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Cover graphics ~y .Jaeyong So Cover des(f!n by John Stella and Jon Wertheimer Cover photo by Heidi Schulman .
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Between the Vines
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Yale balks . . . Daedalus jlys . . . Group Work s/Q.lls.
Street Talk A man:r words, a hard s/Q.re control the space that women have learned is not their own. By Skye Wilson.
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The Primary Ambition of Irwin Zucker Hart:r back in. DuPont and Babbitt are out. You know who:r 14t . . . or do you? A Presit:lentialnon-conteruler has more to offer than you might think. By Matt Fleischer.
Features
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A Fare Market Passengers are not the only ones whO must wait for a cab in New Haven: Independent operators battle for taxi permits. By Andrew Cohen.
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Serving Tradition High salaries at private lm.v firms have made the Yale Law School /Q.ke new measures to protut its philcsophy of public service. By Cynthia Cameros.
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Overdue Notice Some studer!t library workers feel disadvantaged and lcok to the union for a solution. ¡By Julie Hantman.
Books
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Love Triangles The Psychology of Love tells how to draw your way to a better relationship. But its theories end up going in circles. By Jennifer Sachs.
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Foreign Policy The International Center of New Haven has run out of money. Burdened with a $10,000 deficit from last year, the traditional resource of New Haven's international student communities cannot raise sufficient funds on its own. It has turned to Yale for help. The Center, founded in 1949 as a gathering place and residence for Yale's international students, separated from the University 33 years ago to serve the greater community. It now provides social and academic support for international students in New Haven. Yale, which gives some assistance to the Center, is hesitant to increase its commitment, citing other budgetary priorities and questioning whether the Center is of use to Yale students. But Gretchen Kingsley, executive director of the Center, warns that if the current fiscal problem is not solved, "the community that will be affected the most will be the Yale international community." She estimates that of the Center's 2000 members, over 80 percent are affiliated with Yale and most are in the graduate schools. From an office in two Yale-donated rooms on Temple Street and a house on Prospect Street, the Center supplies information on everything from travel to taxes, offers host family and language programs, and provides translators, interpreters, and foreig_!llanguage tutors. The house serves as a residence for 15 people, mostly Yale graduate students, and as a site for receptions, picnics, and discussion groups. Gad Barzilai, an Israeli Fulbright scholar in political science at Yale, has lived in the house since September. He values the Center as a forum for "debate with people from different countries about political and social issues." Funded by donations and a nearly exhausted endowment, the Center has accrued a deficit over the last seven years. According to Shah Karim (SY '81, GRAD '88), an economics student 4 The New Journal/ M a rc h 4 , 1988
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of publicity for Daly's misconception. In an effort to make the community, and Yale in particular, more aware and supportive of its programs, the Center has organized a spring fundraising campaign. It held a benefi~ concert with the Berkeley Chamber Orchestra last week and has scheduled a bazaar and several international meals for the coming months.
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-Kirk Semple Proj ect Daedalus hopes to add wings to this bicycle. from Bangladesh and a member of the Center's board of directors, this year the Center is far from satisfying its $150,000 budget. He explains that 'if the board cannot find sufficient funds, it will have to mortgage the house and drastically cut back the Center's programs. Rad Daly (SM '49), director of administrative services and associate secretary of the University, believes that Yale could profit from a strong International Center. Last summer the University doubled its contribution to the Center from one to two dollars per registered person. The Graduate School matched 70 percent of these funds. Yale has reviewed other ways to increase its involvement in the Center, such as augmenting its donations or buying the house. But, as Daly explains, the University has not arrived at a decision for two reasons: its engagement in labor and Teaching Assistant negotiations and its reservations about the Center's use. While Daly concedes that it is difficult to figure out a formula for the human services that the Center provides, he doubts that the students themselves use it. "As I see it, it takes care of spouses and children," he says. George Andreopoulos, a political science post-doctoral research fellow from Greece and a resident at the International Center, believes that Daly is poorly informed . He faults both the administration's insufficient interest in the Center and the Center's
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Flight of Fancy A few weeks fl'om now over the Aegean Sea, science and myth will converge in a tiny humanpowered aircraft called Daedalus. The aircraft is named for the figure in Greek . mythology who with his son Icarus attempted to escape from the dungeon of King Minos. That Daedalus used wings of wax and feathers. The modern one relies on featherweight plastics, has a 102-foot wing span, and weighs only 70 pounds. Begun three years ago as the brainchild of a group of scholars at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Daedalus project now involves the efforts of two Yale professors. If successful, the aircraft will set a new record for manpowered flight. Tracing the path of its mythical namesake, Daedalus will fly at about 15 miles an hour from Heraklion, the capital of Crete, to the island of San Torini, 70 miles away. Although the distance is nearly twice as far as any other manpowered aircraft has gone, early tests have been encouraging. A year ago last January, a less streamlined version of Daedalus flew 37 miles, breaking the distance record set by the Gossamer Albatross, which crossed the English Channel in 1979. Since the .stress of pedaling for four to six hours 20 feet above the ocean is comparable to running two mara-
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thons, the Daedalus team turned to ~ still wipe us off the face of the nonEthan Nadel, Yale professor of ~ profit world." physiology and epidemiology, to deal ~ Dwight Hall sold the van and left with the complexities of what Nadel ~Group Work leaders looking for terms "the human machine." At the ~ options. Brian Lee (BR '88), the John B. Pierce Foundation Laborastudent coordinator of the program, tory, affiliated with the Yale Medical had hoped that the van would be given to anothe r volunteer program , which School, Nadel ran tests on over two dozen athletes who applied to pilot the would lend it to Group Work. But the job training program that acquired craft. He selected five candidates, including a triathlete from the the van uses it on weekday afternoons University of Connecticut Medical and weekends, the only times Group School, three American cyclists, and Work members could meet with the the top-ranked cyclist on the Greek children. Lee said he had considered national team. having volunteers take buses to the With the assistance of second-year Q-View project. "But the neighmedical student Alan Hillibrand, borhood isn't very safe," he said, "and Nadel has attended. to the needs of his the purpose of the program was to take pilots during the flight. He conducted the kids places they couldn't usually Groupwork doesn't come here any go." tests to determine the temperature in more. When Group Work started 10 years the cockpit for optimum performance and consulted with Daedalus engineers ago, volunteers had no choice but to use buses for transportation. At that in order to provide adequate ventilation. He also developed a fluid rich in End of the Road time, Q-View had a community center carbohydrates for the pilots to drink which served as the program's activity during the flight. Seventeen Yale volunteers returned site. In 1983, the New Haven Boys and The team is aiming for an a~urate from winter break to find that Dwight Girls Club sponsored the program and let enactment of the fabled flight. ' Sarah Hall had decided to discontinue Group the volunteers use a van and the Club's Morris, associate professor of Classics Work, a program that arranged weekly building. Later, the YMCA provided at Yale, studied close to a dozen day trips for over 40 children living in a van and driver, but, a ccording to different versions of the myth before the Quinnipiac View (Q-View) Hasegawa, their service proved finally establishing an acceptable housing project in Fair Haven. Group unreliable. To make the program route. Morris sees the project as Work depended on a Dwight Hall van independent, Becky Bunnell (BR '84), another stage in the myth's evolution; to transport the children. But the Yale a former director of Group Work, an account of the flight will appear in a Motor Pool, which manages all Yale raised $11,000 from alumni to buy the book she is writing on the myth. vehicles, charged that volunteers took van for Dwight Hall. Now, however, Currently, the team of scholars and the program's van on unauthorized without Motor Pool support, Group pilots are at Edwards Air Force Base in personal trips. "We found that vans Work cannot function as it has in the California for final training and flight signed out to go to Q-View were past. Some volunteers still take buses or preparation. The primary Daedalus coming back with 600 miles put on craft suffered some damage to one them over the weekend," Dwight Hall borrow cars to see the children. But wing and its cockpit in a minor crash Director Jack Hasegawa said . The most of the students have made goodearlier this month, but the team plans Motor Pool refused to continue b ye trips to Q-View. Lee, who will to travel to Crete with the replacement insuring the van; Dwight Hall could graduate this term, said he can no craft at the end of March. Although to not afford to insure it; and Group longer make a commitment to the some the project may seem like model Work was paralyzed. program. In order for Group Work to Dwight Hall considered keeping the rebuild, he said , students must building on a grand scale, Nadel firmly believes that it has significance beyond van in use but feared being sued in the "conceive of a new way" to run the the record books. "It has research and a case of an accident. This almost program. Hasegawa agreed. "Dwight lot of students involved, the generation happened three years ago when a Hall is student-run and studentof new knowledge, and it educates the Group Work child fell out of a moving oriented ," he said . "If people want to general public," he said. "This is what van. "The injury wasn't serious, and revive Group Work, they'll have to the parents were glad to have their take the initiative ." an academic project ought to be." child back safe," Hasegawa said. "But in the second-most litigious state in the country, any one of those kids could -John Kim -Mitclull Hammond
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T h e New J o u rnal/Marc h 4 , 1988 5
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Street Talk Since I left childhood, the remarks, leers, and gestures have become part of my definition of walking outside .
