Yale Daily News - September 4, 2020

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, SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 · VOL. CXLIII, NO. 1 · yaledailynews.com

Community leaders bring COVID-19 vaccine trial to YNHH

BY ROSE HOROWITCH STAFF REPORTER Thanks to advocacy from community leaders, New Haven residents — particularly those of color — will soon participate in the third phase of a COVID-19 vaccine trial conducted by Pfizer and held at the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation, or YCCI. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer was in talks with the YCCI to bring the trial to New Haven, but it was ultimately the YCCI cultural ambassadors — pastors and community leaders working to increase the participation of the African American and Hispanic communities in clinical trials — that persuaded the company, said Yale New Haven Hospital Chief Medical Officer Thomas Balcezak.

YNHH is one of more than 100 sites participating in the Phase 3 trial of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Principal investigator of the trial at

Yale, Onyema Ogbuagu, enrolled the hospital’s first participant on Aug. 26. By then, nearly 400 people had applied to join the study at Yale, including healthcare workers, Yale faculty and members of the wider community. Recruitment is ongoing and the University and its community partners are particularly trying to recruit people of color to enroll in the trial.

“If a vaccine is tested and people of color do not participate we may not know how effective the vaccine will be on people of color.

If communities of color try to wait out the results others may benefit while it will put us at a greater disadvantage,” Leroy Perry, pastor of St. Stephens American Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and a cultural ambassador, wrote in an email to the News. “To do nothing is not an option.”

Still, Perry said many memSEE VACCINE TRIAL PAGE 4

YALE DAILY NEWS

YNHH is one of more than 100 sites participating in the Phase 3 trial of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Victor Ashe '67 New changes come to shopping period makes Corp ballot

BY MATT KRISTOFFERSEN STAFF REPORTER

Nearly 5,000 miles away from New Haven, from his house in Hawaii, Jay Baptista ’23 woke up early one August morning to confusion.

Like many other students, Baptista had thought that Yale’s Online Course Selection would open up that day at 9 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time for students to sign up for lectures and sections,

actually open,” he told the News last month. “The incongruencies between emails from the registrar and what SIS [said] really seemed to confuse me along with others about what was going on.”

This year, Yale’s traditional “shopping period” — a time during which students can “shop” different classes before finalizing their course lists — has undergone significant changes by Col-

he said. In Hawaii, that meant Baptista woke up before 3 a.m. to score a virtual spot in his classes for the fall semester under a new pre-registration system piloted this year.

But morning came and went.

OCS did not open until later that afternoon. And, even though he eventually got into most of the classes he wanted, Baptista said the experience left him puzzled.

“It seemed like there was a lot of confusion about when it would

SEE SHOPPING PAGE 5

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Victor Ashe '67 obtained enough signatures to make the Yale Corporation ballot as a petition candidate.

BY VALERIE PAVILONIS STAFF REPORTER Petition candidate Victor Ashe ’67 has virtually secured a spot on the ballot for the 2021 election for the Yale Corporation, the first to do so in 18 years.

Six of the 17 members of the Yale Corporation — the chief governing body of the University — are alumni fellows, or members elected directly by alumni each SEE ASHE PAGE 4

JAMES LARSON/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Virtual learning has necessitated alterations to shopping period this year, which were already set to happen in fall 2021.

Students scramble to find their belongings In first-year address, Salovey talks bridging differences

BY ROSE HOROWITCH STAFF REPORTER

ERIC WANG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Yale packed many students' belongings over the summer, but many reported lost items.

When Sharla Moody ’22 returned to campus in late August to find her bedding, clothing and boots — which cost her mother a week’s worth of pay — missing, she was upset. But it was the loss of her late grandmother’s necklace that truly devastated her.

“I’m a first-gen, low income student,” Moody said. “I don’t know how I could ever buy this stuff back now.”

Like many other Yalies, Moody signed up to have Yale pack up and store her things, having left items in March. Even so, many of her belongings were missing when she went to pick them up. She now fears they are lost for good.

In an early June email, the University outlined a set of options for students to retrieve their belongings before the coming year. Students could schedSEE BELONGINGS PAGE 5

CROSS CAMPUS

INSIDE THE NEWS

THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY, 1991.

SIGNS As students moved into their

A 16 year old was arrested for the murder of Christian Prince '93. Prince died from a single gunshot wound to the head. The police's evidence relied heavily upon testimony from a 17 year-old, who later recanted, saying he was coerced into testifying by the police.

dorms on campus last week, Yale employees took down signs posted around campus by New Haven Rising, which called on the University to pay higher taxes to the city of New Haven.

Page 6 CITY

BY VALERIE PAVILONIS STAFF REPORTER Saturday afternoon saw a twist to the traditional first-year address, as administrators delivered an online message to virtual viewers in lieu of the usual in-per-

son ceremony in Woolsey Hall.

The first-year address — typically delivered to assembled first years during their orientation — was instead a 50-minute video featuring University SEE ADDRESS PAGE 5

YALE UNIVERSITY

Salovey’s speech noted Yale’s mission and its values and cited specific causes of unease within the country: the coronavirus pandemic and police brutality.

PREORIENTATION Firstyear pre-orientation groups typically populate campus before fall move-in, but this year, the college was quiet as students hiked, volunteered, and learned about food sustainability from their computer screens at home.

Page 9 UNIVERSITY

GAP YEAR Despite the nearly sevenfold increase in students taking gap years, the admissions office has no plans to reduce the number of admissions offers in the coming year. Page 12 UNIVERSITY

MUSIC

The School of Music will mix remote and in-person learning, prioritizing safety while allowing students to participate in some form of live ensemble playing. Page 13 CULTURE

PAGE 2

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

OPINION G U E ST C O LU M N I ST CA L E B D U N S O N

G U E S T C O L U M N I S T M A FA L D A V O N A L V E N S L E B E N

Yale, radically reimagined

In defense of doing nothing

M

ove-in day wasn’t quite like what I expected it to be when I was admitted to Yale last year. I looked forward to stepping onto a bustling campus with Handsome Dan strutting around, my residential college dean greeting me with a smile on his face and administrators preparing to launch me into a flurry of orientation events. Instead, I was met with somber silence as I approached the COVID-19 testing center, grabbed pre-packaged meals to last through the 36-hour quarantine period and arrived at my dorm room to start unpacking my belongings alone.

While Yale has had a strong response to the pandemic for the most part, the University has to radically reimagine how to welcome first-year students. And yet, there are so many ways that Yale has failed to do so, leaving first years to fend for themselves in ways that Yale students have never had to do before.

Take course scheduling, for example. Traditionally, Yale first years are given advisers well before they have to create preliminary schedules. This year, my peers and I had to wade our way through a sea of intimidating courses, make sense of confusing registration requirements and navigate an ancient course selection website — OCS, I’m looking at you — to set our fall schedule. The only help we received came from a few friendly FroCos and a couple of kind student organizations, who despite all the great work they did, did not have the capacity to serve hundreds of students. Compound that with a lack of reliable internet access for many, and suddenly students are academically disenfranchised, unable to plan for the fall semester.

Although Yale’s plan to move students to campus amid a pandemic was comprehensive, especially considering the struggles of peer institutions like Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania, communications between Yale and first years have left much to be desired.

Scattered updates sent at random times, some with vital information and others with fluff, came regularly.

Critical updates, like pre-arrival testing requirements, were often either buried in extensive emails or interspersed between communication from several departments, making it easy to overlook important action items with pressing deadlines.

Our University has long been committed to a “free exchange of ideas in an ethical, interdependent, and diverse community.” But the Yale administration’s current communication with first years needs to be improved.

The pandemic has highlighted just how much public health is a community issue, and our increased interdependence requires a dedication to transparency. We need to know exactly what is going on, from total case count and positivity rate to the case threshold at which students are sent home for the semester. This way, students with varying needs

can respond accordingly.

Yale must also extend resources to first years to address issues of equity and accessibility exacerbated by COVID-19. Technology and health concerns cannot be barriers to becoming a member of the school community, lest the University abandon its mission. Technology grants should be extended to remote learners with unreliable equipment, and weekly mental and physical well-being checks for all students should become a mainstay of pandemic life at Yale.

As the University looks to welcome new students to campus, faculty and administration must completely reform their approach to education and community building to create a safe second home for new Yalies. Zoom will likely be the primary mode of interaction for the foreseeable future. Although that restricts student engagement, it also provides ample opportunity for innovative ways to connect.

Because many of us will be cooped up in our dorm rooms and homes, Zoom meetings need to become more intimate. The University should think of creative ways to use the tools we have to develop meaningful relationships with students. We should feel like we are part of the Yale community even from our isolated living spaces.

There is even a chance to rethink the traditional learning experience entirely. Pre-recorded lectures present an opportunity to center students’ needs in the educational experience, allowing them to engage with course material at their own pace.

AND YET, THERE ARE SO MANY WAYS THAT YALE HAS FAILED TO DO SO, LEAVING FIRST YEARS TO FEND FOR THEMSELVES IN WAYS THAT YALE STUDENTS HAVE NEVER HAD TO DO BEFORE As a whole, the Yale experience must be reimagined to be more dynamic and inclusive, and when that happens, Yale cannot forget the unique needs of first-year students.

We need the support from faculty and administration to adjust to the demands of college life, transition to adulthood, and, ultimately, feel at home at Yale.

CALEB DUNSON is a first year in Saybrook College. Contact him at caleb.dunson@yale.edu .

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I

absolutely hate silence. Dramatic pauses in movies, awkward moments after a teacher asks a question, gaps in conversations before you realize you have nothing left to say — all of it. And yet, as the COVID-19 pandemic keeps us inside, I’ve been forced to confront a lot more silence than I have ever thought possible. Even as I write this, I notice how my typing sounds against the backdrop of a barely furnished apartment. It irritates the hell out of me.

I blame these feelings regarding inactivity on my personality — some might call it “type A.” I need to “do” things, be productive, check items off my to-do list.

This particular brand of neurosis is — to a certain degree — a good thing. It has significantly contributed to my success in life thus far.

But my mother frequently comments on how particular our generation’s definitions of “productivity” and “success” are. She grew up in Germany, where the college you attend is largely irrelevant, and being a nerd is more likely to get you bullied than praised, so she regularly marvels at the esteem old Ivy League institutions hold in American society. You might think that getting into a school like Yale would make us feel validated — confident even — in our academic abilities. But I have found that this could not be further from the truth.

When I got into Yale, instead of patting myself on the back for a job well done, I saw the goalpost move farther away from me. Sure, I’m at Yale, but my classmate has their ten-year plan bookmarked as a Google spreadsheet, and I am sitting at home, biting my nails off about how I can sustain the level of performance that got me here in the first place. While the pressure to achieve at Yale is nothing new, being able to perform on such a high level during a pandemic is another matter entirely.

Most obviously, the pandemic has exacerbated existing inequities on and off-campus. Students from first-generation and low-income backgrounds fear for their family’s

financial security as unemployment rates skyrocket. This isn’t helped by the fact that CDC guidelines for mask washing only include instructions for using a washing machine (which many people in the U.S. do not have access to). Even something as simple as washing your hands can be difficult in areas where clean water is in short supply. Moreover, rates of domestic violence continue to climb as stay-at-home orders persist.

There is also the matter of the emotional toll the pandemic has unleashed, which makes “highfunctioning” expectations especially unrealistic. With the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor earlier this year, the Black Lives Matter Movement has gained a much-needed presence on the social justice stage, spurring activism on social media and the streets alike. However, for Black and Indigenous people of color, it can be exhausting to be forced into the role of an educator to all of your white friends. Moreover, discovering the depth of systemic racism and rehashing it constantly is a burden that becomes heavier by the day.

Further, other minority groups on campus, particularly those with disabilities, experience their health decline due to health care shortages, delayed supply chains for medical equipment and the genuine fear of dying. Let us not forget those with cognitive and mental health-related disabilities, for whom being cooped up for the better part of six months has worsened their condition.

People with disabilities and chronic illnesses are at the mercy of their peers’ compliance with public health guidelines (which Florida’s spring breaks on the beach and growing numbers of COVID cases on other campuses have made clear). And given the general sentiment of “let the weak die” coming from the right, it is safe to say that our faith in humanity has been knocked down a good five pegs.

As a person with a disability myself, I am familiar with my body forcing me to rest even when

I want to work and having to learn the hard way that pushing further than I am physically able results in long-term consequences. However, many Yalies have never experienced bodily limitations. If they want to pull an all-nighter, run back and forth between Science Hill and Old Campus all day, and schedule meetings late into the night while balancing homework from their four to six classes each semester, they can — and they do. But what will we do with ourselves when much of that is taken away? How will we accumulate new extracurriculars, credentials, employable skills that will make us successful, productive, worthy members of society?

We have been sold a particular narrative with a hint of “The Great Gatsby”–esque American dream: If you work harder, and longer, you will beat out the competition and find “success.” What this narrative does not include are the unforeseen events: the death of a loved one, break-ups, accidents, pandemics, and just plain facts of life that we run into along the way. Not to mention whether all this success-striving will make you at all happy.

Though there is much for us to mourn, I also maintain a sense of optimism. This time is a chance for Yale students to explore who we are beyond our “normal,” high-functioning academic and extracurricular lives.

Find out what board games or types of movies you like. Discover a passion for baking or cooking, rediscover an old love of jump rope, or knitting. Try and fail at something that has absolutely no potential consequences. Yes, this pandemic has not magically erased all the aspirations and dreams and motivations we have for our future. But perhaps, instead of taking this time to do everything you never had time to do, it would be better to take the time to do absolutely nothing at all.

MAFALDA VON ALVENSLEBEN is a junior in Benjamin Franklin College. Contact her at mafalda.vonalvensleben@yale.edu .

GUEST COLUMNIST IAN BERLIN

Our insufficient imaginations M

y alarm went off at 9:00 a.m., early for another day in quarantine. Once I had rubbed my eyes and silenced the alarm’s piercing beep, I instinctively reached for my phone. Moments later, at 9:03, it buzzed with an email notification from Yale University President Peter Salovey. Subject: “Fall 2020.”

I quickly started to read the email.

Line by line, the now familiar contours of the year ahead began to crystalize: The Class of 2023 — my year — is barred from campus for the first semester and nearly all classes are occurring through Zoom. As I read, I remained hopeful that Yale’s performing arts, a fundamental part of my campus experience, would continue in some form. That was until I reached the email’s penultimate section, where President Salovey dedicated a single passing clause to inform us that “performances will not be held.”

Dean of Yale College Marvin Chun was slightly more generous in his follow-up email to undergraduates, writing, “Activities that cannot be conducted with appropriate social distancing, such as dramatic performances, undergraduate productions, singing groups, and some other musical groups will have to be reimagined to take place online.”

I agree that we need such restrictions for public health reasons. And I know that the arts are understandably far from the priority when an astronomic U.S. caseload, record unemployment, an imperative discussion about systemic racism and the President’s continued incitement of violence dominate the news. Even so, I am still trying to process the ways in which yet another facet of our lives has been disrupted by this disease. From my side of the proscenium, it is obvious that Dean Chun fails to recognize that there is simply no reimagination possible that maintains both the artistic integrity and — more importantly — the joy fundamental to these now-forbidden performances.

Art and music have always been a central part of my life, from my early childhood memories dancing around the house while my father played piano to singing in

synagogue or making my professional acting debut at age 11. Now, as a rising sophomore at Yale, the arts have continued to be just as important to me — within weeks of arriving on campus, I joined both the cast of a production of “Sweeney Todd” and an a cappella group, Mixed Company.

Clearly, college life extends far beyond classes, and so much of that experience relies on in-person conversations and interactions. Although I miss laughing over a pre-rehearsal meal with fellow singing group members or sharing a funny story backstage after a dress rehearsal, these bonding experiences translate well enough to virtual means of communication. The performances we’ve grown accustomed to creating together — the singing, the scene work, the choreographed numbers — do not.

There has been no shortage of virtual performances. In fact, the sudden abundance of time for artists everywhere has led to a more densely-packed five months of new creative content than at any time in recent memory. Choirs, bands, orchestras and celebrities have all released virtual performances or participated in livestreams, sometimes even performing from a bathtub.

Many of these events have been truly phenomenal pieces of art, seeming to transcend the inability to perform together live. Nevertheless, whatever the experience of viewing these livestreams may lack compared to sitting in a theater, concert hall or arena, the shortcomings are magnified tenfold for us, the performers.

The slight delay during a Zoom or FaceTime call renders live group performance effectively impossible.

I felt this first-hand in May, when my a cappella group put together a virtual performance of one of our songs. Although I’m very proud of the final product, the experience of each of us standing in our rooms alone and singing into a camera provided no solace from our longing to make music in person once again.

And, unfortunately, the well-documented risk that singing poses right now guarantees that it will be a while longer yet.

The feeling of standing in front of a microphone ready to sing or stepping downstage to deliver your first line of a play, knowing the audience’s eyes are on you, is irreplaceable. In that brief moment, the room buzzes with energy. We, as the performers, feel that anticipation and use that connection with both the audience and our fellow artists to fuel our performances. The ensuing positive feedback loop epitomizes what makes live performance so remarkable.

This energy is not some ephemeral metaphor whipped up by quirky artists. Sound waves themselves are, at a physical level, energy. And musical chords sound in tune because the frequencies of those sound waves line up in mathematically pleasing ways.

That is, during a live musical performance, we precisely align the energy we create, and we send it out into the room, knowing that the sound itself resonates differently depending on the room’s unique acoustic properties.

The effect on the audience is not just emotional, but physiological, too; a 2017 study shows that when attending live performances, audience members’ heart rates literally sync up.

As soon as a screen is involved, this magic disappears. Almost every performance we see now is prerecorded, which means that digital retouching almost always results in an artificial sense of perfection.

There’s never any doubt that the virtual performance will be flawless because the performer gets unlimited takes, diminishing the excitement of watching something live.

Do I believe that artists should cease performing until we are able to do so again live? Of course not.

We couldn’t. Nor do I believe that live performances as we’ve known them should return before it is absolutely safe to do so. Ultimately, the show must go on — it always does — but, unlike Dean Chun proposes, we cannot conjure up via our imaginations those intangible elements that set live performances apart. We have no choice but to wait.

IAN BERLIN is a sophomore in Pierson College. Contact him at ian.berlin@yale.edu .

PAGE 3

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

OPINION The ethics of Ethics?

T

here is a runaway trolley speeding down the railway tracks. Ahead on the tracks lay five people, tied up and unable to move. Next to you is a lever that can divert the trolley onto a side track with one person. You must decide: Do nothing or pull the lever?

Cue the philosophy majors’ eye rolls.

Many of us have heard the trolley problem before, whether it was mentioned in a late night conversation or during one of Shelly Kagan’s lectures. It’s often viewed as silly or incomparable to life, but at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals across the world faced their own version of the problem. This time, with real lifeand-death stakes.

Facing a shortage of supplies, healthcare workers had to make the impossible decisions about which patients should receive ventilators. They also had to balance a duty to care for patients against concerns of spreading COVID-19 to their families.

Abstruse thought experiments in academic circles were no longer confined to the classroom.

In the past several months, debates on ethics have grown far beyond the realm of health care.

The United States has immersed itself in ethical debates that affect the most basic courses of action. Should we reopen businesses if that may lead to more infections and deaths? What levels of risk should we accept when meeting up with others, and even deciding to go back to school?

And lastly, the never-ending debates on freedom have continued, but in a new form: Do we have a moral responsibility to wear a mask? (Hint: We do.)

In this distressing and transformative moment, it is imperative for Yale and other schools across the nation to institutionalize ethics into their curricula.

Moral questions are fundamental to our responsibilities and the lives we live as students, family members and citizens.

They are also unavoidable in our professional lives, as our fields of study will encompass issues like climate change, technological advancement, and political instability and progress. At the very least, we will need to apply the difference between right and wrong, and at the highest level, we will need to make serious normative decisions.

Ethics requirements are not a foreign concept in higher education, as some universities already incorporate ethics into their curricula. Princeton has a general education requirement called “Ethical Thought and Moral Values.” Graduate schools across the board are gradually requiring their students to take ethics classes, too. Unfortunately, these are exceptions, as most undergraduate institutions are sorely lacking in any mandatory ethics education.

The benefits of ethics classes are well known. They challenge our values, improve argumentative and reasoning skills and spark dialogue on important issues.

