Yale Daily News — September 25, 2026

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

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026 · VOL. CXLIX, NO. 7 · yaledailynews.com · @yaledailynews

Graduate $3 million was saved Medical students student in cuts, Lewis says reject Trump claims reduction takes toll BY ANAYAH ACCILIEN STAFF REPORTER

BY SARA AGRAWAL STAFF REPORTER Reductions to graduate student enrollment introduced last year as part of University-wide budget cuts are taking a toll on departments. Last year, the Graduate School implemented a three-year plan to reduce graduate school enrollments by around 13 percent in humanities and social sciences programs as well as 5 percent in STEM programs. At the time, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Steven Wilkinson attributed the cuts to the looming endowment tax hike, which went into effect in July and was part of President Donald Trump’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Department leaders told the News that cuts to graduate student enrollments have affected different departments to varying degrees — with some smaller departments feeling the brunt of diminished class sizes, and larger STEM departments struggling with federal funding uncertainty alongside the enrollment caps. Affected programs are set to feel the toll in varied ways,

Students should expect no major budget cuts in the next few months because Yale College’s budget is balanced following last year’s cuts, Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis said. Following the announcement of a federal endowment tax hike last year, Yale College — along with the rest of the University — made various cost-saving measures, including a reduction in staff size and cuts in summer program funding. Those cuts saved a total of $3 million in Yale College’s operating budget last year, Lewis said. They also drew widespread criticism from students, putting Lewis at a precarious position ahead of his reappointment review this year.

“Fortunately, we’re now in balance,” Lewis said in a Tuesday interview. “So, for now, no changes in the next few months.” Lewis said the improved financial position has allowed the College to restore some programs. He pointed to the laundry program, which the College announced in April, and the restoration of the summer storage funding as examples. “So now that we’re in better financial shape, we’re able to work on other issues,” Lewis said. Lewis said the College’s full budget for the year has not yet been determined. He expects to have more information during the second semester and plans to develop his budget by around February, he said.

SEE BUDGET PAGE 4

Garrett Curtis / Photography Editor

SEE ENROLLMENT PAGE 4

Jack Ennis / Contributing Photographer

TimTai BY GILLIAN PEIHE FENG STAFF REPORTER Nearly 200 Yale School of Medicine students have signed on to a letter sent Tuesday demanding that University administrators not settle with the federal government. The medical school, which according to the Office of Institutional Research enrolled 681 students last fall, is under investigation by the Department of Justice for allegedly discriminating against white and Asian applicants. Yale has since entered into voluntary negotiations with the Justice Department, and last week, University President Maurie McInnis said that only medical school admissions, not those of Yale College

or Yale Law School, were at issue in the talks. As of Thursday, the letter — sent to McInnis, School of Medicine Dean Nancy Brown ’81 and Yale’s Office of the General Counsel — has garnered 184 signatories, 103 of whom are anonymous. “We urge the University to refuse a settlement with the federal government that would impact the School of Medicine’s operations, including present or future admissions,” the letter reads. “Given the contents of the DOJ’s findings, a settlement would run counter to our stated mission and values.” The mission statement posted on the school’s website states a commitment to nurturing “leadSEE LETTER PAGE 4

Dean touts diversity ‘by legal means’ BY ANAYAH ACCILIEN AND LEO NYBERG STAFF REPORTERS Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis stayed silent on the federal investigation into Yale College admissions during his first interview with the News this academic year. Though he declined to comment on the Department of Justice’s inquiry into whether Yale discriminates against white and Asian

applicants, Lewis said he has always valued diversity “of all kinds.” The federal probe of the College, Law School and School of Medicine concerns Yale’s compliance with the 2023 Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, in which the court struck down race-conscious admissions. “I’ve been a strong advocate for diversity, as long as it’s

Ellie Park

Research grants on faculty’s Summer storage aid City passes yearlong minds back after phaseout data center freeze

BY ANAYAH ACCILIEN STAFF REPORTER

Summer storage funding for low-income students is coming back. On Tuesday, Yale College Council President Alex William Chen ’28 and Vice President Michelle Jimenez ’28 wrote in an email to undergraduates that after months of negotiations with Yale College — which concluded a phase-out of storage funding this summer — aid would be restored beginning summer 2027. Administrators have committed to maintaining the support for at least five years, they wrote. “We were able to convince Yale College that storage was valuable, critical to FGLI and low-income students who are facing significant costs as the prices of storage rise,” Chen said in a phone interview, referring to first generation, low-income students.

Students can receive funding if their parents are expected to contribute $10,000 or less toward their attending Yale, they live on campus before and after the summer in which they receive support and they have permanent residence more than 150 miles from New Haven. Students who are funding their tuition independently are also eligible to receive storage funding. Those eligible may be awarded up to $300 toward storage costs, based on their financial aid package. YCC’s advocacy for restoring College storage funding began around May, Chen said, with meetings with College administrators continuing through the summer and into the current academic year. He said the council pushed Yale to provide support for students with parent shares of up to $10,000, pro-

INSIDE THE NEWS Amid a nationwide debate about artificial intellgience, some Yale professors and students expressed reservations about uninhibited development. PAGE 6 NEWS

SEE STORAGE PAGE 5

SEE LEWIS PAGE 5

BY SARA AGRAWAL STAFF REPORTER

BY NELLIE KENNEY AND NAUSICAA CHU STAFF AND CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS The New Haven Board of Alders voted unanimously to impose a yearlong hold on data center development within city limits at a Tuesday meeting. No plans to build data cen-

ters are currently in the works in the city, but alders described the legislation as an important pause that will allow them to consider how the facilities could, in theory, affect New Haven residents.

Jiyoo Nam / Contributing Photographer

PAGE 2 BULLETIN PAGE 3 OPINION PAGE 7 SCI-TECH PAGE 10 ARTS PAGE 14 SPORTS

SEE MORATORIUM PAGE 5

Faculty members affiliated with Yale School of Medicine expressed concern about the future of research funding as the University engages in negotiations with the Trump administration over the School of Medicine’s admissions process. Since the Department of Justice released a letter of findings in May alleging that the School of Medicine was intentionally discriminating in its admissions process against white and Asian applicants, Yale has presented two settlement proposals to the federal government. University President Maurie McInnis told the News last week that the ongoing negotiations involved only the School of Medicine, and not Yale College or Yale Law School, two schools the JusSEE FACULTY PAGE 5

ENDANGERED SPECIES Yale professors criticized

the Trump administration’s reported changes to the the Endangered Species Act. PAGE 7 SCI-TECH

FARMER'S MARKET The parking lot beside

the Conte West Hills Magnet School comes to life on Saturday mornings with the Wooster Square Farmers Market. PAGE 8 NEWS

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026 · yaledailynews.com

BULLETIN This Day in Yale History, 1991 September 25, 1991 / Library moves toward computerization of card catalog

By David Wyshner After budget cuts eliminate dinner at Commons, graduate students, undergrads and union members protest. Their protest involves making a replica of Commons out of cake and cutting it, an ode to Marie Antoinette.

ILLUSTRATION BY ARIANE DE GENNARO

Behind the Headline By Aspyn Kaskalla With Yale Daily News heeling season underway, I took on my very first assignment for the arts desk. Waiting in line on Monday night outside College Street Music Hall before Bikini Kill’s show, I searched for concertgoers willing to talk. The crowd was reserved at first, but between conversations I had in line and at the barricade before and between sets, I gathered a handful of voices ahead of the show. Those interviews set up a night that delivered on its promise: sharp displays of musicianship, a charged crowd and moments of political commentary from the stage. One remark from lead singer Kathleen Hanna stood out, becoming key in my own reporting process. Mid-set, amid conflict in the pit, she addressed the audience directly: “We don’t want to bring more misogynistic violence,” she said. “We don’t want to bring more transphobia. We don’t want to bring more racism.”

Read “Bikini Kill brings punk-rock roar back to New Haven” on page 10. CORRECTION: Sept. 22: An earlier version of Oyshi Monawarah’s opinion article, “Eyes at every stop,” incorrectly referred to seven cameras installed by New Haven as ALPRs; they are ATESDs, according to the NHPD. The article has been updated to make clear that the NHPD’s ALPR cameras are from Rekor, as well as to distinguish ALPRs from ATESDs. The article has been updated to specify that the NHPD has not adopted AI-powered body camera transcription department-wide. The article now clarifies that the NHPD has not opted into Rekor’s data-sharing platform. ILLUSTRATION BY CATHERINE KWON

Struggled? Last week’s solution is here.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026 · yaledailynews.com

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OPINION GUEST COLUMNIST

GUEST COLUMNIST

S U L L I VA N H O

M I C H A E L S KU R AT OVS KY

Internship limits hurt

De-Democratize Yale

Are international students competing with domestic students for internships? That’s what Tom Dawber ’28 argues in his recent column. The piece comes after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo led Yale to consider tightening restrictions on the Curricular Practical Training program, which allows international students to pursue American internships. Dawber celebrates these restrictions, arguing that fewer opportunities for international students will mean more internships left over for American students. But it’s not obvious that international students compete with domestic students in the first place. While employers don’t have to sponsor a Curricular Practical Training internship, they do have to sponsor the work visa if the student receives a return o!er. This means international students come with more eventual paperwork and future risk — time and money spent training interns may be wasted if that student doesn’t end up winning the H-1B lottery. As a result, employers only take international students if they demonstrate capabilities that clearly outperform domestic students. Ask any international student, and they’ll be able to quote this exact logic back to you — proof that it’s already hard enough already to get an internship. When you add in the many other factors that make it hard for international students to live alone for a summer, the reality becomes clear: international students aren’t outcompeting domestic students at a variety of jobs since they only participate in a narrow slice of the internship market. But let’s take Dawber at his highest ground — every international Yale student that gets an internship prevents a domestic student from getting one. Is this good or bad? To understand, we need to consider the counterfactuals. What happens to each set of students if they don’t get internships? If a domestic student doesn’t get an internship, the majority of them will still stay in the United States to work. Missing out on an internship rarely sends domestic students searching for opportunities abroad. But the situation is different for international students. When they miss out on internships, the default is not staying in the United States. Come senior year, if there’s no employer willing to sponsor their visa, they exit the American economy. What happens when immigrants are kicked out of our economy? We don’t have to look very far for some recent examples. In 2025, President Donald Trump’s deportations and border restrictions led to net negative migration in America for the first time in 50 years. The impact was the opposite of what immigration hawks might project: native-born unemployment increased. Why? Because immigration isn’t a zero-sum game. When we let immigrants in, the so-called pie of American resources grows,

as they contribute to innovation, pay taxes and create demand for goods. Immigrants start businesses at a higher rate and are more likely to contribute to the economy through work. I’m not saying that Americans should stop having kids and start adopting immigrants. What I am saying is this — if the average immigrant is a net positive for the economy, how much more so are the high-achieving international students here at Yale? Findings support this conclusion: immigrants with bachelor’s degrees on average contribute $330,000 more in taxpayer dollars than they use in services. That’s hundreds of thousands of dollars that can be redistributed to Americans in the form of healthcare, food stamps and unemployment payments, not even including the economic activity they contribute outside of taxes. Much of the controversy around immigration concerns low-skill or undocumented immigrants. Voices across the political spectrum, including the Cato Institute, the Manhattan Institute, the American Enterprise Institute and 79 percent of registered voters — including 71 percent of Trump voters and 87 percent of Harris voters — agree that high-skill immigration is a good thing. It’s senseless to prevent one of the most rigorously vetted immigrant pools in the world — Yale international students — from staying in the American economy. I don’t think Yale should try to defy ICE or circumvent the restrictions. The memo from ICE is very clear: schools identified as abusing Curricular Practical Training “to create work opportunities rather than academic studies” could have their right to enroll international students revoked. While Dawber is correct that the administration is within their rights to enforce the written law this way, that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. Yale students — domestic and international alike — should mourn the loss of this program rather than celebrate it. And the Yale administration should consider what policies they can adjust to soften the blow. One such approach could be to expand the existing opportunities here on campus. As it becomes harder for international students to secure off-campus opportunities, the number of applications for fellowships, research and grants is likely to increase dramatically. To accommodate this, Yale should consider expanding these programs and reserving some spots for international students who may not have other options. Yale should also examine if there are internships they could in good faith certify as “integral to the curriculum” according to ICE’s requirement. While none of these options are perfect, they represent our best options for maintaining American prosperity for all of us. SULLIVAN HO is a sophomore in Pauli Murray studying humanities and economics. He can be reached at sullivan.ho@yale.edu.

Recently, in negotiations with the Trump administration, Yale University agreed to impose the following regulation on its faculty and students: “If any Scholar Shall deny the Holy Scriptures or any part of Them to be the Word of God: or be guilty of Heresy or any Error directly Tending to Subvert the Fundamentals of Christianity, and continuing Obstinate Therein after the first and Second Admonition, He shall be Expelled.” Just kidding — that’s from the Regulations at Yale College of 1745. But, obviously, Yale has liberalized its policies regarding freedom of speech since the 18th century, hasn’t it? De m o c ra t i ze Ya l e , which presents itself as an “ u n p re ce d e n te d coa l i t i o n of students, staff, faculty and alumni,” demands that Yale defend “Free Speech and Assembly.” Its platform c h a m p i o n s Ya l e ’s g rea t t ra d i t i o n o f p rog re ss ive political demonstration. But the University’s treatment of dissent from that tradition receives far less attention. In 1963, the Yale Political Un i o n i n v i te d A l a b a m a Governor George Wallace to speak to students. Earlier that year, Wallace famously coined the anti-civil rights rallying cry, “segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever.” What was Yale’s response? Provost Kingman Brewster Jr. ’41 urged the Union to withdraw the invitation, citing, “the damage which Governor Wallace’s appearance would do to the confidence of the New Haven community in Yale and the feelings of the New Haven Negro population.” This incident is cited by the Woodward Report — Yale’s official policy on freedom of expression — as one of Yale’s failures to protect speech. But not just any speech — rightwing speech. In fact, the Woodward Report contrasts Yale’s treatment of Wallace with that of the Black Panther Party in 1970-71. During the New Haven Black Panther trials, in which several Black Panther members were prosecuted for kidnapping, torturing and murdering Alex Rackley, Yale opened its campus to demonstrators, suspended regular academic affairs and provided protestors with food, shelter, first aid and even child care. Of course, Brewster’s concern that Wallace’s speech would be contrary to “the interest of law and order as well as town-gown relations” would have been completely unfounded for the Black Panthers. Oh, wait: “Everybody knows that pigs are depraved traducers that violate the lives of human

beings, and that there ain’t nothing wrong with taking the life of a motherf------ pig,” founding member and chief of staff of the Black Panther Party David Hilliard to 5,000 Yale students at Ingalls Rink, on our very own campus. But this was just free speech — surely, it incited no violence! About that: “But when a light-skinned man—later found to be a harmless Lebanese architecture student with mental problems—stumbled toward the stage, Hilliard’s Panther bodyguards tore into him with kicks and punches,” Paul Bass ’82 and Doug Rae, a School of Management professor, wrote in their book Murder in the Model City. Are you starting to notice a pattern? The different treatment of left- and right-wing speakers continues today. In 2022, during a Federalist Society panel at Yale Law School hosting a discussion between conservative lawyer Kristen Waggoner and progressive lawyer Monica Miller, over 100 students packed the room, stomping, banging and chanting, “F--- you, FedSoc.” They shouted down the panelists so loudly that other classes at the Law School were disturbed. Naturally, in strict adherence to the Woodward Report, Yale immediately called the police to detain the disruptors and allow the event to continue. According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, “the cacophony persisted for the majority of the event, and though panelists struggled to project their voices over the noise, the audience remained largely unable to hear them… Deans, administrators, even the Yale police officers stationed at the event refused to lift a finger to address the noise.” D i d I ge t yo u t h e re ? Progressive agitators orchestrated a coordinated effort to drown out the speech of a lawyer at a sanctioned event at Yale Law School because she was a right-winger. Yale’s response? Officers were present “at the event was ‘not to enforce YLS policy but rather to protect the safety of the demonstrators and those they were protesting.’” Needless to say, Yale declined to pursue disciplinary action against the students. This brings us back to Democratize Yale. Under its free speech demand, it claims, “The Plaza has always spoken,” citing our good friends, the Black Panthers. Curiously, they make no mention of the suppression of George Wallace, despite piously citing the very report whose existence it explicitly justified! Democratize Yale’s historical reconstruction of free speech at

Yale is quite curious. One is led to believe that after Yale adopted the Woodward Report in 1975, it was a free speech paradise until its recent “democratic backsliding.” But as we have seen, Yale’s free speech haven was, sadly, open to only one side of the political border.

