Last month, in a page of the News’ Black History Month special issue, nine Yale students contributed to a section called “Being a Black engineer at Yale,” highlighting their experiences as Black students in departments such as Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. Students expressed feelings of isolation and discouragement at the lack of representation in the University’s STEM majors.

“It’s discouraging to walk into an auditorium where I can count on one hand the amount of other Black people in my lectures,” Deja Dunlap ’26, a Black applied mathematics major, told the News. “In discussion, I feel pressured to be exceptional and to be more than just the ‘Black person in the room.’”

Dunlap also highlighted the lack of Black professors in Yale’s School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Just two out of 153 faculty members in SEAS identify as Black or African American, a meager 1.3 percent compared to five percent across all Yale faculty and six percent among the faculty of Arts and Sciences.

This issue is not unique to Yale; Ivies across the country hire disproportionately low Black faculty members to teach engineering and other STEM fields. Zero percent and four percent of Harvard’s tenure-track and tenured engineering faculty are Black or African-American, respectively. The Dartmouth Thayer School of Engineering has one Black associate professor out of 70 faculty members.

Vincent Wilczynski, deputy dean of the engineering school, declined to comment about the lack of Black faculty representation. He pointed instead to the school’s “fairly robust DEIB program,” which houses several affinity groups and professional organizations for students from historically marginalized backgrounds.

Wilczynski also told the News that Charles Brown, a physics professor and National Society of Black Engineers faculty advisor, will be bringing a team of over 10 Yale members of the National Society of Black Engineers – of which Dunlap is the Yale chapter vice president – to the organization’s annual meeting in Atlanta, which will take place later this month.

Brown did not respond to the News’ request for comment on the trip.

Wilczynski said that the convention is an exciting opportunity for students to meet and network with colleagues from all over the nation.

“From the school side we go ahead and make sure that the support is there and work hard to make sure that there’s a faculty advisor to integrate students into this professional society network,” he added.

Solomon Gonzalez ’23, who graduated from Yale last spring with a degree in mechanical engineering, said that NSBE had less of a presence on campus when he arrived at Yale. 

He described his experience in the major as “individual.”

“It felt like I was just doing it on my own,” Gonzalez said. “Being part of a major and seeing nobody else who looks like you, it makes you wonder, ‘Does it even make sense that I’m here?’”

Both Dunlap and Gonzalez said that the number of Black peers in their majors decreased as they moved to more advanced courses.

Dunlap, who attended a public high school in Las Vegas, recalled her experience taking Math 115 –– an intermediate course –– while others in the major began in Math 120, which is more advanced. She speculated that “working from behind” could discourage students from public high schools — who are disproportionately students of color. 

She suggested that Yale permit students to take introductory math courses such as Math 115 for free the summer prior to their first year in exchange for course credit. Yale does provide preparatory Online Experiences for Yale Scholars, a free program that helps students adapt to the rigor of quantitative study at Yale — though the program does not count for credit.

“I didn’t realize it would be like this when I arrived,” said Dunlap, referring to the introductory math sequence. “Yale could do more to acclimate students from lower-income backgrounds.”

Yale’s School of Engineering and Applied Science was founded in 1852. 

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Around 10 demonstrators affiliated with the Revolutionary Communist Party showed up at the classroom in William Harkness Hall five minutes after the start of class and began shouting at Snyder while holding up signs and recording students.

“It seemed like they just wanted to shout Professor Snyder down, not engage in any sort of discussion,” William Wang ’26, a student in the class, told the News. “After a few minutes of shouting it was clear they weren’t gonna go away. Eventually, we just left and went to another classroom.”

Snyder is a historian specializing in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and the Holocaust, and he has  been an outspoken supporter of Ukraine’s resistance effort since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. His class focuses on Nazi and Stalinist regimes in the mid-twentieth century.

The demonstrators walked into the back of class and held up signs while Raymond Lotta, the group’s leader, declared, “No class as usual today!” Lotta called on Snyder to condemn the United States for its support of Israel’s military offensive against Hamas in Gaza and accused him of “brainwashing” students with “anti-communism.”

On Oct. 7, Hamas attacked Israel, killing at least 1,200 people and taking 250 people as hostages, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry. Israel responded to the attack with a declaration of war and full bombardment of Gaza. As of Feb. 29, Israel has killed more than 30,000 people in Gaza through its military onslaught, according to the health ministry in Gaza. The United States has sent over $3 billion in military aid to Israel each year for the last 10 years. 

