“Stop Project Maple” is an ongoing campaign in Connecticut that aims to oppose the expansion of a gas pipeline from New York to Massachusetts. Tuesday’s protest targeted Eversource, a utility company interested in purchasing additional gas from the project.

“Yesterday, we were at Eversource calling on them to both stop funding fossil fuels and stop purchasing our electricity and our heating from fossil fuels,” said Sena Wazer ENV ’26, a Stop Project Maple intern. “At the same time, we also wanted to call them out for having prices that are really unaffordable and taking advantage, especially of low-income ratepayers in Connecticut.”

Wazer claimed that Connecticut’s electricity bills are 91 percent higher than the national average due to companies such as Eversource. 

Eversource in response told the News that there is no pipeline project being constructed in Connecticut at the moment. 

“As an energy delivery company, we remain focused on safely and reliably serving our customers, bringing more clean energy solutions online, and making the necessary infrastructure upgrades to support decarbonization and electrification as quickly as possible,” said Jamie Ratliff, Eversource spokesperson. 

Ratliff highlighted that Eversource does not plan to be directly involved with Project Maple. Eversource hopes to provide innovative solutions to ensure a cost-effective transition to a clean energy future 

The two organizations hosted a poster-making event the night before where students made posters that read “Stop Project Maple” and “End Ever Sour.” Yalies went to Hartford Tuesday afternoon to join the protests.

“We started by listening to the organizers as they gave speeches,” said Christian Thomas ’26, Yale College Democrats president. “We participated in a die-in to represent the potential climate catastrophe that can come from oil pipelines like Project Maple.”

The protest included listening to speeches and a march to Eversource’s headquarters in Hartford. Alycia D. Jenkins, an organizer for the Connecticut chapter of the Sierra Club, a national environmental organization, started the rally by reading one of her poems.

Wazer and other activists also gave speeches on the environmental harms of fossil fuels as well as the need for clean energy. The protest called on Eversource to stop funding fossil fuels, stop purchasing electricity and heating from fossil fuels and address unaffordable prices, particularly affecting low-income ratepayers in Connecticut.

“It was really impactful to stand there out in the freezing cold holding our signs and seeing other people who came out from all over CT to raise awareness about the harms that Project Mapel will incur upon our communities in Connecticut and the broader New England area,” Phoenix Boggs ’26, YSEC political outreach chair, said.

Boggs hopes that joining this rally can act as a springboard for YSEC to be more involved in policy advocacy work.

For Yale Dems, local clean energy and sustainability is a priority in campaigning. 

“Our aim was to advocate for a more sustainable approach to gas transport and consumption and urge Connecticut lawmakers to support clean energy options,” said Jack Dozier ’27, Yale Dems communications chair. “We were incredibly excited to co-sponsor the trip to Hartford as we recognize that these are incredibly important priorities, especially in a time when many environmental resources and whole chunks of the EPA are being gutted.”

Stop Project Maple is hosting a workshop on writing a Letter to the Editor on Feb. 20 at 3 p.m. online. 

Update, Feb. 13: This article has been updated with comment from Eversource.

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Friday, Feb. 14

Y Pop-Up’s Valentine’s Day Treat Box
Time: 5 p.m. 
Place: Bass Cafe

Haven’t figured out what to get your crush yet? Want a cute pick-me-up for finishing the week? Stop by Y Pop-Up’s stand and purchase a treat box for $20. Each treat box has two red velvet cheesecake cookies, two brown butter toffee chocolate chip cookies and four earl grey caramels. Get a sweet treat before they run out!

“We wanted to do something special for Valentine’s Day and we figured treat boxes would be a good idea,” Anika Shethia ’27, on the Y Pop-Up team, said. “We also wanted to incorporate some fundraising components so we are raising money for the LA relief.”

Valentine’s Day Sonnet Slam 
Time: 6 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Place: WLH 309

Fancy listening to a Shakespearean or Petrarchan sonnet? Listen to Yalies perform a sonnet on this romantic evening. Perhaps you may even find yourself reciting “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” to win a romantic prize. 

Shades of Yale’s V-Day Jam
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Place: 53 Wall St.

