T H E O L D E ST C O L L E G E DA I LY · FO U N D E D 1 8 7 8
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2026 · VOL. CXLIX, NO. 10 · yaledailynews.com · @yaledailynews
Reno shines after father’s death YCC passes statement condemning Lewis
BY BRODY GILKISON STAFF REPORTER
Liza Kaufman / Photography Editor
Just one day after celebrated former head coach Tony Reno died, his son Dante Reno ’28 led Team 153 to a second-half comeback to cap off an emotional day at the Yale Bowl. Prior to kickoff at noon on Saturday, the Bulldogs played a tribute video honoring their former head coach — who stepped down from his role in February, citing
BY EMILY AKBAR STAFF REPORTER After an effort to soften the document’s language failed, the Yale College Council Senate approved a public statement on Sunday imploring the University not to reappoint Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis. Senators decided last Sunday to table voting on the original document, which was sponsored by several student groups and asked the University to reconsider appointing Lewis to a second term, claiming that he had failed to support low-income students. The amended statement, which failed on Sunday, characterized student complaints about Lewis’ leadership as critiques that the University should take into account and omitted the phrase “statement
SEE FOOTBALL PAGE 4
T O N Y R E N O, 1 974 - 2 0 2 6
Coach took Yale to national stage BY AUDREY KIM STAFF REPORTER
of NO CONFIDENCE.” “This amended statement condemns all the results of Pericles Lewis and the Yale College administration’s cuts with the same force,” said Kyler Parker ’29, the senate speaker. “It just doesn’t jump to a conclusion that he should be removed because of that, because some senators were sharing that there might not be enough information to make that judgement.” Despite Parker’s assertions, the original, non-tempered statement was passed. Lewis said in a Monday interview with the News that he plans to visit the YCC Senate meeting on Sunday. He said he has not yet chosen a particular topic that he will address, but plans to speak with Parker and decide on an agenda. SEE LEWIS PAGE 5
Tony Reno, a former Yale football head coach who led the Bulldogs to five Ivy League titles and the first playoff run in school history, died on Friday. He was 52. Born in Oxford, Mass., Reno attended Oxford High School and played football for Worcester State University before graduating in 1997. After returning to his alma mater for a master’s degree in health education while coaching their football team, he embarked on his coaching journey, making his first stop at Yale as an assistant in
Liza Kaufman / Photography Editor
Colette Yerrid / Contributing Photographer
SEE RENO PAGE 4
Athlete majors skew Beinecke rally slams Foreign toward social science Trump negotiations donor disclosure blocked
INSIDE THE NEWS The New Haven Pride Center hosted its annual block party on Saturday. The center reopened, debt free, in April after shutting down in February. PAGE 7 NEWS
MCDB
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
NEUROSCIENCE
SEE MAJORS PAGE 4
ETHICS, POLITICS & ECONOMICS
HISTORY
COGNITIVE SCIENCE
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
POLITICAL SCIENCE
ECONOMICS
Nearly half of varsity athletes in the classes of 2027 and 2028 have declared majors in economics or political science, compared to about one in seven of their non-athlete peers, according to a News analysis. The analysis matched varsity rosters available on Yale Athletics with a Sept. 21 Yale directory snapshot, comparing 372 athletes and 2,621 non-athletes with declared majors listed. Each student was counted once, and the comparison group excludes identified current athletes. Student-athletes interviewed by the News said their athletic schedules can affect their course choices but do not prohibit them from majoring in their preferred subject.
Economics and political science majors accounted for 48.4 percent of athletes compared to 14.3 percent of non-athletes in the sample, with athletes pursuing the majors at a rate more than three times that of non-athletes. Men’s hockey player Zach Wagnon ’28, a double major in economics and global affairs, wrote in a statement that his sport had not changed his choice of double major. He said he avoids Friday classes because of games and courses meeting after 3:30 p.m. because of practices and lifting. “I know if I wanted to do something like biology, I would not be able to because lots of the classes and labs conflict with my hockey schedule,” Wagnon wrote, though he credited coaches and
PSYCHOLOGY
BY JAYDEN DAO CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
BY LEO NYBERG STAFF REPORTER
staff and alumni. The protesters, under the motto, “Democratize Yale,” marched from the New Haven Green to Beinecke Plaza, where they convened with Sen. Richard Blumenthal LAW ’73, Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Mayor Justin Elicker, who had spoken in a press conference outside of Yale Law School to denounce Yale’s negotiations. “Yale is a leader in America, which makes its potential appeasement all the more despicable,” Blumenthal said. “Yale should know that appeasement is not a strategy, that acquiescing to a bully just emboldens and encourages him. And here, the ‘him’ is Donald Trump.” In an interview with the News, Blumenthal disputed the idea that the Trump administration is too powerful to take on, pointing to court wins that shot down
The Department of Education cannot reveal the names of Yale and other American universities’ international donors, according to a temporary restraining order from a federal judge. On Thursday, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to publish donor’s identities after the Association of American Universities — a group of 71 research universities including Yale — filed a last-minute lawsuit a day before the government was set to publicize the donors. This week, Yale, in its own capacity, joined other universities in support of the association’s lawsuit, according to University spokesperson Karen Peart. The Education Department cited national security concerns about foreign funding as the rationale for publishing donors’ names. The association argued in the lawsuit that the government had committed to safeguarding the donors’ anonymity. Yale President Maurie McInnis is on the association’s board. In her ruling, the federal judge sided with the universities and issued a temporary restraining order barring the release of the
SEE PROTEST PAGE 5
SEE LAWSUIT PAGE 5
Kailyn Huynh / Contributing Photographer BY SARAH RIVAS, SASHA CABRAL AND EMILY AKBAR STAFF REPORTERS Around 300 students, faculty and alumni gathered on Beinecke Plaza on Friday afternoon to demand that Yale cease negotiations with the Trump administration over a federal investigation alleging racial discrimination in the University’s admissions practices. In May, the Department of Justice published a letter of findings claiming that the Yale School of Medicine illegally favored Black and Hispanic applicants over their Asian or white counterparts. As negotiations to settle the investigation continue, the crowd on Friday slammed President Donald Trump as untrustworthy and the investigation as a weaponization of law while weaving in demands to open up Yale’s trustee elections to the students, faculty,
PAGE 2 BULLETIN PAGE 3 OPINION PAGE 8 SCI-TECH PAGE 11 SPORTS
50 YEARS School of Management alumni will meet
across the globe this year to celebrate the school’s 50th anniversary. PAGE 6 NEWS
PIPELINE Yale athletes said their varsity experiences
assisted them when recruiting for finance jobs. PAGE 11 NEWS
AI FLORES
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
BULLETIN Behind the Headline By Premrudee Mepremwattana I attended the New Haven Pride celebration last year as a first year, so as I rode my bike to the intersection of Orange and Church, I expected to see the same drag performances bursting with life, cute pins with fierce messages and lots of rainbows. My experience couldn’t have been more different. I spent my first year in a void — I was in New Haven, but really only existed on the four blocks that Yale spans. The closest I had really been to New Haven was that pride celebration, and even then, I had only spoken with my Yale friends who were also there. We left within an hour. This time, I researched the pride center’s debt controversy and shutdown before going. I understood that it wasn’t just a Pride celebration — it was a Pride celebration in spite of everything. I also had a chance to talk with many people whose stories didn’t make the article: Andrew Rice handing out pamphlets following his primary loss against Rep. Rosa DeLauro or Marcus and his fourth-grade son who came out to support his queer family and friends. A middle-aged Thai restaurant owner who reminded me how much I missed speaking Thai – and the few opportunities I had to be queer in Thai terms. Reporting has allowed me to understand New Haven outside of Yale. I could over-theorize about the privilege I have as a Yale student, but I could also bike beyond Yale, talk to New Haven residents and learn.
This Day in Yale History, 1964 October 6, 1964 / African Prime Minister visits freshman friend
His Excellency David Kairaba Jawara, prime minister of Gambia, visits Yale today as one stop along a tour of the eastern United States. A reception is held at Woodbridge Hall for him and his wife. Tonight the pair have dinner with fellow countryman and Yale freshman Felix Downes-Thomas, an old friend from home.
Read “Now debt-free, New Haven Pride Center hosts annual block party” on page 7.
ILLUSTRATION BY CATE ROSER
ILLUSTRATION BY JESSAI FLORES
ILLUSTRATION BY CECILIA LEE
ILLUSTRATION BY SERINA YAN
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
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OPINION S TA F F C O L U M N I S T
GUEST COLUMNIST
VIOLET CHIN
A A S H R I T H M U P PA L L A
The end of Yale’s humanity
An inefficient pursuit of knowledge
On June 30, 2026, Yale’s “For Humanity” capital campaign came to a close, raising over $7 billion, supposedly, for humanity. The campaign’s name and lofty goal was announced publicly in 2021 under former Yale President Peter Salovey, who could be found at the campaign celebration gala late last month. Yet as the days of Salovey’s administration drift further and further away, and as Yale’s mission statement, adopted during his administration, is altered to exclude “improving the world” from the university’s core pursuits, the question stands: Is Yale still for humanity? Or does the end of this campaign mark a shift in ambitions, as Yale narrows its attention to the internal function of university operation, rather than the pursuit of a better world? The answer to this perhaps best lies in the University’s silence more so than its words. So let’s look at what has vanished from the mission statement. In Yale’s original 2021 announcement of the “For Humanity” campaign, the University outlined four “priority areas” of donation: Arts & Humanities for Insight, Science for Breakthroughs, Collaborating for Impact and Leaders for a Better World. Many of these areas aligned, at least ideologically, with the 2016 mission statement. The former mission’s commitment to “outstanding research and scholarship” perhaps best aligned with the campaign’s commitment to “breakthroughs” and “insight,” while the mission’s promise to educate the next generation of “aspiring leaders worldwide” clearly aligned with the campaign focus in “Leaders for a Better World.” But, within the new mission statement, adopted during President McInnis’ administration, the origins of the “For Humanity” campaign are difficult to trace. Ironically, while running a $7 billion campaign with the catchphrase “What are you for?” Yale has erased all of the “for” or purpose behind its mission; in the new mission, which simply reads that Yale is to “create, disseminate, and preserve knowledge through research and teaching,” the University has essentially obscured to what end their means are directed. Whereas the old mission statement took a bold stance, obligating the University’s resources, prestige, power and knowledge towards the betterment of our world, the new statement takes the campaign’s catchphrase as a question, leaving students to ask: What is Yale for? I would posit that Yale, or more specifically Yale leadership, has a new answer to this question. In the era of the Trump administration, Yale is for Yale.
Perhaps the faculty committee responsible for the new mission said Yale’s perspective best: the old mission contained all “worthy goals” but “they are not what makes a university a university.” The new mission is thus focused on simply making the University run, not quite an easy goal, but I would also argue not a particularly noble one, especially when considering that Yale, as a multi-billion-dollar organization steeped in American culture and generational influence, could presumably fight for more. In the case of nobility, Yale is not for standing up for the freedom of their university against the Trump administration’s unjust and unqualified claims. Yale’s ongoing offers seem to suggest that it is for settlement. Yale is for the preservation of the University’s operations, not the University’s integrity. Yale is not for its students’ free expression, as when it comes time to confront the next generation of “aspiring leaders,” Yale chooses to restrict speech. Yale is for previously authorized protests. Yale is against disruption of operations, even if that means disregarding the leaders it once promised to educate. Yale is for silence in the face of federal pressure. It’s for leaving the School of Medicine without a public defense in the face of the DOJ’s accusatory findings. Yale is for quietly fading away the core principles that once made our university bold. And given that Yale has essentially reshaped its mission, priorities and policies, limiting the scope of the University to the operations of Yale itself, how can Yale possibly maintain that it is for humanity? Because if we trace the transformation of the University under McInnis’ presidency, through the Trump Administration and to the present moment, we understand that Yale is for itself. That slogan might not look as good on billboards or raise $7 billion, but in the spirit of light and truth, it is the exposed reality of the schools actions. So perhaps “For Humanity” was a promise to the world, and one left broken in the face of leadership change, political turmoil and value shifts. Presently, the end of this campaign marks the closing of Salovey’s legacy, and more importantly, Yale leadership’s humanitarian pursuits for the time being. But I urge you, Yale: Leave the question on the table, look back at your campaign and give us an answer. What are you for? VIOLET CHIN is a first-year in Grace Hopper College studying American studies and a staff columnist for the opinion desk. She can be reached at violet. chin@yale.edu.
