NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2014 · VOL. CXXXVI, NO. 99 · yaledailynews.com
INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING
WINDY COLD
27 17
CROSS CAMPUS
NETWORKS STUDY PROBES GUN VIOLENCE
IRAN
GREEK LIFE
Nobel Peace Prize winner discusses Iran, sanctions and human rights
CHI PSI FINDS A NEW HOME OFF CAMPUS
PAGES 10-11 SCITECH
PAGE 3 NEWS
PAGE 3 NEWS
Harp pushes Yale to monitor wages
Super Bass. Bass Library lives up to its reputation once again with a photo exhibit this week depicting Yale students partying. The gallery features “Yale students past and present doing what we do best — partying.” The show includes pictures from the Yale Library Manuscripts and Archives as well as prints from Freshman Screw, in color no less … so the Class of 2017 can look forward to that.
A birthday in Branford.
Branford College Master Elizabeth Bradley got a birthday surprise from her students last week when Branfordians created a “Happy Birthday” video. The video featured numerous students from around the college — in the dorms, dining halls and elsewhere — wishing her a happy birthday. The montage ended with heartwarming clips of Bradley’s family. The secret lives of dogs. Sasha
McCormick, the samoyed puppy of Timothy Dwight courtyard, announced via her Facebook page: “Was invited to a Naked Party. No Thanks! Have you ever seen a naked dog? It’s not a pretty sight. I prefer my fur, thank-youvery-much.”
Business cards ready?
This week marks the start of another Global Network Week at the Yale School of Management, involving students from around the globe and much networking. The theme of the week is “From Madison Avenue to Wall Street” and focuses on behavioral economics. Highlights from the curriculum include a class titled “Leadership Mind Games” and another named “Innovation: Japan Style.” H-bomb dropped. In a recent
opinion piece published in the Harvard Crimson, a student talked about a purported informal research project into the “H-bomb,” or the namedropping of “Harvard.” The social experiment tested the hypothesis that when a man “drops the H-bomb” by revealing he is a Harvard student, his attractiveness rises, but the opposite occurs for women. However after recounting a number of conversations with students at other colleges, the piece did not draw any conclusions and ended on the note, “I think we all can see that … that … at least I go to Harvard.”
PAGE 5 CITY
Reading period extended
degree larceny, which carries a penalty of one to 20 years’ imprisonment and/or a $15,000 fine. Joining a rising chorus of city leaders, Mayor Toni Harp ARC ’78 called on Yale to monitor the wages of workers on University-owned properties in order to avoid future incidents. “They probably could exercise
Next year students will have one more day to finish their final papers. In a Monday afternoon email, Yale College Dean Mary Miller notified students that the current three-day reading period would be extended to four days for both semesters of the 2014–’15 academic year. Miller cited input from students, faculty members, masters and deans as an impetus for the change. Until the introduction of a three-day fall recess during the 2012–’13 academic year, the University had offered a weeklong reading period each semester. While students and faculty members expressed enthusiasm about the extension of reading period, members of the Yale College Council chalked it up as a minor victory. An extended reading period was a central recommendation of the two academic calendar reports released by the YCC in November and January. Based off student surveys, these reports advised that the administration give students more time to finish papers and prepare for exams to reduce stress levels. Still, members said they had requested a two-day extension rather than a one-day extension. David Lawrence ’15 — who wrote the YCC’s
SEE WAGE THEFT PAGE 6
SEE READING PERIOD PAGE 4
JACOB GEIGER/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
New Haven Mayor Toni Harp has joined a number of local and student activists in calling for University Properties to take a stronger stand against wage theft. BY SEBASTIAN MEDINA-TAYAC AND POOJA SALHOTRA STAFF REPORTERS In the wake of Gourmet Heaven owner Chung Cho’s recent arrest, students, community members and city leaders are pushing Yale to monitor its tenants more closely. In August the Connecticut Department of Labor found that Gourmet Heaven, which leases two
sites from Yale University Properties, was mistreating workers and paying them under the minimum wage — as low as $4.44 an hour. Cho agreed to a $140,000 settlement with the DOL, but he made scheduled payments several weeks late and continued to pay improper overtime. The DOL arrested Cho in late February on 22 felony charges, 20 misdemeanor charges and 10 violations. One of the felony charges is first-
Metro-North announces safety plan BY DAVID BLUMENTHAL STAFF REPORTER Last Thursday, Metro-North Railroad’s top two chief executives expressed regret for a series of accidents on the railroad’s New Haven Line and offered solutions to prevent future problems.
The two executives — Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Thomas Prendergast and newly installed Metro North President Joseph Giuletti — testified before Connecticut Legislature’s Transportation Committee, offering a series of proposals to revitalize the New Haven Line.
The changes, which Giuletti described as necessary, include better rail cars, slower speeds for travel and a “secret shopper” operation whose undercover MTA workers will make sure railroad engineers do not travel at dangerous speeds. The train that derailed in the Bronx in December, killing four peo-
Toad’s closes for 2 days BY MAREK RAMILO AND J.R REED STAFF REPORTERS The state of Connecticut will close Toad’s Place for two days later this month, after the state’s Liquor Control Commission’s (LCC) charged the business with selling alcohol to minors. According to the LCC, the historic nightclub and music venue was found guilty of selling alcohol to a minor and
allowing a minor in the bar area. Claudette Carveth, the director of communications for the state’s Department of Consumer Protection, which oversees the LCC, said that the citations were filed after a joint inspection by LCC agents and New Haven Police Department officers on Sept. 23. The club will face a $4,000 fine for the violations and will be forced to close all operations on March 24 and 25.
Though dance parties typically do not fall on Monday or Tuesday nights, Toad’s owner Brian Phelps said Mondays usually feature jazz musicians, and an event slated for that Tuesday night will be rescheduled for a later date. “On Sept. 23, 2013, the Liquor Control Division and the New Haven [Police Department] conducted a joint SEE TOAD’S PAGE 4
THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY
1977 A laundry room fire burns a pile of clothes in Berkeley and spreads smoke throughout the college. The fire may have been caused by excess lint buildup. Submit tips to Cross Campus
crosscampus@yaledailynews.com
ONLINE y MORE goydn.com/xcampus
Harp announces changes to prison reentry program
BY YUVAL BEN-DAVID AND RISHABH BHANDARI STAFF REPORTERS
A serpent in the Garden of Eden. Last night at around
10:15 p.m., a person wrapped in a red sleeping bag crawled through the lower level of Bass Library. One student reacted by shouting “There’s a snake here!” and saying it might be poisonous. Things returned to normal soon after.
PRISON
JENNIFER LU/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Toad’s Place will be closed for two days later this month after being charged with selling alcohol to minors.
ple and injuring 63, was traveling at 82 mph — more than 50 miles above the speed limit. State lawmakers had some spirited words for the MetroNorth executives. State Rep. Antonio Guerrera told the Associated Press that he sees Giuletti and the Metro-North leadership as replaceable. State
Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton told the Wall Street Journal that the Connecticut Department of Transportation might look for a different contractor to run its rail lines. But Giuletti responded that all but a few Metro-North SEE METRO NORTH PAGE 4
Yale clarifies financial aid BY RISHABH BHANDARI STAFF REPORTER Yale’s Financial Aid Office recently made changes to its website’s financial aid instructions after a congressman accused the University, along with 110 other higher education institutions, of misleading applicants. In an open letter addressed to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in February, Elijah Cummings — the ranking democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform — said his office had discovered that Yale and other institutions were violating the Higher Education Act by mischaracterizing the requirements for applying for federal aid. According to Cummings, the 110 schools — which included every member of the Ivy League but Princeton — either explicitly required applicants to submit federal aid forms other than the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or failed to emphasize that students need to complete only the FAFSA forms to be eligible for federal student aid. Two days after Cummings made his objection, Yale changed the wording on its financial aid website to clarify the requisites for applying for
federal and institutional aid. “Yale does not believe we were misleading anybody,” said Director of Financial Aid Caesar Storlazzi. Still he added that because of the complexity of financial aid, he could understand why Cummings misinterpreted the financial aid language Yale had previously used on its financial aid website. According to Storlazzi, the University first heard of these accusations from an article that was published in the Chronicle of Higher Education shortly after Cummings’ letter was released. After several conversations with the University’s General Counsel, Undergraduate Admissions Office, the Office of Public Affairs and Communications, as well as the Office of Federal and State Relations, Storlazzi said the Financial Aid Office changed the language of the website “just to be even clearer.” The Higher Education Act, which was amended by Congress in 1992, stipulates that institutions of higher education are required to use only the free FAFSA form to determine federal financial aid for prospective students. SEE FINANCIAL AID PAGE 6
PAGE 2
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
OPINION
.COMMENT “If Yale Health had referred a therapist who could actually help me...a year yaledailynews.com/opinion
GUEST COLUMNIST D AV I D L AW R E N C E
Y
the YCC has advocated a complete restoration of reading period, I supported this half measure because I believe that any increase in reading period is better than no increase. So why did the administration choose not to completely restore our time to study? In the process of considering calendar complexities, a number of concerns were voiced. Among these were the expenses that would be incurred by feeding and housing students for a longer period of time. However, precedent suggests that this was not a problem before reading period was cut by four days in each semester. More importantly, saving money is a weak rationale for undermining the quality of life and academic standards at Yale. Another concern raised was that fully restoring reading and exam period in the fall semester would shorten the number of days between terms, and as a result, professors would not have enough time to grade final exams and papers. Restoring reading period to its previous length would have reduced the number of days between the two terms from 26 to 22. Between 1997 and 2012, the average number of days between terms was 22. I suggested that professors would reject the administration’s concern that 22 days between terms wouldn’t be long enough. In fact, of 23 faculty members surveyed by one administrator, only three thought that shortening reading period was a good change. Our professors are allies in our quest to learn. Some other competing priorities were ensuring that students would be able to return home in time for Christmas, making sure that there was ample breathing room between the end of spring semester and commencement and protecting the length of summer break, a concern of faculty members engaged in summer projects. But choosing these priorities over giving students time to study was a mistake. I hope that University officials will continue moving in the right direction as they consider other YCC academic proposals, such as standardizing the preregistration process and implementing academic minors. The addition of one day to reading period is a positive step, and YCC will keep pushing to promote a calendar structure that facilitates academic success and emphasizes well-being. DAVID LAWRENCE is a junior in Calhoun College and the Yale College Council Academics Director. Contact him at david.lawrence@yale.edu .
