NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2014 · VOL. CXXXVI, NO. 127 · yaledailynews.com
INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING
SUNNY RAIN
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CROSS CAMPUS Winners keep winning. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has awarded eight Yale faculty members with membership. The eight Yale recipients are among 204 new members elected into AAAS for the 2014 class, which includes winners of the Nobel Prize, the Wolf Prize and the Pulitzer prize as well as Grammy, Emmy, Oscar and Tony Awards. Brass goes big. The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library is hosting a 15th anniversary celebration today of Brass, a Yale-based quintet that performs in New Haven and surrounding areas. The theme, Hollywood brass, brings performances including scores from James Bond films, “The Lord of the Rings,” composer John Williams and more. The event also includes a documentary screening and reception.
PROBLEM CHILD RECREATIONAL DRUG USE AT YALE
SWIMMING
CULTURAL HOUSES
New pool on the capital projects list after alumni lobbying
INSIDE THE AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURAL CENTER
PAGE B3 WEEKEND
PAGE 14 SPORTS
PAGES 12-13 IN FOCUS
Y
ale sits in a city whose diverse homeless population is nearly double that of neighboring Connecticut towns. While over half of Yale’s student body volunteers in New Haven, students question how they can most effectively engage with the city’s growing homeless population. POOJA SALHOLTRA reports.
Akintunde Ahmad of Oakland Technical High School has received attention for his college admissions success story and his decision to go to Yale. Self-described as “any other street dude” from Oakland, Calif. Ahmad’s story of overcoming adversity was applauded in BET, SF Gate, The Daily Mail as well as The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where he received a $12,000 check this week to help with tuition.
Not actually accepted.
“Acceptance,” a 50-minute film produced by Ryan Chan ’14 was screened yesterday evening in the Whitney Humanities Center. The movie is based on the true story of a student from India who lies about getting into Harvard in order to gain acceptance from his peers. Chan began working on the film his freshman year. Remembrance. The Yale
Armenian Network organized a memorial event yesterday evening to reflect on the Armenian genocide. Students gathered in front of the Women’s Table after dark to read, share and remember.
Flower power. After Spring Fling, the Japanese American Students Union is taking part in a cherry tree planting. The planting is part of the Cherry Blossom Festival being held at Wooster Square. The Internet wins again. The
Columbia Daily Spectator is becoming the first Ivy League daily paper to go entirely digital. According to IvyGate, the move was announced at a staff-wide meeting this week by Editor in Chief Abby Abrams. The digitization is expected to go into effect in the fall, accompanied by a once-weekly print edition on Thursdays.
THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY
1980 Three juniors seek to be selected as delegates to the Democratic National Convention in August, representing Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New York. Submit tips to Cross Campus
crosscampus@yaledailynews.com
ONLINE y MORE goydn.com/xcampus
BY LAVINIA BORZI AND ADRIAN RODRIGUES STAFF REPORTERS
a clinic to get his daily dose of methadone, a synthetic opioid drug that treats heroin addicts. By 8:30 a.m. he has made his way to Liberty Safe Haven, a homeless support center where he spends most of his days filling out countless job applications. “I’m just trying to get back on my feet,” Paul Bacon said. “Once you finally do hit rock bottom, its hard to dig yourself out.” Just across the street from the winding lunch line is Phelps Gate. Inside the walls, Yale students are lounging on blankets on Old Campus, some drinking beer with friends
Sociology professor and Deputy Provost Julia Adams will be the next Calhoun College Master, University President Peter Salovey announced Thursday. Adams will succeed Jonathan Holloway GRD ’95, who will step down at the end of the academic year. At an announcement in the Calhoun dining hall Thursday evening, Salovey, Holloway and Yale College Dean Mary Miller praised Adams’ skills as a scholar, instructor and administrator. Adams said she is excited to become more integrated into student life, adding that the position will be intellectually challenging but still “a lot of fun.” “I have to say, uncharacteristically, I’m a little bit tongue-tied,” Adams told a crowd of Calhoun students yesterday. “I’ve been at Yale 10 years and by far this is my most exciting day.” Adams came to Yale in 2004 after beginning her career as a professor at the University of Michigan. Adams previously chaired the University’s sociology department and won the Gaddis Smith International Book Prize for her work, “The Familial State: Ruling Families and Merchant Capitalism in Early Modern Europe.” Holloway, a history professor and chair of the African American Studies depart-
SEE HOMELESSNESS PAGE 4
SEE CALHOUN PAGE 6
POOJA SALHOLTRA/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
On Easter Sunday, Paul and Kirk Bacon were among the roughly 200 men and women standing in a singlefile line on the New Haven Green to receive a free lunch.
UPCLOSE Accepted. Eighteen-year old
Calhoun master named
A Haven for the homeless?
The brothers grew up in a lowincome single-parent household with a mother whom Kirk called an alcoholic and “pill-popper.” Paul Bacon recalls his childhood in Fair Haven where shooting heroin at home and smoking pot with his parents was the norm. Throughout adolescence, the brothers earned enough money to pay
their own rent and still spend money on hard drugs. Paul and Kirk Bacon are among the 767 homeless men, women and children in New Haven, many of whom count on the Chapel on the Green for lunch on Sundays. In 2008, Trinity Church on the Green collaborated with other local agencies to provide a brief Holy Eucharist service followed by a meal. Three years ago, when Paul Bacon was an employee at Banton Construction Company, he never anticipated that one day he would be standing in that lunch line. But now, he wakes up at 5:30 a.m. every day at the Overflow Shelter on Cedar Street and heads to
After YIRA email, charges dropped BY ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER AND WESLEY YIIN STAFF REPORTERS On Feb. 11, the executive board of the Yale International Relations Association — one of the largest studentrun undergraduate organizations on campus — sent its members an email alleging that former president Larissa Liburd ’14 had mishandled funds and jeopardized YIRA’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. The statement said board members had referred the issue to the Yale administration for investigation. Two and a half weeks later, Liburd received notice from the Executive Committee, Yale’s disciplinary body, that the charges against her had been withdrawn after an initial fact-finding effort, exonerating the former president of ExComm-punishable offense before the case went to a disposition — which implies a guilty plea — or a penalty hearing to contest the charges. “It … was perhaps deemed a matter that did not fit under the ExComm’s jurisdiction,” said a member of ExComm who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “The factfinder, [history
professor Alan] Mikhail, and [ExComm Secretary] Pamela George make decisions as to whether it is an ExCommable offense — something the student has little control over, once the ball gets rolling.” Two specific charges against Liburd were withdrawn: mismanagement of funds and falsification of documents, both surrounding Citoyen Haiti, a community service program she organized for the summer of 2013. “I decided to comply with ExComm because maybe if the Yale administration found I hadn’t done anything wrong, it would make this go away,” Liburd said Tuesday. The majority of the 2013–’14 YIRA board — including YIRA President Jade Ford ’16 and Vice President Ben Della Rocca ’16 — declined to comment, citing the need to abide by Yale’s undergraduate regulations, but without providing further detail. Alessandra Powell ’16, current executive director and YIRA’s president-elect, declined to comment on the specific details surSEE YIRA PAGE 6
YCC, students reflect on year BY NICOLE NG STAFF REPORTER Last spring, the 2013–’14 Yale College Council was elected after a race with three uncontested seats and low voter participation. Despite widespread student apathy during that race, the YCC — under the leadership of president Danny Avraham ’15 — has taken an active role over the past year, launching and executing both internal improvements and external projects with varying degrees of success and mixed reception by students. According to YCC Vice President Kyle Tramonte ’15, this year’s YCC worked on more than 60 projects. Some initiatives led to tangible results, including the addition of a day to reading period and a referendum on fossil fuel divestment, while others made strides in conversations with the administration, according to members of the YCC board. While a majority of the approximately 20 students interviewed were indifferent to or supported the progress of the initiatives YCC tackled this year, several added that the YCC has
attained a reputation for being out of touch with the student body. Tramonte said this year’s YCC operated under a new structure, consisting of a Management Board comprised of an academics director, student life director and University services director. Rather than having project committees, every elected representative was required to lead a project under one of the three directors on the Management Board. Tramonte said the new structure allowed the YCC to more effectively pursue a greater volume of initiatives. The addition of a Management Board increased accountability and productivity, he said. According to YCC Communications Director Andrew Grass ’16, the restructuring was part of the YCC’s efforts to create a flexible and sustainable system that could transition smoothly between YCC boards. Tramonte said past YCC boards often wasted time repeating failed policies and projects because of a lack of centralized data and communications. SEE YCC PAGE 6
Porter secures House seat BY APARNA NATHAN AND MICHAEL LEOPOLD CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS On Thursday, Newhallville ward committee member Robyn Porter won a special election to fill the state representative seat recently vacated by new State Sen. Gary Holder-Winfield. Porter will represent the 94th assembly district, which includes portions of Hamden and New Haven, in the Connecticut State House of Representatives. She will serve in the House until May 7 when the legislative session ends and will contend with an open
field of candidates in the general election in November. “I think [the victory] was based on good old grass-roots campaigning, knocking on doors, listening to people,” Porter said. “That’s what works.” Porter won the election with 347 votes, roughly 38 percent of the 904 votes cast Thursday. Hamden resident and atlarge city council member Berita Rowe-Lewis came in second with 236 votes. In New Haven, only 7 percent of eligible voters turned out to the polls. Porter’s platform included a focus on unemployment, gun
violence and the achievement gap in local schools. A New Haven local, Porter has strong ties to community activism. She currently works at a labor union, Communication Workers of America, a communications and media labor union, and garnered the endorsements of a variety of other unions during her campaigning. The bulk of Porter’s support came from Ward 19. Voters for Porter lauded her involvement in her local ward, where she has been a member of the Newhallville Community Resilience team, a grass-roots organization dedi-
cated to strengthening community ties. “I’m impressed with how she listens to people,” said Ethel Berger, a Ward 19 resident who voted for Porter. “She ran a terrific [Newhallville Community] Resilience team and has a lot of leadership potential.” Since the 94th district Democratic committee did not endorse a candidate, Thursday’s ballot featured a total of four Democratic candidates facing off against Republican challenger and former 91st assembly district representative Leonard B. Caplan. In addition to Porter and Rowe-
Lewis, other Democratic candidates included Hamden resident Reynaud Harp, brother-in-law of Mayor Toni Harp, and New Haven business owner Charles Ashe. A fifth Democratic candidate, Jerome Dunbar, originally campaigned as a write-in candidate, but withdrew his candidacy on Tuesday. Holder-Winfield, the previous representative for the 94th district, did not publicly endorse any of the candidates prior to the election. He said his successor should keep in mind the diversity SEE ELECTION PAGE 6
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
OPINION
.COMMENT “Yale is a marinating experience. It takes time to sink in.” yaledailynews.com/opinion
A day in the life B
eing an old and haggardly second-semester senior, I barely noticed the arrival and departure of Bulldog Days but for the spa water on Cross Campus and the sudden appearance and disappearance of 10-year-olds carrying around snazzy drawstring bags. But my intimacy with Yale had detached me from the enthusiasm inundating campus, and being around the energy of these wide-eyed high schoolers made a tingly little part of me want to be a prefrosh again. So on Tuesday I nabbed a BDD 2014 Bible off an unsuspecting child and spent the day as a prefrosh. And this is what the world looked like: Tuesday afternoon: The first thing I noticed was that the grass at Yale is kind of ratty. I guess this is a good thing, because it means people sit on it and have great conversations about Sartre while they’re sitting on the grass like everyone does in college, but I sort of expected the grass to be perfect, and there were a lot of brown spots wherever I looked. It’s okay, grass isn’t everything.
WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE A PREFROSH — AND SENIOR Also, is there a dress code here? I’ve scoured my BDD Bible cover-to-cover and I honestly can’t find anything about a dress code. I’ve just never seen a campus with so few sweatpants, so many pretty shirts and so many pairs of those tortoise-shell glasses I’ve only ever seen in blackand-white photos. Also, people are pretty nice. Especially the tour guides — man, the tour guides really love this place; I think I want to become a tour guide. Isn’t it cool that the library is like a Cathedral of Learning? Also, my tour guide ate dinner with Morgan Freeman. Wednesday morning: The BDD Bible is becoming the bane of BDD. There are five things occurring at any given time, and every time I arrive at an event the food is already gone, and I’m starting to suspect that the upperclassmen eat most of it before the prefrosh even arrive. Side note — does anyone at this school actually take classes? I mean, I assume people do them, but I just don’t really see when it happens, you know? I visited this econ lecture but everyone was looking at food porn and then left partway to go sweat serious pit stains at the extracurricular bazaar. In fact, every-
one always seems to be on their way to “a m e e t i n g .” Is “going to a meeting” Ya l e - s p ea k for “going to TAO TAO class”? GenHOLMES uinely confused here. Taoisms Thursday evening: The color of the sun on the buildings and leaves and faces is so rich and vibrant that it looks like it's being refracted through an ozone layer of stained glass dyed a deep sunflower yellow. It's so unnervingly beautiful, at moments I feel like I'm inside a literal bubble, constructed and lit and manipulated by the machinations of some Dr. Strangelove who has a manic and romantic obsession with the liberal arts ideal and somehow decided to offer me a spot. Friday morning: BDD is over. I’m a senior again. Being a prefrosh was way too exhausting; it’s time to go back to my common room and sit on the couch with my eight other suitemates, our legs and arms all intertwined, our papers unwritten but our minds oddly at rest. Lying there, I think about how exactly four years ago yesterday, this campus meant nothing to me. Yes, it was beautiful, but it was just a jumble of random buildings and leaves and faces just like any other jumble of buildings and leaves and faces. Slowly, that jumble has taken on meaning, because I’ve studied in the buildings, run through the leaves and above all else, come to know the faces. And what the prefrosh don’t know and can’t yet experience are the community of faces and the people behind them. They aren’t listed in the BDD Bible or marketed at the bazaar, but not to worry, they’ll always be here. Friday evening: The sun has faded but for a few lingering gasps of muted pink-grey sky, and the lamps have begun to glow in its stead and the world outside looks a shade of blue — not a melancholy blue but a sort of diluted indigo wash, a very tranquil, dulcet blue, a Bulldog blue. And music from upstairs is drifting down through the ceiling while conversations float up from the sidewalk outside and I realize how very, very lucky we are and how moments like these should be captured whenever they possibly can before they slip away and evaporate into the cool evening air, where they’ll hover patiently in wait for the Yalies coming to take up our places.
