This upcoming summer will mark the second series of in-person study abroad programs since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the summers of 2020 and 2021, the programs took place online. Last year, once full in-person programming returned after the pandemic halt, as many as 700 students participated in Yale and non-Yale programs abroad. 

“We still have time before the summer study abroad deadlines,” said Kelly McLaughlin, the director of Yale’s study abroad program. “That said, applications are coming in at a strong pace.”

The application for Yale study abroad programs has now been open for over two weeks, and will be due on Feb. 7. The application deadline to request to transfer credits for a non-Yale study abroad program is March 7. 

According to McLaughlin, programs for this summer are slated to be held in-person.

“We are hoping for a ‘return to normal,’” said McLaughlin. “So far so good in most locations, but we are still advising students to pay attention to the COVID-19 landscape as conditions evolve, hopefully all for the better.”

Twenty-four Yale study abroad programs are being offered this summer, including language-study courses and humanities and culture-based programs. 

New programming includes a Russian language study program in Georgia. There will be three programs set in Batumi and Tbilisi, Georgia: “Advanced Russian I + Culture,” “Second-Year Russian I & II + Culture” and “Third-Year Russian I & II + Culture.”

Study abroad programs located in Russia have been canceled since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.  

In addition to the popular Spanish language studies programs in Bilbao and Valencia, Spain, a third option has now been added in Peru: “YSS in Lima: Advanced Spanish Language and Culture of Peru Through Art.”

Pranava Dhar ’25 is considering various Yale and non-Yale study abroad programs in Italy for the upcoming summer. Dhar is a staff reporter for the News.

“I decided to study abroad this summer partly based on the testimony of my friends who studied last summer and loved their experiences,” Dhar said. “COVID definitely played a role, for I was uncertain how the programs might shake out last summer, being functional for the first time in two years. Now that I have more clarity about the experience of studying abroad, I am sure I’ll have a great experience if I go.”

He expressed enthusiasm for the study abroad application, which includes a personal statement where a candidate must describe their reasons and motivations for applying to the program. 

Lucia Amaya ’25 is planning to apply to the “Dubrovnik: History and Culture of Southeastern Europe” program in Croatia. 

“I haven’t started the application yet but it seems fairly accessible and straightforward,” Amaya said. “The only thing I’d say about it is that I found no availability to meet with study abroad counselors until after the application deadline, so that has made it harder for me to make decisions about my program.”

Students applying to non-Yale programs must make sure to meet the program’s deadline along with Yale’s approval of credit deadline. McLaughlin advised students to consider applying to backup programs and to apply as early as possible to increase their chances of securing a place in at least one program.

The Yale Study Abroad website includes a full list of the programs offered as well as scholarship and funding information.

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The Center for International and Professional Experiences had initially predicted that between 75 and 100 students would choose to spend their spring semester abroad.

“For students who had their time on campus disrupted by COVID-19, it has been harder to make a decision to spend another semester not on campus,” Director of Study Abroad Kelly McLaughlin said. “We think that explains why the numbers are a little down, compared to pre-COVID times.”

Far more students tend to choose spending summers abroad over semesters abroad. 691 Yale College students went abroad this past summer, down from 803 who did so in the summer of 2019. Study abroad programs had generally been put on pause between the summer of 2020 and the spring of this year.

McLaughlin explained that the study abroad application process is not competitive and that students received the results of their application two weeks after the Oct. 11 application deadline. 

Audrey Zhong ’24 said she plans to study in Paris next semester. Zhong noted that losing her first year to the pandemic made her question whether or not she wanted to study abroad during the school year. Without COVID-19, she said “there would have been no hesitation.” 

Students tend to participate in a wide variety of programs, including study-center, direct enrollment, hybrid and field-based types.

In the 2018-2019 school year, students studied in 57 countries representing 72 Yale College majors. According to McLaughlin, Yale students tend to pursue programs in Western Europe, though they also study all across the world.

