T H E O L D E ST C O L L E G E DA I LY · FO U N D E D 1 8 7 8
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2026 · VOL. CXLIX, NO. 6 · yaledailynews.com · @yaledailynews
Football kicks off with comeback win
First-year racial data sees shifts
BY BRODY GILKINSON STAFF REPORTER
Yale College racial makeup by incoming class at matriculation Adriana Petrizzo / Data Editor BY LEO NYBERG AND DAVID LIU STAFF REPORTERS The racial breakdown of Yale’s class of 2030 reflects the continuation of a slight downward trend in the share of matriculating African American and Hispanic or Latino students. The small decline in that proportion of first years — 22 percent this academic year versus 25 percent last year — comes three years after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action, barring the consideration of race in college admissions processes. Yale College, along with the medical and law schools, is cur-
rently under investigation by the Department of Justice for alleged discrimination against white and Asian applicants, which the department says would violate the 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. Dea n o f Un d e rg ra d u a te Admissions and Financial Aid Jeremiah Quinlan ’03 wrote in a July email to the News that Yale College does not consider race or ethnicity in the admissions process, and that the admissions office does not use any proxy for race or ethnicity. McInnis said last week that Yale changed its admissions processes to comply with the
In Head Coach Kevin Cahill’s debut and the Yale football team’s (1–0, 0–0 Ivy) first game of the season, the Bulldogs pulled out a 38–28 comeback victory against Holy Cross (0–4, 0–2 Patriot) on Saturday. In Worcester, Mass., Yale got on the board early in the first quarter to give themselves an early 7–0 lead. On a play that would be ranked #3 on Sportscenter’s Top 10 Plays of the Day, Dante Reno ’28 connected with Jaxton Santiago ’28 near the sideline, where Santiago made a miraculous onehanded grab and then turned on the afterburners to beat the defenders to the end zone.
Five minutes later, the Crusaders responded with a touchdown of their own, evening the score at 7-7 with five minutes to go in the first quarter. The two teams found themselves in a stalemate for the rest of the half, as neither was able to put another point on the board. After Cahill gave the team his first halftime speech as the head coach of the Bulldogs, Yale came out firing on all cylinders. A five-play, sixty-yard drive that took less than two minutes ended with a Reno-to-Lucius Anderson ’29 22-yard touchdown pass, putting the Bulldogs back ahead of the Crusaders. However, Holy Cross fired right back, putting together a touchdown drive of their own to tie the game. SEE FOOTBALL PAGE 4
Supreme Court decision and that she believes Yale is following the law. She said that since courts have not had an opportunity to weigh in on admissions in higher education since the 2023 decision, she is not sure how the change in law will be interpreted. Of the class of 2027, the last class admitted before the fall of affirmative action, 32 percent of students were Hispanic or Latino or African American upon matriculation. In that class, 18 percent of first years were Hispanic or Latino and 14 percent were African American.
Liza Kaufman / Photography Editor
SEE 2030 PAGE 5
Donors celebrate $7 billion raise BY LEO NYBERG AND ARIA LYNN-SKOV STAFF REPORTERS
Aria Lynn-Skov / Contributing Photographer
Donors flocked to New Haven this weekend to celebrate the conclusion of the University’s “For Humanity” fundraising campaign, which raised over $7 billion in ten years. Campaign contributors joined Yale’s top administrators and development officers for lunch, dinner and cocktails across campus. Yale President Maurie McInnis, University Provost Scott Strobel, Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis, megadonor Ed Bass ’67 and former presidents Peter Salovey and Richard Levin attended the weekend’s events. The campaign, publicly launched
Anna Koontz / Contributing Photographer
SEE HUMANITY PAGE 4
Iconic seaside park reopens after storm Endowment tax off lobbying list BY ANNA KOONTZ STAFF REPORTER Lighthouse Point Park reopened Sept. 18 after a monthlong closure to repair severe storm damage. Despite an ongoing reconstruction process, hundreds of visitors returned to the park, which overlooks the Long Island Sound, to hold cookouts, fish along the rocky coast and walk the length of the shore. As the park reopens, city officials highlighted their plan to redesign the park and its iconic carousel building. “Any kind of incident like this is an opportunity to rethink and maybe take action to improve what was there,” Andrei Harwell, the executive director of the Yale
Urban Design Workshop. “So I really do think what is built back is going to be built back better than what was there before.” On Aug. 13, an unforecasted overnight storm had struck Lighthouse Point Park. Winds blew over 100 miles per hour, said Max Webster ENV ’17, director of the New Haven Parks Department. The storm uprooted and downed 95 trees and destroyed picnic tables and benches, Mayor Justin Elicker said in a press conference last week. The carousel building “almost looked like a bomb went off,” he said. Glass from windows was strewn across the lawn and playground area.
INSIDE THE NEWS The Bulldogs fended off a late comeback from the Sacred Heart Pioneers to earn a 2-1 victory amid the rain. PAGE 9 SPORTS
SEE LIGHTHOUSE PAGE 5
BY LEO NYBERG AND ARIA LYNN-SKOV STAFF REPORTERS Yale President Maurie McInnis and the University’s lobbyists will not try to persuade Congress to lower or reform current endowment tax rates in the near future, McInnis said.
Jiyoo Nam / Contributing Photographer
Congress passed an 8 percent endowment tax on Yale and other elite universities in 2025 as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill, an increase from the 1.4 percent rate that the University was formerly subject to. While the tax, which administrators estimated would cost Yale $300 million annually, took effect in July 2026, Yale began preparing for cuts last year, implementing budget cut measures across schools. “Obviously, we were previously working on tax policy, and there may come a day again where we could revisit the tax on university investment income,” McInnis said in a Tuesday interview with the News. “But at the moment, that is off the table.”
PAGE 2 BULLETIN PAGE 3 OPINION PAGE 7 SCI-TECH PAGE 8 ARTS PAGE 9 SPORTS
Instead, Yale is focusing on Treasury Department regulations for how the endowment tax will be implemented, the University’s chief lobbyist Richard Jacob said in a statement provided by Yale’s central communications office. As the bill moved through Congress last year, the top-rate tax for university endowments fell from the initially proposed 35 percent as Yale and other universities warned the tax could cripple financial aid. In anticipation of the endowment tax last year, Yale College reduced staff by 7.5 percent and implemented a University-wide 5 percent reduction in non-salary SEE ENDOWMENT PAGE 4
SHABBAT The second iteration of the annual “Lux et
Shabbat” boasted around 700 attendees, becoming the largest ever Jewish gathering on Old Campus. PAGE 6 NEWS
PLANTS In a Saturday dig in West Rock, Yale students and other volunteers stationed 1,000 plants around a Montessori school. PAGE 6 NEWS
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
BULLETIN This Day in Yale History, 1974 September 23, 1986 / Trumbull dedicates chapel; Squash court arises anew
By Mead Treadwell The John Spangler Nicholas Chapel in Trumbull opens with a dedication ceremony today. The chapel, designed and architected by students, was converted from a squash court over the last six months. In addition to serving as a religious space, it will also hold music and theater productions.
Behind the Headline By Anna Koontz I visited Lighthouse Point Park last Friday to meet with the New Haven parks director and explore the reopened grounds post-storm. Entering the park, I saw monarch butterflies soaring over mangled remains of picnic tables. When I uncapped my water bottle, the metal canister hummed in the passing breeze. This was a place where the natural and manmade intersected and aligned, where one shore viewed the city skyline and another faced endless outstretched water. My experiences and conversations with experts and community members helped me appreciate the park’s ecological and societal importance, as well as the difficulties to maintain it. This is the story of a beloved New Haven park, but beyond that, it’s a story of community resilience and adaptation in the face of climate change.
Read “Iconic seaside park reopens after storm” on page 1.
