Volume 31 - Issue 1

ewourna Volume 31, Number 1

The magazine about Yale and New Haven

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September 4, 1998

Where is Yale's vision of New Haven leading us?

OUT WITH THE OLD

IN WITH THE BLUE

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justin Stults EoJTOR·JN-CHIEF

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Danul K.tUum, jessica Winur DESIGNER

Hrishiletsh Hirway PRODUCT!ON MANAGER

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AccoUNTS MANAGER

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Michael Gtrbtr. Andrtw Youn CIRCUlATION AND SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGERS

jm Champagnt. Ronm Giwny Suff Vanessa Agard-jona • Jo Coakky • Jason D'Cruz Monica Kim • Gcn~ Taft !.«Wang • Jada Yuan

Mmrbm """ Dir«ttm Emily B:udon • Consunce Oemtnt • Ptttr B. Cooper Tom Grigg. • Brooks Kelley • Hillary Margolis Henry Schwab • Eliubeth Sled~ • Fred Srrdxigh Thomas Srrong

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·n a__l_VO-LUME-31, N-UMB-ER SEPTEMBER 4' 1998 I -

F E A T U R E S- - - -- - - - - --

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Trailblazers Two Yale alums pose a cross country challenge building dozem of homes and a friendship in the process.

BY MICHAEL GERBER

The Post-Doc Paper Chase

IO

Would-be professors confront the harsh realities ofthe academic playing field.

BY ELI KI NTISCH

12

That Summer

16

COMPILED BY .ANYA LIITIG

Are You Being Served?

The administration's efforts to revitalize its properties leave students and locals wondering whose interests Yale has in mind.

BY LAINIE R UTKOW

12

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The Quiet Lesson Yale medical students and residents learn that not only patients face difficult choices about abortion.

BY jESSICA WINTER

STANDARD 5- -- - - - - - -Points of Departure Between the Vines: Lost in America BY IAN BLECHER The C ritical Angle: Deconstrucring Jerry BY ANDREW YoUN 30

Endnote: Serious Fun BY DANIEL BROOK

THE NEY jO\:IlMJ. is p11bluh~ five times d11rin~ the aad<mic year by The New journal at Yak, Inc., P.O. Box }(32 Yale Statron, New Ha~. CT 06520. Office address: 252 Park Suttt. Phone: (203) -432· 1957. AU content< copyn~t 1998 by The New journal at Yak, Inc. All Right< Reserved. Reproducuon enher U1 whole or in pan wrthout written permission of <he publisher and editor in chief u prohobned.

While this magwne is publuh~ by Yale College nudenu. Yale Univcni<y is not responsible for ou contenu Ten thousand copoes of each usue are dWribuu:d frtt tO members of the Yak and New Ha..,n community. Subscriptions are available to tho~ ouui<le the area. Rates: One year, $18. Two yean, $30. THE NEY j ()l;ll"Al is print~ by Twley Publicatioru. Palmer, MA; booltkeepin~ and billing ~rvrces are provtded by Colman Boolleepin~ of New Havel). T H! NEW j OURNAL encourages lenen to the editor and commtnu on Yale and New Haven issues. Write to Editorials, ~32 Yale Station, New Haven, CT 06520. Allleners for publication must include address and si~natur<. We reserve the right to edit all letters for publicatoon .

New Haven in Focus I lived in New Haven, Connecticut, for a year before I could name more than seven of its streets. I lived by the New Haven Green, just two blocks from City Hall, for a year and never knew the mayor's name. I spent a year at Yale University thinking about test scores, boys, and parties; by the time my second year at Yale began, I was still lost in the city where I lived.

Sophomores returning to Yale are expected to know their way around New Haven, but . for those like me who entered their seco~d year still befuddled by New Haven's politics and physical layout, FOCUS on New Haven stands alone co assist them. The name of Yale's only orientation for sophomores, Freshman Orientation to CommUnity Service, is as obsolete as the concept that only freshmen need orientations. When the program began six years ago as a week-long introduction for freshmen to New Haven and its community service opportunities, FOCUS failed. Consisting of intensive manual labor service projects and highly-charged panel discussions, the program proved too much for freshmen still struggling co find their way around campus. "FOCUS for freshmen would be just another detail when everything is new," says FOCUS 1998 co-coordinator Margaret Sawyer (BK '99).

While still operating in a diluted but effective form as Cityscape (a day-long orientation for freshmen which consists of van tours, shon projects, and a community dinner), the original FOCUS no longer exists.

After recovering from its initial failure, the regrouped program emerged with a stronger, more innovative angle. It decided to target Yale students who already knew enough about New Haven co develop an interest in finding out more. "If you're going to spend your time learning about a city, it's ridiculous to do so before you've spent some time in it," says Heidi Vogt (DC '99), rwo-cime leader and former participant. "People need to see that hole in their lives before they are ready to

4

explore New Haven."

FOCUS begins with panicipants learning about New Haven and its history through ., walking tours on the Green and van rides throughout the city. Later in the week, the entire group participates in a homelessness simulation and listens to panels of citizens and officials alike on the issues of Yale-New Haven relations, education, and city development. For the last four days of the program, participants split into seven separate projects throughout the city. The projects range from building a porch for Habitat for Humanity to painting a mural at the caesar Jerez Catholic Workers Home.

Far from the typical community service organizations run through Dwight Hall, Yale's service umbrella, FOCUS's main concern is its participants rather than urgent community needs. Restricted by time and the amount of work it can realistically accomplish in four days, the program seeks to encourage further interest in New Haven and community service while maintaining the idea of working with, rather than for, the compiunity.

"FOCUS isn't about privileged Yale students coming in and changing New Haven," says Vogt. "It's about preparing people to help New Haven solve its own problems."

The motivation of FOCUS draws on the idea that Yale students can contribute to the community only when they see themselves as New Haven residents. Whereas participants in most service organizations spend an hour or two a week going into the community and coming back to Yale, panicipants in FOCUS spend the majority of their day outside of campus, riding city buses and even taking their meals at the Trinity Lutheran Church on Orange Street. "You're eating, breathing, and sleeping FOCUS. You don't have this other life that you go back to," says leader and former panicpant Hilary Kaplan (BR '00).

For most panicipants, especially those who have never done community service, the FOCUS experience proves eye-opening.

"FOCUS changed my attitude towards New

Haven," says Eugenia Chen (DC '01). "I had never felt compelled to do community service before, but once you see a housing project in the middle of nowhere or pull hypodermic needles and bags of marijuana out of a river, you can't really turn away."

Despite its success and the enthusiasm of its participants, FOCUS still operates on a small scale. This year only 65 sophomores applied for the program. Out of those panicipants, the majority were already active in Dwight Hall service or in New Haven reporting for the Yale Daily News. "For the average college student there's no real need to go out into New Haven," says Chen. "People go to college and want a fun college town. The immediate concerns of an average college student are having a movie theater, some good restaurants, and something to do at night."

Perhaps she is right, but "average college students" are not supposed to attend Yale.

-Jada Yuan

Project X As Old Blue collides with the 21st century, its technological capability will be put to the rest. The next millenium may bring upon us such calamities as disappearance of grades, the obliteration of library records, and the sealing of encryways, all because Yale's legendary endowment may vanish into digitized ether.

Aie we destined to self-destruct? In our self-satisfied complacency, have we entered at lightning speed a narrow tunnel whose only egress is our own annihilation? What son of wizardry will allow us to avert the oncoming disaster? Which brave souls will spare us from this terrifying fate? None other than the technological scions ofYale's Project X. As the class of.l999 prepares to graduate, the university grapples with the preparations it must make to accommodate the needs of future classes. Like many other institutions, Yale needs to upgrade its administrative sys-

THE NEW jOURNAL

terns co make them Year 2000 (or Y2K, as your friendly CA. would pu t it) compliant.

Current administrative programs are quire complex, time-consuming, and costly, and frequently fail ro provide adequate information. Furthermore, Yale's systems lack proper tools to formulate straregies and effectively manage the university.

The brains of Project X are working coward a viable solution for the current problems in Yale's administrative systems. In lieu of simply "patching up" or upgrading current software, the Project X dynamos have decided

ro replace rhe entire kit and caboodle with newly developed software. This will aUow Yale not only to solve the Year 2000 bug, but will also enhance Yale's management of financial and human resources.

The Project X team has enlisted rhe expertise of Oracle Corporation to modernize Yale's administrative systems in four ways.