“Timothy Snyder, your professor, is locking you into this oppressive system,” Lotta shouted, calling Israel’s action in Gaza a “genocide” and referring to “U.S. imperialism.” “He is brainwashing you with lies and slander about communism. The stakes could not be higher.”

Snyder attempted to usher the group out of the classroom, taking a phone away from one individual who was recording the event and saying, “You don’t have the right to film me.” 

Lotta continued to shout while other demonstrators stood in place and held signs such as “Where’s Snyder’s moral outrage over US backed genocide in GAZA?” and “Hitler killed 6 million Jews and Stalin saved 1.6 million Jews.”

After five minutes of shouting, students and Snyder began filing out of the classroom. Shortly after, Lotta and his group were escorted out of the building by Yale security.

Speaking to the News afterward, Lotta called the demonstration a “success.”

“This was meant to be a jolt,” Lotta said. “We wanted to be dramatic and stir students up. This is a challenge for Snyder to debate me on the past and future of the Communist revolution.”

According to Lotta, Yale security informed his group that they were trespassing and not permitted to return to Yale campus without authorization. They did not elaborate on what the consequences would be for a future infraction, Lotta said.

A University spokesperson wrote to the News on Thursday night that “the situation is still being investigated and reviewed.”

“The university takes the disruption of campus activities and student safety seriously and follows these guidelines regarding free expression and peaceable assembly,” referring to Yale’s Free Expression Policy.

Snyder was not available for immediate comment on the incident. 

In November, Lotta appeared at one of Snyder’s “The Making of Modern Ukraine” lectures, handing him an invitation to appear at a debate. The disturbance on Wednesday, Lotta said, had been planned a week in advance.

The lecture resumed in a separate classroom without further disturbance. 

Snyder is the author of several books on Eastern European history, including “Our Malady,” “On Tyranny,” “The Road to Unfreedom,” “Black Earth” and “Bloodlands.”

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Unveiled last month, YSE’s new “Urban Climate Leadership Certificate Program” started accepting applications for its first cohort on March 1. The nine-month virtual certificate program — focusing on the relationship between urban spaces and the climate crisis — joins two others aimed at supporting mid-career professionals in the Global South.

“We really hope that this is an opportunity to both learn about the myriad ways that cities contribute to climate change and are impacted by climate change,” said Cameron Kritikos DIV ’23 ENV ’23, Urban Climate Leadership program manager. “The speed and scale of urbanization, and the concurrent deterioration of our planetary system, demands swift and scalable solutions.”

Kritikos explained that the 36-week curriculum will encompass five themes: urbanization and climate change, adaptation solutions, carbon accounting, governance and implementation. The fully remote program will guide its 50-member cohort through a survey of current urban climate challenges, policy initiatives and new opportunities.

According to Colleen Murphy-Dunning, a School of the Environment lecturer and program staff member, the coursework will consist of 36 weekly modules, each of which involves faculty-led seminar discussions paired with an hour of asynchronous lecture by climate leaders from around the world. Intended to offer students a variety of perspectives, the program’s slate of lecturers ranges from IPCC authors to nonprofit leaders and Yale professors.

After nearly a year of development, the program looks to address a growing area of climate interest.

“Urbanization is one of the megatrends of the 21st century, and cities are at the front lines of climate change,” Karen Seto, School of the Environment professor and director of the Hixon Center for Urban Sustainability, wrote in an email to the News. “There is an urgent need to develop leaders who can help cities both mitigate and adapt to climate change.”

Asha Ghosh, Urban Program manager at the School of the Environment and a lecturer at the School of Management, said that the program’s emphasis on urban spaces navigates the complex dynamics between our urban centers and the warming climate. Urban spaces are the largest contributors to global carbon emissions, but they also present some of the foremost opportunities for new climate solutions, she added. 

“Cities hold the opportunity to make the biggest impact, in terms of addressing these climate challenges,” Ghosh said.

Equity — questions about how climate differentially impacts urban communities, for instance — will be a key “thread” throughout the program, Ghosh added.

Urban forestry — currently one of the most promising nature-based solutions to climate adaptation in cities — will also receive significant instructional attention, Murphy-Dunning added. Murphy-Dunning, who is leading one of the program’s urban forestry modules, explained that trees can mitigate heat island effects but must also be considered in the context of other urban infrastructure.

The Biden administration’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act has bolstered city greening efforts, bankrolling urban forestry efforts across the country with its record $1-billion investment. Now, according to Murphy-Dunning, urban foresters must consider the challenges posed by uncertain precipitation, temperature changes and potential conflicts with housing.

“It’s not just using trees as a vehicle for mitigation, but it’s also recognizing that the urban forest itself has to adapt to climate change,” Murphy-Dunning said.

