Volume 21 - Issue 6

ewourna Volume 21 Number 6

April 21 , 1989

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Publisher David King Ediwr-in-Chiej Cynthia Cameros Business Manager Malaika Amon Managing Editors Stefanie Syman Ruth Conniff Designer Stephen Hooper Production Manager Lisa Silverman Photography Editor John Kim

Accountr Manager Jodi Lox Assoicate Designer Ethan Cohen• Associate Photography Editor Hank Hsu • Associate Production Manager Lisa Gluskin • Circulation Manager Chris Warfield* Subscription Manager Adrienne Lo*

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MemiHrs arui Directors: Edward B. Bennen III • · Constance Clement - Peter B. Cooper • Andy Court • Brooks Kelley • Michelle Press • Fred Strebeigh • Thomas Strong FrWuls: Anson M. Beard, Jr.f • Edward B. Bennett, Jr. • Edward B. Bennett III • Blaire Bennett • Gerald Bruck • Jonathan M. Clark • Louise F . Cooperf • James W. Coopert • Peter B . Coopert • JerTy and Rae Court • David Freeman • Geoffry Fried • Sherwin Goldman • John Hersey • Brooks Kelley • Roger Kirwood • Andrew J. Kuzneski, Jr. • Lewis E. Lehrman • E. Nobles Lowe • Peter Neill • Julie Peters • Fairfax C. Randallt • Nicholas X. Ri:wpoulos • Arleen and Arthur Sager • Dick and Debbie Searst • Richard Shields • Thomas Strong • Elizabeth Tate • Alex and Betsy Torello • Allen and Sarah Wardwell • Peter Yeager • Daniel Yergin thas given again (Volume 21, Num~r 6) 77w N.wJo,.,../ it published tix times during the ochool year by The New Journal at Yale. Inc.. Post Ofl'o« Box_ 3432 Yale Station, New Haven, CT 06S20.

Copyright 1989 by The New Journal at Yale, Inc. All rights raerved. Reproduction ~ither in whok or in part wi~hout written permi•ion o( 1M publither and cditor-in·chicf is prohibited.

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NewsJoumal

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Features

8

Livable Solutions

Over 300 New Haven families have no home outside of temporary shelters. Developers and communi9J groups are stepping into the gap l¢t by fttkral funding cuts and constructing innovative responses t(J this crisis. By Ellen Katz.

'

12

Tattoo Uncovered Fine art or folic? runs the current debate over tattoo's place in the art world. In the midst three loc4l tattoo studws leave their marie . . . permanently. By Josh Plaut.

of it all, 18

Afterthought

26

Cultivating Science

Historically, Yale has lcept the sciences separatefrom the rest of the college. With changes in admissWns policy and distn.butwnal requirements, administrators and professors are nurtun·ng an environment more open to sciena students and their discipline. The change has triggered some heated reactions among faculty. By Motolco Rich.

The Machine Shifts Gears Mayqr Biagio DtLieto's retirement has l¢t New Haven open for political change.

History Department Lecturer John McKioigan urges voters to demand that the candidaus discuss the problems with DiLieto's administratwn and propose solutwns to the ci9J's problems.

The New J ournaVApril 21 , 1989 3

N ew~J ournal

Young Music Masters High-pitched tones and evenlyexecuted beats drift out over College Street. These sounds emanate from the instruments of a hard-working group of graduate students at the Yale School of Music. But for a small minority of the school's 150 students, the term "graduate student" does not seem quite applicable. Four violinists and four cellists practicing with the rest of the group came here directly from high school.

These students are part of a program for gifted high school graduates called the Certificate in Performance, a three-year tract within the School of Music. Yale's music school does not normally admit undergraduates. As a result, many talented players are lost to other conservatories like Juilliard and Curtis. Professors at Yale started the Certificate program because they wanted to begin working with younger musicians in order to mold their techniques.

Applicants to the Yale Certificate Program undergo a rigorous admissions process, including a series of taped and live auditions. After entering the program , students find that the intensity continues. Besides taking private lessons with famous faculty, Certificate students perform in the Yale Philharmonia, chamber ensembles) and master classes. They are also required to take one additional academic course. In contrast to the grading scale in Yale College where a grade of D- or above is adequate for . credit, the Certificate program only considers a B- or higher as a passing mark. The intensity of the program, and its reputation, leave Certificate graduates well-prepared for professional careers in music.

Most of these young mustctans already have a lot of performing experience when they arrive at Yale.

Alexis Gerlach, the your)gest member of the Certificate Program, began

+ The

N ew Journal/April 2 1, 1989

playing the cello at age six. At age eighteen she has performed in Brazil, Taiwan , England, and Italy.

Gerlach came to Yale, like most of the Certificate students, for the highcaliber faculty. She currently works with world-famous cellist Aldo Perisot.

Another reason many students choose Yale's program over a conservatory is the chance to live in a university community. "I can't do only music," said violinist Katie Bauer. "As much as I love it, it is not the absolute be-ali and end-all of everything."

But living with the graduate musicians in Helen Hadley Hall, the institutional-looking dormitory on Temple Street, can be lonely. Some Certificate students say they · feel left out of the experience of normal undergraduates . "I walked into Silliman and was struck by how different it was," said Bauer. "I really wish I could know more people my age."

Having completed the Yale program, Certificate students usually go on to obtain a bachelor's degree at another institution. Afterwards, they can petition the School of Music faculty to turn their certificate into a master's degree. Jason Rubinstein, who graduated from the program in 1988, is working with Stephen Epstein, a leader in the field of record engineering, at CBS Masterworks. He is simultaneously completing his bachelor's degree at New York University. Bauer hopes to enroll in Yale College after she finishes the Certificate program, and Gerlach plans to attend a conservatory. Both want a career in music performance, Bauer in chamber music and Gerlach as a concert soloist.

•-Chris Warfield

Library Renewal The new ORBIS computer system has gradually affected the lives of Yale

library users. But for librarians in the back rooms of Sterling Memorial Library , it has precipitated several immediate changes. According to Gerry Lowell, Associate University Librarian for Technical Services, ORBIS has stimulated an administrative reorganization that will result in a more efficient acquisition and cataloguing process.

The old arrangement resembles an assembly line. As one group of workers purchases books from dealers and publishers, another group catalogues new acquisitions, a job that involves determining the books' appropriate subject headings and assigning them• . their prope r call numbers. A final group prepares the volumes for shelving. This whole process entails a constaerable amount of typing and paperwork that ORBIS will eliminate.

Within the new system, which Sterling is the first large research library to adopt, each librarian will participate in all aspects of book processing. Small clusters of workers, organized by subjects such as "social sciences" or "English and Northern European languages," will handle every stage of the process within their particular fields. Lowell s!lid the Technical Services department is reorganizing in response to increased automation; as computers become widespread, jobs threaten to grow increasingly menial. By emphasizing creativity and self-management within these new subject teams, Lowell hopes to produce a better trained and happier workforce.

According to Robert Killheffer, who will lead the eleven-person history team. many librarians are moving to new jobs. "It's an absolute, total change," he said . "We're having largescale training eflorts. People in the teams are going to leam a whole lot of things that they never knew before.• Killheffer said the library reorganiza· tion will resemble the recent changes at Volvo automobile plants, where workers now participate in all stages of car manufacturing. "That's a lot more interesting than putting bolt A into nut

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Sterling Memorial Library's new ORBIS computer system reduces paperwork and bureaucracy to a minimum.