6 The New journal/ March 4, 1988
After midnight on a Wednesday night, I am returning a borrowed computer disk to a friend. I cannot hear the groups of students a few blocks away, but I know they are there, passing through Cross Campus or talking outside Naples pizzeria. A man approaching me is my only companion on Temple Street. His presence makes the evening's calm vanish. By instinct I cross the street to put as much distance between us as possible. The stranger looks like a student at first glance and doesn't seem threatening. But he makes me wary. I drop my shoulders and lift my chin in order to appear as tall as possible, and try to walk with a purposeful gait. The show of confidence is more for my benefit than his. T he man is probably in his early 30's. I size him up as he calls from
across the road, "Can I ask you a question?" I keep my pace and muffie some response, neither yes nor no. "Where's Orange Street?" he continues. Corduroys, medium-build, shirt over a t-shirt. I gesture in the direction I suspect is correct but question my accuracy. New Haven streets are made up of buildings to me, not names. Curly, light-brown hair, maybe blond. I feel guilty about my brusque response, wanting to be friendly or at least polite. "Can I ask you another question?" he persists. He starts across the street towards me. On drugs? I don't know. Definitely not a student. His face doesn't alarm me. But his words do. "Would you watch me jack off?" His hand reaches for his zipper. ¡ I quickly turn the corner, glancing
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up Wall Street to see people by Naples. I know that I will be safe; he won't follow me. I look over my shoulder and capitalize on my fear and anger. "Fuck off," I say derisively. Somehow I pull it off. For the next few days I bring the subject up occasionally, either to explain why I ask for an escort home or to get feedback from others. I also need to dissociate myself from his offense by Iâ&#x20AC;˘ making it public. Many times, both women and men responding to the story express confusion, shock, surprise. "Why do men do that?" they ask. "As a man, I don't have to worry about being alone. I can't imagine not being comfortable enough to walk around." "That's really horrible," they say. Part of me wants to brush ofT their reactions. After all, such incidents happen every day. Although that night was the first time a harasser asked me to watch him masturbate, the harassment in general joins a long list of offenses. The women I know have all been victims at some time, to ~orne extent. My mind provides any number of scenarios: day or night, busy sidewalk or isolated street, group of women or alone. Since I left childhood, ~¡ the remarks, leers, and gestures have become part of my definition of walking outside. Over time, these routine assaults have undermined my sense of self-sufficiency. Each incident threatens my identity as an independent woman, as well as my safety. When I leave the corner of Wall and Temple, I feel both numb and strangely alert. Several yards ahead of me, someone unlocks a bike. I estimate the length of time before he crosses my path. I try to determine whether he will turn at the intersection and whether the street ahead is well-lighted. Only then do I notice that I am almost home. Once outside the residential college gate, I consider abandoning my ¡~ errand to seek the safety of my room. But in fami liar territory, my fear seems exaggerated. On the street leading to my friend's room, a policeman observes the passers-by. I want to tell him about the
man just a few blocks away, but I feel rassed me became a non-event, silly. Nothing has really happened to especially under less menacing me, I tell myself as I walk on, but I circumstances. It didn't really hapthank the policeman silently for being pen, so I could not really be disthere. A man stands in the passage turbed by it. At the time, even my between the Co-op and my friend's would-be exhibitionist failed to stir me college. By this time I am tn(\ timid to out of that mentality, so that I pass, and so I wait for him to finish urinonly smiled at an on-duty police ating against the wall. My hesitancy officer and felt embarrassed about makes me feel both prudish and vul- bothering him. Later I recognized how nerable. The policeman starts in my much I had compromised my feelings. But di Leonardo leaves no room for direction, and I smile weakly. I feel as if I will never make it to a place with uncertainty. Street harassment, like rape, constitutes violence against familiar faces. women. And our society trivializes it, Given time to think about that night, I as it does rape. Di Leonardo testifies to realized that I had underestimated its the event, first by defining it:
For a woman who strives to be understood as selfsufficient, turning to a m an makes m e feel as if I'm turning to D addy to help m e walk across the street. impact. Something significant had occurred. I studied "street harassment" a year ago in Introduction to Women~ Studies, taught by Assistant Professor Micaela di Leonardo, and I remember feeling relieved when I read her article, "The Political Economy of Street Harassment." Right there in academic language someone had verified that harassment exists, and that it IS unwarranted. But my response stemmed from habit, not from anything I had learned in an article a year ago. Taught since childhood to ignore the comments, I had come to overlook my reactions. Street harassment had taken on such an elusive quality that I could not identify its effects. And consequently, every incident in which a man ha-
Street harassment occurs when one or more strange men accost one or more women whom they perceive as heterosexual in a public place which is not the woman's/women's worksite. Through looks, words, or gestures the man asserts his right to intrude on the woman's attention, defining her as a sexual object, and forcing her to interact with him.
The key words are "intrude" and "force." Masquerading as sexual compliment, street harassment serves to rob women of their freedom. According to di Leonardo, our culture expects women to be friendly, even when men are not. Therefore, they have two "acceptable" reactions to a harasser: either to smile or to show fear. Both signal deference to someone of higher status. Since the second wave of the women's movement, street harassment has increased significantly as women require more time outside to conduct thc.-ir business and to take care of their needs. The day-to-day abuses they suffer provide a quick way for men to repossess outside territory. Society redefines these abuses as flattery. "They are flirting with you; can't you take a compliment?" Which leads into: "It must be something about you. What were you wearing; how did you walk?" Many women accept street harassment in its more mild forms as complimentary, as reflective of their sexual appeal. But in accepting harassment as a compliment, women also accept an invasion of their privacy and The New JournaVMarch 4, 1988 7
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a restriction of their mobility. I don't want to do that. In struggling to find an appropriate response to harassmen t, I used to stay silent. But too much of women's language is silence. Sometime last year, I began to train myself to reclaim my voice. When I felt safe- if there were a number of people around or I had an easy out- I started to swear back, and once I told the stranger to "chill." I usually said the first thing that entered my mind. However, that method has its drawbacks. Saying "fuck you" to a harasser who h as couched his assault in sexual innuendo seems to be the wrong reply. That night o n Temple Street was the first time I had managed to say "fuck off' instead. I considered it a major accomplishment. Swearing back appeals to me because it counters the notion of what "ladies" should say. Since street
harassers view women as inferior, I want to break away from their image of "female" as much as possible. But it isn't always right to do so. Foremost, a woman has to consider her safety. A man aggressively calling names from his car could have a hidden weapon. Even a foot gunning the accelerator becomes life-threatening. In order to talk back to harassers, I have to believe that I am not at fault. Society leads women to think that they bear the responsibility for the cat call out of a car window and the "hey, baby" from the corner. Yet rape awareness literature uses the phrase "blaming the victim" for logic like that. From their own, ,experience, women can testify that street harassment has little to do with their clothes. At most it would seem that their contribution is having breasts. Knowing where the blame lies does not remove my feelings of susceptibility. In facing a walk outside, part of me welcomes the advent of the cold weather and the necessary layers of · clothes. Once shapeless, I feel more l protected- reduced to a figure without ~ contour. I realize, however, that my ~ disguise has few real results. After all, g my midnight harasser found me in head-to-toe bulky clothing. Although he can take advantage of his mask as a stranger, I can do little to prevent his attack except to remove myself from all public situations. But that non-solution leaves me feeling robbed. Why should I have to eliminate myself to be free from scrutiny? The harasser has a lesson to teach: Women have to watch themselves while in the public domain. They never really walk alone since someone else always observes them. Acknowledging this invasion, I have to seek protection, usually from men who enjoy immunity to this kind of sexual harassment (although many perceived homosexuals suffer another type of abuse). For a woman who strives to be understood as self-sufficient, turning to a man makes me feel as- if I'm tur ning to Daddy to help me walk across the street. This solution serves to keep men in control and to give value to
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their biceps and not their personatities. Although I certainly appreciate the protection of my male friends, I resent that only they give me unhindered access to public space.
