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NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2026 · VOL. CXLIX, NO. 5 · yaledailynews.com · @yaledailynews
Grading guidance expected soon Gelernter still under review this semester
BY ANAYAH ACCILIEN AND SARA AGRAWAL STAFF REPORTERS
A Yale committee is set to release recommendations on grade inflation in November but could face an unclear implementation timeline, according to administrators. The announcement arrives as grade inflation remains a top issue for universities across the nation, some of which have taken action. In May, Harvard’s faculty voted to place a 20 percent cap on the number of A’s starting in fall 2027. It is “hard to say” when new grading guidance would go into effect, Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis told the News after a closed-door faculty meeting about grade infla-
tion in Luce Hall on Thursday afternoon. “We’d like to make decisions this year, and so starting the conversation right away seemed important to me,” Lewis said. The standing Committee on Teaching, Learning and Advising anticipates to release specific recommendations for grade reform in November, Paul McKinley, a Yale College senior associate dean, wrote in a Tuesday email to the News. That committee is chaired by economics professor and former University provost Benjamin Polak and includes Yale College Council President Alex William Chen ’28 and YCC Vice President Michelle Jimenez ’28, in addition to faculty members.
I n Ap r i l , t h e Co m m i t tee on Trust in Higher Education released a sweeping report that acknowledged declining national trust in universities and proposed measures to address this problem. One of its suggestions was to impose a “3.0 mean, or some other college-wide standard, so that letter grades can once again be used in a reliable and comparable way.” In an email releasing the report to the Yale community, University President Maurie McInnis tasked the Committee on Teaching, Learning and Advising to “address grade inflation.” Lewis had told the News in
SEE GRADING PAGE 4
McInnis: College not in DOJ talks BY ARIA LYNN-SKOV STAFF REPORTER The University’s ongoing negotiations with the Department of Justice involve the Yale School of Medicine and not Yale College or Yale Law School, University President Maurie McInnis said in a Tuesday interview. McInnis also affirmed the legality of Yale’s admissions practices and said there was “no news to report” on the current status of Yale’s settlement talks with the Trump administration. The nego-
Garrett Curtis / Photography Editor
SEE TRUMP PAGE 4
Garrett Curtis / Photography Editor BY JOLYNDA WANG STAFF REPORTER Computer science professor David Gelernter ’76 GRD ’77 will not return to teach this semester as Yale continues its conduct review of his communications with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to University spokesperson Karen Peart. In February, Peart confirmed that Gelernter was under review and would not teach during that process, the first part of which typically lasts up to 90 days. The review followed the publicization of his emails with Epstein between 2009 and 2015, which included an email where the professor, in what he characterized as a recommendation letter, described a student as a “v small goodlooking blonde.”
Yale Engineering’s faculty directory currently lists Gelernter as a professor of computer science, and Gelernter is still an employee under Yale University in Workday, Yale’s website for managing payrolls. “The professor’s conduct remains under review, and he is not teaching this semester,” Peart wrote in a Wednesday email to the News. Peart previously wrote to the News that the University “does not condone the action taken by the professor or his described manner of providing recommendations for his students.” Gelernter did not respond to requests for comment by email or phone. SEE GELERNTER PAGE 5
McInnis City says camera data stays local Former discusses dean’s pet trust at page talks D.C. event Lewis BY EVELYN RONAN STAFF REPORTER
Aria Lynn-Skov / Contributing Photographer
Amid nationwide concerns about excessive surveillance, automatic license plate readers are cropping up around New Haven. Gov. Ned Lamont SOM ’80 requested last month that all Connecticut municipalities pause ALPR installation until they clarify “how long information may be stored, how it may be used, and how it may or may not be shared outside of local and state authorities,” according to a press release. Later that day, Mayor Justin Elicker defended New Haven’s use of surveillance technology. “Safety cameras are an invaluable tool for the New Haven Police
SEE CAMERAS PAGE 6
BY ARIA LYNN-SKOV STAFF REPORTER WASHINGTON, D.C. — Yale President Maurie McInnis visited the nation’s capital on Wednesday, where she touted a recent University report on trust in higher education. At an event hosted by the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank, McInnis outlined several areas of focus for Yale as it reckons with declining trust in institutions like Yale, including bureaucratic efficiency and messaging around financial aid. She also discussed a May change to the University’s mission statement that followed a recommendation in the Yale Committee of Trust in Higher Education’s sweeping SEE WASHINGTON PAGE 4
BY SASHA CABRAL STAFF REPORTER
Liza Kaufman / Staff Photographer
ognize how much students value this after seeing the aftermath of what happened when that program was cut. Either way, it’s not a huge budgetary burden for the hospitality team anyway,” Brendan Kaminski ’28, Yale College Council chief of staff and last year’s deputy dining policy director, said in a phone interview. The fast makes up the largest of YHHAP’s fundraising efforts and is the largest student-run fundraiser on Yale’s campus. This academic year, the fundraiser will take place on Nov. 20 — the day before the Harvard-Yale football game takes
A public pet account associated with former Berkeley College dean Bárbara Cruvinel Santiago ’17 has posted Instagram content expressing discontent with the University and dean of Yale College Pericles Lewis. Cruvinel Santiago left her position as dean over the most recent spring break, before finishing her second year on the job. Residential college dean’s terms are five years long. Some of the posts and comments made by the public pet account — under the username @doguinho. gringo — appear to reference her departure. Its Instagram bio also mentions Cruvinel Santiago’s private personal account. Earlier this month, the pet account left a comment under an Instagram post by the News. The post displayed the headline of an article on Lewis’ reappointment review, which reads, “As Yale solicits feedback on Lewis, students doubt rebukes will matter.” The article quotes undergraduates who criticized the performance of the Yale College Dean. “It’s not just students. Resco deans and heads of college also don’t like him and other higher
SEE CHARITY PAGE 5
SEE DEAN PAGE 5
Rana Roosevelt / Illustrations Editor
Second fast for charity restored BY ANAYAH ACCILIEN STAFF REPORTER Students will be able to give up their meal swipes for charity twice this year, after the Yale Hunger and Homelessness Action
Jerry Gao / Contributing Photographer
INSIDE THE NEWS New restaurants are taking advantage of artificial intelligence tools despite some backlash from community members. PAGE 9 NEWS
Project brought back its fall semester fast. Last year, Yale Hospitality cited budgetary constraints and changes to Yale’s meal plan offerings in limiting the fundraising event — which traditionally occurs once each semester and allows students to donate the value of their meal swipes to New Haven charities — to once annually. The University also altered the fundraiser so that students could only donate dining points rather than the value of meal swipes. Food organizations who have received donations from the YHHAP fast expressed frustration at the decision. “I think it was really important to have Yale Hospitality rec-
PAGE 2 BULLETIN PAGE 3 OPINION PAGE 10 ARTS PAGE 13 SPORTS PAGE B1 WKND
ETYMOLOGY NERD Adam Aleksic, also known as the “Etymology Nerd,” defended Internet slang on the floor of the Yale Political Union on Tuesday. PAGE 7 NEWS BYE WEEK The Ivy League’s football schedule next year will for the first time include a week for recharging. PAGE 14 SPORTS
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
BULLETIN This Day in Yale History, 1957 September 18, 1957 / Yale Seeks Permanent Injunction Against Motel for Use of Its Name By Alfred D. Youngwood The University is currently filing a permanent injunction against Yale Motor Inn in Wallingford, Conn., charging the operators of the motel with using “the world-wide reputation and name of the University” for the motel’s own gain.
Behind the Headline By Aria Lynn-Skov On Wednesday, I traveled to Washington, D.C. to see Yale President Maurie McInnis speak about a central focus of her presidency: declining public trust in higher education. McInnis spoke at the American Enterprise Institute in Dupont Circle to an audience of just over 60 people. I spoke to interns, academics, Yale alums and education lobbyists about their thoughts on McInnis’ talk and what they do in D.C. It was a long day and a busy trip, but overall a fascinating look at McInnis’ time off campus, which is often spent in the nation’s capital. Read “McInnis talks trust in D.C.” on page 1.
ELIZABETH WATSON
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
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OPINION GUEST COLUMNISTS
S TA F F C O L U M N I S T
G A B R I E L A E WA R T & J O H N W I N T E R S
T O M D AW B E R
The University and hypocrisy American jobs can be for American students The Opening Days events for first-year students looked different this year. All members of the class of 2030 were required to attend “The University and Democracy” panel featuring professor Beverly Gage ’94 and Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis. Focusing on Gage’s new book and general thoughts for the academic year rather than University democracy and its traditions, the panel was preceded by the largest student-led demonstration in two-and-a-half years: Democratize Yale. The Opening Days panel insulated its speakers from the audience by dodging submitted questions and presenting democracy not as an open practice but as an act somehow scandalous enough to require thorough and strict oversight by Yale’s senior administrators. Democratize Yale, on the other hand, brought democratic concerns directly to the forefront, calling on Yale to adopt a democratic trustee structure, terminate negotiations with the Trump administration, defend merit-based admissions for Black and brown students, protect academic freedom and support free expression. Students, staff, faculty and alumni were clear and unequivocal while Yale pursues settlement negotiations in complete opacity. The contrast between the events was disconcerting. Attending Democratize Yale’s teach-in exemplified standards for discussions on Yale’s campus: speak publicly, hear community voices and respond insightfully. “The University and Democracy” failed to meet those standards. The facilitators restricted the agenda, ignored student questions and kept the answers they did give vague. What do these practices say about our future at Yale? Will the University listen to us when its policies harm us? Will Yale’s administration meet the popular solutions Democratize Yale has proposed? Yale is not blind to the widespread and ongoing criticism facing higher education. The Committee on Trust in Higher Education — co-chaired by Gage — issued a report earlier this year addressing a range of issues, from grade inflation to rising tuition. The report itself prompted a series of critiques: some accused it of relying on far-right talking points over empirical evidence, while others noted the irony of addressing elite academia’s insularity by convening a committee drawn from that same elite circle. Nonetheless, the report succeeded in bringing these critical issues into the public discourse, both on campus and beyond. Democratize Yale was launched against the backdrop of this institutional soul-searching. It responded to growing uncertainty over Yale’s apparent cooperation with the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle diversity in higher education — a cornerstone of civic and intellectual progress in our nation’s history. A central challenge identified by the Trust Committee — diminishing confidence in the University’s ability to maintain its democratic ideals — found an answer in the hundreds of students, staff, faculty and alumni who gathered on Cross Campus with a bold, invigorating vision for our University. Protesters actively practiced democracy on the
University’s public square, refusing to accept undemocratic policies that require pre-registered demonstrations. In doing so, they exposed Yale’s core contradictions. The report on trust encouraged Yale to adhere to the Woodward Report, the University’s foundational free speech standard since 1975, when navigating campus expression. Following the release of the Trust Committee’s findings in April, President Maurie McInnis stated that she accepted “without reservation the committee’s recommendations to protect free speech and support academic freedom.” Yet during the Democratize Yale protest, representatives from the Yale O!ce of Public Affairs and Communications — or OPAC — directed journalists from outlets like The Chronicle of Higher Education and National Public Radio affiliate CT Public Radio to move to a public sidewalk 250 feet away, ostensibly “to protect the privacy of students and faculty.” However, organizers had explicitly invited these reporters, and several protest participants walked to the sidewalk specifically to give interviews. OPAC’s decision to restrict press access contradicts the Woodward Report’s explicit directive on press freedom: “A group inviting a speaker may close the meeting to the press. It may also invite the press. In either case, the administration should cooperate.” Democratize Yale revealed a key truth: policy statements, committee reports and public assurances remain empty commitments when administrators prioritize institutional control over foundational values. It seems that when students and workers unite with public support, the guidelines become merely a suggestion to Yale’s senior administrators. Yale has the right as a private university to deny reporters, or any private citizen for that matter, access to campus — even to a de facto public space like Cross Campus. But should it be within its practice? Should the University, at an inflection point in the history of its role in civil society, turn away and hide from the public it claims to serve? The administration’s actions leading up to and during Democratize Yale underscore a clear priority: maintaining strict oversight of student life and controlling external perception. In suppressing campus expression and disregarding its own free speech standards, the University demonstrates a persistent pattern of institutional hypocrisy. Yale does not have to operate like this, and Democratize Yale shows there is a better way. A University we can trust — that lives up to its values — is worth fighting for. GABRIELA EWART is a junior studying English and Astrophysics and an organizer with the Endowment Justice Collective. She can be reached at gabriela.ewart@yale.edu. JOHN WINTERS is a first year studying English and Global Affairs and an organizer with the Endowment Justice Collective. He can be reached at john.winters@yale.edu.
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Early this September, following guidance from the Trump administration, Brown, Princeton and Harvard restricted Curricular Practical Training (CPT), a temporary work authorization that allows international students to gain work experience in their fields. On September 9, the News reported that Yale is examining its own policies. The new federal guidance is a stricter interpretation of an existing regulation. CPT has always been limited to “a required internship or practicum” that “is an integral part of the established curriculum.” Until now, some schools, including Harvard and Princeton, have interpreted that narrow permission more broadly, approving CPT for internships that are not required for graduation. The Trump administration’s decision to enforce the CPT regulations as written is a welcome change that will benefit American students. Donald Trump is terrible for this country, and in no way am I excusing the damage he has already done and continues to do. But we should resist the temptation to dismiss out of hand everything his administration does. Just because an edict comes from the desk of the 47th president, that most imperfect of messengers, doesn’t mean it’s evil, un-American or even necessarily wrong. This new regulatory interpretation is a restriction on the opportunities of international students. But that restriction serves to protect the opportunities of American students. Limiting international students only to internships that are required to complete their programs increases the chances for American students to earn competitive positions. As an unnamed international graduate student says in the News, “it is really di!cult to find a job in the U.S. after graduation as an international student, and it is really important to get an internship during the summer to find a job after you graduate.” It is really difficult for anyone to find a job in the U.S. after graduation, international or not. Yale’s Office of Career Strategy data from the class of 2025 says that six months after graduation 4.6 percent of Yale College graduates were still seeking postgraduate employment, 3.2 percent reported working freelance
and 2.8 percent reported that they work part-time. 57.2 percent of Yale College graduates are working fulltime six months after graduation, which sounds great. However, one crucial flaw of OCS’s data is that it doesn’t differentiate between full-time work in a graduate’s intended field and any full-time job they may have accepted just to pay the bills. This choice renders that 57.2 percent figure almost uselessly opaque, and makes it impossible to determine the real underemployment rate of Yale graduates.
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S DECISION TO ENFORCE THE CPT REGULATIONS AS WRITTEN IS A WELCOME CHANGE THAT WILL BENEFIT AMERICAN STUDENTS. Yale’s numbers, incomplete though they may be, are much more encouraging than the national rates reported by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York this August. Their data shows a 5.6 percent unemployment rate among recent college graduates aged 22-27 and a staggering 42 percent underemployment rate for that cohort, as of June 2026. Let that sink in: nearly half of recent American college graduates are “working in jobs that typically do not require a college degree.” As hard as it already is to find a job after graduation, the data suggests it’s only going to get harder. The Center for American Progress argues that the United States needs to add 97,000 jobs per month “just to maintain the employment-topopulation ratio.” But the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s 10-year projections fall short of this number, anticipating the creation of around 49,000 jobs per month.
