While most regular decision applicants will receive notification of their admissions decision by April 1, some Yale hopefuls have already received likely letters — early notification of their admission to the first-year class. Although Yale only releases official offers of admission on early action and regular decision release dates, Mark Dunn ’07, director of outreach and recruitment for the Yale Admissions Office, explained that likely letters allow the admissions office to begin the recruitment process earlier for some students. 

“We know that many high school seniors find the month of April especially overwhelming as they juggle admitted student programs, local receptions, and virtual events leading up to the May 1 reply deadline,” Dunn wrote to the News. “The decision to offer a student a likely letter is grounded in the Admissions Committee’s sense that an applicant would benefit from that extra time to make their decision.”

Jackie Folmar, assistant director of admissions and director of recruitment, explained that likely letters are part of the Admissions Office’s yield strategy. 

Folmar said that likely letter recipients include students designated as Yale Engineering and Science, or YES, Scholars — those with significant high school research experience and a strong interest in undergraduate STEM opportunities. The News previously reported that schools like Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania are two examples of peer institutions that employ similar STEM-specific recruitment programs through early notification of admissions.  

Other likely letter recipients may be invited to join the Directed Studies program, a selective initiative where about 120 first-year students engage in an interdisciplinary exploration of seminal texts from Western and Near Eastern cultures.

“We invest a significant amount of time and program energy in our likely letter recipients, because we believe the efforts increase yield with students who may be less familiar with the distinctive elements of the Yale undergraduate experience,” Folmar wrote to the News. 

Dunn explained that for recruited student athletes, many of Yale’s varsity coaches request that the Admissions Committee consider applications from recruited students on an expedited timeline. Though the student selection process is the same as for other applicants, a likely letter helps the coach and student finalize the recruitment process. 

All eight Ivy League universities send likely letters to compete for top applicants and recruited athletes. 

“Likely letters will have the effect of letters of admission, in that as long as the applicant sustains the academic and personal record reflected in the completed application, the institution will send a formal admission offer on the appropriate notification date,” the Joint Statement for Candidates on Common Ivy League Admission Procedure reads.

Makenzie Griffith, a high school senior from Ray Braswell High School in Aubrey, Texas, received a likely letter notification from her admissions officer on Tuesday afternoon. 

Griffith said that she was overwhelmed with excitement upon receiving her likely letter, admitting she hadn’t expected an acceptance, let alone an early notification. As a first-generation college student, she described the news as a “huge weight” lifted off her chest.

“I come from a school where only one person has ever gone to an Ivy League. Now I know that I’m getting into my dream school and that I have more time to think about financial aid and talk to current students,” Griffith told the News. “If I’d gotten all the decisions around March, it would have been harder to focus on Yale specifically.” 

Yale has already admitted 728 students to the class of 2029 through early action admissions. Yale admitted 66 applicants through the QuestBridge National College Match Scholarship, which connects low-income high school seniors with full scholarships to partner institutions. 

In total, Yale received 50,262 applications to the class of 2029, the third-largest ever in the University’s history. 

Hannah Mendlowitz, senior associate director of admissions, explained on the Yale Admissions Podcast that the letters target students who, due to offers from other peer institutions, “might therefore yield Yale at a lower rate.”

According to the Yale Admissions Podcast, the admissions committee tends to send around 200 likely letters a year out of the around 2,300 total offers of admission, though the office does not set a quota for the number of likely letters distributed. 

“The likely letter is a way to give us a better shot at convincing them that they are a great fit for Yale and that they are going to thrive at Yale, too,” Mendlowitz said.

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

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This spring, 239 first years and sophomores rushed Yale Panhellenic sororities. Of those, 119 received bids from Panhellenic sororities. The Panhellenic sororities declined to disclose their dues, citing their national organizations’ policies, but the News previously reported that the dues associated with the sororities ranged from $350 and $750 per semester in 2018. 

“We know that joining a sorority is a financial commitment, and work with each of our members to offer personalized payment plans alongside the scholarships mentioned above to make Kappa as accessible as possible,” Emma Neville ’27, vice president of finance for Kappa Kappa Gamma, wrote to the News. “We are committed to fostering an inclusive and accessible environment for all members, regardless of their financial background.” 

Neville wrote that Kappa offers various need-based, merit-based and graduate school scholarships for members and a $500 scholarship for one new member in each sorority provided by Yale Panhellenic.

She added that Kappa’s current membership reflects a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds.

Alexa Drovetsky ’27, vice president of finance for Kappa Alpha Theta, wrote that the Theta Foundation provides more than $800,000 in academic scholarships to Theta members annually, with a minimum scholarship award of $1,000, more than triple the amount of semester dues.

