Volume 19 - Issue 5

Publisher Margarita Smith Editor-in-Chief Melissa Turner Business Manager Barrie Seidenberg Managing Editors Jay Carney Tamar Lehrich Designer Beth Callaghan Production Manager Stu Weinzimer Photography Editor Carter Brooks Associate Business Managers Debra Rosier Grace White• National Sales Manager Laura Smith* Associate Editors Tom Augst • J_ennifer Sachs James Bennet Daniel Waterman Susan Orenstein Peter Zusi Associate Production Manager David Brendel Circulation Managers David Katz• Norman Dong• Associate Designer John Stella• Staff Bronwyn Barkan Martha Bran,t, Beth Cohen J enmfer Fleissner

Pearl Hu P eter Lefkowitz Skye Wilson• Yin Wong

•ti«JM Ftbruary 15, 1987

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2 The New Journal/ February 27 , 1987

Mnnbers and Directors: Edward B. Bennett III • Henry Chauncey, Jr. • Peter B. Cooper • Andy Court • Brooks Kelley • Michelle Press • Fred Strebeigh • Thomas Strong Friends: Anson M. Beard, Jr. f • · Edward B .

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Copyright i967 by The New Journal at Yale, Inc. All righto l't'lt~ . Reproduct~n elther in whole or in part without written pc:rmiuion of the publisher and edicor-in-ehief it prohibited.

This magazine is published by Va.IC' College student•. a.nd Vale Univenicy is not responsible for its contents. n, Ntut jounuJ is t~set by the Chariton Press of New Haven, CT. and printed by Rare Reminder. Inc. of ROC"ky Hill, CT. Bookktt-ping and billing services provided by Colman Bookkeeping of New Haven, CT. wur-eoo: 305 Crown Street, Office 312 Phone: (203) 432· 1957 £~·en thousand coptes of each issue arc distributed free to mcmbc-n o( 1hc Vale Univcnity community.

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RatC"s: ~year. SI O. Two yeaQ. 1 18.

a,,...,

J

Cover design by Beth Callaghan. John Stella Cover photo by Carter Brooks

------~lh~e~N~e~wJournlli Features

6

Vol. 19, No. 5 February 2_7 , 1987

Over the Limit Financial aid students, faced with sacrificing their campus jobs or taking scholarship cuts, criticize the Undergraduate Financial Aid Office's limiting of student incomes.

Some search for loopholes, but policy changes may be the on{y answer.

By Martha Brant.

8

Generations Apart Older than traditional undergraduates, Special Students pursue degrees while balancing full-time jobs and life at home. Among their needs: a new name, financial assistance, and a place of their own at Yale. By Susan Orenstein.

22

Dealing in Dreams Seeking monry and social change, glamour and personal fu{fillment, large numbers of seniors shipped resumes to investment banks this winter. But their wide-eyed expectations do not always correspond to the reality of the job. By En'n Kelly.

Profile

14

With A Righteous Beat He looks like David Byrne. People say he's an amazing dancer. From the Lower East Side, Richard Hill is the creator and co-director of the Afro-Caribbean New Havenbased funk band, Milwta. Here he discusses his lift and philosophy-tales of studying Haitian drumming, living with a religious cult in Ghana, and teaching Yale students.

By Tamar Lehrich.

Books

30

Beauty Made Simple

Umberto &o, author of The Name of the Rose, presents a bri4, wide-ranging, but often superficial exploration of medieval theories of beauty in his ¡Latest book, Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages. By David Keck.

Letters

4

NewsJournal

4

The New journaVFebruary 27, 1987 3

Letters

NewsJournal

To the Editor: The New journal encourages letters to the editor comes in from outside sources as well.

I was pleased to read Martha Brant's and comment on Yale and New Haven issues.

One notable contributor to the first article on Objectivism, Shrugging Off Write to Melissa Turner, Editorials, 3432 Yale issue was cult figure Henry Rollins.

Station , New Haven, CT 06520. All letters for Convention (TN}, January 30, 1987), publication must include address and signature. ex-lead singer for the punk band Black and appreciated both its relatively Tht New journal reserves the right to edit all Flag. who responded to a personal successful effort to portray Objectivism letters for publication. letter from Klingsberg with a page of objectively, as it were, and to refrain his poetry. The correspondence led to from the gratuitous conservativea highly successful benefit for Intrrrupt bashing and POR-bashing one Now. organized by Klingsberg and Arousing Interest unfortunately sometimes finds in the sponsored by WYBC. At the show, public discourse of this campus. I was Rollins performed his "Spoken Trip," a also quite pleased to be quoted "Perplexed is good," Ethan Klingsberg comedy act of sorts. and underground (Law '90) said of one reaction to the 路new filmmaker Nick Zcdd, noted for "Geek correctly.

I fear, however, that an important magazine he helped to found, Interrupt Maggot Bingo," showed some of his distinction I made in the course of my Now. Perplexed makes sense, too. The short movies. conversation with Mi路ss Brant was not magazine, which Klingsbcrg and his The multimedia format befitted a entirely clear from the naturally small friends simply xeroxed and stapled benefit for lnte"upt Now which, in portion of our discussion which together, is a riot of collage graphics addition to music-related pieces, appeared in the article as printed. That and typed writing, all careening included short stories. many photos, distinction was between my opinions, together in hlack and white. Sold in and a healthy quotient of free-form as an individual, of Objectivism and New York, New Haven, and Wash- ramblings, plus one by Klingsberg Objectivists as members of the Party of ington, D.C., it contains a number of which posits, "Reagan is disguised as the Right. My distaste for the potential writings about music, but also some on Andy Warhol. So is Andy Warhol, I dogmatism of Objectivism and the real politics, sex, and how to make a peanut . suspect." Klingsberg hopes that Interdogmatism of some Objectivists leads butter and sardine sandwich. Any rupt Now is not perceived solely as a naturally, if seemingly paradoxically, general theme?路 "Great moments," music magazine, nor as one concerned to my belief that the Party of the Right Klingsberg suggested. with the "New Haven scene." He The magazine's musical bent may expressed distaste for the typical locally is good for its Objectivist members and they for it. The reason f()r this is that stem from Klingsberg's past; 路he once based U.S. fanzine, which he claims is an O~jectivist, or anyone else, so belonged to a band called Fascist .Julio usually the work of high . school wrapped up in dogma as to be unable and the Stranded .Jellyfish. In students. "Most of them are just about to stand having his beliefs challenged addition, most of his own contri- how life sucks because they're in high long and hard will not enjoy the POR butions to the magazine are leftovers . school. And they interview a couple of and will not stick around very long. from his stint last year as a staff writer other angry high school bands," he Over the years, some people have for two alternative music publications snorted. "That never really turned me entered the Party as Objectivists and in England. "On the side, everyone on ." Klingsberg also attacked the left as something else. Others have was putting things out on their own," tendencies of many music magazines entered as something else and left as he recalled. "I was just really impressed either to insult every band they Objectivists. All have gone through the by the creativity of the magazines they mention or to gush with constant that inspired . me." praise. crucible of self-examination toward published Klingsberg sees lntmupt Now as personal growth that we hold to be the During his first semester at Yale Law essence of the P arty of the Right and, School this fall, Klingsberg grew bored. closer in style to the publications he by vigorously arguing for their ideas, "I started writing things over just to admired in England, although he added, grinning, "It's more erotic . have contributed to the intellectual free myself from the tedium."

Included in his unpublished material The English magazines were kind of growth of others in the Party. Thus, while "Within the Party, good-natured from the previous year were several repressed. This isn't." Hardly. The disagreement exists," although interviews, including one with Sonic first long piece in issue #1, "No "courteously violent" might be a better Youth, a post-punk band from New Reproduction Permitted," consists of a phrase, I must disagree with the York, and another with heavy metal g raphic depiction of sexual violence, sen tence preceding that one, that superstars Motley Crue. Both pieces supposedly written by "several inmates "Students in the POR do not always appear in lnle"upt Now alongside at a local prison on the Jersey Shore." welcome this support from the Klingsberg's writings on lesser-known The story's content could easily offend bands like New Zealand's critically the average reader, but Klingsberg objectivist element." praised Chills. He stresses, however, looked confused at this suggestion. "I that the magazine is not a one-man mean, it totally depends o n who you Faithfully yours, show, although initially only he and his read," he said. He did admit the John Wood Brewer, SM '87 friends were involved. Now, material importance of not letting the whole Chairman, The Party of the Right 4 The New Journal/February 27, 1987

publication rely on the shock value of that first piece, if simply for the sake of variety.

The audience for a publication like Interrupt Now may be hard to reach.

Klingsberg, who sees his buyers as primarily music fans , has concentrated his sales efforts on small alternative music stores like New Haven's Rhymes Records. The magazine lacks a distributor, though, and fewer than 200 copies of the first issue were printed. Klingsberg claims he "doesn't really care." He is excited about future issues, and may change the name of the publication for each one. The next is tentatively titled Vulnerable.