Sustainable development can be especially challenging in developing nations, Ghosh explained. Many cities in the Global South undergo a process of repeated upgrading from informal to formal settlements, rather than relying entirely on planned development. Buildings and large infrastructure projects are often developed without accounting for city-mandated plans or the environmental features of the land.

Kritikos emphasized the program’s relevance to any potential students working in governance, nonprofits or the private sector. Given the complexity of cities — spaces where infrastructure, nature and communities interact — advancing urban sustainability is a “messy process” that will need to engage all stakeholders involved, Kritikos said. The program expects to offer something for applicants from a diversity of professional specializations. 

The first of the School of Environment’s certificate programs was launched in 2022 following a donation from the Three Cairns Group, the largest-ever gift in support of the school. The slate of online courses are designed to support emerging, mid-career professionals throughout the Global South.

“[The program] is going to allow us to bring the latest science to practitioners, which I think is really important,” Murphy-Dunning told the News. “[It] allows for the possibility of more people to participate in learning through the university.”

The School of the Environment’s two other certificate programs, “Financing and Deploying Clean Energy” and “Tropical Forest Landscapes,” invite students to explore green technology policies and conservation initiatives, respectively. 

Applications for this program will close on April 30. Accepted applicants will matriculate later this August. Applications for the forest landscapes program will close on April 5 and for the clean energy program on March 10. 

Ghosh and Murphy-Dunning were both hopeful the program might provide students the opportunity to connect, share ideas and generate new solutions. 

“We need to very rapidly make change because of the pressure of climate change,” Murphy-Dunning said. “I think there’s a sense of urgency … that we can’t continue to build cities the way we have in the past.” 

According to UN estimates, urban centers currently account for 75 percent of global CO2 emissions.

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Yale’s ambitions for a Ukrainian program are not new, but Tytarenko and Edyta Bojanowska, Chair of Slavic Languages and Literatures, told the News that in the face of the war in Ukraine, this objective has grown more urgent. Tytarenko, who comes from a background in education and academia, brings to Yale her fluency in Ukrainian, Russian and English, as well as skills in language pedagogy and research in Russian mysticism and mythology.

“I consider it a noble task to start a Ukrainian program,” Tytarenko told the News. “Especially now, during this moment when there is a heightened interest in Ukrainian studies and a need for an understanding of Ukraine, its cultures, history, politics and the relation between Ukraine and Russia.”

Tytarenko received a B.A. and M.A. in English Language and Literature from Ukraine’s Lviv Ivan Franko National University. Initially, she planned to teach English as a foreign language — but when she moved to the United States to earn a Master’s degree in Russian and Comparative Literature at Pennsylvania State University, she opted to stay and pursue an academic career. In 2016, she earned a Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the University of Toronto.

Almost immediately after defending her dissertation, Tytarenko began working at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she said she taught for seven years and completely “rebuilt” the Russian curriculum. She was presented simultaneously with an offer for a tenure-track research-oriented position at UNL and the opportunity to teach at Yale.

Tytarenko said that ultimately, she decided to join the Yale faculty so she could build a Ukrainian program.

“I thought it would be a very meaningful way to contribute to the Ukrainian cause,” she said. “Because it was challenging to be here and not to be in Ukraine while everyone was in Ukraine.”

Tytarenko told the News she found it “surprising” that a robust Ukrainian program does not already exist at Yale.

Since Tytarenko was on maternity leave in the fall and began teaching courses this Spring, she plans to introduce course offerings in Ukrainian in the fall, as the department requires both semesters of instruction.

“[Teaching Ukrainian] is something the department has been talking about for a while,” Bojanowska told the News. “But the war in Ukraine made this all the more imperative.”

Bojanowska said the department ran a search for a language lector, seeking a lector who was fluent in both Russian and Ukrainian. She said that Tytarenko, trilingual and a “dynamo in the classroom,” was the perfect fit.

She added that she hopes that, by having the same lector teaching both languages, students can understand that speaking the Russian language does not equate with a Russian nationalist identity.

Tytarenko said she hopes the Ukrainian language department will work closely with the Ukraine House student group, offer extra-curricular community events and become a “hub” for cultural events and exchange.

In the future, she also wants to create an interdisciplinary course on Ukrainian identity, culture and mentality explored through the lenses of art, music, folklore, mythology and literature. She also aspires to teach Ukrainian literature in translation — a skill that she has honed as a translator for several literary works.

Tytarenko added that these courses in Ukrainian studies will diversify the Slavic department’s offerings and help students understand the complexities of Ukraine-Russia geopolitical and cultural relations.

