Author Archives: Leah Libresco

The Freedom Tower has been in construction since 2006, and will likely take at least two more years to complete. The 9/11 memorial did squeak to completion ahead of the 10th anniversary, but the museum won’t open until next year. These delayed projects sparked frustration, but one post-9/11 project has been much more dangerously prolonged: »

Here’s my old, wise senior advice: learn how to imitate your ideological enemies. By the time you graduate from Yale, you should be able to imitate your opponents well enough to pass unnoticed among them. Now, let’s be clear: I’m not encouraging to you all grow up to be little James O’Keefes and infiltrate fundraisers »

I didn’t know I had been appointed to the Yale Standing Committee on Science and QR until about eight months after my term as a committee member began, because that’s how long it was before I was ever contacted about scheduling a meeting. I believe it met about twice that term, but meetings were not »

Dear Yale College Council candidates, As the Class of 2015 is about to find out at Bulldog Days, we are privileged with an incredibly lively campus, with literally hundreds of extracurricular organizations that contribute to a uniquely vibrant social scene. The YCC has been very effective in bringing student concerns and reforms to the Yale »

The national press has misplaced its focus in the coverage of the Title IX complaint. Media outlets have emphasized Yale’s poor response to several high-profile incidents of harassment (the DKE chant, the Zeta sign, the theft of the Take Back the Night shirts, etc.) and have neglected the more important issue on campus: Yale’s persistently »

Bradley Manning, the alleged source of the WikiLeaks cable, has gotten a lot of press coverage — and little help. Writing about his situation has begun to feel futile, and I’m starting to feel at a loss about what is to be done. Bradley Manning is still being held in cruel and inappropriate conditions. He »

In Krav Maga, the martial art used by the Israeli Defense Forces, offense is the only defense. The Israeli instructor hosted last week by Yale Friends of Israel, Yale Espionage Society and the Yale Karate Club opened his class by explaining, “Self-defense is just a legal term. If you want to get out of a »

This week, the News reported that the surge in panlist spam had prompted ITS to freeze the creation of new lists and consider junking the system altogether. The second thing I thought when I saw the article was, “How terrible!” The first though I had was, naturally, “Would it be funny to send the article »

Perhaps you missed it in the deluge of panlist spam that has gripped the campus since we returned from break, but last week a new Yale organization made its presence known. YaleLunch (transplanted from Harvard) has set up a website to match students looking for lunch partners. The idea is fine, but the tagline used »

Modern conservatives and libertarians like to frame their attacks on liberals as good common sense. Rather than disagreeing with goals of progressive reform, they attack the means and laws as inappropriate. Health care reform is being attacked not only on constitutional grounds but as misguided in its entire approach. Conservatives tell us that it is »

As a senior in my last semester at Yale, I’m finally free to reveal my list of must-take classes at Yale without worrying that you lot will show up with me to shop and bump me to the waitlist. But I’m not running down the usual list of top seminars and star professors. Nor is »

Yale students wouldn’t turn out to spectate and cheer for a car accident, so why is our campus so excited for football? On Saturday, when our team goes out to roughhouse poor old Harvard, the members of the football team may be inflicting and sustaining injuries that could have long-lasting effects. Football’s head-to-head collisions can »