WEEKEND

WEEKEND TAK

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// FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2014

Students are eager to help — but are they ready to serve?

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GIV E

Pooja Salhotra navigates Yale’s community service efforts in the Elm City.

WONDER

WINNING

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// Page 3

B6, B7

WELLNESS

B10, B11

DREAM SCHEDULE REALIZED

NOT TOTALLY OVERWHELMED

Isabelle Taft tours Slifka’s exhibit on the beauty of the everyday.

WEEKEND introduces Yale Bluebook Plus Plus.

Andrew Giambrone takes us through part two of last week’s cover. Rachel Williams gives a personal perspective.

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MORE THAN AWESTRUCK FACES

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome // BY WILL ADAMS

are real, and they are not uncommon. In fact, millions of Americans experience them. There are different degrees of how intrusive these thoughts are, from nagging distractions to crippling fixations; when coupled with OCD or depression, the thoughts are harder to shake and, in some cases, paralyzing.

After learning how common unwanted thoughts are, I felt slightly at ease, but there was still some discomfort. Did I have OCD? Was there something wrong with me? I, like many other people who experience unwanted thoughts, choose not to identify as obsessive compulsive, despite the fact that unwanted thoughts are one of the disorder’s most common symptoms. Though the self-diagnosis may be accurate, I must imagine that dismissing the possibility that I have OCD is a way to distance myself from it.

But this creates a new problem: In removing myself from that conversation, in choosing to treat these unwanted thoughts as a personal struggle, I contribute to the stigma surrounded mental health issues.

Too often, mental illness is discussed in extreme terms that reduce patients to rare cases of “crazy” or “broken” people. The irony is that, in feeling eased by the prevalence of unwanted thoughts, I have once again separated myself from these cases. Unwanted thoughts exist along a spectrum, and there is no use in trying to remove myself from it, even if I sit at the less extreme end.

Much of Bamford’s comedy involves her mental health. She

discusses, in very honest terms, her experiences with OCD, bipolar disorder and thoughts of suicide. She discusses the stigma that she faces — in one heartbreaking bit, she describes a radio interview in which a DJ brushed off her humor by claiming that she is schizophrenic. She cushions these tough issues in comedy, but she still talks about them.

It’s this honesty — the same honesty I see when fellow students write about their own experiences with mental health issues in essays for the Yale Daily News — that begins to tear away at the stigma. It’s this honesty that can convince people to not feel discouraged from seeking help. It’s this honesty that lets me know — when I’m driving on the road and imagine myself swerving onto the sidewalk — that there are people who are like me, and there is no reason to feel ashamed or afraid.

Contact WILL ADAMS at william.adams@ yale.edu .

The Full, Paper Moon // BY JANE BALKOSKI

When I was six or seven, I spent the summer in Lombardy. My extended family assembled in a large, crumbling country house. We called it “the castle,” and I think the nickname warped my memories — I recall vaulted ceilings, a cobbled floor, an owl perched on a ledge. I saw centipedes in the bathtub. My sister found scorpions and froze them in ice cube trays. One night, as everyone drank and chatted on the patio, I clambered up the stony stairs to where my parents slept. The room was big, with a balcony and a view of the lake beyond. I walked through the French windows, put my hands on the railing, and shouted to my relatives below. They looked up, their bodies like ants — then I pulled down my pants and I mooned the whole crowd.

They tell me I shouted, “The moon is out tonight.”

Back then, I threw tantrums in shopping malls. I called my dad a “dumb girl.” I was afraid of the dark.

Of course, the tics and bad habits shifted with age — I turned anger to angst, fear to anxiety — and exhibitionism, too, changed and then hardened. I found in its stead a taste for the vulnerable. Vulnerability was a tool, a performance, a skill. I used Chatroulette in high school. I couldn’t keep secrets. And I never closed the blinds.

My old room, on the ground floor, had a huge window that looked out onto the street. At night, I caught sight of neighbors and families and they looked my way too — the light warm and bright in the dark — but I didn’t close the blinds.

As I grew conscious of the male gaze, I used vulnerability to push against ideals I couldn’t embody.

Womanhood is a trick of the light.

Blanche DuBois needs paper lanterns and silky robes. As she powders her nose and curls her hair, she sings, “It’s only a paper moon,” and when a train trundles by, shining light into her room, she cries out.

She turns away. Blanche terrifies me — I don’t turn away. I don’t turn away from trains and bright lights or neighbors and families. I cherish exhibitionism, inappropriate honesty, trivial confessions. When I was

F R I D AY JA N UA RY 2 4

12 or 13, I heard the word “unladylike” as an implicit rebuke, and I started to swear. I’m almost 20, and I still love to say “Fuck.” I love the weight of it, the brevity. I love that my mom still reacts. Washing dishes one-handed as we talk on the phone, she’ll pause, and the splashes will stop. I don’t think she understands: Her father calls every woman he meets a “classy lady,” and the words make me sick.

I don’t mean to accuse or instruct.

Artifice is inevitable, sure. Civilization is dissimulation. But I don’t want to age gracefully or tastefully. I don’t want to hide. I’m afraid the veils and powders and tinctures of femininity will cover my moles and my pores.

I am a girl so introverted I practice pathological honesty. I don’t talk in class and I don’t make new friends — when I do speak, I puke confessions and secrets. (I met a person last year who asked, “Are you always this honest?” I said, “Yes, mostly.”) Sometimes, I imagine a Classy Lady Convention, and all the world’s Classy Ladies milling about a high school gym — they’re wearing cream-colored pantsuits and long strings of pearls. They have bouffants so blonde they’re a dazzling white. I want you to know: I don’t own a pearl necklace. My hair is messy and dark. I have crooked teeth, ashy knees, and I shave my big toes.

I don’t think my honesty is any more authentic than Blanche’s powders and paper moons. The Self is dynamic and fickle, a stage upon which perceptions dance and flit. I have no essence, no transcendental ego. Philip Roth got it right: Human interaction is “an astonishing farce of misperception.” Still, I pine for people who get me in some crazy, perfect way, who really understand. I document every emotional and intellectual twitch — because how else will I find my freaky, lonely soulmates? The first boy I loved described me as “shy.”

Nothing more. I asked for a word, and the asshole chose “shy.” At 16, I thought I’d never recover. I did. And then I told a new boy the whole story.

Contact JANE BALKOSKI at jane. balkoski@yale.edu .

// TAO TAO HOLMES

GASSó

“You ever have a really dark thought?” asks comedian Maria Bamford on her live album “Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome.”

“Like, ‘What if I licked a urinal?

Augh! Why did I even think of that?

What if I’m a urinal licker? What if I’m out of control?’” Bamford exaggerates the example for comedic effect, but the answer to that first question for me is always “yes.”

Unwanted thoughts enter my head on an almost daily basis. They range from violent to macabre to strange. If my attention drifts for a bit, I envision disastrous scenarios: The plane I’m on will suddenly explode; the building I’m inside is going to implode and bury me in rubble; the sky is going to tear in two and the world ends. Sometimes, I envision myself committing disturbing acts: screaming in the middle of a lecture for no reason; destroying fragile, expensive objects in a shop; physically hurting my friends and family. These ones are harder to shake off, and they terrify me the most; I cannot get past the fact that I have the capacity to act on these thoughts. I know that I will not follow through — that is the most pressing thought when these scenarios enter my head — but imagining my bare hands causing such pain frightens me.

Upon hearing Bamford speak about her own unwanted thoughts, I was shocked. I had never imagined that someone else experienced these anxieties. I did a little bit of research and continued to be surprised.

Unwanted, or intrusive, thoughts

BALKOSKI

ADAMS

WEEKEND VIEWS

Sparrow 780F-4 // BY JORDI GASSÓ

Most sentient beings seek some sense of stability, searching for homes, carving out spaces for themselves. The Taínos settled in the island of Hispaniola. Your pet dog has a favorite ottoman, just like you have a favorite cubicle in the library. The alpha wolf marks his territory of choice with urine. I paint my bedroom “Sparrow” — a light-medium gray, eggshell finish, mauve in some lights, periwinkle in others.

A year ago, I nested. I bought two cans of Sparrow at Home Depot and returned to my room off campus. The colors were like twigs, the roller, my beak. I spread the paint across the wall in swaths of silver. My parents liked it. My friends liked it. That made me like it more.

Elbows bent, arms extended, I attacked the surfaces back and forth, up and down. My materials were all within reach. Blue tape, drip cloth, paint tray, brush set, this was me doing something of importance. Barefoot, I stood on the chair, or on the bed, to cover these walls with every ounce of paint in the can. Sparrow just screamed of Jordi — I hope people agree!

Plop, plop. With each new coat, tiny pellets fell toward the floorboards. I tried to collect all these paint dots off the floor with my fingertips, but the room was a field of microscopic debris, of unattended dust and fallen hair. All that dirt, I felt it as it rolled and mixed with the drops of gray. Everything smeared. Useless. The paint ended up on my soles, but I kept on going. I kept stepping on the tray. Then I waited for the wet walls to dry a little. My painted toes crackled when wiggled them. It was part of the process, the weekend farce. A clumsy guy meeting paint for the first time.

Hours and hours went by before I took a break. “Can’t stop till I’m done with this section!” I examined my work in intervals. If a hint of the old green snuck through a layer of gray, splat! I covered it up and moved on. The details, the edges, the corners, they called for a smaller tool and some offwhite paint. I dipped the bristles in color and stroked my brush

“FROM MERCURY TO EARTH? A METEORITE LIKE NO OTHER”

Contact JORDI GASSÓ at jordi.gasso@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS:

Yale Peabody Museum // 12:00–5:00 p.m.

A fragment of planet Mercury is now available for your viewing pleasure. Hopefully it emits more warmth than our “radiators.”

the same way I’d gently poke my testy father when I wanted to wake him up. I worried that I would ruin everything.

The reward for my efforts eluded me. Gray was a safe choice. The space still looked bland, in need of a tchotchke or two, something cute and idiosyncratic. I had to spruce up the room’s barren walls — stencil in a clever design, daub a few chalkboard paint figures, buy the usual posters, build a habitat. I had to concoct a new coat of personality from and for myself.

My housemates and I went to buy the knick-knacks, the new art. We drove to the nearest Savers, where the halfpriced home décor felt most familiar. We grabbed a cart and made our way around the maze, our attention divided inside the trinket jungle. Nothing here was monochromatic. Decisions needed to be made, and as the options multiplied, I lost control. I was walking in circles. Creating a home began to feel like a burden. Completion, self-realization, it seemed farfetched. I pushed the cart and considered every purchase with feigned conviction.

Back at the house we flaunted our best buys and discussed our new plans, because as we agreed, homes are all about identity. They are nothing without a collective vision.

Afterwards I retreated into my room to finish the paint job. My back ached, my head hurt, the fumes were getting me high.

Back in Hispaniola we talk about Vicente, que va donde va la gente. Vincent, who goes where the people go. Maybe I was a Vincent, maybe my opinions belonged to others. But no, not in this bedroom.

Sarah is not too sure about the pink canvas hanging on the wall. I think it’s droll. Too messy, says Sally, too empty, says George. Thanks for stopping by, Sally and George. Gloria gives the room a once-over.

She doesn’t find the extra lamp practical. C’mon Gloria. The lamp stays.

