The feelings of imposter syndrome, which are to be expected for many of our incoming first-years, are only intensified by our current discourse. But through all the noise and chaos wrought by this conservative court, I offer a simple message to the members of the class of 2027 who may be dealing with those feelings: You belong here, and you have earned your place at this school. 

It is easy to believe, at a college that educates Olympians and Nobel Prize laureates, that you are an anomaly. That you should not be here because your parents are not wealthy, you did not attend a fancy prep school or do not come from a long line of Yalies. We begin to convince ourselves that being different means that we are unequal and that somehow we are taking the place of a better, more qualified student. But believe me when I say those feelings fade. They fade because they’re based on a lie. A lie told throughout history by those born to privilege to those of us fighting to claim our piece of pie while they fight to keep the size of theirs. 

I’m sure many of you wonder, as I have, if this decision had come a few years sooner whether or not we would still be here. I wrote proudly about my identity and story as the son of immigrant parents who left all they knew to flee poverty in their country and come to the United States in the hopes of giving their children a chance at a better life. I carry those sacrifices with me everywhere I go at Yale, and hope to make their struggle worthwhile with my being here. Can I ever be certain that if my admissions officer didn’t know my identity that I would be here today? No. Do I know that if I had chosen to write about an exaggerated mission trip instead of sharing my authentic life’s story, that my application would have made it past a first read? No. Do I know that after the court’s affirmative action decision, my sister’s college admissions journey will look anything like mine? No. But I do know this: there are things we can all do to relieve the anxieties that come with being so lucky and feel more secure in our place here. 

Find and join campus communities. They will be your home away from home filling you with the comfort and sense of belonging that we all crave. 

Become part of Yale’s vibrant advocacy scene. We all have causes and issues we care about deeply, and these groups will provide you with a sense of purpose and remind you that there are things more important than ourselves. 

Check your admissions file. You may or may not like what you read but whatever the outcome, you will come out of the reading with a greater sense of understanding of why, out of the 52,000 students who applied from around the world, the admissions office chose you. I promise that knowledge will be liberating. 

Utilize new resources like the new Office of Educational Equity. While Yale was not founded for many of us who attend today, it is trying to build a more equitable and accessible campus. Those efforts must be utilized but us today and expanded for future Yalies. That is how we build a better campus and world society.

Here, everyone is equal in merit and more importantly in potential. You would not be here if that weren’t the case. But the truth is we are living in an interesting time in the history of our country. As we stray further away from the ideals that truly make America great, the task that lies before us is to hold our institutions’ feet to the fire and shape them into the forces for good we know they can be. That is how we can remain true to our individual identities while also proudly wearing the titles of Yalie and American. 

Legacy and first-generation, low-income students alike are all a little more unsure of our place here and uneasy about how we might be perceived by our peers. But if we can remember that we are peers and in this together, then together we’ll all be okay. With that faith, let us hold our heads up a little higher, walk a little taller, breathe a little more easily and take up space here during these, our bright college years.

Welcome to Yale, class of 2027! We cannot wait to see all you do here in this wonderful, magical place.

The post NDUBISI: You belong here appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Unfortunately, journalistic freedom surely does not ensure integrity. Democracy may demand the liberty of the press, but capitalism just as surely promotes the pursuit of profit. Fox News’ obsession with its bottom line results in a network where ratings trump truth and advertising is king. Despite weeks of bad press and revelations of deceit by Fox hosts and executives, the network continues to rake in millions in ad revenue and has “not had one client cancel” advertising. Their business model centers advertisers rather than viewers, commodifies news and capitalizes on attention. In short, they have successfully exploited the unfortunate truth that outrage is profitable. 

While the lawsuit may permanently discredit Fox News in the eyes of many Americans, their experiment in propaganda for profit paints a grim picture of the state of news in America. The New York Times, Washington Post and local newsrooms across the country are all subject to the same market pressures, even as reverence for truth and respect for readers prevent them from resorting to underhanded tactics. While large institutions can stay afloat, local news organizations close at rate of two a week leaving “news deserts” in their wake and an information void all too easily filled with fake news. Meanwhile, bigger newspapers continue to lose money each year and inevitably contribute to misinformation by hiding credible and trustworthy journalism behind paywalls and subscription fees. 

