Volume 18 - Issue 4

Publisher Tony Reese Editor-in-Chief Joyce Banerjee Business Manager Lauren Rabin Executive Editor R ich Blow Managing Editor Anne Applebaum Designer Maria Hong• Production Manager Margie Smith Photography Editor Mark Fedors Associate Business Managers Rob Lindeman Barrie Seidenberg Associate Editors Melissa Turner Jay Carney Tamar Lehrich Dan Waterman Associate Production Manager Margaret Bauer• • Associate Photography Editor Carter Brooks Circu/aJion Manager Mike Sonnenblick Staff Beth Cohen•• Anne Hawke** Katie Hazelwood David Hoffman Pearl Hu Meredith Hyde Paul Kihn

Peter Lefkowitz* • Hank Mansbach Patrick Santana Lori Sherman Pam Thompson Stu Weinzimer•• Peter Zusi

• .Ltctd D«mt~ 18, 1985 ••ef«tdjaniJIJt)l 21, 1986

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Features

8

Orders of th e Court On an average day, 100 to 200 people appear at the New Haven Courthouse.

From these everyday workings ofjustice arise questions about the efficacy and fairness of the entire systml. By Jennifer Sachs.

16

O ut ofTouch Students are convinced that the staff of the University Health Services (UHS) is at best uncan'ng and at worst incompetent, but actual '?w"or stories" of mistreatment are few. Instuui., the Health Strvices' systemic flaws and students' misperceptions create the feeling of dissatisfaction, which is perpetuated by a startling lack of communication between undergraduates and UHS. By james Bennet

â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘

22

D efin ing the Crime Last November Yale-New Haven Hospiw.l nurse Gladys Faulk was sentenced to two and a halfyears imprisonment for killing her abusive boy.frimd. Could Faulk's conviction illustrate society's sterectyping of battered women as defenseless and its inability to accept those who fight back? By Martha Brant.

Books

30

Paradise Interpreted Using Milton's own words, former Yale English Professor R. A. Shoof reshapes the structure of contnnporary literary criticism in his new book, Milton, Poet of Duality, and explores the synthesis of Christian rhetoric and the modem literary perspective. By David Carpenter.

Letters

NewsJoumal

5

6

The New JournaVJanuary 31, 1986 3

Letters

Unfinished Stories To the Editor: The most surprising thing about james Ledbetter's piece, "AlA: Should They Patrol the Classrooms?" is that The New journal published it without even making the effort to substantiate his chilling "revelations."

A few points in this stunning "expose" are worth a second look. "At one point," Ledbetter writes, "Csorba pulled from his file cabinet what he called his 'secret target list' of radical professors." At the end of the same paragraph, he writes, "I asked Csorba how he compiled the list; he told me he took it from a list of faculty who had endorsed a rally opposing U.S. involvement in Central A me rica." Two things call Ledbetter's account into question.

The list he is referring to is, as I told him, a published document entitled, "A National Appeal for Peace with Justice in Central America." It is an open letter protesting U.S. intervention in Central America. The list was compiled, then, by the signatories the mselves, and then released to the public. When a copy was sent to me, I ~ept it in our correspondence file. 1 showed it to Ledbetter because it illustrates the extent of political activity among leftist profesors.

On the front of the list, in typeset, there is a plea for peace and a dove bearing an olive branch- hardly the design I would have selected for my little hit list. Another interesting point is that none of the people criticized in our monthly newspaper, The Campus Report, are on that list whose existence Ledbetter has since revealed to the world.

Another illustration of Ledbetter's lack of integrity concerns a course syllabus he showed us during his visit, which I've kept as well. It is from a class he himself was taking at Yale entitled "Marxist Dialectic and Rhetoric."

Presumably, he brought the syllabus along to get our reaction to it, and indeed we gave it a quick look. But Ledbetter doesn't record our reactions, and I think I know the reason. When he 4 The New JoumaVJanuary 31. 1986

showed it to us, we pointed out that the reading list included Arthur Koestler's The God that Failed, and we promptly dismissed Ledbetter's suggestion that the course was weighted with Marxist propaganda. But this awkward little exchange just didn't fit into his "expose."

Ledbetter has a literary reporting style which leans heavily on dialogue and direct quotations. How did he get them at such length? He didn't take notes as we spoke, and he doesn't mention a tape recorder. In the article he informs us in passing that, "Some time (later), I excused myself to the bathroom to scribble notes of our conversation." We had a two or three hour conversation, and "some time" after it was over he scratched out these supposedly incriminating comments word for word. Think about it. There were 12 verbatim quotations-adding up to some 170 words- based on notes hastily scribbled · out in a bathroom stall.

That boy has amazing recall.

Another .comical detail in Ledbetter's account has me watching Battle for the Pwnet of the Apes, upon his return from composing in the bathroom. In his attempt to make me look silly, I'm afraid he only shows what a dishonest man he is. When he walked in I was rewinding a recently recorded McNeil/Lehrer debate on A lA, and every time I stopped the tape, on came the apes. Ledbetter himself had expressed an interest in seeing the tape. Again, your investigative reporter sacrificed the truth for a laugh at our expense.

"Once the accusation is made," Ledbetter concludes, "substantiated or not, a professor's reputation is already tarnished." Good point. And this leads me to ask again why nobody from The New Journal ever called me to substantiate all these accusations. The irony is pretty obvious. You express your fears that AlA might publish false and unsubstantiated stories on professors -which we have never done- and then proceed to publish a false and unsubstantiated "expose" on AlA. Les Csorba, III Executive Director, AlA

jim Ledbetter responds: Csorba's deklils about his list confirm a major point of my article: Accur<Z9' in Academia gives its student "monitors" the names of allegedly leftist professors to klrget. Prior to my article, Accura91 in Academia .frequently denied in public that this was their aim (see Reed Irvine's letter to the editor, The New Republic, Dec. 23). Furthermore, these targeted individuals are being harassed for political beliefs expressed outside of the classroom, not for "inaccuracies" inside. One of these «professors" that Csorba instructed me to klrget is not only no longer at Yale, she was never even on thefaculty here; she held an administrative position. The idea that signing an open letter on a broad political issue such as Central America can lead to redbaiting in the name of "accuracy» ought to give all of us pause.

My article contains seven quotations .from Csorba and Scully taJcen from our meetingall other citations come from telephone conversations, during which I took careful notes.

Our meeting lasted two hours, and I wrote down the word-for-word quotes about 90 minutes through the meeting. Given that the purpose of my visit to AlA's office was precisely to gather such verbatim material, and that I was concentrating accordingly, I do not consider this an extraordinary feat of memory.

It is typical of AlA that Csorba's letter ad-· dresses none of the substance of my article, only those portions which made him appear foolish. I understand that Csorba's project is to cover up the group's ideological purposes, but he is sadly mistaken if he thinks that the biggest problem with AlA is whether or not employees watch · TV movies on company time.

Another Other Side To the Editors: In her recent article "The Other Side of Brunch" (TN], 12/6/85), Tamar Lehrich used my statements to support her claim that "because of the economic and social differences which emerge once students put on their blue uniforms, workers often resent those whom they have to serve."

In point of fact, I know of no instances in which the economic dif-

VISIT CITY GARDENER 105 HOWE ST.

ferences among student workers have caused resentment or hostility; indeed, due to the extreme diversity of the economic backgrounds of student workers, financial status fails to constitute an issue at all.

Ms. Lehrich's assumptions that because we work we are poor, or that because we earn money we resent those who do not, are misconceptions that would have been dispelled with objective investigation. Instead, my words were taken entirely out of context to substantiate Ms. Lehrich's inaccurate preconceptions.

Bettina Elias PC '87

Considerate Kennedys To the Editors: I read the December issue of The New j ournal while listening to records.

When I saw "Sound Effects," by Jen Fleissner (p. 4), I paused and ¡grabbed the nearest album: "Warning," it said on the cover. "The inside fold-out to this record cover is a work of art by H. R. Giger that some people may find shocking, repulsive or offern;ive."

So why is th1s piece of trash in there?

"Life can sometimes be that way," it continued. I never knew the Dead Kennedys could be so considerate (without PMRC, no less).

S. Fraidin P .S . It was quite a repulsive fold-out .

Issues of Neutrality To the Editox;s: I would like to respond to the article, "Bridging the Gap" (TN], 10/ 11185).

Let me begin by stating my position on the subject. Throughout the course of the strike I considered myself a neutral student who believed in the Union's right to strike as well as the University's stance in negotiations. It is important to know where people stand when they discuss an issue with which they've previously been involved.

The New Joumal has failed to do this.

The union article was written by Melissa Turner and Jay Carney.

While I am not aware of Turner's stance during the strike, I know that Carney was a vocal student activist.

He picketed Commons, took part in various union activities, and was even on the front page of the Yale Daily News when he helped stage a sit-in at CCL to protest library schedule changes.

I have no objections to these activities, but once Carney puts his byline on an article, the reader should know about them. Carney's union sympathies were not mentioned at the end of the article, only that he was a junior in T.D. The fact that Carney is not an unbiased journalist would change the way one reads the article.

Cons1der the description of administration official Jack Siggins. Siggins, we learn, "sits in his well-lit and spac'ious office overlooking the courtyard." The article later states that "although Unionists might describe Siggins and his wife as tyrants, they keep such characteristics well hidden."

According to Carney, the Sigginses are in fact tyrannical. He is agreeing with the Union's accusations.

