As hordes of students from each residential college rushed to Old Campus on Saturday afternoon to take part in the bacchanalia called bladderball, so too did the new editorial board of this newspaper.
We stood near Connecticut Hall, watching and waiting for that massive, rainbow-colored orb to pass through Phelps Gate. It never did, of course, and we did not really win bladderball, either. No matter what our front-page headline might say, or what Wikipedia posts from various students might tell you, nobody in particular won bladderball this weekend.
While it is clear that one college — Jonathan Edwards — did lose the game, the victor, in the end, was Yale.
On Saturday, as our confused parents and irritated motorists watched on, we chased a big ball down College Street, up Elm Street and all over Cross Campus. We ran in front of moving traffic as the ball bounced on the roofs of sedans. We jumped on staircases and railings and each other in search of a better view.
The police tried to control the chaos, but to no avail. It was clear that they should have closed Elm Street down to car traffic, though no such decision was made. Instead, we saw police officers overwhelmed and unable to control the situation fully. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries reported.
All we can report from Saturday is a whole lot of fun. We have seen this community come together and heal under the most tragic of circumstances this fall; it was therefore all the more refreshing to see so many students gathering and smiling this weekend. There was even something exciting about the tussles after the bladderball was popped. For once, all of us on this campus were working toward the same goal — even if it was to recover a shred of plastic.
Now, it must be said, we at the News did tear off a little piece of the bladderball for ourselves. We have it on display in our building at 202 York St., and you’re welcome to come by and see it anytime.
But, more importantly, come by our building to help us make this community as exciting every day as it was on Saturday. Our newspaper is not spherical, alas, but it does have color and it does have the ability to excite and provoke. Our newspaper can’t stop traffic on Elm Street, but it can make you chuckle in Commons and it can prompt conversations among friends. It can even change the way Yale operates.
We need your help, though. We need you to write us letters, columns and snarky comments on our Web site. We need you to be a part of this newspaper, to stop by our office, because only then can we truly be a voice of this campus.
At the same time as we ask for your help in contributing thoughts and opinions to the 132nd year of the Oldest College Daily, we have not lost sight of our place at Yale. We are here to stand for you, except when we stand against you. We are here to tell you the news and then ask you what you think of it. We are here to begin a discussion and to make Yale a better place.
And, last but not least, we are here to make sure bladderball returns next year.