Join Shades of Yale for an evening of sweet harmonies and sultry melodies with your lover, friends or even by yourself. Listeners can expect to hear a breadth of genres: from Beyoncé’s “Cuff It” to groovy “Lady Marmalade.” Tickets are being sold for $10.

Treasures from the Yale Film Archives
Time: 7 p.m.
Place: HQ L02

End the night with Federico Fellini’s acclaimed comedy-thriller, LA DOLCE VITA, on 35mm. No tickets required, viewers can watch on as a reporter captures a celebrity-obsessed post-war Rome. 

TAS Valentine’s Day Karaoke & Mochi 
Time: 7 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Place: Asian American Cultural Center Karaoke Room 

Join the Taiwanese American Society for a Valentine’s Day Karaoke event. Stop by to sing a song or snack on mochi and onigiri from the Loop.

Yale University Concert Band Performance
Time: 7:30 p.m. 
Place: Woolsey Hall

Looking for a romantic atmosphere after date night? Check out Yale University Concert Band’s performance that includes L’homme Armé and First Suite in E Flat. Free admission. 

Love Served Fresh: A Night of Fruit, Film, and Music
Time: 8 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Place: Asian American Cultural Center

What does love mean to you? Stop by the AACC to take a glimpse into what love means for Yalies. Singer-songwriters and student filmmakers will be performing and screening their work on what love means to them. 

“The reason why we chose to do this event was because we wanted to see how Asian American students represented ideas of love in their art forms and to create a safe space where other students on campus could discuss difficult themes of navigating love as an Asian American” Gina Jung ’27, who is organizing this event, said. “We also chose to provide fresh fruit to reflect how Asian parents are often known to show love not explicitly, but through cut-up fruit.” 

An Evening of Love and Literature
Time: 8:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Place: Silliman Acorn

If you’re still in the mood for love, join the English Student Advisory Committee for an evening full of love-themed poetry. Recite or listen to your peers’ poetry and prose. Maybe impress your crush with a poem of your own or simply eat some pastries from Claire’s. 

Battle of the Bands
Time: 10 p.m.
Place: 107-109 Howe St. 

Finish the night with a bang and some tunes. Catch student bands battle against each other Friday night. Feb Club tickets are required for entry. 

The New Blue of Yale Singing Valentine
Time: All-Day
Place: Anywhere

Do you want to embarrass a friend or confess to your crush? Make sure to order your singing valentine by Feb. 13. The New Blue of Yale a cappella group will be singing barbershop-quartet style Valentines all throughout the day. 

“Singing Valentines has been a great way for friends to send other friends messages, and to just spread a message of love to someone they might not even know that well,” said Lauren Alfaro ’28.

Jane Park, Gemard Guery and Sofia Gaviria Partow contributed reporting. 

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Inspired by the crocheted birds at Brown University, the Whales of Yale project posted their first creation, a blue and white whale named Ruby, in September for students to find. Since then, Whales of Yale has amassed over 1,000 followers on Instagram.

Whales of Yale is run by a small team that designs, crochets and distributes the whales. Like Birbs at Brown, the initiative remains anonymous. Whales of Yale has hidden 89 whales for students to find thus far. 

Nick Ribeiro ’26, an avid whale finder, recalled the excitement of his first hunt. As of now, Ribeiro has found five whales.

After finding out about @whalesofyale from a friend, he turned on notifications from the account. A week later, his phone pinged while he was working on a problem set in Willoughby’s.

Immediately, he recognized the whale’s location and was on the move.

“I sprinted out of the coffee shop and made it to the Yale Bookstore in less than three minutes,” said Ribeiro. There, he found Tina — the 23rd whale the organization had created. “A half dozen people ran in right after me,” Ribeiro said of his opportune timing.

For Ribeiro, the search for these whales has become a game of strategy. Since his first year, he often wandered around campus, he explained, exploring new buildings and unfamiliar areas. This habit helped him develop a strong “geospatial” knowledge of Yale, which has made him skilled at tracking down the whales.

To deduce the location, he carefully examines the clues in each photo posted by the account — analyzing lighting, street markings and architectural details. Once an idea pops up, he always runs over.

Ribeiro recounted a failed attempt to chase down a whale that was riding on the Yale Shuttle, only for a student waiting at a bus stop to find it seconds before he did.