NONETHELESS, WHAT IS CLEAR IS THAT DEMOCRATIZE YALE IS A PARTISAN, IDEOLOGICALLY CAPTURED ORGANIZATION. IT IS EQUALLY CLEAR THAT YALE IS A PARTISAN, IDEOLOGICALLY CAPTURED INSTITUTION. There is much more to say about free speech and Democratize Yale. Personally, I don’t believe Yale has ever had freedom of speech, nor do I think it is even possible or desirable. I don’t even necessarily support the Trump administration’s demands for Yale and other universities. Nonetheless, what is clear is that Democratize Yale is a partisan, ideologically captured organization. It is equally clear that Yale is a partisan, ideologically captured institution. Yale will remain that way, whether its holy scriptures are the Bible or “A Theory of Justice” by John Rawls. It will remain a breeding ground for those intellectuals, politicians and journalists who most influence the American progressive orthodoxy, no matter this temporary setback. But until Democratize Yale or another organization seriously addresses the suppression of right-wing speech and acknowledges Yale’s ideological capture, right-wingers will look with amused indi!erence at the left for experiencing, for two years, what the right has experienced for decades. But for now, what is clear is that Democratize Yale does not mean freeing Yale — it means returning it to its progressive shackles. MICHAEL SKURATOVSKY is a sophomore in Pierson College studying philosophy and religious studies. He can be reached at michael. skuratovksy@yale.edu.

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President McInnis, will you respond? Dear President McInnis, We are members of the group of Yale Law School graduates who wrote you and the Board on Sept. 2 explaining our grave concerns about any Yale agreement with the Department of Justice and earnestly requesting a chance to meet with you. We received no reply of any kind. On Sept. 16, the Yale Daily News reported your assertion that Yale is in compliance with federal law regarding race and admissions. You plainly imply that the contrary position taken by the DOJ in its findings is wrong. Your implicit assertion that the DOJ findings are wrong comports with the conclusion in the letter sent to you in July by the Sher Tremonte law firm

retained by the Yale chapter of the AAUP: “In sum, the DOJ’s factual findings are bogus — cherrypicked, statistically weak, and presented without appropriate context or support in the record.” You have stated several times that the University is following required procedure. However, the Justice Department rules give the recipient of findings like those formally conveyed to Yale two options: enter voluntary settlement discussions or contest the factual accuracy of the findings in subsequent proceedings. We are deeply concerned that Yale has chosen the wrong path. Why not contest the baseless findings? That would be entirely consistent with the procedural requirements of the law and more important, avoid the grotesque specter

of Yale’s voluntary entry into a settlement agreement that would, like those signed by some other universities, fundamentally damage its independence and integrity. Sincerely, Peter Broderick LAW ’71 Rosalind Fink LAW ’72 Nancy Gertner GRD ’70 LAW ’71 John J. Gearen LAW ’70 Dan Guttman LAW ’71 Ben Heineman LAW ’71 John Keker LAW ’70 David Kendall LAW ’71 Cantwell Muckenfuss LAW ’71 Mary D. Nichols LAW ’71 John Shattuck ’65 LAW ’70 Gus Speth ’64 LAW ’69 Rick Taft ’67 LAW ’71 William W. Taylor, III LAW ’69

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026 · yaledailynews.com · @yaledailynews

FROM THE FRONT

“If I can make it there, / I'll make it anywhere.” NEW YORK, NEW YORK FRANK SINATRA

No upcoming budget Tax hike caused enrollment cuts cuts, Lewis says ENROLLMENT FROM PAGE 1

BUDGET FROM PAGE 1 “I don’t anticipate any major changes one way or the other,” Lewis said. He also said he will meet with the Yale College Council Senate on Oct. 11, which could provide input on student priorities. Lewis said the College prioritized expanding financial aid during the academic year while making savings elsewhere. The College’s new financial aid thresholds mean that about onethird of first-year students do not pay tuition, according to Lewis. Lewis said the College’s new financial aid thresholds for families earning less than $100,000 or $200,000 are universal for students in those income groups. He said the new policy also communicates that Yale is affordable to prospective students. He emphasized that the College has prioritized financial aid despite budget constraints. “We’ve managed to maintain and enhance our commitment to financial aid this year, even in the

face of the new endowment tax, which has made resources very constrained,” Lewis said. The College’s financial decisions have also involved changes to summer funding support. Lewis said the College wanted to ensure that students could receive funding for one summer, while allowing students to request support for additional summers through fellowships and other programs. “We’re very happy and we like to be able to support summer, but we, you know, you just have to make choices between different priorities,” Lewis said. “And so we figured that with one summer guaranteed and one summer that you can apply for additional support, most students will still get two summers if they want two summers.” The 2026-27 term bill for Yale undergraduate students is $94,100, with $72,500 in tuition and the rest in housing and food. Contact ANAYAH ACCILIEN at anayah.accilien@yale.edu.

Martín Peralta / Head Photography Editor

After introducing cost-cutting measures last year, Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis said in a Tuesday interview that he does not foresee major budget cuts in the next few months.

from teaching to research, faculty members said. “I’m not expecting it to be wonderful,” Vaneeta Dayal, the chair of the linguistics department, said. “Graduate students cost money. So I’m not denying that, not denying the need to cut, because it’s coming from necessity.” Administrators have estimated that the new law, which increased the tax on Yale’s endowment income from 1.4 percent to 8 percent, would cost the University $300 million annually. Zoltán Szabó, the chair of the philosophy department, wrote in an email to the News that although the current impact of reductions in graduate student enrollment is “moderate” in his department, he expects that negative effects will manifest in the upcoming years. “Next year things will be harder, and after that - starting in 2028 and hopefully ending around 2031 - there will be questions about how to find qualified teaching fellows for some of our undergraduate classes,” Szabó wrote. Szabó added that the philosophy department usually aimed to enroll five new doctoral students per year. But the department will admit no doctoral students this year, he said — the combined effect of budget cuts and higher acceptance rates in 2023 and 2024. The linguistics department was charged with reducing the total enrollment of its six-year doctoral program from 24 to 21 students over the course of three years, Dayal said. In the last admissions cycle, however, the linguistics department did not reduce its enrollment, she said. Dayal described the admissions process as a “little bit of a dance because there’s a deadline issue.” Departments need to account for the possibility that

applicants do not accept their admissions offers, and as a result, the GSAS permitted the linguistics department to make an additional offer last year, she said. “I am not dissatisfied with the communication with the graduate school at all, but the opposite,” Dayal said. Instead, she said, her concern about the cuts was that a 12 percent enrollment decrease for all humanities and social sciences departments would disproportionately impact smaller programs. Dayal said that the linguistics department would lose “critical mass” if its incoming class went from four to two students in order to reach 21 total enrollment in the program within three years. Some humanities programs have not experienced cuts to their graduate school enrollments, however. John Peters, the chair of the film and media studies department, wrote in an email to the News that his program has not cut “slots for admitting new doctoral students.” Pierre Saint-Amand, the acting chair of the French department, wrote a similar message. “We actually didn’t suffer any cuts to our enrollments in French last year. There hasn’t been any change to our ‘quota,’” he wrote in an email to the News. “The job market for French has been in steady decline for a number of years now, and we have adjusted our acceptance numbers accordingly.” Enrollment decreases in STEM departments, on the other hand, have been complicated by the precarious position of federal grants. According to a January statement from University spokesperson Karen Peart, the disparity between the percent enrollment decreases for humanities and social sciences and for STEM programs came from the nature of those programs’ funding. While humanities and social sci-

ences are funded entirely by the University endowment returns, Peart said, STEM funding comes from federal and private grants as well. David Vasseur, chair of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, wrote in an email to the News that his program “did experience a cut that is consistent with the average across science departments.” He wrote that beyond funding cuts from GSAS, changes in federal funding “drastically reduced” the department’s ability to cover the stipends of graduate students. Patrick Holland, the chemistry department’s director of undergraduate students, wrote in a Monday email to the News that his department accepted “roughly half” as many students as usual in 2025. However, that was not because of the schoolwide 5 percent enrollment cut but due to inflation and uncertainty in federal funding, he wrote. “It is true that the GSAS cut the number of allowed graduate student admissions for the Chemistry Department like they did for other departments,” he wrote. “Chemistry’s admissions numbers were constrained not by an artificial cap from GSAS, rather we limited our number because of funding uncertainty.” Funding from Yale and the federal government has been “flat,” while the costs of salaries, stipends and equipment have increased, Holland explained. Holland wrote that current impacts to the reduction in chemistry graduate students are “already being felt.” He wrote that given graduate students’ role as “the primary researchers in our departments, having fewer graduate students means less research being done.” Yale enrolled its first graduate students in 1847. Contact SARA AGRAWAL at sara.agrawal@yale.edu.

Nearly 200 students sign letter against settlement LETTER FROM PAGE 1 ers in medicine and science, promoting curiosity and critical inquiry in an inclusive environment enriched by diversity.” Manu Sundaresan MED ’33 and Kyle Gavulic MED ’29, who organized and drafted the letter, said it was shared with administrators in an email. Medical school leadership has acknowledged receipt of the letter, but McInnis has yet to respond, according to Sundaresan and Gavulic. In an email to the News, Brown affirmed the School of Medicine’s commitment to its admissions standards. “Yale School of Medicine (YSM) is committed to its mission and to recruiting outstanding students through a rigorous admissions process, as outlined in Monday’s community-wide ‘Beyond Sterling Hall,’” the dean wrote, referring to a Monday statement on admissions. “YSM holds regular town halls where I have the opportunity to hear directly from participants and answer questions, and I had a town hall with students on admissions this week.” In May, the Department of Justice issued a letter of findings accusing the medical school of discriminating in its admissions processes, favoring Black and Hispanic applicants over white and Asian ones. Its letter cited median medical exam scores and GPAs of applicants broken down by race. The Tuesday letter sent to Yale administrators rejects the accusations leveled by the Justice Department and urges Yale to defend holistic admissions. “The accusation of a Title VI violation levelled by the DOJ reveals more about the political priorities of this administration than unlawful misconduct in admissions processes at the School of Medicine,” the letter reads, arguing that the federal government has used previous discrimination allegations to pressure other Ivy League universities into settlements. “As a whole, the investigation indicates a misconception of holistic admissions, the role of GPAs and MCAT scores within such admis-

sions, and the processes involved in selecting future physician leaders,” the letter continues. Chelesa Fearce MED ’27, a student who signed the letter, said her personal experience has led her to believe in the importance of diversity in medical schools and the broader medical industry. “I have seen firsthand the impact that I, as a black woman, have had on my patients because I share an identity with them,” Fearce wrote in an email. “At a time when marginalized communities are increasingly disheartened, disowned, and discriminated against, I believe wholeheartedly that Yale should stand steadfast in its commitment to diversity and inclusion.” The Tuesday letter argues that “long-entrenched and well-documented inequalities in our pub-

Tim Tai

lic and higher educational institutions” both limit opportunities to become physicians and “may have produced the raw data animating” the Justice Department’s May letter of findings. “It is the responsibility of Yale’s independent admissions committees—composed of leadership, faculty, and students—to determine whether applicants align with both the standards of admission and the goals of our institution, including inclusion and diversity,” it reads. “The School of Medicine’s commitment to holistic admissions, then, follows from its commitment to improving the health of all people.” The letter further raises concerns about student privacy regarding Yale’s ongoing negotiations with the Justice Department. The department said that it

received “applicant-level admissions data” from Yale in its May letter of findings. Students claimed in the Tuesday letter that they had not been informed by the administration about how their privacy and personal information was being protected amid the ongoing federal negotiations. A spokesperson for the University did not immediately respond to a request for comment on privacy concerns. Adam Littleton MED ’28 said the issue compelled him to add his name to the letter. “I signed because I’m an underrepresented minority student at the YSM whose own admissions data was handed to the Department of Justice,” Littleton wrote in an email to the News.

Littleton cited the letter’s rejection of the Justice Department’s findings as another reason why he signed it. “The DOJ’s report doesn’t read like a good-faith evaluation of medical school admissions. It is clearly a document written to support harmful political narratives, I think the letter does a good job of articulating that,” he wrote. “No student here should have to wonder whether their school regrets admitting them because of political pressure, and right now some of us do.” Students in the class of 2029 admitted to Yale’s doctor of medicine program had a median cumulative GPA of 3.94, according to the school’s website. Contact GILLIAN PEIHE FENG at peihe.feng@yale.edu.

A letter signed by 184 medical school students decried federal accusations of discrimination leveled against the school and urged the University to defend holistic admissions practices.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026 · yaledailynews.com · @yaledailynews

FROM THE FRONT

PAGE 5

“Beverly Hills, that’s where I want to be.” BEVERLY HILLS WEEZER

Medical school faculty mixed on Yale’s Trump posture FACULTY FROM PAGE 1 tice Department is also investigating but has not released letters of findings about. While four interviewed faculty members with connections to the School of Medicine were mixed on how hard-lined Yale should be about negotiating with the Justice Department, they largely shared worries about potential targeted federal funding cuts that have prompted other universities to settle with the federal government. Min Wu, an associate professor of cell biology, said while long-term damage from a potential settlement is not quantifiable, such an agreement may cause short-term harm. She speculated that the amount of money the University might have to pay to settle, as estimated by other universities’ deals, could be compared to the costs of a legal challenge and the freezing of federal funds in weighing the harms of settling. “We have to speak in the numbers,” Wu said. “Maybe that is the only way we can actually make a point where people might listen.” In a July 2025 settlement, Columbia agreed to pay $200 million to the federal government over

alleged violations to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Since then, Brown, Cornell and Northwestern, among other universities, have made financial settlements with the Trump administration. Other universities, such as the University of Virginia, have struck deals that do not include payments. Last spring, after Harvard refused to comply with the federal government’s demands that the university limit student activism and change its admissions policies, the government froze $2.2 billion in Harvard’s research grants and contracts. While McInnis has been tightlipped about Yale’s negotiations with the Trump administration, she has emphasized that it “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 first people, the most vulnerable people, they are going to be the post-docs,” Wu said about the impacts of possible federal funding freezes. “If you don’t have federal money coming in, and if the University decides not to step up to fill this vacuum, then people have to be let go. And then a year later, you can hire them back, but people’s careers are ruined in the process of doing this.”

Nikhil Malvankar, who teaches in the Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry Department both in the College and in the School of Medicine, said he did not think that negotiating with the government was inherently a bad thing or that it would necessarily undermine diversity. He felt supported by the Yale administration amid the negotiations, he added. “I’m quite glad, especially with the efforts of our president, with every interaction I had with her, and others, especially the provost, they want to maintain scientific integrity and diversity. But at the same time, they want to make sure that they are strictly following the laws,” Malvankar said, referring to the 2023 Supreme Court ruling which outlawed race conscious admissions practices. While McInnis told the News last week she believes Yale’s admissions processes are following the law, she acknowledged that the 2023 ruling has yet to be interpreted in court and that “none of us know exactly how that is going to be interpreted.” Ifat Levy, a professor of comparative medicine, wrote in an email to the News that “what I’m mostly experiencing is uncertainty and worry.”

