But it doesn’t mean he won’t remember names eventually, given time. He just pointed out that it was not his strength to remember people’s names. Some people are better at names than others.
@soccerguy315 you obviously know little about this family. Prior to Emily’s father going to college at 37, he worked in a mill in rural Maine. Nothing about their life comes from the more established generation privilege, but they (both daughter and father ) are fully cognizant of the responsibility of attending and working at a place like Yale. Her comment, which is rather lucid to me, is placing the rather jocular optional activity of dressing up, really on the same level of discussion and concern, when the offending behavior is at once a pejorative swipe at ones very culture and history, that has been documented at the very least, to be a horrific time in US history, with the killing of millions of native people. One is play dress up, for your amusement, the other is a brisk slap in the face to the very things that are axiomatic to your belief and existence…big difference.
Maybe. But government and not-for-profits have a hierarchy as well right? I don’t think that type of behavior is going to be acceptable anywhere. You can’t show that kind of disrespect to co-workers or people you report to without consequences. In a work environment people disagree all the time about how to approach issues or projects - some work related and some not.
You have to know how to advance your point of view in a manner conducive to being “heard.” Once this girl started shouting and cursing at the professor I didn’t really hear a word she said. I was too busy disliking her. And I actually agree that there should be sensitivity when choosing a Halloween costume. But at this point this fiasco is not about Halloween costumes.
About remembering names, he just started as the master there. Hopefully he knows some names but not all.
Ironically, this was something the French nobility and royal family members like Marie Antoinette were oblivious to while dressing up and play-acting an overly romantic version of being peasant farmers and milkmaids at Hameau de la Reine while the actual peasants and other commoners were starving.
And many French revolutionaries realized how the French nobility and Marie Antoinette’s very act of dressing up and playacting a romanticized stereotype of their own lives and those of their compatriots was perceived as a slap in the face to the French commoners and seized upon it to galvanize the French people to reject and eventually overthrow the Ancien Regime.
Oh for heavens sake. Another history lesson about the French revolution is not relevant to this discussion.
Returning to the current situation, it is unfortunate that the master did not know all the students by name. Was this student in particular who was verbally aggressive a freshman or upperclassman? The freshmen live on the “old campus” , on the green at Yale, and not in the RCs, though they eat in the RC dining halls/commons and hopefully get together for RC activities/events. If the Master is new, he’d need to get to know the names of all the students in all 4 classes. That could take a while.
Jym: I believe the RC in question was Silliman – where all the Frosh live in the RC itself, not on the Old Campus – just an FYI – not excusing the woman’s over-the-top reaction whatsoever.
Really-- thats interesting, T26. Silliman frosh live in the RC? I thought all freshmen lived on the green. Times have changed. Is that true for Saybrook and Branford too? Thanks
Reading up-- it looks like SIlliman and Timothy Dwight freshman live in the RCs. Thanks again, T26.
And as an aside, I found his welcoming letter from late August interesting, in that he invites students to call him and his wife by their first names, a break from tradition, if they are comfortable doing so http://silliman.yalecollege.yale.edu/news/thoughts-title-master
Question- how many students (total) are in Silliman? How many names does the Master have to learn? He teaches an undergrad Sociology class, so perhaps he is already familiar with some of the Silliman students. He has only been at Yale since 2013, but prior to that was a Master at Harvard (Pforzheimer House) from 2009-13 so should be familiar with what it takes to learn students’ names at his RC.
Answering my own question- Silliman has about 456 students. Not excusing him, but thats a lot of names/faces to learn. In the video he says he has “500 names to learn”. https://www.thefire.org/yale-students-demand-resignations-from-faculty-members-over-halloween-email/
A costume, by definition, is not your usual dress and also typically highlights a few salient traits to represent a whole culture or impression. A feather in a headdress, for example, stands for Native American. A Halloween costume is not designed to be culturally accurate because dressing up for one night is not a form of cultural appropriation. Pretending you are black for ten years when you are actually white is cultural appropriation. Obviously there are very distasteful costume choices that should be avoided, but I really find it hard to grasp how anyone can really be all that offended at a silly holiday costume unless that person is deliberately nursing a grudge. After all, adult holiday costumes have been sexualized for years and years. The cocktail waitress in a very short mini skirt is a staple, as well as the sexy elf garb. Where is the outrage on behalf of hard-working, chaste waitresses and short female crafters? Disney characters, despite their names, are fictional characters in a movie, and the costumes are based on the movie are therefore equally fictionalized. No doubt the young Lakota lady at Yale is a lovely person, but I am having a hard time envisioning why an intelligent, strong woman with a stable family background would need to sit in her room self-comforting just because she saw some Pocahontas costumes on Halloween.
White people in America are not equivalent to French nobility, and persons in America who are not white are seldom peasant farmers.
Furthermore, I have attended many cultural events where modern day Western people dress up like their supposed ancestors from hundreds of years ago for the purpose of education or to make a living as an entertainer. When an American professional of Mexican ethnicity dresses up like an Aztec warrior, how it that not cultural appropriation also? Just because he’s Mexican he can lay claim to that ancient culture?
Not to mention Renaissance fairs! Or colonial Williamsburg.
@theGFG Well, you might not have a greater appreciation to have the after-affects of cultural genocide (and the loss of 10 million lives in the process) that’s been brewing for about 400 years, still be lingering, even in your backyard, at one of the worlds greatest universities. BTW, lest this become a history lesson-- a waitress is not a recognized political group, mentioned in our very constitution (see the commerce clause) who enjoy a “special legal relationship” with federal government. This relationship was paid for with a profound exchange of blood and treasure, and is recognized by the US Supreme Court (see Marshall trilogy)-- huge difference.
I think people of atypically Celtic appearance look good in a kilt.
When I first heard about Masters and Dean of Silliman Krauss and Flick knowing the names of all kids I was perplexed that this didn’t and couldn’t happen. However, they somehow memorized all the freshmen names once they were assigned to heir colleges and have regular daily meetings. In meeting Krauss, I mentioned how that of all stood in my mind.
Aside from that, I heard a lot of frustration in the young lady’s vioice. It could be that this was a buildup to other things being encountered. Could she have responded differently? Absolutely, but are we always rational when we are upset? Absolutely not.
Let’s hope they come to a medium.
My kiddo had an awesome time at Yale and at Silliman, I wish the same for others.
What after-affects has this young lady experienced, boolaHI?
Its quite impressive to learn the names of ~100-125 freshman. But when a new master comes in, they have to learn the names of ~450-500 students. Yikes. At DS#1’s college (that also had a RC system) the upperclassmen/students that were involved in orientation week were given the names and photos of the incoming freshmen in their RC group and had them all memorized in advance, thereby greeting each freshman by name when they arrived. Was pretty cool.
@booliHI - Yes.