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I later learned that the man who had harassed me also harassed a friend of mine-on that same Wednesday night. Hidden in a dumpster's shadow, he surprised her. The words were the same, and she too was not touched. Yet the incidents left both of us shaken. We each had to find a way to respond, to assess the danger, and to understand the implications. It was a demand on our time and energy that neither of us wanted. The next day I decided to report the harassment to the Yale police . I sought to counter an event that deserved attention: because something could have been worse does not mean it wasn't bad. The police were responsive, but they encouraged me to report such a case sooner in the future. As it was, he got away with it.
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The New J o urnal/ March 4, 1988 9
Between the Vines/Matt Fleischer
The Primary Ambition of Irwin Zucker Irwin Zucker got 22 votes for President in the New Hampshire Democratic primary. On the surface, that makes him different from you and me. It also makes him different from Michael Dukakis, who garnered over 43,350 votes. Both men are still in the race. Perhaps 22 votes mean more than we think. I never wanted to be President, though politics has always interested me. My dream was to be Ace Political Reporter, dodging through crowds on the campaign trail to confront Senator Chauncey Shmcndritk about his stand on arms sall''l to Southwest Northern Eastland. Dreams can fade, though, or be .recognized as dreams, and Ace Political Reporter soon ended up in my closet next to Major Leaguer and Woody Allen. Middle school and high 10 The New Journal/March 4, 1988
school passed, but I felt no closer to politics than I had in sixth grade when I patched together a recap of Election Night 1980 from the New York Times. Indeed, as I became a voter, ostensibly entering the political process, I nonetheless felt as distant from it as I had working for my elementary school M cDivitt Mustang. In college, my frustration with politics has arisen from something more basic than a sense of anonymity among millions of voters or of the invisibility of "politicians" hundreds of miles away. Politics- and especially Presidential politics- is compelling, daunting, seductive, but its essence escap~s me. The dictionary definition of "politics, noun" does not hint at its force. Does politics equal govern'ment? Is it the means of entering into a
Politics- and especially Presidential politics - is compelling, daunting, seductive, but its essence escapes me.
government? Or is it some large process upon which government depends, but which remains free of government? Politics seemed to lie behind a glass, visible but not tangible. To understand, I needed to pass into that world beyond. Covering a campaign would admit me, I had thought, to the World of Politics. In my sixth-grade vision I would crawl under the other reporters' legs, jump up in front, and ask my questions. Now I know I would be stuck in the back. Bored, I would wander over to the complimentary doughnuts, then turn around to discover the press bus traveling at the speed of light for the next city. Welcome, Matt, to the Political Wilderness that lies outside the World of Politics. Here, politicians are not programmed, and politics is not an assumption, but another form of human action to be questioned. "[Thirty-nine] Aspirants File for New Hampshire Primary," the Times announced in late December. Some were familiar figures from the World of Politics, but who were the outsiders that had plunked down SIOOO apiece to access the ballot? According to the Times, one was a chemistry professor, another a grocery store clerk, and a third was the former leader of the Ku Klux Klan. Who, though, was "Irwin Zucker, 55, of Eatontown, N.J .," living only half an hour from my home? What did politics mean to him? "The time is at hand when the wearing of prayer shawl and skullcap will not bar a man from the White House," Wallace Markfield wrote in You Could Live If Th9 Let You, "unless, of course, the man is Jewish." This sort of sentiment, I figured, had sparked an Irwin Zucker to enter the race for the Presidency. He lived in Eatontown, which, while not affiuent itself, adjoins wealthy Jewish communities in Deal and other shore towns. I tried to contact him , but he had an unlisted number. Both Eatontown and Monmouth County officials professed ignorance of him, and neither the Chamber of Commerce nor the local Jewish Community Center were help-
ful. His elusiveness only enriched my conception of an aloof individual driven by private motives. I thought it possible that by the age of 55 one could have collected both intense bitterness toward politics and enough money to express it. A man with an unlisted number-to my mind one of the silliest of conceits-would willingly spend $1000 for no other reason than to soothe his ego or to register a protest against the political process. But this was not Irwin Zucker. The address I acquired through a call to the New Hampshire secretary of state led to a shabby real estate office in a parking lot facing a McDonald's-a modern-day log cabin amidst suburbia. My knock brought no response. Unsure, I noticed a red, white, and blue sticker on the mailbox that read "Irwin Zucker/Restore Respect." 1 left a note. We met a couple of days later in the McDonald's. Zucker reached across a table strewn with papers to shake my hand. Broad-shouldcn•d -... ith thin ning dark hair. ht• rt•minckd nw slightly of Walter Mondale. Upon seeing my tape recorder, he suggested that we move to his home, which was quieter. As we crossed the parking lot, Zucker explained that he had spent the last several days in Brooklyn consulting with his public relations man, auending to campaign literature. Now he was thinking through his strategy for New Hampshire. Zucker eschewed the common shake-hands-and-smile approach, asserting that the people of New Hampshire were jaded by the fawning of the major candidates. He wanted to speak at the "nine o r ten academic colleges in New Hampshire." H e thought this reOected his rational
approach to politics and seemed more likely to gain him media attention. From the start, I saw that Zucker's view of the media was battling his devotion to the housing crisis, his focus issue. Early in his more than two weeks of campaigning in New Hampshire, Zucker wrote a press release indicting the press itself, claiming it was "more interested in what is going on in bedrooms than in building them." Though disgusted with the "P eeping Tom" media, Zucker sleeps with the book How lo Get Free Press beside his bed. A serious candidate- as Zucker, in his blazer and tie, surely considered himself- had to be ready for the media when it came. He began our conversation by complimenting my neat handwriting, as he had already done in his phone call to arrange our meeting, and he seemed impressed by my tape re· corder and briefcase. Perhaps if I were truly "the media," that meant, in his mind, a concomitant elevation of himself to media figure. Though the press seemed shallow when viewed from the Political Wilderness, Zucker nevertheless found it difficult not to adopt the postures of the World of Politics. Zucker handed me his campaign literature: several position papers, clippings about the ballot in New Hampshire, relics from his campaigns of the past, and a biography. I began by asking him about his background. After stressing that he preferred to conce"ntrate on the housing problem, Zucker spoke candidly about his lifestyle and past. Then again, it would have been hard to conceal anything from me. We were talking in his bedroom. I have never been in another canThe New JournaUMarch 4, 1988 II
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didate's bedroom or house, but I suspect that they in no way resemble Zucker's. Senator AI Gore probably does not have a pile of clothes lying on the floor in his front room , amid scattered papers, magazines, and Domino's Pizza boxes. The front room had no heat, and we held our conversation in his bedroom in the back. He sat on his bed, his wardrobe dangling from a rod overhead, and I sat on a chair across from him. Zucker had moved to New Jersey only a year and a half earlier. Previously he lived in Brooklyn, where he ran a newspaper home delivery service for two decades. Financial problems precipitated the move. ,, "I have been interested in politics since I was ten years old ," Zucker proudly told me. Beginning in 1970, he vied for a number of offices, including positions on a local school board, on the New York C ity Council, and on the New York State Assembly and Senate. He has yet to win one. This record he attributes to a lack of money. Nevertheless, Zucker refuses to accept contributions larger than $100, fearing they would lead him to become "a governmental prostitute." Zucker supports his candidacy almost entirely by jobs he takes when not concentrating solely on his campaign. He was employed most recently by Domino's Pizza. Zucker speaks proudly of his "humble background"-as he noted, like Dukakis he is of immigrant parentage - but believes that his strength as a candidate eclipses it. He sees himself as the "earthiest candidate since Harry S Truman." In one of his position papers, Zucker describes his common-sense approach and appeal to the mind as transcending Senator Paul Simon's "cater[ing] to the sensibilities (the emotions)." Zucker is not about to foster an image for the World of Poli· tics that downplays his thinking. Zucker considers himself a pragmatic intellectual. He believes that his solutions to the problems "of our coun· try validate his candidacy, despite his lack of experience in public ·office. Looking from the Political Wilderness
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BICYCLE OUTFITIERS 514 WHALLEY AVENUE at the other candidates, Zucker sees th at "they want to be President to satisfy their own ego requirements. If you don't even address the housing problem- I see them addressing everything else, but not the housing p roblem- I don't see why you should p resent yourself to the American people as a candidate for P resident." Zucker is an ardent supporter of free enter prise. However , he implores us not to ignore the ills of our system, and explains that "our slums are worse than ever, poverty still affiicts us, [and) unemployment haunts us." Zucker feels that our housing policy can address these problems. Every Ameri-
Senator AI Gore probably doesn't have a pile of clothes lying on the floor.
•'
can, he contends, is allected by the housing industry. He has encapsulated th e situation in what he calls the "R iddle of the Sphyn x (sic] of Our Time": Why is it that in the face of the enormous and increasingly accelerating technological advances that we are heir to, that America's newlyweds, with both wife and husband working, find it increasingly perplexing to realize home ownership?