Aid back after student advocacy STORAGE FROM PAGE 1 vide greater support to students receiving full financial aid and negotiate directly with storage vendors. Over the last few years, Yale gradually reduced the summer storage support it provided to low-income students — from $400 in 2023 to $340 in 2024 to $225 in 2025 — before eliminating the funding altogether this year. In April, after Lewis confirmed that summer storage support would not continue this summer, the Dwight Hall Student Executive Committee launched its own storage initiative for students who qualified for “zero parent share” financial aid awards. The program ultimately served nearly 200 students, who stored 1,873 items total and each paid a flat $50 fee, according to Alexandra Ruiz ’28, a co-coordinator of the student committee. Ruiz said there was no limit on the number of items participating students could store. “So many students were incredibly grateful for our program,” Ruiz wrote in an email. “It showed just how many students were negatively affected by the phase out.” Julian Kolthammer ’29, a logistics coordinator for the student committee’s summer storage initiative, said the group’s experience showed that a summer storage support model that utilizes campus space would help Yale provide storage at a lower cost.

“If Yale were to secure space on campus for storage, a model similar to ExComm’s 2026 initiative would be financially self-sustaining, with all students on any amount of financial aid only needing to pay a flat rate of $50 for unlimited items,” he wrote in an email, referring to the Dwight Hall Student Executive Committee. Under the model announced on Tuesday, Kolthammer wrote, students would pay an average of $306 for storage while Yale would contribute an average of $283 per student. Using indoor campus space, he added, could help both students and the University save money. “In 2011, the Yale College Council confronted essentially the same problem, rejected an expensive commercial storage proposal, and built a lower-cost model using indoor space provided by Yale,” Kolthammer wrote. Ruiz said the storage funding model announced on Tuesday may not be expansive enough to cover students’ needs. According to Ruiz, the median user of the student committee’s program this summer stored nine items, while 74 percent of participants stored more than six. The $300 maximum College contribution is designed to cover roughly six standard boxes, Ruiz said, but some students may need more. According to Ruiz, Yale has previously used campus space for student storage, including at West Campus, which she said could offer a

less expensive alternative to outside storage vendors. “I think this program is a significant achievement and will help our FGLI peers tremendously,” Ruiz wrote. “Still, there is historical precedent for a much more inexpensive solution – for both Yale and, thus, students due to the mediated pressure on Yale then to subsidize for students – that focuses on accessing available storage space, rather than an outside vendor, such as Dorm Room Movers.” YCC initially pursued a model in which students could store their belongings in residential colleges, Chen said. After discussions with Yale, the council ultimately reached a solution similar to the model that was phased out. Chen said the five-year commitment gives future YCC leaders a basis for continuing to hold the College accountable for maintaining the support. “In theory, there’s no guarantee,” Chen said. “The biggest guarantee is the public accountability and public commitment that Yale College has made.” After Lewis said that summer storage funding would not continue this summer, the YCC created a new stipend program that sought to help affected students. Contact ANAYAH ACCILIEN at anayah.accilien@yale.edu.

Moratorium passes unanimously MORATORIUM FROM PAGE 1 “I think we as a city should be really cautious about how we’re moving forward in this new era of data centers and AI,” Ward 1 Alder Elias Theodore ’27 said in an interview with the News after Tuesday’s meeting. “This moratorium period will allow us to come together, find the experts, and really understand what our policy should be moving forward.” The data center moratorium arrives amid a larger national reckoning over artificial intelligence and its infrastructure demands. Data centers that support AI are unpopular with the American public, with 61% of voters saying they oppose AI data centers in a September New York Times/Sienna poll. States and cities across the country, including New York State, Seattle and Denver, have imposed similar yearlong holds on data center construction. Connecticut cities West Haven, Trumbull, Morris and Groton have also imposed moratoriums of varying lengths. Theodore said it is important for the city to consider its data center strategy carefully because the facil-

ities may “take up large plots of land and make a lot of noise and use up a lot of energy.” The city rule change, which was originally proposed in July by Ward 27 Alder Richard Furlow, describes the pause as “necessary to provide the City with sufficient time to study and evaluate the impacts of data center development and adopt appropriate zoning regulations governing data centers.” The final version of the amendment includes an update which exempts “quantum computing or life sciences research facilities associated with the New Haven Quantum and Life Sciences Innovation Cluster” from the moratorium. Theodore, a member of the Board of Alders Legislation Committee, said some quantum buildings “verge on the purpose of data centers in a much smaller capacity or have some similarities.” The committee, which reviewed the amendment, had to “work out some of that language,” Theodore said. New Haven has recently seen a surge in quantum investment. In September of 2025, state officials announced a $50.5 million grant for research and infrastructure related

“In the absence of information, I can only hope that Yale does not cave in to the DOJ or any other branch of government,” she wrote. Wu also said she felt “very offended” that the Department of Justice was using Asian Americans as “scapegoats” to justify claims that the School of Medicine was racially discriminating in favor of Black and Hispanic students. Gregg Gonsalves ’11 SPH ’15 ’17 , a professor at the Yale School of Public Health — which was a part of the medical school until 2024 — said that Yale settling with the Department of Justice “doesn’t protect any of us in biomedical research from what the Trump administration is doing.” Gonsalves cited many Trump administration initiatives to limit biomedical research, pointing to the executive branch’s recent plans to create an external committee for evaluating National Institute of Health grants. Gonsalves said actions such as these would target researchers from all universities. “You’re going to be targeted on the basis of the work you do,” he said. “To believe that there’s going to be a carve out, that this applies to everybody but Yale, is not credible.” Yale research labs have already felt the impacts of strained relations with the Trump administration.

Malvankar said his lab has been hurt by grant delays and reductions. Malvankar said he applied for funding from the National Science Foundation in December 2025. In May, Malvankar learned from an article published in Nature that Yale was among a handful of universities whose NSF grants had been “locked.” Malvankar said that after waiting a longer time than expected, he received official notice of his reward in August, with a 25 percent reduction. “I had to let go of people in my lab, and put research on hold. And so it is just a really scary time,” he said. Additionally, two post-docs Malvankar works with, both of whom are Chinese, have been waiting for their visas for several months and have not been able to work, Malvankar said. “I decided to not take any salary for three months of summer and use that money to pay for these original visa fees and premium processing,” Malvankar said. Yale School of Medicine was founded in 1810. Contact SARA AGRAWAL at sara.agrawal@yale.edu.

Lewis defers to McInnis’ comments LEWIS FROM PAGE 1 achieved by legal means,” Lewis said. “It’s diversity of all kinds, backgrounds and viewpoints and life experiences and so on, we try to seek those kinds of diversity as well.” Yale President Maurie McInnis said last week that the University’s ongoing negotiations with the federal government to resolve the inquiry do not involve the College. Though McInnis began publicly communicating with Yale affiliates about the investigations in July, Lewis has maintained public silence. When asked on Tuesday if Yale College admissions discriminated against white and Asian applicants, Lewis declined to comment on the investigations. “I think, on that, I just should refer you to President McInnis’ comments because of the ongoing nature of that,” Lewis said. McInnis also said last week that she believes Yale’s admissions practices follow the law but that she does not know how courts will interpret the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling. She added that she does not comment on ongoing legal matters. On Tuesday, Lewis told the News that he does not want to comment on the investigation because of “the legal nature” of the probe. He said that diversity is important at the College. Following the 2023 ruling that struck down affirmative action, Lewis and Dean of Undergrad-

uate Admissions and Financial Aid Jeremiah Quinlan ’03 sent a joint statement to the Yale College community expressing concern over the decision and affirming that Yale would comply with the law. Lewis and Quinlan also said they will continue efforts to “make Yale a leader in welcoming and educating students of all backgrounds.” The webpage with Lewis and Quinlan’s statement is no longer active. While he declined to comment on the negotiations, Lewis spoke on other issues regarding Yale’s relationship with the Trump administration. He said that although the Trump administration’s restrictions on international student visas and summer internships are mainly an issue for graduate and professional schools, he understands that Yale College students are also affected by the constraints. “We’re working very closely with the Office of International Students and Scholars to look at how to allow international students to take summer internships,” Lewis said. “We’re also working with them on making sure that international students are able to come and study at Yale.” Lewis is up for reappointment this academic year, the last of his first term as dean. Contact ANAYAH ACCILIEN at anayah.accilien@yale.edu and LEO NYBERG at leo.nyberg@yale.edu.

to quantum and life sciences. $10 million of that award went to QuantumCT, a public-private quantum innovation initiative co-led by Yale and the University of Connecticut. Members of the legislation committee urged the board to vote “yes” on the pause at Tuesday’s meeting. In an interview after the meeting, Ward 22 Alder and Legislation Committee Vice-Chair Jeanette Morrison said it was important to review the potential costs of data centers in New Haven. “As a city, we need to really, really understand what kind of impact it’s gonna put on our city, on our residents,” Morrison said. “If they’re using a lot of electricity, a lot of water, a lot of those things, someone has to pay for that, and a lot of times it ends up being the residents and not the data centers or those owners.” In 2021, the Connecticut General Assembly passed a bill that offers tax incentives to qualifying data centers to build in the state. That law is still in effect. Contact NELLIE KENNEY at nellie.kenney@yale.edu and NAUSICAA CHU at nausicaa.chu@yale.edu.

Garrett Curtis / Photography Editor

Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis has not commented on the Justice Department investigation into Yale College admissions. He continued his silence in a Tuesday interview.

PAGE 6

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026 · yaledailynews.com

NEWS

“Tel Aviv ya habibi Tel Aviv” TEL AVIV OMER ADAM

Yalies weigh risks of artificial intelligence development BY ASHLEY SKINNER CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Over 100 students gathered in DwAmid a nationwide debate over whether artificial intelligence should be regulated, some Yale professors and students expressed reservations about uninhibited development of the technology, though they acknowledged its advantages. In a Saturday post on Truth Social, President Donald Trump characterized concerns about AI development as a “hoax.” His comments arrived after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called on companies to slow down AI development in a September essay, which was later endorsed by other leading figures in the field. In a Sept. 14 post, Trump addressed Amodei’s piece directly, claiming that the country does not need further regulations on AI. Ted Wittenstein ’04 LAW ’12, director of the Schmidt Program on Artificial Intelligence, Emerging Technologies, and National Power said he is cautious about disregarding the possible downsides of the technology. “The tools you would positively use these models for, with synthetic biology and AI and medicine, could also be manipulated in a negative way, so those are not minor risks,” Wittenstein said in a Zoom interview. “Those are not hoaxes, in my view.” In the Sept. 14 post, Trump wrote that “WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS,” citing AI competition between the United States and China as a reason not to slow the pace of AI growth. “The president’s comments are, I think, unhelpfully fueling the race dynamic,” Wittenstein said. “Like many things the president says, he often is flagging some legitimate issues and concerns, so I think the question here is how to address those issues in a thoughtful way, as opposed to sort of unhelpful rhetoric.” According to Wittenstein, competition between the United States and China complicates the implementation of international AI regulations. He said the race between the countries is not limited

ASHLEY SKINNER / CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATOR

Following comments made by President Donald Trump dismissing concerns about the pace of AI development, four Yale community members who are interested in the technology discussed AI capabilities and regulation. to A I a p p l i c a t i o n s , b u t “includes software, hardware, semiconductors, data centers, chips, energy, precursor rare earth minerals.” Coby Kassner ’29 — the president of Yale AI Alignment, a club focused on possible solutions to concerns surrounding AI — described an AI race between the United States and China as potentially “dangerous” and said he did not think any weight should be put on Trump’s claims. “I think you should maybe look at the track record of things that Trump has called a hoax,” Kassner said. Aryan Agarwal ’27, the co-president of YaleAI, a student group, said the Trump administration’s concern about competition with China in AI development is “valid.” Still, he said he does not believe that is reason

enough to avoid AI safety regulations. Existential worries about the future of AI have arisen from events like the OpenAIHuggingFace incident earlier this year, in which OpenAI agents coordinated independently to attack another AI company. “Without the sort of proper guardrails and without the proper containment policies for how you train these models, there is a risk of either an inadvertent accident or more malicious misuse of the model capability in the hands of a nefarious actor,” Wittenstein said. One possible risk of advanced AI systems cited by Kassner is the misuse of AI to guide the bioengineering of diseases capable of causing a pandemic. Amodei also noted concerns about bioterrorism in his September essay. Jeffrey Tao ’27, the co-president of the Yale AI Policy Institute, a

student group, echoed this and other concerns. He said he spoke in a personal capacity and that his views do not represent those of the organization that he leads. The effects of AI on education, privacy, mental health, scamming and deepfakes are some of the examples that Tao gave as “current harms caused by AI that are not at all hypothetical and are also incredibly important to address.” Agarwal said that AI’s coding ability can help amplify most goals, whether they be well-intentioned or malicious, though it may decrease entry-level opportunities for recent graduates in the tech industry and related fields. It remains to be seen whether a third-party organization, such as the federal government, could successfully set a minimum standard that applies to all private companies.

“It is noteworthy that the companies are coming out now and saying that we need something,” Wittenstein said. “In some way, that is a positive step in the right direction, but the Trump administration seems very reticent to step in as opposed to letting the companies figure it out themselves.” Tao said he seeks to research both future and current AI risks. “I, for one, am both interested in addressing these current harms as well as in addressing the future, more existential, harms that may be coming,” Tao wrote in a text message. “I believe both are critical issues.” Anthropic was founded in January 2021 by a group of former OpenAI employees. Contact

ASHLEY SKINNER at ashley.skinner@yale.edu.

Administrators reviewing Google storage cap after YCC meeting BY KRISTIN CHUANG CONTRIBUTING REPORTER University administrators are reviewing Google storage limits for students after Yale College Council senators met with them earlier this month to push for an increased quota. Two weeks ago, three YCC senators met with Ge Yan, the associate chief information officer for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Darice Corey, the senior director of web and IT planning, to discuss a proposal to raise Google Drive storage for all undergraduates from five gigabytes to 20 gigabytes, the amount allotted to current seniors. The proposal, which the YCC estimated would cost the University less than $4,000 to implement, was backed by survey

results of 148 students, which overwhelmingly supported an expansion. Kyler Parker ’29, the senate speaker and one of the proposal’s sponsors, called the survey “one of the largest collections of personal testimonies the YCC’s been able to put together.” “No decisions have been made at this point. Our focus right now is to understand the request, review the data and potential impact, and evaluate the available options with the appropriate stakeholder groups,” Yan and Corey wrote in a joint statement to the News. “We are committed to working with YCC and other student groups to understand their technology needs and explore ways we can best support Yale students.” Yan and Corey said in their statement that the University is

currently working to assess the cost of raising the cap and could not confirm whether the YCC’s estimate of less than $4,000 was accurate. Yan supports IT operations for faculty, while Corey manages IT operations across Yale College. The storage cap has been a point of contention among students since Google started capping free storage available for university students in October 2024. In subsequent weeks, the YCC Senate unanimously passed a proposal calling to standardize Google Drive storage limits. A revised version of the same proposal passed unanimously again the following year in November, but until this month, no YCC members had directly discussed it with administrators. “What’s prompted us moving

so hard on this advocacy now is the fact that previous YCC Senates have brought up this issue and never followed through on actually pushing for reform with the administration,” Parker said in an interview. Parker attributed the shift to a change in the senate’s leadership, rather than a sudden change in student need. “The demand to lift this restricting cap on Google Drive storage has existed as long as the policy has existed,” he said, adding that this year’s senate has “a very defined mandate from the student body to push admin hard.” Of the 148 respondents to the YCC’s survey, 63.5 percent reported having hit the fivegigabyte limit and 96.6 percent agreed the five-gigabyte limit is a “burden on student experience

GARRETT CURTIS / PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

The Yale College Council is renewing its efforts to raise the University’s Google Drive storage cap for undergraduates, meeting with top IT administrators for the first time since the limit was implemented two years ago.

and/or curricular life,” according to data provided by the YCC. YC C Se n a to r a n d p o l i cy sponsor Michael Canudas ’ 2 8, wh o h e l p e d rev i se t h e policy and research how Yale’s storage allotment compares to p e e r i n s t i t u t i o n s, s a i d that data strengthens their proposal considerably. “Even factoring in selfselection, I think the survey results speak for themselves,” Canudas said in a phone interview, adding “I think it’d be pretty hard for the administration to dismiss that kind of data.” Several students interviewed said they were unaware that the storage restriction was even a matter of University policy. Katie Flemming ’28 said she spent several days over the summer deleting thousands of emails after discovering she had run out of storage. She was previously unaware of the YCC proposal but supports it. Canudas himself has hit the fivegigabyte cap and had to manually remove items from his storage. He pointed to peer institutions included in the proposal, like Harvard at 25 gigabytes and Stanford at five terabytes. Parker said he sees the YCC’s advocacy for more storage as part of a broader effort to change how the Senate operates. “YCC Senate this year is trying to be a body that follows through on its promises. It’s actually going to be able to execute on this issue and a lot of other issues that have been kind of simmering, but have never been addressed,” he said. Personal Google accounts come with “up to 15 GB of storage” for free, according to Google’s website. Contact

KRISTIN CHUANG at kristin.chuang@yale.edu.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026 · yaledailynews.com

SCI-TECH

PAGE 7

“O Jerusalem, mountains surround her, and God surrounds His people, from now and for all time.” YERUSHALAYIM MIAMI BOYS CHOIR

Yale brings diverse outlooks to panels at Climate Week NYC BY ARIA LYNN-SKOV AND ALISSA SUNDRANI STAFF AND CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS NEW YORK — Nearly 800 people, from New Haven and around the world, attended Yale’s events for Climate Week NYC on Tuesday. Held at the Yale Club of New York City, the day’s events included over a dozen panels hosted by Yale Planetary Solutions, a University initiative that works on climate and sustainability issues. The events were free and open to the public, and with registration full, many hopeful attendees were turned away at the door. This was the University’s third year participating in Climate Week, which this year was set to include over 1,000 events across New York City from Sept. 20 to Sept. 27. “I was most excited that we had a panel with people with such diverse perspectives,” said Brianna Castro, a professor at the Yale School of the Environment who spoke on a panel about the intersections of migration law and climate policy. Yale President Maurie McInnis attended Climate Week in 2024 and 2025, but was unable to attend this year because of a scheduling conflict, she wrote in a Tuesday email to the News.

