Yale Daily News — August 29, 2025

Students, locals pack 850-seat history lecture

BY OLIVIA CYRUS STAFF REPORTER

Students and locals packed Battell Chapel on Thursday for the first meeting of the one-time-only course “America at 250: A History,” with an introductory lecture taught by history professors Beverly Gage ’94, Joanne Freeman and David Blight.

The course had roughly 480 registered students, according to course demand statistics. The lecture was also open to the New Haven area community as part of the DeVane lecture series. It filled Battell Chapel — which seats 850 people, according to the chaplain’s office.

“This is a different kind of course,” Freeman said. “There are many things that I find particularly fascinating about this country’s history. One of them is the sheer sense of big propositions — breaking away in revolution is a huge risk in and of itself.”

When the course was announced last semester, it was supposed to have eight discussion sections to accommodate 144 students.

“We are hoping not to have to cap the class,” Gage said in an April interview with the News. “My understanding is that it’s opening with eight sections available, but if

those fill up we will be able to add new sections. The expectation is we'll just keep adding as much as we need to.”

However, the course is currently full, and students not enrolled in the course were not allowed to attend the first lecture, according to the course’s Canvas page. The course has 27 sections listed on Yale Course Search.

Each lecture will be posted on Yale’s YouTube channel two weeks after it takes place, Gage said during Thursday’s lecture.

During the lecture, the professors stressed that American history wasn’t just about golden ages or praising the Founding Fathers. Rather, they said, the semester would teach attendees about the country’s debates, struggles, experiments and triumphs.

The course’s invention took shape in anticipation of America’s semiquincentennial anniversary in 2026 — 250 years since the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress.

Judy Buzzell, a former professor at Southern Connecticut State University from Branford, attended Thursday’s lecture. She said the open nature of the course will benefit both Yale and the local community.

BY ADELE HAEG AND JAKE ROBBINS STAFF REPORTERS

No information has emerged in the past week about a man who was killed by electrocution last Thursday while working on a Yale Golf Course renovation project.

Neither Yale nor the Connecticut medical examiner’s office have released the man’s name despite repeated requests to identify him.

Spokespeople for Yale’s Office of Public Affairs and Communication declined two requests from the News for the man’s name and other information about the incident.

University spokespeople have not clarified why they have remained silent, and they declined to explain the protocol for releasing information about deaths on Yale property.

Yale continues to avoid Trump’s crosshairs

BY BAALA SHAKYA STAFF REPORTER

Since President Donald Trump began his second term in January, his administration has waged an aggressive campaign to exert influence over elite universities, freezing billions of dollars in federal research funding, threatening accreditations and pressuring institutions into settlements that reshape campus policy. Through it all, Yale has remained an exception.

Yale and Dartmouth are the only two Ivy League institutions from which the government has not punitively withheld federal funds. The other six schools have each faced punitive cuts to their federal grants from the Trump administration.

Since the beginning of July, Penn, Columbia and Brown agreed to concessions on policies relating to admissions, athletics, antisemitism and academics to restore their federal funds.

To students back on campus, relief about Yale’s relative stabil-

ity is tempered by unease about whether Trump’s targeted mea

sures against universities will come to New Haven.

“I feel sort of lucky that we haven’t been directly publicly attacked yet, but I guess I feel a little uncertain about what’s to come next because I’m not sure if the administration would change course and decide that we’re the next target,” William Mahoney ’27 said in an interview.

“When you think of the big three names of Harvard, Yale and Princeton, these are the bastions of liberal education that the current administration doesn’t have good feelings towards, and so part of me is fearful that we’ll be next,” Mahoney added.

In early spring, the Trump administration froze more than $400 million in funding to Columbia and $175 million to Penn. In April, the White House followed with a $2.2 billion cut to Harvard. Federal officials cited antisemitism, failures to maintain campus order and lack of “viewpoint

steep climb in Ward 1 voter registration

BY KAITLYN POHLY STAFF REPORTER

The annual Yale-Harvard game will look quite different next year.

The storied rivalry, approaching its 141st showdown this November, will leave the familiar confines of New Haven and Boston in 2026 for a different venue: Boston’s Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox, according to similar Wednesday afternoon news releases from Harvard Athletics and Major League Baseball. There was no announcement from Yale Athletics on Wednesday.

The 2026 game will be just the second time in history that the matchup

InsIde The

is played under the shadow of the park’s signature Green Monster wall. The first came in 2018, when Harvard Stadium was under renovation. That year, the move drew curiosity and excitement as the oldest college football rivalry played out in one of Major League Baseball’s most renowned ballparks.

For players on the field, it’s a unique experience that may turn into a highlight of their athletic careers.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play a historic game at a historic field,” Robby Tattersall ’27 wrote to the News. He will be a

BY HENRY LIU AND AIDEN ZHOU STAFF REPORTER AND DATA EDITOR

Voter registration in New Haven’s downtown district has spiked since the beginning of August, increasing by nearly 28 percent. Three Yalies are running to represent Ward 1, the New Haven district mostly comprising Yale buildings, on the Board of Alders, and the candidates have been courting voters online all month and in-person since students arrived on campus. A Yale undergraduate has historically represented Ward

The men’s basketball team announced its new schedule, which includes a high-stakes game against a the University of Alabama.

This Day in Yale History, 2014

August 29, 2014 / Nave renovations unveiled

On this day in 2014, the News reported on the Sterling Memorial Library’s central nave, which reopened on Monday, following a 15 month renovation project funded by a $20 million donation. Students returned to campus that week to encounter the renovated spaces, which included repaired stained glass windows, cleaned surfaces and newly installed lighting as well as environmental controls. The restoration came 84 years after the library first opened.

Summer Recap

May 20, 2025 / Avelo flight from ICE base lands in Guatemala

Jun 12, 2025 / Yale lab seeks new funders for research on kidnapped Ukrainian children

Jun 13, 2025 / Students, lawmakers speak out against Trump tax bill at Washington press conference

Jun 25, 2025 / Danny Wolf, former Yalie, selected No. 27 in NBA Draft by Brooklyn Nets

Jul 01, 2025 / Yale pauses hiring, tightens budget in anticipation of endowment tax hike

Jul 26, 2025 / Yale exceeds $500,000 in 2025 lobbying expenses so far

Jul 26, 2025 / Hormone-based gender-affirming care for patients under 19 discontinued at YNHH

Jun 27, 2025 / Yale concludes DEI initiative as scheduled, scrubs website

Read the full stories at yaledailynews.com.

Puzzles

OPINION

It was never just about bathrooms. It was never just about sports. From the State Department suspending its policy allowing transgender, intersex and nonbinary people to update the sex field of their passports to President Donald Trump’s order stripping Medicaid and Medicare from hospitals that provide transgender healthcare, those in power are making it clear that they don’t just want to take away transgender rights; they want to erase transgender people from the picture entirely. Want proof? Look no further than the Ivy League.

Earlier this month, Brown University signed a binding agreement requiring the school to adopt the federal government’s binary definition of “male” and “female.” In return, the Trump administration released $50 million in frozen research funding earmarked for Brown.

Closer to home, Yale New Haven Hospital recently discontinued hormone-based gender-affirming care for patients under 19. While the hospital shares a name and an affiliation with Yale University, they are distinct corporations with separate sources of funding.

Not only are decisions like these legally and politically misguided — they will impact the day-to-day lives of transgender students like myself. Unless we act with courage and conviction, attacks on transgender students at Brown could become the reality at Yale, too.

The hospital cited federal executive orders, administrative actions and recent Supreme Court cases related to gender-affirming care for youth in a statement to the News. However, while the Supreme Court’s ruling in United States v. Skrmetti may make it legal for states to ban gender-affirming care for minors, it does not change that allowing access to gender-affirming care is the moral and medically responsible thing to do. Plus, Connecticut has enacted no such restrictions.

In a recent essay for Compact magazine, University of Chicago professor Clifford Ando argued that his institution is “simply choosing not to be a university.” Its leaders treat it as a “tax-free technology incubator” and have borrowed enormous sums of money in pursuit of that goal. Now, according to Ando, Chicago is planning to consolidate departments, send students elsewhere for certain classes, and has even proposed using ChatGPT to teach several languages.

Ando traces these changes to increased university investment in risky applied science research, with the hope that a breakthrough would lead to windfall patents. Chicago, he points out, now spends the equivalent of 85 percent of undergraduate tuition to service its debt. But Ando also points the finger at a broader cultural shift. Americans, in his view, have come to think of education as “a private, personal good, to be measured solely in terms of increase in lifetime earnings.” He decries this, righteously: education’s true purpose is to “create people as lifetime learners, seekers, and questioners.”

Ando’s vision of American university life as a “shared project” of learning is a worthy one. But we think the changes at Chicago and at selective universities across the country can also be understood as a simple change in the priorities of university student bodies. After all, the decline of the “lifetime learner” model coincided almost inexorably with a shift in the makeup of those student bodies — a shift that was clearly beneficial but that nevertheless changed the way students relate to higher education.

Yale became the first private university in the country to institute need-blind admissions in 1966. In the decades since, student demographics have come to more closely match those of the nation as a whole.

Medical research demonstrating the efficacy of gender-affirming care for youth warrants an opinion piece of its own. In brief, multiple medical organizations, such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, endorse gender-affirming care — which typically includes hormone replacement therapy, puberty blockers and counseling — for transgender and non-binary youth. These interventions are widely acknowledged to result in more positive mental health outcomes, improved functioning and life satisfaction while significantly reducing depression and suicidality.

It took me more than two agonizing years to get a consultation and confirmed date for my top surgery through Yale Student Health. My heart breaks for the incoming first years who won’t even be able to start the transition process, in an environment where it’s most likely the first time they’re safe to live as their true selves. Indeed, a number of transgender Yalies receive coverage from Yale Health and are referred to specialists at Yale New Haven Hospital. Of course, the Yale environment isn’t perfect when it comes to transgender inclusion. My own ability to receive necessary medical care — and ultimately the wholeness of my identity — was contingent on my ability to tell the story of my suffering in the most eloquent way. I often found myself getting misgendered or asked to rehash traumatic experiences related to my dysphoria in the process.

Likewise, when Yale-adjacent organizations like the Buckley Institute host debates on whether “the law should only recognize biological sex” or platform speakers such as Michael Knowles ’12, a conservative pundit who called for the “eradication of “transgenderism,” it’s hard to focus on transgender joy when other students treat your humanity as an intellectual challenge rather

than an unwavering truth. Like fellow transgender Yalies and allies, I wasn’t sure whether I felt more disgusted or disappointed by the normalization of dangerous eliminationist rhetoric around transgender people on Yale’s campus.

It’s said that transgender people are “canaries in a coal mine;” what the Trump administration is willing to do to dehumanize transgender people, it will do to other marginalized groups. Just in the last week, a cisgender 18-year old girl in Minnesota was subjected to sexual harassment as a waitress forced the girl to prove she was a woman to use the women’s restroom. Back in March, a tall cis woman was fired from her job at Walmart after a customer accused her of being transgender. Enforcing gender norms and punishing those who fail to abide by these arbitrary, often misogynistic and racist rules, dehumanizes cis people as well as transgender people.

In a statement, the White House celebrated Yale New Haven Hospital’s subservience. While the hospital and Yale University are distinct corporations, the former’s concession to the Trump administration’s draconian demands sets a dangerous precedent for our community. I urge Yale to fund gender-affirming care education and research at the School of Medicine and to unwaveringly support gender-inclusive spaces on campus. Yale must recognize the truth: gender-affirming care saves lives, while transphobia harms all within and outside the community. It’s time for Yale to act on truth — and keep the light shining through its unwavering protection of transgender youth.

ELIZABETH SHVARTS is a junior in Pauli Murray college studying Political Science and Education Studies. Elizabeth is co-chair of Trans @ Yale and can be reached at liz.shvarts@yale.edu.

Ivy League universities went from being havens for wealthy, WASP-y graduates of Northeast prep schools to institutions open to talented, ambitious students from all over the country. Students now reasonably believe that the purpose of their education is precisely that “increase in lifetime earnings.” Becoming a lifelong “questioner” pales in comparison to delivering a financially secure future for one’s family. This fact — which is about the incentives that govern the college process, not amorphous cultural trends — suggests that the changes in American education cut to the core of the system. Students and universities engage in a college admissions market that is increasingly open and competitive. Like any marketplace, the preferences of the consumers will eventually influence the offerings.