Money has broken our contract with the news. The political divisions that exist in the country today less reflect ideological differences between left and right and more between those who have access to reliable information and those who do not. So how do we maintain our commitment to truth in a world that so often rewards falsehood? The answer is non-profit, public service journalism. If we hold that journalism is not merely a profession but an essential component of a functioning democracy, then we must decouple it from the perverse incentives of monetary gain and reclaim journalism as a public good. News which seeks solely to inform can only be guaranteed with donors equally committed to integrity, rather than investors concerned with maximizing returns. 

Non-profit news is not a new idea. The Associated Press was founded in 1846 by Moses Yale Beach and five daily New York-based newspapers to share the cost of covering the controversial Mexican-American War. ProPublica’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalism is funded primarily by philanthropic funds and individual donations. PBS and NPR are both government funded and member supported endowments while the Texas Tribune uses a mix of membership donations, corporate sponsorships and events revenue to provide its readers with the “civic information they need to become full participants in our democracy”— the highest ideal of any journalistic publication. 

Here in New Haven, non-profit journalism allows magazines like the Yale School of the Environment’s Yale E360 to cover important climate and environmental issues. And our very own Yale Daily News is unencumbered, covering its operational costs with the generosity of alumni through the Yale Daily News Foundation (formerly the Oldest College Daily Foundation). Funds from the foundation go towards stipends for first-generation, low-income students, summer funding for internships and maintaining our financial independence from the University. 

Our democratic right to choose is inseparable from our responsibility to make informed choices. Journalism is the means by which we inform ourselves and is the lifeblood of democracy, even as liberty is the soul. We the people need a press both free and honest. We need information that we can trust before we can begin to trust each other across states, identities and, perhaps most challengingly, political parties. As much as we need respectable journalism, we also must respect those who do its valuable work. Fox News cannot be the model for our news. Journalists tell our stories, hold our leaders accountable and write the first draft of our history. We may not always like what they say or how they say it but so long as they are guided by a desire to seek and report truth, they will continue to be essential to the proper functioning of our democracy. 

Changing our present course begins with realizing just how important journalists are in our society, whether they write for gutted small town papers like the Salinas Califonian or the storied New York Times. We must make every possible effort to save and reform this dying industry. Re-introducing and passing the bipartisan Local Journalism Sustainability Act can stop the bleeding with its provisions for tax incentives for news subscriptions or donations, payroll tax credits for journalists and refundable tax credits for small businesses that advertise in local papers but policy alone will not solve the problem. Good journalism is a two way street. We must reaffirm our own commitment to a press that is not only free, but also reliable, equitable and honorable. Securing its advantages and ensuring its future prosperity will safeguard our experiment in government of, by and for the people. 

ARIANE DE GENNARO is a sophomore in Branford College. Her column “For Country, For Yale” provides “pragmatic and sometimes provocative perspectives on relevant issues in Yale and American life.” Contact her at ariane.degennaro@yale.edu.

MICHAEL NDUBISI is a first-year in Saybrook College. His fortnightly column “A More Perfect Union” examines the American experiment, its flaws and Yalies’ role in it. Contact him at michael.ndubisi@yale.edu

The post DE GENNARO & NDUBISI: Fox News is bad. The mainstream media isn’t faring much better. appeared first on Yale Daily News.

I formed the habit early in my first year of taking long walks through the city and speaking to some of New Haven’s unhoused residents. In my walks and conversations, I found that the experiences not only provided the people I meet with human interaction and a shared sense of connection but provided me with perspective and a reminder of the injustices I came to Yale to try to rectify. During one such walk, on the corner of Chapel and High, I met Isaac Canady, a Black New Haven artist selling his work next to the Starbucks on a sunny, New Haven day. I stopped for a moment to admire the pieces and learn a little about the artist’s inspiration; instead, I heard the deeply moving story of Isaac Canady’s life and learned a valuable lesson about who we choose to celebrate during Black History Month. 