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I L LU ST R AT I O N S E D I T O R A N N E L I SA L E I N B AC H
Summer lovin'
TAO TAO HOLMES is a senior in Branford College. This is her last column for the News. Contact her at taotao.holmes@yale.edu .
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EDITOR IN CHIEF Julia Zorthian
'THEANTIYALE' ON 'ALMOST-SENIOR BLUES'
G U E S T C O L U M N I S T M I L A R O S TA I N
Protest Ja Rule I
n his hit, “Always on Time,” Ja Rule raps, “I got two or three hoes for every V / And I keep ’em drugged up off that ecstasy.” I’m excited for Spring Fling. I’m excited to see Diplo, and I’m excited to see Betty Who. But I will be protesting during Ja Rule’s show. I’ll be carrying signs and using earplugs to avoid hearing his music. I understand that some will frown at my protest; others may even discourage it and say that I’m overreacting. But I hope you will join me in rejecting Ja Rule’s presence on our campus. I sat down to listen to his music Thursday morning and immediately enjoyed the catchy ’90s beats. But then I listened more carefully and began investigating the lyrics. I realized that Ja Rule repeatedly glorifies rape, sexual violence, pimping and drugging women, among other illegal, immoral and misogynistic actions. His lyrics are beyond offensive. More than that, they are dangerous. We have grown so inured to these kinds of lyrics that we might not realize how objectionable they are, and the reactions and responses they cause. That being said,
given trends in misogyny and issues surrounding rape culture — indeed, all the behaviors that contribute to a sexually hostile climate in our society — it seems highly inappropriate to feature Ja Rule at Spring Fling. In his song, “Can I Get A,” Ja Rule raps, “Makin em feel, slutted even if they don’t want it.” This certainly does not abide by how Yale or our society views consent. According to what he endorses in the song, Ja Rule throws away the fundamental respect and dignity with which all human beings should treat each other. In another song, “Always on Time,” he raps: “So, stop the complaints and drop the order restraints / Our sex life's a game so bat me down in the paint /... Hold down on the bed while I'm yanking your braids / Thug style, you never thought I'd make you smile / … I play hard, there's so many women I fathered / Meet 'em with scars and send 'em home hot and bothered.” In this song alone, Ja Rule glorifies date rape, sexual violence and the silencing of women. Ja Rule was booked on extremely short notice. But this does not exempt him from the
scrutiny with which we should examine all artists who perform at Spring Fling. Yale has been working hard to improve the sexual climate on campus, and it is important that it continue these efforts by monitoring the performances at Spring Fling.
JA RULE'S LYRICS DAMAGE OUR UNIVERSITY'S ATTEMPTS TO CREATE A BETTER SEXUAL CLIMATE It is one thing to say that Ja Rule has the First Amendment right to say whatever he wants, or to justify his actions through freedom of artistic expression. But it is another thing to endorse his lyrics by funding his performance at Yale. Because of Yale’s status as an influential and elite academic institution, and our role as Yale students, we have a duty to Yale, ourselves and the
world to condemn anything that contributes to a hostile sexual environment. The authority of our University runs well beyond our campus. By sponsoring this concert, Ja Rule’s lyrics speak, in part, for Yale and for us. Yale and all of its students have a responsibility to hold its artists, just as it would hold its commencements speakers, to a higher level of integrity and respectability. It is more than ironic that Ja Rule’s performance comes directly after “Take Back the Night,” held just last Friday, which allowed students to share their sexual experiences and to “build a community of respect." Ja Rule’s performance at Yale undoes much of the good work that we’ve been doing this year to build that community. We have had this debate before, particularly when the Yin Yang Twins came — but this debate is not over. Until we stop funding such musicians, this debate, and thus the protests, must continue. I hope you will join me on Saturday. MILA ROSTAIN is a freshman in Trumbull College. Contact her at mila.rostain@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 3
FRIDAY FORUM
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
When Yale ends S
ometimes I wonder what will happen when Yale ends. Not what will happen after graduation — that I can more or less envision — but what will become of this place in its final hours. When the ground starts to rumble and the scent of smoke fills the air. When the great maw underneath us opens wide and swallows Commons whole. When the bells no longer ring. I won’t be around for that. Right now I’ve existed some 21-odd years — and God willing I’ll exist for a good halfcentury more — but eventually my body will fail. One day, I will end. Biology is a harsh mistress, among other unprintable words. This bums me out. It’s comfortable here — at Yale, on earth. Existence is nice. I just want more time to do everything. But nothing lasts forever. Magazines with 100-year histories fold; empires that once
spanned continents succumb to corruption and runaway inflation. Schools too. MARISSA go, AccordMEDANSKY ing to researchers Little fables at Vanderbilt University, dozens of colleges have closed over the past decade — 57 total between 2004 and 2013. Yale will join that list someday. There is a spot for us, between Radcliffe College and Burma-Shave, in the pantheon of things no longer here. Our human kind of death is inevitable and imminent. We have accidents and illnesses and unforeseeable circumstances, but we more or less know the amount of time we have here, and that never feels
like enough. Institutions, on the other hand, benefit from a lot of inertia: Their mortality is never a pressing concern. Sure, there are crises of funding and scandals of mismanagement that can serve as fatal blows, but untarnished, these things can last a long time. Yale has already existed for 312 years; comparatively, its roots in this universe are deep. In the 1980s, while working at Cornell, Carl Sagan lived with his family in a building that had previously belonged to a secret society. The old Sphinx Head tomb, in its previous life, had housed meetings and initiation rites. Then Sagan moved in, adding a kitchen and filling its rooms with his papers and effects. Now, the house is vacant, waiting for its next intended purpose. Or perhaps for its eventual, inevitable demise. There’s a beauty in the finality of everything, I guess. Carl Sagan believed this.
Rather than hope for an afterlife, Sagan urged us to “look death in the eye,” to be “grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.” We’re all “star stuff,” as he was known for saying: lucky to be alive.
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF YALE UNIVERSITY CEASED TO EXIST Still, I wish I could witness the end of Yale, if only from above. I’d first watch as some grand apocalypse on earth concluded this great era of humanity. Decades later a band of survivors would stumble upon this place, dusty and tired and hungry. I’d watch as they built shelters on Old Campus and bon-
fires in the Woolsey rotunda. They’d grow crops in the courtyards, fill the society tombs with their papers and effects. Remake our world in their image, ignorant of any previous meaning. I want to tell them that this place they’ve found here is called Yale. We loved it there. We waited all winter for the snow to thaw and then read on Cross Campus when the sun came. We went to our seminars and skipped our lectures and made some friends and enemies. We read books and drank beers and were lucky to be alive. We had so much fun here. But then I remember they’ll be gone soon anyway, just as we had left before. This time, I do not want to disturb them. MARISSA MEDANSKY is a junior in Morse College and a former opinion editor for the News. Her columns run on alternate Fridays. Contact her at marissa.medansky@yale.edu .
GUEST COLUMNIST JOHN GONZALEZ
Infinitely beautiful Y
ale is the best thing that has happened to me. I’ve grown, learned and failed in absolutely spectacular ways. But the one issue I’ve had with my time here is that I haven’t always felt beautiful. I believe the strongest human desire is to feel beautiful — to love and be loved. Ultimately, everything we do is aimed at filling this need. At Yale we continue searching for this love, but too often in all the wrong places. Earlier in our lives, this struggle for love manifested itself in much clearer ways. I can remember a time when I sported a bowl haircut, glasses (with the wraparound strap), braces and cargo shorts. During those years, I would do anything to gain the acceptance of my classmates. I hated myself to the point that I was willing to be anything except who I was. I mimicked the popular kids, subverted my intelligence and mocked my friends, all in the hope of gaining validation and love from the “in” crowd. I vividly remember the cliques
I encountered and the sense that my self-worth was completely conditional on their acceptance. Our struggle for validation and love in college happens in much more insidious ways.
WE THINK THAT VALIDATION COMES FROM JOINING THE INNER RING During a lecture at the University of London, writer C.S. Lewis warned college students of what he called “the inner ring,” which he believed to be the main force motivating human decisions. The dominating element of this inner ring is the desire to be in an “in” crowd, as well as the terror of being left outside. Eagerly, we move through these concentric rings, all
in the search for love. And unfortunately, the fear of rejection from the inner ring will motivate us to do increasingly self-destructive things. At Yale, inner rings are everywhere. Whether through secret societies, internships, fraternities, sororities or other student organizations, we long to unpeel the onion of success at Yale. Our selfworth is pinned to these social constructions. A freshman may initially join the Yale College Council, thinking that it is a group that will be a validation of success. Once in, instead of being happy, he sees the Executive Board as the new “in” group he should be part of. Once elected to the Executive Board, he tells himself that the position of president is where happiness and self-worth lie. But as someone who was voted the Yale College Council president, I can tell you sincerely that titles bring none of the love or validation we all so desperately seek. I loved my time in student government because I genu-
inely cared about the causes I advocated for and the people I worked with. But I also understand the damaging effect these inner rings can have — the power of rejection from secret societies, internships and student groups can absolutely destroy one’s selfworth. You won’t find love if your sole desire is to be in the “in” crowd, your motivations extricated from enjoyment of the craft and your colleagues. I’ve often felt a gnawing sense of insecurity, which comes with fear of rejection. It’s motivated me to join groups I wasn’t passionate about and attempt to impress particular people in the hope they would validate me. Through this selfdoubt, I completely missed the point of why I was doing it in the first place — to love and be loved. Inner rings are, by themselves, devoid of this love. Simply being in the know doesn’t produce real pleasure. Validation comes from selflove. I don’t mean to be pejorative about how self-love is easy and simple. I don’t want
this to come off as a Buzzfeed list or an article on Thought Catalog that explains how you can find love if you only try a little harder or think more positively. It’s something I work on every day, and while some days I have it under control, other days I see my selfconfidence steamrolled into a sliver of its former self. Yale often makes self-love much more difficult — we find ourselves desperately seeking acceptance to the inner rings we thought we left behind in middle school, seeking validation in ways that damage our self-esteem. Unless we consistently fight our misguided urges, we will search for validation in all the wrong ways. While difficult and frustrating, tell yourself every day the only truth there is in this world. We are all infinitely and impossibly beautiful. JOHN GONZALEZ is a senior in Ezra Stiles College and a former president of the Yale College Council. Contact him at john.gonzalez@yale.edu .
GUE ST COLUMNIST MAIA ELISCOVICH SIGAL
Peers, not politicians I
live in Argentina. Where I come from, the president’s net worth has mysteriously quadrupled since she was elected eight years ago, and the vice president is accused of fraud. Everyone hates politicians, whether for their broken promises or their corrupt behavior, and I understand why. What I cannot understand is the disrespect Yale students have towards campus leaders. For some reason, there is an immense amount of animosity towards Yale’s “politicians,” no matter how good their intentions are. All too often, people post malicious and slanderous anonymous comments on the News’ articles. We find it acceptable to ridicule students on social networks and in daily conversations. While I don’t expect Argentine citizens to respect their corrupt politicians, I do expect Yale’s undergraduates to demonstrate more respect toward their peers. When people make hurtful comments about the Yale College Council, they often fail to recognize that YCC is not some sinister corporation protecting its self-interest at the expense of the student body. It’s a diverse group of your friends, suitemates and classmates. These so-called “politicians” are people eating in your dining halls, sitting next
to you in section and applying to the same summer internships. They are students who, despite having two papers and an exam the next day, take time to write a report evaluating the quality of computer science offerings or respond to dozens of emails from administrators, just like you might make time to rehearse for your a cappella jam.
YCC MEMBERS ARE NOT JUST POLITICIANS, WE ARE YOUR CLASSMATES Of course, there is always room for improvement. Student government should be scrutinized and criticized by its constituents. But the current dialogue regarding YCC is not based on constructive criticism, but rather hateful, and often personal, attacks. This is in part worsened by sensationalist reporting that propagates false perceptions, but also by a student body that is all too willing to believe the worst of their student government. We don’t address our friends or our classmates with
blatant animosity, so why are we so quick to show disdain for student leaders solely because we are hiding behind a keyboard? This culture of ridicule surrounding YCC is harmful and discouraging; it prevents student leaders from making hard decisions or worthy changes simply to avoid criticism. I am extremely excited to serve as YCC vice president next year. This past year YCC has radically changed. Our student government is doing more than ever before. I am fortunate to enter an organization that has already been constructed — I can now focus all my attention on directly serving the student body. But even the YCC’s restructuring suffered from rash and premature judgment initially, though anyone familiar with these changes know they have had a positive effect. In April 2013, a News’ View criticized the expansion of YCC’s executive board as an “attempt to reform the Council with unnecessary layers of bureaucracy” (“The first step toward legitimacy,” Apr. 10, 2013). YCC President Danny Avraham '15 pushed this idea despite rampant criticism; today no one can imagine how the Council functioned properly before. It is true that Avraham ran unopposed. But, this does
not mean that his presidency was undemocratic or illegitimate. Last week’s News’ View insinuated that the Council has not been involved in critical decision-making processes (“For a new president,” Apr. 16), which is false. As a board member, I had no voting power. Every decision in the past year has been placed in the hands of the elected representatives, a process that was introduced by Avraham in September. Recently, Avraham was criticized for the one occasion in which he attempted to exert influence over a Council decision regarding joint ticket elections. But I believe that he demonstrated remarkable leadership in that instance, and I am grateful for that. During the YCC’s debates over the new constitution, Avraham decided to ask the Council to reconsider its vote to have a joint ticket for the presidential and vice presidential races. It was not until finishing a long and exhausting week of campaigning that I understood why he pushed against it. All candidates should be tested on their own merits. A joint ticket overpoliticizes the elections, prompting candidates to focus solely on finding a running mate who can win more votes. Avraham’s visionary leadership should be applauded, for
he had nothing to gain and much to lose in being so persistent. As a leader, he was selfless; he subjected himself to public criticism for the sake of future Yalies. He demonstrated one of the things that we should demand of every YCC president: commitment to this school and its students above good publicity. As excited as I am to be on YCC next year, I am also scared. I am scared of the hateful things that can be posted about me under a cloak of anonymity. I am scared of no longer being a classmate, suitemate and friend, but rather a controversial “political” figure. I am scared of publications fishing for a story to increase their readership at the expense of me and my fellow students. I am looking past these fears because I believe in the longterm changes that this organization can effect for Yale. I believe that Yale students can be critical in a constructive manner. In the meantime, let’s leave ridicule for Argentina’s corrupted politicians, and thank our fellow YCC members for their dedication to our community. MAIA ELISCOVICH SIGAL is a sophomore in Timothy Dwight College and the vice-president-elect of the Yale College Council. Contact her at maia.eliscovichsigal@yale.edu .