Those preferences create an unfortunate dynamic. Applicants and their parents prioritize earnings and certain amenities largely unrelated to the core function of the college: fancy dorms, shiny new buildings, gourmet food. Administrators at elite universities hurry to respond in kind. Why was the University of Chicago in so much debt? Because it was competing for top applicants with better-funded Ivy League schools — alongside places like Duke University and Stanford University — who are already fighting tooth-and-nail amongst themselves. It’s competition, not just culture, that threatens the kind of university Ando describes. Is there a remedy? Taking university enrollment off the market, likely by way of an admissions lottery, would ease the pressure to field the nicest buildings and the coolest-sounding course offerings. It would reorient higher education towards lifelong education while not closing off the increase in earnings that

makes universities so valuable to so many different kinds of people.

Competition, though, allows student preferences to play a role, which surely is good for something. It allows for colleges to craft bespoke student bodies and for students to find their way to schools that seem like cultural fits. It allows low-income students to compare and shop around for financial aid offers. Altering the university system in such a basic way would risk undoing the prosperity that made our country’s universities the best in the world, as well as the transformations that opened institutions like Yale to a much broader swathe of America.

Changing the incentive structure of American higher education is a difficult task, and changing the preferences of hundreds of thousands of applicants would be almost impossible. It might be that the research-university-as-close-knit-academic-community is simply a fish out of water, a relic of another age. All that is solid about college life melts into air, and all that is holy is profaned. But we shouldn’t be so pessimistic. Yale, in our experience, retains much of the spark that always follows a “shared project” of learning and seeking. We are lucky to do so, and we hope that such a spark exists across the country: at the thousands of community colleges and from the smallest liberal arts schools to the largest state universities. We must huddle around our little flame and shield it from the elements. Amid raging political and economic headwinds, that may be the best way to keep it.

TEDDY WITT is a sophomore in Berkeley College. He can be reached at teddy.witt@yale.edu . MILAN SINGH is a senior in Pierson College. Contact

FROM THE FRONT

" To make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from."

T.S.

One-time-only course offers overview of American history

“The more that Yale can open itself up to the larger community, the better its relations will be, and the more the community will grow and develop from the exchange of ideas,” she said.

Buzzell, 79, added that being in a room with undergraduates is “energizing.”

“They have perspectives that I don’t have,” she said. “They have experiences that I don’t have. They’re really growing up in a very different world, and I want to hear about it.”

Arthur Nacht DRA ’06, a fellow at Saybrook College, was enthused by the course’s relevance today.

“The opportunity to hear a course with a grand view, such as a sweep of 250 years, is very

exciting,” Nacht said. “History is still in us and is affecting everything that’s happening in the current moment.”

After the first class, Freeman told the News that she found the high turnout “cheering.”

“To see this many people, students and in the community, this interested in learning history at this moment –– it doesn’t get better, right?” she said.

Freeman said the short time frame of the course poses a unique challenge.

While teaching about the American Revolution normally takes her a whole semester, she said, she will dedicate only one lecture to the topic in this course.

Each professor is slated to teach eight lectures based on their areas of expertise.

“With 2026 upon us, there couldn’t be a better moment for the three of us to be thinking about big questions in American history so that people here can go and think for themselves next year as to how they’re thinking about the past, how they’re thinking about the present, how they’re thinking about the future,” Freeman said.

The DeVane lecture series began in 1969, named after former Yale College Dean William Clyde DeVane, according to the website of the University president’s office, which sponsors the series.

Jaeha Jang and Olivia Woo contributed reporting.

Contact OLIVIA CYRUS at olivia.cyrus@yale.edu.

ELIOT POET AND ESSAYIST

Yale still spared from Trump targeting

diversity” as justification for the punitive measures.

In July, the White House restored the $175 million in funding to Penn after it agreed to remove former swimmer Lia Thomas’ individual records. Thomas is transgender.

Penn also agreed to specify that its athletics department would “adopt biology-based definitions for the words ‘male’ and ‘female.’”

Columbia likewise agreed to pay a $200 million fine and enact sweeping policy changes in exchange for the return of federal grants terminated by Trump’s punitive cuts.

Trump has demanded at least a $500 million settlement from Harvard. Harvard has since sued the federal government over freezes to its federal research grants. The university’s president, Alan Garber, has publicly criticized the Trump administration’s moves against universities. Garber has indicated Harvard will not pay the $500 million fine.

Though University President Maurie McInnis accepted a Yale committee’s recommendation in fall 2024 that university leaders refrain from taking public political stances, Yale joined 17 other universities in filing an amicus brief supporting Harvard’s case against the federal government in June.

During the summer, when a Republican proposal to increase the tax on universities’ endowment gains moved through Congress, McInnis prominently announced her opposition to the provision and urged Yale community members to advocate against it. Although the ultimate taxand-spending bill, signed into law on July 4, set the tax at 8 percent — lower than the originally proposed 21 percent — the University has announced a series of budget-tightening measures in its wake, including hiring freezes and delayed construction projects.

“I’m very fortunate that our school has not been as deeply affected as some of these other schools,” Jack Ludwick ’28 said in an interview. “My financial aid was never at risk, my housing situation was never at risk. I’m really grateful that none of those things have been dramatically affected so far.”

Though students interviewed by the News were relieved Yale had thus far avoided direct penalties, some questioned the price.

When Trump first took office in his second term, McInnis told the News that her priority was to work with legislators behind the scenes and avoid making public statements. The University also invested heavily in lobbying efforts, outspending all but one of its Ivy peers on lobbying during the second quarter of 2025.

Zach Pan ’27 described the Trump attacks as “100 percent political” and said that other universities were targeted due to their presidents “putting their foot in their mouth.”

“Yale’s disciplined and drama-free approach has shielded us for now,” Pan said. Despite feelings of unease, the prospect of the first day of classes still carried the usual jubilance of reunions and new beginnings for interviewed students.

For now, Yale remains largely untouched. But many students feel that could change at any time.

“He could finger-paint a middle finger to Yale anytime he wants,” Conor Webb ’28 said of Trump. “We’re not spared.”

In the 2024 fiscal year, Yale received approximately $900 million in grants from the federal government, according to the provost’s office.

Jonas Loesel contributed reporting. Contact BAALA SHAKYA at baala.shakya@yale.edu.

The victim — identified as male in a brief statement from Yale on Saturday — was employed by the Stamford-based landscaping company Eastern Land Management. He was killed after touching a live electrical wire that had fallen down in a storm, according to the University statement.

New Haven Fire Department first responders were at the scene, but

officers in the city police department were not, according to the New Haven Police Department’s public information officer Christian Bruckhart. New Haven’s fire marshals office did not respond to a phone call from the News asking for clarification about the incident. Bruckhart attributed his department’s absence to a jurisdictional division between the New Haven Police Department and the Yale Police Department.

The golf course is on Yale property and therefore under the jurisdiction of the Yale police. Yale Police Chief Anthony Campbell ’95 DIV ’09 wrote in a text message that he was not in New Haven at the time of the contractor’s death. He did not answer two further calls from the News.

The department did not send a message to Yale students about the contractor’s electrocution.

A spokesperson for the Connecticut medical examiner confirmed that the contractor’s cause of death was electrocution and that it was accidental, but the office has declined to share more information.

Alder Amy Marx LAW ’00, whose ward in Westville includes the golf course, told the News she did not know any details about the victim.

She added that she was on the scene after he was electrocuted but declined to share more information for this article.

Six neighbors living near the golf course told the News they had no information about the electrocution.

“My heart goes out to the family and friends for their loss and we hope that out of this tragedy there can be more community understanding of the dangers of live wires and the importance of safety when a tree has fallen in the neighborhood,” Marx said in a phone interview.

The regional manager for Eastern Land Management did not respond to the News’ request for comment.

Eastern Land Management’s President and CEO Bruce Moore Jr. expressed his sympathy for the victim in a statement to the News but declined to comment further.

“Our focus has been supporting our employee’s family and our team members that were affected by this tragic accident,” Moore wrote to the News.

Anastasia Mixsell, a tree system coordinator for the New Haven Parks Department, wrote in a statement to the News that she did not know about the storm or the downed tree.

“If this tree and incident was on Yale’s property, Yale would be in the best position to comment,” she wrote.

As of Thursday evening, Yale officials have not commented beyond the original statement shared with the News on Saturday.

“Yale offers its deepest condolences and sympathy to the family of the deceased,” the statement read.

James M. Hoak Jr. ’66, a former Yale golfer who helped lead the fundraising effort to renovate the course, is quoted in a press release from Yale’s “For Humanity” capital campaign calling the course “a Rembrandt.”

Reeti Malhotra contributed reporting.

Contact ADELE HAEG at adele.haeg@yale.edu and JAKE ROBBINS at jake.robbins@yale.edu.

Yale-Harvard showdown will return to home of Red Sox

senior on the team when the Bulldogs play the Crimson at Fenway next year.

Since the rivalry began in 1875, Yale and Harvard have faced off 140 times, with the games typically alternating between the Yale Bowl and Harvard Stadium.

The Yale Bowl, with a maximum capacity of over 64,000, dwarfs Harvard’s horseshoe-shaped stadium, which seats just over 25,000. The discrepancy has long been a point of frustration, particularly for Yale students, who often find themselves scrambling for tickets when The Game is in Boston’s Allston neighborhood, across the Charles River from Cambridge.

Those tensions reached a boiling point in 2022, the first time The Game returned to Harvard Stadium following the 2018 renovations.

Tickets sold out within hours after an accidental release, and they carried an additional sting: Yale students were asked to pay $25 — a policy that carried over to last year. During years when the teams meet at the Yale Bowl, Harvard and Yale students alike have received free admission.

Yale administrators attempted to address the issue last year by implementing a lottery system to distribute tickets for Harvard Stadium, giving upperclassmen priority. Demand still far outpaced supply, leaving many students shut out. A steep resale market quickly emerged, with some tickets listed on the popular campus social media app Fizz for over $100.

Moving the 2026 game to Fenway may alleviate some of these recurring challenges. Fenway Park seats roughly 37,000 for baseball games and can be reconfigured for football — making it larger than Harvard Stadium, which seats roughly 25,000, though significantly smaller than the Yale Bowl, which seats over 61,000.

“Hosting The Game at Fenway

Park is an incredible honor,” Sam Kennedy, the president and CEO of the Boston Red Sox, wrote in a statement included in the MLB news release. Of course, the 2026 matchup still

feels a long while away for the Bulldogs. The upcoming season is at the forefront of their minds.

“Being able to showcase what Ivy League football has to offer is an unreal opportunity for both programs

such a historic ballpark. That being said, we’re focused on right now and this upcoming season,” Nick Conforti ’26 said. The 141st playing of The Game in November will take place at the Yale Bowl. In 2018, Yale lost the 135th playing, 27–45, at Fenway Park.. Contact KAITLYN POHLY at kk.pohly@yale.edu.

Democratic registration rose 28 percent since August

REGISTRATION FROM PAGE 1

1 in the city’s legislative body, but the last several Ward 1 alders ran uncontested for the position.

Since the beginning of August, 247 individuals living in Ward 1 — which encompasses Old Campus, eight of Yale’s 14 residential colleges and half of the New Haven Green — have registered as Democratic voters in New Haven. The total number of registered Democratic voters in Ward 1 rose from 883 to 1130 between Aug. 1 and Aug. 27, according to data provided to the News by Democratic voters clerk Maritza Gant.

The pronounced uptick in the number of registered voters may indicate that the unusually competitive three-way race and high-energy campaign efforts are driving interest in the election.

The most common addresses listed by registered Ward 1 voters were those of the Eli Apartments on Church Street and Grace Hopper College. Each houses 62 registered voters. Other off-campus housing options, such as the Liberty Building and Taft Apartments, also had significant numbers of registered voters.

Old Campus — which includes seven first-year dormitories, Connecticut Hall and McClellan Hall — houses 195 of the registered Demo-

cratic voters in Ward 1. Of those nine locations, Vanderbilt Hall and Lanman Wright Hall had the largest share of voters, with 48 and 47 respectively.

Of Yale’s residential colleges located in Ward 1, Trumbull College had the fewest registered voters. Trumbull is also the smallest res-

idential college at Yale by population.

From the voter registration information obtained by the News, it is unclear how many of the 1,130 voters are Yale students. All three Ward 1 alder candidates list voter registration information on their websites,

and Theodore and McTiernan Huge operated voter registration tables on Old Campus when first-year students arrived at Yale. On the first years’ move-in day, McTiernan Huge and Theodore said they registered at least 55 new voters.

The last time three people ran for Ward 1 alder was in 2009.

Contact HENRY LIU at henry.liu.hal52@yale.edu and AIDEN ZHOU at aiden.zhou@yale.edu.

“We start out walking and learn to run, and yes, we’ve just begun.”

Slain Yale alumna remembered for warmth, drive

BY OLIVIA CYRUS & ISOBEL MCCLURE STAFF REPORTERS

Waiting in line at the Yale Bookstore to purchase books for her first semester at Yale, Elyssa Friedland ’03 eyed Wesley Mittman ’03 standing behind her. Here was someone she might want to get to know, Friedland thought.