Isaac is 63 years old and has been an artist his entire life. He got his start in the arts when he attended a prestigious performing arts school as a boy and mastered various instruments as well as the art of dance. For years, Isaac worked for the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and the Columbus House in its early days helping prevent homelessness and promote mental health in New Haven before becoming homeless himself and dealing with mental illness following a divorce and treatment for substance abuse. During that time, Isaac’s history of trauma resurfaced and he relapsed back into addiction. In 2004, he developed a degenerative spinal disorder requiring him to undergo surgery, which was when he started drawing. Creating visual art became more than just a way for Isaac to pass the time in a hospital bed or express himself — it became a form of therapy for a man who lost everything. After almost being discharged in sub-zero weather, he was able to recover but was unfortunately houseless for another 14 years, during which time he continued drawing on the Green or by Starbucks and sold his artwork to spend his days. By day he drew on the Green (and inside the Starbucks when it rained) and by night he searched for a safe place to lay his head down to sleep.

Isaac developed a distinct art style, and anyone who is familiar with his art can recognize an Isaac Canady. He uses pointillism, a technique requiring great care and patience, to convey powerful messages about the world he sees. His art has grown and evolved with him and his living situation over the years. 

Isaac now lives in an apartment and in 2022 was honored by the University for his life and work. He told me that Yale has made it possible for his art to travel around the world and impact dozens of people on either side of the town and gown divide. Isaac continues to draw and likely will not stop for some time. 

Black History Month has always been a funny tradition in my mind. Every year, during the shortest and coldest month of the year, schools across the country tell the same stories about a handful of Black leaders and history makers before returning to business as usual on March 1st. While some states actively ban our history from being taught and others tell invented versions of it in their textbooks, it’s all okay because for 28 days each year we talk about George Washington Carver’s peanut butter, Rosa Parks’ bus seat and Dr. King’s dream of an America where we are judged by the content of our character. We may be killed and abused by police, disadvantaged in the courts and mass incarcerated, a sad reality that cannot be escaped even at Yale, but remember when we talked about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad? The way we talk about Black History Makes it seem stilted and stagnant. 

There is Black history all around us, every day, and Isaac helped me realize that. Stories like Isaac’s are not the first ones we think of when we talk about Black history or Black excellence — that should change, because he is Black excellence. This month, I’m honoring and remembering Isaac and all the people like him whose stories we may never hear but are just as powerful and just as important as the Jackie Robinson or Barack Obama story to our collective narrative. They are reminders that our history is alive and ongoing and that we have a responsibility to continue advancing racial justice everywhere in the United States 24/7, 365 days a year.

The post Black Excellence is everywhere appeared first on Yale Daily News.

After two decades in academia at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, the University of New Mexico College of Fine Arts and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she would soon return to her alma mater not only to become the first person of color to head the School of Art but also the first woman of color to lead a graduate school at Yale. Her only regret was that her mother, one of her biggest role models, was not alive to see it happen. 

“One of the last things she said to me was that she knew that I was gonna get that job, and I did,” Pinder recalled. “I was excited to come back to Yale.”

To say that Kymberly Pinder’s life and career have been groundbreaking is a colossal understatement.

Pinder described her mother and father growing up poor, working hard to provide a life of relative ease for her and her siblings. She credits her parents with instilling in her a deep appreciation for education as well as hard work and determination — but never at the expense of her happiness. While Pinder spent her childhood at private schools, her father grew up an orphan and her mother ran away from home at age 14, not receiving her GED until she was almost 30.

“They actually never said to me, you have to get A’s or you have to be successful,” Pinder told the News. “It was really knowing how much they had sacrificed and how much they had gone through to get where they were. That always made me strive.”

Pinder always felt that if her mother or father had the same opportunity as she had, that “they would have done way more” than she had ever achieved.