“I’m sure I looked silly zooming by in my jeans and Air Forces,” said Ribeiro. “But that didn’t matter. I was on a mission.”

Ribeiro said that Whales of Yale provides “a whimsical break” to students’ busy lives. He said that the crocheted whales are a “great reminder” of the significance of noticing small details of our everyday.

Beyond the thrill of the chase, Whales of Yale has created a unique sense of connection on campus.

“Running into some of the same people in these random locations around campus has allowed us to share in the joy and frustration of the pursuit of these whales,” said Ribeiro.

Joshua Gabrielson ’28 was one of the first students to find a whale on campus.

Gabrielson, who also has notifications turned on for the Whales of Yale Instagram account, saw Timmy, the fifth whale, photographed in a familiar-looking reading room in Sterling Memorial Library.

“I was really excited,” Gabrielson said. “The whole point of finding these whales is to take a good break from the monotony of studying. There’s certain adrenaline when you find tangible awards like these.”

Gabrielson said that he also appreciated the time and dedication the Whales of Yale team puts into hand-crocheting every whale.

This project offers a similar appeal to that of previous campus ‘hide and seek’ games, such as the Veritas Search, said Gabrielson.

“I think a lot of people at Yale enjoy a little expedition and adventure,” Gabrielson said. “It’s fun that this anonymous source is injecting that into the community.”

For William Ning ’26, finding Peri, the 85th whale, was the best moment of his life. Ning had been eating lunch with his friends when one of his friends saw a new post on the @whalesofyale Instagram. Determined, they set off looking for the whale, which seemed to lay between the philosophy books either in Bass or Sterling Library, Ning said.

“I realized [the whale] might be in the DS Philosophy lounge of HQ,” said Ning. “When I found it, it was the most incredible accomplishment I felt while being on campus.”

Similarly to others, Ning said that he has Instagram notifications turned on for @whalesofyale. He had first been introduced to this account when his friend found a whale in front of HQ by chance.

Finding too many whales may not be a good thing, according to Ning, who said that there were numerous posts on Fizz, a students-exclusive anonymous social media app, criticizing a student who had found too many whales. Nevertheless, Ning praised this project for bringing joy, especially at a time when the nation is going through a lot of transformation, he said.

“I think it’s a really nice project,” Ning said. “I don’t know who runs it but it is so selfless to spend your time doing these things for other people to take home and you get no credit for it.”

On Feb. 12, just in time for Valentine’s Day, Whales of Yale will host a raffle for whale candygrams.

The post Whales everywhere: “Whales of Yale” organizes a campus-wide scavenger hunt appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Two years ago, the city hired consultants to help design drafts for converting several downtown streets into two-way. Currently, Chapel Street is one-way. The most updated plan would convert 1.6 miles of the street, from Ella T. Grasso Boulevard to College Street — though a concrete plan has only been developed for the portion of Chapel Street between College and York streets. 

“Chapel Street two-way street conversion is part of a larger strategic goal of converting downtown streets from one-way to two-way configuration with the goal of improving mobility, safety, connectivity, consistency and more importantly redundancy in the street network,” Sandeep Aysola, director of the city’s Transportation, Traffic and Parking Department, told the News. 

But that mobility might not extend to all users, bikers say.

In an email to the Safe Streets Coalition, activist Lior Trestman described how the current plan would prove hazardous for cyclists. As Chapel Street currently allows for one traffic direction, bikers can ride in the center of the right lane as cars pass on the left. With only one lane in each direction after the conversion, bikers would be forced to take the lane and slow down traffic — potentially facing the ire of drivers. Or, Trestman predicted, some cyclists may resort to the sidewalk, which is illegal in New Haven. 

“This will make Chapel unbikeable for anyone but the most aggressive bikers,” he wrote. 

Spenser Johnson, a biker visiting the Bradley Street Bike Co-Op, also emphasized the traffic inefficiency of streets without bike lanes. Cars either maneuver around bikes or slow down their pace, causing traffic pile ups. 

“It’s a lose-lose for everyone,” Johnson said. “Whereas if you have a dedicated bike lane, even if it’s relatively narrow, it still keeps the flow of traffic while keeping the bikers safe.”