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In 2024, Michel Devoret left Yale after two impressive decades. A Nobel laureate in physics and one of the architects of the Yale Quantum Institute, Devoret moved to California to serve as Chief Scientist of Google Quantum AI, while also joining the faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The implications of such a transition are troubling. Yale spent decades cultivating and supporting one of the world’s foremost quantum information scientists, and a technology company eventually became the institution with the resources to employ him. Devoret is just one small example in a sea of scientists falling victim to the phenomenon of brain drain. As artificial intelligence and other frontier technologies become enormously valuable, technology companies have begun wooing professors and researchers with extraordinary resources that universities struggle to match. Prominent intellectual leaders across the fields of mathematics and computer science have already made the transition to private companies. For example, Jelani Nelson, formerly a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, joined Anthropic as a research leader. In 2025, Meta reportedly o!ered some OpenAI researchers compensation packages exceeding $100 million in their first year, with quoted fouryear packages reaching as high as $300 million. One reported o!er to AI researcher Andrew Tulloch was worth as much as $1.5 billion over six years. Other prominent academics have similarly taken leaves of absence, moved between academia and industry or founded companies of their own. This is not necessarily a problem. Universities and companies have always benefited from one another. Some discoveries should be commercialized, and researchers should be free to pursue opportunities outside the academy. However, this relationship is becoming one-sided. It seems universities are simply becoming training grounds to join companies
ultimately making short-term, profit-maximizing decisions. The university was never meant to be a factory for economically useful knowledge. Its value at the post-graduate level was that it cultivated a free space for thinkers to pursue questions that had no reasonable use in sight. Take the modern cellphone, which contains the universal lithium-ion battery. Research on producing a practical lithiumion battery was conducted in the 1970s, but it was only in the early 2000s when it entered daily life. The Nobel Prize for it was awarded much later, in 2019, to John Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino. This is true across all fields of science. An even more extreme example has to do with a branch of mathematics known as knot theory. Beginning in the 1860s, mathematicians developed a theory of knots which eventually became part of the broader field of topology, but it was soon discarded. It was not until the 1980s, more than a century later, that scientists began applying knot theory. They used ideas that initially seemed utterly useless to study knotted and linked DNA, helping advance understanding of replication and recombination. Companies cannot sustain this sort of innovation. To be clear, private enterprise still produces important research and can make great discoveries. However, these discoveries will be motivated by the market. A company must ask whether research will produce a competitive advantage, a product or a return on investment. And oftentimes, the return on investment must come in the very short term, with close attention to quarterly results, instead of open-ended, knowledge-oriented research that goes on for decades. This distinction matters more as the boundary between academic research and commercial development thins. My concern is not that Google or Anthropic lack the capabilities or resources to carry out frontier research. Both companies clearly have the
means. But their domination of a hypothetical future research ecosystem could slowly change the purpose of research entirely. If the most talented researchers solely follow the resources, the areas of inquiry most capable of generating enormous commercial returns will accumulate talent, computing power and institutional attention. Other fields may continue to exist, but they will live as second-class citizens in a system that measures intellectual importance by market value. This problem is not confined to physics or computer science. The humanities, for instance, face repercussions of this change. A classics department cannot immediately produce a profitable language model. A philosophy department cannot, in most cases, patent a theorem. A historian cannot promise future quarterly growth. A private sector-led academy that only studies what can eventually be monetized becomes merely a mold for what major corporations select for. When we focus too much on the outcome, we can forget the pure whimsical exploration that leads us to the wildest and most human discoveries. This nullifies the notion of a liberal arts institution like Yale. Universities should certainly interact with industry. But they must make a conscious effort to preserve spaces where intellectual value is not based on profit, where research can be pursued because it is true and beautiful and important, and where one of a professor’s most important contributions is to teach the next generation, in particular the undergraduates. In the immortal words of John Keating in “Dead Poets Society”: “Medicine, law, business, engineering—these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love— these are what we stay alive for.” AASHRITH MUPPALLA is a first-year studying physics. His column explores how being a student at an institution like Yale can mold one’s aspirations, morals and beliefs. He can be reached at aashrith.muppalla@yale.edu.
S TA F F C O L U M N I S T ZAC H A RY C L I F T O N
Illiterate Lunch An infinite ghost kitchen food concept opened on Elm Street this summer, a restaurant with a string of descriptors so absurd and fantastical that the owners have little choice but to call it “Wonder.” Rather literally, Wonder is a restaurant built for the illiterate. Its website provides users with the word’s definition: “a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration caused by something unexpected or inexplicable.” Anyone who has ever had the displeasure of taking a bite of Wonder’s plastic-like fare will understand why the company feels the need to define it: Wonder doesn’t want its diners to consider the meaning of the word for themselves. Its food is gray, prepackaged sludge prepared offsite, days prior, finished in an all-electric kitchen — what many Reddit users have called a microwave. Wonder wants you to believe that all of its efforts amount to “great food made more accessible.” The company boasts about its “advanced food robotics program,” as if that’s something to brag about, as if anyone has ever asked for that. At least try to appear amazed, dear reader! Wonder operates more than a hundred food halls in ten states. It’s valued at $9 billion and plans to go public next year. It bought Blue Apron and Grubhub. Its founder ran Walmart’s e-commerce business—since every great American eatery clearly begins and ends with a man who sold Diapers.com! At Wonder’s location on Elm Street, you can order from
two dozen “restaurants” at a touchscreen: a Bobby Flay steakhouse, Texas barbecue, Brooklyn pizza and poke. All of it comes from the same sta!, in the same kitchen, behind the same partition. The “meal” arrives wrapped in more packaging than even the sweetest and most sentimental birthday gifts. A Baltimore Banner critic wrote that even the best dishes reminded her of airplane food. Near Baltimore, in Washington, D.C., two of Wonder’s locations have 2.7 stars on Yelp. Wonder’s whole vocabulary works toward deceiving its customers or assuming they’ll be too stupid to notice its trickery. Take “infinite kitchen.” False! There’s only one kitchen, and it’s finite. Take “restaurants.” False! They advertise two dozen names, but there’s only one address and one line of cooks. Take “Bobby Flay.” False! The name is also a word — one the company purchased, because nothing says “delicious dinner” like buying words to sell to retail food customers! The name on the menu doesn’t mean Bobby Flay actually cooked your steak or has ever even tried it. I presume he’s done neither. But Flay does own shares in Wonder. Then there is “Seamless,” which should mean where two things are joined, where you can see one end and the other begin. Seamless is a delivery app that was folded into Grubhub. Within three months of buying Grubhub, Wonder brought “Seamless” back. On Reddit, New Yorkers write about ordering Wonder by accident, under names like Tejas Barbeque or
Limesalt, without realizing what they were getting. In 2019, writing about Sweetgreen, an earlier iteration of the kind of fast-casual joint Wonder based itself on, Jia Tolentino published an essay titled “Always Be Optimizing.” Tolentino wrote that Sweetgreen feels less like a place to eat than a “refueling station,” a machine for feeding people too busy working to sit down or eat a meal on a flat plate — opting, instead, for a big, compostable bowl whose high edges can contain the scoop of nutrients one allows oneself to shovel into one’s face-hole weekdays for lunch. Wonder, somehow, manages to be worse. The ultimate aim of Wonder is an AI platform that its CEO is developing to track your biomarkers and body composition and then order every meal for you, taking as much human decisionmaking out of the whole nutrition thing as possible. MEL, the name of that platform, seems to mean nothing in particular, much like what it will contribute to our world. Just as incomprehensible is the fact that the CEO is, e!ectively, coding a solution to the problem that Tolentino named in her headline. What stands between Wonder and its ultimate goal? Diners who can still read its menu. ZACHARY CLIFTON is a junior in Benjamin Franklin College studying political science and a staff columnist for the opinion desk. He can be reached at zachary.clifton@ yale.edu.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2026 · yaledailynews.com · @yaledailynews
FROM THE FRONT
“I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us.” HENRY DAVID THOREAU AMERICAN ESSAYIST
Quarterback scores four touchdowns in comeback win FOOTBALL FROM PAGE 1 medical reasons — on the videoboard. Reno had died less than 24 hours earlier, on Friday afternoon. After finding themselves down 21-7 late in the first half, the Bulldogs (2–1, 0–1 Ivy) scored 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to defeat the Merrimack College Warriors (2–4). “It was a battle all the way through,” Yale head coach Kevin Cahill told Yale Athletics following the win. “We knew it. Merrimack was a really good football team. They played a really challenging schedule, so my hats off to them. They were prepared to come in and play.” Yale had an ideal start right out of the gate. On the third play of the game, the Bulldog defense punched the ball out, and defensive back JP Schmidt ’28 pounced on the ball to give the offense great starting field position. Just a few plays later, Reno found his favorite target, receiver Jaxton Santiago ’28, in the end zone to put the Bulldogs up 7-0. Unfortunately, after the early turnover, the Merrimack offense woke up and took their anger out on the Yale defense. Several breakdowns in the secondary and 21 unanswered points later, the Bulldogs found themselves down 21-7 with seven minutes remaining in the first half. With pressure mounting, Yale marched down the field and found the end zone in just three minutes. However, an offensive holding call
nullified the score and forced the drive to stall out, resulting in a Noah Piper ’29 field goal. After a couple of poor series, the Team 153 defense stood strong and forced a three-and-out. Santiago followed up the defensive success with a 23-yard punt return to set the Bulldogs up at midfield. Sensing a major momentum shift, the Yale faithful rose to their feet as their offense retook the field to cut into the deficit again. With just over three minutes left in the half, Reno got to work quickly. After a few chunk passing plays to work down the field, Santiago caught his second touchdown pass of the day just a minute and a half later to make the score 21-17 entering the break. The Bulldogs received the kickoff to open the second half. Following two large gains by Santiago and Reid Jones ’29 and a few solid runs by running back Hugo Djeumeni Kemeni ’29, Yale was back deep into the red zone. Then, Reno hit tight end Graham Smith ’27 for his third touchdown of the season and gave Yale the lead for the first time since the first quarter. Merrimack, after allowing 17 straight points, finally put up points of their own after a long, methodical drive that resulted in a chip-shot field goal, tying the game at 24 apiece. With just over five minutes left in the third quarter, Yale’s offense retook the field with eyes set on taking back the lead. Unfortunately, the drive didn’t last too long after a firstplay fumble by Cuttler Adams ’28
gave the Warriors the ball back with prime field position. This time, the Bulldog defense held strong and forced a Merrimack field goal attempt just four players later, which sailed wide of the goalposts to keep the game tied. Following the special teams miscue, both teams traded punts as the clock ran out to end the third quarter. Yale started the fourth quarter with the ball on their own 43-yard line, and made quick work of the Warrior defense as they marched down into the red zone. However, a penalty and a rush for a loss set the Bulldogs back, giving them a 3rd and goal from the Merrimack 20-yard line. Wanting to find the end zone rather than settling for a field goal, Reno dropped back to pass and attempted to find senior receiver Garon Kemp ’27. As the ball crossed the goal line, it was tipped by a Merrimack defender as he collided with Kemp. Kemp, never taking his eye off the ball, kept tracking it as he was falling to the ground and managed to haul it in before the ball touched the ground for a miraculous touchdown, putting the Bulldogs up 31-24. From there on out, it was all Yale for the remainder of the game. An energized defense continued to shut down Merrimack quarterback AJ Hairston Jr. and the rest of his offense, and the Bulldogs kept putting up points. Another Piper field goal grew the Yale lead to 10 with nine minutes left in the game, and a Djeumeni Kemeni rushing touchdown put the final
Liza Kaufman / Photography Editor
Quarterback Dante Reno ’28 led Yale to an emotional win over the Merrimack Warriors on Saturday. touches on the comeback victory for Team 153, giving them a 41-24 win. As the final seconds ran off the clock, the home side of the Yale Bowl was filled with hugs and cheers. Nobody would have blamed Reno for sitting out this game. The quarterback not only played, but put the team on his back and threw for nearly 300 yards and four touchdowns as he led his team to victory. “I know my dad,” Dante Reno told Yale Athletics after the game,
adding that he would want nothing more “than for me to go out there and play, not miss practice. Go out there, go to school, be around the guys. We have a culture here that not everybody has in the country.” The Bulldogs will next host Dartmouth in an Ivy conference matchup at the Yale Bowl on Saturday. Contact BRODY GILKISON at brody.gilkison@yale.edu.
Tony Reno, who led Bulldogs to first playoffs, dies at 52 RENO FROM PAGE 1
Liza Kaufman / Photography Editor
Reno coached Yale’s football program from 2012 to 2026, winning five Ivy League titles and securing the first-ever FCS Playoff berth in school history, before stepping down in February due to health issues. He died on Friday.