"Everything is vulnerable," he explained.

The statement reflects Klingsberg's belief in the wide scope of his publication. He also mentioned some modern novelists who write in a stream-of-consciousness style; while reading their work, he claims, "You realize, I could do this, I have this whole file of things. Everybody has a file. I'd show Interrupt Now to · people and they'd run upstairs and grab stuff and say 'Look at this, look .at this' . . . That's the best part." lntm-upt Now does resemble a collection of found artifacts, although their universality is questionable. Still, with the underground music scene booming, Klingsberg may well find his audience.

The magazine, whether it appeals or not, is hard to dismiss.

•

-jennifer Fleissner

Reel Variety The six ftlm societies on campus provide weekend entertainment, sometimes even with subtitles. Yet the preponderance of films screened here are directed by whites and backed by major distributors. Valarie Hartman and Mikal Muharrar, both graduate students in American Studies, decided in the fall · of 1986 to create an alternative. Along with 20 other graduate students, undergraduates and community members, they formed the Mumbo Jumbo film

society, dedicated to presenting independent films created by Afro-, Asian-, and Hispanic-American directors. These movies, rarely shown in commercial movie theaters, are often ignored even by traditional independent film outlets whose primary focus is non-Hollywood c inema.

"There are a number of art houses and museums that are designed to provide a space for independent cinema, and even there, there are only token representations of Third World cinema," Hartman said. The Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York City frequently present movies that are created by non-tradit ional filmmakers. But according to Muharrar, the marginalization of Third World films by a predominantly Eurocentric industry results in their being overlooked by these art houses.

In addition to providing exposure to Third World cinema, the members of Mumbo Jumbo hope to accompany the films with panels led by the filmmakers themselves. In these discussions the directors would examine the political economy of independent cinema, and explore questions of representation in classical Hollywood film. Because the filmmakers have varied political and aesthetic opinions, they would also debate among themselves the validity of different cinematic approaches. The first Mumbo Jumbo screening, presented February 26 at the Yale University Art Gallery, displayed this diversity. Michelle Parkerson's movi~ . . . . but then, she's Betty Carter, which examines the life of jazz singer Carter, follows a standard documentary film style. Larry Clark's Passing Through, on the other hand, exemplifies an experimental approach which Hartman feels may prove inaccessible to the average movie-goer. "Their films are very different." Hartman said, and the panel will address these differences as well as the common problems of Third World filmmakers.

In order to fund their ambitious agenda, the members of Mumbo Jumbo approached various organi-

zations for suonort. The AfroAmerican Studies.a'nd Women's Studies Departments have donated some funds to the society, and a number of other groups, including the Black Students Association at Yale, the AfroAmerican Cultural Center, and the Connecticut Council for the Arts, have also contributed. However, Mumbo Jumbo still operates under a number of financial difficulties due to the high costs of film rentals, which can average as much as $200 per movie. Because of such constraints, the members of the society only scheduled six fUms for this semester, with the intention of continuing the program next year.

Future screenings this year will take place at Davies Auditorium, beginning in March. Some of the films scheduled for presentation include I Be Done, Been Was Is. about the lives of black women comedians, and Bush Mama, which examines the life of a welfare recipient living in the Watts community of Los Angeles. Hartman hopes to be able to present these and other movies at the Dixwell Community House, as well as at Yale. "Lots of people in the New H aven community come out to see black films," Hartman said. For example, She's Cotta Have It, Spike Lee's film about several black Brooklynites, drew a large part of its audience from people who live in New Haven and who are not associated with Yale University. Because of such interest, the members of Mumbo Jumbo have maintained, throughout their planning and development, a commitment toward exposing their films to local New Haven residents.

The response and financial support elicited so far indicate that interest in Mumbo Jumbo will be great.

Hartman and Muharrar do not believe that black and Third World directors will enjoy widespread distribution for a long time to come, but at least here in New Haven they will be assured an audience.

•

- Bronwyn Barkan

The New Journal/ February 27, 1987 5

John Sylvain (TD '87) stands to lose his dinin g hall position.

'.

Over the Limit Martha Brant Some students live from day to day catch is that when students exceed their and year to year at Yale never ceilings, their scholarships decrease the worrying about the cost of their next year. Jaqueline Foster, Director education. Though the projected of the Undergraduate Financial Aid tuition, room and board for next year, Office (UFAO) explained the $17,020, may interest or even shock reasoning behind this policy: "If you those students, it probably doesn't make more than the loan- and jobscare them. But 35 percent of Yale allotted amount, then you have more undergraduates receive scholarship aid money than you have need for. If you'll from the University, and many of be in a job in which you're making them are worried. The government $6000 then we would give you less and Yale have tightened their financial scholarship because you'll need less aid policy and students are beginning scholarship." to feel their grip. "I'm being paid close But many financial aid students attention by the Financial Aid Office question a system which penalizes and Bursar's Office. I was told I could them for working hard. "The basic earn 98 more dollars for the rest of the paradox is that if you're on financial year," john Sylvain (TD '87) said. aid and you need the money then you Most Yale financial aid packages can't work, and if you're not on consist of a scholarship and financial aid and don't need the "self-help"-a loan and/or a job. This money, then you can work as much as plan limits income from on-campus you want," Sylvain explained. Sylvain, jobs by imposing an earnings ceiling a TD dining hall student coordinator, which varies for each student. The pays S200 per month from his earnings 6 The New Journal/February 27, 1987

toward his tuition. But though he needs his job to pay Yale's bill and stay at school, the UFAO has asked him to stop ~orking. Sylvain's situation reflects the UFAO's current difficulties in reconciling students' needs with Yale's changing approach to financial aid.

Although earning ceilings for financial aid students have existed for years, they never caused a problem until recently. Students have gone over their limits in the past without fear because the UFAO did not pay close attention to their earnings. But this year a new computer system has made student incomes easier to supervise. In addition, recent amendments to the Higher Education Act of 1965 have placed tighter federal controls on financial aid policy. Foster reported that the Department of Education now requires the UF AO to monitor students' on-campus earnings more strictly. As a result, students are

paying closer attention to the running total printed on their pay check stubs.

These figures and occasional warnings from employers are the only notifications that students are approaching their earning limits and may have to quit their jobs.

Rather than jeopardize their scholarships in order to work, many students will leave their jobs unless the UFAO raises their earning ceilings.

The threat of student workers suddenly quitting worries other staff members.

Maureen Sullivan, head of Library Personnel, said, "Students are being notified that they have to stop working.

This is causing a real problem for the supervisors because not only are they faced with not having someone to work, but they've developed a relationship with the student and care about the student as a person." J onathan Warren (BR '88), who works at Sterling· Memorial Library, recalled learning that he would either have to quit his job or risk a scholarship cut. "I work in the interlibrary loan office. Seniors are starting to come in like mad and the library really needs people, but I said, "Listen, if they (the UFAO) don't increase my ceiling, I'm leaving- I'm not ~orking here for free." Strict adhei.~nce to earning ceilings threatens to be most d isruptive in the dining halls, where student workers earn the highest wages on campus and work long hours.

D ining Hall managers are particularly vulnerable to exceeding their ceilings, because they make about eight dollars an hour and work at least ten hours per week.

The UFAO has tried to find loopholes in the system to help students keep their campus jobs. Financial aid officers send their students through two routes to try to get their ceilings raised. First, a student can claim to have additional expense items which would warrant a higher budget.

According to Foster, "When somebody has earned more than they were supposed to, you can see if they had any additional expenses that weren't acknowleged in the standard budget.

So we ask something like , "Does it cost you more money to travel than we allotted you?" In addition, students can claim to have a summer deficiency.

The UFAO requires financial aid students to make about $1,400 over the summer, but if they do not make this much, the UFAO will often raise their ceiling.

Both strategies to raise the earnings ceiling involve a fairly simple process, requiring no financial proof but only an occasional explanation. After learning that he would have to quit his job at the library, Warren went to the UFAO: "I walked into the Financial Aid office and said, 'What do I have to do to increase my ceiling?' They said 'Do you have a summer savings deficiency? That's how we usually get around this problem. I f you didn't make as much this summer as you were supposed to, you're allowed to make it up during the term.' So I said, 'Oh, no I didn't,' and I filled out tht> form." The Financial Aid Office can't tell students to lie, but according to Sylvain, "People lie about it. You need to."

But lying doesn't always work, and not all students can justify a sufficient earnings ceiling by declaring a summer deficiency or additional expenses.

Diane Lloyd (ES 'H9) raised her t·ciling by $600. daiminj.{ extra expenses for books and travel.

However, this increase is not enough and she has exhausted the UF AO's options. By spring break she will have passed the new ceiling and will have to quit her job. She lives off the money that she earns and her only option may

T he Financial Aid Office can't tell students to lie, but according to Sylvain, "People lie about it.