After the war, Tytarenko said she hopes to forge connections with schools in Ukraine and facilitate exchange programs — though she said this planning feels “premature” now.

Alongside being a senior lector and associate research scholar and teaching first- and second-year Ukrainian, Tytarenko endeavors to expand and develop her dissertation — a study of Russian folk mysticism narratives and the mythology behind rebellion — into a full-length book manuscript.

She added that this research has resounding relevance nowadays.

“We can see the political mythology in supporting propaganda narratives and the place of mythology in nation-building and in the current regime in Russia,” Tytarenko said.

In addition to her research in Russian mysticism and mythology, Tytarenko also has experience researching pedagogical practices and curriculum-building.

She uses virtual reality and immersive technology to help her students improve speaking and communication skills. She cited an example of a course she taught at UNL about Russia through art, in which students would use glasses to experience galleries, stores, streets and rooms immersively with visual and audio input.

“I have seen how effective this is as an innovative tool in boosting motivation for students,” Tytarenko told the News. “Students are more engaged with the learning material they have. They have better focus on the task. They demonstrate better retention of the material.”

Tytarenko told the News that the program will have to gauge student interest to determine how expansive offerings in Ukrainian will be.

Bojanowska echoed this perspective, urging students to be receptive to classes in Ukrainian.

“The ball is in your court because students now need to come and take these courses,” she said.

Although Yale currently lacks its own Ukrainian language program, some opportunities for Yale students to pursue Ukrainian already exist.

Jordan Shevchenko ’27 is a half-Ukrainian student taking Elementary Ukrainian II, a Columbia University language course offered to Yale students through a Shared Course Initiative program.

“A lot of my Ukrainian family are unable to speak English, so by learning Ukrainian I can communicate much more with them,” Shevchenko wrote to the News.

He shared that Yale students, who are in a classroom together, use high-definition video conferencing technology to connect to the Columbia language class, which is taught by a Ph.D. candidate there.

So far, Shevchenko wrote that his course focuses on grammar, vocabulary, reading and writing — but students also talk about Ukrainian culture, history and politics through discussions.

“Russia’s full-scale invasion is trying to compromise and eliminate Ukrainian culture, and alongside this the Ukrainian language,” Shevchenko wrote. “By learning Ukrainian, one can help combat these measures, and also express their solidarity with the people of Ukraine more easily.”

Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Tamar Gendler expressed excitement at Tytarenko’s plans for the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures.

She wrote to the News that Tytarenko, who has published extensively on the subject of language teaching, will create new offerings that will dynamically accommodate student interests.

“Ms. Tytarenko is an expert in language pedagogy,” Gendler wrote.

Bojanowska echoed Gendler’s enthusiasm, saying that Tytarenko has the expertise and the passion to build a strong Ukrainian language and culture curriculum.

Yale’s Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures was established in 1946.

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“Service plays a big role within my life, within my walk,” Bryon told the News. 

Brooks added that he is guided by the Zulu proverb Ubuntu, which translates to “I am because we are.” 

Brooks, an educator and activist, hails from Detroit, Michigan. He was raised by his great-grandparents and attributes much of who he is today to the family that raised him. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Ferris State University and a master of arts in Diversity and Social Justice in Higher Education from the University of Michigan. Before coming to Yale he worked as a Community Engagement Coordinator, Anti-Racist Program Facilitator & Instructor at the University of Michigan and as Assistant Director of Residential Life at the College of Wooster. 

As an educator, he worked to create anti-racist and social justice education and curriculum across the state of Michigan and at the University of Michigan, creating leadership development and student engagement curricula. He has experience as a teacher and professor and is also a licensed minister. Faith has played an important role in his life, Brooks said.

Brooks is also the founder of a nonprofit organization called From the Hood For the Hood, which is dedicated to fighting homelessness and promoting community engagement throughout Michigan and the country. Brooks himself was unhoused for part of his college career and started the non-profit as a way to support those going through similar experiences. 

Because of his extensive non-profit work, Brooks was asked to lead the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service for the Biden Administration and received the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award from President Joe Biden. 

At Yale, Brooks said he is excited to “pour into both the current and next generation of change-makers.” He added that he is a firm believer that young people can be the change they seek in the world, something that he emphasized at the “Meet the AD Lunch” hosted on Feb. 17. He spoke about wanting to empower students to be their best selves, saying “oftentimes people want to wait for the next Dr. King, the next Malcolm” but that people can be the change that they want to see. Brooks said he believes that everyone has the power to “dismantle systems of inequity and replace them with equity, love, and justice” by being their best selves. 

