confirm: baraboo
MASTER’S PIECES
Evening, my well-fed Lions. Urgent shout-out to our dining hall manager, Diane Meyer, and her crew for the best Master’s Brunch ever today. And undying gratitude on behalf of the entire college to Emile Greer, Jon Adler, Jordan Plotner and Jeffrey March for supplying the INCREDIBLY wonderful jazz music throughout. What a vibe for Sunday morning. Here’s what’s ahead this week:
· Wednesday, 9:30 pm, ITS Study Break with Ashley’s Ice Cream, South Thompson Room Got a paper due? Pset? Midterm? Make this Wednesday more bearable by breaking with the Student Technology Collaborative (STC). Come just for the food, but you can also use this opportunity to apply for work with the STC: get trained as a student tech (fix your friends’ computers), media tech (electronics checkout at Bass Library), cluster techs (upkeep on Yale’s computer clusters), as well as student developers (computer programming). Current workers will be at the study break to answer any questions you have about taking one of these roles yourself.
· TD Ping Pong Tournament Sign-Up – Deadline of Wednesday, November 6 at 9 pm. Robbie Flatow and Andrew Stein are organizing a TD-wide ping pong tournament to be held on weeknights throughout the next couple of weeks, with… wait for it… real prizes denominated in Buttery Bucks. If you’re interested in participating, please contact Andrew at andrew.stein@yale.edu by this Wednesday.
· Friday, November 8, 10 pm to 1 am- TD SAC sponsors the famous TD “Screw.” Dancing shoes are mandatory. Embrace your inner Targaryen or Wizard with this year’s theme of Game of Thrones and Sorcerer’s Stones. Ask around about how to do this, if you must. The point is for you to match the roommates you love with Mr. or Ms. Exactly Right for an evening of dancing and maybe even conversation they might not have had the wit, courage and/or chops to arrange on their own. The TD Screw will be held from 10pm through 1am in the TD Dining Hall. (At last count, 347 students have ultimately married and lived happily ever after with their TD Screw date. #348 could be you.)
To Thanksgiving and beyond…. TD Yale-Harvard tailgate extravaganza drums are beginning to rumble….
ACADEMICS
Deadline: November 8 at 5 PM is the last day to convert from the Credit/D/Fail option in a fall-term course to a letter grade. The form is in your TD dean’s office.
The on-line process to convert a course from Credit/D/Fail to a letter grade is now available at Student Information System (SIS). No policies have changed: the deadline for conversion remains November 8 at 5 PM, and conversion is allowed only from Credit/D/Fail to a letter grade and NOT from a letter grade to CR/D/Fail. The Course Change Notice form (available in the TD dean’s office) will also be accepted to convert Credit/D/Fail to a letter grade if it is handed in to the TD dean’s office by the deadline of November 8 at 5 PM.
If you wish to convert a Credit/D/Fail course to a letter grade on line, take the following steps:
- Log into the main SIS Web site, www.yale.edu/sis
- Select the Course Enrollment tab and click “Yale College Change Course from Cr/D/F to Letter Grade” (see attached screen shot “SIS Course Enrollment Page”)
- Change the drop-down selection from “Credit/D/Fail” to “YC – Letter Grade” (see attached screen shot “ChangeToLetterGrade”)
- Click “Submit Changes” to save the conversion
- Note: If you are not enrolled in any courses Credit/D/Fail, the system will display the message “You are not enrolled in any courses on the Credit/D/Fail basis” (see attached screen shot “No Cr-D-F Courses”)
Italian at Yale. 4th Annual Italian Gastronomic Extravaganza. Come to dinner. Meet the faculty, and find out how to become part of the Italian culture at Yale and about the Yale Summer Session Program in Italy. November 4, 5 PM, Pierson College Dining Hall
FRESHMEN
Internship Resources for Freshmen
Monday, November 4, 4:00-5:00pm, CIPE/UCS Room 369
SOPHOMORES
THIS WEEK’S INFORMATION MEETINGS ABOUT MAJORS
East Asian Studies. Wednesday, November 6 at 2:30 p.m. Are you interested in becoming an East Asian Studies major? Come for an informal get-together with Professor Valerie Hansen, DUS for East Asian Studies. For more information, contact nicholas.disantis@yale.edu. Luce Hall 203, 34 Hillhouse Avenue.