On endings I
’ve been scared of writing this column for a long time. Doing things for the last time is scary: scary because of how your life HARRY may change once LARSON they’re done, scary because Nothing in there’s always more to get out particular of an experience than what you’ve already got and scary because you’re worried you’ve bungled it. Mess up your last shot, and you feel that all you did before becomes tainted. But endings are scary for a reason; they give us a chance to reflect on what, if anything, we’ve learned. This particular ending gives me an excuse for a little generalizing and sentimentality in print. So, here goes … Most of us wish to leave a mark during our time here, and we do. We move others with our plays and poems and paintings; we work with each other in jobs and internships. We take classes with other people, instead of studying by ourselves à la Oxford, because learning together can be more powerful than learning apart. We go abroad together, explore New Haven together and live together; each of our experiences becomes more powerful because it’s been shared. We build lasting friendships here, affecting each other’s lives now and in the future.
THIS ISN'T THE END, JUST A CHANCE TO REFLECT But as much as we affect others during our time here, we most of all affect ourselves. Turning in a really good or bad paper or giving a heartrending (or heartrendingly awful) performance may change what a professor or spectator thinks of you — but regardless, it’ll probably have the biggest impact on the way you think of yourself. By spending our time researching or drinking or acting or talking with friends, we define our own experience of these four years. Our peers might care a little about the choices we make, but we’re the ones who will remember them most. I’ll worry about this column once it’s been printed, and I may be embarrassed by it when I reread it in future years. But most of you will probably stop thinking about it pretty soon. If we are to be our own judges, the stakes of our time at Yale can seem unimaginably high. We have so many opportunities here, and we’ll regret all our missed chances and half-efforts and full failures for years to come. But only a few of those things that are special about Yale actually disappear when we graduate. Yale has tremendous financial resources, but those of us who make it a priority will usually find the necessary resources wherever we go. Our campus is populated by smart, ambitious and creative people — but the globe’s supply of smart, ambitious and creative people would be hardly diminished without this small patch of ground in New Haven. Many of us have made our best friends here, but the thing about best friends is that you make and keep them irrespective of institutional context. So certainly I regret a lot of what I’ve missed out on here: classes I should have taken, clubs I should have (or never should have!) joined, papers and exams I wish I’d tried harder on, parties I wish I’d gone to. People with any time left here should probably stop wasting their time reading this, and instead go out and make the most of it. But we’ll be missing opportunities for our whole lives, even while we hopefully manage to seize a few. Endings are scary — but this isn’t really an ending at all. We shouldn’t get so worked up about this particular four-year chapter, when we don’t yet have kids and we hopefully don’t have to care for parents just yet. Our lives are still ours to mess up. That process has just barely begun. HARRY LARSON is a senior in Jonathan Edwards College. This is his last column for the News. Contact him at harry.larson@yale.edu .
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
FROM THE FRONT
“Seven out of 10 Americans are one paycheck away from being homeless.” PRAS MICHEL AMERICAN RAPPER
Activism struggles to address homelessness HOMELESSNESS FROM PAGE 1 while others type an English paper or read the Iliad under a tree. When it hits 5 p.m. and students head to family night at their dining halls, they will walk past upscale boutiques, high-end restaurants and Gothic-style architecture. Yale is known as an institution replete with wealth and prestige, but its position in the heart of New Haven brings urban issues like homelessness to the forefront of students’ daily lives. Last year’s homelessness Point in Time count found that New Haven’s homeless population is nearly double of that in other Connecticut towns of comparable size, like Bridgeport and Stamford. It is also significantly larger than that in other Ivy League towns, including Cambridge and Princeton. All 25 undergraduates interviewed said that panhandlers ask them for money more than once a month, and more than half of those students said that panhandlers approach them on a daily basis. Even though students do not typically discuss these encounters with their peers, they said grappling with this visible manifestation of income inequality is difficult. “Its confusing intellectually and confusing emotionally,” said Julia Calagiovanni ’15, who currently serves as the co-director for the Yale Hunger and Homelessness Action Project — a Dwight Hall member group founded in 1974. “It’s sort of morally unsettling to understand that there are people who walk the same streets as you but who have lives that are so different from yours just because of circumstances that neither of you chose.”
THE GUILT COMPLEX
Many Yale students are passionate about leaving the Yale campus to serve the greater New Haven community. According to Yale’s website, more than 2,500 undergraduates — nearly one-half of all Yale College students — volunteer in New Haven. In a News survey sent to a random sample of undergraduates earlier this year, 60 percent of the 142 respondents said they feel obligated to do some form of service work during their time at Yale. And 38 percent of those surveyed said they are currently a member of Dwight Hall, Yale’s center for social justice and public service. Though Yale is filled with students active in social justice issues ranging from wage theft to education inequality, members of YHHAP said that students’ interest in engaging with homelessness is somewhat limited. Former YHHAP Co-Director Leah Sarna ’14 said that she is generally impressed by the number of students involved in community service, but she has been disappointed in the lack of student interest in understanding homelessness. Last semester, when Sarna helped organize a YHHAP event that included a film screening and panel discussion on veteran homelessness, only a handful of students attended despite the group’s broad publicity efforts. Former YHHAP Co-Director Sebastian Koochaki ’14 said that when the organization hosted discussions and presentations about homelessness in the past, few students attended. This lack of interest arises from students thinking they know more about homelessness than they really do, Sarna said. And while it is not students’ responsibility to help the homeless, Sarna added, Yale students should make an effort to understand homelessness because it is so close to campus. “People are poorly educated about the issue,” she said. “This should be a place where we are able to talk about issues like what to do when a homeless person says they need five dollars to get into a shelter at night. Those are really important questions that I don’t know the answer to, but I wish those conversations happened more at Yale.” For many students, discussing homelessness is uncomfortable simply because it is so unfamiliar and complex. Growing up in the suburbs of Tennessee, homelessness wasn’t something that Sara Garmezy ’17 confronted every day. When she visited New Haven during Bulldog Days last year, being approached by a panhandler was a jarring awakening to New Haven’s urban issues. Garmezy said that nearly every day, the same panhandlers ask her for money, oftentimes saying they need the money to get into a homeless shelter. “I normally don’t [give money], but I feel guilty every time,” Gar-
mezy said. The majority of students interviewed echoed Garmezy, saying that they question whether giving money to a panhandler is money well spent, but that not giving makes them feel guilty or confused. Calagiovanni said that it feels contradictory for her to not help a homeless person who asks for it, even though she dedicates so much of her time at Yale to YHHAP. But according to Paul and Kirk Bacon, students should not feel guilt or shame for choosing not to dole out their money to panhandlers. In fact, Kirk Bacon — who said he has never resorted to asking for money on the street — said he would advise students not to give money to panhandlers because more often than not, that money goes towards helping a person’s drug problem, not for helping them secure food or shelter. In New Haven, “it’s impossible for a homeless person to go hungry,” Paul Bacon said, listing off the different organizations that serve breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. Kirk Bacon’s girlfriend Brianna Kennedy, who was also recently homeless, added that shelters in New Haven do not charge money. Employees at Emergency Shelter Management Services and Columbus House confirmed that the homeless do not have to pay for a bed at their shelters, which allow them to stay for a period of 90 days. However, Columbus House does charge $90 for a program that allows residents to stay for six months, according to Manager of Emergency Services Malynda Mallory. Director of Christian Community Action Bonita Grubbs agreed that giving to panhandlers might not be the best use of students’ money. Instead of using it to buy food, she agreed with Paul and Kirk Bacon that it could often just as easily go toward purchasing drugs. She added that it is difficult to discern whether panhandlers who claim they are homeless are being honest. While it is important for students to find ways to help the homeless, Grubbs said, they must ask the right questions to ensure that panhandlers are not taking advantage of them. “You want to be gentle and kind and compassionate, but you don’t want to be stupid,” Grubbs said. “There’s a certain amount of wisdom that needs to be matched with the compassion.” Five former and current YHHAP directors said that while the decision of whether or not to give someone money is ultimately up to the student, they themselves typically choose not to and instead find other ways to help curb homelessness — by fundraising with YHHAP, volunteering at a local soup kitchen, or helping with case management. “We live a life of privilege in this castle of Yale, and not to say that any of the work I’ve done really balances that out, but that I really couldn’t be able to survive here if I weren’t doing anything about it,” Sarna said.
BEHIND THE FACES OF HOMELESSNESS
In working with the homeless population, YHHAP Co-Director Shea Jennings ’16 said that students often judge homelessness based on what they see — panhandlers asking them for money on Broadway or the chronically homeless sleeping on park benches. But homelessness can take a number of forms, she said, and students should be aware of the range of situations that can lead to homelessness in order to effectively address the issue. Paul and Kirk’s drug problem is familiar to many homeless — according to last year’s PIT count, 52 percent of New Haven’s homeless population has chronic substance abuse problems. Furthermore, in a 2011 survey sponsored by The Greater New Haven Regional Alliance to End Homelessness, 75 percent of the homeless reported current or past problems with drug or alcohol use. Ivan Figueroa, who was homeless for five years and now lives in transitional housing in Waterbury, blames his tough situation on his choice to do heroin. He said that when he finally realized the damage he was doing to his body and to his family, he sought treatment and has since been a “changed man.” “Drugs took everything from me,” he said. “When I saw that my family was suffering … that I was taking the food out of their mouths to get high, I realized I needed to change my life.” Figueroa said that based on his
New Haven Region
HOMELESSNESS IN CONNECTICUT AND THE NEW HAVEN REGION
Subpopulations of homeless adults in the New Haven region
In this graphic, circles are nested for ease of comparison, not to indicate the intersections of different subpopulations.
629 people
Homeless population based on region New Haven
327
456 Stamford-Greenwich
405
Hartford
94
179
Norwalk
Over the past 30 years, New Haven has taken steps to end chronic homelessness. While New Haven holds less than four percent of the state’s entire population, it houses 17 percent of the state’s homeless population. Part of this concentration of homelessness in New Haven actually stems from the fact that New Haven offers more services to the homeless than any other city in Connecticut, said Executive Director of Columbus House Alison Cunningham. Whereas other municipal governments do not fund social services for the homeless, the city of New Haven allocates $1.1 million annually to support homeless shelters run by local nonprofits. According to a 2011 survey sponsored by the Greater New Haven Regional Alliance to End Homelessness, only 56 percent of the homeless are from the New Haven area, while the rest come from surrounding cities in Connecticut and even from out of state. In New Haven, Columbus House, Emergency Shelter Management Services, New Haven Home Recovery and Christian Community Action each operate shelters. In total, the shelters can accommodate 189 individuals and 50 families at any point in time between May and October and up to 75 more single men when the Overflow Shelter opens during the winter months. But even with all these services, there are simply not enough beds for every homeless person in New Haven. Although Columbus House opens an overflow shelter during the winter months between November and
HIV/AIDS
Subpopulations of homeless veterans in the New Haven region 46 people
3
A CITY THAT SERVES
Domestic violence
Greater Bridgeport
23
own experience and his interactions with other homeless people in Connecticut, homelessness usually stems from bad choices that people make — to do drugs or violate the law and get a criminal record. While drug related problems are common among the homeless, eight people who work directly with the homeless population interviewed said that the issue cannot be simplified to a singular factor or diagnostic criteria. Issues like mental illness, post traumatic stress disorder and unemployment can interact to drive people to lose their homes. The Connecticut PIT found that only 47 percent of New Haven’s adult homeless population fits the official definition of “chronically homeless,” meaning they have a disability and have either been continuously homeless for at least a year or have had at least four episodes of homelessness in the last three years. The count also found that 7 percent of New Haven’s homeless are veterans and 36 percent suffer from mental illness. “There are a lot of visible faces of homelessness, but there isn’t one face of homelessness,” Jennings said. “We often think of the people who are chronically homeless, but there are also people who maybe lost their job and are out on the streets for a week, and a lot of people are just a paycheck away from living on the street.”
Mentally ill
35
205 Waterbury
Chronic substance abuse
228
767 people 629
April, when the shelter closes for the summer on May 1, Paul Bacon does not know where he will live. He cannot return to Emergency Shelter Management until June 2 because they, along with Columbus House, have a 90-day-in, 90-day-out policy. Other shelters, he said, have long waitlists, so he cannot be certain that he will get entry. “Come May 1, I might just sleep on the Green,” he said. Beyond emergency shelters, New Haven offers other services to the homeless including transitional housing and case management services to help the homeless secure jobs or access other services such as health care or rehab from drug addiction. Vessiel Mims, originally from Hartford, is currently living at Columbus House while recovering from alcoholism. She said she is thankful for the shelters’ case management services, which handle each person’s needs on a caseby-case basis. With all the services available, she said it is ultimately up to the individual to take advantage of the resources and fight their way out of homelessness. “You have a lot of people willing to help you, but you have to go to your appointments with your case manager,” she said. “You have to do a lot of things, but it will pay off.”
