Coverage of Inauguration Day will be broadcast in the Sterling Memorial Library lecture hall today from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. for students unable or unwilling to make the trek to Washington. The swearing-in will begin at noon.

Silliman College offers multiple other options for watching the Inauguration. Blue State Coffee, which will soon open at 84 Wall St., and La Cuisine will cater coffee and cupcakes in the college buttery from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Students can also watch the ceremony during lunch on a screen in Silliman’s dining hall or at Silliflicks.

In inauguration news closer to home, two new representatives to the Yale College Council have been selected: Courtney Pannell ’11 from Morse College and Alex Harris ’10 from Branford College. (Pannell is a staff reporter for the News.)

A fire broke out in a custodial closet in the Trumbull sub-basement near Nick Chapel on Sunday morning, triggering the building’s sprinklers and fire alarms. Three New Haven Fire Department trucks responded to the fire, which may have been caused by a steam pipe bursting. Said buttery manager Katie Dryden ’11: “At least it wasn’t the buttery this time.”

The Yale Debate Team continued its winning streak at Dartmouth this weekend. The team moved ahead two places in the world rankings and is now in fourth place, following Sydney, Oxford and Cambridge. The Yale team is far ahead of its Ivy League competitors; Harvard and Princeton trail behind in 23rd and 24th places, respectively.

The Peabody Museum is offering a course entitled “Winter Twig Identification,” which teaches “methods of identifying woody plants in the winter by their twigs.” The class will take place Saturday, Jan. 24, starting at 10 a.m.; snowshoes are unnecessary, but participants should bring lunch.

Neon condoms have replaced many of the usual contraceptives in entryways across the University to promote Sex Weekend at Yale 2009. The event, which will start the Thursday before Valentine’s Day and continue through the weekend, will include the premiere of the Sex Week at Yale 2010 movie as well as other “sexually related” events.

This day in Yale history

1976 Yale’s administration and faculty were embroiled in a debate about whether to change shopping period policies. Professor Rollin Osterweis noted, “The present registration procedure is a covenant with death and an agreement with hell.” The system had been in place since 1971; earlier, freshmen could shop for courses but upperclassmen had to preregister for their next year’s schedule in April.

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