I would not object to this article if there were one or two lines that seemed biased. The whole tone of the article, however, resembles a union tract. At one point, Carney concludes, "It is tempting, so easy to conclude, like Siggins, that the kinks . . . will work themselves out over time." We soon learn that this is not the case. Poor, evil Siggins has done it again. Or has he?

David Kramer BR '87 The writers respond: We feel that, by knowing only one of the cowriters' backgrounds, Kramer made a broad assumption about the tone of the article.

Turner's stance during the strike was much lilce Kramer's. The examples you highlight to illustrate Gamey's bias were wn¡ttm and agreed upon by both writers, as was the entire article.

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Tlu New jounuJl encourages letters to the editor and comment on Yale and New Haven issues.

Write to Joyce Banerjee, Editofials, 3432 Yale Station, New Haven, CT 06520. AU letters for publication must include address and signature.

The New jounuJl reserves the right to edit all letters for publication.

The New J ournaVJanuary 31, 1986 5

NewsJournal

Resurfacing Issues General Dynamics, the owner of Connecticut's Electric Boat shipyard, can't seem to leave scandal in its wake.

On Decemb<.•r 2, a federal grand jury charged the company with masking $7.5 million in cost overruns on a prototype of the Sergeant York antia ircraft gun. General Dynamics (GD), three present company officials, NASA Chief and former GD Director James Beggs, were all charged with committing fraud.

In responsl! to the allegations, the Navy announced on December 3 that it was indefinitely suspending GD for the second time in six months, thereby forbidding the n:-tion's third largest defense contractor from receiving any new government contracts. But the next day the Navy extended the December 6 bidding deadline on four nuclear-powered attack submarines to keep GD, a main bidder, in the running. Two days later, the Air Force followed suit b>· extending the bidding on a new fighter plane, which GD is also competing to build.

The fraud allegedly took place between 1978 and 1981. During that time, GD was developing a prototype of the ill-fated Sergeam York, hoping to win governmental approval to build the weapon. GD a llegedly hid cost overruns o n the program in two separate accounts, one involving weapons-related research and the other covering the preparation of bids for other Defense Department contracts.

G D never got the chance to build the final version of the anti-aircraft gun; in 1981, the Army chose Ford Aerospace to develop the gun. I n August of last year, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger cancelled the e ntire Sergeant York program after the weapon repeatedly failed to pass performance tests.

Sources claim that the Pentagon's suspension of GD is not intended as punishment. Rather, said Chip Partner, a spokesman for Connecticut Congressman Sam Gejdenson, the suspension is allowing the Pentagon to "take a good, hard look at what the company has done to improve its ac6 The Nt·w.Journal/janu.uv31. 1986

counting procedures." According to Partner, Pentagon officials plan to visit several GD divis io n s, including Electric Boat in Groton, to examine both those procedures and the implementation of a code of ethics, which GD was required to institute after the first company suspension .

If GO is found guilty of the charges, the Pentagon will be forced to consider debarment , the prohibition of bidding on any government con trac t s.

Explained Navy spo kesman Bill Harlow, "There are various kinds of debarment. You can do it against certain pe rsons, you can do it against companies or divisions of companies for a certain period of time. There are a lot of o ptions available."

But just how "available" are these optio ns? In fact, GO's monopolies on construction of the Navy's Trident submarine, the Army's M-1 tank, a nd the Air Force's F-16 jet fighter all impede severe governm ent reprisal. A s the bidding extensions demonstrate, GD, like other majo r defense contractors, enjoys an impunity which the Pentago n inevitably must recognize.

Colonel Robert O'Brien, deputy assistant secretary of defense, pointed out, "To go into major fighter competition and automatically exclude ,.,

one of your major fighter manufacturers over something that may be resolved in a matter of weeks-you're really cutting off your nose to spite your face."

The Pentagon's recent actions, however, may signal new willingness. to police itself and its suppliers.

Indeed, the Pentagon exposed the alleged fraud despite the involvement of a high-ranking Administration official , NASA Chief Beggs. On December 4, Beggs announced tnat he was taking a leave of absence from his post. And on December 26, the Naval Sea Systems Command offered Newport News Shipbuilding the opportunity to inspect and repair a Trident submarine later this year.

Since Newport News is the o nly other shipyard in the country with the potential to build a Trident, the offer represents at least a small step towards eliminating GO's mohopoly on the sub. Said O'Brien, "The fact that there are indictments and the fact that the government is reco uping m o ney indicates to me that something not only has not gone wrong, something has gone right."

For General Dynamics, the path ahead looks anything but promising.· While no trial date has been set concerning the Sergeant York indict.3 ments, a new set of charges against the :=• company is being prepared in Conneci ticut. Stemming from damaging tape ~ recordings made by former Electric Boat Chairman P . Takis Veliotis, these indictments of former GD Chairman D avid Lewis and others are expected to be handed down sometime in the next six mo nths.

-Steve Lelewer

Good Neighbors GD 's T rident su b Nevad a: same financial scan dals and same lenient punishments

For too many years, Bill D rayton , Law '70, saw attempts by developed countries to revitalize the Third World fail .

R elief organizations supply monetary

IJ l

J

assistance and skilled tram m g to the impoverished , without really understanding the values and culture o f the needy nation. Believing that the citizens themselves could best bring about reform in underdeveloped lands, Drayton formed in 1982 the Ashoka Society, a relief organization which funds Third W orld public service projects. The Arlington, Virginia-based organization now has 1400 m embers and friends and four chapters nationwide, including one in New Have n.

Relying solely on the private sector, the Ashoka Society supports not only projects but the individuals who create them , hoping to provide Third World entrepreneuers with an independence otherwise unavailable.

Concentrating its efforts in India and Indo nesia, Ashoka gives native citizens with sound ideas for public service work an annual stipend o f $2,500 to $3,500. The money can be used by the recipients for personal expenses or as capital for new projects. "It's their vision we're supporting," said Ted Marmor, a memberofthe New Haven chapter a nd a professor of public management and social science at Yale.

Since its inception, Ashoka has funded 33 Third World fellows a nd now supports 27. Because of Drayton's work in India as an undergraduate, Ashoka has a network of friends in Asia who report periodically about projects in need of funding. "Environmental Education," one of Ashoka's most successful programs in India, stresses that students learn from their environment, not from rote memorization. The system has been nationalized and now affects nearly 18,000 schoolchildren.

The society gathers the necessary funds from individuals and corporations alike. The New Haven chapter has raised $500 from its five members and is now in the middle of a fundraising effort among its friends.

Nonetheless. the local soc1ety is searching actively for a suuable Third \\"orld candidate for a five-year fellO\\ ~hip .

Drayton and the Ashoka Society have earned a national reputation for innovation and 1m pact, as evinced by a MacArthur Fellowship which Drayton recently received,

~

corporated, the company that produces Coppertone and dominates the suntan lotion market. Word had reached them of Pawelek's invention. Dr . Richard Hurd , vicepresident of the company, wanted to produce and market Pawelek's molecule. "You can make people tan in Chicago in January," he excitedly told the inventor.

Pawelek decided to investigate with the Yale Office of Cooperative Research the possibility of a commercial company marketing and producing a substance invented in a Yale pro m1smg him $40,000 annually for laboratory. After complex patent profour years. With this stable income, he cedures, an agreement was reached can now direct all his efforts into the between Memphis Plough Inc. and organization, which may expand its Yale, whereby the patent would be aid into North and South America. shared, and Pawelek would continue to The society may very well succeed be involved with the manufacturing of wherever it travels, because it is, as his product.

Marmor put it, "an example of a quiet Memphis Plough Inc. is currently network which gets things done. It's conducting toxicity tests in accordance mainly something we believe in, a way with Federal Food and Drug Adminfor us to do our share of good." istration regulations. Pawelek does not -Lym1 Bronson believe they will hnd his product poisonous. There were no toxic effects o¡n the laboratory mice, despite the imWho Needs Florida? mense doses of phosphodopa that they Whe n Dr. John Pawelek, senior were administered. If the tests continue as planned, the product should research scientist in dermatology at Yale, dropped his pants in a lecture to hit drugstore shelves by 1987.

If the product is succe~ful, its promedical residents, he had a very good reason. Pointing to a small tan spot in ceeds are sure to be extensive. "I have not the slightest idea of what the the midst of an otherwise pale leg, royalties are," Pawelek said. "I am inPawelek displayed the acciden tal side terested in doing research ." In fact , e ffect of a molecule he had synthesized, Pawelek and the Department of Derwhich would allow people to maintain a healthy golden tan without the bene- matology will each receive 30 percent of the first $200,000 earned , and fit of sunny Bahaman beaches.

Pawelek will earn 20 percent of the Pawelek had been searching for a profit after that initial sum. cure to melanoma, a form of skin Pawelek hopes that his product will cancer. "One day I was sitting out in prevent people from over-exposing my back yard late at ni~rht iust free associating . . . ," Pawelek explained, themselves to the sun and increasing their risks of contracting melanoma or when he conceived of synthetically other varieties of the disease . A word of developing a molecule known as phoscaution is in order for all who believe phodopa as a possible remedy for the their dreams are about to be fulfilled: disease. Four years later, after he had inthis product will not allow you to tan jected laboratory mice with phosphobeyond your natural limit. If you tan dopa, he discovered that the molecule very little now, you are destined to rehad not cured their melanoma, but had main pale. Nothing will help you encouraged their cells to produce more become a bronze idol. pigment. The mice had tanned .

