The new space is a collaboration between SAS, the Good Life Center and student activists across Yale’s campus. Over the summer of 2023, SAS began the process of converting a former classroom assigned to the office into a student lounge, but the idea of an initiative for an inclusive space for Yale students with disabilities to socialize and relax has been a longtime aspiration for SAS and the Good Life Center. 

Corinne Coia, director of Yale College Wellness Programs, told the News about her goal to open more Good Life Center satellite spaces.

“Our original space is at the Schwarzman Center, and we opened our first satellite location at the Divinity School,” she told the News. “Our mission is to remind students that relaxation is important for academic and personal growth as well.”

Kimberly McKeown, director of SAS, told the News that what was initially a small-scale project became a larger collaborative effort. After SAS employees reached out to colleagues at the Good Life Center for tips on improving the atmosphere of the lounge, the two groups began working together to create a co-sponsored space.

The space was specifically designed in consideration for students with disabilities, featuring various seating options, lighting control, snack options and environmental considerations. Coia said that the teams at SAS and the Good Life Center thought carefully about the design of the space, especially concerning students who use wheelchairs and have sensory disabilities. 

Vanessa Blas ’22 SPH ’23, Woodbridge Fellow and director of programming at the Good Life Center, told the News that they wanted to create the atmosphere of a “lived environment.” The space, which features live plants and a moss wall, was curated by members of the Good Life Center. With a wide array of seating options and a cozy interior, the Good Life Center team said that they not only want the space to serve many purposes for students with disabilities but also to act as a place to relax and hang out with friends. 

Kimberly Goff-Crews ’83 LAW ’86, secretary and vice president for university life at Yale, leads the Belonging at Yale initiative, which aims to advance Yale’s mission for vibrant community life and the fostering of a learning environment in which every student feels a sense of belonging. At the space’s opening celebration, she told the News about her pride and appreciation for student activism’s role in making the space possible. 

“We had a lot of excited students coming together,” Goff-Crews told the News. “We had students that were thinking about SAS and thinking about the intersection of support for students with disabilities. A lot of this was done in part by the students. It really got us thinking about our work of promoting wellness on campus and about what Yale is as an institution.” 

As of 2022, the number of students reporting disabilities to SAS had almost doubled in three years, a number affinity groups noted was likely an underestimate. Up to the opening of the Good Life Center at SAS, the group has not made any spaces available specifically for students with disabilities.

Elizabeth Conklin, associate vice president for institutional equity, accessibility, and belonging and a Title IX coordinator, was also present at the event. She told the News about her excitement at the space’s opening and expressed hope that its future will continue to inspire the creation of new satellite spaces for Yale’s diverse student body.

“It became apparent to me that we needed more space for students with disabilities to congregate,” Conklin explained to the News. “And it came together beautifully.”

The Good Life Center at SAS is located at 35 Broadway. 

The post Yale celebrates opening of Good Life Center at Student Accessibility Services appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Ramadan began over spring break on March 10 and lasts for a month until April 9 this year. Easter Sunday, which commemorates the reincarnation of Christ, is this upcoming weekend on March 31. Additionally, Hindu students will celebrate Holi this spring, a celebration of color based on a story of good over evil. The Jewish community will be observing Passover, which remembers the Exodus from Egypt and will take place from April 22 to April 30.

For Ramadan, which commemorates Muhammad’s first revelation, community iftars are being hosted in Dwight Chapel on March 29 and April 5. There are also nightly Taraweeh prayers in Dwight Chapel at 9 p.m. and a campus Eid Prayer on April 10 in the Lanman Center at Payne Whitney Gymnasium. 

Yusuf Rasheed ’25, president of the Muslim Students Association emphasized the importance of Ramadan for Muslims at Yale. 

“It is time of reflection, self-improvement, [and] service to the community. Ramadan is considered as the most important month in the Islamic calendar, and so to be able to participate in it with the vibrant Muslim community at Yale is a blessing we are grateful for,” Rasheed said. 

Like Rasheed, several other Yalies said that these holidays shape their sense of community in college. These students noted that while holidays are usually a time of celebrating with family, in college that changes. 

