All winter long, the act of walking past the backyard of 66 Wall St. would cause me to feel this terrible sense of pity. Because behind the house’s wooden picket fence, in snow or sleet or freezing rain, you’d find Maggie—all day, every day. Maggie is a very old dog, with super dramatic cataracts and a bark that makes it real obvious that she’s cranky. It was impossible for me to pass that house without shivering vicariously for Maggie, who just looked so miserable staring at the Wall Street traffic.

The point is, there’s tons of stuff going on at Yale that you’re not aware of. Maggie, whom I consider to be a hidden gem of the Elm City, might be an example of this phenomenon. But if you’re even a bit conscious of campus talk, you’ll know that the way we grade is a very big deal right now. In the wake of the Yale faculty’s decision to table a vote on University grading policy until November 2013, we’ve got an A+ cover story: Culture Editor and friend4lyf Micah Rodman, BR ’15, examines the tradition and culture surrounding grading at Yale and at other colleges. It’s huge. It’s important. It will affect your—yes, reader, your—college experience. And it’s yours to read in these pages.

And while you’re getting schooled about University policy, you should definitely read this issue’s piece by Kohler Bruno, SM ’16, looking into the way Yale deals with financial aid. And Alisha Jarwala, PC ’15, clues us into immigration activism and civil disobedience in New Haven. Also inside: Lara Sokoloff, TC ’16, talks Marxism and more with John Roemer, Elizabeth S. and A. Varick Stout Professor of Political Science and Economics, and we get inside the mind of Vincent Tolentino, PC ’14, on a MetroNorth train ride. We’ve got reviews—Jessie Ware! Mad Men! Tyga! In the Opinion section, Leland Whitehouse, SM ’14, ruminates on the way we deal with money, and Jake Orbison, BK ’16, considers the way we compartmentalize our lives. We’ve even got an infographic on Connecticut’s new gun legislation, and a photo spread of all nine landed secret societies’ tombs.

Also, log on! Check us out on da web—make sure to peep thebullblog.com for even more Herald crew cyber-fun. Like everything else, the Internet is somehow just so much better now that spring is springing. Really, from my spot on sunny Cross Campus, I’m even finding it harder to pity poor old arthritic Maggie the dog quite so much these days.

<3,

Maude Tisch

Managing editor