This year’s conference, co-organized by WLI and YaleWomen, a community of Yale alumnae, featured 20 accomplished speakers who shared insights on leadership and strategies for career advancement in fields such as law and policy, STEM, arts and media, healthcare and sustainability. The conference offered a unique opportunity to over 150 participants to interact with faculty, alumnae and leaders, per Jessi Avila-Shah ’25, co-president of WLI. 

“At its core, we love hosting this conference because it brings together female leaders from all over the world,” Avila-Shah told the News.

This year’s speakers included keynote Ann Olivarius ’77 LAW ’86 SOM ’86, chair of the executive committee of the law firm McAllister Olivarius; Genevieve Scott, a visiting clinical lecturer in law at the Yale Law School; and Keli Huang, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

Students who attended the conference spoke highly of the experience, noting the invaluable opportunities to network with professionals and peers and gain insights from trailblazing leaders, per Avila-Shah.

“I really valued the ideas they shared on leadership as women in STEM,” Janice Hur ’27, a staff reporter for the News, said. “In particular, the speakers’ comments on how to balance effective leadership of high-performing teams with support for individual team members was insightful.”

Sabrina Guo ’27, joined the Yale Women’s Leadership Initiative as a first year to help build an inclusive and welcoming women’s leadership and empowerment organization at Yale. After serving as a speakers liaison and moderator for the 2024 WLI Conference, she became a co-director of the conference committee for the 2024-25 season and helped co-organize the 2025 WLI Conference.

This year, Guo spearheaded the inaugural 2025 WLI High School Essay Contest where participants submitted an essay answering “Why is women’s leadership important in today’s world, and how have you contributed to women’s empowerment in your school and/or community?”

The competition received submissions from all over the U.S. and internationally, with finalists from India, South Korea, Sri Lanka and China. 

The competition also received a large number of submissions from male students. One of them, Meng Cheng Cai, an 11th grader from Poly Prep Country Day School of Brooklyn, was the sole male essay winner and was invited to attend the conference.

“Although my mother had great achievements in business, she was never promoted to a higher position because of her gender. Gender does not define a person’s ability, and it should never be the standard for judgment,” he wrote. “The advantages that female leaders bring can be seen in every way — from peacekeeping to innovation–and only by eliminating this bias can we create a more equitable society.”

Second-place contest winner Katie Qin of Princeton High School in Princeton, New Jersey, said she learned about the importance of self-advocacy.

“Self-advocacy, a trait that countless girls are forced or taught to abandon, is one of the keys to becoming a trailblazer,” Qin said.

The Yale Women’s Leadership Initiative was founded in 2006.

Correction, Feb. 26: The dates of the conference have been corrected to Feb. 1-2.

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This early experience sparked a lifelong passion for voyaging. On Saturday, Dec. 7, at the Leitner Observatory, he and his wife, Lita Blankenfeld, will discuss how this moment shaped their journey of navigating across the globe. Together, they will present narratives on Hawaiian navigation techniques to circumnavigate the globe

“It makes you more human and gives you the opportunity to learn,” Blankenfeld said of wayfinding. “It constantly reshapes the lens through which you see life.”

Bruce Blankenfeld’s passion for Polynesian voyaging was ignited shortly after graduating high school in 1974. In 1977, he found himself overseeing the maintenance of a canoe — a moment that marked the beginning of a lifelong journey. For decades, voyaging across the world has taken him across the world, introducing him to new cultures and giving him the opportunity to constantly meet interesting people.

According to Blankenfeld, when planning for a voyage, many factors of preparation come into play. On their voyages, a separate group of people handles forward planning, ensuring safety, and building relationships with the many ports that the Blankenfelds visit. 

But, Blankenfeld said, preparation extends beyond just logistics: it involves training crew members in seamanship, provisioning food, understanding the weather of particular areas, and extensive research into the Indigenous cultures of their many destinations. He said each voyage lasts about a month. 

“Before the voyage, you study the stars and the natural environment. It’s about familiarization,” Blankenfeld said. Throughout the journey, navigators rely on their observations of the horizon, the colors of the sky, and the movement of celestial bodies. Every 12 hours, they recalibrate, adding up the miles traveled and resetting their course. “It’s a constant learning process that demands both preparation and intuition.” Blankenfeld said. 