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14. California's ____ Valley 17. Certain recipient of many shouts at the TV 20. Estate sharer 21. What might light up a room? 22. ____ point (only so far) 23. Sainted 11thcentury pope 24. "___ not your fault" 28. Density symbol 30. Listener, for one? 31. "__ a Man" (Calder Willingham novel and play) 32. Company behind Pong 33. Column style
ILLUSTRATION BY MADDIE BUTCHKO
35. Nacho partner 36. Well-versed 39. Bedridden 40. Critically 41. Shout 44. Snaky double curve 45. Daily ____, "SpiderMan" newspaper 46. Bee-like 47. Saliva secreter 49. Singer Horne 50. Apropos 52. Years ago 55. Big Bad Wolf's target 56. Portfolio holding, for short 57. Boolean negator 58. Texting format, in brief
ILLUSTRATION BY CLARIS SHIN
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 3
OPINION GUEST COLUMNIST
GUEST COLUMNIST
G U L A M “ O Y S H I ” M O N AWA R A H
JUSTIN LEAHY
Eyes at every stop
Get students outdoors
The New Haven Police Department is facing heated criticism from the state government for the increased installation of automated license plate reader, or ALPR, technologies and tra!c cameras across the city. As of Sept. 3, Mayor Justin Elicker’s administration has installed seven ALPR cameras at various street locations, with a warning period set to begin on Sept. 15. With this, the city has placed itself in the midst of a fierce national debate over the economics, legality and ethicality of AI-powered surveillance cameras. While these cameras may not be as infamous as their counterpart, Flock Safety, both technologies’ shared goal of removing human input and review from some of the most initial and critical stages of the justice system must be met with strict national scrutiny to prevent unfair detainment and the capture of private information before appropriate regulations are passed. Some of the earliest proposals to pair specialized traffic cameras with licenseplate reading technology and a u to m a te d t i c ke ts ca n b e traced back to March 2024. In late 2025, the Connecticut Department of Transportation reduced Mayor Justin Elicker’s initial plan to put up 19 redlight and speed cameras to 15 installations. These new cameras reach both Orange and Prospect Streets, close to Yale’s campus. If these first few cameras perform well enough per the NHPD’s standards, they will likely expand across Connecticut municipalities. Mayor Elicker’s purpose is intuitive enough: the automated license-plate readers will pinpoint “injuries and fatalities from reckless drivers who blow through red lights and speed past our school buildings.” What is left rather unspoken, however, is the primary difference between regular traffic cameras — which would achieve the exact same premise — and these novel, AI-powered cameras. It is the same pro-e!ciency logos that embodies the New Haven Police Department’s adoption of AI-powered body camera transcription. By removing humans from the earliest step of the equation — and by extension our ability to discern intention and our ability to make mistakes — the NHPD hopes to catch more violations faster and easier. As such, anyone’s judgement on New Haven’s traffic ALPRs depends on how much they trust the NHPD to do their own job fairly and quickly. Regardless, New Haven residents should be concerned with the possibility that officers will become overly reliant on the ALPRs, thereby forgoing human review in favor of maximizing time on the street. The bottom line is that local security must avoid completely offloading human rationale onto
algorithm-driven cameras that cannot be held accountable. Alongside the reduction of human judgement, Connecticut residents would not be wrong to worry about privacy concerns in our current moment, where wholesale AI privacy regulations are not in place. Governor Ned Lamont SOM ’80 has already called on the Connecticut Police Officers Standards and Training Council to review municipal ALPR technology, citing privacy issues. Among Lamont’s three primary concerns, it is particularly notable that he demanded information on “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,” and urged that “policies … be created and adopted by a local or state agency before any such technology is rolled out by that entity.” In essence, there are fears that the lag time it takes to research, propose and pass ALPR policies can be weaponized to capture and store private information. The concern is not necessarily whether they are allowed to have that footage. Connecticut locals should be concerned that the wrong kind of information, even if inadvertently obtained, could be used against them in courts of law without adequate policy safeguards. The local reaction resembles the national surveillance debate over Flock Safety. According to Flock’s website, their cameras “record vehicle sightings at a specific place and time,” “capture license plates and vehicle characteristics” and “help authorized users find relevant vehicle evidence.” Flock has disavowed any contracts with ICE or Palantir, organizations which critics like the American Civil Liberties Union worry could unfairly exploit such surveillance technologies. Yet with over 5,000 law enforcement agencies using Flock technologies, their cameras have been able to record billions of license plates. Flock’s cameras and similar ALPRs have faced nationwide protests. A National Public Radio review finds that Flock cameras have been vandalized in at least 36 states with saws, paint, stickers and guns. The local materialization of these frustrations rings undeniably. Facing the systemic dismantling of privacy laws in digital and physical spaces, there is no doubt that the NHPD’s biggest opponents in this endeavor are the residents they’re seeking to protect. Given the opposition from major Connecticut o!cials, advocacy groups and local residents, ALPR users need to prioritize privacy concerns and wait for rigorous AI security policies before deploying such pervasive and concerning technologies. GULAM “OYSHI” MONAWARAH is a junior in Morse College studying Global Affairs and Statistics. She covers city news and technology policy in New Haven. She can be reached at gulam.monawarah@yale.edu.
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Social media inundates us with videos of strapping triathletes dashing through meadows silhouetted by jagged Teton peaks and road-tripping through the American West. But, what is wilderness? And, why is our generation suddenly enthralled by exploring the outdoors? Thoreau’s “Walking” is a good start: “in Wildness is the preservation of the World.” Thoreau claimed to need several hours a day for “sauntering through the woods” to nowhere in particular. He found wilderness in the swamp at the edge of his village, and through deliberate presence, fulfillment. We once lived that Thoreauvian original idea of wilderness, finding fulfillment just walking outside in our own communities and paying attention. Yet the algorithms now implore us to think of fulfilling wilderness as a remote park out West. Thoreau would likely scoff at TikTok and Instagram, but he couldn’t dispute that something profound is happening to our public lands. Visitation records broke 330 million around the National Park Service’s 2016 centennial. The National Park S e r v i c e ’s # Fi n d Yo u r P a r k campaign drove increased visitorship. Record high visitation has continued in recent years. Yet, federal parks have seen steep budget cuts — with the Trump administration in talks to sell parts of Yosemite — and at Yale, we’ve seen an institutional abandonment of outdoors culture. So why are we watching so much #OutdoorTok and following #Granola Girl adventures? We haven’t suddenly fallen in love with nature. Between our classes and commitments we convince ourselves 30-second reels are the only way we can fit the outdoors into our day-to-day. We romanticize far away parks in Wyoming and Utah, places staged to be watched on our screens long before they’re first encountered. These videos are much better lit and edited than what we experience on
trails at East Rock, just two miles from campus. Sometimes, we’re met with the new genre of videos built on standing somewhere stunning — like the Grand Canyon — and deadpanning that it’s basically Bridgeport. The joke works on the Internet, where the powers that be agree local communities aren’t worth the trip. Yale students face this same pull, yet we resist it anyway. FOOT, Yale Outdoors, Outdoor Climbing Team, Yale Birding, Club Geo and various other student groups prove Yalies make time to explore nearby wilderness. But our effort isn’t backed by strong institutional support from Yale, at least compared to peer institutions. In 2017, my predecessor, Yale Outdoors Co-President Emma Spence ’18, wrote that while Yale has the crucial ingredients for a strong outdoors culture, a need for an outdoors center, similar to that of Dartmouth, clearly exists. We live in the leafy “Elm City,” have a renowned forestry school managing a 10,000 acre forest, maintain a 1,500 acre outdoor educational center and send half of our freshmen on a four-day backpacking trip before classes start. Despite these treasures, our many outdoor student groups operate with no shared o!ce or reliable way to get students outside during the academic year. The Yale Outdoors Education Center, or OEC, sits in East Lyme, Conn., 42 miles from campus, inaccessible without a car. It closes after Labor Day for the entire school year. Take the Yale Shuttle to East Rock, the lone route to any park, and it’ll drop you off blocks from the summit trail, on an irregular schedule. Students, to spend time outdoors, end up Ubering, taking MetroNorths, renting ZipCars or even flying to parks — paying everything out-of-pocket, trip-after-trip. Before a recent Yale Outdoors backpacking trip, five of my peers dropped out last minute, unable to afford transportation. Through Dartmouth Outdoors, students have trips completely
subsidized, reside fee-free in a nearby mountain lodge, work student jobs and borrow backpacking gear. When I visited Dartmouth as a prospective student, I kayaked the Connecticut River for free on campus. Through Stanford’s Outdoors Center, students can sign up for $150 trips to Yosemite and Big Sur. Students can rent any backpacking gear for $25 per year and tackle a 3,200-square-foot climbing space. Through Cornell’s Outdoor Education Center, students take Backpacking, Caving, and Paddling classes for credit. The Center hosts a climbing gym with 8,000 square feet of space and also takes students tree climbing, from the Redwoods to tropical forests. Yale and its peer institutions share pre-freshman outdoor orientation programs. After FOOT, the resemblance stops. At Yale, groups must pay Uber to reach hiking trails, scalping companies to kayak the Mill River and climbing gyms out-ofpocket for membership fees. There are simple ways Yale can start righting this now. Keep the OEC open on weekends throughout the year, past Labor Day. Have the shuttle offer riders stops at nearby parks and trails — like Lighthouse Point, West Rock and Hammonasset Beach — instead of just the corner of Orange and Tanner. Centralize outdoors group funding under one office, instead of making each club bankroll all activities from the already-limited Yale College Council funding. Yale students have much desire to be outdoors, and for years, we’ve proved we don’t need viral landscapes. And, like Thoreau proved, local New Haven can su!ce. Now, only time will tell how many resources and how much support we’ll get from our University. JUSTIN LEAHY is a sophomore studying Environmental Studies. He is the co-president of Yale Outdoors and the sustainability policy director for the Yale College Council. He can be reached at justin.leahy@yale.edu.
