Yale Daily News — Week of Dec. 10, 2021

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NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2021 · VOL. CXLIV, NO. 9 · yaledailynews.com

Professors protest DOJ China Initiative

Nearly 100 professors sign letter as U.S.-China tensions disrupt research

BY ISAAC YU STAFF REPORTER Nearly 100 Yale professors are protesting the U.S. government’s response to worsening U.S.-China relations, denouncing efforts to root out spies on university campuses as threats to scientific inquiry and academic freedom that discriminate against scientists of Asian descent.

Headlines detailing high-profile arrests of Chinese scientists at American universities have accumulated over the last decade, and have ramped up since the Justice Department launched the 2018 China Initiative in the name of “countering unlawful (Chinese) government efforts,” per a spokesperson. But according to an investigation by MIT Technology Review, the initiative ultimately deviated from its goals, focusing prosecutions on the grounds of “research integrity” — usually failures to fully disclose ties to Chinese universities — rather than acts of espionage or technology theft. A majority of cases have had charges dismissed or are largely inactive, but professors have faced heavy professional retaliation, including one who was ultimately acquitted. More than 90 percent of the defendants are of Chinese heritage.

Threats of charges and surveillance loom over Yale’s lecture halls and laboratories, where some faculty say they work in fear. Meanwhile, graduate student researchers face heightened barriers

to obtaining visas and in some cases have been forced to conduct more than a year of their scholarship for Yale remotely. In one of the most visible signs of frustration on Yale’s campus so far, 96 faculty members in the last three weeks have signed on to an open letter addressed to the U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, condemning federal anti-espionage efforts and endorsing a Sept. 8 letter signed by 177 Stanford University faculty to that end. Organizers will continue to collect signatures and aim to present the letter at the next Faculty of Arts and Sciences Senate meeting on Dec. 16.

“We have to assiduously avoid basing policies or processes on prejudice — including those that could fuel anti-Asian sentiments or xenophobia,” the Yale and Stanford letters read, quoting the President’s Science Advisor Eric Lander.

“We believe that the China Initiative is one such policy,” the letter continues.

“We therefore would like to suggest that you terminate the China Initiative and replace it with an appropriate response that avoids the flaws of this initiative.”

The China Initiative “disproportionally targets researchers of Chinese origin” and “is harming the United States’ research and technology competitiveness,” according to both letters. Arne Westad, historian of contemporary East Asian history who teaches in Yale’s history department and the Jackson InstiSEE CHINA PAGE 4

ZOE BERG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Students wrangle potential travel bans, quarantines and flight cancelations when making plans for winter recess.

Omicron casts doubt on int'l travel

BY OLIVIA TUCKER AND TIGERLILY HOPSON STAFF REPORTER AND CONTRIBUTING REPORTER As the Omicron COVID-19 variant contributes to an uncertain public health situation, international students grapple with potential travel complications over winter break.

With campus set to close on Dec. 23 for winter recess, concerns are mounting among the international student body regarding travel plans. With a growing number of international travel restrictions, the possibility of institutional quarantine mandates and the

potential inability to travel back to the U.S. in January, students are concerned about being unable to go home or being unable to return to New Haven.

“I just want to go home and see my family. That is all I want to do,” Ananya Purushottam ’25, an international student from India, told the News.

On Dec. 6, the Office of International Students and Scholars, or OISS, sent an email to international students instructing them to consider the risks of travel, while also making it clear that they will support students who decide to leave the country this winter. The message directed students to view the interna-

SEE OMICRON PAGE 5

YNHH expanding ER to parking lot for high demand

Dominguez rejected as chief amid NHPD struggles

BY CHARLOTTE HUGHES CONTRIBUTING REPORTER On Monday night, the Board of Alders rejected Mayor Justin Elicker’s appointment of Renee Dominguez as permanent New Haven police chief through Jan. 31, 2022.

After discussing Dominguez’s record at their bimonthly meeting, the board ultimately voted to deny her appointment. Dominguez has served as interim chief of police since March.

Elicker, who believed Dominguez was the “right fit for the job,” called the decision “disappointing” and “disheartening.” While some alders supported Dominguez’s appointment, noting that her term would only last two months, others against the appointment were disappointed by Dominguez’s lack of vision for creating a diverse police department and for curbing a rise in homicides in New Haven. Furthermore, members of Unidad Latina en Acción criticized her support of the “thin blue line” flag.

Elicker declared his intent to resubmit Dominguez’s appointment for consideration in two weeks. If the Board of Alders then vote not to approve her, she will not be able to hold the role of police chief again.

“The timing and process of this proposed appointment required a thorough, detailed and nuanced plan for the future of the department that was acceptable to the community and engendered trust,” a statement by the Board of Alders released after the vote read. “When we are confident that there is a real strategic plan that includes the recruitment of diverse employees, training and advancement of officers to all levels in the department, action on improving closure rates, successful efforts toward decreasing homicides, and tackling the violence afflicting our city, then and only then can we move forward together.”

Before the meeting, on the steps of City Hall, activists from Unidad Latina en Acción and Black and Brown

tional travel reminders posted by OISS on Dec. 2 as well as the message from the Office of International Affairs, or OIA, sent to all students earlier that day.

The OIA email described that international travel over break is “indeed possible,” but poses greater risk than domestic travel, and so students “may wish to alter or even cancel … international travel plans.” It also stated that flight cancelations and new international restrictions, which can be enforced with little warning, may lead to the possibility of travelers becoming “stranded.”

Their return to the U.S. at the

BY BRANDON WU CONTRIBUTING REPORTER

believe in diversity or equity. It was just a checkbox.”

During the protest, John Jairo Lugo, the community organizing director of ULA, said that he had made “700 calls” to the police department over the past weekend against the appointment.

As the Board of Alders meeting began, the protesters brought their signs, flags that read “NHPD Guilty — New Haven Against Police Brutality” and microphones inside City Hall.

“There were 24 deaths [over the past year] that have not really been fully

Due to unprecedented patient volumes and longer duration of stay, the Yale New Haven Hospital is temporarily extending its emergency room to the hospital’s parking lot.

With an influx of patients who have delayed hospital care for the past two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic — often leading to more serious health problems when they do seek treatment — YNHH is facing a boarding crisis. Some patients wait in the emergency department for upwards of a day before a bed opens up, while others arrive, receive treatment and are discharged — all before entering a patient room. Still, YNHH has pledged not to turn away any patient who needs medical treatment, even if space is limited. The heightened demand has therefore prompted YNHH leadership to temporarily transform the parking lot, specifically the turnaround driveway outside the Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital’s main entrance, into an extended space for patient care.

“Our non-COVID-19 population has come back faster and sicker than before COVID-19,” said Michael Holmes, chief operating officer of the Yale New Haven Hospital. “A lot of our patients have delayed care, so now that they are back, they are sicker, have a higher acuity and are therefore staying longer, which creates capacity issues for us.”

The parking lot is one of five locations across the hospital’s campuses that is being temporarily converted to patient care space. The other areas include non-inpatient clinical areas, such as indoor infusion and ambulatory spaces. According to Holmes, three of the temporary expansions at the York Street campus and one expansion at the St. Raphael’s campus are located inside the hospital’s building. The parking lot is the hospital’s only outdoor expansion.

Holmes shared that these five expansions will alleviate the overcrowding in the emergency

SEE CHIEF PAGE 5

SEE CAR PARK PAGE 4

NATALIE KAINZ/MULTIMEDIA MANAGING EDITOR

Dominguez has faced criticism over the department's lack of diversity and perceived inability to curb the city's recent uptick in violent crime.

United in Action protested Dominguez’s appointment on the grounds that she is a “racist cop” under whom gun violence has surged and promotions have been disproportionately given to white officers, rather than Black or Latino officers. They chanted, “No la queremos,” or “We don’t want her,” and distributed flyers against Dominguez’s appointment.

“If the Board of Alders would do their research, they would realize that she does not fit the profile they created in the charter,” said Catherine John, a coordinator with ULA. “She did her diversity thing, but she doesn’t

CROSS CAMPUS

THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY, 1946.

A heatwave in the winter catches New Haven by surprise, with ahistoric high at 61 degrees Fahrenheit. Students hope this fluctuating weather does not negatively impact highly-anticipated winter sports.

INSIDE THE NEWS

QUESTBRIDGE

UNION

SQUASH

CHUN CONSIDERS CREDIT/D/FAIL REFORMS

81 QuestBridge finalists matched with Yale — the second highest number the University has seen.

They will be joined by other finalists admitted during regular decision.

PAGE 3 UNIVERSITY

PAGE 9 UNIVERSITY

PAGE 11 CITY

PAGE 14 SPORTS

A new slate unseated an incumbent to sweep 31 positions in the New Haven Federation of Teachers election.

A squash matchup against Drexel was quietly rescheduled following a positive COVID-

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

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OPINION GUEST COLUMNIST ISA DOMÍNGUEZ

GUEST COLUMNIST JULIUS LIN

What in the Yale does Squid game no more diversity mean?

A L

ast fall, I read my Yale admissions file in a Zoom with a frustrated, middle-aged woman from the University Registrar’s Office. She silently shared her screen, probably wanting to do something more exciting than clicking back and forth through a first-year’s file. It was an underwhelming experience and, like her, I was bored reading it. But next to my name at the top of the document, there was an amusing note: “BIN: DIVERSITY” I stifled my laughter. Me? Diverse? I’m rarely considered “diverse” in my hometown of Doral — a 17-year-old city in Miami-Dade County overflowing with Venezuelan Americans — and I don’t claim to be. But diversity has different meanings based on context. Seventy percent of Miami’s population is Latino. At Yale: 13.5 percent.

The problem is that, in the context of their defense of the legacy admissions policy, the definition of diversity is left unclear.

According to the most recent Yale Daily News article about the policy, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeremiah Quinlan said that legacy students “contribute to the undergraduate student body’s diversity,” citing “the statistic that over the past four years, enrolled legacy students have hailed from more than 40 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.” Legacy students are considered “priorities” alongside “first-generation students, students with ‘exceptional’ artistic talent and students from underrepresented racial, ethnic, geographic and socioeconomic circumstances.”

But I thought that legacy status was an ancestral privilege. On its own, it doesn’t refer to any unique lived experience or culture. In referencing the various regions legacy students come from, Quinlan implies that legacy status does not make legacy students diverse — the other characteristics that comprise their identities do. So, what makes legacy status a diverse identity in and of itself?

Andrew Lipka ’78, an alumnus referenced near the end of the article, provided a potential answer by focusing on the role that alumni play at Yale. Lipka claims that “alumni keep Yale going in ineffable and vital ways” and that they help in preserving Yale’s traditions — after all, Yale prides itself for being “at once a tradition.” Perhaps legacy students are diverse in their ways of thinking; maybe having a Yale alum as a parent has shaped the way they view the world. But is this different mode of thinking, if it even exists, enough to consider legacy students diverse? Is this Yale’s definition of diversity — thinking differently?

James Luce ’66, an alumnus and a former legacy preference student, points out that Yale doesn’t seem to know what diversity means and “how it can benefit the full Yale educational and social experience.” But where Quinlan and Lipka don’t pin a precise definition down, Luce makes it too broad. He suggests that diversity should not revolve around race, “but rather more importantly about cultural and individual differences,” since “there is no such thing” as an “Asian,” “Black,” “White,” “Indigenous American” or “Latino” culture.

Buy a plane ticket from Mexico City to Buenos Aires and see, he says. As Luce suggests, if Yale begins to deny “legacy preference status to scions of high-income alumni, regardless of race or ethnicity” and instead adopts a policy using “cultural categories,” then “all the major issues arising from the legacy preference system” would be resolved.

But there’s one problem: there are simply too many cultures. To cram them into categories and to ensure that they are represented on campus would be difficult.

THE PROBLEM IS THAT, IN THE CONTEXT OF THEIR DEFENSE OF THE LEGACY ADMISSIONS POLICY, THE DEFINITION OF DIVERSITY IS LEFT UNCLEAR. Yale is in an elevated position as a world-class university in the United States. It attracts people from different backgrounds and through a “holistic” admissions process, gathers them underneath a blue-and-white banner that proudly proclaims “Boola Boola.”

Maybe Quinlan is right; perhaps “legacy status alone never determines an individual’s admission” — who knows what’s said and done behind Yale’s doors. But if “diversity” is one of the countless, contentious reasons why Yale is defending the legacy preference practice, then admissions officers have to define what they mean by it. If they can’t, throw that reasoning in the trash bin instead.

ISA DOMÍNGUEZ is a sophomore in Timothy Dwight College. Contact her at isa.dominguez@yale.edu .

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COPYRIGHT 2021 — VOL. CXLIV, NO. 9

fter musing on pages of barely intelligible classical literature on Friday night, I decided to amuse myself to sleep on YouTube. On the homepage was a new clip: $456,000 Squid Game In Real Life! In the video, popular content creator MrBeast reenacted almost every game in the South Korean survival drama “Squid Game,” save the violence and gore.

With 456 participants vying for $456,000 real prize money, this may be the closest that we can come to “Squid Game” within the confines of the law.

THE REAL TRAGEDY BEHIND “SQUID GAME” IS THAT, IN ORDER TO APPRECIATE THE TRAGIC PLEASURES EMBEDDED IN THE SHOW, ONE HAS TO ALREADY BE IN THE CLUB OF BETTER-OFFS. But my initial excitement was soon replaced by pity, as participants, one after another, were “eliminated” by chance and favoritism with little skill involved, just like in the show.

They left the playing field with real tears, realizing their innocent decision and bad luck just forfeited a potentially life-changing amount of money to others. A shiver came along my spine: While I was enjoying “Squid Game,” safely enclosed

in the Yale bubble from the dreadful cold, I realized that the ideology behind the games has already become not only permissible, but also pleasurable in real life.

“Squid Game” speaks to us because of its exceptional tragic pleasures. It evokes our pity for those who lost by undeserved misfortune, but it also evokes our fear because we know that our society’s “meritocratic” mechanisms, at the most fundamental level, operate on a similar basis as that of “Squid Game.” Just like it is drastically easier to carve out the shape of a circle than of an umbrella out of the dalgona candy, people who happen to get the more adverse track of life are punished disproportionately, as if it were their own fault.

While we were rooting for our favorite character in “Squid Game,” trying to find out the “winner” and “losers,” few of us paused to question whether there is any “merit” behind the games and whether the very existence of the Squid Game and similar selective mechanisms has any justification. What did we do instead? We had fun watching the gladiatorial spectacle. The real tragedy behind “Squid Game” is that, in order to appreciate the tragic pleasures embedded in the show, one has to already be in the club of better-offs. For citizens oppressed by state instruments, civilians in war-torn regions, and all the people who must fight for their lives every day, the show is a grim reminder of the Darwinian social order too often sugarcoated as simplistic narratives of success and failure. When the social contract not only fails to provide equal opportunities for the vulnerable but also actively works against them, is it really inconceivable that what “Squid Game” offers

— the promise of a fresh start, a “level” playing field — can have genuine appeal?

WHEN THE SOCIAL CONTRACT NOT ONLY FAILS TO PROVIDE EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE VULNERABLE BUT ALSO ACTIVELY WORKS AGAINST THEM, IS IT REALLY INCONCEIVABLE THAT WHAT “SQUID GAME” OFFERS — THE PROMISE OF A FRESH START, A “LEVEL” PLAYING FIELD — CAN HAVE GENUINE APPEAL? “Squid Game” should remind us that, while we have the luxury of indulging ourselves in binge-watching Netflix series, we are survivors of a ruthlessly competitive system that “eliminates” those who cannot match up to the standard established by those in power. It was a great show — but I don’t want to watch any more of it.

JULIUS LIN is a sophomore in Branford College. Contact him at julius.lin@yale.edu .

GUEST COLUMNIST SHI WEN YEO

Is God American?

“W

e live in a country, the greatest on earth, our flag stands for freedom and what it is worth. She stands in the harbor, Ms. Liberty calls, all have gave some, but some gave it all for me to be blessed.”I recently saw a video of a church congregation singing this song on TikTok. As they sang, a church member waved the American flag. It has left a lingering discomfort in my heart. Try as I might, I simply could not square the image of the flag with the Christian lyric. As someone who grew up outside America and the Western world, I find it strange that American Christians would think of themselves as somehow being exceptionally blessed by God. This phenomenon, I believe, is a symptom of the problematic association of American supremacy with religion.

I have always had a bit of a problem with American exceptionalism because it is dangerous, at times xenophobic, and by definition exclusionary. I want to dig deeper, here, into the ways in which the involvement of religion makes the whole situation significantly worse. The first and most immediate danger here is xenophobia. With the rise of globalization, America has become home to many visitors, some who stay longer and intend to settle down. From international students like myself, all the way to refugees from crisis stricken countries, the message sent to us is clear — you don’t belong. This is what is so insidious about the involvement of religion: you are much more likely to believe that America is the best if you heard it from a trusted religious leader, as opposed to a fleeting comment online. The problem here is that religious institutions regularly and systematically perpetuate this notion that Amer-

ica belongs to a certain kind of person. The seeds of xenophobia are sown in the church pulpits. The same xenophobia and ignorance that causes them to furrow their brow in disdain and ask — “Singapore? Is that a suburb of Beijing?” The same xenophobia that continually discriminates against children on the basis of their immigration status. The same xenophobia that causes the United States to inflict prejudiced travel bans on countries in the East and Africa.

TO WANT TO ASSOCIATE THE COMFORTABLE LIFE ONE OFTEN ENJOYS BY BEING AN AMERICAN WITH SOME SORT OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE IS THE NATURAL INSTINCT OF THIS COUNTRY’S POPULATION. BEWARE, HOWEVER, OF ITS PITFALLS AND ITS PROBLEMATIC LOGICAL EXTREMES. The idea that America is a land specially chosen by God to excel above and beyond other countries can also have devastat-

ing geopolitical effects. American exceptionalism, fueled by a religious conviction, is used to justify horrific acts of violence — violence driven by the conviction that America is always right. For example, the recent U.S. exit from Afghanistan garnered media attention precisely because it was supposed to be a “good” war to free people from oppression, to spread the ideals of liberty all around the globe. However, this haste to spread American exceptionalism led to more devastation than peace. American exceptionalism with a religious conviction garners political support for long drawn-out war campaigns that are expensive, futile and that get closer and closer to a sort of neo-colonialist behavior.

A couple of weeks ago, I was speaking with a pastor, and I mentioned how glad I was to go to a church affiliated with the national Presbyterian Church of America. He swiftly interrupted me with an important reminder — “Presbyterian Church IN America, actually. And if I could, I would get rid of the word America from the name.”

To want to associate the comfortable life one often enjoys by being an American with some sort of divine providence is the natural instinct of this country’s population. Beware, however, of its pitfalls and its problematic logical extremes. In a world already devastated by misinformation, discrimination, racism and xenophobia, there is not room for one more weapon of devastation. Christianity is a religion of peace and justice, not inequality and supremacy. If you truly believe that God loves everyone, then you cannot believe that God loves America more.