Maanasa Nandigam ’25, president of the Hindu Students Organization, said that although she has celebrated Holi her whole life, celebrating in college has been different.

Surrounded mostly by people her age, Nandigam said celebrating Holi in college has made her feel more connected to her Hinduism. 

“When you’re at home, religion is something you do because your parents do it,” Nandigam said. “When you’re in college you’re living on your own and you have the ability to choose what you want to invest your time in and what you believe in. Because of that, I’ve gotten closer to Hinduism. This is something that brings me joy and I enjoy sharing it with people who also care about it.”

The Hindu Students Organization will be celebrating Holi on April 20 at the Crescent Underground Theater. They will also be collaborating with the South Asian Graduate Association, the School of Public Health’s Desi Students Alliance and the School of Management’s South Asia Club.

For Passover, the Slifka Center for Jewish Life will be hosting a large communal seder on the first night which falls on April 22, and then will be coordinating smaller seders hosted by students and staff on the second night. 

Sophie Dauerman ’25, one of the co-presidents of the Hillel Student Board at the Slifka Center, said that in most years she has gone home to celebrate Passover with her family. However, this year she has decided to stay. 

“The warmth and strength of our community makes it feels like a home away from home for me, which is especially important to me during Passover. I’m grateful that I’ll be sharing this special time with our community,” Dauerman said. 

Christian Union Lux, a majority Protestant group, plans to observe Easter, a holiday that celebrates the reincarnation of Christ, with many other Christian groups with an inter-ministry worship night on March 31 at Battell Chapel. The event will invite all Christian students to sing worship and holy songs and will include groups such as Yale Students for Christ, Yale Chi Alpha and St. Thomas Moore. 

CU Lux also plans to host a guest pastor Nick Nowalk on Holy Saturday, the Saturday before Easter. He will speak on the topic of the “Hiddenness of God.” 

“When I’m home with my family we don’t have anything special planned for Easter night,” Tiana Luo ’24 said, one of the women’s bible course co-leaders and former board member at Christian Union Lux. “The worship night that we do at Yale carries the joy of Easter. The anticipation of the event carries it through the day and what happens after Holy Week.”

Other students also mentioned the challenges that celebrating these holidays in college can bring. 

Rasheed said that it can be difficult for people when most others around them are not observing the holiday. 

“School also doesn’t slow down and there are just as many exams and assignments as usual. So having these communal events and spaces where Muslim students can come together and be with each other in company is so critical,” Rasheed said.

The Chaplain’s Office, which helps coordinate religious celebrations, is located in Bingham Hall.

The post ‘Home away from home’: students find community in celebrating spring religious holidays appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The initiative is a collaborative effort between Mobarak and two European academics including Niccolò Meriggi, postdoctoral research fellow in economics at Oxford University, and Maarten Voors, associate professor at the Development Economics Group at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. The initiative’s efforts began in 2022 when the three economists visited remote villages in Sierra Leone to study reasons for low COVID-19 vaccination rates and found that it was not vaccine hesitancy but rather transportation issues that posed the greatest challenge to vaccine accessibility in these regions.

“For the average Sierra Leonean early in the pandemic, it was taking, according to their own reports, about three and a half hours each way to get to the nearest vaccination center just because [vaccines] were not widely being widely distributed,” Mobarak told the News. “There was really a problem about access, and it was obviously the biggest problem in most remote places.”

Mobarak, Meriggi and Voors’ initiative attempted to solve this problem. According to them, delivering COVID-19 vaccines to these remote communities by motorbikes and boats increased vaccination rates from between nine people and 55 people per village.

The researchers are collaborating with the Ministry of Health in Sierra Leone to discuss how this approach can address more healthcare priorities in remote villages.

“This model is not to be seen as a substitute to clinics but rather as a complement to make access easier and for people to gain more confidence in the services that clinics can provide,” Meriggi told the News.

The new grant, given to Wageningen University will now be used to expand the initiative and increase access to more healthcare services in Sierra Leone.

One idea the researchers mentioned is bundling vaccines and other essential medications to be delivered to remote regions for a more comprehensive, cost-effective approach.

“So we’re now working to extend beyond just vaccine access to other health products,” Voors told the News. “So think about vitamins or think about minerals, zinc … all these things that have a cost of access issue.”