The Fireplace app

Add another fake fireplace to your common room collection.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND COVER

MEASURING ‘GOOD’ // BY POOJA SALHOTRA

“You guys brought your lunch?”

Poncho Jackson focused his gaze on the bags of food student volunteers had carried into the Community Soup Kitchen in Christ Church. The plastic bags each contained two turkey or ham sandwiches neatly packaged in Saran wrap, a bag of chips, an apple, a large brownie and a plastic water bottle with a bold blue label — Yale.

Without skipping a beat, Jackson burst into laughter, amused that the students had chosen to bring their own food to a place whose purpose was serving it. The kitchen provides lunch to the homeless and hungry four days a week, with Jackson serving as the dining supervisor.

Christ Church stands at 84 Broadway, across the street from such Yale staples as the Yale Bookstore, the Apple Store and Urban Outfitters. But for Genevieve Simmons ’17 and the four other students who volunteered to work at the soup kitchen during Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, the building was unfamiliar. When the group first passed by the large Gothic church on the way from Dwight Hall, they kept on walking.

Simmons and her friends spent the first two hours at the soup kitchen grouping plastic spoons and forks, chopping up ham in the kitchen and bagging bananas to be donated. Simmons was standing behind a large countertop, slicing a pound of ham on a cutting board when Jackson called her over to the dining area to break for lunch.

The oversized bags of food remained in a closet, and Simmons stood in line behind four other student-volunteers.

A vegetarian, she politely declined the meatloaf and accepted a tray of pasta salad and green beans from the same counter where, within an hour, over one hundred New Haven residents would file in to receive lunch.

Simmons believes that leaving campus once in a while is important. She runs through East Rock, bikes through downtown and has even jogged out to the University of Southern Connecticut. But staying in the walls of the University is easy, she said, adding that the idea of a “Yale bubble” certainly exists.

Everything you need — food, shelter, your classes, your friends — are within a one-mile radius.

The University, however, strongly encourages students to explore the city, particularly through community service. The University offers the President’s Public Service Fellowship, which funds opportunities for students to work in New Haven’s public sector for up to 11 weeks during the summer. And on its official website, Yale highlights its ongoing partnership with the Elm City, proudly proclaiming that “more than 2,500 undergraduates — nearly one-half of all Yale College students — volunteer in community service activities in New Haven.”

According to a News survey sent to a randomized sample of undergraduates, 60 percent of the 142 respondents said they feel obligated to do some form of service work during their time at Yale.

And 38 percent of those surveyed said they are currently a member of Dwight Hall, Yale’s center for social justice and public service. The group serves as an umbrella for 89 student-led service groups, addressing education, public health, social justice and international issues.

Despite these encouraging numbers, the true impact of Yale students’ service work is difficult to quantify. As

// SAMANTHA GARDNER

F R I D AY JA N UA RY 2 4

// KATHRYN CRANDALL

Dwight Hall Executive Director Peter Crumlish DIV ’09 asked, “Can you really say, by the end of this week we created more ‘good’ in the world?”

FROM OLD CAMPUS TO FAIR HAVEN

A looming 19th century brownstone, Dwight Hall overlooks Old Campus as an unmistakable emblem of Yale, witnessing the daily rhythms of university life. But the building is also a stone’s throw away from the New Haven Green, a busy centerpiece of the city that ends almost at the point where Old Campus begins.

Dwight Hall was founded by Yale undergraduates in 1866. The organization grew out of an expression of Christian belief — one focused on giving to the poor and needy, Crumlish recounted. “[In those days], it was the mindset of people who were privileged and went to a university like this that because they are privileged, they should find the needy and help them,” he said. “But that’s not the mindset anymore.”

Today, Dwight Hall provides an opportunity for students to connect with the real problems facing the community.

For Sophia Weissmann ’14, service manifests itself in her work as a Public School Intern at Fair Haven School, a K-8 institution that serves predominantly Latino and immigrant families.

Weissmann explained that going to Fair Haven School is about much more than community service. It’s about learning how teachers and administrators interact; it’s about getting off campus and really understanding what it means to be a part of a city; and it’s about discovering her own place within New Haven, separate from Yale.

“For me,” Weismann noted, “Dwight Hall has been the cornerstone of the way I understand my place in the community.”

In contrast to other schools, whose center for community service is coordinated by the Dean’s Office. Dwight

Hall functions as its own non-profit organization independent of the University. Students play a critical role in the governance of the organization.

The leaders of Dwight Hall member groups make up the cabinet, which votes to promote provisional member groups to full member status and also elects the Student Executive Committee — 12 students who allocate funds and communicate with group leaders about Dwight Hall requirements and resources.

The benefit of this model, Crumlish explained, is that beyond just providing service opportunities, Dwight Hall allows students to develop leadership skills and take initiative on their own projects, unburdened by any expectation to pursue specific forms of work.

“We don’t tell people this is how you should make the world better,” Crumlish said. “If you have an idea, it’s our job to help you be as effective as possible.”

THE DICHOTOMY OF HELP

On a Wednesday morning last fall, Weissmann entered Fair Haven School’s Family Resource Center to find coordinator Luz Betancur bent over a desk, examining a scattered array of CD-ROMs along with a new computer and printer she had just received from the district. At 8:45 that morning, Weissmann had boarded the city bus on the corner of Orange and Chapel Street, prepared to perform her usual task: supervising preschoolers while their mothers took an English language class in the library.

But within minutes, Weissmann found herself trying to install a printer, working more as a technician than a teacher.

At the end of her two-hour shift, the printer still didn’t work. The following week, Weissmann returned to the Center and spent over two more hours on the phone with tech support, following detailed instructions to install the software. Determined to fix the problem, she was late to her afternoon class back at Yale. When the printer company, Hewlett-Packard,

agreed that Weissmann had exhausted all possibilities, it deemed the printer defective and promised to deliver a replacement.

After two more weeks of frustration, the new printer finally arrived. This time around, the machine cooperated.

In a mixture of excitement and relief, Weissmann screamed with delight, “Yes, Luz, we did it, we did this together!”

“I know it’s a small thing, but it was so satisfying,” Weissmann recounted.

“Some of the things I do are really fun and inspiring … setting up a printer is neither fun nor inspiring, but it’s one of those things you might have to do when you are working in a school.”

As a PSI, Weissmann serves as liaison between Yale and Fair Haven, finding ways to best match University resources with the needs of the school.

Rather than approaching her role in service as a “provider,” Weissmann said she goes into the school to learn about and help meet its needs.

But some students approach service entirely differently.

Like Weissmann, Suzannah Holsenbeck ’05 served as a PSI in college.

Among those engaged in service, there was a clear dichotomy, she said. While some students learned about the issues facing New Haven before determining how they could help, others immediately felt they had a solution to the city’s problems and the power to “save everybody.” Those students who carefully evaluate the needs of New Haven are usually more effective, she explained.

Even today, there are students who are skeptical about Yalies’ approach to service. Last semester, MEChA de Yale, a Dwight Hall social justice group, began leading protests every Friday against Gourmet Heaven’s alleged unfair labor practices.

Some students, like MEChA Community Action Chair Evelyn Nunez ’15, consider boycotting the 24-hour deli as a way to work towards fair wages and worker justice, but others assert that students do not need to interfere

in such issues.

In a New Haven Independent article that has circulated widely among local residents since its publication on Jan 15., Alexander Saeedy ’15 said he chose to ignore the protests and continue purchasing food at Gourmet Heaven because students do not have a place in this fight.

“I’m doing me. The Department of Labor will do them,” Saeedy told the Independent during a protest earlier this month. “I think this is emblematic of this belief Yale students have that they can create a world free of problems and full of happiness and justice.”

Whether the act of protesting outside of Gourmet Heaven will create justice is yet to be seen, but most students do agree that they can — to some degree — make positive change during their four years at Yale. Only 1 percent of those surveyed indicated that students cannot make any positive change, and 25 percent said students can positively impact the city “to a large extent.”

The complexities of New Haven’s needs have not dissuaded students from establishing more service groups each year. James Doss-Gollin ’15 founded New Haven REACH in 2011, a group that aims to increase college access for youth in the city. REACH became a provisional Dwight Hall member group January 2013.

Doss-Gollin said he is thankful for the resources Dwight Hall provides, particularly monetary funds and printing access. Through Dwight Hall, he has also found other Yale groups doing similar service projects on campus and has combined resources with some of these organizations.

“It’s nice to be able to count on them for our basic needs,” Doss-Gollin said.

“It’s a lot better than having to write even more grants.”

But with a growing demand for service work-related funding, not all member groups have been able to receive the amount they requested.

SEE DWIGHT HALL PAGE 8

In a News survey, Yale students respond: “To what extent can Yale undergraduate students positively impact the New Haven community during their time as a student Not at all

1%

To a small extent

11%

To some extent

32%

To a moderate extent

30%

To a large extent

25%

// EUGENE YI

“A CURE FOR WHAT AILS YOU: SONGS FROM THE MEDICAL LIBRARY’S SHEET MUSIC COLLECTION”

Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library // all day THE POLAR VORTEX AILS. MEDICAL LIBRARY SHEET MUSIC HEALS.

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Wagon Wheel

We literally recommend this every issue, but it’s especially pertinent now “North country winters keep-a-getting’ [WKND] down...”

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND ARTS

TANGLED UP IN BLUE // BY GAYATRI SABHARWAL

Tucked away on either side of Beinecke’s lobby are two glass cases with ostensibly unrelated 19th and 20th century books, literary manuscripts, sheet music, photographs, regalia and industrial manuals. The exhibits from afar looked like a tumultuous sea, and I felt like the rather shipwrecked observer.

Exploring the cultural history of the color blue, the spring exhibition “Blue,” in the Beinecke library attempts to bind a diverse collection of exhibits in a single hue.

The exhibit includes an interesting experiment to evaluate the relationship of fugitive pigments to light exposure. Such cyanotype photographs fade when exposed to light, and through this ‘color monitoring,’ the curators of Blue hope to understand more fully the process of color regeneration. The cyanotypes include photographs of Alaska, Washington, Wisconsin and California, the 1901 Paris World’s Fair, American utopian communities and western railroads.

Photographs by Anne Brigman, Irene Hood, Charles Flectcher Lummis and Peter Newell were on display.

But the pieces on display in Blue will intrigue even those with little to no interest in the scientific nature of the color. Prominently featured in glass casing is Langston Hughes’s blue enamel cigarette case, along with a hand-colored 19th century family photograph.

These artifacts, while interesting on their own, made it even more difficult to decipher the exhibit’s overall theme, as they seemed to lack a common thread. I oscillated between feeling like the shipwrecked observer and an investigator of a colorful Sherlock c r i m e

scene.

The exhibit began to take on some semblance of a direction with a section called, “Poetry of a Blue Mood.” There, poems evoking the sadness often associated with the color came to the fore. One conspicuous piece of white paper flaunted the blue emotion: “If you saw my eyes today, the flowing tears would melt your heart, I’d never again be gay, I’m so blue I’m blue black, since my dear love went away.”

The section further developed this theme with a display Sigmund Freud’s Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works. In the spirit of uncovering the blueness of the human psyche, the book was turned to the chapter, ‘Mourning and melancholia,’ pushing me to mull over the snow and my rumbling 3 p.m. stomach.

