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NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 2021 · VOL. CXLIII, NO. 26 · yaledailynews.com
Higher on-campus housing demand causes increased stress ence was also highly dependent on a student’s residential college, with students in some residential colleges guaranteed on-campus housing in their college and others left wondering if they will have a bed on campus at all next year. Boyd said that annex housing, mixed-college housing and converting some single bedrooms into doubles can help meet the shortage. And although it is not a guarantee, Dean of Yale College Marvin Chun anticipates that these measures will likely allow students who do not get a room in their college to find other on-campus housing. “Everyone keeps telling us to take breathers, to really utilize break days as break days, to ask for help when we are feeling stressed and overwhelmed,” Sam Heimowitz ’23 told the News, “But how am I supposed to treat the break day like a break day when I am worrying about [not having on-campus housing]?”
BY JULIA BIALEK STAFF REPORTER As the spring semester concludes and fall term plans begin to take shape, Yale College students have been undergoing the often stressful process of determining their housing for next semester. This year, higher demand for on-campus housing, coupled with the housing process aligning with early course registration and finals period, made the housing process more stressful than usual, students and administrators told the News. Although it is not atypical to see higher demand than supply for on-campus housing within a student’s residential college, according to Dean of Student Affairs Melanie Boyd, the increased number of students who took leaves of absences due to the pandemic this year and will return to campus in the fall has led to higher on-campus housing demand for the next academic year. But this year’s housing process experi-
SEE HOUSING PAGE 4
DANIEL ZHAO/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Branford, Saybrook, Jonathan Edwards and Timothy Dwight colleges have the highest levels of oversubscription.
Yale ponders non-authorized vaccines As pandemic continues,
UNSPLASH
The pandemic has scattered Yale students across the globe, so not everyone has access to the same COVID-19 vaccines. BY ROSE HOROWITCH, AMELIA LOWER AND MARIA FERNANDA PACHECO STAFF REPORTERS After announcing on April 19 that all students must receive a vaccine against COVID-19 come fall, the University is working through how to best protect international students who might only have access to vaccines the FDA has not authorized.
The University is currently only accepting the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson vaccines as fulfillment of the vaccine requirement, according to a Yale Health FAQ page. They are currently the only three vaccines with an U.S. FDA emergency use authorization. But for students in countries that have authorized the AstraZeneca, Novavax or Sinopharm-Beijing vaccines, there
are lingering questions as to how to proceed. Yale Health leaders have urged all students to get vaccinated as soon as possible with whatever vaccine is available to them. The University will later determine whether to revaccinate students with one of the FDA-authorized formulations when they return to campus. Yale will vaccinate any student in the fall for free, and they will have to be vaccinated to participate in in-person programs. "We are strongly recommending that people be vaccinated as soon as [the] vaccine is available to them and not delay," Jennifer McCarthy, chief medical officer for Yale Health, wrote in an email to the News. "Vaccination offers individual and societal protection from the consequences of continued transmission of the virus." The Yale Health FAQ page states that re-vaccination with two different vaccines is not recommended at this time, but that if CDC guidance changes it is possible students who received international vaccines will have to be re-vaccinated in the fall with an FDA-authorized vaccine. Yale Health will set up special vacSEE VACCINE PAGE 4
cheating gains speed
BY KEVIN CHAN AND MADISON HAHAMY STAFF REPORTERS At the end of the fall 2020 semester, Timothy Newhouse, associate professor of chemistry and instructor for “Organic Chemistry for First Years I,” sent an email to his students. “Amazing job on the final!!! I just finished going through these and I am so pleased and excited,” Newhouse wrote, though he declined to comment for this article. “You did exceptionally well as a
class and maybe were the best class year that I've seen.” But according to one student in Newhouse’s class, the exceptional grades were not the result of an extraordinarily intelligent or hard-working class, but due to acts of academic dishonesty committed by students — acts made much easier by the online format of the course. “It's because you can literally from an iPad, switch over to Google SEE CHEATING PAGE 5
JESSIE CHEUNG/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Per the News’ survey, half of respondents reported committing academic dishonesty for the first time during remote learning.