And Pinder has achieved a lot. While studying at Middlebury College, she discovered her passion for art history, seeing works of art as windows into cultural moments in history and artists’ influences. That interest led her to get an M.Phil, M.A. and Ph.D., all through Yale’s History of Art department. After leaving the University, Pinder became a full professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she reached the positions of department chair and head of the graduate program. 

The transition from teacher to administrator came with ease for Pinder. She credited her time working at her family’s multiple businesses —  a “package store, dry cleaners, vending machines, deli and bar” — where she had to work over summers not allowed to have any other summer jobs, for equipping her with managerial skills.

After her time in Chicago, Pinder moved across the country to become dean of the University of New Mexico College of Fine Art, where she simultaneously served as director of its art museum. From there, the job offers poured in. 

“Once you’re in those jobs, people don’t usually know this, but then you get solicited all the time for those jobs,” Pinder explained. “That’s how the provost position came up at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.”

She once again found herself packing up and leaving for a new school, this time to become Provost of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, also known as MassArt. Pinder soon rose to the role of acting-president and then president of the school during the COVID-19 pandemic before arriving at Yale to become the University’s first Black woman dean. 

She arrived not only amidst a pandemic but also a national conversation around race and diversity, and she told the News she had a “great feeling” about her ability to lead the school during those tumultuous times. 

Pinder’s decision to leave MassArt did not come easily, however, and was motivated by more than just a desire to return to her alma mater. She said she was intrigued by the position because the School of Art is the most diverse graduate school at Yale and was the first school to admit women in 1869. She added that she was most attracted to the idea of creating changes that could serve as a model for other schools nationwide given the School of Art’s trailblazing history and status as a top-ranked art school. 

“Professor Pinder is widely known for her deep commitment to teaching, which is rooted in her belief that an education is key to social mobility and to finding solutions to local and national challenges,” University President Peter Salovey said in an email announcing Pinder’s appointment to the Yale community. “As she encourages students to pursue excellence and nurtures their artistic aspirations, she also teaches them to examine carefully every facet of society.”

But now, almost two years into her term as Dean, the changes she hoped to make may prove more difficult as the Supreme Court prepares to hear challenges to affirmative action in college admissions.

In addition to the ongoing threat to diversity in higher education from the Supreme Court, Pinder also worries about the financial accessibility of higher education and sees a society increasingly “beating up” on higher education with more Americans opting not to pursue post-secondary education. Despite these challenges, Pinder remains optimistic about the future of graduate programs and committed to her efforts to “rebrand higher education.”

“I have a somewhat contentious relationship with higher education. It hasn’t always been inclusive or I haven’t always felt comfortable, … but I stay in them to change them,” Pinder told the News. “We all need to … rally, whether we’re students or faculty or staff to stand up and defend higher education. Defend going and getting more education in your life; … it’s worth it.” 

Pinder envisions a future where people see higher education as more than an avenue toward crippling debt. As dean, she is working to eliminate financial barriers to education by making the MFA debt-free and pioneering other programs allowing students to pursue their dreams of becoming artists without worrying about cost. 

“Dr. Pinder’s experience as an academic and theorist — critically acclaimed for her writings around art and religion, history, and race, as well as her demonstrated excellence as a leader and administrator within peer graduate and undergraduate visual art programs — is exactly what the Yale School of Art needs as MFA programs across the nation address the necessary shift in the climate of future art education,” professor of art and former School of Art Dean Marta Kuzma said of her successor. 

When asked what advice she had for young Black artists today looking to make their start in the art world, she said to always be open to unexpected opportunities. Pinder’s unlikely story is the result of taking advantage of unexpected opportunities, and she remains committed to creating more of the opportunities available to her throughout her career for others that follow her. 

“It’s a good time to be a Black woman in these spaces,” Pinder told the News. “It’s never going to be perfect, but I think that people are going the extra mile to be supportive, and there are more people at the table who want to talk about issues around inclusivity as opposed to 10 or 15 years ago when I was the only person at the table. Now there are so many more allies.”

She emphasized trying new things and not limiting oneself for fear of failure because “you have regrets, that means you haven’t learned anything.” 

