challenges of ovarian transplants is revascularization, or blood flow restoration. Once implanted, it takes about 10 days for blood flow to be restored to the ovarian tissue, as well as the eggs it contains. During that time, some eggs die due to the lack of oxygen. Through previous transplant methods, the ovarian tissue only functions for 29 months in comparison to the 43 to 47 months of tissue function that the novel robot-assisted technology achieves.

The new technique uses robotic surgery to improve the precision and speed of the procedure. Additionally, Oktay used a revascularizing human extracellular matrix membrane as a scaffold for the transplant. He also gives patients pharmacological drugs known to improve revascularization. The new

procedure, which results in grafts surviving an additional 14 months, is a combination of these three modifications. “[Robotic surgery is] less invasive than an open surgery, but provides much more of the ability to place tissue quickly into the right part of the ovary and suture it

recommended that patients conceive through in-vitro fertilization (IVF). The new technique’s time frame for revascularization and tissue viability now allows natural conception to be an option for patients who undergo ovarian tissue transplantation, according to Taylor.

CECILIA LEE/ILLUSTRATIONS EDITOR

in nicely, which you can’t really do with a traditional laparoscopy very easily or quickly,” said Hugh Taylor, chair of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science at the School of Medicine and chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Yale New Haven Hospital. “Robots have revolutionized much of the surgeries we do.”

Since previous ovarian tissue transplants had shorter life spans, it was

The preliminary clinical trial in robot-assisted ovarian tissue transplantation only included seven patients. Moving forward, Oktay is recruiting additional people for future studies to confirm the benefits of the new approach.

“Dr. Oktay pioneered all of this –– the ovarian tissue freezing, the transplantation and now the robotic transplantation.

He is really the pioneer that initiated the

entire field and we are very lucky to have him here at Yale,” Taylor said.

Ovarian tissue freezing fulfills a crucial need for those who find egg freezing impractical. For some women, cancer treatment must begin immediately and they are unable to wait the two-week egg harvesting period. Ovarian tissue freezing, on the other hand, can be completed in a single day and can be performed in combination with another surgery. The tissue can then be stored indefinitely.

According to Taylor, one of the biggest obstacles to fertility for cancer survivors is that they do not think about fertility before treatment and are often counseled about their options too late, leaving them unable to have children.

The ovarian tissue harvesting process takes less than an hour, making it an appealing option for patients.

“It’s not experimental anymore,” said Fernanda Pacheco, who was a fellow under Oktay and is a co-author on the paper. “It’s a standard technique for fertility preservation. We have about 200 babies born. In Germany they are cryopreserving more ovarian tissue than eggs.”

According to Taylor, the hormones required to stimulate ovulation for egg collection are expensive and can potentially spur even more tumor growth. Furthermore, for prepubescent girls, harvesting eggs is not possible as the ovulation cycle has not started yet.

Frozen eggs cannot be used after menopause, which can be induced by severe cancer treatments. The transplating of ovarian tissue can reverse menopause, as the body begins producing necessary hormones again.

“There are patients that were in menopause for 12 years, we do a transplant, and they function perfectly,” Oktay said.

“That’s the magic of this procedure. Even though I developed it, every time I see it I am still shaking my head.”

Ovarian tissue cryopreservation is offered as a fertility preservation method at Yale New Haven Hospital.

Contact VALENTINA SIMON at valentina.simon@yale.edu .

Yale scientists identify remdesivir resistance in immunocompromised COVID-19 patient

BY AISLINN KINSELLA STAFF REPORTER A team of Yale researchers observed a SARS-CoV-2 mutation resistant to remdesivir — an antiviral medication — after prolonged treatment in an immunocompromised patient treated at Yale New Haven Hospital.

In a recent case study awaiting peer-review, a team of scientists at the School of Public Health and the School of Medicine identified a mutation to the medication that has been used in COVID-19 patients.

The mutation appeared following a 10-day remdesivir treatment and was eventually cleared following a monoclonal antibody treatment. This mutation, which had previously only been identified in a lab setting, conferred resistance against the drug but had a slower rate of replication, which is the speed at which the virus can produce copies of itself, than SARS-CoV-2 variants without the resistant mutation.

“Remdesivir is an antiviral agent that is widely used in patients hospitalized with COVID, and it’s also been widely used in immunocompromised patients who have these persistent infections,” said Albert Ko, professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health and one of the study’s authors.

Ko explained that although some laboratory studies had produced SARS-CoV-2 mutations that were resistant to the drug, the mutation had never been observed in a patient prior to this case study.

According to Shiv Gandhi, clinical fellow at the School of Medicine and lead author of the study, the patient was admitted because she had persistent fevers for approximately 150 days and continuously tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

“She was pretty profoundly immunocompromised as a consequence of having a malignancy and then subsequently chemotherapy,” Gandhi said. “So she didn’t really have an immune system that was able to respond to the virus.”

Gandhi said that the researchers suspected that she had a persistent infection with SARS-CoV-2, which had not previously been reported in a patient at that point in time.

Because the case seemed consistent with a SARS-CoV-2 infection, the team decided

to treat it as such. The patient was prescribed remdesivir — the only approved COVID-19 treatment for hospitalized patients at the time.

According to Gandhi, the drug was effective almost immediately. After hav-

returned remnants of the live virus. The team was concerned that the remdesivir treatment was not enough to clear the virus completely, Gandhi said. With no other approved treatments available, the team sought compassionate use approval

CECILIA LEE/ILLUSTRATIONS EDITOR

ing a fever for almost 150 days, it subsided the day after her first dose of remdesivir and never returned. Additionally, the team observed a decline in the patient’s viral load, or the number of copies of virus present in a nasal COVID-19 test.

“We thought we were on the right track,” Gandhi said. “But during the course of treatment we were tracking the viral load, and the viral load started to creep back up.”

Although the patient showed signs of improvement, her COVID-19 tests

from the FDA to use monoclonal antibodies. This would allow them to administer a treatment that was not fully approved in the absence of satisfactory alternatives. Gandhi explained that this treatment is designed to prevent antibody resistance by targeting two different parts of the virus, which the researchers hoped would prove to be more effective than remdisivir.

The request was approved, and when the patient was treated with monoclonal antibodies her viral load immediately declined.

After five months of isolation at home

and continuous positive test results, her COVID-19 tests came back negative.

Mario Peña-Hernández GRD ‘26, one of the study’s authors, said that following the patient’s recovery, the team was curious about the development of any mutations.

In search of an answer, they sequenced viral samples taken from the patient during her remdesivir treatment. According to Ko, the researchers found a mutation that had been only been previously identified in a lab as a remdesivir resistance mutation.

“It’s a good documentation of something that we need to be aware of and something that we need to keep our eye on,” Ko said.

Ko emphasized the importance of finding out how frequently this mutation can occur, especially in places where remdesivir and similar treatments are being widely used.

Additionally, he noted the importance of investigating the transmission of this mutation once it emerges.

According to Peña-Hernández, there may be a fitness cost associated with the remdesivir resistant mutation.

“When I was growing these mutants, I noticed that the replication rate of these mutants was slower than the virus that didn’t have this mutation,” he said.

Peña-Hernández explained that if this mutation emerged in the general population, it would likely be overwhelmed by the existing variants, given its low rate of replication. Although he is hopeful, he noted that future work will need to be done to determine whether this tradeoff always exists.

Going forward, Peña-Hernández said that researchers should focus on identifying mutations that confer resistance to antivirals other than remdesivir. He noted that the team tested the mutation with a different antiviral, monopiravir, and found that it was not susceptible to the resistance. However, he said that a different mutation resistant to monopiravir or other antiviral drugs could develop.

“The main takeaway is to pay a little more attention to immunocompromised patients and be on the lookout for these kinds of mutations,” Ko said.

Remdesivir was approved by the FDA for the treatment of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 on Oct. 22, 2020.

Contact AISLINN KINSELLA at aislinn.kinsella@yale.edu .

PAGE 8

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

NEWS

PAGE 9

“My bubble tea addiction is greater than the funds in my bank account.”

ZOE BERG YALE DAILY NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

New Haven Police Department officer arrested for patronizing a prostitute

YALE DAILY NEWS

Officer Christopher Troche was investigated following a report of “unwanted contact” from an undocumented immigrant.

BY MEGAN VAZ CONTRIBUTING REPORTER A New Haven Police Department patrol officer was arrested and charged with patronizing a prostitute after a lengthy internal affairs investigation.

The officer, Christopher Troche, turned himself in for arrest on Nov. 21 after a report of “unwanted contact” was filed by an undocumented immigrant woman, NHPD Public Infor-

mation Officer Scott Shumway wrote in a press release. After the report was filed on April 5, an investigation led by the NHPD’s Division of Internal Affairs occurred over the course of seven months, culminating in a warrant for Troche’s arrest. The warrant is sealed and the NHPD said it would not release specific case details as of now.

“It’s considered serious misconduct,” NHPD Lieutenant Manmeet Colon said. “Even if there’s

no complainant that would come forward, the Chief would initiate an Internal Affairs investigation.

In this case, she did just that.”

Protocol on civilian complaints against officers usually leaves investigators 90 days to present their findings to the Chief of Police after an initial complaint is filed.

The Chief of Police may waive the 90-day rule for “complex investigations and investigations involving extenuating circumstances,” according to NHPD General Order 2.08. Colon said that the seven-month investigation involved speaking to all known and possible witnesses of Troche’s interaction with the woman.

In Connecticut, patronizing a prostitute is considered a Class A misdemeanor in which one “pays or offers to pay someone to engage in sexual conduct.”

Although the State Attorney’s Office was unable to provide the News with further details of the charges because the case remains open, the state General Assembly lists maximum penalties for the patronizing a prostitute charge as one year in prison or a $2,000 fine.

Colon affirmed that the Department’s investigation acted in accordance with state guidelines outlined in the 2020 Police Accountability Act. Official details on the victim’s background or the context in

which she was approached by Troche have not been released by the NHPD, but the New Haven Independent reported that the undocumented victim initially came into contact with Troche after she called the police over safety concerns. Troche was allegedly dispatched as a translator, after which the incident occurred.

Nonetheless, some migrant advocates have disputed the NHPD’s claim on its commitment to treating undocumented community members fairly because of Troche’s actions.

New Haven resident Kica Matos, who is the national vice president of Initiatives at the Vera Institute of Justice, was “appalled” and concerned that this incident will erode trust between New Haven’s immigrant community and the police, she said.

“This is not community policing,” Matos said. “I wonder how many undocumented immigrants, including women, will be afraid to speak out and reach out to advocacy organizations or the New Haven Police Department because of what happened to this woman.”

In his statement, Shumway argued that the victim trusted the NHPD enough to file her complaint against Troche “regardless of the nature and immigration status.”

Matos lives in Fair Haven, where she says there are a sig-

nificant number of undocumented immigrants. She shared that she has watched fellow community members raise concerns about this incident as it relates to “trends” in the NHPD. Troche’s arrest preceded the NHPD’s decertification of ex-officer Gary Gamarra on Nov. 26. Gamarra was accused of raping two undocumented immigrant sex workers in Fair Haven in late 2020 while he was an officer. The NHPD has received 68 civilian complaints in 2021 as of December 1.

