According to Siyonbola and Jean-Louis Reneson GRD ’19, another black graduate student, this is not the first time Braasch has called the police to HGS.
In March, Reneson and Siyonbola submitted a complaint about a separate incident to Associate Dean for Graduate Student Development and Diversity Michelle Nearon. According to a copy of the complaint Reneson provided to the News, the incident began when Siyonbola invited several colleagues, including Reneson, to a meeting in the HGS common room on February 24. Reneson, lost in HGS, was physically blocked by Braasch from entering the common room after he asked her for directions, the complaint read.
Reneson told the News that Braasch did not appear to believe that he was a Yale student trying to enter the HGS common room for a meeting, and instead accused him of being an intruder.
“Feeling ignored, I went down to the base of the twelfth floor and eleventh floor and turned my back, but she continued to verbally assault me from the twelfth floor claiming that I ‘didn’t belong here’ and I was making her ‘uncomfortable,’” Reneson said.
Reneson said that Braasch then left the area, and Siyonbola subsequently showed up to begin the meeting. But, according to the complaint, four police officers then showed up in HGS to inspect a “suspicious character” on the twelfth floor. According to the complaint, shortly after establishing that Reneson was a Yale student invited by Siyonbola for a meeting in HGS, the police left.