Yale Daily News — Week of April 16

T H E O L D E ST C O L L E G E DA I LY · FO U N D E D 1 8 7 8

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2021 · VOL. CXLIII, NO. 24 · yaledailynews.com

Yale temporarily halts Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccinations a million so far. Health officials and scientists told the News that they have not identified a causal relationship between the J&J vaccine and the blood clots, and that the occurrence is not a cause for general concern.

The Yale New Haven Health System, which provides vaccines to Connecticut residents including Yale students, has suspended use of the J&J vaccine and switched all appointments to the Pfizer or Moderna shots as of Tuesday. Because Yale Health, which provides vaccines to members of the Yale community and Yale Health members, has not yet received any J&J vaccines, it has been unaffected by the directive. But Yale students, who have scoured the state for vaccine appointments since April 1, may experience difficulties in securing an appointment due to the disruption to vaccine rollout.

"All upcoming J&J vaccinations have been paused," Paul Genecin, chief executive officer of Yale Health, wrote in an email

BY ROSE HOROWITCH AND MARIA FERNANDA PACHECO STAFF REPORTERS On Tuesday morning, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration issued a joint recommendation for states to stop administering the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine “out of an abundance of caution.” Shortly afterward, the Connecticut Department of Public Health and the city of New Haven announced that they will pause administration of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.

The pause of J&J vaccine administration follows the emergence of isolated cases of central venous sinus thrombosis — a condition whereby blood clots form in the brain — in six women between the ages of 18 and 48 who had received the Johnson & Johnson shot. According to the CDC, as of Tuesday, over seven million people have received this vaccine, making the incidence of this phenomenon less than one in

ZOE BERG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

As of Tuesday, 7.2 million people have received the J&J vaccine; only six have experienced the blood clotting phenomenon. to the Yale community Tuesday evening. "If you are currently scheduled to receive a J&J vaccine, we encourage you to check with your vaccination site to see if it is possible for the site to pro-

vide you with either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine. Alternatively, you may choose to look for an appointment at another site."

Yale Health has not yet received any J&J shots. Last Mon-

day, Nanci Fortgang, director of Yale's Vaccination Program, told the News that Yale Health had not received any COVID-19 SEE JOHNSON PAGE 4

Yale Field renamed Bush Field YAA selects David Thomas as Yale Corporation candidate

BY ROSE HOROWITCH STAFF REPORTER The University has put forward David A. Thomas ’78 GRD ’86 as its candidate for the Yale Corporation, announcing his nomination to candidates on Monday, two days before voting begins.

The Yale Corporation is the University’s highest governing body, with broad-ranging powers to determine Yale’s budget, priorities and

leadership. Each spring, Yale alumni elect a new trustee as one of the 16 alumni who serve on the board. Voting, which is available to all Yale alumni except those in the five most recent classes, will open on April 14 and close on May 23.

Despite the trustees’ power, the elections have relatively low engagement — in last year’s election, only about 13 percent of the eligible alumni SEE THOMAS PAGE 5

REGINA SUNG/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

As a student at Yale, George H.W. Bush ’48 played first base and was captain of the baseball team during his senior year.

BY EUGENIO GARZA GARCÍA STAFF REPORTER Yale Field, the home of Yale baseball since the early 20th century, has been renamed Bush Field, according to a sign outside the stadium.

A blue sign outside the field at 250 Derby Ave. for Yale Athletic Fields South has been changed to read “Bush Field” from “Yale Field.” According to an online Yale baseball recruiting guide published last year, the new name honors the late President George H.W. Bush ’48.

Yale Athletics declined to comment on the status of the

field’s name, while David M. Anaya, director of marketing and communications for the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, forwarded a request for comment to the Bush family, who did not respond.

“Yale Baseball is proud to call George H.W. Bush Field home,” the online recruiting guide reads. “Originally built in 1928, Bush Field is the largest college stadium in the Northeast with a capacity of 6000 and is currently the only Ivy League facility to have lights. With a $2.2 Million upgrade to FieldTurf ahead of the 2018 season, Bush Field will undergo a $3+Million

renovation in Summer 2020 to become one of the premier facilities in college baseball.”

Yale Athletics declined to comment on the details of the renovations mentioned in the recruiting guide. Director of Athletics Vicky Chun tweeted a before-and-after photo of the stadium’s repainted exterior last December. Whether a direct link exists between the renaming of the field, the renovations and their cost remains unclear.

Turf was installed at Yale Field in 2018. At the time, Yale baseball head coach John Stuper was SEE BUSH PAGE 4

YALE NEWS

David A. Thomas has served in a variety of teaching and leadership roles, most recently as president of Morehouse College.

Yale raises tuition by almost 4 percent

BY ROSE HOROWITCH STAFF REPORTER The University has increased tuition by about 4 percent for the 2021-22 academic year, as it comes off of a year of largely online instruction.

The Yale College term bill will come to $77,750 for students living on campus, split into $59,950 for tuition and $17,800 for room and board. University Provost Scott Strobel said that the tuition increase reflects the rising cost of providing a Yale education and the inflation of non-salary expenses. More than half of undergraduates are not impacted by the tuition increase, as Yale

meets all demonstrated financial need, Strobel said.

But the tuition raise comes at a time when many of Yale’s students have been hard-hit by economic losses during the pandemic, while the University, through careful management of its assets, has improved its financial situation.

Yve Golan, a lawyer representing one student bringing a class-action suit against the University regarding last spring’s tuition costs, said it’s “grossly inequitable” for Yale to be raising tuition at this time.

“This academic year has definitely not been worth the whole amount and I’m still bitter — furious actually — that they raised

CROSS CAMPUS

THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY, 1964.

Yale College faculty approve the inclusion of reading period into the semester. Faculty voted to have one week before finals intended for students to complete independent work. The reading period was proposed without extension of the semester and without reduction to breaks.

[tuition] when basically everything is online,” Eui Young Kim ’21 told the News. “Maybe they can raise it a little bit to match inflation for the next academic year, but even then I’m not sure this fall is going to be completely back to normal. I don’t see why the tuition increases every year when I don’t feel like the quality of my education has increased proportionally.”

Strobel noted that the pandemic affected Yale’s finances. He estimated that the pandemic has cost Yale about $325 million in lost revenue and COVID-19-related expenses. The number continues to rise as costs pile up, he added.

Last year, in the midst of the pandemic, Yale raised its tui-

INSIDE THE NEWS ORCHESTRA

Last week, the Yale Philharmonia presented its first livestreamed concert of the semester, featuring a stringsonly program of all-British works.

Page 6 ARTS

DAVID ZHENG/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

The Yale College term bill will total $77,750 for students living on campus, a nearly $3,000 increase from this year. tion by 3.96 percent to $57,700 for the 2020-21 academic year, which, when combined with $17,200 for room and board,

GUGGENHEIM

Four Yale faculty — Robyn Creswell, Marisa Bass, Isabela Mares and Tisa Wenger — were awarded Guggenheim fellowships and plan to use them to write books.

Page 9 UNIVERSITY

COVID

Despite high vaccination rates, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in Connecticut have been on the rise since mid-March, a potentially ominous trend.

Page 9 SCITECH

amounted to $74,900 for students living in-residence for the SEE TUITION PAGE 5 AFAM

The African American studies department recently hired three new assistant professors and two senior faculty, as several other searches are ongoing.

Page 11 UNIVERSITY

PAGE 2

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

OPINION Selling out O

n the morning of March 11, 2021, Elsa Majimbo, rising Kenyan comedian and pop culture star, tweeted that Kenya Airways left her luggage behind and only informed her after she had been waiting at the airport for 30 minutes.

“No apologies were issued.

The plane was incredibly small it looked like a domestic flight one.

I would not recommend this airline tbh. For travelers avoid it if you can,” the next tweet read. Just like that, Elsa opened a can of worms.

Soon, every Kenyan was in Elsa’s replies and retweets. Some told her she had ruined the business of her country’s largest airline. Others ridiculed her, telling her to use her newfound fame to get onto a better flight: “Ask your best friend Rihanna to get you a private jet,” one tweet read. The fiasco continued for a few hours, until Kenya Airways’ own Twitter page stepped in to apologize for the delay in getting her luggage.

Many accuse Elsa of abandoning Kenya in order to become famous.

She has the South African flag on her Twitter and Instagram bios as a way of paying homage to the country where most of her views come from. She seems to mention Kenya only as a way of attracting negative attention — when asked about her home country, she pointed to the colorist stereotypes that exist in Kenya, and she said that she became successful despite and not because of them. Once again, Kenyans on Twitter weighed in, arguing that it’s not that they didn’t like her because she had dark skin — they didn’t like her because she wasn’t funny. Even though Elsa has attracted international fame and is carving the foundations for what looks like a lasting career in the entertainment industry, she seems to have alienated what would ordinarily be her strongest fan base: those at home.

Two years ago, my cousin Achieng Agutu was a guest on “The Ellen Show,” where she was reunited with her parents and her brother after years apart as she studied in America. Kenyan Twitter proceeded to take Achieng down step by step, starting with outrage at the fact that she told Ellen she had learned English by watching “The Ellen Show.” They found that she had attended private schools, reshared their fee structures, took images from the Instagram profile of her service trips abroad and used them against her.

Some called her anti-patriotic.

Others called her a sellout.

I myself couldn’t help but react to Elsa’s statement. She pretended to be South African to get likes, and now she wants to expose Kenya Airways? Everyone’s got their own personal horror stories about flying KQ, but just like family secrets, we keep them among ourselves.

But there’s a fine line on the internet between disliking a person’s attitude and disliking that person.

G U E ST C O LU M N I ST H Y E R I M B I A N CA NA M

Laughter and the misogyny

Kenyans expect our Kenyan celebrities to be grateful to their country.

We’re not alone — it’s expected worldwide that celebriAWUOR ties will perform their duty ONGURU and honor the places where Wild they grew up.

West Yet in Kenya, there exists an expectation of something more: a demystifying, even glorifying, of the Kenyan experience. Look at our celebrities! Look at their style, eloquence and talent. We’re not the poor, gross country that everyone thinks we are.

Could it be, perhaps, that we yearn to be seen in a positive light by those we perceive to be better than us? When our homegrown celebrities travel to “majuu” — Kenyan slang for “overseas” or “higher” countries — is there an expectation that they bring us with them?

The desperation with which we cling to any famous Kenyan person, however tenuous the relationship, is a symptom of a larger issue. The same systems that segregated and colonized us have morphed into the way we value Kenya itself — that is to say, primarily through a Western lens.

Celebrities, with their connections to Western culture, become an extension of this ever-judging Western eye. Elsa, for example, is friends with Rihanna. She’s been interviewed for many popular fashion magazines, like Vogue.

Elsa — and her success — puts us in the good graces of the Western gaze. So when she complains about poor service on our national airline, she’s not just an angry customer — she’s jeopardizing our country’s reputation.

But why does a celebrity’s review of a national airline diminish our national identity at all?

There is clearly a larger problem here. The Kenyan national identity is weak if it is rooted only in the approval of outsiders.

The Kenyan experience is about more than being famous and becoming friends with Rihanna.

Our society contains many people and cultures that make us proud to be who we are, irrespective of how the West views us. We shouldn’t expect Elsa to speak for Kenya — she should speak for herself. And we shouldn’t let her opinions define who or what we are.

Building national identity should be about more than making tweets.

It should be about coming together to celebrate ourselves, for ourselves.

AWUOR ONGURU is a first year in Berkeley College. Her column, titled “Wild West,” runs every other Tuesday. Contact her at awuor.onguru@yale.edu.

YALE DAILY NEWS PUBLISHING CO., INC. 202 York Street, New Haven, CT 06511 (203) 432-2400 Editorial: (203) 432-2418 editor@yaledailynews.com Business: (203) 432-2424 business@yaledailynews.com

EDITOR IN CHIEF & PRESIDENT Mackenzie Hawkins

CITY Emiliano Tahui Gómez Meera Shoaib

MANAGING EDITORS Jose Davila IV Phoebe Liu

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Charlotte Zimmer

PUBLISHER Susan Chen OPINION Miranda Jeyaretnam Rabhya Mehrotra NEWS Valerie Pavilonis Kelly Wei

CULTURE Freya Savla SPORTS Margaret Hedeman William McCormack WEEKEND Ella Goldblum Elizabeth Hopkinson Andrew Kornfeld

YTV Sevi Burget-Foster Natalie Kainz Maya Weldon-Lagrimas Nicole Westfall

COPY Erin Bailey Maya Geradi Ako Ndefo-Haven Natalie Simpson Katie Taylor

PODCAST Allison Park

PRODUCTION & DESIGN Zully Arias Megan Graham Isabella Huang Louie Lu Annie Yan

DATA Darwin Do Ashley Qin MAGAZINE Macrina Wang Isabella Zou DIR. OF FINANCE Graham Hardcastle

PHOTOGRAPHY Zoe Berg Ryan Chiao Lukas Flippo Vaibhav Sharma Amay Tewari

ILLUSTRATIONS Dora Guo Anasthasia Shilov TECH TEAM Julia Burgiel Yaa Owusu OUTREACH John Besche Crystal Cheung Lucy Wilkins DIGITAL William McCormack Laura Nicholas Eric Wang Maya Weldon-Lagrimas Lucy Wilkins Christie Yu Daniel Zhao

THIS ISSUE COPY STAFF: Mikayla Barber, Xavier Blackwell-Lipkind, Marissa Blum, Meg Buzbee, Olivia Fugikawa, Joshua Gonzalez, Chris Lee, Adam Levine, Alexa Jeanne Loste, Hailey O’Connor, Alex Ori, Caroline Parker, Christopher Sung, Yingying Zhao COPY ASSISTANTS: Sean Pergola, Patrick SebaRaj PRODUCTION & DESIGN STAFF: Jose Estrada, Karen Lin, Caroline Parker, Stephanie Shao, Isaac Yu EDITORIALS & ADS

The Editorial Board represents the opinion of 12-15 members of the Yale community.

Other content on this page with bylines represents the opinions of those authors and not necessarily those of the Managing Board.

Opinions set forth in ads do not necessarily reflect the views of the Managing Board. We reserve the right to refuse any ad for any reason and to delete or change any copy we consider objectionable, false or in poor taste.

We do not verify the contents of any ad. The Yale Daily News Publishing Co., Inc. and its officers, employees and agents disclaim any responsibility for all liabilities, injuries or

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT

damages arising from any ad. The Yale Daily News Publishing Co. ISSN 0890-2240

SUBMISSIONS

All letters submitted for publication must include the author’s name, phone number and description of Yale University affiliation.

Please limit letters to 250 words and guest columns to 750. The Yale Daily News reserves the right to edit letters and columns before publication. E-mail is the preferred method of submission.

ADVERTISEMENT

(203) 432-2424 (before 5 p.m.)

(203) 432-2400 (after 5 p.m.)

Direct all letters, columns, artwork and inquiries to: Miranda Jeyaretnam and Rabhya Mehrotra Opinion Editors opinion@yaledailynews.com Direct all comments regarding the fairness or accuracy of stories to: Mackenzie Hawkins Editor-in-Chief (203) 432-2418 Mary Chen, Serena Cho, Talia Soglin, Asha Prihar Public Editors public@yaledailynews.com

COPYRIGHT 2020 — VOL. CXLIII, NO. 24

H

is drunk breath fogs the bare inches of air between us. He slurs out vague, sexually connoted invitations over and over again as the girl he is with shrieks with laughter.

Then he laughs and lurches even closer, leaning into my face. He tells me explicitly that I can have some whenever I want.

That was my first impression of a senior who had teetered into my residential college that night. When I told the story later, disturbed, the universal first reaction was laughter.

The second? A repertoire of funny stories about why he shouldn’t be allowed outside after however many drinks. If there was a third, it was that I should just try not to run into him again.

I don’t know what I expected. I still don’t know. Not an outrage and an uproar, not anything drastic and dramatic. But something other than what I got, to be sure.

That event occurred the same week I had approached a male student about a misogynistic meme he had sent to a group chat and had promptly gotten shut down by his friends for hurting his feelings.

Because when I, a woman, confronted a man about his inappropriate joke and made him aware of the toxic narratives it played into, I was taking out my emotional stress on him and labeling him as a sexist and a misogynist. That night, I walked around campus and struggled to accept that I had overreacted, that what I had done was wrong. And when I finally came back to my room, red-cheeked and frigid-fingered, I was still in denial, but this time, firmly — as I am now. I denied then, and will always deny, that a woman speaking up about a man’s actions is wrong, that it is aggressive, that his feelings need to be spared. I will say “As she should!” and support

her in taking the space that men have claimed for far too long.

THERE’S SOMETHING DEEPLY WRONG ABOUT A SPACE IN WHICH MEN ARE LAUGHED WITH AND WOMEN ARE LAUGHED AT, WHERE MEN GET TO LAUGH AND WOMEN HAVE TO BEAR THE CONSEQUENCES. AND THAT SPACE EXISTS AT YALE; IT IS PART OF YALE, COMPOSED OF THE COMMUNITIES THAT CARRY THIS PERHAPS UNCONSCIOUS SEXISM, THIS MISOGYNY. During the fall semester, a firstyear boy had harassed me repeatedly and publicly about my body: It was body shaming 101. The first time, I

told him seriously that it made me uncomfortable, and he laughed. The second time, and all the times after that, I ignored his laughter, and I worked a little harder not to care. It didn’t work: I called my mother one day to talk about how I was settling in, and as I began to tell her about the events of my first semester, I started crying for the first time since I had moved in. The first time I cried at Yale, and it wasn’t even about finals; it was about a boy laughing at something he had no right to laugh about.

I’ve had guys smile and tell me “It’s not that deep” when I talk about the deep misogyny behind anti-abortion policies. I’ve had guys openly rate girls out of 10 points in front of me, and make a joke out of the ones they don’t find attractive. I’ve had a guy tell me about a girl from his high school who got into multiple Ivy League schools, then laugh and say that it didn’t matter because she was ugly anyways. All at Yale.

There’s something deeply wrong about a space in which men are laughed with and women are laughed at, where men get to laugh and women have to bear the consequences. And that space exists at Yale; it is part of Yale, composed of the communities that carry this perhaps unconscious sexism, this misogyny.

And maybe I don’t know what I expected that night with the drunk senior, but looking back I know what I needed: people asking me if I was OK, how it made me feel, how I felt now. People promising to tell him that what he did wasn’t OK, drunk or not. People asking, people caring.

People recognizing that it needed serious thought, if not action. Anything but laughter.

HYERIM BIANCA NAM is a first year in Saybrook College. Contact her at hyerim.nam@yale.edu .

The lonely college I

n 2018, a survey of over 20,000 individuals found that almost half of Americans reported feeling lonely — 46 percent reported feeling alone, 47 percent said they felt left out and 20 percent reported rarely or never feeling close to others.

This was roughly three years ago, and even then, the most at-risk demographic for loneliness was young adults, specifically those aged 18 to 22.