Brooks was drawn to Yale for several reasons, primarily because of the students. He said he saw “the opportunity to pour into” the students and our energy. He also wanted to step outside of his comfort zone and be “poured into” as well, both career-wise and personally. He shared that the Af-Am House’s “Reclaiming Our Expressions” Black Arts Showcase in particular warmed his heart because he was able to see students being “unapologetically themselves.” Brooks shared his own talents and creativity with the Af-Am House Community at the Showcase, where he performed a spoken-word poem and a selection of music on the piano. 

Brooks said that he also loves how the Afro-American Cultural Center is centered specifically on the Black and African Diasporas and has been enjoying his first weeks settling in. Since the Af-Am House is a cultural center for Black people rather than a multicultural center, it helps him feel like he’s “walking more within his purpose,” he said. 

He shared that the Af-Am House already feels like a home away from home for him and a safe haven for him to be “unapologetically me.” 

Brooks has an open-door policy, inviting students to come introduce themselves to him whenever he is in the office. He said that he is open to hearing any and all new ideas that students have and hopes to amplify student voices across campus. 

Alejandro Rojas ’26 said that he loves “how available and visible Byron has already been in our community” and that he cannot wait to get to know Brooks more. 

Brooks is also excited about ideas of his own, including a book club that he hopes to start titled Radical Reflections — a space where students would come together to read and discuss literature from the African Diaspora. 

For Stephanie Owusu ’24, Brooks “lives up to that excitement with the energy he brings.”

“[I noticed] an excitement about him coming to campus,” Owusu said.

Owusu said she especially appreciated how Brooks introduced himself through his art at the Black History Month Showcase. She said she hopes that he will continue to “bring populations that we might not see as much at the House” and that he has already brought positive energy.

The Afro-American Cultural Center is located at 211 Park St.

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The letter, which has been active since Feb. 14, has been signed by faculty at Yale College, Yale Law School and the School of Medicine, among others. It offers six aspirations for the upcoming tenure of Yale’s future president, who is yet to be identified. 

“We hope that as the next president you will support the continued engagement of our faculty and students in initiatives that affect the world around us,” it reads. “And that you strongly and unequivocally reaffirm the value that Yale sees in the efforts we all put towards environmental, social and civil justice.”

The letter supports, among other priorities, the protection of students’ rights to protest and engage in civil disobedience, diversity and inclusion initiatives and collaboration with community colleges and other universities to expand access to higher education.

The letter comes on the heels of another initiative, “Faculty for Yale,” which calls on Yale to “insist on the primacy of teaching, learning, and research as distinct from advocacy and activism” and argues that Yale is struggling to meet its “most important responsibilities as an academic institution in a clear and consistent way.” 

By contrast, the faculty letter seems to come from an opposing ideological standpoint, urging the University to embrace its role as an advocate for causes in social justice and higher education. 

While professor Greta LaFleur, who signed the letter, said that it was not intended as a direct response to Faculty for Yale, the letter refers to the group in its opening statement. It claims that American universities must be defended against attacks from  “members of their own faculty, who argue that universities have lost their way,” in addition to donors and politicians.

Daniel HoSang, who is a professor of ethnicity, race and migration and of American studies as well as a co-author of the letter, said that it was written in order to “affirm the wide range of extraordinary work happening at our institution that integrates outstanding research, teaching and practice with a robust commitment to the public good.”

One of the letter’s main points urges the future president to continue being a “positive force on the world,” highlighting instances in which Yale faculty have faculty have” translated their academic findings into practice,” such as Yale’s prison education initiatives or the work of Yale Schools of Public Health and Medicine faculties on COVID-19. 

Amy Kapcyznki, a law professor and one of the letter’s authors emphasized Yale’s relation to national higher education as one of the “broader themes of the letter.”

“There’s really a need to pay attention to the broader loss of faith in higher education and attacks on higher education across the country.” Kapczynski said. “We don’t just see this as a Yale question, but a need for leadership in higher education more broadly.”

According to Kapczysnki, higher education is under attack partly because “we are a place where people think freely and do important research that sometimes challenges conventional orthodoxies.” 

The letter cites educational gag orders that aim to restrict the teaching of certain subjects and censor teachers in both K-12 and higher education, as well as attempts to undermine DEI programs and eliminate certain majors, such as sociology.

Naftali Kaminski, a professor at the School of Medicine who helped author the letter, said that he feels the University is at a critical juncture in its history and can thrive by continuing to affirm the outlined priorities. He highlighted examples of Yale’s engagement with the world over the last ten years, such as global healthcare leadership, commitment to clean energy and climate change mitigation and student activism. 