Climate We e k N YC “encapsulates higher education’s role in tackling today’s toughest challenges,” McInnis wrote, adding she is “so glad that Yale is continuing to have a presence there, and that many of my colleagues have been able to attend.” “I’m looking forward to connecting with my colleagues to discuss what was covered at this year’s gathering,” McInnis wrote. Castro noted that her panel included an Indigenous leader from Ecuador, the director of climate action at the International Organization for Migration and an immigrant advocate with a nonprofit background. “You don’t often get a panel with these different voices in the room, and we’re all thinking about climate migration in very different corners of the world,” Castro said. “But we share an agenda, and we share opinions on what we think is needed to support people in the changing climate.” Yale representatives at the event also included students and administrators who traveled from New Haven to attend and participate in panel discussions. Joshua Wortzel, an assistant psychiatry professor and the founder of the Heat Mind Lab, spoke on a panel about the impact of global warming on

depression and suicide. He wanted the opportunity to speak with different people with concerns about the impact of climate on mental health and how to create policy change, he said. Wortzel recognized that funding and policy change won’t immediately happen at Climate Week events. His goals were about people meeting to “continue the conversation” and combine skillsets to “do something larger,” he said. Julia Frey ENV ’27 said that Climate Week was “heavily promoted” at the School of the Environment and that she was excited to attend panels that aligned with her interests in renewable energy policy. Monika Kumar ENV ’05, who works with artisans in India to make sustainable textiles, said having a space for people working in sustainability to “come and get a boost of inspiration and an update of what is happening” is helpful. Not all attendees were Yale affiliates. Un ive rs i ty o f C h i c a go sophomore Julia Marden said she was going to different events throughout the city this week, “figuring out and asking what the big issues that are currently being addressed are.” “There is a big diversity in the people speaking,” she said. “That’s

ALISSA SUNDRANI / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Hundreds of people attended Tuesday’s events hosted by Yale Planetary Solutions at the Yale Club of New York City. After attending for two years, University President Maurie McInnis skipped the events this year, citing scheduling conflicts. not something that I think is always presented very easily. Attendees hailing from all parts of the world, including China, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Russia, brought global perspectives to discussions throughout the day and exchanged phone numbers and promises to keep in touch. The final event before the closing reception was an offthe-record conversation with

Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, climate advocate Laur Hesse Fisher and Kenneth Gillingham, School of the Environment senior associate dean of academic affairs. The first Climate Week NYC was held in 2009. Contact ARIA LYNN-SKOV at aria.lynn-skov@yale.edu and ALISSA SUNDRANI at alissa.sundrani@yale.edu

Faculty denounce reported changes to Endangered Species Act BY KRISTIN CHUANG AND MOHID KHAN CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS Yale environmental science professors criticized the Trump administration’s reported move to narrow the scope of the Endangered Species Act. Under the language outlined

in an internal memo obtained by The New York Times last week, only the intentional killing of a listed species — known as illegal “take” — would be considered illegal under federal law, the Times reported. Previously, accidental deaths caused by indirect factors, such as destruction of habitat, were deemed illegal under the act.

PAUL-ALEXANDER LEJAS

Faculty warned that a recent memo detailing plans to weaken the protections of the key animal protection act will have widespread effects. One said the pendulum of federal conservation policy is “swinging for exploitation.”

“It’s a step in the wrong direction,” Susan Clark, a professor emeritus of wildlife ecology and policy sciences, said. “We are totally dependent on nature for everything. Often, that’s not appreciated. To not protect nature and species is very short-sighted and in the long run we are harming ourselves.” For Yale researchers who study conservation policy and endangered species, the proposed changes are the latest in a string of rollbacks that could have dire environmental impacts. The new interpretation would require a court to prove intent in the killing of a species. “It is very difficult to prove intent,” Clark said, adding that the reported change “makes no sense.” David Skelly, director of the Peabody Museum and a professor at the Yale School of the Environment, said the memo is difficult to square with the Interior Department’s stated goals for the Endangered Species Act. According to Skelly, the Endangered Species Act was intended to temporarily protect a species until their population could recover. He said that the majority of endangered species deaths happen through indirect causes. Thus, this

change would significantly limit the act’s effectiveness in reducing deaths. “Any scientist who has worked on these issues would tell you that harm absolutely includes anything that affects the habitat, the food resources, the homes for the species you’re trying to protect,” Skelly said. Oswald Schmitz, a professor at the School of the Environment, said he agrees with the purpose of the proposed change, and that conservation policy needs to be updated for the modern scientific landscape. He said he is in favor of finding new ways to use land while maintaining a mutualistic relationship with the endangered species inhabiting it. He added, however, that he thinks this change is not the best way to achieve that. Rather, he said, the move would open the door to more exploitation of the law by companies. According to Schmitz, federal policy has long faced the challenge of balancing conservation with human activity on land. The reported change to the Endangered Species Act’s core protection reflects a reversal in strong United States federal conservation efforts since the act’s signing in 1973, he said. “It’s like a pendulum. We’ve always had strict protections.

Now the pendulum is swinging for exploitation,” he said. Skelly situated the memo within a wider context of upheaval for federal science and environmental policy, especially given the current scientific funding “apocalypse.” He added that the memo’s effect on work in the field will depend heavily on how state governments respond. Although the Endangered Species Act is a federal law that applies to federal land, states still have power to determine their own policies on state land. “One of the things to look out for in coming months is how statelevel agencies and governments react to this, and whether they either go along with it or try to tighten up their own oversight in ways that could counter some of these effects,” Skelly said. The memo obtained by the Times cites a 1995 Supreme Court dissent by Justice Antonin Scalia. Contact KRISTIN CHUANG at kristin.chuang@yale.edu and MOHID KHAN at mohid.khan@yale.edu

Yale study finds key lupus medication may protect the heart BY KATE CASTRO CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Lupus is often called an invisible illness: the fatigue, joint pain and organ damage don’t always show on the outside, and neither does the elevated heart disease risk that follows many patients for life. A Yale study first published last month suggests that hydroxychloroquine, a medication considered the backbone of lupus treatment, may quietly lower that risk with proper intake. “Patients who had better h yd rox yc h l o ro q u i n e l eve l s in the therapeutic range, as well as a consistent pattern of taking medicine over a period of time, tended to have the lowest progression in cardiovascular disease risk,” Shivani Garg, a n a sso c i a te p ro fe sso r o f rheumatology at the Yale School of Medicine, told the News. T h a t b e n e f i t , h oweve r, diminishes when patients are inconsistent with medication intake and have low hydroxychloroquine levels in their blood, the study found. Lupus is an autoimmune disease that causes widespread inflammation, with symptoms

that vary person to person. The condition begins in early adulthood and predominantly affects women. Hydroxychloroquine, often known by the brand name Plaquenil, is considered one of the safest and most reliable lupus medications. It modulates an overactive immune system rather than shutting it down like a classic immunosuppressant. Garg and her team tracked hydroxychloroquine exposure over one year using two measures: blood tests, which captured recent drug levels, and prescription refill records, which captured longer term patterns of use. “It is very similar to other blood tests that our patients undergo,” Garg said. “From the same prick they undergo for, say, lupus monitoring blood test — which would be a cell count, a kidney function test and lupus antibodies — we will draw a small tube of blood and we run it in clinical labs.” S u e K i l m e r, w h o wa s diagnosed with lupus in her seventies, has been taking hydroxychloroquine for over a decade. “From my standpoint, hydroxychloroquine has been, you know, a godsend because I think I still have some effect

of lupus, but the worst of it has been held at bay,” Kilmer said. Kilmer said she was intrigued to learn from Garg’s work that hydroxychloroquine blood levels can also be measured, as she has never had hers tested in her decade on the drug. Extended use of hyd rox yc h l o ro q u i n e a l so carries a rare risk of toxicity to the heart. These reported cardiac effects of the drug are rare and can be hard to separate from the cardiac effects of lupus itself. Garg said she wants conversations about cardiac toxicity to stay balanced so patients are not frightened away from a drug they may need for years. “Long term optimizing the dose of hydroxychloroquine is important as the medication can be cardiotoxic leading to heart failure depending on time on the medication and dose,” Margaret Furman, a cardiologist and assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine, wrote in an email. “Measuring levels of hydroxychloroquine will allow a balance between reducing cardiovascular risk and lowering incidence of cardiotoxicity hopefully.” Currently, dosage is weight

based, but several lupus experts i n c l u d i n g G a rg ’s tea m a re challenging that. Body weight may be an incomplete proxy for dosing because the drug is cleared by the kidneys, and up to 60 percent of lupus patients have some level of impairment in those organs. Garg said she sees blood level monitoring as one step toward more precise lupus treatment. While some researchers argue that large randomized trials are still needed to define exactly how best to use blood levelguided dosing, others believe that the existing evidence is strong enough to begin using levels now as an additional data point in clinical care, if it is interpreted cautiously and in context rather than relied on as a single cutoff. R h e u m a to l o g i s t Va i d e h i C h owd h a r y, a n a s s o c i a te professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, said she has already put the findings i n to p ra c t i ce by ro u t i n e ly checking blood levels of her patients. Chowdhary agreed the shift in lupus treatment may involve a more personal approach, informed by patient-specific blood level testing and patterns

of intake. “I think the first step is recognition of this increased risk and screen, screen, screen,” Chowdhary said. “We’re not talking about starting new medication. These are simply things that we can just do w i t h o u r a l rea dy ex i s t i n g information.” Garg noted a limitation of the study: because participants in the study were relatively young, the scores denoting their risk of cardiovascular disease are not directly comparable to those of older or healthy populations, though the findings may nudge lupus care toward more personalized dosing. However, for a disease with no cure, it may be that the path forward lies less in a single breakthrough than in using the tools already at hand. “There is no holy grail,” Garg said. “But we learn, we adapt and then we refine and optimize and take it with caveats in place.” An estimated million and a half Americans live with a form of lupus. Contact KATE CASTRO at kate.castro@yale.edu

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 · yaledailynews.com

NEWS

“Slow down, you crazy child / You’re so ambitious for a juvenile.” VIENNA BILLY JOEL

Union Station interior upgrades announced for 2028 completion BY NELLIE KENNEY & TAJRIAN KHAN STAFF REPORTERS Un i o n S ta t i o n w i l l ge t renovated restrooms and retail spaces along with a new central atrium and exterior repairs as part of a $24.8 million statefunded renovation. State and city leaders gathered o n Mo n d ay to a n n o u n ce the renovation, which they described as a pathway to economic growth for the city and a step toward making New Haven a major hub for regional transit. “Union Station will be transformed into a top-tier transit hub destination that New Haven residents and Connecticut riders can enjoy,” Mayor Justin Elicker said at Monday’s press conference. Connecticut Transportation Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto said at the press conference that the first phase of internal co n s t r u c t i o n w i l l i nvo lve building new restrooms and renovating the station’s second floor. Work on those features will likely begin in the next month or two, he said. Officials expect interior work to finish in the second half of 2028 and parking garage repairs to conclude in the second half of 2029. Construction will not cause interruptions to train service, Eucalitto said. Gov. Ned Lamont SOM ’80, Lieutenant Gov. Susan Bysiewicz ’83 and State Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney also spoke at the event. Exterior repairs to the station and parking garage are set to cost $9.1 million and have been underway since April. Interior renovations are expected to total $15.7 million, according to a Monday press release by the governor’s office. New Haven is partnering with the Connecticut Department of Transportation to advance the construction. The new renovation plans come after officials presented a roadmap for $402 million in upgrades to the station’s platforms and tunnels in April and $113 million in capital investments for the nearby State Street Station. “New Haven Union Station i s a n i m p o r ta n t l i n k i n Connecticut’s transportation

NELLIE KENNEY / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

State and city leaders announced renovation work worth $24.8 million, including building new restrooms and retail spaces, at a Monday press conference. Months ago, they launched plans for major upgrades to the station’s platforms and tunnels. network, and we are focused on making it a world-class transit facility,” Eucalitto said in Monday’s press release. Looney, who has represented the eastern half of New Haven in the state senate for over three decades, said the rails played a major role in New Haven’s development as a city during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The population of New Haven increased from around 40,000 in 1860 to nearly 110,000 in 1900, per records kept by the Connecticut Secretary of State’s Office. The “key” to that growth, Looney said, was rail transportation.

The current project will be a “renewal and renaissance” for the city as a transportation hub, Looney said. In his speech, Elicker painted a picture of economic growth in New Haven and touted the city’s increasing population, which he suggested would provide a larger clientele for future businesses operating in the station. The plans for the station would accommodate 13 retail spaces, Bysiewicz said. These may include restaurants, cafes and shops. Vendors interested in the spaces can apply until the end of January.

The city also plans to build as many as 2,500 new housing units across from the station, Elicker said. New Haven recently failed to win a $26 million federal grant to support construction near the station but plans to go ahead with its first phase. Elicker said he hopes the restaurants and shops in the station will be a “real resource” for people living in nearby units and other city residents, in addition to travelers. In a speech closing out the press conference, Lamont said updates to the station are “the start of something much bigger

for this transportation hub.” Wa rd 6 A l d e r C a r m e n Rodriguez, whose ward includes Union Station, said in an interview after the press conference that the constituents she had spoken to were “excited” about the renovation, and particularly the new retail spaces. The current Union Station building was designed by Cass Gilbert and built in 1920. Contact NELLIE KENNEY at nellie.kenney@yale.edu and TAJRIAN KHAN at tajrian.khan@yale.edu.