For the Blankenfelds, just as much as voyaying is a means of exploration, it is also an important means for keeping Polynesian culture alive. Blankenfeld reminisced back to high school, when he first discovered voyaging. He told the News how learning about voyaging started to fill a void in a lot of young Hawaiian people as “there wasn’t a lot out there that defined our culture.”

For the Blankenfelds, preservation first starts with their canoes, ensuring that they are “healthy, strong, beautiful and cared for.” 

“Going around to all these islands and ports, the fact that the canoe is constantly being cared for is an inspiration to all young Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders because that’s a part of their past,” Blankenfeld told the News. “The knowledge and courage it took to navigate was so inspirational that hundreds of navigators wrote songs about it, chants about it, and took time to put it into that format so it could be remembered forever.”

Blankenfeld also told the News that efforts are taking place to ensure that the knowledge and opportunity to participate in voyaging is passed down to future generations. 

Saturday’s event is hosted by the Native American Cultural Center in collaboration with The American Indian Science and Engineering Society, or AISES , The Yale Astronomical and Space Student Society, or YASSS, and the Leitner Observatory. 

Last August, Jairus Rhoades ’26, president of AISES, and Julia Levy ’25, president of YASSS and a staff reporter at the News, collaborated along with Matthew Makomenaw, dean of the Native American Cultural Center, to bring forth an Indigenous knowledge session on stars and the galaxy.

Discussions about the possible event immediately brought memories to Rhoades’ childhood. He told the News how much his curriculum invested in teaching its students about seeing culture revived in practice and immediately thought of the Blankenfelds as “key figures.”

Levy approached Makomenaw and NACC immediately after founding the group, wanting their astronomy society’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives to include underrepresented interpretations of the night sky. She had long presented Greek constellations as a Leitner Family Observatory & Planetarium Observing Assistant. Levy said that she wanted to know what other stories of the sky existed throughout history and culture. 

“In other words, I was tired of reciting how Zeus had toyed with the lives of the characters in Greek myth,” Levy told the News. “I wanted to know what other stories were out there.”

This upcoming Saturday, they will present a special Sky Map Lecture with him after their open discussion. 

The Native American Cultural Center is located at 26 High St. 

The post Decades around the sea: Polynesian voyagers to share the art of wayfinding appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Throughout the week prior, Yalies were able to participate in events leading up to Indigenous Peoples Day such as a breakfast for dinner event featuring Indigenous foods on Tuesday, an Indigenous astronomy event in collaboration with the Yale Astronomical and Space Student Society and an Indigenous Storytelling and Poetry Night at the Yale Farm on Friday.

On Monday, Oct. 14, programming included the popular food truck Taqueria Tlaxcala at Pierson College and a speaking event by classical composer and pianist Jerod Impichchaachaaha’Tate (Chickasaw). At Branford College, there was a smudging, the use of ceremonial cleansing smoke from the burning of medicine, a dinner, and a talent night. 

The events put on during the week came into fruition through the work of several Indigenous organizations throughout Yale.

“To me, Indigenous Peoples’ Day is both a moment of joy and celebration, while being one of remembrance for the larger structural forces of settler colonialism that have and continue to displace and dispossess Indigenous peoples globally,” said Joshua Ching ’26 (Kanaka Maoli). “Within the institution, this day is a proof of existence, a proof of resistance, a proof of residence.”

Last fall, Ching founded Students of the Indigenous Peoples of Oceania, or IPO, and currently serves as its president. Over the past week, IPO led planning and organizing for the Free Pasifik Teach–In on Monday and Fijan Independence Day celebrations on Thursday, as part of a broader series of programming in celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, according to Ching. 

On Sunday, IPO also led a lei-making workshop, in conjunction with the Native and Indigenous Students Association at Yale, or NISAY, as well as beading, poster, and gift-making workshop. The lei were gifted to their students and faculty as a way of honoring the work they do “creating this home away from home,” Ching told the News. 

Ching told the News that since IPO’s inception, the organization has celebrated Fijian Independence Day twice, hosted a week of celebrations for Lā Kūʻokoʻa, and hosted politicians, scholars and musicians from across the Pacific. 

Ching along Avery Maples ’26 (Cherokee), president of NISAY, and Jairus Rhoades ’26 (American Samoan), president of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, or AISES, also came together at a community gathering on Cross Campus to give speeches on the significance of Indigenous Peoples Day and the historical and campus–based context it is situated in.

