Div Dictionary: Refectory

Refectory (n.): Sterling Divinity Quadrangle’s source for meals, unless you REALLY like vending machine food.

Since back-to-back classes on Holy Hill don’t really give you enough time to get down to Yale’s main campus and back for lunch, SDQ is equipped with it’s own cafeteria and dining hall, known as the refectory. The refectory is open from around 7am until 2pm every day, and serves sandwiches, hot lunch entrees, packaged stuff and salads. There’s a grill in the back that I always forget about, and enough soda choices to make anyone happy (until they run out of Diet Coke, which makes me distinctly unhappy).

When you begin the school year, you’ll automatically be charged a $400 board fee. You’ll get that money back though – it’s loaded onto your student ID so that you can use it to purchase food at lunch or between classes (or, for the ambitious among us, before classes too). If you don’t use up all $400 in the fall semester, it will roll over to the spring semester. If you don’t use up all that money during the spring semester, you will never see it again.

To spend $400, you may need to employ a little strategy. Since the refectory stocks canned goods and household items, you can buy a lot of tissues or buy cans and donate them at Marquand chapel (the chapel team puts out a basket and make sure it gets to a deserving charity). Some commuting students buy more than they need to take home to hungry kids or spouses. The staff will also take your points at the end of a term and use them when students like me come to the register with $8.00 worth of food and only $6.57 remaining on their card balance. You could also just be me, and be on campus almost every day for lunch, and run through $400 in no time.

This all sounds a little silly, but please remember – the refectory is hardly a money-making operation. It’s a service provided to us so that we don’t have to rely on the vending machines, or troop all the way down to Commons every day. The refectory also provides space for the community to eat together (in a scant 77 seats, so it’s more like a portion of the community). There’s even a community kitchen in the back where you can store and warm up food, as well as use and wash plates and utensils – remember, jut a few minutes spent over the sink will help reduce YDS’s carbon footprint!

-Kate

What it means to be a Yale student: Part 2,409 in a 109,293-part series

There’s a LOT tied up in what it means to be a Yale student, but in this season of unexpected wonderful things, I’d like to touch on just one: you can see a lot of art for free.

No doubt you’ll visit the Yale Art Gallery and the Center for British Art (in which I am mostly interested because it’s a Louis Kahn building). They’re both excellent museums, and wonderful respites for when you’re really sick of everything, and just want to see some paintings. Or, again, if you’re me – some great decorative art.

But did you know that your Yale ID will ALSO get you into the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art? I actually didn’t, until I drove up there. (It’s normally a 2.5 hour drive, max, but thank to MassDOT and a water main break near Springfield along I-91, it took us 5 hours.)

No joke! Since Yale University helped fund the 25-year Sol LeWitt installation , you get free admission with your Yale ID. (Ed. note: I frankly don't really understand why Sol LeWitt is enjoyable - yes, I get why he's important, but I'd rather look at the George Bolster stuff for kicks.)

So if you’re REALLY sick of everything, and can only be comforted by innovative video art or installation pieces, drive on up past my old high school and check out MassMOCA. (Then drive on over to the People’s Pint in Greenfield, Mass, and get a growler to take back as a souvenir.)

Safe and happy travels – whenever you’re going this summer!

-Kate

New Faculty!

I wouldn't be surprised if we already sent you this in another email, but check out the newbies: Young scholars fill YDS positions*. I want to read all of Clarence Hardy III's and Tisa Wegner's books. (Not that I don't find Asian Christianity fascinating, it's just that I attended Chloe Faith Starr's lecture when she was being interviewed, and I feel like I have a grip on what she's about. Also, I have a not-so-secret crush on the American Southwest.)

New faculty have their own little orientation, but we hope they'll be joining us for some BTFO events. Just remember not to be too smug when you know where things are and they don't. We'll be doing tours of SDQ on Monday evening just so you know where the RSV room is.

-Kate

*No, it's not just you. That does sound like a "That's what she said" moment.

