Ahead of the matchup, the News’ Managing Editor Ben Raab ’26 spoke with Ian Curtis, managing editor of Texas A&M’s student newspaper The Battalion, to learn more about this season’s Aggies. 

This discussion has been edited for length and clarity.

Ben Raab: Hey Ian, it’s great to meet you. What’s the story behind your paper’s name, The Battalion?

Ian Curtis: Texas A&M was founded as a military school, and we still have a significant military tradition today. Our paper began in 1893, so that’s where you get “The Battalion.”

Ben: Fascinating! Turning to our schools’ upcoming matchup, what should Yale fans know about Texas A&M? 

Ian: This is a veteran team. The rotation is very senior-heavy and expectations were high coming into this season because almost all of our core players from last year returned. Head coach Buzz Williams’ philosophy is tough defense, physicality and any shot is better than a turnover. Our offensive rebounding rate is the highest in the country at 42 percent, which explains why our offensive efficiency percentage is a lot higher than our shooting numbers would suggest. It’s common to see one of our players chuck up and miss a contested three-point shot only for a teammate to grab the offensive rebound.

Ben: In some ways, this Texas A&M team reminds me of last year’s Auburn, whom Yale faced in the first round of last year’s tournament. Both teams have a strong veteran presence, play with a physical style, and can force turnovers on defense. Who are the Aggies’ players to watch?

Ian: The Aggies star is unquestionably Wade Taylor IV, a 6-foot senior guard who is Texas A&M’s all time scorer. He’s our top scoring threat, leader and go-to guy in big moments. But, this is a team with a bunch of guys who can lead the scoring on any given night. Guards Zhuric Phelps and Manny Obaseki — who Aggies fans call “March Manny” — both have explosive athleticism and like to attack the basket.

In the frontcourt, Henry Coleman, a 6-foot-8, 250-pound forward, is Texas A&M’s all-time leader in offensive rebounds. Pharrel Payne, a similarly sized player, also dominates the boards and brings a physical style to the game. And no discussion of Texas A&M’s rebounding is complete without mentioning Andersson Garcia, a 6-foot-7 forward whom coach Buzz Williams has dubbed the “Dominican Dennis Rodman.” Garcia led the team in rebounding this season and frequently draws double-teams on the offensive glass.

Ben: I’ll be looking out for the battle between Texas A&M’s forwards and Yale’s Nick Townsend ’26, a bruising first team all-Ivy forward who scores at a high volume in the post. He leads a backcourt that’s uniquely well sized for an Ivy League squad. Samson Aletan ’27 (6’10”), Casey Simmons ’27 (6’7″), and Isaac Celiscar ’28 (6’6″) are all athletic, versatile rotation players who’ll be key if the Elis wish to meet at least the first two tenets of head coach James Jones’s philosophy: defend, rebound, share. 

One stat that stands out to me is that Yale and Texas A&M both allow an extremely high percentage of three-pointers relative to field goal attempts, letting opposing teams shoot close to 50 percent of their total shots from behind the arc. To find success on offense, Yale will likely rely heavily on sharpshooting wing John Poulakidas ’25, another first team all-Ivy player —Yale had three this season — who led the conference in scoring and can hit contested shots from anywhere on the floor. Last season, Poulakidas’s 28-point performance helped spark Yale’s first-round upset over Auburn in the tournament. 

Ian: Shooting is easily Texas A&M’s biggest weakness. We shoot a low percentage from three and have been highly inconsistent from the free throw line, even though getting to the free throw line is something this team tries to emphasize. At times our offense can get frustrated when foul calls aren’t going our way. 

Ben: Final question, can you describe the Texas A&M fanbase? How does Aggie nation feel about Yale as an opponent?

Ian: A lot of people remember Yale beating Auburn last year. I think our fanbase is taking Yale seriously. A&M’s always been the kind of team that can beat anyone in the country but also lose to anyone on the wrong night. The mantra around here is “Battered Aggie Syndrome,” which refers to the low expectations we have for our sports teams. We’re a pretty pessimistic fanbase. So I don’t think we’re overlooking Yale at all. 

Tip off for the Yale versus Texas A&M game will occur at 5:25 p.m. Denver time on Thursday evening.

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The No. 13 seeded Bulldogs will head to Denver to face the No. 4 seeded Aggies in the NCAA Tournament’s round of 64. Yale booked their spot with a 90–84 victory over Cornell in the Ivy League Championship game.

“I’m bringing two suits to the game this year,” head coach James Jones told the News after the win. “No team is looking at the tournament and looking forward to playing Yale.”