GUEST COLUMNIST SEAN BRADY
Keep Yale’s mental health protections Shortly before her death by suicide in March 2021, Yale firstyear Rachael Shaw-Rosenbaum wrote about her fear that seeking mental health care could result in being forced to withdraw from the University. In the wake of her death, students, alumni and family members formed Elis for Rachael, demanding that Yale treat students with psychiatric disabilities with dignity rather than punishment. That advocacy helped produce a landmark settlement in August 2023. Yale agreed to reform its medicalleave and accommodations policies by replacing medical withdrawal with a less punitive medical leave of absence, simplifying the requirements for returning, allowing part-time study as a disability accommodation and creating a centralized process for appealing accommodation decisions. For three years, those commitments were backed by the continuing jurisdiction of a federal court. As of this August, that enforcement period has ended. The end of this oversight does not necessarily mean Yale will abandon these reforms. What it does mean is that the future for students with psychiatric disabilities is now dependent on Yale’s voluntary commitment — and the commitment of the community to hold Yale accountable. Yale needs to publicly guarantee that these protections will stay in place and that they are working to establish meaningful oversight for the years ahead. Most current Yale College students have never lived without these protections. Students have grown accustomed to having their mental health respected, at least to a certain degree, and that is a good thing! But we are living in an era of institutional retrenchment. As
Yale moves away from a period of abundance, it has an incentive to slowly chip away at these protections without most students noticing. The Yale administration is increasingly worried that their efforts to support marginalized students will come under federal attack. In uncertain times, it’s too easy to treat relatively new gains as unearned entitlements. We must resist that trap and recognize these protections for what they are: necessary steps toward equitable treatment for students with psychiatric disabilities. In 2021, more than 60 percent of college students were reported to have some sort of mental health concern. The notion that vulnerability is weakness is a prejudice older than the mental health system itself. Speaking from personal experience, these conditions are some of the greatest challenges in my life, but the journeys they require have deepened my empathy for others who are suffering. Many thrive at Yale because of the perspectives those conditions have helped them develop, not merely in spite of them. Students with psychiatric disabilities often transform their lived experiences into a commitment to serving others, including through helping professions, peer support and advocacy. Yale has a vested interest in helping these students develop, and a responsibility to protect them from practices known to intensify mental distress. I have seen the successes first hand. I have been in the Eli Whitney Students Program for non-traditional students for 4 years now. Students who return from a medical leave aren’t eligible for this program, but many tend to hang out with us and fit in very easily. They aren’t failed students bearing scarlet letters; they are extraordinary Yalies who
just happen to be a little bit older than their peers. But so are we. The reason they gel so well is that they have come back to Yale with their hardships, but with wisdom to match. That is why, as Co-President, I will always make sure they are included with us. This system is of course far from perfect. As a Disability Peer Mentor, I have seen too many accommodations rejected and too many professors deny support they are not legally required to provide. Moreover, this agreement fails to protect graduate and professional students. But we have to secure our progress before we seek to expand our gains. We cannot allow Yale to begin to slowly chip away at these protections until nothing remains but the conditions for another tragedy. Rachael’s death was avoidable. These reforms, the result of years of testimony from students who had been harmed by Yale’s policies, were established to prevent more needless suffering. Everyone deserves to have their mental health respected. This doesn’t change when one matriculates to Yale. These protections are a guarantee for us and for future classes of Elis. I call on President McInnis to affirm in writing that these reforms will remain intact and to commit to expanding them to all students at Yale University. That is what is just, what is humane and what will save lives. If you or someone you know is in crisis or experiencing thoughts of suicide, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988. Help is available 24/7. SEAN BRADY is an Eli Whitney student and senior in Trumbull College studying political science. He can be reached at sean.brady@yale.edu.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2026 · yaledailynews.com · @yaledailynews
FROM THE FRONT
“What a jolly boring thing to do.” ANDY WARHOL DAVID BOWIE
Defending Ivy League champions defeat Holy Cross FOOTBALL FROM PAGE 1 Not yet done with the scoring, both Yale and Holy Cross scored another pair of touchdowns as the third period wound down and bled into the early seconds of the final quarter, making the score 21-21. Yale got the ball back with under 15 minutes left on the clock, but then the first major blunder of the game occurred. After going threeand-out for the first time in the half, a botched fake punt gave the Crusaders the ball at the Yale 34 — a prime position to take their first lead of the game. Surely enough, Holy Cross was able to cash in on the choice position thanks to a 28-yard touchdown reception by Lincoln Fisher — his second of the game — to go up 28–21. But Reno, the spine of the Yale offense, was able to lead the Bulldogs down the field. He capped off the drive with an absolute backshoulder gem to Santiago for his fourth passing touchdown and Santiago’s second receiving touchdown of the day. The Crusaders retook possession of the ball with nine and a half minutes left on the clock, looking to regain the lead. Then, for the first time since the second quarter, both defenses were finally able to each force a punt. Four minutes later, Yale’s defense stopped the Holy Cross offense yet again, which gave the Bulldogs the ball back with less than five minutes remaining in the game and a chance to take the lead.
As he had done all game, Reno quickly marched Yale’s offense down the field and, in just three plays, found Graham Smith ’27 for a 28-yard touchdown, putting the Elis up 35-28. With three minutes and 38 seconds left, Holy Cross’s crusade to tie the game didn’t last long, as quarterback David Lynch’s pass was picked off by Osize Daniyan ’27 on the first play of the drive. Yale capitalized on their defense’s first turnover of the game by kicking a game-sealing field goal with little over a minute and a half left in the contest, effectively sealing the deal and giving Team 153 their first of many victories to come this season. Notable efforts from Saturday’s game included Reno, Santiago and Anderson. With 454 yards and five passing touchdowns, Reno finished the game just 11 yards shy of breaking program history for passing yards in a single game. Following his performance, he received the New England Football Writers Gold Helmet Award. Wide receiver Santiago also nearly rewrote history, finishing with 234 yards and two touchdowns to come just short of Ralph Plumb’s ’05 258 single-game receiving yard record. Sophomore Anderson also posted a standout 155-yard and two-touchdown game. Yale will travel to Ithaca next weekend to take on Cornell (0–1, 0–0 Ivy) in their conference opener. Contact BRODY GILKINSON at brody.gilkinson@yale.edu.
Liza Kaufman / Photography Editor
The defending Ivy League champions kicked their season off with a victory at Holy Cross on Saturday afternoon, beating the Crusaders 38–28. The game marked Kevin Cahill’s debut as the Bulldogs’ head coach.
Lobbying focus is on Campaign funded research, aid research, Pell grants ENDOWMENT FROM PAGE 1 expenses. Other budget-cutting measures included a reduced number of graduate students, a retirement program incentive and cuts to instructional faculty. McInnis said her current top lobbying priorities are protecting research funding and increasing Pell Grants, through which the federal government subsidizes financial aid for low-income students. Higher education groups have advocated for a campaign to double Pell Grants in recent years. “A Pell Grant used to easily cover at a public university all of tuition and often part of cost of attendance,” McInnis said. “It, at very few universities, would even cover tuition today.” McInnis noted that doubling Pell Grants would be “less directly applicable” for Yale because the University can support all of its Pell-eligible students without a doubling. “A really important thing for America is that we give talented students who are ready for college an opportunity to attend at whatever is the right level for them,” McInnis said. “So ‘Double Pell’ has been the mantra for a while from higher education.” Scientific funding is an “evergreen” issue that the University is always working for, McInnis said, and one current focus is “opposition to elements of the uniform guidance that could
Tim Tai
either preemptively terminate work that is underway, or could unduly insert politics into what has always been a merit-based granting program.” In May, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget proposed a rule — which the office said is set to go into effect on Oct. 1 — that would allow political appointees to reject grants that do not align with the administration’s priorities. Yale submitted a public comment in July opposing the OMB rule. The University’s statement argued that cooperation between the federal government and universities had produced research that accounts for America’s lead in innovation across the world. McInnis said she was concerned about the state of that partnership with the federal government. “I am broadly worried about the climate for research funding for all higher education institutions,” McInnis said. According to public lobbying disclosures, Yale lobbies Congress on issues from research funding, foreign funding of higher education and indirect costs of research. Yale’s next lobbying disclosure is due on Oct. 20. Contact LEO NYBERG at leo.nyberg@yale.edu and ARIA LYNN-SKOV at aria.lynn-skov@yale.edu.
Leo Nyberg / Contributing Photographer HUMANITY FROM PAGE 1 in 2021, highlighted the global impact of Yale’s research. “If we emphasized what we do in the service of humanity, and put the focus on Yale’s impact on the world, I thought it would resonate,” Salovey, who was president during the campaign’s launch, told the News while entering the Schwarzman Center on Saturday evening. In total, the campaign raised $7.46 billion, surpassing the $7 billion goal set when it was publicly launched in 2021. In the years before that launch, during a period labeled the campaign’s “quiet phase,” the University solicited top donors and raised $3.5 billion. Salovey said the goal was lofty but that he always believed Yale would meet the figure. “I was confident,” Salovey said. “Various people who are much more experienced in thinking about campaigns thought the number was too high. And I said, ‘No, we have to go for at least seven. We need to double the last campaign.’” The University’s previous fundraising campaign, Yale Tomorrow, raised $3.881 billion and concluded in 2011. The weekend schedule included a Friday reception at Sterling Memorial Library with dinner in the nave, a luncheon with CNN anchor Anderson Cooper ’89 — interviewed by journalist Tanya Rivero ’95 — and an evening gala at the Schwarzman Center. The events were private and closed to the press.
