confirm: baraboo
MASTER’S PIECES
Can you spell b-r-e-a-k? I’ll be correcting papers, you may be writing one (or two), but we’ll both be happy for the chance to catch up regardless. I hope that includes sleep, friends, movies, etc. If you’re traveling, safe travels. If you’re staying here, as Sally and I are, see you around the courtyard or one of the six open dining halls. No special TD events this week, for obvious reasons, but that’s what break means.
Here are three dates on the near horizon post-break, however, that you might want to get onto your calendar now:
Monday, October 28, 7-9 pm, Ifeanyi Awachie TD ’14 and reception for “Summer in Igboland” Our very own Ifeanyi will host an opening reception for her TD Creative and Performing Arts project in Maya’s Room (art gallery in Silliman Byers Hall). “Summer in Igboland” is an exhibit featuring photographs of contemporary Nigeria. Born in Nigeria in 1992 and brought to the U.S. at 18 months, Ifeanyi returned to Nigeria for the first time during the summer of 2013 to document beauty, technology, leisure, and day-to-day life in today’s Nigeria.
Wednesday, October 30, 4:30 pm in the Master’s House – Master’s Tea with Peter Crane, Dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and author of “Ginkgo: The Tree that Time Forgot”. Yes, the fabulous dean of Yale FES has just published an INCREDIBLE natural history bestseller. paying homage to none other than the Ginkgo, the official tree of Timothy Dwight College. A must-see TD Master’s Tea. (More to come, but go to Amazon and check it out! I’ve got a first edition hot off the press. Will be giving away two autographed copies as door prizes at the Tea, and also a special Gingko memento fashioned from the wood of our very own specimen.)
Thursday, October 31 at about 6:15 pm in the TD Dining Hall: Annual TD Halloween Costume Contest. Incredibly, at each Halloween costume contest since I became master, the judges have awarded EXACTLY the same number of “named awards” as the costume contest has had entrants. Come see if this miracle repeats itself again this year. Do your best to outwit the exceptionally experienced judges and their special advisors under the age of 10.
Don’t worry. Be happy.
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”)
To study a language not taught at Yale apply to the Yale Directed Independent Language Study Program (DILS). Undergraduate, graduate and professional students are eligible to apply. More information and application at: www.cls.yale.edu/dils or email dils@yale.edu. Application deadline for the Spring 2014 semester is October 22, 2013.
Yale-in-London for Spring Term 2014: deadline extended The deadline for applications to the spring 2014 session of the Yale-in-London program has been extended to Friday, November 1, 2013. Offered are courses in Sociology, History of Art, and Drama offered only at Yale-in-London. Earn Yale credits automatically, and earn distribution credits in both Humanities and Social Sciences. The courses come to life as you study while immersing yourself in the sources, sites, and art while living in one of the world’s greatest cities. Further details on courses, faculty, living in London and the application process are available at:http://britishart.yale.edu/education/yale-college-students/yale-in-london
SOPHOMORES
Sophomore Web Site at http://sophomore.yalecollege.yale.edu
Upcoming Info Sessions for Majors, Departments, and Programs
Environmental Studies. Tuesday, October 29 at 4:00 p.m. (WLH 209) and Wednesday, October 30 at 12:00 (HGS 217A). Sophomores and any other students interested in applying to the Environmental Studies major should plan to attend one of our information sessions tol go over the requirements of the major, designing your own concentration, and what an Environmental Studies major prepares you to do. This is a great opportunity to have your questions answered. Students may apply in either the fall or spring term; there is no cap on the major. Fall term applications are due on December 9, 2013, and Spring term applications are due on February 27, 2014. For application details, please visit our website.
Psychology. Tuesday, October 29 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. This information session with Professor Laurie Santos, DUS, is intended to give sophomores and other interested students information about the Psychology major and its requirements. Ice cream from Ashley’s will be served. ML211.
Classics. Wednesday, October 30 from 6:00-7:00 p.m. Students are warmly invited to join the DUS and faculty in Classics for pizza, cake, and other refreshments. Come and find out about the different majors on offer in the Classics department and our courses and activities. The meeting will take place in the Chair’s Office on the 4th floor of Phelps (Phelps 401).
Global Affairs. Friday, November 1 from 2:30-3:30 p.m. (203 Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Avenue) and Wednesday, November 6 from 4:00-5:00 p.m. (05 Rosenkranz Hall, 115 Prospect Street).
