Five colleges will extend their lunch hours until 2 p.m., and six colleges will serve dinner until 8 p.m. Specialty coffee machines will be introduced, as well as new customizable lunch options that include hot-pressed sandwiches, paninis and more. Yale Hospitality states that these adjustments aim to align with evolving student needs, reduce food waste and improve overall dining experiences.

While some view the modifications as an opportunity to diversify dining options, many have voiced concerns over the lack of transparency in the decision-making process and the potential for increased congestion at dining halls.

“As someone who will be living in Pierson next year, this is devastating,” Samuel Vargas ’28 said. For some first-year students living on Old Campus, the idea of moving into a residential college next semester with reduced lunch options is “grave and pressing.” Vargas added that a dining hall with a full variety of lunch options is a convenience that every residential college should have, not just a select number of them. 

In the list of changes being made by Yale Hospitality to dining halls, french fries, chicken tenders and “Yalie burgers” were among the list of new lunch options.

As per the email by Yale Hospitality, it is not clear which of the listed food items will be consistently available in the dining hall. 

When asked about these changes, Jerry Carino ’28 said that choosing the healthier option may become a struggle for students who consistently dine at the affected dining halls. 

Congestion during high-traffic times is another aspect of this dining change that several students noted as potentially problematic.

Powell Munro Holzner ’27, co-president of the Davenport College Council, told the News that he also worries that the unaffected colleges might be swamped by people seeking “full” rather than reduced lunch options.

In the same manner, Meso Ezebuiro ’27, a resident of Timothy Dwight College, voiced her concerns about having to switch her usual lunch destination. 

“Every single person on the planet is going to be eating in Silliman [College], so it doesn’t really make sense to eat there,” Ezebuiro said. 

She added that it would be an inconvenience to her and others who would have to go out of their way to eat the normal lunch at a less-crowded dining hall.

Munro Holzner worries that the “power lunches” will create a hierarchy among residential colleges, making some colleges “more or less desirable.” 

He believes that the deep affiliation between colleges and their dining halls means that changes to dining may reflect themselves in each college’s culture. 

“The entire purpose of the residential college system is to foster balanced, supportive communities, and creating a hierarchy of dining halls undermines that goal,” said Sara Molina ’26, a Davenport College senator on the Yale College Council. “One side of campus shouldn’t have a new coffee machine at the cost of a more filling and nutritional meal while the other half of campus has their dining experience go unchanged.”

Molina also noted the discrepancy in cost with the changes in service, stating that “the $15 meal swipe should have a consistent, standardized value.” She believes that a hot lunch and the limited “Greens, Grains & Grill” menu are not equivalent and that if meal plans are being altered — whether in menu options, accessibility or locations — then the cost should be adjusted accordingly. 

Echoing Molina’s sentiment, Simone Felton ’25 said that like many Yale students, dining hall meals are a huge part of her social life with grabbing meals with friends.

“Residential college life is a huge part of why I chose Yale in the first place and felt like the ideal living situation for me in my first three years here,” Felton said. “Of course, the residential colleges are all unique and no two experiences are the same, but this is creating the kind of separation in residential college life that feels qualitatively different to the student experience, and it doesn’t feel like it makes any sense when just a year or two ago they got rid of residential college summer storage based on supposed equality between colleges.”

Last fall, Yale Hospitality also announced that to-go boxes would be discontinued at residential colleges and that Commons would be closed on Fridays. 

Despite some optimism about the new menu options, students have also widely criticized how the changes were implemented. 

“My problem is with how the admin handles and treats undergraduate students,” Peter Loranger ’28 said. “If the administration’s plans for dining hall changes were laid out clearly and frankly, there would be no negative sentiment among students. At least, there would be much less.”

Dennis Jin ’28 expressed similar concerns, critiquing how “quickly and opaquely” the changes were rolled out. 

“I don’t really see a reason why the administration had to ‘backdoor’ the changes in like this and with such a quick time frame. I worry this is one of many arbitrary changes that Yale Hospitality has failed to justify,” Jin said.

Huck Moore ’28 stated that if Yale wanted to make budget cuts, then “dining and hospitality is not the way to do it” as it affects Yale students the most. He believes that all of Yale’s students and colleges should be equal, and making changes in their meals disrupts it.

Munro Holzner told the News that actions like this remind students that Yale is ultimately “Yale Corporation,” and that Yale has recently made several, large-scale changes to student experiences without “proper feedback, dialogue or transparency.”