Internships make college graduates more competitive job candidates. Internships are vital for getting one’s foot in the door at a target company or gaining transferable skills. And there are a finite number of those internships available. What’s wrong with preserving those limited opportunities for American students whenever possible? The job market is a zero sum game: either candidate A gets the job or candidate B does. Internships give candidates an edge. An internship that goes to an international student necessarily is an internship that isn’t going to an American student. The federal government has the right and the responsibility to ensure that its own people are taken care of before opening these limited opportunities up to international workers. We already engage in this sort of job market protectionism. Companies can only hire foreign employees through an H-1B visa if the job description meets certain criteria. The job must be complex and require skills or training that may not be easily found in the American workforce. Employers in certain fields must attest that hiring an H-1B visa holder “will not adversely affect other similarly employed workers.” H-1B visas are not for entry level jobs. Protecting internships — the most entry level of entry level jobs — by enforcing CPT regulations as they are written follows the same logic as this restriction on H-1B visa hiring. America isn’t the land of limitless opportunity that it once was. The frontier is closed, the cities are full, the suburbs are unaffordable and there aren’t enough places in the 21st century job market for those of us who are already here. International students are welcome to study in the United States if private colleges want to continue admitting them. But American jobs should go to Americans first. TOM DAWBER is an Eli Whitney student and a junior in Pierson College studying history. His column looks critically at city policies, as well as state and federal policies when they directly impact the lives of Yalies and New Haveners. He can be reached at tom.dawber@yale.
GUEST COLUMNIST
I found God at the Burning of Benedict Arnold One of the quirks of going to high school in Nevada was the annual, week-long period where my classes were taught by substitute teachers. My actual teachers weren’t sick, and, as far as I know, they weren’t staging a union walkout. Instead, they were headed to Burning Man. Those who’ve attended the festival, which draws some 80,000 participants to the Black Rock Desert, describe watching a 100-foot wooden statue go up in flames as a religious experience. I’d never understood the appeal of “burning the man” — that is, until I attended the “Burning of Benedict Arnold” last weekend. My Saturday journey to New London, Conn. was something of a religious pilgrimage in its own right. The annual event coincided with the second night of Rosh Hashanah. Yet the allure of parading Arnold through New London outweighed my sense of religious obligation. Plus, I managed to find a friend to drag along. Arnold’s caustic relationship with New London began in 1781. That year, after defecting to the British, the Connecticut-native commanded a raid that left some 90 Americans dead and the town smoldering. New Londoners soon after began giving Arnold’s effigy the historical comeuppance he deserved — a tradition revived by a local theater troupe in 2013. Our procession began at dusk. Arnold’s two-faced effigy rode atop a handcart, which was followed by an actor on stilts
dressed as the devil in a redcoat. A colonial fife and drums corp regaled us with classics like “Yankee Doodle Dandy” and the anachronistic, though always welcome, “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” A m o n g A r n o l d ’s m o s t enthusiastic hecklers were a group of 20-somethings, decked out in knee breaches and frock coats, who seemed to have indulged in their fair share of ale at a local tavern. Needless to say, it was a different crowd to what I had encountered at Rosh Hashanah services only a few hours earlier. I wasn’t entirely sure that this is what the rabbis had in mind for one of Judaism’s holiest days. Yet I was reminded that Rosh Hashanah is followed by the Fast of Gedaliah, when Jews lament the assassination of the final governor of Judah. New Londoners, like Jews, know how to hold a grudge. Once we arrived at the waterfront, Governor Ned Lamont SOM ’80 reminded us that the cry “Remember New London!” roused patriots to battle at Yorktown. Arnold, doused in lighter fluid, didn’t last long. The fire department eventually moved in to extinguish the blaze. I finally understood at that moment what my teachers had been chasing all those years in the Black Rock Desert: there is something oddly cathartic about watching a wooden man go up in flames with a group of strangers.
For a few minutes, we had a common villain and a common purpose. I felt a peculiar kinship with my fellow man while yelling “burn the traitor!” We had gathered as a congregation and recited our own liturgy. It was our job, not God’s, to deliver Arnold his fate. I’m not the first to notice the religious undertones. Benjamin Franklin chided Arnold as America’s Iscariot. Franklin went as far as to write to the Marquis de Lafayette that “Judas sold only one Man, Arnold three Millions.” The pages of the News tell a more complicated story. Arnold has been scorned as a villain and praised as a hero. New Haven’s annual Powder House Day commemorates when Arnold, then a patriot, demanded the keys to the city’s gunpowder after the Battle of Lexington and Concord. One 1971 letter-to-the-editor even argued that Arnold has been “maligned and unfairly judged” in the annals of history. “Should anyone oppose my views, I challenge him to an open debate at a time and location convenient to both of us,” the author continued. Well challenge accepted, Dr. Lindner, albeit 55 years too late. MAX GRINSTEIN is a junior in Grace Hopper College and a former Opinion editor for the News. His column, “From the Archives,” runs biweekly. He can be reached at max.grinstein@yale.edu.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2026 · yaledailynews.com · @yaledailynews
FROM THE FRONT
“Everything is blue.” COLORS HALSEY
Committee to issue grade inflation advice in November GRADING FROM PAGE 1 January that he had asked the committee to advise him on the issue. “The Committee on Trust gave us important things to think about, but ultimately, it’s the Yale College Committee on Teaching, Learning and Advising that’s gonna make recommendations that the faculty will consider,” Lewis said in an interview with the News after the meeting. “We’re not going to just adopt the earlier report wholesale, but instead take its arguments and points of view seriously.” A d m i n i s t ra to rs a t p e e r schools like Columbia, Dart-
mouth and Princeton have also scrutinized grade inflation last academic year. Thursday’s meeting, which McKinley described as part of “an ongoing faculty conversation” about grading in Yale College, was listed as the first among eight scheduled Yale College faculty meetings for this academic year on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences website. The website called the Thursday meeting an “informal discussion of assessment policies.” Members of the Committee on Teaching, Learning and Advising and the Committee on Trust in Higher Education were also in attendance, according to McKinley.
“The goal is to hear a range of faculty perspectives about grading,” McKinley wrote to the News. “It is intended as an opportunity for candid faculty discussion.” The meeting was closed to the press, and attendees exiting the session approached by the News, including Jimenez, declined to comment, with some citing that they were instructed not to speak with reporters. The next faculty meeting is scheduled for Oct. 1. Contact ANAYAH ACCILIEN at anayah.accilien@yale.edu and SARA AGRAWAL at sara.agrawal@yale.edu.
Garrett Curtis / Photography Editor
It is “hard to say” when those recommendations would go into effect, Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis said after a closed-door faculty meeting about grade inflation on Thursday afternoon.
‘No news’ on Trump Listeners question Yale approach talks, McInnis says WASHINGTON FROM PAGE 1
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Garrett Curtis / Photography Editor
The University’s negotiations with the Trump administration are focused on the Yale School of Medicine, University President Maurie McInnis said in a Tuesday interview. TRUMP FROM PAGE 1 tiations were prompted by a May letter of findings in which the Justice Department accused the School of Medicine of discriminating against white and Asian applicants. In July, McInnis confirmed that federal investigations had expanded into the College and the Law School. “We have been providing them data that they have a legal right to request, and we have been informing them about the rigor of our admissions process and how our process works,” McInnis said in her first sit-down interview with the News this school year. Yale has not received findings from the Justice Department about investigations in either the College or the Law School, McInnis said. When asked if Yale admissions discriminates against white and Asian applicants, she affirmed Yale’s compliance with the 2023 Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action, which outlawed race-conscious admissions and led to changes in Yale’s admissions processes. “In 2023, the law changed,” McInnis said, “and Yale made a number of changes to its practices of how it does admissions. It in no way considers race as part of the admissions process. We believe that we are following the law and we believe in the rigor of our admissions processes.” She acknowledged, however, the uncertainty on how the Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action might be interpreted in a potential future case. “But there has also not been a court case about admissions in higher education since the change in the law,” McInnis said, adding that “none of us know exactly how that is going to be interpreted or what a case is going to look like in front of the Supreme Court.” The News reported in July that Yale had offered two proposals to the federal government, the first of which was rejected. On Tuesday, McInnis declined to comment on Yale’s settlement proposals. “I do not comment on and am not going to comment on any specifics related to our engagement with the Department of Justice, other than to say we are participating in a pro-
cess that is laid out very clearly in federal law,” McInnis said. “What we are engaged in looks very different from what has been reported in the media about many of our peers, whether that is Harvard or Columbia or Brown or Northwestern.” The situations at those universities were “not discussions related to a series of findings,” she said. “Each of those schools that earlier were in settlement talks did not have a presentation of findings. They had all their money cut off.” In an August update to Yale affiliates, McInnis wrote that “Yale has continued to provide information to the DOJ regarding our admissions processes as required by law” and that the “current period of uncertainty about the investigations may well continue, and we do not know for how long.” “There is no news to report,” McInnis said on Tuesday about the current status of the negotiations. She instead referenced Yale’s guiding principles for the negotiations, which were in her statements from the summer as well as on a University webpage answering frequently asked questions. McInnis said her concerns about protecting research funds go beyond the Justice Department. She pointed to other federal threats, including an Office of Management and Budget proposal that would politicize the allocation of research grants and a Treasury Department proposal threatening universities’ tax-exempt statuses if the administration deems them to be engaging in racial discrimination. Yale submitted an institutional comment in July detailing the University’s “very serious concerns” regarding the OMB proposal, which is set to become policy on Oct. 1. tory is always waiting for you; it will come to grasp you, take you up in its currents, and throw you back down sometimes in places you will not understand. You cannot know when it is coming for you,” Blight said. In total, 2,977 people died on the day of the Sept. 11 attacks. Contact ARIA LYNN-SKOV at aria.lynn-skov@yale.edu.
April report. The conversation drew more than 60 attendees, ranging from interns to education policy experts to Yale alumni. It came five months after the committee, which was commissioned by McInnis last April, released its report. Upon the document’s release, McInnis accepted its judgement of Yale’s responsibility for the decline in trust. During her Wednesday conversation with Frederick Hess, the institute’s director of education policy studies, McInnis said that declining public trust in universities is a problem she has been aware of for years. However, she said she “knew that so much of our community” did not recognize the trend. “I think many faculty on many American campuses, two or three years ago, were not even that aware that we were losing the trust of America,” she said. Affordability, McInnis said, is an area where universities need to improve their communication strategies. Though Yale increased financial aid for undergraduates in January — guaranteeing free tuition for families making under $200,000 annually — many people aren’t aware that the University might actually be accessible to them, she said. For the last several decades, private institutions in particular have been pursuing a “high tuition, high aid model,” McInnis said. “I can tell you the American people do not understand that.” She said that “higher education has never figured out how to communicate that,” and that while she doesn’t yet know the solution, it’s something “we’ve got to fix.” The University is also taking steps to address the committee’s recommendation to “streamline bureaucracy,” McInnis said. Yale is taking “a really serious look across all the work we do,” she said, in a process they’re calling an “operational efficiency exercise” — looking to do work more efficiently and “in a way that drives more of our resources to the work we do of education and research.” Intellectual traditions and a mission The discussion opened with the topic of Yale’s mission statement, which was changed less than two weeks after the report’s release. It no longer includes language about “changing the world” or educating “aspiring young leaders,” but reads: “Yale’s core mission is to create, disseminate, and preserve knowledge through research and teaching.” The new statement matches nearly verbatim the one proposed by the trust committee authors in April. “For them, it all started with the mission statement. They felt like it was vital to reaffirm that the core mission of a university is to create, disseminate and preserve knowledge through research and teaching,” McInnis said, referring to the Trust committee members. “Anything else we do flows from that central, core mission.” After the mission statement was updated on the Yale website, McInnis told the News it
was “not a change” and that its language reflects a “core mission” that has long been contained in the faculty handbook. McInnis also spoke about open dialogue and intellectual diversity on campus. She highlighted campus groups including the Yale Political Union and her own initiatives, including the Center for Civic Thought and the Senior Presidential Fellowship — whose inaugural fellow, David Brooks, attended the event. Hess then brought up a Buckley Institute report on faculty political diversity that found a greater than 36 to one ratio of Democrats to Republicans, asking McInnis, “is that a problem: yes or no?” McInnis did not provide a “yes” or “no” response, but said that Buckley’s data came from “looking at the publicly available voter registration numbers.” “So how accurate that is or not, I don’t know,” she said, referring to the Buckley report. “What I am really interested in, for our intellectual community, is a breadth of scholarly approaches, and intellectual traditions alive on our campus.” McInnis’ focus on public trust is not limited to her off-campus visits. In a Thursday email to the Yale community — her first University-wide message of the semester — she highlighted Yale’s efforts to rebuild public trust and linked a revamped President’s Office website, which highlights Yale's progress on implementing the trust committee’s recommendations. Listeners weigh in Members of the audience expressed varied reactions to the report’s recommendations — and McInnis’ discussion of them — with many praising Yale’s efforts, and some expressing doubts. Mark Bauerlein, an academic and English professor emeritus at Emory, said McInnis was “very good” on the issue of viewpoint diversity. He said he believes that viewpoint diversity should “ be understood in relation to the discipline,” rather than “as political orientation in the broader world.” “So, we don’t want more Republicans in the English department. We want more people who have a conservative vision of English — its tradition, great books, the status of classics and beauty,” Bauerlein said. “That’s what you want, viewpoints relative to the understanding of the field, not the understanding of American politics.” Bauerlein also characterized the opening of civics cen-
Aria Lynn-Skov / Contributing Photographer
ters “that somewhat have a lot of representation about conservative thought” as a “healthy thing to happen on a college campus.” When the discussion was opened to audience questions, Jenna Storey, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said that while she was a fan of much of the report, she disagreed with the mission statement change. “The committee claims that they are restoring the original clarity of the mission statement by cutting out language from 2016,” Storey said, but “historically speaking, that’s just not true. From the beginning, Yale has had a double purpose in their mission statement, it is both about the creation and dissemination and advancement of knowledge and about how they’re preparing their graduates to play roles in the world, being future leaders.” She said Yale should think about going forward because “the work in the classroom is shaping more than just minds,” and is instead also “shaping character, aspiration, ideals. This is how people experience Yale out there in the world. The graduates are people that are doing things and I think you need to attend to that part.” Sanda Balaban, the executive director of the civic education-focused nonprofit Project Pericles, described the report’s recommendations as “very powerful” and said she commends Yale for putting together the report on public trust. At the same time, she said, she believes there needs to be more of an emphasis on civic engagement in higher education. “I think she nailed what the problem is, which is the lack of public trust. I don’t know that she nailed it with the solutions,” Balaban said. She added that she wants to see more focus on “community-engaged civic learning,” and emphasized the importance of “graduating students who are committed to the public good and to civic prosperity.” “These should be evolving recommendations,” she said. “I think this was an excellent first draft, and I hope it will continue to evolve and deepen over time. And, yes, I think maybe we need a round two on the mission statement.” Yale political science professor Steven Smith spoke at the American Enterprise Institute on Thursday for its annual Constitution Day Lecture. Contact ARIA LYNN-SKOV at aria.lynn-skov@yale.edu.