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In addition to acqumng new technical skills, library personnel will also have to learn how to work with one another in the new arrangement.

"People will have more control over the work they do," Killheffer said. "Of course, there will have to be administrative decisions, but those will only be a small percentage. Everything else will be done collectively." Technical Services has brought in consultants to lead workshops on group dynamics and decision-making.

Library users will also benefit from this administrative overhaul. With paperwork and bureaucracy reduced to a minimum, the library will be able to expand the ORBIS ftles more quickly. In addition, because ORBIS is connected to all of the library's technical service departments and research divisions, its users will be able to tell what volumes have been ordered, what has arrived, and what is circulating.

Lowell admits that Yale was slow to adopt ORBIS. "We were one of the last kids on the block to go to the automated system ," he said. But now other research libraries are eyeing Sterling's pioneering reorganization.

This fall, more than the Yale community will be monitoring the library's experiment.

â&#x20AC;˘

-David Grttnbtrg

Baby Talk Twenty-five-month-old Robyn Levine gurgles happily as she gazes at the television screens. "Look! The bunny is gorping the duck! See, the bunny is gorping the duck," says a coaxing voice. Robyn's eyes dart from one screen to the other, periodically focusing on the yellow light bulb in the center. A student, peering through a small opening above the screens, anxiously tries to follow the baby's eyes and records the rapid movement by pressing hand-held buttons. The "duck and bunny show" entrances yet another eager visitor to the Yale Infant Language Lab. The show is Assistant Professor of Psychology Letitia Naigles' newest inquiry into infant language acquisition. "The question is how someone who won't sit still and won't follow directions somehow manages to learn this incredibly complex thing called language," Naigles muses.

Learning an average of five to ten new words a day, a child will have acquired a vocabulary of 60,000 words by the age of five. Psycholinguists still do not fully understand this process. Whereas previous language researchers focused on production of speech, Naigles concentrates on comprehension. "'The infants probably understand a great deal more than they actually say," she

explains. Specifically, she examines how syntax influences an infant's ability to understand individual words.

N aigles' innovative experiment simulates the process by which children learn verbs. To prepare her experiment, Naigles choreographs combinations of movements which cannot be named with a single existing word. Next, Naigles films two assistants as they perform her unusual aerobic combinatic;ms; one wearing a duck costume and the other a bunny costume.

Naigles plays the duck and bunny video for the infant, while her taped voice introduces nonsense words such as "blikking" or "kradding." These terms correspond to the movements in the video. After the child hears "The bunny is kradding the duck!" several times and watches the corresponding two-part motion, the displays change.

On one screen the duck and bunny make arm circles in unison. On the other the bunny pushes the duck's head. The taped voice then asks the infant "Where's kradding? Find kradding!" As the infant looks from one screen to the other a hidden assistant records the amount of time the infant focuses on each screen.

Using this information, Naigles will determine whether the infant has understood the new word.

N aigles bases her research on the "preferential looking paradigm" , developed by Dr. Roberta Golinkoff of The New journal/April 21 , 1989 5

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the University of Delaware and Dr. Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek of Temple University. The paradigm equates looking and understanding. Naigles uses this model to test her hypothesis that if the child understands the original sentence, she will have learned that "kradding" refers to a causal action. She will know that "the bunny is kradding the duck" refers to the screen '!Vhere the bunny pushes the duck's head, and will look at this screen when asked "Where's kradding? Find kra4ding!"

The main advantage of Naigles' method is that it requires little active participation by the subject . . Her technique makes it possible to study language acquisition more effectively in children with physical handicaps and infants. Naigles believes that physical and developmental factors may prevent children from verbalizing as much as they can understand. A two-year-old who speaks only in threeword utterances will respond to much more complex sentences. A physical handicap also may impair a child's ability to speak. By focusing on comprehension instead of speech production, Naigles avoids demanding that infants perform impossible linguistic tasks. Researchers at other universities use this method to study comprehension m children with cerebral palsy.

Naigles' method also improves upon earlier comprehension-based experiments which required infants to act out what they heard with toys. Sophisticated video and audio technology allows Naigles to set up experiments which provide more accurate indications of an infant's comprehension.

Having the child act out what she hears introduces factors such as fascination with the toys she uses, which could interfere with the child's ability to recreate what she has just heard. "We can see more clearly what they know about language and sentence structure with minimal context," Naigles said.

In the future, Naigles hopes to expand her investigation by

incorporating a study on infants' understanding of passive sentences.

She also plans to examine the linguistic differences between children raised in Spanish-speaking households and those raised in English-speaking households.

To find participants for her present and future research, Naigles' student volunteers look for infants through local birth announcements. Once contacted, interested families will bring their children to Naigles' offices, located in the basement of SheffieldSterling-Strathcona Hall. Each session, which involves both the infant . and one parent, lasts about 45 minutes. Afterwards . Naigles replays the video for the parent while explaining its role in her studies. In exchange for donating their time .. parents may gain insight into the way their children ·learn language. The kids get a t-shirt emblazoned with the Yale crest and the motto "Graduate of Yale Infant Studies."

•

-Adrienne Lo

Inventing Fun A child pulls back on a handle, then suddenly- thwack- a stick snaps forward. It strikes a long spring, and sends a slow wave travelling back and forth. At the Eli Whitney Museum, this interactive exhibit invites visitors to discover the principles behind Guglielmo Marconi's invention of the radio. In another exhibit, children see the effects of magnetism by drawing patterns with a magnet on a plate of iron filings. They learn the difference between AM and FM radio by examining transvene waves on an oscilloscope. A brisk twenty-minute walk from the Green up Whitney Avenue leads to the museum, which is devoted to the history of technology.

At the former site of Eli Whitney's (YC 1792) gun factory, this museum encourages in today's children the same

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inventive curiosity that inspired Whitney nearly two hundred years ago.

"We focus on the history of technology but present it in a way Eli Whitney would have been interested in," said Museum Director William Brown. With travelling shows and a permanent exhibit on the history of the grounds, the museum offers the general public both displays of artifacts and hands-on experiments. The: museum also acts as a resource for schools: over 100 school groups have visited the Marconi exhibit alone. In March the museum helped sponsor workshops such as "Bubbles, Balloons and Paper Planes," which taught educational techniques for making science fun.

Weekend and after-school programs taught by Brown and staff offer children the chance to experiment with technology. Brown believes that standard ·curriculums don't meet th~ special interests of mechanicallyinclined children. After kindergarten, kids must put away the blocks until lOth grade, when they can take shop.

Brown wanted to provide children a chance to design and build, to fill the gap left by the schools. In the museum's woodshop, kids learn how to _work tools. Children, ages six to eight, 10 one class use rubber bands as motors to power toy cars. Another course teaches seven-to-nine-year-olds how to build wooden robots with lever-driven grippers and periscopes. In these claases, a child learns by doing. "The kids we work with are brilliant students if you don't count reading and writing," said Brown. He wants the students to know that success does not require high academic achievement.

As the museum's bulletin explains: "Eli Whitney is remembered not for the accomplishments of his Yale education but for the practical discoveries he made in his workshop."