This worrisome upshot in feelings of social isolation has recently been dubbed “the loneliness epidemic” by many including the current surgeon general. Not only does loneliness take a toll on an individual’s mental health, but it also has been associated with an increased risk of developing dementia, coronary heart disease, functional decline and cancer mortality.

To make matters worse, the COVID-19 pandemic and public mandates to socially distance have only exacerbated a pervasive problem in our society. In October 2020, the proportion of young people who reported feelings of loneliness spiked to a rate of 61 percent, an alarming statistic given that 40 percent of American adults had already been struggling with mental health concerns since the early months of the pandemic.

While terms like “social distancing” and “isolation” have become common jargon in our pandemic vernacular, they are not interchangeable with loneliness. While they are inextricably intertwined, loneliness must be situated adjacent to isolation, not wholly within it. As Jeremy Nobel, a faculty member at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, frames it, “the experience of loneliness is 100 percent subjective.

Isolation is the objective state of being physically separate.

Loneliness is the self-perceived gap between our social connectedness and that which we aspire to have.”

The analogy I often suggest is to be a young adult in New York City. I, among many others, I presume, once fantasized about

the fluttering buzz of “the Big Apple,” enthralled by the false pretense that to be constantly inundated with the presAIDEN ence of others would be LEE e n o u g h to suppress any It’s sense of loneComplicated liness. Only re c e n t ly — after a couple summer stints in other urban dwellings — have I acknowledged that my childhood association between the Big Apple and constant companionship would be a scarce luxury at best.

In fact, New York City often engenders the exact loneliness I imagined would be obsolete. Look no further than Olivia Laing’s “The Lonely City” to glimpse into decades of how one of the busiest cities in the world has also harbored some of the world’s most poignantly lonely people — and their multifaceted portrayals of such loneliness through art.

A similar reality is true for places like Yale.

I recall that in the years before I arrived in the Elm City, I had already become acquainted with Marina Keegan’s acclaimed commencement piece in the News and her posthumous book, “The Opposite of Loneliness.”

Here, she had written about an invisible web that connects us, a reverberating feeling that we’re all “in this together.” And she’s not wrong. There is some thread that connects us, a shared community to which we belong. Yet unfortunately, ahead of my first year, I had distorted such expectations of this place to imagine a promised land which would liberate us from any and all loneliness — a Yale that meant we would never be alone again.

The truth is, to be surrounded by the omnipresence of others is not to be satiated in our social connectedness, just as living in New York City does not necessarily preclude us from having

an emotional and social hungering for companionship.

Yet, just because we are not ensured companionship, friendship and social connectedness does not insinuate we are excluded from it either.

While “the opposite of loneliness” is not something promised and effortlessly afforded to us, it is likewise not beyond our grasp. Instead, it is something to aspire to.

Meena Venkataramanan parses out the distinction quite aptly in her reflections titled “University Friendships — and Beyond.”

Adopting the term “University Friend” from Indian-Canadian essayist Scaachi Koul, she writes, “The University Friend is distinct from a friend from university: the former ceases to exist when a class ends, a club is abandoned, or campus is vacated, but the latter has the potential to be everlasting.”

There are few silver linings in a pandemic, but if anything, it has taught us how to navigate with resilience. While Venkataramanan writes of her experiences at Harvard, the same reality holds true for Yale and any other institution: “The pandemic has largely rendered University Friendships obsolete.

During this time, friendships can no longer be purely circumstantial: it takes special effort from both parties to keep them afloat.”

In the end, the pandemic may hopefully subside within the year, but the loneliness epidemic will be much harder to dissipate. We’ve come to learn that just as New York can be “The Lonely City,” Yale can likewise be a lonely college. And to exist here does not spontaneously vacate those feelings of loneliness. Instead, it must be a constant effort — an everlasting striving to connect, to reach out, to be intentional and to discover and rediscover companionship and closeness with those around us.

AIDEN LEE is a rising senior in Pauli Murray College. His column, “It’s Complicated,” runs every other Wednesday. Contact him at aiden.lee@yale.edu.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 3

NEWS

“To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also.” IGOR STRAVINSKY RUSSIAN COMPOSER

Committee announces Class Day speakers

BY MARISSA BLUM AND ISABELLE QIAN STAFF REPORTERS This year’s Class Day celebration will take place virtually on May 23 and will feature Alec Zbornak ’21, Matt Nadel ’21, Teava Torres de Sa ’21 and Vy Tran ’21 as student speakers alongside Broadway and film composer Robert Lopez ’97.

Class Day, an annual graduation tradition organized by students, usually takes place the Sunday before commencement. The tradition first began over 100 years ago, when seniors, independent of the administration, organized an event on Old Campus to celebrate what faculty advisor for the Class Day Committee Alison Coleman described as their “last hurrah.”

Instead of smoking pipes in a large circle, seniors now wear funny hats and sit in chairs to watch four speeches: one from a selected Class Day speaker — announced on March 26 as Lopez — and three from members of their own class.

The student speakers are chosen by the Class Day committee, who publicly revealed this year’s speakers for the first time in an interview with the News.

“It was a hard choice,” said Jin Hua Li ’21, one of three committee members responsible for choosing the Class Day speaker line-up.

“But we really do believe that the speakers we have now not only fit their categories very well, but they complement one another well.

We want to look at Yale from various angles and then try to piece it together to get a very comprehensive view of our Yale and our class’ relationship to Yale.”

The Class Day Committee chose its speakers from a group of almost 30 applicants who participated in the live audition process over Zoom. In an interview with the News, the committee revealed that the Serious Reflection speech will be given by Zbornak, Nadel and Torres de Sa will give the Comic Reflection speech and Tran will give the Ivy Ode.

While the Serious and Comic Reflection speeches are more traditional and can be expected to take the tones for which they are named, the Ivy Ode is characterized by its flexibility and can take different artistic forms such as spoken-word poetry or even music.

“Four years ago, the Class of 2021 first came together on Old Campus, alone and nervous to begin our Yale careers,” wrote Nadel and Torres de Sa in a joint email to the News. “Last March, we scattered across the world, alone and nervous once again. And now, more haggard and cynical than any senior class before us, we are ready to reassemble on Old Campus and bid this place adieu. We would like to thank the Class Day Committee for trusting us to lead the Class of 2021 in remembering — and laughing about — our Yale journey.”

Zbornak echoed his classmates, stating that he felt “honored” and that the writing of the speech was a “meditative and emotional” experience. He described his excitement to share his speech with the people who inspired him most: “my classmates.”

The committee hopes to stream all Class Day speeches live so that all graduates will be able to participate in Class Day at the same time.

While the event is typically held on Old Campus, the location was not possible this year due to COVID-19 restrictions. However, other Class Day traditions have been able to adapt to public health regulations more easily. For example, the gift bags that are usually given to each member of the graduating class at the event will still be distributed. While the contents of the bag vary from year to year, they always include a white clay pipe — in memory of the original Class Day tradition, although sans tobacco, as Coleman assured — and the Class Anthology.

According to Skye Ward ’21, the editor of this year’s anthology, the book typically includes copies of the speakers’ speeches, as well

YALE NEWS

This year’s Class Day celebration will feature Broadway and film composer Robert Lopez ’97 alongside student speakers. as a collection of seniors’ essays on their time at Yale. Ward noted that, while anthologies across the years have usually oscillated between an informal or very formal style, she wanted to establish a new tone for the Class of 2021’s anthology that would better capture the spirit of the class.

“I wanted to mix the [formality and informality] because I feel like that’s how our class is: very fun but also very passionate about what we do,” she said.

In addition to the traditional essays and speeches of past years, the anthology will — for the first time — include student submitted artwork and photographs.

Other additions to Class Day traditions have been aided by the event’s virtual nature. Li noted this “silver lining,” explaining that the committee has been able to redirect funds they would traditionally spend on in-person events to providing the class with more gifts, such as hats, keychains and a com-

mittee favorite — ivy seeds. Since students will be unable to gather in large groups, the committee has also planned smaller events leading up to the ceremony, such as setting up spaces for students to decorate hats together.

“This year … I was able at least to say with confidence to the committee that everything that you’re planning is going to work well in either [virtual or in-person] modes,” said Coleman. “I’m just really excited that both last year and this year, the members of the class day committee have been really creative, flexible and collaborative thinkers, so it enables us to be — even now — opportunistic about saying ‘Okay, well, what can we do to make this the best possible Class Day?’” Committee members all expressed their desire to encapsulate the unique qualities of the Class of 2021.

Steven Orientale ’21, the organizer of the Class History — a collection of

videos from the class’s time at Yale — hopes to capture what he believes differentiates the Class of 2021 from their predecessors.

“We’re the first largest class at Yale; we’ve gone through a lot of first,” he said. “The first full classes to come from Murray and Franklin.

What we’re doing with the Class History is captur[ing] all the different moments — both the large events … and also the small events — that make us the Class of 2021.”

According to Colemean, the role of the Class Day Committee as a whole is to “develop and execute a vision for the ceremony” in a manner that “preserve[s] Yale traditions while helping develop new ones.”

Last year’s Class Day speaker was gene-therapy scientist Jean Bennett ’76.

Contact MARISSA BLUM at marissa.blum@yale.edu and ISABELLE QIAN at isabelle.qian@yale.edu .

Student groups continue mental health advocacy after MHC changes

BY LUCY HODGMAN STAFF REPORTER In an April 5 email sent to the Yale undergraduate student body, Dean of Yale College Marvin Chun and Director of Mental Health & Counseling at Yale Health Paul Hoffman announced long-planned expansions to Yale’s mental health services and plans to increase hiring at Yale Mental Health & Counseling. The changes came in the wake of widespread discussion about the University’s mental health policies, and an outpouring of frustration from students who feel underserved by Yale’s mental health services.

Some members of student mental health organizations on campus received this development positively, noting the importance of a larger clinical staff. But advocacy groups are continuing to push for increased accessibility to mental health services. The News spoke with students involved in Disability Empowerment for Yale, the Yale

Student Mental Health Association, Yale College Council and the Mental Health Justice at Yale Coalition, who shared their opinions on the new updates.

“Yale has been aware of the problems at Mental Health and Counseling since at least 2013 as per a report on mental health by Yale College [Council] which highlighted the lack of University support in situations of forced leave, long wait times for appointments, and mental health stigma,” President of DEFY Mafalda von Alvensleben ’22, wrote in an email to the News. “So while these initiatives and expansions are wonderful, they are and have been almost a decade overdue, a pace that I hope is substantially expedited in the coming years.”

The new hires constitute a 30 percent increase in clinicians available to students. Mental Health Justice at Yale, a newly formed coalition, has demanded clinician numbers increase by 50 percent by the end of 2021, 75 percent by the

end of 2022 and 100 percent by the end of 2023.

Beyond increasing the number of full time staff hired at YMHC, von Alvensleben suggested that the University’s policies surrounding disability issues, which include mental health issues, could be improved by increasing the staff of Student Accessibility Services — a group dedicated to ensuring accessibility for all students — and updating policies surrounding Dean’s excuses, attendance policies and leaves of absence.

According to von Alvensleben, DEFY is currently in the process of meeting with administrators about these issues. Additionally, DEFY runs a Disability Peer Mentor Program and is broadly focused on empowering disabled students through their meetings, events and advocacy campaigns, she said.

“In the end, I feel that Yale enjoys the benefits of the liberal halo emanating from campaigns for diversity, awareness raising,

AMAY TEWARI/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Yale Mental Health & Counseling’s new hires constitute a 30 percent increase in clinicians available to students.

all wrapped up in the euphemistic language of ‘wellness’ without making the structural changes necessary for substantive change,” von Alvensleben said.

Katherine Du ’22, who is an Ezra Stiles Senator on the Yale College Council and the outreach and communications co-director for the Yale Student Mental Health Association, said that the administration understands the importance of mental health to student wellbeing and that the recently announced changes is a testament to the University’s dedication to improving mental health care at Yale. Despite that, Du noted that there is “still further work and investment which Yale needs to partake in.”

Du emphasized that increased transparency with regards to available mental health services would be beneficial for students to understand the services available and allow them voice concerns about services that are lacking.

“Many policies at Yale, such as for academics, are clearly delineated and even accessible through a simple Google search, but I don’t think this is true of Yale’s mental health policies,” Du said.

The YCC, according to president Aliesa Bahri ’22, has been continuing to advocate for expansions to Yale’s mental health services, specifically focusing on the hiring of more clinicians, in particular LGBTQ and BIPOC clinicians. In addition to this, the YCC has been advocating for more lenient reinstatement policies and shorter wait times for appointments, according to Bahri.

Currently, the YCC covers the cost of mental health first aid certification for students, a program that trains participants how to recognize and respond to signs of mental illness, and is collaborating with the Yale Student Mental Health Association to create an updated State of Mental Health at Yale report.

“Yale’s hiring of 6 more clinicians and the creation of the Yale College Community Care … is in line with the recommendations YCC has pushed for these past

two years, but still, more must be done to ensure that every student has access to quality mental health care,” Bahri wrote in an email to the News.

Mental Health Justice at Yale is a student-run coalition that formed in response to the loss of Rachael Shaw-Rosenbaum ’24, according to organizer Willow Sylvester ’22. Alicia Abramson ’24, another organizer of the coalition, said that the group aims to “overhaul Yale’s mental health care and related policies.”

Sylvester said that the coalition arose out of a group of frustrated Yale Young Democratic Socialists of America Members, Students Unite Now members, first-year counselors and other students.

The coalition has put forth a list of demands to the University administration, as well as circulated a petition among students, faculty and alumni focused on meeting these demands. This list of demands includes a more diverse selection of therapists, including specialized therapists trained to treat chronic mental illness, enabling clinicians to grant academic excuses, eliminating reinstatement requirements in the withdrawal process and introducing a Preferred Provider Organization insurance plan so that Yale students across the country can access out-of-network providers.

“Very few people actually need convincing — Yale alumni know firsthand how atrocious mental health care is here, and little has changed in the decades or years since they’ve attended.

Faculty and staff see the detrimental effect that Yale’s policies have on student mental health,” Abramson said. “Students themselves are experiencing it right now. It’s up to [the] Yale administration to listen to what the Yale community has been demanding for years.”

The Yale administration did not respond to a request for comment on student responses to the University’s policies regarding mental health.

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

PAGE 4

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

FROM THE FRONT

“Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.” MICHAEL CAINE ENGLISH ACTOR

Yale Health, YNHHS pause J&J vaccinations JOHNSON FROM PAGE 1 vaccines from the state through direct allocation for that week.

Instead, Yale Health had to obtain shots indirectly through the Yale New Haven Health system. According to Jennifer McCarthy, chief medical officer for Yale Health, the same happened again this week.

Still, the disruptive impact that this pause has on ongoing vaccination plans across the county is "unfortunate," according to McCarthy. She said that Yale Health awaits an update from the state on vaccine supply.

Acco rd i n g to a n e m a i l obtained by the News sent to those who had vaccine appointments at YNHHS, people who were scheduled to receive the J&J vaccine at one of YNHHS sites this week were alerted that, depending on the date and location of their appointment, they would get either a Pfizer or Moderna shot instead.

Richard Martinello, YNHH medical director for infection prevention, said the J&J doses are staying in storage for the time being. The pause allows the government agencies to scrutinize the data to try to determine whether the blood clots are merely a coincidence, Martinello said. If they find the vaccine caused the blood clots, they will next scrutinize whether the vaccine is potentially too dangerous for some or all populations. Otherwise, they will restart use of the vaccines, although the exact timeline for the pause is currently unknown.

“It’s really out of being cautious,” Martinello said. “This is the way the safety system is supposed to work.”

Genecin emphasized in his email that safety checks, like the pause on J&J vaccine administration, are an intrinsic part of the United States’ "national safety monitoring program for vaccines." Therefore, this sort of pause should not be interpreted with alarm — rather, it should

be taken as assurance that even extremely rare medical events are being carefully analysed to ensure people's safety, he explained.

The CDC and the FDA disclosed that those who had cases of central venous sinus thrombosis following vaccination from the J&J shot also had low levels of platelets — which are blood proteins that help the body form clots in the event of bleeding — after these events, which happened from six to 13 days after vaccination. "[Central venous sinus thrombosis] are serious blood clots that can cause headaches, vision loss and even strokes, so I agree with the CDC and FDA action to pause the J&J vaccine until more information is available," Reshma Narula, assistant professor of neurology and the program director for the Yale Neurovascular Fellowship Program, told the News. "[But] I want to emphasize that it is too early to say whether the vaccine caused the blood clots."

Narula explained that this type of blood clot occurs spontaneously in approximately 15 out of a million people every year, and is more likely to occur in women.

On Tuesday, for example, Narula saw patients in the clinic who had experienced this phenomenon without having gotten this particular COVID-19 vaccine.

"These events were very rare,” Narula said. “But as we continue to learn more people who have received the J&J vaccine should remain vigilant and seek care for any new or concerning symptom.”

In July of last year, Hyung Chun, associate professor and cardiologist at the School of Medicine, coauthored a study, published in The Lancet Hematology, on blood clots that may arise in COVID-19 patients.

This research helped establish a connection between COVID-19 infection and coagulopathies, a process whereby blood clots can form throughout the body.

Since experts now know that blood clots can form in the brains of people infected with COVID-

REGINA SUNG/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

In accordance with the pause, neither Yale Health nor YNHHS will be administering J&J shots in the near future.

19, it is important for this potential association with the vaccine to also be closely examined, Narula said.

Although Chun believes this pause should not create panic, he stressed that those who have gotten the vaccine — and the general public as well, since anyone could experience this phenomenon — should be mindful of possible symptoms associated with blood clots, such as swelling in the leg, dizziness, numbing, difficulty breathing and chest pain.

Genecin offered similar guidance in his Tuesday email, encouraging those who experience these symptoms within three weeks of receiving the J&J shot to contact their healthcare providers. He also underscored that this condition is “exceedingly unlikely” four or more weeks after vaccination.

Henry Rinder, professor of hematology and laboratory medicine, also pointed out that the FDA’s decision to take a pause to evaluate these cases could allow time for

government agencies to make treatment and monitoring recommendations for these conditions.

“Today’s decision by the FDA and the CDC highlights the challenges of developing safe and effective therapies as quickly as possible in the setting of a global pandemic," Chun wrote in an email to the News. “The pause on J&J COVID-19 vaccine distribution, despite such a rare number of cases of blood clots, was properly handled in my opinion to give the agencies time to review the clinical data as thoroughly as possible.”

Over 100,000 Connecticut residents have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and none have reported the adverse effect, Martinello said. But one potential effect of the pause could be increased vaccine hesitancy among those who have not yet received a shot.

“There is a real risk from this that it foments mistrust in the safety of the vaccine,” Martinello, who sits on Yale’s Public Health Advisory Commit-

tee, said. “But I think really the opposite should be true. Groups are out there looking at the data that’s being generated and they’re being very cautious. This was only six people out of seven million, but that was enough to put a hold on things.”