While all Panhellenic sororities offer some financial aid, some students told the News that they were uncertain whether they would receive enough to accept potential bids. 

“When I started the rush process, I went in with the mindset that I wasn’t going to accept a bid if I got one because I wasn’t going to be able to afford the dues,” Valentina Lara ’28 told the News. “I had an experience when someone who was rushing with me asked why I wasn’t rushing Panhellenic, and when I explained that the dues were prohibitive, they seemed surprised.”

Sophie Mo ’28, who also dropped out of the rush process due to costs, said that she was “shocked” to see the dollar value of sorority dues as she was unfamiliar with the process. Beatrix King ’28 also shared that she didn’t consider rushing Panhellenic sororities due to higher dues, knowing she would be paying out of pocket from a student job.

King and Laura both agreed that transparency surrounding financial aid was important to them in deciding whether to rush.

Students who rushed Aeris — which separated from the Panhellenic sororities last year — also received bids last week. Aeris charges $425 in dues for the first semester, $375 for subsequent semesters, and $250 a semester for seniors. 

Jaylynn Cortes ’27, vice president of finance for Aeris, said that in addition to guaranteed aid for all students on Yale financial aid, the group also offers special circumstances requests for pledges paying their own dues without parental support, payment plans and extensions.

“I’m first-generation low-income and pay my own dues myself, so this is definitely something that is personal to me,” Cortes told the News. “I have a job on campus, and the financial aid and payment plan was my savior last semester. $375 is a lot for a college student paying on their own.”

Cortes added that providing greater amounts of financial aid was a primary reason for Aeris’ disaffiliation from the Pi Beta Phi in January 2024. Aeris now reserves nearly 10 percent of their budget for financial aid. 

Kappa Alpha Theta is the oldest national sorority and the first at Yale.

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While before the 2020-21 admissions cycle, the admission office consistently deferred more than half of early action applicants and denied roughly a third, Yale now prioritizes sending as many final decisions in December as possible, according to Jeremiah Quinlan, dean of undergraduate admissions. 

“Over the past few cycles, the percentage of applicants who were denied has climbed to more than 70 percent while the number of deferred has decreased to less than 20 percent,” Mark Dunn, senior associate director for outreach and recruitment, explained. “The admissions office does not operate with a specific target or quota for the number of students who are deferred versus denied.”

Quinlan attributed an “intentional shift” in the admission office’s approach to the growing size of the applicant pool and an increase in academically uncompetitive applicants since the 2020-21 cycle. He added that the shift to deferring more students was also informed by the need to make deferrals more indicative. Many high school counselors told him that receiving “a clear no from Yale” in December would help them better advise their students. 

Raunak Mondal from California and Ronak Ailawadi from Michigan, both high school seniors who were deferred from Yale, said their knowledge of decreased deferral rate informed their reactions to their deferral. 

“To be honest, I thought I was going to get deferred — I anticipated that as the most probable outcome. Still, after seeing the numbers I wasn’t really that disappointed,” Ailawadi told the News. 

“When I talked about [my deferral] with my parents, friends, and counselors, they all saw it as a good sign,” Mondal said. “Since less students got deferred this year compared to previous years at Yale, I felt that I was probably given special consideration in the admissions process compared to the majority of candidates who were rejected in the REA round.”

Ailawadi said that he preferred Yale’s deferral policy to that of its peers, such as Harvard and Princeton. “Soft deferrals,” he believes, can provide unnecessary stress. 

Mondal told the News that his deferral, instead of rejection, motivated him to apply to more competitive institutions like Yale and inspired him to continue pursuing extracurriculars in his community. 

Both Ailawadi and Mondal plan to write letters of continued interest. 

“I know that my chances are probably pretty low, but given my deferral I wouldn’t change anything about my application,” Ailawadi told the News. “Yale is still my dream. It’s a little bit disappointing that I have to wait all the way to March, but that’s not really a problem for me. Either way, I’ll keep growing.”

Ailawadi and Mondal, along with the rest of the applicants to the class of 2029, will hear of their final admissions decision by April 1.

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1. The Yale Whiffenpoofs vs. The Harvard Krokodiloes

The Yale Whiffenpoofs, the world’s oldest and “best-known” collegiate a cappella group meets its match with the Harvard Krokodiloes. Founded in 1909, the Whiffs sing hits from across the decades and perform more than 200 concerts across six continents each year. The Harvard Krokodiloes, the oldest a cappella group at Harvard, trace their roots back to 1946.

There are some striking similarities between the groups — both the Whiffs and the Kroks were originally founded as quartets. According to the Krokodiloes’ general manager Gregor Kossmann, the Kroks’ initial foursome were four members of the Hasty Pudding Club, Harvard’s oldest collegiate social organization. 