As she entered the Schwarzman Center on Saturday, McInnis said she was pleased to be celebrating the “wonderful” people who have contributed to Yale. “I think it’s been hugely successful, and with the proceeds we’ve done so many great things,” Levin, who preceded Salovey as Yale president, said, adding that “it’s always great to bring together the whole donor community.” Strobel echoed these remarks, describing “For Humanity” as a “very successful campaign.” Dozens of buses shepherded donors from one event to the next throughout the weekend. On Saturday afternoon, the University showcased what the funds are supporting, offering donors more than a dozen options for guided tours, including of the newly-renovated Peabody Museum, the Tobin Center for Economic Policy, the Wu Tsai Institute and the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning. “In many ways, I would say this has been Yale at its best,” Salovey said. “I was at the expo this morning, where you could really see the way in which Yale research, scholarship and teaching has an impact on the world.” Salovey said the proceeds of “For Humanity” would help students, especially in the professional schools, receive more financial aid and take on less student debt. He also said the proceeds will allow Yale to endow professorships, bolster interdisciplinary programs and support construction projects.
The campaign raised $2.11 billion for collaborative research and innovation initiatives, $1.99 billion for student support, $1.77 billion for scientific research and $1.29 billion for the arts and humanities, according to a Yale press release. The press release added that “For Humanity” has enabled hundreds of scholarships — including $374 million for undergraduate students — and allowed Yale to increase financial aid across the University. The creation of the Jackson School of Global Affairs and renovation of both the Humanities Quadrangle and the Peabody Museum were also supported by the For Humanity campaign. “We didn’t plan on COVID happening in the middle of everything, but you know, a couple of those COVID years were our best years,” Salovey said. Since For Humanity’s public launch event — which was done over Zoom — the campaign has hosted events around the country and internationally. Salovey and McInnis both spoke at “For Humanity Illuminated” events — Salovey in 2023 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and McInnis in 2025 at the Lincoln Center in New York City. Members of Yale Dancers and the Yale Undergraduate Jazz Collective performed at the Saturday gala. Contact LEO NYBERG at leo.nyberg@yale.edu and ARIA LYNN-SKOV at aria.lynn-skov@yale.edu.
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2026 · yaledailynews.com · @yaledailynews
FROM THE FRONT
PAGE 5
“I slept in last night's clothes and tomorrow's dreams.” UMA THURMAN FALL OUT BOYS
African American, Hispanic percentages fell slightly 2030 FROM PAGE 1
Yale College class of 2030 racial makeup Adriana Petrizzo / Data Editor
Surbhi Bharadwaj
According to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions’ first-year class profile, 12 percent of the class of 2030 is Hispanic or Latino and 10 percent is African American. Ten percent of students are international, and 42 percent and 33 percent are white and Asian American, respectively — marking a slight increase in the proportion of Asian American students and decrease in the proportion of white students compared to last year. One percent of the current class of first years is Native American — a decline from the 3 percent of matriculated students for each of the last five years. The numbers do not sum to 100 percent because 16 percent of domestic students selected two or more races. This May, the Justice Department accused the Yale School of Medicine of racial discrimination, arguing that the racial composition of admitted classes remained largely unchanged after the end of affirmative action. While the department has not released a letter of findings against Yale College, the college is under investigation and Yale is sharing admissions data with the government, according to Yale President Maurie McInnis. “As part of their investigations, they have requested data, as they have a legal right to do,” McInnis said in a September interview, referring to the inquiry into all three schools. “We have submitted the data that has been requested that they are legally allowed to request.” Yale is currently negotiating with the Justice Department over
the medical school findings, but the department has not released findings into Yale College, and undergraduate admissions are not part of the negotiations, according to McInnis. The class of 2030 is the first one admitted after the Trump administration this year began wielding the 2023 ruling to level accusations of discrimination against elite colleges, including Yale — an interpretation which some experts have said exceeds the scope of the Supreme Court decision. Kevin Brown LAW ’82, a law professor at South Carolina University, said in an interview before the most recent class breakdown by race was released that he expects to see a downturn in the number of Black and Hispanic students admitted across elite colleges in the class of 2030. He said the Biden administration did not enforce the decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard as strictly as the Trump administration has. The 2023 Supreme Court ruling left the door open for students to write about race in admissions essays and describe how their identity has impacted their experiences. The class of 2030 was admitted in the final admissions cycle in which standardized testing will be optional. When applying to Yale, 92 percent of the class of 2030 submitted an SAT score, an ACT score or both. Aria Lynn-Skov contributed reporting. Contact LEO NYBERG at leo.nyberg@yale.edu and DAVID LIU at david.liu@yale.edu.
City planning ‘great revival’ for Lighthouse Point Park LIGHTHOUSE FROM PAGE 1 “It was pretty devastating in terms of the damage that you saw,” Webster said. “The hurricane in 1938 was the last time we saw this level of impact to this park space.” During the park’s closure, 27 scheduled events were cancelled or relocated, including 11 weddings. The human impact is one reason why Webster’s goal was “to get the park back open, as soon as possible.” “You come out here, you feel like you’re a little bit removed from the city,” said Webster. “It’s our responsibility to protect that opportunity for people.” Climate change to blame The storm that shut down Lighthouse Point Park was one of at least five major rain storms in New Haven this summer, according to Webster. He attributed the increase in extreme weather — more frequent and intense rain compared to past years — to climate change, given that it is occurring at “such a regular and consistent basis.” “When you have warmer conditions and a hotter atmosphere, it just stores more water,” Webster said. “All that evaporation is just collecting, collecting, collecting, until it gets so heavy that it falls out of the sky in these massive torrents and rain events.” According to Yale Climate Connections, trees help water percolate into the soil, and roots hold soil in place, reducing erosion. With fewer trees due to the storms, Lighthouse Point Park is vulnerable to worsening flood erosion and damage. Reduced canopy also means less shade and more abrasive sunlight for park goers. Trees also have a sentimental value to many New Haveners who frequented Lighthouse Point Park, Webster said. Although some fallen trees are being turned into wood chips, the Parks Department is considering how to bring new life to the trees as park benches or wood products. “A lot of those trees are really important and meaningful to people,” Webster said. “They’ve come out here and they’ve measured their lives by those trees, special events that have been in the shadows of those trees.”
Building back better For the past several months, even before the storm, the Parks Department has collaborated with the Yale Urban Design Workshop in an ongoing effort to redesign the park. The park is continuing longterm restoration and site development with the workshop, with plans to reroute walkways and restore the historic carousel building. Harwell, the executive director of the workshop, said rebuilding the carousel building would require reaching an agreement between the insurance company, the state historic preservation office and the city’s floodplain regulations. “There’s now some tension between the desire to build it back,” said Harwell. “The problem is, one shouldn’t really build it back in the floodplain because that means that it’ll probably get damaged again.” Webster estimated that on any given day since the storm, about 15 people worked to return the park to safe conditions, involving both park staff and contractors assisting with tree removal. The Parks Department is still securing funds for those repairs, expected to cost millions of dollars, officials told News 8. The over-100 year-old park has invaluable historical, ecological and community significance. The park receives 3,000 to 5,000 weekly summer visitors, including New Haven residents and Yale students, Webster estimated. Julien Amsellem ’27, the co-president of the Yale Birding Student Association, has visited the park monthly since his first year. “For decades now, the Lighthouse Point Hawkwatch has served as a pillar of Connecticut birding,” Amsellem wrote in an email to the News. “Having the park closed has been a real shame, since the hawkwatch has not been able to start at its usual date in late-August.” As Amsellem and other visitors return to enjoying the park, city officials and the Yale Urban Design Workshop are still striving to improve the visitor experience. “It’s going to be a great revival,” Harwell said. Lighthouse Point Park is open year-round from 7 a.m. to sunset. Contact ANNA KOONTZ at anna.koontz@yale.edu.
Anna Koontz / Contributing Photographer
After sustaining extensive damage in an August storm, the park was reopened to the public last Friday.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
NEWS
“You perceive with your mind, that’s the inner” CLINT EASTWOOD GORILLAZ
Students volunteer for New Haven nonprofits on day of service BY ASHLEY TORRES JIMENEZ CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Over 100 students gathered in Dwight Hall on Saturday to spread out and volunteer for nonprofits across New Haven. The day of service, hosted by Dwight Hall and the Yale College Council, gave students opportunities to volunteer for diverse activities ranging from food pantries to cleaning up the New Haven Green to refugee nonprofits. Volunteers could work multiple two-hour shifts within a variety of nonprofits. Alexandra Ruiz ’28, the New Haven engagement chair for the YCC, told the News in an interview that “obviously I don’t want this to be just a one-time thing, but hopefully it’s an introduction to sustain partnerships,” adding that she hoped the event would be “a stepping stone for people to continue to develop whatever that relationship is.” Jonathan Chen ’30, who volunteered at the event, wrote in a text message to the News that he wanted to participate because he felt he didn’t do enough volunteering in high school. Chen volunteered with Loaves and Fishes, a food pantry and clothing closet, and the New Haven PAUSE project, a Yale-affiliated
charity that provides footwear and podiatric care for homeless people. “I also wanted to go out into the New Haven community and help people rather than just staying in the Yale bubble,” Chen said. One of the volunteer opportunities available was helping clean up the New Haven Green. Ward 1 Alder Elias Theodore ’27, who participated in the cleanup, wrote in an email to the News that “picking up trash on the Green reminds you just how vast the space is and how much plastic we as a society go through — the small pieces are especially common and easy to miss.” “Yale should be a university community where people are active members of this community, of this city, and see themselves as real participants and contributors,” Theodore said. Saturday was deliberately chosen to coincide with National Park Cleanup Day, which was also on Sept. 19, Ruiz said. The next day of service will be held on May 8, according to the Yale Alumni Association website. Contact
ASHLEY TORRES JIMENEZ at ashley.torresjimenez@yale.edu.