This will be Yale’s eighth ever appearance in March Madness and fifth appearance since 2016. Last season, the Bulldogs made the tournament’s second round for the second time in program history after upsetting No. 4 seeded Auburn in Spokane.

Texas A&M made the tournament as a nine seed last season, falling to Houston in the round of 32 in overtime. The Aggies were the 5 seed in the SEC Tournament this season but lost to Texas in the second round in double overtime. Their biggest win of the regular season came on March 4th, when they upset then No. 2 in the nation Auburn.

The Aggies are led by senior guard Wade Taylor IV, a 6-foot guard who averages 15.7 points and 4.3 assists per game. Taylor holds the Aggies’ all-time scoring record with 2,028 points. Complimenting Taylor IV are big men Pharrel Payne and Henry Coleman who both stand at 6 foot 9 and 250 pounds. The Aggies do not have a player above 6 foot 9 in their rotation, making Yale sophomore Samson Aletan ’27 likely to be the tallest player on the court at 6 foot 10. 

Texas A&M’s defense is one of the strongest in the country, ranked 7th according to kenpom.com. They excel at slowing teams down offensively and also grab the highest percentage of offensive rebounds in the country at 42%. 

The Aggies are a more modest 44th in the nation in adjusted offensive efficiency, and aren’t efficient from the three-point line, shooting 31.1 percent as a team compared to Yale’s 38.5 percent. 

The winner of Thursday’s game will play the winner of No. 5 Michigan vs No. 12 UC San Diego in the tournament’s round of 32. Against Michigan, Yale would be up against a familiar face in Danny Wolf, who played for Yale the last two seasons and was a first-team all-Ivy player. Wolf transferred to Michigan at the end of last season and is a projected first round pick in this year’s NBA Draft. 

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The Bulldogs (20–7, 13–1 Ivy) took down the Bears (14–13, 6–8) on Saturday afternoon in their final game of the regular season. Yale will now face No. 4 seeded Princeton (19–10, 8–6) in the first round of Ivy Madness next Saturday. 

“I thought defensively we were good, locked in, guys helping each other out, and I thought that was the difference in the game for us,” head coach James Jones said after the game. 

The victory marks Yale’s 13th win in conference play, tied for the most in program history with the 2015-16 and 1961-62 teams. The Bulldogs were on the verge of setting a new record after opening play 12-0 but lost last Saturday to Harvard (12–15, 7–7).

The Elis played a back-and-forth game with multiple lead changes, but John Poulakidas ’25 scored 19 second half points to help the Bulldogs pull away in the game’s final minutes. Poulakidas led all scorers with 27 points on 11-17 shooting from the field. Guard Bez Mbeng ’25 and center Samson Aletan ’27 each had strong defensive performances, with four steals and five blocks, respectively. 

Yale will return to Brown’s Pizzitola Sports Center next week, where the four-team Ivy Tournament is being hosted this year. At last season’s tournament, the Bulldogs defeated the Bears 62-61 on a buzzer-beating layup in the championship game, earning a spot in March Madness. In the opening round of that tournament, the No. 13-seeded Bulldogs took down No. 4 Auburn in a thrilling upset victory. 

Princeton has underperformed this season but is a dangerous first-round opponent. The Tigers were picked first in the Ivy League’s preseason media poll after winning the regular season title last season. 

Both the 2015-16 and 1961-62 Bulldogs received automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament. The 2015-16 team went on to win the program’s first-ever March Madness game in an upset victory over Baylor. Both teams earned their bids before the Ivy League instituted its tournament in 2017, which changed the format from awarding the NCAA berth to the top team in the standings to a four-team tournament at the end of the season.

Saturday’s semi-final game against Princeton will tip-off at 11 a.m. in Providence.

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A new partnership aims to give Yale athletes a platform to receive NIL deals, even after the Ivy League opted out of an antitrust settlement that allows schools to pay players directly.

The deal with Opendorse, a marketplace that connects athletes with sponsors, allows Yale players to create profiles and receive paid requests for endorsements, appearances, and personalized messages. Announced on Monday, the partnership comes weeks after the Ivy League opted out of a $2.8 billion NCAA antitrust settlement that would provide back pay to former athletes and allow schools to share up to $20 million annually with current players starting in 2025.

“Partnering with Opendorse allows us to provide best-in-class NIL resources that empower our student-athletes to make the most of the opportunities available to them in this evolving landscape,” Athletic Director Vicky Chun said in the press release. 

The platform, founded by former Nebraska linebacker Blake Lawrence, allows athletes to create profiles where businesses and fans can offer payment for personalized videos, social media promotions, autographs and event appearances — similar to services offered by celebrity video-messaging platforms such as Cameo. 