Another cyclist, Eric Geiger, said that he currently avoids Chapel Street if possible, even as a relatively strong biker himself. He pointed out that the danger is especially more pertinent for beginners and older people, and that fewer bike lanes could also discourage Yale students from engaging with their community due to reduced transportation options. 

Geiger also cited the studied economic benefits of bike lanes over parking spaces, calling the current plan “disappointing.”

More gravely, as Trestman pointed out, the conversion plan strays from the Safe Routes for All Plan, a roadmap for citywide active transportation improvements that was both heavily invested in and adopted by the city. In the roadmap, Chapel Street remains one-way and has a protected bike lane on one side. 

The plan also goes against the Complete Streets Ordinance, which mandates the accommodation of all road users’ safety and convenience, he argued.

“In my opinion our city administration is only willing to build active-mobility infrastructure in places where it has no drawbacks for anyone else, and unfortunately this means we will never see the progress we need,” Trestman wrote, referring to bikers. He ended the email with tributes to recent traffic violence fatalities and a call for citizens to help hold their leaders accountable. 

During the design phase, one of the drafts the city considered included bike lanes, albeit without the protective gap the Safe Routes for All Plan called for. Due to the narrowness of Chapel Street, a protected bike lane there would require the removal of parking space. 

Aysola and his team will receive public feedback in the coming months and may change the design accordingly. 

Whether one-way or two-way traffic is better on Chapel Street remains uncertain. Elihu Rubin, associate professor of architecture and urban studies, explained that the nuance of deciding between one and two-way streets depends on the width, number of lanes and the residential or commercial nature of each street. While conversions to two-way streets will calm traffic, he said, one-way streets allow pedestrians to monitor oncoming traffic from one side more easily and can also preserve space for bike lanes and parking spaces. 

“Conversions from one-way to two-way streets does reduce traffic capacity and may result in congestion until drivers learn to adjust,” Rubin wrote. “In general, two-way streets are probably better for vibrant commercial streets; but it depends on the nature of the street and if the conversion will sacrifice a lot of street parking.” 

After finalizing the design, the city plans to begin construction in 2027 and finish by 2029. 

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The program consists of lectures, demos, lab exercises and mentorship from GIS consultants to help participants properly visualize and analyze their spatial data. It does not require any prerequisites. Held biannually in January and June, the program offers a hybrid format for participants. 

“Participants leave the program with basic GIS skills, at least one completed map of their project data, an understanding of the kinds of spatial analysis they could pursue next, and — we hope — an enthusiasm for further geospatial work,” Kelly told the News. 

At the end of the program, participants present final presentations. Guest reviewers from Yale, the government, other universities, and the private sector are invited to give feedback during these presentations. 

According to Miriam Olivares, head of Geospatial Support Services, over 94 percent of respondents for a satisfaction survey ranked their satisfaction with the program as excellent. 

“It is impressive to see trainees with little to no exposure to geospatial technology learn quickly and complete a GIS introductory project, often tied to their current research, that showcases their passion and progress in just one week,” Olivares said. “I attribute this success to the participants’ awareness of the power of adopting geospatial technology in their research, and therefore their eagerness to learn, as well as to the expertise and pedagogical approach of the lead instructor, Dr. Jill Kelly, an outstanding GIS educator.”

The program on average hosts around 40 participants. For Kelly, leading this program has brought her joy in seeing the diversity of projects and meeting new people. 

“I like seeing the projects develop from a tangle of mysterious data into a coherent map,” Kelly said. “Once in a while, a participant really catches the geospatial bug and goes on to take a bunch of GIS courses or study independently and then makes GIS and spatial analysis a core of their work … It’s rewarding to have given these researchers their first look at the topic.”

For Kelly, watching participants publish spatial papers in their respective disciplines and make real world impacts is meaningful for her.

Selin Goren ’24, who participated in the program in winter 2023, learned how to use GIS as a tool for geospatial data analysis and mapping. 