THE LONG-TERM FIX
When it comes to solving homelessness, Cunningham said simply adding more beds to emergency shelters will not suffice. The longterm solution, she said, depends on preventing people from losing their homes in the first place. Grubbs agreed, noting that efforts are shifting away from transferring people into shelters and instead focusing on helping people find stable jobs and become independent. “Homelessness ought to be a temporary condition, but it has become an expected part of our society, much more than I think it should,” she said. “We need to allow people whose lives are unstable to become stable by having people housed and getting them jobs that pay a living wage. That’s the direction we are heading in.” At the federal level, there has also been a recent focus on homelessness prevention. In 2009, President Obama’s stimulus package charged the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development with administering over a billion dollars to fund the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Program, which assists low-income households at risk for becoming homelessness. Because the money from Obama’s stimulus package has run out, the three organizations in New Haven that run the HPRP — Columbus House, Liberty Community Services and New Haven Home Recovery — are strained for resources to further homelessness prevention. Cunningham said that the state must focus more on providing affordable housing, a problem that she thinks has contributed to Connecticut’s growing homeless population. Connecticut’s unsheltered homeless population increased
Total homeless adults in the New Haven region
by 82 percent since 2009 and its sheltered homeless population increased by 16 percent between 2010 and 2013. Mims, who is originally from Hartford, said that New Haven’s high housing prices coupled with a low minimum wage aggravates the issue in Connecticut. A former full-time employee at Burger King, Mims said the minimum wage was too little to rent a one-bedroom apartment in New Haven. Though Connecticut has passed legislation raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, the law will not be fully in effect until 2017. Bacon agreed, noting that in order to get an apartment in New Haven, he would need to have at least $2000 up front, which is nearly impossible while unemployed. A 2013 report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition finds that in order to afford the Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Connecticut without paying more than 30 percent of one’s income on housing, a minimum wage worker must work 113 hours per week, 52 weeks per year. It is not possible to achieve this sum with two adults working full-time minimum wage jobs. Given these numbers, Cunningham said she is pleased that New Haven has begun to take steps to address the discrepancy. Twenty percent of the new Coliseum site project, for example, will be set aside for affordable housing.
THE “BUFFER LINE”
Although Yale has made efforts to reach out to New Haven and improve relations with the city, these efforts were not directed at the homeless. Still, Vice President of Yale’s Office of New Haven and State Affairs Bruce Alexander ’65 said that the University’s work with organizations such as New Haven Works — a jobs pipeline project that attempts to place residents in jobs — affects economic development and could be serving the homeless indirectly. The University also donates over $1 million each year to United Way, an organization that has provided grants to Columbus House, New Haven Home Recovery and Christian Community Action. In the process of investing in the city, though, Yale is creating an image that altogether ignores homelessness, said Dwight Hall Co-Coordinator Sterling Johnson ’15. He cited Yale’s most recent admissions video that showcases high-end businesses adjacent to campus as well as wealthier neighborhoods like East Rock. “Yale is acting in response to homelessness around the University, but is doing it in an unproductive fashion,” Johnson said. “[The video] leaves out huge swaths of New Haven that are in poverty. There are parts of New Haven that students are not aware of partly because Yale doesn’t even say that they exist.” James Doss-Gollin ’15, who grew up in New Haven, said that he thinks Yale draws a separation
Total homeless veterans Chronically homelessness Women
between the areas of New Haven that students should and should not explore. From his room in Silliman, Doss-Gollin said he can usually see a Yale security guard stationed less than a block away from the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen. Although the guard does create an added sense of security, Doss-Gollin said that it also draws a “buffer line” between campus and the homeless community. Even so, the homeless community does not seem to have significant resentment towards Yale. While three students in YHHAP said that they had interacted with homeless people who did not like Yale as an institution, only two of the ten homeless people interviewed expressed such sentiments. The two who said that they did not like the University held the mistaken belief that Yale does not pay any property taxes. While Yale does not pay taxes on its academic buildings, it is still one of the five highest taxpayers in the city because of its large commercial and residential holdings. Those two homeless people who expressed a negative attitude towards Yale also speculated that the University was responsible for forcing them to leave the New Haven Green during Occupy New Haven two years ago. But according to an April 10, 2012 story in the News, University spokesmen Tom Conroy and Mike Morand ’87 DIV ’93 said Yale had no involvement in the city’s eviction of the Occupy movement. Eight interviewed also said that they did not think that Yale had any responsibility to assist the homeless population and that they were grateful for any volunteer work Yale students did. “I appreciate having Yale next door,” said Bernard Green who has interacted with Yale students at the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen. “It gives me a chance to come in contact with people from all different walks of life.”
WHAT CAN STUDENTS DO ABOUT IT?
Given the complexity of homelessness, it might be difficult for students to have a tangible impact. While it seems easy to jump into a soup kitchen and start serving dinner one night, Jennings said that creating a sustained impact requires a broader vision that might be unfeasible for students only in the city for four years. Even if students can put in the time, volunteer work, while helpful to those in need, cannot end homelessness, said Dwight Hall Executive Director Peter Crumlish DIV ’09. “What we end up doing on the street level is just Band-Aid covering major wounds,” he said. “A lot of it has to be done at the policy level.” Still, Crumlish said, those at Yale have an obligation to address the needs of the greater community. Students at Yale who want to help the homeless and have a dollar in their pocket have a choice of SEE HOMELESSNESS PAGE 6
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 5
NEWS
“In America the president reigns for four years, and journalism governs for ever and ever.” OSCAR WILDE IRISH WRITER AND POET
Winning house design chosen BY RISHABH BHANDARI STAFF REPORTER In one week, first-year graduate students at the School of Architecture will trade their sketches for shovels and begin constructing a home on 179 Scranton St. The construction will take place as part of the Jim Vlock Building Project — a program mandatory for first year students at the school in which students design and build a home from scratch in economically challenged neighborhood. On Thursday evening, a panel of critics and judges chose one winning design after seven groups of students presented their proposals. Each of the 54 first-year students submitted an individual proposal in late March but only seven designs advanced to the next round, when the students were sorted into teams based on their prior experience and preference. All students will spend their summers in New Haven constructing the home that is slated to open in August. “Students say that they come to Yale for this program,” said Karla Britton, a lecturer at the School of Architecture, adding that she does not think that many other schools offer a similar program. Students and faculty interviewed said they consider the project a unique opportunity for the students to learn practical skills and appreciate the value of collaboration. Though the program has been in existence since 1967, all six students interviewed noted that this year’s project is unique because the students were expected to design a home that could be easily replicated across New Haven. Pearl Ho ARC ’16 said most of the prior homes that first-year classes have built were stand-
alone homes that were never reproduced. The seven students whose projects were selected in late March were required to abandon their designs and join one of the six other groups. Xiao Wu ARC ’16, whose design advanced to the group stage, said he thinks it was important that he did not work on his own idea, explaining that this policy ensures that decisions in each group are made democratically. He added that he was excited to see how his friends transformed and improved his initial design. Shayari De Silva ’11 ARC ’16 explained that the space allotted to this year’s home is limited, adding that the two-unit home has to include a 500-squarefoot unit for the homeowner and a 300-square-foot unit for the tenant. Last year’s Building Project measured 1,500 square feet, while the Building Project built by the class of 2014 occupied 2,700 square feet. De Silva said one of the central challenges for this year’s Building Project has been to design a house that is both affordable and a quality living space for two families, given the space constraints. All six students said they have embraced the challenges inherent in developing a “microhouse.” James Kehl ARC ’16 said he was initially worried that the pursuit of a replicable home would stifle the students’ creativity. But after several weeks of working on the designs both individually and as part of a group, Kehl said he realized that considerations such as affordability and replicability actually boost architects’ creativity. Dorian Booth ARC ’16 said the small size of this year’s house has proved an opportunity for the students to rethink the way people use space. He added
that microhousing — affordable housing with small dimensions — is an important new trend in architecture that has become especially popular after the recent economic recession. “This project is a reassessment of necessity and what we actually need,” Booth said. “Do we need to live in a 2,000 square foot home? Does that best serve our daily lives? Booth said that such questions are often overlooked by both architects and society at large, adding that he thinks the prevailing ideology in the United States is that more must invariably mean better. Although this project does not seek to provide answers, Booth said, it will force the new generation of architects to grapple with these issues. Both Ho and Wu said the project also serves an important philanthropic purpose. Ho said she thinks the initiative allows the expertise and knowledge of Yale students to improve the lives of local residents. Wu added that he thinks he will feel more attached to the New Haven community once he begins constructing the house over the summer. Alan Organschi ARC ’88, a critic at the School of Architecture who oversees the project, said he thinks micro houses could be a major benefit to New Haven. He explained that micro homes can be developed on land considered unusable by most developers because it is too small to host a conventional home. This year, the School of Architecture is partnering with Neighbor Works New Horizons, a nonprofit committed to providing affordable housing and HTP Ventures, a private equity firm interested in financing micro dwelling units. Contact RISHABH BHANDARI at rishabh.bhandari@yale.edu .
Debate beats Harvard
BRIANNA LOO/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Five Yale debate teams placed in the top 16 nationally, with Michael Barton ’14 and Zach Bakal ’14 clinching the national championship this weekend. BY BEN FAIT CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The Yale Debate Association ended its season by receiving the American Parliamentary Debate Association’s Club of the Year Award, besting Harvard 558.75 to 343. The team of Michael Barton ’14 and Zach Bakal ’14 won the national championship, which took place at the University of Pennsylvania this weekend. After qualifying more debaters than any other university in the country, Yale placed five out of seven of its teams — each composed of two individuals from the club — in the top 16 teams nationally. “We had an excellent showing this weekend and one of our most successful in the past few years,” said Diana Li ’15, YDA captain and a former staff reporter for the News. “Winning nationals is a great way to cap off a really successful year.” The final round of the national tournament took place between the Yale team of Barton and Bakal and a debate team from Rutgers University, who presented the argument that the Sean Penn film “Milk” unrealistically portrayed the sexuality of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay individual to be elected to public office in California. Bakal and Barton argued that the film’s inaccuracies were to the benefit of California, which was polling for Proposition 8 — a state ballot proposition against same-
sex marriage — shortly after the movie’s release. The round was incredibly important to both the two seniors and the team, said coach David Kimel GRD ’16. Prior to nationals, the Harvard team of Josh Zoffer and Shomik Ghosh had won the international championship and sealed their lead in the Team of the Year cumulative rankings. “Going into the national championship there was a real sense of excitement and apprehension because it was Yale’s last opportunity to win a title,” Kimel said. Other Yale students who placed in the top 16 at the tournament were Li, Tony Nguyen ’16, Edwin Zhang ’16, Nick Cugini ’14, Eric Brooks ’14, Sam Ward-Packard ’14, Allison Douglis ’15 and Joanna Zheng ’14. The tournament was a hightension event, said YDA member Delaney Herndon ’17. In one round, two Yale senior teams debated against one another — a situation that inevitably led to the end of a four-year debating career for one of the teams, Herndon said. Kimel said the team’s success can largely be attributed to the Yale debate team’s institutional legacy. The YDA has won the cumulative Club of the Year award every year since the award’s establishment in 2008. “I think that the best thing about the debate team is how driven everyone is to succeed and
learn from each other,” Kimel said. “You see people doing practice rounds in their free time, discuss new cases and go over new ideas with their coaches — it dominates a lot of their time. And the reward is that the Yale team has hands-down been the best in the country for a long time now.” Though the debating season has come to a close and current seniors will leave campus after this semester, Barton said, the future of the association is still in good hands. Two of the nonsenior teams in the top 16 were only eliminated because they were made to debate another Yale team. The sophomore team of Zhang and Nguyen also made it to the quarterfinal round — a feat not even Bakal and Barton had accomplished as underclassmen. “Nationals was really a coming-out party for some of the best talent on our team,” Barton said. Nonetheless, YDA member Lauren Blonde ’16 said the team’s younger members still have the sense that there are big shoes to fill. She said the pressure is now on underclassmen to perform at the level of their graduating peers when the next season begins this fall. More than 100 teams competed in the national tournament from April 18 to 20. Contact BEN FAIT at benjamin.fait@yale.edu .
Salovey’s first year in review BY MATTHEW LLOYD-THOMAS STAFF REPORTER University President Peter Salovey’s first year in office has been defined as much by his predecessor as by himself. Since assuming the presidency in July, Salovey has played a role in pushing forward some of the most significant changes at Yale in decades, notably a shift in the University’s faculty governance structure. But much of his job has revolved around carrying out initiatives — such as the new residential colleges and globalization initiatives — that are holdovers from former University President Richard Levin, who departed last summer after 20 years at Yale’s helm. No administrator was as closely involved in the latter years of Levin’s presidency as Salovey. Salovey served as dean of the Graduate School, Yale College dean and then provost, all under Levin. On many of Levin’s largest initiatives, Salovey served as a close adviser. “I’m not ashamed to now embrace them as my own,” Salovey said. Over the past several months, Salovey has spent substantial time travelling the globe to complete fundraising for the $500 million residential colleges, one of Levin’s signature projects. Once fundraising is complete, Salovey and the Yale College dean will be tasked with overseeing the construction of the largest capital project at Yale in decades and the addition of approximately 800 new students to the ranks of Yale College. The colleges are just one of an array of projects Salovey inherited from Levin, including major renovations to buildings across campus and a push to invest in the sciences. This year, Salovey has also overseen the beginning of the most significant change in Yale’s governance structure in decades. This summer, the University will add a dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the largest change in the structure of the Yale administration in decades. The University is also on track to add a faculty senate.