The site has partnerships with numerous college teams and professional athletes, including Stephen Curry and Luka Dončić, whose prices reach into the thousands. Listings for Yale athletes mostly range from $10 to $50. 

Chun announced the new partnership in an email to Yale athletes last week, calling it “game-changing NIL news.” Sign-ups have been uneven across Yale’s teams, with less than half of the football and men’s basketball rosters participating. However, this is still more than the men’s hockey team’s participation numbers, where just one player has joined.

It is unclear whether the marketplace — essentially a middleman for sponsorship inquiries — will generate significant deals for athletes beyond the top few players on marketable teams. 

Some Bulldogs, including men’s basketball point guard Bez Mbeng ’25, already have ongoing NIL deals — Mbeng with New Haven-based Farnam Realty Group. He is not currently listed on the Opendorse platform, which athletes may bypass in favor of NIL agents or direct negotiations with sponsors.

According to Richard Kent, a Connecticut-based sports lawyer who specializes in NIL, the partnership may be more about appearances than impact.

“It does nothing compared to where NIL is or what revenue sharing is going to accomplish,” Kent said, referring to the rejected NIL settlement. “I think it’s a palliative way for [Yale Athletics] to say they’re doing something.”

Yale Athletics did not immediately respond to comment. Two other Ivy League schools, Columbia and Princeton, have also partnered with Opendorse. 

The final approval hearing for the House v. NCAA settlement is scheduled for April 7.

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The win marked Yale’s (13–6, 6–0 Ivy) seventh straight. Perhaps more importantly, the Bulldogs now sit two games ahead of Princeton 15–6, 4–2 Ivy) atop the Ivy League.

Tiger fans were on their feet for a moment late in the second half when Yale coughed up five turnovers in as many minutes against Princeton’s second unit. The Bulldogs watched their 20-point lead dwindle to eight with 2:35 to play. But John Poulakidas ’25 silenced the crowd with the kind of dagger he’s delivered all season — a tough fadeaway jumper from the corner as the shot clock expired to restore Yale’s momentum.

“I felt really good about the way we played for 35 minutes of that game,” head coach James Jones told the News. “Our game kind of got away from us at the end. We turned the ball over too much, but it’s a great learning experience for us.”

Poulakidas finished with a game-high 23 points on 8-14 shooting. Guard Bez Mbeng ’25 and Nick Townsend ’26 added 25 combined points, also shutting down Princeton’s top offensive weapons, Caden Pierce and Xaivian Lee.

NBA scouts from at least three teams sat courtside to watch Princeton’s junior guard Lee, a projected second-round pick in Bleacher Report’s latest mock draft. But Mbeng, Yale’s two-time Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year, held Lee to only two points on one-for-nine shooting. The Tigers’ Pierce, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year, didn’t fare much better, managing only five points before both players were benched for the final eight minutes.

Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson called Yale the best team the Tigers have faced all season. The two teams have competed for the top spot in the conference in each of the last three years. The Bulldogs are 12–3 in their last 15 games against the Tigers, although Princeton bested them in their most recent Ivy League championship matchup in 2023.

“We have a certain type of mindset when we play these guys,” Poulakidas said. “You see the amount of competitiveness our games have shown with them over the years.”

24 hours later against Penn, the Bulldogs showed no signs of fatigue, beating Penn (6–13, 2–4 Ivy) 90-61. 

The trio of Poulakidas, Townsend and Mbeng continued their strong play, with Townsend utilizing his size and unmatched hustle to rack up 23 points and 9 rebounds. Poulakidas and Mbeng were close behind, putting up 21 and 19 points, respectively. 

Center Samson Aletan ’27, also continued his strong run of play. At 6’10”, Aletan has made a name for himself this season thanks to his shot-blocking ability and athleticism, which has led to some highlight-reel dunks. He contributed six points, five rebounds and two blocks against the Quakers. 

The Bulldogs started the game on a 20-4 run and never squandered the lead. At times during non-conference play, the Elis struggled to keep momentum throughout the second half, but their 6–0 start to Ivy play is a testament to their ability to hold on to leads. 

The Bulldogs can solidify their claim to first place this Saturday as they head to Cornell (13–6, 5–1 Ivy), who sit one game back of the conference’s top spot, which earns the number one seed in the league’s four-team Ivy tournament. 

Jones said that Princeton’s scrappiness in the second half — which forced the Elis into 17 turnovers — only leaves his unit more prepared for the matchup with the Big Red.

“It’s a great learning experience for us,” he said. “We know Cornell’s gonna run and press, and this is also one of the first conference games we had to make tough free throws at the end. All these obstacles will help us going forward.”