Both groups have a history as bar habitués; the Whiffenpoofs trace their origins to Mory’s Temple Bar, while the Krokodiloes were frequenters of Pudding’s Upstairs Bar. The groups also share strange animal namesakes. The Whiffenpoofs are named for a fictional dragonfish in the Victor Herbert musical comedy Little Nemo. According to Kossmann, Harvard’s pioneering songsters were inspired by the stuffed crocodiles mounted on the wall of the Pudding’s Upstairs Bar. The group adopted the Greek word for crocodile, and the Krokodiloes were born — is Krokodiloes more pretentious for being Hellenized?

Finally, both groups boast a diverse repertoire. 

“We like to make the whole show a performance, so we incorporate humor bits, choreography, more upbeat songs and slower ballads,” said Kossmann. 

Still, there are some notable differences. The Whiffenpoofs are a group of 14, while the Harvard Kroks number only 12. TikTok popularity is another divergence; the Yale Whiffenpoofs have 652 followers on Tiktok, while the Kroks boast over a whopping 203,900 followers on the platform. Kossmann told me that this newfound fame has been a notable experience. 

“When I had just joined, we weren’t really that well known,” said Kossmann. “I still had to explain to a lot of people around campus who the Kroks were. Then, throughout 2023 and 2024, we kind of blew up on TikTok and Instagram. It’s been super cool traveling around the world and, for example, getting recognized in the streets of Japan.”

2. The Purple Crayon vs. On Thin Ice

The Purple Crayon is America’s oldest collegiate long-form improv group. At each year’s Yale-Harvard game, with the exception of this one, they collaborate with their Harvard counterpart and self-professed “hot and chill” improv group On Thin Ice. 

Founded in 1985, the Purple Crayon hosts several shows each year on campus, appears at various comedy festivals and tours each spring and fall. Performances mostly consist of one or two 25-minute sets. 

In contrast to the Crayon’s long-form improv, On Thin Ice is Harvard’s only short-form improv group, founded just one year prior in 1984. Serena Jampel, co-president of On Thin Ice, said that the group performs about once a month for Harvard audiences and has also done shows for other colleges locally and in the Atlantic area. 

“Because we’re a short-form group, we do a series of games in the style of ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway.’ In practicing the games, you learn the form and learn how to build up a joke. We also do some musical improv, so at many of our shows we’ll spend 10 to 20 minutes creating a musical on the spot,” said Jampel. 

On Thin Ice, despite being rivals with the Crayons, had only nice things to say about Yale’s group. 

“We love Purple Crayon. We’re huge fans,” said Jampel. “We performed with them at Harvard-Yale when it was at Harvard, and they graciously invited us to join them last year at Yale. Now we’re welcoming them back. They’re hilarious, they’re wonderful. They’re also hot and chill, I’ll let them join us on that.” 

Both groups boast an extensive range of notable alumni, including actor Phil LaMarr ’88, film director and comic book writer Greg Pak ’90 and writer Alex Rubens ’00 from the Purple Crayon and Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson from On Thin Ice. 

3. Yale Glee Club vs. Harvard Glee Club

The Yale Glee Club, established in 1861, and the Harvard Glee Club, founded slightly earlier in 1858, are two of the oldest collegiate choral groups in the United States. While the Yale Glee Club is co-ed and includes all voice parts, the Harvard Glee Club is a tenor-based choir of 60 voices, forming a trio of Harvard’s choral organizations alongside the Radcliffe Choral Society and the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum. 

Max Semegran, president of the Harvard Glee Club, expanded on Glee’s repertoire. 

“We’ve been singing songs from the Renaissance, folk music traditions, Harvard football songs and contemporary compositions,” he explained. Both Harvard and Yale Glee also commission and perform new works — Harvard through student composition programs and Yale sponsorship of two annual competitions for young composers. 

Both groups have a strong tradition of touring internationally. Yale Glee Club has performed in every major city in the United States and hosts performances throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa, while Harvard’s recent Western European tour included performances in venues like London, Paris and Milan’s Duomo. 

The groups collaborate annually during the 132-year-old football concert tradition, though since 2019 the Radcliffe Choral Society has joined Harvard Glee, allowing for performances with all four voice parts. Semegran recounted last year’s concert at Yale with fondness.

 “Our music building, I hate to admit, is not as well-endowed,” said Semegran. “We were really impressed with [Yale’s] music building and how expansive it was. There was also a very nice reception afterward where we were treated to hors d’oeuvres and drinks. We’re trying to return the favor this year.”