You have to." be to work off-campus. "I put in one application for an off-campus job, but they don't seem too eager to hire Yale students," she said. Some students have turned to off-campus jobs because the UFAO cannot keep track of earnings outside the University. But this strategy almost always results in lower wages and less flexible hours. In going off-campus to work, David Collin (TD '90) took a $2.50 pay cut.

For some, resolving their earnings ceiling conflict will determine whether they remain at Yale. Sylvain's case has gone before a financial aid committee which will determine his fate.

Examining such cases may encourage the UFAO to revise the current financial aid policy rather than to continue to rely on loopholes. Given the existing system, more communication among financial aid officers, campus employers and students might prevent further disruption and worry. For now, financial aid students need to be conscious of Yale's clampdown, or at least to pay closer attention to the numbers on their pay check stubs.

•

Martha Brant, a sophomore in Timothy Dwight, is on the staff ojTNJ.

T hrough a loophole. J onathan Warren (BR '88) got his earnings ceil i ng raised.

The New J ournal/ February 27, 1987 7

Shortly aft.,r th., Mwnd W orld W ar h., got J ohn Murray graduates from Yale.

8 The New Journal/February 27, 1987

marri~

a nd start.,d a family. Then cam., a dental practice and passage t h rough middle ag.,. This y.,ar ,

"They are the only ones who can have a developed sense of social change, and social change is what history is all about."

Generations Apart Susan Orenstein The 1294 faces appearing in this year's Old Campus belong to students with different racial backgrounds, interests, and places to call home, but they have in common a trait easily picked up in pictures- their youth. Another, much smaller group of freshmen don't have pictures in tlie Old Campus. Known as Special Students, they fill nilÂĽ! places in this year's entering class, >and 33 places overall. Most are over 30 years old, and they commute considerable distances, restructure work schedules and sacrifice family time in order to pursue the college degree that, for various reasons, has eluded them. If the traditional Old Campus profiles the Class of '90 by asking who has edited their school newspaper, acted in plays or cried at their high school graduation, then a hypothetical Old Campus for Special Students might ask who has worked as a doctor, founded a company, or cried at their son or daughter's high school graduation.

Along with the profiles, the pictures o f the class would look strikingly different. At an art history lecture attended by hundreds of students, Beverly Graham's long silver hair distinguished her even from the back.

O nce the owner of an interior-design business in Seattle, Washington, Graham moved east and enrolled with the first g roup of Special Students in 1977. At that time they could take up

to 18 courses for credit, only half the requirements for an undergraduate degree. Many of them came for the same reasons that over 100 non-degree students come today: to prepare for graduate school, to gain background for a specific career, to accumulate college credits, or to find personal enrichment. But Graham didn't want her education to stop halfway.

Discouraged by Yale's policy, she applied elsewhere to finish up the second half of her degree. Then she learned that Yale was beginning to accept students into a full degree program for the fall of 1982. She applied, was accepted again, and started new courses later that year.

Successful in business, Graham didn't need a diploma to advance professionally, but she felt she was missing something personally. "I felt I was a very unique person and very capable. People would assume I had gone to college, and I wondered if they changed their opinion of me because I hadn't. Maybe that bothered me," she says. Although she had taken some college art courses after finish ing high school, her education had been interrupted by marriage, her husband's Naval assignments, and motherhood. Over 20 years later, as her own children finished college or got married, she decided to return to school.

According to Edith ¡ MacMullen, administrator of the program, desire for personal fulfillment accounts for the enrollment of many of the women in the program- in fact, women make up 25 of the 33 students this term. "At my age they had families, worked to put their spouses through school. So we have numbers of them in their late 30's and 40's who are extraordinary, b u t fo r whom going to college was not an automatic path," MacM ullen says.

Professors such as J ohn Blum, w hose 3 7 year-old daughter r ece n t ly graduated from the U n iversity o f Massachusetts, feel that the disp a rity in numbers between men a nd women in the program is not coin cide n tal.

"Many women did n't get to go to college, but conscious of themselves and the women's move1nent they want to go back to it," Blum explains.

Priscilla Sample, 31 years old, lives with her husband and son a n hour fro m Yale.

She felt unc h a ll e n ged by her secretarial work in a law firm and realized she would n ever move into a higher position without a d egree. She currently does not par ticipate in the degree program at Yale, but she hopes to be accepted into it next fall, and she has sta r ted t ak ing courses. "Through the years, gettin g a degree has always been important to me. I always thought I had the potential to do more," she says. "F o r a The New JournaVFebruary 27, 1987 9

person my age, I had a good salary, but that was it. It wouldn't have been a great salary for me at 40."

Sample's professional considerations usually don't apply to the men in the program, who tend to enroll at an older age. When John Murray applied to Yale, he had an established dental practice in Greenwich, CT. He had never finished his BA degree, having been accepted early into dental school because of the great demand for doctors and dentists after the Second World War. "Before I got into this," he says, "I felt I was in a cultural rut, I felt I was working and supporting my family and I wasn't expanding." He never planned to leave dentistry, but at 62 he talks about a career change. "I'm much more interested in what goes on around me. I used to read the front page of the newspaper and think I couldn't do anything about that. But now I think I can do something, and I'm particularly interested in world hunger. I might get a master's degree in public health, the point being to contribute something to the children, to give something back," he says.

Murray comp ares his current goals

10 The New JoumaVFebruary 27, 1987

to those of his son, who graduated college last year. In this case, the older Murray possesses the idealism, while the younger Murray looked for a job in banking. But with fewer worries about his financial security, Murray says he feels freer to pursue a lower-paying job, as well as an education at Yale.

According to Cynthia Russett, a lecturer in history who served on a recent faculty committee reviewing the program, one of the greatest problems among Special¡ Students is the lack of any financial a id. The committee ran a survey among special students to help evaluate the program. "It was really quite touching to read about some of the financial sacrifice that's going on," Russett says. "Some of them were stretched to the very limit, and some .of them were saying, 'I'm drowning, I'm ¡going to drop out.'" .

Next month the general faculty will hear the committee report on the program and may implement a form of tinancial aid. Hut some may oppose giving assistance to Special Students if it taps into traditional undergraduate funds, "It's got to come out of the pocket of the regular undergrads," Blum says, "and it becomes very difficult to draw the line. I think financial aid should only be offered to employees of the university." Betty T rachtenberg, director of admissions for the program, also wants to preserve undergraduate funds, but she thinks aid for Special Students can be found in "creative ways." Recognizing that a lack of aid limits the variety of older students who can attend Yale, she sees a real need for the current policy to change.

"Minority students are not represented in the program. I think the lack of financial aid may be a factor, though it does not give a complete explanation," she says.

While the $980 tuition per course contributes to keeping some students away from Yale, others can afford to come but must continue working fulltime. Thea Guidone, a member of this year's freshman class, has a job as a facilitator in management and union

discussions at Southern New England Telephone. The phone company reimburses her for any courses she takes in which she receives an A or a B, and her family does not lose her income to tuition costs. But at the same time that working helps Guidone to stay in school, it makes her schedule considerably more difficult to manage.

During the phone company's strike last fall, she worked ten-hour days, six days a week while taking two courses.

She explains that working not only tires her but keeps her from feeling relaxed among other undergraduates.

"P art of the reason I feel older than everyone else is because of the clothes I wear from work," she says. "In Women's Studies, the teacher would mention the vJoman with the tennis shoes and briefcase, and I would be wearing tennis shoes and have a briefcase. I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb."

Even for Special Students who don't work, class situations may make them feel separate from the main community at Yale. Sample says she feels students view her as someone who could have taught them high school algebra. Before class, wearing a red sweater and jeans, she talks about looking different. "Behind my eyes is the same person that I was at their age, but I don't think they see that person.

Yes, I've obviously had more experiences, but I never think about that. The changes are so gradual, you see yourself as one continuous person.

It doesn't change your ability to be a friend, to have a conversation." Like Sample, Graham also remembers looking different in the eyes of her younger classmates. "I was always early," she says, "and no matter how crowded the class became, there were always empty seats beside me. They always left me room."

At the same time that Special Students feel one kind of isolation on the Yale campus, they feel a different kind when they go home. For many of them, "the ride over" means more than 20 minutes on the high way, a few traffic ligh ts and park ing in the city. It

"Occasionally I'll run into someone saying 'That's nice , dear.

That's very good, it will keep you busy, and we can run the world.'" means shifting points of view. "About halfway here, I get into the student mode," Sample says. "I don't talk about my h usband, my son, my read ing groups anymore. And then, later on the way home, after a certain point, I start thinking about the laundry, I start thinking about my husband ."

As a film student, Sample finds screening times inconvenient, and she rel ies on her family to make adj ustments. "It's very hard to find a babysitter who will stay on a Wednesday n ight until 1 o'clock in the morning," she says. To enable her to watch films in the afternoon, her h usband arranges his schedule to work at home one day a week. In addition, the family as a whole accepts chan ges resu lting from demands on Sample's time. "I think I rely on my husband an d my son more to be able to come up with meals. They eat hot dogs now, an d we fix things quicker, and they don't complain. I th ink a lot of times the guilt is self-imposed tha~ I'm not doi ng enough. They never say that."