They introduced themselves, Friedland said, and Mittman — who later took the name LePatner from her husband — volunteered that she thought they could be friends. They walked to Old Campus together, talking along the way.

Wesley Mittman LePatner was among the four people killed in a shooting at a Midtown Manhattan office building on July 28.

Her death at age 43 shocked her friends and members of the broader Yale and New York communities who watched her rise thanks to what they described as a singular mix of brilliance, compassion and drive. LePatner ticked off traditional benchmarks of success while devoting herself to others, friends said — until a gunman fatally shot her in the lobby of the Park Avenue skyscraper where she worked as an executive at the investment firm Blackstone.

“She rose to her position through sheer hard work, but also genuine likability. She wanted everyone around her to succeed,” Friedland said.

In an email to the News, Sarah Indyk ’03, another Yale classmate, called LePatner “magnetic, effervescent, savvy, brilliant.” She added: “Wesley was truly one of a kind.”

LePatner’s parents, Larry and Ellyn Mittman, are both lawyers. They raised her with a strong sense of Jewish traditions, Indyk wrote. LePatner graduated in 1999 from the prestigious Horace Mann School.

At Yale, LePatner was a dedicated and intellectual student, several classmates and a professor told the News. LePatner graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in history.

Professor Tim Barringer, an art historian who taught LePatner, remembered her prowess in the subject.

“I will never forget Wesley’s sparkling presence in the classroom: She was deeply committed to scholarship, creative, witty, and warmly supportive of her peers,” Barringer wrote to the News.

LePatner visited Yale in the spring to see the reopened Yale Center for British Art, according to Barringer. After the Metropolitan Museum of Art named LePatner a trustee in February, Barringer received an appreciative email from her saying that working with Yale’s collections had “awakened” her love for art.

In college, LePatner was a First-Year Outdoor Orientation Trips leader, a head campus tour guide and a first-year counselor, or FroCo.

Alex Milsom ’03, a fellow FOOT leader, said LePatner was eager to lead her first trip. “Any freshman who would be assigned to her group was always very lucky, because she was so hands on and nurturing and kind,” Milsom said.

LePatner’s work as a FroCo was no different. Kate Crandall ’06 — a member of LePatner’s FroCo group in Calhoun College, now called Grace Hopper — recalled that LePatner caringly helped her through a challenging time her first year.

After graduating, LePatner worked at Goldman Sachs as managing director in the real estate investment group.

“I think that she had a strong sense of achievement,” said Michael Schulman ’03, a writer who attended high school and college

with LePatner and recently memorialized her in a New Yorker essay.

Goldman Sachs, he said, “was sort of the default place to go, having grown up in Manhattan and been such a star student.”

LePatner arrived at Blackstone in 2014 and became the chief executive officer of Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust in January.

Emily Hurstak ’03 described LePatner as intensely humble — so much so that Hurstak was often unaware of the many impressive things her friend was doing.

Hurstak recalled listening to LePatner introduce her once with such flattering words that Hurstak almost did not recognize herself as the person being described.

“Wesley had a unique ability to elevate other people in a truly

BY JERRY GAO STAFF REPORTER

Current Yale identification cards will cease to work in residential colleges by Sept. 9 as part of the University’s ongoing effort to replace ID scanners.

Yale’s information technology office first announced it would be replacing ID scanners on June 13, citing newer technology as “necessary to better protect” campus. Now, students have until Monday, Sept. 8, to replace any IDs issued before July 2.

According to a statement from Yale’s media office, the upgraded technology includes “modern encryption and authentication features.”

Undergraduates across all residential colleges will be able to pick up new IDs in specific locations across the next week and a half.

The first phase of the upgrade will focus on scanners in residential colleges, with academic, administrative and research facilities to follow, according to the University’s statement.

Approximately 1,200 new read -

When and where to pick up new IDs by college

ers have already been replaced, the statement said. The previous ID system was piloted in the 1990s and implemented fully in the early 2000s, according to the statement.

However, by the late 2000s, cards based on radio-frequency identification technology — or RFID — were found to be vulnerable to duplication.

In April, Yale Police Department officers arrested a person on Cross Campus after tracking a cloned ID card used to gain access to Berkeley College.

effective and genuine way. She was authentically thrilled for other people’s successes and achievements,” Hurstak wrote to the News.

In addition to the Met’s, LePatner served on boards for a Jewish day school and the UJA-Federation of New York, a Jewish organization.

LePatner donated extensively to Yale, reaching the level of the Sterling Fellows, who have committed at least $1 million to the University. She was a member of the “For Humanity” fundraising campaign committee and the Yale University Library Council.

LePatner and her husband, Evan Harris LePatner ’03, are recognized on a plaque in Sterling Memorial Library’s Linonia and Brothers reading room, whose renovation the couple helped fund.

Jessie Rossman ’03 wrote to the News that LePatner was a “regular companion” on trips to Yorkside Pizza & Restaurant, just outside the library, to “pick up anything eggplant-related.”

According to Katie Cole ’03, another friend, Sterling was LePatner’s favorite place on campus. Cole said LePatner loved the “peacefulness and community of the library,” particularly the L&B room.

“As her friend, you just knew not to open any loud snacks in her vicinity,” Cole told the News. LePatner is survived by her two children.

Contact OLIVIA CYRUS at olivia.cyrus@yale.edu and ISOBEL MCCLURE at isobel.mcclure@yale.edu .

A student who obtained access to most residential colleges by cloning his friends’ IDs described the cloning process as relatively straightforward. The student, who spoke to the News on the condition of anonymity because duplicating an ID violates undergraduate rules, said it was possible to tap someone else’s ID to a relatively cheap device and “have access to their swipes.”

Universities such as MIT, Stanford and Duke have issued digital student IDs accessible on phones. Duke switched exclusively to digital cards in 2023, only issuing physical IDs for student voter registration.

Daniel Lai, a sophomore at Duke, said in an interview that the digital IDs were convenient for accessing student dormitories.

“Basically you can just have your card on your phone,” Lai said. “If you go to the newer dorms on Duke’s campus, you can swipe into your dorm room with your card.”

The Wednesday email from Yale’s Information Technology Services office said that holding an iPhone near the new ID scanners may cause Apple Pay to appear.

“Our testing has confirmed that the reader will not access any personal information,” the email said.

According to the University media office, the rollout of new IDs for all students will not affect the price for an individual replacement ID, which is $20 according to a

“If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done.”

THOMAS JEFFERSON AMERICAN PRESIDENT

New tenants union joins with Detroit counterpart for negotiations

BY JAKE ROBBINS STAFF REPORTER

A movement to organize tenants of a multistate landlord has begun to spread across the country from New Haven, where the first successful tenants union at a Capital Realty Group property formed this summer.

Tenants unions in New Haven and Detroit announced Wednesday that they had secured recognition and new organizing protections in their first joint bargaining session with the New York–based property management firm.

“The reason for the union is to give the tenants a voice. For the first time, as of today, we have the ear of the owner directly,” Ellen Pankey, the vice president of the Park Ridge Tenant Union in New Haven’s West Rock neighborhood, said in a Connecticut Tenants Union press release on Wednesday.

The negotiations mark a significant moment in which tenants across state lines have engaged in collective bargaining with a shared corporate landlord. At both Park Ridge Apartments in New Haven and River Pointe Tower in Detroit, residents have raised what they described as longstanding concerns about maintenance and transparency from management.

Capital Realty Group has not responded to repeated requests for comment on the Park Ridge Tenant Union and renters’ complaints. A News reporter was turned away from the firm’s office in Rockland County, N.Y., this week after a person inside declined to answer questions or open the door.

Capital Realty Group owns more than 14,000 units of federally subsidized housing across 28 states, according to the Wednesday press release from Connecticut Tenants Union.

The company purchased Park Ridge Apartments in 2016 for $7.6 million and River Pointe Tower in 2022 for $10.1 million, both with heavy reliance on federally backed loans, the press release said. Despite those acquisitions, renters and their allies have criticized the company for spending comparatively little on upkeep. At an event this month with the Park Ridge Tenant Union, Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said Capital Realty Group has invested less than the typical yearly amount on maintenance per unit.

The Park Ridge Tenant Union formed in early August, as the ninth recognized tenants union in New Haven and the first one at a Capital Realty Group property.

Two weeks later, tenants at River Pointe Tower in Detroit organized their own union.

Capital Realty Group agreed to meet with both unions within days of the Detroit launch.

The company agreed to recognize and meet in good faith with any tenant union across its portfolio,

according to the Connecticut Tenants Union. The company also agreed to respect tenants’ rights to organize, use common spaces and distribute union information without retaliation, the union’s press release said. According to the press release, Capital Realty Group agreed

to a follow-up meeting, where tenants hope to secure a formal agreement.

The Park Ridge Apartments are located at 10 Hard St.

Contact JAKE ROBBINS at jake.robbins@yale.edu.

City officials hope to turn abandoned plant into new housing

BY JAKE ROBBINS STAFF REPORTER

New Haven officials hope a planned redevelopment of the abandoned English Station power plant could spur new housing construction in the surrounding area.

Mayor Justin Elicker announced in July that the city plans to convert the former industrial plant into a new public space called Mill River Park. The proposed project would feature walking and biking trails, outdoor pools and playgrounds, according to a news release from the mayor’s office.

Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli said the park would serve as a cornerstone for a new residential neighborhood east of Interstate 91. In a joint interview Tuesday at City Hall, Piscitelli and two members of his staff said ongoing cleanups of abandoned and undeveloped properties adjacent to the former power plant were critical steps toward opening the land for further development.

“Our economic development strategy is built on strong job sectors and rebuilding a public infrastructure that supports a healthy community,” Piscitelli said. “Rebuilding English Station as a public park is the anchor for what we see as a new neighborhood in the Mill River district.”

English Station, vacant since 1992, is one of New Haven’s most visible environmental scars — a contaminated power plant on Ball Island

that has languished in legal disputes for decades.

Fair Haven, the largely low-income and Latino residential neighborhood just east of the site, has experienced persistent environmental issues, with residents facing flooding risks and industrial pollution at higher levels than elsewhere in the city.

The facility, now owned by O&G Industries, has faced reduced federal oversight in the past year. State officials are pushing to hold the former owner United Illuminating accountable for cleanup.

English Station remains contaminated with toxic chemicals and heavy metals. A Connecticut Superior Court ruling in March upheld a $2 million annual penalty against United Illuminating for failing to remediate the site.

Piscitelli and the members of his staff estimate that once cleanup is underway, the planned Mill River Park could be built in 18 to 24 months. They said residents who attended community and legislative meetings have raised concerns about affordability and the retail options that new developments would support.

Piscitelli said the city is also negotiating with private owners of nearby industrial parcels and contaminated sites.

He said officials are eyeing redevelopment projects at a former petroleum tank farm on River Street

and at the site of a former clock factory in Wooster Square.

“These will be the first two out of the gate,” Piscitelli said, referring to housing developments in the area. “Then you’ll see more as we can open up additional properties for redevelopment.”

The city’s goal, Piscitelli said, is to expand housing supply in Mill River to reduce pressure on other neighborhoods. Without opening new residential districts, he warned, rising demand could encourage developers to tear down existing low-density housing in other parts of the city to build denser housing.

Mill River has long been seen as “the edge” of several neighborhoods — downtown, Fair Haven and Wooster Square — but redevelopment could reposition it as a new center connecting them, Piscitelli said.

But housing development there will take years, as builders seek to secure financing through state agencies, federal programs and private lenders. Piscitelli said four years would be considered a fast turnaround for housing.

Carlos Eyzaguirre, one of Piscitelli’s deputies, stressed the importance of supporting smaller-scale projects in addition to large developments. City officials are particularly interested in housing projects under 30 units.

“We want a market in New Haven where smaller developers — people

from Connecticut and the neighborhood — actually get a chance to play a role,” Eyzaguirre said. “Those projects can help build a sense of belonging, even if they are harder to fund.”

Malachi Bridges, another official in the economic development administration, said housing construction must be paired with public amenities that improve the quality of life in neighborhoods long dominated by industrial uses.

“We are trying to see ways that we can reconnect communities beyond highway and infrastructure,” Bridges said.

Bridges, who grew up in New Haven, recalled learning to swim at Wilbur Cross High School through the city’s Police Athletic League program, an experience that he said shaped how he views the importance of public amenities. For him, features like an outdoor pool go hand in hand with building new housing and attracting more families to the city.

English Station is located on the Mill River at 275 Wolcott St.

Contact JAKE ROBBINS at jake.robbins@yale.edu.

New to New Haven? Here are the best parks and trails to explore

BY KINNIA CHEUK STAFF REPORTER

NFirst years have spent the last week and a half exploring Yale’s campus, and some have hiked on orientation trips. But where can they catch some sun in the Elm City?