- Bronwyn Barkan At a dermatology convention in 1982 Pawelek was approached by a representative of Memphis Plough In:.

The New J ournal/january 31, 1986 7

Orders of the Court Jennifer Sachs '

Nine thirty a.m. Monday morning. Courtroom A, located at the end of a long and dusty h allway in the New Haven County Courthouse, slowly fills with people. The vast majority are men, mostly Hispanic or black. Many appear to have been here before- they stroll in casually, calling out greetings and chatting with their wives and girlfriends. In the comer, a white girl of about 17, expensively dressed, sits quietly under the "No Smoking" sign. Her mother hovers over her. At exactly 10 a.m., the bailiff appears, loudly proclaiming the entrance of the judge, but the rest of his speech is barely intelligible as assorted members of the crowd shuffie to their feet. From a doorway behind the bench, Judge Robert E. Reilly emerges and declares Arraignment Court in session for the day. He reads his rules. No wearing hats. No chewing gum. Absolutely no talking. With a final glare around the room, he begins the day's proceedings.

The New Journal/january 31, 1986 9

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The mere existence of Reilly's rules underscores a problem which has plagued the New Haven courthouse: the difficulty of maintaining order and efficiency in a system with a seemingly unending flow of entrants. In an average day, between 100 and 200 people will appear before the court in a five to six hour period, whether it be for arraignments, motor vehicle infractions, or pre-trial hearings. If cases are not disposed of quickly, enormous backlogs can and do result. Reilly's arrival in New Haven two years ago was intended to facilitate the reduction of a buildup of cases rapidly approaching the thousands. Before his departure on December 31, he succeeded in cutting the backlog in half, but at a cost which cannot easily be ascertained. Whether this judicial expedition meant ·an improvement or simply a further depersonalization of justice is a matter of some debate among court personnel. So, too, is the validity of the system as a whole. In a city populated largely by minorities, questions of racial and economic prejudice are bound to arise. These strike at the heart of the court system as it currently operates, calling into question the very nature of the judicial process.

"When you're a minority and you're in your twenties and you've not ever been arrested, not even for being black, you're in pretty good shape."

10:30 a.m. About 20 drfendants have been called brfore thejudge. One has not appeared, and a re-arrest warrant has been issued in his name. Reilly shakes his head, thinks a moment, and fixes the amount at 1475. He goes on to the next name on the docket.

12:15 p.m. The cases moue so quickly that keeping an accurale count of them is nearly impossible. About three drjendants have requested the aid of a public defender to assist them brjore they plead guilty or not guilty; Reilly sends them down to the other end of the hall, where the public dej'ender's office is located. A large spare room with tiny cubicle offices extending off it, this office is littered with old newspapers, coffee cups, and boxes full of various legal forms. Cartoons couer much of the wallspace, and a plush red heart with drops of cloth blood hanging from it is suspended from the window. One of the defendants sits down at the desk and begins to answer questions relating to his job status, age, and income; all the way down the hall, he has been murmuring, "Shit. I gotta get my

Arraignment Court is by far the busiest. Anyone who is arrested or is issued a warrant in the district must appear there initially , alleged murderers as well as shoplifters. For a number of defendants, one day is all they will have to spend in the courtroom, waiting on the cramped wooden benches and chairs for their names to be called. When they are summoned before the judge, they will plead guilty to the charges against them. These are

usually only petty misdemeanors, ranging from creating a public disturbance to trespassing, which carry fines as punishment. Most defendants will pay these fines silently and go, grateful to be spared the expen~e and embarassment of having to miss another day of work o r school to protest their innocence in court. A few will be recalcitrant, but a little coaxing from the judge or prosecutor, who explain that their charges have been lessened but that if they press for a trial the original charges will be reinstated, is usually convincing. The entire business takes only a few seconds; this way as many as 100 defendants can pass before the judge by lunchtime.

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1aft etics lnveatiga tor Annie Yopp Hill: convinced ignorance, la ck o f educat i on , and joblessness contribute to the city's crime ra t e.

ass back to work. " H e leans nervously over the desk as the investigator fills out his application and sits back, visibly relieved, when it is completed. Then he returns to the courtroom to have the application approved by the judge. .

T hose clients who are appointed legal help often find that their lawyers are just as frustrated by the complexities of the system. Lauren Weisfeld, dep u ty assistant public defender, feels that there is "an intense pressure just to process people through. They don't see the clients as people- if you say you want to file motions or investigate, they see it as you giving them a hard time." Weisfeld came to the New Haven Office of the P ublic; D efender a fter five years in St. Louis during which she worked on serious felony cases, and is hoping eventually to perform the same duties here. For th e moment, Weisfeld handles relatively minor felonies, wor~i ng out of a small office decorated with posters from the Interna tionalist World Calendar. A snapshot of Bob Marley, another of Miles Davis are pin ned to her bulletin board.

Weisfeld is angered by what she feels are abuses in the appointment of public defenders. Although legal aid is available on request for all persons cha rged with offenses that entail potential jail time, regardless of their ability to pay, she believes "many, even most people don't know to ask for an atto rney, and don't get one."

R eilly disagrees. "If you've been in

my courtroom, you've seen that I'm very liberal in appointing public defenders- any person who appears in court for a serious offense is foolish not to have one," he said. H owever, public defenders are not automatically assigned; normally, on entering the courtroom, defendants are instructed initially to speak to the on-duty prosecutor, whose job it then becomes either to suggest the aid of counsel or alternatively to offer a reduced charge in return for a guilty plea.

After a one-hour lunch break, Weisfeld and the other public defenders return to the courtroom with their clients. As a matter of course, they ask for one or two-week continuances to investigate the circumstances o f the alleged crime.

This time is almost always granted, although a judge is within his rights to refuse it altogether. The client files are then handed over to the two investigators for the public defender's office, Tina Huckaby and Annie Yopp H ill.

Hill and Huckaby have spent their lives working in New Haven; they know its climate and its nature well.

H uckaby said, "There a re boundaries in every section of New Haven, certain areas of every section where you have undesirables. Cross certain streets, it becomes a little different." As investigators, the women are intimately connected with the defendants; going out into the neighborhoods and searching for evidence or witnesses is part of

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12 The New JournaVJanuary 31 , 1986

their daily routine. Although the backbone of the investigator force is r etired policemen, Hill and Huckaby are unusual in that both are black women and part of the New Haven community. They work a mong their peers and sometimes their frie nds. "Sometimes when we leave h ere we see a lot of clients. I go to places, different bars or cafes- I see them. It gets to the point where I'll stop going to a certain place, because I'm tired of seeing the · same faces," Huckaby said. H ill's experiences are similar. "When I'm in my neighborhood, I feel like the mayor-my hand goes up and down, I know so many people. I know something of everybody there is."

Public Defender Weilfeld: "You will always be given a better ch ance if you're white."

h ave gotten away from the things that made the blacks and the H ispan ics great, like the church. It was a source of stability. The breakdown of families is another source of problems."

Hill thinks the problem is more complex. "I see so many people I've known for years, a nd they have nothing.

What did my mother and father do that none of us turned out criminals?" she said. Hill believes 'that poverty is After about 2:30. p·. m., A rra~f(nment Court an important factor. "Ignorance, lack begins to lose its circus atmosphere. The . of education, not being able to keep a defendants who were arrested yesterday for secure job- these all count. I've seen serious offenses and held in Jail overnight qre layoffs turn a lot of people into bums. brought upstairs from lock-up, a collection of People who were proud have gone to benched cells beneath the courthouse. There. welfare. The economy has a lot to do are no women among them, and no whites with it," either, at least not today. Most look young, in H ill and Huckaby attempt to do · their mid-twenties. The charges are read: what impromptu social work they can violation of probation predominates, along to keep economic or social hardship with a few_armed robberies and one murder. from tu rning one-time clients into The men listen dispassionately as their bonds repeat offenders. "The younger ones I are set and return to their seats after the judge will talk to. They're the ones that get has finished with them. They do not look the best from me. Most of them I around the room, most of them, nor do they know, or their · backgrounds, or their appear to have any interest in the proceedings families. They're the ones you try to which do not involve them. Meanwhile, the get to first," H uckaby said. "The odds teenaged girl and her mother have Just left, seem to be against them, but they are their faces wreathed in smiles and the girl's what they are. They don't have to be charge, that of trespassing on the reservoir, what they're told to be. I don't like patdismissed without penalty. ting them on the back and feeling sorry The h igh percentage of minorities in for them." Hill is angered by "the the New H aven community is reflected whole idea of coming down here for in crime statistics as well. Reilly stupid, senseless things. I tell them, estimated that on any given day, be- 'Don't you get tired of looking in the tween 70 and 7 5 percent of the defen- white man's face ?'" dants in his courtroom were minoriThis racial confrontation is one that t ies, lar gely black or Hispanic. H e at- occurs regularly at the courthouse. All tribu:ed this high crime rate to the of the judges currently on the bench breakdown of social institutions there are white , as are the head pro"M any of the kids in the inner city secutor and all of the public defenders .

Aggressive.

"If you really believe that innocent people shouldn't go to jail, you have to accept that guilty people will get off free."

Some court operators feel that the imbalance of black and Hispanic clients and white officials manifests itself in subtle forms of racism. Reilly vehemently denies that any prejudice exists in his courtroom, claiming that in law school, while living in a lowincome housing district, he came to understand inner-city people. "You have to be concerned about the people out there," he said. "You have to slow it down, make sure that they understand things."