But aside from these points, ethics is uniquely essential in our current political environment.

With political beliefs becoming

increasingly entrenched in our identities and emotions, it is crucial to facilitate an e n v i ro n m e n t where students ca n ex p re ss EDWARD their confuSEOL sions and hesitations about Evolving their values — without the dreams social stakes and pressures that may come from standard daily discourse.

It is true that different moral theories stress different values, and that the decision to teach one intellectual tradition over another is itself a judgment call. Within Western philosophy, utilitarianism emphasizes maximizing social welfare, whereas deontology focuses on natural rights and respect for other people. Each view has its redeeming qualities and its own weaknesses. Reasonable people can arrive at very different conclusions. In a time where discourse may seem hopelessly circular, seeing these different theories in action is invaluable. Not only does it allow us to gain more perspective, but it prepares us to more effectively approach conversations. We can frame debates more clearly, and in doing so, perhaps arrive at resolutions.

Earlier in the spring, I had a long conversation with my friend about effective altruism.

It spilled over from our ethics class, and we had many backand-forth exchanges, trading arguments with one another.

While I ultimately walked away from the conversation with reservations, I saw the value in his perspective. Even if I was not completely on board, I saw that it could help to be more utilitarian in a few areas of my life, especially charity.

Conversations like these are invaluable. They allow us to push ideas to their logical conclusions, however radical, and we can decide for ourselves where our moral limits stand.

Even if ethics classes don’t ever formalize into a requirement, as students, we should take initiative to promote these classes and expand the conversation to include more ways of understanding the world.

As we continue to deal with COVID-19 in the coming months, we will face ethical dilemmas of our own, however big or small. We may encounter people who are careless about health protocols or refuse to wear masks. As we watch out for the safety of all those around us, ethical reasoning can make decisions less difficult. It can keep us from acting irresponsibly and motivate us to speak up. It can reinforce the values that should be at the forefront of our minds when making decisions that impact entire communities and the places we call home.

Toward radical compassion “U

mmmmm please read my professors [sic] email.” As classes have hobbled back into session — on Zoom, in person, and a hybrid — viral tweets of correspondences between students and professors have again returned to the online fore. Most notably, a tweet from August 29 displays a lengthy email response from a professor at Emerson College to a student discussing the exclusion of Black queer writers on the syllabus for his queer politics course. As I scrolled through my timeline in a late-night torpor, I didn’t see what course it was for or what alternatives the professor had offered. Only after returning to the tweet the next morning, I realized the title of the course had never been stated.

And the professor had included a handful of films focused on the Black queer community and a slew of anthologies with Black voices. (Is this enough? That’s for you to decide.)

Still, the student took the “support” — the Twitter likes, which at the time of writing this piece sit around 35.5 thousand — as justification to meet with administration about the professor’s conduct. These “calls to the manager” are known to lead to termination. Again, we know nothing about the professor: Is he tenured? If not, how frequently is his contract renewed? How much does he get paid? Is he (potentially) a graduate student?

This situation, imperfect as our lack of information makes it, illustrates an important question that college students have brushed against again and again: What kind of conduct can we expect from our professors, and what do we do when those standards are not met?

The question is difficult to answer. Professors who have been credibly accused of sexual misconduct by students still teach undergraduate courses at Yale. Accusations against figures like legendary literary critic Harold Bloom, a Sterling Professor of the Humanities until his death in 2019, were almost always weighed against the value of his scholarly contributions. And the 2015 viral video of Yale students confronting Nicholas Christakis, a Sterling Professor who was then Master of Silliman College, was met with derision by right-wing media sources. But these instances have clearer demarcations of power; Sterling Professor is Yale’s highest academic rank, and heads of college are understood to be core members of the residential college community.

Normally, though, the power dynamic between students and professors is murky at best. Students are correct to recognize professors as figures of authority, but the higher education system’s intense competition and devastating austerity has created a world in which highly educated and well-loved professors struggle to find secure (and often, any) employment.

Yale, like most universities, has two major types of faculty: ladder (tenure track) and non-ladder (non-tenure track). According to a 2016–17 report, nearly half of faculty were instructional

— not on the tenure track.

These professors also do the bulk of teaching in Yale College. Most non-tenMCKINSEY ure track professors are CROZIER paid by the course, hopLeft and ing to teach three courses write that add up to a “half position” paying roughly $27,000 annually. (The federal poverty line for 2020–21 for a family of four is $26,200.) They also often hold one-year contracts, meaning that they must be reappointed by Yale at the end of June. If they are not reappointed, they must seek other employment — and rapidly, because most universities begin classes in August. COVID-19 has meant that these faculty will face even more instability: Graduate students across the country have been protesting insufficient pay and healthcare, programs have been refusing admission to Ph.D. candidates and non-tenure track faculty face devastating cuts at universities all over the country.

THIS SITUATION, IMPERFECT AS OUR LACK OF INFORMATION MAKES IT, ILLUSTRATES AN IMPORTANT QUESTION THAT COLLEGE STUDENTS HAVE BRUSHED AGAINST AGAIN AND AGAIN: WHAT KIND OF CONDUCT CAN WE EXPECT FROM OUR PROFESSORS, AND WHAT DO WE DO WHEN THOSE STANDARDS ARE NOT MET? At Yale, students refer to ladder and non-ladder faculty congruently as “Professor.” But it’s clear that the university, despite its disproportionate resources, is intent on treating non-ladder faculty as disposable.

This means that the financial costs of student “call-outs” on Twitter can be enormous. For students requesting accountability from tenured professors, the obstacles often feel insurmountable. But an increasing number of

faculty can’t rely on that degree of financial insulation from the consequences of their own actions — and indeed, at-will employment means that many are turned away by universities without explanation or justification at all. Additionally, these faculty face the precarity that comes with being a worker in an increasingly unstable labor market, in which fundamental entitlements like health care, food and shelter are indelibly tied to employment. For many people — whether they’re instructional faculty at Yale, linemen at an electric company, or public servants at your local underfunded government agency — losing employment is violence, and in a post-corona world, employment itself feels like a levee set to collapse under torrential rain.

Thus, professors face the same conundrum of accountability that we all face under late capitalism. It’s virtually impossible to hold people accountable without threatening their basic security. There are few avenues toward reconciliation in our society, and even fewer focusing on education or rehabilitation. Atonement is off the table.

Instead, the one avenue we have toward justice (or rather, the fleeting high of “doing what’s right”) is calling the manager — or the dean. It’s jeopardizing employment. It’s potentially compromising someone’s access to health care, to food, to housing.

So, how do we hold our professors accountable without reinforcing the idea that fundamental rights are contingent upon employment or fortifying a culture obsessed with retribution?

How do we talk about injustice without cultivating shame?

If you’re stumped, I am, too.

But I think it begins with what sociologist Khen Lampert calls “radical compassion,” a state of empathy for others that “manifests itself as an impulse.” Still, we must acknowledge that even when we embrace “radical compassion,” there are often situations where multiple parties deserve our empathy.

It is unlikely we will see an end to university austerity. And it’s similarly unlikely that we will see any of the crucial policy measures — universal health care access, a jobs guarantee, loan forgiveness and an end to at-will employment — enacted that will lessen the corporate university’s grip on students, faculty and staff alike. We must recognize that the precarity we face as students intertwines itself with the precarity our professors face as well, that solidarity, which is often fed to us as a clear-cut alliance with the powerless against the faceless, “privileged” bosses, is a fickle thing. In reality, our professors aren’t the bosses, and we don’t always know what’s right.

But we have an obligation to our fellow students, faculty and staff to saddle up, armed with “the best we can do,” and soldier on.

MCKINSEY CROZIER is a junior in Timothy Dwight College. Her column runs on alternate weeks. Contact her at mckinsey.crozier@yale.edu .

EDWARD SEOL is a sophomore in Berkely College. His column runs on alternate weeks. Contact him at edward.seol@yale.edu .

FOR OUR READERS: THE SEMESTER AHEAD Dear readers, When the pandemic abruptly sent students back home after spring break, the Yale Daily News halted print production and began an online-only operation to end the school year — reporting remotely from across the world, but still seeking to inform and unite our scattered campus community.

As we begin a new academic year faced with unprecedented challenges and many uncertainties, we maintain the same goals that drove our coverage this past spring and in the 142 years that came before it. On Monday, we published our first set of stories for the school year — but rather than our typical daily print edition, we published an online-only issue. Given the constraints of our community being spread across the world, the economic impact on our organization and public health realities, we have made the decision to print only once a week this semester — beginning with today’s issue. This print edition will be released every Friday morning.

GIOVANNA TRUONG/STAFF ILLUSTRATOR

We will continue to update our website and social media platforms daily and send out a regular email newsletter.

We hope to resume regular print production once these conditions change.

Until then, we will maintain the quality of our coverage, while using the coming months as an opportunity to build a more robust digital presence and experiment with innovative methods of storytelling.

Thank you to all of our readers. In the present moment, it’s more important than ever for us to stay connected, listen to each other’s stories, and hold our community and leaders accountable.

In this time of shared uncertainty, you can count on the News to publish feature, breaking and investigative stories that answer the questions that we’re all asking.

Sincerely, Sammy Westfall, Editor in Chief Serena Cho, Managing Editor Asha Prihar, Managing Editor

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 4

FROM THE FRONT

“The window to the world can be covered by a newspaper.” STANISŁAW JERZY LEC POLISH POET

YNHH hosts Phase 3 vaccine trial

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Pfizer was in talks with the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation to bring the trial to New Haven, but it was ultimately the YCCI cultural ambassadors that persuaded the company.

VACCINE TRIAL FROM PAGE 1 bers of the St. Stephens community are wary of clinical trials.

Medical trials have historically mistreated or excluded people of color, and Black Americans often face discrimination when seeking medical care.

“People feel the medical establishment doesn’t value their lives, [it] is often willing to provide inferior or incomplete treatment,” he wrote. “This is new and people are apprehensive [of] being the first and becoming yet another guinea pig.”

Cultural ambassadors, including pastors at AME Zion churches and leaders with Junta, a Latino nonprofit in New Haven, are working to bring more people of color to the trial. Because COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted communities of color, the pandemic has made their efforts particularly pressing.

“We have not had anyone test positive from the church,” Perry wrote. “But every member knows a friend, a family member who has either tested positive, been hospitalized or died.”

Perry is working to overcome this distrust by educating the St. Stephens community on the vaccine and recruiting church members to participate in the trial. He said he is informing people about the vaccine by newsletter, radio and word-of-mouth.

The vaccine, developed by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech, contains modified RNA. This genetic code enters cells and instructs them to make a protein that resembles the one that allows the SARS-CoV-2 virus to infect cells. People can then generate antibodies against the protein without ever suffering from COVID-19.

In the first two phases of the

trial, in which the vaccine was given to a small group of people, it was well-tolerated and generated the appropriate immune response: the development of antibodies. Now Phase 3 will enroll 30,000 people and will test-drive how the vaccine functions in the real-world.

“You can always assess the immune response to the vaccine, which is one thing, but it’s a whole different issue to test whether those antibodies that are produced are able to protect against COVID,” Ogbuagu said.

Phase 3 may also show rarer side effects that don’t show up in the earlier phases with smaller sectors of the population.

The trial will operate with a prime-boost strategy, which means that participants will receive two doses of the vaccine three weeks apart. The first dose primes the immune system, while

the second one boosts the immune response and allows for “skyrocketing of the antibody levels,” Ogbuagu said.

Participants will have four scheduled follow-up visits and will be instructed to continually monitor themselves for signs and symptoms of COVID-19.

In the trial of healthy volunteers aged 18 and 85, a randomly-chosen half of participants will receive the vaccine and half will get placebo. If the vaccine proves effective, every participant will then receive it.

The biotech firms have already contracted with the U.S. government to supply 100 million doses by the close of 2020, and 1.3 billion doses the following year. After a Phase 3 trial, the Food and Drug Administration may grant a vaccine Emergency Use Authorization, which Pfizer has said it will seek as early as October.

The warp-speed search for a

COVID-19 vaccine has already shattered precedents and raised concerns that safety will be sacrificed for speed.

In the earlier phases individuals have had mild effects including pain at the injection site and fatigue, Balcezak said. But the vaccine has not caused any serious complications. If problems should flare up, the responsibility falls to the FDA and people conducting the trial to immediately halt it, Balcezak explained.

“There’s a lot of regulation and oversight that goes into the conduct of these studies,” Ogbuagu said. “Even if the timelines of the studies have been accelerated, the necessary safeguards are still in place.”

There are currently nine ongoing Phase 3 trials worldwide.

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

Ashe reaches signature threshold for Corp election

ERIC WANG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Six of the 17 members of the Yale Corporation are alumni fellows, or members elected directly by alumni each year.

ASHE FROM PAGE 1 year. Typically, alumni choose between two Yale-backed candidates who, after being suggested by interested alumni, are vetted and chosen by the Alumni Fellow Nominating Committee that branches off from the Yale Alumni Association Board of Governors.

But if another interested alum wishes to vy for a seat, he or she can do so as a “petition candidate” provided they collect enough signatures from supportive alumni.

This year, the signature threshold — defined at three percent of the total electorate — stood at 4,394, a bar reached by Ashe well before the deadline of Oct. 1 according to

his email to supporters on Tuesday.

“I am grateful to everyone who has stepped forward to lend a hand to our effort,” Ashe wrote.

“Over the past few months, I have received hundreds of calls from alumni/ae. I have truly enjoyed and been invigorated by these conversations with new and old friends alike. I have been honored to earn the support of generations of alumni/ae from across the political spectrum.”

Ashe added in the email that on Monday, Yale notified him that they would be counting the signatures on his petition via a third party to verify the final tally.

According to Harry Levitt ’71, Ashe’s de facto campaign manager,

the campaign has about 5,400 signatures as of Sept. 2.

“He not only crossed the barrier, he blew right through it,” Levitt told the News on Wednesday, adding that Ashe’s achievement is “a wonderful thing for Yale.”

While Levitt acknowledged that some duplicate votes have made their way onto the campaign’s lists — some alumni, he said, have signed onto the petition both online and on paper — he is confident that the campaign will still come out far beyond the nearly 4,400-signature requirement.

Ashe added that he is “very excited, very pleased [and] very thankful,” and said he plans to continue collecting signatures until

the Oct. 1 deadline — “an investment in the main event” that will likely earn him more support in the general Corporation election in spring 2021. He added that so far, his campaign has gathered at least one signature from every eligible class year at Yale, as well as signatures from 46 states, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. Ashe will officially be listed as a candidate on the ballot once the Oct. 1 deadline passes.

Ashe is the first petition candidate to cross the signature threshold in 18 years. The last candidate to do so, the local New Haven Rev. W. David Lee DIV ’93, gained the required support in his petition but lost the general election

to the Yale-backed candidate and renowned architect Maya Lin ’81 ARCH ’86, in a roughly 83-17 percent ratio.

Gaining enough signatures has proved difficult since the petition process was implemented. In all of Yale’s history, only William Horowitz ’29 managed to run as a petition candidate in the 1960s and won — but only after losing once.

In addition to Lee in 2002, founder of the National Review William F. Buckley Jr. ’50 also gained enough signatures, but lost in a 1970s general election. In the past two years, Georgetown Law Professor Nicholas Rosenkranz ’92 LAW ’99 and conservative journalist James Kirchick ’06 both tried and failed to cross the support threshold.

Ashe is not the only candidate running on a petition basis — Maggie Thomas FES ’15 is also on track to reach the signature threshold as well. In a Tuesday email, Thomas wrote that her campaign is in “the home stretch” and currently counts 4,179 signatures as of Aug. 28. Should she reach the required number of signatures, former University Secretary Sam Chauncey ’57 told the News, Thomas would be the first woman ever to achieve official petition candidate status.

Thomas added that she is excited about Ashe’s achievement.

“I am thrilled that Victor has also reached the threshold - more voices participating in the Alumni Fellow Election and more candidates on the ballot will only lead to a stronger and more inclusive Yale,” Thomas wrote.

Ashe also told the News that because of the relatively high interest in both his and Thomas’ campaigns, he expects total voter turnout to jump in 2021 to at least 30,000, up from about 18,000 in the 2020 election. Yale’s eligible alumni voter base totals 146,481.

In addition the 17 members of the Corporation, the governor and lieutenant governor of Connecticut serve as ex-officio members.

Contact VALERIE PAVILONIS at valerie.pavilonis@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 5

FROM THE FRONT

“Now, if someone wants to spit on me, I just roll up the window of my BMW 540i.” HENRY ROLLINS AMERICAN SINGER

Yale rolls out new shopping rules

ZOE BERG/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

According to recent interviews with six professors and two students, the recent shopping period reform has not been immune to hiccups.

SHOPPING FROM PAGE 1 lege administrators in an effort to streamline the schedule-making process. This fall, faculty members were asked to post detailed course descriptions online weeks before the semester started. Registration for seminars began in early August, and students were required to submit a preliminary course schedule with up to 7.5 credits before classes began. The typical two-week-long shopping

period is now just one week long for undergraduates.

The tweaks are part of a multiyear push to reform the shopping period, a subject of complaint among many students who say it adds unnecessary stress to the start of every semester, a January 2018 Yale College Council report showed.

Yale College Dean Marvin Chun said in a July announcement to students that the changes were “significant,” but also hoped they would make shopping easier.

“We are grateful to you for your patience and flexibility, and we are also grateful to the many Yale faculty and staff members across campus who have been working hard this summer to prepare for your arrival,” he wrote.

Still, according to recent interviews with six professors and two students, the recent shopping period reform has not been immune to hiccups.

Course demand statistics don’t always match up with pre-registration data, two professors said.

Students who sealed their preliminary schedules with as many as seven classes made it as difficult as before to gauge how many graduate student assistants were needed in some lecture courses.

In an August email to the News, Chun said he regretted the confusion over the OCS opening time and added that students and instructors will have “much more certainty” during shopping period under this new system.

“I appreciate everyone's understanding,” he wrote, “and I look forward to more feedback.”

More recently, on Wednesday, Chun told the News that pre-registration benefits both students by offering more flexibility, and faculty because it helps predict

Students still missing some belongings BELONGINGS FROM PAGE 1 ule a two-hour slot to pack up their dorm rooms and place their items in storage or take them home. Another option relied on a Yale-contracted company that packed students’ belongings and delivered them to the new rooms come fall. Students in the U.S. could also request Yale to pack and ship their items to them.

Still, some students have reported broken items, some have received other students’ things and some have been given nothing at all.

“I’m waiting to know whether that stuff even exists anymore,” said Vincent Schaffer ’22, who requested that Yale store his things. “I don’t even know what I don’t know honestly because I’m just sort of waiting, and I’m in limbo.”

Yale contracted with the companies Dorm Room Movers and William B. Meyer to pack, store and ship students’ belongings.

Yale Conferences & Events is also assisting the movers.

University spokesperson Karen Peart — who wrote to the News on behalf of Yale Conferences & Events — said that Yale has resolved two-thirds of the cases of students missing all of their items. The University is still working to help the remaining students, who Peart said comprise 0.5 percent of the total number of students who were enrolled last spring.

Dorm Room Movers did not respond to repeated email and phone requests for comment. A William B. Meyer representative referred the News to Peart.

Multiple departments within Yale are also helping students retrieve their items. Madison Boone ’22, who packed her belongings in July and requested that the boxes be moved to her room for this fall, returned to Benjamin Franklin to find her things missing.

Boone said she has reached out to three different departments — Yale Conferences & Events, the moving company and people from Benjamin Franklin, her residential college— but they all refer her to each other.

“I just slept on a bunch of clothes rolled up as a pillow,” Boone said of her first night back.

“It was very hot as all my fans are in storage so I didn’t need many blankets, but it would have been nice to have one.”

Since then, Yale Conferences & Events and her college’s operations manager have located her things in a storage facility.

In the meantime, they also brought her linens and toiletries to tide her over.

“All unclaimed items were fully packed and most were moved into storage,” Peart wrote in an email to the News. “Staff accommodated hundreds of students, including many who made decisions late in the summer to move off campus or to take a leave of absence. As a result of these late decisions, some items still need to be claimed or moved into storage.”

Some students are filing reimbursement claims to replace their lost belongings. According to a flowchart on Yale Conferences & Events’ website, most students should direct their inquiry to Yale.