As of Monday evening, the letter has 148 signatories.

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Among other measures, the group calls for “a thorough reassessment of administrative encroachment” and the promotion of diverse viewpoints. The group also calls for a more thorough description of free expression guidelines in the Faculty Handbook; Yale’s current guidelines are based on its 1974 Woodward Report. The group also wants Yale to implement a set of guidelines regarding donor influence, which were first put forth by the Gift Policy Review Committee in 2022.

On its site, Faculty for Yale outlines issues that it claims stem from Yale’s “retreat from the university’s basic mission.”

“Faculty for Yale is a spontaneously coalescing group of (so far) over 100 faculty from throughout the university who wish to support our university in re-dedicating itself to its historic and magnificent mission to preserve, produce, and transmit knowledge,” professor of social and natural science Nicholas Christakis wrote to the News. “We believe that any loss of focus on this deep, fundamental, and important mission may contribute to a range of challenges being faced in universities like ours nowadays.”

Faculty for Yale also urges the University to adopt the University of Chicago’s Kalven Committee report that urges institutional neutrality.

However, in an interview with the News in November, Salovey said that although more college presidents might be considering the principle of institutional neutrality “because they realize how fraught it has become to speak out” on the issues of the day, he does not yet hold that view. He added, though, that “it’s a worthy view to consider.”

“I still think that we are going to want to speak out as leaders in higher education on issues of the day, but the decision about when to and when not to is not an easy one,” Salovey said. “I tend to use a criteria of how directly our campus is affected by whatever the incident in the world is but that’s still not a perfect criteria … there are atrocities all over the world, and I’ve probably not spoken out on more of them than I have spoken on.”

Christakis, speaking on behalf of the group, told the News that “we hope to meet” with Salovey. 

Howard Forman, a professor at the School of Management, said that he signed the letter in part to emphasize Yale’s “promises for advancing and disseminating knowledge” amid the presidential search process. Forman also called himself a “big fan” of Salovey.

“He has served us extremely well, facing numerous internal and external upheavals and facing up to Yale’s own troubling history,” Forman said. “This letter does not sit in judgment of him or his predecessors. It speaks to our future and how we all can be better.”

Although the group was formed in December, a column published last month in the Wall Street Journal discussed emails from Christakis and law professor Kate Stith — sent to their faculty colleagues — in which they expressed views now available on Faculty for Yale’s site. 

Other signatories include the Trumbull and Grace Hopper heads of college — biomedical engineering professor Fahmeed Hyder and sociology professor Julia Adams, respectively. Hyder did not respond to the News’ request for comment.

Adams wrote to the News that academic freedom, which she described as “the bedrock of the advancement of knowledge through teaching and learning,” needs support at Yale and other colleges and universities.

“The concerns articulated in the FfY formation statement pertain to universities — and not their members! — as activists,” Adams wrote. “I consider myself something of an activist on behalf of academic freedom, scholarship, and the mission of the university. But there will also come times, as the Kalven Report notes, in which colleges and universities confront threats to their very mission, and must seek to defend their fundamental values. That is happening worldwide.”

Similar efforts at other universities have emerged in recent months, including Harvard’s Council on Academic Freedom, Princeton’s Princeton Principles for a Campus Culture of Free Inquiry and the University of Pennsylvania’s pennforward.com. 

All such efforts formally began within the last year. 

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The department is expected to award 138 graduate degrees this year to its “pure” majors, up from 97 the previous year. Other majors under the department’s umbrella, such as computer science and economics and computer science and math, are expected to increase as well. The spike comes amid national layoffs in the tech sector in 2023 and the start of 2024, as well as lingering questions about the future of traditional computer science roles due to the emergence of artificial intelligence technology.

“I personally don’t think that we are anticipating much of a change for CS majors,” computer science professor Brian Scasselati told the News. “The ways in which people program are certainly changing, but the need for programmers does not seem to be going away any time soon.”

The number of computer science bachelor’s degrees awarded at Yale has more than doubled in the last five years and more than quintupled in the last decade. Other degrees in the department, such as computer science and economics, computer science and mathematics and computing and the arts, have followed a similar trend.

New artificial intelligence technologies that have been recently released, including ChatGPT in 2022, as well as Microsoft’s Copilot and Google Gemini in 2023, can automate typical programming tasks, such as code generation, debugging and algorithm optimization. In 2023, more than 260,000 tech employees were laid off by employers including Amazon, Google and Apple. Layoffs have continued in 2024, while companies have also made investments into AI technology a priority. 

