NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2014 · VOL. CXXXVII, NO. 12 · yaledailynews.com
INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING
SUNNY CLOUDY
75 54
GOING GREEN
GRAD SCHOOL
BIOLOGY
THE STATE OF YALE ENVIRONMENTALISM
New interdisciplinary programs explore philosophy, ancients
DEPARTMENTS REEVALUATE NEW MODULES
PAGES B3 WEEKEND
PAGE 3 UNIVERSITY
PAGE 3 UNIVERSITY
CROSS CAMPUS article, Forbes attempted to explain the differences between its own arbitrary list of top colleges and U.S. News and World Report’s arbitrary list of top colleges. In fact, according to Forbes, their rival publication uses many metrics that are “purely subjective.” “These are the same qualms we have always had, and will likely continue to have with the U.S. News ranking,” the article said.
The Daily Nutmeg published a piece yesterday exploring the many archways on Yale’s campus. The article points out the Tudor and Gothic arches in the nave of Sterling Memorial Library as well as the unique tunnel of Phelps Gate. The entrance to Mason Laboratory is composed of nine layers of arches in a mix of materials, according to the piece.
No treble. The Women’s
Center held a discussion on body politics in pop culture last night that touched upon “All About That Bass,” “Anaconda” and other summer radio staples.
MVP. Six-year-old Dante
Chiappette of North Haven took part in a mock draft at the Yale Bowl on Thursday, an event organized by Bostonbased charity Team IMPACT. Dante lined up alongside Yale football players and signed a letter of intent to join the team, in front of Head Coach Tony Reno. Dante has been diagnosed with cortical visual impairment and cerebral palsy.
Eat like a local. Connecticut’s annual Farm-to-Chef week kicks off on Monday. More than 40 restaurants have created special, locally inspired menus that are meant to raise awareness of stategrown produce. Jumping on the bandwagon.
An introductory course in computer science at Harvard received a record-breaking 818 registrations this semester. That number of Zuckerberg wanna-be’s is equivalent to 12 percent of their undergraduate population. Too good for Tinder?
According to the Huffington Post, a new matchmaking app, exclusive to top-tier schools, called The League will soon be available. Over 300 people — who do not realize that no one is too good for Tinder — are already on the waitlist.
THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY
1946 The largest freshman class to date arrives. Submit tips to Cross Campus
crosscampus@yaledailynews.com
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PAGE 5 CITY
BY ADRIAN RODRIGUES STAFF REPORTER
Money talks and not just to
Introduction to Archery.
Social media more important than ever in governor’s race
Swensen addresses climate change
9/11 REMEMBRANCE
Shots fired. In a Thursday
your friends going into finance. A sociology symposium is being held today called “Money Talks,” to examine the social implications of money. Topics include money in the context of morality, relationships and psychology.
LARRY MILSTEIN/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
A
t 8:30 a.m., over 100 members of the Yale community gathered at Beinecke Plaza to pay tribute to those who perished in the Sept. 11 attacks. The event was organized through the Yale Student Veterans Council, in conjunction with Yale ROTC. Though over a decade since the attacks, emotions remained fresh as students, faculty and alumni grieved for lost loved ones and fellow countrymen — including at least nine Yale alumni killed on this day.
In the debate over whether or not to divest from fossil fuels, the written word may speak louder than protests. Two weeks ago, when the Yale Corporation’s Committee on Investor Responsibility (CCIR) voted not to divest the University’s holdings from fossil fuel companies, Chief Investment Officer David Swensen sent a letter to all of Yale’s active external investment managers. The letter, obtained by the News, asks these money managers to consider the consequences of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions when making investment decisions. But while Swensen emphasized the letter’s potential for substantive impact, student members of Fossil Free Yale criticized it as a “show tactic.” Swensen said he believes the letter is based on economic principles and will affect the UniSEE DIVESTMENT PAGE 6
Amidst budget cuts, labor relations teetering BY MATTHEW LLOYD-THOMAS STAFF REPORTER There is a common topic of discussion in dining halls, administrative offices, facilities trucks and elsewhere these days: budget cuts. While the University works to slash its budget deficit with Uni-
versity-wide cuts, staff members across Yale grow increasingly dissatisfied. Eight union members interviewed — from both Local 34, which represents many of Yale’s white- and pinkcollar staff, and Local 35, which represents primarily blue-collar Yale employees, including custodial, dining and maintenance
workers — said that the relationship between the University and the unions has deteriorated, with five members adding that they expect the unions will go on strike within the next year or two. “I’ve been a 23-year employee of the University, and this is the worst that I’ve
Democracy Fund agenda in flux BY ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER STAFF REPORTER The Democracy Fund has a new lease on life. With power — or, in this case, the requisite staff to conduct business — comes responsibility, which means New Haven’s public campaign finance system is preparing to analyze potential tweaks, clarifications and even overhauls of the opportunities local politicians have to capitalize on public funds. The aim is to ensure the fund remains relevant
after a banner election season last year when four mayoral candidates opted into the system. But the candidate ultimately crowned in last year’s race, Toni Harp, did not take advantage of the fund, instead delivering several pointed criticisms of its operations. Chief among her objections was that a publicly financed candidate could lose the primary in September and then run again in the general election, freed of the fund’s constraints while SEE DEM FUND PAGE 6
Anti-Ivy League book triggers dissent BY YUVAL BEN-DAVID STAFF REPORTER On Yale College Dean Jonathan Holloway’s desk rests a copy of “Excellent Sheep,” the controversial book by former Yale English professor William Deresiewicz that attacks the culture of America’s elite universities. In recent weeks, Deresiewicz — who authored a July cover story in The New Republic titled “Don’t Send Your Kids to the Ivy League” — has been in the spotlight for his
withering criticism of Ivy League students as “trapped in a bubble of privilege, heading meekly in the same direction, great at what they’re doing but with no idea why they’re doing it.” He is scheduled to speak at a Morse College Master’s Tea on Sept. 24. Holloway expressed sympathy to some of the book’s points but criticized its larger resentment of Ivy League schools. The wider reception of Deresiewicz’s arguSEE DERESIEWICZ PAGE 4
seen it,” said one member of the Local 34 union who works in an academic department and spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of jeopardizing his job. “Even back in the 90s it wasn’t this bad.” University President Peter Salovey said the University has done its best to protect union
employees from the budget cuts, and that other Yale constituencies have felt more of an impact. One Local 35 member echoed Salovey, saying that managers have felt the brunt of the budget cuts because they do not have the protection of a union. SEE LABOR PAGE 4
Faculty scrutinize West Campus BY JENNIFER GERSTEN AND ADRIAN RODRIGUES STAFF REPORTERS Science Hill faculty grappling with budget cuts and deficits have turned their magnifying glasses towards a plot of land ten miles away: West Campus. In 2000, under former University President Richard Levin, Yale made a $1 billion commitment to improving science teaching and upgrading its research facilities. The largest addition came in 2007, when Yale acquired West Campus from Bayer Pharmaceuticals for $109 million — a bargain for 136 acres in West Haven of fully furnished modern research and office facilities. Levin called the property Yale’s
“Louisiana Purchase.” When the endowment lost nearly a quarter of its value a year later, West Campus suffered with the rest of Yale. In the wake of the recession, the University’s faculty hiring and lab growth for West Campus was substantially reduced, said Scott Strobel, vice president of West Campus planning and program development. But, he said the University has nevertheless remained committed to seeing the development of West Campus as a preeminent crossdisciplinary, cutting-edge scientific research facility play out at a manageable rate. Indeed, over the last few years, progress has arrived. Last year, the campus filled its sixth and final institute
directorship, played host to over 1,000 college students from across the country and Canada during the University’s first hackathon, Y-Hack, and became the new home of the Yale School of Nursing. But some faculty in the chemistry and molecular, cellular and developmental biology departments say Yale’s interest in the campus is misdirected. Several faculty members have labeled West Campus a “budget sink,” and say the administration has not been transparent in developing West Campus. “We’re just not told how much money is being spent there or where it comes from,” said Sidney Altman, SEE WEST CAMPUS PAGE 4
CLINTON WANG/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
The West Campus property was acquired in 2007 from Bayer Pharmaceuticals for $109 million.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
OPINION
.COMMENT “He has come to realize our ethical duty to shake and disrupt all yaledailynews.com/opinion
Facing the ugly truth W
ithin the past two weeks, two independent news stories have gone viral, both surrounding the issue of assault and the (unsatisfying) penalties levied against those who commit it. The first story is that of Emma Sulkowicz, the Columbia student carrying her mattress around campus as a permanent reminder of her rape at the hands of a classmate who has not yet been disciplined. The more recent story is that of Ray Rice, running back for the Baltimore Ravens, who has been suspended from the NFL indefinitely after a video surfaced of him beating his wife unconscious. And while it’s always a good thing for these appalling acts against women to get national attention, I think it’s worthwhile to ask ourselves just why these two stories are eliciting responses right now, and what they have in common. For many, the facts of the Ray Rice scandal may be old news, but they’re pretty shocking, and I think they bear repeating. Rice was issued a two-game suspension in late July after a video surfaced that showed him dragging his unconscious fiancée out of an elevator. The paltry suspension obviously disappointed many, but the Ravens were adamant that they “respect[ed] the efforts Ray has made to become the best partner and father he can be.” After two games, they were back to business as usual (though Rice’s indictment in a criminal court for assault did lead the NFL to increase the suspension time for future assault cases). But then fast forward to Monday, when the security footage from within the elevator was made publicly available. And lo and behold — to no one’s surprise, the footage depicts exactly what we deep down knew to be true (and what the Atlantic City police had long since confirmed): Rice’s fiancée was unconscious not because Rice accidentally pushed her too hard in defending himself from her attacks (as he claimed in the wake of the incident), but rather because he hit her so hard that she passed out. Rice has since been unceremoniously fired from the Ravens, and suspended from the NFL indefinitely. Some claim to have knowledge that the NFL had seen the new tape even before issuing its meager suspension, while others within the League insist that Monday, the day they suspended him indefinitely, was the first time they knew of its existence. Many are up in arms with the NFL at the thought that they knew this information and suppressed it. But isn’t it almost irrelevant when the NFL saw it? If everyone is being honest with themselves, what else did we think
could possibly have happened in that elevator? Cameras outside the elevator showed the of them VICTORIA two clearly arguing. CamHALLeras of them PALERM coming out showed him The dragging her Notorious near-lifeless body out. It VHP doesn’t take a genius (or an undue pessimist) to connect the dots. What’s happening now is merely a mass attempt on the part of the NFL, on the part of outraged society, on the part of Rice’s teammates, to absolve ourselves of blame for being so quick to overlook, forget or choose not to see what was so painfully clear in July. Which brings me to Emma Sulkowicz. Again, she’s become something of a ubiquitous name on the Internet, but to summarize her story: Now a senior at Columbia, Sulkowicz was allegedly raped at the start of her sophomore year. Columbia dismissed her allegations and her rapist remains on campus to this day. To protest the collective apathy surrounding her story, Sulkowicz has chosen to carry her mattress around campus as a visualization of the burden she carries with her every day. Now, of course, her story has come to light again. People share links of her tale on Facebook and sympathize; part of her performance is that people are allowed to help her carry her mattress (symbolically lightening her emotional burden) if they offer the help, which now they are. But, like with the video footage of Rice and his fiancée in the elevator, why does it take such dramatic lengths to force people to care about this issue? These are hardly unrelated events: We as a society have a systemic inability (or unwillingness) to face the ugly truth of rape and assault. They’re chronic problems, but we only pay attention when someone (or something) forces us to. I went to a talk in May where Gloria Steinem said one of the most mind-blowing facts I’ve ever heard: Since the attacks of Sept. 11, more women have died of domestic violence-related causes than all Americans in 9/11, Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Do we need to see a video, or force a rape victim to carry a physical manifestation of her violation, for us to sit up and take notice of that? VICTORIA HALL-PALERM is a senior in Berkeley College. Her columns run on Fridays. Contact her at victoria.hall-palerm@yale.edu .