Zucker responds to this problem in part in his "Three Dimensional InD epth Statement On D isarmament." H e proposes to remove housing from public funding, leaving it to the freee n terprise system. By switching the base of property tax from building to '?- land, Zucker expects to stimulate a b uildi ng boom that will produce h ousing affordable to the poor. T hrough this shift in our lives, Zucker feels, we can work towards a domestic peace that we can then expand to peace
among nations. In this way we will "Restore Respect and dignity to all, and to every facet of human endeavor and enterprise in our world." Zucker has a solid faith in politics, but in a different sort than I know. He compares current politics to the ideals of Estes Kefauver and the cult of integr~ty. "There has been a diminution of respect in our society," Zucker asserts. "Basically, I hold the politicians responsible for that . . .. They are the examples of our society. In fact, Justice Brandeis once made that point in a dissenting opinion, that, for good or evil, our politicians set the example for our society. I pick up the paper one day and a Republican is stealing money, the next day a Democrat is stealing money. This has permeated our society," he said. Zucker points his finger at all who betray the public trust. Not only docs he call Senator Joseph Biden a "delinquent rogue," but he decries Robert Dole and all other Sl·nators, who h<· ft·ds faikd to discipline Biden properly. Politicians, Zucker says, must "perform their duty and act in accord with the interests of the nation." Thus, he sharply criticizes Gore, Simon, and others who attend to their electoral needs, instead of to the needs of the country. Zucker puts his desire to be President in perspective: "Maybe this is something I want, I want to be President, but there are 240 million other Americans, what do they care about me being President, except that I have something that will be helpful to them." In a phone conversation after the primary, Zucker labeled his results a "poor showing." He was not disheartened, at least not enough to prevent him from leaving for South Dakota to campaign for five days before its caucus. Yes, he told me, his financial situation was tight; like Jesus, he must take a loaf of bread and feed it to the multitude. He had already gambled $850 on two half-page advertisements in the Manchester, N. H ., Union-uad". In South Dakota, with fewer "fringe" candidates, he had a greater chance of catching the media's
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attention. Besides, he told me, he had made mistakes in New H ampshire, and even if he could not rectify them in South Dakota, he certainly could in time for the New J ersey primary- the nation's last. In New J ersey, he would try to speak at the universities as early as possible. H e hoped to interest students enough to aid his campaign. I recalled what he had told me in our original conversation: "If you could tell me right now, if you rould tell me 'Mr. Zucker, you can have your ch01ce, would you want the housing crisis solved or would you want the Presidency - you can'l have both, Mr. Zucker-what would you want?"' His voice dropped. "I would want the housing crisis solved." H e hoped his candidacy might raise interest in the book he was writing about housing and the free enterprise system, tentatively titled Swindle. After New H ampshire, he suggested, "people listen to you more carefully if you have been a Presidential candidate." Although he is making plans beyond the election, Irwin Zucker thinks he still has an outside chan(T to gain the nomination, if only b ecause it is up for grabs. "None of the seven dwarves will survive Atlanta," he said, referring to the Democratic convention later this summer. "Their mentality- the verbal spitballs they sh oot at each otherreally makes them dwarves." I had seen Zucker in the World of Polit ics-he was a small blur over the edge, a cursory note at the end of an article on page 35. Not until I became aware of the Political Wilderness could I hear his voice. I n the transition, I discovered the meaning of politics for Zucker. "The Senate has an ATTITUDE!" he had written in a position paper; as a citizen, he feels betrayed by the World of Politics. The main problem with politics, he told me, is that it is "difficult to get people interested in what is after all their business-government." He wants to revise the political structu re. I rwin Zucker believes he has only to bring politicians back to the ideals of H arry Truman and Adlai Stevenson, who respected the people. The people,
he feels, arc waiting. "He marches to a d ifferent drummer," Martin Zucker, owner of Marty's Famous Chicken in Red Bank , N. J., told me while his brother was in transit to South Dakota. "I think of him as Don Quixote-very sincere." Indeed, Zucker's absolute faith in the political mechanism makes him resemble Truman less than Quixote. I, too, want to see politics working for me. But though I feel neglected by the exclusive World of Politics, I cannot share Zucker's devotion to political solutions. The people do not seem poised for a major makeover of the body politic. Zucker's reliance on the World of Politics to aacomplish his goals perplexes me. Regardless of whether h is views of a "politics of respect" make him reactionary, nostalgic, or forwardlooking-labeling Zucker is, as the cliche goes, as easy as nailingjello to a tree- the people arc not respondmg. New H ampshire seemed proof enough. Yet merely dismissing Zucker as a nut is too facile. His sideshow is more interesting than the rest of the political circus, even if I cannot agree with all of his views. As his brother told me, "I don't approve or disapprove of what he does, but I have to look at the reality of the situation: People are laughing at him . . . . But he's not hurting anyone, and who knows, he may even be helping." Is his approach getting him any closer to his goals? Zucker told me before New Hampshire, "I'm 55 years old- my life is kinda over . . . and I feel, in a very conscientious way, that I want to spend (the rest of) my life improving conditions in this country, in particular, solving the housing crisis." Lyndon LaRouche, who picked up 2307 votes in the 1980 primary, garnered oniy 188 votes this time around, almost nine times Zucker's figure. The people dismissed LaRouche from the World of Politics after they had admitted him; Zucker has not had the chance to enter. "I told a newsman what I told you about housing," Zucker related after the primary, "and he just shrugged:" Zucker will probably never reach the
Tlie New J ournal thanks Abby Armstrong
josh Barkan
World of Politics. But by his definition, he does not belong there, precisely because it violates h is conception of politics: It excludes grassroots perspectives. Ultimately, we share the cost of Zucker's Catch-22. As we glance through the glass towards the World of Politics, we overlook another, vital world, the Political Wilderness. Zucker has something to say, but we require him to enter the World of Politics before we w ill bother to listen to him. Until we recast our thinking, Zucker will remain ignored, preaching alone in the W ilderness .
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To get a taxi permit, new ideas, good equipment, and adequate insurance are not enough. ~~------....~~~
Richard Spear leans forward and thumps the table. "If I don't get my three permits this time," he says, jabbing the air with his finger, "I'm going to hire a fancy New York lawyer, an antitrust lawyer, even if I have to spend my last penny. I'll sue the 1).0 ¡ infederalcourt." ~'iK1~~ - Havcn
weekly lease but own and maintain their own cars. Although Metro Taxi provides dispatching, its drivers must compete against one another for the most lucrative calls while ignoring other customers. According to Spear, smaller operations could improve public service without directly comP.eting with Metro Taxi. "I'll stop cabi, that's all I wan " he saY.s,
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XI reluctance, will approve any of ,he new applications. To get a taxi permit, new ideas, good equipment, and adequate insurance are not enough. Applicants must establish at a D.O.T. hearing "the public need and convenience" served by their intended enterprise, their own business competence, and the financial plausibility of their p roposal. Why make the application process so involved? "Entry to the market should be limited," John Riley of the D.O.T. explains, "so that those who hold authority, if they're performing satisfactorily, should have a viable operation." Public Transit R egulatory Supervisor Robert Cumpstone agrees. " If tlw authorization of new opt> rat ions would displace adequate-" he pauses, "or fairly adequate-service, we would seriously reconsider the consequences o f issuing that authority." Both men believe that the D.O.T. has an obligation to protect the market for authorized carriers. "It's in the interest o f public service and of public safety," Riley says, pointing out that a taxicab company is bound by license to prov ide a public service 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Metro Taxi serves nearly 700,000 people each year. Before the D.O.T. makes a new authorization, it must consider how that action might jeopardize the m arket. R iley warns that any comp romises may result in unstable finances, margina l service, and the con comitant h azards of speeding drivers, ~ n safe cars, and rate abuses .