Mobarak is also working on health intervention projects in Bangladesh and Nepal focused on incentivizing the adoption of technologies that improve health.

Mobarak, Meriggi and Voors further highlighted potential global applications of their vaccine delivery project. 

“Globally, this approach works in places where health infrastructure is missing,” Voors said. “So that is the larger point that we wanted to make that extends way beyond COVID itself.”
According to a 2017 report from the World Bank and World Health Organization, at least half of the world’s population is not able to obtain essential health services.

The post Vaccine delivery initiative co-led by SOM professor expands in rural Sierra Leone appeared first on Yale Daily News.

At Yale, the debate over a college’s role in monitoring free expression has remained an issue among faculty. Over 200 faculty members from across the University signed a letter addressed to Salovey’s successor detailing their hopes for the next president, urging simultaneous protection of free expression and students’ right to civil disobedience. Another letter, signed by over 140 faculty, comes from the group “Faculty for Yale” and calls on the University to “insist on the primacy of teaching, learning, and research as distinct from advocacy and activism.”

Students, too, have voiced concerns over Yale’s free expression policies. According to the Presidential Search Committee’s Student Advisory Council report, “overwhelming majorities” of students agreed with the need to protect free speech and academic freedom on campus. 

Yale’s policy on freedom of expression has been guided by the 1974 Woodward Report — commissioned by then-President Kingman Brewster ’41 — since its adoption by Yale in 1975. 

In the midst of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, Yale has not been the only college campus at the center of free speech debates. At Harvard University, Interim Harvard University President Alan Garber is expected to announce a working group that will consider a policy of institutional neutrality, according to the Harvard Crimson. Salovey said he believes Yale should do something similar and that he admires Harvard for doing so — but that the University’s next president should pick up that task.

“Neutrality or the ability to speak out is going to affect the next president, so you would want the next president to be involved in that discussion … because it’s going to be binding, but not on me,” Salovey told the News. “I think we should have some kind of conversation about it on campus, probably through a committee, but it would be something I encourage my successor to do.”

Salovey described the tension between the two faculty letters as a “welcome” conversation. He said that the letter from Faculty for Yale is essentially calling for institutional neutrality, a position whereby the university president would not be able to speak out on issues of the day. The other, he said, posits that it is a university’s role “to be an agent for societal improvement” and urges a president to speak out on issues. 

In November, Salovey told the News that the position of institutional neutrality is “best exemplified” by the University of Chicago’s 1967 Kalven Report. The report was written when campuses across the country were embroiled with student protests against the Vietnam War and UChicago’s investment policies came under scrutiny. The report suggested that the university remain neutral on social and political issues “out of respect for free inquiry and the obligation to cherish a diversity of viewpoints.” 

Today, free speech at the University of Chicago is governed under both the Kalven Report and a 2015 Report of the Committee on Freedom of Expression, now widely known as the Chicago Principles. 

As for Yale’s two faculty letters, Salovey said that he “welcomes” the conversation on free expression, adding that he does not believe it is one the University has had in the last decade. 

He also said that he leans “a bit in the direction of [the University] being able to speak, perfectly recognizing the advantages of neutrality.”

“Most important is these two letters are causing a conversation on campus, primarily among our faculty,” Salovey said. “It is a really good conversation to have. It’s fundamental to issues of academic freedom, to issues of free expression and to the broader issue of, ‘What is a university?’ and ‘What are its values?’”

Jacqueline Merrill, director of the Campus Free Expression Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center, told the News that she does not believe that whether or not a president speaks out on issues should be equated with the topic of free expression on campus. 

She said that a president’s voice falls along two lines: when they are speaking on behalf of the institution and when they are expressing their own views as president. How universities implement policies to address the extent of either, she said, is a “challenging topic.”

Merrill added that the president of a university can serve as a model for students in pursuit of balanced conversations, setting the tone and example, both for the college community and the greater public.

“This is a moment in our society where the values of open inquiry and freedom of expression are being challenged across our political community and across our civil society, and it is especially important that colleges and universities set a high bar because they are preparing the next generation of civic leaders and citizens,” said Merrill. 