Tip-off is at 2:00 p.m. Saturday in Newman Arena in Ithaca, New York.

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McInnis, who earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in the history of art from Yale and held administrative roles at the University of Virginia and the University of Texas at Austin, has served as Stony Brook’s president since March 2020. After a nine-month presidential search, Yale’s Board of Trustees — of which McInnis is a member — announced on Wednesday that McInnis will succeed outgoing University President Peter Salovey. Her term begins on July 1.

McInnis’s tenure at Stony Brook has seen the university, which is part of the public State University of New York system, through an era of transformative growth. She is credited with successfully seeing the school through the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to obtain the designation of a “flagship” SUNY campus and securing a historic $500 million gift from the Simons Foundation in 2023.

Though widely praised for her prowess as a fundraiser, McInnis has clashed with Stony Brook faculty members over campus free speech policies in relation to campus activism. In April, the News reported on faculty members who expressed discontent with McInnis’s unwillingness to engage with community concerns following the arrest of nine students at a pro-Palestine sit-in. 

More recently, McInnis has been criticized by students and faculty for her handling of a pro-Palestine protests in which two faculty members and nearly two dozen students were arrested early in the morning on May 2. In the following weeks, McInnis barely survived a motion to censure by Stony Brook’s University Senate, and her administration has come under fire for campus policing tactics perceived as overly aggressive and a lack of administrative transparency. 

“There are many who will be sad to see [McInnis] leaving Stony Brook,” wrote Richard Larson, the president of the University Senate and a professor of linguistics. “And there will be others who are deeply disappointed in her, disappointed that she and the small group of people advising her were unable to find a more creative, less-divisive solution to our challenges, and who will feel that this departure is perhaps for the best.”

Stony Brook faculty react to departure, reflect on McInnis’s tenure

McInnis was Stony Brook’s sixth president, and her four-year stint in the position will be the shortest non-interim tenure since that of the university’s first president in 1961. 

Larson referred to the first three years of McInnis’s tenure as “terrific,” highlighting a positive response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, fundraising efforts, strong relationships with New York state legislature and the governor’s office and securing a $700 million bid to lead the “New York Climate Exchange” on Governors Island. Going into the spring semester, he said, McInnis boasted the highest campus survey ratings for an administrator in “many years.”

“Fast forward 11 weeks or so, and she barely survived a Senate censure vote,” Larson said. 

Larson’s relationship with McInnis deteriorated in the final weeks of her presidency, particularly after he received a “shock” inquiry from the News in April that stated McInnis could possibly be under consideration for the Yale presidency. The News had contacted Larson after McInnis had provided him as a reference regarding her presidency at Stony Brook. 

“Honestly, we’re all a bit in shock to discover that our president, whom we regarded as entirely committed to Stony Brook and its future, is actively seeking a leadership position at another institution, specifically a private one, after many declarations of commitment to public education,” Larson wrote in an April 17 email response.

That response, Larson said, “initiated a steady downhill slide” with McInnis and her office, who canceled all future meetings with Larson as Senate president and stopped responding to his texts and emails. 

Multiple professors told the News that rumors about McInnis’s possible appointment at Yale had been circulating around Stony Brook’s campus for the past month. 

“The news is a shock but perhaps not so surprising,” wrote Eric Zolov, the undergraduate director of Stony Brook’s history department. “I find it frustrating and destabilizing for her to sing the praises of public education only to jump ship when a better opportunity arises.”

Zolov noted that for “at least three of those years,” the University had “genuinely strong leadership.” He praised McInnis for helping to “elevate SBU’s stature” and securing a “necessary lifeline of funding from the Simons Foundation.”   

“Others may point to her calling in the police to dislodge recent protesters as her ‘true legacy,’” Zolov wrote. “But the long term impact of the Simons funding I suspect will override that in the coming years.”

Leaving so soon after the controversy on campus this spring, however, “certainly leaves our campus culture in something of a disarray,” according to Zolov.

Madeline Turan, who chairs the University Senate’s Administrative Review Committee, expressed “surprise” and “disappointment” at hearing that McInnis would not lead the university for a longer period of time. Turan described McInnis as competent and personable.

“I have seen her give reports and listen to concerns from the floor without losing her composure even when confronted in a hostile manner,” Turan wrote. “My personal opinion is that she does her best to present a total picture of a situation as she sees it, and is open to hearing opposing opinions, even if she does not agree or implement those suggestions.”

