THE NEWS

• Three years after financial concerns caused administrators to cut back on Yale’s prizes, the prize reductions still remain in effect. When the recession tore a $350 million hole in Yale’s operating budget in 2009, administrators sought many ways to close the gap, such as a 2010 decision to cap most prizes at $1,000 and channel the excess funds toward the general operating budget for primarily financial aid purposes. Though at the time, the prize cap announcement elicited an outcry from students and faculty members alike, administrators and professors interviewed said the caps have not been lifted since and added that Yale is not encouraging donors to establish new prizes.
• While students celebrated two consecutive snow days after a blizzard hit New Haven earlier this month, interns at the Yale Farm scrambled to rescue their spring crop from the storm’s path. The snowstorm that struck New Haven on Feb. 8 collapsed one of the farm’s three high tunnels, which will limit planting and harvesting capacity for the rest of the winter season. Farm Director Mark Bomford said in a Sunday email that the staff plans to rebuild the damaged structure before the spring, but reconstruction will leech from the farm’s budget. Although the farm received a grant to build a new high tunnel from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Resource Conservation Service, Shizue Rocheadachi ’15, the farm’s student manager, said the farm will instead use the funding to reconstruct the collapsed tunnel.
• The University completed a successful 2012 fiscal year with a total of $543,905,260 in cash donations — the second-highest amount ever raised for Yale and the third-highest total for all U.S. colleges and universities this year, according to the Council for Aid to Education’s annual fundraising survey. Vice President for Development Joan O’Neill said 78 percent of the cash donations were pledges made during the Yale Tomorrow campaign, which took place from September 2006 to June 2011. Donors filling their outstanding pledges after the conclusion of the campaign significantly bolstered Yale’s performance during the 2012 fiscal year, which ended on June 30, 2012. The majority of cash donations went towards the University endowment, O’Neill said, and donations fell slightly from the fiscal year 2011 total of $580 million, the last year of the campaign.

THE WEATHER

High of 43 degrees, low of 33 degrees, partly sunny, rain in the evening.

THE FOOD

In the colleges

Breakfast: Steelcut Oats, Waffle Bar, Cranberry-Orange Tea Bread (no nuts)

Lunch: Pork & Hominy Soup (Pozole), Roasted Tomato & Black Bean Soup, Chipotle Tomato Salsa, Chilaquiles Verdes, Chile-Cumin Shredded Beef Tacos, All-Natural Grilled Chicken Breast, Grilled Garden Burger, All-Natural Grilled Cheeseburger, All-Natural Grilled Burger, Mexico City Chicken Sandwich, The Mexican Wrap, Peruvian Cilantro Brown Rice, Fresh Market Vegetable, Quinoa with Roasted Jalapenos, Brazilian Black Bean Salad, Oatmeal Cranberry Cookie

Dinner: Pork & Hominy Soup (Pozole), Roasted Tomato & Black Bean Soup, Southwest Pasta, Mexican Grilled Vegetable Flatbread, All-Natural Grilled Chicken Breast, Grilled Garden Burger, All-Natural Grilled Cheeseburger, All-Natural Grilled Burger, Lime & Cilantro Carne Asada, Diri et pois coloes (Haitian Rice & Red Beans), Fresh Market Vegetable, Quinoa with Roasted Jalapenos, Brazilian Black Bean Salad, Pastel de Tres Leche

In Commons

Breakfast: Cream Of Wheat Without Milk, Waffle Bar, Zucchini Frittata, Omelets To Order, Texas French Toast, Cage-Free Scrambled Eggs, Scrambled Egg Whites, Shredded Potatoes, Cranberry-Orange Tea Bread (no nuts)

Lunch: Escarole & Sausage Soup, Cream Of Fresh Mushroom Soup, Turkey Mango Chili, Vegan Shepherd’s Pie, Spaghetti, Pork Sirloin Fajita, Bean Burger, Pepperoni Pizza, Fresh Tomato & Basil Pizza (Vegan), Cheese Pizza, Shrimp Fried Rice, Jasmine Rice, Stir-Fried Chicken, Vegetable Curry, Tofu Lo Mein, Italian Deli Zep, Dirty Rice, Fresh Market Vegetable, Roasted Butternut Squash, Quinoa with Roasted Jalapenos, Brazilian Black Bean Salad, Oatmeal Cranberry Cookie