Outside her family, Sample .says she finds support among her peers~¡ but not in the form of conversations about her work or her struggle to stay in school.

"M y very best friend found o u t she was pregn ant when I got into sch ool, and she realized it meant as much to me as that did to her. She was happy for me, even though she didn't unrl~rstand it," Sample says. She finds that men don't always take her seriously. "Most of the men in my community are for it, but occasionally I'll run into someone saying 'That's nice, dear. That's very good, it will keep you busy, and we can run the world."'

Difficulties in integrating the various parts of their lives create a common ground for conversation among Special Students, but few channels exist for them to get to know each other. Although entering members of each class are affiliated with the same residential college, many don't have time for regular meals, and they m iss the chance to talk to people who can readily identify with them.

R ussett says that man y S pecial

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Students express concern over what she calls "the room of one's own problem." Putsimply, this means they have no place to go. They have no dorm rooms from which to make phone calls between classes, no place to drop ofT books or even groceries if they shop during the day, no place to see each other and feel at home. They often come just for classes, with few chances to socialize, and even more important, few chances to talk about what they're doing in class. Sample says she wishes she could leave a film and know someone else who could talk about it, but she does not find many academic conversations either at home or at school.

According to MacMullen, many Special Students feel d r iven more by a sense M pride than by a need to get into graduate school or find a job.

"You're putting a lot on the line .

You're pu\(ing your own self-worth on the line. They're not worrying about their GPA, but they're such high performers tl)at they demand the very best for themselves," she says. Blum also speaks about a noticeable intensity among his older students. "They work too hard," he says. "These people are already overfull, at home, at business concerns, and they're squeezed hard, so they overwork at it, because they bring so much to their task."

The pressure they put on themselves surfaces in some familiar contexts, such as "the first exam." Graham, describing hers in art history : "I had studied. oh god, and the fi r st slide came on , and I couldn't recognize it, and I started to hyperventilate. I remember thinking 'my god, this is what my kids have been going through

all the time and I haven't been sympathetic enough.' And they said to me, 'Well Mom, we think you're taking this a little more seriously than we do.'" Raymond Lee, a Special Student at age 68, had an exam as memorable as Graham's. Wearing a Yale tie clip, he says he usually enjoys the competitive atmosphere, but not that day. "I sat there for about 15 minutes. I couldn't think, I couldn't connect my writing with my brain. I fidgeted, I perspired. And I was wellprepared, I had studied for it. A friend of mine had seen me on my way into the exam and said I looked as if I were going to an execution."

Although Lee takes the same exams as younger undergraduates, he will leave Yale with a Bachelor of Liberal Studies degree (B.L.S.), and his academic program will look slightly different. Special Students do not have to declare a major, although they have an "area of concentration," such as literature or film. Their programs have more flexibility than majors, with fewer structured requirements and fewer seminars available to them as Special Students. Still, after taking the requisite number of courses and fulfilling the same language requirement as traditional-undergraduates, many wish they could graduate with a B.A. degree instead of a B.L.S. For those not applying to graduate schools, the distinction makes little practical difference, but it does add to their feeling of separateness. Graham , who went on to pursue a Master's degree in Yale's American Studies department, said she might have worried if she had applied someplace else. But the name of the program bothers her even more than the degree, and among Special Students, it has become a common complaint.

Susan Plagenhoef, who has almost filled her degree requirements , recognizes the great amount of support people running the program have provided her. But she also feels that the name and the degree are "an indication that Yale does not consider us fullfledged students."

Eventually, the way Yale treats these issues and others raised in the committee report will hinge not so

,.

"I sat there for about 15 minutes. I couldn't think , I couldn't connect my writing with my brain. I fidgeted , I perspired." much on the practical considerations of assigning building space or changing words , but on the philosophical considerations of what teaching Special Students means. These consideration s don't stop at the gains for the Special Students themselves. In her experience teaching history, Russett finds that older students add a valuable perspective to discussion. "They are the only ones who can have a developed sense of social change, and social change is what history is all about," she says. "It keeps students from feeling that it was all inevitable, to give them a sense of the person and the struggle, of the time when maybe it didn't seem things would change- that history isn't just a smooth progression."

In one of his classes, Murray remembers a time when he provided much of the input for a discussion on American politics. "We were studying the Cuban confrontation in the Kennedy administration. The conference was in a building across campus. I was ten minutes late, and when I walked in , a boy jumped up and said, 'Dr. Murray, what are you doing here?' H e was a patient of mine.

Then the TA said, 'I wasn't here during the Cuban Missile Crisis, but you were. Tell us about it.'"

In evaluating the program, Yale must also think about its general purpose in education, and the ways Special Students as individuals value a degree. "All I asked my professors was to assume that I was there like anyone else , to learn," Grah am says. She found that this assumption was sometimes denied. "I was planning lO go to England to study for the summer, and this professor said, 'Well, Beverly, how are you going to go to England for three months? Don't you have children? Don't you have a husband?' I said to him, 'I don't think you understand how important it is to me to be at Yale,' and tears were in m y eyes. After that things were better."

She spent the summer in England.

•

Susan Ormstein. a junior in Trumbull, is associau tditor of TNJ.

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With a Righteous Beat Walk into Richard Hill's Tuesday them in concert in Central Park and at night drumming class, and you'll find Lighthouse Point. Ask Hill about the nine students sitting in a circle- each drawing of a cop standing on a pier on a stool or wooden bench with a surrounded by musicians, and he'll tell drum resting against their knees. The you of e time that Mikata went to class is held i studio on the Provine n to play by the water. As second floor uilding on a police roached the crowd that Chapel S music had ered around the band, Hill stands, ed for the close of the piece. "I drums, ~~~~~ยง!~~~us to stop on our own," Hill Niger i i a smil "before he could stop Brazil-1{ d the small room. Large rugs co ~~ he walls, and the street At g of class Hill rubs lights s \ in through the window. cream on his nds as though preThere's prk clock which reads 8:45. paring for a ritu . The students get Twenty 1 utes later it still reads comfortable, looking from Hill to their 8:45. drums as they practice. "Don't rush.

In er of the studio, you'll find Take your time," he says evenly. "Dah, ~ยง~!~~~ wryly calls the Mikata (Me- dah, dah , dah ," he counts aloud. archives- several photos and People warm up from the cold. Sweate drawings of the original ers come off. The students watch Hill, members of the New Haven-based, following his lead, changing tempo as Afro-Caribbean funk band which Hill he does. Sounds of the drums echo created in 1982. You'll see pictures of through the room. "Sounds great," he

lr

~

14 The New JournaVFebruary 27, 1987

says occas more: "The offbeat not pulled into a st by the next downbeat. It tricks you, but if it's done eloquently enough, the dancers will be pulled into accenting that place." He claps as they play. They repeat the same rhythm over and over. "Why does the tempo suddenly speed up?" someone asks, and Hill answers straightforwardly: "Anxiety related to boredom." Heads nod in agreement.

Understatement seems to be the Richard Hill style. He stares straight ahead as he talks, rarely making eye contact. He speaks in measured tones, clearly and strongly. When he jokes it's a complete deadpan. Explaining where the drums used in the class are made, Hill says, "Well, some are from Mexico, one was built by a friend of mine, and . . . uh . . . that one is a typical Ricky Ricardo type." People laugh, but Hill's face hardly moves.

"Crossover is a rad, an anomaly barely tolerated and the artist doesn't usually survive very long."

Percussionist member of Hill's since 1 Richard's sense «J:n.;~~~.pretty subtle same time he'll come something outrageously funny." He's been known to break into song spontaneously during class. "He's also a great impressionist," says Jeff McQuillan , co-director of the group.

"He has that ability to capture the spirit, the soul of somebody, and act it out."

Though not at all an imposing presence, there's something about Richard Hill's manner, his intensity perhaps, that almost compels you to focus on him, to listen to his every word. He's thin, average height with dark hair and eyes and a long narrow face. From the outside, he looks li your typical white guy from the East Side who played the drums junior high- which is actually true.

Yet, you need ooly talk with him for a few minutes to discover that it's more complicated, much deeper than that.

"He's a hard person to try · to pin down," says Maureen O 'Leary (SY '87), who's taking Hill's class this semester. "He much, but you know there " Music integral part of Richard practically from the in Manhattan in the early 50s. father, a publisher of political, leftist texts, and his mother, who owned her own retail shop, both played a lot of jazz and blues recordings and frequently had musicians play in their home. Meeting singer Paul Robeson, blacklisted for his supposed "communist" activities, made a lasting impression on Hill. "I was at a party where he was performing ," he says. " It was extremely thrilling to me, because he was this mythic figure." Then on his own Hill started listening to a lot of rural blues, jazz and some gospel.

