Trumbull Notes 4-3-17

April 3, 2017

We’re finally experiencing spring.  The weather will get better from here through the end of the semester.  All outdoor furniture will reappear in our courtyard.  Planning for our Pamplona festival is underway. Use our courtyard!  Know that we have a volleyball net (and volley ball).  If you want to play, let us know and we’ll set it up.  If you want the corn hole games out, we can do that too.  If you have other ideas for simple events in the courtyard or equipment, let us know.

Of course, simultaneously with spring, workloads and the end of the semester pressure grow.  Get enough sleep, eat well, exercise some, take breaks with friends.  We’ll schedule more study breaks including ones in the FARR room on weekend mornings with coffee and snacks.

This is also a time when many seniors are hearing and deciding about jobs and graduate schools and many others are hearing about summer jobs and internships.  If you don’t yet know what you’re doing this summer or beyond, know that you are most certainly not alone.  If you are congratulating and celebrating for those hearing good news when you, yourself, are still waiting for things to work out, congratulate yourself.  It’s hard to do that!

Furniture news:   I thank Deb Bellmore for arranging to have much of the Common Room furniture recovered.  It looks great.  We try to keep up with repairs and refurbishing when needed. 

Unfortunately, some of the furniture in the Buttery was broken recently – parts of the upholstery were torn, arms were broken off chairs.  It wasn’t normal wear and tear and these things usually don’t happen during our academic year, so we’re distressed about it.  We’ll take care of it.  Of course, every time we need to spend money on something like this, there’s less money for other things.  (Our staff can’t be everywhere so I urge all to speak up when such things happen.)

A theft.  We had one theft this weekend.  Some valuables were left in our library overnight and they were taken.  For the most part, our areas within Trumbull are safe but sometimes people follow other people into the college and into spaces within the college.  I urge you not to leave valuables out and visible in any of our spaces.

One common practice is to leave items in the library or on tables in the dining hall to save your spot.   We understand that our library is small and the dining hall can be crowded and we try to address those issues along the way by opening up other spaces for study especially at this time of year, but please be careful with your valuables and if you don’t know people, let them swipe themselves into the college and our spaces rather than allowing them to follow you in. 

Some congratulations and some thanks

Congratulations to our members of the Yale Women’s gymnastics team:  senior Tatiana Winkelman and first year student Jade Buford, Trumbull.  The team won the East Coast Athletic Conference championship.  For Jade, this was her first gymnastics season for Yale.  Here’s what the Yale Athletics said about her season: “Buford’s 2017 season has been spectacular, and the ECAC recognized that by awarding her the Rookie of the Year award following completion of the competition.” 

Thanks to Mackenzie Adelberg and to Michelle Chintanaphol for leading the trip to “IT” this Saturday.  Your efforts are appreciated.  Those who went were braver than I; despite the very obvious safety precautions IT takes, I remained on the lower levels of the course while every single other attendee climbed higher. 

Congratulations to our freshman Carrie Mannino on the show she wrote and then produced in Nick Chapel on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, The Bench.  We’re glad to have the Creative and Performing Arts awards available to Trumbullians and I love to see the outcomes of those awards.  

Thanks and congratulations to Debbie Rueb for 30 years of service at Yale University and for the 18 years of those years which have been devoted to Trumbull.  We’re thrilled to have you here and grateful for all you do. 

Thanks to our IM leaders, and to all our students who have come out to support Trumbull.  We’re close to the top in points.  Let’s keep going! 

Also, coming up soon will be the Freshman Olympics (on Saturday, April 22).  This year’s leaders are Alexyss Lange and Christian Olivier.  They have a theme.  We have free t-shirts for all freshman participants and bandanas and temporary tattoos and food.  We won last year! The trophy is sitting in my office.  I’ll bring it out.   We can do well again.  There are both serious and silly events – you can choose.  (Last year we did well in both.)  Watch for more information from Alexyss and Christian.

Two Trumbull Teas; one today

Monday April 3, 4:00 Trumbull House

Stephen Suomi:  Chief of the Laboratory of Comparative Ethology and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

“A conversation with Dr. Steven Suomi: How early experience impacts lifelong health and development” Dr. Suomi’s research focuses on three general issues: the interaction between genetic and environmental factors in shaping individual developmental trajectories, the issue of continuity vs. change and the relative stability of individual differences throughout development, and the degree to which findings from monkeys studied in captivity generalize not only to monkeys living in the wild but also to humans living in different cultures. Throughout his professional career Dr. Suomi has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, the most recent of which include the Donald O. Hebb Award from the American Psychological Association, the Distinguished Primatologist Award from the American Society of Primatologists, and the Arnold Pfeffer Prize from the International Society of Neuropsychoanalysis. Dr. Suomi has authored or co-authored over 400 articles published in scientific journals and chapters in edited volumes.

Tuesday, April 11, 4:00 Trumbull House

Lisa Feldman Barrett

Dr. Barrett is a University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University, with appointments at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Psychiatry and Radiology. She received a NIH Director’s Pioneer Award for her research on emotion in the brain.  Lisa is the author of a new book entitled, How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain. Last week she appeared on the Today Show to discuss aging and brain functioning. Copies of her book are available for borrowing.  Please stop by the office to sign one out.

Trumbull Students:  Please email deborah.bellmore@yale.edu if you would like to have dinner in the house after the tea with Lisa Feldman Barrett.