The chart stated that it could take Yale up to three months to process these complaints.

Still, other students must file their complaints to Dorm Room Movers, the company that packed rooms used for first responders. One such student, Jeremy David ’22 submitted a request when he found his TV screen smashed upon returning to campus. Because he did not have the original box the TV came in, he said Dorm Room Movers would not process his request. Instead, he bought a replacement on his own dime and submitted a claim to Yale on Aug. 23. A week later,

he has not heard back.

Jason Forman, Director of Operations at Dorm Room Movers, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Davis also does not have the other items he left behind during March break. He had scheduled to retrieve his things from a storage facility, but a day before the planned pickup in August he got an email saying that his items weren’t inventoried yet.

“They emailed me a day before and said … we’ll get back to you at the end of the week for when we can get back to you, essentially, to come pick your stuff up,” David said. “They said they’ve been very busy moving people in but we need stuff, and things are expensive.”

Still, Peart stated that most items have already been shipped to students, and those that have not are on their way. But some Yalies have encountered problems in getting their shipped items as well.

Xavier Ruiz ’22 requested his items be shipped to Houston, so he was surprised when his former hallmate, who lives in Singapore, opened up a delivery with Ruiz’s items. Yale sent empty boxes and packing slips to the student in Singapore, who will send Ruiz’s things back across the ocean.

For Amber Braker ’22, the problem was having too many items — which included a mini fridge with half a carton of eggs, coffee creamer and the flies that had been munching on them for six months. The University had previously told her and other students it would dispose of perishable items.

After a few failed cleaning attempts, she threw the fridge away. She said she simply could never eat food from it again.

William B. Meyer has a storage facility in Hartford, CT. Contact ROSE HOROWITCH at rose.horowitch@yale.edu .

DANIEL ZHAO/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Some students have reported broken items, some have received other students’ things and some have been given nothing at all.

enrollment more accurately. He said that course enrollments are less likely to see large fluctuations under the new system.

“Having the information well before classes start ensures that we can place the most qualified teaching fellows in each course,” he wrote.

Long-time history professor John Merriman, who is teaching two lecture courses this fall, told the News that the new pre-registration system has left his Revolutionary France class with only around 25 enrolled students — a significant drop from the 115 who took the course two years prior, he said.

Merriman added that he usually depends on shopping period to pick up about a dozen additional students, but this semester’s limited window could make that less possible.

“It’s a disaster that it’s like this,” he said, “but what can [Yale] do about it?”

Although pandemic-related constraints made the changes necessary to implement this semester, according to a June 22 email from Chun, changes to the shopping period process will continue in the future. An April report from last year’s Committee on Advising, Placement and Enroll-

ment, obtained by the News, recommends for pre-registration to come near the end of the previous semester, followed by a one-week shopping period at the start of the next one.

Chun told the News in June that many of CAPE’s specific recommendations will have to wait until the spring — or later — to be implemented.

Still, other faculty members told the News that shopping period has gone quite well. French professor Ruth Koizim, who has used a pre-registration system for her introductory language classes for years, said her classes have filled up to a comfortable level after culling the waitlist.

“I’ve never had a problem with shopping period,” she said.

But to Merriman, who said the shopping period is an “essential part of the Yale experience,” proposals that would limit or do away with the crucial time at the start of the semester are misguided.

“I think that’s a huge mistake,” he explained. “You can quote me on that.”

Classes began for undergraduates on Aug. 31.

Contact MATT KRISTOFFERSEN at matthew.kristoffersen@yale.edu .

Admins address first years virtually

YALE UNIVERSITY

For the first time in Yale history, administrators welcomed students to the University entirely virtually in the annual first year address.

ADDRESS FROM PAGE 1 President Peter Salovey, Dean of Yale College Marvin Chun and University Chaplain Sharon Kugler. The speeches were punctuated by virtual performances by campus singing groups Yale Glee Club, Shades of Yale and Something Extra. While each administrator gave a unique message, the most notable themes were bridging differences and showing compassion, especially across political and generational gaps. Salovey’s speech, filmed in Sterling Memorial Library, also noted Yale’s mission and its values and cited specific causes of unease within the country: the coronavirus pandemic and police brutality.

“The enemies of compassion and cooperation are fear and anger,” Salovey said. “Now, I’m not saying that it is inappropriate to experience the fear caused by a pandemic … and I’m not saying that one shouldn’t feel anger, indeed, outrage, at the killing of George Floyd by former officers of the Minneapolis Police Department. In fact, COVID-19 makes me anxious, and those former officers who took a sworn oath to protect the public … leave me livid. But although such fear and anger can be motivated, I must ensure that they do not prevent my finding common ground with well-meaning others whose approaches to social challenges are not the same as mine.”

Salovey mentioned an example of such cooperation: the passing of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, accomplished largely due to the bipartisan work of Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT). While these two politicians had clear ideological differences, Salovey noted, their common desire to protect people from losing jobs because they desired leave time with their families allowed the two to bypass typical barriers.

While the first-year address typically involves calls by administrators to engage with Yale’s mission, the president and dean also generally take the opportunity to note current events, whether in higher education or beyond. Last year, Salovey spoke on curiosity and asking questions, while in 2015, he called on first years to discuss the views of Senator John C. Calhoun, Yale College class of

1804, whose controversial legacy prompted the renaming of Calhoun College to Grace Hopper College in 2017.

Preceding Salovey was the dean of Yale College, who mirrored Salovey’s sentiments. Speaking from the Berkeley College dining hall, Chun noted that every Yale affiliate, regardless of ideas, falls under “one flag.” He added that new students have arrived at a place that “values difference and actively seeks it out.”

“Yale will expose you to views different from your own, and when it does, you can start by finding common ground with people you don’t agree with,” Chun said.

According to Director of University Events Heather Calabrese, who produced the assembly, her office consulted students and admissions officers for input on how to best adapt the typically in-person ceremony to a virtual format. She also noted that the a cappella groups that performed had their songs — which included “Stand by Me” by Ben E. King — selected to “reflect the themes of belonging, connection and community we hoped to convey throughout the program.”

“As we began to plan for this year’s Opening Assembly, we knew that we would not be able to gather in person for safety reasons, but we still wanted to create a special experience for new students and their families,” Calabrese wrote in an email to the News.

One student, Joseph Bennett ’24, said he was not completely sure of Salovey’s intentions when the president began his speech, but that the entire ceremony was “very impactful while remaining nicely concise.”

“While I was initially surprised

by President Salovey’s discussion of current events and struggles, especially as an introduction to an opening assembly speech that I for some reason expected to be isolated as an overview of our future at Yale, I thought our president did a very good job of addressing Yale’s place in two of today’s main crises and thought that it was a very fitting way to emphasize ideas of community and collaboration,” Bennett wrote in an email to the News.

Yale admitted 2,304 students to the Class of 2024.

Contact VALERIE PAVILONIS at valerie.pavilonis@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 6

NEWS

“I play the harmonica. The only way I can play is if I get my car going really fast, and stick it out the window.” STEVEN WRIGHT AMERICAN COMEDIAN

YCC to hold September elections after spring delay

COURTESY OF PAULA PINEDA

The YCC announced that it will hold elections in mid-September.

BY AMELIA DAVIDSON STAFF REPORTER The Yale College Council will hold elections for all leadership positions this month, after it delayed administrative turnover last spring.

On Sept. 17, all Yale undergraduates — whether enrolled or on a leave of absence — will have the opportunity to vote for this year’s YCC officers: the president, vice president, events director and Sophomore and Junior Class Council presidents. All 28 YCC Senate seats will be open, as will seats on the First-Year Class Council. Typically, officer and senate elections are held in the spring, and fall elections fill senate vacancies and elect members to the First-Year Class Council. Last spring, the YCC Senate voted to push all elections to the fall, citing potential inequities in running a campaign from home.

“By the end of the election season, the YCC will be a brand new organization,” said YCC President Kahlil Greene ’21. “This refresh is only fitting because our unprecedented school year will require fresh ideas and a vibrant set of advocates full of passion and drive.”

In the past month, the Council Elections Commission, composed of four members, has been revamping the election process and timeline to facilitate remote campaigns. Over the summer, YCC Vice President Grace Kang ’21, who chairs the CEC, collaborated with Greene and the broader YCC to rewrite the official election guidelines for this fall. The CEC then unanimously voted earlier this month to adopt those new guidelines.

The YCC will host a series of events via Zoom for people interested in running, including a man-

datory information session on Sept. 5, a mentorship meeting on Sept. 7 and an orientation meeting for officer candidates on Sept.

8. There will also be a “pre-campaign” period for officer candidates from Sept. 9 to 10, when candidates can assemble their campaign team, followed by a week of open campaigning for all candidates beginning Sept. 11.

“We want to be as transparent, unbiased and supportive as possible of all the students that are considering running,” Kang said.

“YCC prides itself on a lot of the diversity initiatives that we’ve been trying to do, and while a lot of them have been halted kind of due to COVID-19, we want to make sure that anyone who wants to run for these positions has the opportunity to do so.”

In the past, YCC campaigns have mostly consisted of in-person components, but this year the

Council is encouraging candidates to make websites, run social media campaigns and submit official videos to be publicized by the YCC. Karena Zhao ’21, a member of the CEC and the current YCC Residential College Director, said that she expects elections this year to look very different from in years past. But she and the rest of the CEC have been working to make sure they go as smoothly as possible.

“I think it’ll be really interesting to see, on one hand, just what the candidates come up with in terms of how they decide to campaign, especially because a lot of it will look different,” Zhao said. “But I really do hope to see a lot of activity and still a lot of engagement with the YCC in spite of the difficulties of the situation.”

Kang said that the YCC is trying to ensure that elections are just as accessible as in years past.

Still, she said that as a first-year counselor, she has already seen how difficult it is for first years to get involved on campus.

“We tried our best to make the fairest set of guidelines so that anyone who wants to run has an equal opportunity of winning. I think kind of moving forward, we’re very cognizant of the fact that things may not go as planned,” Kang said. “But we are pretty confident that we are wellequipped enough to make sure that if problems do arise, we have the necessary resources and manpower and brainpower to make sure that things don’t go completely haywire.”

Online voting will open on Sept. 17, and students will have until 9:00 p.m. on Sept. 18 to cast their votes.

Contact AMELIA DAVIDSON at amelia.davidson@yale.edu .

University employees remove signs demanding Yale pay more taxes to New Haven

BY JOSE DAVILA IV AND ROSE HOROWITCH STAFF REPORTERS As students moved into campus in the past week, University employees took down signs around campus calling on Yale to pay higher taxes to the city of New Haven.

New Haven Rising, an organization advocating for economic and racial justice in the city, posted the signs as part of its Yale: Respect New Haven initiative. The initiative argues that Yale, which does

not pay taxes on designated property for educational use, should voluntarily contribute approximately $150 million more annually to the city — the amount it would owe if all of its property were taxed. Activists put up towering signs, each more than six feet tall, on public property near campus and posted smaller posters on Yale bulletin boards, but University staff removed them and threw them away in dumpsters.

Director of University Media

Relations Karen Peart said staff members, including some that were helping students to move in, removed the signs, because some of the posters were blocking areas designated for students to drop off their belongings.

“The university regrets the actions of our staff,” Peart wrote in an email to the News. “We will immediately return the signs and compensate the union for the cost of replacing those which cannot be located.”

COURTESY OF IAN DUNN

University employees took down signs around campus calling on Yale to pay higher taxes to the city of New Haven.

In an interview with the News, director of New Haven Rising Rev. Scott Marks said his group has been working with the University in the past five years to push Yale to hire more city residents. He also called on the University — including the Yale New Haven Health System — to contribute more to its home city by making fair deals with union leaders and paying more to New Haven in taxes.

Ian Dunn, spokesman for Yale unions Local 34 and 35, said that he had asked the people removing the signs about their reasoning but was told only that they were carrying out their boss’s request.

Peart did not directly respond to questions on whether Yale staff members were instructed to remove the signs.

The University has reached out to New Haven Rising leadership about reimbursing the signs.

“We do appreciate them reaching out about that, but it was only after [news of staff removing the signs] came out and the press started asking about it that we got that email,” Dunn said.

In an email to the News, Peart sent photos of Respect New Haven stickers covering Yale posters with QR codes that directed people to the University’s COVID19 resources. Respect New Haven stickers included QR codes of their own, which took scanners to their campaign website instead.

In a statement provided to the New Haven Register, Dunn said that the covering of Yale’s COVID19 QR codes was an “aberration, not the plan” and pledged to make sure it stopped.

Peart said that “close to 100” smaller New Haven Rising and Locals 34 and 35 UNITE HERE posters were placed on campus bulletin boards and obscured the University’s “Healthy Yale” posters.

Due to University policy that prohibits more than one poster advertising the same event on each bulletin board, those posters were also

removed, Peart explained. Yale also left at least one poster on each bulletin board as a courtesy, she added.

Dunn could not confirm the number of small posters placed on campus because volunteers were told to post as many as possible.

As for the big posters, New Haven Rising put up six per day from Monday through Thursday.

Yale staff took them down each day except for Thursday, with six remaining on campus, Dunn said.

Marks explained that the COVID-19 pandemic, which he refers to as “The Great Reveal,” has exacerbated the existing inequality within the city, particularly highlighting the difference between Yale’s wealth and the conditions in which many New Haven residents live. New Haven Rising has called for more financial support from the University given challenges the community faces.

Carlos Brown Jr. ’23 echoed Marks’s sentiment and argued that there is “no reason [to] see this level of inequality in a city that hosts one of the wealthiest universities in the world.”

“Yale depends on New Haven and the thousands of employees that make its day-to-day functions possible,” Brown said. “That alone is more than enough to justify Yale paying up.”

In a March opinion piece published in the Register, University President Peter Salovey wrote about Yale’s close relationship to its home city and cited the University’s direct and indirect contributions to New Haven.

Salovey wrote that he does not believe that “New Haven’s books should be balanced by Yale” penning “bigger checks.”

Currently, the University and Locals 34 and 35 are engaged in a collective bargaining process.

Contact JOSE DAVILA IV at jose.davilaiv@yale.edu and ROSE HOROWITCH at rose.horowitch@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 7

NEWS

“Marriage is an alliance entered into by a man who can’t sleep with the window shut, and a woman who can’t sleep with the window open.” GEORGE BERNARD SHAW PLAYWRIGHT

Schwarzman Center opening delayed until 2021

ZOE BERG/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The Schwarzman Center reopening was delayed until 2021 to respect social distancing guidelines.

BY VALERIE PAVILONIS STAFF REPORTER The Schwarzman Center’s grand opening, originally slated for the start of this semester, has been postponed to 2021.

According to Schwarzman Center Director of Marketing and Communications Maurice Harris, the University delayed the opening of the center because its functions would center on gatherings and performances — activities out of line with current social distancing guidelines. Harris said his office will announce updates to the specific reopening schedule as the public health situation changes.

While the physical building will remain closed for the time being, the team behind Schwarzman Center will host virtual program-

ming throughout the semester.

“Being safe during this time of Covid can feel isolating, so I hope the Schwarzman Center’s new website becomes a digital space for connecting and creating, where important stories are told and fulfilling relationships are formed,” Executive Director Garth Ross wrote in an email to the News. “And when we can eventually gather over a meal inside the Schwarzman Center, that’s still what I’m looking forward to.”

Some of the center’s digital offerings include the web series “One,” which highlights collaborative approaches to the arts.

Launched in April, some of the first episodes highlight creative and academic student works that were impacted by social distancing. Harris noted that the series’ title of “One” is a reference to

“One Yale” — the key tenet of University President Peter Salovey’s oft-professed leadership approach. Harris added that the Schwarzman Center website will be updated with more offerings in the coming weeks.

Kenneth Xu ’21, who works on strategic projects at the center, told the News that his colleagues have had to think outside out of the box for new approaches to programming.

“Because a lot of the magic behind a community space like Schwarzman Center (the ability to host large events, meetings, meals, etc.) is also what makes it so hard to operate in light of COVID, our staff has had to get creative in order to adapt,” Xu wrote in an email to the News.

“But I’m hopeful that the Center’s virtual programming can still be

entertaining or educational — or both — for the Yale community.”

Xu added that he is excited to work with the center’s Advisory Board, which includes people like renowned opera singer Renée Fleming — who received an honorary degree from Yale at virtual commencement 2020.

According to Xu, since Fleming can no longer perform around the globe due to the pandemic, she has instead launched a webinar series called “Music and Mind Live” as part of the center’s virtual programming, exploring the impact of the arts on brain health.

“That sort of interdisciplinary initiative is representative of the types of programming that Schwarzman Center can offer in collaboration with leading artists outside the Yale community,” Xu wrote.

Since campus closed in March, Schwarzman Center staff, like many other University employees, have been working remotely.

Still, Harris said the center’s team was able to adapt to public health guidelines because the center had already been developing online content before the pandemic struck.

“Today we also recognize that our online platforms can serve the University by delivering programs safely while physical proximity is a consideration,” Harris wrote.

Other members of the center’s Advisory Board include SNL creator Lorne Michaels and Executive Producer of the Apollo Theater Kamilah Forbes.

Contact VALERIE PAVILONIS at valerie.pavilonis@yale.edu .

PAGE 8

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

CULTURE

Caroline Ho’s Transcendental Compositions

COURTESY OF CHARLIE GLEBERMAN

BY ANNIE RADILLO STAFF REPORTER Caroline Ho’s ’22 music blurs the lines between the 19th century and the 21st, merging atmospheric synth, classical and pop music.

Every genre Ho listens to makes its way into her compositions.

“She has an unmistakable ‘Caro-

line’ sound,” said Yale professor and film composer Konrad Kaczmarek.

He said he suspects this comes from her background as a classically trained cellist and pianist, improviser and avid music consumer.

He said she has the “chops” from studying music theory but is open to all kinds of music.

Nanki Chugh ’22, who first played

music with Ho in middle school orchestra and has been close friends with her since, also admires how Ho weaves diverse time periods and genres. Chugh said that, though Ho’s most recent pieces play with jazz and more contemporary classical techniques, they also have recurring melodies, much like romantic-era music.

Ho’s father plays jazz bass as a hobby — she said this accounts for her love for jazz and maybe also for her music-absorption skills. She began taking piano lessons at age 5 and picked up cello at the age of 7. All she ever did after school was practice cello. At around 8 she began composing, working studiously in the room that held the family’s brown upright piano.

“I was the third child in my family, so I could spend as much time as I wanted in this room, and no one would notice,” Ho remembered.

When Ho was 13, a professor at UCLA came across one of her compositions and asked to premiere it at a concert in Italy. Then, at 14, she watched a group of profession-

als play the piece in Siena before an expansive audience.

Through her high school years, Ho continued composing, shifting her focus from cello to piano. Ho said she practiced piano five to six hours every day and performed two to three times a week, traveling all over her home state of California.

When she was a senior in high school, Ho entered a prestigious three-week international competition. The experience inspired her to take a gap year after high school. She described the competition as a turning point.

“I needed to take stock: ‘Do I want to go to a conservatory and do this for the rest of my life, or do I want to get a more well-rounded education?’” she said.

During her gap year, Ho said she studied piano full-time and felt a void in her life. Ho applied to Yale that year for its robust musical community, and, upon matriculating, fell in love with the musical freedom at the University — she could compose a pop song one hour and write classical the next, she said, or dis-

cuss the merits of two vastly different genres in a single conversation.

Ho began writing pop songs and collaborating with her friend Emily Li ’22. The two were granted an award by the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale meant to promote Asian Americans in the arts.

With the funding, they organized a concert of original pieces centered around Asian American identity.

The concert sold out and inspired them to start their band, Grove.

Grove draws from jazz, classical, bluegrass, a cappella and theater traditions alike.

This semester, Ho is taking Yale classes from home to work on her musical portfolio. She is incorporating more improvisation into her work and drawing from the jazz that scored her childhood. Ho is turning ever more towards composing for film and even trying her hand at TV scoring. She added that she is excited to maybe try another genre: “‘Cause, why not?”

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

Virtual Venue: EMILI, Window Seat and Sargasso

BY PHOEBE LIU STAFF REPORTER Yale student musicians often showcase their work at venues on campus and beyond — but the coronavirus pandemic flatlined live performances for the duration of the semester.