It is unclear why the specific charge was brought by the state attorney when unwanted contact was reported. Karolina Ksiazek, director of operations of the Sex Workers and Allies Network, or SWAN, expressed disappointment with Troche’s charge of patronizing a prostitute. “ SWA N a d vo c a te s for increased accountability for all police officers who abuse their power,” Ksiazek wrote in an email statement to the News. “We do not know why the officer was only charged with solicitation when the harm committed was not about sex work, but about coercion, harassment, and abuse of power.”

Troche’s bail is set at $25,000.

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

Law student received Coker fellowship, undermining Law School case

BY PHILIP MOUSAVIZADEH STAFF REPORTER One of the two law students who filed the Nov. 15 lawsuit against the Law School for allegedly “blackball[ing]” them from professional opportunities — including the Coker Fellowship, a coveted position for third-year law students — did in fact receive the fellowship, contrary to a central claim in the complaint.

The students, Sierra Stubbs LAW ’23 and Gavin Jackson LAW ’22, filed the suit anonymously against the University, claiming that Law School administrators pressured them to endorse a statement against law professor Amy Chua. Their complaint details a series of damages, including the loss of the prestigious fellowship, for which they are seeking a minimum of $150,000. Yet the Law School’s annual bulletin includes a list of the students awarded Coker Fellowships and shows that Stubbs was given the role. “[Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken, Associate Dean Ellen Cosgrove and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Director Yaseen Eldik] also approached the professor to dissuade him from offering a Coker Fellowship to Jane and John because they refused to make statements against Chua,” the complaint reads. “As such, both Jane and John lost the Coker Fellowship,

and will potentially suffer further losses in the form of clerkships.”

In a previous statement to the News, University spokesperson Karen Peart described the lawsuit as “factually and legally baseless.”

Chua, law professor Paul Kahn, Stubbs and Jackson did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The lawyer for the plaintiffs, John Balestriere LAW ’98, stood by the allegations detailed in the complaint and told the News that previous attempts to resolve this issue had failed, forcing the plaintiffs to file this suit.

“Our clients stand by their allegations and while I’ve welcomed the opportunity to discuss the allegations with the administration they have thus far declined to do so,” Balestriere wrote in an email to the News. “[The plaintiffs] attempted to negotiate a resolution prior to filing suit. The administration declined. They are prepared to have a jury hear their case.”

David Lat LAW ’99, the author of “Original Jurisdiction” — a newsletter about law and the legal profession — detailed how this development may impact the case and its legal standing. He said that the information will affect the question of damages and liability, while also possibly undermining the legal standing of the case.

While Lat noted that it would be problematic for Law School administrators to blackball students for refusing to lie, which the suit claims,

lawsuits are primarily concerned with damages to the plaintiffs.

“A lawsuit also involves damages,” Lat said. “And if someone did something bad to you, but it didn’t injure you in any way, then that is something of a problem for your lawsuit.”

Lat explained that in legal matters, “standing” refers to the right to sue another individual based on injury from wrongful conduct.

Without this injury, he said the plaintiffs would be without standing to sue.

He added that in order to get a remedy from a court — in this case a monetary reward — the plaintiffs must be able to show that they were “injured in some way.”

“It certainly goes to the issue of liability or damages, but it could also undermine the core of the lawsuit itself,” he said.

In a subsequent conversation with the News, however, Balestriere explained that the damages do not refer simply to the awarding of the fellowship, but rather to the fact that his client took a leave of absence from the Law School as a result of this incident — and therefore did not undertake the fellowship.

Balestriere did not confirm the identities of either of his clients.

“She felt forced to leave the school and thus could not serve as a Coker fellow,” Balestriere said. “She lost her Coker fellowship, because of the administration’s misconduct.”

RYAN CHIAO/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

The Yale Law School’s annual bulletin indicates that Stubbs, one of the students who filed the Nov. 15 suit, was awarded the Coker Fellowship.

In a previous conversation with the News, Lat suggested that one possible goal for this lawsuit is what might be produced during the discovery process.

“They want to get documents, they want to subpoena the other side [and] get internal emails between Gerken, Cosgrove and Eldik,” he said. “All of those emails would be… discoverable, meaning that they can be produced and turned over to the plaintiffs. The other thing about discovery is you get to ask questions of the relevant people under oath or deposition.”

By co n t ra s t , B a l e s t r i e re argued that the damages extend beyond the fellowship, in that both of the plaintiffs suffered

reputational harm. He said that they are now both not “thought of well” within the Law School community and were socially ostracized because of the administration’s actions.

The lawsuit includes a total of seven causes of action, only two of which — defamation and intentional interference with prospective business relationships — make explicit reference to Stubbs’ and Jackson’s alleged loss of the Coker Fellowship.

The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut.

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

PAGE 10

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

SPORTS

“Today is a difficult day for baseball, but as I have said all year, there is a path to a fair agreement, and we will find it.” ROBERT D. MANFRED JR. COMMISSIONER OF BASEBALL

Women’s basketball defeats BU and Fairfield

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After two tough losses, the Yale women’s basketball team responded with backto-back road victories over the BU and Fairfield.

W. BASKETBALL FROM PAGE 14 only got worse for Yale, as the Stags stretched their differential over the next two quarters. With the Blue and White facing a seven-point deficit with 4:28 remaining in the game, a Yale victory seemed improbable.

However, the team turned it around to finish the game on a 15–2 run to secure the victory. Elles van der Maas ’24 started the rally with a clutch three-pointer with 4:12 remaining and Camilla Emsbo ’23 followed with a layup to cut the deficit to two. Lou Lopez-Senechal, who finished with a game-high 27 points, scored the Stags’ final points of the night to put her team up by four. From there, it was all Bulldogs, as they outscored Fairfield 11–0 over the final minute and 43 seconds of regulation.

Emsbo recorded 17 points and 10 rebounds against the Terriers and 26 points and 11 rebounds against the Stags. She has now recorded a double-double in all seven of the Bulldogs’ games, and leads the nation in the statistic. Emsbo has also been a defensive presence, blocking one shot against both BU and Fairfield, while contesting countless others in the middle of the team’s Pack Line defense.

Jenna Clark ’24 was another key contributor in both of these games and has led the team in assists in every contest this season. The Clairton, Pennslyvannia native notched five assists against BU before tallying eight more against Fairfield. Clark was quick to credit others for her early-season success.

“Personally, I think putting in a lot of work over the year off and having amazing trainers allowed me to start this season prepared,” Clark said. “Working with my coaches and teammates has also helped us all build chemistry and confidence.

The rest of the starting five all chipped in to help the Bulldogs return home with victories this past week. Klara Astrom ’24 poured in 26 points with a 47 percent three-point percentage across the two games. Christen McCann ’25 scored 13 against BU and Alex Cade ’22 notched 11 against Fairfield.

Yale’s bench got outscored 40–15 during the two contests.

However, the group has plenty of time to improve given that many of the Bulldogs’ bench contributors are first years.

Beyond all of the individual numbers, the Blue and White have found their winning formula. Captain Roxanne Nesbitt ’22 summarized the importance of the bounce-back wins, and the team’s mentality moving forward. “[Our losses] exposed a lot of offensive and defensive deficiencies we needed to fix,” Nesbitt explained. “We came into practice ready to learn and work through our mistakes. As a team, we understand that this season will have its ups and downs as we learn to play together … We also like winning.”

The Bulldogs will play three road games before returning home again on Dec. 11 against University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Contact ANDREW CRAMER at andrewcramer@yale.edu

No. 21 Tigers await Yale Saturday M. BASKETBALL FROM PAGE 14 Jones, whose coaching philosophy revolves around defense, rebounding and sharing the ball, said he could not recall the last time a pair of opponents consecutively shot 50 percent against the Bulldogs in New Haven. He said the team’s weak-side help and ball screen defense specifically need improvement.

But against Lehigh Wednesday, Jones pointed to offensive issues as the primary culprit for his team’s sub-par first half. Falling behind in the early minutes has emerged as a recurring issue for the Elis this season — even when they win. Yale fell to an 11–4 deficit in its win against Milwaukee last week before the first media timeout, trailed Southern Utah 9–5 in the first three minutes and lost early ground to Stony Brook Sunday. Against UMass, which Yale ultimately defeated by 20 in its second game of the season, the Bulldogs trailed 7–0 after the first three minutes of the game.

The trend repeated itself Wednesday at the John J. Lee Amphitheater, as Lehigh built an 11–2 lead within the game’s first four minutes. Yale missed five of its first six shot attempts, though Jones said he does not see the slow starts as stemming from one common problem.

“We’re still trying to figure some things out,” Swain said, pointing out that Yale is eight Division I games into its fivemonth season. “I can’t really explain the first-half starts.

That’s a work in progress, and we’re still growing as a group.”

Guard Matthue Cotton ’23 scored five straight points to sustain a 10–0 Yale run that straddled the under-16 media timeout, putting Yale up 12–11. The Mountain Hawks countered with a 13–2 run of their own. With less than two minutes to play in the half, a three-pointer from their starting guard Evan Taylor put Lehigh up 10 — matching its biggest lead of the game — before a basket from forward Isaiah Kelly ’23 set the halftime score at 33–25 Lehigh.

The visitors shot 51.9 percent from the field in the first.

As it did against Stony Brook Sunday, Yale entered the second half with renewed intensity.

Within five minutes, the Bulldogs had cut the deficit to one, and a three-pointer from Cotton gave them a 45–43 lead with 15:10 to play. A series of and-one finishes on three straight Yale possessions — from forward EJ Jarvis ’23, Swain and Gabbidon — allowed Yale to build its first substantial

Bulldogs build momentum in first win M. HOCKEY FROM PAGE 14 cess going forward. I thought we played our best team game for all 60 minutes all season and I'm glad it showed in the result.”

After the opening puck drop, UVM quickly found itself outworked by the Bulldogs. Just three minutes into the contest, defenseman Ryan Carmichael ’23 banged in a one-timer from the point through traffic in front of the net. As soon as the Greenwich, Connecticut native’s first collegiate goal was announced to the home crowd at the Whale, fellow blueliner Graham Lillibridge ’22 jumped on a rebound from the left circle. Assisted by Henry Wagner ’24 in his first game of the season, the Elis’ captain put the squad up by two.

A goaltender interference call placed the Bulldogs on the penalty kill late in the first period. The Catamounts managed to cut Yale’s lead in half after defenseman Robbie Stucker’s wrist shot from the point found the back of the net.

With just four minutes remaining in regulation, a clearing attempt by the Catamounts was denied with a poke check from center Niklas Allain ’24 and two-on-zero break quickly ensued. After deking and beating netminder Tyler Harmon to the post, forward Teddy Wooding ’24 notched his second tally of the season.

“The win was so huge. We played a great game as a team and stuck to it the entire time and we look forward to building off

lead of the game. Just six minutes and 14 seconds into the second, the Bulldogs had already doubled their first-half point total.

“It starts with a lot of offensive rebounds,” said Gabbidon, who hit four of his five three-point attempts, all in the second half.