He sends us messages, he tells us what he’s doing. He’s got a more conversational, collegial style. CARLOS EIRE History professor
In his October inaugural address Salovey laid out four goals for his presidency: embracing a revolution in teaching and learning, improving access to a Yale education, continuing to build partnerships with New Haven and creating a more global and unified University. English professor Wai Chee Dimock GRD ’82 said the upcoming changes in faculty governance are “affirmative implementations of President Salovey’s call for a Yale that is more unified, more accessible.” “I’m proud of the amount of thinking that we’ve been able to stimulate on campus concerning the organization of leadership, especially for the FAS, and in general on governance issues,” Salovey said. Both Salovey and faculty interviewed though, were quick to note that changes in faculty governance did not originate with Salovey. Salovey and faculty interviewed pointed to a range of causes. Among them were the presidential transition, the hiring of a large number of faculty from 2000 through 2008 and an array of controversial issues, notably Yale-NUS College. When asked which of his goals he has made the most progress on, Salovey pointed to a more unified University. He said this unity has come in the form of collaborations
between different parts of the University, such as the Network Science Institute, the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural heritage, the Center for Engineering, Innovation and Design and a number of projects through the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute. Of over a dozen students interviewed, however, only April Koh ’14, who is involved in the YEI, mentioned the University’s recent collaborative projects and focus on entrepreneurship. Still, faculty and students interviewed agreed that Salovey is substantially different from his predecessor in at least one way: style. All said that Salovey has made an immense effort to make the presidency more accessible to the Yale community. “I have seen [Salovey as] a president who is chattier,” history professor Carlos Eire said. “He sends us messages, he tells us what he’s doing. He’s got a more conversational, collegial style.” Eire noted that when he recently sent the president an email, he was surprised how quickly Salovey — who receives hundreds of emails every day — responded. Among the efforts Salovey has made are biweekly “Notes from Woodbridge Hall,” which are short messages to the Yale community on a variety of topics. “He’s done a very good job of making the presidency seem like a more accessible position,” Tristan Sechrest ’15 said. In a similar vein, physics professor Priyamvada Natarajan said Salovey has shown he is “thoughtful about diversity and inclusion.” Though faculty members and students said Salovey may be different in style, they said his substance is effectively the same. “I have not firsthand witnessed any changes at Yale from Levin to Salovey,” Alan Zhang ’16 said. Most students said they pay little attention to policy changes in Woodbridge Hall. Anna Griffin ’16 said she does not see how policies from the president’s office impact her. Rayer Ma ’17 said most issues that impact her dayto-day life are determined in the Yale College dean’s office. Still, faculty and students said continuity with Levin’s administration is not necessarily a bad thing. When Levin moved into Woodbridge Hall in 1993, Yale was in the midst of a crisis. Relations with alumni were in disrepair, as were the University’s finances and facilities. Two decades later, Salovey inherited a Yale that despite challenges, is a largely healthy institution. “Other than [the budget deficit], I don’t see anything that can in any way compare to what Rick Levin faced in 1994,” Eire said. “It’s hard to think of Salovey handling crises or solving great problems. He’s basically standing at the helm during a relatively calm period … the University’s in a very strong place.” Nevertheless, there are challenges ahead. One potential stumbling block will be negotiating the ongoing consequences of the 2008–’09 financial crisis on the University’s balance sheet. Although the primary responsiblity for the budget falls on the shoulders of University provost Benjamin Polak, Salovey is involved in major strategic decisions for the University. Similarly, several students said the outcomes of ongoing discussions about mental health, the role of Yale in New Haven and policies regarding sexual misconduct could influence Salovey’s legacy. Salovey’s experience as a top adviser to Levin may serve the University well as it moves forward, some students and faculty suggested. “People should not demand change for the sake of change,” said Dhruv Aggarwal ’16, a former staff reporter for the News. Contact MATTHEW LLOYD-THOMAS at matthew.lloyd-thomas@yale.edu .
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
FROM THE FRONT
“I don’t know the key to success, but they key to failure is trying to please everybody.” BILL COSBY AMERICAN COMEDIAN AND ACTOR
Former YIRA president cleared by ExComm YIRA FROM PAGE 1 rounding the February statement. “I look forward to next year very much, and hope to lead YIRA by learning from the past and improving the community and organization that so many before me have contributed to immensely,” Powell said in an email. In its Feb. 11 statement, the board alleged that Liburd misinformed them regarding past approval of funding for Citoyen Haiti, which led them to allocate $3,500 for the program. YIRA board members convened beforehand to decide whether or not to release the statement, according to a board member who spoke on the condition of anonymity. After contentious deliberation, the board voted to send the email to the YIRA community, though the vote was not unanimous. The anonymous board member said those in support of releasing the statement hoped it would further honest and transparent communication with active YIRA membership. 2012–’13 board members Talya
Lockman-Fine ’15, Sophia Clementi ’14 and Lizzie Hylton ’15, as well as the anonymous current board member, all agreed that it would have made sense to send another message to members once the charges had been withdrawn, though no second statement has been released. “If YIRA is going to accuse a former president of something like that in such a public manner, they absolutely need to release a statement saying it was resolved,” Clementi said. Hylton added that multiple members of the past board have written to current board members requesting such a statement be released, and that current board members have declined to do so. The statement alleged that the 2013–’14 board agreed to “reapprove” the project under the assumption that the past board had already backed it. However, YIRA members disagreed about whether an initial vote by the 2012–’13 board took place at the organization’s meeting in February 2013. Three members of the board were absent from the meet-
ing, including then-YIRA Secretary Lockman-Fine, who was typically charged with keeping minutes. Liburd said she left the room after presenting her proposal for Citoyen Haiti. Andrew Fleming ’14, a 2012– ’13 board member present at the meeting, said a vote occurred at the February meeting that approved Citoyen Haiti. Clementi, who was present at the meeting as the 2012–’13 executive director, said members “felt positively about the project.” She said she could not remember what exactly was conveyed to Liburd about the project moving forward. Hylton, who also served on the 2012-’13 board as the head delegate of the Model United Nations team, said she was not present at the meeting but was told afterward that the project had been approved. “There was definitely the understanding between everyone that we were going forward with Citoyen Haiti,” Hylton said. But another 2012–’13 YIRA board member present at the February meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity said there
was no vote. The February statement released to members also claimed that Citoyen Haiti should not have been entitled to YIRA’s 501(c)(3) status because it was approved as an independent initiative and not as a constituent program, which requires a two-thirds majority vote of membership present at YIRA’s annual general elections meeting, according to the policies enumerated on YIRA’s website. But YIRA members past and present disagreed about the distinction between the two types of programs. Teddy Collins ’13, 2010–’11 president, said it is widely understood that independent initiatives may be funded by YIRA but do not get to claim the organization’s tax-exempt status. His successor, Frankie Costa ’14, said the same. But other past YIRA board members interviewed, including Lockman-Fine and Hylton, argued that it was not widely understood by members of the organization that independent initiatives were ineligible for 501(c)(3) status. Liburd solicited donations for
Calhoun welcomes master CALHOUN FROM PAGE 1 ment, has held the position of Calhoun master since 2005. He is a specialist in post-emancipation United States history and received the William Clyde DeVane Award for Distinguished Scholarship and Teaching in Yale College in 2009. He announced in September that he would step down at the year’s end. Salovey began the announcement of Adams’ new appointment by acknowledging Holloway’s legacy, calling him “one of the great masters in Yale College history.” Salovey added that Adams is extremely qualified for the position, highlighting her extensive work on faculty diversity.
“Over the last 10 years, [Adams] has established herself as one of the great Yale citizens,” Salovey said. “She understands the workings of Yale University from many, many different perspectives.” Students i n te r v i e we d expressed excitement about a new master — but added that they are also sad to see Holloway leave, they said. Noam Shapiro ’15 said he hopes Adams will carry on Holloway’s legacy in the college. “I hope that Master Adams will continue the engagement Master Holloway had with the Calhoun community as a mentor and as a friend,” he said. Seven of 13 students interviewed said they appreciate Hol-
loway’s accessibility and friendliness. Katie Colford ’16 called Holloway extremely approachable, adding that he has a “commanding presence without being overpowering.” As master, he fostered a sense of family within the college, Sofia Nicholson ’14 said. Andres Ornelas Vargas ’17 said that though it is sad to see Holloway leave — especially after the death of former Calhoun Dean Leslie Woodard earlier in the year — Holloway’s departure does not impact freshmen the same way it does upperclassmen. Adriana Rodriguez ’16 recalled her interactions with Holloway as very formal. The role of the master, she said, is to bring discipline
to the college, while the dean should be more accessible. The relationship between the Calhoun community and the new master will form organically, Ruier Ma ’17 said. Shapiro said that since the new master loves culture and New York City, he hopes that she will bring more art to the college and organize student trips to the city. “She seems very nice. Very open, willing to talk whenever you need her,” Ryan Mc Rae ’17 said. Calhoun, which was founded in 1933, has had 13 masters and 11 deans. Contact LAVINIA BORZI at lavinia.borzi@yale.edu and ADRIAN RODRIGUES at adrian.rodrigues@yale.edu .
YCC looks back on year YCC FROM PAGE 1 This year, the YCC board focused on building institutional memory for ongoing projects, communications and initiatives, he said. Grass said one of the YCC’s most significant accomplishments this year was the addition of a day to reading period for the 2014–’15 academic year. The project’s success — announced in early March — stemmed from discussions with the Yale administration from January 2013 to February 2014. When asked to identify one of the YCC’s recent accomplishments, most students interviewed noted the calendar change. “For the first time, this year, we’ve seen real [academic] changes that were previously viewed as impossible,” Tramonte said. “We’ve done this a couple of times this year by strategically moving through these committees.” The YCC also furthered community efforts to address mental health after the council released an extensive report and recommendations last September. In an April email to the student body, Director of Yale Health Paul Genecin detailed new initiatives to improve dialogue between students and Mental Health & Counseling administrators, and cited the September YCC report on mental health treatment as part of what motivated the University’s response. “A lot of very positive steps were taken this year [regarding] gender neutral housing and even mental health,” said Michael Herbert ’16, who was recently elected to serve as the next YCC president. “However, they could have stepped up on leading with issues, particularly sexual assault. That is an area [where] they could have demonstrated greater leadership.” Tramonte said another important YCC achievement was amending the personal expenditures portion of financial aid to cover the student activities
Citoyen Haiti through a crowdfunding site, claiming 501(c)(3) status. That system sent all donations to YIRA’s bank account, Liburd said, so current board members had to review the money and wire it to Citoyen Haiti. After expressing concerns over the circumstances surrounding Citoyen Haiti in September, YIRA board members asked Liburd to contact all donors to tell them their contributions were not taxdeductible and remove the YIRA name from the website and other advertisements. Though maintaining that she had authorization to use YIRA’s tax-exempt status, Liburd said she complied because she was confused about the precise legal matters involved and did not want to harm the organization. Stephen Utz, a law professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law with a specialty in tax law, said YIRA’s 501(c) (3) status did not seem to be jeopardized, because the organization did not authorize any programs that strayed too far from its mission, which is what puts organizations at legal risk, he said. He added
that the Internal Revenue Service does not mandate the technical details of an organization’s internal authorization process. In December, Liburd said she received an email from John Meeske ’74, associate dean for student organizations and physical resources, saying current YIRA board members had raised allegations of fiscal mismanagement against her. A week later, he notified her that the proceedings were being forwarded to ExComm. She met with Dean George in January and decided to file for a hearing, signaling an intent to challenge the charges, she said. Meeske declined to comment. “My fundamental point throughout is that we’re an extracurricular, a student club,” Liburd said. “We can’t take ourselves too seriously.” YIRA has nine constituent groups listed in its constitution. Contact ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER at isaac.stanley-becker@yale.edu and WESLEY YIIN at wesley.yiin@yale.edu .
Ivy walls and park benches HOMELESSNESS FROM PAGE 4 how to spend it. They can hand it to a panhandler on Broadway, donate it to an established organization like Columbus House or save the dollar and volunteer their time at a soup kitchen. But to make a wise choice, Grubbs said, students must actually know homelessness and how homeless shelters run. Basic facts about the ways people become homeless and that New Haven offers free emergency shelters, are crucial for students to understand in order to effectively spend their time or money. At the end of the day, students will walk past stores like J. Crew and L’Occitane en Provence, while people like Paul Bacon sleep on a park bench in the New Haven Green less than
a block away. Though students cannot alter New Haven’s demographics, that does not mean that Yalies should pretend that the disparity does not exist, Sarna said. She explained that giving money to a panhandler may be counterproductive, but ignoring the individual altogether is problematic. “I definitely am not judgemental of people who go in either direction [with giving money], but what I am judgmental of is people who just walk past and don’t acknowledge their presence,” Sarna said. “This is another human being talking to you and the most disrespectful thing to do is to say they don’t exist.” Contact POOJA SALHOTRA at pooja.salhotra@yale.edu .
Low turnout in 94th district election ELECTION FROM PAGE 1
JENNIFER LU/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
This year’s Council was responsible for reforming the Constitution of the YCC and streamlining administrative practices. fee — a $75 charge billed to every undergraduate. YCC proposals that have not yet achieved their objectives include expanding mixed-gender housing for sophomores, divesting the University endowment from the fossil fuel industry, instating an off-campus meal plan, standardizing teaching assistant grading and encouraging the University to reconsider implementing academic minors. “You can have some big projects and some success, but because of nature of administration, for some projects there’s a lot of positive movement forward that may be successful in the next year or in the future,” Grass said. Still, a majority of the 20 students interviewed were not well informed about the activities of this year’s YCC. While some said they had not noticed or heard of any major changes, many admitted that they simply did not pay attention to the YCC. “I know nothing about YCC,” Zobia Chunara ’16 said. Aaron Gertler ’16 said his
impression is that most students neither know nor care much about the YCC. If students are unwilling to communicate their interests, it is difficult for the YCC to represent those interests, he said. Still, other students who said they followed the YCC’s progress this year expressed reservation about how it was governed this year. “The silent majority is indifferent to the YCC but there is a very vocal minority that wants to say the YCC has become out of touch with students,” Zach Young ’17 said. Linda Oh ’17 said she has the impression that most students “don’t have that great of an opinion” of this year’s YCC, citing controversy in February after the YCC appointed Avraham to the selection committee for the new Yale College dean without a campuswide vote. At the time, some students interviewed said they believed there should have been a campuswide vote for the student representative to the committee,
despite the logistical challenges of conducting that vote within a short space of time. Grass said this year’s YCC attempted to emphasize transparency by revamping its website and emails and providing detailed meeting minutes for interested students to learn about the council’s actions and its projects. He acknowledged that this year, because the council devoted a lot of time to improving its internal operational work, the YCC could not spend as much time conducting “proactive outreach.” “I think the YCC could do a lot more active reaching out to groups and people on campus to find out what issues they are concerned about,” he said. The 2014–’15 Yale College Council will begin its term on May 8. Phoebe Kimmelman, Larry Milstein and Rachel Siegel contributed reporting. Contact NICOLE NG at nicole.ng@yale.edu .