Ethics, Politics and Economics. Tuesday and Thursday, November 4 and 6 at 6:30 p.m. Professor Steven Wilkinson (DUS), assisted by other faculty members and EPE seniors, will hold two sophomore informational sessions this term. Mason Lab, room 211.
Modern Middle East Studies. Tuesday, November 5 at 7:00 p.m.. Join co-DUS Beatrice Gruendler for dinner at a nearby restaurant for an informal discussion of the major and opportunities in Modern Middle East Studies. Email RSVP required: cmes@yale.edu. [See also listing below, for one-on-one info sessions.]
JUNIORS
Fellowships for Juniors Information Session
Wednesday, October 30th at 4:00pm
CIPE, 55 Whitney Avenue, room 305
SENIORS
Virtual Graduate School Fair: Tuesday, November 5. Attend the graduate school fair to learn more about professional and graduate school programs in a live event. Over 30 graduate schools so far, are registered to participate. The event is co-sponsored by: Bryn Mawr, Dartmouth, Haverford, MIT, Vassar, Wellesley and Yale.
Undergraduate Arts Career Panel
Friday, November 8, 4:30-6:00pm, Loria Center Room B51, 190 York Street
SUMMER
Summer Opportunities Fair
Friday, November 15, 2:30-4:30pm, CIPE, 55 Whitney, Third Floor
Explore your options for summer and beyond. Enjoy some snacks and learn about internship, study, and funding opportunities in the U.S. and abroad. Chat with staff and peer advisers from UCS, Study Abroad, Yale in London, Yale Summer Session, and Fellowship Programs to find the experiences that are right for you.
UCS Summer Internship Fair
Friday, November 8, 3:00 – 4:30pm, Dwight Hall
Meet students who worked as domestic and international interns last summer. Over 20 programs, including UCS-Sponsored International Internships & Bulldogs Across America, will be represented. These programs include many academic fields, industries, and geographic locations. Some internship programs include stipends and housing.
Liman Summer Fellowship Information Meeting: Wednesday, November 6, 7-8 pm, Davenport College Common Room. Spend next summer making a difference, advocate for incarcerated mothers in San Francisco, provide legal defense for indigent clients in New Orleans, or Serve immigrant communities in Arizona. For more information on the fellowship and application requirements, seehttp://www.law.yale.edu/intellectuallife/undergraduatesummerfellowship.htm or contact the Liman Director, Hope Metcalf, hope.metcalf@yale.edu
NOTES
I try to emphasis the experience of our education in contrast to the measure of it by grades or comparison with others – both hard on us because we often seem to fall short. And then we have our own expectations. So many voices can make quite a noise for disappointment, inadequacy, and doubt. Once when I visited open studios in New Haven, I was struck by the title of a print: “Former Selves Meet Again.” I wondered what they were talking about, although I bet there was a lot of accusing and scolding and criticism. And these voices may be especially loud at midterm tests, papers, and problem sets.
Listening to the sounds of the experience of our education rather than evaluation and comparison with others may be just what is needed to soften those discordant voices. And I think it helps when we can accept, assume the best, and trust the world (which includes trusting ourselves). We imagine others expect perfection of us. We know we expect perfection of ourselves. Maybe, in fact, others do not expect so much; after all, they surely must sometimes feel as imperfect and inadequate about themselves as we do about ourselves. When the discord is especially discordant, we imagine a temporary set-back is a permanent condition of “less than.” Not so. Being human is much more than any single morning or night, any single success or failure, any single joy or sadness, any single elation or disappointment. Being human is altogether imperfectly “more than” during every single day and every single sense of ourselves.
On a Sunday morning like this Sunday morning I am grateful to know that I am not alone. I can be at rest in a community of other imperfect human selves. I know that all together we hear voices outside and the inside – those outer and inner sounds �of our shared outer and inner neighbors and neighborhood. May we soften the sound of imperfections and inadequacies. May we let the inner discord take a rest. May we be still and be.
“Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
‘Pooh!’ he whispered.
‘Yes, Piglet?’
‘Nothing,’ said Piglet, taking Pooh’s paw.
‘I just wanted to be sure of you.’”
I hope you can be sure of you. I hope we can be sure of one other.
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