“When guys make hustle plays like that and energize everyone on the team, I think it just gets us going. It’s one thing to go one-and-one and score, which is great. It’s a different thing for everyone to crash the glass and dig out those hard rebounds and take tough plays like that.”

Though it never fully shook Lehigh, Yale led for the rest of the game.

“One kill and we win,” firstyear guard John Poulakidas ’25 told teammates as Yale prepared to huddle up during a timeout with less than four minutes to go in the game, referring to the team’s emphasis on three consecutive stops — what they call defensive “kills.” Although they did not record a “kill” to end the game, the Elis did hit their free throws, securing the win down the stretch and shooting 14 of 16 from the line in the second half.

Yale’s searing second half helped the Elis overcome an opponent they were heavily favored to defeat. Lehigh ranked No. 302 in the 2022 Pomeroy College Basketball Ratings (KenPom) entering the contest, while Yale stood at No. 138. The analytics site estimated the chance of a Bulldog win at 89 percent.

With the win over Lehigh secured, Yale turns its attention to No. 21 Auburn (6–1, 0–0 SEC), whom the Bulldogs play in Alabama on Saturday. Saturday’s contest marks Yale’s first regular-season game against an opponent ranked in the AP Top 25 poll since visiting

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that,” Wooding told the Athletic Department following the match.

53 seconds later, however, UVM responded once again, as a one-timer beat Reid to the blocker post. After the Catamounts pulled Harmon with a minute left, a shot attempt by UVM was cleared by Yale, allowing center William Dineen ’25 to put home an empty netter for his first career goal.

While shots on goal just slightly favored the Catamounts 25–24, it was the Bulldogs that went home for the holiday on a high.

“We waited a long time between wins,” head coach Keith Allain ’80 told Yale Athletics. “It was valuable to the team to have to protect a lead in the third period and gut it out the way we did.”

The Blue and White are set to host conference competitors at Ingalls Rink for the first

time in three weeks. The upcoming weekend will pit the Bulldogs against two other Ancient Eight squads: Dartmouth and Harvard.

Despite the challenges that Yale has faced thus far in the season, Reid emphasized that the Elis’ passion and confidence have yet to waiver.

“The team’s mindset hasn’t changed all year, but I do think that with such a young group, feeling the experience of winning definitely makes us crave it more,” Reid said. “We don’t like using any excuses as to why we’ve struggled early and we think we are a group that can have a lot of success going forward.”

Since 2004, Yale has posted a 3–2 home record against the University of Vermont.

Contact TRISHA NGUYEN at trishanguyen@yale.edu

Contact WILLIAM MCCORMACK at william.mccormack@yale.edu .

TIM TAI/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Captain Jalen Gabbidon '22 scored a career-high 22 points on Wednesday. All of them came in the second half.

DeLay sets career best in first Champs CROSS COUNTRY FROM PAGE 14

The upcoming weekend will pit the Bulldogs against two other Ancient Eight squads: Dartmouth and Harvard.

then No. 3 Duke in December 2018 — in that game, Yale held a slim one-point lead through 12 minutes of the first half before the Blue Devils pulled away to win by 23.

The Tigers defeated the University of Central Florida on Wednesday night and have only lost once this season, a double overtime loss to UConn in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament last Wednesday. Auburn’s leading scorer, rookie forward Jabari Smith, was ranked as the No. 5 player in his high school class of 2021 by ESPN and is generating buzz as a possible top-three pick in the 2022 NBA Draft.

The contest agreement between Yale and Auburn, obtained through an open records request the News filed with Auburn University in October, stipulates a guaranteed payment of $85,000 for Yale’s participation in the match. If a State of Alabama Health Order was to restrict attendance at Auburn Arena to 50 percent or less, the sum would be $42,500.

Across the sport, high-major programs and even some other mid-major college basketball teams often offer guarantee, or “buy,” games to smaller or lesser-ranked opponents — the home team’s athletic department will pay the visitors a lump sum to compete in exchange for the revenue the school will earn from hosting a home game and an expected win. Yale is also receiving 50 complimentary game tickets, according to the contract, which athletic administrators and each head coach signed this past summer.

ESPNU will televise Saturday’s Yale-Auburn game, which tips off at 2 p.m.

afar as she took on the toughest field yet.

“We all knew how tough and dedicated she is, so we knew she could do it,” teammate Zoe Nuechterlein ’22 wrote in an email to the News. “We were all cheering from New Haven as we watched on TV together.”

By placing in the top 40, DeLay earned All-America recognition from the USTFCCCA. She was also named Northeast Region Athlete of the Year for her performance this season — the first Eli to earn the recognition since Kate O’Neill ’03.

The award is not only representative of DeLay’s race-day

performance, but also reflects her leadership in an unprecedented season for her team.

“All of our athletes really learned throughout the pandemic that having their teammates push them to get better is one of the best parts of our sport,” Coach Sheehan wrote. “Kayley has done a fantastic job as a captain and leader for our women’s program [in] encouraging this team component.”

With the cross country season in the rearview mirror, DeLay and her teammates can now turn their attention to the indoor track season, scheduled to begin on Dec. 11 with a home meet at Coxe Cage.

Contact BILLY KLINE at billykline@yale.edu

COURTESY OF YALE ATHLETICS

Delay and her teammates now turn their attention to the indoor track scheduled to begin on Dec. 11 with a home meet at Coxe Cage.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 11

IN MEMORIAM Frances Rosenbluth, 1958-2021

BY ISAAC YU STAFF REPORTER Frances McCall Rosenbluth arrived on campus in 1994 as one of few women within her department and the broader political science field. A titan of comparative political economics, she would go on to pave the way for young women professors and students behind her.

A scholar of comparative politics, Rosenbluth’s early work identified key misconceptions about the Japanese government and economy. She would go on to research issues of gender in political spheres and more recently, American hyper-partisanship and political parties. The professor was also a 2010 Guggenheim Fellow and was elected to the Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2007.

She was the first woman chair of the Political Science department and over her three decades at Yale served in a slew of other administrative positions, most recently as the director of the Ethics, Politics and Economics program.

On campus, she is remembered as an attentive mentor and teacher. For years, Rosenbluth taught the highly-popular undergraduate course “Sex, Markets and Power.” Over two decades, she shepherded hundreds of graduate students through Yale and as an administrator strived to promote diversity and gender parity among the student body and the faculty in her department.

Rosenbluth, 63, died in her Hamden home on Saturday, Nov. 20 after fighting a glioblastoma.

She had been teaching an undergraduate course, “Japan and the World,” and she continued to lecture right up until a few weeks before her passing.

“In her passing, we have lost a valued colleague and friend, gifted teacher, and immensely impactful scholar and administrator,” political science department chair Gregory Huber wrote to community members. “For lack of a better description, Frances was a force of nature who was a ceaseless advocate for her students, peers, and the larger Yale and scholarly communities.”

Born and raised in Osaka, Japan as the daughter of missionaries and spending part of her childhood in Taiwan, Rosenbluth spoke flawless Japanese as well as Mandarin. That background would continually influence her scholarship as she studied as a Fulbright scholar at the University of Tokyo

YALE NEWS

The long-serving professor of political science is remembered for her teaching contributions and for paving the way for women after her. and earned a doctorate in political science from Columbia.

When she entered the comparative politics field as one of few women, scholars had concluded that Japan, a rising international economic star in the 1990s, had a clean government that defied typical political theory. Rosenbluth’s own analysis, however, warned that the Japanese political system was neither as corruption-free nor as viable as many believed.

Her work, initially scorned by her peers, ultimately proved correct, establishing her firmly as a leader in comparative politics.

“She turned the field upside down,” said Rosenbluth’s longtime partner and fellow political science professor Ian Shapiro.

Soon, Rosenbluth expanded her research to include the wage gap and underrepresentation of women in politics. Her knack for intuiting the counterintuitive would serve her well; she determined that Japanese women had made less ground in the workforce in part, unexpectedly, because higher overall job security in the country made employers more hesitant to hire women.

She was an unabashed “woman who studies women,” as she told

students. Her prize-winning book with Harvard economist Torben Iversen — “Women, Work, and Politics: The Comparative Political Economy of Gender Inequality” — became a standard-bearer in political science classrooms.

Later in life, Rosenbluth would conduct joint research with Shapiro on American voter dissatisfaction and the unintended consequences of democratizing political parties. Together, they published her most recent book, “Responsible Parties: Saving Democracy from Itself” and penned opinions for the Washington Post. Her wide range of other scholarly interests included military history, imperial Japan and bonobo monkeys.

R o s e n b l u t h ’s profound research, however, never overshadowed her investment in her students. She was known for constantly being interested in her mentees’ ideas and for giving immense amounts of personal, straightforward feedback, and she avoided talking about herself as much as possible, many recalled.

As director of graduate studies she also oversaw recruitment of new scholars to the University; her office was a welcoming space,

typically containing a big bowl of candy and Rosenbluth’s large yellow labrador. Many of her graduate students say that her warmth was the ultimate factor that convinced them to study at Yale.

“I’m not sure if there’s anybody who taught me more about what it means to be an adult,” Thomas Pepinsky GRD ’07 said.

Rosenbluth also particularly looked forward to teaching her many undergraduate course offerings. Her lecture “Sex, Markets, and Power” typically filled the 460-seat Yale Law School auditorium to its brim.

She would later become director of the Ethics, Politics and Economics Program and was awarded the William Clyde DeVane Medal for Teaching Excellence in 2018.

Women in academia, Rosenbluth often told students, tend to be categorized as either uncaring “witches” or overly soft “mothers.”

She broke out of both boxes, her mentees and colleagues recounted.

“She was like an iron fist in a velvet glove — a person of extreme strength, wouldn’t back down or compromise on her principles, but still very gentle and diplomatic,” said professor of political science Helene Landemore.

As a department chair, Rosenbluth spearheaded efforts to recruit a diverse faculty, often pushing back on hiring searches when initial applicant pools didn’t include enough people from marginalized groups. She was a mentor to the many women who joined the department during her tenure and directed special attention towards plugging the “leaky pipeline” of academia. She was a trailblazer in voicing the struggles of working women, one of few professors to enthusiastically discuss her role as a mother of three young children with students and colleagues.

As deputy provost of the social sciences and faculty development, she would work with other women faculty to procure funding for The Nest at Alphabet Academy, a University-sponsored child care center on Science Hill for children under three.

“She showed us a way to do this profession while caring for others, for our teaching, and for children,” said Dawn Teele, associate professor of political science.

Rosenbluth is survived by Shapiro and three sons, Ben, John and Will.

Contact ISAAC YUat isaac.yu@yale.edu .

Robert Farris Thompson, 1932-2021

BY ISAAC YU STAFF REPORTER Robert Farris Thompson ’55 GRD ’65, whose pioneering scholarship and seminal work “Flash of the Spirit” defined the horizons of African art history, died on Monday. He was 88.

Hailing from El Paso, Texas, Thompson was the Colonel John Trumbull Professor of the History of Art and Professor Emeritus of African American Studies, serving more than half a century on Yale’s faculty. He was the first Yale graduate and second person in the country to earn a History of Art doctorate specializing in African art. He is also credited with coining the term “Black Atlantic.”