“The measures are quite clearly designed to cut costs, and it does not reflect well on a University with such vast resources to be making so many sneaky, hand-wavy ‘sustainability’ and ‘alignment’ cuts,” said Munro Holzner. “These apparent money-grabs shadow the academic mission of our school and reveal disappointingly corporate priorities. What is the administration afraid of?”

The University did not immediately respond with a comment. 

Despite facing criticism from a portion of the student body, the dining hall changes have also been welcomed by some students who agree with the new lunch model. 

Meka Rucker ’28 said that while removing hot lunch from some colleges creates a clear divide in dining accessibility that does not quite align with the equal experience that the residential system is supposed to provide, she is “not totally against these changes.” 

“The later lunch and dinner hours are a practical improvement, especially for students with tight schedules,” Rucker said. “The expanded grab-and-go options and the addition of specialty coffee machines also offer more flexibility, which could be a net positive for many students.”

Penelope Day ’28 told the News that while she was originally opposed to the “power lunch” concept because “everyone else was really overdramatizing it,” she sees the changes officially defined in the email by Yale Hospitality as a good thing.

She believes that having the same meal in every single dining hall “doesn’t really afford students enough choice,” but that the changes implemented would ensure that there are some standardized options every day.

Echoing Rucker, she believes that the later dinner hours in more colleges and easier grab-and-go options for breakfast will “definitely make using a meal swipe feel more convenient.” 

“I think YCC’s open letter and the various boycotts being discussed are a little bit of an intense response to something that will likely not have a drastic impact on our lives in the long run and will probably come with some net benefits,” Day said.

Ben Plana Trajtenberg ’27 noted that while he does not agree with the disparity in offering by different residential colleges or that the changes were implemented without student consultation, he concedes the changes may be for the better.

He believes that the changes sound like Yale is implementing a “Chipotle-type style assembly” in some colleges and that students can get “chicken and rice” and fries more consistently. Noting that some of the dining halls are offering paninis, Plana Trajtenberg said that the dining halls are becoming similar to Good Nature Market.

“Why have all the dining halls [offering] the same food?” said Plana Trajtenberg, noting how the increased variety in food would also be beneficial to students. “If you don’t want to eat the line item food, just go to another dining hall. There’s nine of them. Or go to Commons.”

Yale Dining serves over 14,000 meals a day across its residential dining halls and retail outlets.

The post Yale Hospitality serves up change — but does it eat? appeared first on Yale Daily News.

When students move off campus, many opt to sign up for alternative meal plans so that they can eat on and off campus with ease. The Connect Meal Plan includes five weekly meal swipes that can be used on campus in their residential college and 30 “Bonus meals” that students can redeem at Commons, the Bow Wow, Steep Cafe and dining halls. 

Sophie Schonberger ’26 said she felt misled by the information on the website when she first realized that she was using bonus swipes instead of residential college swipes. 

“They do say that you can use [swipes] at Slifka. They need to put somewhere [that these swipes count as bonus swipes] because it is not put anywhere,” said Schonberger. 

Yale Hospitality wrote to the News that students under the Connect Meal Plan are granted “30 block meals per semester that can be redeemed at Slifka” — this is in contrast to their website that states that Connect Meal Plan students’ five weekly residential college meal swipes are eligible for use at the Slifka Center. 

Unlike the Connect Plan, the Full Meal Plan allows students to use their residential meal swipes at the Slifka Center.

Schonberger said when she eats meals on campus, she prefers to eat at Slifka because there are more options for her since she only eats kosher meat, and she feels that Slifka is her community, more so than her residential college. Because of this confusion, she has now unexpectedly used her bonus swipes thinking that she had been using her residential college swipes the whole time. 

“I would have thought more realistically about how many lunches I’m eating out [at Slifka] and how many dinners I’m eating [at Slifka] rather than just assuming it’s five meals a week,” said Schonberger. 

Ben Raab ’26, who is also a print managing editor at the News, has had a similar experience. 

He was under the impression that he had been using his residential college swipes at Slifka and was surprised to find out that he was using his bonus swipes. 

Like Schonberger, he felt misled and said that had he known about this when choosing a meal plan, he would probably have signed up for the Flex plan instead. 

Raab only eats kosher meat products, so the Slifka dining hall provides him with more options than the regular dining hall. 

Alex Schapiro ’26, another student who keeps kosher on the Connect plan, reflected that for students who keep strictly kosher and who only eat at Slifka, it does not make sense that the residential college swipes do not work. 

“For students who keep strictly kosher, that’s the only dining hall they can eat in. It doesn’t make sense that they should only be allowed to have two meals a week in the only dining hall they can eat in on a plan that is supposed to allow for seven and a half meals a week,” said Schapiro. 