Though he starting playing a drum let in junior high and studied with a professional jazz drummer after his

parents had moved the family to Connecticut, Hill wasn't a seriou student of music until he reached h · mid-twenties. "I had an affinity fi music, a good rhythm, but undisciplined," music you have to su an incredible amour.t of rudgery, almost humiliating." But gra Hill learned that he had to get pa barrier, to go through the long p cess of practicing and rehearsing in ord learn.

As a white interested in black music, Hill discovered early on the problems of living in a separatist society. In college at Antioch, he was exposed o Afro-Cuban and West African mu · A friend gave him a record of folklori traditional African drumming, an Hill found that the music had a on him , he didn't know how about exploring his interest . "Not only are neighborhoods along racial lines, but so are ,,,.....·v'J'" and stores," Hill says. hear a black artist on a station, and you seldom a white artist on a black one. rossover is a fad, an anomaly barely

i n sic. ill saw Haitian dancer eanestin~ perform, he felt as if all exposure he previously had to r -Cari b music came into focu . ew that music was extremely powerful. I just had to learn about it for myself," Hill says. So Hill bought a hand drum a!ld attended dasst's taught by Dt•stirw's drummer and then sat in with the drummer during performances and even began taking dance classes himself.

"There's a gladness that takes over when we start to play together in class. Your hands take off-it a rush. an sensation."

The New JournaUFebruary 27, 1987 15

participating on a daily basis with the belief system to take root in you, tribe, as far as he knows he now has the then come what may, you go throu most complete written account of the the process," he says. "Eventually y life of that particular traditional emerge somewhere, try to reconstruc your scientific apparatus and see what religious group.

Hill even agreed to join the religious you can figure out." When the Soon Haitian drummmg and danAs an initiation rite he had to get members of the cult asked Hill if he cing became Hill's main focus. H e n his hands and knees in a room wanted to go through the deeper supported himself by playing with "th shrines constructed from initiation, he decided against it, for a Troupe Shan go, a community-based d the vow of secrecy would prevent him dance company of non-professional '1~~~~~~~r;anim and talk to from revealing anything he had d ancers who learned their craf as though they were learned. "My goal had to do more with through participating in the religio en swallowed different the music rather than the layers of which we call voodoo- a derivation d pieces of chalk and ritual," he says. He eventually turned the African traditional r ligiO'fi....J,Qf~tNL!rl~t'RilW!I"ftlltlicine from the shrines his research into his master's thesis. worshiping a multiplicity o ¡ tts. ' Icohol. As he performed Returning to the United States in was raised with the opposite of ver the course of a year, 1977, Hill found it difficult to adjust to religious upbringing. Whatever is sense of skepticism anc! the American lifestyle and value ideology I got was areligious," Hill objectivity lipped away. "There's a system. He decided not to live in New says. A declared atheist, he soon found line you c ss when you have to York, moved to Middletown and himself participating in voodoo cere- relinquish r objectivity, allow your began studying drumming privately monies, his first exposure to music as a In hi s teaching, Hill combines a conceptual, analytic, and linear appr oach with an intuitive religious ritual. "I was drumming for o n e. people who were dancing, becoming possessed, and going into trances," Hill explains. "I was fascinated and blown away by the whole thing."

Wanting to explore and prove an instinctual belief that the music was responsible for inducing the trance, Hill decided to live in Haiti for a few weeks and then to travel to West Africa. From 1974 to 1976 he studied at the University of Ghana with the ute of African Studies masters incorporating a year of and a year of field work. months Hill lived with a religious group in a town Ghanaian coast. There he to speak pidgin English and a f e, the language of n Ghana. He also in some of the tribal ning the songs and dances

tit.

f.

H ill did considerable research, after three months he realized he wouldn't have enough time to solve the mystery of the music's role in transinduction. "That would have taken me a few years of living there and becoming a master of the drumming," Hi!J says. Still, through collecting son gs, transcribing them¡, doing f i eld recordings, a nd 16 The New JoumaVFebruary 27, 1987

~

0 "I

saw this culture lll perspective. I saw myself caught In the 1·ving like an av1ng t of ility."

where you are in relation to the thing you want to learn," he explains.

"Assume you're a rank beginner, and take the second block and place it on the first, making sure the foundation is there." Maria Sieira (SM,'90), a student in Hill's class this semester, says that he "leads you· into the patterns of the drums, starts from the bottom and goes up. It's not 'look at the pattern and imitate,'- he wants us with a Ghanaian tea e , Freeman to know what we're doing and why."

Donkor. "Basically, I w a state of Hill's experience in Ghana and hi cultural limbo for a y fter I got feelings about the communal lifest back. I wasn't able eal with there are expressed in his teachmg.

American alienation, w " ou never learned anything in his potent stuff," Hill says. class that you could do independently. culture in perspective. I You only learned parts that would caught in the process, li work in a community setting," explains animal, having relinquis Esther Kaplan (MC'. "87), who took my human sensibility." H Hill's class two year:. ago. "That..-:~_.--~~-.

Ghanaian village where really great, especially in this country, ;_---~~. .t.F,-· able to walk out of ouse, see where learning any instrument is a children and people working, selling really individualistic thing." food and always interacting. "You're Though Hill admits that teaching part of a social network instantly from college students can be frustrating the moment you wake up," he says. because he finds them "self-deluded" "Once you see the virtues of that kind and having "a tremendous deficit in of life, it's hard to do without it." terms of experience and hard Yet, Hill never stopped playing and knowledge,'' he's amazed by the learning. He joined a four- man seriousness and sensitivity of those who trad itional percussion ensemble with . enroll in his classes. "It's hard trying to Donkor, Delerme and McQuillan make what's intangible in music called Colobo which performed at tangible or to make students believe it's schools and summer festivals. He going to be tangible," he says. "When began teaching drumming so that he the mental concept becomes a feeling, could practice what he had learned as a when thinking a tempo becomes master drummer. "I was trying to f~ing a tempo, it's definitely an actualize some of these things I had ~'n.fangible experience." Maureen learned in a cursory way in Ghana," he O'Leary explains it this way: "There's a explains. He s joined a drum · gladness that takes over when we sta_rt workshop in York to play together in class. Your hands Ramos which had a ~ take off- it gives you a rush, an schedule of midnight am \.mazing sensation. You're no longer ~laying, taping what the tJ laye "->ncentrating on the note you're hstening to it, and theri\ ~- 2 ,Jl\lying but on everything you're again. "It was a constant ~ ing." popping the bubble of elv. 1 ~.,.. Jit recognizes a problem in coming to grips with the m , ill teachin frican music, a spontaneous says. "At that point in r e, late for and emotional creation, to Americans. someone as a student, I I ned how to In the African tradition, where music study, to study music. I learned how to is integrated into patterns of political, learn, and to learn very fast." economic, and social life, it does not H ill began to form what could be stand apart from its community setting called his philosophy of teaching. "If and cultural context. "Peripheral you want to learn something, find out participants are crucial to the The New Journal/February 27, 1987 17

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They spent tically searchmg lor the and musicians and But, having finally built 'l\AT:"'"".th•~m"'ll percussion ensemble into one that could duplicate live the complex, were overdubbed demo tape, Mikata bigger, performed with success. They created sacrifi a completely original set which the includes traditional African drumming They w"'-'"'"':u and dance as well as pular musicpopular jazz, styles with th-e""m~o.::r~e~~ Afro-beat, reggae, u , Latin and samba tunes. Now they play at SOB's Caribbean sounds. They wrote the ir every month. own lyrics and performed at the of Mikata, though The ten me Pyramid Club and Danceteria in New H aven musicians, York. mostly allloooi'P'J:i~ "-1~-tt~~~M:Wtlge of experience For almost two years they worked on ts-dancers C.C. recording a 16-track studio demo tape 1, who trained for which they built up a whole ~:lJA'n:Rtool and dance ensemble-two horns, two guitars, a bass, percussionists, and professional \~~~~~~~ let and the , th m New vocalists. "'We wanted a real gospel, nt..O~'I"'"O saxophoni t Allen rich, soulful sound ," Hill says. By Mezqu a , also from New Haven; November of 1983 , the group had g1.!ita st Kenny Blackwell, originally finally produced two polished songs. fr Bridgeport; Delerme, who has Upon hearing the tape, the ownet of recorded with vibraphonist J ay Sounds of Brazil, New York's AfroHoggard and performs w ith other Caribbean club, offered M ikata a date Mikata: a combination of Afro-beat, reggae. funk . L atin and samba tunes as well as traditional Afric"n drummint[ and dane ..

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African and Latin groups and wh o first met H ill in Ghana; vocalist Synia, th e only woma n the group; drummer Ned • rumpeter George Alfred; bass1 /co-director McQuillan. who ays synthesizer, guitar, marimba, d dru , so s as their co-direc r. a anger and lyr i · t, m an ager, ne, ti or, and publici .