Former University President Richard Levin emphasized to the News that a university’s “primary mission” is the advancement and dissemination of knowledge. 

To facilitate this goal, Levin said, a university president must be able to articulate the protection of free expression with a commitment to teaching and learning.

“There’s a list of things that I think are important attributes of the next president of Yale, of which commitment to free expression is certainly high on the list,” Levin said. “It’s a corollary to the principal commitment, which is that we are centers of learning and teaching.”

Salovey told the News in November that the Woodward Report at Yale protects most forms of expression — so long as that expression is not “designed” to harass, directly threaten an individual’s safety or incite violence. He added, however, that making that distinction is not always “easy.”

Levin said that he hopes the University does not revisit the report, which he said is a “lifeline” keeping Yale consistent with its principles. He added, too, that Yale’s report is “essentially indistinguishable” from the Chicago Principles, which have been adopted by 108 other institutions, including Princeton University, Columbia University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  

“Again, that’s a decision for the next president,” Salovey said when asked whether Yale should revisit the report. “But I have to say, I think the Woodward Report provides an important bedrock for any discussion of free expression on campus, and I think it has withstood the test of time.”

The Woodward report is named after C. Van Woodward, former history professor and chairman of the Committee on Freedom of Expression at Yale, which produced the report.

The post ‘Not on me’: Salovey to let successor tackle free expression at Yale appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The cohort joins the 709 applicants who were accepted via restrictive early action in December, as well as the 72 students who matched with Yale through the QuestBridge National College Match program. In total, of the 57,465 students who applied to join the class of 2028, 3.7 percent — or 2,146 students — were admitted, marking the lowest acceptance rate on record. The admitted class includes students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, two U.S. territories and 62 countries. 

The 3.7 percent acceptance rate for the class of 2028 is the lowest in Yale’s history, down 0.65 percentage points from last year’s 4.35 percent acceptance rate. The decrease continues a downward trend in acceptance rates that began during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 with applicants seeking admission to the class of 2024.

“The diverse range of strengths, ambitions, and lived experiences we saw in this year’s applicant pool was inspiring,” Dean of Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid Jeremiah Quinlan wrote in a press release. “We gauge the success of our outreach efforts by these qualities, and not by the total number of applications. But it is heartening to see that Yale College continues to attract exceptionally promising students from all backgrounds.”

The class of 2028 applied amid a changing admissions landscape. They are the last group of students to apply in a test-optional admissions cycle. Yale announced in February that it would resume requiring test scores for applicants seeking a spot in the class of 2029. A News survey found that under a test-optional policy, students on financial aid were more likely to have omitted test scores from their Yale applications.

The cohort is also the first to be admitted to the University since the fall of affirmative action in June. This year, admissions officers did not have access to information about applicants’ self-identified race when evaluating them for admission. 

Admissions officers involved in the application reading process will have access to neither this information nor aggregate information about the racial makeup of the class of 2028 until after the admissions process has officially ended. According to Mark Dunn ’07, the senior associate director for outreach and recruitment at the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, the admissions cycle will not be officially completed until the final applicants have been offered admission off of the waitlist.

“Because some first-year applicants will be offered a spot on Yale’s waiting list, the admissions office’s selection process will not be complete on March 28,” Dunn wrote in an email to the News. “We will continue to maintain safeguards to ensure that the admissions officers involved in the review and selection of candidates from the waitlist do not have access to any race or ethnicity data at either the individual or aggregate level.”

Earlier this year, the admissions office hired two new full-time employees, whose jobs are devoted exclusively to community outreach and partnerships. Because these officers are not involved in the application reading process, they have access to aggregate racial data about the class of 2028; however, they will not be able to publish this information until after the admissions cycle has officially ended.

Due to delays with the rollout of FAFSA, the admissions office also does not have information about the proportion of students in the admitted class who are eligible for Pell Grants. However, Director of Undergraduate Financial Aid Kari DiFonzo told the News earlier this week that this will not delay financial aid offers for admitted students.

Each year, around the time matriculating first-year students arrive on campus in the fall, the admissions office publishes a detailed profile of the class, that includes information about demographics like racial and socioeconomic background. Dunn said that the release of the profile of the class of 2028 will not change this year from previous years.