A more obvious interpretation of blue is found in illustrations of insects and butterflies from prints from E.A. Seguy’s Volumes of Insects and Butterflies, 1920s. This section showcased unexpected motifs in hues of electric blue, such as ostrich feathers and caterpillar wings. A combination of extravagance and elegance, these illustrations managed successfully to leave me lost in thoughts about the royal shade. The flamboyant display of blue, too, was a welcoming relief after a tour through “Mourning and melancholia.”

“Blue Beyond The Blues” showcased the musical genre of the blues and depicted the transformation of the association of the blues from tradi-

tional African-American folk music to experimental jazz, popular folk music and unconventional rock and roll. Ethel Waters, “Queen of the Blues,” a popular performer celebrated for her “indigo tones,” was featured prominently, with her photos, sheet music, printed ephemera, clippings and autobiography, “His Eye on the Sparrow.”

Despite regressing back to a nonliteral interpretation of the color blue, the larger themes of this section remain accessible to viewers.

The exhibit, on the whole, does not describe any one unifying theme that explains the concept of the color blue. Instead, Blue gives space to the observers to invest themselves in the work and create connections that would not have been perceived had blue not been the basis of categorization. Walking through the exhibit was a bit of an emotional roller-coaster ride, at once delightful and melancholic.

I might not have walked out more knowledgeable about the truths behind the color blue, but I certainly felt tangled up in blue, tripping over its interminable threads (or maybe I was just slipping in the snow).

Contact GAYATRI SABHARWAL at gayatri.sabharwal@yale.edu .

// LEON JIANG

Uncovering Wonder in the Everyday // BY ISABELLE TAFT

// JENNIFER LU

As I climbed the stairs to the second floor of Slifka on a quiet Sunday afternoon, the world around me did not seem particularly wondrous. The smells of kosher cooking mingled with the heavy, persistent odor of old food, something that had me thinking not of the grander meaning of life, but rather, what I’d be eating for dinner. The lights on the second floor were off, but when I squinted through the dimness and saw a photograph of a small, wide-eyed child staring intently at the viewer, I knew I was in the right place, as I am pretty sure that it is a truth universally acknowledged that small, wide-eyed children symbolize wonder.

Most of the other pieces in the show are subtler, more unexpected representations of the theme. The exhibition, consisting of fifteen photographs by Wesley Chavis ’14, Victor Kang ’14 and Emily Cable ’15, “displays moments of wonder — be they banal or beyond” and

F R I D AY JA N UA RY 2 4

invites viewers to consider the meaning of wonder and the potential to discover it in everyday life. Curator Lucy Partman ’14 writes in the exhibit introduction that the title of the show was taken from a quote by 20th century rabbi and philosopher Abraham Joshua Herschel.

“Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and He gave it to me.”

Standing alone in the dim gallery space, listening to the soothing sounds of Yale’s Jewish a cappella group singing in a language I’ve never understood, it was easy to slip into a state of wonder.

Moving clockwise through the room, I first encountered Cable’s three photographs. A shot of wispy, gray smoke hung directly above a close-up of a turgid blue sea. The smoke, although slow moving in real life, seemed filled with a burst of energy, while the roiling ocean was frozen in time so that each ripple seemed a long-standing mountain range. These

FURNITURE STUDY TOUR

portraits of everyday scenes evoke the exhibit’s main goal, challenging viewers to consider the splendor hidden in even the most ordinary of settings. Unfortunately, Cable’s third photograph is hung directly above the water fountain, a setting more appropriate for the campaign poster of an eager candidate for middle school student body president. But the image of a half-dressed girl sitting on a bare mattress with light shining through cheap plastic blinds still captivates and intrigues.

Kang’s shots seem the most professionally polished, but they are also the least surprising in the show. Here is a wide-eyed child, here is a closeup of a dew droplet on a plant, here are some more wide-eyed children gazing in awe at a perfectly formed soap bubble. Kang’s last shot, however, speaks to a more imaginative view of wonder: in a print that mixes digital photography with collage techniques, two little boys

YALE UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY // 12:30 p.m.

What?

— rendered giants relative to the rest of the scene — stand on a bridge and gaze down at a river, while a cathedral behind them looks like a dollhouse. The piece plays with perspective and captures the confusion and wonder of childhood, a time when the world seems at once very small and impossibly huge.

Many of Chavis’s seven pieces are abstract and perplexing, yet they are also the most overtly spiritual in the show. The images of a priest half-developed in front of a sumptuous altar; an angelic female form floating in water; a woman pressing her hand against glass — trapped yet calm, eyes closed and face relaxed — convey both the beauty and darkness of religion and mysticism. A frame filled with bright orange fibers initially puzzles, and the exhibit lacks title or information cards in order to preserve each photo’s power to provoke personal responses. I called Chavis to ask about the image, which turns out to be the

inside of a pumpkin. Then, looking again with this new perspective in tow, I wondered less about the reality behind the photo and more about the strange and hidden beauty of the everyday.

The setting is not ideal for becoming wholly absorbed in these works of art. Glare on the glass frames and bickering among the rehearsing members of Yale’s Jewish a cappella group occasionally broke the spell cast by the images of wonder. But the imperfections of the space also make the photographs more remarkable, and the interplay between art and setting helps convey the true lesson of “I Asked For Wonder:” if you aim to find wonder in life, you will. If instead you aim to find boredom, banality and distraction, you will. I hope we’ll look for wonder.

Contact ISABELLE TAFT at isabelle.taft@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: HIGH INTENSITY LIGHT BOXES

Harness the power of a thousand splendid suns to cure your SAD.

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND THEATER

THE SINCERE, ARTIFICIAL APOLOGY // BY STEPHANIE ROGERS

“Sorry, sorry, sorry.” As an adolescent, I recited this incantation on multiple occasions: When my brother dropped his ice cream cone, when my peer failed a test, when my third grade teacher tripped and fell on the ice and, of course, when my best friend suffered through her first heartbreak. My father always used to get angry with me for apologizing for problems that just weren’t my fault. But how else are you supposed to respond to something so out of your control and still convey a sense of sympathy?

After Wednesday night’s performance of “The Consultant,” a new play written

by Heidi Schreck, at the Long Wharf Theater, I rethought the motivation behind my countless “I’m sorry”s. Deep underneath every fallen ice cream cone or crestfallen friend, I have felt a small piece of blame. Put more eloquently a by the young consultant, Amelia (Clare Barron), “We are all responsible in some way for everyone else’s suffering.”

And there is certainly enough suffering to go around in The Consultant. Taking place after the 2008 financial crisis, the show focuses on workers in a troubled pharmaceutical company. Their job security is always uncertain, but they also have to struggle with the all-too-normal issues of romance, ambition, altruism and family. Enter Amelia, a quirky grad student from NYU who wants to help immigrants learn English and change the world along the way — despite her immense student loans. By mistake, she is hired by the company to teach Jun Suk (Nelson Lee), a designer at the firm, better presentation skills and not to improve his English. And so, through a series of comedic coincidences, Amelia ends up trying to save Jun

Suk’s job. Meanwhile, receptionist Tania (Cassie Beck) and ostentatious businessman Mark (Darren Goldstein) become caught in a romantic entanglement.

Not everyone was along for the ride.

As I left the theatre, I heard one audience member say “there was something strange about the tone of the play. It was somehow artificial between the characters.” This idea struck me. She was absolutely right. From its opening flood of stage lights to its final spoken words, all of “The Consultant” implied that nothing on the stage was real or permanent. The entire set shouted “plastic,” and you could see the material everywhere, from fake glass windows to an imitation IKEA desk.

The entire company, it seemed, could pick up one day and leave. The characters verged on stereotypes: the naïve, eager graduate who wants to change the world, the quickly aging receptionist who got stuck in a sub-par job, the childish, masculine businessman who sometimes objectifies women and the overworked divorcee who can’t find happiness. They revolve around each other without forming any real relationships. Together they suffer, together they laugh, and together they try to create a makeshift family, but only because the economy has stuck them together.

This artifice leaves the audience stunned, and yet, this artifice is also what makes the production theatrical gold.

We have all found ourselves in relationships that rely solely on the fact that we and someone else inhabit the same environment. Work relationships, study groups, book clubs — no one is immune, old or young. We’re all afraid of getting too close, and because of that we keep our

distance. The characters in “The Consultant” may seem stereotypical, but that’s only because they play into assigned roles. In these sorts of relationships, after all, simple personas are all we have. Only when they are alone do we understand the play’s characters as more than they appear.

“The Consultant” also understands how these ordinary interactions can build into beautiful, dysfunctional, tragic families. Throughout the play, characters take on childlike or parental roles in relation to everyone else. Tania cleans up after Jun Suk after too much revelry, though she reminds him “I’m not your mother.” The office workers learn to rely on each other even while resisting true affection.

But the family is always under threat.

The big, bad Boss Harold (never seen by the audience) looms over the office, firing victims one by one. The threat of his presence puts the office on edge. Whenever a phone rings (and this happens often), the characters’ emotions are pushed even further. This constant ringing and buzzing provides comedy, but it also reminds us how fragile these relationships are. At the end of the show, we are left questioning: Can work relationships survive without the office? How can you say sorry to someone classified as the work friend?

You make this dysfunctional family, and wait anxiously to see how much weight it can hold. Maybe you have to justify your actions with an “I’m sorry” and take responsibility. Maybe you have to accept that some relationships are meant to simply end.

// LONG WHARF THEATER

Contact STEPHANIE ROGERS at stephanie.rogers@yale.edu .

A Social Education On Stage // BY THERESA STEINMEYER

The subway rattles overhead, with tilted lights flickering over the beige metal chairs tumbled across the stage, bolted up the walls and suspended from the ceiling, an ordinary American classroom twisted up into a nightmare.

Before the story opens, the audience is sworn into the Superior Court of New York for a murder trial, but this school is exactly where “The Defendant” begins: with an 8-yearold girl wearing a pink jumper and a bow in her hair, meeting up with her friends to eat school-provided Cheerios before class.

Minutes later, these kids are high school juniors whose drastic academic disadvantages are the least of their problems. Biology, poetry and Greek drama are foreign to these students; instead, they know poverty, gang violence and rape. Moreover, they have had six teachers give up on them, with the most recent calling one student a “sociopath,” snatching up her purse and storming out five minutes before the lunch bell.

This weekend, “The Defendant,” written by former New York City public school teacher and current Yale School of Drama student Elia Monte-Brown DRA ’14 delivers its world premiere at the Yale Cabaret.

“Champions adjust,” Serena (Melanie Field DRA ’16), the students’ new teacher, confidently informs her unruly students her first day on the job. “Truth is, we don’t really know what will happen in life, so it’s important to follow our passions.”

F R I D AY JA N UA RY 2 4

To her students, these words likely ring hollow with false hope.

But from Monte-Brown, Serena’s speech is perhaps a call to action: a reminder that the writer herself is working out a sense of social commitment through art. “The Defendant” develops with the same purpose, challenging the inadequacies of public education, while still exploring the deeply human experiences of friendship, family and first love. You’ll feel the play’s energy

time, her rowdy and troubled students command our compassion.

These actors embody their characters with a relentless ferocity that matches Monte-Brown’s script, through slouches and swaggers, bit lips and shy first kisses. This is a cast that believes its story. When a character pulls up a chair in the intimate Cabaret theater, stares you down and tells you how it feels to sit in the subway station imagining life on Park Avenue, you’d better listen.