Though the u red in Japan · December and leased an albu , "Gang-Gang D , " last April on t e j azzmania label, ichard H ill is ot a bou t to become complacent wit the grou p's success or lower his stan rds.

H e still feels frustrated b the ·"!.YoM~Qtl~·of the group' music s and y the "'""~.....,, ~rc;:ed to of comeop!e are ntrolling and chipping a y at your v ion all the way along the r ad," Hill sa . "You start asking fundamental que ·ons when you're confronted with the c · s you have to deal with - art o the core of the person's fundamental being, and that ki nd of contradiction can be irresolvable."

Another problem for Mikata is the on e of amplification during performance, a process which can d isto rt the band's sound. "T hat sen se o f rhyth m ic in terlocking, ._-""'"......with the feel o he music s of all elodic and harm onic e group i ~ooking for ...-.lllijfr~m · n electrified, huge pop sound, ~ . "It's hard."

Hill strongly believes everyone in the ba nd m ust rela~t each other before they c~a~l te to the audience- a hard t 1f they can't hear each oth er pl admits that the group does its 'i/mtense playing in re hearsal when J{ey,can play softer and focus o n the c.

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Murder, mayhem, rap<: and ar. if you like it's petty larcenvy'f'Abiill~r o n the T.V. Confusion, fear d confusion, got the people afraid t make a move. 'Cause they've got black man fearing white man fearing yellow man, And that's the trouble from the media. They've got the whole world upside down.

other," he says. "They'd be forced to develop a certain kind of intimacy which would add to the political unity."

When asked to characterize Hill, his friends and colleagues mention his political consciousness almost immediately and then launch into stories of his dedication to music and h is dry wit. n fact, from Timothy Dwight's fu y Master T rofessor Robert hompson, s r of nd music) to h llow band mem rs, to his students, get the impre ion that Hill can no wrong. " ichard h as this abilit to communic e to people, to pe eive what's hold them back from tting beyond them es," says Me uillan. e can teach any African usic. I once thought he could teach an animal ~o play." When asked about Hill's weaknesse::s, his friends can only come up with his perfectionism and his very high, uncompromising standards, though Hill is the first to acknowledge these traits.

These days Richard Hill can be found in New Haven , living on Winthrop Avenue in a beige house with a white picket fence. On 'Mondays and Tuesdays, h e teaches classes at night and during the day keeps busy either writing music, practicing h is 1 struments or doing business for group - on the phone, making its, having meetings with ers, writing contracts, talking to d as he says, "all that kind n Wednesdays Mikata ~~!&loo....,.·~ to finish new he goes into s a drumming class at er in East Harlem, and s there in the evening. As ure of either Mikata or 1ll, he's n ot sure. "The band may trav to Europe this summer, and I want to go back to West Africa,' he says. "I on't know. I feel like I'rn kind of ched here, ready to bolt."

He pauses, waiting for a reaction, and then shrugs his shoulders. Just more deadpan from Hill.

H alfway through the Tuesday night, two-hour long drumming class there's

20 The New JournaVFebruary 27, 1987

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and shells, blocks of wood. He patiently teaches each person their part either for a drum or another percussion instrument, preparing them for ensemble work. "Learn your relationship to some unifying beat or part, then learn the relationship of the parts to each other," Hill tells them.

"It's a conversation, and the only thing you can do wron · to lose your part and play it in else's space."

E.veryone hile, seeming to lose the music. Some stand as the bells or shake the their

be Richard Hill's' he adds words, a couple of smiles faces, and suddenly- though nobody seems to catch it- their teacher smiles too. As the music fills the room, it feels almost as though time has stopped. And the pink clock still reads 8:45.

•

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Dealing in Dreams Erin KeUy The stocky Tennessean strides confidently around the lecture room, his starched white shirt beginning to wrinkle like an accordion down his back. His audience listens inttmtly, scribbling notes as the man says. "$1.9 billion in bonds was shared by six major investment banks last year." He intersperses quotations to enliven the presentation- his sources include Aristotle, Ecclesiastics, and Cyndi Lauper. The man is a salesman and his product is investment banking. David M. Darst, executive with the major Wall Street investment bank Goldman, Sachs & Co., taught the SOM course last fall which surthis exploding field. Yale rgraduates, some wearing suits, flocked to hear him his coveted profession. And seem to have acted on his advice. g numbers of students this year to investment banks.

Boston received roughly 200 ications from Yale alone. Many rs praise the profession, citing large salaries and glamorous benefits.

Others view this enthusiasm warily, .JUspecting their friends of "selling OUt." Undergraduates on bo th sides of the debate ~onder what such a large percentage of the class of '87 is getting tself into.

Investment banking is a financial service industry which organizes financing for corporate and non-profit entities. Largely because of federal legislation deregulating the banking industry, investment banking has grown explosively in the past several years. producing the recent glut of corporate mergers. Liberal arts majors at Yale and at other prestigious colleges generally apply to two-year analyst programs, during which they work long hours and earn $30-50 thousand per year, including bonuses.

After their two years, many analysts go on to business school o r to other jobs.

Yale students who have entered investment banking describe a job that is both glamorous and dull, rewarding and frustrating- a job which does not always match the expectations of undergraduates.

Reports of investment banks' high wages draw Victoria Beach (PC'87) , who criticizes the hypocrisy of affiuent students who feign indifference to money. "Money's cooL It's too bad you need it, but there's no other way," she explained. Tired of depending on her parents , Beach seeks the selfrespect that comes with financial independence. She admires those who prosper through hard work. "There's the whole American dream thing of the

young person who has no money and works his way up. My parents did that, and I'd like to imitate it." Many Yale students, highly sensitive to the fact that their privileged education costs someone S 16 thousand annually, feel compelled to prove the ir ability to earn the kind of money that has supported them.

High wages attrac~ many for whom the world of finance is not a primary interest. Though she admits that her main interests are international relations and architecture, Beach argues that neither field offers attractive positions for first-year college graduates. Like many, Beach views not pursuing a secure, wellpaying career immediately after college as risky and irresponsible to herself and her parents. She mentions friends who have gone into architecture and writing. The architect resents the limitations of his artistic expression imposed by his client's tastes. The writer must teach , which she dislikes , to support herself. Beach wants to return to her other interests, but says she will do so only when she has acquired the finan cial security investment banking can provide.

Many Yalies who do want to pursue business see investment banking as the ideal introduction to the complex web The New j ournal/February 27, 1987 23

"If I could¡drive through New York and tell my grandkids, 'I arranged the financing for that building,' that would be satisfying." to finish the financial analysis for the of the American economy. Brendan Clearly, L ynch feels that Yale leverage buyout his company has Fitzgerald (SM '87) is an Italian major graduates can be more effective under taken. H e works the keyboard who eventually intends to apply his by going into finance. knowledge of four languages to In addition to their more practical mechanically, his concentration spent. controlling his own international considerations, many undergraduates P hleger will be in bed by 4 a.m., and shipping firm. Fitzgerald asserts that say their fascination with investment then back to work by 9 a.m . He the current high interest in investment banking comes from a perception that expects to work all weekend. Scoffing banking does not prove that students the job offers power and glamour. at the idea that his job is glamorous, like himself intend to give their lives to Fitzgerald says the prospect of Phleger says, "these m agazine articles that career. Instead, he sees an analyst manipulating huge sums makes come out portraying investment p rogram as the ideal stepping-stone, investment banking more attractive to banking as a sexy job. That image of providing the concrete business him than traditional manufacturing glamour serves analysts well , and they i t, but it's a experience absent from his liberal-arts industries. "I firmly believe American perpetuate education. industry needs more young smart misrepresentation. There ain't no Like Fitzgerald, who wants to put people; unfortunately, it just doesn't glamour in front of the computer at 4 aside Italian literature and learn have the appeal. What's the glory in a.m."

Although. , analysts stress that their something practical, some liberal-arts making high-diameter steel graduates are drawn to investment piping?"Awareness of the responsibilities vary with company and banking as an arena of "real-world" deteriorization of American industries, department, P h l eger's project action and accomplishment. Ed such as US Steel and Gen eral Motors, illustrates several common aspects of Fleming (MC '88) says his interest in swings many toward investment the job. H alfway through his second the profession relates to his conviction banking. When college graduates face year at the small investment bank of that deals he could make as an the choice of climbing aboard a sinking Dillan R eed in New York, Phleger investment banker would provide the industry or hopping into a job which works with seven other analysts in concrete sense of accomplishment that profits enormously from restructurin g performing much of the fundamental his abstract education has not. "You that industry, investment banks o ften analysis required for the financial want to leave your mark on the world. win out in grabbing the most qualified. advisement his company offers.