Dean of Public Health Sten Vermund also said that the pause is reassuring. It allows the FDA and company to assess whether certain populations should seek other products, or at least to carefully monitor them for complications.

By selecting alternative vaccines for at-risk subgroups, the complications might be managed or mitigated, Vermund added.

The J&J vaccine was seen as a potential game-changer — especially for college students and others who may not be able to arrange for two shots — because it requires only a single dose.

Contact ROSE HOROWITCH at rose.horowitch@yale.edu and MARIA FERNANDA PACHECO at maria.pacheco@yale.edu .

Recruiting guide, new sign indicate renaming of Yale Field

YALE DAILY NEWS

An old shot of Yale's baseball stadium and the sign on Derby Avenue.

BUSH FROM PAGE 1 excited about the change because the turf field would allow for more games and practices by raising the threshold for a rainout.

“I’m as ‘old school’ as anyone in regards to grass,” Stuper told FieldTurf, the company that created the “FieldTurf DoublePlay” surface at Yale, at the time of the upgrade. “But this simply improves the experience of our players and affects their development in a very positive way.”

As a student at Yale, Bush was captain of the Bulldogs’ baseball team during his senior year and

played first base. He helped Yale to two College World Series appearances, including the very first edition of the event in 1947 against the University of California.

Bush was not the first person in his family to play first for the Bulldogs. In George W. Bush’s ’68 book “41: A Portrait of My Father,” the younger President Bush writes that his grandfather, H.W.’s father, also played first base and batted cleanup for Yale’s 1917 team.

George H.W. Bush’s wife, Barbara, was also involved in the Yale baseball community during their time in the Elm City. She served as a scorekeeper for the team.

Yale’s baseball field has seen its fair share of history. According to a Yale Athletics webpage, MLB teams played at Yale Field before and during World War II. Yale Field also hosted several notable major league players. Hallof-famer Ted Williams played a game at the field in 1939. Lou Gehrig also played at the field. But perhaps the most notable player to ever visit the venue was the Great Bambino himself, Babe Ruth. In 1948, when Bush was captain of the team, Ruth came to present a signed copy of his autobiography to future President Bush himself, who accepted the book on behalf of the

University library. The occasion marked one of Ruth’s last public appearances before his death four months later.

Bush remained a supporter of the Yale baseball team into his retirement. As recently as 2017, Bush hosted the team at his estate in Kennebunkport, Maine to celebrate Yale’s record-breaking 2017 season, which included a school-record 34 wins, an Ivy League Championship and two victories in the NCAA Tournament.

George H.W. Bush also received the Yale College Council’s first Yale Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015. George W. Bush received the honor in 2019.

To honor Bush after his death in November of 2018, Yale Field was sprayed with an emblem of a blue home plate with Bush’s name, signature and the number 41 in spring 2019. Players also received caps with the same emblem above the ear, and Yale released a commemorative “41” hat with an American flag on the side that some alumni sported during May 2019.

Bush threw left-handed and batted right.

Contact EUGENIO GARZA GARCÍA at eugenio.garzagarcia@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 5

FROM THE FRONT

“I've always had a duck personality. Calm above water, feet going crazy below.” K. FLAY AMERICAN SINGER

Thomas nominated as Yale Corporation candidate

COURTESY OF AYDIN AKYOL

Thomas will oppose the Corporation’s petition candidate Victor Ashe 67 in the upcoming election.

THOMAS FROM PAGE 5 body cast a ballot. But this year, the election has received significant attention, as two petition candidates qualified for the ballot. One of them, Victor Ashe ’67, will oppose Thomas in the election. The other, Maggie Thomas, withdrew to take a job in the Biden administration.

“Each year, the university produces materials that enable alumni to cast an informed vote based solely on the information presented in the official election brochure, website and ballot,” Vice President for Institutional Affairs Martha Schall wrote in an email to Ashe and Thomas. “To maintain this tradition, we ask you to not campaign or otherwise advocate for your candidacy or ask others to do so.”

There are two ways to qualify for the ballot.

One is by petition, in which a prospective candidate must receive a certain number of supporting signatures — this year, that number is 4,394 — from fellow alumni. The two petition candidates to qualify were Maggie Thomas ENV ’15 and Victor Ashe ’67. Maggie Thomas later dropped out of the race after accepting a White House job, chief of staff in the newly created Office of Domestic Climate Policy, that required her to give up her candidacy.

The other way to qualify is by nomination from the Yale Alumni Association Alumni Fellow Nominating Committee, which is made up of alumni representatives and Yale administrators. The Committee solicits nominations from alumni,

decides on its candidates and releases their names 24 hours before voting begins. David Thomas was nominated through this process.

In a break with tradition, Yale has nominated only one candidate instead of its usual two, the first time it has done so in nearly two decades, according to Ashe. The ballot can hold up to five names.

Ashe said he expected the University would only nominate one candidate in order to avoid splitting votes and in an effort to work against him as a petition candidate.

The candidates each approved bios and filmed video messages which will be featured on the election website.

According to his bio, David Thomas “arrived at Yale actually not knowing much about it.” He had previously attended an under-re-

sourced high school in Missouri and was the first in his family to attain a college degree. At the University, Thomas majored in administrative science and co-chaired the Black Student Alliance at Yale. Thomas wrote in his bio that the respect then-president Kingman Brewster ’97 showed to him as a student informed his own leadership style.

He later returned to Yale as a doctoral student in organizational behavior, examining the intersection of race, careers and organizations.

Thomas’ career has spanned teaching, leading and advising a variety of educational institutions.

Since graduating Yale, he has taught at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and Harvard University. From 2001 to 2005, he served on the Yale School of Management Board of Advisors. Additionally, he has served as a dean at Georgetown University’s business school and, for the last three years, as president of Morehouse College.

During his tenure at Morehouse, Thomas developed the strategic plan for a $500 million capital campaign, started an online program for men of color to complete their college degrees, improved Morehouse’s standing in the STEM disciplines and worked against institutional racism, according to Thomas’ bio.

Through a Morehouse College spokesperson, Thomas did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Ashe, who will oppose Thomas in the election, passed the signature threshold and qualified to get on the ballot this fall.

At Yale, Ashe majored in history and worked for the News. He said growing up during the U.S. Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War helped him understand the “complexity of the University.”

Ashe went on to receive his law degree at the University of

Tennessee College of Law and entered government in the Tennessee House of Representatives.

He later headed up Ronald Reagan’s Commission on Americans Outdoors and then served as the mayor of Knoxville. As the mayor, Ashe focused on expanding parks and greenways, promoting transparency, creating a police civilian review board and increasing diversity in the municipal ranks.

In 2004, President George W. Bush ’68 appointed Ashe as the U.S. ambassador to Poland. His work earned him the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, the country’s highest honor conferred on a foreign national.

Ashe has campaigned on a platform of increased transparency around the Corporation’s work, free speech and reform of the election process. Specifically, he has objected to the fact that the Corporation’s meeting minutes have been under embargo for 50 years, that petition candidates must obtain thousands of signatures and that candidates cannot campaign for the Corporation.

“Transparency and fairness are interwoven in this debate,” Ashe told the News.

“If elected, the current Corporation will recognize that a vote for Ashe was a vote for significant reform and act accordingly,” Ashe wrote in an email to the News.

“They will realize their excuses and explanations are weak. They will have been rejected by alumni/ae.”

Thomas has not publicly released a platform — Yale has encouraged candidates not to campaign.

Election Services Corporation certifies votes for the Yale Corporation.

Contact ROSE HOROWITCH at rose.horowitch@yale.edu .

Amid remote learning, Yale increases tuition TUITION FROM PAGE 5 full year. Harvard University also hiked tuition up four percent to $49,653. By contrast, universities including Princeton University and Georgetown University offered decreased tuition for online classes, cutting costs by 10 percent. Williams College gave students a 15 percent discount.

The $325 million in pandemic costs are a combination of lost revenue and extra costs, Strobel said.

Those extra costs include personal protective equipment, COVID-19 testing and upgraded cleaning protocols. Additionally, the University has continued to pay staff who must work from home, has bought out vacation days for people who could not use their accrued time off and has extended the time period during which staff can use vacation days.

The University made the decision to handle the additional costs centrally, meaning Yale does not charge students or Yale’s 12 graduate or professional schools or units — which include the Peabody Museum and Yale Athletics — to cover those costs, Strobel said. Instead, the money comes out of revenue the endowment generates. Initially, administrators thought they might have to borrow money and pay it back over multiple years.

Now, they think they can cover pandemic-related costs in this year’s budget, Strobel said. This is due to endowment revenue and cost-saving measures from the hiring and salary freezes, as well as asking each unit to find places to cut costs internally, according to Strobel.

In a normal year, the funds from the endowment used to pay for pandemic costs would have been used for travel or hosting events, Strobel said.

In contrast with other schools, Yale’s administrators did not take pay cuts, as the presidents of Harvard, Cornell University, Dartmouth College and Brown University did.

Yale’s administrators did freeze their salaries and did not take raises during the pandemic, but Strobel did not directly address a question as to why University administrators did not take pay cuts.

Despite the added costs of the pandemic, Yale’s endowment has likely increased in size during the

past year, according to FAS Senate meeting minutes from the fall. The endowment was most recently valued at $31.2 billion.

“I can understand Yale’s desire for growth and its desire for continued profitability,” Golan said.

“But it is not looking at the reality of its students. None of the students got the education that they chose, that they paid for, and for Yale to try to insist on receiving pre-pandemic revenues and pre-pandemic growth despite that inequity, I think it’s grossly unfair.”

According to John Dysart, president of the enrollment management consulting firm The Dysart Group, Yale differs from many other universities because of its large endowment, which is the second-biggest in the world.

Yale’s endowment revenue constitutes the largest share of its annual operating budget, followed by medical services income and grants and contract income.

About 10 percent of Yale’s budget is funded by tuition, according to the 2019 budget report.

Dysart said it is unlikely that a three percent tuition increase will allow Yale to offer significantly more financial aid — but it will, some students say, make a Yale education more burdensome during a year fraught with economic challenge.

“It’s cruel to have students and their families shoulder an additional financial burden in a time when millions of people are un- or under-employed due to a still-ongoing public health emergency affecting everyone, but especially the families of many working-class Yale students, who will further struggle with already considerable academic expenses and student income contributions,” Sebastian Baez ’23 told the News.

For its part, Yale has committed to meeting students’ demonstrated financial need, which has increased during the pandemic, Strobel said. It has maintained the new financial aid initiatives it announced in 2019, including raising the annual income threshold for families who qualify for a zero parent share award to $75,000 from $65,000. Yale also reduced the expected student share for these awards by more than $4,000 over their four years.

YASMINE HALMANE/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Some have criticized the University for raising tuition during a time of financial hardship for many.

Vice Provost for Academic Initiatives Pericles Lewis explained that even paying full tuition does not cover most of the cost of a Yale education. Lewis added the majority of students get some kind of financial aid. But recognizing that it is still a challenge for even upper-middle-income families to pay the bill, Yale tries to keep the tuition “under control,” Lewis said. But because costs in higher education go up, the tuition increases in parallel, Lewis said.

Many higher education institutions raise tuition to keep up with escalating costs, Dysart added.

Schools are usually careful about raising tuition, and raise it only because they truly need the extra revenue, he added.

But particularly during the pandemic, when people are under economic strain, many schools froze tuition or had extremely small increases, Dysart said. Many academic institutions, including American University and the University of North Carolina, have frozen tuition this year.

“There’s a lot of institutions with significantly fewer resources that have been biting the bullet and either going with extremely small increases or actually freezing tuition,” Dysart said. “Just in recognition that this is hard on [their] students.”

One student has taken action aiming to ensure Yale keeps tuition costs down.

Jon Michel ’22 sued the University last summer, claiming Yale breached its contract and was unjustly enriched by switching to online classes without reimbursing students.

Golan, Michel’s lawyer, summarized the rationale behind Michel’s case. When the News previously contacted Michel about his suit, his lawyers explained that they would speak on his behalf about the case.

“If I buy tickets to see Hamilton live and I’m instead given a code to watch Hamilton on Disney+, it’s not the same,” Golan said. “Maybe it’s a very good production, but it’s not what I paid for. It’s not what I chose to purchase.”

Golan said it is understandable that Yale moved to remote

instruction because of the pandemic last spring, but it means students are entitled to a discount. Golan said studies show students prefer in-person instruction to online learning, and that students are less engaged when taking online courses.

The case is currently at the pleading stage. Yale filed a motion to dismiss the case, Michel’s lawyers have filed an opposition to that motion and the case is now pending before the U.S. District Court in Connecticut, Golan said.

But Dysart said he does not think the spate of class-action lawsuits like Michel’s will ultimately be successful. Though he understands students’ disappointment at having to finish out the spring at home, he does not see a legal claim for a refund.

Yale College’s term bill first surpassed $50,000 in the 201112 school year and has steadily increased since.

Contact ROSE HOROWITCH at rose.horowitch@yale.edu .

PAGE 6

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

ARTS Philharmonia presents first livestreamed concert of the semester

BY MARISOL CARTY STAFF REPORTER On the wide stage of Woolsey Hall, 23 masked string musicians sat 6 feet apart with their instruments as they performed the Yale Philharmonia’s first livestreamed concert of the semester.

The concert, which took place on April 9, was streamed on the Yale School of Music’s website.

This semester, the student-composed orchestra has four concerts — two recorded, two livestreamed — planned. Friday’s concert, the Philharmonia’s third performance of the semester, featured an all-British repertoire selection.

William Boughton, professor of conducting and director of the Yale Symphony Orchestra, was invited to conduct the performance.

“We’ve definitely found creative ways to play together as an ensemble across a larger space,” violist Florrie Marshall MUS ‘26 said. “A challenge of playing while socially distanced is that you’re much further apart from the people that you’re supposed to be playing the same exact notes as. At the same time, we have a bigger sound because

we’re covering more physical distance.”

All pieces on the program are written by British composers: Edward Elgar’s “Introduction and Allegro,” Gerald Finzi’s “Romance for String Orchestra” and Michael Tippett’s “Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli.” Boughton, who is English, selected the works, saying that “Finzi, Elgar and Tippett are all my roots.”

Violinist Elena Kawazu MUS ’21 said that during rehearsals, Boughton took the time to explain what emotions each part of the pieces should evoke, especially highlighting how British wit and humor was reflected in the pieces.

Boughton chose the Elgar piece because of Elgar’s connections to Yale and Woolsey Hall. Elgar was in Woolsey Hall to receive an honorary doctorate of music degree from Yale in 1905. On that stage, Elgar accepted his degree against the backdrop of his own composition called “Pomp and Circumstance” — which established the tradition of performing that piece at graduation ceremonies. On Friday, 116 years after that event, the Philharmonia performed Elgar’s pieces on the same stage.

This semester, the Philharmonia has been holding in-person rehearsals at limited capacity.

Additionally, students are cycled between rehearsals and performances so that not all orchestra members are rehearsing and performing at a time.

Marshall, as well as Kawazu and violinist Shenae Anderson MUS ’21, spoke positively about socially distanced rehearsals and performances. They were particularly appreciative of the opportunity to play in person this year.

Kawazu mentioned that she and other string musicians feel lucky considering the fact that winds and brass players are not permitted to rehearse or perform in person, as their instruments prevent the musicians from wearing masks while playing.

“We are grateful that we can actually play in person despite being distanced and have a semblance of an orchestra rehearsal,” Kawazu said.

Anderson said that playing in a livestreamed concert feels like a normal performance — until the end of the piece, when there is silence instead of applause.

“I know that people are watching but I can’t see them, and in

the performance I forget that nobody’s there until the end of the piece when there’s no applause, and it’s really, really weird,” Anderson said. “Part of going to a performance or playing for people is the shared experience of being together in a room and feeling that energy.”

Anderson added that audiences watching a livestreamed performance from home cannot experience being “enveloped in sound” as at an in-person concert.

Since winds and brass cannot play with the Philharmonia this semester, the orchestra’s performance repertoire solely consists of pieces for string instruments: violin, viola, cello and double bass.

Anderson noted that the stringsonly setup makes the Philharmonia feel like a chamber orchestra — an orchestra made up of a smaller group of instrumentalists.

Anderson said she missed playing with winds and brass, yet Marshall said it was a “treasure” to explore the string orchestra repertoire, which the Philharmonia does not explore as often in a typical year.

For Boughton, the string orchestra repertoire is especially familiar, because he formed a British profes-

sional orchestra called the English String Orchestra in 1978.

Marshall added that the piece

by Finzi held special meaning for orchestra members. The piece opens with a delicate counterpoint that returns at the end of the piece. Marshall explained that hearing the same tune for a second time induces optimism, particularly about the return of the performing arts after the pandemic.

“The general sense that I get from my peers and colleagues is that we know we’re on the cusp of things starting to be open,” Marshall said. “I think as soon as people start feeling safe together in large spaces again, performing arts will be at the top of the list of things that people want to do. And in a new way, the music you hear the second time is not the same as you hear the first — in that respect, when we do get to return to live performances in person, it’s going to be that much more significant and cherished than ever before.”

The Philharmonia’s next performance will take place on May 7 at 7:30 p.m.

Contact MARISOL CARTY at marisol.carty@yale.edu .

COURTESY OF KATIE KELLEY

Ellington Jazz Series features Black Art Jazz Collective in its sole concert this year

BY MARISOL CARTY STAFF REPORTER On April 11, the Ellington Jazz Series featured the Black Art Jazz Collective — a jazz sextet founded in 2012 — in its only concert this year.

The concert took place at 4 p.m. and featured several of the collective’s original pieces. The Black Art Jazz Collective’s members include Wayne Escoffery, a professor at the Yale School of Music, as well as jazz musicians Jeremy Pelt, James Burton III, Victor Gould, Rashaan Carter and Johnathan Blake. The Ellington Jazz Series is led by Artistic Director Thomas C. Duffy and brings Black jazz musicians to campus each year.

“I said, ‘I’d hate to have this whole year go by and not have an Ellington event,’” Duffy said he told Escoffery. “I said, ‘Could you safely get together and record something in a studio in New York, in a manner that we could stream this as one of our events?’ And God bless them, they put their masks on and went into a studio in New York a month ago.”

In 1972, jazz legend Duke Ellington performed in Woolsey Hall, marking the birth of the Ellington Jazz Series, a Yale concert series that invites renowned jazz musicians each year to perform at Yale.

Upon Ellington’s performance, professor Willie Ruff established an endowment to fund campus visits from well-known jazz musicians.

Now, Duffy determines which artists are invited to participate in the series and uses Escoffery as a consultant for the series.

“He values my input, and together we come up with a diverse artist lineup of musicians who exemplify the highest level of

excellence and integrity in their music,” Escoffery said.

Sunday’s performance included pieces from the group’s latest album release, titled “Ascension.”