Perceived mishandling of student arrests leads to narrow censure vote

McInnis’s first publicized clash with students and faculty members came following a March 26 incident in which nine pro-Palestine demonstrators were arrested during a sit-in demonstration at the university’s Administration Building. Over 600 Stony Brook faculty members and students signed an open letter calling for McInnis to revise free speech policies and increase administrative transparency. 

At an April 5 University Senate meeting, students disputed McInnis’ claims that students were loud and disruptive, calling on her to drop the charges. The meeting came to an end after students began to chant “shame on you” to McInnis, who walked out of the room. 

Still, prior to the arrests on May 2, McInnis’s handling of pro-Palestine protests on Stony Brook’s campus was mostly viewed favorably by faculty. Turan told the News that the committee had surveyed faculty members about the protests on campus. The number of respondents who agreed or strongly agreed with the administration’s handling of the protests was considerably larger than those who disagreed or strongly disagreed, according to Turan.

However, after the May 2 arrests, which involved university police, the local police department and New York state troopers, concerns about the administration’s use of police force became louder. 

History professor Paul Gootenberg said he believed that Stony Brook’s protests were small and not well-attended relative to those at other universities — and arrests were unnecessary.

“It was totally unexpected that there would be a move like this in a situation that proffered no threat whatsoever to the university community,” Gootenberg said. “The overreaction was just incredible and dampens freedom of speech and assembly.”

Other professors supported McInnis’ decision to permit arrests. Richard Laskowski, a professor in the College of Business, explained that administrators offered the protesters the chance to relocate, but they refused. Laskowski believes McInnis was right to then “stand up to the students.”

A resolution of no confidence in McInnis’s presidency was introduced to the University Senate on May 6, according to Larson, but was later amended to a censure resolution after faculty members agreed that the initial wording was too strong. 

Political science professor Gallya Lahav opposed the censure motion and organized a petition in support of McInnis with other faculty members in the days leading up to the vote. Lahav told the News that the petition received around 350 signatures from faculty, staff members, students and alumni in 72 hours.

The censure vote ultimately failed when 55 faculty members voted against it, 51 voted in favor and three abstained. 

“I was shocked by that, I was quite surprised that it would even come that close,” Lahav said. “Until that point, there seemed to be such solid support for her achievements on campus.”

Reflecting on the vote, Larson said that Mcinnis’ decision to bring in local and state police to campus to arrest “entirely peaceful protestors” produced “significant division.”

Larson said that McInnis – who had previously been positive and receptive to faculty input – did not take disagreement with her and her staff’s decision-making in regard to the spring protests “positively or collaboratively.” Multiple professors used the word “intransigence” to describe McInnis’s response input from the faculty senate. 

At the same meeting in which the censure motion was introduced, the senate deliberated a resolution calling for McInnis to drop the charges against the arrested faculty and students, and a resolution calling for an investigation of the university’s Enterprise Risk Management program, an umbrella collective of several university departments headed by Chief Security Officer Lawrence Zacarese that includes the campus police.

Enterprise Risk Management — or ERM — was founded in late May 2020, mere months after McInnis assumed her role. Both Gootenberg and Zacarese recalled that McInnis frequently referenced a stabbing incident from her time at UT Austin when explaining her support for a coordination program between risk management departments.

Joshua Dubnau, a professor in the School of Medicine who was one of the two faculty members arrested during the protests, claimed that ERM closely monitored students and faculty involved in the protests, including their social media accounts, to manage Stony Brook’s “risk portfolio.” Dubnau said that the faculty’s knowledge of ERM’s operations was very limited, and recalled an incident where Zacarese approached him at a protest to “complain” about one of Dubnau’s posts on X. 

ERM has the authority to review and approve or deny travel related to the scholarship of faculty and students, and was behind the decision to confiscate and hold some protestors’ phones for over two weeks, according to Dubnau. 

Zacarese believes that faculty members’ portrayal of ERM is a mischaracterization of the program. He said that many faculty members involved in the senate work very closely with ERM, and are familiar with its organization. 

“I fully support the Stony Brook Enterprise Risk Management team, which I created three years ago to bring together separate offices and units to increase efficiency and improve coordination,” McInnis told the News in a statement. “I did so because I care deeply about the students of Stony Brook and the safety of every member of the community. When I take office on July 1, I look forward to meeting with all departments at Yale, including the team at Public Safety.”

Gootenberg said that the senate’s focus on the program emerged from McInnis’s perceived “alliance” with ERM during the protests and arrests. 

He expressed surprise that Yale’s presidential search committee chose McInnis to lead the University given her low engagement with faculty members.

“Though she’s very good at the type of political management and fundraising activities that universities like, she really presents no vision whatsoever as an administrator,” Gootenberg said. “Even though she has an academic background, she never presented any intellectual vision whatsoever to the faculty. In fact, she barely interacted with our faculty at all.”