A Journey of a Thousand Miles …

We’ve now reached the end of finals week. After taking my Hebrew exam on Wednesday, I’m down to one paper, which isn’t due until May 18th. Right now, that seems like a lot of time, but I’m sure I’ll find a way to procrastinate it right up ‘til May 17th.

Speaking of Hebrew, the language was a little like yoga for me. First the teacher demonstrates, say, parsing the Hithpael imperfect or doing bird of paradise pose, and I’ll be like “Noooooo way. That is not going to happen for me.” Cut to six months later, when I find the Hithpael to be second nature, and my leg does bend that way. Once reaching my goal, I seem to have forgotten the long journey it took to get to this point.

Hopefully your adjustment to YDS will be a similar tale. Though it seems daunting at first, you'll look back later and wonder at how much difficulty you had finding the Day Missions Room that first time you had a paper to write.

In the mail in the next few weeks, you’ll all be getting the materials you’ll need to take the very first steps on this next great big journey you’ll be undertaking – information on how to sign up for your Yale email, and a draft of the course schedule for next semester. Just like when you’re perfecting your bridge pose or learning the object pronouns of a dead language, it’ll all about visualization, seeing yourself successfully completing the task at hand.

Once you get to YDS, you’ll be assigned an advisor who will have some helpful input on what course you select (and will sign off on your selection every term). You might also want to spend some time with the YDS bulletin – this lists the areas of study we have and the distribution requirements you’ll need to fulfill for whatever degree you’re going for. The bulletin you’re given at orientation will be your secondary Bible – save it forever and refer to it often. No matter what regulations change as you move through YDS, your graduation will be dependent on your fulfilling the bulletin requirements from the year you matriculated.

Vaya con dios!

-Kate

PS – I only got four and a half hours of sleep last night, because I went to see the new Star Trek movie. Apologies for whatever lapses of logic occur in the above.

PPS – Not gonna lie; totally worth it. The movie was pretty great.

PPPS – Speaking of actual yoga, there are several places to practice in New Haven. Check out www.freshyoga.com , where I go, or http://www.bikramyogact.com/, where my friend Jen is a regular. You can also do yoga at the Yale gym for cheaper as a series class.

Div Dictionary: Dale Mail

Ed. Note: Here at YDS, we throw an awful lot of jargon around. Acronyms, colloquialisms, you name it. "Div Dictionary" is a recurring feature which will seek to clarify some things. You can search for other posts like this by clicking "Div Dictionary" in the "labels" menu at right.

Dale Mail (n): Email communications sent to all of YDS; our primary method of information distribution. (At right: The eponymous Dale Peterson, YDS Dean of Students, proprietor of the candy bowl, all around great guy.)

When I was going through BTFO, I kept asking what this "Dale Mail" everyone kept talking about was and how I could sign up for it. This was before I was getting 45 emails a day from Dean of Students Dale Peterson. Basically, if you've got anything to announce to the YDS community - financial aid deadline, upcoming lunch program, lost and found notice - you send it to dalemail@yale.edu. Emails are forwarded to the entire YDS community. You are automatically going to receive these emails. So don't worry, you'll be ankle deep in them soon enough.

Dale Mail can be somewhat overwhelming. I for one have set up a filter on my GMail* so that all of my Dale Mail skips my inbox. (I use my inbox as a to-do list, so seeing 50 unread emails in there whenever I opened it up gave me mild panic attacks all the time.) With all the relatively unimportant stuff (typical emails include "LOST BAG!" and two hours later "BAG FOUND!"), it's easy to write Dale Mail off. But please don't! All kinds of interesting and important information goes out - scholarships, lectures, worship services, etc. all get announced via Dale Mail. Stop reading it entirely and you might miss when to turn in the FAFSA or where to find the free food.

-Kate

* We can talk about how to forward all your @yale.edu email to another account if you want. It was very easy, and enables me to do a lot more with my inbox.

Phew!

So that resolution to update the blog every week? Already fallen back on. Dang!

