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New Monuments Symposium
March 15 - March 16
Mending Broken Glass: New Monuments in New Haven
The sound of breaking glass in what was then called Calhoun College at Yale University
on June 13, 2016, signaled the death knell for that college’s name and highlighted the
university’s reticence in addressing school history and its problematic relationship to the city in
which it resides. The city provides the university with much of its service staff, who work across
campus—a campus that exists as intertwined with downtown New Haven—in positions such as
janitorial, food, and administrative services. The sound of breaking glass at Calhoun was caused
by a member of this class of worker, a 38-year-old New Havener named Corey Menafee, a
dishwasher who took a broom handle to one of the painted stained glass window panels in the
dining hall of Calhoun College and pushed the rectangular glass out of its leaded frame, which
then fell to the Elm Street sidewalk below, where it smashed into pieces. Against the political
backdrop of the election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States later that same
year, Yale began a multi-year process resulting in the first name change for the college, and a
new series of windows and a mural created by artists Faith Ringgold and Barbara Earl Thomas,
projects finalized in 2022.
This presentation takes a critical approach to the process, which was capped by a
celebration of the installation of the new windows titled, “The Art of Mending.” Who are these
new windows for and have they made an impact on the lives of those who both live, work, and
study in this college building? This is the first paper to take a holistic glance at the events on the
campus of Yale University in a period of societal tumult and active resistance on the part of
students as well as community members.