Yale Daily News — Week of Oct. 16

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

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2020 · VOL. CXLIII, NO. 7 · yaledailynews.com

Yale COVID-19 alert level moved back to yellow amid recent outbreak

BY JULIA BIALEK STAFF REPORTER The University has changed its COVID-19 alert level from green to yellow after recording 18 positive cases on the men’s hockey team over the past three days.

The cluster first emerged on Tuesday, Oct. 13, with six positive cases among players. Two days later, the COVID-19 statistics dashboard reflected nine new COVID-19 cases from tests administered on Tuesday — two on-campus undergraduates and seven off-campus undergraduates — representing a record one-day high. At the time of publication, the dashboard does not reflect the updated case count.

According to a University-wide email from COVID-19 Coordinator Stephanie Spangler on Thursday afternoon, there have been 12 additional cases among team members. There are now a total of 18 COVID-19 cases stemming from the original cluster — out of the 19 team

JASMINE SU/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

SEE YELLOW PAGE 4

University COVID-19 Coordinator Stephanie Spangler updated the Yale community on the cluster of positive cases.

Yale Athletics reverts to Phase 0

BY EUGENIO GARZA GARCÍA AND JAMES RICHARDSON CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS After over three weeks of limited in-person athletic activity in Phases I and II, Yale Athlet-

ics is reverting to Phase 0 until at least Oct. 21 after six members of the Yale men’s hockey team tested positive for COVID-19.

Hockey captain Phil Kemp ’21 confirmed the existence of the cluster in an interview with the

News. Word spread quickly Tuesday night as several varsity teams learned about the regression to Phase 0 in team Zoom meetings and emails from coaches.

ANAAY, YCC demand Indigenous Peoples' Day holiday

SEE PHASE0 PAGE 4

COURTESY OF CHARLES GLEBERMAN

Indigenous Peoples' day is a commemorative holiday usually held on the second Monday of October.

BY EMILY TIAN STAFF REPORTER

VAIBHAV SHARMA/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

The announcement to revert to Phase 0 comes after all teams had moved into Phase II on Oct. 7.

Law students demand Rubenfeld removal

BY JULIA BROWN STAFF REPORTER Students from two groups at the Yale Law School — Yale Law Women and the YLS Title IX Working Group — jointly released a report on Sunday addressed to University President Peter Salovey, demanding that law professor Jed Rubenfeld be permanently removed from campus and raising con-

cerns about the University’s sexual misconduct investigation process.

Allegations about Rubenfeld’s sexual misconduct first gained national attention two years ago. In September 2018, he and his wife, law professor Amy Chua, came under scrutiny for telling female law students that they needed to look and dress a certain way to attain clerkships for Supreme Court

YALE DAILY NEWS

Two YLS student groups are demanding reforms to the University's sexual misconduct policies.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh ’87 LAW ’90. In October 2018, Slate published an article detailing the experiences of women who alleged that Rubenfeld harassed them, focusing on his position as a potential gatekeeper for high-profile clerkships.

Yet students said they never heard from administrators about proceedings surrounding Rubenfeld’s misconduct until this August, when a New York Magazine article announced that Rubenfeld had been suspended for at least two years, until 2022. The University did not formally announce the suspension to the Yale community, prompting students and faculty to demand greater transparency in sexual misconduct investigations. University officials declined to comment on the specifics of Rubenfeld’s case for this article.

“I am worried about future generations of YLS students if Rubenfeld is allowed to return to campus in two years,” said YLW advancement chair Sarah Baldinger LAW ’22. “We know from public reports that the alleSEE RUBENFELD PAGE 5

CROSS CAMPUS

INSIDE THE NEWS

THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY, 1953.

VOTING

Jonathan Edwards College celebrates the 250th anniversary of Jonathan Edwards's birthday and the 20th anniversary of the college. JE also installs a new head of college, Frank E. Brown, professor of Latin.

Dozens of New Haven residents have faced complications with their absentee ballots. Page 3 CITY

While student groups like the Association of Native Americans at Yale and the Yale College Council participated in virtual celebrations in honor of Indigenous People’s Day on Monday, notably absent in the holiday’s acknowledgement was the University itself.

The commemorative holiday is held on the second Monday of October. The day is traditionally known as Columbus Day, a federal holiday which marks the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas. But many towns and states have abandoned Columbus Day in favor of honoring the history and contributions of Indigenous peoples, pointing to Columbus’ historical role in perpetuating violence and genocide against Indigenous peoples.

“I think Yale should recognize and celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day because Indigenous scholarly and artistic efforts like the ‘Place, Nations, Generations, Beings’ exhibit, the ‘Making Space for Resistance’ exhibit, the East Coast premiere of ‘Manahatta,’ and countless other student advocacy and awareness efforts all make Yale the place that it is today,” said ANAAY President Meghanlata Gupta ’21, a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

A proposal asking the University to place Indigenous Peoples’ Day on its official calendar and asking Yale College Dean Marvin Chun to send a college-wide email in recognition of the holiday was sent to Dean Chun and

OUTBREAK

The Yale New Haven Hospital System sees an uptick in hospitalizations, as well as cases among staff and statewide.

Page 11 SCITECH

BEINECKE

After working at the library for three decades, Beinecke director E. C. Schroeder will retire on Aug. 31, 2021.

Page 11 ARTS

University Secretary Kimberly Goff-Crews last Thursday. The policy proposal was co-signed by the Yale College Council, ANAAY, the Endowment Justice Coalition, the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program and Red Territory, a drum group at Yale.

Gupta drafted the proposal and email with YCC vice president Reilly Johnson ’22 and senator Kinsale Hueston ’23, who is Diné.

“Since its establishment in 1701, and especially over the last year, Yale University has profited off of Indigenous arts, cultures, and communities,” the letter read, pointing out as examples the Indigenous art exhibit “Place, Nations, Generations, Beings” displayed at the Yale University Art Gallery last year and the Yale Repertory Theatre’s production of “Manahatta” by Mary Kathryn Nagle, a Native playwright.

The proposal also drew attention to the holiday’s particular importance in light of the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Yale for its consideration of race in its admissions process.

Renewed attacks against affirmative action would “disproportionately affect Indigenous students who are already underrepresented at Yale,” the proposal read.

Josie Steuer Ingall ’24, an organizer for the Endowment Justice Coalition, wrote to the News that the student group — which advocates for the University’s strategic divestment from “unethical holdings” — SEE ANAAY PAGE 5 IVYPHASES

Bulldogs returned to Phase 0 Tuesday evening after the emergence of a COVID-19 cluster within the Yale men’s hockey team. Here's where the other Ivies stand.

Page 14 SPORTS

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

OPINION G U E S T C O L U M N I S T AW U O R O N G U R U

G U E ST C O LU M N I ST J OAQ U Í N M . L A R A M I D K I F F

We’re not dying

“Cripples not welcome”

O

n the day that I write this, Kenya reports 73 confirmed cases and 11 deaths.

The total number of cases in Kenya so far is 41,619 confirmed cases, with 777 deaths. In neighbouring Uganda: 9,864 cases total, with under 100 deaths. Our lockdown has been relaxed, our curfew extended. We are a little more free to move around than we were in March.

The idea that African countries have been able to weather the pandemic more than the West, however, is one that has stumped journalists, scientists and ordinary people alike.

Bill Gates predicted that “millions” of Africans would die from the disease — 1.3 million have recovered. How has the continent that is representative of pain and suffering not buckled under the weight of the biggest health crisis in modern history?

Reluctance to admit that “the Africans” have done better this time has led to several articles and interviews trying to make excuses for the phenomenon. It’s too warm on the continent. There must be some genetic makeup that makes them immune. They’ve been cushioned by aid from Western countries. If that is the case, why haven’t the Western countries helped themselves?

I’m not trying to argue against science. While it is true that several African countries have indeed suffered because of the virus, it would be impossible to say that any African country has done so to the extent that Western countries have. Even with adjustment for the population structure, the death toll in Kenya was still expected to reach around 5,000. The National Interest puts it best: “There is still a big difference between 700 and 5,000; what might account for the remaining gap?”

Under the guise of inquiry lies a sordid, racist undertone. Western media is reluctant to say Africa is doing well because that would mean taking back centuries of poverty propaganda aimed at placing Western nations at the highest level of altruistic thought. The idea that black Africans are inferior has been destroyed by the fact that we have proven ourselves to be better at managing a pandemic. It is the West that is dying in droves.

My favourite thing to do when I come to America, or any Western country, is to watch television advertisements. My dad works in advertising and once told me that a country’s advertisements say a lot about where they stand — morally, economically and socially. In America, the advertisements switch like clockwork between selling medication and insurance to selling fast food and other consumer items. Occasionally, there is the UNICEF advertisement.

The UNICEF advertisement always begins with the image of a child standing in the middle of a traditional homestead, filmed at midday to make the place look like a homestead. He has not washed, nor has he eaten. His belly is round with malnutrition and there are flies in his eyes. His mother and her friends sit in the back, near one of the huts, chatting. In the background, the voice of a middle-aged white woman begins to tell his story. Kamau has not eaten for four days. His mother struggles

Y

to choose between him and her first born. Kamau has no clothes. Kamau will die in the next 24 hours if you do not make a donation of $6.99 today.

Help save a life.

I am prepared to say with the utmost certainty that there is no African mother who would let her child be photographed without at least wiping his face first. My own experiences of working with youth and their families in Nairobi’s informal settlements tell me that even the most impoverished of people will fix their clothes and look presentable if they are told they will be photographed.

Last year, when writing a research paper on Kenya’s postcolonial education policies, I stumbled across thousands of photographs of Kenyan tribes taken by the British when they were still in occupation. Black skin glittered in the sun. Men, women and children put on their best attire — ostrich feathers reaching high into the sky, dresses lined with cowrie shells, jewelry so intricate that it weighed down the neck.

But the idea that African people can take care of themselves, can thrive by themselves, does not accommodate the Western ideology that they are on their knees. That they are begging for survival. For rescue. And so Western literature took on a different hue. It speaks of Africa as a dog by the roadside, begging for scraps from wealthy passersby.

Everybody wins: the dog eats and the donor can go and post photos of their trip to Tanzania on Facebook.

COVID-19 is the fly in the colonial ointment. In the midst of harrowing pain, discomfort and general confusion, many African countries have managed to pull through. Citizens have followed the law and checked each other. Technology has been created to test, contact trace and inform citizens of their safety. People have checked on each other; stayed at home; put on masks not because we feel forced to, but because we understand that the general health and wellbeing of our society depends on it. And it has worked. We’re reporting the lowest numbers in the world right now. The help that we were supposed to be doomed without is the one that is crippled.

So where next for the African agenda? I think it’s time to admit that the continent is not as crippled as we believe it to be. The rule of law that governed us like slaves and children ended when we achieved independence. Yet it still lingers, in diplomatic language, in NGO organizations looming over small villages.

The pandemic has turned this on its head: perhaps for the first time ever, the continent has had to rely on its own systems and its own will, to save lives. And contrary to what anybody believed, we have pulled through. We are freed from the yokes of Western reliance, from the stereotype of flies in our eyes that follows us everywhere we go. It’s time to let us start living out that truth.

Help us by letting us help ourselves. We’ve clearly shown that we can do it.

AWUOR ONGURU is a first year in Berkeley College. Contact her at awuor.onguru@yale.edu .

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ale as an institution is entering a moment of consequence. The omnipresent health crisis that has derailed business as usual is opening doors for change. And the political and social climate, on and off campus, only intensifies this tumultuous hour. The stakes are high.

It is incumbent on us to not let this moment pass by untapped, its momentum unharnessed.

Many of us have been privy to, or participants in, the countless conversations that are unfolding around campus surrounding systemic and structural issues like defunding the YPD, relieving Puerto Rican debt, divorcing ourselves from fossil fuels and much more. It is necessary to have these hard and nuanced conversations.

The conclusions we draw at this pivotal moment in our institutional history will no less dictate the character of our university for decades to come.

It is a stain on this institution to not rise to the occasion to deal swiftly and substantively with the plight of the disability community.

As a point of history, organized advocacy for and by the disability community is over a quarter of a century behind other marginalized communities. When I worked in immigrant rights advocacy, for example, I was participating in a movement that had a rich and long history. The same cannot be said about disability, especially here on campus. Whereas Yale’s MEChA has existed since 1969, commensurate with the rise of Chicanismo in the 1960s, Disability Empowerment for Yale, or DEFY, was founded only in 2016.

The organized undergraduate disability community did not exist until four years ago — 315 years after Yale’s founding.

While I do not find it particularly meaningful or productive to fault the university for everything that was or was not done in the last 300 years, what it does here and now is completely fair game. And the situation for my community is painful, if not dire.

As a person of color living in the United States, my thoughts drift all too easily to “separate but equal,” the abhorrent legal doctrine emblematic of a highly racialized country. “Blacks Need Not Apply” or “Beaners Not Welcome” were signs and sentiments with which some of us could have been confronted a measly 50 years ago. And yet, this university effectively presents my community with corollaries that, while often overlooked, are no less real and deserve no less attention.

For every class that does not have closed captioning or accessible screen reading, we are told that the d/Deaf, Hard of Hearing and visually impaired are not valued. For every meal that the allergy-prone or diet-restricted cannot enjoy on campus, we are told they are not worthy of the effort.

For every gate, lift and elevator out of order for the third time in a week or for every shuttle that again fails to deliver me to class, I am reminded of a blunt and underlying truth: “Cripples Not Welcome.”

By the university’s own admission, people with disabilities are twice as likely to suffer interpersonal violence and sexual assault during their time on campus. Buildings are inaccessible.

Social life is inaccessible. Dining is inaccessible. Labs are inaccessible. Classes — both online and offline — are too. If I had a dollar for every time someone came to me in my capacity as vice president of DEFY saying that they had dropped a class because an individual professor, course coordinator, Dean or Head of College, or somebody just could not find it within themselves to empower them to succeed academically, I would be rich enough to pay for my four years here upfront and out of pocket.

So, what is the institutional response to these many grievances? An office of Student Accessibility Services (SAS) with a staff of four that is charged with somehow meeting the needs of the 11 percent of the student body that registers with them. Through

no fault of their own, they cannot meet the needs of so many, and students inevitably fall through the cracks. From the higher-ups, we are met with shrugs — or worse, we are not given the time of day.

But “don’t worry, accessibility is one of Yale’s key goals,” we are reassured. Somehow, I am not satisfied by such platitudes.

And you shouldn’t be either. No matter how much the University claims to provide accessible resources, it fails to deliver on its promises. Faculty are not made aware of the personnel and technology available to them, and it’s the students who are left the poorer.

If such an egregious oversight were being passed over any other marginalized community, all hell would break loose — and for good reason. For reasons that are beyond me — maybe because screen readers and accessible online architecture, working elevators and dining are not super sexy — the oversight persists. But so does the effort to change things.

Believe me, as someone who lives this every day, I understand the difficulty of accessibility. Our community is highly intersectional. But the fact that there are so many qualifiers, creeds and colors that comprise the community is something to be celebrated, not dreaded. The diversity of the community need not translate into ambiguity and institutional lethargy. Moreover, it is precisely because every other community on campus has in it people with disabilities that our struggle ought to be a university-wide effort to seize the moment and effect substantive and lasting change. I implore my university to take action and work with a community that is more than prepared to advance their needs and interests and expand the franchise of an accessible education.

JOAQUÍN M. LARA MIDKIFF is a sophomore in Saybrook College. He is a YCC Senator and Vice President of DEFY. Contact him at joaquin.laramidkiff@yale.edu .

What we get wrong about getting it wrong B

ig problems invite big diagnoses and even bigger public declarations of those diagnoses. Because big problems are often hard problems, people often get those diagnoses wrong.

No one likes to admit when they get things wrong, but doing so is important, now more than ever.

In the spirit of humility, I’ll go first: on Aug. 31, I published a column titled “The Pandemic Is Over.” Though not entirely, a good chunk of that column was wrong.

Where I went wrong was in my declaration that Yale’s reopening was doomed to go wrong. While I don’t regret my skepticism one bit, it’d be malpractice to not acknowledge that my nightmarish visions of sickness and death on our campus hasn’t come true (so far).

Since Aug. 1, Yale has reported only 34 positive cases of COVID19. The positivity rate is currently 0.1 percent. Cases in New Haven have not exploded either, even as cases state-wide are on the rise. And Yale isn’t the only college success story. The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, which received a tidal wave of negative press early last month, has crushed its case curve, administering nearly 520,000 tests with a current positivity rate of 0.23 percent.

It’s important to stay cautious, but we can admit that this is good news. In fact, I think we have a responsibility to acknowledge successes as much as we condemn failures.

In the aforementioned column, I argued that the University model was fundamentally incompatible with life in a pandemic, that it just couldn’t work. Turns out, that’s just not true.

My mistake is emblematic of a larger trend. It’s sexy to make big, bold declarative statements about broken institutions and how fundamentally broken they are, how they are “beyond reform.” It’s even sexier to do so while using big words, typically ending in “-ism.”

(As someone who used to use “neoliberalism” in every other sentence, trust me, I’ve been there.)

But why do we love these ERIC broad strokes?

KREBS Fo r o n e , big words and The pen/ broad declapin merger rations make you feel really smart, and Yalies love to feel smart. One problem with this is that big words and big sweeping statements often obscure as much as they reveal. For instance, it’s easy to diagnose America’s abject failure of a COVID-19 response as a failure of ‘capitalism’. And while there’s certainly truth to that claim, it’s quite the claim nonetheless. Are South Korea, Japan and Germany (by-and-large success stories) not ‘capitalist’ countries? Are Spain, France and the UK (which are currently doing worse than the US in terms of per capita cases) not ‘capitalist’ countries too? What do we mean by ‘capitalist country’ anyway?

I’ll stop at the edge of the rabbit hole. I’m not looking to kick the hornet’s nest of “socialism vs capitalism,” nor am I trying to pass off ignorance as enlightened centrism (I’m not a centrist, as ignorant as I may be). My point isn’t that we should never use big words or ignore macro systems, either. My point is that next time you go to use a big academic word to encompass some big, extremely complicated system or phenomenon, ask yourself: “What do I really mean?” If you need more than five syllables per word, you might not actually know.

But there’s another, deeper reason — beyond feeling smart — that people love broad declarations of exactly what is wrong with the world and exactly how to fix it: there are a ton of things wrong with the world and those things cause a ton of suf-

fering. Broad, axiomatic solutions match the intensity of the problems they seek to solve. Whether they’ll work is a different question.

How and whether we can know things is a central goal of fields from epistemology to economics. It’s very hard to know things for certain. It’s hard to know for certain what small steps will do, and it’s even harder to know what gigantic steps will do. To be clear, this isn’t a conservative argument against change. Calls for change are good, and actual change is even better!

We desperately need it.

But when we think we already know the cause and cure for the world’s problems, when we tailor that cure so it will fit nice and snugly into our worldview, we set ourselves up for failure. A better world is possible (it better be!) but that doesn’t mean we know how to get there.

With every step we take, we have to be prepared to be entirely wrong.

To be blunt, I think a degree of humility would do us all good.

The world is a complicated place.

Things can’t always be chalked up to immovable-object buzzword causes and unstoppable-force buzzword solutions. Turns out colleges aren’t fundamentally incompatible with life during a pandemic, you just have to do it right. What else do we just have to get right?

Think about how many things we’ve gotten wrong about the pandemic. You thought you were going to have a nice four-week spring break, didn’t you? I did too. We’re not alone. Think about how many things the experts have gotten wrong. On masks and hand-washing, elementary schools, particles and droplets, restaurants and protests.

Maybe if we were all a little less afraid of getting it wrong (and admitting it), we’d get a bit closer to getting it right.

ERIC KREBS is a senior in Jonathan Edwards College. His column, titled “The pin-pen merger,” runs on alternate Mondays. Contact him at eric.krebs@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

NEWS

PAGE 3

“Like a good convict, its life is at night.”

LUIS ZAMBRANO ECOLOGIST

New matchmaking form pairs 1,300 couples at Yale

ZOE BERG/PHOTO EDITOR

Just under 50 percent of undergraduates filled out the Marriage Pact, a 50-question form about a respondent’s values and romantic preferences.

BY EMILY TIAN AND RAZEL SUANSING STAFF REPORTER AND CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The Marriage Pact’s premise is straightforward enough. Fill out a 50-question form about your values and romantic preferences, and earn yourself a prospective lifelong partner, sorted by algorithm.

