What’s coming up in Trumbull?
Monday, November 4th, Tonight, Trumbull House: Mellon Forum 6:00 - until the last senior presentation
Tonight is our second Mellon Forum dinner for our seniors in the Mellon Forum and the first night of their presentations in the living room. We’re looking forward to our dinner hearing from Kat Berman, Cameron Martel, and Heeral McGhee.
Tuesday, November 5th, Trumbull House, First Year Reception: 9:00-10:00 p.m.
All TC first-year students (and FroCos and Trumbull Staff) are invited to a First Year Reception, Tuesday evening. Come to take a break from work, socialize, relax and have some food and listen to some music.
Thursday, November 7, 4 p.m., Trumbull Tea with Tatiana Schlossberg, TC ‘12
All are invited to come hear Trum-Alum, Tatiana Schlossberg, speak about her first book.
Tatianna has written for the New York Times (doing so soon after graduation) and, in August, Tatiana published her first non-fiction book entitled Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You Have.
Another Trum-Alum, Min Jin Lee, who spoke here last year on her own books, writes of Tatiana’s book and says Inconspicuous Consumption is “smart, funny, and helpful, and this is everything because our Earth deserves our full attention. Former Vice President Al Gore says of the book that Tatiana explores, “how individuals, corporations, and governments are all contributing to this crisis, and how we need to work together to help fix it.”
If you have purchased a copy of the book, bring it along with you and she can sign it.
Coming up soon, November 14th, approximately 7 p.m. Trumbull Fellows’ talk with Professor David Blight
Trumbull has a group of faculty and community member “Fellows”. You may know at least some of them because some faculty members among them serve as first-year advisers for you. Others of you know of some of them because they quietly support our students in many ways or because you have worked at the fellows’ events or presented your “Class of 1955” fellowship experiences to them. They meet periodically in the Trumbull House.
On Thursday, November 14th there is Fellows’ event at which Professor David Blight
will speak. All Trumbull students are welcome to hear his talk (which will be in the House if the group can fit in the living room or in the Common Room if we grow too large for the House.
Some of you will have had David Blight as a professor and will know just who he is (that is, he is the Sterling Professor of History, of African American Studies and of American Studies and the Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition at Yale University). Others may know that he won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for his book on Frederick Douglass (Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom). I urge you to read it at some point; the Pulitzer Committee knew what it was doing!
If you have purchased a copy of the book, bring it along with you and he can sign it for you.
In general, know that you are all welcome at any and all Fellows’ talks or performances and I will alert you to them as they are planned.
Staying here over Thanksgiving? Know that we will, once again, be sponsoring a Thanksgiving Dinner for our students who remain here over the holiday. More news on our dinner and when to sign-up is coming soon.
Also, do let me know you will be here. You may do this by adding your name to a list in the main office (room G103).
Trumbull Concerns
Smoking Ahem – about smoking in Trumbull: No smoking (of any sort) is allowed in Trumbull. Recently I’ve gotten reports (more than one from our students) that smoking is occurring regularly in at least one entryway in our college and that it is affecting many suites (up and down) in that entryway.
I know it’s getting cold and it will be more and more tempting to smoke inside Trumbull but it’s just not allowed for health and safety reasons and out of consideration for near-by residents. (It’s actually not allowed in the outside spaces within Trumbull either or anywhere in Yale College.)
I do want those who do smoke to be safe. The rule is that you can’t smoke anywhere within the college or in close proximity to any entrance. If you do go outside the college to smoke, do be careful especially late at night. (Better yet, of course, is to try to stop smoking but I do realize it’s hard so be careful.)
Noise and Trash There was lots of noise (shouting, singing loudly, “Country Road…take me home…etc. etc.) just outside the college Saturday evening. It was so loud I thought it was in our courtyard (but it wasn’t). I went out to check on it and found that it was coming from a loud group of people outside of our college along Elm and York streets. Of course, on a Saturday evening we expect more noise than other times. Still given the noise level inside the House, I did worry about those of you living in rooms along York Street. (If you live there, I would welcome hearing from you regarding how it did or did not affect you. I do thank our two students just outside the gate who saw me and offered to help with the noise. That was great.)
Upon walking back through the courtyard a bit after midnight, I also noted that our pumpkins had been smashed. I picked the pieces up and put them in a trash bag. It took just a few moments. (Know that I welcome everyone’s help in keeping Trumbull clean.)
Also. when you do find a space inside Trumbull to be unusually dirty, let me and our facilities manager Kodi Scott know. (This happened recently, for instance, with regard to the floor in our dance studio. Kodi got it cleaned up; we’ll try to keep it clean.)
Security Have you been reading about the thefts in Saybrook? We’re just across the street. Keep your doors locked when you go out. Don’t be surprised if you find the coat hangers, etc., that you put on suite doors removed. I know it’s inconvenient for some of you; but it’s just wise to secure spaces when phones and laptops and many other personal belongings are inside. If your common room is prone to being left open, secure your personal possessions in your own rooms. In the dining hall, if you are placing items on the tables as you enter to save those spots, don’t use cell phones or lap tops or backpacks for this purpose. We’ve not had any of these items taken, but it’s pretty salient to me that that could happen.
Thanks
This week I want to extend a special thanks to a member of our dining staff, Manny Portocarrero. Not only does Manny prepare food for us throughout the year but he takes the time to personally greet us in the dining hall and, every year, he makes
Halloween special in Trumbull by dressing up (this year as the Joker) and preparing a special dessert to serve to us. He truly goes above and beyond what his job dictates.
See the attached pictures – one of Manny and one of some of our wonderful Trumbull “regulars” – this time those who typically occupy the table right in front of where Manny was cooking up his special dessert.
Congratulations
Congratulations go to the following Trumbullians on their recent CPA awards: Yuri Bong, Hailey Carter, Yehia Elkersh, Diego Miro, Hazal Ozgur, Varsha Raghavan, and Zak Rosen.
In some cases, I’ve seen your work and others I’ve not. Do let us know when shows are going up and plays produced. If receptions make sense in connection with your work presentations or you wish to present your work to the Fellows let me know.
Congratulations also go to the following Trumbullians on their recent Mellon Grants: Madison Battaglia, Alice Tirard, Caroline Borden, Emma Garcia-Canga, Alexyss Lange, Josef Lawrence, Abby Leonard, Carrie Mannino, Varsha Raghavan, Anushka Walia, and Sarah Wie.
Finally, congratulations go to Trumbullians, Sarah Brakebill-Hacke and Obed Gyedu Larbi. Sarah and Obed were selected as Harbor Scholars. Obed was also selected as the student representative to the Yale Harbor Scholars Program.