“We are all in deep mourning about the passing of a transformative figure in the field, especially for the study of the arts of Africa and African diaspora, as well as art history more broadly,” professor of classics and history of art Milette Gaifman wrote in an email to the News. “This is an end of an era.”

Thompson’s 1984 book, “Flash of the Spirit,” is still the preeminent text for scholars of African and Afro-American art and remains in publication today.

For 32 years, Thompson lived in Timothy Dwight College and served as the head of college — a position then-known as Master — and was dubbed by generations of undergraduates as “Master T.” Thompson was widely known for his rambunctious energy and fierce enthusiasm for intramural and campus sports. His signature word of encouragement, “Àshe!” translates to “we make it happen” in Yoruba. “Àshe!” remains the college’s rallying cry today.

“He made good on the promise of Yale and made the residential college system matter,” said Don Martin ’95. “Master T was kind of like an older brother, ready to run amok, wreak havoc and push you to get outside your comfort zone.

He was the best of Yale.”

Throughout his life, Thompson crisscrossed oceans to conduct field research in Nigeria, Congo, Brazil and Peru. Within his department, he was a figure of generosity to younger scholars, often collaborating excitedly in bits of the many, many languages he picked up. He remained a prolific writer throughout his life, most recently publishing “Tango: The Art History of Love” in 2005.

Cecile Fromont, professor of African and South Atlantic Art, called Thompson a “colossal innovator” whose works both grounded his discipline and made waves in the art history world more broadly.

An early pioneer of employing multimedia experiences in museum curation, Thompson masterminded exhibits at the National Gallery of Art and the University of California, Los Angeles. His library of books and research papers is now at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, where his scholarship was celebrated in 2020.

“I don’t think I’ve ever known another colleague that was as able to integrate all aspects of the art — sound, performance, body, movement, visual capture — as well as he did,” said Mary Miller, former Yale College dean and chair of the history of art department.

For years, Thompson taught the lecture “New York Mambo: Microcosm of Black Creativ-

COURTESY OF MATTHEW SUSSMAN

Affectionately known as “Master T,” he served as the head of Timothy Dwight College for more than three decades. ity,” more commonly known as “Mambo,” often drawing in legions of students from his own college. Instruments were commonly featured during lectures, including his frequent use of his lectern as a drum which harked back to his tours as USO drummer and his 1959 Afro-Cuban percussion album. Many recall his vivid demonstrations connecting Yorùbá dance traditions to American rock & roll and hip-hop.

Thompson actively curated TD’s Chubb Fellowship lecture series, transforming the college into a revolving door of the world-famous figures in his phonebook, including Walter Cronkite, Ted Kollek, David Byrne and James Brown, who he interviewed for a Rolling Stone cover story. Thompson, Davenport Head of College John Witt ’94 said, was the “quintessential” head of college who translated scholarship and teaching into a lively residential community.

“Knowing him in person was to learn a new way to be — to confront the courage, the panache, the daring to dance,” John Loge ’66, dean of Timothy Dwight during Thompson’s tenure, wrote to the News.

Thompson is survived by a sister, two children and five grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

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

PAGE 12

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

THROUGH THE LENS

Team 148 finished its season on a somber note, losing in the 137th rendition of The Game. Yale led by four points with under a minute left, but a last-second touchdown from Crimson quarterback Luke Emge gave Harvard the 34–31 win.

“We responded numerous times in the game, there were plenty of things that happened during the game today that didn’t quite go our way but we kept fighting and fighting and fighting and made some plays on both sides of the ball to get ourselves back into it and then take the lead.

And as I said to them, too, sometimes you give all you have in life, and you don’t get the outcome you want.”

- Yale Head Coach Tony Reno “We responded numerous times in the game, there were plenty of things that happened during the game today that didn’t quite go our way but we kept fighting and fighting and fighting and made some plays on both sides of the ball to get ourselves back into it and then take the lead.

And as I said to them, too, sometimes you give all you have in life, and you don’t get the outcome you want.”

- Captain John Dean ’22

JARED FEL & NADER GRANMAYEH report.

Photos by ZOE BERG & TIM TAI. Illustration by ZOE BERG.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

NEWS

PAGE 13

“I accept I am not everyone’s cup of tea, but judge me over a period of time.”

STEVE BRUCE ENGLISH FOOTBALL MANAGER

Kerry Initiative names 23 Fellows

AMAY TEWARI/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

23 University students, representing Yale College and several Yale professional schools, have been named Kerry Fellows.

BY LUCY HODGMAN STAFF REPORTER Ines Ayostina ENV ’22 was busy packing for COP26, the United Nations’ 26th Climate Change Conference, when she found out that she had been named a Kerry Fellow. Ayostina, who is from Indonesia and grounds her climate change research in her home country’s vulnerability to natural disaster, said her first instinct was to call her mother in Jakarta, even though the 12-hour time difference meant that it was after midnight there.

Ayostina is one of 23 students from the University recently selected as a Kerry Fellow for the 2021-22 academic year. A component of the Kerry Initiative, which was founded by former Secretary of State John Kerry ’66 in 2017, the Kerry Fellows Program offers students from across the University’s constituent schools the opportunity to contribute to policy research on climate change, global economic development and international diplomacy.

“The heart of this program is research and writing, and it’s very focused on an experiential approach,” said David Wade, who leads the Kerry Initiative alongside Sona Lim GRD ’13. “They try to take some of the hardest questions in diplomacy and foreign policy and approach them the way that you

would if you were a Foreign Service officer or CIA analyst or someone working, one way or another, on the frontlines of these issues.”

Wade, who is Kerry’s former chief of staff and a lecturer at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, assumed a more active role in the initiative this spring. Wade and Lim began teaching the global affairs class “American Power in the 21st Century,” which Kerry had taught in previous semesters, after Kerry stepped back from Yale to focus on his role as the inaugural Special Presidential Envoy for Climate under President Joe Biden.

Wade also worked with Kerry to design the Kerry Initiative in 2017 and explained that diversity was a priority for the architects of the program, who sought to represent a wide range of experiential backgrounds and academic interests within the fellowship.

“I would emphasize that diversity of all kinds has always been important,” Wade said. “The goal was not to have a class of future John Kerrys. The goal was to have a class of fellows who reflect a panorama of experiences and perspectives, who are going to ask tough questions and have differing perspectives but who are all passionate about the work.”

The fellows accepted to the program represent Yale College, Yale Law School, the Yale School of Management, the Yale School

of the Environment and the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.

Several of the fellows emphasized the diversity of this year’s cohort in terms of cultural backgrounds and nationalities — lived experiences that inform the fellows’ academic interests.

“My family is Pakistani-Kashmiri, but I’m also really interested, specifically, in U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and North Africa region and in South Asia,” Shaezmina Khan ’23 said. “That’s always been my area of focus. I’ve always wanted to understand how the wars and conflicts that are occurring in these regions are a spillover of movements unfolding in other failed states nearby.”

Khan, who has worked in foreign policy as a legislative intern, an assistant at the UN Democracy Fund and as a research assistant at the Yale Law School, described her familial background as the “root” of her interest in foreign policy and international diplomacy.

Ayostina recalled her experiences working in Indonesia, explaining that many of the communities she worked with “still can’t believe” the leadership roles she takes on because she is a young woman.

“While I understand the importance of respecting convention, I recognized how difficult it is to initiate changes while coming from a disenfranchised group — and

this is a unique, valuable perspective required to solve sustainability challenges because sustainability is distinguished not by disciplines but rather by challenges that need to be resolved,” Ayostina wrote in an email to the News.

The fellows have also had a broad range of academic and career experiences, contributing unique perspectives to the central policy focuses of the initiative.

Tristan Irwin GRD ’23, who recently left the U.S. Army after nine years of service, previously worked as a special operations civil affairs officer in Moldova.

Irwin’s team worked to strengthen the relationship between the United States and Moldova while helping Moldovan communities become more resilient against threats that ranged from natural disaster to foreign disinformation.

“Face-to-face outreach and engagement, small-scale development assistance projects, subject matter expert exchanges and interagency collaboration were all part of our repertoire,” Irwin wrote in an email to the News. “I enjoy the kind of work that aims to improve people’s quality of life, and the Kerry Fellowship’s focus areas are very much oriented towards that as well, though at a more strategic level.”

Jesse Bryant GRD ’26, whose research primarily focuses on the link between climate change and white nationalism, said that he hopes he can contribute to the climate initiative by researching various external effects of climate change which members of the Kerry Initiative might not otherwise consider.

Bryant explained that much of his research deals with white supremacist movements that perceive climate destruction as “a great opportunity to take back a white homeland.”

“Terrorism requires policy, but it also requires people knowing what the hell’s going on, and being able to talk about why people might feel that way,” Bryant said. “ It’s just bringing that kind of stuff out of the darkness, where it’s operated and continues to operate throughout the history of our country here and across the world, too.”

Several of the fellows said that the opportunity to collaborate with the rest of the cohort had

been a significant draw for them in applying to the program.

Jackson du Pont ’22 compared the program’s diversity to that of the “best seminars” he has taken at Yale, which bring together a broad range of perspectives and academic experiences.

“The fellows are just really great people,” Lim said. “Overall, they’re really great personalities, and I think everybody’s really proactive about getting to know each other and coordinating social events together. They’re interested in forming these connections that last beyond just the academic year, and they form relationships that really help them navigate both their professional and personal lives beyond the program.”

Now that the Kerry Initiative has been established for several years, Wade said, fellows have the benefit of mentorship from alumni of the program, as well as from the program’s leaders. Wade added that fellows who happened to attend COP26 were able to connect with Kerry Initiative alumni who were also in attendance, as well as with Kerry himself.

For many of the fellows, Kerry’s influence was a driving factor in the decision to apply to the program.

“I’m from Massachusetts, so Kerry was my home state senator and I always looked up to him,” Kerry Fellow Drew D’Alelio SOM ’22 GRD ’22 said. “A lot of his work really inspired me to work on global challenges, in particular, the Paris Agreement, and the reopening with Cuba. As someone who’s focused on climate change in my own work, and a Cuban American, his work on that was particularly inspiring. I think he was just always a personal role model.”

Bryant emphasized that the program provides a unique opportunity for the Kerry Initiative’s fellows and leaders to learn from each other.

“I would imagine hanging out with David Wade will be cool,” Bryant said. “I think mentorship goes both ways. I have a lot of things I want to bring up with him, too.”

Kerry served as Secretary of State from 2013 to 2017.

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

BOE passes transgender and gender non-conforming youth policy

BY KEENAN MILLER CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Transgender and gender non-conforming students who attend public schools in New Haven will benefit from several new protections from the New Haven Board of Education.

On Nov. 22, the Board of Education unanimously passed Policy 5145.53, which lists guidelines for the treatment of transgender and gender non-conforming youth in the New Haven public school system.

The measure, which in part affirms that students should proceed with sports, restrooms and daily activities in line with their expressed gender identity, is intended to protect the legal rights, safety, comfort and healthy development of transgender and gender non-conforming students, and is effective immediately.

Advocates lauded the victory, and the Board of Education is currently planning the logistics of the policy’s implementation.