JACK ENNIS / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
More than 100 students participated in the Saturday volunteering event hosted by Dwight Hall and the Yale College Council. Participants could choose to do work ranging from aiding food pantries to cleaning up the New Haven Green.
A thousand plants take root at West Rock school in community dig BY KELLYN KOLBER CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Yale students, local educators, e n v i ro n m e n ta l a dvo c a te s, families and other volunteers worked together to place 1,000 plants around the Elm City Montessori School in West Rock on Saturday. The planting event was organized in partnership with Save the Sound, a regional environmental nonprofit focused on protecting local waterways and wildlife. It represented the culmination of months of planning and reflected the ongoing relationship between the two organizations that began over a year ago. “It has been shown that regular exposure to nature in the outdoors
is good for kids and their forevergrowing brains,” Lys Gant, a project coordinator with Save the Sound, said. “Having exposure to native plants engages kids more in having those conversations about why native plants are important, why invasive species remediation is important.” The partnership between the nonprofit and the school gained momentum last year after a donor supported the planting project and demand among school leaders for green infrastructure increased. According to Gant, Elm City Montessori was initially looking to improve their parking lot spaces by making them more sustainable. “There was an interest expressed in doing something with parking lot islands as a way of making them more environmentally friendly, as
opposed to just being grass covered areas,” Gant said, adding that grass alone cannot always absorb excessive stormwater. Last fall, Save the Sound assisted in planting 800 native species in these parking lot islands to support the space’s resilience. This year, the nonprofit and Elm City Montessori expanded on that project by introducing more native plants into the school’s playground spaces, not only to benefit the environment but to provide a learning opportunity for students. “We want this space to be filled with native plants that provide habitat and food for animals, and we want our kids to be a part of stewardship work and care for the environment in a variety of important ways,”
KELLYN KOLBER / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
A Saturday volunteer event saw Yale students, nonprofit leaders and elementary schoolers take up trowels to place 1,000 native plants at the Elm City Montessori school. Organizers hope the greenery will nurture growing young brains.
David Weinreb, one of the event’s organizers and the leader of Elm City Montessori school operations, said. Some parents said the educational aspect of the planting event motivated them to attend with their children. “I was just talking to my kids in the car about how we are helping make the world better, and I think it’s important to model that for them,” Laura Salazar, a mother of three and a teacher at the school, said. “By planting trees, we’re giving back to the Earth, and that is really a core value for Montessori.” A crew of Yale students worked diligently alongside other volunteers. Tenzin Youdon ’28, who interns at Elm City Montessori and is a New Haven native, emphasized the importance of interacting with the city as a Yale student. “A lot of what public school interns do is building bridges between Yale and the New Haven Community, and that’s what I hope to do,” she said. “In the role that I’m in, I want to be able to funnel resources from Yale into New Haven public schools and the greater community.” Brendan Kaminski ’28 and Wynter Radey-Morgan ’29, members of the Yale College Council, said that events like Saturday’s planting help narrow the distance between Yale and its home city, often referred to as the town-gown divide. “I think a lot of times people talk about the Yale bubble, but they don’t realize you can easily do something about it,” RadeyMorgan said, referring to the perception that students are separated from the city around them. “Making the choice to come out and do this is a way for you to pop that Yale bubble and make an impact on the place
we’re calling home for the next few years.” “When you enter as a Yale student, you’re not just a citizen of Yale; you’re a citizen of New Haven,” Kaminski added. Along with various volunteer groups, the event brought together members of Emerge, a personal development program that supports formerly incarcerated people as they integrate back into their communities. Reinaldo Cruz, Co-Executive Director of Emerge, said that Save the Sound helps participants in his program become more informed about environmental issues. “It’s been a beautiful situation because our people can learn about invasive species, how we impact the sewer system and green skills in relation to creating gardens and taking care of them,” Cruz said in a phone interview. By the time the event wrapped up, volunteers had spent hours transforming the school’s outdoor spaces. But organizers said the plants themselves represented only part of the project’s purpose. Elm City Montessori Principal Julia Webb said the event reflected a central tenet of the school’s educational philosophy. “The principles of Montessori are that as human beings and as educators we are responsible for having children understand their place in the universe and the world,” Webb said. “A huge part of that is about living in peace and understanding with the environment around us.” Connecticut has around 1,700 native plant species, according to the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Contact
KELLYN KOLBER at kellyn.kolber@yale.edu.
Largest ever Jewish gathering on Old Campus held for Shabbat BY SASHA CABRAL STAFF REPORTER Chabad at Yale, a Jewish cultural organization on campus, hosted about 700 attendees for Shabbat under a big tent on Old Campus on Friday. In its second run, the event, dubbed “Lux et Shabbat,” is an annual celebration of Jewish life for students at Yale and New Haven residents. The Thursday event was the biggest gathering of Jews on Old Campus in Yale’s documented history, according to organizers. “The first Jewish students enrolled at Yale a little bit later in the 18th century, and while not without ups and downs and challenges, the Jewish community at Yale has continued to grow and thrive since that
time,” Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis said in a speech. Lewis also spoke about the Hebrew origins of Yale’s motto: Lux et Veritas. The motto is a rough translation of the Hebrew phrase, “Urim v’Thummim,” which means “lights and perfections.” Event organizers provided attendees with small cloth bags to place their phones in, hoping to foster in-person connectivity and celebration. “The idea was that if you disconnect from technology for a while, you might find that the real connection with those around you is strengthened, and that’s what Shabbat is all about,” event chair and general board member Joshua Danziger ’28 said in an interview. Danziger said his goal for the event was to “inspire weekly attendance” at Chabad at Yale’s
weekly Shabbat dinners on Friday nights and other programming throughout the year. “I hope this was really a catalyst for greater participation in Shabbat dinners and other community events throughout the year,” Danzinger said before recalling the sense of community fostered during a performance by the Maccabeats, a Jewish acapella group, during the event. “I come back to this scene of everybody standing there dancing and singing, those same songs they sang as children, and the laughter and the joy, and that’s what it’s all about on Shabbat.” Old Campus is located at 344 College St. CRYSTAL HUANG / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Contact SASHA CABRAL at sasha.cabral@yale.edu.
The second iteration of the annual “Lux et Shabbat,” hosted by Chabad, boasted around 700 attendees, according to organizers. The event focused on fostering community and featured speakers including Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis.
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
SCI-TECH
PAGE 7
“Universe must have my back, fell from the sky into my lap” PETE DAVIDSON ARIANA GRANDE
Music therapy program for geriatric delirium patients flourishing BY STELLA DURAN GONZALEZ CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Walking through the Acute Care of Elders floor of the Yale New Haven Hospital, one might encounter patients tango-ing to old tunes or retired vocalists rehashing familiar repertoires. These elderly patients have had a delirium episode at least once in their life — but these musical moments are not one of them. Based in the YNHH Saint Raphael Campus, the Personalized Playlist Project is an initiative that creates custom Spotify playlists for geriatric patients exhibiting symptoms of delirium. Inspired by the Music and Memory program, Dr. Jody Sharninghausen and Dr. Judy Li founded the program in 2022, seeking to use music to ground patients in reality. For the second September in a row, the project has expanded its initiative through the nurse-led Melodies for the Mind Month. “You know, music is a thread t h a t co n n e c ts eve ryb o dy, regardless if my student or any of the volunteers are 20 and our patients are 90,” Kathleen Faherty, who co-coordinates the project, told the News in a Zoom interview. “It’s the thread that connects all of us.” Faherty, a nurse clinical educator at YNHH, is co-leading the project after its transition from a student volunteer initiative to a nurse-led program. The program has been featured in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, the School of Public Health’s Music, Memory, and Aging Symposium and the 2026 Annual American Geriatrics Society meeting. Faherty and Sharninghausen said they often see elderly patients trapped in delirious episodes on their hospital floor. Symptoms of delirium typically manifest as acute states of confusion, fluctuating mental status or abnormal levels of arousal, according to Sharninghausen. “So you could be very agitated, angry, like throwing things, or you could be just kind
XIMENA SOLARZANO / PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
The Personalized Playlist Project, a Yale New Haven Hospital initiative, brings music to elderly patients experiencing delirium episodes. Since transforming from a student volunteer initiative into a nurse-led program, founders say the program is flourishing. of out of it, like staring at a wall, not wanting to eat, not really interacting,” Sharninghausen said in a Zoom interview. Before the transition to the nurseled Melodies for the Mind Month, Sharninghausen and Li said, they relied on student volunteers to create playlists for patients filled with popular music from the patient’s adolescence and culture. One former student volunteer, Sophia Ruser, a recent Cornell graduate and current post-graduate associate at Yale, recounted how much patients would thank her for the work she did volunteering during her summers back in New Haven. “I vividly remember she was calling me her angel, and she was like, ‘You know, God sent you to
me at the perfect time,’” Ruser said in a Zoom interview, referring to a patient she worked with. As of 2025, the initiative has been adopted by the nursing faculty, with Faherty serving as the nurse clinical educator leading the transition. After learning about the program through a chance encounter in the floor’s hallways, Faherty reached out to Sharninghausen and Li to ask how she could support their work. Faherty thus dedicated the following September as Melodies for the Mind Month. As nurses began seeing the therapeutic effects of playing these playlists for patients, nurses continued their efforts even after the month ended. Improving quality of care for delirium patients has lagged
due to underdiagnosis and ambiguous presentation of delirium itself. A 2023 review published in the Delirium Journal found considerable under-documentation of delirium in healthcare systems internationally. One study reported a missed delirium rate of up to 84 percent. Delirium is occasionally misdiagnosed as depression, says Sharninghausen. Patients wh o ex p e r i e n ce d e l i r i o u s episodes are at a greater risk of developing dementia, so improper documentation of these episodes can lead to the recording of incomplete past medical histories. Instead of physical restraints or
a n t i p syc h o t i c m e d i c a t i o n , personalized playlists can be used to calm patients, especially since restraining patients can delay their discharge. Now, as they celebrate Melodies for the Mind Month’s one year anniversary, Faherty and Sharninghausen are seeking to raise awareness for delirium in geriatric patients and expand the project to other floors of the hospital and nearby nursing homes. The YNHH Saint Raphael Campus is located at 1450 Chapel St. Contact STELLA DURAN GONZALEZ at stella.durangonzalez@yale.edu.