“I ended up using some of these [GIS] tools to create maps for my senior thesis in Environmental Studies the following semester,” Goren said. “In order to get the most out of this experience, it’s a good idea to go into it with a geospatial analysis question and find some good data to use for the analysis beforehand. Since the accelerator is a full-day commitment for 5 days and the concepts move really fast, I’d advise people to take it when they have a free week and can commit full-time to learning GIS during that week.”

This GIS Accelerator program will be held from Jan. 6 to Jan. 10, 2025. 

The post A new way of interpreting data — the GIS Accelerator Program appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Previous menus have included gochujang cookies, miso pork belly onigiri and spam musubis. According to Nguyen, affordability is important to ARAY, so they have tried to price items so that getting a taste of authentic Asian food is accessible to students.

“The club has been a very open place where people flow in and out to cook,” Anh Nguyen ’26, co-founder and business lead for ARAY, said. “We’ve done a lot of themed events and food pop-ups, serving … from Japanese, Chinese, Asian, broadly South Asian, doing our best to fulfill the mission and vision of bringing food of Asian and Asian American flavor profiles that would normally not get a chance to have exposure on this campus.”

Nguyen and Andy Gu ’26, culinary lead and co-founder of ARAY, founded this organization in spring 2023 fueled by a love of bringing people together through good food.  They had hosted a pop-up in their freshman year for the mid-autumn festival and wanted to continue. 

Gu told the News that the menu selection involves considering audience and authenticity. 

“We want it to be as authentic as possible, to the degree that we can,” Gu said. “So the menu stems from [the question of] what is the goal of the event? Is it kind of an exploration of a region? Is it dishes from a bunch of different regions that we’re trying to tie together to present to our audience?”

Space, equipment and resources are also taken into consideration when deciding the menus. 

ARAY collaborates with various organizations including Y Pop-Up, South Asian Society, Korean American Students at Yale —or KASY — and more. 

“In the future, I want to do Asian cuisine fusion with a bunch of different cultures,” Patrick Fung ’28, who will take over as culinary lead for ARAY next semester, said. “So in the past, I’ve noticed that ARAY has sort of kept itself within the Asian hemisphere, and I want to branch out to, for example, Middle Eastern fusion, or Western fusion or Latino fusion. I’m really excited for that.”

As Fung prepares to take on the co-culinary lead role, he hopes to create meaningful, authentic and original menus.

Fung takes inspiration from visiting restaurants and sharing menu ideas with people from different ethnicities to get more authentic information. 

“After eating [at Jua], I had this inspiration for this dish that we could potentially do in the future,” Fung told the News. “That’s sort of the background process behind what happens when I try a new restaurant. I try to grab some sort of inspiration from it that I can use to apply to ARAY or just my cooking adventures in general.”

Gu shared that his favorite memory with ARAY was when they held an internal cake picnic where all team members brought their own cake. 

“I think that [the picnic] was amazing because it was one of the first few big moments where we could see how much ARAY has grown as a community as well,” Gu said. “We didn’t really have a big core team until the spring semester, and then even that, it was a lot more on the business side … so to have that community of cooks and people interested and sharing that experience was pretty amazing.”

The K-SEA market, co-hosted by ARAY, KASY and Southeast Asian Movement, or SEAM, will be hosting a night market on Dec. 8 at 5 p.m.

The post Asian Recipes at Yale — a student group taking Asian, Asian American and Asian fusion to another level appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The AACC’s PAE team led this initiative in an effort to educate the Yale community about climate racism and highlight the works of Asian artists resisting environmental despair. During and following the teach-in, participants began creating an upcycled quilt from fabric scraps and old clothes.

“The goal of the event is to educate attendees on environmental racism, climate racism and how colonialism interacts with both,” said Kiswa Rahman SPH ’25, the lead organizer of the event. “Along with this, we wanted to explain how centering joy is one way to resist while continuing to work together in community.” 

Rahman first gained inspiration for the event when she was working on a project on climate racism and flooding in Pakistan last year. After stumbling across the truck artist Ali Salman Anchan, she was struck by the beauty of artwork that centered joy, community and healing as a means of resistance and liberation. 

The event began with a presentation from Andrew Lee ’27 and Marissa Halagao ’27, undergraduate student co-coordinators for the AACC PAE team, on the topic of climate racism — how the environmental crisis disproportionately impacts racial minorities in the United States and formerly colonized peoples abroad. 