“THE DEFENDANT” DEVELOPS WITH THE SAME PURPOSE, CHALLENGING THE INADEQUACIES OF PUBLIC EDUCATION, WHILE STILL EXPLORING THE DEEPLY HUMAN EXPERIENCES OF FRIENDSHIP, FAMILY AND FIRST LOVE. pounding in your ribcage, and you won’t be sure whether it’s trying to get in or out.

This play bites. It knows how to tease, laugh and dance, but it’s not afraid to yell or push or point.

Throughout the performance, we empathize with Serena as she struggles to gain control and respect in her classroom. Amused by her own lack of preparation for her impossible job, she ponders, “I will somehow integrate bio and poetry.

The study of life, as explored by Langston Hughes.” But at the same

Extra credit goes to Idea (Chalia La Tour DRA ’16) and Ruben (Julian Elijah Martinez DRA ’16), whose blossoming romance, set against their own painful backstories, makes us chuckle and catches our breath. Ruben’s expressions flow seamlessly with his lines, creating a stage presence so endearing that you’ll simply want to hug him. Idea, too, strikes a remarkably credible chord with her youthful energy, repressed past and fear of a world that has already hurt her.

Also be sure to look out for the many

YALE WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY “WHITE OUT FOR MANDI” VS. BROWN Ingalls Rink // 7:00 p.m.

Cheer on our girls in honor and memory of Mandi Schwartz ’10.

instances of double casting, a clever artist i c to u c h that makes it even h a rd e r to break down this world in black and white.

But after a fast hourand-a-half, the lights click off.

There’s applause and the audience files out of the Cabaret, leaving emptied glasses and forgotten programs on closelypacked ro u n d tables. It is in this moment, when “The Defendant” runs out of lines, that it is truly put to the test.

Is it a choice between art and social awareness, or can a performance grapple with both? As “The Defendant” leaves us in discussion about both this school system nightmare and the depth of its characters, the play passes with honors.

Contact THERESA STEINMEYER at theresa.steinmeyer@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: GETTING OUT OF BED AS INFREQUENTLY AS POSSIBLE

And preferably never. The outside world is cold and nobody really has time for that.

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND BLUEBOOKS

WEEKEND COURSE CATALOG

Search Options

ENGL 146 Middling English Poets DAVID WHIPPLE WR

Key Words Gut, Easy A

Whatever the opposite of “timeless” is, William McGonagall and comparable poets have nailed it. English 146 offers an exploration of England’s lesser-known and generally mediocre poets. With a focus on unimaginative rhymes, sloppy metaphors and generally cringe-inducing prose, the course will survey the landscape of English poetry while asking fundamental questions about the nature of bad verse — “How, without the aid of powerful hallucinogens, did anyone delude themselves into writing this shit?” “Did William McGonagall really think ‘buttresses’ rhymed with ‘confesses’?” Readings will be fairly boring, but instead of telling themselves, “Well, this class is called ‘Major English Poets’ so it’s probably just over my head,” students will take solace in the fact that the poetry they are reading is simply not that good. And if students just don’t feel like doing the reading, they won’t be missing much. Skills will include distinguishing “slant rhyme” from “not rhyme,” and “unorthodoxy” from a “lack of talent”. The course’s two papers will be of whatever length students feel is adequate, usually falling between one and three pages, with a half-page of introduction and another of conclusion. In keeping with the spirit of the course, mediocre work will be accepted, perhaps even encouraged.

Contact DAVID WHIPPLE at david.whipple@yale.edu .

Department/Subject

PLSC 256 Introduction to Social

Political Science?

Interaction STEPHANIE ADDENBROOKE

Schedules have been signed, and CR/D/Fail courses secured. But WEEKEND still longs for a different reality — a world in which not one, or two, but ALL SIX Yale College distributional requirements are fulfilled with the most bacterial guts we hibernating sloths could imagine. On that age-old quest to Learn Something, Anything!, our writers achieved such scholarly feats as “movement” and “fox.”

The rest is but a dream.

“Had they been supported on each side with buttresses, At least many sensible men confesses, For the stronger we our houses do build, The less chance we have of being killed.”

–William McGonagall, “The Tay Bridge Disaster”

SO

Instructor

An introduction to the psychological and sociological theories that inform our social decision, this course will provide you with an academic background that actually is applicable to your college experience.

Our class on Monday afternoon will primarily act as a discussion forum, where you can share stories from your weekends. You will advise each other on their individual social faux pas and be rewarded for your ability to recall as little of your evenings as possible. Then, our class on Friday afternoon will prepare you with social theories and advice — entering the science of questions that have been debated by college students for centuries.

As studying is the least social thing one can imagine, there will be no written papers or exams. Anything that takes you away from the practical application of socializing and engaging with other human beings is strictly forbidden. The final exam will consist of a research paper, centered on the psychology of group outings to Toad’s Place — you must assist and aid each other in this very real application of social theory. This research may take the entire semester, and frequent attendance at key campus social events is crucial to obtaining a good grade in this course.

Freshman enrollment is actively encouraged.

Contact STEPHANIE ADDENBROOKE at stephanie.addenbrooke@yale.edu .

Not Shelly Kagan YLVS 140 Intermediate Fox II

Location

MARISSA MEDANSKY L3

My college’s seminar room

This course exposes students with advanced preparation to additional sounds within the repertoire of the fox. The notion that the language of the fox is fundamentally inaccessible to humans, yet still worth attempting to learn, is central to its pedagogical philosophy. At the end of the semester, students should be proficient in “Fraka-kaka-kaka-kaka-kow!” and “A-hee-ahee-ha-hee!” Additional topics of study may be introduced, and texts may change to accommodate student interest.

This is not a class in history or sociology, but we will briefly discuss the ancient legends of the fox and fox culture more broadly. The course includes screenings of films such Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and Tim Story’s “Fantastic Four,” which was released by 20th Century Fox (and therefore counts for our purposes). Brief attention will be paid to the future of the fox and its declining relevance in 2014. One class session will be devoted to the potential that the fox has jumped the shark.

Class discussions form the foundation of the course. Grades will be determined based on effort. The Yale College Undergraduate Regulations defines plagiarism as “the use of someone else’s work, words, or ideas as if they were one’s own.” Please, do not make plagiarism an issue this semester in this or any classroom.

Note: This course is part of a departmental sequence, and builds upon the skills developed in YLVS 130 (Intermediate Fox I). Please see the instructor after class if you have questions about your eligibility and preparedness. Some students may prefer to enroll in YLVS 150 (Fox for Native Speakers), or an advanced course, such as YLVS 162 (Massachusetts and its Discontents) or YLVS 188 (Stonehenge and Society).

Contact MARISSA MEDANSKY at marissa.medansky@yale.edu .

Other

ENGL 133 Reading Twitter for Craft

Meets Almost Never

OLIVER PRESTON

Recommended By WEEKEND

HU

No Final Exam Listed

Reading Twitter for Craft is an introductory seminar on the reading and writing of tweets. Using their own accounts, students will maintain an eclectic and balanced feed that will span a broad range of genres, including celebrity accounts, fake celebrity accounts, periodical accounts, parody accounts, parodies of parody accounts and your mom’s suspiciously inactive account that she got “just to get the latest on Martha Stewart’s French Bulldogs and definitely not to keep tabs on you while you’re away at college Jesus do you trust me at all?”

Over the course of the semester, students will use their feeds to learn the fundamentals of tweeting from some of the masters of the craft. By engaging with artists at the vanguard of the form — @ MileyCyrus, @realDonaldTrump, @RealCarrotFacts and @justinbieber, to name a few — students will gain a basic understanding of the tweet and all of its subtle components: sound, sense, texture, tone, hashtag.

Specific topics of study will include: -The rhetoric of apology in the tweets of Paula Deen -Jaden Smith: Capitalization, Consciousness And The Riddle Of Existence -Why the fuck does Jonathan Franzen refuse to get a twitter? What is wrong with him?

-Cats, books, and gun violence: deciphering Joyce Carol Oates’ tweet diptychs -Live-tweeting Woads -Kanye West, Jimmy Kimmel and the art of the online flame war -Re-tweeting as a form of poetic allusion Students will publish 15-20 tweets each week. The class will also involve a weekly workshop in which the students will critique one of their classmates’ work, paying special attention to language, structure and the effective use of the hashtag. Creative writing and journalism courses require an application. Consult the English department website for detailed instructions and application deadlines.

Contact OLIVER PRESTON at oliver.preston@yale.edu .

HSHM 305 Refuting Scientific Mistakes AARON GERTLER SO, SC, WR

Note: the major’s full name is “History of Science, History of Medicine” Course description: “Does the Sun revolve around the Earth? Do objects fall faster when you tie them together? Did a sadistic God create pandas to be both adorable and impotent?

In this class, we’ll examine notable wrong arguments from the history of science and refute them using both the passive voice and the passive-aggressive voice. Recommended for future science bloggers, commentators on science blogs, and high school teachers.”

Textbooks: The Magic School Bus: Season 1 The Magic School Bus: Season 2 The Magic School Bus: Holiday Special The Basic Works of Aristotle Contact AARON GERTLER at aaron.gertler@yale.edu .

ANTH 88888888/ SOC$%1mmm/HUMS 00001 Flows and Networks in Structural Context ANDREW KOENIG HU, QR

Comparative analysis of the etiology, teleology and ontology of flow networks in post-Harlem Renaissance New York, pre-dot-com-bubble Silicon Valley and late-Situationist Paris. The nature, purposes and pretentions of so-called “social networks” in the Digital Age. The concept of flow as it has manifested itself in nature (rivers, deltas, etc.), human sexual and renal biology, and urban society. Some attention will be paid to innovators, envoys and messengers of “the network” — chiefly Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs, with lesser attention devoted to Tom from MySpace. Extra detail paid to the coalescence of ideas, intersubjectivities, ethnographic symbioses and mutualisms in the Internet Age. Questions of identity, mind-body dualism and self-alienation as they relate to the ascendancy of a new Internet “superclass,” not unrelated to Nietzsche’s Übermensch, to be discussed in historicized context.

At the end of the term, a practicum in the implementation of “networking,” which will include a visit from the Winklevoss twins (manqué networkers) as well as an appearance from YBB+ networkers Harry Yu ’14 and David Xu ’14. Environments that foster and discourage the growth and spread of networks; traditionalism, démodé republicanism, etc. as structural hindrances to digital virality. Several screenings of avant-garde films particularly apt at addressing the issue of self-identification within “the network” — Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” (restored), Dziga Vertov’s “Man with a Movie Camera,” and “Her” starring Joaquin Phoenix.

The class will culminate in a field-work-based project researching some aspect of one of the several central networks at Yale — the fraternity, the secret society, the a cappella group. Dissection of the mythology, symbolism and ritual of said networks, as they manifest themselves as a proxies for the emotional and psychological reassurance once afforded human social units by religion and familial community in a post-religious, post-familial world, etc.

Contact ANDREW KOENIG at andrew.koenig@yale.edu .

S AT U R D AY JA N UA RY 2 5

FILM CONFERENCE “NEW WAVE EUROPE: CINEMA CIRCA 1962”

Whitney Humanities Center // 9:00 a.m. on Smoke, stare into the distance. Contemplate the futility of the bourgeoisie.