Cushing Center curator aims to make history of medicine accessible BY KOREN MAHMOODI AND COLTON LIPSEY CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS The Cushing Center at Yale, a museum located in the University’s medical library, welcomed Deborah Streahle GRD ’24 this summer as its inaugural curator. The center, which is dedicated to the life and work of prominent neurosurgeon and former Yale professor Harvey Cushing, opened in 2010. It is located on the lower level of the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library and houses hundreds of early-20th century brain and tumor specimens in Cushing’s registry. Although similar roles have existed in the past, Streahle is considered the center’s first formal curator. In her role, Streahle is responsible for providing guided
tours, developing exhibitions and stewarding the 10,000 photographs, historical notes and roughly 750 wet brain and tumor specimens of the collection. “We are delighted that Dr. Streahle is joining us and bringing her deep training in the history of medicine, along with experience in teaching, public humanities, and curation,” Melisa Grafe, the Head of the H istorical Medical Library, wrote in an email to the News. Streahle is a historian and curator whose research focuses on end of life care and health activism, particularly in the twentieth century. She earned a B.A. degree in philosophy from Lehigh University and a Ph.D. from Yale in the History of Science and Medicine. In recent years, Streahle has
taught courses in the History of Science, Medicine, and Public Health department at Yale, including “The Good Death: a History,” and “Healing Spaces in U.S. History.” In addition, she is a member of the Life Worth Living initiative, part of the Yale Center for Culture and Faith and a lecturer for the Yale Young Global Scholars Program. Her dissertation, “Care Underground: Activists and the Transformation of American Dying in the 1960s,” discusses how the 1960s was a turning point for end-of-life and post mortem care in the U.S. She analyzed grassroots efforts to provide more community based, personalized care and compared death care during the Vietnam War with mainstream death care in the late 1960s. As a doctoral candidate,
she curated five exhibits using materials from library collections — including a pop-up exhibit at the Yale medical library — on the lived experience of people with disabilities across cultures. Streahle wrote in an email that through the Cushing Center, she hopes “to invite people to connect with histories of health and think about how medicine is practiced and remembered.” She said that this role aligns with her goals as a public historian and sees “many exciting possibilities for exhibitions” on a wide range of topics, from medical photography to nursing. Streahle added that she intends to create exhibits that act like a “living space for reflection, learning, and commemoration.” She hopes for the space to be accessible to both medical and lay
JIYOO NAM / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Deborah Streahle GRD ’24, a historian who has studied end-of-life care over time, said she hopes to transform the center — which contains centuries-old brain specimens — into a living space for learning and commemoration.
visitors and help them connect ideas in medicine with those in art, history, ethics and humanities. Holly Grossetta Nardini, the Interim Director of the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library, where the Cushing Center is housed, said that she is excited to see Streahle’s leadership and the ways in which she will “capture the astonishing history of neurosurgery, patient care, and medical innovation.” Terry Dagradi had been working on collections before the Cushing Center’s founding, as a photographer, since 1996. Dagradi, who recently retired from a role in which she coordinated and curated the Cushing Center, said she is excited to see how Streahle’s previous work which shaped her “sensitivity to dealing with death and honoring people” helps her steward the center. Dagradi said she believes that one of the primary goals of the Cushing Center moving forward is to understand “why things were done the way they were done” throughout the history of medicine. She added that she hopes that the Cushing Center’s exhibits tackle hard topics, including those around patients’ rights, and that the Center will continue to create wonder and help people “leave with more questions than when they came in.” “I always imagined it would be so wonderful to be able to stand in front of one of the tumors, that says, you know, this is a glioblastoma, or this is a meningioma or this is an astroblastoma,” Dagradi said. “And, maybe with a QR code, you click on that and some neurosurgeon will then explain to you.” The Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library is located at 333 Cedar St. Contact KOREN MAHMOODI at koren.mahmoodi@yale.edu, COLTON LIPSEY at colton.lipsey@yale.edu.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
ARTS
“He said the way my blue eyes shined, put those Georgia stars to shame that night” TIM MCGRAW TAYLOR SWIFT
Windham-Campbell festival celebrates writing, invites readers in BY ANGELINA KOVALCHUK STAFF REPORTER Lovers of all things literary gathered on campus last week to celebrate eight writers in readings, lecturers and conversations. T h e a n n u a l W i n d h a mCampbell Festival, founded by Donald Windham in memory of his partner Sandy M. Campbell, honors w r iters i n p o e t r y, fiction, nonfiction and drama from all over the world and supports their work with an unrestricted grant of $175,000. This year’s festival took place from Sept. 15 to Sept. 18. “The mission of the prizes is to support writers and give them enough recognition and money and time to write,” Michael Kelleher, the festival’s director, said in a phone interview. “It’s also to create an event here in the New Haven community that’s open and free to everybody, that celebrates writing, great writers and great conversations.” According to Kelleher, 120 writers are nominated every year for the prizes. In a yearlong process, over 80 people on several selection committees n a r row t h at nu mb er dow n to t he ei g ht w r iters t h at ultimately receive the prize. T h is yea r’s pri zes were awarded to Gwendoline Riley and Adam Ehrlich Sachs in fiction, Lucy Sante and Kei Miller in nonfiction, Christina Anderson DRA ’11 and S. Shakthidharan in drama and Joyelle McSweeney and Karen Solie in poetry. T he pr i ze ceremony a nd annual lecture took place on Wednesday, Sept. 16, at the Yale Center for British Art. Barbara Rockenbach, the Un iversity librarian, introduced the prizes and spoke on their importance. “We believe that ideas deserve room to develop, and that people need spaces where they can encounter perspectives beyond their own,” Rockenbach said. “We preserve the words of those who came before us, and also make possible the scholarship and literature that’s yet to come.” The guest lecturer, awardwinning author Yiyun Li, was the Windham-Campbell fiction recipient in 2020. In a speech, titled “Why I Write,” Li reflected on her philosophy of writing and the influence of the past on a writer’s craft. “The present is only a point, which has no part. The future is a hypothesis. The past is not to be kept
ANGELINA KOVALCHUK / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Eight writers from across the globe were awarded for poetry, fiction, nonfiction and drama last week in the annual festival, which also featured various events on campus to connect the writers with the audience. alive, but to be kept close,” Li said in her closing remarks. “To write is an action of carrying the past as close as possible to the present.” The festival also featured an array of formal and informal events designed to connect audiences with the writers through their interests. “Each writer is really a unique individual with a unique worldview and a unique way of
thinking,” Kelleher said. “So we always try to create events that are based on who these individuals are and what gets them excited.” Events included morning readings and conversations between the writers and guest academics, as well as a staged reading of the drama awardees’ plays performed by students at the David Geffen School of Drama.
“We want it to be a convivial place where people meet and talk and speak and commune in person, and I think that’s a really important aspect of life that seems in our internet age to be rapidly disappearing,” Kelleher said. According to Kelleher, the festival also brings the writers to the Cooperative Arts and Humanities Public High School
in New Haven to host writing workshops for the students. “We’ve a lways been ver y mindful of reaching out to the community,” Kelleher said. The first Windham-Campbell Prizes were awarded in 2013. Contact ANGELINA KOVALCHUK at angelina.kovalchuk@yale.edu.
Despite disaffiliation, Baker’s Dozen draws big crowd to first concert BY SIMRAN RANDHAWA STAFF REPORTER Harvest Wine Bar and Restaurant was filled to the brim on Thursday night as crowds arrived for the Baker’s Dozen’s first public performance this fall — in spite of the all-male a capella group’s disaffiliation from Yale following controversy last year.
Due to their disaffiliation, the Baker’s Dozen is no longer one of the a cappella groups managed by Yale’s Singing Group Council and is not listed on the official Yale a cappella rush website. “We are an independent singing group,” the group said in a statement to the News. “We are excited at the prospect of new singers.”