Wooster Square farmers market widens access to fresh produce BY ELSPETH YEH STAFF REPORTER The parking lot beside the Conte West Hills Magnet School comes to life on early Saturday mornings with the Wooster Square Farmers Market. Last Saturday, the lot was filled with families and residents walking their dogs and strangers lapsing into easy conversation. A saxophone player added to the ambiance. The market, one of the busiest in Connecticut, has been serving New Haven residents since 2004 and is managed by CitySeed, a food equity

nonprofit that seeks to promote healthy food networks in the New Haven area. Despite attacks on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program programs by the Trump administration, the market continues to provide food for the community. “A lot of hunger relief organizations have a lot of processed food, have a lot of shelf-stable food,” CitySeed’s Executive Director and Ward 14 Alder Sarah Miller said in a phone interview. “Our piece of it is to try to do whatever we can to make sure that there’s as much fresh and local, nutrient-dense produce in the mix

for folks experiencing food insecurity as possible.” Wooster Square Farmers Market was the first market in Connecticut to begin accepting SNAP benefits. Today, all SNAP redemptions at CitySeed markets are worth double their typical value. CitySeed also partners with the state to continue a version of the Local Food Purchasing Assistance program, which was eliminated by the federal government last September. Government cuts have never deterred CitySeed. Last fall, when SNAP payments were temporarily

ELSPETH YEH / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

In the wake of federal funding cuts for public nutrition benefit programs, CitySeed works to bring local farms and food vendors to Elm City residents at the Wooster Square Farmers Market, held every Saturday morning.

suspended by the Trump administration, the organization raised money to allow SNAP card holders to use tokens to purchase food at the market, Miller said. Allison-Ping Benguiat, the farmers market manager for CitySeed, said in an interview that all produce at the Wooster Square Farmers Market is sourced from independent Connecticut farms. Additionally, processed food vendors are required to use at least one ingredient from a Connecticut farm. Daren Hall runs George Hall Farm, a family farm in Simsbury, Connecticut, that specializes in organic vegetables. Hall has been selling produce at the Wooster Square Farmers Market for over two decades, since its second year of operation. Hall said the market has changed a lot over the years, but he keeps up the hour-long commute for the community he found at Wooster Square. “There was a huge support group down here. I didn’t realize that New Haven was full of foodies,” Hall said. “In the early days, who knew that the Yale students would come to the farmer’s market? And then the professors started coming, and then pretty soon there was a lot of influx from the school coming down here.” Lately, though, the market has only seen an uptick in Yale patrons at the beginning and end of the academic year, according to Hall. Ruth Baxter, the cheesemaker for Beaver Brook Farm, said coming to Wooster Square Farmers Market is her “favorite day of the week.” The farm, owned and operated by the Sankow family in Lyme, Connecticut, for over a century, was once one of the largest sheep farms in Connecticut. “We have to maintain a balance between different types of vendors so that the market is successful

for everybody who’s there,” Miller said, describing how the market chooses vendors. Miller said another goal of CitySeed’s market is to support aspiring business owners who have not yet been able to open a store front. One of Wooster Square’s vendors, Meakai Thai, is a project owned by a Yale Hospitality employee who works at Commons. Beyond the organization’s mission of “Good Food for All,” Benguiat, the farmers market manager, said she hopes that the market serves as a “third space” for New Haven residents — “not just a place where people buy food and talk to some of the vendors, but also, really, where you come to hang out and you have a good time.” “We come every Saturday,” said Adam Peters, who lives down the street from the farmers market. “There’s a lot of small businesses and whatnot selling stuff here. And they have a lot of high quality stuff.” “It’s always been really wonderful. There’s never any weird people or bizarre vibes,” said Cameron Stockford, another Wooster Square resident. Benguiat said she hopes that even as the weather gets cooler, New Haven residents will continue to visit the Wooster Square Farmers Market, which moves indoors after Nov. 21. “I mean, when do you get to actually chat with a farmer?” she said. “It’s a great opportunity just to hang out, grab some stuff, and just learn more.” In Connecticut, 77 percent of farms are owned by families or individuals. Contact ELSPETH YEH at elspeth.yeh@yale.edu.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026 · yaledailynews.com

NEWS

PAGE 9

“Dreaming through Tokyo skies / I wanted to see the world” KYOTO PHEOBE BRIDGERS

DeLauro forecasts rise in state heating bills due to Iran war BY EVELYN RONAN STAFF REPORTER Connecticut is in for a staggering increase in home heating bills this winter — mostly due to President Trump’s “misguided war of choice” with Iran, Rep. Rosa DeLauro said in a Tuesday morning press conference about rising energy costs and oil scarcity. DeLauro cited a new report from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, which predicted that the cost of home heating oil will jump by 31 percent this winter, with electric heating costs set to rise by 9 percent and natural gas by 6 percent. “Connecticut commuters have already paid an estimated $22 million more at the pump since July, and now that same shock is coming for home heating oil bills,” DeLauro said. The increases in energy bills partly stem from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a central oil chokepoint that the Iranian government has effectively blocked in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli airstrikes that started in February. The blockage has netted a U.S. energy supply deficit, causing a spike in prices at the pump. Connecticut’s Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program,

a federal grant program the Trump administration threatened to eliminate in April, has a budget of over $94 million for the winter season. But DeLauro said that figure lags far behind what the state needs to compensate for energy price hikes linked to the war. 10,000 additional low-income families are expected to apply for LIHEAP energy subsidies this year, state social services commissioner Andrea Barton Reeves said at the press conference. “People that you thought were secure are not anymore,” state representative Toni Walker said, adding that a large proportion of applicants for energy assistance are seniors, people with disabilities and households with children under six. The vast majority of applicants that qualify for home heating oil subsidies are already out of fuel, said Gannon Long, the chief policy and program officer at Generation Power CT, a nonprofit that provides emergency home energy assistance. At the press conference, Long urged the state legislature to bridge the political aisle and convene for a special session to address rising energy costs. Generation Fuel provides up to $500 in home fuel delivery assistance per family. Long said that even in the onset of the colder

EVELYN RONAN / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

At a Tuesday press conference, state officials criticized President Donald Trump’s war in Iran and called for more federal energy assistance as they forecasted a rise in home heating costs this winter, in addition to the already high oil prices. months, the grant is not enough. “Almost everyone who has applied this year is already or almost out of fuel,” Long said, adding that prices will only

worsen as winter rolls in. Co n n e c t i c u t h o u se h o l d s with an annual income below 60 percent of the state median income qualify for energy

assistance through LIHEAP. Contact EVELYN RONAN at evelyn.ronan@yale.edu.

Investigator’s link to police overseers in limbo after stalemate BY EVELYN RONAN STAFF REPORTER In July, the New Haven Civilian Review Board, a third-party organization that investigates civilian complaints of police misconduct, voted to pause sending complaints to a private investigator after police officers refused to answer the investigator’s questions. Two months later, the review board’s chair said she had not heard from the investigator, Kia Roberts, and that it was unclear whether Roberts had decided to cut ties entirely with the board. In March, the board hired Roberts, a New York-based private investigator, to look further into two alleged instances of police misconduct. According to the board’s chair, AnneMarie Rivera-Berrios, Roberts reached out to the New Haven Police Department that month to question a group of officers about the complaints. Rivera-Berrios said officers refrained from coordinating with Roberts and were advised to

not answer any questions, citing stipulations in the police union’s collective bargaining agreement. Florencio Cotto, president of the New Haven Police Union, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The review board stopped sending Roberts cases to investigate in July, Rivera-Berrios said in a phone interview. The police union’s refusal to cooperate rendered the investigator a “waste of money,” Rivera-Berrios said, adding she thought there was no point in continuing to contract with her. The board’s chair said she has not heard from Roberts and is unsure “if she just decided to take a step back or cut ties.” RiveraBerrios said the board continues to work closely with the police department and the city’s lawyers. Roberts did not respond to multiple requests for comment. L e t te r to c i ty a l l e ge d ‘noncooperation’ In June, Roberts sent a letter on behalf of the board to Mayor Justin

Elicker and the city’s corporation counsel. She alleged that she and Catherine Lamar, a city attorney who represents the board, had attempted to negotiate with the police union to facilitate questioning and faced a standstill. “I have more than 15 years of conducting sensitive misconduct investigations including work for Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, professional sports organizations, and other highprofile entities.” Roberts wrote in the letter. “I have never encountered the level of resistance, obstruction, and noncooperation that we are currently experiencing from NHPD.” The officers cited the police union’s collective bargaining agreement — not police department policy — in their decision not to comply with the investigator’s requests. Lenny Speiller, a spokesperson for Elicker, wrote in an email that the city’s corporation counsel and the counsel for the police union are “actively working” to accommodate all parties “in an effort to provide

the Civilian Review Board with information necessary for the Board to meet its mandate.” “The email that Attorney Roberts sent to Mayor Elicker and other parties was forwarded to the Office of Corporation Counsel,” Speiller wrote, referring to the June letter. “The Office of Corporation Counsel has been in touch with Attorney Roberts several times on this matter, and offered to facilitate efforts to provide Attorney Roberts with the information she has requested at an in-person meeting, and that offer still stands.” A spokesperson for NHPD could not immediately be reached for comment regarding the contents of the letter. Roberts, on behalf of the board, alleged that the officers’ refusal to answer her questions violates a city ordinance which permits the board to question officers based on witness testimony. The law also prevents the chief of police from making an independent decision on a civilian complaint until he receives the board’s recommended course of action.

“Internal Affairs investigations are being closed before our independent reviews have been completed, creating significant concerns about how these processes are intended to operate together,” Roberts wrote in the letter. Fair Haven Alder and Civilian Review Board member Frank Redente said in a phone interview that the board’s process should have considered the contents of the police union’s collective bargaining agreement and “can’t expect officers to breach their own contract.” At a July board meeting, Redente requested the city pause its contract with Roberts until the blockage could be resolved. The board is continuing to review cases and make recommendations to the police department’s Internal Affairs unit, Rivera-Berrios said. The New Haven Civilian Review Board was established in 2019 after a unanimous vote by the Board of Alders. Contact EVELYN RONAN at evelyn.ronan@yale.edu

ADRIAN KULESZA

The New Haven Civilian Review Board hired a private investigator to look into alleged police misconduct, but officers refused to respond, citing their union’s bargaining agreement.

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 · yaledailynews.com

ARTS

“Long distance information give me Memphis, Tennessee” MEMPHIS TENNESSEE ELVIS PRESLEY

REVIEW

Mt. Joy celebrates 10th birthday of debut single in Westville BY SARAH MU CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Westville Music Bowl filled with enthusiastic fans and colorful balloons on Monday night to celebrate 10 years since the release of Mt. Joy’s debut single, “Astrovan.” The indie rock and folk band, which was founded in 2016 in Los Angeles, opened and closed its New Haven show with the hit song as part of its 10th anniversary tour. “I love how grunge they are,” Justin Fan ’28, who attended the concert, said about the band. “I like the sort of rawness in some of the songs as well as the same of the psychedelic feelings that come with it. I think a lot of the stories they tell are very applicable in moral story — relating to romance, relating to freedom, relating to angst, but it sounds really good while they do it.” Fa n s a i d i n a p h o n e interview after the concert he is a fan of Mt. Joy because of its storytelling in songs l i ke “A s t rova n .” H e s a i d that he interprets the lyric, “Jesus drove an Astrovan,” a s a re fe re n c e to C a r r i e Underwood’s hit “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” and “about taking it slow and not necessarily worrying about the future.” Released on Sept. 22, 2016 — 10 years to the day before Monday — “Astrovan” ga r n e re d ove r two m i l l i o n streams on Spotify in its first month of debuting. At the concert, Mt. Joy played original songs alongside covers of Grateful Dead and Creedence Clearwater Revival in front of swirling graphics and messages such as “Art is Human” and “ S u p p o r t H u m a n A r t i s ts.” Founded in 2016, Mt. Joy has nearly a decade of touring under its belt, along with three albums: “Mt. Joy,” “Rearrange Us” and “Orange Blood.” Fa n s sc rea m e d o u t t h e lyrics to popular songs such as “Julia,” “Sheep” and “Silver Lining.” Julia Leventis, who traveled to the concert from

IVY LUO / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

The indie rock band celebrated the release of their debut single 10 years to the day at a Tuesday night show in New Haven. The concert was part of the North American stretch of Mt. Joy’s anniversary tour. Massachusetts, commemorated her birthday by watching Mt. Joy perform for the first time. Her friend, Rachel Pellis, who has been a fan of Mt. Joy for six years, said she had the tickets since December. “It felt sort of ethereal,” Leventis said. “Everyone was in their zone, but then towards the end it felt like we were coming together. I think my favorite part was just being able to share it with everyone, it felt really nice.”

Pellis said she was “shocked” that the crowd was not dancing much during her favorite song “Lemon Tree” or throughout the concert. “This crowd was standing still way too much,” she said. To w a r d s t h e e n d o f t h e n i g h t , M t . J oy a l s o s a n g a t r i b u te s o n g t i t l e d “ L u c y ” for a friend, who was diagnosed with multiple b ra i n t u m o rs, a c c o rd i n g to t h e l ea d s i n ge r M a t t Q u i n n . Q u i n n to l d t h e a u d i e n c e to

l i ve l i fe to t h e f u l l e s t a n d to re m e m b e r to n o t ta ke t h e little th ings fo r g ranted. Vanessa K irschner, a New H ave n re s i d e n t , sa i d s h e typically listens to indie folk music and attended the concert with two of her friends. “They played all the most popular songs and I feel like it was a good venue where you could dance and also just relax,” Kaylee McCord, a friend of K irschner’s, said. “The instrumentals were so solid.”

Katie Farkouh, another friend, thought the concert was fitting for the change of seasons. “ I fe e l l i ke eve r yo n e ’s ready for fall coming and it just matched the atmosphere perfectly,” said Farkouh. Mt. Joy continued their to u r We d n e sd ay n i g h t a t Thompson’s Point in Portland, Maine and will perform Friday in Camden, New Jersey. Contact SARAH MU at s.mu@yale.edu

Bikini Kill brings punk-rock roar back to New Haven BY ASPEN KASKALLA CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Fa n s o f a l l a ge s, f ro m teenagers to longtime followers, crammed shoulder to shoulder in College Street Music Hall on Monday night for a performance by the feminist punk band Bikini Kill. The concert marked the first

time Bikini Kill has performed in New Haven since playing in the Morse College dining hall in March 1996. That show came one month before the band released its second studio album, “Reject All American” — a name whose political undertones reflect lead singer Kathleen Hanna’s message to the crowd after commotion

broke out in the pit on Monday. “I want to connect with you a l l , b u t I c a n ’t u n d e rs ta n d what’s going on on the floor,” she said, pausing the set, a f te r p e o p l e b e ga n b o o i n g a n d p o i n t i n g a t so m e o n e i n the audience. With a “white supremacist in the White House,” Hanna said, the last thing the room needed

was more of that same hostility. “We don’t want to bring more misogynistic violence,” she said. “We don’t want to bring more transphobia. We don’t want to bring more racism.” Formed in 1990, the band is known for its association with the underground punk “ R i o t G r r rl ” m ove m e n t that promoted female

e m p owe r m e n t a n d p u s h e d back against sexism. H a n n a a s ke d t h e c rowd on Monday to look out for ea c h o t h e r a n d f i n d so m e j oy i n t h e ro o m to ge t h e r, before continuing the band’s performance with “Don’t Need You.” A r t i s t K i ly n n L u n s fo rd opened for Bikini K ill, p e r fo r m i n g o r i g i n a l so n gs including “Disney Girls.” She told the crowd to support the punk band by buying their m e rc h a n d i s e , n o t i n g t h a t smaller acts like herself get to perform thanks to invitations from artists such as Bikini Kill. “They’re the reason bands like us get to do stuff like this,” Lunsford said to the crowd. Fo l l o w i n g a lengthy intermission, Bikini Kill took the stage, opening with “New Radio” and later performing hits like the popular “Rebel Girl” while audience members swayed and headbanged to the beat. For older New Haven locals, the show carried extra weight. Patti Wilson, who has followed the band since its formation, said the city has a real claim to Bikini Kill’s history due to New Haven’s association with the punk scene. Wilson said that when she was younger, New Haven was “the place to be,” recalling the local punk hotspot Ron’s Place and the years before Bikini Kill’s rise. She reflected on the shift the band caused in the genre, and said punk had started to feel “mechanical” and “cookie cutter” until Bikini K ill’s “vibrant” arrival. Bikini Kill formed in Olympia, Wash., in October 1990.