Maples, who is Eastern Band Cherokee, stressed the importance of remembering that the land on which Yale is built belongs to the Quinnipiac people and the responsibility to recognize the Quinnipiac as the original stewards of their ancestral homeland. 

Maples also spoke about another important event, where in 1992 in Berkeley, California, the city formally acknowledged an alternative perspective and marker of the five–hundred year commemoration of Christopher Columbus’ “discovery” of the New World. 

That year, Indigenous People’s Day gave official and long overdue recognition to the ancient and interconnected Indigenous nations of the Americas, each with rich histories and ways of life that functioned healthily before the civilizing mandates of European colonization, according to Maples. 

“However, today’s recognition is not limited to Indigenous Peoples of North America but also around the world, who continue to adapt and survive despite colonialism’s devaluation and destruction of Indigenous ways of life,” Maples said. “Today, we see all around us the descendants, survivors and keepers of each of our distinct and ancient cultures.”

However, according to Maples, there is still much work to be done. In her speech, Maples said that in order for America to live up to its legal and moral obligations to tribes and their people. She mentioned “justice that needs to be dispensed for Indigenous peoples outside of the continental United States” and also spoke on the Indian Self-Determination Act, which empowers tribal nations to stand on their “own two feet” under American policy by allowing them to craft critical services legally owed and promised to them by the American government. 

“This Indigenous Peoples’ Day comes in the face of new administration, new precedents in admissions policies, many new Native first years, newly hired faculty and huge shifts in Yale as an institution that listens to the historically underrepresented communities it pledges to serve,” Rhoades told the News. 

Shayna Naranjo SPH ’24 (Santa Clara Pueblo) also wrote to the News how Indigenous Peoples’ Day feels like both a day of celebration and looking forward, and also as a day to keep “history alive” so that “we can remain tactful, resilient, and understanding in our efforts to make Yale an institution that feels more transparent.” 

Matthew Makomenaw (Odawa Tribe), dean of the Native American Cultural Center, and who was present at the gathering, told the News about the significance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day and the cruciality that Yale continues to commemorate it as a day of celebration and remembrance. 

“Indigenous Peoples’ Day means a lot of different things for a lot of different people,” Makomnewa said. “It really is community.” 

The Native American Cultural Center is located at 26 High St. 

The post Yale community celebrates Indigenous Peoples’ Day appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The center offers specialized care in the diagnosis and treatment of voice airways and swallowing disorders. Patients with voice disorders may sound hoarse due to a vocal fold becoming paralyzed, age-related changes of the vocal folds or just because they learned to use their voice in an inefficient way, John Gerrity, a speech-language pathologist at the center, told the News. 

“A great deal of patients who I work with tell me that before they started receiving treatment, they thought that speech pathologists only provided services in school for articulation and fluency disorders,” Gerrity told the News. “Those are very important areas of intervention, but they are only a small part of what SLPs do.”

Speech-language pathologists also evaluate and treat patients who benefit from services in the areas of receptive and expressive language, cognition, aural rehabilitation, social communication, swallowing, voice and alternative methods of communication, per Gerrity. The center works with patients of all ages and strives to provide services which help patients reach functional goals that improve their quality of life. 

Lynn Acton, a lecturer of surgery specializing in otolaryngology, told the News about the steps the center takes to make access to the center accessible to both undergraduate and professional school students. While they do recommend that students come to the center in person for their first appointment, they have also expanded their services to “video visits” after the pandemic. Their expansion reflects a shift toward an increase in telehealth services across the field of speech-language pathology. 

The faculty of the center also discussed some of the most rewarding aspects of their work at the center.

“We have the common goal of getting people’s voices back.” Acton told the News. “It’s great to see the huge difference made on people after coming to the center. They come in and they’re smiling and able to talk to their families. That’s what I like best about this aspect of the field.”

With October being Disability Employment Awareness Month, the center also emphasized the importance of advocacy and education on speech–language disorders, as well as their outlook toward innovation and improving.

“We participate in national conferences, and also try to do research on certain projects to learn more about and advance the field,” Young told the News. “It is a lifelong process of learning.”

Young is one of the only otolaryngologists in the state of Connecticut who has accreditation and works in gender affirming voice, helping patients align their voice with their gender identity. Acton is also currently taking a course on it. They told the News that part of their work is also coming up with new and innovative research topics, trying to figure out things in the field of speech–language pathology that “haven’t been talked about yet.”