These discoveries included new methods of industrial organization, which Whitney practiced at his gun factory in New Haven. Here, he

regained the fortune he had lost on his earlier invention, the cotton gin. In the twentieth century, the site passed from Whitney's heirs to other manufacturers, who used the area as an industrial park. During the bicentennial celebrations of 1976, Merrill Linsay, a famous gun collector, became interested in founding a mu.seum on the old Whitney plant.

The museum opened in 1984, after renovation of the main buildings and initial fund-raising. Although the town of Hamden and the New Haven water company share ownership of the property with the museum, it is a private institution. Funding comes from many sources, including the state, the town of Hamden, foundations, and private individuals.

Brown finds history the best way to interest children in technology and building. He uses historical examples to clarify certain abstract technological concepts. The first reservoir built for New Haven's water supply stands in front of the museum and once powered Whitney's mill and factory. Brown explains to kids that unlike the invisible power contained jn electricity, "back in the 19th century, energy is tangible." By restraining and channelling water, a millwheel and dam concretely show the flow of energy on a large scale. Children can compare the waterworks to an electrical circuit, where the minute size of electrons makes the flow of power invisible.

Analogies such as this aim to make technology accessible to students.

Brown hopes to encourage such involvement. He wants students to learn culture and history not only as printed works and music, but also as "what people do mechanically."

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•- Tony Cahill

The New Journal/April 21, 1989 7

Livable Solutions Responding to the Housing Crisis Ellen Katz

The last tenant moved out in 1987.

Since then all 366 apartments of the Elm Haven High Rise development have remained empty and uninhabitable. Next spring the Housing Authority of New Haven plans to demolish them. The Elm Haven towers, located just north of the Yale campus, epitomize failed public housing.

With the demise of developments such as Elm Haven, public housing cannot adequately serve New Haven's low income tenants. Currently the number of people on public housing waiting lists exceeds the total number of existing units. Massive cuts in federal funding have also prevented further development. The Housing Authority has not constructed any new units in New Haven since 1986.

Moreover, increasing rents have rendered much private housing prohibitive to low income families.

Neither the public nor the private sector provides sufficient affordable housing. Consequently, fifteen to twenty families become homeless in Connecticut each week. One half of this burgeoning population lives in New Haven.

Kathleen Simmons and Dana Faulkner represent the fastest growing 8 The N ew J ournaVApril 21 , 1989

group of homeless in the nation-young single mothers with children.

Faulkner, a nineteen-year-old mother with a two-month-old son, receives $434 monthly from Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), a state welfare program. Yet to rent a one-bedroom apartment in New Haven, including utilities, costs $555 a month. Clearly unable to afford such

Homeless families overflowed emergency housing and moved into a "Tent City" on the New HCJ,ven Green. an apartment, Faulkner has been in an emergency shelter since February. "If I could find an apartment ; she said , "I wouldn't be here." Simmons, a mother of two, added, "What you get on AFDC makes it virtually impossible to find decent ,affordable apartments."

In New Haven , over 300 families currently live in emergency shelters. In

response to the housing crisis, several developers ¡ and philanthropic organizations have begun to design far-reaching solutions.

Jim Rosenberry, a private developer, believes local homelessness stems from the poor management of public housing. "It belongs to everyone so it belongs to no one," he explained, citinlZ the abandoned Elm Haven High Rises as evidence.

Free of bureaucratic entanglements, Rosenberry says he can operate more efficiently and more economically.

Since 1984, he has developed approximately 200 apartments for low¡ income tenants in the New Haven area. Because he personally owns the property, Rosenberry believes he has more incentive to make necessary repairs and manage it effectively than those administering public housing.

In March, Housing Operation Management Enterprises (HOME), Inc. , a non-profit organization, bought twenty-nine apartments from Rosenberry. HOME used a $1 million loan from Yale to purchase these units located in the Newhallville and Hill sections of New Haven. Brett Hill, executive director of HOME, hopes that by operating these units at cost ~f operation, HOME will insulate th1s

Elm Haven: "It belongs to everyone so it belongs to no one." property from market rent increases.

Hill, like Rosenberry, stresses the need for careful management. Yet HOME's plan is more extensive. By involving residents in management decisions, such as tenant selection and repair priorities, HOME seeks to avoid traditional antagonism between landlord and tenants. Hill hopes this involvement will encourage tenants to develop bonds with each other and a commitment to their building.

HOME's plan also includes a social service coordinator who will help tenants with personal and family problems. A $55,000 social service grant from the New Haven Foundation will allow HOME to make the program work.

Both HOME and Rosenberry offer private solutions to the housing crisis.

Yet their success depends upon government subsidies. Currently onethird of HOME's tenants and nearly

three-fourths of Rosenberry's receive lobbyist for the homeless, the legislature publicly funded rental assistance. "The will probably not reinstate the program idea of low-income housing becoming because of the current budget crisis. totally private is a total myth," said "Anythmg requiring money gets Robert Solomon, a Yale Law School killed." faculty member who helped establish In September 1986, homeless HOME in 1987. "There is no way it families overflowed emergency can be done." For Solomon, any viable housing and moved into a "Tent City" solution requires cooperation between on the New Haven Green. The state public and private sectors. He supports introduced RAP to enable these private management coordinated with families to afford permanant housing public subsidies such as grants, tax with the greater goal of preventing credits, direct rental financing, or low homelessness. RAP subsidies limit rent interest loans. to 30 percent of tenants' monthly The state of Connecticut created the income . In conjunction with the RAP Rental Assistance Program (RAP), a subsidy , the state established subsidy that fosters the private-public Homefinders, a group of agents balance Solomon advocates, three responsible for securing apartments for years ago. But on January 1, the state RAP recipients. stopped issuing RAPs. While the state Byron Schmidt, one of the first will continue to support the 800 landlords to work with the Rental existing RAPs, the present budget Assistance Program, described it as an allocation cannot fund new subsidies. asset to tenants and landlords. Schmidt Accordin_~ to Brenden Sharsky, a could give special consideration to The New JoumaUApril 21, 1989 9

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families previously evicted for nonpayment of rent. He says suc;, prospective tenants are generally automatic rejections, but with RAP Schmidt could accept them. Because the state guarantees rental payments, he has consistently reserved apartments for RAP recipients coming from welfare motels . Schmidt describes the majority of these families as "model" tenants.

Today, Schmidt awaits authori· zation to open his most recently • renovated building. A year ago, the building's electric~ system was frayed , the plumbing was clogged, and the staircase was falling down. Vagrants

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"There is no constitutional or federal right to permanent housing." lived in the halls alongside drog dealers. Only two tenants remained in a building which could house twelve families. Schmidt made these apartments livable and intended to open the units to RAP recipients.

The termination of RAP does not significantly affect Schmidt's plan~· Although he can no longer open b1S building to RAP recipients, he will be able to find other tenants. In fact, be claims that advertising a renovated apartment in New Haven will generate hundreds of phone calls.