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COPYRIGHT 2014 — VOL. CXXXVII, NO. 12
'YALEMARXIST' ON 'RISK, REWARD AND PROTEST'
Against credentialism A
yaan Hirsi Ali plans to speak at Yale this Monday on the “clash of civilizations” between Islam and the West. But the lecture will likely best be remembered for the clash it sparked on campus. Two days ago, the Muslim Students Association emailed an open letter to Yalies about Hirsi Ali, a controversial author and activist whose work as a public figure draws upon her experiences living under fundamentalist Islam. The letter, which was co-signed by 35 additional student organizations (but attributed to no particular authors), criticized the Buckley Program, the conservative student group that invited Hirsi Ali to campus. “[We] are disappointed that our own fellow Yalies would invite such a speaker knowingly and that she would have such a platform in our home,” the letter read. The letter takes issue with Hirsi Ali for both the vitriol of her arguments and her audacity in making them. “Our concern is that Ms. Hirsi Ali is being invited to speak as an authority on Islam despite the fact that she does not hold the credentials to do so,” the letter read. “In the past, under such authority, she has overlooked the complexity of sociopolitical issues in Mus-
lim-majority countries and has purported that Islam promotes a number of violent and inhumane p r a c t i c e s .” Ali, MARISSA Hirsi their arguMEDANSKY ment goes, radiLittle Fables spreads cal untruths about Islam, her ignorance compounded by her lack of formal scholarly qualifications. Much of the controversy surrounding the visit has centered on the issue of free speech. But a second debate has gone largely ignored. That debate is about credentialism: a worldview that places extreme emphasis on academic degrees (or similar qualifications, like professional licenses, certificates and titles) as a means to acquiring legitimacy and respect. On one level, it’s simply preposterous to assert that Hirsi Ali lacks the credentials to speak about her planned topic with authority. She has held elected office in a Western nation and written several books about her relationship to Islam.
Her employment history includes the American Enterprise Institute and Harvard’s Kennedy School. How many more credentials does this woman need? Yale professors teach seminars further afield from their interests and experiences than Hirsi Ali’s speech will veer from hers. But the problems with credentialism run deeper than its strange application in this case. Underwriting the arguments in the open letter — particularly the call for a second speaker with more “representative scholarly qualifications” — is the assumption that, were Hirsi Ali a Harvard Ph.D. instead of an untenured activist, her views about Islam would be different, or at least more nuanced. This is not the case. An advanced degree is not an antidote to beliefs we disagree with, or find distasteful or irrational. My freshman year, when a group called Undergraduates for a Better Yale College sponsored a “True Love Week” about conservative social issues like marriage and chastity, they invited several speakers whose comments on homosexuality were so extreme they drove LGBT students to protest. These speakers were Ph.Ds who’d devoted their academic lives to discussing these issues.
They were also, in my view, pretty wrong. The joke of credentialism is that when we use a lack of credentials to delegitimize our opponents, we’re forced to respect them once they finally present the sheepskin. But that’s not the only way credentialism hurts discourse. To ask Hirsi Ali to address only her “personal experiences and professional expertise” at the talk, as the open letter requests, unfairly prescribes her. People have diverse interests outside of their specializations, and the spontaneity of these surprising passions and unexpected remarks is what makes attending lectures like this so worthwhile. Plus, who is to be the arbiter of the extent or range of Hirsi Ali’s expertise? We should reject explicit guidelines and place faith in nature’s tried-and-true speech code: that great human desire not to say something dumb. Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s statements about Islam should disquiet us. But she has every right, and every qualification, to deliver them. MARISSA MEDANSKY is a senior in Morse College and a former opinion editor for the News. Her columns run on Fridays. Contact her at marissa.medansky@yale.edu.
I L LU ST R AT I O N S E D I T O R A N N E L I SA L E I N B AC H
Tunes galore
YOUR LETTERS I
On the value of art
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institutions”
was distressed to read an article in Tuesday’s News (“Contagion helps to explain art value,” Sep. 9) reporting on a study conducted by students at the School of Management predicated on the notion that it was possible to quantify the difference in value between an original work of art and a perfect copy. The flaw in the ointment is obvious from the question posed by the researchers who asked; “When you recreate that art work, every molecule is still there, so what’s missing?” Why? Because no one has ever made or will ever make a molecule-by-molecule copy of a work unless it was originally conceived of and realized by reproductive means. There is no faithful surrogate for Michelangelo’s Pieta, no “ringer” for first iteration of Matisse’s The Dance, especially not the second version he made himself. And, even when works are intentionally produced in series there will be legitimate debates among connoisseurs about their comparative worth, as for example is the case with various casts of bronzes by Rodin, Degas and Giacometti, or with subtly differing vintage prints of photos by Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, or Yale’s own Richard Benson, former Dean of the School of Art, MacArthur “genius” grant winner and widely recognized as the premier authority on photographic reproduction. Moreover, despite the fact that it was executed by studio assistants rather than the artist who had died well before SOM’s new Norman Foster building was constructed, neither is the Sol LeWitt ink on plaster mural on the second floor interchangeable with a photographic version of the same composition, and neither would a re-performance of its installation result in an identical outcome. A work of art is never merely its pictorial or formal premise; its character and meaning is always vested in a particular fusion of form and content that includes every perceived aspect of its physical make up that is charged with information embedded with or infused in it by the artist. With painting that encompasses size, scale relative to the viewer, scale relative to its setting, contour, support, surfaces, edges, pigments, pigment application, and so on. Indeed as Robert Ryman, LeWitt’s friend and contemporary and one of America’s greatest living masters has said, “The how of painting has always been the image.”
Even more worrisome are the leading questions regarding the substance of the missing quantum of value that SOM researchers posed those they surveyed. According to the News, they suggested that what explained the uniqueness of the original is that “the artist transferred a part of his or her essence to the piece, or the idea of creativity, or the idea of sentimentality.” The News may have skewed the SOM menu slightly this way or that — the exact meanings of the last two criteria are very vague — but any inquiry into artistic merit based on an artist’s ability to transfer his or her immaterial “essence” to a matter is metaphysical nonsense and any social scientific measurement of that essence is tantamount to weighing bodies before and after death to ascertain the mass of the “soul.” One can only assume that SOM researchers formulated their issues without consulting anyone at the Yale museums where art conservationists who, among other things, are scientists keenly aware of the chemistry and physics of art making processes could have told them a great deal about the impossibility of replicating objects one-toone not to mention something about the aesthetics and ethics of their discipline. Meanwhile curators and art historians could have explained to them the concept of “aura,” which is not some nebulous emanation of the spirit, not a “magical contagion” but rather Walter Benjamin’s term for the interactive, dialectical nature of the exchange between the unique viewer and the unique object in real time and space, an encounter wholly ignored by the SOM survey. And all of these experts plus students at the School of Art currently exploring the artistic possibilities of the present multi-media/mixed-media era could have introduced them to the
work of talents like Chuck Close ’64 who has shown how the most mundane of photographs can be copied by hand with paint to produce a greatly enhanced, inherently inimitable new image. Or like Gerhard Richter who makes paintings that alter and degrade the information in photographs only to re-photograph the painting so as to further alienate the “picture” from its primary photographic then secondary painterly physicality and meaning. Finally the SOM researchers tip their hand by establishing a tacit equivalency between singular works of art that are occasionally — though for the reasons given — unsuccessfully faked, and “luxury goods” of other sorts — Fendi and Prada bags, for instance — that are routinely knocked off by manufacturers in China to be sold in the city streets of Europe and North America by endangered illegal immigrants from Africa or elsewhere in the Southern hemisphere. Jeff Koons and other postWarholian not withstanding, art is not just another luxury item, and the people who flock to museums just to look and think about things they could never dream of owning are proof of art’s hold on the imagination and its intangible but scarcely mystical value to consciousness in zones far removed from the trade in commodities genuine or phony. Yale is a place where these issues should be carefully explored by people in contiguous or overlapping fields. It is not one where the waters of public opinion should be further muddied by scholars who blithely stray from their fields of expertise to test prejudicial hypotheses founded on faulty givens then validated by flawed social scientific methods. ROBERT STORR SEPT. 9 The writer is the dean of the School of Art.
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 3
FRIDAY FORUM
GLORIA STEINEM “It is more rewarding to watch money change the world than watch it accumulate.”
End our catchphrase criticisms
GUE ST COLUMNIST ANDREW SOBOTKA
On GameDay
I
ANNELISA LEINBACH/ILLUSTRATIONS EDITOR
O
n Saturday morning, I woke up, staggered downstairs and planted myself in front of the television. Like over a million Americans every Saturday morning, I switched the channel to ESPN to watch College GameDay. For those unfamiliar with the show, ESPN packs up and brings its cameras, top college football analysts and a DJ to a stadium somewhere in the country. The location isn’t revealed until the week before the game. It sets up in front of crowds of excited students and fans, many of whom hold signs that run the gamut from the classic “Hi Mom Send Money” to hilarious jabs at the visiting team to shoutouts at GameDay’s wellknown personalities. GameDay often shows up at meaningful matchups, rivalry grudge matches or games with interesting storylines. Watching football on Saturday, I began thinking of a game that GameDay should circle on the calendar — a game that would be meaningful, showcase a legendary rivalry and overflow with interesting storylines. That game will be played right here in New Haven on Sept. 27 when Army comes to town. Think that’s just my bias speaking?
Think again. There’s no doubt the game will make good TV. How about 1,000 West Point cadets walking through the Walter Camp (the inventor of modern American football) Memorial Gate? An aerial view of the Yale Bowl, which was the inspiration for other GameDay sites like the LA Coliseum, the Rose Bowl and Michigan Stadium, surrounded by the early color changes of New England’s autumn, would be aesthetically stunning. And there will be a great storyline.
LET'S MOBILIZE TO BRING COLLEGE GAMEDAY TO CAMPUS While we’re talking about history, good luck finding a deeper non-conference rivalry in college football today. Yale and Army have played 45 times, with the first time in 1893 as Yale shut out the Black Knights in a national
championship season for the Elis. The teams have combined for five Heisman Award winners and, depending on what source you use, 23 national championships. Half of the top 10 most attended games in the Yale Bowl’s 100-year history were Yale vs. Army. The largest crowd ever at the Yale Bowl? Yale vs. Army in 1923, with 80,000 spectators. The rivalry is real. In an era of college football when scandal and controversy often overshadow the sport, why not spend a Saturday highlighting two schools where the term student-athlete still means something? There may not be as many NFL prospects on the field as in an SEC or Big 10 game, but I’m sure ESPN’s analysts wouldn’t mind spending the morning talking about the academic achievements of one of our players or the leadership potential of one of Army’s. Would the commentary be likely to generate heated debate in the comments section of ESPN’s website? Probably not. But it’s an opportunity to showcase the roots of America’s most popular sport, football, in its purest form. No fluff, no fancy uniforms, no athletic scholarships. A detractor might point out that
Yale’s football games don’t always attract the critical mass of students necessary for a GameDay set. I have no such fears. Just as we do every year for the Harvard or Princeton football game, just as we did for the hockey national championship or even for our home hockey games against Quinnipiac or Harvard, just as we do for rivalry games in all sports — we’ll be there in droves. And imagine the signs we could make! Our tailgate culture, with its emphasis on crazy costumes and dancing, would make for great television and give ESPN analysts the opportunity to talk about us letting loose after our latest library bender. Now it’s up to us. It’s time to mobilize. ESPN will be deciding soon, probably after this weekend’s games. Tweet at them. Tag them in Facebook statuses. Upload pictures of you and your friends decked out in Yale spirit to Instagram. Let’s convince ESPN to bring GameDay to the place it belongs on Sept. 27: here. ANDREW SOBOTKA is a senior in Jonathan Edwards College. Contact him at andrew.sobotka@yale.edu .