Each week for the month of September, the News will feature recent student-released music to provide a platform for discovery aside from a stage.

EMILI: “Autopilot” EMILI’s latest single “Autopilot” began, like many of her other songs, as a journal entry.

When singer-songwriter EMILI, Emily Li ’22, finds difficulty working through her feelings, she writes about them — whether they’re sparked by frustration or interesting signs she passes on the street.

Li said her journal entries aren’t poetic. But when she decides to write a song, she takes her guitar and journal into a room and begins to sing and strum through the entries until she finds a phrase or idea she likes. For “Autopilot,” the phrase was “pull my finger, call my name.” She liked how the three-word phrases swung into an easy rhythm.

In November 2019, Li wrote the song’s acoustic version, using only her voice and guitar. But from January to March 2020, she rearranged the piece with Sam Lopate ’20 and Jason Altshuler ’23. They added harmony and texture with percussion, electric guitar and synths. When the coronavirus pandemic sent students home, the group finished the production separately.

“We started working on the song again in April and May,” Li said. “Everyone added their ideas, and it tumbled into the song it is now.”

“Autopilot” is about self-ownership. Li said she often feels like she’s “just reacting to what people expect and want” from her.

“It feels like I’m going on autopilot and not actually figuring out who I am or expressing myself in any way,” Li said. “[The song] is about the fear of turning that off and being myself and not being liked.”

Li’s recent music draws inspiration from artists like Sara Bareilles, Bruno Major and Ingrid Michaelson. She has released a single each month since the coronavirus pandemic hit. Her next song, “Better,” is a “cheesy and happy song” she wrote for her sister’s wedding. It will be available at the end of September.

COURTESY OF EMILY LI

Window Seat: “Call Me in the Morning”

@WINDOWSEATCT INSTAGRAM

Window Seat is a pop-punk group composed of Delia McConnell ’22 on vocals and bass, Noah Gershenson ’21 on guitar and vocals and Jack Berry ’22 on drums. They released their debut album, “Call Me in the Morning,” on April 10.

The songs on “Call Me in the Morning” have titles like “Just Friends,” “Coming Down” and “Teenage Sweetheart.” McConnell said the album is about trying to navigate relationships, “in the broad sense of the word, and acknowledging how hard and complicated and weird but also really cool it is to be vulnerable with another person.”

When McConnell, Gershenson and Berry began to play and write songs together in the spring of 2019, they didn’t know the songs would yield an album. They wrote songs and played music just because they enjoyed it.

“We’d sit in a room together and, just, noodle,” McConnell said.

Noodling led to a series of gigs at venues around Yale and New Haven.

They became increasingly acquainted with their songs through repeated performance.

And McConnell remembers listening to the album all the way through right after the band recorded it.

“I love driving and listening to music in my car, and I always sing, if I’m alone,” McConnell said. “And it’s so weird to sound exactly like the person whose music you’re listening to.”

Sargasso: “Sacred Plums” and “Baianas” Sargasso is a band that understands how its four voices — Thomas Hagen ’20, Soledad Tejada ’20, Maria Campos Saadi ’21 and Noah Goodman ’21 — meld. The music they released over the last three years has dipped into alternative rock, electro, contemporary indie and more.

But their two newest singles further expand the range of genres that influence their music.

“Baianas” is influenced by Tropicália, a 1960s Brazilian artistic movement that combined rock and avant-garde music with native Brazilian rhythms.

Saadi, who is from Brazil, said that Tropicália reckoned with the place of American instruments in Brazilian music. The artistic movement was also tied to contemporary politics. Amidst military rule and strict censorship, Tropicálistas fought for their self-expression by including intense wordplay in their lyrics.

“Baianas” is sung in Portuguese. “I don’t even know if my Brazilian friends know what I’m saying,” Saadi said. The song is about violence in Rio and how art and violence are sometimes inseparable — this inseparability is exemplified by Carnival, one of the city’s biggest entertainment events that Saadi said is “basically run by a mafia.”

Because “Baianas” is multi-textured, Goodman said it’s one of the hardest songs the band has put together. “We ended up banging pots and pans together on the song and then going into a bathroom and sitting with the guitar pressed against the amp,” Goodman said. He added that its complexity leads the band in a new direction.

“Sacred Plums,” Sargasso’s most recent release, is also an experiment in trying new genres. The song resembles shoegaze, a subgenre of indie and alternative rock named for bands who play music while staring at their feet. The musicians’ sights are often cast downward to look at effects pedal controls, but it indicates angst and disengagement nonetheless.

The song stemmed from a chord progression and voice memo that Tejada wrote and recorded in high school. She shared it with the band last summer, and since, it has grown into a song about “taking responsibility” for choosing to view past events in sad or negative ways.

“A huge part of the song is about this angsty-ness that I don’t want to pass judgment on,” Tejada said. “But sometimes we choose it because we can feel good.”

Sargasso recorded “Baianas” and “Sacred Plums” in Goodman’s basement this summer. Hagen explained that with two of the band’s members graduating, they don’t know if they will have another summer together — so they’ve used this one to produce material for an upcoming third album, their biggest project yet.

COURTESY OF EMILY YUE

Contact PHOEBE LIU at phoebe.liu@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 9

NEWS

“We need more of the Office Desk and less of the Show Window in politics.” CALVIN COOLIDGE 30TH AMERICAN PRESIDENT

School of Public Health introduces racial justice concentration

BY SIMI OLURIN STAFF REPORTER As the country grapples with an unruly pandemic that has disproportionately affected people of color, the Yale School of Public Health has rolled out a racial justice concentration this fall in an effort to make its own strides toward equity.

The new U.S. Health and Justice Concentration at YSPH aims to equip students with the tools to advance health justice and analyze how public health research methods could better serve all patients. The school is also adding classes as part of an ongoing effort to study systems that perpetuate health injustice, and to examine how privilege and power create inequality within medicine.

“The launch of the concentration this fall could not be more prescient as our society continues to struggle with the dual public health crises of COVID-19 and police violence,” said Mayur Desai, Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the YSPH. Although the rollout of the academic track coincides with a broader cultural movement, U.S. Health and Justice has been in the works for quite some time, according to Desai.

“The initial idea for the new

concentration emerged from conversations with Master of Public Health students in the YSPH Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences in 2017, having secured the necessary approvals, the planning for the new concentration by a school-wide committee of faculty and students began in early 2019, led by Associate P ro fe sso r Da nya Ke e n e ,” Desai said.

Desai added that the School of Public Health also hopes the concentration will engage a more diverse body of students. The Emerging Majority Students Association, a student group dedicated to advocating for the interests of underrepresented groups at the YSPH, has expressed optimism about the new concentration.

“We would love to see this concentration not only increase discussion of diversity, equity and inclusion issues as they relate to health, but also attract faculty from varying fields and demographic categories,” wrote EMSA leaders Morgan Buchanan SPH ’21, Cailin Arechiga SPH ’21 and Michelle Sodipo SPH ’21 in a statement to the News. “While it is a valid fear that this training will be siloed in the U.S. Health and Justice Concentration, we are confident that this will not be the case.

Public health is inherently inter-

disciplinary and this material is relevant across all courses.”

Keene, an associate professor heavily involved in planning the concentration, affirmed this optimism and added that the School of Public Health will increase social and racial justice education beyond just the new concentration.

“This concentration is certainly not meant to ‘concentrate’ all of the social justice into one place,” Keene said. “All Masters of Public Health students at YSPH are required to take a core course in Social Justice and Health Equity.”

Faculty and students alike are hoping that the continued implementation of racial and social justice education into the curriculum will help draw more students, postdocs and faculty to the YSPH. According to Trace Kershaw, Chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, the concentration will help students “integrate social justice in all aspects of the work they do.”

“We all need to understand how our policies and practices perpetuate injustice, and we all need skills and tools to actively eliminate that injustice,” Kershaw said.

Classes at the Yale School of Public Health began on Monday.

Contact SIMI OLURIN at simi.olurin@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS

The Yale School of Public Health has rolled out a racial justice concentration this fall in an effort to make its own strides toward equity.

Library offers new mail-to-address service Virtual pre-orientation ultimately

JAMES HAN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Yale libraries also began sending books to residential colleges and other campus housing on Aug. 24 for students in residence on campus.

BY GIOVANNA TRUONG STAFF REPORTER For the first time, Yale students will be able to check out books from the comfort of their own homes and have them mailed to their doorsteps — as far as 5,000 miles away from Yale’s libraries.

In light of online learning, Yale libraries are debuting a service on Sept. 4 that will mail off-campus faculty, students and staff physical copies from Yale’s collections. From the online library catalogs — Orbis or Quicksearch — members of the Yale community will be able to fill out a form requesting that books be sent to them. The addresses must not be P.O. Boxes, and they must be in the United States, according to Director of Library Collections Services and Operations Christopher Killheffer. Books can later be returned by requesting a return label that will be paid for by the library.

“I feel strongly that this is the right time for doing something like this,” Killheffer said. “It’s really important for people to

be able to access library materials in order to do their research [and] to conduct their studies.

So I’m excited that we’re able to launch these services to make that possible.”

Yale libraries also began sending books to residential colleges and other campus housing on Aug. 24 for students in residence on campus. In the first week of that program, the library received over 300 requests, according to the library’s Director of Communications and Marketing Patricia Carey.

While the program was initially intended to bring books to the students only for their initial quarantine, the library decided to extend the program to the entire semester because different groups of students could be quarantining at different times, Carey said.

Meanwhile, the mail-to-address service is also intended to be used by faculty and staff who live in the New Haven area but who do not want to physically visit the libraries, according to Killheffer.

Off-campus students interviewed by the News gave mixed

responses as to whether they would use the service.

“The best part about [going to the library] was looking through the books in person,” said Kiran Masroor ’23, who is taking classes off campus in the New Haven area. She added that she really enjoyed “the experience of sifting through the books.”

Still, she said she might use the service occasionally, although less than she would have visited the library last year.

Danielle Castro ’23, who said she visited the University libraries nearly every day of her first year to study, said she was unlikely to use the mail-to-address service. Her main concern was obtaining textbooks, she said, and these she had already found outside the library.

However, she said she was open to using e-books from Yale’s libraries.

These programs are two of many services the library has in place to accommodate online learning and research. In addition to the physical item services, the University library is expanding the number of online books, according to Carey.

“Overall, the University has really been prioritizing the response to the pandemic in terms of allocating resources in order to provide support based on this current situation,” Killheffer said. “This is a really important thing to a library to be making sure that our materials are accessible to everyone in the Yale community.”

The Yale collections include over 15 million items, according to the library website.

Contact GIOVANNA TRUONG at giovanna.truong@yale.edu .

J O I N P & D

successful, despite setbacks

BY MADISON HAHAMY STAFF REPORTER

First-year pre-orientation groups typically populate campus before fall move-in, but this year, the college was quiet as students hiked, volunteered, and learned about food sustainability from their computer screens at home.

Yale College conducted its five pre-orientation programs: Cultural Connections, FOCUS, FirstYear Outdoor Orientation Trips (FOOT), Harvest, and Orientation for International Students (OIS), virtually and free of cost in mid- to late August. While participants and leadership alike were wary of how the virtual format could hinder the pre-orientation experience, members of both groups stated that the programs were still worthwhile.

“I don’t know how an online pre-orientation measures up to the real thing, but Cultural Connections being online was a wonderful experience,” said CC participant Charnice Hoegnifioh ’24. “If I had to go back in time, I would definitely do it again.”

Across pre-orientation groups, one of the largest worries was that the programs would not transfer well into the online format. Many pre-orientation programs introduce students to campus, New Haven, or Northeastern nature while facilitating connections with other students, so several leaders worried about the transition to an online format.

This year, Harvest, which typically allows students to live and farm together before the fall term, sent participants a care package with food and plants that they could cook and sprout. FOOT, typically dedicated to outdoor hiking, focused on education about the outdoors while continuing to emphasize the formation of strong relationships through optional outside activities. Cultural Connections replaced their “CC Olympics” with daily challenges, like a CC-specific TikTok dance.

OIS offered question-and-answer sessions related to Yale. FOCUS — which usually includes mingling time during dinner, hikes, and ice cream trips — set aside one hour each day for community building across different family units.

Still, several leaders interviewed for this article stated that they experienced multiple issues that made their programs less accessible, and, at times, made it difficult to stick to their programs’ central missions.

Griffin Berlin ’21, co-Executive Director for FOCUS, voiced con-

cerns about both connectivity issues among students with slower internet connections, and the fact that students were learning about Yale and New Haven from their homes.

“FOCUS, in its very name, is meant to center New Haven within orientation for students. This year, however, none of the participants were in New Haven (unless they were from here), and several of them are not coming for the entirety of this year,” Berlin wrote in an email to the News. “This posed unique challenges in terms of our curriculum — how do you center a place when everything is occurring virtually/ remotely?”

Cam Do ’21, an OIS counselor, said that her group never met all at once, since its members were spread across many time zones.

Kenia Hale ’21, Cultural Connections Co-Head Counselor, stated that she worried about connection problems too, but added that digital formats can also increase engagement in other ways.

“I hope [the online format] made [CC] a little bit more accessible, because for students who were working or couldn’t get transportation that week, they could still go,” Hale said. “And we had our biggest CC class that we ever had.”

Hale suggested that some of the aspects of the virtual format, such as digital panels and daily TikTok challenges, might remain a part of CC, even when pre-orientations are able to resume in person.

Participants mentioned concerns similar to their leaders’. Three first years across FOCUS and CC cited “Zoom fatigue” as the hardest part of participating in pre-orientation.

But those same students also said pre-orientation was ultimately worth it for them. FOCUS participant Mahesh Agarwal ’24 wrote in an email to the News that he was “unequivocally happy [he] participated in FOCUS,” and Sophia Li ’24, who also participated in FOCUS, said that the “pre-orientation program definitely created a welcoming and encouraging community.”

CC participant Aderonke Adejare ’24 offered similar praise for her program.

“I loved it,” Aderonke said. “I’m so glad I did it. Highlight of my quarantine.”

Multiple pre-orientation programs invite transfer and Eli Whitney students to participate as well.

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

DAVID ZHENG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Many pre-orientation programs introduce students to campus or New Haven, so several leaders worried about the transition to an online format.

PAGE 10

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

NEWS

“Freedom is the open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit and human dignity.” HERBERT HOOVER 31ST AMERICAN PRESIDENT

American Studies professor Alan Trachtenberg dies at 88

BY EMILY TIAN STAFF REPORTER Alan Trachtenberg, a preeminent scholar of American Studies at Yale, passed away in his home in Hamden, CT on Aug. 18. He was 88.

Trachtenberg, the Neil Gray Jr. Professor of English and professor emeritus of American Studies, was a prolific and involved historian whose teaching career spanned more than three decades. During his tenure, he introduced new ways to interpret American culture and helped bring the American Studies program at Yale to the forefront of the field.

“He was an intellectual challenge and companion to many people,” said Laura Wexler, a professor of American Studies and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. “He had so many students at Yale and other people who he taught and encouraged and responded to.”

When Trachtenberg came to teach at Yale in 1969 after holding posts at Penn State and Stanford University, the field of American Studies was still in its early adolescence. The department’s first permanent appointment, he helped oversee the growth of the University’s program as it became among the most reputed in the country.

Trachtenberg — who was awarded the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Charles C. Eldredge Prize for his 1990 book, Reading American Photographs — helped cement the significance of photography in American cultural historiography.

His writing stressed the potency of photography as a historical and political instrument. In the book’s prefatory note, he wrote that a camera is “a tool for making a past suitable for the future.”

He worked on both material and symbolic emblems of American culture, ranging from the Brooklyn Bridge to photographs of Abraham Lincoln. Pervasive in his work was “an excitement of using culture to understand how

we build the world we live in, its choices and its greatest values,” Wexler said.

His books The Incorporation of America and Shades of Hiawatha also made significant contributions in American labor history, immigrant history and Indigenous history.

His students, many of them now faculty members themselves, remember him not only for his visionary scholarship and the elegance of his prose, but also for his active support as a mentor.

American Studies and English professor Wai Chee Dimock GRD ’82 recalled when she mustered enough courage as a graduate student to ask Trachtenberg — her dissertation advisor — and his wife over for dinner. Despite the hot August weather and the stuffy apartment atmosphere, she recalled “the animated conversation of the two dinner guests, wide-ranging and freely associative, keeping [her] entertained with seemingly no effort.”

“Alan taught me many things over the years, but what stuck most vividly in my mind was the lesson learned that evening: that teaching is a living art, having as much to do with a kind of unflappable graciousness as with intellectual brilliance,” she continued.

Another dissertation student, Catherine Nickerson ’83 GRD ’91, now an associate professor of English at Emory University, recalled Trachtenberg’s willingness to read books he had never encountered before, simply to support her in her work. When she presented him with a copy of her book years later, “he just lit up,” she said.

Brian Edwards ’90 GRD ’98, dean of Tulane University’s School of Liberal Arts, also described the formative impact of Trachtenberg’s early belief in his work.

Recalling his surprise that Trachtenberg attended a play he wrote and produced as an undergraduate, Edwards said, “it was an evening performance in the basement of a residential college. I

YALE NEWS

Trachtenberg was a prolific and involved historian whose teaching career spanned more than three decades. truly didn’t expect him to show up!

Instead, a great critic took seriously what an undergraduate was doing.”

Trachtenberg was born in Philadelphia to Isidore and Norma Trachtenberg in 1932 and met his wife of 67 years, the longtime Yale College Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg, in his childhood.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Temple Univer-

sity, a master’s degree in English from the University of Connecticut and his doctorate from the University of Minnesota, where he studied under the tutelage of Leo Marx, a prominent early American Studies scholar in the Myth and Symbols school.

His work won widespread recognition outside of Yale, earning him Fulbright and Guggenheim fellowships and membership

into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. After his retirement in 2001, he continued to write extensively and participate in University activities along with his wife.

A memorial service for Trachtenberg will be held after COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.

Contact EMILY TIAN at emily.tian@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

NEWS

PAGE 11

“A smile is the light in your window that tells others that there is a caring, sharing person inside.” DENIS WAITLEY AMERICAN MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER

New Haven expands downtown outdoor dining

BY CHRISTIAN ROBLES CONTRIBUTING REPORTER In an effort to support local restaurants navigating the challenges posed by the COVID19 pandemic, New Haven has helped them expand outdoor dining space by closing sections of city streets.

On College Street and other downtown streets, restaurants have moved tables out onto the sidewalk and into the parking lane for expanded outdoor dining. The initiative, which began with restaurants on College Street after Elm City Social owner John Brennan started a petition, has since branched out to other areas, including Orange Street. In June, Brennan created a Change.org petition, which requested the city to close down the section between Chapel and Crown streets so that restaurants could expand their outdoor dining operations. Ultimately, the initiatives moved forward with cooperation between restaurant owners and local officials.

“Restaurant owners have told me that the lane closure [and shift towards business in the street] is what’s keeping them in business right now,” Ward 1 Alder Eli Sabin ’22 told the News in an interview.

“Dozens of people they employ haven’t lost their jobs.”

Brennan’s petition garnered 1,273 signatures. Together, Bren-

nan, Sabin and other restaurant owners set up a Zoom meeting with the New Haven Economic Development team to make the plan a reality. After some concerns were raised and addressed in the meeting, all parties agreed on a compromise to close only one lane of traffic.

Part of the road on College Street that was once used for cars is now reserved for pedestrians, which is denoted by rainbow-colored paint. All that remains for cars is a solitary lane on the left, set off by traffic cones.

Since the original College Street expansion, other streets such as Orange Street, in the area between Center and George streets, have expanded outdoor dining as well. The Orange Street expansion in particular was backed by Ward 7 Alder Abby Roth ’90 LAW ’94 and Ward 6 Alder Carmen Rodriguez, who co-wrote a letter supporting the expansion.

In an interview with the News, Roth said that her constituents “love the repurposing of the space and helping to support local businesses and nonprofits during what has been such a difficult time for them economically.” She has heard no concerns regarding increased road traffic in the area from her constituents.

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

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Part of the road on College Street that was once used for cars is now reserved for pedestrians.

FroCos give support during Chinese law sparks academic freedom concerns unprecedented move-in

BY MATT KRISTOFFERSEN STAFF REPORTER

COURTESY OF COVE GEARY

FroCos and first years spent last week adapting to virtual orientation, with some students not even in New Haven.