First, the new systems wiU allow improved management and planning capacity at aU levels through accurate and timely information, user-friendly analysis, and lightning-fast reporting tools. A new data warehouse and faster running, easy-ro-use software applications will make this possible. Second, Project X will provide better administrative services to faculty, srudents, staff, alumni and donors through simpler communication services.

SEPTEMBER

4, 1998

Third, Oracle's new systems wiJJ slash administrative costs by minimizing data entered and reducing error correction. Finally, they wiJI reduce rhe risk of data loss and financial miscalculation through sophisticated backup systems and tighter control over expenditures and revenues.

The pursuit of these new administrative systems commenced in the summer of 1996.

Provost Alison Richard and Joseph Mullinix, Vice President for Finance and Administration, ignited a Steering Committee for the project and coordinated the efforts of four other teams to mobilize Project X. More than 60 staff members from the central administration and different departments within Yale have worked together to develop an overall strategy and understand the costs and benefits of such an undertaking.

By signing with the Oracle Corporation, Yale has the potencial to benefit from partnerships with other universities already committed to rhe Oracle software. The University of Pennsylvania, which currently utilizes an Oracle financial system, has proven helpful in sharing its experiences and insights on the system. Stanford and Harvard, both planning to launch Oracle-based projects, have shown interest not only in sharing informacion but also in coordinating training with Yale.

Project X, slated for completion by January 1, 1999, will be carried our in two phases.

Phase I, already complete, provides the University with a novel set of financial analysis tools. These tools give Yale easy on-line access to financial data. Phase I also included installation of a new time and attendance system, a novel travel and entertainment expense reimbursement procedure, and recenr techniques for job postings and applicant processing.

Phase II will continue improvements by modernizing accounts management processes such as payroll, benefits, and claims procedures.

The Project X team expects that ongoing developments will continue beyond the graduarion of the class of 1999, as the university begins to exploit the fearures of these new systems.

By equipping Old Blue with Oracle's new systems, the Project X task force will assure that Yale's Generation Y will be armed for Y2K and beyond.

Fall Fashion Preview '98

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Trailblazers Michael Gerber "â&#x20AC;˘

¡ From his office, Jim Garman (ES '98) can see the San Francisco skyline-"if you stand in the right spot and twist your body the right way," he says. "We're thinking of painting footprints so people know where to stand." Garman, however, is not one to stand where he's told.

As a senior at Yale, he saw his peers take graduate exams, fill out applications, and send out resumes, taking their places on the footprints others had already painted. But Garman found none of those fit him, so he set off to paint his own.

Garman and fellow Yale alum Antony Brydon (TD '95) are the founders, directors, and entire staff of the Habitat Bike and Build, which they hope will become a multi-million dollar fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity. Their office suite is simple: two desks, maps on the walls, empty space. It differs greatly from what 26-year-old Brydon became f.uniliar with in three years of strategy consulting with R. B. Webber and Company. But the Bike and Build is the realization of a vision Brydon had more than five years ago. a; E ::::J

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In September of 1992, Brydon embarked upon a journey that has yet to end. Returning to Yale for his junior year, Brydon found school uninspiring. "I did the first ten days at Yale thing," Brydon says, "where you shop all the classes you're imerested in. Couldn't find any."

So Brydon sought help from the dean of T lDlothy Dwight, John Loge. Hurricane Andrew had recently swept through southern Florida, and Brydon told Dean Loge of his interest in helping to rebuild Miami. "He recognized that I was a lot more passionate about that than I would be about my classes." So, at the encouragement of his dean, Brydon-an avid cyclist-lefr New Haven on bicycle. More than three weeks later, he arrived in Atlanta. It was there that he called Habitat for Humanity and told them he was on his way to Miami.

6

Habitat told him that they didn't have a spot for him in Miami; however, Americus, Georgia, did have some openings in construction~ "I rode down from Atlanta, showed up on my bike, and ended up working in construction there for three and a half months." Brydon's stipend was only 40 dollars a week, plus an extra 25 each month for emertainment.

But he did gain experience working with other Habitat volunteers whose sole focus was building houses.

Before arriving in Americus, Brydon's Habitat experience consisted of a few volunteer stints at home. "I think it can be described as luck. ..or divine intervention that it ended up being a program with . which I found so much in common." In Americus, Habitat is not just another non-profit organization. Americus is the headquarters of Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), which oversees the 1500 affiliates worldwide. For a semester, Brydon toured on his bicycle in the morning and worked on a site in the afternoon. The connection between Habitat and cycling had begun. But it was not until the fall of 1993, when Brydon returned to Yale, that he figured out how to use that connection.

Brydon and a core group of students found it hard to become involved with Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Haven. The chapter was building only one house, and they had more volunteers than they were able to use. "If we were going to build a house," Brydon remembers, "we were going to need to fund it ourselves." That was when Brydon discovered the potential of the Habitat-cycling connection and conceived of the cross-country ride.

"We were going to raise half a million dollars," says Brydon. His postering and word-of-mouth campaign drew 90 interested Yalies and 40 applications at the first meeting. Unfortunately, limited sponsorship meant limited participation. By selecting the applicants most devoted

THE NEW JouRNAL

to Habitat, Brydon created a group ofeight dedicated riders. They were the first Habitat Bicycle Challenge (HBC). That first cross-country ride was far from a vacation. The riders spent 12 weeks on the road, logging 5,000 miles and carrying all their gear. When Brydon returned in the fall as a senior, he began planning immediately for the future of HBC. The first ride had been thrown together in just a few months, and did not live up to Brydon's expectations.

Over the next five years, HBC grew under the leadership of Brydon, Garman, and others. Starting with the second ride in 1995, about 30 cyclists rode from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco, now with a support van ro hold their bags. This past summer, the ride's fifth year, it expanded to include a northern route from New Haven to Vancouver.

The ability to find 60 riders and raise $100,000, twice as much as the previous year, signaled that the Bicycle Challenge was ready for the next level. "Would somebody just do it?" Brydon thought. "Incorporate it, tun it, take it to the level it finally belongs at?" But who could do that besides the man who first experienced and created HBC? "I felt compelled to realize the original vision."

In the summer of 2000, hundreds of Habitat volunteers will set off on their bicycles, riding from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. Yet it is obvious that Brydon is not yet satisfied. "It's going to be the most substantial step forward for the Habitat Bicycle Challenge," he says, making clear that he sees this only as another growth spurt for the ride, not the final step. The two founders hope that the ride will expand to include a thousand riders and raise more than ten million dollars.

A ride of this scale is something that has been done before. The GTE Big Ride debuted this summer, with almost 750 riders raising millions for the American Lung Association. But as Garman explains, the Bike and Build is unique. "It's not just a cycling event-it's a yearlong program." Each rider will not only raise money for his local chapter, but will also work with the future homeowners to construct the house that he is funding. During the ride, cyclists and community members will gather to celebrate Habitat. HBC has been promoting Habitat in the communities it passes through since it began, and the Bike and Build founders hope to keep this interaction as ride participation increases.

Committing to the Bike and Build right out of college was not easy.

"My girlfriend thought I was crazy," Garman says of his decision. His friends and family had seen him spend weeks finding jobs in construction management, a field he had grown to love during his time with Habitat. Only six months ago, he spent his last Spring Break on a jobsearching trip to North Carolina. The trip was a success, and he

SEPTEMBER 4,

1998

returned to his last months at Yale enthusiastic about his future. But a week later, the construction jobs were forgotten and work on the Bike and Build had begun.

The change seemed sudden, but the Habitat Bike and Build was the next logical step for someone who had already dedicated three years to Habitat. As a freshman, Garman spent a spring day working on a Habitat site. After hours of removing and replacing charred rafrers, he knew he wanted to spend more time on Habitat sites. "I came back totally dirty and smelly and just really loved it."

As one of the few students who organized the Collegiate Build, Garman helped change the relationship between the Yale and New Haven chapters of Habitat. The Collegiate Build was the first house in the nation for which the fundraising and volunteer labor was provided solely by students. In spite of-or perhaps because of-the many doubts as to whether students could pull it off, the Collegiate Build House became a home in 1996 when the dedication was held and the Green family moved in.

In the fall of 1995, just as the Collegiate Build was being organized, Garman was asked by Brian Vogt (PC '96)-who became HBC director after Brydon graduated-to be a leader on HBC '96. It was his friendship with the soon-to-graduate Vogt that led Garman to accept the offer. Garman not only led the ride across the country, but also codirected HBC the following years.

Garman's most significant mark on Habitat for Humanity, though, is the increased awareness of Habitat among Yale students. As a freshman counselor, Garman inspired many freshmen to become involved with Habitat. The night before the northern HBC group left New Haven in May, one of the riders asked "How many of us are here because of Jim Garman?" More than half of the 30 riders raised their hands.