Gerrity also emphasized the importance of speech–language pathologists not only being care specialists, but “advocates” for their patients, especially when it comes to patients who oftentimes have difficulty communicating.  

Young and Acton acknowledged that there is still much work to be done in informing students and others about speech–language pathology services. Although they have a close relationship with undergraduate students in the Music and Drama school, they told the News that making others aware of these resources is a top priority for them. Community outreach, networking with physicians and other providers in the area, and putting a spotlight on the services they offer make it easier for patients to find our services, according to Gerrity.

“In our field, we have the opportunity to make a meaningful and lasting impact on our patients, and that isn’t limited to the services we provide in the treatment room,” Gerrity told the News. “When we advocate for our patients, we are giving them the tools they can use to become their own advocates. That empowerment and independence matters.”

Yale Otolaryngology is located at 330 Cedar St.

The post “Experts of Voice”: Yale Speech and Swallow Center innovates, advocates and grows appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Casanova–Burgess is the host of the bilingual podcast “La Brega”, which explores Puerto Rican culture, history and current issues. The podcast has received praise from the New Yorker, The New York Times and the Atlantic. The keynote was jointly organized by La Casa Cultural and Despierta Boricua, Yale’s Puerto Rican Student Association. The event was also sponsored by the Poynter Fellowship. 

“The gathering was less a keynote address and more of a community gathering,” Carmen Lopez Villamil ’25, a panelist for the keynote, wrote the News. “As people filled the hall, we dragged around couches, sat on tables, and unstacked classroom chairs to expand the intimate circle into a fluid band. Within an hour, the room was full of students and Puerto Ricans of all ages from all over.” 

Casanova–Burgess talked about her experiences in journalism, the role of the Puerto Rican community in the podcast’s creation and her own personal journey. During the event, Casanova–Burgess often redirected audience questions back to the audience, which shifted the talk from a “lecture–esque event” to an “expansive and flexible community,” per Villamil. 

When asked what comes next for her after “La Brega” and plans for the following season, Casanova–Burgess told the audience that the team is currently experimenting with a lot of different ideas, from music to sports, but she also directed the question to the audience, interested in what they “wanted to hear, what is at the top of [their] minds, and what feels urgent.”

Audience members talked about subjects they would be interested in seeing, such as the history of student activism on campuses, citizenship experiences of Puerto Ricans in the United States and conversations about indigenous peoples.

“Sounds like we got a season” Casanova–Burgess laughed. 

Casanova–Burgess talked to the audience about her past coming from public and live radio and how that shaped the way she approaches the production process of “La Brega.”

Compared to written publications, live shows are about building relationships and community. 

“‘La Brega’ is journalism, but we’re always thinking deeply about what one is going to perceive, how they are going to share and listen to it with someone else,” Casanova–Burgess said.

The conservation also touched on subjects of inspiring hope in listeners and how journalism can foster cross cultural understanding and solidarity. 

Casanova Burgess told the audience about the unexpected global reach of “La Brega.” She said the podcast received calls from listeners in India, Kenya, Nigeria and Israel. 

“I think it shows how pivotal the diaspora is when talking about what is happening around the world.” Casanova–Burgess said. “I think ‘La Brega’ is an exercise in solidarity. We’re experimenting with having a conversation between our independent, mutual understandings.”

Jaden Gonzalez ’25, one of the co-chairs of Despierta Boricua, told the News that it was great to share community with Puerto Rican students, faculty and New Haven residents. He noted that the energy in the room was “empowering, enthusiastic and passionate” and encouraged all Latine, Caribbean and especially Puerto Rican communities on campus and in New Haven to seek out Despierta Boricua, the Puerto Rican student organization at Yale. 

Amanda Rivera GRD ’26 researches Puerto Rican educational activism at Yale and in New Haven from the 1960s to present. She told the News that her favorite aspect of Casanova–Burgess’ work is her complete storytelling. 

“She highlights our agency, and dares to tell our stories in all their nuances – the good, the bad, and the ugly – and in doing so, creates worlds in which we might dare to exist and dream of and enact new possibilities,” Rivera said.

“La Brega” can be listened to on WYNC, NPR and Apple Podcasts.

The post La Casa Cultural hosts journalist Alana Casanova–Burgess appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Last March, SAS, in collaboration with the Good Life Center, opened the Good Life Center @ SAS —  Yale’s first space specifically designated for students with disabilities. The Student Workers in Assistive Technology also grew significantly, according to SAS Associate Director Jordan Colbert, who created the SWAT team in 2021. 