GUEST COLUMNIST ADRIAN LO
The hypocrisy of free speech T
he recent controversies around Reverend Bruce Shipman’s remarks and the William F. Buckley, Jr. Program’s upcoming invitation of Ayaan Hirsi Ali highlight an important hypocrisy in the state of free speech on campus. Rich Lizardo, president of the Buckley Program, wrote yesterday in defense of Hirsi Ali’s visit to campus, saying, “Her work does not qualify as ‘libel and slander,’ as was suggested by the open letter, and it cannot be reduced to purported ‘hate speech,’ a slur used simply to silence speech with which one disagrees.” Yet anyone with a comparative eye would see the resemblance to the assaults fired at Rev. Shipman for his short letter in the New York Times weeks ago. While the circumstances are not the same in these two, here’s a comparison to consider: Rev. Shipman made a connection between Israel’s policies and growing anti-Semitism in Europe, writing, “As hope for a two-state solution fades and Palestinian casualties continue to mount, the best antidote to anti-Semitism would be for Israel’s patrons abroad to press the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for final-status resolution to the Pales-
tinian question.” However, opponents, such as Chabad at Yale, quickly labeled his comments as “justification of antiSemitism.” Pressure piled on Rev. Shipman to resign, many coming from friends of the Jewish community on campus and in the country. A few days later, he did.
CONSERVATIVES' RESPONSE TO SHIPMAN AND HIRSI ALI CONTROVERSIES ARE INCONSISTENT On the other hand, in an interview with David Cohen of the London Evening Standard in 2007, Hirsi Ali said, “Violence is inherent in Islam — it’s a destructive, nihilistic cult of death. It legitimates murder. The police may foil plots and freeze bank accounts in the short term, but the battle against terrorism will ultimately be lost unless we realise that it’s not just with extremist elements
within Islam, but the ideology of Islam itself … Islam is the new fascism.” The Reverend’s comment about Israel and growing anti-Semitism in Europe pales in generality and in ferocity in the face of Hirsi Ali’s comment about Islam. Yet the right has responded in a very different manner: calling for sanction in the former, defending free expression in the latter. If we are to entertain that Hirsi Ali’s comments are made out of legitimate concern over the treatment of women, then we must equally consider the Rev. Shipman’s concern for those under carnage in Gaza. Free speech either cuts both ways or it is not: This is the hypocrisy of free speech of which we must be aware. One cannot disregard the blatant double standard at work in these two cases. I doubt that Hirsi Ali’s comments would have passed the censors had she replaced Islam with Judaism as her subject of criticism; likewise, Rev. Shipman’s comments would hardly have been construed as hate speech if he swapped Israel for Russia and Gaza for Ukraine. This double standard reaffirms a certain worldview protecting America and its allies’ interests by censoring opposing opinions in the name of hate
speech. We are reminded of repeated instances in American academia where anti-Zionist comments are censored in the name of anti-Semitism, as we have seen in the recent firing of Professor Steven Salaita at University of Illinois. Not only is this the type of “hate speech” that Lizardo believes silences speech, but it is deeply harmful to any discourse fighting anti-Semitism at large. While few would disagree that mounting anti-Semitism in Europe and abroad is a virulent problem that needs to be confronted, it serves no one’s interests to water it down by calling anti-Zionist comments antiSemitic just to shut them out of the public sphere. The standards of academic freedom and freedom of speech should not be kicked around as ideological ammunition: There probably ought to be limits to those standards, and that deserves a much longer discussion. But the selective justification as I’ve seen lately on campus and in the media is not conducive to a constructive discourse. ADRIAN LO is a senior in Saybrook College. Contact him at adrian.lo@yale.edu .
ntrospection is an admirable endeavor, but at Yale introspection has become strangely standardized. Around campus, certain refrains about Yale and student life have developed, universally vocalized but rarely subjected to critical investigation or active engagement. These rote criticisms have become so commonplace as to become clichéd. We have developed a comfortable vocabulary that has the veneer of critical consideration while actually protecting us from it. Take, for example, the idea that “Yalies are incredibly busy.” In seminar, in campus publications, in discussions ISA with friends, we conQASIM tinually hear the refrain that students at Yale are The always going full throttle. That we do not chill, Passerby waste time or relax with friends because we are always juggling a thousand different obligations. We apparently work superhuman hours. Sometimes this is presented as praise, sometimes as criticism, but the universal “busyness” of the Yale student is never brought into question. Well, last night I stayed up late trying to get reading done for a class. But that day I had also watched an hour of television, taken a nap, gone for a run and had a long lunch with a friend. Now, I am far from the busiest student at Yale, but I suspect that my experience is not all that different from many. We talk about how busy Yalies are, then go to our dorms and read every comment on “Overheard at Yale” before starting work.
IN ORDER TO TRULY GROW, WE CANNOT KEEP DEPENDING ON OLD AND CLICHED CRITICISMS Or consider the common refrain that Yale students rarely take the time to relax with friends; that we are so focused on building our resumes that we do not bother with developing relationships. Really? I feel like every weekend I hear stories of people deciding to bake cookies with one another or spend all night watching Disney movies. I know people who sit in the dining hall for hours, chatting with the waves of friends rolling in. There are countless groups on campus that exist primarily as an excuse for students to sit around a bottle of wine or a keg and make jokes. Another popular mode of self-flagellation is bemoaning our careerism. Apparently Yale, and the Ivy League in general, lacks passionate students. People simply jump through hoops to build up their resumes, approaching their schoolwork and extracurriculars with workmanlike efficiency but little real intellectual curiosity. And yet when I talk to peers about their senior theses, it is clear that they have poured their hearts and souls into them. If you take the time to listen to a friend talk about his role on a team, publication or club, more often than not you will find intense enthusiasm and real engagement. The campus discussion has devolved into a series of catchphrase criticisms, repeated with little thought given to how well they actually apply. Of course, there is a grain of truth to them. Yale students are often busy, they sometimes do not leave enough time to develop relationships and they are not always motivated by passion alone. But our catchphrases have undermined our campus’ genuine diversity — they compel us to see ourselves as less than we truly are. The point here is not to celebrate how awesome we are. We all have very real failings and the school culture has significant room for improvement. But an accurate understanding of our failings is critical to any actual growth. Right now, we are content to repeat the same tired gripes — in seminar, on the couch, at the dinner table — without ever changing our behavior. They have become a security blanket. By acknowledging some rote set of failings, universally agreed upon, we absolve ourselves from the multitude of other, more troubling ways in which we fall short. “What is wrong with Yale?” That question ultimately boils down to the question each of us must ask ourselves: “How can I improve?” It is only by tossing aside vague and inaccurate criticisms that we can then approach this more fundamental question. ISA QASIM is a senior in Jonathan Edwards College. Contact him at isa.qasim@yale.edu.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
FROM THE FRONT
“Labor disgraces no man; unfortunately, you will find men who disgrace labor.” ULYSSES S. GRANT 18TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Unions cite growing tensions
They’re trying to get rid of jobs. When our contract comes up, all hell is going to break loose. Member, Local 35 He added that the University has substantially decreased the frequency of custodial service. Rather than having custodial staff remove trash every day, he said, the administration has instructed the staff to remove it once or twice a week. Sulema Hamilton, a Local 35 custodial union steward, said the reduced level of maintenance is “embarrassing” for the University. One Local 34 member, who works in an academic department, said that the layoff of one person in her department has had major ramifications for the rest of the staff. “We ourselves in our department have lost our receptionist due to budgetary restraints and cuts,” the employee said. “And her responsibilities are passed on to people already overloaded with the duties.” Added to this are major concerns about the opening of two new residential colleges and the arrival of 800 new students to inhabit them in the next few years. The Local 34 member said that the University has not communicated a plan to staff about how they will be expected to deal with the influx of new students.
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Still, Yale union employees said their main complaint is that they are being asked to do more with less. Brian Wingate, a Local 35 vice president and Ward 29 alder, said the University is not replacing jobs when people retire and is shuffling many employees around to different jobs. Many Local 35 members believe the personnel changes are an effort to cut costs without explicitly violating the nolayoff clause in Local 35’s contract, one facilities worker said. “The bottom line is, you’re not replacing people, [and] that means other people [have] got to do other people’s work,” Wingate said. “You’re doing two jobs.”
The cumulative impact of the budget cuts has been a deterioration in organized labor’s relationship with the University, union members said “Some of the problem-solving is beginning to fray around the edges for us around the University as well, after several years of budget cuts,” said Local 34 President Laurie Kennington, pointing to the dining hall reorganization and tensions at Yale Medical School. “We are facing certainly more challenging labor situations than we have had here in a number of years.” Wingate said he felt the relationship was “moving backwards instead of moving forward,” adding that he feels unions members are “not really get the whole story of why they’re doing some things.” Several union members, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing their jobs, painted an even grimmer picture of the situation. “They’re trying to get rid of jobs,” said one dining hall worker who is a member of Local 35. “When our contract comes up, all hell is going to break loose.” Hamilton said she feels that by downsizing staff over time, the University is attempting to degrade the power of the unions. A number of those interviewed said they think Salovey and the rest of the senior a d m i n i s t ra t i o n h ave n o t engaged with the brewing issues. “I think they’re totally disconnected from the problem,” Hamilton said. “[Salovey] should take the time to speak to the workers, speak to the people doing the jobs.” The Local 34 employee said they feel Salovey is “not interested at all” in dealing with growing dissatisfaction amongst the labor force. A second dining hall employee, who is also a member of Local 35, said that he thinks Salovey has been isolated from the problems, which seem to be dealt with at the level of Vice President for Facilities John Bollier and Vice President for New Haven and State Affairs Bruce Alexander ’65. “[Salovey] is basically listening to Rafi,” the dining hall worker said, referring to the executive director of Yale dining Rafi Taherian. “He wants to use less people to do the same jobs, and to me it’s not working.” Alexander did not respond to questions about how the budget
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cuts have impacted relations with the unions, or what he sees as challenges going forward. Peel said that all Yale faculty and staff have had to cope with changes since budget cuts began in late 2009, he said he does not believe the relationship between the University and the unions has deteriorated since the budget struggles began. Peel further noted that the University cannot layoff Local 35 members. Instead, it can only reduce positions by attrition. “Therefore, in some cases, a staff member’s departure results in the reorganization of the work and the job not being filled,” Peel said. “Without the ability to layoff, this is the only way supervisors can adjust the size of their workforces to meet changing needs.” But according to Peel, the number of Local 34 staff members working at Yale has actually grown since 2010 from 3,375 to 3,651, although that is a slight decrease from the 2013 high of 3,689. In the Local 35 union — which has a no-layoff clause in its contract — there are currently 1,162 members, down from 1,182 in 2013 but the
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same number as in 2010. Both of the union’s four-year contracts were ratified in the summer of 2012. Still, several union members said they expect both unions would go on strike within the next 12 to 18 months. “I’m pretty sure there will be a strike because the staff members aren’t having it,” the Local 34 member said. With close to 5,000 employees — half of Yale’s workforce — the labor unions could effectively shut down campus, an occurrence that last happened in 2003. “It’s going to be bad,” the second dining hall worker said. “You’re going to have kids not eating.” Though Kennington did not suggest that the unions might go on strike, she said the unions are currently discussions strategies for how to address the budget cuts moving forward. Before coming to a breakthrough agreement in 2003, Locals 34 and 35 sent on strike seven times in a 34-year period. Contact MATTHEW LLOYD-THOMAS at matthew.lloyd-thomas@yale.edu .