2003. He rejoined the Bulldogs in 2012, holding the head coach position until stepping down in February due to health issues. “I am forever grateful to have had Coach Reno not only as a football coach, but as a mentor,” Jake Biggs ’25, who played football at Yale under Reno, wrote in a text message to the News. “Through Reno’s influence, I learned what leadership looks like and developed into the man I am today. Coach always challenged us to ‘plant trees that you will never see grow.’ There are many great trees growing because of Tony Reno.” Reno led the Bulldogs to 83 victories, making him the second winningest coach in the history of Yale football. He also led his student-athletes to succeed on and off the field. Six Elis were named Ivy League Player of the Year under Reno, including running back Josh Pitsenberger and defensive back Abu Kamara ’27, the Ivy League’s reigning offensive and defensive players of the year, respectively. Reno also coached several play-
ers who continued on to play in the National Football League, including Foyesade Oluokun ’18, Jackson Hawes ’23, Ben Mann ’25, Mason Tipton ’24 and Rodney Thomas II ’22 — all of whom are players in the NFL. “I know what it took to build this up. I was behind the scenes with Tony to build this up to what it could be and what it has been, and that is a tremendous program.” head coach Kevin Cahill, who was on Reno’s staff from 2012 to 2022, said in a press conference after the Bulldogs defeated Merrimack College. The Bulldogs’ fourth straight win over Harvard in 2025 allowed Reno to bring Yale football back to the national stage, as the victory earned Yale the conference title and the first-ever Ivy League automatic playoff berth to the NCAA FCS playoffs. In the postseason, Yale won a historic 43-42 comeback victory against Youngstown State, before falling to Montana State University, and finished the 2025 season with a national ranking of No. 13. “Tony Reno devoted his life to serving others and approached every
day with humility, compassion, and purpose,” Yale Athletic Director Vicky Chun told Yale Athletics. “While his accomplishments on the football field were remarkable, it is the relationships he built and the lives he changed that will define his enduring legacy.” During the 2025 season, Reno coached his eldest son, quarterback Dante Reno ’28, who transferred to Yale from the University of South Carolina. The pair played a pivotal role in last year’s record-breaking season for the Bulldogs. On Saturday, one day after his father’s death, Dante threw for 298 yards and four touchdowns against Merrimack, ending the game with a 41-24 victory after overcoming a 14 point deficit. Reno received several honors for his work as head coach. He was awarded Ivy League Coach of the Year in both 2022 and 2025 and was named the Jack Grinold Division I Coach of the Year in 2017 and 2025 by the New England Football Writers Association. “It was never about him or simply about winning championships; it was about developing young men and leaders and helping them
Athlete majors less evenly distributed across disciplines MAJORS FROM PAGE 1 teachers for accommodating his academic interests. “Overall, although being an athlete definitely impacts which classes you can take, our coaches and teachers at Yale have been very accommodating in letting us explore our academic interests.” Women’s tennis player Katharine Liu ’30 similarly said athletics had not restricted her academic interests. “I think there’s a common misconception that being an athlete limits your choice of major, which in my experience has not been true at all,” Liu wrote in a statement. Wagnon wrote that hockey teammates often take similar classes and majors, with older players recommending courses to younger ones. “Taking classes with your best friends makes studying for exams and going to class a lot more fun and easier,” he wrote. Economics was also the most common major among athletes, declared by 124 athletes, or 33.3 percent, compared with 199 non-athletes, or 7.6 percent. Political science followed with 56 athletes, or 15.1 percent,
having declared the major, compared with 177 non-athletes, or 6.8 percent. The difference extended beyond individual majors. Using categories created for the analysis, 25.5 percent of athletes declared STEM majors, while 41.4 percent of non-athletes declared STEM majors. Humanities and arts majors represented 8.3 percent and 24.2 percent of athletes and non-athletes, respectively. The analysis excludes missing, undeclared and invalid majors and shows differences in major choice. Directory entries may also lag behind students’ current plans. Some athletes said their practice schedules have affected their ability to explore outside of their chosen course of study. “I’d still study applied math, but I’d take larger workload classes outside my major,” tennis player Rachel Lee ’29 wrote in a statement. Lee said while she has been able to pursue her academic passion, her tennis schedule has limited some of the courses she can take. “Many interesting electives in the afternoon are hard to take due to practice,” Lee wrote. Cross-country and track athlete Colter Sienkiewicz ’28, how-
ever, said the time demands of his sport led him to reconsider majoring in pure mathematics. He said he now intends to study mathematics and philosophy. “I was gonna study pure math but I just didn’t have the time,” Sienkiewicz said. For others, athletic commitments have affected their schedules more than their intended academic fields. Kenneth Whitmer ’30, a track and field athlete who said he is planning to study mechanical engineering, said afternoon practices can complicate course selection. “I think I would be pursuing Mechanical Engineering whether I was an athlete or not. That’s actually one of the bigger reasons I chose to come to Yale — I didn’t have to sacrifice my major for my athletics,” Whitmer said. Still, he said his practice schedule has affected his ability to take courses. “There have been classes that I’ve been interested in that are only offered in the afternoon, but because of practice, I have to have all my classes in the morning,” Whitmer said. “It does make scheduling difficult.”
Stewart Royal / Contributing Photographer
A News analysis of 372 junior and senior athletes and 2,621 non-athletes found that economics and political science accounted for 48.4 percent of athlete majors, while only 14.3 percent of sampled non-athletes study either of the two subjects. When tennis matches overlap with classes, Liu said, players work conflicts out with professors and their deans ahead of time. “Tennis is a fall and spring sport, so I treat my schedule like I’m always in season,” Lee said, adding that she dedicates around four to five hours to
the sport per day. “I definitely prioritize tennis and school, so not much time for extracurriculars.” Yale has 35 varsity sports teams. Contact JAYDEN DAO at jayden.dao@yale.edu.
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2026 · yaledailynews.com · @yaledailynews
FROM THE FRONT
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“Nature gets into our souls and opens doors to hidden parts of ourselves” PAMELA HEYDA AMERICAN ARTIST
On campus, Blumenthal urges McInnis to defy Trump PROTEST FROM PAGE 1 Trump’s attacks on mail-in ballots and research. At the protest, students carried a cardboard replica of “Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks,” a sculpture by Swedish sculptor Claes Oldenburg ’50 that was installed on Beinecke Plaza in 1969 amid anti-war protests. The sculpture is currently displayed at the Yale University Art Gallery. Students surrounded the replica Lipstick, and shouted slogans like “Hey hey, ho ho, Yale trustees have got to go,” and “Get out, get down, we’re anti-war in this town.” Miles Kirkpatrick ’27, who attended the protest, said he attended after understanding the extent to which the Yale administration has been “derelicting” its duty to listen to its students over time. Kirkpatrick said he hopes the protest would eventually pressure the University against settling with the Trump administration. “The University sits between the federal government and the students, and we can also apply pressure upwards as well,” he said. “I think without student protests there really is no effective avenue for students to enact change in a manner that we need.” Susan DeSilver ’79 said she came to protest because Yale’s current negotiation is the “antithesis of what a university should stand for.” She hopes that alumni could also pressure the University into accepting the protest’s demands. At the end of the press conference, Blumenthal assured the Yale administration that they have an ally in their community. Directing the comment towards Yale President Maurie McInnis, he said the gravity of the situation extends beyond Yale. “If you want to retain the allegiance and support of your alumni, and I’m one of them,
abandon appeasement,” Blumenthal said. “The president of Yale is new to it as president, but she must know that what’s happening here is bigger than Yale, and our alumni will stand behind Yale if it stands for academic freedom, if it stands up to Donald Trump, if it resists tyranny. That’s what is at stake here.” Along with Blumenthal, DeLauro and Elicker, two law school professors spoke at the press conference before the protest. Law school professor Muneer Ahmad described the Justice Department’s attack on the University as a “weaponization of Title VI” to exert control over Yale. “Not only is the law on Yale's side, resisting settlement is the right thing to do,” Ahmad said. “This is the time for our university to model the moral courage we seek to cultivate in our students.” The University’s motto of “Lux et Veritas, light and truth” is only possible when students and faculty are confident that their “school community” upholds those values, Elicker also said. Yale Law School professor Amy Kapczynski LAW ’03 shared the concerns of Yale’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, which is dedicated to developing standards that preserve quality in higher education and academic freedom in America colleges and universities, according to its website. In late May, Yale’s AAUP chapter released a report that found a significant portion of the University’s faculty currently perceives constraints on their ability to express their opinions or research potentially controversial topics. “They have created a committee to articulate principles of academic freedom,” said Kapczynski, referring to the University Provost Scott Strobel’s formation in March of a faculty committee to produce a statement on academic freedom. “I thought we were past the point of statements, right? We don’t just make statements,
Lewis to attend senate on Sunday LEWIS FROM PAGE 1 “I usually meet with them once a semester, so I haven’t met with this group yet, but I’m looking forward to talking to them and hearing their concerns,” Lewis said. Before the final vote was conducted, several student group representatives expressed dissatisfaction with the dean’s leadership. Alexander Vakov ’29, co-president of Yale’s Questbridge chapter, discussed the impact of recent College policy changes — including a recently-reversed phaseout of summer storage funding and the halving of non-competitive summer grants available to students receiving financial aid — on first-generation, low-income students. “As president of Questbridge, how am I supposed to explain to nearly 150 impressionable firstyear students in my chapter, which is actually the largest class to date of Questbridge, that they should be thinking with extra care about what they want to spend their first summer doing so they don’t end up without a source of funding for other opportunities in the future?” Vakov said. Seth Baker ’27, a first-year counselor for Saybrook College, alleged that Lewis lacked compassion regarding the College’s decision to schedule first-year course registration before move-in. A petition written earlier this year protesting the change received a total of 121 counselor signatures out of the 132 total FroCos, according to Baker. “All Head FroCos at the meeting said it was a bad idea. He continued anyway,” Baker said, referencing a meeting between the FroCos and Lewis last spring. “Rather than taking into account FroCo perspectives, people who actually speak and listen to the first-year class, he marched on without hesitation.” After public comments on the
statement criticizing Lewis were made, Parker moved the senate to debate on the proposed amendment to the document. The changes, he said, aimed to “recenter” the document so that it critiqued Lewis’ actions towards vulnerable and low-income students instead of calling for his removal. “There’s the potential for this to feel like a voting dilemma, where voting ‘yes’ may feel like a sweeping generalization when there’s a definite information gap about what we know,” Parker said, referring to the workings of the College administration, “but voting ‘no’ might seem like a callous ignorance of the harms that have occurred.” Shem Haile ’28, a Saybrook senator, said that he planned to vote against the amendment since it would take away “power” from the original statement. “To just suddenly handicap ourselves and take away our own power and not really vote the way that we think and how we would vote if we were the ones in power — it’s just that I don’t see the appeal to that argument,” Haile said. Davenport senator Ethan Powell ’27 supported the amendment, citing limited knowledge of Lewis’ responsibilities in his hesitation to support the original statement. “I think the changes make it more realistic given our position. I think it makes us seem more foolish if we suppose ourselves to have the ability to have enough information to make a full non-confidence vote in a leader, which I don’t think we have,” Powell said. The amendment was rejected, with six senators in favor, 14 in favor and five abstaining, while the original statement passed with 20 votes in favor, three against and five abstaining. Contact EMILY AKBAR at emily.akbar@yale.edu.
we need action.” DeLauro took further strikes at the Trump administration during the conference, saying that, in August, she and Blumenthal wrote to Yale President Maurie McInnis to not “capitulate” to Trump’s demands. While the University has an obligation to respond to the inquiries of the federal government, DeLauro said, it must protect its academic freedom — which she argued Columbia University and Northwestern University compromised in their settlements. “The reality is that this administration is not trying to resolve a dispute with Yale University: They are building precedent and a template to use against other universities and attacking academic freedom,” DeLauro said. At the end of the protest, organizers urged students to use chalk and write their demands for the University. Students drew
slogans such as “Say No to Fascism!,” “Yale, Don’t Concede!” and “Yale, Stop Bowing Down To Trump” on Beinecke Plaza. Rosa DeLauro has represented Connecticut’s 3rd district, which includes New Haven, since 1991.
Contact SARAH RIVAS at sarah.rivas@yale.edu, SASHA CABRAL at sasha.cabral@yale.edu and EMILY AKBAR at emily.akbar@yale.edu.
