Tag Archive: freshman class council

  1. FCC helps freshmen find love

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    When the very official Freshman Class Council decided to send out a very official Freshman Class Council newsletter last night, they must have smiled on their kingdom. With one click of a send button, they sent an arrow of love shooting out into cyberspace and into the eyes of every single person in the undergraduate population at Yale.

    Yes, Yalies, it’s time for love and Freshman Screw! It’s time for love and Freshman Speed Dating! It’s time for love and spell-check, because residential is not spelled “residentital”! None of this should be news to you though, because the FCC, with their capable hands and leadership qualities, seems to have bcc’d classes of cynical upperclassmen (myself included) to their newsletter. At the bottom of the newsletter, it says, “If you have any Screw related queries, feel free to ask your local FCC rep!” So here are some questions that I pose to my FCC rep, whoever you may be:

    Cunning FCC, is this cupid bcc blunder really just a secret ploy to make upperclassmen sob into our Diet Snapples as we contemplate our old age and own lack of love? After all, doesn’t the screw theme “Drop It Like F. Scott,” while brilliant, evoke a trip down memory lane where we realize that nine years have passed since we dropped it like it was hot on bat mitzvah dance floors? My darling FCC, when you call Freshman Screw “the esteemed dance,” are you just mocking our own lack of such shining optimism, because after Freshman Screw, no one really puts any effort into finding screw dates anymore? And FCC, when you use “unbeknownst” in your newsletter, I have to ask, is that just a very cutting-edge, so-old-fashioned-it’s-cool sort of thing (like Schwinn bikes and tortoise-shell glasses) to which only you brilliant youth are privy? Are we upperclassmen too mainstream to know to use “unbeknownst” in our propaganda material? Whatever, FCC, you can be hip with your optimism and cool lingo, we’ll just keep crying into our Snapples, pretending like we’re in “Girls.”

    Calm down, I’m just teasing, FCC! A few more real questions though, because I am, according to this newsletter, still cordially invited to screw, and I want to be prepared. Is “screwmate” just a compound word for “screw date” and “suitemate,” i.e., is suite-cest encouraged? Will people at Freshman Speed Dating only blandly “participate in raffles,” I mean, will anyone win the raffles, or will we all just get participant medals? Will the participant medals be engraved? The silhouettes on your screw poster don’t show people grinding, but I really only know how to grind, so what do I do? In a similar vein, will you be offering lessons on how to do the Charleston during Freshman Speed Dating? Where can I purchase a feather headband? Perhaps most importantly though, what is Ivy Council?

    In all seriousness though, I’m just jealous of your fabulous theme! Make Baz Luhrmann salivate FCC!

  2. Licensing office approves FCC shirt design

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    After submitting four different T-shirt designs to the Yale Licensing Office, the Freshman Class Council has finally received approval for its most recent Yale-Harvard shirt design.

    Although the new shirts have no “explicit Harvard symbols or copyrighted material” on them, the FCC still managed to accomplish its goal of making a reference to Harvard’s recent cheating scandal, said FCC President William Sadock ’16.

    “Try cheating your way out of this one,” the back of the shirt reads. The front of the shirt features a bulldog in a referee outfit blowing a whistle.

    “We were really restricted and kept having a lot of designs turned away, so luckily we were able to put this together,” FCC Treasurer Rafi Bildner ’16 said.

    The FCC submitted its first shirt design, which featured the word “Cheatas” emblazoned over the Harvard logo, about a week ago, but the Yale Licensing Office rejected the design based on Harvard’s licensing criteria, according to FCC members.

    Although the multiple rejections did relate to trademark issues, it also represented the administration’s discomfort with “tampering” with Harvard’s logos since Yalies wouldn’t want Harvard tampering with ours, according to FCC Secretary Austin Bryniarski ’16.

    “The shirt is supposed to be in jest and to poke fun at the other school, and I think that the trademark restrictions that both licensing offices have put in place have been blunting that goal and tradition,” he added.

    The Game shirts cost $10 apiece, and additional funds will go toward Hurricane Sandy relief, Sadock said.