ments on campus has been similarly mixed. Professors and students largely disagree with the tone and structure of Deresiewicz’s argument, but welcome it as a conversational icebreaker about different aspects of Yale’s culture. “The trick of that kind of book is, it’s anecdotal. We can all say, ‘Oh, I know someone like that,’” Holloway said. “And conceptually, there are some things I agree with. I’m deeply concerned about the professionalization of the academy, about people looking at college as return on investment. I also agree with the need to bolster a liberal arts education.” His argument hit a nerve in the alumni community, with political science lecturer Jim Sleeper ’69 negatively reviewing the book in Bookforum and J.D. Chapman ’96 flatly titling his retort in The New Republic “Send Your Kids to the Ivy League.” A string of Yale students also returned fire in the pages of The New Republic. Yishai Schwartz ’13 wrote in the publication that “an attack on the Ivy League is an attack on meritocracy itself.” Responding to Deresiewicz’s claim that the Ivy League is merely a bastion of upperclass privilege, Andrew Giambrone ’14 wrote about his experience as a Yale student receiving financial aid and criticized Deresiewicz for not acknowledging the socioeconomic diversity on many elite campuses. Current faculty, though, responded more positively to the book’s criticisms. English professor David Bromwich called the book useful as a “provocation,” noting that he sympathized with Deresiewicz’s argument that today’s Ivy Leaguers are more organized, preprofessional and homogenous than before. “The students I talk to today are completely absorbed with their short, medium and longterm ends. People didn’t used to talk about direction and resumes. There’s a codeword that administrators like to use: ‘navigate.’ There it is: You’re setting the course, you know your end destination and there are some nice stops along the way called summer internships,” Bromwich said. But Bromwich also pointed
out that the focus on the Ivy League was a “red herring” in Deresiewicz’s argument. The organized and preprofessional Ivy League temperament reflects those of American culture at large, Bromwich said. Philosophy professor Shelly Kagan slammed Deresiewicz’s New Republic piece as a “horribly written essay.” “I tried to make a list of a things he was complaining about and I stopped at about fifteen,” Kagan said. “His anger, or whatever it is, gets in the way of his making a lucid case. He’s so pissed off that he can’t bring himself to actually defend his point of view.” Ultimately, Kagan said, he sympathizes with many of Deresiewicz’s points. He agrees that there is rampant grade inflation and that too many Ivy leaguers are heading into consulting and finance. He, too, thinks that Yale students place too much priority on extracurricular activities. But at the end of the day, Kagan said he is dismayed by Deresiewicz’s attitude towards Yale students. “He says undergrads at a place like this show little intellectual curiosity. I think to myself, ‘Gosh, he didn’t have my students,’” Kagan said. “Yale is full of people who are highly intellectually curious. If he didn’t see that, he was just doing something wrong during his time here. Students largely shared professors’ viewpoints, noting that whatever merits are in Deresiewicz’s structural criticism of the Ivy League, his characterizations of students ring false. Eli Westerman ’18 said he was disturbed that Deresiewicz referred to Yale students as “excellent sheep,” noting that students are intellectually curious and diverse — and eager to become even more so. Mohammed Malik ’18 said it is up to students themselves to define their college experience. Those who seek a preprofessional experience construct one, whereas those who want to expand their mental horizons can pursue that mission, he said. Deresiewicz taught in Yale’s English department from 1998 to 2008, when he left after being denied tenure. Contact YUVAL BEN-DAVID at yuval.ben-david@yale.edu .
West Campus funding a sore spot for science faculty WEST CAMPUS FROM PAGE 1 a chemistry professor and former dean of Yale College. “Given the current financial situation in the College of Arts and Sciences, that’s very bothersome.”
DEALING WITH THE DEFICIT
West Campus has been under budget each year since its founding, Strobel said. The budget has also remained the same since it was presented to the University budget committee several years ago. President Salovey said about $33 million in general appropriations supports all the activities on West Campus — considerably less than what is spent annually for science on either Science Hill or the School of Medicine. Provost Benjamin Polak could not be reached for comment regarding West Campus’ finances. Several faculty members argue that there is a similarity between the size of Yale’s central budget operating deficits and the operating costs of West Campus. Chemistry professor Peter Moore ’61 said that there have been significant budget cuts on central campus to take care of the deficit, including salary freezes and cuts in faculty positions. At the same time, it has been “full steam ahead in West Haven.” He added that there is a “remarkable similarity” between the costs of operating West Campus and the magnitude of the deficits Yale has been running in recent years. “It is hard not to draw the conclusion that resources are being transferred from New Haven to
West Haven,” Moore said in an email. According to Strobel, West Campus has experienced greater financial cuts than the rest of the University in the years after the recession. Last spring, he said, the campus’ reserves were cut by $3 million, its annual budget cut by $2.5 million and its continuing budget cut by $300,000. The campus also receives funding through facilities and operations and the University’s general account, with additional funding from two gifts of $25 million each for the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage and Energy Sciences Institute. “You have to think about it as an investment in the future,” said biophysics and biochemistry professor Julien Berro, who holds an appointment at West Campus. “They’re not pouring money down the drain. In the short term, you’re spending money, but in the long term the idea is that this money will be paid back.”
WESTWARD PROMISE
Chemistry professor Seth Herzon discouraged making assessments of the campus so early in its development. Until its researchers have produced a larger body of science and scholarship, judgment should be withheld, he said. “World-class intellectual centers, whether institutions within a larger environment or discrete entities, are rarely built and established overnight, if ever,” he said in an email. In the meantime, Herzon said that the Chemistry department has been able to hire three “out-
standing” junior faculty to lab positions on West Campus. Faculty members were quick to note that West Campus has encouraged the University to grow the sciences. Chemistry professor Gary Brudvig said that because there is little room for expansion on the main campus, West Campus serves as a mechanism to expand the sciences’ physical space. “It is highly unlikely that we could have made the same number of appointments in the absence of the West Campus,” Herzon wrote. “The West Campus has catalyzed growth of the faculty.” Andre Levchenko, biomedical engineering professor and director of West Campus’ Systems Biology Institute, said West Campus was among his primary motivations for coming to Yale from Johns Hopkins. Most attractive to him and other prospective faculty are its resources, the genomics facility in particular, that are available to all of Yale, as well as ample opportunities for scientific collaboration across fields. “It’s an intellectual refuge for people,” Levchenko said. “A sanctuary for research where people do interesting things that really benefits people coming together from different backgrounds.”
FOR SOME, AN UNCERTAIN VISION
As their eyes turn to West Campus, some faculty, including MCDB professor Joel Rosenbaum, say their view of the campus’ prospects has been obscured by a lack of administrative trans-
parency. Rosenbaum said the administration has never shared the financial details of West Campus with faculty. “As far as the West Campus goes, I would like to see its success, but not at the expense of the main home campus,” Rosenbaum said. “I think the faculty of Yale FAS deserves to see some detailed financial accounting for what has actually gone into the West Campus so far, and what is projected. Only then can we determine if the severe budget cutting of campus departments is being done for the sake of keeping the West Campus floating, let alone building it up.” Still, beyond the resources consumed by West Campus, other faculty said they are aware of no clear strategy for its future development. Moore said that several years elapsed between the time Yale purchased West Campus and when the University articulated a vision for the facility. “We are stuck with it now, and one can only hope that in the long run it will prove to be an asset, rather than the liability it so clearly is today,” he said. In Moore’s view, Yale’s fate as an institution of higher education will be determined by what happens within proximity of the New Haven Green. Resources that are diverted, no matter their use, from the main campus negatively impact the University, he said. Rosenbaum added that because many of the new hires on West Campus are primarily motivated by the research work of the individual, the focus on undergradu-
WEST CAMPUS DIRECTORS As of November 2013, all six West Campus research institutes directorships were filled. CHEMICAL BIOLOGY INSTITUTE Alanna Schepartz
CANCER BIOLOGY INSTITUTE Joseph Schlessinger
CHEMICAL BIOLOGY INSTITUTE James Rothman
SYSTEMS BIOLOGY INSTITUTE Andre Levchenko
MICROBIAL DIVERSITY INSTITUTE Christine Jacobs-Wagner
ENERGY SCIENCES INSTITUTE Gary Brudvig
ate teaching of Yale College might suffer. That undermines one of the main missions of the faculty in Yale College, Rosenbaum said. But West Campus is here to stay, faculty acknowledged. “The distance between exits 41 and 48 will always be there,” Herzon said. “The key is to do everything we can to close the gap and make the interactions between the
two campuses as functional and flawless as possible.” The Yale Biology Building, the University’s next largest planned expansion of the sciences, is set to be completed in August 2019. Contact JENNIFER GERSTEN at jennifer.gersten@yale.edu and ADRIAN RODRIGUES at adrian.rodrigues@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 5
NEWS
“Fathers are biological necessities, but social accidents.” MARGARET MEAD AMERICAN AUTHOR
CORRECTIONS THURSDAY, SEPT. 11
The article “Going global, SOM seeks feedback” incorrectly stated that the Global Network for Advanced Management was founded in 2009. In fact, it was founded in 2012.