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'GUAVA' ON 'OCD AND YALE'S SILENCE'
G U E S T C O L U M N I S T S T E WA R T M C D O N A L D
Let students study alies like to learn and do well, but yesterday the Yale administration stood in the way. Yale College Dean Mary Miller announced that starting next school year, reading period will be one day longer. By failing to restore reading period to its original length, administrators tell students: No, you must study less than prior generations of Yalies. What is wrong with this situation? Two years ago, the Yale administration cut reading and exam period from 15 to 11 days. With this change, the incidence of deferred exams has risen sharply as more students face three exams within 24 hours. In response to Yale College Council surveys, hundreds of students have written that the shortened reading period causes unprecedented anxiety and prevents them from performing their best on final exams and papers. A simple comparison reveals that students at other top universities have more time to study than students at Yale. The combined length of reading and exam periods is 16 days at Harvard, where students must earn 32 credits to graduate. Even at Brown, where students need only 30 credits, the reading and exam periods total 14 days. At Yale, students earn 36 credits but have only 11 — and now 12 — days to complete exams and final projects. As YCC academics director, I presented the students’ case to the administration. For several months I met frequently with administrators to weigh competing scheduling priorities and project calendar scenarios multiple years forward. We sought a mutually acceptable solution. I explained that 64 percent of students, including a majority of students in each class year and academic discipline, dislike the cutback and would prefer going back to a full reading period — even if it meant fewer days for winter and summer break. Eventually, we appeared to have agreed to restore a majority of the original reading period. However, certain administrators decided to oppose any change to the academic calendar. In last minute lobbying efforts, I reached out to officers of Yale University and made a final appeal: “Yale College students are scholars first; they want time to study and they need time to study. Why should the University take that away to send them on longer winter and summer breaks?” The administration ultimately chose to add back a token one day per semester. Although
sooner, I might not have had to leave school.”
SUBMISSIONS
All letters submitted for publication must include the author’s name, phone number and description of Yale University affiliation. Please limit letters to 250 words and guest columns to 750. The Yale Daily News reserves the right to edit letters and columns before publication. E-mail is the preferred method of submission. Direct all letters, columns, artwork and inquiries to: Emma Goldberg and Geng Ngarmboonanant Opinion Editors Yale Daily News opinion@yaledailynews.com
My bipolar disorder and Yale N
ow that it’s become fashionable to reveal one’s mental illness, let me confess mine: Last September, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. My symptoms began my freshman year: an inability to concentrate, a slowly deteriorating short-term memory and an unexplainable series of bouts of insomnia. Eventually, these obstacles contorted themselves into a grief I couldn’t even grasp: depression. I had always thought of depression as simply an extended sadness, but for me it was something altogether different: despair — the anguish of living, of wandering endlessly through a life with neither meaning nor future, of pleading daily that the pirouetting world around me would altogether cease. At times I lay paralyzed in my bed, unable to rouse myself or even perceive that there existed a world beyond the phantom projections of a mind turned viciously inward. I sometimes slept 14 hours a day, and even while awake I was constantly fatigued. I spent most of 2013 straddling the liminal space between waking and sleeping, between this world and another. When my classmates looked into my eyes, they saw a laughing and cheerful friend, but when I looked into theirs, I saw only nothingness and the certainty of an impending death. Ultimately, this depression bled into an antipodal horror: the specter of mania. The stress and insomnia of reading “week” derailed any attempt at sanity. I couldn’t sleep for six days — that is, 144 continuous hours — and my mind seethed with such euphoria that I was barely aware of where or who I was. I was king; I was God; I was the Übermensch in flesh, yet I was simultaneously incapacitated by an anxiety so severe that the prospect of leaving my room seemed unimaginable. For every minute I spent walking among the angels, I spent an hour staving off the shrieking devils at the outskirts of my consciousness, desperate for a refuge from my howling mind. Was this derangement? Was this madness? I’ll never know, but regardless, I fled toward home in panic to recover my senses. After my official diagnosis in September, it proved impossible for me to balance my academic responsibilities and the acute symptoms of my illness, so I voluntarily withdrew just before midterm. My illness was incapacitating, but my treatment at Yale’s hands has been disgraceful.
Understanding the hardship of medical withdrawal, my dean (whom I love and who has been extraordinarily supportive through this process) at first counseled me to stay, to drop a few classes, to finish my senior essay that semester “Unsat” and to take the succeeding semester off and earn my diploma through summer classes. In short, Yale wanted me out in four years, indifferent that my academic record would reflect my struggle with mental illness rather than my abilities as a student. It was only when I expressed my suicidal ideations (hint: liability) that she immediately supported my withdrawal. Was this derangement? Was this madness? I’ll never know, but regardless, I fled toward home in panic to recover my senses. To be frank, Yale’s policies toward students who must suspend their studies briefly to combat mental illness are reckless and potentially deadly. First, Yale forces students who withdraw midway through a semester to remain away the entire academic year, deterring those in desperate need of taking time off from doing so. Many students could withdraw early in a semester and return in the following one; Yale prohibits this, inducing some to stay simply to avoid the social upheaval of a year away from campus. Policies that punish withdrawal are especially deadly to those students silently struggling with suicidal thoughts, for whom every untreated day is a hell inconceivable to the mentally healthy. (As a side note, a student who withdraws in February wouldn’t be eligible to apply for readmission until the following January. Take some time to ponder that nugget of Yale’s wisdom.) Second, Yale denies a medically withdrawn student access to campus resources, further hampering her ability to reintegrate upon return. For example, when informed that under no circumstance could a withdrawn student access Yale’s funding, I had to abandon my plans for my senior essay. I also lack access to any of Yale’s other academic resources, preventing me from being able to research even my own illness. Yale’s disavowal of its sick is further compounded because, despite a satisfactory record before my departure, all withdrawn students — medically or otherwise — are considered “not in good academic standing,” making it almost impossible to access funding or resources from other sources.
Perhaps most absurdly, Yale denies withdrawn students access to Yale’s medical resources after the first month of withdrawal. Those students unable to afford medical resources at home would simply have to remain untreated, unless, of course, they remained enrolled and endured their appalling suffering while surviving their academic responsibilities. But fear not: Yale’s four-year graduation rate would remain intact.
A PLEA FOR YALE TO REEXAMINE MENTAL HEALTH POLICIES Yet we haven’t even broached the topic of Yale’s degrading readmission process. An absurd troika of the dean of readmission, my own college dean and a representative from Mental Health & Counseling will interview me to evaluate my readiness to return. As a condition for readmission, the Committee requires that I take classes while away and remain “constructively occupied.” This in no way demonstrates my fitness to return: I left voluntarily because I knew I would be unable to succeed academically due to my illness; I will choose to return when I know that I am able to resume the workload I left behind. That choice, if cleared by doctors, should be mine and mine alone. That a non-clinician be involved is repugnant and a violation of my rights as a patient: The only test that should be required of my returning should be medical, and the only individuals able to evaluate that readiness are medical professionals. Simply the fact that my ability to return is not guaranteed (assuming I am cleared by the appropriate clinicians) only aggravates the stress of being away from campus. But in realworld terms, I have to make a deposit on an apartment now in order to have housing when I return. If I’m denied readmission, well, I’ll at least have the advantages of an empty apartment in New Haven to comfort me. I must emphasize that I did not leave on a whim and I did nothing wrong — I only had the misfortune of years of horrendous suffering due to the sadism of my own mind. To punish me with institutional aban-
donment, absurd readmission requirement, and a mock trial belies Mother Yale’s callousness toward the very students she professes to protect as she infantilizes them upon their arrival. Many peer institutions implement policies far more amenable to a student’s reintegration. At Harvard, students in good academic standing before their departure need not withdraw if they have pressing medical issues: They can simply take a leave of absence during the term. They can then return the following semester if they alert their deans at least eight weeks before registration and receive clearance from Harvard’s clinicians. They also may have access to many campus resources, such as summer funding, and they remain in good academic standing, making it easier for them to apply for outside opportunities. Even access to on-campus resources such as libraries can be granted if approved by the Administrative Board. Additionally, students who take a leave of absence before midterm do not have the useless requirement of taking two academic classes or substantial employment while away; they may simply focus on their treatment and return when ready. Yale punishes its students who must leave; Harvard supports them. Yale implements absurdly rigid and bureaucratic policies toward a student’s resuming her studies; Harvard provides a far more individualized approach so that cases may be handled in a more caring manner and so that a student may be evaluated only by those familiar with her, such as a doctor or her residential dean. There is no reason why Yale cannot follow policies like these. I know we Yalies love our causes, so I beg that you choose mine. Embarrassment is Yale’s only impetus, and even when action is taken, it rarely outlives the furor. So, protest. Write emails. Demand change. Complain, as I know you are wont to do. I don’t ask for revolution; I only ask that Yale align its policies with our more enlightened peer institutions like Harvard, Stanford and the University of Chicago. It’s perhaps too late for Yale to give me the resources I need to reintegrate fully, but I cannot abide such treatment for future sufferers of psychiatric illness. For many of us, our lives are at stake. STEWART MCDONALD is a former student in Trumbull College . This column is the second in a threepart series on mental health.
GUEST COLUMNIST TIMOTHY GARTON
Why Yale needs a new pool M
ore than three and a half years ago, a group of alumni from Yale’s swimming team came together and said “enough.” It’s time, we decided, for a new facility; it’s pathetic that for 30 or 40 years we’ve repeatedly heard that a new facility is in the works. Let’s get organized, learn about modern aquatic facilities, see how much they cost and determine if we can raise the money. Yale’s Kiphuth Exhibition Pool was built in 1932, and has been unchanged since then. It was magnificent in its day, and was among the best indoor facilities in the world for decades. NCAA and national championships were held there; swimmers around the world were eager to compete at Yale. Sadly, for many decades the exhibition and practice pools have been way out of date. They are inadequate for training, for serving the needs of the Yale community, for hosting even Ivy League events. After months of investigation, the alumni agreed on one principle — wherever it is located, whatever it looks like, the new pool should be first class. We researched and visited various modern collegiate pools and talked to pool experts throughout the country — manufactur-
ers, consultants, contractors and coaches. We learned about the demands of modern training — what the men and women on the Yale teams do every day to represent Yale proudly and skillfully, practicing early in the morning and again in the afternoon, pounding out thousands on thousands of yards.