For Weisfeld, the method of what she calls "treating adults like children" is symptomatic of prejudice in itself.

"Racial prejudice and poverty are intertwined. People are treated in an undignified way," she said, citing the practice of calling defendants by their first names in court. "There's no question about it, you will always be given a better chance if you're white."

Weisfeld is not alone in voicing concern. According to Deputy Assistant State's Attorney Juliette Crawford, "Someone may come in well-dressed, neat and clean, and it floors them.

That doesn't fit the stereotype." For Hill, there is only a matter-of-fact acceptance. "fve seen a white girl come in here for prostitution, and a black girl with the same circumstances.

They'll put the white girl in a halfway house, and send the black girl to Niantic [Correctional Institution) ." Calmly, she told the story of an investigator who once asked a public defender if he "didn't ever get tired of representing all those coons," and laughed. "You know," Hill said, "the sickest fucking

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crimes are done by white peoplemultiple killings, crazy killings. Blacks are more into larcenies."

Outside the courtroom, questions of prejudice are even more prevalent.

Although most court personnel are reluctant to discuss the possibility that New Haven police actively seek to harass or unfairly arrest minorities, none will deny it outright. As Crawford put it, "When you're a minority and you're in your twenties and you've never been arrested, not even for being black, you're in pretty good shape." Weisfeld admitted to a feeling of disgust with the police on occasion: "They're supposed to be the good guys!" Huckaby was willing to concede that, in her opinion, "the police officers '\'\'r-ite up a report so it will stick, so the judge will find probable cause." She cited increasing numbers of cases involving charges of police brutality as additional proof, but added that the general lack of cooperation between New Haven officers and · the public defenders made accusations difficult to substantiate.

Major Daniel Blackman, director of the Community Affairs Department of the New Haven police, holds a different view. "I have every confidence that a major proportion of the officers conduct themselves professionally, and that the major proportion of their facts are accurate," he said. "Our officers have to sign every page of their report and swear that it is true- if an officer lies, he is perjuring himself, and may face departmental as well as criminal charges." Blackman acknowledged that charges of police brutality were on the upswing but attributed this rise to the publicity given such actions recently.

3:45 p.m. The public defenders, the prosecutors and even the judge look exhausted.

Soon tempers willflare, if decisions cannot be reached quickly. The action has shifted to Reilly's office, where Weisfeld and the other

"I tell them, 'Don't you get tired of looking in the white man's face?'"

P. D. s try to get the best deals for their clients using all the persuasion they can muster.

"This guy's really not a bad guy, "one of them explains. "He doesn't have anything real on his record, just a lot of petty stuff " Reilly shalcts his head in annoyance. "I've seen him in here- before. He's heading for a lot 1 of trouble. Tell him the present offer is the , best he's going /Q do. " The attorney hurries out the door to confer with his client, returning about 10 minutes later. "He says no way, he says he didn't do it." "'That's fine. Tell him he can take it tc trial." ' The plea bargain is among the most ron~roversial aspects of the legal system, but its use is fundamental.

Crawford feels that, in fact, the plea bargain can act to implement justice rather than impede it. "The public's perception of plea bargaining is that somehow the person gets something for , nothing," she said. "Ideally, all cases should be tried so the person has his guilt or innocence adjudicated. But I think most people will plead to what they've done. You can't make people plead guilty."

Weisfeld, too, ·grudgingly admits the indispensability of plea bargaining.

Although she feels that ultimately all cases should be tried, the impossibility of having speedy trials for the vast number of defendants who would await them in jail makes this an impractical solution. Furthermore, Weisfeld contends, judges or prosecutors will often "punish" a defendant or his lawyer for insisting that a case be tried. "They will sometimes give a harsher sentence, then justify it by claiming that all sorts of new things came to light during the trial. That's bullshit." Reilly's view is firmly fixed: "I put pressure on both sides, the state

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During plea bargaining sessions, the ideological differences between the defense and the prosecution are made apparent. For the most part, the relationship between state's attorneys and public defenders in the New Haven system is a good one. Weisfeld calls the relationship "more colloquial than adversarial-we need them, and they need us. If we took everything to trial, the system would collapse tomorrow."

Yet at some point, the value system that accompanies either job must surface . "Once you get an ideology, it forms you," Weisfeld said. Hers is clear. "I don't concern myself with innocence or guilt. I'm more concerned with what the state can prove. If you really believe that innocent people shouldn't go to jail, you have to accept that guilty people will get off free."

Crawford has mixed feelings . "It's one of those paradoxes where I think everyone has the right to defense, but I don't think I have to defend them. The conflicts are fewer from my point of view. As a prosecutor, you have to watch out that you don't abuse anyone's rights, and see that people are treated fairly in the system . I feel that I'm making some kind of a contribution. To society as a whole, I guess."

5 p.m. The dark, dusty hall is empty once more, the courtrooms deserted. Outside on the steps, a few teenagers sit and sip Cokes betwma the two statues that adorn the facade.

The statues are of men, swathed in cloth robes and leaning forward intent!J, but it is impossible to ull whether they are supposed to represent truth, or justice, or something else mtire!J.

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"Students will always complain about two things: school food and health care."

At 10:00 p.m. on October 9, Aimet' Wolfson, TD '87, twisted hel· ankle before the Stiles gate. Rushed to Urgent Visit by the Yale police, she anived at 10:30. Wolfson grimaced and shook her head as she recalled her ensuing 11xperience with the University Health $el'Vkes (UHS). She spent the next two hours in the waiting room in extreme pain; her requests for painkillers and aspirin went ignored.

She said that, once admitted, she received a curs.ory examination from·a doctor whose only advice was that she return the next day for x·rays. The non-physician who then treated her failed to wash a dirty bleeding !~Crape .

The foJJowing morning, the physician told her she had sprained her ankle, and referred her to Physical Therapy to have it taped. There, the therapist informed her she would be able to walk without crutches in three days.

Despite her doubts about the possibility of walking .JOOO and misgivings about the quality of her treatment. Wolfson did not question the diagnosis. But her parents, both physicians, did. Arriving the next day for Parents' Weekend, they realized that their daughter's problem was considerably more serious than had been diagnosed. But the orthopedic surgeon contracted by the Health Plan had left his office earlier that Friday and would not be available for three days. Convinced that their daughter required a specialist's care, the Wolfsons finally took her without referral to the Yale~New Haven Hospital emergency room, where a physician diagnoaec.l the problem to be torn ligaments and set her ankle in a

cast. He informed her that. baq she twisted the ankle again, . she . Woql(i have required an oper~tion. · ~ Most undergraduates consider ; Wolfwn's expetience typical of UHS, Yet despite the per-va11ive :feeling that the Health Services provide shQd({y care, "horror stories" abOt.tt trc;a~'l at UHS are not easy to com~by!'~~ pressed beyond theit lltr;)ck response-"DUH sq.cks"-stude~ often cannot back their loW opioi with specifics. Granted, examples' incompetence do exist. but ~el'tainly.u not in numben large era~·;..,~ account solely for the high ~l- of dissatisfaction. Rather, the aout1! appears to be a combination Of_ Stude misperceptions and the Jie#lth Services' very real inadequaties;. complicated by the ocaJsional aco:>ii"iii of misdiagnosis and mis~t.

Resolving these problems may pr.ove impossible. The star.:t)jng l8c;k. communication betweeft ·.the undergraduate community and UHS currently prevents solution. Ther.d'ore, student misunderstanding lin~r'l, an<t the Health Services' flaws go negl~d.

Ultimately, Wolfson blames the \'ery structure of the Health Services for her shoddy care. Her physician at UHS, she accused, was unwilling W give her thorough treatment because it woJid be too costly. Her criticism may be valid: UHS is modeled upon a system designed to reduce medical care costs. In l971 Yale abandoned its insufficient health care system, the.

Department of University Health, and created the first university-based Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) to offer comprehensive health

:or.

to

its faeulty, staff, students, by assembling a general practitioners and ld"~llt"'"''"w:sl~ under one roof.

UHS adopted the guiding principle &be HMO: to provide th~ highest PEli:JUl~Un:v ,. a~ ~t the loweat possible ,by tneiUl• of a pre•pay~nt • •~·-··- Rather than pay each time care, members buy into the Plan by paying a ~et premium.

V(henever they do need care, f~~ellllb4~r.- · go fint to a general dl'!li,'N..rriti·n'n,,..r who diagnoses them, and, refen them to an c•PJ)I'O]priatl:: no-noe>u>IC specialist Or lO a outside the plan if the ~)l}Jj~m is beyond the scope of staff Therefore, one of the Services' attractive features should be ease of patient referral. But stude~-referred to specialists' care often ~ lhemlielves at the .end of a wafliftc lilt. And in frustration , go o~ UHS for treatment.

•v................. johnson developed what she th~t was a urinary tract infection (lJTI), a paiQ[ul inflammation of the urethra or bl.ader. She turned first to Undergraduate Medicine. But when her ailment did not respond to treatment, her physician ~ferred ber to the UHS urologist, who sees students at the Health Genter on Wednesday afternoons. Told that the first available appointment was not for another mqnth aad a half. Johnson turned to Gy~, hoping that a referral from that department might speed the proc:aa. She got the refenal, but still could not circumvent the wamng list. In great pain and unwilling. to live with it for six weeks, 1;{"-l~.:•~o:;llluc:nUJ

she, like Wolfson, consulted private practitioners outside UHS for care. It was a $200 decision. but one which got her prompt and effective treatment.