of the district. Holder-Winfield cited taxation and youth crime as important issues that his successor should be prepared to address. In February, Holder-Winfield won a special election to fill the Senate seat vacated by New Haven Mayor Toni Harp. The special election to fill his representative seat was announced on March 9, giving candidates 46 days to declare their candidacy and campaign. Both Porter and Rowe-Lewis said their campaigns were not affected by the decreased preparation time, and Rowe-Lewis said she has her sights set on the representative seat since last year. “[The campaign] was a great ride,” Porter said. “I really enjoyed what I did.” Porter said she was disappointed by the turnout in Ward 1, the ward which includes most of Yale. Out of 835 potential voters, four turned out, though low turnout is typical of special elections. Although Berkeley, Calhoun, Silliman, Timothy
Dwight and Trumbull Colleges are part of the 94th assembly district, none of the more than a dozen students interviewed were aware of the election. The Yale College Democrats did not campaign for a single candidate because of the multiple democratic contenders, said Tyler Blackmon ’16, elections coordinator for Yale College Democrats and a staff columnist for the News. Instead, the group encouraged students to vote through emails and social media posts. “Students should be paying attention to politics because politics is paying attention to them,” Blackmon said. Porter said she will be running again for the same seat in the fall, while Rowe-Lewis said she has not yet decided whether or not to pursue the position. Ashe, Caplan and Harp were unavailable for comment Thursday evening. Contact APARNA NATHAN at aparna.nathan@yale.edu and MICHAEL LEOPOLD at michael.leopold@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 7
NEWS
“Forty is the old age of youth; fifty the youth of old age.” VICTOR HUGO FRENCH WRITER
Summer Cabaret turns 40 BY ERIC XIAO STAFF REPORTER The Yale Summer Cabaret is preparing to celebrate its 40th anniversary by paying homage to the Cabaret’s past and looking forward to its future. From June to August, the Summer Cabaret will stage 10 plays — six of which will be performed as part of a festival of short plays written by Yale School of Drama alumni and graduating YSD playwrights. Jessica Holt DRA ’15 and Luke Harlan DRA ’16, the YSC artistic directors who will direct all the plays, said they consider this season’s shows a celebration of the YSC’s 40th anniversary, noting that the program will include a wide variety of works by both well-established and emerging playwrights. “A big part of our mission is to take a look back at the last 40 years to find out where we came from, but also to look ahead to the next 40 years,” Harlan said. Holt said that while all of the featured playwrights are still active today, some entered the professional theater scene earlier than others. She explained that one play, titled “Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them,” was written by Christopher Durang DRA ’74, who participated in the first ever YSC season when he was a student at the Yale School of Drama. Holt added that YSC will also feature playwrights whose names may not be as recognizable to the general public, such as Erin Court-
ney and Jackie Sibblies Drury. Organizers are hoping to make audiences want to learn more about these playwrights’ work, she said. Holt said the upcoming season’s plays were chosen around a central theme: the “American experience.” She explained that all the plays explore American identity in the modern age as well as the relationships between people of different backgrounds and lifestyles. Drury’s play, “We are Proud to Present…” centers on a group of actors who try to write a play about the 20th century Namibian Genocide but gradually realize that they are actually portraying racial violence of the kind that has taken place in the United States, Holt said. “You would think that this [play] is about another country, but then you realize that this is actually about us and how the politics of racial violence are still embedded in our current society,” Holt said. Three of the plays this season were written in the last two years, and one — “A Map of Virtue” by Erin Courtney — is having its New England premiere at the YSC. Harlan and Holt said that staging recent work is not uncharted territory for them because they had extensive experience with newly written plays before enrolling in the School of Drama. He noted that during the years he spent working in the New York theater scene, all of the shows he directed were world premieres.
Holt, who was based in San Francisco prior to enrolling at YSD, added that she also worked almost exclusively with new theater before coming to Yale. Harlan emphasized that from an artistic perspective, the YSC is completely independent of the Yale Cabaret, whose season runs during the academic year. He said that being an artistic director and a play director in the YSC differs from directing a term-time Cabaret show because the directors of individual productions during the term-time do not decide the structure of the season as a whole or the types of plays featured in it. Gretchen Wright DRA ’16, the YSC’s managing director, highlighted several logistical differences between the termtime and summer cabarets. She explained that while both programs are housed in the same building, the YSC’s budget must include salaries for participating cast and creative team members while no such wages exist for students who work on termtime Cabaret shows. Wright added that though half of the term-time Cabaret’s expenses are subsidized by the University, the YSC must cover all expenses through ticket sales, restaurant sales and donations. The first show of the upcoming season, “Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them,” opens on Jun. 5. Contact ERIC XIAO at eric.xiao@yale.edu .
College prep program expands reach BY RACHEL SIEGEL STAFF REPORTER When Noah Greenfield LAW ’16 and Joel Butterly LAW ’16 sat next to one another at their law school orientation in the fall of 2012, neither expected to leave the lecture hall with a newly hatched business plan for an admissions prep company. Nearly two years later, the duo’s startup — an admissions consulting company called InGenius Prep — advises clients from all over the world and recently began a partnership with Teach for America. Launched last spring, InGenius Prep aims to get students who might otherwise not have access to specialized counseling into elite colleges and graduate schools, Greenfield said. “We help people be more strategic and more ambitious in their applications,” Greenfield said. “We help give people the best chances when they’re thinking about their educational opportunities.”
[InGenius Prep] is really about being able to provide a service that is accessible to a much broader demographic. JOEL BUTTERLY LAW ’16 Founder, InGenius Prep According to Greenfield, Butterly and their business partner, David Mainiero, InGenius differs from other admissions prep companies in two important ways. First, the consultants InGenius hires are all former deans and admissions directors from the country’s top universities. Second, clients can access InGenius
resources for a fraction of the cost they might have to pay elsewhere. Greenfield said employing those most familiar with the application process only strengthens the legitimacy of InGenius’s services. He added that former admissions officers “have the best insight and can give the people the best advice because they literally designed the process.” Divided into four divisions — undergraduate, law, business and medicine — InGenius conducts all of its consulting online. Butterly compared the model to Google Apps, where multiple users can review documents and host video chats simultaneously. The approach allows consultants to work with clients worldwide while acting as if they share the same room, Butterly said. Greenfield said one of the key issues students face is that they are not given proper guidance early on and therefore are not always in a position to create compelling applications. For example, Greenfield said many pre-med students get rejected from medical schools because they lacked proper counseling during their undergraduate years. Mainiero said 40 to 50 percent of InGenius’s clients are international students, and the company maintains a presence in China, New Zealand and Korea. Butterly added that last year, 97.5 percent of clients were admitted to one of their top two choice schools. The company offers several packages with varying degrees of consulting, though every client is assigned to one former admissions officer and one “graduate coach.” Graduate coaches are either current graduate students or those who have recently received a professional degree. Mainiero, a second-year law school student at Harvard, said InGenius is highly selective when
choosing its graduate coaches. Coaches come from top professional schools themselves and go through a rigorous training process, he said. Among the main objectives of InGenius is to target students with the potential to attend and succeed at the country’s top schools but who may not be able to afford similar admissions consulting. For this reason, Greenfield said the company will meet clients at their economic level, even handling some cases pro bono. “A lot of these services are priced so prohibitively high that only the wealthy and privileged could afford them,” Butterly said. “[InGenius Prep] is really about being able to provide a service that is accessible to a much broader demographic.” Greenfield and Mainiero spoke of a former client who grew up illiterate and had little formal schooling before college. Though the student did not have a remarkable GPA or LSAT scores, his compelling story earned him a place at Harvard Law School. InGenius is also looking to expand through partnerships with other education initiatives around the world, most recently with Teach For America and the Dallas Urban Debate Alliance. Through Teach For America, the company aims to train teachers on how to effectively prepare students for college. InGenius’s work with the Dallas Urban Debate Alliance focuses on keeping students engaged in debate, which is often an expensive extracurricular, and empower at-risk students to seek higher education, Mainiero said. After graduating from law school, Greenfield, Butterly and Mainiero said they plan to work on InGenius full time. InGenius Prep launched in May 2013. Contact RACHEL SIEGEL at rachel.siegel@yale.edu .
Yalies teach nonviolence BY SARAH BRULEY AND MAREK RAMILO STAFF REPORTERS When 12 New Haven middle school students gathered in a classroom during their spring break were asked to define peace, their response was unanimous. “Peace is being able to go outside and feel safe, not hear gunshots and to not lose another family member,” one seventh grade student said. In the wake of the shootings in Hamden Public Schools last month, New Haven Public Schools reached out to several nonprofit organizations to run nonviolence programming. Teaching the Peace Initiative (TPI), a Dwight Hall provisional member organization that runs antiviolence curricula in schools across the country, was tasked with creating a modified curriculum that volunteers could teach to middle and high school students over a period of four hours during spring break, said Fish Stark ’17, executive director of TPI.
Nonviolence has to be taught. I don’t think it’s inherent in the human being. JENNIFER HUEBNER Former NHPS teacher Throughout New Haven Public School’s week-long spring break, Yale volunteers visited Troup, Hillhouse and WexlerGrant schools, leading students in a condensed version of TPI’s curriculum. The discussions first prompted students to form their own definitions of peace and identify reasons why nonviolence is important. Volunteers then led students to identify peaceful ways to resolve common conflicts. Finally, students were given the opportunity to “teach the peace” by guiding their classmates through a similar exercise.
“This is substantially different from what we usually do,” Stark said, adding, “There’s never a constant to what we do because we’re always encouraging our chapters to be flexible.” TPI usually teaches a monthlong curriculum to high school students, leading them in discussions about creating their own definitions of peace, which they then use to teach other students, Stark said. The volunteers usually also play a more passive role in teaching, letting students dominate the majority of classroom discussion, he said, adding that time constraints forced volunteers to steer classroom discussions. TPI’s goal is to encourage students to spread the message of peace to their peers, Stark said, adding that training students to teach other students is the most effective way to spread their message of nonviolence. “When it comes from us in the ivory tower, no one cares what we have to say,” Stark said. Volunteers originally planned to teach mostly high school students how to teach the peace to the middle school, said Liza Rodler ’17, a volunteer for TPI. However, volunteers found themselves teaching middle school students, who then taught children from the elementary schools. TPI is just one of several local initiatives that have gained momentum in the past few weeks after two teenage boys were killed, separately, in the city’s most recent homicides. Just six days after 16-year-old Torrence Gamble’s death, Mayor Toni Harp gathered leaders like New Haven Police Department Chief Dean Esserman and Public Schools Superintendent Garth Harries ’95 to address the community on the topic of violence and to launch a mentoring and canvassing campaign in an effort to prevent local youth from succumbing to the city’s pervasive gang culture. Harries also mandated that six schools remain open during their scheduled April break to provide a safe-haven for local students during the recess. TPI was active in schools during
this stretch, a move that NHPS Spokeswoman Abbe Smith said the department was “thrilled” about. Jennifer Huebner, a former NHPS teacher who has lobbied for local officials to add an antiviolence component to the existing public school curriculum and has offered her personal support to TPI. “Nonviolence has to be taught,” she said. “I don’t think it’s inherent in the human being. When you raise children, you need to … give them tools to learn how to stay alive and not hurt anybody.” Huebner added that, during her approximately 30 years as a teacher in the Elm City, schools taught lessons on sexual health, peer pressure and drug use, but avoided the issue of violence, despite its historical prevalence in New Haven. Huebner currently works with PeaceJam, an international youth-mentoring program supported by a group of Nobel Peace Laureates, but continues to find ways to generate momentum for the antiviolence movement. Stark has shown a level of commitment that she said will serve TPI well and could stir up more of a response than she has been able to generate since she retired. “[The antiviolence movement] has just not grown enough yet,” Huebner said. “But I still have this burning desire. That’s why I took Fish and introduced him to all the people I’ve found. He’s making some headway because he has all that energy.” While he would like to see TPI hold a permanent place in New Haven Public Schools, Stark said that TPI does not yet have definite plans to open chapters in the Elm City. Integrating TPI successfully into New Haven requires a significant amount of community buy-in, he said. TPI was founded in 2011 and runs chapters in over 10 states. Contact SARAH BRULEY at sarah.bruley@yale.edu and MAREK RAMILO at marek.ramilo@yale.edu .
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NEWS
YALE DAILY NEWS 路 FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2014 路 yaledailynews.com
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 9
BULLETIN BOARD
TODAY’S FORECAST
Mostly sunny, with a high near 60. Light and variable wind becoming south 5 to 8 mph in the morning.
TOMORROW High of 61, low of 41.
SUNDAY High of 61, low of 40.
SCIENCE HILL BY SPENCER KATZ
ON CAMPUS FRIDAY, APRIL 25 3:00 p.m. Last Day of Classes Celebration at Yale Farm. The Yale Farm will celebrate the end of the school year and the beginning of a new growing season with live music and a spread of Mediterranean food. Stop by in the afternoon to dance, eat, and hang out. Students only. Yale Farm (345 Edwards St). 4:30 p.m. CEAS & Yale ThiNK — “Five Myths About North Korea.” Contradictions often render North Korea misunderstood. Sung-Yoon Lee, professor in Korean studies at the Kim Koo-Korea Foundation, will address five common myths about North Korea that have policy implications and offer prescriptions for debunking them. Hall of Graduate Studies (320 York St.), Rm. 217A. 4:45 p.m. Hollywood Brass: A 15th Anniversary Celebration. The conspicuous role of brass instruments in Hollywood film scores makes the new settings of favorite themes sparkle with authenticity. Featuring music from “James Bond,” “The Lord of the Rings” and much more. The show will kick off with the world premiere of “Brass: Behind the Music.” Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (121 Wall St.).
DOONESBURY BY GARRY TRUDEAU
SATURDAY, APRIL 26 2:00 p.m. Film: “Hedd Wyn.” A young poet living in the countryside of North Wales competes for a prestigious poetry prize, but before the winner is announced, he is sent to fight with the English in the First World War. Directed by Paul Turner. Yale Center for British Art (1080 Chapel St.).