The fall 2022 semester is the first during which students have been allowed to study abroad since the COVID-19 pandemic began. There are 23 students studying abroad this semester, and CIPE projected that many more will participate in similar experiences next semester. 

Kaia Mladenova ’24 is currently studying abroad in Paris, France. As an international student from Bulgaria, she had always hoped to study abroad and experience life in another European country.

“Reach out to the advisors at the Yale study abroad office,” Mladenova said. “They know so much and are super helpful. … And don’t be afraid, there will be a bunch of other students in your program and it will be super fun.”

McLaughlin discussed the application process and requirements to study abroad for a semester. The primary review focuses on ensuring students’ eligibility for studying abroad and ensuring that they do not surpass the maximum number of transfer and outside credits that count toward their Yale diploma. A 300 to 500-word personal statement is also part of the application, so the CIPE office can review each student’s plans for the semester ahead. 

Students studying abroad next semester have begun making plans for their time away from campus. 

Sasha Nelson ’24 is planning to study abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark in the DIS Copenhagen Child Development and Education program. She explained that she would have studied abroad earlier but that the COVID-19 pandemic prevented this. 

“I think college is a really good time to explore the world, especially if you get a chance to do it on Yale’s dime,” Nelson said. “Travel is an amazing opportunity I’m not sure I’ll get in my future life and career, so I wanted to take advantage of it while it’s available to me.” 

Many people around ABET mechanical engineering major Samantha Lorr ’25 told her it would be “impossible” to study abroad due to the many major requirements she had to meet. However, she decided to take matters into her own hands and designed a schedule that would make her study abroad goals possible. 

“Even if people tell you it won’t fit into your schedule or you won’t have time to finish your major requirements, you definitely can fit study abroad into your schedule!” Lorr said. “Just make sure you plan ahead and doing distributional requirements while abroad is a great way of making it possible if you have a lot of other classes you want to take while at Yale.”

Lorr plans to study abroad in Athens, Greece in Spring 2023.

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, these sessions continued to take place over Zoom. However, since the start of the fall semester, these sessions are back in-person at OISS for the first time since March 2020. The sessions take place from 1:15 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. every weekday except for Tuesday, when OISS is closed and the sessions are held remotely.

“The OISS English Conversation Groups are great in that they not only help participants gain confidence in speaking but also provide an opportunity for meeting people and making friends,” Charlie Mayock-Bradley ’23, a volunteer facilitator, told the News. “By learning with and from each other, we always leave our conversations feeling a bit more curious and a bit more connected. It’s a joy to work with such an enthusiastic and cool group of people.”

Some of the volunteer facilitators are Yale College students, like Mayock-Bradley. He joined the conversation groups last year when they were still taking place online on a daily basis. For each session, he prepares a series of questions and topics and then gives participants the freedom to offer a variety of perspectives and ideas. 

Molly Hampton, associate director for engagement, assessment and operations, emphasized how the sessions are structured differently every day but that the comfortable and low-pressure dynamic remains the same.

“The facilitators choose their topic of the day, whether that be related to American culture, or even an article that was written in the YDN,” Hampton wrote in an email to the News. “Sometimes our facilitators play games such as Scrabble or even take walks around campus when the weather allows.”

Each day is led by a different volunteer facilitator, according to Hampton.

Groups are typically composed of three to five participants, but participants are free to attend the sessions according to their availability so sometimes 10 to 12 people may attend a session. Most of the attendees are the spouses of Yale international students and scholars.

Though most of the participants in the English Conversation Groups are the spouses of graduate or visiting international students, sometimes the parents of students who are visiting Yale for an extended period of time participate in the sessions as well.

“I joined the conversation groups as a facilitator last year when they were still online, and it was a really great way to connect with people in the midst of hybrid or online school,” Mayock-Bradley said. “Moving to in-person programming … was great in that it allowed me to get to know the other participants a bit better — the only drawback is that people living outside of New Haven can no longer join us.”