Created in its original form by Stanford students in 2017, the questionnaire is marketed as a “large-scale matching event that provides students with their optimal marital back-up plans.” The quiz — which circulated among Yale students last week and closed on Tuesday afternoon— paired around 1,300 potential couples on Tuesday evening.

If you and your classmate are still without prospects after a cer-

tain length of time, you can agree to simply marry each other.

Do you shake on it?

Unlikely. Though, if things don’t pan out, you’ll have another shot next year.

While Marriage Pact campus representative Lekha Sunder ’23 said that she was “not really expecting anyone to get married,” she added that “the algorithm gives you a chance to meet someone you’re compatible with, at a time when that’s very difficult.”

Building meaningful relationships without precedent can be especially difficult during the pandemic, Sunder said.

It proved a convincing sell to several thousands of her peers.

2,756 students filled out the form — 45 percent of Yale’s undergraduate body. The figure was just shy of the 50 percent goal the two campus

representatives, Sunder and Li Mei Vera ’23, set for themselves.

According to Sunder, the form also doubled as a valuable social experiment.

“It’s a good opportunity to see how social interactions are playing out in this environment, and gauge what matters and what doesn’t matter when reaching out to people,” Sunder said.

Due to a skewed respondent group, the last 151 heterosexual women to fill out the form went unmatched.

“Basically, straight women really love shit like this,” Sunder said, pointing to a deficit in the number of heterosexual men as compared to heterosexual women who filled out the survey.

Karen Wang ’24 filled out the form just for “giggles” but was surprised to find out on Tuesday night that, according to the algorithm, she and her match were 21 percent compatible according to the algorithm — a low percentage compared to the higher scores her friends and their matches received.

“I’m not mad about it,” Wang said. “There isn’t much of a match pool of nonbinary, communist, Asian people. It’s just interesting to see the demographics of Yale manifest in a very different way here.”

Although the dating industry is highly saturated with different services and apps, including some that have made their rounds at Yale — like the algorithm-based Datamatch and last spring’s Orbit.co — Sunder said the Marriage Pact’s questions are “intentionally not as vapid as those on typical dating sites.”

Questions run from exploring a

respondee’s sexual, political and religious identities to assessing lifestyle choices and value systems. Examples of statements related to these questions include “it’s okay that my partner does harder drugs” and “how long do you wait to have sex when you start seeing someone?”

Certain questions may matter more to some students than others, Sunder explained. The survey accommodated this by asking participants to rank the questions most important to them.

“Filling out the form was fun,” Ananya Rajagopalan ’24 wrote to the News. “The questions seemed pretty chill and I felt like I was able to communicate who I was well!”

Yale’s version of the Marriage Pact is based on an algorithm developed by Stanford graduates Sophia Sterling-Angus and Liam McGregor, who first designed the Marriage Pact as their final project for a class on market design. Inspired by a classic challenge in economics called “the stable marriage problem,” the two students launched their survey, expecting a hundred participants at most. They received, instead, more than 4,000 responses.

Since appearing at Stanford in 2017, the Marriage Pact has circulated among other universities, including Oxford and Cornell. Although preset questions — developed by the Stanford duo and recycled across campuses — comprise the majority of the pact, Sunder and Vera had an opportunity to vet some questions tailored to the Yale community.

The pact’s informal data policy notes that all information a participant provides is completely

voluntary and assures that the form cannot track user accounts.

According to the policy, aside from contact information shared between matches, data is not sold or shared in a way that could make a participant identifiable.

The survey leaves it up to matches to contact one another.

And should matches be interested in meeting in-person, the algorithm accounts for that, too, by asking participants to volunteer their rough geographic location.

Lisbette Acosta ’24 said that she filled out the form largely out of curiosity.

“I think it’s fascinating involving statistics and something that’s hard to quantify like love,” Acosta said. “Merging them — I think that’s fascinating, and I want to be a part of the experiment.”

Other students driven away from campus because of pandemic circumstances are hopeful that the pact will offer them a chance to meet new classmates.

Howard Shi ’25, who is currently on a gap year, said the pact helps him seek out peers that are much harder to meet through his internships.

Both Shi and Acosta said that they do not have high expectations for long-term relationships with their matches but were nevertheless curious to see how the algorithm determines their partners.

73 percent of Stanford’s student body completed the pact last year.

Contact EMILY TIAN at emily.tian@yale.edu and RAZEL SUANSING at razel.suansing@yale.edu .

Voters find mistakes in absentee ballots three weeks before election

BY THOMAS BIRMINGHAM STAFF REPORTER Gregory Huber, chair of the Political Science Department at Yale, arrived home after a Thursday afternoon bike ride and was relieved to find his absentee ballot waiting for him in the mail.

As a political scientist currently researching trends in absentee and mail-in voting, Huber told the News he had been worried about complications during unprecedented levels of absentee voting.

Then, he opened his envelope to discover he had been sent the wrong ballot.

Huber is one of the dozens of New Haven residents who have faced complications with their absentee ballots. City Clerk Michael Smart issued a press release on Friday asking anyone who received a ballot with “ballot errors” or “incorrect districts” to call his office and the issue would be corrected within 24 hours. As of Oct. 1, the city has received 11,000 requests for absentee ballots and the city clerk has processed and mailed out over 5,000.

Smart said such mistakes were to be expected with the historic volume of ballots and claimed that

there have not been more than a “handful” of mistakes.

“It just happens,” Smart said.

“You’re talking double the volume, maybe there’s some volunteers that didn’t understand, but if anybody has an issue, just let us know.”

On Monday, Ward 7 Alder Abigail Roth received an email from a constituent saying they had received their absentee ballot envelopes in the mail, but there was no ballot in either envelope.

Roth said the constituent was unsure what they needed to do to actually retrieve their means of voting. She also noted she has been getting a few calls or emails a day from people who have been waiting weeks for a ballot, had a missing ballot or received a ballot that belonged to someone else.

Huber also said his mother-inlaw, Susan Simon, was also sent the wrong ballot — one that belongs to a woman living in Fair Haven.

“We’re getting a lot of questions, and people are anxious,” Roth said. “Obviously, we have to make sure going forward that there is really good quality control as ballots are sent out to people.”

Roth said she has noticed more anxiety from her constituents as election day creeps closer. She

said some of them never received their absentee ballots for the primaries and had to choose either not to vote or to put their health at risk and vote in person.

Roth told the News she did not envy the clerk’s position in dealing with the wealth of ballot requests. However, she mentioned that the clerk’s office had been able to recently increase their staff capacity due to a $93,000 grant from the state approved by the Board of Alders last Monday.

As a member of the City Services and Environmental Policy Committee for the Board of Alders, Roth deals directly with affairs concerning the city clerk and registrar of voters’ offices. She said the committee is scheduled to meet with Smart and the Democratic Registrar of Voters Shannel Evans on Thursday to help clarify how they can communicate to their constituents about how to react to mishaps.

“This is unlike any election ever,” Roth said. “We have to get information to people about how the process works. I’ve had people who have lived in the city for decades call me with questions about what to do. I’m hoping in

the next few weeks there will be more messaging on the process.”

Aaron Goode, co-founder of local voting organization New Haven Votes, said he wished the clerk’s office could release an exact number on how many people have been affected by issues with absentee voting. He is also encouraging the city clerk’s office to launch an education campaign in the city — telling residents to double check their ballot information so that sending in the wrong ballot would not result in disqualified votes.

“It’s a communication problem above all else,” Goode said. “From what I’ve seen, the city does not seem to be responding adequately.”

Smart stressed the scope of the issue has remained minor and said his office has succeeded in remedying all the problems they have been notified of within 24 hours.

Huber said his mistaken ballot was replaced with the correct one within this time frame as well.

With the election looming just three weeks away, Goode said he was happy these problems were being discovered and addressed in advance. As someone who has spent years following and facilitating elections, Goode said that if this problem were to become more

widespread, it would be a “nightmare scenario.”

“We need to avoid that at all costs,” Goode said.

Though voting mix-ups in New Haven are a small scale problem right now, Huber said that there is pressure now more than ever for the people of New Haven, and the country, to feel like their elections are fair and democratic.

Roth said avoiding these scenarios is especially critical for this election season, as President Donald Trump has repeatedly challenged the legitimacy of absentee and mail-in voting in an effort to discredit the process. Roth also said that thanks to this rhetoric, she anticipates more people voting in person than expected, even amid safety concerns, to make certain their vote is counted.

“We don’t want to create any opportunity for [electoral] challenges,” Roth said. “It’s incredibly important that people feel everything was done accurately. It’s critical.”

For questions or concerns regarding ballots for the upcoming election, contact the city clerk’s office phone line at (203) 946-8349.

Contact THOMAS BIRMINGHAM at thomas.birmingham@yale.edu .

Students on leave can remain affiliated with original class year

BY JULIA BIALEK STAFF REPORTER While official graduation years cannot be changed at a student’s request, students who have taken a term or more off from enrolling in classes can choose to remain affiliated with their original class of matriculation.

This semester, as the pandemic has prompted changes to campus life, 23 percent of Yale College students took a leave of absence — as opposed to the 1.4 percent of students who took a leave in fall 2019 — potentially putting them on a separate graduation track from that of their closest friends. These students cannot change their official graduation year; that number is tied to a student’s academic progress and is part of their official record.

But the students can request to be affiliated with another class year to participate in events and be included in communications.

“The year of graduation is keyed to a student’s academic progress and is part of the official record, and so cannot be changed at the request of a student,” Paul McKinley, senior associate dean of strategic initiatives and communications, wrote in an email to the News. “However, students who take time off can participate in events, including commencement and reunions, for their

class of original matriculation. This is true for students who take a term or more off.”

According to University Registrar Emily Shandley, the Registrar’s Office does not keep an official record of preferred class affiliation.

Shandley explained that the University Registrar’s Office is responsible for “maintaining the official student record,” which includes student class year and level. When a student returns from a leave of absence, the Registrar’s Office automatically updates their information to reflect their academic progress toward degree completion.

However, before students graduate, they can informally request to receive information for a different class year. According to McKinley, students can request their residential colleges, their class council and, for Commencement, the Office of the Secretary and Vice President for University Life, to include them on the appropriate distribution lists.

According to Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Development Joan O’Neill, once a student graduates and becomes an alum, they can also request a class affiliation change in the alumni database so that they can attend reunions and other events with a class other than their official graduating class.

“The YAA is happy for alums to affiliate with the class that means

the most to them, as long as they were at one time part of that class as a student,” Executive Director of the Yale Alumni Association Weili Cheng wrote in an email to the News.

When a student chooses to exercise this option, McKinley explained, their academic record would still reflect their official year of graduation rather than their preferred class affiliation. But they would enjoy all the benefits of being in their original class of matriculation, with a few exceptions.

On graduation day, students participating in Commencement before completing all of their degree requirements will receive their residential college certificate — but not their diploma. Students are only permitted to participate in one Commencement ceremony.

McKinley added that occasionally, siblings in different class years request to participate in a single Commencement ceremony, often to accommodate elderly relatives who need to travel long distances to attend.

Further, Yale College prizes and awards are usually distributed only to seniors who are in their final term of enrollment, although individual residential colleges may award prizes to students who will still be enrolled in future semesters.

McKinley clarified that this is not

ZOE BERG/PHOTO EDITOR

23 percent of Yale College students decided to take leaves of absence this semester, up from 1.4 percent from last fall. a new policy — students who took time off from classes have long had the option to be affiliated with their original class of matriculation.

Whitney Bowen ’24 took a leave of absence this semester, so her true graduation year is now “between” the classes of 2023 and 2024. However, since she feels more a part of her original class of matriculation than she does the class below — which has now become her official class of graduation after taking time off — she is grateful to have the option to be affiliated with the class of 2023.

“As of right now, having spent my freshman year with the class

of 2023, I feel much more connected to those students than I do the grade below,” Bowen wrote in an email to the News. “When I initially chose to take time off, I was worried about the social and academic implications of being in a different grade: reunions, housing, classes, email lists, etc. I’m super happy to hear that Yale is allowing us flexibility in this.”

According to the Office of Institutional Research’s fact sheet for 2019-20, 95 percent of undergraduates graduate within five years.

Contact JULIA BIALEK at julia.bialek@yale.edu .

PAGE 4

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

FROM THE FRONT

“I think [axolotls] are spectacularly cute. And you can quote me on that. They just sit around most the time and look as cute as can be.” ED ZALISKO BLACKBURN COLLEGE PROFESSOR

COVID-19 case counts rise among students after a cluster was identified

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The University is asking that students carefully adhere to public health guidelines in order to keep the Yale community safe.

YELLOW FROM PAGE 1 members currently enrolled and living in New Haven.

“All of these cases involve members of the men’s ice hockey team, and all of these students have been instructed to isolate,” Spangler’s email reads.

“All other members of the men’s ice hockey team who are in the New Haven area, as well as the Athletics staff who have worked directly with them, have been instructed to quarantine and to participate in the university testing program, whether or not they have been identified as close contacts of infected team members.”

“Rigorous contact tracing efforts are underway to identify any other individuals who may have been close contacts of

the infected team members and to instruct them to quarantine and participate in testing,” she wrote.

The decision to raise the COVID-19 alert level comes after the University lowered it only two weeks ago, when the alert level was changed from yellow — which denotes low to moderate risk — to green, which denotes low risk. This change two weeks ago was made after the campus had transitioned past the risky quarantine period where students and faculty were returning to campus from around the world.

Under a yellow alert level, the University may implement new measures to control the spread of the virus, including targeted quarantines and targeted restrictions on campus access.

Spangler also outlined other cautionary measures the University has taken, including halting all in-person training activities for varsity athletic teams and intramural programs. Further, certain athletic facilities, such as Payne Whitney Gymnasium, Ingalls Rink and the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center, have been closed for cleaning until Oct. 19.

In a Thursday afternoon email to undergraduates, Dean of Yale College Marvin Chun stated that protocols to address increased case counts are in effect, including isolation, quarantine and contact tracing.

Chun wrote that most of the students who need to quarantine have heard from contact tracers by now. He advised students who have been in close contact in

the past week with a member of the men’s hockey team, or with anyone who has tested positive, to quarantine in their room or off-campus residence and call the Campus COVID Resource Line for instructions.

“You are already familiar with the yellow alert level because it was in effect during the first weeks of the semester,” Chun wrote in the email. “Even so, please ensure that you are taking the usual steps to protect your health and others': cover your face when you are in public, stay six feet apart, keep your hands clean, complete your daily health checks, and stick to your testing schedule. Please be especially attentive to these practices, not only during the yellow alert but always.”

Chun directed students to the

COVID-19 Statistics page to find publicly available statistics on the state of public health on campus.

According to Spangler, the COVID-19 dashboard, which shows statistics about the University’s asymptomatic testing program, is used to share information with the Yale community about the spread of the coronavirus. While the dashboard is updated daily as information about testing becomes available, the updates are not made in real time. Although students tend to receive their test results within 24 hours, it takes two to three days before data from those tests populate the website.

“It is important to note that tests and positive cases are shown on the dashboard by the date on which a test specimen was collected,” University COVID-19 Coordinator Stephanie Spangler wrote in an email to the News Tuesday afternoon, before she sent an email update to the community. “There is a 2-3 day delay between the time when specimens are collected and when test result data become available to include in the dashboard.”

After students received Spangler’s email, the News asked University spokesperson Karen Peart and Spangler for comment on the reason behind dashboard delays, how many people have been contact traced and whether any students in the cluster violated the Community Compact. They did not immediately respond.

Yale College Council President Aliesa Bahri ’22 told the News that she encourages all members of the Yale community to review the Community Compact.

She further emphasized the importance of abiding by public health habits — wearing masks, getting tested routinely, practicing social distancing and washing hands regularly — and holding each other accountable.

“Please also use the Yale College COVID-19 Community Concerns form if you see any concerning behavior that may pose a threat to the health of our community,” Bahri said.

As of the evening of Oct. 15, Yale is reporting 51 positive COVID-19 cases since Aug. 1.

Contact JULIA BIALEK at julia.bialek@yale.edu .

Six members of the men’s ice hockey team tested positive for COVID-19 PHASE0 FROM PAGE 1 “As I am sure you’ve heard, a cluster of positive cases has been identified, and for the safety of all of you and the larger Yale community, we are shutting down all varsity athletic activities until at least next Wednesday,” Director of Track and Field and Cross Country David Shoehalter wrote in an email to his program obtained by the News. “Our facilities will all be off-limits, and we will not be permitted to have any organized team activities.”

Stephanie Spangler, Yale’s COVID-19 coordinator, informed the full student body of the outbreak in an email late Tuesday night. In the message, Spangler confirmed that six individuals on the same athletic team tested positive for COVID-19 during routine biweekly testing conducted within the previous 24 hours.

The announcement comes after all teams had moved into Phase II of the Ivy League’s three-phase plan for the resumption of athletic activities on Oct. 7. Yale began Phase I on Sept. 21.

In his email, Shoehalter added that after the conclusion of Phase 0, Yale will need to proceed again through Phase I before returning to Phase II, which would likely be a shorter period of time than the initial 16-day window between Phase I and Phase II. Shoehalter also reminded his student-athletes to speak honestly in the event they are contacted by campus contact tracers, emphasizing there would be no negative repercussions for doing so.

It remains unclear how the cluster began, but Kemp noted that there were more than 10 people present during a transition period at Monday’s practice at Ingalls Rink. Yale limits group gatherings to 10 people without prior approval.

MEGAN GRAHAM/PRODUCTION & DESIGN EDITOR

Still, Kemp underscored that team members have been following University guidelines and remain confident in Yale’s ability to control the spread of the virus.

“We understand [the decision to return to Phase 0] completely,” Kemp said. “A lot of us volunteered to go into the isolation pods right away to get the virus under control.”

During Phase 0, no in-person physical athletic activities are allowed, but teams can meet virtually with coaches.

“Right now we can’t do anything,” Yale football quarterback Devyn Suggs ’24 told the News.

“Can’t lift, can’t practice, so we are back to doing stuff on our own — bodyweight workouts by ourselves. We can’t go to the gym or to practice or anything like that,

so we have to basically go back to Phase 0 and then hopefully go back to Phase 1 next week.”

In her email, Spangler elaborated on additional cautionary measures being taken by the University to contain this outbreak.

Among these, all members of the men’s hockey team including staff have been asked to quarantine and participate in the testing program, regardless of whether

they were identified as close contact risks by the contact tracing program. Additionally, in-person intramural sport activities have also been canceled at least until next week.

Contact EUGENIO GARZA GARCÍA at eugenio.garzagarcia@yale.edu and JAMES RICHARDSON at james.richardson@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 5

FROM THE FRONT

“According to legend, when axolotls become extinct, we will disappear with them. This is what we believe.” PEDRO MÉNDEZ MEXICAN FARMER

Law students release report on Rubenfeld’s misconduct

RYAN CHIAO/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Law students released a report asking for the removal of law professor Jed Rubenfeld from campus.

RUBENFELD FROM PAGE 1 gations go back decades and that the [University-Wide Committee on Sexual Misconduct] found misconduct that warranted a twoyear suspension. What does the University believe will change in two years? Rubenfeld will still be dangerous, and all of the students who are aware of his misconduct will be gone.”

The 23-page report on sexual harassment at Yale, subtitled “A Case Study on Jed Rubenfeld,” contains three sections — the first of which is a letter from the two groups addressed to Salovey.

The groups demanded that Salovey permanently remove Rubenfeld from campus in an effort to prevent Rubenfeld from “preying” on a new generation of students. The letter added that the University must amend its UWC process to support future survivors of sexual misconduct.

Additionally, the groups demanded in the letter that the University release the findings of the UWC’s investigation into Rubenfeld to the extent legally possible.

“In sexual misconduct investigations, there is always a balancing act between protecting the parties’ privacy and being transparent with the rest of the community,” said the student leaders of the YLS Title IX Working Group in an email to the News.

“The University can and should do more to be transparent about

the process and to protect students when there are credible allegations of misconduct by individual faculty members.”

University spokesperson Karen Peart wrote in an email to the News that the University does not confirm or deny the existence of any specific cases of sexual misconduct to protect confidentiality and preserve the integrity of its adjudication process.

The second section of the report contains a timeline of the publicly available information on Rubenfeld’s case that draws from news articles, online posts, course catalogues and recordings of student performances. The timeline begins in April 2008, with a Top Law Schools forum post about “monthly soirées” at Rubenfeld and Chua’s house.