4. The Yale Dramatic Association vs. The Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club

Founded in 1901, the Yale Dramatic Association is Yale’s largest undergraduate theater organization and the second-oldest in the nation. Over 100 current students and thousands of alumni have been involved in six annual shows: two experimental productions staffed entirely by students, the First-Year Show — or FroShow — that is run and performed entirely by first years, Fall and Spring Mainstages in the University Theatre that are collaborations between professionals and students and the annual student-staffed Commencement Musical after spring finals. This fall’s experimental play “Stupid Fucking Bird” premiered at Iseman Theater to a sold-out audience. 

The Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club — or HRDC — founded in 1908, is an umbrella organization headquartered at the Loeb Drama Center, the home of the American Repertory Theater. According to HRDC co-president Emma Barnes,  as opposed to Yale’s Dramat, the Harvard drama scene is much more decentralized. 

The HRDC simply facilitates productions led by a wide range of student groups like the Asian Student Arts Project, or ASAP, the Harvard Black Community and Student Theater Group, or Black C.A.S.T., the Hyperion Shakespeare Company and the Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert and Sullivan Players, who are dedicated to comic opera. 

“We do a lot of high-level support for shows,” said Barnes. “Every production at Harvard is put up by smaller organizations or groups of students, not by the HRDC, but we work with these groups to facilitate them using our spaces or with our centralized casting process.”

Barnes continued, “This semester we have 12 productions that we consider HRDC productions, and we usually have 10-15 productions a semester.” Groups can apply for spaces and assistance through a venue application process that happens at the end of every semester, where they explain their visions and expectations for their show. 

Barnes also said that HRDC has a strong tradition of supporting undergraduate student-written productions like an annual musical. 

5. Bonus: Yale Undergraduate Consulting Group vs. Harvard College Consulting Group

Anonymous sources from both Yale and Harvard vigorously asserted that “consulting is also an art form.” The News was unable to independently verify this claim.  

Correction, Jan. 15: The original article misspelled Greg Kossmann’s name and inaccurately described the Harvard Kroks as the “oldest and cutest” acapella group at Harvard.

The post The ultimate arts rivalry: here are five of Harvard’s — evil — arts group counterparts appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Lassa fever, which was first isolated at Yale, is a rare virus that is mostly transmitted in West Africa. Those infected with the Lassa virus may experience nausea, vomiting, fever and fatigue. There are currently no treatments specifically for it, but it should not be a concern for Americans who have not traveled to Western Africa recently.

Dr. Albert Ko, Raj and Indra Nooyi Professor of Public Health at the Yale School of Public Health, told the News that Lassa fever is an infectious disease caused by a virus in the family Arenaviridae. According to Ko, its transmission is restricted to places in West Africa.

“We usually worry about viruses in this family because they can cause hemorrhagic fever,” Ko told the News. However, he specified that a majority of people who are infected are either asymptomatic or experience very mild disease.

“Around 20 percent of people infected come down with serious disease,” Ko said. “Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, high fever and fatigue. Patients can also get capillary leak syndrome, where they are leaking fluid into their lungs and other parts of their body. In some cases, people have respiratory failure or suffer from bleeding and die of shock.”

Ko noted that the degree of exposure, the type of strain that patients are infected with and other risk factors like pregnancy can lead to more severe outcomes. 

Lassa fever has a mortality rate of 1 percent, and according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the mortality rate among hospitalized patients with severe infections is around 15 percent. 

Ko explained that the virus is harbored by rodents, specifically in the genus Mastomys, which is localized to West Africa. While infection arises from contact with infected rodents or their urine and feces, Ko told the News that person-to-person transmission is possible, especially within hospitals and households. 

“It is not as infections as viruses like the Omicron variant,” Ko told the News. “One of the things that mitigates the risk is that people really aren’t transmitting to other people until they develop symptoms, unlike COVID, where you can transmit before you show symptoms.”

Ko noted that this makes it easier for healthcare professionals to diagnose the virus based on travel history to West Africa in the early stages of infection and isolate the patient. 

“It’s not easy to identify because the symptoms can be very general, so you need a high clinical suspicion when someone is coming back from a place where Lassa fever is being transmitted,” said Ko. 

Dr. Ellen Foxman, an associate professor of laboratory medicine and immunobiology in the Yale School of Medicine, outlined the general mechanism that RNA viruses like Lassa use to infect patients. 

“The basic idea of a viral infection is that it’s usually genetic material — in this case RNA — surrounded by some sort of protective coat. The virus infects the cells of your body by hijacking them like a Trojan horse so that its RNA takes over the machinery of your cells to make more copies of itself,” Foxman explained. 

This makes cells into “virus producing factories,” which usually destroy the cell that is infected, causing the variety of symptoms that patients display. 