Sara Xiao, the spouse of an international scholar, is one of the most consistent members of the English Conversation Groups. She joined the program at the beginning of the fall semester and shared that it has made her more confident in her English conversational skills. 

“I am not as shy as I used to be when speaking English,” Xiao wrote in an email to the News.  “It’s also a great opportunity to meet people from other countries. We share our cultures and experiences and that’s so nice to learn from each other.”

According to Hampton, the English Conversation Groups will be held again next semester, starting in late January. 

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Hosted at the Omni Hotel on Nov. 4, this was the first time the fair has been held in person since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was canceled in 2020 and moved online in 2021. 

“The purpose of this fair is to introduce students to all the possibilities sponsored by CIPE, including Yale Summer Session, study abroad programs and fellowships and funding,” Dean of Yale Summer Session Jeanne Follansbee said. 

Director of Study Abroad and Deputy Director of CIPE Kelly McLaughlin explained that the large number of attending students is significant because the fair serves as “the front of the pipeline.” He estimates that the number of students participating in summer programs next year will be on par with the number of students who did so during the summer of 2019. 

The fair consisted of nearly 20 booths representing a variety of summer opportunities available to Yale students. 

The Yale Summer Session in Rabat, Morocco was one of the programs with a booth at the fair. 

“I’m excited to see the study abroad program is coming back to the same conditions as Pre-COVID,” Director of the Arabic Summer Abroad Program Jonas Elbousty said. “We’ll have the opportunity for students to have an immersive experience and spend time in Morocco.” This way they might be able to witness majestic spots similar to the marrakech to fes desert tour luxury package.

The Rabat summer session last ran in 2019. The program will return for Summer 2023, offering eight weeks of intensive language and cultural studies in the capital of Morocco. 

Professors from the Italian department also expressed their excitement for the Italian study abroad program next summer. They discussed the COVID-19 restrictions that the participants of the Yale Summer Session in Siena faced in 2022. 

“This past summer, we couldn’t have a lot of events together and couldn’t visit some places like the Botini in Siena,” Director of Undergraduate Studies of the Italian Department Simona Lorenzini said. “Next summer, we will be able to organize more events together.”

There was also a booth for the International Study Award which is available to first years, sophomores and juniors at Yale College who receive financial aid. The ISA is calculated based on the Yale Scholarship that students receive during their academic year. 

Financial aid takes a variety of factors — including airfare, transportation and meals — into consideration so students can have a full summer experience without worrying about money. 

“I’m excited we’ll have a lot more students abroad next summer since there are less regulations,” Associate Director of Fellowships and Funding Jill Carrera said. “Hopefully a lot of students who weren’t able to use their ISA in the past few summers will be able to use it next summer.”

The fair was successful among many first-year students who were eager to learn more about the summer opportunities Yale offers.

Diego del Aguila ’26 is considering the Italian Summer Session program to fulfill his language requirement next summer. 

“I was already sure I wanted to study abroad next summer, but the CIPE Summer Opportunities Fair helped me identify certain programs I’m now interested in,” Del Aguila said. 

Summer study abroad applications are due on Feb. 7, 2023. 

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The News interviewed five international students about their transition back to life in the U.S. over the last year and how it has been settling back into a traditional college experience.

“It was challenging to meet people online [during my first year], but now I feel a strong sense of community,” Adhya Menda ’24 said. “I really value in-person friendships because they developed in a very natural setting, and didn’t feel as forced as all the virtual activities.”

Menda, an international student from India, started college in fall of 2020 and had a hybrid college experience during her first year at Yale.  

Rolando Kattan Rubi ’25, an international student from Honduras, explained the challenges he faced while traveling to the U.S. due to COVID-19  related restrictions. 

A year ago, many international students struggled to travel to New Haven due to the varying travel guidelines enforced by each country. 