SHI WEN YEO is a junior in Morse College. Contact her at shiwen.yeo@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

NEWS

PAGE 3

“One of the secrets of a successful life is to be able to hold all of our energies upon one point, to focus all of the scattered rays of the mind upon one place or thing.” ORISON SWETT MARDEN AMERICAN AUTHOR

Chun contemplates Credit/D/Fail reforms

BY OLIVIA TUCKER STAFF REPORTER When Dean of Yale College Marvin Chun stepped into his position in the fall of 2017, he brought with him a host of ideas for change, particularly in one academic policy area: the Credit/D/Fail option.

Now, Chun has set his sights on pushing the deadline for declaring the option further into the semester “as much as possible,” he said.

Over the past four years, the Credit/D/Fail [CDF] option has undergone several major revisions — and Chun has no plans to slow down anytime soon. In a recent interview with the News, Chun shared his thoughts on the future of CDF, with students and faculty weighing in, too.

“I’ve been on a mission since I became dean to push the [CDF] deadline later and later,” Chun said.

Chun hinted at a desire to further extend the deadline until after the term to convert a course credit from a letter grade to CDF — students should have access to “full information to make their decision,” he said. He also discussed the debate over whether CDF should apply to courses taken to fulfill distributional requirements or the requirements of a major.

Several students diverged over questions of specific policy proposals, but they agreed on one thing: the current grading system often pushes students to prioritize GPAs over intellectual curiosity. Computer science professor Michael Fischer concurred.

“I’m afraid the message that gets conveyed to the students is that grades and GPAs are a game, and your job is to play the game so as to maximize your GPA, not to maximize the value of your Yale experience,” Fischer told the News.

“Unintended consequences”: Yale’s current policies and their side effects According to the 2021-2022 Handbook for Instructors of Undergraduates in Yale College, the goal of the CDF option is to “encourage academic experimentation and to promote diversity in students’ programs.”

Students have a maximum of six opportunities to convert courses from a letter grade to CDF during their undergraduate career. Two of those opportunities are intended specifically for newly-matriculated students and expire if not used in the first two terms of enrollment, a policy first introduced in the 2020-2021 school year. Students may take up to two courses CDF in any given semester and must also take at least two courses for letter grades or for a mark of “pass,” such as in an independent study course. Students may convert course credits to CDF until the last day of classes in a term — this semester, Dec. 10.

Students seeking a bachelor’s degree are not currently permitted to apply credit earned in courses taken CDF towards fulfillment of distributional requirements. The ability to fulfill major requirements with courses taken CDF varies between departments.

Major-specific regulations can be found on the 2021-2022 Yale College Programs of Study website.

Erin Bailey ’24 — a former copy editor for the News and a molecular biophysics and biochemistry major on the pre-med track — said that she has yet to CDF a course because of its limiting effect on fulfilling distributional requirements. Bailey added that while she would love to explore more language courses beyond what is obligatory for distributional requirements, she worries about the potential impact on her GPA, especially because she plans to apply to graduate programs.

Chun expressed similar concerns about whether the current grading system limited intellectual curiosity and experimentation.

“I just worry about the unintended consequences of forcing a letter grade, which is that it actually limits their exploration and forces them to take easier courses that are more manageable even if it’s not what they’re truly interested in,” Chun said.

In the spring of 2020, with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Yale College Dean’s Office decided to extend the CDF option to all courses taken in that semester. Under that policy — announced in late March — students were allowed to CDF an unlimited num-

JESSIE CHEUNG/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHS

Dean of Yale College Marvin Chun expressed a willingness to consider proposals for applying the Credit/D/Fail option to distributional requirements and extending the conversion deadline, while students and faculty chimed in on how reforms might impact academic risk-taking. ber of courses, including courses taken to fulfill distributional or major requirements or the senior essay. Courses taken CDF that semester would not count against the four-credit limit in place at the time. In early April 2020, the College decided to instead adopt a universal pass/fail policy for the semester following similar moves from peer institutions and weeks of student advocacy.

Iris Li ’24, academic policy director for the Yale College Council, told the News that she supports changes to the current system. Li said that she wishes students could “push [themselves]” academically without fear of how it might affect their GPAs or come across to employers or graduate school admissions officers.

In the absence of reform, students have devised strategies for navigating the CDF system.

A student on a varsity sports team — who requested anonymity for fear of retribution from teammates — said in an interview with the News that when they arrived at Yale as a first year, they quickly learned from teammates how to use CDF to their advantage.

“There were courses that were whispered about that were kind of the [CDF] courses,” they said. “And that would mean if you needed another class — a fifth or a fourth class — you could [CDF] a class and you could do absolutely nothing for the course. You didn’t have to go to class, you didn’t have to do the reading, you didn’t have to do the work. You could simply show up for the midterm and the final and you could pass them knowing absolutely nothing.”

“The biggest waste”: The push to extend conversion deadlines At the end of every term, professors submit final grades in letter form for all their students. For courses in which students have elected CDF, the registrar subsequently converts grades ranging from A to C-minus into credit, while grades of D-plus and below are recorded in letter form. Students only see their transcripts following that conversion process.

Professors are unable to see which students in their courses have converted to CDF until after final grades are submitted. Fischer said that he occasionally sees students convert to CDF who earned a reasonably high grade in the course, like an A-minus or a B-plus, and “feels so bad” for the student.

“I think that’s the biggest waste,” Chun said. “You know, you take a course all the way, three-quarters of the way in, and then drop it and all that effort goes away.”

Major reform came in the fall of 2018, when the CDF deadline was extended to the midterm point of the semester. Prior to the policy change, students had to choose whether to take a class CDF or for a letter grade before sealing their schedules, meaning they weren’t able to experience a class before deciding whether to convert it.

One major difference prior to the 2018 reform, though, was that students had until the midterm period to convert a course taken CDF back to a letter grade. Now, there is no option to reverse the application of a CDF. At the beginning of the 20202021 academic year, the conversion deadline was again extended from midterm to the last day of classes.

According to Chun, pushing back the CDF deadline carries multiple benefits, most significantly that students are empowered to make more informed decisions.

Extending the decision deadline enables students to “persist” in challenging courses, Chun said, and also helps prevent students from dropping courses entirely.

Li supports the retroactive conversion proposal in part because many students often end up performing better than expected in courses they CDF, but never have the opportunity to learn their final grade. Nate Reid ’24, a double major in art and architecture said that extending the conversion deadline to after transcripts are released seemed “feasible and fair.”

“Accessible and appealing”: CDF for distributional and major requirements According to Li, the YCC in recent years has advocated for the expansion of CDF’s applicability to distributional requirements.

“I think for a lot of people, the classes you may end up choosing to fulfill a distributional requirement are out of your comfort zone or out of your major,” Li said. “It’s not a totally mind-blowing idea to have students count the courses that they take out of their comfort zone as pass-fail.”

Bailey concurred, saying that she thinks students should be able to CDF distributional requirements because “you don’t need to master them and the greater purpose is to explore areas of interest.”

Chun acknowledged the validity of concerns about applying CDF to distributional requirements, particularly small seminar-style classes like language courses. If students use CDF as an opportunity to decrease attendance or participate less frequently, that disrupts the class as a whole, Chun said.

Standardization should be central to any proposed CDF reforms, Li told the News, adding that her experience with CDF policies across different departments has been inconsistent. Li, who matriculated to Yale as a prospective applied math major, said that one main appeal of the department was the ability to CDF a core course.

But now, as a combined major in economics and mathematics, that provision no longer applies.

Applying consistent CDF policy across majors would make certain departments more “accessible and appealing,” Li said, especially majors where “there is just one class to get hung up on.” She cited as an example the computer science course entitled “Introduction to Systems Programming and

Computer Organization.” The course has an average workload rating of 4.9 on a 5-point scale on the website CourseTable.

Chun said that he understands the perspective that if students are able to CDF a course that fulfills a distributional or major requirement, they will not fully engage with the course content.

Especially in disciplines where knowledge from foundational courses is “scaffolded” and built upon in more advanced courses — like mathematics or computer science, for example — taking foundational courses CDF might run the risk of “setting yourself up for failure,” Chun said.

“In some majors there is a very strong pedagogical justification for why it should not be allowed,” Chun said.

Lari Ho ’23, a double major in French and economics, said that while she would love the opportunity to take more electives in her major, like advanced econometrics, her fear of performing poorly in the intensive course has kept her from enrolling, even though the material interests her.

“I wish there was more flexibility in ability to use [CDF] for major prerequisites, but understand due to the building nature of majors, you want to ensure mastery in the core foundations of the major,” Bailey told the News.

Reid told the News that as a first year, he withdrew from a mathematics course rather than electing the CDF option because he was unsure of whether he could pass the class with a high enough mark to earn credit.

While Reid said he thought that the proposal to extend CDF to major requirements seemed like a “cop-out,” he added that he wished a provision was in place to CDF courses required for a major that weren’t directly related to the department — for example, as an architecture major, Reid is required to take a mathematics course, though the major itself is much more design-based, he said.

But Fischer, a computer science professor, took a different view. He said that proposals to extend CDF to distributional requirements and major requirements “are both absolutely bad.”

Fischer said that he worries students lack the necessary knowledge to make informed decisions about how options like CDF might impact their future. He speculated that external people reading transcripts — like employers or graduate school admissions officers — might lack the necessary context to assess the appearance of a “credit” on a transcript and surmise that it represents poorer performance than the mid-level letter grades that often lead Yale students to CDF a class.

According to Chun, the issue of CDF has been “carefully reviewed” by the Committee on Teaching and Learning multiple times, and every time, the same decision has come back to not extend CDF to distributional or major requirements.

“It’s a view that I personally do not share as a faculty member, but I respect the fact that some faculty feel that students do not fully engage in a course if they’re taking it CDF,” Chun said. “These are all healthy debates the faculty have.”

“Look at Harvard and what they’re doing”: How other universities compare From Li’s perspective, if the College reformed its CDF policies, courses typically known as “guts” for their lower-intensity status would attract more applicants who are enrolling because they are genuinely passionate about the material, and courses known to be more intense would attract applicants who want to fully engage in the material without grade-induced anxiety.

“Yale often acts like [CDF] goes against the entire premise of liberal arts institutions, and I’m like, well, look at Harvard and what they’re doing,” Li said.

There are myriad similarities and differences between the passfail policies of Yale’s peer institutions. Like Yale, Princeton students may take up to four classes pass/d/fail during their undergraduate careers, but they are only permitted to pass/d/fail one course in any given term, versus two at Yale. Unlike Yale, students at Princeton may take distribution courses pass/d/fail.

While Yalies can opt-in to CDF up until the last day of classes, Princetonians may only convert to pass/d/fail between the seventh and ninth week of the semester. At Brown University, students may elect the satisfactory/no credit option for a class within the first four weeks of the semester. At Harvard, undergraduates have an unlimited number of pass/fail opportunities, with some exceptions for degree requirements.

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the grading landscape looks quite different. During the first semester of an MIT student’s first year, all courses are graded on a pass/no record scale, and during the second semester, all courses are graded on an ABC/ no record scale. After the first semester, students may use the flexible pass/no record option on up to 48 units during their undergraduate careers.

“All three of these proposals… throw back to the student the job of deciding, ‘Okay, now that I’m allowed to manipulate my transcript in certain ways, how should I play this game to maximize my advantage?’” Fischer said. “This is not what we teach at Yale and so I don’t expect you or any other students to know really how to play that game. Some people will be better at it than others. But it becomes a game, not a serious academic endeavor, which is what an education should be about.”

The University Registrar’s Office is located at 246 Church St. Contact OLIVIA TUCKER at olivia.tucker@yale.edu .

PAGE 4

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

FROM THE FRONT

"Ray: A drop of golden sun." MARIA VON TRAPP THE SOUND OF MUSIC

Anti-spy efforts frustrate faculty, upend research CHINA FROM PAGE 1 tute for Global Affairs, called the initiative’s overtones “straightforward[ly] racist.”

A vast majority of the Yale letter’s signatories, which include two Sterling professors and six heads of colleges, come from science departments and the Schools of Medicine and Public Health. Similar letters have been issued by thousands of faculty at universities including Princeton, Temple University and the University of California, Berkeley.

Though the University itself has not publicly acknowledged the letter, Vice President for Global Strategy Pericles Lewis told the News he thinks the China Initiative is “counterproductive.”

Professor of Applied Physics and coordinator of the open letter Yu He invoked a series of high-profile cases of several prominent Chinese scientists who were wrongly arrested for spying for the Chinese government, including University of Tennessee, Knoxville professor Anming Hu and Temple University’s Xiaoxing Xi, the father of Yale graduate Joyce Xi ’15. Another case was filed last January against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Gang Chen, despite widespread condemnation. These cases, and others like them, Professor He said, leave Chinese researchers uneasy and disrupt Yale’s research efforts.

“There is a pervasive fear that manifests on many fronts,” Professor He said. “This overall societal level of fear, putting up China as the strawman and enemy — I find it very sad.

It’s a missed opportunity for the U.S., we’re shooting ourselves in the foot.”

Hu remains fired despite being ultimately acquitted. Xi, whose home was raided by the FBI, also had his charges dropped, while Chen’s case is ongoing despite protests from MIT. Still, Professor He said that despite national attention on high-profile cases, the Justice Department’s lack of transparency have obscured the hundreds of incidents not revealed to the public.

“A huge loss of talent in the U.S.”: The contents of the letter Professor He said that advocacy was prompted by the similar open letters by faculty at peer institutions. Efforts, he said, began in September but gained steam after a Nov. 19 Yale Daily News op-ed, authored by Alex Liang ’22 and Mirilla Zhu ’23, called for an end to the China Initiative. Both students have since worked with Professor He and a small coalition of science faculty to solicit signatures, largely by word-of-mouth.

“The racial profiling of scientists of Chinese descent is unjust,” wrote Head of Grace Hopper College Julia Adams, who signed the letter. “Also, the development of rigorous scientific research and cross-national academic freedom go hand in hand.”

The letter, which entirely adopts the language of its Stanford counterpart, outlines three perceived flaws of the China Initiative, including its discriminatory potential against Asian and Asian American scientists as well as its prosecution of cases not related to national security threats.

It goes on to argue that the Initiative creates a hostile environment for researchers of Chinese origin, discouraging postdoctoral fellows and students from starting careers in the United States and draining the country’s competitive ability.

“The [China Initiative] is creating a chilling, hostile environment that is against any type of collaboration. People regardless of their nationalities don’t want to collaborate with colleagues in China,” said Jing Yan, assistant professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology. “More importantly, the initiative creates a huge loss of talent in the U.S., the opposite of its intended effect.”

“A loss to our mission to improve human health”: Science stalls The China Initiative and other policies intended to counter China’s government have been executed and applied so broadly that dayto-day scientific activities are disrupted, Professor He told the News.

Research groups, for example, must think twice about reaching out to any collaborators with Chinese ties, and Chinese researchers themselves face higher scrutiny of the types of funding and grant proposals that they can write.

Professor He cited one incident where he was invited to an international conference hosted by China’s Fudan University and Shanghai Jiaotong University to discuss superconductivity. Though the talk would have been held entirely on Zoom, required no travel and covered fairly basic research, He said that the Department of Energy did not approve. Since then, Professor He and others he knows have largely

Biden administration, continues to restrict entry to certain researchers who attended or are linked to Chinese universities.

When he came to campus from Berkeley last fall, two of three researchers in Professor He’s lab group were still in China because of delays obtaining visas.

“The anxiety accumulates day to day because you don’t want to fall behind,” said Yizhi Luo GRD ’23, a graduate student in applied physics.

“It makes me wonder what it’s all for — we spent so much time trying to get into these American universities just to then get blocked by visa issues.”

Luo was visiting family in China after his junior year at Yale when administrative delays on his visa application and the pandemic left him unable to re-enter the U.S. Because U.S. consulates in China remained closed from February 2020 until the summer of this year, Luo and other researchers were forced to travel to other countries like Sin-

ANASTASIA SHILOV/SENIOR ILLUSTRATOR

Nearly 100 Yale faculty have signed onto an open letter condemning the Justice Department’s anti-espionage campaign.

Justice Department spokesperson Wyn Horbuckle has responded to criticism, saying that officials “take seriously concerns about discrimination.”

Chair of the FAS Senate Valerie Horsley confirmed that Professor He has been granted speaking time at the Senate’s meeting next week.

Westad — who had not read the letter when he spoke to the News — advocated for completely replacing the China Initiative and emphasized the need for the plight of Chinese researchers to become more visible.

“I think we need to repeat over and over again that [researchers] from China are here legitimately and have been contributing very significantly to the life and work of the University,” Westad said.

“We want to increase, not limit.”

avoided giving conferences talks outside of North America.

“There’s just no clear definition as to what would fall under the concerns of the China Initiative,” He said.

Scientific work at Yale and other American universities is almost invariably non-classified, he added.

Meanwhile, a survey conducted by the University of Arizona, Tucson found that Chinese researchers’ collective fear of racial biases has surged, with half reporting “considerable” fear.

Among those most affected by worsening relations are Chinese graduate scholars, many of whom have had their studies delayed by visa issues or are barred from entering the country altogether. Proclamation 10043, which was issued by Former President Donald Trump and has remained in effect during the

gapore to apply for visas. That is cost-prohibitive, he said, because some visa applications, particularly those for Chinese nationals, can take upwards of two months to be processed and therefore require applicants to live in foreign countries for extended periods of time.

Graduate student Jinming Yang GRD ’26 said that even once they have entered the country, researchers are often unable to return home to visit family.

Though many international graduate students can receive visas for up to five or six years, most Chinese nationals must renew their visas yearly and cannot return home without risking being barred from re-entry to the U.S. Some acquaintances who did return home, Yang said, have had to defer or simply terminate their studies.

Entire programs, in fact, have been upended. The China Scholarship Council-Yale Global Scholars Program, which selects and funds top Chinese scholars for research in Yale’s Biological and Biomedical Sciences, or BBS, program, saw five of its scholars last year be rejected for visas.

Though visa rejections were not directly attributed to the China-based China Scholarship Council, which funds the first two years of its scholars’ studies, program director and associate professor at the Yale School of Medicine Craig Roy attributed the rejections to Proclamation 10043 and told the News that admissions for the 2022-23 academic year have been canceled, decreasing BBS’s graduate student class by 20 percent. He fears that talented graduate students will be entirely deterred from pursuing studies in the United States.

“We will be directly affected not just by having a smaller class size, but those investigators working on cancer, immunology, neurobiology, etc. will be indirectly affected by the loss of these particularly talented students,” Roy said. “It’s a loss to our mission to improve human health and cure diseases.”

“The world is not a segmented place”: Eyes to the future Whether the letter and others like it will prove successful remains unclear.

Stephen Roach, senior fellow at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and a senior lecturer at the Yale School of Management, suggested that visible “broadbase support” from academics could “force some change.”

Roy, meanwhile, said that his program was canceled after University contacts at federal agencies indicated that the Biden administration would not rescind Trump-era policies. Lewis said that he and University President Peter Salovey have expressed the importance of open scientific collaboration to government leaders.