“It is difficult to imagine how the Yale community can work to fight against climate racism; confronted with such a large and sweeping force, our efforts seem small in comparison. Yet, there is power and beauty in solidarity efforts,” Lee said. “We can continue to learn, continue to collaborate with organizations that work locally with impacted populations, and continue to create environmental joy.”

After the teach-in, participants created an upcycled climate justice quilt from fabric scrap and old clothes. The AACC PAE team had led a fabric drive for two weeks prior to the event. 

In the coming months AACC members will assemble the quilt to be donated to organizations that support victims of climate crisis survivors. 

“I want this event to give hope to attendees as we create our quilt, embedded now with new knowledge and an inspiration to keep fighting on behalf of those who are disenfranchised and disempowered by climate and environmental racism, recognizing that artists and communities have always been resisting and innovating in the face of struggle,” Hagalao said. 

Ultimately, the event aims to contextualize and reframe the climate change movement as a call for justice and liberation of all oppressed peoples. 

Lee added that in addition to addressing the racialization of the climate crisis, the event also aims to bring light to Asian artists in particular who have used their creativity as a method of bringing hope.

Participants expressed urgency in addressing the climate crisis. For Peter Tran ’25 who attended the event, the teach-in helped build social consciousness on a relevant issue. 

“If there’s any moment when we need to be showing up more for each other, I think the time is now,” Tran said. “We shouldn’t wait until climate refugees are knocking on our doorsteps for us to show up for and take care of each other. In this country, it’s so easy to be stuck in your own individual wants and needs. But, as today’s presentation showed, the time for that selfish line of thinking is long gone.”

Bella Garcia ’26, co-president of the Yale Student Environmental Coalition, said that the event marked the start of a new chapter for the coalition, which has made fostering relationships with campus cultural centers a new goal. 

One of the ways the coalition has done so is by adding the Affinity Chair position, which according to Garcia, is responsible for creating spaces for “open dialogue, community building and meaningful intercultural interactions.” 

Victoria Lu ’25 who is the first active Affinity Chair shared that the experience of being able to shed light on such an important event was “incredibly rewarding.” 

“I hope participants, including myself, will take away the meaningfulness of creating art with people,” reflected Jenny Liu ’26, co-president of the Yale Student Environmental Coalition. “I also hope folks will appreciate the need for art and creativity as a means of resilience and joy. I think a doom and gloom perspective is persistent in the climate world, but figuring out how to create in the face of that is really crucial.”

Yale has set a goal to achieve net-zero emissions by 2035.

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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.

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NHCM’s Zombie CARmageddon event took over Chapel and High streets from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Friday. Through their promotion of the resolution, combined with Halloween celebrations, NHCM has gained over 200 petition signatories.

The Halloween event was an extension of NHCM’s “DeCARbonize the Oceans” campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the impact transportation emissions have on oceans, specifically emissions from cars. NHCM youth leaders Snigtha Mohanraj ’24 and Adrian Huq YSE ’26 highlighted the need to eliminate personal vehicle use. 

“We put on this Halloween event to call attention to the “scary” car culture in the United States and the need for people to break away from being “zombies” to their vehicles, which pollute the environment and can cause harm to others like bikers and pedestrians,” Huq said. 

Transportation makes up 38 percent of Connecticut’s emissions. 

Mohanraj added that in order to achieve zero emissions by 2030 as outlined in the City’s 2019 Climate Emergency Resolution, public transportation needs to be more accessible.

“Our high usage of personal vehicles emitting greenhouse gasses is one of the most significant contributors to climate change,” Mohanraj said. “We are advocating to shift away from this, especially through investment in public transportation.”

The event also aimed to promote NHCM’s Transportation Transformation resolution. 

The resolution notes that not enough progress has been made in Connecticut’s transportation infrastructure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“2030 is just around the corner which is really scary, and we need all the departments to kind of work together,” another NHCM youth activist Amelia Lee ’26 said. “They all need plans for how to work towards a 25 percent reduction. By 2030 we want the city to really commit money towards this cause and also funding.”