“This year, everything was easier,” Kattan Rubi said. “Having less COVID-19 related requirements this year made everything easier so that immigration cannot give you trouble. Last year, I had to travel early in order to get vaccinated in the United States before we started college.”

The Office of International Students and Scholars, or OISS, exists to help students navigate their time at Yale, usually functioning as their first point of contact. OISS begins by explaining the U.S. immigration process and steps to apply for a U.S. visa to incoming students. 

Ozan Say, the director of OISS, told the News that OISS provides a variety of resources for students, including peer liaisons who can help international first years to “recognize that they are not alone in this adjustment and many others before them have gone through the same process.”

“Realizing that it is going to require some adjustment usually makes things a little bit easier,” Say said.

Issy Po ’26, an international student from the Philippines, told the News that despite dealing with homesickness, Yale minimized the challenges faced during transition through the number of bonding activities offered at the beginning of the school year.

In particular, Po told the News that college aids and “Frocos” — Yale’s first-year counselors — made her feel welcome into her residential college.

“It’s been my home base since I got here,” Po said. “Fireside chat, first year dinner and Froco group among others are also such a genuine and constant reassurance that Ezra Stiles College is here to support me.”

Po added that Camp Yale and Yale’s suitemate system “embody a sense of home and community.”

Devina Aggarwal ’25 told the News that while her transition to Yale was challenging during the beginning of her first year, she now feels more adapted to life in the U.S. as she starts her sophomore year.

“Yale feels like home to me — I love being back with all my friends and I really missed spending all my time with them,” Aggarwal wrote in an email to the News. “I’ve been here almost a month now and it feels like I never left.”

Aggarwal, who is from India, told the News that one of the biggest transitions she faced was getting used to the cold and missing the food back home.

“The experience of studying at Yale and in the U.S. is also profoundly transformative, so being mentally ready to observe these personal changes can help them negotiate their evolving and transnational identities with their loved ones back home,” Say said. “Many internationals realize this when they first go back home and reconnect with family and friends.”

Nydia Del Carmen ’26, an international student from Nicaragua, mentioned how the biggest challenge for her has been establishing a routine, as life abroad is very different from life at home.

Del Carmen told the News that being friends with other international students who can relate with each other can help ease the transition.

“It does help that you are arriving with other first-year students that are also actively trying to adapt to college life, even if they live just a few hours from New Haven,” Del Carmen said. “It does feel like we are all in the same boat as this is a new experience for everyone.”

10 percent of students at Yale college are international students.

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In most summers, the University offers a variety of YSS Programs Abroad where students can participate in study overseas and improve their language skills. Travel and social distancing restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic halted students’ plans for the 2020 and 2021 summers. But the program was able to return this summer, sending students around the world.

Kelly McLaughlin, director of study abroad, wrote in an email that the programs ran well even after “​​such a long disruption in travel.”  

“While Covid presented some of the usual challenges, programs and participants were, by that point, prepared for and experienced with handling that,” McLaughlin wrote. 

This summer, students participated in 17 programs offered by Yale as well as a number of other approved non-Yale programs. According to the Yale Study Abroad website, the summer’s sessions included historical courses in Croatia, filmmaking and cinema courses in the Czech Republic and France and language courses offered in Italy and Spain. 

According to McLaughlin, 691 students participated in study abroad programs this summer. In the summer of 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 803 students were in study abroad programs. 

The Study Abroad Office plans to continue operating as normal, McLaughlin wrote, given that the Yale University International Travel Policy for Yale College Students​ has “effectively reverted to its pre-Covid status.” 

The only change in Yale’s travel policy was the addition of general vaccination recommendations and guidance on region-specific risk assessment before travel. 

For students who participated in non-Yale study abroad programs for Yale credit, like Cem Kupeli ’25, pandemic restrictions had almost no effect.

“Everything was absolutely normal,” said Kupeli, who participated in a non-Yale program in France. “I did not encounter any Covid-related problems neither during my homestay nor courses.”