In April, as graduation neared, Garman sat frustrated at his desk in Lawrance Hall. The enormous scope of the project was beginning to reveal itself "How do you find the company that makes semitrailers with showers inside?" When not working on his history thesis, Garman searched for answers to questions like that one--questions that HFHI might have for two twenty-somethings proposing a thousand-person, cross-country bicycle ride.

They met with senior management at the HFHI headquarters in the spring. "There was hesitation," says Brydon. "The Bike and Build would be one of Habitat's most visible programs." In fact, the Bike and Build was poised to become the best publicity for H abitat since Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter first signed on almost 20 years ago, but its high profile also made it a huge risk for a volunteer-based organization like HFHI. The risks were at least as great for the two young men who pro-

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TNJ Organizational Meetings Tuesday, September 8 and

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posed the idea.

When Garman and Brydon arrived in Americus, each had spent many hours writing the Bike and Build business plan. But they hardly knew each other. There was the time at the celebration in San Francisco after Garman's HBC ride; Brydon was still a Habitat cycling legend to Garman. "He doesn't remember the first time we met," says Garman. "But you can imagine for me it was exciting to meet him." They spoke briefly in New Haven the next year, when Brydon was interviewing for the Habitat Executive Director posicion. Since then their only contact had been over the phone. "I've written business plans with friends before," says Brydon. "This is the opposite. This relationship is driven by the idea."

The two have found their differing sryles to be complementary: Brydon spent three years in the business world, · helping small Internet-based_ businesses establish themselves. Garman is different: a jacket and tie never look quite right on him. And Brydon himself will tell you that Garman is the calm one. "Jim is level-headed," he says, "while I'm excitable, temperamental." Their differences led to a narural division of labor. 'While Jim travels the highways of California, recruiting H abitat chapters to become involved, Brydon discovers the intricacies of incorporating a non-profit enterprise. "We're lucky we like each other," says Garman.

But even with all of their differences, it comes as no surprise that they became friends as well as partners. Both are dedicated to the program, and- maybe more significantlyboth gave up a degree of securiry when they jumped into the Bike and Build. Each put a lot of work into the project before HFHI even gave their approval.

In July, when HFHI first called Brydon and Garman and told them the good news, their reactions were quite different. Garman packed up his Plymouth Voyager and left his Kentucky home within a few days. HFHI's go-ahead was more than just the culmination of years of work for Garman, says Brydon.

"Jim needed a job." And as the Bike and Build became realiry, it looked like he had one. "I told Antony I was driving right out to San Francisco," Garman says. "He was silent."

Brydon was well-paid, loved what he was doing, and could make his own schedule. Last

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year, he took three months off to bicycle through India, Nepal,. and Ttbet-at the encouragement of his' employers. Running the bike challenge had never been easy. "HBC '94-'95 nearly crippled me," he says. He even considered both jobs, but realized that was impossible. "I thought, do I wane to do two jobs poorly or one job well?" After a few days, though, Brydon realized that he needed the Bike and Build, and it needed him. "Silicon Valley can survive without me."

So the decision was made. Brydon informed his employer that he would be leaving. "My business friends laughed at the idea of working for a non-profit." Only three years out of school, Brydon had left a great job most students would kill for. Garman was on his way to California to join him.

"I was on top of the world," says Garman of his drive to the Bay Area. Even the death of Woody, his beloved van, only slowed him down by a day. Determined to keep going, Garman quickly found himself a used car.

Like the gold seekers almost 150 years before him, he arrived with only what he could fit in his wagon (in this case, a Honda). By midAugust, things were 'looking good for Garman. "I use my key chain," he explains. "First it was empty. Then I got the car key. Now I have the office key and the one for the house" (where he's living with friends). It was finally happening.

Originally eager for a 1999 premiere of the ride, the two soon realized that rushing the process was what had caused the first Bicycle Challenge to be such a difficult experience. Brydon and Garman made the tough decision to postpone the Bike and Build until the next year. "We have to step back, regroup, and give ourselves 18 months to make it work," says Garman. They are discovering that there is more to running a multi-milion dollar national business than hanging posters on bulletin boards and table tenting in the dining halls. What Brydon and Garman have always known, though, is that the ride will happen if they decide they want it to. "That's the single biggest lesson in all of this," Brydon says. "You have to go after it-it's not going to come to you." laJ

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Michael Gerber, a sophomore in Ezra Stiles College, is a research director forTNJ.

SEPTEMBER

4, 1998

9

THE

-PosTDoc PAPER CHASE Eli Kintisch WOU LD-BE PROFESSORS CONFRONT THE HARSH REALITIES OF THE ACADEMIC PLAYING F l ELD.

T

he phone rang on the third floor of Kline Biology Tower (KBT) and a post-doctoral researcher picked up. "Tama Hasson?" a mysterious voice said. "We've done a positional done on the deafness gene-and it's a gene for myosin."

Myosin was the protein H asson had been studying for years. It turned out that mutations in the genetic code for the protein caused a major human disorder, a form of deafness. In an instant, Hasson was transformed from another underpaid biology Ph.D-a post-doc-to a scientific superstar.

Such phone calls are the stuff of post-doc dreams. Scientists like Hasson take on an assortment of names: post-doctoral fellows, associate research faculty. What matters is that they have the Ph.Ds that make them bonafide scientists, and that they're not professors.

Post-docs endure 60-hour work weeks, publish only a few times during their career, and make less money than most librarians. In their early twenties, up to their elbows in graduate school, they sleep on sofas in laboratory lounges. ln their late twenties, they tend to marry each other. They refer to themselves as "non-entities" and "indentured servants." Working in the lab of a university professor, they live off grants that usually pay less than $30,000 per year. Until they prove themselves in the labs, they hover in academic limbo, shunning higher-paying jobs

10

in industry and a host of other options for a chance at a professorship.

Hasson's big moment reveals the tension between science for the sake of individual discovery and science for the sake of winning the academic game. We were taught in our grade-school textbooks that science is the enterprise of discovery, of asking why. Bur in contemporary academia, a permanent "position" is the prize at hand. Professors, unlike those beneath them on the ladder, enjoy virtually unfettered scientific freedom. As principle investigator, the professor acts as coach, top strategist, publicity manager, and boss for a large team of graduate students, technicians, and post-docs. Before post-docs earn their own lab, they must work for someone else's agenda.

Driven to attain a better position ensuring greater academic freedom, post-docs are more than curious people. They are public explorers, driven by a will to rise to the top of their fields, gaining the respect of both their peers and the pundits who keep score in the scientific world.

T

rying to escape this academic limbo can be a frustrating struggle. William Leiserson, a 40-year-old post-doc, is a researcher in genetics, a field in which papers are especially difficult to publish; a future position in academics will be difficult to attain. "Forty is old enough to have a real job," he says. "Personally, I'm slower than

THE NEW jOURNAL

many others. That's the way I work." Add a wife and two kids, and the pressure to perform only intensifies. Between supporting a family and trying to publish-the only means of improving a salary designed for a 26-year-old workaholic-he's got less time to work than his competitors.

It's an uphill battle, but one that Leiserson takes on willingly. Postdocs may get frustrated, but they know that they could leave academia at any time and find decently paying jobs waiting for them in industry.

There is no comparable outlet for Ph.Ds in non-technical fields. The only reason to remain in a low-paying post-doc position is the chance to rise through the academic ranks.

Lisa Evans, in the second year of her post-doctoral appointment in Mark Mooseker's lab at Yale, followed the same path for a long time. "I always thought that I wanted to be, essentially, Mark someday," says Evans. But looking a few years into her thirties, she's finding that there may not be room in her life for her career, personal satisfaction, and a third factor-<>ne that scientists often leave out of their professional equations-a family. Recently engaged to a policeman in the New Haven area, she knows _she'll have little geographic Aexibiliry in the next few years, making a job search that much more difficult. And as opposed to industrial jobs which often offer child-care programs and materniry leave, academic positions make it difficult for women to begin families.

Evans now questions the commitment that is necessary to climb the ladder. Like many post-docs, she's considering the alternatives to a universiry job. The expanding pharmaceutical industry and its biotech offshoots are desperate for outstanding researchers and offer high paying salaries to compensate them. Commercial laboratories boast jobs less time-intensive than academic posts, with salaries nearly tripling Evans's relatively small grants.