The News reached out to Yale Hospitality to ask if they are aware of the misleading information on their website, aware of these student frustrations, have any plans to address these concerns and to ask why the Connect Plan is uniquely unable to use residential swipes at Slifka. Yale Hospitality did not respond. 

When the News spoke with the executive director of the Slifka Center to address the issue, Uri Cohen said that he would reach out to Yale Hospitality to hopefully correct the information on their website. 

The Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale opened in 1995. 

The post Students express frustration accessing Slifka on the Connect Meal Plan appeared first on Yale Daily News.

College advisers guide students through academics, extracurricular activities and personal goals during their first and second years. The News spoke to seven first year students about their experiences with college advisers. 

Three students found their advisers helpful in navigating coursework, while two were critical, describing the meetings as unhelpful. Two others were more neutral, noting that although their advisers were pleasant to speak with, the meetings did not provide helpful guidance. With spring course registration approaching, some students expressed concerns that their upcoming meetings might also fall short in helping them select courses for the next semester.

”Most of my advising came from my peers and vice versa,” said Jayden Gonzalez ’28. “We all already had our own thoughts and schedules formed at that point. [advisers] were there mainly to affirm us.”

Ashley Rostran ’28 echoed Gonzalez, saying that the main thing she got out of the meeting with her adviser was a spot on the waitlist for his class.

Gonzalez and Rostran both highlighted what they saw as two main problems in college advising — lack of communication and far-too-late meeting periods. 

This past semester, course registration opened merely three days after first years were welcomed to campus, leaving little time for college advisers to help make decisions about first-semester course selection.

Like Gonzalez, Rostran also noted that she had received guidance and advice from peers who were enrolling in similar courses. To plan the spring semester, Rostrat plans to talk to a director of undergraduate studies who knows about pre-medicine programs. 

Gonzalez added that his college adviser had not yet contacted him regarding spring semester classes. 

When asked by the News about the concerns expressed by some students, Risa Sodi GRD ’95, the Yale College director of advising, said that Yale College students have various advising options which she said some call a “constellation of advisers.” 

According to Sodi, the last change made to the college adviser system was in 2017 when the university made an adjustment to how students selected their advisers. Previously, students were expected to choose their faculty or staff academic adviser during their first year for their sophomore year, but this deadline was extended, allowing students to stay with their advisers through their first four semesters of college.

Sodi wrote to the News that there are many places for students to find academic advice, ranging from peer liaisons and first-year counselors to the Chaplain’s office and coaches. 

This summer, Yale also introduced summer advising for incoming first year students. This program consists of a team of recently graduated FroCos where incoming students can discuss course registration and residential college life before coming to Yale. 

Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis noted that the academic advising program was developed with input from the Yale College Council. Sodi added that the Yale College Teaching, Learning and Advising Committee has implemented YCC’s suggestions, including gathering feedback from first-year students about the summer peer advising program. The committee is currently analyzing the 2024 feedback to inform improvements for next summer. 

Some students who spoke with the News had more positive experiences with their college advisers.

“There’s a lot of classes I want to take and subjects I want to explore,” August Rivers ’28 said. “And in terms of course load, [my adviser] was really helpful.”

Rivers noted that college advisers are experienced and can offer an informed perspective on academics and life at Yale. 

Some students expressed that college advisers were also helpful in discussing non-academic subjects and took a personal interest in students’ backgrounds, identities and passions.

“My adviser was able to give me advice relating to adjustment to life at Yale, as well as advice relating to my personal life,” Natalia Somma ’28 said. 

Alexandra Medina ’28 found meeting with her adviser helpful since it affirmed her that she was making the right decisions for her first semester. For her, talking through her schedule and plans was sufficient.

When asked about what they had heard from other students regarding college advisers during the first week of orientation, Rivers and Somma both recalled positive remarks from peers. 

“I would keep her as my academic adviser for sophomore year,” Somma said.

The spring 2025 course registration period opens on Nov. 18.

The post First years divided on their college advisers appeared first on Yale Daily News.

At Witch Bitch Thrift’s Halloween party, Paxx Headroom and Dexx Delirium — two local drag king artists — joined forces to perform for the bash’s attendees. Costumed guests participated in the fun by entering in and modeling for the costume contest to win prizes. 

“It’s nice for people to have a space where they don’t have to worry about drinking,” Pheo Muncey, the event coordinator at Witch Bitch Thrift said. This past Saturday’s Monster Bash was a sober event. 

According to Muncey, having sober events is important for including everyone in the Halloween fun, especially when many places are often catering to adults and individuals that drink. 

As many bars and nightclubs around New Haven prepare for the upcoming weekend, alcohol is unmistakably a core part of Halloween planning and partying. 