BY RAZEL SUANSING CONTRIBUTING REPORTER As Yale College welcomes students back to campus, first-year counselors are reimagining how to help Yale’s newest members adjust — from navigating the chaos of virtual classes to meeting friends during a quarantine.

First-year move-in, which began August 24, looked drastically different this year, with movers unpacking boxes and some parents barred from entering their children’s colleges.

Campus itself has changed — with common spaces filled with booths for COVID-19 testing and no available seating in dining halls. Students moved immediately into their dorms for mandatory quarantine while waiting for test results, meaning that first years could meet only their suitemates for the first day or two on campus. The usually vibrant courtyards were empty, waiting for students to populate the fields after the initial arrival quarantine. First-year counselors have faced the brunt of these changes as they adjust their normal duties to address the pandemic’s complications.

“I feel like the FroCo position has been more difficult given the fact that people’s lives and health are at risk — this comes with a lot of physical, emotional, and mental health concerns both from our first years and amongst FroCo teams as well,” Trumbull FroCo Gianna Baez ‘21 wrote in an email to the News. “It’s taken a lot of innovation from my team and FroCos in general in terms of making fun events — duties and meetings are mostly on Zoom but we have had many successful socially distant games, meetings, etc.“ First-year counselors generally provide academic, social and cultural support to Yale’s newest members. Still, the global pandemic has both complicated and increased the need for these counselors’ support.

FroCos pointed to technological and emotional difficulties as major challenges.

“Zoom fatigue is a real thing and it can sometimes be tough

for me to keep focus after having back-to-back online meetings,” said Pierson FroCo Mohammad Makhmudov ’21.

He added that he worried about first years who had to stare at a screen for much of orientation.

Incoming first years like Alex Chun ’24 stated that FroCos have helped him and his peers transition during this time of change.

“Despite the global pandemic and all the complications it causes, my orientation and move-in went surprisingly well, and I firmly believe that the hard work of the Yale staff and FroCos was essential for my smooth transition,” Chun said.

FroCos have also provided support for first years who are not currently on campus, some who will move in soon and others who will complete the semester outside of New Haven.

One such student, Viktor Kagan ’24, will move in sometime in September after the quarantine period is over, but he stated that his first-year counselor has made him feel welcome already.

“I’m moving in after quarantine, but my FroCo has made every effort to make me fit in the group even [though] I’m not on campus. She’s super amazing and makes daily zoom calls great,“ Kagan wrote in an email to the News.

A shared sentiment among first years is how the pandemic actually brought their class and the FroCos closer together.

With nobody else on campus, they have had plenty of time to get to know each other — whether through socially distanced “hellos” across the courtyard or nightly Zoom meetings.

“We cherish every Zoom together, and we often hang out together on the courtyard in person when we can! I think this is largely thanks to Grace’s efforts to give us all enough time on Zoom to talk about ourselves, our day, and our worries; it allows us all to become more familiar with each other,” said Pierson student Vanessa Cheng ’24.

Contact RAZEL SUANSING at razel.suansing@yale.edu .

Tucked near the middle of political science professor Daniel Mattingly’s syllabus for a Chinese history class lies a new warning for prospective students living in China: Review the course description “carefully.”

Mattingly’s course touches on topics the Chinese government has long attempted to keep under wraps, including the bloody 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and the ongoing internment of ethnic Muslims. But due to China’s new national security law aimed at suppressing dissent in Hong Kong, students who tune in to college classes from mainland China and Hong Kong could now risk detention by discussing these and other sensitive issues. Still, three Yale professors with expertise in the country’s history told the News it’s improbable that China would pursue action against University students this fall.

“If you will be taking the class while residing in mainland China or Hong Kong, or are a PRC citizen, you should review the course syllabus carefully,” Mattingly’s “The Rise of China” syllabus reads. “Please get in touch to discuss.”

The Chinese government introduced the law this summer, attempting to quell what it calls “acts of secession, subversion, infiltration, and destruction against the Chinese mainland” associated with long-standing demonstrations in Hong Kong. It allows mainland officials to threaten as much as life in prison to anyone

who they accuse of participating in acts they perceive as hostile — which could include academic discussion.

Vice Provost for Global Strategy Pericles Lewis wrote in an email to the News that it’s “highly unlikely that anything a student says in a Yale classroom (even a virtual one) would become an issue in China.”

University professors and other academics across the United States are now taking steps to protect their students from running afoul of the Chinese government.

History professor Denise Ho, who is teaching a seminar on Hong Kong and China, told the News that she’ll make what she calls a “circle of trust” among her students this fall. Seminar sessions won’t be recorded, she said, and what is said in class or on Canvas will stay there.

Guidelines from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences website charge instructors with keeping students’ online work confidential this fall. Seminars are, by default, not recorded. The guidelines also state that students shouldn’t share class interactions without permission.

Ho added that if discussion centers around a particularly sensitive topic, at-risk students can participate outside of class and submit their papers anonymously.

“This is obviously a moving target, so we have to communicate, stay aware and preserve the integrity of our classroom,” Ho wrote in an email.

But even with these measures, the risk remains unclear, Ho and Mattingly told the News. Online communication platforms remain vulnerable to hacks and security flaws.

DAVID ZHENG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Yale professors with expertise in the country’s history said it’s improbable that China would pursue action against University students this fall.

According to a Time report, U.S. officials have already caught Chinese operatives using Zoom to spy on American video chats.

“We are all very concerned to protect the freedom of discussion and academic inquiry for students participating in our classes,” Lewis said.

Instructors at Harvard University and Princeton University are also adopting measures to keep students safe, like code names and anonymous chat rooms.

The Chinese law stands as one of several significant hurdles that Yale and other universities face with offering remote classes in areas where speech is restricted compared to the United States. Normally, given broad freedom to discuss controversial topics in America, students living and learning in other parts of the globe could now see that freedom muzzled as courses move online.

“The [Chinese national security law] is new, but the concern [over academic freedom] isn’t,” said David Rank, a Senior Fellow at the Yale Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. Rank is teaching a graduate-level seminar on China’s rise to global power this fall.

Despite the law, professors Ho and Mattingly say their syllabi remain unchanged.

“Now more than ever, especially in light of current US-China relations, it is important to teach and learn about China,” Ho said. “I’ve devoted my life to better understanding — and helping others better understand — China, past and present.

Indeed, Yale has historically been one of the most important places to study Chinese history.”

Ho quoted from Yale’s motto: “light and truth,” adding that “it is imperative that we do not self-censor.” Mattingly told the News that he will not self-censor either, and will not remove sensitive topics from his syllabus.

“Given the potential risks to those in China and elsewhere, I’m encouraging students to examine the syllabus carefully and decide for themselves whether they want to enroll,” he said.

Around 1,700 undergraduates plan on taking classes remotely this fall, according to a YaleNews report.

Contact MATT KRISTOFFERSEN at matthew.kristoffersen@yale.edu .

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

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NEWS

“Buy, buy, says the sign in the shop window; Why, why, says the junk in the yard.” PAUL MCCARTNEY SINGER-SONGWRITER

New student position will help transition to online learning

BY ALICE AO CONTRIBUTING REPORTER In preparation for the first full semester of online instruction, Yale has hired approximately 160 students to serve as undergraduate technology assistants, a new role designed to address the unique and unprecedented challenges of remote instruction.

UTAs, who are trained and managed by the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, will be expected to work approximately five hours a week and will be paid $13.25 an hour. Their responsibilities entail assisting professors with technological issues with remote learning software. Each UTA has been matched with between one and three professors and is expected to meet regularly with them, reorganize class Canvas sites and aid students with basic technical issues. UTAs must also attend and manage synchronous Zoom classes for their assigned professors and have been tasked with assigning breakout rooms, creating polls, reviewing chat discussions and other responsibilities.

“Zoom and Canvas are complex systems that require specific technical knowledge,” said Patrick O’Brien-Sevilla, the Poorvu Center’s communication officer.

“Undergraduate technology assistants focus on the technical nature of these platforms to help faculty.

This allows faculty to redirect some of their energy by employing more complex teaching strategies and emphasizing learning outcomes.”

O’Brien-Sevilla explained that the new role was created largely due to feedback from the faculty

on remote instruction during the spring 2020 semester, which was also held online due to the COVID19 pandemic.

In a survey conducted by the Poorvu Center, 17 percent of the 407 faculty respondents reported technical difficulties that affected their instructional experience and abilities during the spring. Twenty-six percent of respondents also mentioned a desire for increased training focused on online teaching strategies.

The feedback prompted the Yale Faculty of Arts and Sciences Instructional Support Committee to recommend creating the UTA position, who would provide additional assistance with and expertise on teaching tools for remote instruction.

Kaci Xie ’24, a newly hired UTA, sees the new role as an absolute necessity for many classes, especially those that demand heavy use of Zoom’s features to facilitate learning.

Xie serves as the host of her assigned class’ Zoom call, manages breakout rooms, presents videos and even mutes the occasional noisy student.

“A lot of class time was saved because we weren’t busy dealing with technology,” she explained.

For many faculty members, UTAs have been a welcome addition to the new reality of teaching and learning through computer screens, representing an optimistic shift away from the abrupt and unexpected challenges posed by the previous semester.

Head of Pauli Murray College and East Asian languages and literature professor Tina Lu called

COURTESY OF UNSPLASH

Yale has hired more than 100 students tasked with making sure online instruction runs smoothly. her UTA “the net for the trapeze act that is teaching this semester.”

According to Lu, she was forced to spend “at least 100 hours” reworking her teaching methods last semester because of the sudden shift to virtual learning. She said that it was difficult to engage with students, teach material and navigate various platforms, without the aid of UTAs. With the creation of the UTA

program, however, Lu said she found it much more manageable to teach virtual classes. “[My UTA made] me feel much more confident that we can troubleshoot on the fly,” Lu wrote in an email. “He helps me with breakout rooms, monitoring the chat for tech issues and any unforeseen tech problems (like switching between a shared screen to annotate and not).”

Lu is among several professors utilizing the UTA program this semester. According to O’Brien-Sevilla, so far, the Poorvu Center has worked with the Yale College Dean’s Office, the Graduate School and FAS to receive and fulfill approximately 125 faculty requests for UTAs. Contact ALICE AO at alice.ao@yale.edu .

Class of 2024 sees record Local businesses face pandemic economy number of gap years

BY TALAT AMAN STAFF REPORTER

YALE DAILY NEWS

This year, 341 students previously accepted into the class of 2024 elected to take gap years.

BY KELLY WEI STAFF REPORTER The school year kicked off on Monday, and with it a cohort of 1,267 first-year students started their journey at Yale — a class 21 percent smaller than its original size.

In previous years, around 3 percent on average of incoming firstyear students elected to postpone their first semester at Yale. Last year, 51 first-year students originally accepted into the class of 2023 postponed their matriculation.

This year, 341 students previously accepted into the class of 2024 elected to take gap years.

Despite the nearly sevenfold increase in students taking gap years, Director of Outreach and Communications Mark Dunn said that “the admissions office has no plans to reduce the number of admissions offers in the coming year, despite the larger group of postponing students who will join the class of 2025 next fall.”

When asked how the University could handle a potentially larger class size for the class of 2025, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid Jeremiah Quinlan said, “I think that’s something we have to worry about a little bit later down the line. I think right now we are preparing to have a larger firstyear class next year.”

Their college experience begins as the University grapples with the novel challenges of online learning and campus social distancing. The majority of the first-year students who have decided to enroll have moved into their residential colleges on campus and will receive the bulk of their instruction online. “[The resilience of students who elected to enroll] in the face of disappointment at not being able to visit campus in person and their creativity in finding new ways to connect with each other make them well-equipped to make the most of their Yale education with this year’s unprecedented changes to campus life,” said Associate Director of

Admissions Hannah Mendlowitz.

The class of 2024 is Yale’s most diverse class ever, with 55 percent of enrolled first-year students identifying themselves as a member of a minority group — up from the class of 2023’s record of 51 percent. In addition, 19 percent of enrolled first-year students identify as the first person in their family to attend college.

This also marks the third year in a row that more than 20 percent of the incoming class qualifies for a federal Pell Grant — subsidies the federal government provides to students with high financial need. Additionally, 59 percent of the newly enrolled students have received a Yale needbased financial aid award. Only 8 percent of the students have a legacy affiliation, compared to 12 percent for the class of 2023.

With the transition to online classes and remote learning, financial aid offers have also been adjusted. Students who enroll remotely are not charged for room and board, and the student share portion of their financial aid award is waived for the term they elect to enroll remotely.

In addition, first-year students and sophomores who enroll for both the fall 2020 and spring 2021 terms with at least one term of remote enrollment will receive tuition credits to take two Yale Summer Session courses for free in any summer up to their senior year.

Geographically, the newly enrolled 1,267 students represent all 50 states as well as 53 countries. Of the students from the United States, the Northeast and West make up the largest percentage of students’ home regions, with 29 percent and 17 percent respectively.

Postponing students are not included in the released figures.

Yale offered a spot in the class of 2024 to a total of 2,304 applicants during the 2019–20 application cycle.

Contact KELLY WEI at kelly.wei@yale.edu .

New Haven residents cherished Doug Coffin ’76 and his pizza restaurant, Next Door, located

by Jocelyn Square. The restaurant was known for its quirkiness — from its name, which refers to its emphasis on community, to its menu consisting of niche items like broccoli rabe and sausage pies. But, on Aug. 2, the restaurant served its last meal.

“I looked at the numbers and we realized we wouldn’t be able to make it. It wasn’t like other summers when things could turn around in September. We suffered a set of losses that would go all the way through until next summer.”

Next Door is just one of a few Elm City businesses shuttering in response to the economic devastation brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. After Governor Ned Lamont closed all non-essential businesses on March 23 and reopened on June 17 with strict social distancing guidelines, business owners scrambled to make up for lost revenue. The federal government sent help starting in April with its Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, offering a glimmer of hope. While many businesses received the forgivable aid, some were still forced to lay off workers, downsize and ultimately, close shop. For businesses still staying afloat, there is no telling how much longer they can remain open.

“It’s definitely still very challenging and none of us know when there’s going to be scientific breakthroughs,” New Haven Chamber of Commerce President Garrett Sheehan told the News. “There’s kind of that uncertainty as well; ‘when is it going to get better?’ What is the biggest key is consumer confidence in the health issues and worrying about going to a restaurant.”

Of the list of eight known businesses that have closed over the past few months, most are restaurants and bars. New Haven residents will no longer be able to visit Next Door, The Beer Collective, Duc’s Banh Mi Shop, Chuan Du Hot Pot, Freskos, Fireside and Clark’s Family Restaurant — an over 40-year business and Yale tenant.

Each of these businesses left impressionable memories on their clientele. With the announcements of these business closures, comments flooded Facebook pages and other news pages alike. Customers reflected on how “Duc’s was such a bright spot in dark times” and Clark’s Family Restaurant was a “piece of [their] childhood.”

In an interview with the New Haven Independent, Duc Nguyen, the former owner of Duc’s Banh Mi Shop, explained his situation. Not only was he receiving zero orders on some days, but like The Beer Collective and other small businesses, Nguyen didn’t receive a

federal PPP loan.

“Everyone took advantage with better lawyers and bankers,” he said. “All the big guys took all the money and ran. For little guys like me, I have little manpower and resources.”

Deputy Economic Development Director of New Haven Steve Fontana explained in an interview with the News that though the government tried to quickly help businesses on a short basis, their programs were geared towards larger businesses. In Fontana’s eyes, this meant employers with over 500 workers received a lot of the aid.

When applying for the PPP loan, Coffin said he found the application process “intimidating”.

Next Door ultimately received the loan which has helped Coffin pay employees and utilities. But, he noted difficulty in retaining workers who stayed home on expanded unemployment benefits.

Even with the loan, retail shops like Nancy Shea and Todd Lyon’s Fashionista Vintage & Variety had to downsize. After laying off parttime workers, the business sustained itself by selling masks out of vintage materials and repurposed fabric, half of which they then donated. On top of that, the store relocated to a smaller venue in East Rock from its original location on Whitney Ave. In order to adapt to the financial stress, the restaurant is in the process of reimagining its business model. This entails selling online, running small curated shopping events, reducing store hours and vending at events like farmers markets and concerts.

“We had to make ourselves COVID-proof,” Lyon explained.

“We can keep going and we’re much better at selling online. But if COVID hadn’t happened we wouldn’t have done this… We have a wonderful collection — we spent 15 years building this.”

The only retail store that has permanently closed in New Haven is the flagship Ann Taylor store on

Chapel Street. Its parent company filed for bankruptcy on July 23.

But despite the city’s slew of business closures, Fontana sees hope. He explained that many businesses close even in the best of times and, in fact, 2020 has seen even more businesses opening.

The list includes Somos Arepas, El Segundo, Hunan Ten Minute Noodle and 17 others across the city. Fontana noted that despite the disproportionate impacts of COVID on minority communities, many businesses opening in New Haven are owned by local women and people of color.

When asked about the government response, Fontana said the governor and the legislature have been “very careful, deliberate, methodical — they worked at pretty much the right speed,” he said. “I’m very proud of what my colleagues in New Haven have been doing to help bring things under control.”

Lyon and Coffin expressed similar content with how the local and state governments have handled the pandemic. In the meantime, Shea and Lyon will continue to run Vintage Fashionista and Coffin has moved his pizza truck business, Big Green Truck Pizza, to the old location of Next Door.

Fontana and Sheehan explained that the future of businesses in New Haven is ultimately dependent on the release of a vaccine and continued social distancing.

“It will push people to be more thoughtful and careful,” Fontana added. “You won’t see as much activity as you see at bars — people will be reserved to do that. If you can control the virus, you can go back to a semblance of what life was like before.”

According to a Moody’s/CNN analysis, Connecticut’s economy is functioning at 86 percent of what it was in early March, before the pandemic.

Contact TALAT AMAN at talat.aman@yale.edu .

NATALIE KAINZ/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

For businesses still staying afloat, there is no telling how much longer they can remain open.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

NEWS

PAGE 13

“When one door closes, another window opens.”

JULIE ANDREWS ACTRESS

Yale School of Music to reopen on Sept. 8 for hybrid instruction

YALE DAILY NEWS

The School of Music has devised a hybrid reopening plan to balance health and safety with musicians’ ability to practice their skills.

BY PHOEBE LIU STAFF REPORTER Although the University is offering most classes remotely and has banned all public performances, the Yale School of Music created an innovative plan to mix remote and in-person learning — prioritizing safety while allowing students to participate in some form of live ensemble playing, which is essential for their profession.

The School of Music will begin instruction on Sept. 8 and implement a two-block system. During the academic block, from Sept. 8 to Oct. 13, courses will be entirely online. In the performance block, from Oct. 14 to Nov. 25, the School of Music plans to conduct in-person instruction and require most students to live and attend classes on campus. Then, students will finish the semester’s academic work online, from Nov. 25 to Dec. 9.

Throughout the semester, students

must follow a strict set of safety guidelines. Individual faculty members can decide whether their private lessons and studio classes will be taught remotely or in-person.

“Given the circumstances, I think it’s the best we can do,” said Ann Cho MUS ’21. “But I think it’s just an unfortunate situation where we’re trying to make the best of it.”

The School of Music felt the effects of the coronavirus pandemic early. In March, a musician was exposed to the virus, leading to the cancellation of the 125th-anniversary spring break tour of the Yale Philharmonia, Yale Schola Cantorum and Bach Choir of London.

School of Music Dean Robert Blocker said this cancellation “signaled the reality of COVID-19 for the School of Music.” Even so, he is “hopeful because of the responsible and thoughtful manner [with which] our entire community has engaged in these preparations.”

Since then, School of Music administrators, faculty and students formed committees and met regularly to discuss the program’s immediate future. They decided on the two-block plan for hybrid instruction in order to postpone students’ return to campus until Sept. 30. Students will then quarantine for two weeks before the start of the performance block.

Part of the decision to delay in-person instruction was the School of Music’s 40 percent proportion of international students.

When administrators drafted the initial plan, circumstances surrounding international students’ return to campus were unclear. Students and faculty discussed concerns about travel restrictions and visa complications.

According to Blocker, the additional time before in-person instruction would “maximize the opportunity to have more students return to campus for the performance block.”

