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I applaud your commitment to inclusiveness, but I write to say I have never and do not now feel included or part of the Yale community. There are two reasons for this. First, I am from a blue collar family who moved down the economic ladder when my brother got very ill and our insurance ran out. Moreover, I remain blue collar in “style.” I would like to see more reach out to those who come from the “lower” classes, those decidedly unprivileged economically. Those who did not attend prep schools, or highly rated public schools. My public high school, for example, Sheepshead Bay High School, was rated 1 or the 2 worst in NYC and was recently closed for that reason. When I attended it was almost as bad.

Second, I was born with a severe learning disability, which was not diagnosed until decades after my years at Yale. I was a master of compensating for my neurological deficits. That Yale had no “finishing” effect on me is in part due to those deficits. I use simple language, not Yale-like big ones. As functional MRI imaging and tensor morphometry imaging has showed that is due to the extensive amount of bad real estate on the left side of my brain. I blurt out truth when others do not, due in part to bad real estate in my frontal lobes and in part a function of the strongest part of my brain being centered in my limbic system.

I know there are other Yale women and men who share some version of the two issues I’ve raised and reaching out to us, to make us feel somehow a part and not “other,” would be a great service. Susan P. Koniak YLS ’78.