I hope settling in, shopping period, and, especially for those new to campus, choosing extra-curricular activities and getting to know people here are all going well. For the next couple days I know that there will be very hot weather. This may be difficult. Do come over to the college and use our cooler spaces. This will pass.
For those of you interested in naming issues, remember that the Master of Calhoun College, Julia Adams, is hosting a tea today at 4 on the issue of that college’s name. I imagine there will be many there and that it will be an interesting discussion. Know that even when a tea is held in a different college all Yale students are welcome to attend. Recall that I’ll also be available in the fellows lounge tonight at 9:30 if anyone wishes to discuss naming issues. Meanwhile I know that many of you as well as many from other colleges have responded to the anonymous survey regarding titles. Thank you.
Trum-Vandalism (a heading I don’t want to use again!)
We had some offensive graffiti appear over the weekend on our walls. Walls are being repainted as quickly as possible. I am sorry that some of you have had to put up with this and I also thank Mary Beth Radigan, our facilities leader, for her quick attention to this. We do not know who did this. It may have been an outside person because doors were propped open. I know people prop open doors often. Those coat hangers are everywhere! Please don’t do this. The most important reason not to do it is to insure your own safety. It also helps to prevent vandalism that can be offensive and always is very expensive to clean up.
Thanks.
I want to thank one (anonymous!) Trumbull student. This weekend this person went way beyond the call of duty very late at night to take some matter of fact and compassionate steps to prevent a very drunk student (who thought it was fine to drive) from driving. I am truly impressed and grateful. Do watch out for one another. Do ask for my support if you need it.
Planning events in the college.
A part of my job is to support the social and intellectual life of the college. Feel free to make suggestions (though know that I can do some things and not others). Here are two examples from this fall. One student who attended an event we planned at Connecticut’s Goodspeed Opera House last year asked that it be repeated. (It wasn’t well-attended last year probably because of a mistake I made myself which was to schedule it on the same day as the Yale-Princeton home football game. I’ll not do that again!) Anyway, after this suggestion Deb Bellmore and I looked into this and we have purchased tickets and scheduled a repeat of this activity for this year. We’ll go see their new musical “A Wonderful Life” on October 17. (Google Goodspeed Opera House to see information about the show, the area, and the history of this Connecticut landmark).
I talked to other people at the freshman picnic who were interested in seeing a particular Broadway show in NYC – Hamilton. It sounded great to me. We looked into that as well. The show does look great and it’s clear that it is popular. But the tickets (per person) for good seats (not the best – just good!) are $300 per person. Then there’s the cost of getting there and meals in the city etc. We looked at the budget. The total cost would be really high and would benefit a very small number of students. Realistically we can’t do this. But continue to make suggestions. I’ll pay attention and we’ll let you know ASAP if we can do something or not. (We do follow many suggestions. I can tell you that the three biggest reasons for not being able to do something, are: a) total expense being too high per person, b) Yale’s Risk Management team saying — “Well, no, you can’t do that.” (For instance, some students wanted to get sleds last winter. Risk Management said no.) and c) issues of timing (being overbooked – a common Yale problem.) BUT keep ideas coming and we’ll keep as active as possible.
Sign up for Sailing in the Master’s/Dean’s Office On Sept. 19th (a Saturday) Trumbull Sails.
We sail out of Mystic, Connecticut (assuming good weather!). Sign up in the Master’s Office. The boat can accommodate about 50 people. We take a bus to Mystic, board the boat, sail and eat lunch there. We’re back in time for your Sat. evening activities. If the number of students who sign up exceeds the space available we choose people by lottery and let you know ahead of time (while also keeping a wait list). (For events such as this, there is a small charge – we subsidize most of it – just to defray costs and encourage those who, but freshmen, know as our other students already do, if finances are an issue, sign up anyway.)
Two (wonderful) World Fellows Assigned to Trumbull College
Last evening I had the pleasure of meeting the two new World Fellows who have been assigned to Trumbull College, Gemma Mortensen and Finbarr O’Reilly. I include descriptions of who they are and what they do below (quoting from the World Fellows website). What I can add is that they are truly engaging and interesting individuals. My own experience is that the Yale World Fellows are incredible resources for our community. Finbarr O’Reilly will be giving a Fellow’s talk this fall and I’ll alert the whole community to that talk. Both will give Master’s Teas and you’ll have opportunities to have dinner with them. Finbarr also is involved with an award winning documentary film on the costs to journalists of covering wars that I hope to have him show in Nick Chapel. (He told me he’s up for this.) Having met these two, I strongly urge you to get to know them as well.
Gemma Mortensen
Gemma joins Yale World Fellows in transition, having ended her tenure as Executive Director of Crisis Action in August 2015 and looking forward to joining change.org as their Chief Global Officer in January 2016. Having joined Crisis Action as the second member of staff in 2006, Gemma played a pivotal role in building Crisis Action’s reputation and track record as one of the most innovative and effective organizations working on conflict in the world today. Under her leadership, Crisis Action received the 2012 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions and the 2013 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. In 2011, the World Economic Forum selected her as one of their Young Global Leaders. CNN named her as one of their inspirational women for 2014. She previously worked for the Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom to the United Nations in New York, the European Commission and as a journalist. She is the outgoing Chair of the Helen Bamber Foundation. She holds a first class degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University and the European Master’s degree in Human Rights and Democratization.
Finbarr O’Reilly
Finbarr is an author and photographer who has spent the past 15 years living and working mostly in Africa and the Middle East. He began his journalism career as a writer in Canada and was based in West and Central Africa for Reuters between 2001 and 2012, covering conflict and social issues across the continent. He turned to photography in 2005 and in 2006 was awarded the World Press Photo of the Year. Finbarr has since won numerous top industry awards for his multimedia work and photography, which has been exhibited internationally. He has published long-term projects on Congo and Afghanistan and is among those profiled in Under Fire: Journalists in Combat, a documentary film about the psychological costs of covering war. The film won a 2013 Peabody Award and was shortlisted for a 2012 Academy Award. He was the Reuters senior photographer for Israel and the Palestinian Territories in 2014 and covered the July-August war from Gaza. Finbarr was a 2013 Nieman Fellow at Harvard, where he spent a year studying psychology, and a 2014 Ochberg Fellow at the Columbia University’s DART Center for Journalism and Trauma. He is the co-author of Shooting Ghosts, due to be published by the Viking/ Penguin/ Random House in 2017. The book is about the residual effects of war and the relationship between individual trauma and society, told through the story of his unlikely friendship with co-author Sgt. Thomas James Brennan, a US Marine who was injured during a Taliban ambush while on a combat patrol with Finbarr in Afghanistan. The intertwined narrative – part war story, part memoir, part psychological exploration – will take readers from the front lines of battle and military culture to the cutting edge of medical research and treatment to show how trauma can be managed and overcome.”