A number of students who participated in these programs spoke to the News about their experiences and reflections after spending the summer studying abroad. 

Students were generally enthusiastic about their decision to study abroad and many talked about their goal to learn a new language. 

“I chose to study abroad over the summer to immerse myself in a foreign culture, catch up on credits and become more proficient in my target language,” Ali Aldous ’25 said. “Also, it seemed like a fun opportunity to live and learn with my classmates and friends in a new and exciting setting.”

Aldous participated in the Intermediate Italian YSS Program in Siena, Italy. She discussed some of the challenges she faced while studying abroad over the summer, including the demanding course load and adapting to a new culture. 

Meanwhile, Tim Lingk ’25 studied abroad in Taiwan through the Yale CET Taiwan program in partnership with National Taiwan University. 

“I would like to use Chinese professionally in the future and plan to live and work in East Asia,” Lingk said about his decision to study abroad. “As such, improving my Chinese while exploring Taiwan struck me as a great way to spend my summer.”

Christian Tamez ’25 studied abroad in Brazil and did the YSS in Paraty and Rio de Janeiro: Elementary Portuguese program. 

While Tamez reminisced about the travel experiences he had while studying in Brazil, including a boat ride in Paraty and the increased confidence in his Portuguese language skills, he also discussed the challenges he faced upon starting his study abroad program. 

“I do think the main challenge was living at the beginning since we were just starting the language in general and were expected to survive in the metropolis from day one,” Tamez said.  “But it proved to be a great learning curve being able to apply my language on a daily basis.”

Tamez plans to continue his Portuguese studies at Yale and feels confident about the road ahead due to the language skills and experiences he picked up over the summer. 

Veronica Zimmer ’25 studied abroad in Paris, France and noted the initial challenge of having to communicate entirely in French with a host family. Now, Zimmer said, she is more confident with her French skills and reminisced about her experiences visiting the French countryside with her classmates. 

“The countryside was stunning and I got the chance to have lots of one-on-one conversations with my professors,” Zimmer said. “We explored the beach, a farmers market, and the places that inspired Van Gogh’s paintings. I feel much more confident speaking in French now. I’m certainly not using every idiomatic phrase, but I can communicate smoothly to francophones who don’t speak any English.”

Although summer programs have come to a close, Yale also allows students to study abroad during the fall, though the University does not sponsor its own fall programs. According to McLaughlin, there are currently 28 Yale students studying abroad for the fall semester in a variety of programs. 

With everything going back to normal, students who are eager to “engage with the larger world,” as McLaughlin put it, can now meet with a study abroad adviser to start planning their travels.

The application for Yale Summer Session Programs Abroad closes on Feb. 7, 2022. 

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One of these new classes includes “Early Modern Media,” an undergraduate seminar co-taught by art history professor Marisa Bass and John Durham Peters, professor of English and film and media studies. This art history course focuses on the broader range of media that were central to debates about faith, politics and the natural world during the 17th century.

“‘Early Modern Media’ is an experiment in bridging the history of art and media theory, and in thinking about what it means for 17th century Dutch art and culture to be ‘modern’,” Bass said. “We wanted to bring the essential practices of close reading and close looking to bear on a wide and unexpected range of material: from prints to cannons, ships to scripture, landscape paintings to studies of the cosmos. We are also encouraging students to explore creative approaches to historical writing, in line with the seminar’s exploratory spirit.”

Durham Peters added that media forms are often considered to be uniquely modern phenomena, such as audiovisual or digital creatures powered by electricity and rare earth metals — but that media has actually existed for far longer.

“In fact, all cultures have had means by which to order their space and time and to build relations with others and with nature,” Durham Peters wrote in an email. “This class allows us to focus on one place and time of remarkable media invention, one whose media were both ingenious and beautiful, and one whose dilemmas foreshadow our own in uncanny ways.”