The resolution urges the Board of Alders to enact a ‘transformative approach’ that includes the CT Transportation, Traffic and Parking Department, to report within six months to the Board of Alders a plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

In alignment with these goals, NHCM also calls for free bus passes and mandatory climate education. 

“A lot of us at NHCM noticed that over COVID, when the state CT transit made buses free for a long time, that ridership dramatically increased,” Lee said. “So that’s one of the things we want to push for — free bus passes, along with a lot of the other things that New Haven can help with, in terms of, pushing for better routes, or … bus rapid transit systems within the city.”

NHCM’s resolution has garnered support from over 20 different organizations, including Sierra Club of Connecticut, Yale Student Environmental Coalition and New Haven Coalition for Active Transportation. Yale’s first-year FOCUS orientation program has previously partnered with NHCM to raise awareness of environmental issues. Sarkar hopes for more institutional collaboration between Yale and NHCM.

Sarkar told the News that the resolution takes into account feedback on its financial feasibility and long-term logistics. 

“I’m happy to see residents advocating for sustainability and action to address climate change,” Ward 1 Alder Kiana Flores ’25 said. “A large portion of CT’s carbon emissions are attributed to the transportation sector, making this topic important to address at the local level.”

Despite Flores’s support of NHCM’s efforts to address the problem, no alder has publicly supported this resolution.

For Sarkar, the issue of transportation and the environment began when she saw how the government could actively shape environmental conscience. The reality of climate change became more pertinent as exemplified by the recent Hurricane Milton, she said. 

“This is an issue I got involved in because I realized that I am not the only one being impacted, but rather global communities are subject to ecological instability in the modern world,” Sarkar said.

The City’s Climate and Sustainability Framework aims for a 55 percent reduction of 2001 emissions rates by 2030. 

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The committee — using crash heat maps — noticed many near misses at the intersection of College and Wall. Committee chair Kirsten Bechtel hopes that stenciling initiatives can reduce injuries, conflicts and fatalities by encouraging both pedestrians and drivers to be more cautious. 

“We want to get people to try to look all the way around before they cross,” Bechtel said. “Lots of people here, we just have been noticing, do stop and look and make sure the cars have stopped [after painting the stencil].”

The stencil design reads, “ALWAYS LOOK ALL WAYS.” The stencil was designed by Paloma Lenz ’26, who won the stencil contest through Yale College. The committee has previously stenciled her design near Benjamin Franklin and Pauli Murray colleges.

Committee member Jhan Setthachayanon ’26 added that they emphasize that pedestrian safety is not about victim blaming but about promoting mutual responsibility between pedestrians and drivers. Setthachayanon hopes that these stenciling initiatives can target dangerous intersections and invite students to raise awareness on pedestrian safety on campus. 

“It’s a dangerous combination of students jaywalking and cars disobeying traffic rules — a mutual bending of the laws enacted to keep both parties safe,” Jaeyee Jung ’27 who often walks through the College and Wall Street intersection said. “I can’t speak for drivers, but for us pedestrians, the inclination to jaywalk derives from convenience and perhaps a habit of living in a hurry.”

The Traffic Committee was established in 2011 after the death of a medical student on the medical campus in 2008. Since then, the committee has created mid-block crossings at Temple and Wall Street. 

For Setthachayanon, safety should be prioritized above all else. Setthachayanon added that both drivers and pedestrians should be paying attention to the roads. 

“Always look, always make eye contact with drivers,” Setthachayanon said. “Even though you might have the right of way, you always [need to be] cautious… Make sure that you prioritize your safety overall.”

Advocacy, pedestrian education campaigns and advising have been at the center of the committee’s work. 

The Traffic Committee wrote supportive legislation and testimony in favor of installing 19 speed safety and red light cameras in New Haven. 

“Hopefully next year, we’ll start seeing these red light cameras really make a difference in terms of changing driver behavior and stopping at red lights so that they don’t go through a red light when somebody’s trying to cross the street,” Bechtel said.

The committee plans on hosting more stenciling events in high crash detection areas. Stenciling relies heavily on the weather as the paint needs to dry in warmer temperatures. Bechtel hopes to host another stenciling event next week or in the spring. 

The committee meets around six times a year at the Office of Environmental Health and Safety, 135 College St.

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