All newly admitted students will be invited to campus in April for Bulldog Days. This year’s Bulldog Days will be the third in-person iteration of the event since the pandemic.

Admitted students will have until May 1 to respond to their offer of admission.

The post Yale admits 3.7 percent of applicants, lowest acceptance rate ever appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The senior Connecticut senator mostly recounted anecdotes from his long political career and offered advice for novices. The hourlong event in Linsly-Chittenden Hall was interrupted briefly by pro-Palestine protesters.

Standing before a crowd of roughly 100 students, Blumenthal stressed the value of starting out in politics by forming relationships through local campaigns and community organizations.

“Go back to your roots,” Blumenthal said he was told by Justice Byron White LAW ’46 during the now-senator’s year clerking for Justice Harry Blackmun. Blumenthal added, “You don’t have to go back to your hometown, but you do have to set down some roots.”

Five minutes into the senator’s introductory remarks, an attendee stood up and began to read a statement demanding that Blumenthal “call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.”

About a dozen students pulled out pieces of white cloth with the word “ceasefire,” and some held them up while walking by Blumenthal at the front of the room.

“You refuse to hold Israel accountable, but we will hold you accountable,” the protester yelled, referring to the over 32,000 people Israel has killed in Gaza since Hamas killed 1,200 and took over 250 as hostages during its Oct. 7 attack on Israel. “Shame on you, senator, and shame on all of you who remain complicit.”

The protesters, numbering about 30, marched out of the room while chanting “shame.” Blumenthal resumed a minute and a half after he had been interrupted and said he regretted that the protesters could not hear his position on the ongoing war.

He told the remaining group that he supports an “extended pause” in fighting along with the release of Israeli hostages and certain Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. He also called for increased humanitarian aid to Gaza.

“Many in the Congress, like the president, are losing patience with the Netanyahu government,” Blumenthal said, referring to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The rest of the event focused less on current events than on sometimes extended stories from Blumenthal’s nearly five decades in public life.

When asked how individual testimonies affect policymaking, Blumenthal spoke about the PACT Act of 2022, which expanded benefits for veterans exposed to toxic chemicals, and brought up legislation he has introduced to protect minors on social media.

During the Q&A section near the end of the hour, one student asked Blumenthal whether it amounted to a conflict of interest for members of Congress to trade stocks.

Blumenthal, whose wealth exceeded $80 million in 2015, said he holds no individual stocks personally and has no hand in trades by his wife’s company that he reports in disclosure forms. He would support banning members of Congress and their spouses from owning stocks, Blumenthal said, adding that it was “pretty tender territory” at home, a line that drew laughs.

Blumenthal told the News after the event ended that he enjoys returning to Yale, where he attended law school and where three of his four children have been students. The fourth will start at the law school in the fall.

He said he was not surprised by the pro-Palestine protests. “What I really hope to do with protesters is to engage with them and hear their point of view,” Blumenthal said.

The News was unable to seek comment from the protesters who marched out of the event.

“Our organization is in support of our peers’ right to stand up for the causes they believe in,” wrote the Yale College Democrats in a statement to the News. The group added that it adheres to the University’s policy against event disruptions, which the moderator announced before Blumenthal spoke.

Blumenthal, 78, has served in the Senate since 2011.

The post Blumenthal reminisces with Dems, interrupted by protests appeared first on Yale Daily News.

But rollout this year of the modified FAFSA is occurring on a months-delayed timeline, forcing many colleges to push back deadlines for students to respond to their offers of admission, and leaving many students to choose a college without final financial aid offers.

But federal delays will not affect Yale College’s ability to release initial financial aid offers to admitted students, according to Director of Undergraduate Financial Aid Kari DiFonzo. Come Thursday, when regular admission decisions are released, admitted students will receive an initial financial aid offer detailing the amounts their families are expected to contribute toward their Yale education, DiFonzo said. When FAFSA information becomes available, families will receive a follow-up financial aid package, specifying how much aid will come from Yale and how much will come from federal Pell Grants.

“There are many reasons why the process of completing a financial aid offer can take longer for some families, but, thankfully, the FAFSA delays are not impeding our ability to assess families’ need and package offers,” DiFonzo told the News. “The proportion of admitted students with completed financial aid offers at the time admissions decisions are released is very similar to last year.”