Students, however, level more complaints at particular departments of the Health Services than they do at its organizational structure. In fact, none of. the departments students visit most frequently- Athletic Medicine, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Mental Hygiene, Undergraduate Medicine, Urgent Visit- escape criticism .

Students claim that Athletic Medicine fails to practice its stated policy: returning athletes to competition as soon as they can participate without risking further injury. Athletes say that the department places a higher priority on sending them back to the fields than it does on their health. One student described the staff as "a patch·'ern-upand·push-'em-out-there sort of crew."

Athletes commonly believe that advice from Athletic Medicine should be. taken with a grain of 11alt. and many turn to practitioners outside UHSsome on the ad\' ice of their coaChes. All but one of the athletes who reported having bad experiences refused to have their stories published. Even after being offered anonymity, they declined, saying that the nature of their problems would identify them.

Cynthia Russell was willing to break the silence only because she is no longer able to compete as a runner.

She cannot walk for long periods without pain, and her right hip remains bruised to this da)'. While she does not blame her permanent dis-

ability on Athletic Medicine, she does accuse the department of having exacerbated her injury: "Because the physician took a shortcut I was stuck on crutches for three months," she said. Now, Russell runs short distances occasionally on her own. "l love to run," she explained, smiHng shyly as she pointed at the copy of Runner Magazine on her trunk. She refused to name the physician who had treated her because she had never confronted him directly herself.

Russell, now a senior, had not run competitively before freshman year.

Upon arriving at Yale, she joined the cross-country team and improved hrr distance running dramatically in very little time. Her body was unprepared for the change, however, and she injured her right hip. Though she tried stretching and applying heat and ice to the sore area, the pain persisted. It prevented her from completing her last race of the season. The next day she went to UHS. •Tne doctor who rxamined rne had been an athlete himself, so I trusted him. • she recalled. He explainw to her that her problem was a common one, and prescribed Motrin, a disinflammatory drug. But the pain in her hip intensified, and she returned to Athletic Medicine. This time, the physician offered her cortisone, a hormone injected into the tissue around joints to reduce inflammation. The doctor assured RusseU that the pain would vanish within hours of the shot and that she would be able to run after a few days. She accepted the injection.

Pain increa~d drarnaticaJly after the .shot. In a few hours, she could not The New Joumalljanuary 31, 1986 17

walk without timeing, She .c alled the physician, wJ:LO :'gain ~xplained that the tenderness would ,soon go_away. Itdidn't. Russell consulted a private orthopedic surgeon when she went home for Christmas break. BJaming the cortisone for worsening her condition, h"e put her on crutches. A New Haven orthopedic surgeon Russell visited upon returning to Yale recommended that she be treated with ultrasound. She received the therapy at UHS, and her condition improved.

After spring break, she was able to walk without crutches.

According to Dr. Daniel Larson, the director and only full-time physician in Athletic Medicine, the pressure to return to competition tends to come from athletes, not coache11. Larson added, however, that ~mphasizing a speedy recovery never outweighs his chief concern: the athlete's health. "We want no probability of further injury," said Larson, who competed in track at Yale. Articulate and humorous, Larson demonstrated great command over his department's statistics. He explained that many athletes ignore their own long-term health care by not returning for further treatment after they begin to feel better. "If you have a concern about the long-term implications of treatment, ask," he advised. But this safeguard somehow does not seem sufficient.

The Women's Center, the Coalition for an Educated Choice (CEC), and the Student Gynecology Resource recently sponsored a survey of undergraduate women to gauge their opinion of UHS's department of Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB/GYN).

According to Hilary Fox, cocoordinator of the CEC, many of the women surveyed complained of being unable to schedule appointments to have urgent problems treated expeditiously. "People are upset about having to wait more than a month or six weeks for things like a urinary tract infection or a pelvic exam to get birth control. These problems are more 18 The New Journal/january 31, 1986

important than the people at DUH thiok," Fox said. . In fact,' when patients call OB/GYN, it is departmental policy to automatically schedule them for appointments six to eight weeks in the fQture. However, according to Nurse Coordinator Vicki Wirth, women with specific problems can be seen in one day's time. If patients, after being offered a distant appointment, ¡then explain that they have pressing concerns, the receptionist will refer them to Wirth, who will evaluate the urgency of their need. "What the patient needs to know," Wirth said, "is that if they have a problem and need to come in sooner, they should speak to the nurse coordinator. The real problem is the person who calls in, hears the first available appointment is six to eight weeks off, gets angry and hangs up without pursuing her concern further."

But the "real problem" is that nowhere is this information offered to women. The department's handbook does not include it in its section concerning appointments at OB/GYN. Fox herself had never heard the process described and, when informed, became indignant. She argued that a person should neither have to dig for an appointment nor give personal information to a receptionist untrained in providing gynecological care.

Wirth feels that the existing system does not jeopardize women's health, and that much of the criticism is unfair: "People see a light at the end of the tunnel as relates to a specific neea.

They have one time in mind for an appointment and are disappointed when they can't get it. So we're perceived as not being flexible," she said. But Wirth agreed that many women do not understand how to get an appointment at OB/GYN. "I don't think they pursue it," she said. "They just get discouraged." Yet under the present system, Wirth reports that by 11:00 a.m. her desk is buried beneath records of people who called in requesting urgent care. One wonders if OB/GYN could survive the onslaught if all its uninformed users were

abruptly enlightened.

This communication gap could be bridged easily by a detailed explanation of the appointment process in the student and OB/GYN handbooks or, more effectively, by a revision of the existing system. Yet what can be the purpose of having the receptionist automatically give a distant appointment other than to discourage women from seeking care at OB/GYN? If this is the goal, the system seems to be successful.

According to a worker at Planned Parenthood, an organization on Whitney Avenue which provides gynecological services, more Yale women have gone there for care this year than in the last three combined.

"Many students have run into an overmoralistic attitUde when asking for birth control. Sometimes they've been told that abstinence is the best method."

Many undergraduates unable to schedule a satisfactory appointment in OB/GYN also turn to Undergraduate Medicine for gynecological care, as the "Guide to Obstetrical and Gynecological Care" suggests. But there, according to Fox, "Many students have run into an overmoralistic attitude when asking for birth control.

Sometimes they've been told that abstinence is the best method."

One woman recalled her experience with Undergraduate Medicine. When she developed a urinary tract infection, a condition aggravated by her use of a diaphragm, Julia Goldburg was examined by a Student Medicine nurse practicioner who informed her that, in her opinion, Goldburg should not be having premarital sex. Goldburg said that the woman stood away from her

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Undergraduates believe that unless they threaten suicide, they will be placed on a weeks-long waiting list for therapy at Mental H ygiene. According to Dr. Robert Arnstein, directorofMental H ygiene for 25 years, this perception comes from his department's attempt to meet an excessive demand. Those seeking therapy are first given an "initial evaluation" to determine their need. If considered "able to function," students are then referred to a waiting list. The length of the waiting list varies with the time of year. For example, students who come in on March 1 will be¡ given brief therapy before the end of the term, and then, if necessary, be invited back t~ continue at the beginning of the following school year.

In addiuon, students believe that, once in therapy, they will eventually be ejected regardless of whether they have made any progress. This complaint is also grounded in fact, since a fl exible limit of 15 50-minute visits is placed on those students considered "able to function. " Once past this limit , students must wait until the following year to pursue therapy, provided their m ental health does not degenerate.

Arnstein pointed out that many colleges provtde for only three or four visits.

"Yes, there are times we'd like to do more," be admitted, "but there's a financial limit."

Students are likely to believe the worst of the Health Services because of a commonly held perception that the medical staff of UHS simply does not care about undergraduates. The health center is an enormous and busy place.

Receptionists at the front desk seem more interested in the last four digits of social security numbers than in names, and the place is swarming with strangers.

Added to students' confusion on using the Health Services is the

frustratio n of waiting for walk-in care.

Waiting rooms are comfortable, and ce rtainly spacious . Chai rs are cushioned, there is no Muzak (UHS dropped it years ago in response to complaints), and magazines and medical pamphlets litter the tables. But an afternoon spent leafing through last July's New Yorker and periodically glancing at the clock is not well spent for students in a hurry to get cured and get on with life.

This phenomenon, often considered a n integral part of the Yale experience, is nevertheless avoidable. UHS staff members, from the director on down, boast of Undergraduate Medicine's excellent record for providing sameday appointments to students who call early in the morning. They do not need to turn to walk-in care to get speedy treatment. Yet the Health Plan handbook nowhere mentions this same-day a ppointment policy.

Often, those students who do receive an appointment still feel alone and anonymous when they find themselves being examined by a different person each time. By recommending that subscribers to the H ealth Plan regularly consult one member of the medical staff when they require treatment, U H S does try to make care more personal. But most undergraduates ar e clearly ignorant of this policy, though the handbook mentions it.

Students, then , are partly to blame for their perception that the staff of UHS is insensitive. For example, undergraduates too busy during the day wander over to UHS at night expecting treatment. Urgent Visit staff become impatient dealing with students' sore throats while patients with more pressing problems are kept waiting. Unli ke the pediatric specialists who- staff Undergraduate M edicine, the physicians, nurses, a nd physician's assistants of Urgent Visit are not trained specifically in treating the student age group. When students ask a lot of questions or refer to the kind of care they received at home, Urgent Visit health care providers may take offense. Students who do not understand their providers' impatience

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attribute it to indifference.