In this academic year, SAS plans to keep using technology to address accessibility needs on campus and further develop a Good Life Center space with new programming. 

Technology enhancing accessibility

Last year, SAS collaborated with the faculty of large lecture courses to institute a model for accommodated exams.

Under the new model, a SAS Assistant Accommodations Coordinator works with faculty members and students to coordinate testing accommodations, instead of students having to schedule their own accommodated exams in the Watson Center.

SAS’s major focus last year was using technology to address accessibility needs, SAS Director Kimberly McKeown told the News. As new plans begin, this will remain a priority this year as well.  

The SWAT team, which consists of highly-trained student workers, has grown in both number and competencies.

The team consists of two units. The Accessibility Assistant Unit ensures accessible PDFs for students using screen readers. The Captions, Interpreting and Assistive Technology Team trains students on assistive technology and works with campus partners on accessibility standards. 

In the next year, the team will work on access to a text–to–speech program called Speechify, according to Colbert. 

The team also plans to roll out technology supporting note-taking for students who cannot take notes themselves due to a disability. The program records the audio of a class or meeting and then provides a detailed summary, highlights and transcript. It can also create quizzes based on the information.

SAS is working toward several projects still in development, such as glasses with American Sign Language capability and captions available via augmented reality. 

A space for students with disabilities

SAS Associate Director Susan Olson is enthusiastic about what the Good Life Center @ SAS has in store for the future, including new developments like student programming. 

“Programming is a relatively new endeavor for our office, as our primary work is, and will always be, working with individual students to meet accessibility needs,” Olson told the News. “This new space, though, has given us room to dream around the edges of that important mandate, and we are all really excited about creating opportunities for students with disabilities, and their friends, to engage together in a space that is uniquely theirs.”

The Good Life Center @ SAS expanded its hours this fall. It is now open from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays  and 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays. 

The center also recently hired two graduate students to serve as programming assistants. Laurenz Dodge ENV ’26 and Mary He SPH ’25 will plan events and programs throughout the semester, all focused on wellness and building community. 

“I’m most excited about the opportunity to create events that support accessibility while bringing people together in a meaningful way,” Dodge told the News.

In addition to wellness programming, the Office of Career Strategy and Office of Study Abroad are partnering with SAS to provide some disability-specific programming on the unique factors that students with disabilities will want to consider in launching career searches or planning a study abroad experience.

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

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The gathering on Cross Campus featured readings in memory of each of the six hostages, speeches and prayers. Around 100 Yale students and New Haven community members stood around a Shabbat table with a place set for each hostage still in captivity.

“In the competition of pain, there are no winners. These are innocent hostages taken from their homes 336 days ago versus an evil terrorist organization. This was an American citizen among many others that was executed after being held hostage for 330 days,” Eytan Israel ’26, a Jewish student and organizer of the event, said at the beginning of the vigil. “This is a humanitarian issue. This is a world issue.” 

Israel spoke first about the two objectives of the event: to remember the six hostages — Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino — who were shot and killed last week while in captivity in Gaza and to advocate for the safe return of the remaining hostages. 

A different student spoke about each of the six killed hostages, reading about their lives and quotes from their family members. 

Yossi Moff ’27 read a quote by the mother of Eden Yerushalmi from her funeral. Yerushalmi was a 24-year-old from Tel Aviv. 

“‘I wanted my daughter back, my sweet girl who was full of life. You were more than my daughter. You were my best friend,” Moff read. “‘I wanted to get back my Eden, my funny Eden, the one making us laugh, the jokester with the best laugh.’” 

After each speech, the gatherers held a moment of silence. 

After the event, Israel spoke to the News about one of the killed hostages: Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American-Israeli 24-year-old. 

“One of those hostages was an American named Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was born in California, and has a lot of ties to our community,” Israel told the News. “We wanted to raise awareness that there was an American, just like any of us, that was a few years older than us, that we could have been in the same place as him.” 

Twice last year, members of the Yale Jewish community set up a Shabbat table to raise awareness for the hostages. Last February, Aaron Schorr ’24 also spoke about Goldberg-Polin, who was his childhood friend and neighbor.

At the vigil on Friday, Israel read a quote from Rachel Goldberg-Polin, mother of Goldberg-Polin from his funeral on Sunday. 