P hleger explained that he was If I could drive through New York and tell my grandkids, 'I arranged the Numbers blur on the computer screen currently working on a leverage financing for that building.' that would at 3 a.m. as Peter Phleger (SM '85), buyout deal, describing it as "buying a be satisfying." former English major, r uns his fingers company with very little of your own Many students who want to through his hair, trying to stay awake mo!1ey and then using profits from accomplish social change believe that Victori a Beach ( P C '87) has p ostpon ed p u r suin g less lucrative i n te r ests in favor of i nvest m cnl their best course is to work through the ba existing system. They have grown cynical about the idea that bright-eyed enthusiasm and liberal arts education are enough to solve complex political and economic problems. Investment banking interests these students as a rigorous introduction to the workings of money in the "real ¡world." Many seniors stress the value of working w:thin the system. Philip Lynch (DC '87) savs that his investment banking motivations are not altruistic, but that he does see finance as the best road to solving world problems. "l think 11-; ind.li< icnt liu¡ a smart. educated Yale graduate to spend time going to Africa and passing out food."

24 The Ne" journal/ February 27. 1987

HAIR GROUP SKIN

the company to pay back the loan." In this type of deal , the client, interested in acquiring a company but unsure of how to arrange the financing, approaches Dillan R eed, :vvhich evaluates the purchaser's assets as well as the financial situation of the company the client wants to buy.

Incorporating factors such as the current and projected activity of the market and its possible effect on the growth of the industry involved, the investment bank engineers a strategy to finance the purchase. The bank then tries to sell the plan to the purchaser, and receives a percentage of the sale as commission if the deal goes through.

Analysts serve in this operation by "number crunching" - performing the fundamental calculations- as well as by doing the backg.round financial research that goes into the report.

Because his firm is small, Phleger bears responsibility for several facets of the total deal, while in larger companies the work is divided more by department. When the analysis is complete, Phleger writes the report and visits the client to try to s~l ~ the proposal. > Barry johnson OE '85), a first-year analyst at First :aoston, said that the "glamour level" of his job vacillates widely. "First Boston buys you a firstclass ticket and you go and present what you've done, and you're a real star. But then the next day you may be back in the office doing mindless xeroxing for someone." But unlike Phleger, Johnson feels that the excitement of presenting his own analysis to a client and making the sale outweighs the tedium of performing "grunt work." Johnson mentioned his colleagues as another source of pleasure in his job. "At Yale you're used to working around smart, motivated people- that's what this office is like, and I find it stimulating."

Susan McGarry (BK '83) explained that she gains more satisfaction from using her job as a means toward accomplishing good for companies.

McGarry, who holds the second-level !>Osition of associate at ShearsonLehman Brothers, worked with a small

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company in Oregon which was financially strapped because of competition with the Japanese. By findin g a corporate partner for the company, her firm allowed it to continue to grow.

M cGarry said that at Yale her political views did not represent what she considered the stereotypically conservative politics of investment bankers. However, she then felt that altering the system required understanding its financial structure.

I nvestment bankers often stress the social benefits of their profession, asserting that while large corporate mergers grab media attention , their firms' activities include a number of projects \\hich aid smaller businesses.

In addition. thev benefit the American consumer by m'aking individual companies and rhe general economy more efficient.

Despite such arguments fo.r the social value of investment banking. some economists take a dubious view of the industn Thev believe that investment banking's ·focus on spectacular deals could injure the longterm health of the economy. Jeff Ro,cn''"·i~ ( Y.rlt• 'i.) ) 1au~lll -:\1om·'.

Credi1. and Bankin g~ last term. According to him. most students took the class because of interest in investment banking. However. he has concerns about the profession. vie-.ving it as not highly producli\'t~. Rosensweig explained thai some economists criticize im·estment bankrng for pulling in sta~­ g-er·ing -.um' but not adding to the econom' rn 1 ht• u·adit ional wav. bv manufactunn~ ,, product. lnvesimen't banks. he explaint·d. work mainly to

rearran ge already exrstmg economic structures. Rosensweig believes that emph asis on the the large buyouts and acquisitions which investment bankers e n gineer leads the nation into "a casino-like economy, rather than a more stable, long term economy that America needs."

Though students may exaggerate the social benefits of investment banking, they seem to be right about one thing: the wages. Commissions on investment banks' high-powered deals yield large salaries. The average analyst's annual salary is roughly S30 thousand, with an additional year-end bonus related to performance. The bonus generally ranges from 15-50 per· cent of the analysts' pay, resulting in an enviable income. These financial rewards oft<;n keep people in the job.

According to Johnson, "there are some financially obsessed investment bankers. Within the company, you hear stories of 28-yf.'ar-old vice presidents making S800 thousand a year a nd these are not lies." Johnson believes that for those who originally planned to stay in investment banking a short time, the money can become addictive. '"The thing is, the more money you make, the more you want, so you stay. You were 25, and then you turn around and you're 38." Phleger enjoys the flexibilit y his salary gives him, but sees potential harm: "There's a danger in earning all that money- there's a tendt>ncy to hide behind it and feel superior to someone who's probably putting a lot more thought into their job than you are."

Though many applicants to investment banks expect to enjo> Ne" York's culture and social life, analysts work almost constantly. Therr hours \'arv. but most work weekends and say that the unpredictable nature of the work makes plannin't social engageme nts nearly impossible.

Phleger describes working at the computer until 4 a.m. Friday morning. returning to o,,·ork at 9 a.m.

Friday. attt>nding meetings all day. working all Fridav night. and then flyin'{ to \\'ashington. DC. to keep a date "ith his increasingly irate

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girlfriend. At a summons from his boss, he was back at his computer by 10 p.m. and worked until 2 p.m. the next day. Over the telephone, Phleger's voice continually trails off.

H e apologizes, saying that he is too exhausted to put thoughts together well. "Normal people don't do this shit," P hleger says. J ohnson's hours at First Boston are not as extreme; he generally works a 10-12 hour day, as well as most Saturdays and Sundays.

"But it's not all weekend," he explains.

"Most Sundays you don't come in before noon." Johnson says he ca~ handle the hours, but he has little time for other parts of his life, such as playing the violin. "Life has to be more balanced," he says.

Many analysts voiced the concern that undergraduates drift toward investment banking for the wrong reasons, with little knowledge of th e actual nature of the job. Susan Hauser, dean of Career Services,says too many students don't know . what they want. "Where do you think this word 'clueless' comes from?" . she dema nds. Large numbers· of undergraduates apply to investment banks because it's easy. They need on ly submit resumes to "CAPS," which. forwards them to each company. In addition, for some StJJdents, the fact

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that investment banks come to campus to interview gives them an advantage over other firms and organizations in the public sector. Others voice the cr iticism that Career Services does not emphasize alternatives, so that seniors have little idea of what types of jobs exist.

P rofessionals express concern that liberal arts majors suppress stronger interests to join the crowd and go into investment banking. Rosensweig believes that "a lot of students are pretending that what they want to do is put on dark suits and red ties with polka-dots and conform. I wish their interests were more broad ." According to P hleger, his company has bound into a book the roughly 150 current Yale resumes it received for eight vacancies. Reading these resumes, Phelger said, "there are interesting people applying to this job. Sometimes I want to call them up ¡ and say 'think again.'"

Once seniors express interest and show promise, investmen t banks know how to make themselves attractive.

T hey cour t candidates with style.

Lynch was imp ressed by the way P r,in(¡Webber treated him during the

interview process in New York, putting him up in a hotel room that cost $190 and buying him a $25 breakfast. "It blows your mind to be a college student and be treated like that.

It's an ego boost," he says. Phleger says he fell into an easy trap in taking an analyst position. "In many ways it's an easy way to go. I did it. You send in your resume, put on your suit, and go over to CAPS. The guy loves you and you've got a job. It's paradoxically very safe, because you're told what to do with all your time for two years." Ph Ieger says that investment banking r ecruiters exploit the confusion of liberal-arts graduates who are bombarded with the idea that their broad education is not marketable.

"Investment banking is one of the only jobs that tells you you're great for being a liberal-arts major," he says.

In spite of warnings like Phleger's and tough competition, students interview in droves, pleased to have been offered an interview but put ofT by the pressure and attention they receive from other students. According to Beach, interviewing at CAPS is convenient but also frustrating. "You put on your suit and trudge over to

T oo m any stud e n ts are leav in g Yale "clu eless," accordi ng to Su san Hauser , d ean of Caree r Se rv ices.

M any undergraduates say their fascination with investm en t banking comes from a perception that the j ob offers power and glamour.

CAPS, trying to hide !rom people on the way over because they make subtle critical remarks like 'Oh, so you're doing the corporate thing?"' Beach doesn't have time to stop and explain her reasons to everyone she passes, and resents the idea that she should. She believes crit icism of investment banking applicants comes from those who consider them to be "selling out."

Though she says this p h rase is ind efinab le, she feels that it has to do with performing wor k one does not want to do, a nd sacrificing o n e's happiness or d ream. "I wouldn't be doing th is if it were ·Selling out," she said quietly.