Losing RAP has reduced the options available for homeless mothers like Simmons and Faulkner. Five months ago, Homefinders would have beell able to place them m permanent

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housing. Faulkner and Simmons must now find alternate forms of rental assistance. They can apply to the federal government for "Section 8" certificates, a subsidy similar to RAP, but the number of these subsidies is limited. Furthermore, some landlords criticize the administration of these certificates. Schmidt, for example, will not accept 'Section 8' certificates issued through the Housing Authority of New H aven. More likely, Simmons and Faulkner will receive rental vouchers for fixed sums. Yet these subsidies do not accomodate individuals' income limitations.

Otherwise, Faulkner and Simmon s may decide to share an apartment with other families . Faulkner hopes that by combining her income with others, she can a fford an apartment. Such overcrowding may be unavoidable.

"I'm not going out on the streets with my son," Faulkner said, "He's only a baby. There's no way."

Faulkner will remain in a shelter until May, when her 100 days of emergency housing expire. The state provides her and all other homeless families with three months of emergency shelter . Solomon believes this provision disguises the real problem: The state does not guarantee permanent housing. "There is a difference between a nght to shelter and a right to housing," he said.

"There is no constitutional or federal right to permanent housing. The right needs to be established."

Simmons and Faulkner ho pe to find permanent housing, but the prospects remain grim . Simmons believes the government is ultimately responsible for providing housing. •Tell them to help us find a place to live," she said, "somebody has got to do it."

•

Ellm Katz is a sophomort in Timothy Dwight Collegt.

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Th~ 1\.ew JournaVApril 21, 1989 II

Tattoo Uncovered A Look At Local Body Art Josh Plaut Grasping the tattoo gun between rubber-gloved fingers_, Spider Webb dips its needle into a paper container full of thick black pigment. He steps down on the foot pedal and presses the tip of the needle into a young woman's tan shoulder. Staccato bursts from the gun drown out the strains of Poison's "Fallen Angel" pouring out of a color television set. Webb has worked on the woman's tattoo for more than an hour.

As he adds streaks of yellow, black, red and white ink, a tiger's head slowly emerges. With each additional stroke, the image comes into sharper focus.

Bottles of pigment, discarded brushes and disposable razors clutter the countertop. At the other end of the counter, Andrew "Zee" Sistrand, Webb's assistant, tattoos the outline of a unicorn onto another woman's back.

The Spider Webb studio in Derby can draw its customers on name alone.

Webb's original art is included in national body art exhibitions. He is known for work such as the first three¡ dimensional tattoo and "X-1000," a conceptual piece in which he tattooed x's on a thousand people . He has written six books on tattoo art, several of which were printed by major publishing houses. Of New Haven's three tattoo artists, only Webb enjoys a national audience, and articles on him have appeared in magazines ranging from The New Yorker to

Pmtiwuse.

New Ha~en's other two tattoo studios, while lacking Webb's fame , hue their image on consistent, if

undramatic, professionalism. Imperial Illustrations bills itself as the most caring tattoo studio in Connecticut.

The owners, Joe and Debbie Vitelli, stress their use of hospital-quality sterilization equipment. Jim Stellato, owner of Big Jim's Papillon , touts his studio's exceptional level of cleanliness.

Tattoo studios emphasize their fastidiousness to assuage public fears of the AIDS virus. Ironically, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) asserts that tattooing's ma,jor health risk is not

studio, "The Illustrated Man," after several customers contracted hepatitis.

The owners of New Haven's three current studios say that their establishments have had no incidents of serious infection. At Papillon, the artists use disposable needles. They sterilize the rest of their equipment in an autoclave, a heat and pressure sterilizer. Webb uses a similar system.

At Imperial, the Vitellis disinfect their equipment with a Chemiclave 5000, a more modern version of the autoclave.

Attention to health is only part of the tattooists' efforts to maintain a good relationship with customers. This relationship begins when the customer selects a design. The Vitellis find that clients most often choose images of panthers, roses, hearts, grim reapers and cartoon characters. Joe Vitelli sees a common theme in the customers' selections. Most people get tattoos during times of stress, he explains, and the subject matter reflects this.

Joe Vitelli tries to dissuade first-time customers from choosing demons, HIV infection. According to CDC skulls, Asian dragons or names. research, no one has reported "About 60 percent of the coverup work contracting AIDS from a tattoo needle. we do is concealing names," he said. At The most significant health hazard for Imperial and Papillon, clients can tattoo artists and their customers is request custom designs or pick from contraction of either staph infection or standard sketches called flashes. Joe hepatitis-B. Unlike the AIDS virus Vitelli stressed that clients who request which is weak outside the body, flashwork rarely tolerate any embelhepatitis-B can live on the tip of a lishment. "If they ask for a cartoon nec;dle for several days. Local artists character, it's got to look like Hannah are well acquainted with the dangers of Barbara drew it themselves."

Striving for truer personal this disease. In the late Seventies, city officials closed down New Haven's first expression, Webb refuses to tattoo

"We won't just slam design number 3 72 on people here. Every tattoo is an original creation."

Tbe New Journal/April 2 1, 1989 13

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flash. "We won't just slam design number 372 on people here. Every tattoo is an original creation."

Although customers bring him drawings and photographs, Webb translates these images into his style.

"We've got my artwork in books and photographs that they can look at. If they don't like my work, I can refer them to somebody else."

Spider Webb, unlike Stellato or the Vitellis, avoids making value judgements about subject matter.

"There's nothing I won't draw or do for money," h e said. As practicing Catholics, the Vitellis will not sketch upside-down crosses or 666 signs.

They also refuse to tattoo swastikas or anti-Semitic images. Although willing to draw swastikas, Stellato turns down

requests for devil tattoos because he is a born-again Christian.

Barring any ethical conflicts, the tattooing begins when the customer either selects a flash or approves the artist's sketch. The physical experience of being tattooed varies from person to person. Vitelli likens the feeling to having sunburned skin. Some customers encounter a much higher level of discomfort. Laura Gonzalez (BR '89) described her three tattooing experiences as painful and nauseating.

Although tattoo artists try to prepare their clients, Webb doubts the helpfulness of any explanation. "It's like talking about sex to a virgin."

In applying the tattoo, the artist first draws an outline with black pigment.

After completing the outline, be adds

r----s.~

• I I I I

color by moving the vibrating needle from one corner of the tattoo to the other. If the artist needles one spot for too long or allows the client's body to absorb the shock, keloid scars can develop.

Tattooists learn technical skills such as scar prevention in an apprenticeship program. "You can't just buy a tattoo kit from the back of Easy Rider magazine and start tattooing," Joe Vitelli said. •It doesn't work that way." While admitting apprenticeships provide the basic skills, Webb finds this training inadequate. He believes that apprentices should receive formal instruction to become more artistically refined. Webb credits his alma maters- the School of Visual Arts in New York City and the University of Guanajuato in Mexico- for his stylistic complexity. Only in art school will other tattoo artists, Webb believes, reach a level of artistic sophistication comparable to his own.

Webb has developed a distinct style.

Placement of the tattoo is central to his art. A photograph of a dragon tattoo etched by Webb reveals how he models his work to the shape of his subject's body. The dragon winds around a woman's right shoulder to her left hip, following the curves of her breast and midrift. The foreshortening of the dragon conveys depth and motion.

Fantastical images appear often in Webb's work. He draws dragons, winged creatures, serpents, and medieval warriors.