Dr. Michael Cappello, professor of epidemiology and pediatrics and department chair of the School of Public Health told the News that treatment options for Lassa fever are limited. 

“There really aren’t any particular medications or vaccines that are available. There are some antivirals that have been tried, but these are situations where there is relatively little research being done on this, and it’s very challenging to do clinical trials,” Cappello said. 

Instead, Cappello told the News that doctors focus on supportive care, which is meant to address symptoms of Lassa fever rather than the disease itself. Supportive care for severe symptoms can include mechanical ventilation or dialysis for renal failure. 

Both Ko and Cappello also noted that the School of Public Health was crucial in the discovery of Lassa fever. 

“Lassa fever was actually first isolated at the School of Public Health, five floors above me, in 

1969 by Jordi Casals-Ariet, a professor here at the time,” Ko told the News. 

The disease, after infecting three American missionary nurses in Nigeria, was sampled and sent to Yale labs. A lab technician, Juan Roman, later became infected and died in Thanksgiving of 1969, while Casals-Ariet came close to death but was injected with an antibody-containing plasma from a surviving missionary nurse. 

“With many of these unknown infectious diseases, particularly viruses, until someone figures out how to culture it, you really can’t study it particularly well,” Cappello told the News. “The work of Dr. Casals and others created the foundation upon which all of the subsequent work on Lassa fever virus has been done.”

All three experts stressed that the virus does not pose a public health risk to Americans who have not traveled to West Africa. “Cases in America are very rare. There have been less than eight travel-related Lassa virus cases in the United States in the past 55 years,” Ko said. 

Still, both Ko and Cappello identified Lassa fever as a neglected public health problem in West Africa that may be worsened with rising globalization. 

“This impacts hundreds of thousands of people in countries like Nigeria, Sierra, Leone and Liberia,” Cappello told the News. “The fact that there aren’t available vaccines, or even readily available effective medications, really puts poor countries at a particular disadvantage when it comes to managing patients who actually become severely ill.”

In general, all three experts recommended practicing general hygiene like frequent hand washing to reduce chances of sickness in general, especially during the upcoming winter season. 

The first documented case of Lassa fever occurred in 1969.

The post Yale experts explain Lassa fever appeared first on Yale Daily News.

First founded 50 years ago in response to the famine in Sudan, YHHAP is an umbrella organization for projects such as the Yale Community Kitchen. Every semester, YHHAP hosts a fast where students can donate their dining hall meal swipes to help nonprofits combating food and housing insecurity in New Haven.

“I really encourage all students to donate their meal swipes,” Jaeyee Jung ’27, a YHHAP board member and co-chair of the fall fast wrote. “The Fast will be held on November 23rd, the day of the away Harvard-Yale game, so there really is no cost to donating your meal swipes. If you’ll be on campus, you can use your guest swipes (or treat yourself — Sherkaan will be providing a 15% discount for students).”

Based on the number of people who sign up, Yale hospitality writes a check for the amount donated by students. Around half of the donation raised comes from faculty and alumni monetary donations, Vivian Whoriskey ’25, a YHHAP board member and co-chair of the fall fast, added. 

Last year, the fast raised $15,310.01 for Sunrise Café, Haven’s Harvest and Continuum Care. This year’s funds will go to Sunrise Café, Witness to Hunger, Amistad House and New Reach.

Whoriskey told the News that the YHHAP fast is a way for students to get involved in their community in a low-stakes way with tangible impacts. 

“I volunteered with the fast for the first time my sophomore year, and it was an incredibly fulfilling experience,” Whoriskey said. 

Whoriskey and Jung highlighted Yale’s negative impact on New Haven as undeniable — Yale is the biggest owner of property in New Haven and not paying anything in real-estate taxes is detrimental.

However, Whoriskey also noted broadly that the benefits of community service go both ways. 

“I wouldn’t frame service as a responsibility — I would see it as an opportunity. Being active in the New Haven community helps everyone involved.”

For New Haven stakeholders, the fast raises funds that are split between all of YHHAP’s partner organizations like Sunrise Cafe, which provides free breakfast on weekdays to hungry and homeless populations. 

For Yale students, the fast is an opportunity for Yale students to leave the ‘Yale bubble’ and impact the broader New Haven community. 

“We live in a city, not just a campus,” Whoriskey said.

Whoriskey and Jung told the News that after the recent election, YHHAP has seen an uptick in interest. 

For Seline Mesfin ’27, a member of YHHAP’s outreach team, the fast has been an opportunity to pursue a long held passion for community activism. 