Another new Yale College course is “Adapting to the Stage,” a theater studies course taught by professor Sophie Schweiger that focuses on teaching students how to adapt a written script to the stage. 

The course investigates the relationship between dramatic literature and its performance, in the context of German theater from 1750 to the present day.

“We are working towards new ways of engaging with canonical texts, and we are also looking to read outside the (male, white, heteronormative) canons of our field,” Schweiger wrote in an email. “Moreover, our approach is intermedial; that means that we’re operating somewhere in between literature and theater studies, as we investigate, for instance, processes of inter- and transmedial quotation.”

Professor of political science Charles McClean is also teaching a new class entitled “Japanese Politics and Society” that surveys a variety of issues and policy challenges in Japan. 

According to McClean, the course seeks to explain public policy outcomes in Japan related to gender equality, nuclear energy, territorial disputes, population aging and immigration, among others.

“In the process, we will learn the important actors in Japanese politics; the positions that different actors take with respect to various policies, as well as the sources of these policy preferences, and how political institutions block or enhance the representation of these actors’ interests,” McClean wrote in an email.

Another new course, “Laboring through the Middle Ages,” is being specially-offered through the Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning’s Associates in Teaching program, which allows professors and graduate students to co-teach and design courses for Yale College. 

The course is being co-taught by English professor Emily Thornbury and English graduate student Seamus Dwyer GRD ’23.

“In talking about our own research, we realized that ideas about work and workers were central to so much medieval literature and art, and that notions about medieval work had a major effect on modern theories of labor too — perhaps especially during the nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution,” Thornbury said.

She explained that the COVID-19 pandemic had an unpredictable effect on modern work and professional life and that this serves as an opportune time to reflect back on the 14th century to examine the effects of the Bubonic Plague. 

“[The Bubonic Plague] led to massive changes in the way medieval Europeans thought about work and society — changes that are very much a concern of many medieval texts, both well-known and less so,” Thornbury said. “It seemed to us that students right now would have a unique perspective from which to think about this literature, born of their own personal experiences of a pandemic and labor crisis.”

Students turned in their finalized course schedules at the end of add/drop period on Wednesday.

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While most students look forward to spending the last few weeks of summer enjoying the warm weather and sunny days, many are also looking ahead to the fall, eagerly anticipating their favorite activities and sights. A number of students spoke to the News about the activities they are looking forward to during the months of September, October and November — a time some of them described as the most beautiful season at Yale. 

“The farmer’s market is autumn at its peak,” Nico Prescott ’25 said. “I go on Saturday mornings to buy the fresh soups and apples just coming from the orchard.”

The Wooster Square Farmers Market is a popular place for Yale students to visit. It takes place every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Elm City’s very own Little Italy and offers a wide variety of products ranging from local organic produce to seafood and specialty food items. 

For some, autumn’s sights are best manifested in the trees’ changing colors and falling leaves. 

“I love seeing the leaves on the trees in front of Sterling turn different colors over the semester,” Pranava Dhar ’25 said. “Walking out after a study session to those colors makes me happy.”

Sofia Manriquez ’25 said that taking a walk to East Rock, the hiking area and neighborhood close to campus, is another unmissable activity during the fall.

The greenery completely turns orange, red and yellow, she said.

“In the fall, a calming and beautiful walk is going up Science Hill and through New Haven suburban streets to Atticus Market, by East Rock,” Manriquez said. “The walk is beautiful in the spring too!”

Apart from the city’s natural beauty, the University’s campus also gets in the fall mood through the litany of themed festivities and activities that pop up around residential colleges. Last year, Saybrook College organized an Oktoberfest celebration where cookies and cider were offered. Students could also participate in pumpkin carving, cornhole and spikeball. This was capped off by a Bavarian-themed dinner featuring German potato dumplings, soft pretzels and apple strudel.

Some residential colleges, including Pauli Murray and Grace Hopper, organize trips to local apple orchards. Students can try their hand at apple picking, go on wagon rides and sample a wide variety of different apple types. 