SUNDAY, APRIL 27 3:00 p.m. Performance: “Jazz at the Gallery: Open Jam Session.” Play with Department of Jazz in a musical celebration presented in conjunction with the exhibition “Jazz Lives: The Photographs of Lee Friedlander and Milt Hinton.” This New Havenbased trio believes in uniting disparate genres and audiences through a fusion of thoughtful, innovate arrangements and spontaneous virtuosity. Call to register to jam with the band. Yale University Art Gallery (1111 Chapel St.).
y SUBMIT YOUR EVENTS ONLINE yaledailynews.com/events/submit To reach us: E-mail editor@yaledailynews.com Advertisements 2-2424 (before 5 p.m.) 2-2400 (after 5 p.m.) Mailing address Yale Daily News P.O. Box 209007 New Haven, CT 06520
Interested in drawing cartoons for the Yale Daily News? CONTACT ANNELISA LEINBACH AT annelisa.leinbach@yale.edu
Questions or comments about the fairness or accuracy of stories should be directed to Editor in Chief Julia Zorthian at (203) 4322418. Bulletin Board is a free service provided to groups of the Yale community for events. Listings should be submitted online at yaledailynews.com/events/ submit. The Yale Daily News reserves the right to edit listings.
recyclerecyclerecyclerecycle
YO U R Y DN DA I LY
To visit us in person 202 York St. New Haven, Conn. (Opposite JE) FOR RELEASE APRIL 25, 2014
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
CROSSWORD Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis ACROSS 1 Sputnik letters 5 Insert 8 *Scarlet letter? 14 “Hello, I didn’t see you there” 15 Tax-advantaged vehicle 16 Like unmiked orators, maybe 17 Collins contemporary 18 Like some sales 20 *Rio jokester? 22 Part of a black suit 23 It may be packed 24 Grand squared 27 General of Chinese cuisine 28 “Bueller? Bueller?” actor Stein 29 “Die Lorelei” poet 31 Shaver brand 33 *Law against certain intrafamily marriages? 35 First-century Judean monarch Herod __ 37 Portion portion 38 *Game disc on the farm? 40 Prefix with morph 41 Healthy greens 42 Storage unit 43 Muscle prone to tears, briefly 44 Fashion monogram 45 A long way 46 Waffle __ 48 *Fighter running on tequila? 52 Tevye-playing Tony winner 55 Prom rental 56 Inverse trig function 57 Spreading tree 58 Foreign attorneys’ degs. 59 Like the answers to starred clues before they were edited for content? 60 Call for help 61 “Uh-huh”
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4/25/14
By Samuel A. Donaldson
DOWN 1 Georgia county planned to be the 2017 home of the Braves 2 Blackens 3 It doesn’t provide lasting enjoyment 4 Quick lunch, perhaps 5 Window alternative 6 German crowd? 7 Broken 8 Gymnast Johnson who was a “Dancing With the Stars” winner 9 Inner Hebrides isle 10 Da __, Vietnam 11 Play about Capote 12 Hard-rock link 13 Crystallize 19 How a chorus may sing 21 Vow on a stand 24 Site of Los Angeles’ Museum Row 25 Like krypton 26 Not a __ stand on 28 Contoured chairs
Thursday’s Puzzle Solved
SUDOKU HAVE A GOOD SUMMER!
7
(c)2014 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
29 Connecting flight site 30 In particular 31 Nonsensical 32 Ottoman nobility 33 Ajar, poetically 34 Curly-tailed canine 36 Soccer stat 39 1979 World Series champs 43 What life imitates, so it’s said
4/25/14
45 Fern leaf 46 Festival features 47 1994 film king 48 Very 49 Grenoble gal pal 50 Move shortly? 51 “My stars!” 52 Either of two stubborn Seuss characters 53 Go off 54 Early ’N Sync label
6 1 3 9 9 6 6 3 2 5 7 8 6 6 7 9 4 5 2 1 7 3 8 3 1 4 7 6
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
SPORTS
PEOPLE IN THE NEWS ATLANTA HAWKS Seeds apparently mean nothing to the Hawks, as Atlanta is the eighth and lowest seed in the NBA’s Eastern Conference playoffs, but Jeff Teague and company hold a 2–1 edge through in the bestof-seven series with the No. 1 seed Indiana Pacers.
Pool talks move forward SWIMMING FROM PAGE 14 When the Steering Committee first requested a meeting with Salovey in a letter dated Nov. 6, the alumni said they had loose commitments for $20 million in donations — enough to build a new pool for the University on unused land near the Yale Bowl. Rapuano said the University emphasized in this meeting that only proposals to renovate or build a new pool in Payne Whitney would be considered viable. She added that although this would cost more money, it made sense for the University because they would not need to spend money maintaining both a pool elsewhere in New Haven and an unused pool in Payne Whitney. Beckett said the effort to fund such a project will be an “all hands on deck commitment from the University, the alums and the friends and fans of Yale Swimming.” Rapuano said one of the biggest obstacles the Steering Committee has encountered has been raising the money independently. She added that given the small size of Yale’s swimming, diving and water polo alumni groups, it would have been very difficult for the group to raise over $40 million. This meeting with Salovey and other important administrators such as Joan O’Neill, University Vice Presi-
dent for Development, was a crucial indicator that the University endorses the alumni group’s vision, she said. “The difference between the conversation we had previously and the conversation we’re having now seems to be that Yale and the Development Office [are] behind this and will support us,” she said. “The message we got previously was ‘You guys go raise the money and then do whatever you want.’ Now the project is collaborative and we have the University’s blessing.” With the Development Office’s support in providing the alumni group with contacts and making initial phone calls, Rapuano said the Steering Committee will be able to tap a broader base of alumni to raise the necessary money. Matthew Meade ’87, vice president of the Yale Swimming and Diving Association, said he has been involved with the team’s alumni activities since 1993. He added that the March meeting was the first time since that year that the president’s office and the representatives of the swimming and diving community have had a face-to-face meeting. Establishing a dialogue and a working relationship is crucial to implementing any successful initiatives at the University, Meade said. Rapuano said the renovation
Softball takes last hacks
or construction of a new pool has been long overdue in order to improve the competitiveness of the Yale swimming program and aid in the team’s recruiting efforts. “The teams are suffering from both a recruiting and training perspective with the lack of a stateof-the-art facility,” Rapuano said. “[Other Ivies] have a significant advantage over us. It’s not like we’re saying Yale has to have the best pool in the world, it just has to be competitive with its rivals and we need to be able to host our own conference [championship].” Although steeped in tradition, Yale’s Kiphuth Exhibition Pool is only 25 yards long and has only six lanes, meaning Yale is currently unable to host a championship meet. Swimmer Danny Clarke ’14 said the current team is hopeful about the possibility of a new pool. Still, he added that it was a privilege to swim in the Kiphuth Exhibition because it was one of the most historic pools in the world. The Steering Committee has also spoken with contractors and the architecture firm, Pelli Clarke Pelli, to design the facility and has renderings of what it could look like.
BRIANNA LOO/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
The softball team carries a 1–15 record in the Ivy League into this weekend’s series against Brown. SOFTBALL FROM PAGE 14 “We want to leave the seniors with a couple of wins. As long as we stay relaxed, have fun doing what we love and put everything together this last weekend, we should definitely be able to beat Brown.” Brown is coming off its first conference win of the year, and the team is batting .205 on the season. Over 34 games, the Bears have scored 65 runs and slugged eight home runs. A pair of freshmen — shortstop Christina Andrews and outfielder Casey Fisher — lead the Brown lineup, hitting .280 and .269, respectively. Andrews has also hit a team-high three home runs and driven in 10 runs. The Bulldogs will likely face pitcher Jessica Cherness, who has pitched 95.0 innings, compiling a record of 1–13 with a 5.01 earned run average. Pitcher Leah Nakashima will also likely toss for the Bears, as she has thrown 60.0 innings with a record of 2–10 and a 4.32 earned run average. Although Yale faced a tough weekend against Harvard, the Bulldogs have scored ten runs in their past three games combined and will look
Contact ASHTON WACKYM at ashton.wackym@yale.edu and RISHABH BHANDARI at rishabh.bhandari@yale.edu .
OLUFOLAKE OGUNMOLA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The stands at the Kiphuth Exhibition Pool can seat 2,187 spectators.
Yale poised to clinch
GRAHAM HARBOE/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
BASEBALL FROM PAGE 14 know that all the teams in the Ivy League are pretty similar teams, so we have to go at them with all we [have] got.” If Yale can win three of its four games this weekend and clinch the division, it will do so on the strength of its pitching. Right-handed pitcher Chris Lanham ’16 has been lightsout in Ivy play, throwing 28.1 innings and allowing just a single run. He was honored as Ivy League Pitcher of the Week for the third time this season after hurling eight shutout innings against Harvard last weekend, yielding two hits and striking out five. Beyond Lanham, the pitching of starters Chasen Ford ’17 and David Hickey ’14 will also be vital to the Bulldogs’ success. Ford is coming off a strong outing against Harvard, in which he allowed one run across five innings, and he is only a few weeks removed from shutting down a solid Cornell offense. Hickey, meanwhile, has
struggled in his previous two starts against Harvard and Dartmouth. The senior southpaw was in top form in his first two Ivy starts, however, allowing two runs over 13.1 innings against Columbia and Princeton. “It’s been a matter of focus and trusting in the defense,” Lanham said in an email about his success in Ivy play. “I’ve been concentrating on throwing quality strikes low in the zone and the defense has done a great job of making the plays behind me.” This year’s iteration of the Bulldogs has been particularly tough in late innings. With a 7–1 record in ball games decided by one run, including four walkoff victories, it has been hard to top the Elis towards the ends of close games. While much of the credit goes to the bullpen, Yale’s hitters have been contributing up and down the order. In game one of last Sunday’s doubleheader against the Crimson, catcher Robert Baldwin ’15 hit a sacrifice fly to plate first base-
man Eric Hsieh ’15 and break a scoreless tie in extras. And the nightcap saw infielders Nate Adams ’16 and Tom O’Neill ’16 come through in the clutch, as each had three RBI courtesy of multi-hit performances. “They’ve done a great job,” Lanham said of the team’s hitters. “The games against Harvard were great examples of how our offense has come up with clutch hits when it matters most.” Taking three of four against Brown would set another record for the Elis. Yale has not won more than 11 conference games in the 21st century, dating back to 1997. Since the Bulldogs’ last Ivy title in 1994, every other school in the Ancient Eight has won at least one championship. The first pitch of Friday’s doubleheader at Brown is at 1:00 p.m. Saturday’s doubleheader at Yale will also start at 1:00 p.m. Contact GRANT BRONSDON at grant.bronsdon@yale.edu .
Contact ASHLEY WU at ashley.e.wu@yale.edu .
More to senior day COLUMN FROM PAGE 14
Yale will play a home-and-home series against Brown starting today.
ence in the circle, pitching 204 innings throughout her career. She earned the team’s Most Improved Player Award following her sophomore season. Lucas is the team’s third multi-recipient of the Andy Van Etten Coaches Award, which is given to the player who best represents the ideals of Yale softball that go beyond the statistics. “Last year, we sent our seniors off on a great weekend, so I’m hoping we can do the same for this year’s seniors,” Brennan said. “No matter the outcome, I’m hoping we can come together as a team and have a solid final series against Brown … At this point in our season, this weekend is all about giving our seniors a memorable, fun, successful last weekend of ball. I hope we can do that for them.” The Elis begin their first doubleheader at 2:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon in Providence, R.I. before playing their final two games of the season at Dewitt Family Field beginning at 12:30 on Saturday afternoon.
for the same offensive success this weekend. Over the course of 37 games this season, the Elis have scored 77 runs with a .218 batting average. Balta continues to lead the lineup with a .364 batting average. Both third baseman Hannah Brennan ’15 and first baseman Lauren Delgadillo ’16 have hit a team-leading three home runs this year. In the circle, Yale will look to pitchers Lindsay Efflandt ’17 and Dunham, who have shouldered most of the workload this year, pitching 94.0 and 78.2 innings, respectively. Efflandt leads the team with a 2.90 earned run average, and Dunham follows with a 4.36 earned run average. Dunham and Leung each have two wins on the season to lead the team. All four seniors have made important contributions to the team throughout the years. Balta has started in center field over the past four years, and she has earned AllIvy recognition in each of her first three seasons. Dunham has anchored the pitching staff during her time at Yale, pitching 508.3 career innings with 49 complete games. Leung has also made a pres-
and when we complain about these things, the fact remains that day in and day out, for four years, we show up. Even when we don’t know why, or when we question if it’s worth it, we are still there to run the sprints, make the practices and catch the bus at 5:30 a.m. Senior day is in part a celebration of the work, time, sacrifice and dedication that four years as a college athlete entails. For most seniors, the hard work started long before they stepped onto their college campus. Behind every athlete, there are years of practices, traveling to tournaments, playing catch off the pitch-back in the driveway, shooting hoops after dinner, taking lessons and pouring our hearts into our sport. There are coaches who have guided us, parents who have sacrificed more than we could ask to be there cheering every step of the way and teammates who have become our closest friends.
If anything, Senior Day provides the answer to the question that every athlete has asked themselves at least once before: Why am I doing this? In large part, we do it not only for ourselves, but also for the people around us. Like many things, sports are an experience best when shared. For every dinner at Chili’s, every game played in freezing cold, every early morning wake-up call and every win and loss, your teammates are there with you to experience it, remember it and laugh about it later. They are family in the most corny, cliché sense possible: they’re utterly embarrassing, know way too much, see you at your lowest points, annoy you to no end and you can’t choose them. But you’d do anything for them and know they’d say the same. The second part of the answer to why we do it is perhaps one that is most often forgotten, but is perhaps most important of all. Behind the 20-year-old men and women that we become as college athletes, there are little kids who
loved to play catch with their dads in the backyard, or who took their soccer ball with them everywhere, or who couldn’t wait to throw the football around at recess. There is a part of all of us who dreamed to be where we are now, playing a game that we have loved for so long that we might have forgotten we loved it at all. So for all the seniors who play their last games in the coming weeks, it’s not too late. Enjoy the feeling of your spikes digging into the dirt, or the feeling of celebrating after a goal with teammates. Thank your parents, who have gone above and beyond and been your biggest cheerleaders through every defeat and success. Enjoy pulling on your Yale jersey because it’s something we have dreamed about doing and don’t appreciate enough. Play for the love of the game that has taken you so far and given you so much one last time. SARAH ONORATO is a junior in Silliman College. Contact her at sarah.onorato@yale.edu .
SCHEDULE FRIDAY APRIL 25 Baseball
@ Brown
1 p.m.
Ivy League Digital Network
Softball
@ Brown
2 p.m.
Ivy League Digital Network
W. Lacrosse
@ Brown
7 p.m.
Ivy League Digital Network
SUNDAY W. TennisAPRIL 27
vs. Brown
12 p.m.
Softball
vs. Brown
12:30 p.m.
Yale All-Access
Baseball
vs. Brown
1 p.m.
Yale All-Access
W. Golf
@ Ivy League Championship
TBD
M. Golf
@ Ivy League Championship
TBD
Sport
vs. School
x p.m.
SATURDAY APRIL 26
broadcast/notes
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 11
The following is a paid advertisement and does not reflect the opinion of the Yale Daily News
Why is Yale honoring international asbestos criminal, Stephan Schmidheiny? Why won’t Yale review a mistakenly granted honorary degree? Please join in the plea of Italian asbestos victims and ask Yale to review and revoke the honorary degree awarded to asbestos billionaire Stephan Schmidheiny. 1972
Schmidheiny becomes involved in “guiding” Italian Eternit Company. Italian Eternit sells asbestos waste dust, asbestos-cement fragments and worn asbestos cloth conveyor belts to plant workers (through 1978).