Sarah Rivas / Contributing Photographer
Kailyn Huynh / Contributing Photographer
On Friday afternoon, protesters marched to Beinecke Plaza, where they convened with Connecticut politicians
McInnis defended donor privacy LAWSUIT FROM PAGE 1 names. The department’s push to publish names follows the Trump administration’s stricter regulation of foreign funding to universities. In February, the department released an online database publicizing sources of foreign funding by country, but not individual donors. Thursday’s temporary restraining order will expire on Oct. 29. The department has until Oct. 13 to oppose the AAU’s motion for a preliminary injunction. Department of Education spokesperson Ellen Keast said in a Monday statement to the News that the association of universities is “hellbent on avoiding public accountability after decades of insatiable greed and disregard for the national interest.” The Association of American Universities argued that releasing the names would violate the donors’ free speech rights and that breaking donors’ anonymity would violate the Administrative Procedure Act, which prohibits agencies from making “arbitrary and capricious” changes. According to an Education Department database, Guernsey, a tiny English channel island with lenient corporate tax laws, is the top source of foreign funding for Yale. China provided the second most foreign funding for
Abby Assouad / Staff Photographer
the University. Yale ranks eighth among American universities in foreign funding. In a September interview, McInnis defended Yale’s international cooperation when asked about a proposed bill that would tighten regulations on reporting foreign gifts. “We don’t really do classified research here. We do open science here,” McInnis said. “We believe firmly in protecting sensitive and important information to keep it from bad actors.” She added that Yale and its faculty have partnerships across the world. Keast, the Education Department spokesperson, said in her statement that American taxpayers have spent billions on higher education and expect universities to work in the national interest. “At the same time, elite universities were cashing multi-million-dollar checks from malign foreign actors that fund centers and faculty who promote anti-Western ideologies and support partnerships that are designed to export sensitive technology to geopolitical adversaries,” Keast said. The Higher Education Act of 1965 requires universities to disclose foreign gifts or contracts above a threshold to the federal government. In 2020, the department began gathering the names of for-
eign donors but committed to safeguarding their privacy. Yale has also lobbied against the DETERRENT Act, which would lower the reporting thresholds for foreign funding of higher education and compel faculty and sta! to disclose foreign gifts over $480. In her Monday statement, Keast called on Congress to pass the DETERRENT Act to “avoid leaving this critical transparency issue in the hands of federal judges.” “There are particularities in this particular legislation that could make that kind of open science more difficult,” McInnis said in September. Harvard is under investigation by the Department of Justice for ties to China, while the University of Pennsylvania is facing an Education Department probe for allegedly inaccurate reporting of funding. Yale faced a similar Trump administration investigation in 2020 over the accuracy of reporting. A day after the investigation was announced, the University admitted it did not accurately disclose foreign sources between 2014 and 2017 and updated their filings. Aria Lynn-Skov contributed reporting. Contact LEO NYBERG at leo.nyberg@yale.edu.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
NEWS
“Art takes nature as its model” ARISTOTLE ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHER
Generations of volunteers celebrate 140 years of Dwight Hall BY ARIA LYNN-SKOV STAFF REPORTER When Neil Richardson was a middle schooler in Fair Haven, he met then-Yale undergraduate John Allcott III ’67 through a Dwight Hall mentorship program. Allcott, he recalled, would take him to the YMCA and Branford College’s Harkness Tower. Fifty years later, with the help of Yale’s director of community relations at the Office of New Haven Affairs, he decided to look up his old friend. Richardson soon got in touch with Allcott, now a doctor in Oregon, and the pair talk frequently, having revived their friendship after half a century. Richardson, a former juvenile
judicial marshal and decorated member of the New Haven community, and Allcott’s sister Elinor were among the Dwight Hall affiliates gathered on Old Campus Friday evening to celebrate 140 years of the public service center’s contributions to Yale, New Haven and the world. At the celebration, student leaders and member groups re ce ive d awa rd s, a n d two Yale leaders, Director of Public School Partnerships Claudia Merson and longtime Yale administrator Henry “Sam” Chauncey ’57, were honored for their decades of service and contributions to New Haven. In a speech during the event, Yale President Maurie McInnis praised Dwight Hall’s legacy and impact on the world.
“I would argue that when we think about Yale, we should also think about Dwight Hall. Be ca u se t h i s o rga n i za t i o n encapsulates something that is so essential about Yale,” McInnis said in her speech. “Dwight Hall encapsulates that the pursuit of knowledge can include public service.” She described the University’s founding charter as “a declaration that the search for knowledge that students partake in here would prepare them for the work that they would go on to do after graduation.” Before the event began, attendees mingled while a student jazz band played in the background. Chauncey sat on the edge of the stage with two longtime friends, John Wilhelm ’67 and David War-
JACK ENNIS / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Former and current Dwight Hall affiliates celebrated 140 years since the center was founded. University President Maurie McInnis addressed attendees at the event, highlighting the relationship between public service and a liberal arts education.
ren DIV ’70 ARC ’70. Warren, who served as president of Ohio Wesleyan University from 1984 to 1993 and head of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities after that, was deeply involved with Dwight Hall both as a student and following his graduation. Wilhelm is a labor organizer who was president of the UNITE HERE union from 2004 to 2012. After graduating from the University, he was a union leader at Yale. Later this month, the corner of College and Elm streets will be named “Wilhelm Corner” in his honor by New Haven. “No one has done more to bring Yale and the New Haven community together than this man,” Wilhelm said about Chauncey. “He laid the groundwork that others picked up.” Chauncey, who received the Leadership Legacy Award from Dwight Hall, worked in the Yale administration for decades. As a special assistant to then-Yale president Alfred Whitney Griswold — who graduated Yale College in 1929 and earned a Ph.D. from Yale in 1933 — he was “tasked to reconceive the relationship of the University to its host city,” Dwight Hall Executive Director Peter Cramlish said. “He did this by creating the Office of Volunteer Services in 1960, and hired Herb Cahoon to be its first director, based in Dwight Hall. When he spoke after receiving his award, Chauncey praised his fellow honoree of the evening: “Nobody in this room admires Claudia Merson more than I do,” he said. Madeline Negrón, superintendent of New Haven Public Schools, introduced Merson at the event. When Merson began at Yale in 1995, Negrón said, “She didn’t just take a job at Yale. She took on a mission.” “To truly understand our community, she insisted on substitute teaching in all New Haven public schools in a single year,” Negrón recalled, praising her commit-
ment to what Merson calls “doing the necessary seat time to build genuine, respectful relationships.” Merson has always curated “real possibilities for students,” Negron said, from founding the early scholar program at Yale to reaching thousands of students by expanding Pathways to Science, which seeks to provide STEM access for middle and high school students. “Over her decades as director of Public School Partnerships at Yale’s Office of New Haven and State Affairs, Claudia has become the glue holding our most meaningful partnerships with Yale together,” Negrón said. “Claudia once noted that before building these pathways, we had a thousand flowers and no garden. Claudia, you built that garden, you know how to connect all the dots, how to open doors, create bridges and ensure your students know they belong in every room they walk into.” Chauncey and Merson both received standing ovations during the event. Dean of the School of Engineering Jeffrey Brock ’92 said he was excited to be honoring Merson, who he knows through her work to “support our faculty in their grant writing and other efforts to have their research be meaningful to the local community.” He also emphasized the importance of Dwight Hall’s mission in relation to the School of Engineering. “I’m also vocal that engineering will see itself in the role of service that the University promulgates through Dwight Hall,” Brock told the News before the event. “So fundamentally I think that part of what should instill trust in higher education is the service mission of our students and service mission of what we teach, and I think engineering should be represented in that message.” Contact ARIA LYNN-SKOV at aria.lynn-skov@yale.edu.
SOM alumni meet across the globe for 50th anniversary BY GILLIAN PEIHE FENG STAFF REPORTERS To c e l e b ra te t h e 5 0 t h anniversary of its founding in 1976, the Yale School of Management has launched “50 Cheers for 50 Years,” a series of at least 50 alumni gatherings taking place across the globe between August 2026 and June 2027. According to the SOM’s official website, these alumni gatherings consist of “informal events” hosted in alumni’s local communities with the goal of being “intentionally intimate and community-driven.” As of Oct. 4, the initiative has already held its first two alumni gatherings: the first in Toronto, hosted by Vipan Nikore SOM ’06 on Sept. 10, and the second in New Orleans, La., hosted by Shannon English, an associate director of alumni engagement at the SOM, last Thursday. “At this point, I’d describe the initiative as having more than a dozen gatherings in various stages of planning, with more being added as alumni continue to express interest in hosting,” English wrote in an email to the News. English added that planned locations so far include American cities such as Scottsdale, Ariz., St. Louis, Mo., San Francisco, Calif., and Washington, D.C., as well as international locations in several countries including Japan, Germany, Canada and Romania. Kathleen Cartiera, the director of alumni engagement at the SOM, told the News in a Zoom interview that the initiative stemmed partly from the school’s efforts to engage with its global alumni community. “How do we really celebrate that and encompass our global footprint, if you will?” Cartiera said, describing the idea behind holding a series of regional alumni gatherings, on top of the school’s annual reunion weekend in New Haven.
COURTESY OF SHANNON ENGLISH
The alumni-led initiative will bring School of Management alumni to a series of regional gatherings around the world throughout the school year. Cartiera acknowledged the difficulty of engaging alumni scattered across the world, given that they are in different stages of their careers and may face budgetary constraints. “This initiative really is working hard to bridge that gap as best as we can,” Cartiera said. In an email to the News, Nikore, who hosted the Toronto gathering, wrote that around 25 alumni attended his event. “‘50 Cheers for 50 Years’ gives us all a moment to reflect upon an incredible experience that the school offered us,” Nikore wrote. “I think the initiative is great for the school, because it means that every alumni this year is taking a moment to reflect upon their experience at Yale SOM - which certainly can only help with alumni engagement.” The New Orleans alumni event last Thursday, hosted by English,
was held in an oyster bar and had eight alumni in attendance. “There wasn’t a formal program or agenda - aside from a ‘cheers’ to SOM!” English wrote in an email to the News. “I wanted it to feel more like getting together with old friends and making new ones rather than attending a traditional a n n ive rsa ry eve n t with formulated programming.” Dorothy Liu SOM ’92 is planning to host an alumni gathering, as part of the “50 Cheers for 50 Years” initiative, in Seattle. In a Zoom interview with the News, Liu said that the event is tentatively scheduled for mid-November. Liu said that one of the highlights of regional alumni reunions for her is that they a l l ow p e o p l e to d eve l o p connections with alumni beyond their own classes.
“My hope for my event is that I will create a space for people across all the decades of classes to connect,” Liu said. “The things that brought us there in 1988 are just as relevant for the people who are coming in for the class of 2028.” Liu and N ikore also reflected on how the School of Management has changed since their time as students there. “Back then the school was a relatively younger school, only 30 years old, and reaching 50 years I feel puts us in a much more mature category,” Nikore wrote. “I feel that back then we were a young innovative school building a new kind of curriculum (which we actually were doing with Dean Podolny then), and that now we have the wisdom while also maintaining that innovative spirit.” Joel Podolny was dean of the
School of Management between 2005 and 2008. He is “widely credited” with transforming the school’s curriculum. Liu recalled a time when the School of Management was only around 15 years old, when “there was even a question of whether school should even exist,” as she put it. “To know that we are now 50 years old is an incredible thing,” Liu said. “I feel like SOM has become the school that I thought I was going to, and that we’re delivering on the promise that the founders had in the 1970s, and that’s pretty cool.” The Edward P. Evans Hall, where the Yale School of Management is now located, was opened in 2014. Contact GILLIAN PEIHE FENG at peihe.feng@yale.edu.
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
NEWS
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“Storms make trees take deeper roots” DOLLY PARTON AMERICAN SINGER-SONGWRITER
Statewide lottery features local pizza icons in scratch-off BY NAUSICAA CHU CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Connecticut lottery players could be rolling in dough — in more than one way — with the launch of a new statewide scratch-off game. In celebration of National Pizza Month, Connecticut Lottery last week debuted a limited-edition scratch-off lottery ticket featuring images of pies from Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, Sally’s Apizza, and Modern Apizza. At a Friday press conference at Wooster Street Archway, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz ’83 and Rep. Rosa DeLauro hailed the collaboration and praised the three pizzerias’ impact on Connecticut culture. “Today, we are celebrating much more than a new lottery ticket. Today is about our pride in one of the things that we do best, and this ticket recognizes the great tradition of the best pizza in the country,” Bysiewicz said at the event. According to Connecticut Lottery’s website, over 2 million limited-edition lottery tickets have been printed. Prize amounts range from $5 to $50,000. Bys i ew i cz a n d De L a u ro partook in a ceremonial first scratch of the lottery tickets. Neither won a prize. Connecticut Lottery President and CEO Frank Suarez said in an interview that the collaboration took about nine months of planning. Artists and designers researched pizza and used actual pictures of Pepe’s, Sally’s and Modern pies in the scratch-off ticket, he said. Each ticket includes five pies from each restaurant that players can scratch off. “It was a very fun process, but very thorough,” Suarez said. “We want to make sure it’s authentic.” The ticket sales will raise funds for education, mental health and health care programs, according to Suarez. In her remarks, DeLauro, a Democratic co-chair of the Italian American Congressional
NAUSICAA CHU / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
At a Friday launch, Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz ’83 and Rep. Rosa DeLauro played the first tickets in the state lottery’s Connecticut Apizza scratch-off game. Players can win up to $50,000 from the game, which features three New Haven pizza restaurants. Delegation, praised the Italian immigrants who “brought this work meal with them to a new world.” “They made it into a culinary icon,” DeLauro said. “These institutions have given us a place to gather and an identity to rally around. It is no exaggeration to say that apizza is a part of our social fabric.” DeLauro, who grew up in Wooster Square near Pepe’s and Sally’s, has been a longtime
supporter of New Haven apizza. In 2024, DeLauro declared New Haven the “Pizza Capital of the United States” on the steps of the United States Capitol. The move brought praise from Connecticut residents and outrage from New Yorkers, including then-Mayor Eric Adams. Bysiewicz also waded into the national debate over the best pizza with a remark that appeared to target Chicago’s cuisine. “When you need a spatula
to serve deep dish pizza, it is a casserole,” she said. Local New Haven pizza restaurants have brought people together for decades, Bysiewicz said, and the lottery collaboration was a continuation of Connecticut’s culinary traditions. Bysiewicz said she believed the tickets were “a unique keepsake” that buyers would not throw out. Bysiewicz and DeLauro did not take a stance on the ongoing debate
over the best New Haven pizza establishment. In an interview, Bysiewicz declined to comment on which was her favorite. “It would be like picking amongst your children,” she said. The overall odds of winning the lottery are 1 in 4.16, according to Connecticut Lottery’s website. Contact NAUSICAA CHU at nausicaa.chu@yale.edu
Now debt-free, New Haven Pride Center hosts annual block party BY PREMRUDEE MEPREMWATTANA CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Drag queens danced to pop music, street vendors sold handmade crafts and New Haven residents waved rainbow flags at the New Haven Pride Center’s annual pride celebration on Saturday afternoon. At the intersection of Crown and Orange streets in the city’s Ninth Square neighborhood, community members gathered to watch performances and interact with artists, nonprofit leaders and activists. This year’s event comes as the organization continues to rebuild from an internal financial crisis that came to a head earlier this year. The New Haven Pride Center stopped operating in February
after accruing more than $200,000 in debt owed to the Internal Revenue Service since 2022, when the organization’s Board of Directors discovered that its thenexecutive director failed to file the organization’s taxes with the IRS. After its February shutdown, the center launched Project Phoenix, a fundraising campaign to support its reopening. By April, the center had raised $500,000, more than enough to pay back its $125,000 debt. The center’s acting executive director Chris Freimuth DIV ’25 said the organization also participated in The Great Give, an annual fundraiser for New Haven nonprofits, in an interview during the event. During the 36-hour campaign in May, Freimuth said, the center raised over $15,000, which was more than it received in the last three years combined.