“I think, in general, New Haven and the Board of Education and teachers and administrators, everybody just wants students to feel loved and safe,” said Erin Michaud, L.W. Beecher Museum Magnet School of Arts and Sciences teacher. “This was one of the easiest things I’ve ever seen passed by the Board of Education, and I’ve been here for 21 years.”

According to the policy’s text, it is designed to “create a safe learning environment for all students and to ensure that every student has equal access to all school programs and activities.” It provides guidance on how schools and district staff should operate to protect student privacy, keep official records, ensure the accessibility of gender-segregated spaces like restrooms and locker rooms and navigate student participation in sports and other gender-segre-

gated activities. The policy also reinforces existing anti-discrimination laws and mandates the provision of gender sensitivity training for district staff and students, among other things.

Matt Wilcox, the Board of Education’s vice president, said that the policy was built off of a model policy provided by the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, or CABE. Though advocates like Tahnee Cookson Muhammad, a member of the New Haven LGBTQ Youth Task Force and the parent of a nonbinary child formerly enrolled in the New Haven public school system, hoped to pass the policy by the beginning of the 2021-22 school year, the process of clarifying and strengthening CABE’s model policy led to delays.

The policy had to be reviewed by the Board of Education’s governance committee twice, as well as by district lawyers. There was also a several-week-long delay before the policy’s presentation to the Board of Education itself, once the final language had been approved.

Muhammad said waiting was the hardest part of the process. He added that “getting it right so that it does get passed is what’s really important,” so the delays were ultimately worthwhile.

The policy’s passage makes New Haven the first district in the state to embrace the CABE-offered policy, according to Michaud.

Elisa Cruz, a senior at Hill Regional Career High School who is involved with the LGBTQ Youth Task Force, gave public testimony at the meeting where the transgender and gender-nonconforming youth policy was passed. She said she was “beyond proud to stand in solidarity” with transgender youth in New Haven.

The school district, Cruz shared, is notoriously proud of student diversity, and it was important for her to see the Board of Educa-

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

On Nov. 22, new gender identity protections for New Haven Public Schools were approved by the Board of Education. tion “put their money where their mouth is” and take this step.

Assata Johnson, also a senior at Hill Regional Career High School, said they thought it was important to advocate for other students in addition to themself, despite having never personally been put into an uncomfortable situation due to their gender identity. Johnson gave absentee testimony at the Board of Education meeting.

“This will help get students the respect they need to feel safe in schools,” Johnson said in an interview. “When you go to school, you don’t want to have to worry about your safety, you want to focus on your education and future.”

Now that the policy has been passed, the community’s focus is

shifting to the process of implementation and ensuring accountability.

“We know it will be teachers (and our union and its leadership) who will play a key role in implementing the initiatives and values of this policy,” Dave Weidleb, a magnet resource teacher at Elm City Montessori School, wrote in an email to the News.

Tony Ferraioli, who routinely runs LGBTQ workshops, will provide twenty 90-minute professional development trainings to the district, using funds secured from the Yale Gender Program.

Ferraiolo is experienced with the process of training educators to provide a safe and respectful space for transgender children in school environments.

Wilcox noted that he intends to ask the district for an update on the implementation process in five or six months to check on the progress of staff training and troubleshoot other implications of the policy. He noted his certainty that there would be effects from the policy that the Board of Education would need to hear about.

“I hope that the district will make sure that schools implement this policy,” Johnson said. “And if a school is not following the policy, then hopefully the district will take this as seriously as any other complaint.”

There are 44 schools in the New Haven Public Schools District.

Contact KEENAN MILLER at keenan.miller@yale.edu .

M SWIM & DIVE Princeton 194 Penn 106

FOOTBALL Dartmouth 52 Brown 31

SPORTS

W HOCKEY Cornell 2 Princeton 0

M SQUASH Harvard 9 Dartmouth 0

FOR MORE SPORTS CONTENT, VISIT OUR WEB SITE goydn.com/YDNsports Twitter: @YDNSports YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

W HOCKEY HOT STREAK CONTINUES Across two weekends of games over break, the No. 7 Bulldogs go 3–1–1. A heartbreaking overtime loss to No. 5 Quinnipiac at the Nutmeg Classic did not stop the Elis from crushing Sacred Heart the next day.

SAILING NATIONAL CHAMPS The No. 1 Yale sailing program traveled to the Match Race National Championships last month, where they edged out the U.S. Naval Academy for first place, their first Match Race title in program history.

Bulldogs recapture winning form

“I was very anxious about [the Brandeis Invitational], but knowing I can lean back into the team... lets me really focus on being the best fencer I can be.”

CHRISTINA ZOZULYA ’24 FENCING

Yale visits No. 21 Auburn after 10-pt Lehigh win

BY WILLIAM MCCORMACK STAFF REPORTER The Yale men’s basketball team stumbled early within the first few minutes and trailed by eight points at halftime Wednesday night, falling behind Lehigh, an opponent picked to finish last in the Patriot League.

MEN'S BASKETBALL

MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM

The Yale women’s basketball team responded to its first losses of the season with two convincing wins.

BY ANDREW CRAMER CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Facing adversity for the first time early in the 2021-22 season after two tough losses, the Yale women’s basketball team (5–2, 0–0 Ivy) responded with backto-back road victories over the Boston University Terriers (2–4, 0–0 Patriot) and the Fairfield Stags (3–3, 0–0 MAAC) last week.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL The young team, which features just four upperclassmen, showcased its resiliency in the pair of wins. In an email to the News, head coach Allison Guth spoke about the growth mindset that the team has adopted early in the season.

“We are a work in progress and focus after a win or loss on what

there is to improve with our areas of deficiency,” Guth said. “This team has really impressed me with how coachable and eager they are to take a concept or a game plan and bring it to life. We keep being real with ourselves, accountable to improving on our weaknesses and that’s what has translated on the floor.”

On Wednesday, the Blue and White pulled out a victory over BU, winning 57–51. The teams were largely evenly matched over the first three periods. The Terriers led 12–7 at the end of the first and 27–23 after the second quarter. The Bulldogs clawed their way back into the game after halftime and entered the fourth quarter clinging onto a one-point lead.

The team proceeded to make a 9–2 run to open the fourth. While the game remained close, the Terriers never managed to get back within one possession for the rest

of the contest. Yale put the game away with a true team effort, with their last four baskets coming from four different scorers.

Coach Guth highlighted the team’s tough defense as a primary reason for their victory.

“Our team had a total commitment to disturbing BU’s point of attack in their offense,” Guth said.

“We executed our game plan on-ball screen coverage and disturbed both the rhythm and success BU had on their continuous ball screen motion.

We were more effective in disrupting their shooter’s rhythm.”

On Sunday against Fairfield, the Bulldogs looked like they might dominate early, as they led 22–10 at the end of the first quarter. But in the second, the Stags stormed back, reclaiming a 27–26 lead just five minutes into the period. Things

Bulldogs break into the win column

SEE W. BASKETBALL PAGE 10

MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM

The Blue and White secure their first victory of the season after defeating the University of Vermont at home.

In its second non-conference match-up of the 2021-22 campaign, the Yale men’s ice hockey team nabbed a 4–2 win over the University of Vermont.

MEN'S HOCKEY During the weekend prior to their Thanksgiving Eve matchup against the Catamounts (2–9–1, 1–4–1 HEA), the Bulldogs (1–6–0, 0–5–0 ECAC) made their way down to New York for back-to-back contests against ECAC foes Colgate (8–8–0, 3–3–0) and

Cornell (8–1–0, 5–1–0). After being stunned 3–0 in both competitions, the Blue and White returned home, still vying for their first win.

Wednesday evening’s victory featured goals from four different Elis, with two skaters notching their first career goals. Despite the 25 shots that the Catamounts had sent towards goaltender Nathan Reid ’24, the sophomore netminder only allowed one even-strength goal.

“It felt great to get our first win under our belt,” Reid said. “We have been itching for it for a while so we plan on continuing that suc-

STAT OF THE WEEK

SEE M. HOCKEY PAGE 10

4

An offensive outburst after the break helped Yale (5–4, 0–0 Ivy) regain composure and the lead, carrying it to an 82–72 win over Lehigh (1–7, 0–0 Patriot) and helping the Bulldogs avoid what would have been their first time dropping consecutive non conference games at home since December 2010. Guard Azar Swain ’22 finished the night with 23 points, while his classmate and captain Jalen Gabbidon ’22

scored a career-high 22, all of which came in the second half.

“We’re not playing as well as we’re capable,” head coach James Jones said after the game.

“We put up 57 points in the second half, and [in the] first half we were just really poor. I thought we were trying to put ten pounds of poop in a five-pound bag, squeezing it too tight, trying to do too much as opposed to just playing basketball.”

“And then defensively, they shot over 50 percent for the game again,” Jones added, referring to the fact that Lehigh and Stony Brook, which beat Yale on Sunday, both shot around 50 percent from the field each game — Lehigh shot 49.2 percent Wednesday, while Stony Brook shot 53.7 percent. “And that just doesn’t happen to our team, especially in this building.”

SEE M. BASKETBALL PAGE 10

TIM TAI/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

57 points in the second half, including a career-high 22 from guard and captain Jalen Gabbidon ’22, helped the Bulldogs claw back from an early deficit.

DeLay ’22 places 10th at NCAA Champs

BY BILLY KLINE CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Kayley DeLay ’22 capped off her accomplished collegiate cross country career with a tenth-place finish at the NCAA Championship, which took place on Nov. 20 at Apalachee Regional Park in Florida. Her time of 19:37.7 on the 6K course marked a career best.

CROSS COUNTRY

BY TRISHA NGUYEN STAFF REPORTER

M HOCKEY Harvard 5 Brown 2

The race may have been her first NCAA Championship, but she came prepared. “[I] knew that I wasn’t going to have this opportunity again, so I went in with the mindset that I had little to lose but a lot to gain,” DeLay wrote to the News. “Coach Sheehan and I talked about getting off the line well and sticking with the front pack of 20 or so women.”

DeLay stuck with her plan at first, staying in tenth place after the first kilometer and never leaving the top 25. But halfway through the race, DeLay switched on the afterburners.

From 24th place at the 3000m mark, DeLay worked her way into the top ten over the course of the next kilometer. As the field began to separate, she never left the lead pack.

“There was no question in our mind Kayley had the ability to be at the front of that field,” head coach Taryn Sheehan added. “The special thing about Kayley is she had the confidence in herself to believe that and whenever she believes

something I have yet to see her not achieve it.”

Though the pack thinned out as they approached the last kilometer, DeLay’s position wasn’t yet secure.

She would ultimately cross the line in a photo finish, within tenths of a second from her competition both ahead and behind.

“I honestly do not remember all too much from that last couple of minutes,” DeLay reflected.

“I was just giving everything I had and kicked for home.”

While DeLay spared no effort in the final stretch of her race, her elite performance was a long time in the making.

“Kayley has been incredibly consistent in her training the past three years I have had the opportunity to coach her,” Sheehan wrote. “I think her ability to compound training even throughout the pandemic is what has paid dividends for her.”

As captain of the women’s cross country team, DeLay led her teammates all season through training and competition, culminating in the team’s fifth-place finish at the Regional Championship.