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2026 · yaledailynews.com · @yaledailynews
FROM THE FRONT
PAGE 5
“Blue lights all around / I'm with you until all this is over” OROT KCHULIM OMER ADAM
Student advocacy helped bring back fall fundraiser CHARITY FROM PAGE 1 place in Boston — and March 5. Kaminski said that through collaboration with YHHAP and Yale Hospitality, the YCC was able to restore a “historical tradition” through which students could support the broader New Haven community twice a year. Funds are typically donated to nonprofits that address food and housing insecurity. In fall 2024, YHHAP raised $18,360 for local nonprofits Sunrise Cafe, Witnesses to Hunger, Amistad House and New Reach under its traditional swipe-donation model. After Yale Hospitality changed the fundraiser’s structure, the fast raised $15,066 in spring 2025 and $13,418 in spring 2026, with the latter fundraiser allowing students to donate dining points, according to YHHAP organizers. Jodi Smith Westwater, assistant vice president of Yale Hospitality, said last fall that the unlimited dining hall access available to students on the full meal plan complicated the process of determining the value of donated meal swipes. Under the new agreement, students will again be able to donate under the traditional meal swipe model, and the donation period will be extended from three days to one week. In a Monday email to the News, Westwater wrote that Yale Hospitality viewed collaboration with students as an opportunity to support their efforts and foster broader community impact. “Yale Hospitality values our work with many student organizations, including YHHAP, and the structure of those collaborations continues to evolve over time,” Westwater wrote. Jimmy O’Connell ’28, a YHHAP co-director, said in a phone interview that YCC President Alex William Chen ’28 and Vice President Michelle Jimenez ’28 reached out to YHHAP over the summer on behalf of the YCC and its dining policy team, seeking the return of a second fast. O’Connell said that the group
Jerry Gao / Contributing Photographer
The Yale Hunger and Homelessness Action Project fast, through which students can donate a day’s worth of their meal plan value to New Haven charities, will return to its biannual schedule after Yale Hospitality limited the fundraiser last year. later met with Yale Hospitality, which agreed to bring back the fast for both semesters. He said that the return of the fundraiser will allow students to make a relatively small contribution that can have a larger impact on community organizations and New Haven residents experiencing food and housing insecurity. “It’s a simple act of donating that can go a long way,” O’Connell said.
Chen said in a phone interview that bringing back the fall semester fast aligns with the goals of his council campaign in “ensuring that Yale is doing its part to support the New Haven community and allowing meaningful avenues for students who have done this for, I think, almost 50 years now to do the same thing.” “The YCC is committed to genuinely engaging with and sup-
Departure shocked some Yalies DEAN FROM PAGE 1 ups in the YCDO. But everyone is afraid for their job,” the account wrote under the News’ post. Kirsten Polk ’28, a Berkeley student, said the posts “felt too soon” and that she was not a fan of their timing. She said that the posts were “kind of the only indication” that Cruvinel Santiago had not left on her own terms, though she said she did not have the context on the matter. Maryam Abbas ’29, who is also in Berkeley, said that learning of the dean’s departure was “shocking.” “It was really sad just because I feel like she was probably
Abby Assouad / Photography Editor
the most supportive person in Berkeley College. I also knew a lot of friends who also had very similar experiences and also felt similar shock,” Abbas said in a phone interview. Berkeley student Sergio Rey Hernandez ’28 said that during her tenure, Cruvinel Santiago often advertised the pet account and often hosted office hours for students to visit with Fubá. “It’s obvious that she has a pretty strong and emotional connection with Fubá more than most people would with their pets. At least for the students, the extent of our interaction was petting Fubá,” Rey Hernandez said in a phone interview. Earlier this year, a video of Fubá was uploaded onto the
Since the departure of former Berkeley College dean Bárbara Cruvinel Santiago ’17 in March, an account associated with her dog Fubá has made a series of Instagram posts appearing to reference her leaving Yale.
account’s story with the caption, “When you’re just doing your thing as you should but mean humans make you step down anyway.” Asked about the pet account’s comment on the article covering Lewis’ reappointment review, Yale College senior associate dean Paul McKinley DRA ’96 declined to comment since the subject was “personnel matter,” he wrote in an email to the News. Cruvinel Santiago declined to comment for this article and did not respond to a request for comment on McKinley’s statement. About three weeks ago, an Instagram story post from the account displayed side by side images of the Berkeley dean’s welcome messages to the Class of 2029 and Class of 2030, with a caption appearing to be written from Fubá’s perspective. “So the people supposed to uphold academic standards in Yale College plagiarized the text that mom wrote with so much care in 2025 about me and mom welcoming the class of 2029 sentence by sentence to welcome the class of 2030. Maybe they should have just kept me and my mom there. ExComm, where are you??,” the caption read, appearing to reference the University’s Executive Committee, which reviews claims of “academic dishonesty.” Current Berkeley Dean Ksenia Sidorenko GRD ’14 ’23 declined to comment on the post regarding the dean’s welcome letter. In a Thursday email to the News, McKinley wrote, “the colleges receive a template for this message so that they provide consistent guidance to their incoming students across all 14 colleges.” Cruvinel Santiago received her Ph.D. in Physics from Columbia University in 2023. Contact SASHA CABRAL at sasha.cabral@yale.edu.
porting the New Haven community. YHHAP has historically supported the New Haven community through their fasts, starting in 1974,” Jimenez wrote. “Any change that limited the impact the fast was having on the community was a concern for the YCC, so we partnered with YHHAP in their advocacy efforts.” Kate Johnson ’27, a YHHAP fast co-chair, said the student council played a significant role in advo-
cating for the fundraiser’s return. “In the grand scheme of things, it’s not that much money out of Yale Hospitality’s pocket,” Johnson said. “It’s not worth the bad press that they were receiving.” A 1974 fast organized by the then-Yale Hunger Action Project raised $5,000. Contact ANAYAH ACCILIEN at anayah.accilien@yale.edu.
Gelernter has not taught since winter
Garrett Curtis / Photography Editor
Computer science professor David Gelernter was placed under conduct review in February after the revelation of his emails with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The professor’s conduct is still being reviewed, according to a Yale spokesperson. GELERNTER FROM PAGE 1 The professor was teaching “The User Interface” in the spring semester before being relieved from his teaching in February, when computer science professor and then department chair Holly Rushmeier took over as the instructor. Rushmeier finished her term as department chair in June and will not be teaching this term because she is on leave, she wrote in an email to the News. When asked about whether that course will be taught in upcoming semesters, Peart wrote that the computer science department “offers a variety of elective courses.” The University’s website for course registration Yale Course Search does not list Gelernter’s previous course, which typically runs in the spring, as a class next semester. Gelernter and Epstein’s correspondence was among millions of documents about the disgraced financier released by the U.S.
Department of Justice in January. In a February email to Jeffrey Brock, the dean of Yale’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, Gelernter defended the language in his controversial email about the student’s appearance. Gelernter wrote that he was considering “the potential boss’s habits” when describing the student and that he regretted nothing. The emails with Epstein drew criticism from faculty and students, though opinions split on whether the correspondence warranted disciplinary action. To dismiss a professor, a five-member hearing panel at the beginning of the conduct review process must recommend that the provost ask the University president to convoke the University Tribunal. Gelernter joined Yale faculty in 1982. Contact JOLYNDA WANG at jolynda.wang@yale.edu.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2026 · yaledailynews.com · @yaledailynews
FROM THE FRONT
“I'm blue, da-ba-dee da-ba-di.” BLUE (DA BA DEE) EIFFEL 65
New Haven police contract with Flock competitor CAMERAS FROM PAGE 1 Department that are helping to keep our residents and community safe,” Elicker wrote in an August statement. “While we understand the concerns of the governor and some legislators, we urge them not to put additional restrictions on the use of cameras without collaborating and engaging with cities like New Haven.” Local law enforcement has touted the city’s surveillance system as an invaluable tool in solving crimes. Towns around New Haven — like Windsor and Milford — have opted to heavily restrict and in some cases even terminate their contracts with Flock Safety, a popular ALPR vendor, over concerns about data sharing. The developments come amid growing national backlash to Flock and other surveillance systems. People around the country have been filmed covering, clobbering and even shooting at the license plate readers. New Haven contracts with Rekor Systems, which has a different “business model” than Flock, according to the city’s chief administrative officer Justin McCarthy. Officials say the city’s system prevents data-sharing and privacy breaches. “When you buy into Flock, you buy into the Flock environment,” McCarthy said, referring to Flock’s TALON network, where Flock-contracting law enforcement agencies can pool their ALPR data into a single, searchable database. Rekor maintains the Rekor Public Safety Access Network, a data-sharing platform where any state or local law enforcement agency that uses Rekor can access real-time data from other participating municipalities. New Haven has not opted into this network. McCarthy said that Rekor is “totally different” from Flock and that data from New Haven’s ALPRs can only be accessed by the federal government via judicial warrant. Flock’s opponents often focus
Rana Roosevelt / Illustrations Editor
License plate camera retailer Flock Safety has come under fire for sharing data with federal agencies. The New Haven Police Department maintains that its chosen vendor — Rekor — keeps civilian data internal. on the company’s lapsed contracts with federal agencies. Customs and Border Protection previously had access to license plate reader data in 22 states, according to documents obtained by AP News. Several county police departments also noted that they searched their ALPR databases on CBP’s behalf — even when state law banned data-sharing with federal immigration authorities. Documents obtained by the Guardian show that Rekor’s client, the Westchester County Police Department, previously shared data with ICE, but it’s unclear
whether Rekor aided in or was aware of the data sharing. Rekor did not respond to questions about whether it still maintains any data-sharing contracts with the federal government. A statement from Rekor published by the New Haven Independent says that the vendor does not “own or control” the ALPR data collected by its customers and does not disclose data to any third party, “including the US federal government.” “Data collected by Rekor cameras are locally held here at the police department and we do not assist or interfere with ICE for
operations which pertain solely to a person’s immigration status,” NHPD spokesperson Christian Bruckhart wrote in an email. The department occasionally shares license plate data with other in-state law enforcement agencies when it pertains to a criminal investigation, according to Bruckhart. Bruckhart said it would be “theoretically possible” but very difficult for agencies like ICE to access ALPR data through a different municipality. “Our assistance to other CT agencies is pretty specifically tailored to what that agency might be
investigating, e.g. a vehicle involved in a crime which occurred in their city/town which has a connection to New Haven,” Bruckhart wrote. Bruckhart added that the ALPR data would most likely be old, given a new state law that mandates municipalities delete license plate data not tied to a criminal investigation after 21 days. As of this March, the New Haven Police Department operates 311 automatic license plate readers. Contact EVELYN RONAN at evelyn.ronan@yale.edu.
Camera surveillance company draws New York lawsuit BY EVELYN RONAN STAFF REPORTER The Westchester Police Department is getting sued for its use of automatic license plate readers. Cameras from Rekor Systems are used to surveil residents and store data on their everyday movements, the lawsuit alleges. It’s the same company — and the same ALPR cameras with built-in AI analytics tools — that the New Haven Police Department uses. Amid a growing national backlash, surveillance systems have emerged as a flashpoint in Connecticut. Gov. Ned Lamont SOM ’80 last month asked cities and towns to pause ALPR installation until they clarify how long information is stored and how it is shared outside of local and state authorities. But in New Haven, Mayor Justin Elicker has touted the city’s surveillance system as an “invaluable tool,” and an NHPD spokesperson said ALPRs in particular allow officers to solve crimes in under an hour. Elicker and other officials have assured residents that the city’s ALPR data is secure. Still, some experts said those assurances are often murky and can be sidestepped by vendors or federal agencies. Barry Friedman, the founding director of the New York University Law School’s Policing Project, said that the privacy invasion issues in the Westchester case are true of every police department that uses license plate-reading technology. “They’re still tracking people,” he said. New Haven Police Department spokesperson Christian Bruckhart wrote in a statement to the News that license plate readers make crime solving much more efficient and that their capability was one of the main reasons the NHPD selected it as a vendor. “Rekor was chosen for a variety of factors, including price, capability, integration with other pieces of technology within the city,” he wrote. “Data collected by Rekor cameras are locally held here at the police department and we do not assist
or interfere with ICE for operations which pertain solely to a person's immigration status.” Data ownership is not tantamount to data licensing, which can allow third parties to view ALPR data even if they do not own it. Jorge Camacho, former policy director of the Yale Law School’s Justice Collaboratory, said those permissions are often clouded in contracts between surveillance technology vendors and municipal officials. “You will frequently hear municipalities and companies try to provide some reassurance to concerned citizens by saying the municipality owns the data,” said Camacho in a phone interview. Contracts between technology vendors and city police departments often contain dense, interlocking terms and conditions that “even lawyers have trouble figuring out,” Camacho said. Camacho said there are ways of ensuring backend compliance from vendors, particularly those that have in the past contracted with ICE and Border Patrol, as Rekor has. Milford, Conn., which buys ALPRs from Flock Safety — a vendor that has previously contracted with ICE and is spurring a national backlash to surveillance technology — announced on Monday they would be auditing ALPR data, which Camacho says can ensure their data is not “enmeshed” with that of federal agencies. Camacho said even though Connecticut state law prohibits municipal police departments from sharing data with federal agencies, federal law always prevails. Camacho also said that ALPRs are cheaper than ever before. The technology is “hard to turn your back on,” he added. The lawsuit filed against the Westchester Police Department alleges that it stored Rekor analytics data on residents for extended periods of time — in some cases for over two years. In Connecticut, a new law, which goes into effect next month, requires municipalities to delete all ALPR data not connected to criminal investigations after 21 days. Flock Safety recently
announced that 90 percent of ALPR data is accessed within seven days of recording. Jake Karr, another attorney on the ACLU suit, said in a phone interview that the attraction to Rekor’s ALPR technology is its data sharing network, which contains an unknown number of participating agencies. Public records from the Westchester Police Department revealed that several federal agencies have access to certain parts of Rekor’s ALPR systems, including Homeland Security Investigations, an ICE subsidiary. Elicker and other city officials
Adriana Petrizzo / Data Editor
have given citizens repeated assurance that New Haven owns its ALPR data. Karr said it’s still hard to answer important questions about Rekor cameras’ functionality, including whether Rekor uses client data to train its AI models, who has access to ALPR data at a certain time and who Rekor has metadata licensing agreements with. “All these systems present the same sort of concerns and problems,” he said. “The more we can at least know what’s going on, the more we can be empowered as citizens.”