Pinder’s father, who was born in the segregationist South and fled to escape racial violence, reminds her of this every day. She wears his watch to never forget all that he endured to get where she is today and to keep her family’s history alive by carrying her parents’ values on to her own children.

“Always knowing your history is important, and it’s not just about my history or your history, ” Pinder said before leaving. “Everyone needs to know history so we can move forward.”

The Yale School of Art was founded in 1869. 

The post PROFILE: Rebranding higher education: a conversation with Kymberly Pinder appeared first on Yale Daily News.

As of this month, over 8 million refugees have been recorded fleeing the most violent conflict in Europe since World War II. Estimates place the death toll for the Russo-Ukrainian War at close to 300,000 soldiers from both sides in addition to 30,000 civilians, as Putin just suspended Russia’s participation in the START nuclear pact. China, already surpassing the United States by certain measures, refused to condemn Putin’s conquest and has significantly profited from importing Russian energy. As China eyes Taiwan to the east, it continues to engage in human rights violations against its citizens, unfair trade practices in the global market and widespread espionage against the United States. Meanwhile, Iran continues to develop its nuclear program, provides weapons to Russia, systematically oppresses minority groups, eliminates dissidents and just met with Chinese leaders to bolster cooperation between the two countries. While Washington’s main adversaries face radically different geopolitical situations, it is clear that a new axis is forming against the United States. Its members share the same overarching goal: the decline of American global influence and an end to the post-Cold War, U.S.-led liberal world order, which threatens the peace and stability of the free world.  

The Biden administration’s first 21 months in office were the subject of heavy criticism due to the absence of a National Security Strategy, or NSS, a document which explains how the president’s team plans to deal with the nation’s most pressing geopolitical challenges. While eventually published in October of last year, it focused on a wide array of issues which have historically never found their way in a NSS, including inflation, biodefense and climate change. 

The major problem with the Biden administration’s strategic outlook is that it lacks consistency. The NSS explains that the United States wants to avoid a situation “in which competition escalates into a world of rigid blocs.” In other words, it rejects the idea of a new Cold War. President Biden echoed this sentiment a month after its publication during a summit with Chinese Community Party leader Xi Jinping when he said that there “need not be a new Cold War” with Beijing in the decades to come. But the NSS also states that there “is a critical difference between our vision, which aims to preserve the autonomy and rights of less powerful states, and that of our rivals, which does not.” 

This “critical difference” certainly seems to be leading to a new Cold War in all but name with President Biden describing the ideological rivalry at the February 2021 Munich Security Conference as “a fundamental debate … between those who argue that … autocracy is the best way forward and those who understand that democracy is essential to meeting these challenges.” Rather than leaving Congress to debate issues like TikTok’s data collection, the Chinese balloon that flew over key U.S. nuclear weapons sites and U.S. military assistance to Ukraine, President Biden should clearly communicate to the American people the extent to which China, Russia and Iran jeopardize U.S. national security and threaten the “free and open international system.” In other words, Biden must deliver a version of his recent Poland speech at home and explain the implications of his global vision for American households.

Defending democracy and expanding liberal institutions play a large part in American foreign policy. President Biden must demonstrate how the fight for democracy is a concrete goal, especially for Americans convinced that his policies have led to unsustainable inflation and domestic division. By directly conveying why continued support to Ukraine, sanctions on Russia, more stringent measures on China and a watchful eye toward Iran serve the interest of the American people, the president can articulate a global grand strategy that promotes a lasting peace and protects human rights not just through military might, but through the advantages of rules-based, international cooperation. Yalies can contribute to this effort by recommitting the United States to democratic values at home and working to reverse the present trend of Americans losing trust in their country’s democratic processes. 

Memorials to the generations of Yalies who fought and died for these ideals surround us on campus. From the American Revolution, the Civil War, both World Wars and the Cold War, Yalies have consistently answered the call to defend freedom and democracy. We cannot fail to do so once again. We must preserve America’s democratic experiment so that, as the Hewitt Quadrangle reminds us every day, “freedom might not perish from the Earth.”