Naturally, the tight-knit team was there to support her from SEE CROSS COUNTRY PAGE 10

COURTESY OF YALE ATHLETICS

DeLay earned All-America honors and was named Northeast Region Athlete of the Year for her performance.

THE NATIONAL RANKING OF THE YALE WOMEN’S SQUASH TEAM. THE ELIS SECURED THEIR TOP RANKING WITH A 7–2 VICTORY AGAINST THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA AND A 9–0 SWEEP AGAINST BROWN.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2021

WEEKEND

BACK TO DECEMBER

// JESSAI FLORES

// BY IDONE RHODES

New England winters are nothing new to me. For the last 20 years — or at least the 13 or so I can remember — I’ve watched summer days fade into cold blue nights as leaves turn red and then float to the ground. I remember so distinctly the first snow of second grade. We were playing outside during recess, and then all of a sudden there it was — little clumps of white, falling, falling, falling to the ground.

I remember wearing my pajamas inside out and backwards, putting frozen spoons under my pillow, flushing ice cubes down my toilet and twirling around and around my kitchen praying for snow days. At 7 a.m., I’d run downstairs to watch the morning news — or really to watch the ticker at the bottom of the television screen announcing snow day cancellations. I felt time slow as the screen cycled down the alphabet toward my school district. If you blinked, you might miss it, and you’d have to remain in suspense for a whole additional

45 seconds so that the ticker would loop around once again. One February, we had a snow day every single week. It honestly felt like I’d won the lottery.

Unfortunately, as most things do, the luster of winter has faded as I have gotten older. In high school, when the snow came, it simply meant I had to wake up 20 minutes earlier to use an ice pick to crack open the doors of my car. Snow days became simply an excuse to catch up on work.

Now that I see my first college winter on the horizon, what is in store for me? As with many things at Yale, my expectations for winter here are informed by copious rewatches of “Gilmore Girls” throughout middle and high school. Will Yale be a winter wonderland of Christmas markets and hot cocoa? Will I be able to smell snow like Lorelai? None of these questions are really rhetorical, and I can tell you the answer is probably no.

Returning from Thanksgiving break, the energy on campus has shifted in some way. As I put the sweaters I brought from home in the spot where my summer clothes used to be and plugged in my aptly-named SAD Lamp, the reality set in that winter here is probably going to be pretty brutal. People came back to school with a look of grim acceptance on their faces that was almost obscured by the layers of scarves and hats and earmuffs.

A lot of what makes this campus what it is are the outdoor spaces we inhabit on a daily basis. Spending time outside with friends on Cross Campus, Old Campus or your residential college courtyard are all quintessential experiences at Yale.

There is a reason Yale’s promotional photos are taken during the golden glory of fall foliage as smiling students lounge outside in the sun. What becomes of this place when we are all forced indoors, scurrying from one building to another as quickly as possible to

get out of the cold? As the hours of sunlight dwindle and, particularly in the next three weeks, the amount of work piles up, I wonder where we will all go to find warmth — physical, metaphorical and otherwise.

Maybe I need to look on the bright side, wherever I can find it.

I can find joy in the feeling of pink frostbitten cheeks and coziness in the library swaddled in a giant sweater. I can cherish memories of sipping tea with my suitemates at 2 a.m. in our common room. I can watch and laugh as my best friend from California struggles through her first Nor’easter. I want snowball fights on Old Campus and elaborate snow fort constructions. If I can drop my backpack on the ground outside my dorm on the way back from the library and make snow angels with my friends just for the hell of it, maybe that wouldn’t be so bad.

Yes, I’m envisioning an ideal world, and the novelty of win-

ter in college will probably wear off as soon as I have to trudge to class in knee-deep snow and some of it gets in my boot. But, I imagine when February hits, and the sun sets at 4:30 p.m. and even that one tiny bit of natural light in Bass disappears, I’m going to have to find something to take joy in. If reclaiming a bit of childhood wonder makes winter more bearable, who is to stop me?

In that vein, I’m going to remain cautiously optimistic for what winter has in store. Maybe it can be at least a little bit magical — aka slightly manageable — if I make it that way. So, if you see me making snow angels on Cross Campus, feel free to join.

“Remember that you haven’t met all the people who are going to love you yet,” Basile said. “Just keep that in mind.”

Contact IDONE RHODES at idone.rhodes@yale.edu .

PAGE B2

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND SURF’S

UP

Yale has a surf team? // BY ANASTASIA HUFHAM

//MARK CHUNG

Aimlessly scrolling through Yale-related Facebook pages one November afternoon, half-heartedly searching for Yale Daily News story ideas, I came across a graphic of a bulldog balancing on a surfboard. I clicked.

“The Yale Surf Team is a club that organizes surfing trips, lessons, and competitions for participation by all members of the Yale community,” the “About” section read. The page has garnered 171 likes — including four of my Facebook friends — and 174 followers. A grid of photos depicted wetsuit-clad figures on white surfboards, deftly maneuvering across gray waves with their arms extended. One picture, which I had to enlarge, was of a lecture hall. The focal point was a student who, feverishly taking notes in the photo, had propped his navy and cerulean surfboard against the classroom wall.

The most recent post was from April 28, 2017. The caption read “Yew! The boys hit Rhode Island for a successful Saturday strike mission a few weeks back,” followed by a collage of blue-tinted snapshots: the ocean, two cars loaded with surfing gear, a candid moment of a surfer in a wetsuit. Picture credits were given to Mila Dorji ’20.

“Our status as an official organization just kind of lapsed,” Dorji told me in a series of voice memos. “I’m sure at some point in the future, somebody will reinstate it. It’s kind of gone in and out over time.”

Dorji, who is now earning his master’s of public health at Yale, grew up surfing in California. When he came to Yale, he joined the surf team, which was then still formally affiliated with the University. Today, the surf team is a casual group

of Yale undergraduates, graduate students and alumni — completely separate from the University — whose most official connection is this Facebook group.

New Haven’s location presents several barriers to surfing, Dorji explained, in contrast to the sunny, surfer-dominated West Coast. Long Island shadows the state’s coastline, preventing swell from reaching southern Connecticut’s shores.

The lack of waves forces surf team members to travel southward to Long Island or further east to Rhode Island.

“Mostly, it’s just a great group of people that has evolved over the years — people who feel most comfortable and at home in the ocean,” he said. “It’s a way for them to connect with each other and access that at a place that doesn’t necessarily offer it as easily as some of the places that we come from.”

When the forecast is promising, surf team members wake up at dawn — or, since they’re sleep-deprived students, usually a few hours later — and hop into willing team members’ cars. Having class is a nonissue; most would rather catch a wave than sit through lecture.

Two hours of driving brings Yale surfers to a popular surfing location called Matunuck in southeastern Rhode Island.

There’s one small surf shop and a few restaurants in the small town nearby, along with a bar or two. Large, towering beach mansions lean over dune vegetation, like sea oats, where the slate gray Atlantic meets gravelly, slightly lighter-gray beach.

“The nature of surfing is such that we would oftentimes make the decision to go in a split second,” Dorji said. “It wasn’t really compatible with Yale’s way of doing things.”

HOT TAKES Stop saying you’re class of twentysomething plus one. You’re graduating a year later. Just deal with it.

Qualifying as an official Yale organization requires no small amount of work. Even though the University can supply funds to student groups for various activities, such as transportation, the in-the-moment nature of surfing rendered that support moot. Yale’s policies required team leadership to schedule transportation in advance and mediate liability concerns well before each “practice.”

It came down to the fact that if the Yale surf team was incorporated as an official student organization, they would have to deal with more restrictions.

To team members, the hoops they had to jump through to maintain official status ultimately provided few benefits.

There was a way to surf on campus when the team was official, the Facebook page revealed. All one needed was a giant blue tarp and a skateboard for “tarp surfing.” Participants rolled on a skateboard across the tarp while others lifted it, simulating an ocean wave in the middle of Cross Campus. Professors, heads of college and other students would stop to shred artificial gnar.

For now, Dorji has taken the helm of the unofficial surf team and primarily oversees the team’s Facebook page. He fields messages from misguided Connecticut mothers who think the team might be able to offer their children surf lessons.

“That’s not a service we actually provide,” Dorji finds himself explaining in response.

Instead, the informal group is composed of already-experienced surfers, like Tasman Rosenfeld ’23. This will be his first season of winter surfing in New England. He grew up surfing in Florida, where the sugar-like sand glows white and the waves

are actually blue, but has since persuaded himself to venture into the cold Atlantic waters.

“There isn’t a more radically different experience from being in the Yale bubble than just diving into the cold Atlantic and surfing,” he told me. “It’s the ultimate way to break away from the stress and pressure and everything else that comes along with Yale.”

After arriving at Matunuck, attendees typically start a “session” — surf lingo for an uninterrupted break of surfing — that usually lasts until lunchtime. Spent from the morning session, Yale surfers feast on either previously-packed snacks or dine at a local food joint. Then it is immediately back into the ocean, often until the sun sets or the surfers are too wiped out to keep paddling.

As dark settles over the waves, the students remember their assignments, classes and other obligations and reluctantly retreat to the Elm City.

The frigid temperatures require Rosenfeld to don a thick, heavy wetsuit lined with neoprene, thinner at the joints, with a hood. Next are gloves and booties so that every part of his body — except his face — is covered. One day, a kook — surfer language for an inexperienced, unaware novice — at Matunuck let go of his board in the water, rather than holding onto it or ducking under the incoming waves, while Rosenfeld was preparing for the next swell.

The fin of the kook’s board clipped him in his exposed face and he started bleeding. Luckily, his teammates were there to administer first aid and, after the fact, laugh.

“I haven’t had a group to surf with since I graduated high school because I’ve been moving around, and your clique as

a surfer is a really important aspect of the whole experience,” Rosenfeld said. “Finding that here at Yale has been really special. I have this group of really close friends here to go out with, joke around with and who yell when I catch a sick wave. …

There’s so much stoke in that.”

The surf team’s looser structure in recent years has made room for members to try other outdoor activities. When the surf is flat, the team might opt for a day of rock climbing.

Sometimes members embark on weekend camping expeditions. The team tends to attract outdoor-inclined Yalies who want to connect with others and pursue many activities in a “decentralized way,” according to Dorji.

One of the team’s proudest traditions is that of the honorary Yale surf team surfboard. According to Rosenfeld, “it’s one of the worst surfboards on the planet.” The board is so waterlogged after years of use that it barely floats.

Thinly scrawled on the bottom side in black Sharpie are the words “Yale Surf Team,” which often draws the gazes of fellow beach-goers.

Margot Lee ’24 asked the question likely on the minds of everyone who catches a glance of that old surfboard or stumbles across the group’s Facebook page: “Yale has a surf team?”

The answer seems to be no — officially — but also yes. There is the Facebook page, after all, and there are shared car rides, communal surfing gear and countless stories. If you ask Dorji, “We’re just a group of people that like to go and surf together.”

