On the Ground

August 31: The long anticipated return to Rudolph Hall was met with an anti-climatic turn out. The few students who did brave sharing air with their peers received a welcome package of sanitizer, wipes, headphones, a fresh copy of Retrospecta 43, and a ‘Y’-emblazoned mask—because pandemic or not, Yale won’t miss a marketing opportunity.

An unfortunate group of second year M.Arch I students found themselves stuck for another studio on the sixth floor, reminding them that it is indeed still March 2020.

September 1: From an incoming student: “I’m trying to become a ‘regular’ in some of the neighborhood shops. It’s mostly to support local businesses, but oddly, it’s also become my way of connecting with people. I had a long and fabulous conversation with Raphael about incense at GW Bench. I think we’re friends now… My first friend in New Haven.”

September 4: A well-meaning administrator invites an incoming student to meet in-person at the offices in Rudolph Hall to offer them some much-needed guidance through the bewildering Serlio process. Unfortunately, having never received a tour, the student declines, as they do not know where said office is.

September 5: The new and unimproved Serlio system makes more sense if you think of it as a passive aggressive administrator retaliating against its ungrateful students with the worst punishment of all: assigning you to your last choice in all your electives.

September 11: Community-deprived students flocked to the various 6 on 7 satellite locations scattered throughout New Haven, but for many, the evening was cut short as the question, “Where’s the nearest bathroom?” echoed across the city.

September 12: That sound you heard this morning was a collective holding of breaths in New Haven as undergraduates in on-campus housing were released from their mandatory 14-day quarantine.