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NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2022 · VOL. CXLV, NO. 3 · yaledailynews.com · @yaledailynews
Students rally for abortion access Students Trans, reproductive healthcare sought on Kavanaugh anniversary BY YASH ROY STAFF REPORTER More than 200 students rallied on Cross Campus on Thursday to demand that Yale provide expanded reproductive and transgender healthcare. The protest was staged against the backdrop of a nationwide debate over abortion access and on the four-year anniversary on the confirmation of alum Brett Kavanaugh ’87 LAW ’90 to the United States Supreme Court. Students at 50 universities across the country also participated in a national day of action organized by the Young Democratic Socialists of America and Graduate Students Action Network. Advocacy groups at Yale are calling on the University to provide contraceptives, pregnancy tests, abortion care and hormone therapy to all students free of cost. “This is not just a protest,” Caitlyn Clark ’23, co-chair of Yale’s YDSA chapter said. “This is the beginning of a campaign, a struggle between us and the University, between us and the politicians who claim to care about abortion rights but do nothing to codify abortion rights SEE RALLY PAGE 5
Thursday's protest was staged against the backdrop of a nationwide debate over abortion access / Zoe Berg, Senior Photographer
bemoan cold snap Three colleges, other dorms have no heat until Oct. 15
Lucas Holter, Senior Photographer BY SARAH COOK STAFF REPORTER A particularly chilly start to October has many students wondering about heating in the College’s residential buildings. As temperatures earlier this week dipped into the low 50s, with Monday’s highest temperature recorded as 55 degrees, students living in Pierson, Jonathan Edwards and Silliman Colleges as well as McClellan Hall on Old Campus reported a lack of heat. Several said that they have reached out to administrators with little action taking place. Carly Benson ’24, who was annexed to McClellan Hall from Berkeley College,
Endowment growth at decade-low 0.8 percent growth worst since 2009, but ahead of peers BY EVAN GORELICK STAFF REPORTER The University’s endowment grew 0.8 percent for the 2022 fiscal year, its lowest percentage return since 2009. The annual return was slightly positive despite volatile financial markets and a declining median college endowment nationwide. Still, it represents the University’s lowest return since the Great Recession, when the endowment tanked by nearly 25 percent.
After accounting for $1.6 billion of spending distributions to the University’s operating budget, the endowment ultimately dipped to $41.4 billion for the 2022 fiscal year. “In such a volatile year for the world’s financial markets, we are pleased to have protected Yale’s capital,” Matt Mendelsohn, Yale’s chief investment officer, said in a University press release. “That said, we expect challenging times ahead as rising interest rates, inflation and the geopolitical environment provide stiff headwinds.” The announcement starkly contrasts last year’s, when Yale posted its highest rate of return in decades, driven in part by record-breaking venture capital gains nationwide. The staggering 40.2 percent return drove total assets to a new height of $42.3 billion, cementing Yale’s as one of the
largest university endowments in the world. Though not all of Yale’s peer institutions have released their endowment returns yet, the ones that have done so generally reported numbers lower than Yale’s. Dartmouth’s endowment returned negative 3.4 percent, Cornell’s negative 1.3 percent and the University of Pennsylvania’s a flat 0.0 percent. According to the press release, Yale pursues an investment strategy that balances risk and reward across multiple asset classes, including public equities, marketable alternatives, leveraged buyouts, venture capital and real assets. The past year — Mendelsohn’s first as CIO — has strained most of Yale’s investments, and current market forecasting does not provide
INSIDE THE NEWS
THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY, 1993.
YALE BEATS HOWARD IN FIRST HOME GAME
The Women's Table bubbles over after an unidentified individual pours laundry detergent into the fountain. Universiy officials work to prevent further "soap sudding."
PAGE 11 SPORTS
CS50 alters pay, avoids staff strike BY ALEX YE STAFF REPORTER
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has forced Yale’s Slavic Languages and Literatures Department onto its toes. Class programming has been updated, archives have been lost and the Department as a whole has been placed under a spotlight as the conflict carries into the new school year. “Russia’s war in Ukraine has had huge personal and professional consequences for all of us in the Department,” Department Chair Edyta Bojanowska wrote in an email to the News. “Many of us have been flooded with emails asking for help and have served as clearing houses directing scholars, artists and students to various resources.” When the war began in the winter of 2022, faculty in the Department knew they had to respond with clarity and force. The Department held town halls, called for the conflict’s end and offered a list of ways to help from the Substack of history professor Timothy Snyder. As the conflict carries on, the Department continues to adjust its programming in response. In the spring, the Department held a town hall to discuss the impact of the war on members of the Yale community, including those SEE SLAVIC PAGE 5
SEE CS50 PAGE 5
BY MIRANDA WOLLEN STAFF REPORTER
CROSS CAMPUS
ACADEMICS
Undergraduate staff for the University’s largest computer science course have won an increase to their maximum weekly pay after threatening a strike. The change was made after over 30 undergraduate learning assistants for the introductory lecture CPSC 100 — more commonly known as CS50, after the original course taught by David Malan at Harvard College — penned an email on Sunday to course and department administrators explaining their grievances over a new payment system introduced at the beginning of the school year. “The CS50 staff is requesting swift and decisive action on changing our pay system to establish proper compensation for the work we are doing, avoid additional staff losses to alternative work options, and preserve the passion of the CS50 workforce in the future,” the letter reads. The letter gave administrators one week to respond. Inaction, the letter reads, would leave staff with “no choice but to take further action in the form of a work stoppage.” The system introduced for the semester — implemented across all departments that employ ULAs — stipulated that ULAs would only be paid at a uniform weekly rate for a maximum of 7.5 hours, replacing the hourly rate used in previous years. That maximum, the letter states, disincentivized ULAs from providing necessary support to students. According to the email, ULAs for CS50 were hired in the spring and were told at the time that they would be paid at an hourly rate. The
SEE ENDOWMENT PAGE 5
Slavic Dept. grapples with Ukraine war
The Slavic Languages and Literatures Department adjusts its programming in response to the war / Zoe Berg, Senior Photographer
SEE HEATING PAGE 4
PAGE 3 OPINION PAGE 8 NEWS PAGE 13 BULLETIN PAGE 14 SPORTS PAGE B1 WKND
SAUNA The Payne Whitney Gymnasium's
shuttered sauna will be converted into changing rooms despite student protest. PAGE 14 SPORTS
ALLERGEN A duo of scientists launched a program that exposes young children to common allergens to fight allergy development. PAGE 8 ARTS