A hearing determines what constitutes damage to the market. Cumpstone estimates a healthy margin of earnings to be 15 cents on every dollar. A drop to ten cents on every dollar due to competition, he admits, would not be tragic. Cumpstone maintains that the D.O.T. would be more likely to issue permits "if existing service is Jess than the public would expect." "I'd like to take Bob Cumpstone to the train station on a Friday night," Gerry Walthall says, tapping a pile of papers. Walthall owns Heritage Livery, a Branford-based limousine service. Last March he applied for ten New Haven permits, but unlike Spear, he is not an authorized carrier in the c ity so he faces tougher pr;ospects. Walthall thinks that New Haven's taxi problems are endemic to Metro's "archaic" organization. He leans over to search his briefcase for more evidence, setzmg brochures about cellular telephones, stock ownership programs, and English limousines. Walthall feels persecuted. The D.O.T. has indicted him for servicing New Haven without a permit. Given the chance, he feels he can solve the taxi problem. All that stops him, he claims, stacking his brochures, is the D.O.T. Doug Vine, owner of Branford Cab, says that on rainy days he gets nearly 15 calls an hour from New Haven. "I have to tu r n them away," he says. Vine has applied for five New H aven vehicle permits. Meanwhile he refers h is New H aven calls to Spear. "The D .O.T . has been neglectful of the public need
and convenit·nn·." Spear ""Y"· "Ev<'ry night, I'm the only cab at the tram station lot· the II :08, and the I :OR. and the 2:23, and the 3:37. It's so had that gypsy cabs are coming in." Gypsy cabs are uninsured, unauthor ized cars. "Someone in the D.O.T. is harboring the monopoly. Why else would they deny the public of New Haven the service it needs?" Riley counters that the D.O. T. does not deny the public anything. The D.O. T. does not have the resou rces to ensure adequate service from permit holders across the state, but it does investigate complaints. The indep endents bel ieve the D.O.T. takes "public interest" to mean "monopoly." Histor ically, the D.O.T. h as had a no-win situation in New Haven. I n 1979 Yellow Cab, with only e ight cars on the road, went bankrupt. T he D.O.T. refused permits to applicants it judged to be insufficiently experienced and financed; instead, it a llowed Yellow Cab to come out of bankruptcy under new ownership. The D.O.T. sought to safeguard public service. It feared that any attempts it made to introduce a long-range solution through other carriers would result in crisis if they failed. Riley accepts that Yellow Cab's service was not adequate, but no competitor had the means to step in and take over their volume of business. Cumpstone argues that the decision to rescue Yellow Cab, although "a spotty proposition," allowed New Haven five years of relat ive stabil ity and "fairly adequate, while not tremendous, service."
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As long as Metro Taxi owns almost all the taxi permits in New Haven, others must wait to take the driver's seat. After Yellow Cab reorganized, the company remained in bad shape. Joe McFarland, owner of Yellow Cab, successfully opposed any new author· izations. Spear recalls a D.O.T. hearing for Branford Cab in August of 1986 in which McFarland testified that Yellow Cab earned only $50,000 after taxes and that the introductiqn of even one more permit in New Haven would bankrupt him. The D.O.T. allowed no independent carrier to start in New Haven on the grounds that before it developed the resources and the market to compete, Yellow Cab would collapse, leaving the city with insufficient service. The D.O.T. continues to assume that by guaranteeing the market for the city's largest permit holder, it protects the public interest. Metro Taxi enjoys almost exclusive rights to Hamden, Woodbridge, New Haven, and North, East, and West Haven. But Yellow Cab failed under sim;Jar circumstances. With many of Yellow Cab's problems in organization and work force, Metro Taxi could also fail to supply adequate service and decent work conditions, especially if the D.O.T. shuts out competition. But the D.O.T. protects markets for authorized carriers less as a matter of principle than of expediency. In New Haven, change is risky. The D.O.T. does not concern itself with the small operators who feel slighted. "What about my business, my benefit?" Spear asks. "I'm a proven operator. I'm authorized. And I need these new cabs to protect my own business."
The independents believe that the D.O.T. needs a firsthand look at New Haven. In the past, the D.O.T. has missed overt signs of a failing system because of its distance. For example, Yellow Cab had only 18 cars running on its last day of service. None of the drivers or dispatchers knew Metro Taxi would take over the next day. However, according to D. 0. T. re· cords, Yellow Cab had 70 registered vehicles, which Cumpstone says, "could have been physically mobilized." The D.O.T. can revoke permits for unregistered, unopera· tiona) vehicles, but only after a complaint has been filed and three years have passed. Riley comments that even during the last days of Yellow Cab, "surprisingly" few complaints reached the D.O.T. in Wethersfield. Spear accuses Riley of suppressing hundreds of letters. "None of those guys live in New Haven," Spear argues. "I know New Haven. They've hardly even seen it." Riley explains that the D.O.T. recognizes the problems caused by its isolation from New Haven and has taken steps toward a remedy. It plans to hold a joint public hearing in New Haven by late March. Spear, Walt· hall, and Vine have filed for 18 new taxi permits among them. The attorney general's office confirmed the legality of a joint hearing two weeks ago. Riley claims it will take less than a month to organize. The D.O.T. decided to hold the hearing in New Haven to get public input and to end complaints about the Wethersfield location. "We'll see how
In New Haven, change is risky. T h e D .O.T. does not concern itself with the small operators .
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many cars Metro's got on the road that day," Cumpstonc says. Ir the D.O.T. is to change New Haven's cab service, he stresses that the public testimony solicited at the hearing has to be convincing. "We've got to get these guys to see what's going on here," Spear says. T he hearing might bring the D.O.T. closer to the needs of the New Haven public, but only temporarily. It cannot sustain that contact. While the D.O.T. approves the equipment of all carriers, the Motor V ehicle Bureau must inspect it every six months. The lack of supervision makes for some disturbing stories. Last July , a foreign summer student paid S70 to get from Connecticut Limo to Silliman College. Some of the independents tell of the difficulty of driving the inspected vehicles when they were employees of Yellow Cab. "Yellow's cars were in deplorable condition," Woods says. He recalls never being able to find a cab with seat belts. Walthall remembers one day when every one of the five cars he drove broke down. On one occasion, Vine pulled into the depot and floored the brakes. A tire fell ofT the cab. "I walked out of there that day," he says, "and never went back. Never in my four years there did I see an inspector come look at the cars." Riley shrugs ofT the problem. "The Motor Vehicle Bureau is supposed to inspect every six months . But they never do. They simply don't have the personnel, 12 or 14 inspectors, I think , for all th<.· taxis, buses, and livery cars in the stall'. In comparison to Yellow Cab, Woods observes, "Metro seems to glitter." Metro Taxi's failings, as well as its successes, have an important bearing on the March hearing. Metro has increased its fleet to 70 cars. The expansion of one authorized carrier and the arrival of two new ones would therefore not endanger its position. Still, says Riley, if the authorized carriers in a region can show that new operations "demonstrably affect their own interests and can testify as to their vehicle earnings, we have to listen." If the service in New Haven proves inadequate for the public's needs,
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however, the hearing could be a watershed. Many of the independents, Walthall and Wood s particularly, believe that Metro Taxi's service is poor and that its organization guarantees a repeat of the Yellow Cab nightmare. Metro drivers pay a weekly lease for administrative services-a meter, a permit, and dispatching. Since the drivers are independent subcontractors and own their own cars, Metro does not worry about insurance, worker's compensation, accident liability, or maintenance. "Metro has put more good cabs on the road this way, and I respect that," Vine says. "But that's about all, and it won't last. Already I'm seeing broken 1 windows covered with tape and dented fenders. Almost all the people are the same, too-drivers, dispatchers, all from Yellow Cab." The advantage of the weekly lease, Walthall explains, is that "it cleans out those guys who can't hold on to money long enough to pay at the end of a week." It can, h owever , put an excessive financial strain on the driverS- When Metro Taxi's radio broke down over a weekend, drivers had no effective dispatching. Meeting the lease at week's end became a serious problem for many. Fourteen-hour shifts are common; drivers no longer get the limited benefits they had when they were unionized under Yellow Cab. Vine is not surprised that Metro Taxi drivers are "dropping leases like crazy." On top of the cost of gas, maintenance, and lease, th ey make a $75 paymen t toward car ownership. "They're paying 18 percent interest on their cars," Walthall says. "Most of them don't have the credit to get a better deal." Woods and Walthall single out the dispatch system as Metro Taxi's biggest problem. Drivers hear each oth er's d ispatches. With no incentive to take a call or to complete the one they h ave taken, they race one another to the attractive jobs and ignore the othe rs. Walthall details how dis· p atchers fabricate "dead" calls to d ivert new drivers and position their .friends n ear lucrative p ick-ups. Woods'
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solution d raws from proven systems. "The police use a professional disp atch system," Woods says. "You shouldn't have some d r iver who's lost h is license in that d isp atch seat. You should get someone who doesn't know the cabbies." Both men think that p r ivate, d ep e n dable d ispatches cou ld be made ov er a system of cellular telephones. Cen tralized radio dispatch, waiting lists, and other inn ovations adapted fro m the livery business could smooth operation s. W oods' own success story demonstrates h ow with in certain limits the D .O.T.'s system can work. Three years ago, Woods applied for and received three New ·H aven permits for C a rolyn's Checker Cab. The company provides a different kind of service: d e p endable, quick, and by appointment only. Woods showed th at his alte rnative did not directly compete w ith Yellow Cab, and he overcam e the difficu lty of proving that he would serve the public need a n d convenience. I n his hearing, the D.O.T. accepted the testimon y of a New H aven woman who relied o n taxis to transport h er to a nd from the hospital for therapy. H er portable oxygen supply could sustain h e r for two hours. She argued that she could not continue to stake her life on Yellow Cab's reliability. The u pcoming hearing will determine whether th ree small carr iers can gain sign ifi cant access to the New Haven market, but a real breakthro u gh seems unlikely. Cumpstone sa ys that if New Haven can support two major carr iers, as do H artford and New London, in th eory the D .O.T. has no reason to protect Metro Taxi. Oppo rtunities in New Haven, however , are limited. "I can't see anything more than fou r or five permits getting b y with out quite a b it of justification," Riley says. Spear sees that limit working against the p ublic interest. "With a little b it of competition, Metro m ight clean up its act."