MICHAEL NDUBISI is a first-year in Saybrook College. His fortnightly column “A More Perfect Union” examines the American experiment, its flaws and Yalies’ role in it. Contact him at michael.ndubisi@yale.edu

AXEL DE VERNOU is a sophomore in Saybrook College on the executive board of the Alexander Hamilton Society. Contact him at axel.devernou@yale.edu

The post NDUBISI & DE VERNOU: A Grand Strategy for Democracy — At Home and Abroad appeared first on Yale Daily News.

In the case of mental health advocacy, where we go from here is clear. We offer two specific, actionable paths forward, both of which would have a profound impact on student mental health at Yale. First, the University must continue its efforts to get on par with peer institutions by creating a centralized office dedicated to supporting students who choose to take time away from Yale. Second, Yale must recognize, promote and take advantage of changing licensing laws that will allow students to keep their out-of-state therapists while attending the University. 

For the students who make the difficult decision to take time away from their course of study, the transitions away from Yale and back are the most stressful and wearing parts of their experience. In addition to the stress and anxiety students already feel about leaving, they also have to navigate the vast complexities and bureaucracy of their departure and return alone. This not only places an unfair burden on these students but adds to the crippling sense of abandonment and uncertainty many who take time away feel during their transitions. If Yale has any interest in alleviating these stressors and ensuring student success, a dedicated office would achieve both by centralizing resources and increasing support, transparency and advocacy for students. Following the models of schools like Duke and Cornell, Yale’s centralized office can be a comprehensive facilitator for all things time away related, helping streamline students’ exit, connecting with students during their time away and facilitating successful returns to campus. 

Like college campuses across the country, Yale also struggles to meet the growing demand for student mental healthcare services. For years, students have complained about long wait times, being “ghosted” by Yale therapists and the lack of diversity and specialization among clinicians at Yale Mental Health and Counseling. While the creation of YC3 and November’s news of YMHC’s expansion are necessary and positive steps, we fear that administrators miss the larger picture that Yale cannot do this alone. Yale must think outside itself and allow students to keep their clinicians from home.

State licensing laws have traditionally prevented students who arrived at Yale from states outside Connecticut from keeping their home therapists or seeking new out-of-state therapists. This forces them to join the over one thousand Yalies looking for treatment from YMHC every week. In just the past few years, however, multiple organizations have lobbied successfully for interstate recognition of licensing, allowing a mental health provider licensed in one participating state to practice via telehealth in any other participating state without obtaining a separate license. Connecticut is currently considering legislation allowing the state to enter The Counseling Compact for providers holding a Licensed Professional Counselor, or LPC, certification. Psychologists already have such a compact that includes Connecticut, and Licensed Clinical Social Workers are developing one as well. 

It is inevitable that interstate and telehealth options for mental health will continue to expand, and Yale will best serve its student body by proactively adopting practices to take advantage of this evolution. Offloading the YMHC system in this way will reduce wait times and free up in-house resources for students who do not have insurance coverage or desire to seek outside care, provide greater continuity of care over academic semesters and summers to those who choose to use outside providers and, most importantly, give students more agency in one of the most intimate decisions they will make during their time in college. As a national leader, Yale should use its influence to promote interstate compacts that make mental healthcare more accessible and prevent our university from falling behind in quality of care by clinging to models stuck in the past and unable to meet the needs of students. 

Both these changes can be achieved in the near future and just as the Yale community came together to push successfully for changes to its medical leave policy, we will continue to band together to improve mental health at Yale in honor of Yalies past, present, and future. 

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I was born and raised in the city-by-the-sea. It was where I got my start as a community organizer and for years I championed community causes, built local support systems and mobilized ambitious campaigns to make Long Beach a slightly better place. So, when I moved upstate to the Central Coast in 2019, I had always planned to return. Once travel restrictions were lifted and I was fully vaccinated — and boosted, I made plans that summer to return home and hoped to find my city in better shape than when I left it, but that was far from what I found. The spread of homeless encampments had grown to a point I never imagined possible. The neighborhoods I once ran carefree as a child now overflowed with garbage. Too many people laid their heads to sleep on your hard cement sidewalks at night. Too many of your veterans carried cardboard signs offering to work for food. Too many mothers pushed shopping carts full of all their possessions down your streets with crying children in tow. And too many — far too many — people acted as though this was normal.