The fall vibes also permeate through the local community as well, with several local restaurants and coffee shops tailoring their menus with pumpkin and cinnamon flavored specials. The Atticus Bookstore Cafe’s “French Toast Latte” and Donut Krazy’s Halloween-themed donuts make up some of the fan favorites, according to Valeria Daw ’25.

Another quintessential part of fall is Halloween. Celebrated on the week of Oct. 31, students dress up and partake in a variety of activities including trick or treating, the Yale Symphony Orchestra’s Halloween show, Hallowoads and local traditions like pumpkin carving. 

Additionally, fall also brings the beginning of performance season for many campus arts groups.

“I’m excited for the Yale School of Music’s concert season to begin,” Elisabetta Formenton ’25 said. “Especially because it’s going to be fully in person and the Horowitz piano series is back.”

Autumn officially begins on Sept. 22.

The post Yale in the Fall: An autumnal wonderland appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Most clubs, student groups and associations came back with new systems and ideas to slowly reincorporate in-person presence on campus and meet the university’s guidelines. 

After a year-and-a-half hiatus, in-person theatre was slowly introduced back to campus, with the Yale Drama Coalition focusing on adhering to the university’s established guidelines. 

“Everyone is very excited to get back to the way things were. I’ve talked to so many people that are just itching to get into an actual rehearsal room, to touch the soundboard and the lights, to interact with other actors face-to-face without the screen barrier and Zoom lags,” said Beza Tessema ’24, a YDC first-year liaison.

The coalition’s first fall production was “Not About Kyle” which premiered on Oct. 7, 2021. 

A variety of other performances soon began to take place on Yale’s campus, similar to previous school years with in-person audiences rather than online productions and performances. 

One such example is the Davenport Pops Orchestra. Also known as the DPops, the orchestra was back to in-person performances, their first taking place on Oct. 29, 2021 with an in-person audience of 86 students along with a livestream available to the rest of the Yale community. In this Halloween concert, the orchestra performed a variety of songs, consisting of a mix of theatre and on-stage performance. 

“We were trying our best to get people to remain engaged — we got them to submit the videos of themselves playing, which requires practice,” said Audrey Yeung ’22, DPops director of development and former co-president. “However, when in-person, we get brunch together, chat, and then practice — which is more fun. So I’m very glad to have it back in person together.”

Though the Yale University Art Gallery reopened on Sept. 25, 2020, but closed again for a two-month period due to the Omicron variant, it has now introduced a new series of exhibitions and events. On Sept. 10, 2021, the long-awaited “On the Basis of Art: 150 Years of Women at Yale” exhibition opened to the public, presenting a variety of art pieces created by 79 Yale-educated female artists, a year after it had been scheduled to open. 

“The exhibition demonstrates how these Yale-trained female artists brought an unwavering determination, bold experimentation, and a spirit of risk-taking to their practice — qualities that were critical to their success in the international art world,” said YUAG Director Stephanie Wiles in an email to the News. “These talented women artists made our world a more exciting, rewarding, and thought-provoking place through their art and I am delighted to share their extraordinary work with our visitors.”

The Midcentury Abstraction Exhibition also opened during this school year, on Feb. 25, at the Yale University Art Gallery. The exhibition presented a series of art pieces capturing the “breadth and variety of mid-20th century art.”

In other theatre news, the Dramat’s beloved First-Year Show. or FroShow, had four performances in early April. The show this year was “After Life,” by Jack Thorne, with a large number of first-year students participating in the direction, production, managing and performance of the play. 

Yale dance groups were also able to return to in-person auditions as auditions had taken place on digital platforms since the beginning of the pandemic. Some of the groups include the Yale Ballet Company, Sabrosura, Rhythmic Blues and Taps. 