Over the years since, the report chronicles references that indicate the YLS community was aware of “at least mildly inappropriate behavior” by Rubenfeld, culminating with his twoyear suspension for allegations that include verbal harassment, unwanted touching and attempted kissing in the classroom and at his home.

The third section of the report contains an overview of recommended changes to the UWC process in the wake of the Rubenfeld investigation. For one, the report demands that the University implement a platform for anonymous reporting that noti-

fies survivors when other reports are filed for the same offender.

“Students were afraid to speak out against Jed Rubenfeld individually because they feared retribution and harm to their careers,” the report stated.

“There is strength in numbers.

If accusers were able to be notified about one another’s existence, they could organize to collectively file formal complaints against the relevant predator.”

Additionally, the report called for pro bono representation for students involved with UWC proceedings. According to the Trump Administration’s new Title IX rules announced in May, accusers may be directly cross-examined as part of the UWC’s process. The report said that students should be entitled to adequate legal representation throughout the Title IX process, which increasingly resembles a legal proceeding.

The Title IX Working Group student leaders — Mollie Berkowitz LAW ’21 and co-chairs Grace Judge LAW ’22, Evan Walker-Wells ’14 LAW ’22 SOM ’22 and Noelle Wyman LAW ’22 — said that Yale is an “outlier” among its peer institutions, all of whom help parties in Title IX proceedings obtain legal representation at no cost.

“Absent legal representation, students may be left to navigate a complex and quasi-judicial process — one that now includes live

cross-examination — without adequate legal advice,” wrote the student leaders of the YLS Title IX Working Group in an email to the News. “Parties with resources, including faculty members and students from higher income families, could have an immense advantage over parties who cannot afford to hire an attorney. This would only compound existing economic and social inequalities on campus.”

The Title IX Working Group Chairs and the YLW Board sent a letter on Sept. 1 to UWC Chair Mark Solomon and University Title IX Coordinator Stephanie Spangler outlining their demand that the University provide student-claimants and student-respondents with attorneys on a pro bono basis throughout the UWC process.

So l o m o n a n d S pa n g l e r responded to their letter on Friday.

“We have been informed that Yale will not provide or pay for legal representation to parties in UWC proceedings,” Solomon and Spangler wrote in the email obtained by the News.

Solomon and Spangler said that the committee can instead refer parties to a panel of “UWC Advisors,” two of whom have legal training.

Spokeswoman Peart wrote in an email to the News that the UWC process, including the advisor system, has “worked well.” She added that there are

measures in place to maintain a respectful environment during the questioning process.

In response to Solomon and Spangler’s email, the student leaders of the Title IX Working Group wrote in an email to the News that they were “incredibly disappointed by this decision.”

“Yale had the opportunity to show real leadership on this issue and failed,” the students wrote.

Peart highlighted the supportive measures available to students involved with sexual misconduct investigations, such as Title IX Coordinators, the Yale Police, UWC Secretaries and SHARE Center counselors. She wrote that, while the University must comply with the new Trump administration regulations, the UWC will continue to address formal complaints of sexual misconduct through impartial investigations and hearing panels including members of the Yale community.

The report’s final recommended change is that the UWC explicitly consider the safety of the broader Yale community when determining the result of an investigation, specifically those targeted at faculty offenders.

The groups requested that the hearing panel release a community impact statement whenever an investigation leads to disciplinary action, which would explain how the disciplinary action protects the Yale community and how the panel decided what information to disclose.

The report added that clearer communication with the Yale community — even if certain information is withheld — will reassure students and empower future survivors to come forward.

“Tenure should not be used as an excuse for retaining dangerous faculty,” the report stated.

“Tenured appointments are established to ensure academic freedom, not to excuse Title IX violations or other dangerous behaviors. Jed Rubenfeld has attempted to leverage these academic-freedom protections by claiming that the allegations are a backlash to his 2014 op-ed arguing against affirmative consent standards. This is false.”

YLS Dean Heather Gerken has encouraged students who have experienced misconduct to reach out to Associate Dean Ellen Cosgrove, who oversees the offices of student affairs and is the YLS Title IX coordinator.

Contact JULIA BROWN at julia.k.brown@yale.edu .

ANAAY sends proposal for official calendar designation from Yale College ANAAY FROM PAGE 1 believes in “uplifting Indigenous perspectives on environmental justice, as they are frontline witnesses to the climate crisis.”

Recognition of the holiday would be a meaningful step Yale could take to acknowledge the communities it has disenfranchised, Steuer Ingall said. She also expressed hopes that Yale would dedicate more programming and funding to ANAAY and other Indigenous-led organizations on campus.

While Chun expressed his support for the students’ effort to increase the visibility of the holiday, he responded to the proposal by explaining that Yale College policy “restricts email to very specific uses that don’t even allow for the narrow exception” requested. Such uses typically include critical news updates and policy changes.

Because no email came from the Dean’s Office, the Yale College Council sent a college-wide email on Monday evening to encourage students to celebrate and recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Goff-Crews and other Yale College deans — including Joliana Yee, director of the Asian American Cultural Center, and Burgwell Howard, dean of student engagements — made guest appearances in the video produced by the Native American Cultural Center (NACC) and ANAAY to honor the holiday.

“I’ve been thinking about joy and celebration a lot lately, and when I do, I think about the Native American community,” GoffCrews said in the video compilation, thanking the community for their contributions to Yale.

But despite repeated attempts to convince Yale to name Indigenous Peoples’ Day an official

holiday, including a student petition which circulated last year and indications of individual administrators’ support, the University has not altered its official stance.

Placing the day on the University calendar would not only constitute formal recognition of the holiday but also grant all

Yale employees paid time off for the day.

It’s not unheard of for University administrators to adapt their holiday observance policy. Earlier this summer, Faculty of Arts and Sciences staff were invited to observe Juneteenth and take the afternoon off, as the holiday — which commemorates the

emancipation of enslaved people in the United States — gained recognition nationwide.

Several other universities, including Harvard, Brown and Cornell, have in recent years revised their calendars to observe Indigenous People’s Day. However, unlike at those schools, Yale does not designate the sec-

ond Monday in October a University holiday, Columbus Day or otherwise.

The New Haven Board of Alders voted to replace Columbus Day with Italian Heritage Day in September.

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

COURTESY OF CHARLES GLEBERMAN

A proposal last Thursday asked the University to place Indigenous Peoples’ Day on its official calendar.

PAGE 6

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

ARTS Virtual venue: Sharon Ahn, Amara. and Sofía Campoamor

BY XAVIER BLACKWELL-LIPKIND AND ISAAC YU CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS Sharon Ahn “i guess i kinda miss you” Sharon Ahn ’23 dabbles in a bit of everything. Ahn, a Computing and the Arts major on the music track, plays classical piano but has also experimented with musical theater, guitar, ukulele, percussion and viola. Recently, she wrote and released her first single, “i guess i kinda miss you.”

“I have to admit that my interests in music are a bit all over the place,” Ahn said. “I’d say my Yale education has influenced my music in that it’s just opened me up to a lot of different things.”

At Yale, Ahn experimented with the carillon and organ.

She also directed musical theater shows, worked as a collaborative pianist at Interlochen Arts Camp and “briefly dabbled in DJ-ing.” She serves as music director and pianist for improv group Just Add Water, a role she credits with exposing her to a variety of musical genres.

Ahn is heavily influenced by British composer and musician Jacob Collier, as well as DIY bedroom pop artists — musicians who work with basic equipment to create music, sometimes from their bedrooms.

released July 22. Mgbeike expresses the truth of love as a “remedy for all.”

Drawing inspiration from church services and a love for jazz, R&B and neo-soul, Mgbeike wrote the initial version of the song in less than an hour in March. She had no intentions of releasing it as a single, but the pandemic and protests over the summer changed her mind.

“The only answer to all of this, and I don’t mean to sound like a hippie — is love. How can we dismantle systems of racial oppression without love? It’s the remedy for it all,” Mgbeike said.

Project Channel Love includes a music video which will premiere on Friday at 8 p.m.

Sofía Campoamor “Parts Apart” Even though Sofía Campoamor ’20 plays piano, guitar and ukulele, she said her voice is her “primary instrument.”

In high school, Campoamor was passionate about musical theater, choir and a cappella. At Yale, she became the first woman admitted to the Whiffenpoofs, the world’s oldest collegiate a cappella group. She majored in music, participated in the on-campus a cappella scene and sang in the Institute of Sacred Music’s Battell Chapel Choir.

“I ended up studying music because I realized that I just loved writing songs and that I wouldn’t have to write a paper for my thesis,” Campoamor said. “I thought … there’s this thing that I know I’m going to do when no one else is making me do it. That’s when I started trying to pursue it academically.”

COURTESY OF AMARA.

COURTESY OF HANNAH LEE

Ahn wrote her first song during what she describes as “quarantine sadboi hours.” The song includes quirky reworkings of common sounds, such as Ahn snapping an AirPods case shut and biting into a kernel of popcorn.

“I was going to send someone an ‘I miss you’ message during quarantine but decided to write a song about him instead,” Ahn said. “‘i guess i kinda miss you’ explores the feeling of missing someone enough that you can’t get them out of your head but not enough to actually press send [on the text message].”

Ahn hopes to pursue music after college. She said that writing this song reinforced her passion for music.

Amara. “Channel Love” “Teach me how / to channel your love,” sings Amara Mgbeike ’22 in her debut song “Channel Love,” which was

“I felt like God placed this song on my heart so I could release it at a time such as this,” Mgbeike said. “If my truth is God’s truth, then I’m going to write my truth.”

When Mgbeike participated in the Elm City Vineyard Church’s Artist Circle, she was struck by a poem written by fellow church member Dan Midgett. The phrase “channel love” resonated with her, since she felt this message of sharing love was particularly necessary for people struggling right now.

“My song tells a story about people who may have been hurt by loving too much,” she explained.

In her song, Mgbeike asks her listeners to channel different sources of love, instead of relying on their own ability to love. Drawing from a personal journey of finding spirituality, she recalls a desire for a higher, divine kind of love from God. “Teach me how / to channel your love / Baptize me in an ocean of molten gold / Jesus, fill me with You / I’ll be a vessel for You,” Mgbeike sings.

While she does not identify exclusively as a Christian artist, Mgbeike describes herself as “an artist who is Christian.”

She freely embraces her religious background in her music.

Mgbeike’s time as the musical director of Shades at Yale gave her the technical and compositional skills to produce and release “Channel Love.” Mgbeike’s creative efforts can be viewed in a vlog she recorded in August.

Mgbeike wants to channel love both through her new single and in her home community. Through a drive called Project Channel Love, Mgbeike hopes to donate proceeds from the sale of “Channel Love” merchandise toward combating food insecurity in Houston, where she is currently located.

The musician’s hope is for her listeners — from Houston to New Haven to South Africa — to be reminded of the necessity of love.

COURTESY OF MOHIT SANI

During her senior year, Campoamor worked on a songwriting project that she recently released as an EP titled “Parts Apart.” The album comprises five songs and touches on three types of distance: physical, emotional and temporal.

The songs “focus on small moments … images, themes,” Campoamor explained. Even though she wrote drafts of the songs before the pandemic, Campoamor said she had already been “reflecting on distance in a lot of ways.”

Campoamor has spent the past few months working as a field organizer for a presidential campaign in Michigan. Still, she set a goal to write something every day, even during quarantine.

“I have very little time to write, but I know it’s a part of myself I want to protect,” Campoamor said.

Contact XAVIER BLACKWELL-LIPKIND at xavier.blackwell-lipkind@yale.edu and ISAAC YU at isaac.yu@yale.edu .

Yale Danceworks moves digital

BY DOMINIQUE CASTANHEIRA AND TANIA TSUNIK CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS Since Danceworks cannot hold in-person rehearsals this fall, it has transitioned to remote operations. But the group hopes to preserve its regular agenda and reinforce community spirit.

Danceworks is Yale’s largest non-audition dance group.

Even as the group goes virtual, it is conducting weekly dance rehearsals for Yale students.

These will culminate in a final video performance at the end of the semester.

“Of course, it’s not the same

to dance over Zoom,” said Sarah McKinnis ’22, social co-chair of Danceworks.

“What everyone loves so much about Danceworks is the atmosphere and the energy of cheering on and supporting each other, which we can’t totally replicate online.”

Before the pandemic, the groups organized 16 to 20 dances every semester. The group had around 200 active members, and each dance featured up to 25 people.

This fall Danceworks has choreographed around five semester dances with a maximum of 20 people each. Students involved meet virtually

each week. The group’s active membership scaled down to fewer than 100 students.

“The hard part is the motivation,” Yassi X iong ’22, co-president of Danceworks, said. “It gets especially tricky considering that so many people come from different time zones or might not even have enough space to dance in their dorm rooms or houses.”

Still, Tadea Martin-Gonzalez ’24, who joined Danceworks this fall, expressed gratitude for the opportunity to continue to engage with the art, especially during a pandemic. She noted that dancing is a great way to “decompress”

COURTESY OF DANIEL GUERRA

from virtual classes. “[The rehearsals] are providing the framework for relationships that are going to form as soon as we are able to meet in person,” Martin-Gonzalez added.

But the transition to remote operations brings its own challenges. The group had to increase efforts to recruit and support choreographers, who were unaccustomed to Zoom adaptations of their routines.

The availability of practice spaces has also been an issue, since students don’t have large spaces in which they can dance at home. Choreographers are trying to adapt their routines to smaller spaces.

Additionally, dancers must navigate learning choreography in a virtual environment.

Martin-Gonzalez said learning on Zoom introduces several challenges — such as figuring out how to correctly imitate movements on screen, since Zoom sometimes automatically mirrors a participant’s video feed.

Yet Danceworks board members are finding creative ways to build community by creating new programs that increase accessibility to dance-related activities.

“We’re definitely trying to add more avenues for engagement this semester,” said

Edie Abraham-Macht ’22, the co-choreographer liaison at Danceworks. “It’s been cool to have a more multifaceted menu of what Danceworks can offer.”

In previous years, Danceworks only choreographed se m e s te r d a n ce s a n d a final show. This fall, it has expanded its programming to include one-time workshops taught by professional guest choreographers such as Taryn Cheng, an online dance subscription with STEEZY Studio, a buddy system and social events that include game nights and Netflix parties.

“I think it’s been, surprisingly, a really great moment of community,” said Abraham-Macht. “Just being able to gather a group of people and dance together; it’s really nice to see that people are still invested in Danceworks and still want to come together and have that community.”

Danceworks plans to utilize YouTube, TikTok and Instagram stories to connect with the public. At the end of the semester, the group will create a final performance video showcasing routines from this semester.

Contact DOMINIQUE CASTANHEIRA at dominique.castanheira@yale.edu and TANIA TSUNIK at tania.tsunik@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 7

YCBA features Rebecca Salter in stay-at-home digital series

BY CYNTHIA SUTANTO CONTRIBUTING REPORTER At the Royal Academy of Arts in London, an artist once shattered the glass ceiling and dared to push art’s cultural boundaries. On Oct. 9, the Yale Center for British Art invited this artist, Rebecca Salter, as part of the YCBA’s “at home: Artists in Conversation” series.

Rebecca Salter is a British artist and the first female president of the Royal Academy of Arts.

YCBA’s senior research scholar and deputy director for collections Scott Wilcox hosted a public conversation with Salter. During the webinar, viewers gained intimate insights into Salter’s career and notable works.

Jane Nowosadko, the YCBA’s head of public programs, said that the online series seeks to connect the community with artists to discuss various artistic practices and perspectives.

“The ‘at home’ series was created to bring exciting and thought-provoking programs to our audiences remotely,” Nowosadko said. “We wanted to continue to offer an opportunity for our audiences to engage with the Center’s collections and programs.”

Salter and Wilcox’s discussion began with Salter recounting her career as a painter and printmaker. Upon graduating from Bristol Polytechnic in 1977, Salter spent two years as a research student at the Kyoto City University of Arts in Japan. Here, she learned how to blend Western art techniques with traditional Japanese watercolor methods.

“Once I got down the Japanese language, I had access to a wide breadth of knowledge,” Salter said during the talk.

Studying in Japan changed how she approached painting.

The techniques Salter

l ea r n e d s h a p e d h e r abstract style and taught her how to work with different art mediums.

Salter and Wilcox discussed Salter’s architectural work called “Calligraphy of Light,” which is located in St. George’s Hospital in Tooting, London. Salter said the objective of the piece was to revitalize hospital workers and patients in creating a “light” and “welcoming” space.

When designing “Calligraphy of Light,” Salter turned to aspects of Japanese art and architecture, characterized by strips of brightly lit glass set in bamboo paneling. Throughout the work, there is a consistency of color, materials and clearly defined lines.

“The main purpose of my art is to convey certain moods and feelings that uplift viewers,” Salter said.

Since this large-scale exhibition, Salter has switched her focus to fewer, more impactful works.

To conclude the event, Salter talked about her experience as the first female president of the Royal Academy of Arts.

Salter was elected in December 2019, and has since represented members of the Academy, held general assemblies and organized exhibitions showcasing London’s artistic community.

Salter said her presidency is “more of a symbolic role,” but she is honored to represent the Academy’s diverse range of students and staff members.

Besides overseeing the Academy’s operations, Salter said she has worked to create a support system for students.

She noted that there is a “ huge problem” with mental health within the Academy’s student cohort. To amend this, she has instituted resilience training for students. This training teaches them stress relief techniques.

Even during the pandemic, Salter hopes that members of the artistic community can connect with each other to provide support and encouragement.

Wilcox said there is much that viewers and artists can learn from Salter.

“The historical importance of her being the first woman president made it important that our audience get to meet her through the series,” Wilcox said.

“She shows how an artist can be successful while still being unpretentious, encouraging to others, and just plain nice.”

The digital series has seven installments. The next event in the “at home” series is a webinar on Oct. 23 featuring New York-based artist Anthony McCall.

Contact CYNTHIA SUTANTO at cynthia.sutanto@yale.edu .

COURTESY OF REBECCA SALTER

Music In Schools Initiative expands horizons

BY PRADZ SAPRE CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Soaring string quartet melodies, manuscripts scribbled with music notes and classrooms full of chattering students are common in New Haven public schools that participate in the Music in Schools Initiative, or MISI. This semester, MISI hopes to replicate this atmosphere on computer screens.

MISI is a program that facilitates collaborations between artists from Yale College and the Yale School of Music and 28 public schools in New Haven.

This year, the initiative is delivering musical education on virtual platforms, allowing them to introduce new programming: a college mentorship program, instruction in musical composition and virtual interviews with guest artists.

Mahima Kumara ’20 is a recipient of the yearlong Yale Glee Club Service Through Music Fellowship and a postgraduate teaching fellow with MISI. “My favorite part of working with MISI is connecting with the students,” Kumara said. “It is amazing to see how much they love connecting with each other, the teaching artists and their larger community, even when it is online.”

According to MISI director Rubén Rodríguez, the initiative typically conducts three programs: an in-school mentorship program during the school day, an afterschool program called the “All City Ensemble” and the Morse Summer Music Academy, an intensive musical training summer camp.

During the school day, MISI teaching artists collaborate with music teachers to provide instruction for singers, string players and other instrumentalists. After school, the

artists run eight musical ensembles of varying instrumentations.

Rodríguez noted that the MISI program is inherently dynamic. Each year, members adapt their pedagogical approach in order to best collaborate with the New Haven community, a methodology which is particularly important this year.

This spring, school closures

For the fall semester, MISI has converted their after-school instruction to “All-City @ Home ensembles.” This model provides students with 30 minutes of private lessons on a weekly basis.

“I am conflicted about the effects of pandemic in some ways; it is certainly heartbreaking,” Rodríguez said. “On the other

the community, MISI now has greater flexibility with schedules and practice spaces.

In fact, this flexibility, according to Rodríguez, has allowed MISI to pioneer its new initiatives, including a mentorship program pairing student musicians with MISI teaching artists.

Rodríguez outlined how this

COURTESY OF RUBEN RODRIGUEZ

caused indefinite suspensions of in-person activities. MISI responded by launching a threemonth-long pilot program of remote instruction in the spring and a modified summer program, MorseOnline. Rodríguez said the program “exceeded [all] expectations of how things would go.”

hand, this new virtual model has been a game changer for us.”

He noted that transitioning to virtual mediums created teaching challenges but also afforded students more flexibility. While the suspension of concerts and rehearsals has limited the program’s ability to engage with

mentorship program allows teaching artists to work closely with students from the fourth through twelfth grades. He added that the program not only gives students access to application-related opportunities, but also encourages them to “keep music alive in their lives.”