Our state boasts the largest economy in the richest country on Earth. If we were our own country, we would rank fifth in the world in wealth, ahead of India and right behind Germany. We have the seat of the tech world in the north, the heart of the entertainment industry in the south and our rich valleys in between grow the world’s fruits and vegetables. My hometown is among the largest contributors to that economy, yet we cannot provide a decent quality of life for all who live there. As I met and dined with friends in newly-reopened restaurants and diners, I hid my utter devastation as they shared the stories of their suffering in the last year. People who I once knew to be joyous and full of life now struggled with their mental health and did not have the means to get help. COVID-19 and the accompanying lockdowns were hard on all of us, but were harder for some of us than others. The systems I built with local leaders so many years ago to help support young people struggling with mental illness had not grown and blossomed to meet the needs of the community as I had hoped but instead withered and died under the harsh conditions of the pandemic.

I could not believe this was the same city, but left with a renewed sense of purpose and devotion to eliminating the injustice of poverty and mental health discrimination. That sense of purpose met its match when I got to Yale later in the fall. I felt the same pain and anger when I first arrived in New Haven and saw the sprawl of individuals experiencing homelessness juxtaposed with Yale’s grand neo-gothic towers. Later, as the year progressed and I learned about the horrors of Yale’s treatment of students with mental illness from endless wait times to being ghosted by Yale therapists, I knew more could and should be done. Like California, Yale contributes so much to the life of our country and has no shortage of resources, and should therefore have no problem working to improve the condition of its students struggling with mental illness and neighbors experiencing poverty and homelessness. Yale is the second-most endowed university in America located in the second poorest city in Connecticut, and is a leader in neurological and psychological research but clearly in not meeting the mental and emotional needs of its students — the future leaders of the world.

However bleak and disheartening my trip to Long Beach may have been and the current situation at Yale is, I still have hope. Hope, because we have to continue fighting the crisis of homelessness and poverty in our city. Hope, because we have to continue to remind our friends, family and neighbors experiencing the lowest of lows that they are never, ever alone. Hope, because we are the only ones who can make this university, this country and this world into all we know it can be. Let us dedicate ourselves to that cause and together build a world of light and truth.

MICHAEL NDUBISI is a first year in Saybrook College. His fortnightly column “A more perfect union” examines the American experiment, its flaws, and Yalies role in it.

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The nine-person committee, led by State Attorney General Rob Bonta’s ’93 LAW ’98 Department of Justice, and created just one month before the Yale and Slavery Working Group in the fall of 2020, found that state discrimination practices in the mid-20th century have resulted in a debt of $223,000 to each Black Californian whose ancestors were in the United States in the 19th century.

Like most issues in our polarized political climate, the task force’s findings will preach to the choir of progressives already keen on the idea of reparations, while falling on the deaf ears of conservatives who will never hear about the task force’s work or, worse yet, form their opinions from what Tucker Carlson has to say. However, it should not be taken as given that progressives are for reparations and conservatives against. In fact, there are several arguments for reparations based on conservative principles. 

The conservative identity of the modern Republican Party has its roots in the Reagan Era of the 1980s. At this time, family values, fiscal responsibility, private enterprise and limited government became the key tenets of conservatism and indispensable to conservatives. Each of these values is reflected in the task force’s report and forms the justification for reparations. The report describes how racist and discriminatory policies not only led to the degradation of Black families and hindered the growth of Black-owned businesses but created a massive wealth gap, which, rather than “trickling down,” has concentrated and compounded at the expense of African Americans. 

Reparations are an attempt to correct the harm done by big and intrusive government destroying American families, crushing successful private businesses and restricting individual civil rights and liberties. The long and painful history of racism in this country has thrown a wrench in the social, political and economic progress of African Americans. so if reparations are the way to free a generation of African-Americans to reach their fullest potential, then even Reagan would agree that it is time to “turn the bull loose.”