“Last year, we had virtual auditions where people could submit videos of their dancing,” said Grace Parmer ’23, dancer and publicity chair for the YBC. “We’re super excited to be able to see everyone in person.”

Additionally, the English Department’s Foundational Course Lecture was also welcomed with excitement due to its in-person format, after the lecture’s cancellation in 2020 and virtual format in 2021. This year, Louise Glück, winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature, and Frederick Iseman, professor of poetry at Yale, gave the lecture at the Yale University Art Gallery on April 26. 

“This year, it seemed important to ask Louise [Glück],” Director of Creative Writing in the English Department, Professor Richard Deming said. “By doing so we are drawing on our own community to reconstitute itself and to show that although we have weathered so much over the last few years, we are still here, still strong.” 

COVID-19 guidelines continue to be examined, and more events are expected to take place in the upcoming school year.

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The Spring Fling Committee, which derives its budget from the Yale College Council begins planning the event at the beginning of each school year. The featured artists for Spring Fling are selected through a process of group deliberation and a survey sent to Yale College students. 

Every year, the Battle of the Bands competition takes place in order to determine the opening acts for Spring Fling. Yale student artists and bands perform for their peers and later, students vote to determine which groups open for the Spring Fling headliners. 

After the opening performances, a variety of artists invited by the Spring Fling Committee perform for the Yale community on Old Campus. 

In 2019, the YCC announced ​​Lil Uzi Vert and Australian EDM DJ Anna Lunoe as the only headliners, though the Spring Fling the year before, in 2018, had four headlining artists. However, three days before the show, it was announced that Lil Uzi Vert would no longer be performing and was replaced by rapper Playboi Carti. 

“Spring Fling is a music concert by the student body, for the student body,” the Spring Fling Committee told the News. “This type of cancellation is always possible for any performer, and it is not the first time that an artist has canceled for Spring Fling.”

This Spring Fling was the last one to take place before the COVID-19 pandemic began, causing a three-year hiatus. 

In February 2020,  Spring Fling Committee announced an all-female lineup spanning four genres of music and including Ari Lennox, Elohim, The Aces and Rico Nasty. 

“We wanted to challenge ourselves to be more inclusive, and invite artists that speak to Yale’s diverse student body in terms of both musical interest and identity,” then-Spring Fling Committee Co-Chair Lydia Schooler ’21 told the News. “We have these conversations every year, but this year, the lineup diversity was really at the forefront of our minds.”

But the concert was canceled due to the COVID-19  pandemic as students returned home during the spring semester of the 2019-2020 school year. 

In early 2021, the Spring Fling Committee began to plan the event in hopes of conducting it in a hybrid format after 60 percent of the students surveyed had expressed interest in an in-person event. Nonetheless, its cancellation was announced on March 22, along with Battle of the Bands. 

“Spring Fling is often a time for celebration and joy for the Yale community, and we are deeply saddened by the fact that we cannot deliver that this spring,” the Spring Fling Committee members wrote to the News in March 2021. “We do, however, hope there will be further opportunities to gather in person safely next year, and are prepared to plan for such a situation.”

Finally, after the three year hiatus, Spring Fling once again took place in 2022. The concert was held on May 2 and featured artists Aminé, Japanese Breakfast, Masego and Sofi Tukker.

In advance of the concert, some students expressed disapproval over the invitation of the singer Masego due to his song “Navajo,” whose lyrics are regarded by many as anti-Indigenous. 

“Indigenous students should be free to attend Spring Fling without having to listen to a song that fetishizes Indigenous women, refers to them as Indians and compares them to monkeys,” the Native and Indigenous Student Association at Yale wrote in a public statement. “We encourage members of the Yale community to express their disapproval of Yale’s choice to invite Masego.”

Although NISAY publicly urged the Spring Fling Committee to advise against Masego performing “Navajo,” Committee Chair Olivia Marwell ’24 told the News that the Committee has no control over artists’ setlists. 

This year’s Spring Fling Committee was made up of 25 students.

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