Kumara also described how lessons in composition open up new avenues for expression through music.

Moreover, this summer, MISI’s virtual model allowed School of Music Associate Dean Michael Yaffe to host conversations with various arts leaders — including professional jazz guitarist Bernie Williams, hip-hop producer Aaron Roger and New Haven Symphony Orchestra Music Director Alasdair Neale — during the Morse online summer program. Students virtually attended these conversations and received advice from professionals in the field.

“The goal of this activity was to engage our students in the value of music in their lives, but more importantly, in the life of our culture, locally, regionally and internationally,” Yaffe added.

Kumara mentioned that because of this new pandemic-induced reliance on technology, an important aspect of a teaching artist’s role this year involved technological support.

She stressed the importance of making the program accessible to students at home and accommodating individual circumstances.

Despite the challenges posed

by MISI’s virtual format, Kumara recalled the program’s various successes this year. She said the students recently performed in a virtual concert, engaging with music made by peers on a YouTube livestream. This performance was broadcast in patient rooms at Yale New Haven Hospital.

MISI has been working with public schools in New Haven since 2007.

Contact PRADZ SAPRE at pradz.sapre@yale.edu .

PAGE 8

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

How forest management caused more wildfires

BY ANNIKA SALMI CONTRIBUTING REPORTER West Coast wildfires have caused dozens of deaths, produced billions of dollars in property damage and permanently destroyed communities. The massive increase in uncontrolled wildfires is due to both climate change and forest mismanagement — under a fire suppression policy spearheaded by Yale graduates in the 1900s.

Fearing the destruction of wildfires, the federal government promulgated an extreme policy of fire suppression in the 1900s. Many of those involved in this policy formation were Yale School of the Environment graduates who believed forests were unsullied by humanity.

They aimed to protect the lands at all costs from both humans, such as loggers, and natural events, such as fires. Without those idealistic men, many national parks would not exist and American wild land would have been lost.

However, wildfires are a natural part of some forests’ ecosystems. Since the fire suppression policy was created, forests have not been able to naturally de-densify, species that have relied on fire to exist have become endangered, and the risk of large fires has skyrocketed.

“As people who work in science, it’s our responsibility to appreciate the accomplishments of our predecessors while also challenging some of the decisions that they made and how they influence today,” said James Puerini ENV ’21, former firefighter and current forestry student at the Yale School of the Environment.

UC Berkeley Professor of Forest Ecology John Battles explained that before the federal government took control of western lands, Native American tribes either set wildfires, called prescribed fires, or managed existing ones. Prescribed and managed fires benefited forests for many reasons, including managing the growth of certain species, restoring natural habitats and herding animals.

In the late 1800s, thousands of white Americans began moving west. They then purchased and occupied huge tracts of land in this area. Timber interests, developers and others began clear-cutting land.

“Teddy Roosevelt establishes the system of public lands as it exists today,” Puerini said. “The result is millions of acres of public land they claim would be managed and preserved in perpetuity.

The main reason they said they did this was because there was concern about uncontrolled timber harvesting and development. It was controversial. So, they passed these laws, and established the public lands systems and agencies, and Teddy Roosevelt instated his personal confidante Gifford Pinchot.”

Gifford Pinchot, class of 1889, studied forestry in France and idealized the wideopen western landscape. His interests led to his family creating the Yale Forest School, now the Yale School of the Environment, which was the first American school to offer postgraduate training in forestry.

Pinchot was also a eugenicist and often dismissed indigenous strategies of living with the land, according to a recent New

Yorker article on Pinchot and other environmentalists of the time.

As chief of the US Forest Service, Pinchot protected millions of acres of land from private development. Forestry graduates moved west to manage fires under his direction. Despite some of the good those foresters did, they failed to realize that fires are necessary for western forests. The East Coast transplants had learned forest management techniques from Europe, where trees do not rely on fires like those on the West Coast do.

“Some pine species need fire as part of their life cycle,” Battles said.

Policies around fire suppression continued unquestioned until the 1960s, when scientists learned that fire, like heavy rains, is a natural part of a forest’s cycle, as opposed to a natural disaster like an earthquake. Aldo Leopold, who graduated from the Yale Forest School in 1909, created the seminal Leopold Report advocating science-based instead of protection-based National Parks policy. This led to laws protecting wolves, allowing hunting permits to control elk populations and allowing wildfires to naturally burn and put themselves out. Yet communities near forests feared uncontrolled fires and smoky air.

By the 1990s, West Coast forests had built up excess fuel since no small fires burned out the underbrush. Many scientists had to admit that partnerships with private timber companies were necessary. The removal of large swaths of forests near towns create buffer zones to ensure that fires die out before they can threaten people’s homes.

Professor Chad Oliver, who is now the Pinchot Professor of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the director of Yale‘s Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry, attended multiple congressional hearings in the 1990s, advocating for an increase in forest management. He recalls that even then, scientists knew that forests in the American West were headed toward disastrous fire seasons, but he struggled to convince congresspeople that increased forest management was necessary. He believes more forest management should have occurred.

“I keep asking myself, is there something I could have done differently?” Oliver said. “If they had only listened to the science, none of this would have happened.”

Wildfires now rage uncontrollably on the West Coast amid a prolonged dry season with increased lightning storms primarily caused by climate change.

The Yale School of the Environment continues to actively research climate change and wildfire management. Even if human emissions of greenhouse gases decrease, it will be a long time before forests return to a stable ecosystem.

For now, scientists say that focusing on forest management is the most effective way to prevent wildfires. Until more money is spent to combat climate change and manage forests, firefighters risk their lives and health every year to save communities across the West.

Over five million acres have burned on the West Coast this year.

Contact ANNIKA SALMI at annika.salmi@yale.edu .

SOPHIA ZHAO/STAFF ILLUSTRATOR

Feeling Down? T Cells Can Help!

BY JENNY MAO CONTRIBUTING REPORTER A newly published Yale study compared the immune system cells of people with multiple sclerosis, or MS, and those of healthy individuals.

The scientists found that immune cells may play an important role in an individual’s mental well-being.

Researchers at the Hafler Lab — run by Professor of Neurology David Hafler — used a new technology called single cell RNA sequencing to study the immune cells known as T cells present in the spinal fluid of healthy people and those with MS. Their results provide an in-depth picture of what a normal immune system looks like, which will allow researchers to better understand autoimmune diseases and investigate the link between immunology and psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety. The study, first authored by graduate student Jenna Pappalardo YSM ’20, was published in Science Immunology on Sept. 18.

“The breakthrough in the study is a new technology called single cell RNA sequencing,” Hafler said. “What it allows one to do is take each individual cell, and to sequence very deeply without bias to see what’s actually there, what the function is. We’ve never been able to do that before.”

The Hafler Lab studies the molecular mechanisms behind MS, which is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system characterized by immune cells attacking the outer coating of neurons. Their recent study aimed to compare the genetic profile of T cells in people with and without MS. In order to understand MS, they first needed to get a comprehensive cellular profile of a healthy immune system.

The study took place over the course of five years, with the most important data collection occurring in the last two years, according to Le Zhang, assistant professor of neurology at the

School of Medicine and an author of the paper. In order to obtain samples of normal immune system cells, healthy graduate students and junior faculty who were at the age of MS patients volunteered to undergo spinal taps.

The cerebrospinal fluid cells were then analyzed using single cell RNA sequencing. Traditional sequencing techniques require millions of cells in order to be carried out. However, the development of single cell RNA sequencing means that the 10,000 cells retrieved from a typical spinal tap are enough.

“The advantage of [single cell RNA sequencing] is that nowadays people can sequence at the single cell level to gather the transcriptomics of each of the individual cells in parallel at a low cost,” Zhang said.

As expected, the spinal fluid of patients with MS contained highly activated cytotoxic “killer” T cells.

Surprisingly, however, the sequencing results revealed that many of the T cells in the healthy spinal fluid were also activated, meaning they too were poised to make an inflammatory response.

According to Hafler, the normal spinal fluid had an inflamed signature containing gamma interferons, which are secreted by immune cells and associated with fighting off bacteria and regulating a variety of immune system responses.

The cellular profile of MS that Pappalardo’s study outlined may be able to aid in identifying people who are at risk for the disease early on.

“We already know that treating MS at its earliest stages leads to better clinical outcomes,” Erin Longbrake, professor of neurology and director of the MS fellowship program at the School of Medicine, wrote in an email to the News. “If the disease could be identified and treated even before it really starts, perhaps that would really lead to a cure in those patients.”

ANASTHASIA SHILOV/ILLUSTRATIONS EDITOR

The discovery of the presence of activated T cells and gamma interferons even in normal spinal fluid also reveals a potential link between T cells and psychiatric disorders.

Studies performed on mice show that when gamma interferons are blocked, the mice develop psychiatric problems like depression and anxiety.

This suggests that the gamma interferons being made in normal spinal fluid might play an important role in maintaining biological function in the brain.

“We’re going to hopefully begin working with the Department of Psychiatry and see if young people who get severe depression have alterations in their immune systems, and the hypothesis is that they lose the gamma interferon signature,” said Hafler.

A previous study conducted at Emory University by Professor of Psychiatry Andrew Miller, investigated the use of anti-inflammatory drugs for treating depression and

found no effect overall, according to Gerard Sanacora, director of the Yale Depression Research Program.

However, further analysis of the data revealed that people with higher levels of neuroinflammation actually tended to have better psychiatric outcomes with the immunotherapy treatment, while other patients with lower amounts of inflammation sometimes got worse.

“While neuroinflammation may be a component of the pathophysiology of depression for some people … it’s not for everybody,” Sanacora said. “So if you can identify the people more likely to benefit using the tools highlighted in this paper, we’d be able to specifically target these treatments.”

This study was primarily funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Contact JENNY MAO at jenny.mao@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 9

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Yale researchers create robotic fabric with potential military and medical applications DORA GUO/ILLUSTRATIONS EDITOR

BY MEGGIE GOODRIDGE CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Researchers at Yale have developed active fibers that can be sewn onto fabric, allowing it to bend into complex shapes and reset autonomously.

Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio, professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, is the principal investigator of the project. She leads a team of researchers in her ‘Faboratory,’ housed within Mason Laboratory. The Faboratory uses creative materials to bridge the gap between the soft, adaptable mechanisms of the natural world and the rigid structures typically found in modern robotics.

In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last month, Kramer-Bottiglio and three researchers in her lab discussed their study of robotic fabric along with several applications of the technology.

“Fabrics have conventionally been passive materials with static properties,” Kramer-Bottiglio wrote in an email to the News. “In this paper, we present a set of functional fibers that we developed to ‘roboticize’ everyday fabrics as a platform for reconfigurable robots.”

In order to make this possible, Kramer-Bottiglio and her team attached thin, heat-activated fibers to simple fabric using standard sewing techniques. The properties of the fibers and the method of attachment transform the fabric into a soft robot that can move and stiffen into a series of programmable shapes.

Temperature plays a key role in the adaptability of the fabric-based robots, according to the paper. Heating the functional fibers makes them soft and therefore highly flexible. Once bent into the programmed position, cooling will cause

them to become rigid, at which point the robotic fabric can maintain its shape and even hold small amounts of weight. Heating again will return the system to its original state, all without human intervention, the paper explains.

Adam Bilodeau, who earned his PhD this past May after six years with the Faboratory, expressed that one of the most difficult aspects of this project was getting the robotic fabric creations to smoothly self-deploy and recompress. The initial fibers were prone to twisting the fabric rather than bending it, and Bilodeau com-

shape and rigidity, the team also painted strips of specialized ink on the fabric which can sense damage or environmental changes. While this sensing capability has implications for a variety of applications, the paper specifically discusses it in the context of a robotic fabric tourniquet.

“This type of responsive sleeve could potentially be used as a smart garment in military or exploratory environments, where automatic emergency measures could counteract life-threatening situations if medical aid is not immediately available,” the paper reads.

COURTESY OF YALE YALE SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE

pared early attempts to a tangled Slinky.

“Certainly not autonomous,” he said.

Trevor Buckner, 5th-year PhD student in Kramer-Bottiglio’s lab and first author of the study, was able to work out these kinks by altering the shape of the fibers.

“Once we had clean motion, everything else was so much easier to connect on top of that,” Buckner said.

The paper suggests that a tent-like configuration of their robotic fabric could inspire preliminary versions of self-deploying shelters. In contrast to previous shape-changing robots that rely on distinct, predetermined folds in the material to form a limited amount of structures, the Faboratory has leveraged the softness of fabric to create a highly versatile product.

Along with the fibers that determine

When a portion of the sensing ink is damaged, the robot reacts, initiating the programmed response for the fibers to contract around the fabric and tighten the tourniquet.

The team was careful to make sure that the sensing ink would not inhibit the components of the fabric — primarily breathability and flexibility — that make it such an ideal material for wearable applications.

John Rogers, professor of biomedical engineering, materials science and neurological surgery at Northwestern University, works as an editor at the journal that published the Faboratory’s study. He expressed excitement that a mechanically active fabric like this one could present promising options for interacting with the body and potentially aiding natural processes.

“The electronics need to kind of move

naturally with daily activities, physiological processes,” Rogers said. “Maybe in the context of these mechanically active fabrics, you can take advantage of their ability to move with the body or induce motions.”

He discussed the example of providing aid to the natural beating motions of the heart. Versions of a sock-like structure surrounding the heart have been thoroughly explored in the past as a strategy for controlling irregular heartbeats and eliminating arrhythmias, but he thinks that robotic fabric could play a role in the future development of this concept.

Possible medical applications are not without their obstacles, however, as the current system runs on heat. Energy-demanding applications such as the cardiac sock would likely require scientists to turn to mechanisms other than heating, according to Rogers.

“If you increase the temperature of internal tissue by more than a couple degrees, you start doing damage, irreversible damage,” he said.

Kramer-Bottiglio’s team is acutely aware that heat poses an issue for certain applications, and Buckner has expressed interest in exploring technologies other than heat activation now that the proof of concept has been established. He is continuing his work on this project, aiming to improve the individual components so that the robotic fabric can support heavier loads, change shape faster and use even thinner fibers.

“We envision that the future will bring mass-produced rolls of robotic fabric, available for purchase, and programmable as-required to fit varied tasks,” the paper states.

Kramer-Bottiglio moved her laboratory from Purdue University to Yale in 2017.

Contact MEGGIE GOODRIDGE at meggie.goodridge@yale.edu .

Your grandparents could affect your future health, Yale primate study finds

BY BEATRIZ HORTA STAFF REPORTER A Yale study found that secure attachments between monkey parents and their offspring lead to benefits that can last for generations.

Led by Amanda Dettmer, associate research scientist at the Child Study Center, the study involved faculty at several institutions and analyzed data from over 650 mother-infant rhesus monkey pairs. The researchers’ aim was to determine if early life adversity would persist through future generations, and if so, whether this was due to epigenetic influences or parenting.

Using archives of data on rhesus monkeys that spanned several decades, the researchers randomly assigned the monkey mothers and their offspring to two different categories: being reared by their mothers (early secure attachment) or in a nursery with human caregivers (atypical attachment).

After eight months in the two separate experiences, all monkeys were then raised together. Because of this, the researchers could attribute all of their results to the first eight months of the monkeys’ lives.

“We found that, particularly for offspring who also were reared by their mothers, having a mother who was mother-reared conferred the most benefits later in life,” Dettmer wrote in an email to the News. “[They] were less likely to require health interventions … and more likely to be higher ranked in the social hierarchy.”

Ja m e s H e c k m a n , a No b e l prize-winning professor of economics at the University of Chicago and a co-author in the study, said that the behavioral changes in the monkeys were dramatic. According to him, the monkeys who were raised by their mothers and formed secure attachments were more outgoing, curious and confident to explore the world around them than the nursery-reared offspring.

Heckman said that it is known from human studies that exploration is critical for learning in both primates and humans. Therefore, the monkeys who suffered early-life adversity — in the form of atypical attachments — and were more reserved, serve as a model for insecurely attached children who might face educational difficulties.

“Education is a stretch, because these monkeys aren’t going to school,” Heckman said. “[But] these monkeys who are able to and feel more confident to go out and explore the world will fundamentally learn better.”

Dettmer also wrote that rhesus monkeys are a great model organism because of their genetic, social and behavioral similarities to humans. According to Dettmer, researchers can also randomize their social experiences, which cannot be done with humans.

Victor Ronda, assistant professor of economics at Aarhus University and another author of the paper, explained that the study’s methods allowed the authors to differentiate between epigenetic effects — alterations in gene expression due to the environment — and parenting as the mechanism for passing down early-life experiences.

“We found strong evidence that parenting is the main channel of intergenerational transmission of early life adversity [and] that the effects of maternal early-life adversity are only present for the offspring reared with their mothers,” Ronda wrote in an email to the News.

Both Ronda and Dettmer believe that the study could have implications for future experiments on humans and for education policy.

According to Ronda, it is important to prevent disadvantages that persist across generations by providing young children from underprivileged backgrounds with the support they need.

Dettmer believes that the study’s findings should encourage policymakers to invest in programs for the

development of early life attachments. She believes that these programs could have positive effects on individuals’ social abilities in future generations.

Heckman argues that the findings could be interpreted as supporting evidence for the nurture side of the classic debate in evolutionary biology.

“In the ancient, perennial, persistent, problem of nature versus nurture, we saw a real effect of nurture,” Heckman said. “We can separate them by random assignment and separate their children by random assignment, and by going down the chain we can actually start understanding how important parenting can be.”

Dettmer, Ronda and Heckman all believe the next steps for this area of research is understanding epigenetic and biological markers for these intergenerational persistence effects. Using frozen biological samples, Dettmer hopes to determine if changes in DNA methylation and markers of inflammation — both epigenetic effects — could also impact the offspring’s outcomes.

Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience Steve Chang believes the study’s results could be an important stepping stone for future socio-developmental research.

“The results from this work document long-lasting intergenerational impacts of positive, socially-appropriate, parental care leading to various life advantages,” Chang wrote in an email to the News. “[They] are particularly noteworthy for showing how important it is to receive appropriate social interactions (in the case of rhesus macaques, from mothers) during development for us and for our future generations.”

Researchers at the Washington University in St. Louis found that rhesus monkeys have a genetic similarity of about 93 percent with humans.

Contact BEATRIZ HORTA at beatriz.horta@yale.edu .

SUSANNA LIU/STAFF ILLUSTRATOR NGAN VU/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

PAGE 10

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

NEWS

“There was a time when I thought a great deal about the axolotls.” JULIO CORTÁZAR NOVELIST

New Haven groups host Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebrations

BY LARISSA JIMENEZ, ÁNGELA PÉREZ AND OWEN TUCKER-SMITH STAFF REPORTER AND CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS This week, several New Haven groups — including Unidad Latina en Acción — hosted celebrations and protests in honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebrates Indigenous peoples and commemorates their histories and cultures — in opposition to the federally-recognized Columbus Day designated on Oct. 12. Community members joined the organizers at the corner of Blatchley Avenue and Grande Avenue in Fair Haven, where the Christopher Columbus Academy is located. Around 60 people wearing masks and cultural clothing served a buffet of food, as traditional music played from a loudspeaker.

“If we don’t understand where we come from and how we are, there will be discriminatory, racist and xenophobic discourse,” attendee Tamara Nuñez del Prado told the News in an interview translated by the News from Spanish. “Because, in reality, nobody is illegal… We are all migrants… from President Donald Trump to the last citizen that chooses to discriminate against Indigenous populations.”

Nuñez del Prado described the

rich diversity of the Latinx community in New Haven. She said there are descendants of Mayans, Nahua, Quechua and Aymara peoples who have migrated out of necessity due to political injustices in Latin America.

Adriana Rodriguez Rodriguez, a community member at the event on Sunday, said in an interview translated from Spanish by the News that ULA is an organization that fights for the rights of immigrants and Indigenous peoples. They chose to hold the event outside Christopher Columbus Academy in opposition to the academy’s namesake. ULA was also involved in the movement to take down the Columbus statue located in Wooster Park, which the city dismantled in June.

“We are celebrating the day of the Indigenous, not of Christopher Columbus, who committed genocide and violated the lands of those before us,” Rodriguez said, originally in Spanish.

The New Haven Board of Education voted earlier this year to rename the school and to recognize the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day, but the academy’s new name has yet to be announced.

Lucía Nuñez del Prado, a teenager whose family is involved in ULA’s activism, said that the name Columbus is very “symbolic” to her community.

“It’s like a battle we had,” Nuñez del Prado said.