“This event has been a way of saying, like, ‘thank you, New Haven. We’re back. Like, you got our backs, we got yours,’” Freimuth said. “This is just like a big festival to say ‘we’re here, we’re not going anywhere.’ And so starting Monday morning, the job is let’s get things done. Let’s get things done.” The center reopened its doors in April, and is in the process of restoring its status as “a queer home for all people,” according to their website. “The New Haven Pride Center sort of feels like a spring that has been sort of getting coiled tighter and tighter and tighter by the pressure of that financial burden over the last few years.” Freimuth said. “And with the release of that, by way of Project Phoenix, the energy that you can
imagine from, like, a tightened coil, let loose.” Freimuth entered his role at the organization’s helm in July, after past executive directors Juancarlos Soto and Edward Summers stepped down in April and November of last year, respectively. “The vibe is basically joy and liberation,” Freimuth said when asked about his vision for the center. He said he was “thinking of the New Haven Pride Center as the Queer Town Green. And so it’s a place where everybody feels safe, everybody feels welcome.” According to the organization’s website, the center has “new leadership at all levels, new organizational structure, and new vision.” Freimuth said that the staff that were working at the center
PREMRUDEE MEPREMWATTANA / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
In April, the center re-opened after a debt crisis forced it to shut down in February. At its annual pride event on Saturday, community members, activists and performers gathered to celebrate the local LGBTQ+ community as the nonprofit rebuilds.
in February have left for other jobs. Since reopening, the center has recruited six new people to its Board of Directors. “It’s been a slow restart,” Sam Ernest DIV ’18 GRD ’26, the organization’s administrative coordinator, said in an interview. “We have open hours, but we’re very deliberate with how we’re getting our programs back up and running.” Ernest said the organization was offering fewer services than it had before it shut down, but that it was working to build connections with other organizations that support queer communities. Pride draws activists and artists Ian Jackson, a friend of Freimuth’s, said Saturday marked his first time attending New Haven Pride. “I’m loving this event. It’s beautiful,” he said. “I’m so happy to see New Haven come out and really celebrate the queer community.” Several vendors sold clothing, handmade crafts, jewelry and books, while local nonprofits offered informational materials about their work. “Pride to me means solidarity and resistance in the face of oppression,” Heather Nielsen, a representative tabling for the New Haven Immigrants Coalition, said. “Everyone needs to take away the understanding that we are better together and that an intersectional approach to oppression is the only way we are ever going to claw power back from those who want to keep us down.” Jordan McMillan, a vendor at the event, sold handmade textile products made of free and thrifted upcycled fabrics, emblazoned with phrases like “gay audacity,” “up to no good” and “Free Palestine.” “Being together and being joyful together is also a very important piece of liberation and protest,” McMillan said. The New Haven Pride Center opened in November 1996. Contact PREMRUDEE MEPREMWATTANA at premrudee.mepremwattana@yale.edu.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
SCI-TECH
“If we save our wild places, we will ultimately save ourselves.” STEVE IRWIN AUSTRALIAN CONSERVATIONALIST
Students gather bird migration data on campus roofs BY KRISTIN CHUANG CONTRIBUTING REPORTER During fall migration, more than 2 million birds fly over New Haven every night, according to Julien Amsellem ’27. Almost none of them can be seen. But Amsellem, along with two other students, is studying them. The Law, Environment & Animals Program — or LEAP — a student grant program at Yale Law School, funds students working on research and creative projects related to threats facing animals. This year, undergraduates Amsellem, Justin Leahy ’29 and Owen Robertson ’29 received $2,000 through the program for their project, “Nocturnal Monitoring of Avian Migration over Yale.” Since early September, the group has placed devices on campus rooftops to record the calls of migrating birds, in hopes of monitoring which species pass over the city and informing local efforts to reduce bird deaths. “A lot of people realize they’ll see a dead bird hit a window and they’ll be like, ‘Oh, that’s a shame,’ but they’re not realizing the scale at which this can happen or the impact that light pollution and buildings at night can have on birds that are migrating,” Amsellem said. When birds migrate, they emit diagnostic night flight calls — or NFCs — that allow them to communicate with one another. By recording and analyzing NFCs, the group can monitor the quantity and diversity of birds flying through the Yale area. The students are especially seeking to gather data on declining species, like the Bicknell’s Thrush, to raise awareness about light pollution in New Haven. If successful, their dataset would be the “first comprehensive analysis of nocturnal migration in the
COURTESY OF JUSTIN LEAHY
Yale College students Julien Amsellem ’27, Justin Leahy ’29 and Owen Robertson ’29 received $2,000 through the Yale Law School’s Law, Environment & Animals Program grant program to research nocturnal bird migration over Yale’s campus. immediate region,” according to their grant proposal. Their data could help support conservation of endangered or unknown bird species migrating in Connecticut. Leahy said he hopes the measures from their project can inform organizations like Lights Out Connecticut, which advocates for turning off lights during bird migration periods, and the Audubon Society, a bird conservation group. “Bird-friendly building window policy is starting to spread more across the country, but if there’s more of a personal connection — like this specific bird flies over roughly this frequency, and it’s very much so on the decline — it adds a more emotional aspect to legislators and people,” Leahy said. The three students first met
through birding. Amsellem, a co-president of the Yale Birding Student Association, took Leahy and Robertson birding around New Haven when they visited campus for Bulldog Days as prospective students. Amsellem had attempted a similar project previously, but building managers would not allow him onto the roof of Kline Tower over concerns of safety. After Leahy and Roberson became students, the group got in contact with Viveca Morris, co-leader of the Yale Bird-Friendly Building Initiative and executive director of LEAP, who pointed them towards the grant. Once their application was accepted, Mark Veronneau, a Yale Office of Facilities employee and fellow bird enthusiast, helped them get onto campus roofs and determine optimal recording locations.
Previously, the students have recorded bird calls from their phones, but with the $2,000 funding from the LEAP grant, the group placed specialized recording devices at the top of the Environmental Science Center, Payne-Whitney Gymnasium and Whitney Grove Square. The devices record bird calls from sunset to three hours after sunrise, saving the recordings to a data storage bank that can be analyzed through bird call identifying software. They plan to gather data during migration season — September to November and again starting in April — and examine it in the months between. The undergraduates are hoping to publish their results. “I think that NFC monitoring, though it has really exploded in popularity over the past couple
years, is still sort of a new frontier in birding — both in terms of bird distributions and also just understanding the calls that they make,” Robertson said. ”We don’t have a complete register, by any means, of bird nocturnal vocalizations. And we’re still finding new things.” According to Roberston, the only other nocturnal flight call recording setup in Connecticut is no longer active. He hopes their project could inspire others, especially students at other colleges, to set up their own NFC monitoring. “There’s not very many in the Northeast, and especially, the idea of a ripple effect, like a positive feedback loop of advocacy and conservation success with policy — that could be a fun thing to witness this project do,” Robertson said. Outside of their LEAP project, all three students hold leadership roles in the Yale Birding Student Association. They have been birding since childhood and hope to share their love of birds with other students on campus. Every year, during the peak of migration season and during the full moon, Amsellem sets up a scope on the Silliman courtyard and allows passing students to look through the scope, where they can see the moon backlighting a constant passage of birds flying south. “The idea that a bird that is smaller than my fist and weighs five ounces is making a transnational journey multiple times in its lifetime is shocking when you think about it,” Amsellem said. According to BirdCast by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, an estimated 2,101,200 birds crossed New Haven County on Saturday night. Contact KRISTIN CHUANG at kristin.chuang@yale.edu
Yale New Haven Hospital center aims to calm crises BY STELLA DURAN GONZALEZ CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The Yale New Haven Hospital Children’s Crisis Intervention Center, Connecticut’s only hospital-based center for children experiencing mental health emergencies, opened in July. Newly-completed renovations to the space aimed to adapt to the changing needs of the children the center seeks to serve and make rooms safer for psychiatric patients. The facility now allows for more children to be accommodated through the use of a hybrid model, which incorporates both private patient rooms and open bays to provide children more autonomy and mobility during their visit. Pamela Hoffman, medical director of the center and associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health, said it was important to create a place where patients have autonomy over their movement. “The idea is that being in a space where you have agency over where you can go, as opposed to being in an emergency room where you’re stuck in your room and you can’t leave those four walls,” Hoffman said in a Zoom interview. The CIC regularly hosts events, such as group yoga, deep breathing and coloring sessions. Hoffman explained how the integrated nursing station and open space contributes to the success of the atmosphere. “It’s not closed in. It’s not glassed out, and we had a group yoga session. Kids are on mats. Another child is literally leading the yoga breathing,” Hoffman said. Beth Heinz, the senior vice president for the YNHH Women’s and Children’s Health Services, said the original plans for the facility resembled an extension of an emergency room, rather than a therapeutic center. “If you think about an emergency room, it’s very loud,” Heinz said in a Zoom interview. “Usually they’re closed-off rooms. You hear sirens, lots of noise, and so I asked that we pause the construction to think about it in a very different way.” Inspired by the Emergency Psychiatric Assessment, Treatment and Healing — or EmPATH — model
used by the Medical University of South Carolina, the center’s founders were inspired to create a space that is not only calm but in which children can freely move about. The EmPATH model was developed by Scott Zeller to deescalate emergency room mental health crises to reduce the number of inpatient hospitalizations. Heinz is credited as bringing the EmPATH model to YNHH’s Children’s Crisis Intervention Center. Linda Mayes, the chief of child psychiatry at YNHH, explained that pediatric mental health emergencies have been increasing in recent years. “There’s not only an increase in the number of children and adolescents needing services, but there’s also a change in severity,” Mayes said over Zoom. “That is, that kids are just sicker, and they need services for longer periods of time.” Together, Hoffman and Mayes explained that there has been a shortage of mental health services available for children, a problem exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 provided over $350 billion of COVID-19 relief grants to state and local governments. According to Hoffman, YNHH was able to utilize these funds to tackle the mental health issues exacerbated by COVID-19. However, Mayes emphasized that the root cause of this rise is much more complex and should not be blamed solely on the pandemic. Hoffman said the American healthcare system’s focus on intervention rather than prevention has also contributed to the rise in mental health crises. Research at the Access Lab at the Yale Child Study Center has focused on improving early access to evidence-based mental health care for children. Chandler Brown, the lead research coordinator for the Access Lab, explained that preventative care focuses on obviating mental health crises from occurring, whereas intervention focuses on reducing immediate harm after symptoms or emergencies occur. “Unfortunately, because that’s after the problem has already been established, so many families, instead of being proactive, it’s a
reactive approach to it,” Brown said. “Once it’s there, it’s kind of hard to find something that can fix the problem immediately.” Additionally, families often face long wait times for intervention programs, Brown added. Currently, YNHH is implementing the REACH program, which trains pediatricians in frontline skills in assessment and early intervention. “Pediatricians are just hungry for basic training in how to identify mental health needs in kids. It’s not something they get in pediatric training,” Mayes said. The CIC’s calming environment aims to help children connect with healthcare differently and learn crucial skills in emotional regulation and management that will benefit them for years to come. “There’s different things that you can use in coping when you are in a crisis. That the best way to learn those skills is when you’re able to test them out,” Hoffman said. “And so this is a perfect place for them to be able to test that out.”