The Vitellis and Stellato tattoo in a number of regional styles, from the brightly colored, heavily outlined New York look to the wispy, colorless designs of California. The ability of a tattoo artist to work in many regional. styles mdicates the centralization of the modern body art world. National tattoo conventions bring together artists from different parts of the country, and blur regional distinctions, explains Karen lndeck, curator of Gallery 400 in Chicago.

Women have recently emerged in the body art world both as artists and as clients. Important women in body art include American artists, Kari

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Barbara and Kandi Everett, and 'ili:i4:: am eler playing tennis with Swedish artist Mia Nore'n. ~~ck m?&>ss I c~ovtr them UP. .. she !Nlid. singled out American artist jennie In addftion tG suctt practical Sommers as an important innovator concerns, ~men as a group seem to "She did incredible things by softening 'Prefer tbl' eroticism of concealed lines, introducing landscape pieces and tattoos. •It's my secret: l&id Gonaalez.

"It's a sexy, cool litde part or me." using feathering techniques." .. Clint Sanders, autbor o f a Webb agrees that getting a tattoo, like sociological study entitled Ctlslomizi_!lg any cosmetic alteration to the body, is the Body, estimates women c9mpnse a sexual statement. forty percent of the market for tatt~s.

Women who choose to express According to Webb, tattoed celebnttes themselves through tattoos no lo nger have drawn women into the tattoo face public disapproval. In the past, parlor. •Jn the Sixties it was Janis, tattooed women were considered today it's Cher," he commented. immoral. "It was assumed that you Gonzalez decided to get her tattoos for were some kind of freak, that you were more personal reasons. "I wanted to promiscuous, that you were a nymphokeep up with the guys." she said maniac," said Debbie Vitelli . Although Gonzalez went for her first tattoo this view is changing, she says tattooed when she was thirteen. She now has women are still stereotyped. three: a rose, a butterfly and the SOifte artists believe that Webb cartoon character, Bambi. The tattoos perpetuates negative stereotypes about are in easily concealed areas ol her tattooing and women. Objections body, an important concern for focus on Webb's use of overtly sexual Gonzalez as she enters Yale Law and misogynous imagery. A video of School. "I am going into a prestigious his tattoo vampire act is notorimu in

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the body art world. In the act, Webb, decked out in vampire garb, sneaks up on women, tattoos their necks with a p ronged needle and then bites them.

S yrupy blood flows from the wound and from the woman's mouth, Webb licks the blood and kisses his victim.

Webb is a controversial figure in the tattoo art world. In spite of this, he has a chieved artistic renown. By h is own admission , Webb's clientele may rankle the mainstream . "A lot of my customers are underground people· skinheads, punks- I see people from so many different kinds of cultures."

Webb holds little respect for the mainstream art world. "So much depends on who's holding the brush.

Picasso throws some pots around, so for two months there's a big pottery revival in American antique art. Can you imagine if that son of a bitch had picked up ·a tattoo gun ?" Webb insists that tattoo will never ~ain full acceptance in mainstream art. l ndeck dilagrees with this assertion. She

points to the existence o f her exhibition as proof that the mainstream art world is opening its arms to tattoo. l ndeck believes that greater social acceptance of tattoo stems from the public's growing interest in primitive art. "Tattoo is just o ne example," she said. "Freedom in the arts has been a strong impetus for tattoo's new-found popularity."

In his thirty years as a tattoo artist Spider Webb has seen significant changes in body art. To many, th ese changes foreshadow tattoo's a cceptance by the mainstream art world. Webb still remains scornful. "Whether it's folk art, fine art, or bullshit art, it all depends on who is holding the brush."

Content to let academics and curators quibble over art -world politics, Webb holds onto his gun .

•

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Cultivating Science Motoko Rich "Admit a class . . . who can go through a Group-IV course without feeling this is a life-threatening, soul-destroying proposition."

18 The New J o umaVApri l 2 1, 1989

"It was huge," said Tasha Elsb ach (BR '91) of Alvin Novick's popular A IDS and Society course. But Novick's class wasn't the only science course to draw a crowd this fall. Many undergraduates would be surprised to know that students filled the aisles of 110 Sterling Chemistry Lab for Peter Moore's Comprehensive General C h emistry, a required cou rse for chemistry majors.

Moreover, some members of the Yale community are taking steps to make courses like Moore's even larger.

Last year, administrators decided to increase the number of science students at Yale. Dean of Admissions Worth David asked the Office of

I nstitutional Research (OI R) to conduct a study that would determine which applicants would most likely major in the sciences. As a new policy, the Admissions Committee gave preferential treatment to those whom the O IR labeled potential scien tists. As a result, Yale accepted almost 10 percent more science students than it had in 1987.

But only a fraction of those admitted actually matriculated to Yale. Many serious students of science , math, and engineering still chose universities with stronger reputations in those fields. At Yale, the sciences continue to suffer from an underdog image as they fight for stature beside the humanities. High school guidance counselors encourage their students to apply to Yale for the liberal arts, but advise poten tial scie n ce majors to _apply elsewhere . ,When Chem i stry D i r ector of Undergraduate Stud ies Robert Crabtree visited high schools to promote Yale's science departmen ts, he was surprised b y how openly the

teachers expressed their negative impressions. "Not many of them were going to send their best science students to Yale."

There are a number of reasons why Yale's science departments may appear less attractive than those of other univers1ttes. Unlike Harvard and M.I.T, which receive funding from corporations such as Xerox, and Stanford, which can draw on the resources of nearby Silicon Valley, Yale lacks substantial local support from technological industries.

These other universities tout their research facilities when wooing potential science undergraduates. At Stanford, promotional brochures feature the mile-long Linear Accelerator. Yale has no such flashy equipment. "Having a showcase facility is just that," said Professor of Biology Robert Wyman. "One shouldn't . confuse it for better teaching."

Science professors at Yale emphasize the university's strengths as

"People are surprised to hear rm a science major because I don't wear coke-bottle glasses or walk around with a calculator in my pocket." a teaching rather than a research institution. They say that the science departments don't deserve a bad image. Yet science students, upon arriving at Yale, find the university less than welcoming. A good fifteen minute walk separates Science Hill from the other classrooms, dormitories, and administrative buildings.

In addition, science majors are socially isolated, saddled with stereotypes by their peers. "A lot of people are surprised to hear rm a science major because I don't wear coke-bottle glasses or walk around with a calculator in my pocket," said Joseph Cerro (BK '89), a molecular biophysics and biochemistry major.

The campaign to increase the population of science students at Yale will help create a friendlier environment. With greater representation, science majors can feel that they belong to a significant community. "I think it's important to have sufficient numbers of science students so they feel supported; that they're not the outcasts or the weirdos, and in order to do that they have to be more than token," said Professor of Biology Alvin Novick.

The New JoumaVApril21 , 1989 19

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In addition to bolstering the science departments, Yale aims to enhance the entire university community with an influx of science majors. Non-majors could learn through osmosis from their peers in the sciences. "By increasing somewhat the number of students with very strong and concentrated interest in science and engineering, I think one raises the general level of interest and understanding across the student body," said Yale University President Benno Schmidt.

Some administrators and faculty argue that all students need more than a second-hand exposure to science.

