This actually happened. In ECON 131 “Econometrics,” professor Nancy Qian implemented a tried-and-true method for encouraging class camaraderie: She asked everyone in the class to introduce themselves by sharing their names and hometowns. All 100 of them.

Academia. Professor Kathryn Lofton asked her “Religion and Popular Culture” class to write commentaries on any of the following academic subjects: Rump Chat, Frank Ocean, Taylor Swift, “Girls,” “Django Unchained” or “Gangnam Style.” School has never been so fun.

Savin’ Sandy. The House of Representatives voted last night to approve $50.7 billion in emergency relief for victims of Hurricane Sandy more than 10 weeks after the Frankenstorm swept through the Northeast. Officials expect the Senate to approve the measure early next week before sending it to President Obama.

A law-abiding citizen. Yale graduate and Rhodes scholar Luke A. Bronin ’01 LAW ’06 has been named Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy’s chief legal counsel at the ripe old age of 33.

Drumming on Cross Campus. The Association of Native Americans at Yale — along with similar groups across the Ivy League — will throw a “flash mob”-style protest at 10 a.m. this morning in solidarity with the “Idle No More” movement, which aims to preserve Native American sovereignty over tribal land.

Dr. Gage goes to Washington. Yale historian Beverly Gage ’94 is scheduled to cover President Obama’s second inauguration for “PBS NewsHour” on Monday. She will join two other historians and political analysts, including David Brooks, the New York Times columnist who is teaching “Humility” this spring.

Remember her name. The town council of Stratford, Conn. has voted to rename a local elementary school after Victoria Soto, a Sandy Hook Elementary teacher who died after shielding her students from bullets in the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

Who says Yale can’t do math? Professor Emeritus George Daniel Mostow has been awarded the 2013 Wolf Prize, one of the top international awards for mathematicians, for his contributions in geometry. Mostow is known for his discovery of the strong rigidity theorem and will travel to Jerusalem in May to accept the award.

THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY 1904 The financial records of the University’s debate team show a probable deficit of $13.63.