Burton, the group’s trombonist, said the show was structured

Burton noted that several selections were inspired by the band’s identity and by topics they consider important. For instance, Escoffery’s composition “Involuntary Servitude” addresses the 13th Amendment and the history of policing and

humor, sincerity, precision, abandon, wit, grit, camaraderie and unapologetic Blackness that has come to be part and parcel with the BAJC experience,” Burton said.

The collective’s origins trace back to 2012, when Escoffery met

COURTESY OF WAYNE ESCOFFERY

as a live performance, with uncut complete takes of all selections and “all the fire and spontaneity” of a typical live performance. The recording also included a brief session for questions and discussion at the end.

incarceration in the United States.

“Tulsa,” a piece by Burton, is about the 1921 massacre that occurred in the eponymous Oklahoma city, in an area known as “Black Wall Street.”

“I think I can say we hope the audience digs all of the fire, love,

with trumpeter Pelt and drummer Blake and discussed the prospect of putting a band together. According to Burton, members’ impetus for the band was to celebrate the African American ancestral roots of jazz music “unapologetically”

through original compositions and by saluting Black social, political and artistic icons that have “enriched the global community.”

Soon after, the three musicians reached out to others, and later Burton, Gould and Carter joined. The group has recorded three albums and completed a world tour.

Typically, several jazz groups and artists are invited every year to perform as part of the Ellington Jazz Series. These musicians also interact with the New Haven community during their visit — for example, invitees including Louis Hayes, Tootie Heath and Billy Hart visited public New Haven schools when they came to perform.

Before the pandemic, Duffy hoped to commemorate 50 years of women at Yale with a lineup of female artists.

Duffy said he intended to include bass players or drummers, since these forms of jazz were historically unconventional for females. However, Duffy decided to defer inviting these artists until in-person performances could take place.

Along with a live performance, invitees often have their stories recorded for the Yale Library’s Oral History of American Music archives. Duffy said these records are “substantial” and conducted by professional musicologists.

Since invited artists would be unable to devote time to these interviews, Duffy decided to postpone the commemoration instead of speaking with artists virtually.

In past years, artists invited to perform in the Ellington Jazz Series have included Arturo Sandoval, Frank Wess, Catherine Russell, Bernie Williams and Ruff.

Contact MARISOL CARTY at marisol.carty@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 7

YUAG turns stairwell into ‘modernist cave’

COURTESY OF DAVID COULSON

BY ANNIE RADILLO STAFF REPORTER As part of the partial reinstallation of the Laura and James J. Ross Gallery of African Art at the Yale University Art Gallery, a series of photographs from the British Museum have been projected on the gallery’s stairwell. These photographs, which document African rock art sites, transform the space into a “modernist cave,”

according to James Green, assistant curator of African art.

The photographs are the work of Kenyan photographer and rock art specialist David Coulson, who has worked for decades to document African rock art.

Forty images selected from Coulson’s collections are projected on the Louis Kahn stairwell over a 30-minute loop. The rock art works captured by these photographs are part of an ancient art

tradition and are particularly susceptible to natural and humancaused destruction.

“The whole vast concrete expanse becomes like a cave, and it’s really quite magical,” Green, who curated the display, said.

“The color and the texture of the concrete kind of breaks through the image, and it gives a rocklike [appearance].”

The photographs are projected onto the convex exte-

rior of the stairwell. Since the surface was not flat, perfectly white or smooth, projecting the images was challenging. Green and his team manipulated the photographs so they would look accurate to a viewer.

In order to understand how the photographs could be modified, Green worked with Eric Lin, a faculty member at the Yale School of Drama and projections supervisor, and Cecilia Estanislao, a graphic designer at the YUAG. Together, the group experimented with the images several times.

According to Lin, some images required spatial manipulations in order to avoid pockmarks on the stairwell’s surface, while others had to be color-corrected to compensate for the off-white shade of the wall. To accommodate for the wall’s convex surface, Lin subjected each image to a process called “warping,” or “geometric projection.”

Though the team had hoped to include students in their project, the pandemic made this difficult. But Lin was pleased to have Erin Sims DRA ’21 on the programming behind the installation to help control various aspects of the photographs’ projection.

Sims used a software called “WATCHOUT” — a multi-display software for creating shows by coordinating different media elements — to connect the projected images with a program giving gallery educators control over the images. The projections change from one photograph

to the next at a slow pace. Each photograph is accompanied by contextual information about its artwork.

“It’s very, very slow, so it feels almost mediative,” Green said.

“The idea is that you could be in that space, and you could look at one thing and then you could look back, and it would still be on that image.”

Green noted that these photographs act as important documentation of sites and artworks that are vulnerable to disasters and often difficult for people to visit. Accessibility to these sites and artworks is limited due to political situations, land geography and private land ownership.

Because of environmental conditions and human interference, many of these artworks are also physically deteriorating. Some have already been destroyed in the time since Coulson photographed them.

Green said the photographs are also an important reminder that, though many African artworks have been taken — often forcibly or without consent — from their countries of origin, many works of African art remain in place.

“I just think it’s important for an African art display to remind people of the art that is still there,” Green said. “That there are extraordinary sites of cultural heritage across the continent. This is just one example.”

Contact ANNIE RADILLO at annie.radillo@yale.edu .

‘Save Myanmar’ video project raises awareness about political turmoil in Myanmar

BY MAIA DECKER STAFF REPORTER Toward the end of February, David Stanley ’23 stayed up late every night to work on his most recent project: “Save Myanmar,” a short video documenting a recent military coup and subsequent riots in his home country of Myanmar.

Earlier that month, Myanmar’s military detained democratically-elected members of the government and claimed power for itself. Since the coup, large-scale protests have taken place, during which hundreds of citizens have been killed.

“We may not be the wealthiest among other nations, but we have heart,” Stanley’s voiceover narrates in the video. “We have a heart none like others.”

Stanley, the first Burmese-Chin-American to attend an Ivy League school, immigrated to the United States as a refugee in 2007. He said his acceptance to Yale generated media attention in Myanmar, and that most people were surprised about his acceptance into a prestigious institution like Yale.

Because of the media attention Stanley received, he felt he had the unique opportunity to bring public attention to the events in Myanmar. Stanley began his project in February after speaking with his father about the political conditions in Myanmar.

Stanley said his father told him, “You have a very strong voice and platform; you should do something in your power, especially film because that’s what you do, to spread awareness.”

For three weeks after this conversation, Stanley worked on “Save Myanmar” with his close friend, Cameron Adams ’24.

Stanley said the project was “really dear to [his] heart” as it documented a dire situation in Myanmar. “This is life or death,” Stanley said. “And there are people going about their days without knowing about what is happening [in Myanmar].”

He reflected that, as an editor, the work was emotionally exhausting since the

hundreds of clips depicting various elements of Myanmar’s history he sorted through were difficult to watch.

Adams said that it is always inspiring to work with Stanley on a project and see the “care and attention” he put into each decision, “especially when the project is as important as this one.”

Stanley began filmmaking during his sophomore year in high school, after joining the school’s yearbook club. Other videos on his YouTube channel document his daily life and cultural heritage, but this is his first project that relates to politics.

Hannah Leger, one of Stanley’s high school friends, said that when watching Stanley’s videos, a viewer is “immersed in a new experience” beyond what they believe is possible. Saket Gunda, another high school friend of Stanley’s, said that his videos are a testament to Stanley’s work ethic and drive.

Gunda said that Stanley would often film various events in high school, such as prom, and that he watched Stanley’s work evolve over the years. Gunda described Stanley’s films as “informational with a mix of storytelling.”

Stanley said that his project, “Save Myanmar,” showed him the power of film and of using his own voice in telling stories.

“That’s what really matters,” Stanley said. “Your own personal voice that you’re sharing with the world.”

Stanley said that what motivates him most is hearing about others being inspired by his work. He hopes these viewers will use their own voices to create something “bigger.”

On Monday, April 19, the Yale International Relations Association will welcome Stanley for a conversation on the coup and protests in Myanmar. Additional information and ways to help citizens in Myanmar can be found here: linktr.ee/whatshappeninginmyanmar.

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

COURTESY OF DAVID STANLEY

PAGE 8

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Yale study explores visual consciousness in rhesus monkeys

BY EDA AKER CONTRIBUTING REPORTER A recent study published in late March by psychologists and neuroscientists from Yale and other research institutions found that monkeys can process visual cues in conscious and nonconscious ways — a pair of mechanisms previously thought to only exist in humans.

The study was conducted with funding from Fulbright, Rothschild and Lady Davis fellowships.

It is known that humans are able to register visual cues in both conscious and nonconscious ways — two distinct “stages” of visual processing, according to the study. But scientists and philosophers have long pondered whether non-human animals also have conscious and nonconscious processing of visual stimuli. To answer this question, Moshe Shay Ben-Haim, a postdoctoral fellow in psychology, brought together several psychology and neuroscience experts — including many from Yale — to conduct a study involving rhesus monkeys. Before this study, no one had explored if similar well-established “performance dissociations” exist in a nonhuman species.

“The question of animal consciousness has puzzled scientists and philosophers for a very long time, but we simply haven’t had good ways to test this question scientifically,” Laurie Santos, a psychology professor at Yale, wrote in an email to the News. “Our study was designed to separate the two modes of processing experimentally and provide clues to answering this difficult puzzle.”

Ben-Haim shared with the News that he has always been intrigued by the question of whether other animals are as consciously aware as humans, given that animals cannot speak their minds. According to him, “human consciousness has often been considered as the peak of our evolution as a species,” and the team’s research was crucial to exploring whether this feature is truly unique to humans.

The experiment involved showing visual cues to both rhesus monkeys and humans and then observing their behavioral responses, according to Ben-Haim.

He said that the team hypothesized that the monkeys would react to the tests just as humans do and show “separate behavioral outcomes in response to consciously accessible cues and to non-consciously presented cues.”

Ben-Haim noted that the same experiments were initially conducted on dogs in the Canine Cognition Center at Yale.

The research was soon expanded to conducting the experiments on monkeys at the School of Medicine because according to Steve Chang, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, they have visual systems that are comparable to humans. The monkeys were quick to learn the task, so their results were published first, while the canine research is ongoing, according to Ben-Haim.

Ben-Haim explained that in the experiments, the researchers tested visual consciousness by utilizing a “double dissociation task” on rhesus monkeys and humans, with the latter group serving as a control.

The researchers presented two types of visual targets to the animals: ones that could be perceived consciously and ones that could not. The cues that could not be perceived consciously but were still processed by the brain were flashed for less than a few hundred milliseconds. Those that could be consciously perceived were shown for longer durations to the animals, according to Ben-Haim.

He explained that if the animals saw the cue, they would need to look on the opposite side of the screen in order to be rewarded. The monkeys only exhibited this behavior and were rewarded when the cue was consciously accessible to them. In other words, like humans, the rhesus monkeys displayed opposite reactions to visual stimuli that were processed consciously and non-consciously, according to Ben-Haim.

“Both humans and monkeys exhibited evidence of having both conscious and non-conscious perceptual states in their visual processing,” Chang wrote in an email to the News. “The two states could be dissociated in an identical manner between the two species.”

Chang and Ben-Haim shared that it is a challenge to “prove” that non-verbal animals experience conscious stimuli.

However, by showing the two modes of processing exist in the monkeys, their research provides strong evidence to suggest that consciousness in visual awareness is not uniquely human.

“Since the distinction between conscious and non-conscious processes is central to human cognition, we can now begin examining this distinction and its significance in other animals to better understand animal behavior as well,” Santos wrote.

In particular, the researchers plan to conduct similar experiments on fish and continue with their related studies on dogs. Santos added that being able to study these phenomena in other animals will make it possible to explore the “phylogenetic origins” of consciousness among different species.

“Consciousness still remains a big mystery,” Chang wrote. “Our research paradigm can be powerfully used to investigate how the human brain and the brains of non-human animals enable conscious perception of the world.”

The Yale School of Medicine is located at 333 Cedar St., New Haven, CT. Contact EDA AKER at eda.aker@yale.edu .

ANASTHASIA SHILOV/ILLUSTRATIONS EDITOR

Former Yale math professor László Lovász receives prestigious Abel Prize

BY AISLINN KINSELLA CONTRIBUTING REPORTER On March 17, former Yale professor and Hungarian mathematician László Lovász was awarded the Abel Prize — a prestigious award in mathematics that is considered to be the equivalent of the Nobel Prize.

Lovász received the Abel Prize alongside math professor Avi Wigderson of the Institute for Advanced Study, and the two will split the 7.5 million Norwegian kroner — or approximately $880,000. The Abel Prize, which was established in 2002 by the Norwegian government and modeled after the Nobel Prize, takes its name from the Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel.

After serving as a professor in Hungary for several years, Lovász joined Yale faculty in 1993 as the William K. Lanman professor of computer science and mathematics before leaving in 1999 to take a position at Microsoft.

“The idea is that it’s sort of the mathematical equivalent of the Nobel Prize, and a number of very prominent mathematicians have gotten it,” said Roger Howe, professor emeritus of mathematics, noting that last year’s prize went to a current Yale faculty member, math professor Gregory Margulis. He added that although Lovász is no longer at Yale, “he was here for a while and we’re very happy about that.”

Lovász did not reply to multiple requests for comment from the News.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters announced in a press release that this year’s winners were awarded the prize “for their foundational contributions to theoretical computer science and discrete mathematics, and their leading role in shaping them into central fields of modern mathematics.”

Every year, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters selects Abel laureates based on the recommendation of the Abel Committee and honors these mathematicians in an annual ceremony.

Lovász and Margulis are both set to be honored at this year’s ceremony. Margulis was supposed to be recognized at last year’s event, but it was canceled because of concerns about the COVID-19.

According to the press release, the details of the 2021 ceremony remain uncertain due to the pandemic and will be announced at a later date.

“Lovász is one of the people who helped establish the field of combinatorics as a pillar of mathematics,” said Andrew Beveridge GRD ’97, who was a doctoral student under Lovász at Yale. “It’s a field that really has grown in the 20th century to become something of its own.”

Beveridge went on to explain that the growing importance of combinatorics, an area of mathematics that deals with counting, has come with the rise of computers. Because computers rely on discrete systems, there are many new

applications for a field that was previously underdeveloped.

H owe a l s o d i s c u s s e d Lovász’s influence in combinatorics, a field that Hungarian mathematicians are particularly known for. One such mathematician was Paul Erdös, who published around 1,500 papers and inspired Lovász to work in combinatorics.

“Lovász is in some sense Erdös’ replacement in the current generation for leadership of combinatorics,” Howe said.

Among Lovász’s doctoral students at Yale was Van Vu GRD ’98, who joined the Yale faculty in 2011 and is currently a professor of mathematics and statistics and data science. In an email to the News, Vu remarked that Lovász has made several important contributions to combinatorics and computer science and that “some of the most frequently used tools in these areas, such as the [Lovász] Local Lemma and LLL algorithm, bear his name.”

Perhaps his best-known work, the Lovász Local Lemma is a tool used in the probabilistic method to prove the existence of rare graphs, according to László Lipták GRD ’99, another doctoral student under Lovász. Lipták also explained that the LLL algorithm, which approximates points in lattices, is another significant work by Lovász.

According to the Abel prize press release, the LLL algorithm has numerous applications in cryptography, number theory and mobile computing.

In an email to the News, Fang Chen GRD ’00, another former doctoral student under Lovász, recalled him encouraging her to study combinatorics, even funding her to attend research workshops. In her current work teaching at Emory University, Chen says she is inspired

by Lovász’s ability to be both a talented mathematician and an excellent communicator.

“Whenever I hear that someone is too good of a researcher to be an effective teacher, I shake my head and tell them that they are so wrong,” Chen wrote.

“Prof. Lovász, the most brilliant mathematician that I have known happens to be one of the best teachers that I have seen.”

Lipták also shared his pleasant experiences working under Lovász with the News. He recalled that Lovász “treated his students almost like family” and “frequently invited us to his house for holiday meals (I especially liked the Thanksgiving dinners) and mathematical discussions.”

Howe got to know Lovász while they were both faculty members at the University and also had a very positive experience working with him on a paper.

“Some mathematicians are very pushy or competitive and so forth, and he was not like that,” Howe said. “He was very easy to work with and a very pleasant collaborator.”

Lovász is currently a professor at Eötvös Loránd University.

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

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

NEWS

PAGE 9

“Don’t quack like a duck, soar like an eagle.”

KEN BLANCHARD

AMERICAN AUTHOR AND MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER

Four Yale faculty awarded Guggenheim fellowships

BY MADISON HAHAMY STAFF REPORTER Four Yale faculty members recently received Guggenheim Fellowships, prestigious grants awarded to those who have “demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.”

Three of the four — Robyn Creswell, Marisa Bass and Isabela Mares — hail from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, while the fourth — Tisa Wenger — is an associate professor at the Yale Divinity School. All four of the Yale recipients intend to use the fellowship, which takes the form of grants made for anywhere between six and 12 months, to help them complete books that are currently in the works.

“Each of the scholars who has been honored with the Guggenheim award is broad-ranging, imaginative, and field-shaping in their work,” Tamar Gendler, dean of the FAS, wrote to the News in an email.

“We are fortunate to have them as colleagues, and our students are fortunate to have them as teachers.”

Because the fellowship provides fellows with condition-free grants, the aim is to allow for as much “creative freedom as possible,” as well as to give recipients blocks of time during which to focus solely upon their projects, according to the fellowship’s website. Although the amount per grant varies depending on the plans and resources of each fellow, the website adds that the Guggenheim Foundation “strives to allocate its funds as equitably as possible.”

Bass, associate professor of art history, received doubly exciting news — not only is she a Guggenheim Fellow, but she is also the inaugural Guggenheim Fellow in Early Modern Studies.

Bass plans to use the Fellowship to aid in the completion of her current book, entitled “The Monument’s End: Public Art and the Modern Republic.” She added in an email that she was both “inspired and emboldened to expand in scope” the book by teaching Yale undergraduates in the introductory course “The Politics of Representation.”

“It is such a privilege to teach students willing to question established historical narratives and to

explore a plural history of art, and who challenge me to be a better scholar,” Bass added.

For Isabela Mares, Arnold Wolfers professor of political science, the award will similarly allow her to focus on completing a book about how first-wave democracies — such as France, Germany, Belgium and Britain — have adopted electoral reforms, as she can use the funds to “return full time to research and writing.”

Tisa Wenger, associate professor of American religious history, told the News that receiving the fellowship was a “huge honor.”

Wenger is currently working on her third book, “How Settler Colonialism Made American Religion,” and, like Mares, plans to use the fellowship to work on writing the book full time. She hopes that the book will “challenge” religious studies scholars to take “the histories of settler colonialism and U.S. Empire” seriously as a foundation for their scholarship.

Wenger added that when in-person interaction is once again safe, she hopes to meet the other fellows.