A FIRST CLASS SWIMMING POOL IS A NECESSITY So why a first class pool and what does that mean? First, Yale’s pools must accommodate training demands. Yale has men’s and women’s swimming, diving and water polo. The NCAA limits practice hours per week to 20 hours, with one day off. So if there are 32 male and 32 female swimmers (enough to fill all the events), then there must be enough water to accommodate each for nearly three and a half hours per day. Then there is diving, which has similar demands, and men’s water polo in the fall and women’s in the spring. I’ll skip the math, but the water demands for the teams
alone are staggering. Then add intramurals, recreational swimming and the needs of other organized student and staff activities. The coaches and pool managers we spoke with at other universities said they all need more water, no matter how much they have. Second, to host a championship meet, even an Ivy League championship, requires adequate water. In addition to the water in which the competition is held, warm up and warm down are essential throughout a meet. Swimmers today put in more yards warming up than they did in previous decades. And diving teams too have requirements for warm up and competition. Princeton has a pool that is almost 25 years old. It is a great pool — an 8-lane, 50-meter pool — yet the team there still needs more water. Harvard’s pool is more than 35 years old, an 8-lane 50-meter pool with additional space for diving; they too have complaints about lack of water. Both Harvard and Princeton kept their old 6-lane, 25-yard pools; they are close to the middle of campus and are used for recreational swimming. Third, if the Yale swimming program is to compete, even in the Ivy League against peers like Harvard and Princeton,
then it needs a modern facility; without such a facility, high schools students who are great swimmers will simply choose another school. Showcasing a facility built in 1932 has more appeal to an archeologist than to an 18-year-old who dreams of Olympic gold. Facilities do matter. When Yale had the best facility in the country, we had teams to match. Only half of the varsity squad was needed to beat Harvard. Our focus was winning an NCAA championship, which we did on occasion. We were always competitive with the best teams in the country. The swim alumni have worked hard to research and explain to Yale what modern facilities include and why they are essential. And, importantly, the prospect of a modern, firstclass facility excites former Yale swimmers, including some who are willing to back up their excitement with significant contributions. Yale needs a new pool — one that would better enable swimmers here to train, compete and represent this University with pride. TIMOTHY GARTON is a 1964 graduate of Silliman College and a former member of the Yale men’s swimming team .
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 3
NEWS
“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” MOTHER TERESA CATHOLIC MISSIONARY
D.C official in line for CAO
Fledgling frat acquires house BY CAROLINE WRAY STAFF REPORTER Chi Psi, the campus’s youngest fraternity, has officially acquired a house. The fraternity was revived by Michael Herbert ’16 in November 2012 and received its charter a year later. Last week, the 24 brothers and 22 pledges of Chi Psi gathered late at 13 Lake Place to officially celebrate the organization’s new lease on the yellow, four-story house that members refer to as “the lodge.” The house, which is two doors down from another fraternity, Alpha Delta Phi, will undergo an extensive renovation period that is projected to be completed by spring 2015, at which point members will begin to move in. Herbert said negotiations over the house had been in place for months before the deal last week. According to Herbert, the fledgling organization is growing and gaining legitimacy at a pace that has exceeded the national fraternity’s original expectations. “When we first started, nationals said to give up on a lodge — [that] there was just no plausible way I would see it at my time at Yale,” Herbert said. Herbert said the generosity of enthusiastic alumni from Yale’s previous chapter of Chi Psi , which was on campus from 1924 to 1963, helped the organization overcome unfavorable odds and secure a house. Herbert added that Chi Psi alumni, though hard to find because of their scattered locations, have been eager to provide financial and moral support to the new chapter. According to current Chi Psi members, the contribution of one Baker Duncan ’48 was largely responsible for the speed with which the organization garnered sufficient funds to rent the home. The house was last occupied in 2011, when its former tenant died. Members said the home is in need of major renovations. “It’s a real fixer-upper, but it’s a process that the national fraternity is committed to,” Herbert said. “In some ways, though, this actually creates more ownership for the brothers and gives us more of a direct tie to the lodge.” David McPeek ’16, a current Chi Psi pledge, said he is pleased to have a physical home base, and expects improving the house will be a fun process that will bring the fraternity closer together. When the organization launched in 2012, Herbert recruited an initial class of 12 members. After the spring term pledge process wraps up, the fraternity’s membership will bump up to 46. Jack Belcaster ’16, this semester’s Chi Psi president, called the rise in numbers
“an incredible change.” Herbert said the increasing number of members in the fraternity intensified the need to acquire a home base. Before securing the house at 13 Lake Place, the fraternity held its chapter meetings in classrooms around campus — but having 46 people in a single classroom is not ideal, Herbert added. Members said that in order to reach their goal of having a habitable house by spring 2015, the national Chi Psi office in Tennessee, alumni and undergraduates will all have to work together to seek a contractor and architect, fund the process and deal with local zoning rights. “My job is to make sure that we are communicating with the people who are moving ahead with the renovations so that we’re all on the same page about what we expect of one another,” Belcaster said. He also said the current Chi Psi members will financially contribute to the house once they are moved in and paying rent. In the future, Belcaster said he hopes to amplify Chi Psi’s campus presence. The acquisition of a house in such a short time frame speaks to the organizations’ commitment to become an established face on campus, he added. The house at 13 Lakewood Place has a basement and three stories. Eight to 10 Chi Psi members will live at the residence when renovations are complete. Contact CAROLINE WRAY at caroline.wray@yale.edu .
GEORGE SAUSSY/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Chi Psi’s newly acquired house on Lakewood Place will undergo extensive renovations until spring 2015.
ISAAC STNALEY-BECKER/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Michael A. Carter, the deputy director of operations for D.C.’s public works, will soon join the Harp administration. BY ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER STAFF REPORTER Mayor Toni Harp has wooed Michael A. Carter, a city manager from Washington, D.C. to join the upper echelons of her administration, chief administrative officer. Carter is currently the deputy director of operations for D.C.’s public works department. Pending approval by the New Haven Board of Alders, he could take on the $132,000-a-year job as early as March 24. The city’s chief problem-solver, the CAO oversees numerous departments — including police, fire, public works and parks — and leads negotiations with city unions. Harp chose Carter after a national search to replace Rob Smuts ’01, who resigned as CAO when former Mayor John DeStefano Jr. left office at the end of last year. Since then, Deputy CAO Jennifer Pugh has executed the duties of the position on an acting basis. Harp said her transition team’s personnel committee recommended Carter unanimously after an exhaustive series of interviews. He is her first appointee from out of the state; Harp said she was considering three other candidates, all from within the city. “[Carter] is a seasoned professional,” Harp said. “He’s set up a system of metrics within his departments … with that he can bring New Haven to the next level in its delivery of services.” Carter has worked in D.C. since 1997, holding positions at both the public works department and the District’s water and sewer authority. Before mov-
ing to the nation’s capital, he held posts in municipal departments in Indianapolis, Indiana and Louisville, Kentucky. He earned a business degree from the University of Indiana at Bloomington. Reached Monday by email, Carter said he “look[s] forward to living and working in New Haven.” In the midst of a week-long training session on emergency response in Emmittsburg, Maryland, he could not provide further comment. On his resume, Carter describes “20 years of experience managing varied projects and teams.” He cites his experience cutting costs and cultivating a positive work culture, as well as collaborating with unions and community members to build consensus. One of Carter’s chief responsibilities at D.C’s public works department is customer service: fielding complaints and responding to them within 24 to 72 hours. The recent spate of snowstorms has made emergency response an early challenge for the nascent administration, further complicated by what Harp has described as aging public works equipment and tapped out resources. Harp’s chief of staff, Tomas Reyes, said Carter complements the existing administration. He said the CAO job is critical in providing oversight for major city departments and that he is looking forward to a full-time employee taking over the job. Smuts, who served as CAO for almost seven years, said the chief difficulty of the job is managing “day-today crises” while maintaining a longterm perspective. More than anything else, he said, having a good working
relationship with department heads, the Board of Alders and community members is critical. Every day on the job is different, Smuts said — but most days the hours are long, which means you “need to enjoy the work.” “It can be everything from a plane crash or snowstorm to overhauling the departments,” he said. “A crisis can be a critical piece of equipment that broke down or a construction project that goes off schedule.” With oversight of roughly 80 percent of positions in city government, the CAO exerts significant influence over the budget, Smuts added. Smuts said he was charged with ensuring that department heads put together sustainable spending plans and then stuck to those expenditures. Carter’s appointment will almost round out Harp’s administration, which began to take shape immediately following her election as the city’s first new mayor in 20 years last November. Harp said she still hopes to convince Martha Okafor, a public health officer for the state of Georgia, to take on the role of New Haven’s community services administrator, currently being filled on an acting basis by Ron Manning. Because of changes to the city’s charter that took effect in January, the mayor’s CAO appointment requires the approval of city alders. A public hearing on the appointment will take place before the Board takes a final vote. Contact ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER at isaac.stanley-becker@yale.edu .
Nobel Peace Prize winner slams US-Iran sanctions BY MATTHEW LLOYD-THOMAS STAFF REPORTER Shirin Ebadi — a human rights advocate and the winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize — lambasted both the current Iranian government and the United States’ actions towards Iran at a talk at the Yale Law School on Monday. Speaking through a translator in the Law School auditorium, Ebadi chastised the current Iranian gov-
ernment for censorship, human rights abuses and intervention in the domestic affairs of a slew of other countries. At the same time, she leveled sharp criticism at the United States’ current regime of economic sanctions against Iran, which she said are harmful to the Iranian people. “Now that they are backing sanctions against Iran, America has made things for the people of Iran more difficult,” Ebadi
said. “There are ways to weaken the government and not harm the people.” After becoming the first female Iranian judge — a position she acquired at only age 23 — Ebadi was repeatedly demoted, first to clerk and then secretary, following the 1979 Iranian revolution, which brought the country’s Islamic government to power. Islamists claimed that women were unfit to hold high positions.