Contact ANASTASIA HUFHAM at anastasia.hufham@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE B3

WEEKEND PASSIONS

SEX ON THE WKND: Faking it Yale philosophy professor Shelly Kagan begins his lectures courses by sitting crisscross applesauce on a table atop a stage and telling you that he’ll probably give you a C. All those other professors, he says, they’re lying to you. You turn in work that you know isn’t good, and they give you As even though you know that they know it isn’t good, either. Shelly sticks to Yale’s official grading rubric, so As are reserved for truly excellent work, and merely satisfactory essays get Cs. It’s not because Shelly think you’re dumb. In fact, it’s because he thinks you’re smart, smart enough to deserve an honest assessment of your work. So, out of respect for you, he’s not afraid to give you a C. Shelly Kagan is an adult man who exclusively wears low-top Converse, so I don’t entirely trust his judgement. But I think he’s correct that overly-generous feedback can inhibit improvement. And just like getting an undeserved A on a paper won’t make you a better philosopher, being falsely told that you’ve made someone else cum won’t make you any better at sex.

Shelly teaches philosophy students to state their arguments up front, so here’s mine: you should never fake an orgasm.

There are plenty of reasons why

people fake orgasms, and all of them are bad. It’s not a compliment or deserved ego boost for your partner. It’s a lie, and lying is bad. (I would quote a moral philosopher here to prove my point, but I credit-d’d Shelly’s class.) And it’s not just a little white lie. It’s a deception that is destructive to individual relationships and, when it’s normalized, to sexual culture as a whole.

Sex is weird and awkward, and we don’t always get it right, especially with a brand new partner. But part of the fun is learning together what gets you both off. Fake orgasms get in the way of this learning, like how cheating on a practice test won’t help you ace a midterm. And once you fake an orgasm, it’s hard to take it back. Your partner will probably do it the same way next time, confident that you loved it before, leaving you to choose between an eternity of bad sex or coming clean about your lie. Sex should be honest, and honesty works best when it’s respected from the start.

At risk of stating the obvious, I think it’s important to note that only people with pussies can fake orgasms. (Unless someone with CEID access were to design some sort of hydraulic device...actually, I’d rather not picture that.)

This fact means that gendered

expectations are often at play when it comes to feigned climaxes, especially during straight sex. Many men at Yale claim to be feminists, which likely means they claim to care about pleasing female partners. I’m sure some of them actually do. But if all men really want their partners to have a great time, then why don’t all their partners feel like they can speak up if something isn’t working? Why don’t all their partners feel like they can say they had fun and be believed, without having to cum to prove it?

I know a dude who doesn’t believe in lube. (I wonder what Shelly Kagan would have to say about that code of ethics).

He told me that it shouldn’t be necessary if he’s done his job right. What I heard was that he doesn’t actually care about his partner’s pleasure; he’s more concerned with bolstering his ego. In his short story collection Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, David Foster Wallace writes that these types of men “think they’re generous in bed” when “the catch is, they’re selfish about being generous.”

With men like this, faking an orgasm becomes a fulfillment of male desire, which for a very long time women have been told should be their purpose in bed.

Sex shouldn’t feel like a WGSS seminar, but it’s important to recognize that big ideas like gender roles can sneak their way into even the most private of encounters. This recognition can allow you to better understand your experiences and give you the language and the confidence to seek out something better.

Of course, faking the big O happens during all types of sex between all types of partners.

It’s often done out of the misguided, but well-intentioned belief that cumming is the marker of good sex and only way to show your partner that you had fun. Orgasms are fantastic, and we should want lots of them for ourselves and our partners.

But they’re not the only reasons we fuck. (If they were, most of us would find it a lot more efficient to go at it solo.) Sex can be a way to express yourself or feel closer to someone else. Sometimes, even during really great sex, one or both partners don’t cum. If you’re satisfied at the end, orgasm or not, then that’s awesome! You and your partner should feel excited, not disappointed just because someone didn’t finish. The real orgasm, one could say, is the fun you had along the way.

If you’re tempted to fake an orgasm, or have done it in the

past, think about why. Do you not feel like your partner would be receptive to a little constructive criticism? Are you trying to protect your partner’s ego? Do you think the sex was too fixated on the destination, not the journey? Remember, a sexual dynamic is a conversation between two people who each bring their own preferences and insecurities. Think about how you can improve the way you communicate your wants and expectations as well as what your partner could do to better meet your wants and needs. Setting the right atmosphere for sex isn’t just about romantic candles or a great playlist. It’s also about building the groundwork for trust, respect, and openness.

I started this by stating that you should never fake an orgasm, but what I really should’ve said is you should never even feel like you have to. Whether it’s in the context of a hook-up or an exclusive relationship, you should feel comfortable being open, and you have the right to ask for the same candor from your partner. Fake moans don’t make for better sex. Only honest conversation can do that. So the next time a partner rolls over and asks you how it was, feel free to say, “Out of respect for you, I’d give it a solid C.” //WINNIE JIANG

Mary Orsak’s Inexhaustible Passion for Eastern European Studies

// BY ANNE GROSS

“My shoelaces are absolutely always untied,” Mary Orsak ’22 said. “I am not what you’d expect a Rhodes scholar to be.”

Orsak, who is from Dallas, has an immediately warm and direct presence. She greeted me in a grey turtleneck sweater, jeans and sneakers, from her perch in a Humanities Quadrangle classroom where she’d been preparing a presentation for her class on Russian short stories. She is majoring in Russian at Yale, and in many ways, she said, is “a normal 22 year old.”

Her idea of a perfect Friday night is playing board games with her friends from Pierson. “I’m really bad at all of them,” she said.

She’s also currently watching — and loving — “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” as well as the “Great British Bake Off.” When she begins to speak about Russian and Eastern European studies, though, the force and brilliance of her passion is immediately apparent. She describes her path to Russian as “circuitous:” she actually came to Yale wanting to study Czech, a way of honoring and connecting with her grandfather, whose family immigrated to Texas from the Czech Republic. He passed away when Orsak was 13 and has paid for half of her college education.

However, when she arrived at Yale, she was convinced by a professor to learn Russian first, because Russian is more difficult.

Once you’ve learned that alphabet, the professor told her, Czech should be a breeze.

“And here I am getting a Russian degree,” she said with a shrug and a baffled laugh.

It wasn’t love at first sight, though. Orsak explained that, in her first year, she struggled with the Russian language: “Everything feels so foreign and overwhelming,” she said. With a whole new alphabet, it felt like she was “thrown into the pool,” and left to figure out how to swim.

It was only the summer after her first year, when she studied abroad in St. Petersburg, that she truly fell in love with the Russian

language and culture. It happened “in a kind of remarkable, marvelous, magical way,” she said, her face lighting up as she vividly described the canals of St. Petersburg and its eerie white nights — belyye nochi — in which the sun only sets for two hours.

There, over the five-and-a-half weeks she stayed, she fell in love with the literature, art and history of Russia to which she felt connected, given her Czech heritage.

Back at Yale, in her sophomore year she thought that she would study both Russian humanities but found herself gravitating towards her Russian courses.

Each semester, she would shop more and more Russian and Slavic courses than she would humanities, and eventually decided to concentrate herself wholly on what she loved most. It was the passion of the Yale Russian professors that helped her realize that she was “allowed to love it,” she said, and who “validated [Russian] as a real choice.”

The Russian professors, she explained, are passionate about the cultural production of Russia beyond the general buzzwords that are associated with the country — geopolitics, Putin and hacking. Orsak explained that Eastern Europe is a set of countries, regions, and peoples that tend to be viewed through a single lens: as a threat to the United States. The small department size allowed her to work intimately with professors who saw beyond that unilateral and misconceived view. They are “excited that there are students who want to study what they love,” she told me.

Orsak sees academia as a democratizing force. “It’s not simply teaching at Ivy League institutions and publishing really specific, dense monographs,” she said. Instead, she sees it as making her love and appreciation of the culture accessible to all. She hopes to be an academic in order to communicate a sense of the beauty, diversity and complexity of Eastern European studies to the general population. This is part of the reason she wants to go to Oxford – she sees it as

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an opportunity to learn how to become a good teacher from some of the world’s best educators.

The process of applying for the Rhodes scholarship was, for Orsak, one of deep introspection. She saw it as an opportunity to reflect and understand her journey, but felt that it was also, in some ways, a simplification.

It was hard to make herself into “some marketable product that can be easily digested by a group of strangers,” she said.

“So much of the narrative you create is a story of your successes,” Orsak told the News. “It was difficult to incorporate failure in a way that was genuine, and not self-deprecating for the sake of making myself a better applicant. We are real individuals who have failed, and who are here in spite of those failures.”

Orsak said that her conception of failure has changed over her time at Yale. She entered college with a conception of success and failure limited to academia, and said that, as her worldview expanded, she realized that her validation should not be exclusive to scholastic achievement.

A lot of that realization came from her work with Yale’s mental health services. Orsak is the former director of Walden Peer Counseling, which provides anonymous peer guidance to Yale undergraduates. Her mother is a psychiatrist, and she has always been passionate about mental health and increased access to mental health services. Through her experience counseling peers in crisis, Orsak came to a deeper understanding of the importance of friendship and wellness.

As she described the moment of finding out about the Rhodes scholarship, her story focused on her friends. While most Yale students were getting ready for the Yale-Harvard football game, Orsak was in the Pierson College seminar room, which lies in the basement of the college. When she heard her name, she said, she was so surprised and overwhelmed that she couldn’t process anything.

She texted her parents, her

// MARY ORSAK

boyfriend and her friends in Pierson, who all ran down to the basement, crowding around the door.

She desperately signaled to them that she was still on the official Zoom, and finally, when the call ended, they all rushed in. One of her friends brought a beer, saying that she’ll need to get used to drinking beer in pubs in England.

“It was an absolutely heartwarming experience,” she said.

Orsak’s Oxford semester doesn’t start until October 2022.

So, her attention has turned back to Yale — she’s now focused on finishing her thesis, which examines performance art in the ’60s and ’70s in Prague and Moscow.

She’s analyzing the way male performance artists borrow from western feminist performance art to critique the state socialist

body.

“It’s very dark and violent,” she said.

On a lighter note, in December, after her thesis is finished, she plans to finish out her Yale career “with a lot of fun,” and would like to spend as much time with her friends as possible. Then, over the summer, she hopes to go to Brno — the second largest city in the Czech Republic — to work on her Czech, before heading off to England.

When I asked her if she felt burnt out by all her studies, she told me that she wasn’t: “It’s hard to be burnt out when you’re absolutely in love with what you study.”

Contact ANNE GROSS at anne.gross@yale.edu .

PAGE B4

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND PROFILE

LIAM ELKIND ‘21.5: TO PULL TOGETHER WHEN THE WORLD IS FALLING APART // BY HANNAH QU Liam Elkind’s mom has the philosophy that whenever you are receiving important news, just get the facts down and don’t let yourself react. Liam Elkind ’22 followed this principle on Nov. 20, the day when the American Rhodes scholar class of 2022 was elected. Elizabeth Alexander, the head of the committee, announced the winners of District 3, Devashish Basnet and Elkind Elkind, and explained the logistics of accepting the award. Elkind took notes, said thank you and logged off. Staring at his page, the thought suddenly hit him — “Liam Elkind, that’s my name.”

After the whirlwind of calling his girlfriend, parents and mentors, Elkind hopped on the train from New York to New Haven, and indulged in celebratory toasts with his girlfriend and her mom.