The goal of the FAFSA Simplification Act was to make the application for federal student aid as easy as possible, but rollout problems caused more harm than good, DiFonzo said.

In a normal year, the FAFSA form is released for families in October. This year, however, due to complications with system changes, the system did not launch until late December.

“Many families — those who were able to access the system — were able to complete the form in maybe 10 minutes or less,” DiFonzo said. “The problem has really been with the rollout. It came out much, much later than it should have. Even when it was introduced, it was intermittently available, and it was down for maintenance all the time.”

According to DiFonzo, when assembling a student’s financial aid package, Yale looks at the “full financial aid profile” of their family, using information from the student’s CSS profile, their FAFSA documents and their federal tax documents.

The Office of Undergraduate Financial Aid uses a process called “institutional methodology,” when determining a family’s financial aid package, DiFonzo explained. This allows financial aid officers to gauge a family’s financial need without access to FAFSA documents, using only information from their CSS profile.

Because of Yale’s robust financial aid program, the role of the FAFSA in the assembly of a financial aid offer is mainly to determine what amount of a family’s aid will come from federal dollars, DiFonzo said.

“What we do is we start with the total cost of attendance, and then subtract out the family share that we calculate, and then you are left with a student’s total need,” she said. “That total need can be thought of as a big bucket, one which is filled both with Yale financial aid dollars and federal financial aid dollars. So the role of the FAFSA is really just in figuring out how much of that need bucket is filled with federal aid versus institutional aid.”

Yale has the resources to meet 100 percent of every student’s demonstrated financial need, DiFonzo said; however, she added that the financial aid office counts on some portion of the aid given out being subsidized by federal dollars in the form of Pell Grants.

But because of Yale’s promise to meet all demonstrated need, it is possible to send out initial offers without FAFSA information detailing how much of their financial aid will come from Pell Grants. According to DiFonzo, the initial offers will be less about telling families exactly how much financial aid they will receive from Yale and more about making families aware of how much they should plan to pay for the following academic year.

“I feel strongly that students and families need as much time as possible to plan,” DiFonzo said. “If we wait until we’ve had the opportunity to review all of the FAFSAs, which likely won’t be until July, one or two months of a payment plan will have already passed. The bill will already have been posted. This way, at least families can start thinking about what their payment plans will look like.” 

Dean of Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid Jeremiah Quinlan echoed the importance of giving families as much time as possible to plan. 

Cost is typically the top concern for most admitted students, Quinlan told the News, so releasing these initial packages will give families ample time to process their aid packages and ask questions.

Despite a delayed and complicated rollout of FAFSA this year, the financial aid office is not making any adjustments to its timeline for returning students. There is an April 1 priority deadline for returning students to submit their financial aid applications.

DiFonzo said it is possible that financial aid packages for current students, which are scheduled to begin releasing in the coming weeks, might also be released without FAFSA information and adjusted later on.

Every financial aid package sent out to an incoming first-year student includes a cover letter from DiFonzo that explains information about Yale’s financial aid program and the contents of their aid packet. Historically, returning students’ aid packages do not include a similar letter.

However, DiFonzo said that due to this year’s FAFSA complications, returning students will also get a cover letter from the office along with their initial financial aid package detailing that there may be changes to their financial aid package once their FAFSA is reviewed on the delayed timeline.

These discrepancies between the financial aid package given in the coming weeks and those given when the FAFSAs are all processed may also occur for incoming students. 

Although the information on a student’s CSS Profile should align with that on their FAFSA form, DiFonzo said there are occasional discrepancies. In previous years, such discrepancies have been resolved by clarifying certain details with families before releasing their aid packages. 

But because this year’s FAFSA forms will be released after initial aid packages have already been sent out, if there is discrepant information between a student’s CSS Profile and their FAFSA, the office might have to make slight changes to a family’s financial aid offer, according to DiFonzo.

“We are making sure that, when we send out initial financial aid packages, we are saying clearly to students that this is not a final financial aid offer,” DiFonzo said. “Rather, it is a tentative offer, pending review of their FAFSA; if students qualify for federal aid, their Yale financial aid package might change. We want students to understand that they will get another letter later on, but their end result — the amount their family is expected to pay — will be the same.”