As long as policies like the China Initiative remain in place, Roach said, both the United States and China will suffer, unable to collaborate on global goals like combating climate change and global pandemics.

“This is an appalling, highly-politicized initiative that strikes at the scapegoat-mentality that the United States has had for all too long,” Roach told the News.

“The world is not a segmented place and to create these barriers for political reasons I think is counterproductive.”

“The young generation — they are actually the best way to tie these countries together and avoid a horrible situation,” Yan added. “The more you cut the exchange of the next generation, the more likely that things will get worse.”

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

YNHH emergency room expands to parking lot CAR PARK FROM PAGE 1 department and allow the hospital to see and treat more patients.

He explained that YNHH does not turn any patient away and will continue to provide medical treatment to patients even if space is limited. Transformation of the parking lot alone will give the hospital an additional 35 bay areas. The hospital expects to finish transforming the lot by mid-January and estimates that it will be in use until June 1, 2022.

The hospital’s decision to increase the emergency department’s capacity was also motivated in part by an expected increase in COVID-19- and influenza-related cases in the coming months.

According to Holmes, just like last year, the rate of viral transmission increases as the temperature drops and more individuals remain indoors. He also noted that the advent of the Omicron variant may contribute to a higher number of cases this year as well.

Holmes said that there are currently approximately 70 COVID19 patients hospitalized in YNHH, which represents around 4.5 percent of the overall YNHH patient census. At the height of the pan-

demic in April, there were 450 COVID-19 patients hospitalized, which represented around 27 percent of the overall patient census.

While YNHH does not currently anticipate a peak of similar magnitude, Holmes said that hospital leaders cannot be entirely sure of the future.

Vivek Parwani, medical director of the YNHH Adult Emergency Department, said that the emergency department is currently overwhelmed by the number of patients it’s seeing. Parwani explained that some patients wait in a hallway for upwards of a day for hospital bed placement.

“Our emergency department is in crisis, we have 58 beds and are frequently caring for over 120 patients,” Parwani wrote in an email to the News. “Much of our care ends up being provided in the waiting room and in hallways. Patients are evaluated and discharged daily from the waiting room.”

Parwani noted that the temporary expansions, which the state of Connecticut has approved for a duration of six months, will help alleviate the crisis. According to Parwani, the expansions represent tremendous multidis-

RYAN CHIAO/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

The parking lot is one of five locations across the hospital’s campuses being temporarily converted to patient care space. ciplinary hospital and University efforts to decompress the emergency department.

Mary Ellen Lyon, an instructor and a global health fellow who works in emergency medicine at the hospital, said that the entire hospital system is “somewhat overwhelmed,” as is the case

nationally. Lyon added that the current overcrowding is stressful for everyone because it impacts patient care and comfort.

Holmes said that community members can help alleviate the hospital’s pressure and reduce the number of COVID19- and influenza-related hos-

pitalizations by receiving their COVID-19 and flu vaccinations, as well as booster shots.

The Yale New Haven Hospital York Street campus is located at 20 York St. Contact BRANDON WU at brandon.wu@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 5

FROM THE FRONT

"Owen loves sting rays." OWEN TUCKER-SMITH MANAGING EDITOR

International Yalies worry about winter travel plans OMICRON FROM PAGE 1 start of next semester could therefore potentially be delayed.

“After weighing these risks against other considerations such as mental health benefits of spending the holidays with your family or having a restful time at home after a tiring semester, if you ultimately decide to travel, we would also like you to do this in the safest way possible and prepare yourself to deal with any changes and possible obstacles during your journey,” read the message sent by OISS Executive Director Ann Kuhlman and Senior Adviser Ozan Say. Dean of Student Affairs Melanie Boyd wrote to the News that she “expect[s]” that students unable to return to campus for the spring 2022 semester will have to take a leave of absence. Yalies on leave are eligible to re-enroll the following semester.

According to the Yale College policies and procedures website, students in good academic standing are eligible to apply for up to two terms of leave of absence during their undergraduate careers. As a pandemic accommodation during the 202021 academic year, the University chose not to count leaves of absence against the two-semester limit — Boyd explained that the policy again applies this year.

A Dec. 1 email to Princeton University students from Albert Rivera, director of the Davis International Center at Princeton University, took a more direct tone. Rivera explicitly mentioned the possibility that should international students be unable to return, they would be required to take a leave of absence “as there are no plans for hybrid instruction.”

He also warned students seeking visas to brace themselves for roadblocks such as limited consular appointments, appointment cancellations and delays in visa issuance.

Rivera encouraged international students “for whom this risk is not acceptable” to seek domestic family or friends to spend the winter break with, or alternatively, to apply for continuous housing on campus by Dec. 17.

Michael Hotchkiss, a deputy spokesperson at Princeton University, wrote in a statement to the News that while he was aware that the Dec. 1 email caused “some confusion and concern,” the university chose to prioritize rapid communication with international students in order to give them as much time as possible to assess their options and make decisions. Princeton is making continuous housing available to all international students over winter break at no cost, according to Hotchkiss — students receiving financial aid will have no-cost dining options available over break, too. Hotchkiss added that Princeton’s Office of the Vice President for Campus Life offers “limited funds … to address financial hardships.”

ZOE BERG/PHOTOGRAPHER EDITOR

“I just want to go home and see my family. That is all I want to do,” Ananya Purushottam ’25, an international student from India, told the News.

“Throughout the pandemic, the University has worked to support our international students, including helping them navigate the many challenges presented by changing government travel restrictions,” Hotchkiss wrote.

“Unfortunately, the emergence of the Omicron variant has again introduced significant uncertainty regarding travel going forward.”

The News spoke to eight international students at Yale, many of whom said that Princeton’s email — which was sent three days before Yale’s Monday email — sparked concern. Yet, some also appreciated Princeton’s directness and speed in addressing the issue.

“Princeton’s email sounds very very harsh and I am sure it set off a lot of panicking on campus, so I really appreciate Yale OISS sending a more cheerful and hopeful email to us,” said Yuliia Zhukovets ’23, an international student from Ukraine.

But even with Yale’s statement of support for students who wish to travel home, some international students remain concerned. For some, one of the main fears is the possibility of an institutional quarantine being put in place in their home country. Certain countries have instituted a quarantine for travelers from specific regions due to the rise of the Omicron variant, forcing some students to grapple with this possibility for the first time.

“If the U.S. is added [to the Indian

list of ‘at-risk’ countries] then I will have to spend two weeks in a random hotel which I really don’t want to do,” Arnav Tawakley ’24 said.

A two-week quarantine means students would only have at most a week and a half to spend with family. Purushottam added that if a quarantine is put in place, it does not make sense “to pay thousands of dollars to fly back home for a week.”

On Dec. 1, Neel Malhotra ’24 wrote to the OISS about the possibility of taking his final exams online so he could leave to travel back to India early. Malhotra wished to travel home as soon as possible to avert the possibility of any potential quarantine.

“I want to maximize the time I spend with my family,” Malhotra said. “Unlike most people here we do not go back as often, we do not go back for fall break, we don’t go back for Thanksgiving.”

OISS responded that there is no University-wide policy allowing this, and that individual in-person final exams cannot be proctored online unless all exams are moved to an online format.

Purushottam believes that allowing students like herself and Malhotra to take final exams online so they can travel home now is “the least they [Yale] can do.” This would be a way to assure international students could spend the break with family, instead of in a hotel, she said.

On Nov. 26, President Biden issued a proclamation suspending entry of noncitizens from eight

African countries: Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The OISS email “emphasized” their inability to predict if there will be further travel restrictions, or when this one will be lifted, but stated that it is too early to “jump to any conclusions that you will not be allowed to enter the U.S. if you choose to travel.”

Five international students from Africa, two of whom come from South Africa, did not respond to requests for comment by the time for publication.

Despite Omicron concerns, Carl Bager ’25 still plans to travel back home to Denmark, unless Yale issues a statement like Princeton’s requesting that international students remain in the U.S. To cancel plans now would be hugely inconvenient, not to mention financially burdensome, he said.

“I have my plane ticket and it would be a big cost to bear [to cancel the reservation],” Bager said.

Most students to whom the News spoke wished that Yale kept its campus open over break for international students for whom it is not practical, possible or safe to go home. Last year, this was a choice for international students unable to return home.

This year, international students who want to stay in the U.S. and need housing have the option to reside in the Omni Hotel. The link to request this housing was sent in the Dec. 6 OISS message.

“If international students are unable to travel back home for any reason and if they cannot make any

alternative arrangements in the U.S. to stay with family or friends, then they can request for intersession housing to stay at the OMNI hotel for the whole or part of the period when on campus residences will be unavailable,” Say wrote in an email to the News.

Yet Malhotra expressed his concern that international students not on financial aid would have to pay out of pocket to stay at the Omni Hotel for a month, which is “undeniably a lot.”

Boyd wrote to the News that hotel housing and a meal stipend would be covered for international students on financial aid. Those receiving little or no aid would have to consult with OISS. “Whatever your decision might be regarding travel over winter break, please know that OISS, together with our colleagues at YCDO, OIA, and other units of the university, will continue to monitor the situation and send you vital information affecting travel. More importantly, as always, we will continue to support you through the upcoming holiday and travel season,” Kuhlman and Say wrote at the end of their email to the international undergraduate student body.

The Omicron variant has been detected in at least 45 nations worldwide.

Contact OLIVIA TUCKER at olivia.tucker@yale.edu and TIGERLILY HOPSON at tigerlily.hopson@yale.edu.

After public protests, alders reject Elicker's NHPD chief pick CHIEF FROM PAGE 1 investigated at all, mostly happening to Black and brown people within the city of New Haven,” said Briam Timko, a New Haven com-

munity member and supporter of ULA. “And that’s unacceptable. …

They’re still waiting for answers.”

When the Board of Alders came to the contentious agenda item of whether to approve or

deny the appointment of Dominguez as chief of police, many were conflicted in their choice.

Ward 10 Alder Anna Festa advocated for Dominguez’s appointment, given that “all

YALE DAILY NEWS

Elicker declared his intent to resubmit Dominguez’s appointment for consideration in two weeks.

eyes” would be on Dominguez’s leadership over the next two months. She acknowledged the need to “put pressure” on the police department, given the 25 homicides so far this year in New Haven. Ward 21 Alder Steven Winter also supported Dominguez’s appointment and said that it was “not fair to hold Dominguez accountable for the issues of her department.” Winter also cited the fact that the current police recruit class is more diverse than previous recruit classes. While the previous two recruit classes were 48 and 50 percent white, respectively, the current recruit class is 44.5 percent white.

“This department does not have one Black person in its administration that sits around the table,” Rev. Boise Kimber, local civil rights leader and pastor of the First Calgary Baptist Churches in New Haven and Hartford said at a Nov. 29 press conference. “First of all, we have nine districts. And we have nine white district captains. How can we patrol a city that looks like us in the community, but does not look like us in the police department?”

Richard Furlow, alder for Ward 27, agreed that diversity, having “assistant chiefs who look like us,” in the police department was necessary. He gave a “resounding nay” at the alder meeting.

Other alders were concerned about Dominguez’s lack of concrete plans.

Ward 1 Alder Eli Sabin wanted to see definite steps that the police department would take “to increase trust, increase diversity, [and] make sure our police department is trusted by our residents.”

Ward 25 Alder Adam Marchand agreed.

Shortly after the vote to deny Dominguez’s appointment, Elicker released a statement that he will resubmit the appointment, urging the alders to approve the resubmitted appointment.

Dominguez has overseen around 100 guns seized as of July 14, and canvassed to recruit more local residents to the police force, Elicker wrote.

“Under [Dominguez’s] leadership we’re in the process of rebuilding the ranks of our department and she has prioritized that the department looks like the community it protects,” Elicker wrote.

“For many months she has been implementing our comprehensive plan to combat gun violence.”

Dominguez could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Board of Alders meets on the first and third Monday of every month at 165 Church St. Contact CHARLOTTE HUGHES at charlotte.hughes@yale.edu .

PAGE 6

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY COVID-19 nasal spray vaccine in the works at Yale

BY NATALIE MAKABLEH CONTRIBUTING REPORTER A new Yale study will help develop a nasal COVID-19 vaccine that could make it easier to prevent infection and transmission of the virus.

Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine, Benjamin Goldman-Israelow and Tianyang Mao GRD ’23, suggest that a different delivery of vaccination — a mucosal vaccine involving a nasal spray — could be better at preventing infection and transmission of the COVID-19 virus than the current vaccine shot to the arm.

This study, guided by principal investigator and Professor of Immunobiology Akiko Iwasaki, is in preparation and will be shortly published as a preprint and submitted to a journal.

“The main reason we are developing a mucosal vaccine is because we have seen this unmet need that’s still current and very urgent,” Mao said. “COVID-19 cases are continuing to rapidly spread throughout the globe, and despite having an incredibly effective vaccine that can prevent the development of severe diseases and fatalities, we are still seeing SARSCoV-2 transmission. This potentially hints at the potential ineffectiveness of the existing vaccines in preventing SARS-CoV-2 transmission.”

The intramuscular vaccine injection has been the standard for the administration of immunizations throughout the pandemic. According to Mao, however, it has presented inherent incapability to induce long-lasting protective immunity at the mucosal surfaces, which is where Iwasaki’s team aims for the immune response to be.

Mao added that there has been a lot of vaccine hesitancy, especially with COVID-19 vaccines, due to the nature of the vaccine being administered through an intramuscular injection to the arm.

“By inducing these immunological effector mechanisms including the mucosal antibody responses and tissue memory T-cell responses at the site of infection, we hope to induce faster immune responses,” Goldman-Israelow added.

The hope, Goldman-Israelow said, is to potentially reduce transmission to others through quickly spotting and neutralizing the threat before it can get to deeper tissues in the nasal pathways and travel into the lungs.

Two years ago, Goldman-Israelow and Mao found a fairly robust mucosal immune response in the lungs of mice infected with SARS-CoV-2. The findings were different from when mice were vaccinated intramuscularly, where lower levels of antibod-

Currently, nations around the world are worried about another global surge of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The new Omicron variant has already been detected in at least 15 U.S. states; however, there is little information available on its behavior, its unique constellation of mutations and if existing vaccines are effective against it.

Omicron was first detected earlier this month. A majority of its 50 mutations are located on the SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein, which is the exposed part

CECILIA LEE/ILLUSTRATIONS EDITOR

ies and other immune response effectors were discovered circulating in the lungs of mice.

“We saw a pretty striking difference between infection and vaccination and wondered whether we could induce mucosal immunity using a vaccination strategy using mRNA vaccines,” Mao said. The Iwasaki team began to look at a mucosal vaccine that does not involve an arm injection and acts as nasal spray that is less invasive, creating a more localized immune response to quickly spot the threat.

of the virus that binds with receptors on human cells. Scientists fear that this variant may have more transmissibility than the dominant Delta variant of concern. They are also concerned that it may be able to circumvent existing vaccines, or evade immune responses built up from past COVID-19 infection.

Scientists are scrambling to gather information on the latest strain designated to be a “variant of concern” by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There is no evidence yet that existing COVID-19 vaccines,

tests and treatments are any less effective against Omicron. Scientists will need to test the current COVID19 vaccines or immune responses left behind by past infections against Omicron’s mutations.

Since this mucosal method is less invasive and creates a more localized immune response, the hope is to fight against the Omicron and future variants. In relation to variants, the researchers do not believe they are going to be inducing a major difference in the types of effectors that target and destroy the virus such as T-cells and antibodies. Rather, with this technology, the nasal spray can administer a locally higher concentration of those effectors at the sites of infection.

In addition, with mounting evidence that global vaccine equity can enable a path to normalcy, many Yale students hope that this mucosal vaccine shows promise. Omicron is a wake-up call about vaccine inequity and the need to deliver greater access, they said.

“The idea of using mucosal vaccines that are delivered intranasally is extremely exciting because they have the potential to increase global access to COVID-19 vaccines,” Lydia Holtgrewe SPH ’23, who studies epidemiology focusing on microbial disease, wrote in an email. Current injectable formulations rely on the availability of hypodermic syringes and require cold-chains. Mucosal live attenuated influenza vaccines have been highly efficacious and easy to deliver in children in several African countries. The hope would be that a mucosal COVID19 vaccine could ultimately decrease health inequities by offering a more affordable and feasible way to vaccinate people.

While the study faces challenges, there are promising advances to address them and it highlights recent progress in the development of vaccines against COVID-19 and future communicable diseases.

There were 50 new and probable cases of the Omicron variant on Dec. 6.

Contact NATALIE MAKABLEH at natalie.makableh@yale.edu .

Emmanuella Asabor MED ’24 recognized

by Forbes 30 Under 30 YALE NEWS

BY CAROLINE CHEN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER When Emmanuella Asabor MED ’24 heard that she had been recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30’s list for Healthcare, she was “floored.” She tried her best to finish teaching the Frontiers on Global Health class she was leading as a teaching fellow and then immediately called her brother to confirm that what she heard was true.

As a MD-PhD dual-degree candidate in epidemiology at the School of Public Health, Asabor’s work focuses on how forces like structural racism influence healthcare. Her background in social studies and medical humanities encouraged her to consider how institutionalized factors influence patient’s experiences, work for which she was recognized by this Forbes award.

“I think what’s most inspiring to me is when my work has resonance for people who are outside of academia,” Asabor said. “My dream has always been to encourage conversations and cross talk between different sectors in order to promote health equity.”

Along with Asabor, many of her mentors shared similar excitement upon hearing the news. Assistant professor of public health Ijeoma Opara, one of Asabor’s research mentors, was delighted to hear that Asabor had been recognized.

“I was ecstatic,” Opara wrote in an email to the News. “When I saw the article, I literally jumped out of my chair and started screaming. I texted her in big bold letters, this is MAJOR!!!! Then the next thing I asked her was, ‘can I share this on Twitter?’ Emmanuella is very humble but I felt the world needed to know what a superstar she is.”

Dean of the School of Public Health Sten Vermund nominated Asabor for the recognition.

To Vermund, Asabor acted not only as a student but as a colleague in publications and as a teaching fellow. He shared similar sentiments to Opara, stating that for Asabor, this recognition was well-deserved.

“It’s wonderful when an exceptional intellect who has such tremendous social consciousness is also a kind-hearted and warm person,” Vermund said.

When Asabor’s family immigrated from Nigeria to the United States, they sought political asylum due to her mother’s professional work as a journalist. They experienced homelessness and food insecurity, and they lived in neighborhoods that made them feel unsafe. Prior to college, these experiences had felt like individual ones, Asabor said.

Following a schedule mix-up during her freshman spring, Asabor found herself sitting in on a medical anthropology class in place of the general premedical sequence course she had anticipated taking. However, this experience proved to be a transformative one.

“For the first time in my life, I saw somebody speak in an academic way about things that I had actually experienced in my own life and about the way these things influence people’s healthcare experiences,” Asabor said.