Looking beyond universiry research has drawn Evans to Connecticut's small liberal-arts colleges. By working in a school dedicated to undergraduate teaching, she feels she could raise a family. Granted, teaching four days a week and running a lab at a small school won't land Evans on the cover of Cell, but for her the priorities have changed.

Her boss thinks she could compete for some of the top research spots in the country. An appointment in Mooseker's lab is already an accolade; of the 20 Ph.Ds who have worked in his lab, all but one have gone on to careers in academia. "If she wanted to," Professor Mooseker says with assurance, "Lisa could go all the way."

A

cademic science didn't always require prolonged post-doctoral positions. "~en to 15 years ago, post-doctoral appointments were one or two years," says Larry Holmes, professor of History of Science at Yale. These days, universities have a glut of tenured scientists, with at least 20 years left before retirement.

One look at the back pages of Science or Nature reveals the realities that await postdocs. Behind the articles that bring fame and funding are

SEPTEMBER

4, 1998

pages of advenised post-doc and biotech openings-and a handful of staff positions in academia.

A marked deanh of basic research positions in the "hard" sciences means most Ph.Ds in physics and math go into industry. "Of people in physics taking a post-doctoral appointment, one in 20 stay in academia," says Ken Swartz, a post-doc at Yale. "You see a lot of ph ysics people turn to computer science, nuclear medicine." Swartz will try for an academic position, but he's content to begin a career outside the academy. He estimates in industry he'll make about $80,000 to start.

"Sometimes you think, 'As long as I'd be a professor that would be everything,"' he says, "but you realize that's not the case." or scientists like Hasson, however, there's nothing else. Even before 1995, 12-hour days in the lab were normal. But that fateful afternoon changed the face of the game. "That call changed my life," Hasson remembers. From there, her 70-hour weeks in lab meant even more. She was winning the game. A year later, a second phone call announced that another of her myosin varieties had been implicated in deafness. This time she flew down to Maryland, and worked for three days straight to prepare a paper for Nature Genetics.

Thanks to her research's applicability for deafness, more money and collaborations came in, and paper upon paper went out. Subsequently, she worked 10 to 12-hour days seven days a week. The time commitment has paid off. This year, she landed an assistant professor posicion at Universiry of California at San Diego.

To rise in the system, soon-to-be-Professor Hasson has learned, one needs luck as well as perseverance. Even with powerful scientific knowledge and a relentless work ethic, it's unclear whether she'd have made it without those fateful phone calls from distant geneticists. Now she's set to start her own lab in at one of the world's biology meccas.

More than a dozen papers, prestige, and expen status testifY to her position. But does she ever escape the struggle? Can a scientist learn for the sake of learning, and discover for the joy of discovery alone-with no regard to the ramifications, professional or otherwise?

As H asson describes the genes that have kept her on the trail for so long, a glimmer of fascination appears in her eyes behind her glasses.

There is a perceptible rise in her voice as she explains answers that have taken five years of her life to discover. But it's ten o'clock on a Wednesday night, and she hasn't seen her husband in three days. In her laboratory, thousands of multicolored test-tubes and bottles watch us from the shelves. KBT is still. A machine in the corner emits a low whir. "It's quiet here at night," she says wistfully. "It's amazing how much you can 18) accomplish."

F

Eli Kintisch, a senior in Ezra Stiles College, is associate editor ofTNJ.

II

Are You Being Served?

THE ADMIN I STRATI ON ' S EFFORTS TO REVITALIZE ITS PROPERTIES LEAVE STU DENTS AND LOCALS WONDERING WHOSE INTERESTS YALE HAS IN MIND.

Lainie Rutkow 16

THE NEW JouRNAL

"You go to Yale, don't you? What are you doing here-Yale's the that there is a slight chance his attorney will find a way to postpone the reason this place is being shut down. You can't come in here," threatens eviction. But even if this does happen, eviction is inevitable, as the a menacing teenager as he blocks the door to the Daily Caffe. Someone papers have already been served. flicks a cigarette butt at me and I brush through the doorway to a stacThe Daily has been in 6nancial trouble ever since Shapiro couldn't cato of taunting questions-"Are you on their side? Why are you stupay Yale his rent last summer. "We suffered a lack of business because dents letting this happen? Doesn't anybody care?'' of the competition that Yale put in-Willoughby's, It is the last Saturday night in August and instead of Au Bon Pain, Bruegger's, Starbucks," he says. As the We suffered a preparing for the busy fall season, the staff and patrons only remaining independent coffee house in the lack of business of the Daily Caffe are dismantling the store. Steve Broadway area, the Daily was forced to compete with because of the Shapiro, who owns the Daily with his wife Madeline, corporate coffee giants whose rent payments are rescues me from the anti-Yale attacks and provides a seat always guaranteed. The universiry assured Shapiro competition that amidst speakers, coffee machines, and artwork destined that he would not be forced out by chain stores, and Yale put infor the U-Haul outside. "Last night we were served with would actually experience an increase in business. a notice that states that the sheriff is coming tomorrow Willoughby's, Au Bon Not surprisingly, that never happened and Shapiro morning at 7:30 to evict us," he says. "Yale did it this worked on plans to save his store. "Yale could have Pain, Bruegger's, way so that we couldn't go to court. They're adamant helped us. I was denied Flex dollars. They wouldn't Starbucks. that we leave." As he speaks a line forms next to us with give us a break on the rent. They could have helped us -Steve Shapiro, patrons who express outrage and offer support. to expand and add a kitchen. With any of that I wouldn't be in this mess right now."

Shapiro distractedly thanks them for their concern Owner of Daily Caffe and tries to direct the removal of the menu boards that The scene at the Daily is only the latest in a series line the wall behind the Daily's front counter. "Don't worry about the plastic-we can replace that-just don't ruin the of muddled Broadway real estate decisions that span the last several years. This eviction is more surprising and dramatic than most, in part boards," he says. "I would love to put those back up on Monday." With these words the buzz of conversation dies down, and Shapiro explains due to the populariry of the Daily as a hang-out for both Yale students

SEPTEMBER

4, 1998

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and locals. "We made this a town/gown place," says Shapiro. "Everyone was welcome here." He's not idly praising himself-on any given night one could go to the Daily and find a mix of Yalies and New Haven natives.

The art on display was just as likely to have

mer away from campus. This year's surpr was Origins, a bath and body shop. As part a national chain, Origins confirms the tre.au that the additions made to Broadway will be corporate rather than independent. Considering how long the Origins' storefront remained

been created by a Yale student as a local resident; the same goes for the bands that played there a few nights a week. So what would motivate Yale, who owns the Daily's building, ro evict this tenant?

"Yale is accumulating square footage in the Broadway area to attract the kind of tenants that students have said they want," says Joe Fahey, Director of Operations for University Properties. If that's correct then the string of real estate maneuvers made by the university in the recent past seems incoherent at best.

With Broadway store fronts remaining empty for years at a cime, one wonders exactly what mother Yale thinks her hen-pecked students want. "Those store fronts on Broadway haven't been vacant because of a lack of interest," says Fahey. "It takes time to attract the type of tenant we would like to bring in." His words may very well be true, but with store fronts like that of Benson's Bakery remaining vacant for two and a half years, the district has developed the feel of a musical chairs game.

In the last three years alone, just under the span of an undergraduate Yale career, Broadway has seen the exit of Benson's Bakery, the closing of Almost Wholesale, the departure of Dakota J's, the introduction of the Yale Bookstore, and the arrival of Bruegger's Bagels.

One never knows what to expect afrer a sum-

vacant, it is difficult to believe that the university thought a merchant hawking $8.50 bars of soap would best cater to student interest.

The student reaction to Origins has been one of shock and confusion-we all know that they will make rent every month, but are they adding anything to the district? The Yale Bookstore already has a bath section that offers pricey soaps and other items that are of low appeal to college students.

Even more puzzling have been the lease negotiations of Broadway's Store24, which is · both corporate-owned and a Yalie staple. Last spring, campus chatter shifted from upcoming finals to the impending removal of Store24 afrer Rumpus broke the story. Four months later, Store24 remains nestled between The Boola Boola Shop and the empty Almost Wholesale storefront, and negotiations continue. Its lease is up and everyone from Store24 president Robert Gordon to store manager Mary Crump knows that something is going to change in the next several months. "We don't know the status of the Broadway Store24," says Gordon. "Right now we're trying to arrange for a different space with the university. Yale has plans to redevelop the area where we are, including the building we're in." The only people who know the f.ue of Store24 work for University

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Properties, and they aren't talking beyond Everything Must Go" sign dominates the what's already known. ~ store's front window. Frances Baker, the store's owner, has been in business for 11 years in her There has only been one moment in the Broadway real estate fiasco when the universicurrent location. Unlike the Broadway propty did seem to know its students and their erties, Baker's building is owned by the Federalliances well, and that occurred in the timing al Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), a of the eviction of the Daily. Started by a Yale government organization that handles bankgraduate in 1989, it is not rupt real estate. Joel Schisurprising that current Yalies avone (SM '58), of Schiavone I called people at Corporation, is the federally still appreciate the "great coffees, fine pastries, and decent University Properties designated receiver for the people" at the Daily. By servand said, "Look, I Chapel FDIC property. It is ing the eviction papers just as and not Yale, who termican guarantee your he, students returned to campus nated Baker's lease negotiaand before classes had begun, rent, I've been here tions.