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Reindeers

Better than people.

S AT U R D AY JA N UA RY 2 5

OPPOSITE DAY

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS:

everywhere and nowhere // all day and not at all According to Wikipedia, this one sketchy website I Googled and your third-grade frenemy.

Cuddling

THIS IS FOR SURVIVAL. KEEP THE HEAT IN.

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND COVER

BENEFIT OR BURDEN? DWIGHT HALL FROM PAGE 3 GROWING PAINS While operating as a non-profit allows Dwight Hall to maintain independence and foster student leadership, it also means that the organization cannot rely on Yale for all of its funding. Yale provides Dwight Hall with its building, some monetary support as well as some in-kind donations, but as with other registered non-profits, Dwight Hall relies on grants and donor support for most of its monetary resources According to a “fact sheet” released by Dwight Hall, the Yale University Office of New Haven and State Affairs (ONHSA) contributed 5 percent of Dwight Hall’s nearly $900,000 operating budget for the 2013-2014 fiscal year. The remainder of this sum was funded by a combination of grants, individual donors, facility rentals and its endowment.

Each Dwight Hall member group is required to complete four hours per semester of Phonathon, during which members call potential donors to solicit contributions to the organization. Twenty-seven percent of the 2013-2014 budget is supported by donor funds, the fact sheet notes.

Still, several members of Dwight Hall groups interviewed cited a shortage of funds as one of the biggest roadblocks currently facing the organization.

“We are financially strained by the resources we have,” said William Redden ’14, who served as Dwight Hall’s Financial Coordinator two years ago. “We are capable of [obtaining our own funds] but could always use more from Yale.” Redden noted that because Dwight Hall operates independently of Yale, the group is responsible for a large share of its development.

Over the past decade, Dwight Hall has grown tremendously, both in the number of member groups and in the amount of service each group performs. In the past 10 years, member groups have increased from 66 to 89, Crumlish said. The influx of groups has meant more funding requests. Though Dwight Hall has increased the total amount of money it allocates, supply has struggled to meet demand.

The executive committee accepts funding applications from its groups each semester. The amount of money requested from the Campus Community Fund — the principal source of funding for Dwight Hall groups — has grown significantly over the past

two years. In the fall of 2011, member groups requested a total of $18,321.91 and in the fall of 2013, that number had risen to $27,180.34, according to data collected by the student executive committee.

During these semesters, Dwight Hall only distributed $8,544.13 and $12,523.87, respectively. The student executive committee has the difficult job of determining who should and should not receive funding. After the committee accepts or rejects a group’s funding request, the group must submit their receipts before they actually receive money from the Campus Community Fund.

Thus, the difference between funding requests and allocations is in part attributable to groups spending less than they initially requested, former student financial coordinator Michael Wolner ’14 said. But he added that Dwight Hall could not possibly fulfill all of the requests it receives.

“If, during my fall semester, we had given out everything that was requested, we would have used up the budget for the entire year,” he noted.

REACHING ACROSS THE GREEN As far back as he can remember, Doss-Gollin’s Sundays morning were spent at Church of the Redeemer on Whitney Ave. and Cold Spring St., and week nights were for playing soccer in New Haven’s youth leagues. When he walked past the gates of Old Campus, it was a foreign and imposing space.

As a senior at Wilbur Cross High School, Doss-Gollin considered himself lucky to have parents who hold college degrees. He had two people who could help him navigate the application process, but a lot of his friends were left floundering.

“My parents knew that at the end of Junior year, it’s time to start thinking about college and SATs,” he said. “But a lot of my friends — their parents didn’t go to college, some didn’t finish high school, and some didn’t even speak English.”

During his first year at Yale, DossGollin’s younger friends sent him their college admissions essays for editing. The following year, he received a flood of about 20 applications — students from his high school soccer team and friends from his church who wanted guidance.

When Doss-Gollin discovered that his classmates at Yale were excited to help read through these applications, he realized that he had an opportunity to create a significant

// JENNIFER LU

Dwight Hall Funding Requests *Each year, the data were collected by a different student financial coordinator, so the data are subject to differences in tracking methods.

40000

Total amount requested

35000

Amount given to student groups

30000 25000 20000 15000 10000 5000 $0

Fall 2011 Spring 2011 Fall 2012 Spring 2012 Fall 2013 Spring 2013

// SAMANTHA GARDNER

impact on the lives of public school students in the city.

In the summer of 2011, DossGollin worked with two of his friends to create a website and founded REACH. Starting a group from scratch wasn’t easy. When Doss-Gollin and his friends called New Haven Public Schools to tell them about REACH, they were met with trepidation. The schools were accustomed to having multiple Yale groups come in, and they didn’t necessarily want more help.

Doss-Gollin recounted a conversation with an administrator who seemed frustrated that so many students from the University want to have access to their schools. Even if they are well-intentioned, the official explained, they don’t always understand how the school operates or what the children’s lives are like outside of school.

As a native of New Haven, DossGollin understands where the administrator was coming from.

“I think a lot of people are rightfully a little cautious of groups wanting to come in and tell them how to do things,” he said. “Sometimes, especially from the perspective of an overworked administrator, it can be more work than it’s worth.”

And saying that you go to Yale carries a whole other set of implications, he added.

When Doss-Gollin was a student at Wilbur Cross, he and his friends would formulate theories about why Yale students stayed trapped inside of a bubble. “Was it because they were scared of us, or because they didn’t like us? My friends and I came up with all sorts of theories.”

While hostility towards Yale students doing service does exist, Claudia Merson, Director of Public School Partnerships at Yale, said it has lessened over time. When Merson began her post in 1995, working with the schools was markedly more challenging than it is now. There

wasn’t a designated liaison between the school and Yale. Students communicated directly with the school principal, who was likely busy with more pressing issues.

That same year, Merson helped found the PSI program for Yale students.

“We call them the semipermeable membrane,” Merson said. “They are working in two different worlds …

PSI’s have to be bilingual and bicultural.”

The relationship has also improved, Merson said, because NHPS and Yale have coordinated their calendars so that each side knows when events and tutoring sessions are feasible.

Still, Holsenbeck recalled being met with some hostile reactions from teachers as a PSI in 2004.

“When I went into schools, there were teachers who didn’t want anything to do with me just because I was a Yale student,” she said. “They felt [we] were snobby, that Yale students had flaked in the past … they had ideas of what Yale represented.”

Even now, having student volunteers can sometimes be a burden. On the MLK Day of Service, the natural rhythms of the soup kitchen were interrupted by its five student visitors.

Jackson had to orient the students around the kitchen and explain how the process would work: In about two hours, over 100 people would line up out the door to get their lunch. Some might be mentally ill, others might come in drunk, Jackson said, reassuring the students that he would protect them if a difficult situation arose Having a new group of volunteers — while helpful — introduces its own set of challenges “Sometimes, having Yalies, or really any volunteer group, come in, is more work than help,” Jackson admitted. “They finish one task, and then they just sit there instead of asking what to do next … And then we also have to watch out for their safety.”

But Jackson suggested that service is perhaps the best way to establish a connection between Yale and New Haven, however tenuous. Still, he thinks more needs to be done in order to truly close the divide.

“This could be the beginning of a bridge, but Yale and New Haven are still separate entities,” he said.

CYCLES OF PROGRESS

On next year’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Jackson will likely go through the same process again: explaining what the soup kitchen does, that spoon goes on top of fork, and that it’s two, not three, bananas per bag. Perhaps Simmons will sign

up to go to a different site, or maybe she will have another commitment and won’t participate in the Day of Service at all.

Each year, a group of student leaders graduates and a new cohort of freshman — many of whom have never been to New Haven — become residents of the city.

Dwight Hall groups cycle through leaders and must work with students whose goals may diverge from those of their predecessors. Given this constant rotation, sustainability becomes an important factor in evaluating the effectiveness of Yale students’ service.

When Holsenbeck returned to Yale five years after graduating, she discovered that many Dwight Hall groups, fully functional during her time as a student, had completely disappeared. Only “a handful,” she remarked, were still going strong.

The groups that remained, such as Community Health Educators and Elmseed Enterprise Fund, were the ones with a sustainable model.

To be sustainable, student groups must have a clear mission and had a logical plan for leadership transitions, Holsenbeck said.

Doss-Gollin said REACH recently underwent a board change.

The model is sustainable, he explained, because while he is no longer in charge of the organization, he is still involved and available to help the new student leaders maintain the program.

Among the students who REACH assisted last year is Alondra Arguello ’17. She signed up for REACH when the organization’s email address was written on a classroom blackboard. She immediately emailed the group and was matched with student mentor Marisol Dahl ’15.

Arguello credits REACH with part of her Yale acceptance. Dahl would revise her essays within hours and Arguello would send them back, receiving additional feedback almost immediately.

Now, Arguello said, she feels empowered to help other students reach their full potential. She is currently organizing a panel of Yale students to lead an informal discussion with NHPS students who want to pursue college. Despite the stark differences between Yale and New Haven, she said, there is still good reason to bridge the gap.

Arguello recalled that in high school, “People viewed Yale as a place where they would never be.”

Now, she remarked, “This is my place.”

Contact POOJA SALHOTRA at pooja.salhotra@yale.edu .

// KATHRYN CRANDALL

S AT U R D AY JA N UA RY 2 5

“MY FAIR LADY” IN CONCERT

Schubert Theater // 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.

The show actually premiered in New Haven. (Not in Spain on the plain).

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Learning to cross country ski

What if you’re snowed in but really need to get to Toad’s?

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND COLUMNS

NAVIGATING THE BULLY PULPIT // BY SCOTT STERN

// WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Few authors are as iconic, as respected, and as universally lauded as Doris Kearns Goodwin.

As a young White House intern in the Johnson administration, she nearly lost her job for publishing an article mapping out a strategy to impeach Johnson. Nonetheless, Goodwin eventually became close with Johnson, conducting dozens of conversations that laid the basis for her first book, “Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream,” a bestseller. Almost twenty years later, she penned a book about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt that won the Pulitzer Prize. Ten years after that, she wrote the tome for which she is best known, “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” — a mammoth, masterfully written account of Abraham Lincoln and the men who composed his cabinet. Now, nearly ten years later, she has published another gargantuan study of presidential rivalry and leadership: “The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism.”

Goodwin originally sought to write a story of Roosevelt and the Progressive Era, but claims

SCOTT STERN READING BETWEEN THE LINES to have found the stories of Taft and of muckraking journalists from the era too crucial to ignore.

Her book thus braids three distinct strands: Roosevelt, the bold, pioneering progressive; Taft, the thoughtful, careful moderate; and the fiery journalists who changed the way the public viewed government, big business and the role of America itself.

“The Bully Pulpit” begins with Roosevelt’s and Taft’s childhoods. Though they were born into families of similar means just a year apart, Roosevelt and Taft developed into strikingly different individuals. Roosevelt was pushed to shine; Taft was pushed to fit in line. Roosevelt’s father wanted him to become a leader, an athlete, and an adventurer; Taft’s father told him to work hard and try to attain a respected position — a judge-

ship, perhaps. Roosevelt went off to Harvard, Taft to Yale. Upon graduation, Roosevelt immediately launched himself into a run for state government, and would eventually become the youngest president in American history.