Closing the racial wealth gap means money flows more easily through the economy, creating jobs, increasing productivity and expanding long-term growth. Reparations also repay massive government debt and will reduce government spending on welfare and assistance programs disproportionately used by African Americans because of past discrimination. If reparations cut government spending and prevent debt from being passed to future generations of Americans, then reparations are the epitome of fiscal responsibility. 

Conservatives who value faith and the rule of law should celebrate California’s reparations efforts. They are the first in the nation to address this issue, attempting to repent from their original sin, and are guided by the Supreme Court’s 1883 interpretation of the 13th Amendment to abolish “all badges and incidents of slavery in the United States.” 

The fact is, the racial disparities that still exist in the United States today represent a shameful badge of slavery that will stay with us only if we allow it. Conservative Republicans have made their opposition to reparations clear. But if Republicans wish to lay claim to the legacy of Lincoln — whose Republican Party is fundamentally different in ideology and base than the Republican Party of today — then they own America’s first attempts at reparations, and must embrace today’s efforts to do the same. As California continues its efforts to examine its history and the legacy of slavery, the State Attorney General’s alma mater should continue its work with the Yale and Slavery Project and we all, regardless of political ideology, should see the merit in this bold undertaking. It will not only ensure, for the first time in our nation’s history, the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to all citizens, but equality of opportunity for any hard-working, law-abiding individual who wants a chance at the American Dream. 

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In response to the outrage surrounding the YDN’s editorial decision not to run a story authored by two Chinese international students under an anonymous byline, the YDN’s Public Editor offered an explanation in “Why the News does not publish anonymous stories.” A better title for this editorial would have been, “Why the News does not publish anonymous stories anymore.” For most of the News’ history, anonymously published stories were not only allowed but were standard practice. The first few articles published under bylines did not appear on the News’ pages until the 1940s, and it was not until the mid-1970s that the use of bylines became commonplace. Before this time, there is no record of who authored stories that represent some of the most egregious acts of journalistic malpractice from the “Oldest College Daily,” and we will never know whether they were attributable to the misconduct of a handful of writers or the negligence of entire newsrooms. What we do know is that these stories tended to adversely impact marginalized communities by protecting racist, sexist, xenophobic and otherwise prejudiced reporting under cover of anonymity. 

The Public Editor rightfully points to accountability as the main reason why the practice came to an end and why the News adheres so strictly to that principle. Despite anger and resentment directed at the News’ leadership for unchecked privilege, it is precisely because the News acknowledges its staff historically being wealthier and less diverse than its readership and the university it serves that the policy exists. This understanding is critical to the present debate surrounding the policy and necessary to cooling tensions in order to arrive at lasting solutions. It is also important to remember that in an age where “fake news” and disinformation rock the very foundation of our liberal democracy, the question of journalistic accountability is doubly important, especially for student reporters, who are more prone to errors and mistakes than established journalists. 

Of course, like any rule or law which governs any set of people, this policy is not beyond reproach and can be subject to change. Before the introduction of the byline to the News’ pages and the creation of its anonymity policy, there were clear and convincing arguments against adding reporters’ names to stories. But as the times changed, so did the rules, and they can once again.

It is clear that the transnational retaliation of authoritarian regimes pose a real threat to journalists and student journalists everywhere. These, our bravest reporters, deserve to be both protected and supported in their journalism careers. However, to call the News’ policy “untenable” ignores decades of history, smears a newsroom whose only goal is to do right by its readers and serves no one. 

As we discuss how best to support these reporters and their efforts to fight repressive governments through honest and accurate reporting, let us not be too quick to forget the reasons why the News’ policies exist. While barring the publication of anonymous stories, with limited exceptions, is widely understood to be best journalistic practice, together we can create a new standard of ethics that more adequately meets the needs of our times and serves readers, reporters, free people and those still yearning to breathe free everywhere. 

MICHAEL NDUBISI is a sophomore in Saybrook College. Contact him at michael.ndubisi@yale.edu 

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