Nuñez del Prado also told the News she believes the Academy’s new name should be an Indigenous name.

Attendee and ULA organizer John Jairo Lugo echoed similar sentiments. He added that he hopes Indigenous communities can obtain acknowledgement from the New Haven community. Jairo said he supports naming the school after the Quinnipiac, citing a massacre of fifty Quinnipiac people not far from the event’s location and a lack of recognition for the extrajudicial killings.

Tamara Nuñez del Prado, citing the Quinnipiac history in New Haven, told the News that she hopes Indigenous Peoples’ Day is celebrated by honoring continued Indigenous presence in the Americas.

“There was a genocide and more than 30 million aboriginals, true Americans, were killed since the Colonies and Spanish Conquest… this is a small celebration of Indigenous resistance,” Nuñez del Prado said.

The Fair Haven event preceded several Indigenous Peoples’ Day events that occured on the New Haven Green on Monday.

On Monday afternoon, various Connecticut youth leaders hosted an intersectional protest in support of both Indigenous

peoples and the Black Lives Matter movement.

A few hours later, Norman Momowetu Clement of Connecticut’s Golden Hill Paugussett tribe led a second celebration intended to “proclaim that after 528 years of colonial rule and oppression we are still here, still strong and still resilient,” according to the event’s social media listing.

Just under 50 people attended the first event, including several Yale students. One attendee, Oscar Turner ’24, has engaged with the Native American community at Yale by joining the Native American Cultural Center drumming group Red Territory. At Monday’s second event, Turner hit a drum and sang the “Eagle Song” — a song meant to pray for the return of murdered Indigenous women.

“Yale is an educational institution,” Turner said. “While it’s built on slavery, today we praise it as a learning environment. We’re really just trying to correct history [and] make sure people realize that Columbus was not a character that should be celebrated. It’s a day to celebrate indigenous joy, and to make people realize that we’re still here.”

At the earlier event, speakers included Yale students and other community members, who reminded the crowd of the various problems

that Indigenous communities across the country face. Some of the issues that speakers cited include increased risk to disease, more frequent exposure to poverty and homelessness and a uniquely high rate of human trafficking and murder — especially among Native women.

Lex Schultz ’24, one of the speakers at the event, emphasized that the day should serve as a reminder of the need to decolonize.

Schultz said that after speaking with fellow first years, she believed some students were confused as to what the term really meant.

“Decolonization is not a metaphor,” Schultz said. “It is not a synonym for simply improving society.

It’s not to be co-opted by settlers for a buzzword for your Twitter feed.

It’s not capitalistic. It’s not claiming that voting is sacred. It’s not participating in upholding settler colonial systems, and it is certainly not diehard patriotism for a country born of our ancestors’ trauma.”

Quinnipiac means “people of the long water land” in the Quiripi language.

Contact LARISSA JIMENEZ at larissa.jimenez@yale.edu , ÁNGELA PÉREZ at angela.perez@yale.edu and OWEN TUCKER-SMITH at owen.tucker-smith@yale.edu .

First years, New Haveners march in support of BLM

BY ZAPORAH PRICE, EMILY TIAN AND OWEN TUCKER-SMITH STAFF REPORTERS AND CONTRIBUTING REPORTER More than a hundred students and community members gathered on Cross Campus on Sunday afternoon to take part in a rally and march in support of Black Lives Matter. After convening to hear speeches from New Haven Public Schools students, protesters streamed through downtown New Haven, chanting and taking up both lanes on Broadway and York Street, before returning to Cross Campus.

Organized by Mia Toledo-Navarro ’24, Joaquin Soto ’24 and Jade Villegas ’24, the event was created to “bring a sense of community to make everyone feel more welcome at Yale, and especially Black students,” according to Villegas.

“We don’t get to separate being Black and being a student,” Villegas said.

The event’s tagline, “Complacency 110,” pressed a critique against administrative and “student body complacency in racism and microaggressions.” It also trained a spotlight on the newest class at Yale, most of whom are being introduced to New Haven for the first time this semester.

Organizers wanted to bring attention to the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement and raise awareness of

the experiences of Black students — first years in particular — on campus and in New Haven at large.

“As a Black woman myself I want to feel comfortable wherever I go, and I want to make sure that the community at Yale also supports me,” said Arianna Cummings ’24, who was present at the protest.

Aderonke Adejare ’24, who also attended, hoped that the demonstration and march would allow Yale students to become more “sensitive” to the experiences of Black students on campus.

Less than two months ago, Villegas arrived at Yale feeling “daunted” by her transition to college amid the pandemic. Little about Yale’s social scene felt comfortable to her, let alone familiar. Heated online conversations about race and this summer’s protests left some Black students in the class of 2024 GroupMe, including Villegas, feeling alienated from their peers months before they set foot on campus. And the pandemic has also limited her opportunities to explore New Haven — which, she maintained, Yale students should learn to engage with, not out of concern for their safety, but as someone’s home.

The large activist community in New York City has informed Villegas’ approach to organizing, she explained. There, she said, “people just show up and show out. It’s really beautiful. We don’t go there

with a plan, we just enjoy what comes out of it.”

That was the spirit Villegas hoped to bring to Yale. Although the three organizers have each felt at times distanced from the Yale community, Villegas is determined to create spaces to “celebrate Black life instead of simply mourning loss.”

Chaz Carmon, president of Ice the Beef Youth — a local youth development organization — said that he was eager to support Yale organizers when they asked to collaborate for Sunday’s protest.

“When a 17-year-old [Yale] student calls and says we’re trying to organize and we have an issue that we’re fighting for and will Ice the Beef support them, we definitely will,” Carmon told the News.

“Because the future is for our children and their voices do matter.”

During the march, Carmon led Yale students and community members in a series of chants. He also spoke about his organization, which gives youth in New Haven — including Yale students — support as they organize and speak out against racial injustice. Carmon helped Yale organizers get in touch with New Haven students involved in his organization who were willing to speak at Sunday’s protest and co-lead the march.

One of those students was Catherine Wicks, a 16-year-old NHPS student who called for

JESSIE CHEUNG/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

First years and New Haveners marched in support of Black Lives Matter and listened to speeches from community members. ongoing social change in a speech to the demonstrators on Sunday.

“Justice should never be an idea for something we can only imagine,” Wicks said. “Justice is real.”

Wicks questioned the decline in the number of activists she perceived to be engaged in BLM protests following this summer’s nationwide protests.

Organizers also distributed free Black Lives Matter flags on Cross Campus, asking recipients to fly them from their street-facing dorm room windows.

“It’s not room decor,” said Toledo-Navarro. “We’re showing New Haven our support, because

things we do and will do here will change and impact New Haveners and Black people. We are working for them.”

The three organizers hope to continue organizing events like Sunday’s rally to celebrate the Black community and show support for local New Haven residents.

Ice the Beef Youth was founded in 2011.

Contact ZAPORAH PRICE at zaporah.price@yale.edu , EMILY TIAN at emily.tian@yale.edu and OWEN TUCKER-SMITH at owen.tucker-smith@yale.edu .

Students detail mental health concerns with Yale’s spring plan

MEGAN GRAHAM/PRODUCTION & DESIGN EDITOR

BY MADISON HAHAMY AND ROSE HOROWITCH STAFF REPORTERS Rebecca Goldberg ’22, who is currently taking a leave of absence, was waiting until the administration announced the spring schedule to decide what she would do for the upcoming semester. When Yale revealed that next term would not include a spring recess, she decided to take the whole year off.

Goldberg is not alone in her concern about the lack of break in the upcoming term. When the University announced its spring schedule, social media erupted with students citing mental health concerns as they undertake 14 weeks of classes without a traditional two-week spring

break. In the first few hours after the news broke, Twitter had more than 20 posts on the topic, while a post about the plan on Yale’s popular Facebook meme page had 540 reactions and over 60 comments. Students noted the challenges of balancing academics, extracurriculars and social life — all during a pandemic — as well as concerns that the five individual break days would not allow for sufficient self-care.

“I’ve definitely seen the impact on a lot of my enrolled friends on what it’s like to be pushed for the full semester without having the usual October break,” Goldberg said. “That kind of constant push and lack of a boundary between work and relaxation seems to be defi-

nitely impacting people’s mental health and just general sense of well-being more than even during the normal school year.”

In lieu of the usual spring break, Yale has planned out five individual days off spread throughout the semester. These days off from class should “decompress” the semester, University President Peter Salovey wrote in an email to students.

The News spoke with five students who said they appreciated the efforts to slow down the semester, but feared they would spend the days catching up on work. With only one day off at a time, students told the News, they would likely end up trying to complete assignments. Additionally, some feared professors would assign extra work knowing that students were not in class.

Dhruva Gupta ’20, now a student at Harvard Medical School, said that when he went to Yale, breaks allowed him to step back and take stock of the term.

“Breaks are a way to combat the stresses of Yale and the pandemic,” Gupta said. “Taking that away removes an opportunity for students to actually take care of themselves, so that makes students so much more vulnerable to suffering from a mental health illness, crisis or episode.”

In a previous interview with the News, University Provost Scott Strobel and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Pericles Lewis explained that Yale had to mini-

mize student travel to avoid students contracting the coronavirus and bringing it to or from campus.

The decision underscores a current challenge for university administrators — balancing public health and student mental health.

Jay Kauffin ’24 said that he understood the concern that students would use break time to travel, potentially exposing themselves to the coronavirus. But, he added, the University’s community compact specifically prohibits travel outside of Connecticut during the fall term, and Yale could bar students from campus if they broke this rule.

Goldberg added that if the University continued twice-weekly testing during a break from classes, students would have to show up for the tests or risk getting in trouble.

To make the decision about the spring term, the University consulted with multiple students, Lewis explained. The University established a basic plan last spring in consultation with members of the Graduate Student Assembly and the Yale College Council. The day of the final decision, he said that he talked to students on the University Calendar Committee, which includes current YCC representatives.

Jeremy Baron ’21, a first-year counselor, said that not having a fall break is hitting the first-years particularly hard. During his first year at Yale, he does not know what he would have done without the break,

Baron said, and he is currently seeing the effects among the first years in his residential college.

Along with the usual rigorous academics and extracurriculars, the 2020-21 academic year also comes in the context of a chaotic political sphere and a global pandemic, Kauffin said.

These combined circumstances make longer breaks all the more important, he added.

“We are in the midst of a pandemic, an extremely tumultuous political climate and presidential election, and the uphill battle that is social change against systems of oppression,” Kauffin wrote in an email to the News. “Students have an obligation to the world at large to facilitate the change that our future depends on; it is extremely difficult to do that if we are too busy juggling our academics, mental health, and physical health because of decisions that the administration is taking that make things worse in an already trying time.”

When asked for comment, University spokesperson Karen Peart referred the News to previous comments made by Strobel, in which he said that he hopes students will use the day-long breaks as time away from schoolwork.

The spring semester will begin on Feb. 1.

Contact MADISON HAHAMY at madison.hahamy@yale.edu and ROSE HOROWITCH at rose.horowitch@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

NEWS

PAGE 11

“Like a good convict, [the axolotl’s] life is at night.”

LUIS ZAMBRANO MEXICAN ECOLOGIST

New Haven, Yale advocates call for traffic safety

BY NATALIE KAINZ, EMILY TIAN AND ISAAC YU STAFF REPORTERS AND CONTRIBUTING REPORTER After a Yale Law School student died while biking near the Yale New Haven Hospital last week, there have been renewed calls for the Elm City to address mounting concerns over traffic safety.

The accident marked the 13th New Haven pedestrian or cyclist death this year. It was also the third traffic-related death in 12 years at the York Street and South Frontage Road intersection.

“All traffic deaths are preventable,” said Lorena Mitchell, an organizer for the New Haven Safe Streets Coalition. “The city continues to prioritize cars and drivers over vulnerable [residents], pedestrians, cyclists, public transit riders. It’s completely unacceptable.”

Traffic safety concerns took center stage at the Mayor’s Night Out event held last Wednesday in East Rock Park. On behalf of the Safe Streets Coalition — an activist group composed of organizations, officials and residents concerned about transit safety — Mitchell hand-delivered a list of demands to Mayor Justin Elicker.

Other residents, many of whom rode bicycles to the event, voiced complaints about various intersections around the city and asked for immediate action to be taken at the York and South Frontage

intersection. Elicker cited a lack of funding as the city’s fundamental barrier to the enactment of new traffic safety policies.

“Ultimately, almost every problem that we are dealing with as a city comes down to money,” Elicker said.

“It comes down to our ability to fund traffic timing infrastructure and to fund enough police officers to ensure there’s enforcement.”

A roadmap for change The top demand on the Safe Streets Coalition’s list is for Elicker to publicly commit to making New Haven a “Vision Zero” city — joining a growing list of communities nationwide that are pledging to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries on roads.

Safe Streets is asking the Mayor to create a task force of community stakeholders and local officials dedicated to implementing infrastructure and legislative changes in line with the city’s Complete Streets Ordinance, which the Board of Alders passed 10 years ago. The coalition is also seeking the creation of a $500,000 discretionary fund for the task force’s first operational year.

According to the letter, the City should also enforce a strict 20 mph speed limit on select New Haven roads and develop and implement a “greenway network” of residential streets prioritizing pedestrians and bicyclists. The coalition also wants to require all city-owned

trucks and city-contracted vendors to be equipped with side guards, convex mirrors, cross-over mirrors and blind-spot awareness decals.

“A Side Guard on the truck that killed the cyclist last week would have likely saved the cyclist’s life,” Douglas Hausladen, director of the New Haven Department of Transportation, Traffic and Parking, wrote in an email to the News.

Side guards are designed to prevent pedestrians and bicyclists from being run over by the rear tires of a larger truck. Hausladen said his department is also pushing for the use of side guards on all large trucks that are based in New Haven.

The Safe Streets Coalition is also calling on the city to actively advocate for state legislation like red light and speed enforcement cameras.

Automated enforcement has become a politically charged issue in the Capitol, since standing Connecticut law prohibits the practice.

Ward 7 Alder Abigail Roth ’90 LAW ’94 has been advocating for the installation of red light cameras at the intersection for several years. Although the most recent incident did not involve the vehicle running a red light, Roth said the cameras — which automatically photograph vehicles that run red lights — could help deter unsafe behavior at the intersection.

“A couple of years ago I stood at the intersection from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., on three different days, and saw a total

ISAAC LU/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

There have been three traffic-related deaths in 12 years at the York Street and South Frontage Road intersection. of 156 red light runners,” said Roth.

“The city does not have the resources to consistently enforce red light running, so people know they can get away with it.”

When asked about the widespread installation of red light cameras last Wednesday, Elicker reminded citizens that the state chapters of the NAACP and ACLU have voiced opposition to red light cameras in the past, citing issues of racial injustice and selective enforcement. He did, however, say that narrow policies concerning infrastructure at specific intersections were a top priority for his office.

“A perfect storm for accidents” As the Director of Communications for Medical Education at the Yale School of Medicine, Roth used to pass by the intersection every day

before the pandemic. In addition to red light running, she said the space frequently saw fast-moving traffic and high volumes of pedestrians and cyclists.

Last year, the city installed concrete bollards at the corners of the South Frontage and York intersection. Residents advocated for the bollards partially in response to the 2017 death of 42-year-old pedestrian Melissa Tancredi, who was standing at the intersection’s sidewalk when she was struck by a passing vehicle.

Read more of this article at yaledailynews.com.

Contact NATALIE KAINZ at natalie.kainz@yale.edu , EMILY TIAN at emily.tian@yale.edu and ISAAC YU at isaac.yu@yale.edu .

Yale SOM under DOE investigation for alleged sex discrimination

BY JULIA BIALEK AND JULIA BROWN STAFF REPORTERS Yale University is being investigated by the Office for Civil Rights within the United States Department of Education for allegedly violating Title IX by running women-only programs at the Yale School of Management.

According to a complaint filed

by Mark J. Perry, an economics professor at University of Michigan, Fint, the Yale SOM discriminates against men on the basis of sex by excluding them from applying for several executive education programs created solely for women. In an Oct. 13 letter from the DOE obtained by the News, the department’s Boston office for civil rights notified Perry that they would open an investigation into his complaint. University officials declined to comment on the investigation for this article.

Officials from the DOE confirmed to the News that the OCR opened an investigation into the University on Tuesday for possible discrimination but declined to provide additional information about the case, citing its ongoing status.

“OCR is opening the following legal issues for investigation: Whether the University discriminates against men by excluding them from applying for the (1) ‘Women’s Leadership Program,’ (2) ‘Women’s Leadership Program Live Online,’ (3) ‘Women’s Leadership Program Online’ and (4) ‘Women on Boards’ executive education programs within the University’s School of Management, which are only available to women, in violation of Title IX,” the letter stated.

The letter said since Yale receives federal financial assistance from the Department, the OCR can investigate it pursuant to Title IX, which establishes that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

SOM spokespeople declined to comment on the school’s use of federal funding.

This is not the first time Yale has come under investigation from the DOE. In February, the department opened an investigation into the University’s alleged failure to report foreign funding.

Perry told the News that he has filed 237 complaints alleging Title IX violations in higher education. He stated that around 100 of his complaints have resulted in civil rights investigations, and, out of those, 30 had resolutions in his favor.

“My goal is to advance civil rights and Title IX for all (and not just some) in higher education expose the systemic sexism that is tolerated and promoted at hundreds of colleges and universities in the US,” Perry wrote in an email to the News.

Perry said that most “sex-specific, single-sex, female-only” programs violate Title IX unless a university offers equivalent maleonly programs. He alleges that since Yale SOM excludes men and denies them from these program and their benefits, Yale is discriminating against men based on their sex as they deny men the same educational opportunities offered to women.

There are three ways to resolve Title IX violations for sex-specific programs, Perry told the News.

If the OCR finds that SOM’s programs do violate Title IX regulations, SOM will have to discontinue its single-sex programs,

open the programs up to all genders or create equivalent maleonly programs.

After spending more than 25 years in higher education as a professor, Perry said, he became increasingly aware of what he calls systemic sexism in higher education. Starting around 2016, he claims to have started “a one-man mission to expose what are not just illegal violations of civil rights laws, but are what [he thinks] are violations of basic principles of social justice, fairness and equity.”

“Title IX enforcement has been applied selectively for decades,”

Perry wrote, “and it is my goal to end the double-standard for enforcement and protect the civil rights of all students, faculty and staff in higher education, not just some students, faculty and staff.”

A total of 549 men and 399 women enrolled in SOM for the 2019-2020 academic year, according to the University’s Office of Institutional Research.

Contact JULIA BIALEK at julia.bialek@yale.edu and JULIA BROWN at julia.k.brown@yale.edu .

JOEY YE/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

The Department of Education is investigating potential Title IX violations within the School of Management

Beinecke director to retire after ten years at post

BY ANNIE RADILLO STAFF REPORTER After working within the Yale University Library system for more than 30 years and serving as the director of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library for 10 of those years, Edwin Schroeder, who goes by E.C., will retire Aug. 31, 2021.

“E.C. took it as one of his goals to figuratively open the doors of the Beinecke wide and invite the campus and community in,” said Susan Gibbons, vice provost for collections and scholarly communication. “I believe that will be an enduring hallmark of E.C.’s tenure.”

E.C. began working as catalog librarian in 1989. Much to his chagrin, he was tasked with cataloging books about the history of cats. But 22 years later, he became the director of the Beinecke.

During E.C.’s time as director, the

Beinecke acquired two prominent collections: the Meserve-Kunhardt Collection of American photography and the Takamiya Collection of medieval manuscripts. E.C. also established the Windham Campbell Prizes, expanded the Beinecke’s online presence, organized a largescale renovation of the Bunshaft building at 121 Wall St. and diversified the library’s events, outreach and programs. E.C. has been credited with establishing the Beinecke’s presence globally.

Lisa Fagin Davis GRD ’93, executive director of the Medieval Academy of America, said that E.C. “cemented [the Beinecke’s] role as an extremely important international center for research, teaching and public engagement.”

Beinecke staff members described E.C. as an approachable director. Raymond Clemens, the early books and manuscripts cura-

ROBBIE SHORT/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Beinecke director E. C. Schroeder will retire on Aug. 31, 2021 after working at the library for three decades.

tor, said that E.C. was informal, not a person “you had to bow to.” This attitude is reflected in E.C.’s goals of opening the Beinecke to Yale, New Haven and the world.

E.C. said that when the Beinecke opened in 1963, it was intended for senior scholars, who were “mostly white guys.” Since then, the Beinecke has worked to be more inclusive.