“At various moments in my career, serendipitous encounters and conversations with creative thinkers

COURTESY OF TISA WENGER, ISABELA MARES, MARISA BASS AND ANNETTE HORNISCHER

The faculty who were awarded Guggenheim fellowships: Tisa Wenger, Isabela Mares, Marisa Bass and Robyn Creswell, left to right. across fields has helped me think about my work in new and generative ways,” Wenger wrote in an email to the News. “Whether or not this fellowship leads to such serendipitous encounters, I know that the time it provides and the connections that it facilitates will help me think more broadly about my work and so ultimately to write a better book.”

Robyn Creswell, associate professor of comparative literature, called receiving the fellowship “a big bright spot in what has obviously been a grim year” and a “powerful affirmation” that his work is worthwhile.

Like the others, Creswell is planning to use the fellowship to com-

plete his book, which describes the intellectual history of the modern Arab world through the lens of poets and poetry.

He is similarly looking forward to being able to fully devote himself to his work.

“The Fellowship gives one extra time to think and write,” Creswell wrote in an email to the News. “What could be more valuable than that?”

This year, the Guggenheim Foundation received approximately 3,000 applications, and 184 fellowships were ultimately awarded.

Contact MADISON HAHAMY at madison.hahamy@yale.edu .

As Connecticut races to vaccinate, COVID-19 cases rise

BY SAM PANNER CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Amidst a surge of COVID-19 cases in Connecticut, concerns about the state’s pandemic outlook have intensified.

Despite high vaccination rates, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in Connecticut have been on the rise since mid March. Gov. Ned Lamont has continued to stress the importance of a fast vaccine rollout, with no plans to reinstate restrictions on businesses and gatherings that were eased on March 19.

Meanwhile, public health experts warn that this is a make-or-break moment for the state.

“You can see that the case rates are going down a lot in these older populations that have got access to the vaccine, and that kind of goes with what we think should be happening,” said Luke Davis, professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health. “But, at the same time, we see caseloads now that aren’t dissimilar, and even our hospitalizations in the last few weeks have been not dissimilar to November, and so what that must mean is that the rates are much, much higher in the younger populations than they were a few weeks ago … and that’s worrisome.”

As of Tuesday, 45 percent of Connecticut residents had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vac-

cine, and 28.6 percent were fully vaccinated, the fifth and sixth highest figures, respectively, among U.S. states and territories and U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands, according to The Washington Post. At a press briefing on Monday, Lamont cited data that 83 percent of state residents ages 65 and older had received their first dose, along with 71 percent of those ages 55 to 64, 54 percent of people between ages 45 and 54 and 30 percent of residents ages 16 to 44.

COVID-19 cases in Connecticut dropped to a seven-day average low of 681 on March 8, but have since rebounded, reaching a seven-day average high of 1,356 on March 30, according to the New York Times.

As of Monday, the seven-day average case count was at 1,131, which works out to 32 cases per 100,000 residents each day. According to the Times, this last figure ranks eighth highest among U.S. states. The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Connecticut had reached a seven-day average of 599 on Monday, up from a low of 446 on March 17, according to the Times.

Part of what accounts for this surge in cases is the progress of COVID-19 variants such as the U.K., or B.1.1.7, variant and the New York, or B.1.526, variant. These variants all together are now responsible for most of the new coronavirus cases in the state, according to Albert Ko, department chair and professor of epidemiology

at the School of Public Health. But Ko is also concerned that new variants could emerge and undermine the rapid deployment of immunizations.

“The only way that you can get variants, and you can get variants that potentially escape either the immune response mediated by natural infection or vaccination, is by creating mutations, and the only way you create mutations is you have a lot of replicating virus, and that happens when you have a lot of transmission,” Ko said. “So, we need to protect the vaccines that we have now.”

To do so, Lamont has shifted his focus to vaccinating young people, who have the lowest rates of vaccination in the state. At his Monday press conference, he said that getting young people vaccinated quickly would protect Connecticut from another wave of COVID-19.

What Lamont does not plan to do, it seems, is reinstate restrictions on businesses and gatherings that were recently eased — a move that Davis described as a “political nonstarter.” Most businesses in the state are now open, with social distancing required “where possible” and masks required “in all public settings where social distancing is not possible,” according to Connecticut’s coronavirus webpage.

Some businesses are bound by sector-specific guidelines; restaurants, for instance, need to have six feet of spacing or barriers between tables.

“Indoor dining, bars, unfortunately those kinds of places, you know, it is indeed concerning,” said Director of the Yale Institute for Global Health and Associate Dean of the Yale School of Medicine Saad Omer. “Because even if you have a mask mandate at these places, you can’t eat with your mask on. It breaks my heart to say that.”

Still, higher case rates do not mean the vaccines are not working.

Omer explained that the state’s priority has been to vaccinate the most vulnerable, rather than focusing on those most likely to spread the virus.

He also said that current vaccine coverage is too low to influence rates of transmission, and that even as vaccination rates go up, it takes time for vaccines to become effective, delaying even their initial impacts on cases and hospitalizations.

Connecticut government officials and epidemiologists have expressed some optimism about the current outlook for the state. Lamont said at his Monday press conference that he thought case numbers and hospitalizations had stabilized and the state was making progress.

Ko also pointed to the low death rate over the last several weeks, crediting high rates of vaccination among older adults. Speaking about vaccines, Davis said that he thought the state was on a “good trajectory.”

That trajectory is likely to change this month, though, as vaccine sup-

ply may begin to outstrip demand in Connecticut, Omer said on Monday, citing vaccine hesitancy as a major concern. Davis also raised concerns that some communities might be more skeptical than others about vaccinations.

“The reason, I think, that I’m worried is that, okay, we can get to 60 percent or 70 percent or 80 percent, but it’s going to be very heterogeneous,” Davis said. “There’s going to be herd immunity in some communities … but there are going to be some communities where that’s not the case … and we’re going to continue to see disease in those communities, and those people are going to have the same type of outcomes. I mean, the virus is not getting any nicer, it’s getting more aggressive, actually.”

On Tuesday, the Connecticut Department of Public Health recommended that providers pause administration of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, following six cases of rare blood clotting in vaccine recipients in the United States. Lamont said in a Tuesday press conference that he was hopeful that the vaccine rollout in the state would not “miss a beat.”

Extra Pfizer and Moderna doses are slated to arrive in Connecticut next week, according to Lamont.

Contact SAM PANNER at sam.panner@yale.edu .

Student groups continue mental health advocacy after MHC changes

BY CHRISTIAN ROBLES STAFF REPORTER After receiving feedback from about 775 stakeholders in the New Haven Public Schools community, Assistant Superintendent Keisha Redd-Hannans presented the Board of Education with NHPS’ spending proposal for $37.8 million in federal grant dollars.

In December 2020, the federal government passed its second fiscal stimulus package. This included the ESSER II grant — federal COVID19-related relief for school districts around the country. NHPS is slated to receive the $37.8 million under the ESSER II program and hopes to use it for additional temporary hires, programming and classroom materials.

“We’ve had great turnout from all of our stakeholders,” Redd-Hannans said. “Several ideas were shared at

these meetings, and we made sure to capture them as best as we can.”

The district held four community focus groups in late February and early March to receive input from the community on how to spend the federal aid. The groups focused on four distinct priority areas — addressing pandemic-era learning loss, bolstering family and community connections, increasing equitable access to technology and emphasizing health and safety.

On Monday e ve n i n g , Redd-Hannans presented the expected ESSER II spending plan to the Board of Education. The assistant superintendent broke down the district’s key findings from the focus groups by priority area.

In order to mitigate learning loss caused by virtual classes, the district is proposing large

VAIBHAV SHARMA/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

A screenshot of goals from the first priority group presented at the BOE meeting, including almost 100 temporary new hires.

investments in temporary staff and new programming.

Redd-Hannans said that NHPS wanted to hire 87 new teachers for grades one, two and three, in addition to three additional college and career coordinators. She noted that the additional teachers would help reduce NHPS class sizes and allow students to receive more individualized instruction.

Superintendent Iline Tracey clarified that any new district hires would be strictly temporary, and these individuals would be relieved of their duties when the ESSER II money expires in June 2023. Tracey also pointed out that at this time, none of the items on the district’s wish list have a concrete price tag and are subject to change based on Board of Education feedback.

In regard to bolstering family and community connections, Redd-Hannans said that the district is proposing using the funding to hire six new care coordinators, district employees who work with students and families to fulfill a wide range of essential needs. Two new restorative coaches — experts who work with teachers and principals to reduce student suspensions — are also included in the district’s plans.

To increase school safety and the social-emotional health of its students, Redd-Hannans said the district wants to hire three new coun-

selors, three social workers and three psychologists.

She also stated that NHPS hopes to integrate social-emotional learning into its school curriculum with ESSER II funds. Other items under this priority area include investments in personal protective equipment, water bottle filling stations and CO2 sensors.

On closing the digital divide, a number of purchases were proposed — including professional development on hybrid learning and new PCs for teachers, as well as new headphones and Chromebook tablets for students. Redd-Hannans also emphasized the need to invest in a new “data dashboard,” which would contain information on students districtwide to inform the decisions of policymakers.

Redd-Hannans also said that the district wanted to use ESSER II dollars to have a “summer of fun” this year.

“We want to make learning fun, we want to make the enrichment activities hands-on and as fun as possible to reengage students in the learning process,” she said. “We want students to experience hiking, play outdoors, arts and crafts, recreation activities.”

BOE member Tamiko Jackson-McArthur expressed her concerns that the district plans to have in-person summer school. She said that for some families, it would be “emotionally impossible” to send their

children back to school for in-person learning during the pandemic.

However, Tracey clarified that the in-person summer school proposal is subject to public health conditions and that the district will explore the possibility of having a remote summer school option. She added that the district is currently determining how many teachers would be willing to teach over the summer, which may influence the final decision on summer school.

At Monday’s meeting, Tracey and other board members expressed gratitude to the district for its comprehensive proposal, while also making suggestions about the plans.

“Up to now, we feel good about the process,” Tracey said. “And we feel good about what is written. It’s a lot of work.”

According to Tracey, some of the district’s proposed ideas can be financed later and for a longer period of time by the American Rescue Plan — a federal law which contains more aid for school districts.

New Haven is slated to receive $94 million from the rescue plan.

NHPS officials will present their proposed ESSER II expenditures to the Connecticut Department of Education, which will review them before approval, on April 19.

Contact CHRISTIAN ROBLES at christian.robles@yale.edu .

PAGE 10

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

SPORTS

“Friendships are born on the field of athletic strife and the real gold of competition. Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust.”

JESSE OWENS FOUR-TIME OLYMPIC TRACK & FIELD GOLD MEDALIST

The story behind Gilder Boathouse

COURTESY OF ANNA SCOTT

According to architect Turner Brooks ’65 ARC ’70, the boathouse is meant to mimic the shape of a ship, wedged onto the bank.

VENUE FROM PAGE 14 petition between architects who graduated from Yale, an endowment to maintain the boathouse and a program for community rowing in Derby. Richard Gilder was as focused on giving back to the community as he was on providing the student-athletes with improved facilities.

The Cooke Boathouse, built in 1923 and renovated in 1977, had been home base for Yale rowers for 76 years. In 1999, after the new plans had been finalized, the building was razed to make way for its modern successor.

“The Cooke boathouse … was crumbling,” Boucher said. “They wanted to just get a whole new facility. Other boathouses at other places were upping their game in terms of getting new facilities and all that. And the crews were growing, there were a lot of people rowing.”

‘Space connecting land and water’ At the design competition in 1998, architect and current Yale professor Turner Brooks ’65 ARC ’70 caught the attention of the selection committee when displaying his miniature model of the boathouse. Using the original wooden model, Brooks demonstrated to the committee that the structure of the building mimicked the shape of a boat, a demonstration which he was able to replicate with the same model during an office tour with the News. Situated on the bank of Lake Housatonic in Derby, Gilder Boathouse is meant

to appear as if it floated into position, perched on the bank so spectators can cheer the athletes on as they approach the finish line.

“I really thought of it as a ship, a ship that had floated down the river and then beached itself on the bank, wedged onto the bank, mediating between the land and the water,” Brooks said.

His vision for the boathouse focused on striking a balance between aesthetics and functionality. To the typical visitor’s eye, Gilder Boathouse is simply a beautiful building. For Brooks, the inner workings of the building allow for maximum efficiency and ease, providing athletes and spectators with a memorable experience.

Brooks incorporated many technical and architectural details into his work. For example, when he and his team realized the threat of high tide, they put grates on the boat doors, allowing the water to flow through the bottom of the boathouse to minimize the risk of water damage.

The boathouse has an open and free-flowing layout, which Brooks highlighted during his interview with the News. The main walkway and staircase cut straight through the heart of the building, with long wooden beams hanging overhead.

At the foot of the stairs is an expansive deck where the crews prepare the boats before practice.

Read more at yaledailynews.com / blog/category/sports/.

Contact REHAN MELWANI at rehan.melwani@yale.edu .

ONE: Only Need Everybody M. LACROSSE FROM PAGE 14 was also the offensive coordinator, in the late ’90s. Marr is now the Albany men’s lacrosse head coach.

At the time, Delaware was using the phrase, “three, two, one,” so when he was named head coach in 2003, Shay decided to bring the concept of “one” to Yale. The motto has since been pilfered by other programs, Shay said, such as Oklahoma State baseball and Fairfield men’s lacrosse, whose head coach Andrew Baxter was formerly the associate head coach of the Bulldogs in New Haven.

“A couple of years later, it turned into an acronym, which has a ton of meaning in terms of concentrating on one play at a time and on one goal at a time, or one win at a time,” Shay said. “In 2011, we got down to one goalie on our team, and we had a couple different players step up and play backup goalie in practice. … We really try and praise that, [when players] put themselves in positions for the betterment of the team and they’re not guaranteed any accolades or any success.”

From finishing 1–5 in Ancient Eight play in 2004 to topping the league outright in 2012, Shay and his players slowly laid the groundwork for a culture that prized intensity and cohesion, dominant elements of the mentality that took the program to the top of NCAA men’s lacrosse.

Alumni who suited up throughout Shay’s tenure echoed that sentiment, telling the News that a culture of grit and hard work is largely responsible for Yale’s success.

“There was an idea that everyone had a contribution to make and no man was more important over the others,” former defenseman Ryan McQuaide ’18 told the News last year. “So we had this slogan: ONE, Only Need Everybody. I remember I dove in front of a shot to stop it one day. It was pretty painful, but I just remember getting up, feeling sorry for myself, then seeing coach Shay going nuts yelling, ‘Great job, McQuaide,’ and it just helps you buy into that mindset.”

McQuaide helped the team capture the 2018 national championship in his senior year and attributed much of that team’s success to Shay’s work in previous years.

Current captain and midfielder Brian Tevlin ’22, who received the Dan Casman Award for team spirit and morale in 2019, told the News that because of the ONE motto, every year the standards and “threshold for what is an appro-

Elis excited to once again “wear the Y”

priate level [of] commitment to the Yale lacrosse team” rises.

“The ONE slogan … is one of the best representations of Yale men’s lacrosse because it speaks to the standard that everyone on the team is held to,” Tevlin said. “No one is above or beneath the level of commitment that we require from the individuals on our team, [and] by holding everyone to the same level of dedication and responsibility, it not only makes every individual better, but the entire standard of the team rises.”

Tevlin continued to explain that the strength of ONE as a message is derived from the commitment of individual team members to it and the respect they have for their current team, as well as the core values established by the team’s alumni. The motto also occasionally stretches beyond the program itself. After the passing of Rachael Shaw-Rosenbaum ’24, Tevlin circulated a team letter on Twitter that extended the meaning of ONE beyond the confines of the field.

“Our mission today is to reach out to our peers and remind them that they are both loved and important,” members of the team wrote. “Without everyone, we are nothing.”

Faceoff specialist TD Ierlan — who recently transferred to Denver after starring at Yale since his first season in New Haven in 2019 — also commented on the significance of the “ONE” motto and how it has lasted through generations of Bulldogs.

“I think ONE defines Yale lacrosse, and that is why it stuck,” Ierlan said.

“We may not be the most talented team, but everyone on the team pulls their weight and contributes to the team. We believe [if] we have [a] full team of guys who are brought in, we can reach our potential.”

Now, in a year where many team members are not on campus, only one player, attackman Skyler Wilson ’24, is currently practicing,

Team members have been working to connect online throughout the last year as potential season looms.

VOLLEYBALL FROM PAGE 14 noted that the spring semester was “much smoother” than last fall, with fewer phase restarts and more consistent practices.

Another concern of team members has been connecting with the team’s most recent recruits, as well as those on leaves of absence. If the Ivy League green lights competition for the fall, there would be two classes of players, 2024 and 2025, who have yet to compete at a collegiate level. As captain, DeJardin noted that this would change how the fall looks in terms of team culture and team chemistry. Still, she noted that she is “not worried” and hopes to plan events

that allow the women to spend time together outside of practice and competition.

Libero Maile Somera ’24 was one of five players who took at least one semester off this academic year. She noted that being on a gap semester requires her to “stay prepared” and put in more effort to stay connected to members.

“It’s difficult being on a gap year because we can’t technically be involved in official Yale volleyball meetings,” Somera said. “We just have to make the most out of the online situation.”

While Somera was not on campus in the fall to welcome new members, she noted that after speaking with fellow athletes, she gets the sense that nerves aside,

everyone is excited to “wear the Y” next fall.

During a phone interview, head coach Erin Appleman said that she is “anxiously awaiting” information about the upcoming season and is “hopeful” for a safe fall. She said she hopes students and athletes get vaccinated to facilitate a return back to normal proceedings.

“I don’t think [a return to normal will happen] that quickly,” Appleman said. “It’s gonna take some time.”

The Yale volleyball team has won 11 Ivy League volleyball championships in their history.

Contact ÁNGELA PÉREZ at angela.perez@yale.edu .

Contact AKSHAR AGARWAL at akshar.agarwal@yale.edu and AMELIA LOWER at amelia.lower@yale.edu .

COURTESY OF RICH BARNES/YALE ATHLETICS

Shay told the News that he initially got the idea of ONE from fellow assistant coach at the University of Delaware Scott Marr in the late ’90s.

Wagner wins Olympic trials W. CREW FROM PAGE 14

MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM

Shay said. With four seniors graduating and several of their classmates taking leaves, “ONE” has taken on a new meaning.

Shay described that even at the very beginning of the pandemic, during the team’s last practice in 2020 before quarantine prevented them from coming together in person, the sense of togetherness and “ONE” was omnipresent on the field.

“Last year, when the season was canceled, we had one scrimmage left in practice … and it was probably the most intense we’ve played in a number of years but without any chance to play a game again,” Shay said. “It was just one last scrimmage … and you don’t take any bit for granted.”

Despite the distance between players since that last practice, Shay looks forward to next season, regardless of the challenges of leading two classes of players who have never donned the Blue and White, a rising junior class that has only played four games and an entire team with different enrollment timelines.

Shay told the News that this year and the pandemic have given him a new perspective on the unifying motto and a new sense of gratitude for its meaning to the team.