COURTESY OF GWYN WALLACE

The feminist punk band performed at College Street Music Hall on Monday night, its first show in New Haven since a performance in the Morse College dining hall in 1996. The lead singer’s words to the crowd took on a political undertone.

Contact ASPEN KASKALLA at aspen.kaskalla@yale.edu.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026 · yaledailynews.com

ARTS

PAGE 11

“If we go down, then we go down together” PARIS THE CHAINSMOKERS

Arts council reflects on year’s financial challenges BY ANGELINA KOVALCHUK STAFF REPORTER Local creatives celebrated the perseverance of the city’s Arts Council at its 62nd annual meeting on Tuesday, where it announced new leadership and plans for a cultural arts center. Since its founding in 1964, the Arts Council of Greater New Haven has served the Elm City and surrounding municipalities by offering financial support and other resources to local artists and arts organizations. At the meeting, held at the creative hub Skiro Studios in Hamden, the council discussed creative initiatives and fundraising efforts in the face of a financially challenging year. “It was one of the toughest years in recent memory for the Arts Council,” Hope Chávez, executive director of the council, said to the crowd. Chávez said that because the organization was operating at a deficit, full-time staff reduced their hours and pay by 40 percent for nearly six months. She added that reduced revenue streams were outweighed by expenses, compelling the council to scale back operations. Still, the council was able to raise $1.37 million through fiscally sponsored projects and publish 371 articles by the Arts Paper, the council’s official art publication. Its members also announced two new leadership changes, including the appointment of Joel Dodson as the council’s incoming board chair and the appointment of Abiba Biao as the program director for the Youth Arts Journalism Initiative. “We’re thinking about reimagining how the Arts Council can become a

hub for the different organizations and artists and creatives in the community,” Dodson said to attendees. “But with that in mind, we really want to build toward the future.” Chávez also announced two initiatives the council would prioritize going forward: the construction of a community cultural arts center and a deeper focus on arts advocacy. “Our community needs a lot of spaces,” Chávez said. “We have been linking arms with people trying to build spaces.” At the meeting, Chávez said the council will remain committed to its mission of advocacy, creative commons, arts journalism and fiscal sponsorship. Lucy Gellman, outgoing editor of the Arts Paper, said she was excited about the appointment of Biao as the Youth Arts Journalism Initiative’s inaugural program director. The program, which was established in 2018, introduces New Haven high schoolers to grassroots journalism and allows them to independently research and publish articles. “For so many years, it has been my dream to have a full-time person who can build out a really robust network of alumni and steward the program forward and grow it in beautiful and new and exciting ways,” Gellman said. Rebekah Moore, the council’s programs director, said a federal grant of $200,000 enabled the initiative to appoint a full-time program director. According to Moore, the council was awarded an additional $194,000 in federal funding to “continue the work for arts, artists and arts businesses.” The funds are being used to launch the new Arts as Small Business

ANGELINA KOVALCHUK / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

On Tuesday, the Arts Council of Greater New Haven held its 62nd annual meeting to reflect on the monetary challenges and fundraising successes of the past year and announce new creative initiatives. Initiative, which will give artists the resources to market their work as a small business. “I really want to come in here and give artists the opportunities to be a small business, a thriving business,” Moore said. “Because a lot of times, art is a second thought or a side gig, and I really wanted to help artists and give them those tools.” For the meeting, the council also invited representatives from two organizations they have sponsored, the New Haven Immigrants Coalition

and Ubuntu Storytellers — an ensemble of Black, brown and biracial performers. Both organizations had booths with handouts for attendees. “The board allows the net of the Arts Council to be cast wide enough to support community organizing groups as well that use arts and culture and storytelling as part of their work,” Chávez said. The representatives of the council also asked attendees to continue supporting the council’s efforts through monthly donations, advocacy

participation and volunteering. “I encourage you to leave us some of your thoughts about what you want to give to this community, what we can do better, what you think is the most critical and acute need,” Chávez said. The office of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven is located at 70 Audubon St. Contact ANGELINA KOVALCHUK at angelina.kovalchuk@yale.edu

Brentano Quartet plays meditations across classical history BY LAURENTIA WOO STAFF REPORTER The Brentano Quartet kicked off Yale’s Chamber Music Series with a performance on Tuesday, placing Haydn and Beethoven alongside c o n t e m p o ra r y Latvian composer Peteris Vasks in a program titled “Dreams, Meditations, Contemplations.” Founded in 1992 at the Juilliard School, the Brentano Quartet is an ensemble in residence at the Yale School of Music. Their Tuesday program brought together three works linked by their slow, contemplative movements: Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in D Major, Op. 50, No. 5, known as “The Dream”; Vasks’ String Quartet No. 4, written in 1999; and Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 8 in E Minor, Op. 59, No. 2. For Misha Amory ’89, the quartet’s violist, the program grew out of an interest in what happens when composers approach meditation through very different musical languages.

“It’s a program about dreams and meditations and contemplations,” Amory said. “They’re linked by the slow movements.” Amory also described the program as moving between “daydream and reverence.” The Vasks quartet’s fifth and final movement, “Meditation,” provided the program’s most contemporary interpretation. Amory said Vasks, a Baltic composer whose music has sometimes been compared to the meditative qualities of contemporary Estonian Composer Arvo Pärt, created music that seems to drift rather than move toward a conventional destination. For Amory, the music is “eternal melodies spooling out over quiet tremolos” that create music that drifts “eternally over the horizon.” The program also placed the three composers in distinct moments of their lives and careers. According to Amory, Haydn spent much of his career away from major cultural centers, experimenting with musical ideas in relative isolation. On the other hand, she said, Beethoven,

increasingly isolated by his deafness, continued to push the string quartet in new directions. Vasks, centuries later, approaches meditation through a musical language that can seem to resist traditional ideas of destination and resolution. For audience member David Atkins, the contrast was particularly striking in the Vasks. “The first one displayed virtuosity masterfully, but it didn’t speak to me,” Atkins said. “The second one was unique, innovative and transportive.” Aviv Pilipski ’29, another audience member, described the performance more broadly as “an absolute joy” and “such a privilege to be able to hear such masterful performers.” For the Brentano Quartet, Beethoven is becoming an increasingly central part of its future programming. The ensemble, which has performed together for 34 years, is preparing to play a complete Beethoven quartet cycle in 2027, marking the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death. The cycle will give the quartet an opportunity

LAURENTIA WOO / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

In “Dreams, Meditations, Contemplations,” the quartet, an ensemble in residence at the Yale School of Music, connected three composers across centuries while looking ahead to its first complete Beethoven cycle in 2027. to approach all of Beethoven’s string quartets as a body of work. The quartet has never previously performed the complete cycle, despite Beethoven’s central place in its repertoire. Amory said the ensemble had originally been invited to present a Beethoven concert, but its members were so overwhelmed by the experience of working with the composer’s music that

they began developing programs that placed Beethoven alongside other composers. The Yale performance was the first presentation of this particular program, and the quartet will also perform it at Princeton this weekend. Contact LAURENTIA WOO at laurentia.woo@yale.edu

Sonic exhibit at Schwarzman dome plays itself electronically BY BRETT PENK STAFF REPORTER Upon entering the dome of the Schwarzman Center from Tuesday to Saturday afternoons, viewers can now feel the sound of 10 freestanding kinetic sculptures, made up of 36 hand-tuned bronze and steel gongs, ring throughout their whole body.

Designed by artist Aaron Taylor Kuffner, “Gamelatron, Sonic Immersion” is an exhibit that produces music entirely by itself through mechanical mallets that are connected to an electronic computing system. The exhibit, which opened on Sept. 1, is partially derived from Indonesia’s sonic tradition, Kuffner said.

BRETT PENK / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

“Gamelatron, Sonic Immersion” features sound-producing kinetic sculptures made of gongs that are connected to an electronic computing system. The immersive exhibit will be on display until Oct. 10 in the dome of the Yale Schwarzman Center.

“With the Gamelatron project, it’s really about creating opportunities for people to encounter resonance off vibrating metal objects and have that part of their daily life,” Kuffner said. “I look at this work, like all my work really, as an offering to hopefully nourish in one way or another, the people that encounter it.” Kuffner, who also plays gongs, studied Gamelan music at a university in Indonesia. “I recognize that the artwork has the potential to be more impeccable than I,” he said. Kuffner said he composes long form, nonlinear compositions “that kind of ebb and flow and never really end” so people can walk in at any time and not have to worry about a start or finish. “It never ends, so you leave when it’s time for you to leave, be it some external reason, or some internal reason where you’re like, ‘Yeah, I got enough. I got the dose I needed,’” he said. Jennifer Harrison Newman DRA ’11, the Schwarzman Center’s associate artistic director, said in a phone interview that the center first conceived the idea of the exhibition even before its renovations were

completed in 2021 and the staff had seen the inside of the building. H a r r i so n New m a n sa i d that she visited a version of the Gamelatron exhibit in San Francisco in 2023 and thought “Oh, this is super interesting.” For Harrison Newman, the experience of first walking into the dome when the exhibit was installed felt like walking inside an instrument itself. “I felt like I walked into an instrument,” Harrison Newman said. “The room became the instrument. You could just feel the vibrations of the pieces in your body.” Each installment of Kuffner’s work is distinct due to the different spaces provided by venues, Kuffner said. “Having the setting being less about looking at the art, and more about being inside the room, were all decisions made very much on purpose,” Kuffner added. “And so this was designed about, ‘How can we make this an inviting space so that people can have encounters with resonance, kind of on their own terms?’” It took three years from Harrison Newman’s visit to his San Francisco exhibit in 2023 to its

actual installation, Kuffner said. The Good Life Center in the Schwarzman Center is also displaying one of Kuffner’s kinetic sculptures for the entire academic year. Some have led meditation and yoga classes in that installation, Harrison Newman noted. Bethel Asomaning ’25, the director of programming for the Good Life Center at Yale wrote in an email to the News that the center was excited for the “intersection of art, music, and wellness,” adding that the installation creates a relaxing environment that allows students to slow down. “Students have shared that they enjoy the calming music and appreciate the artwork of the gongs, and we look forward to integrating the instrument into some upcoming programming,” Asomaning wrote. The installation plays in the dome from Tuesday to Saturday, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., until Oct. 10 and plays daily at 12 p.m., 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. throughout the entire academic year in the Good Life Center. Contact BRETT PENK at brett.penk@yale.edu.

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 · yaledailynews.com

THROUGH THE LENS

THROUGH THE LENS: A CAPPELLA TAP NIGHT 2026 Photos by Kali Sabala Montez ‘28, Alex Hong ‘29, Martín Peralta ‘29 and Crystal Huang ‘30

YALE DAILY NEWS · SEPTEMBER 25, 2026 · yaledailynews.com

THROUGH THE LENS

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WNBA SUN 95 TEMPO 81

WNBA MYSTICS 101 SKY 93

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026 · yaledailynews.com

“Every Ivy game is mentally tough. The margins between teams are so small, and there is no room for error,” HETTIE WHITTINGTON ’27

Undefeated Bulldogs aim to maintain perfect streak in Cornell matchup FIELD HOCKEY BY VINCENT HUANG CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The No. 15 Yale Bulldogs (5–0, 1–0 Ivy) will play their second

Ivy contest of the 2026 season against the Cornell Big Red (2–4, 1–0 Ivy) this Saturday at Johnson Field. Yale currently sits atop the Ivy League as the sole undefeated team and is one of only four undefeated teams in Division I. The Big Red will arrive in New

LIZA KAUFMAN / PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

The No. 15 Yale Bulldogs will seek a second straight Ivy victory against Cornell this Saturday. A win would mark their best season start in over thirty years.

Haven after defeating Columbia (3–3, 0–1 Ivy) 3-2 last weekend to snap a four-game losing streak. “Every Ivy game is mentally tough. The margins between teams are so small, and there is no room for error,” captain Hettie Whittington ’27 wrote in a statement. “In the Ivy League, every game comes down to which team shows up on the day, not which team looks best on paper. On Saturday, we want to be on them from the first whistle and play like we did the last time.” The match will mark Cornell’s first visit to Johnson Field since 2024, for a game that Yale won in a 5-0 rout. The Bulldogs will be hoping to replicate that dominating performance to make two victories in two Ivy games. Yale ranks ninth in the nation for scoring offense — 3.60 goals per game — and have allowed no more than a single goal in any of their opening five contests. In the NCAA’s Ratings Percentage Index ranking, the Bulldogs

ranks second in the conference behind only No. 8 Harvard (5-1, 1-0 Ivy). A key contributor to Yale’s success this season has been the offensive consistency and chemistry of Chiara Picciafuoco ’28 and Issy Baileff ’28. Both players have had stellar starts to their 2026 campaigns and rank nationally in multiple offensive metrics. Picciafuoco, who changed positions from midfielder to forward, has mounted a stunning performance this season and leads the entire NCAA in assists per game — with 1.20 — while simultaneously sitting second for goals per game — with 1.40. Baileff is ninth in the country for goals per game — with 1.00 — and has scored in each of the last four games. “As with Chi and I, we’ve played together for a while now and I think the position change for Chi has really allowed her to thrive,” Baileff wrote in a statement, referring to Picciafuoco. “Chi and I work well together as she knows

where I want to play the ball and I know where she wants it and these connections really help when playing in conference games.” Midfielder Emma Ramsey ’27 is also having a career year, ranking fifth in the country for assists per game — with 1.00. The star performances from Picciafuoco, Baileff and Ramsey as well as the general chemistry of Yale’s offense places the Bulldogs fifth in the country for team assists per game — with 3.80. By any available metric, the Bulldogs have had a spectacular start to the season. If they win this Saturday, they will be off to their second best start in program history, trailing only the 7-0 launch of their historic 1995 campaign. Yale will host Cornell at Johnson Field on Saturday at noon, in what will be the last of their six opening home games. Contact VINCENT HUANG at v.huang@yale.edu.