Stony Brook announced on Wednesday that its presidential search to replace McInnis would begin immediately, and an interim president would be named shortly.

Founded in 1957, Stony Brook University serves a student body of over 25,000.

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At the Baccalaureate Ceremony, University Chaplain Maytal Saltiel offered an opening prayer, followed by student-led prayers of various faiths and a hymn. Dean of Yale College Pericles Lewis read a reading of the poem “Ithaca” by Constantine Cavafy and the Yale Glee Club performed a rendition of “Alleluia” by Randall Thompson.

In his Baccalaureate Address, University President Peter Salovey drew on his upbringing in a culturally Jewish home and early memories of the Civil Rights movement — in particular Martin Luther King Jr.’s march to Selma alongside Rabbi Everett Gendler — to highlight the virtues of “love and compassion.” 

Citing obstacles such as climate change and racial injustice, and mentioning nationwide surges in antisemitism and Islamophobia, Salovey posed the audience with the challenge of “channeling rage into a positive, constructive force.”

“Without anger, we would be bereft of the fuel necessary to fight against prejudice and violence around the globe,” Salovey said. “So what then, are the grounds that support the translation of outrage into compassion?”

Salovey described a moment in 1963 in which Yale law student and civil rights activist Pauli Murray defended Alabama governor George Wallace’s right to speak at Yale despite his segregationist views and amid pressure from Yale’s president and the New Haven mayor to disinvite Wallace. This approach, Salovey said, emphasized “redemption over retribution.” 

“It is not enough to retreat into silos alongside those who are already inclined to agree with us,” Salovey said. “By daring to choose love and compassion over rage and hate, we can bring about the meaningful, sustainable changes needed in society.”

Salovey was interrupted by boos and cries of “shame” by groups of pro-Palestinian student demonstrators in the crowd, who have expressed vocal criticism of the University in recent weeks for its decision not to divest from weapons manufacturers. 

“I hear you,” Salovey said to the demonstrators, raising his hand. “Let’s get started together.”

He ended his speech with an ode to his Hebrew-speaking grandfather, saying “lehitraot,” a phrase that means “goodbye for now, see you again soon.”

Salovey mentioned that like the class of 2024, he also graduated as his University president was “completing his service” and wondered what his president would offer for his “final words.” Salovey’s time as president of the University is set to end on June 30, though his successor has not yet been named. 

At Class Day, which took place three hours later, students arrived back on Old Campus wearing the ceremony’s traditional funny hats. Some students donned hats with Palestinian flags or arrived wearing Palestinian keffiyeh scarves. 

United States Surgeon General Vivek Murthy MED ’03 MBA ’03 delivered the annual class day address, speaking on his journey to becoming Surgeon General and experience battling feelings of loneliness and unhappiness. He emphasized the value of fostering strong interpersonal relationships as a means of leading a fulfilling life.

“Be present, be real, show up,” Murthy told the crowd. “These are the keys to nurturing the relationships that will sustain you for the rest of your life.”

Following Murthy’s address, students and administrators took turns on stage offering remarks and conferring student prizes. During the conferral of student prizes, some students stood up and turned to parents and family members in the audience with handmade banners that read slogans like “2024 imagines a free Palestine” or “Yale divest.”

Towards the end of the ceremony, during a student-led segment of the ceremony dedicated to revisiting class memories, Alanah Armstead ’24 urged the audience to remember that “there are no graduations in Gaza, in Palestine, for students and children we will never meet.” 

Armstead, one of three speakers on stage, ended her address by calling out “free, free Palestine,” which drew a response from some students in the crowd. Chants of “free Palestine” continued uninterrupted in the student section for about 45 seconds before the next student speaker began their remarks.

Other chants of “USA” broke out in the student section, as well as some boos in the family seating area. Administrators and event staff stood idly and waited for chants to subside. Earlier in the day, a statement regarding campus free expression policies had been played on the loudspeaker and displayed on the video board. 

“Interfering with a speaker’s ability to speak and the audience’s ability to hear and see is not consistent with the university free expression policy,” the statement read. 

May 20 will mark the University’s 323rd annual Commencement Ceremony. 

Correction, May 20: A previous version of this story misspelled Vivek Murthy’s name. His last name is Murthy, not Murphy, and the story has been updated to reflect this.

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But a Bez Mbeng ’25 and-one layup and a John Poulakidas ’25 fadeaway three –– together with Brown’s poor free throw shooting –– made it a one point game with six seconds left and Yale ball. Moments later, Bulldog fans stormed the court as Matt Knowling ’24 made a game-winning floater as time expired to clinch the Ivy League title and book Yale’s spot in March Madness.

