Campus Clips

The fall semester will likely be a few steps closer to normal. In a March 29 message to the Yale community, President Salovey said the university was “cautiously optimistic” about having a “full residential program” in the college and in graduate and professional schools in the fall, with classes primarily taught in person.

Yale’s 320th commencement will be far from normal, but the Class of 2021 will likely be able to celebrate in person. President Salovey announced on March 15 that “if public health conditions permit,” there will be in-person gatherings on or around May 24 for graduates. But family and guests will not be able to join them. Yale College Class Day ceremonies will take place online, with songwriter Robert Lopez ’97 (Frozen, The Book of Mormon) as the guest speaker.

Producing less carbon is one part of fighting climate change. Pulling it out of the atmosphere is another. A $100 million gift from FedEx will help Yale find ways to do that. The Center for Natural Carbon Capture will work to discover improved forms of carbon sequestration; the FedEx gift will support four new professorships, postdocs and graduate students, research, outreach, and events.

A psychiatrist who taught at the School of Medicine has filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the university. Bandy Lee ’94MD, ’95MDiv, says that in 2020, the School of Medicine violated her free-speech rights when it declined to renew her annual appointment as an unpaid voluntary faculty member—due in part, she said, to her public statements about the mental health of attorney Alan Dershowitz ’62LLB and then-president Donald Trump. Yale spokeswoman Karen Peart said in a statement that Lee’s appointment “was considered in accordance with Yale’s policies and practices” and that “Yale does not consider the political opinions of faculty members when making appointment decisions.”