Bio modules cause scheduling frustration
EVAN CHEN/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
The replacement of individual introductory courses with modules has frustrated some students who struggle to balance their schedule. BY VIVIAN WANG STAFF REPORTER Two years after a sequence of half-semester introductory courses first replaced each biology department’s individual introductory courses, faculty are still ironing out the details. The courses, which span Biology 101 to Biology 104 and are known as “introductory modules,” are each half-semester courses that introduce students to an aspect of the biological sciences: biochemistry and biophysics, cell biology and membrane physiology, genes and development and ecology and evolutionary biology. They replaced individual biology departments’ introductory courses in the fall of 2012, in order to give students a more comprehensive overview of topics in biological sciences. But the four required modules have caused their share of frustration, especially as more and more students enroll in them. This year, for example, some individual departments are discussing a potential revamp of requirements for certain majors, since many students who take the modules struggle to fit in all the other courses they want to take. The modules, in the two years since they were first implemented, have affected many incoming students with regard to their science placements. Before 2012, students who received a 5 on the Advanced Placement Biology exam or an equivalent standardized test could place out of introductory biology courses — but with the change, students can only skip the modules if they also perform well on an accompanying University placement test. The decision to switch to a more cohesive, year-long program was made not only to expose students to a broader foundation of the biological sciences, but also to give them more hands-on and experimental experience to complement the textbook material, said Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology Professor Vivian Irish, director of the modules. This includes reading of primary literature as well as writing research proposals, she added. “We are placing a more explicit emphasis on the practice of biological research,” Irish said. When the change was first announced, there was some trepidation, Irish said, but also excitement about the potential of the modules to offer students a fuller foundation for upper-level biology classes. According to MCDB lecturer and module course coordinator Surjit Chandhoke, feedback has been positive. From what she has heard, students feel empowered that they can read and dissect
primary literature, and are less intimidated going into upperlevel courses. The experimentoriented aspect of the modules has also helped give students an earlier jump on their own research, she added. “Many of the students who have taken the modules started doing research as freshmen or sophomores — much earlier than the average student in previous years,” she said. Students, however, expressed concerns about how difficult it is to place out of the modules, as well as the potential impact on the rest of their academic schedules. Because students in previous years could place out of the introductory courses with their AP scores, they were able to take more courses in their place — for example, Kaleab Tessema ’14 was able to take a music class, and Antonia Gallman ’14 took graduate-level classes. The music class was one of Tessema’s favorite classes at Yale. Now, students say they feel more pressed for space in their schedules. Sarah Merchant ’17, who earned a score of 5 on her AP exam, said she felt well-prepared by her high school biology class and would have preferred to jump right into upper-level courses that match her specific interests. The inability to skip the modules put constraints on her schedule, she said. “[The modules] take up one credit per semester, which means there’s even less space to take classes that you do more for enjoyment rather than to fulfill a requirement,” Kay Nakazawa ’17 said. “And there are already many requirements for science majors.” To this end, administrators are still looking at what can be done to give science majors more freedom in class selection, Irish said. The University’s biological sciences departments have been adjusting the requirements for their majors in light of the additional coursework that the modules add on. Last year, administrators also decided to offer all the modules in both the fall and spring terms. This change was implemented to account for high student demand and to decrease class size, Chandhoke said. “Particularly after the first year of the course, we met as a team and went over the student reviews and the changes we were going to make to address the student reviews,” Chandhoke said. “We will always be looking to improve the modules and continue to tweak things.” Nearly 400 students take the introductory modules every year. Contact VIVIAN WANG at vivian.y.wang@yale.edu .
Police begin recruitment push BY MAREK RAMILO STAFF REPORTER Both the New Haven and Yale police departments have launched their fall community outreach programs, with the goals of engaging, educating and recruiting local citizens. Each department has its own academy, allowing for unique opportunities to deeply engage with Elm City residents in the spirit of the community policing model that both the NHPD and YPD employ. Though only the NHPD uses its academy to find new recruits, both leverage their programs to make their practices transparent, particularly given the increased scrutiny on police conduct nationwide in the wake of the events in Ferguson, MO. “I think Connecticut’s, in my opinion, are probably some of the best-trained police departments in the country,” NHPD Assistant Chief Al Vazquez said. “We train our people in proper use of force. We train them in constitutional law. We train them to respect the rights of the community citizens that they police.” As a result, he added, there has not been much of a need to alter or augment specific parts of the department’s curriculum in light of cases like the Ferguson, Mo. incident or the Nov. 2013 death of Samuel See, the late Yale assistant professor that sparked public demands for police accountability. The NHPD fall program curriculum consists of around 800 hours of training at its facility at 710 Sherman Pkwy. Of those hours, which take place over a 6-month period, most are spent in a classroom, rather than a field setting. From the academy, new offi-
ISAAC STANLEY BECKER/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
The New Haven and Yale Police Departments have both launched fall community outreach programs to engage and educate local citizens. cers are released into live situations under the guidance of veteran members of the department to gain hard experience. The hope is that, by this point, only the most competent trainees remain, given the rigor and selectiveness of the recruiting and training processes. “Standards are standards and everybody has to be able to perform,” said Sergeant Robert Maturo, who runs the academy’s training program. “There is no leniency. That’s for the safety of the community.” He added that these criteria supersede even directed efforts to recruit locally and bolster fair demographic representation within the departments, another social issue that has drawn significant attention from New Haven residents. Still, the NHPD has focused its recruiting efforts on community events to encourage locals from communities like down-
town New Haven and Newhallville to consider careers in law enforcement. Other efforts include career fairs at local colleges such as Gateway Community College, Southern Connecticut State University, Quinnipiac University and Albertus Magnus College. NHPD Sergeant Mary Helland, the lead coordinator of recruiting, said that the department will also leverage the University connections of Chief Dean Esserman and Lieutenant Anthony Campbell ’95 DIV ’09 to attract Yale students. “It’s something we’ve looked at — we will be out there,” she said about efforts to recruit on campus. “I think it’s a great job, even for an Ivy League student. It’s not a job that would be beneath people who go to Yale.” Students looking to engage with local authorities in a more open setting, however, will be able to participate in the YPD’s
Citizen Police Academy this fall. The academy offers classes with the goal of keeping the YPD’s practices transparent and fostering a relationship between the department and Elm City residents, both from Yale and otherwise. Lieutenant Von Narcisse, who directs the academy, said the value of running the program, which runs twice a year, changes according to the advice of prior students and thereby reflects modern preferences. “Closing gaps and maintaining transparency is a part of a model you speak of and we work hard at it,” he said. “By the time our students leave, they have a much clearer perspective as to what we are all about.” The YPD Citizen’s Academy classes will run on Tuesdays from Oct. 7 through Nov. 11. Contact MAREK RAMILO at marek.ramilo@yale.edu .
Grad school expands interdisciplinary study BY PHOEBE KIMMELMAN STAFF REPORTER Over the last several months, two new programs have been introduced at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences with the aim of making the experiences of graduate students in the humanities more interdisciplinary. Launched last year, the Yale Initiative for the Study of Antiquity and the Premodern World (YISAP) is the largest program in the world to bring together an interdisciplinary group of 60 scholars to study the ancient world up to 1000 A.D. Meanwhile, the joint PhilosophyPsychology Ph.D., first offered this year, will allow students to obtain Ph.D.’s in both fields with only one dissertation.
Students wanted a way to create a…context for conversation [and] collaboration. HINDY NAJMAN Professor of Religious Studies Faculty members and students from several departments participate in YISAP programming, which includes conferences, a monthly workshop centered around a particular theme and a graduate seminar. YISAP designer and classics and history professor Joe Manning said the program is currently in a three-year trial period, adding that he hopes YISAP will soon raise the funds required to become a permanent fixture of humanities at Yale. Classics professor Christina Kraus, one of the designers of YISAP, said the program was initially an attempt to make the most of Yale’s ancient studies departments without hiring new professors. “People studying ancient history are starting to talk to each other in ways they didn’t before,” she said. Religious Studies professor Hindy Najman, another director of YISAP, said one of the strengths of the program is how it takes advantage of Yale’s strong resources for the study of ancient civilizations. For example, YISAP’s steering committee
includes librarians and curators from around the University, she said. Disciplines represented among the faculty involved in YISAP include Classics, East Asian Studies, computer science, law and religious studies. Najman added that the program helps create a more holistic humanities curriculum for graduate students. “There’s a sense that the humanities is far more integrated than current departmental boundaries would suggest,” she said. “Without jettisoning those boundaries, students wanted a way to create an integrated context for conversation, collaboration, writing, thinking and programming,” she said. Manning said this kind of interdisciplinary thinking has become more common when studying the ancient world. Professors from a variety of disciplines are working on creating “huge databases of [ancient] human civilizations” to figure out what academics know and what remains a mystery, he said. “This [method] is just starting, and I want Yale to be at the forefront,” he said. All three YISAP co-designers agreed that getting undergraduates more involved in YISAP is a priority. Though they said that creating an undergraduate major in the vein of YISAP might not be feasible in the near future, they added that some kind of a program in the humanities focusing on antiquity could be a good addition. François Gerardin GRD ’18, who studies Hellenistic and Roman Egypt, said he enrolled in YISAP’s workshop because it provided a unique opportunity to engage with members of different departments. “One of the benefits of attending the workshops is seeing people not only in your department but also in other departments, and that’s how you can build an interdisciplinary network,” Gerardin said. Psychology department chair Frank Keil said he hopes the joint Philosophy-Psychology doctorate degree program will attract more students to Yale to do interdisciplinary work between philosophy and psychology. Though there are currently no students in the new program, Philosophy professor Joshua Knobe said he expects students to enroll as the semester and
year continues. In order to complete the degree program, students must undertake two-thirds of the coursework for the philosophy doctorate and two-thirds of the coursework for the psychology doctorate, in addition to a dissertation exploring both fields. According to Knobe, the degree program aims to fully qualify its students for careers in either discipline. “[The degree program] provides a framework and legitimacy to a genuine cross-disciplinary graduate experience,” Philosophy department chair Stephen Darwall said. Knobe said the idea for the program arose from a collection of students who were interested in philosophical questions and psychological methods. Having a program that formalizes these interests will make it much easier for students with these interests to pursue them at Yale and beyond, he said.
Before this joint degree option was made possible, students could petition the University to pursue a degree in both departments. However, there has only been one student to do so, Jonathan Philips GRD ’16, who Darwall called the “trailblazer” for the program. Philips, who first came to Yale to pursue a doctorate in philosophy, said when he decided he wanted to pursue a Ph.D. in philosophy and psychology, he had agreed to fulfill almost all of the graduate requirements for both departments. He said creating this joint program will make attaining his degree much more feasible for future students. YISAP works with institutions around Yale including the Yale University Art Gallery, the Peabody Museum and Beinecke Library. Contact PHOEBE KIMMELMAN at phoebe.kimmelman@yale.edu .
JENNIFER LU/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The graduate school has developed new interdisciplinary programs aimed at students in the humanities.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
FROM THE FRONT
“We must not confuse distortion with innovation; distortion is useless change, art is beneficial change.” CHUCK JONES AMERICAN ANIMATOR
Democracy Fund seeks to stay relevant DEM FUND FROM PAGE 1 maintaining the guise of public financing. Participation in the fund requires candidates to limit individual donations to $370 in exchange for a $19,000 grant and matching funds of up to $125,000. At its monthly meetings this fall — which will resume in September after a multiple-month hiatus — the board will begin tackling some of the mayor’s criticisms, considering in particular the “loophole” Harp identified, said chair Patricia Kane and board member Jared Milfred ’16. Kane, an attorney in New Haven and Stamford, said she recently met with Harp’s chief of staff, Tomas Reyes, to discuss the role of the fund and the mayor’s expressed concerns. She said the meeting was extremely positive — “I was booked for 10 minutes and ended up staying an hour” — but that she still does not expect Harp to use public money should she run for re-election. When asked about the mayor’s plans, Reyes told the News he could not say whether the mayor would swear off large private donations in favor of public financing next fall. He said Harp
still has concerns about the way the fund operates, though her criticisms are perhaps not “as strident as they were during the campaign.” Kane said one of the consequences of the fund’s heightened visibility last fall was that it was used as a political wedge among candidates. Indeed, Harp’s detractors cited her abstention from the fund in painting her as beholden to special interests, while Harp fired back by critiquing the fund itself. Reyes said the mayor’s criticisms are twofold: not only that unsuccessful primary candidates can renege on the constraints of public financing in the general election, but also that spending public money on electoral campaigns may divert it from more critical needs. For the moment, Reyes said, Harp is supporting the fund simply by helping to appoint more members so it can maintain a quorum. The fund still lacks an administrator after Ken Krayeske’s contract ended in June. Milfred, whose confirmation in August restored a quorum to the board, said several applications for the role of administrator will be considered by the staff this fall. Reyes said he is confident the board will tackle the mayor’s objections.