“I just wanted to put myself by the basket in case of a miss,” Knowling told the News after the game. “We were trying to get a play for someone else, but they found me. I didn’t think I was going to be that open. I work on that shot every day. I didn’t overthink it, I just let it go and it went in.”

Hours later, the No. 13 seeded Elis booked their tickets to Spokane, Washington, ahead of a first round March Madness matchup against No. 4 Auburn. At approximately 2,200 miles, Yale’s journey from New Haven to Spokane was the longest of any team in the 68-team NCAA tournament. And Auburn — ranked as the nation’s fourth-best team and coming off a dominant run to win the SEC championships — seemed like an impossible opponent. 

The Tigers went 24–0 in the regular season against non-quad one opponents, winning those games by an average margin of 16.2 points. Over 90 percent of March Madness brackets picked Auburn to defeat Yale. 

“Auburn wants to punch you in the face when the game starts, they wanna come after you,” Yale head coach James Jones said the day before the March 22 matchup. “But our guys have been battle-tested and they’ll be ready.” 

The Tigers flexed their might early on, leading 10–2 in the game’s opening minutes as star forward Johni Broome racked up seven quick points and three rebounds, nodding his head confidently after each basket. 

But the Bulldogs stayed in the game early thanks to Poulakidas’s hot shooting. The sharpshooting lefty made several key plays to save Yale’s offense as the shot-clock expired, including an and-one three pointer where Poulakidas got his own rebound on a missed free throw and dished it to August Mahoney ’24 for a deep three. The six-point possession made it 16-16 with 14:06 remaining in the half. 

The Tigers held several double-digit leads throughout the second half, but Yale refused to let the game turn into a blowout. Down 68–58 with 7:35 remaining, the Elis began to chip away at the Tigers lead, and with 2:11 remaining, Poulakidas hit his sixth three of the night to give the Bulldogs a 73–72 lead. From there, Yale never looked back. Players and coaches ran out onto the court to celebrate the historic upset victory.

“That’s the best team we’ve beaten in Yale basketball history, as far as I’m concerned,” Jones said after the game. 

Poulakidas finished with a game-high 28 points, earning attention from national media that included a feature on Good Morning America. 

But the upset win also gave rise to some more unlikely heroes. First-year center Samson Aletan ’27 came off the bench and recorded two key blocks on the game’s final possession to seal the victory. Aletan had not logged a single minute in any of the team’s last three games, but was called upon in the game’s final minute after starting center Danny Wolf ’26 fouled out.

Off the court, the University of Idaho’s student marching band, wearing Yale T-shirts, filled in for Yale’s band — who were absent due to spring break. After the game, Jones praised their performance, calling it an “incredibly gracious act.” 

Two days later, Yale fell to No. 5 San Diego State in an 85–57 loss in the tournament’s second round. Only one other team in program history — the 2016 Bulldogs — had made the second round prior to 2024.

“Basketball teaches life lessons, and the lesson today was that it’s not always going to be sunshine and rainbows, things get hard.” Jones said. “I couldn’t be prouder of this group.”

Jones, the all-time winningest coach in Yale basketball history, will begin his 26th season with the team next fall. 

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Holloway, like other figures on the News’ list, has strong ties to Yale and a robust track record of leadership posts in academia. However, his colleagues at Rutgers have raised concerns about his leadership.

Four years after receiving his graduate degree in history from Yale in 1995, Holloway joined the University as a faculty member before becoming a full professor in 2004, At Yale, Holloway became the second Black person to become Head of Calhoun — now Grace Hopper — College and was chair of the African American Studies department. In 2014, he became the first Black dean of Yale College. In 2017, Holloway stepped down to become provost at Northwestern University before being appointed the first Black president of Rutgers University in 2020.

Last September, the Rutgers University senate — which is made up of over 130 students, faculty, alumni and staff — passed a vote of no confidence in Holloway after a historic triple-union strike. Holloway, supported by the university’s board of governors, remained in the position. The News spoke to three members of faculty at Rutgers, who criticized Holloway for his handling of faculty unions and lack of communication with his university community.

Holloway declined the News’ multiple requests for comment. 

“He has consistently shown contempt for and disdain for the people who do the work of the university,” Jim Brown, professor of English at Rutgers, wrote to the News. “He has shown little interest in the working or learning conditions of students, staff, and faculty at all Rutgers campuses.”

Since the vote of no confidence, Holloway stopped showing up at University senate meetings, drawing the ire of some faculty members. 

