Trumbulletin 1-22-20

January 22, 2020

TrumBulletin for January 22, 2020

I hope last semester’s finals are a distant memory (but see the attached picture here), that shopping period has gone well for everyone, that courses are good and that all are well-rested and happy after break. 

Your CPA grants are in; your Class of 1955 applications are almost in.  You’ll hear back about those applications soon.  I am really pleased that many of you applied for this fellowship and with the variety of creative ideas and plans expressed in both. 

No Candles:  Reading about the recent fire in Pauli Murray in the YDN (thankfully small; thankfully quickly extinguished) reminds me to remind you that candles and, indeed, any other thing that must be lit (cigarettes, for instance) are not allowed in Trumbull suites.  I was particularly struck by one YDN interviewee’s comment that lots of people burn candles in their rooms.  Please don’t.  (Quite a while ago, yet during my time here, we too in Trumbull, had a fire alarm set off by a candle.  The other alarming part of the article was that people didn’t leave when the fire alarm went off with one person putting earphones on and continuing to work.  It is a pain to leave when the alarm goes off and most will be practice alarms.  But do leave the buildings if the alarms go off.

On a different note, I very much enjoyed performances many of you were in late last semester including a Yale Dancers performance, Davenport Pops performance and Low Strung’s, Snow Strung, performance.  I can’t get to all performances, meets etc. but please do let me know when you have performances coming up.  It’s a joy to attend many of them – to see you compete, sing and dance.  We’ll host the Yale Concentrator’s (English) Ball this semester and I’m looking forward to those readings too. 

Next, Jerry Zhou has put a survey together to ask you about preferred (and not so preferred) activities in Trumbull sponsored by our office.  I will send out the link in the next couple of days.  It’s short!  It’s designed to get suggestions and reactions and to make activities in Trumbull the best they can be.  Please fill it out.  (Know also that suggestions are always welcome.  Just send them to me, survey or not.)

Finally, I am thinking of holding a weekly writer’s group session in the Trumbull House.  The idea is really simple.  It would be just a time to get together regularly and to get writing done – starting early in the semester.  I would provide coffee and light snacks and I’d write as well.  I’m not sure how many people would be interested.  If you would write to me and let me know (and also let me know when a good time or times for you would be) that would be hepful.  The times could even vary but we could always announce a weekly time and people could show up as they please.

What’s coming up?

Tonight, TrumBasketball NightChristian Olivier, a basketball fan has proposed a basketball night (featuring the Pelicans-Spurs game and Zion Williamson’s debut) in our dining hall tonight at 9:30.  The dining hall will be open then with Christian will your host.  If your Head of College gets her act together (this event was just proposed) there may even be some snacks. I’ll try!

Thursday, Jan. 23rd, talk at 7 p.m..   Historian David Blight is our Fellows’ guest for the evening tomorrow night.  Trumbull students also may attend the talk which will occur at 7 p.m. (or just about then) after the Fellows’ dinner.  We ordinarily have these talks in the house. We’ll do that tomorrow unless enough Trumbull students wish to come that it makes sense to move it to the Common Room.  So here is what is really important: If you want to come let me know right away!  Tonight would be best but certainly let us know by 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning.  Just write to me (margaret.clark@yale.edu) AND to Debbie Rueb (debbie.rueb@yale.edu).

Monday, Jan 27.  Mellon Forum (for seniors who have signed up)

Chili (vegetarian and meat versions and toppings), salad, desserts and, most importantly,
Adriana Colon Adorno’s, Josef Lawrence’s, Margo Feuer’s and Joe Doran’s presentations together with the good company of the entire group and the now-traditional introductions.

Thursday, Jan. 30.  Trivia Night in the Buttery 7:30-8:30

This will be led by Trum-graduate affliliates Chance Adkins, Jennifer Strtak, and Karen Hsu.
hot chocolate and donut crazy donuts.

Friday, Jan. 31. Yale Rep Trip

Manahatta

“It’s 2008 and securities trader Jane Snake has landed a lucrative job on Wall Street, where her ancestors, the Lenape, were violently removed four hundred years before, when the Dutch “purchased” the island of Manahatta. Past and present intertwine as Jane is caught in the center of a looming mortgage crisis that threatens financial ruin for millions of families––including her own. Suspenseful and sweeping in scope, Manahatta illuminates an interlocking legacy of commercial exploitation and attempts to eradicate the culture of Native people, giving rise to the America we know today.”

7:15 Meet our graduate affiliate, Chijioke Ukwuegbu, at Donut Crazy for dessert.
8:00 Performance

Sign up in the Head of College office (G103) by Thursday, Jan. 30 at noon.
Space is limited.

Sunday, Feb. 2, IRIS Run for Refugees

Watch your email for link to sign up. Here’s a picture from last year!

Feb. 25, 5:30-6:30  Tour of the Newberry Memorial Organ
It’s is not for a month, but we’ve organized a personal tour of the Newberry Memorial Organ in Woolsey Hall for Trumbull.  We’ll get to see it behind the scenes.  However, the tour has to be pretty small.  We have room to invite just five Fellows of the college and five Trumbull students.  Are you interested?  Let me know. 

After spring break (March) but you might want to read the book ahead of timeAnne Perkins, author of Yale Needs Women.

As you probably know, this year is the 50th anniversary of the admission of women to Yale.  Anne Perkins (a Yale College graduate from a later year), did research on how the decision to admit women was made and carried out (or sort of carried out the first year!). Anne interviewed many of the women who arrived that year for her Ph.D. thesis.  She then transformed that thesis into a book that was just published entitled Yale Needs Women.

I read this late last semester and found it to be fascinating.  The decision to admit women wasn’t an easily made decision; it was a decision that students played an important role in.  (The original plan was to house all the women in Trumbull, but that was later changed.)  It’s a book about those women, about Kingman Brewster, about students who lobbied hard for women’s sports and who led women’s groups and it’s about political conditions and events of the time. 

Anne will come to Trumbull for a tea on March 24th.  She will speak at 4:00 pm and there will be room for all who wish to attend.   I will host a dinner for her afterwards.  Students can let me know they would like to be a part of that dinner anytime.  We’ll keep it to a number who can fit in the dining room so everyone can talk.  (Please also email Deb Bellmore at Deborah.bellmore@yale.edu if you’d like to attend the dinner.)

If you had a mother who attended Yale (and perhaps Trumbull) ahead of you and wish to invite her to this event, please do!

We’ll buy some copies of the book if you wish to check them out.  (Hannah Manz has heard Anne Perkins talk already and reports that she is a good, engaging, speaker. I can attest myself that Anne is a good writer and a very interesting email correspondent.)