Bulldogs prepare for home opener after mixed results at season debut MEN'S TENNIS BY REMI CLARK-REDSTAR STAFF REPORTER With the first matches of the season complete, the Elis are set to make their home debut this Friday. After kicking off the season to mixed results last weekend, the men’s tennis team took to the court this week in preparation for the Yale Invitational, which they dominated last season. In the 2025-26 campaign, the team had a strong showing at this first home game, winning 11 out of 17 matches played. This year, they are looking to replicate those results. “We need more match play,” head coach Benjamin Johnson said in an interview. “Thankfully, it’s September, and we have a lot of room to grow. We had a couple of good showings; we looked good in the doubles, but our singles was not what I was hoping for. We have a lot of fall

left, and we are certainly looking forward to getting back on the court this weekend.” In the team’s last outing, the doubles racked up four wins out of six matches played across the three days of the Invitational. The dynamic duo of Jason Shuler ’27 and Dylan Tsoi ’27 did not drop a single set all weekend. Jim Ji ’27 and Edward Liao ’28 started off rough with an 0-6 loss but found their footing on the second day with a 6-7 tiebreak loss, ultimately breaking through on the final day with a handed 6-3 win. In the singles department, the team walked away with only three victories out of 12 total matches. Two of their losses went down to the wire, decided by third sets. Overall, five of the losses included sets that went to seven points, with three being tiebreaks. Of the wins, two were earned by Liao, including a triumph over Harvard’s Nathan Blokhin, the ITA’s No.44 ranked player. In preparation for their home opener, the team is looking to

strengthen its abilities both on the offensive and defensive sides. “Our ability to attack and defend,” Coach Johnson said, “is an area we are looking at: finishing at the net and looking for openings, recognizing weaker balls so we can attack. We spent the week in practice trying to implement those, being aggressive with the ball and taking it on the rise.” The team conducted focused practices for other aspects in need of improvement, tailored to individual duos and players. “We have a very structured week. We come in knowing what we are doing each day,” Krish Gupta ’28 said. “One day, we are hitting baskets of balls; another day, we have singles and doubles play.” In preparation for the debut of the team’s new recruits, the Bulldogs paid particular attention to practice set play. None of the three new players competed in the earlier invitational. “We are being much more competitive and simulating match play in practice,” Gupta said. “We are getting the freshmen ready for their first match and are really trying to

ALYSSA CHANG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

After the season opener at Chowderfest, the Yale men’s tennis team is taking the lessons from their first competition and readying themselves for the Yale Invitational. Three rookies are also set to make their college debut. simulate the match environment for them and us.” At this weekend’s competition, the new recruits will make their Yale tennis debut. “I am looking for my guys to be tough, enthusiastic, disciplined and selfless,” Johnson said. “You put them in a certain environment; the goal of any coach is to create an environment

for any player to learn from, learn to succeed and fail and have growth from both.” The three-day Ya l e Invitational will kick off this Friday, Sept. 26, at the CullmanHeyman Tennis Center. Contact REMI CLARK-REDSTAR at remi.clark-redstar@yale.edu

Yale looks to stay hot in first Ivy League match against Cornell WOMEN'S SOCCER BY GIAN LOMBEYDA CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The Yale Bulldogs (5–4–0, 0–0 Ivy) will play their first conference match of the season against the Cornell Big Red (3–3–2, 0–0 Ivy) on Saturday. Yale has not beat Cornell in five years, but the team will seek to change

the narrative this weekend in Ithaca. With strong performances against Fordham University (3–4–1, 0–1 A-10) and Sacred Heart University (7–2–0, 2–1 MAAC) over the last two weeks, the Bulldogs have exceeded expectations so far this season, surpassing last year’s win count before conference play even begins. “Our attack is getting better and better and our defense has been physical and organized as we’ve continued to ask of them,” Head Coach Sarah Martinez wrote in an email to the News.

Results on the road will be crucial for a potential Ivy title push this season. That begins with this weekend’s tough matchup. Cornell has historically proven to be a difficult opponent, with Yale’s last win against the Big Red coming in a tight 1-0 match in 2021. Although goals have been in short supply for the Big Red this season, the team has been solid defensively, recording three clean sheets in their last four matches. Yale will need experienced forward Abigail Solomon ’26 and Ivy

ALYSSA CHANG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The Bulldogs will face Cornell on Saturday in their first conference match of the season. Yale has not beat Cornell in five years, and the Bulldogs enter the game with a disciplined squad that will seek to change that narrative.

STAT OF THE DAY

League Athlete of the Week Honor Roll recipient Anita Thorvaldsdottir ’27 to step up and break down Cornell’s back line. “Cornell is a solid team,” defender Alex Chang ’27 wrote in an email to the News. “However, I have full belief in our team and all the work that each and every one of us, from the coaching staff to the players, has put in.” Chang, who was also on the league’s honor roll this week, anchored Yale’s defense and notched her second assist of the season last Sunday. She will look to continue contributing in both defense and attack. Yale’s defensive personnel have been strong across the board. Fellow defenders Andie Miller ’27, Tana Sands ’29 and Hope McMillin ’30 have had strong seasons, while firstyear goalkeeper Isabel Willems ’30 has blown away all expectations, already garnering Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week recognition in her short time at Yale. The Bulldogs will need their defenders to stay disciplined from the first minute to the last on Saturday. Last year, Yale’s 0-1 loss to

the Big Red was decided by a goal in the first minute. The goalscorer in question, Cornell senior Alanna Colbert, has scored in the last two matches between Yale and Cornell. She already has a goal and two assists this season. Even as Cornell has struggled for wins as of late, the team is reinforced by the experience of upperclassmen leaders like Colbert who make up a majority of the starting lineup. “Every team in the Ivy League is very strong, and there’s never an ‘easy to win’ game as results depend on who’s ultimately better on the day,” Chang wrote. A win would go a long way in addressing Yale’s early season consistency woes, especially ahead of a tough fixture against defending Ivy League champion Princeton next week. “There’s obviously more pressure added now that Ivy Conference play begins,” Chang wrote, “but we won’t let that take away the joy that we play with.” Contact GIAN LOMBEYDA at gian.lombeyda@yale.edu

THE BULLDOGS ARE THE SOLE UNDEFEATED TEAM IN THE IVY LEAGUE IN FIELD HOCKEY, AND ONE OF FOUR UNDEFEATED TEAMS IN DIVISION I.

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“He has brought out the best in all of us by creating a culture of hard work. He is always talking about being all bite, no bark. He wants us to work as hard as possible and let our work speak for itself.” JAXTON SANTIAGO ’28 FOOTBALL

As head coach, Kevin Cahill returns to Yale with passion and discipline FOOTBALL BY AUDREY KIM, STAFF REPORTER

As Kevin Cahill kicks off his head coach tenure at Yale, he is steering Team 153 with discipline and passion, both for the sport and for the team he now leads. In his new position, Cahill will have the chance to make Ivy League history as the Bulldogs seek to win back-to-back Ivy League championships and return to the FCS playoffs for the second year in a row. For now, things are looking optimistic for Cahill: in his debut game last Saturday, he led the Bulldogs to a comeback victory against Holy Cross. “Yale has a lot of history to it,” Cahill wrote in an email to the News. “Yale Football is a tradition that is very proud. To be a small piece of the Yale Football history is pretty special. We have a lot of wonderful traditions within our program that we look forward to building this season.” In late February, Yale appointed Cahill as the new Joel E. Smilow ’54 Head Coach of Football. Cahill was previously on the Elis’ coaching staff for 10 seasons — from 2012 to 2022 — before leaving New Haven to become the head football coach at Lehigh. Cahill, a former college athlete himself, is no stranger to competition. As a three-year starting quarterback for the Springfield College football team and three-year starting pitcher for the school’s baseball team, Cahill made two NCAA playoff appearances and was named ECAC Division III New England Player of the Year twice. “I have really enjoyed the competitive edge Coach Cahill has,” wide receiver Jaxton Santiago ’28 wrote in an email to the News. “He has brought out the best in all of us by creating a culture of hard work. He is always talking about being all bite, no bark. He wants us to work as hard as possible and let our work speak for itself.”

Before returning to New Haven to become head coach, Cahill served as associate head coach and offensive coordinator for the Elis. During Cahill’s 10 years on the Bulldogs’ coaching roster, Yale won three Ivy League championships. Ahead of the 2023 season, Cahill was appointed Lehigh’s head coach, a position he held for three seasons. Although his first season at the helm for the Mountain Hawks ended with a 2–9 record, Cahill turned the program around in record time. In his second season, Lehigh flipped the script, finishing 2024 with a 9–4 record and a Patriot League Championship. In his final season, Cahill led the Mountain Hawks to new heights, closing out 2025 with a 12–1 record and undefeated regular season. The team’s singular loss took place in the second round of the FCS playoffs, when Lehigh fell to Villanova. The 2025 Mountain Hawks were one of only two teams to enter last year’s FCS postseason undefeated and received the No. 5 seed in the tournament. “What I enjoy most about working with coach Cahill is his passion,” running back Hugo Djeumeni Kemeni ’29 wrote in an email to the News. “It’s truly second to none, he’s fully embraced his job and does everything to make sure we stay on the path that we’ve chosen.” During his tenure in Bethlehem, PA, Cahill earned significant recognition for his contributions as a coach. In 2024, he was named the ECAC Coach of the Year and the Patriot League Coach of the Year, and in his record-breaking 2025 season, he was tapped the AFCA Region 1 Coach of the Year and earned the Eddie Robinson Award, the award presented to the National FCS Coach of the Year. “Winning is very important with the history Yale has,” Cahill wrote. “We are proud of that expectation; that will not change.

LIZA KAUFMAN / PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Kevin Cahill, who was on Yale football’s coaching staff from 2012 to 2022, has returned to New Haven as Team 153’s head coach. His efforts to infuse a winning, hard-working culture seem to have paid off in his debut victory last Saturday. Our immediate goal is to improve every day. We will be a work in progress all season long. The goal is to win, but the real goal is to be a much better football team later in the season than early in the season. The outcomes will take care of themselves.” The hard-working culture Cahill has cultivated has already proven successful in the Bulldogs’ season opener against Holy Cross. After going into the locker room tied 7-7, Yale scored 31 points in the second

half, including 17 unanswered in the fourth quarter, to defeat the Crusaders 38-28. “Coach Cahill is a winner. He knew exactly what we needed to do to win, even when we went down, and he put us in the best position to do so,” Santiago wrote. With one win under his belt, Cahill will now turn his attention to leading Yale football in its first season following the Ivy League’s FCS Playoff debut, where the Bulldogs advanced to the second round of the tournament.

“The opportunity to coach this group is very special to me,” Cahill wrote. “Learning the players’ personalities and their personal backgrounds has been great. They are a great group of motivated men. It’s been great to be around them and look forward to a fun season ahead.” Yale will head to Cornell for its Ivy Opener on Saturday at 1 p.m. The game will be available on ESPN+. Contact AUDREY KIM at audrey.kim.ajk234@yale.edu.

Bulldogs to face Big Red on the road for Ivy opener FOOTBALL BY BRODY GILKISON STAFF REPORTER The No. 17 Yale Bulldogs (1–0, 0–0 Ivy) head north this weekend to take on the Cornell Big Red (0–1, 0–0 Ivy) in a game that will be both teams’ conference opener. Last week, the Bulldogs mounted a fourth-quarter

comeback over College of the Holy Cross for their first win of the season, while the Big Red fell 20-7 to Colgate University. Looking at Cornell The Big Red offense left much to be desired after a meager Week 1 performance. Through the air, Cornell quarterback Garrett BassSulpizio threw for just 132 yards and completed less than half of his 38 attempted passes. He was picked off three times by the Colgate defense.

Bass-Sulpizio also led the Cornell rushing attack. He accounted for nearly half of the team’s yards on the ground on five carries, and the remaining 12 rushing attempts were made by five running backs. On the defensive end, the Big Red put up a respectable effort. The team allowed just twenty points, all in the first half, and managed to rack up four sacks and eight tackles for loss — an impressive feat against a Colgate

team that came in averaging just 1.3 sacks allowed per contest. Team 153’s keys to victory Yale’s offense was certainly the highlight of its first week. After getting off to a slow start, the Bulldogs put up over 500 yards of offense thanks to a strong passing game. Though averaging over 450 yards per game through the air may not be sustainable throughout the course of the season, quarterback Dante Reno ’28, who was named

LIZA KAUFMAN / PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Coming off of a victory against Holy Cross last weekend, Team 153 is set to travel to Ithaca for its first conference matchup of the season against the Cornell Big Red on Saturday.

STAT OF THE DAY

Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week, certainly lived up to preseason expectations and will need to keep up his strong play on Saturday. One area of improvement is the ground game of the Bulldog offense. After averaging just 3.7 yards per carry on 23 carries last weekend, Yale’s young running back room is due to have a breakout game. If Hugo Djeumeni Kemeni ’29 and Cuttler Adams ’28 can break a few free, it will only open up the Cornell secondary even more for the dynamic Bulldog air raid. On the other side of the ball, defensive coordinator Sean McGowan and his team put on a defensive clinic in last week’s first half, allowing just seven points and doing a strong job of swarming to the football. However, in the second half, as both offenses caught fire, the Bulldogs struggled to get off the field for a bit before making adjustments in the fourth quarter. Yale’s offense will likely put up plenty of points against Cornell on Saturday, but it would be a lot easier on the fans if its defense could find a way to collapse the pocket early and often and force the Big Red offense into making mistakes. Look for an agitated defense to be flying around the field this weekend and get back to its destructive ways. Saturday’s game will kick off at 1 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca, and will be streamed on ESPN+. Contact BRODY GILKISON at brody.gilkison@yale.edu.

THE BULLDOGS PUT UP OVER 500 YARDS OF OFFENSE AGAINST COLLEGE OF THE HOLY CROSS LAST WEEKEND

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026 · yaledailynews.com

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026

WEEKEND

Cover designed by Stephanie Altschul

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND CULTURE PERSONAL ESSAY

Mi cultura, your campus // BY LIZETH ORTIZ-CALLEJA As the sun sets, students gather on Beinecke Plaza. Their smiley faces and laughter indicate that this is some sort of celebration. Some people are dressed in typical modern clothing while others wear long bright dresses adorned with colorful ribbons and suits with golden buckles and precise stitching. The scene has you puzzled: What’s going on? This is what Hispanic Heritage Month looks like at Yale this fall. It’s visible, both seen from a distance and photographed for all to watch on social media. But as I talked to peers across campus, I found that not everyone experiences the month the same way. For some, Hispanic Heritage Month is a joyful, long-awaited time to cherish their culture in the spotlight. For others, it’s a reminder of how much work is still left to feel truly represented at Yale. Being seen isn’t the same as being represented, and it raises a more complicated question: when Yale celebrates “H ispanic” identity, whose Hispanic identity is actually being spotlighted? As of 2025, 16 percent of Yale’s undergraduates identify as Hispanic. For Mark Rodriguez ’29, outreach chair of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, who grew up on the South Side of Chicago, that makes celebrating here more than a party. “Celebrating here at Yale specifically is almost retaliation to assimilation, to the predominantly white culture here,” Rodriguez said. “You really need to try and hold on to your cultural norms and embrace it.” I felt that pressure the

moment I arrived. Coming from Salinas, California, where my high school was mainly Hispanic, Yale was a huge cultural shock. Hardly anyone looked like me, and even fewer people understood the way I’d grown up speaking. Things like a joke landing differently when it’s half in Spanish, or the specific chaos of a Hispanic household, don’t need explaining among your own people but suddenly do among strangers. I found myself translating not just language, but an entire way of being. Madison Aguilar ’29, social chair of Ballet Folklórico Mexicano de Yale, said she knows the feeling. She is from San Antonio, Texas, and her high school was primarily Hispanic. But the shock she describes went beyond numbers. “It was a big culture shock at Yale that not everyone was Hispanic, and also that there were different kinds of Hispanic,” she said. For others, Yale is the first place their Latino identity has felt surrounded. Alaia Aquino ’29, co-president of the Dominican Student Association, went to school in New Haven, where Hispanic students were one group among many. Now, she estimates that 90 percent of her friends are Hispanic. “It’s just nice having friends who can communicate with my mom, who can relate on a cultural level when it comes to childhood experiences or ways we grew up,” she said. For many of us, that community lives in cultural organizations. I started choreographing for Ballet Folklórico Mexicano de Yale and advocating with Mecha de Yale.