A statement from Rekor published by the New Haven Independent says that the vendor does not “own or control” the ALPR data collected by its customers and does not disclose data to any third party, “including the US federal government.” Rekor did not respond to the News’ request for comment. Rekor Systems was founded in 2017. Contact EVELYN RONAN at evelyn.ronan@yale.edu.
As Flock cameras draw criticism across the nation, the Westchester Police Department is under fire for its use of Rekor Systems’ automatic license plate-reading technology. New Haven has dozens of cameras that use the same company's technology.
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
NEWS
PAGE 7
“I try to live in black and white but I’m so blue.” BLUE BILLIE EILISH
Students mourn victims of Iranian regime, call for city recognition BY SARAH RIVAS STAFF REPORTER Around 20 students gathered at Beinecke Plaza on Wednesday evening to mourn the lives of Iranian citizens who have been subject to violence by the nation’s regime. Organizers also shared copies of a petition that urged New Haven to recognize Sept. 16 as a day of solidarity and remembrance for killed Iranian citizens. The event recognized the fo u r - ye a r a n n i ve rs a r y o f the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman whom, according to the United States Commission on International R e l i g i o u s Fr e e d o m , w a s detained and tortured by the Iranian police for wearing her hijab improperly before she died of a heart attack or stroke. “Events like Wednesday’s gathering are important because they give our community a chance to come together, share those experiences, and help our neighbors better understand what is happening beyond our own borders,” Ward 1 Elias Theodore ’27, whose district includes much of Yale’s central campus, wrote in a letter in support of the event. The memorial was hosted by the Yale Alliance for Solidarity with Iran and the Lion & Sun Corporation — a New Havenbased nonprofit founded in May by YASI members to connect students from the Iranian diaspora in academic institutions, according to Hadi Mahdeyan ’27, the president of YASI. The event began with the organizers distributing folders that contained letters of support from Theodore and Sen. Richard Blumenthal LAW ’73. They also provided attendees with a copy of their city petition, which also implores New Haven to raise the Lion and Sun flag, the traditional opposition flag against the current regime, on
SARAH RIVAS / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
At an event to commemorate the four-year anniversary of a woman’s death under Iranian police custody, organizers also circulated a petition that called on New Haven to recognize Sept. 16 as a day of solidarity for Iranians killed by their government. the city’s flag pole that day. “The current Iranian regime is cruel, callous, and barbaric,” Blumenthal wrote in a letter to the event’s organizers, one of whom read the message aloud. “Its leaders have slaughtered thousands of innocent Iranians who simply want justice, fairness and a better way of life. That
is why Americans must send a message of support to the Iranian people who yearn for freedom.” M ia Tabib DIV ’20, who helped lead the event, spoke to the crowd about the Iranian regime’s physical violence and its citizens’ isolation. “This is how you destroy a person’s soul: by preventing
them from connecting to their stories, the stories of their family and the stories of their loved ones,” Tabib said. The organizers also played an audio recording of Hossein S h a n b e h za d e h , a p o l i t i ca l prisoner held in Tehran’s Evin Prison, who spoke in Farsi of the isolation and suffering of
his imprisonment. Every week, YASI gathers at the Women’s Table to honor the names and stories of killed Iranian protesters, a post on the group’s Instagram. Contact SARAH RIVAS at sarah.rivas@yale.edu.
‘Etymology Nerd’ defends Internet slang at crowded YPU debate BY SARAH RIVAS STAFF REPORTER Adam Aleksic, known online as the “Etymology Nerd,” advocated for the resolution, “Speak the Language of the Internet,” on the floor of the Yale Political Union on Tuesday. Aleksic is an educational influencer who makes content about linguistics on several social media platforms, where he has gained over three million followers, according to his website. He has also written the New York Timesbestselling book, Algospeak, which explores how social media is impacting language.
“I think the political conversations we have are really downstream of the cultural conversations we have,” Aleksic told the News in an interview. “This is, to me, more important than talking about a single political issue: this sort of encompasses where everything is coming from.” Aleksic drew a big crowd that exceeded the 53 Wall St. auditorium’s 240 maximum capacity, with at least 20 additional attendees standing in the back. Anna Sigmon ’30 said she was excited to attend the YPU debate after following Aleksic’s content on social media for several years. “He sees these conversations
from a Gen-Z perspective and is very good at voicing that perspective and getting into the nitty-gritty of what really drives things,” Sigmon said. After addressing the crowd as “friends, Romans, chuds,” Aleksic defended modern Internet slang, which he referred to as “brainrot.” He encouraged the audience to use it carefully and contextually in addition to standard language. “You can tell your friend you’re ‘homework-pilled studymaxxing,’ but you shouldn’t tell your professor, and that’s fine,” Aleksic said, referencing the viral term “maxxing,” which refers to the maximization of a particular habit.
“Brainrot” words are a reaction that indicate broader problems with social media platform algorithms, Aleksic said. “The new language that emerges on the Internet is an incredibly powerful political tool for expressing ourselves,” Aleksic argued. “To speak the language of the internet is to assert our political power.” Vic Perry ’29 affirmed the resolution in a speech, highlighting the role of Internet slang in bridging connections among people from across the globe. “This shared language has allowed you and I to gain one small point of access to another person’s
social world that we simply did not have before,” Perry said. Jonathan Adler ’29, however, spoke against the resolution, arguing that Internet slang is dangerous as it collapses many words into one, simplifying selfexpression. Sygne Stole ’29 also raised the concern that the language of the Internet undermines people’s ability to speak sincerely about serious topics. The resolution passed with 67 votes in favor, 32 against and two in abstention. Contact SARAH RIVAS at sarah.rivas@yale.edu.
MARTÍN PERALTA / HEAD PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Adam Aleksic, the social media creator also known as the “Etymology Nerd,” spoke in favor of the resolution, “Speak the Language of the Internet,” at a Tuesday evening debate. The resolution passed 67-32-2.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
NEWS
“I make sure that I do everything that I can to be the best representation possible every time that I step on the court and even off the court.” TAYLOR TOWNSEND AMERICAN TENNIS PLAYER
Democratic socialist sparks excitement in special election triumph BY NELLIE KENNEY STAFF REPORTER A Democratic Socialist who teaches high school biology will represent parts of East Rock and Fair Haven on the Board of Alders after winning a Tuesday special election. Maria-Threese Serana, who was up against bank business analysis manager Gavin Arnold, was endorsed by the local Democratic ward committee and the Connecticut branch of Democratic Socialists of America. Her win marks the first recent win for the DSA in New Haven and follows a series of victories for DSA-endorsed candidates in congressional races this summer. Serana received 186 votes on Tuesday and Arnold received 16. Seven residents voted early and two voted absentee, according to Shannel Evans, the city’s Democratic Registrar of Voters. All of those votes were for Serana. Tuesday’s election is the second of three special alder elections this year. Former Ward 9 Alder Caroline Tanbee Smith ’14 SOM ’25 stepped down in August, spurring the contest. Ward 7 Alder Christine Kim ’99 took office in March after former Alder Eli Sabin ’22 LAW ’26 resigned at the beginning of the year. Ward 24 Alder Evette Hamilton announced last month that she will leave her role at the end of September, launching an election this November to determine who will replace her. Two other candidates in the race for Ward 9, Blaise Berglund a n d Co n o r G i l l i ga n , a l so appeared on Tuesday’s ballot. Both withdrew from the race earlier in the election cycle and endorsed Serana. Each received one vote. In a speech after votes were tallied, Serana said the results of the election suggest that the “values” and “objectives” of the Democratic Socialists of America “align with community members.” “I’m happy that DSA ideas are
COURTESY OF CHRIS RANDALL
Maria-Threese Serana, a high school biology teacher and Democratic Socialist, defeated fellow Democrat Gavin Arnold in a special election to represent Ward 9 on Tuesday. supported in the community, because they know I ran as DSA,” Serana said in an interview. Justin Farmer, a DSA-backed candidate to represent western New Haven in the state house, lost his race in August. Former Ward 9 Alder Charles Decker, who held the seat between 2017 and 2022, was also a Democratic Socialist. Tuesday’s polls were held at East Rock Community Magnet School. Ward 1 Alder Elias Theodore, Ward 7 Alder Christine K im, New Haven Federation of Teachers President Leslie Blatteau and a group of New Haven DSA members gathered outside the school as
the results were tallied. Arnold was not present when election officials announced the results. In a phone interview, Arnold said that it was “fun to see so many people engage with a small special election on a random Tuesday,” and added that “Ms. Serana and her team put a lot of work into engaging with the community.” Arnold said he’s not sure what’s next for him in the community. “I think I’ll continue to try and be active and aware,” he said. New Haven DSA Member Erik Kuranko, who campaigned for Serana, said in an interview earlier in the day that he hopes
to see her address the rising cost of housing in the city. “A lot of people in DSA are excited for the possibility of having her in office. Just getting this perspective on the Board of Alders, I think, is going to improve the political discourse in this town,” Kuranko said. Wa rd 9 re s i d e n t K a re n Peckham, who has lived in the city for 35 years, said she voted for Serana. Reckham said that she met Serana, who is her neighbor, while planting chrysanthemums last fall. Her vote was informed by Serana’s “sincerity and devotion” to the community, she said.
Resident Karis Medina, who also voted for Serana, said that she wanted an alder who would “find ways of making community” in a ward that she described as “very transient.” Serana said that she plans to start her term by helping residents register to vote in advance of the upcoming midterm elections. Tanbee Smith received 578 votes in the 2025 alder election, according to information posted by the Connecticut Secretary of State’s Office. Contact NELLIE KENNEY at nellie.kenney@yale.edu.
Alders back plan allotting $27 million to settle wrongful convictions BY NELLIE KENNEY STAFF REPORTER City leaders are throwing their weight behind a plan that would have the city take out $27 million in bonds to pay for the settlement of two court cases. The Board of Alders Finance Committee on Monday approved an ordinance amendment to cover the city’s legal liability as suits alleging wrongful conviction pile up. In August, the city agreed to pay $15.25 million each to New Haveners Marquis Jackson and Vernon Horn, who spent 19 and 17 years in jail, respectively, for a murder they did not commit. New Haven’s insurance only covered about $5 million, leaving
the city to pay the rest, according to City Controller Michael Gormany. “We know that New Haven h a s h a d so m e c h a l l e n ge s during that time span, and it’s unfortunate that we now have to suffer because of what was done unjustly this many years ago,” Ward 27 Alder Richard Furlow, a member of the finance committee, said in a statement before casting his “yes” vote. Ron Gizzi, the city’s deputy director of the Office of Policy, Management, and Grants, said the interest the city would pay on the bonds would total about $2.6 million a year for 20 years, although he added that the yearly amount is expected to decrease over time.
Finance Committee Chair Adam Marchand said in an interview that although the payments will add a “meaningful increment” to New Haven’s yearly payments on its debt service, the city “can handle it.” Rating agencies are feeling positively about the city, which has “robust tax collections” and is experiencing economic growth, Marchand said. On Monday, Fitch Ratings, which rates New Haven’s bonds as A-minus, revised its outlook from positive to stable — meaning it no longer expects a rating upgrade in the near future. In a press release, the rating agency said the revision reflects “potential future budgetary cost pressures, primarily related to
education, employee benefits and risks associated with current and future litigation.” The full Board of Alders is set to vote on the amendment in the coming weeks. If the amendment is approved by the board, the city plans to issue the bonds in November or December of this year, Gormany said. Jackson and Horn are among around a dozen Black New Haven men who were jailed in the 1980s and 1990s and are now challenging their convictions. In April, the state legislature’s judiciary committee voted to award over $5 million to Ward 21 Alder Troy Streater, who spent 23 years in jail for murder based on testimony that witnesses have since alleged was coerced. In May, a jury told New Haven to pay $38 million to Stefon Morant, who spent 21 years in jail on charges of double murder that he has long asserted were false. The city is currently appealing that decision. Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers, also
a member of the finance committee, said that although “no amount of money can take away what everyone went through,” the settlement is a “piece to that puzzle” of “healing” for New Haven’s Black community. The committee also voted to back an increase in the money the city is allowed to pay to its outside counsel. That extra money would go towards Howd & Ludorf, a law firm which has represented the city in a number of cases, including defending it against Horn’s, Jackson’s and Morant’s suits. The amount of time that the trial took in Morant’s case “exceeded everyone’s expectations,” Gormany said, contributing to a pay hike for the firm. New Haven dropped Howd & Ludorf following the city’s loss against Morant. Contact NELLIE KENNEY at nellie.kenney@yale.edu.
NELLIE KENNEY / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
The Board of Alders Finance Committee moved on Monday to set aside bond money to cover payouts to two men who each spent nearly two decades in jail for a murder they did not commit.
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
NEWS
PAGE 9
“Don’t you step on my blue suede shoes.” BLUE SUEDE SHOES ELVIS PRESLEY
For new and emerging restaurants, artificial intelligence can be a boon BY ELSPETH YEH STAFF REPORTER A smattering of restaurants in and around New Haven have deployed artificial intelligence to generate online graphics, menus and even interior decorations. Though the practice is spreading around the country, restaurants that display AI-generated visuals can face significant backlash. Attitudes regarding the technology vary among local business owners — some characterize it as a last resort, while others say that its use is essential. “The AI is necessary. It cuts down on a lot of time,” Richard Hu, the manager of Trio Cuisine — a Korean restaurant on Chapel Street — said in a phone interview. “If we didn’t use it, we would be stuck on generating a lot of our posters or whatnot, and the restaurant probably still wouldn’t be open today.” The Instagram page of Trio Cuisine, which opened just one month ago, is flagged as an “AI-generated profile.” Hu said the restaurant has used artificial intelligence “for quite a few things.” Entering New Haven’s competitive restaurant scene, Trio’s owner realized advertising would be crucial for the business. Hu said they were unsure where to start, and turned to AI. Chris Allen is the owner of Gas Burgers in North Haven, a
1920s-themed restaurant that opened in July in a former gas station. Allen said he uses AI in myriad ways for his restaurant. He conducted historical research using AI to identify common paint colors in the 1920s and to understand the demographics of surrounding businesses. He also uses the technology to generate graphics for Gas Burgers’ social media. “It is giving a more even playing field to businesses like mine,” Allen said, “versus the mega corporations that have limitless resources to pay people to do it.” Allen expressed doubt that he would have been able to open Gas Burgers without leveraging AI to his advantage. Both new businesses are succeeding at drawing customers. Hu said that by putting flyers in parking garages and apartment lobbies, Trio is beginning to establish connections with the local community. Allen says that events at Gas Burgers have been “phenomenal.” His restaurant hosts live bands and games including cornhole, Jenga and Uno. “Instead of looking at the negatives, look at the positives,” said Allen. “A small business was opened, brought community together, brought great food to the neighborhood.” Hu said that he has been hearing
“a lot of bad rap about AI being used in almost everything, like marketing, businesses, whatever.” Taco’s Twist is a family-owned restaurant that opened in early August on Grove Street. Walking in, customers are greeted with a fullwall mural that was designed using artificial intelligence. Store manager Gopi Thumula said that some users on online forums have criticized Taco’s Twist for the way the piece was created. Thumula said that after signing the lease, the contractor had agreed to prepare the space, and that it was the contractor’s decision — not the owner’s — to use AI for the mural after local artists said they would charge $10,000. “They’re not coming to our store. They didn’t even taste our food,” Thumula said of those criticizing the restaurant online. “AI’s not making food, humans are making food.” Thumula said Taco’s Twist would replace the mural if an artist could provide a good quotation. Hu sympathizes with the general public who are disappointed by AI use by large businesses with money and resources, but feels that it’s “slightly more understandable” for smaller businesses. “It is what you got to do to survive,” he said. Allen echoed those sentiments.