“We want to keep it a safe space for everybody, and we want to be as welcoming as we can,” Muncey said. 

The event had free snacks and non-alcoholic beverages for guests attending. The drag performances were hosted in the spookily decorated showroom behind the clothing section of the store. 

This year, Witch Bitch Thrift invited two local drag-king performers to headline the event: Paxx Headroom and Dexx Delirium. Both performers are based in the Fairfield area. 

Delirium showed up Saturday night wearing ghastly makeup, whimsical elf ears and red checkered pants. 

“I love sharing my art with people,” Delirium said when asked about his performances. “Performing gives me a platform to share things that I otherwise probably wouldn’t be able to share with people.” 

Delirium has been performing mostly around Fairfield for approximately two years and often has multiple performances a week.

Also starring in the bash Saturday evening was Paxx Headroom, who made an appearance wearing a blood-covered suit and a full-face of spooky makeup. 

“I was invited by Witch Bitch Thrift. I love their store, and I love supporting them. It’s such a great experience performing here,” Headroom said. 

Headroom has been performing for four years around the Fairfield and New Haven areas.

In an intermission between drag performances, the winner and the podium-placing attendees of the costume contest were announced to the audience. Two participants dressed as Naruto and a giant panda and took third and fourth place, and “Mothman” took second place. A scary clown won the contest and received the grand prize: a $100 gift card to Witch Bitch Thrift. The audience and attendees were excited to congratulate the winner and those with honorable mentions. 

“It’s so supportive. It brings in people with similar interests — people who want that safe queer environment,” Headroom said when asked to reflect on the environment of his shows. “It gives people a place to express themselves.”

With the Monster Bash receiving good feedback both last year and this year, Muncey is already excited for Witch Bitch Thrift’s next bash. 

Witch Bitch Thrift is located at 105 Whitney Ave.

The post Witch Bitch Thrift hosts a night of drag at annual Monster Bash appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Students spent Saturday knocking on doors to reach voters in the city. They were joined by 15 other Democrat student organizations at other institutions, including the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University.

With the presidential election only a few weeks away, canvassing in the swing state of Pennsylvania has become a focus of presidential campaigns. Yale Dems saw it as an opportunity for students to engage in political grassroots work.

“Our goal specifically was to provide an opportunity for Yale students to engage with the election in a meaningful way beyond the canvassing for statewide and Congressional races that is more easily accessible in Connecticut,” said Janalie Cobb ’25, the president of the Yale Democrats.

On Friday, Yale Dems faced transportation complications and missed out on an afternoon of canvassing in Philadelphia. On Saturday, students canvassed around the city from the morning until evening and heard from speakers including Rep. Jamie Raskin, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, and Planned Parenthood president Alexis McGill Johnson. Students returned to Yale on Sunday morning.

“Our students alone knocked an estimated 2,500 doors in one afternoon, and the overall effort across the schools resulted in an estimated 10,000 door knocks,” Cobb said. 

The students canvassing in the Philadelphia area used the MiniVAN app — an application designed to outline target areas in the city, where votes have been historically split between the Democratic and Republican parties — to pre-select their canvassing destinations around and avoid areas that were predominantly set on voting Republican.

The MiniVAN application collects information from past canvassers and voting records to label city areas. After each stop during the canvassing process, volunteers input information to the app, such as where they are voting and who they are voting for. 

Despite Pennsylvania being split politically, student canvassers reported having friendly experiences with strangers.

“We weren’t treated as nuisances. Voters were excited to talk to us,” Esperance Han ’28, who attended the canvassing trip, said. While reflecting on her weekend in Philadelphia, she says people were generally thankful for the work that they were doing. 

Many students canvassed this past weekend for the first time. 

Some students reported mixed feelings when considering their responsibilities this election season.

“Honestly, it was scary at first. You really have to put yourself out there,” said Emery Cunningham ’28 when asked about his time canvassing. “At times, I wondered if I was the right person for canvassing, but the larger goal was far more important to me.”

In the face of one of the most highly anticipated presidential elections, responsibility was a recurring theme for many participants when talking about their weekends.

“I was a bit homesick before the trip and was looking forward to spending a lot of time back home,” said Cunningham. “However, when given the opportunity to make an impact on a historic moment, I felt it would be wrong to not participate.” 

Kamala Harris is the first woman vice president of the United States.

The post Yale Dems hit Philly streets to campaign for Harris appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Nightclubs Toad’s Place and BAR are hosting costume parties on Halloween, while Witch Bitch Thrift will throw a “monster bash.” New Haven Reads’ costumed spelling bee fundraiser and the city’s Youth and Recreation Department’s “Trunk or Treat” offer family fun to all ages. 