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects an 11-percent decrease in employment opportunities for computer programmers over the next ten years, citing “automation” as a factor. However, software developers, who, according to the bureau, had a higher median pay in 2022 compared to programmers — $124,200 vs $97,800, respectively — are projected to see a 25-percent increase in employment opportunities.

Kyle Jensen, a Yale School of Management professor who teaches the course “Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence Models,” wrote that Yale computer science majors should have no concern over job security.

“Maybe there’s some diminished demand for grunt work, but this is not the kind of work Yale graduates do anyway,” Jensen wrote. “If anything, the kind of education students receive at Yale is now more valuable because the CS student is relieved from a few details, freer to think about concepts and ‘the big picture.’”

In a News survey of 36 Yale computer science majors, roughly two-thirds of all respondents indicated that they felt “just as” or “more” secure about their future career prospects given the advancements in AI and automation. 

Alex Schapiro ’26, a computer science major and the head of Yale CourseTable, said that he feels more secure about his career prospects in tech now than he did when ChatGPT first came out in 2022.

“If anything, I think there could be an expanded need for CS graduates because of all the new capabilities in the industry brought about by AI,” Schapiro said. “Low-level programming positions might be at risk, but I don’t feel particularly threatened at this point.”

But, Schapiro noted, it is still too early to tell exactly what kind of impact AI will have on the CS job market. 

Among survey respondents, responses were more evenly distributed to a question asking how knowledgeable respondents felt about AI’s current impact on the job market. Responses were spread almost evenly across a 1-5 scale of “no knowledge at all” to “very knowledgeable.”

Richard Yang, director of undergraduate studies for the computer science major, agreed with these sentiments, adding that, if anything, the development of new AI technologies like ChatGPT have brought computer science further into the mainstream, attracting more prospective majors than they have turned away.

“I do not see CS majors at Yale slowing down, K. Sudhir, a School of Management professor said. “I predict the demand for CS grads will grow with the emergence of generative AI and other AI technologies … The graduate may not be doing exactly the same work as they would have done before, but there will be significant demand growth for their talent.”

Yale’s Computer Science department was established in 1969.

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Sy, who became a professor of English in January, comes to Yale having won a sum of $65,000 in three appearances on “Jeopardy!”

His most recent appearance was in the Champions Wildcard tournament. He had previously appeared on two episodes in January 2023, while pursuing a doctorate in English at the University of Virginia.

Getting onto the show involves a challenging process, Sy said. First, one has to pass a fifty question online test assessing general knowledge, a test he took while in Starbucks one day. One then advances to another test, this one proctored via Zoom to prevent cheating. Finally, one might be invited to an audition on Zoom that involves a mock game of “Jeopardy!” played with other candidates.

“At this point, they are really not testing your knowledge anymore,” Sy said. “They’re entirely testing how you look on camera.”

He prepared accordingly. “I put a whole bunch of lights on myself and smiled the whole time. I think I got half of the questions wrong, but I was smiling the whole time.”

This was in July 2022. Three months later, he was invited to appear on the show. He taped two episodes in November, which aired in January 2023, and won $55,000.

His graduate stipend at the time was $26,000. He had earned more than two years’ income in less than two hours. “It was good,” he said.

He came back this January for the Champions Wildcard, a tournament for people who’ve already participated, and “embarrassingly” lost on a question about literature, he said. 

Despite this, his literary studies have cultivated a skill — reading — that has been key to his success. “I’m always reading,” he said.  “I always pop in an audiobook when I’m walking anywhere.”

He guessed that he reads 130 to 150 books a year. He just finished a novel by Japanese Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata and is now reading, among other things, the poetry of William Cullen Bryant and a biography of Pope John Paul II.

His eclectic reading meant that he came to “Jeopardy!” with a diverse knowledge-base, even though he said he “didn’t really extensively prepare.”

But success took more than trivia knowledge. According to Lucas Miner ’24, who appeared on “Jeopardy!” in 2019 and 2023, “The real trick to ‘Jeopardy!’ is being good on the buzzer.”

Most contestants know the answers to most of the questions, he explained; the “trick” is being fast enough for it to matter.

Sy — who got lots of buzzer experience on his high school quiz bowl team — relishes this part of the game. 

“I love the excitement of being on a buzzer,” he said. 

For all intents and purposes, though, Sy’s “Jeopardy!” career is now over, he said.

It is rare for non-champions to be invited back once; twice is almost unheard of.

That suits him fine. “I’ve taken enough money from the ‘Jeopardy!’ cow,” he said, “and I’m eager to put it behind me.” 