Beyond claims of insensitivity, students frequently accuse the staff of downright incompetence. In some cases, students' failure to understand the nature of their sickness and treatment may be at the root of the problem. Within the college age group, illnesses tend to be viral and therefore difficult to diagnose.

"Sometimes people have to be sick for a finite period of time before we know what's wrong with them," explained Dr. Jane Rasmussen, a pediatrician in Undergraduate Medicine. "Students at this stage tend to expect instant care.

Many of the problems they have are v i ral- mononucleosis, hepatit iswhich modern medicine doesn't have a cure for yet. I keep saying maybe tomorrow. If I don't bring my magic wand in some days I can't cure them.

It's very frustrating ."

The most striking feature of the UHS- undergraduate relationship is the awesome lack of communication.

Students aware of problems with UHS-either within a department's structure or with individual providersdo not communicate their concerns to the Health Services, while UHS in turn does not reach out to students to dispel their misperceptions.

UHS has established three vehicles for communication to encourage members' input, but does not actively inform students of their existence.

They are listed on the 51st page of the student handbook. Consequently, students, either out of ignorance or apathy, do not make use of them.

Although the Health Services comment card system has served as a model for other organizations since UHS started using it in 1973, undergraduates rarely take advantage of it.

At the front desk in all main reception areas, the Health Plan deposits cards that encourage general comments and pose specific questions, such as "Does the UHS seem to you to be staffed by competent people?" and "Can you suggest any ways in which the UHS could improve 1ts services to patients?" Every two weeks the Comment Card Com-

20 The New Journal/January 31, 1986

mittee, which includes the director and the medical director of UHS, evaluates the cards and determines which member of the staff should respond to each comment, and department chiefs consult any member of their staff targetted with several complaints. No students who were interviewed had filed cards.

Another potentially effective but less visible medium for communication with UHS is the Patient Health Care Coordinator, Geraldine Frei. From her tiny office on the first floor of the health center, Frei addresses individuals' needs: she is there to explain the system to confused patients, to try to resolve complaints and, if possible, to speed patient access to the various departments. However, she is rarely contacted by undergraduates and feels they are unaware of her office. Frei agreed that it would be a good idea to inform the students. "Once we posted notices about this office irt the offices of the residential college deans. We perhaps should get back to doing that again," she said.

The third vehicle for dialogue is the Consumer Advisory Committee, which includes six undergraduate representatives among its 18 members.

Though the committee's purpose is to put forward members' complaints and to propose new health programs, it seems to have no impact on or for the undergraduate community. Last year, the undergraduate representatives attempted to sound out their peers' opinions of UHS. Their survey reached only 30 undergraduates, and they abandoned the project. Peter Litwin , DC '86 and committee chairman, explained that the undergraduate representatives plan to raise their profile by putting out table tents to describe the committee and by holding a meeting to discuss the H ealth Plan. To date, the student body has yet to be informed of its representatives' names. The six students were listed in the winter issue of the Yak Health Plata Consumer Newsletter, which keeps H ealth Plan members updated on changes in UHS. It is not sent to undergraduates.

Athletes commonly b elieve that advice from Athletic M edicine should be taken with a grain of salt.

S tudents and U H S staff both acknowled ge the lack of communication and agree that it causes problems. Why, t hen, is no one doing anything a bout it? The student handbook is clearly inadequate. Most students do not have the stamina to forge their way through it, and, in any case, it omits important in formation. Failing to understand h ow to use UHS leads students to q uestion its quality. Hearing occasional horror stories about misdiagnosis and mistreatment at the H ealth Services fuels the perception that UHS is inadequate. Savvy upperclassmen convey this negative attitude to arriving freshmen, who are already uneasy a b out using the Health Services for the first time. Vague denunciations of the quality of care abound ("I know I've heard stories . . . "), and misperceptions multiply.

And the undergraduate community d oes not forget; that Yal!!'s health system is still called by its original initials, DUH, 14 years after its name was changed, is evidence of the tenacity of undergraduates' collective, collecting memory.

Perhaps , then, UHS staff members are justifiably fatalistic about undergraduate criticism. One phy sicia n smiled ruefully in responding to students' common concerns. "Students will always complain about two things: school food and health care," she explained. These words imply that improving U H S is fu tile. H owever, the premise behind them, that undergraduate complaining is inevitable, is not valid . Rather, complaining is inevitable only if UHS continues to operate in a vacuum, isolated at the University's periphery.

If undergraduates would address their complaints to UHS instead of to each other, and if UHS would step actively into the Yale community , a vital part of undergraduates' lives could be fully integrated.

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22 The Newjournalljanuary 31. 1986

Defining the Crime Martha Brant

"I'm the wrong color and I'm too big to be a battered woman," Gladys Faulk told her lawyer after she was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on November 22. Faulk, a 5'9", 180 pound black woman had killed her exboyfriend. On the same day as Faulk's sentencing another New Haven woman, also black, committed a similar crime. Again on .Christmas day, a woman from Dixwell Avenue stabbed her ex-boyfriend. These three cases of assault within eight months are not purely coincidental. They illustrate, rather, that battered women often turn to violent solutions as a result of their inadequate protection by the law.

By virtue of their actions, none of these women fit the classic image of the defenseless battered woman who is unable to fight back. Moreover, all three women were black and lowermiddle class. Faulk's situation was therefore not unique. Yet her deviation from more traditional stereotypes led to confusion at her trial, to a conflict between Faulk's status as a victim and her violent act. The prosecution and the defense created opposing images of Faulk, each substantiating their claims with different definitions of what it means to be a battered woman.

Of the 10 years Faulk lived in New Haven and worked as a nurse at YaleNew Haven Hospital, three of them were plagued by a man named Jackson Smith. After a six month romantic relationship with Smith in 1982, Faulk left him because of what she has described as his "irrational jealousy."

Apparently, Smith would not agree to

be just friends. For three years he persistently broke into her home, sexually and physically abused her, and harrassed her children. Faulk moved three times in the course of three years to escape Smith, but to no avail. On May 18, 1985, Faulk came home to find , once again, that Smith had broken in. Upon warning from her son that Smith was reaching for a knife, Faulk grabbed a kitchen knife and tried to call the police. In her attempt to make him leave, a fight ensued and Faulk fatally injured Smith.

Faulk was incarcerated the day of the incident. Almost immediately, a group of New Haven citizens led by Faulk's friends from the hospital formed the Defense Committee for Gladys Faulk. The unusual group met about once a month at the Dixwell Community House, a modern building which stands out m a neighborhood of older, decaying tenement housing. The committee has raised $2000 bail in contributions from Yale-New Haven employees, enabling Faulk to get out of jail 10 days after she entered. They also organized a mass mailing throughout Connecticut which raised $1500 for general expenses. In o rder to provide for a good defense attorney as well as a child psychologist, they held a benefit for her at St. Paul's Episcopal Church which drew about 100 people and raised S1000.

At their final meeting on the afternoon of November 7, Jake Weinstein, a leading member of the committee, elaborated on the case.

Weinstein, a man in his early thirties wearing hiking boots, a t-shirt, and

jeans was one of the many persona l friends of Faulk's who made up about half of the committee. The other half was composed of concerned citizens.

As an unconventional young man , a middle aged black man with a heavy African accent, and a lively o lder woman entered the room , Weinstein said, "You know when Gladys was incarcerated in May she met a lot of women in jail for the same reason she was." Although the number of women who kill their abusers is unknown, 44 out of 1000 women suffer abuse in domestic situations, according to the Connecticut Department of Human Resources. Moreover, many women in jail for murder have killed either their husband or their boyfriend. Weinstein was very familiar with battered women cases and was especially concerned with the related issue of police neglect of domestic violence. As he slouched over the table and clasped his hands, Weinstein noted, "She'd call the police, but when they came, if they came, usually he'd be gone. Of all the times Gladys called them, they never arrested him. This just escalated the violence."

Weinstein and the other committee members' awareness reflects a growing national concern with cases of domestic violence and police negligence toward them. In one recent case, Tracey Thurman of Torrington, Connecticut won $2.3 million in compensatory damages from the city. She had been permanently disfigured and partially paralyzed by her estranged husband in 1983, and the Court declared that the Torrington police deparment's "failure The New JournaVJanuary 31, 1986 23

to act" on her reports of h'arassment and abuse were responsible. This case established a precedent that now ho lds the police liable for their inaction.

Yet police apathy to domestic violence, as shown in Thurman's case, has still not significantly decreased .

The 10 reports Faulk filed with the N ew Haven police, for instance, were ent itled "Domestic" rather than "Assault." Police often do not view seriously the threat to the individual in domestic cases because the person knows the offender. Moreover, police

Faulk's home: Statistics hint that police do less to prevent domestic violence in working-class neighborhoods.

24 The New Journal/january 31, 1986

frequently get hurt in these cases.

Wome n can sometimes obtain Temporary Restraining Orders against their mates, but they are very rarely enforced. Occasionally the police actually find the offender and attempt to bring him to court, but usually the assailant fails to appear and the police merely issue a rearrest warrant. Often the warrant will not be pursued. The violator is very rarely punished, and without a deterrent from either the court or the police department, women have relatively little protection from repeated abuse.

Police neglect of recurring incidents of violence happens at all levels of society and among all races. A 19i7 case from Dansville, Michigan, which inspired the film The Burning Bed, awakened the nation to the helpless ~ituation of abused women. The poor white woman the cas,ÂŤ; involved, Francine Hughes, was repeatedly abused by her husband . As in Faulk's case, .the. police could not act upon her calls because they had not witnessed an abusive incident. Hughes doused her bedroom with gasoline while her husband was asleep and set it ablaze. A more significant parallel between Hughes and Faulk is their shared economic status. Statistics hint that police do less to prevent domestic violence in lower-class neighborhoods because of their belief in pervasive violence among the poor.