“I think it’s absolutely insane that in the 21st century there are still individuals who are unhoused, unclothed and unfed, living day-to-day without the basic necessities needed to lead a fulfilling and successful life,” Mesfin said. 

Mesfin added that she is inspired by hearing the stories and voices of New Haven citizens who have been positively impacted by the fast. 

Some students who have donated their swipes also highlighted how easy donating was. 

“I think that the mission of the fast is incredibly noble and inspiring,” Andrey Sokolov ’27, who donated a meal swipe, said. “Not only that, the convenience of signing up — with the sign up button being incorporated into the Yub and the date of the fast being on a convenient day — made it a no-brainer for me to participate.”

Donations can be made through the Yale Hub website or through YHHAP’s venmo, @yhhap-yale, with “YHHAP Fast” in the description.

YHHAP was founded in 1974.

The post Yale Hunger and Homelessness Action Project hosts annual fall fast appeared first on Yale Daily News.

WORD Creative Director Adiyah Obolu ’27 told the News that WORD, a resident group through the Afro-American Cultural Center, is a small community of writers who help each other become better artists. Performances at the fall show tackled topics like race, gun violence, sexuality and grief.

For Obolu, the anniversary invited a moment of reflection. 

“We’re Yale’s oldest and hypest spoken word group with such a rich history and culture, and we’ve had so many alumni and amazing poets come through the spaces we’re in,” Obolu said. “For me, it was a time for gratefulness to be a part of this space that has been cultivated for so long.” 

Preparation for the show began nearly a month ago, after an audition process and callbacks that tapped six new WORD members. 

Jean-Claude Pierre ’28, the group’s recent tap, told the News that WORD’s writing and performance feedback workshops helped him refine the poem he had chosen to perform and commit it to memory.

“When I first stepped up on that stage, I was so nervous. I was shaking so much,” Pierre said. “But after all the editing and rehearsing, I’d probably read that poem hundreds of times. When I started performing it, I was in a flow and in the moment. Everything else just faded.” 

Obolu told the News that poetry workshops are designed to maintain a poet’s integrity and preserve their voice. The group prefaces workshops by making it clear that all of the feedback is just suggestions, she added.

Ultimately, Obolu said, the creatives and the diverse range of backgrounds members bring to WORD have helped her develop immensely as an artist. 

Many WORD members also emphasized that performance poetry is an especially important medium at institutions like Yale. Obolu, whose poem tackled gun violence in Black communities, told the News that spoken word poetry is deeply intertwined with social activism. 

“Poetry is about speaking truth to power. At a university like Yale, where our motto is literally light and truth, we have a responsibility to raise our voices against the different injustices we see in society,” Obolu said. “And as much as poetry is an art form, it’s also an academic form. You’re inviting your audience to think critically.”

Pierre underscored the political and social power of the Yale community and noted that WORD was an opportunity for students, especially those in positions of privilege, to understand experiences they did not personally go through. 

Audience member Sophie Mo ’28 agreed. 

“What made the performances so powerful was that, no matter what you believed in, you had to sit there and watch their emotions and face their truths,” Mo said. “You had to see how these issues were impacting people in real-time, and unlike written poetry, you can’t just get up and stop reading. You’re an active witness to the performance of people’s thoughts.” 

Another audience member, Gianna Campillo ’25, told the News that the poets’ invitation to the audience to participate made the experience memorable for her. The show felt “collaborative,” and auditory signifiers — such as the snapping, clapping and murmuring — created a “sense of community. 

Both Campillo and Mo attended the show to support close friends, which they said impacted their experience.

“With the added layer of knowing the performer as a person, I felt like I got to know a different side of him that was very vulnerable and deep,” Mo said. “I almost cried, and it moved me a lot.”

In addition to performances, Obolu told the News that WORD hopes to offer more writing workshops open to the public and continue to raise awareness about the role of spoken word poetry in social activism and campus life. 

WORD will host an open-mic performance in collaboration with Yale Lit next Thursday at 8:30 p.m. in the Silliman Acorn. 

The post WORD celebrates 20 years with annual fall show appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Melangelo Pride ’26, an FGLI community initiative ambassador, told the News that FGLI students can feel broadly disadvantaged during the job search.

“As FGLI students, I think that it’s hard not to feel imposter syndrome when you compare yourself to peers coming from more privileged backgrounds. That self-skepticism, combined with feeling like you don’t have enough connections, can be discouraging, especially when you’re looking to enter a competitive industry,” said Pride. 

Pride’s advice to FGLI students is to leverage resources like 1stGenYale, a shared-interest group under the Association of Yale Alumni that aims to connect first-generation alumni with current FGLI students. The alumni come from different industries and are “genuinely so excited to talk,” Pride noted. 