•
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New Haven, o n Yale Campus The New .Juurnai/ March 4. 191111 21
Serving Tradition Cynthia Cameros Fall, not spring, is courting season at Yale Law School. Hundreds of recruiters from private law firms visit the school and ply third-year students with lunch at the Park Plaza. Some provide airfare to the firm and a night's stay at one of the city's best hotels. For students interested in working in the public sector, getting even an interview can prove difficult. Public interest organizations rarely can afford to send a recruiter. If one does come, the representative and students typically gather in a spare room for a brown bag lunch. Since the 1920's, Yale Law School has had a reputation for promoting public service. As proponents of legal realism, faculty members considered law in terms of its social consequences. This concern prompted several pro22 The New Journal/ March 4 , 1988
fessors to stop teaching law and instead to wield it in the New Deal administration. Although some law students call the reputation a thing of the past, Associate Dean of the Law School Stephen Yandle argues, "Yale Law School is recognized as a spawning ground for lawyers who commit themselves full- or part-time to public interest law." Now, Law School administrators worry that the charms of private firms will outshine those of the public sector. The Law School has instituted several programs to encourage students with an interest in public service. So far, the programs have had little effect. Law students' interest in government and public interest law has diminished since the 1970's. In 1971, almost a quarter of the graduates
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entered the public sector. Fifteen years later, the percentage had dropped to six; Yale trailed the national average by ten percent. Private firms, meanwhile, have attracted Yale law graduates. Forty percent opted for a private law career in 1971. Students' interest peaked in 1983, when 57 percent of law students took jobs at private firms. And last year, 42 percent chose this path. The private sector percentages exclude those pursuing judicial clerkships, which have steadily grown more popular and often provide stepping stones to a ,. corporate career. Rising salaries in private law firms have attracted students while public interest organizations have failed to match their pace. According tb Yandle, before the 1970's, public and
private sector salaries could compete. Today, a starting salary in public interest runs $21,792, while new associate lawyers at Cravath, Swaine and Moore earn $71,000-the highest starting salary at a private firm. Even reform-minded lawyers have entered the private sector. David
As proponents of legal realism, faculty members considered law in terms of its social consequences. Huebner (LAW '86) had found his ideal job at the Center for Law as Public Interest, representing clients in environmental and anti-fraud cases. The salary was low, but enough to live on. After 18 months the Center ran out of funding for him. Because of his pressing loan payments, Huebner joined a medium-sized private firm rather than search for another public interest job. There, he feels less motivated. "I prefer to work for the victim," he says. Academic loans force many Yale students to choose private firms. Fifteen years ago a student's budget averaged $5750. This year, tuition, books, and living expenses add up to $20,030. As a result, most students tap a variety of federal loans to underwrite their educational expenses. The average debt, $28,000, exceeds most starting salaries in the public sector. Ten percent of Yale Law School graduates owe over $37,000 in loans. Recognizing the financial dilemma graduates face in the public sector, the Law School established several programs to aid students leaning in that direction. It offers fellowships to subsidize public sector jobs over the summer. In addition, law students fund their own ¡ summer programs. Together the two programs sponsor
over 50 students every summer. But before the institution of PICA in 1985, students lacked the longterm aid to help launch them into a public service career. The Public Interest Careers Assistance program will forgive a law student's loan debt after eight to ten years of public sector work. Yale lagged behind most major law schools, including Harvard and Northwestern, in developing such a program. When Dean of the Law School Harry Wellington raised the idea of loan forgiveness in 1982, he received a hostile reception at the provost's office. President Bartlett Giamatti, Provost William Brainard, and Yale Corporation members rejected the proposal despite the Law School's strong support and the financial backing of alumni. The administration, faculty, and students fought for loan forgiveness. The new Law School Dean, Guido Calabresi , threatened to quit if the program were not instituted. When the Corporation rejected PICA, Calabresi recalls, "I told the provost that I could not accept that. I would not have stayed on as dean." On a separate front, law students wrote letters urging Corporation members to approve the loan forgiveness program . In 1985 they finally did. But the plan was unreasonable, requiring students to stay in the public sector up to 20 consecutive years. When Benno Schmidt, Jr. , the former dean of Columbia Law School, became Yale's president, he liberalized the plan. Bypassing the Corporation, he drafted a ten-year schedule for loan forgiveness. Financial backing comes from the annual incomes of the Jus tin T. Golenbock Memorial Fund and the Rita C. Davidson Memorial Fund, alumni funds earmarked for the program. Not surprised by the strong alumni support, Yandle says, "The alumni are in tune with the spirit of Yale Law School. In their minds a degree from Yale Law School carries with it a public obligation."
To enter the PICA program, graduates must earn below $40,000 in either a public interest position or in a local, state, or federal government job. Students who graduated before the program's adoption still can apply. Yandle is considering whether students with judicial clerkships, now excluded from the program, should qualify. So far, the financial aid office has accepted 19 students. Currently an applicant for loan forgiveness, Lisa Stansky (LAW '89) works as a staff attorney for the New Orleans Legal Assistance Corporation, far from the traditional enclaves of her classmates in New York City and Washington, D.C. The gap is not only geographical. Of her brush with the corporate world, she says, "I interviewed with some firms but felt that I wouldn't fit in, because I wouldn't be able to do the work I wanted to do. The interviewers saw that I would have qualms representing their clients and asked me what I was doing there." Her current job enables her to concentrate on a major concern of hers-legal Attractive bait? Interviews for public sector jobs are often conducted over a nrnurn-
Th e N ew J ournal/ Ma rch 4 , 1988 23
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problems of the poor. In exchange for work she enjoys, Stansky does her own secretarial work. She will make $18,500 this year. Stansky presently owes $38,950 in loans from her law and undergraduate education. For the first two years of the program, PICA will lend her enough money to cover her educational payments. In return, she must contribute a percentage of her annual income. This year she will owe $1275. After three years, the Law School will begin to pay off her debt, expecting only her personal income contribution. Unless Stansky leaves public interest before the ten years of the program are up, PICA will pay off the rest of her loans. Even with the PICA progr am, however, the percentage of Yale students choosing the public sector has not
i ncreased significantly. The percentage doubled after the first year of the program, from four to eight percent, but numbers have fallen in the past two years. According to Tracy Sivitz (LAW '88), one of the students who campaigned for PICA, the program offers only a weak incentive to enter public service law. "Loan deferral is just enabling you to pay rent, pay for gas, and clothe yourself," she says. Yandle admits that the percentages will stay the same until public sector salaries become more competitive with the private sector. To reconcile financial and altruistic goals, graduates explore other paths to public service. Some graduates perform pro bono work as part of the jobs in private firms. Others plan to serve the public in a government or justice
The New Journal Today, a starting salary in public interest runs $2 1,792 , while new associate lawyers at Cravath, Swaine and Moore earn $71 ,000. position after paying off their d ebts through a lucrative job in corporate law. Steve Fazman (LAW '87), an associate lawyer at P aul, Weiss, Rifkind , Wharton and Garrison, thinks that the good reputation of his firm might carry more weight than a public interest group in gaining him a government job. Some point to Arthur Liman (LAW '57), a corporate lawyer who headed the congressional Iran-Contra hearings, to show that a private law career and public service need not be mutually exclusive .. The failure of Yale students to turn to the public sector reflects a growing national problem. The most recent convention of the American Association of L aw Schools focused on the tension between high salaries and social obligation. The Law School feels added pressure to nudge its students toward public service: Its pride is at stake. Yandle says, "Yale's public interest reputation is an integral part of the self-image of the school." But the d eck is stacked against efforts to ¡maintain that reputation. Every year at the October Job Fair, about 20 public sector groups vie with 420 private firms for Yale law students' attention .