Over the next 20 years, Ebadi engaged in increasingly political work as a lawyer and human rights activist. In 2003, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work for the rights of women and children. After the Iranian government confiscated the prize in 2009, she left Iran and has not returned since. In her talk, Ebadi referred to the milieu of sanctions, including a broad ban on dealings with Iran
KATHRYN CRANDALL/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi spoke out against US-Iran sactions during a speech at the Yale Law School on Monday, Feb. 3.
by American businesses, implemented by the U.S. against Iran for a host of grievances. These sanctions, she argued, have squeezed the Iranian economy — an assertion that has also been made by many experts and politicians. Instead, the United States should focus on political sanctions, Ebadi suggested. “We have to weaken the government of Iran but not harm the people of Iran,” she said. For instance, she said members of the Iranian government who are deemed culpable of human rights abuses should be placed on a “black list.” Banks who take the deposits of those individuals ought not to be allowed to do business in the U.S., she said Another possible political sanction, she said, would be to bring back the ban preventing the Iranian government from broadcasting propaganda by way of American satellites. The ban was lifted when President Barack Obama spoke to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani last year, a gesture that many claim was meant to signify the cooling of tensions between the two countries. While some in the audience of more than 200 members agreed with Ebadi’s assertion, others characterized it as untenable. “The United States and other free nations are limited in how they can get their message across to Iran,” said Medical School professor Larry Cohen. “With a flick of a switch, you can have economic sanctions. Political sanctions are more difficult.” History professor Abbas Amanat said that while economic sanctions are “terrible for the people,” the distinction between economic and political sanctions is often unclear. Multiple times during her talk
in the nearly-filled auditorium, Ebadi declared that the Iranian people desire friendship with the U.S. “The people of Iran like your culture and civilization,” Ebadi said. “Long live the friendship between the people of Iran and the United States.”
There are ways to weaken the government and not harm the people. SHIRIN EBADI Nobel Peace Prize Laureate The problem with Iran lies in its government and notably in the power of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose control over the government is effectively absolute, she said. Her criticism of the ayatollah was part of a broader critique of the religious grounding of Iran’s government. Ebadi spoke little of her recent human rights work, instead focusing on the current state of affairs between the United States, Iran and the broader Islamic world. At one point, Ebadi turned her attention to the oppressive treatment of women in Iran, which she argued is antithetical to the Quran. She also spoke about censorship and Iran’s intervention in matters beyond its borders. Ebadi was brought to Yale through the Gruber Distinguished Lecture in Global Justice, and she was introduced by University President Peter Salovey and Law School Dean Robert Post. Contact MATTHEW LLOYD-THOMAS at matthew.lloyd-thomas@yale.edu .
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
FROM THE FRONT
“I’ve been on a calendar, but I’ve never been on time.” MARILYN MONROE AMERICAN ACTRESS
Shortened reading week gains a day READING PERIOD FROM PAGE 1
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employees have been reliable. “Most employees want to put in a day’s work for a day’s pay. It’s unfortunate some of these stories have come out,” Giuletti testified, according to an article in the Hartford Courant discussing the recent Metro-North safety upgrades. In a Sunday interview, John Hartwell, the Vice President of the Connecticut Commuter Rail Council, said that finding a replacement for Giuletti would be premature, as he has only been on the job for three weeks. Hartwell also said changes to the state’s contract with MetroNorth transcend the authority of Connecticut legislators — New York State legislators must also approve any changes. “The idea that we could find a different vendor besides MetroNorth is far-fetched,” he said. “Like it or not, we’re probably stuck with Metro-North.” The railroad’s tracks, signaling and communication systems, for which the states are responsible, are in disrepair, according to a recent report by the Regional Plan Association. The New Haven line alone needs $3.6 billion in “infrastructure work” by 2020 to maintain the rail. The report also said that the line’s five moveable bridges
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reform the calendar. All seven students interviewed expressed gratitude for the extended reading period, echoing the YCC’s findings that a longer reading period would help tame end-of-semester student anxiety. Mitch Barrows ’16 called the change “a
— those that move to allow passage for boats or barges — will cost $2.8 billion to replace or renovate. Hartwell said Hartford lawmakers’ foremost responsibility is to fund these infrastructure improvements. According to Hartwell, system has rails dating back to the American Civil War and bridges dating as far as the turn of the 20th century. However, Hartwell added that he doubts the lawmakers will complete the task because they do not have enough money. Rep. Roland Lemar, who currently serves on the House Transportation Committee, said finding the $3.6 billion that the RPA study demanded would be difficult. But Lemar maintained that railway service improvement will continue to be a priority for the Legislature, calling the state’s railroad an economic lifeline for the region. “If you’re using [MetroNorth Railroad] infrequently your 86 percent reliability chance is going to be okay,” he said. “But if you’re using it every day, that crushes your workplace’s productivity.” State Sen. Martin Looney said the necessary funding would most likely be a combination of state and federal money. He added that the state would have to be continually mindful
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welcome farewell gift” from Miller, who will step down from the deanship at the end of the current academic year. Marc Cugnon ’17 said an extended reading period would help students better prepare for final exams. In contrast to the YCC’s call for a two-
of its current fiscal obligations regardless. Eight of 10 Yalies interviewed were aware of the December derailment, while only two of the 12 Union Station patrons interviewed Saturday were. Both groups agreed that Metro-North needs to implement new safety measures, though they said they will continue to use the railroad in the interim. “Metro-North is getting old, it’s the sort of thing one would expect,” Sebastian Koochacki ’14 said. “Just like a plane crash, it’s something that is an inherent risk, but it’s so rare that people don’t stop flying.” David Hendricks, a member of the Commuter Rail Council, said he is optimistic about the new measures Metro-North executives are implementing, though he cautioned that their effectiveness might not be immediately apparent. “The problem is that you don’t always know if oversight works and you don’t always know what it prevented,” Hendricks said. The state renews its contract with Metro-North once every five years, and the next renewal date is set for 2015. Contact DAVID BLUMENTHAL at david.blumenthal@yale.edu .
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Metro-North seeks to improve METRO NORTH FROM PAGE 1
How did the changes to the length of reading and exam period influence your health and levels of anxiety towards the end of the term?
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academic calendar report and heads the YCC’s academics subcommittee — said while a one-day extension is a step in the right direction, students deserve a full reading week. “We’re glad it increased, and in the future, we’ll continue to advocate [for an additional extension to reading period,]” Lawrence said. He added that he was appreciative that the administration was receptive to the YCC’s proposals. According to the most recent YCC report, which reflected recommendations based on a survey of 888 students, 68 percent of survey respondents claimed the shortened reading period had negatively affected their academic performance. Eighty-one percent of respondents said the shortened reading period had adverse effects on their health and anxiety levels. Associate Dean for Student Organizations and Physical Resources John Meeske said the extended reading period comes at some cost to the rest of next year’s academic calendar. In the spring term, the extra day of reading period will cut into the time between exams and Commencement, putting pressure on professors to speed up the grading of final exams and papers, he said. In the fall term, the extra day will come from winter break. Still, both professors interviewed said they were glad that the reading period had been extended. English professor Wai Chee Dimock GRD ’82 said the added day will allow students to be more reflective and draw stronger connections between the readings they have covered over the course of the semester rather than hastily rush through the material. Another English professor, Leslie Brisman, said he was relieved by the news that the University was willing to break from tradition to
How did the changes to the length of reading and exam period influence your academic performance on final assignments and exams towards the end of the term?
day extension, Esther Woo ’16 said she appreciated that the reading period was extended by only a day. “I think one day is a helpful extension because it’s not so big of an extension as to foster procrastination and prolonged stress, but it’s enough to alleviate panic,”
Woo said. Wesley Yiin contributed reporting. Contact YUVAL BEN-DAVID at yuval.ben-david@yale.edu and RISHABH BHANDARI at rishabh.bhandari@yale.edu .
Toad’s penalized for serving minors TOAD’S FROM PAGE 1 inspection of the premises,” Carveth said in an email to the News. “Agents were part of a high visibility patrol that evening, and were not in an undercover capacity.” Over the past few months, the LCC and NHPD have been cracking down on local bars and clubs to curb a recent rash of gun violence, brawls and alcohol-related incidents around the city. NHPD spokesman David Hartman said the department works closely with administrators from local universities including Yale, Quinnipiac and Southern Central Connecticut State to identify venues that are frequented by students who could engage in underage drinking. Hartman added that, in addition to the inspections conducted by police with representatives from the LCC, department officers check in on the city’s bars weekly during peak business hours to make sure bartenders and patrons are following the law. When LCC agents are unavailable to conduct the bar checks, police are joined by members of city health departments. “We can act on underage
drinking, and we do so regularly,” Hartman said. “We report our findings when we do our smaller inspections — anything substantial to the state DCP. They are the enforcement arm, the administrative end of this operation.” He added that the process following an alcohol-related citation involves a hearing and appeals process that goes through the DCP, often taking months at a time. Documents from the DCP show that the LCC went through several rounds of negotiations with James Torello, the club’s venue permittee, before agreeing on the final sanctions. On Feb. 11, Torello’s offer for a $7,000 fine was rejected. One week later, the LCC decided upon the two-day closure and $4,000 fine, rather than pursuing a hearing for the case. Phelps said this type of policing occurs often in the downtown New Haven area, especially in recent months. Usually the police check IDs inside the venues, Phelps added. This is not the first time Toad’s has faced charges related to liquor laws. In November 2005, state authorities detained 87 underage patrons at Toad’s. Though
none were arrested at the time, the raid ultimately resulted in a $90,000 fine and a 90-day forced suspension during the summer 2007. Most recently, in October 2010, a joint NHPD-LCC inspection found two underage patrons to be consuming alcohol. In connection to that raid, the club’s liquor license was revoked for five days and Toad’s endured a $5,000 fine. Eight of 10 students interviewed said that they do not believe this would negatively impact Toad’s business or their experiences, especially considering the days do not fall on typical “going out” nights. Noah Siegel ’15 added that, even if the liquor license was suspended on a Wednesday or Saturday night, he believes most students would still attend Toad’s and that the suspension would only dissuade a few upperclassmen from choosing to attend the nightclub. Toad’s has occupied its location at 300 York St. since 1975. Contact MAREK RAMILO at marek.ramilo@yale.edu and J.R REED at jonathan.t.reed@yale.edu .