Cho said that because the school is so small, at just over 200 students, the School of Music needs students to return so they can have a full orchestra and minimize effects on future admissions cycles.

But according to Ye Jin Min MUS ’25, who is from South Korea, some international students are worried about health and safety risks associated with traveling to Connecticut for in-person learning.

Both Min and Cho expressed concerns about housing. Min said it’s difficult to find somewhere to live for only six weeks, especially when many students have already signed leases for the 2020–2021

school year. Cho, who plans to live in on-campus graduate housing, said that she and many others are paying rent or dorm fees during the academic block even when they aren’t living on campus.

According to Min, a few students have received permission to complete the performance block online, but she wishes the option were provided earlier.

Blocker said the School of Music and Office of the Deputy Dean are attempting to address each situation individually and honor student requests when possible.

Administrators said the plan’s successful execution depends on a number of factors. Like other students at the University, School of Music students must quarantine until they receive a negative test result, undergo twice-a-week testing, follow social distancing guidelines and wear face coverings in public spaces.

The School of Music also consulted results from an epidemiological report to determine how students could safely use practice facilities. Sprague Hall and 320 Temple Street will be closed to student use. Leigh Hall will be open for lessons and other occasional and administrative activities. Hendrie Hall, which was renovated in 2017, is the only building with adequate ventilation for frequent use.

“We continue to follow and monitor the most recent thinking, data and decisions related to aerosolization — most notably with the singers, woodwind and brass players,” Blocker said. “We will follow the science in determining the social distancing and density issues in the School of Music.”

Students can sign up online for three-hour slots to use Hendrie Hall’s basement practice rooms and must check-in at the front desk before each practice shift.

According to operations chief of staff Epongue Ekille ’21, School of Music student employees who previously oversaw stage managing and ushering duties will be responsible for checking students in, walking them to their assigned room and explaining the sanitation protocol. Each student is required to sanitize their practice room after every use, and the room will remain locked for an hour between uses to allow for air turnover.

Ekille said that Hendrie Hall’s common spaces will be closed.

Classroom use will be limited until small-group programs, such as chamber music, begin. As of now, chamber music and orchestra rehearsals will happen in concentrated blocks of time, meeting almost every day for multiple hours each day for the duration of the performance block. String and percussion players must be masked and 6 feet apart, and wind and brass players who cannot play with a face covering must be 15 feet apart.

Min said that although the quality of education may not be the same as that of a regular, fully in-person semester, this fall “is also a time for us to be creative and find a new way to learn.”

Blocker said that the school has not yet begun planning for the spring semester.

Contact PHOEBE LIU at phoebe.liu@yale.edu .

Student groups respond to DOJ ruling, Yale gets extension for response

BY KELLY WEI STAFF REPORTER Since the Department of Justice mandated Yale to change its admissions policies in late August, student groups across campus have spoken out against the DOJ’s ruling.

Multiple student organizations have signed on to two separate statements condemning the ruling. One statement, signed by leaders of the Black Student Alliance at Yale, the Yale Black Women’s Coalition, the Yale Black Men’s Coalition and the Yale Muslim Students Association, called the DOJ’s decision a “destructive attack on equitable education.”

“To participate in a color-blind admissions process, as the Department now expects our university to do, is to discredit the experiences that make academic success on par with other races systematically more difficult for Black students,” the statement wrote. “This makes the Black educational experience materially more challenging.”

Meanwhile, according to Dean of Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid Jeremiah Quinlan, the Department of Justice has agreed to postpone Yale’s response to the department’s proposed remedial measures until Sept. 15.

The DOJ stated that this proposal must include a date by which Yale will end its current practices of “race discrimination.”

“We hope to use this extra time to explain why we disagree with the department’s allegation that Yale discriminates in its admissions process,” Quinlan said.

Other statements signed by students, including one signed by members of the Asian American Students Alliance, the South Asian Society, the Yale Queer + Asian and other Asian American Cultural Center affiliate groups, echoed this sentiment.

The statement from the AACC affiliate organizations describes the ruling as a “thinly veiled ploy to use Asian Americans to attack the system of affirmative action, and maintain unequal access to higher education, at the expense of Black, Indigenous, and Latinx individuals.”

“I believe this is an unproductive attempt to employ Asian Americans to attack affirmative action and uphold educational inequality,” said Michelle Liang ’22, co-moderator for AASA. “From the erasure of the nuances of privilege within the Asian American community to the overlooking of MENA students by denying them their own category, the DOJ hinders racial justice rather than

addressing ways Yale, and education in general, should address inequity.”

Co-President of BSAY Nina Todd ’22 told the News that the DOJ made “an actively racist choice in their decision.”

The DOJ’s August statement demands that Yale agree not to consider race or national origin in the 2020-21 admissions cycle and that if Yale proposes to consider race or national origin in future admissions cycles, the University must submit a plan that demonstrates the proposal is “as narrowly tailored as required by law.”

In an email sent out to undergraduates, University President Peter Salovey reaffirmed that the college has no plans to adapt its policies in accordance with the department’s demands as the DOJ is “seeking to impose a standard that is inconsistent with existing law.”

“We will continue to look at the whole person when selecting whom to admit among the many thousands of highly qualified applicants,” Salovey wrote. “[We] will continue to create a student body that is rich in a diverse range of ideas, expertise and experiences.”

While Todd applauds Salovey’s defense of Yale’s holistic admissions policy, she noted that the

University-wide student body is only around five percent black.

She said this figure is common among Yale’s Ivy League counterparts.

“We and the rest of the Ivy League can always do a better job of identifying and uplifting Black brainpower to open our gates to,” Todd said. “The DOJ statement also mentions Asian Americans, a community in which subgroups struggle with representation. Yale could additionally do very well to disag-

gregate data for Asian Americans in the admissions process to further consider barriers for underserved communities within the Asian diaspora.”

The department’s findings come after a two-year investigation in response to a 2016 complaint against the University from the Asian American Coalition for Education and 132 other organizations.

Contact KELLY WEI at kelly.wei@yale.edu .

LOGAN HOWARD/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

The Department of Justice has agreed to postpone Yale’s response until Sept. 15, admissions director Jeremiah Quinlan said.

Despite postponed rush, a cappella groups host Virtual Jam

BY SYDNEY BRYANT CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Although the coronavirus pandemic put a cappella rush on pause this fall, 13 of Yale’s singing groups came together online this Tuesday to welcome the Class of 2024 and attempted to fill the musical void that COVID has left behind.

In light of the Yale administration’s decision to cancel all in-person performances for the fall semester, the 16 member groups of the Singing Group Council (SGC) — the organization that facilitates a cappella rush season — were faced with a tough decision: whether or not to cancel fall

rush. This summer, the SGC mediated discussions between the groups and the Yale College Dean’s Office.

After multiple town hall meetings, the SGC member groups voted to postpone the rush process until further notice.

“A lot of groups were really concerned with preserving the traditions of a cappella and the closeness with first-years, as well as with adhering to safety guidelines and maintaining equity among the groups,” said Cosette Davis ’21, SGC co-chair and member of Proof in the Pudding.

Yet, some performers still wanted to welcome the Class of 2024, regardless of whether rush would occur.

YALE UNIVERSITY

Several Yale a cappella groups came together on Tuesday to host a virtual concert to welcome the class of 2024.

Ben Kramer ’23, the music director of the Spizzwinks, and Jay Mehta ’24, co-president of Red Hot and Blue, reached out to all 16 member groups of SGC, as well as a few other campus singing groups, and proposed a Virtual Jam. “We’ve both found a lot of our support network at Yale through singing, and we wanted to introduce the incoming class to that,” the two said in a joint statement. “After rush was officially cancelled, I think everyone started looking for ways to welcome the incoming class without falling into some sort of competitive rush-mode.” Thirteen of the groups Kramer and Mehta contacted agreed to participate.

This year’s Virtual Jam is the spiritual successor to the Woolsey and Dwight Jams, which annually introduce first-years to Yale a cappella.

According to Spizzwink Adrian Venzon ’23, the Woolsey and Dwight Jams give first-years a chance to meet group members one-on-one.

Venzon recalled a Spizzwink member asking him to audition there — a personal connection that convinced Venzon to eventually join the group.

The 50-minute Virtual Jam was live-streamed on YouTube. Each group submitted a pre-recorded video of one of their favorite song selections. The performances ran the gamut of genres and tones; some

were sweeping and stately, others playful and poppy. Many included creative video-editing and Zoom choreography.

First-years are entering Yale with the same passions as upperclassmen, but the pandemic has limited their opportunities to get involved.

“As someone that aspires to be in an a capella group, it’s disappointing that I won’t be able to take part in rush,” said Maya Khurana ’24. “On the other hand, though, because I’m a first-year, I don’t really know what I’m missing out on, so I’m glad that the absence of rush isn’t as apparent for me as it would have been if I was in a different year.” Despite the disappointment, Khurana enjoyed watching the Virtual Jam, and noted that “the virtual format even allowed [the groups] to have a little more fun with their performances.”

But, coordinating a performance virtually provides a different set of challenges than an in-person performance. “I think the biggest challenge of virtual concerts is definitely the amount of work and the distribution of roles,” said Danielle Neil ’23, a member of Shades. In an in-person performance, a cappella groups are directed by the group’s “pitch”, or music director. Virtual performances require combining individual recordings in video-editing software, which takes extra time and effort. “But, by

working to make sure we have things early and encouraging everyone along the way, I think the process becomes easier,” Neil said.

Advertisements for local New Haven charities were played between performances. The organizations represented include the Citywide Youth Coalition, Connecticut Fund for the Environment/Save the Sound, The Okra Project, All Our Kin and The New Haven Reads Book Bank. The groups encouraged viewers to utilize the volunteer and donation links in the live-stream’s description box.

“First and foremost, we really just wanted to welcome the frosh!” said Kramer and Mehta. “We [also] want to make sure that we’re being responsible caretakers of our platform as Yale students with an audience made up of other Yale students, and one part of that is amplifying organizations who are giving back to the New Haven community.”

Additionally, Kramer and Mehta are organizing a 2024 virtual performance of “Bright College Years” and hope all first-years get involved. More information about the “Introducing the Class of 2024!” project can be found on the Yale College Arts’ website.

Contact SYDNEY BRYANT at sydney.bryant@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

SPORTS

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Luke Stevens ’20 signs AHL deal

BY MARGARET HEDEMAN STAFF REPORTER Forward Luke Stevens ’20 will continue his hockey career after signing a one-year deal with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins — the AHL affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins. However, the Penguins are not just any team for the Stevens family. Kevin Stevens, Luke’s father, was a force to be reckoned with during his days in the professional league, and won back-to-back Stanley Cup championship trophies with the team in 1991 and 1992.

The Yale graduate, who was originally selected in the 5th round of the 2015 draft by the Carolina Hurricanes, established himself as a key player and top scorer for the Bulldogs. Stevens raked in 35 points across his 101 games with the Blue and White. After declining an offer from the Hurricanes and becoming a free agent on Aug. 15, the Massachusetts native decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and advance his professional career with the Penguins organization.

“My whole family basically grew up in the organization,” Luke said.

“I’ve got pretty good memories of my brother and I running around the locker room [in Pittsburgh] when we were little, just causing havoc … You see all these pictures of us in little Penguins uniforms around the rink, so it’s pretty funny to see how things come full circle. We are really excited to get things going, and I think it’s just a great fit overall for me.”

After COVID-19 forced a premature end of the 2020 collegiate season on March 13, Luke leaned heavily on his dad for guidance when navigating the process of going pro.

Kevin Stevens currently works for the Pittsburgh Penguins as a special assignment scout and has been with the organization on and off since 1987. In 2002, Kevin retired as a player after his second stint with the Penguins. He rejoined the organization off the ice as a talent scout in 2005.

Kevin said he is extremely proud of Luke’s decision to sign with the Penguins and expressed his wholehearted belief in the strength of the organization.

“I kinda know the whole system, how we work and how the people work,” Kevin said. “I know it’s the best organization, and I know if you play well, you’re going to get an opportunity … We develop kids, and it’s a great opportunity for him to get in there and play.”

Kevin graduated from Boston College in 1987 and immediately became a star forward for the Penguins. He outscored Wayne Gretsky in the 1991–92 season by two points, becoming only the third player to do so in the regular season. He would go on to play a total of 522 games with the team.

While the Yale graduate is off to the pros with his father at his side, Ryan Stevens ’24, Luke’s younger brother, begins a similar chapter of his own as a new forward for the Yale men’s hockey team.

MEN’S HOCKEY

MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM

Forward Luke Stevens ’20 was originally selected in the 5th round of the 2015 draft by the Carolina Hurricanes.

Though the younger Stevens scouted several schools, he ultimately landed on Yale because of its academic and athletic prowess as well as his older brother’s positive experience with the program.

“I was talking to some schools after my sophomore year of high school,” Ryan said. “Then Yale reached out to me, and I was pretty excited about that because it’s one of the best universities in the world, the hockey team is really good, my brother was there at the moment, and he was loving it.”

As for Ryan’s future plans, following in his dad and older brother’s

A summer run with Azar Swain ’21

BY WILLIAM MCCORMACK STAFF REPORTER STOUGHTON, MA — On an August night at the Dana Barros Basketball Club — a shiny fivecourt facility that normally hums with AAU teams, parents and tournament referees — the parking lot was mostly empty.

MEN’S BASKETBALL Azar Swain ’21 entered through the back door, picked a hoop and kicked off his slides. Sitting on the sidelines, he laced up a pair of white basketball shoes and acknowledged that certainties are rare in 2020.

“I’m still not sure — you know, nobody’s really sure — what’s going to happen in the winter,” he said, a mask hiding most of his face and a backwards hat with “Boston” above the brim covering his head.

The Yale men’s basketball guard and All-Ivy first team selection has not played a real game in more than five months — the last one occurred 40 minutes north of Stoughton at Harvard’s home court, Lavietes Pavilion. And with the Bulldogs’ nonconference basketball slate canceled this fall and any hope of Ivy League basketball this winter in jeopardy, Swain has no way to predict when he’ll take the floor again.

Amid the uncertainty around college basketball, his final two semesters at Yale and life itself, Swain is focusing on the positives, finding the time to recuperate his body while training roughly six days a week.

“Obviously, it’s been tough for a lot of people,” Azar said. “For me personally, I try to find the silver linings in a lot of things. For example, this summer, especially with the uncertainty of the Ivy League cancelling and all that, [has] given me a really long time to work on getting healthy and getting my knee better.”

Swain’s coronavirus-era workouts have brought his body and left knee back to his senior year of high school — he said he has not felt this good since then.

Few people could tell Swain was dealing with a knee issue when he played. He averaged a team-high

33.4 minutes a game last season and knocked down 93 three-pointers to capture Yale’s single-season record in the process. But summer under quarantine gave him the chance to resolve lingering pain, and he moved with fluidity during his evening workout at Dana Barros. “[I’ve put a] lot more emphasis on skill work as far as basketball goes and less [on] game-conditioning workouts,” Swain said. “My mind is more focused on getting better individually — I know different things I need to get better at — so trying to focus on that and tighten up some of the fundamental things as opposed to thinking about an Alabama or something like that.”

Without a set date for the start of the season, there is no Stony Brook, California or Creighton — Yale’s season-opening opponents the last three years — circled on the calendar for preparation. Swain said he thought this fall’s nonconference schedule, which would have featured a game against Alabama in New Haven, would have been Yale’s strongest. The lack of distant matchups on the calendar has allowed Swain to invest his time into expanding his layup package, finishing off his right foot with his left hand and continuing to expand his seemingly limitless range.

Zoom meetings and virtual work with Yale coaches throughout the summer have complemented Swain’s own training. Initially, the team gathered on the platform to chat and check in with each other.

But as the summer went on, players took part in virtual scouts and studied game film via shared screens.

“Having that support group in a sense, being able to talk to them sometimes — I think that’s been good for our team,” Swain said.

Teammates have come up with their own training solutions during quarantine, as many across the world, not only college basketball players, adapt their daily lives to take place outside or at home. Guard Matthue Cotton ’22 said he had to be more creative with his basketball-related work than in previous summers, and he turned a training project into a family activity.

Back in March, his father ordered

the dimensions for the college game’s deeper three-point line in order to paint new lines around the Cottons’ outdoor hoop. By May, a hot day allowed Cotton, his parents and his older brother, who plays basketball at Division II Lincoln University, to place and paint down the permanent three-point line.

Back at the Dana Barros Basketball Club, Swain strolled to the free throw line. He had built a sweat, and he stood, hands on knees, collecting his breath. He picked up the ball and sized up the rim, shooting free throws before moving on to iterations of jump shots and free throws, jump shots and free throws.

Azar and his father, LaWan, consulted throughout the sequence, talking briefly about where to shoot or mechanics to keep in mind.

LaWan said he shouts the same reminders from the stands sometimes at games when Azar finds himself in a cold streak. LaWan, who grew up in Boston and played high school basketball, attends nearly every Yale game, but no matter who the Bulldogs face — whether Oklahoma State on the road or Harvard at home — he makes a point of sitting with the opposing team’s fans.

“When we’re there, I’m listening to what people are saying,” LaWan Swain said. “I’ll take notes from the game, not from what I’ve seen that he did good, but what I hear people say that he did bad, and then we’ll go back and we’ll work on it.”

The next time LaWan can catch a game may remain an open question into 2021, even in the case that Yale plays its conference schedule this winter.

But for now, Azar is still shooting, fine-tuning his fundamentals and his body as he waits for his career to resume.

“Everything kind of happens for a reason,” he said. “I just try to take that mindset and roll with the punches.”

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

Read more of this story at yaledailynews.com.

COURTESY OF DREW DRUMMER

Amid the uncertainty around college basketball, Azar Swain ’20 is focusing on the positives.

footsteps by going pro would be “the dream.”

Ryan expressed a similar sentiment toward the Pittsburgh Penguins as his brother, adding that while his dad definitely helped with the decision, he believed that Luke “wanted to be [there] all along.”

While the future remains uncertain for Bulldog hockey this academic year, Luke is certain that Ryan will thrive in the environment and is excited about the possibility of coming back to New Haven to watch his brother and former teammates play at Ingalls Rink.

Though Luke’s immediate future

is also hazy, as the timeline for training with the AHL team is unclear, the 2020 Yale graduate believes that the Penguins organization will ultimately prepare him as best as possible for his next steps as a player.

“In our opinion, it was the best fit for me to develop and reach my goal of playing in the National Hockey League,” Stevens said. “After talking to management over there and guys involved in the organization, we are excited to get things going.”

Contact MARGARET HEDEMAN at margaret.hedeman@yale.edu .

Yale at the brink

BY CALEB RHODES SENIOR COLUMNIST That first glimpse of my beloved Pierson tower was a welcome sight for eyes habituated to the repetitive landscape of Greater Boston suburbia for the last six months.

The accompanying hit of serotonin briefly transported me outside the world we do, in fact, inhabit.

Returning to my senses, I confronted the contrastingly harsh reality we face this semester as Yale students, as New Haven residents, and as global citizens during this pandemic. The existential issues that confront us are threefold: the looming threat to our health and well-being but especially to our teachers, Yale staff, and New Haveners around us; the Presidential election in November (please vote!); and the possibility that the Yale that the sophomores, juniors, and seniors have known since our own arrivals on campus — particularly outside the classroom — could be lost.

Concerning Yale as the set of people, places, activities and relationships that turn a set of beautiful buildings and well-manicured green spaces into a campus where life happens, I cannot help but predict that at best, this fall and spring will present us with a hugely diminished experience. At worst, Yale could become unrecognizable no matter how many optimistic emails from Yale’s seemingly endless list of deans suggest otherwise.

I deeply respect Silliman Head of College and Head of the Good Life Center at Yale Laurie Santos for admitting that, for once, the broader world has pierced Yale’s iron-domelike bubble. When one of the world’s leading scholars on the psychology of happiness writes sentences like “we all should be emotionally prepared for widespread infections — and possibly deaths — in our community,” perhaps we should ready ourselves for a rather unusual and strange existence.

Since Professor Santos wrote those words on July 1, the same day Yale announced its return plan for the fall, I have been impressed with the testing regimen Yale has created so far. Certainly, Yale seems to have given much more care and consideration and spent more money than other schools to make a return to campus somewhat feasible.