This class then motivated Asabor to pursue healthcare and research in social justice within healthcare as a profession.

Asabor has since conducted an array of research studies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she studied the way that structural racism influenced how people experienced the pandemic. While there has been significant research on disease rates and their disproportionate distribution across diverse demographics, she found that there was significantly less research on the response to the pandemic.

In a recent study, Asabor found that patterns of segregation in the four most populous cities in the United States shaped access to COVID-19 testing during the first wave of the pandemic. Communities of color were often less likely to have access to testing centers.

“What I hope this becomes a lesson for is that the societies that are going to be most responsive to public health emergencies like this are societies that prioritize equity from the beginning,” Asabor said.

Another study that Asabor felt especially passionate about was her research into the disproportionate rate of harm police perpetrate against unarmed Black individuals.

Her study found that despite the increase

in public scrutiny and police reforms, this issue has not improved.

Beyond research, Asabor is also working with the Yale Center for Asylum Medicine. There, she developed a partnership with HAVEN Free Clinic to ensure that clients were not only provided medical evaluations in support of their applications for asylum status, but that they also had access to primary care regardless of documentation status.

Dowin Boatright MED ’17, assistant professor of emergency medicine and officer for diversity and inclusion, also mentored Asabor’s research and hopes that others will learn from Asabor’s research and advocacy.

“I hope others will be inspired by her work and understand the impact someone can have on justice in this country, irrespective of their age,” he wrote to the News.

Associate clinical professor Douglas Shenson also expressed hope that others will follow in Asabor’s footsteps. He is excited to see what more Asabor will accomplish moving forward. Along with her warm and open nature, Shenson believes her conceptual sophistication characterizes her as a leader.

“I think that she should be, and is, a role model for others,” he said.

The School of Public Health is located at 60 College St. Contact CAROLINE CHEN at caroline.chen@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 7

Study: wealth disparities lead to vaccination inequities

BY SIMONA HAUSLEITNER CONTRIBUTING REPORTER A group of Yale-affiliated researchers recently found that there are significant inequities in global COVID-19 vaccine distribution — specifically among countries that hosted vaccine trials, low- and middle-income nations received disproportionately fewer doses than high-income ones.

In the long term, these lower-income countries are less able to vaccinate their populations, ultimately resulting in a high disease burden and overstretched hospitals in economically disadvantaged regions, the researchers found. Among countries that hosted clinical trials, the high-income countries were able to vaccinate a median 51.7 percent of the population, whereas lower middle- and upper middle-income countries could only provide doses for 31 percent and 14.9 percent of the population, respectively. This result occurred despite similarly high rates of vaccine authorization and approval across countries, indicating that the wealth-based inequities in vaccine distribution are due to variations in vaccine delivery.

“Registration wasn’t the barrier,” explained Reshma Ramachandran, lead author of the study and a research scholar at the Yale School of Medicine. “Basically over 90 percent of all the countries that tested the vaccines, regardless of income group, approved the vaccine for use in their populations. The disparities really existed in terms of delivery ... vaccine manufacturers, because they’re the ones who have control of the supply, were prioritizing high-income country orders ahead of those from low- and middle-income countries.”

One of the reasons for this, she elaborated, is that wealthier nations are able to pay higher premiums for the vaccine doses, often before research and development has even been completed.

According to Ramachadran, the National Institute of Health, or NIH, initiated Operation Warp Speed, which contributed roughly $20 billion to the development, manufacturing and purchase of vaccines.

In Canada and several European countries, similar programs were instituted, with the governments of these nations negotiating contracts with major pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Moderna, BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson.

Alka Menon, a medical sociologist and research fellow at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale, said the urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic also increased the speed at which the clinical trial process occurred, which is ultimately disadvantageous to low- and middle-income regions.

“Countries with a lot of money could command a seat at the table faster and make a commitment up front of much more resources, and that’s exactly what the U.S. did,” Menon said. “The government made bets on several different manufacturers simultaneously, before middle-income countries even got a conversation with some pharmaceutical companies.”

risks associated with finding which vaccines will work, prepaid each of these companies to buy a supply of doses for “sometimes multiple times the number of people in the population to get enough vaccines.”

During public health crises, countries generally aim to launch a coordinated effort in terms of both surveillance of the disease and the development of vaccines and treatments. The rapid spread of COVID-19, combined with a lack of preparedness for a pandemic of this scale, resulted in a gap in vaccine access between high- and low-income countries.

The actions of the U.S. government are also to blame, according to Ramachandran. In contracts between the government and phar-

CECILIA LEE/ILLUSTRATIONS EDITOR

Although the United States federal government, along with other high-income countries, has pledged to donate millions of vaccine doses to low-income countries, the follow-through has been far too slow, according to Ramachandran. In addition to getting priority access to vaccines, higher-income countries have also obtained doses or boosters in quantities greater than the needs of their own population. This means that the majority of the existing vaccine supply is concentrated in just a few countries.

Professor of public health and epidemiology Albert Ko added that countries like Germany and the United States, who are worried about

maceutical companies, policymakers can implement certain provisions or stipulations requiring the vaccine manufacturers to share their technology with other biotechnology companies in order to facilitate widespread production of vaccines. However, Ramachandran emphasized that the government left vaccine distribution in the hands of private vaccine manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies.

“Despite repeated asks from patient communities, nonprofit organizations and healthcare providers, [the government] decided to write them a blank check, instead of requiring access as a condition for these contracts [which is] ... one of the

biggest policy failures we’ve seen during this pandemic,” Ramachandran said.

One of the most important next steps, especially with the recent emergence of new strains of COVID-19, is to find a way to promote more equitable access to vaccines across all countries, regardless of national income. Ramachandran suggested that President Joe Biden could extend the Defense Production Act, an emergency response clause that allows the nation’s leader to reallocate resources and facilities to promote national defense. Although the Biden and Trump administrations have both invoked this act to expand vaccine production, broadening its scale to require that vaccine manufacturers share the results of their clinical trials with other companies would likely reduce disparities in vaccine access.

Jennifer Miller, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine and founder of the nonprofit Bioethics International, highlighted the ethical issues surrounding these disparities.

“Populations or communities that participate in clinical research should stand to benefit from that research,” Miller said.

“It’s a basic principle of research ethics, and as a corollary of that, generally the benefits and burdens of research should be equitably shared among participants.”

The outcome of a recent court battle, a dispute between Moderna and the NIH over whether NIH researchers were unfairly left off as co-inventors on a vaccine patent, also has the potential to improve the delivery of vaccines to lower-income nations. Winning this case could enable the NIH to “collect royalties and license the patent to manufacturers in other countries,” especially countries severely lacking in vaccine doses, according to Ramachandran.

Overall, both centralizing control of vaccine distribution under the umbrella of the World Health Organization and continuously working to improve upon its programs, like the COVAX initiative, could result in a more equitable distribution of vaccine doses. Menon further explained that developing more vaccine production facilities on every continent and dispersing them could potentially eliminate logistical difficulties in vaccine delivery.

All completed clinical vaccine trials in the study were identified using the WHO COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker.

Contact SIMONA HAUSLEITNER at simona.hausleitner@yale.edu .

Yale cardiologist receives Hal O’Brien Rising Star Award

BY SELIN NALBANTOGLU CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Attila Feher, a clinical fellow in cardiovascular medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, received the Hal O’Brien Rising Star Award for his work in the development of imaging tools to evaluate blood circulation.

The award is an honor bestowed by the High Country Nuclear Medicine Conference, or HCNMC, to physicians working in the field of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging. Feher’s work focuses on developing imaging tools to evaluate microcirculation, meaning blood circulation in microvessels, in patients with cardiovascular diseases such as scleroderma or coronary artery disease and in heart transplant recipients.

According to Albert Sinusas, director of the Yale Translational Research Imaging Center, Feher, who is originally from Hungary, completed his post-doctoral training at Georgia Health Sciences University before joining the center as a research post-doctoral fellow. Feher will receive The Hal O’Brien Rising Star Award and present his work at the 2022 High Country Nuclear Medicine Conference, which will be held Mar. 5-8, 2022.

“Attila is one of the best fellows that I have had the pleasure of training over my 30 year career on faculty at Yale,” Sinusas wrote in an email to the News. “He has received

multiple awards, including a recent award from JACC journal office for best manuscript in JACC cardiooncology. He is an outstanding clinician scientist who excels both in clinical care and translational and clinical research. He is also a humble and caring person.”

According to Feher, the award is not a research grant, but rather a travel grant that will allow him to participate in the HCNMC conference this year as a speaker. He plans to present his work on microcirculation to leading clinical researchers and physicians who are also invited to attend the conference.

Feher added that he is particularly interested in microvessels present in the heart because microvessels play a critical role in the heart’s ability to take up oxygen from the blood.

“In the past, I used bench science techniques [fundamental science techniques] to … isolate tiny, little vessels that are probably as thin as a hair,” Feher said. “I isolated them with my surgical instruments; I cannulated [introducing a thin tube into a vein] them, and I investigated them with a microscope to see how they behaved.”

Feher explained that his research now focuses on how autoimmune disease can impair control of vessel constriction and, consequently, impact blood flow through the heart. His research quantifies the blood flow to the

heart through these vessels for patients with different pre-existing conditions and seeks to determine which patients are at higher risk for adverse outcomes.

Through his research, Feher has created unique databases at Yale compiling his findings of observed microvessels while collaborating with other scientists and clinicians all over the country. While pursuing his own investigations, Feher has also developed “novel imaging tools to better characterize blood flow in the heart and other organs,” according to Edward Miller, associate professor of medicine and radiology in the section of cardiovascular medicine.

Feher attributes his interest in microcirculation and blood vessels to a particular experience in a laboratory during his years in medical school.

“I went to a basic science lab where you can see the tiny, tiny vessels dilating and constricting,” Feher said. “As I watched the blood move through these vessels, I was just fascinated by it and wanted to learn more.

I wanted to do some more investigation.”

As he has completed further research, Feher has come to realize that microcirculatory issues are at the heart of many health issues. He believes that it is important to highlight the existence of microvascular diseases due to their prevalence and likelihood to be misdiagnosed.

ZOE BERG/PHOTO EDITOR

Feher explained that microvascular diseases are often the explanation for women who present to the emergency room with chest pain. Yet, when patients complain of this chest pain, physicians’ first goal is to rule out epicardial disease, which affects larger vessels and is more commonly known than microvascular diseases. Patients who are suffering from microcirculation issues are often sent home when their larger vessels do not present any issues because physicians undermine the prevalence of these microvascular diseases.

At the moment, microcirculatory disease has a “bad prognosis”, according to Feher, but researchers, such as himself, are working to learn more about these issues and potentially develop treatments or cures. He maintained that testing for issues in the microvessels needs to become more commonplace.

Feher received his medical degree and his doctorate from the University of Debrecen in Hungary.

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

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 9

NEWS

“Death is pitch-dark, but colors are light. To be a painter, one must work with rays of light.” EDVARD MUNCH NORWEGIAN PAINTER

15-year incumbent unseated in NHFT race

COURTESY OF DAVE CICARELLA AND LESLIE BLATTEAU

Led by Leslie Blatteau, slate of NHPS educators sweep NHFT elections, defeating five-term incumbent Dave Cicarella.

BY YASH ROY CONTRIBUTING REPORTER On Tuesday night, Leslie Blatteau ’97 GRD ’07 and her slate of 31 candidates were elected to leadership roles for the New Haven Federation of Teachers, a local teachers union representing roughly 1800 teachers in the New Haven public school system. The group, which dubbed itself the “Fighting for Our Future” slate, defeated five-term incumbent President Dave Cicarella and his slate of 24 candidates.

Cicarella has served as the Federation’s president for the last 15 years. This year, he ran for a sixth time, fielding a slate of NHFT veterans and newcomers.

The final tally for the NHFT president race had 452 votes for Blatteau and 350 votes for Cicarella.

The Fighting For Our Future slate did not contest the executive vice president position in NHFT, so Pat DeLucia, incumbent executive vice president, retained his seat alongside two other members of Cicarella’s slate.

Blatteau and members of her slate attributed their victory to the strength of their ideas and their organizing efforts. Nataliya Braginsky, the Fighting For Our Future slate’s campaign manager and a Metropolitan Business Academy teacher, told the News that her slate is directly involved with teaching and that the victory was “momentous and necessary.”

“This victory by the Fighting For Our Future slate is a win for all of us because the group of educators elected to lead NHFT is committed to fighting for the schools our students, families, and educators deserve,” Braginsky told the News. “Unions can and must be not only responsive to the con-

cerns of [their] members but also proactive, drawing upon our collective experience and vision for what is possible to make vital changes. As educators who collaborate with colleagues and work directly with students every day, we know what our schools need — not just to survive, but to thrive.”

Cicarella hopes new leadership will bring “new ideas” to NHPS Before his tenure at the helm of the NHFT, Cicarella taught for 22 years. According to DeLucia and Chief Steward of NHFT Marianne Maloney, Cicarella had a “storied career” that earned him “national recognition.”

Mayor Justin Elicker added that he was “thankful for David’s commitment to positive educational outcomes for our kids,” and that Cicarella was “a thoughtful and productive partner” who “will be missed.”

Cicarella was involved in the revitalization of the teacher evaluation system approximately a decade ago, which led to New Haven being used as a national example for education by former President Barack Obama.

“We’ve worked through some pretty difficult stuff with lots of changes for teachers in terms of evaluation, instruction, and accountability,” Cicarella told the News. “And top to bottom accountability. I think we’ve done some pretty good stuff, but change is never a bad thing.

This new group is really very well organized, and they are a very energetic, smart bunch. They have a different vision, which I don’t mean as a bad thing, but they’re looking to do [things] quite a bit differently.”

Cicarella added that he was “very excited” by the organiza-

tional skills and “creative thinking” that the Blatteau slate brought to the campaign. He hoped they would be able to bring “new ideas” to challenges that have “seemed insurmountable” in the past.

Cicarella, Maloney and DeLucia all framed the election as a way for teachers to express their desire for “change.” Maloney told the News that it was “clear that people are looking for a change from the situation that exists in the teaching world right now.” She added that the stress of the pandemic — driven by students returning from a year of online school to confront staff shortages — has made teaching much more difficult.

Cicarella admitted that the Fighting For Our Future slate had done much more campaigning and organizing for their campaign when compared to his slate.

They appointed a campaign manager, for example, which he said has never been done before in NHFT history.

Fighting For Our Future slate promises change Fighting For Our Future participated in numerous hours of dialogue with teachers across New Haven Public Schools and developed five key commitments: negotiating a stronger contract with the district, improving working conditions in schools, honoring and strengthening union bylaws, engaging and supporting union members, and building coalitions in the community.

Blatteau told the News that one of her “foremost” priorities will be preparing to form a negotiations team to negotiate their contract this spring. She plans on doing a “needs assessment” to collect information

from teachers on “what they really need.”

She added on the second of the five commitments that her administration will work to meet with individuals from each building and find out “what’s really going on.”

On bylaws, Blatteau plans on restarting the work of a former bylaws committee and revising bylaws that currently exist with a “mix of slate members and members of the teachers union.” The move is part of Blatteau’s larger desire to bring back union committees in a way that is “truly meaningful.” Union Committees help drive union policy and steer the Federation.

Blatteau added that she hopes to reopen NHFT’s Union Hall so that NHPS teachers can have a place where “they feel like they have support and a community.”

Additionally, Blatteau hopes to reopen Union Hall to better engage with union members.

Jonathan Berryman GRD ’96, vice president-elect for elementary schools in NHFT, told the News that the election demonstrates that there is a “renewed fire” among teachers about what their administration can accomplish.

“I think this represents people’s optimism that we can come together as a collective, and address some of the many of the issues that we are facing as teachers and as learning communities in New Haven public schools,” Blatteau told the News. “We ran this campaign how we hope to run the Union, and I think that message appealed to people.”

Another key tenet of the Fighting For Our Future slate, according to Blatteau, is better organizing at each building in the NHPS system and then “taking a step back” and

seeing the “intersection of issues” between different buildings.

Berryman added that improving teacher retention will be an important part of the work that this new slate will be doing and that it was the main focus of the many different parts of their platform.

“There’s a lot of work to do, and I think I almost see a beehive,” Berryman said. “On January 1, you will see a great flurry of activity as everybody becomes busy making the honey which for us is teacher longevity.”

Blatteau pointed out that only 812 NHFT members had voted in the election — meaning there were around 1000 members that did not vote.

“We have the ground game established, but we need to grow it because only 812 people voted and there are 1000 people who we still need to reach,” Blatteau said. “We have ideas for how to reach them.

I mean, we’re going to improve communication, we’re going to improve data management. So those are going to be two ways that we’re going to reach those other 1000 people who still have not engaged in the electoral way.”

Blatteau also thanked Cicarella for the time he had spent as NHFT president. One of his most important legacies, she said, is the fact that he “stood up for teachers when teachers needed him.” She added that Cicarella had offered to help her with the transition and that she plans on working with him during the process of transitioning between administrations.

The newly elected NHFT leaders will be inaugurated on January 1 for a term that will expire on December 31, 2024.

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

PAGE 10

YALE DAILY NEWS · DECEMBER 10, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

SPORTS

“We can use our whole passing game. All the pass plays that we have they haven't seen.” BILL BELICHICK NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS HEAD COACH

Here's who the Bulldogs will face over winter recess While the Lions beat UVA 6–3, they fell to Cornell 5–4. Meanwhile, the No. 6 Columbia women’s team (2–1) lost to UVA and beat Cornell in close 5–4 matches.

Both Eli squash teams have gone undefeated into the New Year in four of their last five seasons.

TIM TAI / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER; COURTESY OF DAVID SCHAMIS; YALEATHLETICS; MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM

In their first team based competition this season, the Yale women’s fencing team went undefeated 6–0, and is currently ranked tenth in the nation by the CollegeFencing360.com coach’s poll.

BREAK PREVIEW FROM PAGE 14 spring semester on a high note with wins against the Big Red men’s (1–4, 0–4) and women’s (2–3, 1–3) teams.

In its last home competition against Columbia, the women’s team set three pool records. Iszac Henig ’23, Lindsey Wagner ’23, Ava Franks ’25 and Alex Massey ’25 finished the 200 medley relay in 1:41.07, Henig, Franks, Wagner and Ophelia Pilkinton ’23 swam the 200 freestyle relay in 1:32.28 and Henig alone swam 0:49.30 in the 100 freestyle.

SQUASH: Women’s (2–0), Men’s (3–0) With their last games in November, the Yale men’s and women’s squash teams look to return to the court in 2022. The No. 4 women’s team will take on No. 11 Stanford (0–5) on Jan. 8. Stanford has no men’s team, so the No. 7 Yale men’s squash team will have the Friday off. The men will make their 2022 debut alongside the women on Jan. 9 against Drexel in a match rescheduled from Dec. 4. The Dragons’ No. 5 men’s (5–2) and No. 7 women’s (7–1) teams will try to end the Bulldogs’ undefeated

streak ahead of their long stretch of Ivy League matchups.

