Yale Record 2022 Summer Update + Save the Date for 150th
/Young and Old Owls,
I hope you're all having a wonderful summer. The searing heat is making O.O.’s terrible Zarathustrian mountaintop redoubt quite stuffy, so I'm looking forward to a nice crisp fall. In this email, I'll share some info for The Yale Record's 150th, an update on the 2021–22 season our humble magazine, and highlights of awards.
For those of you, like me, that may have been hiding in a mountaintop cave, I'm reminding you that The Yale Record is turning 150 this year! We are planning a series of birthday events to be announced shortly. Nothing says birthday like sesquicentennial! We're kicking it off on September 10th with a Virtual Celebration. Join us for a very special Zoom meet-up to connect with Record friends old and new. Plan to join and share your fondest memories of The Record.
Topic: Yale Record 150th Celebration
Time: Sep 10, 2022 01:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85682223204?pwd=Qlc2a3pYb0hGSEw2UlVBS3YvaGhIUT09
Meeting ID: 856 8222 3204
Passcode: BadJokes
Thank You for Donating
For those of you who could donate this year, thank you for helping us preserve The Yale Record archives, administer prizes, and organize alumni gatherings (including digital events). If you haven't donated recently, or if you'd like to up your pledge, please support The Yale Record Corporation at https://www.yalerecordcorporation.org/donate where you can make a one-time or recurring donation.
The Yale Record in 2021–2022
A report by Sam Leone '24, Outgoing Chair, incoming Online Editor-in-Chief
Distinguished Alumni of The Yale Record,
The 2021–2022 year finished as strong as it began here at The Record. Though the Omicron variant made for a tricky beginning of the semester, we persevered. We started the semester with our 5th annual 24-Hour Issue. At noon on February 26th, Record staff gathered in the T.D. Buttery. We picked a theme, did headline brainstorms, wrote & edited pieces, came up with all the mailbags & news, and designed the issue. We settled on a murder mystery in the town of Rafferty Falls, where Mayor O'Connor is murdered by puppy mill owner Ryan O'Halloran to protect his business. By noon the next day, the issue was ready for printing, and less than two days after we first sat down, the issues were outside the dining halls, ready for reading. This is the first ever year the 24-hour issue was actually finished in 24 hours!
Of course, we didn't print just one issue. We also came out with The Great American Issue, The Secret Issue, and the much-anticipated Pirates vs. Ninjas vs. Cowboys Issue (all things pirates, ninjas, and cowboys, and any combination of the three). The last of these three was actually the brainchild of Zuri Goodman. If you remember from previous newsletters, The Record hosted a Welcome to Yale! party featuring Mr. Goodman years ago.
In March, we selected a new Big 4 and Eboard. We're all super excited for Clio Rose, Adriana Golden, and Arnav Tawakley as our new Editor-In-Chief, Chair, and Publisher. Not being able to get enough of The Record, I'm honored to continue on the Big 4 as the Online-Editor-In-Chief. The other EBoard positions are too many to list, and that's for good reason. This year, we added new positions like supplementals editor and social media manager, and the resulting masthead is more than 20 names long, not counting Old Owls!
As a new Eboard, we retreated to the Big Apple, where we watched live comedy and did a scavenger hunt. For the scavenger hunt, Recordians were tasked with giving political speeches, selling ads, and getting the coolest thing they could for less than $5 dollars (some of these were more or less cool / had more or less urine in them). A huge thanks to Jacob Eldred for letting us crash in his house for the night. Maybe we said there'd be eight of us. Maybe there actually were. Maybe there actually weren't...
Record pranks were also alive and well this semester! Every year, at the Bulldog Days extracurricular bazaar, we recruit prospective first years to T.E.A. club. What T.E.A. stands for varies from year to year. This time, it stood for Trebled Environmental Acapellists. These were singers who sang to protect the environment, something Yale needs more of!
On April Fool's, we held a fundraiser called "Crew Cuts for Crew." Our mission — raise money through haircuts to buy the crew team the motorboat they need to win. Although nobody donated any money, we cut quite a few strands of hair in our time. Where those hairs are now is a Record secret.
Not only that, but when Ted Cruz & Michael Knowles came to town, The Record stepped up to the plate. The Record put on its Sunday best to distribute fake pamphlets at the door about the two speakers. While not a Record doing, one of our staff writers went viral for asking Cruz how far he'd go to end world hunger.
This semester, the Record also built a relationship with none other than the WWE. After an information session about writing for their team, they not only sent us some very cool Record meets W.W.E. t-shirts but sent us tickets for one of their shows in Hartford!