In this season of insane busy-ness (only six more days of classes! ... and three papers, two exams, and one quiz), maybe it's just best to update any readers we've acquired on what exactly keeps us so busy. For me at least, it's rarely my classes that keep me running laps around SDQ like I think it's burning calories.

Two of the most fun features of my days here are chapel and lunch hour. YDS has a million and seven ways to get involved, and a thousand and six ways to worship. From 10:30am - 11:30am, and again from 12:30pm - 1:30pm every day, there are no classes scheduled on Holy Hill. Instead, we worship and eat together.

The 10:30am Marquand service is ecumenical, and takes a very different form each and every day. The only constants are that Wednesdays are always sun morning prayer, and Fridays always feature a Eucharistic celebration of some kind. Lets take a gander at what's going on this week (direct from the Q Source, our weekly e-newsletter):

Monday: "The Healing Balm of God's Word through Song and Dance" Liturgical Dance led by Kathleen Turner with the YDS Liturgical Dance Workshop and the CT Chapter of National Liturgical Dance Network
Tuesday: Quaker Meeting led by YDS fellow Sarah Ruden
Wednesday: Sung Morning Prayer: Songs of the Americas led by Patrick Evans
Thursday: A Bright Week Service in the Byzantine Tradition
Friday: Community Eucharist for the End of Term with Emilie Townes, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, preaching, and Dale Peterson, Dean of Students, presiding.

I'm particularly pumped for Tuesday and Thursday this week, since they're probably the farthest from own faith traditions. You'll get an introduction to worship ethos and etiquette in Marquand during BTFO from the chapel team. Bonus: free food afterwards at coffee hour!

At 12:30pm we have "lunch hour," but since everyone realizes this is often the best chance to get people together, this period is better termed "working lunch hour." Here's a very small sampling of what's going on in my life (direct from my Google calendar):

Monday: St. Luke's Committee meeting (Berkeley's student council-type body)
Tuesday: State of the School Address (our chance to hear Harry Attridge and Emilie Townes's take on how this year went and what's on tap for next year)
Wednesday: LBGTQA prayer vigil for the SoulForce protest at the Vatican UN Offices (I won't really go into details here, so have a link)
Thursday: CORE (Committee on Racial Equality) meeting to talk about next year
Friday (still tentative): Reunion lunch with El Salvador group or BTFO planning with Nichole and Sandra

Annnnnnd that's why I haven't been updating. Sorry. Seriously, though, that's only a random sampling of what's available here on campus. It makes my calendar a little nuts, but I enjoy each and every one of these things. And I look forward to having lunch with you all in August!

-Kate

... And We're Off!

Spring has sprung in the Elm City (it's finally above 50 degrees today!) and the BTFO planning games have begun. Sandra and I had the pleasure of meeting many of you at admitted students open houses on Monday an Tuesday, and we just had our first meeting with Dean Peterson, his lovely assistant Mike, and last year's BTFO folks at Archie Moore's. There are two more weeks of classes left, during which we'll be soliciting support from current students, faculty, and staff to help make BTFO 2009 the best orientation program this side of awesome.

An important bit of information: BTFO is currently scheduled to begin the afternoon of Monday, August 24, and conclude on Friday, August 28th. We will also likely have activities available through the weekend so that you can make the most out of your free time in New Haven before classes start on Monday. Remember, this is all up the in air - things will change as the summer progresses, but for now, please block off August 24th - 28th. That's so important I bolded it... and I think I'll add those dates to the header or something.

We'll attempt to update this blog at least once a week for the rest of the summer. In the meantime, I continue to dork out on the many features of Google Mail. If you're ever on GChat, look for "BTFO2009" to answer your questions. You can also add our calendar to yours by searching for "BTFO 2009" in public calendars. If you don't have GMail, you can still check out the Yale Divinity School public events calendar to get a sense of what's going on around SDQ (click the Google Calendar icon at the bottom to add it to yours if you do have GMail). We're not on Twitter yet, because I don't really understand what Twitter *is* - but make an argument for it and I just might make an account.

-Kate