In order to make the Beinecke’s collections more accessible, E.C. pushed curators to reach out to professors at Yale and worked to diversify the library’s programs. One of the library’s goals for the past 10 years has been to encourage every Yalie to visit the library at least once during their time at college, E.C. said. This can be for a concert, a reception or to view a collection.

When the Beinecke turned 50 in 2013, E.C. seized on the anniversary as an opportunity to “really open [the Beinecke’s] door.” Over the course of a weekend, live concerts, a sound installation and a talk by Italian scholar Umberto Eco brought visitors to the library.

In 2015, the library worked with the Yale School of Drama to showcase a multimedia art show. In 2017, the Beinecke had its first exhibition on the Harlem Renaissance, which displayed its Langston Hughes collection. E.C. said this was an opportunity for the Beinecke to connect with the New Haven community in ways it had not done previously.

E.C.’s tenure saw changes in both the Beinecke’s programming and the nature of its collection. The library’s collection of visual materials, including movie posters and

scripts, expanded under E.C.’s leadership. He said that these objects help “document the changing story of the human experience.”

For the past 20 years, the Beinecke has moved toward digitizing its collections. Last summer, under E.C., 100,000 new images were added to the digital library. There are now more than a million images in the library’s archive, which will continue to expand with three full-time photographers. E.C. hopes this archive will open to the public in January.

Clemens commended E.C.’s acquisition of new collections during his tenure — such as the Takamiya Collection and the Meserve-Kunhardt — and said this approach enabled the library to acquire some of its most important pieces. He said that the Takamiya Collection “transformed the Beinecke from being strong to being, without a doubt, one of the best.”

The Beinecke holds the most robust collection of medieval manuscripts in the United States, E.C. said, largely due to the library’s Takamiya Collection. The collection includes over 100 medieval manuscripts that E.C. said would be impossible to acquire today. For example, when the library purchased the collection, which includes four unique Chaucer manuscripts, there were no other Chaucer manuscripts on the private market. The Meserve-Kunhardt collection includes documents from the Civil War and the post-war period, with over 1,000 photographs of Abraham Lincoln.

E.C. said he never would have guessed that his final year would

be so unusual. “I’m able to at least come into the building,” he said.

“But it’s surreal.”

“An inspiration to all who enter” is inscribed on a plaque at the Beinecke’s entrance. Yet E.C. said it is difficult to live up to the full potential of this promise when the library can only open its doors with limitations. He hopes the Beinecke can show new exhibitions to the public in the spring.

An unexpected consequence of the pandemic for E.C. is that he can spend time in the reading rooms, engaging with manuscripts for the first time in years.

E.C. hopes to continue this practice once he retires, and he specifically plans to indulge his passion for the history of railroads.

Barbara Rockenbach, the Stephen F. Gates ’68 University Librarian, together with Vice Provost Gibbons and Provost Scott Strobel, will choose E.C.’s successor. E.C. sees this as the perfect opportunity to appoint someone who breaks the mold of past library directors, who he said have been white and overwhelmingly male.

A new director, E.C. said, especially one without a Yale affiliation, will question the library’s status quo and encourage it to grow in positive ways.

E.C. added he had “a list a mile long” of possible ideas for future projects at the Beinecke. “But that’s for the new director to figure out, not me.”

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

PAGE 12

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

SPORTS

“You have to be able to accept failure to get better.”

LEBRON JAMES FOUR-TIME NBA CHAMPION

Harvard, Dartmouth in Phase II PHASES FROM PAGE 14 Besides Yale, which reached Phase II on Oct. 7 before reverting back to Phase 0 on Oct. 13, Harvard and Dartmouth are the only two other Ivy Leagues to have reached Phase II. The Crimson and the Big Green remain actively in Phase II as of now.

The Harvard Crimson reported that the school began Phase II on Oct. 5, exactly one week after the Crimson started Phase I on Sept. 28.

Dartmouth’s Director of Varsity Athletics Communications Rick Bender detailed a similar timeline for the Big Green.

“The Dartmouth Athletics Reopening Task Force has been working diligently since March to return our student-athletes to some level of athletic activity in accordance with Ivy League and College policy as well as state and federal guidelines,” he said. “We were able to begin Phase I activity in late September after successfully completing the College quarantine period. Programs began transitioning to Phase II after satisfying our internal criteria for Phase I.” “Right now we are excited that we have been able to resume any level of skill instruction and sport-related activity,” added Bender.

Volleyball player Ellie Blain ’24

told the News that Dartmouth entered Phase I on Sept. 28 and entered Phase II on Oct. 5.

Although no one in the Ancient Eight has reached this final tier, Phase III would mark the beginning of mid-sized group activities. The allotted practice time increases to 12 hours per week, and the biggest change from earlier stages is that Phase III allows for an ambiguous increase in practice group size as permitted by campus policies.

Some schools may not reach the phase this fall. Although Harvard Athletics did not return the News’ requests for comment, spokesperson Tim Williamson told the Crimson earlier this month that he doubts the school will reach Phase III because increased group capacity and the relaxation of social distancing measures would run counter to Harvard policies.

Up north at Dartmouth, Bender said the decision to transition into Phase III will need to come in consultation with the broader college leadership.

The Ivy League has not yet announced a decision on the status of spring-semester athletic competition.

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

WILLIAM MCCORMACK/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Although no teams have reached Phase III, two schools — Harvard and Dartmouth — are actively in Phase II.

Strategic comms team adapts broadcasts and are not constantly moving from game to game. ”

MUSCOSPORTSPHOTOS.COM

Mike Gambardella, right, is one of four strategic communications directors for Yale Athletics.

FEATURE FROM PAGE 14 the Yale Athletics website, assigning statisticians for each game and liaising with PA announcers.

Though 2020 now marks his 26th year at Yale, what he has enjoyed most about his job is working with students on campus.

“Yale is such a special place and getting to know the kids over the years has really been special.” Bennett said. “Whether it’s the athletes I deal with or the student workers we have in our office, I really just enjoy getting to know the students and working with them and seeing what they accomplish.”

As campus emptied out for spring break, Bennett was preparing for the Ivy Madness tournament slated to be held at Harvard. Rubin, assistant director of strategic communications, sent out emails confirming press attendance for the coming weekend’s women’s lacrosse game.

Ellis was anticipating an update to the Ancient Eight’s broadcasting format that would hopefully increase audience engagement throughout the semester.

Days later, all competition was canceled for the rest of the semester.

Reinventing and redefining On March 13, Rubin left the office for what would turn out to be the final time in months. Like the rest of the strategic communications team, he worked out how to redefine his role from home with no matches to prepare for.

“Clearly, we’ve had to get more creative in terms of our content without any games to write about,” Rubin said. “We’ve focused on finding ways to continue telling stories about Yale student-athletes, both current and former. When COVID

first hit and the spring season was canceled, we transitioned to writing about the senior classes.”

With an abrupt end to the season, graduating student-athletes missed out on celebrations that would traditionally be held the final time they played at home. The strategic communications team wrote up special profiles and features, held virtual senior days and sought to provide a fitting send-off to those who had represented the Bulldogs over the past four years.

The team of four strategic directors did not only put seniors under the spotlight, however. According to Conn, the senior assistant director of strategic communications, without weekly matches to prepare for and highlight reels to share, the group had more time to rediscover and retell “great alumni stories that should have been told years ago.”

Moments across Yale’s sporting history were brought to life once again, helping to share the Bulldogs’ history with fans around the world and keep prospective student-athletes connected to the program.

Though the Bulldogs’ routine sports broadcasts were interrupted, planning for the future still continued. The Ivy League multimedia group met, and still continues to meet, biweekly to discuss strategies to increase growth, Ellis said.

“As a team we have approached this whole period as time we are never going to get back, so you adapt and you grow,” Ellis said. “I have spearheaded ways to bring ‘live’ game content to our audience through re-airing classic games with a fresh coat of paint.

We have really had a chance to look at how we do things and continue to improve even though we do not have the rush of a weekend full of

Embracing the “new normal” Since mid-August, the strategic communications team has gradually moved out of their home workspaces. Some members of the team work out of Ray Tompkins House on certain days of the week.

Though the Yale Bowl and Reese Field may remain unused for athletic competition for the rest of 2020, there are still stories to be rediscovered and achievements to honor.

According to Rubin, the change of pace has “given [the team] an opportunity to put some time into other projects that we wouldn’t have necessarily had the time for if we were in the middle of a typical season” and allowed them to “come up with some stories that might not have been told if there were games we were focused on writing about.”

Time away from the stands and media boxes has given the team a chance to shine light on moments typically swept up in the frenzy of the regular season, Bennett said.

Bennett also appreciates the opportunity that the lull in athletic competition has given him. He spent this time catching up on the record books, creating an oral history on the 10-year anniversary of the women’s crew national championship. Rubin, meanwhile, produced an oral history piece for the baseball team, “The Final Nine,” that chronicled the Bulldogs’ last game of 2020.

While the strategic communications team may be embracing change and adapting to the current circumstances, one aspect is still missing from their lives — watching the Bulldogs compete on a regular basis. “I miss seeing the Bulldogs succeed. I miss winning,” Ellis added.

“Our job is about telling stories … learning about the things that our student-athletes and our alums are doing and to trying to spread the word,” Rubin said. “That’s kind of what draws people to a job like this, and that hasn’t changed — even in the middle of a pandemic.”

The Ray Tompkins House is located at 20 Tower Parkway in New Haven.

Contact RYAN CHIAO at ryan.chiao@yale.edu and JAMES RICHARDSON at james.richardson@yale.edu .

Oluokun and Graham’s path to the NFL Designing electric race cars

FOOTBALL FROM PAGE 14

chance to play professionally.”

The Falcons declined requests to interview Oluokun and Graham.

Oluokun’s journey: From St. Louis to New Haven to Atlanta Oluokun began his football career as a linebacker at John Burroughs School, a premier college-preparatory school located in Ladue, Missouri. Its football program has been just as preeminent — it has won the Missouri State Championship eight times. Oluokun’s arrival made an already illustrious team history even more distinguished. Alongside future NFL All-Pro running back Ezekiel Elliot and Indiana State phenom Jake Bain, Oluokun helped lead his team to three district championships and two league titles.

During his senior year, Oluokun was awarded All-League, All-District and All-State honors, making him one of the highest-rated recruits in Missouri. Of the offers he received from the Ivy League in Harvard, Yale and Penn, Oluokun landed on the Bulldogs, and his collegiate career donning the Blue and White was officially set to begin.

Oluokun entered his 2013 rookie campaign with high expectations to perform well on a defense that ranked seventh in the Ancient Eight the fall before, and the St. Louis native lived up to the hype. In the 10 games he started as a first-year, Oluokun accounted for nearly 60 tackles, the most by any rookie in the Ivy League, earning him Second Team All-Ivy honors. In those 10 games, none stood out more than a November matchup against Brown — a contest that saw Oluokun tally what was then a career-high 13 total tackles in a 24–17 victory. “[Oluokun] has performed well all this season. He brings size, speed, strength and physicality to our secondary,” Victor Egu ’17 told the News during the 2014 season.

“He really pushes our defense to the next level because of his effort.

I trust [Oluokun] to do his job well and perform well on the field.”

Picking up right where he left

off during his sophomore year, Oluokun racked up a team-high 79 total tackles to go along with a pair of interceptions and a blocked kick. The bar had been raised, and he entered his third season poised to have even more success. Then, all of a sudden, adversity struck.

During week three, Olukun suffered a pectoral tear in his chest, and the Yale star was forced to miss the remaining seven games of the season. Amidst a sidelining that had the makings to be a devastating blow to Oluokun’s football career, the Ancient Eight granted the Missourian an extra semester to play football, Reno said. In his fifth season as a red-shirt senior in 2017, Oluokun finished second on his team with 50 tackles, and in a must-win game against Harvard to close out the season, Oluokun finished the game with nine tackles and a sack, helping hold the Crimson offense to a meager three points as the Bulldogs went on to secure their first outright Ivy League crown in 37 years.

After ending his collegiate career with an Ancient Eight title, Oluokun wasted no time in taking whatever steps necessary to make it to the professional stage. Although he did not receive an invitation to the NFL Scouting Combine during his last semester at Yale, Oluokun did participate in drills at a Pro Day with 20 NFL scouts in attendance that Fordham hosted, according to ESPN. There, he recorded a 4.48 in the 40-yard dash and a 4.12 in the short shuttle, times that would have ranked sixth and second, respectively, among all linebackers at the NFL Combine.

After the workout at Fordham’s Pro Day, Oluokun attended predraft visits with several NFL teams, and the Atlanta Falcons selected Oluokun in the sixth round of the 2018 NFL draft. He became the first Yale player drafted by an NFL team in seven years.

“I did everything I had to do to prove to them I had what it took. I realized very early on that everything I did was evaluated,” Oluokun said to the media after a train-

ing camp session in August. “My coaches loved the grit that I showed.

They didn’t know I had that much grit at Yale, which was all we preached there. I was ready to do whatever it took to make the team.”

Graham’s path: A positional switch and a breakout senior season Just about a month after the Falcons drafted Oluokun, his classmate Jaeden Graham ’18 signed with the Falcons as an undrafted free agent.

Graham was born and raised in Colorado, and it was at Cherry Creek High School where his athletic prowess began to shine through. Not only was he a football defensive star, earning First Team All-State safety honors and the Iron Man award twice, but he was also a First Team selection in baseball and the captain of the track team. When he had to choose which sport to pursue in college, Graham went with football.

Graham’s first three years as an Eli, however, were anything but perfect. In the five games he played as a rookie in 2014 alongside Oluokun on defense, he managed only five total tackles, splitting time between being on special teams and as a long snapper. Things did not improve much in the seven games he played in his sophomore campaign, while Oluokun was enjoying the best season of any Blue and White defender.

Then, in the fateful months leading up to the 2016 season, Reno made a decision that forever changed the course of Graham’s football future.

“After his sophomore year, the other Yale coaches and I came together and ultimately decided that [Graham] might be better served on offense,” Reno said. “So he transitioned to a position that he had never played in his career before: tight end. It took him his whole junior year to try to get his bearings.

And then as a senior, the rest is history. He simply redefined the position of tight end for us at Yale.”

Read more at yaledailynews.com.

Contact JARED FEL at jared.fel@yale.edu .

COURTESY OF HANNAH FORBES

Yale’s Bulldogs Racing team designs formula-style race cars to compete in the Formula SAE competitions, creating their own electric cars nearly from scratch.

RACING FROM PAGE 14 sense of attachment to it.”

Last academic year, the team was unable to race because of COVID-19.

The last car that Bulldogs Racing was able to race was built in 2015. In 2016, their car had a battery box failure prior to race day.

The team had designed a car slated to race this past spring — however, the competition was cancelled due to the outbreak of COVID-19, explained Hannah Forbes ’22, the team’s media and outreach chair.

In spite of the in-person racing cancellation, Formula SAE held a virtual competition for the other components of the judging.

“In addition to the Dynamic portion of the competition where all the driving of the car is done, there is a Static portion that covers the design aspects of the systems in the car and a Project Management portion for the organization/ planning of the building of the car,” Forbes wrote in an email to the News. “A few team members were able to present the Static and Project Management portions to a group of judges over Zoom, and we ended up receiving 3rd!”

Because the 2021 competition

will also forgo the in-person racing portion, the team is looking forward to displaying their car’s capabilities when races are permitted to resume, according to Forbes.

Despite the cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 competitions, for Rodgers and others, designing a fully functional car is a rewarding outcome in and of itself, regardless of a competition.

“It’s pretty surreal, I would say, because I showed up as a freshman and even then it had been a while since the team had built a car, so it’s like pretty awesome,” Rodgers said.

“I’ve been chief engineer since I was a sophomore, so for me there’s a huge stake in it: By the end of this year, three years of my life will have been spent being in charge of it. …

Pouring so much of my time into it, I think it’ll be really rewarding to finally have the car functioning.”

In 2013, Bulldogs Racing created a car that was awarded the Ford Most Efficient Hybrid Award, the Chrysler Innovation Award, and the GM Best Engineered Hybrid System Award, receiving first place for the former two and second place for the latter.

Contact BEN SCHER at ben.scher@yale.edu .

MLS Revolution 3 Impact 2

MLS FC Cincinnati 2 Columbus Crew 1

MLS Toronto FC 1 Red Bulls 1

SPORTS NE-10 PLANNING WINTER COMPETITION DII CONFERENCE BASKETBALL STARTS JAN. 9 NE-10 Commissioner Julie Ruppert told the News that their conference intends to kick off winter sports with basketball on Jan. 9. The league plans to begin their hockey season and volleyball season — which the NE-10 typically plays in the fall — in January. For more, see goydn.com/YDNsports.

NCAAF Coastal Carolina 30 Louisiana 27

WOMEN’S SOCCER Florida St. 4

Pitt 1

FOR MORE SPORTS CONTENT, VISIT OUR WEB SITE goydn.com/YDNsports Twitter: @YDNSports YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

YCC ATHLETICS CHAIR ESHA BHATTACHARYA ’24 NAMED TO NEW ROLE Bhattacharya, a first-year coxswain on the women’s crew team, will serve as the athletics chair on the Yale College Council executive board, YCC President Aliesa Bahri ’22 announced. The newly created position allows an E-board member to oversee coordination of YCC senate projects related to student-athletes.

“I would love to see a spring season, an outdoor track season, but I am not 100% confident it’s going to happen without massive advances in vaccine development and things like that, so I don’t know how realistic it is to really plan for that.”

PAUL HARKINS HEAD MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY COACH

Where the Ivies stand on phases Yale sports publicity adapts to COVID-19

BY JAMES RICHARDSON CONTRIBUTING REPORTER

Here’s where every school around the Ancient Eight stands:

Prior to the Ivy League’s decision last March to cancel the spring sports season, Ancient Eight athletic programs focused on defeating each other on fields, courts and more. Now, their goal is simply returning there.

Phase 0 This phase does not permit any in-person athletic activities. Prior to Yale reverting back to Phase 0 Tuesday night, only schools that had barred the large majority of undergraduate students from returning to campus for the fall semester remained in Phase 0: Columbia, Penn and Princeton.

“Since we have no students on campus, there is no [phasing-in] of any athletic activity nor will there be for the entirety of [the] fall semester,” Penn’s Director of Athletic Communications Mike Mahoney told the News.

Similarly, Princeton has the large majority of their undergraduate population learning remotely and have not begun reopening athletic facilities. Student-athletes are, however, meeting virtually with their teams in accordance with NCAA and Ivy League guidelines.

While Columbia Athletics declined to comment, wom-

PHASES Last Wednesday, Yale teams entered Phase II of the threetiered Ivy League plan to resume athletic activities before the Bulldogs returned to Phase 0 Tuesday evening after the emergence of a COVID-19 cluster within the Yale men’s hockey team.

While the Ivy League phasing framework is uniform throughout the conference, each Ivy school advances — and regresses — through phases at its own discretion.

Although no teams have reached Phase III, two schools — Harvard and Dartmouth — are actively in Phase II, while some with almost entirely remote enrollment this fall have yet to move past Phase 0.

en’s tennis player Tatiana Ziff ’24 shared that she and other Lions are in a similar position because Columbia is also fully remote this semester.

“Basically right now Columbia is fully remote, and that includes athletics,” Ziff said.

“They were about to open the gym to student-athletes … [but] that has been postponed for two weeks, so we are waiting on that. Besides that, we do not have access to any other athletic facilities.”

Phase I Phase I allows for a maximum of one hour per day of strength and conditioning training, as long as social distancing guidelines are followed. Furthermore, individual meetings with coaches are permissible. Two members of the Ancient Eight are currently in Phase I: Brown and Cornell.

Christopher Humm, the director of athletic communications at Brown, told the News that strength and conditioning practice has resumed in Providence, noting that regulations vary across varsity teams in and out of season.

“The University will make a decision to advance to Phase II when it determines that it’s safe for the entire Brown community to move forward,” Humm added.

In Ithaca, the Big Red have moved past Phase 0 and began Phase I on Sept. 29, according to The Cornell Daily Sun. Cornell Athletics did not respond to requests for comment on when the University plans to transition into Phase II. Phase II Unlike the preceding stages, Phase II allows for sport-specific training, and the maximum practice time also doubles to two hours a day. In-person meetings of up to 10 people are also acceptable under the guidelines.