Dean of Yale College Sidney Altman founded the Committee on the Teaching of Science and Engineering in Yale College to revieW the breadth of each Yale undergraduate's education. The Committee's report stressed the importance of providing a solid background in the sciences for every student. Given the flexibility of requirements in Distributional Group IV, which includes science, math, and engineering, the report found that over 26 percent of the Class of 1984 graduated without ever taking a single course in the natural sciences. Such fmdings prompted the Committee to propose stronger science requirements.

The Class of 1993 and subsequent classes must take three Group IV courses, including two in the natural

sciences. Next year's freshmen also may not substitute Advanced Placement Credits for distributional requirements.

Because students will be required to take more Group IV classes, the science departments may offer more courses specifically designed for the non-major. But some administrators and professors dispute the legitimacy of such courses. A debate splits the science faculty as to whether classes aimed at non-science majors can actually serve the claimed purposes of the new requirements.

On one front, professors maintain that science courses designed specifically for the non-major perpetuate innumeracy- the numeric equivalent of illiteracy. On the other side, professors contend that a proper goal of a liberal education is to help students to appreciate the sciences, without making them grapple with the numbers and problem sets. "I believe the objective is to show them the beauty and the style of science, to help them understand its history and its goals and to teach them enough serious material so tbat they can see that scope," said Novick, who teaches AIDS and Society.

Professor of Physics Christopher Lister feels that separate science courses for non-majors are important since non-majors don't need what

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Undergraduate science majors spend a large part of their time acquiring the fundamentals they will need to do science later. Lister believes that a student in the humanities will never use these basic skills. "So to spend a year teaching non-science majors what the basic tools are is not particularly relevant or useful. But teaching them the basic ideas is extremely relevant and useful," Lister said.

Differentiating between these basic tools of the trade and the basic ideas of science is not always clear-cut. In fact, many professors and administrators equate the basic tools with the basic ideas, and believe that a course should not be designed to separate them. Chairman of the Chemistry Department Peter Moore strongly asserts that all students should have basic quantitative skills. "Being numerate is just as important as being literate," he said. "A lot of students come to a university thinking that it isn't terribly important, that it's okay or socially acceptable to be a virtual cripple in front of numbers. I don't think that is in fact viable."

Although the new admissions procedure seeks to increase the number of students who will major in the sciences, the process does not set general standards of math and science proficiency for all students. "What I

would like most of all is to admit a class, every single member of whom can in fact go through one of these introductory courses in the Group IV departments without having to feel that this was a life-threatening, souldestroying proposition," said Moore.

"Students at a place like Yale should be able to cope with the substance of a course like General Chemistry, just as you would think that any student in this university would be able to deal with the substance of European History or the substance of Shakespeare."

The problem of innumeracy begins long before students arrive at Yale.

The lack of quantitative skills among elementary and secondary school children has recently become the focus of national attention. By the time they reach college age, many students who are intellectually capable of doing advanced math and science have simply given up on those subjects somewhere along the way. "What usually happens with the students that are so terrified of science is that they have had a bad third grade arithmetic teacher," said Wyman.

Gary Haller, Deputy Provost for Physical Sciences and Engineering, recognizes that many students arrive on campus without adequate preparation for Chemistry 115 or Physics 150. He proposes a science

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"You drive them away.

You convince them that they're dumb.

You don't make them more liberally educated, you make them hostile." requirement similar to Yale's language requirement. All Yale undergraduates must attain a certain proficiency in a foreign language, which they achieve by passing an exam o r by two years of language study at Yale. H aller suggests that students s h o u ld demonstrate a comparable proficien cy in the sciences. D eficiently prepar ed students would take remedial classes, just as those who have had no language background start from scratch.

Novick believes undergraduates should have more of a choice. He thinks that compelling unp repared students to take standard science courses defeats the purpose of giving them a science education at all. "You drive them away. You convince them that they're dumb, you teach them all the wrong lessons. You don't make them more liberally educated. You make them hostile." Students like those in Novick's course often avoid stra ight introductory science courses because they fear the thought of an integral or a chemical equation. "You hear all those hell srories about people staying up all night doing problem sets," ~aid J a m ie Slaughter OE '9t).

Tougher grading standard s also deter many students from taking courses designed for science majors.

Substantially fewer A's are awarded in Group IV than in Groups I ,II or I II

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(languages, humanities, and social sciences). While many faculty members believe that the rest of the college . should align its grading standards with the sciences, others, including Crabtree, think the sciences ought to align t h eir grading standards with the humanities. Such alignm ent would be difficult, since the work turned in for grading in the two areas differs radically. In the humanities, grading tends toward the subjective, whereas in science courses grading is objective. "It's a little bit scary because you know you can write a paper, but a math problem is either right or wrong," said Slaughter, a history major.

Professors who elect to teach science courses for non-majors face a uniquely difficult task. They want to communicate basic concepts and a love of their discipline to a skeptical audience which doesn't know the language of science. Because many students lack confidence in their quantitative skills, professors who teach non-majors run the risk of alienating their audience if they introduce too many formulas.

W yman believes part of the solution lies in choosing the right books. "What one needs are high-level texts that really appeal to the intelligence and sophistication of the Yale student, but

which have a different aJ.m from the standard texts."

Eager to assuage students' fears, professors offer science without the d ifficult scientific terminology, just as one might ~each a foreign literature without using the or iginal language.

"You can read Russian literature without reading it m Russian," Wyman said. Yet when professors completely remove the language of science from their courses, students often don't take them seriously, and begin to call the courses "guts." After working to make their classes more accessible, professors like Novick are puzzled by this phenomenon . "The most effectively taught courses are mocked, and if they continue for more than a few years they become the target of patronizing jokes and putdown names," Novick said. The gut reputations may arise fr om disagreements among students and faculty as to what constitutes an effectively taught course. Novick believes that the main purpose of a class for non-majors is to help students grasp a general understanding of science. But some students reach for something more tangible. E lsbach expected m o re biology, and was disappoin ted not to fmd it in AIDS and Society. "I don't know if Novick went in thinking that it should be an easy course," she said. "A

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lot of people thought it was a gut."

Often, other professors in the science departments share students' unfavorable attitude toward courses geared toward non-scientists.

"Colleagues see this as a l~sser contribution," Novick said. He points out that most junior faculty members will not teach a course for non~ majors because it might jeopordize their careers. "I think a junior faculty person who spent his or her energy on it would not get tenure," said Novick.

Of his class for liberal arts students in the Chemistry department, Crabtree admits "If I were not tenured, it is true that I might think twice about teaching such a course."

Students who have tried to combine their studies of science with humanities also face difficulties with the science faculty. Jackie Caplan-Auerbach (TC '90), who majors in both English and physics, wanted to write a senior essay which combined some aspect of English literature with her studies in physics. But the Senior Essay Com¡ mittee for physics vetoed the idea.

"When you're a science major, you're not expected to do anything else," said

stacked anti-science," said Lister.

Coincidentally or not, most administrators graduated from Yale with a Bachelor of Arts degree. "So there is this matter of a small built-in pre ~nst sciences," Lister said. (\ s the adrili'SmQns..~ce attem~ts to

m1 -J t~~~~§;-.:~~~ Scie ·fie School an School · ~ ed off campus. The S e ~'e:-~~~~~~:...._~~~~-.--..<1 own trustees, faculty, labs, three-year degree, and even its own secret societies. It wasn't until the Scientific and Engineering Schools had both returned to graduate status in 1962, that Yale College assumed the entire responsibility for undergraduate arts and sciences.