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.]
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.
Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Wednesday, November 13 at 7:30 p.m. WGSS will hold a dinner for prospective majors from the classes of 2017 and 2016. WLH 309.
Humanities. Tuesday, January 14, 2014 at 5:30 p.m. Prospective Humanities majors are invited to join the DUS, Professor Norma Thompson, and Professor Virginia Jewiss for an informational session on the major and the Humanities Program’s Summer in Rome. Humanities Major Office is located on the second floor of the Whitney Humanities Center at 53 Wall Street, Room 206. For further information, please contact Constance Pascarella (203-432-1313), or the DUS, Professor Norma Thompson, at (203-432-0675). Whitney Humanities Center Auditorium.
Fall 2013 One-on-One Sessions, by Appointment with the DUS
IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
Archeological Studies. Students interested in the major in Archeological Studies should e-mail the DUS, Professor Oswaldo Chinchilla, to arrange a time to meet.
African Studies. Students interested in a major in African Studies are invited to contact Professor Cheryl Doss, the DUS, to schedule a time to meet.
Art. Students interested in the art major should send an email art.dus@yale.edu this fall to ask to be placed on the sophomore intended major email list for updates and general announcements and for the announcement of the upcoming fall info session.
Computer Science and joint majors. Students interested in a major in Computer Science, Computer Science and Mathematics, Computer Science and Psychology, Computing and the Arts, or Electrical Engineering and Computer Science should visit http://dus.cs.yale.edu to schedule a time to meet.
Economics, and Economics & Mathematics. During his walk-in office hours posted on the undergraduate webpage,http://economics.yale.edu/undergraduate/dus-office-hours, Professor Samuel Kortum, the DUS for the Economics major and the Economics and Mathematics major will provide information about the requirements for the majors, research opportunities, career options, and any other issues students may have Students are encouraged to email him for a special meeting if the posted day and time doesn’t suit a student’s schedule.
Modern Middle East Studies. During walk-in office hours, the co-DUSes for the Modern Middle East Studies major will provide information about the requirements for the major, research opportunities, career options, and any other information students may seek. Students are encouraged to email either professor, listed below, for a meeting at another time, if the posted day and time doesn’t fit their schedule.
• Professor Beatrice Gruendler (Beatrice.Gruendler@yale.edu) is available Wednesdays, 2 to 4 pm, in HGS 317.
• Professor Andrew March (Andrew.March@yale.edu) is available Thursdays, 1:30 to 3:30 pm, in RKZ 135.
Religious Studies. Religious Studies. Students interested in the major in Religious Studies should e-mail the DUS, Professor Kathryn Lofton, to arrange a time to meet. For more information on the undergraduate major in Religious Studies, consult the department web site.
Russian, and Russian and East European Studies. Students interested in a major in Russian or Russian and East European Studies are invited to contact Professor Bella Grigoryan, the DUS of Slavic Languages and Literatures. Email – bella.grigoryan@yale.edu
Art Major Meeting and Group Critique of Student Work Prospective art majors are invited to join current art majors on Wednesday, November 6, at 5:30 p.m. in Room G01 of Green Hall, 1156 Chapel Street, for pizza and a group critique of student work, followed by a Q&A, and then an Open Drawing Session at 8:30 p.m. All are welcome. - See more at: http://sophomore.yalecollege.yale.edu/#sthash.4w99HOcq.dpuf
OTHER
2014 YALE PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL CALL FOR SCRIPTS: Deadline for scripts: Monday, December 2, 2013, 4:30 pm, Theater Studies office, 220 York, Room 102. Competition open to all Yale College students. Please submit your one-act and/or full-length script(s) in progress for consideration for the 2014 Yale Playwrights Festival, to be held in late February in a series of public readings in Yale Rep.We are looking for unpublished, previously unproduced works in progress. They should be far enough along to benefit from the mentorship of working writers in and out of Yale and from a rehearsed reading in front of a theater audience. On average, four to five festival scripts are selected by a panel of Yale faculty readers from those submitted. The author of each script selected is then assigned two mentors, one inside, one outside Yale, professional writers who act as resources to the student writer working on the script in the six to eight weeks before the festival. Recent years’ mentors have included Neal Bell, Amy Bloom, Keith Bunin, Tanya Dean, Rinne Groff, Barbara Hammond, James Leverett, Bobby Lopez, Craig Lucas, Tarell McCraney, Conor McPherson, Deb Margolin, Donald Margulies, Itamar Moses, Joseph Roach, Edwin Sánchez, Paul Sirett, Margaret Spillane, Alice Tuan, Paula Vogel, Paul Walsh, and Michael Weller. You may submit more than one play. A hard copy is required. Be sure that the pages are stapled together and your name is on the title page. The type size of the dialogue should be at least 10 points, preferably 12. Leave your script(s) with Mrs. Brantley in the Theater Studies office, 220 York, Room 102. The Yale Playwrights Festival is sponsored by the Office of the Dean and Yale Theater Studies. Timetable: December 2, 4:30 pm: Scripts due to May Brantley, Theater Studies, 220 York Street. Mid-December: Festival writers notified. Mid-December to late February: Writers work on scripts. Late February: Yale Playwrights Festival, Yale Rep For more information, email toni.dorfman@yale.edu
CIPE
Summer Opportunities Panel
Monday, October 21, 7:00 pm at La Casa Cultural (301 Crown St.) Join student participants and staff members from CIPE to learn more about study abroad, fellowships, and internships for Yale students.