ISABELLA HUANG/PRODUCTION & DESIGN EDITOR

Reviewing the rise of Oluokun and Graham

SEE PHASES PAGE 12

COURTESY OF JACK WARHOLA

BY JARED FEL STAFF REPORTER In the second week of the NFL season last month, the Dallas Cowboys and Atlanta Falcons found themselves in a game for the ages.

FOOTBALL Atlanta’s early 20-point lead had all but whittled down to two in the fourth quarter, and with four seconds remaining, a 46-yard field goal attempt by Dallas split the uprights, crushing the hearts of Falcons players and fans alike. Yet, in a game filled with dreadful negatives for Atlanta, there emerged one positive in the form of a 6-foot-2 linebacker who finished the game with three forced fumbles on only 17 recorded snaps, which Falcons head coach Dan Quinn described as the best 17 snaps he could remember from a linebacker.

Quinn was referring to Yale football alumnus and sixth-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, Foyesade Olu-

okun ’18; While his performance against the Cowboys may have been an eye-opener for Falcons fans, it was merely reaffirmation for Yale fans.

Former classmate Jaeden Graham ’18 plays alongside Oluokun in Atlanta, and the pair constitute Yale’s two active alumni playing in the NFL. “Our players go on to do some pretty amazing things,” Yale football head coach Tony Reno said. “All Yale students do, but to have [Oluokun and Graham] playing professionally is awesome for us. We’re really excited for them and their journeys — journeys that were both a little different. They all had moments of adversity that hit, and they pushed through.

“The commonality I see between them is that they were very, very driven to be the best they could be, not only on the football field but in everything else in life. They were not going to take no for an answer, and they were going to exhaust all areas necessary to make sure they had a

STAT OF THE WEEK

SEE FOOTBALL PAGE 12

131

BY RYAN CHIAO AND JAMES RICHARDSON STAFF REPORTER AND CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Match photos. Press arrangements. Stadium announcements.

Touchdown tweets. Television deals. Often flying under the radar, the strategic communications team is integral to the Yale Athletics administration, coordinating all aspects of media coverage for each of the Bulldogs’ 35 varsity sports teams.

FEATURE During the 2019-20 academic year, the team oversaw the production of 131 events, airing on ESPN+, NESN and other international partners. The strategic communications and creative services offices jointly captured hours of video footage, multitudes of photos and uploaded graphic designs and posts to social media platforms.

This is all made possible by a team of seven: four strategic communications directors who are each responsible for two to eight teams; two creative services directors who tell the Yale Athletics

story through graphic design, photos and video; and a video producer who ensures that each winning moment can be caught on tape. “[My job is all about] visually presenting the achievements of our student-athletes to the Yale fan base and the rest of the community,” Assistant Director of Creative Services Geoff Bell said.

“As a former student-athlete myself, being able to play a small part in highlighting the success of their careers and seeing the great things that they go on to accomplish is always special to me.”

Director of Creative Services and Digital Technology Nina Lindberg and Video Producer Evan Ellis ’12 join Bell on the creative side, while Mike Gambardella, Steve Conn, Tim Bennett and Sam Rubin ’95 constitute the squad of strategic communication directors for the Blue and White.

For Bennett, assistant director of strategic communications, a normal day in the office consists of making sure that everything is prepared for upcoming events. Routine tasks include writing previews for SEE FEATURE PAGE 12

A look into Bulldogs Racing

BY BEN SCHER CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Yale’s competitive sporting presence boasts a plethora of unique talents and skills, ranging from Olympic-level figure skating to crafting fully operational, electric formula-style race cars.

RACING

Foye Oluokun ‘18 and Jaeden Graham ‘18 are the two Yale alumni currently playing in the National Footbal League.

ZULLY ARIAS/ PRODUCTION & DESIGN EDITOR

Bulldogs Racing is doing just that: designing electric-powered vehicles at Mason Laboratory on Hillhouse.

Bulldogs Racing, formerly known as Yale Formula Hybrid, is a Yale undergraduate and graduate organization comprised of students from various backgrounds, often with STEM or engineering-focused majors. They compete in annual Formula SAE design and racing competitions hosted

by SAE International’s Collegiate Design Series. Each car is designed

by Yale undergraduate students, who are also responsible for building and sourcing their own parts.

For Chief Engineer Clarence Rodgers ’21, having the ability to create his own final product is rewarding, and having their own team garage is a testament to their legitimacy.

“It’s all student-designed and student-built as much as possible,” Rodgers said. “Yale obviously doesn’t have a huge full-fledged engineering or manufacturing facility, so sometimes we have to outsource for parts, but all the design work and other jobs we do ourselves. All of the engineering drawings we design ourselves.”

Rodgers said he values the hands-on experiences that come with being a part of the team, as he believes they are crucial to the

development of an engineer. Despite having had no experience with cars before joining the club, he has grown to be one of the focal members in the design of their current vehicle.

Design is just one aspect of the club, as driving is another major component of the competition. According to Huaijin Wang ’22, the president of the team, most members of the club often develop a desire to take the car out for a quick spin to experience their creation in action.

“Everyone wants to drive it,” Wang said. “A lot of the time people who want to join, like first years, they always ask whether they can drive the car for the race.

Usually the way we decide is that whoever worked on the car would drive it because usually when we work on it for so long we have a SEE RACING PAGE 12

COURTESY OF HANNAH FORBES

The BR16 vehicle on Cross Campus.

THE NUMBER OF ATHLETIC EVENTS YALE PRODUCED FOR ESPN+, NESN AND ITS INTERNATIONAL PARTNER DURING THE 2019-2020 SCHOOL YEAR.

WEEKEND FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2020

Love Thy Neighbor: Yalies Keep the Faith in a Pandemic // BY NANCY WALECKI

For Juan de Yepes y Álvarez, the most difficult part was the darkness. Although one day he would be canonized as Saint John of the Cross, he felt anonymous in his sootblack jail cell. Deprived of human contact, he spent most of 1578 writing poetry in the hopes of understanding why God had left him so alone. He wrote his most famous poem, “Dark Night of the Soul,” by the light of a coin-sized hole in the wall on paper smuggled to him by a sympathetic guard.

The poem says that every person, at some point in life, encounters a “dark night” — a period when all physical and spiritual pleasures are taken from them. Saint John believed this darkness was a crucial step on a believer’s journey toward God’s light.

These past few months of pandemic isolation have been, to some extent, a worldwide dark night. Whether or not we’re religious, we’ve been without friends, family, community, closeness — all of the things that root us in something greater than ourselves. For religious people, quarantine has meant the loss of in-person spiritual gatherings. The Vatican was closed for Easter mass. The Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, traveled by millions of Muslims each year, was canceled. Synagogues were closed for the High Holidays; mosques were empty for the entire month of Ramadan.

To some, it seemed like God was on a coffee break for most of 2020. And yet, Pew Research Center reported that nearly a quarter of Americans say the pandemic has deepened their faith. How does that statistic stand up against the lived experiences of religious Yalies? As Saint John’s poem predicts, have they walked through the darkness and come closer to the light?

Translating the Transcendent

together, sing and share communal food and drink. These in-person acts have real, spiritual significance for their participants.

Without them, a person’s faith can suffer. For Bradley, one of the hardest parts of online church was not being able to receive the Eucharist, the sacramental bread and wine embodying Jesus’s sacrifices for His followers. Syd missed sharing music with their synagogue. Their faith has always been closely intertwined with singing — in fact, the first song they wrote was Jewish worship music. Internet lag time prevents people from singing in unison, and, as a result, Syd struggled to meaningfully engage.

“So much of spiritual connection for me is about singing with other people — feeling their energy, hearing their breath, hearing their voices,” they said. And Syd is not the only one who feels this way; music is important across many faith traditions. As Bradley put it, “Tiny lags take a lot away from the common experience of worship.”

Even when delays aren’t a concern for the music, it’s difficult to capture a transcendent event over a two-dimensional medium. Anna, president of the Yale Buddhist Sangha said that, even when the group did the same meditations together over Zoom, something was always missing.

Under normal circumstances, the sangha meets in the intimate, echoey shrine at the base of Harkness Tower, first for meditation and afterward for a mochi-fueled social hour. “There’s such a feeling of intimacy when we’re together,” Anna said.

Maybe because we’re so used to consuming media on screens, online services run the risk of becoming more entertainment than worship. When Syd led musical worship this summer, all the other meeting attendees were muted to avoid a Zoom cacophony.

“It felt more like performance than prayer. That was really, really hard for me,” they said. The technology connecting likeminded believers is, perhaps predictably, flattening the ephemeral. “The question on our minds during services of ‘Who’s watching?’ shifts more towards the audience of the world, rather than the audience of God,” Bradley said.

Despite the drawbacks, online gatherings have expanded people’s concept of what a religious community can be. Since her election in the spring, Yousra has conducted her entire presidency of the Muslim Student Association, or MSA, over Zoom.

In some ways, online events have deepened the group’s intimacy. During Instagram “take-overs,” MSA members got a glimpse of each other’s hometown Ramadan festivities everywhere from Palestine to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Now that Zoom meetings are

the norm, religious student organizations are broadening the scope of their programming. Due to the low overhead of telecommuting, the Hindu Students Organization was able to host guest speakers ranging from a MasterChef contestant to a Bollywood Fusion TikTok dance star.

Due to the rise of online services, Malini Wimmer ’22 can attend her Hindu temple in Queens from her living room in Connecticut. Every night at 7 p.m., she and her family join the temple for aarti via Facebook Live. In honor of the Ganesh Chaturthi holiday in September, her temple held a multiday, nearly round-the-clock livestream.

Online services can attract people who might not otherwise be willing or able to attend. Malini’s grandmother joins multiple temple events per day, something she’d normally have to live in Queens to do. Members of a Jewish Facebook group (of which Syd is a member) commented anecdotally that there were many more first-time attendees at High Holiday services this year than ever before. Maybe online services induce less anxiety in newcomers, since no one will notice if they sing the wrong melodies or fumble the prayers. “Lower barriers to entry might have increased interest in spirituality,” Syd said. “I hope it will be meaningful.”

goodness. But it’s often precisely those lines of inquiry that deepen a person’s faith. “The counterintuitive thing about most religious persuasions is that, if you stick with it and you try to work out the inconsistencies and difficulties in the face of trial, you come out on the other side with a stronger sense of why you believe what you believe,” Bradley said.

Isolation pushed some students to seek out their faith in new ways. After Syd’s summer internship was canceled, they got a grant to write and record an album of Jewish music. Syd’s mother used to say a Hebrew blessing for a child over them, but because Hebrew is a gendered language, she would always bless Syd with the female prayer. As part of this grant, Syd is currently writing a melody for a gender-neutral version of the same blessing. The album has been their way of making new sense of old prayers.

Even some aspects of the loneliness of quarantine have felt holy. “Just singing alone and repeating the same musical phrase again and again is a very spiritual thing,” Syd said. As crucial as the Buddhist community has been for Anna’s faith, isolation helped her develop new daily practices.

She built a small shrine in her room and, for the first time, spent each morning reflecting on her Buddhist morals.

Perhaps St. John of the Cross was onto something when he said that sometimes things get spiritually worse before they get better. Most of the students I spoke to had their faith deepened by the crisis of the pandemic, just as Pew reported. Bradley is leaving his “mini-dark night of the soul” with a reminder that faith is about trusting God “in spite of” events, not just “because of” them. This summer clarified people’s priorities. “As a Muslim community, we said, ‘This is important enough to us that we’re going to find different ways to do it,’” Yousra said of adapting prayer gatherings to a digital format.

Something Saint John’s poem doesn’t talk about, but nearly every student I talked to mentioned, is that believers need to walk through the darkness with other people.

This pandemic reminded Syd that there is holiness in the connections between human beings. Sharla now thinks of the church less as a physical location and more as a “body of believers.” Religious conviction isn’t only sustained by quiet contemplation. Maybe as much as faith is about connecting to the divine, it’s also about relating to other people in the mundane. And maybe it’s only after being separated from our neighbors that we’ve learned how to love them.

Faith

When Syd Bakal ’22 thinks of Judaism, they think of carpools, praying together, a synagogue community so tight-knit it’s basically a family. “Everybody at my synagogue was like extra aunts and uncles. Their kids were like my cousins. I’d go over to everyone’s houses and I knew where everything was in the cupboards,” they said.

However, as the pandemic surged this spring, synagogue went online for Syd – as did Buddhist Sangha meditations for Anna B. Albright ’22, church services for Bradley Yam ’21, Bible study for Sharla Moody ’22, Hindu temple for Malini Wimmer ’22 and Muslim Students Association gatherings for Yousra Omer ’22. When all Yale students transitioned to online classes, religious Yalies also switched to online services.

Religious gatherings are, generally speaking, very tactile. People hold hands for the Our Father, kiss the Torah, sit close

Faith in Isolation

For many religious students, heading home for quarantine meant leaving their “spiritual homes” on campus behind.

After more than a year spent “church hopping” in New Haven, Sharla had finally found the right fit when the campus closure forced her to return home. Life back in Ohio meant that Sharla’s personal faith development was more or less entirely on her. Self-studying Christian texts was isolating, so she’d call friends from Yale to talk about her readings and the new questions of faith they raised. In Anna’s case, no one else in her family practices Buddhism, so outside of Zoom calls with the Yale Sangha, she was on her own. “[Spiritual] community is a really good way to remind yourself of your morals, so when you’re trying to practice by yourself, it’s really hard to keep it up,” she said.

The pandemic was a season of disappointment for many religious students. Like everyone, they spent the bulk of the quarantine physically separated from the people they love. Sharla spent her first month home upset with God. “Everyday I was in a really bad mood,” she said. “I kept asking God, ‘Why did this have to happen?’” Bradley, too, had to reckon with all the joyful things God took away. He questioned God’s

Contact NANCY WALECKI at nancy.walecki@yale.edu .

PAGE B2

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND MEMORIES

// BY AWUOR ONGURU

GOOD TROUBLE // BY AWUOR ONGURU

Jade Villegas ’24, a member of Ezra Stiles College, comes to our Zoom interview fresh off a nap, in between p-sets. Before the actual interview, we talk about how taxing it is to be at Yale.

“One night, I slept on the toilet,” she said, referring to the stressful atmosphere of the midterm season on campus. “I sat down, bent over and knocked out.” Despite the harrowing schedule, Jade has still made time for what matters most to her: protesting the world’s contempt for Black lives.

Jade is a 17-year-old Filipina and Dominican woman from New York City. Being a Black woman means that she has spent the majority of her life taking care of other people. In her senior year, she began looking after her grandma, who was sick. The year before that, she started interning as a peer leader in her city, teaching young children to create inquiry-based exhibitions on issues affecting today’s youth such as climate change and police brutality and organizing civic education workshops for kids in the city. Her social justice advocacy stems from a deep passion for service.

“I feel like a lot of my activism is about learning and trying to teach everyone what you learned,” she said. Upon hearing about George Floyd’s murder, she felt paralyzed. But the COVID-19 pandemic left her stranded in her home with no way to publicly demonstrate. She usually goes to protests, but since that wasn’t an option, she turned to Instagram.

Over the summer, social media networks became critical sources for Black Lives Matter information. Images of brunches and family vacations were replaced with infographics, links to donations, live demonstrations and videos of personal experiences.

Instagram stories exploded into communal spaces, full of people ready to contribute to lasting change. Jade was one of them.

Between the months of May and August, Jade’s own Instagram page became the go-to spot for information on the BLM movement, especially among prospective Yale students.

“This free knowledge,” one of her posts read.

Although her following isn’t large, she knew her audience was engaged, and she began encouraging them to educate themselves in addition to just viewing her posts.

“A lot of activists and BLM protesters had to get really, really, creative with it,” she said.

Getting creative with it is Jade’s forte. In June, she began to offer free college application consultations upon proof of donations to BLM foundations. Her first post alone garnered 912 likes and several reshares, and other activists followed suit.

Once she felt more comfortable going outside, Jade took to the streets. She protested almost every day for the entire month of June, taking time to organize her own protests as well as helping others execute theirs.

She spent hours directly messaging schoolmates, friends and family, trying to persuade them to participate. Before this spring, Jade never discussed politics with her friends.

The BLM movement, however, was a kind of tipping point. “If you were truly my friend, you’d care about my life,” she said. Even though she had close ties with some of the people she reached out to, the movement became more important to her than any interpersonal relationship.

“I started hitting people up at my school,” she said. “You say the N-word like it’s your business, you’re not even Black. Where’s your money at? Donate to an org.”

Since moving away from New York,

// JADE VILLEGAS

though, she’s stepped away from Instagram, mostly to preserve her mental health. “Taking rest is radical too,” she said. “I can’t be full Jade if I’m on like, two hours of sleep and it hurts to be on Instagram everyday.” Her presence has been missed — since she took her break, she’s received several messages asking what happened to her posting and encouraging her to resume.

The fight, however, has not left her. At the time we recorded our interview, Jade was organizing an on-campus protest. She’s learning to balance her school and social life with her justice work.With regards to how the pandemic has changed her activism, Jade says that nothing has changed. When she began protesting, her friends and family tried to intervene, because she is immunocompromised. Jade was disheartened.

“You’re more mad at COVID than you are at the fact that Black people are being systemically killed in the streets?” she said.

“People need to be more mad that I had to go out and protest in the first place.”

Because of the way that COVID-19 is transmitted, she has witnessed a pervasive stigma against protesters that have chosen to go into the streets these past few months.

The concurrence of the BLM movement with the pandemic meant that people had to choose between standing up for what they believe in and protecting themselves and their loved ones. Jade believes this is a false choice.

“People think we’re out there because we like it,” she said. “Protesting is stressful. We risk getting arrested, getting COVID, we risk dying. I’m not out there because I wanna snap a quick pic. I’m out there because I have to be out there.”

Since moving to Yale, Jade actively rec-

ognizes the University’s place in the New Haven community as a gentrifier, and is thinking deeply about how to interact with citizens of Elm City. “I’m not from Harlem, but I understand what Columbia does to Harlem,” she said, drawing on her own experiences as a New York City resident.

But organizing the protests has served as a bridge to the citizens of New Haven. “As a Black person on campus, I haven’t been having the greatest experience,” she said. Jade felt that by protesting, she could show her support for citizens of New Haven as well as other Black students on campus. “The only time that I felt uplifted and genuinely connected to my community was at a protest here,” she added.

I asked Jade what she thought about the future of the BLM movement after the recent outpourings of public support. She predicted that the most active people would continue posting, but that the “people who posted black squares will go back to their brunches.” She wishes Instagram was still the place it was in May. “For a lot of Black people, it’s still May,” she said. “White people got to graduate out of that. We don’t.”

For now, Jade’s future includes finishing her p-sets, living her truth as a Black woman at Yale and continuing to protest. Recently, the attention paid to the Black Lives Matter movement has begun to dwindle, as people get back to their normal lives and shift their priorities. Talking to Jade, however, reminded me that there are people that are continuing to do the good work. It’s a rough time for all of us. As long as we have leaders like Jade, though, I think we’ll be alright.

Contact AWUOR ONGURU at awuor.onguru@yale.edu .

On Home and Other Homes

// BY XAVIER BLACKWELL-LIPKIND

My house is a gray box on a corner in a neighborhood of boxes. I’ve lived here my whole life. It’s filled with books and games and scraps of recycled paper.

Other houses in my West Hartford neighborhood of boxes boast neat, recently cut lawns with little yellow signs that say “someone came by and sprayed me with chemicals to make me greener!” My lawn is littered with branches and speckled with weeds. The backyard is surrounded by a sea of fat bushes.

This is where I grew up, where I learned to read and walk, where I helped my mother make a vegetable garden, where I laughed, where I cried. This is where I spent time with my brother and parents on the weekends. By anyone’s definition of the word, this is home.

But I have other homes, too. Other places where I laughed and cried and learned, places where I’m far from my mother’s vegetable garden and often from my family. Places that have, at times, felt more like home than home. Where gray box Xavier disappears and other versions of myself come to light. Here are a few.

thing magical about the arrival: the flight into San Sebastian, the taxi ride into the town center, the walk through the narrow streets to the apartment. It’s a feeling that I’m unlocking another part of my identity, a part that hardly ever comes out when I’m in my gray box on the corner. My français part.

Saint-Jean-de-Luz is home for francophone Xavier.

Room 190 One of two all-purpose music rooms in my high school. Dented marching band tubas and dangerously splintered wooden lockers. An out-of-tune grand piano. Old photos and dried-up markers and Manhasset music stands with the “Manh … et” crossed off. For years, I began my day in orchestra and finished my day in jazz band, both in this room.