Taft attained a judgeship at a relatively young age and would have been content to stay there had it not been for his vivacious and ambitious wife, Nellie. With her urging and his Ohio connections, he became the nation’s youngest ever solicitor general, and then a circuit court judge. Nonetheless, he remained plagued with selfdoubt and far less power-hungry than the ambitious Roosevelt.

Taft and Roosevelt inevitably crossed paths: Both served in the McKinley administration, and President Roosevelt would appoint Taft as his Secretary of War. Goodwin recounts, in great detail, Taft’s and Roosevelt’s correspondence throughout this period, and how that correspondence shaped each of their careers. Ultimately, Roosevelt pressured his trusted lieutenant to succeed him as president. And Taft did, albeit resignedly.

As president, Taft displayed

a markedly different temperament from the prickly, energetic Roosevelt. Especially after the light of his life, Nellie, suffered a tragic stroke, the fire went out of Taft’s life. Goodwin carefully navigates his public speeches and private writings to demonstrate that, though he was less gregarious, he still got things done — he busted trusts, funneled through two important constitutional amendments and, to a very limited though still important extent, eliminated racist statutes. Nevertheless, Roosevelt was disappointed in his successor and decided to challenge him as a third-party candidate in the 1912 presidential election. The two essentially divided the same voters, allowing Woodrow Wilson to sail to victory. The book ends with Taft’s and Roosevelt’s eventual reconciliation — poignant and very nearly too late.

Interwoven into the story are some of the most remarkable journalists in American history, such as Ida Tarbell, Ray Stannard Baker, Lincoln Steffens, William Allen White and, most notably, Samuel S. McClure. For Goodwin, each merits his or her own

lengthy chapter and remains in conversation throughout the course of the book. Together, these journalists exposed corruption in business, government and organized labor, and they came up with and then lobbied for most of the Progressive reforms that would become law during the Roosevelt and Taft administrations.

The press loved the unreserved Roosevelt; they disliked the distant Taft. These relationships shaped the way the public saw these men at the time, and how historians see them now. Goodwin’s narrative brilliantly weaves together Roosevelt’s ascendancy with that of the coterie of bright, young journalists and traces Taft’s decline into obese obsolescence alongside his chillier journalistic reception. In that respect, Goodwin’s book is a major intervention. She wants her readers to link a successful leader to his successful relationships with the press. “It is my greatest hope,” she wrote in the introduction, “that the story that follows will guide readers through their own process of discovery toward a better understanding of what

it takes to summon the public to demand the actions necessary to bring our country closer to its ancient ideals.”

Yet, it might be hard for this intervention to penetrate the public consciousness for one simple reason: “The Bully Pulpit” is really, really long. Ninehundred and ten pages, relatively small print. It’s bigger than Roosevelt’s ego or Taft’s waist. It’s too long. Goodwin charts her narrative with such detail that one wonders whether she just needs a better editor. The Roosevelt and Taft childhood biographies, while engaging, present nothing new; should they really consume more than a hundred pages? Does every major muckraking journalist really deserve their own biographical chapter?

Despite its length and redundancies, however, Goodwin’s work is well worth the read. Ultimately, if you can work your way through “The Bully Pulpit,” you will finish a more informed reader of American history.

Contact SCOTT STERN at scott.stern@yale.edu .

Don’t Let “Her” Get You Down // BY MICHAEL LOMAX

When people started hearing about “Her,” the immediate responses seemed to oscillate between confusion and intrigue.

Joaquin Phoenix plays the part of Theodore Twombly — a disillusioned love-letter writer who manages to fall in love with his computer’s operating system: the artificially intelligent Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). Their relationship evolves quickly over time, helping lift Theodore from his professional and romantic funk. But eventually the physical limitations between the two begin to unravel it all.

Writer-filmmaker Spike Jonze has never been one to shy away from an offbeat story, and with “Her,” he strikes quirky gold yet again. As Becca Edelman ’14 put it, the film represents the hipster future: It shows us a technologically advanced world that has, in

MICHAEL LOMAX CINEMA TO THE MAX time staring into the distance with what passes for a vacant and empty expression. Just by listening to them speak it’s obvious one is more clearly alive than the other. But is a computer really alive? And if it can be, how could it possibly be more alive than someone with an actual body?

I am not a philosophy major.

I don’t like breaking existence down into if-then statements.

I believe things for reasons that make sense to me, and typically only me. So I speak with no real authority when I say that I believe what makes you you is

ter of the heart, but what does it say about our culture when we devote more of ourselves digitally than actually getting out into the world and enjoying what there is to be found?

Samantha might be without a physical body, but she at least throws herself into the World Wide Web. She explores the environment afforded to her, getting lost in an arena of thoughts and ideas and passions that we, as physical human beings, sometimes seem to abandon, making “Her” a very sad film.

It’s one that invites us to fight through melancholy and loneliness in order to take a hard look at what we should value in ourselves and others. Throw in a beautiful landscape built on pretty lights and futuristic architecture, and “Her” provides a cultural criticism much more artful and poignant than

THE WORLD AND EVERYTHING IN IT IS ULTIMATELY INDECIPHERABLE. some weird way, dehumanized human beings while making an OS the truly limitless wealth of emotion and possibility.

What Samantha lacks in a physical body is made up for tenfold by her unique way of looking at the world, though what exactly that world is might be a bit harder to define. In this way, Theodore becomes surprisingly bland by comparison.

He can walk around, breathe, touch things. Yet for all his senses, he musters a fairly boring existence.

Samantha cracks jokes and offers observations. Theodore shuffles his feet from place to place and spends most of his

some combination of memories and emotions and experiences that you and only you have ever felt and ever known. Samantha might be confined to a world of bits and bytes, but she is always hungering for more knowledge and more experience. She is effectively human, just without the arms and legs.

What’s lost in this discussion is how, in light of this romance, we’re supposed to understand modern relationships. I dread the day that people actually fall in love with their computers, but there’s no denying that the seeds of this dystopia are already present today. This is probably more a societal issue than a mat-

S AT U R D AY JA N UA RY 2 5

recent films with similar ambitions, even if it does leave several questions open to interpretation.

Because that’s another thing Samantha learns about being alive: The world and everything in it is ultimately indecipherable. The hunt for answers is what excites us. And while I may be wrong about all of these thematic ponderings, I can take some solace in believing that the search itself — like Samantha’s and even Theodore’s — is what makes us alive.

// AP EXCHANGE

Contact MICHAEL LOMAX at michael.lomax@yale.edu .

A CONVERSATION WITH HENRY LOUIS GATES JR.

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS:

Sterling Auditorium // 6:00 p.m.

Part of Yale MLK, a conversation with Gates ’73 about his PBS series “A More Perfect Union.”

Durfee’s

Stock up on supplies for the long winter.

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND MENTAL

HEALTH

“WE JUST CAN’T HAVE YOU HERE” // BY RACHEL WILLIAMS “I’m Rachel,” I say to the man who is here to evaluate me, extending my hand, trying to put on my best sane face. Problem is, no one ever told me what that looks like.

He eyes me for a moment, then takes my hand.

I run him through the story, trying to emphasize my efforts to be honest and to get help.

I say, “So as soon as I cut, I texted my FroCo for support.”

“But you admit that you willfully harmed yourself?” he says, like he’s just won something.

“Well … yes.” Because obviously I admit it. I’m not a liar. If I were a liar, I would never have gotten myself into this mess. Fuck me for not being a liar.

And so, when I say “yes” to the ‘I admit cutting myself’ part, he nods his head and closes his eyes like someone has just given him a bonbon.

I tell him when I come back to Yale, I will get a therapist on campus and keep working with the one I have at home. I will stop cutting.

“Well the question may not be what will you do at Yale, but if you are returning to Yale. It may well be safer for you to go home. We’re not so concerned about your studies as we are your safety,” he says.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “What makes you think I will be safer away from school, away from my support system?” School was my stimulation, my passion and my reason for getting up in the morning.

“Well the truth is,” he says, “we don’t necessarily think you’ll be safer at home. But we just can’t have you here.”

*** On the night of Jan. 27, 2013, I slashed open my right thigh six times with a Swiss Army knife.

I then spent four hours thinking about how good it would feel to jump off the fifth floor of Vanderbilt Hall. On Jan. 28, I put on a pretty dress and went to class.

Before lunch, my cuts had stained it brown.

That night I texted my Freshman Counselor to tell her what had happened, just as I had done all the other times I felt suicidal and had cut myself. When I went to her suite, I showed her the gashes.

We went to Yale Health Urgent Care, at around 11:00 p.m., where a doctor bandaged my leg. A psychiatrist appeared. I told her that I had experienced suicidal thoughts the night before, but that the cuts had not been a suicide attempt. I told them that I was no longer suicidal.

At midnight, I was strapped to a stretcher under the ashen ceiling of an ambulance, on my way to Yale-New Haven Hospital.

There I was taken to the locked ward of the ER — guarded by officers with guns — stripped of all my belongings, including my pants (they had a drawstring), and shunted into a cubicle containing nothing but a bed. I was here for my own good, they told me.

For 24 hours I had nothing to do but listen to the rattling gasping sound coming from the person two beds down, and to a schizophrenic person declare, every hour or so, that he had soiled himself. I was asked to recite the presidents of the United States, in

reverse order, as part of a psychiatric evaluation. For more than a day I was not permitted to make a phone call. For more than a day no one had any idea where I was — not even my parents.

When a bed opened up in the actual Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital, I was transported, again in an ambulance, and introduced to the place I would spend the next week of my life. Upon arrival, I was taken into a small room with two female staff members, forced to take off my underwear, spread my legs, then hop up and down to make sure nothing was hidden “up there.”

My Freshman Counselor had brought me some extra clothes and a course packet for my travel writing class, so that I would have something to read. The course packet was confiscated. Why? Because I might cut myself with the plastic binding — you know — the kind you get from Tyco. I might commit suicide with that, they said. “You’re a cutter,” they told me.

For a week, I was not allowed to set foot outside. I was not allowed to stretch my hamstrings or calves or any other body part.

I was not allowed to pace my confines. I was not allowed to drink caffeine. I was not permitted to take ibuprofen for my caffeine withdrawal headache. I did not get to take a shower until my third day. Phone usage was restricted and phone calls were closely monitored. I was threatened, by a nurse, with the possibility of having my wrists and ankles tied to my bed, and witnessed this threat be carried out on others. Whoever built the hos-

pital had termed this ward, “Liberty Village.”

There was little “treatment” in the hospital. Mostly, we watched television, played Pictionary and Connect Four and sat. I was interviewed by various clinicians a few times a day; I saw my assigned psychiatrist only three times, for half an hour or so, over the course of seven days. This limited treatment was fairly standard for all patients, but it soon became clear that it would have little effect on my situation.

The milieu counselors, nurses and doctors in Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital have absolutely no input when it comes to deciding who gets to stay at Yale and who is forced to leave. In talking to the nurses, doctors and fellow Yale students I encountered in the hospital, I understood that job to belong to Dr. Eric Millman and to chief of Yale Psychiatry, Dr. Lorraine Siggins — two people who work for the University, rather than the hospital.

I have shared with you my memorable exchange with a senior psychiatrist at Yale Mental Health who came to evaluate me. It was this exchange that led me to keep an extensive and thorough journal during my time in the hospital.