    The additional money will be given to “Shirts for Sandy,” an organization created by Calhoun freshmen that will donate proceeds through AmeriCare, he said, adding that AmeriCare has pledged to triple every donation.

    The shirts will be sold in the residential college dining halls during dinner this coming week.

    Clarification: Nov. 12, 2012

    A previous version of this article included three images of original FCC designs that were not approved by the Yale Licensing Office.
  3. Forum: Yale-Harvard game shirts

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    This year’s Freshman Class Council Yale-Harvard game shirt will go on sale this week, but not without its share of controversy. Read perspectives in the News’ Forum:

    Kathryn Crandall, Guest Columnist | Freshman in Saybrook
    It’s a well-known fact among all Yale students. It’s printed on T-shirts, sweatshirts and even boxer shorts: “Harvard sucks.”
    Why do they suck? Who cares? That’s not the point. The point is they — the cold, calculating androids of Harvard University — are our rivals, academically and athletically. That in and of itself is reason enough. And so, it is our duty as Yalies to crack jokes, pull pranks and print witty T-shirts at their expense.
    But for the second year in a row, the Freshman Class Council’s original T-shirt design was rejected. The original shirt poked fun at Harvard’s recent, and embarrassing, cheating scandal, altering Harvard’s crest to read “CH-EA-TAS” instead of the traditional “VE-RI-TAS.” This design was rejected by some combination of the Harvard and Yale licensing offices.
    With this rejection, the licensing offices of Yale and Harvard are contaminating the purity of a beautiful rivalry. The point of a rivalry is to keep your rival on his toes with constant banter, relentlessly displaying how you are better than him in every way shape and form. That is the fun and the beauty of it all.
    And without a rival, there are no challenges. If we didn’t have Harvard, whose name would we boo? Whose football fans would we trick? Who would motivate us to put our heads together and create droll and slightly offensive T-shirts every year?
    As much as I hate to admit it, we need Harvard. We need their rivalry to keep us sharp. And Harvard needs us. They need us to print that shirt. They need us to show them that cheaters never win. And they need us to be a constant reminder that they need to do better.
    Besides, it isn’t our fault they give us so much material to work with.
    Nathaniel Zelinsky, Staff Columnist | Senior in Davenport College
    Yale’s licensing office (acting on behalf of its Cambridge counterpart) recently told the Freshman Class Council they can’t sell a Harvard-Yale T-shirt. Why? FCC’s shirt called Harvard “cheaters,” a reference to the scandal that rocked the Crimson campus early this year.
    Is this a suppression of free speech? Is the legitimacy of academia under attack? Is it a slippery slide from a banned T-shirt to McCarthyism?
    As you can probably tell from my tone, I don’t think so. Yale and Harvard licensing are well within their rights to prevent FCC from printing this shirt.
    I am a free speech advocate (or “nut” depending on whom you ask). And I was deeply troubled in 2009, when Dean Mary Miller prevented the then-Freshman Class Council from making a similar The Game T-shirt that called Harvard men “sissies.” Apparently the term is homophobic and violated Yale’s community standards. Many saw Miller’s actions, correctly, as censorship. She abandoned Yale’s stated policy that any speech, no matter how offensive, deserves protection (see the Woodward Report of 1975, Yale’s ur text on free speech).
    So what’s the difference between 2009 and 2012? Why is “sissies” shirt protected but a “cheaters” shirt is not?
    In 2009, Yale College decided it was in the censorship business. A select few in Woodbridge Hall and Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona imposed arbitrary “norms” — and the logic wasn’t limited to T-shirts. Taken to the extreme, “norms” could extend to every aspect of Yale life. We could be told what guest speakers are within the community’s norms, what plays are okay and what activities go beyond the pale.
    In contrast, in 2012, a corporate licensing office makes a more narrowly tailored claim: This, particular article of clothing cheapens our brand. There is no “norm” based argument that claims to govern all of collegiate life. The potential repercussions are far less worrisome.
    This isn’t an issue of free speech at all — it’s an issue of a corporation controlling its merchandise.

    Want to contribute? Email opinion@yaledailynews.com