As students we must contend with the knock-on effects of the necessary health and safety measures Yale has instituted on the clubs, activities, and communal spaces we hold most dear. Take my cherished YDN sports desk, the best desk at the YDN and by that virtue the best single desk at any college newspaper in the country.

While we have over the years cov-

CALEB RHODES ered stories of national importance like the college admissions scandal two years ago and more recently Yale’s partnership with the NBA for a saliva-based COVID-19 test, much of the desk’s day-to-day involves previewing and recapping the results and endeavors of Yale’s 35 varsity athletic teams. However, on July 8, the Ivy League became the first collegiate sports conference in the United States to call off fall athletics with the potential for cancelling the entire year still possible.

This decision fundamentally undercuts the desk’s ability to carry out its mission. With experienced sophomore reporters barred from campus and the sell to first years more difficult, the new editors this year will face unique challenges maintaining and recruiting for the desk. Beyond the loss of excellent reporting opportunities, what saddens me most is that new students and existing writers will be unable to experience the community as vibrantly as I could for three years.

The YDN sports desk has been a bedrock of my Yale experience, and the source of many of my closest friendships and most treasured experiences.

College life is incredibly cyclical, particularly for extracurricular activities. First years join in the fall, get inducted by semester’s end, take on more responsibility sophomore year, become leaders junior year, and sail off into the sunset as seniors. This system has an incredible inertia that the coronavirus has disrupted. Large organizations like the News and the sports desk within that have been around forever and overcome the disturbances of World Wars will survive this moment. But not all clubs and activities that provide their own spaces and value to this campus have the momentum and institutional might to avoid a critical blow in these times.

People, but especially upperclassmen, need to draw on their creativity and innovative spirit to hold this campus together as best we can.

The task in front of us is no less than to stem the hemorrhaging of institutional knowledge and the diversity of experiences Yale can offer its students both present and future. If we fail, Yale will not only be different on the other side, it will be lesser.

We are Yale students though. We got this.

Contact CALEB RHODES at caleb.rhodes@yale.edu.

WEEKEND FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2020

In a pandemic, first years vlog, trade milk and fight loneliness

ALEX TARANTO/STAFF ILLUSTRATOR

// BY MADISON HAHAMY When Rachael Shaw-Rosenblum ’24 first arrived on campus, she wasn’t met with the crush of cheering upperclassmen who would normally help first year students in Branford move into Vanderbilt Hall on Old Campus. Instead, she was dropped off by a relative at Branford College and was met with professional movers and a white tent where she took her first of many coronavirus tests.

Move-in for first years is normally a long process: parents book hotels, families travel to Ikea and Target for last-minute supplies, and students navigate the endless registrations, lines and activities that happen during orientation. This year, however, was different. First years who came from unrestricted states or international locations could have one parent come to their dorm to unpack for a two hour slot.

Everyone else moved in alone.

“It was kind of sad moving all of my stuff in and unpacking by myself,” Shaw-Rosenblum said in a Zoom interview from her dorm. “People are on quarantine schedule, so there wasn’t anyone to talk to. So I moved myself in for a couple of hours, and cried.” She laughed slightly and continued. “Maybe my suite is specifically emotionally sensitive. We were all struggling emotionally. Some of them because they were missing their family, some because of the isolation. I think there were many tears shed.”

First-year orientation, endearingly known as “Camp Yale,” occurs the week before classes begin. First years move into their dorms a few days early for a flurry of activities designed to teach them all of the information necessary to start college, as well as to help them bond with other members of their class. This year, all Yalies living on campus were required to quarantine within their residential college for two weeks after moving in, so “Camp Yale,” and the first-year experience in general, has been drastically altered.

First years experienced two separate quarantines. Upon arriving on campus and taking an initial COVID test, students needed

to remain in their rooms until they received a negative result, at which point the quarantine was extended to the confines of the residential college. This quarantine was supposed to happen solely in a student’s dorm room, according to Stiles First-Year Counselor (FroCo) Marty Chandler ‘21. The majority of first years interviewed for the article told the News, though, that that information wasn’t adequately communicated and, as a result, they immediately formed quarantine pods with their suitemates.

While this initial quarantine was supposed to last a maximum of 36 hours, a backlog of tests resulted in much longer waits for some students. Hanaé Yoshida ‘24, for example, waited 50 hours before her first test results came back, during which she vlogged to pass the time. “[The second day] was also the day of the tornado, which was a lovely welcome to New Haven,” she laughed. “It’s 2020. Anything can happen.”

Most Yalies spent the initial quarantine the same way. If you happened to be in a single, standalone suite, the first day or so was spent unpacking (perhaps a testament to their boredom was the fact that every dorm room I could see in Zoom interviews was impeccably decorated).

If you had suitemates, the time was spent getting to know them: Netflix, card games, the works.

According to Marissa Blum ‘24, each suite had a refrigerator and microwave, some multiple, and Yale Dining gave each student a bag full of microwaveable meals, snacks, a pint of milk, a box of cereal, fresh fruit, and a gallon of water for the initial quarantine. Because Yale gave the same quantity of food to everyone regardless of how long their initial quarantine lasted,multiple students disclosed that they had large quantities of leftovers, which they either threw out or swapped for more desirable snacks. Yoshida described an underground trading scene in Morse College, where students traded food through the college’s GroupMe — especially popular were the tikka masala and Starbucks frappuccino. “We all received so many cartons of milk.

I have so much of it, but some people really want it, so there’s also a complex trading process of milk cartons.”

If their test results come back negative, students can then leave their suite for the larger residential college courtyard, which is where students spend the majority of their day eating, socializing and, now that classes have started, working. For the most part, the courtyard seems to be a respite from the confined suite, allowing first years to get to know one another and eat together. However, some first years mentioned moments that highlighted just how odd it is to be starting college in the midst of a widespread public health crisis.

Vanika Mahesh ‘24, who is in Pierson, described how FroCos in her college were keeping a strict watch on the first years. “Our FroCos are overlooking the courtyard, so if you’re sitting and eating and not eight feet apart, you’ll hear voices from above telling you to do that.”

Blum, who is in Trumbull college, described a familiar sense of being monitored. “Yesterday, I saw Trumbull’s public health coordinator following people around and taking photos of the courtyard,” she said.

In an email to the News, Tyler Kellenberger, the PHC for Trumbull, emphatically denied taking pictures of students, adding that “I occasionally sit/walk in the main courtyard around lunch/dinner or in my free time (weather permitting) and FaceTime or Zoom Call my parents/ long-distance friends on my phone.

This could give the appearance of taking a photo, but this is not the case.”

After the suite quarantine, the food becomes prepackaged, grab ‘n go style from the dining hall, with either a vegan or non-vegan option.

On a scale of NYU TikTok to Michelin-starred, almost everyone I talked to rated the food quite highly.

Emily Zenner ’24 said in an email to the News that, regarding the food, “as a Texan who loves a good steak, I was impressed.” However, as Melissa Adams ’24 noted in a separate email, food wastage is still an issue.

“Lunch and dinner, our two hot meals, are served in fairly sizable

portions in large plastic containers/ bowls and I feel bad since I know many of us are probably ending up wasting more food since we can’t customize our meals to the same extent I assume students normally can,” Adams said.

Every first year interviewed, nine in total, was asked the same question: “Do you currently feel safe?” Students gave varying answers — for some, safety encompassed more than just their physical health.

“I don’t know if I’d say that I’d feel mental health-wise safe, because I’m not having a great time right now,” said Shaw-Rosenblum, after mentioning that, coronavirus-wise, this is the safest she’s felt all summer.

Camden Rider ’23, not a first year but currently quarantined on campus, echoed similar sentiments, adding that “Yale is doing a lot for safety protocols, but a lot of people are feeling a little lonely, and isolation is going to do that. Hearing the sounds of the street and the sounds of people in the areas around me and not being able to interact with them is a weird feeling.”

To the credit of the residential colleges, they’re taking measures to mitigate the loneliness. All colleges, for example, hold nightly FroCo meetings, some with the addition of virtual duty. First years in Silliman received a “Silliswag bag” with a plant, snacks, t-shirt and coloring materials. Some colleges ordered pizza for all students. Morse College had students participate in “Morse Madness,” a set of virtual challenges that included a suite Zoom photoshoot. Pierson College FroCos dropped off sparkling cider outside of everyone’s room after the virtual opening ceremony and taught everyone the Pierson chant through the windows. Saybrook sent out movie recommendations and held a socially distanced dodgeball tournament.

As for physical safety, the rules set out for social distancing and the college quarantine are being mostly followed: with notable exceptions. When I asked Mahesh how

she felt about the safety level, she initially said that “social distancing is there,” and then paused to revise.

“It’s there-ish. Most people are chill about it. Davenport people have been coming to the Pierson buttery, for example, because they can.” She continued, “So far I’ve seen people respecting people asking for masks and space, but it’s only been a week, and I’ve already heard people complain about certain people and say ‘he’s so pressed about social distancing.’ Once the 14-day bubble is lifted, something’s going to happen. From people’s attitudes, I already know.”

Blum said she felt safe at the time of her interview but was similarly unsure about what would happen after the quarantine period ended. Even now, she claimed that not everyone is following the social distancing guidelines. “There are people who have been having small parties, less than 10 people, happening within their residential college.”

She described a Snapchat story of first years drinking and playing beer pong.

Even so, Blum noted that the large majority of people are following the rules and making the most of their substantially modified firstyear experience.

An anonymous sophomore living on Old Campus also noted a similar flouting of social distancing rules. He told the News that he reported on Wednesday night a party occurring on Old Campus to a Public Health Coordinator, who, he claims, promptly shut it down.

It isn’t “Camp Yale,” students acknowledged, but, as Zenner wrote in an email, “I can’t really compare to Camp Yale, since I’ve never been there to witness it myself. But for the circumstances, I’ve been happy with how little I’ve been bored.”

Hanaé had a similar perspective.

“Of course it’s not what I would’ve ever imagined, but never did I imagine that I would ever be able to come to Yale,” she said. “That gratitude is getting me through those challenges, how starstruck I am to be here.”

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

PAGE B2

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND FALL

DAY IN THE LIFE OF A JAILIE: FALL 2020 // BY KALINA MLADENOVA

A hard-boiled egg and blueberry muffin for breakfast, sweet potato bowl for lunch and steak for dinner. Oh, and of course, one simply cannot forget about the daily dose of green apples and orange juice that “keeps the doctor away.” This is what my life looks like right now.

Some people may say that it is like kindergarten: We play games in the basement, pretend we are Merlin and even get bruises from tripping during a game of “Chase.” On top of all that, there is always someone there to remind us of the next Zoom in 15 minutes, scrambling to shoo us off the courtyard.

From all this, it does look like a kindergarten; to be honest, I love it! They even clean your bathroom once a day. What more could you want?

On the other hand, someone might see the life in isolation as jail. Standing behind the bars and reaching into the outside world to pick up a Dominos’ order — oh, the cheesy smell of freedom. Don’t get too carried away though, because your exposed hand may be the reason for your isolation in the specially designed housing for those who test positive. As if in a real jail, you are allowed visitors, but

again behind the bars and no touching! If you are one of the lucky few to have visitors, use them wisely and make them bring you Starbucks! But be careful if this is your first coffee and don’t go wild with the beverage choice, because it will make you anxious. You will regret that later. If you haven’t had coffee before kindergarten/ jail, please go for the fresh juice option. I mean, who doesn’t need extra vitamins?

In jail (aka Yale), they sometimes starve you to see who will survive. Starvation in Pierson specifically is represented in the form of small portion sizes, bland taste and only one meal option. However, even when you starve, you starve with style — drinking out of a Yale-branded water bottle has never felt more glamorous. Why not brand everything? It makes everything feel superior, doesn’t it?

My favorite part of starvation is lining up exactly at 8 a.m., wearing my ID around my neck and being served a huge spoon of liquidish, tasteless, hot oatmeal in a plastic bowl.

Such luxury!

And if you’d prefer to stay healthy during the semester, this is possible too! There’s a special salad exactly for you:

a selection of three slices of European braised cucumber that grew under the sun of Greece, five pieces of hand picked lettuce leaves from a family farm in New Haven and two of the reddest cherry tomatoes you will ever see that came all the way from Spain! What an international experience!

You can really develop your intercultural taste buds.

If you want to work out, you could always run 30 laps around the same building. But be careful, because I heard that some people get dizzy and fall. Others get a shortness of breath because when they inhale, the mask goes into their mouth. Oh and don’t forget about the sweat dripping under your face covering … otherwise, it’s really fun!

Life on campus feels a bit like a summer camp: You sit on the grass the whole day and make new friends. Gossip and relationships are also in the picture and are spicy!

Even though it has been only a week, people are already waiting for the end of quarantine in order to get close with their crushes. I guess that the life in quarantine during the pandemic has really turned the freshers’ animal instincts on. People are ready to chase anything,

just as hungry lions running after a gazelle — but less aggressive of course.

It’s great that we all have our deans and FroCos (aka jailers) who make sure we all stay 20 feet apart and don’t spread our droplets while we eat, because you never know which drop-

let will be THE ONE! And if someone coughs, better pull your mask up and shield your eyes!

Life in quarantine is sweet. It has its exciting moments and some that are not as exciting. And to be honest if I had to choose where to go to jail, I would

choose Yale over and over again! Who wouldn’t? They have cookies!

Xoxo A member of the Jail class of 2024 Contact KALINA MLADENOVA at kaia.mladenova@yale.edu .

//ANASTHASIA SHILOV

Can You Hear What is Scattered?

A Review of Murakami’s Hear the Wind Sing // BY ADDISON BEER

//VICTORIA LU

WKND RECOMMENDS Confessing your love to your roommate.

I first began to realize the power of writing during a summer program I attended after my junior year of high school, where I was allowed to write about whatever I wanted. Free from MLA formatting and the Five Paragraph Essay, I saw writing in an entirely new way. But as I learned more about language and myself, I had a few ideas clawing at the back of my mind. School had taught me that writing was about content and ideas — that writing was simply a means to get information across. During the program, I learned how limited this view was, and I started to wonder just how far the written word could be stretched in the opposite direction.

The eclectic paintings from Jackson Pollock and the abstract expressionist movement flipped the art world on its collective head. By painting with no clear subject in mind, Pollock and others let the paint speak for itself, highlighting color and pattern in a new light. I began to wonder if the same could be done with writing — if a piece could have zero substance yet effusive and thought-provoking prose. Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami’s “Hear the Wind Sing” is the closest novel I’ve read to that philosophy. There is not really any conflict, no grand overarching plot, and it’s not very informative. If your favorite book is a “Game of Thrones” novel you might not like “Hear the Wind Sing.” It’s almost exactly 100 pages, printed with a big font. The loose plot follows a Japanese biology student with a drinking problem in the summer of 1970. He has a couple friends and meets a girl over the summer, but the story starts and ends without much happening.

There is no grand romance, nor is there redemption. The only romantic intimacy we see flutters and dies without culminating into anything grand, defying the traditional novel.

Some of the most interesting moments in the book come from brief flashbacks or tangents seemingly unrelated to the narrative itself — such as the fictitious yet captivating retelling of the life of Derek Hartfield, a science fiction writer who inspires the main character. Though Murakami gives detailed summaries of some of Derek’s writing, Mr. Hartfield was never a real

writer, and his prolific science fiction work doesn’t exist. I find it interesting how Murakami manages to work in a brief summary of a grand science-fiction epic into a calm slice-of-life novella.

To me, it seems to be highlighting just how removed “Hear the Wind Sing” is from a standard novel. The page-to-page of the actual characters is taken up by eating, drinking, and succinct dialogue, yet one can’t help but feel a smooth sense of calm while reading, with line after line coaxing out either a chuckle or a thoughtful sigh. The author’s stream-of-consciousness style gives the book authenticity and heart; oftentimes it feels like you’re spying on the characters. As Murakami explains in the preface, he first wrote the novel in English, before translating it back into Japanese. He says that though his English composition skills were limited, writing in English freed him from the obstacles and looming pressure of creating something worthy of the title of “literature,” which could be why the very first sentence in the book is, “There is no such thing as a perfect piece of writing.” Ironic, because that sentence seems rather perfect to me.

This novel has proved especially cathartic for me the last few weeks. (Yes, it took me an embarrassingly long time to read it.) I have been separated from most of my friends. I cannot return to the university I dreamed of attending for so long. I cannot return to the place I called home so many months ago. But Murakami’s novel is like a weighted blanket over my worries. I become entangled in a world that doesn’t force me to decipher a convoluted plot or character motive. To me, “Hear the Wind Sing” asks the reader to slow down and take in the beauty of not just Murakami’s realm, but the outside world as well. The book opens with a commentary on the process of writing, so it’s only logical that it ends with a quote from a prolific writer, Frederick Nietzche.

In a time of unthinkable strife, I will leave you, kind reader, with the same quote: “How can those who live in the light of day possibly comprehend the depths of night?”

Contact ADDISON BEER at addison.beer@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE B3

WEEKEND ROUNDTABLE

first years in conversation // MODERATED BY ELLA GOLDBLUM

Ella: Going off to college is presented to us as one of life’s most formative coming-of-age experiences. In the time of COVID-19, do you think the move-in day you got helped you grow up in a different way, or did it just feel inadequate?

Sean Pergola: There wasn’t really a proper send-off. There’s no defined boundary between that stage of my life and this stage of my life, which I guess doesn’t really happen anyway, but still it’s very strange.

Caroline Parker: Something that was really hard for me, and this is because I’m close to my family, was the experience of leaving my mom at the gate and having to move all my stuff in by myself. There’s not really an endpoint for us. All of a sudden we were here and tossed into it and there was no real goodbye. It felt like a very lonely experience, moving my stuff in alone.

Melissa Adams: For me, weirdly, it’s the opposite. Maybe it’s because I’m international. I’m Canadian and from Hong Kong. I flew into New York two weeks early with my mom so she could help me move in. Socialization doesn’t feel super weird because we have a big courtyard in Silliman, so we’re just sitting out there, talking to people, making friends. You guys have probably seen the HoC Santos email that went out in March, being like, “the community will die,” “you’ll be eating alone in your room” and yeah, while it’s not a normal college experience, it’s not as depressing as I thought it would be. Silver linings.

Alex Ori: I was told a lot in the summer by other older Yale students that freshman year is going to suck, it’s going to be the worst, it’s not going to be good for you — to the point where I applied for a gap year and I got it, and then I decided I couldn’t take one. But this is my college experience. I don’t have anything to compare it to, so I don’t really see the problem.

People ask me, “How does it feel being completely turned upside down?” But I’ve never experienced normal Yale. So I’m actually having a great time.

Jamie Yi: It kind of feels like baby college, because when I left, I was so sad, but then I realized I’m going to see them in three months, and then I’ll be back. Goodbyes weren’t as hard. I feel like I’m at summer camp right now. I guess the one downside is that a lot of my friends go to state schools where they don’t have a lot of regulation. They still haven’t been tested for

COVID at their college. I see on people’s stories that people are partying and raging. I understand that I can’t do that, and that’s better for the community, but it’s still a little depressing sometimes.

Sean: I have a sister currently in college.

Three years ago, I helped her move in. So I got a tiny taste of what college is like, and I’ve been looking forward to that for the past three years. I’m very grateful that there’s something here, but it feels fundamentally different. The energy about it is very different from what I was hoping for.

Mel: I think a lot of people agree with the summer camp thing. It feels like we are high schoolers at summer camp. We have all these rules. Everyone has to sit in these socially distant circles. Socialization is weird, but also, it’s doable. I have friends who took gap years because they read HoC Santos’ email and they didn’t want to miss out on the quintessential freshman experience. But honestly, I didn’t care, because I’m not American, so I’m not as enfranchised with this idea of the ideal college year. U.K. college is not as fun anyway. Even seeing that email, I still wanted to go because I didn’t want to be at home for a year. It’s good that it got out so people could prepare for the worst and not be disappointed.

Jamie: It’s weird because there’s really strict COVID rules, so I can’t get into people’s suites. I can’t get too close to people, but then things unrelated to COVID, there’s the same lack of regulation. The fact that I can be out in the courtyard at 1 a.m., but I can’t stand too close to someone, feels so weird. I always feel like I’m breaking rules because some parts are much stricter than others.