LA CASA BY MARTIN PERALTA

Aquino spends so much time with the Dominican Students Association that she treats its room like a second home. “I find myself just going to the DSA room to do homework, or just talking to everyone on board,” she said. “It’s a good community.” Aguilar said the effort it takes to find these spaces is part of what makes them matter. “At Yale, it’s definitely more of an effort to join these groups, which makes it more intentional and more meaningful,” she said. That community gave me the confidence to do something I hadn’t expected: share my culture beyond those spaces. I started inviting my nonH i s pa n i c ro o m m a te s to Ballet Folklórico showcases, telling stories about growing up Mexican and welcoming questions I might once have found exhausting to answer back home. To me, Hispanic Heritage Month isn’t just a celebration

for those of us who already carry this culture. It’s a chance to hand a piece of it to the people who don’t. It’s the moment I get to put my suitemate on to Tajin, or explain to a friend what a quinceañera actually means beyond Raini Rodriguez’s “Living Your Dreams” music video, and watch my culture become a little less foreign to someone who didn’t grow up in it. One of my favorite moments this month was sharing a piece of my pan dulce with my roommate and seeing her enjoy it. Rodriguez carries his culture differently. For him, the work is less about sharing it and more about not losing it. “It’s about trying to remember what makes me Latino as a person versus actually being just a Latino in white spaces like Yale,” he said. And the month’s visibility has limits. Aguilar said she only feels isolated from the community when she isn’t going to events. While programming

is plentiful during Hispanic Heritage Month, it is scarce the rest of the year. R o d r i g u e z wa n t s m o re than events. He said he would like to see a more outspoken administration, pointing to University President Maurie McInnis’s silence on federal policies he believes harm H ispanic communities and people of color. “How can I feel safe when our own president of the school cannot speak out against these evils?” he said. On Oct. 15, Hispanic Heritage Month ends. The ribbons and golden buckles will be packed away, and the photos will scroll out of our feeds. What’s left is the question the celebration couldn’t answer on its own: can being seen for a month ever add up to being represented for a year?

phrase is not always used as an excuse for bad behavior. As Leo Ladeira ’28, a member of the fraternity LEO, clarified, “The way I’ve used it or the way that I’ve seen it used, is more of a stamp of approval on someone’s c h a ra c te r o r s o m e o n e ’s personality.” He continues, “I mean, a lot of the time I’ll see it used around LEO and especially during Rush and all that. It’s always like, ‘Oh, he’s the boy,’ like, “You need to meet this guy.” The way Leo uses the phrase is not as an excuse for bad behavior, but as praise for likeability. In fact, Leo said, “I would say, ‘She’s the boy,’ I think.” I suspect that this disagreement on the malignance of the phrase “He’s the boy” comes from a varied perspective on the ‘bro code.’ When I asked Leo about what he thought about ‘bro code,’ he said, “I did Boy Scouts for about nine years, and I got a lot of value from fraternity in the sense that you’re there with your brothers or with other people who are very similar to you. You would be there for them, you would sacrifice for them, you would do whatever, and it’s along those lines I’ve kind of experienced that sort of bro code. But bro code has never been something negative for me or a big part of my life.” Riley, however, sees ‘ bro code’ as inextricably linked to patriarchy. She cited scholar Eve S e d g w i c k G R D ’ 7 5 , saying that her definition of patriarchy “is basically like social relationships between men that are for men by men, and benefit men. I think ‘He’s the boy,’ like guys who call their

friends the boys, I think it more emphasizes this network of social relationships between men.” The fact that I have only ever heard men call someone ‘the boy,’ and only ever in the context of social relationships between men, eerily aligns the phrase with Sedgwick’s definition of patriarchy. Now, I know that some people reading this are thinking that I’ve looked far too deeply into a phrase that no one thinks about all that much. I argue that in a world where women still earn 81 cents to every man’s dollar, we should be focusing on the things that are not so obvious. Words have an impact, even if we don’t say them with malice. This leads me to a conundrum that I have long puzzled over: When is it okay to use words with complex histories of discrimination or marginalization? For example, b---- or c---. If these words carry such power, should we use them at all? Or, if we can, who should be able to use them? What I have settled on is that groups that wield power over the people implicated by a certain word should never be able to use it. I understand that ‘He’s the boy’ is hardly a derogatory insult. It does, however, tap into a history of excusing men on the sole basis of their gender — in essence, power breeding power. My question remains unanswered: Innocuous frat platitude or covert internalized misogyny?

Contact

LIZETH ORTIZ-CALLEJA at lizeth.ortiz-calleja@yale.edu.

PERSONAL ESSAY

But he’s the boy // BY ASHA ROY When I hear a new internet word or viral phrase, it usually comes from my social mediasavvy younger sister. With the phrase “He’s the boy,” it was in conversation with one of my guy friends. We were sitting in L-Dub eating Trader Joe’s snacks — the highest good in the Yale snack economy. I had mentioned one of his fraternity brothers who, earlier that week, had called me and my friends “overdramatic” and told us to “take a deep breath” while we were dealing with a medical emergency. My friend responded sympathetically but closed his comment with the refrain, “He’s the boy, though.” I faltered. As usual, there are a million things I now wish I had said in response. However, what I lack in off-thedome responses I make up for in WKND articles, so I set out to explore what my peers think about the term “He’s the boy” and write the response I wish I

ILLUSTRATION BY TASHA FU

had given my friend that night. Riley Yang ’29 was the first subject of my investigation. When I asked her if she had ever heard the phrase before, she admitted that she hadn’t. “I actually thought that maybe when you asked about this, you were getting confused with ‘He’s the man’” she said. I was shocked. I hear “He’s the boy” about five times a day. Riley continued, “I don’t really talk to a lot of like bro-ey guys very often,” which is fair enough. B o t h R i l ey, a n d Wo m e n , Gender, and Sexuality Studies professor, Joe Fischel LAW ’21, compared the phrase “He’s the boy” with “Boys will be boys,” which Riley claims “glosses over a double standard.” I agree that there is a double standard. Certain mistakes that men make are excused by other men — and women — and mistakes that women make are scrutinized by both genders. I

have seen that time and time again with my female friends — and sometimes myself. We excuse unacceptable behavior from male friends, citing their ‘avoidant tendencies’ or ‘pastrelationship trauma’ when we would, without doubt, criticize our female friends harshly for doing the same things. Riley told me that her mom used to say, “There’s no quality control for men.” This is not a value judgement on men, simply a recognition that social institutions do not check men the same way they check women. Men get away with a lot, and thus, there is less behavioral “quality control,” so to speak. As Riley explained it, “if you’re in the position of power, you don’t have to think about how your actions come across as much,” whereas women are constantly considering every angle of perception. About the specific use of ‘boy’ instead of ‘man’ in the phrase, Fischel noted, “It strikes me that the phrase is about licensing childishness as an alibi for unsavory behavior. Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Manchild’ comes to mind.” While that analysis doesn’t immediately hit home with how I’ve heard the term used — I would say that the word ‘boy’ has colloquially lost some of its literal meaning — Fischel brings up a valid point. Fischel and Riley were also right to flag “He’s the boy” as similar to “Boys will be boys” in the specific instance of men excusing other men. In both cases, the very fact of being male is the thing worthy in itself of excusing poor behavior. The

Contact

ASHA ROY at asha.roy@yale.edu.

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: COMPLIMENTING STRANGERS

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND CULTURE & ARTS

COLUMN

On the road: Looking for America // BY ALEXANDER MEDEL One defining trait of a Yale student is our knack for asking questions. Equally characteristic of us is our passion for going to great lengths to find answers. I suppose that is the reason why we go on to populate university faculties or newsrooms. I imagine that explains why we pay tens of thousands of dollars every year just to become professional seat warmers in Sterling. Yale students are inquisitive by nature, and we readily indulge our curiosities. When sometime this spring I developed the urge to explore America, it should come as no surprise that I found it very hard to ignore and very easy to entertain. Curiosity alone is enough to enchant the mind. And that feeling, when combined with wanderlust, can only produce adventure. I was born and raised in this country. I have called it home each of the 21 times I have journeyed around the sun. For the past four years, I have studied its history and its politics in great depth. My transcript and my lonely nighttime walks home from Marx are proof of my efforts. And yet, like the multitude of thinkers and writers before me who have penned pages of wisdom far beyond my ability, I entertain the ageold contradiction that has beguiled them all: the more you learn about America, the more you discover you do not know it. So I set out, one early morning in May, accompanied by my mother, father and a cooler full of Fanta with one item on the docket: looking for America. My plan was to draw a giant lasso across the American West. Starting from the Bay Area, we would travel down the Central Valley and drive eastward on Route 66 from Barstow all the way to Chicago. After making it to the shores of

ALEXANDER MEDEL / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Lake Michigan, we would return west by way of the northern Plains with stops at the Black Hills and the Great Basin before making it back home to California. To the statisticians out there, we would go on to cover 5,683 miles across 15 states in 15 days. I must admit that making sense of America is an old and unoriginal business. Since the founding of our republic, everyone seems to have articulated an original idea or interpretation regarding our experiment, our ideas, our people. Don’t believe

me? Take a history seminar. Visit a bookstore. Browse CourseTable. If the concept of America were a baseball, it would burst at the seams, having seen too many pitches. Many Americans will hear, at some point in their lives, an irresistible call to explore their country — to meet its people, to indulge in its stories, to enjoy its scenery. It’s an essential call to answer. Just a week before leaving for my road trip, TD’s assistant dining hall manager said he was going on his own from California to Texas. He was celebrating a milestone. What struck me most from that conversation was his self-assessment. He relayed to me that he has spent the past few years going abroad but neglected to explore his own country. This summer, he sought to rectify this. He heard the call, and he answered.

As organically as this calling came, the timing could not have been more perfect. This year, the United States celebrates 250 years of independence. My objective was complicated by this fact. Yes, I was looking for America like many before me. However, I was looking for America in her current context — two-and-a-half centuries of nationhood later. It would be foolish of me to claim here and at the end of this series that my conclusions and observations of America are definite, all-encompassing and true. I am no professional anthropologist. My travels have been limited to a generous portion of the western United States — I cannot speak for the coast of New England, the cuisine of the Gulf Coast or the communities of Appalachia. And there are certainly memories I’ve made that notes

and words would fail to capture. What I can claim is that these thoughts are mine. They are the ruminations of a 21-year-old Yale student who simply wants to better understand his country as best as he can. John Steinbeck mentioned something along the lines of that in “Travels with Charley.” His America, he told his readers, would be different from theirs. The same applies here. What is America to you will be different from the America I find on this journey. America can be interpreted in many different ways. But those interpretations — those truths — no matter how varied, can all be simultaneously real and true. And that, to me, is a beautiful thing. Contact ALEXANDER MEDEL at alexander.medel@yale.edu.

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: REINVENTING YOURSELF

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND CULTURE & ARTS REVIEW

Scouting for new songs: Find them at Yale // BY ESMERALDA VASQUEZ-FERNANDEZ

ILLUSTRATION BY ISABEL LI

Growing up in Southern California, it seemed like many teenagers wanted to be alternative, underground, incomprehensible. Many scoured the thrift stores to find vintage pieces that nobody else at

school would be wearing. Thrifted vinyls by bands from the 90s filled my room. My Bloody Valentine, Current Joys, Beach Fossils, Weyes Blood, Sunbeam Sound Machine and Washed Out blasted in my

friends’ cars. Then, those people grew up and searched for ways to preserve their uniqueness. One way of doing so is by listening to music others haven’t heard of. Being the first fan of someone’s work. Luckily, Yale is home to a plethora of artists, DJs and bands to add to playlists. For those who want to have the most niche music taste of anyone in their friend group, Yale’s music scene is the place to be. The first time I heard “Hunting Days” by Khatumu Tuchscherer ’24, I knew it would become a song that gets played multiple times a week. Immediately, the initial 10 seconds of Khatumu’s vocal run over the acoustic guitar creates an ethereal atmosphere. As someone who cares a lot about knowing the lyrics to songs, her first couple of lines “comes home at five, says he’s fine” sparked personal interest because it created a storyline for the song. Khatumu’s lyrics convey the familiar feeling of being forgotten about

in a relationship, undervalued with “treat me like a dog, take me out back, put a bullet in my brain. Tell me that my hunting days are done… just treat me like I’m someone.” It’s the perfect song to listen to on a pensive walk on or when you want to belt lyrics in the car. Over 4 million people have streamed this song on Spotify. It’s for a reason. Recently, I’ve been leaning into the 2012 fall aesthetic. From wearing vanilla bean perfume to seminar to walking around a bookstore with a pumpkin spiced latte to listening to “Bright” by Echosmith. I search for that nostalgic warmth. Strictly Platonic’s song “You” emulates everything that I love about indie songs released in the early 2010s. The vocals of Audrey Hempel ’25 remind me of being 10 years old and sitting in the backseat of my mom’s car on a crisp rainy day. Suddenly I am seeing the world through a golden filter and awaiting the next “back to school supply haul video.”

Marin Korenaga ’27, whose stage name is Marin Clarisse, recently dropped “internet stalking” on Sept. 18. The piano and rawness of Clarisse’s voice elevate the song. My favorite Clarisse song is “moral bankruptcy.” The vocals, lyrics and drums work perfectly together to create tonal shifts and beat drops. It sounds like a song that would be in a film’s soundtrack in the best way possible. It’s been added to many of my personal playlists, and I continue to send it to many of my friends from other universities. You can find me walking around campus listening to the songs that my fellow peers have created. I find their lyricism inspiring, and it also pushes me to expand on my own creative hobbies.

an essay due at midnight, a problem set waiting to be finished, three club meetings squeezed into one night, or a “let’s get a meal” that you actually have to follow up on. To get the magic of campus back, I became a tourist at my own school. I had to treat campus like it was my first time seeing it. I started walking without checking my phone and stopped to photograph the sunlight hitting Harkness. I slowed my pace to let the love of this school run free. I will never be able to recreate the feeling of my first visit. I wasn’t seeing it for the first time anymore. There was

another kind of magic in seeing a familiar place with fresh eyes. I picked up my package. The resentment I felt toward that slow-walking couple had turned into appreciation. They had no idea that by slowing me down, they had reminded me to look around. Maybe that’s all it takes to find the magic again: not a new place, but a new way of looking at the one you are already in. Next time you’re stuck behind slow tourists, take a beat, take a photo and allow your mind to wander.

Contact ESMERALDA VASQUEZFERNANDEZ at esmeralda.vasquezfernandez@yale.edu.

PERSONAL ESSAY

Bring back the magic // BY LEAH SKINNER Syllabus week is over. It’s the first full week of classes, and I’m making the trek to the Yale bookstore to pick up a package, a walk that feels more like a hike to East Rock when rushing. My plan is simple: secure the package, go back to my room, finish my three readings and then go to my two back-to-back club meetings. I’m walking, looking down at my phone and watching my time-blocked Google Calendar schedule run away from me. And, of course, a meandering tourist couple is taking up the full sidewalk right in front of me. I’m irritated. I’m anxious. I’m ready to resent them for life. I remember it like this: I looked up angrily from my phone at the couple, audaciously disrupting my schedule. Obviously, they weren’t Yale students, probably not even New Haven residents. They were walking near campus, stopping, chatting and taking pictures of each facade and gothic window, in total awe of Yale’s majesty. I realized that I was watching people do something I hadn’t done in a long time. When I first visited campus after getting my acceptance letter, all I could feel was an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the rich beauty that surrounded me. During the 60-minute tour, I filled my camera roll with the same iconic spots that the couple had captured in front of me. Before the stress of classes set in, those pictures became a reminder of my new home — the culmination of my hard work in high school. Campus felt like a magical place. a place where every corner held the possibility of something new. The magic stayed past move-in. I looked with wanderlust at corners of campus left unexplored. Hearing the bells in Harkness Tower out of my window reminded me that the place of my dreams had become home. I wish I could pinpoint the moment when campus lost its magic. Hearing the bells out of my window became more of a nuisance than a joy. Going to Sterling Library felt more like a

duty than a privilege. Walking around at Yale became more of a routine than an experience. Something that I used to love so deeply became a burden. It must’ve been a slow descent. My footsteps quickened and I stopped taking pictures. Like any dream, when Yale was an idea, it was easy to romanticize. Upon arrival, my romantic bubble popped. Yale stopped being a dream and became my everyday life. Everything became familiar. Maybe I’m just melodramatic. Your thousandth visit to Sterling won’t be like the first. But with that mindset, will the magic

of campus ever come back, or will we be stuck in a constant state of indifference until graduation? The wonder dissipated as I filled each cell in my Google Calendar. Instead of looking around and enjoying the scenery, I spent my walks optimizing my time: sending emails, updating my schedule, texting back friends and family, making a to-do list. Not everyone has time in their day to take 20-minute strolls around campus and smell the proverbial roses. We don’t want to get in the way of a student rushing to the package center. Sometimes there is

Contact LEAH SKINNER at leah.skinner@yale.edu.

ILLUSTRATION BY SERINA YAN

ILLUSTRATION BY AKHIL RAO

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: HALLOWEEN PREPARATION