At the sentencing on November 22 in a hot, overcrowded courtroom in the New Haven Superior Court, Faulk's case appeared to correspond to the Hughes case , but with several unique additions. Even before the sentencing began, Faulk revealed two different images of herself which both the prosecution and the defense would play upon . Initially, she looked proud and strong as she sat up straight in her purple velveteen blazer. While she and her supporters waited in the tense courtroom, Faulk appeared confident as many teary , nervous friends approached her . But when the time for her case arrived, Faulk became jittery and glassy-eyed. The

prosecutor, Assistant State Attorney Mary Galvin, disrupted the display of support and began the proceedings by loudly proclaiming, "Gladys Faulk is not a battered woman."

Peering through her round glasses, Galvin introduced the facts with an air of self-confidence and a slight tone of sarcasm, intending to destroy any image of Faulk as a weak and helpless abused woman. Galvin claimed that Faulk "has a prior criminal record for a felonious assault against her own sister in 1973, as well as two other incidents on her record. This is the fourth time she has appeared before a court."

Galvin waved her hand about as she went on to e.stablish Faulk as a violent person and to dispel any initial sympathy battered women usually receive: "Faulk's relationship with Smith was a tumultuous one with violence on both sides. Of all the police reports, only one recorded injuries, and those were to Smith. Faulk hit him over the head with a flower pot." Galvin's voice drowned out the murmuring in the court as she began to depict vividly Smith's injuries. "There were four stab wounds, not one. There was one on his ~ight hand, clearly a defensive wound, and three on his back. Evidently these wounds were not inflicted in selfdefense," she pronounced.

Galvin also meticulously emphasized the inconsistency of Faulk's testimony in police reports concerning the stabbing. "First she said it happened in the kitchen. Later she claimed it happened as he was leaving." _:rhen Galvin concluded just as abruptly as she had begun.

"Although it may not have been premeditated murder, Faulk did intend to injure Smith. She poses a threat to the community and should be removed." With that she sat down with her back squarely facing the courtroom.

The prosecutor had attempted to show that Faulk's history and the specifics of the case prove her to be a violent criminal rather than a vulnerable battered woman. But speaking next, Diane Polan, Faulk's

"If you're a victim and you act like a victim, you get a lot of sympathy- you might be dead, you might be in the hospital -but you get sympathy." defense attorney, began to transform Faulk's image into a diligent, caring woman who was frightened by the very real threat of an obsessed man. Unlike Galvin, Polan appeared more comfortable in court. She called on witness after witness to give their personal accounts of Faulk, in an effort to create a positive, sympathetic image.

One witness, Doris Thorpe, a night nurse administrator at Yale-New Haven for 37 years and Faulk's immediate supervi.sor for five years, assured the court of both Faulk's patience and her harrassment by Smith. Although Faulk worked a demanding midnight to eight a.m. shift with the sick, the aged, and undoubtedly some high-strung and impatient doctors, "she never once lost her temper and there have never been any complaints from hospital staff or patients about her," according to Thorpe. She went on to verify Faulk's abuse. "She had come to work one night with 5trangle marks on her throat and signs of being punched." When asked if Faulk was afraid of Smith, Thorpe immediately replied, as if insulted by such an obvious question , "Yes, definitely."

Another friend of Faulk's, Julie Castella, a young woman whom Faulk had supported for a year because of a family problem, informed the court that despite the frustrations Faulk must encounter being a single mother of two, "I never once witnessed any violence toward the children. If they got into a fight, they talked it out. " Others told of the numerous part-time

jobs Faulk held in addition to her hospital job so she could send her 14-year-old-daughter, Beatrice, to parochial school. Some mentioned the volunteer work Faulk did at the school her seven-year-old son Robert attends.

An especially important witness, child psychologist Dr. Edward H. Futterman, emphasized Faulk's close relationship with her children and the impact her incarceration might have on them. "Beatrice is a highly dependent girl who is almost pr,.otective of her mother," Futterman exclaimed.

"She declared that she 'would just quit' if her mother were imprisoned."

Futterman described Robert as "extremely vulnerable," and he mentioned that he had indicated suicidal tendencies.

After letting the witnesses present a positive view of Faulk, Polan herself refuted the prosecutor's denial of Faulk's status as a battered woman.

"Clearly this was a battering situation," Polan concluded. "Her inability to extricate herself from the situation she was in is a typical characteristic in all battered woman cases." ¡ Then she reminded the judge, "incarceration is only justified if a person is a threat to the community or if the community demands retribution." Polan had attempted to show Faulk's qualities, that the community supported Faulk, and that not even Smith's relatives demanded retribution. According to Polan, Faulk's case didn't meet either of the qualifications for imprisonment.

Superior Court judge Frank J. Kinney disagreed. Without even a The New J o urnaVJanuary 31 , 1986 25

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short break after the lengthy defense, he had made a decision. He let out a frustrated breath and said in a quiet voice which could easily be heard in the motionless room, "I'm not satisfied that this is a battered woman. Several facts are disturbing. She has support in the comm unity, yet these witnesses are not relying on objective facts but on M rs. Faulk's version of what happened. I'm aware of the impact my decisio n may have on the children, and I regret it, but some period of impr isonment is necessary." He pronounced a sentence of two and a half years in jail followed by about eight years probation.

The judge's voice was immediately muffied by commotion. Amidst all the movement and noise, however, one figure remained stationary: Robert, Faulk's wide-eyed son. His apparent state of shock and silent tears probably came not so much out of an understand ing of what had happened and the impact it would have on him, but as a response to his sister's hysteria and his own fright at seeing adults in tears.

Yet one dramatic courtroom scene may not be sufficient to explain all the a mb iguities inherent in Faulk's case.

Late r, speaking with Polan at her office, am idst numerou s plants and po li t ical posters, more subtle com plexities emerged. Polan had or iginally agreed to defend Faulk after Faulk's friends learned of the lawyer's reputation for representing battered women and requested her assistance.

Polan, '73, Law '80, is one of four in New H aven's only all-women law firm, Levine and Polan, which she describes as "a politically progressive, feminist law office." As water leaked through the roof of her homey office above Charlie's P lace, she addressed some of the prosecutor's statements and examined their implications.

Polan initially elaborated on one of the most condemning arguments against Faulk: the felonious assault on her sister. Polan explained, "This assault was 12 years ago. She was visiting her sister in New Haven, and she lived in South Carolina. They were

"This association between black people and a violent way of living reflects race and class bias." both drinking, and the sister accused her of flirting with her boyfriend, which wasn't true. There was a physical fight in which the sister was on top of Gladys, and G ladys picked up a bottle and cut her sister with it. She ended up pleading guilty not really understanding that there were consequences."

According to Polan, the seriousness of the charges against Faulk and the handling of the incident in 1973 are an example of "the class and race bias of the system." In 1973, if Faulk had been able to afford better counsel or if she had had the time to resolve the problem instead of returning to her job for fear oflosing it, she may have been able to get the charges against her reduced or dropped. If she were white, someone might have been sympathetjc and tried to protect her record, and she would not have pleaded guilty to the charge. In addition, Polan implied that many people even subconsciously stereotype blacks by associating them w ith low economic status, little education, and societal problems. She pointed out, "When the judge said 'I know about these love/hate relationships,' I think he was expressing his own subconscious notions about the kind of relationships that go on among people who are poor and of a lower social class than he is. This association between black people and a violent way of living reflects race and class bias." Eight years ago Francine Hughes was acquitted on grounds of temporary insanity. Perhaps there was a sympathetic attitude toward this white woman that did not exist toward Faulk.

The role of race and class in Faulk's case is subtle, and some will even de ny that it exists. But the double standard in the court system concerning abused women is almost blatant. The justice system, all levels of it, has disregarded

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the seriousness of domestic violence for a long time. Since the system doesn't prevent abuse from recurring, many women have no alternative but to handle the situation as best they can.

But this leads to the danger of condemnation by our society and by the very system in which they sought refuge. Gladys Faulk defended herself against Jackson Smith by fighting back, leading the court to perceive the relationship as mutually violent. Because she resisted abuse, confusion arose over the definition of a "battered woman" in the Faulk case.

Polan said, "I think that was the most pernicious part of what the prosecutor d id: to get up and say this isn't a battered woman because she fought back, that the whole definition of battered is that you have to sit back and be a victim- if you fight back you are no longer a battered woman. If you're a victim and you act like a victim, you get a lot of sympathy- you might be dead, you might be in the hospital- but you get sympathy. I think the message is 'let the guy break your bones, end up in' the hospital, but if you fight back you're the one who's going to end up in jail, not him.' And I think its a real tragedy."

Undoubtedly, it is unfortunate when a nyone, but especially a ·mother of two, attempts to free herself from abuse and then serves time in jail for it.

Yet, how much blame for the situation rests on the individual and how much on our society and its justice system?

The Defense Committee for Gladys Faulk thinks they know the answer to this question. They feel Judge Kinney misinterpreted and overlooked many aspects of the case. The committee has distributed a letter throughout Connecticut asking for supporters to write Kinney in protest. For others, the answer lies in a belief or disbelief in the subtle biases and stereotypes of race, class, and gender within the judicial system.