YCC candidates discuss policy issues at debate BY LUCY HODGMAN STAFF REPORTER On Tuesday, Yale College Council presidential and vice-presidential candidates gathered on Zoom to debate their policy platforms ahead of the YCC election, which will take place on April 29 and 30. The candidates discussed a wide range of student issues, with focuses on mental health reform, student health care and advocacy for Yale’s first-generation, low-income community. About 150 students attended the event, which was co-hosted by the YCC and the News. Editor-in-chief of the News Mackenzie Hawkins ’22 and YCC Vice President Reilly Johnson ’22 moderated the event, asking the candidates prepared questions before opening the floor to questions from participants. Bayan Galal ’23 and Joaquín Lara Midkiff ’24 are both running for president, and Zoe Hsu ’24 and Jordi Bertrán Ramírez ’24 are running for
vice president. Lara Midkiff and Bertrán Ramírez are running on a ticket together, as are Galal and Hsu. Diba Ghaed ’24, who is running unopposed for YCC events director, did not participate in the debate. “It’s been incredibly uplifting and heartening to hear from hundreds of you over the last few days, sharing your hopes and your vision for what Yale can become,” Lara Midkiff said at the debate. “I look forward to hearing from many more of you tonight, and in the days to come.” Galal and Hsu have framed their campaign around the development of a “healthy Yale” — their campaign website describes physical health, mental health, community health, financial health and institutional health as the guiding principles of their platform. Lara Midkiff and Bertrán Ramírez have made accessibility the focal point of their campaign, focusing on making Yale more accessible to students with physi-
cal or mental disabilities, students of color and FGLI students. The first hour of the debate focused on the vice-presidential candidates, and the presidential candidates took the stage in the second hour. Candidates had the opportunity to present three-minute opening statements before answering questions from Hawkins and Johnson. During the vice-presidential debate, Bertrán Ramírez and Hsu discussed the most effective forms of advocacy for financial aid reform. “One thing that I’d like to speak to that is a little bit concerning is that on the platform of our opposing candidates, there’s no discussion of eliminating regular course fees,” Bertrán Ramírez said during the event. “As a student who is both in chem and in the arts, you’re looking at upwards of hundreds of dollars to spend on your online course fees.” Bertrán Ramírez noted that class fees can also sometimes dissuade students from taking courses that
CROSS CAMPUS
INSIDE THE NEWS
The News announces the appointment of Thomas M. Greene as the new director of the Directed Studies program. He will be replacing Professor Alvin B. Kernan. As the new director, Greene hopes to make the program more flexible and open to experimentation.
QUARTET
THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY, 1965.
The Callisto Quartet has been selected as the next fellowship quartet-inresidence at the School of Music. They will begin their two-year residency in fall 2021. Page 6 ARTS
TRANSLATION
COURTESY OF CANDIDATES
From left to right: Jordi Bertrán Ramírez, Joaquín Lara Midkiff, Bayan Galal, Zoe Hsu. require expensive materials or other fees. In response, Hsu said that she supported eliminating course fees, but asserted that this was more of a longterm goal for her and Galal. “I have been advocating tirelessly for something as simple as a course-drop fee, only to be met by
The Yale Translation Initiative announced both a graduate and undergraduate certificate in Translation Studies that is expected to become available next academic year. Page 8 UNIVERSITY
BREACH
denial,” Hsu said. “These FGLI students need immediate help. They need immediate stipends. And that is why I propose that we will use our YCC internal budget to make sure those stipends are given to the students as soon as possible.”
A nationwide cybersecurity threat to software used by the Yale New Haven Health System resulted in a six-day interruption of treatment for approximately 200 cancer patients. Page 9 SCITECH
SEE YCC PAGE 5 BIRDS
The journeys of many birds migrating north this spring will be stopped short on their way through New Haven, as they collide into large glass windows, fall to the ground and die. Page 11 UNIVERSITY