Max Webster ENV ’17, the director of the New Haven Parks Department, shared with the News an outdoor bucket list for new Yale students. East Rock Park

The most obvious choice for a short retreat into nature is East Rock Park, a spot beloved by Yale students due to its short distance from campus and accessibility by foot, Webster said. A leisurely half-hour stroll through the East Rock neighborhood along Orange Street leads across the Mill River and into the park.

Once there, visitors can hike the aptly named Giant’s Steps Trail or wander along a gently sloping paved road. Both options arrive at the summit, where hikers enjoy a hardearned picnic, admire the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument commemorating New Haven veterans and take in a panoramic view of the city.

In a few months’ time, the park will be filled with color.

“The fall foliage and the colors in there, once the leaves start to change, are going to be pretty awesome,” Webster said.

The Farmington Canal Heritage Trail

The Farmington Canal Heritage Trail is a great place to start when it comes to New Haven’s natural beauty. It connects New Haven to some of the state’s most storied parks. Owen Setiawan ’27, a co-coordinator of the student group Yale Outdoors, wrote in an email to the News that the trail “is extremely accessible, walkable and bikeable and stretches really far.”

The trail, which runs through Yale’s campus, stretches from New Haven to Northampton, Massachusetts. The trail can be reached down the steps near Benjamin Franklin College and at other access points. Along the trail, Webster suggested Scantlebury Park, in the Dixwell neighborhood, for a pickleball or basketball game.

Quinnipiac River Park

Located on the east side of Fair Haven, Quinnipiac River Park is one of the few waterfront areas in the city where visitors can spot fish, birds and other wildlife, Webster said. One of the park’s highlights is an osprey nest.

“There’s sort of a view of a version of New Haven that was this town on the water that you get from Quinnipiac River Park that is hard to realize these days,” Webster said. “We don’t have a ton of waterfront space where people can find access and see the water.”

The walk to the park from campus takes almost an hour, but it leads through iconic areas, such as Fair Haven’s Grand Avenue.

“All the different shops and restaurants on Grand Avenue really showcase and represent the Latin American influence in the city,” Webster said.

Edgewood Park

For those seeking nature after a riveting game at the Yale Bowl, nearby Edgewood Park offers tennis courts, pickleball courts and running trails that wind around ponds.

While the Saturday farmer’s market in Wooster Square is closer to campus, Edgewood Park has its own farmer’s market on Sunday mornings. CT Transit bus route 243, which stops at the intersection of Broadway and York Street, runs along Whalley Avenue to the park.

Yale Outdoors hosts an annual polar plunge at Lighthouse Point in winter as well as regular outdoor opportunities for Yale students in the New Haven area.

The New Haven Parks Department Instagram account also posts monthly calendars listing outdoor events around the city. Contact KINNIA CHEUK at kinnia.cheuk@yale.edu.

Lighthouse Point Park New Haven might not be known for its beaches, but the city’s coastline brings beautiful spots like Lighthouse Point Park on the eastern point of New

“The

Alder candidates hone digital campaigns, set different priorities

BY KADE GAJDUSEK STAFF REPORTER

Three Yale students running to represent downtown New Haven on the Board of Alders will face off in the Democratic primary in less than two weeks, and the candidates are still honing their online personas.

Norah Laughter ’26, Elias

Theodore ’27 and Rhea McTiernan

Huge ’27, all running to represent Ward 1 in New Haven’s legislative body, have made efforts to reach voters through screens. After all, much of Ward 1 consists of Yale buildings and student housing, including eight residential colleges and Old Campus — which sat largely empty over the summer.

With the primary quickly approaching on Sept. 9, candidates have highlighted different parts of their platforms to spread the word about their events and encourage students to register to vote. Students can register to vote in the primary in-person at the Registrar of Voters until Sept. 8.

The three candidates’ websites all list resources for voter registration — including Ward 1 maps, the phone number of New Haven’s registrar and polling locations.

But when it comes to highlighting specific elements of their campaign platforms, each candidate has taken a unique approach online.

Theodore mimics Mamdani

Theodore, who claims inspiration from New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s approachable digital demeanor, was the first to create

a campaign Instagram page and made his first post on July 22.

In his video posts, Theodore is frequently en route to various locations around Ward 1. On his Instagram page, he often offers to bike and meet followers wherever they are. He told the News he plans to keep up this offer if elected alder.

Theodore’s Instagram page also identifies his five primary goals if elected alder: meeting every constituent, bridging the gap between Yale and New Haven, incorporating more community input in decisions, improving essential infrastructure and making municipal government more accessible to everyone.

His website explains some of his background, including that he moved to New Haven when he was 6 years old and first went to The Foote School and then to Wilbur Cross High School, the largest public school in New Haven.

Theodore recalls his entrance into local politics when he and fellow Wilbur Cross baseball players took up the issue of poor field conditions with the Board of Alders and successfully received money for its repair. The experience made him optimistic about the roles of local officials.

“Being from New Haven means understanding the beauty of a small city,” Theodore said in one of his Instagram stories. “Being from New Haven and staying in New Haven and being involved in New Haven I think reflects a sense of hope.”

McTiernan Huge showcases favorite parts of New Haven A fellow Wilbur Cross graduate, though she graduated high school a year before Theodore,

McTiernan Huge is adamant about caring for her hometown.

On her campaign website, McTiernan Huge describes Wilbur Cross’ financial difficulties and lack of resources. When she came to Yale, she knew that she would have access to more resources than she did in high school and, therefore, wanted to give back, she said. Since starting at Yale, McTiernan Huge has worked closely with the current Ward 1 alder, Kiana Flores ’26, who endorsed McTiernan Huge’s campaign.

“Creating content that is engaging, informative and lays out important issues in the ward has been my goal, but I am also hoping to showcase New Haven and its spaces, events and resources,” McTiernan Huge said. “New Haven is truly such an amazing place, I love it so dearly and it’s been wonderful to show that on social media.”

McTiernan Huge grounds her campaign posts in her love for different parts of New Haven. She frequently mentions her time spent vending at farmers’ markets, living in Wooster Square and making jewelry for her local business.

On McTiernan Huge’s campaign Instagram page, she talks about a number of issues she would focus on as Ward 1 alder, including increasing funding for public schools, protecting New Haven’s sanctuary city status, implementing safe bike lanes and affordable buses, and advocating for increased grocery options.

She criticizes the money allocated toward public education as too small on her website — which she blames on the fact that Yale takes up a significant portion of tax-exempt

New Haven property. McTiernan Huge’s campaign website originally misstated how much funding New Haven schools get from local property taxes and attributed the incorrect information to an article from the News, despite the News’ article having the correct statistic. Her site originally said schools receive 92 percent of their funding from property taxes, rather than 56 percent, which is the actual percentage.

When asked by the News about this mistake, McTiernan Huge said that she found the statistic on a website that had republished the News’ article. She then corrected the error on her campaign site.

Laughter features voices of her supporters

McTiernan Huge is not alone in her critique of Yale. On both her website and Instagram, Laughter, a Kentucky native, advocates for bringing Yale to the negotiating table — with its employee unions and its host city.

Her first semester at Yale, in 2022, Laughter joined Students Unite Now, a student group that promotes increased financial aid and student wages, to advocate on behalf of labor unions and working students. She has organized alongside unions since she arrived at Yale and testified in support of Connecticut Senate Bill 8, a piece of legislation that increased worker protections.

In addition to working with SUN, Laughter is also the Ward 1 co-chair on the Democratic Town Committee.

On her website, she reports running on a shared platform with Alder Frank Douglass, a retired Local 35 union member who represents part of the nearby Dwight neighborhood.

Theodore might model his social media after Mamdani’s, but Laughter was recently reposted on Mamdani’s Instagram story after she tagged him in a screenshot she took of his original post depicting him with unionized U.S. Open workers.

“This was just a repost from a tag (which we do regularly) and nothing more,” Mamdani’s press secretary Dora Pekec wrote the News. Mamdani and Pekec did not comment further on Laughter’s campaign and have not since engaged with the Ward 1 race.

Laughter’s social media posts largely feature quotes from her supporters, which include both Yale students and various local residents. Many of their quotes focus on Laughter’s involvement with unions and advocacy groups, both at Yale and in New Haven.

Laughter told the News she was not particularly excited about the online campaigning craze, instead preferring to engage with voters in a face to face manner, but she understands that campaigning digitally might be the key to a successful campaign.

“I fear it’s a necessity.,” Laughter said when asked about the online format of campaigning.

“In my dream, I would just talk a lot to them all day about what they would want to see in their lives.”

Laughter was the last candidate to release a campaign site.

Contact KADE GAJDUSEK at kade.gajdusek@yale.edu.

Students who cannot vote in the Ward 1 alder race engage anyways

BY JAKE ROBBINS STAFF REPORTER

The Yalies running to represent downtown New Haven in the Board of Alders have caught the attention of classmates who aren’t eligible to vote for them.

Three undergraduate candidates, Norah Laughter ’26, Rhea McTiernan Huge ’27 and Elias Theodore ’27, have thrown their hats in the ring to represent Ward 1 on New Haven’s Board of Alders. Earlier this month, all three candidates successfully petitioned to appear on the ballot of the Democratic primary election, which will take place Sept. 9.

Six residential colleges, Benjamin Franklin, Morse, Pauli Murray, Silliman, Ezra Stiles and Timothy Dwight, are outside the bounds of Ward 1, the district in New Haven which most encompasses Yale and is typically represented by an undergraduate. Despite this, the three Yalies running for Ward 1 alder have courted students with social media campaigns and tabling events regardless of what college they call home.

Ward 1 encompasses eight of Yale’s 14 residential colleges and all of Old Campus, where most firstyear undergraduates reside. The district also includes about half of the New Haven Green. The other six colleges are in Ward 22, which is represented by Alder Jeanette

Morrison and also encompasses the Dixwell neighborhood.

Morrison, who has represented Ward 22 for 14 years, said she has noticed heightened student engagement in this year’s Ward 1 alder race, which is unusually competitive. While she doesn’t believe the race has fundamentally changed levels of student engagement with New Haven, she said it has stimulated increased attention to local politics.

“I wouldn’t say there’s been a major shift in how students engage,” Morrison said in a phone interview. “What I see is an onset of involvement: Students are becoming more aware that they have opportunities to participate in local politics, even if they are not directly voting in Ward 1.” Campaigns like Laughter’s, which include both student and local volunteers, reflect the race’s ability to encourage student engagement with New Haven, Morrison said. Still, she said that the Ward 1 election has not significantly impacted levels of student engagement with Ward 22’s politics.

Morrison cultivates relationships with Yale students in her district by appointing student co-chairs to represent Ward 22 on the Democratic Town Committee and by holding meetings at the six residential colleges within her ward. She said this structure

allows students to learn about local government and helps her build stronger connections between Yale and New Haven.

While many undergraduates’ needs — such as housing and dining — are met on campus, Morrison noted that graduate students and off-campus students tend to interact with her office more directly, particularly when navigating issues like landlord disputes or rental conditions.

Although Zach Pan ’27, a junior in Ezra Stiles College, cannot vote in the Ward 1 election, he said he has followed the race closely, spoken with several candidates and plans to attend campaign events. He said that seat carries weight beyond Ward 1 because of its role shaping Yale’s relationship to the city.

“Even though I live outside Ward 1, I believe the alder will have a pivotal role to play in ensuring the University properly funds New Haven,” Pan said. “That is what motivates a lot of my interest and participation in the electoral process.”

Tajrian Khan ’27, a junior in Benjamin Franklin College, said he has been following the Ward 1 alder race closely despite not living in the ward or being able to vote in the election.

“I’ve read the YDN and New Haven Independent features on each candidate,” Khan wrote

in a text message. “I’ve been seeing Elias’s campaign all over Instagram. I’ve also seen him speaking to voters in person all over Ward 1, as well as helping new voters register.”

Khan, who was born and raised in Dhaka, Bangladesh, said his experiences studying urban planning and volunteering in New Haven have deepened his understanding of the city’s politics and made him more attentive to the race.

Like Pan, he feels that municipal decisions made by the Board of Alders impact students across campus, regardless of where they live. While he does not plan to attend any in-person campaign events, he said he will continue following the candidates platforms closely.

Miriam Levenson ’29, a lifelong resident of the New Haven area and a student in Silliman, said she first learned about the Ward 1 alder race through social media, where she frequently saw campaign videos, especially from Theodore.

Though Levenson later learned that her Silliman address disqualifies her from voting in Ward 1, she said the visibility of the campaigns still motivated her to pay closer attention to local politics.

“I was planning to vote in the election, though I hadn’t decided on my candidate,” Levenson wrote

in an email to the News. “I found out that I’m not going to be directly involved in the race, but I’m still excited to know what Yale students can be involved in the city I love, and that they want to be. Every poster, table or video I see about the Ward 1 race reminds me to be involved in local politics.”