This semester, he’s teaching “The Native American Renaissance,” a first-year seminar on the “flowering of Native literatures” after 1968, as the syllabus puts it. 

Kylie Morris ’27, who is in the class, said that Sy avoids talking about his “Jeopardy!” career. She said he treats it as if “it was nothing.”  

Nonetheless, she said he comes across as the kind of person who would appear on the quiz show. 

“He makes me think of a mad scientist sometimes,” she said. “He gets these ideas and he goes off on these tangents, and they’re all really interesting. And then all of a sudden he’ll pull out a bizarre fact.”

For example, she said, one day in class someone sitting next to her said the word “belong” — to which he responded, “Actually, I wrote a fifteen page paper on the word ‘belong’!”

Morris highlighted Sy’s empathy and effectiveness as a teacher. She said that he can understand when a student is struggling, and that he always wants to have “those one-on-one chats.” She added that he is also good at relating his lessons to personal life experience.

Looking to the future as a new professor, Sy said he is looking forward to using Yale’s resources for research, including the Beinecke Library. 

“Yale is one of the best places in the universe to do research,” he said. “This is a wonderful place to build things. I don’t think I’ve even gazed upon what I could do yet.”

Yale has been affiliated with many “Jeopardy!” contestants, including Matt Amodio GRD ’23, who won a record-breaking 38 games in a row.

Update, Feb. 19: This article has been updated to remove repetitive language.

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COMEXUS creates academic fellowships to encourage educational exchange between the two countries in hopes of a wider understanding, academically and culturally.

Previously, Yale has hosted student Fulbright-García Robles fellows — including graduate and postdoctoral scholars — through a COMEXUS program, but the new visiting chair fellowship will host candidates with more extensive teaching and research experience.

Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos, a CLAIS-affiliated anthropology professor, said that the new chair will add diversity to the courses at Yale.

“This is an opportunity to expand the scope of Latin American studies at Yale,” Mazariegos said. “From my own teaching experience, I know that many students are interested in learning about Mexico, from many points of view. Bringing a Mexican scholar to campus for this chair is an optimal way of responding to that demand.”

In 2023, Yale hosted three scholars through COMEXUS programs in the School of the Environment, the School of Architecture and the Macmillan Center’s Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies. Past scholars have remarked on the importance of cultural exchange where interactions can help solve issues that concern both countries.

The new program hopes to host scholars with diverse perspectives on teaching that could benefit Yale’s campus, expressing the ways international scholars were taught about the world and bringing such views to Yale through courses on Latin American issues, and specifically, Mexican issues.

Though the program will host scholars in the Latin American Studies department, incorporating interdisciplinary knowledge, mixing fields like anthropology, political science, economics, history or the humanities with others is a large part of the cultural exchange’s goal.

Sofia Lambert Cortes ARC ’25 in the School of Architecture, a Fulbright-García Robles Fellow in the 2023 cohort, expressed to the News the benefits she’s gained in the cultural exchange between them and Yale.

Cortes said that her own research has been shaped by interdisciplinary perspectives — a phenomenon she hopes to see with the new program.

“I came here with an idea, but by having my classes and interactions with all of the different people and professors at my school, my topic changed into being more about the border with Mexico and the United States,” Cortes told the News. “I think having other people from Mexico who are going to come here and teach about Mexico will be a way in which I can learn more about my own culture, but also learn more about my research and the topics that I want to cover.”

Through the partnership, the visiting chair would not only provide support to the Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies at the Yale MacMillan Center but also to branching schools, research fellows and undergraduate students by introducing them to Mexican issues from an international perspective.

The program specifies that fellows would be teaching introductory courses in the Latin American Studies department, with course programs included in their application. Per the announcement from the Macmillan Center, the inclusion of the proposed programming in the application process serves as an opportunity for fellows to showcase the pedagogical approach they would take to such a class, tailoring their knowledge to their course when visiting.

Fiacro Jimenez Ramirez ENV ’25 in the School of the Environment, another Fulbright-García Robles Fellow in the 2023 cohort, said that the new program will be interdisciplinary and believes the class the incoming chair teaches will depend on their interests. 

“It’s going to be very focused on Latin American studies, which is a very broad term, it can signify many different things. It can signify political science, politics, economy, industrial economy, the list is huge,” Ramirez said.

The application requires a doctorate degree or an equivalent one but does not restrict which Mexican institutions’ students are eligible for the position, leaving space for all those qualified to apply.

Cortes added that she would like to encourage anyone who is passionate about the program’s mission to apply, no matter what school they come from.

The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale is located at 34 Hillhouse Ave.

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