Finally, we finished the year with Record Toasting, where we all dress up, drink from Mory's cup, and toast to the year that passed. As usual, there was the passing down of the centuries-old Record Sword from current to future Editor-In-Chief. We also said goodbye to our graduating seniors.
So that's it for volume 150. We can't wait to make you laugh next year!
Hoot,
Sam
Yale Record Awards
Each year the Yale Record Corporation funds the following awards, presented by the Yale Record Corporation and chosen by the students. Due to Covid, we awarded the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 awards this year. Thank you for your continued support and for allowing us to do this.
Kloot Award: The award is given to a staff member of the Yale Record who has materially strengthened the Record’s standing in the Yale community. The recipient must not be a current or former EIC, Chairman, or Publisher and must not be a graduating senior. The KLOOT Award honors the memory of Frederic J. VanderKloot (1938-2014), O.O. '59. Fred was a member of the Record board and its Business Manager. During those years, his combination of business acumen, imagination, and levity was a major contributor to the success and high reputation of the Record, which was, and remains, one of the most respected college undergraduate publications.
Kloot Award 2020-2021: Clio Rose
Very few individuals at the Record today have contributed more than Clio Rose. As an Online Managing Editor in a very online year, Clio helped grow the Record’s Instagram presence from a couple hundred followers to where it is today: over 3K. Here, Clio showed consistent weekly dedication to the Record beyond the requirements of her position, continually writing, editing, and designing visual jokes to meet the demands of a changing digital world. This work was also genuinely funny—measurable in the online world, to some extent, by shares and engagement. The quality of content that Clio brought to Record online allowed us to far outperform the supposed limits of our follower base, and reach new heights. These efforts were essential to expanding the Record organization beyond its print magazine, an evolution that continues to this day. For the 2021-2022 year, Clio opted to stay on as a print Managing Editor, helping our newer editors find their footing and turning her seasoned editorial eye to our monthly issues. She also anonymously helmed the Ask Old Owl column, one of the most memorable parts of any given issue. Clio is the first to offer additional content when it’s needed—be it art or writing—and her work is consistently as sharp as it is funny. We are proud to nominate Clio Rose for the 2020-2021 Kloot Award.
Kloot Award 2021-2022: Joe Gustaferro
Managing Editor Joe Gustaferro has one of the most distinct comedic voices on this campus. As an editor, he has consistently improved the quality of every issue, and written some of the most memorable pieces and jokes published this year. Joe is eager to challenge the tired formulas and formats that crop up too often in college comedy, and unafraid to assert his comedic vision. At the 24-Hour issue, he spearheaded the world-building team’s construction of Rafferty Falls, lending the fictional town genuine verisimilitude despite its absurd trappings. In meetings, Joe is uniquely deadpan, but also able to foster real excitement when confronted with a good idea. This made him great at running brainstorms, where he was welcoming to new writers without ever seeming to condescend. Apart from the Record, Joe performs sketch comedy with Red Hot Poker and improv with Just Add Water, two of the best-regarded comedy performance groups at Yale. He’s been an incredible editor this year, and directly responsible for much of the Record’s success. We are proud to nominate Joe Gustaferro for the 2021-2022 Kloot Award.
Morrison Prize: Awarded by Yale University for the best work of art published in The Yale Record in any one academic year. In honor of John Morrison, Class of 1917. Morrison was a Yale Record cartoonist. He volunteered for service in WWI, rose to the rank of Lieutenant, and lost his life in 1918. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and Croix de Guerre with palm for extraordinary heroism.
Morrison Award 2020-2021: Alex Taranto (Avant-Garde Cover)
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1sevZ_bD17TV89wY0S8ailWwcDaSG8mve?usp=sharing
Morrison Award 2021-2022: Alice Mao (24-Hour Cover)
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hR-d4zYfNq-kwMBnM8-MJ0Y5lvOWAZ8q?usp=sharing
Bentley Prize: For a short story or piece of writing (poetry, other written feature). Given to honor the memory of Richard N. Bentley O.O. '59 and writer of numerous published novelettes.
Thank you for your help and we look forward to hearing from you soon!
The winner for the 2021 - 2022 Bentley Award is "Hardboiled" by Joe Wickline, the Editorial for the Great American Issue. It parodies the genre of film-noir detective stories, capturing a day in the life of Sandy Burls, P.I. Wickline's mastery of the genre's tropes plays hilariously with Sandy's complete incompetence, alcoholism, and anxiety while talking to beautiful women.
Here is the piece that students have voted the best piece of the year: Hardboiled by Joe Wickline.
Best,
Rob Schlaff O.O. ‘99
Alumni Relations Chair
The Yale Record Corporation