Levenson added that she views the Ward 1 alder role as an important bridge between Yale students and New Haveners, both practically and symbolically.

Citing issues like housing, transportation and Yale’s voluntary contributions to the city, Levenson emphasized that the alder’s influence extends beyond Ward 1 and affects the broader Yale community.

Although she did not know her alder’s name when asked by the News, Levenson said the race has pushed her to feel “more responsible” for learning about her ward’s representation and becoming informed about local government. She added that the contest has motivated her to consider deeper civic engagement, even expressing interest in running for a city position in the future.

The Board of Alders meets at New Haven’s City Hall, located at 165 Church St.

Contact JAKE ROBBINS at jake.robbins@yale.edu.

“Today is where your book begins, the rest is still unwritten.”

UNWRITTEN BY NATASHA BEDINGFIELD

Researchers discover genes to test treatments for rare cancer

BY EDIS MESIC STAFF REPORTER

Yale researchers recently discovered new genes that could be used to test potential treatment options for a rare form of aggressive lung cancer.

Each year, about 6,000 Americans — roughly 3 percent of all people with lung cancer in the United States — are diagnosed with large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma, an uncommon but severe strain of lung cancer. Patients diagnosed with advanced stages of the aggressive cancer are typically told they have approximately 12 months to live, which has prompted researchers to look for ways to test possible therapies.

“So far, the treatments that we use are really extrapolated from other cancers, mainly from non-small cell lung cancer, which is the more common type of lung cancer, and from small cell lung cancer, which accounts for about 20 percent of lung cancers in the U.S.,” Amin Nassar, a medical oncology-hematology fellow at Yale Cancer Center who led the research study, said in a phone interview.

Because large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma is so rare, current treatment options were developed by comparing its tumors to those of two common types of lung cancer instead of targeting features unique to the more uncommon type of lung cancer.

A typical treatment for large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma is chemoimmunotherapy, Nassar said, which combines two chemotherapy drugs with an immunotherapy drug. The chemotherapy drugs, which have been conventional cancer treatments for decades, use potent chemicals to

target rapidly dividing cancer cells, while the immunotherapy drugs activate the immune system against the cancer.

Nassar was inspired to conduct the recent study after discussing the limitations of current treatment options for patients with large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma with Anne Chiang, an associate professor at the School of Medicine who works on clinical initiatives at the cancer center.

“We actually had a patient come in as a new diagnosis with large cell and I asked Dr. Chiang, what do we do with these patients? How come we have a critical gap here?” Nassar recalled.

“So I told her — why don’t we do a study around this?”

After Nassar’s conversation with Chiang, the team reached out to 26 medical centers in the United States and Europe to gather data on patients with the disease, ultimately compiling the data of more than 600 patients — a difficult feat due to the rarity of this cancer.

In collaboration with Caris Life Sciences, a company that sequences tumors all over the United States, the research team discovered common genetic patterns across patients to design better clinical trials in the future — specifically, two genes commonly associated with large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma patients that could be studied and manipulated in future trials for new treatments.

The first gene, FGL-1, is known to shut down the immune system when it binds to a protein, making it a promising target for the testing of new immunotherapies.

The second gene, DLL-3, could be used to test drugs’ effectiveness

in activating immune systems against large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma tumors.

“Rare cancers in general have been excluded from biomarker guided research and therapeutic interventions,” Abdul Rafeh Naqash, a co-senior author on the study,

wrote to the News. “In our project we were able to leverage genomics and clinic data to obtain insights into this rare tumor.” The research team hopes its study will encourage other research groups to examine rare or understudied diseases and pursue

large-scale collaborative efforts to do so. The Yale Cancer Center was founded in 1974. Contact EDIS MESIC at edis.mesic@yale.edu.

Fair draws students to learn about entrepreneurship groups

BY ANYA GEIST & MICHELLE SO STAFF REPORTERS

Organizations from Yale and beyond set up tables on Cross Campus on Tuesday for an entrepreneurship fair.

The Yale Entrepreneurship and Innovation Expo serves to help students learn about classes, workshops, hackathons and startups at Yale. The groups present ranged from Design for America, a club that encourages students to work on community-oriented design projects, to Tsai CITY — the Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale.

Though many attendees were first years, older students — and some from graduate schools — came as well.

Max Troppmann ’29 said he visited the fair hoping to learn more about engineering-focused extracurricular opportunities at Yale.

Though he was familiar with Tsai CITY before coming to Yale, he said he hadn’t heard of some of the other organizations at the fair.

“There are many helpful resources, newsletters to sign up for, and other general information that each of these clubs or organizations are making accessible for students,” Troppmann told the News.

Justin Baldassarre ’28, the director of science for the student-run startup Simplex Sciences, said he was looking to meet students who would “gel” with the students in Simplex and contribute to the club’s culture as a “playground to innovate.”

“One of the good things is that this company is really designed to be managed by students and passed from older students down to younger students,” Baldassarre said. Xinzhi Qiu ’27, the chief executive officer of Simplex Sci-

ences, contacted the News after the initial publication of this article online to clarify that it is a nonprofit organization.

But not all organizations at the expo were based at Yale or run by students.

Candy Hwang — the associate director of the Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale, part of Yale Ventures — represented the separate organization Women in Bio at the fair.

Women in Bio aims to address the gender disparity in leadership positions, Hwang said. She stressed the importance of early intervention and mentorship for women.

Trinell Ball came to the fair to promote FORGE, a nonprofit unaffiliated with Yale that helps entrepreneurs manufacture physical products.

“We’ve worked a lot with Yale students,” Ball, the organization’s program director for Connecticut, said. “And we have a ton of success stories.”

FORGE helps its clients through many stages of product development, from designing a prototype to determining a scale for manufacturing, Ball said. He added that it also provides product development grants to boost some of its entrepreneurs.

Duurenzaya Bukhbat SOM ’26, who came to Yale from Mongolia, said he wanted to explore entrepreneurship on campus.

“The main reason why I came to this event today is to, of course, explore Tsai CITY, learn more about them, meet the people and just get a vibe check,” Bukhbat told the News.

Tsai CITY is located at 17 Prospect St.

Contact ANYA GEIST at anya.geist@yale.edu and MICHELLE SO at michelle.so@yale.edu.

“The visionary starts with a clean sheet of paper and reimagines the world.”

MALCOLM GLADWELL, AMERICAN WRITER

Meal plan changes set to make Commons visits less common for many

BY JERRY GAO STAFF REPORTER

In recent memory, students have been able to use their meal swipes for lunch at Yale’s food court-style dining hall, Commons, and the grab-and-go convenience store, the Bow Wow.

But this year, students will have limited opportunities for lunch at those locations — some less than others.

Students on each of Yale’s three meal plans will now have dining points, which are valued at roughly $1 each, to use at the school’s retail dining locations, including Commons and the Bow Wow. They will no longer be able to purchase lunch with meal swipes at these locations.

A Commons meal will cost 11 points, according to a Yale Hospitality spokesperson, which is discounted compared to the $16 rate that someone would pay for a Commons meal in cash.

For 11 points, students on Full, Flex and Connect could get at most 27, 54 and 34 Commons meals per semester, respectively, if they spend their points only there. For a student on the Full plan, that would mean roughly two meals on average at Commons per week.

Undergraduate students living on campus must choose between the Full and Flex meal plans. First-year students are required

to be on the Full plan. Undergraduates living off campus can opt for Full or Flex plans, the less expensive Connect plan or no meal plan at all.

The Full plan provides unlimited access to the 14 residential college dining halls along with 300 points. Flex offers 14 meal swipes per week at residential colleges and 600 points. The Connect plan provides five meal swipes per week along with 375 points.

In previous years, students on the Full plan had only meal swipes and no dining points, while those on the Flex plan had 14 weekly swipes and 300 points. Students previously could transfer meal swipes to Commons and the Bow Wow for lunch, and points were typically used at non-transferrable retail locations, such as the on-campus cafe, the Elm.

One new feature of the Full plan allows for unlimited visits to dining halls during the same meal period at residential dining halls. However, students with the Full plan will be limited to one entrance per meal period at the Slifka Center for Jewish Life’s kosher dining hall. Commons will begin its regular lunch service on Sept. 2 and is open Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Contact JERRY GAO at jerry.gao.jg2988@yale.edu .

YCC Senate to meet behind glass as new speaker stresses transparency

BY ASHER BOISKIN STAFF REPORTER

This summer, Alex Chen ’28 took the helm of the Yale College Council Senate, becoming the first sophomore in recent memory to become its speaker.

The speaker’s role, outlined in the YCC Constitution, makes Chen the presiding officer of the 28-member Senate. The speaker designs agendas, moderates meetings and conveys Senate concerns to the Executive Board. Chen told the News he is focused on reforms to earn the trust of the student body.

“Leadership in student government doesn’t have to be merely a figurehead or a talking piece or a resume climber,” Chen said in an interview. “I want my speakership to be the boldest, most involved tenure in YCC history.”

His first proposed change, which Chen calls “auto-matching,” would ensure that senators who pass legislation meet directly with the Yale administrators responsible for the policy area in question. That process would prevent passed bills from stalling due to unresponsive or indifferent administrators, he said.

“I will spend the time to match senators with the relevant administrator to at least have a conversation,” Chen said.

He also said he planned to introduce a formal rules package to structure Senate debate. In the past, Chen said, discussions often faltered without ground rules.

Chen’s third reform would make use of the constitutional provision allowing the speaker to invite administrators to attend Senate meetings. He said administrators should attend more regularly to hear student concerns and answer questions directly.

“The only way for Yale administrators to understand how we think, how the student body thinks, is if they’re coming to field questions from us, to engage in dialogue,” Chen said.

Chen sees the three reforms as ways to improve the YCC’s reputation. In past years, students have criticized the YCC for focusing on formals and cookie-fueled study breaks instead of tackling issues like mental health, dining accessibility and water filtration. Some have also admitted to not understand -

ing what the council actually does.

Born in Philadelphia to Chinese immigrants, Chen traces his political interests to his family’s history. His parents’ escape from communism for the United States instilled in him a commitment to “give back to a nation that has welcomed my family,” he said.

“And that begins in my campus community,” he added.

Last fall, Chen served as a Morse College delegate, a position students can earn after attending two Senate meetings and receiving confirmation from the Senate. He chose not to run for the First-Year Class Council, seeking a “more policy-oriented” forum rather than one focused on “event planning,” he said. In the spring, he secured a Senate seat, representing more than four hundred Morse students.

Over the summer, Chen worked with the Democratic staff of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security.

Chen said he wants his term as YCC Senate speaker to be defined by trustworthiness, reform and honesty.

He said he planned to work closely with YCC President Andrew Boanoh ’27 and Vice President Jalen Bradley ’27 to ensure students see their representatives as effective.

“I hope I can prove that I tried my best to be a good public servant, to engage, to fulfill the promises that I made, not only to my 27 member senators, but to the six and a half thousand undergrads,” Chen said.

As the first official act of his speakership, Chen has relocated Senate meetings from Rosenfeld Hall to the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning in Sterling Memorial Library — a more central location, he said.

The Senate will meet there in a glass-walled room, a move that Chen said symbolizes transparency and will encourage students walking by to observe YCC proceedings.

“Everyone will be walking through and seeing us,” Chen said. “That’s very important. And I encourage everyone to come stop by.”

The YCC Senate will convene Sunday for its first meeting of the semester.

Contact ASHER BOISKIN at asher.boiskin@yale.edu.

THROUGH THE LENS

MASCOTS, MUSIC AND MATTRESS TOPPERS: CLASS OF ’29 MOVES IN

BY DAVIS ZONG AND LIZA KAUFMAN STAFF REPORTERS

The men’s soccer team wants to kick off its fall season on a high note, despite a dismal preseason ranking.

In the Ivy League preseason poll, the Bulldogs were ranked seventh of eight teams, but the team has taken its placement as an opportunity to embrace an underdog mentality.

“When we saw the rank, we said ‘good,’” forward Joseph Farouz ’27 said in a phone interview. “We love to have a chip on our shoulder to have people to prove wrong.”

Last season, the Bulldogs’ season ended early after a series of tough games against strong competition. The year before, they clinched the title in the inaugural Ivy League Soccer Tournament.

Now, the Elis hope to bounce back and reclaim a position at the top of the league.

To start, the men’s soccer team will play seven non-conference games. Throughout the year, they will also play four teams that concluded the 2024 season with a top-30 national ranking, including three Ivies: Penn, No. 18, Cornell, No. 26 and Princeton, No. 27. Despite their daunting schedule, the Bulldogs remain optimistic. And for defender Nick Miller ’27, the preseason poll has little bearing on how he views the team’s chances for the season.

