Baala Shakya
Staff Reporter
BaalaShakya | baala.shakya@yale.edu
Baala Shakya covers Central Administration & Institutional Standing for the News. She previously covered Student Life and Campus Politics. Originally from San Antonio, Texas, she is a sophomore in Trumbull College majoring in History & Political Science.
Author Archive
BAALA SHAKYA
McInnis, Lewis urge first years to enter college with open minds

McInnis pushed students to seek out new connections, while Lewis encouraged them to question and reflect on their moral beliefs.

August 19, 2025

BAALA SHAKYA & JERRY GAO
Tree limb falls in Berkeley, causing alarm at first-year welcome ceremony

Moments after first years sang “Bright College Years,” a large tree limb crashed down in the south Berkeley courtyard, barely missing one onlooker.

August 18, 2025

SABRINA THALER & BAALA SHAKYA
Two alder candidates court first years moving onto Old Campus

Elias Theodore ’27 and Rhea McTiernan Huge ’27 registered at least 55 new voters in New Haven’s downtown Ward 1 as the deadline to register to vote in the Democratic primary nears.

August 18, 2025

BAALA SHAKYA
Mascots, music and mattress toppers: Yale College class of 2029 moves in

This year, first-year students moved onto a reconfigured Old Campus.

August 18, 2025

REETI MALHOTRA & BAALA SHAKYA
Connecticut man convicted for threatening shooting at Yale

In a handwritten civil complaint against “Yale New Haven Inc.” in March 2023, Mandel Bidone threatened violence against Yale students and staff if the lawsuit was dismissed.

August 16, 2025

JERRY GAO & BAALA SHAKYA
Yale ends free Adobe Creative Cloud access

Students and faculty across design-oriented disciplines say the software is essential and fear the move signals deeper cuts to the University’s creative resources.

July 26, 2025

BAALA SHAKYA
Russia blacklists Yale, points to Jackson School-educated Kremlin critics

Citing Yale’s World Fellows Program and its training of Russian opposition leaders, Russian authorities designated Yale an “undesirable organization.”

July 14, 2025

BAALA SHAKYA
New York mayoral primary results prompt Yale Youth Poll reckoning

State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani’s surprise victory over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo defied a Yale poll, whose prediction for Mamdani’s first-round vote was 16 percentage points below Tuesday’s results.

June 29, 2025

BAALA SHAKYA
Yale Corporation picks new trustee, names next senior trustee

Consumer Reports leader Marta Tellado GRD ’02 succeeds Joshua Bekenstein ’80 as senior trustee, while Yale Investments committee member Carter Simonds ’99 joins the Yale Corporation.

June 24, 2025

HENRY LIU & BAALA SHAKYA
Senators propose smaller endowment tax hike than House bill

The Senate Finance Committee’s Monday draft text for the Republican megabill reduces the top tax rate on universities’ investment returns to 8 percent, down from the 21 percent the House passed last month.

June 17, 2025

BAALA SHAKYA & HENRY LIU
Yalies to rally in Washington against budget bill

Students are hosting a press conference with Connecticut senators and lobbying against a Republican budget proposal that could significantly increase taxes on universities’ endowments.

June 11, 2025