After both teams swept Brown on Nov. 18, the Elis will continue their Ancient Eight schedule with games against Cornell and Columbia on Jan. 15 and 16, respectively. Last month, both Big Red No. 9 men’s (2–1) and No. 8 women’s (2–2) teams fell to the University of Virginia 5–4.

Meanwhile, the Bulldogs picked up wins against the Cavaliers to open their season. In the preseason Ivy Scrimmages, the Yale men’s squash team picked up a win against No. 6 Columbia (4–1).

St. Joe's ekes out win against Yale

MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM

The Bulldogs will look to snap their two-game losing streak when they face off against LIU on Dec. 8.

W. BASKETBALL FROM PAGE 14 to play with a more consistent mental focus… When we are disciplined we are a tough defensive team. Discipline means doing it right, EVERY TIME.” The team’s interior defense has been a strength all year, but struggled for the entire first half.

St. Joseph’s first-year forward Laila Fair scored ten of her 12 points in the first two periods, all of which came on layups.

Elles van der Maas ’24 knocked two crucial three-pointers in the second quarter to keep the Bulldogs in the game. But despite this, the deficit had ballooned to 19 with just over seven minutes remaining in the quarter. Before the game could get out of reach for the Elis, van der Maas calmly scored six points over the span of 34 seconds to inject new life into the Yale bench. Still, the team still entered the halftime break down 35–18.

Alex Cade ’22 described what she viewed as the team’s primary issue in the early stages of the game.

“We just need to start off with the amount of pressure we end all of our games with,” Cade said. “We like to make the game

more challenging than it needs to be. We were able to fight back because we have a team that has [a] tremendous amount of heart and grit.”

The Bulldogs clawed their way back into the game in the third quarter, primarily thanks to a defensive turnaround. Fair made one midrange jump shot within the first two minutes, but the Hawks would manage only one more basket for the rest of the third quarter.

The Bulldog offense came to life as well, led by its frontcourt tandem of Cade and Camilla Emsbo ’23. The two upperclassmen combined for 10 of the team’s 19 points in the quarter.

“The third quarter really proved that we deserved that game,” van der Maas said. “It showed our team how well we can fight and how hard we can push ourselves. I'm really proud of the girls for that.”

The final period of play was a back-and-forth, grind-it-out affair. A layup by Cade gave the Bulldogs their first lead of the game with eight minutes and 56 seconds remaining. The Hawks then made a three-pointer to reclaim the lead before Jenna Clark ’24 tied the game at 43. For

the next four minutes, neither team could manage a basket.

Finally, with just over four minutes remaining, Yale broke through. Cade made two free throws and Clark hit a threepointer from the right wing to give the Blue and White a 48–43 lead with three and a half minutes to play. The Hawks called a timeout to regroup, but it seemed like the momentum of the game had shifted against them.

The Hawks wouldn’t go away, though. Gribble and Jekot, two graduate students for the Hawks, showed their veteran poise. With just over two minutes left, Jekot came off a pick-and-roll to find Gribble for a corner three-ball, which she calmly splashed home.

On Yale’s ensuing possession, the Hawks picked off a lazy entry pass, and Jekot found her way to the basket for an easy layup to tie up the game.

Each team made one free throw on its next possession, leaving the score tied entering the final minute. Yale had a chance to take the lead on a three-pointer

by Klara Astrom ’24, but it came up short. St. Joseph’s executed its final play perfectly, and Gribble coolly knocked down a corner three. Yale turned the ball over on its last-chance inbounds pass to end the game.

The defeat marked the second consecutive loss for Yale. While the team has generally been reliable in close games, the greater concern seems to be that the Bulldogs’ offense has struggled to consistently put up points.

“You’re not going to win a lot of games shooting 31% from the field and 27.3% from three,” Coach Guth wrote. “I would tell you we actually got the looks we wanted tonight- we just didn’t convert them.”

The Bulldogs will next face off against LIU on Dec. 8.

Contact ANDREW CRAMER at andrew.cramer@yale.edu

FENCING: Men’s (3–2), Women’s (6–0) Yale’s men’s and women’s fencing teams will continue their season in 2022 when they travel to State College to compete in the Penn State Invitational on Jan. 8 and 9. 2021 has been a year of change for the Bulldog fencing teams as they welcome new interim head coach Marat Israelian after the abrupt dismissal of previous head coach Haibin Wang.

In their first competition since March of 2020, the Blue and White fencing squads competed in individual bouts at the Garret Open hosted by Penn State.

At the tournament, the Elis managed to secure four top ten finishes. Linda Liu ’23 placed 10th in epee and in foil, rookie Erica Hooshi ’25 earned eighth place while teammate Emme Zhou ’23 followed by taking ninth. In their first team based competition this season, the women’s team went undefeated 6–0 while the men’s squad finished 3–2.

Yale’s women’s fencing team is currently ranked tenth in the country in the CollegeFencing360.com coach’s poll.

MEN’S BASKETBALL: (6–5, 0–0 Ivy) Yale’s men’s basketball team is gearing up for a busy winter break. The Bulldogs have seven games slated over the holiday season including their Ivy play debut against Columbia on Jan. 2.

The Blue and White will start their academic break with a home game against Howard (5–4, 0–0 MEAC) on Dec. 23. The Bulldogs only faced the Bison once — an 89–75 win in a Jan. 2020 matchup.

Five days later, on Dec. 28 the Elis will tip-off against Saint Mary’s College of California (8–2, 0–0 WCC) for their

last nonconference game of the season. The Elis faced a 78–62 defeat in their last meeting with the Gaels in 2012.

On Jan. 2, the Bulldogs will go up against their first Ancient Eight team this season against Columbia (3–7, 0–0) at the John J. Lee Amphitheater before facing off against Dartmouth (3–3, 0–0) on Jan. 7, Harvard (6–4, 0–0) on the ninth, Cornell (8–1, 0–0) on Jan. 15 and their last game of the break against Brown (8–4, 0–0) on Jan. 17.

The Elis are the preseason favorites to claim the Ancient Eight title, according to the Ivy League Preseason Media Poll.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL (5–4, 0–0 Ivy) The Elis will play a total of six games over the winter break. On Dec. 28, Yale will face Army (4–3, 0–0 Patriot) for its last nonconference game of the season and its last of the 2021 calendar year.

The Blue and White start 2022 with a game against Ivy League opponent Columbia (8–2, 0–0) on Jan. 2. This game marks the start of conference play for Yale’s team. On Jan. 7, the Bulldogs will face off against Dartmouth (0–7, 0–0), before playing rival Harvard (3–6, 0–0) the next day. On Jan. 15, Yale will play Cornell (4–5, 0–0) before its final game of the break against Brown (3–6, 0–0) on the 17th.

Yale’s women’s basketball team was picked fourth in the Ivy League Preseason Media poll.

GYMNASTICS (0–0) Yale’s varsity gymnastics team will begin its season over winter break on Jan. 9 with a home meet against LIU, Brown and West Chester. On Jan. 14 the bulldogs will travel to Penn State University for a one day meet.

The last time the Elis competed was in March 2020.

Contact EUGENIO GARZA GARCIA at eugenio.garzagarcia@yale.edu and MELANIE HELLER at melanie.heller@yale.edu .

Squash matches pulled without explanation SQUASH FROM PAGE 14 with regularly scheduled practices, despite the cancellation and the positive COVID-19 case.

The College Squash Association guidelines go on to explain that the schools involved must agree to a new competition date within three days of the cancellation, and a match may be deemed a “no contest” if teams are unable to find a new competition date that is feasible to both parties.

“There have been instances in the past where teams have needed to reschedule matches,” Poolman wrote in an email to the News.

“CSA’s practice is to receive information about the need to reschedule, provide guidance to the impacted institutions and coaches, as needed, and broker a rescheduling decision, if necessary.”

According to Poolman, not all rescheduled matches need to be approved by the CSA, but in many cases the association plays some role in the process.

When the Yale women’s soccer game against Central Connecticut was canceled on Oct. 26, Yale Athletics announced the cancellation on their website six and a half hours before the scheduled 7 p.m. kickoff. The Yale women’s soccer Twitter account also announced the cancellation in a tweet posted about ten minutes after the Yale Athletics press release. The game was called off

by CCSU after the Blue Devils elected not to travel to New Haven due to weather conditions and power outages across the state, according to a press release.

Several college athletic programs have juggled positive COVID-19 cases with season schedules since the pandemic began and competition resumed last year. According to CBS

Sports, 139 FBS college football games were canceled or postponed during the 2020 regular season, with most issues arising last November and December. The Ivy League canceled competition last year, but resumed league play with the start of fall competition in August and September. In September, a women’s soccer game between Brown and Dartmouth was postponed “due to COVID19 concerns and safety protocols” within the Big Green program.

Dartmouth announced the postponement of the game, originally scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 25, in an official press release that the athletic department shared on Twitter two days prior.

The canceled matches come as a hitch in an otherwise successful start to the season for the Blue and White, as both the men’s and women’s teams will finish the calendar year undefeated before continuing their season in early January. The men’s team is currently ranked fifth in the nation and are on a three-game winning streak, while the women sit fourth after wins in their first two matches. “[The rescheduled Jan. 9 match against Drexel] will be our first match of the new year,” Yale men’s squash captain Harrison Gill ’22 told the News. “We're really excited to play against another highly ranked opponent.”

When asked about the postponement of the Drexel match, Gill directed the News to the Yale Athletics Strategic Communications Office.

The women’s team will resume its season on Jan. 8 in a match against Stanford University. The Cardinal only have a women’s squash team at the varsity level.

Contact JAMES RICHARDSON at james.richardson@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

NEWS

PAGE 11

“I’ll always be a member of the Rays in my heart, absolutely. Just like with the Angels. It’s no different.” JOE MADDON AMERICAN BASEBALL MANAGER

81 QuestBridge Scholars to join the class of 2026

BY JORDAN FITZGERALD STAFF REPORTER This week, the first members of Yale’s class of 2026 opened their acceptance letters. Eighty-one QuestBridge finalists matched with Yale, the second highest number of matches Yale has seen since the University partnered with QuestBridge in 2007.

The QuestBridge admits are eligible to receive Yale’s most generous financial aid package, consisting of a $0 parent share award, and for the second time, they are required to matriculate. The incoming first-year cohort falls short of only the class of 2024 QuestBridge cohort, in which 87 high school students matched with Yale. The 45 partner schools involved with QuestBridge matched a record-high 1,674 students this year.

“The achievements of our Match Scholarship Recipients are a culmination of their hard work and perseverance,” Ana McCullough, co-founder and CEO of QuestBridge, said in a press release. “Thanks to the commitment of our college partners, these deserving students can tap into their full potential without worrying about the cost of a great education.”

QuestBridge is a national nonprofit organization that works with high-achieving, low-income students in the college application process. This year, 16,500 high school students applied to QuestBridge’s National College Match Scholarship, which offers full scholarships at prestigious universities to low-income students. QuestBridge chose 6,312 finalists for the match who were able to rank up to 12 of the organization’s partner colleges. Students match with the highest school on their list that chose to admit them.

About a quarter of QuestBridge finalists matched this cycle.

To match with Yale, QuestBridge applicants must rank the school,

endure Yale’s rigorous application review process and meet the financial criteria for a $0 parent-share. Families with typical assets earning less than $75,000 per year do not pay the parent share.

“Just like there’s no typical Yale applicant, there’s no typical QuestBridge Finalist,” Yale admissions officer Corinne Smith wrote in an email to the News. “QuestBridge Finalists come from all around the country. They vary in the types and size of schools, towns, and neighborhoods they apply from. The main thing they have in common is that QuestBridge Finalists are high-achieving, low-income students whose family income is typically under [$75,000] per year.”

Beginning last year, Yale’s Questbridge match is binding, meaning Questbridge applicants who match with Yale agree to attend the University if admitted. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology remains the only QuestBridge partner with a non-binding policy. The only other holdouts — Princeton University and Stanford University — made the switch with Yale, starting last application cycle.

Because of the non-binding policy, Yale’s matches in previous years do not necessarily indicate who matriculated.

According to Mark Dunn, the director of outreach and communications at the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, more QuestBridge match admits matriculated to Yale last year than the year before, even though the class of 2024 yielded over 10 more matches than the class of 2025 did.

But this year all 81 QuestBridge matches will cross through Phelps Gate next autumn, and they will likely be joined by other QuestBridge applicants. More QuestBridge students may join the class of

STEPHANIE SHAO/PRODUCTION AND DESIGN EDITOR

Yale matches with second-highest number of QuestBridge finalists in partnership history.

2026 as early action and regular decision results come out. For example, of the 400 Questbridge students on campus, there are 131 in the first-year class, though only 87 matched with Yale in Dec. 2020.

“Since our partnership with QuestBridge began, we have always admitted more QuestBridge finalists through regular decision or early action than through the match, and we expect this year will be the same,” Dunn said.

Any QuestBridge finalist who ranked Yale during the match but did not match with the University or another QuestBridge partner will automatically be entered into the regular decision pool without having to fill out a new form or pay an application fee. Those who did not rank Yale may choose for Questbridge to forward their application to Yale

for regular decision consideration, and non-finalists may still apply to Yale through the coalition or common applications.

Dunn affirmed that the application and financial aid review processes for Questbridge applicants are “exactly the same” for non-Questbridge students who apply during the early action or regular decision rounds.

But Yale conducts more specific outreach for QuestBridge applicants. Smith runs Quest for College, a collaborative initiative with Colorado College, the University of Chicago, the University of Southern California and Vanderbilt University.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Quest for College representatives took trips to targeted areas, but they now run virtual programs aimed at students and counselors on admissions, financial aid and QuestBridge.

Independently, Yale conducts its own information sessions for prospective QuestBridge matches.

“Yale is proudly affirmative for students from low-income backgrounds,” Smith said. “Working with QuestBridge is a key component to this work and towards Yale’s overall priorities.”

Luke Couch ’23 serves as co-president of Yale’s QuestBridge Scholars Network alongside Karen Li ’23.

He told the News that QuestBridge connects students with opportunities they may not otherwise find and brings universities “talented students from backgrounds and populations that they may otherwise never have been able to reach.”

Li agreed, calling the college match an “absolute relief” to her family and stressing the strong community of QuestBridge scholars at Yale and across all partner universities.

QuestBridge was founded in 2004.

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

False school shooter report disrupts NHPS

BY YASH ROY CONTRIBUTING REPORTER On Monday morning, the New Haven Police Department received a 911 phone call from a 17-yearold student at Wilbur Cross High School who falsely claimed that a gunman was in the area and had either made or was attempting to make entry into the school.

The call triggered a cascading chain of events, including threats made to seven high schools in the New Haven Public Schools system as well as one other school in New Haven and early dismissal of Wilbur Cross High School at around 11 a.m. Monday’s events in New Haven have occurred at the same time as threats were made to Hamden High School, which caused the school to close its doors on Monday and Tuesday.

The caller to Wilbur Cross High School has now been arrested and charged with felony breach of peace in the first degree as well as interference with police.

In addition to the threat against Wilbur Cross, Mayor Justin Elicker said at a Monday press conference that other threats were made on social media toward Hillhouse, Cooperative Arts & Humanities, Riverside, Conte West and Edgewood schools as well as Amistad Academy, a charter school in New Haven not in the NHPS system. These threats led to partial lockdowns at Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School and Hill Regional Career Magnet School.

“Our Cross School Resource Officer [Officer Miguel Aponte] immediately received the information from dispatch who then notified the principal and put the school in lockdown,” NHPD Acting Chief Renee Dominguez said at the press conference.

“From the lockdown, we did have a big police presence to assess what was going on, and once the [Cross early dismissal] decision was made, we were able to carefully make sure that there was no threat that would be leaving the school with the rest of the students and that we were able to get the students safely either onto the bus or to their parents.”

Elicker told New Haven residents that NHPD as well as other law enforcement agencies have

YALE DAILY NEWS

NHPD respond to threat at Wilbur Cross High School Monday morning. been able to confirm that there are no credible threats at this time against NHPS schools.

Monday’s threats follow a similar event which took place in Hamden last week, alongside ongoing threats to Hamden, which have caused Hamden High School to close for Monday and Tuesday of this week, according to Elicker.

Elicker made clear that at this time there is not enough information to know for sure if Monday’s events were a “copycat” event or if there is any linkage.

He added that this was a “traumatic event” for community members, and that NHPD and other law enforcement agencies would work to apprehend the current suspects as well as the perpetrators of any such threats in the future.

“I want to be clear that when someone makes this kind of threat, it is illegal. You will be arrested, we will find you,” Elicker said. “The police department has been working with our partners in law enforcement, non-stop to identify the persons that have been involved in these threats.”

According to Dominguez, the first 911 call was followed up by a post on social media where an individual posted that they would “shoot up Cross.” The same Instagram account then named other NHPS high schools like Hillhouse and Cooperative Arts & Humanities which led NHPD to send resources to these schools to “make sure everyone was safe.”

Dominguez added that there was a threat emailed to an NHPS school and Instagram posts that made threats against several NHPS schools. These threats are still being investigated with NHPD “issuing search warrants” to identify “where each posting and each email is originating from and getting information for the person who owns that email or phone number or social media handle.”

Dominguez also confirmed that the individual who was responsible for the 911 call has been “apprehended and questioned” by NHPD. She added that another individual who was “responsible for threats against three schools” on Instagram has been identified, but that he resides in another state. She

added that he was a juvenile and that law enforcement in his state have been in contact with the individual and that “an arrest warrant is forthcoming” from NHPD. “Intel identified the caller and she has been arrested for breach of peace first and interfering [with the police department],” Dominguez said. “She did say that she fabricated the story, her fabrication and the call is what caused the social media posts to begin.

The police department has been able to identify one of the individuals who was making those posts for three of the schools.”

NHPS Assistant Superintendent Paul Whyte ‘93 said at the press conference that the student who had been arrested

by NHPD would also be facing action from the school district according to NHPS’s code of conduct. He did not rule out suspension or expulsion.

Whyte also added that NHPS would be making counseling services available to NHPS community members after this event. He noted that he was inside of Cross when it locked down so he had

seen “first hand” the effects of today’s incidents.

“Because this was such a stressful situation, we are providing social emotional support at Cross, Hillhouse, and all schools that faced threats,” Whyte said. “We want there to be support for our faculty and students to deal with concerns, and we want to recognize the stress that this can cause as well as strengthen our kids to continue their education. It’s a tough situation, but we want to foster a safe environment so that our students are able to learn.”

Dominguez confirmed that all schools involved in Monday’s events will be returning to a regular day on Tuesday; however, “there will be additional police presence” around and at NHPS schools. She also confirmed that NHPD has been working with federal law enforcement agencies like the FBI on the threats that were made today.

Cross is the largest school in the New Haven Public School system.