OPINION. YOUR THOUGHTS. YOUR VOICE. YOUR PAGE.
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NEWS
“Pioneering spirit should continue, not to conquer the planet or space … but rather to improve the quality of life.” BERTRAND PICCARD SWISS PSYCHIATRIST AND BALLOONIST
Entrepreneurs examine global health innovation BY WESLEY YIIN STAFF REPORTER The three women sitting on Monday’s public health innovation panel had one thing in common: None of them planned to be entrepreneurs. Yet there they were, discussing global health and social entrepreneurship in front of an audience of mostly public health graduate students. The panel included Barbara Bush ’04, co-founder of the Global Health Corps; Jennifer Staple-Clark ’03, founder of Unite for Sight and Laura Niklason, founder and chief scientist at Humacyte and professor of anesthesiology and biomedical engineering at Yale. Rounding out the group was Georgia Levenson Keohane ’94, who moderated the conversation. Bush, who majored in architecture at Yale, said she became interested in global health after taking a course on AIDS and society as an undergraduate. She embarked on a service trip in the summer after her junior year during which she witnessed “thousands of people waiting in the streets” for medicine. When she returned to Yale, she said she focused almost exclusively on global health courses during her senior year. Bush eventually helped start the Global Health Corps. The decision to create a new organization, she said, was only made after Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners in Health, urged the group to do so. Personally, Bush said, it also came down to wanting to influence greater change. “Yes, it’s incredible to work with one person,” Bush said, “But if you can truly change the system, that’s even more incredible because you can affect thousands of people.” The Global Health Corps maximizes its impact by aiding as many patients as possible and by boosting the careers of its fellows so
KATHRYN CRANDALL/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Barbara Bush ’04, Jennifer Staple-Clark ’30 and Laura Niklason sat on a panel at the School of Public Health to discuss the trajectory of their careers that led them to entrepreneurship. that they may rise into positions of power and make affect change. The organization has quickly gained popularity and is now extremely selective in choosing new Fellows — according to Bush, only two percent of applicants are employed for the yearlong program, and these hires come from all over the world. Staple-Clark’s and Niklason’s respective organizations also had humble origins, with Unite for Sight beginning as a student group out of Staple-Clark’s dorm room, and Humacyte as a small organization supporting what was originally a “lunatic fringe” idea. Now,
Unite has served over 1,700,000 patients and hosts the world’s largest annual global health conference, and Humacyte has three clinical trials in the works. The road to success has not always been easy and there are still challenges to come, the three panelists agreed. “You iterate and you’re in a lab state for years. It doesn’t get easier,” Bush said. For instance, the Global Health Corps recently had difficulty getting health insurance for employees in Burundi, she said. Niklason, who was trained as a scientist, commented on the
Prison reentry program gets Fresh Start BY BLAKE DIXON CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Mayor Toni Harp announced her administration’s revitalized prison reentry program, Project Fresh Start, at a press conference on Monday afternoon at City Hall. Project Fresh Start is designed to meet the basic needs of offenders facing the challenges of reintegrating into society after being released from prison. Although New Haven launched its prison reentry initiative in 2008, the new program marks major changes to the system. Harp said the most significant improvement to the program from its former iteration is that employers will begin meeting with prisoners during their incarceration, rather than waiting until their release. This will allow the program to create “tailored programs” that consider the education, housing and health care of the individual offenders, among other needs. “The lack of such a robust program leads to idle time,” Harp said. Without a plan, she added, inmates leaving prison are more likely to recidivate. Harp said the innovation of Project Fresh Start has been made possible through efforts with the Connecticut Department of Corrections and partnerships with other organizations, such as the Yale Undergraduate Prison Project. Jason Bartlett, the director of Project Fresh Start, affirmed that the partnership with the State Department of Corrections has
led to significant changes. He said Project Fresh Start allows the “reentry program to collaborate with the Department of Corrections from Day One,” marking a significant improvement as the program has had to receive newly released prisoners without advanced notice in the past. Now Bartlett said his program will receive advance emails notifying them of a prisoner’s release, as well as a police profile of that person. Bartlett said this will enable the program to assess the individual needs of each offender and devise a reentry plan before he or she is simply “dumped on Whalley Avenue.”
After months of no job and no source of income I was tempted to go back to the streets. MAVERICK JACOBS Mentor, Project Fresh Start Project Fresh Start is also partnering with the Yale Undergraduate Prison Project to help clients fill out pardon applications. Rhys Dubin ’16, a member of the Undergraduate Prison Project, said the goal is to spend oneon-one time with clients while helping them complete what can often be a difficult process. In addition to these measures, Project Fresh Start will incorpo-
rate innovative new metrics that Bartlett says will assist in identifying a personalized plan for each individual offender. Such metrics will include the housing and educational status of the clients. “If we know that somebody has gotten a GED or that somebody was formerly a carpenter, that will allow us to work ahead of time for that person,” Bartlett said. Project Fresh Start also includes a considerable mentoring initiative. One of the mentors is Maverick Jacobs, a New Haven resident of 40 years and a former offender himself. Jacobs said he struggled to successfully reintegrate into the community for years after being released from prison. He also said he knows firsthand how helpful a mentor can be for those in similar situations. “After months of no job and no source of income I was tempted to go back to the streets,” Jacobs said. “With that experience, I know some of the challenges that inmates face upon their release.” Project Fresh Start has its own office on the first floor of City Hall, where its employees and interns will work. The project also hopes to set up a workshop for clients to use in filling out job applications and creating resumes. Harp said she expects the program to help between 50 and 100 prisoners with reentry per month. Contact BLAKE DIXON at blake.dixon@yale.edu .
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unforgiving nature of the start-up world. In science, a researcher can designate a hypothesis without worrying too much about whether or not it holds true — but in entrepreneurship the potential for failure must be detected and assessed as early as possible, she said. All three women praised the University for its influence in their day-to-day work. Bush and Staple-Clark both credited Yale with aiding them in creating their respective organizations by encouraging critical thinking about important issues and providing spaces and resources for the organizations’ programming.
Although Humacyte got its start at Duke shortly before Niklason relocated to New Haven, Niklason commended Yale for its emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration. “We’re not pigeonholed into little places, which means that those collisions can occur, and innovation happens much more naturally,” Niklason said. It has been easy for her to reach out to different departments and groups on campus to work together on various projects, she said. Caroline Rivera ’16 said in an email that she enjoyed the event as
an opportunity to hear from pioneering, entrepreneurial women in the field of global and public health and to network with students at the School of Public Health. “It was comforting to know that [the panelists] were all in the same place that I’m in now, an undergrad looking for something to do with life that combines passion with service,” Rivera said. The panel was hosted by the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute and InnovateHealth Yale. Contact WESLEY YIIN at wesley.yiin@yale.edu .
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
FROM THE FRONT WAGE THEFT FROM PAGE 1 more oversight. They have very strong contracts with their business owners,” she said. “We would just hope they would oversee those so that this embarrassing condition doesn’t exist anymore there or at any of their other facilities.” University Spokesman Tom Conroy said Yale condemns the unfair labor practices and exploitation at the local grocer, but it would be “impossible” to keep tabs on all 80 tenants’ compliance with the law. He said that it is the responsibility of governmental authorities to make sure that businesses follow the law. He added that the University has not yet decided whether it will renew Gourmet Heaven’s lease in 2016. Over the past two decades, Yale has accumulated roughly 80 sites near campus, on Broadway Avenue, Chapel Street and Whalley Avenue in an effort to improve towngown relations and revitalize the neighborhoods surrounding campus. Gourmet Heaven first leased a space from University Properties in 2001. Former mayoral candidate Henry Fernandez LAW ’94, who used to be the city’s economic development administrator, said part of Yale’s reason for investing in the city was to create a certain image around campus that would appeal to wealthy students, faculty and alumni. In order to maintain that image, he said, the University has strict lease policies, requiring businesses to stay open for longer hours and to maintain an elegant facade. Because the University requires such strict policies in its leases, he added, it could also include provisions that would help employees. “They should take ownership of the fact that some very hard working people
were exploited by one of their stores,” Fernandez said. “A store that they recruited, a store that is in most people’s minds heavily connected to the image the University has created in downtown.” Fernandez said he believes Yale should also ensure that its tenants pay a living wage of $15 per hour. He said the minimum wage is not enough for the average New Haven resident to live and that the University should use its power to raise the city out of poverty. In response to Fernandez’ public call for a living wage, Conroy said requiring some New Haven businesses to operate under different rules than their competitors does not make sense from an economics standpoint.
Yale should … ensure that workers on [its] property aren’t being paid poverty wages and aren’t struggling to survive. EVELYN NUNEZ ’15 President, MEChA “Businesses should be given the opportunity to succeed or fail on a level playing field,” he said. “The people of Connecticut should decide the minimum wage and other work-related regulations.” Organizers who brought attention to the issue at Gourmet Heaven are also calling on Yale to take action. In a press conference at police headquarters last Wednesday, the New Haven Police Department, the Board of Alders, the DOL, former Gourmet Heaven workers and Unidad Latina en Accion
activists announced their plans to collaborate to form a procedure for dealing with endemic wage theft in New Haven. ULA activist Megan Fountain ’07 said she hopes City Hall will partner with them to find an effective way to tackle the issue. She added that for Yale to effectively monitor businesses, University Properties would have to take time to speak to workers. “I don’t know how he’s going to monitor businesses if he won’t even talk to the workers,” she said. “The Gourmet Heaven case has demonstrated that you can’t monitor a business just by talking to the boss. I hope they will reach out and partner with workers and community organizations.” Fountain said the future of fair labor on Yale’s campus will be up to the students, as they are in a position to demand better workplace environments from the administration. Evelyn Nunez ’15, president of campus social justice group MEChA, will be meeting with Vice President of New Haven and State Affairs Bruce Alexander ’65 soon to discuss the issue. She said that while University Properties has shown interest in the case, they have not offered any concrete statement or plan of action. “We’re calling for University Properties to be more accountable for the businesses on campus,” she said. “Yale should set an example by advocating for fair working conditions, and ensure that workers on [its] property aren’t being paid poverty wages and aren’t struggling to survive like other low-wage workers.” University Properties was established in 1996. Contact SEBASTIAN MEDINA-TAYAC at sebastian.medina-tayac@yale.