6FKPLGKHLQ\ WDNHV RYHU RSHUDWLYH FRQWURO RI ,WDOLDQ (WHUQLW EXW KDV QR RIÀFLDO SRVLWLRQ Schmidheiny becomes Deputy CEO of Eternit parent company.
1975
Schmidheiny takes over as CEO of Eternit asbestos company from his father. Italian government workers’ compensation authority declares conditions at Casale Monferrato plant “unacceptable.”
1976
Schmidheiny attends Neuss Conference in Germany where candid discussions about serious health hazards of asbestos are discussed among high-level managers. Schmidheiny recorded as saying that some managers are “shocked” to hear about the dire health hazards and such shock must be avoided among the plant workers. Schmidheiny appears in cognito as a “technical expert” at Casale Monferrato Italian Health Inspectorate reports on loss of asbestos material during transportation and to the wind, highlighting possible damage to the community.
1978
Naples criminal court begins proceedings against Italian Eternit executives, including CEO Giannitrapani for inadequate control of asbestos health hazards, causing disease in 170 people.
1980s
Eternit/Schmidheiny continue asbestos operations in Apartheid-era South Africa. Eternit/Schmidheiny continue asbestos operations in Italy, Brazil, Lebanon and other countries. The Lebanese plant remains unremediated and is causing an environmental and public health catastrophe to this day.
1983
Eternit/Schmidheiny’s Italian managers convicted in criminal proceedings in Italy.
1984
Eternit/Schmidheiny hire FRQVXOWLQJ ÀUP, Bellodi, to manage public relations and to protect the high-level executives and Schmidheiny personally. Casale plant still does not provide laundry service for workers’ clothes, despite worker requests.
1986
Eternit plant in Casale shuts down, leaving an environmental catastrophe and a future of 50 mesothelioma cases among retirees and residents every year.
1988
Italian Eternit executives (including CEO Giannitrapani) questioned in connection with indictment for charges that include negligent KRPLFLGH VSHFLÀFDOO\ LQ &DVDOH 0RQIHUUDWR
c.1990
Eternit/Schmidheiny sells Brazilian asbestos operations at full market value and walk away. Asbestos operations are still ongoing in Brazil.
c.1991
Eternit/Schmidheiny sells South African asbestos operations at the end of Apartheid.
1993
Eternit/Schmidheiny’s Italian managers convicted LQ FULPLQDO SURFHHGLQJV LQ ,WDO\ VSHFLÀFDOO\ IRU DVEHVWRV FRQGLWLRQV DW &DVDOH 0RQferrato.
1995
Schmidheiny’s foundation gives Yale money (and never did before).
1996
Schmidheiny’s foundation gives Yale money. Yale awards honorary doctorate of humane letters for “green” business practices. Brazil gives Schmidheiny the Order of the Southern Cross for similar reasons.
1997
Schmidheiny’s foundation gives Yale money (and never did again).
2012
Schmidheiny and co-defendant convicted by Italian criminal court of negligence in 2,000+ deaths and of creating an environmental catastrophe. Sentenced to 16 years in prison and ordered to pay about $100 million in compensation to victims, organizations and municipalities. No payments have yet been made.
7XULQ &RXUW RI $SSHDOV DIÀUPV trial court verdict and adds two years to sentence, now 18 years. Italian asbestos victims (AFEVA) ask Yale to review and revoke the 1996 honorary degree as inconsistent with the actual history of 6FKPLGKHLQ\·V RSHUDWLRQV LQ ,WDO\ DQG HOVHZKHUH 'R]HQV RI QDWLRQDO DQG LQWHUQDWLRQDO SXEOLF KHDOWK H[SHUWV RIÀFLDOO\ MRLQ LQ $)(9$·V SOHD 7KH $VEHVWRV 'LVHDVH $ZDUHQHVV 2UJDQL]DWLRQ MRLQV LQ $)(9$·V SOHD Brazilian asbestos victims (ABREA) ask the government of Brazil to revoke the Order of Southern Cross. Yale refuses to honestly grapple with the new facts or to give the Italian victims’ plea any reasonable hearing.
2014
Local, national and international news media pick up the story in the U.S., U.K., Italy and Brazil. Schmidheiny’s nominator for the honorary degree, William Reilly, admits to Yale Daily News TV that he was unaware of the complete history at the time of the award: http://yaledailynews.com/blog/video/questions-of-honor/ Yale continues to refuse to honestly grapple with the new facts or to give the Italian victims’ plea any reasonable hearing.
Email Yale President Peter Salovey (peter.salovey@yale.edu), and Vice President Kimberly Goff-Crews (kimberly.goff-crews@yale.edu), and ask them to review and revoke this outrageous and unjust award. Paid for by the firm of Early, Lucarelli, Sweeney & Meisenkothen, LLC., representing AFEVA, the Asbestos Victims and Relatives Association (Associazione Familiari Vittime Amianto).
PAGE 12
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
IN FOCUS C U LT U R A L H O U S E S
African American Cultural Center
I
n this last of four installments looking into each of Yale’s cultural houses, photography editor KATHRYN CRANDALL explores the Afro-American Cultural Center, also known as the Af-Am House or just “The House.” Located at 211 Park St., the center is home to a myriad of resident groups whose influence can be felt across campus and even beyond Yale’s borders. The House serves as a physical space to help foster a sense of community within the black population at Yale, hosting events throughout the year including mayoral debates, guest lectures and parties that are open to all who wish to attend.
Africa Week event hosted by Yale African Students Association, a resident group of the Afro-American Cultural Center. YBWC has been instrumental in shaping my experience at Yale since I stepped foot on campus. Through amazing discussions and outreach projects/speaker events it has truly opened my mind and helped me gain perspective on ideas that I had never been exposed to before. There have been many changes at the Afro-American Cultural Center, but I will always consider it to be my home here on campus. Spoken Word performance in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Tribute to Black Men and Women
19th Annual Black Solidarity Conference, which this year was attended by over 650 students from various universities
Chelsea Handfield Preisdent, YBWC
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 13
14
The number of black students in the freshman class of 1964
These students were key in forming the Black Student Alliance at Yale in 1966 and in ultimately creating the AfroAmerican Cultural Center on campus.
Asempa(!) performing at the Black Student Alliance at Yale’s annual Yale-Harvard Showdown During my first three years, The Af-Am House was a place of rest for me. I absolutely loved my suite mates and my residential college community but I felt a special sense of freedom each time I arrived at 211 Park St. Understanding The House in the context of the larger diaspora community, I deeply believed my involvement at The House was furthering a legacy that was grounded in equality, excellence, and integrity. I am indebted to the Founders of the cultural center for providing me with the opportunity to attend Yale and to have a cultural hub to call home while here. Because of their sacrifices, the events, panels, and debates at The House were always deeper than academic exploration and extracurricular activities for me. The Afro-American Cultural Center is a place to explore, enjoy, and engage with the culture of the African Diaspora. I hope that the Center stays true to its mission of cultivating a strong sense of community through promotion of intellectual and social traditions of the African Diaspora and that any student feels comfortable and excited when they arrive at The House. Jasmine Simington President, Black Solidarity Conference
Mayoral debate hosted by BSAY in The House.
Erica James, DUS of African-American Studies, guest speaking at a Yale Black Women’s Coalition
Every community needs a space to thrive — and the Af-Am House is the black community’s space. But more than that, it’s both the place where the wider Yale community can come and learn about issues that effect people of the Diaspora and a place where those students can feel at home and safe to express their full selves. Eshe Sherley Social Justice Chair, BSAY
Students from Brown attend the BSC Keynote dinner at the Omni Hotel
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MLB N.Y. Yankees 14 Boston 5
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KEVIN DOONEY ’16 MEN’S TRACK AND FIELD TEAM Running at the prestigious Penn Relays yesterday evening, Dooney won the Men’s 5,000-Meter Championship, posting a school outdoor record with a time of 13:59.58. The sophomore stallion beat out 60 other runners to win the event.
TOMMY FALLEN ’15 MEN’S HOCKEY TEAM The junior defenseman was chosen by his teammates to captain the 2014– 2015 men’s hockey team at the team’s annual end-of-season banquet. Fallen scored seven goals this past season and is fifth all-time at Yale in goals for a defenseman.
NBA F/OT Memphis 98 Oklahoma City 95
FOR MORE SPORTS CONTENT, VISIT OUR WEB SITE yaledailynews.com/sports
“Heading into the last four games, we are trying to finish the season on a good note.” LAINA DO ’17 Softball
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY APRIL 25, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
New pool on Yale’s list
SARAH ONORATO
Senior day celebrates the best in sports
SWIMMING
With this in mind, according to the Steering Committee’s email, Salovey and the other members of the meeting decided that “John Bollier’s first and second options did not constitute first class [facilities] and they were discarded.” In the same letter, members of the Steering Committee estimated that the third proposal would cost roughly $47 million. Still, Director of Athletics Tom Beckett said the University has not finalized a final project design or cost for the renovated pool. “There will be a follow-up meeting later this spring to continue to review this project,” he said.
The end of the school year is characterized by the mayhem of Spring Fling, cramming for finals and packing up boxes, all while trying to fit in just a little time for tanning in the courtyards. It’s hectic, to say the least. Amidst the mayhem that is the end of the semester, this coming weekend is Senior Day for a few Yale teams. As a junior on the softball team, I’ve already seen two classes of seniors on their way in my time here, and will say goodbye to one more on Saturday. Senior Day is, like many things this time of year, both a celebration and an ending. It’s a chance to recognize the successes and dedication of four years, to reflect on experiences as student-athletes and to say goodbye to teammates and friends who have been there for every bump, step, fall and triumph along the way. In the spirit of reflection that comes with the end of the year, Senior Day is a chance to really think about what being a collegiate student-athlete entails and why it’s valuable. And as I face the reality of saying goodbye to one more class of teammates and becoming a senior myself in two short weeks, I am increasingly convinced that the opportunity to play should be appreciated at every opportunity. Playing a sport in college, or any high level, is hard work. The practices before sunrise, long weekend bus trips, juggling classes and practices, running sprints in the heat of summer — or worse, in the cold of winter — and missing out on social events are par for the course. And even if
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OLUFOLAKE OGUNMOLA/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
The Kiphuth Exhibition Pool was built in 1932 in Payne Whitney. BY ASHTON WACKYM AND RISHABH BHANDARI STAFF REPORTERS After three years of urging Yale to either build a new aquatic center or renovate its current natatorium, with almost a year and a half of concentrated talks to work with Yale administrators, a committee of Yale swimming alumni has reached an agreement with the University to add a new pool to Yale’s list of capital projects. On March 28, President Salovey agreed to meet with three members of what the alumni involved have dubbed the Steering Committee to discuss the proposal the Committee had sent to Yale. In the meeting, John
Bollier, Yale’s associate vice president of the Office of Facilities, presented the attendants with three separate proposals to renovate the Kiphuth Exhibition Pool. According to an email sent by the Steering Committee to other swimming alumni obtained by the News, the first proposal — which, at approximately $35 million was the cheapest of the three — was to build a new eight-lane pool and a small separate diving pool within the space of the Exhibition Pool. The second and third proposals both featured a 50-meter pool that would extend beyond the current back wall towards Lake Place. The latter two proposals differed in that the third proposal would feature an additional separate pool and diving
space that would allow them to make the 50-meter pool a consistent depth. Lisa Rapuano ’88, a member of the Steering Committee, said the alumni preferred the third proposal because separating the diving and swimming waters would make for a “faster pool.” She said the fastest pools for swimming have a standardized nine-foot depth, adding that although the ideal water temperature for swimming is 78 degrees Fahrenheit, the ideal temperature for competitive diving is 81 or 82 degrees. “That might not sound like a big deal to non-swimmers, but the difference is huge to swimmers,” she said. “The additional increase in temperature by even a few degrees makes it feel like you’re swimming in a sauna.”
Elis look to clinch against Brown BY GRANT BRONSDON STAFF REPORTER
Softball ends season with Brown
With one four-game series standing between the Yale baseball team and its first division title since 1995, the Bulldogs recognize the importance of the upcoming games against Brown.
BASEBALL
GRAHAM HARBOE/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
The baseball team has a two-game lead in the Red Rolfe division.
STAT OF THE DAY 3
The Bulldogs (17–19, 9–7 Ivy) currently stand two games ahead of the Big Green in the Red Rolfe division of the Ivy League. But before they can take on either Penn or Columbia in the championship series, Yale must first get through the Bears (10–20, 4–12). “If we win three games over Brown, then we clinch our half [of the league],” pitcher Chris Moates ’16 said. “That’s the goal. We want this in our hands. We don’t want to give Dartmouth an opportunity to come back; we want to take control right now.” Brown has had a rough season. Just two weeks ago, longtime head coach Marek Drabinski resigned, and two of the team’s assistants have been sharing the managerial duties ever since. After Drabinski stepped down, however, the Bears have rebounded from a 0–8 start in Ivy play to split their last two conference series. “We’re definitely not taking Brown lightly,” Moates said. ”We SEE BASEBALL PAGE 10
BRIANNA LOO/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
The softball team will end its season with four games against Brown this weekend.
BY ASHLEY WU STAFF REPORTER The softball team will play back-toback doubleheaders in a home-andhome series against Brown this weekend for the squad’s season finale.
SOFTBALL Yale (5–32, 1–15 Ivy) enters the fourgame series tied with Brown (3–31, 1–15) for last place in the Ivy League. Each team has posted one win against an Ancient Eight foe, with the Bulldogs defeating Princeton 2–1 and the Bears
beating Dartmouth 3–1. The two teams split a competitive series last season, with Brown winning games one and three 8–1 and 9–8 and Yale defeating the Bears in games two and four 5–2 and 12–2. The Elis’ four seniors, captain and center fielder Tori Balta ’14, pitcher Chelsey Dunham ’14, pitcher Kristen Leung ‘14 and first baseman Alex Lucas ’14 will look to end their careers victorious. “Heading into the last four games, we are trying to finish the season on a good note,” second baseman Laina Do ’17 said. SEE SOFTBALL PAGE 10
THE MAGIC NUMBER FOR THE YALE BASEBALL TEAM TO CLINCH THE RED ROLFE DIVISION. Any combination of three Yale wins or Dartmouth losses would clinch the Red Rolfe division title and give Yale the right to play for the Ivy League championship.