Holloway’s desire to become the president at Yale has been “out in the open for months” among Rutgers faculty, according to one faculty member who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from the administration.

“He just seems to want to wash his hands at Rutgers and move on,” the faculty member said. “I think he would see Yale as the pinnacle of his personal achievements. So yeah, I don’t think he wants to stick around at this public university any longer than he has to.”

Rutgers faculty on strike

By last spring, faculty at Rutgers had been working without a union contract for almost a year. 

The main issue discussed during prolonged contract negotiations was the recognition of part-time lecturers, for whom the union demanded equal pay for equal work, according to Robert Scott, a Rutgers anthropology professor who also serves on the university senate. These efforts, he said, were met by “stonewalling” from the administration.

Jim Brown, a professor of English at Rutgers, served as president of one of the chapters of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT union until last year and sat on its bargaining team. According to Brown, Holloway’s administration did not take negotiations seriously.

“His administration’s inability to negotiate contracts is largely due to his willingness to allow a team of lawyers and bureaucrats to run the university,” Brown wrote. “He played no role in negotiations. I sat at the table for a year, and I never saw him.”

As the union contemplated striking, Holloway threatened to seek a court injunction to break the strike and force faculty back to work. When, on April 10, faculty went on strike, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy had to intervene, asking Holloway not to seek an injunction. Scott and Brown attributed his decision not to seek legal action to external pressure on the president. 

Scott recalled that at one point during union negotiations, Holloway created an anonymous survey form for students to report faculty members who failed to show up to class due to the strike. 

“This is especially important for the thousands of students who are finishing their academic careers at Rutgers and are only a few weeks away from earning their degrees,” Holloway said when he contemplated legal action against strikers. 

After five days on strike, with the governor’s mediation, the university achieved an agreement with its union, which the latter pronounced as its victory. The new contract, ratified by the university unions in early May, included a 14 percent raise for full-time faculty. Adjunct faculty — as part-time lecturers are now classified per the contract — now earn close to equal pay for equal work with full-time professors

However, Brown wrote that after the strike ended, the administration continued treating workers “with disdain,” citing the layoffs of adjunct faculty at Rutgers-New Brunswick’s writing program, who he said “worked at Rutgers for more than 40 years.”

“His administration is increasing class sizes to enact these layoffs, which is bad for students and faculty,” Brown wrote. “He would likely say that this is a financial decision made because of finite resources, but he never seems to care about those finite resources when it comes to funding athletics or the pet projects of administrators at all three campuses.”

No confidence vote in Holloway’s leadership

On Sept. 22, the Rutgers University senate expressed no confidence in Holloway in an 89-to-47 vote.

The decision came on the heels of the faculty strike, as well as a controversial decision in July to merge two of the university system’s medical schools and the ousting of the Rutgers-Newark chancellor in August.

When Holloway’s administration started the merging of two medical schools, many professors were “reticent or opposed,” Scott said Then, the administration ignored the concerns among faculty and senate’s request to pause the merger and proceeded with the plan.

Last August, Rutgers also announced that it would not renew the contract with Nancy Cantor, a chancellor of Rutgers-Newark, prompting a backlash from faculty. Despite Holloway’s announcement praising Cantor, the university administration never explained the reasoning behind their decision not to renew a contract with her.

The resolution of a vote of no confidence on Holloway  refers to Cantor as “a highly effective, popular, widely-respected and nationally recognized campus chancellor.” A faculty at Newark campus, who spoke on a condition of anonymity, told the News that faculty will “never ever forgive” Holloway for dismissing her.

Brown also criticized the president for overlooking the Rutgers-Camden campus, where Brown teaches. 

​​”He will talk about how many times he has visited the campus. He will say that he has not forgotten about us,” Brown wrote. “But the policies remain the same. The campus with the largest proportions of first-generation students and non-white students does not get treated equitably.”

Brown said that Rutgers never allocated resources to Rutgers-Camden and that the campus “never felt valued.”

Following the senate’s decision, Holloway stopped coming to senate meetings and sent a letter announcing a new model of University engagement where he would meet with students and faculty in small “salons,” which became the subject of a running joke among faculty members, according to Scott.

“It had an elitist ring to it,” Scott said. “Go to Yale, take your salons to Yale.”

Scott added that he’d meet the news of Holloway being named president of Yale as a sign of relief and a chance to start anew at Rutgers.

On Friday night, Holloway arrived for University President Peter Salovey’s farewell dinner at the Schwarzman Center — one day before the Yale Corporation’s April 20 meeting. Holloway said that he was attending the dinner to “honor” Salovey.  

If selected for the role, Holloway would become the University’s first president of color.

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