“Throughout the war, Hersh’s Mother told Hersh, ‘Hersh! Stay strong! Survive!’” Israel said. “On Sunday, his mother said ‘Hersh, I need you to do one last thing for us … Now I need you to help us to stay strong. And I need you to help us to survive.’”

Goldberg-Polin’s parents spoke at Republican and Democratic national conventions about their son, urging action to allow his safe return. His death has become a focus of discussions about the hostages and potential paths to the return of the remaining hostages.

During the 2023–24 academic year, the war in Gaza sent ripples through the Yale community as students grappled with grief and dissented against the war since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the following humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

At the end of the event, Rabbi Alex Ozar, co-director of the Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus at Yale, spoke about harnessing grief to make change and concluded with a prayer for the release of the hostages. 

“Jewish grief is not, must not be an escape from the world, an escape into withdrawal and despair and indifference. Jewish grief requires leaning into committing to the world as it actually is, with our eyes wide open, in the hope of making it just a little bit better,” Ozar said. “And so we’ll conclude with a prayer for the release of the hostages, for relief for all of our brothers and sisters.” 

Shabbat lasts from sundown on Friday until an hour after sundown on Saturday.

The post Jewish community members mourn six hostages killed in Gaza, call for release of remaining hostages appeared first on Yale Daily News.

According to an Aug. 28 email released by Madeline Wilson, the chief campus health officer, there has been an increasing presence of the COVID-19 virus in wastewater all over the nation, particularly in the Northeastern United States. Wastewater is an early indicator of increasing cases and provides information on new variants of infectious diseases like COVID-19. 

Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology at the School of Medicine, told the News that the world is in the middle of a summer COVID-19 wave that started in July. This has led to an estimated million new cases each day in the United States; it has also led to an increase in hospitalizations, with 73,000 emergency room visits related to COVID-19 in Connecticut in the past week.

According to Iwasaki, the current dominant strain of COVID-19 is KP.31.1, which accounts for almost half of all U.S. cases. 

“[For] immunocompetent people who are vaccinated or who have prior immunity from infections, this strain is no more dangerous than the previous Omicron sub-variants,” Iwasaki wrote.

According to Albert Ko, a professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health, COVID-19 has begun to attain a seasonal character; infections are highest during the winter and summer due to the emergence of variants and people being indoors. In a globalized world, variants can travel from different areas to the United States and cause surges of infections.

However, concerns remain for immunocompromised members of the Yale community, especially as Yale has relaxed COVID-19 policies in recent years. In February, Yale stopped collecting data on positive COVID-19 cases, among other changes.

For English professor Katie Trumpener, who is back this year to in-person instruction after teaching on Zoom for the last four years, the policies present challenges as she is immunocompromised. 

She shared with the News that her specialist believes that the same dangers still apply but that COVID-19 may always be present and it was time to “attempt at least a partial return.”

“I worry that, like the CDC itself, Yale has shaped its policies not only according to the best medical information available, but according to what it thinks will be readily accepted by the community,” Trumpener wrote to the News. “That means: no mandatory vaccination, no mandatory testing or isolation. No real provision for classes going hybrid if class members become ill.” 

Dean of Yale College Pericles Lewis told the News that the University is concerned about students with disabilities or in immunocompromised situations who might be at greater risk. According to Lewis, while the University no longer requires regular testing, it is trying to ensure that the resources are available and people are educated.

Lewis also shared that there is a new Office of University Health, run by Wilson, which will help distribute information about access to vaccines and other health resources. The News could not find any further information about the office. 

Trumpener mentioned that she was grateful that Yale was willing to close and shift things online at the beginning of the pandemic but said that those who are less able-bodied or more vulnerable are not always kept in mind. 

“As a society, ‘we’ seem determined to go as if nothing has happened and as if everything is back to normal. For some of us, though, it’s not yet normal and perhaps won’t ever be,” Trumpener wrote. 

Trumpener shared that she would like to see formal representation of immune-compromised people, faculty and students, in the decision-making surrounding COVID policies. 

According to Ko, because people have been vaccinated and the severity of infections has drastically decreased, “long COVID” has been on the decline as well. 

Vaccinations will be available at Yale this month, per Wilson’s email.

According to Ko, it is a good idea to get the vaccine before the winter wave to safeguard oneself against infection and long-term COVID-19. However, because of the vaccine’s waning effects, it is recommended that immunocompromised people get vaccinated two to three times a year.