Kennedy Smith ’26, another ambassador, noted that another main barrier the initiative hopes to address is an “internet divide.” 

“Because email is the primary means for communicating resources, including career opportunities, our weekly newsletter tries to condense relevant information into a more accessible way of engaging our FGLI community,” Smith said.

Still, for students such as Joanna Ruiz ’25, Yale’s support falls short. 

As an American studies and music double major, Ruiz said that a lack of support for FGLI students who want to pursue creative careers means that many of her peers feel like an afterthought. 

“There’s a conception across a lot of administrators and faculty at Yale and beyond that FGLI students are only in college to achieve financial stability,” Ruiz said. “They push us to enter careers in more ‘lucrative’ fields like consulting or finance that will just perpetuate income inequality, the very thing that was keeping us back in the first place.”

Ruiz added that there is not adequate support for FGLI students interested in music. For example, Yale does not have a program to lend musical instruments to students who do not own them.

Mercuri Lam ’28 told the News that as an FGLI student who wants to pursue a nontraditional career in the arts, she feels a similar pressure to make her passions “profitable.” 

“I get questioned a lot about majoring in ER&M and Art History, and there’s a perception that I came from money just because I’m studying things I’m passionate about,” said Lam. “I wish that I felt more support from peers and administration to pursue a creative career.” 

Derek Webster, the director of common good & creative careers in the Yale Office of Career Strategy, told the News that the OCS is working to make a wider range of careers more accessible for low-income students. 

Webster noted that internships can pose a barrier for FGLI students who are pursuing careers in fields where entry-level positions are underpaid. He highlighted resources like the Summer Experience Award, which can help fund unpaid or underpaid summer experiences such as apprenticeship programs in creative industries. 

Other financial resources from the OCS include professional development reimbursement for Yale juniors and seniors. This $400 fund can help offset costs for conference travel, software or test preparation for students on financial aid. 

“Our goal with these resources is to bridge the gap into experiences in industries that would not have otherwise been approachable for financial reasons,” Webster told the News. “My main piece of advice to students balancing financial pressure and a passion for less-traditional career is to come to us for a custom conversation. What are the elements that you’re dealing with, what are the resources, and hopefully even new and expanding resources, that we might be able to talk about to eliminate barriers to entry?”

Webster acknowledged that many students may not know these resources exist. He told the News that the OCS is trying to raise awareness and further engage with the communities at Yale most in need. 

The Office of Career Strategy is located on 55 Whitney Ave.

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The documentary, titled “Black Table,” premiered at the Tribeca Festival in 2024 and is based on the experiences of Black Yalies in the class of 1997 who found community around a table in the Commons. In a Q&A session following the screening, writer and co-director, Bill Mack ’95 spoke about the creative process behind the documentary. 

“I was eventually brought on to the project because I was an insider at the Black table,” Mack said. “When I came to campus as a freshman, the seniors at the table had had this terrible experience — the Naples incident — that clouded their experience. So I wanted to tell the story of their resilience.”

The Naples incident, which occurred in 1990, involved Naples pizza employees and eight Black Yale students, who said they were racially profiled by employees and later made feel unsafe by police officers who arrived on the scene. 

Mack feels that the themes of the documentary were especially relevant to modern audiences. 

“I wanted to connect the culture wars of the 90s to the culture wars of today,” Mack said. “When John James, the director, first showed me the reel for the documentary in early spring of 2021, I [had] never seen anything like it. Because of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement, Black voices were more important than ever — I wanted to show the world a successful group of Black people talking about their experiences at the Black table.”

Still, Mack said that the directors grappled with the amount of material to cover, and were forced to narrow their focus despite other relevant themes, such as the relationship between New Haven and black students.

Marah Rigoud ’28, a student in Silliman College, told the News that learning about the Naples incident, which occurred in part outside the Silliman gates, was extremely impactful. 

“It’s pretty alarming that no one really knows about it, and that recollections of the event are nowhere to be found,” Rigoud told the News. 

Rigoud also said that, although she initially struggled with transitioning from home surrounded by a Black community to a predominantly white Ivy League education, the experiences of Black students who came before her in the film have inspired her. “

“You can exist loudly and proudly,” Rigoud told the News. “You just have to find your table.”

New Havener Tracea Glover, who has worked at Yale Medicine for 20 years, told the News that she attended because she wanted to learn about “the experience of Black students on the inside.” She said that the documentary confirmed her assumptions about the environment Black students faced inside the university.

Tyler Wade, a meta-data specialist at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, told the News that he attended the documentary screening to become more familiar with Yale’s campus and Black cultural organizations. 