The Children’s Crisis Intervention Center at Yale New Haven Health’s York Street Campus is located at 20 York St.
Contact STELLA DURAN GONZALEZ at stella.durangonzalez@yale.edu
COLETTE YERRID / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
COLETTE YERRID / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Amid rising pediatric mental health emergencies, Yale New Haven Hospital opened the state’s only hospital-based center for children experiencing mental health crises this July.
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
SCI-TECH
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“My wish is to stay always like this, living quietly in a corner of nature.” CLAUDE MONET IMPRESSIONIST PAINTER
Researchers head NSF center studying human-robot interactions BY ISABELLA TRAN AND RIYASHI VARIA CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS Yale researchers are helping to establish a field of study investigating how humans and robots mutually influence behavior through long-term interactions. A $30 million grant from the National Science Foundation, awarded to “exceptionally innovative, complex research,” helped to establish a new Science and Technology Center last July. It brings together researchers across six universities and industry partners including Amazon, Google DeepMind and NVIDIA. Brian Scassellati, a professor of computer science, is a co-principal investigator leading the center. “The center is focused around the idea of how is it that when we put robots out there in the world, how do the robots adapt and change so that they can best address the needs of the people that they work with, and also how do the people change as a result of that,” Scassellati said. Past human-robot interaction research typically held one side constant: researchers either kept the robot’s behavior fixed while studying human responses or had people repeat the same actions while the robot learned. The new center will examine wh a t h a p p e n s wh e n b o t h change simultaneously. “And this new project, the STC, is actually trying to break that assumption and see how both the robot and the human can change and adapt in tandem — that’s what we call co-adaptation,” said Marynel Vázquez, an assistant professor of computer science. The need for that collaboration stems from a growing problem in robotics: robots are increasingly being developed for environments that cannot be reduced to controlled laboratory experiments. A robot in a home or workplace must respond not only to what one person explicitly tells it, but also to the constantly changing social environment around it. “If I put a robot in a public setting, in a museum, in a university campus, in a workplace, even in a home, then
there’s probably going to be multiple people,” Vázquez said. “And the behavior of the robot may not just influence one person, but it actually may influence how people interact with other people nearby.” She described that possibility as a “ripple effect,” in which a robot’s behavior influences relationships and interactions beyond its immediate user. As a result, researchers in the new center are looking beyond the individual robot-user relationship and toward the broader environments in which robots operate. According to Vázquez, understanding those environments requires expertise that extends beyond computer science and robotics. The Yale team — which includes seven faculty members — brings together researchers in engineering and computer science with scholars in psychology, cognitive science, sociology and public health. The range of disciplines within the center is intended to allow researchers to study not only how robots learn, but also how people perceive them, and how their presence can alter group behavior. The center will also collect data across different environments, something Vázquez said is not typical of human-robot interaction research. Vázquez said the center will allow researchers to connect those different perspectives in ways that smaller projects cannot. “The fact that you can now have that network, share what you’re discovering, say at Yale, with this big crowd of people, get feedback, collaborate with them to validate hypotheses, sites, and things like that is something that is really only possible because of the magnitude of this center,” Vázquez said. Before the center was established, Vázquez studied human-robot interaction at the Yale Peabody Museum, where researchers had the opportunity to conduct their research in an open, public environment. During the s u m m e r, researchers placed a robot near museum exhibits and used it as a photographer, allowing visitors to
COURTESY OF SASHA LEW
Through a $30 million National Science Foundation grant to create a Science and Technology Center, Yale professors Brian Scassellati and Marynel Vázquez will help lead the newly established Center for Human and Robot Co-Adaptation. interact with it and have the robot take their photo. “It was a very simple interaction, and that was great because the simplicity of it allows us to see how rich the social context of the museum is,” Vázquez said. The simplicity of the robot’s task allowed researchers to observe the social environment around it rather than focusing on a complicated robotic function. Vázquez said the interactions demonstrated how much can happen around a robot even when the robot itself is performing a relatively straightforward task. In another past experiment, Scassellati recalled deploying a dragon-like robot in a kindergarten classroom for a month to teach children about nutrition. When researchers returned to remove it, a teacher warned that the children viewed the robot as part of their class and would need help understanding its departure. Following her advice, the team arranged a going-away party and exchanged postcards between the robot and the children. Vázquez said one goal for the future is to build robots that
can respond not only to explicit instructions but also to the subtler signals people provide during interawctions. Humans, she noted, constantly communicate information through their reactions and behavior even when they are not deliberately providing feedback to a robot. Learning to interpret that implicit feedback, Vázquez added, could allow robots to adapt more effectively to the people around them. But the same principle applies beyond individual interactions: a robot’s behavior can influence relationships among the people who encounter it. “Robots are an interesting sort of middle ground,” Scassellati said. “They’re real things in our real world, not something you see on a screen, not just something imaginary. But sometimes we treat them like objects, and sometimes we treat them like agents.” Scassellati emphasized that objects are treated as if they lack thoughts, beliefs and knowledge, but agents are interacted with differently. For the researchers, studying these effects is part of preparing
for a future in which robots are not confined to factories or laboratories but become participants in everyday environments. Scassellati said the accelerating pace of technological adoption leaves researchers with less time to understand its effects before it becomes widely used. For example, Scassellati described how ChatGPT gained 1 million users within a few days of release, and the effects of the diffusion of similar technologies are not properly understood ahead of time. The center aims to help researchers anticipate those effects during the design process. “That’s the kind of thing we’re hoping to be able to study, so that not only can we predict those things, you know, when they’re about to happen, but also so that we can shape them so that they don’t have unintended consequences,” Scassellati said. The first digital, programmable modern robot was invented in 1954. Contact ISABELLA TRAN at i.tran@yale.edu and RIYASHI VARIA at riyashi.varia@yale.edu.
Yale New Haven Hospital celebrates two centuries of care BY YOO-MIN KOH CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Two centuries after opening its doors as a charitable institution, Yale New Haven Hospital is preparing for another period of expansion in New Haven. Across those 200 years, the hospital has grown from an institution founded to care for the sick into a major academic medical center that has wrought developments in chemotherapy, antibiotics and prenatal diagnosis. An expansion to the hospital’s Saint Raphael campus expected next year will add heart and vascular facilities and nearly double emergency room capacity. “The hospital was founded as a charitable institution in 1826 on the basic principle that care for the sick was a public responsibility,” Alan Friedman, the chief medical officer of YNHH, said. The first permanent building, originally called the State Hospital,
contained just 13 beds and cost $13,000. It served the busy sailors of the New Haven seaport, eventually expanding in its care to more than 25,000 soldiers in the Civil War. Its original mission, Friedman explained, contained three central goals: providing comfort and care to people suffering from illness, educating those learning to practice medicine and benefiting the broader community. “They remain an essential part of who we are as an organization in 2026,” Friedman said. By the time Friedman arrived in 1991 as a pediatric cardiology fellow, he said, the hospital was already entering another period of change. The Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital opened in 1993. Friedman described it as the first hospital in Connecticut whose sole mission was providing care for infants, children, adolescents and young adults. The hospital’s history has also been shaped by an increasingly close relationship with the Yale
School of Medicine. In the early 1990s, the hospital and medical school shared objectives but operated more independently than they do today. Over the following decades, greater alignment between the two institutions strengthened the connection between laboratory research and clinical treatment, according to Friedman. “Those discoveries — those innovations — are then brought to the bedside of patients in the hospital,” Friedman said. Some of those discoveries became milestones in modern medicine. In 1942, Yale researchers Alfred Gilman ’62 and Louis Goodman worked with physician Gustaf Lindskog to bring an experimental cancer treatment from the laboratory to a patient at Yale New Haven Hospital. The work helped launch what became the era of clinical chemotherapy. That same year, penicillin was used clinically in the United States
YULIN ZHEN / PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Physicians and students reflect on the history of Yale New Haven Hospital’s expansion, research advancements and role in educating future doctors. The hospital expects to increase its emergency room capacity through an expansion planned for next year.
for the first time at the hospital. A patient who was gravely ill with a bacterial infection that had entered her bloodstream received the antibiotic after other treatments had failed, and ultimately recovered. Another development began decades later with an idea from Yale medical student Frederick Morin MED ’76. In the 1970s, Morin proposed using the stillemerging technology of ultrasound to examine the developing fetal heart. Working with physicians including John Hobbins, Norman Talner and Charles Kleinman, the project helped establish the field of fetal echocardiography and the prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart disease. That history eventually directly guided Friedman’s career path. Advances in fetal cardiology at Yale were part of what attracted him to New Haven, where he later trained with Kleinman and Talner and is now a professor of pediatric cardiology. The hospital’s physical footprint has expanded alongside its clinical work. In 2012, Yale New Haven Hospital acquired the Hospital of Saint Raphael in the city’s Dwight neighborhood, creating another major campus in the city. That campus is now at the center of one of the hospital’s largest current expansions. Emily Jameyfield, an emergency medicine physician who grew up in the New Haven area, said the construction at the Saint Raphael campus is among the most visible changes she has witnessed. “There’s a whole new tower being built there for neurosciences, and we’re also building an entirely new emergency department,” Jameyfield said. The Adams Neurosciences Center is scheduled to open at the end of February 2027. Friedman said it will expand neurosurgery, a d va n c e d neuroimaging, neurological intensive care and rehabilitation services while bringing together specialists in
neurology, neurosurgery, psychiatry and related fields. Jameyfield’s early experiences at YNHH directly influenced her decision to pursue a medical career. At age 15, she recalled the experience of her mother driving her to the hospital and volunteering for a program providing patients with free books and magazines. After her first day, Jameyfield announced that she never wanted to work anywhere other than a hospital. Years later, she returned to Yale New Haven as a physician. Being able to care for patients and educate medical students and residents during the hospital’s bicentennial feels “rewarding,” she said, because the same institution played a role in shaping her own career in medicine. “It feels like things have really come full circle in my own life and career,” Jameyfield said. For current Yale students, new relationships with the hospital and its patients are being built through volunteering. Daniel Lee ’29, who has been volunteering at YNHH since April, said he has had meaningful experiences interacting with a diverse range of patients. “You meet patients who come from many different backgrounds, and a lot of the time, they’re not in the privileged position you enjoy by being a Yale student,” Lee said. “By talking to them and hearing their stories, you can reflect on your own values and your own life.” As Yale New Haven Hospital begins its third century, Friedman said its buildings, technology and treatments will continue to change. What he expects to remain is the mission established at its founding. YNHH has 1,541 licensed beds. Joseph Hwang contributed reporting. Contact YOO-MIN KOH at yoo-min.koh@yale.edu.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
NEWS
“I love not man the less, but nature more.” LORD BYRON ENGLISH POET
City leaders imagine more connected Union Station after revamp BY CRISTINA ORTIZ CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Union Station’s massive arched windows and soaring waiting room have greeted generations of travelers arriving in New Haven. Now, more than a century after the current building opened, a transformation is underway. The initiative Union Station P a r t n e rs h i p is p u rs u i n g renovations to the building alongside a broader plan of development for the surrounding area. As part of the $24.8 million state-funded refurbishment, Union Station will get renovated restrooms and retail spaces, a new central atrium and exterior repairs. City officials see the transit hub as an anchor for New Haven’s growth, while preservation advocates are asking to save some crucial elements of the station. Shared between both visions is Union Station’s role as a gateway to the city. “It’s the front door to New Haven, but it’s also, for New Haven, the front door to the world,” Christopher Wigren, the deputy director of local nonprofit Preservation Connecticut, said in a video interview. Union Station’s current building opened in 1920 after the previous train hall burned in 1918. Architect Cass Gilbert designed the building for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, which wanted its New Haven station to embody the importance of rail travel in the region. Wigren described the waiting room as “dignified, elegant, but not overwhelming.” The station has not always served as New Haven’s front door. It closed in the early 1970s
as railroads struggled against growing car and air travel. Passengers continued using the platforms while the main building remained closed. The station was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. It reopened after a major renovation in 1985. That rehabilitation also added new architectural elements to the station. Elizabeth Holt, the interim director of historic preservation at the New Haven Preservation Trust, pointed to the iconic metal passenger tunnels, whose futuristic design contrasts with Gilbert’s Beaux-Arts. These tunnels are at risk of replacement, a proposal that has drawn opposition from some who want to retain their distinctive design. “I personally think that the juxtaposition of the design of the tunnels to the original building is what makes it unique,” Holt said in a video interview. Aïcha Woods, a former executive director of New Haven’s City Plan Department, said 20th-century urban renewal fundamentally changed the station’s relationship with the rest of New Haven. The construction of Route 34 cleared and divided areas between Union Station and Downtown, leaving the station surrounded by transportation infrastructure rather than the dense neighborhood that had once connected it to the city. “That redevelopment also kind of stranded the train station,” Woods said in a phone interview. More recent planning efforts have tried to mend that separation. The Hill-to-Downtown plan,
developed around 2013, envisioned new projects on land shaped by Route 34 and stronger connections between the station and surrounding neighborhoods. The city’s housing authority also plans to build as many as 2,500 new housing units across from the station, Mayor Justin Elicker said in a press conference last week. New Haven recently failed to win a $26 million federal grant to support construction near the station but plans to go ahead with its first phase. Elicker has frequently touted transit-oriented development in the city. “We see Union Station as a real anchor to both our economic future and the quality of life here in the city,” Michael Piscitelli, the city’s economic development administrator, said in a video interview. Development around the station could allow more people to live near the rail while strengthening New Haven’s position as a regional employment center, Piscitelli added. For him, that means thinking beyond simply adding more places for commuters to park. “We’ll never be highly competitive economically if we are overly dependent on cars or the highway system,” Piscitelli said. That debate predates the current redevelopment. In 2015, the New Haven Urban Design League argued that weak local transit made it difficult for people arriving at Union Station to travel the “last 1/2 mile” to other parts of New Haven. The group argued that limited transit connections increased demand for parking around the station, according to notes from its president, Anstress Farwell. The latest redevelopment efforts
XIMENA SOLORZANO / PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
The latest renovations to Union Station have local leaders discussing its changing role. The plans arrive after decades of efforts following urban renewal to better connect the station to the rest of the city. also raise questions about the station’s interior. Piscitelli said commercial activity should still be focused on commuters. “First and foremost, we have to serve the passenger and the traveling public,” Piscitelli said. P re s e r va t i o n a d vo c a te s agree on that priority, but some question whether the proposed interior redesign accomplishes it. Farwell wrote in an email that she thought businesses could set up shop on the balconies or lower level but argued that “having retail/hospitality complicate the necessary functions of the waiting hall defaults on its purpose.” Farwell pointed to Grand Central Terminal as an example of a historic station where commercial activity exists without taking over the central waiting space. Wigren made a similar argument.