But Dr. Siggins is the one who makes a ruling: Does Johnny stay at Yale or does he go? And in my talks, a consensus emerged: Dr. Siggins does not always — and by some accounts, rarely — make contact with the student in question. (A Yale senior who was in the hospital with me was not granted a meeting with Dr. Siggins but was still forced to leave

Yale.) Neither the staff members I spoke with nor a fellow Yalie who had prior experience in the hospital knew of any Yale student admitted to the hospital who had been allowed to stay at Yale.

My interview left me terrified of the possibility of leaving school. I called my parents, and they promptly put themselves on Dr. Siggins’ radar, meeting with her twice and securing me a personal interview. All I remember was that my mind was totally blank when I spoke to her, because I was so focused on making her believe that I was “okay.”

This, of course, is totally futile when you’re sitting on a cot in a mental hospital.

She called me three days later to tell me that I would have to go home. That meant that I was forced to formally withdraw from the college, with no guarantee of return. As soon as her decision came down, I was eligible for release into my parents’ custody.

Upon my release from the hospital (also not a function of my recovery — but as a result of my expulsion from the College I was even more depressed when I left than when I was admitted, my Yale ID was confiscated, as was my room key. I was given one evening to pack up my entire life.

My college dean told me I was not even allowed to spend the night in my room in Vanderbilt Hall. I fell asleep on the futon in my suite’s common room at four a.m., breaking the rules, but exhausted and unable to continue putting my things in boxes, dismantling the reality of my college life. I had a chance to say goodbye to a few friends — most of whom

// ANNELISA LEINBACH

S U N D AY

Yale University Art Gallery // 1 p.m.

JA N UA RY 2 6

Relive the warmth of your mother’s womb.

ANNUAL FAMILY DAY

I would not hear from during my time away. 18 hours after I walked out of the hospital doors, I was on a plane, headed back to North Carolina in a storm of tears.

I did what they said was necessary to be a candidate for readmission: therapy, more therapy, two college courses, more therapy. And I healed. Mostly.

I filled out the paper application for readmission: the usual demographic crap, a three-page personal statement, a transcript of my summer classes, two letters of recommendation, a profile from a therapist and a check for $50. I flew to New Haven for my three interviews — with the dean of my residential college, Dean Pamela George (chair of readmission) and Dr. Siggins.

As a side note, I might mention that Dr. Siggins was 45 minutes late to my interview. Dean George called me an hour before the scheduled time to cancel, forcing me to interview the following day, two hours before my return flight took off. I answered every question with as much positivity as I could sell. I said: I do not cut, I do not think of killing myself. I am great. Two weeks later, I was readmitted.

Every morning of my year away from Yale, I woke to the sight of the “Yale” pennant on my bedroom wall — the one they send to accepted freshmen in the big, glorious “Welcome to Yale” packet. “You’re in!” it says. “You’re a treasured asset to our University!” it says. “Come to Bulldog Days and feel the love because we love you and we care about you and we don’t want you to go to any other school because you’re the shit!” it says.

Thinking back to that welcome packet, there is a conspicuous omission: *We love you and want you and will provide for you and protect you, as long as you don’t get sick.* *** I return to a different Yale, though it is I who have changed.

After a year spent focusing solely on my health and well-being, I find myself, though not perfectly balanced, resting closer to my ideal center. And, after a year of watching and analyzing every one of my inner ticks, I see external things that were invisible to me before.

I see that Yale is a fundamentally unhealthy place in one important way. The problem is, everyone is “okay.” I have known friends who have suffered the deaths of siblings, who have been victims of sexual assault or who have fought life-threatening illness, all while navigating their sexuality, while taking fiveand-a-half credits, while chairing more organizations and running to more meetings than they can keep track of. I have known friends to do all of this and still profess, at every opportunity, to be “okay,” “fine,” “great.”

To say something else, to be — in our own minds and in the minds of others — something else, is for some reason not acceptable at Yale. None of us are completely okay. But the pressure to conform to being perfectly functional and happy is a burden that we should neither want nor bear.

Where does it come from? For most students at Yale, I think the pressure is subconscious, upheld through day-to-day conversation: My classes are amazing. My extracurriculars are dope. My internship this summer is baller.

Life is awesome. Are you awesome? No one wants to deviate.

But I think the source is not, in fact, the students. Those of us who have admitted, at some point or another, that we are legitimately not okay, have learned that there are real and devastating consequences of telling the truth.

Because Yale does not want people who are not okay. Yale does not want people who are struggling, who are fighting. Yale, out of concern for its own image, wants them to leave. And Yale makes them.

With this, I refuse to be okay.

Contact RACHEL WILLIAMS at rachel.williams@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Hockey Night in Canada The puck stops here.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND

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MENTAL HEALTH

OVERWHELMED BUT NOT WITHOUT HOPE: HOW STUDENTS ARE ATTEMPTING TO IMPROVE MENTAL HEALTH AT YALE (PART 2) // BY ANDREW GIAMBRONE

In his address to incoming freshmen on September 13, newly appointed University President Peter Salovey remarked that one of the “last taboos among Yale students” involves talking about socioeconomic status. “When the issue of money comes up, students are often profoundly uncomfortable,” he said. “To the Class of 2017, I encourage you to be sensitive and open to one another. The uncomfortable conversations that you will certainly have represent opportunities for true understanding and true friendship.”

What Salovey did not mention was mental health. Since becoming University President, the closest he has come to publically addressing this topic was a convocation speech he gave at the Hopkins School — a coeducational institution for grades 7 through 12 in New Haven — on November 13. Salovey discussed his work as a psychologist, focusing on “emotional intelligence,” a concept he developed with colleagues in the 1990s.

He told the Yale Daily News in an interview after the speech that he wanted to show how observing emotions provides useful data about people, and that it is important to persist in the face of struggle. (Contacted by email in late October, Salovey wrote that he would be unavailable for an interview for this article.)

As reports issued by Yale undergraduates and their graduate and professional school counterparts have indicated, it is not uncommon for students to struggle with mental health; Yale’s Mental Health and Counseling (MH&C) department sees more than 20 percent of the entire student body each year, and that number only continues to grow. The result has been increased wait-times and variable quality of care at MH&C. So far, top University officials have not openly discussed their efforts to reform mental health resources on campus.

Besides an email sent by the Office of the Secretary and Vice President in December, which said “discussions and collaborative efforts have been underway at all levels,” campus-wide communications have been slim. The University’s relative silence on this issue has increasingly caused student leaders, masters and deans to take matters into their own hands in making Yale a happier and healthier place.

CHANGING THE CULTURE OF THE PLACE

Elizabeth Bradley, Stephen Davis and Jeffrey Brenzel — of Branford, Pierson and Timothy Dwight Colleges, respectively —are three such masters already working toward this end. Bradley, who is a professor of public health and directs the Yale Global Health Initiative, says she sees part of her role as master as contributing to “a culture of greater balance” among undergraduates. Davis, appointed master this year, says he wants his office to be a “safe space” for students, where they can feel comfortable sharing both their successes and struggles. Brenzel ’75, too, hopes to foster this type of environment within his own college. His former position as Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, however, also allows him to see the systemic causes behind a campus culture where mental health concerns abound.

“We’ve picked people who are extremely intelligent but who are unusual in their expectations for themselves,” Brenzel says. “We have a group of students here whose identity is wrapped around achievement, so when something throws them off it can snowball.”

Still, all three masters agree that managing students’ expectations about mental health resources on campus could improve negative perceptions of MH&C. Michelle Ross ’12* attributes many Yale students’ dissatisfaction with MH&C to a lack of understanding about mental health treatment. Ross began her

S U N D AY JA N UA RY 2 6

visits to the center after a suitemate sexually harassed her during her junior year and she became “deeply depressed.”

There a social worker taught her coping skills that were specifically tailored to her situation, but she admits that she had to see multiple clinicians before she felt comfortable.

“Mental health care is so much about rapport and the therapist-client alliance,” Ross explains. “The times when you’re trying your hardest, you have to keep trying to find someone who’s a better fit for you.”

Ross adds that few Yale undergrads question the expectations set by themselves and the University’s larger “success-driven” culture. If more professors and administrators were willing to be open about their own mental health struggles, she notes, students might feel less alone. “You never hear administrators speaking about tough times they went through, you only hear that it’s okay to have a tough time,” Ross says. “That’s great, but make it real. Show that you’re human, that these people who are huge successes have struggled also.”

include over 30 students spread across the College’s 13 residential houses, whose job is to raise awareness about mental health issues and resources. Liaisons host mental health workshops for freshmen each year, run a wellness blog on their website and serve to connect peers with the University’s resources, Lee said.

SMHL also strives to reach students in innovative ways. In August 2012, the group created an online video platform called “Harvard Speaks Up” to address stigma surrounding mental health concerns. Championed by former SMHL copresidents Seth Cassel ’13 and Meghan Smith ’13, Harvard Speaks Up hosts short videos recorded by members of the Harvard community talking about their personal struggles and encouraging others to seek treatment. Those who have given testimonies include Paul Barreira, Director of Harvard University Health Services, Steve Hyman, former Harvard University Provost and former Director of the US National Institute of Mental Health and renowned Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker. The videos typically last under five minutes, and the

“YOU NEVER HEAR ADMINISTRATORS SPEAKING ABOUT TOUGH TIMES THEY WENT THROUGH, YOU ONLY HEAR THAT IT’S OKAY TO HAVE A TOUGH TIME.” MICHELLE ROSS ’12

For some administrators, the constant pressure to succeed is ultimately at the root of students’ mental health concerns, along with their unrealistic expectations of treatment. University Chaplain Sharon Kugler believes students need to learn how to “step off the Yale treadmill” and take care of themselves, asking for help from others when needed. “You’re messaged from day one that you’re tomorrow’s leaders,” she says. “My soapbox speech is: You are tomorrow’s whole people. What you can be is healthy and have a sense of what it means to fail and survive.”

A TALE OF TWO IVIES

At Yale, although there are students groups like Mind Matters and Walden Peer Counseling, which seek to increase mental health dialogue on campus, there is no student liaison group specifically endorsed by MH&C. Instead, each residential college has a Mental Health Fellow — a trained clinician who can advise students on how to navigate the Yale’s peer and institutional resources. The program was created in 2011 as a joint collaboration between YCC and MH&C. Fellows meet incoming freshmen during orientation and can accelerate the treatment process for students who reach out to them in need.

But few undergrads seem to know that the fellows exist or how they function in the overall scheme of Yale’s mental health resources. “The residential college Mental Health Fellows can and should be on the front lines of getting these messages out,” the YCC report stated. “Right now, however, a lot of confusion exists around the [program]. While some residential college administrators have introduced students to their Fellows, most students we surveyed do not know what the Fellows do.” There is no information about the Mental Health Fellows on the websites of MH&C, the Dean’s Office or individual residential colleges. The last time the Yale Daily News reported on the program was in September 2011, when it began.

“Exactly how this program is supposed to work is deeply unclear to me,” Reuben Hendler, one of the YCC report authors, says. “What are the different roles of every party? I don’t have a clear picture of how those parts are supposed to interact.”

Harvard may offer some lessons about tackling mental health issues in an academically intense environment. Since 2008, Harvard has had a Student Mental Health Liaisons (SMHL) program that was founded by the Department of Behavioral and Academic Counseling at Harvard University Health Services and Harvard students themselves, as part of an ongoing effort to promote emotional well-being on campus.