The Yale College Council has been campaigning for years for increased transparency from the financial aid office, according to YCC president Julian Suh-Toma ’25.

Suh-Toma said that, while he is happy with the office’s decision to communicate initial assessments to students as quickly as possible, he is worried about the possibility of packages shifting pending new information from FAFSA documents.

“This plan of action feels like the best of a poor lot in the face of an admissions cycle where families may otherwise have no estimated cost of attendance to work off of,” Suh-Toma wrote in a message to the News.

The FAFSA was first issued in 1992 with the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

The post Despite FAFSA delays, financial aid office promises no changes to timeline appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The exhibition is the culmination of a collaboration between the University’s Belonging at Yale initiative and BlackBull, a nascent Black student affinity group for Trumbullians co-founded by Jenelle Burgess ’26 and Alexander O’Sullivan ’26. According to Burgess, the theme of the gallery exhibition is “bridging community.” The five artists — Faustin Adeniran, Jasmine Nikole, Kwadwo Adae, Moshopefoluwa Olagunju and Marquia Brantley — are all local to the Elm City and will receive an honorarium for showcasing their work.

“​​I really do hope that this gallery will inspire similar things at Trumbull or throughout the Yale community,” Burgess told the News. “Because I do think it is a really beautiful thing to be able to showcase not just the wealth of talent that exists in the Black community and other marginalized communities at Yale, but also that exists in the community that we all walk through every day.”

Burgess said the idea to form BlackBull emerged among friends at a study break her first year but only formalized last semester with the help of newly-appointed Trumbull Head of College Fahmeed Hyder and his wife, Associate Head Anita Sharif-Hyder. 

She said that the gallery was inspired by a similar event held to commemorate Black History Month at Hopkins High School by Hyder’s daughter Laila. Hyder then approached Burgess and proposed hosting such an event at Trumbull, Burgess said.

“I imagined that there was a need and a desire for a community like this and we’ve definitely seen that that is a shared sentiment,” said Burgess. 

She added that the exhibition also came together with the help of Vice President and Secretary for University Life Kimberly Goff Crews ’83 LAW ’86, as well as Associate Dean for the Arts Kate Kreir.

Goff-Crews told the News that she hopes the exhibition inspires students to embark on something similar.

“People think there’s this big distinction between Yale and New Haven, but this helps bridge that divide,” Goff-Crews said. “To have a student in particular create a platform to be the bridge is very inspiring and definitely needed.”

Nikole, one of the artists, told the News that it was a “huge honor” to exhibit her work alongside other New Haven artists at the University.

She added that she hopes her work fosters a sense of belonging in viewers and that similar programs continue to create a “mutual relationship” between Yale and New Haven.

“I grew up in New Haven, and I don’t think I’ve really been on campus and so I think programs like this could be a way to bridge that gap,” Nikole said. “There could be a mutual relationship where it’s not just Yale reaching back to the community but the community imparting their knowledge back into Yale and its community.”

The gallery is open from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. every day this week until Friday at Trumbull College.

The post Trumbull student affinity group showcases Black New Haven artists appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The bootcamp centered on the federal Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, which grants the public the right to access government records. Under this act, federal agencies must disclose requested information unless it qualifies for specific exemptions, such as national security or personal privacy. Panelists included Nate Jones, the FOIA director for The Washington Post, and Nathan Tempey, a criminal defense investigator and journalist. Jones and Tempey shared insights into the request process and their personal experiences with FOIA. Attendees also received a paper featuring an illustrated step-by-step guide outlining the procedure of requesting documents using FOIA.

“We are thrilled to have had so many reporters, lawyers and residents of the greater New Haven community attend our annual FOIA bootcamp,” said Jennifer Borg, a senior research scholar at the MFIA clinic and an organizer of the event. “As part of our clinic’s mission, we aim to support investigative journalism and transparency. Nate Jones and Nathan Tempey did a fantastic job giving practical advice as to how FOIA can be used to hold our government accountable.”