“The hope is that they’ll be able to reach consensus about the most effective way to tweak the rules to avoid some of these problems,” he said. Others said changes to the fund’s operations do not need to be made — at least in the way Harp sees fit. Krayeske, who works as an attorney in Hartford, said last fall’s race proved the mayor’s concerns to be unfounded. When Justin Elicker FES ’10 SOM ’10 ran in the general election as a petitioning independent candidate after losing the Democratic primary, he opted to abide by the rules of the fund even though he was no longer receiving grants or matching funds. In fact, Krayeske said, he would like to see Democracy Fund candidates be able to “double dip” — receive public money in the primary and then again in the general election. Krayeske said the board should not design the rules of the fund around the wishes of a potential incumbent who did not participate the first time around. “The mayor wants to neuter the Democracy Fund,” he said. To combat this, Krayeske said, the fund should develop means of holding nonparticipating candidates accountable. Currently the
board only audits the donations received by candidates using public money, which means significant private contributions received by other candidates are never scrutinized, he said. But to give the fund additional authority, the Board of Alders would have to pass a law, and the mayor would have to sign it, Milfred said. Beyond the mayor’s queries, the fund’s governing board may take up further technical matters, Milfred said, including double-reporting requirements for participating candidates, who currently have to file finance information with the state and the local authority. Another matter that has surfaced in previous meetings, Milfred said, is the effect of staggered reporting requirements that force participating candidates to disclose donor information before non-participating candidates must do so. This may give certain candidates an edge in targeting outreach based on opponents’ records, he said. The Democracy Fund debuted in New Haven in 2007. Contact ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER at isaac.stanley-becker@yale.edu .
POOJA SALHOTRA/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Mayor Toni Harp opted not to use Democracy Fund money in her campaign, but her criticisms of the fund are helping to revitalize it.
Swensen pens letter to fossil fuel companies DIVESTMENT FROM PAGE 1 versity’s portfolio in a much more nuanced way than divesting from fossil fuels would. “It was motivated from the right thing to do from an investment perspective,” he said. “The bottom line is that if Yale’s managers do not act in a manner that is consistent with the University’s goals, Yale will terminate the relationship.” Over the long run, Swensen added, the letter will help move the University’s assets away from firms with higher greenhouse gas emissions. While not promoting divestment in name, Swensen said the letter may have a similar effect on the endowment. “Yale asks [its investment managers] to avoid companies that refuse to acknowledge the social and financial costs of climate change and that fail to take economically sensible steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” the letter said. Still, finance professors interviewed cautioned against the effectiveness or necessity of action on the part of shareholders. The economy is so interconnected that it is virtually impossible to link climate change to fossil fuel company shareholders
any more than to coffee drinkers or electricity users, said School of Management professor Shyam Sunder. SOM professor Roger Ibbotson said that writing letters will be more beneficial to the University than divesting, but added that divestment ultimately could hurt the University’s endowment. The process of removing one’s assets from a firm may reduce its stock price, Ibbotson noted, which would raise the return of future investors. If Yale’s money managers remove investments from fossil fuel companies, the endowment would be hurt because it would miss higher returns, he said. “I think it’s fine that Yale wants to support environmental matters — I do too,” Ibbotson said. “But I’d rather not do it through the investment process. It’s not going to help our returns, it constrains us and makes it more difficult to manage our money. I don’t think it’s going to have too much impact on the environment.” But still, he said, it is an effective way to raise one’s voice. In his letter, Swensen wrote that the Investments Office bases its approach to global warming on the conclusion that greenhouse gas emissions pose a grave threat
to human existence. Swensen added that a portfolio that fully considers the externalities of greenhouse gas emissions and the possibility of a carbonpricing scheme could be “wellpositioned to deal with a more enlightened regulatory environment.” However, Ibbotson questioned whether the letter would benefit the University’s returns. “Although I favor the environmental aspects of this, it seems like a stretch to say that the Yale endowment will benefit from this,” he said. “I guess they want to deliver our message, but it’s not likely to benefit Yale.” Still, he added that it may ultimately benefit the world in some way. But in the wake of Yale’s decision on Aug. 27 to not divest the University’s assets from fossil fuels, members of Fossil Free Yale are unsatisfied. They expressed discontent that Swensen’s letter recommending environmentally conscious business practices is effectively the only move the University has made on the issue. Mitch Barrows ’16, project manager of Fossil Free Yale, criticized Swensen’s letter, saying that research shows that shareholder engagement with the issue of environmental investment does
not make a difference. Gabe Rissman ’17, policy coordinator of the group, added that the letter has “no bite” because there are no explicitly articulated consequences for failing to do what the letter instructs. He added that there are no real metrics included in the letter to measure any tangible change. But despite his criticisms, Rissman applauded Swensen’s decision to publicize the letter. “It’s a public proclamation of the financial risks of climate change,” Rissman said. “In making this letter public, he is demonstrating his views on climate risk.” Swensen noted that follow-up conversations with money managers after the release of the letter have been constructive and several have been quite enthusiastic. The letter has attracted significant attention beyond Yale’s campus gates. Swensen said that he has received several inquiries from peers at other institutions who are intrigued by the ideas penned in his letter. As of June 2013, Yale had the second largest university endowment in the world, valued at $20.8 billion. Contact ADRIAN RODRIGUES at adrian.rodrigues@yale.edu .
NICK DEFIESTA/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
David Swenson, Yale’s chief investment officer, sent a letter to Yale’s fund managers asking them to consider the consequences of climate change.
OPINION. YOUR THOUGHTS. YOUR VOICE. YOUR PAGE.
Send submissions to opinion@yaledailynews.com
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 7
NEWS
“Like all technology, social media is neutral but is best put to work in the service of building a better world.” SIMON MAINWARING SOCIAL MEDIA SPECIALIST
Q House to re-open in 2016
Social media: a new battleground BY ISABELLE TAFT STAFF REPORTER
KEN YANAGISAWA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Dixwell’s old community center will be demolished in the spring of 2015 to reopen with solar panels, a library and a health clinic in 2016. BY SEBASTIAN MEDINA-TAYAC STAFF REPORTER City officials and community organizers of the Q House building committee convened a meeting Thursday evening to announce that Dixwell’s beloved community center will reopen in 2016. The deteriorating gray building on the corner of Dixwell Avenue and Foote Street will be demolished in the spring of 2015, the organizers announced. The new 14 million-dollar building, which will boast solar panels, a library, a health clinic and a senior center, is projected to open in the fall of 2016. “Thank you all for keeping the vision of the Q House alive,” Mayor Toni Harp said to a crowded auditorium at the Wexler-Grant Community School. “This is a symbol of the Dixwell community.” Devoted former members of the old Q House organized after its closure in 2003 into the Concerned Citizens for the Greater New Haven Dixwell Community House, Inc., working tirelessly to develop a plan to reopen the facility. Architects from Zared Enterprises LLC presented the site’s floor plan to an enthusiastic reception at the meeting. Architect Regina Winters said many of the facility’s design elements were inspired by African and African-American art, in honor of the historically black
community. The second floor of the Q House will have a Dixwell community museum as well as space for temporary exhibits, she said. The blueprint include a large community kitchen, a fitness room, various outdoor recreational facilities, a senior center and a recording studio. Branches of the New Haven Free Public Library and the Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center will rent spaces in the new Q House. The New Haven Police Department will also open a substation by the facility. “This will provide security and a welcoming arm for young people in the inner city,” said building committee member Frances Russell. “This will bring the community back together and provide the essential services we used to have here.” To the frustration of several attendees, the building committee could not address questions about specific administrative policies, such as membership fees and access. Such decisions will be entrusted to the Board of Directors once the facility is constructed, said Board of Alders President Jorge Perez. While the city may play a role in administering the center for the first year, the committee hopes to establish it as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Attendees and speakers
said that, in the Q House’s absence this last decade, crime and unemployment in Dixwell has risen. “The Q House is going to keep people off the street. I’m tired of hearing about people my age out there killing each other,” said Duran Gaskins, a member of New Elm City Dream, a youth organization that mobilized in 2011 to reopen the Q House, accumulating 600 petition signatures, distributing 6,000 flyers, carrying out public demonstrations and meeting with city officials to realize their goal. “I want youth to have a voice in this city — it’s our time to shine.” C o m m i t te e c o - c h a i r Curlena McDonald said that with the addition of the senior center, the Q House will promote intergenerational exchange and contribute to a stronger culture in the historic neighborhood. While organizers and community members are optimistic about the plans, the source of the $14 million needed is not yet assured. The community meeting was part of the process of applying for bonding money from the state, auxiliary funding awarded to municipalities to meet dire needs, according to McDonald. Though the application process is competitive, Harp assured community members that Governor Dannel Malloy has expressed deep inter-
est in aiding the city with the Q House. The state already awarded the city one million dollars to plan the construction. The city will also establish an 80,000-dollar endowment fund to keep the Q House afloat until it can fundraise enough to reach its goal of a 3 million-dollar endowment. “Actually, let’s raise 5 million so we don’t ever have to have this meeting again,” Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison, who has spearheaded the project, exclaimed. “The Q House is our pillar of hope. We kept the faith and we are going to rebuild the beloved, endeared Dixwell community house.” The construction of the new building has the added benefit of putting more residents to work, Morrison said. The building committee will monitor construction contractors to make sure city residents are hired and paid at the prevailing wage. Bill MacMullen, architect for the city of New Haven, commented that the number of organizations collaborating on the same goal has made Q House one of the fastest projected construction projects he had seen. The Q House was first constructed in 1924. Contact SEBASTIAN MEDINA-TAYAC at sebastian.medina-tayac@ yale.edu .