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

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

THROUGH THE LENS

A

ttending a university with immense riches and an extensive history such as Yale definitely has its peculiarities. Ranging from the countless portraits of accomplished and supercilious figures to the unsettling show of excess that was our first-year holiday dinner, I often find myself dissociating from the opulence of my environment. But Yale is great not because of its wealth but because of its people; the friends that I have found here help make the best out of a tense situation. Whether it was a random spurt of energy or the satire behind it all, we, a group of diverse, predominantly first-generation, low-income students, felt it appropriate to parody a traditional mantelpiece portrait shortly after leaving our firstyear holiday dinner. I find it powerful that at Yale, a place of privilege and socioeconomic disparity, we are able to exercise moments of humanity, understanding and meaningful fun! TENZIN JORDEN reports.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 13

NEWS

“I wear sunglasses almost all the time outside - not because I think I’m really, really cool, but because of the rays.” RONDA ROUSEY AMERICAN MIXED MARTIAL ARTIST

Hurt works to rebuild Deliverance Outreach House reach House’s ability to provide essential services.

“The community needs this,” Hurt said. “The city of New Haven needs this. We can’t provide a bed for everybody, but some people, we’ll be able to help.”

A vital service

COURTESY OF NATHANIEL ROSENBERG

Church, politicians, launch fundraiser for Deliverance Outreach House, a shelter on the Hill.

BY NATHANIEL ROSENBERG CONTRIBUTING REPORTER On Nov. 5, organizers in New Haven led by Ward 3 Alder Ron Hurt launched a GoFundMe campaign entitled “Save Deliverance Outreach House.”

The fundraiser has the goal of raising $10,000 to help refur-

bish the Congress Avenue building, which has fallen into disrepair over the last two years. For most of the last decade, the Outreach House has served hundreds of people struggling with homelessness, joblessness and addiction, providing both social and spiritual services. But the disrepair has put a pause on the Out-

Deliverance Temple Outreach House was founded in 2010 as a project undertaken and funded by the next door Pentacostal Deliverance Temple Church — where Hurt is an Elder. Hurt has run the house almost from its founding, working full time hours on a volunteer basis to provide support to the Hill community.

Life in the Outreach House was structured, and meant to be a religious awakening as much as a source of social support.

Oftentimes upwards of 20 people would live in the house, which had single-sex floors and sometimes took in families. There they were guaranteed hot meals and a clean and safe living space for at least 90 days.

Hurt described a laundry list of services that the house provided.

They ensured every resident got to their appointments with social workers, and were able to continue any drug or alcohol rehabilitation programs. They also provided job application assistance and served as references for housing and employment, even years later.

Bible study was a thrice-daily feature, accompanying meals.

“Here, we call it deliverance, being delivered from what had you in bondage, drugs, alcohol, whatever it was,” Hurt said.

At certain points in his time running the Outreach House, Hurt himself was homeless.

While reflecting on the experience, Hurt became emotional. His voice slowed, and his eyes watered slightly.

“I was destitute,” he remembered.

Crumbling down and building up Currently, the front stoop of the house is rotting and the siding of the building is falling off. In the rear, several windows are boarded up and an exterior staircase is partially decayed. According to Hurt, the interior is similarly damaged, with a perpetually leaky ceiling.

While $10,000 is not expected to fully rebuild and refurbish the Outreach House, it will fully repair the exterior. The Church has found a contractor willing to do the repairs at cost, but lacks the funds to begin the process.

The Church has turned to the community for help and has raised $3,482 from 52 donors in the first month of its efforts.

Alex Guzhnay ’24, the alder-elect for Ward 1, is one of those donors.

Guzhnay met Hurt during this fall’s campaign season and was impressed with his dedication to providing social services to the Hill community. When he saw the Outreach House fundraiser, he was happy to donate, as well as share the fundraiser in his networks.

Guzhnay encouraged Yalies to donate.

“I think this, donating to help, support this local community institution, here in New Haven is just one of the many ways Yale students have gotten involved, and it’s really appreciated,” Guzhnay told the News.

Naomi D’Arbell Bobadilla ’22, an organizer with Students Unite Now, said when she saw the fundraiser, she both donated and sent the email out to SUN’s email list, hoping to spur students who are financially able to contribute.

Bobadilla also urged students to see this fundraiser through the lens of Yale’s impact on New Haven. “[Deliverance Temple Outreach House] is an institution that is directly trying to come up against injustice and inequity and poverty that Yale has facilitated in the Hill,” Bobadilla told the News.

“That’s kind of why I think there is a really good opportunity to not turn away from our neighbors, but actually stand with them.”

As he stood outside the Outreach House, running his hand over the railing, Hurt remained hopeful, predicting that the house would be able to serve the Hill neighborhood well into the future.

“I am very optimistic,” Hurt reported with a smile.

Deliverance Temple Outreach House is located at 574 Congress Ave. Contact NATHANIEL ROSENBERG at nathaniel.rosenberg@yale.edu .

Local playwright’s “Chicken and Biscuits” ends Broadway run

BY LIANA SCHMITTER-EMERSON CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Douglas Lyons, a playwright and New Haven native, recently saw the final show of his Broadway debut — a play titled “Chicken and Biscuits.”

The play, which takes place in a fictional church in New Haven, explores Black joy and the complexities of familial ties. “Chicken and Biscuits” began Broadway shows during the pandemic. It was originally slated to close on Jan. 2, 2022, but breakthrough COVID-19 cases undermined the show’s financial viability. Instead, the final show took place on Nov. 28.

“We had some breakthrough cases in the company and having to be safe and shut down the show for 10 days put a huge dent in the financial stability of the play,”

Lyons said. “But I found myself on Sunday when we closed feeling so much joy and pride on the impact we were able to make, even in the shorter time that we were on Broadway.”

Despite its complications, the pandemic also provided an opportunity for “Chicken and Biscuits.”

Lyons began working on the play during the summer of 2018 and did not originally plan for it to be featured on Broadway. He indicated that the pandemic caused an opening in midtown Manhattan’s Circle in the Square Theatre — where the show was ultimately performed — and fortunately, the script was ready.

Though “Chicken and Biscuits” is Lyons’ Broadway debut for playwriting, he was previously a cast member in the Broadway shows “Beautiful” and “Book of Mormon.”

“Chicken and Biscuits” is a story of familial love, secrets and reconciliation. Set in the fictional St. Luke’s Church of New Haven, it follows the journey of the Jenkins family who have gathered there for the funeral of their patriarch, Bernard Jenkins.

Not only does every member of the family have a different relationship with Bernard, but tensions also flare between family members. Sisters fight, cousins reconcile, partners navigate their relationships and a family secret tests the strength of their bonds, as described in an article by the Arts Council of New Haven.

By choosing the setting of a historically Black church in New Haven, Lyons explores Black and queer identities, what it means to be a Black woman and the sig-

nificance of family. According to Lyons, the play also “honors the fabrics” of his hometown of New Haven. In fact, “Chicken and Biscuits” was influenced by Lyons’ own experience of coming home to New Haven for a funeral.

“I wanted to showcase Black joy and healing in a space traditionally not centering us, and so I’m very glad we had the opportunity to do that,” Lyons said.

Ebony Marshall-Oliver played Beverly, one of Bernard Jenkins’s daughters. Marshall-Oliver started singing in church as a child and then discovered a passion for theater during her mid-20s.

“My overall experience was beautiful,” Marshall-Oliver said.

“I had the time of my life and developed relationships that will last a lifetime.”

Marshall-Oliver also noted the passion and creativity that everyone involved in the production had. “It was humbling to hear what this meant to everyone involved,” she said. According to the production’s Playbill program, “Chicken and Biscuits” is Marshall-Oliver’s Broadway debut.

“Our director, Zhailon Levingston, created a space where we were free to just be,” she said. “We were free to try, fail, try again and again until we got to something we could all be proud of. It was a collaboration.”

Lyons is working on a number of new projects, including a pilot television program and a new play called “Invisible.”

Contact LIANA SCHMITTER-EMERSON at liana.schmitter-emerson@yale.edu ,

New French pronoun “iel” slowly appears at Yale

BY ISAAC YU AND ANABEL MOORE STAFF REPORTER AND CONTRIBUTING REPORTER It might be a while before “iel” is used at Yale.

“Iel,” a gender-neutral combination of the French masculine pronoun “il” and the feminine pronoun “elle”, entered a French dictionary on Nov. 16, sparking widespread controversy amongst users of the rigidly gendered language. Critics, who include French education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer and first lady Brigitte Macron, blast a sense of wokeness “exported from American universities,” the New York Times reported. A few Yale faculty have introduced the pronoun in classes, embracing one gender-neutral facet of the language.

Others are still hearing about the pronoun for the first time.

“Some of the guardians of the French language believe the usage is of course coming from U.S. English, and they do not like anything that comes from these quarters,” professor of French Alyson Waters wrote to the News.

Pronounced roughly as “yell” or “Yale,” “iel” is defined as “a third person subject pronoun in the singular and plural used to evoke a person of any gender” by “Le Petit Robert,” a prominent French dictionary whose directors attributed the change to “increasing usage.”

On this side of the Atlantic, though, “iel” has not quite made its way into Yale’s French classrooms. Of the 10 faculty members who spoke to the News, only five

had heard of the pronoun before the controversy began. Two faculty said they were likely unaware of the pronoun because they do not live in France.

Students were even less likely to have encountered “iel”—only one of five students interviewed had heard of “iel.” French professor Morgane Cadieu said that she has never heard any student using iel in class, possibly because students refer to each other more often by their first name or by “you” — or “tu” in French.

Despite its relative obscurity, “iel” is making its way into certain classrooms. Senior Lector of French Ruth Koizim had never heard of “iel” before last month but upon learning about the pronoun, she shared an article with her students, calling the issue “very relevant.”

Sauvage has introduced it in introductory French classes.

Three other professors, meanwhile, said that they had not discussed iel in classes but had broached broader questions about inclusive writing.

The pronoun has existed for some time, French professor Christopher Schuwey said. “Iel,” in fact, is part of a wider group of devices known as “l’écriture inclusive,” or inclusive writing. He argued that the dictionary’s “change does not introduce a new ‘Americanized’ pronoun to the language, but rather reflects an existing usage.”

But French has a harder time adjusting than English, Cadieu said, in part because the masculine-feminine binary is specified not only in

pronouns but also in adjectives and nouns. Using “iel,” then, requires more than a simple substitution and doesn’t quite equate to using the English “they/them,” she said. The Académie française, meanwhile, has dubbed “inclusive” writing as destructive of French linguistic values, according to the Times.

And while English nonbinary pronouns like they/them are most widely accepted among the American left, “iel” remains unpopular with people across France’s political spectrum; “iel” has proved such a foundational reconstruction of the language that even some French queer cisgender people oppose its use, lecturer William Ravon said.

In France, usage of the new word remains distinct but relatively confined to larger cities, Ravon said.

He and fellow graduate exchange student Jeanne Sauvage, who both moved to Yale from France this year, said they encountered the term several years ago in Paris’ queer and feminist circles. Usage of iel also generally splits along generational lines, Ravon added.

“French jurists and law scholars wouldn’t use écriture inclusive if they were drowning in a pool of their own blood – but to be fair, I’ve had heated arguments with friends in the Humanities as well,” Sauvage wrote in an email to the News.

The controversy is further stoked, Cadieu said, because “iel” is a third-person pronoun, placing responsibility of using the word not on a nonbinary person but on someone referring to that person.

“Le Petit Robert” also goes one

ISAAC YU/PRODUCTION AND DESIGN EDITOR

“Iel” entered a French dictionary, generating backlash in France and a few discussions in Yale classrooms. step further, she said, than defining “iel” as a pronoun used by nonbinary people. Rather, its definition is expanded to include any person.

Students who have used “iel” lauded its inclusivity.

“It’s definitely an issue not having a gender neutral pronoun,” said French major Aaron Dean ’24.

“Just using the masculine for the unknown isn’t really okay.”

“From my experience, it does not seem like Yale’s overall French department has incorporated the pronoun into its curriculum,” said Ramsay Goyal ’24, who first heard of the pronoun from a substitute lecturer at Yale. “The addition of the pronoun to the French lexicon

seems like a good step to make the language more inclusive.”

And though the French language seems particularly resistant to change, Cadieu pointed to a history of French authors like Monique Wittig and Georges Perec who have experimented with gender inclusivity in various pronoun forms including “j/e” and “on.”

Yale’s French department is offering 25 undergraduate courses this coming semester, excluding the senior essay.

Contact ISAAC YU at isaac.yu@yale.edu and ANABEL MOORE at anabel.moore@yale.edu .

M TRACK&FIELD Harvard 113 Dartmouth 98

W TRACK&FIELD Harvard 155 Dartmouth 79

SPORTS

W SQUASH Cornell 5 Columbia 4

M SQUASH Cornell 5 Columbia 4

M HOCKEY Brown 4 Dartmouth 0

FOR MORE SPORTS CONTENT, VISIT OUR WEB SITE goydn.com/YDNsports Twitter: @YDNSports YALE DAILY NEWS · DECEMBER 10, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

TRACK & FIELD HIGH HOPES AT SEASON OPENER The Elis are set to open the track and field season with their first indoor meet this Saturday at Coxe Cage after Kayley DeLay ’22 broke the school’s 5K record last weekend at BU's Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener.

FENCHING BULLDOGS EXCEL AT BRANDEIS In its first team-based competition of the season, the No. 10 women’s team swept the competition with a 6–0 record at the Brandeis Invitational.

The men’s team went 3–2 for the weekend.

“I enjoy my routine of getting ready for a game, showering before, going in the locker room, putting stuff on the board and putting on a suit and feeling good about myself.”

JAMES JONES MEN'S BASKETBALL COACH

Breaking down Yale Athletics' winter break schedule sion I women’s hockey this season, with five member teams ranked in the top 10, according to the latest USCHO poll.

BREAK PREVIEW

YALEATHLETICS AND MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM

While most students spend winter recess off campus, many Yale varsity teams will ring in the new year with matches scheduled during the holiday season.

BY EUGENIO GARZA GARCIA AND MELANIE HELLER SPORTS EDITORS WOMEN’S HOCKEY: (9–3–1, 5–2–1 ECAC) The Yale women’s hockey team will kick off 2022 with a rematch against Connecticut rival Sacred Heart (10–7–1, 5–2–1 NEWHA) on Jan. 4. So far this season, the No. 7 Bulldogs took on the Pioneers twice, skating away with victories both times. During the first week-

end of regular season play, the Blue and White blanked the visitors 7–0. Yale proved victorious over SHU again with a 4–1 finish at the Nutmeg Classic.

The Bulldogs will continue their ECAC schedule with a homestand against Union (3–15–1, 1–9–0) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (6–13–0, 3–7–0) on Jan. 7 and 8, respectively. Union finds itself at the bottom of the ECAC standings with only one conference win — a 2–1 victory over Dartmouth. This

Bulldogs fall to St. Joes on last-second three

will be the first time the Bulldogs will face the Dutchwomen or the Engineers this season.

Yale will close out its break with an Ivy League road trip to Dartmouth (4–8–0, 2–7–0) on Jan. 14 and No. 10 Harvard (9–3–0, 6–3– 0) on Jan. 15. The Bulldogs have already defeated both teams at home this season in an 8–3 smackdown to the Big Green and a 3–1 thriller to the Crimson.

The ECAC is the most formidable conference in NCAA Divi-

MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM

BY ANDREW CRAMER CONTRIBUTING REPORTER With five seconds remaining in a tied ballgame, St. Joseph’s guard Katie Jekot drove to the hoop. As the Yale defense collapsed in on her, she passed the ball out to her teammate Alayna Gribble in the corner. Gribble swished home a threepointer with just 2.4 seconds left on the clock, and after a final defensive stop, the Hawks of St. Joseph’s (2–6, 0–0 A10) sent the Yale Bulldogs (5–4, 0–0 Ivy) home with a three-point loss, 49–52.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL The Blue and White were unable to match SJU’s energy

early, as the Hawks jumped out to a 23–7 lead by the end of the first quarter. However, after the poor defensive start, the Bulldogs surrendered only 29 points the rest of the way. The team managed to fight their way back into the game but ultimately came up just short.

Head coach Allison Guth was proud of the way her team responded to the early deficit but explained that such a slow start can make it hard to win games.

“Tonight, [the game] came down to having to erase a 19 point deficit,” Guth wrote in an email to the News. “We can’t put ourselves in the position where we give us 23 points in the 1st quarter… We have SEE W. BASKETBALL PAGE 10

STAT OF THE WEEK

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SWIMMING AND DIVING: Men’s (0–2, 0–2 Ivy), Women’s (3–0, 2–0 Ivy) The Yale men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will continue its Ivy League campaign in 2022 with dual meets against Penn and Dartmouth on Jan. 7 and 8 in Philadelphia. All three schools have already faced Brown this season. In the men’s competition, Yale and Dartmouth (1–3, 1–3) fell 126–174 and 59–237, respectively while Penn (3–2, 2–2) narrowly pulled out a 152–148 win. If the Brown meets are any indication, it appears that Penn is the team to beat. On the women’s side, however, the Bulldogs and the Quakers (3–2, 2–2) both swam to 216–84 and 179–121 victories to the Bears while the Big Green (0–4, 0–4) slipped to a 201.5–96.5 finish.

The Elis will then make a return to the Kiphuth Exhibition Pool to face Cornell on Jan. 14 and 15.

This will be the men’s team’s first home meet as they traveled to New York to face Columbia while the women hosted the Lions. The Bulldogs will look to go into the SEE BREAK PREVIEW PAGE 10

Home matches quietly rescheduled

BY JAMES RICHARDSON STAFF REPORTER The Yale squash teams’ home matches against Drexel University were quietly pulled from the teams’ schedules last week, with no statement made publicly available by the Athletic Department.

SQUASH

The Hawks of St. Joseph’s sent the Yale Bulldogs home with a three-point loss, 49–52.

MEN’S HOCKEY: (2–7–0, 1–6–0 ECAC) The Yale men’s hockey team is scheduled to face the University of Wisconsin (4–11–1, 2–6–0 Big Ten) and either Providence College (12–7–0, 6–5–0 Hockey East) or Bowling Green State University (7–4–3, 5–4–1 CCHA) at the inaugural Holiday Face-Off on Dec. 28 and 29 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Elis’ opponents for the Dec. 29 game depend on the victors of the Bowling Green-Providence game as well as the outcome of the Yale-Wisconsin matchup. The Badgers bring up the rear in the Big 10 standings — much like the Bulldogs in the ECAC. The Blue and White will ring in 2022 with a New Years’ Day tilt against Merrimack College (6–8–0, 3–6–0 Hockey East).

The Bulldogs have only played the Warriors once in recent history — a 3–2 victory in Dec. 2013. Yale gained its first tally in the win column this season with a 4–1 triumph over another Hockey East school in the University of Vermont.

On Jan. 7 and 8, the Elis will hit the road to take on ECAC rivals Princeton (3–7–1, 2–4–0) and Quinnipiac (12–1–3, 5–0–1). In their first home weekend of the season, the Bulldogs lost to both the Tigers 6–2 and the Bobcats 3–0. With its recent conference win against Dartmouth, Yale will hope to maintain positive momentum through these matchups.