•

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Paradise Interpreted Milton, Poet of Duality

by R. A. Shoaf Yale University Press, 1985 225 pages, $17.00

"It is the task of the critic to keep thinking open," R.A. Shoaf says. The Yale English professor intends both meanings: a critic must think originally and yet avoid didacticism. Criticism, and especially something as non-limited as literary criticism, should pass through as many open doors as possible without closing any of them; it should pursue questioning without satiation. In his latest book, Milton, Poet of Duality, Shoaf transforms this easily forgotten ideal into an entire critical program.

The book opens something as seeming¡ ly arcane and closed as Milton's Paradise Lost and proceeds to draw out not only many central problems of Milton scholarship, but also many central questions of the nature and role of poetic rhetoric in general. His analysis draws on many contemporary strands of critical theory, and his style has the unique capacity to be both provocative and convincing.

The subtitle of Shoafs book, "A Study of Semiosis in the Poetry and the Prose," is a good indication of the point from which Shoaf begins. Semiosisthat is, signification, or more precisely, the process by which signification occurs- is a byword among literary critics signalling a post-structuralist foray into "the text." To look at any narrative from the point of view of semiosis is to analyze it in its most basic function, to evaluate its ability to me4n anything at all.

Shoafs book frames Milton's poetry as an analysis of semiosis in its own right, an analysis which highlights and dramatizes the various dimensions of rhetorical signification. Discussing the story of humanity's transgression in Eden as rendered by Milton, Shoaf makes much of the presence of the apple as a sign in the otherwise heavenly 28 The New Journal/january 31, 1986

The Fallen: Shoaf draws out questions of the nature of poetic rht!toric latent in Milton's work.

landscape of the pre-fallen world. This becomes particularly meaningful as the "sign" is transfigured into a "sin" when Adam and Eve taste it, simultaneously incurring both their expulsion into the world and the replacement of the apple with the Son of God, otherwise known as the Word. Transgressing the sign, mankind falls into language and a condition in need of redemption. Milton's saga of the Fall in this way becomes tied to problems of"fallen" rhetoric and linguistic signification. And this in turn leads back to both Milton's primary concern as a poet and Shoafs concern as a commentator on literature. Shoaf demonstrates from a literary perspective how Adam and Eve's salvation becomes essentially linked with the salvation of rhetoric. In the critic's treatment, as in the poet's rhetoric, the sign-become-sin is recognized to be the legacy of the Fall.

One interesting dimension of this argument is the way it brings together such disparate disciplines as Christian theology and literary criticism . Both the nature and the structure of this analysis seem to presume that the perennial problem of Western

humanism- how to account for and deal with the gap between language and reality- is identical to a central tenet of Christian theology. Shoaf explores the status of rhetoric and the problem of its poetic usage in terms of transgression and redemption. In doing this, he virtually aligns certain issues of modern literary criticism with Christian dogma. One might feel that this borders on either scholarly hubris or perhaps heresy. And yet the point is there in Paradise Lost, as Shoaf is able to show convincingly. At the very least, and to the credit of Shoafs critical powers, this argument makes Milton seem to have a knowledge of the dangers and capabilities of rhetoric three centuries ahead of its time.

By touching many bases, by addressing everything from epistemology to morality and from narcissism to Dante, Shoaf goes beyond the intentions of even the most modern criticism, which tends to qualify itself as merely "rhetorical" or "structural" analysis. This much will be already familiar to those who know Shoaf from his Yale English literature courses.

Neither his professorial manner nor

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His analogies are wild and insightful, colored with everything from Elizabethan poetry to techniques of film editing or even to speech acquisition among infants. He is not averse to gesturing, sometimes extending his arms toward students or staring directly into the eyes of one in order to make a point almost embarrassingly personal, as if physically to lead those who are listening into the compelling synthesis of his vision.

The power of Shoafs analyses and the even tone of their development make it seem as if, regardless of the particular context of the given argument, something larger is always at stake. Implicit iri his academic vision is the belief that there is only one multi-dimensional realm of truth and knowledge that scholarship portends to address. One might sense a danger in this, a tendency to overlook specifics in the name of profundity. Yet Shoars intense style of literary analysis does not simply or irrevocably m ix .subjects better left apart and distinct.

On the con trary, pedagogical humility and a refined sense of academic respon sibility consistently check the otherwise exuberant drift of his argumentation. His questioning never loses control, even as momentum carries it well beyond the traditional strictures of interpretation .

One principle behind Shoars approach to literature is his stated distaste for method. Method, he feels , is an unnecessary intrusion into the critical enterprise, which already stands in uneasy external relation to that which it concerns. The precol'lceived notions of any "method," guidt. lines with which to approach a text, artificially constrain an interpretation to say certain things while disqualifying it from saying others . Dismissing method as a critical concern, Shoaf makes no pretense of providing a manifesto of literary theory. Yet, in

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His analogies are wild and insightful, colored with everything from Elizabethan poetry to techniques of film editing or even to speech acquisition among infants.

turning to the text at hand, he pursues its meaning with an energy and an allegiance he terms "a constant reference and reverence for the text."

In this way, Shoaf contributes to the field of literary theory, seemingly without trying or intending to at all.

Shoaf strategically and literally uses the text's own words to reconstitute it in a critical fashion. Borrowing his critical vocabulary from the text at hand, he tends to blur the d istinction between author and reader, between the work and its critic. He believes that any text, in order to be complete, must be understood by someone in external relation to it. A text can only be mean- of the critical beyond, the boundaries ingful to the extenr that it is and distinctions between one thing and understood by its readers. Every another become provocatively unclear, reading is therefore a criticism and an and Shoafs argument strains at the integral part of the text itself. Shoaf limits of his scholarly craft. Shoaf then begins by criticizing method and yet is able to read Paradise Lost and other of finally implies that some sort of Milton's related works as a parable of method- if orily that of merely com- signification in which ev~y reader has prehending- is inev itable, even a vital stake. With Milton, Shoaf wants the reader to feel not only the full n ecessary.

Why does Shoaf take on such an en- .weight of a Puritan's severe assessment. trenched literary figure as Milton, the of humanity but also the persistent patriarchal Goliath of English letters? faith of a theologian. Furthermore, he There is an answer, perhaps, in the would have us face the peculiar responfact that something as intransient and . sibility which is the poet in us all.

The question as to how Shoaf can accessible as theology firmly grounds Milton's poetic rhetoric. The Puritan possibly bring all this to bear w ithout poet, himself somewhat of a peda- being heavy-handed and transgressing gogue , drew only thin d istinctions be- his own stated intention to "keep thinktween his art and his faith. He allowed ing open" leads to the central problem his poetry to infect his religion and vice this book presents: does one finally versa. Because Milton's dual concern ascribe the argument of Milton, Poet of with art and belief resembles that of the Duality to Milton or to Shoaf? Its basic literary critic, whose textual analysis components are ·a set of theologicalinhabits the middle realm precisely poetic principles, the modern abstracbetween text and analysis, Shoaf can tions into and through which they are assume a secular equivalent of M ilton's drawn, and a particularly agile critical Christian piety, a literary faith prox- ability. But is it the Puritan's or the imate to the poet's own . By manipu- critic's conclusions that finally win out? lating these hidden interrelations, Shoafs firm answer is that neither one Shoaf pulls Milton's theological nor the other should or even can be rhetoric into the arena of literary considered exclusive. His own argucriticism, a broader context than that ment has two distinct and initially inof religious poetry. He then proceeds compatible poles: Milton's theology with his argument into a more or less and the secular analysis of a literary undefined field of humanistic scholar- critic. At times an overpowering Christian rhetoric pervades the book, ship .

Shoaf clearly finds much in Milton's though Shoaf explains this infusion of narrative that goes beyond both religious terminology as strategic: it theology and literature. In this realm reflects the inevitable consideration

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any reader must make for the "intended" and "prophetic" Christian essence of Milton's poetry. This rhetoric also reflects Shoafs interest in the tension and pull between a Christian poetics and the secular, critical stance through which it is approached.

Shoafs ability to forge a cre.ative synthesis between the text and its interpretation, by allowing the two to merge, is the central and perhaps controversial innovation of Shoafs work as a scholar and critic. In Milton, Poet of Dtudity, there remains little or no difference between the theological and the secular, the prophetic and the critical; Shoaf allows the two poles mutually to influence each other and then finally to merge together. Thus, it is difficult finally to pin down the source of many of the claims of the argument. The rhetoric is the poet's but it is in turn assumed by the critic, who manipulates it while attempting to do as little interpretive violence as possible to the original text.

However, this light critical treading which preserves the poet's rhetoric is not merely a passive repetition of Milton's 17th century moralism. On the contrary, Shoafs argument is informed by all the critical and philosophical insight of the centuries which proceed Milton. Milton, Poet of Duality is not so much a radical reinterpretation of the Western canon as a more agile construction of one of its details. And this is precisely the value of Shoafs work as a critic and scholar, taking up our literary heritage not to polemicize on the impossibility of meaning _or in reaction to such polemics, but rather to consolidate our modern perspective and move on, to a new style of analysis if necessary. With such precedents as this, it seems that criticism is now beginning to undertake the program which Milton instituted three centuries ago, as Shoaf puts it, "seeking not the bizarre for its own sake but the mysterious articulations of the unities of the plenitude."

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David Carpenter is a senior in Silliman.

The New JournaUJanuary 31, 1986 31

Beginning thfs week, to ask you to make a pi pledged on an annual our Class's 25th reunion