Halloween-goers at BAR stand a chance at winning the grand raffle prize: a guitar signed by Tito’s Handmade Vodka. Other costumed guests can instead try their luck at costume contents offered by both BAR and Toad’s Place. 

The Halloween parties are split into public and Yale-only events. This weekend, Toad’s Place is hosting ticket-only costume parties, while next week’s programming will remain exclusive to Yalies.  

A Toad’s Place employee said the nightclub has five different Halloween parties starting this Friday, Oct. 25. 

“Hallowoads” — a spin on the weekly Yale-only Wednesday’s at Toad’s — this year will spill over into a two-day event next Wednesday and Thursday.  

Joining the Halloween fun, Witch Bitch Thrift will throw a “monster bash” party this Saturday night. This year’s party is their second time hosting the event. 

“The event is sober, which is refreshing given that it is the weekend before Halloween,” said Pheo Muncey, the event coordinator at Witch Bitch Thrift. “People that might not want to spend the weekend in bars but want to be around other people will have a space to do so.” 

The bash will include a costume contest, with the winner receiving a $100 gift card at Witch Bitch Thrift. 

Performing at the ‘monster bash’ are Dexx Delirium and Paxx Headroom — two drag kings based in Connecticut. “They are both very good at being incredible,” said Muncey. 

Beyond dance nights and bars, community-based organizations are also contributing to the festivities. New Haven Reads, a nonprofit that offers reading support for children, is having a ‘Halloween’ spelling bee. The competition doubles as a fundraiser for their literacy programs. 

This will be New Haven Reads’ 12th annual spelling bee. 

Hosted at the Yale School of Management and facilitated by Barbara Rockenbach, the University Librarian, Friday’s spelling bee exemplifies the strong relationship between Yale and the nonprofit, according to Fiona Bradford, the development and communications director of New Haven Reads.  

New Haven Reads also plans to make a stop at the “Trunk or Treat” event hosted in the Southern Connecticut State University parking lot. “We expect to give out 750 to 1,000 books,” said Bradford. 

Organized by the Youth and Recreation Department of the City of New Haven, the “Trunk or Treat” event is scheduled for Halloween night. Attendees will receive complimentary candy from any of the decorated trunks. 

The moon on Halloween night will be far from full at a waning crescent.

The post Old haunts return to New Haven for Halloween appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Students in the Latin American Studies major can now pursue a senior project in lieu of a traditional senior essay. Additionally, the major requires students to reach level five in either Portuguese or Spanish — a decrease in the language requirements. 

“[I would] like more students to think about Latin American Studies and hopefully consider all the courses that we offer,” said Kenneth David Jackson, the soon-to-be chair of the Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies. David Jackson will officially become chair next June.

In previous years, students were required to take two years of one of the two languages spoken in Latin America and an additional year in the other. According to a statement released by CLAIS obtained by the News, CLAIS leaders recognized “this was a steep requirement for most students to meet by the deadline to declare a major.” Ana De La O, the director of undergraduate studies for the Latin American studies major, said that the major will become more accessible to students coming in with no language skills. 

Since the early 2000s, Yale’s Latin American studies major has seen a steady decline in enrollment. By the 2010s, the number of students in the major had dropped to single digits. 

De La O said that the major usually has around 10 students per cohort. The current graduating cohort is slightly below that.

The CLAIS saw this decline in enrollment as an opportunity to change the curriculum and requirements. However, according to De La O, making changes to the major was a complex process that took about three years.

The previous CLAIS chair appointed a committee to review and analyze the major’s requirements. The committee, then, created a report for the chair and CLAIS’ advisory board. Upon reaching a consensus on the suggested changes, the report was left for Yale College to review and approve.

Yale approved updated major requirements in 2023.

The changes in the language requirement were largely advanced in efforts to attract more students to the major, which had been declining for two decades. The department will “start promoting the idea of double majors in Latin American Studies,” David Jackson said. Rather than asking students to choose between fields, the major’s enhanced accessibility and flexibility will support varied interests

Alejandra Campos ’24, who majored in Latin American studies while at Yale, said that her knowledge of both Portuguese and Spanish enabled her to navigate much of Latin America. 

“Having that language requirement opened up a lot of doors academically during my upperclassman years,” she said. “It opened doors to graduate-level courses taught in Portuguese that I would not have been able to take otherwise.” 

She added that if she had known about the flexibility of the major earlier, she would have completed another major as well.

The Latin American and Iberian Studies Undergraduate Fellows Network was launched in 2021.

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