Yale attempted to get the eleven years. I have Predictably, Yale is salivatDaily out quietly. T he chaos ing at the thought of buying an established of Camp Yale and the excitethe FDIC properties, which ment of seeing friends after a business, people love occupy most of the block on summer apart are probably Chapel between College and it, and now I'm enough to m ask the activity igh Streets. They've been getting thrown out H on the corner of Park and negotiating the deal with the Elm, where D aily patrons on the street. Can't FDIC for over a year. Baker have been thronging since knew this, and she appealed you intervene?" to Yale as the building's future they heard the news.

- Frances Baker, Owner owner. "I called the people at If the timing of ~e evicof Sugar Magnolia. tion was deliberate, as University Properties and said, 'Look, I can guarantee Shapiro suspects it was, then your rent, I've been here 11 years, I have an to all outward appearances Yale was trying to established business, people love it, and now undermine the will of its students. This comes I'm getting thrown out on the street--can't as a most disturbing revelation considering

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1174 Chapel SCreet New cr that Yale has an interest in shaping Broadway to be student-oriented, according to Fahey.

Shapiro was told that the university already has a tenant to take his place, and if his suspicions are correct it will be another corporate entity.

The Daily Caff~ isn't the only well-established small business being run out of New Haven. Sugar Magnolia, a candy store on Chapel, received an eviction notice on Valentine's Day of this year. Rather than the usual back-to-school display, a "Lost Our Lease,

SEPTEMBER

4, 1998

you intervene?'" says Baker. She was greeted with empathy but not action. She's resigned herself to vacate her store by the end of September.

"You have to understand-I'm sympathetic to Frances Baker, but Joel Schiavone didn't do anything wrong." says Fahey of the Sugar Magnolia situation. "If an owner doesn't like a tenant and their lease is up, they can tell a tenant to leave." Fahey's words are caltn and rational, employing exactly the same logic used to remove the Daily from Broadway. The difference is that now we're talking

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about Chapel Sueet, which has a tiny corporate presence and is dominated by small businesses. One would think that a small successful store like Sugar Magnolia would be encouraged to stay.

Fahey's reaction to Baker's predicament is disturbing if one considers that in several months Yale will be the owner on Chap~t Street with the right to turn tenants out. n only people Yale has turned out of late are d small businesses on Broadway, which m~ provide a glimpse of the future for Chap( Fahey is quick to discourage this thought, sa: ing, "It's already the kind of district that Ya would like to have. The university's interest to maintain the district as is-to keep the fe of the district and improve the base building Tenants will leave and tenants will come, bt the goal is to keep that feel of the district."

Perhaps the university's public intentio1 are good, but Yale's track record for maintaining the "feel" of a district is not impressive. u the "feel" of Broadway is supposed to be sn dent-oriented, Yale has adopted the reducti' view that corporate equals collegiate. Not a Yalies want designer coffee and clothes, an many of them would rather give their mom to smaller businesses that contribute- to d atmosphere of a college town.

This is not to say that Chapel Street ca see its future on Broadway. However, rumo are already flying among the Chapel Stre.

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store owners that Yale has well-established intentions that may not include them. It is unlikely that Yale would want to inundate Chapel with cookie-cutter corporate stores that have the plastic atmosphere of a mall. But with the Gap and Ann Taylor considered to be some of the "nicest" stores on Chapel, and Yale's intentions to make the downtown district a place attractive to business people as

THE

N.EW JouRNAl

well as parents of Yale students, the Chapel merchants should t~ note. The university is often off the mark when attempting to cater to its clientde.

Shapiro was hoping that his evtctton would serve as a rallying point for students to protest Yale's restructuring of Broadway. "I wanted to let students protest and force Yale to stop hiding behind corporate bureaucracy-the nameless and faceless people," he says. "I was hoping Yale would see that they're pissing off their own students with their decisions." Unfortunately, one day's notice on a weekend eviction doesn't provide much time to get the word out, let alone allow undergraduates to contact Yale officials. Shapiro knows this and credits the university with strategic timing.

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"Man, they can't close this place down," a local man interrupts. "It's practically a New Haven landmark. H ow can they do this to you?" Shapiro grimaces and says, "The short answer is money. They're forcing me out." His young daughter tentatively approaches and sits next to him while his wife looks on. "''m out of an income--1 don't have a job anymore," Shapiro says between the goodbyes of friends and customers. The scene is pathetic.

T he contents of the store rolling by us seem to be the death-knell of the family-run business.

"Yale killed the little guy again," mumbles an employee.

In anticipation of school starting, Shapiro repainted the Daily three days ago. "I wanted the place to feel fresh and new and welcoming," he says. And indeed, he did attract students who were enticed by the brighter interior. "This morning a freshman came in with her mother," says Shapiro. "They were looking around and I could see that they liked the place. She came up to me and said, 'You have my business for the next four years."' Shapiro's expression contoru and he sighs. "I didn't have the heart to tell her that I won't be here come tomorrow morning."

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111

Lainie Rutkow, a senior in Morse College, is the editor-in-chief ofTNJ.

SEPTEMBER

4, 1998

21

THE QUI.ET LESSON Yale medical students and residents learn that not only patients face difficult choices about abortion.

'¡

jessica Winter

22

THE NEW JouRNAL

My wife finished medical school last year. She never heard the word "abortion" uttered in a classroom.

Which medical school was it that neglects to expose students to what is one of the most common surgeries among women? Yale.

-Jack Hill, Th~ N~ York Tim~s Magazin~, Jan. 18, 1998 Jennifer Kreshak (MED '99) is flipping through stacks of old classroom notes. "Gynecological oncology... hormonal patterns... contraception ... " she murmurs, rattling off title topics of lectures from two years back. "Physiology of pregnancy... infections... menopause..." She's fairly certain that she never heard abortion outlined, or even mentioned, in the female reproduction classes which every Yale medical student is required to take, and her notes confirm this recollection.

Kreshak, who describes herself as pro-choice, isn't surprised that none of her instructors ever discussed a procedure that is the endpoint of one in four pregnancies, obtained by three percent of women of reproductive age each year in the United States. "It's not thrown in your fuce--if you want to learn about it, you have to go looking for it a little bit. But that's true of many things in medical school." During their third-year clinical rotation in obstetrics and gynecology (OB-GYN), which lasts six weeks, students can observe doctors in one of several New Haven-area clinics in which abortions are performed, but they are not required or directed to do so. "The opportunity is mentioned but not repeated," said Kreshak, who wimessed eight abonions during her rotation. Grace Koning (MED '99), coordinator of the Yale chapter of Medical Students for Choice, added, "On rotation, the resident is like your boss, and she just tells you where she wants you to go. In that sense, [observing abortions] is not optional but nobody is going to force you to do something you don't want to do. The residents like to consider themselves laissez-faire."

This hands-off approach to teaching medical students the basics of abortion is borne out by law. Recent amendments to U.S. public health codes establish defenses against "abonion-related discrimination": federal funds ace not withheld from physician training programs that do not teach abortion, and no resident or student is required to perform or receive instruction in abonion services.

Religious prerogatives also come into play. At Yale, one clinical rotation site is Saint Raphael's Hospital, which is administered by Catholic nuns. A medical student assigned to Saint Raphael's for her OB-GYN rotation not only never hears "abortion" uttered in the hospital corridors, but a concept as essential to a gynecologist's knowledge as contraception is also taboo. "You can't write 'binh control' on a patient's chan at Saint Raph's," a resident explained. "It's still amazing to me that that is the case. You have to say something like 'hormonal regulation.' You can talk frankly with your patients-I'm not going to walk into the room and ask a patient if she wants her menses regulated-but you also have to watch out for the nuns."