J.P. MORGAN AMERICAN BANKER
Financial aid site revised FINANCIAL AID FROM PAGE 1 But most selective universities do not use the FAFSA to determine the level of institutional aid each student warrants. Rather, Yale and most other selective colleges and universities in America use the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE, a form administered by the College Board. Unlike the free FAFSA forms, students must pay $25 to submit their first CSS form to a school and then $16 to each school thereafter. “Because we were saying that students had to submit both applications in order to access the full range of financial aid available, Rep. Cummings thought that we were saying students had to pay the $25 fee for federal aid,” Storlazzi said. Mark Kantrowitz, senior vice president and publisher of Edvisors Network, a resource center that advises students on financial aid, said universities prefer using the CSS form because it is more detailed and gives a better sense of a student’s family’s wealth and income than the FAFSA forms do. Storlazzi said the FAFSA
and CSS forms also use different methodologies for calculating a family’s wealth and income. While FAFSA ignores the assets of families earning under $50,000, for example, Storlazzi said the CSS form still considers the assets of these families because there may be cases where the family’s assets are in the millions and the family is simply living off these assets. But he added that these cases are rare and most students’ calculated level of need would be similar using either the FAFSA or CSS forms. Because of these differences, Storlazzi conceded that some prospective applicants to Yale may only be interested in applying for federal aid and would not have needed to fill out the CSS form despite what the University’s website had advised prior to these recent changes. Courtney Cochran, Elijah Cumming’s press secretary, said the congressman was pleased with the quick responses from Yale and its peer schools — including Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania — in making their financial aid lan-
guage clearer for prospective students. “We will be monitoring the actions of all the institutions identified in [Congressman Cumming’s] letter,” Cochran said. Storlazzi said this episode is a testament to the difficulties of conveying complex financial aid rules and information to families. He added that although he wants all the relevant information to be accessible to prospective students, he is wary of making the website cumbersome and unwieldy. In the future, Storlazzi said the Financial Aid Office looks to partner with the Yale College Council to ensure the office’s digital presence is both attractive and navigable for prospective students. The percentage of Yale College students who receive some form of financial aid has risen from 42.4 percent in the 2007–’08 academic year to 52.2 percent in the 2013–’14 academic year. Contact RISHABH BHANDARI at rishabh.bhandari@yale.edu .
FINANCIAL AID BY PERCENT OF STUDENTS RECEVING YALE AID 60 Percent with Yale Scholarship
Yale policy unaffected
“A man always has two reasons for what he does — a good one, and the real one.”
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WORLD
“Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” WINSTON CHURCHILL FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
Russia sets Ukraine agenda BY DAVID MCHUGH AND DALTON BENNETT ASSOCIATED PRESS KIEV, Ukraine — In defiance of the U.S. and the European Union, Russia tightened its stranglehold over Crimea on Monday as Ukraine accused it of piracy by blocking two of the besieged country’s warships and ordering them to surrender or be seized. The West struggled to find a way to get Moscow to back down, but with little beyond already threatened diplomatic and economic sanctions, global markets fell sharply over the prospect of violent upheaval in the heart of Europe. For its part, Moscow reiterated its price for ending the conflict: the restoration, pending new elections, of a government in Kiev that represents pro-Russian as well as Ukrainian interests. Some 16,000 Russian troops have been deployed in the strategic Crimean region, Ukraine’s mission to the United Nations said Monday, as fears grew in the Ukrainian capital and beyond that the Kremlin might carry out more land grabs in pro-Russian eastern Ukraine, adding urgency to Western efforts to defuse the crisis. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was headed to Kiev in an expression of support for Ukraine’s sovereignty, and the EU threatened a raft of punitive measures as it called an emergency summit on Ukraine for Thursday. But it was Russia that appeared to be driving the agenda. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a U.N. Human Rights Council session in Geneva that Ukraine should return to an agreement signed last month by pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych — but not Moscow — to hold early elections and surrender some powers. Yanukovych fled the country after sealing the pact with the opposition and for-
EMILIO MORENATTI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
A member of the self defense unit stands guard as people walk across Kiev’s Independence Square, Ukraine,. eign ministers of France, Germany and Poland. “Instead of a promised national unity government,” Lavrov said of the fledgling new administration in Kiev, “a government of the victors has been created.” Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities said that Russian troops had issued an ultimatum for two
Ukrainian warships to surrender or be seized — prompting the country’s acting president to accuse Russia of “piracy.” “I call on the leadership of the Russian Federation. Stop the aggression, stop the provocations, stop the piracy! These are crimes, and you will be called to account for them,” acting president Oleksandr Turchynov said.
“The commanders and crews are ready to defend their ships. They are defending Ukraine,” Turchynov said in a televised address to the nation after a military spokesman said Ukraine’s corvette Ternopil and command ship Slavutych were being blocked by four Russian navy ships in the Crimean port of Sevastopol.
Vladimir Anikin, a Russian defense ministry spokesman, dismissed reports of an ultimatum as nonsense but refused to elaborate. Warning of a “dangerous escalation,” the Obama administration said Washington would hold Moscow directly accountable for any threat to Ukraine’s navy. Russia is “on the wrong side
of history” in Ukraine, President Barack Obama said, adding that continued military action would be “a costly proposition for Russia.” Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Obama said the U.S. was considering economic and diplomatic options that will isolate Russia, and called on Congress to work on an aid package for Ukraine.
PAGE 8
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
SPORTS
“The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.” WOODROW WILSON FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Yale fourth at Ivies SWIMMING FROM PAGE 12 in points as well. In the following race, the 400-yard IM, Kevin Stang ’16 took home third place, just over a second behind the second-place Columbia swimmer. Lazris and Firmansyah contributed again in the 100-yard butterfly, taking fourth and sixth, while junior Rob Harder ’15 took fourth in the 200-yard freestyle. Yale was shut out of the top three spots in the next two races. The day ended with a third-place finish for the 800-yard freestyle relay team comprised of team Victor Zhang ’16, Hogan, Lerude and Harder. The standings at the end of Day Two showed Yale still in fifth, with fourth-place Columbia in position to edge the Bulldogs out for the second year in a row. Hogan started off Day Three with a second-place finish in the 1650-yard freestyle, an event in which he held the fourth-fastest NCAA time earlier this year. That would be the final event in which a Bulldog placed in the top three. A few fifth and sixth place finishes followed, but the Elis were mostly shut out of the rest of the events. Pramer took seventh in the three-meter diving final with a score of 304.70, earning Yale 23 points. For the final event of the meet, the 400-freestyle relay, Yale’s team of Hogan, Firmansyah, Zhang and Harder took sixth place. Although the team did not take home many top spots, their overall consistent performances allowed the Bulldogs to rack up enough points to beat out Columbia for fourth place. Emotions ran high at the end of the meet as the seniors swam their final events. A major highlight of the night was the award given to Pramer, who earned the Ron Keenhold Award for the career high-point diver at the meet. “Winning the career high-point award was an honor and something I never imagined winning when I came to Yale. I didn’t dive my best in my final event of the meet, but winning the award forced me to look at the success of my career as a whole instead of my performance that day,” Pramer said. Next week, Pramer will head to Virginia Tech for the NCAA Zone A meet to compete for a bid to the NCAA Championships. The full NCAA Championship will be held in Austin, Texas during the last weekend of March. Contact SYDNEY GLOVER at sydney.glover@yale.edu .
JENNIFER CHEUNG/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
The men’s swimming and diving team finished behind Harvard, Princeton and Penn at Ivies this weekend.
Dooney ’16 paces Elis
Squash concludes season SQUASH FROM PAGE 12 squash today.” Tomlinson finished her college squash career ranked No. 3 in the country. Kim Hay ’14, Issey NormanRoss ’15, Shihui Mao and Jenny Scherl ’17 all gave strong performances, but were defeated in the first day of play. No. 16 Shihui Mao fought especially hard pushing her No. 17 Trinity opponent to a fifth deciding game. Tthe Eli men, Cheong, Neil Martin ’14 and Sam Fenwick ’16 were all bested in the first round.
“I gave my best in the individuals,” Cheong said. “It was a really close match, and my opponent was of higher seed than I was, so I’m happy to have given him a good battle.” According to Cheong, the Bulldogs are looking forward to an even stronger season next year after giving their best this year. Harvard’s Ali Farag won the men’s individual championship, while the Crimson’s Amanda Sohby took the women’s title. Contact ERICA PANDEY at erica.pandey@yale.edu .
IRELAND ATHLETICS
Kevin Dooney ’16, left, broke his 5,000 meter PR by 27 seconds on Sunday. DOONEY FROM PAGE 12 runner. [My 5k time] bodes well for the future in the 10k, but I think I’ll still take the 10k race.
Q
The top four finishers in the 5,000-meter beat the winning time from last year. Are the Ivy League’s distance standards improving?
A
I think the standards are always improving. The top four finishers in the mile on Sunday all qualified for nationals. A quarter of the field in the mile will probably be from the Ivy League, which is pretty impressive in a national meet. Last year was a bit of a slower, more tactical race, but the standards in the league are definitely getting better when you look at it. Maksim Korolev [the second-place finisher in the 5k Sunday] from Harvard
came in third in cross country nationals this year, so they’re definitely getting better. than your perforQOther mance, what other high-
lights were there for Yale in the meet?
A
Marc-Andre Alexandre ’17 came in second in the 400. For a freshman to be coming in second at Heps is very impressive. James Randon ’17, in the 1k, came in fourth, which is pretty impressive. James Shirvell ’14, our captain, came in fifth in the mile. He’d been struggling with some sickness and things like that the past few weeks, so for him to do that is pretty impressive as well.
team finished in eighth QThe place, but it scored more points in this meet than it had in three years. In what ways is
the program improving?