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also at 60 skiff st., Hamden 287-1560 Cynthia Cameros, a sophomore in Ezra Stiles, is on the staff of TN]. The New Journal/March 4. 1988 25
L y nn F est a (SM ' 90) wonders why she e arns Level One pay fo r L evel Two w o rk.
Overdue Notice Julie Hantman A student dining hall worker leans against a wet counter to pull in another tray. This one is loaded with a plate of grayish beef bourgignon, wadded napkms. oranQ;e peels, and three Rlasses used as ashtrays. Meanwhile, behind the serving line, another student worker scoops peas on10 a plate and fields complaints about the food. Not even e ight dollars an hour can convince some students to work in the dining halls. Those on financial aid, paying rent, or in need of spending money look to a n umber of other campus jobs. Over 350 undergraduates and graduates have chosen Yale's library system, the University's largest student employer. Flexible working hours, the chance to get schoolwork done at a desk position, and even the opportunity to learn about library science attract students. Although some tasks are tedious, there are no chicken bones. I n exchange for these conveniences, student library workers forego the protection of a union. Student dining hall workers have been part of Local 35- the maintenance and dining hall workers' union-since 1977. The union ensured that students' hours would not be cut from one semester to th e next and th at a year's leave of absence would not affect their pay. In th e most recent contract with Yale, 26 The New Journal/March 4. 1988
students won paid time to change into uniform and first crack at summer custodial jobs. Their minimum wage jumped from $6.71 to $7.88. Student dining hall workers also enjoy the protection of job descriptions and grievance procedures. Student library workers, however, are barred from Local 34, the clerical and technical worker's union, formed in 1984. Organizing full-time workers alon e took five years of intense struggle. Michael Boyle, Local 34 u n ion organ izer, explains that students were not in cluded in the organizing drive in order to expedite the process. "The re was a desire to get the union election quickly. A common management strategy is to stall, especially over who's in and who's not. We didn't stalL" S ince then, the union has had little time or inclination to organize student library workers. Constituting half of the library staff, students could augment union strength. But every four years, a generation of students comes and goes. The difficulty in unionizing transient workers and the fear that students' concerns would skew the permanent workers' goals also exp lain their exclusion. T hese students now face the adm m lstr ation alone. In 1985, a committee headed by the director of studen t employment standardized
student jobs. Up to this point, there were myriad student job titles, corresponding to various wages. The committee found enough similarities among student jobs to channel them into three levels, setting wages between $4.85 and $6.00, and allowing for a yearly raise of 15 cents. But the committee neither provided a written description of these three levels, nor indicated how m uch they pay. With no guidelines, the library's personnel office interpreted the standardization for itself. Before standardization, there were about 20 diffe~ ~nt student library jobs. Accord ing to Maureen Sullivan, director of Library Personnel, "We had some students who were being paid more than other studen ts doing the same level of work." The majority of the jobs paid between $4.65 and $5.23. These were channeled into Level One, at the new minimum of $4.85. "This was our effort to bring things all together with fewer titles and to assure that we were paying the students fairly," Sullivan says. But although the wages of some positions rose, most fell. To prevent individual workers from suffering a decrease, the library established a grandfather clause, maintaining wages for students¡ who had been earning more than $4.85. Though the administration attempted to be fair by instituting th e grandfather clause, some students feel that it has actually contr ibuted to the injustice. One night in September, Mark Harmon (GRD '91) was working behind the desk at Kline Science Library. While chatting, he discovered that his co-worker earned 38 cents more per hour for doing the same work. Outraged, he filed a grievance through the Provost Procedure for Student Complaints. But Provost William Nordhaus rejected it, explaining that student wage levels are administrative decisions and not subject to review through student complaint procedures. In addition to unstable wages and no grievance procedures, student library workers have no sound job d.escriptions. I n Cross Campus Library
(CCL), Level One students are meant to perform circulation duties under direct supervision. There is no written job description for Level Two. According to Sue Crockford-Peters, acting department head of CCL, Level Two workers should divide their time between lead duty- supervising other students-and computer work. Crockford-Peters says, "We know which responsibilities fall into which categories." But Lynn Festa's (SM '90) experience shows that the categories are not â&#x20AC;˘SO clear. Last semester. she worked as a "lead" two nights a week, at Level One pay. Only one worker on a shift receives Level Two pay. A lead supervises all students on a shift, however, including those at Level Two, and often even clerical and technical workers (C&T's). The library administration seems to recognize the increased responsibility by calling students "leads," but does not ¡ raise them to Level Two pay of $5.50 per hour. Students' increased role as supervisors reflects the library system's difficulty in attracting full-time employees. Library jobs for these workers are among the lowest paying jobs on campus. According to the 1 f union steward at Sterling, Lynn Catalano, the root problem is that "the library is basically cheap." Jeff Campbell (PC '88) would agree. Last semester, he worked full time at CCL: He spent most of his time filling the vacant nighttime supervisor position, which normally pays $10.00 per hour, but for which he earned $6.00. During the rest of his time he processed course lists. Campbell estimates he accrued 70 to 80 hours in overtime. To date he has not received the $200 owed him. In fact, no student who has worked over 40 hours has received the overtime legally due them. "The rationale is that they can always hire more students," Campbell says. "But there is only a handful of students who are trained to do these things. Then they say the budget is too tight and pretend as if the students are not worth the overtime." Although working with six C&T's, Campbell processed over
40 percent of last semester's 500 keep job tasks the same and pay a reserve course lists. lower wage." But since the fall of 1986, Students at CCL are responsible for applications for student library jobs a great deal of the work. Some claim have dwindled. Recognizing this probthat they easily exceed the required lem, Associate Provost Lloyd Suttle rate of shelving- one truckload of recently formed a committee to study books per hour- while many of their problems at Student Employment. H e C&T co-workers shelve below this hopes to create a manual to explain rate. Part of the problem seems unwhat the three levels mean. As yet, solvable; students working short shifts no specific plans exist either to furnish at a boring job will compensate by job descriptions or to change the level working faster. Sullivan recognizes this system. The committee plans to review dilemma. "Most of the students who only the minimum wage. work in the library are hard workers. I Student workers are skeptical. think it's probably part of their Rather than wait for the results of the nature." But their attention is not so committee, some are df'manding an focused on the stacks that they do not annual increase in the minimum wage notice if a higher-paid C&T beside now. They have sent petitions to the them is shelving half a truck per hour. administration and organized a work Rob Coleman (DC '89) says, "You feel slowdown at CCL, shelving only as stupid for working harder than people rapidly as they think their pay warwho make more than you do." Many rants. Feeling ignored by the administudents start out shelving quickly but stration, some see unionization as their then slow down. "You don't get an only solution. But a union is no cureextra star for shelving a truck a all. Many student dining hall workers minute," one freshman says. feel like second-class citizens, ignored In the Sterling reference departby union leaders. Though pleased with ment, four students have been working their high wages, they think that $17 on the Update Project to computerize monthly dues are not justified. I n light Yale's card cataloguing system. They of such problems, some student library learned to use two computer dataworkers do not want to unionize. bases, two bibliography sources, and But for others, unionization may be to verify bibliographic information. the only alternative to the dishroom. Among them, they needed to be fluent in three foreign languages. The stu- Julie Hantman is a sophomore in Silliman. dents take the project seriously, finding it a rewarding experience to work with the highly skilled reference librarians . Probably the most_ demanding and complex job in the library system, it pays Level One wages. Sarah Petit (DC '88), a member of the Update team, says, "I ask myself, is it worth all the hours I i: spend there? Five dollars is just not adequate. I'm performing an invaluable service." For some, library wages create financial difficulties, but most simply feel exploited. Lucinda Finley, associate professor of labor law at Yale Law School, says, "There are few legal protections in the United States for non-unionized labor . . . Practically M a u reen Sullivan b eliev es th a t speaking, as long as the University has the job s tanda rdization atte mpte d other students wanting jobs, they can t o b e fair.