There are holes in OB-GYN-related education and training at Yale,

SEPTEMBER

4, 1998

but the fact that the university offers comprehensive abortion instruction at all comes as a relief to pro-choice activists alarmed by the shrinking number of physicians who perform abortions in the U.S. The most recent Planned Parenthood survey estimates that just 12 percent of post-graduate physicians' training programs offer routine instruction in first-trimester terminations, down from 22 percent in the mid-1980s.

The current figures weaken one resident's assertion that "as long as there are residency programs, women will be able to obtain abonions."

Nonetheless there is no obvious sense of impending crisis in New Haven. The Yale wing of Medical Students for Choice is hardly a rabble-rousing bunch, or even a lobbying force: Koning lists its main activities as hosting speakers and sending letters of suppon to local abonion providers. Susan Yolen, director of marketing and public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Connecticut, can dig up any number of troubling statistics like the numbers above, but she finds reassurance in the 4,000 members nationwide of Medical Students for Choice. "If half of those [students] go on to provide abortions, then they would double the number of providers we have in this country now, which would lead us to believe that our future is secure," she said.

Half might prove too high an aim, since pro-choice leanings don't automatically translate into practice. As resident Andrea Jefriss put it, "I'm a pro-choice person, but I don't teach [abortions] and I don't perform them because I have religious reasons not to. People should have a choice, and I've chosen." Yolen's hopes for larger numbers of abortion providers in the near future also appear too optimistic when seen within the microcosm of the academically-oriented Yale residency program, where doctors pursue narrow specialties and few plan to become primary care physicians. Upon closer inspection, the Tim~ls stab at Yale's negligence in teaching abortion appears misdirected; as Kreshak clarified, the more imponant issue "is not what's going on in the medical school but what's going on with the residents."

Roughly three-fourths ofYale-associated OB-GYN residents, scattered across several clinics and hospitals in southern Connecticut, perform abortions. Contrary to nationwide statistics, "I don't see a dwindling number of physicians providing abortions," one resident, "Dr. Bennen," said. (Several residents would only speak on the condition of anonymity.) "That's not to say we're not entering a changing time," he continued. "The older physicians, who were around before abortion was legal, have a very different viewpoint. You hear about 'septic wards,'

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where entire floors were taken up with women near death... because of botched home abortions or back-alley abortions. Those doctors were saving lives. Nowadays-l've never seen a septic [case]. The focus has changed from a fear of all these people dying to a woman's right to choose." A 1997 study showed that 60 percent of doctors who regularly provide abortions are 65 or older.

Neither "Dr. Merrick" nor any of his colleagues in the Yale resjdency program who perform abortions claimed to have received threats or intimidation, but he maintains that the practice "definitely exposes you to risks.

I'm not willing to expose my family to the risks of what I do at work, but I'm still obligated to do it. It's not something I hope will be the end-goal of my career. But I've thought about this very carefully and I've decided that this is just part of taking care of people." Dr. Bennett elaborated, "I t¥nk generally [abortion] is considered the dirty work of this field, and I would agree. But it's also a necessary part of the field."

What may come as a sutprise to those outside the medical establishment is that residents who perform abortions seem to harbor less anxiety about gun-toting pro-life extremists than about the judgment of their own peers. "I wouldn't say I was fearful for my life, but 1 might be fearful about my reputation," Dr. Bennett said. He offered a scenario in which he applies for a fellowship and i~ turned down because the evaluator is anti-abortionrights and disapproves of Dr. Bennett's support and practice of abortion. "Maybe if someday I'm a partner in a group I'd become more vocal, but you won't see me making public statements at hearings anytime soon," he said. "''m not going to become the token abortion doctor." Dr. Merrick has also been painstaking in keeping his work quiet, private. ''I'm going to be looking for jobs soon, and I can't do it in the middle of any public nonsense. And the thing is, nobody needs my name [publicized) to make a difference anyway. At this point in my career I'm the low man on the totem pole. It's about not rocking the boat and knowing which battles to pick."

Both residents spoke of Yale as a sheltered environment, safely fenced off from public controversy and shouting protesters-what Dr. Merrick called "all that nonsense." Neither doctor foresees many of their peers stray-

ing too far from the ivory tower to practice in areas of the U.S. where abortion services are hard to come by, such as the Plains states and impoverished regions in the deep South. "I don't think you'd find any practitioner willing to do that straight out of residency," Dr. Bennett said. "It's not a practical lifestyle. To get board-certified you need two years of clinical experience in practice. You can't get that flying biplanes to Iowa. Now, could I see myself doing something like that afrer I have a foothold in practice? Maybe."

"The goals are just different from the outset at an academic medical center," Dr. Merrick added. "In ten years maybe I'd be asked to cover a resident's clinic that does terminations....But right now everyone in my year of residency is applying for fellowships, in fields

like gynecological oncology, reproductive endocrinology. People's interests are very specific. No one is interested in doing primary care. It's a very academic, research-oriented environment."

Matters both practical and academic explain why residencies often mark the last time that pro-choice OB-GYN physicians perform abortions. They also go a long way toward accounting for Yale's ironic position as a research-based medical school which devotes little to no research to abortion. Not one of five residents could come up with examples of abortion-related studies currently being pursued at the university. [The chairman of the 0 B-GYN department at the medical school, Dr. Frederick Nafrolin, had no comment for this article. Dr. Irvin Jones, a researcher who teaches the course in female reproduction to medical students, did not respond to any of several requests for an interview.) Abortion research, it would seem, carries the same taint as actually performing the surgery. According to Dr. Bennett, "what research that gers done is usually under the guise of studying fetal genetic abnormalities."

Non-surgical abortion methods, like the flawed, much-embattled drug RU-486 and a newer treatment called methotrexate--a

THE NEw JouRNAL

chemotherapeutic agent that destroys the rapidly dividing cells df the early embryohave been frequent topics in the science media for some time. "One of our biggest priorities right now is in non-surgical options...that make abortion a more private, less invasive matter, something that a woman can do at home," Yolen of Planned Parenthood said.

Investigations of the long-term effects of methotrexate, as well as efforts to reduce the duration of RU-486 treatment and the heavy bleeding it causes, "ace areas for active research," Dr. Merrick said, "but it's not discussed. I've never heard it discussed. And I'm not sure how much it really needs to be discussed. D&C [dilation and curatage, the standard surgical procedure for first-trimester abortions] is hundreds of years old. It's safe, effective, and has been proven over time." Dr. Bennett offers another rationale: "There ace just more pressing issues out there. If you had me choose between research funds for abortion or AIDS, I'd choose AIDS." That word "choose," so long the buzzword of the abortion rights movement, seems equally important to these abortion providers as to the advocates of the women they treat.

They choose their words and actions according to sometimes confl.icting concerns about their livelihood, reputation, academic interests, and humanitarian impulses. Dr. Merrick's and Dr. Bennett's comments may smack of complacency or rationalization, but these doctors tread on treacherous ground. And they take their work home with them. ''I'm adopted, so it's a little weird for me," Dr. Bennett said. "If abortion had been readily available in 1970, I might have been an abortion."

Dr. Bennett and Dr. Merrick leave the impression as well that they ace, for now, simply biding their time. There may come a day when they hold positions of power in which they can make more audacious, and perhaps more public, choices about how abortion is performed and researched, and how easily 1t can be obtained. One might wonder if these choices can be made from within an ivory tower.

Ia)

Jessica Winter, a senior in Saybrook College, is a managing editor ofTNJ.

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ST I A lan Blecher fune4 I spent the evening trying to think up a reason my friend Dale and I are tracing Alexis de Tocqueville's path through America. Yale gave us a little money to be here, in this decrepit Albany Motel 6, so I feel obliged to come up with something. Sure, it's the hexadecasusquecentennial of Tocqueville's 1832 trip, but an important anniversary isn't really enough. Part of it is that Tocqueville was an all-star sociologist: he preclicted the depression of the '30s, the race riots of the '60s, even the cold war. So I'm opening myself to sociology's dark powers, hoping to channel bits of that clairvoyant energy into some schematic of furure world events. The crystal ball that is Albany is cloudy tonight, though.

It rained almost the whole day. No intimations on race, the economy, or policies yet.

]une5 Governor Pataki won't meet with us to discuss the furure of New York State. I got a message from a deputy director of state affairs saying he was interested in our trip and wanted to take us to a church that Tocqueville visited in Albany. If only we were staying for the next two weeks, he'd have the time. "The governor is very busy," we learned from his secretary.

"WeU," I said, "Governor Enos Throop had time to meet with Alexis de Tocqueville."

Pataki's secretary directed me to a portrait of Governor Throop hanging in the Pepsi Center downtown.