The Blue and White will finish out their winter break with a pair of games against Central New

York ECAC teams Cornell (9–1– 1, 6–1–1) and Colgate (8–10–0, 3–5–0). Last month, the Bulldogs traveled to New York and received a pair of 3–0 losses to the Big Red and the Raiders. Cornell currently leads the ECAC and will be some of Yale’s stiffest competition this year. The squad still has a chance at a rebound, however, as Colgate lost to Dartmouth 3–2 where the Elis were able to pick up a 3–2 win.

The Bulldogs will take the ice at Fiserv Forum, home of the Milwaukee Bucks, for the Holiday Face-Off.

Three sources with knowledge of the situation said that a member of the men’s squash team tested positive for COVID-19 last week prior to the canceled match against Drexel, originally scheduled for Dec. 4. Yale’s Associate Athletic Director for Strategic Communications Mike Gambardella did not comment on whether the cancellation of the Drexel match came in response to a Yale squash player testing positive, only noting that the two schools “rescheduled the match for a date in the future that better suited both teams.” As of a Yale Athletics newsletter sent on Dec. 1, the Drexel match was still being publicly promoted. The match has been rescheduled for Jan. 9.

Gambardella later added that the rescheduling of the Drexel match “is not related to the recent spike” in on-campus COVID-19 cases.

Drexel squash head coach John White declined to comment on the rescheduling. David Poolman, executive director and league commissioner of the College Squash Association, also declined to comment on the Drexel match and referred the News to Yale Athletics.

The cancellation comes amid a recent rise in COVID-19 cases on Yale’s campus, as Dec. 1 also marks the day that the University announced a reversion in its COVID-19 alert level from “green” to “yellow,” signifying low to moderate risk. In the seven-day period ending on Dec. 3, the University reported 98 positive COVID-19 tests, prompting University officials to mandate twice-weekly testing through the end of the fall semester for all undergraduates.

In addition to the Dec. 4 Drexel match, a Dec. 1 home game against Williams College was removed from the Yale schedule.

Gambardella explained that the cancellation was a decision made

by Williams. Williams squash head coach Zafi Levy and Williams athletics spokesperson Dick Quinn did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Wil-

liams also canceled a Dec. 4 home match against Cornell University.

In the College Squash Association’s COVID-19 guidelines, if a team is unable to start seven healthy players due to a COVID19 outbreak, the team must submit medical documentation to the League Commissioner “verifying that the team cannot compete due to a medical condition or related impact,” with quarantine regulations being listed as an example of a related impact. If medical documentation is not provided, the team with the outbreak “may have to forfeit” the match.

The Yale men’s squash team roster includes 18 players, and the women’s team lists 14. An additional source confirmed on background that both the men’s and women’s teams have continued SEE SQUASH PAGE 10

MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM

A matchup against Drexel was removed from the Yale Athletics website with no public announcement from the Athletics Department.

THE NUMBER OF COMBINED PENALTY MINUTES AMASSED BY THE YALE AND HARVARD MEN’S HOCKEY TEAMS WHEN THEY FACED OFF AT THE WHALE LAST WEEKEND.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2021

WEEKEND

ABOLISH YALE

// SOPHIE HENRY

// BY CALEB DUNSON

Because of COVID-19 gathering restrictions, the class of 2024 missed out on our first-year dinner. But to make it up to us, Yale hosted a special sophomore version of the dinner this year. I had no idea what to expect, but I was excited to finally experience this beloved Yale tradition.

When I arrived at Saturday’s Sophomore Holiday Dinner, I was stunned at how the already-striking Commons had been transformed.

The chandeliers that illuminate the dining hall were dimmed to set an elegant scene, and the wooden tables and chairs that usually fill Commons were replaced by massive buffet lines. Meal stations with copious amounts of food lined the walls, and a dessert table featuring an ice sculpture dragon sat in the middle of the space. Students dressed in semi-formal attire strutted around Commons, the sparkling apple cider fizzing inside of their plastic wine glasses.

About an hour into the event — when it had gotten sufficiently crowded such that people began to sweat through their suits and dresses — the formal ceremony began. The event’s emcee gave a generic, but thankfully brief, speech about the history of the holiday dinner, then doled out his requisite thank yous to the unknown administrators and sponsors who helped plan the event. He took a moment to note the sheer abundance of food at the dinner — 1,000 shrimp, pounds and pounds of fish, crab, lobster, lamb, tur-

key and pork and cakes with too many layers to count — all for Yale.

Once his speech ended, the Parade of Comestibles began. Dining hall workers, most of whom were Black, marched around Commons carrying the flags of the 14 residential colleges and carrying elegant food displays as a local drumming band, all Black, played triumphant beats. They circled Commons several times touting, among other things, a 10-foot loaf of bread, an ice-sculpted sleigh stuffed with the aforementioned shrimp and a rack of lamb decorated with mint and berries. Students swayed to the beat of the drums, excitedly watching the performance and recording it on their cell phones.

The food had to go somewhere, so people started taking it by the pound. Students lined up near the meal station back of Commons, waiting to grab entire crabs and lobsters to take home with them. They grabbed turkey legs the size of my forearm and munched away at them too. We all feasted like royalty.

Just two blocks away, on the city’s Green, homeless people froze and starved in the bitter New Haven night.

I left that dinner feeling disturbed and disheartened. On the walk back to my Old Campus dorm, I realized that I felt this way quite often while at this University. There’s something unsettling about Yale, about the way it operates, about its very existence. And now, having sat with these uncomfortable feelings for a while, I have

come to realize that Yale is a problem. To fix it, we must get rid of the University. Completely.

In an interview with the Atlantic, Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber answered the question: “Should Princeton exist?” He said, “The idea of a place like Princeton is that you can identify young people who have extraordinary talent and will benefit from an intensive academic experience.

Over the space of years and decades, they will blossom in ways we can’t even predict, and they will be able to address problems that matter.” He listed names like Madison, Turing and Soytamayor as examples of the types of world-changers schools like Princeton can produce.

Yale’s stated mission is similar.

As it goes, “Yale is committed to improving the world today and for future generations through outstanding research and scholarship, education, preservation, and practice. Yale educates aspiring leaders worldwide who serve all sectors of society….”

Universities like Yale and Princeton operate under the assumption that only a small group of remarkable people can push humanity forward. Thus, Yale’s goal is to become a training camp for the world’s elite, so that they can go out and make life better for the rest of us. As a Yale Daily News editorial puts it: “Yale serves as a site of elite class reproduction, funneling well-heeled youth into positions of power….” But this view of the world is misguided because, more

often than not, change has been made by groups instead of individuals. Yale, then, might be better served sharing knowledge and resources with as many people as possible, so we all can accomplish great things together.

Nevertheless, Yale continues to commit this elitist view of change-making, closing the doors of the university to anyone who isn’t deemed capable of becoming a world leader. Yale’s acceptance rate keeps ticking downward as the years progress. In last year’s admissions cycle, only 4.6 percent of applicants were offered a place in the incoming class. Though Yale acknowledges that a vast majority of its applicant pool is qualified to attend the University, and though Yale has the money and power to expand its student body, it continues to manufacture scarcity for spots on campus.

This idea of individual-driven change reeks of false meritocracy and trickle-down theory, and gives the University the cover it needs to hoard wealth and resources. Indeed, University Provost Scott Strobel’s justification for Yale’s grotesquely swollen endowment is that, “Yale is committed to tackling the most significant human problems of the day. The endowment helps Yale’s people … carry out this mission..”

As the reasoning goes: the best and brightest must have access to all the resources they desire — how else would they lead the less intelligent, less talented and less wealthy masses to a better society.

Perhaps Yale can change.

Maybe it will become a place where resources are shared and learning is accessible for all whom Yale can feasibly educate.

But if the rejection of endowment justice, capitulation to the will of powerful donors and the antidemocratic closing of ranks among the Yale corporation tell us anything, it’s that Yale won’t be changing any time soon. Greed and elitism are embedded in Yale’s DNA — they are what keep the university running. Its “tax-exempt status” has been in the state constitution since before America’s founding. Its labor practices began with enslaving people and now includes union-busting.

It started off excluding women and people of color from its student body and now parades them around for diversity photos and social justice brownie points.

Changes might be made at the University’s margins, but Yale’s fundamental nature will, in all likelihood, remain the same.

Since we can’t change Yale, we have to tear it down.

When I got back to my dorm after the Holiday dinner, I tried to imagine what the world would be like without Yale. But the winter night was cold, and my 300-year-old room in Vanderbilt Hall was warm and cozy, so I dozed off instead.

Contact CALEB DUNSON at caleb.dunson@yale.edu .

PAGE B2

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND RHODES

PROFILE

Kate Pundyk ’22’s journey from small coal-mining town to Rhodes Scholarship // BY ANDREW CRAMER “My parents taught me never to underestimate rural people and what they’re capable of doing or understanding,” Kate Pundyk ’22 explained. Hailing from the Crowsnest Pass in Alberta, Canada, where the population hovers around 5,000, Pundyk learned this lesson at a very young age. And if anybody continues to doubt what someone from a rural background can do, they should take a long look at Kate Pundyk, now a Rhodes scholar, and reconsider.

The Crowsnest Pass: “She was a Curious George” The Crowsnest Pass is a small coal-mining town, and she looks back fondly on the tightknit community from her youth. The town has more than its fair share of bitter history, including labor conflicts, landslides in the mines and natural disasters. Pundyk believes that this history of hardship brings the people there together.

“It was instilled from a very young age that people look out for one another,” Pundyk said. “And this comes from a long history of coal-mining disasters. All of this tenacity is ingrained in you, everyone in the town has a resilience [that] is pretty special. I don’t think I realized at the time, but I really got the spirit of being from a small town.”

When she talks about the morals she learned growing up, it’s impossible not to connect those values to the humanitarian focus that earned her a Rhodes scholarship.

Pundyk’s scope has expanded, but ultimately, much of her work centers around protecting others.

She intends to spend her time in Oxford next year pursuing a Master of Science degree in social data science and a Master of Philosophy degree in socio-legal research. This will allow Pundyk to build upon her already-impressive work studying the connection between the digital world and human rights violations: how social media enables mass atrocities but also how it can be used to bring perpetrators to justice.

There are no straightforward paths to a Rhodes scholarship, but Pundyk’s journey is perhaps more unconventional than most. The Crowsnest Pass is known primarily for its history and location in the Rocky Mountains, not churning out future engineers, policy-makers and Rhodes scholars.

John Pundyk, Kate’s father, described her as “a Curious George growing up, always asking how and why… And once she started doing something, she stuck with it until it was done.” She brought this intense mindset to both the classroom and dance competitions, achieving tremendous success in each area.

When Pundyk was 16, she won a scholarship to study at Li Po Chun United World College, or LPCUWC, in Hong Kong. That moment kicked off a chain of events that spanned four countries, three continents, two colleges and culminated in one Rhodes scholarship.

Hong Kong: “It’s always worth it to stand up” Paul Hart, one of Pundyk’s teachers and mentors and LPCUWC, describes her as a standout student from day one. Hart, who also hails from Alberta, immediately saw a great deal of promise in his fellow Canadian.

When talking about her academic excellence, Hart called attention to Pundyk’s gift for collaboration as one of her most important skills.

“She drove discussion and forced her classmates to keep up with her constant desire to learn more and become better,” Hart said. “She is compassionate and thoughtful about the needs of others… Kate makes her peers better and that’s one of the highest compliments I can pay her.”

However, when talking about her time in Hong Kong, Pundyk didn’t spend much time discussing her time in school. Instead, she chose to focus more on the lessons she learned outside of the classroom.

She landed just a few weeks before fresh conflicts flared up as the Chinese Communist Party cracked down on democracy in the region. For a young student from a small town in Canada, it felt like a complete culture shock.

“I was just this wide-eyed kid who didn’t understand how the world worked,” Pundyk said. “And I was just schooled early on

by Hong Kongers about what it actually looks like to stand up for your rights… Seeing kids with umbrellas against police with batons and tear gas is really seared into my memory.

What the Hong Kong case taught me specifically was that it doesn’t matter your odds of success, it’s always worth it to stand up.”

Wellesley: “Your life should be for the service of others” After two years abroad, Pundyk returned to the States to enroll in Wellesley College. She spent two years there, taking advantage of courses both within the college and enrolling in classes at MIT as well. Pundyk would often spend her morning in social science classes at Wellesley before taking the bus across town for afternoon science classes in Cambridge.

If Hong Kong showed Pundyk that she had the power to right injustices, Wellesley taught her that she had an obligation to do so. The school’s motto, “Not to be ministered upon, but to minister,” struck a chord with Pundyk, albeit not in the intended religious sense.

For Pundyk, this mantra manifested itself in two ways. First, she said that she realized that “your life should be for the service of others.” And second, she explained, “Your job, as a woman particularly, is to not only break a pathway for yourself but also to drag as many women with you as you can.”

Like in Hong Kong, Pundyk once again took advantage of learning opportunities outside of the classroom during her time as a student at Wellesley. As a first-year, she found her first real job at the MIT Little Devices Lab, which explores how low-cost products can be used to manufacture medical devices. Pundyk found herself getting more involved in the policy history of the need for these alternatives.

From there, she also found a summer job with a start-up called Biobot Analytics, which used health information gathered from sewage materials to diagnose communities. The group initially focused on looking at opiate concentrations in specific communities to advise city governments on where to send resources. Pundyk found herself more involved with the political aspect of the work, pitching the product to city officials. Her affinity for public policy continued to grow in this job, and the next year, Pundyk continued her policy work in a completely different sector.

London: “The extra things are part of my education” As a sophomore in 2018, Pundyk worked on the planning committee on the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit as the youth policy lead. Pundyk’s role focused on finding ways to engage young people at the summit.

As she took on this new challenge, Pundyk remained enrolled in classes at Wellesley. Working with her counterparts in London meant waking up for five o’clock Zoom calls, rescheduling exams and finding time for trips to meet in person. Pundyk expressed gratitude to Wellesley for allowing and even encouraging her to join the group. “A lot of schools would have said, ‘Too bad. You’re a student.’ Wellesley was very much of the mind that doing the extra things are part of my education.”

After the summit, as Pundyk was looking for a summer job, she decided that she wanted to return home. In 2015, Rachel Notley was elected as the first Progressive Premier of Alberta in over four decades. Pundyk decided that she wanted to be a part of such a historic moment in her home province. She begged for a job and managed to find a summer internship working as a staffer for Notley.

Alberta, part II: “They let me speak my mind” Within two weeks, Pundyk faced a problem. A good problem, but a problem nonetheless. She had the opportunity to join the staff full-time. Even though she was working for a politician she believed in, it was a difficult offer to accept. It would mean taking a leave from Wellesley. Ultimately, Pundyk accepted the offer on the advice of her dean.

As Pundyk explained, “the thing that pushed me to leave Wellesley was actually the mission of Wellesley: getting young women out into the world.”

Pundyk remained in Alberta working with the issues management team until the government lost the next election in 2019. She described her role as that of a miscellaneous problem-solver. Her group found ways to anticipate future problems or deal with unintended consequences of government programs.

The lessons she had learned as a young girl about never underestimating the abilities of rural people returned to the foreground.

Pundyk brought a unique perspective to the group. And despite being one of the youngest members of the team, Pundyk never felt like her voice got drowned out.

“It was a job where my experience mat-

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//KATE PUNDYK

tered a lot,” she said. “Many Progressive centers of power are in urban settings, so to be in that office as someone from a small town, it was really cool to highlight the work of rural progressives, [and my fellow staffers] always wanted to hear what I wanted to say and let me speak my mind very openly.”

Pundyk’s experience on Notley’s staff made her acutely aware of the dangerous impacts of technology on politicians’ ability to govern. She and her fellow staffers dealt with misinformation on many fronts, especially regarding climate change. They found Twitter bots intentionally sowing dissent within Alberta, leading to a more polarized political climate.

So as Pundyk decided to return to school, the dangers of technology were on her mind.

While she had loved her time at Wellesley, she decided that it was time for her to continue her work somewhere new. Pundyk explained that one reason for leaving was that “You can’t step in the same river twice.”

She decided to apply to Yale specifically because of the research opportunities it provided in the fields of technology and politics.

Yale: “She brought a whole other level” In her first week at Yale, Pundyk got coffee with her data governance professor, Nathaniel Raymond of the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. Immediately, the two understood that their passions were aligned. Raymond says that Pundyk excelled in his class because “she brought a whole other level of previous research and real-world experience that was unlike any other undergraduate… She knew exactly what her focus was, and she had a level of not only knowledge, but her skills were significantly more developed.”

Pundyk also started writing for the Yale Daily News and quickly rose to the position of Science and Technology, or SciTech, editor. Her technical knowledge and experience made her a natural fit at the desk.

For Pundyk, she enjoyed learning how to write about technical issues. However, of even greater importance, she enjoyed how reporting enabled her to meet fascinating new people through interviews around campus.

In her second semester, Pundyk took a class with David Simon, DUS of Political Science. He shared Raymond’s sentiments about her skills. Simon, who also heads the Genocide Studies Program at Yale, happened to be starting a new research group in collaboration with Raymond, called Mass Atrocities in the Digital Era. The program focuses on studying how digital media can be used to bring perpetrators of mass atrocities to justice, how media can be used to memorialize victims and how it can be used to prevent such crimes.

Pundyk was an obvious fit for the group with her passion for and skills in that specific field of study. She joined and has been instrumental in developing the group’s identity. Simon explains, “She’s the only current undergraduate on the current team

of five, but there are times when we all turn to her because we’re so confident that she has her own fresh and insightful take on this wide range of issues that we address.”

Beyond her skills and unique perspective, both Raymond and Simon highlighted the fact that Pundyk is a great team member. She pushes the other group members to think differently. Even in the moments of disagreement within the group, Pundyk’s opinion brings “a different level of thoughtfulness to the conversation.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Pundyk continued working with the group remotely. Over the summer, she worked with the Ryerson Leadership Lab, a think tank in Canada. There, she continued her exploration of social media in the political realm, researching whether Facebook had complied with new election laws in Canada.

Her work at the SciTech desk also became unexpectedly critical when the coronavirus pandemic began in Spring 2020. Pundyk took the time to speak with Yale’s world-class researchers to deliver critical health information to the News’ readers.

This included both Yale-specific COVID19 updates as well as information about the pandemic relevant to a global audience.

Rhodes scholar: “We’re just in awe” In Canada, as in America, some people tend to be skeptical about what people from a rural background can do. For one thing, students from rural towns are nearly ten percent less likely to participate in post-secondary education. Furthermore, while Pundyk had nothing but praise for the teachers from her youth, rural schools across Canada tend to suffer from a relative lack of funding. In smaller, rural environments it also is more difficult to pursue specified interests at a high level.

Because of these factors, Pundyk described feeling doubted at various points along her journey. But she never questioned her own capabilities. And next year, the girl from a coal-mining town in Alberta is heading to the Oxford Internet Institute to study how technological infrastructure affects government policy.