While the administration insists that one sees changes in admissions policy and distributional requirements merely institutions," said Yale reflect a long-standing commitment to science at Yale, the traditions of the university suggest otherwise. "This is an arts university, and the administration for many years has been

percent, Stanford 38 percent, and Princeton 25 percent.

Dean of Yale College Sidney Altman does not foresee that the number of science students will ever rise dramatically enough to shift the focus of Yale's curriculum. He denies that the administration's emphasis on science this year represents a change in Yale's educational philosophy. But admitting more science majors could exert a long-term influence on university policy, as today's science students go on to become professors and administrators. Furthermore, stricter Group IV requirements foreshadow standards of scientific aptitude for all students. Yale seems to be moving away from its tradition as a humanities-dominated institution. Science Hill might not become the center of campus, but Chemistry 115 might have to move to a bigger classroom next year.

• Motolro Rich, a sophomore in Branford College, is on tht staff oJTNJ. The New JoumaVApriJ 21 , 1989 25

Afterthought I John McKivigan

The Machine Shifts Gears A Tuming Point in New Haven Politics

"Stunned" was the word most frequently used by New Haven political observers to describe their reaction to city Mayor Biagio "Ben" DiLieto's announcement that he will not run for a sixth two-year term this year. He faced a contest for the Democratic Party mayoral nomination from popular black state senator John Daniels, but DiLieto had a good chance of surviving that challenge and once again steamrolling over the candidates of the Republican and Green parties in the November election. The departure of DiLieto from the city's political stage makes 26 The New journal/April 21 , 1989

room tor new actors to compete for the starring¡ role_ but Ieavell the audience wondering if the script will really change. It remains to be seen if the contest to succeed DiLieto will really produce a genuine debate about the future direction of the city.

DiLieto's legacy is a city in crisis.

Despite the fashionable shops and restaurants downtown, the demise of the city's manufacturing base , especially the apparel and fire-arms industry, has made New Haven the seventh poorest city per-capita in the nation. Studies have revealed that the hunger and infant mortality in certain

city neighborhoods is worse than in most of the Third World. The "gentrification" of other neighborhoods has placed a great strain on New Haven's housing resources and created a serious problem of homelessness. New Haven faces an environmental crisis of mammoth proportions unless it finds new ways to dispose of solid waste. In response to these and other problems, the city has experienced a flight of its predominantly white middle class to the suburbs, further undercutting New Haven's tax base and its ability to supply adequate social services to its remaining population, which IS

increasingly black and Puerto Rican.

Many of New Haven's problems predate DiLieto's tenure as mayor, but his critics believe he failed to act creatively to solve them. Much of the debate centers on the issue of "underdevelopment." The steady decline in federal funding for programs to revive decaying urban centers such as New Haven during the presidency of Ronald Reagan forced city governments to turn to the private sector to finance redevelopment. Few city administrations, however, turned so avidly to the private sector as DiLieto's. By loans, tax concessions, and other assistance, the city underwrote numerous development schemes mainly in the city's downtown and harbor areas. In its rush to finance these programs, the city backed a number of fiascos, including the illfated "Downtown South" convention center project and inumerable downtown shopping mall proposals.

Critics have charged favoritism in the awarding of city support to "preferred developers", most of whom were large financial backers of the mayor's campaigns.

magazine compared DiLieto's ability to avoid public blame for his administration's failings with that of former President Ronald Reagan. The story dubbed him the "teflon mayor."

DiLieto won reelection in 1981 , 1983, 1985, and 1987 with majorities approaching 75 percent. Meanwhile, the Republican Party in New Haven dwindled to a corporal's guard, controlling only the two wealthiest of the city's 30 wards. Most of the "protest vote" against DiLieto's policies went to the city's third party, the Greens, founded in 1985. Still, they have failed to attract much more than ten percent of the citywide vote.

The underlying hope of DrLieto's development program was that prosperity would eventually trickle down to the poorer neighborhoods from the seemingly prosperous downtown. After a decade, these neighborhoods are still waltlng.

Opponents charge that the mayor has played politics with the city's povertyrelated problems. DiLieto created task forces to examine such issues as solid waste disposal, drugs, hunger, and AIDS, but generally packed them with his political friends . These committees invariably reported back with strong endorsements of the mayor's programs.

It is remarkable how little impact the unsolved problems of the city have had on the mayor's popularity at the polls.

A few years ago, one New Haven

DiLieto faced no serious rivals for control of the Democratic organization after he ousted incumbent mayor Frank Logue in a primary in September 1979. After his victory, the Democratic "machine" tolerated little dissent. With a stranglehold on city hall, it rewarded its friends with patronage, city contracts, and various forms of special treatment. To receive the Democratic nomination for any local office required endorsing DiLieto's reelection.

Over the DiLieto decade, the Democratic-dominated city legislative branch, the Board of Aldermen, deteriorated into a rubber stamp for the mayor. The only important intraparty challenge DiLieto faced came in 1987, when Bill Jones, a popular black city personnel administrator, forced

him into a primary. Jones' lack of adequate finances and the machine's ability to divide the city's black community resulted in DiLieto winning by more than a two-to-one margin. In the same primary, the Democratic machine successfully targeted for defeat the handful of Democratic aldermen who had occasionally opposed the mayor's policies.

The 1987 election victory was the highpoint of DiLieto's political career.

Since then, a series of reversals have weakened the mayor politically and probably hastened his decision to retire. The death of Democratic Party Town Chairperson Vincent Mauro in late 1987 cost DiLieto his most skillful fundraiser and political fence-mender.

Mauro's loss was keenly felt last year during an ugly intra-party battle to succeed retiring city Registrar of Voters Frank Rossi. When the Democratic Party Town Committee passed over veteran Deputy Registrar Althea Tyson, a black woman, to endorse Clerk-typist Sharon Ferrucci as Rossi's replacement, Tyson's backers charged that its motivation was racial. Tyson waged a primary challenge against Ferrucci and attracted a surprising degree of support among white liberal activists. Although DiLieto claimed to be neutral in this contest, the support that Democratic party regulars gave Ferrucci, who narrowly defeated Tyson, convinced many blacks that the machine feared their gaining more political power.

DiLieto then became mired m a bruising feud with City School Superintendent John Dow and the chairperson of the New Haven Board of Education, the Reverend Edwin R. Edmonds. Ostensibly a fight about fiscal control over the school budget, the contest developed racial overtones as Dow and Edmonds, both black, argued that the predominantly white city administration was underfunding the educational needs of New Haven's The New Journal/April 21, 1989 27

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largely black and Puerto Rican public school students. Although a budget compromise was finally reached, the political rift between DiLieto and Dow and Edmonds has not healed. Over the past few years, the New Haven school system has built up its own separate patronage network, which Dow and Edmonds have thrown behind the campaign of DiLieto challenger, John Daniels. For the first time, because of the racial context of the Tyson and the school battles, the black community is united to an unprecented degree in their desire to remove DiLieto.