“We don’t pay an inordinate amount of time or attention to preseason rankings because we’re more concerned with how we finish the year,” Miller said.

With key seniors graduating and eight new players joining the squad, including one transfer student and one international student, the team’s roster will look different this year.

To fill out the center of the field, head coach Kylie Stannard has recruited a pair of midfielders, Billy Altirs ’29, whose two brothers played soccer for Dartmouth and Penn, and Nathan Harmon ’29.

“Nate has played every position in the central and wide midfield positions,” Stannard told Yale Athletics. “He is a technical player that wants to attack and play forward first, but also has the mentality to work and compete defensively.”

The team also welcomed three new defenders: John Henry

Hampel ’29, Caleb Layton ’29 and a junior transfer from Duke, Andrew Myerson ’27. On the offensive side, Stannard and the team have tracked Sebi Roy ’29 for the past couple of years, due to his physicality and strength. Another forward, Angelo Zhu ’29, comes to New Haven after playing in Canada.

To protect the net, Stannard has brought on Josh Linebaugh ’29, who he said has the potential to be “one of the top GKs in the Ivy League.” After the departure of star goalkeeper Chris Edwards ’25, Linebaugh may see substantial playing time.

Reflecting on the new additions to the team, Farouz is especially excited about the power coming to the offense.

“They’ve settled right in,” Farouz, a forward himself, said of Roy and Zhu. “The culture has really accepted them right away as important players on our squad, so I’m really excited for those two to have an impact on the attack in front.”

The men’s soccer team has also hired new assistant coaches. In the spring, Stannard brought on Brad Camp from Colorado Christian University and later tapped Nick Taljan from Kenyon College to serve as new assistant coaches for the 2025 season.

“They’re both really young and hungry coaches and they want to go out and attack games and kind of take games by the scruff of the neck, which is really really refreshing energy,” Farouz said.

The Bulldogs will open their season against the Sacred Heart Pioneers this Friday in Fairfield, Conn.

Contact DAVIS ZONG at davis.zong@yale.edu and LIZA KAUFMAN at liza.kaufman@yale.edu .

FOOTBALL: Coach’s son transfers to play for Yale

redshirt

BY BRODY GILKISON STAFF REPORTER

Yale’s football team is turning into a family affair. Dante Reno ’28 in June announced his commitment to play football at Yale under head coach Tony Reno, his father. In the spring, the quarterback declared his intention to enter the transfer portal following a redshirt year at South Carolina. After sitting behind a future Heisman favorite, LaNorris Sellers, Dante Reno decided to explore other opportunities with three years of eligibility left.

Dante Reno’s father, Tony Reno, has been the head coach of the Yale football team since 2014 and has won four Ivy League titles during his tenure.

“He’s a defensive guy, so it’s gonna be a little interesting sometimes,” Dante Reno said of his father on the “Off the Leash” podcast with Mason Shipp ’26. “But I think it’ll be very fun, and we both want to win, so that’s really what matters.”

As a high schooler, Reno played his sophomore and junior seasons at the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Conn., before moving on to the Cheshire Academy, where he picked up over 30 Division I Power 4 offers as an All-American.

BY LIZA KAUFMAN STAFF REPORTER

The men’s basketball team announced its schedule Tuesday, which includes a high stakes game against a formidable Alabama squad.

After last season’s historic campaign, which included a nation-leading 13-game winning streak and a second consecutive Ivy Tournament championship, the Bulldogs want to maintain their Ivy League dominance while also attempting to take down strong non-conference foes.

For team captain Nick Townsend ’26, the season represents both opportunity and responsibility. He emphasized that past accomplishments don’t guarantee future success.

“We have to go out there and prove ourselves again,” Townsend said in a phone interview. “Especially in Ivy play, when you’ve had success like this program has, every team is coming for you.”

The new schedule includes an opening-night clash at Navy, a trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands for the Paradise Jam tournament, a December showcase at the Basketball Hall of Fame Classic tournament and a high-profile road test against Alabama — a top SEC program with a 14th-place preseason ranking by CBS Sports.

To cut through the tough schedule, the players hope to build on last year’s momentum, which concluded with a devastating 71-80 loss to Texas A&M in the first round of March Madness. But this year, the

team is missing key players, including reigning Ivy League player of the year Bez Mbeng ’25 and perimeter sharpshooter John Poulakidas ’25, who both signed with NBA teams during the summer.

The early-season Paradise Jam tournament, which is played in November, will be a critical early-season test for the Elis, center Samson Aletan ’27 said in a phone interview. “There’s some good teams in there like Akron and Charleston,” he said. “We know how good our team can be, but we know we could do so much more. We have the talent to potentially make a March Madness run, not just make it there.” Several Bulldogs also pointed to the Dec. 29 game in Tusca -

loosa, Ala., as one of the most anticipated games of the season. For Aletan, the game provides Yale the chance to take down a top collegiate program.

Playing Alabama — or any Power Five opponent, for that matter — will be “a huge test” for the team, Aletan said.

Forward Isaac Celiscar ’28 agreed that the Alabama game will give the team a chance to prove themselves on a national stage. Back in 2024, the Bulldogs took down Alabama’s top rival, Auburn, in a stunning March Madness upset.

“Of course Alabama is a big game. We don’t usually get those kinds of opportunities,” Celisar said in a phone interview. “But I’m also looking forward to games

we lost last year, like Rhode Island and UIC. We want to get those back.”

Looking ahead, the Elis also hope to defend home court, where they did not lose once last season. Townsend pinpointed home dominance as a central part of the team’s identity.

“It’s everything for the team,” Townsend said. “Every time we go on the court, the number one goal is to protect home — do it for the fans and do it for the team.”

The Bulldogs will host Stony Brook on Nov. 15 for their home opener before beginning Ivy League play at Brown on Jan. 5.

Contact LIZA KAUFMAN at liza.kaufman@yale.edu .

In 2022, the scouting analyst Gabe Brooks with 247 Sports wrote that Reno had a “strong arm with quick release” and was capable of “accurate throwing on the move.” Ranked the 36th-best signal caller in his high school class, he chose to play in the SEC at South Carolina. A year later, as a highthree-star recruit in the portal, Reno shook things up when he decided to play in the Ivy League. Reno is the highest-ranked incoming Ivy League transfer of 2025.

Typically, many four and fivestar recruits choose to play in what is known as the “Power 4” conferences — the Big Ten, SEC, ACC and Big 12. Much of Yale’s roster is filled with two- and three-star recruits.

When asked by the Athletic about what factored into his decision to commit to Yale, Reno said he was excited about reconnecting with high school teammates in the area, being closer to home and having the opportunity to compete in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs, in which the Ivy League will participate for the first time this year.

Dante Reno did not respond to the News’ questions about his situation. Tony Reno did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

As the team heads into the 2025 season, Reno joins two senior quarterbacks, Marshall Howe ’26 and Brogan McCaughey ’26.

Those three players will continue to battle for the starting position until the season kick-off on Sept. 20 against Holy Cross.

Contact BRODY GILKSON at brody.gilkison@yale.edu .

WEEKEND timetoget schooled.

firstwelcomeyears

Laila Davson ’26 thrives on community. Ever since her preteen babysitting gigs, the newly-minted Stiles FroCo has sought out mentorship opportunities that connect her with people who want to learn. One of the first things to strike me about Laila was her dedication to her Education Studies certificate — a path she chose in her junior year, but a passion she had long cultivated. Having spent years wrangling her younger cousins in what she now considers preparation for more recent New Haven mentorship programs, Laila immerses herself in learning processes.

“I think we think about childhood and adolescence as a very temporary time. And society tends to not think of children’ s experiences as legitimate, because they’re younger and haven’t developed fully,” she told me in a cozy corner in Book Trader. “But these experiences matter, and more people should be focused on learning how we can better the systems that teach kids.”

Laila encourages her first years to revel in being themselves as opposed to feeling shame. “We all come from different back- grounds, with different experiences and expectations of what our Yale experience is like. But we all come in with that same level of pressure which can cause us to act in ways that aren’t authentic to who we are.” Referring to what she considers the inevitable let downs of not connecting with certain clubs, opportunities, or fields of study, Laila finds comfort in the belief that “the learning process is the value of Yale.”

Laila’s love of community was evident in her answers to my silliest questions. When asked how she would allocate a Stiles endowment donation after becoming the world’s first ethical billionaire, Laila enthusiastically answered, “build a rollerskating rink!” Growing up in North Virginia, one of the cornerstones of her community was the hometown rollerskating rink. A popular afterschool activity and birthday party location, the roller rink was a place where people of all ages came together and enjoyed each other’s company.

When I messaged the Trum- bull FroCo Instagram, I anticipated a response along the lines of “here’s a FroCo who would love to be interviewed!” as I had gotten from other FroCo teams. Instead, I was offered an interview with not one, but a trio of FroCos.

“We have the dynamic trio Nabiha Khan ’26, Eliana Peyton ’26 and Cory Fan ’26! all three of us or nothing!”

The FroCos brought that same enthusiastic energy straight into the interview, rocking cowboy hats and sunglasses the whole way through. Within minutes they were cracking jokes and bursting into laughter at insider references that had, surprisingly, been formed in just a few weeks of friendship. The Trumbull Trio, as I like to call them, only officially met through FroCo training — but you’d never guess it from the way they bantered like lifelong friends.

Trumbullians are “electric, audacious and loyal.” When I asked the trio what they wanted to accomplish as FroCos, they all recognized the importance of authenticity when stepping into the mentor role, wanting to teach their frosh things they wished they had known in their first year. Eliana encouraged frosh to stay true to themselves, saying, “Social status and hierarchies were things I learned to tune out and not to care about. Care less about what people think!” Cory added, “FOMO is definitely a thing, especially with the chaos of club registration. But do things that you’re actually interested in, that’s something I wish I did earlier.” Nabiha rounded the advice out, adding “Be okay with the ups and downs that you’ll face in first year, you’ll be able to figure it out! It’s all preparing you to be a better person.”

As a parting message, the Trumbull Trio leaves you with their “Why FroCo” haiku: Leader of the herd / With great care, we motivate / Make good trouble, moo-rah

TRUMBULL

SAYBROOK

Participating in organizations from the Cuban-American Undergraduate Student Association to St. Anthony Hall and the News’ Illustration Desk, Maria Arozamena ’26 has always dove head first into her Yale experience.

As she told me in the shaded Saybrook courtyard, her residential college is where those circles intersect — especially in Saybrook’s Latina affinity group, Saytinas. “Those spaces remind me of home, it’s a place where you can be yourself. Things that are unspoken are understood, especially cultural things.”

Maria’s playful side came through when I asked her what lessons she’d take away from “The Hunger Games” to give to her frosh. “Make strong allies, but have stronger boundaries,” she said. “You’ll be meeting so many people, making a lot of friends, and it’s easy to unintentionally pour so much of ourselves into others when oftentimes what we need is to take a step back and let things grow.”

Beyond the games, her advice is just as practical, encouraging first years to not be afraid to ask for help. “Never struggle alone. There are so many resources on this campus that are there to help you to figure your way out.”

WKND profiled ten FroCos from eight of the residential colleges. From their journeys to FroCo-ship to sharing advice that remarkably applies to both the Hunger Games and what can be lovingly thought of as the Hunger Games of the college experience — first year — the seniors tell all. So without further ado, welcome Class of 2029! I can’t wait to spend the next three years lording a one year age difference over you all.

A proud Hopplite through and through, Fardouza Farah ’25 describes Grace Hopper College as “charming, funny and chill.” Her Hopper pride shines especially when discussing her favorite college tradition, the Hogwarts dinner, when the dining hall is transformed with decorations and costumes for a night of magic. But for Fardouza, the dining hall is more than just the backdrop for special events — it’s the heart of Hopper. “The Hopper Dining Hall staff are so amazing in so many aspects because they make the dining hall a place of community. It is so much more than food that they do for us.”

Fardouza emphasizes the importance of frosh resisting labels and embracing the communities that feel the most natural to them.

Drawing on her own memories of first year, she said “It’s easy to think of things on a black-and-white spectrum and preemptively limit yourself by saying, ‘If I’m a part of X community, I can’t be a part of Y community.’ But if I’d put myself in a box where I felt like I had to pick between, for example, the Muslim community and CCE community, I would have missed out on a very transformative experience.”

For Fardouza, that experience was shaped in large part by her three years as a CCE mentor, a role that became central to her time at Yale and underscored her commitment to fostering care and connection on campus.

At the end of the interview, Fardouza’s face lit up at the mention of her fellow Hopper FroCos, assuring me that “the Hopper FroCo team is amazing. Even the most mundane things feel really fun with the team, they make the experience of being a FroCo.”