Democratic Governor Dan Malloy and his Republican challenger Tom Foley have found that one battlefield in their electoral war has become more important since they opposed one another in 2010: social media. As Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites have become more embedded into Americans’ daily life, politicians across the country have clamored to create accounts and engineer positive public images by sharing photos, favorable news coverage and soliloquies with thousands of followers. Malloy and Foley are no exception to the trend, with each maintaining a Twitter account and Facebook page in addition to their official websites. Though both have embraced social media, it’s not clear that winning the Twitter war will lead to electoral success. Malloy’s campaign twitter, @DanMalloyCT, has over 8,500 followers compared to under 3,000 for Tom Foley’s @ TomFoleyCT. Yet in the Quinnipiac University poll of likely voters released yesterday, Malloy trailed Foley by six percentage points. Still, Gary Rose, chairman of the department of government and politics at Sacred Heart University, said an effective social media strategy could ultimately push one candidate over the edge in what is considered one of the tightest gubernatorial contests in the country. “It’s particularly important for younger voters,” Rose said. “This could be the tiebreaker.” In addition to his campaign account, Malloy has a separate account for his activities as governor, @GovDanMalloy, with over 30,000 followers. While Malloy tweets from both his campaign and his office account everyday — often many times each day — Foley sometimes goes several days without tweeting. He was particularly prolific, however, on Labor Day, posting several photos of supporters at a parade in Newtown. Mark McNulty, communications director for the Foley campaign, said he aims to make the Foley Twitter presence as positive as possible. The campaign’s social media strategy is not aimed at attracting undecided voters as followers. “The only people you’re really touching are extreme partisans on either side,” McNulty said. He added that he thinks the true benefits of the Twitter account are reaped when followers retweet posts so that their followers, who may be undecided voters, see them. In late July, a new Twitter and Facebook page called FoleyFactCheck appeared. Both post links to articles critical of Foley. No organization or individual claims the account. On Aug. 27, Foley-
FactCheck tweeted a photograph of Foley’s house, with a message accusing him of hypocrisy in calling Malloy out of touch. The Malloy campaign team did not respond to requests for comment. Devon Puglia, a spokesman for the Connecticut Democratic Party, declined to comment on Malloy’s social media strategy. Rose said that for Malloy and Foley, social media is an important “part of the toolkit.” “Gone are the days of the precinct captain going door to door,” Rose said. Joe Visconti, the Tea Party Republican who qualified to appear on the ballot as an independent, said Facebook allowed him to mobilize supporters to gather signatures in support of his candidacy. The site helped him gather over 10,000, to clear the hurdle of 7,500 he needed. The Quinnipiac poll showed seven percent of likely voters support Visconti; He attributes that in large part to his social media presence. Because he hasn’t had the funds to make ad buys on television or radio, he has released his campaign videos on Facebook and YouTube. Unlike Foley and Malloy, he personally controls all of his social media accounts. “I love to engage,” Visconti said. “Go on Facebook, message me, make a comment on the photo I put up today.” Eric Stern ’15, who served two years on the board of the Yale College Democrats and interned at a political public relations company this summer, said Twitter is a particularly important platform for reaching young voters, and has a more diverse audience than other social networking sites. Stern thinks candidates’ social media strategies could affect the way Yale students participate in the election. “If Malloy were to engage Yale students through social media, and, of course, other forms of media, and get unexpectedly high student turnout and turnout among young people, he could exceed expectations,” Stern said. Though Twitter is potentially useful for candidates, it can also be very dangerous. Stern noted he most often hears about politicians’ Twitter use when they or someone on their communications staff publishes something damaging. “It’s usually like an intern accidentally tweets an inappropriate photo or something completely insensitive,” Stern said. “You don’t often hear about when campaigns are doing it really well. For that reason both Malloy and Foley are doing a pretty good job.” In December 2013, 18 percent of American adults used Twitter, compared to eight percent in December 2010. Contact ISABELLE TAFT at isabelle.taft@yale.edu .
TALKS YOU MEANT TO GO TO RICHARD C. MULCAHY
NEIL BURGER
ABHISHEK MAJUMDER
JACOB POTASH/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
BIOGRAPHY A witness to the September 11 attacks, Richard C. Mulcahy worked in an office in Jersey City that directly overlooked the two World Trade Center buildings. Inspired by the concept of rebuilding lives after a tragedy, Mulcahy researched for and wrote his first novel, “One From Two,” in Yale’s Sterling Memorial Library. All profits from his book are donated to Harvard University’s Macklis Laboratory, which studies neurological diseases. BY STAPHANY HOU
RECAP Mulcahy spoke about how he stepped beyond his Wall Street trading background to become a novelist. He described the plot of his book, which depicts two American families facing unique tragedies. One of the main characters, a quadriplegic, takes inspiration from the rebuilding of the World Trade Center to move forward with his life.
BIOGRAPHY Neil Burger ’85 spent his years as a student at Yale painting expressionist portraits and theater sets. Thirty years later he is instead creating blockbuster films as one of Hollywood’s most sought-after directors, with a résumé that includes “Limitless,” “Divergent” and “The Illusionist,” but still with the same exacting aesthetic and flare for drama.
QUOTE “For months after [9/11], in New York City, people actually made eye contact on the streets, in the subways.”
QUOTE “As a filmmaker storyteller, it’s an incredibly exciting time, and there’s this promise of something just over the horizon.”
RECAP Burger said there is a thread through his movies of people trying to empower themselves or change themselves. “Divergent,” for example, is about a young woman trying to locate herself in the world, he said. Burger said he also has a hunger for authenticity, which recently drove him to shoot “Divergent” on the streets of Chicago rather than with a green screen. BY JACOB POTASH
BIOGRAPHY Abhishek Majumder is the playwright, artistic director and founder of the Bangalore-based Indian Ensemble. He studied physics, math, economics and rural development before pursuing theater. Majumder spoke about what led him to a career in theater, as well as his past works, the playwriting process and the concept of global food security. BY ILANA KAUFMAN
RECAP The talk was co-hosted by the Yale Sustainable Food Project in commemoration of September as Hunger Action Month. It was part of the “Chewing the Fat” speaker series. Majumder’s group, The Indian Ensemble, performed “Thook” on Sept. 10 and Sept. 11 at the Iseman Theater. QUOTE “My theory is that hunger is a public secret. We are all complicit in this situation. There is an unspoken alliance between some people in this world that we will allow people to starve.”
PAGE 8
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
Yale Institute of Sacred Music presents
SLOW DANCING Outdoor public art installation by
david michalek
recyclerecyclerecyclerecycle
September 10–16, 2014 · 8– 11 pm Cross Campus panel discussion with the artist and yale faculty
Friday, September 12 · 3–5 pm Yale University Art Gallery Auditorium Free · Presented with support from The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. ism.yale.edu
OPINION. Send submissions to opinion@yaledailynews.com
TGIWEEKEND YOU LIVE FIVE DAYS FOR TWO.
Email ydnweekendedz@panlists.yale.edu and write about it.
CROSS CAMPUS THE BLOG. THE BUZZ AROUND YALE THROUGHOUT THE DAY.
cc.yaledailynews.com
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 9
BULLETIN BOARD
TODAY’S FORECAST Sunny, with a high near 73. North wind around 10 mph.
TOMORROW
SUNDAY
High of 69, low of 54.
High of 70, low of 51.
DOONESBURY BY GARRY TRUDEAU
ON CAMPUS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 1:30 p.m. Artist Talk, Zanele Muholi. Zanele Muholi speaks about her photographs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in South Africa and her efforts to increase awareness of and provide services to this community. Yale University Art Gallery (1111 Chapel St.). 7:00 p.m. “DamNation” Screening. An official screening of the award-winning documentary about the changing attitudes in the United States concerning the large dams around the country. Whitney Humanities Center (53 Wall St.), Aud.
XKCD BY RANDALL MUNROE
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 11:00 a.m. Tech Boot Camp: Fall Session. This course is designed to provide an introduction to incoming freshmen and students new to production work and will provide all necessary training to work in a theater. Whitney Humanities Center (53 Wall St.). , Rm. 118. 1:00 p.m. Chemistry Symposium in Memory of Harry Wasserman. The Yale Chemistry Department, with support from the Dreyfus Foundation and Elsevier publishers, will be hosting a symposium in memory of Harry Wasserman. Sterling Chemistry Laboratory (225 Prospect St.). 7:00 p.m. “Pulp Fiction” Screening. “Pulp Fiction” is a 1994 film about the lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster’s wife and a pair of diner bandits that intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption. You won’t know the facts until you’ve seen the fiction. Whitney Humanities Center (53 Wall St.), Aud.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 1:00 p.m. Stories and Art. Tales of distant times and faraway lands inspire children of all ages to view art in new ways. Yale students and gallery staff relate folktales and myths from around the world to objects in the collection. Yale University Art Gallery (1111 Chapel St.).
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Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
CLASSIFIEDS
CROSSWORD Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis ACROSS 1 Short pants? 6 Boston or Chicago 10 Sound of relief 14 Mendelssohn’s Opus 20, e.g. 15 One-on-one sport 16 Con artist, for one 17 Blueprint spec ... or, allowable hours for hound sounds? 19 Naysayer 20 LeBron’s Miami uniform number 21 Mr. __!: old whodunit game 22 Initial 24 Blueprint spec ... or, job fit for a king’s silversmith? 27 The __, Netherlands 30 Regular TV show 31 Bestows 33 __ splicing 34 “Top Gear” airer 37 Gets ready for lunch, maybe 38 Scrub 40 “__ We Are”: Estefan hit 41 Look over 42 “How now? __?”: Hamlet, before mistakenly slaying Polonius 43 __ column 45 Used a plane on 47 Useful quality 48 Blueprint spec ... or a ’60s-’70s rock group conceding a poker hand? 52 Tater Tots maker 53 __ fault 54 Words of agreement 57 Improvisational style 58 Blueprint spec ... or an MGM heartthrob’s cousin from the Netherlands? 62 Manuscript encl. 63 Shell competitor 64 Soul singer Adams 65 Begun: Abbr. 66 Study, say 67 Name on a Yorba Linda library
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9/12/14
By Jeff Stillman
DOWN 1 Slew 2 Berry rich in antioxidants 3 “Come Sail Away” band 4 Service station? 5 Inflamed 6 Moistens, in a way 7 GI’s mail drop 8 Unfamiliar 9 “State Fair” setting 10 Crisscross patterns 11 Rajah’s tongue 12 Downed 13 Twist and compress 18 Revival prefix 23 Sheltered, nautically 24 Contemptible ones 25 Ruled out 26 GI chow 27 Cloud 28 Out of town 29 Yawn 32 One who might play under a balcony 34 Uncle __ 35 “Up hill, down __ ...”: Burns
Thursday’s Puzzle Solved
SUDOKU TGIF
5
4
4 2
©2014 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
36 Bird was one, briefly 39 Took its toll? 40 Kettle emission 42 Ardent 44 Ideal 45 Ready to be printed 46 Many a late ’90s startup 48 “Pippin” Tony winner 49 Ocean predators
9/12/14
50 Numerical extreme 51 Circus sound 54 Goat with Iberian and Siberian species 55 Like some saxes 56 Inconsequential 59 GI show gp. 60 General on a takeout menu 61 Will Smith title role
9 1 4 1 3 8
9 8 7 3 6 5 4 9 7 1 7 6 2 3 1 6 9 9 1 2
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YALE DAILY NEWS 路 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2014 路 yaledailynews.com
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 11
SPORTS
“Winning means you’re willing to go longer, work harder and give more than anyone else.” VINCE LOMBARDI AMERICAN FOOTBALL PLAYER AND COACH
Elis host games for Alumnae Weekend FIELD TRACK FROM PAGE 12 make progress and be more successful as far as scoring goals and taking lots of shots, which is no surprise.” Despite their 0–2 record, the team has posted close results, losing by one goal margins in its first two games of these season. On Monday against Sacred Heart, the Elis came back from a 3–0 deficit to close the gap to a goal in the final minutes of the second half before falling 3–2. The team’s current record does not accurately represent its talent and ability, according to the players. They added that they are optimistic about the future of the season. “I expect our team to come out strong having learned some valuable lessons from our games last week,” Accurso said. “We have good momentum going forward and I’m really excited to capitalize on that.” This weekend’s games are part of the team’s Alumnae Weekend, in which former players from all classes return to campus to watch the current team play on Johnson Field. Captain Nicole Wells ’16 noted the positive effect that
wins would have on the weekend. “Forty plus years of Yale Field Hockey’s notable past players will be in attendance to see how their team has evolved to what it is today,” Wells said. “Of course winning out these next two games is the best thing that we can do to give back to the supportive alumnae.” More than 30 alumnae will cheer on the team this weekend. The combination of history and new talent is what will make the team so successful, according to Stuper. “We are so privileged to have such a supportive network of alumnae,” Accurso said. “I don’t know any other athletes that can say they’ve sat down with the very woman who founded their program. Lawrie Mifflin marched right into the athletic offices in the first years women were admitted and demanded field hockey be made a varsity sport. And that’s how we became the first women’s varsity sport at Yale.” Both games will start at noon at Johnson Field. Contact HOPE ALLCHIN at hope.allchin@yale.edu .