During the past few months, the DiLieto administration has been embarrassed by allegations of corruption and cronyism. The local N.A.A.C.P. chapter charged that DiLieto's Executive Assistant Joseph Carbone used his office to profit in real estate speculations. Other critics attacked the awarding of a $25,000 city development grant to a Dixwell Avenue ch urch headed by a proDiLieto black minister. Even the previously slavishly pro-DiLieto daily newpaper, The New Haven Register, recently printed a few critical stories on the ethics of the DiLieto administration.

Despite mounting problems , DiLieto was the odds-on favorite among political observers in the upcoming election. The Democratic Party was firmly in his control and remained capable of turning out huge majorities for its candidates in the city's heavily Italian-American wards east of the Quinnipiac River. At the same time, the mayor retained his legendary popularity among New Raven's large senior citizen voting block. DiLieto could count on support from the city's municipal unions (except for teachers), who knew who was their boss, and the construction trade unions, who profited by Di L ieto's program of subsidizing downtown construction.

Even without the services of Mauro as

his chief fundraiser, DiLieto would have gotten lucrative financial contributions from businesses that have done and expect to continue doing business with the city.

Still, DiLieto stepped down. He might have sensed that this election would be harder fought than any since he ousted Logue a decade ago. H is policies would have received more careful scrutiny and louder criticism than ever before. As a man who clearly enjoys his personal popularity, the price of victory in a contest such as that might have seemed too high. By retiring as the undefeated champion of New Haven politics, DiLieto remains in a strong position to influence the choice of his .successor and thereby the future city policies. And therein lies the rub.

The immediate beneficiary of DiLieto's withdrawal is John Daniels.

He had already begun to put together a campaign based primarily in the city's black wards but with some prominent white supporters, such as former alderman Edward Zelinsky and Cynthia Savo, former publisher of The Independent , a local weekly newspaper. In early campaign statements, Daniels criticized the mayor for ignoring the needs of poor and minority neighborhoods while concentrating resources on downtown development. Daniels' rhetoric was relatively mild, however, and he probably can still court DiLieto's white political supporters. This effort already seems underway; when Daniels responded to DiLieto's withdrawal announcement, he praised his departing rival as a great "builder" of the city. Because of his nonconfrontational style, Daniels also appears to have retained cordial relations with Arthur T. Barbieri, the reputed Democratic boss of the 1960's, who stepped in to replace Mauro as Town Committee Chair.

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• THURSDAY SENIOR NIGHT New Haven Mayor Biagio DiLieto candidates to emerge for the Democratic mayoral nomination.

D iLieto's Director of Development, John DeStefano Jr., has voiced interest in succeeding his boss. Although young, DeStefano's job gives him intimate contact with the city's money brokers who could finance a serious campaign . Like DeStafano, conservative Democratic State Representative Robert Hauser from New Haven's east side, could offer himself as a candidate ideologically close to the incumbent. Hauser attracted considerable notoriety as a leader in last year's unsuccessful effort to prohibit state funding of abortions for women on welfare. From the city's Westville neighborhood, State Representative Patricia Dillon or Alderman Steven Mednick m.ight present themselves as the candidate of a younger, more liberal political generation. Dillon has attempted to stay aloof from city

political issues since reaching state office in 1984, but Mednick carried the stigma of having been DiLieto's most articulate apologist on the Board of Aldermen. Without DiLieto as the opponent, other black candidates, such as State Representative Walter Brooks-no friend of Daniels-might come forward. In 1987 Brooks managed Bill jones' campaign and was angered that Daniels that year encouraged New Haven blacks to support DiLieto over a black challenger. Still more candidates might emerge if a free-for-all seems possible.

Selection of a candidate will be made by the Democratic Town Committee this summer but the losers can still seek a September primary for the nomination.

In this scramble for power among the Democrats, there is a danger that the opportunity will be lost for a serious debate over the policies this city

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has pursued for so long. If DiLieto were a contender, he would be confronted and challenged by wouldbe successors. Now, Democratic candidates might try to duck discussion of DiLieto's record because they were cheerleaders for his administration in previous elections.

They risk close questioning about their consistency if they now begin to condemn DiLieto's programs too loudly. Given their past history of unswerving party loyalty, any of the leading Democratic possibilities is almost certain · to court the endorsement of DiLieto and the assistance of the party machine for the November election. A serious contest among Democrats for the mayoral nomination, therefore, tnight produce more smokescreens than fir~tights about the future direction of the city.

The ultimate Democratic winner must take on candidates from the Green and Republican parties in the election. In the past, the Democrats' enormous lead in voter registration allowed their mayoral nominee to stand above the fray and coast to victory. This would be a calamity to the city in 1989, akin to exploring new frontiers without a compass. The next mayor will pick up where DiLieto left off and the voters must know the dirc:ction a new administration will go.

It is up to those voters who have been dissatisfied with the course of the DiLieto administration to insist that the current bumper crop of would-be mayors in all three parties engage in a serious debate about their proposed agendas for the city. Before the partynominating conventions, civic, religious, professional, and educational groups should sponsor open forums where mayoral hopefuls would have to answer tough questions from the voters and the media about how they would go about solving New H aven's problems. These meetings should be held in all nighborhoods of the city and

be thoroughly reported by the local press. This would have the important added benefit of giving public exposure to candidates who do not have wealthy contributors to pay for the advertising necessary for a citywide campaign.

There will be no shortage of issues for this candidate debate. The following are just some of the most pressing:

Thanks in part to a large drop in state subsidies, the next mayor will inherit an enormous budget deficit.

This will put great pressure on the new mayor to continue DiLieto's program of subsidizing downtown development in order to increase the city's tax base.

Mayoral candidates should debate the wisdom of continuing DiLieto's development policies at the expense·of the city's social services budget to deal with problems of hunger, homelessness, and crime.

A key question concerning New Haven's fiscal crisis involves Yale University's responsibility to the city.

DiLieto steadfastly refused to ask Yale to pay for the services it consumed, nor did he attempt to tax the institution .

With state coffers empty and the state unable to adequately reimburse New Haven for tax revenues lost because of :ale, this campaign should reopen the Issue of town-gown relations.

DiLieto seemed content to stall

action on the city's solid waste problems until the state stepped in and forced New Haven to join in its trash incineration scheme. Candidates must say where they will resist trash burning and commit the city to recycling as a safer solution to its solid waste crisis.

A mayoral candidate must present a program for greater control over the city's school budget by elected officials.

The idea of an elected rather than an appointed Board of Education as a way to achieve more public accountability needs full debate in this year's campaign.

Now is the time for a fundamental assessment of city government. City hiring policies need to be changed to remove the final vestiges of the political patronage system. The policy of award~g contracts on the basis of campaign contributions must end. The merits of a sweeping revision of the charter for New Haven's city government should be discussed in the 1989 campaign.

Getting the candidates to debate the issues is only part of the solution to New Haven's political problems. It is also up to the city's voters to educate themselves on the issues and lobby the candidates to take clear and constructive positions. To counteract the organizational power of the old city machine, more citizens than ever before must give generously of their time and money in the upcoming campaign.

The retirement of Ben DiLieto does not mean the automatic end to the policies that have governed New Haven for the past decade. Unless we demand that this fall's candidates make the election a referendum on the DiLieto years, the policies of his failed administration just might continue to govern the city by default.

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john McKivigan is a lecturer in the history department.

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