“If we get vaccinated, it may prevent us from getting infected for three or four months, but other people are getting sick, and they’re getting immunity, which leads to herd immunity,” Ko told the News. “However, the effect of these vaccines is certainly less than a year, and it’s likely much less than six months.” 

Additionally, Paxlovid, an oral pill, is recommended for those with pre-existing conditions that put them at higher risk of COVID-19, according to Iwasaki.

In an email to the News, Wilson also wrote, “We strongly encourage vaccination, and support those who feel more comfortable masking even when not ill.” 

She also shared that Yale routinely monitors levels of respiratory illness locally and nationally, as well as other significant conditions. 

“As far as the future is concerned, we, like many institutions, are transitioning to managing COVID as a recurrent, endemic infection where we expect to see periodic waves and learn to take it in stride,” Wilson wrote to the News.

Yale Health is located at 55 Lock St.

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On June 29, 2023, the court struck down affirmative action in response to cases filed against Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In its majority decision, the court argued that race-based considerations in college admissions violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause, ending decades of legal precedent that allowed colleges and universities to consider race as one of many factors in the college admissions process. 

Since the court’s decision, Yale has made several updates to their admissions policies. According to a 2023 statement from Dean of Yale College Pericles Lewis and Jeremiah Quinlan, dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid, Yale remains committed to diversity and inclusion while fully complying with the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action. 

“Today’s rulings will not change our commitment to consider each applicant as a multi-faceted individual,” Lewis and Quinlan wrote in a joint statement after the court’s decision was released. “Yale’s whole-person review process is one of the College’s great strengths and has yielded student and alumni bodies that reflect the enormous depth and breadth of humanity.” 

Following the decision, Yale launched the Office for Educational Opportunity, created to support first-generation, low-income students through new programs to promote diversity and belonging at Yale. Additionally, Yale also made efforts to expand its ambassador program, which sends Yale students to their home areas to engage with prospective students. The program aims to increase geographic reach, especially in rural and small towns. 

Furthermore, the University revised its admissions process so that while prospective students can still self-report race and ethnicity on the Common Application, their responses will not be accessible by admissions officers involved in the process. The data will only be used post-selection to inform cultural centers and for reporting purposes. 

In February, the University also reinstated its standardized testing requirement for undergraduate admissions, after a temporary suspension during the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting with the 2024-25 admissions cycle, Yale College will implement a “test-flexible” policy requiring applicants to submit ACT or SAT scores, with the option to include IB and AP exam results. This policy aims to provide students with more opportunities to showcase their academic strengths, according to the admissions office. 

“We are in a dynamic moment for standardized testing,” Quinlan told Yale News in February. “There are efforts to design and roll out new tests, and there is more energy for developing alternatives to the SAT or ACT than ever before. Although our research on the predictive power of the four tests we will accept next cycle is compelling, I like that our policy is flexible by design and can easily accommodate future additions to the list of required scores.” 

Despite its intentions, students expressed concerns with the new testing policy, with some arguing that it created new forms of unfairness in the admissions process. However, others felt that the decision brought a much needed emphasis on merit and fairness in college admissions. 

Jack Batten ’27 told the News that while he agreed with the Supreme Court’s decision, he has no problems with affirmative action as a whole, seeing it as an “experiment” that served a meaningful step toward parity. 

Mason Mackie ’27 expressed a deep concern about the institution’s legacy and the urgent need for more substantial efforts towards inclusivity and reparative justice. 

“It’s an ironic coincidence that the same year the affirmative action decision was repealed, Yale released a book recognizing the institution’s inextricable ties to slavery,” Mackie told the News. 

Mackie, who is Black, told the News he was “appalled” when he learned about Yale’s role in disbanding what would have been the nation’s first college for Black students and its commemoration of Confederate soldiers. 

Sabrina Guo ’27 told the News that although she disagreed with the execution of affirmative action, she believes that it’s still the responsibility of universities to promote diversity and inclusion while ensuring that no one is left out for reasons they can not control. 

“I think moving forward, it will be up to universities to find innovative, effective ways to continue supporting marginalized groups while ensuring that opportunities are accessible to all, and maintaining integrity and upholding the value of merit.” 

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions is located at 38 Hillhouse Ave. 

The post One year after SCOTUS ends affirmative action, Yale students reflect on new admissions policies, future of diversity in higher education appeared first on Yale Daily News.

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. 

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