University spokesperson Tina Posterli wrote in an email to the News that the a cappella group cannot be affiliated with Yale because it violated hazing policies. “This conduct undermines the integrity of student life, endangers individuals, and is inconsistent with the mission, vision, and values of Yale University.” Posterli wrote. “As a result, the Baker’s
Dozen will not be eligible to re-register as a Yale College student organization until all current members have graduated. The group is also required to pay for the property damage it caused.” Last fall, the letters “ATB,” a phrase associated with the s inging group, were found etched into the restored Morse lipstick statue and written in chalk on the surrounding area. T h u rs d ay ’s p e r fo r m a n c e marked a new chapter for the group as members performed a diverse repertoire for a crowd that included rushees. Songs ranged from the old Irish tune “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye” to Fountain Wayne’s “Stacy’s Mom” — a song the audience sang alongside to. Audience members cheered on members, colloquially known as the frogs, as they
conducted party tricks, told jokes and performed difficult passagios. On its website, the Baker’s Dozen describes itself as “far more than a typical singing group” and, “above all, a group of friends.” Like Yale-affiliated a cappella groups, the Baker’s Dozen typically tours during winter and spring break and will resume that tradition, according to its statement to the News. The group also maintains the “BD Haus” on 373 Crown St., which its website describes as both its social hub and a home for some of its members. T h e B a ke r ’s Doze n wa s founded in 1947. Contact SIMRAN RANDHAWA at simran.randhawa@yale.edu.
ILLUSTRATION BY NELLIE KENNEY
Dozens attended the a cappella group’s Thursday performance, its first of this fall. The group cannot be a registered student organization anymore because it violated Yale’s hazing policies, a University spokesperson told the News.
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
SPORTS
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“Cause everything you say, it dictates your destiny” NICOLE KIDMAN ADELA
Yale fends off Sacred Heart comeback to win last non-Ivy match BY GIAN LOMBEYDA CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The Yale women’s soccer team (5–4–0, 0–0 Ivy) continued its winning ways at home with a defiant 2-1 win against a resolute Sacred Heart University (6–2–0, 1–1 MAAC). Despite the Sacred Heart Pioneers’ best efforts, the whole Yale team buckled down on defense, overcoming injury, fatigue and the weather to stave off their opponents’ blistering attack. With the victory, Yale marked its fifth win of the year and its first backto-back wins of the season. “I’m really proud of our group for the way they approached the match with no excuses,” head coach Sarah Martinez wrote in an email to the News after the game. The P ioneers ended the match with only seven shots in a season where they haven’t had fewer than 10 on any night. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs had 18 shots in the match. Yale was somewhat quiet on attack in the first half, but they broke the deadlock in the 53rd minute with a powerful solo run from star attacker Anita Thorvaldsdottir ’27.
With a renewed surge of confidence, Yale found its second goal only six minutes later. Veteran defender Alex Chang ’27, who went down with an injury in the first half but bounced back to start the second half, hit an inchperfect free kick right to the feet of Phebe Ryan ’28. Ryan tapped the ball into the top corner before the goalkeeper could react. “Sure we’ve been dealt some tough hands with injuries lately,” Martinez wrote, “but our mindset has always stayed consistent; it takes all 26 every game no matter the circumstances.” The team has 26 players on its roster. Given that the last three matches between Yale and Sacred Heart have been full of comeback goals, the Bulldogs knew they had to solidify their defense for the remaining minutes of the game. As Sacred Heart put pressure on the Yale goal, veteran defenders Chang and Andie Miller ’27 took no chances and made sure every cross that came into the box was punted out. Forward Kyleigh Carr ’30 also contributed to Yale’s bold defensive performance as she played as a defender in place of Tana Sands ’29, who didn’t
play after starting the last eight matches and playing a full 90 minutes in the first seven. While the Pioneers found a consolation goal in the 77th minute through substitute Marina Parodo, the Bulldogs were able to avoid a late equalizer. “To get this win was awesome for our group, to get a little momentum heading into Ivy League play and to continue to build on what we’ve done well throughout this season,” Martinez wrote. W i t h m a tc h e s a ga i n s t powerhouses Princeton and Brown on the horizon, the Bulldogs will need to continue their run of good form if they want to assert themselves as Ivy League title contenders. “I’m excited to see what we’re able to accomplish in league play,” Martinez wrote, “but our focus stays on one game at a time as we look to get a result against Cornell this weekend.” Up next, Yale travels to Cornell (3–3–2, 0–0 Ivy) for the team’s first Ivy League conference match of the season this Saturday at 1 p.m. Contact GIAN LOMBEYDA at gian.lombeyda@yale.edu.
ALYSSA CHANG / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
The Bulldogs fended off a late comeback from the Sacred Heart Pioneers to earn a 2-1 victory amid drizzly conditions in New Haven. Starting with a Cornell game this Saturday, Yale now enters conference play with five wins and plenty of momentum.
Bulldogs prevail in thrilling shootout triumph over Brown BY VINCENT HUANG CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
The 80 minutes of regulation and overtime weren’t enough, and the five standard rounds of penalty
LIZA KAUFMAN / PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Yale emerged victorious in their opening Ivy League match against Brown. With the scores tied at 1-1 after overtime, the Bulldogs overcame the Bears 2-1 in the deciding seven-round sudden victory shootout.
shootout proved insufficient still: Under the lights of Johnson Field, the opening contest of the No. 17 Bulldogs’ (5–0, 1–0 Ivy) Ivy League campaign went all the way down to the wire, and it was only in the penalty shootout’s seventh round that Yale secured its hard-earned victory against Brown (2–3, 0–1 Ivy). The Brown Bears wasted no time from the whistle, securing and converting a penalty to go up 1-0 within the game’s opening 30 seconds. But Issy Baileff ’28 equalized 2:46 into the second quarter, assisted by the playmaking of Chiara Picciafuoco ’28 and Emma Ramsey ’27. That goal marked Baileff’s fourth straight game with a score and Picciafuoco’s fourth straight with an assist. From that point on, for three more quarters and both overtimes, the match became a defensive standoff. Both back lines slammed shut, with shots from both Yale and Brown finding nothing but goalpost woodwork and goalkeeper padding. When the scoreboard hit zeroes after the second period of overtime, the Bulldogs and Bears remained deadlocked at 1-1, sending the game to a penalty shootout. The rules of collegiate field
hockey dictate that in a shootout, an attacker starts with the ball at the 25-meter line and is given eight seconds to score on the goalkeeper. Five rounds of these one-on-one duels are guaranteed, with further attempts given in a sudden-victory format if the scores remain tied. For sophomore goalkeeper Amelie Schwarzkopf ’29, a key component of the last line of Yale’s elite defense, Friday night marked just her second career appearance in a shootout. “During shootouts I just try and focus on myself and not to pay attention to others around me,” said Schwarzkopf in a statement to the News. “Emotionally I would say I get excited once it’s definite that it goes into shoutouts. When they start I am pretty much in a tunnel until it ends.” Through the first five rounds, both Yale and Brown scored just one goal, advancing into sudden-death. Schwarzkopf, having delivered clutch save after clutch save, delivered her most important block in the second round of sudden death, extending her leg guard to deflect an oncoming Brown shot — opening the door for the game to come down, as it so often has this season, to the black-and-gold stick of Chiara Picciafuoco.
The junior forward executed a pirouetting spin to get around Brown’s keeper before firing a backhander high into the back of the net to finally win the Bulldogs victory. By the time Picciafuoco leapt into the waiting arms of her teammates, the Bulldogs had been on the field for over 90 minutes. The challenge of endurance, for both body and mind, was titanic. “Every Ivy game is mentally tough,” captain Hettie Whittington ’27 said, emphasizing that “staying on top of the nerves and being composed under pressure is hard work.” However, she said, “our team’s greatest attribute is our grittiness, and so if we have to play overtime, we get it done.” The Bulldogs have certainly been getting it done. After five games, they rank first in the Ivy League in both offense (3.80 goals scored per game) and defense (0.60 goals allowed per game). Yale will continue its season with a home game against Cornell on Saturday. That game will be their second Ivy League contest of the season and will bring their opening six-game homestand to a close. Contact VINCENT HUANG at v.huang@yale.edu.