A
It’s definitely looking up. The fact that Alexandre, Randon, myself and [Brendan Sullivan ’16], who scored in the pole vault, are all sophomores or freshmen definitely bodes well. We’re going in the right direction — we have people improving each time, improving on our personal bests. There have been a lot of school records set in the past few years, so things are definitely looking in the right direction.
you be running in the QWill IC4A Championships next week?
A
The top 16 in the country qualify for nationals, and I’m currently ranked 19th on that list. If three people pull out, I could be running nationals in two weeks
in Albuquerque, N.M. I’ll find that out [tonight], hopefully. If I make nationals, I won’t [run in the IC4A meet], but if I’m not going to nationals, I’ll probably run the 3k to get a good chance to run another fast race. looking ahead to the QAnd spring season, what is the team hoping to accomplish outdoors this year?
A
We’re bringing a big enough contingent out to Stanford in early April, so hopefully we can get a lot of regional qualifying times at that meet. I’ll be running the 10k in that meet. We’re hosting Heps this year, so that’s still the main focus. To get a strong performance at home is the main thing. Contact GREG CAMERON at greg.cameron@yale.edu .
KEN YANIGISAWA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The men’s and women’s squash teams will lose eight seniors to graduation with the conclusion of this season.
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 9
BULLETIN BOARD
TODAY’S FORECAST
TOMORROW
Increasing clouds, with a high near 27. Wind chill values as low as -4.
THURSDAY
High of 35, low of 24.
High of 36, low of 27.
SCIENCE HILL BY SPENCER KATZ
ON CAMPUS TUESDAY, MARCH 4 1:00 p.m. “The Bladder Matters.” Dr. Toby Chai and Dr. Leslie M. Rickey will discuss the most common types of urinary incontinence; causes and risk factors; and prevention strategies and treatments, including behavioral modification, exercise and minimally invasive surgical options. Sterling Memorial Library (120 High St.), Lecture Hall. 4:30 p.m. “Wives, Husbands and Lovers: Marriage and Sexuality in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Urban China.” This book talk is in association with the newly installed exhibit “Recent Publications by Yale’s East Asia Faculty, 2012–2013.” Sterling Memorial Library (120 High St.), International Room.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5
XKCD BY RANDALL MUNROE
12:00 p.m. “Imagining Slavery: Imagining Freedom? Artistry, Agency, and Alchemy in African Atlantic Art Stories.” This talk will examine the ways in which African-American and African diasporic artists have engaged with the difficult legacies of slavery, colonialism and empire in their diverse art from 1960 to 2010. 230 Prospect St. (10 Hillhouse Ave.), Rm. 101. 6:30 p.m. “Papermakers Who Made Parchment: Product Innovation in 14th- and 15th-Century European Papermaking.” Director of the Center for the Book Timothy Barrett will deliver this lecture. The Yale Program in the History of the Book brings together scholars across disciplines to explore the materiality of the written word over time and across cultures. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (121 Wall St.).
THURSDAY, MARCH 6 2:30 p.m. Diane Lillo-Martin: “Sign Language Syntax.” Public lecture sponsored by Kate Davidson’s class “Sign Languages and the Mind.” Diane Lillo-Martin is a linguistics professor at UConn with a special interest in what studies of sign languages and language acquisition in different contexts can tell us about the nature of human capacity for language. Dow Hall (370 Temple St.), Rm. 201.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Networks key in gun violence BY APARNA NATHAN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The likelihood of experiencing gun violence may be less about the victims themselves and more about their acquaintances, a recent Yale study concludes. The study observed increased probabilities of nonfatal gun violence among those in networks with other gun violence victims. Since most theories of criminology are based on networks, studying gun violence with network techniques was a logical methodology, said Andrew Papachristos, a Yale professor of sociology and study co-author. The findings, which were based on data from Chicago, have already informed the work of gun violence prevention programs in New Haven. “I see networks at work in every city,” said New Haven Police Department Chief Dean Esserman. “The work [Papachristos] is doing in Chicago is as relevant in New Haven as it is in New York.” In the study, researchers used data from the 2006-2012 records of the Chicago Police Department that outline cases of nonfatal gun injuries and arrests to construct a network linking individuals based on instances of being arrested for the same crime, also called co-offending. The network included over 100,000 individuals. Analysis of this network found that approximately 70 percent of all nonfatal gunshot injuries in Chicago were associated with this co-offending network, which only comprised six percent of the Chicago population. Individuals within the cooffending network were over 12 times more likely to be the victims of nonfatal gunshot injuries than other people in the city. One’s chance of falling victim also increases as an individual has more connections to other affected individuals, said Elizabeth Roberto GRD ’14, a Yale graduate student in sociology and co-author of the study.
CHHAYA KAPADIA/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
The probability of one experiencing nonfatal gun violence increases with the number of connections that person has to other affected individuals. Papachristos said he hopes to use this research to improve empirically-driven violence prevention policies. More scientifically informed interventions can improve the effectiveness of deterrent messages by preemptively targeting at-risk individuals, he said. “The severe concentration of violence in networks really changes how we think about gun crimes,” Papachristos said. “It helps us get a clearer picture of
who the next victims might be.” The team’s next steps include expanding the study from Chicago to other large cities to see if the patterns they observed are consistent. Data has been collected in Chicago and Boston, and the researchers’ sights are now set on New Haven, where a partnership between Papachristos and the New Haven Police Department has been under negotiation for over a year. In addition to collecting data
locally, there are efforts on the part of both the NHPD and local organizations to use this new understanding of gun crimes to prevent further violence. The NHPD has used Papachristos’ findings to combat gang violence by thinking about gun crimes as group behaviors. The department’s changed approach to how it thinks about and responds to violence has yielded improved results, Esserman said.
New Haven antiviolence program Project Longevity has also adopted the network perspective in its own community outreach. Project Longevity offers support to individuals at risk of being involved in gun violence, whom they identify through network analysis. Other organizations, such as the National Network for Safe Communities (NNSC), have followed a similar approach to reach out to community members, said Amy
Crawford, deputy director of the NNSC. “The clear benefit of this approach is that it allows law enforcement to focus resources on the few individuals most likely to be involved in violence,” Crawford said. In 2013 there were 18 homicides and 67 shootings in New Haven. Contact APARNA NATHAN at aparna.nathan@yale.edu .
Study probes affective touch BY JOYCE GUO CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
THAO DO/STAFF ILLUSTRATOR
According to recent research from the Yale Child Study Center, children develop unique brain mechanisms to help them understand the social importance of touch. In a collaboration between Yale University and the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, researchers studied brain responses to soft brush strokes on children, adolescents and adults. Whole-brain analyses with fMRI imaging showed that the ipsilateral secondary somatosensory cortex (SII) — a key region of the brain that processes touch — displayed increased activity with greater age. This new understanding of social touch is the first to establish a developmental progression of the neural mechanism and holds promise for application for autism research, said study co-author and professor of psychology Kevin Pelphrey. “We were interested in how the human brain develops the ability to understand the social importance of touch as opposed to just registering pain,” Pelphrey said. “We were after the actual social meaning of touch.” Though parental touch has long been known to play an important role in the development of offspring, there has been no significant research published that details the neural development of touch processing in humans. During the study, test subjects were stroked with a watercolor brush on the palm and forearm to stimulate lowthreshold mechanoreceptors, which are activated in humans in response to non-painful touch. While stimulating the skin receptors, the research team took fMRI scans of the different age groups. The ipsilateral SII region of the brain showed increased
activity as the ages of the test subjects increased. In addition to the ipsilateral SII increase, females also exhibited increased neural sensitivity with age in the superior temporal sulcus, a region of the brain responsible for social cognition functions. The study is the first to reveal noteworthy sex differences in the development of brain processing of affective touch, said Helena Rutherford, a research scientist at the Yale Child Study center who was not involved in the study. The research can potentially answer questions on the puzzle of sex-specific neurodevelopmental disorders, and Rutherford said the publication is a significant contribution to the emerging literature on affective touch. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, autism spectrum disorders are roughly five times more prevalent among boys than girls. Children with autism often exhibit a similar neural response to affective and tactile touch, and the neuroimaging results of the study can help in early autism detection, Pelphrey said. Fred Volkmar, a professor of child psychiatry at the YaleNew Haven Children’s Hospital, said he found the study a sign of progress in understanding human development. “We have become increasingly able to employ sophisticated methods of study to what seem like, and are, basic aspects of human social development,” Volkmar said. “This study highlights how far we have come, and has important implications for understanding both normal development and early onset disorders like autism.” The study was published on Feb. 4 in the journal Frontiers of Behavioral Neuroscience. Contact JOYCE GUO at joyce.guo@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 11
“Coffee and smoking are the last great addictions.” LARA FLYNN BOYLE AMERICAN ACTRESS
Contagion beliefs powerful BY GEORGE SAUSSY CONTRIBUTING REPORTER A new Yale study investigated why people would pay exorbitant sums of money for Beyoncé’s boots or Oprah’s overcoat. According to the law of contagion, the essence of someone can be transferred by touch to another object, as demonstrated by the high value people place on of celebrity memorabilia. While a large body of previous research demonstrated this theory in laboratory settings, there had been no verification in the field. Yale psychologist Paul Bloom and School of Management Professor George Newman looked at data from realworld estate auctions and found that the amount of contact a celebrity had with the object correlated with the value the item received at auction. The research is part of a growing body of evidence that suggests that contagion beliefs — ungrounded in any physical process — can exert significant influence on actual decision making. “We’ve done a bunch of lab studies looking at [contagion beliefs] and that was the motivation for this study,” Newman said. “It was surprising or exciting to find similar types of effects in actual auction behavior.” The study examined data from the celebrity estate auctions of John F. Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe and Bernard Madoff. Participants — uninformed about the hypothesis of the study — rated the amount of physical contact they thought each item auctioned had with its former owner. Newman and Bloom found that in the cases of Kennedy and Monroe, greater rating of physical contact positively correlated with higher final bids for the items. However, in the case of the Madoff auction, the correlation was reversed. In the second part of the study, the researchers found
that valuations of celebrity memorabilia could not be explained simply by association, as a sterilized sweater of a beloved celebrity was valued less than an unsterilized sweater. The study demonstrated that bidders believed the positive essence of Kennedy and Monroe and the negative essence of Madoff were preserved in their possessions. Nathan Novemsky, a professor at the Yale School of Management unaffiliated with the study, said the study fits into a growing body of evidence that contagion beliefs are common. “If a Gucci bag is made in the original factory in France, or somehow physical elements of it are related to factory in France versus some factory in South Carolina, people find the essence of Gucci is more in that first bag than in the second.” Novemsky said. “The challenge for marketers then is how to transfer that essence.” Writing on magical thinking can be traced back to the early 20th century, Newman said, when anthropologist James Frazier first proposed the idea that people may believe the essence of an object can be transferred by contact. Newman said the study lends credence to Frazier’s original model. Matthew Hutson, a science journalist and author of “The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking,” said auction houses should take note of contagion beliefs, as the houses consistently misvalued the final bids for each item. Hutson said he was surprised the contagion effect was not even greater. “I would have expected objects that Bernie Madoff had handled excessively would have been even more devalued and objects that JFK had used to be even more affected,” Hutson said. The study appears in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Contact GEORGE SAUSSY at george.saussy@yale.edu .