Downtown Albany, Tocqueville would probably say, represents all the strength and mecliocrity of democracy. Eight identical state office builclings stand above a deserted stone campus, and a giant underground network of convention centers and entertainment venues lurks below. Dale and I were famished (Motel 6 doesn't give you breakfast or

even a mint), so we took one of the high-speed elevators to find a cafeteria. Unfortunately for us, though, the only conventio!l going wa5 for Overeaters Anonymous, and the organizers had dosed all the eateries as a precaution. An enormous woman dressed entirely in denim asked Dale and me to leave after it had become obvious that we clidn't belong there-everyone else was 40 and female.

June6 Fonda, New York, wasn't around when Tocqueville passed-by, but Dale and I weren't about to pass up the chance to see some stock cars getting smashed. After all, Tocqueville observed that equality seeped from America's every pore, and it just doesn't get much more egalitaiian than racing in the mud.

We hadn't had clinner yet, so I dispatched Dale to get some food: fries (French in honor of TocqueviUe) and pretzels. Dale is nursing a theory that the midwest actually begins in upstate New York, because the fries carne with vinegar. He began the trip as Beaumont, Tocqueville's travelling companion and friend, but has since metamorphosed into a culinary anthropologist of sorts. He's become obsessed with details; he won't even try to generalize. Nothing about war or the economy, just the minutest minutiae. He's now searching for the geographic division between the terms "soda" and "pop." We stayed for Carmaggedon.

Tonight we stayed at the Utica Motel 6, where Dale and I watched an HBO documentary, Pimps Up, Ho's Down. Dale now insists on being calJed "Mr. Whitefol.ks," a clownish white pimp who can sciU "G wit tha brothas." So far, I've learned more about car races than ethnic ones. We haven't interviewed anyone yet. I keep trying to finish this sentence: Americans are very similar. They all _ _ _ _ _ __ Nothing yet.

THE NEW JouRNAL

/

june7

Mr. Whitefolks and I are camping in Canandaigua.

We weren't able to get a fire started, which is probably a good thing, so we ate cold marshmallows in the dark.

What's worse, the check to pay for all our supplies hasn't cleared yet, and we're running out of money. I hope the bank hasn't lost it. I'm going to sleep in my winter coat. june8 We drove to Buffalo today. Mr. Whitefolks, who has now slouched back into Dale, doesn't talk much in the car anymore, and neither do I. Mainly, we listen to talk radio. It assuages some of our guilt for not actually talking to people. Dale said it best: "Isn't Larry King better at asking questions than we are? And his guests are probably better at answering them than anyone we could find."

There wasn't much to do in Buffalo. Neither Dale nor I was brave enough to try the wings. We do know one thing: they say "pop" in Buffalo. june9

We stopped back home in Ohio. Tocqueville hated Cleveland, and only spent an hour or so there. So did we. I got a letter from the President, though.

DEAR MR BELCHER THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST IN MEETING WITH THE PRESIDENT. UNFORTIJNATELY, HE IS VERY BUSY, AND CANNOT SEE YOU. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS PLEASE WRITE US AGAIN. SINCERELY, The check still hasn't cleared.

I hate him. We never speak. Sometimes he says things like, "Hey, remember Mr. Whitefolks?" I pretend to laugh. If I crash the car tomorrow and we both die, it's only because it was worth my life to end his. I'm almost broke. As the real Mr. Whitefolks put it, "Bitch bata have my money." I listen to Larry King now even when the radio is off. My car's gas mileage is slipping into single digits. It's still cold and rainy outside. HBO showed Pimps Up, Ho's Down again. I don't think I'll be keeping this journal anymore. june 11 MRGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHlilifuu &A&A*&#Ruh ahliuy iewf poiipsq 978219 no money hate motel 6 DALE june 15

I'm home now. When the check finally cleared, I came up with the only possible reason I could have wanted to take this trip: because Yale would give me money for it. If only I'd been as self-reflective as my proposal, I probably would have reconsidered the whole thing. Here's the problem: we were looking for Tocqueville, and not America. We were in the land of equaliry, and we lusted after a French aristocrat (and, I suppose, a fat-wadded pimp). Dale's obsession with details unfortunately turned out to be prescient. I came looking for generalities, and I got nothing but specifics. At least we were able to excuse our general diffidence with elitism, observing that most Americans are too out of touch with their own country's destiny for us to learn anything from them.

The most imporrant information, such as which countries will next spar for the world heavyweight championship and where exactly in upstate New York "soda" becomes "pop," is classified. The rest is on TY. Dale's on vacation in Oregon now. Next summer, he said, he's going to do an informal study on which places in America correctly pronounce the name "Oregon" (Or'-uh-gun). As Dale has said far too many times, "Would you like Oregon or a gun?" I think I'd like a gun, Dale. II1J

june 10

We drove to Green Bay today. Dale doesn't know how to drive, so I

was behind the wheel for nine hours straight. He also doesn't know that

SEPTEMBER

4, 1998

Jan Blecher is a junior in Davenport College.

27

Deconstructing jerry THE DAYTIME TRASH HEAP IS GAMSON'S GOLD MINE. Andrew Youn Freaks Talk Back, Joshua Gamson (University of Chicago Press, 1998), pp. 288.

I Can't Stop Cheating!

"Brandy has been a busy girl. She's a newlywed and she's already cheating on her husband, Bobby, with her co-worker, Celeste. Bobby gets the double-whammy when Brandy then introduces her other lover, Ariwna! Bobby demands a divorce while Celeste and Arizona argue over who gets Brandy." .

So reads the official plug for the July 28, 1998 ferry Springer Show-a twisted love square with Arizona, Bobby, Brandy and Celeste at the corners. Most of us would readily dismiss this program as another example of televised inanity.

However, one Yale professor would happily glean some academic points on sex identiry from such a paragraph.

Joshua Gamson, Yale sociologist, is the author of Freaks Talk Back, a book that explains public con ceptions of sexual identity and deviance by studying talk shows. Gamson, a self-described "scholarman and gayman," is interested in how perceptions of sexual outsiders are constructed in American public culture. He roots his book in the abundant and fertile dirt of talk shows.

Freaks Talk Back p resents a staggering amount of research. Gamson has read over 160 talk show transcripts, interviewed 20 talk show production staff members and 44 guests, facilitated 13 focus group discussions with 75 regular talk show viewers and, most impressively, watched a mind-numbing 100 hours of taped shows.

(He is also the proud owner of the infamous "Jerry Springer Too Hot for TV" video and is probably the only American able to deduct the cost of this gem from his taXes as a business expense).

The result of this exhaustive research is a book that seems to cover every skirmish over sexual identiry ever fought on the talk show battlefield. Most fundamentally,

Gamson challenges the immediate assumption that talk shows' freaktreatment of gays and other sexual outsiders is necessarily bad. Instead he argues t hat these shows are significant components of public dialogue and deserve scholarly attention. Gamson points out that talk shows are one of the few public venues afforded to sexual ~onconformists, which he thinks makes them noteworthy and worth studying.

Gamson starts with a brief history of talk shows, traci!lg their evolution from "the mother of all talk shows," Donahue, to the emotional Oprah Winfrey Show, to the now-familiar "trash" shows such as Ricki, SalLy fessy Raphael and ferry Springer.

Interestingly, he reminds the reader that talk shows used to be everytfiing that sexual nonconformists could have hoped fo r.

Donahue, for example, presented respectable, well-educated gays during a time when media appearances elsewhere were scarce.

Continuing his historical look, Gamson then tackles the more difficult and recent talk shows, which focus on freakish guests who flash their sexual deviance. These shows feature the "deviants" we have all come to recognize: "lipstick lesbians," "cross-dressing hookers," "drag kings" and "transsexual call girls." Do the Freaks talk back? Responding thematically, he answers: sometimes yes, sometimes no. Gamson a rgues that talk shows improve the visibiliry of sexual nonconformists, but do so by exposing only their unattractive, less socially acceptable undersides.

This kind of wishy-washy answer characterizes the next few chapters of the book. Employing an "on the one hand, on the other hand" approach makes the middle section of the book somewhat incoherent. The reader learns that talk

shows are constructed on a foundation of lies, yet reveal bursts of truth about sex identiry that do not show up anywhere else in pop culture. We are told in one chapter that talk shows sometimes cast homophobes in a negativ~ light, but at other times justify anti-gay rhetoric. Next, Gamson posits that talk shows briefly challenge fixed sex identity norms, but then quickly reassure the television viewer that sex categories are still what they used to be. Although it is gratifying that these points are brought out in their fu ll complexity, the book lacks clear organization and is more often incoherent than illuminating.