Yale Graduate Programs Admissions Fair
Monday, October 28, 2013, 4:30 pm-6:30 pm at Yale Law School Dining Hall (127 Wall Street)
This event will allow you to connect directly with admissions representatives from the following Yale graduate programs: Yale Divinity School, Yale School of Drama, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Yale Law School, Yale School of Management, Yale School of Nursing, and the Yale School of Public Health. Students will be able to attend the event at any time during the two hour period and move freely from table to table to speak with representatives from each program.
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.
Important Fellowship Updates:
Workshop: Interviewing for Nationally-Competitive Fellowships
Monday, October 21, 4:00-5:00 pm
CIPE Room 305, 55 Whitney Avenue, 3rd Floor
Fellowship Opportunities for Juniors Info Session
Wednesday, October 30, 4:00-5:00 pm
CIPE Room 305, 55 Whitney Avenue, 3rd Floor
Michel David-Weill Scholarship for Graduate Study at Sciences Po (seniors)
Due Friday, November 1, 3:00 pm
Carnegie Endowment Junior Fellows Program (seniors)
Goldwater Scholarship (sophomores & juniors)
St Andrew’s Society Graduate Scholarship (seniors)
Truman Scholarship (juniors)
Due Friday, November 15, 3:00 pm
NOTES
On Friday night was such a bright Hunter’s Moon. In the courtyard in the moonlight, I saw my shadow. I then had this newly strange feeling as my shadow moved with me as I moved about. It was with me and then left and then returned as I stepped in and out of the moonlight. As if for the first time I felt connections: a rising and a falling, a coming and a going, a feeling substantial and a feeling not – all at once and at the same time. That got me musing about shadows, moons, and reflecting (light).
I thought of A Child’s Garden of Verses:
“I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.”
I thought of a poem by Garcia Lorca, “The Little Mad Boy”:
“The light as it went, for a joke
parted the mad boy from his shadow.”
I assume Lorca means that the sun went down or he stepped out of the light. I assume he means much more, too. Under the moonlight I took that line personally: I am what I cast, I am something substantial, and the shadow signs my substance. Sometimes the shadow is short, sometimes long, and sometimes (sometimes discouragingly) absent. I see light. I see shadows. With others and their words I try to make sense of things and try to mean.
Some of my favorite words are in Meditations on Don Quixote by Ortega y Gasset about shadows connections and meanings: “If we continue paying attention to one object, it will become more clearly perceived because we shall keep finding in it more reflections of and connections with the surrounding things. … The ‘meaning’ of a thing is the highest form of its coexistence with other things – it is its depth dimension. No, it is not enough for me to have the material body of a thing; I need, besides, to know its ‘meaning,’ that is to say, the mystic shadow which the rest of the universe casts on it.”
And then I was told there was a bit of an eclipse at Friday’s Hunter’s Moon – a shadow of the universe, indeed. Taking all this personally, I will have the courage and patience to step out again to try to perceive the shadows cast by the universe on people and places and things. I will try to see the reflections and connections among us. Let us try to remember under the light of the sun and the moon: Each of us is a person of substance. Others are persons of substance. We cast our shadows and we reflect each other so that we may mean.
Wishing you lots of light over October Break,
Dean Loge
“One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.”