TASNIM ELBOUTE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The field hockey team will take on Quinnipiac and California at home this weekend.
Bulldogs head to Villanova Classic VOLLEYBALL FROM PAGE 12
HENRY EHRENBERG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Outside hitter Mollie Rogers ’15 (No. 9) will hope to captain Yale to victories over ranked opponents this weekend.
that will push the Bulldogs to up their level of play. Rogers was the team leader in kills this past weekend against Minnesota and Boston College with nine and 10 in the two games, respectively. She also had a team-best 17 digs against Albany. “The goal is to just keep getting better with every point,” Ebner said. “And I’m excited to see how we implement the things we’ve practiced this week.” After the Yale Invitational last weekend, assistant coach Kevin Laseau said that the team would work with coaches to build on the strengths displayed and address the mistakes made on the court during the tournament. This weekend kicks off a string of 11 away games for the volleyball team, which will not return to the John J. Lee Amphitheater until it plays Cornell on Oct. 17. “It’s obviously difficult to play on the road, and it’s especially difficult to play on the road five weeks in a row,” Rogers said. “We
Yale looks to stay unbeaten W. SOCCER FROM PAGE 12 Though none of the Elis on the current roster has faced the Hilltoppers, the team has a good idea of what its opponent will bring to the table. “We know Western Kentucky is bigger than us, so we can’t make the game a physical battle. We’ll have to play smart and be technical,” McCormack said.
I think we’re all more comfortable on our own field no matter how many of our fans we have out there supporting us. GENY DECKER Midfielder
KEN YANAGISAWA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Captain Meredith Speck ’15 (No. 25) started the first two games of the Elis’ season.
Manhattan did not finish as well as Western Kentucky last season, finishing the year with a 6-12-2 record overall and a 2-7-1 mark in conference. The Jaspers compete in the MAAC, which also includes Yale’s hometown rival, Quinnipiac. Manhattan lost to the Bobats in the teams’ first matchup last season, but
Quinnipiac took revenge in the MAAC tournament. McCormack and midfielder Geny Decker ’17 both said that despite Manhattan’s lackluster performance last season, Yale will be on its toes in both contests this weekend. McCormack added that because the Bulldogs focus on one game at a time, they will think more about Manhattan after the Western Kentucky game. After producing a win in their first away game of the season against Sacred Heart on Tuesday, the Yale squad is looking forward to the next two games being at home, McCormack and Decker said. “I think we’re all more comfortable on our own field no matter how many of our fans we have out there supporting us,” Decker said. “It’s the same field we practice on every day and that repetition definitely translates to a higher comfort level in games played at home.” The Bulldogs begin the Yale Classic with their game against Western Kentucky tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Reese Stadium. Yale takes on the Jaspers at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. Contact SYDNEY GLOVER at sydney.glover@yale.edu .
try to stay focused and take one match at a time.” Outside hitter Brittani Steinberg ’17 said the team members were all eager for the chance to get back on the court and test their strengths at Villanova. She agreed with Ebner that the team and the coaches had already seen improvements in the Bulldogs’ quality of play after this week’s work. “We’ve been working super hard,” she said. “And we’re all really excited to compete again.” While training during the week, the Bulldogs focused on doing team drills so that both new and returning players could keep working toward their goal of playing as a cohesive unit, Steinberg said. The women’s next tournament will be the Fullerton Classic, hosted by Cal State. They will travel to the west coast to play the Cal State Titans, the UCLA Bruins and the Georgetown Hoyas the weekend of Oct. 19. Contact ERICA PANDEY at erica.pandey@yale.edu .
Men’s soccer hits the road M. SOCCER FROM PAGE 12 “The team experienced a tough loss on Tuesday and is ready to bounce back quickly and get the first win of the season,” Musie said. “I am expecting us to put in a good performance and return with three points.” The team will face University of Rhode Island on Sunday after Fairfield on Friday. The Rams (1–2–1, 0–0–0 A10) have had a rollercoaster season early on, winning one match in an impressive fashion while getting blown out in another. Rhode Island’s offense could prove more of a hazard to contend with for the Bulldogs. Having scored four goals in four games, the Rams have produced at a more impressive clip than Fairfield. Mike Casey, a junior striker for the Rams, has managed to produce two goals already this season on 33% shooting. Contending with a striker of this quality should prove to be a key part of the Elis defensive strategy. With both teams coming off a loss, there is no real momentum advantage going into this match. “I think the team is still coming together,” Henry Flugstad-Clarke ’17 said. “If we can get all the pieces on the team firing on all cylinders, I’m confident we can win.” Yale opens up Ivy League play on Oct. 4 at Harvard. Contact MARC CUGNON at marc.cugnon@yale.edu .
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KELSEY NOLAN ’17 FIELD HOCKEY The sophomore from Westminster, Md. made the Ivy League honor roll this week for her performance against Hofstra last weekend. Nolan, a midfielder, recorded a goal on six shots, three of which were shots on goal.
HEATHER SCHLESIER ’15 SOCCER Schlesier, a senior goalkeeper, also earned a spot on the Ivy League honor roll based on her game against Hofstra. The San Diego, Calif. native parried away twelve shots during the contest, allowing only two goals in Yale’s 2–1 defeat.
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“I expect our team to come out strong having learned some valuable lessons from our games last week.” JESSIE ACCURSO ’15 FIELD HOCKEY
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
Field hockey looks for win
Men’s soccer seeks first victory MEN’S SOCCER
BY HOPE ALLCHIN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER After a disappointing start to the season this past week, the field hockey team will take the turf looking to prove themselves this weekend.
FIELD HOCKEY
HENRY EHRENBERG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
The Bulldogs (0–2, 0–0 Ivy) will play two home games at Johnson Field, hosting local rival Quinnipiac (1–3, 0–0 MAAC) on Saturday and California (2–2, 0–0 Pac-12) on Sunday. The Bulldogs have only played California once before in recent history and expect a tough game, according to coach Pam Stuper.
“The Quinnipiac game is always one I look forward to,” forward Jessie Accurso ’15 said. “It’s always a battle. We’re really grateful to Cal for making the trip to play us on Sunday. It should be a great weekend of play.” The team is young and coachable, Stuper said, adding that the squad will continue making progress from week to week. The Bulldogs believe that certain minor alterations will finally help result in a win, said Stuper. “I hope that we make the adjustments that we need to,” Stuper said. “We really want to SEE FIELD HOCKEY PAGE 11
Midfielder Henos Musie ’16 (No. 12) scored in the first minute of Yale’s loss to Iona on Tuesday. BY MARC CUGNON STAFF REPORTER After midfielder Henos Musie ’16 struck home a tally in the first minute of Yale’s contest against Iona on Tuesday, the Elis’ prospects for their first win of the season looked bright. But after allowing two Iona goals later in the contest, the Elis return to action this weekend still seeking to get in the victory column. Looking to bounce back from their disappointing 2–1 home loss to Iona, the men’s soccer squad will take on Fairfield University in its first away clash of the season and then travel to
Elis to face nationally ranked foes
Rhode Island to complete its road trip. Both Fairfield and Yale have experienced shaky starts to their seasons, setting up a Friday clash in which both teams are searching for a firm victory. Fairfield (1–1–1, 0–0–0 MAAC) has, much like the Bulldogs (0—1—1, 0—0—0 Ivy), yet to get its offense firing on all cylinders. The Stags have netted just two goals in three games this year and have survived largely on the strength of their defense, allowing only a single goal thus far. Fairfield’s stout defense is sure to pose a challenge for a Yale squad, which has struggled with
creativity in the offensive third and fallen victim to ill-timed scoring droughts. “Fairfield [is] a difficult opponent on the road,” head coach Brian Tompkins said. “They are always well-organized and difficult to break down, but we have learned a lot from our first two games and will look to create more movement and scoring chances.” Based on the teams’ strengths, one key matchup in the Fairfield contest will concern the ability of Yale’s midfield to cut down on turnovers in transition and capitalize on the counterattack in the face of Fairfield’s defensive
fortitude. A central Bulldog in the Yale offense will be midfielder Musie. He has emerged as a real scoring threat for the Bulldogs this season, notching an early goal off of a one-two connection against Iona and looking threatening in the team’s season-opening tie with Sacred Heart. His ability to convert with his back to goal offensively could prove vital against this Fairfield defense. Standing at 6’2”, Musie will be targeted to create space for Yale’s attacking options due to his size and strength. SEE MEN’S SOCCER PAGE 11
TASNIM ELBOUTE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The field hockey team dropped its opening two games of the season to Hofstra and Sacred Heart.
Bulldogs ready for Yale Classic BY SYDNEY GLOVER STAFF REPORTER The women’s soccer team got off to a stellar start in their first two games of the season, scoring two goals in each contest en route to an early undefeated record.
WOMEN’S SOCCER
BY ERICA PANDEY STAFF REPORTER The volleyball team will travel to Pennsylvania this weekend to battle Kansas, Penn State and Villanova in the Villanova Classic tournament.
VOLLEYBALL The Bulldogs (1–2, 0–0 Ivy) will face the Jayhawks (6–1, 0–0 Big 12) on Friday, then the Nittany Lions (4–1, 0–0 Big Ten) and Wildcats (4–3, 0–0 Big East) on Saturday. The Elis are prepared for fierce opposition, with Kansas currently ranked 24th in Division-I and Penn State, last year’s national champion, holding the third seat. “We are going to play some tough teams, and it’ll be a test for us,” said middle blocker Jesse Ebner ’16. “But I think we’ve improved a lot in practice this week, and we are all ready to start the weekend against Kansas.” Ebner had a strong start to the season, contributing 13 kills to the Yale victory against Albany this past weekend. Captain Mollie Rogers ’15 echoed Ebner’s evaluation of the coming weekend’s competition and added that facing off against two top-25 teams would be “great experience” SEE VOLLEYBALL PAGE 11
KEN YANAGISAWA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Frannie Coxe ’15 (No. 2) scored two goals in Yale’s victory over Sacred Heart on Tuesday.
STAT OF THE DAY 6
The pressure will be on as the Elis return home this weekend for the Yale Classic, a tournament that will be held in Reese Stadium. Though they have not had much recovery since their last game, a 2—1 victory over Sacred Heart on Tuesday, the Elis’ endurance will be tested as they have two games in a three-day period this weekend. The rough schedule will mean plenty of new faces on the field this weekend. “This year we’re really focusing on proper recovery/preparation between games, so knowing we have a lot of games coming up, the coaches are keeping things light at practice this week,” defender Colleen McCormack ’17 said. “That being said, there will definitely be more substitutions this weekend, which is a really exciting opportunity for those coming off the bench to make a positive difference on the field.” The first game comes tonight against Western Kentucky University. The Hilltoppers compete in the Sunbelt Conference, in which they face off against schools like Georgia State and LouisianaLafayette. The squad finished last season 10-6-5 overall and went undefeated in its conference, winning six games and tying two. The team’s only league loss came in the championship game of the conference tournament against South Alabama. SEE WOMEN’S SOCCER PAGE 11
AGE OF THE NEWEST MEMBER OF THE YALE FOOTBALL TEAM, DANTE CHIAPPETTA. Chiappetta, who has cortical visual impairment and cerebral palsy, was drafted by the Bulldog football team in a ceremony yesterday evening.