THE NEWS

• The grade cutoff needed to graduate with Yale’s highest level of academic distinction rose slightly for the fourth straight year. Since 1988, Yale has awarded three levels of Latin honors to the top 30 percent of each graduating class: summa cum laude for the top 5 percent, magna cum laude for the next 10 percent and cum laude for the remaining 15 percent. Last spring, the grade-point average cutoffs for the three levels of distinction were 3.96, 3.88 and 3.80, respectively, while the cutoffs for the class of 2012 were 3.95, 3.89 and 3.80, respectively. GPA cutoffs for the Latin honors have increased by at least three-hundredths of a point since 2010.
• In an era of budget shorfalls and cuts, the faculty hiring process this year was a little too successful. Yale aims to hire approximately 30 to 35 professors each year in order to keep the size of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences constant at roughly 700 professors. But this year, Provost Benjamin Polak said a greater percentage of professors have accepted job offers than was expected: Fifty-seven new faculty will join Yale, and 13 have yet to respond to their offers. While Polak interpreted the high yield as a “good sign” for Yale’s academic reputation, he said the sudden influx of professors will put additional pressure on an already strained budget, causing the University to slow hiring — almost more than ever before.
• Observing a newborn star, a team of astronomers led by Yale University associate professor of astronomy Héctor Arce discovered twin jets of surprisingly forceful “winds” of carbon monoxide, which could help refine our understanding of how stars impact their cloudy origins and shape their emerging stellar systems. The results of this research were reported in the Astrophysics Journal on Aug. 20. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope, the scientists have obtained a vivid close-up view of materials streaming away from a young star. By closely scrutinizing the telescope images of a young stellar object named Herbig-Haro 46/47, researchers were able to spot a previously unknown second jet in a new direction, and through analyzing the glow of the star’s carbon monoxide molecules, they discovered that the carbon monoxide jets were much more energetic than previously thought.

THE WEATHER

High of 80 degrees, low of 69 degrees, slight chance of showers.

THE FOOD

In the colleges

Breakfast: Hard Cooked Eggs, Vegan Waffles, Waffle, Orange Cranberry Tea Bread, Fresh Fruit, Steel Cut Oatmeal, Waffle Bar

Lunch: Chicken Piccata, Penne Pasta, Organic Tomato Sauce, Basil Pesto, Bolognese Sauce, Sweet and Sour Eggplant, Vegetable Barley Soup, Yankee Bean Soup, Grilled Ratatouille Salad, Tuscan Potato and Pepper Salad, Turkey and Smoked Gouda on Ciabatta, Red Pepper Hummus, Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies, Raspberry Oat Coconut Bars, Fresh Fruit, Pandorato, Italian Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Dinner: Mustard Parmesan Breaded Chicken, Ravioli with Sage Butter, Tofu Provencal, Grilled Salmon with Fresh Herbs and Honey, Vegetable Barley Soup, Yankee Bean Soup, Grilled Ratatouille Salad, Tuscan Potato and Pepper Salad, Apricot Pistachio Ring, Fresh Fruit

In Commons

Breakfast: Hard Cooked Eggs, Vegan Waffles, Waffle, Orange Cranberry Tea Bread, Fresh Fruit, Steel Cut Oatmeal, Waffle Bar

Lunch: Chicken Piccata, Penne Pasta, Organic Tomato Sauce, Basil Pesto, Bolognese Sauce, Sweet and Sour Eggplant, Vegetable Barley Soup, Yankee Bean Soup, Grilled Ratatouille Salad, Tuscan Potato and Pepper Salad, Turkey and Smoked Gouda on Ciabatta, Red Pepper Hummus, Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies, Raspberry Oat Coconut Bars, Fresh Fruit, Pandorato, Italian Grilled Cheese Sandwich