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: SAMANTHA GARDNER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER, US DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, ASTERIO TECSON/CREATIVE COMMONS
The belief that the essence of an object can be transferred by contact influences decision-making in instances like celebrity estate auctions.
Smoking bans effective among mentally ill BY TYLER FOGGATT CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Previous research suggests that smokers with mental illness generally have more difficulty quitting cigarettes than smokers who are not mentally ill. But a new Yale study suggests that statewide restaurant and bar smoking bans are equally effective at reducing smoking among both populations. Past studies have demonstrated a correlation between statewide restaurant and bar smoking bans and reduced smoking among the general population, and authors of the current study explored whether this effect extends to the mentally ill. They found that such bans do lead to greater likelihood of smoking cessation among the mentally ill, as well as being more effective among males with alcohol use disorders and females suffering from anxiety disorders than among people with no mental illness at all. The findings suggest policy change is capable of addressing high rates of smoking among the mentally ill, said Andrew Hyland, study co-author and department chair of health behavior at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute “This was the first investigation to examine how smokers with specific psychiatric diagnoses altered smoking in response to enactment of smoke-free legislation in bars and restaurants,” said Sherry McKee, professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine and co-author of the study. “Results demonstrated that implementation of smoke-free laws increased rates of quitting among smokers with mental illness, although results were not uniform across all diagnoses.” Roughly 30 to 40 percent of smokers in the United States have a mental illness, and this population consumes nearly half of the cigarettes in America. Researchers, medical pro-
fessionals and policy makers are increasingly aware of this public health issue, but the effects of statewide tobacco control policies on those with mental illness were previously unclear, according to Philip H. Smith, a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale School of Public Health and study lead author.
Things like higher cigarette prices and smoke-free laws should serve to reduce the disparity. ANDREW HYLAND Department Chair of Health and Behavior, Roswell Park Cancer Institute Since smokers with mental illness are more dependent on nicotine and have more difficulty quitting smoking than those without mental illness, the researchers hypothesized that the implementation of smoking bans would be less effective in reducing smoking among those with mental illness To test this hypothesis, researchers analyzed data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, identifying eight states — Connecticut, New York, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Washington and Vermont — that implemented smoking bans in bars and restaurants. They then compared the likeliness of smokers living in those eight states giving up cigarettes with smokers living in other states and examined whether associations varied by mental illness. The research team did not find a disparity between the reductions in the amount of cigarettes smoked per day by those with mental illness and by those without. Statewide smoking bans in bars and restaurants resulted in an overall decrease in
the number of cigarettes smoked per day among men, regardless of whether these men had a psychiatric illness. Women, with the exception of those diagnosed with mood disorders, also smoked fewer cigarettes per day due to these bans. “What this means to public health practitioners or to elected officials who are trying to reduce health disparities is that things like higher cigarette prices and smoke-free laws should serve to reduce the disparity that we currently have,” Hyland said. “They’re not only reducing tobacco consumption for everyone, but for those with certain mental health disabilities.” Hyland added that he and the other study authors need to apply some of their findings to inform current public policy debates. He is also interested in studying smoking reduction in other populations, since this study solely focused on adults with mental illnesses and did not produce any data about the effects of tobacco control policies on adolescent smokers. Smith said he hopes to find more associations between tobacco reducing measures and smoking among people with mental illness. He is currently investigating whether increases in cigarette prices are also associated with reduced smoking among these individuals. “Our findings highlight the importance of continuing to examine how tobacco control policies and interventions influence smoking among those with mental illness, and of considering new policies that may directly target smoking among those with mental illness,” Smith said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 42.1 million people in the United States smoke cigarettes. Contact TYLER FOGGATT at tyler.foggatt@yale.edu .
KATHRYN CRANDALL/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
A recent study indicated that smoking bans contribute to reduced smoking in high-risk groups.
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MARC-ANDRE ALEXANDRE ’17 MEN’S TRACK AND FIELD The freshman from Montreal earned second team All-Ivy honors for his performance at this past weekend’s Ivy League Heptagonal Championships. Alexandre nabbed the recognition by placing second in the 400-meter dash with a time of 48.45.
NICOLE DANIGGELIS ’16 AND ERIN MCMULLAN ’14 WOMEN’S LACROSSE The two Bulldogs both collected conference honors this weekend, as Daniggelis grabbed Co-Offensive Player of the Week honors while McMullan was named Defensive Player of the Week.
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“Winning the award forced me to look at the success of my career as a whole instead of my performance that day.” TYLER PRAMER ’14 SWIMMING AND DIVING YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
Yale edges Columbia for fourth
JENNIFER CHEUNG/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
The men’s swimming and diving team captured fourth place at the Ivy League Championships this weekend. BY SYDNEY GLOVER CONTRIBUTING REPORTER In its final team meet of the year, the men’s swimming and diving team took fourth at the Ivy League Championships in Cambridge, Mass. At the end of the weekend, Yale had 987 points,
finishing behind first-place Harvard, second-place Princeton and third-place Penn. Columbia took fifth, a sweet victory for the Bulldogs as Columbia bested them in last year’s championship. Yale has several young swimmers who contributed at the meet, the first Ivy League Cham-
pionship of their careers for some. “This was a great start, but now we know where we are and have to focus on getting better,” freshman Oscar Miao ’17 said. Day one started off with a seventh-place finish in the 200yard freestyle relay, but sopho-
more Brian Hogan ’16 quickly turned things around with a second-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle finals, pushing the team from seventh place to third with 28 points. Hogan’s race was the only top-three finish of the day for the Elis. On the diving side, senior
Mao ’17 takes Holleran Cup
Tyler Pramer ’14 took fifth in the one-meter dive, earning 25 points for Yale. At the end of the day, Yale stood in fourth, only twelve points ahead of Dartmouth. The Bulldogs began Friday with a fifth-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay, with the junior-heavy team of Mike Laz-
ris ’15, Alwin Firmansyah ’15, Andrew Heymann ’15 and Aaron Greenberg ’17. Hogan brought in the points again with a win in the 1000-yard freestyle, Yale’s first victory. Freshman Ben Lerude ’17 took fourth in the race, bringing SEE SWIMMING PAGE 8
Dooney ’16 shows in 5k BY GREG CAMERON STAFF REPORTER Yale distance runner Kevin Dooney ’16 ran his way onto the Eli record books on Sunday at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships. Dooney’s time of 13:59.06 in the 5,000-meter race broke the Yale indoor record by nearly 11 seconds, and his own personal record, which he set outdoors last spring, by 27 seconds. He placed third in the race, less than half of a second behind the winner, and was one of five Bulldogs to score in the meet. The Yale men’s
team finished eighth overall at Heps, but its score of 24 points was its best at the event in three years. seconds is a pretty QTwenty-seven enormous difference [between
your new and old personal records]. Were you expecting to beat your P.R. by so much?
A
Given the cross country season that I had, I definitely knew that I was in better shape than I was when I ran my P.R. last year, but I did not expect 27 seconds. I thought that I could maybe run 14:10, but the 10 seconds beyond that were not what I was expecting.
you think the two runners QDo ahead of you had an impact on that time?
A
KEN YANAGISAWA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Definitely. Harvard went into the race trying to get one of [its] runners a qualifying time for nationals, and [Harvard] really made it a fast race. I’m thankful for that because it gave me a chance to run fast.
The squash teams finished their seasons at the CSA Individual Championships this past weekend. BY ERICA PANDEY CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The men’s and women’s squash teams competed for individual glory at the College Squash Association’s Individual Championships at Penn this weekend. Yale’s highlight performance came from Shiyuan Mao ’17, who brought home the Holleran Cup after winning the B division. Millie
Tomlinson ’14 also advanced after her Friday matches, but was defeated at the second round in the A division. Kah Wah Cheong ’17 was able to secure a win over his Harvard opponent in a Saturday consolation match after losing in the first round. “I’m just really happy that my mom was able to be here when I won the Holleran division,” said Mao, whose mother flew in from Singa-
pore for the championships. “My coaches and teammates are the best I could ask for, and I’m so happy to be a part of the Yale women’s squash team.” Mao had to beat her teammate Annie Ballaine ’16 to advance in the championship. Her win this weekend topped off an undefeated season, playing 13–0 at the eighth position for Yale. She
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is following in the tracks of her sister, Shihui Mao ’15, who also won the Holleran division as a freshman. “We all had strong weekends,” Tomlinson said. “Although I was disappointed I didn’t make it further [than the semifinals], I feel very proud to have made it to the top four in the nation with the strength of college SEE SQUASH PAGE 8
ran in the 10,000-meter QYou event last spring. Does this per-
formance affect which event you’ll do this year?
SAM RUBIN/YALE ATHLETICS
Kevin Dooney ’16 set a Yale indoor record at Heps with a time of 13:59.06 in the 5,000-meter event this weekend.
A
Not really. I still think that at heart, I’m going to be a better 10k runner than I am a 5k SEE DOONEY PAGE 8
SAVES BY YALE WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY GOALTENDER JAIMIE LEONOFF ’15 DURING THE BULLDOGS’ ECAC PLAYOFF SERIES AGAINST HARVARD. In spite of Leonoff’s standout effort, the Bulldogs lost the first round series two games to one.