“I thought the documentary was awesome,” said Wade. “While I didn’t necessarily go to an Ivy League college, I went to a predominantly white institution, and I related to so many of the experiences in the documentary. Sometimes I would be too timid to go and introduce myself to people, just because I didn’t meet a lot of people who looked like me in my field.”

The Afro-American Cultural Center is located at 211 Park St. 

The post Af-Am House celebrates 55 years with “Black Table” documentary screening appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Seventeen candidates who the News spoke with highlighted accessibility and improvements to campus services as foremost concerns for the student body, especially first years. Michael Andrade Maldonado ’28, a candidate running for Benjamin Franklin College’s vacant senate seat, emphasized the need for practical changes to make campus life more manageable. 

“One of my main goals is to ensure that essential services like free laundry and printing are available to all students,” Maldonado said. “Students, especially freshmen, are juggling a lot, from academics to extracurriculars. It’s crucial that we remove barriers to basic services to make our lives a bit easier.”

Maldonado highlighted the burden that current policies place on students, noting that easy access to these services can greatly alleviate daily stress. 

Tiffani Baik ’26, another candidate for Franklin’s senate seat, shared similar accessibility concerns. 

Baik told the News that the lack of to-go containers and table-top napkins in dining halls both negatively impact student accessibility and serve as inefficient sustainability measures. 

“I think that if Yale actually wants to reduce food cost and food waste, it starts with bringing back-to-go boxes and actually managing waste,” Baik said. “Our current system is fragmented, with each dining hall having a different composting setup. We need a centralized system to truly address waste management and support our sustainability goals while preserving accessibility.” 

Still, many FCC candidates acknowledge that the council’s limited jurisdiction regarding campus policy could hinder efforts for substantive change. Ryan Chen ’28, an FCC candidate in Ezra Stiles College, told the News that his campaign has focused more on event planning rather than policy promises. 

“Obviously, FCC has a reduced role in student government,” says Chen. “While I certainly plan on talking to the rest of the YCC if elected and communicating with administration on issues like to-go boxes or free laundry, I think our role in YCC will be more directed at organizing events and being a channel for feedback from our peers.” 

Another major issue for candidates was inclusivity and social cohesion, particularly between different residential colleges and cohorts. 

Thy Luong ’28, an FCC candidate from Saybrook College, emphasized the importance of making first-year students feel included and supported. 

“I think that a lot of freshmen are feeling untethered and disconnected right now,” Luong said. “I truly believe that being approachable and creating opportunities for students to share their concerns is crucial in making them feel integrated into the campus community.”

Her platform includes improving communication channels so that students feel more comfortable voicing their concerns and knowing that they have support. 

Andrea Bylykbashi ’28, an FCC candidate from Pierson College, told the News he is focused on creating a more inclusive environment for all students. 

“This is purely anecdotal experience, but I’ve noticed that freshmen can sometimes feel discouraged from applying to specific clubs or events,” Bylykbashi said. “There is a sense that certain organizations require hidden expertise that freshmen do not have or connections to people freshmen do not know.” 

Bylykbashi said he hopes to serve as a definitive and tangible channel of communication with the administration to express these concerns. 

Other candidates hope to accelerate social bonds between freshmen and upperclassmen. Kylee Hamamoto ’28, an FCC candidate from Pierson, told the News she wants first-years to develop close mentorship relationships early on. 

“One of the things I’ve come to understand is that upperclassmen are a wealth of knowledge– whether that be about study spots, weather, culture or even adjusting to the pace of living at a place like Yale,” said Hamamoto. “I want every first-year on campus to have access to someone like that who they can develop a close relationship with, whether that be through increased funding for mentorship programs or opportunities to connect with and find mentors on campus.” 

Max Ringelstein ’28, an FCC candidate from Silliman College, also highlighted the disparity between the first-year class and other cohorts. Ringelstein said that his top priorities are facilitating “intermingling” between first-years and upperclassmen. He told the News that he hopes to put together a first-year guide to help his peers confidently get to know their peers.

Surya Mohan ’28, an FCC candidate in Davenport College, told the News that she wants to see more collaboration between residential colleges. 

“There’s a big emphasis on your own little college, and while I absolutely love my residential community, I’d like to see freshmen more comfortable with branching out,” Mohan said. “I think more freshmen-wide events like a first-year talent show and working to increase turnout at intramural sports games would help mix our communities and really showcase the spirit of our class.” 

Most of the candidates the news spoke with expressed positive sentiment towards the campaigning process so far. Bylykbashi told the News that seeing the energy of peers excited to improve the first-year experience has been encouraging.

Yale College Council election polls will close tomorrow at 9 p.m. 

Correction 9/14: The earlier version of the article incorrectly stated Tiffani Baik’s name.

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