“That's the beauty of it. … In a given year, it’s one ground ball. It’s one play. It’s one moment, one win, one game at a time … and now it’s something different,” Shay said.

“It’s another day where you’re away from this campus, you’re away from your teammates and you’re away from your coaches [but now it’s also] sticking with that ‘one day of time, and one moment at a time’ because we've got a lot of work to do.”

Yale won three consecutive Ivy League men’s lacrosse tournament championships under Shay from 2015 to 2017.

her and Stone rowed at Ivy League schools and that it says a lot about the strength of the league in women’s rowing. She told the News that she feels “a little extra desire to pull hard when sitting behind Stone’s Princeton [uniform].”

Eric Catalano, Wagner’s longtime coach, has worked with the Yale graduate since she was in high school.

“The earning of this opportunity to represent the USA at the Olympics was especially exciting for me to see this reward for her determination and grit and growth over the years,” Catalano said. “I am so proud of her and happy to see the faith we had over the years through the process bring such an exciting opportunity.”

Catalano continued to speak about her positive attitude throughout the “full rollercoaster of highs and lows that accompany the pursuit of a lofty goal.”

He described a moment he shared with Wagner before her most recent training cycle, where she said that while there is a lot of work to do before Tokyo, she has “never been more excited to do the work.”

In Tokyo, Wagner and Stone will face competitive teams from leading Olympic rowing nations, namely New Zealand, who clinched gold at the 2019 World Rowing Championships in the double sculls.

"Earning the chance to race at the Olympics doesn’t get less thrilling with time. I was excited before the race to go out and to go hard, and I’m even more excited now to get to continue pursuing this dream,” Stone told USRowing.

At the 2020 Olympics, rowing will be hosted at the Sea Forest Waterway in Uminomori, Koto-ku, Tokyo.

Contact AMELIA LOWER at amelia.lower@yale.edu .

COURTESY OF ROB PUNGELLO

Wagner and Stone crossed the finish line first in the trials on Thursday with a time of 7:07.21.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 11

NEWS

“I was a lone duck in a swan-filled pond who criticized everyone.” CHRIS COLFER AMERICAN ACTOR

African American studies department hires three faculty

YALE DAILY NEWS

The African American studies department recently hired several new faculty, with additional searches ongoing.

BY MADISON HAHAMY AND ZAPORAH PRICE STAFF REPORTERS On the coattails of two senior faculty hires in African American studies, the department — in conjunction with the humanities and English departments — recently hired three scholars to begin teaching at the University this fall, with multiple hiring searches still ongoing.

Elleza Kelley, Jonathan Howard and Ernest Mitchell will officially join Yale faculty in July. The News spoke with these scholars — who hail from Columbia University, Harvard University and Boston College, respectively — about their research and excitement regarding the move to Yale. Professor of African American studies and psychology Philip Goff and professor of African American studies and history Elizabeth Hinton — the aforementioned senior faculty hires — have already begun teaching at the University. Six current faculty members and University administrators also spoke with the News about the new hires, the hiring process and the need for continued investment in African American studies at Yale.

“Yale is in a position to hire this extraordinary group of faculty because, for the last half century, we’ve sought to be at the forefront in African American studies,” Tamar Gendler, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, told the News. “[The department] has always

sought to capture the voices of the generation that is pushing forward the frontiers of the field, and the hires that we’ve done in the last couple of years … are a continuation of this half-century legacy of excellence and leadership in this field.”

Jacqueline Goldsby, chair of the Department of African American Studies, expressed similar sentiments. She called the African American studies department an “engine of diversity.” Since all of the appointments are joint hires with either the humanities or English departments, Goldsby said they were, in effect, “diversifying other departments too.”

FAS Dean of Humanities Kathryn Lofton told the News that the hiring searches received more applications than any other division of the FAS during the hiring year. She said the searches were organized with and led by “deeply inclusive practices,” such as financial investment, an emphasis on diversity and a focus on younger generations, which led to an unsurprising final result of “superlative excellence.”

“Black studies is asking the most exciting questions in the humanities, opening broad horizons for new research,” Lofton added in an email to the News.

While the majority of the hires are either starting next term or have yet to be selected, the University has already hired two senior faculty for the current school year — Goff and Hinton.

Goff, who began at Yale in July 2020, works at the intersection of race and public safety and is the co-founder for the Center for Policing Equity. He told the News that although his recruitment was over before the current “cultural moment” began, “some of the best minds thinking around this stuff were either at or on their way to Yale. Yale has earned its reputation as the place where the deep work happens. Where there’s not investment in trends, but investment in the fundamentals.”

Goff added that “some of my favorite people just as human beings” happen to also work at Yale, making the move “incredibly attractive” for a multitude of reasons.But, Goff said, there is still more that the University can and needs to do to invest financially in infrastructure so that Yale is “the place where justice happens,” both in the current moment and for generations to come.

Hinton did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Kelley, Howard and Mitchell all expressed their excitement to make use of Yale’s resources in their scholarship.

“Across departments, Yale has outstanding faculty who I am excited to work with,” Kelley, an English doctoral candidate at Columbia, wrote to the News in an email. “I’m especially thrilled to work with Yale students, I know we have a lot to teach each other.”

Kelley will join the English and African American studies departments as a postdoctoral associate in the early summer, and she will begin an appointment as an assistant professor next fall. Her research focuses on African American literature and art’s influence on Black geographies, and she mentioned the Yale University Art Gallery as a resource on campus that she intends to utilize.

These explorations will be considered in the course Kelley will teach in Spring 2022: a first-year seminar in African American studies entitled “Counterarchives: Black Historical Fictions.” The course will discuss contemporary Black historical fiction and “the possibilities and limits of reading literature as alternative archives, or counter narratives, of Black history.” Kelley mentioned that poems about the Amistad revolt are on the course’s syllabus, and that it is a “really important part of history” that the Amistad trials took place in New Haven.

For Howard, who is coming to Yale from an assistant professorship at Boston College and a fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin, the nature of the “cluster hire” in African American studies is especially exciting, as it will allow for a source of community and support while navigating the tenure process.

Not all hires occur in cluster form, which is when a large amount of hires are completed around the same time in one area of study. According to Lofton, when the hiring committee “saw the size and excellence of the applicant pool,” they worked to ensure that they could hire a larger number of faculty.

Howard, whose research focuses on the intersection of Black Studies and the environment, is eager to continue the tradition of African American studies scholarship at Yale.

“The old guard of scholars is now retiring, and I’m really excited about carrying forward a stellar tradition in African American studies,” he said. “I look forward to contributing my own chapter to that history.”

Howard added that resources such as the Beinecke Library and a more robust doctoral program in African American literature, as well as interdisciplinary programs in English and other departments, make the move especially enjoyable.

“We’ll be joining a host of amazing colleagues and a lineage of celebrated scholars of black literature at Yale,” Mitchell, a current lecturer in history and literature at Harvard,

wrote to the News. “… Given Yale’s commitment to the humanities, I’m excited to work with undergrads and grad students here.”

Mitchell — who will be an assistant professor in English and the humanities program, with a joint appointment in the African American studies department — said that he is excited to come to Yale at the same time as Jonathan Howard and Elleza Kelley and that he is eager to work alongside current Yale faculty members.

Mitchell added that when he begins in July, it will be “a joy” to engage with the James Weldon Johnson Memorial collection and with Beinecke curators. He called the collection a “treasure trove of Black Renaissance resources,” which is what his research primarily focuses on. He wrote that the Renaissance is “crucial for black self-awareness in the West,” and that it is crucial to study it now in a time of “renewed reflection on black life, literature, and politics.”

This fall, Mitchell will teach English 127: “Readings in American Literature” and a senior seminar in English cross listed with humanities and African American studies entitled “Fictions of the Harlem Vogue: Novels, Short Stories, and Novellas of the ‘Harlem Renaissance.’” In the spring, Mitchell will teach another course on Jamaican-born poet Claude McKay, as well as a Directed Studies seminar. Mitchell is currently working on a biography of Mckay for Yale University Press.

While Mitchell, Howard and Kelley will begin in the summer, Dean of Diversity and Faculty Development in the FAS Larry Gladney said the hiring for this year is “far from done.”

“Overall, we expect a successful year with many searches completing and the prospects of a diverse and excellent cohort of new faculty are quite good,” Gladney wrote in an email to the News. “Yale is taking great advantage of its ability to out-compete many of its peers in a year which has been stressful for all of higher education.”

The African American studies program began in 1969 and was the first undergraduate degree-granting program of its kind in the Ivy League. In 2000, it was promoted to the status of interdisciplinary department.

Contact MADISON HAHAMY at madison.hahamy@yale.edu and ZAPORAH PRICE at zaporah.price@yale.edu .

BOE passes recommendation to keep SROs, invest in psychologists

BY CHRISTIAN ROBLES AND RAZEL SUANSING STAFF REPORTERS After nearly a year-long debate over the fate of school resource officers, or SROs, in New Haven Public Schools, the Board of Education has accepted a recommendation that would keep this type of law enforcement official in schools while also investing in more psychologists and social workers.

In January, the NHPS School Security and Design Committee drafted a recommendation about SROs for the board. The New Haven Police Department describes school resource officers as uniformed police officers that work to prevent criminal activity on school campuses by engaging in conflict resolution.

The committee proposed a number of reforms including an increase in funding for school psychologists, the prohibition of police cars being parked outside of schools and the implementation of regular meetings between school administrators and SROs. The seven board members present approved the recommendations unanimously on Monday. Now the recommendations are Superintendent Iline Tracey’s responsibility to implement.

“It’s a very challenging issue and people are very passionate about the issue,” New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said at Monday evening’s meeting. “I think it’s difficult to come up with anything that’s going to make everyone happy, if not impossible.”

Elicker thanked board member Tamiko Jackson-McArthur for her work in crafting the compromise between anti-SRO activists and members of the community that did not support a complete elimination of the program. Last summer, after Jackson-McArthur and fellow board member Darnell

Goldson proposed removing SROs entirely from district schools, former Wilbur Cross High School SRO Ricardo Rodriguez started a petition to “save the New Haven SRO program,” which has garnered over 900 signatures as of Tuesday evening. In the following months, the board tasked the School Security and Design Committee with drafting recommendations for the new SRO policies.

Board member Matt Wilcox echoed Elicker’s sentiment that the School Security and Design Committee has come up with a satisfactory solution. He added that while not all community members may be content with the final decision, the approved recommendations’ goal is to make SROs either “not be necessary or we will have a different relationship moving forward.”

The BOE’s approval of the SROs recommendation comes despite an increased push for reduction of school resource officers spurred by the Black Lives Matter protests last spring. In a youth-led Black Lives Matter protest last June, student activists advocated for the removal of police officers within schools.

Monday’s resolution would not call for a further reduction in the number of SROs. Last month, the New Haven Police Department reduced the number of school resource officers in Elm City from nine to three due to budget cuts. NHPD came to this decision after reassessing officer staffing in the context of NHPS’ hybrid learning model, under which less than twothirds of district students have opted in to partial in-person instruction.

“Many students feel criminalized and overly monitored by [SROs],” Lihane Arouna, a senior at Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School and a student representative on the BOE said in a Citywide Youth Coalition rally in June.

At the same rally, Arouna said that police presence affected the mental wellbeing of students of color, contributing to the schoolto-prison pipeline. The criminalization of students of color in schools, she argued, leads to an overexposure to the criminal justice system. Arouna was not present at Monday’s evening BOE meeting and did not vote on the SRO recommendation. The board’s other student representative, Anthony Fiore, a junior at High School in the Community, voted in favor of the resolution.

In 2019, Connecticut Voices for Children released a report, “Policing Connecticut’s Hallways: The Prevalence and Impact of School Resource Officers in Connecticut.” After analyzing data com-

paring schools with and without SROs through the state, the New Haven-based nonprofit found that SRO presence was correlated with an increase in arrests but no reduction in violence within schools.

“Within schools that have SROs, we do not find evidence that SROs are associated with better academic outcomes for students… They also do not appear to statistically contribute to a measurably safer school climate in most cases,” the report wrote. “However, they may contribute to more students experiencing discipline for minor offenses such as wearing a hat in school or similar school policy violations.”

The authors of the report Camara Stokes Hudson, Lauren Ruth and Wendy Waithe Simmons wrote in the executive summary that unlike

security guards and administrators, SROs could arrest students, which can lead to trauma, not only for the students but also their families and other observers.

The report also found that Latinx students in the state are six times more likely to be referred to law enforcement in schools with SROs. In 2020, New Haven school administrators also reported that although Black students consist 18.6 percent of NHPS students, they made up 41 percent of suspensions in New Haven in the past five years.

The SRO program was established in 1994.

Contact CHRISTIAN ROBLES at christian.robles@yale.edu and RAZEL SUANSING at razel.suansing@yale.edu .

ZOE BERG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Last month, the NHPD reduced the number of school resource officers in Elm City from nine to three due to budget cuts.

PAGE 12

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

THROUGH THE LENS

R

emember how fall smelled on Old Campus. Sharp and clean and sweet. The way the trees glowed iridescent yellow in the sunlight as we walked to class. The way we nodded at familiar faces, a silent salute suspended between passing smiles.

Remember how the Harkness bells reverberated through the courtyards, echoing within the space between our souls. A ballad of belonging.

Remember how we danced, our shoes sticking to the tacky floor, our bodies pressed together. How the air was humid and thick, laden with passion. Remember how free we felt, skin against skin, hearts pulsing in time with the pounding bass. Young and reckless. Alive.

Remember how small we felt, bathed in the silken twilight of the stacks, the dust particles illuminated by the slant of the fading sun. Enshrined in a hallowed temple of wisdom, breathing in the papery musk of the past. Reverent and still.

Remember how our hands cramped as we scribbled to fill bluebooks. How the smell of chalk and nerves blended together in the drafty auditorium. The anxious jitters. The frenetic energy. That final rush when the exam was over, and we stumbled bleary-eyed back into daylight.

Remember how we cried. When deadlines loomed like icebergs and time was fine sand slipping through our fingers. When we fell too hard and too fast, when we felt too deeply.

Remember how we loved. How shy glances and clumsy chatter stretched into endless summer nights. How first dates became pizza on the dorm room floor. How life felt more saturated— unfocused and overexposed. How the world felt lighter, safer.

How this became Home.

Remember how we raised our glasses. To this. To Yale. To the friends forever. To the ones we’ll never see again. To the faces and places that defined us. That molded us like wet clay. That threatened to break us. That saved us.

Remember?

Words by KELSEY BOWEN. Photos by SYDNEY BOWEN.

PAGE 13

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

BULLETIN BOARD Illustrations

DORA GUO is a sophomore in Pierson College. Contact her at dora.guo@yale.edu .

GIOVANNA TRUONG is a sophomore in Pauli Murray College. Contact her at giovanna.truong@yale.edu .

SOPHIE HENRY is a sophomore in Jonathan Edwards College. Contact her at sophie.henry@yale.edu .

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1. Set down 4. Not dis 7. Losing party in a 22-Across 10. ___ Wednesday 11. Card game also known as Slap 12. Measure ratified by Virginia in 2020 13. Country girl on my mind in old song 15. Letter after sigma 16. Trial's partner 17. Pictures you can click 19. Houston-born singer-songwriter, to fans 21. Ginormous 22. A cafe at 276 York, or a description of 13- and 34-Across in 2020 25. Ones paid to play 26. Maddie's sister in a Disney show 27. Shopper's needs 29. Premiere 33. How Facebook makes money 34. Popular iced tea brand 36. Michelle Obama ___ Robinson 37. What this crossword is, hopefully 38. Hartford airport code

1

2

3

4

10

5

6

7

11

13

9

31

32

12

14

15

16

17 19 22

8

20

23

18 21

24

25

26

27

28

33

34

36

37

38

39

40

41

39. Hall at 1 Prospect St 40. Future omelet, maybe 41. Rays, in Rio

29

30

35

9. Button next to play 14. Healthy and hardy 18. Labor activist born in 34-Across 20. Famous luxury initials 22. Future wives DOWN 1. You might turn one 23. We inflict many of them upon Harvard 2. App consumer 3. Son of Odin 24. Comfort and joy, in 4. Every Yalie seeks a Christmas song one (or more!)

25. Makes arrangements 5. Singer Grande, to fans 28. What's better than sorry, in a phrase 6. Center for Innovative Thinking 30. Woodward, Dole, at Yale namesake and Ross 7. 2017 Oscar winner 31. Ctrl-Z function for Best Original 32. Small, at Starbucks Screenplay 35. Where bugs are 8. East Rock street snug ISAAC YU is a first year in Berkeley College. Contact him at isaac.yu@yale.edu .

NBA 76ers 123 Nets 117

NBA Knicks 116 Pelicans 106

NWSL Gotham FC 1 Pride 0

SPORTS

NCAA BASEBALL La Salle 6 Penn 4

FOR MORE SPORTS CONTENT, VISIT OUR WEB SITE goydn.com/YDNsports Twitter: @YDNSports YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

YALE GOLF COURSE REOPENED APRIL 13 After being closed for the winter, the Yale Golf Course reopened Tuesday, April 13.

Golfers can now play hole nine, “Biarritz,” after construction on a dam was completed earlier this year. Handsome Dan XIX visited the course for opening day.

WOMEN’S SOCCER MICHELLE ALOZIE ’19 On April 5, the Houston Dash added Michelle Alozie ’19 to its roster as a National Team Replacement Player. Her temporary contract, which ended Wednesday, gave her a stage to impress the Dash while the team plays in the NWSL Challenge Cup.

Behind the Venue: Gilder Boathouse

“We really try and praise that, [when players] put themselves in positions for the betterment of the team and they’re not guaranteed any accolades or any success. ” ANDY SHAY YALE M. LACROSSE HEAD COACH

'ONE' guides pandemicera men's lacrosse

BY AKSHAR AGARWAL AND AMELIA LOWER STAFF REPORTERS During a semester when nearly the entire team is dispersed throughout the country, far from Reese Stadium and Yale’s campus, the Yale men’s lacrosse program’s motto — “ONE: Only Need Everybody” — holds extra meaning.

M. LACROSSE ANASTHASIA SHILOV AND ZULLY ARIAS/ILLUSTRATIONS EDITOR AND PRODUCTION & DESIGN EDITOR

Dedicated in Oct. 2000, Gilder Boathouse is home to the men’s heavyweight, men’s lightweight and women’s crew teams.

BY REHAN MELWANI STAFF REPORTER Situated at the finish line of Yale’s 2000-meter race course, Yale oarsmen and women have called Gilder Boathouse home for over 20 years.

While Yale crews have graced the waters of Lake Housatonic since 1918, Gilder Boathouse speaks to the progress Yale has made toward gender equality in sports since 1969.

Dedicated on Oct. 21, 2000, the boathouse bears the name of its pair of benefactors, Virginia Gilder ’79 and her father, Richard Gilder Jr. ’54, who donated $4 million for the construction. For Virginia Gilder, former Yale women’s rower and 1984 Olympic silver medalist, the origins of the boathouse and the concept of the facility predate its construction by nearly 30 years.

