Dear Red Lions,
Thank you for the many good wishes this evening! It’s a true honor to be reappointed for another term to serve as your Head of College of our beloved TD community. I look forward to the future when we can all gather again in the TD courtyard!
So today was our first official day back and hopefully everyone’s first foray into distance learning had more pluses than minuses. If you are experiencing challenges with your classes – Zoom, course materials, assignments, anything – please make sure to contact your professors and teaching fellows right away. Speaking for my Yale College instructors, I know we all want to hear from our students right now so please get in touch if you have any questions or concerns!
I have received emails from on-campus students inquiring when you’ll hear more about the YCDO’s plan for getting reunited with all of your belongings. I am afraid I don’t have an answer – really. But I do know that Dean Chun’s office is working on a solution for all fourteen colleges and will communicate that out once they have a plan in place. But please remember that many of these decisions are out of Yale’s control. As I type, Connecticut has become one of several states to implement “stay-at-home” measures to enforce social distancing and flatten the curve. These types of orders as well as the directives put out by the CDC will greatly impact what Yale will be able to do.
In the meantime, I want to give a quick shout out to our TD Resident Fellow, Professor Amy Bei, who gave this very informative Q&A on 3/19 about COVID-19 testing in the state of Connecticut.
Amy and Sidiya also shared this wonderful “photo of the week” to lift our spirits. Thanks, Aby, we miss you, too!
To bring us together, our new TD SAC leadership is putting together a virtual Trivia Night for Friday 4/3 at 6pm. They will be doing this event over Zoom and planning to use Kahoot so if you don’t have Kahoot you can get it here for free.
Dean is still out for now, but sent this poem to share with the college:
The More Loving One
WH Auden
Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.
How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.
Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.
Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.
And if you watched the interview with Dean, she gave great suggestions for books to check out, including:
- Edward P. Jones, The Known World
- Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
- Alice Walker, The Color Purple
- Natasha Trethewey, Domestic Work and Native Guard
If you have recommendations for books, podcasts, tv shows, and films to share with the TD Community, please go to this Google Form. We’ll post and share the results with the TD community.
Àshe,
HL