Ella: Making friends at the beginning of college is already difficult even in non-quarantined times. What are the new challenges and possibilities?

Alex: This is a hot take, but I actually think that this is really helpful for making friends. First of all, we’re all in the same place for 14 days, and you don’t really have those distractions of parties, or the anxiety of making sure you’re going to a frat party your first week. You really have time to talk and hang out with people in your college, and I’ve really, really enjoyed that.

I feel really close to a few girls, and I just don’t see myself being that close at this time if it was normal. We have to get creative and find ways to have fun.

Sean: I absolutely agree. The only thing you can do is be in the courtyard or be in the buttery. While doing that, you’re bound to meet people. Everybody is in this weird limbo where they feel similarly strange about the circumstances, so you have that to bond about. I’ve become really connected with my suitemates already, because we’re the only ones we can be around on a physical level. We’ve definitely formed this support network. I don’t know if that would happen without these rules.

Caroline: With suitemates, you’re forced into an automatic connection, because they’re the closest you’ve been to anyone other than your family for months. Which is a good addition to the friendship-making process.

Mel: When you’re wearing a mask, you have to make it really obvious when you’re talking to someone. You have to wave at them. Normally, I’m like, “Oh my god, what if that person wasn’t talking to me?”

But now everyone just waves, so it’s really easy to make friends. Everyone’s super friendly because we’re just stuck together.

We can’t leave Silliman. It’s really easy to find people. If you made a friend yesterday, you will see them again tomorrow and the next day.

Jamie: Especially after the initial quarantine in their suite, everyone was desperate for new human interaction, so they would have talked to anyone. Nobody was cliquey, nobody was rude. My suitemates and I just went to our basement recreational area, found a group of 10 people, sat down in the hallway and got to know each other. I haven’t seen them since, but it was a great conversation. At mealtimes, because we’re all sitting in these socially distant groups, you can sit in any group you want and no one cares that much.

Ella: What’s it been like trying to exist as a Yale student within the city of New Haven during this time? Do you feel a strong city-campus divide, especially as Yale students are being given such robust access to testing and other resources?

Mel: We literally have not gone into New Haven. I was here for maybe an hour at the bookstore, then I moved in.

Caroline: We will be very separated from New Haven this semester. We aren’t really allowed to interact with the community, and we won’t be here very long. Our class

On Aug. 30, five brave first-year Yalies assembled over Zoom to discuss the highlights and challenges of their first week at college during a pandemic. will likely have more of a division between us and New Haven as a city.

Alex: I’m not from New Haven, but I wonder how the residents view us, because we came in huge flocks, and I’m not sure if they were very excited to have 1400 students from all over the country come into their community, when they are doing well with COVID. If I was scared of COVID, I would not be too happy with the influx of different people. I hope it doesn’t create tension between locals and students. I hope we work to look out for the community and we don’t do stupid things.

I’d hate to be the reason why New Haven suffers, or for the locals to secretly hate us.

Sean: When I did FOCUS, I got really excited to get involved with the New Haven community. But the pandemic definitely complicates things. If I put myself out there, am I endangering the population of the university and of New Haven as a whole? For me, the pandemic is making that outreach — which is already so difficult — that much harder.

Ella: Even beyond community engagement in New Haven, are you struggling to have a sense of place here?

Jamie: I literally don’t know what’s beyond the walls of the courtyard, like absolutely no idea. I came in an Uber and my driver drove right up to the gate.

Sometimes I point at random walls and ask people what’s beyond them, and most people don’t know, but some people happen to. I know in that general direction there’s an Indian restaurant, and that way there’s a church, but I don’t know.

Mel: That’s super dystopian.

Jamie: All the walls are so high, and you can’t see beyond them, and it almost feels intentional, but then you see the little gaps of businesses through the gates. I’m happy, but it almost feels creepy.

Mel: I think it’s really exciting that I can see the street from my window. Which is maybe a depressing comment.

Sean: A lot of other Yalies and upperclassmen talk about these places, like High Street, Cross Campus, and I’m like, what’s that? I have no idea where these places actually are. I feel very disoriented.

Caroline: In a weird way, I feel like this is the only world that exists. I feel like I’ve been here forever even though it’s only been six days. Time feels like it’s moving strangely, slowly and quickly at the same time.

//ELIFNAZ ONDER

Ella: Do you all miss home? Or did you feel ready for a change of pace after so many months in quarantine?

Alex: I was definitely ready to go to college. As my mom was dropping me off, she was like, “Usually I would cry now, but I’m just so happy that you’re leaving and you get something to do and that you’re able to go to college.” Half my friends are home doing online classes. It’s such a luxury to be going to college now. I do feel bad when I’m Snapchatting my friends from Trumbull courtyard and they’re in their room taking classes.

Sean: Quarantine has changed how I feel about my hometown, just from being stuck there for so long. I would miss it a lot more if I wasn’t forced to be there for months before I could go somewhere.

Mel: A large part of the reason why I didn’t take a gap year is because I’m an only child, and I’ve been at home for six months already. I just think I would be regressing into my childhood state, going backwards instead of forwards.

Jamie: During quarantine, home didn’t feel like home because we weren’t doing so great in Texas, and everyone’s parents were scared to go out. I did get closer to my family, which made it hard to leave. I got a new puppy, and I literally could not leave him. Here it’s like forced proximity. I’m almost never alone; I spend all my time with my suitemates or with my FroCo group.

Caroline: I feel really lucky that I’m here, but I’m going to disagree a bit with what’s been said. During quarantine I got closer to my family, which has made the withdrawal more than what it would usually be. I also do have a weird amount of free time so I am calling my parents maybe more than I should be doing. I don’t think that’s helping me acclimate.

Mel: I also think it varies by college. Silliman has done a really good job of keeping us occupied so that we don’t really feel-

Confesi too alone. I would definitely feel alone if I wasn’t so busy. And they gave us a Silliswag bag.

Jamie: My FroCos have been so cute. I love them so much. When we got here there was a T-shirt and they got us masks and a little flag. The other day, they banged on our door and gave us moose cookies. Today, we got outdoor blankets and a random sausage box. I’m not saying all the gifts make sense, but they’ve put in a lot of effort and they’re really cute.

Ella: Have you all picked up new quarantine hobbies, and are you able to do them at Yale now?

Mel: I’m making a sourdough starter later today.

Jamie: I’ve picked up a lot of different hobbies, because that’s just the vibe here, and there’s not a lot you can do distanced.

I started playing Spikeball and frisbee a lot, because that’s what we do in the courtyard. Someone offered to help me play the piano, and I’ve just been playing new card games.

Sean: There’s a lot of positive pressure around getting those hobbies. Everyone here is constantly doing something, which can be a little stressful, but overall it’s great. It pushes you to join in.

Alex: I’ve been bedazzling a cowboy hat, you know, just the vibes. This is the cowboy hat, right there, and my jewels, and my fabric. Honestly, it’s really fun, because people really like bedazzling stuff, so they always use my jewels and glue. I’ve been trying to find little things I can do with my hands while talking to people in the courtyard.

Mel: My hobbies are antisocial compared to the ones you all mentioned. I’ve picked up baking. I can make a really good loaf of banana bread and the Bon Appétit Best Chocolate Chip Cookies. I also picked up Chloe Ting fitness workouts. If you know, you know.

WKND RECOMMENDS Crying while the shower’s on so your roommate doesn’t hear you.

Ella: Do you all feel pressure to enforce the COVID rules if someone else is not following them?

Sean: People have gravitated towards friends with similar levels of concern about COVID. The problem with that is that people who are more cavalier about the situation don’t associate with the people who are more cautious.

Jamie: I agree. The polarization happened within a day, and I haven’t seen that kind of mixing since.

Sean: And it does feel really awkward, joining this new social atmosphere, to be the guy who goes around saying, “Hey, make sure you have your mask on and make sure you’re six feet apart.” I can do that with people I know well, but I’m not comfortable just walking up to someone and doing that.

Mel: If I was concerned, I would go to a PL or a FroCo, because my PL’s and FroCo have all said that if you feel uncomfortable, just come to us because we will snitch on them, and we want you to stay on campus.

Sean: The anonymous sources Yale has provided to intervene are definitely valuable.

Jamie: There are good rules, and Yale is regulating us well, but some people take those rules very differently than other people. People are trying to find the balance.

Ella: What feels scariest or most dystopian right now?

Mel: Not being able to leave your college.

Caroline: In some ways, it’s like the Hunger Games. We’re all in this small area and it’s like, MAKE FRIENDS. It’s a little bit stressful.

Mel: We’re almost waiting for food to be airlifted in. I would not be surprised if it just dropped from the sky.

Sean: I think the knowledge that at any time you can be quarantined and forced to isolate. There’s obviously a need for that, but it’s a little concerning.

Jamie: The residential college culture is a little culty, and the fact that all of the res college spirit they try to build up is coinciding with the fact that we physically cannot leave our colleges feels a little trippy.

Alex: The email about the first case of COVID on campus was creepy. But other than that, I really enjoy it.

Jamie: I lied. I actually think the most dystopian thing is how we test. When we test, we have to kick open a door, walk into a tiny, trapped booth, and a guy just yells at us through a clear screen while we put things in our nose. That’s scary. I know they’ve probably tested a million times and this is the most safe and efficient way, but it does not feel good.

Ella: What gives you the most hope right now?

Jamie: Wherever I go, I feel like I have people I click with. I don’t know how they managed to do that, but I’m thoroughly impressed. I really love my suitemates and I really get along with my FroCo group. There’s probably more people I’ll get along with and be happy to meet once the gates finally open.

Alex: The connections and relationships I’ve made that I wouldn’t have made otherwise. Without the quarantine, I’d be talking to the same sort of people I’d be friends with in high school, who are very similar to me. But because we’re stuck here, you want to talk to as many people as you can.

Mel: There’s genuinely no one I’ve met and been like, “Wow, I really can’t stand you.” Maybe that’s a low bar, but it makes me hopeful for social life when all of this ends, hopefully fairly soon.

Caroline: What’s giving me hope more broadly is that places like Yale are trying to continue life as normally as possible, while also doing it in a really safe way.

Sean: Seeing people who are actually very concerned for the general safety of Yale is great, especially coming from a town where people weren’t really distancing.

It’s really nice to see the vast majority of Yale students taking these precautions seriously, and doing everything they can to get us back to normal.

Alex: What gives me hope is the amount of restrictions Yale has. At first I thought it was extreme, but then my other friends who didn’t have those restrictions at their colleges got sent home. The fact that they’re doing all of this to keep us on campus gives me hope that I chose the right college. I feel like a really important part of the community. They really want us to be here.

Contact ELLA GOLDBLUM at ella.goldblum@yale.edu .

PAGE B4

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND GUIDELINES

Early last spring, professor Adam Van Doren was teaching students the art of watercolor with his usual level of interaction.

“I’d look over their shoulder while they painted,” Van Doren said. “I’d get my hands on the artwork and sometimes draw a little sketch here or put some paintbrush on what they’re doing. We’d work together very closely.”

The artist, author and professor teaches a seminar called “Mastering the Art of Watercolor.” Intent on engaging the outdoors often, Van Doren has joked that his class is “the anti-technology course.”

Now, he’s forced to reckon with what happens when an anti-technology course goes virtual, and when his guided brush strokes are replaced by Zoom meetings.

// BY SYDNEY ZOEHRER

//VALERIE NAVARRETE

KU O

Contact SYDNEY ZOEHRER at sydney.zoehrer@yale.edu .

Contact OWEN TUCKER-SMITH at owen.tucker-smith@yale.edu .

ALIA

ning dinner parties and other gatherings can be tricky. “It’s really easy to break by accident by having one extra person,” she admitted.

“I haven’t gotten a sense that people have been trying to bend the rules,” Geenen shared. “People seem to be accepting that it has to be the status quo these days,” he said, observing the mellow scene on High Street.

Barring COVID, there would have been hundreds of people outside these fraternities, pushing their way up the steps and entering windows as an alternate route of admission. This year, the porches of LEO, SigNu and SigEp are empty. Only a faint echo of light music and a ping pong ball hitting the table in the LEO backyard could be heard. A mere five people were evenly spread out in the backyard playing beer pong and in an unusual turn of events for Camp Yale, the only audible “event” was in line with Salovey’s COVID-19 party guidelines. It was reassuring that even social spaces notorious for extremely overcrowded parties managed to put traditional festivities on the back burner in favor of the Yale community’s safety.

Incoming first-year Matthew Merritt ’24 gave insight into his residential college “Camp Yale” experience. Like all other first years, Merritt was quarantined for the duration of move-in week.

“I was aware that, in the past, partying the week before school and large hangouts were quite common,” Merritt said. “I looked forward to the week before classes began because I was excited about meeting new friends and classmates. Of course, the impending pandemic interfered with my hopes of quickly developing a strong group of friends.”

Merritt’s disappointment that “Camp Yale will not be a reality this year” is coupled with the acknowledgement of “the strong community and support network in TD willing to help [him] at any moment.”

First years missed out on what is often considered a fundamental part of a proper introduction to Yale for those who choose to go out in any capacity — whether it be storming High Street, chilling at suite parties or bonding with fellow residential college friends at FroCo duty.

Likewise, upperclassmen couldn’t help but feel as though Camp Yale was virtually nonexistent this year, as a key element — parties — was missing.

“What do you mean, ‘Camp Yale this year’?” Sam Tobin ’22 inquired skeptically. “What does that even mean?”

“There just literally isn’t a Camp Yale,” Adam Wolnikowski ’21 shrugged. Without the usual party scene, Camp Yale is just not Camp Yale for many returning students.

So far, a small number of students have tested positive for COVID-19, placing Yale’s COVID-19 alert level at low to moderate risk. As of Aug. 31, nine cases have been confirmed from testing data up through Aug. 29.

“We have to do what’s important for the community because we’re all in this together,” Geenen reflected.

“All I’m hoping is that we don’t become like the University of Alabama,” Shi concluded.

Here’s to hoping the rest of the student body feels the same way. Classes started this past Monday and only time will tell if compliance with mandated health and safety regulations for partying will be maintained as the modified social scene starts to pan out.

Van Doren was teaching watercolor last spring when Yale students were sent home for spring break, not to return until the fall.

“I had to think fast and be creative,” he said. “Each student would have to have their own setup wherever they’re located — some of them in different parts of the world, in Europe and Nebraska.”

Even in the Zoom component of the course, Van Doren has developed a routine from last semester. Some talking, some music — jazz is best, he said, for its improvisational quality — 20 minutes of painting, and a break. Then, he goes around the Zoom room and checks in. A student will hold up what they’ve been working on, and he’ll start to offer some advice.

“You know, add some color here,” he said. “Everyone gets to see what everyone else is doing. I used to stand over their shoulders. I can’t do that, but this works pretty well.”

Then, the class goes for another 20 minutes and the jazz continues. A final product of the class is typically an exhibit and a catalogue, the former of which will probably not be able to happen this year.

“People see their work, and it’s kind of just a visceral thing,” he said. “Some students have never had the work presented in a formal exhibition. Trying to salvage some of that feeling, I will still be curating the work of the students and selecting a couple of works from each one and putting them into the printed catalog.”

All these elements of the “anti-technology course” gone virtual — the Zoom painting sessions, the isolated work environment, the limited resources — have led to some particularly astonishing work.

According to him, the last virtual semester produced some of the best art the course has ever seen. Part of that could be that students have time on their hands.

Part of it could be a broader reflection of the times.

“I think art is needed more than ever now as an output for feelings driven by COVID,” Van Doren said. “It’s kind of an underlying river of anxiety and uncertainty. You feel very powerless now, right?

Because everything is out of your control.

But there’s a sense of making something out of nothing. And it’s something that you have control over. That empowerment is important right now.”

//M

On Saturday, August 29, the rattle of air conditioning units and chirping of crickets filled the balmy air of streets surrounding campus. People dined peacefully in the alleyway between Olea and the Sigma Nu fraternity house, undisturbed.

The only out-the-door line was nearly a block away from “frat row” at Milkcraft Ice Cream. The loudest music emanated from a car, whose stereo quickly faded away as it passed the fraternities, giving way to the quiet hum of the city.

In any other year, these are the last things one would have observed in the High Street vicinity after 10 p.m. Without looking at a calendar, few would know that this was the last Saturday before classes started: the final weekend of summer and the culmination of another Camp Yale.

Officially known as First-Year Orientation and affectionately dubbed Camp Yale, the final days of summer are usually a blur. First years are inundated by meetings with First-Year Counselors (FroCos), CCE workshops, slightly uncomfortable icebreakers and move-in day.

Returning students relish in the opportunity to reconvene with friends whom they have not seen since finals week the previous semester.

But for many students, the highlight of Camp Yale? Parties.

With Salovey’s latest announcement, gone are the days of first years bombarding High Street in search of a longawaited escape from parental supervision.

In early July, the publication of Yale’s Community Compact set guidelines for student behavior related to COVID19 safety: masks, social distancing and punishment for infractions. Nearly two months later, the Yale University president, provost and deans established clear boundaries for in-person social gatherings this fall in a widely circulated email applicable to all students regardless of enrollment status.

“No student in the New Haven area, whether enrolled, withdrawn, or on a leave of absence, may host, invite others to, or attend a party with more than 10 people, whether on or off campus,” Salovey wrote. Salovey wasted no time in dealing with the elephant in the room: “Yale is prepared to enforce this policy with disciplinary action if necessary.”

Liam Geenen ’22, a High Street resident, echoed the general sentiment of Salovey’s email: that students should be extremely conscientious of the fact that imprudent decisions will negatively affect others.

“We’re guests in this community and it’s poor etiquette [to party]. It’s like coming into someone’s home and being irresponsible without their consent — you would never do that.”

The email went on to remind students that masks and appropriate social distancing would still be a necessity at any social gatherings. “In some spaces, even 10 people will be too many,” Salovey continued, advising students to use discretion in places that are inadequate to host the maximum allowable guests.

For Shirley Shi ’22, who lives near the High Street fraternities, the establishment of a maximum of 10 people has proven beneficial in her experience. In her circle, “there hasn’t been too much conflict” this past week in terms of setting boundaries for social gatherings because Salovey’s 10 person limit took ambiguity out of the equation.

“Having a set guideline makes it more concrete, whereas it’s harder with a range,” Shi shared.

Despite the clarity of the 10 person maximum, Shi commented that plan-

“Mastering the Art of Watercolor” is not technically an art course, but a humanities one. Painting, according to Van Doren, represents an important core of the liberal arts, and he wants to teach it that way.

“If you were studying in the ’70s or ’80s or earlier, learning to draw and paint was considered one of the great liberal arts, just like writing and science,” he said.

“Painting is critical thinking because it teaches you how to see and how to experiment with your hand and mind.”

But Yale doesn’t require painting courses, so Van Doren uses his seminar to “teach painting as a liberal art.” The course is built not just on painting skills but on studying old painters in order to discern techniques and strategies.

“This is how painting was taught for 500 years. You’d have artists who studied how the other artists did clouds and skies and windows, and they copied these techniques,” he said. “They didn’t have museums, but you’d have an apprentice and you’d study from them.”

For Van Doren, some of the appeal of this imitation strategy comes from the fact that many students are beginners, and basing work off others’ is a good way to start. For non-art majors, he said, creating from scratch isn’t always the best option.

“Some people feel, wait a minute, how do I even start? I don’t have any skills,” he said. “Painting is often taught with a blank canvas.”

In the age of COVID-19, Van Doren’s students will still be engaging in painting as a liberal art, but the group won’t get to gather together in a studio. Still, much of what makes his course special can be preserved. The outdoors, for example, is a uniquely special place to paint. While some groups at Yale will need to move outside and see it as an inconvenience, Van Doren has always seen painting in courtyards as an opportunity.

“Learning to paint with natural light, not necessarily in a studio with artificial light — that’s a whole skill,” Van Doren said. “The wind is blowing and people are walking around. You get distracted, and

you have to balance the paints and the brushes in your hand. And to learn to paint from natural light, that’s where you’ll get the best color.”

The fall is especially equipped for this course, he said, because students can be comfortably outside for several months.

While Van Doren’s course does include discussion components and PowerPoint presentations, it also has painting practice built in regularly throughout the syllabus.

// BY OWEN TUCKER-SMITH

WKND RECOMMENDS Moving to East Rock.