During the early days of women’s varsity athletics at Yale in the 1970s, the old boathouse, called the Robert Cooke Boathouse, did not provide

the women’s crew team with the same facilities as the men’s teams — the women rented a trailer with a few cold showers to use after practice. In protest, 19 members of the women’s team entered then-athletic director Joni Barnett’s office on March 3, 1976, stripped of clothing, with the words “Title IX” painted across their chests and backs. There, the women demanded that Yale make the necessary changes to provide them with equal facilities.

The University responded with a renovation — completed a year later, in time for the 1977 spring rowing season — which gave the women’s team a boatbay to themselves as well as a locker room and showers, according to women’s crew alum and Yale Medal award winner Anne Boucher ’80. Yet Yale’s initial reaction to the demonstration — a fundraiser — was not enough, Gilder noted.

A new facility for the new century Encouraged by a close friend and

Yale teammate, Gilder asked her father, a successful investor, to support the construction of a new boathouse. Gilder said she was initially hesitant to do so, not wanting to stand out among her peers. However, once she recognized the potential impact this new boathouse could have on the Yale community, Gilder understood that her father’s financial support was a necessary means.

With the Gilder donation, the actions of the women’s crew team in 1976 would finally receive a response up to Gilder’s standards. The project began to materialize.

“In terms of what it did for the Yale crews, and what it did specifically for the women’s crew, it put a stake in the ground,” Gilder said. “We belong here as much as anybody else. Women pull their weight in all ways.”

According to Gilder, the family donated to Yale with three conditions in mind: a design comSEE VENUE PAGE 10

Bulldogs set sights on fall return

BY AMELIA LOWER STAFF REPORTER On Thursday morning, former Yale women’s rower Kristina Wagner ’15 finished in first place at U.S. Olympic Trials II with doubles partner Genevra Stone. The victory granted the pair a spot on Team USA to compete at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in the double sculls event, or W2x.

LUKAS FLIPPO/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Although the Ivy League has not made an official announcement about the fall, the volleyball team anticipates reunification.

In interviews with the News, members of Yale’s varsity volleyball team expressed a common theme: hope and optimism.

VOLLEYBALL The Bulldogs remained in touch via Zoom activities and continued to host modified practices throughout the year. While the Ivy League has yet to announce its plans for the fall season, the team is preparing to compete.

“I’m excited to get back to my teammates, and I miss all the peo-

ple that I haven’t seen in a while,” team captain and outside hitter Ellis DeJardin ’22 told the News. “Mostly, I just miss being with them and having that extra outlet as a kind of break from school and grinding. We get to focus on a different kind of grind — one that works with teamwork and competition. … I’m looking forward to that.”

Despite fewer students on campus this fall, the four team members in New Haven have been able to practice and interact throughout the semester. They have been working on conditioning and modified drills to stay in shape. DeJardin

STAT OF THE WEEK

SEE VOLLEYBALL PAGE 10

202

Players and alumni said it not only reflects the sense of unity that made the program a force in the world of collegiate lacrosse, but also the Bulldogs’ perpetual dedication to the team during a year of separation.

The program has enjoyed massive success in recent years — including two consecutive trips to the championship game of the NCAA Tournament, which led to a maiden NCAA title in 2018 — but

in the late 1990s, Yale sat towards the bottom of the Ivy League rankings. With head coach Andy Shay’s arrival in 2003 and his incorporation of the phrase “ONE,” he established the foundation for today’s strong program and a team culture centered around teamwork and dedication.

“We've always been big on needing everybody and making sure that everybody contributes their part, so I think [the acronym] came kind of naturally around probably 2011,” Shay said in an interview with the News. “We try and put a premium on every guy on the team. It’s not a slogan, [and] it’s not lip service. It’s very real in our program, and the guys that don’t play are really good embodiments of that.”

Shay told the News that he initially got the idea of ONE from fellow assistant coach at the University of Delaware Scott Marr, who SEE M. LACROSSE PAGE 10

COURTESY OF YALE ATHLETICS AND AKSHAR AGARWAL/CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATOR

Years after the acronym “ONE” emerged as the embodiment of the program’s culture under Shay, it has new significance during the pandemic.

Wagner ’15 qualifies for Tokyo Olympics

W. CREW

BYÁNGELA PÉREZ STAFF REPORTER

NCAA SOFTBALL Holy Cross 8 Brown 5

Off the start line, Wagner and Stone slipped into third before edging their way up to first place position around halfway through the course. With around 500 meters left of the race, the duo decisively moved ahead of Meghan O’Leary and Ellen Tomek, the early race leaders, into a strong gold medal position. Wagner and Stone crossed the finish line just under four seconds faster than the second place crew.

“It is exciting, but it definitely has not sunk in yet,” Wagner said in a text to the News. “I’m really excited to continue rowing with Gevvie and learning from her.

We both want to continue getting faster.”

Following their win at the trials, Wagner and Stone plan on returning to Boston to continue their training in anticipation of the Tokyo Olympics, beginning on July 23.

Following the time trial on Monday, in which the duo placed third, Wagner and Stone crossed the finish line first on Tuesday,

Wednesday and Thursday, with their fastest time of 7:04.18 on Wednesday in the semifinal.

“The week of racing went by pretty quickly, [and] due to weather there were a few changes in schedule so there was no day off,” Wagner said. “We took things day by day and just wanted to keep improving race to race, which I think we did.”

This week’s trials in Princeton, New Jersey, followed U.S. Olympic Trials I which took place in Sarasota, Florida, in March. At Trials I, Wagner finished third behind Kara Kohler and Stone, respectively, in the women’s single sculls final.

While Wagner and Stone will have to wait until July to compete in the games, their chances at earning a spot in the final in Tokyo look promising. O’Leary and Tomek, the second-placed crew at Trials II, were finalists in the 2016 Olympic Games in the double sculls and most recently

secured a silver medal at the 2019 World Rowing Cup III. Wagner’s partner, Stone, is a 2016 Olympic silver medalist in the single, and she placed fifth with Cicely Madden at the 2019 World Rowing Championships in the double.

“I could not be more proud of Kristi, her determination is awesome,” William Porter, Yale women’s crew head coach said.

“She is a great athlete who has worked very hard for this. She deserves all the credit.”

Porter continued to say that Wagner has joined an elite group of Yale women’s crew Olympians including legends of the sport Chris Ernst, Ginny Gilder, Anne Warner, Taylor Ritzel, Ashley Brzozowicz, Tess Gerrand, Jamie Redman and Rachel Jeffers, as well as incoming first year Christina Bourmpou.

Wagner mentioned that she thinks it is “pretty cool” that both SEE W. CREW PAGE 10

COURTESY OF US ROWING

On Thursday, Wagner ’15 and Stone placed first at U.S. Olympic Trials II, clinching their spot on Team USA as the women’s double scull.

NUMBER OF KILLS YALE VOLLEYBALL CAPTAIN ELLIS DEJARDIN ’22 CONTRIBUTED DURING THE 2019 SEASON.

FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2021

WEEKEND // DORA GUO

Spring Holidays at Yale: How the Pandemic Changed Community Celebration // BY JULIA LEVI As Passover approached in late March, Rabbi Jason Rubenstein, Yale’s Jewish chaplain, recalls thinking about Exodus 12, where the Israelites huddled in their homes in Egypt to protect themselves from the 10th plague, a force of death raging in the world. Exactly one year after the start of the pandemic, the similarity between the biblical Passover story and our world today felt apt. Yet celebrating the holiday under COVID-19 restrictions complicated the notions of how to traditionally observe it.

This is the case for all the religious holidays this spring, including Passover, Easter and Ramadan; the pandemic took away our ability to share physical space and eat, pray and sing together. At a Passover Seder, family and friends gather to read the Exodus story followed by a long meal. Easter too, involves a communal supper after Sunday services, with a week of reflection and prayer commencing on Palm Sunday. Ramadan, the monthlong Muslim fast, which began on April 12, is also deeply community-based. After a day of fasting, people pray at the musalla and come together with friends, family and neighbors for Iftar, the meal after sunset. The pandemic changed the ways Yale communities celebrated these holidays, first in 2020 when we were all at home, and then again this year when students are following social-distancing guidelines together on campus.

In a “normal” pre-pandemic year at Yale, the spring holidays are celebrated with large gatherings. Passover is celebrated with Seders at the Slifka Center and daily prayer services. Last year, when the Yale community was sent home, students were able to hold Seders among family members — and even friends over Zoom.

Yet, because life under COVID-19 was so new, there were no guidelines for how to celebrate as a Yale community.

“We held a ‘how to do your own pandemic Seder’ session on Zoom, but there was no actual organized Zoom Seder,” said Rabbi Rubenstein. But Zoom itself was a poor substitute for community — instead, the written word, through the student-run Shibboleth Journal — maintained community bonds. Last year, Dov Greenwood ’22 put together Passover reflection pieces to

maintain a sense of connection during the pandemic. It was reissued again this year.

This year, Yale students on campus were able to celebrate Passover together, but in a different way. Instead of large, organized seders, students attended small, outdoor gatherings.

“I attended a Seder organized in Ben Franklin by a friend — we sat outside, used a tent in the courtyard and had a dessert Seder, recreating a family atmosphere,” said Max Heimowitz ’23.

In terms of large, organized events, the only celebration of the kind was a Passover supply distribution at the backyard of Rabbi Alex Ozar and Lauren Steinberg, the OU-Jewish Learning Initiative couple at Yale. Slifka volunteers gave out wine, Haggadahs (Passover Seder books), matzo and frozen meals to Yale community members.

“240 people signed up for Passover food giveaways, and on a normal year, we have around 350 people who either attend our Seders or sign up for Seders-to-go,” explained Rabbi Rubenstein, “meaning the student drop off this year was less than one third, which is less than any other drop off we’ve had during the pandemic.”

Easter at Yale and the weeks leading up to it is the time of lent, a period of reflection, and is the focus of spring semester programming. For many, this is a time to grow closer to their faith and reflect more broadly on their lives. Yale students involved in the Episcopal Church at Yale are encouraged to be baptized if they haven’t yet, and participate in confirmation, which involves gathering for classes. It is also a time for graduating seniors to reflect on their journeys at Yale and to recommit to their faith, as they enter a time of transition.

“The pandemic and the use of Zoom completely changed this —we’ve had to take a different approach to programming,” said Brandon Chambers ’21, congregational council co-chair of the ECY. “Last year, we weren’t prepared at all, as we were new to Zoom,” said Chambers. “We set up a slide show which wasn’t very well organized, but was the best we could do at the time, and had our musical director play his keyboard over Zoom.”

Over the summer, the ECY thought about

ways to deal with Zoom worship, including reflective and contemplative slide shows and prerecorded hymns at services. This year, from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, the ECY held five Zoom services. Saturday’s service was a joint, hybrid event with Trinity Church on the New Haven Green, which included a group of Connecticut’s bishops and priests as well as the Trinity Church’s priest, who were together in person while viewers tuned in virtually. To accommodate this year’s conditions, virtual Easter Sunday services were followed by a series of films shown over Zoom. Replacing the regular communal Sunday supper, ECY sent Grubhub gift cards to Yale students to use while they watched the films. “This year, students are in different living and learning situations, and so while we haven’t been able to have Sunday dinners, we’ve also been able to reach out to a lot of new students who find the Zoom services to be meaningful,” said Chambers.

When it comes to Ramadan, Yale students are accustomed to fasting during the day and then breaking their fast at a designated dining hall, typically at Morse College, which is open later than others. There is a designated table for those six days a week for those observing Ramadan, and on Friday nights, one could typically find a 150plus person meal at either Battell or Dwight Chapel catered by a local New Haven business. Occasionally, over the weekends, students would have access to a college buttery to make food for each other at night.

Spiritual programming was just as popular — regular Friday evening prayers on campus would consist of around 150 people at the musalla in the basement of Bingham Hall. Last year, Ramadan began on April 23, when all mosques were shut down and nearly everyone was home.

“Some mosques offered digital prayer services, but it was disappointing how spiritually and socially isolating it was,” said Omer Bajwa, director of Muslim life in the Chaplain’s Office at Yale. However, “The fact that people were home with their families to reconnect and celebrate made the holiday manageable,” said Bajwa.

This year, students are separate from their families but cannot come together for

large gatherings. Because the dining hall is grab-and-go style, students with meal plans enter at around 7:30 for Iftar and grab a box with their name on it.

“So far this year we’ve consistently done Zoom services on Friday nights, but instead of the typical Muslim service of prayers and sermons, we only do the sermons,” explained Bajwa. “I also teach a Halaqa, a study group, every Monday night which will continue through Ramadan, but we won’t be livestreaming any special prayer services.”

Bajwa noted that the strong community aspect of Ramadan is hard to emulate this year: “Ramadan is also a very intimately personal and spiritual exercise — it is your own experience and no one knows if you’re doing it or not or how tough or easy it is for you.”

While religious groups on campus have faced many external factors that have affected how they can observe their spring holidays, the pandemic posed challenges that have proved the resilience and adaptability of their traditions. “Our faith teaches us to be adaptable — we will learn how to navigate this year’s unique challenges, and it is the responsibility of spiritual leaders to imagine ways to make it meaningful and establish connections between people,” said Bajwa.

Rabbi Rubenstein, when reflecting on the response to this year’s Passover programing noted the tenacity of the memory of Passover. “Jews have held onto it, and it has held onto our community,” he said.

Heimowitz noted how “despite the simming virtual Zoom void, I’ve been floored by all the community efforts here on campus — we send things out there and hope that people show up, and it’s comforting to know that people care.”

In terms of incorporating virtual elements developed throughout the pandemic, religious groups on campus hope to go back to completely normal programming by next year. However, “on a more individual level, our members have gotten closer to each other this year during these difficult times,” said Chambers. “Hopefully this will last for a very long time.”

Contact JULIA LEVI at julia.levi @yale.edu .

PAGE B2

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND READING

‘Klara and the Sun’ Review // BY DANIEL EDISON

// SOPHIE HENRY

I didn’t read much fiction in high school.

I remember feeling that I was lost and that I needed grounding — a point of orientation around which my life would start to make sense, around which I could make my decisions. And I thought that this point of orientation couldn’t be found in fiction. I demanded something more concrete and definitive. I turned to philosophy and history, believing that they would offer me the answers I wanted.

While I never found these answers, I always assumed this was because I hadn’t yet found the right author, or the right book, and that when I did, everything would click.

It wasn’t until I read Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “Notes From the Underground” that I realized what I was looking for couldn’t be found in nonfiction — that illuminating the human condition can’t be done once and for all, definitively and conclusively. Rather I began to rediscover fiction as a means of digging away and uncovering — of thinking and feeling with characters and stories so as to see myself in other and others in myself. While fiction doesn’t — or perhaps shouldn’t — attempt to offer easy answers as to the meaning of life or the nature of existence, great literature brings light to places within us which remain unseen. We get closer to understanding ourselves when we come across great literature. This happened for me when I read Dostoevsky for the first time in high school, and it also happened to me when I first read Kazuo Ishiguro in the fall of my first year at Yale.

When Ishiguro won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017, the Swedish Academy wrote that “in novels of great emotional force, [he] has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world.” Indeed, Ishiguro has carved out a space for himself as a generational talent, and for me, a source of much needed existential insight through his writing. From his early work in “An Artist of the Floating World” to the Booker Prize-winning “Remains of the Day” and the highly acclaimed “Never Let Me Go,” Ishiguro uses sensitive, complex, dishonest and fragile narrators, allowing the nature of remembrance and recollection to weave complex emotional textures and grammars, granting his readers moments of heartbreak and bringing light to the experience of being human.

Ishiguro’s newest novel is called “Klara and the Sun.” It is a story of loneliness and love told from the perspective of AF Girl Klara, an artificial intelligence programmed to offer friendship to a lonely teenager named Josie. The continuities with his earlier work are clear — between Klara, the service robot and the butler, Mr. Stevens, from “The Remains of the Day”; between Josie, who is genetically modified to receive intellectual advantage and Kathy, the genetically modified clone who narrates “Never Let Me Go”; and in the themes of collective memory and fascism, which make themselves felt in the shadows cast by almost all of Ishiguro’s major works. The most important continuities, however, lie in the book’s emotional sensibility and its fundamental questions.

The project at the core of “Klara and the Sun,” if there can be said to be one, remains the same as the rest of Ishiguro’s work: to explore the universal nature of the human experience in all of its emotional and intricacies and ambiguities — to dig away at the immediate world which surrounds us and to examine what lies below. In this context, the uniquely inhuman approach offered by Klara’s perspective proves insightful, and the distinctive character of the novel emerges through her voice.

In her journey to understand Josie, her teenager, Klara must try to understand humanity itself. She acts as a fly on the wall, taking in her human surroundings in a manner which brings the reader into unique positions of distanced intimacy with Josie’s family and friends. Although Ishiguro cer-

tainly humanizes Klara in this process, he maintains a separation between the artificial narrator and the human characters. While she seeks to comprehend humanity, Klara never quite does. In the novel’s most sensitive moments, the narrator herself fails to grasp the emotional depth. Among the most touching of such moments is when Klara, still in her store, witnesses what seems to be the reunion of two long-separated friends on the street. “‘They seem so happy,’ I said. ‘But it’s strange because they also seem upset.’”

Klara doesn’t understand why this moment is special, yet Ishiguro makes it clear that it is. He allows the human reader to feel something that the inhuman narrator doesn’t.

This approach is what allows “Klara and the Sun” to get at such important questions — his work, while far from philosophical doctrine or nonfiction exegesis, places us in positions from which we understand ourselves better by allowing us to read ourselves into the story. What Klara misses we don’t, meaning the emotional weight is ours, not hers.

Klara watches, reports and analyzes, but it is left to the reader to connect the dots. This implies an important distinction between human and inhuman — Klara doesn’t generate her own meaning, but rather can only define her life in terms of others. These others are us, humans, who rely on ourselves to project meaning into our surroundings. Of course, with this human possibility for independence comes the possibility for loneliness, a specter which permeates the text. As much as she misses about her human companions, Klara is apt to acknowledge that “all humans are lonely. At least potentially.”

With loneliness, as with all the human elements of the book, the most insightful implications come from what Ishiguro in fact leaves out of Klara’s internal monologue.

One of the most heartbreaking characters is Miss Helen, the mother of Josie’s best friend Rick. After Helen asks Klara to help Rick prepare his application to a prestigious university, the only chance at a successful life he has as an “unlifted” (not genetically modified) child, Klara expresses her surprise that “someone would desire so much a path that would leave her in loneliness.” It strikes Klara as unusual, and perhaps selfless, that a mother with little to cherish and love beyond their child should work so hard just for their son to move out and away to attend a distant school. However, we come to learn that Helen believes Rick’s chance at admission rests on an interview with a man named Vance, who, while on the university’s board of admissions, is also a former lover of Helen’s, and about whom Helen seems to have unresolved feelings and lingering regret. What Klara narrates as an act of love and sacrifice takes on the tone of something deeper, perhaps tied more to Helen’s past than Rick’s future.