It is the culmination of the hundreds of hours he put into the Rhodes application. But even more, it is the testament of, in his own words, “being there for each other,” of his 22-year-long life.

An “Intense Kid,” Beloved by Family and New York Elkind was born and raised in New York, a city that he “eats, breathes and sleeps.” At Yale, he majors in Ethics, Politics and Economics and Global Affairs. Last year at the start of the pandemic, Elkind co-founded Invisible Hands, a national nonprofit with more than 15,000 volunteers that delivers groceries and prescriptions to at-risk community members. Invisible Hands has attracted nationwide attention, and Elkind has appeared on national media such as NPR, NBC and The New Yorker.

But Elkind wasn’t born a confident leader. When he was in kindergarten, while his classmates were singing “This Little Light of Mine’’ at their concerts, Elkind was standing backstage with his teacher, choking out words “this little … light … of mine” in a volume audible to no one. This is what Elkind used to do: crying backstage.

Childhood wasn’t an easy time for Elkind. He couldn’t speak until almost 3 years old. He didn’t get into any of the preschools in New York. And he refused to leave his mom’s side at any time. His mom described him as an “intense kid,” and indeed Elkind had terrible anxiety.

But things changed when he was in the third grade. When his family came to his show “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” they expected that he would be crying somewhere backstage as always. This time, however, Elkind showed up.

The rising adrenaline, while terrifying, molted away his anxiety.

Having finally overcome his fear, he was immediately drawn into the world of performing art. Thus was born his first childhood dream: to become a great actor.

It took time for Elkind to become his own person, but he was never alone. At every play or small event in the school, his whole family was always there. Even today, whenever Elkind performs at the Yale Children Theatre, his grandparents will be there for him.

Elkind grew up with the unwavering feeling that he was important, special and loved by his family. And when the supportive environment at home made him a caring, grateful kid, New York further encouraged him to spread kindness and warmth.

He remembers his mom telling him that the day after 9/11, she tried to pay for a firefighter at the grocery store, and the cashier said, “Nice try, lady, you know, 10 other people have already paid.” It was a moment when everyone wanted to come together, a moment Elkind often witnesses in New York, a moment of which spirit is deeply ingrained in Elkind’s identity. It reaffirms and

inspires him that when the world pulls us apart, we are still finding ways to pull together.

Feel the Wind on Your Face Elkind applied to Yale for four reasons: his passion for musical theatre, his desire to explore multiple academic disciplines, his brother’s experience at Yale and his strong love for the Thai restaurants around campus. But after handing in his college application, his interest had already begun to expand.

The day after former President Donald Trump’s election in 2016, Elkind’s high school English teacher asked the class to share one thing they were excited about the future.

Elkind passed the question out of frustration.

And then a girl said, “I’m excited to get more involved in politics.”

This forever changed Elkind’s career. At that moment he realized that when his rights and his democracy were under attack, he would need to stand up and fight for it. Elkind remembered in 2008, his mom let him fill in the bubble for former President Barack Obama and said, “Isn’t it amazing that in this country, we get to choose who our leaders are?” Elkind wanted to carry on his family legacy of believing in democracy and voting rights.

In the future, he wanted to take his own kid to a polling station, put a pencil in their hand and tell them that their voice matters. That was the value Elkind strived for, the value he feared was losing.

Applying to Yale as a prospective theatre studies major, this sense of duty quickly encouraged Elkind to go into ethics, politics and economics and global affair majors. He wanted to bring more ethics to politics and economics. His courses at Yale have shown him what the world looks like, but he also wants to determine what the world should look like by doing the groundwork himself. John Rawls is Elkind’s favorite philosopher. To Elkind, an ideal society is where everyone has the political, economic and social tools to flourish.

He was involved with Yale College Democrats and started a group to register student voters. He wanted to make sure people had the opportunity to make their voices heard, and he worked to make the absentee ballot experience on campus more streamlined.

He also continued his passion for theatre at Yale, sometimes performing for a child who was barely paying attention and a mom on her phone, sometimes watching hours of cow footage to learn how to “moo.”

The four years at Yale is a safe, open environment for Elkind to explore. “I want to be able to … have fun and feel freedom, feel the wind on your face as you run,” he said.

It is a feeling of having limitless capacity and potential energy for the future, a feeling that he worries will wane as he gets older. He wants to enjoy it as much as he can.

Pull Together and Pull Through Elkind is a big fan of the musical “Hamilton.” Just like Alexander Hamilton, Elkind desires to leave a legacy: not of wealth and fame, but of the changes he could make for the better. Elkind did not throw away his shot. When the whole world was separated by the pandemic, Elkind was in New York. This time, he was the person that pulled everyone together.

March 2020 was a difficult time, a time of loss where people feel directionless about what they could do to help themselves and others. It was a time in need of a hero, and for Elkind, being a hero meant simply to do what he could do. “Watching reruns of ‘Breaking Bad’ didn’t feel particularly heroic to me,” he said.

Instead, he wanted to do some good.

So when he saw a Facebook post by his friend Simone Policano ’16 asking if anyone knew of an organization that would deliver food and medicine to elderlies in need and no such organization existed, he reached out and asked, “What if we made that organization?”

They recruited some friends and put out a call to action on social media. Within the first 72 hours, they had 1,300 volunteers.

Thus, he founded Invisible Hands, which has become a national nonprofit with more than 15,000 volunteers that delivers groceries and prescriptions to at-risk community members and fights food insecurity. Elkind thought this would be a spring break activity, but Invisible Hands went viral. The next day, he woke up with missed calls from Good Morning America, Fox and more signed up volunteers. Blake Lively shared the Invisible Hands’s flyer on her Instagram story. Bernie Sanders told his supporters to reach out to Invisible Hands if they needed free food.

The urgency of the moment was real. It was no longer the controlled environment at Yale, where Elkind had the freedom to fail — if he didn’t pick up people’s calling, someone would be hungry. He put his phone numbers on the flyer and received calls from all around the country.

He started hiring people, managing the budget and operationalizing Invisible Hands. For the first month or two of the pandemic, when people called New York’s governmental hotline for food, they would get the response: “We can’t help you. Call Invisible Hands.”

It was a lot of work, and sometimes they failed. At first, Invisible Hands received more donations than it could use, and Elkind decided to put it back into the community in the form of a subsidy program of $30 worth of groceries per household per week. But after Bernie Sanders emailed Elkind’s personal phone number and the demand skyrocketed, they quickly ran out of money. Invisible Hands almost went bankrupt within six days, and Elkind had to shut down the subsidy program.

Elkind has constantly struggled with being aspirational and pragmatic at the same time. He has ambitious goals for the distant future, sometimes stumbling to realize his limitations in reaching those goals. This time, he realized they couldn’t do everything by themselves. He started partnering with food pantries, mutual aid groups and religious institutions that already had food or funding, and Invisible Hands could leverage their human capital to deliver to those in need. Elkind was 20 years old at that time. “To be a 20 year old in 2020 is to see lines beginning to wrinkle my forehead as I spent long nights trying to solve an unsolvable budget, to make up for lost time in the spreadsheets of loans unpaid,” he said. “Those wrinkles will serve as perennial reminders of that fight for years to come.”

Elkind will always remember the day he heard from a woman living in Michigan. In the email, she told him that her 83-year-old father, living alone in New York, had been diagnosed with COVID-19. Every week when one of the Invisible Hands volunteers dropped off food and medicine, they would sit on different sides of his door and talk about their lives, their fears and their joys.

The 83-year-old man and the boy in his 20s never saw each other. If they passed by on the street, they wouldn’t have recognized each other. But they had become friends.

The woman told Elkind her father had passed away due to COVID-19.

She said the help that Elkind and his team were able to give her father was not in vain. She told Elkind that they had provided some semblance

// LIAM ELKIND

of relief, reassurance and comfort to her father in his final days that made him know that he was not alone.

To Elkind, living in New York during the pandemic felt like when the city was on its knees, people found ways to pull together and pull through. He remembered every night at 7 p.m., people would clap for the doctors, nurses and other essential workers who had put their lives on the line for the rest of the people. While the ambulances were racing by, the Broadway’s leading singer, Brian Stokes Mitchell, would sing out of his window a song called “The Impossible Dream.” Its lyrics sang, “This is my quest — to be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause.”

To Do, To Love, To Hope “When Breath Becomes Air” is Elkind’s favorite book. The book is a memoir of the American neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi fighting death on a day-to-day basis as his profession, and fighting death on a dayto-day basis for his own life. Elkind always finds inspiration in Kalanithi’s hopeful spirit. It is a spirit of knowing the odds were against him, knowing for a fact that he would lose at some point, but continuing the fight and leaving a legacy. Sometimes Elkind is bothered by the thought that the progress to make the world a better place seems like a never ending battle. But when he was 20 years old in 2020, he too continued the fight and left the legacy with Invisible Hands. Elkind said he felt hope — in the face of overwhelming odds, there would be a brighter day out of darkness.

To Elkind, Invisible Hands is a reminder of the power of community organizing, but also a scathing indictment of government inefficiencies. Elkind is also cautious that people may become so moved by stories of people coming together to survive adversity that they forget that many of those adversities shouldn’t exist at first. Elkind returned to Yale after a gap year at Invisible Hands, but the campus environment has made him feel like a boy. His eyes have been opened to the need and urgency beyond Yale. Elkind wants to go back to the groundwork. He will graduate from Yale in two weeks, finishing his Yale career one semester early. He will return to Invisible Hands and make sure it will run smoothly when he studies at Oxford. He is ready to get

back into the real world.

The government responses during the pandemic are an alert to Elkind that the public policy work he aspires to do one day has the power to improve — or impair — people’s lives. The desire to be an ethical, effective public servant has spurred Elkind to study the intricacies of policymaking through ethics, politics and economics. And now, this desire is taking him to Oxford. Elkind hopes to get a master’s in philosophy in comparative government, with a focus on comparing different democracies in the world through voting rights, campaign finance and structural reforms. For Elkind, to study in the United Kingdom through the Rhodes scholarship is both an exciting opportunity and a huge responsibility. He wants to explore what the United States can learn from other countries’ mistakes. He wants to come back, maybe to his beloved New York City, and work to provide people with the political tools they need.

On Nov. 21, before announcing the winner of the 2022 Rhodes scholarship, Elizabeth Alexander read a poem called “To be of Use”

by Marge Piercy. It is a poem about the importance of service and the beauty of being of use to someone, a poem that aligns with Elkind’s life philosophy.

I want to be with people who submerge in the task, who go into the fields to harvest and work in a row and pass the bags along, who are not parlor generals and field deserters but move in a common rhythm when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

Kant has the theory that in order to be happy, one needs to have something to do, someone to love and something to hope for. At this moment, Elkind is living with all these three things: to do schoolwork and Invisible Hands, to love his girlfriend and family and to hope for working towards driving meaningful changes in society. Every day, Elkind lives his favorite song, “I’m Here,” from the musical “The Color Purple.” When his love, his family and his community are in need, he’s here.

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

Finals Fuel Into half a glass of coffee, pour cream liqueur, however much you want. Then garnish with whipped cream and a biscoff cookie.