JONATHAN EDWARDS

Sitting with Britney Gramajo Barrios ’26 in the JE FroCo suite, it’s easy to see how much she loves her college. For Britney, JE’s nature of constant evolution can be seen in the college’s unique approach to traditions. “Maybe people think that, because JE is the oldest residential college, we’re very traditionalist. But I think the way that JE embraces tradition is really cool because it can change. We keep traditions, but we also start new ones.” When it comes to traditions, none exemplifies this JE spirit more than the Tulip Princess. Recently revived, this pageant-like tradition is like no other: any JE Senior that “embodies the characteristics of a tulip, like poise, resilience, beauty and kindness” can be nominated and crowned the Tulip Princess. The most recent Tulip Princesses have highlighted the diversity of the JE community, highlighting how JE constantly reinvents itself while staying rooted in community. This upcoming year, Britney is excited to see her frosh grow. “I want them to be confident in their ability to ask for help, to make decisions and also to make mistakes. That things will move on and be okay. They can blossom like a tulip! Maybe be the next tulip princess, who knows?”

Mentoring in the first-generation, low-income student community opened the door for her to become a FroCo, a role that allows her to pay it forward. “My first FGLI mentor was bone of the first people at Yale who showed me how helpful people are.

GRACE HOPPER

For Gia Cook ’26, there truly is no place like gnome. When asked what residential college tradition she was most excited to share with her first years, Gia named a Davenport Gnomecoming, first-year assassins and John Davenport Day. When I excitedly shared that I attended Gnomecoming last year, Gia cheered, “Gnomecoming is worldwide!” For Gia, Davenport’s community events are a representation of the college’s unique and welcoming environment. Even though she feels that the college is “a little bit of a hidden gem,” the community has become central to her Yale experience.

Gia fondly recounts how, as frosh, she and her friends would practice their auditions for Yale’s step dance team, Steppin’ Out, in the Davenport courtyard. Despite Steppin’ Out being Gia’s first exposure to performance, it became the first Yale community Gia felt grounded in. “It definitely brought me out of my comfort zone,” she confided in me. “I was super nervous for auditions, but that’s where I met some of my closest friends in first year.” While going through her first-year memories, including both the fun achievements and the hard lessons — “The first year canon event, getting rejected from a club” — Gia encourages frosh to not be afraid of rejection.

’s no place like

“There’s no predetermined path that you have to take. Because everyone’s coming from different backgrounds, success looks different for everyone. So take the classes you want, explore, meet the people you want to meet. Step out of your comfort zone.”

Berkeley college may be split by Cross Campus, but after talking to Abigail Lopez ’26 I feel certain that it is bonded in every other way. As early as move in, Abi was “astonished by the fact that people were so willing to help. I think from there, I was like, ‘I would love to be this person for someone else.’” Now, as a FroCo and Berkeley’s senior chief aide for the Head of College office, her senior year is a full circle moment.

Abi’s first three years at Yale as a Berkeley aide allowed her to connect with every corner of Berkeley’s community. “If I were to describe Berkeley in three words, they would be: Passionate, home and authentic. From the administration, the dining hall staff and the custodial staff, everyone in Berkeley is so amazing. Together, we all make Berkeley Berkeley!”

Abi encourages her frosh to embrace asking for help. “Never struggle alone. There are so many resources on this campus that are there to help you to figure your way out.”

PAULIMURRAY

When I asked Sofia Jacobson ’26 what three words she would use to describe Pauli Murray, she easily replied, “passionate, caring, community.” After sitting down with her in the Murray courtyard, soaking in the sun and bonding over our shared love for our resco — go Lemurs! — I can see that Sofia’s enthusiasm whole-heartedly embodies the Paul-emur spirit.

Experience on the Pauli Murray College Council and as the previous manager of the Murray buttery has colored Sofia’s Yale experience and compelled her to give back to Murray in her last year.

“We’re definitely a tight-knit community, everyone takes care of each other.” Sofia has ingrained in her frosh that Murray’s distance doesn’t mean missing out — you can still throw yourself into clubs, organizations and everything else you love. Murray’s your neighborhood, not your whole life. Sofia attributes her connections with people all over campus to her participation in Club Soccer, a community that has been just as big of a part of her Yale experience as Murray has.

When asked where Murray would fall on the chaotic and lawful alignment scale, Sofia quickly placed Pauli Murray at “Chaotic Good.” “I feel like we’re pretty fun — we’re Murrayheads! We’re always down to have a good time, even if it means being a little chaotic.” This mischievous nature is reflected in the many exciting activities that have been planned for the Murray frosh, one of which being — drum roll please — the Lemur Induction. At the time of the interview, Lemur Induction had not taken place yet, but the insider knowledge I was given? Lemur costumes. Eerie rituals. A proper induction ceremony into Murray. Chaotic indeed — get excited first-years!

PERSONAL ESSAY

Blossoming Orchid

// BY ZACHARY CLIFTON

I’ve heard that an orchid isn’t the ideal flower for a bedroom. Apparently, it’s the kind you’d find at dental offices, austere and clinical. But orchids aren’t only for dental office displays. They are living evidence that what matters is not a plant itself but my act of choosing it.

Orchids have taught me to give something a purpose, however fragile, rather than drifting through spaces and decisions without one.

On Saturday, I moved into Benjamin Franklin College for the second time. I had almost decided on an orchid I’d buy for my single room, but the stigma against the showy hothouse plants lingered. Sure enough, when I got my yearly checkup at

I slowly accepted that it might be true. After finding an article on Orchidbliss.com titled “HOW TO CARE FOR ORCHIDS IN AN OFFICE: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE,” and a Facebook post from “Oglethorpe Orchids” of an elaborate arrangement right before delivery to a dentist’s office in Savannah, I caved.

The half of me that found itself unabashedly defending a plant I had little obvious connection to succumbed to a fatal punch from the other half, which ridiculed the innocent plants to the point of wilting their blooms.

enraging but typically mild discomfort of having the dentist poke your gums with a metal dental probe. The pain isn’t as bad as stubbing your toe, but that anger you feel toward a poorly placed coffee table is surely rivaled by the indignation you feel

flecting light. I needed something that would make it less sterile. I wanted something that would complement the travertine arches of the Metropolitan Opera House. I wanted a white plant that wouldn’t distract from arguably my favorite piece of ar-

Thebetter-natured half of me overwatered the orchid. Then, it died.

toward a dentist and her hygienist. Almost all of my murderous impulses are toward the people

chitecture in the world.

I hurried to Columbus Circle, pulled through the glass doors of the Deutsche Bank Center, down its escalator to the basement and saw them. Orchids occupied a huge table at the Whole Foods. Dozens of them. Its white petals and white pot wouldn’t distract from those arches, some 16 stories downstairs from my room.

Later that summer, I relocated to a building on Lexington Avenue. It was across the street from the subway grate Marilyn Monroe was photographed over — her breezy white dress blowing upward. My new room was less iconic than that memorable Hollywood scene. It hardly had a window that peered into vacant offices on East 51st Street, where the WeWork cast a gloomy shadow into my room. It was what I’d call a shithole. The physical act of moving into said shithole wasn’t much more glamorous. I stuffed all my clothes into my carry-on suitcase, stacked my backpack on top of it, picked up my orchid and left all of my other belong-

The orchid itself was not very beautiful. It had been either 15 or 20 dollars, and it still had the price sticker on its back. I actually appreciated the mass-manufactured pot as much as the plant that lived in it. It was “why” I bought it, and “why” I kept it

I don’t know anything about plants. Or about flowers. “What” kind of them I buy or own is less certain than a coin toss. But there was a story there. It was about decision and intentionality — the not-fully-explained impulse to leave behind more valuable and useful possessions to keep something that could die if given too much water or left in the kind of darkness I’d now live under in

Even though the new place didn’t have those same walls, I kept the orchid. Its purpose had

WEEKEND SETTLING IN

STYLE

Dorm Rooms for Dummies

// BY ISABEL TIBURCIO

It’s move-in day. You and your parents are probably arguing about desk placement and panic-making a shopping list for a day-of Target trip.

While I can’t help you with the feng shui of your freshman dorm — although desk-in-front-of-window supremacy forever — I can give you a look into some of the dorm essentials that turned my formerly sad prisonlike dorm into a home.

Here are a few things I bought, brought, and made that you should too.

IKEA Dog Bed

Starting a bit controversial, so hear me out. Bean bags are expensive, make that weird sound when you sit on them, take up too much space, and are annoying to stow away. A dog bed is chic, cozy, sturdy, and happened to be on clearance for $2 during move-in last year. Best $2 I never spent — thank you to my suitemate Nastya. Since it’s a flat surface, unlike a bean bag, it’s great for studying, sitting with more than one person and naps that won’t make your neck ache the next day.

Target Cube Book Shelf

I will admit that this was a panic day-of Target purchase, but has got to be the best one I’ve made. This 3 by 4 cube shelf is perfect for storing literally anything. They come with cute cloth cube bins that currently hold my socks, hair products, school supplies, food and miscellaneous clutter. It can lay straight up for a tall, space-saving feel, or horizontally for enough top shelf space to hold my TV and some decor! It’s super easy to use and sits directly on the ground, leaving your wall free of holes.

My Camera Collection

One easy and basically free way to decorate your space is with hobbies! As a filmmaker and photographer — whose only source of dopamine is thrifting cameras — my room is filled with them. Eighteen of them to be exact. Five digis, four video cameras, four film, three DSLRs and two instant cameras. Not only is this a fun way to show off my personality and cover my blank walls, this collection also serves as a gentle reminder of what I’m most passionate about. You’ll find that at Yale you’ll get busy fast. Your GCal will be booked with meals, classes and clubs. It’s easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of this place. Your dorm should function as a grounding home base. Waking up to see my cameras grounds me in what I love. If you’re into tennis, hang some rackets. Fashion? Hang some handbags.

Watercolor Paintings

I am no painter. I am actually comically bad at it. But halfway into my first semester, sick of having blank walls and refusing to spend a ridiculous amount of money on prints, I decided to decorate it myself. I covered it with “amateur” paintings of flowers and animals. Not only is it easy and free, it’s a great activity. When I want to spend time with friends, I’ll invite them over for mocktails and watercolor. It’s a creative way to spend time with people on campus instead of meals and coffees. Also, it’s super cute and customizable. If you’ve got a pastel blue theme going in your room, paint a dainty blue teapot. If you’re more into sports memorabilia, paint the jersey of your favorite player!

Polaroid Wall

You’ve definitely seen this one online, but please please start taking polaroids of the friends who visit your dorm this semester. You can tape them on the wall, hang them from fairy lights, or keep them in a scrapbook! As someone who desperately wants to be a girl who journals — but can’t for the life of her — it’s an easy way to keep track of who your friends are through the years.

There’s always pressure to decorate your dorm. If you walk into a girl’s room and her walls are empty, there’s a good bet she’s a serial killer. I didn’t want to spend money on prints for my dorm, or an Ikea beanbag, but with this creative decor I didn’t have to! Turns out dorm shopping procrastination and cheapness was the key to a room that was authentically me and an escape from GCal-meal-scheduling hell.

REVIEW

A Guide to New Haven Restaurants

Discover New Haven beyond the dining hall with this guide to the city’s best restaurants and coffee shops, sorted by price, vibe and neighborhood to help new students eat on any budget.

// BY NINA BODOW

To Yale’s freshest students, First of all, welcome. This is very exciting. Although many of you incoming Fizz demons will find ways to complain — this place is close to perfect. Savor every moment, live it up. But in order to “live it up,” one must eat. And there’s a lot of eating to be done at Yale. The food in the dining halls is quality and has range. Not every college dining hall serves raved-about plant-based steak, veggie Korean japchae, and fought-over sour dough-bread grilled cheeses. There are plenty of options and we are so lucky to chow down on crave-worthy dining hall food.

But when Yale Menus drops that dinner is kelp meatballs for the sixth time, venturing into the food world of New Haven is inevitable. Below are some options for such an occasion, as well as recommendations for when the parents are in town or a sweet treat is needed.

To begin, some classics House of Naan

Price Range : $20-30 Cuisine : Indian Good for : A casual dinner, take out, if you’re a fol lower of vegetarianism, or if you have a desire to drown your sorrows in tikka masala and addictive cheesy naan.

I order House of Naan whenever I’m in need of a comforting non-Yale meal. It’s walkable from cam pus without being an Atticus-level hot spot, which is a nice happy-medium. Although it’s a sit-down, wait ed-table establishment, it’s casual enough to justify spontaneous meals out.