ILLUSTRATION BY SAVANNAH ROBERTS
New restaurants are taking advantage of artificial intelligence tools for outreach, marketing and decoration — despite some backlash from community members regarding the use of the technology. “There’s a metamorphosis that’s happening, and you need to be progressive enough, forwardthinking enough to see what’s coming and adapt,” he said. Allen said he would consider hiring an employee to manage Gas Burgers’ marketing who could improve how the business uses AI — but not eliminate it from Gas Burgers’ strategy. “People like to crap all over it,” Allen said, “but the reality is, we
have 35–40 employees. We’re generating sales tax for the state. We’re generating revenue for the town. We’re creating a destination for the town. We’re bringing families together.” In 2018, the first AI-generated painting sold at auction fetched $432,500. Contact ELSPETH YEH at elspeth.yeh@yale.edu
Center for Inclusive Growth unveils economic development ‘roadmap’ BY QAMAR AL-TAMEEMI STAFF REPORTER Two years after its founding, a Yale-backed initiative seeking to foster equitable economic growth in New Haven unveiled the first steps toward a series of sweeping goals for the city. Local officials and community members gathered at the Omni New Haven Hotel on Tuesday afternoon for the second Annual Inclusive Growth Summit, where the Center for Inclusive Growth’s leaders laid out a set of organizational priorities: a f fo rd a b l e l iv i n g , q u a l i ty employment opportunities, community wealth building and community connections and ownership. The summit also featured talks and workshops led by local leaders about economic mobility and business strategy. Yale and the City of New Haven announced plans for the center in 2021 alongside a new six-year voluntary contribution agreement. Yale pledged $5 million to fund the center, a nonprofit focused on including underserved residents in the city’s economic development. A University press release from the time said the center’s projects would be developed “in the coming months.” The center held its first Inclusive Growth Summit in 2025. “Last year, we came together to ask what inclusive growth should mean for engagement, a n d to d ay we w i l l b e g i n answering a different question: What will we do next?” Dawn Leaks Ragsdale, the center’s
inaugural executive director, said in a speech at the summit. Since the last summit, Leaks R a gsd a l e sa i d , t h e ce n te r has launched new programs and conducted research to develop “The Inclusive Growth Roadmap,” which lays out its four priority areas. Leaks Ragsdale said that a series of working groups will convene to establish an implementation timeline for the roadmap. In a speech at Tuesday’s event, Mayor Justin Elicker highlighted New Haven’s recent population and economic growth as well as the city’s rising bioscience and life science industries. He also emphasized the importance of ensuring “people that may not have historically benefited from growth” do benefit from the city’s current growth. The roadmap comes after a year-long process in which the center solicited feedback from hundreds of residents through a series of “community c o n v e r s a t i o n s ,” r e v i e w e d existing data and studied best practices around the country. “We’re done planning,” Leaks Ragsdale said. “We’re now into implementation and execution.” Leaks Ragsdale said in a speech that residents don’t want programs that “make a splash or generate a headline and then disappear a year later.” Community members indicated they were willing to wait longer for progress if the results were systemic and lasting, a message Leaks Ragsdale said has shaped the
QAMAR AL-TAMEEMI / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
At its second annual summit, a Yale-funded non-profit presented a set of focus areas for facilitating economic growth and wealth building in New Haven — though it did not offer up a clear timeline.
organization’s approach. The summit also highlighted several of the Center’s economic development p ro g ra m s, including Buy New Haven, an initiative that helps large businesses shift their spending to small businesses and ensures small, local businesses are equipped to accept contracts f ro m l a rge r i n s t i t u t i o n s . Another program, the Evergreen Engagement Program, helps
entrepreneurs acquire existing businesses. The center has also developed a partnership with the Yale Center for Business and the Environment and is recruiting a New Haven cohort to participate in Yale’s Clean and Equitable Energy Development Certificate Program next year. Leaks Ragsdale noted that several local nonprofits and community organizations are
already working toward the Center’s economic development goals. The organization’s role, she said, is to convene those groups and fill gaps. The United States Census Bureau estimated that New Haven’s population was 138,774 in 2025. Contact QAMAR AL-TAMEEMI at qamar.altameemi@yale.edu.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 · yaledailynews.com
ARTS
“Blue has no dimensions, it is beyond dimensions.” YVES KLEIN
REVIEW
Landscape painter’s creative process shines at YCBA exhibit BY ELLIE KOO STAFF CRITIC “Visitors arriving on the second floor of the Yale Center for British Art are met with a simple yet finely executed oil painting of an expansive sky filled with soft, pale clouds. The smallscale painting by British painter John Constable offers a stark contrast to his more renowned grander landscape paintings, an early indicator of the remarkable breadth of his work showcased in the center’s new exhibition. “John Constable: The Landsca p e Re i m a g i n e d ,” wh i c h opened on Sept. 3, brings together a variety of the British painter’s works, including sketches, cloud studies, mezzotints and landscapes. Dedicated to the 250th anniversary of Constable’s birth, the exhibition offers a robust and holistic view of his practice, inviting viewers to see the natural world through Constable’s eyes. T h e f i rs t wo rk v i s i to rs encounter is one of the many cloud study paintings featured throughout the exhibition. The decision to foreground one of these modest studies — preparatory works for later pieces — immediately sets the showcase apart from other surveys of Constable’s work. Rather than simply displaying finished masterpieces, emphasizing the artist’s creative process from the outset allows for a more intimate and dynamic understanding of his work. That sense of intimacy is reinforced by the glass cases filled with many of the cloud studies, inviting viewers to circle the paintings and read Constable’s handwritten inscriptions on the backs of each canvas. These brief notes record the details Constable observed while painting the sky, as well as the observations’ time and place. It is a thoughtful curatorial touch that offers a rare
glimpse into the artist’s inner mind, creating a quiet, emotional connection between viewer and painter. Despite their rudimentary nature and small scale, these studies are remarkably detailed and well accomplished in color and form. Some are especially striking — “Study of a Cloud Sky,” painted in 1825, is a particular highlight. The luminous, pure white of the cloud rendered in the center of the canvas, surrounded by visible, animated brushstrokes, demonstrates Constable’s extraordinary eye and his ability to faithfully transfer the subtle hues of the natural world into paint. Following the first cloud study, the exhibition unfolds i n a l a rge ly c h ro n o l og i ca l sequence, beginning with Constable’s earliest pastoral and rural landscapes. Though small in scale, these paintings are lush in detail, with an earthy palette that feels both vibrant and gently idyllic. The landscapes are followed by a section devoted to mezzotints — black and white prints made from engravings. These works provide a welcome visual change in color and form from the rest of the exhibition. As the exhibition progresses, charting Constable’s growth as an artist and his geographical journey across England, it becomes increasingly clear how profoundly his personal life shaped his art. The cloud studies he produced between 1825 and 1828, amid his wife’s declining health, take on a noticeably darker and more foreboding mood. The clouds feel heavier and more emotionally charged than his earlier, lighter renderings. Constable shines in the sensorial quality of his paintings. “Hadleigh Castle,” a formidable large-scale masterpiece displayed at the very end of the exhibition and painted after his wife’s death, is no exception.
ELLIE KOO / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
“John Constable: The Landscape Reimagined” brings the British landscape painter’s works to the Yale Center for British Art for the 250th anniversary of his birth, allowing viewers a glimpse into his mind and practice through July 2027. Constable manages to imbue the once grand castle with a decrepit, crumbling quality, while the expanse of the sea looms on the right side of the composition, evoking an uneasy calm and a moody tranquility. Seen in the context of his earlier pastoral works and numerous studies, “Hadleigh Castle” reveals an artist profoundly transformed by loss. Peppered throughout the exhibition are works by other British artists from Constable’s period, some of which provide useful points of contrast. British painter John Seguier’s “Excavating the Regent’s Canal, with a View of Marylebone Chapel,” for instance, immediately cues viewers towards Constable’s creative innovation and
his departure from other artists of the time. Seguier depicts a rural landscape with compositional elements similar to Constable’s, yet his painting’s minute, precise details give it a sharper, more restrained quality and a somewhat more impressive mood. Other works by Constable’s contemporaries intend to demonstrate Constable’s direct influence on them. While many are compelling in their own right, their inclusion occasionally feels repetitive and unnecessary, offering little additional insight into Constable’s relationship with these painters or of the impact of their work. Taking up the entire second floor of the YCBA, the exhibition benefits from the natural
light and openness of the layout, reinforcing its airy, transformative quality. Thoughtfully curated and beautifully installed, the show possesses a dynamism and fluidity that traditional retrospectives sometimes lack. By attending not only to Constable’s finished works but also to his creative process across various mediums, it offers a stirring exploration of the artist’s life and mind. In doing so, the exhibition situates Constable within the broader history of British landscape painting while leaving visitors with an intimate understanding of the person behind the paintings. Contact ELLIE KOO at ellie.koo@yale.edu
‘Ninth House’ author talks release of final book in Yale-based trilogy BY BRETT PENK STAFF REPORTER “When did you become interested in going to hell?” That was the first question asked to Leigh Bardugo ’97 at a Tuesday evening conversation held at the Trinity Church on the Green about the release of her new book, “Dead Beat.”
The 479-page novel, released on Tuesday, is the final part of Bardugo’s “Ninth House” urban fantasy trilogy, which is set at Yale and inspired by the author’s time on campus. “I’ve been planning the end of this trilogy for a while,” Bardugo said in a phone interview. “Now that it’s actually done, I think
there’s a little bit of melancholy attached to it.” According to Leigh Bardugo’s website, the series follows Alex Stern, a 20-year-old high school dropout, mysteriously offered a fullride scholarship to attend Yale after surviving a gruesome homicide. When she arrives on campus, she is assigned to monitor Yale’s secret
societies, which hold some magical, mysterious and sinister secrets. “I set this challenge for myself, where I wanted anything to be rooted in real places, real architecture, and real people,” Bardugo said. Bardugo has also written other bestselling books, including the fantasy “Six of Crows” and her debut novel, “Shadow and Bone.”
She said there were points at Yale where “she didn’t know the language of this place.” “It’s human monsters, and also kinda the obnoxious things we do to each other,” Bardugo said when asked what the scariest thing she saw while at Yale. “I wish I could tell you it was a goblin I met in the dining hall, but it is, in fact, I think, grappling with growing up in this particular institution. ” Tuesday’s conversation was moderated by Holly Black, a New York T imes bestselling author of young adult fantasy novels, and Kelly Link, a MacArthur Fellowship-winning short story writer. Audience members said they enjoyed the conversation and the opportunity to hear Bardugo speak, especially since Bardugo has struggled with health complications. According to a 2015 Instagram post by Bardugo, she has suffered since her 20s from osteonecrosis, which has made it painful for her to walk. “I was excited to see her because she has a chronic illness and the chances to see her are not as frequent as maybe some other authors,” audience member Sarah Asken said. The event was sold out weeks in advance and filled the Trinity Church. “This was a really exciting event for us to work on. We love that the book is set here in New Haven, and so we were excited to bring Leigh here for the final book of the series,” said Julie Gordon, an event manager for RJ Julia Booksellers, which hosted the event. “There was a lot of laughter and a lot of engagement with the audience.” Bardugo is an associate fellow of Pauli Murray College.
KIVA BANK / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Pictured last March, Leigh Bardugo, at a sold-out Tuesday evening talk in the Trinity Church on the Green, discussed “Dead Beat,” the final book of her “Ninth House” fantasy trilogy that was released earlier that day.
Contact BRETT PENK at brett.penk@yale.edu
YALE DAILY NEWS · SEPTEMBER 18, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 11
THROUGH THE LENS
LOOKING BACK THROUGH THE LENS Photos by Ayman Naseer ’28 Spring 2025: YCC Comedy Night When the Yale College Council called for comedic backup, they didn't mess around. Headliner Malik Elassal (or, Samir on Adults) filled Marsh with laughter, but Yalies held their own. Between the unhinged bits from Red Hot Poker, improv games from The Purple Crayon, and the sheer chaos of The Viola Question, the night proved one thing: Yale students might be stressed, but at least we can take (and make) a joke.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
“A group that has continued to be one of the best running and pass rush defenses year in and year out regardless of roster changes, the Bulldog defense should have a field day against the Holy Cross offense.” BRODY GILKISON '27
Team 153 set to take on the Crusaders in season kickoff Football BY BRODY GILKISON STAFF REPORTER The defending Ivy League champions are set to kick off the 2026 football season this weekend against the Crusaders of Holy Cross. Just a season removed from the program’s first-ever FCS Playoff appearance and victory, the Bulldogs will look to build on their past success, even with a new
leader — Head Coach Kevin Cahill — at the helm. Team 153 begins the season ranked No. 19 in the nation in the FCS, one of two Ivy League teams currently ranked, with Harvard coming in at 25th. On the other side of the ball, Holy Cross (0–3, 0–2 Patriot) is still looking for its first win of the season after dropping three consecutive games to FCS teams Lehigh (3–0, 3–0 Patriot) and Colgate (2–1, 2–0 Patriot), along with FBS Miami University (1–1, 0–0 MAC).
A look at the Crusaders Though rosters turn over every year, the Bulldogs have become familiar with Holy Cross. After meeting for the first of 39 times back in 1903, this is now the ninth consecutive year that the two teams have played. Holy Cross has also been Yale’s season opener for the last eight years, and the Bulldogs currently hold a 31–8 record in games against the Crusaders. Holy Cross’ offense has been mediocre at best both in the air and on the ground. Having
LIZA KAUFMAN / PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
The Yale football team will commence its season on Saturday afternoon as the Bulldogs play against the Holy Cross Crusaders in Worcester, MA.