Yale captures sweeping victory in first tournament of the season BY RICHARD FAN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The women’s tennis team (0–0–0) competed at their first exhibitional tournament last weekend, taking home a sweeping invitational victory. Yale, the defending Ivy League Champions, beat the Rutgers Scarlet Knights 3-1 in doubles and 7-1 in singles. They then defeated the Boston University Terriers 4-0 in doubles and 5-3 in singles before ending the Bulldog Invitational with a perfect record against the Brown Bears. Though these first three games of the season will not count toward the team’s record, the victories demonstrated its continued strength coming off of a remarkable 19–4 record last year. This year, the Bulldogs have three new first-year athletes: Angela Chen ’30, Aoife Kuo ’30 and Katharine Liu ’30. Captain Erin Ha ’27 said she believes the trio has gone above and beyond in fitting into the team energy and culture. “All of us have put in a lot of work over the past weeks. People have been getting back into the groove of academics and athletics, so we’ve all settled back in really well,” Ha wrote in a text message. “I think we’ve done a
good job building a super tight community, and it really reflects in the energy we give to each other in every single match.” Yale got off to a strong start against the Scarlet Knights on Friday. The duos of Orly Ogilvy ’27 and Leena Friedman ’29, Julia Werdiger ’28 and Katharine Liu ’30, and Shyla Aggarwal ’27 and Ha captured the day’s doubles points. The Bulldogs continued their strong performance in singles, winning seven out of their eight completed matches. Saturday’s doubles session was more of the same for Yale, with the squad trouncing the Terriers 4-0. On the singles side, despite facing a difficult opposition, the Bulldogs took home five wins in eight games. On the last day of the tournament, the Bulldogs cruised to victory against Brown, winning all four doubles matches and all eight singles matches. The weekend’s Bulldog Invitational marked Yale’s first matchups of the season. Although the tournament has no influence on end-of-season standings or NCAA qualifiers, Ha said it was a great opportunity for the team members to get back into the groove this season. “I think when you have such a fun and welcoming team it’s
YALE ATHLETICS
The defending Ivy League champions defeated the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, Boston University Terriers and Brown Bears at home during the Bulldog Invitational over the weekend. super easy to get along with everyone,” Chen wrote in a text. “Even though we are all equally tired, everyone always brings a positive energy to practice which has made tennis super fun everyday and has me really excited for what’s to come for the rest of the year.” The Bulldogs this year returned every player from last year’s champion squad, which shared the Ivy title with Princeton. “I’m really excited for this year because everyone on the
team has so much talent, and being able to play with them is something that I’m really looking forward to,” Ha wrote. “Coming off of the high of Ivy Champs shared with Princeton is a lot of pressure and excitement. I think it’s something that we should be very proud of.” Joining the Elis in their pursuit of a title rerun is new assistant coach Georgia Munns. She has coached at DePaul and South Carolina and played at the collegiate level for
Northwestern. “I think she [Munns] is very encouraging and has a lot of experience and wisdom that she is sharing with us. She’s a very stable presence on court — calm but always very fired up for our wins, which is the best combo in a coach,” Rachel Lee ’29 wrote in a text. Yale will compete in the Penn Invitational from Sept. 25 to Sept. 27. Contact RICHARD FAN at richard.fan@yale.edu.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2026 · yaledailynews.com
“It was our first chance to see our level compared to a great team like Harvard and I think our hard work the past few weeks was starting to show.” JASON SHULER, ’28
Bulldogs battle Minutemen to the wire but suffer defeat MEN'S SOCCER BY ELI RATNER STAFF REPORTER The Yale men’s soccer team (1–5–0, 0–0–0 Ivy League) fell to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (4–3– 1, 0–0–0 Summit) in a 1-2 loss on Saturday evening. After suffering two defeats in Nebraska, the Bulldogs looked to bounce back and return to the win column while hosting UMass under the lights of Reese Stadium. The matchup marked Yale’s first home game in three weeks. The match began as a stalemate for nearly the full first half, until the Minutemen drew first blood with a goal in the 44th minute to take a 1-0 lead. In the second half, the Bulldogs came out ready to bite, dominating across the statistics board. The Elis recorded more shots (10 versus four), as well as more corner kicks (five versus two) and fewer fouls (three versus seven) than the Minutemen. Salif Leintu ’28 nearly scored the equalizer in the 63rd minute but was offside, eliminating a potential opportunity for Yale to knot the game. In the 74th minute, UMass extended their lead to 2–0 as Shane Velez made it past Yale goalkeeper Josh Linebaugh ’29. But the Bulldogs refused to go down without a fight. Five minutes after the Minutemen scored its second goal, the Bulldogs recorded one of their own. After receiving the ball on a corner kick, Sebi Roy ’29, fired a shot on goal from outside the
box. The UMass goalkeeper saved the shot, but Andrew Myerson ’27 was able to capitalize on the rebound and net Yale’s first goal to trim the deficit to one. “ I ’m a lways h a p py to contribute offensively and get on the scoresheet, especially as a defender, but I was much more disappointed with the result than anything else,” Myerson wrote in an email, reflecting on his goal. “Sebi put a great shot on frame from the top of the box, and I was fortunate to be in the right place to react to the rebound.” While the Elis continued to fight until the final whistle, the game ended in a 2–1 loss. Following this game, Head Coach Kylie Stannard told Yale Athletics, “We were really good for the large majority of the game, including the amount of very quality goal-scoring chances we had. Ultimately, this sport can be played and analyzed in a lot of ways, but it is always decided by which team wins more moments in the boxes, and we need to keep working to learn and improve in those critical areas.” Myseron echoed Stannard’s sentiment, highlighting the team’s high number of goalscoring opportunities. The player highlighted areas in which the team is looking to improve as it prepares for the start of conference play later this week. “I thought there were a lot of positives in our performance, particularly in the number of chances we created and how well we defended our box for large stretches of the game. We put ourselves in good positions and, statistically, had one of our highest expected-goals (xG statistic) performances in recent years, which is something we
can be proud of and build on,” Myerson wrote. “The two goals we conceded came from set pieces, so continuing to be disciplined and sharp in those key moments is something we can improve on,” he continued. Though the game did not end as the Bulldogs hoped, the
team will now look to capitalize on home turf advantage when it plays the University of New Haven (1-6-0, 0-0-0 NEC) on Tuesday night. The Chargers will enter the New Haven showdown — Yale’s final non-conference game before they begin Ivy League play
this Saturday against Penn (3–1– 1, 0–0–0 Ivy) — on a three-game losing streak. Kickoff is slated for 6 p.m. on Tuesday at Reese Stadium. Contact ELI RATNER at eli.ratner@yale.edu.
LIZA KAUFMAN / PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Despite a late goal in the 79th minute of its Saturday game against the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Yale fell to the Minutemen in a hard-fought 1–2 loss.
Bulldogs kick off season with mixed results at Harvard invitational MEN'S TENNIS BY REMI CLARK-REDSTAR STAFF REPORTER The Yale men’s tennis team kicked off the season last weekend with mixed results at the Chowderfest Invitational in Cambridge, MA. With a lineup that included Harvard, Brown and Dartmouth, t h e to u r n a m e n t gave t h e Bulldogs a chance to scope out the competition.
“I feel the team performed well overall,” Jason Shuler ’28 wrote in a text message to the News. “It was our first chance to see our level compared to a great team like Harvard and I think our hard work the past few weeks was starting to show.” The Bulldogs hit the ground running on Friday, taking on the Harvard Crimson. Shuler and Dylan Tsoi ’27, as well as Jim Ji ’27 and Edward Liao ’28, teamed up in the doubles category and returned to the court for singles matchplay. The Shuler-Tsoi team trounced the Crimson, securing a 6-3 win, while Ji and Liao fell 0-6.
In singles, the score was also split down the middle, with Yale and Harvard each taking two matches. Shuler outlasted his opponent in a tiebreak in the first set to take it 7-6, before winning the second 6-3. Tsoi was defeated in straight sets 2-6, 3-6, and Ji put up a valiant defense but ultimately lost 2-6, 5-7. Liao, however, rallied to win the Bulldogs second singles match. He earned the most notable win of the day, beating Harvard’s no.44ranked singles player in straight sets of 7-5, 6-4. Coming into the second day, the competition intensified as the Bulldogs squared off against
Brown, Dartmouth, Southern Methodist University and the University of Illinois. Shuler and Tsoi rode the momentum of their Friday doubles victory into Saturday, when they decisively beat Brown 6-3. Ji and Liao took their opponents to the wire, narrowly falling 6-7 in the tiebreaker. In singles, the Bulldogs only walked away with one victory. Shuler, Tsoi and Ji were defeated (2-6, 1-6), (3-6, 3-6), (6-3, 3-6, 2-6) by Brown, SMU and Dartmouth, respectively. But Liao pulled out the win, going 6-3, 6-2 against Illinois.
ALYSSA CHANG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
In the first matches of the season, the men’s tennis team shipped up to Cambridge, MA, to face off in the Chowderfest Invitational, hosted by Harvard.
“It’s our first event of the year, and for us, it’s still really trying to get a feel for the competitive surroundings and competitive environment, actually playing college matches, especially coming back from summer break,” Ji said in an audio message to the News. “I think it’s not going to be perfect in terms of execution, but we’re really looking forward for a high level of energy, commitment, and really making sure that everyone’s fighting and then sticking to the game plans and their long term development,” Ji added. On the last day of the tournament, Yale returned to the court hungry for victory against Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard and Virginia Tech. Yale swept both doubles matches, with Ji-Liao defeating Harvard 6-3 and Shuler-Tsoi besting Virginia Tech 6-3 as well. Despite winning the doubles points, the Elis faced tough competition in the singles. Liao went down swinging, losing to Harvard 6-7, 6-2, 4-10. Shuler, Tsoi, and Liao similarly fell (2-6, 6-7), (6-6, 0-6), (1-6, 5-7) to Harvard, Brown and Dartmouth, respectively. Although the weekend was marked by mixed results, it is just a glimpse of what is to come this season. “I am really happy with how the team is playing and really staying committed to the process,” Ji said. “We’re kind of keeping a developmental mindset and really making sure we can improve as much as we can given the time that we have and also really learning from this tournament.” The men’s tennis team is set to return to the court this Friday at the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center for the Yale Invitational. Contact REMI CLARK-REDSTAR at remi.clark-redstar@yale.edu.