BAR

Good for : Chocolate dip that makes you sing and thick vanilla soft serve that will linger in your mind until you return and housemade toppings

Elena’s appreciates the tasty simplicity of vanilla soft serve with chocolate dip. I’m not even a vanilla ice cream supporter, but at Elena’s it’s the move. The Elena’s favorite — which is said vanilla soft serve with don sea salt — must be on your sweet treat radar. Then you’ll ing special flavor and ing weekly trips to try na’s definitely has a cult following. A cult I

Price Range : $20-30, although it could be $50 if you’re a pizza beast

Cuisine : Pizza and fantastic salad — I know that’s not an actual cuisine category but it should be Good for : Large groups, New Haven-ish style pizza that’s not Sally’s or Frank Pepe’s, and Mashed Potato Pizza. Trust me.

BAR is a go-to for large groups. It’s great for when parents visit and want to meet their kid’s suitemates or friends by taking them to dinner. The dim lighting plus tall, open rooms feel both comfortable and atmospheric. It’s both a brewery and pizza joint, which miraculously turns into a dance club at night. A hodge-podge of classic and hip, BAR will serve you up a damn good thin crust pizza, or five. Sample the classic flavors, but know their gems are the specials and their salad.

Olmo

Price Range : Under $20

Cuisine : Bagels

Good for : Weekend mornings — but expect a wait, quality schmears, a campus escape and running into your professors or classmates.

This tiny brick establishment is known by the entire Yale population. Credit to them: they’re probably the best bagels you’ll find in New Haven. But this prestige also means the lines can be egregious. New York and New Jersey bagel fans be warned, these bagels are not as doughy as they should be. But there is a fantastic topping selection that starts to make up for it.

Parents coming to town?

Zeneli Pizzeria

Price Range : $20-30

Cuisine : Italian

Good for : Neapolitan style pizza, fresh mozz, lastmin-you-forgot-to-make-a-res-for-something-andneed-to-play-it-off. It’s walk-in only. New Haven-style pizza is tasty, but sometimes it doesn’t do the job. Sometimes there’s a void within you shaped like a doughy margherita neapolitan pie — and that’s okay. Zeneli is here for you. Situated on Wooster St. in New Haven’s “Little Italy,” Zeneli’s has copious seating and turbo-speed service. I’d focus on the appetizers and the pizzas, although some people rave about their cacio e pepe.

Tavern on State

Price Range : $50-100

Cuisine : American, farm-to-table

Good for : Elevated American fare, a burger happy hour and special occasions

Every city must have at least one place like Tavern on State: white cardstock menus with tiny typewriteresque font, dark lighting with limited seating, and a menu that lists every ingredient in the dish and attempts to use words aside from “with” to describe what the dish is. We all know a place like this, and they do tend to hit the spot.

September in Bangkok

Price Range : $20-$40

Cuisine : Thai

Good for : Last minute reservations, a slight removal from the Yale bubble and pad thai that could feed three September in Bangkok is a Yalie favorite and serves up a solid curry. This is also the mother restaurant to NOA by September in Bangkok, which is closer to campus and has more of a night-time vibe

A sweet treat with your newest friends?

Elena’s on Orange

Price Range : Under $10 or about $10 if you go the sundae route

Cuisine : Soft Serve Ice Cream

classic — think chocolate, vanilla, mint chip — and the quality means you don’t miss gimmicks or mix-ins. Arethusa controls their whole process: their farm, their cows, their cream. It’s ice cream in its most serious form.

La Fenice

Price Range : Under $10

Cuisine : Gelato

Good for : a post dinner stroll, the closest you’ll get to Italian gelato in New Haven

This storefront looks like it would offer cheap, crappy cappuccino and a stale Italian cookie. But looks can be deceiving! It turns out that this Italian cafe houses the best — and only?! — high quality gelato in town. I have yet to try their coffee, but I now trust La Fenice and the kind old man working the counter when it comes to quality, and I must return to try their espresso.

Feeling like you want to venture beyond a 2 block radius from campus?

The Loop by Hachiroku

Price Range : SO much range. It could be a $3 bite, could be a $40 dinner

Cuisine : Japanese – sort of a boujee Japanese Lawson’s or 7-Eleven

Good for : a quick bite, a snack section that’s simply fun to look at — and also quite tasty and the most lip-smacking tuna mayo onigiri known to man.

The Loop is home to the best $3 bite one can access in New Haven: the onigiri. If you don’t make the 10 minute walk to indulge in their fresh purple rice packed with your selection of meat, you’re making a crucial mistake. They also offer bento boxes, egg sandos, mochi desserts and sushi-grade fish. The Loop is part of a now four-location Hachiroku restaurant family, all of which are recommendable. But this would be my first stop.

Mr. Cookbop

Price Range : $20-$30 Cuisine : Korean

Good for : Sharing, a sick meal and indecisive folk — their menu is small

Located about a ten-minute walk from campus, Mr. Cookbop serves up a small but comforting selection of Korean meats and soups. The staff is incredibly friendly. When I went with my vegan friend, they made her a “vegan specialty” since no menu item was vegan and didn’t charge her because it was a test item. Their bulgogi fills you up and will most likely put you in a food coma.

Meat & Co

Price Range : $10-$20 Cuisine : Sandwiches

Good for : High quality ingredients, sandwich-craft done with diligence, funky names in fancy font. Who isn’t a sucker for a sandwich shop with funky names in a fancy font?

Meat & Co sits inside East Rock Market and I doubt most Yalies know it exists. But they should — this sandwich joint takes your classic sandwich line up and turns it into a meticulous craft. Most likely there will only be one guy working the counter, so bring some patience. But it will be worth it.

There’s a fair amount of damage to be done in New Haven and this list is only the beginning. Get chowing, and let me know if you have any opinions or takes after you try a place or two out.

Contact NINA BODOW at nina.bodow@yale.edu.

Directed Studies PERSONAL ESSAY (the version)sparknotes

// BY REETI MALHOTRA

I think about Epicurus at least once a week.

I do not say this to suggest I am some esoteric intellectual with the time to ponder the philosophical musings of a man who lived over 2,000 years ago. Nor do I say it in the attempt to market Directed Studies and espouse the utility of taking on such an intensive program that spans much of the Near Eastern and Western canon, despite the fact that I am currently spending much of my time fielding questions from first years about the nightmarish workload that DS offers as one of two Undergraduate Teaching Assistants for the program.

On the contrary, I mean it sincerely. I really do think about Epicurus at least once a week.

I will admit — the week in Directed Studies when we studied Epicurus, I had fallen behind on my readings. The DS slog had hit, and I was skimming the selected passages and flailing through my classes. As a side note, I would like to profess that this time of floundering is a near rite of passage in DS. Nobody manages to finish everything. I have yet to meet anyone who perfectly meets the schedule of essays, readings, seminars and lectures, and if there is such a person, I will happily applaud them.

In any case, I had skimmed the selected passages and marched into seminar slightly nervous — as one is when grossly underprepared — and yet nevertheless intent on gaining something from the 75 minutes before me. I would listen, learn, attempt to contribute and go on with my day.

That is, until we reached Epicurus’ ethics.

The good will be a form of pleasure, professor Paul Grimstad — a subtle shoutout to one of my favorite professors from my first year at Yale — explained. What is good is easy to get. You shouldn’t worry, because this will lower your pleasure and the happiness you will gain from life as a rational hedonist.

My mind began to whir.

The goal of this rational hedonism is ataraxia, he continued. Ataraxia can be translated to denote a lack of disturbance. Tranquility and serenity.

“So, the good life is the life free from disturbance.”

It was as if a lighthouse in the distance had shone its light on a dark evening. Ludicrously, hearing those words fundamentally changed my worldview. I was an anxious person — I had always been deemed an “overthinker,” and I would admit to it, too. Yet Epicurus’ argument for a life vehemently averse to unpleasant worry seemed to provide a guide to the antithesis of my typical mindset. Maybe, my sleep-deprived brain offhandedly wondered, this could be the good life. Had DS unlocked a new version of myself?

No. I remained a largely high-strung individual. No zenness overcame my body. But a new voice had been planted in my head — one that said that I should slow down and let things go, for such is a life free from disturbance. Ataraxia.

DS is marketed as a master’s in intellectualism and cocktail talk. You’ll spend a year in constant distress and emerge able to discuss Plato’s “Republic” and Aristotle’s four categories. You’ll have read Shelley and the Romantics, the “Iliad” and the Greek dramas, Nietzsche and Machiavelli. You will become the epitome of what Yale promises to every student that walks through its doors — a true learner with a firm grasp on the intellectual tradition upon which the edifice of education is built.

This is true, to an extent. But that is not the real value of DS.

DS forces you to adopt manners of thinking entirely disparate to your own. Whether that is Epicurus for the stress-prone or Kant for the dishonest, you engage with writers and intellectuals even if you disagree with them. That is the beauty of the program — you absorb the knowledge of those who contributed to this vast canon and begin to orient yourself within it, utilizing their texts as anchorage points for your own process of becoming an independent thinker and citizen of society.

Not to mention that, you venture into such an endeavour with over 100 other first years willingly in the same boat as you. Those who wish to understand and spar through seminar contributions and whose ideas widen with delight as you run your essay idea by them.

DS truly epitomises the “liberal arts” ethos of a university like Yale. Though a marathon, it is one well worth it. One that introduces you to worlds unlike those you know and people who happily join you for the journey.

BY AIDEN ZHOU DATA EDITOR

The class of 2029: By the numbers

Over the last two weeks, the News’ data desk conducted a survey to learn about the new first years’ lives before Yale and expectations for college. The News sent the survey to roughly 1,150 members of the Yale College class of 2029 and received 267 individual responses. Each question was optional, so response sizes vary and are specified on an individual basis.

Delve into the data to explore the latest undergraduate class’ lifestyles, love lives, opinions and perspectives.

Where are first-year international students from?

22 first years responded

Was Yale your top choice?

252 first years responded

Of 252 respondents, 71.4 percent said that Yale was their top choice during the university application process. 13.5 percent had Yale as a second choice, 7.5 percent as a third choice and 7.5 percent of respondents had Yale outside of their top three.

For those who didn’t have Yale as their first choice, the most popular top destinations were MIT with 21.7 percent, Harvard with 14.5 percent, Stanford with 14.5 percent, Princeton with 8.7 percent and Brown with 4.3 percent.

What area is your intended major in?

58 percent of surveyed students plan to major in a STEM discipline, 41.7 percent in the social sciences and 20.8 percent in the humanities. 5.7 percent of respondents were undecided. The top five intended majors were EP&E with 7.5 percent, Political Science with 7.5 percent, MB&B with 6.7 percent, Economics with 4.7 percent and Mechanical Engineering also with 4.7 percent.

264 first years responded

Do you plan on rushing a sorority or fraternity?

259 first-years responded

7.3 percent of respondents are set on rushing a sorority or fraternity, 25.1 percent are curious, while 67.6 percent do not plan to do so.

The majority of respondents sit on the left side of the political spectrum, with 30.8 percent identifying as very left-leaning and 41.6 percent as somewhat leftleaning. 10.4 percent of respondents presented as right-leaning, with only 2 percent identifying as strongly right-leaning. 13.2 percent are moderates and 4 percent are unsure or apolitical.

What is your political affiliation?

250 first years responded

How influential was pop culture (e.g. Gilmore Girls, Gossip Girl) in your decision to apply to Yale?

254 first-years responded

Yale has a definite place in pop culture, with features in movies and TV shows such as Gossip Girl, Boy Meets World and Mystic Pizza. Yet, most respondents’ decisions to apply weren’t shaped by these pieces of media: 69.3 percent said that pop culture was not influential, and only 3.9 percent reported that pop culture was very influential in encouraging them to apply.

Where U.S. states/territories are first-year students from?

241 first years responded

First-year respondents hail from 45 U.S. states and territories and 16 countries. Of U.S. students, 14.1 percent are New Yorkers, 11.2 percent Californians and 6.6 percent Texans. 8.2 percent of respondents are international students, with Canadians making up 22.7 percent of these — the largest share of any country.

On a scale of 1 to 5, how religious would you say you are?

32.7 percent of first-year respondents are not religious, while 4.5 percent present as “very religious.” When asked to describe their religious beliefs, 16.5 percent identified as Catholic, 11.2 percent as Protestant, 10.8 percent as Jewish, 7.7 percent as spiritual and 3.8 percent as Hindu.

LIFESTYLE AND LOVE

53% 11% are trilingual

of respondents are fluent in two or more languages

What is your relationship status?

261 first years responded

76.2 percent of respondents are single and 18.8 percent are in a relationship. For 5 percent of respondents, the most suitable option was “it’s complicated.”

Respondents answered several yes/no questions about their social habits.

• 58.8 percent of respondents have had their first kiss.

• 24.8 percent have had sex. Of those 55 respondents, the majority have had one sexual partner, 22.2 percent have had two and 16.7 percent have had three or more.

• 45.8 percent drink alcohol. Moreover, 16.4 percent have used tobacco/nicotine, 23.7 percent have used marijuana and 4 percent have used hallucinogens.