STAT OF THE DAY
started every game at quarterback, David Lynch has completed 57 percent of his passes and thrown for 240 yards per game, but has a horrifyingly low 2:5 touchdown-to-interception ratio. Lynch is still looking for a true first option at receiver, as not one has caught more than 12 passes this season, and none average more than 70 yards per game. Now, the run game hasn’t exactly made it easy on Lynch and his receivers, as the Crusaders average just 61 yards per game as a team. They have just one rushing touchdown as well, which is perhaps an indicator as to why Holy Cross has only averaged nine points per game over their first three contests. On the defensive end, the stat sheet doesn’t look a whole lot better. Holy Cross opponents have averaged 38.33 points per game thus far and have been gaining well over 400 yards per game as well. The secondary has done a decent job, having surrendered just 214 yards per game through the air, but the problems lie within the front seven. The Crusaders have given up an astounding 211 yards per game on the ground, as well as seven touchdowns. Outside of linebackers Adam Due and Will Miller, wrapping up the ball carrier has become a large problem for the Holy Cross defense, and one thing that the Yale coaches will need to take advantage of. Yale’s key to victory on Saturday With this in mind, the Bulldogs should be looking to tear it up on the ground. With a tremendous returning offensive line, including Quinton Lewis ’27, Grey McGown
’29 and Jackson St. Aubyn ’27, as well as a plethora of capable running backs, Yale will seek to aggressively attack a weaker Holy Cross defensive line. Behind center, quarterback Dante Reno ’28 — who put on an impressive sophomore campaign last season — has a chance to get connected with his receivers and fine-tune the offense before tougher opponents appear on the Bulldogs’ schedule. Receivers Jaxton Santiago ’28 and Lucius Anderson ’29 will be receiving plenty of attention downfield, but it will be interesting to see how Reno works with his tight end duo of Graham Smith ’27 and Brady Wagner ’28, which could very well end up being the X-Factor for the Bulldog offense this season. On defense, expect Yale’s strong defensive line to cause problems for the Crusader rushing attack. A group that has continued to be one of the best running and pass rush defenses year in and year out regardless of roster changes, the Bulldog defense should have a field day against the Holy Cross offense. One thing to look out for is the linebacker group. While Phoenix Grant ’27 is already expected to anchor the group, it will be interesting to see who the Yale coaching staff trots out there to assist him after losing a few key defensive players last season. The Bulldogs will kick off their season at 2 p.m. on Saturday at Fitton Field. The game will be streamed on ESPN+. Contact BRODY GILKISON at brody.gilkison@yale.edu
TEAM 153 BEGINS THE SEASON RANKED NO. 19 IN THE NATION IN THE FCS, ONE OF TWO IVY LEAGUE TEAMS CURRENTLY RANKED, WITH HARVARD COMING IN AT 25TH.
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PAGE 13
“A season is inevitably filled with ups and downs, but when we do experience an up, it’s important to carry any sort of momentum you can get into the next games.” ALEX CHANG '27
Yale to face Sacred Heart in final match before conference play WOMEN'S SOCCER BY GIAN LOMBEYDA CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The Yale women’s soccer team (4–4–0, 0–0 Ivy) will finish non-con-
ference play against Sacred Heart University (6–1–0, 1–1 MAAC) at home on Sunday. “Sacred Heart is a strong opponent and will be a good way for us to grow as a team and try to build on our momentum before Ivy League conference play begins,” defender Alex Chang ’27 wrote in an email to the News. Despite their attacking prowess and
ALYSSA CHANG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Yale will battle a familiar foe in Sacred Heart University in the 16th all-time matchup between the two Connecticut adversaries..
resolute defending, the Bulldogs’ start to the season has been back-andforth. The team had no consecutive wins in their first eight matches of the season. After their dominant 5-1 win against Fordham University (3–3–1, 0–0 A-10) last Sunday, the Bulldogs will look to take another step forward into a challenging start to conference play, highlighted by heavyweight matchups with perennial title contenders Princeton (4–3–0, 0–0 Ivy) and Brown (5–2–1, 0–0 Ivy). “A season is inevitably filled with ups and downs,” Chang said, “but when we do experience an up, it’s important to carry any sort of momentum you can get into the next games.” Yale’s inconsistency could be due in part to its busy schedule. The team has played eight games in just three and a half weeks. A majority of those contests have been on the road — the Bulldogs have traveled to places like Charlottesville, Virginia and Durham, New Hampshire. In total, the Bulldogs have traveled over 1,500 miles in less than a month. “After nearly a month of two-game weeks, it’ll be great for everyone to finally be able to take a week to prepare by fully recovering and training again in between games,” Chang said.
Preparation will be crucial ahead of perhaps the team’s biggest test yet. The Sacred Heart Pioneers have been strong all season, tallying 10 or more shots in every match and winning their first six matches with just two goals conceded. Notably, star forward Shea Kelleher already has five goals this season for the Pioneers. The last three contests between Yale and Sacred Heart were decided by teams bouncing back to score soon after conceding a goal. With Sacred Heart eager for goals after their unexpected 2-3 loss to Marist University (2–5–0, 2–0 MAAC) last Saturday, Yale will have to limit the Pioneers’ tenacious attack if they want to deal Sacred Heart their second loss of the season. Fortunately, the Bulldogs have the defensive personnel to do so, starting with leaders like Chang, who has played every minute of the season so far. “In terms of the backline, it’s been such a pleasure to work with my teammates,” said Chang. “Personally, I try to train as much as I can, but I really just take it game by game and have as much fun as I can.” The defenders have also been efficient in springing the attack, with Chang and Tana Sands ’29 already tallying assists. Look for speedy attackers Anita Thorvaldsdottir ’27 and Abigail
Solomon ’26 to receive their teammates’ crosses and continue their good form in front of goal on Sunday. Jojo DeNegri ’29 will also look to build on her standout performance against Fordham, where she scored her first collegiate double. History is on the Bulldogs’ side, as they have won 10 of the last 15 matches against the Pioneers. The team is also trending in the right direction after a shaky midseason stretch last year. Underclassmen like DeNegri, Sands and Cindy Yang ’30 have led the charge, and celebration wasn’t in short supply after Selma Larbi ’29 and Kyleigh Carr ’30 scored their first collegiate goals against Fordham. Overall, the team has continued to grow with every game. “All I can hope for moving forward,” Chang said, “is that everyone on the team will take it game by game, give it their all every minute, and just have some fun playing with each other!” Yale will host Sacred Heart University at 1 p.m. on Sunday before returning to conference play against Cornell University (3–3–2, 0–0 Ivy) the following Saturday. Contact GIAN LOMBEYDA at gian.lombeyda@yale.edu.
Facing Brown, Bulldogs look to carry undefeated record into Ivy play Athletics spokesperson Sam Rubin.
contests. At the same point in 2025,
over summer to ensure I came back in the best position possible and it is paying o!.” Her e!ort is clearly bearing fruit, as Baileff has already topped her previous record for seasonal goals. Baile! is one of several Bulldogs who are already on track to have record-setting seasons. Chiara Picciafuoco ’28 has in four games recorded career highs in both goals (7) and assists (5), an attacking explosion enabled in part by a positional change from midfielder to forward. Maddie Leathem ’30 and Gigi Caldero ’28 have also both found the back of the net for the first time in their collegiate careers. Yale’s midfield playmakers have also stood out. Senior Emma Ramsey ’27’s current assist total (4) is a career high, while sophomore Carys Isherwood ’29 has already tied her total (2) from 2025. The Bulldogs’ defense has been similarly strong, having allowed just two goals across their four opening
percentage of Amelie Schwarzkopf ’29, at 0.900, ranks second in the Ivy League, and she has posted two clean sheets in four games. For captain Hettie Whittington ’27 and the Bulldogs’ two other seniors, the 2026 campaign is particularly meaningful. “My approach to senior season has been to soak in every second,” Whittington wrote in a statement to the News reviewed by Rubin. “Our season is so short, and I only really have two more months playing this sport with this team, so my mindset has been to quickly forget the mistakes and celebrate every win.” But as dusk approaches for the collegiate careers of Yale field hockey’s class of 2027, the first years have made an immediate impact for the fast-starting Bulldogs, with Sophie Buchowski ’30 and Angelina Che ’30 both seeing significant minutes on the field.
Yale will host Brown at
FIELD HOCKEY “For me personally, I put the hours in they had allowed six. The save Johnson Field on Friday at 6 BY VINCENT HUANG CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The No. 17 Yale Bulldogs (4–0, 0–0 Ivy), the only undefeated team remaining in the Ivy League, are beginning their quest to make a second-ever appearance in the Ivy League tournament as they face Brown on Friday. Yale is o! to its second 4-0 start in two seasons, recording a goal di!erential of +15. The Bulldogs, who defeated the Bears 3-1 in Providence last season, are ranked third of the conference in the National Field Hockey Coaches Association poll, trailing No. 3 Princeton (3-1, 0-0 Ivy) and No. 7 Harvard (3-1, 0-0 Ivy). “It's been a great start to the season going into Friday’s Ivy opener against Brown — a 4-0 record and 17 goals already is a great place to be, and we want to carry that momentum into conference play,” Issy Baile! ’28 wrote in a statement reviewed by Yale
p.m.
Contact VINCENT HUANG at vincent.huang@yale.edu.
LIZA KAUFMAN / PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
The No. 17 Yale Bulldogs, now the only undefeated team remaining in the Ivy, look to stay perfect as they host the Brown Bears at home this Friday. Last season, the Bulldogs defeated the Bears 3-1.
Bulldogs head to Lone Star State to face highly-ranked opponents VOLLEYBALL BY TANNER BATTLE STAFF REPORTER The Bulldogs (6–0, 0–0 Ivy) will head south to the Lone Star State this weekend, seeking to maintain their undefeated streak against two highly-ranked teams. Yale will face the No. 13 Texas Christian University Horned Frogs (7–2, 0–0 Big 12) on Friday, followed by the No. 5 Southern Methodist University Mustangs (6–2, 0–0 ACC) on Saturday. Although the Elis remain undefeated, they are set to be at a significant disadvantage since they have not yet faced this level of competition this season. The Horned Frogs will enter Friday’s game on a hot streak, after winning five consecutive games
over the past two weeks. Although they sit at No. 13 nationally, TCU has shown its ability to pull o! an upset, beating the higher-seeded SMU Mustangs 3-2 earlier this month. After the Elis face a hot TCU team, they will match up with the top-10 SMU team, which has already beaten several highlyranked teams this season, including No. 4 Kentucky (7–2, 0–0 SEC) and No. 7 Texas (4–4, 0–0 SEC). While SMU comes into the game at No. 5, they will meet the Bulldogs on the heels of a devastating 0-3 loss to No. 11 Purdue (5–2, 0–0 BIG) last Sunday. Yale will need some key players to step up in order to overcome the star power of these Texas teams. Captain Laurece Abraham ’27, the Ivy League Player of the Week,
STAT OF THE DAY
will need to continue her o!ensive dominance, and the Bulldogs will look to Ava Poinsett ’29 to continue her hard work on both offense and defense. First-year setter Kalyssa Taggart ’30 will need to stay focused in what may be the most difficult environment she will play in this season. This weekend will offer the team a chance to put their skills to the test against the highest level of competition they will face before beginning conference play at Brown on Sept. 26. Yale will take on TCU this Friday at 1 p.m. in Fort Worth and SMU at 3 p.m. on Saturday in Dallas. The games will be available on ESPN+ and ACCNX.
TANNER BATTLE / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Seeking to maintain their undefeated streak, Yale volleyball will go head-to-head this weekend with two top-25 teams, No. 13 TCU and No. 5 SMU.
Contact TANNER BATTLE at tanner.battle@yale.edu.
THE SAVE PERCENTAGE OF FIELD HOCKEY PLAYERAMELIE SCHWARZKOPF ’29, AT 0.900, RANKS SECOND IN THE IVY LEAGUE.
SPORTS
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
“Starting strong matters, but finishing strong says just as much about a team — and seeing everyone raise their level going into that second round was a great sign for where we’re headed.” MATTHEW LIN ’28
Ivy basketball championship to find semi-permanent home MEN'S BASKETBALL BY BRODY GILKISON STAFF REPORTER The Ivy League’s annual men’s basketball tournament will have a new home for three years starting next school year, the league announced on Tuesday. Traditionally, member schools have rotated as hosts of the
tournament, or Ivy Madness, since the inaugural event in 2017. After the upcoming season’s championship is played at the Palestra, a historic arena in Philadelphia, though, the tournament will have a semipermanent home at the PPL Center in Allentown, Penn., from 2028 to 2030. “The PPL Center provides a neutral site in a first-class venue, a vibrant downtown setting, and a location that is accessible to so many of our alumni and fans,” Ivy League E xe c u t ive D i re c to r Ro b i n
Harris said in a press release. “We believe this partnership creates an exciting opportunity to co n t i n u e e l eva t i n g t h e championship experience for our student-athletes and Ivy League basketball overall.” The University of Pennsylvania, the host of the upcoming Ivy Madness, is the league’s defending champion. Contact BRODY GILKISON at brody.gilkison@yale.edu
LIZA KAUFMAN / PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
The Ivy League announced on Tuesday that its annual basketball tournament, which is currently hosted on a rotating basis, will be hosted at the PPL Center in Allentown, Penn., from 2028 to 2030.
First years lead Yale to season-opening tournament title MEN'S GOLF BY AZARA MASON STAFF REPORTER The Yale men’s golf team opened its 2026-27 season with a victory this weekend at the Doc Gimmler Invitational. Two first years — Theodore Snyder ’30, who won the individual title, and Shawn Nawata ’30, who tied for second — began their official collegiate golf careers at the top of the leaderboard after the tournament, which was held at Bethpage State Park’s Red Course. After rain shortened the tournament to 36 holes, the Bulldogs finished at 13-under pa r, 1 0 s t ro ke s a h ea d o f tournament host and second-
place finisher, St. John’s, to take first of 14 teams. Columbia, the only other Ivy League program in the field, finished tied for eighth at 15-over par. Snyder led the Bulldogs at seven-under par, shooting rounds of 69 and 64 to capture the individual title in his first collegiate tournament. “It felt really special to win my first college event, especially being able to do it while helping our team get the win too,” Snyder wrote in a text to the News. “I’ve been putting in a lot of work, so to see that pay off and get my first collegiate win is super special.” After shooting one-under in the opening round, Snyder caught fire in the second. He opened with three consecutive birdies and added another on the fifth
hole. A birdie on the 11th hole moved him to five-under before another on the 15th brought him to six-under for the round. Snyder said the birdie on No. 15 was the shot that stood out most. “I had 192 into the wind and hit a 7-iron to about five feet, then made the birdie to get to six under that round,” Snyder wrote. “That was a big moment where I felt like that had to have put me in the lead.” Head coach Keith Tyburski also p ra i s e d S n y d e r ’s performance and character. “Theo is an incredible player. His enthusiasm and energy are contagious,” Tyburski said in a Yale Athletics news release. Nawata was not far behind his fellow first year. He shot rounds of 69 and 67 to finish fourunder and tied for second, and
the two first years landed in the top two spots of the individual leaderboard. Like Snyder, Nawata got off to a fast start in the second round, making three consecutive birdies on holes two through four. “I think a good finish to round 1 gave me some momentum for a hot start in round 2,” Nawata wrote in a text to the News. “Knowing that we needed to put together a solid 2nd round as a team if we wanted to chase down St. John’s was a contributing factor as well.” Nawata ultimately finished the round three-under. In total, four Bulldogs finished in the top 11 individually, three of whom were first years. Austin Le ’30, the third first year in Yale’s lineup, tied for 11th with Colin Li ’28 at even par.