“What Union Station is about is transportation,” Wigren said. “It’s a place for coming and going, and that, I think, needs to be the focus of it.” But Woods said the future of Union Station will depend just as much on what happens around the building. More housing and activity near the station could help better connect an area shaped for decades by highways and parking with the rest of New Haven. “Just having a kind of 24-hour presence and vibe and activity around the station would be amazing,” Woods said. New Haven, the city’s Parking Authority and the Connecticut Department of Transportation are collaborating on the redevelopment. Contact CRISTINA ORTIZ at cristina.ortiz@yale.edu.
Three Democrats to face off in special election for Ward 24 alder BY NELLIE KENNEY STAFF REPORTER Three Democrats will compete to represent part of Edgewood in the city’s third special alder election of the year, which is slated for Nov. 10. Me m b e rs o f Wa rd 2 4 ’s Democratic ward committee voted to back candidate Randall Furlow, who is currently a co-chair of the ward committee, at a Sunday meeting. Lindsey Tengatenga, the director of a Connecticut nonprofit, and Jennifer Tillman, a realtor and social worker, are also running as petitioning candidates. The race will choose a replacement for Ward 24 Alder Evette Hamilton, who stepped down at the end of September. In a speech at the beginning of Sunday’s meeting, Hamilton described the role of alder as “stewardship for our people in our community” and said she hopes an incoming representative will focus on housing, education and safe streets. Hamilton, who had represented Ward 24 since 2011, was the third alder this year to resign before serving out her full term. Former Ward 7 Alder Eli Sabin ’22 LAW ’26 resigned in January, shortly before he was set to be sworn in. A new alder, Christine Kim ’99, was sworn in in March. Former Ward 9 Alder Caroline Tanbee Smith ’14 SOM ’25 stepped down in August. That seat was filled by Democratic Socialist Maria-Threese Serana last month. On Sunday, the three petitioning candidates gave speeches before ward committee members cast votes on their endorsement. Furlow, who is the cousin of Board of Alders Majority Leader Richard Furlow, opened his remarks by describing the deaths of his mother, aunt and two cousins, as well as a number of close friends, all of which he said occurred in the last several years. Following those losses, Furlow said he “began thinking about what living should look like.” The example that his family members had set through their community involvement, including his aunt’s role as a Ward 6 Democratic co-chair, he said, inspired him to “take responsibility for the present.” In conversations with ward residents, Furlow said that he has heard a slew of hyperlocal concerns, including issues with
unsafe driving, sidewalks and trash and recycling. “These are not the issues that will make national headlines, but they are the issues that affect the quality of life of the people that we are called to represent,” Furlow said. He promised to “answer calls, return messages, follow up on concerns and communicate with city departments” on behalf of the ward if elected as alder. Tillman, who spoke second, said that she decided to run because she has heard “many of the same concerns” repeatedly when talking to residents of the ward. People are concerned about “crime, speeding, trash pickup, vacancy and the need for stronger police presence,” she said. In sum, she added, “people want to feel safe in their neighborhood.” Tillman suggested that her professional experience would be a boon for her as an alder. “As a realtor, I understand the need for affordable housing,” she said. “As a social worker, I understand many of the social problems that affect families.” Tengatenga, who will appear as Lindsey Eichler on the ballot, described the ward as a “community where people care about one another” and “differences are welcomed.” She said that she was guided to public service by the example of her father, a Vietnam War veteran, and her mother, who worked in public education. Her priorities as alder, she said, would be “affordable access to healthy food, stronger civic participation, safer streets and sidewalks, support for immigrant families, youth empowerment and economic opportunity.” Only eight of the 29 people last filed as members of the Ward 24 ward committee were present at Sunday’s meeting. Of those, six voted to support Furlow. One voted for Tengatenga and one abstained from the vote. Furlow himself was one of the voters. In an interview after the meeting, Furlow said that he had “confidence in the Democratic process,” which was displayed at the meeting. His campaign will strive to unify the ward and will see “a lot of people on the doors every day” talking to voters, he said. Ward Committee Co-Chair Mareika Phillips, who ran the meeting, said in an interview that the committee had “done what we could reasonably” to get members together. The Connecticut
Secretary of State’s Office released details about the election’s timeline last week and party endorsements were due Monday, leaving a short window for scheduling the meeting, Phillips said. Phillips also noted that the most recent member list is from the 2024-25 year and several of the members listed no longer live in the ward. In a text message to the News, Tillman wrote that she respects “the outcome” of Sunday’s vote
but sees it as “an opportunity to become more visible and even more connected to the community.” Tengatenga wrote in a text message that following the meeting she feels “even more excited to create opportunities and pathways to engagement for residents ready to fight for greater investment and quality of life in our ward” and described her campaign as “a love letter” to the neighborhood. Election day is set for Nov. 10, only a week after the polls
close for state-level elections. Shannell Evans, New Haven’s Democratic registrar of voters, said at the meeting that there will not be overlap between the times when the polls are open for the two elections. No Republican or Independent candidates have filed to run in the race. Contact NELLIE KENNEY at nellie.kenney@yale.edu.
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“Part of our mission is to try to bring people together and create community.” CAROL LOPEZ-HORSFORD
From wall sprints to Wall Street: Ivy athletes fill finance firms BY BEATRIX LOZACH CONTRIBUTING REPORTER A recent study from the National Bureau of Economics Research analyzed the influence of Ivy League athletic networks on the careers pursued by former athletes. In July 2026, the bureau released “From Field to Firm,” a study co-authored by Harvard Business School professor Paul Gompers and three doctoral students, which analyzed the probabilities of Ivy athletes joining finance firms based on social ties. It found that the baseline matching probability for athletes increased by 186.04 percent when same-team alumni were present. The study also found that the likelihood of an athlete joining a firm was significantly higher if a member of that firm played the same sport — 18.61 percent — than if a member of that firm attended the same university as an athlete — 4.60 percent. “What this paper, ‘From Field to Firm,’ is trying to show is that it’s not an old boys club, and it’s more like a roster. Sharing a roster is what matters,” Sachin Srivastava, a co-author of the study, said in a video interview. “This paper is trying to disentangle and weed out that effect a little.” Srivastava’s work on “From Field to Firm” was not his first attempt at answering this sort of question. He served as a research assistant on a 2023 study, “No Revenge for Nerds,” co-authored by Gompers, which found that athletes outperform non-athlete alumni peers in the job market due to social capital. As a former college swimmer, Srivastava said
STEWART ROYAL / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Following the publication of a National Bureau of Economics Research study on the Ivy League athlete-to-finance pipeline, Yale athletes said their varsity athletic experiences assisted them when recruiting for positions in the industry. he saw how athletics influenced his own opportunities. “It influenced my curiosity in a way,” Srivastava said. “This paper was the highlight of my pre-doc, and it kept me motivated very, very intuitively, because I could see the premium. I could see the effect in my own personal life, too, that the conversations change when I tell people, ‘Hey, I used to be an athlete myself.’” Defensive back Ty Ingram-Eiser ’28 said he benefited from a Yale football alumni network, which uses a Slack group chat to send out opportunities to team members. “I actually got my Bank of America internship because a former Yale football player who now works at Bank of America put his
number in the chat and said, ‘Hey, if anyone’s interested in investment banking, please give me a call,’” Ingram-Eiser said. Ingram-Eiser said that alumni mentoring of student athletes emerges from a sense of camaraderie and shared community. “There’s a certain pride that comes with being an athlete here at an Ivy League school, especially here at Yale, and there’s a feeling of liking to take care of our own,” IngramEiser said. “I definitely felt when I was speaking to other former athletes here at Yale, especially if it was my own sport, their eyes would light up, and all of a sudden they really wanted to talk to you.” The alumni network presents an opportunity for people who may
not have familial connections to enter the network-dependent field. Ingram-Eiser was not raised by parents in finance, and neither were many of his teammates. “At least from a football perspective, a lot of the kids on my team come from incredibly different backgrounds,” Ingram-Eiser said. “Of course there’s probably a little bit of favoritism in there and the shared experience piece, but I also think student athletes in general are probably a little bit more prepared for the demands of these early roles.” Ingram-Eiser, who initially committed to Yale for lacrosse and walked onto the football team, said finance also carries an allure for student athletes because it allows them to remain driven.
“I think it’s attractive to student athletes because it helps them be competitive still,” Ingram-Eiser said. “It gives them kind of a collegiate team-like environment for the most part, and yeah, it’s kind of the next step after college athletics for many people as they see it.” Heavyweight rower Alek Balassa ’27 said long hours of training prepared him for the workload that comes with a finance internship. “Being disciplined and working a lot of hours is a lot of what the world entails,” Balassa said. His interest in finance, he said, originally started when he took Intermediate Microeconomics with professor John Geanakoplos ’75. “It was the higher level economics class I was looking for,” Balassa said. “If you did well in the first midterm, he emailed you an interview for an offer at a hedge fund. That was some initial part of the relationship where I thought it was nice having a professor reach out like that.” While Balassa didn’t accept the offer, he later went on to conduct research on Social Security reform with Geanakoplos as a Tobin Undergraduate Research Assistant. He credits his sports background with helping him rapidly adjust to feedback in research and internships. “Making the same mistake twice is honestly the worst thing you can do in sports or finance,” Balassa said. “It definitely helped, my experience in athletics, not to take that criticism personally or let it affect my performance.” Yale has 805 total athletes across all sports. Contact BEATRIX LOZACH at beatrix.lozach@yale.edu.