Jones initiated the discussion by outlining the process for obtaining government documents through FOIA. The steps included identifying the relevant state or federal agency holding the desired record, specifying the particular document to request, drafting and submitting the email request, obtaining a tracking number to monitor the progress, and if approved, gaining access to the files.  

Tempey provided several suggestions for initiating searches when seeking files, including Google searches, library databases, government websites, legal documents and reaching out to knowledgeable individuals. Nonetheless, he acknowledged the difficulty of navigating larger agencies, which he explained are often reliant on impersonal communication methods such as portals. He emphasized the importance of identifying and contacting specific individuals within these agencies to streamline communication and avoid being overwhelmed by bureaucratic processes.

Jones mentioned that agencies may occasionally deny requests for documents. In such cases, he said that two additional steps include filing an appeal and providing a detailed explanation of why the agency’s use of FOIA exemptions was incorrect, followed by pursuing litigation against the agency in court. Jones emphasized the significance of this process, saying that FOIA enables journalists to uncover government information that might otherwise go unnoticed.

“With FOIA, we often get to see something behind the scenes that you don’t get to see every time,” Jones said.

Jones also emphasized the importance of crafting detailed and precise FOIA requests when interacting with records officers. He warned against the pitfalls of submitting overly broad requests, which could lead to rejection or prolonged processing times. Jones illustrated this point with an example of articles from a government agency on the war in Afghanistan. He said that these seemingly “bland” reports from the agency regarding the war actually contained vital information tucked away in footnotes sourced from high-ranking officials. When he made requests for these specific sources, agencies were unable to deny them, as the information had already been publicly disclosed.

Tempey emphasized that government agencies do not simplify their reports for public consumption. Therefore, he said, journalists need to understand how they organize information. For example, he said, police disciplinary records may be called something else in the agency’s system, meaning anyone looking to access them would need to understand how they manage the files. He said that asking for a new record may delay the process, as FOIA compels them to provide existing information, not create new records.

The event concluded with a question-and-answer session where attendees had the opportunity to speak with both Jones and Tempey directly and hear overall final thoughts on navigating the process of FOIA. 

“Figure out where to file and figure out what the law is that applies to your situation,” Tempey said.  “Make sure to stay on top of your FOIA requests.”

Yale Law School is located at 127 Wall St.

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Samuelson’s name is, as of March 14, included on a list of 227 Americans who are banned from entering Russian territory due to their alleged involvement in “conceiving, carrying out and justifying the anti-Russia policy” adopted by the United States government as well as those “directly involved in anti-Russia undertakings.”

“I was quite surprised,” Samuelson wrote the News upon appearing on the list. “It must be a very long list indeed in order for me to come to their attention.”

Samuelson specializes in economic theory with an interest in game theory. Since 2018, he has been a member of the International Advisory Board of the Kyiv School of Economics. Samuelson speculated that his association with the Ukraine-based university was the reason for his addition to the list.

The Russian government has placed an entry ban on over 2,000 American citizens since the United States began imposing economic sanctions on the government in the wake of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. The list includes — but is not limited to — elected officials, journalists, academics and business leaders. 

The latest round of bans, in particular, appears to target academics. Sixty-seven of the 227 individuals named on the list are affiliated with a U.S.-based university. Samuelson suggested that this is because the list was constructed based on online information, and academics typically have an easily identified online presence. 

Yale’s spokesperson declined to comment for this story.

David Cameron, a professor of political science and director of the Yale program in European Union Studies, pointed out the seemingly arbitrary nature of the names on the list. He noted that there are “a few people on the list who know a lot about Russian politics and international relations,” but also many knowledgeable people on the subject who have been left off.  

“There’s no obvious explanation why they’re on it and others who might be on it aren’t on it,” Cameron said. “It’s no doubt the work of some not very bright low-level functionaries in the Russian Foreign Ministry who were told to come up with a list.”

According to Cameron, the list is further evidence that “smart people in Russia” with an interest in international relations are concentrated in the Foreign Intelligence Service, an externally focused intelligence agency, rather than the Russian Foreign Ministry.

In November 2022, in one of the earliest rounds of Russian entry bans, Yale history professor Timothy Snyder was one of 200 U.S. citizens whose name appeared on the list.

The Yale Economic Growth Center was founded in 1961.

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