This incoherence does not infringe on the book's entertainment value. As one of his themes, Gamson purports to explain how the institutional arrangements of talk ¡ shows shape the dialogue that occurs on the set. When talking about the "booking" process and its effect on talk show dialogue, Gamson relates interviews with producers that reveal how sleazy they really are. He tells the story of Linda Phillips, the transsexual guest who arrived on the set only to find out that the other guests were weight lifrers and the world's tallest man.

When she refused to go on this "freak show," producers withheld her plane ticket home.

Anothe r producer tried to book a woman whose five-year-old daughter had allegedly been raped by her HN-positive husband during their wedding reception.

The producer recounts, "I remember being on the phone with the mother, saying, you know, 'The best thing for you to do is

THE NEW JouRNAL

come on this show and cell your story,' that whole bullshir. You know, let me exploit you even more. You'v~ been through hell, come on TV and talk about it."

Unfortunately, Gamson does not always do an effective job at showing how these horrific (and secretly titillating) production arrangements structure the dialogue on the set of talk shows. As the book progresses, this theme is more often presented almost as an afterthought-instead of taking a central role in the book, the talk show institution and its production arrangements seem secondary to portraying what actually occurs on the set. One wishes he had established a clear tie between the shenanigans that occur in front of and behind the curtains.

The book's redeeming moment arrives in chapter six, entitled "Flaunting It." It begins with one of the book's best devices: Gamson's personal anecdotes, which at rimes transform the book into a calk show about its author.

Gamson relates his coming-out experiences in the Yale; classroom. "Taking a deep breath, I would walk in, strip off my sweater, and reveal a T-shirt: pink triangle, 'Silence = Death,' black background. 'What does the T-shirt mean?' I would ask. 'Why would I want to wear it here? Isn't my sexuality none of your business? ' Many nodded, but the elementary lesson got through: sexual identity, like it or not, is all about power; although to me my gay self is increasingly boring, it has become increasingly political; this moment, me standing before you in a T-shur, is politics."

This chapter is all about politics.

Gamson argues that talk shows "put a face" on homosexuality, revealing the real people who are victims of bigotry. "Talk show visibility, when it is seen as an important cultural wing of a political project, sets in motion its own localized politics." Starring with chis late chapter, Gamson turns his research into an effective study on talk show-shaped sex identity that relates to visibility in pop culture and politics.

As expected, the. ''on the one hand, on the other hand" treatment re-emerges, but it is more relevant and dearly-written this time around. He examines how talk shows reflect and exacerbate divisions between upper-class and lower-class gays. Also, he SEPTEMBER 4,

1998

constructs an interesting argument suggesting that the wedding of "personal and political" on talk shows is perhaps detrimental to the protection of the privacy of gays and sexual outsiders. These are all themes that have larger currency among academics and activists-people who are not merely interested in a book about trashy television.

This chapter, like the rest of the book, has no clear answer as to whether or nor talk shows are good or bad for public media perceptions; but upon reflection, maybe this is a feat in and of itself.

Gamson has started with the traditional assumption chat talk shows freakify sexual outsiders, and fought to the middle ground where that point is not so clear after all. If you've ever watched talk shows, which seem to gather a bunch of ignorant people together so they can take vicious verbal blows at each other, the argument is all the more impressive.

Gamson points out that the talk shows' complete lack of a message may lead to an increase in tolerance. "Over rime, the talk shows have managed to do for their audiences what no one else has: to make homosexuality, and even transsexualism and bisexuality, basically dull." He quotes a guest on Ricki, who says, "These shows, however vacuous, may be eroding homophobia by their sheer lack of commitment to any point of view."

Though talk shows lack any discernible viewpoint, they make sexual "deviance" seem commonplace and even boring.

Freaks Talk Back can be credited with an impressively thorough investigation of a surprising topic. As Gamson points out, talk shows are one of the most accessible media outlets for gays and other sexual outsiders, and are certainly worth academic attention.

Although the complex themes that Gamson charts out sometimes lose coherence in the telling, with their development the book becomes more relevant to areas of public life beyond talk shows. And hey-with section titles like " Defecating in public" and "Donna wears a jockstrap! Donna wears a jockstrap!" the book is not nearly as dry as one might expect. m:l Andrew Youn, a junior in Calhoun College, is a research director ofTNJ.

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With an expected fall circulation of over one million, the admen who designed Abercrombie & Fitch's A & F Quarterry know they have a hit on their hands. Their publication may be the most widely read piece of junk mail in the history of the genre, or at least it seems to be within the. 06520 zip code..The catalogue-cum-magazine can be found on common room coffee tables peacefully coexisting with Sports Illustrated and The New lOrker (whose circulation it exceeds by 200,000 readers despite a $10 "subscription fee," a cost mysteriously waived for Princeton students).

Down at the ad agency, has all this success gone to their heads? No, that would violate the cardinal rule of the ''A & F lifestyle": never take yourself seriously.

In his convened warehouse office in Greenwich Village, I spent an hour listening to Savas (surnames are so serious), a recent Vassar grad and brain behind the Quarterry, preach the gospel according to A & F. According to Savas, the tide of the summer issue, "Seeking Serious Fun," says it all. Don't let the cover photograph confuse you as it did me: I thought the gaunt model hosing down her buff but unthreatening male friend must be on some sort of hunger strike. As I soon learned, only people who take themselves seriously would assume something like that. She's just too busy seeking serious fun to take time out for meals.

What sets the Abercrombie catalogue apart from the rest is its unique magazine section selling not clothes but "lifestyle"---everything from what to listen co and read, to where to work and travel. Most striking about this "editorial section" (as Savas referred to it-I'm sure he didn't mean to come off sounding so serious) is how frequently it endorses things seemingly contrary to the fanatical consumerism of a company like Abercrombie. In the "Essential Summer Reading" section, the QJulrterry suggests the Utne Reader, which bills itself as "the best of the alternative media." The Utne issue shown features a story attacking the corporate world-particularly youth-oriented clothing companies-for co-opting hipness, neutralizing its rebellious anti-consumerism and political radicalism. The Quarterry also endorses the fanzine Grand Royal crowing, "In the future we will all dress at thrifr stores if the editors of Grand RoyaL have their way."

"But not if A & F has its way?" I asked Savas.

"Exactly," he replied. "It's kind of flippant."

I was still confused. Sensing my bemusement, Savas invoked the

cardinal rule: "You uy not to take yourself too seriously."

Who has time to think about what one reads when there are so many shades of cargo pants to choose from? I guess if you're wondering why you're paying $30 for an A & F T-shirt instead of stopping by the Crown Street Salvation Army, you're taking yourself too seriously. And if you go on to ponder why a T-shirt sells for $30 when the Third World kid who made it got paid two dollars per day, then you're really taking yourself too seriously.

But if you're even thinking about shirts this season, you're hopelessly gauche-anyone flipping through the A & F Quarterrywill come to the quick conclusion that men's shirts of any kind are not in style. Better save your 30 bucks for a gym membership (when shirts are out, pees are in) or two pairs of A & F boxer shorts. No shirts means exposed underwear elastic. And unless that elastic is emblazoned with "Abercrombie & Fitch," good luck getting the other boys to grope you.

When I asked Savas why the A & F boys, living in an eternal summer of beautifully famished women, seem so interested in each other, he first tried pleading ignorance. "It's in the eye of the beholder," he tried to convince me, but he couldn't keep a straight face. Trying to stick to the party line, he added, "Straights see it as active and exciting, . and if you're gay or whatever you're gonna see it as homoerotic." Afrer I had clicked "Stop" on my tape recorder, Savas told it to me straight: "There is a lot of homoeroticism that goes on here, but it's not something we want to be known for," especially with the honchos at A & F headquarters in Ohio.

Seen from Savas's Greenwich Village office, these corporate titans must appear to be taking themselves too seriously. The execs themselves would probably take a different view: in middle America it must appear that the Village set, with their demands for things like gay rights, are taking themselves too seriously. The A & F philosophy translates into blindly accepting whatever you've been brought up believing. Luckily for A & F, these days most everyone's been brought up to believe that you are what you buy. If the content of the Quarterry is in the eye of a beholder who doesn't take himself too seriously, A & F will do just fine.

Savas said that he could "respect an article like the Utne Reader cover story, but it's a matter of how far you take it. You can only critique things to a certain extent and then you need to live your life."

"And then you need something to wear?" I asked.

"Exactly."

Ia)

Daniel Broc!( is a junior in Davenport College.

SEPTEMBER

4, 1998

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