All of this is only the beginning. The Rhodes scholarship is just another step in Pundyk’s journey. If anything, it marks the beginning of greater things rather than the culmination of past achievements.

John Pundyk got a little emotional as he described his daughter’s achievement. “We [John and his wife Lorraine] are just in awe of our child’s achievement,” he said. “We did not expect this. The odds were very long.”

Raymond took a different, more confident tone regarding the award: “When she told me she was applying for the Rhodes, I told her, ‘You’re gonna get it.’ I was overjoyed when I heard the news, but I wasn’t the least bit surprised.”

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

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND RHODES

PAGE B3

PROFILE

Shreeya Singh ‘22: The Distance to Make A Difference

// BY AMELIA DILWORTH

“It’s still strange to hear someone else say it. I’m waiting for someone to tell me I got pranked,” Shreeya Singh (TD ‘22) said, reflecting on the moment when she was named a Rhodes Scholar last month, “Or I forget, and then I remember suddenly, like, oh, that actually happened. I don’t think I’ve internalized it yet.”

I met Shreeya, a history major focusing on South Asian studies, for coffee at Maison Mathis.

Even though we had only spoken over email, she greeted me with a hug.

A self-professed fantasy nerd from Florida, Shreeya imagined Oxford as the dream where her favorite childhood novels take place. And now, it’s the school she’ll be attending next year.

was a great growing experience.”

In order to protect student identities, particularly those of Indian Muslims targeted by the Citizenship Amendment Act, most of the public statements from the organization came under Shreeya’s name. So in the aftermath of the protest, Shreeya was “doxxed” by the right wing Indian politics. Malicious sources revealed her identity online, resulting in thousands of hateful and threatening messages directed at her.

Fortunately, Shreeya didn’t feel physically unsafe. “All of these threats were coming from

ence at a distance has inspired Shreeya to study at Oxford, and to speak out against Hindu Nationalism through research.

“Something that I encountered throughout my thesis research was that there’s just a limited access to primary sources in Hindi and related to India in the United States,” Shreeya explained. But because of the United Kingdom’s imperial relationship to South Asia historically, it offers a substantial amount of the artifacts Shreeya needs. “Just being there, I realized, would give me a lot of access to the kind of pri-

current government censors access to academic materials so heavily,” Shreeya said, “it’s just easier to do this research when you’re outside of India and in the diaspora.”

Shreeya acknowledged that the history and money behind the Rhodes scholarship still carries a legacy of imperialism. But both Shreeya and the Rhodes scholarship program are working to counter that legacy.

“I think what the Rhodes seeks out, and the scholars they try to empower, are people actively trying to break down the legacy of imperialism and colo-

*** Shreeya’s passion for South Asian studies traces back to her childhood. She was born in Ahmedabad, India, in 1999.

When she was a few months old, she and her mother immigrated to the United States to join her father, an architecture student at the University of Miami.

Her family emigrated to South Florida along with nine other families, all settling on the same street. The ten immigrant families formed a community Shreeya reluctantly described as “culturally conservative.”

She took a moment to decide whether “conservative,” with all its American connotations, was the word she wanted to use.

“I grew up in an environment that very much preserved Indian culture and our relationship with India,” she explained, “Not just to food and music and film, but also these ideas of India as a nation, and India and Pakistan, and ideas of ownership over Kashmir, and ideas of allegiance to whoever is the Indian government at the time.”

Shreeya thus inherited an interest in Indian culture and politics, but she developed her own opinions on political ideologies. “Because I was so immersed in Indian history and culture from a young age, questioning the assumptions that I grew up around made me want to pursue it in an academic way,” she said.

***

*** Academics and experience eventually inspired Shreeya’s activism. During a visit to India in 2019, she witnessed the violence and riots surrounding the Citizenship Amendment Act. “My grandparents and extended family, many of them are supporters of the BJP and the Hindu nationalist government,” Shreeya explained. “Hearing their perspectives and seeing the violence at the same time and then coming back to school and studying it through an academic lens, it all added up, and I wanted to do something about it.”

She took action while at Yale, founding an organization called Students Against Hindutva Ideology. The organization created a network across American universities for students opposed to the Modi government, the creator of the Citizenship Amendment Act. In 2019, the organization staged protests across 15 schools. “And they were very successful,” Shreeya said. “It

Designer for the City of Miami, and her mother recently published a children’s book, “Birds of a Feather.” Shreeya describes her parents as artists who focus on art and stories surrounding Indian culture. “Seeing their commitment to being in the United States and in the diaspora, but still carrying on Indian heritage and exposing us to it in this positive way,” she explained, “made me want to engage with it from a very young age.”

Shreeya’s face lit up when I asked if she was an artist as well.

“Art is my passion,” she said, instantly. “And my stress relief.

I’ve been painting my whole life.”

Like her parents, Shreeya sees art as a vehicle for change. “I take art in particular as a really powerful way of political expression and thinking about how to draw a line from the way things are felt and thought to how they’re expressed to others,” she said. She has an extensive background in competitive debate — she later told me she’s only ever been to Oxford once, as a representative of Yale’s debate team — but she sees art as the more effective way to truly communicate with people.

Shreeya showed me a photo of one of her paintings, zooming into a detail of a woman with a blue headscarf. The painting is both impressive and charming — something that requires talent most of us couldn’t imagine, but still glows with a captivating gentleness. It’s the work of someone who genuinely cares.

In the eight months before she heads to England, Shreeya wants to return to her art. She plans to work out, read and probably volunteer, “at least to give the next few months a bit of structure.” But she’s looking forward to the peace between Yale and Oxford. “What’s nice is that I know what the next step is,” Shreeya said. “I don’t feel that much pressure to add anything to my resume or do anything like that. I want to use this time to just pursue art, focus on myself, get in touch with the things that I haven’t had time to do while going through History.”

//SHREEYA SINGH

anonymous people in India,” she said. She considered the doxxing as a reminder of the importance of her work in the diaspora. “It made me think about the privilege I have to speak about these issues without being physically harmed,” Shreeya said. “I was born in India, and I know for a fact that if I was doing the same kind of work in India proper, it would be so much more difficult.” *** The ability to make a differ-

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mary sources that I need to continue this kind of research.”

I asked Shreeya for her thoughts on the colonialist history of the Rhodes Scholarship and English possession of South Asian artifacts: “Politically, I am for repatriation of sources,” Shreeya said, “I think that colonial governments that have taken material from the developing world should return those materials.”

But when it comes to researching early Hindu nationalism, sources are more accessible while abroad. “Because this

nialism in modern society,” she said, “The fact that there’s such a complicated legacy to the Rhodes Scholarship only adds to the obligation for current scholars to genuinely stand up for the values that we came in with.” *** Throughout our conversation, Shreeya spoke of her family and community with deep gratitude. She is the oldest of three siblings, with a sister at Brown and a brother still in high school. Her father is an Urban

Before receiving the Rhodes Scholarship, Shreeya thought her post-graduation goal was law school, which still might be part of her future, but she has time to decide. “I get to think and explore, look at what my options are,” she said, “This opens a lot of doors, and I’m open to changing my plans.”

At Oxford, she intends to apply for a masters in International Relations, Public Policy, or a related field. “I’m hoping to pick up more of a policy background because I come from a history major,” she said.

Across the pond, she looks forward to the Indian food and tea. As a History major and Harry Potter fan, she delights in Oxford itself. “The fact that these buildings are centuries old and I can just be inside these spaces is so exciting,” she said.

“I grew up reading these fantasy stories set in Oxford and imagining them in my head. Actually being there is like a dream,” she added, already speaking with the joy of a main character.

Contact AMELIA DILWORTH at amelia.dilworth@yale.edu .

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND PROFILE

STRANGERS: Yale’s Own “Unicow” RJ Hakes ’22

// BY IRIS TSOURIS

*trigger warning, mention of death I first met RJ Hakes ’22, an Eli Whitney student, in the Berkeley common room, typing away furiously at his laptop in preparation for finals season. It was there that he told me about his travels to over 80 countries and his 20-year service in the Navy, his enthusiasm for soccer and affinity for archaeology. He is an avid Twitter user and proudly displays a tattoo of a unicorn-cow hybrid — a unicow — on his forearm.

Austin, Texas, where his wife and daughter reside, is Hakes’s home.

But his story begins in Denver, Colorado, the setting of his childhood.

After graduating from high school, he began building houses there.

Later, working for a now-defunct airline gave him the means to leave, scratching his growing wanderlust.

Novelists like Hemingway and Kerouac enabled him further. “You could feel their life in the reading,” Hakes said. It was this desire to lead a life such as theirs — singular and uncompromising — that would go on to influence Hakes’s decision to enlist in the Navy.

“It was a very impulsive thing to do,” he admitted, matter-of-factly, “and there’s really no basis for it, other than I decided, one day, that I wanted to travel the world and do some cool shit.”

The year was 2001, and Hakes was initially contracted to work on airplanes, a job he found immensely undesirable: 9/11 had just occurred, and the United States and Iraq were at war. “I was not especially happy with what I was seeing, and I was wanting to get out and just go back to school,” he said. “I got offered a chance to go to Italy and live in Sicily.”

There, in Sicily, Hakes was first exposed to the Navy’s Special Operations programs. Intrigued by the guise of thrill they boasted, he applied and was admitted. Once

his two-year training concluded, Hakes then joined a small unit that experienced six casualties over a several month period.

Following a number of deployments, Hakes switched positions to work at the White House as a team leader for the Secret Service Bomb Squad. “[During that time], my friend Chad was killed,” he said. “I went over to Dover Air Force Base, helped carry his casket off the plane, and a few days later, I was in Afghanistan to help out his team. I was gone a lot.

I think I was home 20 days a year.”

Throughout his military service, Hakes was continuously compelled by brotherhood and an intimate sense of community. Skydiving, he said, was the one thing the Navy could not ruin for him.

He recounted the elaborate jumps — the meticulous work one must do while plummeting 30,000 feet through the air — the fierce coldness and intricacies of altitude with an air of genuine, bygone affection.

Once his 20-year service drew to a close, Hakes matriculated at the University of Pennsylvania.

From there, he transferred to Yale, which he praised for its Eli Whitney program. In some environments, nontraditional students are starkly separated from the remaining student body, marked as different and excluded. In others, they are completely integrated, with no real sense of unifying solidarity. Yale, he told me, strikes a beautiful and accessible balance between both.

I asked him, then, if the younger undergraduates ever annoyed him.

“No,” he said slowly, diplomatically. But some 19-year-olds, the ones enraptured entirely by their idealism, amuse him. “I think it’s good for people to become active, to become socially conscious, to become really passionate about things… I think what’s also important is to be willing to challenge your preconceptions and admit, ‘I’m new in this world. I don’t know

everything.’ Like, it’s okay to have a firm conviction. It’s even better to analyze the opposing viewpoint and come to realize the strengths of your conviction.”

Still, he admires them for their camaraderie, their unrelenting kindness. “It’s completely okay to not know that you’re right,” he reassured me. “To feel like you need to explore more and not have the right answer all the time.”

On campus, Hakes studies Classical Civilization and serves as co-president of the Yale Undergraduate Veterans Society. He is involved with the Yale Curling Club, painting it as an “oddball sport.”

“I also do a lot of silly shit on the Internet,” he said.

In the future, Hakes wants to create soccer leagues for younger children in lower-income communities. He plans to continue traveling — not the kind of travel that entails backpacking or booking exclusive resorts — but the kind that demands complete immersion in other cultures.

Learning brings Hakes joy, and barriers to learning, specifically, internal competition, bring him sadness. By saying this, he does not refer to the destructive, cutthroat competition amongst peers, but the persistent certainty of impostor syndrome that Yalies routinely submerge themselves in. The unshakeable suspicion that everyone else is miles ahead, that everyone is simply better.

Hakes, additionally, has a fondness for bizarre tattoos. He pulled back the sleeve of his Yale sweater to show me a few of his own: a matching tattoo with his wife that reads “Your mom;” his daughters’ names on his wrists; a little whale named Willhelm, donning a sailor hat; and then, of course, the famed unicow on his forearm. Hakes cracked a smile. “It’s got a little unicorn horn,” he explained, “and its milk tastes like lucky charms.”

Other tattoos are from his

// RJ HAKES

deployments: the altitude of Denver, drawn by his friend with a makeshift tattoo gun; a king crab that his military badge is superimposed upon; the initials of his friend, killed in Afghanistan.

“I have tattoos on my feet, too,” he said. “In the Navy, there’s this old tradition, where you get a pig tattooed on one foot and a chicken on the other. The reason why is because when ships would sink… the only thing left on the surface would be pigs and chickens, the livestock, because they float. The idea was, if you got them on your feet, you would stay above water.

You wouldn’t drown.”

But because Hakes is Hakes, and because irony is in his nature, he

walks with a rotisserie chicken on one foot and a ham on the other.

And because he has lived so much, he is soft-spoken and astute, but unpretentiously so. I am struck by how he reasons, with measured deliberation, through the baffling unreality — as well as odd harmony — of how Yale operates. Even the ill-timed plunking of the Berkeley piano could not override the weight of his words: RJ Hakes is the kind of person with a lived and necessary wisdom to dispel. A teller and collector of narratives — from his studies in archaeology to the ink on his skin.

Contact IRIS TSOURIS at iris.tsouris@yale.edu .

Beyond Nuance: A Review of Don’t Look Up // BY MAIA DECKER

Adam McKay wrote the script for his upcoming film “Don’t Look Up” in a pre-pandemic world. Today, nearly two years into the pandemic, his movie about the politicization of issues that ought not be considered political still rings eerily prophetic.

“Don’t Look Up,” released on Dec. 10, follows the story of astronomy graduate student Kate Diabiasky — played by Jennifer Lawrence — who discovers a comet during a routine astronomy lab night.

Diabiasky immediately alerts her advising professor Dr. Randall Mindy, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, of the comet; while celebrating the news, Mindy calculates the comet’s distance from Earth. A few equations later, he finds the real problem of the discovery: the comet will hit our planet in six months.

It will have an extinction level impact.

The film follows Diabiasky and Mindy’s attempts to save humanity in the time remaining. Along the way, they meet a star studded cast including Meryl Streep as the U.S. President in a barely hidden Trump caricature, Jonah Hill as Streep’s son and Chief of Staff, and Mark Rylance as the robotic Peter IsherwellI, a clear stand-in for modern tech billionaires such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. The list of household names in the film does not end: Cate Blanckett, Tyler Perry, Rob Morgan, Timothee Chalamet, Ariana Grande, Kid Cudi, and Melanie Lynskey all playing key characters in their own respect.

At some moments, “Don’t Look Up” feels like it has a never-ending list of high grossing celebrities that will enter the scene at any moment. I would have been hardly surprised if Kylie Jenner emerged to play the role of an influencer using the comet as a means to promote her newest bubble bath line.

Although Jenner never shows up, the film seems to be cognizant of the level of

irony it operates under: nearly a dozen Hollywood stars critiquing the American public’s failure to recognize peril even when confronted with imminent death.

We understand the hypocrisy at hand and McKay’s message: just as the film’s character’s face impending extinction in the form of a comet, our society faces an environmental crisis. The metaphor becomes that climate change is happening and the systems in place will not save us.

“I don’t think it’s any big spoiler alert that the movie is really about the climate crisis,” McKay told me in a Netflix roundtable on Monday, referencing the film’s blatant conversation on denial in the media, “I have friends in broadcast media, and they’ll tell you that they’re reticent to deal with the climate crisis, which empirically speaking, is probably the biggest threat to life in the history of mankind.

And yet, it’s happening right now.”

On Monday McKay acknowledged that the script is hardly vague with its metaphor. While his previous political films — “The Big Short” and “Vice,” to name a few — have handled their topics a bit more indirectly, the time may be over for such subtle films.

“We’re at the point where we have to throw off the idea of trying to be ‘oh so clever and oh so subtle.’ I like that the idea hits and we’re off to the races,” McKay said. “It’s a naked cry of: ‘we’re drowning.’”

The film deals with the world-threatening emergency through an intentional warping of time. A day may take half an hour while months pass by in mere minutes. Intercut with the narrative sequence told through the eyes of Diabiasky and Mindy are moments of stillness that could be clips from a Nature document; a frog swims while in the next clip a baby sees the world around them for the first time. Much like the clock in

Times Square that now counts down the time that humanity has remaining before climate change is irreversible, “Don’t Look Up” plays with temporality and the constraints it places on our perspectives during crises.

“It’s really important for folks to recognize that we can take meaningful action to prevent the worst outcomes of climate change. That’s also a part of this movie.” said Amy Mainzer, astronomer and professor of planetary science at University of Arizona who served as a science advisor for the film, “It’s a wake up call for folks to really heed what scientists are saying about climate change and other topics that affect us — like the pandemic.”

Equally, “Don’t Look Up” is political in its apolitical stance. The question of polarization rings throughout the film as we are meant to question the effect that polemic debates have taken in our cultural consciousness: since when did believing in science become political?

To bridge the gap between individuals on either side of the political spectrum, McKay commented on Monday that the film’s use of dark comedy is quite intentional. According to McKay, during “emergency times” such as these, comedy is a necessary tool to create connections between individuals otherwise divided.

Mainzer echoed McKays sentiment, commenting that if we can “laugh at ourselves a little bit” and recognize our own downfalls and “shared humanity,” then we can get over ourselves and get past artificial divisions to solve problems collectively.

“It’s gonna make you laugh, and hopefully it’ll make you think,” Mainzer said.

“The message is that the future is really up to us.”

Finally, if the film is one thing, it is unapologetic. A critique of polite soci-

ety and forced niceties, “Don’t Look Up” refuses to be pulled into meaningless conversations, while equally balancing and indulging America’s obsession with the drama of celebrity lives. Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi both play pop star roles, blatantly laughing at the large position that their personal lives occupy in the news. McKay is right that despite the more pressing issues that humanity faces, we love to turn our heads and have our brains filled with “fluff ” that requires no real thought.

The biggest struggle I have with “Don’t Look Up” is the problem that arises with a large political campaign directed at the public. Even if the film seems cognizant of the ironic narrative its presenting, I have difficulty with a critique of bureaucracy coming from the heart of Hollywood.

Yet, the immediate contraction I discover in this train of thought is that this criticism seems to beg for moral purity from those that seek justice for our World. In an industry saturated with largely films that go as deep as my local town’s kiddy pool, I found “Don’t Look Up” to otherwise be a breath of fresh air.

A distressing and panicked breath, but one nonetheless.

McKay with the help of his cast and Mainzer has given us a no-bullshit narrative. Maybe we’re beyond indulging in nuance and subtlety as a culture. Maybe we don’t deserve it anymore.

If we can’t even listen to each other, how are we supposed to listen to an impersonal underlying message distanced from us through our screens?

I enjoyed and was shaken by “Don’t Look Up.” If you’ll take my word for it, it’s worth a watch either in theaters or when it comes out to Netflix on Dec. 24.

Contact MAIA DECKER at maia.decker@yale.edu .

// WINNIE JIANG

Sparkling Wine Cheers to the end of the semester!