According to Angela Lee ‘14, a Harvard senior who currently serves as co-president of SMHL, the group has grown to

website contains links to both peer and professional mental health resources at Harvard — precisely the type of program that Michelle Ross believes would benefit Yale.

“What was really surprising to me was professors and administrators opening up about their own experiences and struggles, and that they were willing to be vulnerable ,” Lee recalls. “Some students were like, ‘Wow, I had no idea so many people were struggling.’”

Cassel says the project garnered positive reactions from administrators and students alike, and sparked productive dialogue across Harvard’s campus. “The basis of SMHL is that students respond best to what their peers are saying,” Cassel explains. “Fellow students are more likely to be responsive to the message of getting help if it’s normal that people like them are doing it too.”

NEXT STEPS

On November 16, about t h i r ty Ya l i e s m e t at 17 Hill-

house Avenue to attend an open “Forum on Wellbeing and Campus Culture” organized by the authors of the YCC Report on Mental Health. The choice of venue could not have been more apt — Yale Health was formerly located at 17 Hillhouse before moving to 55 Lock Street in 2010. Refurbished during the summer of 2012, the building now serves as classroom space.

The attendees came for different reasons; some were leaders of student organizations, while others wished to voice their concerns about Yale Health. At the beginning of the meeting, the authors of the report distributed a “mental health reference sheet” compiled by the YCC, detailing Yale’s institutional and peer resources, as well as a list of student organizations devoted to student wellness. Members of the group broke into small brainstorming sessions structured around mental health publicity, residential college resources, a potential website like Harvard Speaks Up and a “Mental Health Week” that would be similar to Yale’s biennial “Sex Week.”.

Hendler notes the meeting was the first of its kind, “at least in recent memory.” Future forums, he continues, will be organized to gauge the progress being made on mental health initiatives, such as workshops, a residential college liaison program and alternative behavioral therapies. Such projects could help reduce the backlog of students at Mental Health and Counseling. In an early January email, Hendler said he and the other authors of the YCC report would contact various student organizations devoted to mental health, in the hopes of forming a coalition that would coordinate projects and communicate with the Yale administration.

“I was initially skeptical of creating yet another organizational structure but have become convinced that this is the best way to accomplish these goals,” Hendler wrote. “Supposing that people sign on, I anticipate a first meeting within the first few weeks of the semester, focused on putting together a mental health week(end) for the spring.”

Christopher Datsikas ’16, the president of Mind Matters, says he was most intrigued by the prospect of a Mental Health Week, where students could attend panels on a variety of topics and promote conversation on campus. Although Datsikas believes it would be difficult to coordinate the logistics of such an event — including which students would be in charge and how

Today Posner says she is “cautiously optimistic” that Yale’s mental health environment and resources will improve during her time here. She adds that the path to clinical treatment at Yale Health should be made “as clear as possible” and that students themselves should be more open about their struggles.

“The expectation is that we’re good and functioning all the time,” Posner explains. “I don’t know necessarily why that is. Maybe it’s that Yale is painted as such a happy place where people function on these surreal levels, balancing a job, five classes with Nobel laureates and three extracurricular activities. That’s true sometimes, but that doesn’t mean you’re always in a good place mentally or emotionally.”

“Somebody needs to say it a little louder.”

Contact ANDREW GIAMBRONE at andrew.giambrone@yale.edu .

AUSTRALIA DAY

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much the University’s administration would be involved — he feels hopeful that a Mental Health Week could be organized within the next two years.

“It’s not an instant fix, it’s not like we put out the report and suddenly campus culture has changed,” Hendler admits.

“But we believe in the good faith of the administration and we’re trying to engage with them constructively by focusing on common ground.”

In the waning weeks of the fall semester, meetings about mental health also occurred among the college’s Masters and Deans. Although these meetings were “confidential,” Brenzel said in a mid-November email that there would be a follow-up by the 12 residential college masters with the YCC. Bradley added that the meetings were “engaged, productive and collaborative” with “a commitment made to try to move ahead wisely.”

Caroline Posner ’17 represents the next generation of Yale undergrads for whom such discussions may ultimately matter.

A freshman in Berkeley College, Posner has lived with an anxiety disorder since the third grade, a condition she wrote about in an October 9 Yale Daily News opinion column, “Addressing mental illness.” Given Yale’s tremendous progress on issues such as sexual misconduct, Posner wrote, it’s time for the University to tackle questions of mental health with an equal commitment.

Layers

Taking sweater weather to a new level of sweater.

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND BACKSTAGE

BUZZWORDS WITH BACKING // BY DAVID WHIPPLE

I

f you chat with Matt Brimer ’09, Jake Schwartz ’00 and Brad Hargreaves ’08 for a bit, you’re likely to hear some business jargon. Reference might be made to the “digital ecosystem” — networking, itself jargon, might become “connectivity.” But given the way General Assembly has taken off since the trio founded it in 2011, it seems there just might be something behind all that mumbo jumbo. General Assembly, or “GA,” as its three founders call it, is a New York educator and incubator for other tech start-ups. From simply providing the physical space and amenities necessary for start-ups to grow — office space, in other words — General Assembly has expanded to offer a host of courses for aspiring entrepreneurs at locations across the globe, winning over $4 million in seed funding and a spot among Forbes’ “Top 30 Under 30” in the process. The company reports that 96 percent of students enrolled in the most immersive programs go on to find jobs within three months. WEEKEND gave the three Yalies behind GA a call to find out how they made it all happen. // GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Brad: We look at General Assembly as a complement to liberal arts education, not as a replacement. Liberal arts has an incredibly important role in the American education system, and that’s not one we’re looking to replace, but 98 percent of our current and previous students already have a college degree.

Our audience is not coming to GA as an alternative to traditional education. Many of these are students who went to really good schools.

I’m sure we could find Yale alums who have been through our program. It’s really students who are looking for a very specific skill set, whether they want to become a user experience designer, they want to become a web developer, they want to get into digital marketing: Those are the profiles of the students we’re seeing.

Jake: I almost think of [GA] like the last mile. I loved my Yale experience. It was a great education, but I didn’t come out with any way to just create economic value for my employer. So I really had to hustle and leverage whatever else I could find to even get someone to hire me. If you want to go off the beaten path, you need to be able to hit the ground running. All these companies aren’t just looking for people who are smart — they’re looking for people who can do things.

Q. How did Yale prepare you guys for what you are doing now?

Brad: When I look at what I’m doing today, the biggest thing that Yale provided me is connections to my co-founders. Matt and I have known each other since he was a freshman at college and I was a sophomore. Matt met Jake through a Yale alumni event. The connectivity that Yale provides is incredibly important. Part of what we are trying to do at General Assembly is not

just take the educational content and deliver it but also deliver that connectivity and that brand imprimatur that you get from going to an institution like Yale.

Matt: I also think Yale provided a certain sense of magic to our undergraduate experience. When we think about what we’re creating at General Assembly, being able to surprise and delight and provide serendipity is important, because I think that’s what creates longterm success: when you can create very memorable but also impactful experiences for people. When we think about what learning means at GA, a lot of our experience originates from Yale.

Jake: When I got out, I experienced firsthand the major letdown of getting into the real world and realizing that there were a million people just like me. Yale has this way of building you up to think that you’re special, and then I had that very long, hard letdown that, in a lot of ways, is what inspired me to start GA. I had a great experience at Yale in many ways, my best friends are from there, and I think Yale did a really great job with the way it approaches this idea of a big idea with a bunch of little details that make up the big idea. The interplay and the tension between those two levels of thought is really the same way I still think about strategy and tactics in a start-up, in a business.

Q. That same Yahoo article had Jake saying that there was a sort of stigma in American education around purely vocational training. How do you guys hope to change that?

Brad: It’s really about delivering a lot of the non-educational value that has traditionally been associated with, say, Ivy league schools — for instance, providing a strong alumni network and incredibly high job placement rates. Obviously, education and skills are a big part of it, but for us it’s really skills plus community equals opportunity, and that has not traditionally been part of the vocational school value proposition. That’s one of the ways we think what we’re doing is

unique.

Q. One of the things that makes GA stand out is its connections to the established tech industry: You have guys from Facebook and Google teaching classes, and then when people complete your class, you’re able to launch them off into the tech world. How have you guys managed that level of integration?

Matt: In many ways, General Assembly began in a very community-oriented, grassroots way. It began with a series of conversations and ideas between myself, Brad and Jake, and a number of the members of the tech and start-up community in New York City. A lot of it was about not only getting interested but also involved, getting people who we wanted involved in our greater vision. A lot of it is about being out there in the community, going to events, creating goodwill, facilitating introductions and favors for other people in the tech community so that we can get great karma around us. Doing those favors eventually comes back to us.

It’s about playing an active and participatory role in the communities we are in.

Jake: A lot of that is that we’ve now been around for three years, and we’ve worked really, really hard.

That’s the other thing: There are no shortcuts — there was no magic bullet that got us there other than hustle. We all went to as many events as we could, we met everybody, we probably gave hundreds of tours of the space before we launched the original GA. It was through all of that and having a mission and a set of values that people believe in, that allowed us to have that presence today. We’re still working on it — it’s not something that ever stops.

Q. How daunting is it to start a company from scratch? What does it feel like when you realize, “This is going to work”?

Jake: It’s the wildest ride of your life. It’s hard to describe. A friend of mine describes starting a business as one of the most psychedelic

experiences in life because your reality is constantly shifting around you. I always liked that.

Q. When someone walks into GA with an idea for a start-up, can you tell if they have what it takes to make their idea work?

Jake: A lot of people think it’s about the quality of the idea, and they get very defensive about the idea, and one of the things that can help me know if an entrepreneur is going to be successful is how un-defensive and eager for all sorts of feedback they are. A good entrepreneur knows it’s not the idea — it’s the ability to get it done that matters, and they look for any kind of feedback or gaps or holes or vulnerabilities in how they’re thinking.

Whereas somebody who is a little defensive and a little closed off to that, they may think that means they have a strong vision, but typically what it means is that they’re not open to the data that the world is providing, that could help them make their idea stronger.

Q. Any brief, pithy advice you guys would give to a Yale student who wanted to found a start-up, tech or otherwise?

Brad: I would say, failure is OK. Failure can be a learning experience. The start-up that Brad and I founded before General Assembly, it was in the social gaming space.

We ran that for a couple years, and it never ended up working out in the long term. But the failure and the lessons learned from that company really allowed us to create General Assembly and allowed us to be a lot more successful the second time around. The first company you start as a Yale student very well might not work out, but getting that experience — getting that education — is absolutely paramount for being successful in the future.

Jake: Well, I would say there’s no time like the present, right? Just do it. But I think, more importantly, don’t think that just because you’re smart you’ve got something to add. It’s going to take hard work and constant learning to really be a valuable member of a start-up team.

Q. And maybe a class at GA to boot?

Jake: Of course.

Contact DAVID WHIPPLE at david.whipple@yale.edu .

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THE FIRST COMPANY YOU START AS A YALE STUDENT VERY WELL MIGHT NOT WORK OUT.

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Q. Jake Schwartz was quoted in a Yahoo! News article about you guys saying that in today’s job market, it’s not enough to “write and think and figure out what you need to do.”

How does what you learn at General Assembly relate to traditional higher education?