Thank you to the fans
In my 21 years as director of athletics at Yale, I have only written to the News once or twice, but few occasions in my tenure have matched what transpired at the Yale Bowl on Saturday. The Yale-Army Game was one our department’s proudest moments and it could not have taken place without the support of the greatest student body at the finest University in the world.
In the editorial opinion of Tuesday’s New Haven Register entitled, “Yale-Army Showed Intercollegiate Athletics At Its Best,” the author wrote, “there was a sense of admiration from the Yale students and fans, young and old,” referring to the homage paid to the cadets as they marched through Walter Camp Gates. You students created that atmosphere and your patriotism and chants of “USA! USA! USA!” were the culmination of an event many years in the making.
We in the Athletic Department are writing to thank you. Thank you for coming to the Bowl to support our team. Thank you for honoring our servicemen and women with the respect they deserve. Thank you for proving that Yale is a place where character and leadership are the lifeblood of everything that we do. Thank you for being the best fans in the Ivy League and beyond.
Sept. 27, 2014 will forever be a milestone in Yale’s proud history. It would not have been possible without all of you.
We are grateful.
Tom Beckett
Sept. 28
The writer is the Yale director of athletics.
Stop using “To Singapore, with Love” for your anti-Levin agenda
Do disgruntled Yale faculty really care about the “lack of respect for civil and political rights in the state of Singapore,” or is Yale-NUS College just a proxy site for what has really been an internal Yale University conflict all along?
Singapore has problems, but problems are not the only thing it has — just as America is not simply Guantanamo Bay. The reality of the world we live in today is that American media outlets wield great influence.
The furor surrounding Tan Pin Pin’s banned film “To Singapore, with Love” is a pertinent example. Once news of the ban got out, a friend and I collaborated with Singaporean students from all over the U.S. to host Tan and organize film screenings at their respective colleges.
Suddenly, on Sept. 18, 2014, the News announced that Yale-NUS College was screening Tan’s film. Tan released a statement saying that she had “not agreed to any Singapore screenings, nor [was she] asked in this case.” She later stated that Yale-NUS Professor Robin Hemley had admitted they had made a mistake. Soon after, the director asked that we postpone showing her film in the U.S.
“To Singapore, with Love” was never about Yale or Yale-NUS College, but some at Yale have kept hijacking her film for their own agenda. James Sleeper’s article in the News, “To Singapore — with love?” is a case in point. His disregard for any interests other than his own partisan quarrel is self-evident: He could not even bother to verify the spelling of Tan’s name in the print version of the article (she was named “Pan Tin Tin”).
To disgruntled Yale faculty protesting against Yale-NUS College: If you are concerned about human rights issues, how about focusing additional energies on rights issues within the U.S.? If, on the other hand, you just have a grudge against Yale Corporation, leave Singapore out of it.
Choon Hwee Koh
Oct. 1
The writer is a first year PhD student in history.