Josie’s Mother is equally layered. While unlike Helen, Josie’s Mother did choose to have her kids “lifted,” the procedure has left Josie debilitated by a chronic and potentially deadly disease. So while Klara first understands the Mother as hoping to alleviate her daughter’s sickness and to strengthen their bond, it becomes painfully clear that the Mother’s love is equally selfish as it is selfless, driven by the prospective guilt that Josie’s death would bring. What on the surface are symbols of love — her commissioning of Josie’s portrait, her asking of Klara to learn everything possible about Josie’s personality and past and her hesitation to allow Josie to spend time with her father — are slowly revealed to be emotional manipulation, self-loathing and guilt begging to be relieved.

Ishiguro’s characters are haunted by their past, by the weight of decisions which they have already made and the consequences of which they must accept. In this sense, the essential condition of humanity is indeed loneliness. Helen is possessed by her guilt: “I’ve become…fragile. So fragile that I’m

WKND RECOMMENDS Enjoying the spring tulips.

liable to break into pieces in a puff of wind.

I lost my beauty, not to the years but to this fragility. But Vance, dear Vance. Won’t you forgive me now at least partially? Won’t you help my son?” We each carry a responsibility for our decisions, a responsibility which can result in guilt as easily as it can bliss. She feels guilt for not lifting Rick, and she feels guilt for hurting those she used to love. It is never clear whether she acts out of love or out of regret. “Vance. I’d offer you everything, anything, but there’s nothing I can think to offer you. Nothing at all, other than this pleading. So I’m begging you, Vance, to help him.”

Regret permeates the very being of the adults in “Klara and the Sun.” They seek redemption or punishment — some way to avoid the sheer and constant loneliness of guilt. And this is where Ishiguro widens his lens, moving away from the individual to the collective, for it is in the dangerous desire to overcome guilt, to deny responsibility, that the weight of loneliness is traded for an artificial and violent collectivity. Lurking in the background of Ishiguro’s novel are ambiguous communities, at some points suggested to be fascistic, which individuals enter to find solidarity. These are not new themes for Ishiguro. “An Artist of the Floating World” offers us a glimpse into a Japanese artist’s struggle to come to terms with his role in developing Japanese fascism; “The Remains of The Days” is narrated by a butler complicit in the rise of Nazi sympathy in Britain; and “The Unconsoled” and “The Buried Giant” deal directly with how collective uncertainty, guilt, loneliness and aversion to personal responsibility allow violent collectivities to put us under their sway.

Klara is such an important narrator in Ishiguro’s work because she widens the question of “What is humanity?” She unmasks the possibility that, while on the one hand it may be impossible to recreate human nature, on the other hand, it may be perfectly possible to lose it. Or to betray it. While Klara doesn’t have the capacity to live her life with the existential character of lonely responsibility, the humans in the novel, particularly the haunted adults, struggle with the desire to reject this condition, to sink into a collective identity and to lose what makes them individuals. Part of what makes Helen’s emotional breakdown so poignant is the self-destructive nature on which it’s based. She seeks to absolve her guilt at any cost, even at the cost of punishment.

However, Helen’s existential guilt also points to an answer which lies at the heart of the novel’s uniquely optimistic character: forgiveness.

Helen wants forgiveness. Forgiveness from a mistreated lover and forgiveness from her child, who lives “unlifted.” What Josie’s Mother wants is forgiveness. Forgiveness for a decision which has left her daughter in a state of perpetual precarity. Forgiveness is what makes “Klara and the Sun” a novel as equally hopeful as regretful. It is what makes the novel equally about love as about loneliness.

But again, the spiritual redemption which comes from forgiveness, and the hope which it gives to the novel, cannot be teased out of Klara herself. While she may be the most hopeful of the characters in the novel, Ishiguro presents her hope as an almost mystic faith in the power of the sun. Klara constantly repeats, at Josie’s most fragile moments, that “it occurred to me that this was the ideal time for the Sun to send his special help,” and her relationship with the sun is what she perceives as the key to her quest. However, we can again find a more fleshed out sense of what truly drives the novel by looking not at the internal monologue Klara offers us, but at the subtext of what she actually says.

After Josie and Rick begin to fight and drift apart, Josie draws a picture for Rick, which Klara seems to know may help move the two towards reconciliation, suggesting that “I’d very much like to take Josie’s picture to Rick.

It would be good for me to explore the outside. And if Rick receives this special picture, he may forgive Josie and be her best friend.”

While she doesn’t say as much to the audience in her narration, Klara seems to understand that forgiveness carries with it significance, that it offers, particularly between two teenagers with more future than history, a way to create love.

Forgiveness contains a unique capability to transcend the lonely responsibility which haunts the adults in the novel. Indeed, it seems that only the young truly have the power to forgive in “Klara and the Sun,” reminding us of the politics of generational memory which Ishiguro holds so importantly. We, as human beings in the year 2021, certainly live in a world defined by collective guilt for the past, and perhaps forgiveness is the only way forward. Or perhaps the only human way forward.

In her philosophical text “The Human Condition,” Hannah Arendt writes that “without being forgiven, released from the consequences of what we have done, our capacity to act would, as it were, be confined to one single deed from which we could never recover; we would remain the victims of its consequences forever.” We cannot act out of genuine solidarity if we continue to be haunted by guilt. For Ishiguro this seems to be true on the level of the individual, and for Arendt, at the level of the community. The only way Rick and Josie’s mothers can truly love their children is if they know that they, as complex and imperfect parents, have been forgiven. And perhaps forgiveness can play some part in reorienting the 21st century around human dignity and respect.

Arendt warns us that “the alternative to forgiveness, but by no means its opposite, is punishment.” Which alternative will we choose?

The characters in “Klara and the Sun” choose the right path — the path of forgiveness, but as always, this is not something which is immediately clear in the text. When Josie ultimately gets better, Klara believes she’s been saved by the sun, and by the healing power it brings, choosing to present as the catharsis the moment in which the blinds to Josie’s room are lifted, seemingly reviving the teenager. But again, perhaps even Klara on some level understands that the truly significant moment comes earlier, when Rick relays a message that Josie has asked him to tell her mother.

“She says that no matter what happens now, never mind how it plays out, she loves you and will always love you. She’s grateful you’re her mother and she never even once wished for any other. That’s what she said. And there was more. On this question of being lifted. She wants you to know she wouldn’t wish it any other way. If she had the power to do it again, and this time it was up to her, she says she’d do exactly what you did and you’ll always be the best mother she could have. That’s about it.”

Josie forgives her mother. And so Ishiguro’s novel ends not with the suggestion that technology is destroying humanity, or that genetic modification is a mortal threat to our existence, but with a sense of hope.

Of course, Ishiguro remains an artist, not a theorist nor a philosopher, so to read such concrete questions and answers into his work is, on some level, to miss the point. But what he does with his newest novel is to continue the essential work of digging, illuminating and clarifying what lies inside of us.

And at least part of what lies inside of us, as individual human beings and as communities, is the capacity to forgive.

For all she gets wrong about the human condition, Klara in this sense understands more than we when she reminds us that “in the morning when the Sun returns. It’s possible for us to hope.”

Contact DANIEL EDISON at daniel.edison@yale.edu .

ONLINE THIS WEEK: SWIFTIES FOR LIFE: Owen Tucker-Smith and Madeline Art on revisiting and reinventing yourself.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE B3

WEEKEND LISTENING

Madredeus at Midnight // DORA GUO

// BY XAVIER BLACKWELL-LIPKIND A little more than a week ago, on a dull gray Saturday, I heard a song I had long forgotten, or maybe never really known: “Haja O Que Houver” by the Portuguese group Madredeus.

Madredeus combines folk music and Portuguese traditional music into a whirlwind of thrumming sound. The founders included Teresa Salgueiro — the group’s original vocalist — and a quartet of instrumentalists: a classical guitarist, a keyboard player, a cellist and an accordion player. Over the years, the lineup has shifted, but the original five remain the most famous.

I don’t know when I first heard “Haja O Que Houver,” or where. I know that my parents have always loved Madredeus, that decades ago they discovered its music in a movie I still haven’t seen and may never see called “Lisbon Story.” I know that they played these songs for my older brother right after he was born — and just before, too.

I have no memory of hearing the music of Madredeus as a kid. But when “Haja O Que Houver” appeared on a random playlist of songs recommended to me by Apple Music, I was struck by what the Portuguese might call “saudade.” A deep feeling of nostalgia for something I’ve never known.

I’m at home this semester and have developed a habit of taking long late-night walks around my suburban neighborhood on the weekends. On that Saturday, I found a pair of earbuds, grabbed a light jacket and began to walk down the long empty road a block east of my house.

I listened to “Haja O Que Houver” five times. The ethereal melody echoed over and over as I made my way toward the curve in the road. At one point, I looked up at the moon and stared at its yellow glow until I tripped on the curb and almost fell into the wet grass.

My house is near the highway, and this road runs next to it, coming closest to I-84 right as its two lanes snake up the hill past the elementary school. I got to the base of that hill and saw the green sign with white lettering peek over the fence. Heard the sound of an angry truck driver striking the center of the steering wheel with a balled fist.

“Haja o que houver, eu estou aqui,” Salgueiro sang. “Come what may, I am here.” I wondered whether the truck driver would ever hear this song.

As I approached the top of the hill, “Haja O Que Houver” came to an end for the fifth time. I clicked on another song, “O Pastor,” and was struck again by the same feeling of longing, a feeling so powerful that I stopped for a moment on the road and listened in total silence. Midnight.

The houses sat low, lights above their front doors casting wispy shadows over the sidewalk and onto the street. Earlier that day, I had seen a raccoon, fat and scruffy, waddle across a road and slink into the sewer.

Where was he now? The accordion pulsed with quiet energy, and I tried once more to remember when I might have heard this song. Nothing.

Do you know when you dream about a

place you know, then walk past that place in real life and feel a nagging sense that something is missing, that the place in the dream had something that the place in real life lacks, like a color, or a smell, or a sound in the trees? Do you know when you dream about a world in which something is assumed to be normal, even boring, then wake and realize that this thing is neither normal nor boring?

Then you know how Madredeus affects me.

The next morning, when I told my parents I had listened to Madredeus, my mom’s eyes widened.

“Oh my gosh,” she said, as if my words had opened some invisible door in the air before her eyes. She told me that when she was pregnant with my older brother, she used to lie on the couch with my dad in the dark and listen to Madredeus. For hours, she said.

As my dad made eggs, I played “O Pastor,” and we stood in silence, each of us somewhere different. Each of us in a place from a different dream.

Rarely have I felt as alive as I do now. I’m listening to Madredeus and typing and no doubt failing to express what this music does to me. Maybe that’s it, maybe that’s the best explanation: This music does something to me. It doesn’t make me feel something.

Feeling is superficial, subjective. Madredeus affects me physically.

It’s important to be reminded that you’re alive, especially during a pandemic.

I don’t mean “alive” in the sense that your heart is pumping blood to your brain. I mean “alive” in the sense that you regis-

ter on some deep, instinctive level that you are here, existing, conscious, a body taking up space on a couch at night. It’s a grim, beautiful, quiet, meaningless, life-affirming experience.

“Alfama” begins to play. Frantic plucking of guitar strings, furious bowing of cello strings. A cacophony of strings. This song is faster, more anxious than “Haja O Que Houver” or “O Pastor,” yet it affects me in exactly the same way.

She starts to sing. Her voice is simple, plaintive, pure. It rings like a bell struck once by a silver mallet. “This is music,” I think.

The emphasis isn’t on “this” or “music” but on “is.” As if for a moment, I doubted myself, asked whether this sound could possibly be real, then concluded that it must be real, that I’m here, listening, hearing. And there’s nothing more real than that.

After I finish this piece I’ll once again find a pair of earbuds, grab a light jacket and begin to walk down the long empty road a block east of my house. But for now I’m content to sit and type, to feel my fingertips strike the keys with trembling force, to hear a song from a place in a dream I dreamed long ago, to smell Lisbon, or at least what I imagine Lisbon might smell like. To feel alive. To be made alive.

“Agora que lembro,” sings the woman.

“Now … I remember.”

I do.

Contact XAVIER BLACKWELL-LIPKIND at xavier.blackwell-lipkind@yale.edu .

ONLINE THIS WEEK: WKND RECOMMENDS The blossoming trees in Wooster Square.

GETTING TO THE ROOT OF IDENTITY: Mel Adams ‘24 explores gender presentation and haircuts.

PAGE B4

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2021 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND BEING

// DORA GUO

// BY JESSAI FLORES One year ago, one fateful March, I sat on a bench upon the Old Campus and I watched my life at Yale come to an end. The air was warm and the day was bleak. Students darted from corner to corner trying to flee as the University began to shut down. Doors were closing, rooms were emptied and I saw it all from that wooden bench. That terrible March day, the virus threw the University into a panic and I threw my life into a cardboard box and abandoned it. Since then, a wretched virus gripped my world and felled it in one blow.

It stole from me nearly two years of my college experience. It was a cruel act: the theft of a life that I had worked tirelessly to achieve.

One dark winter later, the sun has begun to dawn on the graying lawns, and yet here I am where the moon pulses in the morning. I am not part of that slow revival. I am not there to see Yale come to life after a year of abject sadness. My life at Yale is now nothing more than the ghost of the memories of a freshman year that never ended.

My ghost sits, as I once did, slack-jawed

The Rooms I Haunt on an Old Campus bench watching the days go on without him. It sits unaware that the world is stretching far from him like a shadow running from the light. The ghost of my memories waits for my return. It grieves for the life I abandoned. Yet, my ghost and I are separated by distance and time. I exist in a state of statelessness, where every day is the same as the day I returned home. The life I lead in quarantine is relentless. The sun bleeds into the moon bleeds into the sun, and the cycle has continued since it started. I awake and I sleep in the same four walls, but my spirit roams where it is trapped.

The ghost of my memories lies in repose at the base of Welch Hall. It wanders up and down the corridors of sagging brick buildings wondering where I went. It searches for me in empty classrooms and in dusty shelves. My ghost flits back and forth between the places I once was.

It darts from the seventh floor of a magnificently empty library to the wrinkled booth in the dining hall where I once ate alone. My ghost searches for me in countless places now and

evermore. And yet it keeps coming back to the place where I left it: that wooden bench among the quiet oaks of the Old Campus.

These are the rooms I haunt, where I once dared to dream. In my absence, Yale has grown gloomy and quiet. Although it is slowly coming back to life, it will never be the same again. We have all been afflicted by this virus in one way or another. We have all lost more than we can comprehend. In fact, my ghost is but one of many spirits roaming within the ivy walls. They are shades of stories left unfinished. If you look about the campus through the corners of your eyes, you may catch fleeting glimpses of abandoned lives. You will see the ghosts of students, trapped like mine is, within the gates of this University, unaware that the world has moved on without them. They will be sitting in empty lecture halls, roaming empty shelves and sulking on the lawns.

They too are the ghosts of the memories of students who had to pack up their lives in a hurry. Now these memories lay scattered

across the campus collecting dust as they yearn to be remembered.

There will come the day where I, and countless others, finally return after a year of madness. When that day arrives, Yale will be a foreign land painted in familiar colors.

I will have been on campus before, and yet I will not fully remember what I was doing there. I will lose my way. I will not recognize the faces I once talked to. I will not remember who I used to be. Eventually, as the sun of a better day casts its light on a virus-free world, the ghost of my memories will find me on the Old Campus and I will finally remember the life I put on hold. I will unpack what I put away, and I will begin again. Until then, my spirit sits on that Old Campus bench and it waits hopelessly for me. A year has passed since that fateful March cast a freeze on the world. Now, I yearn to breathe life into the rooms where my memories were left behind.

Contact JESSAI FLORES at jessai.flores@yale.edu .

Sex on the WKND: Lustless LDRs // KALINA MLADENOVA

How do you get ~spicy~ in a long-distance relationship? I miss sex, but Zoom masturbation just seems both cursed and not comparable.

Your favorite YDN sex columnist (me) is a self-described sex expert. But I have to admit: This question stumped me.

That’s probably because I’ve never survived a long-distance relationship and I absolutely hate the idea of being in a long-distance relationship. I’m currently doing everything in my power to avoid getting myself into a long-distance relationship. But I feel for you. The pandemic has turned a lot of couples into long-distance lovers, and with travel restrictions and COVID risks, it’s even harder to navigate LDRs now.

Since I don’t have much personal advice to offer, I’ve consulted some wise friends who are veterans at the LDR game. They range from people whose entire relationships were long distance (five! and! a! half! years!) and others whose relationships were forced online due to COVID. Here’s what they had to offer: 1.

If you’re used to being physically intimate together, FaceTime or phone sex is unavoidable. You’ve gotta do it. If you’re anything like me and the thought of FaceTime sex makes you want to admit yourself into a celibate convent or monastery, then start out slow.

WKND RECOMMENDS Treating yourself to rollerblades.

2.

3.

Try talking on the phone without video and tell each other what you wish you could be doing in person together. If you aren’t big chatters in the bedroom, don’t expect you’ll suddenly become smooth talkers over the phone or FaceTime. The first few times will probably be awkward and feel silly, but once you commit to it, you’ll feel the rewards. Remember how terrible your first few hookups were? But over time you found your rhythm and suddenly you were having orgasms galore? It’s the same thing with phone sex.

Be patient and find your rhythm together. (And for God’s sake, do not use Zoom. Ew. This is one instance where work should definitely not be mixed with play.)

For your LDR sex life to improve, you should make sure your non-sex life is thriving too. How’s your communication looking? Are you and your SO being honest with each other about your frustrations and desires in the relationship? Long distance is hard, and you both are bound to encounter some problems. If you feel like your SO isn’t talking to you enough (or is being too clingy), voice those concerns. There’s no way you’ll be having steamy FaceTime sex if your offline selves are discontent.

Do things together!!! Yes, online dates pale in com-

4.

5.

6.

parison to in-person ones, but you’ve still got to try! Brainstorm with your SO activities that you can attend or enjoy together. Some suggestions: virtual trivia nights, cooking classes (or just cook together over FaceTime), workouts. Netflix Party is great, but watching The Office season three together while muted on FaceTime gets old real fast. Try to recreate the spark of date nights by getting dressed up and ordering each other Grubhub. Think of ways to translate your favorite in-person activities online.

Buy a remote controlled vibrator!

Novelty is key!!! Once you feel comfortable getting it on over the phone or on FaceTime, spice things up. Try out a new toy (gift one to your SO as a surprise!), send each other photos/videos (or better yet, film a video next time you’re together to watch in the future) and mail each other letters. An LDR requires a lot of planning — scheduling calls, booking flights, etc. — and unexpected surprises can go a long way in making the relationship still feel spontaneous and exciting.

If all else fails, break up. I hate LDRs. sexonthewknd@gmail.com