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The New journaVMarch 4, 1988 27
Books/Jennifer Sachs
Love Triangles
The Psychology of Love edited by Robert}. Sternber.t? Michael L. Barnes Yale University Press, 1988 395 pages, $29. 95
and
Spencer has just broken up with h is girlfriend of three weeks, the best three weeks of his life. Night after night he lies awake in his room, tossing and turning. During the day he slouches morosely from class to class. He has stopped shaving and no longer brushes his teeth regularly. Finally, he breaks down and confesses to a friend: "Gosh, I handled that relationship poorly. Julie and I had such different expectations. If only I could do it over again- I'd sit down with her and we'd a) draw little triangles to represent the dimensions of love, or b) draw little interlocking circles with pluses and minuses and boundaries of different thicknesses to represent our feelings toward each other. Or maybe we'd c) make really complex drawings, for which we'd need a score sheet to keep track of what all the horizontal and vertical lines and axes meant. I'm sure that would improve our understanding of one another, I just know it would." The millions of men and women in these tragic circumstances can relax. Although it may be too late forJulie and Spencer, The Psychology of Love,
edited by Robert Sternberg, Yale's IBM Professor of Psychology and Education, and Michael Barnes, a graduate student, offers 395 pages (less endnotes) of insight into that most painful human condition, love. Sixteen chapters by psychology professors, sociologists, and one psychotherapist attempt to define love in all of its incarnations, to explain how relationships work, and to represent them as a series of triangles, c ircles, and geometric configurations of indeterminate shape. In the end, no consensus on love's meaning emerges. Instead, Sternberg and Barnes present an overview of recent research into what they claim is a rapidly advancing field. The Psychology of Love contains three sections: "Global Theories of Love," "Theories of Romantic Love," and "Theories of Love and Relationship Maintenance." Individual chapters treat love as a biological imperative, a cultural construct, and, perhaps with Spencer in mind, a neurotic aberration. The Psychology of Love works best as a scientific colloquy on the nature and meaning of love. Sternberg and Barnes have assembled a group of contentious scientists and an assortment of thought-provoking ideas. Some of the theories raised in The
Psychology of Love might distract Spencer, or at least entertain him. One of the more intriguing experiments posits that love can be heightened, or even created,' using fear as a vehicle. Two researchers found that men expressed feelings of greater desire and
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28 The New Journal/ March 4, 1988
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++ passion after successfully navigating a treacherous bridge than did men who crossed a safer bridge. If Spencer cannot lure Julie onto th e ledge of a b u ilding or into the lair of a wild boar to regain her affection, he m ight try reading about the research of John A lan Lee. In a chapter on "L oveS tyles," Lee suggests that eight ty pes of love exist, including "eros" (ph ysically d emonstrated love), "storge" ( une m ot ional, quiet, dispassionate a ffection), and "mania" Uealous, insatiable, insecure emotion). Spencer could try to turn himself into a "ludic" lover, one to whom "sex is for fun, not for expressing commitment, and love is n ot the most important activity in life." Julie would become just a distant
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memory. Not all modern psychologists hold Lee's nonju dgmental view of lovestyles. Stanton P eele argues in "Fools for Love" th at certain kinds of love deserve skepticism and even censure: "Amon g its other fai lures, psychological theory has come perilously close to labeling social a n d individual p a tho logy as love." Peele recommends treating romantic love as one would a dru g ad d iction- by substituting a more positive activity, su ch as reading a daily newspaper. Other researchers, however, impart a broad significance to feelings of deep
Peele recommends treating romantic love as one would a drug addiction." and dependent love. Phillip Shaver, C indy H azan , and Donna Bradshaw hypothesize in "Love as Attachment" that "love has always and everywhere existed as a biological potential. " They compa re romantic love to the emotions a n d needs experien ced by human and prim ate in fants for their caregiving p arents. "Love as Attachment" and "Fools for Love" create a fascinating dialectic. The divergent conclusions of these two sets of researchers stem only in part from their different techniques and emphases. Their argument originates in a more fundamental discrepancy: their understanding of love.
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The problem of loosely defined terms persists th roughou t The Psychology of Love. P eele discusses passionate love as an incapacitating experience. In "A Vision of Romantic Love," Nathaniel Branden calls it "a triumph of psychological matu r ity." Robert Stern berg, in "Triangulating Love," defines certain kinds of love as "fatuous" or "infatuated" but distinguishes "consummate love" as clearly superior. Each of these researchers reaches a similar conclusion about the nature of ideal love- but poor Spencer , who doesn't really want to buy the book or to read it carefully, will leaf frantical ly through the pages in search of a quick solution to his romantic woes and come up confused. In a book that purports to compare and contrast theories of love, clarity is essential. The Psychology qf Love also falters when its contributors attempt to universalize their theories. Most con tributors concede that their experiments and conclusions a re h istoricaJJy and cuhuraJJy limited. They also share a less acknowledged bias, that of heterosexual orientation. Only two researchers specifically include homosexual love in their wor k. Branden, describing the network of
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The New .Journal/March 4. 1988 29
complementary needs involved in "romantic love," omits the possibility of homosexuality. His list includes the following: "(T]he need to encounter, unite with, and live out vicariously our oppositegender possibilities: the need, in males, to find an embodiment in the world of the internal feminine; the need, in females, to find an embodiment in the world of the internal masculine." The section "Theories of Relationship and Love Maintenance" includes so many references to married couples that it is hard to miss the writers' drift: Love equals, or at least manifests itself correctly in, heterosexual marriage. David Buss' chapter "Love Acts: The Evolutionary Biology of Love" combines some of these omissions into a shoddy- this time sexist- theory. This chapter presents an example, albeit an exaggerated one, of the traps researchers can fall into when too eager to prove novel ideas. Buss hypothesizes that love, instead of being an attitude or a state of mind, manifests itself in a series of natural and common acts with the ultimate goal of reproduction. Males, Buss says, will search for "repFoductively valuable" females to increase their chances of having offspring. However, no overt signs of female fertility exist. Buss suggests that as a result, males typically look for "female age and health cues that signal reproductive capability- Youth, health, beauty, clear skin, smooth skin, lustrous hair, full lips, white teeth, lively gait." To prove his hypothesis, Buss conducted experiments in which he asked respondents to select acts they thought were representative of "love." He found that men emphasized female physical appearance more than women did. Ignoring the vast array of cultural and social conditions that may have led men to consider physical appearance an important factor in selecting a mate, Buss offers this result up as proof of his hypothesis. If any of the other researchers ('rr, it is on the side of caution, preferring 30 The New Journal/ March 4, !988
oversimplified explanations of common sense attitudes toward love to more challenging theories. This is most evident when writers suggest diagnostic tools for improving love relationships. The value of drawing a diagram to represent an emotional state is that it allows the people involved to distance themselves from their emotions. Quite possibly someone might prefer drawing a triangle whose vertices represent decision/commitment, passion, and intimacy- as Sternberg suggests- to exploring these feelings outright. However, The Psychology of Love
relationship, as weli as boundaries where these worlds intersect. The area of each space is important as well. The authors load each aspect of the model with an inordinate amount of information- for example, in the "external world" they lump together family members, children, hobbies, and other interests. Still, Williams and Barnes concede in the end that "boundaries are more complex" than the ones they present. If even this complex and abstruse model forces major oversimplification, it may not be worth the effort. ,â&#x20AC;˘ The attempt to translate psychological theory into real life l produces a strained conflation of ~ scientific jargon and informality. ~ Plagued by the need to appeal to a ~ wider readership, the authors often The Psychology of love 'i resort to trite cultural symbols that ~undercut their professionalism. ;X "Indeed, the expression 'Don't leave ~ home without it!' might be more x important with reference to love than to one's American Express card .. . . ," Bernard Murstein concludes in his "A Taxonomy of Love." Another contributor begins by stating, "A song by the Doobie Brothers asks where we would be now, without love. This question captures two key themes of this chapter." By depending on these cliches, the authors undermine our estimation of their scientific analysis. On occasion, they also reveal themdemonstrates the ease with which definitions of all of these words can selves to be as silly as the cliches they confuse even an experienced scientist. use. In his 30-page article on "LoveAsking a person in love to reduce love's Styles," John Alan Lee devotes ten complexities to a geometric shape can pages to complaining that the other be dangerous, especially if that person researchers on the playground have already has trouble communicating not noticed him. "(T]here is no reference to my 1970-76 publications effectively. Some of the other researchers in Munro and Adams . . . . Dion and acknowledge this difficulty and Dion [make] no reference to my work, attempt to solve it with more intricate even though I was teaching in another pictorial representations of love. department of the same university." Wendy Williams and Michael Barnes, Disagreement among psychologists in their chapter "Love Within Life," and sociologists is endemic to the provide a model of a love relationship discipline, but it should spawn that includes an internal and an ex- productive inquiry rather than¡ feelings ternal world for each participant in the of injury.
So in the e nd, we leave Spencer where we found him, d esolately contemplating his lost love. Let us ho pe he has not paid $29.95 fo r The Psychology of Love just so he can win J ulie's heart again. Sternberg a n d Barnes' compilation provides insight into some aspects of love. T h e book's preface, however, recalls the skepticism of Senator William P roxmire abo u t love psychologists. "I b elieve that 200 million Americans want to leave some things in life a mystery . . . a nd right at the top of the list o f the things we don't want to kn ow is why a man falls in love with a woman and vice versa," the Senator a rgued in 1977. Proxmire can relax- h e won't find the answer, if o n e exists, in The Psychology of Love .
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