It’s a room where I can forget my lovehate relationship with the suburbs, where I can freely joke about my gayness and my Tourette Syndrome and all the other things I

Saint-Jean-de-Luz

often keep hidden in one way or another.

Besides, it’s a room where people make music, and that’s a wonderful thing.

My imagination I like thinking about things.

Sometimes I invent alternate lives for myself. Sometimes I choose a city and live there in my mind. Sometimes I listen to music. Sometimes I write stories. Sometimes I press on my eyelids and watch the blurry patterns race by.

Sometimes I worry. Sometimes I feel calm. Sometimes the voice in my head sounds loud. Sometimes it sounds quiet.

I didn’t always feel at home in my head, but I think I do now.

That Jordanian restaurant They just make really good tabbouleh.

My grandmother’s house Rochelle’s yard is even crazier than mine.

There’s a statue of a naked mermaid and a garden of tiger lilies and trinkets galore. My grandmother lives on Long Island and — though I joke about the strip malls and the horse flies and the accent (which I can imitate quite well, if I may say so myself) — I love coming here.

There’s a vaguely creepy closet in the upstairs bedroom that contains all of my favorite childhood books. The one about the fat cow who runs away. The one about the crazy father who names everything something it’s not. The one about the dinosaur.

My grandmother has curly hair and many books. She sends me long texts with strings of emojis. Sometimes the teenager in me forgets to respond, but I always feel a little burst of Long Island joy when I see a new paragraph from Rochelle.

Yale I think it’s fair to add this one to the list.

I haven’t left Davenport many times, and I couldn’t give you directions to most buildings on campus, but I don’t think you have to know a place for it to be home.

A little Basque town in the southwest corner of France. It’s touristy, but if you walk far enough, you’ll find big hills over the purple water and hidden villages and secret beaches with sandpipers and plovers everywhere.

I know my bedroom and my (superior) courtyard and a bit of the city, and for now that’s enough.

My mother raised me speaking French.

I’ve only been to Saint-Jean-de-Luz a few times in my life, but there’s always some-

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

WKND RECOMMENDS Shooting your shot with your marriage pact match.

Yale is home number seven.

ONLINE THIS WEEK: FALLING IN LOVE IN UNFAMILIAR WAYS: Lauren Moore ‘24 explains why “Love is Blind”is so good it’s philosophy.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND BEAUTY

Please Do Not Touch the Art (or Each Other) // BY APARAJITA KAPHLE

// KAREN LI

My friend and I entered the atrium of the Yale University Art Gallery and found ourselves surrounded by the numerous sculptures and statues. The light cast from the windows created an almost ethereal atmosphere as the hallway was lined with polished white stone statues and reddish-brown terracotta pots. As we stopped to look at them closer, we found ourselves having to lean over a red barrier that formed a boundary between us and the art. Squinting to read the placards near the sculptures, we were interrupted by a security guard who ushered us to keep walking. I told her that I was a first year and I had never been to the art gallery before and was wondering if this was what it was like under normal circumstances. Kindly but bluntly she answered.

“No, not at all.”

On Sept. 25, the Yale University Art Gallery reopened for visitors after a six-month long closure due to coronavirus. Now open Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the gallery has adapted to the pandemic, providing a unique and unconventional experience to visitors.

Visiting the gallery on Oct. 11, I arrived not knowing what to expect. I had not been in a gallery or a museum since the pandemic hit, and I was interested in seeing how exhibitions had changed these past few months.

Prior to my entry, I was greeted with an email in my inbox reminding me of my reservation and the procedure before entry.

The email distinctly stated that latecomers would not be allowed into the museum and, in a fit of panic and fear of missing my spot, I got ready 30 minutes before my time and sat in the common room anxiously. I arrived at the gallery 10 minutes early with a friend and, surprisingly , we were allowed in. The check-in desk asked the same series of questions you almost always hear: “Have you had symptoms of coronavirus? Been in contact with someone with the virus?

Tested positive?” Hearing these questions, I almost always wonder who is answering yes to them. Why would you even show up? I couldn’t think about it too much as my ticket indicated that I only had one hour to explore the museum.

Under normal circumstances in the gallery, there would be people leaning over red dividers, no marked-off exhibits and no need to squint to read captions. The security guard who spoke to my friend and I in the atrium informed us that our tickets only allowed us to view three of the special exhibits, nothing more.

We were led to the elevators and ushered to the fourth floor where the first of the three special exhibits began. It felt odd to pass by the lower floors, knowing you could not enter them and see the art behind the elevator doors. Regardless, we didn’t dwell too much on what we couldn’t see. I hadn’t been to a gallery in forever, so any chance I could get was a plus in my book. Our first stop was an exhibition titled “The Incident”

by John Wilson. “The Incident” depicts Ku Klux Klan members lynching a Black man as an African American family watches from their window. The exhibit included not only a large floor to ceiling mural but also several sketches and studies on which the piece was based. Walking around the exhibit, I began to feel the familiar comfort of walking through a gallery. The stark images of Wilson’s work left me speechless and, for a moment, it felt like I was simply at an art museum, not at an art museum during COVID. This exhibit was well designed and showcased art that felt unfortunately relevant to our current time.

In fact, an hour after visiting this exhibit, the student-organized Black Lives Matter demonstration took place on Cross Campus.

Due to the COVID guidelines, the museum was much emptier than it usually is. This has a profound effect in an art gallery, as the art stands out more. I could simply stand in front of the pieces and read

the captions, not worrying about blocking someone’s view or getting in someone’s way.

The emptiness, while not the most comfortable, made viewing the art more intimate.

As we left for the second exhibit, we were once again approached by a security guard, this time because we were going the wrong way. As obvious as the directional arrows were, it’s still difficult to not find yourself wanting to wander around. What better place to wander than an art gallery?

We then entered the second exhibit: “James Prosek: Art, Artifact, Artifice.” This exhibit was almost the opposite of the previous one in terms of style, as there were a variety of different mediums present in the collection. From taxidermied birds with drill bits as beaks, to twisted iron sculptures, this exhibit explored the intersection of art and artificiality. Once again, this exhibit was largely empty aside from me, my friend and a security guard. While I still felt close to the art as I did before, the emptiness provided an interesting experience. Everytime I talked about a painting or a work, it felt like I was screaming about it because the gallery was so quiet. Although galleries aren’t known for their loud and noisy atmospheres, before the pandemic you could almost always find the quiet chatter of museum goers bouncing around the walls. Now, in the echoing space, every analysis and comment felt as if it was going through a loudspeaker.

However, this changed with the last and final exhibit, entitled “Place, Nations, Generations, Beings: 200 years of Indigenous North American Art.” Unlike the two earlier exhibitions, this one had more people, and the familiar quiet chatter reminded me of a time before COVID. The exhibit itself showcased a wide range of Indigenous art from intricate beadings to carefully crafted pots, the culture emanating from the art allowed me to feel closer not only to the works on display but to the others in the museum as well. After all, that is one of my favorite experiences of being in an art museum: to take part in a shared experience of consuming art. In a world of COVID, this sense of closeness is found in six feet increments but in this exhibit, I found that six feet was not as far anymore. I could overhear someone’s comment about a piece, and I could visit it right after to see if they were telling the truth. I would say, “Woah look at this” and, sure enough, a few people would overhear and find themselves in front of the piece a few moments later.

Once finished, my friend and I wished to revisit “The Incident” painting but were met with one more security officer informing us that we were not allowed to go back that way. And with that we headed into the elevator and looked at the map of all the exhibits that were in the museum. Luckily, before we left, the security guard informed us that they are trying to make more exhibits accessible to people and are considering opening up more floors in the coming weeks or months. I hope in addition to that, they are able to safely increase the number of hours we can be in the museum, as we were able to spend the full hour in just three exhibits.

It is jarring to be in a museum during a pandemic. The sheer gravity of living through such a monumental experience makes me think that one day I will enter a museum and see a Yale mask framed in a glass box in an exhibit on coronavirus. Yet despite how unsettling that feeling may be, it is largely outweighed by the fact that museums and galleries are able to provide a familiar feeling of closeness. During the pandemic, toilet paper and hand sanitizer were flying off the shelves, but art grants us an even rarer commodity: connection.

Contact APARAJITA KAPHLE at aparajita.kaphle@yale.edu .

A One-Way Ticket to “Home”

// BY KALINA MLADENOVA

One backpack. What would you take? Not a 20-year-old stuffed hippo, I suppose.

So what is home then? Is it a feeling of being secure? A feeling of love?

Over the past two years, I have been moving constantly. I lived on a ship in the ocean, in a hut in the savannah, in dorms in England, in hostels in Indonesia. Everything around me was constantly changing — the location, the people, the climate, the food. The one thing that stayed the same was my backpack — full of belongings that I brought from the place I called “home.”

Traveling and exploration made me redefine my sense of home. It became a place solely for sleep. No matter if it was in the forest in Bulgaria, in a random chalet in Italy or a double bunk bed in a tiny cabin on a rocking ship. The only thing I needed was a blanket, my hippo and something to sleep on (grass would do it for me).

I used to think that home is a place in a particular country.

When people ask me where I am from, I immediately shout “Bulgaria” with pride. But the question is why?

Exploration helped me to learn that home is relative. It depends on how you feel and who you are with. In order to remind myself of “home,” I always carried something with me as a memento. And the thing I chose every single time was my hippo. I didn’t take a picture or the Bulgarian flag, but rather a fat, half-ripped, blind, two-decades-old stuffed yellow hippo. He has been with me since I was born and keeps following.

This hippo has seen more of the world than any other stuffed toy and, to be honest, his life wasn’t easy. He flew on planes, rode on trains, went on small wooden boats and even lived on a giant transatlantic ship. I took him everywhere, squishing him into my suitcase, just like a pillow. Carrying him is a habit; his constant presence is home to me.

In another way, what made a place feel like home was the people. Anywhere I went, no matter the language, the culture, the religion, the background, I always managed to find people who would make me smile, laugh and feel a sense of belonging. I carried my hippo, and these people had their own mementos: a German girl brought her donkey, an English guy wore his tattoos, others kept their friendship bracelets. It did not matter for how long we would be together. The only thing that mattered was the interaction. Maybe, we were all just weird explorers carrying our pieces of home, and that connected us. But, every time, I managed to find a new family and thus a new home.

Now, I have moved again, this time, to a new continent.

And, guess what? My hippo is still here. This time, however, he is sleeping on an actual bed: an improvement!

Contact KALINA MLADENOVA at kalina.mladenova@yale.edu .

// KALINA MLADENOVA

ONLINE THIS WEEK: WKND RECOMMENDS Getting 10 hours of sleep.

A SHONDA RHIMES EDUCATION: Owen Tucker-Smith ‘24 defends his medical expertise against jealous Yale pre-meds.

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2020 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND CHANGE

Coming of Age in an Ageless City // BY BAYLINA PU When I was in Chengdu, the lotuses were never not in bloom. Summer in Chengdu has a kind of gravity: the weight of endless white clouds pressing down on you, the city’s humid breath against your skin.

Mostly the gravity comes as a sense of potentiality. It’s the summer before my first year of college. The lotus pond is a good place to think.

Like many cities in China, Chengdu is a blurry limbo between the present and the distant past. Just a half hour away from the bubble-tea-clutching students skateboarding by me, performers on Jinli Street rehearse for traditional Sichuan face-changing opera while customers browse through silk embroidery shops — an ancient site turned tourist destination, where you can spin a zodiac wheel for an artisan to weave you intricate animals from melted sugar. Next door lies Wuhou Temple, a place perpetually immersed in incense and the shrine of legendary strategist Zhuge Liang and his general, Liu Bei. These figures, celebrated in Chinese history and immortalized in literature, seem larger than life in our collective memories, and I wonder what it means to be half human, half myth. That’s how it feels to be an outsider in Chengdu.

The present is the human. The past is the myth.

Remnants of legend peek out from all corners of this city. In addition to being the homeplace of the giant panda, Chengdu is known for its philosophy of leisure (maybe there’s a correlation there?) — the city’s innumerable teahouses invite you to relax with a cup of tea by the river, play chess with a stranger, and enjoy life in its simplicity. Chengdu has retained the same name for the whole of its 2,300 year old history, sometimes translated as “completed capital,” but even after all this time its story seems anything but complete. Poets, wars, empires and now high-rise buildings enter

and take their time in this city. Its slowpaced lifestyle helps to loosen the grip of the demands of modern life, to put it all in perspective. To remind us that the gravity of our potential is not an external burden, but the weight of our own bodies balancing between our ever-changing selves.

of college complete, it feels surreal to reinhabit my past self, to think about all the ways in which I’ve already changed and all the changing I have yet to do. Still, in the same way that Chengdu preserves its classic hot pot and distinctive dialect, I imagine the most primordial parts of myself will find

// MALIA KUO

Sitting on a stone bench by the lotus pool, I think about why I chose Yale. Thoughts buzz through my head, drowning out the murmur of cicadas in the trees as I ruminate over what awaits me in the next four years and beyond. It’s these dreamlike, liminal junctures of time and space — the summer before college, spent in a city simultaneously archaic and modern — that make you feel suspended in midair, as if dangling in the eye of the storm. Looking back on these moments now, with my first year

a way to linger.

It’s easy for us as ambitious young adults to get caught up in our expectations for our future selves. But our ‘selves’ are not a static entity; like this city, we are amorphous, our identities a shifting paradox of change and continuity. So much growth comes about during these calm intermissions — as in a chrysalis, there is so much activity quietly cached in potentiality. Perhaps we should step back and enjoy these phases of transition. In the city, carefully choreographed

displays of light create rippling patterns on the sides of buildings, the tall structures reflected in the ancient stillness of the pond.

To self-reflect implies two separate entities — one observing, one being observed. One era of the city examining another. I imagine my future self remembering me now, everything about her still a possibility. That’s how it feels to be an outsider of your own self. The present is the human. The future is the myth.

The sun begins to set. Not that you’d be able to tell — the sky, too, is rendered into myth behind the dense clouds, so it’s more of a receding of whiteness, like someone dimming the lights. The clouds don’t absorb away all the color, though. At night, the whole sky burns a magnificent purple.

It’s a nostalgic kind of hue, hazy and inviting, like the shade of dried hibiscus or the sound of your mother’s voice in a lullaby. In Chengdu, you learn to savor these moments: the drawn-out pause of a summer evening, the quiet at the threshold. Paying attention to the present allows us to recognize the subconscious processes of change within us, the past and future both illusory. After all, another way to translate “Chengdu” is “becoming a capital” — an eternal continuation, a city ever turning into itself.

I take one last look at the lotuses. They’re an ancient symbol — known in Buddhism as a sign of purity and perseverance and enlightenment — and here they are in the middle of a city caught in the pull of its own gravitational forces. The lotuses hover weightlessly, a conjunction between the past and the present. A promise of the future. They’re the stuff of myths. And, with their round, flushed faces bared in anticipation towards the fading light, they almost look like they could be human.

Contact BAYLINA PU at baylina.pu@yale.edu .

// DORA GUO

Single In a Pandemic My partner and I recently broke up after a long while together. How do I know when I am ready to start trying to see other people?

And what does safe dating even look like these days? Also, how do I stop listening to “Folklore” on repeat because at this point it’s just emotional self-harm?

Sincerely, Someone who’s just trying to inflict any unnecessary emotional pain on myself Whew, a lot to unpack here. Breakups are always rough, but they’re especially difficult nowadays when the entire world is in disarray, and all anyone wants to do is lay in their partner’s arms while having their head caressed like a pet cat. I get it. And I’m proud of you for recognizing that listening to Taylor Swift’s newest album on repeat is inflicting emotional pain on yourself. (“Speak Now” is okay, though.)

Though I wish I could offer a neat formula for when you’ll be ready to see other people, these things differ from person to person. Some (sociopathic) friends can hop from boyfriend to boyfriend with little to no yearning in between. I, for one, am not one of those people. I’m embarrassingly prone to drunk texting, drunk calling and sex dreaming about exes, and so the best, albeit hardest, way to move on for me is to cut off all contact. That means no hanging out in person, of course, but also no DMing an ex funny tweets or asking them for help on a p-set.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of distracting yourself with someone new to get your mind off a breakup. This method isn’t ineffective, per se. But is it possible to still pine over your ex while screwing a rebound? As someone who loves a good rebound, I can confidently say: yes. Once in my first year, while my

one-night stand went to use the bathroom, I scrolled through photos on my phone of me and my ex at high school prom as I sniffled back tears. Am I proud of it? No. But sometimes we think we’ve moved on and our oxytocin levels surprise us, falling back to rock bottom again!

The closest thing I have to a formula is something I call the dinner date test. This standard can apply to both serial monogamists and those of you nursing your first heartbreak. This is the test: If you feel prepared to sit down for a dinner date with someone new, you’re probably ready to start dating again. Sounds easy enough, no? One caveat: You absolutely cannot bring up your ex in any way. No stories involving an ex. No ranting about your ex’s emotional unavailability or fear of commitment. Nothing!

If you’re coming off a long relationship, chances are a lot of your happy memories of recent involve your ex in some form. And if you’re still in the pining, nostalgic phase of post-breakup life, then your ex is probably occupying a lot of mental real estate. If you’re dwelling on them all the time, a first date with someone new will distract you for an hour or two, but do little to actually heal your heartbreak.

All to say, you don’t want to be that person who yaks on and on about their ex on a first date. If you feel excited to go out for dinner with a new fling, then go for it! But if you think you’ll probably duck to the restroom before your appetizers arrive to ugly cry while scrolling through pictures of your ex and their dog from last Christmas, then maybe give it a few weeks. There’s really no rush — plus, you’d be doing the community a service by staying in.

WKND RECOMMENDS Tuca and Bertie.

When you are ready to hit the town again, here are some examples of what safe dating looks like these days: • Doggy • Masks on during sex • Fucking your roommate (see my last column) • Sexually charged walks around Beinecke Plaza • Abstinence!

• Marriage pacts?

Like it or not, a vaccine is still months away and we have to accept that finding fucks is harder during a pandemic. Gone are the nights when you could make eyes at someone from across the SigEp dance floor and be following them to their dorm room 15 seconds later. The good old days. As my eloquent friend — who’s been in a loving relationship for 10 months now — put it: “I would hate to be single right now, because I’m a hoe. Fuck dates, I wanna fuck.”

Dating apps are your best friend right now, and even if you’re a self-righteous “I would never ever download Tinder” purist, it’s at least worth doing a preliminary sweep to see who’s available on campus. You might just swipe on the cutie from your conservation bio section who recently broke up with their high school girlfriend. Next time your prof says something slightly problematic in class, shoot them an “Oh my god, this is unbearable! … Coffee?” message over Zoom chat (but make sure that shit’s private!). It’s prime time to draw on that innovative, go-getter energy that got you into Yale and devote it toward creative scheming this year. You might also consider expanding your dating pool to younger students (no frosh though, you pervs), or conversely, start hanging out at the Divinity School to find an older, more

introspective partner.

Hookup culture has certainly taken a hit during the pandemic, but most other dating options are totally still viable. Grab a coffee date outside — Maison sidewalk if you’re into voyeurism, Koffee for the backyard vibes or Fussy if you’re trying not to be recognized.

Dinner dates and trips to the farmer’s market are also still fair game. Be patient and don’t get discouraged by a few duds. Even if a date flops and you just want to be back in your ex’s arms, definitely don’t text them “I miss you” at 1:43 a.m. on a Tuesday. Just because they’re four time zones behind doesn’t mean they won’t see right through your thirsty texts.

If all of these suggestions sound overwhelming and you still just want to binge listen to “Folklore,” then it’s probably not yet time to start looking for love again. And that’s fine! If indie pop songs are resonating with you, try to pinpoint the lyrics that hit you in the feels the hardest. Are they lyrics about betrayal? Loneliness? Abandonment? Name those feelings, turn that music off and sit with those emotions! Whether it be the circumstances leading up to the breakup or the sudden disorientation of being single again, it’ll help to identify exactly what’s making you feel this “emotional self-harm.” Maybe journal or talk to a friend about it. Everyone heals differently (I’m more of an “All Too Well” gal myself), and being single can be a much needed opportunity to gain confidence and love for yourself. Plus, if you can survive a pandemic alone, you can survive anything.

Much love!

Sex on the WKND sexonthewknd@gmail.com

ONLINE THIS WEEK: DRESSING FOR SUCESS: Camden Rider ‘23 and Isabelle Qian ‘23 on crop tops, confidence and what personal style means to them.