Author Archives: Alexis Wolff

Erica Thomas ’03 is a religious studies major, but that’s not why she spends 10 hours per week behind the circulation desk of Sterling Memorial Library, Yale’s mock cathedral. Thomas works because she has to. But she may soon be able to spend more time reading about cathedrals than working in one. When financial aid »

The financial aid office has already started building files for this year’s early admission applicants, some of whom will eventually receive a financial aid award letter along with a letter of acceptance. But exactly what these award letters will say is still unknown, said Myra Smith, the director of undergraduate financial aid. A decrease in »

Besides the yellow police tape, reporter David Leonhardt ’95 said the main newsroom of the New York Times looks just like normal. His desk is there unscathed, his computer, his notes. Everything is the same, except for the notable absence of fellow reporter Judith Miller from her desk just yards away from Leonhardt’s. Miller, a »

Rowan Claypool ’80 said he hopes his son John — today a lively redheaded third grader in Louisville, Ky. — will someday be taught by Yale graduates. Claypool is in the early stages of developing a new program — Grads in the Bluegrass — which he said would give Yale students “an organized way to »

Many people will sweat for their colleges; few expect to bleed for them. A Morse victory in an Oct. 4 intramural soccer match against Pierson cost Emre Ozcan ’03 a broken nose after an altercation with Joe Gennaro ’04. “It was not a fight at all because I did nothing,” said Ozcan, who added that »

Johnny Scafidi ’01 likes to stretch his long phone cord to reach the window on the opposite side of his second-floor office in the heart of Old Campus. Scafidi, Dwight Hall’s program director, watches students scurry to class and sometimes even interrupts business calls to shout a quick greeting to a familiar face passing below. »

The small group on Cross Campus Tuesday was solemn and intellectual. The 50 or so people were sharing their views on the recent U.S. bombings in Afghanistan. And then Dalton Jones GRD ’03 rollerbladed into the center of the circle and began belting out the words to Peter Tosh’s “Equal Rights.” Jones was the only »

Watching a stream of dancers glide across the podium in front of Sterling Memorial Library, philosophy major Stephanie Wu ’03 reasoned the stage must be set for an elaborate ballroom dance show. The dancers, she thought, must be practicing late into the night in preparation. That the stage might have another purpose never crossed her »

By bike and bungee cord — but mostly by boat — Christopher Murphy ’88 loved to explore the world. In the Woodbridge, Conn., home of Virginia and William Murphy ’50 LAW ’53 — the house Chris Murphy lived in from birth to college — his mother followed the same routine each time her youngest son »

It was still summer, but Laura Runnels ’04 already had talked to her new roommate and found she liked her, alleviating a major anxiety. Kent Gould ’04 did not end up getting along with his roommate as well as Runnels did, even though after one phone call Gould predicted he and his future roommate would »

The coveralls you saw a handful of Yalies sporting during Bulldog Days aren’t a wacky, must-have fashion trend. Unless you’re a Just Add Water-wannabe. The distinctive suits are trademarks of JAW, one of Yale’s six esteemed comedy troupes. Just Add Water, The Purple Crayon, Ex!t Players and The Viola Question combine to form the collection »

“Check!” your mom will yell this August as she crosses another item off her list. Pencil and clipboard in hand, she will circle your bedroom, inspecting the nearly-packed cardboard boxes that cover the floor. She will make sure you have packed everything she deems necessary for nine months of life away from home. As she »