Whether o r not students entering the profession are selling out, prospective investment bankers need to be more aware of what they're getting into. O n campus one finds a great deal of both breathless praise a n d knee-je rk cr iticism, but very little thou ghtful and objective discussi<).n of the job itself. A s a result, seniors who drift into investment banking may find their vague expectatio n s left unfulfilled. T o all, th e job offers high wages, financia l literacy, and sporadic glamour. But to o nly some does it provide satisfaction . Others, like Phleger , want out. After two years ~nt grinding away in a serv ice Industry, th ese in vestment bankers feel ~ifled finan cing som eone else's dream lllstead of pursuing th eir own.

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The New J ournal/February 27, 1987 29

Book Review /David Keck

Beauty Made Simple Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages, by Umberto Eco, translated by Hugh Bredin, Yale University Press (New Haven and London: 1986) $12.95, 146 pages.

In the preface to his Art rmd lJPaU!Y in Th,. Mirld/,. A.£!1'.\·, Umbcrto Eco states that he was "rather reluctant" to allow Yale University P ress to republish a piece written originally as a "single chapter of a four volume handbook on the history of aesthetics" fi r st published 28 years ago.

Stand ing outside th e context of this lar ger , more comprehensive treatment of theories of beauty, t h is republication is too close to an encyclopedia en try to survive on its own. Alth ough he synthesizes his diverse m aterial brilliantly and imagin atively, Eco is never able to

devote enough time to any one topic.

This "chapter," seeking to become a "book" (one might suspect for the profit of the publisher or the career of the translator), represents an ambitious attempt to collate the aesthetic theories of eleven centuries, an attempt that d isplays its potential but never fulfills it.

Eco is known to most readers and movie-goers as the author of The Name of the Rose, a bestselling murder mystery set in a medieval monastery.

Currently a professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna (and a visiting professor at Yale in 1977, 1980, and 1981), Eco com posed Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages when he was only 26 years old. But even at that age h e clearly. seems to have had a full understanding of his subject matter.

He moves freely and confidently from the theology of St. Augustine to the humanism of Erasmus, revealing fascinating transitions in medieval

When the medieval mystic turned away from earthly beauty he took refuge in the Scriptures and in the contemplative enjoyment of the inner rhythms of a soul in the state of grace. Some authorities speak of a 'Socratic ' aesthetics of the Cistercians , one founded upon the contemplation of the beauty of the soul. ' Interior beauty' , wrote St. Bernard , 'is more comely than external ornament , more even the pomp of kings'.7 The bodies of martyrs were repulsive to look upon after their tortures, yet they shone with a brilliant interior beauty.

The contrast between external and internal beauty was a recurrent theme in medieval thought. There was also a sense of melancholy, because of the transience of earthly beauty.

Boethius is a moving example, lamenting on the very threshold of death, 'The beauty of things is fleet and swift, more fugitive than the passing of flowers in Spring . . . '• This is an aesthetic variation on the moralistic theme of ubi sunt, a constant theme in medieval culture: where are the great of yesteryear, where are the magnificent cities, the riches of the proud , the works of the mighty?

-

from Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages

30 The New JournaV February 27, 1987

aesthetics. But he never fully explores them. Precisely because Eco's knowledge is so vast, the reader expects much more than mere glimpses of significant figures and finishes the book somewhat unsatisfied.

Perhaps the central problem that all writers who attempt to survey tpe Middle Ages (or indeed any age of history) must face is a fundamental conceptual question: was the medieval period an age unified in its thought and culture or was it a more pluralistic age filled with the diversity of ideas and values we experience in the twentieth century? To put it another way, was tJ;lere a "medieval man," a character istic figure (or composite of figures) who represents or epitomizes that particular time of h istory, or were the patterns of life and· thought too diverse to be grasped through one typological reference point? The answer to these questions determines whether the scholar interprets the Middle Ages as a distinctive per iod in human history with special approaches to human existence or simply as a conceptually useful, but not unique, division in the unbroken development of human affairs.

Eco employs the term "the Medievals" throughout the book referring primarily to Scholastic theologians (and, as he reveals, art critics) but also to medieval people in general. He sees a unity in the thought of the period derived from the fundamental importance of Sacred Scripture, the inheritance from Antiquity, and Christianity. T hus, by approaching the Middle Ages from this unified perspective Eco surveys an age rich in different theories and ques· tions from a singular point of view, sometimes passing over complexities in the history of ideas. Consequently, the great variety of arguments he himself presents seems to contradict his unified perspective. He discusses, for example, several theories on the relationship between art and religion.

The Council of Nicea in 787 rejected

: order to unify the book. He hints at, but never properly draws out, the ~ parallels he discovers between the l "Medievals" and important thinkers of :5 other periods. He begins to advance, -! for example, arguments about the ; similarity between the dynamic ~ conceptions of contemplation shared 8 by the Romantics and the neo-Platonic school of St. Victor. He suggests that these disparate intellectual movements both exhibit a "sense of the inadequacy of earthly beauty, which provokes in hirn who contemplates it that sense of dissatisfaction which is a form of yearning for God." Such synthetic analysis is often the most exciting and rewarding aspect of any comprehensive survey. Had he included more of these, or dedicated more pages to these insights, the Iconoclasm and allowed the use of published volume would be a first-rate sacred images. But were these artistic book and not a chapter. representations of Biblical figures Eco seeks in his conclusion to unite subordinate to the Church's teachings, the various themes from the or could they exist independently? Eco preceding chapters by outlining the lists several medieval answers to this transitions from one medieval theory question but provides no satisfactory of beauty to another. From the analysis of the similarities and Pythagorean theory of numbers to the differences among the "Medie- struggle between Scholastic universal vals" themselves or between tne order and secular independence, he "Medievals" and people of different sketches the history of aesthetics from ages. Such a comparison is necessary the reaction against the disorder and in order to clarify the significance of chaos following the fall of Rome to the the term "Medievals." Unfortunately, Renaissance. This fascinating the limitations of a chapter in a historical survey provides some order handbook do not allow Eco the to the work as a whole but cannot opportunity to engage in such critical succeed in uniting the previous 100 synthesis. pages. The topical (as opposed to Indeed , the book, rich and chronological) approach, which Eco exhaustive in its scope, suffers from a employs throughout most of the book, lack of framework. Divided into surveys the issues too briefly to allow chapters such as the "Aesthetics of the reader to retain any sense of Proportion," the "Aesthetics of Light," specific figures or to develop any â&#x20AC;˘symbol and Allegory," and "Theories synthetic capacity to connect the of Art," the work lacks a superstructure chapters. The diversity of medieval other than the unity provided by the thought, the categorized subjects of rnedieval time period. The passages inquiry, and the brief account of where Eco begins to bring out changes in theory are the general COntrasts and tensions in these diverse concepts that remain in the mind. Eco approaches to art and beauty are not presents the extensive and diverse developed as fully as they need to be in source material (he draws on painting,

1.

literature, architecture, theology, poetry, and Church councils) too succinctly for the individual authors and artists to become clear and distinct in the reader's understanding.

Eco attempts to survey eleven centuries of thought in 120 pages, a project both laudable and necessary -laudable because the skills and scholarship (which Eco clearly has) required to attempt the project are immense, and necessary because understanding any particular idea requires an understanding of its predecessors and descendants.

Unfortunately, the book should have been at least twice as long and more thorough to al.ow Eco's scholarly insights to provide the kind of synthesis required for a short history.

â&#x20AC;˘

David Keck is a senior in Timothy Dwight.

Congratulations The New Journal is pleased to announce the elections of Carter Brooks as Publisher and James Bennet as Editorin-Chief, effective today. Carter joined the magazine in 1985 and has served as Photography Editor for the past year.

James joined the magazine in 1986 and has served as Associate Editor this year.

Carter and James will continue the leadership of graduating Publisher Margie Smith and Editor-in-Chief Melissa Turner.

Five additional members of TNJ's new Executive Board will also assume their offices today: Business Manager Debra Rosier, Managing Editors Susan Orenstein and jennifer Sachs, Designer John Stella, and Production Manager David Brendel. Together with the outgoing Executive Board they are now planning their first issue, which will appear in April. We congratulate them and wish them the best of luck.

The New JoumaJ/February 27, 1987 31

If you have not pledged to this year's QCF, you stilt have one week to do so. Please contact your college chairmen immediately to make your pledge this week.

Figures as of 2120187

Participation '87 Berkeley Branford Calhoun Davenport Ezra Stiles Jonathan Edwards Morse Pierson Silliman Saybrook Trumbull Timothy Dwight

Total

63°/o 42o/o 58°/o 39°/o 350A>

53°/o 58°/o 54°/o 55°/o 16°/o 48°/o 78°/o SOo/o

Our goal is 15°/o participation. We still need 300 seniors 1o pledge.

This year we are still hoping to break all previous records. Your participation will make our QCF the largest ever. Thanks to student support, the Yale Alumni Fund is continuing to raise money to insure that the University thriveS. The quality of Yale's future depends on you.

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