YALE ATHLETICS
In their collegiate debuts, Theodore Snyder ’30 won the individual title and Shawn Nawata ’30 tied for second, as the Bulldogs finished 13-under par to win the Doc Gimmler Invitational.
Le made one of Yale’s biggest second-round jumps, following an opening-round 73 with a threeunder 67 in the second. He surged to four-under through seven holes after an eagle on No. 5 and backto-back birdies on Nos. 6 and 7. For Li, the victory was particularly meaningful after Yale struggled to start strongly in each of his first two seasons. “I think it’s huge for us to start off the year strong,” Li wrote in a text to the News. “Compared to my freshman and sophomore year, we never really got out on the right foot and it’s hard to start a season with a bunch of negatives. It’s great to see that we all came out the gates firing and setting the tone for the fall.” Captain Matthew Lin ’28 said the team’s collective improvement in the second round stood out to him. “I was really proud of how the team played in the second round of that 36-hole day,” Lin wrote in a text to the News. “Starting strong matters, but finishing strong says just as much about a team — and seeing everyone raise their level going into that second round was a great sign for where we’re headed.” For Lin, the performances of Yale’s first years were particularly encouraging. “Theo and Shawn finishing 1st and 2nd as freshmen in their very first collegiate start tells me a lot about the ceiling of this group,” Lin wrote. “It shows they’re not intimidated by the moment. Everyone on this team is genuinely excited about what we can accomplish this year.” The first years and the rest of the team will look to build on their opening-weekend victory at the Macdonald Cup, which Yale will host on Saturday, Sept. 26 at the Yale Golf Course. Contact AZARA MASON at azara.mason@yale.edu.
Ivy League to introduce ‘bye week’ to football schedule next year FOOTBALL BY BRODY GILKISON STAFF REPORTER For the first time in league history, Ivy League football teams will have a week off built into their schedule. The Ivy League announced on Monday that the football season will start a week earlier starting next year, with the addition of a bye week, or a week for players to rest mid-season. Traditionally, Ivy League teams kick off around the third week of September, which is two to three weeks later than the rest of Division I. As a result, Ivy League teams play just ten games per season with no bye week in their schedule. Teams will now start play a week earlier, which
means the first games of the season will be played on Sept. 11 next year. All games played on Sept. 11 will now be exclusively conference matchups, rather than typical outof-conference games that teams tend to schedule. That means that Ivy League teams will now play Week 1 games against each other, instead of playing Week 1 against non-conference teams, who would already be on Week 4. With the season starting earlier, the week of Oct. 15 will now be a bye week for all teams. While the conference did not explicitly state a reason for the change, the off-week is set to give teams time to recharge and make a final push as the regular season wraps up, following last season's changes to allow Ivy League teams to play in the postseason.
STAT OF THE DAY
The addition of the bye week is especially significant given that Yale played for 12 straight weeks last season. After steamrolling Harvard 45-28 to clinch the conference title, Team 152 had no downtime before taking the field against Youngstown State University. The Bulldogs mounted a historic 29-point comeback against the Penguins to advance to the second round, where they then faced the Montana State University Bobcats in Week 12. Yale was the only Division I team to play 12 consecutive games last season, winning seven of its final eight. LIZA KAUFMAN / PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Contact BRODY GILKISON at brody.gilkison@yale.edu
The league announced on Monday that the 2027 season will begin a week earlier and include a week off built into the schedule. The change is set to give teams time to recharge, following last season’s shift to allow Ivy teams to reach the postseason.
THE BULLDOGS FINISHED AT 13-UNDER PAR AT THE DOC GIMMLER GOLF INVITATIONAL THIS WEEKEND, OPENING THEIR SEASON WITH A VICTORY.
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 · yaledailynews.com
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2026
WEEKEND
SEX
ON THE
WKND coming back, but who’s really coming...? It’s a new year, but perhaps more of the same. Involuntaryturned-voluntary celibacy is on the rise, and Sex on the WKND is back, but can we really write about sex that we’re not having? That’s a question for a different publication. It seems that the Carrie Bradshaw dreams of this column’s years past have crumbled under the fact of the matter: As evocative as 3 a.m. midterm cramming sessions and group-thinks for your p-sets are, they are anything but an aphrodisiac. What is also not an aphrodisiac, it seems, is seeing your ghosts of Christmas Past and Present all taking shots in the backyard of Luther. The ghost of Christmas Future is taking shots with them. Summer offered a pause from paranormal sightings, unless you were anywhere in Europe, or were in your hometown, or participated in a study abroad program, or were in New York or LA. A brief respite, perhaps. Many, it appears, took that newfound freedom and discovered the joys of shortterm low-committal hookups — dancing with German men the same age as your dad at clubs in Madrid is exhilarating, but certainly does not have endgame potential. The thirst to find
a personal sleep-study-workout buddy who gets you boned on the daily is as alive as ever, and, unfortunately, irreplaceable by a middle-aged German. Plus, you need the double-legacy to nepotise your future children. For the first column of cuffing season, let’s lay out some ground rules, so you can get the crème de la crème of the Yale scene. The jury is still out on what kind of scene it is. Incestuous is a great descriptor, but in terms of subjects, it’s something in between dating, emotional masochism and academic distraction.
“U up?” texts Generally, SOTW would dissuade you from sending messages under the following conditions: 1. Your friend has to press send. 2. You know, in the case of no-response, you’ll want to move states and continue your academic career at Columbia or even, God forbid, an unnamed institution in the Boston area. 3. You’ve been ‘sexiled’ by your roommate and this is your last and only resort — it’s not. The common room couch is infinitely more comfortable than awkward stares in your 10-person seminar.
To Sex or not to Sex SOTW is going to leave this entirely up to the reader. Like we said, we can’t write about sex we’re not having. We will provide an essential mental flow chart, though. Is it clear to your co-conspirator (and you) that this is going to be a one-time thing? Are you going to receive a text back afterwards? Are you going to regret having slept with your ex’s social-group sibling? Is this, ultimately, a cry for help or still an attempt to get over your evil high-school situationship? If the answer to any of the above is less than ideal, drink some water and go home. Or just use protection; then, at least, there’s a degree of latex-laden separation.
High expectations Hopefully you’ve had better experiences, but SOTW would recommend lowering your expectations in the following fields. First, texts back: your dream relationship is not going to be built from the bones — pun intended — of a 2 a.m. bootycall. Or it might — we’ve seen it all. Expectations not met? SOTW recommends 7 p.m. at PayneWhitney Gymnasium or a small investment in an Etsy witch. Camp Yale SOTW has missed the mark on this by a few weeks, but just know, frosh, that the sex bear is alive and well, and will come back to bite at your bi-weekly Footie-
dinners. Don’t do it. Instead, live vicariously through your SEC friend who’s taking a new girl to fourth five days a week. Yale is in a perpetual cuck chair. For the gay Yalie It’s tough out here at the gay Ivy. Whether you’re getting kicked out of DKE for engaging in homoerotic relations, or somehow getting roped into the same incestuous friend group as your first-year closeted situationship (also known as the Edon Club), the dating pool seems particularly hetero. SOTW has two words of advice, both starting in grind, one ending in an italicized letter R. Dedicate yourself to your academic pursuits and play eye-tag between pages of reading, or log back into your infamous account from senior year of high school. The Quinnipiac dating pool is waiting and ready. Sleeping Over A million times yes. That is the real college experience. Realistically, you’ll regret sleeping in a bed that’s not yours nine out of 10 times, but the 10th time will always be the charm. The bed of a college situationship is sacred. The ghosting that ensues is probably even more sacred. Imagine yourself as Sofia
Coppola’s Marie Antoinette prancing along with your ladies in waiting and avoiding the, potentially closeted, Louis XVI. The morning walk back to Old Campus — one of mourning, perhaps — will be burnished in your memory for months, or years, if SOTW is any example. Balancing acts SOTW knows your friends should always come first — especially if they end up in your bed. All jokes aside, there are two routes you can take in this ageold balancing act. The hookupturned-friend pipeline is as difficult as it is essential. There are a few steps you should take. First, allow the passage of time to do its big one. Second, clear the air in a non-sexual manner in a social setting. Third, invite yourself over and force your former hookup to recount their entire life story in the early hours of the morning, then gracefully make your exit and proclaim the friendship ratified. For the friend-turned-hookup route, SOTW can offer no consult. Under legal obligation, we will neither advise nor dissuade from the timeless arrangement of the FWB. If this path calls your name regardless, go forth with a heart of steel and perhaps a chastity belt. Too antiquated for you? SOTW recommends: getting tested.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
WEEKEND CULTURE & ARTS PERSONAL ESSAY
A Tentative Love Letter to “Let’s Grab a Meal” // BY ASHA ROY
I have a confession. I’m probably not going to get a meal with you. It’s not that I don’t want to — usually. It’s that something will inevitably come up and my struggling short term memory will fail me. Saying “Let’s get a meal” in passing feels like saying, “I’m sorry I haven’t prioritized you in my life.” This phenomenon is so ubiquitous at Yale that it inspired Rory Bricca ’26, a recent graduate, to compose “A Simple Phrase,” a
song for the Yale Glee Club which details the sequence of events following the “let’s grab a meal” catchphrase. My social life at Yale is caught between two poles. There’s a tension between time well spent with people who make me feel safe, and filling my Gcal with meals every hour of the day. The hope is that GCal-ing meals with acquaintances will lead to even more close friendships. But does it? I decided to ask around
to evaluate the fruits, or lack thereof, of our GCal labor. When I asked Margot Kelsey ’29 what “Let’s grab a meal” really means, she said it means “I might want to get to know you, but I’m too nonchalant to actually say it.” What I take from that is that Margot is a much nicer person than I am. Here I am with my “Sorry I don’t prioritize you in my life” translation, while Margot sees the statement as a tentatively extended olive
ILLUSTRATION BY RANA ROOSEVELT
branch. Teresa Ng ’29 answered the same question with “either ‘I think you’re a nice person and would like to indicate my good will toward you, but there is probably a shared understanding that we won’t ever get around to it’ or ‘Seriously, I miss having class with you, and we never got to properly hang out — let’s be friends.’” Both Teresa and Margot note that there is an unspoken element, something hidden in between the lines when asking someone to dine together. However, that element is often hard to parse. We use “Let’s get a meal” as an umbrella term, and rarely specify exactly what we expect from the other person in response. The hidden social code is both illegible and essential. However, I’m not so sure that this phenomenon presents such a severe problem. Having had my fair share of high school cliquiness, I was surprised upon my arrival to Yale that I wasn’t relegated to one table. In a lot of ways, I have structured my social life here to get away from the concrete friend groups of high school. There is nothing that annoys me more than an overly active groupchat, and I hate the inevitable power dynamics within friendgroups. “Let’s-get-a-meal” culture felt like anti-friend-group freedom and an escape from social boxes. Being trapped in a friend group with little mobility to make other connections did not just limit my socializing, but also limited my self-confidence and self-perception. I had an elementary school
teacher who was obsessed with Bruce Lee. He would often quote Lee’s iconic line, “Be water, my friend,” lauding Lee’s ability to adapt — like water — to take the shape of whatever container it might find itself in. I hated being like water. If I filled whichever container I found myself in, I felt like I couldn’t control who I was. The space left for me to embody was carved out by people’s perception of me. Like most high schoolers, I spent too much time thinking about what other people thought of me, which is what left me so conflicted by my Bruce Lee predicament. I desperately wanted to be “chill” and “fun”— attributes so unattainable they evade clean definitions. When I got to Yale, I vowed that I would not let myself be water anymore. I was tired of other people’s binding archetypes — even though, I know now, most of my problem was my own perception of how others see me. At Yale, I realized that I could ask almost anyone to hang out. I didn’t feel trapped in monotonous perception; I had different friends who saw me at all my different angles. The disconnect persists between grabbing a meal and calling someone a real friend. It can be difficult, and vulnerable, to transition from bi-weekly lunches to real, deep connections. But, coming from a place where even grabbing a meal was unfeasible, I much prefer the Yale way. Contact ASHA ROY at asha.roy@yale.edu.
PERSONAL ESSAY
Campus imitates art: the Gilmore-ification of Yale
// BY RIYA NADKARNI
An average day of high school for me included coming home and watching somewhere between one and three episodes of “Gilmore Girls.” My dream school was Yale, and when I got in, I was swarmed with, “OMG, you are literally Rory Gilmore!” “Gilmore Girls,” which premiered in the early 2000s, follows single mother Lorelai Gilmore and her daughter Rory as Rory comes of age. The show’s seven seasons culminate in Rory’s graduation from Yale College. And while my parents warned me to not expect Yale to be too similar to the school I romanticized in “Gilmore Girls,” I found that Yale was actually close to the depiction in the show. Whether it be the people in the Silliman College courtyard reading under trees or the campus revival of preppy Y2K fashion, Yale seemed to resemble the world in which Rory Gilmore existed. I wasn’t the only one who thought this. It was common to hear, “Wow, this is so ‘Gilmore Girls’” or “I wonder if Rory Gilmore ever went to Econ 1115.” For a while, I was happy to revel in the comfort that I associated with the show. There was something romantic about Yale in the fall, bundled in a maroon sweater and a hot latte in hand. At first, I thought that “Gilmore Girls” had characterized Yale remarkably well. Then I started wondering
if Yale students recreated “Gilmore Girls” remarkably well. The Yale of “Gilmore Girls” is not simply a university. It is a small town disguised as a college, a contained and familiar version of Yale’s sprawling campus. Rory constantly runs into her friends, traditions become landmarks within the year and even ordinary routines — getting coffee before class or getting meals in a residential college — take on a sense of continuity. That is perhaps what Yale students have unconsciously recreated. Many don’t aim to become Rory Gilmore — or emulate her character. Instead, we try to recreate the small provincial world that made her Yale feel so distinctive in the first place. Like the show, coffee culture is common, first-day suite parties do exist — cue Rory and Paris’s first party on move-in day — and the Yale-Harvard Game is a slew of traditions and celebrations. We often see Rory running from place to place with a book and coffee in hand, and while Yale students may not be reading the same book, it is normal to feel like a chicken running around with its head cut off. The Yale of “Gilmore Girls” makes the mundanity of college feel compelling without making every moment extraordinary. But, the show also knows how to make Yale feel mysterious. In one of
my favorite episodes, “You Jump, I Jump Jack,” Rory is introduced to a secret society with a social group almost completely outside her normal circle. What begins as an invite to a strange party turns into a set of eccentric rituals including jumping off a platform with an umbrella to impress a secret society. That episode transforms Yale from a collection of classrooms and routines to something more insular: a place where there always seems to be another tradition or corner of campus waiting to be discovered. While the real Yale is less likely to involve jumping off a platform with an umbrella — though, you never know — the underlying premise still feels familiar. Yale has a talent for turning ordinary college activities into traditions with lore behind them. Traditions exist in friend groups, clubs and campus-wide, but they all have the same effect: tying students into a community brought together by Yale. It’s not only the pretty parts of Yale that mirror the show. Rory acts as an arts reporter for the News covering a ballet show and ends up completely tearing apart the performance, much to the ballerina’s dismay. At the beginning of my real-life first year, a performative male contest was held in which one of my friends participated while holding a copy of “The Summer I Turned Pretty.” A
reporter from The Yale Herald reviewed the event and spent an entire paragraph dissing him. At that moment, life imitated art. Perhaps this is why “Gilmore Girls” continues to feel strangely familiar twenty years after Rory moved into her dorm room. While the show did not accurately predict my physics problem set or the smallness of my first-year dorm in Vanderbilt Hall, it understood that the charm of Yale comes from students creating a world out of it. That version of Yale exists, in part, because generations of
ILLUSTRATION BY GRACE GLADSON
students have come expecting to find it and, consciously or unconsciously, helped recreate it. So, when someone points out a student reading in the courtyard and says, “That’s so ‘Gilmore Girls,’” they may not just be recognizing the show. They may be participating in the very process that made Rory’s Yale feel real in the first place. Contact RIYA NADKARNI at riya.nadkarni@yale.edu.
WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: SUNBATHING ON BEINECKE
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 , 2026 · yaledailynews.com
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WEEKEND CULTURE & ARTS PERSONAL ESSAY
Seize the means of touchdown production // BY VINCENT HUANG “I am loyal to Amazon. com Incorporated. I will never waver in my support of Amazon.com Incorporated no matter what!” What would your reaction be if a close friend made such a declaration to you? Would you, perhaps, remind him that Amazon.com Incorporated is a capitalist corporation and cares nothing for him outside of his ability to contribute to its revenue and valuation? What if you replaced “Amazon. com Incorporated” with, say, Liverpool F.C.? Instantly less off-putting, infinitely more socially acceptable. After all, she who pronounces her unshakeable devotion to Liverpool’s Reds is merely demonstrating her loyalty as a sports fan, and love for team or club is not quite the same as love for Amazon, right? But what is Liverpool, other than another capitalist corporation, owned in part by the same Jeffrey Preston Bezos, for the same reasons of revenue and valuation generation? Professional sports teams are many things, but at their core they are assets — assets increasingly owned and controlled by the reaching tentacles of billionaires, asset management firms and even nation-states. The Buffalo Bills are an asset of fracking billionaire Terry Pegula, the New York Mets, an asset of hedge funder Steve Cohen, and Paris Saint-Germain F.C., an asset of the nation-state of Qatar. So then, I ask, what does it truly mean to be “loyal” to
such a sports team? As humans, we naturally venerate the virtue of loyalty. This is especially apparent in our distaste for the so-called “bandwagoner”— that is, a fan whose support is given to whichever team is winning at a given moment. To be a bandwagoner is to be the sports fan’s Judas Iscariot, whose thirty pieces of silver is a Super Bowl Champions T-shirt. We have a natural disdain for traitors, drawn from our very evolutionary biology. We see loyalty and self-sacrifice as a natural good, whether it is the soldier throwing himself on the grenade so that his compatriots in the foxhole may live, or the Pelicans fan willing to watch a full 20-62 season of basketball without so much as a first-round draft pick to look forward to. But, I ask, is the virtue of loyalty dependent, in part, on the object to which such faithfulness is given? When a husband swears at the altar that he will love his wife in sickness and in health, we applaud his eternal devotion to his life partner. Is it as virtuous to be loyal to the Walmart founding family-owned Denver Broncos? Or is it a complete betrayal of the self, a perversion of fandom that takes advantage of our natural instincts? We allow our natural inclination towards loyalty to shackle us to privately-owned corporate entities, so that they may deliver greater profits and valuations to their owners.
The dedicated fan will argue he is dedicated to, say, the Orlando Magic because he is from Orlando, or he is from Florida, or his distant family is tangentially linked to the Sunshine State, and as such his love for his team is merely an extension of his affection for his hometown. But are these professional sports teams loyal in return? Do they even care? Let’s say that I snap my fingers and a new city appears in America. Let’s call her New Vincent. New Vincent is twice the size of New York, with twice the media market, twice the population, twice the spending capacity, and is in dire need of some professional sports franchises. Now, let’s say that Roger Goodell, or Adam Silver, or Rob Manfred, or any other sports commissioner offers your favorite team (yes, your) the opportunity to move to New Vincent, and become the New Vincent Patriots, or the New Vincent Knicks, or the New Vincent Dodgers. How many teams, confronted with the promise of increased revenue and valuation, wouldn’t instantly say yes? Probably just one — the Green Bay Packers, who are owned by the fans, in what is technically a violation of private ownership regulations. I’m sure that many St. Louisans felt a great loyalty to her St. Louis Rams; a loyalty that the Rams themselves didn’t seem to
share, as they were willing to pack their bags to become the Los Angeles Rams the minute Goodell permitted it — a switch that doubled the team’s valuation and instantly placed millions in their owners’ pockets. The New Jersey Nets similarly betrayed the loyalties of their fans when they became Brooklyn’s Nets, but as their valuation has increased over fifteenfold since, I doubt that their ownership has lost any sleep. What we are morally called to do as lovers of sports is to seize the means of touchdown, or 3-pointer, or goal-scoring production. The German soccer league Bundesliga has a strictly enforced 50+1 rule, stating that all participating clubs must be at least 51 percent owned by fans. This rule has allowed tiny backwaters of Germany such as Hoffenheim and Elversburg to keep their top-flight teams (equivalent to a situation in which El Paso were to have an NFL franchise in America) while also giving fans a real stake in their teams that protects them from relocation and other ownership betrayals. The winningest soccer club in all the world, the fifteen-time European champion Real Madrid, is owned by its fans, or “socios.” Such ownership structures hardly make these entities morally perfect, but they are undoubtedly superior to sole ownership by a billionaire, private equity vulture or propagandizing
nation-state. Ultimately, without the ability for a fan to participate in team ownership, I believe it is morally obligatory for said fan to be a bandwagoner. The bandwagon fan makes these oligarchic owners fight for fans’ time, attention and money. When the Glazer family undertook a leveraged buyout of Manchester United as a means to load the club with their own massive debts and extract dividend payments, they did so knowing that the famously devoted Red Devil fanbase would be there to catch their falling knife. When Tom Dundon (who made his fortune through providing predatory highinterest loans to highrisk car buyers) purchased the Portland Trail Blazers with the stated intention of cutting of every imaginable cost, he knew that the revenue he would pull in from the Blazers’ enormously dedicated Pacific Northwest fanbase would not change in the slightest. If we were all bandwagons, owners such as the Glazers, such as Dundon, might be forced to care more for the cultural and historic jewels that they should be stewarding. In a world where sport has become just another asset, the only righteous method of rebellion is to be a bandwagon. Contact VINCENT HUANG at v.huang@yale.edu.
ILLUSTRATION BY RANA ROOSEVELT
WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: ATTENDING ANOTHER BIRTHDAY PARTY
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
WEEKEND CULTURE & ARTS PERSONAL ESSAY
Lend Me Your Ears: I Listened to Every Top 10 Single from the 1960s. // BY CIELO GAZARD Over the past few months, I have listened to every single song that charted in the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Charts from 1960 to 1969. That was quite the task. There were just over 200 songs that hit No. 1 that decade alone. After I was 500 songs deep, I lost track of the numbers and focused, instead, on the music. 1960s music is already in my heavy rotation because of the artists who broke onto the American music scene in the middle to latter part of the decade — mainly the Beatles and Bob Dylan. With all my expertise taken into account, there weren’t too many songs I wasn’t already familiar with. While I did rate each song on a scale of zero to five stars, the main objective of this musical journey was to get a better understanding of what is in my view the most consequential and transformative decade in the history of western popular music. I wanted to paint a more accurate picture of a decade that saw innovations in pop and rock that reverberate to this day. The bad songs told me a story as riveting as the great ones. Listening through the first few years of the decade — 1960 to 1963 — was a test in how long I could go without saying “Why can’t the Beatles arrive in America already?” Every song on this list I was not already familiar with were from this fouryear stretch, spanning Elvis Presley’s jaunt in the Army to just before the Fab Four made a splash on the American markets. When one thinks of the sounds of the ’60s, one usually thinks of the rock ‘n’ roll explosion that would take off a few years after. To those unfamiliar with teen idols like Bobby Rydell or melancholic crooners like Andy Williams or Connie Francis, the preBritish Invasion ’60s feel like a foreign land. The top singles of 1960 didn’t earn a place in my liked songs — spare cuts by the Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison and Elvis upon his return from the military. But every decade has to start somewhere. The earliest rock ‘n’ roll innovations of the late-1950s feel absent from the charts, with very few exceptions. It’s as if “The Day the Music Died” — a title ascribed to February 3, 1959, the day early rock pioneers Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens died in a plane crash — really did erase rock, and any listenable music, from the charts. The biggest song of the year was the theme from the movie “A Summer Place,” an instrumental, easy listening track. It’s great elevator music, but far removed from the infinitely more exciting rock ‘n’ roll scene. While not my favorite from the year, one song in particular stood out from the rest for its lyrical content: “Let’s Think About Living” by Bob Luman. The song opens, “In every other song that I’ve heard lately / Some fellow gets shot.” Luman laments the fact that the big hit songs are about sadness, despair and death. There were quite a few songs from the earlier parts of the 1960s that involved failed teen romances ending in the vehicular death of one or both characters. I ascribe that trend to the popularity of James Dean, whose 1955 death in a car accident venerated him as the patron saint of
rebellious youths. Luman says singers ought to sing about the good times and stop moping. Boy, was he in for quite the turbulent decade! When the British Invasion kicked off after the Beatles’ performance on the “Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964, it was as if the American music scene spent the rest of the year playing catch-up. Before “I Want to Hold Your Hand” topped the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1964, January’s list was quite bland. A lot of the ballads sounded the same, and the surf rock songs, while thankfully more upbeat and bright, followed nearly the same structure. The Beatles’ arrival was, really, a breath of fresh air. An innovative American comeback, brewing in Detroit at the same time as the British Invasion, changed the game further. Motown recordings by the Supremes, who had three No. 1’s in 1964 alone, are also stand outs from the year, due in large part to Diana Ross’ signature voice and the tracks’ near-perfect arrangements by the Funk Brothers. It only took the American music scene a year to catch up to British groups, largely due to the groundbreaking Motown sound, which carved a new lane for Black American artists to gain success in the pop music scene. If I had to pick one year that best describes the sound of popular music in the 1960s, I’d go with 1966. As becomes clear when doing any sort of deep dive into a year or decade in music, the “sound” of a certain era is always a mosaic of vastly different sounds. Some highlights from 1966 include the West Coast harmonies of the Mamas and the Papas on the No. 4 hit “California Dreamin,” the psychedelic masterclass “Paint it, Black” by the Rolling Stones, the garage rock classic “Wild Thing” by the Troggs and the soulful ballad “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” by James Brown. These songs, all wildly different in their own right, are perfectly stitched into the ’60s music tapestry. None of the songs I listed, though, were the biggest song of 1966. That title is held by the pro-military song “The Ballad of the Green Berets” by Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler. Do I like the song “The Ballad of the Green Berets”? Unequivocally no. But its unique political undertones, especially compared to the songs I just mentioned, highlights the complexities of the decade. When the ’60s are flattened to Spirit Halloween hippie flower power costumes, we tend to gloss over historical details like the fact that in a March 1966 Gallup poll, 47% of Americans considered themselves “hawkish” in regard to the Vietnam war, compared to only 26% selfdescribing as “doves.” By far, my favorite year on the charts in the 1960s was 1967. When compiling my ratings of all of the songs, I rated 25 songs five out of five stars and 35 songs four out of five stars. For comparison, I only awarded 10 five-star ratings to songs from 1960. I still found a throughline in the charts, though. For example, the biggest-selling single of 1967 was Lulu’s “To Sir with Love,” the theme to the 1967 movie of the same name with Sidney Poitier. It passed my five-star test because of its
ILLUSTRATION BY CLARA WONG
compelling musicality. There’s something about the way Lulu’s vocals soar in the song’s chorus that melts my heart. Moreover, traditional pop — a label attributed to popular music that came before the arrival of rock ‘n’ roll in the ’50s — still held its place on the charts. In fact, across the pond, “Release Me” by Engelbert Humperdinck, which peaked at No. 4 on the American Hot 100, blocked the Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever” from the No. 1 spot. Many listeners still had soft spots for the older stylings of music and probably became sick of the Fab Four or the psychedelic sounds coming out of San Francisco. In fact, a spoken-word song by radio newscaster Victor Lundberg called “An Open Letter to My Teenage Son” peaked at No. 10. The song ends with the lyrics, “If you decide to burn your draft card, then burn your birth certificate at the same time. From that moment on, I have no son.” That song did not receive my coveted five-star rating, but it seems no other decade could have produced a song like this, let alone one
that was a hit record. When looking at the Billboard Hot 100 charts of today, it is clear that there are some trends in the 1960s that have not remained. I cannot name a single spoken-word song that has charted in the Top 10 in the last 10, even 20 years. There were quite a few in the ’60s. Additionally, novelty songs have virtually disappeared from the charts. The last hugely popular novelty song I can name is “The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)” from 2013. There were many more through the ’60s. Many of them are not that good, and some of them are quite racist and use outdated racial stereotypes as a form of humor. Others I ironically enjoyed for their absurdity like “They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!” or for their dastardly ways of getting into my head like “Surfin’ Bird.” With our generational rejection of ‘cringe’ in public spaces or online, I don’t expect to see novelty songs on the charts any time soon. The last No. 1 hit of the 1960s was “Someday We’ll Be Together” by Diana Ross and the Supremes. The song served as Ross’ farewell to
the group as she embarked on a solo career. I can’t think of a better way to close out the decade — one that started in black and white and ended in pure technicolor. The song is a pop masterpiece as well, easily one of my favorites by the Supremes. It’s pensive and reflective, the lyrics lamenting the desire to be reunited with a long-distance lover. With the mentality of no turning back and time marching on, the song perfectly encapsulates feelings at the tail-end of the decade. Each song that charted in the Hot 100, whether it was good or bad, memorable or forgettable, helps us to look back and see the 1960s through a different musical lens. The kaleidoscope becomes all the more colorful while zooming out on the entire decade. Even still, with my Beatles craving fulfilled, I think I’ll die happily without the array of racist novelty songs on any of my ’60s playlists. Thank God for the British Invasion. Contact CIELO GAZARD at cielo.gazard@yale.edu.
WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: AVOIDING THE FLOODED ROOMS IN BASS