This street by Payne Whitney saves time, creates community for athletes BY LUCY BENJAMIN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER For generations of Yale athletes, Lake Place has become more than a street just west of Payne Whitney Gymnasium. With houses associated with teams such as crew, swim and lacrosse lining the block, the street has developed a reputation as a hub for Yale athletes living off campus. For Carol Lopez-Horsford — the founder of Farnam Realty Group, which owns and manages several properties on Lake Place — the high concentration of athletes on that street is nothing new, and the explanation for the clustering is relatively simple: location. “I think the most important thing to undergrads is convenience,” Lopez-Horsford said in an interview. “They just want to be near where they have to be.” With Payne Whitney just around the corner, athletes who spend hours each day practicing, lifting and training in the gymnasium find ultimate convenience on Lake Place. Over time, certain properties have become associated with particular teams. Lopez-Horsford identified four addresses on Lake Place with the heavyweight crew, lightweight crew, swim and lacrosse teams. For the athletes, however, the appeal of Lake Place extends beyond the short walk to practice. Will Fenton ’28, a member of the men’s heavyweight crew team who lives on Lake Place, said being surrounded by teammates and other athletes has made the street distinctly social. “You see a bunch of people when you’re walking down the street that you know,” Fenton said in a phone interview. “It’s very socially active.” Fenton said some of his favorite moments have come not from a particular event, but from the
ordinary time he gets to spend with his teammates outside of practice. “Being able to spend time with my team outside of our practice schedule, being able to spend free time with our team in our backyard, is just a great memory,” Fenton said, adding that the culture of Lake Place is “iconic.” Joey Felton ’25, a former Yale football player who now works as a realtor with Farnam, similarly described Lake Place as a central location where athletes from different corners of Yale regularly cross paths. “It’s good proximity,” Felton said in an interview. “You get to meet all the different athletes. You have all the different groups and you get to just hang out and enjoy your time.” Felton compared the street to “frat row at a state school,” but added that the dynamic is distinctly shaped by Yale. Still, the concentration of athletes on Lake Place does not mean the street operates as an isolated athlete bubble. Lopez-Horsford said she views convenience, more than the desire to exclusively live among athletes, as the primary reason teams have gravitated toward the area. “It’s a full-time job to be a D1 athlete,” Lopez-Horsford said. “They’re either at class, at lift, at practice or sleeping with very little time for socializing or grabbing meals at dining halls. They’re freaking busy.” With limited free time between classes, lifts, practices and sleep, athletes living on the street still engage with the broader Yale community. “You still have your other cohorts of friends that you see for dinner,” Fenton said. “You definitely make time to see them in other parts of your day.” Lake Place itself is also not exclusively athletic. Fenton lives in a nearby apartment building that is
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LUCY BENJAMIN / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
The “iconic” tradition of Yale athletes living on Lake Place unites teammates, makes early morning practices more manageable and connects athletes to the broader New Haven community. open to athletes and non-athletes, while Lopez-Horsford also noted that graduate students and other Yale affiliates live throughout the area. The long-running relationship between Yale athletes and the properties around Lake Place has also extended beyond housing. Lopez-Horsford said Farnam has increasingly looked for ways to support athletes who live in its properties, including hosting a hospitality suite for athletes’ parents, working with players at community events and offering internships to student-athletes. “As a landlord, I’ve been trying to do whatever I can to give back to the students that live in the houses,” Lopez-Horsford said. Felton was Farnam’s first student-athlete intern. With summer opportunities difficult for athletes to organize around training and other commitments, Felton said he is grateful for his time interning at Farnam.
After he began working at the company, some of his teammates soon followed suit, helping residents move in, setting up utilities and learning about the business. Felton ultimately returned to Farnam full-time after graduating, earned his real estate license and now works for the company as an agent. Lopez-Horsford’s involvement with Yale athletes extends beyond the company. An avid sports fan, LopezHorsford and her family are Bulldog faithfuls, frequently appearing in the stands to cheer on the Bulldogs. Farnam has worked with Yale basketball and football players at community events, including the annual Faxon Law New Haven Road Race, where athletes, including Team 153 captain Abu Kamara ’27, have signed autographs and interacted with local families. Lopez-Horsford said the company has also worked to bring athletes into local schools and encourage New Haven residents to attend
TOUCHDOWNS SCORED BY DANTE RENO ON SATURDAY
Yale sporting events. “Part of our mission is to try to bring people together and create community and support all our tenants where we can,” LopezHorsford said. That effort will continue this fall, where Yale men’s basketball will welcome members of the New Haven community to John J. Lee Amphitheater for free in an effort to extend the athletic community that has developed around Lake Place into the city. “This is huge because they’re gonna play Howard at home on November 2. There’s no school the next day because of Election Day, so we’re hoping to get a huge turnout,” Lopez-Horsford said. The Bulldogs will play the Howard Bison at 1 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 2 at the John J. Lee Amphitheater. Contact LUCY BENJAMIN at lucy.benjamin@yale.edu.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
“We play in a tough conference and every week is a new challenge.” SARAH MARTINEZ, WOMEN'S SOCCER
Yale sweeps Dartmouth after falling to Harvard in high-stakes weekend BY TANNER BATTLE STAFF REPORTER Yale volleyball (8–3, 2–1 Ivy) saw one win and one loss in its highstakes conference matchups over the weekend. Following a 3-1 Ivy opener road victory over Brown, the Bulldogs looked to extend their win streak at home against Harvard (11–1, 2–1 Ivy) and Dartmouth (6–7, 0–3 Ivy). While Yale fell narrowly to Harvard on Friday, it earned its redemption against Dartmouth on Saturday. Students packed the John J. Lee
Amphitheater on Friday night to watch Yale play Harvard. While the Elis took the first two sets 25-23 and 25-16, they dropped the match after Harvard won the third, fourth and fifth sets 25-19, 25-13, and 15-8, respectively. At the start of the match, the Bulldogs seemed in control, but after switching sides of the court with the Crimson, they lost their momentum, and Harvard lived up to its undefeated record. Yale’s roster was notably missing key rookie Skylar Jackson ’30, who has consistently produced on both
ends. Although the Bulldogs lost, they did not go down without a fight. Ava Poinsett ’29 led the team on offense and defense with 21 kills and 17 digs. The loss to Harvard was unexpected, given Yale’s higher ranking in the Ivy League Preseason poll and stronger schedule. Still, the Bulldogs will have a chance to redeem themselves against the Crimson at the end of October, when the teams meet in Cambridge on Halloween. The Bulldogs bounced back the following night in a 3-0 win
against Dartmouth. Yale came out with energy against Dartmouth. The Bulldogs won the first set narrowly in extra points, 28-26. The Bulldogs didn't let the following sets get that close, though, winning each by increasingly large margins. They won the second set by four points, 25-21, and the last set by eight, 25-17. Betsy Goodenow ’27 had 17 kills, mostly assisted by Kalyssa Taggart ’30, who recorded 46 assists across the match. After two home matchups, the
Bulldogs will prepare to once again hit the road. The Bulldogs have another stacked weekend ahead, with away matchups against the Princeton Tigers (4–7, 2–1 Ivy) and the Penn Quakers (9–4, 1–2 Ivy). The Bulldogs will take on the Tigers at 6 p.m. on Friday in Princeton and head to Philadelphia to play the Quakers at 5 p.m. on Saturday. Contact TANNER BATTLE at tanner.battle@yale.edu.
Yale thwarted by comeback from defending champion Princeton BY GIAN LOMBEYDA CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The Yale women’s soccer team (5–6–0, 0–2 Ivy) suffered a late resurgence by the Princeton Tigers (5–4–1, 1–1 Ivy) on Saturday to ultimately lose their second conference match of the season by a scoreline of 2-1. The Bulldogs challenged the defending Ivy League champions all night in an end-to-end match that saw strong movement on the ball for Yale. The result marks the team’s second consecutive loss in conference play, following a 1-0 away loss to Cornell the previous week. “I was happy with the way we came out and were prepared to play with energy and intensity,” head coach Sarah Martinez wrote in an email to the News. “That was our challenge for our group after the Cornell game and they responded well.” The first half went well for the Bulldogs. The starting eleven featured a largely defensive team, including two defensive midfielders and five players who had experience playing in the backline this season. The defensive security was set to allow the Bulldogs to push higher up the
pitch and feel more comfortable in the attack. The Bulldogs’ confidence certainly showed as they piled on the pressure, finding five shots in the first half. While Princeton grew into the game, the Bulldogs still seemed intent on shocking the visitors, who were likely the favorites coming into the match after topping the Ivy League standings the last two years. After substitute Cindy Yang ’30 was brought down in the box in the 73rd minute and Martinez requested the referee to review the play per the 2026 NCAA review protocol, Yale was awarded a penalty and a chance to take the lead. Forward Anita Thorvaldsdottir ’27 finished into the bottom left-hand corner to find her fifth goal of the season and break the deadlock. However, Yale was not able to hold onto the result. The Tigers responded with two quickfire goals within the next 10 minutes. Both goals came from star forward Stella Monberg, who pounced on loose balls in the box to secure the Tigers’ win. Now at five goals on the season after braces in back-to-back matches against Harvard and Yale, Monberg has shown her goalscoring instinct in
just her first year at Princeton. Yale now moves into a tough road stretch against Brown (7–2–2, 1–0–1 Ivy) and rival Harvard (8–2– 1, 2–0 Ivy). With only five matches left of the season, Yale needs to find success on the road if they want to reach a top four spot and clinch an Ivy League playoff berth. With key sophomore starters Tana Sands ’29, Avery Johnson ’29 and Jojo DeNegri ’29 all out to injury, players across the roster will need to step up for Yale to maintain their intensity on the pitch. So far, players like Alicia So ’28 and Kyleigh Carr ’30 have seamlessly stepped into the starting lineup and contributed to the Bulldogs’ staunch defense in every match. “Our whole back line was fantastic, and it was great getting Alicia back from injury as she is a big part of what we do,” Martinez wrote. “Obviously disappointed to not get a result in the game.” Despite the frustrating result, the Bulldogs’ performance was highlighted by five show-stopping saves from Isabel Willems ’30 in goal, astute defending for a vast majority of the match and plenty of accurate crosses and quick passing triangles across the field. Looking ahead to the match against Brown this Saturday,
ALYSSA CHANG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Despite Yale’s best efforts to dictate pace and limit Princeton’s attacking chances, the visitors matched the Bulldogs’ intensity. Yale certainly has the talent to bounce back. “We play in a tough conference and every week is a new challenge,” Martinez wrote. “We’re excited to get back to work with our group this week as we prepare for Brown.” Yale will look to find their sixth win of the season and their first win
in Ivy League play this Saturday as they take on the Brown University Bears at 3:30 p.m. at StevensonPincince Field in Providence, Rhode Island. Contact GIAN LOMBEYDA at gian.lombeyda@yale.edu.
Bulldogs fall to Princeton, bounce back with year’s first ranked win BY VINCENT HUANG CONTRIBUTING REPORTER After a six-game opening homestand, the Yale Bulldogs (6–2, 1–2 Ivy) hit the road for a daunting doubleheader weekend against the No. 10 Princeton T igers (5–4, 2–1 Ivy) and the No. 19 Monmouth Hawks (8–2, 3–0 CAA).
LIZA KAUFMAN / PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Coming off of a loss to Cornell the prior weekend, the Bulldogs succumbed to a late Princeton comeback on Friday. Yale prevailed against Monmouth, however, delivering its first victory against a ranked opponent of the 2026 campaign. The win also marked Yale’s first ranked win since the contest against Monmouth last season, where the Bulldogs
delivered a 3-1 win at Johnson Field. The Bulldogs struck first on Friday to go up 1-0 early on Princeton’s Bedford Field. Firstyear back/midfielder Emilia Puddicombe ’30 returned a Princeton goalkeeper rebound past its sender, giving the Bulldogs an early lead — and Puddicombe the first goal of her career. “It was amazing to score my first
After suffering a close loss to the No. 10 Princeton Tigers on Friday, the field hockey team completed its New Jersey road trip with a statement ranked victory over the No. 19 Monmouth Hawks.
goal for Yale,” Puddicombe wrote in an email. “Recently I have been playing as a midfielder so I have found myself in attacking positions more often.” Puddicombe, a defender by trade, said interplay between the different phases of the game is vital: “The defense is so important in building the play and creating goalscoring opportunities.” Despite the early Yale lead, the Tigers remained undeterred, mounting an offensive onslaught that saw them generate scoring chance after scoring chance. Yale’s keeper Amelie Schwarzkopf ’29 made a series of incredible diving and point-blank saves to preserve the Bulldogs’ narrow lead, but her heroic effort faltered late in the third as Princeton converted a perfectly positioned loose ball into the equalizing score. With rain beginning to fall in the fourth quarter, Princeton capitalized on another Yale defensive miscue at around the 55th minute of the game, with an orange-clad Tiger forward finding her way behind the Yale backline for the go-ahead goal. For the second time in two weeks, Yale pulled keeper Schwarzkopf for an 11th outfield player, but the move proved insufficient as Princeton completed its successful defense of home turf. Four of the last five Bulldog-Tiger matchups have come down to one goal, with the Bulldogs finding themselves on the wrong side of all four. But Yale wasn’t done yet, and a Sunday matchup against Monmouth offered the Bulldogs a chance at redemption. “Honestly, credit goes to the
team. They bring the motivation themselves,” captain Hettie Whittington ’27 wrote in a statement. “Going into Sunday the mood was excited - we had seen real growth against Princeton and we wanted to capitalise on it.” Whittington said playing on the road offers the team the luxury of being able to focus on only performance, since there are no distractions and the team can focus fully “on the task in hand.” The team brought laser-sharp focus to Sunday's match. Facing off against Monmouth, which had not lost in seven weeks, the Bulldog offense quickly found its marks. Victoria Collee ’28 and Chiara Picciafuoco ’28 delivered a 2-0 Bulldog lead within six minutes of the opening whistle. Yale would not look back, with a classically stout performance from both the defense and Schwarzkopf shutting out the Hawks for the first time in over a year. “Playing two games in a weekend is always intense but we all make sure we are resting, recovering and hydrating as best we can to make sure we can perform to the best of our abilities,” Puddicombe wrote. Yale’s field hockey campaign will continue this weekend with another pair of games, this time at home. The Bulldogs will take on Columbia (4–3, 1–1 Ivy) on Friday at 5 p.m., before squaring off against Temple (5–5, 1–1 AAC) on Sunday at noon. Contact VINCENT HUANG at v.huang@yale.edu.